March 14, 2025 • 34 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: Uber vs Lyft, tariff tantrums, Southwest succumbs, there’s a coach for that, investing your emergency fund, tapping the 401k, Chase blocking Zelle, unpaid toll scams, the greatest grocers, senior discounts, and free energy audits.
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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, I'm Matt, and.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Today we're talking tariff tantrums, Southwest succumbs, and the greatest grocers.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Let's go, man, it's our Friday flight. This is our
weekly roundup of the headlines of the news stories this
week and the headlines that pertained the most to your
personal finances. It's not boring right now, man, I'll tell
you that. There's plenty going on. But first, Hey, yeah,
you and Emily had a good time in Austin last week. Raighty.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
What's not to love about Austin, Texas. It's a great town.
Did you My taco and brisket consumption went through the
roof so.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Last time you and I were there, literally all we
did was the barbecue, specifically bris gae.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
We went to all the different barbecue places. Yes, and
I finally got an franklinsant.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Did you really? Yeah? Well we have to be like
no wine. It was crazy, really, yeah, they've lost their edge.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
The It was like a twenty minute line, which is nothing.
So we've had it before, but we just.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Didn't have it in the actual Remember, our buddy Carl
got us some.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
The brisket literally melts in your mouth so get yeah,
uh okay, but when I was there was so we
were there for the iHeart Podcast Awards. How the Money
did not win sadly Best Business Podcast, any Hardware Home.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting that we would. They
were better podcasts nominated than ours. But Planet Money the
good folks over there at NPR one this year. Congrats
(01:34):
to them, and it was just fun. We really enjoyed ourselves.
One money tip that I can bring back though from
that trip. Matt Is and I flew southwest. We'll talk
about southwest and in a second. But the money tip
I can recommend is when you're using ride share, check
both Uber and Lyft before you book.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I just didn't realize how large of a disparity there
can be between the two.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I know there.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I was like, it'll be a few bucks difference, and
I'll book the cheaper one, of course, but I mean,
how how off can it be? Well it can be
off significantly, I found, So what was the was the
diff I know, I'm sure you checked. So one ride
on our way to the award show, I was like
playing on walk in and I was like, can we
can we ride? Just because I'm like looking all beautiful
in this dress and it's like, yeah, you are all right,
we can ride, and then looked it up on ubern
(02:21):
it was twenty seven dollars to go half a mile.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I was like, that's crazy town.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
And she was like, oh, it's okay, we can walk.
And I was like, you're like, a hold on, let
me check Lyft.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Let me check, and you're going soft Emily, come on,
five dollars on Lyft. That's that's insane, insane, Okay. So honestly,
it's just amazing that we live in such that we
live in a world where just the swipe of your
thumb you can do that, and the fact that you
can save that much money isn't that crazy? Like that's
the beautiful world that we live in. The what's crazy.
(02:50):
What's even crazier, though, is the fact that there are
going to be people out there who don't take the
ten seconds to hop over to a different app because
so many things in our lives have gotten so lubricated,
the gears have been greased, right, Like, if there is
any friction whatsoever, folks just don't do it, which is
kind of sad, like that's I don't know, I see
that as it's a very simple thing to do. Yes,
(03:12):
it's so simple. But if you are so used to
things being just handed to you and things being so easy,
that yeah, that's that's sort of I guess the sad
part of that the fact that.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Somebody to open the uber app I haven't even signed up.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
For the other one, that there is going to be
somebody out there who's going to pay five times more
in order to get the ride the way that they're
used to doing it. So that's the bad news or
the bad slash sad news. But hopping back over to
the good news, it just means that there's the comparative advantage,
like that it does not take much in order to
save more, and if you're willing to jump through the hoops,
(03:46):
do something that's a little bit weird, perhaps shop and
it's not even weird, it's so sall. You just comparison
shopping on via the different apps way easier than like
googling for coupon codes, right, which could lead you down
some rabbit holes to some weird websites.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
So yeah, I just want to mention that to people,
double check before you book with a ride share. I
don't use ridehare very much in my everyday life, so
I know you do a little bit more than I do,
and I guess I just like forgotten how always check
man how expensive it can be, especially and it's not
that Uber always costs more than Lyft. I think that
that's that's not The takeaway.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Varies on the time of day exactly, the different with
the different markets. I've also found so at times certain
and I don't even know which app, but you'll get
like a really lowball price for a ride, but then
they have to find a driver that's willing to commit
to that. So I'm not exactly sure how it works.
But sometimes when I've done that too, the wait and save, yeah,
well it's not just the wait and save, but it's
(04:41):
like somebody will accept it, but then they'll bail on you.
And I don't know how it works from a driver's standpoint,
but if they're like, oh my gosh, this is one
of those crazy low low rates. I have found that
there have been instances where I've claimed the oh okay,
it's I'm saving a lot of money over here, and
then I end up having multiple drivers drop the ride.
And it's not because I don't tip, like I've got
an excellent write reviews on my profile. But I think
(05:05):
it's oftentimes themselves hopping over to a different app, yeah,
and trying to make a little bit more because they're like, Okay,
I could take that trip and take that ride, take
that person, or maybe I'll make fifteen twenty twenty five
dollars more by dropping and hopping over to the different app.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
One of the toughest parts about rideshairs like are they
actually going to show up and take.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You where you want to get? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, especially if you do the wait and save thing,
which I did and it worked out fine for me,
and it does save you a couple extra bucks if
you're you know, booking that ride a.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Little bit ahead of time. But the unintentional wait and
save sometimes right back to bite you if you're in
a hurry. Oh, let's talk tariff's match, we talked terror,
let's do it. I'm not sure if you've noticed you
all the stock market it has not been doing all
that well, and it could be that I did notice. Well, yeah,
who hasn't noticed? I don't know. Hopefully folks aren't looking
at their four one ks all that much today. Some
(05:50):
folks say that there is a correction, an impending correction,
right like the fact that there was one that was
inevitable as values were already sky high. But three of terrorists,
the reality, the uncertainty that they create four businesses, plus
the higher prices for consumers are clearly playing a role.
Those higher prices could be felt as early as this week.
(06:11):
On produce from Mexico.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
It's all important avocados mat Indeed, they're not going to
be as cheap as they have been.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Forty percent of our imports come from tariff targeted countries.
There are even tariff threats now on champagne. Luckily we
are a craft beer podcast here, Joel. That's what we enjoy.
That's because Europe.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I think when after all American goods like Bourbon and
Harley Davidson and our president was like, oh, We're going
after your champagne, then it's like it's getting personally.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
But once people start seeing these price likes, I'm curious
if the political tides will actually turn because the Trump
campaign promises of an economic boom like that is at
odds with the current policy priorities of levying these terriffs
as widely as humanly possible. We've said it before, we'll
say it again. Terriffs they you know, they can be
(07:00):
a geopolitical tool if they're used sparingly, if they're used
like a scalpel, But implementing these widespread tariffs is just
play all bad economic policy, and unsurprisingly, we are seeing
the ripple effects of that bad policy shake out in
some pretty substantial ways. The Nasdaq is in correction territory,
the S and P is basically in correction territory as well.
(07:22):
We're also already seeing downward revisions in stock market return
predictions for this year as to what folks expect the
market to end.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Those are all mostly bogus, see anyway, that is true,
and last year they were resing them up, and this
year they're all rising them.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Down with but even still, it's it's indicative of how
folks are feeling about the stock market in general.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, and I don't know, I'm sure we're gonna be
talking about tariffs a lot on this podcast is on
the Friday Flights for for many months to come, and
hopefully part of our discussion will involve tariff pullbacks.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
And Trump V one, it was kind of more tariff
talk and now we're experiencing widespread tear of action, and
you know, President Trump, he's basically said, hey, we're trading
short term pain for long term gain. The Treasury Secretary
has said the same thing. Speaker of the House Mike
Johnson has used the analogy of billiards. He says, oh,
you know that initial break. It's tumultuous, you send the
ball scattering everywhere, but it's a needed shakeup, right, And
(08:17):
I get I don't know. I guess I have a
hard time envisioning the long game rosy outcomes if these
policy priorities remain, if we kind of keep going down
the path towards tariffs are the best word in the
English language. And then, when asked this weekend about the
potential for a recession coming about, the President didn't rule
it out, he did make it sound like it was
off the table. I think that was a wake up
(08:38):
call for a lot of folks, right, like, what, Yeah?
And one economist called it the first recession that is
totally unnecessary and could be stopped at any point. And
it's not that a recession is inevitable, but our leaders
seemed to be steering us that way. And I guess
Our advice to you is it's just it's wise to
be prepared. As always, it's good to have your personal
financial ducks in a row. Americans care deeply about the
(09:01):
economy and their ability to grow wealth, and that's still
possible for how to money listeners in this environment, including
for some buying stocks on sale. But you got to
be prepared right with liquid reserves and with resilience during
the turmoil. I just want to say too, it's not
all about avoiding recession. Are we going to get into
a recession?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Are we not?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Just predictions of And the Tax Foundation had a good
ride up on this that of a general economic slowdown,
of a reduction in GDP that means we'll see job loss,
that means we might see smaller raises for people. We're
just going to see businesses I think pinching pennies a
little bit more with all of this, like incoming impending
tariff action looming, and that's that's just not good for businesses,
(09:43):
and then it's not good for workers.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I think the big question is whether or not these
are negotiation tactics or does he truly believe that terrorists
are are the solution? Is it a gambit or not liked.
In my mind, like that as one hundred percent the
biggest question, and I we'll see soon enough.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I hate it for you your champagne parties, matthe it's
not gonna be nearly as fun. Soon you're gonna have
to switch to the champagne beers. I guess let's talk
about taking our next vacation, Joel. It's the end of
an era. Southwest is now going to start charging for
check bags. This is something we figured was coming. The
Southwest way of doing things is being upended in an
effort to make the airline more competitive. There are still
(10:18):
ways for them to set themselves apart, but they were
known for the free check bags. While they marketed it everywhere,
they plastered it on TV ads, on billboards.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
What set them apart? It's almost as if Trump like
hadn't about face about tariffs or something like this. But no, no, no,
You've always said that they're the most like you said, yeah,
the most beautiful word. I hate them, and you're like,
what change? So this new policy for Southwest is going
to start for bookings made after May twenty eighth. They
haven't made it clear as to how much they're going
to charge per check bag yet, but it does seem
(10:51):
like thirty five dollars is likely going to be the
going market rate based on what other airlines are charging.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Matt, I'm not a big fan of checking bags. You're
not either, although I have, and actually I did. I
checked a bag on this last trip that I made
to Austin, largely because I wanted to bring back beer
and I went to the local package Texas Beer brought
back some good Texas beer and it's so beautiful because
I was able to bring it home for free. But
in a couple of months, I won't be able to
(11:18):
do that anymore on Southwest, which is a bummer. And
I do think that's going to impact kind of the loyalty.
Right There have been these like articles written in Wall
Street Journal, the Dallas Morning News, I think is what
it's called. And man, people who love Southwest are just
torn to pieces over this, and I think it's going
to impact loyalty and it you know, while it seems
(11:38):
like a smart thing, Oh, let's get some money from
check bags like everyone else is doing, this could impact
their bottom line negatively if fewer people remain loyal to
the airline because their consumer friendly policies are going away.
One way to avoid the check fee, by the way,
is to have a Southwest credit card and also just
try not to check bags. Matt and I have talked
about the Kodo PAKSI twenty eight liters backpack before.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
It's a beautiful bag. Yes, the most the most beautiful bag, Joe.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It's so great and you can, you know, pack all
your clothes in there for a few days and uh,
and you can bring that on the plane with you,
like you don't have to check it.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
You can bring it into the office every single day, which
is what I do in mine. It's it's turned into
my commuter back If.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Only Koto Pacsi would sponsored this podcast because we love
that bags how much. I'm just curious to see how
this works out for Southwest. I just I'm not enthusiastic
about it, even though I'm not a guy who likes
to check bags. I know it was a policy that
that so many Americans really loved, and that was something
that caused them to look to Southwest but first so
much of the time before they would even look to
other airlines for their travel.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
It's it's all relative, you know, Like all the airlines
have been feeling the pinch as people have reduced the
amount of travel that they've that they're taking in compared
to the past few years where we saw massive uptakes
as folks folks were looking to get out right the
revenge travel scene. And because of that, all the airlines
are looking for ways to like, they're looking to stay competitive,
they're looking for ways to find they're looking for ways
(12:59):
to increase that profit. And when you see somebody like
Southwest start to charge for bags, like what they're doing,
like delt if Delta s is that the way I'm
looking at it, They're like, Okay, well now we can charge.
We can afford to charge our flyers another ten dollars
because hey, look even Southwest even they're charging. So it
feels I don't know, I can see it being less
of an onerous thing relative to what the other airlines
(13:21):
are doing.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
This makes me think, though it would it feels very
similar to if Costco were to do away with a
dollar fifty hot dog drink combo or the five dollar
row tiss free chicken, like if that change. And there
have been like conversations, supposed conversations between the CEO and
people who are like I don't know. We should look
into this. And the threat is basically like, don't you
ever change the price on that thing because it's it's
(13:42):
a calling card.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I get it with people come in, but it's such
a small thing, but bagge fees are a huge part
of profits. When it comes to the airlines, it'd be
more similar, I think to costco saying hey, on all groceries,
we are no longer going to limit our markup, like
it's that big of a deal for the different airlines,
but who knows, we'll see. And you used to can't
beat the Southwest Companion Pass when you're looking to do
a lot of travel with somebody else and have them
(14:05):
fly for free except for the nine to eleven fees. Yeah,
we have an article about that. We'll link to that
in show Nick. Yeah. The Atlantic, they had an article
about the rise of coaches. Joel, what do you think
about life coaches? You know you ever thought about?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
That's gonna be my next job. In fact, if you
want me to be your life coach, just shoot me
an email. I charged the little of the.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Five hundred dollars an hour, so that's something you've heard of.
But there are coaches across the internets who specialize in
a myriad of different subjects. You can now hire a
meditation coach, you can hire a vacation coach, for instance.
You could like Disney coaches specifically, let's say, if you're
if your destination is Orlando. Of course we've talked about
(14:44):
on the show financial coaches, like budget coaches, they exist
as well. We're going to be a little more biased
and think that that might be a bit more helpful.
But the hourly rate to hire these folks can be
hundreds of dollars, and the question I'm asking is how
many folks can actually afford that. I'm all for folks
getting out there and they're trying to be scrappy and
they're trying to carve out their own little niche out
(15:04):
there and the information service economy that we live in,
but man, I think I'm afraid of there being more
and more folks who are looking to these different services
and these coaching programs that are being offered and thinking
that they're the solution, that they are necessary in order
for them to achieve some of the different goals. Yeah,
it's becoming more of like a societal norm where it's like, oh, yeah,
I just hired a coach for this thing over here,
(15:24):
this random it feels like food delivery, where like everyone's
doing it. But like, man, how much does that cost
on you? That costs a lot of money?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Right, Well, it's and I mean I think it's it's
kind of odd. I guess that we're turning to paid experts.
And I do use the term expert lightly because the
majority of these coaches, they don't have any formal designation.
They were just like, Yeah, I think I'm gonna be
become a life coach. I'm gonna hang my shing gole
and and hope that people come and pay me big
bucks to give them that advice. But I mean, given
the wealth of free information that's at our fingertips, Matt,
(15:53):
I think it shocks me even more. And as the
author put it in this Atlantic article, they said, hiring
a coach has become the newking a friend And like,
we used to turn to friends and loved ones and relatives.
But because I think are of our you know, fracturing friendships,
communities and relationships that were less connected with our neighbors
than ever before, we've kind of become accustomed to paying
(16:16):
for more things paying for advice even and so while
maybe he tread lightley there as.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Far as paying for advice, you're gonna start stepping on
Emily's toes.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I think even even my wife would as a therapist
that that there are at least some people who have
come in to see her. If they had good friends
to talk to about some of these things, they might
not have needed professional help in the same way.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah, like we've all we've talked about the downturn and
the number of friendships we have, But I also, like
I do think it's it's less about the quantity and
maybe more about the quality, because what does a coach do.
A big part of what they do is they hold
you accountable. And maybe what we need are just better
friends where there's a degree of accountability, which is easier
said than done, because I'm sure there's a lot of
(17:01):
friends out there, a lot of folks out there who
are have friends and they're just like, man, I just
want to be a buddy, Like, I don't want to
feel like I have a sounding board, don't tell me
what to do. Yeah, I don't want to feel like
I'm prying or I don't want to feel like I'm
asking too many questions, like you don't want to get
all up in their business. But like, I think that's
a bit at the core of what it means to
be a good friend is to ask some of those
harder questions. And so as opposed to just sitting there
(17:22):
and shaking your head yes and yeah and then and
then talking about whatever whatever other different subject you want
to talk about. Maybe what we need are just like deeper,
higher quality friends, which even sounds kind of gross coming
out of my mouth, like, oh, what you need are
higher quality friends, my friend, I don't want to I
don't want to be the one that knows that.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
You know what, I'm gonna go find myself with a
higher quality friend right now.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
You know. This makes me think about though, Matt.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Just like all the courses that people sell to and
that's become also really normalized. And our goal here is
to give like free information. Even people that we have
on sometimes that sell courses or that that will will
sell you a product or they will sell their time
to you, we want to bring that information to you
for free. So I think about mister Passive, who we
had on recently to talk about making money in venting machines.
(18:07):
I thought that was awesome and that's such a cool conversation. Yeah,
he sells a really expensive like mentorship course or something
like that. We would say, hopefully you can glean enough
from the free content that you don't have to fork
over big bucks for that. And I think the same
thing is true. Let's say you're planning a trip to Disney.
There are so many free resources out there, whether it's
on YouTube or blogs.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
That have made it.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
They've basically figured out the formula and they're serving it
up to you on a platter. And it's not an
individual relationship where you're paying someone hundreds of dollars an
hour to kind of construct it on your behalf. But
if you're a little savvy and you can diy some
of that research, you can save a ton of money.
So it's not that a coach can't be helpful at times.
I guess it just feels like we're overly reliant on
(18:47):
coaches these days. And that article in The Atlantic get
struck a chord with me.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, totally agree me. And it's almost as if folks
don't want to take responsibility for their own actions and
almost and by having a coach, you almost have someone
to blame, like if things don't work out. But we've
got more to get you though. On our Friday flight,
we're gonna talk about whether or not senior discounts should
still be a thing. We'll get to that more right
after this.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
All right, Matt, Now it's time for the ludicrous headline
of the week. This one comes from a website called
The Morning Call, and the headline reads how to set
and invest your Emergency Fund. I prickled when I saw
the headline. Row you know how I feel about investing
emergency funds. Those two words should never go hand in hand.
They shouldn't be in the same headline. I clicked through
(19:38):
so I could hate whatever words were written inside of that,
and then I was like, wait a second. The byeline
is by friend of the show, Christine benz over for
Morning Star. I was like, I know Christine is not
advocating investing your e fund, and she wasn't. Fortunately, she
agrees that emergency funds need to be liquid. But I
was just like, I know that the person who writes
(19:59):
on her they don't away right the headline.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
It's the editor.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
The editor wrote a terrible headline, and because it's the
ludicrous headline, of the week email. The content in side
of the article is good. I can still add this
in and say I hate it, it sucks. We'll give
Christine though, We'll give her a buye. Can you imagine
if your emergency fund was invested right, I don't want
to do that. Stock market's down ten percent, and you're like,
wait a second. I thought I had twenty grand on
hand for emergencies. Now I've got eighteen.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Not so good. Actually, One of the things, so if
you actually dig into the article, I will say one
of the things she missed was that you need to
have your money in the right receptacle, which I don't
know if we've ever used that specific term before. But
I love that, and I think I love it because
I spent last week. I used my time and built
this storage bin rack shelf system in one of our
new closets, okay, And in order to house the you know,
(20:45):
like the big twenty seven gallon totes are bins that
you can buy from oh yeah, home depot. In order
to house those, I can put like four across five tall.
You do the math. That's twenty bins, Joel. But I've
been thinking a lot about bins and storage and different
things like that. And so maybe that's why that's that
word stood out to me because I guess what I'm
not going to put in those storage bins. I'm not
going to put an underwear, yeah, my underwear or my
(21:08):
socks because guess what, broccoli? I need that on a
daily basis. I was thinking, Yeah, I was thinking in
the kitchen, like, I'm not gonna put a lemon squeezer
or a cocktail shaker or a blender things like that
in there. You know why, Well, I guess I make
cocktails more often. But when it comes on like making smoothies,
like I don't we never, We rarely make smoothies maybe
once every couple of months. We're smoothie people, y'all do
(21:30):
y'all do it a lot. But like, even still, I
don't want it to be kind of way off upstairs
in a room, in a closet, in a bin. It
needs to be down there in the kitchen. Sure, you
kind of put it to the back of the cabinet,
perhaps in the lemon squeezer. I mean, we're using that
thing fairly often. So where do you keep that? Oh,
you keep it right at hand. In a similar way,
the act of investing your dollars means that that money
is tied up for a long, much longer period of time,
(21:53):
and that is not how you want to approach your
emergency fund specifically. Yeah, but Vanguard they actually highlighted how
four one K hardship withdraws are becoming more common, to
our chagrin, it's getting easier to access four one K
dollars that are supposed to be locked up for retirement.
For a while now, we've had the one thousand dollars
no questions asked rule thanks to the secure at two
point zero back in twenty twenty two, which means that
(22:15):
folks are turning there for cash in a pinch to
their four one ks. And it's still relatively rare that
folks are doing this. Almost five percent of folks with
a four to one K tapped at last year, but
it is a record high, So, like what I'm pointing
out has substantially increasing. Yes, the trend is not going
in a direction that I like. It's like, I see
(22:35):
five percent, I'm like, that's not a huge deal. But
I hate the fact that that is a new record
high because it has never been easier to grab that money.
And if you need cash. We're just here to let
you know that grabbing it from your retirement account is
a bad way to solve that problem. It's going to
create more problems, and it's going to lead to less
wealth down the road. You've unnecessarily interrupted that compounding growth.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Just because you can doesn't mean you should. And you're right, yeah,
have a lot of negative consequences.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Speaking of blenders and smoothies makes me think about when
I decided to make a sandwich smoothie in college, Joel,
just because I could. Yeah, I quickly learned that did
not mean I should. It was terrible, man.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I think we've talked about this before, maybe not on
the show, but when my little sister had jaw surgery
growing up and we had to blend everything up for
her for a few months.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
That's rough. Ooh, that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
I just remember having to like walk out of a kitchen.
I'll say, I cannot even smell this right now, All right, Matt.
Later this month, Chase is going to block Zell payments
made on social media in an attempt to reduce fraud.
Half apparently of all Zel scams originate on social media.
I believe it, so, I mean social media. It's got Yeah,
it's right for that kind of stuff, and Zell has
(23:43):
come under fire for not protecting users in any meaningful way.
This might cause I think some annoyance for some Zell
users who buy stuff via social media, but it's going
to protect a whole lot more.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
This is I think a good reminder to be incredibly
careful using P two P apps like Zell Venmo cash app,
because just more consumer protections are coming, but they're thin
and they're certainly not coming from the oversight of government agencies.
So use two factor authentication and only send money to
people you know or to verified folks. Matt, one of
the things this makes me think.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Of, send that test payment across That's right.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
My neighbor across the street had random people showing up
to his house this week to pick up things that
they said they bought on Facebook marketplace way, and it
turns out someone gave them a fake address to pick
up the goods. They had already paid the person for
the goods they were buying. Never pay somebody ahead of
time until you're actually in full possession of that item,
(24:39):
and go to a well lit public place to pick
up that item. So they were showing up and they
were mad at him, and he's like, you were not
talking to me, right, sorry, right, yes, He's like, that's.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Not me and yourself to blame.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Police had to show up.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
It was, it was a thing. It was.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
It was a bummer and I hate that happened to
those people, but just you cannot pay for something side unseen.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
There have been other scams floating around recently as well,
so the FTC they highlighted a jury duty scam. Folks
are getting texts and phone calls and are being told
that they missed jury duty. You know, you know, that's
a proper activity that a law abiding citizen should be
partaking in.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
And that mail can get lost in the shuffle. You
might think it's piece of trash or something likely that
that could have happened.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Oh I forgot, But then you're told that you've got
to pay a fine because you missed jury duty. And
then if not, if you choose not to pay, you're
going to be swiftly arrested. Which reminds me a lot
of some of the different utility scams. It's like, hey,
like a business gets a call in the middle of
like their peak hours and like we're about to cut
your power, and they're thinking, well, we can't lose these customers.
They end up paying right there on the spot. Another
(25:40):
scam that I personally received a text for is the
easy pass carpool lane scams, And so if you live
in a state where you can pay money to avoid
traffic in certain lanes, you could receive a text telling
you that you have unpaid tolls, and then the text
and the link to pay come from a scammer. Of course,
it looks totally legit in our case. It it literally
says like easy pass, but then it's got more letters,
(26:02):
and if it's not the actual domain, it looks like
the like a legit domate. But then you keep looking, uh,
trace that thing all the way off to the right,
and you'll see. So I literally looked it up. It's
specifically the real domain on this particular scam is dot
z uh not z x I, in which I guess
is pronounces in but it's primarily for like Chinese citizens evidently,
(26:24):
so there's a chance that originated in China. But it
looks totally legit. Don't click it, don't certainly don't copy
and paste it to your browser and whatever it tells
you to. Emily got the text and she did you really?
I got it too, and she was like, I didn't.
I didn't click, but it did look official for a second.
It made me look twice and she was like, do
I I was in there the other day. Did we
not update and put money on the toll pass? And
(26:45):
I was like, no, no, no, no, that's a scam. But
it can get the best people spread who should know better, right,
that's for sure. Fortunately neither of us clicked through and
paid them money. Now, let's talk about grocery stores. Kipling
Her detailed the best and worst grocery store chains in
the country. What they did was they used Google reviews
from across the country to try and spot trends, and
(27:06):
so Trader Joe's took the top spot in their analysis,
Costco and Wegmans took second and third. Legallealdi still take
a respectable eighth to ninth, which just makes you think
that it's still first in my heart.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, we have so many grocery stores in this country,
by the way, and so let's talk about the worst ones.
King Soopers, Save a Lot, Kroger and Walmart. Those were
the worst for according to Kiplinger, and so you know,
price obviously is in the only consideration, because Leal Lenaldi
would have been like top three for sure if that
were the case. And we're just so fortunate to live
(27:39):
in a country where we have so much competition in
the grocery store space. I know we've experienced a lot
of inflation in grocery prices over the last few years,
and nobody likes to see that, but we all benefit
from this increased competition. And it's just important to note
you're likely to have a better experience at some of
the top spots, some of the places that are ranked
more highly, and a lot of those are gonna pay
(28:01):
less too.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Matt. Yeah. I do hate the fact though that it
was based on Google reviews, because you know that somebody
was in there, let's say, at Aldi, and they had
just a sour interaction with an employee who was standing
there stocking the.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Shelves, or maybe they're like, he's never had a bad
interaction with an employee at Aldi, Matt.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Some people, it depends on your store, man, It depends
on the store, the manager, the folks that they've hired. Sometimes,
especially with Aldie. I'm just coming to all these defense
here if they've never stuck a quarter in a shopping
cart before, they're just kind of like, I couldn't get
a cart, they're locked up. How does that does that
even work?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Because it's it feels weird, you got it takes them
getting used to me.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, a little tip. You can go to the cashier
and ask them for a quarter and they're allowed to
give out a certain number of quarters per shift, so well,
that's one way around that. It also, specifically to me,
it made intuitive sense to see some of these stores
at the top. And yeah, I guess specifically because of
course they know how to sing and entertain, like bring bells.
It's like a party when you go into a Trading Joe's, Man,
I'm like, are y'all making like rum cocktails or something
(28:57):
over there? I feel like I want to be a
part of the island scene.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
It's not like they're charging ridiculous amounts more either, Like
Trader Jones has pre solid costs on a lot of
what they offer, so vibe it makes sense that they're
the top spot. And let's talk about senior citizen discounts. Matt, Like,
when you go to the grocery store, certain grocery stores
incentivized seniors to come on certain days with a discount.
So Public's is a grocery store chain in the Southeast.
(29:23):
They give folks who are sixty and older five percent
off every Wednesday. Fred Meyer offers ten percent off on
the first Tuesday of every month. And that's not all.
There are more discounts at other grocery stores too. But
The New York Times had an interesting article about whether
or not senior discounts should just go away altogether. And
the article was based on a reader who is questioning
(29:44):
the ethical nature of age based benefits. But the author.
I was glad the author kind of defended our senior
citizens here, Matt. They basically pointed out that this not
only helps seniors who might be financially vulnerable, which is
a lot of senior citizens, especially if you're being on
a fixed income. The grocery store, though, isn't terribly crowded
(30:04):
during those incentivized times. It's kind of like incentivizing people
to come to see a matine movie. Yeah, there's a
real It's like, hey, who's free at like one o'clock
on a Thursday.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Not many people. We're still paying rent, right, So if
we get sun butts in the city.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
To me, that's a form of dynamic pricing, and so exactly,
seniors and the rest of us, we should all be
priced sensitive and we should let those incentives sway us.
If I'm Matt once i'm fully retired, if I want
to go do my grocery shopping on a Wednesday morning
to get that extra five or ten percent off, I'm
going to do it.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, Joe, the weather's been nice lately, the windows have
been open. You love this timmy year, don't you. Man.
You don't have to run your AC or your heat.
You're kind of like in this in between sort of.
It's like instead of it being like a purgatory, as
in like a bad thing, it's kind of like a
good thing. Yeah, Oh, it's the best. I agree.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I think it's It's one of my favorite things to
see how long I can go without running either the
heat or the AC at all, just.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Like get the fans crank and what we have to do. Man,
I realized last week that my sleep was suffering, and
I'm like, oh, it's because we still have like the
winner blanket on because we let the temperature drop so
much in the winter. But it means I'm like not
sleeping as well, So we had a like.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Also because you're not saunaing before bed, like I am.
My sleep has improved yet, have.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
You seen your sleep scores sleepskis go up? Well. Something
that's going to help folks to keep their utility bills low,
to keep from having a turn on their AC or
their heat next fall or next winner, is to make
sure that you have enough insulation. Seeing that, they had
an article about getting a free home energy audit, which
it turns out a lot of different electricity providers offer
(31:38):
to their customers, and the offer he found that he
had almost no insulation in his walls, costing him massive
amounts of money. And there are often incentives for making
energy upgrades as well, and that's before you even like
buy the electricity provider, and that's before considering any of
the different federal tax benefits as well.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Those two things combined can really bring down the cost.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Heck yeah, yeah, he was specifically in Massachusetts and it
was going to be completely free for in his case,
the landlord to get insulation put in the walls. Yeah,
which not only does it make it more comfortable from
a temperature standpoint, but it acoustically is nicer as well,
especially if you got roommates you don't yeah, you know,
you don't hear your roommate in the room next door,
like you know, you want like a little bit more privacy,
And all of a sudden you're like, WHOA, I thought
(32:21):
I needed a bigger place. Turns out all we needed
was to not be able to hear each other all
the time.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
We made a similar move in our little clubhouse here
where we work and record the podcast. Our landlord, we
were like, hey, do you know about these discounts, because
it'd be awesome if you made some of these improvements
and we'll sign a lease and we'll stay longer. And
it was a win win where so much more comfortable.
You get so much more comfortab up here now. So
he put the installation in, did a couple other little
(32:46):
things and reaped some substant substantial tax savings and electricity
bill savings thirty percent off yeah yeah, and those federal benefits.
And then then Differ might not have done it. I
don't think if we if we had not made this suggestion. Sure, yeah,
and the different utility providers they've got those rebates as well.
Georgia Power is offering it's like seventy five percent off
smart thermostats, and so we're gonna get a couple Google nests.
(33:08):
Normally these things are one hundred and thirty bucks man,
we're paying like thirty two dollars a pop. You're limited
to two. So we're gonna go ahead and replace one
of the other ones that isn't so smart.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
And they look good as well, and they're gonna help
us to save a ton of money.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
So it's yeah to win those, even if you have
to pay full price, which many times you don't because
your electricity provider is being generous because it's a it's
a win win situation.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Takes a load off the system. Even if you had
to pay full price.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
It's it's often worth it right to have those smarter
thermostats that learn how you behave and that don't run
your air conditioner when you're out of the house, darning
the day or something like that. Right, so yeah, or
at least they run in at a higher temp if
you forget to change the setting yourself' that's my favorite
thing to do, is if if you forget and we
don't have the smart thermistats, so we can't do this
(33:51):
yet until we get the new ones installed. But I
remember at our old place, because we had installed nests, the.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Ability to check it from your phone and be like, oh,
and you crank that thing down to where you want it,
knowing that you're saving yourself a ton of money. That's
such a good feeling. It really is.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
And I'll be curious to hear from a how to
Money listener who avoids running their air conditioning the longest.
If you can wait till, like, I don't know, mid June,
let me know, I'd be rough. I'd be curious if
you can make it that far, and if your family
allows you to live, if you try to do something
like that, all right, that's going to do it, Matt.
For this episode, we'll put links to some of the
stories we mentioned up in the show notes on our
(34:26):
website at howtomoney dot com.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
That's right, So until next time, Buddy, best Friends Out,
Best Friends Out,
Welcome to Had of Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Today we're talking tariff tantrums, Southwest succumbs, and the greatest grocers.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Let's go, man, it's our Friday flight. This is our
weekly roundup of the headlines of the news stories this
week and the headlines that pertained the most to your
personal finances. It's not boring right now, man, I'll tell
you that. There's plenty going on. But first, Hey, yeah,
you and Emily had a good time in Austin last week. Raighty.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
What's not to love about Austin, Texas. It's a great town.
Did you My taco and brisket consumption went through the
roof so.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Last time you and I were there, literally all we
did was the barbecue, specifically bris gae.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
We went to all the different barbecue places. Yes, and
I finally got an franklinsant.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Did you really? Yeah? Well we have to be like
no wine. It was crazy, really, yeah, they've lost their edge.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
The It was like a twenty minute line, which is nothing.
So we've had it before, but we just.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Didn't have it in the actual Remember, our buddy Carl
got us some.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
The brisket literally melts in your mouth so get yeah,
uh okay, but when I was there was so we
were there for the iHeart Podcast Awards. How the Money
did not win sadly Best Business Podcast, any Hardware Home.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting that we would. They
were better podcasts nominated than ours. But Planet Money the
good folks over there at NPR one this year. Congrats
(01:34):
to them, and it was just fun. We really enjoyed ourselves.
One money tip that I can bring back though from
that trip. Matt Is and I flew southwest. We'll talk
about southwest and in a second. But the money tip
I can recommend is when you're using ride share, check
both Uber and Lyft before you book.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I just didn't realize how large of a disparity there
can be between the two.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I know there.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I was like, it'll be a few bucks difference, and
I'll book the cheaper one, of course, but I mean,
how how off can it be? Well it can be
off significantly, I found, So what was the was the
diff I know, I'm sure you checked. So one ride
on our way to the award show, I was like
playing on walk in and I was like, can we
can we ride? Just because I'm like looking all beautiful
in this dress and it's like, yeah, you are all right,
we can ride, and then looked it up on ubern
(02:21):
it was twenty seven dollars to go half a mile.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I was like, that's crazy town.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
And she was like, oh, it's okay, we can walk.
And I was like, you're like, a hold on, let
me check Lyft.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Let me check, and you're going soft Emily, come on,
five dollars on Lyft. That's that's insane, insane, Okay. So honestly,
it's just amazing that we live in such that we
live in a world where just the swipe of your
thumb you can do that, and the fact that you
can save that much money isn't that crazy? Like that's
the beautiful world that we live in. The what's crazy.
(02:50):
What's even crazier, though, is the fact that there are
going to be people out there who don't take the
ten seconds to hop over to a different app because
so many things in our lives have gotten so lubricated,
the gears have been greased, right, Like, if there is
any friction whatsoever, folks just don't do it, which is
kind of sad, like that's I don't know, I see
that as it's a very simple thing to do. Yes,
(03:12):
it's so simple. But if you are so used to
things being just handed to you and things being so easy,
that yeah, that's that's sort of I guess the sad
part of that the fact that.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Somebody to open the uber app I haven't even signed up.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
For the other one, that there is going to be
somebody out there who's going to pay five times more
in order to get the ride the way that they're
used to doing it. So that's the bad news or
the bad slash sad news. But hopping back over to
the good news, it just means that there's the comparative advantage,
like that it does not take much in order to
save more, and if you're willing to jump through the hoops,
(03:46):
do something that's a little bit weird, perhaps shop and
it's not even weird, it's so sall. You just comparison
shopping on via the different apps way easier than like
googling for coupon codes, right, which could lead you down
some rabbit holes to some weird websites.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
So yeah, I just want to mention that to people,
double check before you book with a ride share. I
don't use ridehare very much in my everyday life, so
I know you do a little bit more than I do,
and I guess I just like forgotten how always check
man how expensive it can be, especially and it's not
that Uber always costs more than Lyft. I think that
that's that's not The takeaway.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Varies on the time of day exactly, the different with
the different markets. I've also found so at times certain
and I don't even know which app, but you'll get
like a really lowball price for a ride, but then
they have to find a driver that's willing to commit
to that. So I'm not exactly sure how it works.
But sometimes when I've done that too, the wait and save, yeah,
well it's not just the wait and save, but it's
(04:41):
like somebody will accept it, but then they'll bail on you.
And I don't know how it works from a driver's standpoint,
but if they're like, oh my gosh, this is one
of those crazy low low rates. I have found that
there have been instances where I've claimed the oh okay,
it's I'm saving a lot of money over here, and
then I end up having multiple drivers drop the ride.
And it's not because I don't tip, like I've got
an excellent write reviews on my profile. But I think
(05:05):
it's oftentimes themselves hopping over to a different app, yeah,
and trying to make a little bit more because they're like, Okay,
I could take that trip and take that ride, take
that person, or maybe I'll make fifteen twenty twenty five
dollars more by dropping and hopping over to the different app.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
One of the toughest parts about rideshairs like are they
actually going to show up and take.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You where you want to get? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, especially if you do the wait and save thing,
which I did and it worked out fine for me,
and it does save you a couple extra bucks if
you're you know, booking that ride a.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Little bit ahead of time. But the unintentional wait and
save sometimes right back to bite you if you're in
a hurry. Oh, let's talk tariff's match, we talked terror,
let's do it. I'm not sure if you've noticed you
all the stock market it has not been doing all
that well, and it could be that I did notice. Well, yeah,
who hasn't noticed? I don't know. Hopefully folks aren't looking
at their four one ks all that much today. Some
(05:50):
folks say that there is a correction, an impending correction,
right like the fact that there was one that was
inevitable as values were already sky high. But three of terrorists,
the reality, the uncertainty that they create four businesses, plus
the higher prices for consumers are clearly playing a role.
Those higher prices could be felt as early as this week.
(06:11):
On produce from Mexico.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
It's all important avocados mat Indeed, they're not going to
be as cheap as they have been.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Forty percent of our imports come from tariff targeted countries.
There are even tariff threats now on champagne. Luckily we
are a craft beer podcast here, Joel. That's what we enjoy.
That's because Europe.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I think when after all American goods like Bourbon and
Harley Davidson and our president was like, oh, We're going
after your champagne, then it's like it's getting personally.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
But once people start seeing these price likes, I'm curious
if the political tides will actually turn because the Trump
campaign promises of an economic boom like that is at
odds with the current policy priorities of levying these terriffs
as widely as humanly possible. We've said it before, we'll
say it again. Terriffs they you know, they can be
(07:00):
a geopolitical tool if they're used sparingly, if they're used
like a scalpel, But implementing these widespread tariffs is just
play all bad economic policy, and unsurprisingly, we are seeing
the ripple effects of that bad policy shake out in
some pretty substantial ways. The Nasdaq is in correction territory,
the S and P is basically in correction territory as well.
(07:22):
We're also already seeing downward revisions in stock market return
predictions for this year as to what folks expect the
market to end.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Those are all mostly bogus, see anyway, that is true,
and last year they were resing them up, and this
year they're all rising them.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Down with but even still, it's it's indicative of how
folks are feeling about the stock market in general.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, and I don't know, I'm sure we're gonna be
talking about tariffs a lot on this podcast is on
the Friday Flights for for many months to come, and
hopefully part of our discussion will involve tariff pullbacks.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
And Trump V one, it was kind of more tariff
talk and now we're experiencing widespread tear of action, and
you know, President Trump, he's basically said, hey, we're trading
short term pain for long term gain. The Treasury Secretary
has said the same thing. Speaker of the House Mike
Johnson has used the analogy of billiards. He says, oh,
you know that initial break. It's tumultuous, you send the
ball scattering everywhere, but it's a needed shakeup, right, And
(08:17):
I get I don't know. I guess I have a
hard time envisioning the long game rosy outcomes if these
policy priorities remain, if we kind of keep going down
the path towards tariffs are the best word in the
English language. And then, when asked this weekend about the
potential for a recession coming about, the President didn't rule
it out, he did make it sound like it was
off the table. I think that was a wake up
(08:38):
call for a lot of folks, right, like, what, Yeah?
And one economist called it the first recession that is
totally unnecessary and could be stopped at any point. And
it's not that a recession is inevitable, but our leaders
seemed to be steering us that way. And I guess
Our advice to you is it's just it's wise to
be prepared. As always, it's good to have your personal
financial ducks in a row. Americans care deeply about the
(09:01):
economy and their ability to grow wealth, and that's still
possible for how to money listeners in this environment, including
for some buying stocks on sale. But you got to
be prepared right with liquid reserves and with resilience during
the turmoil. I just want to say too, it's not
all about avoiding recession. Are we going to get into
a recession?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Are we not?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Just predictions of And the Tax Foundation had a good
ride up on this that of a general economic slowdown,
of a reduction in GDP that means we'll see job loss,
that means we might see smaller raises for people. We're
just going to see businesses I think pinching pennies a
little bit more with all of this, like incoming impending
tariff action looming, and that's that's just not good for businesses,
(09:43):
and then it's not good for workers.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I think the big question is whether or not these
are negotiation tactics or does he truly believe that terrorists
are are the solution? Is it a gambit or not liked.
In my mind, like that as one hundred percent the
biggest question, and I we'll see soon enough.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I hate it for you your champagne parties, matthe it's
not gonna be nearly as fun. Soon you're gonna have
to switch to the champagne beers. I guess let's talk
about taking our next vacation, Joel. It's the end of
an era. Southwest is now going to start charging for
check bags. This is something we figured was coming. The
Southwest way of doing things is being upended in an
effort to make the airline more competitive. There are still
(10:18):
ways for them to set themselves apart, but they were
known for the free check bags. While they marketed it everywhere,
they plastered it on TV ads, on billboards.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
What set them apart? It's almost as if Trump like
hadn't about face about tariffs or something like this. But no, no, no,
You've always said that they're the most like you said, yeah,
the most beautiful word. I hate them, and you're like,
what change? So this new policy for Southwest is going
to start for bookings made after May twenty eighth. They
haven't made it clear as to how much they're going
to charge per check bag yet, but it does seem
(10:51):
like thirty five dollars is likely going to be the
going market rate based on what other airlines are charging.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Matt, I'm not a big fan of checking bags. You're
not either, although I have, and actually I did. I
checked a bag on this last trip that I made
to Austin, largely because I wanted to bring back beer
and I went to the local package Texas Beer brought
back some good Texas beer and it's so beautiful because
I was able to bring it home for free. But
in a couple of months, I won't be able to
(11:18):
do that anymore on Southwest, which is a bummer. And
I do think that's going to impact kind of the loyalty.
Right There have been these like articles written in Wall
Street Journal, the Dallas Morning News, I think is what
it's called. And man, people who love Southwest are just
torn to pieces over this, and I think it's going
to impact loyalty and it you know, while it seems
(11:38):
like a smart thing, Oh, let's get some money from
check bags like everyone else is doing, this could impact
their bottom line negatively if fewer people remain loyal to
the airline because their consumer friendly policies are going away.
One way to avoid the check fee, by the way,
is to have a Southwest credit card and also just
try not to check bags. Matt and I have talked
about the Kodo PAKSI twenty eight liters backpack before.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
It's a beautiful bag. Yes, the most the most beautiful bag, Joe.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It's so great and you can, you know, pack all
your clothes in there for a few days and uh,
and you can bring that on the plane with you,
like you don't have to check it.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
You can bring it into the office every single day, which
is what I do in mine. It's it's turned into
my commuter back If.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Only Koto Pacsi would sponsored this podcast because we love
that bags how much. I'm just curious to see how
this works out for Southwest. I just I'm not enthusiastic
about it, even though I'm not a guy who likes
to check bags. I know it was a policy that
that so many Americans really loved, and that was something
that caused them to look to Southwest but first so
much of the time before they would even look to
other airlines for their travel.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
It's it's all relative, you know, Like all the airlines
have been feeling the pinch as people have reduced the
amount of travel that they've that they're taking in compared
to the past few years where we saw massive uptakes
as folks folks were looking to get out right the
revenge travel scene. And because of that, all the airlines
are looking for ways to like, they're looking to stay competitive,
they're looking for ways to find they're looking for ways
(12:59):
to increase that profit. And when you see somebody like
Southwest start to charge for bags, like what they're doing,
like delt if Delta s is that the way I'm
looking at it, They're like, Okay, well now we can charge.
We can afford to charge our flyers another ten dollars
because hey, look even Southwest even they're charging. So it
feels I don't know, I can see it being less
of an onerous thing relative to what the other airlines
(13:21):
are doing.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
This makes me think, though it would it feels very
similar to if Costco were to do away with a
dollar fifty hot dog drink combo or the five dollar
row tiss free chicken, like if that change. And there
have been like conversations, supposed conversations between the CEO and
people who are like I don't know. We should look
into this. And the threat is basically like, don't you
ever change the price on that thing because it's it's
(13:42):
a calling card.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I get it with people come in, but it's such
a small thing, but bagge fees are a huge part
of profits. When it comes to the airlines, it'd be
more similar, I think to costco saying hey, on all groceries,
we are no longer going to limit our markup, like
it's that big of a deal for the different airlines,
but who knows, we'll see. And you used to can't
beat the Southwest Companion Pass when you're looking to do
a lot of travel with somebody else and have them
(14:05):
fly for free except for the nine to eleven fees. Yeah,
we have an article about that. We'll link to that
in show Nick. Yeah. The Atlantic, they had an article
about the rise of coaches. Joel, what do you think
about life coaches? You know you ever thought about?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
That's gonna be my next job. In fact, if you
want me to be your life coach, just shoot me
an email. I charged the little of the.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Five hundred dollars an hour, so that's something you've heard of.
But there are coaches across the internets who specialize in
a myriad of different subjects. You can now hire a
meditation coach, you can hire a vacation coach, for instance.
You could like Disney coaches specifically, let's say, if you're
if your destination is Orlando. Of course we've talked about
(14:44):
on the show financial coaches, like budget coaches, they exist
as well. We're going to be a little more biased
and think that that might be a bit more helpful.
But the hourly rate to hire these folks can be
hundreds of dollars, and the question I'm asking is how
many folks can actually afford that. I'm all for folks
getting out there and they're trying to be scrappy and
they're trying to carve out their own little niche out
(15:04):
there and the information service economy that we live in,
but man, I think I'm afraid of there being more
and more folks who are looking to these different services
and these coaching programs that are being offered and thinking
that they're the solution, that they are necessary in order
for them to achieve some of the different goals. Yeah,
it's becoming more of like a societal norm where it's like, oh, yeah,
I just hired a coach for this thing over here,
(15:24):
this random it feels like food delivery, where like everyone's
doing it. But like, man, how much does that cost
on you? That costs a lot of money?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Right, Well, it's and I mean I think it's it's
kind of odd. I guess that we're turning to paid experts.
And I do use the term expert lightly because the
majority of these coaches, they don't have any formal designation.
They were just like, Yeah, I think I'm gonna be
become a life coach. I'm gonna hang my shing gole
and and hope that people come and pay me big
bucks to give them that advice. But I mean, given
the wealth of free information that's at our fingertips, Matt,
(15:53):
I think it shocks me even more. And as the
author put it in this Atlantic article, they said, hiring
a coach has become the newking a friend And like,
we used to turn to friends and loved ones and relatives.
But because I think are of our you know, fracturing friendships,
communities and relationships that were less connected with our neighbors
than ever before, we've kind of become accustomed to paying
(16:16):
for more things paying for advice even and so while
maybe he tread lightley there as.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Far as paying for advice, you're gonna start stepping on
Emily's toes.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I think even even my wife would as a therapist
that that there are at least some people who have
come in to see her. If they had good friends
to talk to about some of these things, they might
not have needed professional help in the same way.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah, like we've all we've talked about the downturn and
the number of friendships we have, But I also, like
I do think it's it's less about the quantity and
maybe more about the quality, because what does a coach do.
A big part of what they do is they hold
you accountable. And maybe what we need are just better
friends where there's a degree of accountability, which is easier
said than done, because I'm sure there's a lot of
(17:01):
friends out there, a lot of folks out there who
are have friends and they're just like, man, I just
want to be a buddy, Like, I don't want to
feel like I have a sounding board, don't tell me
what to do. Yeah, I don't want to feel like
I'm prying or I don't want to feel like I'm
asking too many questions, like you don't want to get
all up in their business. But like, I think that's
a bit at the core of what it means to
be a good friend is to ask some of those
harder questions. And so as opposed to just sitting there
(17:22):
and shaking your head yes and yeah and then and
then talking about whatever whatever other different subject you want
to talk about. Maybe what we need are just like deeper,
higher quality friends, which even sounds kind of gross coming
out of my mouth, like, oh, what you need are
higher quality friends, my friend, I don't want to I
don't want to be the one that knows that.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
You know what, I'm gonna go find myself with a
higher quality friend right now.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
You know. This makes me think about though, Matt.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Just like all the courses that people sell to and
that's become also really normalized. And our goal here is
to give like free information. Even people that we have
on sometimes that sell courses or that that will will
sell you a product or they will sell their time
to you, we want to bring that information to you
for free. So I think about mister Passive, who we
had on recently to talk about making money in venting machines.
(18:07):
I thought that was awesome and that's such a cool conversation. Yeah,
he sells a really expensive like mentorship course or something
like that. We would say, hopefully you can glean enough
from the free content that you don't have to fork
over big bucks for that. And I think the same
thing is true. Let's say you're planning a trip to Disney.
There are so many free resources out there, whether it's
on YouTube or blogs.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
That have made it.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
They've basically figured out the formula and they're serving it
up to you on a platter. And it's not an
individual relationship where you're paying someone hundreds of dollars an
hour to kind of construct it on your behalf. But
if you're a little savvy and you can diy some
of that research, you can save a ton of money.
So it's not that a coach can't be helpful at times.
I guess it just feels like we're overly reliant on
(18:47):
coaches these days. And that article in The Atlantic get
struck a chord with me.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, totally agree me. And it's almost as if folks
don't want to take responsibility for their own actions and
almost and by having a coach, you almost have someone
to blame, like if things don't work out. But we've
got more to get you though. On our Friday flight,
we're gonna talk about whether or not senior discounts should
still be a thing. We'll get to that more right
after this.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
All right, Matt, Now it's time for the ludicrous headline
of the week. This one comes from a website called
The Morning Call, and the headline reads how to set
and invest your Emergency Fund. I prickled when I saw
the headline. Row you know how I feel about investing
emergency funds. Those two words should never go hand in hand.
They shouldn't be in the same headline. I clicked through
(19:38):
so I could hate whatever words were written inside of that,
and then I was like, wait a second. The byeline
is by friend of the show, Christine benz over for
Morning Star. I was like, I know Christine is not
advocating investing your e fund, and she wasn't. Fortunately, she
agrees that emergency funds need to be liquid. But I
was just like, I know that the person who writes
(19:59):
on her they don't away right the headline.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
It's the editor.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
The editor wrote a terrible headline, and because it's the
ludicrous headline, of the week email. The content in side
of the article is good. I can still add this
in and say I hate it, it sucks. We'll give
Christine though, We'll give her a buye. Can you imagine
if your emergency fund was invested right, I don't want
to do that. Stock market's down ten percent, and you're like,
wait a second. I thought I had twenty grand on
hand for emergencies. Now I've got eighteen.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Not so good. Actually, One of the things, so if
you actually dig into the article, I will say one
of the things she missed was that you need to
have your money in the right receptacle, which I don't
know if we've ever used that specific term before. But
I love that, and I think I love it because
I spent last week. I used my time and built
this storage bin rack shelf system in one of our
new closets, okay, And in order to house the you know,
(20:45):
like the big twenty seven gallon totes are bins that
you can buy from oh yeah, home depot. In order
to house those, I can put like four across five tall.
You do the math. That's twenty bins, Joel. But I've
been thinking a lot about bins and storage and different
things like that. And so maybe that's why that's that
word stood out to me because I guess what I'm
not going to put in those storage bins. I'm not
going to put an underwear, yeah, my underwear or my
(21:08):
socks because guess what, broccoli? I need that on a
daily basis. I was thinking, Yeah, I was thinking in
the kitchen, like, I'm not gonna put a lemon squeezer
or a cocktail shaker or a blender things like that
in there. You know why, Well, I guess I make
cocktails more often. But when it comes on like making smoothies,
like I don't we never, We rarely make smoothies maybe
once every couple of months. We're smoothie people, y'all do
(21:30):
y'all do it a lot. But like, even still, I
don't want it to be kind of way off upstairs
in a room, in a closet, in a bin. It
needs to be down there in the kitchen. Sure, you
kind of put it to the back of the cabinet,
perhaps in the lemon squeezer. I mean, we're using that
thing fairly often. So where do you keep that? Oh,
you keep it right at hand. In a similar way,
the act of investing your dollars means that that money
is tied up for a long, much longer period of time,
(21:53):
and that is not how you want to approach your
emergency fund specifically. Yeah, but Vanguard they actually highlighted how
four one K hardship withdraws are becoming more common, to
our chagrin, it's getting easier to access four one K
dollars that are supposed to be locked up for retirement.
For a while now, we've had the one thousand dollars
no questions asked rule thanks to the secure at two
point zero back in twenty twenty two, which means that
(22:15):
folks are turning there for cash in a pinch to
their four one ks. And it's still relatively rare that
folks are doing this. Almost five percent of folks with
a four to one K tapped at last year, but
it is a record high, So, like what I'm pointing
out has substantially increasing. Yes, the trend is not going
in a direction that I like. It's like, I see
(22:35):
five percent, I'm like, that's not a huge deal. But
I hate the fact that that is a new record
high because it has never been easier to grab that money.
And if you need cash. We're just here to let
you know that grabbing it from your retirement account is
a bad way to solve that problem. It's going to
create more problems, and it's going to lead to less
wealth down the road. You've unnecessarily interrupted that compounding growth.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Just because you can doesn't mean you should. And you're right, yeah,
have a lot of negative consequences.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Speaking of blenders and smoothies makes me think about when
I decided to make a sandwich smoothie in college, Joel,
just because I could. Yeah, I quickly learned that did
not mean I should. It was terrible, man.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I think we've talked about this before, maybe not on
the show, but when my little sister had jaw surgery
growing up and we had to blend everything up for
her for a few months.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
That's rough. Ooh, that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
I just remember having to like walk out of a kitchen.
I'll say, I cannot even smell this right now, All right, Matt.
Later this month, Chase is going to block Zell payments
made on social media in an attempt to reduce fraud.
Half apparently of all Zel scams originate on social media.
I believe it, so, I mean social media. It's got Yeah,
it's right for that kind of stuff, and Zell has
(23:43):
come under fire for not protecting users in any meaningful way.
This might cause I think some annoyance for some Zell
users who buy stuff via social media, but it's going
to protect a whole lot more.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
This is I think a good reminder to be incredibly
careful using P two P apps like Zell Venmo cash app,
because just more consumer protections are coming, but they're thin
and they're certainly not coming from the oversight of government agencies.
So use two factor authentication and only send money to
people you know or to verified folks. Matt, one of
the things this makes me think.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Of, send that test payment across That's right.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
My neighbor across the street had random people showing up
to his house this week to pick up things that
they said they bought on Facebook marketplace way, and it
turns out someone gave them a fake address to pick
up the goods. They had already paid the person for
the goods they were buying. Never pay somebody ahead of
time until you're actually in full possession of that item,
(24:39):
and go to a well lit public place to pick
up that item. So they were showing up and they
were mad at him, and he's like, you were not
talking to me, right, sorry, right, yes, He's like, that's.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Not me and yourself to blame.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Police had to show up.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
It was, it was a thing. It was.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
It was a bummer and I hate that happened to
those people, but just you cannot pay for something side unseen.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
There have been other scams floating around recently as well,
so the FTC they highlighted a jury duty scam. Folks
are getting texts and phone calls and are being told
that they missed jury duty. You know, you know, that's
a proper activity that a law abiding citizen should be
partaking in.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
And that mail can get lost in the shuffle. You
might think it's piece of trash or something likely that
that could have happened.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Oh I forgot, But then you're told that you've got
to pay a fine because you missed jury duty. And
then if not, if you choose not to pay, you're
going to be swiftly arrested. Which reminds me a lot
of some of the different utility scams. It's like, hey,
like a business gets a call in the middle of
like their peak hours and like we're about to cut
your power, and they're thinking, well, we can't lose these customers.
They end up paying right there on the spot. Another
(25:40):
scam that I personally received a text for is the
easy pass carpool lane scams, And so if you live
in a state where you can pay money to avoid
traffic in certain lanes, you could receive a text telling
you that you have unpaid tolls, and then the text
and the link to pay come from a scammer. Of course,
it looks totally legit in our case. It it literally
says like easy pass, but then it's got more letters,
(26:02):
and if it's not the actual domain, it looks like
the like a legit domate. But then you keep looking, uh,
trace that thing all the way off to the right,
and you'll see. So I literally looked it up. It's
specifically the real domain on this particular scam is dot
z uh not z x I, in which I guess
is pronounces in but it's primarily for like Chinese citizens evidently,
(26:24):
so there's a chance that originated in China. But it
looks totally legit. Don't click it, don't certainly don't copy
and paste it to your browser and whatever it tells
you to. Emily got the text and she did you really?
I got it too, and she was like, I didn't.
I didn't click, but it did look official for a second.
It made me look twice and she was like, do
I I was in there the other day. Did we
not update and put money on the toll pass? And
(26:45):
I was like, no, no, no, no, that's a scam. But
it can get the best people spread who should know better, right,
that's for sure. Fortunately neither of us clicked through and
paid them money. Now, let's talk about grocery stores. Kipling
Her detailed the best and worst grocery store chains in
the country. What they did was they used Google reviews
from across the country to try and spot trends, and
(27:06):
so Trader Joe's took the top spot in their analysis,
Costco and Wegmans took second and third. Legallealdi still take
a respectable eighth to ninth, which just makes you think
that it's still first in my heart.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, we have so many grocery stores in this country,
by the way, and so let's talk about the worst ones.
King Soopers, Save a Lot, Kroger and Walmart. Those were
the worst for according to Kiplinger, and so you know,
price obviously is in the only consideration, because Leal Lenaldi
would have been like top three for sure if that
were the case. And we're just so fortunate to live
(27:39):
in a country where we have so much competition in
the grocery store space. I know we've experienced a lot
of inflation in grocery prices over the last few years,
and nobody likes to see that, but we all benefit
from this increased competition. And it's just important to note
you're likely to have a better experience at some of
the top spots, some of the places that are ranked
more highly, and a lot of those are gonna pay
(28:01):
less too.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Matt. Yeah. I do hate the fact though that it
was based on Google reviews, because you know that somebody
was in there, let's say, at Aldi, and they had
just a sour interaction with an employee who was standing
there stocking the.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Shelves, or maybe they're like, he's never had a bad
interaction with an employee at Aldi, Matt.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Some people, it depends on your store, man, It depends
on the store, the manager, the folks that they've hired. Sometimes,
especially with Aldie. I'm just coming to all these defense
here if they've never stuck a quarter in a shopping
cart before, they're just kind of like, I couldn't get
a cart, they're locked up. How does that does that
even work?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Because it's it feels weird, you got it takes them
getting used to me.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, a little tip. You can go to the cashier
and ask them for a quarter and they're allowed to
give out a certain number of quarters per shift, so well,
that's one way around that. It also, specifically to me,
it made intuitive sense to see some of these stores
at the top. And yeah, I guess specifically because of
course they know how to sing and entertain, like bring bells.
It's like a party when you go into a Trading Joe's, Man,
I'm like, are y'all making like rum cocktails or something
(28:57):
over there? I feel like I want to be a
part of the island scene.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
It's not like they're charging ridiculous amounts more either, Like
Trader Jones has pre solid costs on a lot of
what they offer, so vibe it makes sense that they're
the top spot. And let's talk about senior citizen discounts. Matt, Like,
when you go to the grocery store, certain grocery stores
incentivized seniors to come on certain days with a discount.
So Public's is a grocery store chain in the Southeast.
(29:23):
They give folks who are sixty and older five percent
off every Wednesday. Fred Meyer offers ten percent off on
the first Tuesday of every month. And that's not all.
There are more discounts at other grocery stores too. But
The New York Times had an interesting article about whether
or not senior discounts should just go away altogether. And
the article was based on a reader who is questioning
(29:44):
the ethical nature of age based benefits. But the author.
I was glad the author kind of defended our senior
citizens here, Matt. They basically pointed out that this not
only helps seniors who might be financially vulnerable, which is
a lot of senior citizens, especially if you're being on
a fixed income. The grocery store, though, isn't terribly crowded
(30:04):
during those incentivized times. It's kind of like incentivizing people
to come to see a matine movie. Yeah, there's a
real It's like, hey, who's free at like one o'clock
on a Thursday.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Not many people. We're still paying rent, right, So if
we get sun butts in the city.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
To me, that's a form of dynamic pricing, and so exactly,
seniors and the rest of us, we should all be
priced sensitive and we should let those incentives sway us.
If I'm Matt once i'm fully retired, if I want
to go do my grocery shopping on a Wednesday morning
to get that extra five or ten percent off, I'm
going to do it.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, Joe, the weather's been nice lately, the windows have
been open. You love this timmy year, don't you. Man.
You don't have to run your AC or your heat.
You're kind of like in this in between sort of.
It's like instead of it being like a purgatory, as
in like a bad thing, it's kind of like a
good thing. Yeah, Oh, it's the best. I agree.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I think it's It's one of my favorite things to
see how long I can go without running either the
heat or the AC at all, just.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Like get the fans crank and what we have to do. Man,
I realized last week that my sleep was suffering, and
I'm like, oh, it's because we still have like the
winner blanket on because we let the temperature drop so
much in the winter. But it means I'm like not
sleeping as well, So we had a like.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Also because you're not saunaing before bed, like I am.
My sleep has improved yet, have.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
You seen your sleep scores sleepskis go up? Well. Something
that's going to help folks to keep their utility bills low,
to keep from having a turn on their AC or
their heat next fall or next winner, is to make
sure that you have enough insulation. Seeing that, they had
an article about getting a free home energy audit, which
it turns out a lot of different electricity providers offer
(31:38):
to their customers, and the offer he found that he
had almost no insulation in his walls, costing him massive
amounts of money. And there are often incentives for making
energy upgrades as well, and that's before you even like
buy the electricity provider, and that's before considering any of
the different federal tax benefits as well.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Those two things combined can really bring down the cost.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Heck yeah, yeah, he was specifically in Massachusetts and it
was going to be completely free for in his case,
the landlord to get insulation put in the walls. Yeah,
which not only does it make it more comfortable from
a temperature standpoint, but it acoustically is nicer as well,
especially if you got roommates you don't yeah, you know,
you don't hear your roommate in the room next door,
like you know, you want like a little bit more privacy,
And all of a sudden you're like, WHOA, I thought
(32:21):
I needed a bigger place. Turns out all we needed
was to not be able to hear each other all
the time.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
We made a similar move in our little clubhouse here
where we work and record the podcast. Our landlord, we
were like, hey, do you know about these discounts, because
it'd be awesome if you made some of these improvements
and we'll sign a lease and we'll stay longer. And
it was a win win where so much more comfortable.
You get so much more comfortab up here now. So
he put the installation in, did a couple other little
(32:46):
things and reaped some substant substantial tax savings and electricity
bill savings thirty percent off yeah yeah, and those federal benefits.
And then then Differ might not have done it. I
don't think if we if we had not made this suggestion. Sure, yeah,
and the different utility providers they've got those rebates as well.
Georgia Power is offering it's like seventy five percent off
smart thermostats, and so we're gonna get a couple Google nests.
(33:08):
Normally these things are one hundred and thirty bucks man,
we're paying like thirty two dollars a pop. You're limited
to two. So we're gonna go ahead and replace one
of the other ones that isn't so smart.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
And they look good as well, and they're gonna help
us to save a ton of money.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
So it's yeah to win those, even if you have
to pay full price, which many times you don't because
your electricity provider is being generous because it's a it's
a win win situation.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Takes a load off the system. Even if you had
to pay full price.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
It's it's often worth it right to have those smarter
thermostats that learn how you behave and that don't run
your air conditioner when you're out of the house, darning
the day or something like that. Right, so yeah, or
at least they run in at a higher temp if
you forget to change the setting yourself' that's my favorite
thing to do, is if if you forget and we
don't have the smart thermistats, so we can't do this
(33:51):
yet until we get the new ones installed. But I
remember at our old place, because we had installed nests, the.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Ability to check it from your phone and be like, oh,
and you crank that thing down to where you want it,
knowing that you're saving yourself a ton of money. That's
such a good feeling. It really is.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
And I'll be curious to hear from a how to
Money listener who avoids running their air conditioning the longest.
If you can wait till, like, I don't know, mid June,
let me know, I'd be rough. I'd be curious if
you can make it that far, and if your family
allows you to live, if you try to do something
like that, all right, that's going to do it, Matt.
For this episode, we'll put links to some of the
stories we mentioned up in the show notes on our
(34:26):
website at howtomoney dot com.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
That's right, So until next time, Buddy, best Friends Out,
Best Friends Out,
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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