Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel, I am Matt, and today we're talking about underwater autos, freelancing for the win, and E fund idiocy.
E fund idiocy.
That will most likely be our ludicrous headline of the week that we'll get to today.
Joel, We're gonna take some other financial influencer to task on that one.
Indeed, Oh, we don't have anything here about the government shutdown. Maybe we should say something about that. How at least at the time of this recording, we are, I guess on day three of the government shut down. Toilets are perhaps overflowing in national parks a terrible site to or the toilets are closed completely. I went by our National Battlefield Park the other day to go for a run. Do they mark the doors were closed? Nobody at home.
I had to pee, so said to go on, I should have go on the trail like I mean, don't don't wrap me up. You should be doing that anyway, right, you come on, you're out like out there in the middle of the woods. It's not like you're at some highly congested You've got to do it very popular. You got to do it in an unpopulated spot.
Do what you gotta do.
Yeah, but I can't imagine this is going to stretch on for for.
All that I hope not. Yeah, we have listeners and friends who are are impacted by this, and we're gonna talk about emergency funds later on, and I don't just makes you take it. Two things you can do about this.
One is the case for an emergency fund.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, the more money you have in savings, the there's still the psychological impact and the the maybe frustration right with the fact that it comes to this, and that that the looming government shutdown threat is seems like it's perpetually upon us. It's not often we get to this point in the process, but sure my heart goes out to all you folks out there who are having.
Folks who are impacted, who are not getting paid, who are furloughed and still expected to come to work.
Yeah.
You know, I said, I don't think it's going to stretch on, but it might because of the fact that folks are taking they're using this, you know, they're trying to use this as like a political bludgeon.
It makes me think.
Of so have you have you heard of the economic problem? The chess piece fallacy.
It basically.
Adam Smith I think originally, but then Thomas sol popularized it. But it talks about how if you're a policymaker, you think that like, oh well, we can just try this out, we can experiment, maybe we'll end up breaking things and we'll learn from that, which I understand when you are talking about like, well, in this case, so a chess piece, you're essentially the mastermind and you're moving the pieces around
and you're playing this very elaborate game. But in this case, we're not talking about a game with no stakes, like we are talking about individuals' lives, like people's livelihoods, and that's when people start to revolt. That's when people get upset if they have.
The misrent payment or afford to go on the trip, that they even just like putting food on the table.
It has so it has all these unintended consequences that when you discount how it impacts individuals lives, there's a problem there essentially. So it also makes me think about like when when Elon came in and bought bought Twitter slash the workforce broke code and like that is a very maybe it shouldn't be a chess piece fallacy. It should be like a programmer fallacy, because that's how programmers think. That's what I've been told. I'm not a program myself.
But you go in, you break things, you try things out, and then you just put it back to get it back to working. But you can't necessarily. It's a lot hard to do that with individuals lives again, when people are being impacted in a significant way for some individuals out there.
Agreed, All right, Vosh, we'll get to the Friday flight. Let's let's do it. Sampling of stories we found interesting this week. Let's start off talking about streaming. Streaming price hikes are of course coming down the pike with regularity.
Now.
I think Apple TV Plus is that what they call theirs, Matt. I think they've had a price hike every year for the last three years, which is interesting because I don't feel like they've got a lot of stuff for you to watch on it, like they've got the best stuff?
Do they? Severance?
Okay, Severance was one. I still haven't seen that one. You've told me it's so good, it's so good. It just feels like they have so little uh for you to interest me.
But if it really counts the stuff that they do put out there and does is that enough to win you over?
Yeah, that's what That's why I feel like HBO has been so good at is Yes, exactly.
I think that's the model that Apple's trying to trying to go with, although I will say at the end of the last season it does lead some questions where you're just like, oh, come on, I don't want to put any spoilers. One.
I'm guessing where they go, and I'm guessing you've canceled Apple TV Plus at this point because you're done with severance and you'll sign up again later. Of course, So the the cheap prices of early streaming days, they're just in the rear view mirror completely at this point right where you.
Can just keep it around even when the season's over. You can, but like you way more than you need to.
And so Disney just notified subscribers that they're going to be ramping up the prices of Disney Plus Hulu plans, and uh, the price acts are just going to keep coming. Why are they going to keep coming? Well, it's because consumers aren't really changing their habits. They're not canceling in the numbers that are impacting the streaming services to a meaningful degree. There's this new credit Karma survey and it found that streaming is at the very top of non
essential priorities in people's budgets in their lives. So it's this really sticky service that people aren't willing to do without. The streaming companies know this, and they're taking full advantage. So I know that price hex can be frustrating. People get that email and they're like, again, really, you're going to up the price and you haven't really added much more good stuff for me to check out, So but I don't know, they just stay with it anyway. People
take this lying down it seems. I think there are some pros and cons of being out of the cable TV era. The early streaming days, though Matt, seemed to be the best of times, and now we're entering this period of time where streaming is more competitive, just as
bad as cable in so many ways. The only way we as individuals can get the best get the most bang for our buck is to I think, sign up for services when we're going to use them, cancel when we're not, and just be more thoughtful in general about what we're subscribing to and when.
Totally yes, And actually I just said that it's more competitive, it's actually less competitive because when it was more competitive, when Netflix was the big player on the scene when they do you remember back when they won their first Emmy or Golden Globe or I don't know, it was just a massive deal, like they swept the awards that year. It's like, oh, wow, they are a legitimate studio.
They're on the scene.
Yes, yeah, And so back in those days when there was more competition, I think all of these streamers, well they were willing to offer their services for a lot less as they're trying to gobble up market share. But it's less competitive now and they're all kind of sitting back, they're getting comfortable. They're trying to increase that profit share, increase those margins.
But yeah, I think.
So we just canceled Disney Disney Plus, which is was kind of a mainstay for us because we wanted to watch something on Netflix, and so I was what I said, was like, Hey, what we're going to do here, We're going to implement the classic one in, one out, Like though, if you're trying to manage your closet, like manage your wardrobe instead of just letting them proliferate. Yeah, well, so you kind of have to do that with your closet, right because you are literally going to run out of space.
I think that's one of the one of the benefits of doing that, not just letting it get get so overcrowded. But when it comes to these digital streaming services, these digital products, what is it cluttering up?
Yeah? Nothing, you just continue to yes.
Yeah, And so you were just you were out the money and you don't realize how many of these that you've accumulated. There's no physical, tangible response mechanism that's telling you, oh, you have too many of these. Typically, when it comes to digital stuff like the more options we have, the better. But in this case, uh yeah, I guess you could have them all, but it's going to cost you a ton. You truly are back into the cable bundling days when
you were paying for everything. But that's what's so beautiful about streaming is that you have the ability to very easily drop one of the streamers after a couple that once that show's over.
Well, Peloton just announced in the middle of the week as well that they're increasing their prices for folks who have a bike and they like to work out on it or whatever. And I think I talked recently on the show not too long ago about buying a used peloton for my wife who likes to jump on it and do her thing. You get her spin on. Yeah, but they're going from forty five bucks a month to fifty bucks a month and five bucks not a biggie, that's what Yeah, that's what you say. But like, I'm
not a frog in the boiling water. At some point, we're jumping out, and she was like, she came to me before I even said anything, because I'm trying not to cause marital strife. And she was like, man, I'm so mad that they raised the price. I think I'm going to cancel for a while. And I was like, because she's like, I'm never using it. She's a member of another gym as well, and it's like the price per use just went up. I'm not using it as much as i'd like to. So they all hop on
still use it but not pay for the service. I'm like, all right, fine with me. So what's the benefit of the service. The fact that you've got like the screen and you got somebody encouraging you. That's music playing the actual class and the metrics and all that stuff.
There's got to be some online free YouTube channels that you can pull up where you're listening to this very similar kind of deal having to pay for.
It, right, Well, yeah, there's ads. Yeah. And then like there was a we were doing some of the stretching classes the peloton, but I was like, I've got some great YouTube videos that are one hundred percent free. You don't need I mean, they're not live classes even they're like pre recorded. We were just doing the same one over and over. Yeah.
Well that's the thing.
Like, now you've learned how to do it and you've internalized it, you don't need someone to guide you through that anymore. Like you are your own stretching Shirpa. Let's talk about owning a vehicle, because trading in a car it's fraught with so much financial peril. First of all, when you trade in instead of selling that car outright to an individual, you risk getting a lot less than
it's worth listing it yourself. Putting in a bit more, a little bit more effort, taking the pictures, scheduling the meetups, it could net you thousands of additional dollars.
Doing the hassle thing. It's worth it. It takes a little more work.
But one of the worst financial moves though, that you can make is to upgrade your ride and then trade in a car that you are underwater on. But Americans are doing it like it's their job. More than a quarter of trade ins today are being done by folks with negative equity who owe more on that car than it's actually worth, often by like many thousands of dollars, which is man, that's very frightening.
I think the average underwater amount is over six thousand dollars. That's a lot of money.
Man.
I was talking to somebody this week and they had a friend who traded in a car that was like thirty grand underwater, which that's insane. Punch me in the face. It's all your stuff like that. It makes me so sad.
It also isn't all that surprising given the price of vehicles, right, Like, you buy a brand new eighty thousand dollars nice you know, luxury suv, it's probably not going to take that long for you. If you have these payments that are stretched out in two three years. Like there's a very good chance that you're going to owe more on that.
Thing, yeah, than what it's actually worth. You're exactly right, it's the cost of the car. But it's also, like you just the length of the car loan itself, and so you are making such a small dent in those first couple of years on the actual I mean, you're paying down the principle, but because you've stretched it out from like let's say forty eight months four years to something like eighty four months, it's just taking so much longer.
And if in three years time you get tired of that car and you're like, oh, it's not for me to upgrade, well, you've paid so much less of that car, and so you are of course going to have negative equity, and then you roll it into the next loan and you've got a giant loan. You're way upside down on the next car, only compounding the problem making it worse.
So yeah, personally, I'm going to say no car loan, but I know some folks are. They're not in the situation to where they've got the money on you, right, I should be able to cover that.
You and I were typically fans of that right only buy a car if you have the cash or save up longer. And if you don't agree with us or yeah, you are in that position, just make sure you don't take out a loan that's longer than forty eight months ideally forty two or less. Cause yeah, like driving a car with negative equity, it's not ideal, but it's not the worst thing in the world as long as you can hold on to it. If you really want to upgrade your ride, but you just aren't in the financial
position to do that, truly, wait longer. That is the solution here. And by the way, matt I See Cars released its list of the vehicles that are most likely to last two hundred and fifty thousand miles. That's not sure that most people want to go there, I do. I'm probably not doing that with both the cars that we currently own. I'm getting so close to two hundred k with the with the Honda, Yeah, I work, you're
beyond us. I think we're at like one eighty and my other cars like one seventy one, but we're like one ninety two. Yeah.
Hey, like I don't want to put the miles on, but every time it gets closer, it just it makes me so happy, it's inevitable, it's gonna happen. Okay, But you know, you know the brand that was number one on that list, it's oh yeah, yea. You don't even have to like read it like a long shot.
Yeah, yeah. This is like they said that Toyotas are what three point seven times more likely to last two hundred fifty thousand miles than any other car manufacturer. Lexis and Honda were right up there too, but it's like Toyota's were like by a long shot, crushing. Yeah.
Basically, Toyota, Toyota, and Lexis are like one and two then Handa and makes yeah, and Hannah makes accurate, So they're basically first, Toyota's first, Hanna's second. You know what I thought was so fascinating that was basically next on the list Tesla, which got me thinking, like, it makes so much sense given the fact that there are so
many fewer moving parts. It would not surprise me if over the years we see the share of Tesla's that are on the road, that you are able to keep those around for much longer periods of time because of the fact that it's just an electric An electric motor is a very efficient durable like mechanical device, and yeah, it makes all the makes all the sense in the world. I thought it was very humorous to see that the cars that had a zero percent chance two hundred and
fifty k. It's not surprising. It was like Jaguar Mini Cooper, which that one actually kind of surprised me. I thought menis were a little more. They just seem to have such a fan base.
Yeah, you know, but I don't think it's because they're reliable. I guess not. Yeah.
And when I say Jaguar Mini and like Maserati or something like that, okay, yeah, which you've got a couple of those.
Yeah, yeah, a few of those.
I know, Hey, I'm only going to hit fifty thousand on those bad right exactly.
So I guess when it comes down to it, that's one of the key ingredients too, in being able to hold onto your car longer is to get something that's reliable. And you can go in to consumer reports and you can dig in and see what makes and models in years have like the highest reliability ratings, or you can even just take this generic ICEE car survey and be like, I guess I'm getting a Toyota Rohanda.
Yeah, car reliability matters, dude. Let's talk about car insurance. So we obviously talk a lot about saving money, but getting the lowest possible price, it's not always the goal. We talk about frugal versus cheap moves when it comes to car insurance. We want to get value for the money that we're paying, and that is particularly true here.
It doesn't matter how much you save on premiums if your insurance company actually won't pay your claim, or if they're impossible to deal with, if you can't get them to respond to any calls consumer reports. They released a list of insurance companies who have the best record of paying claims and two the were ones that we've talked about on the show before. Amika USAA. There's a new one that I never heard before. Erie er I E yeah, and evidently they are pretty tops as well. Only downside,
they're only in like ten states in the country. But if you have access to Erie, check them out, but otherwise shop around get quotes, but specifically from these insurance companies that tend to rate more highly.
This is like an interesting one because you and I we talked about shopping on insurance to save money, and we think there's a lot of wisdom to that, but you just have to be careful because there are kind of like fly by night insurance companies, and then there are also It's kind of like we answered a question recently about renting from one of those super cheap car rental companies, you po car and you have to be careful in that, and the same thing is true with
getting that insurance. It's like, it's best to get that policy from a company who's reliably pays out claims. That's kind of what Consumer Reports was getting out here. They rank them in order, and it's worth taking a look and seeing where your insurance company falls because you might you might be like, yeah, they're saving me a little bit of money, but if I do get into a situation where I have to file a claim, they're going to like put me through the ringer and that'll be super frustrating.
Yep, car insurance seems like an industry a market that needs disrupting. Let's talk about jobs, because the market's been getting worse and worse sadly. But we've got one piece of advice that might help folks out there who might be looking for another job or you know, like whether you are out of work or maybe you're you're still
employed and you're looking for a new job. And that is that freelance and contract positions might make more sense than a traditional W two full time employ like employment job that you might be used to. And this is for a number of reasons. First of all, it might be easier to get in the door hiring someone on
a contract basis. It can be easier for employers. I think this is especially true given the uncertainty that businesses have seen with Terris right, Like, that's one of the downsides is when you don't if you can't look ahead to the future and forecast what the industry is going to look like, you're less prone to make investments in your business, which one of the biggest investments you can make is human capital.
Of those employers are saying, hey, we need to hire somebody. We're not off from the full time furlough on new hires a contract position because it's just it's a less embedded relationship.
Yeah, so I totally get it from the employer's standpoint, but as an employee, for you out there looking to get a new job, it can often lead to that full time job, that full time work there in the future, you're getting your foot in the door, you're making these relationships.
This is all clutch, and you.
Can also potentially start at a higher hourly rate. A lot of times that's because you're not getting the other benefits, so they are trying to offset, they're trying to compensate a little bit for the fact that you're not getting some of these additional benefits. Yeah, we're talking health insurance as well. That's probably one of the biggest ones. It's not cheap. That being said, your increased pay, that higher hourly rate might be worth it. So it makes me think something to consider one.
Of our friends who got laid off and then he ended up getting contract work with the company that just let him go, and because of that, his hourly rate went up meaningfully because he doesn't have access to those benefits. And so for a lot of folks, let's say, especially if you have health insurance, you can get coverage through a partner or something like that, maybe it's the best
of both worlds. But I think you're right, Matt, just for some people maybe considering more some of those freelance and contract positions instead of just looking for that full time benefits included. A job might make sense, especially right now, but contract work is different than signing up for a side hustle. You and I we have discussed our feelings about side hustle. Don't remember the episode number, but we talked about kind of the nefarious what do we call it?
Some of them with that episode.
Yeah, but the side hustles can be nefarious, and part of the reason is because, yeah, they can be a great way to make cash quickly, but they're not typically a great long term solution for people's finances. Another problem, though, that we're seeing is a rise in side hustle scams, and we'll link to a great Yahoo Finance post about
the red flags to watch out for. But if you are in a pinch job wise, which more and more people are finding themselves in right now, be careful before taking a gig based on a text that you receive or a social media post that you saw, and don't ever sign up for a side hustle that comes with upfront costs. That is a massive red flag right to get scams. Oh yeah, hey, we'd love to give you this job, but you have to pay some money for training or for equipment that you need in order to
be able to do this job from your home. Even if they offer to send a check to cover those costs, because the check, of course turns out to be frau vigil, you're out the money. And it just seems like we're seeing a rise inside hustle scams right now. So and especially with people looking for employment and some folks getting desperate, be on the lookout for that.
Yeah.
Even I saw another story, I think it was last week where a lady was scammed via a job that she was hired for, like over on LinkedIn. So like it's not just the air and email that shows up out of nowhere, but also somewhere that you feel like.
It feels like one of the brighter.
Sunnier corners of the Internet, like a trusted site, and you can still find scammy postings there. Yeah, but we've got more to get to. We're going to talk about the cost of drugs and plenty more on today's Friday flight. But first some ads, thanks.
For sticking with us on this Friday flight. We've got more to get to. We are going to talk about drugs, specifically, not good our ex Matt, but Trump, our ex we'll talk about that. It's a real thing. It's happening. Well, the first, let's to the ludacrous headline of the week. This one comes from Yahoo Finance and it reads Grant Cardon calls the concept of emergency savings a bank myth. And I'm not sure if everyone listening is familiar with
this real estate influencer, Grant Cardon. He's kind of a brash fella. I don't know much.
About I know the name, but was he on TV? Did he have like a TV show?
I don't even know. Okay, I think maybe, but I just know that, like so he's just there on lander webs. Yeah, he's one of the biggest influencers in the real estate space, and a lot of what he says doesn't really jibe with me, probably because we have different goals but also different philosophies. And sometimes this is just the case. Also in people who are super duper into real estate, they can just be tough to listen to because they think that real estate is the answer to every single problem.
And this guy in particular, it's kind of hard for me the stomach, But they often real estate people. You and I are real estate investors. Map but that's only a part of what we do. Or real estate light, Yeah, real estate light and so. But a lot of people who go heavy into that space they basically think that, you know, basic personal finance knowledge and hygiene aren't really that important. Real estate's going to solve all the problems.
And Grant Cardon's premise is that saving money is a trick the banks are playing on us, and that going to work, he says, is the key to getting by if stuff hits the fan. That's clearly what about if you can't work, I know, right, yeah, what if you get injured or what?
Sometimes that's why you need an emergency fund, Why you need some cash in the bank.
No, that's good.
I mean you can always just like turn like turn on the you know, like the works bigot.
And receive cash. It seems kind of ludicrous that he would say this, especially given all the studies that have been done about the mental benefit and the real personal finance benefit that people gain by having an emergency fund at at their disposal, And just by looking at my own life and history and other people that I know, it's like the momssif fund comes in clutch sometimes for people, right, Ye, you probably don't need a whole year cash on hand.
There's been more people saying that lately. But and I do think maybe if I'm going to be the most generous interpretation of what Grant Cardone is saying, maybe maybe what he's trying to say is that, well, people tend to over index into savings and they don't invest when they should be. They're too much, they're shoveling too much money into their savings accountant, not enough into their four one k's iras or into real estate investments. That's just
being generous. But I don't think that's what he's saying. But and that can be true. There are some people who do over index to savings, and yeah, you don't need a year of savings built up before you start investing, but still having some liquid cash on hand, it's a necessity. It always has been, always will be.
I just think he's out of touch with like the common person out there who like runs into cashlow issues, and like when you've got tons of real estate, yes, like you have the ability to tap these other investments, and you've got private equity and just ways of acquiring just getting your hands on money, that's not that's not where most Americans are man So because of that, the basic emergency fund, which we've updated because originally it was two thousand and four or sixty seven dollars back in
the day, and withflation, that dollar amount is now three forty five dollars. So remember that thirty forty five.
And I do think probably he is out of touch because I remember seeing an article in the Wall Street Journal or New York Times about his like super super fancy house on the beach in Malibu.
Oh okay, yeah, I'm like, okay, all that fits with you, that guy. Okay, exactly, congrats exactly. But so I just said the specific dollar amounts that you need to set aside for an emergency fund, and it turns out that is key when it comes to growing your emergency fund quickly.
You need to set a specific goal. So that's the first step, and then the second step is to put that goal, that specific amount, like constantly in front of you, like we're talking like a sticky note on your bathroom mirror, putting a note up on.
The fridge, the dash of your car.
And certainly try to find the most painless ways to cut back first, but then start making some harder moves like finding ways to just like eating out lest maybe maybe you haven't bounced around your insurance a little bit and you're way over paying. There are more difficult steps that take a little bit more time to ensure that you're spending less money to where you're allowing yourself to
build up that emergency fund more quickly. But those two steps specifically identifying your the dollar amount three forty five dollars and then reminding yourself of it, that comes from friend of the show Katie Milkman, who is brilliant. Those
are great tips. But I will say I think in addition to that, I think what's going to cement it for a lot of people is once they actually have that emerency fund on hand and then they use it, they find themselves in a situation to where they're like, oh, I knew that the roof was going out, and I had some money set aside there, but I thought it was only gonna be nine thousand dollars. Turns out as twelve thousand dollars. Oh, I got some extra money here.
Like experiencing the like the sigh of relief that you get to like that you get to exhale knowing that you're not having to put it on credit cards still where you're paying over twenty percent because you aren't financially prepared for the emergency room visit, right, Like, no one expects that, but if you find yourself in a pinch, like, that's what people have to rely on, and that's what we're trying to get folks to avoid. It's not that
I don't even care that people. I don't want you to have tons of money in your savings account, not because you could be doing smarterer things without money. It's because it's not about the money. It's about the relief. It's about the PM worry. Yeah, yeah, the piece that that's going to allow you to then be able to focus on the things that are more important than life. We don't want you obsessing over your dollars. It's about life.
It's about what you can then turn your attention to what you can then focus on that's so much more important.
I've had a couple of conversations recently with some real estate investors and just who are friends, and I've been like, there's some tough times happening right now in the multifamily and commercial realty spaces right now. For people who have investments that they've made, they are finding that the numbers aren't nearly as good as they had projected. And when you're thinking about that, like you need what do you
need to be able to hang on to investment? You need liquidity, right, And so it's even as a real estate investor who you can project the best numbers, but if they don't come to pass the way you hoped they would, you need to have cash in the bank to be able to allow you to make it through, so you don't have to fire sale and completely mess your finances up in the process. So, especially as a real estate investor, that doesn't eliminate you, I don't think
from the need for having an emergency fund. I think, in fact, it makes it potentially even more.
Important, not for the individuals out there, but for the quote unquote savvy folks out.
There as well. By the way, some employers are being more helpful in the area of helping people garner a bigger emergency fund, which is kind of cool. And this is kind of a self interested play as well, right that these employers realize that their employees are potentially like living on the financial precipice and they're stressed about it, and because of that, they're less productive in their job. That not having savings it takes a mental toll. So
there are new fintech companies springing up. There's one called secure Save. There was an article just written about them, and they're making it easier for employers to offer a match towards emergency savings, which is just this benefit for people to incentivize something that is going to help the employee and the employer. Makes sense, man, Yeah, and I don't necessarily think it's the employer's job. I think it's our job. But it's also cool to see that employer.
Some employers are responding and they're being like, actually, why not We realize that this is like a goal you should be tackling, but why don't we help you out with it because it's a win win it's in our best interest too. Yeah.
Well, on a similar note, worker satisfaction is being tied to being offered financial advice from their employers. So not only do they want the good benefits like health coverage, a nice four win K match, and maybe now an emergency fund match, but they want money advice money help as well, whether it's access to budgeting software out there
or just even engaging content. Man, this makes me think about we've done seminars companies out there to help teach their employees about money, which is a ton of fun and it is very very cool to see folks engage and asking great questions. You as an individual, you can't rely on your employer to, I think, play this role in your life. But man, I think given the poor state of personal finance education in the country, I'm for
helpful instruction, like from wherever it comes from. It makes me wonder if more folks were talking about personal finance like back in the day, because there is certainly a demand for it, So like where was the supply, like, and we're providing the supply now, yeah, and companies are
doing that. We're definitely we're trying to but like, yeah, it makes me wonder, like we're folks more willing to talk about their personal finances back in the day and has it become more private over the past twenty years show I don't know.
I think a lot of it comes down to at a complexity and personal finances have just become there's just a lot more to wade through, to think through, and I think it's just used to be less complex back in the day, which made maybe maybe made some of this content a little bit less necessary.
But we live in a more complex, optimized world, and so as companies are looking to grow their margins, grow their profits, a lot of times what that means is folks potentially overpaying for products for services, not investing as well as it could be.
And we've had a proliferation of options for people, right, so it's this we're entering into this like Walmart sized grocery store instead of like an all they sized grocery store with like minimal choices, and it's just, man, I think there's overload for people trying to figure out their finances, and so we want to at least here, we want to simplify things and help help folks make those most important decisions. That's what we're doing with us.
We're trying to do at least all.
Right, let's talk about prescription drugs. We've talked about using good RX for saving money on websites. I used good RX the other day at a pharmacy. I told you should get that rash look at antibiotic for my daughter. And I went in there and I pulled up good rx and it saved me I don't know, like three dollars and fifty cents. It wasn't a ton of money, but it took me all the fifty three seconds, you know. But no joke. Trump Ourx is joining the ranks of
discount medicine websites. The Wall Street Journal they love to jab him right now and they called him the pharmacist in Chief in one of their recent headlines. And we're just seeing a unique blend of capitalism and socialism coming down from the White House these days. The President himself, i guess, has negotiated deals directly with some drug companies, specifically Pfizer, to be able to offer discounted medicines to
consumers through trump rx dot com. The details are vague, so we don't know exactly what this is going to look like or how much savings people are going to be able to realize. Truly, the threat of tariffs is ultimately what made this deal happen. Pfizer got like a three year exemption from the tariffs that are being threatened, and so this site is set to launch early next year. We'll be on the lookout for it. I'm curious, Matt, I am very curious to see what this entails and
how much it can or will help people. How robust it's going to be. We'll see. I hope it says people money on expensive drugs, but there's also a lot of other websites out there that are already making hay in that space. Cost Plus Drugs, which Mark Cuban launched a few years back, is a big one in that space.
Doesn't cover everything, that's for sure, but it's a great place to turn because they have a very costco esque approach where it's like a fifteen percent markup, which means that the drugs cost a fraction of what they're going to cost in a lot of other places that you that you might turn.
And the best part is that that was launched by an individual, you know, capitalism baby, not by the federal government. And that's the problem. That's what rubs me the wrong way about going like do I want to see lower drug prices? Do I want to see lower healthcare prices for American citizens? Absolutely? But how we get there matters so much and so on.
It also feels less like the government, by the way, and like an individual yeah, you know, which, like it'd be different if Congress was like, we're going to create this website and we're going to create some legulation around this. But it's one individual trying to launch, sure a website with their name with his name on it. Sure.
Yeah, what's the Obamacare equivalent where with his name plastered on this potential offering for folks. But either way, I mean in both cases, I still don't like it if it's coming from the top down, and so on a similar note, here's a potentially positive note, but we might be seeing fewer pharma ads on TV. The FDA director wrote an op ed in The New York Times about pharmaceutical ads, basically how they run a muck and how
he's planning to rain them in. And the US is one of the two developed countries in the world that continues to allow direct advertising from pharmaceutical companies, which is fascinating.
But New Zealand the other.
Yeah, yeah, Like what is it with us in New Zealand?
I don't know.
And I certainly am totally on board with the fact that these commercials are annoying.
They're stupid, they're so silly.
It's just people like living their best lives and you know, you spend thirty seconds talking about all the side effect.
Because of this farmer drug. Yeah yeah, and it's like it makes me happier. I might I kill over instantly by taking this drug? It was worth it wasn't.
Yeah, So that the last line in the article was that the billions of dollars drug companies spent on advertising it would be better spent a lowering drug prices for American consumers, which certainly sounds nice.
But at the same time, I think.
What you have to ask yourself is where do you draw the line when it comes to what you're going to allow your government to decide for you? Right because and like this is this kind of mirror is the free speech conversations that we're having these days. It's really easy when you see something you don't like to say, yeah, they should shut that down. But what we need to do is imagine the shoe being on the other foot.
And what we need to be thinking through is imagine a policy, Imagine a product, something that the government does or not does, but that's out there that you really like, and now think, oh, yeah, the folks on the other side of the aisle are going to say, yeah, let's shut that down because now we're in power. Is that the kind of power that we want our federal government to have. That's why I have such a hard time
with Trump, rx with anything the federal government does. And I am all for Mark Cuban and all the different entrepreneurs out there doing awesome things on their own dime. They're the ones taking the risk as opposed to the government, the federal government taking the risk. And then and then us as US citizens as taxpayers, being saddled with the bill.
I will say, the FDA director, he didn't say I'm going to outlaw them, but what he said was, there's actually we used to send letters to the pharmaceutical companies about truth and advertising claims. We don't really send those letters anymore. We've kind of like the cop isn't on the beat anymore, and some of the claims being made are pretty ostentatious, not not aligned with reality. And so he's saying, we're just gonna be on We're gonna be
on it a little bit more. And I think that's that's probably.
That just sounds like, don't make me count to three. But you know, because then what like, what does it come down to? It comes down to enforcement, and then what that costs money. And then at some point you have to decide what you're gonna allow what you're not gonna allow, Like I don't again, I'm totally on board with the fact that these commercials are so stupid. But let's just make one of them, right, Like, let's make it similar sway.
By them, Let's make it so ridiculous in their doctor's office and they're like, hey, I know, and I think well, and that the hippocratic gath right, like that falls then upon the doctors to say, hey, let me tell you.
What's actually best for you in this in this scenario. I understand why that's attractive, but as healthcare professionals, I think there should be I mean, then there is a high standard as to what it is that you're gonna do for your patients.
Yeah, all right, good time. So we'll see what happens there. We'll be following this indeed, all right, that's gonna do it for this episode. Map we'll put links to some of the stories that we mentioned in today's episode up on our website at health to money dot com. And we'll see you back here on Monday with a fresh ask how to Money episode. And if you have a question for us, a money question. Send it our way. We'd love to take it. Just record it on the
voicemail map of your phone. Email it over to us at how to moneypot at gmail dot com. Until next time, best friends
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