Hello and welcome to Bad Manners. This is the podcast that takes you inside Britain's
Stately Homes and tells all the tales the guidebooks don't.
My name is Tom Horton and I'll be your host.
I'm on a mission to find out the frightening, filthy and downright jaw-dropping stories
of these Stately Homes and the people in them.
Listen to Bad Manners on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
You know Andy, in our 22 years of friendship, this has to be the most bizarre thing we've
ever done.
I know.
Our podcast, my vagina said, what is a podcast where we ask our everyday vagina listeners
to pull up a seat at the best friend's table as we share our most personal and humiliating
body stories?
We are going to discuss all body things like what exactly are we supposed to do with
our pubes?
Harry Menopause, our wax periods, and so much more.
Listen to my vagina said, what podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever
you get your podcasts?
What?
See that sign?
Employees only.
That means keep out, buddy.
It's just for us by well employees.
This is where we talk freely about all the stuff happening in the world.
You can keep Meghan Markle for all I care, as long as I get to take Harry to a weekend
in Vegas I'm happy.
It's employees only, courtesy of Ron Howard, the new podcast from Imagine Audio, pretty
fast in iHeart Media.
Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome to Had a Money.
I'm Joel.
I'm Matt.
And today we're talking pet debt, job hopping, and Goldilocks Cash.
Of course, everyone knows that on our Friday flights we cover the top stories from this
past week.
That is, in fact, what we're going to do.
The stories that we think you need to be paying attention to because they are going to directly
impact your finances, Joel.
Before we get to the stories, I wanted to share a quick little DIY bike repair when I've
got a confession to make, which is I have not been taken care of my bike very well.
I'm not sure.
No, say that for Emily.
That's how you say her name, right?
That's right.
No, yeah, for the past few months, my bike's making weird noises.
It's been clicking.
It has been shifted properly.
And specifically, at least it's not growling.
That'd be really great.
That's concerning.
The final straw was that it got to wear on my front brake.
I would squeeze it pretty hard and it would make this loud popping sound, like this click.
And I would lose my brake, like my braking power would diminish significantly.
And so this past week and that's a really important part of your life.
That's a major one, right?
Like that's not the one you can ignore.
And so I thought, dang it, what the heck?
Okay.
So I had some time this past week and focused on the bike, adjusting the derailleur, setting
the upper lower limits or whatever.
That's not that big of a deal.
But the brakes, I guess in my biking history, I've never really dealt with disc brakes all
that often.
And I'm trying to figure this out.
It seems kind of complicated and honestly, it looked like it was broken.
Like I'd squeeze the lever and the little, or I'd squeeze the handle and the little lever
that gets pulled that squeezes the brake pads onto the disc.
It would like pop.
It would look like honestly that it would dislocate.
And I thought, of course, I've got a now drop, I don't know, like a hundred bucks on
some fancy disc brakes or something like that.
It's gonna be huge pain in the butt.
Plus the time, of course.
But before I did that, I thought, let me see if I can enter my symptoms within the
old YouTube.
See if anybody else has dealt with the same problem.
Like WebMD for bikes.
For WebMD for like anything that's broken in my house.
But dude, seriously, within five minutes, I had not only identified what was going on,
but how to fix it in the comments, like the first comment someone had responded.
And they said, hey, I actually made a video on how it is that you can fix this problem.
Nice.
But literally, it only required me taking an Allen wrench.
And so it's the brake pad on the other side of the disc and it just worn down.
And so you squeeze the one piston and it pushes the disc over and it had to travel all the
way across.
And evidently that little arm, it's not made to travel that far.
And so you literally just unscrew this brake pad adjuster on the other side.
It centers the disc and now my braking power is back to full strength.
And it literally took, it's like a five second adjustment.
I was just like, zoop, just turned it and I'm good to go.
Man, so many things in life are actually not nearly as hard as we built them up to be.
It's just because you don't know what it is to do.
Right?
It's like almost like a fear of the unknown or you're just like, I mean, I was dreading
the worst.
I'm like, oh, I'm going to have to just hold on my bike and just buy a brand new bike.
Immediately went to a worst case scenario.
Yeah.
That's the worst case.
We're just so lucky to live in the era of YouTube.
Granted, yes, it can be an attention sock if you're watching the wrong stuff and you're
watching it too much.
But man, you're really lucky.
Sure.
So many problems, external problems, internal ones take different kinds of work, I think.
But yeah, so many problems, including fix it kind of stuff around the house, on your bike,
or whatever.
That's why I wanted to share this.
Use it to your advantage.
To encourage folks instead of thinking, okay, we got to hire somebody, just spend a few
minutes searching YouTube, searching Google, seeing if you can find something and not
find that 30 minutes and just a little bit of elbow grease gets you done.
And it can not only save you money now, but it's the, like, I know this now for the rest
of my life.
Like any time I've got a disc brake that's set up with a single piston, whatever, I just,
I learned some of these terms, I don't know it exactly, but I know that the other side,
you have to occasionally adjust it out.
So it keeps the rotor centered that way.
It makes so much sense to you, because I remember looking down and like, why does, why is
my actual rotor flexing a little bit?
Because like when I squeeze it, did I always do that?
I don't know.
But guess what?
Doesn't do that anymore.
I will never have that problem again, nor will any of the bikes in our household.
And hopefully you can take this lesson and apply it to different fixes within the things
that you manage, the different things that we have to maintain.
Since you're talking about bike and household, just for a second, I want to say, gas prices
have gone up significantly in the past couple of months.
It seems like I swear I was shocked the last time I went to the gas station.
I feel like they've gone up 45, 50 cents a gallon.
And so now's the perfect time to get your bike in shape.
Get back on it.
As gas prices go up, they impact your wallet more and more.
The every ride you take on your bike cuts down your gas consumption.
Not to miss your car in a better shape.
Not to mention now, this is the best time of year to start considering biking again, too.
As the temperatures are starting to cool down, literally a couple days ago, it was the
first ride so far since it's not technically post-summer yet.
It's still going to get hot.
I'm sure.
But I started riding and I thought, ooh, I'm kind of, it's a little chilly this morning.
I mean, great.
It was like six in the morning or whatever.
But I was like, oh, this is awesome.
Yes.
This is great.
Yeah.
It is that right time.
And it's not snowing in Minnesota yet.
Not yet.
Probably next week.
And Denver will be snowing in like a couple of weeks.
Yeah.
Let's get to the Friday flight, Matt, the sampling of stories we found interesting this week.
Let's start by talking about a topic that we've gotten pushed back on every time we discuss
this.
And it's how much people spend on pets.
And it's not because you and I don't like goldfish or hamsters or puppy dogs.
We're totally fine with all the above.
I love a new puppy that I get to pet for two minutes as long as I don't have to keep
a sidewalk.
Right.
I think we would love to have a dog in our family, but not right now, not right now.
Yeah.
We are not at that point.
But a new survey revealed that 78% of Americans say that they're willing to go into debt for
their pet.
And I'm sure everyone can guess what we think of that.
It's a bad idea, right?
Do not go into debt for your pet.
It's great that you love your pet.
It's like a Dr. Seuss story.
Yeah, debt for your pet.
Stop.
You must not go into debt for your pet.
It rhymes too.
Yeah, exactly.
But even if you love the hamster, like if you can resuscitate it yourself, that's fine.
But don't pay a vet to thousands of dollars to do that for you.
We just don't want you to screw up your finances because of your attachment, your affinity
for the four-legged creature in your house.
We've just, like I said, we've talked to smack about how much more Americans are spending
on their animals these days.
It's skyrocketed, really, in recent years.
And it's not that it's not okay to spend more if that brings you joy, right?
And you've budgeted for that purpose.
But that's the key.
Having and allocating money for that purpose, right?
Putting pet care expenses on a credit card, though, that you can't pay off in full and
on time at the end of the month, that is what's a bad idea.
And for some reason, more than three-quarters of people say, no, it's fine when it comes
to my pet.
I don't mind sticking on a credit card.
And I get the impulse, but it's better.
It's far better to prepare in advance to be saving up instead so that you're not putting
that position.
Exactly.
If your pet is your craft beer equivalent, I am fine with you spending lavishly on your
pet.
We just want you to go into that purchase when you adopt or buy a pet with your eyes wide
open.
And you need to do it as an adult.
You need to be prepared for some of those additional costs that accompany some of those
hidden costs that accompany being a pet owner.
That means align item in your budget and additional savings on hand to take care of even
those unfortunate instances that might come along.
Exactly.
So some folks might think that pet insurance policies, that those might be the solution
for some of those unforeseen accidents or just the inevitable shots and visits that take
place when you just have a cat or a dog.
But pet insurance is not the solution and to state it plainly, they are bad financial
products.
When you think about the, so not only are the premium skyrocketing, there have been
stories written about that recently, the deductibles are pretty high.
But then you've also got the limits on the different policy payouts.
You consider all of that, you're going to be better off self ensuring.
And so you just would take what you would have paid in premiums and instead just funnel
that into your high old savings account.
Again, create an itemized bucket, a sinking fund, a lot of folks end up making the purchase
in order just to gain some peace of mind.
And given the current state of that market, we want folks to completely avoid it all together.
Yeah, Matt.
And the way you just said it, it kind of sounds like a one-size-fits-all solution.
That might be a slight oversimplification, but it's pretty darn directionally accurate
that pet insurance policies for most people, it is throwing away money instead of those.
If you've seen your premiums go up quite a bit, a lot of those policies allow for up to
20% increases every single year.
And a lot of people have felt that, like have actually gotten price increases that large
for years and years in a row.
And even beyond that, yeah, is it the journal that documented certain insurers who have, even
though they stated from that contract?
Yes, exactly.
And so I don't, yeah, there doesn't seem to be any consequences or any retaliation, no
repercussions.
Yeah.
That's the better way.
Yeah, the only repercussion is that you then say, okay, I don't want this piece of junk.
I'm going to start saving for myself.
I don't need your overpriced insurance policy anymore.
And that's how they're going to feel it.
They're going to have to be competitive for your money and offer a better product.
And a lot of these pet insurance policies are bad products.
Let's talk about another kind of insurance, though, Matt, that more people are flocking
to that also might not be a great deal.
And that is travel insurance.
There's probably a little more nuance on this one than there is pet insurance.
The Wall Street Journal wrote about travel insurance this past week and how different
providers have been crushing it recently.
They're making a lot of money.
But as a lot more people buy by these products, it's lining their pockets, but at the expense
of yours.
And so whether it's because folks are worrying about, you know, bad storms or even the lingering
impact that COVID is having on travel plans, that's kind of what's pushing them in that
direction.
And honestly, it's not too expensive either, right?
For someone who's younger and healthy, that travel insurance policy isn't going to be
crazy nasty expensive.
It can potentially work out financially, but just because it seems affordable, that doesn't
necessarily mean it's a smart move because there can be a lot of exclusions in these
policies.
Similar to pet insurance, you've got to read the fine print in order to decide if it's
going to make sense for you.
For instance, you might be worried about bad weather, but that insurance isn't going
to save the day if your flight isn't actually canceled, right?
Or if you're concerned about getting sick, well, it better not be because of a pre-existing
condition, because that's not going to be covered either.
You have to know that going into it before you click purchase.
That's true.
Yeah, so it's not that travel insurance is a scam.
You just need to know, again, what the fine print is of the plan that you're considering,
and often there are just better ways of achieving that piece of mind than going with trip insurance.
You could go to a website like Ensure My Trip, and that'll allow you to shop the open
market and hopes of saving on some travel insurance.
But getting it through your credit card, that is almost always a better idea than buying
a separate standalone policy.
The Chase Sapphire preferred card, for instance, that is a great card to get for that specific
purpose.
It's got up to $10,000 in trip cancellation coverage per person, up to $20,000 per trip.
That's a really nice sounding expensive vacation.
I've never taken a vacation anywhere close to that.
That is so good.
So what do you mean?
But your trip, it doesn't even need to be canceled before some of these different benefits
kick in.
Again, this is just one card.
I'm just highlighting some of the benefits that the preferred card offers.
So for instance, you get $500 per ticket for a delay of more than 12 hours.
This is awesome.
Of course, you need to make sure that you're handling your credit card properly.
Anytime we talk about the different benefits that credit cards are offering, we always
state that because if you are paying interest, because you're not paying off your statement
every single month, you're losing out.
Yeah.
It doesn't really matter how many of the different benefits you take advantage of at sort
of like gambling, actually, which we're going to talk about here later on, but the house
always wins.
The bank always wins if you are paying interest.
But we do want to mention this because this is one of those little known, or maybe I don't
know, little less often talked about benefits that credit cards offer.
We actually talked about some of the different unique benefits that credit cards offer back
in episode six, 83.
So if you haven't listened to that one, be sure to check it out.
But bottom line, both, I mean, trip insurance and pet insurance is one of those things where
it seems like the responsible thing to do.
It is not like life insurance, auto insurance, homeowners, like these are things that are
insurance.
Yeah, these are things that are either required by law, or if the terrible thing were
to happen, it would completely devastate your finances.
That's not the case.
I've heard the worst thing to happen is your trip gets canceled.
Yeah, you're going to be out some money or with an unexpected medical vet bill.
Yeah, it's going to hurt a little bit financially, but it's not going to significantly set
you back slowly, these different insurance products have like crept their way into like,
oh, it's the smart, responsible, adulting kind of thing to do.
There's a specialized insurance product for everything now, for everything.
And so when you buy anything online now, it's like, do you want to insure those jeans
you just got?
And you're like, what are you getting a hold on like what are you talking about?
It just feels like there's insurance for everything.
And it always feels like the right thing to protect your stuff.
But they're easier.
It's just prudent.
Right.
It seems like the smart, adulting thing to do, you're like, I'm a grown up.
I guess I'll insure that thing, right?
And there are some things where insurance makes sense, but there are a lot of other areas
where insurance makes very little sense.
And I know it can be kind of hard to spot, and that's kind of why we want to talk through
these things and say, well, here's all things you have to pay attention to if you're buying
those things and actually maybe there are better ways to skin the cat.
So that you are, you still get some coverage, some solid coverage via your credit card,
but you don't have to go out a pocket and buy inexpensive policy that you're unlikely
to need.
And that might not even cover the things you need it to cover.
Joel, how dare you say skin the cat where we're talking about pet insurance.
I know.
It feels wrong.
Sorry.
All right.
Let's talk about transportation for a second.
Which is kind of the mega online car use car seller.
They have a new tool that they just launched for tracking the value of your used car.
And so they kind of want you to have the equivalent of a zestiment for your ride.
So should you hop over there, input your car's info, and see what it's worth?
Eh, yeah.
I don't know.
Probably not.
Who cares?
Did you look into it for your van?
No, I did.
I did not actually punch a man.
I actually should have done that.
What was your van worth?
A lot less than I thought.
It was like $4,700.
Okay.
So here's the thing.
The reason Carvana is telling you that's worth of course.
If you go to kbb.com, I guarantee you, at least to grand more.
At least to grand more.
Yeah.
Probably even more than that.
There's no way that I would be able to find a van that's in the condition that mine
is in with the miles that it has for all things considered.
That would be a steal.
Yes.
There's no way.
It does not exist.
Exactly.
And so this is what Carvana wants.
They want you to input it.
And then they want to entice you into their ecosystem so that they can low-ball you for
your car and try to sell you on something nicer.
They want you to upgrade.
They want you to get cobwebbed into their orbit.
And the reality is you're not going to get top dollar if you do.
You're going to get paid a lot more selling your car in other ways than you are in all
likelihood selling directly to Carvana.
Is it worth maybe seeing if you're in the market to sell your car what they'll pay you?
Sure.
I don't think it hurts.
No harm, no foul.
At least check out multiple other forms of selling your car.
You can see whether you can get paid more selling even directly to another human.
It's harder to do than it ever has been before but it doesn't mean it's not worth the
time and energy.
It often can be because we're talking about thousands of dollars back in your pocket
mat.
If you sold your car, if you listed it for eight grand tomorrow.
No, it'd be gone.
It'd be gone.
Yeah.
And Carvana says, oh, we'll pay you $4,700.
Like just know that's how big the gap can be.
You might even be able to sell yours for 10 grand.
So that's what you have to take into consideration.
Oh, yes, it's a hassle.
It's easy to sell it directly to one of these online sites, biggest one being Carvana.
But I'll do a whole lot better if I sell it myself.
Sure.
Yeah, I love it from the standpoint that it provides you an easy way to get gathered data
right?
Just like assessment, like it doesn't hurt to know and to have that data on hand
and to be informed for that reason, I love it.
But I also hate it for other reasons you said, right?
They're trying to make it easy.
And once you kind of get within their orbit, they've got their tentacles on you.
Now you're thinking about your car.
You start thinking, oh, if I took that much money, plus maybe some more money I've got
in the bank, oh, let's see what else Carvana has to offer.
Like, what are they selling?
Carvana is going to tell you what else they have to offer because they want you to make
an upgrade.
That temptation to buy is real.
And the whole, the whole point of their business is just to make things easier, right?
Like, so you said it's like harder than ever now to sell to another person.
No, no, no.
That's how we perceive it.
It has remained the same, right?
Like it has that.
I think so, actually.
I think if you want to a private owner, I think because so many people are taking the
easy way.
Oh, sure.
There's fewer vehicles out there for purchase directly from others and there are
fewer people looking in that way too.
Sure.
So that the inventory or just the number of cars that are out there might be, might be
fewer.
But it's not like there are more barriers than there used to be.
It's just that that has remained the same and a company like Carvana has removed barriers
and they're like have greased the skids, man.
Like they are trying to just get you thinking in this direction.
And man, they want to offer me that $47,000 so that they can turn around and sell that
thing for top dollar.
But hey, let's talk about jobs too because we've been talking about job hopping a lot
over the last few years.
I think ever since the pandemic really kicked in, but it is certainly allowed a lot of folks
to massively increase their income in a hot labor market, a slew of individuals.
They were able to crank up their earnings by seeking employment elsewhere.
And while that's true and the possibility for increasing your earnings is definitely
still there.
The gap has shrunk.
It's not as guaranteed like before literally just floating your resume out there.
It's sort of like the opposite of the car market that Carvana is offering.
And people is, yeah, you want 90?
I'll give you 100.
I'll give you 120.
And like that people were getting paid a whole lot more job hopping, especially like a year
ago, yeah.
Exactly.
And so another downside though that was recently documented is that when you change jobs
too many times, it can start to impact your future job prospects.
So I think it was something like 77% of hiring managers at different companies see that
as the top concern when they are hiring for a new position.
It costs them a ton of money to hire somebody new and it's just a headache.
You don't want to have to continue to, like when you have attrition rates that high, it
ends up costing your company, your business, your organization, a lot of money, a lot of
time that could be focused in other areas.
You don't want to hire someone who's going to stick around for nine months.
It's almost like going on Tinder after you've just, your fifth marriage has failed and
you're like looking for the love of my life.
And the person who is reading your profile, if they see that, they're going to say, okay,
I don't know if this person can go stick around either.
Those past actions are going to influence how they perceive you in the present.
And the same is true.
It's indicative.
If you've job a job hopped like once or twice in the past five years, that's one thing.
But if you have, if you consistently job hop every nine to 12 months for years on end,
that is going to catch up with you eventually.
And it's not in the best long term interest of your career.
There might be a short term boost, but in the end, you could find that your options
are limited moving forward.
That's right.
It makes me think of like the Carvana example.
I don't think it, like a one handed doesn't necessarily hurt to float your resume out there
and see what different folks are offering and kind of keeping an eye on the market.
But it could lead to dissatisfaction with the job that you currently have, just like with
the Carvana thing.
If you think you might be tempted into perusing the site and seeing, oh man, these cars
are more affordable than I thought they're going to be.
I think the same thing can be true of your job as well.
It could lead to you thinking, you know what, maybe, maybe I'm not happy with this job
that I've had for six months, but in reality, man, what you have might be an incredible
job that pays really well, but you're just, maybe you're not taking it as seriously as
you could.
But we've got more stories that we're going to get to.
Actually, we're going to talk about gambling and how it may or may not be your ticket
to wealth.
We'll get to the story plus others right after this.
Hey, this is Fannie and Samantha and we're the host of Stuff Oh Never Told You, an intersectional
feminist podcast about anything and everything from social issues, gender, entertainment,
science, fashion and everything in between.
And we're coming out with an audio book called Stuff Oh Never Told You that feminists
passed present and future.
We break down things like the Pantsuit Revolution, the Battle of the Sexes, the Civil Rights
Movement, Disability Activism, LGBTQ plus rights, the Jane Collective and so much more,
including the feminism of fictional women like Princess Leia and tropes like the final
girl.
When it comes to the audio book, one of my absolute favorite parts of it was the team
of amazing women we got to work with and hearing their creativity shine through, especially
when it comes to the sounds gaping, the graphic novel bits, but they were just also invaluable
in giving us advice and directing us.
Having a team like that who not only loved what we did, but supported it and knew how
to make it better, 100% so much more meaningful.
Available August 29th.
Here are your copy of Stuff Oh Never Told You, the film is past, present, and future where
audio books are sold, target yours as stuff you should readbooks.com.
Hey, it's Joel and Matt and if you're like us, you're probably staying up way too late
asking questions like, how can I hate my taxes less or did my recent medical bill really
have to cost that much?
Well look, you can go to bed at a normal time because Freakonomics Radio, one of our
favorite podcasts, is here to help.
Freakonomics Radio has more than 500 episodes worth of answers to your biggest money questions
with the help of fascinating guests, including CEOs, artists, and Nobel laureates.
Make sure to check out their new series about the economics, the politics, and the ethics
of returning the world's art to its makers.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
From I Heart Podcasts.
Whitney Hill is going on in here.
Everyone has their limits.
I had never confronted a situation like this.
I just thought it was just a really terrible moral thing.
Align they won't cross.
I was stunned and I just said no.
We're killing people.
You may never have to face that decision when you find yourself at that line.
Thoughts racing, hearts racing, and somebody needs to just for once give everybody the
whole truth.
Like this is evil.
And the only person who can sound the alarm is you.
I wasn't just going to sit silently by.
From I Heart Podcasts, these are the whistleblowers.
If you are just loyal.
Ben thinks it's going to happen.
Speak out.
Disgrace to our country.
He won't pay.
He should be prosecuted.
When power corrupts, conscience is the last line of defense.
I'm Miles Taylor.
Listen to the whistleblowers on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts.
All right, the Friday flight continues.
There's a lot more money headlines.
We've got to cover on this episode before we peace out and get to the weekend.
But of course, the thing we have to get to now is the ludicrous headline of the week.
This one comes from Market Watch and the title reads, I spent $10,000 renting a storage
unit, but finally learned my lesson.
Sounds like this one had a happy ending.
I'm glad for the author that they finally realized the error of their ways.
But this article highlights what a lot of folks need to do and a persistent problem really
in our society, which is that they're spending too much money on storage units and then
the solution is to pair back their possessions, right?
More than one in 10 Americans currently rent at a storage facility and an average cost
to something like $165 a month.
That's almost $2,000 a year.
That's a huge bill.
That's a lot of money.
And so they pay the bill regularly, yes, but they tend to forget about what they have
in the storage unit.
They're like, yeah, I pay for this thing every single month, but I don't even remember
what I've sucked away in there.
It's almost like a self-imposed tax that people have levied on themselves.
And I just want people to think again, if you have stuff in storage, do you know what's
in there?
Is there a reason that it's in there?
Could you potentially get rid of or sell a lot of that stuff and get rid of that monthly
payment?
Yeah, so I think the author he admitted that the stuff that was in his storage unit was
actually worth much, much, much less than what he was actually paying every month this
store, which is pretty ridiculous, but it's a very American sort of phenomenon.
Yeah.
We need more space for all of our stuff, storage units, they can make sense in the short
term, right?
Like if you are moving for a short period of time, perhaps, you know, you're moving to
the city and you're going to have a small apartment, that kind of thing.
But there are terrible long term solution, but the business, the industry has been making
money, hand over fist, largely because we're just unable to control our purchases.
And we've got to find somewhere else to keep all that excess stuff that we've accumulated
over the years.
And so if, I don't know, if you feel like we've put you on a hot seat, if you feel called
out here, we're not sorry at all.
And we hope that you use this as a kick in the butt to declutter, to save.
You don't have to go full Marie condo on it.
And I was just about to call you Matt Marie condo, try to figure out what it is that brings
you joy.
But I think there is a way that you can just unemotionally look at some of your stuff
and think, one is the last time I looked at this, one is the last time I touched this,
the last time I wore this, right?
Like that's a great measure when it comes to clothes that you have.
Have I worn this in the past 12 months, if not, I think you could get rid of it?
When you look at like the past decade plus of returns, people who have invested in these
storage unit facilities have crushed, like way outpaced the S&P 500, and they may not
like bandits largely because we're idiots, right?
And so I, it's not that I want to see those investors get crushed, but I kind of do, because
I want Americans to do, because they would be an indicator of the larger American public
doing what's in their best interest.
Diling back, getting rid of some of those, those recurring bills, selling some of their
stuff, or just, yeah, getting rid of it in some way for more fashion.
All right, piggybacking that on that, though, Matt, the Wall Street Journal had an interesting
article, touting the end of Ultra Cheap stuff, as they called it, and they were talking
about how factories in Asia are having a tough time finding younger workers, and the results
are likely to be more expensive goods over time for us here in the States.
And I don't think of that as a bad thing, either.
Like we had this race to the bottom, and it was largely factories in Asia that were producing
the Ultra Cheap goods that we've been consuming here, lower prices, yeah, they are a net good,
but that has often come alongside compromise quality in recent years, right?
We're buying stuff that is so cheap that it doesn't last, and so instead of letting price
maybe drive our purchasing decisions, I think you and I would suggest to think more about
value, right?
Potentially buying something that's more expensive that's going to last for decades, instead
of months, that's still likely going to be a better option in most cases.
So if we're talking about fewer complete piece of crap particle board products, if we're
talking about less of the poorly made stuff coming over here from overseas, I don't
say that as an issue.
Yeah, and that's not to say that you have to go out there and spend top dollar on your
furniture pieces or anything like that.
Look at Goodwill, literally, the boys are back in daycare now, and I asked Kate after
the first day that she had reclaimed, you know, where she's had like a solid three hours
of being able to do whatever it is that she wanted, and I was like, what'd you do today?
And she looked at me as much as I went to Goodwill, because the ability to find quality
stuff second hand at someplace like Goodwill, well, that's just one of the solutions to
not having a ton of money on hand or just not wanting to spend a ton of on quality products.
Sure.
It doesn't mean you have to go out and buy the nicest thing at some high-end store.
Yeah, sometimes vintage antique donated sort of stuff is going to be more solidly built
and it's going to cost you less money.
Okay, let's talk about gambling because sports betting, it's growing like gangbusters,
specifically ESPN, they've now gotten into the industry.
Personally, I don't really watch a whole lot of sports all that much, so I'm not likely
going to be inundated with any commercials, although I am talking about it, so I'm sure
my phone is listening, and I will now get the ads.
You're all my moderates.
I believe ranked preseason number one.
Number one this year.
Maybe I'll watch the championship match this year, but ESPN bet they're going to try
to convince a lot of folks to start betting on games and different matches.
And do it though, because everyone knows that the house always wins, again, it's one
thing to stay good of Vegas once a year or once every five years or something like that
and just blow some money and some different casinos, right?
It's a form of entertainment at the point, but I think it's entertainment categories as
an entertainment money in your budget.
It just feels like something that's more managed, though, as opposed to the more pernicious
form of betting that's taken place in the palm of our hands via our smartphones.
That's kind of David Brooks this past week, he wrote about moral formation in the Atlantic.
And like we have become atomized individuals.
And I think this is a small example before you had to go to a casino.
And there are certain things keeping us from going back there, whether it's people see
you there all the time and you don't want to necessarily become a regular at a casino,
but when you can do it, when you're sitting on the toilet or when you're sitting at a
stop light and you make a bet, these are some of the ways where I feel like we are losing
perhaps a little bit of our moral fiber, the ability to control our behavior and ultimately
leading to the American people having fewer, you know, less money on it.
And you say that, but I think part of it too is you and I are not necessarily against
gambling from some sort of moral standpoint from from a religious banter or anything like
that.
It's the form that it's taken as what I'm speaking to you.
Yeah, exactly because I have played Blackjack before.
I find it to be enjoyable every now and again, every few years, maybe in honestly, it's
probably been six or seven years since I've been to a casino.
So it's not necessarily about that, although it is for most people, it's going to be a waste
of money, but it's the accessibility and how easy it's going to be for a lot of people
to get into a lot of financial trouble and a lot of that financial trouble is going to
breed relationship trouble, personal trouble.
And so I think it's best for a lot of people to avoid this.
And these these betting companies, Fandall and ESPN bet and the like, well, they're starting
to get into other versions offering different kinds of gambling as well.
More novelty.
They're getting into parlay bets, which means you you can and I'm not an expert on this,
but bet on multiple things at once.
So instead of just betting on your team to win, maybe it's like betting on your team
to win while also getting hitting at least three home runs in that game or something like
that.
And so the odds of winning are lower on those on those kinds of bets, but the payouts
are higher.
And because the gambling apps are making even more money on these types of bets.
So I think these things are are pulling a lot of people in given kind of how much marketing
is going on around them and all the like free money to come gamble on our app.
And it's getting people hooked.
And maybe that first win makes you feel like, all right, this is going to be great.
This is going to be my new side hustle or something like that.
But this is the kind of side hustle that's going to leave a whole lot of people broke.
And I don't want to see people ruin their budget.
But then like I said, I think it's going to lead to even ruination on even deeper, more
meaningful levels like family units.
So we're again, not against gambling from like the moral standpoint, but man, it's going
to mess a lot of people up and we want to see people avoid it.
Yeah, the downstream detrimental effects are going to impact a lot of folks.
And now let's talk about having too much cash, which too much of a good thing, right?
Like it's always, if you do, maybe you should gamble it away.
I don't know.
We don't want you to actually gamble it away.
We do want you to invest it though.
So this is becoming more of a problem for folks because individuals are feeling content
to keep their excess money in savings and within CDs.
We are of course happy to see that you can make more in those, there's different accounts
these days because obviously savers are finally able to outpace inflation for the first
time in a while.
And so you might be wondering like, well, why not take the burden of hand?
Why not keep earning money month after month without any like real risk that comes with
investing?
Well, we definitely do want you to keep some cash on hand.
We want you to, if we talked about self-insuring when it comes to your pets or with vacations
earlier, it's important to make sure that you are accounting for some of the additional
costs of the different things that you're buying.
That means liquid cash reserves savings.
And when it comes to having an emergency fund, a minimum of $2,467 is what we recommend,
but truly a full three to six months worth of living expenses is ideal.
But beyond that though, there's a chance that you could be too cash heavy to the detriment
of your ability to build wealth over the long term.
It's not that you're not earning enough in the here and now.
You actually are, but over the long term, that money isn't compounding and it's not
growing at a rate that we have seen historically within the stock market.
Yeah, even though savings rates have gone up, they're still not as high as what you're
going to get in the stock market over the next couple of decades in all likelihood, right?
And so if you're saying for a bigger goal, let's say, like that hometown payment in the
next couple of years, that is a good reason to have extra cash on hand, right?
Or then you otherwise would.
But other than that, I mean, investing less and adding to your cash pile, when you've
got decades left on your investing time horizon, that is going to cost you money over time.
And so yeah, when you look at that, when you zoom out and you look at the historic returns
of the stock market, it's clear that there's superior to even the rates you can get on
savings right now that are guaranteed.
And so again, so nice to see savings accounts finally outpacing inflation at least by a little
bit.
Well, still, you can't save your way to retirement.
Really, you have to be investing your way to get there.
You have to be sucking money away inside of income-producing assets.
And so increased rates for savers, beautiful thing.
It's just not going to be enough to get you where you want to go.
You got to be investing too.
So make sure you've got enough cash reserves, like we talked about, but also make sure
you're not sitting in so much cash that it's actually potentially hampering some of those
future goals too.
Yeah.
You want to have Goldilocks cash.
Not too little, not too much.
That's right.
So we wrap this Friday flight, a quick little newsletter shout out.
So Tyler W. He referred the How to Money newsletter, which shows up in your inbox every Tuesday
morning with helpful bits of personal finance news and information and to do's and just
mindset shifts that we think are going to help you along your way to financial freedom.
But he forwarded the newsletter along to some friends who signed up.
So Tyler W. Thank you so much for that.
And if you are not currently subscribed, you can head over to howtomoney.com forward slash
newsletter.
Learn more about it and sign up there.
Yeah.
And if you refer the email newsletter, which is awesome to all your friends who are going
to want to sign up, you can even earn how to money socks or a beer on us, which is
kind of cool.
So yeah, there are because that's our thing perks for referring our stuff.
But that is our thing beer and money, right?
So that's going to do it for Matt for this episode.
We'll include links to some of the stuff that we mentioned up on our website at howtomoney.com.
That's right, buddy.
So until next time, best friends out and best friends out.
See that sign?
Employees only.
That means keep out, buddy.
It's just for us by well employees.
This is where we talk freely about all the stuff happening in the world.
You can keep Meghan Markle for all I care as long as I get to take Harry to a weekend
in Vegas.
I'm happy.
Employees only.
Courtesy of Ron Howard, the new podcast from Imagine Audio, pretty fast in I Heart Media.
Listen on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
You know, Andy, in our 22 years of friendship, this has to be the most bizarre thing we've
ever done.
I know.
Our podcast, my vagina said, what is a podcast where we ask our everyday vagina listeners
to pull up a seat at the best friend's table as we share our most personal and humiliating
body stories?
We are going to discuss all body things, like what exactly are we supposed to do with our
pubes?
Harry menopause or wack periods?
And so much more.
Listen to my vagina said, what podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever
you get your podcast?
What?
Hello, and welcome to Bad Manners.
This is the podcast that takes you inside Britain's Stately Homes and tells all the tales
the guidebooks don't.
My name is Tom Horton and I'll be your host.
Why I'm on a mission to find out the frightening, filthy and downright, jaw dropping stories of
these Stately Homes and the people in them?
Listen to Bad Manners on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your
podcasts.