Money Simplicity Breeds Better Results #215

So I'm excited man, that we are going to talk about simplicity, how it plays a role in our personal finances, and how it is that we can go about simplify our money. Yeah, I completely agree. I think simplicity is far more important than we give it credit for in so many areas of our life. And so we're gonna talk about what simplicity brings to the table, how we can get rid of complexity as much as possible when it comes to how we handle our money, and how

that actually does benefit us in a long run. And so, Matt, but you know what another important thing is when it comes to for our money, transparency. You like that see through cash well, so not actually see through cash, although that would be neat if that was possible. Or I used to have a credit card that was transparent. It was the first time Amex did the kind of clear transparent card, reminding that old school pepsi product Pepsi crystal

or crystal pepsi whatever. Yeah, that's not natural. I like my high frucitose cords beverages to have some opaqueness to them, exactly right. I don't want to be able to see through that. But what I really wanted to get out with transparency is is how you know, the more we can understand, the more we know about the cost were incurring when we're buying something, the more we can understand whether it's worth it or not. And Matt recently on

the show, we talked about getting increased financial aid. How you know students right now, if their household has experienced kind of a drop in income, that they can appeal

for more financial aid from from school. And I just recently saw something about this, this website called tuition fit dot org and it allows students to upload their own financial aid award letters to see whether other people like them with the same academic profile and financial status could get a better deal from their school or from similar

schools if they wanted to switch university. Yeah. So it's like basically, you upload it, you see what other people are paying for college, and you might realize, you know what, I'm getting a raw deal, and maybe I should consider transferring if I want to graduate with a whole lot less student loan debt. Nice man, I love that. I love the ability that we have now in pooling our

information and our resources together. Uh, and in this case create a tool that students and in parents to other students who are oftentimes footing the bill, to to come together and see what is and what isn't a good deal. It also makes me think of what other areas in our life might a tool like this be be beneficial? You know, I'm thinking of maybe the largest expense that

a lot of people have, which is their homes. How cool would it be if we could upload the quote that we received from some of these different lenders and maybe compare that to other quotes that others received to have a similar just a gross income, maybe maybe similar credit score exactly. Yeah, And so like, I think it would be really beneficial there. I could see it also being awesome. Maybe even in healthcare, like what are you

paying for health insurance? And what kind of quotes are you receiving on certain procedures, because there's are really things we talk about because a lot of times, at least when it comes to healthcare vis it's like it's not that big of a deal. You don't really think about it, but it all adds up, you know, and so you don't really think about it because it just feels kind of petty to be like, hey, how much do you guys pay to go for a wellness check out for

your one year old? You know, like that's not really something I've asked you, but actually that's is something we should talk about. But certainly when it comes to bigger expenses like mortgages, I could really see that being valuable. Yeah, and it seems like it's been valuable for the roughly six thousand people that have uploaded their profiles on tuition

fit dot org. Yeah, so for our listeners who are currently in college or have a kid in college and they're looking to see if the school they're currently enrolled at can increase, you know, the allocation of funds their way, or they're potentially looking to go to another their school in order to save money. I think this website can be some help, so we'll we'll be sure to link to that one in the show notes. Yeah, man, we

will definitely do that. Let's go ahead and introduce our beer for this episode, which is called Let's see Scorpius Morchella. Is that how you say that? You think? I think so. Yeah. This is another one by Toppling Goliath, which was donated to the show by Kelsey again up there in Iowa. So Kelsey thinks again for sending this one our away. And we're gonna share our thoughts on this beer at the end of the episode. Yeah, we will. But let's

get onto money, simplicity, breeding better results. Matt and Yeah, we're talking about simplicity and finances today because learning how to simplify your approach to your money, it really is a game changer. Right. Our lives have so much complexity already. Most listeners out there probably have two, maybe three different email accounts on your phone. That alone can feel a bit overwhelming as notifications just continue to pop in emails

from work, personal emails, all sorts of things. Even just talking about it right now has been a little sweating under the brow. I have five different email accounts. That's that's way too many for the five different lives that lead the different families you have. Stuff like that just getting Yeah, and the more complex our our lives get, the more of those seemingly beneficial things tend to drain us. Right.

Email initially gives us this ability to connect and to write people when we need to, But when we have multiple accounts that we're having to check on on a daily or hourly basis, it begins to feel like it's too much. That's certainly true of technology, but the same can be true of our finances. The more complicated the approach that we take to our money, well, the more likely the wheels are going to come off as we

bagged the system altogether down the road. Yeah, man, I like what you said about it being draining, you know, Like, how is it that technology is actually making us more exhausted when it's purpose should be to make things easier for us? Also, how is it that with so many different great financial tools and products at our disposal, so many people are having a difficult time getting ahead with

her money? Um, I think it's because they're overwhelmed, you know, we have too many complex options available to us, and it's actually keeping us from doing the right things. So we'll highlight the importance of simplicity and discuss how to make your personal financial life a winning mix straightforward yet thoughtful actions. Yeah, that's the goal, right, Simplicity breeding something that that isn't too dumb down, that we're not effective, but that it makes it easier for us to actually

do the things that need to get done. And yeah, this, I would say, Matt is kind of the financial version of a recent episode that we had with Joshua Becker where he came talk about minimalism, right, yea yeah, And in that combo we talked about the kind of clarity that owning fewer things can bring. Well, the same thing is true when we're talking about our money. We'll have heightened clarity, the ability to achieve things that we might

have not thought possible if we prioritize simplifying things. And I'm seeing this more and more of my own life as I get older. Our financial lives tend to get more complicated, which can bmudy the waters and distract us from the tasks that we truly need to focus on. Whether their money related or not. And this actually makes me think about you know, a professor I don't remember his name off the top of my head, but he

developed like this, this index card. He wrote, aything you need to know about finances in just this one little place, and it kind of became this viral sensation. People are like, oh, really, all you actually need to know can fit on this index card. Yeah, and and in so many ways it's true, when we're taking a simple approach, the things that we actually really do need to know can fit on an index card. It's kind of funny though. He ended up writing a book about it later and like the opposite

of the whole premise of the card exactly. I thought that that was really funny that he turned it into that. But it's true. You know, there isn't this this incredibly wide breadth of information that we need to have knowledge on, you know, Like one of the benefits of simplifying is that we're able to narrow our focus on the areas that, you know, where we can have a deeper impact. Um. You know, there are many different ways to invest your money, but it takes a long time to feel that you've

mastered how to invest well. You know, I could certainly learn about commercial real estate investing, but because of like simplicity, I'm gonna stick with single family homes residential investing inside a limited geographic area. And instead of learning how to trade options, maybe shorting stocks, becoming an expert commodity trader that I think you can handle that one. I probably could.

Maybe I don't know. I like to overcomplgate stuff. I could think that these are ways that I'm gonna outperform the market in the coming years. But instead I'm gonna stick to the index funds that I know are going to do well. They're gonna mirror the entire stock market. And you know, you can't really go with a simpler approach than that. Yeah, simple as can be, that's for sure.

I think to simplicity, Matt, it can breed confidence. Right through simplifying, you're gonna have a thorough understanding of the things that you do per take in. It feels so good to actually understand where you're putting your money and why you're doing the things that you're doing. And in fact, people can get into real big trouble when they don't fully comprehend the financial products that they're participating in. That's where scames and rip offs come into play. Well, we'll

talk about that in just a minute. And also too, it's where we get taken advantage of by salespeople who want to sell us products that are more expensive than they're much simpler versions that we can easily understand and purchase ourselves. And one major example of that something like life insurance. Yeah, that's right, man, that's why we like

term life insurance is pretty simple. And you know, no one's looking to sell you a term life insurance plan because there's not a whole lot of money involved in it. You're not gonna get ripped off. It does exactly what you wanted to do, which is provide benefits, provide a payouts in case you die. Right, that's what you need

life insurance to do. Yeah, And there are all these complicated types of life insurance that muddy the waters we need that include investing inside of your life insurance policy, and those are the things you want to stay away from. There too complex that even really fully understand for most of us at least, that's right. And so we're talking about the benefits of simplicity. Another way that we can talk about those benefits are by talking about the drawbacks

of complexity. We'll get into some of those right after the break. All right, Matt, we're back from break. We're talking about simplicity in the importance of keeping your personal finances simple, and to kind of drive that point home, let's talk about some of the problems that come when we do increase the level of complexity when it comes

to our personal finances. There are a lot of drawbacks when things get out of hand and things become too complex in our personal lives when it comes to our money, and one of those big problems is in action. Right, we we tend to avoid doing things that are overly

complicated or that we perceive to be too difficult. One of the reasons I think that people hate thinking about their personal finances or sometimes even getting started budgeting or anything like that when it comes to their money is that they imagine or they believe that it's too complex. There's just too much to think about, and so then we just tend to throw up our hands and stop thinking about our money at all. And if we do that, it's highly unlikely they were actually going to be in

a strong position financially. If we've just thrown our hands up and said no way. But if we're able to keep things simple, then the likelihood that will be able to take action to increase our debt, slashing our our savings accounts and and wealth building efforts, well, the likelihood goes way up that are actually going to do something and get started and start to positively impact our financial future.

And this is such an important point, right, the fact that when things get complicated, we resist them, and I think that the vast majority of folks kind of fall into this, into this boat. However, there's a flip side to it, right there is the potential that complexity can cause you to take too much action. With complexity, you're in the risk of your finances maybe taking up too much of your time, maybe you get obsessed with it.

If you're the type of person who likes to give something you know, or someone who maybe focuses on the details too much, then an overly complicated financial life has the potential to dominate your life. This is, you know, the opposite of inaction, and this is where it takes over your life. Things can get really out of whack if you're devoting way too much of your time towards money. You know, even if you do try to, you know, make it sound responsible or sophisticated by calling it, you know,

your personal finances, it's still just your money. And so we try to approach our money in a way that is balanced. You know, we know the importance of handling our money well now, but we also don't want that to become what characterizes our life. If that becomes all of who we are, then that's maybe an example of having won the battle that law the war. Yeah, basically, then money has taken all the way over and that complexity has basically ruined our lives as we let money

become the number one priority. And I wanted to share that one specifically to man because that's kind of a personal struggle of mine. You know, like we kind of joke about how I over complicate things and make things overly sophisticated, and I analyze stuff way too much, get

way too bogged down into the details. And on one hand, like it is good to have those details, but on the other hand, if you let it get carried away, then it's going to be something you find yourself having to kind of push back against, uh in the future. So just a little warning there, yeah, Yeah, And I think so. Another thing about complexity to Matt is that complexity,

at least on the surface, can seem impressive. A lot of financial products, apps, or philosophies can seem flashy, but then underneath the surface they don't actually offer much reward. There might be very little that was really gained because this out of complexity is often accompanied by higher fees. So, for example, there are all sorts of high priced investment

funds that you could stick your money in. You can talk to some smart people that make them sound like they're totally worth their money, that they're going to outperform the market as a whole, or that you're just dumb if you're not going that route right and and and seeing that complexity just on its face can make it seem like, well, if I take the simple route, maybe I'm the stupid one. Maybe I don't actually understand, and that lack of understanding causes us to actually feel drawn

to the more complex offering. But having all of your assets in one to three low cost funds that you can actually understand, it's so much better. Right. It's not flashy, but it works. And there's this quote from Paul Samuelson. He says investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, taking a Hunter Bucks and go to Las Vegas. And I totally agree with that. Right, Simplicity might be boring, but at least you can wrap your mind around it, and that's

something that works. Like to be able to be a good investor, we have to be able to look past the things that on the surface look impressive, they sound smart, but if we can't fully understand them, if they're too complex for us to get our minds around, then it's something that we really shouldn't be partaking in. Yeah, it's easy to overpay, get charged these unnecessary fees when it's

something that's complex and you don't understand it. Complexity, man, it also makes us more susceptible to scams or even just bad products that are out there when we don't understand what's going on. Right. Uh, there's an article every week in some newspaper around the country about maybe a

Ponzi scheme, you know, being vested up. Investors were promised astronomical returns for trusting a certain individual with their net worth, and yet almost always that money was spent to enrich that person until everything comes tumbling down like a house of cards. If instead we decided only to invest in ways that we can fully understand, like simpler ways, then we make it much less likely that we'll get taken

in by these get rich promises. Yeah, it's not necessarily stupidity that causes people to invest with someone who's running a Ponzi scheme. Oftentimes it's just a desire to to do something good with their money, but it's something that that seemingly complex that they can't understand, and it seems appealing for precisely that reason, right, But ultimately, actually posi schemes are are super simple. It's it's usually someone just completely bilking you of of your money and running off

with it, which is obviously terrible. And actually one of my favorite authors, Matt ben Carlson, wrote a book called Don't Fall for It about It's this brief history of financial scams. I'm reading it right now. It's really crazy to see the different things that people fall for. We're gonna have him on the show soon, which I'm excited about. That's gonna be a great interview coming up in the

upcoming months. Yeah, and but it's not always scams, right, Sometimes it is just bad products and and it just makes me think of like home warranties or extended warranties, and these are the sorts of things that we're super susceptible to buying. It might cost us fifty bucks on a new TV that we purchased, or bucks on a

home that we bought. Those things add up, but oftentimes those products aren't really worth the money we've paid for them, not even close, right, And if you look at the mice type on a lot of those things, there are many issues with that potential product that aren't covered. There are deductibles that you have to pay in order to

get your item fixed. On their surface, they're touting something really easy, but underlying is something really complex that costs a lot of money and doesn't really offer you much in return. And Jel, we wanted to share one other drawback of complexity, and and that is of rigidity. Another downside to complexity might be that you're more likely to be inflexible, maybe when it comes to how you budget you created this machine. You know, like this process that

you adhere to no matter what you're a robot. And while in some cases this can be a good thing, you know, like sticking to the plan, right, Like, if something comes up, you stick to the plan, You bide by the rules that you set forth. But like, this also doesn't really leave you for a lot of room to be a little more spontaneous and to actually enjoy

the fruits of your labor. And I'm thinking about the stimulus checks earlier this year, like how many people just kind of took that check, plugged it into their machine, into their budgeting machine, and just kind of absorbed it without ever really seeing the results of that. Right, on one hand, I think that that's a good thing, right, like maybe at least ten or that at the very

least was invested. But on the other hand, you know, could you have maybe spent some of that money in a way that kind of moved the needle for you emotionally, you know, like that could have gone a long way, maybe even as a sort of a morale boost. And this is another one of these drawbacks that I kind

of straw with myself. Man. You know, it's easy for for some to become obsessed with their personal finance and you know, and their budgeting systems, the different spreadsheets that they've created over the years that direct where their money goes. Um But at the same time, they can also suck the fun out of lots of other areas in our life, you know. And it can also prevents you from being

more generous as well. There's lots of different personal drawbacks that you know on the service you would say, oh, no, that's important to me, But are you actually going to do those things or are you slave to these systems that you've created. I wanted to mention this one because while oftentimes we do, you know, to how the benefits of budgeting and creating these different systems, there can be

a dark side to it as well. Yeah, I think we were made to run budgets, not to let budgets run our lives, right, And I think that's kind of what happens sometimes when we let it become too complex and overbearing. Is we let the budget run us even when we want to make shifts in our own lives. Let's say we want to change jobs, we want to work in a completely different sector, we want to start our own business, and yet we have this rigid formula that we have to max out a roth ira every year.

And you know what if I keep doing that I'm not gonna be able to launch my own business. I'm not gonna have the capital, the startup capital in order to do that. And that would be a case right where complexity gets in the way of the bigger, more important goals that we have. And Matt, we just kind of dogged on complexity a good bit. But the positive side of that is simplicity. And there are so many ways in which simplicity can be a huge benefit to

our personal finances. We'll get into some specific ways that's the case, and then how to kind of create more simplicity in your financial life. Let's get to that right after the break. All right, Joe, we're back from the break talking about money simplicity and how that breeds better results. And I was just kind of dogging on myself for having an overly complicated financial System's for my favorite parts

of the show when I talk about myself. You can be like an American Injina Warrior when it comes to your your budget and your personal finances. My self flagellation, well, just your intensity out say maybe you know and for us this cone opsal course of a budget that you have to get through every every month. It's a good illustration. It's a good thing we have like a counselor for me after every episode of record, I kind of like lift me back up, you know, out of the depths

that I lower myself into. And so while you know the system though is good for us, I will say, we've got to a place where that's fantastic and it's great for us. Every penny has a name, like literally every penny goes accounted for. But for most folks that's not the case, especially if you're just getting started with your personal finances. And so in that case, what we would recommend, man is for those folks to have a

simple budget. You know, we talked about this back when we discussed the best budgets for different personality types and big picture, a simple budget is just gonna be way better than no budget at all. So instead of no budget, just simplify it to a basic eight twenty budget. Uh, that's where of your money goes towards day to day expenses and you're saving. Or you can even look to

a fifty thirty twenty budget. That's where fifty percent is going towards needs, towards once and then you're putting towards retirement. You know, just the goal here is to get you moving in the right direction and to reduce any barriers that might be keeping you from taking action altogether. We talked about earlier how when things are overcomplicated, it keeps you from taking those first steps to begin with. Well, if that's you, they just look at a twenty budget.

I love the simplicity of that. How just make sure that you're setting aside of your income and the rest do what you want. You want to spend it all on housing, Sure you want to, you know, have a really nice car, that's fine. But as long as you said aside that, that's an awesome start. Yeah, and it's super simple, super easy to actually adhere to. Now, let's talk about debt too, because that's something that can truly

complicate the financial picture of our lives. And you know, we talk about the debt snowball versus the debt avalanche. You know, we we did an episode all about how you tackle your debt problem and which one of those methods is better. And I think you and I ultimately decided on the fact that whatever method you can stick to, whichever one is simpler for you to implement, is actually

the best one right right. And on another note, when it comes to debt, well, getting rid of your debt as quickly as possible can be the other simple method. I think sometimes we wave approach of investing versus paying off debt. And the thing that we don't bring into the picture is is that having that debt, well, it's another bill to pay. It's something else weighing on your mind.

And Matt, when we had Andy Hill on the show a while back, who is the host of the Marriage, Kids of Money show, he talked about why he paid off his mortgage in four years. Obviously he had this just laser focus to getting rid of that mortgage debt, like he didn't want to have any sort of debt in his life. That's what he prioritized. And I understand the motivation behind that. It's the simplicity in it, all right, to not have any sort of bill do every single month?

How good does that feel? And there are so many people in the personal finance space that would give Andy a hard time for that decision. They would run the numbers and they would say, well, here's how much more your your net worth is going to be over ten or twenty years by instead of paying off the mortgage by investing the difference. And honestly, Andy's path is not the path that I'm on, but I can appreciate it. I can appreciate his desire for simplicity and how that

fueled his mission to crush that mortgage sooner. I just think that's really cool, and that's something a lot of people should at least take into consideration, because if simplicity can actually move the ball forward, whereas the complex solution feels a little more unapproachable, unattainable, then I would say, go simple every day, all day. Yeah. And so if you're finding yourself in that position, right, that's you don't worry necessarily about juggling paying off debt and investing at

the same time. Focus on whatever is going to get you moving, you know. And so in this case, pay off that debt. Don't worry about investing at the same time until you touched on actually paying off debt. Like how to go about paying off debt? Well, this is

a huge argument in favor of the debt snowball approach. Right, you could create a super complicated plan to your if your debt by listening out what you owe, the interest rates, the length of the term, maybe even trying to figure out like how paying off certain debts are going to

impact your credit. But if you haven't gained any traction with an approach like this, then maybe going with a simple debt snowball is going to be better because regardless of the interest rate, if you're focusing on, you know, whatever debt is the smallest and you're able to move forward and you kind of get that emotional high, well, that's gonna spur you on to pay off that next debt and that's going to allow you to to breed

better results. Yeah, it's one less paperless bill in your email inbox, and it's one fewer piece of mental accounting that you have to do because it's one fewer bill that you have in your life. So I think you're right. I mean I think that that if we're our desires for simplicity in paying down debt, the debt snowball is the best approach. Matt. Let's talk about to something else that helps directly create simplification in our life, and that's automation.

And we dove deep into automation and how that impacts your personal minuses back in episode one one and setting up automatic four O one K contribution increases or direct bill pay means that those financial tasks are gonna get done without you having to think about it. So in your attempts to make your financial life simpler, look to automation as a big part of that process. I think I specifically mentioned in that episode my super weird desire to actually physically go in to the back end of

Vanguard and manually increase the amount that I'm investing. I think I'm by far the exception to the rule in this, though. I think most people should have it on autopilot for simplicity and for the fact that it's actually gonna get done if they let an algorithm take are of that increase as opposed to trying to manually do it every so often. And another way, man, that we can simplify our money even more is to have fewer accounts with

the different companies in our lives. And the byproduct of this means that, like you need less apps on your phone, uh and there aren't as many passwords to remember, which is definitely something that comes as a benefit, right Gosh, I hate remembering passwords, and I know they have those password apps. I should probably give one of them a shot like dash Lane, right, Yeah, Actually, you know what

we should actually devote and maybe an entire show to that. Well, I should devote my life actually getting one of those. That's because I know all of your passwords were the same. I have like two passwords I've ascalated between. You might be one of those guys at least it's not password one or something like that. But the benefit of consolidating and into fewer companies, though, is that you can see

more of your information. Anytime I'm able to streamline and reduce the number of accounts that I have did I'm all for that. But even still, if you feel the need for maybe some different accounts to help you do better at saving for maybe a specific goal. But then you can look to a bank like our I They've got these different savings buckets that you create within the savings account. It's really sweet, really easy to set up.

That's a great way for you to have some of that differentiation, some of that detail while also just having a single account. Do you have a bucket, uh set up directly for my birthday present that you're saving for. Well that this kind of goes contrary to a simplification. But I do have a bucket that's labeled birthdays forward slash parties. I think you had one more forward slash job, Joel as well, like you deserve your your own title

within that bucket. I mean, I think so well for you, maybe I'll just open up an entirely new account now that's what I'm talking about them better for you. That might be too complex, but but I agree, I think the savings buckets in the back end of ally are pretty sweet. Another example of having fewer accounts with fewer

companies might be having fewer credit cards. And I think having to credit cards can kind of help people maximize most of the rewards they're seeking while at the same time not over complicating finances and not having too many pieces of plastic in their wallet, which also the complexity of having too many credit cards can get you into trouble, right, So so that's one area if if trying to open up new credit cards and get the sign up bonuses, which I love, I know you do, yeah, but for

so many people it just becomes too much, right, It's overwhelming, And so yeah, something that that is good on the surface becomes overwhelming to you and it's just not worth it. Yeah, but that Chase the Fire sign up bonus so good.

It's so good. It's the big fan. So, Matt, I think at this point in the show, people should consider giving themselves a list of of super simple money tasks, right, maybe one a day for a month, or even just one a week, whatever you can handle, right, but focus on achievable tasks that move you in the direction of simplifying your finances. It's important to have like this sense of accomplishment along the road, right. Even if the immediate financial impact is small, the effect that it has on

you mentally is huge. So the next step in battling complexity and embracing simplicity is to have those simple money tasks that you can set out to accomplish in a reasonable timeframe. And these are these really daunting tasks, man, We're talking about these tiny, little, bite sized tasks. Like we're talking about cutting maybe some of those streaming services that you don't even use anymore. Maybe you can start to you know, track your spending with Mint, go ahead

and sign up for that account. But then after that you can move maybe to some of these slightly larger tasks like switching banks, if you haven't opened an online account yet. If you can start doing these things, you'll be setting yourself up for success with this kind of initiative by focusing on those achievable tasks. Yeah, and that would be like a simple Google doc of simple money

tasks that you want to accomplish. Sit down at your computer, if you have a partner, sit down with them and create a task list together that feels easy enough to accomplish in in a reasonable time frame, because that's what's going to actually make it happen. Set calendar reminders too, if that, If that's helpful in the process. And I think it's helpful to to realize that getting your money in a good place it's not a series of heavy lists. I think it feels like that from the outside. It

feels like that when you're getting started. But getting good with money is actually a lot of really small, simple moves that grow in importance over time. Right, These are simple tasks that all of us can perform, and each and we implement well. It grows our confidence that we are handling our money in a smart way and that we can pay off that debt, grow our savings, and increase our net worth. So let's get rid of complexity embrace simplicity, knowing that the simple approach is actually gonna

cause us to avoid a lot of headache. It's gonna cause us to obsess less over our finances over time. Well, also so much in the financial realm, when it comes down to it, the simple choice is often the better choice. Yeah, you know, kind of what we're talking about here is behavior modification, right. The goal isn't necessarily to keep things simple forever, because over time, like things do, tend to

get a little more complicated in detailed. But by then you'll have gained some of the experience that's needed to understand, you know, what will and what won't work for you. If you can start with those heavier lifts, those more daunting tasks, uh, the more power to you, But for everyone else, starting from a place of understanding can get you moving in the right direction while keeping a balanced

life and avoiding some of those costly mistakes along the way. Yeah, Matt, simplicity so underrated so much of the time, and in particular when it comes to how we handle our money. Such a hidden little gym. Simplification it is, it is, And yeah, so hopefully this was encouraging for a lot of people out there who think personal finances need to be complex. It's not a subject that needs a ton of complexity. So much of what you need to know breaks down to just a couple easy rules to understand.

The simplest of which to understand is don't spend more than you make. Right. So that's the absolutely most simplified basic version of personal finance. Right there, A nice little final maxim to end on. All right, man, let's switch it back to the beer. This episode, we enjoyed a Scorpius Morchella. This is a double I p A from Toppling Goliath out of Decorah, Iowa, Man, what were your

thoughts on this beer? All right? So I was getting that tingly hop sensation math that you mentioned sometimes when it comes to fresh hops. I think it had a little bit of tangerine, a little bit of pineapple notes, and that touch of sweetness because double I pas often have a little more sweetness than than just a single I p A. And this one brought some good sweetness, but it wasn't overly sweet. It kind of hit that that perfect note. And so, yeah, I really like this one.

If I had to compare it to the the other one from Toppling Goliathe that we had on Monday's episode, the Pseudo su I think I picked the pseudo suit over the Yeah, but but this one was really tasty to the see was a really good beer. Yeah, this is a different beast. This was a double I p A. And with a double a lot of times you get really bold flavors, and I feel like that's what this

beer is delivering. I feel like it's got a nice hot punch, so am I telling it kind of has a touch of that kind of blue cheese funkiness going on, which actually really enjoy even though it sounds weird every time I say it out loud. But I also saw on the can that they brew this beer every spring to celebrate when the brewery takes off and they all go moral hunting, like mushroom hunting. Yeah, which is super cool. I saw that on there while we're recording this episode,

and it made me so happy inside. I can just picture the whole brewery shutting down and then like venturing out into the woods trying to find these wild mushrooms with their little canvas sacks. Is that is that what you put mushrooms in. It feels appropriate, right, That's what I would put mushrooms in. But it just makes me feel good about the kind of community that they fostered there within their brewery, even if it is just for

marketing purposes. I don't know if it's true or not, but I've got nothing but great things to say about Top Link Lithe They're great, and we are incredibly appreciative of Kelsey for sitting this one our way. Yeah, thanks Kelsey. All right, Matt, that's gonna do it for this episode. For folks that want show notes, they can go to our website how to Money dot com. That's right, man, And I want to take one second as well, and

just to think all of our listeners out there. We have amazing listeners who not only help each other out when it comes to their money, you know, like there's folks in the Facebook group answering each other's questions, making recommendations, looking out for each other. But we're just appreciative of all of our listeners out there who have subscribed to the show, and so I wanted to just say thank you. Right,

Joel and I, we couldn't do this show. We couldn't have this podcast without all of our devoted listeners out there, so we appreciate you completely agree. Man, got the best listeners out there, that's for sure. All Right, Matt, that's going to be it until next time. Best friends out, best friends out, don't bo