Ask HTM - When to Ditch an Old Car, Dropping Escrow, & Investing via an ESOP #928 - How to Money

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt and
today we're answering your listener questions. That's right.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm joined by my colleague Joel Larsgard today on the
How to Money podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
My friendsday more. Now we're colleagues, We're colleagues and friends.
That is true.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
No, we are going to hear from multiple How to
Money listeners today.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Listeners wanting to know when he should ditch an old ride.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
We're gonna talk about escrow accounts, the good, the bad,
when we think they're ugly. And another listener is wondering
if he should take advantage of an employee stock ownership
plan to what extent should he be going all in
on that. We will snap share our thoughts on those
questions and more during today's episode.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Toddy good, Yeah, I look forward to it.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Joel, I've got a question for you. As we've talked
about on the show, we are adding onto our house.
We're doing a little bit of reconfiguring of certain rooms
to turn them into bedrooms for all the kids that
you know, all that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, and as the west wing of the house, does.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
I call it no, no, you Actually it's funny because
last year, at some point you correctly called it the
east wing.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Okay, is it the east Wing?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
And I was going to you're right, and I was
going to criticize you for making it sound like I'm
like building some sort of like mc mansion or something
like that.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
But I couldn't.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
I had to catch myself because you were actually accurate
when it came to the cardinal direction, and so I
chose not to correct.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
You that time. Now you can be able to get
you this time. It's not the West Wing. Did you
ever watch that show, by the way, No, I didn't. Yeah,
people loved it.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
But as you know, when you renovate a home, there
are so many decision decisions that you have to make. Yeah,
oftentimes it's like the opposite of an Aldi.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yes, absolutely, And a lot of times it's about fun
things like what kind of tile you want to pick out.
But recently I've need the toilets and you're like, just
I didn't know there's so many toilets out there in
the world.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Please stop this.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
I want to get the kind that allows you to flush.
It's got a little infomercial and there's twenty five hot
dogs in there on, which.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Is something I do regularly.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Seems like it might be valuable actually with younger kids,
depending on what they end up throwing down there. But
not only can there be decision fatigue when it comes
to fun things like that, but when it comes to
energy efficient options as well. Specifically, I have found myself
going down this rabbit hole of insulation and how much
should I spend on insulation?

Speaker 1 (02:28):
How energy efficient? How green of a home?

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Am I see going to make a home that's lead
certified or or something like that.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
I have to start from scratch for that.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
But specifically I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons
between like open cell spray phone insulation versus like more
of the premium lexus closed cell spray poam insulation. And
I just don't know where to draw the line. Well, okay,
what would you What advice do you have for me?

Speaker 1 (02:54):
So I guess question comes down to what's the cost,
and then what are the likely savings going to be?
And I guess there's the other thought process of does
it increase the comfort level that you're able to enjoy
your home more? So people would say yes to all
of the above. Okay, So people will it does cost more,
roughly twice as much in the specific instance, that's a
lot more. The insulation factor though, it's literally two times

(03:17):
the r value. Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
And as far as comfort, like how comfortable, Yeah, it
will be a more comfortable space if it's better insulated, well,
you get the tax credit on the full amount. Either way,
you go, Oh, that's a good question. I will say
I have been keeping up with the receipts from the
contractors in order to take advantage of the green tax credits. Actually,
we did an entire episode when these green tax credits
first came out. We didn't make sure to link to

(03:39):
those or where it is that you can find those
in the show notes, but maybe so that maybe this
is a quick tip for everyone. Hopefully you have your
receipts if you made any improvements, let's say, to insulation,
new windows, maybe more energy efficient HVAC last year in
twenty twenty four, but if you're planning to make some
upgrades or expenses that you might incur to your home
this year, will certainly, yeah, make sure to hang on

(04:01):
to those receipts in case you need to document any
of that for the irs when you are filing your
twenty twenty five taxes.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
I tend to think that energy efficient upgrades are underrated
and that spending a little more on the front end
makes more sense because it will make your life more
comfortable and it will reduce the overall amount of money
you spend over the long term. And especially if you're
planning on being in that house long term. Well that's
another consideration. Yeah, how long do you plan to be

(04:28):
it'll fancy in stallation if you're planning on selling it
next year.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
But if you're not going to recoup those costs, man right, Like,
you might get some of it back if you tell them, hey,
by the way, a little, but yeah, not nearly, not nearly.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Dmail.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
But I think about that home when we moved in
and the owners they dropped a ton of money on
encapsulating the cross space and they put like the nicest
dehumidifier down there, and I took all that into account.
When they're like, you know what, we're not home owners,
don't they willing to budge on the cost.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
I think you and me we're like real estate investors
and we've been buying homes for a long time now,
and because of that, I take those things in a
consideration too. But I think most people going through a house,
especially a first time home buyer, encapsulation cross spare as much.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, so, like you said, if there are years decades
worth of being able to recoup the costs in this instance,
I mean, I do think it makes more sense, But
at some point you still have to draw the line, because, like, man,
I've come across these different resources online, especially on YouTube,
where these guys are like they make these amazing homes
and there pretty much isn't a line that they haven't crossed,

(05:30):
Like they just keep going and going and going, and
how energy efficient they're making these homes. And you're gonna
get those Tesla roof tiles too while you're at it. Well, dude,
this one guy I follow, he literally created a regular
roof like you would expect on a house, but then
he put it like a roof on top of that roof.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Essentially, he was like an umbrella for the house.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
And the r value essentially was like over seventy when
it came to And he's I think he lives in Texas,
and so for him, I'm guessing his AC kicks on
for like fifteen minutes in the morning and then it's
fine for.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
The rest of the day. Amazing one. In his case,
that's what he does for his living. And this gets
to I think, just when we're talking about new builds
in this country, it would be nice to see builders
take that more into consideration on the front end, because
it's so much cheaper to build the energy efficient house.
Maybe cost three or four percent more to build it originally,

(06:16):
but then it's going to save the person who lives
in it tons of money every single year for decades
to come. I would love to see kind of just
more value placed on that and more marketing behind that
builders do prioritize. Yeah, because as.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Opposed to the builder saying, well, no, man, that's my
three four percent margin, right, you're talking about the costs here,
the margins aren't super thick because I'm.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Willing to pay three percent more if it means I'm
going to save a ton over the.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Long Absolutely, I think that's a much better way of
thinking about home ownership.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, but good luck in your insallation decision. Thanks man,
And I hope you don't overdo it, but I hope
you hope you also like take the right tack that's
going to save you the most money over the long
home the Goldilocks approach. Yeah, all right, let's mention the
beer we're having on this episode. It's called super Volcano Sauce.
It's by Aslin Beer Company. We'll give our thoughts on
this one at the end of the episod. And if
you have a money question, we'd love to hear from you.

(07:02):
It's the beginning of a new year. Matt First listener Question,
episode of twenty twenty five, and maybe we can take
your question next week on the show. Just got to
how tomoney dot com slash ask for simple instructions for
how to record that voice memo. Email it over to
us mail. Let's get to a question specifically about upgrading
a car. What does it make sense?

Speaker 4 (07:21):
Hi, Joel and Matt Tyler from Utah here. How do
you know when it's time to give up your old vehicle?
My wife and I bought a two thousand and one
Chevy S ten back in twenty sixteen from her grandparents.
It only had about thirty thousand miles on it and
we paid them about forty three hundred for it. Aside

(07:42):
from regular maintenance and oil changes over the years, we've
had to put about fifty one hundred dollars into it,
and then finally in March of this year, the head
gas get blue and I was told it would cost
around twenty three hundred dollars to fix it. I considered
it to be driven into the ground at that point
decided to put it up for sale. It had about

(08:05):
sixty seven thousand miles on it and I was able
to sell it within a couple hours for about twenty
one hundred I then bought a new car for about
ten times that price, but I digress paid cash for it.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
But what do you think?

Speaker 4 (08:19):
Would you have considered it driven into the ground or
would you have paid that twenty three hundred dollars Being
that it had so little mileage on it for the age,
I often wonder how long it could have last me
if I did those repairs and kept it around. Thanks
for the show and all you.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Do, oh mate, Tyler had the best vehicle out there,
the grandparent vehicle.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
That's like what everyone wants when my gosh searching for
a new Ye's vehicle today. That was coddled.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
It was taken care like it, you know, like how
many miles are they putting on it every maybe they're
only driving it like once or twice, so maybe they
have to put on the calendar on Sundays. Let's get
get the car out there to make sure it's not
I don't know what happens to the fuel when it
says too long it starts to separate or something.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
It's good when the gasoline starts going bad.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
That I was talking to someone the other day. I
think they have like a two thousand and eight or nine,
and I think she said she had fifty five thousand
miles on or something. I was like, you don't drive
almost at all. That's incredible, So I have your car
when you're done with it.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Oh seriously, this makes me think of like literally Kate's
I see some old friends of ours who you also know,
but they were in the market for a new vehicle
when Kate's grandparents at the time were getting rid of
there to you hat to Prius and oh my gosh,
I remember thinking I wish I was in a position
to need a second vehicle because they got I mean
a fair deal on it. But this vehicle, I mean,
it was in such great condition, low miles. And the

(09:42):
reason it's on my mind is because over the recent holidays.
I was talking to him and a tree fell and
crushed the thing, and they're like, you know, it's.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Total's the toughest thing is because like an older car,
even when it's got low miles, like you're not going
to get your it's more you value it more than
the insurance company values. Indeed, yeah, we'll see if that
has an impact on what answer you give to Tyler
as to whether or not you should have held or nudgele.
All right, so let's talk about this. I mean, when
do you get rid of an older vehicle? That is
a question, and I think some folks do it prematurely,

(10:12):
often because of like a minor repair, right, something comes
along and they're like, oh well, I don't really want
to drop two hundred bucks into this into this car.
They kind of get tired of their old, crusty ride,
and that is why they make a decision to plow
a bunch of money into a new vehicle. But that
car often has a lot of life left in it.
And I think too it's important to mention there's nothing

(10:33):
wrong with upgrading if you want something newer and you've
got the cash to do so. It's just that a
lot of folks tend to do this out of boredom.
Their cars not as shiny as it used to be.
Maybe it's got a few things and dens, and they
just they don't have the cash on hand to make
that upgrade. So I just want to prevent it or
help people avoid taking on car debt. That sinks a

(10:54):
lot of financial ships out there, and I don't want
Oh yeah, I don't want that to happen to you.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Are you financially prepared to get another vehicle, because financing
that next car like that is the real problem, because
that repair sounds expensive when you're hit with something like that,
but they haven't compared it to what all their payments
are going to be for the next six or seven years.
And oftentimes that fix costs the same amount as just
like one or maybe two of those monthly payments. And
then if the car is in solid shape after that,

(11:19):
I think it makes sense to keep it on the road,
at least from a financial perspective. Actually, we had an
email the other day from a listener and he chalked
a good bit of how he was able to hit
his money gear number seven by not having a car
payment since twenty sixteen, it's almost almost I mean a
full decade of no car payments. In the funneling those
dollars into retirement accounts, investing those dollars, I mean, oh

(11:42):
my gosh.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
I think people compounding there, they don't give that enough credit.
They don't give that one thing enough credit. I think
it's one of the biggest line items in our budget.
The longer we can go without having any sort of
car payment in our lives, paying cash for the less
expensive car, holding on to it means we're going to
save on insurance, means we're going to save on taxes,
all the above. And yeah, you might pay a little
more in car repairs, but you're right, Matt, compared to
the monthly payment you're going to take on by upgrading,

(12:06):
it's paltry typically in comparison, true.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
But in Tyler's case, it wasn't probably just a one
month yes worth a payment. It was a little bit
more exactly.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah, I'm gonna say I think Tyler made a reasonable
decision here. It's one thing to ditch a twenty five
year old car because it needs an oil change or
a break job, something that's just kind of standard. And yeah,
a break job is kind of expensive these days, like
what four hundred bucks? I think last time I had
to get new breaks in Rotorsterns.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
All relative, Julie, sound like the old man talking about
how expensive everything is.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Is I mean an old change. Sixty dollars for an
old change is too much. But I'm not wrong, am I?
But I think it's another thing to ditch the car
because of a busted head gasket, which is an expensive fix.
And so when the fix costs just as much as
the value of the car, that's that's where the rubber
meets the road and car pun intended, Matt, and that

(12:55):
that becomes I think, a really reasonable decision, even if
it means jumping into a newer car. I think, you know,
some folks would even say that if the cost of
the repair is half the value of the car, then
it's worth looking into selling it. And I think you
are entering this gray territory where you kind of have
to weigh your options there and you can kind of
go either way. I do think in Tyler's case, he
got a lot of use out of that cheap, reliable car,

(13:18):
and it sounds like moving on was likely the right
decision in this case.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, and I'll talk about the alternatives to get the
regrets though, by the way, oh yeah, totally yeah. Well,
especially in his question he said it was gone within
a couple of hours, that would have been a oh
maybe I price this thing either too low or maybe
I should have held onto it. But going back to
the alternative, which is what it is that he got instead, like,
he saved up and paid cash for that new car,

(13:42):
and even though it wasn't cheap, you know, he still
spent less than the average price of a used car
and far less what a brand new car cost. So
I think the car that he got to replace it
was reasonable, and you know, he might have saved more
money over the next couple of.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Years had he repaired the old.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Truck, but it is impossible to say, especially given the
fact that it was a Chevy pickup truck. It's I
think the make and the model should come into play
a little bit too, because I said Toyota Tacoma, Yeah,
or like a Toyota Siena, or a like a Honda
Civic or Honda a Cord.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
I would feel differently about it because we've.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Got an old Odyssey like your family does, Jewel, and
I looked it up, and actually, it seems like for
our the condition our Odyssey is in, we could get
something around eight thousand dollars for it. So I was
trying to put myself in Tyler's shoes thirty six right now, No,
it's only worth eight. That's what I'm willing to Actually,
I'm not willing to give it up because I know
the work that I've done on it, and so going
putting myself in Tyler's.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
Position, it's worth eight.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
If I had been faced with a situation where I
was being asked to put four into it, I think
I would have done it because of the fact that
the Odyssey like it serves us really well for what
we need out of a single vehicle. But then also
knowing that this is a really dependable make and model
right like the ability. Had I done that, I would
have known that, Okay, this car is gonna be good

(14:57):
for another one hundred maybe two hundred thousand miles, because
a blown head gasket isn't like a normal thing that
wears out like That's it sounds like maybe he had
issues already with the radiator, which, again going back to
this specific like a Chevy S ten, I don't know
if I would have sucked that kind of money into
that vehicle, But when it comes to something that you
might truly dry for for years and years and years

(15:19):
down the road, I think I would have been willing
to spend half of the cost of the vehicle to
keep it on the road, because I know, for us,
the alternative is what it like, what would I want
to get. I'd want to get like a newer So
I go to see in a hybrid or something I'm
going to drop like thirty five thousand dollars, and so
I'm thinking a four seems like four thousand versus thirty five.
I'm like, okay, no, I need to do what I

(15:41):
can to keep this ride on the road. And so
I think it does depend on the particular circumstances as well.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yeah, I think, man, it is. It's always a tough
decision and a little.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
About you, Like, Okay, let's let's say that you were
hit with a massive expense like on your Acuras old night.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
So I think I gave the Honda. Yeah, the Accura
would be different for me because that's an O five, right,
and it's uh worth a whole lot less or honestly,
we have done, you know, of some repairs to it
over time since we've owned it, and it's been worth
every dime we've put into it, and we would could
probably continue to put money into it with the Accura.
If I was faced with a big bill, just because

(16:15):
it is so old and fully depreciated, I probably wouldn't
want to stick a big chunk of money into it.
I wouldn't go for something crazy expensive, a thirty five
thousand dollars car to replace it, you know, unless by
then I've saved up the cash for the Ribby and
R two and that's out at that point in time,
which maybe we'll see. But yeah, I think that would
be then just a lifestyle upgrade that I'm making intentionally,
which I think I would be ready for. So you

(16:37):
have to weigh kind of the pros and cons of
what other money goals do you have. That's true, how
much is it going to set you back by buying
the nicer, fancy your car. Hopefully it's going to keep
Tyler out of the mechanic shop as much as he
would have been with the with the S ten that
was maybe starting to experience more issues for me. Yeah,
the Accura wouldn't get a massive chunk of change for repairs,

(16:58):
I would sell it off, and I would I would
try to buy something that I thought was maybe a
little bit nicer and more reliable, but I would still
I hate spending money on cars, so it would still
be probably like a four digit price, not a five
digit price.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, well, so you said something about Tyler's staying out
of the repair shop. I think an important consideration is
the fact that I think we tend to overestimate what
we spend on our car is largely because it's mostly
like an emotionally frustrating time in our life. Right And
speaking of time, it's like literally a time suck to
have to take it in, to have to either find
a rental or maybe it's a more posh shop and

(17:29):
they give you a loaner car.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
But either way, I think my check engine lights on
right now, and I'm like less worried about the cost.
I'm more worried about the frustration and the hassle to
have to take it in.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, but I think like this is an argument for
tracking or spending, because if you can keep up with
what you're spending on repairs, you're going to find that
you probably spend a lot less than you feel like
you are. In Consumer Reports finds that ten year old
cars for most car brands are going to cost you
less than one thousand dollars in repairs and maintenance. And

(17:58):
that's not on an annual basis, right on an anial basis. Yeah,
and that's not a ton of money. And so especially
when it comes to some of the more reliable Japanese
cars that are out there.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
Or Tesla is included in that too. So the making
model matters on that front. And you might look at
this one car that gets like a sixty eight rating
and this other one that gets an eighty three rating,
and I'm gonna go with the car that has an
eighty three rating, almost being equal. So look for the
cars with higher reliability ratings are gonna cost you less
over time when it comes to maintenance, and they're gonna

(18:28):
provide less frustration in your life too.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
So that's what we're thinking about. We're thinking about financially
optimizing because but some folks they're going to want to
get the jeep. We were just talking to a buddy
recently and he's just like, yeah, but I'd really want
to splurge and get that jeep wagoneer and.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Just like, don't do it.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
I've owned so many Jeeps over the years and think
it costs a lot of money.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
They're not super reliable. It costs a lot to maintain.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
This episode brought to you by Jeep Jee pats this
but Tyler, we have that gets cheap pointed in the
right direction, Joe. We've got more to get to, including
we're gonna hear from a listener who is questioning an
account that most homeowners knee jerk say yes to you.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
We'll get to that and more right after this. All right, Matt,
we're back. We've got more listener questions to get to.
I'm excited about all the listener questions coming down the
pike in twenty twenty five. This one comes from a
listener who has a frugal or cheap conondrum for us.

Speaker 5 (19:24):
Hi, Joelan, Matt, This is Jeff from Wisconsin. I'm retiring
next week at the age of fifty five. First, let
me say thank you for all the advice you've given
over the years that have helped me reach my goal.
I have a son going to an expensive private college
where the cost of attendance is need based, meaning the
lower are income, the lower the cost of attendance. Is

(19:45):
it frugal or cheap to live off only my wife's
teaching income while my son is in college to make
the cost of college less expensive. I look forward to
your discussion. U.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
How cool is it that he said he's retiring next week.
He's like, I got it on the calendar for me
to retire. I got this important appointment to get to.
It's when I say peace out, it's all my coworkers.
That's amazing cool when thank you for the kind of
words he's reminded me of one of the listener wins
that we covered at the end of last year, where
somebody credited us, but Jeff, he's been doing the right thing, yeah,

(20:20):
for a long time.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
I'm sure we weren't the ones putting money into his
four own k and I right.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
I think maybe we were able to help explain what
it was that he had been doing. But I got
a feel and.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
He was doing a lot of the right stuff for years,
if not decades, before this show even started to write. Oh, yeah,
we haven't been around. We've been around a while, seven
years now, we've been around that long. And yeah, I'm
curious too to know what Jeff's going to be doing
with his days retiring at such a young age. You know,
we talk often about the research that our friend Wes
Moss has done when it comes to the secrets of

(20:49):
the happiest re tirese and just how having essentially hobbies
on steroids, having a wide variety that having relational connection.
I don't know, are all Jeff's friend's going to be
working still and he's only one kind of at the
golf course or something like that. I hope that you
have a bunch of things to pour your your life into,
Jeff Woo. The older I get, mat the more hobbies
I find, and I'm like, I can see this retirement

(21:11):
thing like I've got enough things that could take up
my time that I would find a lot of joy in.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Well, I'm glad you said that because I was going
to push back on your approach to Jeff when you
said we're retiring at such a young age, because I
don't want fifty five to be the you know, as
young as.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Maybe we used to think. It was just according to
what his peers are doing, the traditional retirement, most of
them are going to sure, but like man it's.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
By doing the right thing, like and not even like
in a crazy way, but by setting money aside.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
I think there there are a whole lot.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Of folks who can who could likely retire at at
a younger age life fifty five more so than they
than they think. But let's get to this question. And
I know some listeners might disagree with my take here,
but whether or not Jeff is being frugal or cheap
here is pretty clear.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
I think this is totally frugal, okay, not cheap.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
And to explain this, let's just talk about how why
all systems are designed and created, how they're set up
to incentivize certain behaviors, and by jumping through the right hoops,
it's going to allow us to financially benefit. So something
similar to this might be taking a year off work,
let's say to do.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Some wroth conversions.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
Well, okay, not many folks are gonna be able to
do that or could afford to do that, But by
doing this it can offer a massive tax break for
folks who are able to pull it off. Even let's
say if you're your net worth is like, say five
million dollars. Yeah, I just don't see any reason to
not pull levers that are one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Legal and readily available to you.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
It's just it's like taking a tax credit or something
like like we we kind of talked about that recently,
taken green tax credit, right, like energy efficients. It's like, well, no,
just because you can afford to pay those taxes and
not receive that tax credit, that doesn't mean you shouldn't
receive that if you follow the rules.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
So those incentives exist for a reason, and the tax
code is rife with incentives for people to do a
myriad of different things. And so like why do we
put money into a four to one K instead of
a taxable broker's account and lock it away for decades. Well,
it's because of the tax incentives that are offered. And
there's no shame in that game. I don't see any
reason not to jump through those hoops, the hoops that
are essentially laid out in front of you. It's not

(23:10):
like Jeff is saying, hey, what if I moved some
money to the Cayman Islands and I like tried to
shout some things in secrecy to the IRIS, didn't know
my actual network or something.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
I have straight up lying, Yeah, that's a different thing,
or not your net worth, but your your income.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
Like it.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
It's one thing if you're going to say, Okay, we're
just gonna live off of my wife's income, truly, and
that's what we're gonna do, it's another thing to say.
But really, I'm gonna be working on the side and
I'm going to be selling investments and I'm not going
to tell the irs that I've made Yeah, have got
capital gains here? No, No, that's straight up against.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
The laws, deception and illegal DECENTI that's not what we're
talking about here though, right, And so Matt, some people
might say, well, I'm trying to lower my income on
purpose by contributing more to pre tax accounts to reduce
my student loan payment. That to us, or maybe take
get like an increased health care subsidy. Those are those
to me are also that's the way the insane of
his work, So why not take advantage of it. I

(24:02):
don't see anything wrong with what Jeff is willing to do.
And I think also a lot of folks maybe couldn't
reduce their income to the extent that Jeff is willing
to in order to qualify for these higher levels of
financial aid. They just wouldn't be able to live on
that much less. But Jeff is saying, we can do it.
We're frugal, we know we know how to make it
work on just my wife's salary. And if you can
live the life you want, Jeff on your wife's income

(24:24):
alone for the next few years, and it's going to
allow your son to qualify for more aid from the college,
I think it's a reasonable route to take. Absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
I think that's important to highlight here too. It's not
like he's cheating. He's truly feeling the impact of living
on less of an income, like it is going to
impact his lifestyle, like in a more if.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
It was going to make him incredibly uncomfortable, I would say, dude,
that might be a little cheat. But if you could
sure be comfortable a living on just your salary alone,
I don't see why not. Yeah, if they had to
take extreme measures, then you've kind of got the tail
wagon the dog. Yeah, right, Like so it almost makes
me think of like a more consumption based scenario where like,
let's say you have the money to buy.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
A fan sports car, like you're going to get a
Corvette or a Mustang Moche or whatever, Right, like the
electric hustand or whatever. It costs a lot of money.
Sports Cars high risk. Well, what's what typically happens to
your insurance costs when you get something like that, Well,
your insurance goes up due to the increased risk and
likelihood of you getting in a wreck. Well, should you
not get the sports car just to be able to

(25:21):
bring down your insurance costs? Like would you say to yourself, well,
I'm not going to choose this this vehicle because I
don't want to pay that much.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
Well, probably not.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
There are other considerations there, There are bigger considerations in mind.
But if you're in a position to where you don't
necessarily want or need that vehicle, well, by all means,
don't get the fancy car. If that's going to allow
you to save the money. And in this way, you're
constraining your lifestyle in such a way that's going to
allow you to.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
Reap another financial benefit in the form of financial assistance. Yeah,
and the example you're pointing out here map makes a
lot of sense. But I think it's also important to
mention that sometimes the financial system doesn't make perfect sense.
Like when you're trying to get a mortgage, your net
worth isn't nearly as important. Don't factor that in as
much as your debt to income ratio. So you might say,
I don't make much money. I make eighty thousand dollars

(26:05):
a year, but I've got five million dollars in my
investment accounts, and they might say, sorry, you don't qualify
for the mortgage on the two million dollar home.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
It's where it's going to feel a little bit backwards, right,
Wait a minute, you're not going to allow me to
get a mortgage on this property when.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeh, I could pay cash for it. Or when you
talk about the credit score, like the way the credit
scoring system is. We talk about it regularly because it's
important to how people handle their finances, but it doesn't
make perfect sense, and there are elements of the credit
score that are flawed and we wish we're changed. But
still like the system is what it is, and kind
of using the system to your advantage I think makes sense. Right.

(26:38):
The incentives that get put in place understandably drive our behavior.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, that is a specific instance where you do want
to take into account how well making less income impact
our ability to live the life we want to live,
because most likely maybe they're looking to downsize. Well, shoot,
I guess either way, if you're looking at downside and
buy a different home, you still might be wanting.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
To take out a mortgage on that property.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
And even though you might be in a scenario where
you could pay cash, you don't always want to do that,
especially if you're having to draw more money out of
your retirement and so in that case, manual underwriting is
actually the solution to doing that, as opposed to uploading
your tax returns and having the algorithm and the computer
say yes or no, you're actually working with a human being.

(27:19):
This is something that Kate and I had to do
when we purchased our first home and we just started
our photography company and we had only been in business
for one year. The banks don't like that now, it's
that they wouldn't like.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
The self employed one year income years of income. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
Well, and even then, it's not like we were super profitable,
Like we didn't have a ton of money on hands.
So we had to provide every single shred of documentation
that had any numbers on it at all in order
for the A and we had to put down a
little extra and that was a way for them to
mitigate some of the risks that they were incurring. But Jeff,
the last thing to mention here, though, is that it's
not just your income that impacts the financial aid for

(27:55):
college when you fill out the FAFSA, because they take
into consideration your assets as well, and it would obviously
be cheap in this case not frugal to say, spend
down all of your retirement money on stuff on boats,
on trips and clothing whatever, in order to snag more
grants or assistance for your your son's education. So I

(28:16):
just wanted to mention that it's not just about income,
and we would encourage you to know all of the
details before you try to start jumping through these hoops
that might end up cramping your lifestyle that ultimately ends
up not netting you.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
The results that you were hoping to achieve.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
I would I would hate for you to find yourself
in that situation, especially it sounds like this is more
Jeff's idea, maybe less his wife's.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Idea, especially if his wife's like she's like, wait, wait,
what do we wait? What are we doing? What you
sign me up for?

Speaker 2 (28:43):
All of a sudden, you're retiring and you're like, turn
into the coupon lady, Now we have to live like poppers.
Come on, come on, hate against coupons, Yeah, but it's
often equated with a certain lifestyle that people are trying
to avoid.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
That's all I'm saying. Just make sure your wife is
on board with this too, and make sure you've got
your eyes dotted and your teas crossed. That's right, Matt.
Let's get to a question about how we pay for
our mortgages. There is there a more efficient way that
can help us save money?

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Him, Matt, and Joel, this is Mike from Kansas City,
longtime listener, second time caller. Really appreciate the advice you
gave regarding my wife's pension and how we could plan
ahead for retirement with her pension and consideration. I'm calling
this time to ask more specifically about escrow accounts. My
wife and I are considering being removed or dropping the

(29:26):
escrow and managing it on our own. And this thought
was primarily driven from the recent property tax increases in
our area where our neighborhood and our county for most houses,
essentially the property tax is doubled. And we're not saying
that there's anything being mismanaged in the escrow but we
just started thinking would it be more efficient for us

(29:47):
to manage it ourselves. Our taxes are due December of
each year. We could put that money aside in a
high yield savings and feel like we had a little
bit more control over things. So very interested to hear
your thoughts on this, Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
Man Kansas City taxes not being due till the end
of the year December, that's I love it being on
the calendar year like that. Yeah, if sis in the summer,
it seems like all or it's the fall.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
For I know for a couple of my properties. But
that kind of impacts how I view Mike's question here
because it does simplify it. It helps to streamline the
problem a little bit, as opposed to following somewhere awkwardly
in the year where you might forget about it.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, save up all year long for that thing. It
feels like a nice end of the year thing that
you can kind of check off.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
But I love that, just generally speaking, that Mike's asking
this question, because it's not one that many folks ask.
They just assume that, yes, the escrow, it does make
the most sense for them. It's the default auction, and
it is especially I remember that first loan that we got.
It was either our realtor or somebody they were talking to,
like oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you totally.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
You want to go with the escrow.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
And I think it could certainly make it easier to
budget because you've got everything kind of rolled into that
one payment, But it's also not the right decision for
everyone out there.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, and you lose a certain a little bit of
control if you opt for escro instead of DIY paying
those bills yourself. And I think the main reason to
consider paying all those bills individually is kind of the
ability to budget not screw it up. Instead of relying
on your mortgage provider to pay everything when it's due,
you kind of put that onus on yourself. You take

(31:18):
that on your own shoulders. And if you're a type
a personality who doesn't let things fall through the cracks,
I get the desire to take this into your own hands.
I mean, basically, you're gonna have a lower payment each
and every month because you'll only be paying the principle
and interest to the bank, but you'll be saving and
bankrolling for those other big expenses yourself. But Matt. It's
important to mention, and I think this is essentially why

(31:41):
the escrosystem exists and why most people opt to do it,
partly because it's just the default, but also because even
for well intentioned folks, this could and can end up
biting them in the butt. Yeah I get that.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, I think there might be some folks who would say, like,
why bother. Even if you like control and you want
to optimiz stuff, the escrosystem works pretty well, it's not broke.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
Why mess with it? Why fix it?

Speaker 2 (32:03):
The truth is you might have thousands of dollars hanging
out in an Escro account that's not doing you know,
a darn thing for you most of the year.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
And you and I, we own rental properties, We have
thousands of dollars in multiple accounts doing this.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
Yes, if you instead have that money in your own
high savings account, you would be able to earn a
decent return like that is a legit reason, and I think,
honestly that alone is worth considering making this move, because
if you had even just an average of five thousand
dollars sitting there, you might miss out on a few
hundred bucks in interest. It depends on where savings rates

(32:36):
continue to go. But you know, this isn't like a
life changing amount of money, but it does matter, and
we like to leave no stone unturned.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah, I mean, I think especially if you're keen on
it anyway, and you're saying, well, I kind of like
the idea of paying these things myself and not kind
of letting the bank handle every single transaction, then I
don't know. I think for Mike it could make sense.
I think another pro for ditching escrow is that it
highlights the insurance and property tax bill in a way
that gets shrouded. It's kind of like budget billing for

(33:07):
your electricity, and we don't like budget billing because it
makes you less sensitive to the fact of over use.
And if you get a massive bill in the summer,
sorry I hate that for you, but it probably is
going to make you turn the thermostat higher up. It's
like you're not going to run the ac as much
because you just got smacked in the face with a
really high bill. With budget billing, it doesn't smack you

(33:29):
in the face in the same way, and so you
just kind of let it linger. When you're physically paying
these bills yourself, you feel the pain a little bit more.
And Mike's already aware because he mentioned that his taxes doubled,
which is awful. And while that massive increase isn't good,
feeling the pain of it is good to a certain
extent because it means you're more likely to challenge that

(33:49):
property tax bill, or on the insurance front, it means
you're more likely to shop around. Well, that's exactly what
you should be doing if there's a massive increase that
just overvalued your property. It makes me just really quickly
want to bring up a site called own well dot
com where instead of hiring a lawyer or diying, and
it's this perfect in between things where you can essentially
challenge your property tax bill using a company who does

(34:10):
everything behind the scenes, takes you almost no time. They
do take a cut, but only if they succeed. But yeah,
seeing those bills firsthand is going to make you more
pre sensitive and more likely to kind of challenge those
increased costs instead of just taking them on the chin. Totally. Yeah,
we Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
What you're pointing to here is the fact that escrow accounts,
they essentially insulate us from some of the movements when
it like some of the price increases when it comes
to our taxes, when it comes to our insurance.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
So the insulation open cell, our clothes.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
It numbs you out, and we want you to be
more in tune with going with what's going on with
your money. And going back to I like, I was
kind of making the you know, the devil's advocate argument
of like if it's not if it ain't broke, don't
fix it. But the fact is, and I feel like
we're kind of we've been talking around this, it kind
of is broke because I've got multiple properties where the

(34:58):
escrow the loan service where they didn't pay my taxes
and so because of that, I had to pay out
of pocket. And I'm like, what's going on here? But
you know, and so now like literally I.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Just a customer service nightmare too.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah, it's a massive pain in the butt. And I've
had this happen with county taxes. I've had this happen
with city taxes with one property. I've had it happen
with the city waste the trash. You know, it's like sanitation, sanitation,
that's it. It's like six hundred bucks a year, you know,
to pay for trash. And so because of that I've
got a document set up that whenever I, like, you

(35:29):
get the notification for your tax bill or your insurance
payment that's due, and I write it on there, and
because I want to have a singular source for all
my things, and and then I look at the date
of when it's due, and then I hop over my
calendar and I put a reminder on there, and I say,
make sure, so you're doing all the work anyway, I'm
already doing the stupid works, like I literally write on there,
and this is one of the loan servicers that now

(35:49):
services a couple of my properties, mister Cooper, so stupid.
I don't where did mister Cooper come from. I don't know,
came from TGIF back and then.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
The same thing. And that's the other press. I'm already
doing that.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Why not be rewarded by being able to hang onto
that money myself if I'm already going to make those payments.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
And that's the other problem with escrow is that if
your loan gets sold, now you're with another mortgage provider,
and you've got to like make sure now you've got
somebody else to look over their shoulders.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
And to make sure the wires are all hooked back
up after somebody has like taken this thing and moved
it over to their system. Yeah, so that's the part
of it that really annoys me, and so like in
some regards that, like I don't know, even just talking
about this gets me fired up and it makes going.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
To say I feel like Mike lit a fire under
your butt here.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
I'm really close to Yeah, I'm gonna look into this, man,
because I mean, it's important to point out that not
all loans allow you to drop escrow, And so I know,
is it with FH loans this likely isn't even possible,
But I think it sounds like, well, I don't know,
in Mike situation, it might be possible. And I've got
non FH loans in my case, and so I think

(36:50):
it's definitely possible.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
It's just one of those things that's further down on
the list. Yeah, it's not. It doesn't need to be
a high priority, but it always is a pain in
the button.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
And I'm already doing all the work, so why not
pay the bills myself? Not to even mention it? Whoa man,
have you ever had this happen too? If you're shopping
around for insurance and you get moved over to another
insurer for a property. Well what happens, Well, the previous
insurance company they cut you a check and you have
to pay for the new pay the new premium out
of pocket yourself. It's not coming out of escro. So again,
you are oftentimes already doing that when you see insurance

(37:21):
rates go up and you're shopping around for a different
insurance provider. Anyway, Yeah, and so, yeah, but this is
a case. All of these are checks in the column
of drop the escrow.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
Agreed, Agreed. I just say this, and this doesn't mean
it makes sense for everyone. And you have to be diligence,
that is true. You have to kind of have the
excel brain that Matt has to really pull this off.
I think it's probably part of the reason, Matt. Not
everybody is like me. And even this is something I've
been considered, is dropping Escrow. But I will have to
get a little more organized in order to make that
a reality.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yeah, but in Mike's case, the fact that he's even
asking the question, I think that that right there makes
him a good candidate for at least considering dropping it.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
But again, put it on your Google calendar, put those
reminders on make sure you're not missing a payment because
there can often be penalties and or additional costs associated
with that. So plan accordingly. But go for it, Mike.
That's that's our boat. We've got more questions to get
to Matt, including one about buying stocks at a discount.
We'll talk about that right after this.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
All right, Joel, we are back from the break. It
is now time for the Facebook question of the week,
which is from Becca. She wrote, they were selling blocks
of silver today at the Costco checkout. Is there something
I should know? Which I just realized that, she said,
at the Costco checkout.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
I didn't realize they had him there, like with the
candy bar exactly, Like literally, they don't actually have a Costco.
Is it nice to like the cokes?

Speaker 2 (38:51):
It's just like there's a fridge full of gold and
silver and platinum whatever other metals. Joel, do you have
your your ego for the platinum that's your prest metal choice.
You don't like the traditional I don't slum it with
the silver, forget platinum. I'm going with plutonium.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
I'm one a precious metal that's gonna do something for me,
something that allows me to run my off the grid
cabin in the woods that I don't actually have to
go off of nuclear energy.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
It does sound nice, though, well, okay, that should be
the precious metal that all the preppers are looking into.
It has been really interesting to see Costco wade into
the precious metal territory and it's it's garnered a lot
of headlines. I feel like Costco has gotten a lot
of press because of sell because they're selling blocks of
gold and silver, which is kind of insane, and if
you are the kind of person who's into owning gold

(39:40):
or silver bars, that's probably the place to buy them,
to be honest, because specifically of Costco's loyalty to the consumer,
they don't mark anything in the store up more than
fifteen percent. You'd be hard pressed to find a better
deal on gold or silver anywhere. So the fact that
Costco has entered this space means that anybody who is
into owning physical bricks of gold and silver like this

(40:02):
is the place to go to get them.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
But that still doesn't mean that you should actually go
and buy some silver or gold, because I'll say, selling
your precious metals won't be easy, and when it does
come time to sell if you win, and if you
are looking to do that, the costs are pretty dang high.
So if you're looking to buy precious metals, then buying
them within an ETF that holds onto the physical gold

(40:24):
for you, we think that that is a better choice.
It's kind of cool that you can, you know, you
can buy a gold bar while getting like a five
dollar rotisserie chicken.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
What a combo.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
But that doesn't mean that it's a brilliant move, Like
we're you even going to keep it? You know, you
could also get to keep it in the fridge there
next to the chicken once you take it, once you
take it home.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
Definitely don't put it under your mattress. That sounds uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
But then like so we're talking about I guess the
physical aspect and how that's terrible, but even it as
an investment, it's a pretty terrible investment as well. And
if you look back at over the like the past
one hundred years of gold and you look at what
it's earned, you're looking at about fourteen thousand percent fourteen
thousand that sounds like a lot, which is although there
might be a lot of folks for are thinking like

(41:04):
their eyes got bigger. They're like, wait a minute, I
thought you said gold was a pad investment. Well, you
look at the stock market, specifically the Doal Jones, and
it's around eighty thousand percent, eighty thousand versus fourteen thousand.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
I'd even look up the S and P.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
But I'm sure I've got to feel in the SMP
is actually probably gonna be a little bit higher than
the Dial Jones industrial average. So all that to be said,
not only is it just a pain in the butt,
I guess as an investment, it's not even all that
good of an investment to begin with.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
I'm also just kind of an optimist, and I think
to be a heavy gold buyer typically you have to
be a pessimist and you have to think that our
worst days or ahead of us. And even then that's true,
even if that's the case, Like why if that's the
reason that you're buying gold is because you're trying to
hedge against some sort of downside, Well, in the event
of some sort of apocalypse, I think food beats gold, So.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
I'd just you'd be better served by buying the five
buckets of exactly like three months worth.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
Of food, which they also saw like, that's my point.
That's my point. So instead of buying the gold, if
that's what you're something you're keen on doing, if you're thinking, like, hey,
I'm trying to kind of hedge against worst case scenarios,
buy the three thousand menial bucket at Costco sells of
ready meals that are gonna last for decades. That would
be I think a better.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Purchase, be a better quote unquote investment. Yeah, and you'd
probably return a similar Yeah, you'd probably see a similar
return on that investment. It just goes to show that
I think that they typically do this just to get like.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Garner, the buzz and the headlines.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
You know.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
It's like having the coffins where folks are they're shocked
when they see them, you know, Or like the thousand
dollars wheel of cheese. It's like, who's actually going to
walk in there and buy a thousand dollars whel cheese.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Some Costco shoppers are keen, and they snatch them up
when they come about. Because I think there are a
lot of people who are interested in buying heavy metals.
We just think there are much better places to put
your money.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
That's true, Okay, listener Alex posted a screenshot of his AESOP,
his employee stock ownership plan from his employer, Walmart, and
he's wondering, quote, if it's a good investment or is
this just a way for the Walmart empire to pump
their stock? Jiel, what do you think is this mister
robot Ecorp that he stands for that's a good show.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
Back in then evil? Yeah, well, I think this answer,
I'm not saying Walmart's evil. Actually, I've taken a liking
to Walmart over the past few months. Yeah, when I
personally read I think I mentioned this on the show.
I read Sam Walton's biography and his mentality and what
he was able to accomplish pretty incredible, and somebody the
kind of discount store movement was already in full swing

(43:30):
and he just did it better than everyone else. And
so I don't think Walmart killed mom and pop stores.
I think the discount movement killed mom and pop stores.
So if you want to blame Walmart, you can. I
just don't know that Walmart is the ultimate villain in
the story. And basically on this one, Matt, I think
that the answer is almost yes to investing in an Esop.
But and that's particularly because of the sweet discount that's

(43:54):
offered to employees. Most of the time, Alex gets, according
to the screenshot, a sweet fifteen percent discount on the
Walmart stock that you can buy as an employee. And
here's the rub though. You know, you and I were
typically hesitant to advise investing in single stocks, But to me,
this is kind of like our advice on buying gift cards.
It makes a heck of a lot more sense if
you're getting a sweet discount. So if you're getting one

(44:17):
hundred dollars worth of credit to a store for seventy
five or eighty bucks, yeah, go for it. Why not.
But if you're trading in one hundred dollars for one
hundred dollars to spend at a particular store, it makes
far less sense. And I think same thing with buying
individual stocks. It's like, oh, you're going to get a
sweet discount on the front end, great, go for it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Otherwise we're not huge fans because typically we don't love
folks investing in the company they work for. Like, what
you're doing there is putting your over indexing in this
one company. You're putting too many eggs into one basket.
But in this case, I think they're only matching up
to two hundred and seventy dollars in stock purchases a year,
So I mean, that's not a ton of money, right, Like,
invest up to that point, but then just don't invest

(44:58):
beyond that. I think if it was a lot arger
amount of money, I would be more concerned. But Alex,
he still has the ability to fully fund a roth
ira at seven thousand dollars and like two hundred seventy bucks.
But it is like two percent, four percent, yeah, of
seven thousand dollars. It's and that totally fits within our
bounds of how much you should be invested in crypto

(45:20):
combined with single stocks any other more speculative investments. But
for the bulk of your investment dollars just makes you
sure you are in low cost, widely diversified index funds
with the bulk of those those actual investing dollars. And
bottom line, I think if you're handling your your investments
your finances well, then I think certainly taking advantage of
this perk it makes a lot of sense. And again

(45:41):
I feel good about it too. The fact that it's limited.
I would feel much differently about it if it was
something that was like up to twenty grand a year,
oh my gosh, because it would be more tempting to think,
oh my god, oh that's a that's a really really
sweet perk. But man, it's a double edged short. It
cuts both ways, and you'd, oh, that would make me
so nervous, and I would be looking into diverse fighting

(46:02):
in other ways.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
I guess Devil could be in the details on that
one totally. But yeah, I think for Alex it's a
limited amount. I agree, Matt. I think it makes sense
take advantage of that discount. All right, let's get back
to the beer that we had on this episode. This
one's called super Volcano Sauce. It's a sour ale by
Aslin Beer Company. It's brewed with blackberries, blueberries, milk, sugar,
and vanilla. Matt, what were your thoughts on this beer?

Speaker 2 (46:24):
So, first of all, I thought we've had an Aslin
beer on the show before, but I just checked and
we haven't.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
First one.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Huh, Okay, Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've had it in
person at our local burger and beer place. They often
will have Aslon on But I liked it, and you
want to know what it made me think.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
Of the Lion from Lion and the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
In that Aslan as close enough. This reminded me of
the energy drink Red Bull. Take another step. This is
one hundred percent well a sour beer version of Red Bull.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
I don't know if I've ever had a Red Bull,
so I don't know if I can tell you that
really yeah, maybe maybe one, but for a monster like
any of those energy I don't drink those, Yeah, I
don't anymore. I read all this stuff about when I
was younger, how bad they were with all the caffeine
and stuff, and I was like, I'm never gonna try those,
you know.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
I think when you're young, there's all sorts of crazy
stuff you do, and I'm pretty sure you got crazier
stuff than I have in order to stay awake at night.
I heard you recount that story, yeah recently. Won't go
into the details here, but uh, okay, So if you've
never had it, this.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Is what it tastes like. If you like this beer,
I think you would enjoy it. Right, So I didn't
love this beer to me, and I had kind of
off putting vibes. I think it was the blueberries. I
think it was the blueberries coming in there combined with
maybe you don't make sugar.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
Yeah you didn't think it was kind of like that
that sort of vanilla, that powdery vanilla like flavor. That's
what it made me almost think of like a carnation
like instance I would call dehydrated.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
Milk or milk, yeah, evaporated milk. Yeah, I can see
why you say that.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
It kind of had this chalky like flavor that made
me think that, but it wasn't my jam.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
It almost had like a powder like candy sweetness.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Yes, yeah, candy like and I love a good I
like very infused sour, but this one, for some reason
just hitting wrong, hitting the wrong notes for me. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
I can see it appeeling the kids who shouldn't be
drinking beer or not. When I say kids, I awesome
mean like it's like the early early twenty year olds
who might be like, oh yeah, this says just like
that drinks that gives you wings. But I thought it
was fine, not my favorite. Totally with you, though, when
the sours that are aged and barrels that have a
little bit of funkiness that tastes like rich leather and mahogany, you.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Know like that. Oh yeah, like the finer things in life,
those old man sours.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
I can get behind this, but either way, still glad
we got to enjoy this one on the episode today,
and you can find our show notes up on the
website at howsomoney dot com. We'll make sure to link
to any resources that we may have mentioned. And is
that gonna be it for this apose?

Speaker 1 (48:47):
I just want to say we might have some new
listeners considering it's the beginning of the year, and if
you are true a fresh face listening to How the Money,
we really appreciate it. Thank you for.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
Fresh, in fact, a fresh set of ears that I've
never heard, the dul tones of Joel's right sweet.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
Voice, it's amazing. I'm not gonna lie, but yeah, thank
you so much for listening. We hope you stick around,
hit the subscribe buttons that you don't miss an episode,
and feel free to go to how to money dot
com click start here if you're brand new, that's a
great kind of place to kind of begin and figure
out what how the Money's all about.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
That's right, man, So that's gonna be it until next time.
Best friends, out, best friends out,

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Ask HTM - When to Ditch an Old Car, Dropping Escrow, & Investing via an ESOP #928

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Joel Larsgaard

Matthew Altmix

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