Ask HTM - Medium-Term Investing Conundrums, Naughty Credit Card Behavior, & Vapid Vesting Periods #1051

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 - Credit card no-nos: after getting a $900 welcome offer should I take advantage of one year of no interest?

2 - HSA: what’s the best way of keeping up with medical expenses so I can invest my HSA funds?

3 - 403b: should I participate in my 403b if I don’t think I’ll stay long enough to vest?

4 - Roth IRA: explainlikeimfive, how exactly do I invest in my Roth?!

5 - Medium term investing: is 2-3 years long enough to invest a down payment?

 

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• Knowing your ‘money gear’ is a crucial part of your personal finance journey. Start here. 
• Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
• Join a thriving community of fellow money in the HTM Facebook group.
• Massively reduce your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.

 

During this episode we enjoyed a Twin by Living Waters Brewing! And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money!

 

Best friends out!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to an the Money. I'm Joel. I am Matt.
Today we're answering your listener questions.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, there's nothing wrong with my voice. I know everybody
was worried. They're like, oh, Matt's sick. He sounds hoarse. No,
not the case, just sick in the head. Hey, don't
disparage me here on the podcast. We've got to listen
to questions.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
They can wait till the end of it.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Do it at least, yeah, don't do it while we're
actually recording, Joel, we are gonna hear from a listener
who has a medium term investing conundrum. I feel like
this is this is a classic, but it does have
a slight twist, so we'll get to that one. Another listener,
she is considered. She's kind of considering some naughty credit
card behavior, Joel, something that she's never done before.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
And fifty great credit card. Not quite quite.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
I see who's got the stick in the head and
going on for him? Right now?

Speaker 1 (01:06):
That would be Joe.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
You've never seen the movie, never read the book. No,
listener is considering some of the different vesting periods from
there with her employer sponsored retirement play. We'll get to
that plus more during our episode today. But first, Buddy,
I wanted to ask you a quick little question. I
had a little money saving win recently, and I'm actually
hesitant to share it on the podcast because i think

(01:27):
I'm gonna get blown back from listeners.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Sometimes your your attempts to save money border on asinine,
and so yeah, people.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Are unethical perhaps, well not usually on ethical, but usually
like whoa man that was like pretty cheap and spal
pushing the envelope a little too far. No, okay, So
here's the story my one of our one of my daughters,
she takes she does gymnastics, and she was doing some
sort of maneuver she was I think she was doing.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Like a back bridge kickovers, I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Know something, and her elbow popped during gymnastics, like evidently
the coach has heard it. And she went down like
she crumpled. And she's super tough. You know which daughter
I'm talking about. She like when it comes to physical stuff,
like she's tougher than me, dude, She's like easily the
toughest kid. I think she's tougher than Kate and I
as well. But she was crying. That's when Kate knew

(02:20):
that it was serious because she she hardly ever cries about,
you know, something like that. The folks at the gym said, hey,
go to the specialty children's hospital, which we've done before
and in that case, and it costs a lot of
money though, right, because this is a it's on the
other side of town. So not only is it going
to cost a lot of money to go do this,

(02:40):
it's going to cost a lot of time. But of course,
when you've got a hurt child, you're thinking, this is
what we've got to do.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Sure, they were.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Insisting that we go and do that to make sure
she's okay.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
But by the way, you say this too, it costs
a lot of money because neither you are traditional health
insurance exactly, so as it would just be a cope
typically here man, Yeah, if we make an er visit,
we're paying. So we've done four figures and all like that.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Almost almost not quiet, but we've actually done a similar
visit before and all we did.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Was leave there with a lollipop.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
And I'm saying that, oh no, she's gonna be okay.
And so one of the considerations that was the fact
that this daughter heard her elbow pop again, like right,
when it happened. And so I'm thinking, I think she
dislocated her elbow, and I think it went back in
place almost immediately. But it's certainly why it hurts. But
is it worth actually going through and going to the hospital.

(03:30):
And this is where my brain, you know, as we
start thinking creatively here, which is that we've got a
neighbor who is a doctor, and he's told us before
multiple times, Hey, if anything ever comes up, you know,
bring the kids up here, and I'm happy to take
a look at him. So we finally took him up
on his offer, and he was happy to see her.
Let her in was incredible. Let me talk about I

(03:53):
mean just his like his bedside manner. He wasn't out
of bedroom, just standing there in his house, and he's
just asking her amazing questions, asking her it hurts, what
doesn't hurt? And after five ten minutes, he just says,
I think I think you're exactly right. I think she
dislocated her elbow. No need to go in. Let's keep
an eye on it. She needs to use it. Don't
isolate it, but do be careful.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Blah blah blah.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
You know, maybe don't go quite as hard on the
playground tomorrow throwing fastballs. Yeah, And it turns out he
was right. The next day, she was feeling better. The
day after that, her elbows even was in better shape.
But it's in that moment when they're hurt that you
have to.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Make the call. And that's what's so difficult.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
And I think a lot of times that's for folks
err on the side of better safe than sorry. And
so in this case, do you think that we were
being frugal or cheap to not go to the actual hospital.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
If you had had health insurance, my guess is you
would have gone.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Also, the there's also the cost of time, like it
would have taken hours and hours out of our out
of our evening.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
I get it because like this is this is something
that we run into frequently. Also, these are the these
are the this is the painful side of not how
having traditional health coverage, I mean, the painful side of
having traditional health coverage when you're self employed is how
expensive the premiums are, like thousands of dollars a month
for a family of five, for in your K six
And so we want to avoid that because it's just

(05:13):
prohibitively expensive. Yeah, and as many more people around the
country are finding out right right now this year. But
I guess I think you still took her to see
a medical professional. It's nice to have like a doctor
in your neighborhood who says bring her on by whenever.
And I think not everyone has that, right, but if

(05:33):
you do, like, yeah, I don't know, I think I
would have felt comfortable doing this. So I guess it's
not like you were just like, hey, suck it up,
bite on this, right. I don't know, Yeah, exactly the.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Back in myself because I YouTube did it right, that
would be I think that would be different than would
probably be cheap. I think it also would have been
cheap is if he had never said that we could
do something like that, right. But the fact is, and
we've had neighbors even say, hey, no, you need you
need to go see doctor Joe.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
He's great. He'll totally just like take a look at your.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Kid and make sure that they're okay.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
I think that's probably get him a nice bottle of whiskey.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
That's the we We totally did, and I mean we're yeah,
we're pretty good friends with him and his wife. But
I do think it would have been different too, because
that that's the cheapness. That would have felt like imposing,
imposing your cheapness on somebody else. I think that's when
it would have felt like, oh, it feels like less
of a frugal move, feels a little bit more like
a cheap move if if you were to do that.
But given the circumstances, not only did it feel frugal,

(06:27):
but it just felt very community whole. It felt healthy
on the prairie. Yeah, or like what's the mayberry? You know,
like it just it just felt a little bit more
like stepping into the past, like.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Forty years professionalized and over professionalized in some ways everything
and this is a way, so yeah, lean into if
I bet if you had a question about is roth
ira or something like that, you wouldn't be like, well, buddy,
let's do it, doctor Joe, leave me alone, listen to
my podcast instead, Like, I don't think he would have
pulled that on him. And it sounds like he feels
the same way about serving the people in his namebod,

(06:59):
which I think is awesome.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, And if I haven't let him know that, I
need to just hey, let's talk about financing. I also
think he's doing it right. Yeah, Okay, let's Matt. Let's
mention the beer. We're having another episode. This one's called
Sour Twin. It's by Living Waters Brewing Company. I think
it's called Tower Twin. I don't know the label's kind of.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Twin yeah or twin sour, something like that. Go Beyond Usual.
That must be their tagline. It looks good. We'll give
our thoughts on this one later on. By the way,
if you have a money question, we'd love to hear
from you. You're not You don't live in our neighborhood.
You can't walk up to our front door and I
ask her if you If you do and you're listening,
you can. Matt's available. He'll answer your question anytime, day
or night.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
You know what I just thought of. So with some
neighbors that had told us like no, no, no, you
need to go go talk to doctor Joe. He gave
me a beer. You know Jimmy. Yeah, he's a friend
of yours too.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
He gave me a beer.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
And I am now thinking, because we will talk about
money and stuff. He always jokes about it. I'm wondering
if you wanted us to have that beer on the show.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Oh, we'll bring it in well, I drink it, you
screwed it up.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
I just yeah, I'll need I'll repurchase that beer. We'll
share it here on the show.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
That sounds good. But if you have a money question,
you can knock on mass store. But you can quickly
record your money question on the voice memo app of
your phone. Email it over to us at how to
Moneypod at gmail dot com. It'll take you out of
forty five seconds and hopefully we can take it on
the show next week. Now let's get to you questions,
and let's start with one about credit cards and trying
to maybe optimize your credit card decisions.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Hi, Matt and Joel.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
This is Suzan from Austin. I recently acquired a Chase Inc.
Business cash card. It has a generous nine hundred dollars
sign up bonus, which only requires spending six thousand dollars
in three months.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
I will have no problem.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Hitting that number without making any purchases that I wasn't
already planning to make. Here's my question. The card offers
zero percent introductory APR for the first year, and I'm
considering only paying the minimum balance until it's closer to
the twelve month mark. I figure I can earn about
two hundred dollars by keeping that money in a high
yield savings account. I've hit all the money gears and

(09:04):
am very financially responsible and have no reason to think
that I would spend that earmark money or forget that
the bill is owed. But I haven't carried a balance
on a credit card in more than thirty years, so
it feels very strange to me to consider this. I
hate debt, but I feel like not taking advantage of
this offer is just leaving money on the table.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
So what do you think?

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Is this a smart money move or is there a
downside to the strategy? And is my greed luring me
into making a foolish decision.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Thanks a bunch, Susanne. I love how you are thinking
about this question. First off, the fact that you're talking
about snagging nine hundred bucks for free without adjusting your spending,
I think that is that is a pretty sweet welcome offer.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
She did say I only have to spend six thousand
dollars in three months, and I was like, for a
lot of people that for a lot of that's more
than what they would spend on their credit card.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
That is true, This is a business card though, so
she's got business expense is going there, I assume, And yeah,
they can be really attractive, especially on some of those
business cards.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
People who are listening might be saying nine hundred box, like,
I haven't seen sign up bonuses like that. Where's she
getting this? What is this? And you're right, business cards
often have the most lucrative terms. Typically have to spend
more because your businesses do spend more, and that's why
they they these credit card companies want businesses to sign
up or plastic, but that's why they offer better sign

(10:26):
up bonuses typically too.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Heck, yeah, and Suzanne, she's trying to take full advantage.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Of this offer.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
And given how you handle your money, I am not
worried that you're going to screw this up. First of all,
you're in money. You're seven. You said you haven't had
a credit card balance in like thirty years or something
like that, So it sounds like you are being incredibly responsible.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
You're being very.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Thoughtful, and honestly, this is why personal finance is so personal,
because there are a lot of other folks who might
ask the same question and I would just say no, no, no,
you go ahead and take care of that balance, like
let's not even mess Just take the nine hundred bucks right, like,
don't even worry about optimizing you more.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
On top of that, you're overthinking it.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Go ahead, peeah, yeah, because the stakes are going to
be too high if you screw this up, and they're
gonna those folks would find themselves in a situation where
they don't have the cash on hand right like it
hasn't been earmarked, or they spent it accidentally perhaps, and
then they would be forced to pay exorbitant interest rates
for a while. It could be because even of a
job loss, or maybe even like of an overestimation of

(11:25):
their ability to pay on it when the time finally came.
Either way, for some folks, I would say no, thank you.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
But I don't know.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Man, the way Suzanne's talking about it, I think she's solid.
I think she's got a good game plan here, and
I say go for it.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
She gave us enough of a window into how she
thinks about money, nice little snapshot and her longtime dedication
to handling handling her finances, effectively her aversion to debt
like I feel like I got a really good and
just a pretty short, you know voice memo, A pretty
good peek into what's going on in her financial life,
and so I agree with you, Matta, think she is,

(12:00):
of course the kind of person who can do what
she's asking. She can take advantage and optimize, make a
couple extra hundred bucks on this arbitrage move and do
just fine. But not everybody could. It's also true, by
the way, that for some crummy or financial products, retroactive
interests can be charged, like if you screw it up,
the stakes can be even higher, like on some store

(12:23):
credit cards, and Matt, you remember those like no interest
until twenty thirty five commercials that you'd see for like
local furniture retailers or I guess national furniture retailers. Well,
those are often similar products too. People get really excited
about not paying interest at all on that new couch,
and then they realize when they don't pay it off

(12:45):
before they agreed upon date, there's all this retroactive interest
that gets charged in the price of that chair. It
just went. It just doubled overnight, which is that's what
they're banking on, like oh, interest free, not really though,
for like half the people who buy this thing, and
the fine print that you didn't read, that's exactly right.
That's exactly right. But of course, Suzan, because you're so

(13:05):
buttoned up, you've earned a much longer leash, like you
can make decisions like this because you've given yourself that ability.
Remember though, the day the intro period ends, interest kicks in,
probably not retroactive interest like with some of those furniture plans.
But we would just say, pay the full balance before
that promo expires. That's the key here. I'd set up

(13:26):
a calendar reminder or just go ahead and input the
auto payment now on the website for a future date,
like a week or two before that promo expiration date expires.
Just because I don't know, I'm I can be a
little anal. I want to know sure I'm not running
a foul of that and paying interests.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
She's talking about this from like a facts in numbers
and figures standpoint, so it feels like she is fairly
comfortable with the like the numbers side of things. But
I think maybe there's sort of like the mental point
of view that we should should address. I think there's
like a psychological or an emotional element to.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
It as well.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
So basically, the fact that she even asked the question
makes me think that this might be weighing on her
mentally a little bit. And to that extent, I will say,
like two hundred bucks, yes, it's nice to keep in
your pocket, you know, but is it worth having this
on like in the back of your mind for the
next year or so, just for two hundred bucks, right,

(14:20):
Like two hundred dollars that is like real money. Right,
I'm not I don't want to at all dismiss that.
And for a lot of folks, they might be more
than willing to jump through the hoops. And Suzanne, again,
she's in money, You're number seven, She's got a killer
net worth, and in her case, it may not be
it just may not be worth it at all if
there's a drop of stress that is entering into.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
Her life because of this. Right.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
But on the other hand, maybe I don't know, Maybe
Susanne's a killer. Maybe she's like a soldier. She's got
like a very very much like a general mindset, and
she tactical, yes, yeah, yeah, she if she can very
much divide and separate her emotions from like the actions,
the actions that she is taking. I think I do
tend to lean more in that way, just based on
how she's how she's talking about it. So I don't know, but.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
You always have to weigh their reward verse the risk
and the trade off that you have to give. And
if it's going to be buried in the back of
your head and you're gonna like wake up in cold
sweats and have those nightmares like I didn't pay off
the balance in time? Yeah, Like if that's what If
that emotion is like playing out and working its way
into your everyday life, don't swim it. Yeah, pay it off.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
But like so, like you said, if if you set
the reminder though, and you know that if you pay
it off before it comes to do that, you're going
to be totally fine. Then I wonder if some of
it because she says a word that stood out to me.
She said something about it feeling strange, Yeah, to carry
a balance. Yeah, so I think there's like a I've
never done this before exactly. Yeah, Like it makes me
think that she might be tempted into thinking that there

(15:44):
is some sort of moral failing by carrying a balance.
And what I want to say is that there is
no failure on your part. Like you are not a
bad person. You're not a bad person. If you are
carrying a balance and you're paying interest. That's just the
reality for some folks, and that's the financial situation that
you find find yourself in. But for you, Suzanne, not
only are you caring a bounce, which is fine, but
you're also not paying interest on it for a year.

(16:06):
So maybe it's more just mentally accepting the fact that, oh,
this is something I've never done before, but it's totally fine.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
Not only is it fine, I'm gonna be able to
pocket the difference make an extra twohundred bucks.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Agreed. I love that you pointed out the emotion though,
because sometimes emotions aren't rational, and sometimes like there's something
going on in the back of our brain that's hard
to address, and I think you're right to talk about
how you can possibly address that so you get over it,
but also realize that if it is hamstringing you, and
then it's just not worth two hundred bucks, right, yep.
And Susanne doesn't sound greedy, right, like she's she mentioned that,
Am I being greedy?

Speaker 4 (16:37):
Like?

Speaker 1 (16:37):
No, I don't think so at all. You're really just
trying to play by the complex rules of personal finance
and credit card company incentives, and I too, like to
squeeze as much juice out of a zero percent intro offer,
or at least I used to. I'm just like less
keen on playing the credit card game in general these days,
and I don't know what that says about me. Maybe

(16:58):
we should delve into that more at a future date.
But you know, they offer those incentives for a reason.
They want to get people hooked on their particular credit card.
And the truth is a decent truck of the American
public does and they suffer the consequences. Right, they'd really
like it, Susanne, if you weren't able to pay your
full balance much of the time. They like being able
to charge twenty two percent interest rates. That's not going

(17:20):
to be you, though, Like, you're not going to fall
into that trap that something fifty to sixty percent of
Americans fall into. But I really think the crux of
this question is how much do you value two hundred
bucks versus the impact on your mental capacity? And if
you're like, oh, it's not going to bother me now
that we've talked it through, great, Like save that two
hundred bucks and just make sure you pay off the
balance in time, go full, Go for it.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, I will say that the only potential downside is
credit utilization, because if she's carrying that balance, that's true.
Six thousand dollars is a good amount of money. And
so if you're looking at staying below at least that
thirty percent utilization threshold, that means this car needs to
have a limit of like at least eighteen thousand, which
is pretty it's pretty high up there. But again, maybe

(18:04):
that doesn't matter to her because she's pretty far along.
Maybe she's she's not a first time home buyer and
she's not getting ready to apply for a mortgage on
her first home. But if you are looking at getting
a new debt product, Susanne, and keep that in mind
as well, that your credit score might be slightly negatively
dinged by.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Caring a balance. And if you're like I got an
eight hundred credit score, Matt, I might go down to
seven ninety. Then it's like big whoop, not the big
of deal. Take the two of the bucks, right, which
for somebody like Suzanne, that's probably where she's at, right yeah, ye.
Or we've got more money questions to get to, including
HSA's using those effectively, and also talk about the timing
of investing. How do you know when you should be

(18:42):
an investor or a saber. We'll get to that and
more right after this. All right, man, we are back
from the break. We've got a question here from a listener.
He's got a This is a two for one bagger
which includes a question about PMI. Let's hear it, Hi,

(19:02):
hearty money.

Speaker 5 (19:04):
My name is Jeremy Miller. I live in Rochester, New
York area. I have two questions. First question is I
have a HSA account for my employer. My employer, what's
set money every July? And I use it. I heard

(19:24):
that has tax benefits. Do you supposed to keep you
a seat or how does those walk? My other question
is I think I have a conventional mortgage on my
house and I didn't do twenty percent down, so I
have a PMI it would be a good idea of

(19:47):
prouding to cancel it because I know in my house
for more five years. I think I like this, so so.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
Jo I will say.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Jeremy actually into some brewery recommendations that we kind of
edited out for sake of length for the show, and
he mentioned Mortalis, which is a really great brewery. That's
one we've had. We've had a Mortalist beer on the
show before.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
I think the Mortalist beers that I've had I remember
being great. I also, I don't think I've ever bought
beers that were more expensive persons.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
It's like their most expensive beers in the it's actually
thirty eight dollars or something.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
That's insane. They're good, but I just don't know that
they're like twice as good. Are good if you're just
looking for the best, like Jeremy is. Well, when you're
a high roller like Jeremy, you got to have a
craft beer equivalent. I know, I know that's true. And
Jeremy's looking to do everything right, drink the right craft beers,
make the right moves with this HSA. Let's talk about
HSA's for a second, Matt. It's a brilliant vehicle to

(20:44):
avoid tax, and it is underutilized, Like not enough people
know how good, how epic the HSA can be if
they use it to its full abilities. And so if
you funnel money that you plan to use on healthcare
through your HSA, your health Health Savings account, you can
avoid both federal and state tax, which is lovely. Depending
on what your tax rates are and which state you

(21:07):
live in. That could be meaningful savings, right, And then
HSA contribution limits went up for everyone next year, so
make sure you look that up. Know what you could
stick in there? Something like forty four hundred for individuals
eighty eight hundred four married couples. Don't quote me on that,
but it's somewhere right in that vicinity. And as open
enrollment is coming up for everyone, just don't forget about

(21:29):
your HSA because it can be this great way to
save on taxes in the given year, but it can
even go beyond that too.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Yeah, and the fact that Jeremy is asking about saving
the receipts means that he has planning to use his
HSA his health savings account in the way that we recommend,
which is not using the money that you stick in
for current year's health care expenses in order to invest
that money and to grow up that nest egg. So
this is the perfect account for that because there is

(21:57):
no other account where you can avoid taxes completely. The
moke goes in tax free, it grows tax free, you
pull it out tax free, and not only that, you
get to avoid FAIKA payroll tax as well.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yeah, if you're contributing right directly through your paycheck deduction. Yeah,
it's like it's like quadruple tax, druple.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
Tax advantage which you can't beat. And that being said, though,
keeping some records is incredibly important, which is what he's
actually asking.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
About, right, agreed, Yeah, that is one of those things
where you got to kind of jump through the hoops.
If you want to use the HSA to its maximum potential,
the best thing to do is to take a picture
of every healthcare bill you receive so that you have
a record of it. You want to like digitize those
bills so that you can go back and rummige through
them if you need to. But also when you're taking

(22:44):
that picture, name the file and create like a folder,
but name the file in a way that makes it
easily searchable and sortable. So, for instance, when you take
a picture of a bill that you uh a prescription
let's say cost you twenty eight dollars, include the date,
the amount, and where from like a pharmacy down the street,
blah blah blah, whatever it is. You could even start
a simple spreadsheet too, but honestly, just organizing your photos

(23:08):
in that manner might be enough. Where you don't need
to duplicate and doo a spreadsheet on top of that.
See I would I would even I like the idea
of doing the opposite. I like the like spreadsheet and
not I.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Would still organize the pictures of the receipts like either
certainly by year, if not by month, but giving how
relatively rarely we have medical expenses, they would probably just
be it by the by the year and then keeping
just like having a one pager man like having a
single Google sheet like you said, with the you know

(23:38):
whatever the state medical service was or the item that
you purchased, to be able to have a running total,
because to me, like that is the most important thing,
is to have a running total as to how much
you can withdraw from your HSA without having to pay
taxes on that off in the future. And it's not
I guess it's partially for you to know how much
you can legally pull out of that account without without

(23:59):
paying taxes, but it's also it's mainly for the irs,
because if you were to get audited, it's to show
them that oh no, no, no, I don't need to
pay taxes on this because I have the receipts. The
show that this is this was for a medical purchase
or a medical procedure or service that I am now
reimbursing myself. Right if the IRS comes knocking at your door, Jeremy,
you can say, oh no, look at my record keeping,

(24:20):
and yes, I did withdraw six thousand dollars from my
HSA this year, But look at I have fifteen thousand
dollars in healthcare expenses over the past decade. I just
decided to pull six grand out of it because I
want the rest to keep growing. But I needed that
six k. And that's one of the coolest things about
the HSA is just so dang flexible. So while you're
investing those funds for years and decades to come, you

(24:42):
still have the ability to withdraw them anytime, right after
the after that health care expense has been accrued. So
it's a pretty brad account with a ton of like
not just tax savings, but also flexibility for when you
access the money.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Yeah, and they're apps too. I just think it's worth
mentioning their apps and help you organize your receipts. But
a lot of them charging an annual fee, and I
think the kind of what Matt and I are describing
doesn't cost you anything. It's really not that hard to
implement that.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Really, Yeah, it's not hot, Like I think you're over
complicating it if you go with a separate app to
try to fix this thing. I agree, Man, I agree. Yeah,
I think I've proven to myself how easy it is.
This year is when I started a spreadsheet for our
daughter for her earnings for her sporadic babysitting money. And
it's just so stinking easy, Like anytime she earns some money,
I just keep up with it.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
There. It takes about twenty two seconds.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
It takes no time at all, and a lot of
times it's just copy and pasting the previous entry and
changing the amounts and updating the date. But then I'm
able to just quickly see, oh, this is how much
she's earned this year, which means I know, by the
end of the year, even if she doesn't choose to
quote unquote invest all that money, I can potentially match
to get up to that amount if she wanted to
invest that within her wroth. I R yeah, but it's

(25:49):
so simple, I would definitely recommend it. Jeremy also asked
about PMI and man part of the reason that We're
fans of putting twenty percent down is because it just
allows you to that PMI, that private mortgage insurance all together.
But especially for first time home buyers, I think that
might be a really tall order. It can be a
tough goal, and so instead trying to get rid of

(26:11):
rid of it as quickly as possible is a.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Wive move, is a wise move.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
It'll automatically fall off once you reach a loan to
value ratio of seventy eight percent, But even once you've
reached eighty percent, you can request that the lender drop
it early. And that's whether maybe you've paid down the
balance enough or maybe it's because the home has just
risen in value. And I think for most folks it's
typically like a combination of both of the two. But

(26:38):
either way, trying to get PMI out of your life
it's going to be a big money saver every single month.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Sure, I don't know what average PMI is on a home.
I'm going to make guess like one hundred and eighty
bucks a month or something like that. You're talking about
two grand a year.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Depends on the Yeah, it depends on the home, depends
on your credit score. When you purchase the home because
it can range in percentage yeah, percentage points.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
So if we're talking about two grand a year, I
would be willing to do whatever it took to try
to get out of that. If you feel like you
qualify at this point because you're yeah, one of those
combo has been reached, just know that your lender might
require an appraisal if you haven't reached that seventy eight
percent loan to value ratio just yet. They might make
you pay for that appraisal if you're trying to get

(27:17):
it waived early before you've actually gotten to that point.
But if you're pretty sure that you've reached that point,
and you'd likely you'd likely pay off that appraisal cost
with the PMI removal in just a few months. So
an appraisal might cost five hundred bucks, five hundred and
fifty bucks or something like that. If that's three months
worth of PMI I think it's and you're pretty sure
that you've hit that point in the loan payoff process,

(27:39):
then it's totally worth paying for the appraisal so you
get that PMI knocked off. If you've been in the
house for five years, odds are that you've reached that point.
But it depends, yeah, again on how much you put down,
whether you've been paying extra, and what's been happening in
your specific housing market. But if you're pretty confident you
feel good about that, I think it's worth barking up
that tree, asking your lender and getting that A pre

(28:00):
ordered so you can hopefully get rid of PMI in
the very near future.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
That's right, Jeremy.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
We hope that helps.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
And if we ever find ourselves around the most expensive
brewery in the country, we'll hit you up.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
I'll throw more talus. Joel.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Let's hear from another listener who has multiple retirement accounts
and she's trying to make sure she's making the best moves,
the smartest moves with those different accounts.

Speaker 4 (28:24):
Hey, Joel and Matt, this is Katie calling from the
beautiful Finger Lakes area in New York State. I just
discovered the podcast a few months ago. I've learned a
lot so far from you guys. Thanks so much for
the fantastic content. Really appreciate what you're doing. So I
have a question regarding an old four h three B.
I recently changed employers and my new employer offers a

(28:48):
four h three B plan with a match that I'm
taking advantage of currently. However, the match comes with a
five year vesting period. I likely will not day with
this employee for that entire five year period. So my
questions are, one, do you think that rolling over my
old four oh three B into a roth ira is

(29:11):
the best thing I can do with these funds? And two,
considering I will likely not be able to take advantage
of my current employer's match, should I consider putting a
higher percentage of my income toward another type of retirement investment?
Thanks a lot for.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Your help, Matt. I looked up some pictures of the
Finger Lakes region and didn't realize there are so many
beautiful looking waterfalls up there. It looks like a place
to go in the fall, like we should go when
the leaves are changing someday.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Is that also near Mortalis?

Speaker 5 (29:42):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (29:42):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
That's a good question, I think, so is it? Okay?

Speaker 2 (29:46):
All right, we'll hit up all the above. I think
that's called upstate upstate New York.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
It is? Yeah, okay, yeah, so Katie, we'll let you
know if we make it up. Well, everyone love an
event at Mortalis I love that you you check to
see what the besting period is. By the way, from
your employer, not enough people do this, Matt. This is
a step that people skip. They just kind of start
contributing to their workplace retirement account before looking into the details.
And some employers are less ornery about this, and we'll

(30:14):
have like a one year investing period. But the five
year that's that's like, that's on the long end. That's
the longest I know of, and so it's three typical
five is like, ugh, yeah, it's a long time. It
feels like a little bit of a gut punch. It's
about as long as it gets. Sorry about that, Katie.
To everyone else out there, though, the matching vesting period
and then your likelihood of staying with an employer, it

(30:35):
should impact where like which accounts you opt to save
for retirement inside of, because if you don't actually receive
the match because you're not there long enough, it was
like this mirage right of a match that you were
getting from investing retirement that doesn't actually accrue to you. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah, she's in this wasteland where all the teachers are
because they're not that teaching is I'm assuming she's a
teacher because it's a it's a fourth three be of course, yeah,
but teachers often aren't even though it's very fulfilling work.
The financially compensated probably what they should be.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
So it could be she could be a nurse, like
there's a lesser of potential.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
It needs to be a five ho C three Yes,
but yes, it's a mirage of financial of like a
financial payout, and then she gets closer to it and
then all of a sudden, Yeah, but at least gone,
but at least.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
She realizes that on the front end, so she can
change her habits Accordingly, some people don't realize that. They're like,
I leave after three years, and they don't realize I've
been socking money in, but that match doesn't stick around.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
They don't get those additional employer dollars. Yeah, the way
it works, the investing works. Like your dollars, you get
to take those, of course, but the dollars that your
employer was was pumping in you don't get to keep those.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
That's how it works. But let's start.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
Let's start with the second part of your question first,
which is where should you invest given the reality that
you likely won't reap those matching dollars. Well, our money
gears are in favor of stagging the match of course
before you invest in a roth ira. But because it's
unlikely that you're going to get the match in your
future plans, I would say go ahead and prioritize the
roth ira first, totally, make sure to max that thing out.

(32:07):
And actually, since you are not with somebody, get your
get your match, you can have your cake and eat
it too. Katie, head over to robin Hood because robin
Hood Gold is one of the few non work provided
or sponsored iras that allow you to invest over there
and get a match. So that's like a it's gonna
cost you some money. You have to pay for their membership,

(32:28):
but we're talking about a three percent match on your
IRA contributions and it costs I want to say, fifty.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
Bucks for an annual membership.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
There's or so it's five dollars monthly, fifty if you
pay all at once, if you pay annually.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
So we haven't really talked about that.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
It's been a minute.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Match.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Yeah, yeah, it's been a minute since we've talked about that.
I was really excited when it first came out. Read
the fine print about print because speaking of matching another U. Okay,
so you have to keep it for oh gosh, I
want to say five years the money okay, so the
money has to stay there in the account for five years,
but you only need to actually pay for Robinhood Gold
for one year. Okay, So you keep it for one

(33:06):
year after you make these contributions. That's sort of like
one little hurdle in this. In the second hurdle is
keeping those dollars there within that account for five years
in order to maintain that. So that's the IRA, but
after that starts sticking money into your four three B
at work, I would say up to the match level,
especially if it's with one of our favorite low cost
companies like Fidelity, which manages a ton of four or

(33:29):
three B accounts. By the way, because hey, the reason
you would want to do this is you might end
up sticking around and getting that match after all.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
And so you're saying that.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
You don't think that you're going to be there, but
a lot of life can happen in five years. There
could be all sorts of reasons that cause you to
stay where.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
You are, and then if you did stay, you might
regret not having put any money in the four or
three BE because you're.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Like, dang it, I would have got yes, what you
can't do go back in time? You can contribute exactly.
Just something to keep in mind. She didn't say I
know I'm not going to be there. She said it's
not likely, yes, And so if that's the case, yeah,
proteser roth Ira first. But hopefully you can put some
money into the four or three B and if you
do end up staying there, boom shakalaka, you also get
access to some of those matching dollars.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
That was my nbah styles. Gosh, that was a good one.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
It's been so long since I've played.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Played that a lot back in the day. So, Katie,
if you've got money above and beyond roth max contribution limits,
go back to the four or three B. And then
after that, I would say you could stick more in
a taxable brokerage account. That would give you more flexibility
over when you use those dollars. But you're not gonna
get as nice of a tax break as sticking it

(34:33):
in the four or three B where you're going to
get a tax deduction this year. And then so what
do you do with your old four three B that
was your next question, And it depends you. You offered
one suggestion, but I would consider leaving it put if
it's with a low cost company like Fidelity, right like.
If not and your current one is with a low
cost option like Fidelity, you could roll your old four

(34:55):
h three B into your current four oh three B.
Most employer plans except those rollovers, so that would be
probably what I'd look into if I were you. If
your current four or three B is better than your
old one from a cost perspective, doing that just kind
of consolidates and simplifies things, So that'd probably be where
my head was at.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
You can have multiple accounts. It's just a matter of
staying organized, and it kind of comes down to personal preference.
I guess like I've got multiple I've got iras scattered
across lots of different brokerages, like iras different brokerages, and
you just gotta stay organized.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
They're like, make sure you're from an IRA perspective.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
We have a show here, we got to talk about
the pros and cons of each one. Make sure that
you know they got similar offerings. You just have to
stay organized. Make sure your addresses, beneficiaries are staying up
to date on all those different accounts, because that's something
you don't want to don't.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
Get me started on that right now.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
Oh yeah, just maybe we'll say it for another shot.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
Yeah, Okay.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
One slight silver lining of having multiple accounts is the fact, Katie, like,
after you've done this for maybe a couple of decades
and like you could have some like a serious nest
egg saved.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Up, and there is a slight risk.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
That you're able to mitigate by having multiple these accounts
with multiple brokerages. Because of the SIPC insurance, it's limited
at five hundred thousand dollars, and so you might be thinking, yeah, okay,
that's a ton of money it's going to take me
forever to get I'm just saying there's a slight chance
that were something awful to happen with some of the
different brokerages due to fraud or something like that. Security

(36:22):
stocks that you have that you're invested in are early
backed up to five hundred thousand dollars. So just a
small little thing. And I even hesitate even bringing this up,
so yeah, let's just move on. It's a small, small thing.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Probably the bigger thing is what are the costs at
that is easily the fun costs at the brokerage that
you're doing business with, and if you're like, well, one
of them is like with an insurance company and the
costs are like kind of high, and then the other
one is with one of the low cost good guys
that Matt and Joel talks with Vanguard's. That's what I'd
want to be with then, right, so just I would
probably let that be the tail that waxy dog. Here

(36:55):
is the costs, and then try to put everything into that.
And then Katie also mentioned by the way direct rollover
is the way to go, so you're not creating a
tax problem for yourself. You also asked about rolling over
your four or three B into a roth ira, and
I love the idea. Right, if your four to three
B is a wroth four or three B, turning into
a roth ira can make a lot of sense. If not, though,

(37:17):
you'd tax because you wouldn't just be talking about a rollover,
you'd be talking about a conversion from a traditional to
a wroth. And there's a lot to consider before you
make a move like that, like your current income, your
likely future income. You're because if your future income is
going to be lower in a few years. Then you
might want to do it in a year where your
income's down the amount of money in your four or

(37:38):
three B. If we're talking about two hundred grand like,
then you could create a serious tax problem. If you're
talking about five grand, then the tax implications are minimal.
Run the math on the tax that you'd owe before
turning traditional four or three B dollars into roth IRA
dollars if you think it makes sense. After doing that,
make sure that you have the cash on hand to

(37:58):
pay the higher tax bill. On the bright side, you'd
never owe tax on those dollars again, which is kind
of fun, but it also might not be the most
optimized choice because you're usually looking probably for like non
working years. Even in that recent conversation I had with
Cody Garrett, in those early sixties is often the time
where you want to be rolling over some of those

(38:20):
some of those funds. You kind of want to find
this strategic time to reduce your overall tax burden.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
That's right. And of course she could roll over like
a quote unquote traditional four three B to a regular
IRA or a traditional IRA, but then there's not much
benefit there. Assuming she's with a low cost provider. It's
basically kind of the same thing, so something to consider.
But Joe, we've still got that medium term investing question
to get to whether or not this individual should invest

(38:47):
those dollars. We'll get to that more right after this.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
All right, we're back. Let's get some more money questions.
This one, it's a Facebook question that week comes from Jessica.
She says, explain it like I'm a child. I have
a Fidelity roth Ira account. How much of it should
I invest? And into? How many different funds or stocks
should I split it? Lastly, how often do I need
to be doing this? Do I just add new deposits

(39:18):
into the same investments or do I constantly buy new ones? Help? Matt,
you're good at explaining things to children.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
I think I tend to over explain things to my children.
First of all, they're like, Dad, we get it. Jessica,
I want to just highlight here that it sounds like
you're doing great. You've opted to invest via Fidelity, which
is a brilliant move. I think that's going to pay
off handsomely for years to come, for decades to come,
thanks to they're incredibly low costs. But onto these specifics

(39:46):
you should invest all of the money. If those dollars
have been funneled into your roth ara, I hope that
means that you're you know, you've got no need for
it in the coming years or even in the coming decades,
and that you've got savings on hand for some of
those those ne some of those medium term savings goals.
And so because of that, there is no reason to
leave any of those dollars, let's say, in a money

(40:07):
market account or automatic sweep fund or something like that,
or to try and slowly, you know, get it into
the market. Instead, I would say to invest the whole
sum immediately. It makes me think about I was trying
to think of like an analogy, and I guess given
the fact that the other listener was talking about being
in the desert or the mirage or whatever with the
vesting it, it makes me think about water. It's sort of like, Okay,

(40:31):
the dollars that you've put into your wroth ira, that's
like filling your your nalgene bottle with water or you're
what's it owala? Those are the new bottles which have
killer colors.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
By the way, I still go with my old old
school analogene.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
So those are putting the water into your bottle, into
your water bottle, that's like putting your dollars into your
wroth ira. But then what do you do without water? Well,
you need to actually drink the water in order to
receive the hydration that the benefits of staying hydrated.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
Otherwise you can still die of.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Heat, eggs exposure. Right, and so in a similar way,
if those dollars are just sitting there in your roth
ira and you haven't actually not ingest the water. But
we're talking about investing funds, here we go, it's working.
You actually have to deploy those dollars and put them
to use. Does that help to explain it to like
like a case think so just as.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
A child here, and this is a position that many
anomous investor had found themselves in. They hear roth ira
and so, and they hear low cost, and they open
up the account and they stick the money in, but
they don't take the all important step of investing those dollars.
They come back years years, years later and they're like,
this should have grown. I've seen the market ripping. Right,
supposed to.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
Be what happens when you put money in a.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Wroth ira and those are some of the saddest stories
to me is the people who did all the right
moves except for the one move, the last moved, the
last bit right. You actually drink the water. Yeah, you
actually invest those dollars. And that's because you want your
money working for you. If we look at history, the
sooner you get the money invested, the better. But then
you asked about how many funds or stocks should you pick?
And I guess my answer would be probably not many,

(42:06):
And that is a sign I think that question comes
from a place where Wall Street has over complicated things
for a whole lot of individuals. They made it seem
like you have to do more than you actually do
in order to be a successful investor. So much depends
on your age, Jessica, how long you plan to not
touch your investments. We love like total stock market and
s and P five hundred funds because they're pretty diversified

(42:28):
and they're really cheap. But both of those are for
folks in the wealth building phase of their lives. So
if you're in that phase where you have many, many,
many years to allow those investments to grow, they can
be a great one stop shop. And it's just a
super simple choice to make that purchase inside of your
roth ira. If you're getting closer to needing the money,
or you prefer to take a less stock heavy approach,

(42:50):
Target date funds can be a solid choice too. Those
are that's typically the realm that we stick to when
we're offering our thoughts at least on what you should
invest in. But so much if it comes down to
your goals, your risk tolerance, your timeline. But I just
think having like a slew of funds just over complicates things, yep,
or the average DIY investor.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
Yeah, Oftentimes, I think the more complex that folks make it,
the more individuals tend to tune out, which is why
I want to try to keep this explanation to a minimum,
because that's when my kids start starts, start training out.

Speaker 5 (43:23):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Yeah, but the cool thing is that the simple choice
is often the most ideal one as well. But from
a frequency standpoint, you should probably be sticking money into
that roth ira on an annual or a monthly basis. Annually,
if you've got the full contribution on hand, if you've
got that full to the limits amount available on January, first, take.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
It to the limit, as the Eagles said.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Otherwise, as you acquire those dollars and you have that
money on hand. Just setting up a recurring contribution every
single month, that is a great way to go. And
then yes, immediately invest those contributions every time you make them.
Maybe the water analogy can continue jol throughout the day.
It makes a whole whole lot of sense to sip
the water periodically. Although no, it kind of falls apart

(44:06):
there too, because in money, if you drink it all
at the very beginning, that would be the better way
of doing it, because history shows that markets do tend
to go up and said, the longer you are invested,
the better. So the analogy does fall apart. Actually, well
you could beause you can't just feel like your water
bottle at beginning of the day, chug the whole thing
and expect to be set to be hydrated for the
rest of That's not the optimal result.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
That's a good point. Yeah, I mean the analogy was
bound to explode a point, but it did what it
was supposed to do. It did enough heavy lifting, and
hopefully that helps Jessica figure out how to use her
roth I rate effectively. Jessica, You're on the right You're
on the right path.

Speaker 5 (44:39):
I work.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
I'll work on it some more. It just needs something polishing.
You got this water analogy go back? I bet Chat
GPT can help you polish us up chat polishize.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
I mean it's good. Yeah, I see her eyes. All right,
Let's get to another question. This one comes from anonymous
who says, is it is two to three years a
enough time to invest? I've around twenty five thousand dollars
in capital in a savings account, getting a three and
a half percent return, planning to use that money for
a down payment for a rental property in about two
to three years. Should I invest it or leave it

(45:13):
in the savings account?

Speaker 2 (45:14):
What do you think?

Speaker 1 (45:16):
These are the tough ones?

Speaker 2 (45:17):
What are you gonna what are you gonna recommend?

Speaker 1 (45:18):
I mean, the reason this is tough is because it's
medium term. And if we're talking about Hey, if this
poster had said I have one year, what do I do?
I feel like the answers pretty obvious. Savings accounts make
the most sense.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Slam dunk.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
If they said I have five plus years, then I
think the answer is pretty obvious, and I think it's
also dollars also, slam dunk. Two to three years. Man,
this is where it gets tricky and it's like, I
don't know. I think this is where you have to
again like understand your own risk tolerance, because if the
market is down, are you willing to wait longer for
a recovery? And because if you've lost them in that capital,

(45:56):
it's going to be hard to stomach pulling that out
in order to do that real estate deal. Well, if
that would be a huge, a huge, insurmountable problem for you.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
If you could live with that kind of setback.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
Then I don't think you can be investing the money.
So it's helpful I think to also look at history.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
So over a random three year period, when you look
back at the history of the stock market, you have
a roughly nine to ten chance of the market outperforming
your savings. Over a two year timeline we're talking about,
that drops down to seventy five percent chance to outperform.
So these are the kind of factors you need to
take into account, because, man, it would be nice to

(46:33):
grow that capital so that you have a bigger down
payment available for that investment property purchase, but it's not guaranteed.
And the fact here too that it's for an investment property.
I think my opinion as to what the answer is here.
Hinges on that because if it was for a personal residence,
I would say, don't take the risk, just save up,
put it, put it in savings, get the guaranteed interest

(46:56):
rate from your bank. But what's the whole point of
getting an investment property to grow your net worth? And
what is investing in the overall s talking market?

Speaker 1 (47:04):
It's just to grow.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Your net worth. And so on one hand you kind
of have like a life goal lifestyles, it raises more
of those kind of questions, And on the other hand,
it's just I want to grow my money. I want
to be able to grow my wealth so that I
have more options off in the future. I think that's
a good point. And with that in mind, it's just like, Okay,
we'll stick that money in the market in two or
three years, let's see how your money's doing. If it
does really well, great, you've got more money on hand

(47:26):
to then either put towards real estate and you got
more money. Or you can say, man, it was really
nice to be able to not have to do anything,
to sit.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
On my hands and watch my money. Girl, I watch
it girl automatically. Oh man, it's a Saturday.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
You know what I don't have to do right now
is a go show that empty property to a bunch
of folks who are going to be interested in getting
for So it kind of it comes down to what
you're looking for in life.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
If your goal, let's say, though, is to maybe.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
Outperform the overall market, and you're looking let's say you're
looking for income diversification, Okay, well it sounds like the
investment property might be more more of a priority. So again,
it kind of comes down to what your priorities are,
what you're looking for your life to look like off
in the future.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
I think last thing worth mentioning is sometimes we talk
about these money choices as if it's all or none
save or invest, and the truth is you can split
the baby here. You can do some of both, and
you can say I'm gonna leave half of it in
a savings account, I'm going to put the other half
in full one hundred percent stocks, or you can even
say I'm gonna put it in a more risk averse

(48:26):
investment choice. Array of choices, so it doesn't just have
to be all in on savings or all in on investing.
You can do a little bit of both, and yeah,
you're you're like protecting yourself from a downside risk, you're
also limiting your potential upside. But if this buying this
rental property in let's say three years time at the
max is super important to you and losing much capital

(48:49):
or any at all would be a huge downer, then
I think maybe splitting the difference here and going have
these could make some sense too. Yeah, I like it
all right, Let's get back to the beer math that
we had on this episode. This was from Living Waters
Brewing Company. It was a twin sour. It was a
sour eale brewed with cranberry, marshmallow and vanilla. Bro What

(49:11):
did you think? I liked it? Man?

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Were you picking up much vanilla because of the cranberry right?

Speaker 4 (49:17):
Like?

Speaker 2 (49:17):
You got the cranberry tartness going on?

Speaker 1 (49:18):
I can.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
I definitely feel that, and even the kind of like
the marshmallow smoothness and kind of like add some of
that depth to it. But vanilla made me almost think
that there's going to be some sort of I don't know,
it's gonna.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Be more of like a treat.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
I don't know, creamer. I just wanted to almost expected
it to be creamier.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Yeah, I feel like I picked up a little bit
of that vanilla in the flavor profile, and I gotta say,
like I the cranberries were more muted than I thought
they were gonna be, but in the perfect way. Yeah,
and I love this one. Yeah, I really liked too.
I thought it was incredibly smooth, and it's one of
those where typically I thought it wasn't as sweet as

(49:55):
I thought it was going to be, which I was
a little worried about with like vanilla and marshmallows, and yeah,
soon this is this thing going to be. Maybe that's why.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
Yeah, I didn't notice the vinila as much, but maybe
I see that as like a good thing.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Yeah. Yeah, So I like this one more than I
thought it would because cranberries also aren't my favorite fruit
and a beer, but it still startness to it. Yeah,
they rocked.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
It gots me got me thinking about Thanksgiving coming up.
A little bit of cranberry sauce. You know, this reminds
me a good bit of Athena, which is a beer
by Creature Comforts, one of a favorite local beer. But
it's kind of got that kettle sour vibe going on
as compared to like a more funky barrel age sour
where there's some of those more tawar natural yeasts and

(50:34):
other things that make it funky, whereas this it's got
tartness from the cranberry, but it doesn't have that funky
ooh what's going on here? It doesn't have like that
sharpness that sometimes you equate with cheese, right, right, because
some sometimes with cheese there's typically giness going on.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
The barrel aged sours are more interesting, but this one
still had a lot of a lot of flavor, interesting
notes in a beer that was easier to make right
than some of those barrel aged ones.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
So, yeah, I've.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
Never had a beer by this brutally Nashville.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
Yeah, I don't think I have either, all Right, we'll
have to try more other stuff. Yeah, keep an eye
out for them. Also, it's always a plus when the
color of the beer is the same color as the label.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
I really like that because.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
It gives you, it prepares you mentally for what's coming up.
What you don't want to see is label a.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Soft pink que right.

Speaker 5 (51:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
What you don't want to see is like a label
that looks one color and then for you to pour
a beer and it's like the complete opposite.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
Yeah, that's like a black label for an IPA that's startling,
or a yellow label for us out, Like, come on,
don't do that.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
Yeah, don't.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
I don't want to pour no green beers. You know
that's not too green a green beer ever. All right,
that's gonna do it for this episode. If you have
a money question, we would love to hear from you.
Just record it, send it over our way. Hopefully we
can take it next week on the show. You know what,
We'll put links to some of the stuff we mentioned
up in the show notes as well, and there's all
all good stuff on our website. So go play around,
mess around, have fun. Totally.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
I'm just full of affirmations. All right.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Until next time, best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.