Biking is a Money & Life Hack (Bestie Ep) #1012

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Hada Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today we're discussing how biking is a money and
a life hack.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
That's right, and whether it's the cooler weather Joel, that
we are experiencing or specifically I saw recently that Atlanta,
there's this month long initiative that's called October that's all
about getting folks to ride their bikes more often.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
I can't wait till spike November.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Bike December definitely doesn't work. Bike you aery BArch. But regardless,
biking it's on our mind. It's something that we enjoy
so much. We feel like it's like the secret sauce
maybe to to why it is you and I are
so happy, why we're so wealthy. It's because we bike
so much.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, all right, like the benchmin of Franklins of bikes.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
It's not quite. It's one of the secret secret sauces
in our arsenal. We felt that this was so crucial.
This is literally the first episode we ever recorded within
this personal finance podcast. We decided it was gonna be
about bikes.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, when you think about it from a logical perspective,
it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to launch
a personal finance podcast really and then make the first
episode about biking but like but rather investing right or
say things whatever it is. But I guess when you
think about it from our perspective, like, it shows one
how much we value biking and how important we think
it is, but how it really is an integral habit

(01:35):
that you can incorporate into your life that's going to
save you a ton of money as well, exactly. And
so that's you know, we're gonna kind of maybe, you know,
update our thoughts on biking and give some explainers on
why it's so important, and then talk about how you
can effectively make biking a more part of your regular routine.
And we'll talk about how it can save you money.
But there are a lot of other additional benefits too.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, there are a lot of reasons. Before we get
to that, Jill, before we get to a beer, I
wanted to a quick like a boneheaded move that I made.
Normally we talk about our wins when it comes to
our money, but I'm going to share a loss, not
a large loss, a small loss. Okay, thankfully, So we
took a listener question. I think this is about two
years ago or a little over two years ago. It
was towards the beginning of the pandemic. It was when

(02:17):
the FED was dropping rates and we were seeing what
the banks were paying in savings accounts dwindling. Right, I
mean basically it was taking a nose dive and a listener.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
People understand now the mechanics behind that based on last week.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
So that's right, we talked about this last week. And
what's crazy is that us thinking about and preparing for
that episode last week. That's not what caused me. Well
maybe it did, in a sort of a roundabout way,
caused me to realize that I was making this mistake
in my own life. But a listener was asking about
locking up some of his money in a CD in
order to earn some sort of interest within the money

(02:49):
that he had set aside. We're not normally huge fans
of this, but there are some penalty free there are
like these no penalty eleven month CDs. In particular, one
that I signed up, you know, put sunk some money in.
After that question, was this one that ally offers and
when there's not going to be a penalty, when there's
no fee associated with canceling that you know, canceling that account,

(03:10):
pulling that money out early. There's no harm in locking
that money up. And so that's something that we did recommend.
We're like, well, maybe shy away from the regular CD,
but if there is a no penalty option, maybe take
that path. I figured I would do that as well,
because I thought this, yeah, this is a good way
to keep your savings at least in the one plus
percent range, rather than seeing it kind of dip all
the way down.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
And as like the writing was on the wall in
five range rates were coming down, sabers, they would get
hit hard. And so that was an environment where CD's
made a little more sense, whereas typically we're like, we're
not very fondest.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
You might want to stay away, and that's all fine
and dandy unless you forget that you've got money in
that account. And like we talked about last week, the
banks have been raising their interest rates and are paying
in the mid to upper twos even at this point,
and that is exactly what I've been doing by default
over the past few months. It took me last week.
I was looking at the end of the week, I

(04:01):
was cleaning up the budget a little bit, and I
realized Holy crap, I've got a serious chunk of money
sitting there earning one point something when I could be
earning easily double that, and you feel.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Like a little bit of a gut punch.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, IM mean luckily again, because it was a no
penalty CD, I was able to easily remedy of that.
It was super easy to do. Just cancel that account,
move that money over to the same US account was
immediately earning a higher rate. But I wanted to share
this because even though I mean, we talk about this
all the time, I'll say, at least for myself, it
can be easy to kind of fall into this set
it and forget it mindset. And while in some instances

(04:33):
that is a great approach to take, right in particular
when you're talking about your investments with something like this
that's a little more active, it's good to revisit some
of these different decisions that we've made in the past,
because it's funny. I mean, it was just right there
in front of me, and I had just been looking
right over it, just like as I go in there,
make sure certain checks have been deposited, make sure everything's
matching up within my spreadsheets. But it took me taking

(04:55):
a step back and realizing, oh man, this is a
suboptimal move for me right now to how all this money,
all this money tied up. And so I think that
can be a natural tendency for us, right to make
things easy, to simplify things, to not think about things
once we've made that decision. But I think it can
be beneficial to our bank account, specifically for us to
revisit some of these things.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, it's hard to remember, Okay, I put money in
a CD, but I did it because we're in a
folly great environment now that the environment's completely shifted, and
there are much better places for me to stick my cash,
whether it's eyebonds, are even just stocking that money in
a regular savings account. But for yeah, for anybody out
there who does have money in a CD, the chances
are once it matures, or if it's a no penalty CD,

(05:34):
it's time to get the money out because there are
better places to stick that money. And yeah, so I'm
glad you realize the of your way is.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Able to fix that problem. Yeah, and again the one
I had signed up for it was through ally super
easy to do. It does make me wonder, though, how
many folks are out there who have signed up for
did something similar and are realizing, oh wait a minute,
Oh shoot, this is something I need to take care of. Yeah,
time to address it exactly. Move on, carry on with life, Joel.
Let's introduce the beer you and I are enjoying this
episode again. This is another one by a bossy brewing company.

(06:04):
Thanks to Bob for donating this one and the others
to the show. Looking forward to enjoying this one, Joel,
and of course we'll share our thoughts at the end
of the episode, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Right, Well, let's get onto it, Matt. Let's talk about
one of our favorite subjects that we've been talking about
obviously for a long time now, which is biking. And
it's still something that we address from time to time
on the show because, especially during the pandemic, bikes were
so hot, they were all the rage. Bike sales were
through the roof, and we would say that spending less
than you make. It's like the most basic element of
personal finance. Right. You can get as complex as you want,

(06:36):
and you'll probably need to get more complex if you
want to make progress more quickly. You'll need to figure
out the dynamics of investing and frugality and to be
able to grow the gap so that you can invest more.
But if you can get that simple basic habit right
of spending less than you make right, it's going to
have massive ramifications on every area of your life, allowing

(06:57):
you to pay off debt, to save in bet. But
if you fail to heed the most basic tenant, if
you aren't able to do the simplest thing right, well
then you won't be saving or investing, and your debt's
going to continue to accumulate. And that's an awful place
to be in your personal finances. And Mattie, I do
I'm just thinking about biking. It made me think, it's
just it's this really simple thing that can radiate and

(07:19):
have a major impact on your finances. And it actually
made me think of our conversation a couple of years
ago with Charles Douhig, who wrote a book about habits,
and he talked about habit formation with us in January
a couple of years ago, and one of my main
takeaways from that conversation was when he talked about keystone
habits and he said that keystone habits impact all of

(07:39):
our other habits, that if you get just a couple
of these keystone habits, right, that it'll be much easier
to develop other healthy habits. They're kind of like the
big domino that knocks down all the other dominoes. They
create this ripple effect. And I think you and I
maybe we might describe biking as a keystone habit. They
can have wide ranging impacts on our lives, on our finances,

(08:00):
and that's why we're dedicating an entire episode to it today.
Just like spending less than you make is a keystone habit, right,
it's going to lead to better results in every other
part of your finances. Well, Biking similarly is that for
I think our money and for our lives.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Absolutely. Yeah. The fact is we believe that biking can
have maybe as much of an impact on your day
to day life as spending less than you make. It
can be that foundational. There are just so many different
potential problems that biking more and driving less is able
to solve. And another common thread or narrative that we
often hear is that riding a bike might seem like

(08:35):
this activity that's just a bit out of reach for
every single person out there to try. You might be
you know, someone might say, like, oh, cycling, it's just
for the bike messenger types, you know, riding around on
their their hip single speeds, flipping off cars as they
drive down the slidewalks, or or it's just for the
like the weekend warrior mountain bikers, or for the cluster
of bikers that are you riding down the road wearing

(08:56):
span Dex. But like we are great, Look, I'm fine
with it if you want to do that, more power
to you. But we're trying to convince you otherwise, right, Like,
this is more approachable than you think. We want this
to be something that you incorporate more in your day
to day as opposed to it being this thing that
is more of an activity. We want it to be
less of an activity and more sort of like the

(09:18):
underpinning of how it is that you know, you think
about transporting yourself around and you know, plus, even if
you haven't ridden a bike since you're a kid, Like,
there's a reason that you hear the phrase it's like
riding a bike. It's because it's something that you never
forget how to do. That's one of the reasons that
we're not really going to get to today too, Joell.
But just I mean riding a bike. I think was
it the first episode when we talked about Stranger Things

(09:39):
and just how much fun it can be when you're
just you know, have the freedom of being on a bike.
The wind blowing through your hair. Yeah, that was the
finger helmets into your hair. Of course, you know, always
need to wear helmets.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
That was the fun of the first season of Stranger Things,
was those kids on their bikes and the eighties and
just like the nostalgia, Yeah, it brought me back to
my childhood and doing the very same thing in the
streets of the neighborhood where I grew up. And I
think it's also important to mention, Matt you mentioned bike
tober here in Atlanta, this is like the perfect time
of year to get started riding a bike, because like,

(10:09):
if you start picking up in the middle of July
or the middle of January, you're less likely to stick
with it because it might be really hot, really cold
wherever you are, and you might be like, yeah, no,
not for me. So we would say the fall is
just the right time to begin biking. It's the absolute
best weather. There's just something delightful about getting around on
two wheels when the leaves are changing colors too. Like

(10:31):
the sound of those leaves as they dry, crackling under
your tires.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
It's pretty nice.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
It's pretty great. And you know, by the way, back
when we started the podcast, we were living in the
middle of a big city, in the city of Atlanta,
and because of that, a lot of folks may, I
don't know, they might have dismissed our enthusiasm for biking
as like, true, that's what the urban dwellers, that's what
the city folk do.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
And you know I live, Joel. They don't understand what
it's like out here in the burbs. Right, Well, guess
what now we do.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
We've joined you, and so yeah, I don't know, they
might have thought, well, it's particularly a matter of where
they live. I can't do the same thing, and I'm
not gonna lie, Matt, You and I we were a
bit nervous when we opted to move out to the
burbs that maybe it would mean biking less driving more.
That's not what we wanted. But yeah, we're happy to
report that we have been biking just as much, if

(11:18):
not more than we used to when we were living
in town. And you know, there might be less bike
infrastructure around these parts, but that doesn't mean we've got
to relegate our bikes to the garage. I was like,
literally just chatting with a new friend here, Matt on Sunday,
and she was talking about an eight mile bike ride
that she makes every single week, and the bike infrastructure
not great for a section of that ride, but she

(11:40):
makes it happen anyway, and I was like, more power
to you, man, Congratulations.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, well, I think I mean you
and I were both proud to say that we have
not succumbed to the desire to get a second vehicle
living out in the burbs. We have found a way
to prioritize biking in our life. And that's truly what
it comes down to. It's about making it up a
priority because you might not have it as easy, but
especially if you're a renter right or if you're in
the market to buy a home right now, thinking about

(12:06):
where you live in terms of bike ability and even
walk ability, that that's a smart thing to do because
even if that apartment, if it costs more because it's
essentrally located, if it means that you can ditch a
car and avoid the car payment, which would be the
worst case scenario, but even still, insurance costs, the cost
of maintenance, the cost of gas, it's gonna mean meaningful savings.

(12:26):
Last week in the how to Money newsletter.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yeah, wonderful, magnanimous HTM newslet, it's a fantastic one.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Everyone should subscribe, featured a listener. And she did this
very thing. It's not like she had the super fancy
car or anything. It was nice and it was a
used ride, but she sold it. And she credits that
one move as having the biggest impact on her ability
to get ahead. So maybe she's also influenced our desire
to revisit biking, because we're like, man, she is doing
things right. And I saw that.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
And she had the picture of her, like even in
the cold in upstate New York, riding her bike.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah she's in New York. Yeah and so, and she
makes seventeen dollars an hour. She's got a six figure
net worth. But she credits all of this to the
one big decision that she made, which is how ripple
effects in all other areas of her life. But she's
able to get around town no problem. And of course,
being up there close to the Canadian border, she didn't
say specifically where she was. It's a lot colder up there,

(13:17):
so it's not even a requirement to live in the
wonderful balmy state of Georgia like we are. We think
it's great down here, but it is still possible no
matter where it is that you live.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
Right side note, My favorite thing about the How To
Money newsletter, by the way, is the how You Money segments.
What we're doing.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
It's a nice feature.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
It's so fun because we profile a different How to
Money listener or reader every other week in the newsletter,
and so you get kind of like an insight, like
a voyeuristic look into their personal finances. You can see, well,
how much money do they make, and what are their debts,
how much are they saving, how much are they investing?

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Where do they live? Joel likes peeping in on you
and your money.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, if you're curious about how other people live and
handle their money, and maybe they're a craft of bureaucleve
lit they're living life. I think it's a really fun
element of the newsletter, and you can I'm learning a
lot from its super our readers, which is which is fun.
So yeah, you should sign up for that at Hoda
Money dot com Slash newsletter. But let's keep talking about biking,

(14:12):
and I think infrastructure is definitely you can cite a
lack of infrastructure as a reason why you're not biking more,
and I can get the argument behind that, and I
do think it's important that we fight for more bike
infrastructure where we live. But I would say it's it's
more of a possibility to bike than you realize, even

(14:32):
if you lack some of the infrastructure that would be
nice to have. Although you know, we talked about there
was a resurgence of biking during the pandemic. Bike sales
were through the roof, and we even saw more and
more cities and municipalities like prioritize bike infrastructure, which was cool.
But the reality is we still kind of have woefully
inadequate bike lanes around most of the country. And this

(14:55):
might be like a no duh thing to say, but
I saw this study in the National Academy of Sciences
found that cycling increased up to forty eight percent more
in cities that added bike lanes versus cities that added none.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
And it makes a difference.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah, it does. Like if you build the infrastructure, people
want this, Like people get out when the but we've
kind of prioritized cars in so many of our cities
around the country. We've given them full rain of all
the roads, and bikers are relegated to what's left, and
that is that's just not good. And so we as
just a society, as a culture, have to prioritize biking.

(15:30):
And you know, Oakland is, for instance, one of those
towns that seems to really have prioritized making it easier
and safer to bike in recent years. And I don't know,
I hope we see more of that, and I hope
the reality that COVID created more bike riders is going
to create maybe like a ground swell in a lot
more cities for more bike infrastructure because it's going to

(15:50):
make it easier for all of us to get around
on our bikes.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah exactly, Yeah, I mean, and hopefully we can end
up like a city like Copenhagen, right, like something like
sixty two percent of folks they commute via bike. There's
like large swaths of the city that you cannot access
via car, and so we want to see more of this,
you know, but we only see something like point six
percent of us commuters riding their bikes to work.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
That's like what a thousand times COVID fractions. It's insane.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
You know. The fact is is that the more infrastructure
we see pop up to encourage biking, the more biking
we're going to see. Uh. And it doesn't happen in
a vacuum either, you know, like it takes organizations, it
takes individuals to help fight for it. It reminds me
of our friend Chad Carson. He spends a lot of
time and energy getting more bike trails up and running
in his hometown of Clemson, South Carolina. And so we
would recommend for folks find you know, find your local

(16:41):
bike atvacy organization, Donate some time, donate some money. That's
in some of these meetings and some of these these
group rides often which are there to help raise awareness
because we believe that they can be a major catalyst
to this becoming something that you can actually see in
your hometown, not just something that Matt Joel liked to
talk about from time to time on the show.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
We've talked about Streets Alive in Atlanta and how that
happens typically four times, three or four times a year,
and they shut down like five or six miles of
street that typically are cars have a full rain of
and how that just has an impact on the public
consciousness about how many people want to get out on
their bikes in that town. And then there's pictures, there's
documentation that I think we can point to our politicians

(17:21):
and say, look, there's like a desire for this. Let's
put more of our dollars, our public dollars to use
funding bike lanes that are going to make our city
more better to get around and just kind of a
healthier place to exist as well. Totally, but Matt, let's
keep talking about bikes. Let's talk about specifically this get
to how much money you can save if you choose
to ride a bike more. But there are environmental impacts

(17:44):
that actually there was a stat that shocked me. We'll
talk about that and more right after this.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
All right, dude, we are back from the breg We're
talking about biking, and you know, we just touched on
bike infrastructure specifically how it is that you can work
to make things better wherever it is that you live.
But we're going to now cover some of the reasons
that we feel that biking is a total game changer.
And the first one, it's going to seem super sort
of broad, but it's also it gets very specific as well.

(18:19):
The first reason that we think biking is such a
clutch move is that bikes are efficient, as I'll get out,
they're somewhere between like fifty and eighty times more efficient
energy wise than taking your car. And then on top
of that, more than half of the trips that we
make are four miles or fewer, right, And so what's
important to keep in mind here is a trip of
that length, it's going to be a lot easier to

(18:39):
stomach for most folks, especially if you're just starting out right,
It's unlikely that you're going to start biking on your
twenty mile commute to work. Actually, I think that would
actually lead to more folks throwing in the towel, maybe
before they've even started.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
You try that twenty mile commute on day one, Day one,
it's probably not going to work out. Literally tomorrow and
Thursday morning, you're like, ah, yeah, I'm gonna give it
a shot, and then you know you're gonna peter outuick
because you're gonna be like that was rough.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
I'm not into it exactly. And so whether you know
it's just dropping the kids off at school, or just
running and you know, picking up some groceries, running an
Errand these are the sorts of trips that make sense
for us to use our bikes for. We've talked before
how vehicles like cars are these really interesting devices because
we use the same device to drive two miles that
we could hop into right now, fill it up with gas,

(19:25):
and drive straight across the country for hours and hours.
Whereas there's a big gap, there's a lot of room
for vehicles like bikes in particular when it comes to
these these shorter trips.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, and sometimes you like to take your seguey out
on the on the open run.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Every once in a while.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
Not true, those those things, I don't feel like they're
great for like city tours. Maybe on sidewalks around town,
but they're kind of worthless. You know.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
I've never actually been on a segway.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
I don't think I've been on one either. Yeah, I've
seen them around, but.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
They just look so goofy, seem neat no hate, I
just we do look goofy, though.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
I mean you look goofy wearing your helmet on a
segway that's going through miles an hour.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
It's true.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Let's talk to you about the environment too, because there's
an argument to be made by folks who are trying
to use fewer fossil fuels that biking is a perfect
way to do this. Right, then we could all stand
to lessen our carbon footprint, and riding a bike is
really like one of the easiest ways to immediately begin
making that happen. If that's something you care about, if
that's something that matters to you, we would say biking

(20:25):
is kind of one of those slam dunk choices to
make in order to be better about that. And according man,
this is the stat that I talked about before the
break that just completely floored me. According to research out
of the University of Oxford, which has some pedigree, right,
they kind of know what they're talking about. Apparently fairly academic. Yeah,
even choosing a bike over a car one time a
day reduces the average person's carbon emissions by sixty seven percent.

(20:51):
I still don't understand how that's possible, but I'm just
gonna trust the science here. I'm gonna believe the University
of Oxford that this is accurate. So I think the
thing when I read that one I was just kind
of flabbergasted. But it also made me think that it
doesn't have to be an all or nothing approach. You
can gradually start adding a bike into the mix of
your transportation, of the modes that you take, confident that

(21:13):
even just a minor shift just biking, that have it
on your bike one time a day to make a
run instead of let's say you take five car trips
a day, make it four car trips in a bike ride,
and that is going to have a major impact. You
might think, oh, I'm just I'm starting out small. I'm
dipping my toes in the water. It's not gonna make
that much of a difference. But I don't know at
least what this status showing us is that it will.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, and honestly, even aside from the environmental impacts, which
you know that's definitely a great argument, but there's just
something beautiful about efficiency, right, Like, if you're listening to
this podcast, it makes me think of all the money
nerds out there, Like we're all money nerds, like on
the spectrum. Yeah, Like it depends on how into what
you are.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
But regardless if you might, like I don't know, start
bawling if you had done what Matt did with that CD.
You know, like that inefficiency might have it's gonna cause
you to crack.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, but regardless, what we like seeing though, is our
dollars going to the right places and to not see waste.
And that's what we're fighting here like that, Like that's
what's I mean. This is sort of like beautiful design,
I guess is what I'm what I'm getting at is
the fact that you're able to harness your physical energy,
your physical calories into moving your body across the earth.
There's just something really cool about that, aside from the

(22:20):
positive impact that it's having on the environment as well.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, and it's an even bigger environmental positive if you
are able to in a family that would normally have
two cars, if you if you cut back to having
one car, it's like that car didn't even have to
be created in the first place, much less being driven.
And so I think that makes it even more powerful
from an environmental perspective. I don't I don't have any
numbers or flabbergasting statistics on that, but you got to think, Matt,

(22:44):
the fact that a family of five and a family
of six each have one car, when that is traditionally
those families who have two or three. That makes a
big impact.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
Too, exactly. Yeah, And so obviously, like bikes, they're not
just efficient from an from an energy standpoint, but they
allow you to use your money more efficiently as well.
Bikes are cheaper than cars. Like obviously, I mean, you
could buy a ten thousand dollars bike if you wanted to,
I guess, But the truth is that you can get
an awesome bike for less than one thousand dollars, and

(23:11):
great used bikes can be had for just a few
hundred bucks. Not only do you save money on that
upfront cost, but just the ongoing expenses associated with maintaining
a bike versus a car are pretty significant as well.
There's a New York City biker who actually did the math,
and you found out that a fifteen hundred dollars bike
should cost you somewhere in the three hundred and fifty
dollars range in maintenance costs throughout the year. And you know,

(23:35):
this sounds pretty close, but it's actually higher than what
we're typically shilling out here. Maybe down in the warmer
state of Georgia. I don't know if there's less salt
or whatever on the road that's corroding our parts as much,
but even still a few hundred bucks a year in
maintenance is pretty reasonable. It also makes me think about
I was looking at some of the different reasons that
folks who are participating in bike ober here in Atlanta,

(23:56):
why it is that they bike, and there is he's
either a student or a TA or a professor at
Georgia Tech. And it's because for him, it was going
to cost him the same amount of money to buy
a parking pass on campus that would allow him to
drive to school and park parks car there on campus
as it would for him to buy an electric bike.

(24:17):
So he just bought up the electric bike because he thought, well,
what's the point of Like, that's not even including all
the additional maintenance costs, the cost of gas, the insurance,
all the other costs associated with owning a vehicle, but
just in parking alone, that one expense allowed him to
make the slam dunk decision to go ahead and get
that e bike rather than buying that parking.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
That's a really good point. And Atlanta parking costs aren't
as expensive as they are in other cities like Washington,
d C. For example. Sure, and so if you live
in a place that has higher parking costs, you might
find that that's another rea'son. Like even my little sister
in midtown Atlanta, for every additional space you get as
a tenant, you have to pay. I forget how much
I think I want to say it was like one
hundred and fifty bucks a month a month or yeah,

(24:58):
for an additional parking space. And they they are a
one car family with a tiny little scooter and they
were able to get their scooter basically they were able
to park that for free. So yeah, if parking parking
cost factor in, that's a big cost. So you can
act out of your life if you start riding your
bike more. And Matt, you were just talking about the
difference in the upfront cost of a bike versus a

(25:19):
car and then the ongoing maintenance costs, which are a fraction, right,
And there's just like a massive difference compared to the
average cost of a vehicle, which when you run the numbers,
and this also sounds a little shocking, it costs the
average person ten thousand dollars a year. I think it
was like ten seven hundred dollars a year, and the
most recent triple a survey to own a car, because

(25:41):
when you're factoring in maintenance costs, you take into account depreciation,
which is the thing that most of us we don't
really think about. But your car is being devalued every
single year in a typical environment, and that will cost
you thousands of dollars a year just owning that car.
And basically, when you think about the numbers, like that
one year of car to pre siation, well that is

(26:02):
going to cost you more than what the bike would
have cost you, which is kind of crazy to think about.
But we often don't run the math, right, We don't
run the full numbers, and so we assume that our
cars are costing us less than they actually are. But
the truth is that your car is way more of
a drain on your finances than you think it is.
And if you actually run the numbers, you'll find that out.
And then if you can ditch a car like we

(26:22):
talked about, from your life and your budget, you're going
to be in this vastly superior financial position that most
people aren't in, allowing you to funnel your dollars to
more productive areas, right, you know, having one less car. Also,
by the way, selling a car and being like, I'm
going to become a biker now is inevitably going to
lead you to biking more. It makes me think, Matt, like,

(26:43):
I wasn't fully committed to basically biking full time until
we sold my Nissan Leaf and I was like, well,
I guess that's my only option now. It kind of
left me up the creek without a paddle, and so
I had to find my way as a biker full
time biker, and I think that was helpful. I don't
know that you know, you should nessssarily start from square ones,
sell your car tomorrow, and then like you might find

(27:04):
that your specific situation doesn't lend to becoming a full
time biker, but it's worth Your.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Literal mileage might vary, yeah this one, Yeah, but it is.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
But it is important to note that sometimes like that
can help you fully commit to the thing that you're like,
you're trying to achieve. Finally ditching that car, not having
that safety blanket when it's forty five degrees and you're like,
I'd rather heat up the car and take my five
mile trek to work inside that little cocoon. I get it, like,

(27:35):
I would probably opt for that too sometimes, but now
I don't have the option, and that kind of forces
me to do the right thing.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Right. Yeah, it's an incredible commitment device were you to
go ahead and sell that vehicle and stick with driving
full time. And it's also worth addressing a potential argument
that biking how it might actually cost you more money.
And that argument goes something like this. If time is
money and it takes me longer to get somewhere, well,
then it's going to cost more to ride a bike

(28:01):
than it is for me to drive a car. But
here's something interesting, because if you're a city dweller, biking
can often help you to get wherever you're going more
quickly than you could in your car. That's actually what
the study over at MIT found last year because the
fact as bikes can maneuver around cities a little more
nimbly than cars can, especially when traffic is awful, something

(28:22):
we deal with here again in Atlanta. And additionally, when
you factor in how much easier it's going to be
to find a parking spot for your bike than it
is to actually find a spot to park your car
in the city, it's going to make biking look even smarter.
But bottom line, I think that that kind of argument,
it's oftentimes too more of a short term sort of argument, right,
like you're only looking at the here and now. In fact,

(28:43):
is there are these other longer term benefits that you
realize by biking more. Oftentimes it doesn't come down to
just the dollar and cents, but there are some other
factors as well that biking can have a positive impact
in our lives.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
Yeah, completely, Like, for instance, maybe if you're biking more regularly,
you don't have to spend as much time in the gym,
right because of the health benefits that you get from biking.
By the way, I love what you said about finding
a parking spot. It's like, yeah, maybe my car got
me there five minutes faster, but then it takes ten
minutes to look for the parking spot and circle the
city blocks. Exactly what we've talked about riding to Atlanta

(29:16):
nighty games on our bikes and how just getting your
car in the parking lot is such an endeavor at
one of those matches, and then valet parking your bike
is like the easiest thing in the world. You're in
the stadium faster, even if it took you a little
bit longer. To get there under bike. But let's talk
about health for a second, because I think it is
true that you might be able to go to the
gym less or maybe even to the doctor less too,

(29:37):
if you're biking more frequently. I'm not sure if you
could maybe fully go with this slogan, Matt, A bike
ride a day keeps the doctor away.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Could we do that one hundred percent for that? Okay,
all right, put it on a T shirt.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
This is not medical advice, and that might actually be
taking it just a bit too far. But it's kind
of a double whammy, right, that's getting you where you
need to go and is keeping you fit while doing it.
Sedentary lifestyles, of course, are just like a massive problem
in our country. They're creating major health problems for individuals
and for our society as a whole. The less we move,

(30:08):
the worse off our bodies are, the worse we are
as a civilization. And so the reality is cycling more
allows you to burn calories, It strengthens your heart and
your lungs, your muscles, and improves your mental well being.
Plus it's not hard on your joints, Matt. Because a
lot of folks might be averse to something like running. Right,
it's hard on my knees, and I've never really been

(30:28):
a runner. But I think with cycling you don't have
the same excuse because it's it's not hard on your
joints in the same way.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
You know. Yeah, it's good for the whole family.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, yeah, even your kids can do it.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
So I don't know.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
Remember Matt, when we talked about the power of a
quick nap recently, we talked about how just a twenty
minute nap like all of the benefits that can bring
to your life, and it made me think, well, we
should start napping. You're more a out of money. Well,
I think maybe a little after post lunch c yesterday, right, Yes,
I was just thinking, like a bike and nap combo.
Regularly you would kind of change our lives as individuals

(31:02):
and then collectively because we might be a little more
well arrested, we might be a little bit happier and healthier.
And it's amazing just the health impacts that biking regularly
once a day, even short rides, it can start to
make you a more fit person, just a happier, healthier
person in general.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
Yeah, and of course all this I mean with healthcare
costs be one of the fastest rising expenses in our lives.
This translates into real savings, and honestly, like we're mostly
just talking about the physical benefits here, but there's also
the mental side of things. Just think about the stress
that's going to melt away as your bike and home
and you know, rather than just feeling stressed out because
you're combating like you're fighting, you're duking it out for

(31:41):
you know, the spot as you're trying to make that
right turn.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
As you're crouched over your steering wheel, like letting your.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Muscles harden instead, you know, translating that like transforming it
into this relaxing bike ride. Because like the other thing too,
Like I was thinking of the fact that often we
are working in our cars, Like so many folks carry
the work from the office with them into the vehicle
into the car, and I think a lot of folks
are working pretty much like up until the second that

(32:06):
they like walk through their door going inside, bringing with
them all of this additional stress and the drama like
from the office. And so just from a quality of
life standpoint, I think it's helpful to provide this barrier
between work and home it's a way to kind of
contain that in a way that allows you to live
your life in a way hopefully that you want to
be able to live your life.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
I think it's important to mention too. I think biking
more connects us to our communities more and totally. The
more we're riding around, the more we see our neighbors,
the more we wave, and the more we maybe stop
and have a quick chat. I know I do. Like
when I'm in my car though, and I'm hurtling down
the road at thirty five miles an hour, if I
see a friend, like, we probably don't even catch.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Each other's gaze. Ya. You might wave.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
Right maybe, and they might not see me. But if
I am on my bike, it's guaranteed at minimum some
sort of connection wave and typically I'll stop and say
hello and chat for a second. Those are some of
my favorite things about about biking. Are these really not
super tangible not not like it's going to save you
a hundred bucks or not like it's going to do this,

(33:06):
or like we've talked about those things or some real
tangible ways, some real tangible health benefits and monetary benefits,
But there's some harder to quantify community benefits. I think
that you will get as you get on your bike more.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, these are quality of life improvements that we're talking about.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, And like, I think it just allows us to
enjoy the scenery a little more too, and enjoy the
place where we live. I think that biking more just
makes us feel more attached to, more a part of
our community, and I think that's a really valuable experience.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah. So it totally makes me think of Robert Persig
in the art What is Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance, But he talks about how being even on
a motorcycle, how you're more attached to where it is
that you are, as opposed to being in like the
steel box hurtling along the road. Because when you're in
a car and you are looking out at the you know,
looking out of the scenery that you're driving past, we

(33:55):
often treat it in the exact same way that we
treat the other images that we see on other sides
of glass that we are on too much of the day,
namely our computer screens, our phones, and our televisions, And
how oftentimes when we are in cars, that's why oftentimes
it can be so dehumanizing to other people who are
on the receiving end of somebody's rage or temper because

(34:16):
they don't see them as people. They just see them
as sort of like these inanimate objects on the other
side of this piece of glass, as opposed to being
on a bicycle where you're not observing the scenery passing
by like you are a part of it. You are
in it, and it's a lot easier to become and
feel attached, like you said, to a community when you're
not literally doing a drive by in a vehicle, hopefully

(34:38):
not terrorizing those in your wake here right.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Well, I think the other thing too, is there's something
that shifts in your mentality, like your perception of the
kind of person you are shifts as you become a
more regular biker. It's kind of like how we talk
about investing, Matt, like that there's something that happens once
you get started, once you make that first investment, and
then maybe you do it two weeks again later, and
then the next and then two weeks later you make

(35:01):
your third investment, and you're just you start to become
an investor, like you're not just investing your money now.
It's kind of part of your identity, and I think
the same thing happens when you start biking regularly. There's
some sort of like mental shift that and it changes
the way you view yourself and you're a biker now.
That subtle change can be kind of a powerful thing,

(35:22):
and that change almost ensures that you're going to keep writing,
like because now you view yourself a certain way. And
I think even some of the other elements that we
talk about with personal finance, like gamification, right, the more
you can kind of turn your finances into a game
as you're trying to improve and level up, well, gamifying
your rides can be helpful too. Like a hill that

(35:43):
maybe was previously like you want to avoid it because
you want it to be as easy as possible, and
now you're like, no, no, no, I'm a biker. I want
to be a good biker. I want to be a
strong biker. And you're like, boom, now I'm going to
see how quickly I can get up that hill and
I'm gonna try to beat my previous best time. Those
are the kind of things that I think are just
a fun part of bike. Now I'm like I used
to just be point A to point B, transportation on biking.

(36:05):
And now I think of biking, yes as that, But
sometimes I want to take the longer route, or I
want to take the more scenic route. Yeah, just because
it gives me more exercise, it gives me a different perspective,
it gives me a better view. I feel a part
of my neighborhood and my community in a different way.
And so it's not always just about getting to from
one place to the other as fast as I can
anymore exactly.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Yep, there is benefit to be received from the activity
in and of itself. So we talked through some of
the different reasons why we love biking so much. But
after the break, we're going to discuss how it is
that you can go about buying a bike, plus some
other tips from us with all of our years of
biking experience, and we'll get to all of that. Joel,
right after this.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
All right, let's keep talking about biking. It is the
ultimate life and money hack, we would say, and we
talked about it at the beginning. How it is kind
of like this key, don't have it. How if you
become a biker, if you start biking regularly, it is
going to have ripple effects it's going to have a
downstream impact on how much money you're able to save
and how much wealth you're able to build, but also

(37:14):
just kind of the lifestyle you're leading, how healthy you are,
and how connected do you feel to your community. But
you might say, listen, dudes, I don't have a bike,
so you obviously we got to figure that out, because
you're going to need a bike in order to make
biking a regular habit for yourself. You might already have one,
and it might just need some air in the tires
and maybe some loub on the chain. I think that's

(37:34):
worth considering dusting off your bike and giving it a
little bit of love, taking out of the shed or
the garage or wherever it is, and giving it a
test ride to kind of see what it needs. And
you can, if you want, look up some YouTube videos
and kind of find out how to get your bike
back in shape. But you might even want to take
it to a bike shop first and get it in
proper working order and then maybe try to maintain it

(37:54):
from there. But yeah, you might already find that you've
got what you need on hand. You don't have to
go out there and buy something new, which would be awesome.
But if you don't have one, we're going to talk
about how to get a good one without breaking the
bank here.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
Yeah, because you don't necessarily have to buy one brand new,
you can buy one used and so like. To that end,
we would recommend just like go old school, like check
out a site like Craigslist, look to Facebook, marketplace like.
You can actually like look at the signs in your
neighborhood that start going up on a Thursday or Friday.
You can actually go to a literal yard sale and
potentially score a great bike. Check with your local bike shop.

(38:28):
They actually they might have some used bikes that they sell.
They may not, but it's definitely worth asking. They oftentimes
know of the bikes that they service and that they
work on. They know whether or not folks are wanting
to hang on to those or get rid of them.
But once you've identified and found a bike, you've got
a test right at first, you want to make sure
that it does what you need it to do, you know,

(38:49):
like put it through its paces a little bit so
you can make sure that all the components are working properly.
This is where, specifically, if you are able to buy
a bike, even to use one at a bike shop.
They'll be able to help you to get fitted properly.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
You might want to take a friend, by the way
with you on that test drive if you're a complete
bike new Yeah, take someone who knows what they're doing
and say, like, hey, will you ride this for me
and tell me if you think it's a good bike
for you?

Speaker 2 (39:10):
You ride to work a decent bit, right, Like tell me,
like you know something about bikes, Come with me, please,
and you can, you know, make sure I'm not making
a big mistake. Sure, but they can also help you
to know that, like, yeah, that one will probably work
for you. Who knows how into this thing that you're getting,
It's it's close enough in sizing. You just basically like
you don't want to get a bike that's way too
stink a big for you, that is almost too difficult

(39:31):
to navigate on your streets. And obviously you don't want
to get something that's way too small where you've got
the you got the extra long stem like Joel does.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah, I'm like six to six on his bike. I
need the Excel frame. And I'm like looking for a
used mountain bike right now, Matt, And like all I'm
seeing are medium sized frames on Facebook.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Difficult to find those excels.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
It's tough to find the excel.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
But that being said, you can also look to if
you are going to buy new and we've mentioned the
site before, but bikes direct dot com. I've purchased multiple
bikes from the site where the model that they follow
basically is you are buying these sort of like white
label bikes. They're solid bikes, they've got great components, and
they are shipped directly to you. You've got to do
like a minimal amount of assembly to that bike. But

(40:12):
I've also had multiple friends who've purchased bikes from them,
and you can get a really solid bike that's not
going to break the bank over there at bikesdirect dot com.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Yeah, let's talk about e bikes here for a second
map because some people, I don't know, that's a whole
other can of worms. E bikes also have been soaring
in popularity in recent years, and some hardcore bikers might
be like, e bikes aren't real bikes, and I don't know,
we would beg diiffer because the reality is, yes, of
course you get more exercise riding a bike that doesn't
have a motor in a battery. But it's also true

(40:44):
that that e bikes allow for folks to get on
a bike who otherwise wouldn't be able to, and especially
for commuters who don't want to arrive super sweaty Matt
like that Georgia Tech professor. Sure, they might say, you
know what, it's either an e bike or it's driving
my car, and the e b is by far the
lesser of those two evils. Not that an e bike
is even evil, It's not even that, But I'm just

(41:06):
saying it is like a vastly superior choice when you're
talking about those two against each other, and they can
also create I would say this kind of virtuous cycle
causing folks to get more excited about biking in general,
which leads them to ride their e bike in probably
even a traditional bike more in general. So I would
say e bikes are mostly a good thing in our book.

(41:26):
They're causing people to get on their bikes again and
used as a great place to look when you're talking
about e bikes. Also, rad Power Bikes makes great, reasonably
priced bikes that they sell direct to consumer. I know
you can even get e bikes at costco. I can't
vouch for how good they are, but I can vouch
for Costco's return policy, and so if it sucks, you
can take it back. And I would also say look
at electric bike review dot com to read and learn

(41:49):
about specific models. They've been doing a great job for
years at test driving, reviewing and discussing the pros and
cons of different models. And they even have like a
best affordable e bike section two, which which is helpful.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Yeah. Also, let's talk about cargo bikes. This is a
style of bike that you and I both have, but
they have only gotten better in recent years, and while
they are going to cost more money, they truly can
be a car killer because they allow you to transport
not only kids who are riding back there on the
long tail, but you can put painteers on there and
transport groceries as well as other goods. I've even transported

(42:25):
other bikes via my cargo bike before. But there's just
lots of different solutions. And just because you're thinking, well,
it's not going to allow me to do X, well
there's actually a good chance that somebody has done X.
I'm thinking about like mister money mustash out in Colorado,
he's actually attached a trailer to his bike, not just
like a little surly like kid trailer where you just
like stick to kids in there, but like it's like

(42:46):
a truck's lumber from the hardware store, like loads of lumber,
not some sticks exactly. So there are lots of creative
ways to solve this problem, and it's it can be
easy to say that biking more like that is going
to be two difficult for you, but it's only become
more accessible in recent years and the abundance of solid
cargo bikes specifically I'm thinking of the ones that Yuba

(43:08):
and Extracycle that they make are evidence of this. But
another companies like rad Power Bikes have made this even
easier for folks with the Radwagon, which is what you've.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
Got Joel, Yeah, which has been a great bike for
now on my second version of the Radwagon. I had
the first gen and I have the fourth gen, and
it's been you know, considering it seems like an expensive
bike on its surface, but when I think about how
much value I've gotten out of the bike, it's been absurd, Like.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
It's been literally priceless.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
Yeah, it's been one of the best decisions I've ever
made to buy this bike And that might sound weird,
but it's like, but it's for real. It's because I
get so much valu. I think I've put more than
forty five hundred miles combined on both those two bikes.
And so that's a lot of going to and fro
and a lot of like fun activities and a lot
of just kind of pointing to point b transportation that

(43:53):
it's really provided for me. And that's in addition to
the road bike that I ride almost every day. So yeah,
I think cargo by for a lot of people can
make a whole lot of sense because they can help
you haul more stuff if that's what you need, whether
it's kids or groceries, it's it's worth at least looking
into that. And just one other thing, Matt, I think,
you know, we're talking about buying bikes, and speaking of RAT,

(44:15):
I saw that they recently launched an e bike rental
service in Berlin, and it made me think that renting
bikes is not typically in the best in the best
long term interest to people, because you know, like I
love what rat is up to, but paying eighty bucks
a month to them for a rental, it doesn't make
a whole lot of sense.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
I mean, you're not talking about spending five bucks on
a bike rental service when you're in a as a
tourist in NY where you're hopping from one point to
the other. You're talking about sort of like this ongoing lifestyle.
You provide the bike for me, I pay you money. Yes,
I don't have to worry about the bike.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
No, I'd rather you own your own bike, because, yeah,
the goal, the goal is for people to use it
regularly for years on end. And you know, bikes just
they're not like gadgets, like tech gadgets, where upgrading every
couple of years gets you actually improved features or something
like that, where if you get this year's model, well
it's going to be outdated by next year, and so
you might as well just rent it. No, we would

(45:08):
say that owning a bike is important and renting is
going to cost you more. And so even though this
program is only available in Europe, I could see this
just because of the subscription models that have become abundant
here in the US. I could just see this kind
of happening in more cities across the United States, and
I could see a lot more people be like cool,
this is how I'm going to get into biking. I
would rather you own your own because I just think

(45:29):
you're going to get enough use out of it where
that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
Absolutely, and Joe, So we talked about our Upstate New
York listener earlier. She's biking in inclement weather. Sometimes. We're
certainly luckier here down in the South, although it does
get cold, is nothing like what folks up in the
Northeast typically experience, although we are again more likely to
show up to work or to the store or to
a restaurant a little sweatier than most other folks. But honestly,

(45:53):
who cares. I feel like this is one of those
things that we can push to fight back on a
little bit, because nobody really cares about you sweating with
a little bit of sweat on your brow more than
you do. And so what that is is sort of
like what I as I think about it, It's sort
of like the ick factor, where you're just like, ugh,
like I don't want I just don't want to show
up being slightly damped to wherever it is that I
need to go. But I think it's worth pointing out

(46:13):
that it's a preference thing. It's not like I can't
do this type of thing.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
And I do like those people by the way view
you when you show up a little bit sweaty from
your bike ride, less icky and more like wow, what
a chance?

Speaker 2 (46:24):
Respect.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
Yes, I totally guess the case most people will actually
like there's a certain amount of respect that comes with
your dedication to that and the fact that you're pushing
through even though you might not be like smelling like
a barbed up soape or something like that.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
But there's also ways that you can get around that
by just different things you keep at the office. But
I mean, either way, I feel like the majority of
folks are going to be able to show up to
work not looking like they're, you know, ready to go
out on a date, especially if you're you know, you're
prepared right and so no matter like where it is
that you live, it's important for folks out there to
have the proper clothing in wet weather gear in particular,

(46:59):
It's something that I feel that it's something I've pushed
back against because I don't mind riding in the rain.
Like recently, I completely got dumped on and I was like,
all right, who cares, I'm just going to show up
and it's because I've got a change of clothes here
at the office, and so literally I came up, changed
out all my clothes, laid out my other clothes so
that they could dry by the time the day was over,
and then I put those earlier wet clothes back on,

(47:22):
and I left my clean, dry, clean, paar change of
clothes here in the office. But I think there's just
if you just think ahead a little bit, there's some
creative solutions that can present themselves that allow you to
do these things that at first blush you say, oh,
that's not possible, But you think about it for like
two seconds longer, and there's oftentimes a really easy solution.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Yeah, I got a rain jacket, and I have some
waterproof truck tailor's and that combo. Plus I've got some
waterproof pants too, and that combo gets me, you know,
through most rainstorms without looking like a complete mess. But yeah,
and I think it's also important to mention just safety,
like where you're oh yeah, yeah, proper lighting stuff like
that is, and riding on the street. Like we were

(48:01):
walking down the sidewalk the other day and there was
a cyclist on the sidewalk, and I understand kind of
why people want to ride on the sidewalks. But it's
not safe. It's not safe for pedestrians, and I know
that you might not feel safe right in the road.
It's something that the more you do it, the more
you'll feel comfortable doing it.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
So especially like you said, having the proper lighting. I
mean I always when I'm running the street, like I
turn on that back blinker so that it's that blinky
is just going slot. And the same thing with the
light up front, like you don't need to turn on
your head like a broad daylight, but flip it, you know,
to the fourth push when it switches to flashing as
opposed to just the solid beam of light. But it's

(48:36):
there to help provide visibility.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
Because yeah, you have to get a set of those,
say thirty thirty five bucks on Amazon. Like it's not
it's not expensive, so but it's yeah, it's going to
go a long way in helping you feel safer on
your bike. Hopefully we've convinced you that biking more is
going to improve your life in a meaningful way. Right,
incorporating regular rides into your life, we would say it
really is this keystone habit that's going to have cascading

(48:59):
benefits for you. You're going to be happier, you're going to
be healthier, you're going to be a little more fit.
You'll also bring money back into your life. It really
is kind of this way in which you do this
one thing and it has ripple effects into every area
of how you live. And even if riding your bike
more doesn't mean that you're also ditching one of your cars,
that's still okay, right, you don't have to, but we

(49:20):
would say maybe at some point you'll get so into
your biking that you'll be able to ditch one of
them and you're going to save even more money. And
it's also important to mention that you don't have to
go from like your couch to a thirty mile bike
commute in one fell swoop. I think that would be
we're not laying a guilt trip on people here and
saying like, get off your duff and we're not drill sergeant,

(49:41):
that's not our jam. But you'll start with a little
grocery store run this week and see what happens, and
you might find that it's kind of enjoyable and not
as difficult as you thought. If you bring a backpack
or whatever to carry your groceries in. And by the way, Matt,
we talked about this, I don't know a couple months
ago on the show. Google Maps has an update that
makes it easier than ever to bike. So if you
get a little phone for your bike too, so you

(50:01):
can see where you're going and you can see you
know the best route to get there, and Google is
leading you turn by turn on how to get like,
then it's just it's never been easier to be a biker,
even with our pitiful lack of bike infrastructure in this country.
Don't let that be an excuse, like get under bike,
and the more of us that do it, the more
cars are going to notice, and the more are hopefully
our politicians are going to notice, And then it just

(50:23):
becomes this self fulfilling prophecy that bikes are going to
rule the world one of these days.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
Heck yeah, and one last step too, Like you were
talking about just making a quick grocery store run rather
than commuting for work. We've talked about this before as well,
But before you take that first commute into your office,
do that on a Saturday morning, like a nice chill Saturday.
I think that can be an awesome way just to
get a feel for the route that you need to
take to drive, run, maybe how long it's going to
take you, how sweaty you are by the time you

(50:49):
get there. These are all valuable pieces of information that
are helpful to have before you then have to immediately
go into a meeting or sit down and PLoP down
and start working. But again, we're just trying to find
these small, all easy ways for you to get into biking.
But hopefully, yeah, like Joel said, these are all tips
that will help you to get biking more, not only
to save more money, but just to live.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
A happier life for sure, all right, because that's what
we're all about here. We want people to be better
with their money, and but we want people to live
better lives. And it's funny. One of our listeners, Matt
in the Facebook group, he recently said, oh that the
show could totally be called how to Live a Good
Life with like money as an addendum, And isn't like that, Yeah,
it's probably true, Like we talk about things that go

(51:30):
beyond money.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
Money is just a tool, and we talk a lot
about this one specific tool, but there are other tools
out there as well, like bicycles.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Yeah, and that tool reaches into a lot of other
aspects of our lives, so we touch on those things too,
and this is just one of them. That biking. It's
gonna save you money, but it's gonna have a lot
of other beneficial impacts for you too, Just like drinking
good beer, what's a day is probably a good thing,
at least for us.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
It is a beer a day. Yeah, we can't go
down that path. No, let's we'll stick with the bike,
right a day? The dog Rebbe keeps the doctor away?
Did I say keeps the doctor at bay? I think?
But that also works. No, this was Bosky Lagger, and dude,
this is a really good beer. This was I'm going
to read the label here inspired by German pilsners, and

(52:15):
they're basically talk about how it's got those noble dry
hops going on, given that classic pilsner sort of taste.
What your thoughts on this one.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Dude, This was one of the best pillsers I've ever had.
Oh yeah, yeah, I thought it was great.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
It was my praise.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
It was like pillowy. It was crisp, but also had
like some really nice floral hop notes coming through and
sometimes Pilsners are light on that, like there's not enough
hot presence and so it just kind of tastes like beer.
But this one had like definitely had that like taste
like beer pilsner thing going on, but it had even
more going on than that, And so I thought this
was like a really well rounded pilsoner that, yeah, I

(52:51):
was a fan of.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Yeah, fantastic, real bright, real clean. It kind of reminded
me of a lot of the Laggers, a lot of
the Pilsners that our friends down at Halfway Crooks that
they're making, which is very much in the style as well.
But yeah, definitely a great beer, the kind of beer
that you want to enjoy after a long bike ride
as well. Yeah, kind of makes me I feel like,
maybe should we have had a beer by Bicycle Brewing?
Is that those cycle and cycle yeah down there in

(53:14):
a Tampa or Saint Pete, I think yeah, Or we
could have had a Rattler which or Rattler the other
classic Cyclist or New Belgium beverage of choice. They love bikes, true,
they get that whole yeah, that whole series, that whole brand.
But this was a fantastic beer. Glad that you and
I were able to enjoy one today and thanks again
to Bob for donating this one to the show.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
For sure. All right, that's going to do it for
this episode. We hope you get out there on your bike.
We hope it's enjoyable. If you have any questions about biking,
you can always reach out to us. We love listener emails.
How tomoneypod at gmail dot com is our email address.
And Matt, that's going to do it for this episode
until next time. Best Friends album, Best Friends Out.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
He don't spoke

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Joel Larsgaard

Matthew Altmix

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Breakfast Club

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Biking is a Money & Life Hack (Bestie Ep) #1012