April 10, 2024 • 53 mins
There are three ways to boost your net worth: you can invest more money, but keep in mind that we’re in it for the long haul- it takes decades for compounding to really kick in. You can earn more money which is a ton of fun- who doesn’t like getting promoted or earning a fat bonus at work? But again, this can take years of grinding it out, at the very least months of hard work in order to stand out among your peers. OR, there are changes that you can literally make immediately by cutting your expenses in order to save more money. That’s what we’re discussing with our guest today, Michael Timmerman. Michael writes over at MichaelSaves.com, his YouTube channel has over 25 million views- in part because he's virtually a human guinea pig, working on our behalf to test products and services to make sure we’re getting the best deals possible. And today we have a great conversation centered around the many different scrappy ways that we can save on streaming, cell phones, and more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Out of Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today we're talking about getting scrappy to save on
streaming with Michael Timmerman.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So, by my account, I think there are three ways
to boost your net worth right, so you can invest
more money, But then remember we are long term investors.
It takes a while for that compounding to really kick in,
so you can earn more money, which is a ton
of fun. Who doesn't like getting promoted, who doesn't like
earning a fat bonus at work? But again, this can
(00:49):
take years of grinding it out at the very least
months of hard work in order to stand up among
your peers. Or there are changes that you can literally
make immediately by cutting your expenses in order to save
more money. That is what we're discussing with our guest today,
Michael Timmerman and Michael he writes over at his site
Michael saves dot com. He's got a YouTube channel, he's
(01:11):
got over twenty five million views, and I think that's
because he's kind of like a human guinea pig where
he's working on our behalf. He's tested out products and
services to make sure that we're all getting the best
deal possible. Michael's kind of like the Tim Ferriss of
personal finance nerds. But Michael, we appreciate you coming on
the podcast with us.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Today, human guinea pig. I like that. Thanks for having me, Matt,
Thanks for having me. Joel.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I think you should add that to your bio now, Michael,
just considering.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Absolutely it goes straight the top.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Well.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
And by the way, Michael and I have worked used
to work together for a lot of years, and now
Michael's gone off to do his own thing, so so
it's kind of fun to reunite here.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Michael.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
The first question, as you know that we ask everybody
who comes on the show, is what's your craft beer equivalent?
Meaning what is it that you're spourging on while you're
also doing the smart thing with your money, you're saving
and investing. So what's your craft beer equivalent?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
My friend?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
You know, I knew this question was coming, but it's
a little hard for me because I think I have
a few craft beer equivalents. They might not be quite
as frugal as hugual. It's not the one thing, no,
I know, the one thing I'd say as my craft
beer equivalent is has to do with plane tickets, and
I've been researching a couple upcoming trips. When I'm searching
(02:26):
on Google flights, I can never get that cheapest fare
as much as I really want to. And I think
probably a lot of people can relate to this. So
I've got three things I'm not going to like compromise with.
I want to make sure I'm either in a window
or the aisle. I don't want to board last. And
then there's a couple just airlines that I'll try to avoid.
(02:46):
So those are the things. So when I'm doing this search,
I just figure I'm going to have to pay an
extra maybe like thirty dollars.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Based home what the prices.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And you live in a market where Spirit is heavy.
But I'm guessing this means.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You don't fly no Spirit, no Frontier, and I getting
those sweet deals.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
The nearest airport to me is all about the budget airlines.
Their Spirit, Frontier, Southwest, a lot of Jet Blue. I
will fly Spirit, but then that's kind of where this
kicks in. It's like length of the flight matters. If
it's five hours, I'm probably not gonna be sitting in
one of those tight Spirits.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
But no Southwest our favorite.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Oh no, I mean I'll it just depends. It depends
on the flight jet Blue, I will fly a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
How fancy are we getting here, Michael? Are you ever
doing like live flat beds across the Atlantic kind of thing?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Not so for jet Blue is a good example. I
think it's like basic. Those are the ones that I
can't do. But then when it's that, I think it's blue.
That's when I'll go for Jet Blue. I won't be
the last to board. I can bring on a bag,
I put everything in the carry on, and then I
can choose my seat.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
That makes sense. Okay, Michael, I know you and Joel,
y'all go back. You can trade war stories after we
hit hop on the recording. But I get the impression
that you've been for a long time. You are savvy
with how you handle your money. What brought that about?
When did that begin in your life?
Speaker 3 (04:07):
You know?
Speaker 4 (04:07):
I think it started for a lot of people who
really get into this space with their childhood. My role
model was my grandmother in particular, and she was always
the one who really had it together with money. She
was not wealthy, but she was comfortable, and it was
because of the actions that she took, so I kind
of looked up to her and like modeled myself after her.
(04:31):
I even during college, I lived with my grandmother and
it commuted to college to save money. But just those
couple of years where we did that, I think that's
where I learned a lot about personal finance. That's also
where I got my introduction to Clark Coward, which is
how I know Joel because I on the drive back
and forth to school, I would listen to Clark's radio show.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So it was like twenty some years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
So is that one two punch Grandma and Clark Coward?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah, Grandma and Clark in my late scenes.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Okay, So with your grandma, I'm curious was it more osmosis?
Was it like the way she lived or was she
like offering verbal instruction too. Were you guys having discussions
about money or was it just like dang, I see,
grandma seems to have beyond to something and kind of
the way she handles money, the way she lives, the
silent type.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
I guess yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
I mean, I don't remember having too many discussions about it.
I do remember one thing I had. One of my
first jobs, I was a waiter, at a Denny's in
a resort community, and I would come home from work
every day with a stack of dollar bill So this
is before people were leaving credit card tips, and she
would ask me to hand over my money and she
(05:40):
would count my tips and like if I had over
one hundred dollars, we'd like celebrate. So like that was
kind of, like, I guess, a positive reinforcement at an
early age. I don't remember a whole lot of conversations,
but I guess the way it was just the way
that she lived and the way she led, and she
was the just really solid, dependable adult in my life
(06:02):
and at a time when there was like other stuff
going on with some of the other other adults.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
So just just a really great mentor.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Just a great role model. The ability for her to
aside from being a human teller machine like counting up
your bills. I love that that she celebrated that with you.
What a great way to kind of reinforce not only
the fact that you're making and hopefully saving, but that
you're just I don't know, doing a good job. It's
like some additional fruit of your labor that's being that
you're able to celebrate there together. Yeah, I like that,
(06:32):
but sorry for calling you that human guinea pig.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
By the way, actually pretty accurate.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, because it seems like you have tried every financial
tool out there, like you tried wineab for a while.
It sounds like you liked it ultimately, though it seems
like you went with your own Google sheets you like.
I don't know it was it the customization of creating
your own thing, but it seems like you based it
on like the wine ap principles. Can you share about
(06:57):
how it is that you budget and keep up with
your spending?
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Well, I think this is kind of timely because I
guess mint has just shut down and I use that
for a whole lot of years, and then I started
kind of looking at how I thought that wasn't working
so well for me, and I guess the process with
that In similar apps like it, I would just open
up the app and see a reflection.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
It was like looking in the mirror, just like how
are you doing?
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Whereas whine app, I think that system and the four
rules it helps you really kind of train yourself to
be more proactive I think with your money. So the
way I adapted it is I really I mean my
issue is I'm not crazy about a subscription service for
a budgeting app, and I know a lot of them
work that way for various reasons. But with the Google Sheets,
(07:48):
I can do the same thing. And the key for
me is really just before I buy anything, I open
up the Google Sheets app, I check my categories, see
what I've.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Got left to spend for the month, and then make
the or just log it right away.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
I always have that opportunity to kind of be like, Okay,
do I really need to buy this?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Do I want to buy this? Like it's a.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Check on yourself that I don't think you necessarily get
with the tools where you're just like I guess, putting
everything on your credit card and then logging in to see,
all right, what was the damage for the month?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Sure, yeah, there's you're spending on a delay like that
is the downside of maximizing the different benefits that you
get through using credit cards, which were huge fans of.
But the ability for you to see sort of like
that timely in the moment feedback that's huge. And this
is something that you've been able to kind of work
(08:40):
into your general workflow, like you've got a weekly financial checklist.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
I guess one of the things, having been in writing
about money since I guess it's now been twenty ten
is one of the things people say to you is like, oh,
you must be obsessed with money, and I'm not, And
I really don't spend a whole lot of money on
the budgeting, even though I'm logging those transactions with every purchase.
So all I do is I set aside a few
(09:05):
minutes on Fridays in the morning, I check to see
how all my account balances are. I pay my credit
cards off every week, and then I just look back
on that budget to see if there's anything that I missed.
But since I'm logging everything in real time as I spend,
I don't really usually find any difference between what I
(09:26):
put on the credit cards and then what's in the budget.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
I like that when you have a system, you don't
have to obsess over it, right, And so that's like,
I think it's a really important takeaway there. On the
guinea pig note, you're being kind of a guinea pig
right now in a way. We talked about this right
before we started recording, that you're seeking to earn extra money,
but it also still allows you flexibility. I think gigwork
is something Matt and I have talked about that lots
(09:49):
of times. Especially if gigwork, if that's your main source
of income, it's probably you're just training time for money
and it's probably not the best move you're ever the
long haul. But I really actually kind of like approach
to some of the gigwork that you're doing right now. Michael,
can you talk about that well?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
I agree with you.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
I think a lot of the gigwork is trading time
for money. And there's a couple of things that I've
done just because I've got some things I'm saving up for.
Just like everyone listening to this, in my case, it's
something I'm not really excited about. I have to get
a new fence, So I've found all these ways to
kind of like motivate myself to save up for that,
(10:24):
and one of them has been with gig apps and
side apps. Rover's been the most successful for me. It's
probably going to depend on where you live. Where I live,
there's just a ton of demand for people who can
take care of pets, particularly if you have a single
family home and you can care for the pets at
(10:45):
your house.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So that's kind of what's worked out and based on.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Is this why you need a defence by the way,
so you can watch these animals.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It's actually an investment.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
YEA. Yeah, I've got a fence, but it's falling down,
so I know that I've got to like replace replace
the fence. But I guess it kind of is an investment.
I don't really see the gig app as a forever thing,
but it's meeting a demand that is needed in the community,
and I think that's probably the best way to go
when you're looking at the gig apps is to think, well,
(11:14):
do I want the easiest thing for the quickest buck,
or do I want to look at something that might
have a higher return because there's more people in your
local area who need those services.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
There's a ton of apps out there.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Like thumbtack and if you're able to do to provide
like you know, powerwashing or there's lots.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Of ways to make money through these apps.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
And the beauty of the pet sitting apps with Rover
is that you can take in animals, take care of them,
but also be doing other stuff from your house. Like
so for me with what I do with the YouTube channel,
I can be editing a video and also caring for
a pet.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Okay, I thought you're talking about like you're one of
those guys and you've got like fifteen dogs on a leash,
but you're also like filling out on your phone like
as you're walking those that the ultimate multitask.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
I'm not gonna and I did try all those those
survey apps at one point. I think when I'm down
to in terms of the kind of make money, save
money apps, at this point, I still use iboughta that's
a grocery one. I use Fetch that's also a grocery one.
And this is more of a savings not an earning one.
(12:23):
But have you guys ever talked in the show about
too Good to Go?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Oh, is that that's the meal leftover meal apps?
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Right?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Go pick yourself up some crossanltics that they're getting ready to.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Talk about that app is like my favorite, and I've
I've found so many great places on there. I know
it's going to depend on where you live, but it's
like five dollars and you could have like a ton
of food.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah. I mean so basically, like you're talking about the
difference here between active versus passive ways of earning money.
And so obviously these are all more active, active ways,
and it's important to kind of prioritize, and granted we
will talk. I kind of led into this whole thing
talking about ways that you can save money, because cutting
your expenses that's like the most immediate thing. But you
have highlighted some of the different ways that you can
immediately make money. But like I said, these are all
(13:07):
more active ways of generating income. But a passive way
that you've shown some remarkable success is via your YouTube channel.
You've done well there and like you call yourself an
unlikely success story, share with us how that channel came
about and how you're doing over there.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Well, I mean, so here's the truth of how the
channel came about. This actually ties into my full time
job that I was working. I saw an opportunity for
us to get into video when I was working for
Clark Howard. They had a channel with a ton of videos,
but I saw a different way to do it. But
(13:45):
I kind of wanted to test it out because I
wasn't really sure that my managers were all that into
the idea. So I just started putting up random videos.
Some of my oldest videos were just about weight, just
what we've talked about, like some of these apps and
ways to save money.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I talked about how I paid off my mortgage.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
On one of the earlier properties that I lived in,
and things just kind of took off. And I also
had some of that content that I do now, which
is the testing of the streaming phone plans internet services.
So it was really I've just an experiment for work.
I never expected some of those videos to take off.
(14:26):
I think the mortgage video has four hundred and fifty
thousand views, So that's an example of a I sat
down on the couch and I talked for ten minutes,
and five years later people still watch that.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah that's super cool. Yeah it's amazing. So it is
active in one sense because you kind of still need
to continue to create content in order to keep new
viewers coming in. But then some of the videos you
made a long time ago still have a lot of juice,
which is really cool. Do you have any tips for
someone out there who maybe has like a burning desire
to share their knowledge and they think they've seen what
(14:59):
mister Beast is able to accomplish, and maybe also you've
been able to accomplish. Michael and they're like, I could
see myself doing something like that. Do you have any
kind of tips of the trade or kind of hey,
here's how you start to begin a YouTube channel and
you're not just yelling into the void.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Sure, I mean I think what you said is where
I would start share your knowledge. It's much easier to
share your knowledge than it is to share your life.
So that would kind of be the difference between a
channel that has more of an informational and educational view
as opposed to one that is a look at me
(15:35):
type of channel. So if you think about problems that
people are going through, and you have the solutions.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So I'll give you an example.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
I had someone came over a few months ago and
helped me install a couple ceiling fans, and he had
never dealt with this brand before. So then I went
on YouTube and I searched and I was like, wow,
there's like no video about this. But if you look
up some of the other brands like Hunter, let's say,
there's like millions of views of people just filming themselves
(16:05):
swapping out a ceiling fan. So this guy, like a
big part of his business is installing ceiling fans. He
could just record himself at a client's house doing it,
go home and voice over all the steps and then
that's a way to like help someone out. But also
that would be like a turn into a semi passive
(16:26):
additional income for them. Yeah, it's not super exciting, but
it could. Really it would help people, and it would
it's in that person's wheelhouse.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, well, I mean you say it's not super exciting,
but like I think for a lot of people, I
think what you said about knowledge versus life, right, the
ability to share either a passion or some information that
you have as opposed to feeling like you have to
bear all tell all fabricate drama. I think there's a
lot of folks who might actually find that incredibly interesting
because it seems like it's doable. There's something about I
(16:57):
don't know, it feels more honest, perhaps even to me,
than like trying to figure out whatever like the next
YouTube algorithm is going to be. Because there's actual value
that you are you are able to portray, and so
the ability to say cool, this is a this is
a clear way that I can provide value out into
the world, out into YouTube, to be able to help
(17:18):
people while at the same time hopefully generating some additional income.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
But I also like kind of how you said you
look to see, oh wait, there's a nobody's covering this yet,
and we can be the first. We can be the
pioneer here. And if you're the pioneer on that video,
that you have more of a chance to stand out right,
Whereas if you're kind of saying the stuff that everyone
else is saying, like you got to kind of find
that niche too. What is it that I know about
that very few people are publishing on And I think
(17:43):
that's a good place to start creating content, and I
think you can broaden from there.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
The way that I've heard a lot of YouTube gurus
boil it down is it's the audience, and I do
agree with that. I think usually when I put the
most effort into the videos and they're based on things
that I know people have either reached out to me
or I've done the research and I find they're interested
in those are the ones that do the best short
(18:07):
term and over the long haul. So there is a
research component to figuring out what people care about, because
maybe what you care about is not something that a
ton of people care about.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
But I do think that's a place to.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Start, is your your own interests. And back to what
you said about being original, maybe you're doing okay content,
but it's been done by too many people in too
many different ways.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
That makes sense. Okay, So, Michael, I don't know if
how you feel about sharing this, but like, how much
of the revenue that you're able to generate from YouTube?
What percentage of your expenses would you say that that covers?
And the reason that I'm asking this specifically is because
I think this is so interesting, because I think it
can provide an insight to folks who might be considering
(18:51):
something like this to see, oh cool, this actually does
have the ability to cover a percentage of my expenses
of my day to day living. Do you mind sharing that?
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Well. YouTubers can make money through various income sources. The
one people talk the most about is probably ad sense,
which is just the ads that.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Run on your video.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
You turn them on and then you don't do anything
else except collect the check. That can vary. It can
go up and can go down depending on the months.
For a channel my size, that can be pretty healthy.
I'll use my second I have a second channel as
an example. It's much smaller that has about three thousand
subscribers and I want to say sixty thousand views a month.
(19:36):
So it just really is where I put a bunch
of secondary content that doesn't really fit on the main
Michael Saves channel that regularly gets about five hundred dollars
a month in just that ad sense income. So for
just throwing a few videos up on a channel of
things that interest people that can that's the return, but
(19:59):
the the main channel is significantly more than that.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
And YouTube, of course is the second largest search engine
in the world, next to Google. So it's one of
those places where if you are on there creating helpful
content consistently over time, you can't and you know, don't
quit your day job yet, but maybe at some point
you can quit your day job if you've done it
consistently over long enough period of time, been able to
build an audience, and you're providing helpful information on the
(20:23):
rig like you are, Michael with both of your channels,
but okay, speaking of both of your channels, like you
do so much. You create so much content specifically about
streaming and how to cut costs in that area, and
especially as subscription that you know, the monthly subscription amounts
continue to increase for people, and there's just a proliferation
(20:45):
of subscription options in general. We've got a lot of
questions to get to with you on that, so we'll
be right back with Michael Saves right after this.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Right we are back from the break talking with Michael
from Michael Saves. And I guess it's zooming out a
little bit the savings that we used to experience, Michael, Like,
when it came to cutting the cord, it used to
be significant, Like it used to be, like it was
a no brainer. Like I've never paid for cable TV
in my entire life, except for when I was in
college because my roommates insisted. But like, ever since I
(21:22):
was in charge of my TV options, I've never paid
because it made so much sense to eliminate cable. But
it seems like that the tides have turned, given the
increasing prices.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Because what Netflix is, what twenty two bucks a month?
Now if you want the top tier.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
It's so stinking extensive now. But I guess I'm curious
to hear if you think it's a slam dunk decision anymore.
How are you approaching that question with folks?
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Well, I think you're right, it's definitely not the type
of savings that it was five years ago. But I
do think that cutting the cord is still the way
to go. I don't hear from people who are going
back to a cable or a satellite TV subscription. It's
just changed, and that's a lot due to the way
(22:06):
that there's just so many services and people are having
to pick and choose, and the shows they want.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
To watch are so spread out.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
But in addition, it's a lot due to the sports
being so spread out amongst multiple services. So now you
have to kind of create your own bundle as opposed
to with a cable PATV provider, they're just delivering this
one option for you.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Sure, so even if you cut the cord, basically, I
think what you're saying is there are live equivalents to
cable that are a whole lot less expensive.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (22:38):
A whole lot?
Speaker 4 (22:38):
I don't know, I mean slightly. Is where it really
depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for
a full replacement for what a PATV provider like an
Exfinity or DirecTV offers, it's not going to be a
huge savings because those live TV services are making deals
with the exact same companies that the other PATV operators are.
(23:02):
There are some much skinnier ones. A couple of years
ago I interviewed the founder of the CEO of Filo
and he was actually one of the Facebook co founders
as well, and his service is twenty five dollars a month.
But you don't get locals, you don't get sports, and
you don't get a whole lot of news.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
It's really just the entertainment networks.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Like, do you have a general philosophy of how you
think about streaming, whether like in your own life or
just when you talk about streaming content like generally speaking?
And what I mean by that, like, do you have
like a few different platforms or subscriptions that you always
have that you always pay for, or are you being
more strategic, like are you targeting platforms for specific shows
(23:44):
or certain sports or whatever it is. I'm curious how
it is that you approach it.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Yeah, So what I generally do is I have one
of those more expensive live TV services for about half
the year, and that's coming up.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
I've already paused it.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
So the next billing cycle that goes off, that's seventy
five dollars a month right now, so that I won't
pay for until September. And that's mostly because of Live TV,
so a mix of sports and news that I like
to watch on that service. So now I'm entering a
period where I feel like I have more options, So
(24:20):
I'll go into some of the cheaper services that I
haven't had throughout the year. Netflix is one of them.
You just mentioned that I haven't had Netflix in six months,
so I'll turn that back on, check out what's been
on there since I last had it, and then and
then pause it.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
So I do. I do rotate the subscriptions.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
That's part of the benefit of cutting the cord, but
I also know that doesn't.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Really work for everybody.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
If there's someone in your house who wants to watch
a show and you cancel it, you're going to be
hearing from that person like they're not going to be
happy with it.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Part of the benefit of the new model is that
we can take that rotational approach that there are no
year long, two year long, multi year sort of conqu
that are forcing us to pay somebody year after year
even if we're not getting the same value out of it.
But we're still treating I think or a lot of
Americans are still treating their streaming service like they're handcuffed too.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
And I think that's what that's why when I hear
people have this debate about like, oh, it's worse than cable, now,
nobody is thinking like, oh, I want a cable guy
to come over to my house and spend half the
day to install it, or the same for a satellite.
So the technology was always going to change because of
the Internet. Now what we're working through is just this
(25:35):
period where the prices are going up, and that's because
the streaming services, some of them, are fighting for profitability,
and then also there's content changes that they're making as
a result of.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
That same issue.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
They're just not making the same amount of profits as
a PATV bundle, which for decades was extremely profitable for
the major media companies.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
So I would think the people that save the most
money in the streaming world or people who just don't
watch a lot of stuff, and also people who don't
care about sports at all. But if you like sports,
especially now, I feel like it's getting harder and harder
almost by the month too, because now Apple TV has
or Apple TV plus whatever it's called, has the MLS
(26:21):
soccer Peacock I believe has the European soccer leagues.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
It used to be that, Okay, at least you subscribe
to this one thing and you get all the sports.
But that doesn't even seem to be the case anymore.
So what would you tell sports lovers when it comes
to streaming about kind of what services to have and
then how to make sure that they're not spending like
a ridiculous sum of money to watch the sports they love.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Sure well, the sports consumers, the ones who are especially
into multiple types of sports, are always going.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
To be paying the most.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Because what most people don't really understand is with that
old PATV model, the price of that was the price
that it was because of sports, and it would have
been even higher if people had the option to opt
out of sports.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
So in a way, the sports.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Programming has always been subsidized by people who don't watch
a whole lot of sports. It's not what people want
to hear, but that's that's the.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Truth of it.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Because like ESPN wouldst would cost the cable companies ten
bucks a month, Yeah, just that one channel and then
all these other channels you might pay, They might pay
them thirty three cents a month or something like that. Nothing,
So ESPN is, yeah, it was the big behemoth in.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
There, and and there's changes with that too.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
So later this year there is going to be a
service that's going to include ESPN as well as a
bunch of other sports networks. The estimated price, nothing officially yet,
is forty to fifty dollars a month. And then in
twenty twenty five there's going to be a standalone ESPN
and that price is reportedly going to be twenty five
to thirty dollars a month for ESPN and then all
(27:50):
the other ESPN family of networks. So that kind of
just when you put thirty dollars against your total cable
TV bill or pay TV bill, you kind of see
like where all the money is going. It's going to
sports the easiest. The people who have the easiest time
are probably still NFL fans, and that's because in your
(28:12):
local market, it's always going to be on a broadcast
TV station. Now Amazon's got rights to Thursday Night Football.
Last year, there was a playoff game. Last season, there
was a playoff game on Peacock. The next season, there's
going to be a playoff game on Amazon Prime. So
there is still some extra cost there for people who
want to watch a lot of games, especially from teams
(28:33):
outside of your market. But if you only care about
the team for the city that you live in, the
NFL is still reasonable because you just need your local channels.
Many people can get those, of course, with an antenna.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
That's what I was going to say, that's all over
the air.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I think people forget about the antenna and they forget
about all the channels they provide. I swear with my antenna,
I log in, and I'm shocked at the number of
channels I get. I assume that a good many of
them are just kind of garbage channels, but there's never
been more free content that you can get over the air.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Sure, and I agree with that. And when I paused
the subscription, the first thing I did after I paused
it is I put my antenna back up. I've just
got one of those indoor antennas, and just like you said,
it's got like one hundred channels because it's all the locals.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
And then they have.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
These digital subchannels with a lot of content that I
think you also see on similar services like the free
stream meet services Pluto, and Roku channel and two B.
There's a lot of overlap there.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
But the Yeah, the Sodi's Crackle that's another one.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
I feel Crackle's good too.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
Yeah, and I read recently that antenna use is actually
on the way on the way up.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
It's now like one in five households.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
And hey, maybe if the prices go up more people
will give it a shot.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Exactly. It makes sense when you see how affordable these
intendas are, Like you're spending twenty thirty dollars for like
the extra long range one. You get it positioned in
a window, tape it up there or whatever. Like at
our old house, we literally like thumb tacked it to
the wall high the TV so you literally couldn't even
see it and it just blended in with a dark wall.
They make them like flat. I mean, it's just like
it's like a sheet of notebook paper with a cord
(30:08):
attached to it. But you, like, we're talking about some
of the different free content that you can get out there, Michael, Like,
what do you think about like some of those different
free apps, whether it be to b or Crackle or
whatever else. Actually we haven't even talked about this, but Hoopla,
which I normally use for audio books. I saw that,
I don't know, there's video on there that you can
now reserve.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
As well, but it canopy as well. Right, Yeah, that's
a whole other who's got your library card?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, it's a whole other thing. But I'm curious what
your thoughts are, like, is it worth the hassle or
the time to go looking for some of that free
content via some of those free apps.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Sure, it's worth the time, especially if you don't want
to pay, and there's a lot of people who don't
want to pay. Those apps have a ton of content,
and it's in that traditional TV feel like there are
some people who open up a pay service like Netflix
and they get totally overwhelmed with the options and they
end up watching nothing. So you can open up Pluto
(31:03):
and it has a guide that looks just like your
old cable guide and it'll serve you a bunch of
stuff for all the interests. I think that they typically
do the best job of replacing the type of content
that airs during the daytime on regular broadcast TV networks.
So there's like there's news shows, there's court shows, talk shows,
(31:27):
crime shows. That's where I see those free services but
also movies. There's if you just want to open up
one of the free services to be has a pretty
good movie selection, you can find something to watch.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
You just are gonna have ads to break it up,
all right.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
You mentioned the overwhelmed opening Netflix. I think a lot
of people feel that, and it is your there's a
deluge of content. Specifically, I think Netflix has or at
least used to prioritize the amount of offerings over the quality.
And it's not that they didn't have some quality stuff,
(32:03):
but there's just a ridiculous amount of content to sort through.
And the recommending algorithm is okay. But do you have
any tips to help people find the kind of content
that they're going to enjoy watching, because I think now
the average person opens up the app, and I swear
I saw this stat somewhere, they spend somewhere between eighteen
to twenty minutes trying to figure out what to watch,
(32:24):
to click it around before they even start watching a show.
And I know that are new, like even AI kind
of apps out there that can help you figure out
what makes sense for you based on your viewing history
and the thumbs ups and stuff like that. But do
you have any recommendations for people. Any of those apps
you found most helpful.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Well, I mean my approach is very simple.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
I use the watchless features within the apps, but also
I'm mostly a Roku guy, and they have a way
to create a watch list across multiple apps. So you
go into your save list and then you just pop
up whatever you haven't.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Checked out lately.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
And then I'm sure you guys can relate to just
people in your life recommending shows to you that you've
never heard of. So instead of just being like, I'll
just put them in my notes app on the phone, Yes,
so've I mean, I've got plenty of stuff that and
when it's time to, you know, check out that service,
whether it's a free, year, paid service, whatever it's on,
then I'll already know what I want to watch because
(33:21):
I'll have something to talk with my friends about.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yes, I love it, Michael, That's exactly I've gotten more
organized about that over the past year because I realized
I had this one particular note where I would jot
all of this down, and so I said, you know what,
like I literally did this last year, I want to
start making this official, and so at the top I
added a title and it's called consume, and it's where
I put everything that I want to either read, potato
(33:45):
chips or listen to. But then very recently I started
categorizing some of the different recommendations I would hear because
I'd always you always ask the follow up, Oh, what's
that on? And then they're like, oh, that's on Max
and so boom, I've like that under my max list.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
But I love to tell the Matt about Tokyovice.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Have you heard of that one, Michael.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
No, I haven't. Well, now I'm gonna have to add
it to my list.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
It's underrated. It's a max max and I've got max
right now.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
So one other tip that I have, which is not
going to work for everyone, but it works for me. Uh,
if you have a Roku, you know there are those
four keys on the bottom that are basically advertisements. So
what I've done is I don't use those, so I've
basically put labels over top that show the services that
I do have. So it ruins the functionality of those keys,
(34:36):
but it's a reminder of the services that I'm paying
for right.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
On my romote.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
So sort of like when you write like a spending
category on a specific credit card.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
That's exactly what inspired me to do it, is it
really it's putting like a sticker on a credit card
that says you're a percentage.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
That's why I was like, I need to do this
for my streaming.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Services come from the same cloths. Yes, for sure. Okay,
what's your take Michael on ad supported versus AD free plans?
Because you can save a lot of money by watching
some ads, and they're not as bad. I think people
get a note with them, but they're not as bad
as traditional TV was. I mean, we are old enough
to remember the twenty one minute show that fits inside
(35:15):
of a thirty minute half hour. That's because there were
nine minutes worth of ads.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Guys like, that's.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Why and now when you when you watch these and
I get that kind of we fell out of the
habit of watching ads, and it sucks to go back.
But the it seems like the gap has grown significantly
between the ad free and the ad supported plans. And
I think you've said too that that some are worse
than others.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Right, sure, absolutely, And I'm almost forty. I think you
guys are right there with me, so I'm I have
that same experience of I know what it was like
to have to sit through those ads, and if you
didn't have a VCR, you weren't skipping through any ads.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
You just had to stick with the ads.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
I love that you didn't go back to just the
what they call it with the TVR. Yeah yea, yeah tea,
it's not DVI. You ha'd a VCR man. I never
had one of those.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
I didn't either, we had a But as far as
the ad supported services, the best ones and I've tested
them all as far as the lightest AD load are
now Amazon Prime, which is added advertising, Netflix Max, and Peacock.
Those are the ones that I find the most tolerable.
And especially it also depends on what we're watching, So
(36:19):
sometimes I'll catch a movie and they'll just have two
minutes of ads before the movie.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Starts, and then no ads through it. So for people
who are really.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Concerned about the ads, I say, just like, give it
a try for a month. You can always switch back
to those plans that are ad free. But as far
as managing costs, the ad supported plans are the best
for the companies. So those are going to be priced
lower because between the AD revenue and the subscription price
they actually end up making these companies more money than
(36:51):
the ad free plans.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
And one last tip the piggies back on that is
the sales that happen often around Black Friday are for
the ad supported plans. So I've got Hulu for a
full year for ninety nine cents a month. Granted the
Hulu ads are more annoying than they are and a
lot of the other streaming services, but I otherwise just
wouldn't have Hulu. But twelve bucks a year to be
able to watch even just two or three things on there,
(37:14):
I mean, that's it seems like a what.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Do you think, Michael, twelve dollars a year to have
your cheap or you're film interrupted by like a guy
going have.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
The same deal.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
I will say that that's one of the apps that
has stuff that I like to watch. But I would
open it a lot more if there were fewer ads.
Hulu and Paramount Plus are very aggressive with their ads.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah, that's that's the downside. If it was just a
couple ads at the beginning, it's like, okay, you know
what I can fine, I'll watch five minutes of ads
if I can do that while I go pop the popcorn. Right,
But to have a movie interrupted in the middle, that's
as you're watching there with the kids. That like that
kind of thing, like on a Friday night, that's that
kind of bums me up.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Someone once told me they do push ups during all
the commercial breaks, So I immediately thought, they're not watching
Hulu because there are would be really sore.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
They would be just right, that's at least stay so healthy, Michael.
But so these are ways that you can save monthly, right,
like when it comes to some of the different UH
streaming subscriptions. But there are some other ways that you
can cut expenses every single month. We'll get to a
few more of those right after this.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
All right backwards, I'll talking with Michael Timmerman talking about
getting scrappy to save some money. And Michael is nothing
if not scrappy, and I'm hoping that we can all
learn and adapt how we handle our monthly bills thanks
to his ability to test some of these services and
offer his best advice.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Just to avoid paramount, that's what I paramount.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Yeah, don't do that one and just go back and
see what you're paying, man, because you might be paying
for stuff you're not even using. You might not have
even realized that that is just like low hanging fruit
tip right there. But Michael, in addition to streaming services,
you you test other things too. Streaming is kind of
I feel like what you're known for, and I appreciate
all the information you just shared, But talk to me
about home internet. I feel like every time I ask
(39:08):
someone about home internet service, I always get a reply
that they're paying like seventy or eighty dollars a month,
which is more than I'd be willing to pay. I
feel like I'm always able to save money, but I
just have to stay on it every single year, kind
of pitting the two internet providers that I have against
each other. But you've also talked about a third way
in the internet space, five G home Internet. So can
(39:29):
you talk to me about how you think about home
internet and whether these new five G players T Mobile
and Verizon whether their services are worth it.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Well.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
I'm using them right now, so things have gone pretty
well so far, and right now I think I'm communicating
with you on the Verizon one, but I've got both
of them, I've tested them long term. I think they
will work for a lot more people than you might realize,
and that's because they let you connect to the internet,
(39:57):
surf the web, you can check your emails, on your
home security, some forms of gaming. I think that is
where things can kind of break down with the five
G home internet services.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
But people, I think in.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
General, think they need the highest speed, and that's because
they're marketed that constantly on television. They need gig speed
when most households do not. I'm sitting in a two
thousand square foot house. This little box from Verizon and
the same for the one from T Mobile.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
They work throughout the whole house.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Very impressive.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
You just plug it in and go right. And what
are the speeds? What is the price point and how
much savings does it represent over maybe traditional home internet.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
So you mentioned seventy five to eighty I think for
and I think that's in line with what a lot
of people tell me they've paid maybe fifty to seventy five.
These newer options are around fifty. They're cheaper if you
have a phone plan with that phone company, but that
is going to be a post paid wireless plan. You
need an expensive phone plan to get a savings on
(41:03):
the home internet.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Which might be worth it if you are looking at
the bigger picture. Right, the ability to look at your
overall holistic financial picture as opposed to getting the absolute
cheapest cell phone provider. But now, uh sorry, you're stuck
paying Exfinity Internet and you know they have it retard
your call in like two or three mins.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
I want to wear this as a badge of honor.
Matt and I. We pay twenty five bucks here a
month through Exfinity for I think we get one hundred
and fifty to two hundred makes of speed.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Well they just did like a speed upgrade.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
They upgraded it. Yeah, yes, so you get that you're
on the lowest plan.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
And still and it's twenty five bucks a month and
it's plenty of speed. So it's I think you don't
necessarily have to go to one of the new fangal things.
I mean, maybe it works better for you where you live,
but it's it's all about shopping around and kind of
pitting them against each other. That's that's also going to
lead to say.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
And some people just don't have those options though, jol Like,
some people don't have another option to pit against Exfinity,
so they may pay that twenty five dollars, but it's
for one year and then that doubles the next year.
So that's the if you're willing to switch every couple
of years, Yeah, you're gonna be able to keep your
internet bill twenty bucks thirty bucks lower than that average
(42:12):
you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Again, it's all about being scrappy. So, Michael, one last
question for you. I think you've tried something like fifteen
different phone plans over the.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
Years, so maybe more than that. I think I definitely
at least fifteen.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
Some of them no longer exist or they've merged, there's
been some consolidation.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
In that space.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Okay, so over the years, like what have you learned
and specifically, like what are the best discounters that you
typically recommend and who are you currently using? Are you
using Verizon in order to gain access to that five
G box?
Speaker 4 (42:40):
I don't have a post paid plan and I haven't
for a very long time.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
I have now Visible, which.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Is owned by Verizon, and that does get you a
discount on the Verizon Home Internet. So that's a little
bit of a savings sack. You get a better discount
with the Verizon post paid servery cool.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
So you're yeah, you got the Verizon network, you're paying
discounted through Visible, but you're getting the Verizon Home Internet.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
For it, Yeah, and for a discount, so it's I
think it's a ten dollars a month discount on the
home Internet.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
What other cell phone providers in the discount space do
you typically recommend. I know some people tend to think, oh,
the discounter, it's got to be inferior quality, right, it's
I'm gonna be my calls are going to drop more frequently.
Matt and I talk about how the NBY and o's
there on the backbone of the major networks, So that's
not the case. You shouldn't You shouldn't have to worry
(43:32):
about that. There are some minor trade offs, but yeah,
do you have any other favorite discounters out there?
Speaker 4 (43:36):
I think what you said is a lot of that
is just dated information. When I started reviewing these, Sprint
was still around, and a lot of the same companies
today that the MVN knows today used to use Sprint,
and Sprint's reputation is just not good. I know you
used to have it, Joel.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
Right, that was the lowest amount I've ever paid. We
had ten lines on.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
There's ten friends.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Yeah, and literally people I didn't know and their cousins,
and we were paying one hundred and something dollars a month,
low low hundreds, like one hundred and fifteen after taxes
and everything. So and that was back when you had
to have multiple lines in order to get a substantial discount.
You get a solo line. Sorry, you're paying seventy bucks
a month, like there's no way around it. But that's
(44:20):
I really appreciate that. In the cell FLOWD space that
has gone away over the last two or three four years,
so they exactly a single line and basically pay the
same price.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
And also with the with Sprint no longer around now,
and there's not that one carrier with inferior coverage who
kind of put a whole I think put a stain
on the MV and OS Now, I think it's really
just a matter of figuring out who has the best
coverage in your area. If you like the postpaid service
that you've got, whether that's Verizon AT and T or
(44:51):
T Mobile, there's going to be a cheaper option on
all three of those, so you can you can test
them out, compare the prices a lot are generally the
same space you can get savings sometimes if you pay
for a year in advance, or you can pay monthly
and still get a low price. Visible's good, Mint's been good,
(45:11):
tell O is pretty good. Us Mobile another good one too.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
And what about Google five for international travel?
Speaker 4 (45:19):
Yes, I mean if you travel a lot, But if
you're traveling, if you're planning a trip two years from now,
you don't need Google five. There's other ways that you
can get data coverage when you're overseas.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Literally the Esis right, yeah, he said, is a great
way to do that. Okay, Michael, very very last question
for real, are you just doing this this profession to
get the tax right off on the streaming services in
the owner that you would have otherwise paid for and
paid full price?
Speaker 3 (45:46):
Well, absolutely not. It's really, uh not that not that
big of a rite off.
Speaker 4 (45:51):
This is this is fun for me and personal finance
just I mean, personal finance is a passion of mine.
I wouldn't call it an obsession of mine. But I'm
just sharing people what I'm doing to save money. And
it's gonna work for some people. It's not gonna work
for everybody, right though. That's the thing about this space
and what you guys do is that people can listen
(46:12):
and they can pick and choose what will actually work
for their life.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah, that's right, without going completely crazy because there's a
two minute ad in the middle of the movie, like
at the most inopportune time.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Some folks will put up with that. Other well, some
maths won't.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Yeah, but Michael, we appreciate you coming on the podcast today.
Working folks. Check out the different products and services that
you are reviewing and talking about.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
Sure, Michael says dot com. Michael says on YouTube.
Speaker 4 (46:38):
That's how you find me, and you can email me too,
Michael at Michael says dot com. I do free personal recommendations.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Very cool.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Michael, thanks for joining us, my friend. We appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
Thanks guys, to talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
All right. Great conversation about slashing your streaming. Should we
have called the episode that Joel instead of you like
the scrappy like scrab you? Uh no. Fun conversation with
Michael Timmerman again.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
Isn't there a cartoon animal name scrappy scrappy Scooby Doo?
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Yeah, Yeah, that was it.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
Scooby Do's like little bro or what was oh scrappy doo?
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Yeah, scrappy Do. Okay, he's like the little guy Okay,
do you have a big takeaway from our conversation.
Speaker 4 (47:13):
I do.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
I do. It's you hate advertisements on services, at least
at least in the middle. You don't mind them on
the front end.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
So we didn't even talk about this, but I hate
them so much that I would rather cut all the
different services. Like we literally don't pay any any subscriptions
to any of the different streaming services right now. We
decided to go cold Turkey basically, and we're kind of
saying how long we can go go before the kids
revolt because that's that's essentially where we are right now.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Okay, so not even Disney Plus for the kids, No,
we have it.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
Like literally, they were looking to watch something the other
day and to the younger girls were like, can we
just rent this one movie? We're willing to pay. It
was like I think it was four dollars for the renolds,
like three to nine, and so each there's two of
the girls and they each chipped in two bucks so
that they could rent this movie. And I'm like, Hey,
we can something else, or we can go go play,
(48:02):
We'll go for a hike, and they're like, oh, we
really want to watch this, And I was like all right,
and so they pulled out their two dollars and it's
the force.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Forced great depression at Matt's house.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
It's the ability to value your money in a way,
just aligning your spending.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
With your values. It's more than money. It's not the
seven bucks a month even necessarily.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
I would imagine it's a combination of everything. And it's
a little bit that p Yeah, it's a little bit
of the financial, but also like how can we better
spend our time perhaps as a family.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
And by the way, you can't skip those ads, so
easy to skip the podcast ads, which I appreciate.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Okay, So I want to say my big takeaway is
when Michael talked about his weekly financial checklist, and I
think it's the systemization of things means you don't have
to constantly be worried about money or constantly be thinking
about it. When you have this kind of Friday morning
routine that he has, he can check in on his
money and he can very quickly assess kind of what's
(48:52):
going down, how things are shaping up. I like it,
and you know what changes he needs to make, and
I think he's spot on. Most people think money guys,
you have to. You probably have to think about money
all the time. And it's like, I'm just like I
am kind of obsessed with it, unlike Michael, like I do.
I love reading about stuff, and I love just kind
of the way money impacts our lives. Like I am
just generally interested in finance. But when it comes to
(49:15):
like my own money, No, I have some systems in place.
They're they're pretty chill, and I don't feel like I'm
having to like think about my money all the time.
I just kind of like the topic in general. So
that's yeah, I mean, that's just my weird oddity.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
No, I think it's I think, yeah, it's so true
if you feel like it's some that it is something
that is sort of taking over your mind, the ability
to kind of partition it and to put it into
silos so that way you like, all right, it's money time,
you attack it and then you let it go.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
It kind of like the flight of the concords. It's
business time, but it's money Time's money time. But for him, Yeah,
I really liked.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
A part of that was his weekly credit card payoff,
which stood out to me because most folks, or at
least myself, I'm looking at it month to month, but
he's checking in on it every single week, and I
think that's so smart. The ability just to stay on
top of your spending, because you could potentially, let's say
you forget and it builds up, you don't realize how
much you've actually spent, let's say on groceries or and entertainment,
(50:05):
and by the time you get to the end of
the month, well it's too late. Yeah, you've already spent
that money. So that's one of the downsides of using
credit cards, and his ability to stay on top of
that I think is huge. But as far as my
big takeaway, well, it's going to pertain to streaming, and
it's going to be to rotate the different services that
you use, going there, hit pause, the ability to target
specific shows and one of the ways you can accomplish
(50:28):
this efficiently. Michael shared that this is something that he does.
I do this on my phone as well, but keep
a running list of the different things that you want
to watch. That way, when you do, say, choose to
pay for Max for a couple months, boom, you can
rip through that list. You're not watching crap that you
don't really want to watch, but you're watching it because
you pay for it, as opposed to going proactively going
after the stuff that you do want to consume.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
I love what he did with his remote taping. I
mean like, there are all these little different things you
can do, so I think, remind yourself of what you're
paying for. And I love the seasonal nature of his
aproach too. He's like, yeah, I'll have a target it.
It's not always on the expensive live TV. It's YouTube
TV for six months and then he's doing away with
that seventy five or whatever it is dollar bill. So yeah,
(51:11):
I think that that's a good way to think about things.
And the other thing is just to stop caring about
sports because that's gonna be coming all together. Most effective
way to save money until And I'm curious to see
how good this new sports bundle He mentioned how good
it is, because I think that might be a great
way for sports lovers to save is sign up for
that and avoid everything else that's srue.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
We'll see. We'll talk about it later this year. Man.
But the beer you and I enjoyed today was called
a buzz Fest. This is a beer by Infinite Ale Works,
a seasonal ale. Yeah, is this this is when you
picked up.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
I picked this up down in Okalla, Florida. Actually have
a really cool little micro brewery there, just outside of
downtown Okaala, and I was like, they only had two
package beers, so this was by default kind of the choice.
I meant, right, I'm getting yeah, but no, I like
this one. It's it's got October Fest sort of vibes,
kind of a multi light brand beer.
Speaker 2 (52:00):
But it's got like multi multi a nice.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Sweetness too going along with it. So yeah, if you
like the October festival sweetness, and you can tell that's
when they brew this. So we maybe were drinking this,
you know, six months past.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
Past Prime has been sitting well, we've had such great
listeners sending in amazing beers that this is one that
we've literally just kept in the fridge all these months.
But yeah, super maulty, super bretty. It reminded me we've
been thrown down a bunch of English muffins recently. I
know we've all been on the Nooks and Crannies original bread,
and this totally reminds me of that a whole lot.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
It's better than the nukes and cranny.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
That's so good. It's so good. But yeah, this German
amber pilsner. Is it a Pilsner Marsley Mars But it's
like a like the bass maybe the bass beer, I
don't know, but either way, enjoyed it. Thankful that you
picked this one up for us, Buddy, but we'll make
sure to have show notes up on the website at
how the Money dot com. We'll link to Michael site
his YouTube channel as well. But Buddy, that's gonna be
(52:58):
it for this episode until next time.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.
Welcome to Out of Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today we're talking about getting scrappy to save on
streaming with Michael Timmerman.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So, by my account, I think there are three ways
to boost your net worth right, so you can invest
more money, But then remember we are long term investors.
It takes a while for that compounding to really kick in,
so you can earn more money, which is a ton
of fun. Who doesn't like getting promoted, who doesn't like
earning a fat bonus at work? But again, this can
(00:49):
take years of grinding it out at the very least
months of hard work in order to stand up among
your peers. Or there are changes that you can literally
make immediately by cutting your expenses in order to save
more money. That is what we're discussing with our guest today,
Michael Timmerman and Michael he writes over at his site
Michael saves dot com. He's got a YouTube channel, he's
(01:11):
got over twenty five million views, and I think that's
because he's kind of like a human guinea pig where
he's working on our behalf. He's tested out products and
services to make sure that we're all getting the best
deal possible. Michael's kind of like the Tim Ferriss of
personal finance nerds. But Michael, we appreciate you coming on
the podcast with us.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Today, human guinea pig. I like that. Thanks for having me, Matt,
Thanks for having me. Joel.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I think you should add that to your bio now, Michael,
just considering.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Absolutely it goes straight the top.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Well.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
And by the way, Michael and I have worked used
to work together for a lot of years, and now
Michael's gone off to do his own thing, so so
it's kind of fun to reunite here.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Michael.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
The first question, as you know that we ask everybody
who comes on the show, is what's your craft beer equivalent?
Meaning what is it that you're spourging on while you're
also doing the smart thing with your money, you're saving
and investing. So what's your craft beer equivalent?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
My friend?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
You know, I knew this question was coming, but it's
a little hard for me because I think I have
a few craft beer equivalents. They might not be quite
as frugal as hugual. It's not the one thing, no,
I know, the one thing I'd say as my craft
beer equivalent is has to do with plane tickets, and
I've been researching a couple upcoming trips. When I'm searching
(02:26):
on Google flights, I can never get that cheapest fare
as much as I really want to. And I think
probably a lot of people can relate to this. So
I've got three things I'm not going to like compromise with.
I want to make sure I'm either in a window
or the aisle. I don't want to board last. And
then there's a couple just airlines that I'll try to avoid.
(02:46):
So those are the things. So when I'm doing this search,
I just figure I'm going to have to pay an
extra maybe like thirty dollars.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Based home what the prices.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And you live in a market where Spirit is heavy.
But I'm guessing this means.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You don't fly no Spirit, no Frontier, and I getting
those sweet deals.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
The nearest airport to me is all about the budget airlines.
Their Spirit, Frontier, Southwest, a lot of Jet Blue. I
will fly Spirit, but then that's kind of where this
kicks in. It's like length of the flight matters. If
it's five hours, I'm probably not gonna be sitting in
one of those tight Spirits.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
But no Southwest our favorite.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Oh no, I mean I'll it just depends. It depends
on the flight jet Blue, I will fly a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
How fancy are we getting here, Michael? Are you ever
doing like live flat beds across the Atlantic kind of thing?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Not so for jet Blue is a good example. I
think it's like basic. Those are the ones that I
can't do. But then when it's that, I think it's blue.
That's when I'll go for Jet Blue. I won't be
the last to board. I can bring on a bag,
I put everything in the carry on, and then I
can choose my seat.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
That makes sense. Okay, Michael, I know you and Joel,
y'all go back. You can trade war stories after we
hit hop on the recording. But I get the impression
that you've been for a long time. You are savvy
with how you handle your money. What brought that about?
When did that begin in your life?
Speaker 3 (04:07):
You know?
Speaker 4 (04:07):
I think it started for a lot of people who
really get into this space with their childhood. My role
model was my grandmother in particular, and she was always
the one who really had it together with money. She
was not wealthy, but she was comfortable, and it was
because of the actions that she took, so I kind
of looked up to her and like modeled myself after her.
(04:31):
I even during college, I lived with my grandmother and
it commuted to college to save money. But just those
couple of years where we did that, I think that's
where I learned a lot about personal finance. That's also
where I got my introduction to Clark Coward, which is
how I know Joel because I on the drive back
and forth to school, I would listen to Clark's radio show.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So it was like twenty some years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
So is that one two punch Grandma and Clark Coward?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah, Grandma and Clark in my late scenes.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Okay, So with your grandma, I'm curious was it more osmosis?
Was it like the way she lived or was she
like offering verbal instruction too. Were you guys having discussions
about money or was it just like dang, I see,
grandma seems to have beyond to something and kind of
the way she handles money, the way she lives, the
silent type.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
I guess yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
I mean, I don't remember having too many discussions about it.
I do remember one thing I had. One of my
first jobs, I was a waiter, at a Denny's in
a resort community, and I would come home from work
every day with a stack of dollar bill So this
is before people were leaving credit card tips, and she
would ask me to hand over my money and she
(05:40):
would count my tips and like if I had over
one hundred dollars, we'd like celebrate. So like that was
kind of, like, I guess, a positive reinforcement at an
early age. I don't remember a whole lot of conversations,
but I guess the way it was just the way
that she lived and the way she led, and she
was the just really solid, dependable adult in my life
(06:02):
and at a time when there was like other stuff
going on with some of the other other adults.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
So just just a really great mentor.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Just a great role model. The ability for her to
aside from being a human teller machine like counting up
your bills. I love that that she celebrated that with you.
What a great way to kind of reinforce not only
the fact that you're making and hopefully saving, but that
you're just I don't know, doing a good job. It's
like some additional fruit of your labor that's being that
you're able to celebrate there together. Yeah, I like that,
(06:32):
but sorry for calling you that human guinea pig.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
By the way, actually pretty accurate.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, because it seems like you have tried every financial
tool out there, like you tried wineab for a while.
It sounds like you liked it ultimately, though it seems
like you went with your own Google sheets you like.
I don't know it was it the customization of creating
your own thing, but it seems like you based it
on like the wine ap principles. Can you share about
(06:57):
how it is that you budget and keep up with
your spending?
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Well, I think this is kind of timely because I
guess mint has just shut down and I use that
for a whole lot of years, and then I started
kind of looking at how I thought that wasn't working
so well for me, and I guess the process with
that In similar apps like it, I would just open
up the app and see a reflection.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
It was like looking in the mirror, just like how
are you doing?
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Whereas whine app, I think that system and the four
rules it helps you really kind of train yourself to
be more proactive I think with your money. So the
way I adapted it is I really I mean my
issue is I'm not crazy about a subscription service for
a budgeting app, and I know a lot of them
work that way for various reasons. But with the Google Sheets,
(07:48):
I can do the same thing. And the key for
me is really just before I buy anything, I open
up the Google Sheets app, I check my categories, see
what I've.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Got left to spend for the month, and then make
the or just log it right away.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
I always have that opportunity to kind of be like, Okay,
do I really need to buy this?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Do I want to buy this? Like it's a.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Check on yourself that I don't think you necessarily get
with the tools where you're just like I guess, putting
everything on your credit card and then logging in to see,
all right, what was the damage for the month?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Sure, yeah, there's you're spending on a delay like that
is the downside of maximizing the different benefits that you
get through using credit cards, which were huge fans of.
But the ability for you to see sort of like
that timely in the moment feedback that's huge. And this
is something that you've been able to kind of work
(08:40):
into your general workflow, like you've got a weekly financial checklist.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
I guess one of the things, having been in writing
about money since I guess it's now been twenty ten
is one of the things people say to you is like, oh,
you must be obsessed with money, and I'm not, And
I really don't spend a whole lot of money on
the budgeting, even though I'm logging those transactions with every purchase.
So all I do is I set aside a few
(09:05):
minutes on Fridays in the morning, I check to see
how all my account balances are. I pay my credit
cards off every week, and then I just look back
on that budget to see if there's anything that I missed.
But since I'm logging everything in real time as I spend,
I don't really usually find any difference between what I
(09:26):
put on the credit cards and then what's in the budget.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
I like that when you have a system, you don't
have to obsess over it, right, And so that's like,
I think it's a really important takeaway there. On the
guinea pig note, you're being kind of a guinea pig
right now in a way. We talked about this right
before we started recording, that you're seeking to earn extra money,
but it also still allows you flexibility. I think gigwork
is something Matt and I have talked about that lots
(09:49):
of times. Especially if gigwork, if that's your main source
of income, it's probably you're just training time for money
and it's probably not the best move you're ever the
long haul. But I really actually kind of like approach
to some of the gigwork that you're doing right now. Michael,
can you talk about that well?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
I agree with you.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
I think a lot of the gigwork is trading time
for money. And there's a couple of things that I've
done just because I've got some things I'm saving up for.
Just like everyone listening to this, in my case, it's
something I'm not really excited about. I have to get
a new fence, So I've found all these ways to
kind of like motivate myself to save up for that,
(10:24):
and one of them has been with gig apps and
side apps. Rover's been the most successful for me. It's
probably going to depend on where you live. Where I live,
there's just a ton of demand for people who can
take care of pets, particularly if you have a single
family home and you can care for the pets at
(10:45):
your house.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So that's kind of what's worked out and based on.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Is this why you need a defence by the way,
so you can watch these animals.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It's actually an investment.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
YEA. Yeah, I've got a fence, but it's falling down,
so I know that I've got to like replace replace
the fence. But I guess it kind of is an investment.
I don't really see the gig app as a forever thing,
but it's meeting a demand that is needed in the community,
and I think that's probably the best way to go
when you're looking at the gig apps is to think, well,
(11:14):
do I want the easiest thing for the quickest buck,
or do I want to look at something that might
have a higher return because there's more people in your
local area who need those services.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
There's a ton of apps out there.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Like thumbtack and if you're able to do to provide
like you know, powerwashing or there's lots.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Of ways to make money through these apps.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
And the beauty of the pet sitting apps with Rover
is that you can take in animals, take care of them,
but also be doing other stuff from your house. Like
so for me with what I do with the YouTube channel,
I can be editing a video and also caring for
a pet.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Okay, I thought you're talking about like you're one of
those guys and you've got like fifteen dogs on a leash,
but you're also like filling out on your phone like
as you're walking those that the ultimate multitask.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
I'm not gonna and I did try all those those
survey apps at one point. I think when I'm down
to in terms of the kind of make money, save
money apps, at this point, I still use iboughta that's
a grocery one. I use Fetch that's also a grocery one.
And this is more of a savings not an earning one.
(12:23):
But have you guys ever talked in the show about
too Good to Go?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Oh, is that that's the meal leftover meal apps?
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Right?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Go pick yourself up some crossanltics that they're getting ready to.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Talk about that app is like my favorite, and I've
I've found so many great places on there. I know
it's going to depend on where you live, but it's
like five dollars and you could have like a ton
of food.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah. I mean so basically, like you're talking about the
difference here between active versus passive ways of earning money.
And so obviously these are all more active, active ways,
and it's important to kind of prioritize, and granted we
will talk. I kind of led into this whole thing
talking about ways that you can save money, because cutting
your expenses that's like the most immediate thing. But you
have highlighted some of the different ways that you can
immediately make money. But like I said, these are all
(13:07):
more active ways of generating income. But a passive way
that you've shown some remarkable success is via your YouTube channel.
You've done well there and like you call yourself an
unlikely success story, share with us how that channel came
about and how you're doing over there.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Well, I mean, so here's the truth of how the
channel came about. This actually ties into my full time
job that I was working. I saw an opportunity for
us to get into video when I was working for
Clark Howard. They had a channel with a ton of videos,
but I saw a different way to do it. But
(13:45):
I kind of wanted to test it out because I
wasn't really sure that my managers were all that into
the idea. So I just started putting up random videos.
Some of my oldest videos were just about weight, just
what we've talked about, like some of these apps and
ways to save money.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I talked about how I paid off my mortgage.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
On one of the earlier properties that I lived in,
and things just kind of took off. And I also
had some of that content that I do now, which
is the testing of the streaming phone plans internet services.
So it was really I've just an experiment for work.
I never expected some of those videos to take off.
(14:26):
I think the mortgage video has four hundred and fifty
thousand views, So that's an example of a I sat
down on the couch and I talked for ten minutes,
and five years later people still watch that.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah that's super cool. Yeah it's amazing. So it is
active in one sense because you kind of still need
to continue to create content in order to keep new
viewers coming in. But then some of the videos you
made a long time ago still have a lot of juice,
which is really cool. Do you have any tips for
someone out there who maybe has like a burning desire
to share their knowledge and they think they've seen what
(14:59):
mister Beast is able to accomplish, and maybe also you've
been able to accomplish. Michael and they're like, I could
see myself doing something like that. Do you have any
kind of tips of the trade or kind of hey,
here's how you start to begin a YouTube channel and
you're not just yelling into the void.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Sure, I mean I think what you said is where
I would start share your knowledge. It's much easier to
share your knowledge than it is to share your life.
So that would kind of be the difference between a
channel that has more of an informational and educational view
as opposed to one that is a look at me
(15:35):
type of channel. So if you think about problems that
people are going through, and you have the solutions.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So I'll give you an example.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
I had someone came over a few months ago and
helped me install a couple ceiling fans, and he had
never dealt with this brand before. So then I went
on YouTube and I searched and I was like, wow,
there's like no video about this. But if you look
up some of the other brands like Hunter, let's say,
there's like millions of views of people just filming themselves
(16:05):
swapping out a ceiling fan. So this guy, like a
big part of his business is installing ceiling fans. He
could just record himself at a client's house doing it,
go home and voice over all the steps and then
that's a way to like help someone out. But also
that would be like a turn into a semi passive
(16:26):
additional income for them. Yeah, it's not super exciting, but
it could. Really it would help people, and it would
it's in that person's wheelhouse.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah, well, I mean you say it's not super exciting,
but like I think for a lot of people, I
think what you said about knowledge versus life, right, the
ability to share either a passion or some information that
you have as opposed to feeling like you have to
bear all tell all fabricate drama. I think there's a
lot of folks who might actually find that incredibly interesting
because it seems like it's doable. There's something about I
(16:57):
don't know, it feels more honest, perhaps even to me,
than like trying to figure out whatever like the next
YouTube algorithm is going to be. Because there's actual value
that you are you are able to portray, and so
the ability to say cool, this is a this is
a clear way that I can provide value out into
the world, out into YouTube, to be able to help
(17:18):
people while at the same time hopefully generating some additional income.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
But I also like kind of how you said you
look to see, oh wait, there's a nobody's covering this yet,
and we can be the first. We can be the
pioneer here. And if you're the pioneer on that video,
that you have more of a chance to stand out right,
Whereas if you're kind of saying the stuff that everyone
else is saying, like you got to kind of find
that niche too. What is it that I know about
that very few people are publishing on And I think
(17:43):
that's a good place to start creating content, and I
think you can broaden from there.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
The way that I've heard a lot of YouTube gurus
boil it down is it's the audience, and I do
agree with that. I think usually when I put the
most effort into the videos and they're based on things
that I know people have either reached out to me
or I've done the research and I find they're interested
in those are the ones that do the best short
(18:07):
term and over the long haul. So there is a
research component to figuring out what people care about, because
maybe what you care about is not something that a
ton of people care about.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
But I do think that's a place to.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Start, is your your own interests. And back to what
you said about being original, maybe you're doing okay content,
but it's been done by too many people in too
many different ways.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
That makes sense. Okay, So, Michael, I don't know if
how you feel about sharing this, but like, how much
of the revenue that you're able to generate from YouTube?
What percentage of your expenses would you say that that covers?
And the reason that I'm asking this specifically is because
I think this is so interesting, because I think it
can provide an insight to folks who might be considering
(18:51):
something like this to see, oh cool, this actually does
have the ability to cover a percentage of my expenses
of my day to day living. Do you mind sharing that?
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Well. YouTubers can make money through various income sources. The
one people talk the most about is probably ad sense,
which is just the ads that.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Run on your video.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
You turn them on and then you don't do anything
else except collect the check. That can vary. It can
go up and can go down depending on the months.
For a channel my size, that can be pretty healthy.
I'll use my second I have a second channel as
an example. It's much smaller that has about three thousand
subscribers and I want to say sixty thousand views a month.
(19:36):
So it just really is where I put a bunch
of secondary content that doesn't really fit on the main
Michael Saves channel that regularly gets about five hundred dollars
a month in just that ad sense income. So for
just throwing a few videos up on a channel of
things that interest people that can that's the return, but
(19:59):
the the main channel is significantly more than that.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
And YouTube, of course is the second largest search engine
in the world, next to Google. So it's one of
those places where if you are on there creating helpful
content consistently over time, you can't and you know, don't
quit your day job yet, but maybe at some point
you can quit your day job if you've done it
consistently over long enough period of time, been able to
build an audience, and you're providing helpful information on the
(20:23):
rig like you are, Michael with both of your channels,
but okay, speaking of both of your channels, like you
do so much. You create so much content specifically about
streaming and how to cut costs in that area, and
especially as subscription that you know, the monthly subscription amounts
continue to increase for people, and there's just a proliferation
(20:45):
of subscription options in general. We've got a lot of
questions to get to with you on that, so we'll
be right back with Michael Saves right after this.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Right we are back from the break talking with Michael
from Michael Saves. And I guess it's zooming out a
little bit the savings that we used to experience, Michael, Like,
when it came to cutting the cord, it used to
be significant, Like it used to be, like it was
a no brainer. Like I've never paid for cable TV
in my entire life, except for when I was in
college because my roommates insisted. But like, ever since I
(21:22):
was in charge of my TV options, I've never paid
because it made so much sense to eliminate cable. But
it seems like that the tides have turned, given the
increasing prices.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Because what Netflix is, what twenty two bucks a month?
Now if you want the top tier.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
It's so stinking extensive now. But I guess I'm curious
to hear if you think it's a slam dunk decision anymore.
How are you approaching that question with folks?
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Well, I think you're right, it's definitely not the type
of savings that it was five years ago. But I
do think that cutting the cord is still the way
to go. I don't hear from people who are going
back to a cable or a satellite TV subscription. It's
just changed, and that's a lot due to the way
(22:06):
that there's just so many services and people are having
to pick and choose, and the shows they want.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
To watch are so spread out.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
But in addition, it's a lot due to the sports
being so spread out amongst multiple services. So now you
have to kind of create your own bundle as opposed
to with a cable PATV provider, they're just delivering this
one option for you.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Sure, so even if you cut the cord, basically, I
think what you're saying is there are live equivalents to
cable that are a whole lot less expensive.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (22:38):
A whole lot?
Speaker 4 (22:38):
I don't know, I mean slightly. Is where it really
depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for
a full replacement for what a PATV provider like an
Exfinity or DirecTV offers, it's not going to be a
huge savings because those live TV services are making deals
with the exact same companies that the other PATV operators are.
(23:02):
There are some much skinnier ones. A couple of years
ago I interviewed the founder of the CEO of Filo
and he was actually one of the Facebook co founders
as well, and his service is twenty five dollars a month.
But you don't get locals, you don't get sports, and
you don't get a whole lot of news.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
It's really just the entertainment networks.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Like, do you have a general philosophy of how you
think about streaming, whether like in your own life or
just when you talk about streaming content like generally speaking?
And what I mean by that, like, do you have
like a few different platforms or subscriptions that you always
have that you always pay for, or are you being
more strategic, like are you targeting platforms for specific shows
(23:44):
or certain sports or whatever it is. I'm curious how
it is that you approach it.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Yeah, So what I generally do is I have one
of those more expensive live TV services for about half
the year, and that's coming up.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
I've already paused it.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
So the next billing cycle that goes off, that's seventy
five dollars a month right now, so that I won't
pay for until September. And that's mostly because of Live TV,
so a mix of sports and news that I like
to watch on that service. So now I'm entering a
period where I feel like I have more options, So
(24:20):
I'll go into some of the cheaper services that I
haven't had throughout the year. Netflix is one of them.
You just mentioned that I haven't had Netflix in six months,
so I'll turn that back on, check out what's been
on there since I last had it, and then and
then pause it.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
So I do. I do rotate the subscriptions.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
That's part of the benefit of cutting the cord, but
I also know that doesn't.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Really work for everybody.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
If there's someone in your house who wants to watch
a show and you cancel it, you're going to be
hearing from that person like they're not going to be
happy with it.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Part of the benefit of the new model is that
we can take that rotational approach that there are no
year long, two year long, multi year sort of conqu
that are forcing us to pay somebody year after year
even if we're not getting the same value out of it.
But we're still treating I think or a lot of
Americans are still treating their streaming service like they're handcuffed too.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
And I think that's what that's why when I hear
people have this debate about like, oh, it's worse than cable, now,
nobody is thinking like, oh, I want a cable guy
to come over to my house and spend half the
day to install it, or the same for a satellite.
So the technology was always going to change because of
the Internet. Now what we're working through is just this
(25:35):
period where the prices are going up, and that's because
the streaming services, some of them, are fighting for profitability,
and then also there's content changes that they're making as
a result of.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
That same issue.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
They're just not making the same amount of profits as
a PATV bundle, which for decades was extremely profitable for
the major media companies.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
So I would think the people that save the most
money in the streaming world or people who just don't
watch a lot of stuff, and also people who don't
care about sports at all. But if you like sports,
especially now, I feel like it's getting harder and harder
almost by the month too, because now Apple TV has
or Apple TV plus whatever it's called, has the MLS
(26:21):
soccer Peacock I believe has the European soccer leagues.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
It used to be that, Okay, at least you subscribe
to this one thing and you get all the sports.
But that doesn't even seem to be the case anymore.
So what would you tell sports lovers when it comes
to streaming about kind of what services to have and
then how to make sure that they're not spending like
a ridiculous sum of money to watch the sports they love.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Sure well, the sports consumers, the ones who are especially
into multiple types of sports, are always going.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
To be paying the most.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Because what most people don't really understand is with that
old PATV model, the price of that was the price
that it was because of sports, and it would have
been even higher if people had the option to opt
out of sports.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
So in a way, the sports.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Programming has always been subsidized by people who don't watch
a whole lot of sports. It's not what people want
to hear, but that's that's the.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Truth of it.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Because like ESPN wouldst would cost the cable companies ten
bucks a month, Yeah, just that one channel and then
all these other channels you might pay, They might pay
them thirty three cents a month or something like that. Nothing,
So ESPN is, yeah, it was the big behemoth in.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
There, and and there's changes with that too.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
So later this year there is going to be a
service that's going to include ESPN as well as a
bunch of other sports networks. The estimated price, nothing officially yet,
is forty to fifty dollars a month. And then in
twenty twenty five there's going to be a standalone ESPN
and that price is reportedly going to be twenty five
to thirty dollars a month for ESPN and then all
(27:50):
the other ESPN family of networks. So that kind of
just when you put thirty dollars against your total cable
TV bill or pay TV bill, you kind of see
like where all the money is going. It's going to
sports the easiest. The people who have the easiest time
are probably still NFL fans, and that's because in your
(28:12):
local market, it's always going to be on a broadcast
TV station. Now Amazon's got rights to Thursday Night Football.
Last year, there was a playoff game. Last season, there
was a playoff game on Peacock. The next season, there's
going to be a playoff game on Amazon Prime. So
there is still some extra cost there for people who
want to watch a lot of games, especially from teams
(28:33):
outside of your market. But if you only care about
the team for the city that you live in, the
NFL is still reasonable because you just need your local channels.
Many people can get those, of course, with an antenna.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
That's what I was going to say, that's all over
the air.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I think people forget about the antenna and they forget
about all the channels they provide. I swear with my antenna,
I log in, and I'm shocked at the number of
channels I get. I assume that a good many of
them are just kind of garbage channels, but there's never
been more free content that you can get over the air.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Sure, and I agree with that. And when I paused
the subscription, the first thing I did after I paused
it is I put my antenna back up. I've just
got one of those indoor antennas, and just like you said,
it's got like one hundred channels because it's all the locals.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
And then they have.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
These digital subchannels with a lot of content that I
think you also see on similar services like the free
stream meet services Pluto, and Roku channel and two B.
There's a lot of overlap there.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
But the Yeah, the Sodi's Crackle that's another one.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
I feel Crackle's good too.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
Yeah, and I read recently that antenna use is actually
on the way on the way up.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
It's now like one in five households.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
And hey, maybe if the prices go up more people
will give it a shot.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Exactly. It makes sense when you see how affordable these
intendas are, Like you're spending twenty thirty dollars for like
the extra long range one. You get it positioned in
a window, tape it up there or whatever. Like at
our old house, we literally like thumb tacked it to
the wall high the TV so you literally couldn't even
see it and it just blended in with a dark wall.
They make them like flat. I mean, it's just like
it's like a sheet of notebook paper with a cord
(30:08):
attached to it. But you, like, we're talking about some
of the different free content that you can get out there, Michael, Like,
what do you think about like some of those different
free apps, whether it be to b or Crackle or
whatever else. Actually we haven't even talked about this, but Hoopla,
which I normally use for audio books. I saw that,
I don't know, there's video on there that you can
now reserve.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
As well, but it canopy as well. Right, Yeah, that's
a whole other who's got your library card?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, it's a whole other thing. But I'm curious what
your thoughts are, like, is it worth the hassle or
the time to go looking for some of that free
content via some of those free apps.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Sure, it's worth the time, especially if you don't want
to pay, and there's a lot of people who don't
want to pay. Those apps have a ton of content,
and it's in that traditional TV feel like there are
some people who open up a pay service like Netflix
and they get totally overwhelmed with the options and they
end up watching nothing. So you can open up Pluto
(31:03):
and it has a guide that looks just like your
old cable guide and it'll serve you a bunch of
stuff for all the interests. I think that they typically
do the best job of replacing the type of content
that airs during the daytime on regular broadcast TV networks.
So there's like there's news shows, there's court shows, talk shows,
(31:27):
crime shows. That's where I see those free services but
also movies. There's if you just want to open up
one of the free services to be has a pretty
good movie selection, you can find something to watch.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
You just are gonna have ads to break it up,
all right.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
You mentioned the overwhelmed opening Netflix. I think a lot
of people feel that, and it is your there's a
deluge of content. Specifically, I think Netflix has or at
least used to prioritize the amount of offerings over the quality.
And it's not that they didn't have some quality stuff,
(32:03):
but there's just a ridiculous amount of content to sort through.
And the recommending algorithm is okay. But do you have
any tips to help people find the kind of content
that they're going to enjoy watching, because I think now
the average person opens up the app, and I swear
I saw this stat somewhere, they spend somewhere between eighteen
to twenty minutes trying to figure out what to watch,
(32:24):
to click it around before they even start watching a show.
And I know that are new, like even AI kind
of apps out there that can help you figure out
what makes sense for you based on your viewing history
and the thumbs ups and stuff like that. But do
you have any recommendations for people. Any of those apps
you found most helpful.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Well, I mean my approach is very simple.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
I use the watchless features within the apps, but also
I'm mostly a Roku guy, and they have a way
to create a watch list across multiple apps. So you
go into your save list and then you just pop
up whatever you haven't.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Checked out lately.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
And then I'm sure you guys can relate to just
people in your life recommending shows to you that you've
never heard of. So instead of just being like, I'll
just put them in my notes app on the phone, Yes,
so've I mean, I've got plenty of stuff that and
when it's time to, you know, check out that service,
whether it's a free, year, paid service, whatever it's on,
then I'll already know what I want to watch because
(33:21):
I'll have something to talk with my friends about.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yes, I love it, Michael, That's exactly I've gotten more
organized about that over the past year because I realized
I had this one particular note where I would jot
all of this down, and so I said, you know what,
like I literally did this last year, I want to
start making this official, and so at the top I
added a title and it's called consume, and it's where
I put everything that I want to either read, potato
(33:45):
chips or listen to. But then very recently I started
categorizing some of the different recommendations I would hear because
I'd always you always ask the follow up, Oh, what's
that on? And then they're like, oh, that's on Max
and so boom, I've like that under my max list.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
But I love to tell the Matt about Tokyovice.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Have you heard of that one, Michael.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
No, I haven't. Well, now I'm gonna have to add
it to my list.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
It's underrated. It's a max max and I've got max
right now.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
So one other tip that I have, which is not
going to work for everyone, but it works for me. Uh,
if you have a Roku, you know there are those
four keys on the bottom that are basically advertisements. So
what I've done is I don't use those, so I've
basically put labels over top that show the services that
I do have. So it ruins the functionality of those keys,
(34:36):
but it's a reminder of the services that I'm paying
for right.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
On my romote.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
So sort of like when you write like a spending
category on a specific credit card.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
That's exactly what inspired me to do it, is it
really it's putting like a sticker on a credit card
that says you're a percentage.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
That's why I was like, I need to do this
for my streaming.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Services come from the same cloths. Yes, for sure. Okay,
what's your take Michael on ad supported versus AD free plans?
Because you can save a lot of money by watching
some ads, and they're not as bad. I think people
get a note with them, but they're not as bad
as traditional TV was. I mean, we are old enough
to remember the twenty one minute show that fits inside
(35:15):
of a thirty minute half hour. That's because there were
nine minutes worth of ads.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Guys like, that's.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Why and now when you when you watch these and
I get that kind of we fell out of the
habit of watching ads, and it sucks to go back.
But the it seems like the gap has grown significantly
between the ad free and the ad supported plans. And
I think you've said too that that some are worse
than others.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Right, sure, absolutely, And I'm almost forty. I think you
guys are right there with me, so I'm I have
that same experience of I know what it was like
to have to sit through those ads, and if you
didn't have a VCR, you weren't skipping through any ads.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
You just had to stick with the ads.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
I love that you didn't go back to just the
what they call it with the TVR. Yeah yea, yeah tea,
it's not DVI. You ha'd a VCR man. I never
had one of those.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
I didn't either, we had a But as far as
the ad supported services, the best ones and I've tested
them all as far as the lightest AD load are
now Amazon Prime, which is added advertising, Netflix Max, and Peacock.
Those are the ones that I find the most tolerable.
And especially it also depends on what we're watching, So
(36:19):
sometimes I'll catch a movie and they'll just have two
minutes of ads before the movie.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Starts, and then no ads through it. So for people
who are really.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Concerned about the ads, I say, just like, give it
a try for a month. You can always switch back
to those plans that are ad free. But as far
as managing costs, the ad supported plans are the best
for the companies. So those are going to be priced
lower because between the AD revenue and the subscription price
they actually end up making these companies more money than
(36:51):
the ad free plans.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
And one last tip the piggies back on that is
the sales that happen often around Black Friday are for
the ad supported plans. So I've got Hulu for a
full year for ninety nine cents a month. Granted the
Hulu ads are more annoying than they are and a
lot of the other streaming services, but I otherwise just
wouldn't have Hulu. But twelve bucks a year to be
able to watch even just two or three things on there,
(37:14):
I mean, that's it seems like a what.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Do you think, Michael, twelve dollars a year to have
your cheap or you're film interrupted by like a guy
going have.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
The same deal.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
I will say that that's one of the apps that
has stuff that I like to watch. But I would
open it a lot more if there were fewer ads.
Hulu and Paramount Plus are very aggressive with their ads.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah, that's that's the downside. If it was just a
couple ads at the beginning, it's like, okay, you know
what I can fine, I'll watch five minutes of ads
if I can do that while I go pop the popcorn. Right,
But to have a movie interrupted in the middle, that's
as you're watching there with the kids. That like that
kind of thing, like on a Friday night, that's that
kind of bums me up.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Someone once told me they do push ups during all
the commercial breaks, So I immediately thought, they're not watching
Hulu because there are would be really sore.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
They would be just right, that's at least stay so healthy, Michael.
But so these are ways that you can save monthly, right,
like when it comes to some of the different UH
streaming subscriptions. But there are some other ways that you
can cut expenses every single month. We'll get to a
few more of those right after this.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
All right backwards, I'll talking with Michael Timmerman talking about
getting scrappy to save some money. And Michael is nothing
if not scrappy, and I'm hoping that we can all
learn and adapt how we handle our monthly bills thanks
to his ability to test some of these services and
offer his best advice.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Just to avoid paramount, that's what I paramount.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Yeah, don't do that one and just go back and
see what you're paying, man, because you might be paying
for stuff you're not even using. You might not have
even realized that that is just like low hanging fruit
tip right there. But Michael, in addition to streaming services,
you you test other things too. Streaming is kind of
I feel like what you're known for, and I appreciate
all the information you just shared, But talk to me
about home internet. I feel like every time I ask
(39:08):
someone about home internet service, I always get a reply
that they're paying like seventy or eighty dollars a month,
which is more than I'd be willing to pay. I
feel like I'm always able to save money, but I
just have to stay on it every single year, kind
of pitting the two internet providers that I have against
each other. But you've also talked about a third way
in the internet space, five G home Internet. So can
(39:29):
you talk to me about how you think about home
internet and whether these new five G players T Mobile
and Verizon whether their services are worth it.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Well.
Speaker 4 (39:35):
I'm using them right now, so things have gone pretty
well so far, and right now I think I'm communicating
with you on the Verizon one, but I've got both
of them, I've tested them long term. I think they
will work for a lot more people than you might realize,
and that's because they let you connect to the internet,
(39:57):
surf the web, you can check your emails, on your
home security, some forms of gaming. I think that is
where things can kind of break down with the five
G home internet services.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
But people, I think in.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
General, think they need the highest speed, and that's because
they're marketed that constantly on television. They need gig speed
when most households do not. I'm sitting in a two
thousand square foot house. This little box from Verizon and
the same for the one from T Mobile.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
They work throughout the whole house.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Very impressive.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
You just plug it in and go right. And what
are the speeds? What is the price point and how
much savings does it represent over maybe traditional home internet.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
So you mentioned seventy five to eighty I think for
and I think that's in line with what a lot
of people tell me they've paid maybe fifty to seventy five.
These newer options are around fifty. They're cheaper if you
have a phone plan with that phone company, but that
is going to be a post paid wireless plan. You
need an expensive phone plan to get a savings on
(41:03):
the home internet.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Which might be worth it if you are looking at
the bigger picture. Right, the ability to look at your
overall holistic financial picture as opposed to getting the absolute
cheapest cell phone provider. But now, uh sorry, you're stuck
paying Exfinity Internet and you know they have it retard
your call in like two or three mins.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
I want to wear this as a badge of honor.
Matt and I. We pay twenty five bucks here a
month through Exfinity for I think we get one hundred
and fifty to two hundred makes of speed.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Well they just did like a speed upgrade.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
They upgraded it. Yeah, yes, so you get that you're
on the lowest plan.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
And still and it's twenty five bucks a month and
it's plenty of speed. So it's I think you don't
necessarily have to go to one of the new fangal things.
I mean, maybe it works better for you where you live,
but it's it's all about shopping around and kind of
pitting them against each other. That's that's also going to
lead to say.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
And some people just don't have those options though, jol Like,
some people don't have another option to pit against Exfinity,
so they may pay that twenty five dollars, but it's
for one year and then that doubles the next year.
So that's the if you're willing to switch every couple
of years, Yeah, you're gonna be able to keep your
internet bill twenty bucks thirty bucks lower than that average
(42:12):
you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Again, it's all about being scrappy. So, Michael, one last
question for you. I think you've tried something like fifteen
different phone plans over the.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
Years, so maybe more than that. I think I definitely
at least fifteen.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
Some of them no longer exist or they've merged, there's
been some consolidation.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
In that space.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Okay, so over the years, like what have you learned
and specifically, like what are the best discounters that you
typically recommend and who are you currently using? Are you
using Verizon in order to gain access to that five
G box?
Speaker 4 (42:40):
I don't have a post paid plan and I haven't
for a very long time.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
I have now Visible, which.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Is owned by Verizon, and that does get you a
discount on the Verizon Home Internet. So that's a little
bit of a savings sack. You get a better discount
with the Verizon post paid servery cool.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
So you're yeah, you got the Verizon network, you're paying
discounted through Visible, but you're getting the Verizon Home Internet.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
For it, Yeah, and for a discount, so it's I
think it's a ten dollars a month discount on the
home Internet.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
What other cell phone providers in the discount space do
you typically recommend. I know some people tend to think, oh,
the discounter, it's got to be inferior quality, right, it's
I'm gonna be my calls are going to drop more frequently.
Matt and I talk about how the NBY and o's
there on the backbone of the major networks, So that's
not the case. You shouldn't You shouldn't have to worry
(43:32):
about that. There are some minor trade offs, but yeah,
do you have any other favorite discounters out there?
Speaker 4 (43:36):
I think what you said is a lot of that
is just dated information. When I started reviewing these, Sprint
was still around, and a lot of the same companies
today that the MVN knows today used to use Sprint,
and Sprint's reputation is just not good. I know you
used to have it, Joel.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
Right, that was the lowest amount I've ever paid. We
had ten lines on.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
There's ten friends.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Yeah, and literally people I didn't know and their cousins,
and we were paying one hundred and something dollars a month,
low low hundreds, like one hundred and fifteen after taxes
and everything. So and that was back when you had
to have multiple lines in order to get a substantial discount.
You get a solo line. Sorry, you're paying seventy bucks
a month, like there's no way around it. But that's
(44:20):
I really appreciate that. In the cell FLOWD space that
has gone away over the last two or three four years,
so they exactly a single line and basically pay the
same price.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
And also with the with Sprint no longer around now,
and there's not that one carrier with inferior coverage who
kind of put a whole I think put a stain
on the MV and OS Now, I think it's really
just a matter of figuring out who has the best
coverage in your area. If you like the postpaid service
that you've got, whether that's Verizon AT and T or
(44:51):
T Mobile, there's going to be a cheaper option on
all three of those, so you can you can test
them out, compare the prices a lot are generally the
same space you can get savings sometimes if you pay
for a year in advance, or you can pay monthly
and still get a low price. Visible's good, Mint's been good,
(45:11):
tell O is pretty good. Us Mobile another good one too.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
And what about Google five for international travel?
Speaker 4 (45:19):
Yes, I mean if you travel a lot, But if
you're traveling, if you're planning a trip two years from now,
you don't need Google five. There's other ways that you
can get data coverage when you're overseas.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Literally the Esis right, yeah, he said, is a great
way to do that. Okay, Michael, very very last question
for real, are you just doing this this profession to
get the tax right off on the streaming services in
the owner that you would have otherwise paid for and
paid full price?
Speaker 3 (45:46):
Well, absolutely not. It's really, uh not that not that
big of a rite off.
Speaker 4 (45:51):
This is this is fun for me and personal finance
just I mean, personal finance is a passion of mine.
I wouldn't call it an obsession of mine. But I'm
just sharing people what I'm doing to save money. And
it's gonna work for some people. It's not gonna work
for everybody, right though. That's the thing about this space
and what you guys do is that people can listen
(46:12):
and they can pick and choose what will actually work
for their life.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah, that's right, without going completely crazy because there's a
two minute ad in the middle of the movie, like
at the most inopportune time.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Some folks will put up with that. Other well, some
maths won't.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Yeah, but Michael, we appreciate you coming on the podcast today.
Working folks. Check out the different products and services that
you are reviewing and talking about.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
Sure, Michael says dot com. Michael says on YouTube.
Speaker 4 (46:38):
That's how you find me, and you can email me too,
Michael at Michael says dot com. I do free personal recommendations.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Very cool.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Michael, thanks for joining us, my friend. We appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
Thanks guys, to talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
All right. Great conversation about slashing your streaming. Should we
have called the episode that Joel instead of you like
the scrappy like scrab you? Uh no. Fun conversation with
Michael Timmerman again.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
Isn't there a cartoon animal name scrappy scrappy Scooby Doo?
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Yeah, Yeah, that was it.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
Scooby Do's like little bro or what was oh scrappy doo?
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Yeah, scrappy Do. Okay, he's like the little guy Okay,
do you have a big takeaway from our conversation.
Speaker 4 (47:13):
I do.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
I do. It's you hate advertisements on services, at least
at least in the middle. You don't mind them on
the front end.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
So we didn't even talk about this, but I hate
them so much that I would rather cut all the
different services. Like we literally don't pay any any subscriptions
to any of the different streaming services right now. We
decided to go cold Turkey basically, and we're kind of
saying how long we can go go before the kids
revolt because that's that's essentially where we are right now.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Okay, so not even Disney Plus for the kids, No,
we have it.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
Like literally, they were looking to watch something the other
day and to the younger girls were like, can we
just rent this one movie? We're willing to pay. It
was like I think it was four dollars for the renolds,
like three to nine, and so each there's two of
the girls and they each chipped in two bucks so
that they could rent this movie. And I'm like, Hey,
we can something else, or we can go go play,
(48:02):
We'll go for a hike, and they're like, oh, we
really want to watch this, And I was like all right,
and so they pulled out their two dollars and it's
the force.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Forced great depression at Matt's house.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
It's the ability to value your money in a way,
just aligning your spending.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
With your values. It's more than money. It's not the
seven bucks a month even necessarily.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
I would imagine it's a combination of everything. And it's
a little bit that p Yeah, it's a little bit
of the financial, but also like how can we better
spend our time perhaps as a family.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
And by the way, you can't skip those ads, so
easy to skip the podcast ads, which I appreciate.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Okay, So I want to say my big takeaway is
when Michael talked about his weekly financial checklist, and I
think it's the systemization of things means you don't have
to constantly be worried about money or constantly be thinking
about it. When you have this kind of Friday morning
routine that he has, he can check in on his
money and he can very quickly assess kind of what's
(48:52):
going down, how things are shaping up. I like it,
and you know what changes he needs to make, and
I think he's spot on. Most people think money guys,
you have to. You probably have to think about money
all the time. And it's like, I'm just like I
am kind of obsessed with it, unlike Michael, like I do.
I love reading about stuff, and I love just kind
of the way money impacts our lives. Like I am
just generally interested in finance. But when it comes to
(49:15):
like my own money, No, I have some systems in place.
They're they're pretty chill, and I don't feel like I'm
having to like think about my money all the time.
I just kind of like the topic in general. So
that's yeah, I mean, that's just my weird oddity.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
No, I think it's I think, yeah, it's so true
if you feel like it's some that it is something
that is sort of taking over your mind, the ability
to kind of partition it and to put it into
silos so that way you like, all right, it's money time,
you attack it and then you let it go.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
It kind of like the flight of the concords. It's
business time, but it's money Time's money time. But for him, Yeah,
I really liked.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
A part of that was his weekly credit card payoff,
which stood out to me because most folks, or at
least myself, I'm looking at it month to month, but
he's checking in on it every single week, and I
think that's so smart. The ability just to stay on
top of your spending, because you could potentially, let's say
you forget and it builds up, you don't realize how
much you've actually spent, let's say on groceries or and entertainment,
(50:05):
and by the time you get to the end of
the month, well it's too late. Yeah, you've already spent
that money. So that's one of the downsides of using
credit cards, and his ability to stay on top of
that I think is huge. But as far as my
big takeaway, well, it's going to pertain to streaming, and
it's going to be to rotate the different services that
you use, going there, hit pause, the ability to target
specific shows and one of the ways you can accomplish
(50:28):
this efficiently. Michael shared that this is something that he does.
I do this on my phone as well, but keep
a running list of the different things that you want
to watch. That way, when you do, say, choose to
pay for Max for a couple months, boom, you can
rip through that list. You're not watching crap that you
don't really want to watch, but you're watching it because
you pay for it, as opposed to going proactively going
after the stuff that you do want to consume.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
I love what he did with his remote taping. I
mean like, there are all these little different things you
can do, so I think, remind yourself of what you're
paying for. And I love the seasonal nature of his
aproach too. He's like, yeah, I'll have a target it.
It's not always on the expensive live TV. It's YouTube
TV for six months and then he's doing away with
that seventy five or whatever it is dollar bill. So yeah,
(51:11):
I think that that's a good way to think about things.
And the other thing is just to stop caring about
sports because that's gonna be coming all together. Most effective
way to save money until And I'm curious to see
how good this new sports bundle He mentioned how good
it is, because I think that might be a great
way for sports lovers to save is sign up for
that and avoid everything else that's srue.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
We'll see. We'll talk about it later this year. Man.
But the beer you and I enjoyed today was called
a buzz Fest. This is a beer by Infinite Ale Works,
a seasonal ale. Yeah, is this this is when you
picked up.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
I picked this up down in Okalla, Florida. Actually have
a really cool little micro brewery there, just outside of
downtown Okaala, and I was like, they only had two
package beers, so this was by default kind of the choice.
I meant, right, I'm getting yeah, but no, I like
this one. It's it's got October Fest sort of vibes,
kind of a multi light brand beer.
Speaker 2 (52:00):
But it's got like multi multi a nice.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Sweetness too going along with it. So yeah, if you
like the October festival sweetness, and you can tell that's
when they brew this. So we maybe were drinking this,
you know, six months past.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
Past Prime has been sitting well, we've had such great
listeners sending in amazing beers that this is one that
we've literally just kept in the fridge all these months.
But yeah, super maulty, super bretty. It reminded me we've
been thrown down a bunch of English muffins recently. I
know we've all been on the Nooks and Crannies original bread,
and this totally reminds me of that a whole lot.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
It's better than the nukes and cranny.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
That's so good. It's so good. But yeah, this German
amber pilsner. Is it a Pilsner Marsley Mars But it's
like a like the bass maybe the bass beer, I
don't know, but either way, enjoyed it. Thankful that you
picked this one up for us, Buddy, but we'll make
sure to have show notes up on the website at
how the Money dot com. We'll link to Michael site
his YouTube channel as well. But Buddy, that's gonna be
(52:58):
it for this episode until next time.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.
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