March 24, 2021 • 40 mins
You can call them maxims, proverbs, or even mottos, but the most common phrases we hear tend to ingrain themselves as truth over time. If we hear something consistently enough it takes root in our psyche! Some of those sayings are about money but what if they’re not true? If we have the wrong information we could have a view of our money, of business, and even of how the world works that is entirely false! During this episode we talk about some of the most common money phrases that we hear and dissect the truthfulness of those phrases. If something we hear about money is incorrect or flawed, we need to correct our course! We want to make sure that we’re not accidentally basing our personal finance beliefs on some catchy sayings we’ve heard over the years.
During this episode we enjoyed an Aliens on Moonshine by Torched Hop! And as we’ve kicked things off with a bang in 2021, we could really use your help to spread the word- let friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to spread the word to get more people doing smart things with their money in these difficult times!
Best friends out!
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today we are dissecting the truthfulness of common money phrases.
(00:25):
That's right, Joel, we're talking about these money phrases. These
are like the maxims, are the proverbs that you've heard, uh,
your whole life you're talking, yeah, basically your entire life.
You know. Sometimes they might be acquitted to, like little
sayings that you get like on a fortune cookie. It's
that's what that's part of the reason why we're talking
about this today. We want to make sure that you
are not getting your financial advice from a fortune cookie.
Don't do that. That's bad news. Yeah. So before we
(00:48):
get to that, though, man, I wanted to share with you.
Um Evy had been wanting a sketch, your oldest your
seven year old, that's right. Yeah. So she's been working
doing jobs around the house, saving up her money, and
she's really been wanting an etch a sketch, which is
pretty cool. It's like an old school toy. I had
one of those when I was a kid. You know,
did your best to try to draw circle. It's impossible.
And so the time came to where she was like,
(01:09):
all right, I definitely want to do this, and you know,
we didn't see any like used you know, like yard
sales or anything like that. We hopped online, we shopped around,
looked for the best price. Not surprisingly, it was on Amazon,
and as we're getting ready to make the purchase, we
saw down below it had uh like like you new
or used item or whatever. It was an open box,
and so we clicked it and I was like, Eavy,
check it out. And it was three or four dollars
(01:30):
less to get the quote unquote used one. It was
an open box and it sat on there that it
might have a scuff like on the back of the
on the back of the thing, you know, like it
would not affect the ability to draw jaggedy circles or
anything like that. And so we asked Ebby, like, hey,
do you want to say three or four dollars by
getting this version that's not perfectly brand new, like somebody
else has already opened the box, but it works perfectly fine.
(01:53):
And without even blinking an eye, she was like, oh yeah,
where was so happy. Yeah that she instinctively was just like, oh,
that's a great way to save money. I'm you know,
I'm just proud of I guess the fact that we're
imbuing our kids with our frugal ways. But it reminded
me that there are just so many lessons that we
can teach our kids, all the folks out there who
have kids. There are just ways that we can, you know,
teach our kids how to be frugal, teach them, you know,
(02:15):
how to work hard, how to save their money, do
you know, make smart moves with their money. There are
lots of little lessons that I guess if we keep
an open mind to those and look out for them,
they're there. Yeah, we can infuse them into the every
day into just like little decisions like that sometimes at
the grocery store, you know, learning a lesson about money,
like we we can talk about that there. You know,
my my sister just recently went out of town, went
(02:36):
down to Florida, and Selma has been taking care of
her cat. She made a little extra money that way,
like ants house house p paying her a few bucks
the same anseuse houth that donated some beer. So its
exactly and so yeah that that's just like a perfect
time also to learn a money lesson, like hey, you
know when when we work, when we do things for
other people, like sometimes we make money and so not always.
Sometimes we do nice things for family members without expecting
(02:58):
anything in return. But that was just a per ficked
opportunity for her to see, Oh there's other ways out
there for me to make money first, to expand her mind. Yeah,
it allows them to be a little more creative and
how they approach their money right, like always side hustling,
maybe always trying to think of other entrepreneurial endeavors. Like
maybe she's she's gonna start her own like pet sitting business,
and all the pets are gonna be in your house. Um,
(03:18):
so you'll have the cat over at your house right now. Okay,
so she listen to the neighborhood. We can go over there,
rider bikes over there. Okay, you know, feed the cat,
play with it for a minute, and then all of
the cats not super playful, kind of hiding under the bed.
It's not always the case. I feel like there's never
two really good cats. There's always like one really friendly
one and one that like totally sucks, just always scratches
(03:39):
people up like a loner. Yeah. I don't know if
that's always the case, but good lesson though, to have
to take care of an animal, because you know, we
don't have one of our own in our house. But
it's also good, like, you know, if we do eventually
get an animal, which you'll have talked about, we will
have some practice. Yeah, I love it. We'll see if
we make it there. But all r Yeah, Matt, let's
mentioned that beer we're having on the show today. This
one is called Aliens on Moonshine and it's by Torch
(03:59):
Top Brewing there local Atlanta brewery. I love the name.
Just makes me think of a bunch of aliens passed
out in the corner having had a lot of moonshine.
But oh funny, I was thinking of like in space. Okay,
I'm thinking moon trying to drink. I guess it could
be that as well, but yours evokes a funnier image
it does. I pictured like a UFO kind of like
(04:19):
I don't know, like writing down a beam of moonlight
like moonshine. That's sweeter. I guess it would have been moonlight. Yeah,
either way, this is the beer we're enjoying that we're
sharing here from Torch Top. Looking forward to yeah, sharing
this one with you man, and also sharing our thoughts
on it at the end of the episode. That's right.
But for now, let's get onto the topic at hand.
We're dissecting the truthfulness of common money phrases, and Matt,
(04:42):
I feel like the most common money phrases we hear,
besides the ones that we get in fortune cookies sometimes, um,
the ones that we hear over and over repeated, you know,
on the TV or from parents or from loved ones.
They get ingrained as truth over time in our minds,
and if you hear something consistently enough, it starts to
take root in your psyche. I feel like that's kind
of part of the goal that advertisers have is to
(05:05):
make you feel something or react a certain way when
you see an item in the store based on like
what you've seen on TV, when you've seen those ads
play to get you to associate positive feelings with a brand,
so that you maybe grab a coke when you're feeling thirsty,
even though coke doesn't actually quench your thirst, right. Um,
But the way people, it's the commercials. You're like, oh, man,
(05:26):
man that he just like went for a run, he
had a coke. Man, But yeah, that might work, but
it doesn't really right. Yeah, I think he's about to
have a massive burb you know, like I don't even
like drinking seltzer out of a cann Like I always
pour it in a glass and I'll allow some of
the some of the gas, some of the air to escape.
Smart move. But today we want to talk about some
of the most common money phrases that we hear, and
we want to dissect the truthfulness of those phrases. Is
(05:47):
something we're told about money is incorrect or flawed or incomplete,
Like we need to know that. So let's not just
let the most common things we hear about something as
important as money become normalized without at least a little
bit more critic about about the truthfulness or lack thereof
of some of these phrases. Man, you know, this totally
makes me think of the different myths that we heard
as kids growing up, you know, like, for instance, something
(06:08):
of like if you swallow your gum, it's gonna take
seven years to digest. I remember that one. I definitely
knew that one of those faults. What about after? Uh after?
Like I fell asleep one time and I had a
piece of gum like dissolve in my mouth, and I
was like, Okay, there's no way that if it dissolved
in my mouth that it's actually gonna take seven years
to digest. Seriously, Yeah, well what about you have to
wait for an hour to swim after eating? Yeah? I
(06:30):
think that was kind of made up to, right, Like,
I think a lot of these are just like as
parents ways that they can control their kids, like out
of fear. Like another one I remember too, is like, uh,
like don't swallow or don't eat watermelon seeds. Other way
you will have like watermelons growing in your stomach. All
the ones I remember are things that involve putting things
in my mouth. So I think that might speak to
(06:50):
what it was like for me growing up, right, little
freudy in there. Uh, it's obviously these are myths that
kind of get passed down either from parents to kids
or you know, from one generation of kids to another,
but they stick with us, right, And so you know,
we're spending an entire episode talking through some of these
different money phrases because we want to make sure that
we're not accidentally basing our our personal finance beliefs just
(07:11):
on a on a bunch of half truths. All right,
So let's get into it. Let's let's mention the first
money phrase we want to dissect, and it's throwing good
money after bad We've all heard that one before, and
of course this phrase speaks to spending money on something
problematic in hopes that you can fix the issue by
tossing more of your money in that direction. Um, and
I think this phrase, Matt rings very true in many parts. Right.
(07:33):
I agree. There's a fancy behavioral economics concept for why
we throw good money after bad money, and it's called
the sunk cost fallacy, which basically occurs when you continue
a behavior because you've already invested resources like time, effort,
or money into it. We have a tendency to not
know when we should cut our losses and move on.
And you know, we think that if we put more
(07:54):
money into a problem that we can fix it. But
that's not always the case. And so instead of making
a choice on the desire not to see your past
investment go to waste, make it on the outcome you'd
most like to see moving forward. Instead, that we were
less likely to throw good money after bad if we
change how we think about the problem that we're encountering.
That's right. It makes me think of like all you
can eat buffet. It's like you spent the ten dollars
(08:15):
or whatever it costs these days, and no matter what,
you're definitely gonna get your money's worse. So you keep
eating even though each additional plate of food you get
just makes you feel worse. But you could also potentially
use this phrase to buy something new without giving thoughts
to how you can fix or repurpose that item. So
this is a way that this could be a negative thing, right, So,
(08:36):
for instance, buying a new battery for a watch, like
that's not throwing good money after bad, Like you're spending
five bucks to keep that thirty dollar watch running, or
you know, maybe even fixing the A C on your
on your car that's just five years old. Again, that's
not throwing away good money after bad. If it's been
a great car and you can spend you know, maybe
bucks to fix it, you do that and you keep
on driving. So throwing good money after bad is a
(08:58):
is a good concept, It's true, but you do need
to know when it makes sense to actually use that phrase.
You don't want to use it as an excuse like
I don't want to throw good money after bad on
this perfectly good item that all you need to do
is spend a little time, a little effort, and a
small amount of money to fix um. That does not compute, right, Yeah,
but again it goes back to that not making the
choice based on the money you've already invested. But what's
(09:22):
the outcome you'd most like to see moving forward. That's
a better way to think about it. The ex senior car,
you're like, well, it's easy to think if I sell
it and get something new and I don't have any problems,
But eventually that car is going to give you problems too.
In that case, you do want to spend some money,
and it's not throwing good money after bad it's just
fixing something that needs fixing. That's right, man. All right,
let's ahead move on to our next money phrase, which
is that money is the root of all evil. And
(09:43):
so this is when you have certainly heard all of
your life in depending you know, on how religious you are,
you may have heard it way too much. But this
phrase actually comes from the New Testaments in the Bible,
and it often gets misconstrued. Uh. And the quote is
actually that the love of money is the root of
all evil, and so this clears things up because you know,
(10:03):
money certainly isn't the root of all evil, but it's
easy to see how the love of money produces serious
issues in our world and in our own lives and
our own hearts even And that's why we try to
talk about how to use money as a tool while
simultaneously trying to kind of avoid the pinky and the
brain mentality, you know, Joel, you've mentioned that before, where
you just want to amass more and just conquer right
(10:24):
over the world Michel every night. And so when when
money gets out of place in our lives and become
something that we love and cling to instead of just
using it as a helpful tool, it will have harmful
effects in our lives. Yeah, it's so important to view
money as simply a tool that you can wield, like
you just said, Matt, because if folks are going around
thinking that money is inherently evil, then of course that
(10:46):
will have a negative effect on your perception of money.
You're less likely to be an investor, to become an
investor and start growing your money. You're less likely to
think that advancing in your career and making more money
is a good thing. Because if money in and of
itself is the root of all evil. Then you definitely
don't want to get more of it. You probably want
to avoid it at all costs. It probably means to
that you're not talking about it, right, Like, if you
(11:07):
feel that this is something bad, well, there's it kind
of increases that to boo, increases that behavior of avoidance
even talking about the topic. Yeah, the shame that you
associated with it in general. And then obviously if you
feel that way, it's going to compound your money money issues,
which affect so many other parts of your life. It
also might hurt how you perceive those who have a
lot of money, right, other people who are doing why things,
(11:29):
who are doing well, and you might demonize them. If
money is bad, then you must be bad if you
have money. And so when you hear this said, try
to remember the actual phrase and at the very least,
regardless of your religious beliefs, that loving money is a
detriment to our ability to live a good life. So
when we dissect this phrase, Matt, I think we kind
of come somewhere in the middle, right, Like, money isn't
(11:50):
the root of all evil. The love of money certainly
is a root of much evil in our society. And
but going too far down the path of thinking that,
you know, associating money with being a bad thing has
a lot of negative connotations in our lives and how
we view others too. Yeah, this one mostly seems untrue,
just based on the fact that it's just misquoted, right,
So yeah, I think we would encourage folks to make
(12:10):
sure that they get the saying correct. And so Joel,
We've got a lot more of these phrases to get to,
including penny wise, pound foolish. That one came from the UK,
you know, because they said pound right. We'll get to
that one, as well as several others right after the break.
(12:34):
All right, we're back, and Matt pol we get to
some of those European sayings. Let's stay state side and
uh and go with one of our founding fathers popular
saying that's attributed commonly to Benjamin Franklin. A penny saved
is a penny earned. This is the next common money
phrase we want to dissect. And Benjamin Franklin obviously wrote
a lot about money. He was fascinated by it. He
(12:55):
wrote a lot of great maxims and I feel like
a lot of those because he was such a good writer,
have really stuck in American parlance, and a lot of
the common money saying is actually um, really we can
attribute back to him, that's rights. But you know, how
accurate is this common money phrase? You know that we've
heard a whole lives. Well, we feel that it's pretty accurate.
You know, this quote is really all about living frugally,
(13:16):
which obviously we are all about that. You know, the
money that we earn that we don't spend, it creates
meaningful margin in our lives. And Juel and I are
advocates of abolishing the penny, so we can we might
want to update this one to uh, this phrase to
a dollar saved is a dollar earned, would be better?
Or a bitcoin saved is a bitcoin? Right, nobody's got
the money for that, but it's uh. It is important
(13:38):
though to know that pennies and dollars they add up
more quickly than we think. It makes me think about
you know, I was talking about Eavy like doing kind
of jobs around the house. I don't know if you remember,
but we've shared on the show before how when we
do trash treasures. I used to pay five cents per
piece of glass or metal and heard inflation has yeah, yeah,
and on just one cent for every piece of plastic.
(13:58):
But I found, whether it be because of inflation or
because of the girls are less interested, or because there's
just fewer bits of trashtionner yard like, they've actually done
a really good job of finding all these things. But
I've had to increase the rate. And so now instead
of a nickel and opinion, now I'm paying a dime
for every piece of glass and metal and uh, and
a nickel for every piece of plastic. Pennies in our
(14:20):
in our house, man are pretty worthless, except for maybe
to teach just the youngest when it comes to you know,
how to count and what goes into a nickel. But yeah,
so I stand behind the abolishing of the penny. Yeah,
I'm with you two, I agree. But that phrase a
penny saved as a penny earned is still I think helpful,
and it is a useful money phrase, and I like
that we still use it even though it was essentially
(14:42):
invented in the late But while these are wise words,
it's also important to point out that frugality alone won't
get you to where you want to be financially. And
I think sometimes overly frugal people they love phrases like this.
They cling to it because they don't want to see
the other side of the money coin, where they can
make positive improvements to their lives to make more, and
(15:02):
so we want to stress it. It's also important to
utilize your human capital, increase your earning potential, and to
invest for the future. Like frugality should be praised. Matt
and I were big fans. We do a lot of
We're all about your frugal stuff, lots of frugal things
we do. But at the same time, Uh, we shouldn't
take that path to the exclusion of making other wise
financial choices. That's right. Yeah, you can't frugle your way
(15:24):
to becoming a millionaire. Right. And so another common money
phrase that we're gonna cover here is money changes people.
And you know, the truth is that money does often
change people. You know. I'm thinking of Charles Dickens, his
classic A Christmas Carol. It's a perfect example of a
person who gets consumed by wealth accumulation. Uh, and so
he ends up treating others poorly, loses all the things
(15:45):
that really mattered to him in his life. Money changed
E benez Er. Scrooge still one of my favorite stories.
By the way, it's a classic man. And you know,
no doubt many of us can points and maybe just
someone in our own lives, someone who we know who
has maybe come into some money and then ended up
finding new friends. You know, maybe they stopped returning your
phone calls or your text Remember who it is. I
don't know anymore who it is got lots of money.
(16:07):
Now it's unfortunate, but it's kind of true, you know.
And and some research also has shown that as wealth
levels grow that people become more narcissistic. But on the
other hand, less wealthy folks tend to be more empathetic, compassionate,
and also give more of their money. Yeah, this is
fascinating how that happens. How um, if you live your
life essentially in this place of just growth and accumulation,
(16:30):
and you turn inward, your focus becomes on yourself and
you do begin to change. I think you know, Ebenezer
Scrooges the perfect example, right of in classic literature. But
it's interesting how um, people with less money often take
care of the people around them better than rich people do.
But on the other hand, does money actually change that
(16:51):
person or does it just amplify who they already are
at their core, right, my good question. Yeah. I feel
like it's not always the money that changes the person.
Sometimes money allows you to be more of those leanings,
those tendencies that you already had, and it might come
down to the individual and money changing people doesn't have
to be true, right, Some of the richest folks in
the world are giving massive amounts of wealth and time
(17:14):
to worthy people and projects. Um, like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett,
Mackenzie Scott are a few examples. Matt we we talked
about how much money she gave away, like a billion
dollars a month for months in a row, and that's
a perfect example of how having tons of money doesn't
necessarily mean that you have to be a jerk, right, Um.
And so we think that the perfect antidote to staying
the same when you do have more money is giving
(17:36):
large portions of your money away and maintaining relationships with
lifelong friends. You don't want to cut them off because
you've got new, richer friends, right. Um. So it's part
of why craft beer is such an equalizers, Like it's
something that pretty much everybody can enjoy, you know, Like
we're not necessarily getting into fine wines and you know,
aged cognacs. Although that kind of sounds nice, but that's
(17:58):
that's not our style exact. And like, I think, sometimes
this saying is true, right, money does change people. We've
seen it happen. But also too, we'd modify it to
say that money might possibly change people. It's not true thing,
but it is hard and as you make more money,
as you get closer to financial independence, it's worth thinking
about and guarding yourself against. Very true. That's right, man,
(18:21):
Let's move on, Lets keep moving our next phrases, money
can't buy happiness. Uh. And I think we're gonna go
ahead and get this one like a nine out of
ten on the truth scale, the truthiness scale a little
coldbar nod there, uh. And you know that's because money
and happiness are not synonymous. You know, we just talked
about how money, uh changes people, how it can change people.
(18:41):
Often the folks with the most money are leading miserable lies.
And in fact, there's research out there that shows that
individuals who are making over a hundred and five thousand
dollars a year they tended to be associated with reduced
life satisfaction as well as a lower level of well being.
Part of this is that really rich people tend to
live more isolated lives, and you know, they're they're asking themselves, like,
(19:03):
am I doing better than than other folks? Like that
becomes the question that those folks ask themselves, And so,
you know, money and possessions become the easiest measuring stick,
leading to a lack of happiness in the areas that
truly do matter. They're they're looking at the wrong things. Yeah,
But then again to right, Matt, there's ten percent of
the world that's living in poverty and many other people
who aren't too far above the poverty line, and more
(19:25):
money would have a direct correlation to increase happiness for
a lot of those folks. Right basically, up until you
hit that seventy five dollar a year income threshold, people
are happier the more money they make, and so yeah,
people living on less than that are having a harder time.
It really is interesting how when you have individuals who
are earning around what the median income is in America
(19:46):
that for the most part, folks are pretty happy, you know,
And so it's just weird because like one way or
the other, it does kind of go back to like
looking around you a little bit. Because if you don't
know that, like, oh, this is a possibility for me,
And if you know you're kind of hanging out with
your neighbors, your friends and you're all earning you know,
similar amounts, Well, you're not necessarily looking till your money
or your income, uh, in order to gain that happiness.
(20:06):
You're you're hopefully looking at the things that truly do matter. Yeah,
so can money by happiness. While we would say that
making enough to get by and to not have to
stress about money is really important, really helpful, and will
contribute to I think a greater level of happiness and satisfaction,
but having a ton of access really isn't crucial to
being able to enjoy the things that matter in life.
So yeah, again, I think yeah, eight or nine out
(20:28):
of ten on the truthiness scale that money can't buy happiness.
It really can't, right, And I think sometimes people think
if I have more money, my life is going to
be better off. I'm going to be in a better place.
And especially if you're in a great financial position already,
you might be overly fixated on money as a solution
to what ails you. And really what you need to
look to is other things. That actually provide meaning and
satisfaction in life and not the accrual of more money.
(20:51):
That's right. This actually kind of makes me think of
the phrase, and this is the one that we included,
but the phrase that's been attributed to Malcolm Forbes of
the Forbes publication right the website, which is he who
dies with the most toys wins, which is obviously, uh,
we don't believe in it at all. Like, we didn't
include that because it's clearly not true, very easily debunked. Um.
(21:14):
But this is kind of you know, reinforcing that, like, yeah,
there's a certain small level of wellness that you can
make sure that you have in your life that can
lead to health, which in turn leads to happiness. But
for everybody else out there, uh, you know, looking to
increase your income isn't a way to achieve more happiness. Uh.
The next phrase that we wanted to share with folks
is that cash is king. Uh. That's another phrase you know,
(21:34):
we've all heard, and it's often used in the investing
arenas to note that having some liquidity is important when
making a purchase so that you can pounce when the
time is right, and so you know, there is real
truth to to that in the investing and in the
personal finance space, right, Like, having cash in the bank
not only reduces stress, but it allows you the freedom. Uh,
it gives you the ability to make moves that those
(21:56):
with lesser cash reserves couldn't make. You know, the beginnings
the cash reserve, you know, that's what we call an
emergency fund. Like that's when you see your stress levels
go down because you have more margin in your life.
But then after that, you can begin to take advantage
of opportunities that come your way. You know, you can
build up some piece of money that allows you to
maybe ditch a crappy job. You can use that money
to take a sabbatical, or you can even use that
(22:17):
money to start your own business. Yeah. Man, it reminds
me of last week's episode where we we talked about
the role of preparedness and how that transforms opportunities that
might come along into what seems like lucky breaks that
you're then able to take action on. And having enough
cash on hand kind of offers you a little bit
of that, like the ability to pounce on certain opportunities.
It's hard to you know, buy a real estate investment property,
(22:39):
deal if you don't have any cash in the bank
to do so, right, that's true, But on the flip
side of the coin, too much cash can be the
move of a fearful investor. Cash is great, and I
think we learned that even more so right in these
in these COVID times. But if an over emphasis on
cash stops you from investing in your four oh one K,
your ira, or you know, other tax advantage were firement accounts,
(23:00):
you don't understand the downsides of having too much cash
on hand. And that's because inflation eats away the value
of your money if you aren't intentional about growing it.
Getting too conservative with your money can be a real
struggle for a lot of folks. Yeah, So this is
one I feel like that we would say is true
fifty percent of the time, you know, like of the time,
it's true of the time. It just depends on what
(23:21):
situation you're in. And that's not just investments too. Like
it makes me think of having cash on hand in
order to even make a purchase, not of an investment,
but something that you need to purchase, you know, Like,
if you have the money on hand, like you're able
to take advantage of the deals that are out there.
You know, like you Joel, like you're so good at
like keeping an eye on the deals. But guess what,
you can know where the deals are. But if you
don't have the money to make that purchase, well, you're
(23:41):
you're kind of missing out. You're going into debt in
order to buy that thing, and cash would be definitely
king in that situation. As another thing too real quick
on the cash is king, Matt, is that I think
sometimes when we're talking about how we spend, the method
that we use when we're buying something, cash isn't king there.
Because you know, we talked about why credit cards are
a better choice for most people if you can handle
(24:02):
credit cards well as a purchasing option, Um, credit cards
are king when it when it comes to how you
when you can think when it comes to consumer protection,
cash back, Yeah, the rewards and the consumer protections in tandem.
And cash doesn't get you that thing, Like you won't
get like an extended warranty on something that you buy
if you pay for it in cash, but you in
all likelihood will if you use the right credit card.
So that's just another situation another way in which cash
(24:24):
isn't necessarily king, but yeah, cash is also important, all right,
So it's true like the time exactly. Uh, let's move
on to the next money phrase. This one comes from
across the pond. As Matt made mentioned earlier, we're gonna
cover um pennywise and pound foolish, and Matt, I feel
like that's actually something I've maybe been called before quite
a while back. That used to be more of a
struggle for me. I'd pinch pennies on the little stuff
(24:46):
and I'd go maybe a little too big on the
things that I should have been more careful, I should
have put more thought into spending money on. I feel
like for some folks with certain personality types mine included
being pennywise and pound foolish, is can be a struggle. Yeah.
It makes me think of folks who you know, might
be really careful when it comes to like small matters
in their life, right like so like keeping their a
C set at seventy eight in the summer, Like they're
(25:07):
always a little sweaty, but they're not spending the real
money and you know, into insulating your attic well, which
would provide like yes it costs more, uh like up front,
but it's gonna provide you, you know, much more savings,
much less energy usage down the road. Uh. You know,
you might be intentional about saving on your groceries so
that you can, you know, maybe finally open an I
(25:28):
ra A and start investing, but then you don't pay
attention to the fees. Uh, And that's gonna cost you
tens of thousands of dollars over your investing lifetime. I know,
for me personally, like one of the ways that I
think I you know, might be called cheap or you know,
penny wise and pound foolish, is like I don't like
to spend the time or the money to go see
the doctor or go to the dentist. I'm relatively a
(25:49):
pretty healthy guy into me Like, I'm just I just
have a tough time with them. Like does it make
sense that I know I need to go in and
get checked up? And so like because of that, at
the beginning of the year, like we made a line
item on the budget where it's like Matt's going to
go to the doctor, Like we have it itemized on
our like on our savings buckets, because I know that
I need to go. But in the moment, i'm you know,
I think like I don't need to do that, And
(26:10):
so I'm afraid that I'm being pound foolish in that
in that case, right, because if I avoid paying small
amounts to go get my teeth checked out or go
see the doctor, like, there might end up being a
larger problem, larger health problem down the road. And not
only would that cost me my you know, my health potentially,
but it could end up being a much bigger bill
as well. That's true. I will say, I recommend you
(26:30):
go to the doctor and to the dentist. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm not gonna hand you about it, though. I think
it's also too it's important to pay attention to both
the small and the big financial decisions in our lives.
Getting the small things right is great, but getting the
big things right is often more important. We've talked about that, Matt.
If we get those bigger line items in our budget
super right, then the small things are just a little
(26:52):
bit less consequence. But if we're super fine tuned to
the smallest areas of our budget and less perceptive about
what's going on in those bigger areas where you know,
we might let money fly, we'll likely find ourselves in
like a crappy financial situation, and so I'm not sure
you know how many people have this issue where they
do fixate on the small expenses and kind of let
the big ones go sometimes. But yeah, I know that
(27:14):
I can identify with that. That's been the case for
me before in my life, and it's still kind of
a struggle at times. So if you're one of those people,
I just want to say I identify with you. Okay,
And all right, We've got a few more common money
phrases that we want to dissect the validity of, and
we'll get to those right after this break. All right,
(27:39):
we are back in a let's let's keep on going
with the money phrases. Uh. This next one is one
that a lot of folks have heard uh as kids,
and if you're a parent, this might be one that
you UH say to your children use with regularity. Yeah,
which is money doesn't grow on trees. That's another commonly
used money phrase. And obviously there's no such thing as
(27:59):
a money tree, although there is a house plan that
sometimes called the money tree. Right, we should have one
down here in the office, we should guess we should
we should call it the how the money tree. But
the saying, you know, with hopefully some additional explanation can
help our kids to know that money comes along hard work.
You know, Like we kind of talked about this at
the top of the episode, when you know, with Evy,
(28:19):
my daughter's like she just wanted that out of the
blue and she didn't have any money saved up. Well,
maybe I would have said, hey, money doesn't grow on trees,
Like how do you come about earning that money? That's
the that you know, those are the lessons that we
need to make sure we're teaching our children and should
be like, dad, update your lingo. Okay, nobody says that anymore,
and we want to make sure that we're teaching the
lesson that like spending on a limb isn't a great
idea because it also ultimately means that we're gonna have
(28:40):
to work more, Like it means it's essentially a trading
of your time for your money. But I don't want
to talk more about that because we actually gets to
that one a little bit later on a little foreshadowing.
But also to Matt in response to that phrase money
doesn't grow on trees, I feel like it has kind
of another connotation, right, Like reaching financial independence is the
other side of the coin, where what you've been able
(29:02):
to invest grows to such a point that you do
have an essentially limitless money tree at your disposal, as
long as you obviously like keep it within the realms
of your budget and maybe the four percent rule or
something similar to that. It's not private island kind of money.
But who really needs that, right, But your money will
be making money for you without you needing to work.
(29:24):
So I think like money doesn't grow on trees, and
that's obviously true, But that money tree, the financial independence
money tree, is something that is attainable with a whole
lot of years of intentional financial choices, smart saving and investing.
You can almost create your own money tree if you
do a really good job with money over a long
period of time. Yeah, and that's why we invest. You know,
this is such an important concept and it's one that
(29:44):
we revisit regularly here on the show. But we're gonna
we're gonna keep on going. And the next phrase that
we wanted to tackle here is does it actually take
money to make money? That's the that's kind of how
the common phrase goes. So let's start by referring to
what we just said, right, money can and will provide
compounding returns if it is invested well. Investing in the
(30:05):
overall stock market, for example, will ensure that the money
you have is making money for you. And in that case,
it does take money to make money, and the more
you have, the larger the returns that are going to
be that that you get to see. Yeah, so this
phrase has a lot of accuracy to it, right, But
there's also a major disconnect here when we when we
hear this phrase, it doesn't always take money to make money.
(30:27):
If you weren't a trust fund baby, you can still
make real money out there in this world. Right. Our
country might not be idealistic in terms of everyone being
able to succeed, but this is still, i think, the
land of opportunity, and you don't have to have loads
of cash to capitalize on the ability to make money
in the United States of America. And for example, if
you want to start a business, go back and listen
(30:49):
to our episode with Alan don again where he gave
a ton of practical examples for starting your business with
zero dollars. That was episode to forty seven. I think
sometimes we let that phrase almost dominate our psyche. It
is helpful to have money to make more money. Like
if you lend your money out, you can make money
in different ways. If you buy a rental property with
your money, you can make money, and it takes money
(31:10):
to buy that rental property. Right, But at the same time,
don't let money stand in the way of some of
your goals and ambitions. A lack of money means that
you need to have a little more creativity, and that
creativity can help you make money too. You don't necessarily
need to have a boatload of cash or to have
actually been a trust fund baby in order to succeed.
And I think sometimes, yeah, this this phrase can kind
(31:31):
of conjure up a limiting belief for a lot of people. Oh,
I don't have the money. I can't do it. I
can't do what other people are doing. Um, and I'm not.
I'm not saying it's not a little bit harder, but
but you can get there. Yeah, you can still get there.
It just takes a little bit maybe more time. It
takes a little bit of a little a little bit
of sweat equity, you know, instead of just actual cash. Right,
all right, we got two more phrases of bringing it too,
and so this next one is Uh. You hear folks
(31:52):
saying that this money is burning a whole in my pocket.
Like you hear people say that, like on payday, right
after they've gotten their check, I'm ready to go to
the club, except the clubs aren't open. And so I mean,
anyone who comes across unexpected money is liable to have
this this feeling, you know, this experience where you know
they're itching to spend their money. True for for natural
spenders out there, there's other folks who you know, may
(32:14):
not feel this quite as much. Their natural savers, Uh,
they see that as an opportunity to save money. But
for all the natural, the default spenders out there, uh,
this is a serious problem and it could be a conundrum,
you know, to have too much money in your pocket
or and you're even in your bank account that isn't
there for a specific purpose. You know, you don't want
to touch your emergency fund, of course, but it can
(32:35):
be easy to rationalize spending maybe some extra money that
you have sitting in your account that you know is
above and you know, beyond your core savings. Like we've
we've all had an experience. We're having cash in our
hands meant that it would soon be in someone else's
hands because we we couldn't bring ourselves to actually save
it. It It makes me think even to the stimulus money,
Like I wonder how many folks who receive their money
(32:56):
like as a you know, on as a physical check
or on one of those debit cards. I guarantee like
that those folks were more likely to have spent that
money than folks who received the you know, the direct
deposit into their accounts where they never really truly saw it.
It just kind of you know, they saw their balance
go up, the number on the screen went higher. Yeah.
But like like there's such a detachment from that versus
having a physical you know, check card or debit card
(33:19):
in your hand where where it feels like I've got
money right here, let's go let's like, let's go ahead
and stimulate the economy, you know, just like the government
wants us to. Uh, there's something about having that money
in your hand that that makes you want to spend it. Yeah,
And the form that you get it in it makes
a big difference. Like you just mentioned, I think too,
it's important to find ways to earmark money that we
get for future purposes so that it doesn't burn a
(33:40):
hole in our pockets causing us to spend it in
frivolous ways. Are you saving for a trip that's great,
and make sure that the money has a name so
you don't spend it in the heat of the moment
on something else and then you're like, oh man, I'm
either gonna have to like cancel the trip or at
least like tone it down, like we're not we're not
gonna be able to go as big as we thought
we were going to be able to. And that's a
bummer because you spend it on stuff in the interim
that you didn't mean to prioritize. It just happened that
(34:03):
way because money was literally burning a hole in your pocket.
Not literally, I guess, but that would be his name
from Parks and Wreck, like literally like Broblo's character. I
think Rablo literally has a podcast called literally Now think
he does? Yes so good good times. Also, if you've
got too much cash, Matt and I would say, make
(34:24):
sure that you're investing some of it. It helps prevent
the temptation to spend that money needlessly and helps it
grow for your future. I think Matt, obviously we we've
talked about cash is important. Having an emergency fund is huge. Um,
if you have too much cash uh hanging out, you
might start to think, oh, I guess I can spend this.
It's fine. But the more that we get essentially out
(34:44):
of our ability to touch right by putting it in
tax advantage, investment accounts, by putting it in other vehicles
besides just a savings account, that can be a great
move that prevents us from spending it. And that's a
great argument for budgeting, right. I mean, when you do
zero some budgeting, you're literally put and name to every
single cent, every dollar that you have, and that keeps
maybe not the pennies. Yeah, well, I mean when you're
(35:06):
doing on the spreadsheet, man, I wanted to equal zero,
and then that's what I do. Uh So, yeah, that's
a good tactic for making sure that you don't have
large swaths of money that are just kind of disappearing.
Is like what happened to you know, what happened at
the stimulus money is to be like, oh, I don't know,
you know, that is not what you want to be saying.
And so all right, dude, it is time for our
final phrase that you may have heard more than maybe
even any of the other ones that we've mentioned today,
(35:26):
which is time is money, And actually we wanted to
address us one because time is actually more important than money,
you know, like money might feel finite depending on your situation,
but it's not, you know, like you always typically will
have the ability to make more money, but time, on
the other hand, like we're never guaranteed more time, And
so equating the two like like if in your mind
(35:48):
you feel that these two are the same or that
they have the same importance, it will make you think
of them, you know, equally, and it will make you
more apt to trade your You're vatually more important time
for money, maybe more than you should. Yeah, man, And
of course we all have to work for a living, right, Uh,
you can't get by on pure laziness. We we we try
to teach your kids at all the time. You're you're
(36:08):
talking about that earlier on the show, with how you're
teaching heavy um getting or to make some money and
someone making some money, you know, watching the cat. Money
doesn't grow on trees, girls, No, of course he doesn't. Yeah,
we're gonna use that probably more often after this episode.
But obviously we have to work for a living, and
work shouldn't be demonized. We think work provides a lot
of meaning and hopefully a lot of joint satisfaction, but
(36:29):
equating time and money can cause us to live like
beings that were only created to work, putting an over
emphasis on something that is meant to have like a
proper role in your life. But that's just not true, right,
We weren't created as work beings. We were created for
so much more than that, for like deep connection and relationship,
to explore our world, or to just be right, like
(36:51):
that's why they call us human beings. I think we
can get by just being so Yeah, I think you're right, man.
I think time is not money, and I think if
we think that time is money, then we are more
likely just to make that straight up trade off, you know,
whenever the opportunity arises to make an extra buck, and
we would say no, no no, no, protect your time and
take care of it because it's more important, more valuable
than uh, you know, the green stuff. That's right, And
(37:13):
kind of going back to you know, the money doesn't
grow on trees phrase, right, like you're talking about you
know how it kind of does grow on trees, like
if you're looking at it through the lens of like
financial independence or financial freedom, right, like women compounding. Yeah,
when you have invested your money, like you realize that,
like not only are these things that equal, but you
don't need to exchange your time anymore for money because
(37:33):
when you have invested your money and put those dollars
to work for you, well, you're gonna be receiving money
from those dollars, not from you know, the exchange of
your time. And so that's definitely an important lesson to
I guess and the you know, end the episode here on.
Uh So it's you know, it's fun to take some
of these like more common I guess, financial phrases that
we hear every day to task, right, Like yeah, it's
(37:54):
like let's let's let's put these through the gauntlet a
little bit here. And so hopefully now when you hear
someone mentioned the money quote or a familiar phrase, you
can you know, do a little little bit of critical
thinking before assuming that it's true. Uh. Some of these
popular phrases have stood the test of time for a
reason because they are true. But others, you know, they
have elements of truth, like they're they're truthy, but they
(38:16):
need maybe a bit more explanation to be understood in
a fuller context than we hope that we know. We've
allowed you to think through some of these phrases as
you kind of move forward in your life and and
and do smart things with your money as well, no doubt.
All right, Matt, let's get back to the beer that
we had on this show. This one was called Aliens
on Moonshine, And you know, you can make your own
mental picture of what that looks it looks like in
(38:36):
your mind, but yeah, what were your thoughts on this?
I p A from Torch Top Dude, really solid. I mean,
I don't I feel like I can just say it's
like a classic, uh New England style. I p A
like it's not listed as a New England style, but
repoured it. It It was definitely hazy. It's a double as well,
so I don't know, it doesn't say it's double dry hot,
but it definitely has some of those dry hot flavors
going on where it feels like the hops are a
little more green, like a little more pungent, you know.
(38:58):
But at the same time, it wasn't overly better. It
wasn't all hops. It had a nice it's kind of
balance to it had a little bit of sweetness going
on too, But yeah, what were your thoughts. Yeah, I
thought it was like bold and brash, like the hops
completely overtook anything else going on in this beer. It's
definitely an I p A. And that's also too, like
a new newer style, right like, where all you can
taste is the hops. Used to it used to be
that you'd want some sort of a balance in your
(39:19):
I p A, where you'd want some maltiness and some happiness,
and these days it's like, oh no, no no, no, uh,
please leave out the malt all together and just throwing
the hops. And that's exactly what this one had going on.
It was like pure hop concentrate almost And I really
like some of the stuff that Torch Top has going on,
and I thought this was actually one of the better
I pas I've had from them, So I need to
check out more of their stuff in the future. You
so you've been there a couple of times. I actually
(39:40):
have never been to. It's a brew pub, right, Like,
it's not a it's not a straight up brewery, but
it's it's a brup pub. They make really good beers.
I've never been there myself, so I definitely need to
check it out. I gotta go for Wednesday Wing night.
Oh that sounds amazing. Wing's gonna beer for like twelve
bucks or something like that. That's a deal. It is
a deal, and the and the Wings are good too. Nice.
I'll add that to our short list. We're always looking
for new spots that we're hoping to to get back
to as things normalize over the coming months. But dude,
(40:03):
that's gonna be it for this episode. Listeners can find
our show notes up on our website at how to
money dot com. Yeah, and if you've been enjoying the show,
tell a friend. We'd love it if you would pass
on the How the Money love to somebody else who
could use some helpful advice in how to approach their
personal finances. And if you think Matt and I could
stand to do a little bit better, we'd always love
to hear from you. To just go to our website
(40:24):
how to money dot com slash do better drop us
a line. We'd love to hear from you because Matt
and I are always up to improve the show and
make it more helpful. So Matt, that's gonna do it
for this episode. Until next time, Best Friends Out, Best
Friends out
Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today we are dissecting the truthfulness of common money phrases.
(00:25):
That's right, Joel, we're talking about these money phrases. These
are like the maxims, are the proverbs that you've heard, uh,
your whole life you're talking, yeah, basically your entire life.
You know. Sometimes they might be acquitted to, like little
sayings that you get like on a fortune cookie. It's
that's what that's part of the reason why we're talking
about this today. We want to make sure that you
are not getting your financial advice from a fortune cookie.
Don't do that. That's bad news. Yeah. So before we
(00:48):
get to that, though, man, I wanted to share with you.
Um Evy had been wanting a sketch, your oldest your
seven year old, that's right. Yeah. So she's been working
doing jobs around the house, saving up her money, and
she's really been wanting an etch a sketch, which is
pretty cool. It's like an old school toy. I had
one of those when I was a kid. You know,
did your best to try to draw circle. It's impossible.
And so the time came to where she was like,
(01:09):
all right, I definitely want to do this, and you know,
we didn't see any like used you know, like yard
sales or anything like that. We hopped online, we shopped around,
looked for the best price. Not surprisingly, it was on Amazon,
and as we're getting ready to make the purchase, we
saw down below it had uh like like you new
or used item or whatever. It was an open box,
and so we clicked it and I was like, Eavy,
check it out. And it was three or four dollars
(01:30):
less to get the quote unquote used one. It was
an open box and it sat on there that it
might have a scuff like on the back of the
on the back of the thing, you know, like it
would not affect the ability to draw jaggedy circles or
anything like that. And so we asked Ebby, like, hey,
do you want to say three or four dollars by
getting this version that's not perfectly brand new, like somebody
else has already opened the box, but it works perfectly fine.
(01:53):
And without even blinking an eye, she was like, oh yeah,
where was so happy. Yeah that she instinctively was just like, oh,
that's a great way to save money. I'm you know,
I'm just proud of I guess the fact that we're
imbuing our kids with our frugal ways. But it reminded
me that there are just so many lessons that we
can teach our kids, all the folks out there who
have kids. There are just ways that we can, you know,
teach our kids how to be frugal, teach them, you know,
(02:15):
how to work hard, how to save their money, do
you know, make smart moves with their money. There are
lots of little lessons that I guess if we keep
an open mind to those and look out for them,
they're there. Yeah, we can infuse them into the every
day into just like little decisions like that sometimes at
the grocery store, you know, learning a lesson about money,
like we we can talk about that there. You know,
my my sister just recently went out of town, went
(02:36):
down to Florida, and Selma has been taking care of
her cat. She made a little extra money that way,
like ants house house p paying her a few bucks
the same anseuse houth that donated some beer. So its
exactly and so yeah that that's just like a perfect
time also to learn a money lesson, like hey, you
know when when we work, when we do things for
other people, like sometimes we make money and so not always.
Sometimes we do nice things for family members without expecting
(02:58):
anything in return. But that was just a per ficked
opportunity for her to see, Oh there's other ways out
there for me to make money first, to expand her mind. Yeah,
it allows them to be a little more creative and
how they approach their money right, like always side hustling,
maybe always trying to think of other entrepreneurial endeavors. Like
maybe she's she's gonna start her own like pet sitting business,
and all the pets are gonna be in your house. Um,
(03:18):
so you'll have the cat over at your house right now. Okay,
so she listen to the neighborhood. We can go over there,
rider bikes over there. Okay, you know, feed the cat,
play with it for a minute, and then all of
the cats not super playful, kind of hiding under the bed.
It's not always the case. I feel like there's never
two really good cats. There's always like one really friendly
one and one that like totally sucks, just always scratches
(03:39):
people up like a loner. Yeah. I don't know if
that's always the case, but good lesson though, to have
to take care of an animal, because you know, we
don't have one of our own in our house. But
it's also good, like, you know, if we do eventually
get an animal, which you'll have talked about, we will
have some practice. Yeah, I love it. We'll see if
we make it there. But all r Yeah, Matt, let's
mentioned that beer we're having on the show today. This
one is called Aliens on Moonshine and it's by Torch
(03:59):
Top Brewing there local Atlanta brewery. I love the name.
Just makes me think of a bunch of aliens passed
out in the corner having had a lot of moonshine.
But oh funny, I was thinking of like in space. Okay,
I'm thinking moon trying to drink. I guess it could
be that as well, but yours evokes a funnier image
it does. I pictured like a UFO kind of like
(04:19):
I don't know, like writing down a beam of moonlight
like moonshine. That's sweeter. I guess it would have been moonlight. Yeah,
either way, this is the beer we're enjoying that we're
sharing here from Torch Top. Looking forward to yeah, sharing
this one with you man, and also sharing our thoughts
on it at the end of the episode. That's right.
But for now, let's get onto the topic at hand.
We're dissecting the truthfulness of common money phrases, and Matt,
(04:42):
I feel like the most common money phrases we hear,
besides the ones that we get in fortune cookies sometimes, um,
the ones that we hear over and over repeated, you know,
on the TV or from parents or from loved ones.
They get ingrained as truth over time in our minds,
and if you hear something consistently enough, it starts to
take root in your psyche. I feel like that's kind
of part of the goal that advertisers have is to
(05:05):
make you feel something or react a certain way when
you see an item in the store based on like
what you've seen on TV, when you've seen those ads
play to get you to associate positive feelings with a brand,
so that you maybe grab a coke when you're feeling thirsty,
even though coke doesn't actually quench your thirst, right. Um,
But the way people, it's the commercials. You're like, oh, man,
(05:26):
man that he just like went for a run, he
had a coke. Man, But yeah, that might work, but
it doesn't really right. Yeah, I think he's about to
have a massive burb you know, like I don't even
like drinking seltzer out of a cann Like I always
pour it in a glass and I'll allow some of
the some of the gas, some of the air to escape.
Smart move. But today we want to talk about some
of the most common money phrases that we hear, and
we want to dissect the truthfulness of those phrases. Is
(05:47):
something we're told about money is incorrect or flawed or incomplete,
Like we need to know that. So let's not just
let the most common things we hear about something as
important as money become normalized without at least a little
bit more critic about about the truthfulness or lack thereof
of some of these phrases. Man, you know, this totally
makes me think of the different myths that we heard
as kids growing up, you know, like, for instance, something
(06:08):
of like if you swallow your gum, it's gonna take
seven years to digest. I remember that one. I definitely
knew that one of those faults. What about after? Uh after?
Like I fell asleep one time and I had a
piece of gum like dissolve in my mouth, and I
was like, Okay, there's no way that if it dissolved
in my mouth that it's actually gonna take seven years
to digest. Seriously, Yeah, well what about you have to
wait for an hour to swim after eating? Yeah? I
(06:30):
think that was kind of made up to, right, Like,
I think a lot of these are just like as
parents ways that they can control their kids, like out
of fear. Like another one I remember too, is like, uh,
like don't swallow or don't eat watermelon seeds. Other way
you will have like watermelons growing in your stomach. All
the ones I remember are things that involve putting things
in my mouth. So I think that might speak to
(06:50):
what it was like for me growing up, right, little
freudy in there. Uh, it's obviously these are myths that
kind of get passed down either from parents to kids
or you know, from one generation of kids to another,
but they stick with us, right, And so you know,
we're spending an entire episode talking through some of these
different money phrases because we want to make sure that
we're not accidentally basing our our personal finance beliefs just
(07:11):
on a on a bunch of half truths. All right,
So let's get into it. Let's let's mention the first
money phrase we want to dissect, and it's throwing good
money after bad We've all heard that one before, and
of course this phrase speaks to spending money on something
problematic in hopes that you can fix the issue by
tossing more of your money in that direction. Um, and
I think this phrase, Matt rings very true in many parts. Right.
(07:33):
I agree. There's a fancy behavioral economics concept for why
we throw good money after bad money, and it's called
the sunk cost fallacy, which basically occurs when you continue
a behavior because you've already invested resources like time, effort,
or money into it. We have a tendency to not
know when we should cut our losses and move on.
And you know, we think that if we put more
(07:54):
money into a problem that we can fix it. But
that's not always the case. And so instead of making
a choice on the desire not to see your past
investment go to waste, make it on the outcome you'd
most like to see moving forward. Instead, that we were
less likely to throw good money after bad if we
change how we think about the problem that we're encountering.
That's right. It makes me think of like all you
can eat buffet. It's like you spent the ten dollars
(08:15):
or whatever it costs these days, and no matter what,
you're definitely gonna get your money's worse. So you keep
eating even though each additional plate of food you get
just makes you feel worse. But you could also potentially
use this phrase to buy something new without giving thoughts
to how you can fix or repurpose that item. So
this is a way that this could be a negative thing, right, So,
(08:36):
for instance, buying a new battery for a watch, like
that's not throwing good money after bad, Like you're spending
five bucks to keep that thirty dollar watch running, or
you know, maybe even fixing the A C on your
on your car that's just five years old. Again, that's
not throwing away good money after bad. If it's been
a great car and you can spend you know, maybe
bucks to fix it, you do that and you keep
on driving. So throwing good money after bad is a
(08:58):
is a good concept, It's true, but you do need
to know when it makes sense to actually use that phrase.
You don't want to use it as an excuse like
I don't want to throw good money after bad on
this perfectly good item that all you need to do
is spend a little time, a little effort, and a
small amount of money to fix um. That does not compute, right, Yeah,
but again it goes back to that not making the
choice based on the money you've already invested. But what's
(09:22):
the outcome you'd most like to see moving forward. That's
a better way to think about it. The ex senior car,
you're like, well, it's easy to think if I sell
it and get something new and I don't have any problems,
But eventually that car is going to give you problems too.
In that case, you do want to spend some money,
and it's not throwing good money after bad it's just
fixing something that needs fixing. That's right, man. All right,
let's ahead move on to our next money phrase, which
is that money is the root of all evil. And
(09:43):
so this is when you have certainly heard all of
your life in depending you know, on how religious you are,
you may have heard it way too much. But this
phrase actually comes from the New Testaments in the Bible,
and it often gets misconstrued. Uh. And the quote is
actually that the love of money is the root of
all evil, and so this clears things up because you know,
(10:03):
money certainly isn't the root of all evil, but it's
easy to see how the love of money produces serious
issues in our world and in our own lives and
our own hearts even And that's why we try to
talk about how to use money as a tool while
simultaneously trying to kind of avoid the pinky and the
brain mentality, you know, Joel, you've mentioned that before, where
you just want to amass more and just conquer right
(10:24):
over the world Michel every night. And so when when
money gets out of place in our lives and become
something that we love and cling to instead of just
using it as a helpful tool, it will have harmful
effects in our lives. Yeah, it's so important to view
money as simply a tool that you can wield, like
you just said, Matt, because if folks are going around
thinking that money is inherently evil, then of course that
(10:46):
will have a negative effect on your perception of money.
You're less likely to be an investor, to become an
investor and start growing your money. You're less likely to
think that advancing in your career and making more money
is a good thing. Because if money in and of
itself is the root of all evil. Then you definitely
don't want to get more of it. You probably want
to avoid it at all costs. It probably means to
that you're not talking about it, right, Like, if you
(11:07):
feel that this is something bad, well, there's it kind
of increases that to boo, increases that behavior of avoidance
even talking about the topic. Yeah, the shame that you
associated with it in general. And then obviously if you
feel that way, it's going to compound your money money issues,
which affect so many other parts of your life. It
also might hurt how you perceive those who have a
lot of money, right, other people who are doing why things,
(11:29):
who are doing well, and you might demonize them. If
money is bad, then you must be bad if you
have money. And so when you hear this said, try
to remember the actual phrase and at the very least,
regardless of your religious beliefs, that loving money is a
detriment to our ability to live a good life. So
when we dissect this phrase, Matt, I think we kind
of come somewhere in the middle, right, Like, money isn't
(11:50):
the root of all evil. The love of money certainly
is a root of much evil in our society. And
but going too far down the path of thinking that,
you know, associating money with being a bad thing has
a lot of negative connotations in our lives and how
we view others too. Yeah, this one mostly seems untrue,
just based on the fact that it's just misquoted, right,
So yeah, I think we would encourage folks to make
(12:10):
sure that they get the saying correct. And so Joel,
We've got a lot more of these phrases to get to,
including penny wise, pound foolish. That one came from the UK,
you know, because they said pound right. We'll get to
that one, as well as several others right after the break.
(12:34):
All right, we're back, and Matt pol we get to
some of those European sayings. Let's stay state side and
uh and go with one of our founding fathers popular
saying that's attributed commonly to Benjamin Franklin. A penny saved
is a penny earned. This is the next common money
phrase we want to dissect. And Benjamin Franklin obviously wrote
a lot about money. He was fascinated by it. He
(12:55):
wrote a lot of great maxims and I feel like
a lot of those because he was such a good writer,
have really stuck in American parlance, and a lot of
the common money saying is actually um, really we can
attribute back to him, that's rights. But you know, how
accurate is this common money phrase? You know that we've
heard a whole lives. Well, we feel that it's pretty accurate.
You know, this quote is really all about living frugally,
(13:16):
which obviously we are all about that. You know, the
money that we earn that we don't spend, it creates
meaningful margin in our lives. And Juel and I are
advocates of abolishing the penny, so we can we might
want to update this one to uh, this phrase to
a dollar saved is a dollar earned, would be better?
Or a bitcoin saved is a bitcoin? Right, nobody's got
the money for that, but it's uh. It is important
(13:38):
though to know that pennies and dollars they add up
more quickly than we think. It makes me think about
you know, I was talking about Eavy like doing kind
of jobs around the house. I don't know if you remember,
but we've shared on the show before how when we
do trash treasures. I used to pay five cents per
piece of glass or metal and heard inflation has yeah, yeah,
and on just one cent for every piece of plastic.
(13:58):
But I found, whether it be because of inflation or
because of the girls are less interested, or because there's
just fewer bits of trashtionner yard like, they've actually done
a really good job of finding all these things. But
I've had to increase the rate. And so now instead
of a nickel and opinion, now I'm paying a dime
for every piece of glass and metal and uh, and
a nickel for every piece of plastic. Pennies in our
(14:20):
in our house, man are pretty worthless, except for maybe
to teach just the youngest when it comes to you know,
how to count and what goes into a nickel. But yeah,
so I stand behind the abolishing of the penny. Yeah,
I'm with you two, I agree. But that phrase a
penny saved as a penny earned is still I think helpful,
and it is a useful money phrase, and I like
that we still use it even though it was essentially
(14:42):
invented in the late But while these are wise words,
it's also important to point out that frugality alone won't
get you to where you want to be financially. And
I think sometimes overly frugal people they love phrases like this.
They cling to it because they don't want to see
the other side of the money coin, where they can
make positive improvements to their lives to make more, and
(15:02):
so we want to stress it. It's also important to
utilize your human capital, increase your earning potential, and to
invest for the future. Like frugality should be praised. Matt
and I were big fans. We do a lot of
We're all about your frugal stuff, lots of frugal things
we do. But at the same time, Uh, we shouldn't
take that path to the exclusion of making other wise
financial choices. That's right. Yeah, you can't frugle your way
(15:24):
to becoming a millionaire. Right. And so another common money
phrase that we're gonna cover here is money changes people.
And you know, the truth is that money does often
change people. You know. I'm thinking of Charles Dickens, his
classic A Christmas Carol. It's a perfect example of a
person who gets consumed by wealth accumulation. Uh, and so
he ends up treating others poorly, loses all the things
(15:45):
that really mattered to him in his life. Money changed
E benez Er. Scrooge still one of my favorite stories.
By the way, it's a classic man. And you know,
no doubt many of us can points and maybe just
someone in our own lives, someone who we know who
has maybe come into some money and then ended up
finding new friends. You know, maybe they stopped returning your
phone calls or your text Remember who it is. I
don't know anymore who it is got lots of money.
(16:07):
Now it's unfortunate, but it's kind of true, you know.
And and some research also has shown that as wealth
levels grow that people become more narcissistic. But on the
other hand, less wealthy folks tend to be more empathetic, compassionate,
and also give more of their money. Yeah, this is
fascinating how that happens. How um, if you live your
life essentially in this place of just growth and accumulation,
(16:30):
and you turn inward, your focus becomes on yourself and
you do begin to change. I think you know, Ebenezer
Scrooges the perfect example, right of in classic literature. But
it's interesting how um, people with less money often take
care of the people around them better than rich people do.
But on the other hand, does money actually change that
(16:51):
person or does it just amplify who they already are
at their core, right, my good question. Yeah. I feel
like it's not always the money that changes the person.
Sometimes money allows you to be more of those leanings,
those tendencies that you already had, and it might come
down to the individual and money changing people doesn't have
to be true, right, Some of the richest folks in
the world are giving massive amounts of wealth and time
(17:14):
to worthy people and projects. Um, like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett,
Mackenzie Scott are a few examples. Matt we we talked
about how much money she gave away, like a billion
dollars a month for months in a row, and that's
a perfect example of how having tons of money doesn't
necessarily mean that you have to be a jerk, right, Um.
And so we think that the perfect antidote to staying
the same when you do have more money is giving
(17:36):
large portions of your money away and maintaining relationships with
lifelong friends. You don't want to cut them off because
you've got new, richer friends, right. Um. So it's part
of why craft beer is such an equalizers, Like it's
something that pretty much everybody can enjoy, you know, Like
we're not necessarily getting into fine wines and you know,
aged cognacs. Although that kind of sounds nice, but that's
(17:58):
that's not our style exact. And like, I think, sometimes
this saying is true, right, money does change people. We've
seen it happen. But also too, we'd modify it to
say that money might possibly change people. It's not true thing,
but it is hard and as you make more money,
as you get closer to financial independence, it's worth thinking
about and guarding yourself against. Very true. That's right, man,
(18:21):
Let's move on, Lets keep moving our next phrases, money
can't buy happiness. Uh. And I think we're gonna go
ahead and get this one like a nine out of
ten on the truth scale, the truthiness scale a little
coldbar nod there, uh. And you know that's because money
and happiness are not synonymous. You know, we just talked
about how money, uh changes people, how it can change people.
(18:41):
Often the folks with the most money are leading miserable lies.
And in fact, there's research out there that shows that
individuals who are making over a hundred and five thousand
dollars a year they tended to be associated with reduced
life satisfaction as well as a lower level of well being.
Part of this is that really rich people tend to
live more isolated lives, and you know, they're they're asking themselves, like,
(19:03):
am I doing better than than other folks? Like that
becomes the question that those folks ask themselves, And so,
you know, money and possessions become the easiest measuring stick,
leading to a lack of happiness in the areas that
truly do matter. They're they're looking at the wrong things. Yeah,
But then again to right, Matt, there's ten percent of
the world that's living in poverty and many other people
who aren't too far above the poverty line, and more
(19:25):
money would have a direct correlation to increase happiness for
a lot of those folks. Right basically, up until you
hit that seventy five dollar a year income threshold, people
are happier the more money they make, and so yeah,
people living on less than that are having a harder time.
It really is interesting how when you have individuals who
are earning around what the median income is in America
(19:46):
that for the most part, folks are pretty happy, you know,
And so it's just weird because like one way or
the other, it does kind of go back to like
looking around you a little bit. Because if you don't
know that, like, oh, this is a possibility for me,
And if you know you're kind of hanging out with
your neighbors, your friends and you're all earning you know,
similar amounts, Well, you're not necessarily looking till your money
or your income, uh, in order to gain that happiness.
(20:06):
You're you're hopefully looking at the things that truly do matter. Yeah,
so can money by happiness. While we would say that
making enough to get by and to not have to
stress about money is really important, really helpful, and will
contribute to I think a greater level of happiness and satisfaction,
but having a ton of access really isn't crucial to
being able to enjoy the things that matter in life.
So yeah, again, I think yeah, eight or nine out
(20:28):
of ten on the truthiness scale that money can't buy happiness.
It really can't, right, And I think sometimes people think
if I have more money, my life is going to
be better off. I'm going to be in a better place.
And especially if you're in a great financial position already,
you might be overly fixated on money as a solution
to what ails you. And really what you need to
look to is other things. That actually provide meaning and
satisfaction in life and not the accrual of more money.
(20:51):
That's right. This actually kind of makes me think of
the phrase, and this is the one that we included,
but the phrase that's been attributed to Malcolm Forbes of
the Forbes publication right the website, which is he who
dies with the most toys wins, which is obviously, uh,
we don't believe in it at all. Like, we didn't
include that because it's clearly not true, very easily debunked. Um.
(21:14):
But this is kind of you know, reinforcing that, like, yeah,
there's a certain small level of wellness that you can
make sure that you have in your life that can
lead to health, which in turn leads to happiness. But
for everybody else out there, uh, you know, looking to
increase your income isn't a way to achieve more happiness. Uh.
The next phrase that we wanted to share with folks
is that cash is king. Uh. That's another phrase you know,
(21:34):
we've all heard, and it's often used in the investing
arenas to note that having some liquidity is important when
making a purchase so that you can pounce when the
time is right, and so you know, there is real
truth to to that in the investing and in the
personal finance space, right, Like, having cash in the bank
not only reduces stress, but it allows you the freedom. Uh,
it gives you the ability to make moves that those
(21:56):
with lesser cash reserves couldn't make. You know, the beginnings
the cash reserve, you know, that's what we call an
emergency fund. Like that's when you see your stress levels
go down because you have more margin in your life.
But then after that, you can begin to take advantage
of opportunities that come your way. You know, you can
build up some piece of money that allows you to
maybe ditch a crappy job. You can use that money
to take a sabbatical, or you can even use that
(22:17):
money to start your own business. Yeah. Man, it reminds
me of last week's episode where we we talked about
the role of preparedness and how that transforms opportunities that
might come along into what seems like lucky breaks that
you're then able to take action on. And having enough
cash on hand kind of offers you a little bit
of that, like the ability to pounce on certain opportunities.
It's hard to you know, buy a real estate investment property,
(22:39):
deal if you don't have any cash in the bank
to do so, right, that's true, But on the flip
side of the coin, too much cash can be the
move of a fearful investor. Cash is great, and I
think we learned that even more so right in these
in these COVID times. But if an over emphasis on
cash stops you from investing in your four oh one K,
your ira, or you know, other tax advantage were firement accounts,
(23:00):
you don't understand the downsides of having too much cash
on hand. And that's because inflation eats away the value
of your money if you aren't intentional about growing it.
Getting too conservative with your money can be a real
struggle for a lot of folks. Yeah, So this is
one I feel like that we would say is true
fifty percent of the time, you know, like of the time,
it's true of the time. It just depends on what
(23:21):
situation you're in. And that's not just investments too. Like
it makes me think of having cash on hand in
order to even make a purchase, not of an investment,
but something that you need to purchase, you know, Like,
if you have the money on hand, like you're able
to take advantage of the deals that are out there.
You know, like you Joel, like you're so good at
like keeping an eye on the deals. But guess what,
you can know where the deals are. But if you
don't have the money to make that purchase, well, you're
(23:41):
you're kind of missing out. You're going into debt in
order to buy that thing, and cash would be definitely
king in that situation. As another thing too real quick
on the cash is king, Matt, is that I think
sometimes when we're talking about how we spend, the method
that we use when we're buying something, cash isn't king there.
Because you know, we talked about why credit cards are
a better choice for most people if you can handle
(24:02):
credit cards well as a purchasing option, Um, credit cards
are king when it when it comes to how you
when you can think when it comes to consumer protection,
cash back, Yeah, the rewards and the consumer protections in tandem.
And cash doesn't get you that thing, Like you won't
get like an extended warranty on something that you buy
if you pay for it in cash, but you in
all likelihood will if you use the right credit card.
So that's just another situation another way in which cash
(24:24):
isn't necessarily king, but yeah, cash is also important, all right,
So it's true like the time exactly. Uh, let's move
on to the next money phrase. This one comes from
across the pond. As Matt made mentioned earlier, we're gonna
cover um pennywise and pound foolish, and Matt, I feel
like that's actually something I've maybe been called before quite
a while back. That used to be more of a
struggle for me. I'd pinch pennies on the little stuff
(24:46):
and I'd go maybe a little too big on the
things that I should have been more careful, I should
have put more thought into spending money on. I feel
like for some folks with certain personality types mine included
being pennywise and pound foolish, is can be a struggle. Yeah.
It makes me think of folks who you know, might
be really careful when it comes to like small matters
in their life, right like so like keeping their a
C set at seventy eight in the summer, Like they're
(25:07):
always a little sweaty, but they're not spending the real
money and you know, into insulating your attic well, which
would provide like yes it costs more, uh like up front,
but it's gonna provide you, you know, much more savings,
much less energy usage down the road. Uh. You know,
you might be intentional about saving on your groceries so
that you can, you know, maybe finally open an I
(25:28):
ra A and start investing, but then you don't pay
attention to the fees. Uh, And that's gonna cost you
tens of thousands of dollars over your investing lifetime. I know,
for me personally, like one of the ways that I
think I you know, might be called cheap or you know,
penny wise and pound foolish, is like I don't like
to spend the time or the money to go see
the doctor or go to the dentist. I'm relatively a
(25:49):
pretty healthy guy into me Like, I'm just I just
have a tough time with them. Like does it make
sense that I know I need to go in and
get checked up? And so like because of that, at
the beginning of the year, like we made a line
item on the budget where it's like Matt's going to
go to the doctor, Like we have it itemized on
our like on our savings buckets, because I know that
I need to go. But in the moment, i'm you know,
I think like I don't need to do that, And
(26:10):
so I'm afraid that I'm being pound foolish in that
in that case, right, because if I avoid paying small
amounts to go get my teeth checked out or go
see the doctor, like, there might end up being a
larger problem, larger health problem down the road. And not
only would that cost me my you know, my health potentially,
but it could end up being a much bigger bill
as well. That's true. I will say, I recommend you
(26:30):
go to the doctor and to the dentist. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm not gonna hand you about it, though. I think
it's also too it's important to pay attention to both
the small and the big financial decisions in our lives.
Getting the small things right is great, but getting the
big things right is often more important. We've talked about that, Matt.
If we get those bigger line items in our budget
super right, then the small things are just a little
(26:52):
bit less consequence. But if we're super fine tuned to
the smallest areas of our budget and less perceptive about
what's going on in those bigger areas where you know,
we might let money fly, we'll likely find ourselves in
like a crappy financial situation, and so I'm not sure
you know how many people have this issue where they
do fixate on the small expenses and kind of let
the big ones go sometimes. But yeah, I know that
(27:14):
I can identify with that. That's been the case for
me before in my life, and it's still kind of
a struggle at times. So if you're one of those people,
I just want to say I identify with you. Okay,
And all right, We've got a few more common money
phrases that we want to dissect the validity of, and
we'll get to those right after this break. All right,
(27:39):
we are back in a let's let's keep on going
with the money phrases. Uh. This next one is one
that a lot of folks have heard uh as kids,
and if you're a parent, this might be one that
you UH say to your children use with regularity. Yeah,
which is money doesn't grow on trees. That's another commonly
used money phrase. And obviously there's no such thing as
(27:59):
a money tree, although there is a house plan that
sometimes called the money tree. Right, we should have one
down here in the office, we should guess we should
we should call it the how the money tree. But
the saying, you know, with hopefully some additional explanation can
help our kids to know that money comes along hard work.
You know, Like we kind of talked about this at
the top of the episode, when you know, with Evy,
(28:19):
my daughter's like she just wanted that out of the
blue and she didn't have any money saved up. Well,
maybe I would have said, hey, money doesn't grow on trees,
Like how do you come about earning that money? That's
the that you know, those are the lessons that we
need to make sure we're teaching our children and should
be like, dad, update your lingo. Okay, nobody says that anymore,
and we want to make sure that we're teaching the
lesson that like spending on a limb isn't a great
idea because it also ultimately means that we're gonna have
(28:40):
to work more, Like it means it's essentially a trading
of your time for your money. But I don't want
to talk more about that because we actually gets to
that one a little bit later on a little foreshadowing.
But also to Matt in response to that phrase money
doesn't grow on trees, I feel like it has kind
of another connotation, right, Like reaching financial independence is the
other side of the coin, where what you've been able
(29:02):
to invest grows to such a point that you do
have an essentially limitless money tree at your disposal, as
long as you obviously like keep it within the realms
of your budget and maybe the four percent rule or
something similar to that. It's not private island kind of money.
But who really needs that, right, But your money will
be making money for you without you needing to work.
(29:24):
So I think like money doesn't grow on trees, and
that's obviously true, But that money tree, the financial independence
money tree, is something that is attainable with a whole
lot of years of intentional financial choices, smart saving and investing.
You can almost create your own money tree if you
do a really good job with money over a long
period of time. Yeah, and that's why we invest. You know,
this is such an important concept and it's one that
(29:44):
we revisit regularly here on the show. But we're gonna
we're gonna keep on going. And the next phrase that
we wanted to tackle here is does it actually take
money to make money? That's the that's kind of how
the common phrase goes. So let's start by referring to
what we just said, right, money can and will provide
compounding returns if it is invested well. Investing in the
(30:05):
overall stock market, for example, will ensure that the money
you have is making money for you. And in that case,
it does take money to make money, and the more
you have, the larger the returns that are going to
be that that you get to see. Yeah, so this
phrase has a lot of accuracy to it, right, But
there's also a major disconnect here when we when we
hear this phrase, it doesn't always take money to make money.
(30:27):
If you weren't a trust fund baby, you can still
make real money out there in this world. Right. Our
country might not be idealistic in terms of everyone being
able to succeed, but this is still, i think, the
land of opportunity, and you don't have to have loads
of cash to capitalize on the ability to make money
in the United States of America. And for example, if
you want to start a business, go back and listen
(30:49):
to our episode with Alan don again where he gave
a ton of practical examples for starting your business with
zero dollars. That was episode to forty seven. I think
sometimes we let that phrase almost dominate our psyche. It
is helpful to have money to make more money. Like
if you lend your money out, you can make money
in different ways. If you buy a rental property with
your money, you can make money, and it takes money
(31:10):
to buy that rental property. Right, But at the same time,
don't let money stand in the way of some of
your goals and ambitions. A lack of money means that
you need to have a little more creativity, and that
creativity can help you make money too. You don't necessarily
need to have a boatload of cash or to have
actually been a trust fund baby in order to succeed.
And I think sometimes, yeah, this this phrase can kind
(31:31):
of conjure up a limiting belief for a lot of people. Oh,
I don't have the money. I can't do it. I
can't do what other people are doing. Um, and I'm not.
I'm not saying it's not a little bit harder, but
but you can get there. Yeah, you can still get there.
It just takes a little bit maybe more time. It
takes a little bit of a little a little bit
of sweat equity, you know, instead of just actual cash. Right,
all right, we got two more phrases of bringing it too,
and so this next one is Uh. You hear folks
(31:52):
saying that this money is burning a whole in my pocket.
Like you hear people say that, like on payday, right
after they've gotten their check, I'm ready to go to
the club, except the clubs aren't open. And so I mean,
anyone who comes across unexpected money is liable to have
this this feeling, you know, this experience where you know
they're itching to spend their money. True for for natural
spenders out there, there's other folks who you know, may
(32:14):
not feel this quite as much. Their natural savers, Uh,
they see that as an opportunity to save money. But
for all the natural, the default spenders out there, uh,
this is a serious problem and it could be a conundrum,
you know, to have too much money in your pocket
or and you're even in your bank account that isn't
there for a specific purpose. You know, you don't want
to touch your emergency fund, of course, but it can
(32:35):
be easy to rationalize spending maybe some extra money that
you have sitting in your account that you know is
above and you know, beyond your core savings. Like we've
we've all had an experience. We're having cash in our
hands meant that it would soon be in someone else's
hands because we we couldn't bring ourselves to actually save
it. It It makes me think even to the stimulus money,
Like I wonder how many folks who receive their money
(32:56):
like as a you know, on as a physical check
or on one of those debit cards. I guarantee like
that those folks were more likely to have spent that
money than folks who received the you know, the direct
deposit into their accounts where they never really truly saw it.
It just kind of you know, they saw their balance
go up, the number on the screen went higher. Yeah.
But like like there's such a detachment from that versus
having a physical you know, check card or debit card
(33:19):
in your hand where where it feels like I've got
money right here, let's go let's like, let's go ahead
and stimulate the economy, you know, just like the government
wants us to. Uh, there's something about having that money
in your hand that that makes you want to spend it. Yeah,
And the form that you get it in it makes
a big difference. Like you just mentioned, I think too,
it's important to find ways to earmark money that we
get for future purposes so that it doesn't burn a
(33:40):
hole in our pockets causing us to spend it in
frivolous ways. Are you saving for a trip that's great,
and make sure that the money has a name so
you don't spend it in the heat of the moment
on something else and then you're like, oh man, I'm
either gonna have to like cancel the trip or at
least like tone it down, like we're not we're not
gonna be able to go as big as we thought
we were going to be able to. And that's a
bummer because you spend it on stuff in the interim
that you didn't mean to prioritize. It just happened that
(34:03):
way because money was literally burning a hole in your pocket.
Not literally, I guess, but that would be his name
from Parks and Wreck, like literally like Broblo's character. I
think Rablo literally has a podcast called literally Now think
he does? Yes so good good times. Also, if you've
got too much cash, Matt and I would say, make
(34:24):
sure that you're investing some of it. It helps prevent
the temptation to spend that money needlessly and helps it
grow for your future. I think Matt, obviously we we've
talked about cash is important. Having an emergency fund is huge. Um,
if you have too much cash uh hanging out, you
might start to think, oh, I guess I can spend this.
It's fine. But the more that we get essentially out
(34:44):
of our ability to touch right by putting it in
tax advantage, investment accounts, by putting it in other vehicles
besides just a savings account, that can be a great
move that prevents us from spending it. And that's a
great argument for budgeting, right. I mean, when you do
zero some budgeting, you're literally put and name to every
single cent, every dollar that you have, and that keeps
maybe not the pennies. Yeah, well, I mean when you're
(35:06):
doing on the spreadsheet, man, I wanted to equal zero,
and then that's what I do. Uh So, yeah, that's
a good tactic for making sure that you don't have
large swaths of money that are just kind of disappearing.
Is like what happened to you know, what happened at
the stimulus money is to be like, oh, I don't know,
you know, that is not what you want to be saying.
And so all right, dude, it is time for our
final phrase that you may have heard more than maybe
even any of the other ones that we've mentioned today,
(35:26):
which is time is money, And actually we wanted to
address us one because time is actually more important than money,
you know, like money might feel finite depending on your situation,
but it's not, you know, like you always typically will
have the ability to make more money, but time, on
the other hand, like we're never guaranteed more time, And
so equating the two like like if in your mind
(35:48):
you feel that these two are the same or that
they have the same importance, it will make you think
of them, you know, equally, and it will make you
more apt to trade your You're vatually more important time
for money, maybe more than you should. Yeah, man, And
of course we all have to work for a living, right, Uh,
you can't get by on pure laziness. We we we try
to teach your kids at all the time. You're you're
(36:08):
talking about that earlier on the show, with how you're
teaching heavy um getting or to make some money and
someone making some money, you know, watching the cat. Money
doesn't grow on trees, girls, No, of course he doesn't. Yeah,
we're gonna use that probably more often after this episode.
But obviously we have to work for a living, and
work shouldn't be demonized. We think work provides a lot
of meaning and hopefully a lot of joint satisfaction, but
(36:29):
equating time and money can cause us to live like
beings that were only created to work, putting an over
emphasis on something that is meant to have like a
proper role in your life. But that's just not true, right,
We weren't created as work beings. We were created for
so much more than that, for like deep connection and relationship,
to explore our world, or to just be right, like
(36:51):
that's why they call us human beings. I think we
can get by just being so Yeah, I think you're right, man.
I think time is not money, and I think if
we think that time is money, then we are more
likely just to make that straight up trade off, you know,
whenever the opportunity arises to make an extra buck, and
we would say no, no no, no, protect your time and
take care of it because it's more important, more valuable
than uh, you know, the green stuff. That's right, And
(37:13):
kind of going back to you know, the money doesn't
grow on trees phrase, right, like you're talking about you
know how it kind of does grow on trees, like
if you're looking at it through the lens of like
financial independence or financial freedom, right, like women compounding. Yeah,
when you have invested your money, like you realize that,
like not only are these things that equal, but you
don't need to exchange your time anymore for money because
(37:33):
when you have invested your money and put those dollars
to work for you, well, you're gonna be receiving money
from those dollars, not from you know, the exchange of
your time. And so that's definitely an important lesson to
I guess and the you know, end the episode here on.
Uh So it's you know, it's fun to take some
of these like more common I guess, financial phrases that
we hear every day to task, right, Like yeah, it's
(37:54):
like let's let's let's put these through the gauntlet a
little bit here. And so hopefully now when you hear
someone mentioned the money quote or a familiar phrase, you
can you know, do a little little bit of critical
thinking before assuming that it's true. Uh. Some of these
popular phrases have stood the test of time for a
reason because they are true. But others, you know, they
have elements of truth, like they're they're truthy, but they
(38:16):
need maybe a bit more explanation to be understood in
a fuller context than we hope that we know. We've
allowed you to think through some of these phrases as
you kind of move forward in your life and and
and do smart things with your money as well, no doubt.
All right, Matt, let's get back to the beer that
we had on this show. This one was called Aliens
on Moonshine, And you know, you can make your own
mental picture of what that looks it looks like in
(38:36):
your mind, but yeah, what were your thoughts on this?
I p A from Torch Top Dude, really solid. I mean,
I don't I feel like I can just say it's
like a classic, uh New England style. I p A
like it's not listed as a New England style, but
repoured it. It It was definitely hazy. It's a double as well,
so I don't know, it doesn't say it's double dry hot,
but it definitely has some of those dry hot flavors
going on where it feels like the hops are a
little more green, like a little more pungent, you know.
(38:58):
But at the same time, it wasn't overly better. It
wasn't all hops. It had a nice it's kind of
balance to it had a little bit of sweetness going
on too, But yeah, what were your thoughts. Yeah, I
thought it was like bold and brash, like the hops
completely overtook anything else going on in this beer. It's
definitely an I p A. And that's also too, like
a new newer style, right like, where all you can
taste is the hops. Used to it used to be
that you'd want some sort of a balance in your
(39:19):
I p A, where you'd want some maltiness and some happiness,
and these days it's like, oh no, no no, no, uh,
please leave out the malt all together and just throwing
the hops. And that's exactly what this one had going on.
It was like pure hop concentrate almost And I really
like some of the stuff that Torch Top has going on,
and I thought this was actually one of the better
I pas I've had from them, So I need to
check out more of their stuff in the future. You
so you've been there a couple of times. I actually
(39:40):
have never been to. It's a brew pub, right, Like,
it's not a it's not a straight up brewery, but
it's it's a brup pub. They make really good beers.
I've never been there myself, so I definitely need to
check it out. I gotta go for Wednesday Wing night.
Oh that sounds amazing. Wing's gonna beer for like twelve
bucks or something like that. That's a deal. It is
a deal, and the and the Wings are good too. Nice.
I'll add that to our short list. We're always looking
for new spots that we're hoping to to get back
to as things normalize over the coming months. But dude,
(40:03):
that's gonna be it for this episode. Listeners can find
our show notes up on our website at how to
money dot com. Yeah, and if you've been enjoying the show,
tell a friend. We'd love it if you would pass
on the How the Money love to somebody else who
could use some helpful advice in how to approach their
personal finances. And if you think Matt and I could
stand to do a little bit better, we'd always love
to hear from you. To just go to our website
(40:24):
how to money dot com slash do better drop us
a line. We'd love to hear from you because Matt
and I are always up to improve the show and
make it more helpful. So Matt, that's gonna do it
for this episode. Until next time, Best Friends Out, Best
Friends out
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal: Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a brand new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-4 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.