Let's bring our buddy Joel lars Guard to the table if that is his real name, host of How to Money, Sunday twelve pm to two pm.
Great show. If you haven't heard it, you can also find him how to Money. Joel. Oh, Joel, how are you, sir? I'm well, Neil, how are you? Man? Great?
What's what's the beer you're drinking these days? Anything happy or fruity?
Typically? I mean, I'll drink it all equal opportunity drinker. I like that fruity.
That's those are both opposite ends of the no I know, I like.
I want a ninety nine and then something with a little I don't know, peach good for you?
Is there?
Is there?
Because so for those of you who don't know Joel, who has what seventeen kids, he's only spent and he's like twenty two. But he spends his extra folding money on good beers. That's his splurge. So I always like to check in on him with that. Is there a brand that you're really into? A small brewery? Let me let me tell you an underrated brewery?
Uh not?
I mean a little a little drive for you, but not too too far. Casa Agria in Oxnard, California. Oh yeah, incredible. That's one of my that's one of my favorite breweries. And they run the gamut. They make some of the some some great fruity beers, some great hoppy beers, some some great stouts too. So I'm yeah, that's that's one of my favorite breweries around.
Good to know. Thanks for the hot tip. I will shut that out.
It's a stones throw away from where I grew up, so I know the era.
Well, all right, so.
Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs, what are we looking at and how's this gonna impact my midnight shopping spree on Timu and Ali Express.
Yeah, Oh my gosh, Well, I mean how this is gonna shake out and how severe the impact is going to be. It's kind of what everyone is trying to figure out right now. And we got at least a little more clarity because there'd been like the looming threat of liberation Day coming our way. And what's really going to happen is we're going to be liberated from our money and from low prices because of these tariffs. And
this has kind of been historically understood in economics. Like people across the political spectrum, whether you're kind of more left leaning, right leaning centrist independent as an economist, like the idea that tariffs are attacks on individuals, on consumers. Because this is an import tax and then it gets passed on through higher prices. It's going to impact all of us, and especially with how widespread and significant these tariffs are, it will reduce the purchasing power of the
average American family. And I think what the Trump administration is hoping or is saying, is, well, this is going to bring manufacturing back to the United States, and so it's going to be worth the pain the higher prices because it's going to mean more jobs. It's going to mean more factories, it's going to mean more production here. And I just don't know that that's a great goal to have, and I don't know that it's going to happen the way the President thinks it's going to.
Well, that is the million dollar question. Now.
I am not a huge fan of Trump or anything like that. I'm a rationalist. I try and look everything. I remove the d's, I remove the rs, and I try and look at things. And I know that if you walk in in the middle of an operation, it's blood, guts and nothing looks good. You have to kind of wait for everything to be sewn up. So I don't know where to land yet because we're seventy four days in or whatever it is, and it just looks like
utter chaos everywhere. My hope is it's with the goal, like you said, to bring jobs back, to bring manufacturing back, and to do what we do as individuals, and that is to get the best bang for a buck and not be abused. And if the country is being abused and paying more than its fair share, I would hope someone would look out for us how that ends up. I don't think we have the fortitude for it really as the American people. You know what, Joel, we are
no longer Americans, we're Americans. Well, I feel like we're looking for reasons to not build ourselves up sometimes and it's like, because it's gonna suck, But we buy a lot of crap. You save this all the time on the show. We buy a lot of crap that we don't need. Well, that is true, maybe we stop buying crap.
But I also I also think and the Treasury Secretary I believe, was the one who said something like, well, the American dream isn't just about buying more stuff, And I get where what he's getting at, But then I don't fully agree. I think part of the American dream is like I think about the bike that the e
bike that I ride around on with my kids. That's part of my American dream, and that's an item that I purchase, right, And I get that, like we all own too much stuff, and that's something that I talk about regularly. But yeah, I do think that that cheap things are part it does need to at least some of us able to choose the way we want to live our lives. And I do think that that widespread tariffs is going to reduce the how much cheap stuff
we're able to get. And again, it's not about accumulating more and more, but it is about access to goods that aren't incredibly expensive. And so this I agree too, that the Trump arrangement syndrome or whatever the people are, that's the one that gets Yeah, I certainly.
Don't want to be like that either.
And I do think that the best possible solution or outcome here is if this is actually a bargaining chip for countries who have had higher tariffs against goods that we send. Yeah, but if the goal is to keep tariffs around because tariffs ultimately are going to make us wealthier. I think that's a misunderstanding of economics. And if widespread tariffs remain for months and years, then I do think
that we'll all feel the economic pain. And obviously the stock market today is kind of reacting to the ARF news not very well. They also believe that this is going to lead to reduced choice for consumers, less wealth and enhanced There was a study from the Yale Budget Lab. They basically predicted that the average family is going to lose something like three to four thousand dollars in purchasing power if tariffs like this hang around. And I'd see that as a distinct possibility.
Well, I you know, let's be honest, Joel.
As much as we'd like stocks and all of that and trading to be an intellectual exercise, it's not.
It's an emotional one, that's true.
So I mean that really in a time where the country is at its peak emotional instability, So it's that's kind of a hard one. All right, We'll be back with more of Joel Lowe's Lars Guard. That's what I meant to say. I will tell you this, Joel. I found this early on. You're a younger guy than I am. They make these bikes that you can peddle, so that might save you a couple bucks, and they're very inexpensive.
So I'm down for both the e bikes and the ones that you that you physically have to use.
So everything has to have an E in front of it nowadays. Okay, E toilet, you're just E fridge. Let just get a bike, Joel.
All right.
Job switching, you know, there was a wild Joel that we started hearing, and I think it was I think it was just after the pandemic maybe where people were, you know, hopping around trying to find more lucrative jobs. They weren't necessarily doing the you know, two year stint somewhere and then going. They were just bouncing around and that might not be the best case financially these days.
Yeah, I mean, it's amazing how for a hot minute there you as an employee could kind of call the shots. You had this insane ability that rarely exists to kind of not.
Dictate your pay completely.
But the job market was so out of sorts post COVID, and that was because I think a lot of people. They took their their stimulus money and they said, you know, I'm going to work less or I'm not going to work at all. For a little period of time, we just had a little bit more financial flexibility, and so some folks took themselves out of the job market and that just created a really really tight job market that allowed for some folks to just really make a lot
more money by moving down the street. Typically, you know, you go to your annual pay raise and it's like you might get a cost of living adjustment that goes it's in that two to three percent range, although those have had to go up in recent years too because of inflation. But yeah, people, it's amazing how much more people were able to command by jumping down down the street.
I had so many listeners calling and be like, I'm getting paid twenty thirty, fifty percent more because I started applying for jobs elsewhere, and these employers are so dang desperate that I feels like you're able to pull off a heist. But that that job market no longer exists. It's fully gone at this point.
So where are we.
Is it back in the hands of the employer or are there just not jobs no.
No, I would say, yeah, it's more in the hands of the employer. And I will say with the talking about tariffs just a second ago, that is creating more uncertainty about the future for some of these businesses. And so some businesses are saying, listen, we're just on a hiring freeze right now, or maybe their raises aren't going up as much as they predicted they would give to their workers. So I'm not saying that you can't jump ship and get paid more elsewhere.
That's certainly still possible.
It's just not like you know, shooting fish in a barrel like it was in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. So the post COVID job market is gone.
We're in a new era.
We still have a low overall unemployment rate, which is great. It's just that when you shoot your resume out there and you're trying to find something new, the rate of pay that you can exp you know, maybe you're still thinking like it was it's a couple of years ago. You can't expect to get some sort of significant rays And it's kind of crazy to look at the line. The gap just closed significantly between hey before when I
jump ship, I was able to make a lot more. Now, if I go to try to find a job elsewhere, the rate of pay is essentially going to be equal to what I'm finding now. And I think one thing that people need to think about is the secondary benefits that are offered through an employer, because those can make the big difference. So let's say the rate of pay is the exact same, I'm gonna jump over here. I'm going to make seventy grand. I was making seventy grand before. Well,
what are the perks are there thrown in there? Because that can make a big difference, whether it's a bigger match to the four oh one k, whether it's a more generous healthcare plan, something like that. Think through those things because those matter even more. I think in this kind of job environment, I.
Couldn't agree more those.
I think a lot of people look past those and they are not equal. And even the person you're working for or with makes a difference. And it's worth money to me.
Yeah, I mean you have to work with with Kono, and that I think can be really tough. You got to get paid more to work, you know what I'm saying.
Uh, sometimes it's a kick in the nuts. I'll be honest, and sometimes she doesn't really pay off. So that's like a fifty thousand dollars a year punch to the gut for me. But then you bounce that out with Amy, who's a doll and, yeah, you kind.
Of worked your way through it all. That's a good point.
Joel lars Guard heard Sundays noon to two pm how to Money. You can also find him how to Money Joel on social media. Thanks Joel, always good to talk to you, buddy.
Thanks for having me.
Neil