Friday Flight - EV Breakthroughs, Early Retirement Downsides, and Pricey Dumbbells #261

you had your wet weather gear on as well. You're committed to the bike hustle, dude. Yeah, it's I mean that that gear is so clutch for being able to ride through the rain, and especially when it's sprinkling, It's it's like no brainer. It's not a big deal. Sometimes if it's raining super hard, it's hard to see or you get soaked any way. But yeah, it doesn't matter what kind of gear you have on if it's pouring

and you're still gonna get completely drenched. But yeah, like with a drizzle, having a nice jacket somebot light weather gear is easily enough to to keep you dry, especially as the weather is cooling down a little bit. Now, uh, you know, the cooler temperatures plus a little bit of water can really chill you to the bone if you don't have the proper gear. So that's true. Well all right, so speaking of biking, I broke down and bought my wife.

We we ended up person a spin bike a stationary bike for Tide, which is funny because we joked about this on Wednesday's episode about about you splurging on you know, his and hers peloton. Yeah, but you know Emily wants you to ride next to her on a two thousand dollar bids It's not gonna happen. So yeah, we definitely went non peloton because those things are crazy expensive and almost have like this cult like following, and I understand

like they make a great product, people are into it. Um. But but we ended up going to play it against sports, which is did not know that those still exist. Maybe they still exist, and actually I think they're actually doing well through the pandemic because people are into outdoor gear and workout equipment and stuff like that. So I went

to our nearest played against sports. Um got an awesome spin bike for Emily and she's super into it, super excited, and the great thing I think we talked about um on on Wednesday's episode was maybe cutting back on a gym membership, and that's something we've done. So we were members of the y m c A. My wife really loves going there, and so that was that was something that we were like, all right, well, how many months of the y membership will you know this this spin

bike cost? And so all right, we got to cancel the membership for at least at least that many months. Who knows when or if we'll be going back to the y m c A. UM, but yeah, like she's loving the spin bike and working out at home, and I gotta say too, there are so many free ways that you can get workouts for your bike. You don't have to pay for a monthly subscription to something like peloton. Um,

there's free workout videos on YouTube, YouTube on Facebook. Like her her favorite spin instructor at the y m c A is like releasing free workout videos on Facebook. Yeah, that's aw well. On the note of spin Bike's team, did you see that it was on actually didn't release

a prime bike. I did see that it's a company had created this bike, and they claimed that it was this is maybe a couple of weeks ago, maybe he made in conjunction with Amazon, but yeah, exactly, it was like this partnership thing, and they called it the Prime Bike, and when they released that, people went crazy, and actually I think I saw that the Peloton stock like drops because of the fear of the competition. But it turns

out that was a lie. That actually wasn't the case, and Amazon quickly put out a statement saying that like, no, we didn't yeh. By late that morning, it was like pulled off the website. Yeah, which is so funny. But I find it really interesting though, how the generic brand of of Prime right via Amazon, how it carries so

much weight with it. You know how when we see that something's, oh, a Prime Bike, it makes it sound like something that's a little more premium, which is at least that's how I view it, you know, um, like

it's something that you can kind of count on. It's it's solid, it's not going to be the fanciest, but it's going to be really good when it's only available for if you are a Prime member, and we are of course, yeah yeah, And so I think, I don't know, that just speaks to how well they've positioned their own products and how much you know that name prime, how much that can sway consumers and and and just attitudes towards their products. But but yeah, all that's yeah, it's

a farce. It's true reality. But it is interesting to note that if Amazon does you know, now, maybe they're thinking, maybe we will great one and uh, Pelaton better beware if that happens, because it's going to eat into their sales. All right, let's get into our Friday flight sampling of stories that we found interesting this week, stories that impact our personal finances. And speaking of exercise, um, it's been really interesting to see how expensive or out of stock

and basic workout equipment has become. I think that's another reason why I played against sports has been just kind of overrun with with people coming to buy stuff used and and and and they sell new stuff too. But

dumbbells in particular cost so much. It's been interesting to see some of the stories that one can you even find them and exactly yeah, and then too if you can often there on resale sites like eBay and Facebook marketplace, and the listings are for five, six, seven times the price of what they typically normally cost because the supply

is almost non existent. Um so, uh, we got one thing that we've been doing because Emily has like one set of dumbells that she's had for for quite a while and says, we only have one set, and when we're working out together, I'm just using our one year old as like, yeah, so lifting him up and down, doing some curls with him, and so I'm sure he enjoys that as well. Yeah, it's kind of fun. It's kind of fun, So use what you got and don't necessarily pay five times as much for dumbbells then what

you know what they're worth. Yeah, And like, there are so many exercises as well that you can do with your own body weight master, like just like burpies in particular, like the high jumping burpee I think is what you call it, But that's where you do a burpie, but you you jump up as high as you can and when you drop down you do a push up. But man, you do like ten twenty of those. Do a few sets of those like that will seriously get your heart

rate up. But I mean, I'm with you regarding the dumbells. We uh, I think maybe back in January I purchased like a forty five pound kettle bell just to be able to do some swings, you know, to keep a strong back. And Kate realized several months ago, She's like, yeah, that's something I want to do as well, and so I went looking for a kettle bell that was more appropriate for her strength. Dude, they don't even sell them anymore. It was an Amazon product. It was like Amazon Prime,

vinyl coded Amazon Basics. Yeah, yeah, basics maybe, but it was just a vinyl coded kettle bell. And they're not even making them anymore because I think just because of you know, supply chain issues, but so it's difficult to kind of get your hands on them, you know, and and and no to that, you know. I think this is the case where shopping secondhand maybe could even cost you more because of the topsy turvy market we're in. You know, it all comes down to supply and demand.

There's not a lot of supply. There is a ton of demand for folks wanting to work out at home. So if you're looking for some weights, typically would recommend for folks go to like the Facebook marketplace, but you actually might find the prices there to be sky high. And so I think this might be a case we're waiting for more stock to arrive at retailers or you know, shopping out a place like like you did, man like played against sports. We'll we'll help folks to avoid the

crazy costs that into jewels are charging these days. Yeah, and and look for Matt's new YouTube channel workout video. Richard Simmons like workout videos. That's gonna be it's gonna be great. If you get me a leotard like that, I will wear it. People will love it. Yeah, I think you're gonna gain a massive following. Let's get onto the to the next story we found interesting this week, Matt, California has banned new gas powered cars by the year.

That means fifteen years from now, you won't be able to buy a new gas powered car in the entire state. Now, this won't prevent people from owning, selling, or buying used gas powered vehicles in California. Um. And it's a move that I think will accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles in our entire country. And I say country because California has so much power based on their sheer population size, They're they're like like twelve of the overall population of

the US. Um So, any decision that's made in the state of California has this domino like effect of what happens to like the automotive industry in this case as a whole. And I just see this decision in particular leading a lot of Mania actors to start rethinking their plans for the next couple of decades of what cars they're planning to manufacture and moving hard in the e

V direction. Yeah, something else too that I think we'll propel it along is in addition to this California state law, Tesla battery breakthroughs are gonna also help to push down the prices of electric vehicles. Man prices have already plummeted significantly.

A story in Ours Technica showed that over the past ten years, the cost of batteries has dropped nearly So when a large portion of an electric vehicles cost is the battery is the technology that goes into its power, big improvements on that technology can really bring down the cost, and more innovation is is on the way to According to Elon Musk, you know, we're we're set to see twenty five dollar tesla's just three years from now, which is an incredible sign that evs will will quickly become

the new vehicle of choice for for many Americans the near future. Yeah, I feel like I read so many stories this week about electric vehicles, about batteries, and just to see kind of what's happening in that space. Ten ars from now, fifteen years from now, for sure, I can't imagine many of us will be considering buying a

new gas powered vehicle. And on top of that, Consumer Reports just published their own research that they did that shows that the maintenance cost for an electric vehicle are less than half of that for a gas powered vehicle, and specifically, consumers who purchase an electric car can expect to save an average of four thousand, six d dollars in repair and maintenance costs over the life of that

vehicle compared to a gasoline powered car. So I feel like everything I'm reading this week makes e vs come out smelling like roses. I've got my Niecean Leaf which has a range of like twenty miles. Now it's it's degraded over time. It's not that great. But the new evs that are coming out and the new battery capabilities are just changing the game. They're making people less anxious

about the range of that vehicle. Um and as the costs come down to I mean, evs are quickly becoming and quickly will continue to become more of a no brainer decision for for a lot of people. I think. Yeah. Know, for us though, like the b this issue is range, you know, and when we have only one vehicle, we want to be able to hop in that vehicle and road trip with it essentially. And so for me at least, that that's our biggest barrier, is the ability to to

travel longer distances, you know. But with these battery improvements, I see that coming. I see five years from now, like the range is going to be greatly improved and so like, not only are the costs coming down, the batteries are just going to have more capacity and you're gonna be able to go further in the car that you're buying. Well, if that's the case, then I'm all

for it. You know, Like if I can drive twelve hours in one day basically with very few stops you know where you know, kind of just like top off the battery a little bit, maybe at a charging station, I am for that. But until that's the case, man, until that's the reality. I think it's gonna be. Uh, we're gonna stick with our old gasoline powered vehicle for maybe, I don't know, the next decade or so. I want

to drive that thing into the ground. I wanted to be I wanted to look like my iPhone just battered and bruised. Yeah, just crack glass everywhere. I don't know if you want that. Yeah, I don't actually want that to case, but no, but yeah, I understand what you're saying. And Matt. On the note of gasoline driving a gas power car, there was an interesting article that I read in USA today about states raising gasoline taxes right now

as gas prices have fallen and demand has fallen. Uh, states need to make up revenue in order to pay uh to to maintain road systems. In New Jersey just made apparently the biggest hike in gas tax of like, I think, close to ten cents a gallon. Other states recently have implemented increases in the gas tax, like California, Virginia, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Alabama. UM. So yeah, just note that while gas prices are down, a lot of states are

increasing their gas tax um. And it's something that you might barely even notice. Um, but and I think it's like nobody like loves gas prices going up, but it is one of these things that is necessary in order to continue to maintain the roads for us all to drive on. Right. Yeah, man, that's rights. Uh. And so let let's talk now about paying for student loans. Google announced recently that they will be helping their employees pay

off their student loans. Man, starting in one Google will match in payments towards the student loans of the folks who work there. We're seeing more and more companies attempting to step up their game helping workers with the burden of student loans. I love that this benefit is becoming

more mainstream. In the past, we've seen different companies step up and say pay for some additional education, right, whether that be just specific courses or even you know, companies paying for an m b A for somebody who works there. But to see companies like Google now pay student loans that you've already incurred, I think that's a fantastic benefit

for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Like like when Anthony was on the show on Monday, Matt he talked about not taking on debt for school, and you and I we agree. We'd love to see high school students not take on debt for their education, or at least keep it to a minimum. But it's also good to see that companies are realizing the benefits of partnering in that loan payoff with their employees because it has become such a massive burden.

So if you do have student loan debt and you're interviewing for a new job, look at additional non salary benefits that are being offered by your company and advocate for yourself and negotiate your higher compensation package. It's not always about that bottom line number of what this about the salary, because those intangibles, those extra benefits that a company offers can add up to thousands and thousands of dollars in additional benefits that can be really, really meaningful.

It makes that interviewing process maybe a little more complicated, but man, we live in a complicated world. That's true. All the note of paying for college, filling out the FAFSA, uh Man, that is even more important right now, specifically

this year. If you're going to be a student, or if you have a student in college for two academic year, the information that you used to fill out the FASTA this year will be based on twenty nineteen taxes, which is obviously before many of us were impacted by the shutdowns, right, and so any financial aid should be based on your current situation, not last year's. So make sure that you file early because you'll need time to then request a

professional judgment. Oh and then people might be wondering, what's a professional judgment? Professional judgment, I'm a professional judge or so, like you know, no, not but uh, what what that is? What that means is is when you contact a financial aid office at any of the schools you're applying to in order to submit up to date information that would give the school the clearest picture of your financial situation, right, information like if you if you've been laid off or furloughed,

those notices, unemployment checks, or medical bills that you've incurred. Basically, any of these documents that are going to help clear up what your current financial situation is could help you qualify for more assistance than what your FASTEST shows. Because again, like Matt said, we're talking about last year's numbers on the fast STA, but things have changed quite a bit

this year. And so yeah, you need to file early so you can request that professional judgment, and if your situation is drastically changed, you should be able to find a lot more financial aid resources. That's right, man. All Right, We've got a few more stories to get to after the break. We're gonna talk about what retail looks like this fall, as well as financial independence and retiring early. We'll get to those stories plus a couple more right

after the break. All right, we're back in the break and Matt. Early on we talked about the Prime bike that wasn't to be, then that didn't actually exist, and now we're going to talk about Amazon just announced their Prime Day recently, I think last week. So if you are a Prime member, I think sometimes people get annoyed with us talking about Amazon. I love them, but I

hate them. Yeah, it's kind of love hate relationship. But I think the interesting thing about Prime Day happening on October four is that a lot of people follow suit and also have sales on those same days. Obviously, it's a way for Amazon to try to increase the attachment that it's loyal customers have to the site. But at the same time, a lot of other retailers, including a lot of small businesses creates sales on similar days to kind of create this effect of like a second Black

Friday essentially. Um And the important thing to note now is that you shouldn't be waiting until the last minute to do your Christmas shopping, and something like Prime Day could be the perfect time for you to start buying gifts for your loved ones, and not necessarily at Amazon. Right. Yeah, other retailers are jumping on board, specifically Target. I mean they are having what they're calling sales days on the exact same days that Prime Days are happening and the fourteenth.

But it is an interesting effect, you know, because typically Prime Day happens in the summer, right. But because of COVID, that's something that they kind of kicked down the road a little bit. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that they couldn't keep up with demand. There were so many purchases that were already happening due to COVID that it just wasn't feasible for them to then have additional sales on top of that.

Plus I think it probably would have looked bad if they're like, hey, guess what, we're gonna have Prime Days and kind of capitalize on the fact that people are shopping more from home anyway. But but like you said, I think it will shift the even though we're shifting Prime Day back, it sort of shifts the holiday shopping season forward just slightly. But maybe that is a smart thing to do as well, because of you know, shipping delays.

I don't know if you've noticed, but like we've seen packages that say they're gonna show up on a Wednesday and then we're lucky if if they show up, you know, before the weekend. Yeah, I feel like I'm pulling my hair out looking at FedEx tracking numbers sometimes. Um, like in particular on on the newest version of the rad Wagon that I purchased, it's just like keeps getting delayed and delayed and supposed to show up at the end of September, but you're getting that delay. Um probably it

might be mid October at this point. Who is Yeah? So, which is which is fine? Right, It's not a big deal. But that's just another reason for people to plan ahead and to and especially since we're doing more online shopping by by gifts for your loved ones earlier than you normally would because of those shipping delays and because sales are happening too. Yeah, so you can finally snag that instant pot if that's still the hot item that I don't know, five years behind the curve ofears pot Now

all right, man. We we often talk about fire right, financial independence, retire early, but we mostly tend to focus on the first part, the financial independence part. We believe that financial independence gives individuals the flexibility and opportunity to do pretty much whatever they would like to with their time. Right. You know, when you're not beholden to a job in order to earn an in come, you're financially independent and you have freedom over your life. If that sounds amazing

to you, we are with you. That's an amazing goal to have. But you know, how you spend your time can can have a big impact on your brain. Yeah. There's a recent study, mat and I think it actually lends credence to the fact that of of why you and I are not fans of the r E part of the retire early part. The new research is based on this retirement program in China, and it shows that within a couple of years of participants retiring, there's a

noticeable amount of cognitive decline. Specifically, the largest negative effect was measured in something called delayed recall, which is an individual's ability to recall something that was mentioned just a few minutes earlier. This is like an on a short nigger movie when he gets older, like the lay recall exactly well. And and this it's not surprising either, right, because while we're at work, most of our minds are

are challenged. And and if we stop working, that sharpening that's happening to our brains while we're working just isn't going on anymore, and so our brains can essentially get out of shape. Um. There's like a saying, if you rest, you rust, And I think that's an important thing to think about when we're thinking about what retirement looks like. Right. They also cited that with retirement there's a decrease in social activities too. Um, I guess right now, we're all

having a massive decrease in social activities. We're not seeing our coworkers, there's no water cooler talk. But this intuitively makes sense because a lot of our friendships and relationships are associated with the work that we do. And so if we opt to retire early or even when we retire at normal age. Um, it is important to keep

some of those things going because it's good for our brains. Yeah, man, so yeah, for this reason, that's why we're pretty big on the financial independence aspect of fire right unless the R E side of the acronym, and especially here in the US, you know, retiring it often carries a negative connotation of of not doing anything, and and that's not what we're all about here and so but here's the thing, man, I am less concerned about the mind of like younger

professionals you know, who are excelling at work, taking on new roles, or maybe like a couple with kids who are creatively finding ways to cut back their expenses. If they retire early, then I might think that their brains will continue to be engaged. I would assume that there might be additional, like, you know, new opportunities that would present themselves as they're likely working towards something, or that

you know, they're retiring towards something. But I do have a concern for individuals who have maybe worked their entire lives in a standard nine to five where they have retirement taken care of. Maybe they even have a company pension and they're not necessarily working towards anything specific. When you retire early, you know, I've seen that it's typically because you're working towards something else. But when you retire on time at sixty five, you don't necessarily have to

have that next big thing lined up. And so that's where I see how retirement could have some some pretty negative effects. So yeah, man, you know, I'm not totally showing this, but like I feel that this is where I could see how retirement could have, you know, some

pretty negative effects. Yeah. Yeah, I think, just anecdotally, I've seen in some of the people that I love when they were tired, if they didn't have multiple hobbies that that they were really into, or areas of service where they were plugged in working alongside other people, caring for others, I felt like there was a noticeable drop off in their social and cognitive abilities. And so yeah, I think that's important to be plugged into something meaningful, to hopefully

multiple meaningful things as you get older and when you retire. Yeah, and like you mentioned to, the pandemic has only I think amplified this. Like we have seen how social isolation, how that can have a negative effect on us and so I think it's important to look ahead and see how how this actually might affect you down the road when it does come time to retire. Yeah, you're almost getting like, obviously we're still with so many of us

are still working and working from home. It just looks different. But but you are getting somewhat of a preview of what retirement and that kind of isolation could look like. Are you going to be able to be motivated to work on something on your own from home or or is that going to be difficult? And so, Yeah, sometimes I think people get too excited about quitting work. And it's okay to quit work and engage in other activities. Just make sure there are other meaningful activities to engage in.

Um So, does that mean that we're against retirement, No way, right.

But but regardless, if you're looking to retire early at age like thirty five or forty or on time closer to age sixty five, it's important to to work towards having that healthy social life, keeping your mind engaged in sharp, making sure you have relationships outside of your job, or if you really are good friends with your coworkers, that those relationships also exist outside of just the work context, and then hang out on the weekends living life, like

going for a hike, doing doing the stuff, life stuff, getting out in nature exactly. And then when it comes to keeping your mind sharp, it's good to have outlets that you're working towards, volunteering a personal entrepreneurial endeavor, or maybe even another job, a part time job, doing something you've always wanted to do. Um, now that you have the financial means you can do that lower paying job.

That seems exciting, because when you're financially independent, you can take a job or a position that's less demaining or more creatively fulfilling. It's not all about the salary um. So it's just one of those interesting things to consider. That study just kind of prompted some thoughts from Matt and I about retirement and staying sharp. And yeah, I

think retirement sounds great. And then for a lot of people, they get there, they quit their job, and then they're a little aimless and it's not as fulfilling as they hoped it would be. Yeah, and so on the note of retiring actually a fidelity, they released some guidelines on how much you should have saved by specific ages in

order to traditionally retire right, uh. And the rule of thumb said that we should shoot for having one times your salary by the age of thirty, three times your age by forty, and then six times your salary your annual salary by the age of fifty, and then so on as well. But you know, this might sound impossible to a lot of folks, but you know what I I mean, this whole saving and investing thing, it's a long game. And when we often underestimate the power of compound interest.

I saw something recently that was illustrating the power of compound interest, and they were saying, how like if you do a plus eight and then you do that seven more times, right, so, like a plus eight a total of eight times, you can easily calculate in your mind what that's going to be sixty four are right, Like, it makes sense, It's it's not that difficult. But if you do eight times eight and you do that seven more times, I don't even know. Well, and it's well,

here's the thing, it's over sixteen million. Uh. It is just so hard for us to wrap our brains around compounding. And that's essentially what you know, our money invested in the market does like it sits there. You earn money on that money, and then the money that you have total, you earn more interests on that money, and then and so on and so forth, right, Like that is compound interest.

So I use that illustration just to encourage folks because it's not necessarily about having that you know, you setting aside every single one of those dollars. It's about getting investing and if you can, getting invested early, because the more time you have on your side for the money that you set aside to earn interest, the better off

you're going to be in the long term. Yeah, the more you're able to set aside today means the that you're gonna have to set aside less in your older working years, right because that that dollar has a much greater impact right now than it will further on down the road. And sometimes I had day to give those numbers from studies like this, like fidelities, but I think it is it's helpful for people to see those numbers.

Just don't let those numbers get you down, um and and know that if you see that and you're like, I'm nowhere close to that number, well you're not alone. Most people aren't anywhere close to that number, but those are hard numbers to achieve. And so yeah, getting started, um increasing that contribution by one or two percent every time that you get a raise or twice a year, like, whatever you can do to to slightly increase it over time,

it's going to have a massive impact. If you're not there, like, don't kick yourself, you can do it, and and just it's it's these small changes that we can continue to implement over time that are going to actually help us get there over the long haul. But we're just not gonna do it in like a short period of time, like in the next couple of weeks or months. Yeah, that's right, man, exactly. All right, Well that's gonna be uh it for this episode. Leteners can find our shown

It's up on our website at how to money dot com. Yeah, and if you've been listening for a while but you haven't read any of the articles on our site, well we just published one about saving money on yourself phone built right, go check that one out. It's on the front page of how to money dot com. And if you're paying more than thirty bucks a month for your cell phone bill, you can likely save a good bit to go. Check that article out. All right, everybody have

a great weekend and Matt. That's going to do it for this episode until next time. Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,