September 8, 2025 • 51 mins
Let’s kick off the week with some fresh listener questions we have lined up for you! And don't just stand on the sidelines- if you have a question you’d like us to answer, toss your voice memo our way. It only takes about 90 seconds to record and you can find a step by step guide over at HowToMoney.com/ask . Regardless of how random or bizarre you might think it is, we want to hear it!
1 - Is it time to sell my condo or should I continue to rent it out?
2 - How do I financially prepare for our special needs son?
3 - Should I utilize a line of credit at 1% to pay off some credit card debt?
4 - Passive real estate investing apps: yay or nay?
5 - What tips or tricks to get my 12 year old invested in his Roth IRA?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Out of Money.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm Joel, I am Matt.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Today we're going to answer some of your listener questions.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You know what, Buddy, it's Monday. We've got listener questions
to get to. For instance, a listener is wondering if
his condo is a good investment, or maybe if there's
better options out there for him. We're going to talk
about able accounts. This isn't typically an account that we discussed,
but I think folks will find it interesting.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
It's a more niche account, but it can be a
big help to families who need it.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Indeed. Yeah, and we're going to talk about a line
of credits that a listener has available to them. But
it happens to be with the best rate that I've
ever heard of. Maybe it's too good to be true.
We'll talk about that, plus other topics that we'll get
to during our askkin of Money episode today. Buddy, sounds good,
But Hey, I recently shared how on an upcoming trip
(01:08):
that Kate and I I explained how, Hey, I opted
for the Tesla the Evy with a car rental company
because it was the cheapest choice. It was so cheap,
it was it was ninety something like ninety six bucks
like next alternative was three hundred something cheaper than like
the Toyota Corolla. I could not believe how affordable it was.
And I did all the math, crunch the numbers, you know,
because I was just like, no, no, the mileage should
(01:30):
be good and all that all right, all that to
be said. I showed up there at the counter and
the guy said, oh, I see here you got the
Tesla long Range. Let me get you a gas powered vehicle.
I was like, well, is it going to be more?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Like?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
How come? Like? You know, I wanted to go with
this because of the mileage. And he's like, wait, where
are you headed? And we were headed to Sodona from Phoenix.
And I was like, I crushed the numbers. It's plenty
far enough. And he said, well, you've accounted for the miles,
but you haven't accounted for the change and elevation. You
basically go up and I didn't realize this at the time,
but you go up like a mountain. Range's and he said,
(02:07):
if you're driving around town or if you're going somewhere
else where, it was the same elevation where we currently are.
He's like, no problem even with the AC blast in
what you're likely going to want to do because it's
one hundred degrees out there, He said, you likely would
be fine. But the elevation change, he said, it destroys.
It just takes down EV batteries so quickly. And he
(02:28):
just pointed out specifically the range anxiety, and he said,
you know what if that was your tesla and you
knew what change an elevation like that might do for you.
He just pointed out that it's just much more nuanced
than I was giving it credit for. Because I crunched
the numbers. I was like, this is you know, I
put my glasses on.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Pulled out the calculator eighty miles to get there. This
thinge's got two twenty.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I'm good. He's a cake is Yeah. I think even
more than that, but I don't know it. It was
a learning experience where he pointed out that there are
just more variables that go into how long the battery
life lasts on an EV. I guess not too on
like our phones, you kind of get used to our
specific device. How long a twenty three three percent charge
(03:07):
is gonna last us? When you get ready to board
the airplane. You know what the steps you need to take. Yeah,
don't fire up a video right now, you know, Okay,
go ahead and quit all the different apps, switch it
to power saving mode, airplane motron off, all the other things.
I just want to be able to read my book
on my phone, that that sort of thing. So all
that being said, I was like, all right, well, how
much is it going to cost me? Because the reason
(03:28):
I chose this was because it's so much more affordable. Sure,
and the next cheek that's literally the nextcheap is alternative
was around three hundred bucks. And he's like, well, since
you're here in person, I can get you a disc.
It is going to cost more, but it only costed
me sixty dollars more to get a traditionally powered vehicle.
And on top of that, he's just like, well, I
can go ahead to upgrade you as well.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
We'll get you the it was a.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Key to tell you ride, which is it's nice items
like a I told I was joking with Kate. After
the fact, I thought, you know what, I probably would
rather have gotten the smaller Sedan for the gas just
not like weedace.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I figure, folks, get you the hummer, sir, Just give
me the.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
HONDG quart or something. Anyway, I wanted to point that out,
that the ability to get that discount in person, being
willing to ask and have a conversations, Yes, look at
looking someone in the eye, sharing what you're excited to do.
I think all that goes into possibly receiving a disc
don't expect the discount, but I think it makes you
more likely to be a receiver of a discount.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Also helpful planning ahead when you are running an ev
just know that there are more variables than you might think
going into Yeah, and it's funny. I was just riding
in my friends Tesla on a six hour road trip
in California, and I will say the thing I was
really impressed with about Tesla is when it comes to
plotting out charging if you're going a really long distance
the auto auto route, they do an amazing job saying, hey,
(04:49):
here are the most ideal places for you to charge.
Here's how long you need to stay there to get
up to a certain point, and then hey, stop at
the next place two hours away and then charge for
another twelve minutes and then you're good to get home.
So they do really good job helping you figure that out.
They make it less. I think it reduces the range anxiety.
But still they take care of it for you. Yeah,
so how many times that you're not gonna save much money?
If you're charging it a super charging station, it cost
(05:11):
almost as much as gas does less.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
It's a vehicle that you own, which this friend in particular,
this is his tesla. So I'm curious, how many times
did you have to stop two times twice on like
six hours ten fifteen minutes?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
It was about it was about fifteen minutes one and
twenty five the other.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Okay, so you know, not an insignificant amount of time.
You know, I will say, like, imagine getting stuck in
traffic for fifteen minutes or twenty five minutes. That's that's
like enough to like quote unquote ruin the trip. If
you're like, oh, yeah, I got still you know, yeah,
I had to drive us. So I got stuck for
forty five minutes total in traffic.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Got a factor in the extra time usually, Yeah, it's good,
A good excuse for a pee break, good enough.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Fair enough, Yeah, get out, stretch the legs a little bit. Yeah,
I dig it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
All right, let's mention the beer having Matt, this is
a Solstice sour by Almanac Brewing, and we'll give our
thoughts at the end of the episode. This one looks
really tasty.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Did you ever listen to the All and Brothers. The
font that they chose for Almanac reminds me of kind
of like the old Think Country.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I think I'm too young to I mean, I know
a couple of.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
The songs, but yeah, I just for some reason think
that that's what that looks like.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Okay, yeah, I could see that I'm not too familiar, But.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Enough of that.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, okay, let's get onto listener questions. If you have
a question we'd love to hear from you, go to
how to money dot com slash ask if you got
a money question, it's tangential to money, uh even just
relationship advice in general. MAT's really digging into that. He'll
feel a philosophy. Yeah, whatever you want to ask, send
it over. We'll make Matt take it. Just go to
how to money dot com slash ask simple directions or
(06:38):
record that voice memo on your phone. Send it over, Joe.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
We'll also be sure to include my phone number out
there as well to directly receive all the all the hate.
For sure that I'm sure to receive where to dispense
any relational.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
That's right, all right. The first question, Matt, let's get
to one from a listener who's like struggling about whether
or not to keep or sell a real estate asset
he owns.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Hello, my name is John, and I find the information
on this program very helpful, especially for beginners such as
myself going in the world of financing and planning. I
have heard the topic of condos before on this program,
and to me, they generally don't sound like a great investment.
I have had my condo for about four years now,
(07:22):
and from my experience, it has not appreciated much in value,
and a lot of my salary goes towards paying the
property taxes that are due at the end of the year,
and I feel like that money would be better spent
on something else, since I barely get anything in return
(07:42):
after paying the property taxes. Anyway, I recently rented out
my condo to tenants and they have been there for
several months, and I'm wondering if things will get better
after I pay off the rest of my immediate expenses
and I could finally put the rent and receive to
(08:05):
an account that will pay the mortgage, property tax, and
the HOA. However, after doing calculations, I only still get
about one hundred to two hundred dollars a month after
all that is deducted from the rent, which I don't
see us too great. The property is located near the
(08:27):
beach in Los Angeles and I got it during the
COVID times when the interest rate was very low around
two point eight percent. We'll just make my condo worth keeping.
I would really appreciate some advice, and thank you so
much for everything.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
All right, John, I am glad to hear that you
found the show helpful. And your question condos specifically, you're
talking about whether or not your condo, whether or not
it's a good investment. But specifically what I want to ask,
should it be a good investment, Because when you buy
a condo or when you buy a single family home,
(09:06):
the main goal is going to be to put a
roof over your head. You're looking for a place to live.
So in this case, you are or I would say
that you were getting something and otherwise you'd have to
fork over the money in rents. That right there, that's
the rent versus by debate, and that answer depends on
personal goals. You know what's happening in the market, but
right now, renting it certainly beats buying almost everywhere from
(09:30):
up your price per month standpoint. But again, so much
is going to depend on your personal your lifestyle goals,
not just what is more affordable right now, not just
what the dollars and cents shows.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And sometimes right buying, if you have an extended timeline,
you're like, oh, my monthly payment's going to be a
little bit higher, but if it meets your goals, and
also you're talking about locking in that cost over a
long period of time. Rents have not been going up lately,
but typically, you know, rents go up at a fairly
regular pace year after year. And the truth is, Matt,
I think we as a society, we've collectively you'd home
or condo ownership as this way to build wealth. When
(10:05):
you think about the average American, they probably many of
them have more wealth in their home, more equity in
their home, than they have wealth in the stock market.
So by de facto, it is their number one savings vehicle.
And so because of that they see it as like, oh,
this is my this is my little piggy bank.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Over here.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
This is where I'm stashing my cash. And we have
seen right rapid appreciation in recent years, leading many to
expect more of the same. Like I think people are like,
oh great, I've seen what happen in home home prices
over the past few years. My real estate agents is saying,
get in before the getting gets impossible, and then you know,
those people are dismayed if the market stutters after, you know,
(10:40):
they make their own purchase. But that is happening currently
for some, which is something that you and I have
warned about that hey, the market can't continue to go
up at this clip forever. Well, the purpose I think
for some it isn't to live in a place they desire,
but to see their equity grow. But the housing market
is this complex organism, right, and buying dreams of rapid
(11:01):
equity accumulation I think just is a bad idea. Like
don't go into a home or condo purchase with that
in mind. Think of it like a cherry on top
kind of like you said, Matt, you don't want to
go into it with that being the sole or major goal.
Make your decision on other variables. Have a long enough
ownership timeline in mind. Like planning to own that place
for a while, and then if your home price appreciates
(11:21):
faster than average, I would just be like, oh, thank
my lucky start.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah, yeah, because they tend to appreciate at a slower
rate than single family homes as well, So you got
to be more you gotta be more patient, And I
think you're setting yourself up for disappointment, even for disaster,
if you're expecting anything more than that. But so much
does depend on your location. And I'm kind of actually
surprised to hear John that you mentioned that you don't
think your condo has gone up in value much over
(11:46):
the past four years, because we have seen outsized price
growth across most of the country.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Yeah, if you said you bought like a year ago,
I'd be like, yeah, maybe not probably.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I understand it a year ago, but four years ago,
I feel like you should have caught that massive uptick.
So I would re visit and just see how accurate
those numbers are and just what it's based on, based
on what you paid, what other units in your complex
are going for, what they've recently sold for. But you
you bring up something else as well, which is essentially
(12:14):
plateauing or receding rents, and I think that can make
it feel like your condo isn't a great investment. And
for many landlords it has impinged on their ability to
profit from the rental. And in your case, the amount
that you're making over and above your mortgage just not
surely doesn't sound very life changing. I think he said
one hundred bucks more is kind of what he's at.
(12:36):
That's what the current rents are pulling in. That's still positive.
I want to say that. I want to provide you yes, yeah,
you are in the black. And I think with that mind,
holding onto the condo over the long term, it could
still potentially be a big winner for you if you
are willing to stick with it.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, And I think so much comes down to location, right, Matt.
When you talk about some of those West Coast cities
in particular, the numbers, oftentimes landlords are buying for appreciation purposes,
only they're losing money every single month. So the fact
that John is making money on the West Coast with
an LA condo, think about a place like San Francisco.
You can't really hope to buy a place in San
(13:16):
Francisco or New York City And like, yeah, he said
he's close to the beach, right, Like that sounds pretty
dang desirable. Honestly, Maybe that's a big part of it
because he's specifically calling out the taxes and the HOA
do is maybe this is a building that has like
turned things around as far as special assessments, and they're
realizing that, Oh man, if we want to make sure
(13:37):
this building doesn't like crumble into the ocean or something
like that, we're going to need to start setting aside
a lot more money to ensure that we're taking care
of this building. Maybe that's what's going on here. Yeah,
And I would say in a city like Mobile, Alabama,
you're investing for cash flow month after month. In a
city like Los Angeles or New York City or San Francisco, whatever,
big cities like that, Seattle, these.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Are attractive places to live.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
You're probably talking about renting being a landlord more for
appreciation over time of that unit. So that's something you
need a factor in as well. Yeah, you might not
be making much money every month, but hey, you're doing
better than a lot of landlords in your similar location
would be doing. And you asked about how the interest
rate plays into your decision to keep her sell. I
think it matters. I think it's it's a check mark
(14:19):
in the pro category because a locked in mortgage rate
below three percent is almost and I say almost because
I can't quite bring myself and Matt to call that
an asset, because it's not, because it is a liability
in fact, still a debt. It's still a debt from
an accounting standpoint. But in today's economic environment it sort
of feels like that because it is quota, like the
floor has been raised, and it feels like to anything
(14:42):
in like the twos and threes percent almost feels like, wait,
wait a minute, I'm making money, right, which you kind
of are if you've got money in savings and you're
not paying down that moreags more quickly, like you're coming
out ahead in that spread. Still, I think, again, there
are a lot more things to take into consideration, like profitability,
what else could you accomplish with the freed up equity,
the financial state of your homeowner's association, Matt, which you
(15:02):
kind of alluded to well, and then whether or not
you like being a landlord. I think that's a really
really important thing to think about, and a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Think that might be the most important thing.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, because we talk about it as a part time job,
not just an investment, unlike investing in the stock market,
just like tossing money and dollar cross averaging every couple
of weeks. And John, you made it sound like the
property taxes this giant thorn in your side, which makes
me want to say, well, hey, you might want to
challenge it if you think it's if it's too high,
if it's unfair. Sure, but I'm not sure. It sounds
like maybe the overall experience of being a landlord isn't
(15:33):
quite your jam either. And if that's the case, and
you're like, should I keep doing this just because maybe
the numbers might work out a little bit better, I
would say probably not. Like, if that's kind of where
your head, where your heart's at, you're probably going to
be frustrated putting in the effort, and there might be
an easier way to build wealth than sticking with this condo.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Totally. Yep. It sounds like he's not into it, not
just from an emotional standpoint, but like literally in his voice,
it just sounds like he's not excited about it, and
like there's a certain amount of salesmanship that goes like imagine,
for you know, you're out there and you're thinking about
going to rent from a place. You show up when
they say to show up, and you're getting getting a
(16:13):
tour of the place, and they're kind of like, yeah,
this is this and this is going on, and they
don't seem excited about the place. Yeah, that would be
a very different experience than like were I to show
up and he's like, well, yeah, here's ol chair's the
view it's beautiful. You can actually see the beach. Sunset's amazing.
The coffee shop one block over is the best in town. Yeah,
here are the amenities that the actual building offers. Like
you kind of go, you go through all the different
(16:34):
things that are you're not trying to oversell it, but
you are trying to tout some of the different benefits
that the place has. Literally, I'm in the middle of
renovating a bathroom in one of our rental properties. Dude,
you better believe when it comes time to show that place,
I'm gonna be like, and now check out this brand new,
brand new. He's got a new tub in here. Hasn't
had a new tub in here for like sixty years.
(16:55):
This is a one hundred year old home, fresh tile
on the walls, new tile on the ground, new toilet, brand,
new plumbing fixtures, yes, chrome, kind of classic, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Going have that is a new Japanese toilet mat with
the sweep a day. Not going that fancy, but maybe
it's easier to clean.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I don't know. I'm not gonna go down that path.
Clean yourself funny here, But again, not to try to
sell a false bill of goods, but to just point
out that, like, man, this is something that I am
proud of, something that you should be excited about. And
I think that excitement and sort of the I even
hate saying this, but you want to have the right vibes,
(17:29):
you know, because like there is a certain part of
it that folks are going to pick up on whether
or not you stand behind this property, and you gotta
want to do it. You gotta be excited about the
actual property. That's I think that could be a bigger
part of running out a place and showing a place
than many folks would give it credit.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah, less, but not least. Just so we're talking about
more the vibeish side of things, It's just important to
note the potential tax liability side. Of things to the
two in fib rule right where if you lived in
the conduct for two in the last five years, you're
not going to tell on the game that you've seen Again,
you made the game sound minimal. I'd go back and
take a look at the numbers. Hey, what did I
pay for? What is this likely worth?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Now?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
But still you know paying capital gains? Will say on
a tax on a gain of thirty grand, that's still
thousands of dollars in tax. You can avoid, yeah, man
by selling before you reach that deadline, which is a
big side. It's not for you.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
It's a big, big deal, especially if you're only pulling
in one hundred more a month. Yeah, in profits.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So and the last thing, have a plan for what
you're going to do with the money after you cash
out at the closing table, right, yeah, because that could
be a significant significant sum of money in your lap
in one fell swoop and you might be like, oh, yeah,
I guess first classic plane tickets to New Zealand are
looking really good right now.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
But they're calling your name.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
They're selling an investment, and I would assume that you
probably want to invest the majority of those dollars in
a different way. Probably and you know the easy route
in an S and P five hundred fund or total
stock mark fund or something like that. So just make
sure you're doing the right thing really quickly with that
money and not letting it linger or.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Tempt you where you're tempted into spending that money. That's right.
So John, we hope that get you pointed in the
right direction. Joel, we've got more to get to. We're
gonna hear from a listener who sounds like he's got
a pretty great plan to eliminate some debt and his life.
Will hear from him and others right after this.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Our Matt, We're more listener questions to hit up. Let's
get to a question now about my account. You and
I have touched on before, but rarely it's a good one.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
Him and Joel. This is Jennifer from South Carolina. Loved
the show and I had a quick question for you.
My husband and I have four boys that range from
ages fourteen to three. Our ten year old has severe
special needs, so we know that we will be caring
for him the remainder of our life. My questions relate
to what we should be doing now to help save
(19:54):
for that. We have retirement planned. My husband has a
four oh one K through his employer. We fully fund
a WROTH and we have an HSA plan. We have
set up five twenty nine plans for our kids when
they were born, and we contribute a small amount each month.
We were considering pausing the contribution to our ten year
(20:17):
old and rolling his into an able plan through the state,
but wasn't sure what your thoughts on that were. Also
thought maybe I should just contribute to the five twenty
nine and roll it into a WROTH when I allowed
to do that. We also have a special needs to
trust set up as part of our essay plan in
case something were to happen to my husband and that
(20:38):
anything else that you know of or can think of
that would help us would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much, Gus.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
All right, Jennifer, first off, amazing job doing everything that
you can now in order to ensure that you are
setting your son and honestly others who might be involved
with helping to take care of him, for less stress
off in the future. Right, So you're kind of you're
front loading that sacrifice now in order to not have
to worry about this as much later down the road,
(21:06):
And specifically, I want to talk about the special needs
trust that you mentioned. For folks out there, this is
really important because if you have a loved one with
a disability, chances are they rely on different government benefits
like Medicaid or Social Security income. Well, those programs are
super strict about how much money or assets someone can have.
And so if you were to just you mentioned you
(21:28):
set this up in case something happens to you and
your husband. Let's say that terrible thing happens and we're
your son to just inherit that cash, right, or if
let's just say you were to hand them that cash directly,
you might accidentally knock him off that very support that
he is depending on.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
All of a sudden, not qualified anymore for some of
those benefits, so he's used to exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, So a special needs trust it fixes that. It
lets you set money aside for their future without messing
up their benefits. And the trust can cover things like
their edge, education, different therapies, but also even fun stuff
like travel or hobbies as well. It doesn't have to
be purely disability related. Uh. And of course I'm certainly
(22:11):
glad to hear that you are taking care of all
of your future investing needs already as well. The four
four one K, you got the ross. You're even taking
advantage of the triple slash quadruple tax advantage. HSA, y'all.
It sounds like y'all are knocking it out of the
park on a lot of different accounts here.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Not easy to do, Matt, It's not easy to do that,
Like check the d all the above box. But that's
what's four boys, right? We were just joking, right, four
not just It's not like you're just saving for the
one with especially, it's like you've got other kids to
get your own retirement to think about, Like that's that's
just uh, that's hard work.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Boys are a lot. We were just joking about how
a friend of ours has three boys. I'm like, could
you imagine him with one more? It's uh, I feel
like sometimes it can be crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Enough you have even more bruises on a shin, you
know exactly, Jeffer. I love that you're considering an ABLE
plan too. I mean these were established almost exact a
decade ago, and their special savings accounts specifically intended for
disabled people. And we'll talk about the benefits for your son,
but ABLE accounts are this cousin of the five to
twenty nine plants. You'll see those kind of interchangeably. Sometimes
(23:13):
of five twenty nine. Able is what you might hear called,
which means you're going to get a state tax deduction
on contributions you make up to a certain threshold in
some states. And so similar to a special needs trust,
an able account for disabled folks and their families allows
them to save and invest without jeopardizing those state and
federal benefits, many of which get reduced if your child
(23:36):
has a certain amount of income in his or her name.
So yeah, kind of like you're referring to Matt, like,
there's this possibility that you exceed some of those and
a lot of those limits are super small, so it's
not like, oh, my kids make If your kids starts
making fifty grand a year, they and all likely don't
qualify for many of those benefits. Or if they're given
a certain sum of money that's that's meaningful, same thing,
(23:58):
and all you need to qualify. The way for an
able account to be able to save and invest for
your son's future is a doctor's letter stating that your
child became disabled before the age of twenty six. If
you meet that requirement, if your doctor's willing to write
that letter, then you're good to go. Like able account
is open and available to you.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
That's right. Yeah, and we are not attorneys. Should we start,
like every podcast with agile that we are not paid
tax professionals and do not listen to our tax and
investing advice. But with a enable account, you do. Those
funds are typically ear are are earmarked more specifically for
expenses that relate to his disability, so keep that in mind.
(24:37):
But similar to a five twenty nine plan, you can
invest those dollars for your child as well, so you're
not just saving money there within that able account, you're
investing those funds and just like we do.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
For our kids when it comes to future education costs.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Exactly. Yeah, man, I've got that fully invested in stocks,
the most aggressive of my investment options because I got
years and years down the d The beautiful part is
that the funds grow tax free. So since your son
is ten years old, you might not be looking to
spend able dollars anytime soon, but when you get closer
to that point that you do want him to have
spending access to his account, consider pivoting towards some different
(25:16):
conservative options there for him. Again, sounds like you're a
ways off, but keep that in mind. But these accounts,
they do come with a debit card that's attached to him,
and so when he's ready to start spending, when he
has a little more autonomy. If that's a position you
find yourself in, it'll make things a little bit easier
to access as well.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
And the cool thing is other people can make gifts
to your child's able account.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Too, So again not unlike a five twenty nine right you.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Might say, oh, this is great, Actually, you might find
that grandparents or close family members are also willing and
interested in helping to stash money into disabled account for
your son as well. You got generous family members, make
sure you let them know. And then also just there's
a lot of fine print this stuff, so make sure
you dig in and know the details. Like Social Security benefits.
(26:04):
SSI benefits can be suspended after hitting the one hundred
thousand dollars threshold in your able account, So a lot
of people suspend contributions and they start spending down some
of that balance once they reach that point to not
put those benefits in jeopardy. By the way, you can
do an able account and a five twenty nine plan,
which you could later roll some of those five twenty
nine dollars into a roth IRA. If you want to
(26:26):
do even more to invest for his future, that would
be impressive. Again, you're doing a whole lot for your
own future. Got four boys saving disabled account. But if
that's something, if you're like, we want to do even
more like you, that's on the table.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
As well, yeah, or even switching things up. So if
you and it partly depends on your focus as well.
I think if it was me, I would be focusing
on the able account if you are looking to supplement
sort of the day to day expenses sort of thing.
But if higher education is in his future, okay, well
that's what the five twenty nine is for, and so
the ability to use that account specifically for what it's designed.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
For, or even especially school that's not college right before
yeah through twelve education that private education, Yeah exactly, So
keep that in mind too, because I mean, it's not
an unlimited amount of money that you can roll over
into the roth I rate.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
So I think I would be focusing on the able
given these specific circumstances. Knowing that. Okay, there's a little
bit of additional room, some more margin over there within
the five twenty nine, knowing that if he doesn't go
off to higher ad, you got thirty five thousand over
there that you can transfer over to a roth, which
of course you can use for any purpose. But Jennifer,
(27:31):
we hope that gives you some some food for thought. Joel.
Let's hear from our next listener. Let's hear from Mike,
and it sounds like he's got a pretty dang good
plan to eliminate some debt in his life.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Hello, I have a question for you on credit card debt.
I have about fifty thousand dollars in credit card debt
at a pretty high rate twenty two percent. I can
have access to a line of credit it's one percent
for six months that I could pay off the credit
(28:05):
card debt. But I can't decide which is better just
to keep it on the credit cards and pay it
off in six months, or would I be paying less
interest on the line of credit that is one percent
for six months.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
All Right, Matt, I just gotta know, I feel like
this could be a yes or a noll answer. Sure
it could be, but there's plenty more to talk about here.
This makes me wonder how Mike is getting a one
percent line of credit that that sounds too good to
be true, and it makes me think that he's got
some organs that he's like signed away as collateral.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
P Yeah, they're going to come after his Yeah, is this.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Like mafia related loan that you're taking out?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Like take out his knees man.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Even an awesome local credit union probably doesn't have rates
quite that good. So I am curious because Mike, if
you really do have access to one percent line of
credit debt debt at that.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Rate, fill me in. I want to know.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, I'm done to take some of that out as well.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, this is speculation, but I wonder if it's like
a family member, you know, like somebody who's just like, hey,
I see what you're doing. Let's uh, maybe there's some
of that going on, because that could be I mean,
like you said, I can't remember the last time. I
mean I don't. I don't think helock even helock rates right, like,
I'm thinking about that. No, Like I'm thinking about the
Great Recession, and that's when rates were basically O two's
(29:21):
and at all time lows at least in my lifetime. Yeah, well,
speaking of that, I mean, we recently talked about the
downsides of turning credit card debt into a helock, and
so I think there were some similarities maybe here, because
you're just you're taking non secure debt, you're turning it
into secure debt, and then not paying your home equity
line of credit comes with bigger consequences than not paying
your credit card bills. So it's not just the interest rate,
(29:42):
is the terms and what you're putting up as collateral,
like whether it's vital organs, right, Like, you just have
to be careful about what you're signing up for because yeah,
there are typically trade offs when you're exchanging one debt
for another. You need to know what the tradeoffs are.
You need to know what the possible downsides might be.
War are you to not pay off that full amount
(30:02):
in six months time? You know, like, yeah, it starts
out at one, but then does it shoot to one
hundred per Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Like the like this is yeah, this is a this
is an interest rate for the first three months, and
then after that it shoots up dramatically. It's like a
pay day loan of sorts.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Who knows well yeah, it did sound like he's kind
of got like that introductory rate perhaps for six months.
But well, let's address that, because I think it's amazing
that he's going to be able to pay off this
much debt in that short of a period of time.
Like for most folks he said, fifty thousand dollars man, Yeah,
like that much debt would take years to eradicate I
think for most folks, and that's often because it took
(30:37):
them years to actually accumulate that debt as well. It
does make me think that Mike has a reasonably high
income and maybe he's just found a way to slash
expenses pretty significantly. Sometimes you are just you're turning a
blind eye to kind of what the left hand is
doing over here. You just focus on the right hand.
Let's just focus on all the spending. But they wake
(30:58):
up and you get that like, wait a minute, this
is crazy.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yeah, fire ald under your butt, and you're like, let's
go exactly.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah. So hopefully Mike is able to maintain that frame
of mind, that state of mind even after he eradicates
that that credit card debt, where he's able to save
and invest, and that's just gonna seriously allow him to
ramp up his wealth down the road, you know, a
couple of years with that sort of singular focus, where okay,
I mean fifty k six months, you're looking at one hundred,
(31:27):
like close to six digits that he might be able
to just dispend, like do what he chooses to.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
A swing net worth.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Oh my goodness. Yeah, that is a fantastic position to
find yourself in, Mike, if you're able to kind of
hold the course even after you eliminate that debt.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I think to that specific question, like would I rather
pay one percent interest on a balance that large than
twenty two percent? Yeah, I think I would, right, I mean,
and I don't think we're alone in that. I mean,
reducing your interest rate. It can be a really beneficial
thing when it comes to speedy debt payoff. But again,
the trade off. You got to be aware of the terms.
If you're attentive, it can work in your favorite Just
(32:04):
like Matt, we talk about balance transfer credit cards. Those
can be a really helpful thing for people who are
incredibly motivated to pay off their debt, and it could
take them from a twenty two percent interest rate. Hey, yeah,
they pay the three percent transfer fee or something like that,
but then they have potentially eighteen months at zero percent
interest to fully eradicate that debt. And it's going to
be really helpful, it's going to accelerate the process. But
(32:27):
you just again have to be aware of your own
human fallibility, because there's a chance you keep that other
credit card around, start spending on it again. Now you've
got you've got more credit card debt than you started with,
and then that lovely zero percent interest rate runs out
and you're up the creek, right, So be careful. And
for instance, with Mike's question here, we're talking over the
(32:48):
course of six months, he pay more than five thousand
dollars extra in interest alone if he's stuck with the
twenty two percent loan versus the one percent loan.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
If you don't want that five k, Mike, just send
it over to the amonom money quarters.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
And that's just a ton of money obviously that he
could keep in his pocket instead. And the downside is, hey,
you don't change your ways. Similar to the balance transfer
thing I just mentioned, you don't pay either of these
loans off with vigor, they both begin to grow again.
And this is just the situation so many people find
themselves in they're trying to be crafty and shift deck
(33:22):
chairs around on the Titanic, but the whole ship is sinking,
and so you've got to really fix the leak before
you even kind of concentrate, I guess on the better
debt vehicle for you, because if you don't fix the
problem that led to the debt in the first place,
then you're just you're following a misplaced priority.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Totally agree, yep. I think this is where it's going
to be important for Mike to do some soul searching
and to figure out what behavioral tendencies that he had
that got him to this place in the first place.
This is I mean, this is a part of just
you know, let's take it a second here to talk
about credit cards, because we love using credit cards, Like
there are awesome benefits that you receive by keeping up
(33:59):
with that, but when you don't keep up with it
and when you are over spending, it can come back
and bite you, bite you in the butt. It makes
me even when it consider like those behavioral tendencies are
what trip us up so oftentimes, and a lot of
times you hear it talked about in regards to investing,
people getting in and out of the market. They get
kind of freaked out by the gyrations terrorists, whether or
not they're legal or not. Well, you know, what's the
(34:21):
What are the supreme is going to do? I don't
know me personally, I feel like I've gotten the behavioral
elements from an investing standpoint, kind of licked like over
over decades now, multiple decades of investing in the market.
I feel like I've proven to myself that that doesn't
spook me at all. If anything, if the market dips
a little bit, I'm like trying to find ways to
maybe throw a little more money in the market while
(34:41):
it's on sale.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Selling your kids used toys, Let's let's do it.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Let's clean house. Yeah, little garage shale, little yard sale.
Take some extra money, let's shove it in the market.
But from a spending standpoint, this is something I keep
thinking about more and more. How is the fact that
I'm spending on a credit card? How does that allow
me to maybe overspend in ways that were I parting
with actual cash that I would be second guessing. I'm like,
(35:07):
how much less would I spend? For instance, if Kate
and I were to go out to eat, if I'm
pulling out my wallet and I'm parting with the actual
actual bills. When I go to the grocery store, I'm
gonna have to fork over twenties and hundreds. Like that
feels different to you rather than just getting the phone.
And it's so satisfying just to do the tap to
pay because it's got a nice little chime. It beeps
(35:28):
at you like, hey, way to go. You did it.
Sometimes it's tricky to tap your phone, but you're a pro.
I mean, you know how to do it. It rewards
you to spend, you know, using the credit card. The
actual devices themselves encourage spending. And so I'm just pointing
out that, like I'm even thinking through maybe there are
ways that I could kind of tighten up our budget,
kind of rain in our spending a little bit, because
(35:49):
that's one where I'm not totally sure how much leashould
we've given ourselves to spend more than we otherwise would.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yeah, I mean that reminds me of our conversation with
Professor jay Z talking about the power of cash and
you and I we're not immune to messing up or
making or you know, just not paying attention in the
ways that we should or spending in a way that
does that doesn't cause us to be quite as thoughtful.
And I think you're right, like that's that's one of
the things he was he was trying to persuade us
(36:16):
in that conversation was the more we use cash there,
the more thoughtful we tend to be about our money.
And I do think I think there's a lot of
truth to that, and I think we just spend on
autopilot in so many ways, whether it's taped to pay,
whether it's auto save on Amazon or whatever site you're
using to buy stuff, whether it's just having those those
marketing emails come straight in and we're like, oh yeah, sale,
(36:37):
let's go for it, click straight through to your favorite retailer.
All of those things are behavioral elements that we have
to be aware of so that we can change to
really prevent credit card debt from rare. And it's ugly
head in our lives.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, man, those behavioral tendencies, that's what trips us up.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yeah, all right, Matt, We've got more questions to get to,
including one about investing in real estate on websites on
the internet, and then one about uh investing for a kiddo.
We'll get to both those right after this.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
All right, buddy, we are back from the break. It
is now time for the Facebook question of the Week,
which is from Nicole. This is a great one because
it's short. She writes, has anyone heard about Arrived? Described
as a real estate investing platform for passive investors? Joel,
have you heard about Arrived? What you think about it? Yes?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
I have departed from Arrived. It's it's a new Scorsese film, Arrived. Yeah,
the long waited sequel to The Departed. Okay, yeah, it was.
It's been a long time so seen it has quite
a while. It was a good one, though.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I wonder my question is why is she Why is
she talking about Arrived? Yeah? You know, like has she
seen advertisements? Maybe it's like a recentcy. It just highlights
the fact that like ads work, Like you see some
and then you think, oh, maybe that's something I should
be participating. Or a friend of hers might be talking
about it, and they're like, well, if they're talking about it,
maybe maybe this is something I should do too.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
You know, I've noticed it more and more in people
who have had some amount of financial success or hard
work and that's paid off where they start to see
their account balance grow and then they're like, Okay, my
net worth has shot up pretty meaningfully. A man, I
feel like at this point I need to take on
a more complex investing strategy. And the truth is like
what's good for the goose is good for the gander
(38:30):
and for a lot of people. For most people, like no, no, no,
you don't really need to reinvent the wheel. You don't
need to go back to the drawing board. The way
you've been building wealth so far can continue to work
for you in the future. You don't need to shake
things up meaningfully. And Arrived is one of these these
crowdfunded sites, Matt. These alternative investment sites are the place
I see people turning and then getting burned. It's one
(38:52):
of those real estate crowdfunding sites that have launched in
the past what five plus years or so, And we
talked on a recent Friday flight about a very similar
site that's not doing so hot. Investors are not happy.
Some have seen really bad returns. Others would have loved
to see dismal returns because all their money I got
wiped out thanks to bad real estate deals that just
completely flopped and rising interest rates, and you know, vacancies
(39:15):
increasing at some of those rental properties. So you and
I we've always said that these crowdfunded investing sites are
not for the faint of heart. You need to know
what you're getting into, and that the projections that are
made on a lot of these investment deals they can
be fanciful. And that might be the nicest way that
I can put it, because some of them are just
completely blowing smoke and they're not really based in reality,
(39:36):
based on rosy projections that are unlikely to come about.
And then at the same time, the expenses are baked in.
They're significant, so that's guaranteed. Yeah, that is going to happen.
But I swear reading through some of those projection statements,
you're just.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Like it almost gets you fired.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Oh, I'd be an idiot not to do this. Yeah,
I should do it right, And that's just a lot
of people again, have gotten burned in these things.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
The sales pitches are great, right, Like, there is a
certain appeal there, and I think they're often attempting to
lure less sophisticated investors who might have heard that real
estate investing is the way that like, that's how you
make the real money, and you got to do it.
You got a juice returns by getting into real estate,
they might, you know, and given the recent history of
the market, maybe they're thinking, Okay, I know enough. I
(40:19):
read the headlines. It sounds like the stock market's overrated.
So they're going to look elsewhere if they want to
achieve financial independence a bit more quickly. But you avoid
the simple steady path at your own peril. And I
will say to talk about real estate here more generally,
more broadly speaking, it is possible to achieve outsize returns
in real estate, but typically you do that by owning
(40:40):
and managing your own properties, which of course comes with
not only a larger time commitment, but also money the
capital that you've got to set aside to be able
to purchase that property. As well, there's more risk involved,
You've got more on the line, there's more at stake,
which is oftentimes how it leads to those higher returns. Yeah,
when you are more direct involved.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
I think it's important to say that Arrived is not
a scam. And many of these these crowdfunded investing websites,
whether they be real estate or whether they be other
kind of interesting markets. Let me say these are not scammy,
they are just not ideal for the average investor. And
when you look at the returns compared to the a
(41:22):
total stock market fund or an SMP five hundred fund,
and when you look at the expenses compared to those
funds as well, there's just not much of a comparison.
Like it just doesn't make much sense. And it is
kind of fun, I guess maybe to be able to
say I kind of own a part of this apartment
complex outside of Nashville, Or it might be kind of
fun to say I own some specialty whiskey on this site,
(41:42):
because not only do I I don't just have it
on my bar. I own the really rare stuff, right,
even if you don't physically hold on to it, like
you have an ownership stake in something that's that's really
rare and fancy, and that can sound kind of cool.
There's nothing seedy about these sites. We just don't think
you're gonna perform. Comes with liquidity constraints in a variety
of fees that are just not worth enduring.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
I thought when you said, uh, it's not scaming, I
thought you were gonna say, but it is spamy, you
know's there's like a lot of yeah, stuff that's kind
of packed in there that it's easy to overlook because
it's packaged in a nice way. There's a lot of pork.
That's like an old school government podcast. We're like shifting gears,
a little bit of Yeah, a lot of pork in
that bill, isn't there.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Roll Well, it's funny when I look at when you
look at some of the graphs, sometimes the only investment
that I've seen that the potentially outperforms the stock market
over long periods of time could be farmland. And there's
even this one place where you can invest in farmland online.
And but when you look at it's called acre Trader, right, yeah,
And when you look at when you.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Even hesitant to even mention it because I don't want
to send folks there, but like it's better to unknown.
Evil is better than an unknown sure, and I'm not saying,
but even actually evil even that.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
I remember the last time I looked at their site
and I was like, wait a second, SMP's outperformed that.
Oh and what is acre Trader?
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Not?
Speaker 1 (42:57):
You know again, not bad people. It's an it's an
interesting thing. I'm fascinated by the fact that it exists.
I do not choose to invest my dollars there because
the fees are much higher than the fees and then
like I have to pay more attention to it, and
my attentions, man is limited.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Yeah, but isn't it fun to say that I invest
in pistachios? Yeah? I on this avocado farm, yatio farm.
It is kind of cool. All right, Matt.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Let's get to a question from listener Teresa. She says,
my twelve year old is about to get paid for
his first job house sitting for neighbors. So I'm going
to open a roth ira for him with Fidelity. That's
where I have accounts and I know their user interface.
Other than making sure to invest the funds and keeping
a log of the job, the date, the amount paid,
are there other tips and tricks from folks who have
(43:41):
done this before?
Speaker 2 (43:42):
All right, First, when she says house sitting for a
twelve year old, does that mean it's like is he
is he like spending the night over there?
Speaker 1 (43:49):
It's like blank check? Or you remember that one?
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Wait was blank check? McAlley Culkin, No, some of the kids?
Which one was that was that Richie Rich? Oh?
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Yeah, that was Richie Rich.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
We're totally digging in the nineties archive. Teresa. I'll say,
first off, the fact that your son is starting at
age twelve, that he's got this job, I think is
incredible because on the financial side of things, that gives
compounding so much time to work. So that's great. But
you said that you are going to open up an
IRA for him. I just read that. That's what you wrote,
(44:22):
which is i'll say, mostly awesome. But let's get him
involved a little bit here. Let's that's that's my call here.
I want you to, well, you're gonna need to open
a custodial account, but let him like actually input his information,
Let let him type in his name, let him click
the mouse, let him be a part of the actual
process here, because I need to be pumped. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There is a certain amount of buy in that you
(44:44):
want someone to emotionally feel, especially with something like this,
and I think were you to do that, he would
be more likely to follow it. He's going to ask
questions along the way. It's going to give him that
buy in. It's going to give him a healthy dose
of financial education along the way. You're not setting this
up for him, and you might be thinking well, he's
the one doing work. But I'm here to say that
even the process of him starting that account, these are
(45:05):
all things that I think are important for him to
learn as well.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Yeah, that participatory interaction.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Engagement, hands on hands on learning.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, exactly, well, and we love that you're doing with Fidelity.
Of course, keep it all low cost, keep it all
under one roof. That makes it easier for you. It's
going to make it great for him, you know, when
it comes to the details. Sounds like you got that covered.
You can't contribute more than he has actually earned, by
the way, so if he gets birthday money or holiday
gift money or something like that, that doesn't count towards
(45:34):
his ability how much he can contribute to the ROTH.
It's all about money that he's made from jobs that
he's doing, like earned income. So make sure that that
is documented somewhere like it sounds like you're already planning
on doing. I'm not sure if you already have funds
picked out, by the way, but f Z Rocks is
Fidelity's proprietary zero fee fund. They have a few zero
fee funds that one's worth considering because it's our total
(45:56):
stock market one. And again we talk about hard to
be lo fees. Nope's is pretty bang awesome too, even better. Yeah,
So just getting started in one of those funds, and
the more he piles into that fund in the coming
years as he earns more money, I think it's gonna
be like a snowball taking off down the hill pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
He's starting off on such the right foot, and you're
talking about him not being able to invest more than
what he earns. Well, Teresa, I would even consider, like
dangling a little carrot, consider matching in order to sort
of up the amount that he's able to invest. Again,
you can't go above his actual earned income. But let's
say he's willing to contribute fifty percent of what he earns, Well,
(46:34):
you could let him know, like, hey, you do fifty,
I'll do the other fifty percent, or you can make it,
you know, seventy five to twenty five whatever. But you're
teaching him about matching again, creating more buying in and matching.
That's something that you are mirroring that takes place out
in the real world. Obviously not to that extent necessarily,
but I haven't heard of an employer yet when I
do that, But that sounds nice, But I think the
(46:54):
ability I think when we pass knowledge along to our kid,
so much of it is kind of mirroring and mimicking
some of the situations and the experiences and the decisions
that they're going to have to make off in the future.
And he's gonna want to say, no, I want every
one of those dollars to go to the one wheel
that I've been saving up, because those things ain't they
ain't cheap, or.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
That cool new Lego set that I've been won.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
Or a new switch, you know, like like there's lots
of things out there, but the ability for you to
say no, look, if you invest at least this much,
I'll invest the same amount to get you to get
to your total here of what it is you actually earned.
It's going to take some near term sacrifice, but that's
also a great lesson for him to learn about this age.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
And if you're willing to sacrifice a little bit too,
maybe he'll be willing to sacrifice. And it's that it's
a virtuous spiral. It's a beautiful thing of wealth for sure.
All Right, Matt, let's get back to the beer that
we had on this episode. This one is called.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Solstice sour solstice salad.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Right, Alm Neck Beer Company. We actually get their beers locally,
now we did not, oh really used too for a
while off.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Maybe you picked this one up abroad.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
No, No, this is a local fine, so I'll say
this is it's a sour age in oak barrels with Okay,
listen to this rundown of free apricots apriums, which I
don't even know.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
What the heck that is.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Sounds like an atrium, but I'm assuming the pea, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
Peaches, plums and pluots hopped with citrus spectrum. It's got
all the stone fruit that uses a lot of fruit.
You can imagine. Yeah, but uh, yeah, what'd you think?
Speaker 1 (48:14):
I thought it was incredibly tart like mouth puckering for sure.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
Almost maybe too tar like, Like I feel like I
have less enamel on my teeth now after drinking this
than I did forty five minutes ago. Make sure you
go to the dentist. Make sure I need to do
a little fluoride treatment at home. Yeah you do. I
gotta get like an at home Can you do an
at home fluoride or no?
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Is it fluoride?
Speaker 2 (48:34):
No, that's what they're taking out of the water now right.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
Oh, you can do extra fluoride toothpaste and mouth with
extra fluoride. Yeah, does it say that to you? I
don't know to counter I I don't think it. Taking
flori out of the water has happened in many places though, Right,
there's a whole.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
Lot of yeah empty promises.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Yeah, okay, So from the top this this beer I
thought was yeah, mouthparkingly, mouth puckeringly hour, but really good,
like all the stone fruit to the max. And I
really enjoyed. And I haven't had like a sour that
was like this abrasive in a while, and I was like, man,
it's been a minute, so I've had something that just
(49:09):
punched me in the mouth, and it was it was
kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
I'm getting smacked around over here.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
But yeah, I kind of liked it. I think Kate
would love this for she.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
I don't know what it is. She's taken to drinking
a little bit of apple cider vinegar with the mother
what is it? Brags it's like that naturally from I
noticed that concoction she made. Yeah, she did it at
the beach. Yeah it was weird, but she would take
it is weird. She she takes that and then adds
a little bit of fruit juice, adds some seltzer.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Yeah, creates like her.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
It's like a I don't know, like a diy kimbucha perhaps,
but I think she would be all about this me.
I'm fifty to fifty okay, but uh yeah, it's still
fun to enjoy. I am enjoying the barrel age nature
of it, which I'm always gonna be a fan of
any beer that's that's an aged and oak.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
I think you'd like to live in an oak barrel someday.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
Oh my gosh, honestly, that's like even more reason to
consider getting a sauna. Yeah, like the big barrel kind
that I know you're considering.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
True story. Oh wait a minute, someday.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Oh say this for another conversation the neighbor. I'm pretty
sure you just said he pulled the trigger on asauna.
Oh really? So yeah, I'll just go to his house. Yeah,
come on, come on over, let's do it. Neighborhood dad,
sauna hangs giant party that I don't want to be a.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
Part of it. All right, all right, that's gonna do
it for this one. Remember, if you have a question,
send it over our way. We'd love to love to
hear from you. Oh and we have a really fun
interview for you on Wednesday. If you're like, I'm making
six figures and it's really hard for me to get by,
then you want to listen to Wednesday's episode for someone
who's doing it on less than forty k and has
(50:37):
been for a long time with a bunch of children
in tow.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
Yeah, it'll be a good one, all right, Thanks so
much for listening, Matt. Until next time, Best Friends Out,
Best Friends Out.
Welcome to Out of Money.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm Joel, I am Matt.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Today we're going to answer some of your listener questions.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You know what, Buddy, it's Monday. We've got listener questions
to get to. For instance, a listener is wondering if
his condo is a good investment, or maybe if there's
better options out there for him. We're going to talk
about able accounts. This isn't typically an account that we discussed,
but I think folks will find it interesting.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
It's a more niche account, but it can be a
big help to families who need it.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Indeed. Yeah, and we're going to talk about a line
of credits that a listener has available to them. But
it happens to be with the best rate that I've
ever heard of. Maybe it's too good to be true.
We'll talk about that, plus other topics that we'll get
to during our askkin of Money episode today. Buddy, sounds good,
But Hey, I recently shared how on an upcoming trip
(01:08):
that Kate and I I explained how, Hey, I opted
for the Tesla the Evy with a car rental company
because it was the cheapest choice. It was so cheap,
it was it was ninety something like ninety six bucks
like next alternative was three hundred something cheaper than like
the Toyota Corolla. I could not believe how affordable it was.
And I did all the math, crunch the numbers, you know,
because I was just like, no, no, the mileage should
(01:30):
be good and all that all right, all that to
be said. I showed up there at the counter and
the guy said, oh, I see here you got the
Tesla long Range. Let me get you a gas powered vehicle.
I was like, well, is it going to be more?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Like?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
How come? Like? You know, I wanted to go with
this because of the mileage. And he's like, wait, where
are you headed? And we were headed to Sodona from Phoenix.
And I was like, I crushed the numbers. It's plenty
far enough. And he said, well, you've accounted for the miles,
but you haven't accounted for the change and elevation. You
basically go up and I didn't realize this at the time,
but you go up like a mountain. Range's and he said,
(02:07):
if you're driving around town or if you're going somewhere
else where, it was the same elevation where we currently are.
He's like, no problem even with the AC blast in
what you're likely going to want to do because it's
one hundred degrees out there, He said, you likely would
be fine. But the elevation change, he said, it destroys.
It just takes down EV batteries so quickly. And he
(02:28):
just pointed out specifically the range anxiety, and he said,
you know what if that was your tesla and you
knew what change an elevation like that might do for you.
He just pointed out that it's just much more nuanced
than I was giving it credit for. Because I crunched
the numbers. I was like, this is you know, I
put my glasses on.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Pulled out the calculator eighty miles to get there. This
thinge's got two twenty.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I'm good. He's a cake is Yeah. I think even
more than that, but I don't know it. It was
a learning experience where he pointed out that there are
just more variables that go into how long the battery
life lasts on an EV. I guess not too on
like our phones, you kind of get used to our
specific device. How long a twenty three three percent charge
(03:07):
is gonna last us? When you get ready to board
the airplane. You know what the steps you need to take. Yeah,
don't fire up a video right now, you know, Okay,
go ahead and quit all the different apps, switch it
to power saving mode, airplane motron off, all the other things.
I just want to be able to read my book
on my phone, that that sort of thing. So all
that being said, I was like, all right, well, how
much is it going to cost me? Because the reason
(03:28):
I chose this was because it's so much more affordable. Sure,
and the next cheek that's literally the nextcheap is alternative
was around three hundred bucks. And he's like, well, since
you're here in person, I can get you a disc.
It is going to cost more, but it only costed
me sixty dollars more to get a traditionally powered vehicle.
And on top of that, he's just like, well, I
can go ahead to upgrade you as well.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
We'll get you the it was a.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Key to tell you ride, which is it's nice items
like a I told I was joking with Kate. After
the fact, I thought, you know what, I probably would
rather have gotten the smaller Sedan for the gas just
not like weedace.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I figure, folks, get you the hummer, sir, Just give
me the.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
HONDG quart or something. Anyway, I wanted to point that out,
that the ability to get that discount in person, being
willing to ask and have a conversations, Yes, look at
looking someone in the eye, sharing what you're excited to do.
I think all that goes into possibly receiving a disc
don't expect the discount, but I think it makes you
more likely to be a receiver of a discount.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Also helpful planning ahead when you are running an ev
just know that there are more variables than you might think
going into Yeah, and it's funny. I was just riding
in my friends Tesla on a six hour road trip
in California, and I will say the thing I was
really impressed with about Tesla is when it comes to
plotting out charging if you're going a really long distance
the auto auto route, they do an amazing job saying, hey,
(04:49):
here are the most ideal places for you to charge.
Here's how long you need to stay there to get
up to a certain point, and then hey, stop at
the next place two hours away and then charge for
another twelve minutes and then you're good to get home.
So they do really good job helping you figure that out.
They make it less. I think it reduces the range anxiety.
But still they take care of it for you. Yeah,
so how many times that you're not gonna save much money?
If you're charging it a super charging station, it cost
(05:11):
almost as much as gas does less.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
It's a vehicle that you own, which this friend in particular,
this is his tesla. So I'm curious, how many times
did you have to stop two times twice on like
six hours ten fifteen minutes?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
It was about it was about fifteen minutes one and
twenty five the other.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Okay, so you know, not an insignificant amount of time.
You know, I will say, like, imagine getting stuck in
traffic for fifteen minutes or twenty five minutes. That's that's
like enough to like quote unquote ruin the trip. If
you're like, oh, yeah, I got still you know, yeah,
I had to drive us. So I got stuck for
forty five minutes total in traffic.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Got a factor in the extra time usually, Yeah, it's good,
A good excuse for a pee break, good enough.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Fair enough, Yeah, get out, stretch the legs a little bit. Yeah,
I dig it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
All right, let's mention the beer having Matt, this is
a Solstice sour by Almanac Brewing, and we'll give our
thoughts at the end of the episode. This one looks
really tasty.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Did you ever listen to the All and Brothers. The
font that they chose for Almanac reminds me of kind
of like the old Think Country.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I think I'm too young to I mean, I know
a couple of.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
The songs, but yeah, I just for some reason think
that that's what that looks like.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Okay, yeah, I could see that I'm not too familiar, But.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Enough of that.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, okay, let's get onto listener questions. If you have
a question we'd love to hear from you, go to
how to money dot com slash ask if you got
a money question, it's tangential to money, uh even just
relationship advice in general. MAT's really digging into that. He'll
feel a philosophy. Yeah, whatever you want to ask, send
it over. We'll make Matt take it. Just go to
how to money dot com slash ask simple directions or
(06:38):
record that voice memo on your phone. Send it over, Joe.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
We'll also be sure to include my phone number out
there as well to directly receive all the all the hate.
For sure that I'm sure to receive where to dispense
any relational.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
That's right, all right. The first question, Matt, let's get
to one from a listener who's like struggling about whether
or not to keep or sell a real estate asset
he owns.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Hello, my name is John, and I find the information
on this program very helpful, especially for beginners such as
myself going in the world of financing and planning. I
have heard the topic of condos before on this program,
and to me, they generally don't sound like a great investment.
I have had my condo for about four years now,
(07:22):
and from my experience, it has not appreciated much in value,
and a lot of my salary goes towards paying the
property taxes that are due at the end of the year,
and I feel like that money would be better spent
on something else, since I barely get anything in return
(07:42):
after paying the property taxes. Anyway, I recently rented out
my condo to tenants and they have been there for
several months, and I'm wondering if things will get better
after I pay off the rest of my immediate expenses
and I could finally put the rent and receive to
(08:05):
an account that will pay the mortgage, property tax, and
the HOA. However, after doing calculations, I only still get
about one hundred to two hundred dollars a month after
all that is deducted from the rent, which I don't
see us too great. The property is located near the
(08:27):
beach in Los Angeles and I got it during the
COVID times when the interest rate was very low around
two point eight percent. We'll just make my condo worth keeping.
I would really appreciate some advice, and thank you so
much for everything.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
All right, John, I am glad to hear that you
found the show helpful. And your question condos specifically, you're
talking about whether or not your condo, whether or not
it's a good investment. But specifically what I want to ask,
should it be a good investment, Because when you buy
a condo or when you buy a single family home,
(09:06):
the main goal is going to be to put a
roof over your head. You're looking for a place to live.
So in this case, you are or I would say
that you were getting something and otherwise you'd have to
fork over the money in rents. That right there, that's
the rent versus by debate, and that answer depends on
personal goals. You know what's happening in the market, but
right now, renting it certainly beats buying almost everywhere from
(09:30):
up your price per month standpoint. But again, so much
is going to depend on your personal your lifestyle goals,
not just what is more affordable right now, not just
what the dollars and cents shows.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And sometimes right buying, if you have an extended timeline,
you're like, oh, my monthly payment's going to be a
little bit higher, but if it meets your goals, and
also you're talking about locking in that cost over a
long period of time. Rents have not been going up lately,
but typically, you know, rents go up at a fairly
regular pace year after year. And the truth is, Matt,
I think we as a society, we've collectively you'd home
or condo ownership as this way to build wealth. When
(10:05):
you think about the average American, they probably many of
them have more wealth in their home, more equity in
their home, than they have wealth in the stock market.
So by de facto, it is their number one savings vehicle.
And so because of that they see it as like, oh,
this is my this is my little piggy bank.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Over here.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
This is where I'm stashing my cash. And we have
seen right rapid appreciation in recent years, leading many to
expect more of the same. Like I think people are like,
oh great, I've seen what happen in home home prices
over the past few years. My real estate agents is saying,
get in before the getting gets impossible, and then you know,
those people are dismayed if the market stutters after, you know,
(10:40):
they make their own purchase. But that is happening currently
for some, which is something that you and I have
warned about that hey, the market can't continue to go
up at this clip forever. Well, the purpose I think
for some it isn't to live in a place they desire,
but to see their equity grow. But the housing market
is this complex organism, right, and buying dreams of rapid
(11:01):
equity accumulation I think just is a bad idea. Like
don't go into a home or condo purchase with that
in mind. Think of it like a cherry on top
kind of like you said, Matt, you don't want to
go into it with that being the sole or major goal.
Make your decision on other variables. Have a long enough
ownership timeline in mind. Like planning to own that place
for a while, and then if your home price appreciates
(11:21):
faster than average, I would just be like, oh, thank
my lucky start.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah, yeah, because they tend to appreciate at a slower
rate than single family homes as well, So you got
to be more you gotta be more patient, And I
think you're setting yourself up for disappointment, even for disaster,
if you're expecting anything more than that. But so much
does depend on your location. And I'm kind of actually
surprised to hear John that you mentioned that you don't
think your condo has gone up in value much over
(11:46):
the past four years, because we have seen outsized price
growth across most of the country.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Yeah, if you said you bought like a year ago,
I'd be like, yeah, maybe not probably.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I understand it a year ago, but four years ago,
I feel like you should have caught that massive uptick.
So I would re visit and just see how accurate
those numbers are and just what it's based on, based
on what you paid, what other units in your complex
are going for, what they've recently sold for. But you
you bring up something else as well, which is essentially
(12:14):
plateauing or receding rents, and I think that can make
it feel like your condo isn't a great investment. And
for many landlords it has impinged on their ability to
profit from the rental. And in your case, the amount
that you're making over and above your mortgage just not
surely doesn't sound very life changing. I think he said
one hundred bucks more is kind of what he's at.
(12:36):
That's what the current rents are pulling in. That's still positive.
I want to say that. I want to provide you yes, yeah,
you are in the black. And I think with that mind,
holding onto the condo over the long term, it could
still potentially be a big winner for you if you
are willing to stick with it.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, And I think so much comes down to location, right, Matt.
When you talk about some of those West Coast cities
in particular, the numbers, oftentimes landlords are buying for appreciation purposes,
only they're losing money every single month. So the fact
that John is making money on the West Coast with
an LA condo, think about a place like San Francisco.
You can't really hope to buy a place in San
(13:16):
Francisco or New York City And like, yeah, he said
he's close to the beach, right, Like that sounds pretty
dang desirable. Honestly, Maybe that's a big part of it
because he's specifically calling out the taxes and the HOA
do is maybe this is a building that has like
turned things around as far as special assessments, and they're
realizing that, Oh man, if we want to make sure
(13:37):
this building doesn't like crumble into the ocean or something
like that, we're going to need to start setting aside
a lot more money to ensure that we're taking care
of this building. Maybe that's what's going on here. Yeah,
And I would say in a city like Mobile, Alabama,
you're investing for cash flow month after month. In a
city like Los Angeles or New York City or San Francisco, whatever,
big cities like that, Seattle, these.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Are attractive places to live.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
You're probably talking about renting being a landlord more for
appreciation over time of that unit. So that's something you
need a factor in as well. Yeah, you might not
be making much money every month, but hey, you're doing
better than a lot of landlords in your similar location
would be doing. And you asked about how the interest
rate plays into your decision to keep her sell. I
think it matters. I think it's it's a check mark
(14:19):
in the pro category because a locked in mortgage rate
below three percent is almost and I say almost because
I can't quite bring myself and Matt to call that
an asset, because it's not, because it is a liability
in fact, still a debt. It's still a debt from
an accounting standpoint. But in today's economic environment it sort
of feels like that because it is quota, like the
floor has been raised, and it feels like to anything
(14:42):
in like the twos and threes percent almost feels like, wait,
wait a minute, I'm making money, right, which you kind
of are if you've got money in savings and you're
not paying down that moreags more quickly, like you're coming
out ahead in that spread. Still, I think, again, there
are a lot more things to take into consideration, like profitability,
what else could you accomplish with the freed up equity,
the financial state of your homeowner's association, Matt, which you
(15:02):
kind of alluded to well, and then whether or not
you like being a landlord. I think that's a really
really important thing to think about, and a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Think that might be the most important thing.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, because we talk about it as a part time job,
not just an investment, unlike investing in the stock market,
just like tossing money and dollar cross averaging every couple
of weeks. And John, you made it sound like the
property taxes this giant thorn in your side, which makes
me want to say, well, hey, you might want to
challenge it if you think it's if it's too high,
if it's unfair. Sure, but I'm not sure. It sounds
like maybe the overall experience of being a landlord isn't
(15:33):
quite your jam either. And if that's the case, and
you're like, should I keep doing this just because maybe
the numbers might work out a little bit better, I
would say probably not. Like, if that's kind of where
your head, where your heart's at, you're probably going to
be frustrated putting in the effort, and there might be
an easier way to build wealth than sticking with this condo.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Totally. Yep. It sounds like he's not into it, not
just from an emotional standpoint, but like literally in his voice,
it just sounds like he's not excited about it, and
like there's a certain amount of salesmanship that goes like imagine,
for you know, you're out there and you're thinking about
going to rent from a place. You show up when
they say to show up, and you're getting getting a
(16:13):
tour of the place, and they're kind of like, yeah,
this is this and this is going on, and they
don't seem excited about the place. Yeah, that would be
a very different experience than like were I to show
up and he's like, well, yeah, here's ol chair's the
view it's beautiful. You can actually see the beach. Sunset's amazing.
The coffee shop one block over is the best in town. Yeah,
here are the amenities that the actual building offers. Like
you kind of go, you go through all the different
(16:34):
things that are you're not trying to oversell it, but
you are trying to tout some of the different benefits
that the place has. Literally, I'm in the middle of
renovating a bathroom in one of our rental properties. Dude,
you better believe when it comes time to show that place,
I'm gonna be like, and now check out this brand new,
brand new. He's got a new tub in here. Hasn't
had a new tub in here for like sixty years.
(16:55):
This is a one hundred year old home, fresh tile
on the walls, new tile on the ground, new toilet, brand,
new plumbing fixtures, yes, chrome, kind of classic, you know.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Going have that is a new Japanese toilet mat with
the sweep a day. Not going that fancy, but maybe
it's easier to clean.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I don't know. I'm not gonna go down that path.
Clean yourself funny here, But again, not to try to
sell a false bill of goods, but to just point
out that, like, man, this is something that I am
proud of, something that you should be excited about. And
I think that excitement and sort of the I even
hate saying this, but you want to have the right vibes,
(17:29):
you know, because like there is a certain part of
it that folks are going to pick up on whether
or not you stand behind this property, and you gotta
want to do it. You gotta be excited about the
actual property. That's I think that could be a bigger
part of running out a place and showing a place
than many folks would give it credit.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah, less, but not least. Just so we're talking about
more the vibeish side of things, It's just important to
note the potential tax liability side. Of things to the
two in fib rule right where if you lived in
the conduct for two in the last five years, you're
not going to tell on the game that you've seen Again,
you made the game sound minimal. I'd go back and
take a look at the numbers. Hey, what did I
pay for? What is this likely worth?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Now?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
But still you know paying capital gains? Will say on
a tax on a gain of thirty grand, that's still
thousands of dollars in tax. You can avoid, yeah, man
by selling before you reach that deadline, which is a
big side. It's not for you.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
It's a big, big deal, especially if you're only pulling
in one hundred more a month. Yeah, in profits.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So and the last thing, have a plan for what
you're going to do with the money after you cash
out at the closing table, right, yeah, because that could
be a significant significant sum of money in your lap
in one fell swoop and you might be like, oh, yeah,
I guess first classic plane tickets to New Zealand are
looking really good right now.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
But they're calling your name.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
They're selling an investment, and I would assume that you
probably want to invest the majority of those dollars in
a different way. Probably and you know the easy route
in an S and P five hundred fund or total
stock mark fund or something like that. So just make
sure you're doing the right thing really quickly with that
money and not letting it linger or.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Tempt you where you're tempted into spending that money. That's right.
So John, we hope that get you pointed in the
right direction. Joel, we've got more to get to. We're
gonna hear from a listener who sounds like he's got
a pretty great plan to eliminate some debt and his life.
Will hear from him and others right after this.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Our Matt, We're more listener questions to hit up. Let's
get to a question now about my account. You and
I have touched on before, but rarely it's a good one.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
Him and Joel. This is Jennifer from South Carolina. Loved
the show and I had a quick question for you.
My husband and I have four boys that range from
ages fourteen to three. Our ten year old has severe
special needs, so we know that we will be caring
for him the remainder of our life. My questions relate
to what we should be doing now to help save
(19:54):
for that. We have retirement planned. My husband has a
four oh one K through his employer. We fully fund
a WROTH and we have an HSA plan. We have
set up five twenty nine plans for our kids when
they were born, and we contribute a small amount each month.
We were considering pausing the contribution to our ten year
(20:17):
old and rolling his into an able plan through the state,
but wasn't sure what your thoughts on that were. Also
thought maybe I should just contribute to the five twenty
nine and roll it into a WROTH when I allowed
to do that. We also have a special needs to
trust set up as part of our essay plan in
case something were to happen to my husband and that
(20:38):
anything else that you know of or can think of
that would help us would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much, Gus.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
All right, Jennifer, first off, amazing job doing everything that
you can now in order to ensure that you are
setting your son and honestly others who might be involved
with helping to take care of him, for less stress
off in the future. Right, So you're kind of you're
front loading that sacrifice now in order to not have
to worry about this as much later down the road,
(21:06):
And specifically, I want to talk about the special needs
trust that you mentioned. For folks out there, this is
really important because if you have a loved one with
a disability, chances are they rely on different government benefits
like Medicaid or Social Security income. Well, those programs are
super strict about how much money or assets someone can have.
And so if you were to just you mentioned you
(21:28):
set this up in case something happens to you and
your husband. Let's say that terrible thing happens and we're
your son to just inherit that cash, right, or if
let's just say you were to hand them that cash directly,
you might accidentally knock him off that very support that
he is depending on.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
All of a sudden, not qualified anymore for some of
those benefits, so he's used to exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, So a special needs trust it fixes that. It
lets you set money aside for their future without messing
up their benefits. And the trust can cover things like
their edge, education, different therapies, but also even fun stuff
like travel or hobbies as well. It doesn't have to
be purely disability related. Uh. And of course I'm certainly
(22:11):
glad to hear that you are taking care of all
of your future investing needs already as well. The four
four one K, you got the ross. You're even taking
advantage of the triple slash quadruple tax advantage. HSA, y'all.
It sounds like y'all are knocking it out of the
park on a lot of different accounts here.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Not easy to do, Matt, It's not easy to do that,
Like check the d all the above box. But that's
what's four boys, right? We were just joking, right, four
not just It's not like you're just saving for the
one with especially, it's like you've got other kids to
get your own retirement to think about, Like that's that's
just uh, that's hard work.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Boys are a lot. We were just joking about how
a friend of ours has three boys. I'm like, could
you imagine him with one more? It's uh, I feel
like sometimes it can be crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Enough you have even more bruises on a shin, you
know exactly, Jeffer. I love that you're considering an ABLE
plan too. I mean these were established almost exact a
decade ago, and their special savings accounts specifically intended for
disabled people. And we'll talk about the benefits for your son,
but ABLE accounts are this cousin of the five to
twenty nine plants. You'll see those kind of interchangeably. Sometimes
(23:13):
of five twenty nine. Able is what you might hear called,
which means you're going to get a state tax deduction
on contributions you make up to a certain threshold in
some states. And so similar to a special needs trust,
an able account for disabled folks and their families allows
them to save and invest without jeopardizing those state and
federal benefits, many of which get reduced if your child
(23:36):
has a certain amount of income in his or her name.
So yeah, kind of like you're referring to Matt, like,
there's this possibility that you exceed some of those and
a lot of those limits are super small, so it's
not like, oh, my kids make If your kids starts
making fifty grand a year, they and all likely don't
qualify for many of those benefits. Or if they're given
a certain sum of money that's that's meaningful, same thing,
(23:58):
and all you need to qualify. The way for an
able account to be able to save and invest for
your son's future is a doctor's letter stating that your
child became disabled before the age of twenty six. If
you meet that requirement, if your doctor's willing to write
that letter, then you're good to go. Like able account
is open and available to you.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
That's right. Yeah, and we are not attorneys. Should we start,
like every podcast with agile that we are not paid
tax professionals and do not listen to our tax and
investing advice. But with a enable account, you do. Those
funds are typically ear are are earmarked more specifically for
expenses that relate to his disability, so keep that in mind.
(24:37):
But similar to a five twenty nine plan, you can
invest those dollars for your child as well, so you're
not just saving money there within that able account, you're
investing those funds and just like we do.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
For our kids when it comes to future education costs.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Exactly. Yeah, man, I've got that fully invested in stocks,
the most aggressive of my investment options because I got
years and years down the d The beautiful part is
that the funds grow tax free. So since your son
is ten years old, you might not be looking to
spend able dollars anytime soon, but when you get closer
to that point that you do want him to have
spending access to his account, consider pivoting towards some different
(25:16):
conservative options there for him. Again, sounds like you're a
ways off, but keep that in mind. But these accounts,
they do come with a debit card that's attached to him,
and so when he's ready to start spending, when he
has a little more autonomy. If that's a position you
find yourself in, it'll make things a little bit easier
to access as well.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
And the cool thing is other people can make gifts
to your child's able account.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Too, So again not unlike a five twenty nine right you.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Might say, oh, this is great, Actually, you might find
that grandparents or close family members are also willing and
interested in helping to stash money into disabled account for
your son as well. You got generous family members, make
sure you let them know. And then also just there's
a lot of fine print this stuff, so make sure
you dig in and know the details. Like Social Security benefits.
(26:04):
SSI benefits can be suspended after hitting the one hundred
thousand dollars threshold in your able account, So a lot
of people suspend contributions and they start spending down some
of that balance once they reach that point to not
put those benefits in jeopardy. By the way, you can
do an able account and a five twenty nine plan,
which you could later roll some of those five twenty
nine dollars into a roth IRA. If you want to
(26:26):
do even more to invest for his future, that would
be impressive. Again, you're doing a whole lot for your
own future. Got four boys saving disabled account. But if
that's something, if you're like, we want to do even
more like you, that's on the table.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
As well, yeah, or even switching things up. So if
you and it partly depends on your focus as well.
I think if it was me, I would be focusing
on the able account if you are looking to supplement
sort of the day to day expenses sort of thing.
But if higher education is in his future, okay, well
that's what the five twenty nine is for, and so
the ability to use that account specifically for what it's designed.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
For, or even especially school that's not college right before
yeah through twelve education that private education, Yeah exactly, So
keep that in mind too, because I mean, it's not
an unlimited amount of money that you can roll over
into the roth I rate.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
So I think I would be focusing on the able
given these specific circumstances. Knowing that. Okay, there's a little
bit of additional room, some more margin over there within
the five twenty nine, knowing that if he doesn't go
off to higher ad, you got thirty five thousand over
there that you can transfer over to a roth, which
of course you can use for any purpose. But Jennifer,
(27:31):
we hope that gives you some some food for thought. Joel.
Let's hear from our next listener. Let's hear from Mike,
and it sounds like he's got a pretty dang good
plan to eliminate some debt in his life.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Hello, I have a question for you on credit card debt.
I have about fifty thousand dollars in credit card debt
at a pretty high rate twenty two percent. I can
have access to a line of credit it's one percent
for six months that I could pay off the credit
(28:05):
card debt. But I can't decide which is better just
to keep it on the credit cards and pay it
off in six months, or would I be paying less
interest on the line of credit that is one percent
for six months.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
All Right, Matt, I just gotta know, I feel like
this could be a yes or a noll answer. Sure
it could be, but there's plenty more to talk about here.
This makes me wonder how Mike is getting a one
percent line of credit that that sounds too good to
be true, and it makes me think that he's got
some organs that he's like signed away as collateral.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
P Yeah, they're going to come after his Yeah, is this.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Like mafia related loan that you're taking out?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Like take out his knees man.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Even an awesome local credit union probably doesn't have rates
quite that good. So I am curious because Mike, if
you really do have access to one percent line of
credit debt debt at that.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Rate, fill me in. I want to know.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, I'm done to take some of that out as well.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, this is speculation, but I wonder if it's like
a family member, you know, like somebody who's just like, hey,
I see what you're doing. Let's uh, maybe there's some
of that going on, because that could be I mean,
like you said, I can't remember the last time. I
mean I don't. I don't think helock even helock rates right, like,
I'm thinking about that. No, Like I'm thinking about the
Great Recession, and that's when rates were basically O two's
(29:21):
and at all time lows at least in my lifetime. Yeah, well,
speaking of that, I mean, we recently talked about the
downsides of turning credit card debt into a helock, and
so I think there were some similarities maybe here, because
you're just you're taking non secure debt, you're turning it
into secure debt, and then not paying your home equity
line of credit comes with bigger consequences than not paying
your credit card bills. So it's not just the interest rate,
(29:42):
is the terms and what you're putting up as collateral,
like whether it's vital organs, right, Like, you just have
to be careful about what you're signing up for because yeah,
there are typically trade offs when you're exchanging one debt
for another. You need to know what the tradeoffs are.
You need to know what the possible downsides might be.
War are you to not pay off that full amount
(30:02):
in six months time? You know, like, yeah, it starts
out at one, but then does it shoot to one
hundred per Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Like the like this is yeah, this is a this
is an interest rate for the first three months, and
then after that it shoots up dramatically. It's like a
pay day loan of sorts.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Who knows well yeah, it did sound like he's kind
of got like that introductory rate perhaps for six months.
But well, let's address that, because I think it's amazing
that he's going to be able to pay off this
much debt in that short of a period of time.
Like for most folks he said, fifty thousand dollars man, Yeah,
like that much debt would take years to eradicate I
think for most folks, and that's often because it took
(30:37):
them years to actually accumulate that debt as well. It
does make me think that Mike has a reasonably high
income and maybe he's just found a way to slash
expenses pretty significantly. Sometimes you are just you're turning a
blind eye to kind of what the left hand is
doing over here. You just focus on the right hand.
Let's just focus on all the spending. But they wake
(30:58):
up and you get that like, wait a minute, this
is crazy.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yeah, fire ald under your butt, and you're like, let's
go exactly.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah. So hopefully Mike is able to maintain that frame
of mind, that state of mind even after he eradicates
that that credit card debt, where he's able to save
and invest, and that's just gonna seriously allow him to
ramp up his wealth down the road, you know, a
couple of years with that sort of singular focus, where okay,
I mean fifty k six months, you're looking at one hundred,
(31:27):
like close to six digits that he might be able
to just dispend, like do what he chooses to.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
A swing net worth.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Oh my goodness. Yeah, that is a fantastic position to
find yourself in, Mike, if you're able to kind of
hold the course even after you eliminate that debt.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I think to that specific question, like would I rather
pay one percent interest on a balance that large than
twenty two percent? Yeah, I think I would, right, I mean,
and I don't think we're alone in that. I mean,
reducing your interest rate. It can be a really beneficial
thing when it comes to speedy debt payoff. But again,
the trade off. You got to be aware of the terms.
If you're attentive, it can work in your favorite Just
(32:04):
like Matt, we talk about balance transfer credit cards. Those
can be a really helpful thing for people who are
incredibly motivated to pay off their debt, and it could
take them from a twenty two percent interest rate. Hey, yeah,
they pay the three percent transfer fee or something like that,
but then they have potentially eighteen months at zero percent
interest to fully eradicate that debt. And it's going to
be really helpful, it's going to accelerate the process. But
(32:27):
you just again have to be aware of your own
human fallibility, because there's a chance you keep that other
credit card around, start spending on it again. Now you've
got you've got more credit card debt than you started with,
and then that lovely zero percent interest rate runs out
and you're up the creek, right, So be careful. And
for instance, with Mike's question here, we're talking over the
(32:48):
course of six months, he pay more than five thousand
dollars extra in interest alone if he's stuck with the
twenty two percent loan versus the one percent loan.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
If you don't want that five k, Mike, just send
it over to the amonom money quarters.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
And that's just a ton of money obviously that he
could keep in his pocket instead. And the downside is, hey,
you don't change your ways. Similar to the balance transfer
thing I just mentioned, you don't pay either of these
loans off with vigor, they both begin to grow again.
And this is just the situation so many people find
themselves in they're trying to be crafty and shift deck
(33:22):
chairs around on the Titanic, but the whole ship is sinking,
and so you've got to really fix the leak before
you even kind of concentrate, I guess on the better
debt vehicle for you, because if you don't fix the
problem that led to the debt in the first place,
then you're just you're following a misplaced priority.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Totally agree, yep. I think this is where it's going
to be important for Mike to do some soul searching
and to figure out what behavioral tendencies that he had
that got him to this place in the first place.
This is I mean, this is a part of just
you know, let's take it a second here to talk
about credit cards, because we love using credit cards, Like
there are awesome benefits that you receive by keeping up
(33:59):
with that, but when you don't keep up with it
and when you are over spending, it can come back
and bite you, bite you in the butt. It makes
me even when it consider like those behavioral tendencies are
what trip us up so oftentimes, and a lot of
times you hear it talked about in regards to investing,
people getting in and out of the market. They get
kind of freaked out by the gyrations terrorists, whether or
not they're legal or not. Well, you know, what's the
(34:21):
What are the supreme is going to do? I don't
know me personally, I feel like I've gotten the behavioral
elements from an investing standpoint, kind of licked like over
over decades now, multiple decades of investing in the market.
I feel like I've proven to myself that that doesn't
spook me at all. If anything, if the market dips
a little bit, I'm like trying to find ways to
maybe throw a little more money in the market while
(34:41):
it's on sale.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Selling your kids used toys, Let's let's do it.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Let's clean house. Yeah, little garage shale, little yard sale.
Take some extra money, let's shove it in the market.
But from a spending standpoint, this is something I keep
thinking about more and more. How is the fact that
I'm spending on a credit card? How does that allow
me to maybe overspend in ways that were I parting
with actual cash that I would be second guessing. I'm like,
(35:07):
how much less would I spend? For instance, if Kate
and I were to go out to eat, if I'm
pulling out my wallet and I'm parting with the actual
actual bills. When I go to the grocery store, I'm
gonna have to fork over twenties and hundreds. Like that
feels different to you rather than just getting the phone.
And it's so satisfying just to do the tap to
pay because it's got a nice little chime. It beeps
(35:28):
at you like, hey, way to go. You did it.
Sometimes it's tricky to tap your phone, but you're a pro.
I mean, you know how to do it. It rewards
you to spend, you know, using the credit card. The
actual devices themselves encourage spending. And so I'm just pointing
out that, like I'm even thinking through maybe there are
ways that I could kind of tighten up our budget,
kind of rain in our spending a little bit, because
(35:49):
that's one where I'm not totally sure how much leashould
we've given ourselves to spend more than we otherwise would.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yeah, I mean that reminds me of our conversation with
Professor jay Z talking about the power of cash and
you and I we're not immune to messing up or
making or you know, just not paying attention in the
ways that we should or spending in a way that
does that doesn't cause us to be quite as thoughtful.
And I think you're right, like that's that's one of
the things he was he was trying to persuade us
(36:16):
in that conversation was the more we use cash there,
the more thoughtful we tend to be about our money.
And I do think I think there's a lot of
truth to that, and I think we just spend on
autopilot in so many ways, whether it's taped to pay,
whether it's auto save on Amazon or whatever site you're
using to buy stuff, whether it's just having those those
marketing emails come straight in and we're like, oh yeah, sale,
(36:37):
let's go for it, click straight through to your favorite retailer.
All of those things are behavioral elements that we have
to be aware of so that we can change to
really prevent credit card debt from rare. And it's ugly
head in our lives.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, man, those behavioral tendencies, that's what trips us up.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yeah, all right, Matt, We've got more questions to get to,
including one about investing in real estate on websites on
the internet, and then one about uh investing for a kiddo.
We'll get to both those right after this.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
All right, buddy, we are back from the break. It
is now time for the Facebook question of the Week,
which is from Nicole. This is a great one because
it's short. She writes, has anyone heard about Arrived? Described
as a real estate investing platform for passive investors? Joel,
have you heard about Arrived? What you think about it? Yes?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
I have departed from Arrived. It's it's a new Scorsese film, Arrived. Yeah,
the long waited sequel to The Departed. Okay, yeah, it was.
It's been a long time so seen it has quite
a while. It was a good one, though.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I wonder my question is why is she Why is
she talking about Arrived? Yeah? You know, like has she
seen advertisements? Maybe it's like a recentcy. It just highlights
the fact that like ads work, Like you see some
and then you think, oh, maybe that's something I should
be participating. Or a friend of hers might be talking
about it, and they're like, well, if they're talking about it,
maybe maybe this is something I should do too.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
You know, I've noticed it more and more in people
who have had some amount of financial success or hard
work and that's paid off where they start to see
their account balance grow and then they're like, Okay, my
net worth has shot up pretty meaningfully. A man, I
feel like at this point I need to take on
a more complex investing strategy. And the truth is like
what's good for the goose is good for the gander
(38:30):
and for a lot of people. For most people, like no, no, no,
you don't really need to reinvent the wheel. You don't
need to go back to the drawing board. The way
you've been building wealth so far can continue to work
for you in the future. You don't need to shake
things up meaningfully. And Arrived is one of these these
crowdfunded sites, Matt. These alternative investment sites are the place
I see people turning and then getting burned. It's one
(38:52):
of those real estate crowdfunding sites that have launched in
the past what five plus years or so, And we
talked on a recent Friday flight about a very similar
site that's not doing so hot. Investors are not happy.
Some have seen really bad returns. Others would have loved
to see dismal returns because all their money I got
wiped out thanks to bad real estate deals that just
completely flopped and rising interest rates, and you know, vacancies
(39:15):
increasing at some of those rental properties. So you and
I we've always said that these crowdfunded investing sites are
not for the faint of heart. You need to know
what you're getting into, and that the projections that are
made on a lot of these investment deals they can
be fanciful. And that might be the nicest way that
I can put it, because some of them are just
completely blowing smoke and they're not really based in reality,
(39:36):
based on rosy projections that are unlikely to come about.
And then at the same time, the expenses are baked in.
They're significant, so that's guaranteed. Yeah, that is going to happen.
But I swear reading through some of those projection statements,
you're just.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Like it almost gets you fired.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Oh, I'd be an idiot not to do this. Yeah,
I should do it right, And that's just a lot
of people again, have gotten burned in these things.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
The sales pitches are great, right, Like, there is a
certain appeal there, and I think they're often attempting to
lure less sophisticated investors who might have heard that real
estate investing is the way that like, that's how you
make the real money, and you got to do it.
You got a juice returns by getting into real estate,
they might, you know, and given the recent history of
the market, maybe they're thinking, Okay, I know enough. I
(40:19):
read the headlines. It sounds like the stock market's overrated.
So they're going to look elsewhere if they want to
achieve financial independence a bit more quickly. But you avoid
the simple steady path at your own peril. And I
will say to talk about real estate here more generally,
more broadly speaking, it is possible to achieve outsize returns
in real estate, but typically you do that by owning
(40:40):
and managing your own properties, which of course comes with
not only a larger time commitment, but also money the
capital that you've got to set aside to be able
to purchase that property. As well, there's more risk involved,
You've got more on the line, there's more at stake,
which is oftentimes how it leads to those higher returns. Yeah,
when you are more direct involved.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
I think it's important to say that Arrived is not
a scam. And many of these these crowdfunded investing websites,
whether they be real estate or whether they be other
kind of interesting markets. Let me say these are not scammy,
they are just not ideal for the average investor. And
when you look at the returns compared to the a
(41:22):
total stock market fund or an SMP five hundred fund,
and when you look at the expenses compared to those
funds as well, there's just not much of a comparison.
Like it just doesn't make much sense. And it is
kind of fun, I guess maybe to be able to
say I kind of own a part of this apartment
complex outside of Nashville, Or it might be kind of
fun to say I own some specialty whiskey on this site,
(41:42):
because not only do I I don't just have it
on my bar. I own the really rare stuff, right,
even if you don't physically hold on to it, like
you have an ownership stake in something that's that's really
rare and fancy, and that can sound kind of cool.
There's nothing seedy about these sites. We just don't think
you're gonna perform. Comes with liquidity constraints in a variety
of fees that are just not worth enduring.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
I thought when you said, uh, it's not scaming, I
thought you were gonna say, but it is spamy, you
know's there's like a lot of yeah, stuff that's kind
of packed in there that it's easy to overlook because
it's packaged in a nice way. There's a lot of pork.
That's like an old school government podcast. We're like shifting gears,
a little bit of Yeah, a lot of pork in
that bill, isn't there.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Roll Well, it's funny when I look at when you
look at some of the graphs, sometimes the only investment
that I've seen that the potentially outperforms the stock market
over long periods of time could be farmland. And there's
even this one place where you can invest in farmland online.
And but when you look at it's called acre Trader, right, yeah,
And when you look at when you.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Even hesitant to even mention it because I don't want
to send folks there, but like it's better to unknown.
Evil is better than an unknown sure, and I'm not saying,
but even actually evil even that.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
I remember the last time I looked at their site
and I was like, wait a second, SMP's outperformed that.
Oh and what is acre Trader?
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Not?
Speaker 1 (42:57):
You know again, not bad people. It's an it's an
interesting thing. I'm fascinated by the fact that it exists.
I do not choose to invest my dollars there because
the fees are much higher than the fees and then
like I have to pay more attention to it, and
my attentions, man is limited.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Yeah, but isn't it fun to say that I invest
in pistachios? Yeah? I on this avocado farm, yatio farm.
It is kind of cool. All right, Matt.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Let's get to a question from listener Teresa. She says,
my twelve year old is about to get paid for
his first job house sitting for neighbors. So I'm going
to open a roth ira for him with Fidelity. That's
where I have accounts and I know their user interface.
Other than making sure to invest the funds and keeping
a log of the job, the date, the amount paid,
are there other tips and tricks from folks who have
(43:41):
done this before?
Speaker 2 (43:42):
All right, First, when she says house sitting for a
twelve year old, does that mean it's like is he
is he like spending the night over there?
Speaker 1 (43:49):
It's like blank check? Or you remember that one?
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Wait was blank check? McAlley Culkin, No, some of the kids?
Which one was that was that Richie Rich? Oh?
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Yeah, that was Richie Rich.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
We're totally digging in the nineties archive. Teresa. I'll say,
first off, the fact that your son is starting at
age twelve, that he's got this job, I think is
incredible because on the financial side of things, that gives
compounding so much time to work. So that's great. But
you said that you are going to open up an
IRA for him. I just read that. That's what you wrote,
(44:22):
which is i'll say, mostly awesome. But let's get him
involved a little bit here. Let's that's that's my call here.
I want you to, well, you're gonna need to open
a custodial account, but let him like actually input his information,
Let let him type in his name, let him click
the mouse, let him be a part of the actual
process here, because I need to be pumped. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There is a certain amount of buy in that you
(44:44):
want someone to emotionally feel, especially with something like this,
and I think were you to do that, he would
be more likely to follow it. He's going to ask
questions along the way. It's going to give him that
buy in. It's going to give him a healthy dose
of financial education along the way. You're not setting this
up for him, and you might be thinking well, he's
the one doing work. But I'm here to say that
even the process of him starting that account, these are
(45:05):
all things that I think are important for him to
learn as well.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Yeah, that participatory interaction.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Engagement, hands on hands on learning.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, exactly, well, and we love that you're doing with Fidelity.
Of course, keep it all low cost, keep it all
under one roof. That makes it easier for you. It's
going to make it great for him, you know, when
it comes to the details. Sounds like you got that covered.
You can't contribute more than he has actually earned, by
the way, so if he gets birthday money or holiday
gift money or something like that, that doesn't count towards
(45:34):
his ability how much he can contribute to the ROTH.
It's all about money that he's made from jobs that
he's doing, like earned income. So make sure that that
is documented somewhere like it sounds like you're already planning
on doing. I'm not sure if you already have funds
picked out, by the way, but f Z Rocks is
Fidelity's proprietary zero fee fund. They have a few zero
fee funds that one's worth considering because it's our total
(45:56):
stock market one. And again we talk about hard to
be lo fees. Nope's is pretty bang awesome too, even better. Yeah,
So just getting started in one of those funds, and
the more he piles into that fund in the coming
years as he earns more money, I think it's gonna
be like a snowball taking off down the hill pretty soon.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
He's starting off on such the right foot, and you're
talking about him not being able to invest more than
what he earns. Well, Teresa, I would even consider, like
dangling a little carrot, consider matching in order to sort
of up the amount that he's able to invest. Again,
you can't go above his actual earned income. But let's
say he's willing to contribute fifty percent of what he earns, Well,
(46:34):
you could let him know, like, hey, you do fifty,
I'll do the other fifty percent, or you can make it,
you know, seventy five to twenty five whatever. But you're
teaching him about matching again, creating more buying in and matching.
That's something that you are mirroring that takes place out
in the real world. Obviously not to that extent necessarily,
but I haven't heard of an employer yet when I
do that, But that sounds nice, But I think the
(46:54):
ability I think when we pass knowledge along to our kid,
so much of it is kind of mirroring and mimicking
some of the situations and the experiences and the decisions
that they're going to have to make off in the future.
And he's gonna want to say, no, I want every
one of those dollars to go to the one wheel
that I've been saving up, because those things ain't they
ain't cheap, or.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
That cool new Lego set that I've been won.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
Or a new switch, you know, like like there's lots
of things out there, but the ability for you to
say no, look, if you invest at least this much,
I'll invest the same amount to get you to get
to your total here of what it is you actually earned.
It's going to take some near term sacrifice, but that's
also a great lesson for him to learn about this age.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
And if you're willing to sacrifice a little bit too,
maybe he'll be willing to sacrifice. And it's that it's
a virtuous spiral. It's a beautiful thing of wealth for sure.
All Right, Matt, let's get back to the beer that
we had on this episode. This one is called.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Solstice sour solstice salad.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Right, Alm Neck Beer Company. We actually get their beers locally,
now we did not, oh really used too for a
while off.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Maybe you picked this one up abroad.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
No, No, this is a local fine, so I'll say
this is it's a sour age in oak barrels with Okay,
listen to this rundown of free apricots apriums, which I
don't even know.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
What the heck that is.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Sounds like an atrium, but I'm assuming the pea, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
Peaches, plums and pluots hopped with citrus spectrum. It's got
all the stone fruit that uses a lot of fruit.
You can imagine. Yeah, but uh, yeah, what'd you think?
Speaker 1 (48:14):
I thought it was incredibly tart like mouth puckering for sure.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
Almost maybe too tar like, Like I feel like I
have less enamel on my teeth now after drinking this
than I did forty five minutes ago. Make sure you
go to the dentist. Make sure I need to do
a little fluoride treatment at home. Yeah you do. I
gotta get like an at home Can you do an
at home fluoride or no?
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Is it fluoride?
Speaker 2 (48:34):
No, that's what they're taking out of the water now right.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
Oh, you can do extra fluoride toothpaste and mouth with
extra fluoride. Yeah, does it say that to you? I
don't know to counter I I don't think it. Taking
flori out of the water has happened in many places though, Right,
there's a whole.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
Lot of yeah empty promises.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Yeah, okay, So from the top this this beer I
thought was yeah, mouthparkingly, mouth puckeringly hour, but really good,
like all the stone fruit to the max. And I
really enjoyed. And I haven't had like a sour that
was like this abrasive in a while, and I was like, man,
it's been a minute, so I've had something that just
(49:09):
punched me in the mouth, and it was it was
kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
I'm getting smacked around over here.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
But yeah, I kind of liked it. I think Kate
would love this for she.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
I don't know what it is. She's taken to drinking
a little bit of apple cider vinegar with the mother
what is it? Brags it's like that naturally from I
noticed that concoction she made. Yeah, she did it at
the beach. Yeah it was weird, but she would take
it is weird. She she takes that and then adds
a little bit of fruit juice, adds some seltzer.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Yeah, creates like her.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
It's like a I don't know, like a diy kimbucha perhaps,
but I think she would be all about this me.
I'm fifty to fifty okay, but uh yeah, it's still
fun to enjoy. I am enjoying the barrel age nature
of it, which I'm always gonna be a fan of
any beer that's that's an aged and oak.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
I think you'd like to live in an oak barrel someday.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
Oh my gosh, honestly, that's like even more reason to
consider getting a sauna. Yeah, like the big barrel kind
that I know you're considering.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
True story. Oh wait a minute, someday.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
Oh say this for another conversation the neighbor. I'm pretty
sure you just said he pulled the trigger on asauna.
Oh really? So yeah, I'll just go to his house. Yeah,
come on, come on over, let's do it. Neighborhood dad,
sauna hangs giant party that I don't want to be a.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
Part of it. All right, all right, that's gonna do
it for this one. Remember, if you have a question,
send it over our way. We'd love to love to
hear from you. Oh and we have a really fun
interview for you on Wednesday. If you're like, I'm making
six figures and it's really hard for me to get by,
then you want to listen to Wednesday's episode for someone
who's doing it on less than forty k and has
(50:37):
been for a long time with a bunch of children
in tow.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
Yeah, it'll be a good one, all right, Thanks so
much for listening, Matt. Until next time, Best Friends Out,
Best Friends Out.
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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