Let's say good morning though, to the host of How to Money on KFI. It's Joel lars Card Morning, Joel morning, Amy. Are you gonna yell at me for spending too much on a hotel room?
No judgment here, Oh come on, you know what, as long as you're not like sticking it on like can't if you can't pay the credit card balance off, we need to talk. But I hope that you have enough money in the bank to pay for that expensive hotel. I do.
I do, yeah, see that, But I've been saving for a long time for it.
Also, the moralizing and the talking down people who don't do it the way I would do it, that's not what I'm about either.
Okay, then I don't feel bad. But we did. We did just decide to kind of throw caution to the wind on this mor and I think it's because we hadn't traveled in so long. We're just like, let's not worry about it now. But and like you said, knowing that the money is there, we're going to be able to pay off the credit cards is just you know.
And you know, if you've listened to my show at all, you know I talk about something called the craft beer equivalent and what that means. I like craft beer, and some people think I'm insane for spending twenty five bucks on a four pack or twenty two bucks on a single bottle of awesome beer. But if you carve those things out in your budget on purpose, it makes it easier to roll back the spending on a whole bunch
of other line items in your budget. It makes it easier to say, well, yeah, I'll go with the discount cell phone provider, because guess what it means, I've got more money to funnel into the things I care about the most. And so budgeting and getting good with your money, it's not all about deprivation to the max. Really, it's about funneling money into the areas the matter of the most to you. So if that's an expensive hotel on a super fun, rare vacation, then go for it.
Okay, I did, all right, So let's talk about how you can maybe make more money, or when you come when it comes to trading in your car, because there are lots of places now that make it very easy for you to trade in your car.
Yeah, the name of the game. I feel like when it comes to consumer marketing, these days is we're going to make it easy on you, but that's going to come with the cost. So, whether that's like livery from grub hub, it's like, it's gonna be super simple. You don't even have to get out of your pjs. We'll knock on your door and hand it over to you, but it's gonna come with a feet And the same
is true if you're trying to sell your car. And so it used to be that there you had to maybe take it to a dealership, whether it was like a big one or a small local one to sell your car, and yeah, they were gonna make it kind
of easy. But the carvanas of this world now they get your quote online, they'll come to you, they'll pick your car up, they'll hand you a check, and they're sending emails to basically anyone who's ever done business with them, and they're saying, hey, why don't you sell us your car again? Pitching that will make it super simple. But
the problem is when you sell your car. I have no beef with Carvana, and in fact, I think for some people it might be a good place to buy a car and p potentially a good place to sell, but you have to think twice, and you have to do some digging because the quote you get for your car from a company like Carvana or from a company like car mat which is another good company I've got no beef with it just might be substantially lower than what you could get putting in just a little bit
of legwork and selling it yourself.
So can you haggle with those companies at all? Or is it just this is what we're offering, take it or leave it?
Yeah? Typically not. Typically it's a this is this is what we're offering, take it or leave it. And again they do try to make it super simple and super easy. But the best estimates I can find are that you're going to get paid fifteen to twenty percent less than what you would otherwise get. So you know, if you're selling a fifteen thousand dollars car, well, carbon I might say we'll give you eleven to five and so we'll
make it super simple, like no headache, no hassle. But if you were to instead go through a little bit of hassle and post it on let's say Facebook, marketplace or on a site like auto trader, finding you know local people who might be interested and man I miss this. I always try to buy from private individuals and then do my due diligence when I'm buying, which means get that car checked out by a mechanic that I trust, because I just that's how I feel like I'm going
to get the best car for me. Although I will say CarMax and Carvan, and they both come with like better guarantees these days. I believe with Carvana it's seven days and with CarMax it's like thirty days. You can take it back if there's an issue with it, which is which is really nice. But when it comes to selling the car again, I'm a big fan of, you know, taking it to the taking it to the car wash, cleaning it inside and out, taking some solid pictures, and
then posting it. And truly that could make the difference of thousands of dollars in your pocket or in the pockets of Carvana, because they're going to make the spread when they mark it up and sell it to somebody else.
All right, Okay, so just be careful, and there is that cost of convenience. The Chinese tariffs wanted to touch base with you on this yesterday. They said, you know what we're putting these on pause for a while, and they're going from one hundred and forty five percent to thirty percent for China and then down to like ten percent for.
The US, right, yeah, yeah, so, which is a far cry from the one hundred and forty five percent that it was and the one hundred and twenty five percent that China was gonna charge on American goods going into China. And so I will say, like, if I have like two pomp poms in my hand, I'm partially putting one up in the air and waving it mildly, because this is a tariff pause. It's ninety days of tariff pause.
And the truth is, if you really even just read a basic economics textbook, what we know about tariffs is that they're bad. They harm free trade, They're going to cost consumers more money. And so I would love to see tariffs rolled back completely and to see and maybe maybe that's ultimately what's going to happen at the end of the day, because this is again a partial truce, a rollback for ninety days, and this is certainly good for businesses. The markets were up, they were very excited
about this announcement. But where do things go from here, and can we find some sort of solid landing place with China when it comes to a tariff rollback and a free trade agreement that benefits all parties and the benefits American businesses. That remains to be seen because right now it's been like threats of insane tariffs and then hey, no, we're gonna pause. And yet finding some real, sticking, long ground sticking place that's been harder to come by, Yeah.
Because the uncertainty is still there since it's not like, hey, we have a final deal. It's we're pushing this down so we can see if we can come to a deal. But the deals are sticky. It's not just an easy like I'll do this and you do that and let's call it a day, you know.
I mean yeah, I mean the market rally yesterday was partly I think about the belief that they think that Trump is rethinking tariff policy altogether, not necessarily that thirty percent lasting tariffs on Chinese goods coming in the United States is a great thing that should be celebrated, but it's saying maybe maybe the president's wising up and realizing that tariffs aren't as good of a policy as he thought. And so yeah, that's like a thing's cross sort of
situation though, because where does this land? It's anybody's guess.
Okay, well, we'll be watching and we'll have you to weigh in and help you guide us through it. And if you want more great guidance on your financial situation and your future, you can listen to how to Money Sundays noon to two right here on KFI with Joel Larscard. Also you can follow Joel and get some great money tips how to Money Joel, Thank you, Joel Larscard.
Thanks Amy.
All right, we'll talk to you soon