November 27, 2024 • 27 mins
Spend smart this holiday season and set yourself up for a prosperous new year with How to Money hosts Joel and Matt
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
episode is going to be a longer one part of
the series where I interview fascinating people about how they
spend their time and any advice they have for the
(00:24):
rest of us. So today I am delighted to welcome
Joel Larsgard and Matt Altmex to the show. They are
better known as Joel and Matt, the hosts of the
how To Money podcast. So today we are going to
be talking financial tips alongside productivity ones. So Joel and Matt,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Thanks for having us. I didn't realize we were fascinating.
We appreciate you having us.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah, well, I know I've been listening to you guys
for a long time. So I've been following all the
details of the lives of Matt and Joel and their
their various kids and two minivans. You each have matching
mini vans.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Right, sorry, we do.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Actually mine just rolled over one hundred and seventy five
thousand miles. It was a badge of honor. I've made
the kids watch the odomeiner as it rolled over. We
all did a little dance in the van while we
did that.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, hopefully strapped.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
In Indeed, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
You're wonderful. So, you know, listeners to this show love
hearing about people's routines. So I would love to hear
if either of you guys have either a morning routine
or another routine at a different point of day that
really helps make your life more functional.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Wait, okay, so I'll share, Laura.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
So, for the past two years, I've been working out,
and specifically the past two months, I've been working out
on a daily basis. This is something that I wanted
to incorporate more into my life. And I have never
been an early morning riser kind of person. And I'm
getting up every single day at five forty five, which
is for me at least. I don't know that's crazy early.
(01:57):
And what I realized was that for the longest time,
I was trying to eliminate distractions in my life, like
for like specifically like social media in the evenings, you're
sitting there, you're doing the like the doom scrolling, it
just goes on and on. And what I realized was
that instead of just saying no to something, what I
needed to do was replace it with something, And what
I finally realized was that, oh wow, working out this
(02:18):
is something that I really enjoy and it's become more
important than obviously wasting time on social media or you
know some of the other ways that we waste our time.
And so the ability to supplant that was massive for
me actually wanting to get up in the mornings and
do it. It means I'm going to bed earlier as well,
which is a vital part to yeah, stay healthy and
(02:39):
making sure you don't feel like like garbage the next morning.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Now Matt looks like Dwayne the Rock Johnson, so there's that.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, exactly, part of a morning routine is in fact
going to bed on time the night before.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So what time do you have to go to bed?
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Duake? Nine thirty is what I'm aiming for my wife
and I'm both and it's awesome. I feel like I'm
a completely different person than I was even two months ago,
but certainly beyond two years ago for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Well, I love that the idea that you know, it's
not enough just to be like I need to get
off social media, right, I need to spend less time
on social media. If you don't have something else that
you are replacing it with, Like why You're like, well,
why am I off social media? Social media is kind
of fun. I don't know, there are fun things I
can do with my time. But you've really enjoyed the
getting up now.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I really do.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I mean it's something I maybe that sounds crazy to
some people, but it's something I really do look forward to.
And sometimes my wife gets out there with me as well,
and so it's kind of a time of connection. I
mean that's mostly on Saturdays, I guess only, but yeah,
it's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Awesome, Jill. How about you. You have any sort of routine.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Yeah, so probably my favorite routine is taking my son
to school on the bike. So I've got an electric
cargo bike and that just kind of like that's the
best part of my morning is getting to ride with him.
We just tell jokes the entire time, and then I
come home and I walk my daughter to school. So
something about like that kind of uh, you know, I'm
(04:01):
not pumping iron like madness, but there's something about that
activity that gets my day started right, especially doing it
with the kids, and then after lunch and after lunch
walk just because you're sitting down. You're at the computer
so much of the day, and so like getting out
and nature, touching some grass, looking at some leaves is
just very grounding and it takes me out of this
all the whirlwind of running a business. Then you get
(04:24):
back into it after that walk.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, you need a little break to boost your energy.
And I'm sure that's something that does.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, exactly, Joel.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
What you did share is that there's there's a there's
medical research to back this too, because the ability to
move a little bit. And so this is something I
do as well, and it's it's not only just like
a psychologically healthy thing, but like it keeps your blood
sugar from spiking and don't you get me started on
like continuous glucose monitors, which oh.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
No, we're doing this. Yeah. Well, you know, the post
prandial walk as they call it, Yeah, is an old
fashioned term, but you know, good to good to still do.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Yeah, I like, I like you're bringing interesting definitions to
an interesting term.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well, so you guys run a financial podcast and have
for several years. We are coming up on the holidays
when this is airing, which is of course a time
of financial stress for a lot of people. Probably doesn't
have to be, but does tend to be so question time.
Have either of you ever overspent during the holiday seasons before?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Yeah, I have, but not outside of the realm of normalcy,
I don't think. But there are times where you want
to get a certain gift for somebody and you feel
that is the perfect thing for this person that I love,
and so you end up kind of over committing or
spending more than you thought you would on a specific
gift for someone that you love. Yeah, or maybe you
(05:49):
do go a little bit overboard. I guess I have
never gone to the point where I ended up in
credit card debt the next year because I overspent on
Christmas or holiday gifts for friends or family or anything
like that. I think that's the thing that I'm wary of,
because when you look at the numbers, like there's a
significant portion of Americans that wind up getting the credit
card bill in January and they're paying it off for
months and months to come. There are still Americans who
(06:12):
are in debt from last holiday holiday twenty twenty three,
a significant portion of Americans. So I guess that's the
thing that worries me. Overspending a little bit. If you
have the extra cash, and you can take it out
of your budget somewhere else. That's one thing. But if
you're like putting it on the credit card and you're
not gonna be able to pay the balance off, that's
the scary stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
And I think oftentimes it's not just like one giant purchase,
or maybe maybe for some folks it is, but I
feel like it's just the accumulation of all the little purchases.
It's just a little bit more here, a little bit
more there. Oh, we forgot to account for the teachers.
Oh yeah, that's a lot of you know, like we
got to include them. And so I think for a
lot of folks, maybe a takeaway is just to have
some of these discussions ahead of time. I was talking
(06:51):
with a friend of mine, and man, I was so
encouraged because she was saying how her and her husband
they decided that they were trying to back off the
gifts this year, and I was expecting her to talk
about grandparents like extended family, which I think for a
lot of times, for a lot of folks, that's difficult.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
It's like, Okay, I see you a couple times a year,
how am I supposed to know something that's actually going
to move the needle, and but no, And so I
went into the conversation assuming that to be the case.
She was talking about her and her husband as well
as her first grader and her third grader, and she
said they had this conversation on the front end, and
the kids were on board with it. They substituted a trip,
(07:30):
which I think was a trip that there was still
planning to take in the spring. But the ability for
the I guess the I don't know not to say
that you should be tricking your kids or.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I was gonna say, I'm not sure that my children
would be done on board.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Mom.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I think having these conversations can help a lot of folks, again,
especially when it comes to extended family. But even still,
if if you do want to have some gifts around
the tree, around the like, around the holidays, I think
maybe what that means is slowing your role a little
bit when it comes to expenses leading up to that,
because we are all so used to just the not
(08:10):
only like weekly purchases that we make, but almost daily
where we're thinking, oh, this is something I would kind
of like, and you go ahead and make the purchase.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It shows up.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
So now anytime we get a gift, it's not even
all that special, I think, as opposed to think back
thirty years ago and people I don't know, like we're
a wealthy country now, Laura, and we don't really do without,
and oftentimes that can maybe take away from some of
the magic of the holidays and actually getting gifts for folks.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Interesting. Yeah, I think another thing that happens with the
holidays is you know, you were saying people don't account
for all the people that they're going to have to
buy gifts for. But I don't know that we even
account for all the things that we wind up spending on.
Like maybe people have a thought of like, okay, well
here are the gifts, but then you're going to wind
up traveling to see family or something like that, and
that's an entirely separate expense, or you know, you decide
(08:58):
to host a party, or there's a additional going out
or something like that that happens in the course of
the month. I think maybe it's just that people don't
build all of it into the picture.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
I think that's true. And I think to your point,
Antomat's point, part of the things that we spend extra
money on too. That didn't used to be the case.
I don't think to nearly the same extent is buying
stuff for ourselves, and so instead of putting them on
our Christmas list or whatever for other people, the wish
list that we would love other people to get for us,
because you're right, Like my mom will say, hey, what
do you want for this Christian? I'm like, I don't know.
(09:31):
I feel like I don't need anything or but it's
because I do buy the things along the way want
when I want them, and I think when things are
on sale, and this is the time of year where
all the retailers are trying to get in our pockets.
They want our cash, and so there's discount of things significantly,
we're more inclined to buy, I don't know, a nice
TV because it's significantly cheaper than it's going to be
(09:53):
at any other time in year in the year. And
so I think that's the other thing we don't account
for as well, because we're just like adding things to
our cart for us while we're adding things to the
car for other people, and that can become like an
overwhelming financial burden too.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
All right, So that's our tip. There be careful about
treating yourself over the holiday seasons. Maybe at least ask
other people for those things that you really want. Well,
we're going to take a quick ad break and then
we will be back with more from Joel and Matt. Well,
I am back. This is one of the longer episodes
(10:28):
of Before Breakfast. I am talking with Joel and Matt
of How to Money. So we've been talking about the
holiday season, but of course the holiday season comes right
before the New year. If people were going to make
New Year's resolutions financial New Year's resolutions, what would you
suggest doing? What are some steps that people might be
able to take to have a more financially sane life
(10:50):
in the new year?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Or I think one of the best things that we
can do is I mean, especially this time of year,
like a lot of folks have time off from work, right,
and I think using that time to do the hold
day things like baking cookies, building snowman, going caroling.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Like all by the way, Laura, do you still sing
in the choir? I feel like that.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
Nice I will be singing a lot of you go
there you go obviously doing all those things that are
important to you and like the culture of your family,
but also the ability to take some of this time
and to look back sort of like you said, like
oftentimes we don't account for all that we're spending on,
and the.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Ability to look back, look back over the past year
and see where our dollars went, and having a meeting
with your partner, to be able to get on the
same page to make make it feel like and not
just make it feel like, but to realize that you're
on the same team moving forward and looking ahead to
twenty twenty five and maybe identifying some of the different goals,
some of the like some of the rocks that are
(11:47):
non negotiables where you're like, this is something that's really
important to us. Let's do all that we can to
make this happen. Hey, we've been eating out a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
This past year.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Would if we cut back and that's going to allow
us to go on that sweet vacation this summer. Let's
make that a priority. And not only for partners, I think,
but also these conversations I think are less likely to
happen with like if you're flying solo, right because you
got the natural prodding of your partner saying, ah.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Do we really need another one of those?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Or you know, there's different conversations you have, but when
it's just yourself, like you said, Joe, oftentimes we just
add that item to the cart, we click to buy,
We don't think twice about it. So I think it's
even more important to be intentional with our time for
individuals that are by themselves as they think through just
some of the different goals that they're financial goals that
they're looking to achieve on their own for the next year.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Yeah, I think that money date thing is really important,
right and having those conversations, and now's a perfect time
just try to have those Hey what do we want
to accomplish in twenty twenty five? Start thinking about those things?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Now?
Speaker 4 (12:50):
What are the financial goals we have when it comes
to saving and investing and buying awesome stuff that we
care about, whether it's experiences or actual physical items. But
I think I think the other thing too is to look
at your prior spending and say, well, what is it
that I didn't even realize I spent money on. I
just recently realized that we are paying for Apple TV
and we don't watch Apple TV. And so that's actually
(13:14):
the norm for most Americans. When you look at what
people assume they're spending in subscription amounts every single month,
they vastly underestimate. So the avers versus say, I'll probably
spend it, I don't know, one hundred and twenty bucks
or something. But maybe they're in actuality, they're spending three
hundred plus dollars on recurring subscriptions. So identifying those things,
because the truth is lots of times it's wasted money.
It's money that could be better spent elsewhere. And because
(13:36):
our eyes not on the ball and we're not identifying
maybe the places that we're spending where we're not getting
any value, we don't have the chance even to make
the change.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
All right, So we've got money conversation with a partner,
if you have one, making sure you're on the same
page for your big goals for the next year. We're
going to look through all those subscriptions, see if you're
actually watching those shows that you are paying for. You guys,
got any others for us we might consider for the
new year.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
So I think the other thing that I want to
and this feels so anathema to American culture, is to say,
be really careful before you upgrade your car. It is
it is like the single line item. I think that
people can stand to save the most on and lost
of times. It's just this assumption that, ah, I think
it's time to upgrade the car. It's like four years old, right,
(14:24):
And the truth is, like with what's happened with car prices,
with what's happened with interest rates, cars are more expensive
than they've ever been. And the same is true when
it comes to insurance costs. So there are all of
these things stacked against you when it comes to car
ownership and how much it's going to cost you. A
significant portion of the American public spends one thousand dollars
or more for a single car every single month, and
(14:44):
I think you can slash those costs significantly. And that's
particularly true in the work from home era. So if
you're talking about, yeah, the Apple TV subscription, when I
cut that, I'm going to save eight dollars a month.
But if I can slash my car costs by a
whole lot more than that, and just thinking about the
trade off involved in that, it's like, well, how much
I'm actually going to miss that car, especially when I
only drive it once or twice a week, versus the
(15:06):
things I can do with the massive pile of cash
I'll have back in my life if.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
I do make a big change like that, And that's
something that we've got a little more room to have
movement on right Like Like when it comes to like
when you are looking out the biggest line items on
our budgets every single month, housing is at the top.
But not many folks are going to say, Okay, hey,
we're really trying to cut back. Let's go ahead and
sell the house and move to a more affordable neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Let's move out to the sticks. Uh, let's let's move
in with your with your parents. Wouldn't that that allows
to save a ton of money.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Let's go to Tilan like that would be a big change.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
In a year.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yes, for sure, typically have that kind of flexibility.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
But when it comes to vehicles, like yes, because oftentimes
they are providing us typically more than just that A
to B transportation, we do find a part of our ego,
a part of our identity tied up in the vehicles
that we drive. And especially given the fact that these
are crazy expensive depreciating assets. The man we I really
(16:01):
hate financing vehicles because you are paying interest on something
that is going down in value, and so yeah, I'm
just gonna second wogol set here about finding ways to
cut your transportation costs.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Excellent, But you guys will be happy to know I
am driving a twenty eleven car. Yeah, and I'm not
even just driving. I'm sharing it with my teenage son,
so he actually has it at school right now, so
I'm kind of just my home office.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I can't beat that. That's amazing. I'll love a lawyer.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
You ever get in the car and you're like, what
radio station am I listening to?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I know, he's like, what is this? It doesn't play anything,
Although you know, there's also the craziness of it doesn't
help you park either, which sometimes that's not a good thing.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
The old technologies, Yeah they don't. The fact that your
car can self park now is incredible, but I probably
won't experience that for another decade.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, exactly, exactly. All Right, Well, we're going to take
one more quick break and then we'll be back with
a little bit more from Joel and Matt.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Well, we are back.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I am talking all things money and also productivity with
Joel and Matt. So, Matt, I want to talk about
a little exercise you did productivity wise, not not the
exercise back to exercise, I d not exercise. Now we
can we can be done talking about exercise now. But
(17:24):
at one point you drew up a calendar. I think
of what you called Matt's perfect week. So you can
you talk about what that is and why other people
might consider maybe not creating math perfect week, but their
own perfect.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
You've got a good memory, Laura.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Yes, this was a separate so within Gmail, I created
a whole. It was another calendar that I decided I
wanted to see where my time was going. And so
it wasn't just a way for me to account for
every minute, not literally every minute, but every I will say,
every fifteen minute chunk. But it was a way for
me to prove myself that I did, in fact have
(18:02):
the ability to do all the different things that I
was oftentimes finding myself saying that I didn't have time
to do. And so it included all aspects of my life.
So it included time for you know, my own intellectual growth.
It included me at that point in time, I was running,
so it included time for me to in fact to
go work out, but then also time to spend with others.
(18:24):
So there's a slot there that included relationship. Obviously work
was a big part of that as well, but I
think for me it was the relationship aspect. And so
what I mean by that is time spent with others
and because oftentimes I found myself saying no to things
that were coming up, I'm really good at saying no,
probably better than I should be. Yeah, Joel's like, man,
(18:47):
you are so heartless and cold.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
But I'm just like, I'm very protected that every day I'm.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Protective of my time. But what I found was that, man,
I wonder if I do actually have time to do this.
And so by pre scheduling a bunch of different items
throughout the week, I was essentially able to create Matt's
perfect week. And I could see that, Oh wow, look
at this, I'm running three times a week. Oh wow,
look I've got time where I am devoting like an
(19:14):
hour every other day to me being able to read
and dive into a novel. Oh look, there's a couple
times on here. Not only am I able to, well,
once a week go out with my wife and have
a great date night, but to also meet up with
a buddy and grab beers. That it was very eye
opening for me, because what I found was that I
could no longer I did, no longer have the excuse
to say, well, I don't.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Have the time.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
It's like, no, no, no, I've proved to myself that I've
that I do now have time. And granted there's always
things that come up, right, They're like they're the unaccounted
for random quasi emergencies that our weeks are full.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Of those things.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
But I don't know, I found that to be incredibly helpful.
And it's not like I actually stick to that today, right,
It's not like I'm looking at my week and I'm
accounting for every fifteen minute block. But it does help
me to say that, oh, you know, I do in
fact have the ability to make some of these different
activities a priority if they actually are important to me.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, So just thinking about how this might work, So
you put in like when you need to work to
run your business, like when you're hanging out with your kids,
when you have childcare responsibilities, when you are doing your housework,
the other things you want to do, and then let's
say you see Tuesday night after eight pm is still
you're just hanging out, right, You could say like, well,
that's the night I could go out with a friend
(20:28):
if I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Exactly Yeah, that's that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
And so I mean it's I don't know, maybe it's
similar to block scheduling, but the ability to have these
events on there. And what's cool about Google Calendar at
least when it feeds into two Apple's calendar.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
That's so that's how we do it. I've got my
Gmail calendars and they feed into iCal or calendar or whatever.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
But sometimes when I was feeling a little discouraged, I
could reach over and turn that calendar on and it
would overlay what I could in fact be doing with
my time. Instead of feeling like I don't have any
enough time in the week, it was like literal proof
that I did in fact have that time.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I love this idea of creating a realistic, ideal week.
So it's still, you know, you're not quitting your job.
You're not like suddenly able to fly. I mean it,
it's life as it is, but life showing you at
your best and what could see.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yes, it was within the confines of the current responsibilities
that I had. It's just oh, look, there's a whole
lot of nooks and crannies here where there's whole lot
of wasted time, like an English.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Muffin line englush muffin. Yes, time is one giant English
muffon sometimes, so Joel, we always talk in this show
about little ways we have taken our days from great
to awesome. I wonder if you have done anything recently
that has made one of your days more awesome.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
The thing that has changed my days in our families
days the most is eradicating screens and TV Monday through Thursday,
all day every day. And part of that is one
for me, I don't even think about it, But then
my kids have stopped asking about it, and it's that
sort of pestering thing that sometimes kids here you're like, no,
(22:08):
I don't think we're gonna do it today, whereas like
now the rule is like no, we're we're not doing
it at all, And so then they don't even ask
the question anymore. And it even just reduces the amount
of TV we watch on the weekend evenings too, and
so Friday night Pizza movie night, we're watching something every
Friday night typically, but we just watch a whole lot
less TV in general. It's kind of made it so
(22:29):
much easier to relate to my kids when it comes
to like how we're talking about that stuff. And yeah,
I watch so much less TV than I even used to.
So I think eliminiting TV during the weekdays has been
the way to take all those days, make them instead
of great, being awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
And what are your kids kind of doing to entertain
themselves during their downtime, because I think that's what a
lot of families stumble ever is like. Well, especially these
days as it's getting dark in the evening after school.
I mean, my kids get home and it's like dark
thirty minutes.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
No, it is the hardest of this time of year.
But like last night, truly, the girls put on roller
skates and we're out in the driveway roller skating, even
in the dark. Like we get the floodlight on and
we're having a great time just because like we know,
we got to find something else to do. Or they
have started to play maybe with some of the toys
that got neglected for a little while, the ones you
bought for Christmas exactly exactly, and so yeah, for the
(23:23):
first week or something, you hear a lot of cries
of I'm bored, I don't know what to do, but quickly.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
They figured it out.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
They'll get a friend from down the street, or they
end up playing with each other. They kind of they
come up with the most cute and interesting games, but
it's because they're forced to be creative instead of just
turning a.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Screen on excellent Matt, how about you.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
I will sort of dovetail into what I was saying,
maybe about taking time at the end of the year
to kind of look back at the previous year, especially
with a partner. So I will say that on a
daily basis, my wife and I we try to go
for a fifteen to twenty minute walk after dinner while
the kids clear the table and clean up and start
to get ready for bed. It's just a way for
(24:03):
us to have some adult, grown up conversation, to be
able to step away from the kids, and honestly to
have like some parenting conversations sometimes too, because I feel
like meal time can oftentimes it's just so difficult sometimes
and so it's like, all right, how did that go?
Should we have done something differently in that instance? And
so that's something that we've pretty much always done. But
(24:24):
lately every Sunday we have taken a hike, like we
go for about a one hour hike, and it's real
similar to what we do on a daily basis, except
for we're doing it for the week. We kind of
talk about, all right, we just had a busy week,
let's unpack some things. If there's any tension like boiling
under the surface, maybe it allows us. It gives us
(24:44):
time to discuss that allows us to do something together
where we're both hiking up this mountain, which is a
ton of fun that we both enjoy, but then also
to start the week on the right foot as well,
where we're looking ahead and we're able to kind of
reconnect and maybe we're not even planning right. Sometimes it
is planning and talking through some of the schedule as
we're hiking, but sometimes it's is just sharing how we
(25:05):
feel about something or so it's just a great connection
point from a relational standpoint with my wife and I
and at least for us in this stage of life.
Our oldest is eleven, and we feel the freedom to
do that because she's getting to the age where, oh
my gosh, I'm realizing there's this whole wow, this is
a we're graduating to like a different level. It's it's
(25:26):
completely changed the game, and we're realizing that we have
the the autonomy to be able to do some of this,
and so we're taking advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And man, it's been such a sweet time.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
For us to strengthen our relationship and ultimately do a
better job as parents as.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Well, and also get out of having to do the
dis He makes the kids do it.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, I know that's even better, this dividend of the
kids getting old enough like to do stuff and to
watch each other. I mean, when I realized I had
like three live in babysitters all of a sudden, I
was like, Wow, I'm it makes life sore.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Was like, I'm going to write another book. Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I well, or even I can go to the grocery
store and I'm not like, Okay, where is everybody? Are
they all in the car? All that good stuff?
Speaker 5 (26:10):
All right?
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Well, guys, this has been great. Thank you so much
for joining us. Everyone be sure to check out Joel
and Matt on How To Money, which airs multiple times
a week also through iHeartMedia. Thank you to everyone for listening.
If you have feedback about this or about other episodes,
I would love to hear it. You can always reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com and in
(26:32):
the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening
to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
(27:00):
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
episode is going to be a longer one part of
the series where I interview fascinating people about how they
spend their time and any advice they have for the
(00:24):
rest of us. So today I am delighted to welcome
Joel Larsgard and Matt Altmex to the show. They are
better known as Joel and Matt, the hosts of the
how To Money podcast. So today we are going to
be talking financial tips alongside productivity ones. So Joel and Matt,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Thanks for having us. I didn't realize we were fascinating.
We appreciate you having us.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah, well, I know I've been listening to you guys
for a long time. So I've been following all the
details of the lives of Matt and Joel and their
their various kids and two minivans. You each have matching
mini vans.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Right, sorry, we do.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Actually mine just rolled over one hundred and seventy five
thousand miles. It was a badge of honor. I've made
the kids watch the odomeiner as it rolled over. We
all did a little dance in the van while we
did that.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, hopefully strapped.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
In Indeed, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
You're wonderful. So, you know, listeners to this show love
hearing about people's routines. So I would love to hear
if either of you guys have either a morning routine
or another routine at a different point of day that
really helps make your life more functional.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Wait, okay, so I'll share, Laura.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
So, for the past two years, I've been working out,
and specifically the past two months, I've been working out
on a daily basis. This is something that I wanted
to incorporate more into my life. And I have never
been an early morning riser kind of person. And I'm
getting up every single day at five forty five, which
is for me at least. I don't know that's crazy early.
(01:57):
And what I realized was that for the longest time,
I was trying to eliminate distractions in my life, like
for like specifically like social media in the evenings, you're
sitting there, you're doing the like the doom scrolling, it
just goes on and on. And what I realized was
that instead of just saying no to something, what I
needed to do was replace it with something, And what
I finally realized was that, oh wow, working out this
(02:18):
is something that I really enjoy and it's become more
important than obviously wasting time on social media or you
know some of the other ways that we waste our time.
And so the ability to supplant that was massive for
me actually wanting to get up in the mornings and
do it. It means I'm going to bed earlier as well,
which is a vital part to yeah, stay healthy and
(02:39):
making sure you don't feel like like garbage the next morning.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Now Matt looks like Dwayne the Rock Johnson, so there's that.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, exactly, part of a morning routine is in fact
going to bed on time the night before.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So what time do you have to go to bed?
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Duake? Nine thirty is what I'm aiming for my wife
and I'm both and it's awesome. I feel like I'm
a completely different person than I was even two months ago,
but certainly beyond two years ago for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Well, I love that the idea that you know, it's
not enough just to be like I need to get
off social media, right, I need to spend less time
on social media. If you don't have something else that
you are replacing it with, Like why You're like, well,
why am I off social media? Social media is kind
of fun. I don't know, there are fun things I
can do with my time. But you've really enjoyed the
getting up now.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I really do.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I mean it's something I maybe that sounds crazy to
some people, but it's something I really do look forward to.
And sometimes my wife gets out there with me as well,
and so it's kind of a time of connection. I
mean that's mostly on Saturdays, I guess only, but yeah,
it's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Awesome, Jill. How about you. You have any sort of routine.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Yeah, so probably my favorite routine is taking my son
to school on the bike. So I've got an electric
cargo bike and that just kind of like that's the
best part of my morning is getting to ride with him.
We just tell jokes the entire time, and then I
come home and I walk my daughter to school. So
something about like that kind of uh, you know, I'm
(04:01):
not pumping iron like madness, but there's something about that
activity that gets my day started right, especially doing it
with the kids, and then after lunch and after lunch
walk just because you're sitting down. You're at the computer
so much of the day, and so like getting out
and nature, touching some grass, looking at some leaves is
just very grounding and it takes me out of this
all the whirlwind of running a business. Then you get
(04:24):
back into it after that walk.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, you need a little break to boost your energy.
And I'm sure that's something that does.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, exactly, Joel.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
What you did share is that there's there's a there's
medical research to back this too, because the ability to
move a little bit. And so this is something I
do as well, and it's it's not only just like
a psychologically healthy thing, but like it keeps your blood
sugar from spiking and don't you get me started on
like continuous glucose monitors, which oh.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
No, we're doing this. Yeah. Well, you know, the post
prandial walk as they call it, Yeah, is an old
fashioned term, but you know, good to good to still do.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Yeah, I like, I like you're bringing interesting definitions to
an interesting term.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well, so you guys run a financial podcast and have
for several years. We are coming up on the holidays
when this is airing, which is of course a time
of financial stress for a lot of people. Probably doesn't
have to be, but does tend to be so question time.
Have either of you ever overspent during the holiday seasons before?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Yeah, I have, but not outside of the realm of normalcy,
I don't think. But there are times where you want
to get a certain gift for somebody and you feel
that is the perfect thing for this person that I love,
and so you end up kind of over committing or
spending more than you thought you would on a specific
gift for someone that you love. Yeah, or maybe you
(05:49):
do go a little bit overboard. I guess I have
never gone to the point where I ended up in
credit card debt the next year because I overspent on
Christmas or holiday gifts for friends or family or anything
like that. I think that's the thing that I'm wary of,
because when you look at the numbers, like there's a
significant portion of Americans that wind up getting the credit
card bill in January and they're paying it off for
months and months to come. There are still Americans who
(06:12):
are in debt from last holiday holiday twenty twenty three,
a significant portion of Americans. So I guess that's the
thing that worries me. Overspending a little bit. If you
have the extra cash, and you can take it out
of your budget somewhere else. That's one thing. But if
you're like putting it on the credit card and you're
not gonna be able to pay the balance off, that's
the scary stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
And I think oftentimes it's not just like one giant purchase,
or maybe maybe for some folks it is, but I
feel like it's just the accumulation of all the little purchases.
It's just a little bit more here, a little bit
more there. Oh, we forgot to account for the teachers.
Oh yeah, that's a lot of you know, like we
got to include them. And so I think for a
lot of folks, maybe a takeaway is just to have
some of these discussions ahead of time. I was talking
(06:51):
with a friend of mine, and man, I was so
encouraged because she was saying how her and her husband
they decided that they were trying to back off the
gifts this year, and I was expecting her to talk
about grandparents like extended family, which I think for a
lot of times, for a lot of folks, that's difficult.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
It's like, Okay, I see you a couple times a year,
how am I supposed to know something that's actually going
to move the needle, and but no, And so I
went into the conversation assuming that to be the case.
She was talking about her and her husband as well
as her first grader and her third grader, and she
said they had this conversation on the front end, and
the kids were on board with it. They substituted a trip,
(07:30):
which I think was a trip that there was still
planning to take in the spring. But the ability for
the I guess the I don't know not to say
that you should be tricking your kids or.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I was gonna say, I'm not sure that my children
would be done on board.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Mom.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I think having these conversations can help a lot of folks, again,
especially when it comes to extended family. But even still,
if if you do want to have some gifts around
the tree, around the like, around the holidays, I think
maybe what that means is slowing your role a little
bit when it comes to expenses leading up to that,
because we are all so used to just the not
(08:10):
only like weekly purchases that we make, but almost daily
where we're thinking, oh, this is something I would kind
of like, and you go ahead and make the purchase.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It shows up.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
So now anytime we get a gift, it's not even
all that special, I think, as opposed to think back
thirty years ago and people I don't know, like we're
a wealthy country now, Laura, and we don't really do without,
and oftentimes that can maybe take away from some of
the magic of the holidays and actually getting gifts for folks.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Interesting. Yeah, I think another thing that happens with the
holidays is you know, you were saying people don't account
for all the people that they're going to have to
buy gifts for. But I don't know that we even
account for all the things that we wind up spending on.
Like maybe people have a thought of like, okay, well
here are the gifts, but then you're going to wind
up traveling to see family or something like that, and
that's an entirely separate expense, or you know, you decide
(08:58):
to host a party, or there's a additional going out
or something like that that happens in the course of
the month. I think maybe it's just that people don't
build all of it into the picture.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
I think that's true. And I think to your point,
Antomat's point, part of the things that we spend extra
money on too. That didn't used to be the case.
I don't think to nearly the same extent is buying
stuff for ourselves, and so instead of putting them on
our Christmas list or whatever for other people, the wish
list that we would love other people to get for us,
because you're right, Like my mom will say, hey, what
do you want for this Christian? I'm like, I don't know.
(09:31):
I feel like I don't need anything or but it's
because I do buy the things along the way want
when I want them, and I think when things are
on sale, and this is the time of year where
all the retailers are trying to get in our pockets.
They want our cash, and so there's discount of things significantly,
we're more inclined to buy, I don't know, a nice
TV because it's significantly cheaper than it's going to be
(09:53):
at any other time in year in the year. And
so I think that's the other thing we don't account
for as well, because we're just like adding things to
our cart for us while we're adding things to the
car for other people, and that can become like an
overwhelming financial burden too.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
All right, So that's our tip. There be careful about
treating yourself over the holiday seasons. Maybe at least ask
other people for those things that you really want. Well,
we're going to take a quick ad break and then
we will be back with more from Joel and Matt. Well,
I am back. This is one of the longer episodes
(10:28):
of Before Breakfast. I am talking with Joel and Matt
of How to Money. So we've been talking about the
holiday season, but of course the holiday season comes right
before the New year. If people were going to make
New Year's resolutions financial New Year's resolutions, what would you
suggest doing? What are some steps that people might be
able to take to have a more financially sane life
(10:50):
in the new year?
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Or I think one of the best things that we
can do is I mean, especially this time of year,
like a lot of folks have time off from work, right,
and I think using that time to do the hold
day things like baking cookies, building snowman, going caroling.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Like all by the way, Laura, do you still sing
in the choir? I feel like that.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
Nice I will be singing a lot of you go
there you go obviously doing all those things that are
important to you and like the culture of your family,
but also the ability to take some of this time
and to look back sort of like you said, like
oftentimes we don't account for all that we're spending on,
and the.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Ability to look back, look back over the past year
and see where our dollars went, and having a meeting
with your partner, to be able to get on the
same page to make make it feel like and not
just make it feel like, but to realize that you're
on the same team moving forward and looking ahead to
twenty twenty five and maybe identifying some of the different goals,
some of the like some of the rocks that are
(11:47):
non negotiables where you're like, this is something that's really
important to us. Let's do all that we can to
make this happen. Hey, we've been eating out a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
This past year.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Would if we cut back and that's going to allow
us to go on that sweet vacation this summer. Let's
make that a priority. And not only for partners, I think,
but also these conversations I think are less likely to
happen with like if you're flying solo, right because you
got the natural prodding of your partner saying, ah.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Do we really need another one of those?
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Or you know, there's different conversations you have, but when
it's just yourself, like you said, Joe, oftentimes we just
add that item to the cart, we click to buy,
We don't think twice about it. So I think it's
even more important to be intentional with our time for
individuals that are by themselves as they think through just
some of the different goals that they're financial goals that
they're looking to achieve on their own for the next year.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Yeah, I think that money date thing is really important,
right and having those conversations, and now's a perfect time
just try to have those Hey what do we want
to accomplish in twenty twenty five? Start thinking about those things?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Now?
Speaker 4 (12:50):
What are the financial goals we have when it comes
to saving and investing and buying awesome stuff that we
care about, whether it's experiences or actual physical items. But
I think I think the other thing too is to look
at your prior spending and say, well, what is it
that I didn't even realize I spent money on. I
just recently realized that we are paying for Apple TV
and we don't watch Apple TV. And so that's actually
(13:14):
the norm for most Americans. When you look at what
people assume they're spending in subscription amounts every single month,
they vastly underestimate. So the avers versus say, I'll probably
spend it, I don't know, one hundred and twenty bucks
or something. But maybe they're in actuality, they're spending three
hundred plus dollars on recurring subscriptions. So identifying those things,
because the truth is lots of times it's wasted money.
It's money that could be better spent elsewhere. And because
(13:36):
our eyes not on the ball and we're not identifying
maybe the places that we're spending where we're not getting
any value, we don't have the chance even to make
the change.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
All right, So we've got money conversation with a partner,
if you have one, making sure you're on the same
page for your big goals for the next year. We're
going to look through all those subscriptions, see if you're
actually watching those shows that you are paying for. You guys,
got any others for us we might consider for the
new year.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
So I think the other thing that I want to
and this feels so anathema to American culture, is to say,
be really careful before you upgrade your car. It is
it is like the single line item. I think that
people can stand to save the most on and lost
of times. It's just this assumption that, ah, I think
it's time to upgrade the car. It's like four years old, right,
(14:24):
And the truth is, like with what's happened with car prices,
with what's happened with interest rates, cars are more expensive
than they've ever been. And the same is true when
it comes to insurance costs. So there are all of
these things stacked against you when it comes to car
ownership and how much it's going to cost you. A
significant portion of the American public spends one thousand dollars
or more for a single car every single month, and
(14:44):
I think you can slash those costs significantly. And that's
particularly true in the work from home era. So if
you're talking about, yeah, the Apple TV subscription, when I
cut that, I'm going to save eight dollars a month.
But if I can slash my car costs by a
whole lot more than that, and just thinking about the
trade off involved in that, it's like, well, how much
I'm actually going to miss that car, especially when I
only drive it once or twice a week, versus the
(15:06):
things I can do with the massive pile of cash
I'll have back in my life if.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
I do make a big change like that, And that's
something that we've got a little more room to have
movement on right Like Like when it comes to like
when you are looking out the biggest line items on
our budgets every single month, housing is at the top.
But not many folks are going to say, Okay, hey,
we're really trying to cut back. Let's go ahead and
sell the house and move to a more affordable neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Let's move out to the sticks. Uh, let's let's move
in with your with your parents. Wouldn't that that allows
to save a ton of money.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Let's go to Tilan like that would be a big change.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
In a year.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Yes, for sure, typically have that kind of flexibility.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
But when it comes to vehicles, like yes, because oftentimes
they are providing us typically more than just that A
to B transportation, we do find a part of our ego,
a part of our identity tied up in the vehicles
that we drive. And especially given the fact that these
are crazy expensive depreciating assets. The man we I really
(16:01):
hate financing vehicles because you are paying interest on something
that is going down in value, and so yeah, I'm
just gonna second wogol set here about finding ways to
cut your transportation costs.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Excellent, But you guys will be happy to know I
am driving a twenty eleven car. Yeah, and I'm not
even just driving. I'm sharing it with my teenage son,
so he actually has it at school right now, so
I'm kind of just my home office.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I can't beat that. That's amazing. I'll love a lawyer.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
You ever get in the car and you're like, what
radio station am I listening to?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I know, he's like, what is this? It doesn't play anything,
Although you know, there's also the craziness of it doesn't
help you park either, which sometimes that's not a good thing.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
The old technologies, Yeah they don't. The fact that your
car can self park now is incredible, but I probably
won't experience that for another decade.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, exactly, exactly. All Right, Well, we're going to take
one more quick break and then we'll be back with
a little bit more from Joel and Matt.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Well, we are back.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I am talking all things money and also productivity with
Joel and Matt. So, Matt, I want to talk about
a little exercise you did productivity wise, not not the
exercise back to exercise, I d not exercise. Now we
can we can be done talking about exercise now. But
(17:24):
at one point you drew up a calendar. I think
of what you called Matt's perfect week. So you can
you talk about what that is and why other people
might consider maybe not creating math perfect week, but their
own perfect.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
You've got a good memory, Laura.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Yes, this was a separate so within Gmail, I created
a whole. It was another calendar that I decided I
wanted to see where my time was going. And so
it wasn't just a way for me to account for
every minute, not literally every minute, but every I will say,
every fifteen minute chunk. But it was a way for
me to prove myself that I did, in fact have
(18:02):
the ability to do all the different things that I
was oftentimes finding myself saying that I didn't have time
to do. And so it included all aspects of my life.
So it included time for you know, my own intellectual growth.
It included me at that point in time, I was running,
so it included time for me to in fact to
go work out, but then also time to spend with others.
(18:24):
So there's a slot there that included relationship. Obviously work
was a big part of that as well, but I
think for me it was the relationship aspect. And so
what I mean by that is time spent with others
and because oftentimes I found myself saying no to things
that were coming up, I'm really good at saying no,
probably better than I should be. Yeah, Joel's like, man,
(18:47):
you are so heartless and cold.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
But I'm just like, I'm very protected that every day I'm.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Protective of my time. But what I found was that, man,
I wonder if I do actually have time to do this.
And so by pre scheduling a bunch of different items
throughout the week, I was essentially able to create Matt's
perfect week. And I could see that, Oh wow, look
at this, I'm running three times a week. Oh wow,
look I've got time where I am devoting like an
(19:14):
hour every other day to me being able to read
and dive into a novel. Oh look, there's a couple
times on here. Not only am I able to, well,
once a week go out with my wife and have
a great date night, but to also meet up with
a buddy and grab beers. That it was very eye
opening for me, because what I found was that I
could no longer I did, no longer have the excuse
to say, well, I don't.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Have the time.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
It's like, no, no, no, I've proved to myself that I've
that I do now have time. And granted there's always
things that come up, right, They're like they're the unaccounted
for random quasi emergencies that our weeks are full.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Of those things.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
But I don't know, I found that to be incredibly helpful.
And it's not like I actually stick to that today, right,
It's not like I'm looking at my week and I'm
accounting for every fifteen minute block. But it does help
me to say that, oh, you know, I do in
fact have the ability to make some of these different
activities a priority if they actually are important to me.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, So just thinking about how this might work, So
you put in like when you need to work to
run your business, like when you're hanging out with your kids,
when you have childcare responsibilities, when you are doing your housework,
the other things you want to do, and then let's
say you see Tuesday night after eight pm is still
you're just hanging out, right, You could say like, well,
that's the night I could go out with a friend
(20:28):
if I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Exactly Yeah, that's that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
And so I mean it's I don't know, maybe it's
similar to block scheduling, but the ability to have these
events on there. And what's cool about Google Calendar at
least when it feeds into two Apple's calendar.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
That's so that's how we do it. I've got my
Gmail calendars and they feed into iCal or calendar or whatever.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
But sometimes when I was feeling a little discouraged, I
could reach over and turn that calendar on and it
would overlay what I could in fact be doing with
my time. Instead of feeling like I don't have any
enough time in the week, it was like literal proof
that I did in fact have that time.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I love this idea of creating a realistic, ideal week.
So it's still, you know, you're not quitting your job.
You're not like suddenly able to fly. I mean it,
it's life as it is, but life showing you at
your best and what could see.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yes, it was within the confines of the current responsibilities
that I had. It's just oh, look, there's a whole
lot of nooks and crannies here where there's whole lot
of wasted time, like an English.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Muffin line englush muffin. Yes, time is one giant English
muffon sometimes, so Joel, we always talk in this show
about little ways we have taken our days from great
to awesome. I wonder if you have done anything recently
that has made one of your days more awesome.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
The thing that has changed my days in our families
days the most is eradicating screens and TV Monday through Thursday,
all day every day. And part of that is one
for me, I don't even think about it, But then
my kids have stopped asking about it, and it's that
sort of pestering thing that sometimes kids here you're like, no,
(22:08):
I don't think we're gonna do it today, whereas like
now the rule is like no, we're we're not doing
it at all, And so then they don't even ask
the question anymore. And it even just reduces the amount
of TV we watch on the weekend evenings too, and
so Friday night Pizza movie night, we're watching something every
Friday night typically, but we just watch a whole lot
less TV in general. It's kind of made it so
(22:29):
much easier to relate to my kids when it comes
to like how we're talking about that stuff. And yeah,
I watch so much less TV than I even used to.
So I think eliminiting TV during the weekdays has been
the way to take all those days, make them instead
of great, being awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
And what are your kids kind of doing to entertain
themselves during their downtime, because I think that's what a
lot of families stumble ever is like. Well, especially these
days as it's getting dark in the evening after school.
I mean, my kids get home and it's like dark
thirty minutes.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
No, it is the hardest of this time of year.
But like last night, truly, the girls put on roller
skates and we're out in the driveway roller skating, even
in the dark. Like we get the floodlight on and
we're having a great time just because like we know,
we got to find something else to do. Or they
have started to play maybe with some of the toys
that got neglected for a little while, the ones you
bought for Christmas exactly exactly, and so yeah, for the
(23:23):
first week or something, you hear a lot of cries
of I'm bored, I don't know what to do, but quickly.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
They figured it out.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
They'll get a friend from down the street, or they
end up playing with each other. They kind of they
come up with the most cute and interesting games, but
it's because they're forced to be creative instead of just
turning a.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Screen on excellent Matt, how about you.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
I will sort of dovetail into what I was saying,
maybe about taking time at the end of the year
to kind of look back at the previous year, especially
with a partner. So I will say that on a
daily basis, my wife and I we try to go
for a fifteen to twenty minute walk after dinner while
the kids clear the table and clean up and start
to get ready for bed. It's just a way for
(24:03):
us to have some adult, grown up conversation, to be
able to step away from the kids, and honestly to
have like some parenting conversations sometimes too, because I feel
like meal time can oftentimes it's just so difficult sometimes
and so it's like, all right, how did that go?
Should we have done something differently in that instance? And
so that's something that we've pretty much always done. But
(24:24):
lately every Sunday we have taken a hike, like we
go for about a one hour hike, and it's real
similar to what we do on a daily basis, except
for we're doing it for the week. We kind of
talk about, all right, we just had a busy week,
let's unpack some things. If there's any tension like boiling
under the surface, maybe it allows us. It gives us
(24:44):
time to discuss that allows us to do something together
where we're both hiking up this mountain, which is a
ton of fun that we both enjoy, but then also
to start the week on the right foot as well,
where we're looking ahead and we're able to kind of
reconnect and maybe we're not even planning right. Sometimes it
is planning and talking through some of the schedule as
we're hiking, but sometimes it's is just sharing how we
(25:05):
feel about something or so it's just a great connection
point from a relational standpoint with my wife and I
and at least for us in this stage of life.
Our oldest is eleven, and we feel the freedom to
do that because she's getting to the age where, oh
my gosh, I'm realizing there's this whole wow, this is
a we're graduating to like a different level. It's it's
(25:26):
completely changed the game, and we're realizing that we have
the the autonomy to be able to do some of this,
and so we're taking advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And man, it's been such a sweet time.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
For us to strengthen our relationship and ultimately do a
better job as parents as.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Well, and also get out of having to do the
dis He makes the kids do it.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, I know that's even better, this dividend of the
kids getting old enough like to do stuff and to
watch each other. I mean, when I realized I had
like three live in babysitters all of a sudden, I
was like, Wow, I'm it makes life sore.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Was like, I'm going to write another book. Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I well, or even I can go to the grocery
store and I'm not like, Okay, where is everybody? Are
they all in the car? All that good stuff?
Speaker 5 (26:10):
All right?
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Well, guys, this has been great. Thank you so much
for joining us. Everyone be sure to check out Joel
and Matt on How To Money, which airs multiple times
a week also through iHeartMedia. Thank you to everyone for listening.
If you have feedback about this or about other episodes,
I would love to hear it. You can always reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com and in
(26:32):
the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening
to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
(27:00):
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Before Breakfast News
Host
Laura Vanderkam
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