Welcome to Out of Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt. Today we're talking frustrating fees, degree doubts, and upper middle class ascendency.
That's right, buddy, this is our Friday flight, and we're gonna talk about the personal finance stories that we want to talk about. That's right, because it's going to help you. Our listener all the how the money he's out there.
Now, what do we'll take, Well, we will take all the besties out there. Yeah, and I will say we will take your If you've got a story you think we should talk about, we will take your emails. Listener sends stuff in all the time. They're like, you should stuff we talk about is stuff that folks that not half is That's not true. Yeah. Now, most of it the stuff that we have found we're interested in. But if you have something you think would be a value, you're like, I just want to hear Matt and Joel
talk about that. Let us know.
Yeah, So I wanted to quickly share what I guess Monday's episode, I talked about diverting my dryer vent and speaking of hearing back from listeners, a listener reached out and said.
Hey, there's actually a product that solves.
That problem, and it's this conversion kit and it it forces the dryer exhaust into like a bucket sort of thing where there's water. And I'm pretty sure I've actually seen these before. I mean, so maybe that's where my head was at when I was talking about diverting that. But anyway, I hadn't looked into it. But a listener said, hey, this exists because I was actually planning on installing a dryer that couldn't be on an exterior wall. And he's like, this is a solution. So yeah, how cool?
Is that makes sense? There's a solution. Yeah, that's why you probably three D prints I jump up do it. And where we learn a lot just from replies from questions that we ask on the the end of the void. And then there's somebody smarter than us. Usually he's like, I've got a solution for your problem there. Yeah, that's a great way that we get to hear back from it.
By the way, can I just say there was speaking of listeners, there was somebody in the Facebook group who posted, I don't know, maybe two three weeks ago saying something being very very nervous about where things stood from an investing in stock market perspective and talked about radically changing their investing strategy and hope they didn't do that. I know, I hope not too. And other replies obviously very classic and helpful in the Facebook group, a lot of hold
the really smart people, Yeah, stay the course. And I just want to say, that's what folks were saying. I did not necessarily assume, oh, we'll be back at all time highs by you know, mid April. But we are, Matt, we are. And it's just the as of the time of this recording, right, And I don't have any predictions. Well yeah quickly that can change on a time for sure. But I think it's just worth noting right that we this is why we talk about investing over the long term,
what happens. I was just talking with another friend about like what my thoughts are on the investing in the next decade or so, and I'm like, man, I'm just I'm optimistic. And optimism usually sounds a little dumb, like don't you see all the risks that the hurdles that
lay ahead of us on the road. And it's like, yeah, I see them, Like, for sure, we talk about those risks we'll talk about some today right on the show, But that doesn't mean that over the long term we don't still believe in the engine, the economic engine of the United States, and that we should all be like putting our money into the stock market to be beneficiaries of the intelligence and the brilliance that US companies in particular.
But you know, we're talking about investing in the world as well have to offer.
So totally, there's a lot of n A sais out there. But I have a lot of confidence in folks who are looking to make the world a better place right, who are like their life's work is to leave the world in a better place than where they found it, which is I think a good life motto.
And sometimes like that kind of clashes with our idea of what the good life is. Think, man, I'm just thinking there's a tangent. I'm just thinking about the Molotov cocktails on Open AI, right, and that I don't think the idea of violence is ever warranted. But I also understand how kind of people feel angsty about artificial intelligence right now. So yeah, but violence is not the solution.
No, it's not, okay, And we go segue to a I talked speaking of robots.
Let's talk about let's a completely different direction. Okay, let's talk about bag fees. We've all gotten used to airlines and all the all the hikes. Yes, yeah, we've all gotten used to bag fees. But Matt, I remember a simpler time when they didn't exist, Because I think bag feeds got instituted just before twenty ten.
I remember similar times when airplanes didn't exist and we didn't have to worry about anything associated.
That's true. I just took the horse and buggy wherever we wanted to go.
Uh, you got to worry about where oats and what to do with the poop, all the poop. It's just yeah, can you can you imagine that was actually oh gosh, what what historian talked about?
That?
Just the vast amounts of energy that had to go towards clearing the streets of poop. Yeah, like in New York City back hundred years ago.
So I don't live in that the existence exactly.
I'm not, and I'll say that I'm glad. So, yeah, we are in a great place right now. It's amazing the technology, technology that we have and the ability to fly across the country just to like go see a friend.
Incredible, but it's getting more expensive, and part of that is jet fuel surch charges and you know, ticket price hikes. But then it's also increased bag fees. And some people used to fly Southwest to avoid bag fees. They can't do that any longer because Southwest is just like all the other airlines now. Other people pack light. That's one of my kind of favorite ways to avoid back fees. Don't check bags as often as you can.
Keep an out for Joel in the airport with his cargo shorts on my car back to the pack to the bridge.
I don't work carter shorts. Not my jam but I die yet. But I've got my Koto packs. We've talked about this, my Kodopasi twenty eight liter bag that I can fit the best man everything I need for like five days in.
I think it's my favorite product that we've never been I don't know, we have a lot of favorite products. Like I'm looking at mine's right over there on the floor. It's my daily commuter bag. It's so great and I was actually wearing it rucking slash running, slash hiking with Kate last week over spring break.
It makes it great that versatile so great is the best.
Yeah, also fits within the tight little container and all exactly al Cheapo airlines, that's right, who are going to.
Make you check it because they're trying to stick it to you. Other people mattch choose to get credit cards to help them avoid bag fees, which is not a bad route as well. Yeah, that can be a smart way to go, especially if you fly one airline regularly, and we're gonna see I think more people jumping through more hoops to avoid bag fees because they're going up. Three of the big six airlines have raised bag fees
in recent days. It's kind of like one makes the announcement and then the dominoes are gonna fall in rapid succession from there. And part of the reason that they're raising bag fees instead of raising fares is because they think you'll notice less and because because like the fee at the end, you're like, oh, was it forty dollars before and now it's fifty I don't remember, and you just pay it. And they also don't pay tax on
feed derived income. So I think that is another reason when you just look at like the incentive that these airlines have they have incentives to raise fees before they raise fares, so and those fees tend to be kind of sticky. How when have you ever seen a bag fee go down in price? Like it just it doesn't happen. But this is just the stakes are higher now, so it makes even more sense to try to avoid bag fees however you can.
It'll be interesting to see if the other three are able to hold the line and not raise fees because as I mean, a big part of the increases obviously have to do with the.
Straight of horror moves.
But as there's more hope and talks that it's going to open, especially with Europe, you know, like all the European countries are meeting and trying to figure out a way to how can we manage this, how can we
ensure that the oil can continue to flow. It'll be interesting to see whether or not those other three are able to actually have never raised their fees, and you start to see those gain and popularity as everyone's wanting to book with them as opposed to Delta, right, like they're the most one of the more recent ones to raise fees. I just hope that spirit is able to make it man like you know, like there's a lot
to talk about, like them liquidizing. I just want there to be an affordable option for folks that's equivalent to Ryan Air.
Right in Europe, and of us have ever flown Spirit before floing Spirit? Okay, you fly, I didn't think you had. Okay, it's been a minute, but we don't fly with regularity. But because they exist, we all pay cheaper price.
Yes, And I just want there to be like a greyhound bus version of an airplane like that. I said, well, no, that's more like what it's like in Europe with Ryanair. But still I want there to be a super affordable megabus.
Folks, Megabus which we haven't talked about a long time either, which is a good option a cheap folks get around the country. It's true.
Another fee though, that's been rising consistently, are HOA fees. They are up twenty six percent since twenty nineteen. Uh So you've got special assessments, you've got larger pairs that are needed, and all of these can be painful for homeowners. Uh these have been increasing and some longtime condo owners, for instance, are paying more in fees more on their
HOA than they are for their actual mortgage. Folks who have locked in, you know, they refinanced, and they're like, you know, I'm pretty happy with my two point three percent mortgage.
They stretched ten years ago when prices were lower, they stretched it out or even Yeah.
I guess I'm thinking even back to when a lot of condos that during the Great Recession went for I went for nothing a song, But I still.
Remember going shopping with my little sister, trying to help her find a condo, choosing one of those forty five thousand dollars, like that is so in a sweet part of town.
Crazy crazy, yeah. And so now the average condo or town home HOA is four hundred and twenty five dollars. Obviously it's gonna be less for single family homes, but we're seeing those on the rise too. And like, you are getting something for your money, right, like you you are receiving something, but it is obviously worth considering the trade offs. We want you to know what you are
getting in return. We want you to know, especially if you're considering purchasing a condo, right, like, if you're like Joel, or if you yourself are the one who is looking at some of these some of these different properties, like what sort of financial shape is the hon Like, these are the kind of questions you need to ask, like ask for the reserve fund balance, see if there's a reserve study that's been performed, look at the budget, look
at recent financial statements. You don't have to be a financial expert to you do need to be a personal finance enthusiast, I think, because essentially what you're looking at are the same sort of transactions that you would see within your own sort of ledger statement, like what is the balance, what are the transactions looking like that they.
Actually have cash in the bank in case something happens to the property or updates need to be made in the next year or two.
Or can they even provide you with these statements? If they can't, well that's definitely a that's definitely a bad sign.
And just what is the general state of the property, because if you're like, oh, they don't have the building, oh yeah, building, but it looks like the roof needs be replaced on this whole condo unit in the next year or two because it's fallen apart or man, there's paint chipping off everywhere. This is obviously going to be a plausive rough then a special assessment might be coming
down the pike. I might get hit with it, and there's yeah, that's a tough tough spot to be and makes you think a friend who bought a condo in Florida, he literally had to run for president of the HOA because it was so poorly managed and it became this part time job and headache for him for a really long time. And so yeah, if the HOA is poorly run, poorly managed, doesn't have the funds on hand, you could
be entering into a nightmare. Not to mention just the perpetual costs right that come with the internet.
Joy, I think maybe what's not the heart of that is thinking that I don't know, for younger folks out there, and not even all that young, but you just always expect that there's somebody who's responsible, that's going to take
care of this. But that's us, right, Like, I mean, we're older millennials, but I'm sure there are plenty of millennials who are right now realizing that, oh, man, like you are encountering more situations, more organizations, more institutions where there's nobody who's actually doing the right thing, and so much of this is now essentially becoming our I don't want to call it a burden, but it's our responsibility and sort of like we were saying earlier as far
as like leaving the world in a better place than how you found it, Like, I think that that could be a helpful way if you have the capacity to sort of take on some of these problems themselves. Not to see it necessarily as a burden, but see this as a way for you to contribute to societ and to help people around you.
Yeah, and on top of that, to protect the purchase you've made. Right, So it's like, yeah, there's a little bit of selfishness in there. Yeah, but you can also like serve your neighbors. It is good to be self interested in this way. Yeah, one hundred percent. Well, and just makes me think of just the term dilapidata comes to mind when I think about the housing stock in
the country. There was an article written recently about how just so many homes across the country are older, they're getting long in the tooth, they need they need more work done to them. Like literally the house next to where we record has been bottom the top, like completely redone because it was built in what like the nineteen
eighteen range, nineteen twenties, that's what I would guess. Yeah, and it's new sighting maybe nineteen ten, new front porch just put on, like they just had to do everything in that house because it was so dang old and it hadn't been updated in so long. And so the average age of a home in the United States is now forty four years old, which is almost about your.
Age, which is no, that is literally exactly how my home is. Yeah, the house it right now.
Mine is forty four years old. Mine's a little bit older than that, but it was built in the sixties. Yeah, no, fifty nine, fifty nine, Okay, there you go. Yeah, so are our homes fit into this category? But those have we have years a little bit older made updates to them. But the cost of home maintenance has been exceeding inflation, and so I think we would all be wise to set aside extra money for home repairs and expenses. Like probably two or more percent of your home's value on
average is what you should be budgeting. You can't predict everything that will go wrong with your home, but you can be financially prepared, and especially if you live in a cool, older home, right, that by definition is going to suck up more of your money. It's got so much character, right, and character that character costs money. I love it. I love the character, and then you realize just how much money it costs to keep that thing up.
I will say one of the nicest things about living in a home that's only forty four years old is the fact that it's at least built with modern building codes. There's no sort of surprises waiting for me when I drill into a wall or when I yeah, I've been taking on more projects and we'll save this update maybe for some other time. But it's just nice to know that there are fewer surprises than some of the older properties we used to live in, where it's just like
you who knows. Yeah, I think it is maybe being similar to driving a two thousand and five car versus like a nineteen seventy five car.
Two thousand and five is modern enough right where you're enough and it's fairly easy to fix. If you get then that a total death trap. Yeah, I don't know what to do.
Like, have you seen pictures of like speaking of the fifties, you know, your house being from like the fifties.
Have you seen kids car seats from the fifties, No, dude, they got to be pathetic.
It is the craziest, Like I mean, they look like total death trap guillotines, but just like with a kid sitting in it on the front seat, like with like a piece of webbing, like barely you know, it's yeah.
Oh my gosh. I don't about how we used to fix backwards, you know in the buicks and which is honestly probably pretty safe.
I would guess if you're facing backwards, if you're buffled, if you're oh yeah, yeah, if you're just bouncing around back there, yeah, which is likely how a lot of the station went right, more likely likely operating. All right, hey, let's talk about let's talk about tax refunds. Did you have you gotten your tax refund?
Not yet? Your old one? Right? Yes? Do you see it?
How do you view your tax refund? Do you see it as like a I guess more like from a political same point. Do you view it as like a tax an interest free loan to the government that I finally get to get back, or do you view it as, oh, here is a way for me to pay what I uh, what I need to pay to the government in order to provide for the common streets, military, you know, just all all that.
I see it both ways. Like I see like it's part of it is a civic duty to keep Like there's and there's a lot of good that comes from my tax dollars. But then I also see there's a lot of waste and abuse, right and there's especially certain parts of the country you might point to and say, well, that's really poorly run, and it's nice to live in a place where it feels like your tax dollars are being used.
Well, yeah, I think that's a good way of viewing. I don't think I have very very many emotions tied to it, Like I just I do it because I know I'm supposed to. I'm I'm also trying to minimize how much I owe because I don't want to have to pay more than I that I need to. But then I'm also very hopeful of that it's used an efficient and used to the it's put to good use.
And again maybe should run for public office match so you can ensure that it's similar to running for hoa board. But it makes you specifically asked about how I feel about the refund as well. And I think some people man like who are over optimizers. They want to get it down to the pending or they want to get so close that their refund is minimal, or they have to pay a small amount. And I don't think that's unwise, but I also don't obsess over that to that extent.
I like to be in the ballpark and if I get I think, if I get a little bit of a refund, great and I'll use it, you know, to further my financial goals. And if I have to pay a little bit, I'm prepared for that. Also.
Yeah, well, good news for folks who count on it, because refunds are up eleven percent on average, and a lending Tree survey reveals that folks are overwhelmingly spending their refund dollars on the necess They're not spending this money, this new found these new found riches, or this deposit on splurges in their life, and this makes sense given the recent inflation data, rising gas prices, the uncertainty that the future holds.
Thirty four percent said.
They plan to use their refund dollars to pay for rent, groceries, or on bills, which there's a part of me that there's a part of me.
That's sad about that.
Right, So half of the survey participants say that they rely on their tax refund to get by.
So like that, I hate that.
But as far as folks who obviously I want those folks to be less dependent on their on their tax refund.
But as far as the folks who are just like, yeah, I'm going to use it on the necessities, right, I can totally resonate with that, because if you approach your finances from a very fungible point of view, it goes into the general coffer, the all mixed household coffer, and then it just gets It's not like I'm earmarking that for something special, yes, per se Right, So because it's fungible and the way we operate our finances, it just yeah, that money is going to go to everything that we
have decided we're going to allocate our funds to. We did that back in January at the beginning of this year for twenty twenty six. So I think some of it might come down to how it is that you've view your money, how you earmark things, how you'd like to save for things. It comes down to perhaps personality and maybe this feels like more of an emotional response.
Well based on the headline, So the three thousand dollars refund, Yeah, of course it's going to basically because like everything's more expensive, don't you get it? And so I think there's probably some of that in this. Probably. I think people just feel very understandably, so, especially when you're talking about maybe parody of wage increases and price increases. It you don't
feel like you're getting ahead. And as you know, then something like gas prices going up, costing you an extra sixty seventy dollars a month, You're like, well, I guess that's where this is going, because what is what it feels like? Yeah, that is the reality for some people to Yeah.
I do want folks to be smart about using the refunds, obviously, because this is a way to meaningfully boost your savings to pay off debt. Like a lot of folks aren't getting that sort of influx, that infusion of cash, and so don't fritter it away. To a certain extent, I like that folks are doing the quote unquote responsible adulting.
Oh the whole responsibility follows to me sort of theme again right, like, oh, this is something that I need to be smart about, as opposed to being like you're in your twenties and you're just like, I'm going to put that towards a new mountain bike, you know, or something like that, and we like bikes. But still absolutely, yeah, you have a plan, have a plan, especially when we're talking about increased increased tax refunds this year, have a
plan for it. Be smart, be smart, identify your top goals, start funneling your money in that direction. And on that note, Matt, there could be other money in the ether waiting for how money listeners more bonus dollars.
Our good friend and former co worker, he just wrote a piece about unclaim money for the Motley Fool, which made me think, oh, it's a good it's a good idea to mention this again. Maybe we talked about this a couple times a year, and it's worth highlighting because every time we do, we get a bunch of emails from listeners who are like, dude, thank you, I just found free money. I didn't think it was possible. There are a lot of ways that your money could have
gone missing in the past. It could even be like an old tax refund check that you did in cash that money after some time, it goes to the state as the whole. It's not like the state now owns that money, it's theirs, but they are the holder of those dollars that are yours. And so it's worth checking. Even if you think there's no way that there's money sitting around waiting for you, it's worth checking the websites
unclaimed dot org and missing money dot com. Those are the sites to check to see if there actually is money in your name from maybe an old bank account that you forgot about that has been closed and that money goes to the state. But yeah, there could be a little bit of money out there for you that you weren't aware of totally. Yeah.
So interestingly enough, the FDC, they actually just had a press release about scammers who are calling you to tell you about unclaimed money as well, and they'll make it sound like that you're owed a ton of money, like thousands of dollars, and you get super pumped and excited about that, and you're like, oh, let me.
Take advantage of this. This is the thing, man, Joel, we're talking about, right, Yeah, But that's not the case.
And in fact, it's a phishing scam and they are attempting to get you to send them money, and.
So don't do that.
If there is actually money that's owed to you, it's typically not that much, like we're talking in like the fifty to one point fifty maybe two hundred dollars range. Don't respond to those calls or those texts. Instead, just go straight to the websites that that Joel mentioned, unclaimed dot org and missing money dot com.
Well, this makes you think, Matt. The FTC also just recently announced that Americans lost record sums to scams in twenty twenty five. A lot of people out they're not taking our advice. Fifteen point nine billion dollars was lost to scammers apparently last year. And that's really it could be more than that, right, So, imposter scams are the most ubiquitous someone claiming to be let's say, from the irs,
right irs. I don't know how many of those messages you get on your phone, Matt on a daily basis. It feels like I get a couple every day, is what. It's probably not accurate, but like that's how it feels. At least they're constant, a constant barrage of these things, and then of course artificial intelligence is only accelerating these scams and financial losses are climbing. And Mike Piper, who is actually our guests this week talking about social security,
I hope that was helpful a lot of people. He had an article on his side about how much easier it is to fall for a scam on a mobile device, And we're on our mobile devices more, I believe it than ever think about even just I think people are watching TV on TVs less, are watching on their phones more and more used to it like TV than it was laptop in the bed, And I was like, I just watch everything on my phone. We do so much
on our phone. Our guard is down, and it's harder to see certain things right on a phone versus on a desktop as well. So like a scammy email address, it's just hard to you know, when you're in Gmail or whatever whatever mail app you use, it's harder to identify the sender. And so it's easier than ever for scammers to fake like a Vanguard email and to make
it look like a professional one. And so yeah, when it comes down to it, just beware, don't respond to those emails log in to the website directly, use two factor authentication. Those are ways to help protect yourself. But
we've also talked about this Matt too. It used to be like, oh, those scams are preying on the elderly, and there's obviously still some of that, but we're seeing a lot more scams targeted towards younger folks gen Z and millennials, and they are more at risk because they're using their devices and they're you know, coming across people on social media or via kind of unsolicited emails that are out to get them.
That's right, Yeah, I think I think a big part of the cell the getting scammed on your cell phone, on your mobile device is the fact that you're not necessarily in the headspace to think clearly about whatever it is that you're currently doing right, Like you're on the move. Like the reason that when you sit down to a computer or to a desktop, or you're sitting down in the office, Okay, let me finally respond to that Vanguard request.
You log in via the methods that you typically do, and you are in the headspace and you're like, wait a minute, this doesn't look right as opposed to you know, quick text that you might receive and you actually maybe you didn't even mean to click it, and all of a sudden, you're on a website. Now it looks like the official website. You're like, well, shoot, maybe I'll go ahead and log in. Yeah, you're just like in a
different headspace. I think when you're on your mobile device on the move, maybe you're surrounded by kids, maybe you're in the middle of an order at a restaurant.
Or something like that.
You know, like I picture all these life slortter of circumstances that would cause you to quickly not properly vet a request like that. But man, we've got more to get to during our Friday flight today, including we'll talk about whether or not it makes sense to plunk down the change and get that degree. Are you going to earn that money back? We'll get to that more right after this.
Anybody guess what we're back. We're gonna continue along with the Friday flight. Let's do it. This is the second half. I'm on the edge of my seat.
The third quarter, I guess is what takes place after halftime. This is the ludicrous headline of the week, which is from the Washington Post, and the headline reads some of the most popular graduate degrees don't pay off financially study fines. So you might be hearing this and think, oh, should I be going back to school for a graduate degree, Well, we would recommend that you consider the likely payoff. Of course, this is how to money. We want you to focus
on the ROI. And a study released by the Yale Tobin Center for Economic Policy finds that doctors and lawyers, on average, they tend to get loads of value from their MD right, so from that extra schooling and so the study it takes into account the years of reduced pay while you're getting the degree. Right, So there's a period of time there's like a what's you know, there's a.
Trade off the opportunity to call us for a while exactly while you're getting the degree in order to make more later. So there's that.
There's also the cost of actual that you got to pay to get that said degree. But then of course it's considering the potential higher lifetime earnings as well, and turns out getting an MBA it's a bit of it. It's more of a murky proposition versus let's say an md.
A slam dunk in the same way.
For an NBA the payoff is far smaller, which means more NBA degree holders, you know, they're not benefiting a whole lot. It turns out that a graduate degree in clinical psychology it should be pursued specifically for the love of the game, because it showed that the payoff is often negative and man, I was kind of surprising to
see that. And of course this is is looking at the ROI, right, it's looking at the return on all those factors, the most important of which I think is the cost of getting again said degree, right, because if you look at the actual increase in earnings, the actual increase in income across the board, no matter like it goes up, right, you get the degree, you're going to
see higher wages. But whether or not it's worth the actual abolishment ROI standpoint, that's when you have to start considering, ooh, maybe there's an alternative to this again, if you're just looking at it through or via a financial the personal finance sunglasses that you put on when you listen.
Our show, and that's certainly not the only thing you think about when you're getting a higher degree, but that no, that has to have a major impact, right. We always start with the money, and then we talk about all the soft stuff because most of the time you're not like, let me go get that degree so I can make
less for the next like two decades. Like that's not usually the hope that people have when they go back to school, especially taking that time off and away from work or the hustle at night, right, putting themselves through to get that mass sacrifice me And that's yah, that's what you're what you're taking on there. Literally just talking to Noboddy who's about to get his about to get
his masters, And I didn't ask you. I don't know how much more he's going to get paid for it because he's kind of staying in the same role, the same job. So I'm curious how that's going to playoff form. What is he going to get it? See?
Like that's because again, like I mean, there's such like when we're talking about nbas, there's a big difference between paying two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for an NBA at Columbia versus like ten thousand dollars.
At Western Carolina. That's right, That's right. It's like it's the same letters.
If you're looking for the the you know the credentials, but obviously you know we're going to say, well, that's not why you're doing it, you dummy, Like like the reason you go to Columbia is for the network, Like that is the product. And I totally understand that, but keep that in mind when you're paying, you know, maybe a bit more than you need to for a specific degree.
And I think it is worth considering what kind of work do I want to do for a long time because that sort of ability to stick to it and not hate your life in the job that you're performing is crucial. That that was a big part of the reason that that Emily went back to school to become a therapist and was like, oh, yeah, this probably will be better from like a it'll be flexible, it'll be a better hourly rate than when I could command doing something else, and it's something that I love. So it
hit a bunch of things. Although overall she's not going to get paid and insane like an insane amount, like that's just not if you're looking to make like two hundred and fifty grand a year, probably don't go be a marriage and family therapist. That's not gonna that's not gonna do it, and so the ro's all. It's worth acknowledging that the ROI doesn't always come in dollars, but it could provide slightly higher income, better job security. Those
things are also worth thinking about. And continuing on the thought of the value of college, Matt for just a second, there's more opportunity these days to go to college for free. The Washington Posts created a list of colleges that are offering free tuition across forty five states in the country. Many have a minimum GPA maximum income requirements, so if you make too much right, you don't qualify for the
free tuition. We've seen this especially at some of the IVY leagues, saying, Hey, anybody that makes whose family makes less than two hundred k, your kid gets to come here and they don't owe a dime intuition, which I think is really cool. But yeah, as the cost of college continues to climb and the headlines about a lack of affordability just proliferate, we're seeing them all the time.
Free options to keep the cost down are clutch, and I'm just glad that the Washington Posts made it kind of easily accessible to see them all in one place. We'll link to it in the show notes. But especially like when you're talking to a young person or you're talking to someone about going back to school, it's not just that idea of like should I get this degree, It's well, how long is it going to take you? How much is it going to cost? Can you bring
the cost down in different ways? And if you can, then it's going to make the value of that degree. I think it just increases the value. That is right. Let's get to the shrinking middle class here in America.
Joel, because we talked earlier about how more folks are using their tax refunds to pay for necessities in life, and that might lead a lot of folks to believe that, man, everybody is struggling.
It's actually not.
So there are more upper middle class Americans now than ever before. And this is according to a new study from the American Enterprise Institute. Thirty one percent of Americans are now upper middle class compared to ten percent about.
Forty five years ago. So that's a huge jump.
It's a massive jump, man, Yeah, folks in this category. And so that means folks were earning between one hundred and thirty three thousand dollars up to four hundred thousand dollars.
What's fascinating is that they don't tend to think of themselves as upper middle class folks, but they are, according to the data, according to the numbers, and so despite a lot of pessimism I think in recent years, it's just incredible to see data that reflects the reality of growing income of people who are building massive amounts of wealth, truly for a large swath of Americans. And this No, this doesn't mean that the rich get richer while the poor are getting poor, because.
There are actually fewer.
Poor and lower class Americans now as well. So everyone man, everybody is on the rise.
The rising tide is lifting the average of all boats.
Yes, and that certainly does not mean that inequality is not an unimportant issue. But there's also evidence here to suggest that standards of living are on the rise. Incomes they continue to rise, and it's just really cool and encouraging to see that. The data seems to show that the key to moving up the wealth ladder has a lot to do with marriage or at least cohabitation, the
ability to pulley resources. I'm not surprising it also has a lot to do with education, and I think anyone who is down on America it should look at that article. And of course we always link to all the articles that we mentioned on the podcast because it's so inspiring to hear these folks we're talking about, like, oh man, I didn't have the ability or for me for my parents to buy me a.
Baseball glove, like that was a struggle.
And it's just incredible that that is not the same upbringing that I'm going to be able to provide for my family. Is just so freaking cool. It gets me fired up, Like it makes me excited for again, all the companies out there doing amazing things elevating the elevating standards of living that we're all able to participate in, whether or not you yourself are super optimistic about where things are going or not. And I think there is a lot of pessimism right now about well, how long
is this going to continue? Right like will the next generation be as well off as our generation? And in US history, I think there has been more optimism than there is now. And again, I don't want to sound like a Pollyanna, but I think there are still lots of reasons to be optimistic about and just looking at recent history of the last forty five years, like what has occurred, it's helpful to highlight that section to see, well, what has changed, and to maybe reflect a little more on
our collective. Obviously not everyone is thriving at the same rate, but it's like our collective ability to thrive, it really has increased. And yeah, we our goal on this podcast is to point out things like that so hopefully we can understand the position that we're in better and handle the money that comes into our lives in an efficient and intelligent way. Yeah, and not to mention the fact that all the negative headlines are get all the attention, so I feel like we have to work extra hard.
It's just an uphill battle in order to present some of this positive news for folks, as opposed to just easily it's so easy to like backslide down into all the negative stuff as opposed to highlighting and lifting up some of the good stuff.
That's I remember a few years back there was like some some website that was all it did was they wrote stuff like hopeful stuff and like my grandma will send me the story, you know, and it was a little bit annoying at times. You know, but I do think there is something about putting out that positive stuff into the world and recognizing this because it's so easy to see the negative stuff. There's a lot of it
that can be highlighted, and it fills our newspapers. But when we talk about the good stuff, like, it's worth highlighting that too. But you know, while the percentage of poor or lower class Americans is smaller, Matt, there's still the population hurt most by inflation, which is rearing it's ugly head again. Like we most recent inflation reading was
much higher than it had been, and that's rising. Gas prices are big culprit in that they and they take a disproportionate bite out of a smaller paycheck, and they're hurting found this interesting and this makes total sense. They're hurting gig workers in particular. Two, it's like lift and uber drivers, right, Unlike the airlines that can't institute fees on their passengers, they are essentially subject to the whims of lift and uber and they don't have the ability
to control their pricing. And so this this Wall Street Journal article highlighted the kind of three three second decision tree that drivers have to use as to whether they're going to accept or reject a ride, like, okay, how far is that? How much they's going to cost me a gas? We'll be able to get another ride that brings me back here quickly. But if I don't accept this ride, then how long am I even be sitting
here waiting for the next ride? And it's really like it's hard out there for ride shair drivers, And so driving ride shair has never been a highly lucrative endeavor, but the financials are are just worse now. So I have to imagine that a lot will pivot to other gigs where no gas is needed, at least for a
while if possible. And for many who do use this as like a full time way to make income, useddvs or are looking more enticing, especially if you're a ride shair driver one of those people who is driving forty to fifty hours a week.
Does that work as far as like, well, I mean, what does it look like to recharge your EV though when it comes to like as far as like I mean, my impression of lift and new or drivers is that they're just constantly look, they're just moving from one to the next, and like any downtime is just my time that they're not making money. So I don't know, because even with like a level two charger, I mean, it still takes a lot.
I don't know. I never owned it. You owned an EV, so I've got a little less pretty quick you can, I mean, you can get let's say, like a supercharger, maybe like fifteen fifteen minutes you can well, no, is that I don't know, is it the supercharger that's well, I know, like a supercharger I did use because when we rented a Tesla with via Turo, Yeah, I mean, and yeah, we sat there for like fifteen minutes, which isn't too different than like, you know, pulling into a
gas station and filling up. Yeah, I don't know.
I've certainly ridden around in some teslas and I'm like, how do you do it? As far as maybe I.
Should take a lunch break at home and you plug it in, yeah, charger, and then you head back out there on the streets, take take a little break. Can you think about a gash you're probably willing to make some.
Pivots, Yeah, certainly tip if you can afford it to maybe help keep some of these folks on the road. Honestly, and this is where the market's beautiful. Because what happens if folks aren't tipping extra and you're they're incurring a
larger expense. The market forces will cause some of those folks to say, well, this isn't worth it anymore, Like you said, right, folks pivoting to non gasoline based gigs, which then does what, Oh well, it reduces the supply of drivers, which then does what the algorithm adjusts, and all of a sudden, those drivers who are still in the pool are getting paid more. Right, So I guess one way or the other, it will we're gonna.
Have to pay.
Yeah, if if you want to catch a ride share. But did you see the article too about I Freak the name of the website, But they were talking about drivers who are pitching life insurance, so like they're they're like side hustle. While they're side hustling, they're hilarious. They're poking fun at like hot moms who are hawking Mary kay. And so now you got uber drivers who are driving in uh yeah, driving their tesla's around and they're like, hey, would you like life insurance?
It's like, why would I want life insurance? Not here, not now, not in this way.
Yeah, well, I mean I think that's maybe the moral of the story, the fact that like, life insurance is great, but maybe don't purchase it in the backseat of the uber or lyft that happens to pick you up, right, Like, these are one of those decisions.
Maybe shop around, know how much coverage you need and compare, compare prices to in terms, and know you know what kind of life insurance policy you're buying in the first place. Yeah, well, first of all, do do you have a family? Do you have anybody who is dependent on you for your income? But then beyond that, it's sort of like the scams
with ingrainted. Maybe this isn't necessarily a scam, but it's like the scammers who are hitting you up on your phone, Like that's not the time or place for you necessarily to be logging in and updating your beneficiary or whatever, you know whatever the scammers are trying to get out of you on your mobile device. In a similar way, I don't want folks buying life insurance in the back of the uber. Yeah you're on the way to the airport or something like that. Yeah, we've got a show
notes up on the website. At howdomoney dot com, where we'll link to all the different stories that we mentioned today as well as other resources. Cuting, we'll put an article about how to think about buying life insurance, like the parameters you need to if you're like Angel just brought up life insurance, I'm not gonna buy in the backseat of maneuver, but I never do that. La do need a policy? Well, yeah, we've got an article that'll help you through that.
Yeah, but that's gonna be it for this episode. We hope everyone has a great weekend. Oh, we're gonna be We're gonna be running some this weekend.
We got a little little Oh.
What we didn't share was I can't believe we didn't share this. We didn't share the five k the local the local five k race. Uh, you won gold, my friend.
In the old man age group. Certainly not overall. What's fun is that I also won silver. We crushed it, And I can't believe that because I left.
And I didn't stick around for the thing for you, you picked it up for which I do appreciate. But it would have been so great to have had a picture of you and me with our medals.
With the mayor with a mayor in the middle, which this old guy. Yeah.
Anyway, I hope you do well this weekend you too, Thank you fun to run together, It'll be a lot of fun. Yeah, but we hope you have great plans for this weekend as well, and we'll see you back here on Monday with a fresh ask how to Money episode.
We will see you then, So until next time, Best friends out, Best friends Out.