May 29, 2020 • 20 mins
Friday episodes are all about the week’s news and the effects of Covid-19 on your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we are distilling it down to specific takeaways that will allow you to not just weather this health and financial crisis, but to thrive. In this episode we cover a lot of interesting topics like Netflix cancelling subscriptions, the high price folks pay for delivery apps, and AI and customer service. We also spend some time on the most affordable used cars today and where you can buy them, as well as whether or not the work office is dead now that so many of us are working from home.
And as we’ve ramped up the podcast with an additional Friday episode every week, we could really use your help to spread the word- let friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to spread the word to get more people doing smart things with their money in these difficult times!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I and Matt.
Today we're discussing affordable used cars and the future of
office life. Hey man, I guess what school is out? Also,
(00:28):
it's kind of almost felt like it's been out for
two months. It's officially out. Yeah, but school has been
out for a week, even though it hasn't looked that
much different than our day to day lives over the
past several months. But I think it has changed the
dynamic a little bit. And it is kind of nice
that summer's actually here, at least for us down here
in the Southeast. And I know it's school system to
school system, county by county kind of right now of
wind schools wrapping up and yeah, but it's nice. It's
(00:50):
nice to have it done. I feel like we're doing
more outside exploring because oh, no zoom calls for the kids. Well,
all schools are out by Memorial Day, right, No, I
don't think so. Really, Yeah, schools are gonna take a
long weekend, like right before the schools are out for good. Yeah,
it sure does seem like Memorial Day should be the Yeah,
it should always be the cut off. If it's not,
it should be if we ran the world, you know,
that's what would happen, or a school system, which also
(01:13):
probably should not happen. We barely know how to run
this podcast, Matt, so maybe we'll stick to that. But
all right, let's get onto kind of some of the
stories that we want to tackle today on the podcast.
We're gonna call them round up of stories that we're
tackling on Friday shows the Friday Flight for now at
least t and uh. It's basically a quick sampling of
a bunch of different stories that we found interesting and
our goal is to show how the current events actually
(01:35):
impact all of our wallets as individuals. Right well, and
the reason we're calling it the Friday Flight is because
we had to have a little beer tie in, right
And if you go to a brewery, typically you get
a flight of beers. It's a little sampling of you know,
maybe four to six beers whatever, just a few ounces,
but it allows you to get a taste of it
without you having to commit all in to one specific beer.
(01:56):
And so that's why we're calling this the Friday Flight,
because it allows us to touch on several little stories
that we think are important. Yeah, yeah, exactly, So I
love the name. Love that we're gonna be able to
tackle a lot of different information on these Friday episodes,
even though on Friday episodes that's the only episode that
we don't share a beer, which is kind of a bummer. Well, yeah,
but we have enough beer in our lives, that is true. So,
first story up, Netflix is automatically going to be canceling
(02:19):
inactive subscriptions. How cool is that, Matt, Right, that's easy
money for the giant streaming provider. So to see them
proactively canceling accounts and cutting off that income stream for
themselves in order to put money back in consumers pockets,
I think it is admirable. I've never heard of any
other company doing the upstanding thing and canceling a subscription
that's inactive, where where no one's logged into the count
they've actually used the service for a year or two.
(02:40):
Those typically are the most lucrative. Those are the customers
that you want, right, the people that completely forgot that
they were paying that monthly bill. Yeah, I think it's
super cool. First of all, I think it's interesting whenever
a company does something completely different than what all the
other similar companies are doing. Uh So that in and
of itself is interesting to me. But the fact that
it happens to also be something that is better for us.
This is in our own best interest, and so does
(03:03):
it actually make Netflix a fiduciary because they're you know,
they're doing what is better for our personal finances. I
love that. And the way it works is that if
you've created an account with Netflix and you've never watched anything,
you'll get a cancelation notice within a year. But if
you have watched videos and you know, TV on Netflix,
then it'll be two years before you get that cancelation notice.
(03:23):
I think in an era where we all are probably
subscribed to too many things, this is a breath of
fresh corporate air. Yeah. And I think too, it's important
for people to note if they do have, like you said,
probably a lot of reoccurring subscriptions that they've forgotten about.
Come through your credit card statement and and see what
sort of subscriptions that you do have their active and
you're like, oh, man, I haven't used that in a
(03:44):
long time. Oh I still have that showing up on
my doorstep. Yeah, I don't really care about that anymore.
It's a perfect reminder that we should be canceling our
own subscriptions that we're not using anymore. But if you forget,
in the case of Netflix, at least they're gonna do
you a solid if you if you haven't logged in
quite a bit. About another interesting thing I saw this week.
I think we've all seen a few awkward advertisements at
(04:05):
this point in the lockdown in quarantine. And there was
an interesting article in Slate. There was another one in
The New York Times, kind of covering what we're all thinking,
at least to a certain degree, that some of the
ads we're seeing on TV and streaming services right now,
they've they've gotten just a little bit weird, right, They're
definitely not normal. And companies, I think are doing their
best to speak to the moment right there, saying things
like we're all in this together, or they're touting their
(04:27):
increased cleaning procedures. Some of those things are helpful to
know the whole handwatching things like wait, you should always
be washing your hands, you know. I washed my hands
for a half hour though now, so yeah, And and
the zoom call humor seems to be a current favorite
too for a lot of brands. And I gotta say
I might be ready to go back to normal, every
day crummy brand ads. It's interesting to see how these
(04:48):
companies are trying to at least speak to the moment
and do something a little different. And I understand the
necessity of it, but I think, you know, most of
us have noticed that ads have gotten a lot more awkward.
It's kind of tough to hit that right note in
advertising these days. Yeah, there definitely have been some some
big misses. I'll say that, but I don't know. Maybe
it's because of my history, like my past being in
the advertising industry, But to me, like they're not all
(05:09):
that awkward, Like they are a reflection of just the
world we live in, which is I think maybe why
it does feel weird. It's not what we're used to seeing,
and I think we're already for this to basically I'll
be over right, And so when we see it sort
of reflected back to us on TV via these ads,
especially television ads, that's what feels weird, right, But the
way I see it, advertising is typically a reflection of society,
(05:31):
and so they use that to communicate a message to us,
or you know, just to convince us to buy their stuff,
which is often the case but when we do see
something on there that isn't what we want to see,
that's when it feels awkward, right, because it's just like, oh,
I don't want that to be my life. It makes
it feel that it's maybe more permanent than we want
it to be. I think that's what feels weird about
it to me. To me, that's the craziest part is
(05:52):
when we start asking the questions of how long is
this is actually going to be impacting us? Uh, to
where it's just kind of normal and we see an
advertisements like that. But but yeah, I mean that was
a pretty funny article. Another article we came across was
one that was on food delivery apps. A lot of
us are familiar with Postmates, grub Hub, but they can
take a really big piece of the pie when it
comes to the total cost, right uh. Local restaurants, they're
(06:14):
starting to kick them to the curb. Those delivery apps
are booming right now though, as more folks are opting
for home delivery. But those apps do take a giant
cut of the individual restaurant bottom lines. You know, when
this was only a small portion of restaurant revenue. Partnering
with these apps made a lot of sense for the
different restaurants, but with take out being the sole income
producer right now, though a lot of restaurants are creating
(06:34):
their own online order taking in delivery systems to cut
out that expensive middleman. Yeah, mat out of necessity. Restaurants
have basically had to do this because what between ten
and thirty of the amount that you're spending is going
to the delivery apps like Uber eats or grub hub
or whatever. And so yeah, restaurants have to fight back,
and they have to to claud back that money by
(06:54):
by enabling you to order directly through them via their website.
So I would say, look to order directly from your
favorite restaurant instead, so that they will get all of
that money, even if they are on one of those
apps which which make it easy, and maybe go pick
it up instead of opting for delivery. I know, sometimes
that can save the restaurant's money too. Well, yeah, that's
the biggest cost, right, the fact that it's delivered to you, which, dude,
(07:15):
I've never really understood the the delivery apps, you know,
like especially with folks working from home, Like, aren't folks
looking for an opportunity to get out of their house
and do something. And it's a pretty safe activity to
pick up you know, take out food. Absolutely, it's just
a change of scenery at the very least. I know
for me as someone who's worked from home for over
ten years, like having something different to do to kind
of break up the day is you know, welcomed, and
(07:37):
so I think hopping in the car or even better,
getting on your bike and just biking there to pick
up your food. Man, in my mind, that's way better
than going with the food delivery service. I'm with you, man,
I've never gotten on board either. I mean, it's simple,
it's easy, that's why people do it, But the cost
is prohibitive for the restaurants and for you it it
adds in a lot of a lot of extra costs
to your takeout order if you choose to get it delivered. Yeah,
(07:58):
Like it just seems like it's solving a problem that
isn't a real problem. Like certainly there are some individuals
who might be homebound, right and it's like a true
service that they need. But for everyone else, I feel
like it's just they're out of convenience. It's like, oh,
I've got the SAP on my phone, let me just
browse the food. Oh there's food at my door. Cool,
you know exactly. It's like the digital equivalent of kind
of like going to your fridge and just like opening
the door and staring at it for a little bit
(08:20):
like kids like to do. Let me too sometimes. But yeah,
and on the restaurant note, Matt as well, COVID searcharges
are kind of becoming more and more common, and that's
because two of lower profits and increased costs of running
a business. Right now, you might see many prices increasing,
or you might actually even see a line item on
your bill that reflects this need for an additional fee
(08:41):
right now. It might even be called a COVID fee
or a coronavirus fee. And other small businesses are facing
similar issues of being able to serve fewer customers at
a time, increased cleaning costs, stuff like that. So if
you see one of those line items, it's okay to
ask about it. But also know that a lot of
businesses have to raise their prices right now because of
the pandemic and because of how difficult it's been to
(09:03):
actually continue to do business and function like normal. Yeah,
these higher prices and search charges, man like it is
for additional work involved right with maintaining clean spaces and
the cost of protective equipment and cleaning supplies. I saw
in an article that there's a dentist in New York City.
He estimates that his costs have risen between twenty five
and fifty dollars per patient visit because of the equipment
(09:23):
he now uses. And here's the thing too, I think
these higher costs are not just okay, but like good
and necessary, right, Like I want to see businesses taking
the precautions and the steps necessary to make sure that
their employees and obviously customers as well, that they're safe.
The other thing, though, is I think these higher costs
will also kind of challenge the idea that, you know,
as consumers, that we should always be able to get
(09:43):
what we want for less money. I think the natural
outcome here is that we're gonna maybe end up consuming less,
which I see is as a good thing versus just
mass consumption because things are cheap and easy, you know.
I think you make a good point, and if it
makes us think, do a double take and think about
our spending and makes a be a little more thoughtful,
I think that's a good thing. I mean so there
was something else too that was the fascinating me This week.
(10:04):
I was reading about chatbots and artificial intelligence and how
so many businesses are having to resort to that for
customer service instead of traditional call centers because a lot
of those call centers are closed right now, And can
anyone really be mad about that? Like how much easier
it is it to use a chatpot anyway than to
call customer service line? Right? And typically I feel like
you get better customer service that way. I just use
(10:26):
a chatpot this morning and it was great. So, yeah,
what would you call? So it was Amazon on something
we talked about, the Prime membership refund. I finally reached
out to them and I was like, hey, I need
some of my money back because of the delays and shipment,
and they gave me. They dropped me twenty bucks. I
know some some of our listeners have gotten even more,
but I only got twenty still worth a call, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(10:46):
not too bad. And I think we are going to
see this becoming the norm, right as as as AI
becomes more ubiquitous and technology improves, just like a lot
of companies are investing big money into work from home
software right now. The same as happening for companies whose
call centers have been temper early shut down. So I
would say expect to see more and more chatbots as
your main interface, your main way to be able to
get customer service from the companies you do business with. JEL,
(11:07):
you mentioned, you know, these offices being temporarily shut down,
like some of these office closures may not be temporary,
you know, like these jobs for those might morph into
actual formal layoffs. Uh. And even as things continue to
improve from a health standpoint, like the economic impacts are
going to be with us for a long time and
a I and chatbots, you know, they're gonna be a
way for call centers to reduce costs. Since paying humans
(11:29):
is way more expensive than software. These organizations, they're gonna
continue to feel the pressure to keep their operations lean
and expenses low, and you know, utilizing technology is a
way to accomplish that. And I think this is only
going to continue to be the case too as this
technology improves and we're not even aware that we're talking
to a computer. This technology has advanced so much that
it really does sound like we're talking to a person.
(11:50):
It's it's better than talking to the digital assistance on
our phones and in our modules at home. I won't
say their names that way, they don't activate if you're
listening to this a loud But yeah, that technology has
gotten so good. Yeah, it's true. It'll be interesting to
see what what the long term effects on call centers
are as this technology improves. And of course something like
coronavirus is just going to rapidly accelerate shifts that were
(12:13):
already in place that we're already going to happen, but
it just wasted up the timeline. It seems like so
on that notemat of things being sped up. It brings
up an interesting question, is the physical office dead? And
are people actually going to go back to workplaces in
the near future? And that's something on a lot of
people's minds. Let's tackle of that and then get to
following used car prices right after the break. All right,
(12:41):
so we're back from the break and we're talking about
the future of work. You know, we're asking the question
is the physical office dead? Like will workers need to
actually commute in the future or are we all going
to be working from home? Twitter they recently made it
possible for employees to work from home Forever. The same
for employees of Square and you know they make the
really great cash. Same CEO for both companies, by the way,
(13:01):
Oh yeah, yeah, you can see some parallels and how
he's running both of those companies. Right. Companies all across
the country are rethinking how much office space that they'll
need or whether or not they need needed at all.
You know, like Alphabet or you know, the parent company
of Google. They have backed out of tons of deals
to get massive amounts of office space, like millions of
square feet, and so that additional space, that's something that
they are not pursuing, at least for the time being.
(13:24):
And Matt, I know you were just talking to a
buddy ours who works in a big commercial real estate firm,
and a lot of people have been predicting the demise
of commercial real estate because of this. So yeah, what
was your conversation like with him and what's your take
on that? Yeah? Man, a friend of ours, David, he
works for this massive commercial real estate firm and he's
part of like the research division. So this is you
know what he breathes and lives every single day. He's
always looking at the future. Yeah, yeah, seriously, But in
(13:47):
his company they believe that the immediate need for commercial
space will roughly stay the same because a lot of
folks are gonna want to get back into the office
after working from home since they kind of miss out
on the collaboration you know that takes place there. So
a couple of at with the need for offices to
become less dense, you know, with more space between workstations,
this should roughly keep things where they are. But man,
(14:08):
what we're seeing though long term is, you know, what
it looks like to go back to work has changed
for a lot of companies as they're being forced to
implement new policies and how employees, how they're learning how
to effectively work from home. That's a really good point.
I hadn't really thought about commercial real estate that as
workers come back in, you do actually require more space
because people are going to feel comfortable working on top
(14:29):
of each other, maybe like they were in an open
office environment just a few months ago. And so yeah,
I can see actually companies needing a little bit more space,
or at least even if they have that flexible work
from home, they're gonna at the same time probably have
to limit how many people can come into the office.
When the office does reopen, and they're going to spread
people out, So yeah, maybe they will continue to use
all that space even though they're not craming as many
(14:51):
people into that space. But of course we'll keep following
kind of what's going to happen with the office environment
and how that impacts all of us and all of
our work labs in the coming months. But amount another
thing we really need to talk about is that used
car prices have gone down quite a bit. Sales in
April were down almost thirty five and prices plummeted roughly
twelve percent. But from all indications, this seems to be
like a temporary effect that was mostly due to the shutdown.
(15:14):
And of course it makes sense that when there's a
global health and economic crisis, most people aren't looking to
go out and drop fifteen thousand bucks in a local
used car lot. But now that the initial shock of
the pandemic is kind of behind us, it's important to
note that used car prices have gone down, and if
you're looking to score a new to you used vehicle,
well you might want to take advantage of the low
prices right now. These used car discounts are not gonna
(15:35):
last forever. But they are in this really interesting sweet
spot where prices have gone down a good bit for
people who are in the market for for a newer
used car. Yeah, in general, used cars are almost always
going to be the best bet for folks who are
looking to to save money when they're looking for a
new to them vehicle. This shift, and really, you know,
the volatility in this pricing makes shopping around even more
important in order to make sure that you're scoring a
(15:56):
good price. You don't want to overpay. You don't want
to pay januaries rate for or you know a vehicle
that you're now purchasing in May. So when the prices
are really volatile like that, make sure that you're aware
of what the going rates are. And don't forget too
to have that use car inspected by a mechanic before
you make that purchase. That seventy five bucks I could
save you a massive amount of money. Um, and you
(16:16):
know the headaches as well. Uh, skipping that step on
that front end, that would definitely be an example of
being cheap not frugal. I completely agree man, that money
is totally worth it, because yea buying a car that
has a lot of issues man, how much of a
pain is that over time? Not to mention the money
and cost. It makes me think of inspections that we
get on our houses before we buy them, right, Like,
that's just a mandatory standard process of purchasing a home.
(16:36):
But I mean vehicles obviously they're not as expensive as homes,
but they're pretty day expensive. But it's just not a
step that most of us take, and it's definitely something
we need to implement. Yeah, completely. And there was actually
a study recently done about the increase in used car affordability.
This website I see cars dot com. They curren to
the numbers on over six million used cars that were
sold in the past several months, and they found out
(16:57):
what makes and models are experiencing the biggest price to
fines and therefore the best deal for you. Right So,
they have a list of the best affordable used cars
that will link to in the show notes. But if
you want to know real quick, the best used cars
for under ten thousand bucks Honda Civic eleven, Honda Accord,
and the two thousand twelve Chevy Impala. Nice Well, I
was surprised to see that Toyota wasn't in the top
(17:19):
three you know, I think maybe Toyota has created too
good of a name for itself and it's kind of
driven the price up a little bit, whereas maybe Honda
is a little undervalued. Yeah yeah, And I was surprised
to see that too. And it turns out, yeah, that
that's in particular for some reason, is Civic. The prices
have gone way down and it is on the list
of most affordable used cars at the same time. So
that's a good car for people to look at if
that works for how you drive, and then you might
(17:40):
be wondering where to look if you are in the
market for use car, well, if you're winning something that's
maybe virtually new, you can get a good discount with
the car rental company like Hurts, Avis or Enterprise, as
they regularly sell cars in their fleets. With so many
fear folks traveling these days, these companies have taken a
serious hit. You know, nobody is running a car in
last Friday. Hurts they actually filed for bankruptcy and experts
(18:03):
in the industry they are expecting them to sell off
a huge portion of its fleet. But if you do
go that route, definitely make sure to not skip the
mechanic if you're gonna, you know, purchase the vehicle straight
from a rental company. Yeah, we all know how we've
handled rental cars in the past, and you know, it
hasn't always been beautiful. It hasn't always been pretty. People
tend to drive rental cars a little more aggressively than
they drive their own vehicles, right, Yeah, man, Unfortunately that's true. Yeah,
(18:25):
so you can't take extra caution when you're buying one
of those. But if you're looking at other places for
to buy a used car, CarMax and Carbona are just
awesome if you want pretty new used cars. And I
have a feeling companies like those with delivery services are
gonna fare even better. Right now. The way Carbonna and
Carmacks bring the car to you, it's just such a wonderful,
pleasant experience. I think people are super up for that,
(18:45):
even more so now in today's age. But just folks
don't want to have to do the handshake, you know.
I think when you expect to go to like a
car lot or somewhere in person we're going to buy
a car, you feel that a handshake should be part
of the deal. No longer, no more. I think we
have to accept that that doesn't necessarily need to be
a part of the transaction anymore, just a nice little
signature here and there, say thank you and get out
of there. Yeah. And if you're looking for even cheaper
(19:05):
use cars, right, which Matt, you and I are totally
up for, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are still two of
the top places for people to go to to search
for used cars that are even cheaper, because why trop
twenty or twenty five thousand dollars for a used car
when you can get something really solid for under ten
thousand bucks. Just like that, I see cars list explains
there are great cars for under ten thousand bucks that
(19:26):
you can buy, and those are the kind of cars
that car Max and carbon It just don't typically specialize in.
So if you're looking for something less expensive that works
for how you drive, Craigslist and Facebook marketplaces or two
places to go to search. Man, that makes me think
of the need to eventually have multiple vehicles in our
own personal families fleets. You know, as our kids get older.
We've got a lot of kids between us, between you guys,
between us. If you're looking at ten thousand dollar vehicles,
(19:47):
that's a lot of money. It's tied up and depreciating
assets sitting out on the street. I think things are
gonna change so much though, and from between now and
when our kids are actually getting ready to drive on
the road one, I don't even know if they're gonna
want to drive, And then too, I think they're gonna
be so many other options, including who knows self driving
cars in the next ten years. Are they going to
get good enough to where our kids are just literally
(20:07):
calling a self driving car to pick them up and
take them where they want to go. I could totally
see that as our future. That would be like the
new subscription model. You're you pay to be a part
of the service, and it gets you access to wheels
whenever you want it, so many miles a month via
your smartphone or watch or whatever people are really into. Then, man,
things are things are changing quick. And I wouldn't necessarily
call call us visionaries. I don't think we can be
considered futurists, but maybe those are some light predictions from US. YEP,
(20:29):
self driving in the next ten years. I'm gonna say
it's definitely on the table. All right, Well, man, that's
gonna be it for this episode. We'll we'll put our
show notes up on the website at how to money
dot com. Our buddy until next time. Best friends out,
Best Friends Out,
Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I and Matt.
Today we're discussing affordable used cars and the future of
office life. Hey man, I guess what school is out? Also,
(00:28):
it's kind of almost felt like it's been out for
two months. It's officially out. Yeah, but school has been
out for a week, even though it hasn't looked that
much different than our day to day lives over the
past several months. But I think it has changed the
dynamic a little bit. And it is kind of nice
that summer's actually here, at least for us down here
in the Southeast. And I know it's school system to
school system, county by county kind of right now of
wind schools wrapping up and yeah, but it's nice. It's
(00:50):
nice to have it done. I feel like we're doing
more outside exploring because oh, no zoom calls for the kids. Well,
all schools are out by Memorial Day, right, No, I
don't think so. Really, Yeah, schools are gonna take a
long weekend, like right before the schools are out for good. Yeah,
it sure does seem like Memorial Day should be the Yeah,
it should always be the cut off. If it's not,
it should be if we ran the world, you know,
that's what would happen, or a school system, which also
(01:13):
probably should not happen. We barely know how to run
this podcast, Matt, so maybe we'll stick to that. But
all right, let's get onto kind of some of the
stories that we want to tackle today on the podcast.
We're gonna call them round up of stories that we're
tackling on Friday shows the Friday Flight for now at
least t and uh. It's basically a quick sampling of
a bunch of different stories that we found interesting and
our goal is to show how the current events actually
(01:35):
impact all of our wallets as individuals. Right well, and
the reason we're calling it the Friday Flight is because
we had to have a little beer tie in, right
And if you go to a brewery, typically you get
a flight of beers. It's a little sampling of you know,
maybe four to six beers whatever, just a few ounces,
but it allows you to get a taste of it
without you having to commit all in to one specific beer.
(01:56):
And so that's why we're calling this the Friday Flight,
because it allows us to touch on several little stories
that we think are important. Yeah, yeah, exactly, So I
love the name. Love that we're gonna be able to
tackle a lot of different information on these Friday episodes,
even though on Friday episodes that's the only episode that
we don't share a beer, which is kind of a bummer. Well, yeah,
but we have enough beer in our lives, that is true. So,
first story up, Netflix is automatically going to be canceling
(02:19):
inactive subscriptions. How cool is that, Matt, Right, that's easy
money for the giant streaming provider. So to see them
proactively canceling accounts and cutting off that income stream for
themselves in order to put money back in consumers pockets,
I think it is admirable. I've never heard of any
other company doing the upstanding thing and canceling a subscription
that's inactive, where where no one's logged into the count
they've actually used the service for a year or two.
(02:40):
Those typically are the most lucrative. Those are the customers
that you want, right, the people that completely forgot that
they were paying that monthly bill. Yeah, I think it's
super cool. First of all, I think it's interesting whenever
a company does something completely different than what all the
other similar companies are doing. Uh So that in and
of itself is interesting to me. But the fact that
it happens to also be something that is better for us.
This is in our own best interest, and so does
(03:03):
it actually make Netflix a fiduciary because they're you know,
they're doing what is better for our personal finances. I
love that. And the way it works is that if
you've created an account with Netflix and you've never watched anything,
you'll get a cancelation notice within a year. But if
you have watched videos and you know, TV on Netflix,
then it'll be two years before you get that cancelation notice.
(03:23):
I think in an era where we all are probably
subscribed to too many things, this is a breath of
fresh corporate air. Yeah. And I think too, it's important
for people to note if they do have, like you said,
probably a lot of reoccurring subscriptions that they've forgotten about.
Come through your credit card statement and and see what
sort of subscriptions that you do have their active and
you're like, oh, man, I haven't used that in a
(03:44):
long time. Oh I still have that showing up on
my doorstep. Yeah, I don't really care about that anymore.
It's a perfect reminder that we should be canceling our
own subscriptions that we're not using anymore. But if you forget,
in the case of Netflix, at least they're gonna do
you a solid if you if you haven't logged in
quite a bit. About another interesting thing I saw this week.
I think we've all seen a few awkward advertisements at
(04:05):
this point in the lockdown in quarantine. And there was
an interesting article in Slate. There was another one in
The New York Times, kind of covering what we're all thinking,
at least to a certain degree, that some of the
ads we're seeing on TV and streaming services right now,
they've they've gotten just a little bit weird, right, They're
definitely not normal. And companies, I think are doing their
best to speak to the moment right there, saying things
like we're all in this together, or they're touting their
(04:27):
increased cleaning procedures. Some of those things are helpful to
know the whole handwatching things like wait, you should always
be washing your hands, you know. I washed my hands
for a half hour though now, so yeah, And and
the zoom call humor seems to be a current favorite
too for a lot of brands. And I gotta say
I might be ready to go back to normal, every
day crummy brand ads. It's interesting to see how these
(04:48):
companies are trying to at least speak to the moment
and do something a little different. And I understand the
necessity of it, but I think, you know, most of
us have noticed that ads have gotten a lot more awkward.
It's kind of tough to hit that right note in
advertising these days. Yeah, there definitely have been some some
big misses. I'll say that, but I don't know. Maybe
it's because of my history, like my past being in
the advertising industry, But to me, like they're not all
(05:09):
that awkward, Like they are a reflection of just the
world we live in, which is I think maybe why
it does feel weird. It's not what we're used to seeing,
and I think we're already for this to basically I'll
be over right, And so when we see it sort
of reflected back to us on TV via these ads,
especially television ads, that's what feels weird, right, But the
way I see it, advertising is typically a reflection of society,
(05:31):
and so they use that to communicate a message to us,
or you know, just to convince us to buy their stuff,
which is often the case but when we do see
something on there that isn't what we want to see,
that's when it feels awkward, right, because it's just like, oh,
I don't want that to be my life. It makes
it feel that it's maybe more permanent than we want
it to be. I think that's what feels weird about
it to me. To me, that's the craziest part is
(05:52):
when we start asking the questions of how long is
this is actually going to be impacting us? Uh, to
where it's just kind of normal and we see an
advertisements like that. But but yeah, I mean that was
a pretty funny article. Another article we came across was
one that was on food delivery apps. A lot of
us are familiar with Postmates, grub Hub, but they can
take a really big piece of the pie when it
comes to the total cost, right uh. Local restaurants, they're
(06:14):
starting to kick them to the curb. Those delivery apps
are booming right now though, as more folks are opting
for home delivery. But those apps do take a giant
cut of the individual restaurant bottom lines. You know, when
this was only a small portion of restaurant revenue. Partnering
with these apps made a lot of sense for the
different restaurants, but with take out being the sole income
producer right now, though a lot of restaurants are creating
(06:34):
their own online order taking in delivery systems to cut
out that expensive middleman. Yeah, mat out of necessity. Restaurants
have basically had to do this because what between ten
and thirty of the amount that you're spending is going
to the delivery apps like Uber eats or grub hub
or whatever. And so yeah, restaurants have to fight back,
and they have to to claud back that money by
(06:54):
by enabling you to order directly through them via their website.
So I would say, look to order directly from your
favorite restaurant instead, so that they will get all of
that money, even if they are on one of those
apps which which make it easy, and maybe go pick
it up instead of opting for delivery. I know, sometimes
that can save the restaurant's money too. Well, yeah, that's
the biggest cost, right, the fact that it's delivered to you, which, dude,
(07:15):
I've never really understood the the delivery apps, you know,
like especially with folks working from home, Like, aren't folks
looking for an opportunity to get out of their house
and do something. And it's a pretty safe activity to
pick up you know, take out food. Absolutely, it's just
a change of scenery at the very least. I know
for me as someone who's worked from home for over
ten years, like having something different to do to kind
of break up the day is you know, welcomed, and
(07:37):
so I think hopping in the car or even better,
getting on your bike and just biking there to pick
up your food. Man, in my mind, that's way better
than going with the food delivery service. I'm with you, man,
I've never gotten on board either. I mean, it's simple,
it's easy, that's why people do it, But the cost
is prohibitive for the restaurants and for you it it
adds in a lot of a lot of extra costs
to your takeout order if you choose to get it delivered. Yeah,
(07:58):
Like it just seems like it's solving a problem that
isn't a real problem. Like certainly there are some individuals
who might be homebound, right and it's like a true
service that they need. But for everyone else, I feel
like it's just they're out of convenience. It's like, oh,
I've got the SAP on my phone, let me just
browse the food. Oh there's food at my door. Cool,
you know exactly. It's like the digital equivalent of kind
of like going to your fridge and just like opening
the door and staring at it for a little bit
(08:20):
like kids like to do. Let me too sometimes. But yeah,
and on the restaurant note, Matt as well, COVID searcharges
are kind of becoming more and more common, and that's
because two of lower profits and increased costs of running
a business. Right now, you might see many prices increasing,
or you might actually even see a line item on
your bill that reflects this need for an additional fee
(08:41):
right now. It might even be called a COVID fee
or a coronavirus fee. And other small businesses are facing
similar issues of being able to serve fewer customers at
a time, increased cleaning costs, stuff like that. So if
you see one of those line items, it's okay to
ask about it. But also know that a lot of
businesses have to raise their prices right now because of
the pandemic and because of how difficult it's been to
(09:03):
actually continue to do business and function like normal. Yeah,
these higher prices and search charges, man like it is
for additional work involved right with maintaining clean spaces and
the cost of protective equipment and cleaning supplies. I saw
in an article that there's a dentist in New York City.
He estimates that his costs have risen between twenty five
and fifty dollars per patient visit because of the equipment
(09:23):
he now uses. And here's the thing too, I think
these higher costs are not just okay, but like good
and necessary, right, Like I want to see businesses taking
the precautions and the steps necessary to make sure that
their employees and obviously customers as well, that they're safe.
The other thing, though, is I think these higher costs
will also kind of challenge the idea that, you know,
as consumers, that we should always be able to get
(09:43):
what we want for less money. I think the natural
outcome here is that we're gonna maybe end up consuming less,
which I see is as a good thing versus just
mass consumption because things are cheap and easy, you know.
I think you make a good point, and if it
makes us think, do a double take and think about
our spending and makes a be a little more thoughtful,
I think that's a good thing. I mean so there
was something else too that was the fascinating me This week.
(10:04):
I was reading about chatbots and artificial intelligence and how
so many businesses are having to resort to that for
customer service instead of traditional call centers because a lot
of those call centers are closed right now, And can
anyone really be mad about that? Like how much easier
it is it to use a chatpot anyway than to
call customer service line? Right? And typically I feel like
you get better customer service that way. I just use
(10:26):
a chatpot this morning and it was great. So, yeah,
what would you call? So it was Amazon on something
we talked about, the Prime membership refund. I finally reached
out to them and I was like, hey, I need
some of my money back because of the delays and shipment,
and they gave me. They dropped me twenty bucks. I
know some some of our listeners have gotten even more,
but I only got twenty still worth a call, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(10:46):
not too bad. And I think we are going to
see this becoming the norm, right as as as AI
becomes more ubiquitous and technology improves, just like a lot
of companies are investing big money into work from home
software right now. The same as happening for companies whose
call centers have been temper early shut down. So I
would say expect to see more and more chatbots as
your main interface, your main way to be able to
get customer service from the companies you do business with. JEL,
(11:07):
you mentioned, you know, these offices being temporarily shut down,
like some of these office closures may not be temporary,
you know, like these jobs for those might morph into
actual formal layoffs. Uh. And even as things continue to
improve from a health standpoint, like the economic impacts are
going to be with us for a long time and
a I and chatbots, you know, they're gonna be a
way for call centers to reduce costs. Since paying humans
(11:29):
is way more expensive than software. These organizations, they're gonna
continue to feel the pressure to keep their operations lean
and expenses low, and you know, utilizing technology is a
way to accomplish that. And I think this is only
going to continue to be the case too as this
technology improves and we're not even aware that we're talking
to a computer. This technology has advanced so much that
it really does sound like we're talking to a person.
(11:50):
It's it's better than talking to the digital assistance on
our phones and in our modules at home. I won't
say their names that way, they don't activate if you're
listening to this a loud But yeah, that technology has
gotten so good. Yeah, it's true. It'll be interesting to
see what what the long term effects on call centers
are as this technology improves. And of course something like
coronavirus is just going to rapidly accelerate shifts that were
(12:13):
already in place that we're already going to happen, but
it just wasted up the timeline. It seems like so
on that notemat of things being sped up. It brings
up an interesting question, is the physical office dead? And
are people actually going to go back to workplaces in
the near future? And that's something on a lot of
people's minds. Let's tackle of that and then get to
following used car prices right after the break. All right,
(12:41):
so we're back from the break and we're talking about
the future of work. You know, we're asking the question
is the physical office dead? Like will workers need to
actually commute in the future or are we all going
to be working from home? Twitter they recently made it
possible for employees to work from home Forever. The same
for employees of Square and you know they make the
really great cash. Same CEO for both companies, by the way,
(13:01):
Oh yeah, yeah, you can see some parallels and how
he's running both of those companies. Right. Companies all across
the country are rethinking how much office space that they'll
need or whether or not they need needed at all.
You know, like Alphabet or you know, the parent company
of Google. They have backed out of tons of deals
to get massive amounts of office space, like millions of
square feet, and so that additional space, that's something that
they are not pursuing, at least for the time being.
(13:24):
And Matt, I know you were just talking to a
buddy ours who works in a big commercial real estate firm,
and a lot of people have been predicting the demise
of commercial real estate because of this. So yeah, what
was your conversation like with him and what's your take
on that? Yeah? Man, a friend of ours, David, he
works for this massive commercial real estate firm and he's
part of like the research division. So this is you
know what he breathes and lives every single day. He's
always looking at the future. Yeah, yeah, seriously, But in
(13:47):
his company they believe that the immediate need for commercial
space will roughly stay the same because a lot of
folks are gonna want to get back into the office
after working from home since they kind of miss out
on the collaboration you know that takes place there. So
a couple of at with the need for offices to
become less dense, you know, with more space between workstations,
this should roughly keep things where they are. But man,
(14:08):
what we're seeing though long term is, you know, what
it looks like to go back to work has changed
for a lot of companies as they're being forced to
implement new policies and how employees, how they're learning how
to effectively work from home. That's a really good point.
I hadn't really thought about commercial real estate that as
workers come back in, you do actually require more space
because people are going to feel comfortable working on top
(14:29):
of each other, maybe like they were in an open
office environment just a few months ago. And so yeah,
I can see actually companies needing a little bit more space,
or at least even if they have that flexible work
from home, they're gonna at the same time probably have
to limit how many people can come into the office.
When the office does reopen, and they're going to spread
people out, So yeah, maybe they will continue to use
all that space even though they're not craming as many
(14:51):
people into that space. But of course we'll keep following
kind of what's going to happen with the office environment
and how that impacts all of us and all of
our work labs in the coming months. But amount another
thing we really need to talk about is that used
car prices have gone down quite a bit. Sales in
April were down almost thirty five and prices plummeted roughly
twelve percent. But from all indications, this seems to be
like a temporary effect that was mostly due to the shutdown.
(15:14):
And of course it makes sense that when there's a
global health and economic crisis, most people aren't looking to
go out and drop fifteen thousand bucks in a local
used car lot. But now that the initial shock of
the pandemic is kind of behind us, it's important to
note that used car prices have gone down, and if
you're looking to score a new to you used vehicle,
well you might want to take advantage of the low
prices right now. These used car discounts are not gonna
(15:35):
last forever. But they are in this really interesting sweet
spot where prices have gone down a good bit for
people who are in the market for for a newer
used car. Yeah, in general, used cars are almost always
going to be the best bet for folks who are
looking to to save money when they're looking for a
new to them vehicle. This shift, and really, you know,
the volatility in this pricing makes shopping around even more
important in order to make sure that you're scoring a
(15:56):
good price. You don't want to overpay. You don't want
to pay januaries rate for or you know a vehicle
that you're now purchasing in May. So when the prices
are really volatile like that, make sure that you're aware
of what the going rates are. And don't forget too
to have that use car inspected by a mechanic before
you make that purchase. That seventy five bucks I could
save you a massive amount of money. Um, and you
(16:16):
know the headaches as well. Uh, skipping that step on
that front end, that would definitely be an example of
being cheap not frugal. I completely agree man, that money
is totally worth it, because yea buying a car that
has a lot of issues man, how much of a
pain is that over time? Not to mention the money
and cost. It makes me think of inspections that we
get on our houses before we buy them, right, Like,
that's just a mandatory standard process of purchasing a home.
(16:36):
But I mean vehicles obviously they're not as expensive as homes,
but they're pretty day expensive. But it's just not a
step that most of us take, and it's definitely something
we need to implement. Yeah, completely. And there was actually
a study recently done about the increase in used car affordability.
This website I see cars dot com. They curren to
the numbers on over six million used cars that were
sold in the past several months, and they found out
(16:57):
what makes and models are experiencing the biggest price to
fines and therefore the best deal for you. Right So,
they have a list of the best affordable used cars
that will link to in the show notes. But if
you want to know real quick, the best used cars
for under ten thousand bucks Honda Civic eleven, Honda Accord,
and the two thousand twelve Chevy Impala. Nice Well, I
was surprised to see that Toyota wasn't in the top
(17:19):
three you know, I think maybe Toyota has created too
good of a name for itself and it's kind of
driven the price up a little bit, whereas maybe Honda
is a little undervalued. Yeah yeah, And I was surprised
to see that too. And it turns out, yeah, that
that's in particular for some reason, is Civic. The prices
have gone way down and it is on the list
of most affordable used cars at the same time. So
that's a good car for people to look at if
that works for how you drive, and then you might
(17:40):
be wondering where to look if you are in the
market for use car, well, if you're winning something that's
maybe virtually new, you can get a good discount with
the car rental company like Hurts, Avis or Enterprise, as
they regularly sell cars in their fleets. With so many
fear folks traveling these days, these companies have taken a
serious hit. You know, nobody is running a car in
last Friday. Hurts they actually filed for bankruptcy and experts
(18:03):
in the industry they are expecting them to sell off
a huge portion of its fleet. But if you do
go that route, definitely make sure to not skip the
mechanic if you're gonna, you know, purchase the vehicle straight
from a rental company. Yeah, we all know how we've
handled rental cars in the past, and you know, it
hasn't always been beautiful. It hasn't always been pretty. People
tend to drive rental cars a little more aggressively than
they drive their own vehicles, right, Yeah, man, Unfortunately that's true. Yeah,
(18:25):
so you can't take extra caution when you're buying one
of those. But if you're looking at other places for
to buy a used car, CarMax and Carbona are just
awesome if you want pretty new used cars. And I
have a feeling companies like those with delivery services are
gonna fare even better. Right now. The way Carbonna and
Carmacks bring the car to you, it's just such a wonderful,
pleasant experience. I think people are super up for that,
(18:45):
even more so now in today's age. But just folks
don't want to have to do the handshake, you know.
I think when you expect to go to like a
car lot or somewhere in person we're going to buy
a car, you feel that a handshake should be part
of the deal. No longer, no more. I think we
have to accept that that doesn't necessarily need to be
a part of the transaction anymore, just a nice little
signature here and there, say thank you and get out
of there. Yeah. And if you're looking for even cheaper
(19:05):
use cars, right, which Matt, you and I are totally
up for, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are still two of
the top places for people to go to to search
for used cars that are even cheaper, because why trop
twenty or twenty five thousand dollars for a used car
when you can get something really solid for under ten
thousand bucks. Just like that, I see cars list explains
there are great cars for under ten thousand bucks that
(19:26):
you can buy, and those are the kind of cars
that car Max and carbon It just don't typically specialize in.
So if you're looking for something less expensive that works
for how you drive, Craigslist and Facebook marketplaces or two
places to go to search. Man, that makes me think
of the need to eventually have multiple vehicles in our
own personal families fleets. You know, as our kids get older.
We've got a lot of kids between us, between you guys,
between us. If you're looking at ten thousand dollar vehicles,
(19:47):
that's a lot of money. It's tied up and depreciating
assets sitting out on the street. I think things are
gonna change so much though, and from between now and
when our kids are actually getting ready to drive on
the road one, I don't even know if they're gonna
want to drive, And then too, I think they're gonna
be so many other options, including who knows self driving
cars in the next ten years. Are they going to
get good enough to where our kids are just literally
(20:07):
calling a self driving car to pick them up and
take them where they want to go. I could totally
see that as our future. That would be like the
new subscription model. You're you pay to be a part
of the service, and it gets you access to wheels
whenever you want it, so many miles a month via
your smartphone or watch or whatever people are really into. Then, man,
things are things are changing quick. And I wouldn't necessarily
call call us visionaries. I don't think we can be
considered futurists, but maybe those are some light predictions from US. YEP,
(20:29):
self driving in the next ten years. I'm gonna say
it's definitely on the table. All right, Well, man, that's
gonna be it for this episode. We'll we'll put our
show notes up on the website at how to money
dot com. Our buddy until next time. Best friends out,
Best Friends Out,
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