Friday Flight - Customer Centric Companies, Password Panic, & The Worst Time to Travel #675

Hi, I'm David Eagleman. I have a new podcast called Inner Cosmos on iHeart. I'm going to explore the relationship between our brains and our experiences by tackling unusual questions, like, can we create new senses for humans? So join me weekly to uncover how your brain steers your behavior, your perception, and your reality. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman. On the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Last season, millions tuned into the betrayal podcast to hear a shocking story of deception. I'm Andrea Gunning, and now we're sharing an all-new story of betrayal. Ashley Litten was helping her husband set up a business Venmo account when she discovered a terrible secret. I saw a hidden folder, and I opened it. What the hell did I just see? Listen to season two of betrayal on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Queen Charlotte, the official podcast, we're stepping behind the scenes and the drawing boards of this team to experience the life breathed into the Bridgerton prequel. Listen to the leaps executive producer and series director Tom Barrica took to capture the feeling that puts that lump in your throat. And you've got to catch creator Shonda Rhimes. She's dropping gems, diamonds, and mics. You can listen to Queen Charlotte, the official podcast, every Thursday, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows. Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel, and I am Matt. And today we're talking customer-centric companies, password panic, and the worst time to travel. Yeah, the worst time to travel. We've got some travel advisory news for... What if we provide travel updates for all the major cities across the country on our Friday flights, which tend to be a little more timely? I'm actually glad we don't do that, but we might be boring. Yeah, we'll touch on that a little bit with us being a super heavy travel weekend for a lot of folks. But before we get to our Friday flight, which by the way, it's the top stories that we think that you should be aware of here on this lovely Friday. But Joel, I don't know if you know this, but I read the How to Money newsletter. And this past Tuesday, we included just a little quick to do for folks to consider cutting their own hair in order to save money. We take our own medicine here on How to Money. Yeah, we do. I didn't mind the other day, but it was not nearly as much of a shearing as you got. Dude, it was finally time. So I hadn't trimmed my hair since 2020. Like the early days of the pandemic basically is when I gave myself so how many inches of hair did you have? Yeah, I don't know. It was I mean, so we Kate put it into a little a bunch of little ponytails and trimmed it off because we're planning to send it to an adult hair nonprofit or something like they take and that they make the wigs out of it. Nice. But it was I don't know like when I wore it down, it would come down past my armpits, which I rarely did because it was so unwieldy. But yeah, it was a lot of hair most era I've ever ever had before. A part of the reason why I remembered thinking I wanted to grow my hair out was because it's like the pandemic. There's a lot of weird stuff going on. And so I just felt like something kind of fun to do. A lot of people felt like they had to make a major change. And that was one of the things they could do. A lot of folks like I'm not shaving in. Yeah, yeah, for me, I kind of did the long hair thing. If I didn't shave in, people wouldn't notice. It's like, I like it. It's gross. But I went to and grab the clipper or the box the clippers are normally in. And dude, I realized that I totally forgot about this, but I had thrown my clippers away after the last time I cut my hair at the beginning of 2020 because they were basically broken. And so I realized that not only was I being frugal by not having to go in to get a haircut, but I think I was being cheap because I think I just stopped cutting my hair because I didn't have any clippers on hand, which I thought was kind of I told you, I would loan you mine, but you you did. And I appreciate it. But you also said, you know, I got to get some because I'm gonna be using them on my own hair. I'm a little dootear. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. But you know what? So what I realized was that not only was I spending a lot of money on in order to have long hair, specifically, I didn't realize how much shampoo and specifically conditioner I was requiring that I was needing in order to like keep the mane and check a ridiculous amount. And I realized that you got to feel what women everywhere have to feel all day every day. Yes. That first shower back, I quickly washed my hair, I was like, Oh, that's it. It was amazing. But also the amount of time that goes into washing a large amount of hair. I feel like I've got like five minutes of my day back every every single day. Yeah, it all adds up. You know, that's all I'm saying. Well, they're gonna have to factor in the time it takes to have haircuts on a regular basis too. But well, that's the thing I got the new clippers and I realized how terrible those that's why I threw those old clippers away because I hadn't had a decent pair of clippers in a long time. I'll link to the ones that that we bought just off Amazon. It's like 30 bucks, color coded guards, these things. Holy, I cut my hair like 10 minutes. It was amazing. I was like, right up the side of my head. When you think about how awesome even cheap haircuts they add up over time when you factor in like the time it takes to drive there, blah, blah, the tip and stuff like that, it will save you a lot of time, especially for guys for I don't know for women if it's easier or more difficult. I guess if it's just a little trim and you're just a little scissoring should be like not terribly difficult to make happen to the people off. Yeah, so but doing your own haircuts, Matt, poster child for it, we should post a pick. A lot of people have given you compliments. You look 10 years younger. And I think I didn't. Yeah, I've heard that from multiple. I thought you and Emily were just being nice, but I've heard that from others as well. I was like, oh man, I guess I was looking kind of rough there for a minute, but glad to be back in the short hair club. There you go. Yeah. All right. So yeah, let's get to our Friday flight. A quick sampling of stories we found interesting this week in the personal finance space. And let's lead off with some good news, Matt, for investors. And specifically health savings accounts because those limits are going up in 2024. That was just recently announced. There's going to be a 7% increase over the current 2023 limit, which means that your HSA just became even more enticing as an account to sock away additional retirement dollars. And so the HSA is it sounds bland, Matt, when you say health savings account, it just sounds so lame. I think people sounds as boring and lame as cutting your own hair. People misunderstand the glories of the HSA. I think because it sounds so silly when you talk about a health savings account, cool. I'll say for health care expenses, how much is it really going to make a difference? And the truth is, even if you spent your HSA dollars in the current year for health care expenses, you'd still avoid taxation. But as any long time, how to money listener knows the key to fully utilizing and maximizing the extreme benefits that the HSA has to offer is to actually invest those funds rather than just earning a piddly amount in some interest-bearing account inside of that HSA. So that's probably one of the biggest mistakes for folks who have an HSA is that they don't realize the default option is most likely the savings account. Unlike a 401k, where the default option is likely that the money is going to be invested, but right now, Matt, individuals, they can invest 3,850 within their HSA, but that's going up next year to 4,150. Families are going to see an even bigger increase from 7,750 to 8,300 even into the triple tax advantage to HSA. If you want to know more, we have an article we'll link to in the show notes, but the HSA, if you have access to one, if you have a high deductible health care plan, it is probably the best retirement account on the market. It's the most versatile and it's the only one that avoids taxation completely. It certainly has the most tax avoidance built into it. And so the way that you actually get access to a health savings account is that you need to have a high deductible health care plan. And typically, that means these are plans with deductibles in the thousands of dollars range. But you might be thinking, no, thanks. Not a good fit for me. Well, we really want you to think again, because you could be spending tons of unnecessary dollars on health care premiums. And the research actually backs this up. There's a study from the NBER, right, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and they found that folks are paying 40% more in premiums every single month, simply because of inertia. This is just simply because there are folks out there who don't want to think about it. So those folks end up sticking with what they've got. And then they succumb to that status quo bias where they are wasting their dollars. And then even when we are actively making a decision on possibly a new health insurance plan, we just tend to assume the worst case scenario, even though that they are unlikely to happen, right? And so our minds, they go to like shark bites, they go to rare cancers. And then with that, just in the forefront of our minds, we opt for like the Cadillac of health insurance policies out there. When in reality, truly a high deductible health care plan would serve the vast majority of folks just fine. Then you get access to the HSA. And yes, you need to probably self-insure a little more if you opt for the high deductible health care plan, because you might face a higher out of pocket expense. But the like, and what that means is just a little bit more money in your emergency. Yeah, just having a little more margin. But the higher likelihood for most fairly reasonably healthy people is that they're going to save money over the years by and then be able to invest in a more significant way by choosing that health care plan. Especially too, a lot of employers will contribute to your HSA. Like a lot of employers that offer HSA as an option, they'll toss in a thousand bucks. And yeah, and that's I mean, if you are not taking advantage of that, if a high deductible health care plan works for you, like you are literally quite literally leaving money on the table. You mentioned growing for decades. Sure. You mentioned shark bites for a second. It makes me think like the way we catastrophize. My girls, they love swimming in the ocean. They'll be like, I'm scared of sharks, dad. And so I have to like we literally look up the stats and I say, you're more likely to get killed by a vending machine than you are to get to get bit by a shark. Of a piece of an airplane falling through the sky and striking you. Exactly. Yeah. So when you think it's more likely to happen, but our human brains have a hard time wrapping around that logic. And so we catastrophize. I think that's what we do with in terms of health care insurance. So we're like, well, what if this happens? I guess I probably need the best thing, but it turns out the best thing is costing you a whole lot more in a lot of circumstances. Yeah. So that's also it's also called availability bias, which is when our minds take these shortcuts and we latch on to the most prominent pieces of information that we've heard or that we've seen. And in a lot of cases, it's helpful when it comes to us quickly being able to make decisions. But in cases like this, especially when media is highlighting a great white shark off the coast of South Carolina or whatever, you tend to think, oh no, we need to make sure we avoid the ocean altogether. Or the whole state of South Carolina. Really. Exactly. Speaking of which, did we were you talking a couple of days ago about there's this website that tracks sharks? Yeah. It's like, yeah. Facts over fear. Or something like that. A shark. Great. A shark. Or their tags. Along the coast of Hilton Head or something. Yeah, exactly. So it's not that sharks don't exist, but the actual likelihood of them attacking you while you're at the beach this weekend is pretty slim. Exactly. Same thing with like hopping on an airplane. It's way way safer to do that than it is to hop in your car. But yeah, let's talk about taxes for a second, Matt. Why does it cost us so much money to pay the government what we owe in taxes? That has always been kind of a conundrum for me. The fact that we have to pay money to pay our taxes. It's like we're getting hit twice. Yeah. Yeah. It's like it tax on the taxes, right? And so depending on your situation, the complexity of the tax code almost necessitates hiring a pro. It's worth the money, even though it feels like it shouldn't be necessary. It's going to eventually save you in the long in the long run if your tax situation is a little more nuanced. But for folks with a more straightforward tax situation, there's an industry that's risen up to serve you, but they do it for for a fee for a price, right? They want it cost you $69, $79, something like that every every single year when you buy your taxes. But your good friends at the IRS, I say that somewhat jokingly, they're working on a free filing option of their own to compete with the Turbo taxes of the of this world. And Turbo Tax, of course, is not happy about it. They called they call this a solution in search of a problem. But I got to say this, who cares? Who cares? Well, Turbo Tax thinks the IRS is going to start testing this new proprietary filing system early next year with just a small handful of taxpayers. I'm interested to see kind of how this shakes out. And it's going to cost them a lot of money to build. But there is a chance that we're all able to file our simple tax returns free of charge. Thanks to this new IRS product. And I'm sure we will hear more about this after they kind of go through that trial run. It might actually be available to the masses maybe in like 2025. But until then, cash app taxes, they're actually still the best free tax filing software out there that we know about. And the truth is, even after this IRS tax filing system is widely available, I think a lot of how to money listeners who do have more complicated tax situations with more complicated tax returns, I think they'll likely still be better off paying for professional help. And having somebody who knows the ins and outs can most definitely be worth it. And plus on top of that, I mean, was the last time you had a government service provider and you were like, Oh yeah, that's they did a tip top job over there. I will say I went to the Department of Driver Services this morning. Oh yeah, to register our new minivan. And I was like, was it delightful? There was one person in front of me. Okay, I was in and out in no time. And I was I was surprised. And I was delighted. I guess I wonder if it's just the time of year. It's like a lot of folks, they probably are thinking about the beach or maybe their plans for this weekend. They're not taking care of those boring things that you know is required of us as adults. Yeah, but maybe I got lucky. Nice. But yeah, no, it was a decent experience. So just, you know, did you go to the one shout out for our local? Did you go to the same one that I went to? Yeah, that one's actually surprisingly awesome. Was great. There's a guy and he yeah, I'm this doesn't apply to anybody else. Hardly at all. But yeah, surprisingly, they do a really good job there. Yeah, not too shabby. All right. But speaking of customer service, Matt, let's talk about that for a second because everyone knows that social media is crappy for us. Okay. And the Surgeon General just issued a warning this week about kids and social media. Yep. And I was kind of like, all right, interesting. I feel like we already know this. Yeah, social media and kids doesn't mix well, leading to a lot of increased anxiety and I'm going to try to keep my kids off social media as long as possible. I know you feel the same way. Oh yeah. But for more reading on this, the coddling of the American mind, Jonathan Hight. There's another article in the free press this week, maybe we'll lead to in the show notes about that specifically about parents trying to hold off their kids as long as possible, even though they're like the lone child in the class who's not the whole bounce. Yeah, who's not on some sort of smart device. It's really good for those kiddos and good for those families. But it's also true that we as adults could spend quite a bit less time on those platforms and on technology in general. But we've always talked about how one proper use of social media that can be really helpful besides small plug for the how to money Facebook group, which is incredible. And that's really heading to social media to get better customer service results. Well, sadly, that's not as true as it used to be. The Wall Street Journal just published an article about how Twitter isn't kind of the the bastion of customer service that it once was. For a minute, Twitter really was for really a handful of years. Twitter was a place I felt like I could turn to get customer service from companies who wouldn't answer any other way who didn't have a 1-800 number who were hard to track down in any other form or fashion. But some airlines like KLM and Air France in particular are shutting down their Twitter customer service teams. The major US carriers, they haven't abandoned Twitter yet. But it sucks to lose that as an outlet to get help if your flights delayed, if you're having an issue with the airline in general, or really with any company. I've loved that as a recommendation, as a way that people can actually get help from a lot of companies when they can't find it elsewhere. But it looks like that is less likely to be the case moving forward, I guess. Yeah. Hopefully, this story is just ahead of the curve a little bit, right? And they're kind of like, oh, this is something that might could happen. But I would still say to reach out to a company via Twitter, if you are having a problem. Still worth it for the time being keep barking up that tree, basically. That's a Twitter tree. Until there's no longer any birds up there that are responding to any of your DMs. The one plus sign of companies not responding on Twitter is that it's one less reason to be on social media. And so, maybe you're just on it less in general because of that. Well, okay. So, a way that you can avoid customer service nightmares altogether is just do business with better companies. There's a new Harris poll, and they highlight the most, as well as the least trustworthy companies that you could do business with. And a couple of my absolute favorites. Well, Joel, you love Costco as well. But Patagonia was one. I don't think I own a single item of Patagonia clothing. I know you own it. I love Patagonia. I'm a, yeah. But yeah, shill for Patagonia. I knew they're a good company, but I was surprised to see their number one on the list. That's impressive. They do a really good job. But Chick-fil-A, Trader Joe's, USAA, Amazon and Apple, they were all actually in the top 10 as well. I was sad to see Aldi was somehow pretty far down the list. They're number 33. I was shocked to see that too. A little too low, but I think it always, in our mind, they're always number one. In my heart, they're tops. I think it depends on the specific Aldi that you are exposed to. It's not necessarily them as a company that I think people base their opinions on. I think it has more to do with like, well, the one near me kind of socks and I don't know, the employees aren't nice. And I think that could possibly taint individuals. I've never met a not nice Aldi employee. They're always so great. At least, yeah, again, the ones down here in the south. I will say, maybe the biggest downside is sometimes you have to wait in too long of a line to check out. And that can be kind of frustrating if you're not used to that. But overall, Aldi should be top 10 in my mind. Yeah. Bottom line, we wanted to mention this because spending your dollars with trustworthy businesses out there who do good work, it matters. It's going to be better for you, better for the experience that you're going to receive. But it also shows just all the crummy companies out there, just how they should be treating their customers, how it actually matters, and what it is they need to do to gain the respect and to rebuild their reputation in order to garner more business. Yeah. So maybe we will quickly mention a few of the worst companies listed on that poll. FTX, of course. Like, come on, who trusts them at this point? I was suspicious before everything went down, but meta, TikTok, Spirit Airlines, and Twitter, we just talked about going to Twitter for customer service and how that's not nearly as much the case anymore. But a lot of these companies are not terribly trustworthy according to a decent chunk of consumers. And so yeah, I think that's good advice, Matt. Do business with better companies, and you're going to be beating your head against the wall for a lack of customer service far less often. But we've got more to get to on this episode. In particular, password sharing, there's a crackdown coming. How's it going to impact you? It is here. Or you have to pony up. We'll discuss right after this. Hi, I'm David Eagleman. I have a new podcast called Inner Cosmos on iHeart. I'm a neuroscientist and an author at Stanford University, and I've spent my career exploring the three pound universe in our heads. On my new podcast, I'm going to explore the relationship between our brains and our experiences by tackling unusual questions so we can better understand our lives and our realities. Like, does time really run in slow motion when you're in a car accident? Or can we create new senses for humans? Or what does dreaming have to do with the rotation of the planet? So join me weekly to uncover how your brain steers your behavior, your perception, and your reality. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Last season, millions tuned into the betrayal podcast to hear a shocking story of deception. I'm Andrea Gunning, and now we're sharing an all new story of the trial. Ashley Litten was helping her husband set up a business fan mail account when she discovered a terrible secret. I scrolled down, and that's when I saw a hidden folder, and I opened it. What the hell did I just see? I was scared that he was coming home. What Ashley discovered that day was a secret so dark she feared for her life. She was like, oh my god, I gotta get out of the house. He's gonna find out that I've seen this. He's gonna come kill me. Listen to season two of the trial on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're looking for someone to help you unpack Queen Charlotte, a Bridgerton story, you're in the right place. It's me, Gabby Collins. Come with me, because I'm Queen Charlotte, the official podcast, we're stepping behind the scenes and the drawing boards of this team to experience the life breathed into the Bridgerton prequel. Listen to the leaps executive producer and series director Tom Barrica took to capture the feeling that's put that lump in your throat, and you've got to catch creator Shonda Rhimes. She's dropping gems, diamonds, and mics. On this podcast, we're going beyond the basic line of questioning and getting to the heart of the show, all while appreciating the contributions of the show's creative teams and remarkable cast. Go inside each episode of Queen Charlotte, a Bridgerton story with the creatives, the cast, and creator Shonda Rhimes leading the way. Listen to Queen Charlotte, the official podcast, Thursdays on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or anywhere you get your podcasts. All right, we are back from the break. Before we get to talking about Netflix here, we've got our ludicrous headline of the week. And this one comes from Business Insider, and it reads, the death of ownership. Very simple headline, very, very straightforward. Sadly, ownership, the ability to properly possess our things seems like it's becoming a thing of the past in certain sectors of our economy. We've talked about printers being bricked remotely. If you're not subscribed to the different ink services that they're providing, there are cameras that are smart phones that are no longer getting support in the updates that are necessary for them to actually continue to run. You've got to sometimes pay to use hardware that's already installed, say, I think it was BMW that was charging you for, you know, to use the seat heaters and other premium options. So silly. A lot of manufacturers, well, they also want you to come straight to them when you need your item service, or when the case of phones, like when you need your screen replaced. Basically, they're making it harder to allow you to fix things yourself, or for some of the other third-party companies and outfits to do that for you. Bottom line, all of these trends suck. Like, we are beholden to them, and it's getting more and more difficult for us to calculate the true expense of a purchase that we make when they've got their tentacles that are just finding their ways into our wallets. Yeah. And even after the fact of purchase, even sometimes years after the purchase date, they still have some control over the thing that we have outright bought, and we should own completely. And that's just kind of a frustrating trend. So, and I think part of what makes technology cool can also make it feel like big brothers watching your every move, right? It's kind of cool that Tesla can update your car over Wi-Fi. I know that new Tesla owners like five, six years ago, they were like, this is amazing. Like the range just improved by 15% overnight because of some Wi-Fi update. And that is a cool thing to experience technology improving your car without you having to take it into the shop or something like that. But they've also apparently been locking certain software features when Tesla owners try to update their cars in ways that Tesla doesn't approve of. Jailbroken Teslas. Right. So, it doesn't feel like you actually own your car at that point, which is kind of ridiculous. It's actually the opposite of cool. So, when you buy something, you should have the right to do whatever you want with that item. And what's the solution here? I don't know. It seems like new consumer protection laws, ideally, need to come into place for kind of the new technology space we're in. But for now, we would say pay close attention to the fine print, specifically when you're buying. Totally. Connected devices, devices that are always connected to the internet or, and, you know, which companies do you trust? Which companies are going to potentially like force you to come into their HQ to get a repair done or are going to prohibit you from doing what you want with the item you own. It's best to know that upfront. Exactly. Yeah, again, going back to the Harris Bowl, do business with the companies that have the best reputations. And I think we just as individuals, we underestimate our ability and the power that we have as, in this case, unfortunately, consumers, because business is what they care about. They care about profits. And if you are impacting their bottom line and you're deciding to spend your dollars elsewhere because of the way that they're treating their customers or the products that they are rolling out, well, that's going to cause them to take a second look at what it is that they are deciding to implement in their business. And by the way, you probably, you probably don't want to try to repair everything yourself. It's smart to know your limitations. Life hacker, they actually just published an article about some different DIY repairs that could kill you. We'll make sure to link to that. Yeah, so funny. So specifically, like when your microwave kind of craps out is probably best to not, and try to repair that one yourself. Evidently, there's all large amounts of voltage that continues to be stored and it could literally kill you. I like doing some DIY stuff, electricity. I'm going to stay away from anything electrical. Yeah, it's like mistakes are too high. Messing with magic. So I repaired still Kate have an old KitchenAid mixer back in the day. And I actually successfully repaired it. There's a little gear that I had to replace. But in the process of putting it back together, I plugged it back in to make sure that it was, I didn't want to put it all the way back together and realize I didn't do something right. So I was kind of like checking it along the way, tested it, seemed like I was working fine, forgot to unplug it and went to continue to put it back together. And I had a screwdriver that touched two metal pieces that evidently weren't supposed to come in contact with each other. And it basically exploded. It didn't seriously injure me or anything like that. But it definitely gave me a fright. And then you realized that, oh yeah, you don't really mess around with like, there's a lot of things that you can kind of hack and figure out as you go. And if you screw up, it's not that big of a deal. Stakes are pretty low. But man, I totally agree with electricity. You need to know what you're all for encouraging people to go down the YouTube rabbit hole. But yeah, wouldn't evolve something that it might be out of your pay grade or yeah, there's times to involve a professional, especially when it comes to electrical work, I think. But Matt, let's move on. Let's talk about streaming and the password sharing crackdown, which is finally come. It's been kind of hinted at, it's been tested in other countries. And it's kind of like when your mom threatened to discipline you growing up, she's like, shut up back there. I'm going to pull over. And you kept pestering. I don't know who this could apply to. Certainly not myself. You're certainly not thinking about your own. Not at all. No, I was, I was really the poster child of a good child. Was it more picking on your older sister or your younger sister? Both. It was both. Okay. So much. Yeah. I feel bad for them. We're friends now. But yeah, like, and then finally, she does say, all right, that's it. When we're pulling over and I'm like, no, wait a second. I didn't mean to all stop. But Netflix, they are finally laying down a hammer on this password sharing. And so they're notifying account holders about the new rules that prohibit this practice that people have gotten so used to. You can still do it, but it's going to cost you. And so if you have the Netflix standard plan, which I believe is 1599 a month, you can share your account with an extra person who doesn't live under your roof for an extra $7.99 a month. That makes it kind of an expensive Netflix plan. Let's be honest. By the way, I'm not mad at this. Like Netflix has every right to find a way to get people to pay for the content they're viewing. And they used to kind of be down with the whole password sharing thing. They're not anymore. Right. And that's okay for them to change their mind and to start charging people for viewing their content. But I would say this too. Those friction points are the perfect time to cancel. If you don't feel like you're getting your money's worth. If you're like, wait a second, let's just cancel this Netflix account all together. It made sense when I could share it with my sister or something like that across the country or on the other side of town. And now that we're being forced to pay quite a bit more, well, I don't know, reassess the content on Netflix. Is there enough stuff that makes it worth subscribing to? If not, just get rid of it. Yeah, it is time to reevaluate. And as streaming continues to get more expensive, it certainly feels like it's starting to rival the old cable bill and the massive bundles. And so if you're subscribed to all the different streaming services out there, it actually might be as expensive as... Back to cable. Oh my gosh. It's not cutting the cord. Taping it back together. So you... Well, that's... I mean, actually run the numbers. Take a look at what it cost to stay with the major streaming services. For most folks, as long as you avoid some of the different premium live options out there like YouTube TV, Sling, DirecTV, they've all got those live packages, you'll still be saving money each and every month, most likely. Streaming, it still beats cable in terms of price, even though the numbers... They are slowly getting closer and closer together by the day. But it sure just looked like that streaming was going to kill cable. And I'm not sure that that's the case anymore as cables become more competitive. And as the different streaming options providers out there are raising their prices to be competitive with each other. Well, there's just more and more of them. And then in addition to that, the prices keep going up on them. And especially like you said on the live streaming ones, they're really expensive. $65, $75 a month for those things. So if you have that in addition to Netflix that you share with somebody and maybe Apple TV Plus, and you just like factor all these things in, it starts to resemble what cable used to cost. And so I think for a lot of people, for some people, cable might make more sense. Just add up the numbers though and take a look. If there's an awesome promotion in your area, you might say, ah, I'm done with streaming. I'm going back to cable. But for a lot of people, that's probably not best. And it's the best thing to do would just be to cut a streaming service or three out of your life. Although interestingly enough, there is another new streaming service Comcast just launched launched a new package. And it's actually pretty decent. It's called Comcast now and it's 20 bucks a month. It comes with 60 plus streaming channels and Peacock premium included. It's not my cup of T-mat because I don't I don't really do any live TV in any way, former fashion. But I think this is a non sports for the MLS. That's right. We split we split that with speaking of password sharing, you and I split Apple TV plus in the MLS as long as they let us. That's right. They will be too much longer. If they stop, then we'll probably stop watching soccer. But you know, for some folks who who love the non sports oriented cable channels, this option can make a whole lot of sense. Take a look, you know, and by the way, don't forget about the channels you can snag just from an antenna for free over the air. I've got one of those and I rarely use it. I'll watch it. I'll use it to watch sports on occasion, Matt, like like the Super Bowl or or the World Series or maybe the Olympics, something like that. But every time I check the the antenna to see what's what kind of like channels I'm getting, I'm shocked to see just how many live TV options I get. So for those of you who are less discerning about what you watch and you just want access to a bunch of channels, antennas actually give you a lot more than you than you might have thought. So like the newer TVs, they ask, I mean, I don't know what it is too. So like we've got the, you know, with the Samsung frames or whatever and they've got this special box that you plug into that is where you plug in all the HDMI kind of stuff. If you want to hook up a gaming system, that kind of thing. But it's got, I guess it's got an antenna built into it or something like that. But we get an incredible amounts of additional channels, including, well, it's funny. Ever since we had Frankie Solenza on, we always, so when you turn the thing on the TV on, it always defaults to some of the different TV channels. And so we've got a set to taste made, which is where Frankie's show is. He's on there all the time, by the way. Well, he's famous. He is. He is. It's just kind of fun to be like, Oh man, there there he is again on TV. I wanted to talk about travel because folks are downgrading their travel plans as inflation continues to rip through that industry. Folks are they're still taking trips, right? But they're just cutting back wherever they can, which makes sense. I actually like this approach. Don't cancel your trip. Just find a way to take that same trip or, you know, a similar trip for less money. So some of the changes that folks are making is maybe driving instead of flying, because depending on the destination, depending on the number of travelers, the number of folks, number of kids you have, in my case, this can save a ton of money packing six people into a van instead of paying for six plane tickets. Well, you guys are going to Michigan this summer. It should be a heck of a lot quicker to fly. Guess what? We drive it. You're driving. Oh, you know, we are. And we're going to be able to save a bundle even if it means that it takes a little bit longer. But other folks out there, they're changing the destination, which is another great option. So, you know, you might be longing for the cool, calm blue waters of the Caribbean, but maybe instead you're looking at the coast of Alabama or Florida, that might have to do. Actually, I think I saw that there's a St. George's Island got named like Best Beach in the entire country recently. Oh, nice. Some sort of like beach ranking. I've never even heard of that place, but added it to my shortlist. Check that out. But demand, it doesn't seem to be relenting when it comes to travel. And, you know, you might be waiting a while if you're looking to postpone that vacation until prices get more affordable. So, we think the key is to make changes that that's going to actually lower the overall price. So, you can still get away, still take that break. We are absolutely wanting to encourage folks to take time off work. Don't let price be a barrier to getting some quality time with your family and friends. Just find a way to do it more affordably. Yeah, use your vacation days, right? Yes. And just do it in a way that's not going to cost you as much. Okay. And hopefully, we're going to be doing that in summer, taking some time off for sure. Sometimes, staycations are nice, but last times you want to get out of there, you just want to change the scenery and I get that. Like, so don't avoid it. But find a way is to do it on a dime. Maybe, maybe pack the tents up in the car or something like that. Do some tent camping, whatever. I mean, there's all sorts of ways to be able to take that trip without breaking the bank. And Matt, this is basically one of the worst times to travel. Yeah. Memorial day weekend. There's going to be a lot of folks, especially on the road. So, schools out, everyone wants to leave town. Yeah. I think, I get it. 42 million Americans, sat show are going to be going to be traveling. So, yeah, for everyone out there driving, fortunately, gas prices are lower. I guess that's the bright side this year than they were last year. But we hope you travel safely. We hope you have a good weekend with friends and family. Hope it's restful. Yeah. And hope you're not stuck in traffic too long. And you probably are, if it's between the hours of three and six, and worst times. And worst times, because, evidently, that's the absolute worst time to be on the road. So, if you're listening to this, right after the kids get out of school. Yeah, that's exactly it. It's like, all right, the car is going to be packed up. We'll pick you up and we're going to hit the road. Guess what? You're not the only one that's got that idea. So, if you're listening to this early on, try to get out the door. Maybe a little bit sooner. Yeah. Or you can tell everybody else, be like, hey, we'll get there that night. We're going to get dinner in town and then we'll hit the road. Exactly. And actually, I saw that Saturday and Sunday, evidently, it's totally fine, because nobody likes to actually travel. We've early sat in the middle of Memorial Day. Yeah, that's what we're doing. We're going to hit the road on Saturday. But regardless, we hope that you have a fantastic weekend. We'll make sure to link to any of the different resources, some of the different things we've talked about today in our show notes up on the website at howtomoney.com. But Joel, that's going to be it for this one, buddy. Until next time. Best friends out and best friends out. Hi, I'm David Eagleman. I have a new podcast called Inner Cosmos on iHeart. I'm going to explore the relationship between our brains and our experiences by tackling unusual questions. Like, can we create new senses for humans? So join me weekly to uncover how your brain steers your behavior, your perception, and your reality. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last season, millions tuned into the betrayal podcast to hear a shocking story of deception. I'm Andrea Gunning, and now we're sharing an all-new story of betrayal. Ashley Litten was helping her husband set up a business fan mail account when she discovered a terrible secret. I saw a hidden folder and I opened it. What the hell did I just see? Listen to season two of betrayal on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Queen Charlotte, the official podcast, we're stepping behind the scenes and the drawing boards of this team to experience the life breathed into the Bridgerton prequel. Listen to the leaps executive producer and series director Tom Barrica took to capture the feeling that puts that lump in your throat. And you've got to catch creator Shonda Rhimes. She's dropping gems, diamonds, and mics. 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