Subtle Marketing Maneuvers That Stymie Your Money Momentum #560

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel I in that
and today we're discussing subtle marketing maneuvers that stymy your
money momentum. Yeah, sometimes we can be silly here on

(00:28):
the show. We were going for nothing, but m's muck
up your money moment. Can see minute marketing maneuvers that,
uh yeah, it wasn't muck up. That was the one
we're considering next time. We decided to not be so
self deprecating in the titles of the episode that we
are presenting to you, so that hopefully you will listen
to this episode and that will allow you to make
some smarter moves with your money. We're talking all about

(00:50):
consumption during this episode, at power of advertising at play
in how we choose to consume. Like we like to
think that we are in control of our own destiny,
and that is true in so many way, but there
are a lot of subtle influences that are that are
causing us at the margins to make moves that would
part us from from our from the money we've saved
it could go to better use. And we're gonna talk
about those those subtle ways and then how to come out,

(01:12):
you know, that's right man. Okay, So before we get
to that, I've got a frugal, a good frugal cheap here,
I think for you bring it. Okay, a little bit
of news. I've been I joined a gym, I guess
several weeks ago. Now, I've been working out. We probably
talked about that maybe on some other episode. But I've
been going before work, which means you're Goldberg like trappoids
popping out. Not quite not yet at least. Uh No,
I don't think I'm gonna get end. I'm looking anything

(01:33):
like that. But I am getting stronger, I'll say that.
But I go before work, which means that I get
real hot and sweaty while I am working out. But
luckily the gym they've got showers, so that's really awesome.
I'm able to go in there. Uh rinse off, get
the sweat offs. I'm not all sticky and stinky when
I show up here to work in our little what
we call the clubhouse. How the money. It's not a

(01:54):
global headquarters, it's a clubhouse. Um. But this is where
the frugal or cheap question comes in. When I go
into these showers and these are public showers, you know,
showers for the guys in the gym. There are soaps
like shampoos, conditioners, body washes in all of the stalls,
like there are multiple bottles of different soap that people

(02:14):
that members have left there. I thought it was like
the gym that was providing them for you. So they
also have so they've got can I get the cumber melon? Guys,
They've got little things attached to the wall, like the
basic whatever. But there's also all of these other kinds
as well. And so I see these and I think, sweets,
this is a way for me to try out some
different since some different flavors botny wash. And I mentioned

(02:36):
this that Kate and she looked at me with the
old any of the old spice bottles. They do smell
really nice. But I mentioned this to Kate and she
she was like horse Drake. She's like, by no means,
should you be using other people's soap? Are you kidding me?
And I thought, are you serious? Like these are bottles
of soap that are left out. I mean it's not
like they're uh, they're not like locked in someone's locker

(02:58):
and I'm taking them out and I'm using them in
the shower. Their names on them, no names or nothing
on them. Yeah, if even if there wasn't someone's name
written on them, I would think, Okay, I'm not gonna
mess with him. Somebody is laying claimed like the right
to property. That's something that I uphold you, all right.
Uh And so my question for you if there are
bottles of different soap out in the shower, are those

(03:18):
bottles up for grabs? Do I have free rain to
use them? I'm gonna say now, I say, oh my gosh,
I was totally thinking that you were going to be
on my side. Go grab go, grab your bottle one
dollar bottle of Suave at the grocery store bringing in
and and start using that, or if you, like you said, well,
just maybe it's something there's gym provided. Yeah, yeah, it's
it's like they're attaching the wall. Well, there's also some

(03:39):
nice ones down there. I'm like, oh, I wonder what
that smells like. I want to give it a shot,
because Kate has always bought the one dollar bottles of
the Suave, and I've recently thought, you know, what what
if I had a smell Like what if every time
I got out of the shower. It's like Daddy smell
like dad, Oh, that's daddy smell. You know, like maybe
some sandal would like something like that. I don't know.
Away I'm gonna say now you should probably get like, yeah,

(04:00):
you're saying I'm being cheap. I feel that if they
are out, they're they're up for grabs, They're they're free game.
It would be different obviously if I was taking them home.
Oh that's super cheap, because I think people are leaving
them there. It's like, all right, yeah, whoever wants to
give it a shot, have at it. I don't know
what the gym ethos is or the you know, it's
how people treat it. It's so communal. Like even there's
like a whole section of lockers that aren't like they're

(04:21):
not locked up. They're just kind of like these boxes.
And of course I'm not gonna help myself to somebody
else's like shoes or like like if they have like
a bottle of water there or something like that. But
it is a little more. Is that a phone? All right? Sweet?
Free upgrade? It is not the case. I don't know
in my mind, if you do not want somebody else
it was I forgot mine and you took a pump,

(04:43):
that'd be one thing. But if you're like, I'm just
gonna test everybody sense and like and train them. That's
That's what I'm doing. I'm just I'm trying them out.
That's probably cheap, and some of them I see them like, yeah,
that doesn't I don't think I want to try that one.
You have so much hair now, I can don't know
how much I don't. I actually I don't wash my hair.
I just rinsed my whole the rest of my body.
Don't touch the hair. That's too much work. Okay, I

(05:04):
say that for at home. Yeah, your hair is like
as long as Draco mouth boys, dads. It's getting like
Fabio Fabio, like the Fabio hair and the bod. Pretty soon.
We should do like a wind tunnel photo shoot with you,
show our listeners. Let's do it all right, Well, um
so yeah, I think it'd being cheap, but we can
move on. I can't believe it you're gonna decide. I
can't believe it's not butter alright, letten on, let's mention

(05:26):
the beer. It's not about to spray. Remember when they
had the spray so gety margin true classic classic nineties
and add that sticks in our minds, by the way,
which is nice. Let's move on, let's talk about ads
and marketing maneuvers. It's time of your money momentum. But quickly.
The beer having on the show is called Nordic Jam.
It's by Two Pictures Brewing. Since I am a Nordic
beast myself, man, I thought this beer would be perfect

(05:48):
of the show. Well, I'm looking forward to at least enjoying.
I don't know if I agree with the beast part.
You could have some of these Viking vibes that are
going on here. If I grew my hair out along
like you, I would look like this guy on the can.
But I am looking forward to enjoying this one. We'll
talk about it at the end of the episode for sure.
So when we're talking about marketing, basically, how something is
portrayed can just have this major impact on how we

(06:11):
perceive it. And Matt, as we were discussing how to
kind of begin this episode, it made me think of
how my wife can tell me something and it doesn't
always register the same way that it might when somebody
else does. Like she might have been given me great
advice for a number of years and I'm like, yeah,
that's okay, I get you, I hear you. But then

(06:31):
I end up hanging out with a friend having a
beer and for some reason it strikes me differently and
they tell me the same advice. I'm sure Emily loves this. Yes,
she never gets it, never gets annoyed. Great for your relationship, right,
So it feels like, you know, suddenly I can see
it in a new light, this advice, because the messenger
and the context are a little bit different. I'm human,
I'm an idiot, and yes, she hates that. I'm basically

(06:54):
impervious to her advice at times, but other people I
so willingly accept it. But the reality is that are subconscious.
It often responds to a different to that different contexts
are setting and in particularly when we're talking marketing tactics, right,
we we tend to think that we're impervious to them,
that maybe our brains are a lock box and impenetrable
fortress that these advertisers are going to be able to

(07:16):
get beyond. But none of us are as rational as
we think we are, and those marketing tricks they often
nudge just to buy things we don't need and to
spend money we hadn't planned on parting with. So yeah,
today's episodes all about those tactics. We're going to kind
of confront a bunch of them and talk about how
you can respond to them in order to help quash
maybe the impact that marketing tends to have on us.

(07:37):
It's right yet, how it is that these messages are
presented to us can have a big impact on what
actions we actually take, whether that's you giving Emily credit
for an idea, or whether that's us buying something that
we don't really need. I literally tell her like I
had this epiphany, but I had this conversation. Should be
like I've been telling you that for years or year,
so sorry, I love it. But here's you know, this
shouldn't come as a shock, right, because there is this

(07:59):
entire industry that's dedicated to figuring out how to extract
the most amount of money from us and on you know,
on top of marketers and on top of advertisers, you've
got individual companies and they're all out there trying to
maximize the profits as well. They're working hard to ensure
that the messaging and the ads and and the just
generally speaking, the way their brand or their product is communicated,
you know, like that it's going to get you to

(08:20):
support them by buying their stuff. Uh, and that product
or service. It might be helpful, right, Like you might
opt to spend your hard earned dollars on purpose, but
if you're anything like the average American, you'd likely hit undo,
you know, on a bunch of different purchases that you've
made in order to have that cash back in your life. Yeah,
we can all, I'm sure if we just look even

(08:42):
at our Amazon purchase history. Um, but even just the
things hanging out in our closet or in our drawers
or in in the garage, like we could find things
we're like, Yep, that was a bad purchase. Yep, that
was spur of the moment. Yep, I heard this great
pitch and it caused me to buy something that I
didn't need. And now I've used it once, And that
money is often spent spur of the moment, right like

(09:03):
that add on Instagram or before your favorite show on Hulu.
You could just prompt you to do something that's not
in your best long term financial interest. And it's it's
why athletes watch tape on their opponents, right to get
familiar with their their opponents natural tendencies so they can
exploit them on the field, Like we want to kind
of do the same thing with this episode. We want

(09:23):
to be able to see the tendencies that marketers have,
how they're trying to part us for our money, so
that we can avoid them in the future. Because the
more you can recognize the ways in which companies are
trying to pry that money out of your hands, the
more likely you're going to be able to say no,
allowing you to keep that money in your pocket and
spend it the way you have pretty determined, not in
the way they want you to. Yeah, and so part

(09:45):
of the solution here is going to necessitate having some
bigger goals for your money as well. When you know
what your money is doing for you and how does
that you're building more solid financial footing is going to
be easier to breathe by. It's not care you know
that the that the newest electronic gadget or or clothing
atom won't be in your possession. It's a whole lot
easier to not let those marketing tactics impact your decision making.

(10:09):
And once again this comes down to the why find
your money? We've got a free downloadable PDF that will
help you to kind of hone in on that will
link to that in the show notes. But having that
forest view of where your head is going to help
you to realize that those those little indiscretions are gonna,
you know, prevent you from making the progress that you're
aiming for. It's helpful to not only say no to

(10:31):
all the things that we are pelted with in our lives,
it's helpful to be able to say yes to things,
the things that we identify are going to be goals
within our lives. You don't want to just be like
the no no no guy. You also want to be
able to say like no, no no, because yes, I
am trying to do this thing. Yeah exactly. That that
helps influence and I think strengthens your resolved to say
no to things that aren't going to help you move

(10:53):
in the direction you want to go. And the interesting
thing to me, Matt, is that it's often the most
unscrupulous companies that use the most intense language to get
you to buy their products. Right if you, if you've
ever had a friend join like a multi level marketing company,
you know what I'm talking about. Uh, not only did
they start pitching you ridiculously hard. They also start talking

(11:15):
to you differently, trying to get you to maybe sign
up and join them and make a lot of money
under underneath their wing inside this m l M corporate.
We we did an episode, by the way, on m
l m's back in the day, forget the number. We
can look that one up and link to that one
as well, if there was a fun one, because they
are they're just bad, bad news bears all the way around.
And don't mention a certain life company because they are

(11:38):
not an MLM. But we had mentioned them. Uh they were,
that we did, but we weren't saying that that's what
they were. And I'm not even gonna say the name
of the company, but they were just uh tangential to
the conversations. Yeah. Well, but but m l m's are bad,
and anybody who's trying to get you to join an
m l M automatically by proxy, they're bad. No, they're

(11:58):
not bad. They're just they're duped, their brain washed. And
the reality is that that some of the best companies
out there they don't have to advertise like MLMs. They
feel like they need to beat you over the head
in order to get you to buy their products. But
some of the best companies in the world they don't
use some of these cute marketing phrases because they're not
running advertisements in the first place. Like Costco, for instance,
doesn't advertise ever why they don't need to word of

(12:21):
mouth get some far enough because they solid Trader Joe's
Krispy Kreme. They follow similar ad free models. The hot
and now light is all you really need for Krispy Creme.
You don't need some sort of pre roll add on
a podcast in order to be um to remind you
of how delicious those exactly. That's all you need is
is that pavlogs dog you of the light going on

(12:41):
and then you're like boom, I'm ready. Yeah, literally we
got this past weekend, we went to Krispy Creme. The
girls had a pretty solid week at school, and we're like,
you know what, let's just Saturday morning, we'll get well,
got to Krispy Creme. We'll get a little treat for
I went with the three girls. It just standing there
and being able to see through the window and watching
those donuts come off the conveyor and like circle around
and as I'm saying this, you're like, you know the sugary, watering, soft,

(13:03):
yeasty goodness that is a crispy cream donut. Yeah, like
you don't. Yeah, it's oftentimes the memories that you have
because you know how delicious and superior that product is
over any dunkin donut style cake donut. I mean, that's
for sure you're preaching the choir here. But what we're
talking about here our emotions, right, because the reality is
that marketers in many cases are attempting to inspire a feeling,

(13:24):
uh and so often times there's less of a hard
cell and the pushes to make you come away from
maybe a billboard or a streaming ad with a different
kind of feeling. Like coke, for instance, Like they don't
tell you much about the product in the ads that
they run. They're not going to tell you about the
high fruit disc corn syrup or everything else, the different coloring.
Did you know one twelve ounce can represents your daily sugar?
And to talk about like the number of grams of

(13:46):
caffeine that this coke is gonna be drinking too late
at night you won't be able to go to sleep.
Like they're not telling you that stuff. Instead they are
showing like the cool people doing fun things with a
coke in their hands. McDonald's like they're doing something similar,
and then they add that I'm loving it. Uh. Did
he at the end of the other commercial justin Timberlake
help write that? Is that true? Well? He performed it
like he performed the original one. I forget who who

(14:07):
wrote it. I guess that Little Diddy sells a lot
of Big Max. Yeah, it does. Uh. And by doing that,
they're able to elicit this emotional reaction from you. It's
the same thing with with publics in their holiday commercials
and always make you feel a certain way stop in public.
So when you like, when you recognize that this is
what they're they're doing to you, you you know that they're
trying to pull these emotional strings. It's like it's it's

(14:29):
like peeking behind the Wizard of Oz curtain helps to
remove that power that they previously held over you. Yeah.
I agree. There's something about being like, ah, I see
what you're doing here, whereas before paying no attention to like,
no I do it doesn't make me feel good to
see in those hands and well it wouldn't I be cool?
Or if I just grabbed a coke. But when you
realize they're pulling on the nostalgia hart strings and some
of those emotional techniques in order to get you to

(14:50):
purchase something, you're like, wait, wait, no more of that.
I see what you're up to. And so, Matt, let's
talk about what we're going to cover, in particular, a
bunch of different phrases, specific phrases that marketers use in
order to pry us from from our money in order
to stym me our money momentum, as we said. And
the first one is keeping your family safe. So uh

(15:10):
and and basically this is this is one of the
phrases that you're gonna hear by marketers across the board
trying to sell you something. And sometimes, you know, it
will also be said like this will help you protect
your loved ones. And I guess it makes me wonder, well,
were you safe before you have this product? Where you
worried about your safety before you heard this advertisement? Or
you know, maybe this is a marketing gimmick to instill

(15:32):
a sense of fear in you, right, causing you to
make the purchase that you otherwise wouldn't have. It makes
me think of cars today, Matt, and how there's so
much safer than they work like fifty years ago. And
according to the Bureau of Transportation, back in the sixties,
there were more than five fatalities per hundred million miles driven,
whereas today where at one. So cut in a in

(15:54):
a big way. Cars are more than five times safer today,
largely due to improvements mandated in the seventies and eight
is like seatbelts, headrests, and adding a third break light.
But safety is still just this major marketing message that
car manufacturers are touting to the public to get them
to upgrade to something safer, because maybe what you're in
right now is not protecting your family the way that
it should. And if you would only upgrade and spend

(16:16):
fifty on this new vehicle he signed up for that
monthly payment for seven years of seven fifty dollars a month,
you too, could be safe and you would adequately show
that you love your family, even something as simple as
uh like Christian radio, Matt, and I've flipped through the
air and I hear and they're like safe for the
whole family? Was my family not safe before I turned
the station on? Like I don't think so, Like I

(16:37):
think if it as just like a crappy marketing technique
that's almost trying to create a sense of fear so
that you stick around for the solution that they're trying
to provide. Totally. Yeah, So I think one of the
biggest solutions here is to realize, like, like we just
mentioned that oftentimes companies and advertisers, they are praying on
your emotions to make a sale. Uh And sometimes they're
explicitly calling out safety, but other times I think it

(16:59):
can be like the softer all, you know, like it's
just baked into their messaging, like sort of like you
were saying before, like we were talking about coke. It's
not that they're explicitly stating that like do this and
you're cool, but it's just super subtle. It's in the background.
Or maybe it's not coolness, but it's these other things
that are trying to sell you these other emotions, and
rather than making an emotional decision based out of fear,

(17:19):
instead we want you to just basically look at like
the data and the facts. You know, we were just
talking about cars. Uh So in that example, that means
realizing that cars haven't got much safer over the past decade,
over the past ten years compared to like thirty or
forty years ago. Right, Tire pressure monitoring and backup cameras
are definitely nice, sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean that

(17:40):
you are driving a car that's much much safer than
the one that's just a little, you know, a few
years older than it. Um And it's okay to buy
a newer car, right, We're we're not against you buying
newer or nicer things. We just don't want you to
commence yourself that you're doing it in order to primarily
keep your family safe. If you're letting those subtle marketing
influences of making you say, for making your family safer,

(18:01):
insite that fear so that they can create some sort
of expensive resolution, then we would say you're being taken
advantage by marketers. Well, Matt, we've got a munch more
of these marketing slogans we want to get to, and
we'll discuss like where they pop up and how you
can avoid buying into them. We'll talk about more of
the most insidious ones right after this we are back

(18:30):
from the break, and as we are talking about these
different marketing maneuvers, essentially like a way that you can
think about what we're talking about today. It's almost as
if the marketers, the advertisers out there, all the different companies,
they're essentially giving us a list of different excuses that
we can choose from to help justify us spending more
money that we can feel less guilty about our decision
to make that upgrade, to buy something that we don't

(18:52):
necessarily need. And they're saying, here, we'll make it so
you can explain it to your spouse, share your partner,
or yourself. Even exactly, it's it's self justification for the
behavior when we know there are things, we know there
are expenses that we shouldn't be making. Uh, it's like
we just that way. At the end of the month,
you could say I busted my budget, but it was
for a good reason. It's justifiable. Exactly. We just talked
about fear. Another one is peace of mind, because if

(19:15):
if a company is selling you peace of mind, may
and they can sell you almost anything. Our lives they
can be hectic, and the promise of a product that's
gonna be able to provide some respite that they'll take
important tasks off our plate, that often is going to
go a long way for us. Um but what's the
reality here, You know, like, do you typically get the
peace of mind that you're seeking by buying something? Not often,
or if you do, like that peace of mind, it

(19:37):
might come at a substantial COSTU. And there's often a
better solution that's gonna be far cheaper. And he's the
one that I'm thinking of here is credit monitoring. And
keep in mind that it's oftentimes it's called credit moderate monitoring.
Not because uh, they're gonna be able to solve all
of your problems for you or keep someone from stealing
your your identity and opening accounts in the first place. No, no, no,

(19:57):
they're just gonna let you know when nothing happens. But
you think by just having that service, by having that subscription,
they got my back, They're they're keeping in It feels
like someone's on your side, when in fact that's not
what they do. Uh. And instead, the cheaper or free
alternative here is just to freeze your credit or even
if you don't want to free your credit, you can
create an account with somebody like credit Carma or even

(20:18):
your your credit card companies will send you little updates
if your your your credit score goes up or down.
I've been seeing that recently with American Express, it seems
like it's almost every week now that I get a little,
a short, little email from them that's like, hey, your
credit score has increased again, or oh hey it has decreased.
I'm like, all right, what's that all about? And I
dive in there. But there are ways for you to
d I Wyatt basically where you can do it yourself

(20:39):
without paying that premium every month. Yeah, for sure. I
think hum alarms are another one of those that we
should be a little more thoughtful about because it can
be really expensive. I mean a lot of people pay
fifty bucks a month or maybe even more for for
a home alarm system. That's six hundred bucks a year.
And it's all under the guys of having that peace
of mind so that just in case something happens, like
we've at your back and it's being monitored and granted

(21:02):
there are there are a lot of way cheaper ways
to do that. By home alarms are like a double
way because they've got the fear going keep your family safe, yeah,
and let's buy some peace of mind and it would
at least Fortunately, a lot of cheaper alternatives are going
along simply safe as one of those it's fifteen bucks
a month, and and you can kind of self install
and or there's other ways even that you can buy
a couple of pieces of equipment and kind of self monitor.

(21:22):
That's what we have is just a couple of cameras
that came with the house, and we're like, to my app,
it cost me zero dollars a month, but I can
at least kind of keep an eyeso stuff if I
want to. But I think those kind of, um, if
you want a monitored alarm, like do it as cheaply
as possible. They're a great was to ring even has
a great product for that. But I guess some people
just take that peace of mind, they take it so

(21:43):
far and they pay for they pay the hundreds of
dollars up front for installation, and then they sign it
through through your contract to pay something like fifty or
sixty bucks a month for for that home alarm monitoring
when that is just completely unnecessary. What is that piece
of mind worth to you? Yes, that that's how they're
sort of praying, not only on that fear, but just
on that I guess insecurity or just unsure, like it's

(22:04):
it's almost as if we need to be better at
calculating the odds of something of something terrible happening right exactly,
and and even aside from like alarm systems, even something
as simple as one of those plates that you put
on the door jam because oftentimes they're just like where
they kicked the door in, right, it's like that extended
kick plate that really makes it almost impossible to kicks impossible. Like,

(22:24):
just get one of those. Drop Like I don't like
strike Master. That's what the sixty bucks, eighty bucks maybe for,
like the taller ones. Just get one of those. And
because it's one thing to have your house monitored, which
I don't know, that's always kind of bugged me because
it's like, well, I guess that's handy if you're like
traveling in Europe for three months or something like that.
It's like, okay, it's good to know if somebody broke
into your house last week, But like, I'm more concerned

(22:47):
about in the moment, or like, I'm more interested in
keeping someone out completely. And so for that reason, I
am much more likely to be interested in just installing
one of those plates than just watching somebody break into
my house. Well, that's also why Dug A moat around
your house and put crocodiles in it, right and spikes. Yes,
so movie traps. Yeah, nobody really attempt to go to
Matt's house. Okay, you don't want to do that, you

(23:08):
want to mess with him? Well, I mean, what about
car warranties and extended warranties on different products the same thing.
It's a piece of mind, and it's it's kind of like, well, hey,
if that expensive purchase ends up crapping out, you're gonna
have some recourse, which means you don't have to fret
and you're not just gonna be out a bunch of
money if the and the kind of classified as inevitable

(23:29):
thing happens, like this thing is not gonna last forever,
and you want to make sure you're insured against this,
which sounds nice, except for the peace of mind in
this instance is is again typically quite expensive. We can
say that that having money in the bank to be
able to handle that broken down car or a busted television,
that's how you have peace of mind. Right, Having more
money in the bank self insuring helps this pitch maybe

(23:52):
fall on deaf ears as as someone who is trying
to avoid the marketers. If you realize what they're selling.
They're trying to sell you peace of mind. But you say,
you know what, I've got the peace of mind because
I have the cash in the bank. I don't need
what you're selling. That just makes it so much easier
to resist that pitch in the moment. That's right, man.
Another marketing maneuver that's worth getting to here is one

(24:13):
that we've all heard before, which is it's going to
save you money. And if we're proud to fall for
any of them, this is the one. This is probably
the case because this pitch is probably likely registers with
a lot of our listeners. We're always looking to save
a few bucks. Uh, And if there's an item and
it's going to promise to help us in our money
saving mission, we should probably perk up and maybe pounce.
But ironically enough, I feel like this is likely going

(24:35):
to be successful only if that product actually forces you
to consume less. So for instance, I'm thinking of like
low float showerheads, or like led light bulbs, like some
of those will dryer balls right that you throw in
the dryer to help speed along your clothes drying. Which
is interesting. You mentioned all those things, and I'm like,
I don't really see advertisements for those things. Those are
all things though that you buy that do do, and

(24:57):
you might say it on the packaging or something like that.
But those things, typic really sell themselves because people because
they understand it benefits and because they actually work less
because they're being sold to you. That's under this guy exactly.
But what makes these products successful though, is the fact
that you're basically already participating in the action that's gonna
where it's gonna save you money. Like, no matter what,
you're going to take a shower, like you're gonna turn
on the lights at your house, You're you're most likely

(25:18):
gonna use your clothes dryer, so it's like it's really
a default way to save money. But like what, I'm
more suspicious of our products that claim to save you money.
But it's a behavior or it's an activity that you're
not used to doing right or that you're just not
committed to. Makes me think of like instant pots. Everyone's like,
oh yeah, instant pot craze six years ago. Whatever is Uh,

(25:40):
it saves a lot of time. You're gonna be cooking
more meals at home, so it's gonna save you a
ton of money. Well, that's great if you're someone who
likes to cook at home, because if that's not something
that you do. If if you're buying this item or
like a bread machine, where it's just oh yeah, hey,
you don't have to buy bread anymore, it's like, well
do you like bread even to begin with? Like is
this something that you do? Because if it's, are you
gonna follow through? Because many through neglected breadmakers are there

(26:03):
in the kitchens of America millions. I guarantee you millions
of unused breadmakers, like they haven't gotten used for at
least a year, probably five are sitting there people's cabinets.
It's fun for a little bit for for a while,
but fell off of the wagon because it just wasn't
something that they were interested in. They weren't committed to it.
And it's difficult to buy a product that's going to

(26:24):
cause you to completely change your behavior. And that's assuming
that's something that you want to do, right, Like you
might see the breadmaker and think, well, I want to
make more bread. I would love like I would love
to have the smell of fresh baked bread and my
home just like those ready now, DON'TU Krispy cream, but
they don't actually follow through. Man, if we had a
crispy cream machine where you could make your that wouldn't

(26:44):
save me money. That just made me fat. Yeah, But
I mean there there's just so many products like this
that make me that that thing that like they're trying
to sell you on a behavior. It's it's not that
you can't just buy the product. They are basically in
order for this product to work, you have to participate
in the behavior that people may or may not be
into you. I mean, it's it's certainly possible, right that
a company could end up saving you money, making something

(27:05):
else in your life redundant, and then allowing you to
curb other expenses that you might now have hanging around.
But it's important to question the premise, like how exactly
are you gonna do this? What actions do I have
to change in my own life to make sure that
this promise actually comes to fruition? And you definitely make
sure to avoid the trap of thinking that you're saving
money just because it's on sale. That's another thing. It's like,

(27:25):
come over here, we're gonna save you money, Like for instance,
Black Friday, Right, that's always going to save so much money?
This weekend, because it's like price, how much money will
I actually have my accounts? After you have less? I'm
just gonna have more crap. Is is typically how it
turns out. So that's one of those things like if
it's going to save you money, those promises might have
a tinge of accuracy to them, but typically we're being

(27:48):
sold a bill of goods and we can't. It's it
doesn't always end up that way, and and actually most
of the time it ends up costing us money that
we can't afford to spend. We have high hopes, but
the reality is oftentimes don't change our ways. We just
it's easier to buy stuff than it is to change
our behavior. I guess that's that's the core of what
I'm getting. Oh man, I think actually, sometimes Matt, we
buy things in hopes that it will change our behavior

(28:10):
even though it doesn't wesition exactly. It's like the breadmaker,
it's like, oh, I'm going to be the home chef.
Now It's like, no, you're not maybe thinking that that's
who you're gonna be. But buying stuff doesn't change who
you just like buying a piece of workout equipment and
saying like this is going to cause me to get fit.
It's like, how committed are you there? Because the person
who's like, no, this is gonna be something I'm gonna do. Uh,

(28:31):
it could be some of the best money they've ever
spent in their entire life. But I could save them
money from actually getting a gym membership if if they're
actually going to use the piece of equipment that they
purchased to be at their house. But if you buy
a bike aspirationally hoping it's going to get you out
on two wheels, that doesn't mean it's actually going to
do that. But if it does, more power to you,
like if it does exactly Yeah, I totally agree. Man, Okay,

(28:53):
how about another one? Cancel or unsubscribe anytime because that
sounds nice, right. It feels like that there is an
easy way to get out. It's like no harm, no foul,
Like how you can't hurt me, got nothing to lose.
You can cancel at any time, like it's a breeze.
But the reason that marketers use this tactic is because
a huge percentage of folks don't actually cancel before the
free trials. Over forty percent of folks, according to credit

(29:15):
Cards Dot com they have. They put out a survey
forty percent of folks. Nearly half of folks admitted to
being charged for at least one month after forgetting to
cancel up subscription. This is something I've totally done. But
that's why you should take this marketing pitch with a
grain of salt. And if you do opt to try
something out because you've got a free introductory period, put

(29:37):
the cancelation reminder on your calendar and set it up
with alerts. I feel like I'm getting better at that,
where like I often will put things on the counter
the day before, by the way, but don't put on
the day Yeah, that's true. But the alert I found
I have found for me helps tremendously because the chances
that you're gonna remember on your own are slimmed and none. Uh.
And read over your credit card statement as well, because

(29:58):
if you know where your money is going, then you're
gonna be less likely to allow this to compound month
after month, at the very least, if you even if
you're every month and you're like, wait a second, oh,
I see this every month? Am I spending money somewhere?
I don't know. I have no idea where my money
is like I'm using this thing, you're more prone to
take action. If if we were to do that, the
number of folks who are paying for a subscription they

(30:19):
don't want or need anymore would go down dramatically if
we all actually tracked our expenses. And another reason too
that we would suggest for folks just to avoid this
falling into this trap is because we we we like
to go down the path of least resistance, right, we
want certain things in our lives, and so we might
click the button for the free trial, we might enter
in our credit card information. But then once that things
on like that recurring building cycle. Man, it is easy

(30:41):
to allow that charge to continue to remain because basically
we like we are wired to follow the path of
least resistance. No wonder people want to just like get
their foot in the door, right those marketers, they know
they're like, listen, i'll give you a week, I'll give
you a month for free. We know why because you're
not going to cancel when it's over saint thing with
like the mattress companies like on this thing for ten

(31:03):
years and it's like it's like, well, who's actually gonna
go through the trouble probably not gonna people. Actually ten
years might be at the end of the life cycle,
so people probably would take advantage of it then. But
like they'll, I don't know, hundred nights, hundred nights sleep
for free whatever on the mattress. But folks aren't doing
that because they've broken the bed in that's their bed,
that's right, exactly. And so that that is a there's
a big thing to watch out for. The unsubscribe anytime.

(31:24):
It's like it sounds good, but we're liable to sign
up for something we have no interest in and then
be paying for it without realizing it. And so Matt
one other marketing technique we have to talk about is
the buy a pair, give a pair. That this is
something that's been around now for what since the heyday
of Tom's. I feel like Tom's invented this sort of
marketing technique. Court It's like they're definitely you buy yourself

(31:45):
a nice pair of shoes, and yes, what we are
going to be a giving shoes to the needy around
the world in order to make the world a better place.
Look at you look back in the day, like maybe
did I, But this is like two thousand and eight,
two thousand nine Kate and we had about each other toms.
We really all right. For Christmas, I want to get
you a pair of times, so you pick a pair
out for me, and I'll pick a pair out for you,

(32:06):
and they'll be two kids on the other side of
the world, and they'll have shoes exactly. So you've got
to feel good and your feet got to feel good
because we're in a pair of times. I guess right,
but I think that and I want to really go
too hard on this one because I know people might
throw some hate mail back our way, they like, wait
a minute, this is great, guys, why are you hate me? Well,
it's because it's a strategy that often gets us to
buy something we don't need in the first place, because

(32:28):
you have to buy something in order to make this
giving momentum happens so that somebody else gets something and
and a bunch of other companies are doing this now.
Bomba's warby Parker. It's it's truly because when you feel
like you're doing something good, it's easier to spend your
money on that product, easier to justify. Man, It's come
back to that self justification. And it's not a nefarious thing.

(32:49):
I don't think, but it is an effective marketing tactic
that can cause you to spend money when you otherwise wouldn't.
Like I like bomba socks, Matt, I got no problem
with them. I have some pairs myself. I enjoy them,
but I just don't I don't buy them because it
makes me feel like I'm doing something good for someone else.
I buy them because the socks fit me. Their company,
they last a long time. So just make sure that like, yeah,
if these companies, these altruistic companies are doing something good,

(33:12):
that you're that you're not necessarily buying something you don't
need or can't afford, just because you're doing something nice
for someone else in the process. Right, And again, we're
obviously not opposed to doing nice things or giving our
money away, and we're not against you supporting companies who
are doing good work in your community. But don't let
that marketing tactic cause you to buy a pair of
shoes or scrooge. Here, we're not anti Christmas. Don't want

(33:35):
you to consume when you don't necessarily need to, because
guess what, well, guess what would be a more effective
way to give your money away if you gave all
that money away directly to an organization, not by buying
something and participating in sort of like this, this consumption
based charity. Um, it's like the ultimate merging of capitalism
and philanth It's very America. It's it's so it's the

(33:55):
most American marketing tactic I can think of, and and
and it is it feels good when you buy something,
and it's a way for the people who do genuinely
care about others, which I think most people do like
to to feel better about their purchases. But in reality,
it's there's better ways to give your money away and
while buying fewer things at the same time. Yeah, just
because you support these companies like that have a philanthropic mission,

(34:17):
that doesn't mean that we shouldn't all be looking to
donate our money wisely for causes that we care about. Either,
this doesn't. But basically what I'm saying that like this
doesn't take us off the hook to give our money
away in more direct ways, Like we can't just buy
our way into generosity. And so I think like this
is one that I think some folks, hopefully I hope
this challenge this does challenge folks because oftentimes this is

(34:38):
of all the different marketing maneuvers that that companies use.
This is the newest and this is probably one of
the ones that is most effective on our generation because
we are folks are looking to the different companies and
the different organizations that are out there who are doing good.
They want to be investing their money in ways that
align with their values. They want to be spending their
money in ways that alignment with about like all of

(34:58):
these things. But we're saying that there are more effective
ways to doing those things while also consuming less. Yeah,
I agreed. All right, we got more to get to.
There are more marketing phrases that part us from our money,
some of which have stood the test of time. But
we still get DUPPI And now they're even new kind
of online versions of these same tactics that we'll we'll
talk about. We'll get to that right after this. All right, man,

(35:27):
we are back from the break. Let's keep humming along. Here.
Another one of these phrases, whether it is explicit in
the way a company says it, or whether it's implicit,
whether it's something that they're just signaling, Uh, is you
deserve it? Like what this company is saying is that
say that to me all the time, but it's usually negative.
You deserved it. You punched me in the face, and
you're like, you deserved it, uh know, like when companies

(35:48):
are communicating this message to you, like whether I'm saying
is that you should treat yourself and it's true, right,
Like you've had its sound on your plate lately. Uh
And you might find yourself in need of some pampering.
But don't book that cruise just because the marketing company
says that you deserve a vacation. The better question is
have you saved for that vacation? Right, Like, can you
actually afford it? Or will you be putting that cruise

(36:09):
on your credit card opting to pay it off in
the months or maybe even years to come. Because if so,
that spontaneous treat that you decided to lavish up on yourself,
it's not going to cost you a whole lot more
than just the list price thanks to the interest that
you're gonna owe on on top of it. In this case,
the marketer has tapped into a feeling that we all have,
but their solution is one that that creates, oftentimes more
financial misery. And again, this is an instance where it

(36:32):
pays to have a money mission statement. Have you identified
that this is a part of what it is that
you're seeking to do with your money, whether in the
short term, like we're talking about cruises. If that's the
way for for you to accomplish what it is that
you've laid out on your money Mission statement, then we
are all for it. We again, we're all for you
spending some money, but we want to make sure that

(36:53):
you have the right motives for spending that money. Yeah. Man,
But basically what we want people to avoid is letting
an ad campaign convince them that they deserve something that's
really only gonna make their life harder in the end,
and that there are ways to get the rest you
need or the break from work maybe that you need
without spending a ton of money. It doesn't involve buying
something in order to make that happen. And uh, I

(37:16):
don't know. I think about you deserve this frugal hack
as going to spend some time in nature. It's amazing
how restorative spending an hour two on hike can be
in clearing your mind or or just kind of restoring
some calms to your life. And the fantastic thing it's
completely free, like it doesn't. It doesn't cost any money.
Maybe there's some sort of like parking fee your local
state park or something like that, it's five dollars, but

(37:37):
you can get one of those annual passes for for
almost nothing. And typically there's a million places that you
can go to get out of nature. They don't cost
a dime, and and we all deserve a break from
time to time, but it doesn't have to be an
expensive one. In order to be effective. We would say
it's it's best to ignore the subtle, sneaky ads that
are tapping into this emotion because we all feel it.
So many people feel busy, they feel over committed. And

(37:59):
then if they're a product that's saying, you know what,
even though you are those things, I can make you
feel better in an instant, I can give you the
rest that you that you need. Well, we feel like
we need that, and so we feel like we need
to buy the thing to get us that, And so
it is a sneaky way to get us to part
uh to to part ourselves from our money. But ultimately
it doesn't pay off in in the way that they promise.

(38:20):
And by the way, if you want other ideas for
how to treat yourself without breaking the bank. We talked
about that in episode forty two. Yeah, and I think
there are ways that you can actually like where you
do spend a little bit of money, But it oftentimes
comes down to how you frame that purchase, right. And
so maybe you, like you hear Joel talking about going
hike and out and you know, out in a state
park or something like that. To me, that sounds awesome,

(38:41):
but you might be listening and thinking, there's no way
I'm gonna do that, like mosquitoes, that sounds terrible. And
but maybe for you, like a bar of fancy chocolate,
or even like a nice bottle of wine, or just
a bath like it's running a bath and put some
bubbles in there and just chilling for forty five minutes
of the book, but just naming it like this is
my treat after a crazy week, or you know what,

(39:02):
I'm gonna splurge and buy just something that costs just
two digits, right, like not not not even more than
a hundred bucks. But by naming it and setting it
apart as the special thing, I think there's a way
for us to frame what some people might call like
ordinary expenses, but they truly could be more special in
your life. I mean you can do that even with
something like a craft beer. You can be like, you

(39:23):
can make craf beer a regular occurrence that isn't special.
Or you could say, you know what, once a month
or every other week, we're gonna crack this one special
bottle and you're gonna make it like a moment. There's
the can wait to turn something that is ordinary, considered
ordinary about others into something special for you. Proper framing
makes a big difference, exactly. Yeah, Okay, less hassle in
your life. This is another phrase we often hear, and

(39:44):
this one has a lot in common actually with the
peace of mind promise as well. But it's always nice
to be told that someone else is looking out for you.
They've got they've got a magic pill to make your
life easier. And you know, it is true that a
company might be able to save you some time. Uh,
Like it makes me think of getting your your groceries delivered,
for instance, Like that's almost certainly going to add a
decent bit of time back into your life that would

(40:06):
otherwise has been spent maybe wandering the aisles yourself and
paying for convenience. It's not necessarily a bad thing. In
this case, curbs I pick up or even grocery delivery
could end up saving you money actually by helping you
to stick to your list of groceries. But depending on
which service you use or how prone you're going to
be improvising wild grocery shopping, that the costs of this
convenience and can actually add up pretty quickly. That's where

(40:28):
a thirty five dollar target order could actually end up
costing you something like sixty two bucks. If you use
do ord ash for so you get can get less hassle,
but it comes with the premium at what cost? Yeah,
Or let's say paying to get your house cleaned or
to get your lawnmode, Well, that that's gonna cost you money,
but it's also gonna save you time. So the question
then I think to ask is how much time are

(40:49):
you saving? We talked about that a little bit Matt
back in an episode called knowing your hourly Rate, and
that it's an important thing to understand, like how much
is your time worth? Could you trade that time in
order to make more money? If or hiring someone to
do a task for you, which comes down to what
you're planning to do with that time, because the reality
is that we can so easily get used to paying
for convenience that we end up wasting money that we

(41:11):
could have been it could have been more useful for
us elsewhere because we're not actually planning to work more,
or we don't necessarily even have a task or or
an enjoyable activity planned. We just get used to the
reflexive activity of paying more for convenience at every turn,
and without really the thought for how much it's costing us,
whether we can afford it, or whether it's actually making

(41:31):
a difference in our lives, whether we're getting the bank
for a buck that we want um And so I
think it's it's a good thing to think about our
our future selves and not just easing our lives in
the here and now. But the more money we can
save for our future, the more options are future selves
are going to have. So, if it's eating so much
into your budget right, these these convenience items, these services

(41:51):
that are creating less hassle for you in the here
and now, well are you setting yourself up for more
hassle in the future because you're neglecting to save and
invest like you should be. Those are important questions to
ask if you can, if you can do all the above,
that's okay. But we and we were okay with you
paying for services that do make your life a little
bit easier, but you want to make sure the trade
off is worth it and that you're not just making

(42:13):
a knee jerk co action to make your life easier
and every turn, uh, the costs be damned, basically getting
FEISTI over there. Sometimes, Well, I think the thing to
keep in mind here too, like oftentimes I feel that
when we pay for convenience or less hassle in our lives,
oftentimes we're not getting rid of hassle per se. We're
just I think oftentimes we're just exchanging that hassle with

(42:35):
a different type of hassle. Right, And so in the
examples like gay if like I'm thinking about the grocery
delivery services that are out there, how many times have
you had something not being stock and they've had to
replace it with something that you have no idea what
to do with. You You get this item and you're thinking,
how is this? How is this a comfortable substitute? This
is something that ends up just going in the trash

(42:55):
because you literally don't know what to do with it,
or the bananas were like overripe, or the apple half
of them are bruised, or yeah, there's just I feel
like it exchanges it for different types of hassles, different
types of problems. It makes me like law and service.
We hired some guys to cut our lawn a bunch
over the summer while we were kind of moving in
the house trying to get settled. We're really busy. Also
we're out of town a bunch, uh, you know, going

(43:16):
to the beach with y'all, things like that, and I'm like, oh,
this is pretty nice having these guys cut the cut
the grass and stuff. Well, they also do bushes, and
the last time they came out, they totally hacked up
the bushes and Kate was pissed because they were finally
starting to branch out and they're flowering, and I'm like,
dang it, this is something that was seeming It seemed
like it was removing hassle from our lives. Not only

(43:36):
did it cost me money, but now my wife is
not happy with the job that they did. And so, yes,
it can solve some problems in your life, but oftentimes
you're exchanging an old set of issues or problems in
our lives for new ones that we also then have
to learn how to navigate. Yeah. No, that's a great point,
and so yeah, another marketing tactic that people use it
in order to sell you on something you might not

(43:58):
need or can't afford, is for a limited time only,
and it is of course a classic phrase that marketers
have used for decades, decades and decades, and basically they know,
if you don't feel like there's a need to take
action right away, you're gonna put that purchase off. So
they've they've got to make an attempt for Like, last
time I was in Costco Map there was a Vitamic

(44:19):
sale and they were like, yeah, this is the last
time it's gonna be at this price, dude. So if
you want your Vito Mix at four hondoh, you better
do it now because when you come next week, it's
going to be a three eight or They're like it
was gonna be like and then the next sale it's
only going down to four fifty and I was like, okay, cool,
thanks for letting me know, but they're trying to make
a sale by making me feel like I'm never going
to get this price right like, this is this isn't

(44:40):
gonna last long. And that might be true, right like,
because with inflation the cost of goods, we might only
see the price of the biom mixes skyrocket from here.
But the fact is, are you going to use that mix?
Is that something that you're going to start incorporating into
your life. I didn't get one. I don't need one,
but I will say this is something that happens quite
a bit. And and oftentimes the reality is that it's
not even true that this weekend only at old Maybe.

(45:04):
That's three weekends out of four. Okay, I'm just letting
you know. Old Maybe has a sale basically every day
of the week. And you said that really well actually,
like like the way you said, you've been letting on
the side of okay, now, well, uh, and so if
you if if you notice the sales, they might not
be in perpetuity, but they happened a ton and so
for a limited time only. It's really it's really an

(45:27):
attempt to get you to make a spur of the
moment decision and buy something because you think you're getting
a deal. It makes me think Matt back in the day,
I don't know, I worked in radio. So I heard
these ads a lot, Joseph A Bank. Do you remember them?
They were like a suit retailer. I just was it
them who always said you're gonna love the way you feel. Now,
that was Men's Warehouse, but Joseph it was always it

(45:48):
was impressive. Man. They ran ads every day and it
was this one day only sale or two day on
the sale. But the thing is it happened every week,
and those ads ran every day, and boy who crowed wolf? Yeah.
At one point Joseph A Bank actually ended up there
was a lawsuit alleging that these sales were fake because
they basically happened every day of the year. And so
these are the kind of things, These are the kind

(46:09):
of tactics that marketers are pulling. Joseph A Bank certainly
isn't the only one, although they might have been the
worst offender. These are the kind of things, though, that
they're trying to pull at your wallace strings by telling
you that the deal only last for a short period
of time and if you don't jump now, you're never
going to get it, at least not at this price,
and you're gonna regret it for I don't know the
rest of your life for at least the next week.
It's all about that sense of urgency. And I mean

(46:30):
there are other ways of saying this, right like wild
supplies lasts. So be aware of what these sorts of
phrases can do to you. Like it makes me think
of timeshare presentations, right, like they do this very successfully
as well. But the reality is websites they don't even
have to use that kind of language anymore, you know,
like they often just have a time or that's counting
down to when the price is going to jump up,
creating that same sense of urgency. We're talking about those

(46:52):
lightning deals that you see on Amazon, but anyway, they're
able to use a limited time only if it feels
like the clocks ticking. These are all tools that make
it feel like you have the pounds now. Yeah. And
I think one thing you can use Matt when we're
talking about that all supplies last or last chance, or
here's a price tracker and it's gonna this special price
is gonna end well something like that. On Amazon, you

(47:13):
can use Camel Camel Camel. It's just plug in that
helps you kind of track the historical prices on Amazon
over the past ninety days, and then you can use
the information to your advantage. You can be like, Yeah,
this is thirty cents cheaper than it normally is, and
I don't care. I'd rather pass, and I can always
spend thirty cents more if I end up wanting that
product later, but having that information at your disposal of

(47:33):
knowing whether this is legitimately a deal, whether it's far
cheaper than than other people are selling it for other
retailers have it listed for, and similar to what we
were talking about earlier with sending a calendar reminder for
canceling a free trial, I think if you do opt
to buy something because of this, I think you should
avoid it, right, I think you should avoid it at
all costs. But if you do end up buying something

(47:55):
like know the return window so that you can return
that item before you're going to have to keep it forever.
So if you do make this impulse purchase, set a
calendar reminder for the date that you need to have
it returned by so that you can avoid being charged
for it. That's just one way to kind of help
lessen the impact of those limited time only calling cards
that the marketers are always trying to use on us totally.

(48:16):
Another tactic to keep in mind is what we'll call
quote unquote premium products, because is that food product really
premium or is it handcrafted? It makes me think of
there's a lawsuit against Tito's a few years ago because
doesn't it say like hand crafted? Uh, Like someone was like,
wait a second, this is actually made by hand. Stories
for the vodka and that tank, and I don't think

(48:36):
anybody's doing anything with their hands in there exactly. Yeah.
It's these sorts of assertions that make us feel like
that our money is being well spent, right, Like I mean, hey,
this is this is legit nice. This is some premium stuff,
But is it or is the cheaper alternative going to
be just as good? And specifically, when it comes to vodka,
you don't need to splurge on the premium vidual because
it's odorless, it's tasteless, and this is an area where

(48:58):
probably should definitely be saving your money. But these are
all labels that are important to keep in mind. Like
I'm not even gonna talk like go down the path
of things being all natural or environmentally friendly. Uh, the
different labels the companies are able to slap onto their
products man back when, uh, this podcast is premium. Actually
I don't know if people knew that, but it is premium.
This is a premium podcast. Um No, it's like back

(49:19):
when we had our dog, our sweet great Dane Stella,
we used a lot of poop bags because that's just
the life of a dog owner, right, And I remember
one time we bought these poot bags that said these
are biodegradable, and I remember thinking, oh, that's nice because
maybe I can start putting these in like the compost
beIN instead. And when I got them, there's no way
those things were bred like maybe in like years biodegradable,

(49:41):
but they were on timetable. They were exactly like the
other plastic bags were getting and I didn't pay extra
money for them or anything like that. I just thought, oh,
well that's nice and made me go with them rather
than the other vendor who was selling poot bags at
basically the same price. Um. But yeah, are these things
actually what they say they are? In certain companies, I mean,
companies like that coming are coming under fire from the
FTC as well, Like you can't make these claims at

(50:03):
least not for long. Yeah. Yeah, And and and we're all
it's important to remember that we're all susceptible, Matt. You
are I am to these sorts of marketing gimmicks that
are trying to part us from our money, and sometimes
they are just hard to kind of put our fingers on.
Hopefully we've kind of named a bunch of them, and
you can kind of see, Oh, I see how different
markets are trying to do that with that product in
my life. And and it's true that the sales pitch

(50:24):
of the product can sometimes be in alignment. And marketing
isn't necessarily a bad thing, right, It can often inform
us of something we didn't know about, a new product
or service that really might improve our lives. We live
in a country and in an era where progress is
happening quickly, and and hearing about beneficial changes is a
good thing. Like I want to hear about the new
act that's going to be able to help me budget

(50:45):
my money more effectively than some sort of Excel spreadsheet
that I, at least personally am not prone to using. Matt.
Although is and you know it, red bull, let's say,
doesn't doesn't actually give you wings or two beers. Their
marketing slogan is what a diamond is is forever. Of
course it's not. And these phrases and feelings are often
they're building this emotional attachment. Marketers are constantly trying to

(51:07):
get us to ascribe meaning to a product that they're selling,
hoping that it's going to convince us to buy, parting
us with our hard to earn money. Matt just makes
me think going back to the watching videotape for an
athlete earlier at the beginning of the episode, we we
made that reference, and uh, a linebacker watching tape of
a quarterback, they might start to recognize the subtle pump
fake that a specific quarterback partakes in regularly, and instead

(51:30):
of being fooled by it, because he's watched enough tape,
he can recognize no, no, no, I'm still going for
the sack, and that can impact how he plays on
the field. Say, it's true for us, now that we
know kind of the tape that the marketers often are using,
it can help us make a better decision in the moment.
I think in order to keep our money momentum going,
we don't want them to kind of like screw us

(51:51):
up right, And oftentimes I don't think these different companies
are being malicious, like they're not intentionally trying to harm us,
and we're not going through all of these different tactics
in order and still fear sort of like one of
the tactics that we talked about. But it's just a
part of the game, right, Like you're kind of talking
about how the pump fake is the part of playing football.
This is a part of the game. This is a
part of what it means to be a consumer in

(52:12):
the United States, And so not only is it important
to know what the rules of the game are, but
it's important to know what the different strategies and tactics
are so that you can make sure that you yeah,
that you're not losing momentum, that you're able to get
ahead with your money as well. Ye all right, let's
come back to the beer mat. This one is called
Nordic jam. It's by two picture brewing is a lagger
with Nordic fruits, like what it has strawberries, elderberries, and

(52:33):
cherries or your thoughts on this spear Are those Nordic
fruits or is this just another example of labeling? Can
just be marketing here? You know that's your question. I'm
not feel the top here, says all natural ingredients. So
I don't want to drag two pictures, two pictures brewing
through the mud. Wait, why is it? Is it two pictures?
So I noticed over here it says all natural real

(52:53):
fruit craft rattlers and rattlers are typically made from beer
and fruit. I think that's mostly what they do with saittlers.
So it's like, this is like the logger with those
two things that you combine together. Is that the whole thing?
I guess two pictures, as in the two pictures thing
is like they I think the two guys who started
the brewery were both pictures. That's how they met. On baseball,

(53:13):
I was thinking, what kind of makes sense. That's why
the homeplate symbol. That's what I thought. That it's a
little bit wider than I don't know whatever, I was thinking.
Two pictures as in, you had like a one picture
of fruit juice and another picture of beer. You pour
them together, said you've got to wrap. This is an
example of confusing market. Still enjoyed this beer. This is
when you picked up I think because of the Nordic appeal.

(53:37):
You saw yourself in the Viking on the still do
on the label there. But yeah, this is good. It
was a fruited lagger, had some of those nice sweet
fruity notes while at the same time having just like
a nice multi kind of loggery backbone. Definitely enjoyed this one.
What were your thoughts. Yeah, it's kind of interesting to
drink a fruited beer this not sour because typically those
things go hand in hand. And so yeah, I'm gonna

(53:57):
say I need more Nordic fruit beers in my life.
I my favorite, one of my favorite styles is fruited
sour beers. But this is kind of fun to have,
especially as we're wrapping up these hot summer months. It's
it's still it's still human outside. So I'll take a
I'll take a light refreshing fruity beer. I'm still gotta
stay hydrated down, yes, because beer is good at that,
which is my favorite thing to say. Yeah, it wasn't

(54:20):
overly tart like you would get with the fruited sour um.
It is, in fact a party in a can, just
like it says on here, which I would say is accurate,
honest marketing. Party in my mouth right now. It also
says in the can, I want to read everything on
here now because we're talking about like marketing efforts and
whatever it says on here no funny business, which come on,
that's that's one subjective. To you, it might be no

(54:41):
funny business, but to me it might be nothing but
funny business exactly. All right, that's all in the mind
of the holder. So all right, that's gonna do it
for this episode, my friend. Folks can find the show
notes links to some of the things we mentioned up
on our website at how to money dot com. And
if you have not yet signed up for our newsletter,
head over to how do money dot com Forward slash newsletter.
It's Wednesday, so you just missed yesterday's newsletter that went out,

(55:03):
but you know we should do go ahead and sign up, uh,
and then it'll be this nice, pleasant little surprise that
shows up almost a week from now and you won't
regret it. And by the way, you can actually go
see prior how to money newsletters on our website. That's
right at how the money dot com. And so yeah,
you can slash newsletter and you can go check those out.
So if you're like, man, okay, I'm interested, but let
me go, let me go check one outbum before Taste

(55:25):
of the Goods fakive Matt and Joel my email address,
and then as gonna be their funny business. I don't
want none of that. I get it, So go take
a look. There's a you can see the most recent
one and and see if it is something you want
coming into your inbox each and every week. That's right,
but Matt, that's gonna do it until next time. Best
friends out and best friends Out,

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Subtle Marketing Maneuvers That Stymie Your Money Momentum #560