Welcome to had the Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt. Today we're talking return rabbits, double majoring, and nihilistic renters. Yeah. It's great to be back here at the Friday Flight, isn't it.
It's good to have an opinion that not just your partner and kids.
Want to hear. Joel. I'm sure that that's part of it for you. What was it I never want to hear? I texted you, Uh, there.
Was something that hit the news like in the middle of Christmas week or something like that, and I can't remember what it was, but I think it was gift cards about gift cards, and I was just like, I'm here for you, buddy, if you can't vent on the podcast or you just want to vent to me directly, but no, this is the Friday Flight where we talk about the headlines from the past week, how they were
specif going to impact your personal finances, Joel. Everybody has been like up in arms about the World Cup prices. World Cup World Cup ticket prices that will be coming here to North America this summer.
Reporting events are just cheap in general, Matt, is what I found out. Yeah. Actually I went to a college game basketball game with my kids this past weekend that was affordable way and it was free, like they had free tickets to go see the female basketball. I'm taking them kids again this weekend because I guess what, I got more free tickets. And this was not because I got a hook up. This was they were widely available.
Anybody could get these free tickets. But World Cup prices for not letting me know, I know, I been there with you. I thought about it after the fact fact, but the World Cup ticket prices nowhere near free. Yeah. Well, I think they released a small small amount of like sixty dollar tickets or something.
Oh yeah, what's like how high of elevation? Like there's literally an altimeter associated with the seats? Yeah, you get for sixty bucks.
I know you've been saving up though, you because we're gonna have good memories here, are you? Are you gonna go through with it? Are you gonna buy tickets? Okay?
So he it's funny that you bring that up, because that's literally a conversation Kate and I had at the end of last year beginning of this year, as we're doing budget planning, we're looking at our savings buckets, how much we either went over on some of those or how much surplus we have in them. And this is
a category that I guess it was like four years ago. Yeah, listeners maybe can go back, and they're not gonna go back, but listeners might remember us talking about this and how I thought, you know what, We're gonna have some kids, and I think there's a good chance that they're going to be into soccer by the time twenty twenty six rolls around, and I want to be able to take them one, if not multiple, or you know, the whole
family to see some World Cup matches. And specifically the reason for that was at that point in time four years ago, I was really into soccer and so I was going to MLS matches all the time. It is not something that I have kept up, and nor is it a sport that the kids have really taken up. I mean, there's all sorts of stuff were doing, but
soccer isn't one of them. And so I actually asked Kate as we're looking at the twenty twenty six budget, and I said, hey, what do you want to do with this, because I doubt we're going to go, especially based on how expensive the prices were, because I based I based the ticket prices on the average ticket price and was it in Qatar last time, And so they published all the prices and it is significantly more than what the standard ticket was back then, and she was
fine with us just rolling that into some other special occasion entertainment expense. Essentially, essentially, you're like relabeling it not World Cup, but let's just keep it earmarked for something else. So all that being said, I'm not currently at least
planning to go to a World Cup match. I signed up, I created a like at the beginning because I wanted to see how much were they actually going to be for the different matches and logged in and you know, like the FIFA portal or whatever where you could where you could do that. But I was I was a little disheartened.
I think of the World Cup kind of like the Olympics, and obviously like soccer specific Olympics essentially, right, because it's nations around the world competing, and how often you get it in your hometown and be really fun to go see a game, even if it's just some sort of like friendly or something ahead of time. I don't even care if I get the opportunity to go for a
reasonable price. I will because I look back on the one World Series game I've been to I remember, and the one so pumped about that, and the one MLS Cup final I went to, and you know, would I've paid a thousand dollars for those tickets? No, but like when they were sub two hundred bucks, all right, okay, I'm happy to do that. So if I get access to a reasonably price ticket, I'll go. But other than that, I'm just not going to fork over a ton of
money for it. I don't care enough either, but to be able to say you're there, like I know that Pelchrium played Portugal or something like that, that'd be awesome. Those tickets won't be going, No, those are going to be really I don't know much about what's how those countries are doing, but you have to watch, like Trinidad play I don't know, some some other no name country like yeah, I forget I remember reading about it, like
derogatory towards Trinidad by the way, I'm sorry. No, I mean there are some countries because they've expanded the pool. I'm pretty sure, like there are some countries that have never made it before, and this is the first time they're making it. So I'm guessing those may not necessarily be the absolute best matches, but yeah, as always, you are a valuist in a similar way. If I come across an opportunity and I'm.
Like, hey, for get some last minute tickets, make it, you know, make it down there to see a match that sounds like a lot of fun.
But and we'll just see one last thing here. A lesson I think everybody can learn is plan ahead for really expensive stuff, and hey, you might decide you're not going to use the money for that purpose, and then you can use it for something else. Yeah, newfound wealth to use elsewhere. It's like finding a twenty in your winter jacket, but.
It's way more than that, Like literally, I mean we've set aside like thousands of dollars ye.
That we had earmark for that.
But something else that folks are doing these days, Joel after the holidays is making all those returns, like all that crap that you don't want or that maybe you realize wasn't going to be a great gift. Most retailers are going to allow you to make those retren through the end of the month. I was recently at Whole foods making like a bulk Amazon return drop off.
And they had it was like a holding pin.
Life that like with the with the ropes and stuff like going down the aisle and luckily I was there when it wasn't wasn't crowded at all.
Is able just to walk straight up, but I could don't.
I can imagine what that was like a few days.
Prior, Saturday, right after Christmas or something. Oh my gosh, Yeah, that's not the day to return. I'm find another time.
But you might get charged for making some of those returns though, so keep an eye out for that. Obviously, returns are an expensive reality for a lot of retailers, and so because of that, many folks are mini companies are taking a lump out of their customers for bringing these items back. Three quarters of retailers have made their return policy less generous. So we're gonna call out a few here. TG Max Marshalls are charging twelve bucks if
you make a return online instead of in store. Macy's, which I am very surprised to see is still around. I don't like, do they operate in the malls that I'm also surprised to see are still open because Macy's aren't standalone stores, so I guess these are in shopping malls.
I keep wondering about the mall nearest to us. I'm like, how, what's going to happen? Yeah? Is that going to be exist in the current form?
I don't know, man, But Macy's they're going to charge you ten bucks if you aren't a rewards member or an outfitters. They're also going to charge you for online returns. And I mentioned Amazon earlier, but they're kind of all over the place depending on the item, like where it is that you return it, whether you need to like package the thing up before returning it or not. But get those returns done and try not to get eaten the live buy fees in the process.
Yeah. The other thing I think is we're seeing retailers offer more final sale products, and that's essentially to say, hey, we're going to give you a decent price on this piece of clothing or whatever it is, but you have no right to return it at all because we don't we don't want it back. And I think you just have to know your size, no the retailer, and have an idea at least I guess of whether you're going to be pretty happy with that item before you make the purchase, if it's final sale.
Yeah, if you know your sizes and you know the company man, that's a great way. It's sort of like you with your shoes. That's a great way to take advantage of an awesome deal.
Yeah.
I mean, I think they're going to have to cut the prices, slashing them significantly when folks are all of a sudden pushed up against the reality of I can't make a return. Yeah, so I'm stuck with this thing, and that makes them think twice about it. That's right, and Okay.
An even more extensive way to return stuff is to hire other people to do it for you. But of course, of course in modern day America, that's something you can do. Instead of packages landing on your doorstep, there's there are new companies like Return Queen that will pick those packages up from your house. You stick them back on the porch, and then they whisk them off to ups or wherever they need to make those returns.
I I was a little disappointed that you didn't say return Queen like I was hoping you would say it.
It's like Queen like that.
Yeah, I'll include that but still you didn't really commit, so that doesn't count. You might have to do it one more time, and maybe we'll say that for that right next episode. Task grab it's another site where you could like hire people to do stuff for you. Those like return gigs apparently are up sixty percent on that site, according to the Wall Street Journal, and specifically, the journal found that some folks are even reaching out to moving companies for help returning heavy items.
That they purchase. Hey, maybe you bought that rowing machine that Matt loves or something, and you're like, oh, I got to return it, but I'm going to break my back trying to get it in the car, and blah blah blah. People are literally reaching out to moving companies paying them to return stuff for them, which seems great. I can't imagine that's widespread, but it's a thing. And I was looking at the pricing Matt of return Queen.
It doesn't seem crazy, like ten bucks for a pickup of up to like twelve packages or something like that. But of course there's a subscription you can sign up for and that's hundreds of dollars a year. But this is still an expense added right to something that it's taking another cut, just like retailers are doing. Now other places who will do the return for you are also so taking a cut. Bloomberg called it an adulting tax, which I don't know if that's accurate, because a tax
is something like you're kind of forced to pay. This is something you're doing to yourself that you are choosing this is optional because you could have made the returns on your own, and you're just not getting every penny back by as you would if you made those returns on your own. But I guess the bright side of this is that it means for a lot of people they're actually going to make the returns instead of just letting that stuff I don't know, linger somewhere in the
back of their closets standing in their house. This is where I kind of it's weird because you're trying to value your time, which is important, but there's this fine line between like knowing your hourly rate and farming out chores on repeat and then just kind of becoming beholden and dependent on these new services that add up over time.
This convenience culture that is completely optional. And you're saying too the fact that it's not all that expensive. But you know how these new companies, these new startups work. They get their hooks in you, you get used to this new lifestyle, and then once they've got market share, they just slowly turned the screwze on you. That's how they eventually, or at least what they promised to their shareholders or new potential shareholders, how they're going to make
a profit. Yeah, but all the while costing you even more money. So let's talk about student loans, because obviously, graduating with a massive student loan debt it's never been a good thing. But I feel like in this area it's worse than usual. As millions of borrowers are finding themselves behind on payments, they are falling into delinquency. And this is after a pretty long pause that we've seen basically starting with the COVID pandemic era. Those folks are
going to be in for a rude awakening though. In twenty twenty six. Wage garnishment is beginning. Those notices are being sent out this week, and it's not just paychecks that could see up to a fifteen percent reduction, it's
the tax refunds as well. Many borrowers are going to have their entire refund taken by the government come April, and that's also going to be a rude awakening because I think a lot I mean a lot of folks they talk about how dependent they are on that sort of cash and fusion in the spring because for what.
The average tax refunds something like four thousand dollars. I want to say, like, it's a lot of money. It's a lot of money.
And so obviously being in default is going to mess up your credit score, but it's going to cause other potential financial issues as well. And you know, we're not going to weigh in on the issues of fairness, but either way, the goal is to get out of student loan payment default quickly. Switching repayment plans that might be your best bet if you are having a difficult time
paying every month. We'll link to the Department of Education Loan Simulator and it's got a few different options there where you can sort of see what your options might be.
Yeah, and you can object, by the way, if you think that the delinquency is an error. But what's I think is it five million borrowers Matt who find themselves like something like two hundred and seventy plus days behind again. I get it, the whiplash and the well, your student loans even a thing anymore? Like that's the way it felt two years ago. Yes they're a thing, and yes
repayments have started. And if you find yourself by the way between a rock and a hard place with very little help from a gutted education department, well then you're gonna want to consider potentially more drastic measures. In particular, we're actually seeing more student loans being discharged via bankruptcy. A simpler process was essentially introduced under the Biden administration, and it's starting to bear fruit for some borrowers who
go to court in an attempt to get their loans dismissed. Outright, it's obviously a drastic measure, but at least for some who meet what's known as the undue hardship framework, who kind of check a few different boxes and can prove basically that their student loan payment is completely unaffordable, they
can have the balance essentially eradicated. This might be at least for some people who are significantly struggling, who really cannot afford to pay that student loan balance, that might be their most realistic shot at ditching it.
Yeah, and it's interesting though the quote unquote undue hardship framework is not clearly defined as to what that means. And so if you are looking to have your student loans discharged like that and bankruptcy, well, just know that it's still the wild wild West. And I wanted to mention too, if here's some.
People who specialize in that, like student loan lawyers. I literally subscribe to an email newsletter of a student loan lawyer because he has such a great insight on this front. And you might find that you need the help of a professional. And even then, right, it's still not one hundred percent surefire that you're going to win. And maybe you now owe lawyer's fees and you still are your student loans, and so there's potential problem going that round as well.
It takes a certain amount of insight and wisdom to know. It's not a black or white answer. Yeah, this is one where you kind of have to feel it out, and I wanted to mention, like, if you have no
idea where it is that you should start. We've talked with folks from Student Loan Planner before, and we'll link to a resource in our show notes there as well, because they can help you to put together a plan and to figure out the best path forward for you as an individual to not only get out of default, but to really just be able.
To tackle your student loans. That's we're spending money to hire an expert. Can save you money. Attend helps actually a lot more. Yeah, yeah, help you know that you're on the right path.
Okay, So while we are talking about higher ed friend of the show, Ron Lieber, he continues to document how expensive college can be and specifically how to reduce the price, which we love hearing that, but he has detailed how hard it is to compare college.
Costs ahead of time.
It's you know, you're basically trying to compare apples oranges. But there is this new.
Tool like opaque fruits too, Matt, like the you never even heard of, Yeah, and what is this thing? And that's because there's just so little transparency from many schools about what they offer in terms of financial aid and making that information public.
Yeah, you're trying to like you're trying to compare this like ever crisp apple to this. Oh, this is a mystery fruit. I've got no idea what this even is.
It's behind box number one.
But he recently wrote about this new tool from a company called Niche that can help or niche depending on how you like to pronounce it. But instead of going to each college's net price calculator and in putting the information directly, it can do it for you all in one place, and then it can compare multiple schools at once, which is fantastic because Man, keeping the price of a four year degree down like it's more important than ever.
It's really crucial to making it a good investment. And we'll make sure to link to.
That as well. Man And we also have prior podcast conversations with people like Jocelyn Pearson who can help you wade through the looking for scholarship stuff, Like there's a lot that you can do as an individual to go out there and hunt for money where you think about the hourly rate. Matt of like my nephew who's working at a fast food chain right now, as I did like in high school, and you don't get paid a whole lot his time. An hour is worth nothing, very little,
and it's probably worth actually a lot more. And I've talked about this with my sister, like, hey, what if he took a few worked a few less hours and spent those hours trying to hunt for scholarships. I like the idea of doing both because I like the idea of working in high school. But why Yeah, that's a really smart thing to I think incentivize your kids to do is to hunt for those scholarships, because if you do it in the right way, you might find that
the return is significant. I love it. Also, more students are opting to double major right now in an effort to improve career opportunities. I've talked about how the job market seems a little stagnant, and especially for recent college graduates, it feels like there's or in reality, there's less hiring going on. A lot of people who just got that degree. They're like, where's my job? And they're having a lot
of time. There's a lot of uncertainty right now. Yeah. Well, and the data seems to show that the double the amount of students are getting two majors these days instead of just one compared to ten years ago. Other statistics show that folks with double majors are less likely to lose their job, They're less likely to have their pay cut. So I think there's a bunch of wisdom in the choice of getting two majors instead of a major and a minor. Double majoring. It requires more effort, it requires
more hours in a particular field of study. But it's possible to pull it off without spending more time at school or even forking over more money when you think about them out what a full time student is. I was talking about this with my daughter the other day. Was twelve plus hours. But in school, there's a lot of people who I knew and myself included, who were taking nineteen twenty twenty one hours in a semester. And you don't always you're not always paying per credit hour
as a full time student. Oftentimes you're paying a flat tuition rate.
A lot of yeah, son of universities do that and so take those extra classes, bring all that extra load.
Double majoring in four years is for sure possible if you're a little more pedal to the medal, and then think about that easier to get a job, easier than to stay employed and get paid more as well.
That's the big question, right, is that it's yeah, only doing it for four years, it's still possible, But I think it gets even harder for a lot of folks as they pile on the hours because of the fact that, like I remember, I mean, we'll think about AP classes too. Think about kids graduating high school. Let's say they've passed a four AP tests, they've got some of those credits. Then it's even easier for those kids.
It's even easier.
But like I mean, over the past decade two decades, we've seen like it was a joke to be like, oh, yeah, I'm on the five year program back when.
We're in college.
Like I've talked with folks, and for a lot of folks getting a four year degree, it's you can't call it a four year degree. You call it an undergrad of bachelor's and six years is the new standard. And so we have seen some of that additional undergrad creep. And so I think that's one of the big tricks too, is to make sure, Yeah, you got to find that
balance between getting out of school on time. Maybe you do want to stick around, Maybe there's still some maturation that's taking place, and you're like, I don't know, I think some more time hanging out here, yes, working, yes, taking additional classes.
Maybe, and maybe you've got to hone my beer pond game.
Maybe it all bounces out in the end where Okay, let's say you are there only six years and you've got two degrees. I don't know, it's better than two separate four year stints where you've got I'm saying the numbers I guess could still be there even if you are extending it out to six years you've double majored. But it's certainly something to be aware of the fact that it's more likely to extend your undergrad if you were to double major and you got.
To be you gotta be on top of that, you.
Got to you gotta be a little more prudent and intentional with your time.
I don't want to make it sound like it's easy, right that anybody can double major in four years, but I certainly think more people can and it might not have to cost a bunch of extra money or time if you're diligent. Right, that's true. All right, Slate Queen, Matt I tossed it in now return queen.
That's the whole point is that you say it likes Slate Queen, but you say retainly it's okay, I screwed up.
All right, we got more to get to, including We're gonna talk about President Trump's announcement about big Wall Street firms not being allowed to invest in single family homes again, what's our take on that. We'll talk about that and more right after this. All right, buddy, we are back from the break return Queen.
It is now time for the ludicrous headline of the week, which is from the Washington Post. Headline reads, Abandoning home ownership may be changing how people behave at work and at home. And basically this article was about some new research based on renters who have essentially given up on the idea of owning a home. There's this new study
from economists at Northwestern and University of Chicago. Real smart folks when it comes to the numbers, but they find that and this is a quote, when people conclude that they will never be able to find a home, they put less effort into their jobs. They tend to spend more on luxuries and do less long term saving. Oh and are more likely to invest in riskier assets such as cryptocurrencies. Basically, if you don't think you can buy
a home, I'm just gonna roll the dice. When it comes to all these and all the other arenas of life, specifically with your personal finances. And yeah, what do you think, Joel? I mean, I get it, you know, like it's totally totally sucks. If this is the boat that you're in, I understand that it can be painful.
Yeah, I think it makes sense to me that people would say, if I can't buy a home, then I'm going to yolo some other stuff, right, like Yola, those investments, And I'm just not even going to dedicate as much money to savings because what am I saving for If I'm a perpetual renter and I don't have a big down payment I need to amass, then screw it. But I also, I mean, I think it's a self perpetuating
problem too. I think we've been in a macroeconomic time that has not been in recent years beneficial to people who want to buy a home. And we'll talk about kind of starter home single family homes in just a second. But it makes sense that people feel like, because it is harder to afford a home right now, that maybe they'll never be able to afford a home. But I also just think it's important to mention that those dynamics
and shift. Yeah, policy can change, right, And so if you decide, oh, I'm probably never gonna go home, so I'm not gonna save like I might be able to at some point, You're you're doing future you a disservice, and you're almost like baking into the cake ensuring but you never will be able to buy it or guaring. Yeah, you are guaranteeing it.
And essentially I feel like this study it takes more of a linear or logical approach to how these twenty thirty how are old, they are, how they're making their financial decisions. Right, It's just like, oh, I can't afford a home, therefore I will participate in these less smart, more short term focused decisions riskier too, yeah exactly when instead I think it could be a situation where maybe it's the same folks who think that way are who
are focused on the short term, the near term. Those are the same folks that are saying, oh, well I can't.
Afford a house.
Well, it doesn't surprise me that those same folks would then say, well, yeah, I should be looking at how to maximize happiness you know today that means going out tonight, that means not saving for future me, And there's just
a short termism focus to someone. If that's how you're thinking, it doesn't surprise me that it doesn't just impact how it is that you're approaching housing, but that it approaches how you perform at work, because if you are thinking more long term with your job, you're thinking, no, I need to put in the hours, the effort, the creativity
that's going to allow me to advance in this company. Oh, if I want to be able to retire someday, that means I need to set aside at least ten, if not twenty percent of my ink of every single paycheck.
Like there is just a.
Maturation process, Like that's something we were talking about earlier. But there's something about that that causes you to think a little bit more long term beyond not just today, beyond next year, but like years and even decades down the road. Like that's the I think that's the biggest difference here.
And I don't want to tell people who are renting who wants own a home, like be okay with renting forever, because I think that's not necessarily in the card. It's like you might be able to buy a home at some point.
And I think you very very well can and will. Oh, and that's some point if that's something that you truly do want to.
Do and if you're putting your money where your mouth is. But I also want to say for people who are renting, maybe for a time, it is actually a really good financial thing for you. Like if you utilize the difference between what you're paying in rent versus what you would be paying on a mortgage if you were to buy today, if you save that extra, like, you're gonna come out further ahead actually financially, if you are a smart renter
being doing the right stuff with your money. Given kind of the disparity between rents and mortgage payments right now. Matte totally agree. But obviously one other side of the equation that has kept housing unaffordable is mortgage rates. And yeah, mortgage rates are higher, but we also kind of do this to ourselves like a self inflicted wound. Most home buyers don't shop around for a mortgage. Zillo just released statistics something two thirds of people don't shop at all.
They literally just point at one mortgage lender and they're like, I'm going with you, and this cost them huge money over the life of their loan. We're talking about potentially lowering it by shopping right by with three different lenders, potentially lowering your rate by a full point, save you hundreds of dollars a month, and then tens of thousands, if not one hundred thousand dollars or more over the
life of your loan. This is this is one of those things that I think, in my mind is non negotiable. We talk about shopping around for little things online. If you can save twenty bucks on a pair of jeans, cool, But shopping around for a home loan, the stakes are so much higher. So include a credit union in there, Include a mortgage broker in there, Include maybe a local bank, but just make sure you shop around, because yeah, the savings can be meaningful.
Yeah, And I want to circle back to what you were saying, as far as you're talking about banking, the difference between your rent and what a potential mortgage might be right, Like, you've got this, You're like, oh, great, it is more affordable to rent. How is it that I'm going to eventually be able to put down enough
money to purchase a home. It's those practical steps that I think folks, if they don't, it's almost as if because there's not something immediately in front of them that they are pursuing a goal, whether it's like a vacation or a very expensive purchase. You think, well, I'm not going to want that thing we've talked recently about, like
the World Cup, thing like that. That's a bucket, like a savings bucket that we have maintained because I'm thinking, oh, well, at some point we're gonna want to spend that on something. And it's something that we have slowly built up over time, like literally we add fifty bucks to it every every single month. That's what we've done over the past, like I guess four years. But I think it's important for folks to anchor the sacrifices that they're making today, those actions.
They need to anchor those actions to whatever potential goal that you might have far off in the future, even
when that goal isn't clearly defined. I think for a lot of folks, not having that clearly defined goal is the biggest problem because once you have like wrapped your mind around that, like, oh, I can picture myself like whatever it is that you're going to do in your new house, you know, like throwing the plane, fetch with my dog in the backyard or sitting on the front porch with my partner or inviting friends over to play corn hole in the front of I don't know whatever,
like whatever it is, it's so much easier, I think for folks to say I want that, yeah, And I think the really hard part is to understand that, like you don't have a specific vision for what that might look like, but just know that it's like, I don't know, it's like right around the corner.
And that's the it's hard to square that, I think for a lot of folks. There's there's also a an article about people moving to the Midwest more and more. And so sometimes if you really if that dream of home ownership is you're resolute in it, like this is something I really really want, and you live in a really high cost of living area, well, if home ownership Trump's the particular place where you live, then you might find that moving is the answer to at least part of that conundrum. True.
Speaking of speaking of Trump, I know, I know you wanted to touch on something he mentioned.
Let's do earlier this week, truth Truth to vout. I believe the truth Truth social the an announcement that big corporations are no longer going to be allowed to buy single family homes and rent them out. And his he basically said, people live in homes, not corporations. And Matt, you and I actually have not talked about this yet together. This is like, I think, kind of populist policy. I can get behind the giant corporations owning single family homes
in greater numbers. They've led to rising rents in markets, especially where these buying, these corporate landlords have been buying in a concentrated way. It's led to a dearth of starter homes for young buyers. Companies like invitation homes. They're not great landlords either. We've seen a lot of horror stories from tenants being like, yeah, they don't prepare anything.
There's mold all over the place. Some estimates show that corporations own something like four percent of the overall single family home rental stock in the country. Sounds like a small amount, but I do think the impact of this
could be meaningful. But again, this is a this is a truth social this is a social media post that this will likely take an Act of Congress to make it a law, and there's no silver bullet to rising or to where home prices are right, Like, just this one thing isn't going to magically make home prices back to twenty twelve pricing affordability for people.
Yeah, but it is. We are never going to get back there. Like that's the biggest difference. I mean truly, you know, like like I don't see it, but I don't see it happening. Better policy encouraging if more building combined with this could all at least help make housing more affordable for the average person.
Yeah, you want me to provide my counter? Aren't sure?
Because I mean, I think the biggest flaw with this is the fact that it's it's just based on such a scarcity sort of mindset, right, as opposed to the exact opposite, Like we need abundance, right, Like that's a word that we heard a ton of last year in the ability line, the ability to and oh, Derek Toomas on the show before Friend of the Show, but just the ability to loosen building restrictions and provide more supply
for folks. I think that is much more of the solution as opposed to three percent or three or four percent of single family homes owned by corporations, like that is such a small amount in.
Some markets were it's highly concentrated. Think like Atlanta. It's about that in Atlanta too. No, it's more like ten percent of it, is it? Really? Yeah?
Okay, so let's let's say ten percent. I know that like Mama pop Landlord's own closer to like twenty years and thirty percent. So, like, if you want to make a bigger difference on the ability to free up starter homes for folks single family homes these two ones, three two's, then maybe like there should be something done about investors who are looking to purchase some of these homes to
you know, further their financial position. It just it feels like populist politics as opposed to actual policy that's going to move the needle. And so in principle, just based on like theoretical how are you approaching this problem framework?
I don't like it.
But also of course the fact that he's just like I'm going to do this thing that's terrible politics, Like is that even constitutional. We talked about student loans earlier, the fact that previous administration said that, like we're going to cancel student loans, and.
Even Speaker of the House was like.
Yeah, that's not constitution. We're going to do it anyway, it's the same thing, and I hate that aspect of how policy is being.
Pushed forward at least. And really what you're getting at is supply side matters a lot more than trying to coerce the details control and supply, Yeah, exactly. And if we centivize more building, I think the greatest supply we see is going to lead to reduced prices, especially in some of those markets that are most desirable, which is typically where it's harder to build than anywhere else exactly. And in those cases, it's almost less about actually providing
incentives and just like loosening restrictions. Yeah, it's just generally speaking, being less involved. But either way, July, I think we can both both agree that the worst kind of home buying or renting that you can do is buying a time share, right, We an agreement there pretty much. Yeah, according to Baron's time shares, they are making a comeback, but there are plenty of problems with the business model
of time shares. That's the combination of high cost. It's a combination of like that with low flexibility, bad resale dynamics all added together make them pretty terrible. From a this is a place that I want to put my money and spend my time. They're incredibly hard to sell if it turns out you don't love yours.
And like if you think about getting into different types of real estate and you've got an Airbnb, you've got a Verbo rental, well, the pain is much less severe if you want to unload that thing or even change how it is that you are utilizing that space.
If you even talk about just renting a place, you run a place on Airbnb and it sucks, you leave a bad review and you never stay there again. But if you buy a time share and you hate it like trying to get rid of it, it's like getting an anvil off from the top of your head. Like acme.
I'll talk about just from the standpoint of like, you've got a space that you've poured money into and there's options when you actually own it outright and when it is yours.
But I hear what you're saying as well from a do I like the space? YEA?
Like am I getting the value out of it that I have wanted to or expect it to? So obviously I'm not keen on them from a financial perspective. But if you are listening and you're still interested because of the almost immediate depreciation that a timeshare indoors. I think buying a timeshare on their resale market is definitely going to be a better way to go. And we're talking about TUG classifies, It's the Timeshare Users Group, the Kasia Redwig.
These are all great resources if you're looking to get a timeshare on the cheap.
Yeah, why it's spend twenty five grand on one when you can get the same thing for pennies on the dollar. Matt tails all the time. Overdraft fees got worse last year. Not shocking, Yeah, I was surprised. It is worth noting that's like every year on repeat. The big banks, though, as it turns out, they don't make massive profits from
these fees. It's not like they're one of their bigger profit centers, but they still add up, and they especially hit consumers hard who are living on the margins, especially when the average overdraft fee the average is something like thirty five dollars and Matt the only big banks that lowered over you almost everybody else raised them this past year were Wells, Fargo and Truest. WHOA, let's say something nice about Wells Fargo for the first time in the history of this podcast.
This might be truly the first time we've said something positive. Way to go, guys, proud of you. The best advice, per usual, is to do your banking with one of our favorite online banks. That's the assumption charge over draftees. We've even seen some of them take away over draft fees completely in recent years, Ally Discover c I, those are some of the best. They don't charge over draft fees.
Do business with banks that don't hate you, and keeping enough in your account to ensure that you don't overdar your account. That's another yep, smart move. But yeah, well, I've got a little confession to make so well you specifically said Ally, and I've actually I can personally attest to the fact that Ally doesn't charge over draft fees.
Do you have a recent a.
Little story to share a little confession? Over the holidays, I was like, you know what, I'm going to take a serious break from email, Like I didn't even log into my email for a solid week and a half, almost two weeks, and I was in for a route awakening when I logged back in and opened my laptop and saw I was like, oh, what are these notices from, not just ally but city.
Oh no, turns out.
During that period of time, you know, I set I scheduled my credit card payments for later in the month at the end of the previous month, and I was not paying close attention to my say spending slash checking account there in ally, and it had dwindled dangerously low solo in fact that the last payment to one of my credit cards wasn't able to go through. And Ali sent a kind little email and they said, hey, just so you know.
Interact together.
We're not going to charge you, but you might want to check with the credit card issuer. And so, of course that's the first thing I did, and was not surprised to see that City hit me with a twenty nine dollars return check fee.
What did I do immediately? Joel, you called masked to have it. Well, first, I sitting there on the computer.
Well, it already made because there's another deposit that showed up in the account, and it automatically fulfilled because it retries. But still it doesn't erase the fact that they had tried and got denied. They don't like that, and so I fired up the chat was talking with somebody and mentioned that and they're like, nope.
Sorry, not authorized to do that. And I was like, oh really.
So I was like, okay, here's where you got to step up the got to raise the stakes a little bit, you know. And just I was like, well, I've been a value member for so long, this has never happened on the specific card.
And a little dot starts.
You know, going across the little chat bot like letting you know that they're typing something down. And basically they said that they looked into it and they actually can't do anything about that. They're not authorized. So I took it up another level, dude. I took it till like dropped it down to one. I think it's reversed, right, And I said, well that's it. I want to cancel this card. And I was shocked to see that. They said, okay, would you like us to take care of that for
you today? And I was like, you gotta be kidding me. This isn't a real person, this is just a chatbot. I thought I was talking to a real person. I thought I was chatting with a real person. So maybe you got to call the one hundred all right, So that's what I did, and I was like, okay, I thought I was gonna I gotta call up the number.
Lady picked up.
I kindly let her know what the situation was, expecting it to be a big hassle, and she goes, sure, I'll take care of that for you right now. And I was I was shocked.
I was dumbfounded. School.
It took me like twenty seconds literally talking. She was like, yep, that'll show up on your statement here in three to four business days or something like that. And uh, yeah, it just goes to show for I feel like a number of years you could hop on the online chat and get fees like that reverse. But I wonder if they're starting to tighten down a little bit because everybody's using everybody was doing that, and so they're going to
make you pick up the phone. But I guess the lesson is to not be afraid to talk to another human. I like it, all right, all right, good job, well done, and.
Hopefully I won't run into an issue like that again in this year. That's a good lesson for everyone. One check your email a little more consistently other than every twelve days. Make sure you got enough money in there, and then hit the one eight hundred number if the chatbot's not working for you, the real customer service. All right, Matt, that's gonna do it. For this episode. We'll put links to some of the resources we mentioned up in the show notes on our site at howtomoney dot com.
That's right, and that's going to be it. We'll see you back here on Monday with a fresh listener question episode. But until then, best turns out, Best Friends Out,