Welcome to Out of Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and today we're celebrating episode one thousand with an ask Me Anything episode. So should we have gotten some airhorns to be able to be like in the background as we're celebrating this, Hey, we should have gotten a live in studio audience, invited them up to our clubhouse. Listeners.
Can't see me raising my glass, but cheers buddy. Seriously, one thousand episodes incredible, quite the milestone.
I'm so glad that I could celebrate it with you. Specifically. Who else would be celebrated with Seriously, there's.
No one else. Yeah, I never never thought that we'd hit a thousand. Did we celebrate when we hit a hundred? I'm sure we did in some way, And I think maybe we even contemplated when we hit five hundred episodes. But a thoud that's a serious landmark milestone episode.
But we should really be celebrating our listeners for putting up with us for this long and it wouldn't have been possible to keep listening. Yeah, because for some reason they love us or like us enough guess enough, Yeah, I love They're like they're listening right and like it feels a bit strong. I like you, okay, but uh no, there's and so many good uh but it was funny. I was listening to recently, Matt. There's this podcast called econ Talk and it's like super nerdy, pointy headed economist
podcast that's been around for almost twenty years. And Russ the host over there, just celebrated his thousands of episode, and so I was listening to his and he took questions from chess ept uh and he was like, which I thought was like interesting, especially for what he does and the style of show that he creates. But for us, we'd like hearing from the people, the people's questions. Yes, that's what I wanted, because actually I did real quick. I looked up on chat GPT, like what questions would
you ask Matt Joel celebrating their thousands episode? Interesting, they came up. They were super lame and basic. I was like, the questions our listeners sent in are way better than that, so much more personality. Yes, so we got thank you by the way for submitting those questions. We will get to as many as humanly possible. Yes, over of course this did you want to share so last weeks? So it was the last.
Friday's episode with Jilly, and we talked about the sabbaticals. Yeah, do we want to should we share now or at the end of the episode? Kind of planned at the end we'll talk about our sabbaticals the stick around. But let's maybe listen to last Friday's episode if you haven't already listened to the sabbatical episode. Also, let us know what you thought of that format. We totally switched things up and took a very unstructured kind of casual approach
to it and more organic. Yeah, and granted that particular topic allowed us to do something like that, but uh, yeah, I'm curious to see if listeners were drawn to that, because I think there are different ways that we could tweak the show in the future, which honest and we're
trying all sorts of new things now. Yeah, now is as good a time as ever to consider what the show looks like moving forward, because we've been doing the same way for a long time, and we've made iterations over these last seven plus years exactly, but we will probably make more and more just to try to I don't know, be relevant then stick with the times, and maybe we're not necessarily wetted to a singular format or just how we've done things.
My biggest question for people is is the intro too long? Do we need to cut the music back? Like? Should we just get straight to it?
That's why I intentionally did not include the music on a Jillian's episode, And I just liked how he just kind of kicked things off because it reminds me of some of my favorite shows that are a little more personal in nature, where it sounds like you're just joining the conversation as opposed to feeling like something has been dished up set on the plate perfectly for you, like a may Er d at some super fancy Michelin star restaurant where it's all perfect, as opposed to, hey, how
about you jump into the kitchen here and let's throw some food on the plate.
Should we underproduce a little more basically is what you're saying.
I don't know, maybe, yeah, a little more rustic. Obviously there's different reasons for us to consider that, but yeah, this is an AMA and ask me anything. And specifically we asked the listeners to reach out with questions that they might have had for us that were specifically non financial in nature. Some kind of slipped through the cracks and found their way into some of the money questions.
Slip through the cracks. Well, we love We'll still get to those. We love your money questions, and we want to take those moving forward post sabbatical with regularity. It's super fun and then we'll get back to that the heart of the show. Have too money, but it's really fun when you have other questions for us that don't align with personal finance, and this is just like a rare opportunity to dig into those questions that you have.
And I hopefully we'll have even more of these in the future, but this is I'm looking forward to this totally.
And we have a ton of questions and so we're actually not going to play the any voice memos. We're going to read the questions. That way we can get to as many different topics as possible. Joel, you nik kick it off.
Yeah, let's do it all right. This one came from Allison. She says, why don't you and Matt go on a nationwide tour and hang party, barbecue, drink craft beer all around the country. You could even incorporate some fundraising along the way, maybe for some nonprofits that help underserve kids learn about money. If you come to Sacramento, she says, I will help organize, which is enticing, because organization not my strong suit. Man. How's this sound to you? Would
you would you be be down for this? Well? I think so. I really like the idea. I like the idea of nonprofits raising money. I like the idea of a nationwide tour. The tough thing. It's gonna be hard to like leave the fan for that long.
That is the first thing that went through my mind, like or maybe we wanted to get a giant RV all together had.
Of money across America. If truly, if it wasn't for the kids and for Kate.
Because I don't think they would necessarily want to like be dragged along, like towed along the entire country. Sure, while we went and did these fun things, like I would like I when I travel with them, I want to be able to do things with them.
And I don't think that it's a cop out.
But I do think that if I were in a completely different stage of life, if I if we didn't have kids, and I think our wives would even be more on board with like going along and just kind of doing whatever. Almost the four of us along the way, But so much of my time now I am so
focusing on being able to do stuff at home. Like garbage time is a phrase that I keep coming back to that I am really enjoying because we just forced reference right when there's like there's like two minutes left on the clock and you can't like it's it's the time. I realize that that's where it came from. I sh knew that the Seinfield uh mentioned that's my garbage time.
Okay, well that's usually like the is that what he was referenced of the game that feel unimportant, But there's a lot of importance in.
The yeah yeah, and so a lot of times, like the way he describes it is that we put so much hope on these massive trips, yeah, or the big events or what the big turning sixteen and you get your car whatever, all these other things as opposed to the in between moments kind of sprinkled throughout life, which is where the real sort of living happens, and how in particular I think our kids form their memories like it is the it makes me think of like a science fair project, like the poster board.
It's like the backboard.
It's like you like that has to be there in order to pin the bigger things in life too. It's like the substrate of our life. Yeah, and a lot of times we're trying to get rid of the garbage time, and like, oh, I wish life was just more efficient. But I think so much of the not to get overly philosophical right out of the gate, but I feel like so much of that is what makes life amazing.
Like I less remember my dad teaching me how to drive, and more him throwing me in the pool, And like throwing me in the pool is like, uh, is a garbage time sort of thing. So I get what you're saying. I think though, what resonates with me about this question and the thing the hardest part of podcasting is that I get We get to meet so few listeners, and every once in a while we do. Matt, we went to a soccer game recently and we ran into a listener.
We're talking to him, and somebody another listener was walking by. That's what I was like, Oh, I forgot about it. I just wish I had more run ins with listeners and so because it is a joy, like they're always cool and they're always like kind and conscientious, and so I do wish I had I got to meet.
More of you, all right, Juliana wrote, if you two were to open a brewery, what would it be known for? So specialty beer type, location, environment, entertainment, whatever feature Joel, if this isn't something we've ever that we've talked about, so what would you were you to open a brewery?
I think what aspects would you want to focus on? I think friendliness and hayes Is are the two things I really thought about, and hazy IPA's specifically, and then a friendly yeah spot. I mean, if you've been to many craft breweries, a lot of them, there's a lot of cool people, but sometimes they're too cool for school. And I love the idea of just being super friendly with everybody who walks in and having a community, like a cheers, like joint people to enjoy a deliciously crafted beer,
but also like to know people. That's what's so great about breweries.
Is that too cool for school aspect kind of goes out the window after you have like one beer and then you're like, all right, we used to you know, thirty minutes ago, I was feeling a kind of snobby.
But yeah, well let me give you a hug.
I would So you've not been to font of Flora up in North Carolina. From a vibe standpoint, that would be the kind of brewery that I would love to open. Like the intersection of food and drink and like nature and like like farm fresh ingredients that they're using a lot of local ingredients to make to make their beers.
It makes me think of during our road trip next month, I'm hoping to make it up to Hill Farmstead, which I think a lot of brewers across the country have kind of based their operation on that, which is like it's on a farm, it's out in the country, like Hill Farmstead.
It looks like an old cedar shake house essentially, you know, and it just looks so approachable, so cool. The intersection of nature and local farm like ingredients and incorporating that and like that. That is the kind of like where you're able to see in Texas to another one.
Why have you been to just make it out there. They've got an incredible farm sort of set up as well. I have yet to make it there, but that's the kind of vibe i'd want to go for that, Like plus some scenery. I don't know, maybe some hiking trails as well, if you're like, you know what, let me, I'm gonna walk this beer off and like the ability to hit some trails, Like how cool does that sound?
That'd be killing I like that that plus Okay, so style barrel age stuff like for me, I don't I don't even think I care either barrel aged showers or barrel aged stouts, but I would want to be in charge of the barrel program. Just that white oak. What about barreg pills? Nurse they do they do that? Yeah?
What's the what's the British innocent gun?
Okay? Yeah?
Those those are European bloggers or pills that are slightly aged and oak.
Yeah, at least all right. This is next question comes from Rebecca. She says, what's your favorite board game? So there's a Catan okay, all the way that's like, oh, that's the OG, that's the classic first. I mean that has to have sold more copy the OG of the strategy board games than any other one.
And the fact we've been playing it more because we've got Catan Junior, which is what we've been playing with the kids, and it's one of the few that we can all sit down and play together.
I know, goes Captain. I know the reason they like it, just to be able to stop them. Well, you like the trash talk, and you like the negotiation, and you like to be a little underhanded at times. Well, and you get to use those skills. You don't normally get to use the underhanded nature in everyday life, but in Catain you do. It's a free market. You don't have to trade with me, trade with me. I'm going to put the trade out there. Yeah. Actually, so I'm trying to get the kids.
I'm trying to encourage the kids to participate in person to person trading within Catan Junior. Because they're like, it's not a part of the rules. I'm like, I'm pretty sure you can do that if everyone agrees to it.
Yeah. So I've yet to win that argument. But board games, which man, there have been different ones over the years depending on how much time I had in my life, And king Domino is one that's like short, replayable but doesn't get boring. So I love that one. And yeah, if it takes twenty minutes, I'm more likely to play it. I used to love four or five hour long board games just ain't happen in these days. But when we do go on vacation together, the one that we play,
you Me, Kate and Emily. We typically play a choir and that's a really fun one, especially with our so fun love of real estate. I like that one, and you kind of also the purging of corporations and sometimes you don't know who's gonna win until the very end. It feels like it's a good game. Maybe you have an idea, but not really. So I like that too, that it's just kind of shrouded in mystery for a while.
By the way, we didn't even introduce our beer at the very the course, we're totally just like throwing things upside down. But this one just so folks know that we are in fact enjoying a hazy ipa. This is called Dark Hedges, which is a beer by a hot butcher.
For the world. We might even get to a second one here towards the end of the episode. Two beers today. All right, So Susan wants to know what's your favorite distance to run? Would either of you ever run? Want to run an ultra marathon? Favorite distance is easy to k I love the tin k. Yeah, it's like, I don't know, it's the perfect distance because it's not so short. Like five k you're almost.
Like sprinting the whole time, whereas a ten k you get into that rhythm. I like finding that rhythm.
It's easier to keep going to ten k pace because five k pace is just a little bit you're kind of constantly pushing yourself.
Yeah, it's like as if their masters were what's the line from legalists from the Two Towers.
Oh, I don't remember, but I'm really run as if their masters are at their backs. I'm reading the first book in that trilogy right now. Are you enjoying the heck out of it? Yeah, I'm almost done with it. I'll move on to two once it's available on Libby. I remember you mentioned that, though, Yeah, we'll have to catch up. I would say my favor right now is the half marathon because I'm just thirteen points one. I'm
built more for long distances. I'm not super speedy, so the five k I'm like, I'm like huff and win because I'm just not fast. But I'm like I can outlast people now, Yeah, I can just go long, just keep going. Yeah, and uh, ultra marathon. Oh, I don't know if I see that in my future. Yeah, yeah, I told I mean I would like to, But how much do I have? What it takes actually run fifty
k or one hundred k, I don't know. Man. It's a lot of time required to train for that level of run too, So I mean you have to have like ten hours a week set aside. Yeah, he's just for running, he's a trained for an.
Ultra Not to mention all the time that the additional time that you're spending icing yourself down, hitting it with the massage, gun.
Stretching, all that stuff.
I could see myself being an old man ultra marathon r ye, Like, once the kids are out of the house and I've got a lot more time on my hands, I'm going to be one of those old grizzly just dudes that look like he's about to die till you die.
Yes, yeah, all right. Travis says, what's the best half marathon in Georgia for runners training in New York weather? My fiance and I want to eventually do one in all fifty states, which is that's fun. That's a really cool goal. So that's he's picking up on my favorite distance. I don't know the best one in Georgia, but I'll tell you my favorite one that I've run so far, literally wearing the T shirt from it right now and back.
They have a half in a Foal and it's a trail half marathon up in the mountains, up in the mountains, and so it's beautiful. It's in April, so it's a great time of year where it's kind of cool but it's not cold and it's not hot. I don't really probably want to run one in like late July or anything like that, so that that would be my tip run. I'll run it with you if you come.
The Thanksgiving Day half. That's the cooler temperatures as well in Atlanta, which is wait, so it used to be the public's half, I'm pretty sure. Now it's in Vesco. It's the QQQ half Marathon, so.
Now I think the public's one in that's in the spring.
Yeah, yeah, So it used to be the public's okay half at Thanksgiving, but then a new buyer came in, so that kind of feels like.
An appropriate how to money half marathon.
It's the QQQ half Marathon acquisition, which I don't even know what QQQ is. It's not a that's it's not an S and P fIF hundred No, no, no, that's the technology focus is the it's or nasdak.
Yeah. I think it literally reflects the nastac Yeah okay, Kat said, what did you want to be when you grew up? Joel? So did I have the tense correct that? What did you want to be? Yeaheah, okay, Now what do you want to be when you grow up? Currently? As if you are still immature? Sometimes I say that.
Because sometimes I feel that way, where like what do I want to be? What do I want to be when I grow up? I still got plenty of life ahead of me. My favorite childhood.
Job that I aspired to is to become a baseball broadcaster, and that was I was a big baseball fan, but also just like talking, as you might have deduced at this point if you've been listening for any length of time, and so I was like, oh man, I get to do both those things. One of my favorite sport and then this passion for delivering information to people. And I'm so glad actually that I did not end up there.
I think I was really tired of baseball. I just don't really follow sports much anymore, and so I think I'd be like bored out of my mind if I was forced to. But now you follow money.
Would you have followed sports if you were a baseball ball cred? I mean the ability to broadcast from I guess I just think about all the different stadiums do.
The different broadcaster? Did they travel at all? Or are you basically stationed like at a stadium? They traveled? They travel travel with the team. Yeah, see how which sounds cool? How cool would be to go and you know it would be announce a game? It would be I like what we do more? Yeah? Well, mine, I feel.
Like I went through different phases, right because as a little kid, after watching Free Willy, who doesn't want to be a marine biologist?
Yes, so I definitely went through that phase well.
Going into college, I was pre med and so, like a lot of science majors, wanted to be a doctor. But I remember multiple times as a kid knowing that
I wanted to own my own business. My mom had a bunch of friends who owned different stores and businesses and stuff like that, and I remember always talking to them and them saying, oh, yeah, do you want to own your own business someday, And at that point time, it was always like a brick and mortar, like some sort of business that provides a service or sells something. Never thought that I would have a business like this.
Yeah, but if you had a brick and mortar, would it be a coffee shop? Yeah?
Like kind of like a third place sort of hangings, I think. So I'm trying to think what else? What else would I I can't think of something else I would want to sell, and that's something like on a daily basis. Yeah, yeah, coffee shop sounds pretty awesome. Yeah, yeah, pull the best espresso shots over here, no.
Doubt Matt's Coffee. Gotta work on the name, all right. Jenny says, if you were inclined to create a bucket list, what are five items you would make sure was on the list?
Okay, you do this one, because I basically refuse to answer this. Really, I'm not like a bucket list guy. I've got a few things I want to do in my life. So a hot air balloon ride. I really want to ride in hot air balloon before I die. I want to visit Japan. I want to hike the Communo Santia. I go preferably with my dad, a full trail marathon sod.
I don't let you though, if your dad can't make it, okay, because I would love to do that. You can come with us, but three of us. It'll be fun. And I want to become a grandparent. So those are things that I really want to enjoy before I die. So again, I don't want to like get overly philosophic. I want to affirm your choices. Those all sound awesome, by the way, but I just hate the idea of.
Checklists and like it just seems like it's something that like you want to experience those things. I hate the bucket list methodology though, because it feels like if you don't do those things that you haven't lived, you haven't achieved what it was, what it is that you want to achieve. It almost makes it feel like it to do list, which is like there are things I do not necessarily because I enjoy doing those things. Like typically when you make a list, it's because I'm like, Okay,
I need to update the insurance information. There's not like it's not like the process of doing that is something that I enjoy as opposed to the things I enjoy they should come more naturally to me as a opposed to you to be more a game writing it out.
I guess so the only thing on your bucket list is to hate on bucket lists. Yeah? Yeah, how about that. That's good. I'll read the next one to see.
Ariana wrote, if you had no responsibilities, jol and if you could do exactly what it is that you wanted, what would be your perfect way to spend your day?
Do you? Okay? So this is a slightly separate question.
Do you have any talents if you go back in time, which you pursue those talents knowing what you know now? So two part question the perfect day and are hidden talents a part of that perfect day?
Okay? So I would say perfect day going for a run, coffee with a friend, little disc golf. I never played disc golf anymore, but that would be involved in a perfect day, some smoked meats. See how it challenge you that I don't think the disc off is as important to you anymore. It's not.
But got this place in your mind that you think that that signal five is a perfect day. But I am here to say maybe the run has replaced that, because if it was something that you enjoy doing again, it wouldn't be on your list. It would just be something that you went and did.
Yeah. Yeah, that's kind of like the bucket list thinking. But if I had all day to myself, i'd throw that in because the disco, I'm not going to run for five hours. So if I run as you're running ultras, if I run for one hour, then I can still get a round of the disc golf into and then maybe hanging out at the pool with my fam especially
this time of year, Like what's better than that? So see, that's what's so great is that we've been able to incorporate some of the early retired or like Coast Fire lifestyle into some of the days and weeks that we've been able to enjoy recently. And it causes me to want to challenge myself to think that there are ways I can do these quote unquote perfect day things on a more ongoing basis. This makes me think back.
You remember like Matt's Perfect Week that I did like several years ago, where I like, I.
Mean Laura Vandercam special Right yeah.
Well that well, I mean I think I came up with it on my own, Okay, and then she reached out because she wanted to hear me talk about it, and then she included it in her book. But I wanted to prove to myself that in a seven day period of time that I could do a lot of the different things I wanted to do in life, because at that point in life, I didn't feel like I had the time to it'say, oh, do I have the ability to go and go for.
A run, meet up with friends and.
Grab beers, have coffee with this other friend, do all these other responsibilities that I had, but also the fun things. And I think, okay, not to make this overtly lessonee in like what's.
The big takeaway here?
But I think there's a lot of folks who are listening like us Joel, who have done the really hard things. They have sacrificed, they have saved and invested for like decades now, and I think a lot of those folks might be closer to living the quote unquote perfect day on a more regular basis, as opposed to feeling like for us, oh that we have to even wait up, hold off and wait until summer to be able to
have some of these perfect days. Yea, And for somebody else it may not be as extreme as that, where it's just like I want to be able to wake up, spend some time in the words, do some contemplative prayer, have breakfast with my family, or work out with Kate. That's my thing that I've actually been enjoying a whole lot lately, have breakfast with a family, engaged in some
intellectual mind expanding sort of practice. Like that's pretty extreme, but I think there's a lot of people who are thinking.
Dudes.
For me, even just working out every day would be fantastic. But I think there are ways that a lot of folks can start making some of those aspects of life.
More of a reality, start to buy back some of their time now and not just wait until mid to late sixties. Yeah, I totally agree. Okay, And if you go back in time, would you pursue a talent that haven't pursued? So, no, I don't think I have it. I don't have any hidden talents.
The same I well, oh my gosh, okay, so I have n't played piano more and well my oldest daughter she plays, and where we're talking about getting a piano in the new space because we've got the space now for a little upright or maybe a studio piano. Turns out they're everywhere you can get a free piano, so you got to pay to get it moved and get it tuned or whatever.
So it's still going to cost you. Yeah, I think a couple hundred dollars.
But that's something that I've enjoyed doing, so I'm kind of like, oh man, and it opens up a different part of your brain, especially like music and just the way that the brain works as it's putting together notes and melody and uh, it's good.
Yeah, something I've enjoyed the song. I love it. All right, We've got more of your What about you? Oh, hidden talent talents? Yes, ask me. No. I think the only other interest I have job wise, if I wasn't doing this is like, I'm very highly relational, Like Walmart greeter doesn't sounding my ideal job, but in some ways it does. Right,
So something customer service focused. I don't know what that would be, but I've always said, like, if I'm not in this, something that's highly relational, customer service focused is what I would want to do. So, yeah, what would that be? I don't know. Is that a hidden talent? Even that I like people. I don't know, I don't know the way you approach it. It could, yeah, certainly be that. Yeah, all right, let's get to more questions, your questions. Lots of good ones coming up right after this.
All right, man, we were back, Jim wrote, we all know the basic way you two met college, which is funny actually because we didn't meet in college. But how slash, When did you meet and say to yourself, this guy is pretty neat. I think I'll hang out with them for the rest of my life, start a business with him. What was your thought when you first met each other, Joel, What went through your mind when you first saw me across the room? Dudes, you got interesting hair, and you thought, oh,
I have to approach this. Dudes got interesting hair was the first thing.
I thought. You had the coolest hair. I have crazy hair back then? You still, yeah, you did. You had you love the hair gel, and it was you were it was smoking. It's not it was used to be a bit more uh rufio from hook. That's true.
It was without without all the red or whatever color here. I think what stuck out very quickly upon meeting you too, Well, you guys had just like occasionally when you you were a photographer, you would shoot stuff and then you would occasionally that's that's like what well I was gonna say Occaionally you would barter for stuff for your job, so you could barter. You borted for a beach house. One time you bartered for free food at a restaurant, like gift cards to a restaurant.
Oh yeah, you guys invited us to partake it. We didn't really know you very well, and you're like, hey, we've got the gift card, come eat with us, and you paid for our fancy meal. And I was like, man, generous, cool people. We don't know you very well, and you still invited us to do that. So I was like, that's the kind of first time I want to hang out with.
Oh that's right, man, I appreciate that. And I totally forgot about that.
Yeah.
We had some neighbors, some friends of ours. They owned a restaurant and they were looking for some new images for their for the website, and they hooked us up with a pretty fat gift card. And we're just like, we could go here a couple of times, maybe even yeah, a couple of times at least, or we can buy julll and Emily and throw down some amazing rabbis. I specifically remember that you and I both got we both got revised. So just so folks know, we actually met
in the neighborhood. We didn't meet in college. We did not know each other in college, although I feel like we would have been buds based on stories I hear from your college.
Sure, but we met.
It's funny enough we met playing board games, like I don't technically remember meeting you. Prior to that game party, A mutual friend invited us over to their house and we played I'm guessing something like Puerto Rico or Settlers of Catan, something like that. But that's that was my first memory, and I just remember thinking, you're more extra
extroverted than I am. You're more social, and I know it's helpful for me to be around folks who pulled me out a little bit more, because I know my natural tendency is to stay at home and I enjoy going out. But you like to go up more than I do. I do, which means it pulls me in a healthy direction. So in that way, I think we compliment.
I think that each other the starting a business thing together like we obviously I came later down much later, but then it became this like passion and practical pursuit for us was like, oh, how can we do this thing where we get to work together and enjoy something that we create and it allows you to not to work on the weekends, which you had to do as a wedding photographer, and so it was. It was practical,
but it was also passion oriented. You and I really cared deeply about the topic of personal finance, and we couldn't have predicted that it would have been become what it is and we would have been doing it as long as we have, and but we're thankful for it. And to get to work together, by the way, is a joy. Like not every day is awesome, but the whole arc of these past seven years like to get to work with your best friends seven coming up on eight, dude.
I know people. I think a lot of people would recommend do not start a business with your best friend because it'll change your friendship. And I think there's actually maybe a question about this later something, but I'll just get it out of the bag right now. Working with your best friend can work as long as you prioritize the friendship above the business, and we have consistently tried
to do that. Not that we don't care deeply about this business, but we care more about each other than what happens with totally and that matters a lot.
I completely agree, not to completely get non sentimental, but I want to do Nichole's question here because she specifically was asking me about bucket list vacations, which is something I feel.
Like you hate bucket lists. Well, when you say bucketst then I can say it like, oh, where's somebody somewhere when on vacation that you would love to go? And that feels different to me than like a life bucket list of like before I die, I must do these things.
It is so in Italy, Northern Italy, the Dolomites, beautiful amazing mountains and they have these lodges or these huts that you can get up into the like alpine zone just just it's beautiful. But then you hike, like you'll hike for like five hours, like along this trail. It's like a route or a circuit, and then you get to the next lodge or the next hut and then you spend the night there and there's a series of
these that you can do. And when I think about specifically, I mean what I love to do the most, especially with Kate, like that is what we love to do, and so that again it's it's sort of the marring of food and drink mixed with amazing scenery, but with a splash of additional culture thrown in, which sounds like that's the kind of thing that I that I certainly want to.
Sounds participate in. What about you? I think Japan like going back to the baseball thing. I love how much they love baseball. I would love to see some baseball games in Japan. That sounds like a fun experience. We love the coffee culture, the food culture, like I would. I just would love to exper I've been to China, it was awesome. I would love to experience Japan one of these days. Maybe we'll do it. Man, all right,
Laura says, what's the best non money advice you ever got? Slash, what's the craziest, weirdest part time job you've ever had?
Okay, here's another two parter. Uh, do you remember getting advice as a kid?
Not? Or maybe I'm assuming that you're asking advice as a kid. Yeah, I was thinking young adult, and I was specifically my mind went to marriage counseling before Emily and I got married, and I remember the person who was doing our marriage counseling said, don't ever use the D word divorced. Okay, Yeah, And actually that's been incredibly helpful because once you use that word, once you open those those fund dates, like it creates a lot of
instability in your relationship. And so never using that and realizing that that was never an option for us, it doesn't mean that we haven't had hard times in our marriage and our life, and that there are times where it's like, I don't even know if I like this person right now. I know that's how she feels about me sometimes less mean about her. But that's saying that that's off limits. That was really wise sage advice for me. I think that's great advice. Yeah.
I immediately thought back to like when I was a kid, and I'm just like, I think I was too much of an idiot to actually hear the great wisdom that was being served up to me, you know, like I'm sure my grandpa, I'm sure my dad, my mom that they said quite wise things for me to maybe pick up on, but I just was not.
I did not have the years to hear it.
Yeah, and so one thing, so I was like, Okay, what is something that actually stands up the parenting advice or it's like a not a parable but like a phrase prepare the child for the road, don't prepare the road for the child. It's something I always keep coming back to when it comes to anything, like you take that and just apply it to all aspects of parenting, and I think you're going to be all right.
Yeah. What about from a job standpoint though? So the second part of a question, Okay, craziest job, weirdest was dressing up as a cell phone after school in high school. We got paid fifteen bucks an hour under the table. That was pretty good. Nice. But I think my favorite part time job was working the photo booth at Eckert's back in the day. I don't even think they have humans running those things anymore. That's all. It's all computers,
computers and machines. But that I love that because you I get to live vicariously through other people's vacations and then they come to pick up their photos and I'd be like, oh, how was your trip. It looked awesome and it was fun. Yeah.
My like, none of my jobs seem wacky or crazy to me. It's it's just my life, I guess. So mine goes to the first job where I received money from somebody else that wasn't my parents, and that was selling golf balls.
And so I would spend the summers as a kid.
So and so, yeah, we would find like find them in the woods, scour the woods, the creeks, and they're just nasty, and we'd take them to well, this is the best part. We'd take them to the tea box of the different holes and put them in the ball cleaner. Oh yeah, So we wouldn't even take it home and
like use our own soap or it does. Like we could clean it right here, set up on the side of the car path and sell back to these golfers the balls that they hit into the woods, basically and something that they're too lazy to go find and clean up themselves, well because they don't want to, like, you know, they're wearing their nice golf clothes and we're just like these grimy, poison ivy ridden kids.
That's a service man.
That was my first taste of entrepreneurship, I think, and to realize that, like, oh man, I get to do this exactly how I want, and you don't have to buy the thing for me.
I want you to buy it.
And I think you would love these perfectly unblemish nice looking top flights or titleists that you just hit into the woods.
But yeah, stand I'm always amazed at the myriad ways people can make money in our society. I saw a van the other day a company it was like exterior lighting for homes, like that's all they did. I was like, that's highly specialized. All you're doing is exter your lighting on like the bushes in the house.
And creating billboards of folks who do not just say it sounds like you're talking about the kind of lighting that you install the lights and it is like uplighting on the house, yes, or the tree. I've seen billboards around the holidays where they're advertising their services to put up your Christmas lights, that's right, and then also take them down, which I guess I kind of get because
there's a risk physical you are in peril. Sometimes if you're up on the ladder and don't have that thing set right, you can come follow off Yah.
Finding and washing golf balls is another one. You can have a list of ways to make money. Ken says, Since you spend so much time together, I'm wondering, do you ever get on each other's nerves? And if so, what's the secret to working through it quickly?
I do think some of it comes back to sort of what you were saying before, putting each other first.
So here's the thing. Neither you nor I have brothers, like we both have sisters. Yeah, And I think there's a certain amount of like brotherly love that goes into our relationship. And I think when we are both in healthy spaces and we see each other as like as brothers and we love each other just with that in mind, it helps to you know, you kind of overlook the different flaws that maybe the other guy has. I mean, I assume you do that for me, because I get
my own flaws. But I think it's like loving each other but then also giving each other space because they're I mean, folks might hear us talk and at different phases in our life, we did more stuff together. We've also done less stuff together.
But I think kind of finding that rhythm of like like we've got our own interests and our lives don't perfectly overlap each other, and so like you've got an interest, you you'll go do this thing. I'm kind of doing this thing over here. Obviously we come back and we still make the podcast, but we also come back and live life together in different ways too. But not every aspect of our lives is like a concentric circle. But there's an overlapping circle.
Overlap, for sure. It's interesting. There's one question, then diagram sort of shifts over time. There's one question. I think we should get to a real quick because I think it just it piggybacks on this, Aaron said, do your other friends get jealous with how much time you spend together working on the pod, the newsletter articles, blah blah blah. How long until you get sick of working together in any single session and need a.
Break another friendship? Yeah, now a question. I don't think about all things that way. That that feels like too limited of frame of reference or point of view to think that they're are friends. I mean, I've got other friends out there, but are they thinking about the dynamic of our relationship?
I don't think so. If they are, they don't, they don't tell me. Yeah. The lot of time that comes up, I think is like, because we moved to a new place and people were like, well, who are these families that wait, they pulled the trigger at the same time and they both moved three years ago. What is it that caused them to do this together? And I think they were like, do I have somebody I would do
that with? And so I think a lot of people are like the depth of that relationship is I think it is rare in this day and age, right, the people have a friendship that is almost like akin to a familial bond, And so I think from that aspect, not that I don't think friends get jealous, but I think they have at times been like, tell me what makes that work? Or tell me why is the why does it look like this? Why do you guys live your life in this way that is kind of tethered
at the hip? I hope it is all inspiring and not like.
Oh, that's a weird, freakish cult or whatever, but like you're touching on something a question I don't think we'll get to. But you're specifically talking about the move when we moved out to the verbs, but like that was a tough stage in our lives, because not only was it tough for you and I, it was a little bit trickier from because the wives.
I mean, like you're moving your.
Entire family, so it impacts everybody right, Like there are massive financial consequences here, social relationships. It was impacting the kids as well, and so that was certainly a period of time that required more discussions. We had a lot of what we call family meetings where we're sitting down and having the conversations of what this is going to look like for us to uproot and to find somewhere new to live.
Yeah, so I think there's interest, but not jealousy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
On a related note, I guess about friendship Angela. She asked, it was so much easier as kids. How do you make adult friends, Joe?
How do you do it?
Do you just start talking to somebody that's asking their deepest, darkest fears.
Sometimes I'd become both friends with somebody randomly and quickly. But I think that's probably my bent. But I do agree that it's so much harder. And we lamented this a lot. Emily and I both as when we moved up here, because it's like we're trying to build a new community and find new friends, and for a while you're like, I'm a little bit lonely. I don't know
where my new crowd at. And so yeah, I remember in college you're best friends with somebody in like two days, and then when you have young kids, I don't know, maybe it's like a few months. And now it feels like it takes years for a friendship to blossom because like, your lives are just so busy, and it wasn't it's the stage of life we're in. Yeah, as well, Like it doesn't that all surprise me that with the happiness. You see the happiness over a lifetime chart and it's
pretty much at its lowest point right now. Yes, Like somewhere between like thirty eight and forty two years old is is where it's Seriously, it's literally the nator. It does not get any lower than it is right now.
Because so much is being asked of us, it is hard to dedicate the time career to parenting and making friends and friendships. Relationships are the highest driver of happiness. I said, when you don't have the time to be able to do that, it makes sense.
I had a friend text me last night and he's like, hey, last minute, but do you want to grab a beer? And eight years ago I would have been like, yeah, man in let's go. And I was like, even highly relational me, he was like, I mean not tonight. I'm surprised.
I was expecting you to have a great Uh happened. It would not have happened if I would have said yes.
I've also got a lot more balanced, I think where I I don't need that relational stuff as much as I used to it, even though I really enjoy it. So I don't know. I would say this that through kids events, swim team is one of those, by the way, where you spend a lot of time with other people's Shiam team. This summer has been an awesome way to get to meet people. Church is another place where I feel like I've gotten to know people and know them deeply.
And I think in the in the burbs mat at least where we live, like running together, dude running clubs like the triple F thing. I know some guys that do that. I don't partake, but when you three as ye run sorry triple A, triple F whatever it is. But like I think, dudes bond up here by doing feats of strength together or whatever. So running with other guys that's actually been a good way for me to
get it's some nosed fellas. If you're running slow but long distances, you got a lot of time to talk.
That's true, Okay, Jim asks as best friends, you have a ton in common. But in what ways do you guys differ the most? What do you think, Joe, how do we differ?
I think people would assume listening to podcasts, one, people say we sound alike, like their voices sound kind of like. Two. I think they're like, oh man, these guys like a lot of the same stuff. They like craft beer, they like money. When you hear about the stuff that Matt and Joel they both go to soccer matches together, they must be the same kind of person. And it's interesting because personality wise, you and I are incredibly different. It's true.
People would cracking open another time, so people would assume, man, these guys are just carbon copies. But it's not true. So I think personality wise, we're very I'm not detail oriented. You are incredibly detail oriented. I do think that's one of the ways that we are the most different is just.
We're oftentimes like looking to achieve the same goal, but how it is that we kind of get there. We kind of end up in a similar place, but we've found different ways to arrive there. It's also I think why we make a great team and why I think the business runs works so well with us both being.
A part of it. And I think you tend to go deeper on interest, which is part of your attention to detail kind of way of living which I appreciate about you and I love and I feel like I learn a lot from that vicariously, when you dig deep into stuff and I get to hear the way your brain's working about it, and I just I don't know, Maybe maybe I lack the ability to go as deep as you do, but.
Yeah, the ability, but it's just not I don't think that's just how you are naturally wired.
Yeah, So yeah, that I think the personality type, and it actually when it comes to running a business and when it comes to what we both bring to this podcast, I think I'm really glad that we're really different. And I also think if you were a carbon copy of me,
I'd get annoyed really quickly. I would most certainly be annoyed with myself like and honestly, that's I tend to get the most annoyed with folks either who are the most like me, because I then see my own faults in somebody else and I'm just like, oh, that makes me uncomfortable because I see you doing something that I know I myself do. To say that, I feel that over the years that we've become Even though folks they
know that we have similar interests. You just shared how we kind of have Oh we're that we are very different, I feel that we have actually sort of become more similarly over the years. I would there's a part of me that feels that way because early on I feel like I don't know when it comes to job, like you were working in radio.
I own my own photography company. Like I was like you, You've been running a lot more now, which I love, but like back in the day, you're just like smoking cigarettes and play tennis. That's true, I would enjoy I'd enjoy a smoke with you, you know, like at a concert or something like that. But whereas now we're both like now I'm just trying to get you to do some strength as opposed to, uh, just just the cardio. But generally speaking, I feel like we have, in a strange way,
kind of found each other again. Yeah, yeah, that sound too serendipitous.
Friendships over long term are really interesting things, and they change and they morph and they it means something different to you at different times in your life. And I think, especially over this past year, I've had some more difficult things in my life personally, I think of which I've mentioned here on the podcast a couple different times. But I think you're getting to experience your support, love and care like during hardship has meant a lot. So yeah,
I don't know. Are we more alike, are we more different? I don't know. But friendships they ebb and flow. But this is like one of the most consistent things in my life and to have you as a friend.
So I appreciate you, man, I appreciate you. I want to read this crime app as we hash out our feelings here on the podcast, Katie wrote, I believe it's Jael who enjoys collecting local folk art. How did you find the art and artists when starting to collect? How did you get into it in the first place. I'm a scientist slash engineer by trade and way outside the
art world. I'm interested to support some local artists, but I don't know where to look or what is quote unquote good Joel, what are your folk art tips?
So I'm Katie, I'm no artists at all, Like, I don't even know that I have a brain that works or art. I know what I like, and so you got good taste. Though. It was there were local artists. Typically they would paint murals and then I would start to kind of follow them on Instagram and then I would kind of get to know them and try to buy a piece or two that they that they were selling. And there was just a few people I started following, and then I would find other people that kind of
overlapped with their style. But yeah, even have become gotten to become friends with a few of the artists that I really like, and there are awesome people and I just appreciate that too. The other thing, there's this once a year fulk art festival that I go to and find out about new artists that way. It's honestly, it's like my Christmas art festivals. Christmas Morning is awesome. The full kart festival for me is one ups Christmas Morning.
Sorry if that sounds sacrilegious or something like that, but it's my favorite day of the year, and so yeah, find try to find a festival in your area. If you can, you'll find it. You'll be exposed to a bunch of new folks. You'll actually get to meet them, you get to look at the art in person, You'll get to walk on I budget so much money for that day, Matt. It's I walk away with my arms full in my pocket's emptied, and it's like, I'm big smile on my face. I'm hoping that we the past.
Two years you've gone and we've already had things on the calendar and have not been able to make it. I need to put it on the calendars. That way, we don't book something for that Saturday in order to be able.
I'm going to score some stuff too.
It's an affordable way to decorate your house too as well. In addition to the festivals, I think even just going to a local gallery, if it's a good local gallery and they've got great local artists there, it's a good way to in real life meet somebody who knows these folks and you kind of get that relational element as well. Joelt Meghan wrote, if you could instantly become an expert in something obscure, what would it be and why? Bonus points for not choosing a money related expert.
So oh, it would definitely not be money related. I love personal finance, but I would totally want to do something completely obscure or different. Well, okay, for yours? Would it be to be some sort of like exercise health expert like Andrew Huberman? That was my guess. No, I'm interested in it.
But you know what, I just noticed that she wrote if you could instantly become an expert, And I'm gonna push back against that a little bit too, because the process of learning about something like that's where all the magic happens, right like that, Like that formational process is so important.
No, I I unearn knowledge, you're not.
Looking for that, so I enjoy I guess the physical exercise longevity space. I would want to do something like create like I think about the emes what's the plywood or I think it's called the plywodchair, But like I think about beautiful furniture, and I would love to be
able to do something like that. I would love woodworking, but highly but very high end and like the marrying of form and function basically, like something beautiful that's esthetically incredibly pleasing, but that serves a very clear purpose as well, Like what is a better way to be able to enjoy something than like using it, right, like the tools that we use.
I don't know. I just think about that. That that that seems really appealing to me. That's interesting about you. Mine would be. And I'm sure you would not have guessed this gardening because I'm not really green thumb joel over there, like my normal life. You're not gonna find me in the garden. You're not gonna find me planning stuff.
Like I'm just come over to our house and pull some weeds around the plumb tree and the peach tree.
That's my I mean, I think that's my Like, that's my personality. Bent is I'm not slowing down to plant a garden. Yeah, but I wish I would, and I wish I knew more about it. And I do think that I'm losing something in my lack of like my connection to human instincts, your literal connection to the earth. Yeah, your hands down in the dirt. I think I'd be really good for me. And so if I could become
like a gardening expert. And then because because part of it too is in that trial and error, there's a lot of pain and a lot of frustration. If I started planting stuff and the deer ated and it like that's where we are. Man, Yeah, I love like weeds overtaking everything. I mean, then I'd be frustrated and I want to quit. And so if I was instantly an expert at gardening and I could like do it flawlessly, that'd be kind of cool.
Yeah, funny enough. That's actually something that Kate and I have been getting into. She is always I mean, she's an incredible gardener, but it's something that I have also learned to.
Love and appreciate. Let's see. Joel Leslie wrote what are your predictions for your children futures?
That's a not loaded question at all, for instance, careers, size of families.
Are they also going to be best friends their whole lives?
I'll say that I hope that our kids maintain this incredibly deep bond where they've known each other basically their entire lives. Or we've got pictures of them as like three day olds next to each other, which is I mean not three days.
Well, actually no, yeah, literally, our boys are three days apart. That's right. I think are for that to be the case. Our oldest girls will retain it more than any of the rest of them, and I hope they all will. Yeah, but I think they have such a deep relationship at this point it's fun to watch, Like it's one of my favorite relationships to watch blossom and grow super cool. You start though your kids, well family sizeas what are they gonna do?
That's for them to decide. I've got zero, Like I am trying to hold that.
So if you're making a prediction, if you like older, their inclination, like the kind of person they are, what would they because I have like thoughts. I don't have things I want them to do. Like single tries to convince my oldest daughter to become president of the United States, and I'm like, no, you probably don't want to do that. It's not a great gig.
I mean, they've got their different strengths and weaknesses or not. I mean just the things that they're less interested in. But like, you've got one who's great at following the rules and being super orderly, one who just wants to sit there and read all day long. Another one who's incredibly physical and social, you know, like you like I truly try not to. I would love to have a
big family. I never grew up around a whole lot of people, like when it came to the size of our families, and that was I never thought i'd have more than a couple kids. But then Kate and I got married and she just had one brother as well, and we both are like, you know what, I think we're gonna have a lot of kids. I like the idea of sort of like what you were saying earlier,
being a grandparent. That's totally something I have hopes and ambitions, Like I don't want to say ambition, because it's like, how do you How are you ambitious about becoming a grandparent. It's certainly a hope and yeah, hopefully that's something I'll get to see someday.
I don't know that I have career predictions except for from my oldest sens. It's mostly because she's said this already. She's eleven, but she's like, I want to be like a doula. She loves oh babies, Yeah, she wants to she does. She's so good with her Grandma was a neonatal nurse, and so I think there's this sort of attachment there to like childbirth, and she's just obsessed with babies. So, uh yeah, do I think she'll have a lot of kids? I do. And I think my son will probably also
have a lot of kids too. He just sensitive boy and he likes he likes, uh, he likes babies too. So my middle child, I don't know, Like she's the wild card. Like what she gonna end up doing, It's probably gonna be something epic. She might be like, probably something you were not at all expecially, probably be like a red bull athlete or something like that, like diving from space or something. It's gonna be neat, it's gonna
be fun to watch. It's it's highly unpredictable. But uh yeah, I hope, I hope, like you a lot of grand kids.
Yeah, all right, we're gonna keep moving, uh and you know what, We're gonna take a quick break. But then after that maybe we'll speed it up. We'll just kind of do like a rapid fire and we'll give some shorter answers. Well, it's all that right after this.
All right, we're back, let's hit up some more listener questions, the ladys land this plane. Yeah, and then we'll talk briefly about sabbatical plants. All right, So Kat says, what beer types did you have to learn to appreciate? Oh?
Almost all of them, really, I think. No, like the darker beers, the kind of darker maultiers, I would say, I pas for sure. I remember the first I PA I had. I remember my buddy Dan, he was just like, oh, I pas are an acquired taste. I remember that then, and I certainly get that. But yeah, I think fruited beers for me.
I remember the first beer I had was like a blueberry beer, and I was like, this is terrible and this must be what only like sweawater blue? Was that your girls with their pinky out drink or something like that? And I think, yeah, sweetwater Blue, I think it was it. And then it turns out fruited beers are my all time favorite style of beer. So fruited beers or fruited sound,
fruited sours, okay. But I just assumed anything with fruit in it was not for me, okay, And then I had to realize, wait, there's some highly crafted beer just fruit that.
There's a different I'm the first time I ever had what is it New Belgium's la Fully, which is a brown sour, I remember thinking, wow, only one other time in my life have I had a beer where I said, Ooh, I'm not sure if I like this, And then eventually it became an entire category of beer that I enjoyed. Similarly when it came to sours in that way where the first time I had it, I'm like, this isn't right. This does not taste like they that they brewed it properly.
But then you get to know the nuances in the funk and all the other flavors going on there that yeah, it's certainly a style that I love.
Now, all right, Adrian says, what Guinness World record do you think each of you could break? I've got no idea, you know, I'm going to say.
It takes too much of an extreme dedication to one single thing, and I hate that extreme nature of the Guinness Book of I'm just looking to be like a very awesome, normal dude, seriously, Like that's my It's like one of my goals in life is to not pursue something.
To the extreme. I felt the need to come up with an answer. Okay, So I said, most time spent talking without taking a breath, so I can just talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and just keep talking. And my mom used to tell me growing up that I could just talk to a wall, and I think that might still be accurate. But I don't know. They're not interesting. They don't really talk back.
So all right, here's the one that leans towards your strengths from Aaron. If you played each other one on one in basketball, what would be each of your go to moves and what would you guess the final score would be? Joel, I'm going to completely hand the game over to you, not because of your height, but that helps. It's I don't it doesn't hurt. But there's some shorter great basketball players out there, not like short as I like under six foot.
I don't think we'll spud web back in the day, he was like a man. He could or springy legs. Yeah. See that gives me hope because I'm like, I'll over do the cream of cream. I build your bar sky hook and that would be my go to move and I think I would win ten to seven because you're you're pretty scrappy. Ten to seven. You're quicker than me.
What's the regulation one on one basketball game? Normally basketball games are like in the seventies or eighties or nineties.
Are playing that long time? Oh? Okay, Now when you're playing one on one, it's like to ten or something like that. All right, Jeffrey says, I actually do want to know what Matt's hair routine is. I had just started growing my hair longer, and I gotta know, am I a genius? By the way to wear the same shirt and joggers all week if it stays clean. Both
of these are questions for you. My fine, oh my gosh, okay, So the okay, the secret to letting your hair grow long is are the the soccer hair bands like that. It's like the skinny band that you put in your hair because you need to be able to pull up back when you're when when you're being a bit more active to where the hair is not getting like fallen in your eyes. And then in addition to that, in the winter, rock the beanie, like you put the hair back in there. That way you're able to keep it
out of your face. That's how you grow it long before like you were able to grow up a pony taip, okay, but with shorter hair. What do you plue that yellow tube shorts cough or something like?
Okay, extreme hold named after a former US military general, right, I don't know that's okay? No, I think it's like a German that was like that was a military American military general. I haven't doven. I haven't entered my World War two erage, okay, So okay, I got into the meats.
This is this is all. So you question wearing the same stuff all week. If it stays clean, that's something you do. No. If it touches your skin, you got to. You gotta change it out every day. You wear the same shirt sometimes a few days in a row. Right, No, I just have the same not T shirt. All wear the same xterior shirt. Okay.
If it touches your skin, socks, underwear, undershirts, those only last a day. But conversations I have with my kids on a semi regular basis because they haven't learned doing too much longer, they haven't earn the rules yet. Yeah, if it's touching your skin, man, if it's touching the pits or the booty, you gotta man, they're that thing in the hamper, but over shirts, especially in the winter, you can you can rock that all week long.
Man, I I literally do that all week long. All right, Cindy says, what is each of your favorite non financial podcasts? Oh?
So you know Huberman's at one of the that's not the time figure, that's the physical fitness side of things.
What about you? I like, I'm very interested in politics, although highly annoyed by politics as well, especially I mean, who's not right at the like the last decade? Right? But I would say Ezra Kline from the New York Times and Reason the reason around table, Yeah, because I'm getting like two different sides of the same same coin. I love hearing different takes, and I think both of them have a lot of like wisdom and intelligence. I'm surprised you didn't say the Fifth Column boys. I like
those guys too. They're great. That's more I mean, that's politics, but it's also little culture.
Yeah, rough around the edges on the opposite side of the spectrum when it comes.
What about honestly with Barry Weiss listen to that. I love I think they do so. She does such a great job. And just the free press.
Generally speaking, I'm such a huge fan that on the spiritual side of things. For the past several months, I've been listening to Mocking Cast.
I don't know it. You never heard the Mocking Cast? Oh gosh, I do, only I don't know them well enough to be able to share their name, like R Jay Sa. So there's three. There are three believers and they just sit down and they talk about faith, how it's intersecting with like daily life, but they talk.
About how hard it is to be a Christian. Yeah, and I'll dude, you would totally love it. I can't believe we haven't talked about it. Yeah, it's something I'm prosed.
I'm mostly listening to audiobooks, by the way these days, so I listen to some podcasts and I like so. But if I'm listening to, which I haven't been doing lately, let's listen to an audio. But what do you listen?
Oh wait, so you're reading Lord of the Right. Yeah, so are you gonna go straight through? By the way, I'll probably break it up, probably break it up. But part of it's just because when is it going to become available next? And I haven't true playing it out perfectly. Listen to something else, but then you. I want you to kind of power through it though, Yeah, because just to be able to tie it all together. So good,
it's good stuff. I'm looking forward to being able to read that with the kids, which I still feel that we're a little ways from all right, this is a quick one. Jana says, diagonal or straight cuts for your grilled cheese. I feel like there's only one answer when tomato soup is involved, diagonal all the way. I mean, it's just like slam dunk question. Right, we're not communists, so yeah, right? Who cuts it straight down the middle?
All right? Anonymous or reached out and said, if you if you asked chat chept to roast you, what would it say? And this is something you can go do for yourself. So I don't want to read all these but I did go into chatcheapt and said, hey, will you roast Matt and Joel from out of money? What was your You wrote a couple down? What are you
some of your vails? I, speaking of hair, says Joel's hair looks like he's been saving on haircuts since two thousand nin and Matt the guy could probably build a DIY bunk bed with nothing but a promo code and a craft beer bottle. I mean, it's just like and he's a speaking of which I haven't heard two people mentioned craft beer so much outside of a Portland tattoo parlor. So chatchy pet knows us. And then also you could it says like at the bottom was like, do you
want to make it spicier? And so I did and it just gets more off the rails. But it's it's funny. I just it's I never used chatchipt until I mean, I've used it like five times. So going in there this question prompted me to check out what's going on with AI, even though I mostly avoid itys.
It'll be interesting to see how things play out. Man Eric wrote, what is your biggest non financial regret?
Joel? Do you have regrets dude? Or you like me, no regrets? That's yeah. I think everyone has something that if they could go back because and largely because maybe it's led to hurting somebody that they love. Right, it's like, oh, what I wish I would have been more thoughtful about that. That's that's tip. That would be like a regret that I would say, But.
Can't you take like the Judo move and like use the momentum of that bad decision to make you like, aren't you a better person because of what like your past and maybe mistakes or missteps because.
I think about that, I think so. I think so. But there are probably ways I could have learned more quickly and not, let you know, been such an idiot for so long. But that's a really hard question to here's a faster learning yeah exactly, which I think I do learn faster now than I did over like the last fifteen years. But yeah, I don't know, so I
guess I will. I will leave it at that. There are probably things I wish I would have There are certainly things I wish I would have learned more quickly, and in particular how they led to hurt feelings or they led to disrepair or dysregulation in relationships. And I've learned a lot in the past few years. And I think the biggest thing I've learned, Matt, is to take more responsibility from my actions and to approach the people I love with more humility, and that allows me to
learn a lot more quickly than I used to. Very nice. I appreciate you sharing that, dude. Do you should we round out with a couple more here or should we just jump to the end. Do let's do last one? Okay, Samantha says, do you consider yourself happy? Do you consider yourself lucky? I would say yes to both. What about you for sure both? Yeah?
Yeah, it's certainly lucky happen. Happiness feels like a very shallow kind of like do you have joy? I don't know that that kind of I agree that what's my appetite for some like the bigger kind of conversations that I like to get into happiness that's dependent on the weather.
Yeah, we kind of leftovers I'm bringing into.
The office that I that I get to enjoy as opposed to like more of the deep seated, solid to the core kind of foundational aspects of joy.
Yeah, that I'm more interested. And it's interesting. I think contrary to the modern conception of happiness, deep joy is often found through self sacrifice and service. Yeah, and the deep love and care for other people more than you
care for yourself. And I think that's something that in many ways we've maybe like lost as a culture, not not wholly, but in many ways we have or it is more looking out for number one and if you if you want, yes, if you want to encounter more of that joy than I think it is going to involve a certain amount of letting down, putting aside which you care about the most, and in favor of watching
other people and helping other people in your life succeed. Yea, And yeah, that I think that's where I found a lot of joy. Yeah, No, I totally recent years, I totally agree.
And isn't that so much a part of parenting? And that's one of the things that scares me the most about the trend that we see our culture going in.
When when when there are fewer folks who are at all interested in having kids or having fewer kids, because what are you oftentimes instead looking at you're looking at yourself and like the things that you think are going to make you happy and some of the different goals that you have as an individual as opposed to finding ways to help children, in particular to be able to do that, by the way, without having kids, and a lot of people out there percent I have kids, right,
I'm not at all being like the single cat lady, Like that's not the line that I'm that I'm at all spouting, but it is I think an outcome of folks who maybe aren't self examining it. If you've done the work and you're just like, you know what, like kids aren't for me, that's totally valid, Like please hear me saying that, But I think it's for the folks who are just like.
Well, I don't want to do that.
That sounds hard, or then I'm not going to be able to do this, And this sounds sounds like fun. The ability to see somebody grow up and for them to realize they're for full potential and the self sacrifice that goes into that, and then ultimately the joy that comes out of seeing someone like your kids develop into who they're meant to be. That sounds incredible.
Thinking of that Ryan Holliday quote where the obstacle is the way and it's like, man, the greatest growth that's happened in my life have been through the times of greatest self sacrifice and greatest suffering, and so happiness, like day to day happiness is not improved because of the suffering significance that I've experienced, but my overall depth of joy and gladness in being human and who God has made me to be has grown significantly. Because of that, I love it, man.
And before we let folks know what to expect for the rest of the summer, we cracked up another beer, which was a Trushirrant, which is a triple oatmeal Russian Imperial stout.
Two good beers on today's show.
Yeah, I meant, if you're gonna celebrate the thousandth episode, you're gonna have a little bit of both. This is a tiny little can, eight point four or five ounces. It's like the size of a what is it? Is this the size of like the original Red Bull's like half a Red Bull. It's like so small, empty and tiny, but man punched a whole lot of flavor. It was punched above its weight class.
Yeah, I'll say that for sure. Okay, let me ask you a question then, So as listeners know from listening to the episode this past Friday, we're gonna take a little bit of time off. That's right. We're gonna come back with a vengeance in early August and can't wait to come back, but we're gonna enjoy the crap out of like a significant extended break here. Yes, what are you most excited about for this time? For you and for your family?
I I think for me, one of the things from a logistics standpoint, I remember talking. I can't I think it was either it was either Jillian maybe those Katie North, but they just talked about being able to do things with that time that you otherwise would not be able to because you're taking a longer period of time off. And so for us, we've never taken the longer road trip.
And so and I know folks have been listening to the Airbnb ads and talking about this East Coast road trip, like we are for real actually doing this thing.
You didn't just make it up for me.
And we've gotten more and more into the planning aspect of it, and it just gets me more and more excited about all the things that we're going to be able to experience together as a family, what we're going to be able to learn, like the exploration and taking kids to these new places. And I'm really excited about that. But so that's just kind of like a but that's more like vacation, right, Like that's the thing, Like we're
calling this kind of a sabbatical. But according to the definition of everyone we've talked to, sabbaticals like oftentimes it's closed, it's like three to six plus months sometimes, Well I don't know. I mean I think six weeks eight weeks is considered sabbatical for a lot of people. Yeah, and that's sometimes what most people. But the real question is, folks are wondering when are you recording this episode that you're currently speaking on.
That's what folks don't exactly foreign advance, not to feign advance either. Yeah, what are you looking looking forward to most? Honestly? Yeah, kind of going back. You're excited about your trip, and I'm excited about some travel, but I think the thing I'm most excited about is kind of the slowing down. Yeah, I was. I was like, literally having this conversation with someone earlier this morning, just how mundane life can be
and leaning into experiencing the joy in the mundane garbage time. Yeah, Like that's the It's the thing that when you are in a hurry, you wish you didn't have it, But when you wish away all the things, all the prickliness, like all the sharper edges of life, there's nothing left to grab onto.
Yeah, you know, and so like we need some of that. I think we need more of that in our lives than we think we do and oftentimes more margin, more chill, more margin, more chill, more space.
Yeah. Yeah, so I'm I'm gonna lean into it and I love that just some time alone and which again does not come naturally to me, but I am trying to like cultivate that in my life to I think it's important enjoy and be comfortable with that. So uh yeah, I'm gonna have long chats with friends and had long chats with that. I have a lot of things on my to do list that don't look super sexy or spectacular. That's what it's all about. Yeah, It's all about. That's what I'm pumped about.
So all right, Yeah, this has officially been the longest episode I'm sure that we have ever recorded, and I don't even know should we even finish out with a beer review. Let's just let folks and know we can
say they were great. They were fantastic, so good you don't necessarily need to hear us talk on and on about it, but just to know that this was a part of our conversation today, that we were both sitting here as two dudes who are sitting here who love each other, who are also enjoying some delicious beverages.
Like we have and truly we love you too. We have so much gratitude for you, even though for most of you we don't know you, although we've gotten to know some listeners, even got on runs with some listeners. But if we also if we took your question on today's show, reach out to us how to moneypot at gmail dot com, we'll send you a pair of how
to money socks. Thank you for participating. They are the greatest socks in the history of the world, in the history of socks, and we're going to enjoy the heck out of this break and then we can't wait to come back and.
Some besties though up, so we'll have the content for you. Maybe we will record some intros on a couple.
Especially, by the way, if you're in those newer ish listener it's not like we pull these things out of the dungeon. There's still like lots of good relevant money advice in those episodes. So if you're like whether you just missed the sound of our voices or if you're new and you're like, I haven't heard that before, pretty sure that's not the case the sound of our voices, But enjoy those while we're gone and we can't wait
to come back in early August. We'll see then. Well all right, so buddy, until next time, best friends out, Best friends Out,