Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt, and today we're talking about avoiding up cells, hoa hell and astrological investing.
Dude, I don't think I realized how many folks are into astrology. Did I tell you about how so our local mountain that we like to that we often hike at the top there, there's it's pretty bare, right, so it's just a bunch of rock essentially, and there are like a bunch of crystals that were out with like some paint and some other sort of interesting stuff. I
was like, what is all this? And somebody was like, oh, that's it was like a full moon and folks will put their crystals out to absorb the energy from the moon. I guess, okay, or maybe at certain stars. Have you ever heard of that kind of thing?
And I mean, I know that there's people who do that, that it exists, and I think it's been going up in popularity. It makes me think of when we had Cody Sanchez. She was into crystals, remember that, Oh that was like her, that was her sporge. I think was really buying crystals, that's right.
Yeah.
I don't know much about it though, but we are going to talk a little bit about astrology and how some people are, especially younger folks, are letting the alignment of the stars impact how they choose to invest, thinking they might do better in the long run. But before we get to that, Matt, let's talk about the Built Card. It's one of the best credit cards out there. We've talked about specifically for renters. So homeowners, Sorry, you can't
get rewarded for paying your mortgage with a credit card? Yeah, but renters and can.
And for a while there we were saying, hey, homeowners, hang time, because maybe this will be something that becomes an option for you. It's looking like that's less or less going to be an option. That's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. And why is that not going to happen? Well, it's the reason it's not going to happen is because the Built Card is losing the issuing which as well as Fargo ten million dollars a month.
There was a profile in the Wall Street Journal specifically about this card, and obviously it's been a boon for renters. They're you know, earning points and significant amounts of cash back on a no fee credit card. This doesn't come with an annual fee, and so for renters out there, the bill card is like one you should have in
your wallet. How long will it be around? That remains to be seen because the bank is getting screwed because they made prognostications about the type of people who would open one of these cards up and what they have found is the folks using this credit card have pretty healthy finances.
They aren't keeping a balance well, So.
I think it's less about having healthy find it like, think about it, like, how do banks actually make money?
Like yes, like you've got your anual fees, but you make money on the balances that you don't pay off, right, Like you the idea from the bank's point of view, I'm thinking like an evil bank, right, I got my monocle in my eye, and you want folks to have plastic and go out there and to rack up a bunch of charges that you're not necessarily planning on and then oh the statement hits and you're like, oh, dang it,
I don't have enough money to pay this off. You carry a balance boom, you're paying interest in the banks making money, and the.
Bank says you're a good customer.
Exactly. But what charge are we talking about here that folks are opening or applying for the bill card specifically for their rent that is not a surprise payment like that.
Literally they're called renters like it's built into the name, the name of folks who are renting apartments, and so it's just I don't think there's any other monthly expense that folks are so used to paying if you are a renter, as opposed to something that you might see on the shelf or there's a sale, folks are prepared to pay off that balance people in every single month. People who get that card, they're using it for rent payments, and I don't think they're using it for a whole lot else.
I think we've talked about it. It's their quote unquote rent card, right exactly. And there are other things you can use it for than be I think like paying for your cell phone service with the bill card. That's nice because it comes with that cell phone protection. It's one of the best credit cards for cel phone protection too. But yeah, it's the Wells Fargo is shocked that they're losing so much money, should be shocked though.
That's I guess that's that's what I'm thinking.
I don't know. I think they've inked this deal for years to come, so they're not gonna be able to get out of this perpetual money losing situation. It's just another reminder. Yes, the bank's losing money, but maybe you, if you're a renter, should help them lose even more money and go sign up for this card because it's the only way to actually get rewarded for paying your rent. There has been no other card before this, and they're.
Probably because they're going to learn from Wills Fargo's mistakes. It's almost as if the branding worked too well, Like they branded it too hard as the only car that you can put your int on, and if you have siloed that card, it's no wonder that they're losing money because folks are they're using it as a tool, and they're like they're using that card judiciously as opposed to getting sucked into how you would typically spend when you're
shopping online. You know, it's like it's the opposite of like Klarna or four monthly installments.
Yeah, I'm not shocked at this. I don't think you are either, but it's just how how badly this has played out for the banks, and how well it's played out for consumers is impressive.
Who's losing money more Washington Post on a daily basis or Wells Fargo with the built card.
It's probably the Washington Post, but it's it's close. But we'll actually link to the review that we have up on how to money dot Com of the Built card. Matt and I homeowners, we can't take advantage of this, but if you're a renter, you might still find And I think there's still a lot of years left that this that Wells Fargo and built are tied together, so it's not like it's going away soon, but it might go away in the future. But while the Sunshine and Maky.
I wouldn't be surprised too. If it's in the find type that they can change the different payouts. So we'll see maybe, but for now it exists. All right, let's move ont. Let's get to the Friday Flight. It's a quick sampling of stories we found interesting this week. We've already kind of started the Friday Flight, I guess, so that was kind of a time a little more newsworthy.
All right, well, let's talk about one of our favorite cheap travel hacks. Now we've talked about this, but we haven't talked about it in a long time. Megabus, it's the one of the cheapest ways to get around the country is by taking a bus. We're so used to taking flights, and flights have you gone down dramatically in price in recent years?
I get that.
I just booked some Southwest flights recently on a sale they had a couple of weeks ago. Well, Megabus is filed for bankruptcy, and a single tear came to my eye when I read that, because I have enjoyed a few trips on Megabus. Myself has been a Megabus patron. Yeah, it's been a while, but I'm like, I want them to be around. I'll probably use it in the future at some point, but unlow you won't You really.
Think you'll use them in the future, Yeah, for sure. Okay, do they have seats as low as a dollar? And it's I think, I just you don't have.
To go through the rigamarole of security getting the airport, if it's a.
Little to get to the actual bus stop. If you're sitting there, it takes so much longer. Like we always talk about how your time is worth money, and like, I think it's a decent option for folks who might have a like have some additional time. But like, but it's not even sometimes you'll give it a shot, all right, Sometimes it's additional time.
But guess what, when you're on a bus, you can do a lot of other productive things. And there's Wi Fi on that bush. So you do that on a plane too, you can, but then you've got to go through, like I just said, the security all that kind of stuff depends how far you're going. If you're going on like a five or six hour bus ride, well versus a plane trip, well, the economics are better of the
bus and the time is about equal. And so yeah, post COVID, the airline travel bounce back, but bus travel hasn't seen the same resurgence, and so that is why megabus is dealing with these financial issues. The good news is though Megabus is going to remain in service while they're filing for bankruptcy. So I don't know. I think it's good. I think for regional travel, don't forget about
bus travel. And some people, Matt, they are cheaper like me, and they're willing to, like, hey, save fifty bucks because that's how much less expensive bus travel is. And guess what, I can sleep on the bus, or I can get some work done because there's a Wi Fi too. I don't know. I think when you're taking trips in that four to eight hour range, bus travel can be better than driving in flying.
Well, I'm just gonna point out you can do work on a plane. You can also sleep on a plane. I would say better, perhaps even on the plane, because you kind of got that nice plane drone going on
that somehow just puts me to sleep. And you mentioned the one dollar like because you know they've got it painted on the actual buses, and like the fact is, like those seats are incredibly limited, like sometimes it's only like a single seat on an entire bus route in order for them to be able to advertise that.
I just looked up a recent round trip fair though, and it wasn't dollar seats, but it would have been forty bucks round trip to the destination. I was thinking, I guess, I'm like a similar plane flight could have been one to eighty So you're talking about a significant gap.
Possibly, Yeah, I guess for folks though, who have a like a solid vehicle, like you're going to take your car, and.
So specifically a lot more than that smifically multitask in the same way in a.
Car like that's per ticket, right, And so if.
You're because you're not interested, and it doesn't mean other people aren't.
I think other people might. But also if you have your own vehicle, like the convenience of having all your stuff in your own vehicle, especially the more people you pile into the vehicle, like it makes me think of like in college, like when you would go on a road trip. The more the merrier, because that's just another person that can ship into the cost of gas. But I think especially for folks who might live in a bigger city who don't have a car, this is the
affordable option absolutely. But for folks who have a car, man, I can't imagine there are too many folks who are thinking, oh, yeah, I want to catch a ride an uber, get a friend, drop me off at the bus stop so I can save twenty bucks, when instead I can just hop in the car and it's gonna be more than twenty bucks.
It just it depends. It can be expensive and run the numbers. But bus travel underrated all right, Speaking of traveling, the mat. If you are traveling by plane and you're thinking about going internationally, it's crucial to check your passport expiration date. My older sister found herself in a conundrum the other the other day she bought the plane ticket for herself and for her son to go travel down to Panama, and her son got stranded at home because
they had an updated his passport. And so it's really crucial to do well in advance of your trip, because, yeah, you don't want that money to go to waste. We talked a while back about the State Department allowing for the online renewal of passports, and I actually got in on that during the very small window that they had that available. It was like this short lived pilot program. But they have resuscitated it. It's back and it's a
big time saver. So you got to be over the age of twenty five to have had a passport for at least ten years. And the State Department says they're going to have a limited number of slots available for online renewal each day. So our advice to you is to get up early, get that application submitted if you need to renew your passport. It's so much better than driving somewhere waiting in line, which is what you had
to do, sadly, Matt. So it is the online. We can do so many things online now, renewing the passport. It just makes sense and it's going to, like I think it's going to make renewing your passport much less of a hassle.
So yeah, I think I waited close to an hour, although that was last year when travel was super hot. Travels down this year. So if you don't happen to be able to do it online, maybe it won't be quite.
As bad for you, but at least look into it.
But while we're talking about traveling, the Journal just wrote about how good airlines are at upselling their passengers. They've been decoupling the price of the ticket as well as extra conveniences for years now, and the price of the ticket now gets your button the seat, but it doesn't get you a whole lot else. If you want to be able to pick your specific seat, that's going to be an extra or twenty bucks. If you want to be at the front of the line, well you're gonna
pay for that as well. The cost of a something beyond like a small backpack that you can shove into the little metal box that's obviously going to uh if you do it there at the gate, is going to cost you, like even maybe more than the ticket.
We saw that in our last trip. A couple of yesaw their bags fit, they didn't quite fit, and then.
They had two additional bags, like eighty bucks a pop.
No, it was one hundred. They spent two hundred bucks.
A lot of money. But here's the thing we're not We're not highlighting this because we dislike it. Actually, personally, I think this is a great thing because it gives you optionality.
Like in our our backsit we didn't have to pay well.
Because we knew ahead of sign But the ability essentially to not pay for a bunch of extras that you're not going to take advantage of gives people the ability to travel for less when maybe otherwise they would not
be able to take that flight. Like if you are the one taking advantage of all the goodies, all the extras, okay, well maybe you're actually making out like a bandit, But like I don't necessarily want to subsidize a guy in front of me, like chucking cokes or like the supply of snacks on like a three hour flight when instead I might go with an option that allows me to decouple the price of the ticket from those additional perks.
And really what that means is for savvy travelers, more money. You're able to save more money you can funnel towards additional trips. If that's your jams right, all right, So this is not a dental advice map, but on the note of travel, people should consider open jaw to save money. We talked about open jaw very much. No, yeah, it sounds like something a dentist would take you to open your jaw. Well, what is an open jaw trip?
Actually, no, the dentistas that close your jaw like you're supposed to breathe through your nose.
No, but they have to open it so they can open your mouth. Yes, they can clean it if you're close. If your jaw is closed, they can't really do much with your teeth, right, gotcha, got you gotta do some work. Well, open jaw flights or when you fly into one city and out of another, and it can save you hundreds
of dollars taking this strategy. This could work particularly well for like, let's say a trip to Europe that you might be planning because that way, not only does it potentially save you money, but you don't have to navigate back to starting city if you're planning on bouncing around
to multiple spots. And yeah, the money saving is the thing we care about the most, because all it takes is some planning, some flexibility, some creativity in searching four flights to and from multiple destinations on a site like Google Flights that can help you take your trip for far less than you might have thought on the front end, like hey, yep, I'll maybe I'll fly into Rome and then I'll fly out of Amsterdam and check and seat like some do some searches, like spend thirty minutes checking
a bunch of destinations to and from and you might find Wait, I thought my trip to Europe was gonna cost me nine hundred and fifty bucks. Oh, it's only gonna cost me six to fifty if I plan it out this way. And I think, yeah, that incentive makes me want to do some creative search.
It's funny that you mentioned in Italy because that's literally turns out I've been an open jaw travel did you didn't share why it's called open jaw? So it's called open jaw because imagine like a sideways V, like a greater greater than symbol, Like basically you're flying in and out of a different city essentially, so it kind of looks like an open mouth. That's exactly what I did when we backpacked Italy back when I was in college.
We flew into Milan because at least at the time, that was the absolute cheapest flight, and then we popped around, like, we checked flights out of Italy from different cities, and it turned out that flying out of Venice was going to be the most affordable option. So we're like, boom, that's what we're flying in and what seven days later we're flying out of there? Yeah, what we do in the middle.
So it's up to us, Right, that's totally the way to do it. Just because most people book straight up round trip to and from the same destination. Just because that is the norm doesn't mean it's the way you're going to save the most money.
All Right. Here is some news that actually may not be news to you if you are a part of an HOA, but they can be unpredictable, especially if you've I don't know how to run in with your hoa.
If you still got your Christmas decorations up, you deserve the notices you're getting.
All right, This is an extreme example, but Yahoo Finance they published an article about a Florida condo association that's levying a six figure special assessment.
Hundred thousand dollars.
It's like one hundred and thirty four thousand dollars per unit. There's a new law in Florida and they're forcing older condo complexes to shore up their structural or potential structural issues. This is, of course, in the wake of the surf Side condo collapse. Gosh, how long ago was that now a.
Couple of years.
But those updates they can be insanely expensive, causing many to just leave to vacate their condos instead of forking of a massive chunk of change because they can't afford it. But then on top of that, potential buyers they're wary too, which means sales price are shrinking. So we are We're pointing this out because sixty percent of new builds these days come with an HOA, and depending on your opinion, like there are certainly pros to having an HOA, but
there's cons too. Of course, the financial side of it, and so we want folks to be careful. Look at the financial standing of your HOA, look at the reserves, make sure there are reserves. Maybe even talk to somebody that's either on the board, maybe talk to other residents that are under that HOA before you move forward, because if not, it could come back to bite you.
And it might sound nice that, oh man, the monthly agoafe, it's so small. It's one hundred and twelve dollars a month or something like that, and look at all the amenities it comes with, but that could be an artificially
low amount. Makes My mother in law bought a condo, like I guess, this was probably ten years ago in Atlanta, and she found out quickly that that low hoafe, well, they hadn't bumped it up in a long time, and so then they had a deferred maintenance, a lot of deferred maintenance, and then they had the levy a special assessment. Not six figures fortunately, but I want to say it was like six thousand dollars. So if you're not planning for that, it can derail you. Right Like most people,
they're not equipped to handle that. And you have to realize that's a possibility with homeowner associations. We actually have a new article up on the site that we'll link to about the pros and cons of hoas it can potentially help protect your property value, but can also on the flip side, cost you a lot of money and you might get hit with a giant bill that you weren't expecting.
Yeah. Plus, so we're talking about the financial side of it, but don't forget about like all the drama side of things as well. Oh yeah, you're signing up for There's
just a whole lot more that goes into it. And honestly, that is hoa's or I always say, the lack of an HOA where we currently live, like that is one of the that's a big reason why we're not considering some of these other neighborhoods that are near us and instead we're about to renovate our homes because we don't have an HOA, which means we have the freedom and the autonomy to do not exactly like whatever we wanted, but within the city rules and stuff. Yeah, exactly like
within good days. Like dude, some neighborhoods like you can't even put playhouses or structures in it, like in your backyard, not the front yard like in the backyard.
Well, one of my friends he bought a condo down in Florida and the HOA was so poorly runs. He said, the only way that I could that things could turn around is if I ran for president. He ran for president. Now he's got a part time job being the HOA president. This takes twenty to twenty five hours a week of
his time. It's insane, and but thank you, But that's his investment, Like he hasn't investment of this condo, and the only way to make sure that his investment stays intact is to put in all this time and effort to turn things around. So yes, hoas can be a blessing or a curse. And you just have to have your eyes wide open before you buy a home inside of an HOA neighborhood. And that's just one of the rising costs of home ownership, many of which feel hidden
from people these days. We all know about higher home prices, higher interest rates, but the annual cost of home maintenance has increased by almost thirty percent over the past few
years too. Bank Rate just did a study. They found that the average homeowner is spending eighteen thousand dollars a year in taxes, insurance, utilities and repairs, and renters, they obviously have to pay for utilities and insurance too, although their insurance renters insurance is so much cheaper than homeowner's insurance. But it's crucial to budget for these costs if you want to own a home. It's another reason I would
say renting isn't throwing away money. I think home ownership is a great goal, but you also have to realize that they're additional costs beyond the mortgage, significant additional costs.
We want folks to make informed decisions. Joel, while we are talking about real estate, let's talk about real estate investments for a second, and specifically it's talk about real estate syndication deals, because that's not something I don't think we've talked about at all, or much at all, at least maybe with on the show Braindon Turner back today.
Oh yeah, that's right. But like bottom line, one of the reasons we don't discuss these often is because they're they're only available to accredited investors, which means folks who either have like a really large net worth or a
sky high income. But Bloomberg They had an article this week about how many of these syndication deals are unraveling because of the higher interest rates because unlike your primary home financing, for these bigger real estate deals, it's not locked in for the same duration, and so what that means is that it is less insulated from the rising rates that we've been experiencing, and investors are they're finding out the hard way as quarterly payments they're drawing up,
they're capitals now at risk. And again, we want folks to be informed. Like the syndication deals, they're not the devil, but the devil is in the details. And these they're just not quite as hot as they were a couple of years ago as rates were lower, and so we want folks to be incredibly cautious with this type of investment.
Yeah, there are a lot of real estate influencers out there, Matt, who wants you to think that real estate syndication it's this private investment that other people don't want you to know about. And it's a really laid back way to invest in real estate that you don't have to get
your hands dirty buying your own property. But as people are seeing when the economic environment shifts, some syndication deals are doing quite well because the operator did their due diligence and they locked in solid financing terms for an extended period of time. But a lot of the more precarious syndication deals are falling flat and investors are losing money. So yeah, just a warning for anybody out there who
is considering going that route. We've got more to get to on this episode, including a prediction that we're in a stock market bubble. We'll talk about that and more right after this, but we are back from the break.
We got more personal finance goodness to get to today. But let's go ahead and get to the ludicrous headline of the week, and this one is from Business Insider. The headline reads, can the stars predict the stock market? Gen Z think? So you like my voice there? That's my incredulous, stupid headline voice, because obviously, first of all, the entire population, the entire gen Z generation, does not think that astrology is gonna aid them in stock picking.
I bet a gen exer wrote that headline. That does seem like a gen X kind of thing to do.
I just like stomp on the generation below me.
So the headline itself is annoying, but like it's also true that some in the younger generation, maybe they are looking for an investing edge and they are looking to astrology. Maybe they're looking to tarot cards to advise them. And one person who takes this tactic and this isn't the story, they said, I tend to long the full moon, in short, the new moon.
What do you do with the harvest moon?
Uh? What like? What does this even mean? It's just it's ridiculous. It's hard to tell how widespread this sort of approach is and what it is that you're letting influence how it is that you invest. But if you're in astrology, I think that's fine. You're in a crystals, go for it, you do you, But similar to your politics,
don't let that influence your investments. Don't let it influence how you invest when you get in and get out of the market, or even why, like your long term rationale and the reason behind what like what it is that you're investing for.
And let's be honest, if you're a twenty five year old and you think that you have special insight into the stars and how that impacts the markets, well, don't you think Neil de grasse Tyson would have figured this out by now. Don't you think he would be the billionaire? Like if there was some sort of rhyme or reason to the movement of the planets and the sun and the stars. Pretty sure that's the dude, Matt, who would have capitalized on this. Not a person fresh out of college.
See, but he he understands the stars in a different way than folks who are into astrology.
Dude, you know, like there's a spirit and there are more advanced astrologers who would have this. I'm just saying.
But what they're saying is like, oh, I've I'm at the intersection of astrology and investing. It's it's it's like the Memestock generation of folks who think that this is something that they can perhaps look to.
And I get the desire to increase your performance right there, Like it's an understandable human desire. We talked about this too, Matt. American exceptionalism almost demands that we not be average, and so inside of investing, the line that we toe is that average is the best thing for you. And I get why people want to buck against that and they
want outsized returns. But it's hard to come by, and these some of these just pie in the sky strategies aren't going to help you get there, and in fact, so much of the time you are going to lose
money by trying some novel theory of investing. Speaking of investing, a new study from Northwestern Mutual finds that younger folks are more open to AI money management tools than their boom counterparts, although for most financial planning tasks, research also showed that most people still prefer humans like fifty four percent to just AI alone fifteen percent. And so obviously AI is not like primetime. It's primetime for some things, maybe for helping you with your writing tasks or search
results something like that. Well, AI is likely going to be more of a help than a hindrance in the future, particularly when it comes to some of these money tasks, and we are seeing this transition in real time with new fintech products. Taking a copilot Matt, it's a cool budgeting tool, and they use artificial intelligence to help you categorize transactions that are specific to your budget and your situation. It gets smarter over time, right, makes that budgeting process
easier and more specific to you. Monarch money is another one that we've talked about a great budgeting app. They use AI to give you more personalized advice on their site. You can ask it questions. It can help you set goals or gain insights to your money at a deeper level. But AI can also be like a marketing buzzword, and so it makes me think of another fintech product, betterment.
They don't use artificial intelligence because what they've said is that they found that simpler approaches are more effective for them. I don't know, to boil it down, I guess I'm excited about the potential, but I'm also wary of the need for AI in a whole lot of the financial realm too.
And so much of it I think is just marketing.
I mean, like, are these companies actually using AI or are they just have they just updated their algorithms, Like right, it's all the same, Like we've been complaining about algorithms, and maybe that hasn't cause as much steam because I don't know, it's not like this a brain new sector, but like the whole just like the ads that were fed via social media, it's like, Okay, that sounds a lot like the AI that Monarch or Copilot has implemented into their budgeting, and so much of it I think
is marketing and folks looking to cash in and to show that they're forward thinking, they're you know, they're utilizing technology in order to benefit their customers and to better their products.
Yeah, but you're right, some of it is smoking mirrors.
That's what it feels like to me. And and specifically I think because of chat GPT, because it has like the way it gives you the information, it's like there's somebody, you know, it's like there's some mine behind it. It's like typing it out and you're seeing it, and it's like that's it's just like incomplete Google results that are being sort of fed to you in real time, you know, and it's just formatted in such a way that looks
like there's somebody on the other end. But so much of it I think is perception.
Even the new AI results with Google, when you see that at the very top, it's linking to multiple articles underneath ward's referencing them from and.
It's almost like the same old thing.
It's like the pull out they had before, which highlights it takes information from one article different format though it's a different format and that matters, And I guess how it is that folks interpret, and I get that it's a little different of how they may pull it off on the back end, but yeah, it is.
I think it's I think it's overblown, by the way. So we're talking about investing. Don't let the different talking heads on TV influence how you invest either. There was a segment over on Fox Business where the economist Harry Dent not to be confused with Harvey Dent, but he predicted a stock mark crash worse than the two thousand and eight crisis. The bubbles of all bubbles is what he called it. And he's predicting an eighty six percent
drop in the SMP. That's bad news, man, that'd be historic. Which, of course, this then reminds me of the phrase about econdomists predicting nine of the last three recessions. So we think this is also overblown, because, yeah, the stock market might experience a meaningful decline of twenty percent even more, that certainly could happen. Can we predict that when it's gonna happen. There's no way or if it'll happen. I'm pretty sure mister Dent that he's not going to be
able to predict it either. So we're pointing this out because we want you to stay the course. And it also makes me think about the reason so many folks get airtime like this is because when you're being cautious and you're calling for a correction, it's like, Hey, the good times they're not gonna they're not gonna last. How
is that person perceived? They're seen as wise, they're seen as prudent, as opposed to let's take out what history has actually shown us over the paste hundred years, which is that the stock market goes up three out of every four years. What do you do with that information? Will you say, oh, okay, then I'm just going to continue to invest no matter what. Well, what is the summary of if you take that sort of mindset, Oh, you're seen as naive, you're pollyannish at the very least,
being the most interous. You're seeing as just overly optimistic. But that's the reality. But obviously that doesn't get the headline, that doesn't get the clicks.
And I don't think it means that we're not seeing any frothy behavior in the stock market or that there isn't going to be some reversion to the meme because I've seen outside gains over.
Talk to UST few years, Talk to me four years, yeah, you know, talk to me after a decade.
I think if you're going to ask either of us, will the stock market be at higher levels in four years than it is today? I mean for sure?
Yes, yes?
Does that mean we won't experience a lot of volatility in between.
In the daytime? We probably will, But it doesn't matter because we're not investing for the short term. Yeah, we're investing for the long term. That's right.
Let's talk about spaving math. Have you heard of this term before? I did not until this article. Okay, so it's another dumb trend cult spaving that the USA Today highlighted this week. And I don't know, maybe this is just another term that the young kids are using and you and I are too old to realize it. Now we are over the hill. That's always stupid terms. We'll get us stay up to speed on our vocabulary, though. And so this is a new term though for something it's old.
For Joel, your riz is off the chain this morning.
I don't think he's say off the chain anymore? Run riz?
Yes, Well, I was combining the two. Okay, it's like, yes.
All right, I appreciate like it, Yeah, nicely done, but okay. So spaving is a new term for the age old belief that you can save more by spending more. Is letting the buy one get one fifty percent off deal triggered to buy two things when you only needed one because it feels like you're saving more in the process. Or it's spending more to hit a free shipping threshold when you weren't planning on buying those additional items in
the first place. We've all been there. I too have had my mind hijacked in that way, Matt, so I think this is a normal human condition. It's also it's I would say, it's like spending more to hit a credit card welcome bonus. It's right that you can earn the eighty five thousand Southwest miles right now. We'll put a link to that show notes if you want to the details on how to get the Southwest Companion Pass easier than ever given how many miles are throwing out there.
I just booked a kate Is Colorado trip for for later this fall. I guess how much it costs me to buy that second ticket nothing nine dollars and thirty cents just for whatever the tax nine eleven ye charge exactly.
So those Southwest points coming super handy. But it's only worth signing up for the credit card if you're not having to manufacture spending to get there, which means having to spend more than your normal budget allows for putting
you into debt that you can't pay off. Right, And so if you know you're going to use that item and you have the funds, or if you're buying in bulk, you're stocking up spending more now to prolong your next purchase, that's fine, but watch out for the marketing attempts trying to make it sound like buying more is going to save you more, it's going to perk your frugal ears up, especially if you somebody like me. But ultimately it's a letdown, and it means you've spent more than you than you
otherwise would have. And I feel like nothing gets in that zone, Matt, as much as Black Friday and all those deals like oh, you're a dummy if you don't spend money this way because it's saving you money, and it's like.
Well, you actually need it, not really Nope. Yeah. It makes me think of a recent article in the Atlantic about the free trial trap, because, of course, who doesn't want a free seven day trial or even like a free month of service. But that offery doesn't exist out of the goodness of that company's heart. It's a it's a bait. It's to get a hook in your mouth.
And there's actually good news all the streaming front, because we're seeing cancelations tick up to record numbers as the different streaming services out there proliferate folks are realizing that is eating up more of their monthly budget, and they're cracking down the more folks are canceling everything like us, they're opting to cancel a bit more indiscriminately at least. But the free trial trap, man, the thing is real
because forgetting to cancel is costing folks big bucks. In spider web, man, it's like it's more the fly, it's a death by a thousand cuts because you don't think it's that big of a deal, but all of those things added up makes an impact. The US. They even stued Adobe this week, did you see that over they
were making canceling too difficult for their customers. But It's okay to try things before you buy, but don't forget, like use a calendar reminder to ensure that you don't forget to cancel that, like a couple of days at least in advance, you know, because if you hit snows or maybe if you click and drag it over to the next day because you're like, ugh, I don't want to do it today, give yourself a little bit of marginess. There's a difference too, between again, between forgetting about it
versus just be becoming immune to those prices. And luckily, more and more for folks are becoming less insulated from those charges because there are so many of them, right, Like, that's the thing. It's you know, you're talking about part time jobs earlier, Like that's what it takes in order to manage all of the different subscription services out there.
There's a reason they give you free access for a limited time because they know most people aren't going to cancel, Matt. They realize I think we gave that statistic not too long ago about people who signed up for Peacock to watch the Chiefs Dolphins game back in the fall, and people are so excited about that, and they sign up for Peacock and then they never cancel, and maybe that's the only thing they've watched on that service, but they're
still paying for it. The same thing with a gym membership. Man, does any industry do it better than the gyms. Let's talk about groceries for a second, and maybe whether or not you should drive more in an attempt to save more. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal citing that more Americans are shopping around to save money. They're hitting up various retailers in order to snag the specials at each given store, even driving the cheaper area codes
to shop at less expensive stores. So made me think, Matt like Publics is a grocery chain out of Florida that we have some of them here in Georgia, actually a lot of them, and they have a slew of Bogo offers every week by wing get one free deals. Those items can be a really good price if you're buying just those Bogo deals at Publics, but the normal prices are higher than basically every other grocery chain out there.
Publics has nice stores, and they charge more for almost every item on their shelves than the discount chains You and I like to shop at. So I don't know, maybe you want to hit up publics but just based on the Bogo deals and then you go somewhere else to get more of your other groceries. The best way to plan out your grocery purchases is to use the website basically a digital tool like flip dot com flipp dot com, so you can see all the sales flyers
in one place. That'll help you create a grocery saving strategy. If you're the kind of person who says I'm willing to not just go to a one stop shop or to drive further to get to the discount place, maybe I want to hit up two or three spots.
Well that's I think that's the problem. That's my biggest issue that I have with the journal with the headline, which is them saying that hey, you can no longer do the one stop shop. But that's not true. And people they have so fallen into like they've fallen in love with certain brands and they're like, oh, I got to go to this store to get this because they're the only place that sells that. I want to push back on that a little bit, like you don't necessarily
need all the different options. You can just go to Ald and not even look at the different deals at the different grocery stores to save time and you you're still going to save a ton of money. And I know not everyone has an all D near them, but they're dude. I feel like they're multiplying like rabbits, like they're they're opening more and more of those stores are opening all over the place. If you've never considered going to an Aldi, you've got to check it out.
We're legal as well as a cousin to Aldi. That's where we shot were.
It's we're slightly more complex, fancier cousin of Ald.
Is how I view letal. They're pretty similar legal and costco. That's they get the bulk of our grocery dollars. But yeah, I think the time and energy it takes and the additional planning it takes to shop in a bunch of different grocery stores, you got to figure out how much are you actually saving and whether it's worth the hours
you're putting into. So that's why I'm going to a place like all the or Legal, like trying to really get the bulk of your stuff at one store, but the cheapest store is probably the best, best, the way to do it. Yeah, all right, Matt, that's going to do it for this episode. Hope everyone out there has a fantastic weekend. We'll links to all the resources we mentioned in this episode up on our website and how to Money.
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