Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt.
Today we're talking four oh one K bullets, crappy coffee, and bitcoin bashing.
You know, my buddy, this is our Friday Flights where we're gonna cover our favorite headlines from the past week and all the stories that you mentioned plus more. I was gonna say, and do you have anything personal that you want to share? Say, favorite headlines, but favorite headlines we love to hate to. That's what the Lucas headline, the Lucras headline. Yeah, gotta gotta talk about suff we hate. Do we have a little Friday flight appetizer? Are we
just gonna cut straight to let's go straight to it? Okay, yeah, I feel like we got a longer one. So yeah, let's let's let's get off. Let's talk about four to one k mullets to begin with. And did you ever have a mullet? As a as a kid in the late ladies? Across the street from had a rat tail? You remember rat tails? I had a rat tail? Oh did you? Oh? Of course she did, like a little one, but nothing not like how long we talking about here? Like how long is this right tail? Like a foot?
His was probably good eight to ten inches. Yeah, that's really good. So I used to work in the public schools up in North Carolina right after undergrad and one of my like one of the kids I was I was working with, had a mullet with the rat tail. I didn't know you could do both. That's impressive. It was really good. So this is back in like five o six.
Do you remember the tire tracks on the side of the I always wanted that. My mom would never let me get that haircut. Yeah, thinking about doing it was like, sorry, son, you're not allowed to be that cool, right, think about it. Well, I don't know if it was cool or not, but of school today's at least for a minute. Yeah, I'm like, we were direct. Maybe I'll do it at the age of forty one, just to show her, you know.
Who's that guy with a mustache and then the race racing stripes down on the side of his uh that.
Said weird personal finance podcaster fell up and I love it. Okay, So mullets and four one K mullets, like I think you and I are mostly we're not in the know about what's actually cool, like our mullets. Cooled mullets are totally cool. Supposedly they're trending their back but it's not.
It's not especially like the messy mullet, you know, the kind of bullet the guys with the curly hair. I think there's a big difference in the mullets today that are popular. It seems like there's still like something going on in the front. It's not it's not. Yeah that it's kind of got like the mcguy or look exactly, I wanted to be just like everyone else. Let the back round.
I just don't think of that as a traditional bullet. But okay, we'll say mullets are hot right now and four A one K bullets. That's a new term to me. But I guess as mullets have kind of come back into vogue, fancy or less trashy ones and quarter zips, I guess those are back too.
Math the quarterszips.
I'm not gonna be wearing those. I'll tell you that you don't like quarter zips.
Nah, not my jam. You're not cool enough for it. That's that's the thing. You're you're you're you're airing or you are defaulting to your millennial ways. And the quote dude, so funny, I will say, you are revamping the dress code the uniform at the kids' school, huh, And they recently included quarter zips and all the parents went nuts, like in a good way. Everyone was so pumped about the quarter zips. So evidently they quarter zips and molsita.
And how does this relate to money? And let's get to the four one k part.
Well, apparently social media posts are linking the rise of the now sexy again mullet and the hotness of the four oh one k, Like four one k's are as hot as a dude supporting a really good looking mullet. Okay, and you and I neither rest are supporting sporting mullets these days, but we're all about making the four on k sexy again.
I think for it. Whatever it takes man, whatever flavor, whatever, headlines to have to be out there in order to drive people to the most underrated way that majority of Americans are going to become actual million millionaires. Yes, the four one K four one k ira millionaires. That's how you're gonna happen. It's going to happen for the vast majority of people. So well done, gen zers, young folks. If you've got to match take advantage. It's it's money
gear number two for a reason. People the four O one K, And I'm just lad it's getting light shit on it by being culturally relevant. I'm totally fine with
that if that's what it takes. But you know what, dude, being financially responsible and investing for your future it's always been cool, you know why, Because it's cool to be able to achieve the financial goals that you have in life, like whether that's like paying cash for a car or putting down a saving up and down payment for a house like these, Like who doesn't want these different things?
And it's almost as if we're having to convince people that, like, oh no, it's actually cool to be responsible, have options to not be bro yeah go figure makes me think of conversation as having recently someone about like ambition, and he was talking about how he was just a total bum until he met his girlfriend and wanted to propose to her and to be able to marry her and spend the rest of his life with her, and so
that caused him necessity. It's the mother of all inventures, right, and so like, yeah, you don't have a reason necessarily to be responsible until all of a sudden there's something that you want, and that's what personal finance is all about. I love that The New York Post relatedly here, they had an article about the rise of the Solo four one K, which is happening because we've seen a rise in small business formation. This is post COVID, which is
I think great for the country. So we got to make sure that the Solo four one K gets the same kind of love as the regular workplace variety. That way, all the small business folks out there know what they've got access to. It's pretty sweet, Joel. You know, we've had ours with Fidelity, Our Solo four one k's there with Fideli for a while. They recently launched a ROTH version, which I'm all about. Yeah, I was waiting for that.
Glad folks have the option to get some of those post tax dollars socked away as well, and all the big low cost providers are making it easier. They're requiring less paperwork in order to open these things. And we've actually got more information. We've actually got old podcasts on this as well, where we talk about the Solo four one K, where we go into it in more depth. It is well worth learning about if you are an independent worker and want to sock away more for retirement.
Yeah, solo four one k's leave on them. Don't sleep on the regular pour along gays. They're cool folks. Yeah, do the cool thing.
Also, being earnest and going after the thing you want totally in being earnest and sincere. I want to see more of that. Man.
That was the Chalo May acceptance speech right where he said I want to be great. I forget what award ceremony was at for the reason the.
Ping Pong movie. Did he would an award for that?
It might have been for a different I don't remember, or no, maybe it was. Maybe it was for that the Golden Globes or something like that, and I think he won Best Actor and his in his acceptance speech he basically talked about how he wants to be great, and I was like, man, yeah, put it out there as opposed to I don't know, not pretending that you don't care, but truly, yeah, you pretend you don't care enough and eventually guess what.
You don't care. Yeah.
I'm not like a huge chalome buff or anything like that, but it made me like I'm rooting for you, buddy, if that's what you want. I like that attitude. Go out there, take off some good roles, get or done. Let's talk about spending mat for a second coffee is a non negotiable.
In our budgets both the years of mind.
Yeah, I think you probably dedicate a slightly bigger line item in your budget to coffee.
Then I do. I spend a little more time probably on it in the mornings. Yeah, we do.
We also buy the nicer beans, I would say, on average, and.
Yeah maybe so Yeah, so you're doing costco I'm one step up with the counterculture.
Yeah, but even even still like the disparities minimal because we mostly make our coffee at home.
And I still think it's a difference man cost of coffee outs as opposed to as opposed to doing it at home.
Not to try to like make it not cool to get coffee out, but I think it's once a week. It's probably a good rhythm. That's what we do. If you do it every day, just do it with intentionality. But there was a new Washington Post article and it argued that the cheap, sub fifty dollar coffee makers, the ones that make super crappy coffee, the ones that go buy the Moniker mister Coffee most of the time.
Rights, that's like.
The ubiquitous name out there, But there's like all sorts of just throwaway coffee makers that will brew a bad cup of coffee no matter what beans you put in there, or just it won't be able to do your beans justice.
Okay, right, I yeah, go ahead, Okay, keep going, because like I'm going to push back a little bit. Who was this Washington washing.
One of the things they were saying is one that it improves, it proves an inferior cup. And then the other thing they were saying was that these these machines, these cheaper ones, typically don't last very long. And so why why go through that process? If you if you're going to try to make decent coffee at home, why not buy yourself a nicer coffee maker that's going to stand the test of time and it's gonna brew a
better cup simultaneously. This is one of those things kind of like a mattress, right that you use every day that it's true you want to sleep on it eight hours a day, So why not that that's probably something that's worth prioritizing spending a little bit more money on although you're sleeping on a hand meadown mattress for like two decades or something.
Like that, slept well, yeah, it's still the most comfortable mattress in the entire height.
If it's the most comfortable mattress, then that's awesome. Keep it around, Like what does it take to get our current mattress to that level? Well, curate machines, that's another one, right that people. I think that's convenience. Usually curios are awful, not great.
So they're all full from a coffee standpoint, But then also from the waste standpoint, the waste and the money. So I want to coffee is gonna cost you more too. I want to loop back a little bit because I do think like and this is coming from like more of the coffee snop kind of guy, right, Like I've gone through all the different phases, like I used to do V sixty, Like I back, you know, I used to do the French.
Press, right, but get another language now. But I'm sure some of the listeners out there you.
Can make a pretty dang good cup of coffee using a cheap mister coffee, Like the one we have is just the I mean it's the Mister Coffee equivalent from Amazon. I think it was like twenty twenty five dollars. And when it comes down to the biggest factor is grinding your beans fresh. And so if you get a decent grinder, you can make a pretty dang decent cup of coffee with a plastic, fairly affordable coffee maker as long as you are cleaning the filter. And I think that's the
biggest thing. People don't do it vinegar like vinegar and water. I mean, we don't we use it when we have family over and we're trying to make a ton of coffee all at once. And so I mean, I'm using dish soap, but I'm doing it daily as a is the most what do you wash it daily? Yeah? Okay, most folks they just kind of knock the grind the coffee grounds out and they kind of rinse it off maybe and then they put the tomorrow's coffee in there, and so what what's all the oils and all that
old build up? Man, Like, you don't want that, Like if you were even just to clean it with some just regular dish. So it's going to make a world of difference when it comes to your your nest cup. And that's the thing that most people don't do. They don't dedicate the time that they want it to be easy, which is why the curing seems to be satisfying this need for a lot of folks because they people don't
like to clean. But I'm just pushing back just slightly because I've made some pretty dang good coffee on a very cheap coffee maker.
Okay, And maybe one of the things you're you're highlighting is it sounds like you'd be willing to spend a lot more money on a good grinder than on a good machine. Yes, okay, Yeah, get you a burn, nice great grinder, clean your machine, you're good to go.
Yeah. I mean it doesn't have to be super fancy, but like a Bartza or even like a conical boatom like, you can get a pretty good grind that's way better than stuff that's preground that.
The fifteen dollars ones you get on Amazon that have the two blaze will go, yeah, you don't want that, Okay, So, but Matt knows more about coffee than I do. But I thought this was this is just another checkbox in the kind of buy once, cry once thing, like buy something that like the the what is it Mocha Master technovorm that's something that we have the Naha.
Version of that by cells. But it's performed pretty well for y'all. It's been great. It's been great. Yeah. Well, the Mocha Master that's it's a fe hundred bucks, isn't.
It it is? I think the one I got was on sale. I think it's normally one fifty. I think I got it on self for fifty bucks. So I got a really good deal on it. But it's one of those things where I hopefully we'll have it for you know, a decade to come.
Yeah. Okay, wait, the real one, the name brand one is like three four hundred. That's like three hundred bucks. Okay, but yours normally as one hundred. You got one fifty and I got it for fifty okay, gotcha? Gotcha?
So but yeah, those those are expensive. But then again, when you think about it.
Do you take care of it though? And you keep it around? Actually, so there's an because I am a coffee nerd, there's a there's a similar Mocha Master maker that I don't know who is making it, and the way that they release different lotments of it is like
on a month to month basis. But it's I want to say, it's called like simply good Coffee or something like that, and it is based on the design of a Mocha Master, but no plastic parts, because a lot of coffee snubs are like, oh, but the plastic it absorbs the smells, the odors, it absorbs some of the oil, and it's all glass or stainless steel or something like that. And so evidently that's like the next step up that a lot of the coffee nerds are are kind of
geeking out. Okay, but again that's I mean, taking it to the next level. And I'm not necessarily wanting folks to go out there to spend money if they are completely happy with whatever they have.
The next time your coffee maker breaks, maybe, And this is the way with a lot of things in life. I think oftentimes we look to the cheapest replacement, and there is like when I'm buying chews for my kids, man, I'm not buying them, like my daughter really wants a pair of hookas right now, even on sale they're like seventy five dollars and I'm like, sorry, we just you're gonna wear them for like three months, like pretty pricey. We're not spending that much money on chooes.
But have y'all gotten those uber cheap ones? And how long do those last?
About as long as they do too, No, some of them have worn out before they were done with them.
But you gotta find the sweet spot, like that's what that's what's so tough because we've gotten the uber cheap Amazon shoes that are just like foam and cloth, and I'm like, where is the It's like it's like an animal without its bones, you know, It's like, where's the actual structure of the shoe. And then recently one of our daughter we got her a pair of new balances that were on sale and oh my goodness, they have lasted so much longer. Yeah, that than at least the phone ones.
I'll say, especially if you can hand me down or we talk about buy good stuff, but buy it secondhand as well.
Let's go yeah. Uh.
Speaking of pricing, match turns out Americans hate the idea of surveillance pricing. Dynamic pricing is one thing, right, where prices shift based on the demand or time of day. People are people are mostly used to that. At this point, we tend to understand that plane tickets are gonna they're often going to be at this sweet spot pricing around two to three months ahead of our trip. That's that's
when the lowest prices are likely to occur. But technology is making it easier for retailers to gather data on us and to charge more if they think that you or I are going to pay more. So roughly two thirds of Americans are concerned about this, and two thirds of folks who responded to this survey said they would not shop at a retailer again if they were charged more than other patrons. Just I think that it's a
general idea of unfairness that people hate. Like, wait a second, Sheila just came in here before me, and she paid twenty percent less than I did, and not just because she like cut off the coupon in the Sunday paper, but because you like her more or something like that. Like that's how people assume surveillance pricing is working, and they're not wrong to a certain extent. New York enacted a law last year requiring a clear and visible disclaimer
when a retailer uses surveillance pricing. So I'm curious to see what that's going to look like.
In the wild.
But this is a growing battle for consumers, for retailers alike, and I don't know, I'm just curious, like, do you feel the same way as the average consumer?
How do you feel about surveillance pricing? No concerns, No concerns. No, I think it's I mean, we'll see if it plays out. But like I mean, I don't think there's stores who are actually doing it in person. So oftentimes I think it comes down to surveillance. What is it's cookies, it's having your data, and I kind of see it. I also saw in that survey like that thirty percent of Americans are also thinking, oh, there's a chance this could
be more fair. And I think maybe the train of thought that those folks are entering into is the fact that, oh, retailers, once your information, they want your email and like your phone number more or less more often these days, and why because they want to market to you, like they want to like, oh, we just had a President's Day sale, right,
And so I will see it. Anytime I have been tracked, I feel like I've benefited slightly from the ability to get deals as opposed to being afraid that prices might be more expensive. But certainly look around and check and shop around see what the prices are. But I don't know. I'm so okay and used to the fact that I'm sacrificing my data being watched for the potential to get a better price at some point.
So I think it does highlight that reality that as the surveillance pricing becomes more and more of the norm, that tracking prices and not assuming that you're getting the best deal because or the deal that ever the price that everyone else is getting, just because that's the way it's always been. It's worth you know, using a site like Camel Camel Camel Tech actually track prices what's been happening in the past with the past pricing of this
item and shopping around with different providers. Instead of the people who are going to pay the most are the people who are hyper loyal and are not doing their due diligence.
I totally agree. Well, buddy, let's keep moving. I think we could cover the facts that headline credit card debt just hit a record high. That's something we could talk about every week every Friday.
Here he doesn't ever seem to go down, does it.
It did for a minute there posts when we were getting all the stimum money.
Isn't that always interesting too? How Like when the economic hold savings on the end, Well, when economic times are toughest, people tend to draw back and they start to pay off debt. When times are good, people are like, ah, let's keep spending.
People are assessing their own finances to the extent that they're willing to right like, because it seems like a lot of folks are getting sloppy with their money. But what that means is that they're just comfortable with that amount of debt. Essentially, it turns out we're almost at one point three trillion dollars now. Specifically in credit card debt,
I think it's like one point two to eight. But there's been a large rise in credit card loans that are also in serious delinquency, So folks are in over their heads to the point that they can't pay the minimum. And on top of that, man as we invent newer forms of debt like buy not pay later, paying for all of these different companies, I think it's harder to have a finger on the pulse of exactly how debt
laden US consumers are right now. So although forty six percent of Americans carry a credit card balance, we are very much against you caring a balance, certainly, how to money listeners, it's just so difficult to overcome a twenty plus percent interest rate. These are not the escalator steps that we want you running up as it's come down.
It's just incredibly hard and you might be thinking it's not that much, Well, you know what, even it's just the principle, like, we don't want you paying that, even if it is quote unquote manageable.
That makes me think about the end of my conversation with Shauna Game earlier this week, and the one thing I just want to respond to it. I was like, what piece of personal finance advice or a rule or you okay breaking? And she was like having credit card debt? And I was like, no, agree or disagree on that one. It's just to me, there's nothing good that comes from it.
And don't want to hit restart on another thirty minute conversations where we could just talk about credit card because.
I think it's just so detrimental and we've gotten way too used to carrying some credit card debt with us wherever we go. It's like this little little satchel that we have attached to our back for the average American, and there's like, I guess this is normal, but it's just it's not normal. And the quicker we get rid of it, the more easily we're going to be able to make progress towards all the other financial goals that we have. But eliminating the credit card debt from your
life is such a important part of that. You don't want to be a part of that one point to eight trillion dollars.
Statistic to do it. Don't do it.
But in default on all kinds of debts are rising right now. The share of US loans in any type of delinquency is the highest it's been since twenty seventeen, So we were starting to enter just another dismal period of debt reality in the United States.
Right now.
Delinquency rates across all US household debt hit the highest level in basically a decade. And this default uptick is hitting folks with high incomes too, so it's not just people on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum. Debt to income ratios are rising quickly as well, so for the longest time, there was very little mortgage delinquency. That's
even ticking up, which kind of makes sense. If you bought a home in the last couple of years, you paid a good amount, you paid a lot for it, and you also have a high interest rate, and you're struggling to make that mortgage payment for the first time in a long time, you might not be able to sell it for what you paid for it, and yeah,
you might be a risk for default. We've talked about the pitiful state of student loan and car loans quite a bit on the show recently too, So there's just a lot of negative stuff happening in the debt space. Sam Rowe put it this way. Matt, I thought this was well tempered. He said, well, we've experienced in recent years his household finance is normalizing from unusually strong levels to relatively worse levels, and he says they're arguably still good. I think good is an.
Overstatement because it's a relative term. Yeah, is relative to Matt and Joel. No. No, but like what we want for that's not what we want for you, Like you said, we want folks like we just have a higher standard for folks out there, right, But for average Americans, I understand what he's getting at, which is that essentially we are returning to kind of that pre pan level which
wasn't like terrible, wasn't terrible term. I think it's really easy to see the headline number go up and not think about all the other relative factors at play in household finances, and so people will use that as like scare mongering headlines, But the truth is we're not in the best spot, and these numbers reflect real people who are in a tough financial situation. They're not handling their
finances all that well. Totally. Yeah, I think it's time for folks to I think what's going to happen is folks are going to start tightening up a little bit and they're going to realize that oh okay, starting to
see delinquencies on the rise. And as for individuals like I do wonder because like the slight good news on a very macro level, like at a very high levels, that we are seeing inflation come down, right like recent numbers have shown that, and also real wages we've seen that go up, and so I would not be surprised. I mean, again, hopefully some people will use this to
their advantage. What we don't want is folks to hear that and to say, oh, I'm going to automatically get out of debt because inflation is coming down, real wages are going up. That's not how it works. Like a lot of times, what could easily happen is you would say, oh, now my money can go further and I can buy more stuff. Like it takes that's the typical American response. Yes, it takes you being I guess waking up and realizing going by like the earnestness and like going after something.
It takes you realizing that, oh, nobody cares about my money as much as I do, Like there is nobody else who's going to step up to and like you can turn to money management international, We've talked about them before. You can go with different organizations that can like walk alongside you and help you to claw your way out of a massive hole of debt. But nobody truly is going to care or should be caring as much as you do. So on a personal level, I think it
takes individuals wanting something better for themselves. If that is you, If let's say you are in a situation, you've got a ton of debt and someone's calling you. They're hounding you about that debt. It is important to know your rights. The FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, they just put out a notice about what debt collectors can and can't do.
I'm supposed to realize that there are laws in place, and debt collectors are required to send you valid information about the debt that they call about within five days of that phone call. So the Fair Debt Collecting Practices Act, it requires calls also to be between eight and nine pm. So what that means is no eight am and nine PMS. What did I say?
You just said eight and nine, but I'm sorry eight Yeah, eight in the morning. They don't have just one hour. They got most of the day. But if they're calling you early in the morning or late at night, they're in violation of this federal law.
Yeah, specifically the like super late, middle of the night kind of harassment calls. So know that they are not allowed to call after nine pm. And if you say that your employer forbids them to call you at work, that's something that they have to respect. They can't call you if you deny it. While you're at work, and they can't threaten illegal actions. You can even demand that they stop contacting you all together. Now, keep in mind,
this doesn't mean that debt automatically goes away. You're just kind of hitting the mute button on on. You're turning off your ringer essentially on the debts collections alarm. And of course, if that debt is yours, like you do still have to pay it, but just know your rights. If you find yourself in a debt collection situation to where it feels like if it's starting to stress you out a little bit, that you've got some options.
Yeah, and there are a lot of I think debt collectors who do their job well, uh and it's just a tough business to be in. But then there are also a lot of people who have given the debt collection industry a black eye because they treat people so poorly. And it's really important for you as the as the individual, as the consumer to know what your rights are so that you're not getting taken advantage of or treated maliciously
when that's not allowed, that's not legal, that's right. Are we got more to get to Matt including man, can your pet be a provider tax benefit for you. We'll get to that and more right after this.
Oh okay, we're back, and it is now time for the Ludacris headline of the week, which is from the Washington Post. And this is a I think this is gonna be a dooozy Joel. Pets are family, but can you claim them as dependents on your tax return? Which I gotta say, this feels a little a little clickbaity.
I do not think of my cats. We have two cats. I do not think of them as a part of our family in the way that I think of my children as part of our family.
I do wonder if this is like a new strategy after the washing posts are they're trying to get profitable again, essentially, but it seems like they're going in the direction of like BuzzFeed and maybe like the Daily Mail, as opposed to like they didn't lay off a lot of folks. They don't really substantive journalism. They don't support what their
mission is right now over there, do they? Yeah? So, I know so by you saying that you don't see your cats as family, Joel, you know what you are tacitly admitting is that pets aren't the same as humans. Pets are not the same as kids, despite what some people think. Matt, It's true. Okay, yeah, they're not the same, right Joel. Directly, folks, it's totally cool.
If you have a pet that is near and dear to your heart.
I like my cats.
I think my wife and children love them more. But they snucked up with them a whole lot more than the stuff up with me. They know they're not going to get the same love, right, But that's because they know that tall guy with the mustache I got a cold heart, right, that's right. I'm a little grinchy at times, but I think just the assumption, it was just interesting.
This article is all about how some people think, because their pets are so near and dear to them, that they deserve or are likely to get, some sort of dependent tax break. Get it's so insane tax credit for having animals, because I mean, so you get the child tax.
Credit, right, it's like two grand or whatever. And I get. I mean there's two there's two separate conversations going on here, right, Like, on one hand, we're talking about the potential for pets to be considered family, and I think that's totally fine. Like there's plenty of folks out there, and they don't just like their cats, Joel, they love them. Yeah, I don't know if I've ever like we've talked about how we've had dogs and whatnot. I don't know if I've
like shared how much. And I would say that I loved my dog, like we had a great day Stella, like we had her for so long. You have a portrait of her. That's how much dude? Were those like it was a watercolor that a friend did after she passed. It was the and I don't you want to talk about I'll probably start tearing up, but like the decision to have to put her down, and she had she was sick and had cancer. Dude, it like wrecked us, Like we I was surprised at how much it destroyed
Kidenite specifically. But there is a big difference even still from like loving your pet and also expecting to receive some sort of like government tax credit because oh, kids get tax tax breaks, And I think folks are only looking at the finances because they're like, well, I spend more on my dog than you spend on your kids, So like, why don't I get a tax break, but there's a I would say there's a difference, and I
would say that most there is a difference. First Americans probably agree, that's why it's why pets don't get Social Security numbers, you know, like just because he's not the same just well yeah, and just because the irs requires that you're dependent be a human.
It doesn't seem that controversial to me, but I guess it is in some corners of the internet. And so I love it if you love your animal to that extent. But same here, No, there is there is no tax benefit for that love. Speaking of offspring, Matt and Love, Babysitting is expensive. Sometimes you gotta have childcare for your pets and for your.
Maybe you should have fewer kids and more cats. That's one of your selling points on Cats are easier, you let them go for the weekend, easier to leave town.
It costs a whole lot less. You don't have to board them or put them up. You have to someone come by and check every third day.
That's pretty nice. It is nice not gonna lie.
So cat's overdogs for that reason, although I don't know, part of me wants like a Golden Retriever someday, So that'd be pretty cool one of these days. But I think you and I were both both basically at this point where we're past the phase of needing a whole bunch of childcare. Occasionally, right, it's necessary, especially if like we're going on a longer away trip or something like that, but mostly when it's just a quick night out, our
oldest they can watch their siblings. But this website Urban Sitter tracks the national hourly rate for a babysitter. It was kind of shocking to me. I didn't realize it was this bad. Twenty six dollars an hour for one kid, thirty bucks an hour for two kids.
That's the going rates on average across the country. That in sane. That blew my mind.
Obviously, it costs more in big cities like San Francisco, big expensive cities. It costs less in you know, smaller cities like San Antonio, for instance. But that's so much money, and babysitting is a tough job. I get it, babysitters deserved to get paid. But if you've got kids, consider the date night swap. If this is if you're like, oh man, the date nights feel so expensive because not only were we going out to dinner or a show
or something like that. But we're also having to pay the babysitter, and my goodness is not as cheap as it used to be Dad's. We'd have How long did we.
Do the baby night? The date night swap? Was that for? We did it for a solid decade, ten years, man, because it was once the once the big garil start once they get past that ten year mark. Yes, went around when they were eleven. I think that's yeah pretty much.
Yeah, So basically that means I would put we would put our kids to bed, then you would come over and just hang out while read, watch TV, do push ups whatever you like to do. Never did push up, and then vice versa. The next week, I'd be over at your house. And that saved us so much money and just made date nights more regular and more affordable. So if if you're looking for like some some cheap ways to finagle and reduce your babysitting bill, consider.
That big fans of the date night swap. So the opposite of having young ones is being a being old Joel being a boomer, I guess unless you are Robert de Niro, didn't he have a new baby with his young wife when he was like eighty years old. I think he was in his early eighties. He just had a baby. Yeah, So, okay, we talked about the K shaped economy at the beginning of the year, But the gray shaped economy, that's the new cutesy term that folks
are throwing around. That's because more consumer spending is being done by older Americans right now. More of them own a home, more of them own stocks, which means they have done overwhelmingly well on the wealth front, and they've gotten significantly richer over the past five years. It makes a lot of sense, right, and so they're often spending from wealth, not income, And it's just fascinating and it makes sense. It's something that I think a lot of
folks as to get older. It's a difficult thing to grapple with as.
Well, but isn't that's something we're kind of all striving for.
It is what we're going for, absolutely, right.
Is to be able to amass enough wealth to where we don't have to have a day job at some point.
Right.
That's financial independence. That's kind of the for a lot of how money listeners.
Yeah, I guess I'm thinking about making the transition from living off of your income as opposed to living off your wealth, Right, is that something I think that's what's tough to grapple with because when your entire life you are being told, oh, you gotta safe, you got to invest, as opposed to saying, oh, yeah, I'm actually going to spend down on this sum. And it seems like the older generation is so it's not a wonderful data point
for our economy as a whole. But this does point to a necessity for younger folks, which is that ownership is really crucial. Man, Like, we want folks to be owners. We want you to buy stocks by rental properties if you are so inclined to be a real estate investor, we want you to build that wealth. And basically, we don't want your spending to be wholly dependent on your
income for forever at some point. Yeah, like you said, Joel, that is the goal to kind of shift gears, to start dreaming about what life might be like once you are fully quote unquote traditionally retired. Yeah. It's easy to see these.
Stories on the Great Economy and be like, man, must be nice, right, But the reality is that in four decades, three decades, three decades for us, probably four decades from our listeners. That is the goal, right, that's where we're headed. If we consistently do the right things that we are spending, we're able to help keep the economy afloat, I guess because we have more money to spend because we've done smart things with our money in here. Now, all right,
let's talk about prediction markets, Matt. They raked it in during the Super Bowl. Man, some of the statistics that I saw were stunning. Didn't realize that people were taking quite to this extent. Well, Calshiet downloads and daily active users were up an insane amount. Nearly two million folks were actively wagering on predictions on game day, apparently, with more than a billion dollars being traded. That's not even counting polymarket.
That's literally just calcul money.
And it wasn't just basic stuff like the outcome of the game, right, which is, you know, I'm gonna put a hundred bucks on the Seahawks to win then and you make you know, ninety seven dollars or whatever it is. But it was wagers on a slew of oddities like bad Bunny's outfit. Was he gonna wear a skirt I think was one of them, which I didn't. I didn't realize he was famous for that because I just am not I'm clueless as an older millennium about what political
statements were going to be made. You could bet on ads that would run during the game itself. You could even bet on whether the word polymarket would get used in the broadcast at some point in the evening. And this, just, Matt feels like peak gambling insanity to me. I mean, I hope it's peaked, but in fact, I don't think it is. I think we're still just at the forefront of this, especially when you're looking at what's on the dock at sports Wise March Madness World Cup coming down
the pike shortly. It's true, we'll write about more on this in the head of Money newsletter this coming week, but this is just one of those things. I read those numbers and I'm just I'm saddened because I think so many people are are wasting time and energy that could be better spent in other places. And just think
about yeah, twenty bucks here, thirty bucks there. One not only is it that can lead to addiction, but two that money it could be represent meaningful dollars tossed toward your nest egg to build for your future.
Maybe this is just me being overly optimistic, but I hope that there is spending that has taken place when it comes to gambling like this that is just being substituted from other areas in life where maybe it would have been wasted, like you're entertainment budget. Yeah, so like prior to online, prior to the widespread social acceptance of
gambling on your phone. Before that, maybe folks were out in public in person, you know, blowing some money on you know, at a restaurant or a bar, like a night out, that sort of thing, which you could argue, well,
that's a better way to spend money. You are stimulating the you know, the economy, you're supporting local jobs, a local business, you're having I think maybe the best argument would be, oh, you're doing something with real people, like you were doing something with friends, and so from a societal level, I could see the argument being made that, like, you know, things are worse because at least before feel like maybe a more wholesome waste of money as opposed
to this, which feels just like a complete hole where this is just like money that's it's like it feels like it's falling out of the bottom of your wallet as opposed to receiving any benefit from it.
Going to a casino with a couple of friends would be I think, a very different vibe than just sitting on your couch and like making predictions about stupid stuff.
It's a completely different thing. Think about the Hangover, Like, I don't even know if people would get it. Yeah, if the Hangover came out today, because they're like, wait, people go to Vegas and party and place bets.
But I and I would hope that you're right too. But I don't know if it is, but I'm pretty sure.
It's not true.
And I think that would be like seeing the world through Pollyanna towards sort of glasses. To think that people are like, well, let me take some money from my uh, from my entertainment budget, and I'm kind of putting it towards this new set of golf clubs.
I'm going to put it towards.
FanDuel gambling or Calshi sports bets predictions and stuff like that. I think what's happening is people are are using money that they don't have. Sure they're enticed by the apps. Is it more gambling? But is it more than what they're spending before?
Right? So maybe I think it is for many people. Maybe we can look at credit card levels prior to Calshi, prior to polymarkets.
We can't even look at just the number of calls going going into just the national gambling hotline.
Right, There's totally more people gambling, for sure, But again, are we substituting usually accolism, Are we substituting other mental disorders or you know, diseases truly that folks were experiencing before, and instead they're kind of The funnel for online gambling is certainly larger. I just hope that that means that it's pulling away from some of the other quote unquote acceptable vices from last decade as opposed to what is acceptable today, which is online gambling.
If that were the case, who would make it at least slightly less egregious?
Yes, But like you said, is that the case? I don't know. But similar to wagering on random predictions. Bitcoin, man, it is not for the faint of heart. The price has been cut in half over the past six months. That being said, I think volatility it's also crypto's calling card. But hotal investors, right, so hold on for dear life. They're used to the wild swings. But folks are trying to figure out why the price has collapsed so quickly, and it seems like Bitcoin purps they seem to be
one of the culprits. Perps are essentially a debt vehicle allowing investors to buy futures contracts, so purpse stands for perpetual, so it's sort of this never ending perpetual contract that gets extended off into the horizon. And the problem is is that the lower the price of bitcoin goes, the more folks who bet on rising prices get wiped out,
which then exacerbates the problem. Basically, their loans were getting called as the prices drop, so they have to come up with more money to be able to back those contracts, meaning that they're having to sell more of their bitcoin at a loss, which is driving the prices even lower. So the moral of the story, even if you believe in the future of bitcoin, the gambling esque behavior that we're seeing exhibited in the space is very unsettling, and I think it contained a whole lot of folks views
of their quote unquote investments. And it's another reason to keep crypto, your crypto exposure to a minimum, and definitely to not take debt vehicles in order to buy mort It's the worst, Yeah, because if you look, yeah, diversify, Man, this five percent or less. I'm totally fine if folks have some Bitcoin, but keep it to five percent or less, because guess what isn't down? I think on the year, I don't know, maybe we're kind of flat that s ANDP.
I think we're in the green. I know if you look at the past year, like we're up over ten percent. If you look at the past twelve months, that is not the case for bitcoin. I'll tell you what.
Well, Ben McKenzie, who I'm efforting to get on the show, Matt, we'll see if let's make it happen. He's like was in I think The od Yeah, so, which I never
really watched, and so I'm no I did. I'm not a fan of him as an actor necessarily, but he is a He calls himself a closet economist because he actually has an economics degree and he had he wrote a book about I think his his hatred for a cryptocurrency and he's got a movie coming out later this year, and he made this great video that's kind of been
circling the interwebs. Is one of our listeners reached out and shared it with me, and man, he just is like talking smack about bitcoin, cryptocurrency and how these assets essentially become a part of the regulated financial system via exchange traded funds, and and when institutional investors apparently started cashing out, he said, you know, they were selling shares when bitcoin was peaking. That also helped to push prices down.
And so I think there's still a lot of reason to tread lightly with cryptocurrency, even though bitcoin, in my mind, is the least risky of all the cryptocurrencies. Right there's potential for bitcoin, and we've talked about the show. On the show, we've had experts on I still feel like a complete novice on the future bitcoin and where things
are headed. But I think what's happening right now in the space should at least just be a wake up call for anybody who might have had too rosy a view of where things were headed and how quickly they were going to get there.
Yeah, totally agree. I saw that video as well, and he's talking about, and I agree with him that the biggest risk could be with all the institutional investors pulling back. The worst case scenario is that it takes down the entire system right like it's another contagent effect massive crash. I personally don't think and you can time stand that. I can't imagine that's going to happen because institutional investors, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, are
smarter than retail investors. Their hedging their bets a little bit, they're looking at the risk, they're not leveraging themselves like a lot of individual investors who were holdling and then all of a sudden all of their purps are getting called. And I mean they're just in the tank, as opposed to institutional investors who by giving their firms any exposure
at all or taking a lot of risks. So I can't imagine that there's a whole lot of big player, high level investors who are also in the toilet that could potentially cause a casting effect. But you never know, you never know. I hope you're right fingers crossed. This is again me being optimistic and pollyannish and hoping for the best.
That's usually my role on this podcast, Matt, how dare you?
How are you? Steal my thunder? That's how I roll.
Sometimes I'll allow it, but today only all right, that's going to do it for this episode. We'll put links to some of the stories we mentioned up in the show notes on the website at how toomoney dot com. Don't forget to sign up for the how to Money newsletter comes out every Tuesday at how to money dot com slash newsletter.
That's right, So that's going to be it, buddy, until next time. Best turns out, Best Friends Out.