December 29, 2021 • 51 mins
LET’S PARTY! A financial festivus is in order here at the end of the year and we’re excited to share a bunch of listener wins from the How to Money community. Unfortunately at times we can be overly driven to the point that we fail to celebrate milestones. And when we achieve something great and move right on from it, we lose something in the process. Celebrations improve our well-being, they’re fun, and can provide inspiration for others. So during this episode we share a couple of our personal money wins, but then we have a chance to hear from listeners who have paid down credit card debt, massively boosted their savings rate, purchased their first home, started house hacking for the first time, taken their side hustle full-time, invested insane amounts of money, & more. Thank you to everyone who shared their money wins and we’re excited about what 2022 has in store for the HTM community!
During this episode we enjoyed a Coconut PM Dawn Trillium Brewing - a big thanks to Ali for donating this delicious craft beer to the podcast! And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money!
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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 having a financial festivus. We're celebrating, listener,
money wins a financial festivals for the rest of us.
(00:29):
What is it? What does that come from? Is that
a Seinfeld? Oh? Is it? Yeah? I'm thinking, Oh, that's right.
I think one of the shows that girls have been
watching recently in the holiday revolves around festivals. The word
festivals instead of whatever it is that they're actually celebrating.
I guess, but yes, right Seinfeld. Well, now the holidays
are over, but it is it is that time and
New Year's Eve come. Well, yeah, that's a that's a
(00:51):
big time holiday. Yeah, there's still this is still a
great time to celebrate and view with people you love
and just kind of like not work as hard as
you normally do or at all. Hopefully you have been
able to take some time off to spend time with
your loved ones. But Joel, actually I just mentioned New
Year's Eve. I just wanted to quickly share you've only
got a couple more days to get your donations, and
if you wanted to make sure that you're going to
(01:11):
maximize the amount of money that you were going to
give away this year, and it's true. Yeah, some things
we have until later in the next year. But this
is one of those things that you've got until December
thirty one. You know that's true. But here's the other thing.
Even if you give money away in January, you still
get a tax break next year on that money next year,
of course, if that is, if you don't take the
Center deduction. That's true, But which goes up next We've
(01:33):
already talked to me talking about all this. I wanted
to mention one thing, Matt like, because we're so close
to New Year's Eve, it just kind of made me
think today that one do you drink craft beer or
champagne on New Year's Eve? It depends on the person.
I'm cool with both, right, I'm cool with either. But
some of my parents friends were you asking me? Are
you just kind of like no, I just want to
move on. I don't care what you're drinking. Actually, obviously,
(01:54):
I just want to mention that one of my parents
friends they realized at one point, like we love champagne.
Why do we only drink champagne on New Year's Eve
or like twice a year? Right? Why is it only
for these certain days of the year when this is
something like we'd love to drink drink like a couple
of times a week, and so, yeah, they did some
introspection and they realized this was their craft peer was champagne,
(02:16):
and they started buying their favorite one by the case
at Costco and nice. They just drink it like with
dinner two or three nights a week, like we've got
champagne taste and we happen to have a champagne budget,
according to Costco. Yeah, I think the reason oftentimes people
don't drink champagne during the week with dinner three times
a week is because it's called champagne, which always has
(02:37):
to do with some sort of celebration, right, Like that's
why prosecco exists, because that's how you drink a sparkling
white with without calling it champagne and for it to
not feel like you're constantly, you know, being indulgent and
over the top. That curkling signature prosecco is pretty good too,
by the way, I've never had it. So do they
buy do you know what they purchase a like an
actual name brand. Um think it's just like cooks, brute champagne.
(03:00):
It's just literally what cooks is like l G PO.
It's like the standard. It's like seven dollars a bottle
or something. It's not expensive, and so that's the thing.
It's like, they just like the they like popping that
cork and they like drinking that bubbly drink. Yeah, and
it's almost too bubbly for me. Yeah, I personally I
like it, and I am personally the kind of guy
who would not want to drink it three times a week,
But I don't know, a few times a year is
fine for me. Definitely New Year's Eve, Yes, definitely on
(03:23):
New Year's Eve. But it's it's one of those things
where I don't know, there's something important about knowing yourself
and how much that's going to move the needle for you.
And it's like, yeah, for us, we drink a lot
of good craft beer and we don't mind spending the
money to do it regularly. And when you find what
that thing is in your life, put some more of
your dollars in that direction. Be intentional. And that's just
kind of like a random, interesting way that some of
(03:45):
my parents friends were intentional. But I find it cool.
I love it. Thank you for sherry Man. Speaking of
craft beer, this is a beer that we were fortunate
enough to receive. This is not a beer that we
purchased ourselves. This is a coconut PM down. Uh. This
is a beer by Trillium, sent to us by Ali.
I cannot wait to drink this beer and share our
(04:06):
thoughts on this one at the end of the episode.
This is a beer that we can't get our hands on,
and so this is super special. So glad that you
and I are essentially ringing in the well, we're not
ringing in the new year. We've got a Friday episode
being out the old yet yeahally it's kind of oh,
I like it. It's like PM dawn. It's almost like
we're in the in between period of time here before
the New Year starts. That's right. Yeah, it's uh, we
do not playing this out always darkest before the dawn.
(04:28):
It's always a stretch when we do things like that. Yeah,
but no, Ali mentioned that her wife used to work
at Trillium, and so she they sent these beers our way,
a few beers, and we're obsessed with Trillium, so we're
really excited about this and not wait, yeah, alright, Well,
let's let's move on, Matt, let's celebrate some listener money victories.
We've got a bunch of listeners submissions that we want
to share with you, but we wanted to before we
(04:49):
get to that, Matt and I were going to share
our big money wins from this year too. And really,
when it comes down to its celebration, we would say,
it's just an important part of being human when we
achieve something rate, when we do something awesome, h and
when we accomplish a major goal that we've had, Uh,
if we move right on from it, we end up
losing something in the process. We would say that, like celebration,
(05:11):
it improves our well being. Right. Uh, these little celebrations
were able to have. They create a greater significance for
the work that we've done. They create a milestone surrounding
the things that we we've been able to achieve. We
can look back and say, because there was a celebration
that happened after we were able to achieve that thing,
that it like sticks in our mind in a different way.
And so yeah, these little mini celebrations can give us,
(05:33):
you know, what we need to move forward towards the
next goal on the horizon, and so we would say
you can celebrate in all sorts of different ways. Right,
A good craft beer is one of our favorite ways
to celebrate. Choose your own. But that's just what we're
gonna do today. We're gonna celebrate together, and we're gonna
hear what you've been able to accomplish this year. Let's
highlight the good things that are happening in a world
(05:53):
that is consistently fails to do so. And let's celebrate
big money progress that all of you have been able
to achieve. And let's do it together. That's right, Uh, dude.
And I like what you said about celebrations giving us
what we need to move forward. You know, they provide
us with the fuel or that little boost that we need. Uh.
But they are also inherently fun, you know, Like in
and of itself, a celebration can provide life satisfaction, it
(06:15):
can provide happiness. Uh. And like we've talked about recently
here on the show, like what's the point of working
so hard for years or even decades if you're not
also striving towards including some of the other aspects of life,
the different facets of life where we can find true
satisfaction and meaning, you know, we played our part on
that front. We had a little fantastic little Christmas party
a couple of weeks ago with our wives. But you know,
(06:37):
my question for you is is it, like, is it
technically a Christmas party when it's just there, just four
of us? I think so we're like a double date.
But we officially call it the how the Money Christmas Party. Well,
it is we allow ourselves to do something that we
otherwise wouldn't in a regular week, and we both get babysitters,
which is difficult because we do the baby costly and
constantly exactly, So we first of all we do that,
(06:58):
and then we're going out for number of hours at
a nice, fun restaurant. We're able to enjoy ourselves and
have some drinks. Yeah, so I think I think that
is definitely a celebration, definitely a party, getting a little
bit dressed up. I put on my nicest lad shirt.
I even oiled up my boots that transformed them from
my work boots too. Okay, now I'm going out, And
when we call it a celebration, it kind of inherently
(07:19):
becomes that, right, Like we give it that name, and
it's like, that's what we're gonna do tonight, you christen it. Yeah,
also champagne reference right now. And we reflected on the
good things that we've been able to accomplish this year,
the good fortune that we've had, and just the joy
that we've had in doing the work. And so we
would say, while finding happiness and meaning are really important,
we're also celebrating because we want these stories to be
(07:41):
an inspiration to all of you. Right. I know there
are folks listening to this podcast, maybe you've been listening
for just a few weeks or a few months, and
we're glad to have you here. But yeah, the main
goal of this show is to help folks who tune
in transform their financial lives, like do better with their money,
get a handle on their finances, maybe for the first
time ever. And so this show has special meaning to us.
(08:02):
But we also want you to learn something in every
episode that we release, including this one. And I think
Matt based on what people have been able to accomplish.
If you're a listener and you're like, I just don't
just want to hear cool stuff that other people have done, well,
the great thing is in hearing their wins and you
and I talking about them, I think we can all
learn something too. And and also there's something about seeing
what's possible right, seeing how incredibly far some people have come,
(08:25):
sometimes in a limited space of time. And so yeah,
personal anecdotes like once from your fellow listener that we're
gonna hear today can just be this powerful boost to
your psyche when it comes to deciding what you want
to accomplish next year. It can brought in your horizons
when you otherwise might have set your sites a little
bit lower. Totally. Yeah, you might hear someone in there,
you know, their finances might sound pretty similar to yours
(08:47):
that I think could be encouraging, or maybe like their
money situation is completely different, but you happen to share
a similar goal. Either way, these are powerful things to
remind ourselves of. And so let's go ahead and kick
it off of the fact that this episode marks yet
another year of podcasting here at How the Money, but
specifically this is the first year that we have both
been full time podcasters. Uh, and would you take a look,
(09:09):
we haven't strangled each other and the business looks good
still somehow, best friends, that's true. Uh, we easily have
spent more time together this year than I don't, like,
would you say, like the entire like our entire friendship
over the past decade combined. Probably, I mean if you
count all the time outside of work but also here
in the studio, here in the office, it's probably pretty significant.
(09:31):
But like it kind of makes me think about building
a chair, you know, Like I've never crafted a chair myself,
but maybe I will someday. I've done the Ikea ones,
but yeah, that doesn't like in my mind, I mean
like turning like wooden dowels and like I don't like
like a dovetail joint. Yeah, like a like a real
crafted chair. I've not done that yet. But I've got
to think that the first time that you sit down
(09:53):
on this thing, it would be pretty nerve racking. You know,
like you spent a lot of time working on it.
You think it's it's beautiful, you're proud out of it,
but it is not completely fulfilling its intended purpose until
someone can actually sit in the dang thing. Uh. And
so you know, you and I we slowly kind of
put some of our weight on this podcast over the years,
but now we've seen that it is capable of handling
all of our weights. That is amazing. And we have
(10:16):
every single one of you listeners out there to think,
all you besties out there listening to how the money
make Joel and I a couple of very lucky dudes.
I mean, yeah, to get to do what we love
with your best friend, like that's like the Apex Man.
It doesn't get much better than that. And so we
are truly thankful and it doesn't happen without all of
you listening throughout the years. So that is a huge
money win for us, is having a self sustaining business.
(10:38):
So yeah, if we're just gonna give maybe one money
win as like a podcast, that's it. Like we're doing
it so right, that's huge. But Matt, let's let's give
maybe each of our own individual big money wins for
this year too, And and I'll go ahead and start.
I think think for me, um, yeah, being being able
to be a full time podcaster is huge, that's number one.
(11:00):
But personally for me, I got to on another rental
property this year, and that was a big money win
because yeah, I think it's kind of been my goal
to buy another property every eighteen months to twenty four months,
like somewhere in that cycle, and I did it again
this year, even in the teeth of a market where
I was like, I don't know if this is gonna
work out. I don't think it's gonna make financial sense,
but it did. And I guess part of the other
(11:21):
reason it was helpful to buy that property is because
we've been living in that property minally and I for
uh for some months, while we're doing some renovations to
our current house, while you know, hopefully making one good
financial move, while we're also kind of sort of pouring
money down the drain as we renovate our house a
little bit. Maybe you two financial win will be getting
(11:41):
back into your actual home. Yes, early early in two
fingers crossed. Uh. It's funny too that you mentioned a
rental property, because, like I wanted to highlight, maybe like
almost the opposite. You know, I didn't sell any properties,
but I realized this year that I am no longer
interested in buying more investment properties. Of course, you know
this could change in the future, who knows what's to come.
But at this point in my life, I count it
(12:03):
as a big win to not only have realized like
what it is that I'm looking to include more of
and into my life but also be in the financial
position to make that a reality. And so you know,
I guess that's not really a specific action that I
took this year. And the lack of action, I guess
you're like, who not buying any more rental properties? Like, well,
I guess you realize that, Hey, I've got I don't
(12:23):
I've only got so much time, and I'm I'm pouring
you know, my family and the business like those are.
If if I start, you know, looking to do more
rental properties, that's another part time job. And I guess
you just don't want to put your your money or
your time in that direction right now. Like, honestly, it's
mostly the time because the returns are there. I mean,
real estate has been good to both you and me
over the years, man. But for me, I've realized, I'm
(12:44):
at this point that if I bring on more properties,
it's going to be like it's truly reaching that point
where it's like a real part time job as opposed
to being kind of like this fake part time job. Uh.
And I don't want to get any closer to that
threshold where I'm tempted to maybe get management, which I
would do if I had above a certain threshold, right, Like,
but I feel like I'm in kind of the sweet spot. Uh,
(13:05):
And so that's not necessarily something that I've like specifically
done this year. I feel like it's more of like
a culmination of just me, like over fifteen years making
good decisions and again kind of being in that financial
position to make that decision. But if I did have
to tie it to a specific action, I will say,
I mean, this year, I have invested, Like, because I've
identified this, I've been able to invest more into the
actual stock market, way more than I ever have before.
(13:28):
And that feels really good to invest for my future
in a way that doesn't require any texting, any coordination
of contractors, any collection of rent that might be late,
that kind of thing. This thing is completely on autopilot.
There you go. Yeah, No, I think that's a that's
a good part doing. And that's something that we try
to talk about any time we talk about real estate
investing is yes, it can provide outside returns, and there
(13:49):
are a whole lot of specific ways that you can
maximize your dollars if you put them into physical houses
that you ran out. Uh. And if you get that
down to a sigh, it's if you know what you're doing.
But you're right. The easy route is index investing in
those retirement accounts and and you know, if you're killing
it in there, then you put it inside of a
brokerage account. And for a lot of people, they're not
(14:11):
going to become mom and popularistate investors like us because
they realize and it's true that it does become somewhat
of a part time job. And yeah, if you've got
two or three, maybe four, it's it's not too terribly
difficult to self manage most of the time. But there
are those days and you're like, why am I doing this?
That's right, But yeah, I understand not girling that and
(14:31):
and knowing what you want is a big money win.
But we have so many more money wins to share,
not just Matt and I like, what did you do
this year? What did you accomplish? We're gonna get you
a bunch of those, share them with you right after this.
(14:52):
All right, we are back, And so I just mentioned
that my big money win was housing related. A bunch
of others actually were to this year, and we'll get
to a lot of those in a second. But yeah,
there's something we can celebrate and learn from each one
of these listeners submissions. Let's celebrate first on this episode
Matt with Jonathan. Hey, Matt and Joel, this is Jonathan
in Seattle. My money win for one was to build
(15:16):
on the momentum from and keep paying my credit cards
off in full every month. And this was the first
year that I've paid zero dollars in interest to the
credit card companies. It feels pretty good. Also about a
small raise and up to my retirement contributions. So here's
to a great where hopefully that will be maxed out.
(15:38):
Thanks for all y'all do, and happy New Year to
both of you and everyone else in the how to
Money community. Hey Jonathan, Happy new year to you and
heck yes, this is awesome. We are so stoked for you.
What an accomplishment to not pay anything to the credit
card companies this year us Like, there are so many
folks who have just gotten used to paying the minimums
they don't even notice how much it is costing the
(16:00):
each and every month. The average American pays over one
thousand dollars in interest to the credit card companies each year. Wow,
that is a lot of money. Just think what you
could do if you had that back in your pocket,
and if you crunch the numbers, I'll tell you what
you may have been able to do, because that's a
difference of over seven and fifty thousand dollars were you
too have invested that money in the SMPF over the
(16:21):
last forty years. So my guess is that you're going
to be able to do a lot with that money
that you're gonna have back in your hands. Yeah, it
sounds like a small amount, or you see it and
you're like, I paid eighty dollars to the credit card
company and interest this month, or you know some people
it's it's a heck of a lot more than that,
but you just kind of get used to it. It's
that inertia bias, and you're like, that's just what I do.
Is I pay the credit card companies? The new normal. Yeah,
(16:43):
But when you phrase it like that, Matt, that if
you were to put in a thousand dollars every year
for forty years, that's not a whole lot of money.
A lot of people can figure out a way to
make that happen. Right, There's not a whole lot of
money on the front end, is what you're saying. Exactly right. Yes,
we can all figure out a way to save somewhere
along the lines of a month, right in order to
get to that number. But then that ending number four
(17:06):
years down the line, to have seven d fifty thousand
dollars in retirement, uh, is incredible. Like to see that
it grow. It's that that that amount of money, that
that small amount of money per month would have grown
that large is just like eye opening. Yeah, to whip
out eighty bucks, that's nothing like most folks and say, oh, yeah,
I got eighty bucks here this month. To whip out
over seven dollars, like, you can't just do that like that,
(17:27):
that is something that takes a lot of hard work
over the years and to and to note just that
that's going to the credit card companies, it's it's not
going towards something you love. It's going to pay off
prior spending. And so yeah, that that's huge to not
be paying that. And Jonathan too, he mentioned momentum when
he said that, and I think that's just such a
powerful force because just those initial steps, taking the first
step is often the hardest when you're trying to achieve
(17:50):
a goal, when you're like, listen, I want to be
rid of credit card debt. That doesn't happen overnight, and
often it takes years because it took years to get
into that credit card debt in the first place. So
let's say someone who is listening Matt and they've got
twenty or thirty dollars worth of credit card debt. I
think for for those folks, that can be hard to
believe that they're ever going to be rid of it,
Like they just assume that it's going to be an
anvil tied around their neck for for years to come,
(18:12):
and so often they don't get started, they don't move
in the right direction, and like I said, that's the
hardest part. But momentum builds on itself and it can
lead you to the promised land to where you want
to go to finally being rid of that. And so
we gotta say, Jonathan, cheers to you, and here's to
never paying a dime in interest again. This is one
of those things where once you cross over to the
other side and you are using credit cards basically as
(18:34):
a tool, instead of them using you to fill their coffers,
you're using them for the different benefits and the rewards
in the sign up offers exactly. Yeah, we're not against
credit cards, that's for sure. We're just against owing money
to the credit cards and not paying them off in
full at the end of the month. It's like this
beast that we want you to tame, exactly, and you
have broken that wild stallion, Yes, exactly. And and by
(18:55):
the way, for anybody out there who's like man, I
am in credit card debt and I want to know
how to take that first step there is You don't
necessarily need a tool, but if you want a tool
on debt Dot it is something we've talked about on
the show before and that's worth taking a look at.
It's a great way to kind of see how quickly
you're gonna be able to pay off that debt. It
kind of helps you get an action plan going. That's right,
It's gonna help you to map out the best path
(19:15):
for you for how it is that you think and
what's gonna get you there the quickest. And Joel, our
next listener win comes from someone who's got something in
common with me and Kate. They are a family of six. Hi,
Matt and Joel. My name is Joe. I'm from Washington State.
I've been listening to you guys since you released episode
thirteen quite some time, and our big money when this
(19:38):
year is that we managed to save a hundred thousand
dollars making a hundred fifty thousand with our family of six,
and it wouldn't have been possible without your inspiration over
the years, Matt. I'm always impressed when people have slogged
through it and stuck around listening to how the money
for that long. We have the right amount of talent,
not too much to where we you know, have like
(19:58):
this giant ego with the ahead, but but not so
little that folks have left us. We are definitely not
the Michael Jordan's podcasting. We're I don't know, maybe the
Steve Curse of podcasting. Okay, he's a really good coach
though now. But I actually went back to take a
look to see what episode thirteen was because I was curious,
and it was about cutting your monthly bills, and so
(20:19):
Joe obviously took that to heart a while back, and
then some maybe he just kept listening to that same
episode over and over. That's how I got to worry,
is thinking exactly and and yeah, to get to the
point where you've cut your monthly bills enough to have
a savings rate of sixty is incredible. And so yeah,
if if you're out there listening to this and thinking
(20:40):
to yourself, I'm pretty sure that's a higher rate than
what I'm saving, You're probably right because that is a
hard bar to to hit. That's that's hard to achieve
to be saving that much of your income. And yeah,
to put things in perspective, the personal savings rate in
the US for the past several decades has been in
the single digits, right at nine percent, And so have
a savings rate at seven times that, you know, what
(21:02):
most folks are doing is incredible. And Joe and his family,
obviously they've made a lot of sacrifices to get to
this point to make sure that they are saving a
boatload of what they bring home, and they deserve like
around of applause, that's for sure. Yeah, seven times. I
want to highlight that too. This isn't just like seven percent,
more like this and x. This is yes, like seven times,
like seve his savings rate is like like literally to
(21:24):
the moon. Is a Joe that is certainly worthy of
some praise. You know, so many other folks in the
fire movement in the fire crowd. Um, they're like these
single engineers or their dinks, you know where they've got
the dual income, no kids, and so to have a
family of six and to be able to save that
much money is really impressive. Hopefully anyone out there who
has kids, regardless of how many kids they have, is
(21:45):
encouraged to know. You know that it is actually possible
to keep your expenses low with a bunch of kids
in tow that rhymes like that. I'm curious to know, though, what, Joe,
what your long term goals are, because it seems like
whatever you are doing, you're getting after it, and I
don't think it'll be long before you're going to achieve
them at this rate. I totally agree, man, I think
we need to hear more from people who have larger
(22:07):
families and are still crushing it when it comes to
their finances. So many of the naysayers online about how
you're having a high savings right that, they're like, what
you can do if you have kids, And that's just
not true. And it's not that it doesn't make things
harder because kids aren't free. Um, they cost money. They
take up a lot of your time worth every penny
(22:27):
but as well exactly. Yeah, So if you're trying all
that side hustle time that you know, all these single kids,
they're gonna like want you to read books to them
and stuff. Yeah, what the heck, dad, he's got a
side host. So I ain't got time for you, and
I want to go ride bikes or something, right, right, Well,
the great thing is you can ride bikes together with
your kids. But I think what it comes down to,
and and you know, Joe's Joe's money win says it all.
It starts to the high savings rate. And the more
(22:48):
that we can push for that, the more you can
grow that margin, the bigger the gap is between what
you're bringing in and what's going out and expenses. The
more you can sock away for the future, the more
financial stability you're able to great more quickly. And so yeah,
Joe's family, they're setting themselves up for success and really
whatever they want to do in the future, that's right. Okay,
(23:08):
let's go ahead and hit up some of those real
estate listener money wins. Uh. This first one comes from
a couple in Indianapolis. Hey, Matt and Joel. This is
Olivia and Connor from Indianapolis, and Connor has listened to
you guys for about three years and I have just
started probably within the last year. And right from the
(23:30):
beginning of getting married, Connor had the idea from you
guys to do a duplex house hack. And we've been
married for a little over three years now and right
in January we are about to close on our first home,
which is a duplex to house hacks. So thank you
(23:50):
so much for all your help in the last couple
of years. I always appreciate your guys att tune and
humor and personal stories about your guys family. Help you
have a merry Christmas and happy all right? Man? You
know you know what I always say. I always say,
tell me the couple that house hacks together stays together.
Is that marriage advice? I think so, I'm gonna say
(24:11):
or it'll drive you apart immediately. I'm gonna one of
the two. It'll either make you stronger or push you apart.
I'll have to ask my wife, who's studying to become
a license therapist, if that qualifies as good marriage advice
or not. She's probably are gonna put that in the book.
She'd probably smaped me around for saying that was a
good idea. This is on the test, yes, but yeah,
closing is right around the corner, Olivia and Connor. This
is a big deal or super pump for you guys
(24:33):
and house hacking it creates just such a strong ability
for people to save a ton on their housing expenses
or even come out slightly ahead every single month, which
creates the situation where you can build wealth really really quickly.
And so yeah, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
housing costs account for around of the annual expenses last
(24:57):
year for the average household, over a third of our
expenses go towards housing. And yeah, the house hacking is
the way that you can flip that script and turn
it on its head in a big way. And let's
just say that you're making sixty dollars annually and now
your housing expenses are three to five thousand dollars because
your house hacking and someone else is paying the majority
of that mortgage. It just changes the ball game and
(25:19):
it changes your future. That's right. Yeah, we literally just
had the guy who wrote the book on house hacking
on the show. His name is Craig Kerlap. So if
you want to know all about house hacking in the
different approaches that you can take to it, that is
worth listening to. That's episode four five. But it really
is such a great way for a ton of folks
to kind of cheat, kind of game genie their way
(25:39):
towards personal finance success. And Jill, you mentioned Olivia how
they're gonna be closing here pretty soon, uh here in January.
I mean, basically, the last two years of mortgage interest
rates have been at all time lows, and I think
anybody who has purchased a home recently, anybody who is
looking to purchase at home even come the spring, are
going to be in a great financial position as rates
(26:00):
are locked in, and as we expect to see those
rates climb as we get further into next year with
the Fed starting to taper rates. That whole thing. Yeah, well,
I guess the one caveat I completely agree with you
is timeline. So the interest rate matters less if you're
gonna own your home for three years and try to
sell it, because at that point, with all of the
transaction costs that real estate comes along with, it's probably
(26:21):
not a goodbye. But if if you're looking to own
that house long term, these low interest rates are a
boon to your bottom line, and they make sense and
make even more sense for folks who are going to
buy a place and hold it for yeah, decades down
the road. All right, Matt, another real estate money win
that we've got to share. Let's get to one more
before the break. This one comes from it Chelsea in Austin. Hi,
(26:42):
Matt and Joel. This is Chelsea calling from Austin, Texas.
With my money win. I bought a house in this market.
It's so kind of crazy, you're hard to believe. Um.
I don't think my husband and I could have done
it without some of the lessons we've learned from your show.
First off, we really aimed to do this um off
(27:02):
the peak hot summer bidding moors. You know, we look
to do this kind of around Halloween because that's kind
of when things really slow down, whenever people are getting
ready for the holidays. And I think that really worked
out in our favor. Second, we really tried to stay
in our budget. It is a little expensive here, and
(27:25):
you know, lots lots of houses, but we stuck to
a number. We're not going over that, and we did
find the perfect one, and then finally one thing that
you guys talk a lot about the value of the
community in your neighborhood. We have some friends that you know,
all live in this one spot, and we realized that
(27:47):
community was going to be very important to us to
being close by to uh, you know, hey, do you
have any eggs? I'mount or um just be able to
entertain ourselves without having to go out and spend money.
You walk down the street and have a game night.
So I can't tell you how much joy that brought.
(28:07):
So walk down the block with a craft beer of course,
and uh celebrate this new life step. So looking forward
to more money wins and two thanks so much for
all you do. Does Texas or does Austin have an
open container laws? I don't know, so it makes it
even more tracked. There's to move there. There's no law
(28:28):
against walking in your street with the beer thought there.
I mean there might be a law, but there's like
the spirit of the law would be would say that's
a terrible law. I think there's a lot of folks
who might call you out when it when it comes
to actually following me the law as we found. But
Chelsea specifically, she's been listening to this show I think
as long as Joe has at least since and Chelsea,
we appreciate you, uh, and we are pumped to hear that,
(28:50):
even in this insane housing environment that Austin has especially seen,
uh it's been hot, yeah, that you were still able
to buy your first home. And I think that this
this is a testament to the fact that she and
her husband that they've been making the right decisions with
their money for years to get to this point. You know,
it takes a long time. It takes a ton of
hard work and discipline in order to save up enough
(29:13):
for down payment, and had they not started years ago,
they likely wouldn't have been able to buy. So I
love that they were prepared from a financial standpoint, but
not only that. She touched on how they kind of
came into it with the right mindset, so they were
prepared mentally. You know. She said that they had a
budget in mind, they had a price point set that
they where they knew that they could afford um. And
(29:34):
with the bidding wars that we saw erupt, they didn't
get carried away. They didn't act like all those other
home buyers, uh, those realtors who were trying to make
sure that they secured the deal by overbidding. Yeah, and
I might be reading too much into this, but my
guess is that Chelsea and her husband started saving, maybe
even before they knew that their goal was home ownership.
And I think sometimes you just gotta get started because
(29:54):
you don't know what that goal is going to be,
and you should. You should be saving for you know,
awesome future opportunities it maybe you're not even aware of yet.
And uh, I love to Matt that that they prioritized
the community where they live. I'm always shocked. I don't know.
My mom watches a lot of h G t V
and it's randomly on and I'm at I'm at her house,
like she she just loves that channel. And you always
(30:15):
see people just looking across the entire city and I'm like, who,
how do you not know whether you want to live
like north, south, east west in town or in the
burbs or in the excerbs. Like there's so many people
who just don't feel that attachment and they don't know where,
which specific community they want to live in. And so
we would say, if you're going to buy a home,
make sure it's a place that you can see yourself
(30:36):
putting roots down and that community is a huge part
of the reason. And there's a lot of things you
can endure, like an older house that's got issues, or
the house that's smaller than you'd like it to be.
If your community rocks like you can deal with that
for years longer than you would otherwise be interested in doing. So. Yeah,
prioritize community when you're buying. I think that's a good
(30:58):
way to think about things. And one other thing that
Chelsea mentioned in her email when she's setting her money
win over to us was that because she was renting
from a more mom and pop style landlord, she was
able to help her landlord find a new tenant and
save over three thousand dollars in rent that she would
have otherwise lost. That is also awesome. And so having
a good relationship with your landlord, uh making that transition
(31:21):
easier for them, plus helping to prevent vacancy that goes
a long way. That is an incredibly smart way for
you to exit a relationship with your landlord. But again, Chelsea,
congrats and we are pumped to hear that you and
your husband are making some awesome money moves. All right, maw,
We've got a few more to get to more listeners
who have done just incredible things with their money making
progress by leaps and bounds. We'll get to those right
(31:42):
after this. Alright, we're back. This is our financial Festivus
episode where we're hearing listener money wins. Let's get to
our next when that is great resignation related. Let's hear
from this listener in New York. Hi, my name is
(32:04):
Kaylee from only in New York, and my win this
year was I was able to quit my full time
job and pursue my craft business spell book and vinyl
full time. Kaylee, that's phenomenal starting your own business. And
I love that you gave the name to so that
there's a crap ton of how the money listeners now
that know what your business is. Well even maybe we
should link to it in the show. We will totally
(32:26):
link to it, okay, And I feel like this is
a total marketing wins. So Kaylee, on your part, way
to go exactly. Yes. And yeah, Matt, we we talked
not too long ago on the show about how so
many folks are starting their own business right now. And yeah,
the fact that Kaylee made this leap is it's just awesome.
It's part of this trend that we think is fantastic
and and people are just quitting their jobs are going
(32:47):
the solo new route. I think some people like, why
aren't people returning to work? Well, part of the reason
people aren't returning to work is because they're starting their
own thing and they're pursuing something that you're passionate about,
which we think is great. Yeah, they're they're becoming legit
business owners. Yes, and and it's obviously is to leave
a faith to start your own business. We know all
about that. But we're we're pumped Kyleie that you're turning
your what what was the side hustle into your main
(33:10):
gig and so it's just super exciting. It's a huge
win and we're pumped for you and best of luck
to yeah your your crafting business. Yeah, we are here
to cheer you on. Uh and you know, didn we
also mentioned too that the number of creators on Etsy
has like more than tripled at that point in time,
talking a lot more people selling stuff on Yeah. Platforms
like that though, they just make it so much easier
for folks, you know, within the craft business to reach
(33:31):
their audience and make money and we of course, we
want how the money listeners to be financially prepared to
have saved well so that they've got that substantial margin
when they launched their business. But so many people avoid
actually quitting their day job out of fear like that.
They are hesitant to make that leap even if they
have the savings, even when they have that financial backing.
And if that's your goal, don't let that fear hold
(33:52):
you back from trying to do what it is that
you love. The worst case scenario isn't nearly as bad
as your mind is telling you that it can be.
It makes me think of this meme I saw recently
with Pete Davidson on it. It was a picture of
Pete and Kim and it said that if Pete Davidson
can ask Kim Kardashian out on a date, you can
ask your boss for more money. And I would also
say that, and you also have what it takes to
(34:15):
step out on out on your own, uh and give
it a go with whatever it is that you've been
doing on the side. Although I still think that's a
marketing stunt. I don't know if that's really love, and
I'm proved wrong. I'll be okay with that, but I
don't know. I think it's a funny guy, but there's
got to be something else or something else going on.
But yeah, no, I completely agree, and we're pump for Kaylie.
We want to see more people pursue this route because
you're right, the downside is is so minimal. We had
(34:37):
a friend Matt, who left his job. He was like
CFO of a company doing super well, went to start
his own thing on the side, and it turns out
like it was fun, but it didn't really jell with
kind of the way he wanted to live life. He
wanted to go back in the corporate world. He got
another job, he's doing great, Like I don't think you
have to. He's back to crushing it exactly. I don't.
I don't think you have to. It's not all or nothing.
(34:58):
You can always go back into the work. For us
if it doesn't work out, or if you realize, you
know what, crafting is fun on the side, But I
don't want to do it full time. I don't. I
want it to be a hobby. I don't want it
to be my actual job. Exact same thing for us,
it's like if we're like, you know, what podcasting is
fun on the side, but it's not that's something we
want to pursue a full time although we do. We
love it, but if we ever felt like that, it's
it's not like we're unemployable, right, um, And there are
(35:20):
a lot of skills I feel that we've learned over
the past few years, right And I feel like your
your brain tells you something though, and it's like no,
no, no no, if you quit, like how are you ever
going to get your job screwed for the rest of
your life? It's just not true. And I'm glad Kaylee
knows that she took the leap, and I hope it's
just like she blows it out of the water. All right, Matt,
Let's get to the next one and we have another
money when that's house hacking related. Hi guys, my name
(35:43):
is Garre Connley. I'm twenty seven years old and I'm
from Clinton, Massachusetts. I just wanted to share this one
with you guys, because I owe a lot of it
to the both of you. Three years ago, I knew
basically nothing about personal finance. Fast forward to this year,
and I've really put myself into what I think is
as a pretty solid track towards financially depend It's specifically,
just a few months ago I closed to my very
first rental property and I'm currently rehabbing it as a
(36:05):
house hack. I still remember hearing the term house hacking
for the first time on this podcast. That really sent
me down this path, and it's it's crazy to think
of how much I've learned since then while listening. So
thank you guys, and keep doing what you're doing. Garrett,
thanks so much for sharing your win with us. Dude,
starting young like this is so stinking helpful. Garrett, He's
twenty seven, and not only did he close on that home,
(36:27):
but he's rehabbing it as well. He's putting in that
elbow grease. That's what we'd like to call forced appreciation. Uh,
So that home is going to quickly be worth more
than what he paid for it, but it is also
going to improve the rent that he gets from those
units every single month. House hacking in your mid twenties
is such a game changer. And unlike the house hacker,
were talked about how much we like house it's huge,
(36:50):
how much we think it's a great idea. And I
mean the fact that he discovered house hacking here on
our show makes me incredibly happy as well that took
him down this path and now he is doing it.
He's done it, and uh and unlike the one that
we talked about a hou sack earlier here in the episode.
But it doesn't sound like this is what he's living in.
And I wanted to highlight that because it just goes
to show how there are so many different flavors. This
sounds like a separate rental that he's not planning to
(37:12):
live in. But maybe he is planning to rent out
the rooms individually depending on the area. That is exactly
what is needed in some areas, especially around schools. Maybe
it's an older home that he's planning to chop up
a little bit, uh, partition it in a way that
it can be listed as a duplex, you know, in
this old home. There's a lot of charm that comes
with old homes like that. So either way, I think
it's really cool because there's a lot that you can
(37:33):
do with single family homes yea. And there's just so
much you can do with the house hacking strategy. It
really like, I mean, I just I don't know that
there's any better way to start um when you're like,
I mean you touched on it earlier. When you have
one third of your monthly expenses going towards an expense,
if you can find a way to reduce that by
a significant amount, if you can find a way to
(37:55):
bring that to zero or even make a little bit
every single month, you are going to come out dress
sickly ahead in the very short amout in one house hack.
Then it's like boom, Now I can like put so
much money towards my retirement accounts because I'm paying so
little for housing costs that next real estate exactly. And
I will say to another thing that that it made
me think when we heard Garrett's money win, was that
(38:15):
he's just soaking in information and none of us know everything,
but learning from folks who are a little bit ahead
of us on the road, it allows us to learn
from their mistakes and hopefully their wisdom too, and allows
us to hopefully make fewer or smaller mistakes when we
do mess up. And so great job, Garrett. It sounds
like not only are you taking action, but you're learning
from people who know what they're talking about, and you're
(38:37):
you're diving deep so that you can figure it out,
and sometimes you only learn by doing, but so much
of the time you learn from other people who know
what they're talking about by just being willing to open
your ears. All right, let's get to our next listener
money win. This one comes from listener Josh on California
and he made an epic real estate move. Let's hear it, Hey,
Joel and Matt, this is Josh from Thousand Oaks, California.
(38:59):
Thanks for taking the time to listen to my big
money when So, my big money win was my wife
and I being able to purchase a second home which
we are using as an airbnb. We were able to
take care of um knocking that out off of our
personal development plan this year to continue to build wealth
(39:21):
in some different tangible areas. It's been really successful so far.
We've had it listed for about two months and we've
made enough money to cover the mortgage for the entire
year so far, which is great. We also have the
opportunity to have a consultation phone call with one of
your previous guests, UM, Ziona McIntyre, and we're just really
(39:45):
excited about that opportunity. So it was a big money
win for us in one Thanks for all you guys.
Do appreciate all the help and advice. Man, I'm not
gonna lie. He said our big money win was to
buy a second home, and I was like no, no,
no no, And then he was like an out on Airbnb,
and I was Hawaii, it's gonna be expensive, man, just
buying that second home. I don't know if that's a
money win or money lost. I guess it depends on
(40:06):
how well you've been doing with your finances over a
long period of time. But he's house accing it with Airbnb. Yeah,
of course, you know we and I love that. And
I think one of the things I like about what
Josh said there he said they're knocking it off their
personal development plan. And I think this is awesome because
it sounds like Josh and his wife they're not just
winging it. They're not like, you want to buy an
Airbnb this year. They've written down these goals. They're working
(40:27):
towards them, and they feel more tangible when they've you've
put pen to paper instead of just daydreaming like how
cool would it be to own an Airbnb? It's like, no,
I'm not just thinking about that. It's on my personal
development's when it happened this year. Yeah. And so if
you've got you know, a money when you want to
achieve in the coming year, we would say, do that.
Put pen to paper. Uh, turn that daydream into something
that you write down, and there is something that happens
(40:50):
that makes it more tangible, more real. It makes it
feel more like a goal that you're actually working towards
as opposed to something that's just in the back of
your brain. And for him to be able to cover
his mortgage, uh, and us the first couple of months
listed while while it was listening on Airbnb is huge
because you know, it takes a while to build the
business up in order to generate real income. You gotta
get the history, you gotta get the reviews, because now
(41:11):
essentially you've entered the hospitality industry. But it sounds like
it's already a great investments if you're covering those hard
costs from the very beginning like that, Josh. Yeah, And
Josh is also talking to other smart people. We just
talked about this with Garrett. Getting good advice from other
people can save a lot of heartache, and that's that's
what he's doing. Reaching out to Ziana, who we had
(41:32):
on the podcast a while back. Josh, I'm glad you
chatted with her, because one hour of someone's time, even
paying for that time, can lead to saving dozens of
hours of your own time floundering trying to figure out
things on your own, trying to get the right systems
in place, researching the right websites to to go to
to you know, list your property or whatever. And so
I think that's a big win too. I think it's
(41:53):
a worthwhile spend while you're trying to get your airbnb
business off the ground, and so best of luck continuing
this air and be venture and hopefully you do more
than cover your mortgage really really soon you're actually like
getting some profit on the top end. That's right. Congrats, Josh, Joe.
Let's go ahead and get to our last listener win
that we have time forward during this episode today, and
this one is from a fairly local listener. Hey, how
(42:16):
the Money. This is Nathan from just up the road
in Athens, Georgia, and I discovered you guys in March
of this year and then proceeded to listen to every
single episode in your archive at this point, and um,
I just wanted to share that your work has impacted
my financial journey in many ways, too many to mention
in a short voice note, but I'll summarize it by
(42:37):
sharing that I am ending the year um entering into
money gear seven, having just opened a brokerage account for
some investments above and beyond our various retirement vehicles like iras.
And this is something I would have never had had
any idea where to begin on if not for the podcast.
I had previously outsourced all of my investing to a
(42:57):
financial advisor, but last month, on with the knowledge acquired
from How the Money, I opened my own brokerage account
with Vanguard and purchase about a month's worth of my
annual income UH and shares of VT sacks and VOO.
So thank you for that new knowledge and kind of
know how. And I just really appreciate the simplicity and
(43:17):
sadness of this and many other things that you guys
have shared on the podcast. It's been super helpful for
me this year, and I know it will be in
the future. So thanks very much, guys, and I look
forward to hopefully enjoying a beer together sometime in matt
I don't even know how Nathan was able to listen
to four and something episodes in ten months. That sounds
like dedication. Okay, so Nathan is actually a v I P,
(43:39):
M v P listener to our podcast because I saw
we we we we both saw his Spotify like you're
in wrap up, and he listened over sixteen thousand hours
of our show. And at the time, someone call that torture,
like I did the Math and just over the course
of a year. I think when I did the Math,
that was over forty five minutes of listening to the
podcast every single day. But then he said that he
(44:02):
discovered us back in the spring, so he didn't even
find us back in you know, in January one. That
means like you closer to probably like over an hour
every day listening to you kind of babylon about. I
do babble from time to time. I'll admit it, and yeah,
and I'm not gonna lie it sounds a little exhausting,
but Nathan, I'm glad you pushed through. Thank you so
much for listening. And uh, when when we're talking about
(44:23):
your money, when I would say, we love that you're
investing for medium term stuff and not just for retirement.
That's the great thing. Once you kind of start to
do well saving your retirement accounts over a period of time,
start investing more in a brokerage accounts so that you
can fund some of those bigger things, bigger goals that
you're that you're trying to save four that are years
down the road. And I would I would even say
(44:44):
not even just bigger, but like more fun, because retirement
isn't necessarily fun, right, like, well, hopefully it's gonna be fun. Well,
it'll be fun, but it's like for a lot of people,
it's not exciting to think about saving. The third time
achangible thing is it's kind of like this period of
time that most people associate with not working, which a
lot of us really love work. We enjoy what we do.
And so yeah, money year seven to be able to
(45:06):
start saving towards like whether it's a certain maybe it
is a second home, or maybe this it's some sort
of amazing vacation. Those are some of the really rad
goals that I think that can really get folks excited
about saving more money. Yeah, and and Nathan is putting
his money straight into those index funds, which and he's
got both of his basis covered because he's got VT
(45:27):
sacks with you and he's got voo with me a
little bit of both, And so we would say, like
advisors make sense for some folks, but not for most folks. One,
most advisors just don't care about you. If you don't
have a net worth that's bumping. And so we we
love that you're feeling comfortable enough, Nathan, to go about
investing alone. I think maybe when you get to some
bigger decisions, you might want the help or the input
(45:49):
of a hired hand who has a lot of history
working with clients to help them achieve their goals. But
for so many of our listeners go the d I
Y route, going it alone and just continuing this stock
money away for the future in those index funds is
the way to go. That's right, Yeah, especially for retirement investing.
It's a lot simpler than people think. There's low cost,
widely diversified index funds in those tax advantaged accounts. That's
(46:11):
the way to go. And Nathan, you know, we would
like to make more listener hangs happen, uh in this
coming year. We had one in Atlanta this year. We
had one in Austin a little earlier this year as well.
I think Athens. It's definitely on our short list. Hopefully
we can make something happen there soon. Those were definitely
a blast. And what's really fun too is the ability
to meet up with listeners because you're immediately talking about
(46:33):
all the same stuff. We're cut from the same cloth.
Were frugal and oftentimes since we do meet at breweries,
we've also got that instantly Bonda I swear, and most
of those listener hangouts, I talked about money with almost nobody.
We talked about so many other things, like the people
that listen to the show, they're just cool or at
least I want to come to the hangout, and it was.
It was a blast. I definitely want to make more
of those happening next year totally. Hopefully we'll be able
(46:55):
to meet more how the money listeners and doing cool
stuff with their money in the near future. All right,
Matt and and I agree, And and this is just
I think a great way to finish the year. It's
fun for us. Hopefully this was fun for you, And
we would say to all of you out there, be
sure to take a minute to celebrate any of your
financial wins, even if they seem small, even if they
seem insignificant. But it was an important step getting you
(47:15):
on the right path. Take a minute to celebrate before
you start making those New Year's resolutions, because because it's
informative and it's motivational to see those victories as you
start planning for the upcoming year and how you want
to continue to build on the money wins that you've
been able to rack up so far. And I think, yeah,
one other piece of advice here to wrap up this
episode is if you want to see more money wins,
(47:38):
you want to get more money encouragements. You feel like
maybe you're an island and there aren't many people in
your life that you have been able to strike up
and have conversations about money with yet so far, then
we would say join the how the Money Facebook group.
It is an awesome place where people are encouraging, They
ask good questions, they offer advice, and they're sharing their
own personal wins throughout the year. It's just encouraging to
(48:00):
see kind of what other people are doing, how they're
doing it, and you you can take lessons every day
from that group into your own life in order to
help you to continue to make progress. That's right. So
it's a really important community. And I mentioned you know
how Nathan was kind of like an m v P
podcast listener with the amount of minutes that he uh
notched on his belts. If if he's the m v
P listener, I want to say, Ali is the m
(48:22):
v P beer donator because we were enjoying this coconut
PM don This is an American style with cold brew
coffee by Trillium there brewed there in Massachusetts. Dude, tell
me your thoughts on this beer. This beer was next level, dude.
It was off the chain, as the kids say. Do
the kids say that anymore? I don't know anymore. You
(48:43):
said that as a kid, I did. I've never stopped
the chain, Guys, I still say that, but I'm lame.
But I've never had a stout quite like this, And
I mean that in the best possible way. It was delicious,
and it combined two of my favorite things, which are
beer and cold brew coffee, and so the concentration of
the coffee flavors were fantastic, and the overall flavor profile
(49:05):
of this beer was just impressive. And I didn't expect
anything less from Trillion, but even still, I didn't know
that it was going to be this delicious. It was
like it was really really good and mad props to
Alec for sending this one away because I, um, yeah,
I'm kind of in love. I feel like that this
beer had so much nuance in my mind. Uh, this
(49:26):
beer has a touch more sweetness than I think what
you what you typically go for, uh, but which I
am all about. Like the coconut sort of sweetness that
they had going on I thought was perfect And just
generally speaking, I feel like that they were able to
brew this beer with such finesse, with such nuance, because
a lot of the bigger stocks that we have, they
just like smack you in the face with the roastiness
(49:48):
or the coffee flavors or the barrel aged flavors that
they've got going on. But this one was just so nuanced,
so subtle. They just sasted like the work of a
true brew master. Whoever it is that brewed this beer.
The coffee notes were just right, the coconut notes were
just right, and just the overall weight because sometimes it
can just almost be too thick as well, and this
one did not have that. It was just like it
(50:10):
rode the line perfectly. Ali, thank you so much for
sending this one our way. We're actually looking forward to
a couple other Trillion beers coming up here soon as well. Yep.
Obviously we love beer and we get to try some
of the best in the world which Trillion is making.
We are super thankful, so thank you and Matt. That's
the end of this episode. It was a really fun one.
I love celebrating listener money wins every single year. And
(50:30):
we still got one more episode to get to you.
Oh yeah, you hang on, We've got one more for
our Friday flight, but two I think is going to
be a great year for the HTAH Money community. I'm
looking forward to see how the podcast shifts and changes
and how we're able to hopefully reach more people with
helpful money advice. That's the goal here, and hopefully next
year we've got a lot more money wins to share
(50:52):
from a greater variety of how the Money listeners. Next year,
we want to hear from you and what it is
that you did with your money exactly. We've got three
five days, make some progress, make something happen, Alright, Matt.
That's going to 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 having a financial festivus. We're celebrating, listener,
money wins a financial festivals for the rest of us.
(00:29):
What is it? What does that come from? Is that
a Seinfeld? Oh? Is it? Yeah? I'm thinking, Oh, that's right.
I think one of the shows that girls have been
watching recently in the holiday revolves around festivals. The word
festivals instead of whatever it is that they're actually celebrating.
I guess, but yes, right Seinfeld. Well, now the holidays
are over, but it is it is that time and
New Year's Eve come. Well, yeah, that's a that's a
(00:51):
big time holiday. Yeah, there's still this is still a
great time to celebrate and view with people you love
and just kind of like not work as hard as
you normally do or at all. Hopefully you have been
able to take some time off to spend time with
your loved ones. But Joel, actually I just mentioned New
Year's Eve. I just wanted to quickly share you've only
got a couple more days to get your donations, and
if you wanted to make sure that you're going to
(01:11):
maximize the amount of money that you were going to
give away this year, and it's true. Yeah, some things
we have until later in the next year. But this
is one of those things that you've got until December
thirty one. You know that's true. But here's the other thing.
Even if you give money away in January, you still
get a tax break next year on that money next year,
of course, if that is, if you don't take the
Center deduction. That's true, But which goes up next We've
(01:33):
already talked to me talking about all this. I wanted
to mention one thing, Matt like, because we're so close
to New Year's Eve, it just kind of made me
think today that one do you drink craft beer or
champagne on New Year's Eve? It depends on the person.
I'm cool with both, right, I'm cool with either. But
some of my parents friends were you asking me? Are
you just kind of like no, I just want to
move on. I don't care what you're drinking. Actually, obviously,
(01:54):
I just want to mention that one of my parents
friends they realized at one point, like we love champagne.
Why do we only drink champagne on New Year's Eve
or like twice a year? Right? Why is it only
for these certain days of the year when this is
something like we'd love to drink drink like a couple
of times a week, and so, yeah, they did some
introspection and they realized this was their craft peer was champagne,
(02:16):
and they started buying their favorite one by the case
at Costco and nice. They just drink it like with
dinner two or three nights a week, like we've got
champagne taste and we happen to have a champagne budget,
according to Costco. Yeah, I think the reason oftentimes people
don't drink champagne during the week with dinner three times
a week is because it's called champagne, which always has
(02:37):
to do with some sort of celebration, right, Like that's
why prosecco exists, because that's how you drink a sparkling
white with without calling it champagne and for it to
not feel like you're constantly, you know, being indulgent and
over the top. That curkling signature prosecco is pretty good too,
by the way, I've never had it. So do they
buy do you know what they purchase a like an
actual name brand. Um think it's just like cooks, brute champagne.
(03:00):
It's just literally what cooks is like l G PO.
It's like the standard. It's like seven dollars a bottle
or something. It's not expensive, and so that's the thing.
It's like, they just like the they like popping that
cork and they like drinking that bubbly drink. Yeah, and
it's almost too bubbly for me. Yeah, I personally I
like it, and I am personally the kind of guy
who would not want to drink it three times a week,
But I don't know, a few times a year is
fine for me. Definitely New Year's Eve, Yes, definitely on
(03:23):
New Year's Eve. But it's it's one of those things
where I don't know, there's something important about knowing yourself
and how much that's going to move the needle for you.
And it's like, yeah, for us, we drink a lot
of good craft beer and we don't mind spending the
money to do it regularly. And when you find what
that thing is in your life, put some more of
your dollars in that direction. Be intentional. And that's just
kind of like a random, interesting way that some of
(03:45):
my parents friends were intentional. But I find it cool.
I love it. Thank you for sherry Man. Speaking of
craft beer, this is a beer that we were fortunate
enough to receive. This is not a beer that we
purchased ourselves. This is a coconut PM down. Uh. This
is a beer by Trillium, sent to us by Ali.
I cannot wait to drink this beer and share our
(04:06):
thoughts on this one at the end of the episode.
This is a beer that we can't get our hands on,
and so this is super special. So glad that you
and I are essentially ringing in the well, we're not
ringing in the new year. We've got a Friday episode
being out the old yet yeahally it's kind of oh,
I like it. It's like PM dawn. It's almost like
we're in the in between period of time here before
the New Year starts. That's right. Yeah, it's uh, we
do not playing this out always darkest before the dawn.
(04:28):
It's always a stretch when we do things like that. Yeah,
but no, Ali mentioned that her wife used to work
at Trillium, and so she they sent these beers our way,
a few beers, and we're obsessed with Trillium, so we're
really excited about this and not wait, yeah, alright, Well,
let's let's move on, Matt, let's celebrate some listener money victories.
We've got a bunch of listeners submissions that we want
to share with you, but we wanted to before we
(04:49):
get to that, Matt and I were going to share
our big money wins from this year too. And really,
when it comes down to its celebration, we would say,
it's just an important part of being human when we
achieve something rate, when we do something awesome, h and
when we accomplish a major goal that we've had, Uh,
if we move right on from it, we end up
losing something in the process. We would say that, like celebration,
(05:11):
it improves our well being. Right. Uh, these little celebrations
were able to have. They create a greater significance for
the work that we've done. They create a milestone surrounding
the things that we we've been able to achieve. We
can look back and say, because there was a celebration
that happened after we were able to achieve that thing,
that it like sticks in our mind in a different way.
And so yeah, these little mini celebrations can give us,
(05:33):
you know, what we need to move forward towards the
next goal on the horizon, and so we would say
you can celebrate in all sorts of different ways. Right,
A good craft beer is one of our favorite ways
to celebrate. Choose your own. But that's just what we're
gonna do today. We're gonna celebrate together, and we're gonna
hear what you've been able to accomplish this year. Let's
highlight the good things that are happening in a world
(05:53):
that is consistently fails to do so. And let's celebrate
big money progress that all of you have been able
to achieve. And let's do it together. That's right, Uh, dude.
And I like what you said about celebrations giving us
what we need to move forward. You know, they provide
us with the fuel or that little boost that we need. Uh.
But they are also inherently fun, you know, Like in
and of itself, a celebration can provide life satisfaction, it
(06:15):
can provide happiness. Uh. And like we've talked about recently
here on the show, like what's the point of working
so hard for years or even decades if you're not
also striving towards including some of the other aspects of life,
the different facets of life where we can find true
satisfaction and meaning, you know, we played our part on
that front. We had a little fantastic little Christmas party
a couple of weeks ago with our wives. But you know,
(06:37):
my question for you is is it, like, is it
technically a Christmas party when it's just there, just four
of us? I think so we're like a double date.
But we officially call it the how the Money Christmas Party. Well,
it is we allow ourselves to do something that we
otherwise wouldn't in a regular week, and we both get babysitters,
which is difficult because we do the baby costly and
constantly exactly, So we first of all we do that,
(06:58):
and then we're going out for number of hours at
a nice, fun restaurant. We're able to enjoy ourselves and
have some drinks. Yeah, so I think I think that
is definitely a celebration, definitely a party, getting a little
bit dressed up. I put on my nicest lad shirt.
I even oiled up my boots that transformed them from
my work boots too. Okay, now I'm going out, And
when we call it a celebration, it kind of inherently
(07:19):
becomes that, right, Like we give it that name, and
it's like, that's what we're gonna do tonight, you christen it. Yeah,
also champagne reference right now. And we reflected on the
good things that we've been able to accomplish this year,
the good fortune that we've had, and just the joy
that we've had in doing the work. And so we
would say, while finding happiness and meaning are really important,
we're also celebrating because we want these stories to be
(07:41):
an inspiration to all of you. Right. I know there
are folks listening to this podcast, maybe you've been listening
for just a few weeks or a few months, and
we're glad to have you here. But yeah, the main
goal of this show is to help folks who tune
in transform their financial lives, like do better with their money,
get a handle on their finances, maybe for the first
time ever. And so this show has special meaning to us.
(08:02):
But we also want you to learn something in every
episode that we release, including this one. And I think
Matt based on what people have been able to accomplish.
If you're a listener and you're like, I just don't
just want to hear cool stuff that other people have done, well,
the great thing is in hearing their wins and you
and I talking about them, I think we can all
learn something too. And and also there's something about seeing
what's possible right, seeing how incredibly far some people have come,
(08:25):
sometimes in a limited space of time. And so yeah,
personal anecdotes like once from your fellow listener that we're
gonna hear today can just be this powerful boost to
your psyche when it comes to deciding what you want
to accomplish next year. It can brought in your horizons
when you otherwise might have set your sites a little
bit lower. Totally. Yeah, you might hear someone in there,
you know, their finances might sound pretty similar to yours
(08:47):
that I think could be encouraging, or maybe like their
money situation is completely different, but you happen to share
a similar goal. Either way, these are powerful things to
remind ourselves of. And so let's go ahead and kick
it off of the fact that this episode marks yet
another year of podcasting here at How the Money, but
specifically this is the first year that we have both
been full time podcasters. Uh, and would you take a look,
(09:09):
we haven't strangled each other and the business looks good
still somehow, best friends, that's true. Uh, we easily have
spent more time together this year than I don't, like,
would you say, like the entire like our entire friendship
over the past decade combined. Probably, I mean if you
count all the time outside of work but also here
in the studio, here in the office, it's probably pretty significant.
(09:31):
But like it kind of makes me think about building
a chair, you know, Like I've never crafted a chair myself,
but maybe I will someday. I've done the Ikea ones,
but yeah, that doesn't like in my mind, I mean
like turning like wooden dowels and like I don't like
like a dovetail joint. Yeah, like a like a real
crafted chair. I've not done that yet. But I've got
to think that the first time that you sit down
(09:53):
on this thing, it would be pretty nerve racking. You know,
like you spent a lot of time working on it.
You think it's it's beautiful, you're proud out of it,
but it is not completely fulfilling its intended purpose until
someone can actually sit in the dang thing. Uh. And
so you know, you and I we slowly kind of
put some of our weight on this podcast over the years,
but now we've seen that it is capable of handling
all of our weights. That is amazing. And we have
(10:16):
every single one of you listeners out there to think,
all you besties out there listening to how the money
make Joel and I a couple of very lucky dudes.
I mean, yeah, to get to do what we love
with your best friend, like that's like the Apex Man.
It doesn't get much better than that. And so we
are truly thankful and it doesn't happen without all of
you listening throughout the years. So that is a huge
money win for us, is having a self sustaining business.
(10:38):
So yeah, if we're just gonna give maybe one money
win as like a podcast, that's it. Like we're doing
it so right, that's huge. But Matt, let's let's give
maybe each of our own individual big money wins for
this year too, And and I'll go ahead and start.
I think think for me, um, yeah, being being able
to be a full time podcaster is huge, that's number one.
(11:00):
But personally for me, I got to on another rental
property this year, and that was a big money win
because yeah, I think it's kind of been my goal
to buy another property every eighteen months to twenty four months,
like somewhere in that cycle, and I did it again
this year, even in the teeth of a market where
I was like, I don't know if this is gonna
work out. I don't think it's gonna make financial sense,
but it did. And I guess part of the other
(11:21):
reason it was helpful to buy that property is because
we've been living in that property minally and I for
uh for some months, while we're doing some renovations to
our current house, while you know, hopefully making one good
financial move, while we're also kind of sort of pouring
money down the drain as we renovate our house a
little bit. Maybe you two financial win will be getting
(11:41):
back into your actual home. Yes, early early in two
fingers crossed. Uh. It's funny too that you mentioned a
rental property, because, like I wanted to highlight, maybe like
almost the opposite. You know, I didn't sell any properties,
but I realized this year that I am no longer
interested in buying more investment properties. Of course, you know
this could change in the future, who knows what's to come.
But at this point in my life, I count it
(12:03):
as a big win to not only have realized like
what it is that I'm looking to include more of
and into my life but also be in the financial
position to make that a reality. And so you know,
I guess that's not really a specific action that I
took this year. And the lack of action, I guess
you're like, who not buying any more rental properties? Like, well,
I guess you realize that, Hey, I've got I don't
(12:23):
I've only got so much time, and I'm I'm pouring
you know, my family and the business like those are.
If if I start, you know, looking to do more
rental properties, that's another part time job. And I guess
you just don't want to put your your money or
your time in that direction right now. Like, honestly, it's
mostly the time because the returns are there. I mean,
real estate has been good to both you and me
over the years, man. But for me, I've realized, I'm
(12:44):
at this point that if I bring on more properties,
it's going to be like it's truly reaching that point
where it's like a real part time job as opposed
to being kind of like this fake part time job. Uh.
And I don't want to get any closer to that
threshold where I'm tempted to maybe get management, which I
would do if I had above a certain threshold, right, Like,
but I feel like I'm in kind of the sweet spot. Uh,
(13:05):
And so that's not necessarily something that I've like specifically
done this year. I feel like it's more of like
a culmination of just me, like over fifteen years making
good decisions and again kind of being in that financial
position to make that decision. But if I did have
to tie it to a specific action, I will say,
I mean, this year, I have invested, Like, because I've
identified this, I've been able to invest more into the
actual stock market, way more than I ever have before.
(13:28):
And that feels really good to invest for my future
in a way that doesn't require any texting, any coordination
of contractors, any collection of rent that might be late,
that kind of thing. This thing is completely on autopilot.
There you go. Yeah, No, I think that's a that's
a good part doing. And that's something that we try
to talk about any time we talk about real estate
investing is yes, it can provide outside returns, and there
(13:49):
are a whole lot of specific ways that you can
maximize your dollars if you put them into physical houses
that you ran out. Uh. And if you get that
down to a sigh, it's if you know what you're doing.
But you're right. The easy route is index investing in
those retirement accounts and and you know, if you're killing
it in there, then you put it inside of a
brokerage account. And for a lot of people, they're not
(14:11):
going to become mom and popularistate investors like us because
they realize and it's true that it does become somewhat
of a part time job. And yeah, if you've got
two or three, maybe four, it's it's not too terribly
difficult to self manage most of the time. But there
are those days and you're like, why am I doing this?
That's right, But yeah, I understand not girling that and
(14:31):
and knowing what you want is a big money win.
But we have so many more money wins to share,
not just Matt and I like, what did you do
this year? What did you accomplish? We're gonna get you
a bunch of those, share them with you right after this.
(14:52):
All right, we are back, And so I just mentioned
that my big money win was housing related. A bunch
of others actually were to this year, and we'll get
to a lot of those in a second. But yeah,
there's something we can celebrate and learn from each one
of these listeners submissions. Let's celebrate first on this episode
Matt with Jonathan. Hey, Matt and Joel, this is Jonathan
in Seattle. My money win for one was to build
(15:16):
on the momentum from and keep paying my credit cards
off in full every month. And this was the first
year that I've paid zero dollars in interest to the
credit card companies. It feels pretty good. Also about a
small raise and up to my retirement contributions. So here's
to a great where hopefully that will be maxed out.
(15:38):
Thanks for all y'all do, and happy New Year to
both of you and everyone else in the how to
Money community. Hey Jonathan, Happy new year to you and
heck yes, this is awesome. We are so stoked for you.
What an accomplishment to not pay anything to the credit
card companies this year us Like, there are so many
folks who have just gotten used to paying the minimums
they don't even notice how much it is costing the
(16:00):
each and every month. The average American pays over one
thousand dollars in interest to the credit card companies each year. Wow,
that is a lot of money. Just think what you
could do if you had that back in your pocket,
and if you crunch the numbers, I'll tell you what
you may have been able to do, because that's a
difference of over seven and fifty thousand dollars were you
too have invested that money in the SMPF over the
(16:21):
last forty years. So my guess is that you're going
to be able to do a lot with that money
that you're gonna have back in your hands. Yeah, it
sounds like a small amount, or you see it and
you're like, I paid eighty dollars to the credit card
company and interest this month, or you know some people
it's it's a heck of a lot more than that,
but you just kind of get used to it. It's
that inertia bias, and you're like, that's just what I do.
Is I pay the credit card companies? The new normal. Yeah,
(16:43):
But when you phrase it like that, Matt, that if
you were to put in a thousand dollars every year
for forty years, that's not a whole lot of money.
A lot of people can figure out a way to
make that happen. Right, There's not a whole lot of
money on the front end, is what you're saying. Exactly right. Yes,
we can all figure out a way to save somewhere
along the lines of a month, right in order to
get to that number. But then that ending number four
(17:06):
years down the line, to have seven d fifty thousand
dollars in retirement, uh, is incredible. Like to see that
it grow. It's that that that amount of money, that
that small amount of money per month would have grown
that large is just like eye opening. Yeah, to whip
out eighty bucks, that's nothing like most folks and say, oh, yeah,
I got eighty bucks here this month. To whip out
over seven dollars, like, you can't just do that like that,
(17:27):
that is something that takes a lot of hard work
over the years and to and to note just that
that's going to the credit card companies, it's it's not
going towards something you love. It's going to pay off
prior spending. And so yeah, that that's huge to not
be paying that. And Jonathan too, he mentioned momentum when
he said that, and I think that's just such a
powerful force because just those initial steps, taking the first
step is often the hardest when you're trying to achieve
(17:50):
a goal, when you're like, listen, I want to be
rid of credit card debt. That doesn't happen overnight, and
often it takes years because it took years to get
into that credit card debt in the first place. So
let's say someone who is listening Matt and they've got
twenty or thirty dollars worth of credit card debt. I
think for for those folks, that can be hard to
believe that they're ever going to be rid of it,
Like they just assume that it's going to be an
anvil tied around their neck for for years to come,
(18:12):
and so often they don't get started, they don't move
in the right direction, and like I said, that's the
hardest part. But momentum builds on itself and it can
lead you to the promised land to where you want
to go to finally being rid of that. And so
we gotta say, Jonathan, cheers to you, and here's to
never paying a dime in interest again. This is one
of those things where once you cross over to the
other side and you are using credit cards basically as
(18:34):
a tool, instead of them using you to fill their coffers,
you're using them for the different benefits and the rewards
in the sign up offers exactly. Yeah, we're not against
credit cards, that's for sure. We're just against owing money
to the credit cards and not paying them off in
full at the end of the month. It's like this
beast that we want you to tame, exactly, and you
have broken that wild stallion, Yes, exactly. And and by
(18:55):
the way, for anybody out there who's like man, I
am in credit card debt and I want to know
how to take that first step there is You don't
necessarily need a tool, but if you want a tool
on debt Dot it is something we've talked about on
the show before and that's worth taking a look at.
It's a great way to kind of see how quickly
you're gonna be able to pay off that debt. It
kind of helps you get an action plan going. That's right,
It's gonna help you to map out the best path
(19:15):
for you for how it is that you think and
what's gonna get you there the quickest. And Joel, our
next listener win comes from someone who's got something in
common with me and Kate. They are a family of six. Hi,
Matt and Joel. My name is Joe. I'm from Washington State.
I've been listening to you guys since you released episode
thirteen quite some time, and our big money when this
(19:38):
year is that we managed to save a hundred thousand
dollars making a hundred fifty thousand with our family of six,
and it wouldn't have been possible without your inspiration over
the years, Matt. I'm always impressed when people have slogged
through it and stuck around listening to how the money
for that long. We have the right amount of talent,
not too much to where we you know, have like
(19:58):
this giant ego with the ahead, but but not so
little that folks have left us. We are definitely not
the Michael Jordan's podcasting. We're I don't know, maybe the
Steve Curse of podcasting. Okay, he's a really good coach
though now. But I actually went back to take a
look to see what episode thirteen was because I was curious,
and it was about cutting your monthly bills, and so
(20:19):
Joe obviously took that to heart a while back, and
then some maybe he just kept listening to that same
episode over and over. That's how I got to worry,
is thinking exactly and and yeah, to get to the
point where you've cut your monthly bills enough to have
a savings rate of sixty is incredible. And so yeah,
if if you're out there listening to this and thinking
(20:40):
to yourself, I'm pretty sure that's a higher rate than
what I'm saving, You're probably right because that is a
hard bar to to hit. That's that's hard to achieve
to be saving that much of your income. And yeah,
to put things in perspective, the personal savings rate in
the US for the past several decades has been in
the single digits, right at nine percent, And so have
a savings rate at seven times that, you know, what
(21:02):
most folks are doing is incredible. And Joe and his family,
obviously they've made a lot of sacrifices to get to
this point to make sure that they are saving a
boatload of what they bring home, and they deserve like
around of applause, that's for sure. Yeah, seven times. I
want to highlight that too. This isn't just like seven percent,
more like this and x. This is yes, like seven times,
like seve his savings rate is like like literally to
(21:24):
the moon. Is a Joe that is certainly worthy of
some praise. You know, so many other folks in the
fire movement in the fire crowd. Um, they're like these
single engineers or their dinks, you know where they've got
the dual income, no kids, and so to have a
family of six and to be able to save that
much money is really impressive. Hopefully anyone out there who
has kids, regardless of how many kids they have, is
(21:45):
encouraged to know. You know that it is actually possible
to keep your expenses low with a bunch of kids
in tow that rhymes like that. I'm curious to know, though, what, Joe,
what your long term goals are, because it seems like
whatever you are doing, you're getting after it, and I
don't think it'll be long before you're going to achieve
them at this rate. I totally agree, man, I think
we need to hear more from people who have larger
(22:07):
families and are still crushing it when it comes to
their finances. So many of the naysayers online about how
you're having a high savings right that, they're like, what
you can do if you have kids, And that's just
not true. And it's not that it doesn't make things
harder because kids aren't free. Um, they cost money. They
take up a lot of your time worth every penny
(22:27):
but as well exactly. Yeah, So if you're trying all
that side hustle time that you know, all these single kids,
they're gonna like want you to read books to them
and stuff. Yeah, what the heck, dad, he's got a
side host. So I ain't got time for you, and
I want to go ride bikes or something, right, right, Well,
the great thing is you can ride bikes together with
your kids. But I think what it comes down to,
and and you know, Joe's Joe's money win says it all.
It starts to the high savings rate. And the more
(22:48):
that we can push for that, the more you can
grow that margin, the bigger the gap is between what
you're bringing in and what's going out and expenses. The
more you can sock away for the future, the more
financial stability you're able to great more quickly. And so yeah,
Joe's family, they're setting themselves up for success and really
whatever they want to do in the future, that's right. Okay,
(23:08):
let's go ahead and hit up some of those real
estate listener money wins. Uh. This first one comes from
a couple in Indianapolis. Hey, Matt and Joel. This is
Olivia and Connor from Indianapolis, and Connor has listened to
you guys for about three years and I have just
started probably within the last year. And right from the
(23:30):
beginning of getting married, Connor had the idea from you
guys to do a duplex house hack. And we've been
married for a little over three years now and right
in January we are about to close on our first home,
which is a duplex to house hacks. So thank you
(23:50):
so much for all your help in the last couple
of years. I always appreciate your guys att tune and
humor and personal stories about your guys family. Help you
have a merry Christmas and happy all right? Man? You
know you know what I always say. I always say,
tell me the couple that house hacks together stays together.
Is that marriage advice? I think so, I'm gonna say
(24:11):
or it'll drive you apart immediately. I'm gonna one of
the two. It'll either make you stronger or push you apart.
I'll have to ask my wife, who's studying to become
a license therapist, if that qualifies as good marriage advice
or not. She's probably are gonna put that in the book.
She'd probably smaped me around for saying that was a
good idea. This is on the test, yes, but yeah,
closing is right around the corner, Olivia and Connor. This
is a big deal or super pump for you guys
(24:33):
and house hacking it creates just such a strong ability
for people to save a ton on their housing expenses
or even come out slightly ahead every single month, which
creates the situation where you can build wealth really really quickly.
And so yeah, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
housing costs account for around of the annual expenses last
(24:57):
year for the average household, over a third of our
expenses go towards housing. And yeah, the house hacking is
the way that you can flip that script and turn
it on its head in a big way. And let's
just say that you're making sixty dollars annually and now
your housing expenses are three to five thousand dollars because
your house hacking and someone else is paying the majority
of that mortgage. It just changes the ball game and
(25:19):
it changes your future. That's right. Yeah, we literally just
had the guy who wrote the book on house hacking
on the show. His name is Craig Kerlap. So if
you want to know all about house hacking in the
different approaches that you can take to it, that is
worth listening to. That's episode four five. But it really
is such a great way for a ton of folks
to kind of cheat, kind of game genie their way
(25:39):
towards personal finance success. And Jill, you mentioned Olivia how
they're gonna be closing here pretty soon, uh here in January.
I mean, basically, the last two years of mortgage interest
rates have been at all time lows, and I think
anybody who has purchased a home recently, anybody who is
looking to purchase at home even come the spring, are
going to be in a great financial position as rates
(26:00):
are locked in, and as we expect to see those
rates climb as we get further into next year with
the Fed starting to taper rates. That whole thing. Yeah, well,
I guess the one caveat I completely agree with you
is timeline. So the interest rate matters less if you're
gonna own your home for three years and try to
sell it, because at that point, with all of the
transaction costs that real estate comes along with, it's probably
(26:21):
not a goodbye. But if if you're looking to own
that house long term, these low interest rates are a
boon to your bottom line, and they make sense and
make even more sense for folks who are going to
buy a place and hold it for yeah, decades down
the road. All right, Matt, another real estate money win
that we've got to share. Let's get to one more
before the break. This one comes from it Chelsea in Austin. Hi,
(26:42):
Matt and Joel. This is Chelsea calling from Austin, Texas.
With my money win. I bought a house in this market.
It's so kind of crazy, you're hard to believe. Um.
I don't think my husband and I could have done
it without some of the lessons we've learned from your show.
First off, we really aimed to do this um off
(27:02):
the peak hot summer bidding moors. You know, we look
to do this kind of around Halloween because that's kind
of when things really slow down, whenever people are getting
ready for the holidays. And I think that really worked
out in our favor. Second, we really tried to stay
in our budget. It is a little expensive here, and
(27:25):
you know, lots lots of houses, but we stuck to
a number. We're not going over that, and we did
find the perfect one, and then finally one thing that
you guys talk a lot about the value of the
community in your neighborhood. We have some friends that you know,
all live in this one spot, and we realized that
(27:47):
community was going to be very important to us to
being close by to uh, you know, hey, do you
have any eggs? I'mount or um just be able to
entertain ourselves without having to go out and spend money.
You walk down the street and have a game night.
So I can't tell you how much joy that brought.
(28:07):
So walk down the block with a craft beer of course,
and uh celebrate this new life step. So looking forward
to more money wins and two thanks so much for
all you do. Does Texas or does Austin have an
open container laws? I don't know, so it makes it
even more tracked. There's to move there. There's no law
(28:28):
against walking in your street with the beer thought there.
I mean there might be a law, but there's like
the spirit of the law would be would say that's
a terrible law. I think there's a lot of folks
who might call you out when it when it comes
to actually following me the law as we found. But
Chelsea specifically, she's been listening to this show I think
as long as Joe has at least since and Chelsea,
we appreciate you, uh, and we are pumped to hear that,
(28:50):
even in this insane housing environment that Austin has especially seen,
uh it's been hot, yeah, that you were still able
to buy your first home. And I think that this
this is a testament to the fact that she and
her husband that they've been making the right decisions with
their money for years to get to this point. You know,
it takes a long time. It takes a ton of
hard work and discipline in order to save up enough
(29:13):
for down payment, and had they not started years ago,
they likely wouldn't have been able to buy. So I
love that they were prepared from a financial standpoint, but
not only that. She touched on how they kind of
came into it with the right mindset, so they were
prepared mentally. You know. She said that they had a
budget in mind, they had a price point set that
they where they knew that they could afford um. And
(29:34):
with the bidding wars that we saw erupt, they didn't
get carried away. They didn't act like all those other
home buyers, uh, those realtors who were trying to make
sure that they secured the deal by overbidding. Yeah, and
I might be reading too much into this, but my
guess is that Chelsea and her husband started saving, maybe
even before they knew that their goal was home ownership.
And I think sometimes you just gotta get started because
(29:54):
you don't know what that goal is going to be,
and you should. You should be saving for you know,
awesome future opportunities it maybe you're not even aware of yet.
And uh, I love to Matt that that they prioritized
the community where they live. I'm always shocked. I don't know.
My mom watches a lot of h G t V
and it's randomly on and I'm at I'm at her house,
like she she just loves that channel. And you always
(30:15):
see people just looking across the entire city and I'm like, who,
how do you not know whether you want to live
like north, south, east west in town or in the
burbs or in the excerbs. Like there's so many people
who just don't feel that attachment and they don't know where,
which specific community they want to live in. And so
we would say, if you're going to buy a home,
make sure it's a place that you can see yourself
(30:36):
putting roots down and that community is a huge part
of the reason. And there's a lot of things you
can endure, like an older house that's got issues, or
the house that's smaller than you'd like it to be.
If your community rocks like you can deal with that
for years longer than you would otherwise be interested in doing. So. Yeah,
prioritize community when you're buying. I think that's a good
(30:58):
way to think about things. And one other thing that
Chelsea mentioned in her email when she's setting her money
win over to us was that because she was renting
from a more mom and pop style landlord, she was
able to help her landlord find a new tenant and
save over three thousand dollars in rent that she would
have otherwise lost. That is also awesome. And so having
a good relationship with your landlord, uh making that transition
(31:21):
easier for them, plus helping to prevent vacancy that goes
a long way. That is an incredibly smart way for
you to exit a relationship with your landlord. But again, Chelsea,
congrats and we are pumped to hear that you and
your husband are making some awesome money moves. All right, maw,
We've got a few more to get to more listeners
who have done just incredible things with their money making
progress by leaps and bounds. We'll get to those right
(31:42):
after this. Alright, we're back. This is our financial Festivus
episode where we're hearing listener money wins. Let's get to
our next when that is great resignation related. Let's hear
from this listener in New York. Hi, my name is
(32:04):
Kaylee from only in New York, and my win this
year was I was able to quit my full time
job and pursue my craft business spell book and vinyl
full time. Kaylee, that's phenomenal starting your own business. And
I love that you gave the name to so that
there's a crap ton of how the money listeners now
that know what your business is. Well even maybe we
should link to it in the show. We will totally
(32:26):
link to it, okay, And I feel like this is
a total marketing wins. So Kaylee, on your part, way
to go exactly. Yes. And yeah, Matt, we we talked
not too long ago on the show about how so
many folks are starting their own business right now. And yeah,
the fact that Kaylee made this leap is it's just awesome.
It's part of this trend that we think is fantastic
and and people are just quitting their jobs are going
(32:47):
the solo new route. I think some people like, why
aren't people returning to work? Well, part of the reason
people aren't returning to work is because they're starting their
own thing and they're pursuing something that you're passionate about,
which we think is great. Yeah, they're they're becoming legit
business owners. Yes, and and it's obviously is to leave
a faith to start your own business. We know all
about that. But we're we're pumped Kyleie that you're turning
your what what was the side hustle into your main
(33:10):
gig and so it's just super exciting. It's a huge
win and we're pumped for you and best of luck
to yeah your your crafting business. Yeah, we are here
to cheer you on. Uh and you know, didn we
also mentioned too that the number of creators on Etsy
has like more than tripled at that point in time,
talking a lot more people selling stuff on Yeah. Platforms
like that though, they just make it so much easier
for folks, you know, within the craft business to reach
(33:31):
their audience and make money and we of course, we
want how the money listeners to be financially prepared to
have saved well so that they've got that substantial margin
when they launched their business. But so many people avoid
actually quitting their day job out of fear like that.
They are hesitant to make that leap even if they
have the savings, even when they have that financial backing.
And if that's your goal, don't let that fear hold
(33:52):
you back from trying to do what it is that
you love. The worst case scenario isn't nearly as bad
as your mind is telling you that it can be.
It makes me think of this meme I saw recently
with Pete Davidson on it. It was a picture of
Pete and Kim and it said that if Pete Davidson
can ask Kim Kardashian out on a date, you can
ask your boss for more money. And I would also
say that, and you also have what it takes to
(34:15):
step out on out on your own, uh and give
it a go with whatever it is that you've been
doing on the side. Although I still think that's a
marketing stunt. I don't know if that's really love, and
I'm proved wrong. I'll be okay with that, but I
don't know. I think it's a funny guy, but there's
got to be something else or something else going on.
But yeah, no, I completely agree, and we're pump for Kaylie.
We want to see more people pursue this route because
you're right, the downside is is so minimal. We had
(34:37):
a friend Matt, who left his job. He was like
CFO of a company doing super well, went to start
his own thing on the side, and it turns out
like it was fun, but it didn't really jell with
kind of the way he wanted to live life. He
wanted to go back in the corporate world. He got
another job, he's doing great, Like I don't think you
have to. He's back to crushing it exactly. I don't.
I don't think you have to. It's not all or nothing.
(34:58):
You can always go back into the work. For us
if it doesn't work out, or if you realize, you
know what, crafting is fun on the side, But I
don't want to do it full time. I don't. I
want it to be a hobby. I don't want it
to be my actual job. Exact same thing for us,
it's like if we're like, you know, what podcasting is
fun on the side, but it's not that's something we
want to pursue a full time although we do. We
love it, but if we ever felt like that, it's
it's not like we're unemployable, right, um, And there are
(35:20):
a lot of skills I feel that we've learned over
the past few years, right And I feel like your
your brain tells you something though, and it's like no,
no, no no, if you quit, like how are you ever
going to get your job screwed for the rest of
your life? It's just not true. And I'm glad Kaylee
knows that she took the leap, and I hope it's
just like she blows it out of the water. All right, Matt,
Let's get to the next one and we have another
money when that's house hacking related. Hi guys, my name
(35:43):
is Garre Connley. I'm twenty seven years old and I'm
from Clinton, Massachusetts. I just wanted to share this one
with you guys, because I owe a lot of it
to the both of you. Three years ago, I knew
basically nothing about personal finance. Fast forward to this year,
and I've really put myself into what I think is
as a pretty solid track towards financially depend It's specifically,
just a few months ago I closed to my very
first rental property and I'm currently rehabbing it as a
(36:05):
house hack. I still remember hearing the term house hacking
for the first time on this podcast. That really sent
me down this path, and it's it's crazy to think
of how much I've learned since then while listening. So
thank you guys, and keep doing what you're doing. Garrett,
thanks so much for sharing your win with us. Dude,
starting young like this is so stinking helpful. Garrett, He's
twenty seven, and not only did he close on that home,
(36:27):
but he's rehabbing it as well. He's putting in that
elbow grease. That's what we'd like to call forced appreciation. Uh,
So that home is going to quickly be worth more
than what he paid for it, but it is also
going to improve the rent that he gets from those
units every single month. House hacking in your mid twenties
is such a game changer. And unlike the house hacker,
were talked about how much we like house it's huge,
(36:50):
how much we think it's a great idea. And I
mean the fact that he discovered house hacking here on
our show makes me incredibly happy as well that took
him down this path and now he is doing it.
He's done it, and uh and unlike the one that
we talked about a hou sack earlier here in the episode.
But it doesn't sound like this is what he's living in.
And I wanted to highlight that because it just goes
to show how there are so many different flavors. This
sounds like a separate rental that he's not planning to
(37:12):
live in. But maybe he is planning to rent out
the rooms individually depending on the area. That is exactly
what is needed in some areas, especially around schools. Maybe
it's an older home that he's planning to chop up
a little bit, uh, partition it in a way that
it can be listed as a duplex, you know, in
this old home. There's a lot of charm that comes
with old homes like that. So either way, I think
it's really cool because there's a lot that you can
(37:33):
do with single family homes yea. And there's just so
much you can do with the house hacking strategy. It
really like, I mean, I just I don't know that
there's any better way to start um when you're like,
I mean you touched on it earlier. When you have
one third of your monthly expenses going towards an expense,
if you can find a way to reduce that by
a significant amount, if you can find a way to
(37:55):
bring that to zero or even make a little bit
every single month, you are going to come out dress
sickly ahead in the very short amout in one house hack.
Then it's like boom, Now I can like put so
much money towards my retirement accounts because I'm paying so
little for housing costs that next real estate exactly. And
I will say to another thing that that it made
me think when we heard Garrett's money win, was that
(38:15):
he's just soaking in information and none of us know everything,
but learning from folks who are a little bit ahead
of us on the road, it allows us to learn
from their mistakes and hopefully their wisdom too, and allows
us to hopefully make fewer or smaller mistakes when we
do mess up. And so great job, Garrett. It sounds
like not only are you taking action, but you're learning
from people who know what they're talking about, and you're
(38:37):
you're diving deep so that you can figure it out,
and sometimes you only learn by doing, but so much
of the time you learn from other people who know
what they're talking about by just being willing to open
your ears. All right, let's get to our next listener
money win. This one comes from listener Josh on California
and he made an epic real estate move. Let's hear it, Hey,
Joel and Matt, this is Josh from Thousand Oaks, California.
(38:59):
Thanks for taking the time to listen to my big
money when So, my big money win was my wife
and I being able to purchase a second home which
we are using as an airbnb. We were able to
take care of um knocking that out off of our
personal development plan this year to continue to build wealth
(39:21):
in some different tangible areas. It's been really successful so far.
We've had it listed for about two months and we've
made enough money to cover the mortgage for the entire
year so far, which is great. We also have the
opportunity to have a consultation phone call with one of
your previous guests, UM, Ziona McIntyre, and we're just really
(39:45):
excited about that opportunity. So it was a big money
win for us in one Thanks for all you guys.
Do appreciate all the help and advice. Man, I'm not
gonna lie. He said our big money win was to
buy a second home, and I was like no, no,
no no, And then he was like an out on Airbnb,
and I was Hawaii, it's gonna be expensive, man, just
buying that second home. I don't know if that's a
money win or money lost. I guess it depends on
(40:06):
how well you've been doing with your finances over a
long period of time. But he's house accing it with Airbnb. Yeah,
of course, you know we and I love that. And
I think one of the things I like about what
Josh said there he said they're knocking it off their
personal development plan. And I think this is awesome because
it sounds like Josh and his wife they're not just
winging it. They're not like, you want to buy an
Airbnb this year. They've written down these goals. They're working
(40:27):
towards them, and they feel more tangible when they've you've
put pen to paper instead of just daydreaming like how
cool would it be to own an Airbnb? It's like, no,
I'm not just thinking about that. It's on my personal
development's when it happened this year. Yeah. And so if
you've got you know, a money when you want to
achieve in the coming year, we would say, do that.
Put pen to paper. Uh, turn that daydream into something
that you write down, and there is something that happens
(40:50):
that makes it more tangible, more real. It makes it
feel more like a goal that you're actually working towards
as opposed to something that's just in the back of
your brain. And for him to be able to cover
his mortgage, uh, and us the first couple of months
listed while while it was listening on Airbnb is huge
because you know, it takes a while to build the
business up in order to generate real income. You gotta
get the history, you gotta get the reviews, because now
(41:11):
essentially you've entered the hospitality industry. But it sounds like
it's already a great investments if you're covering those hard
costs from the very beginning like that, Josh. Yeah, And
Josh is also talking to other smart people. We just
talked about this with Garrett. Getting good advice from other
people can save a lot of heartache, and that's that's
what he's doing. Reaching out to Ziana, who we had
(41:32):
on the podcast a while back. Josh, I'm glad you
chatted with her, because one hour of someone's time, even
paying for that time, can lead to saving dozens of
hours of your own time floundering trying to figure out
things on your own, trying to get the right systems
in place, researching the right websites to to go to
to you know, list your property or whatever. And so
I think that's a big win too. I think it's
(41:53):
a worthwhile spend while you're trying to get your airbnb
business off the ground, and so best of luck continuing
this air and be venture and hopefully you do more
than cover your mortgage really really soon you're actually like
getting some profit on the top end. That's right. Congrats, Josh, Joe.
Let's go ahead and get to our last listener win
that we have time forward during this episode today, and
this one is from a fairly local listener. Hey, how
(42:16):
the Money. This is Nathan from just up the road
in Athens, Georgia, and I discovered you guys in March
of this year and then proceeded to listen to every
single episode in your archive at this point, and um,
I just wanted to share that your work has impacted
my financial journey in many ways, too many to mention
in a short voice note, but I'll summarize it by
(42:37):
sharing that I am ending the year um entering into
money gear seven, having just opened a brokerage account for
some investments above and beyond our various retirement vehicles like iras.
And this is something I would have never had had
any idea where to begin on if not for the podcast.
I had previously outsourced all of my investing to a
(42:57):
financial advisor, but last month, on with the knowledge acquired
from How the Money, I opened my own brokerage account
with Vanguard and purchase about a month's worth of my
annual income UH and shares of VT sacks and VOO.
So thank you for that new knowledge and kind of
know how. And I just really appreciate the simplicity and
(43:17):
sadness of this and many other things that you guys
have shared on the podcast. It's been super helpful for
me this year, and I know it will be in
the future. So thanks very much, guys, and I look
forward to hopefully enjoying a beer together sometime in matt
I don't even know how Nathan was able to listen
to four and something episodes in ten months. That sounds
like dedication. Okay, so Nathan is actually a v I P,
(43:39):
M v P listener to our podcast because I saw
we we we we both saw his Spotify like you're
in wrap up, and he listened over sixteen thousand hours
of our show. And at the time, someone call that torture,
like I did the Math and just over the course
of a year. I think when I did the Math,
that was over forty five minutes of listening to the
podcast every single day. But then he said that he
(44:02):
discovered us back in the spring, so he didn't even
find us back in you know, in January one. That
means like you closer to probably like over an hour
every day listening to you kind of babylon about. I
do babble from time to time. I'll admit it, and yeah,
and I'm not gonna lie it sounds a little exhausting,
but Nathan, I'm glad you pushed through. Thank you so
much for listening. And uh, when when we're talking about
(44:23):
your money, when I would say, we love that you're
investing for medium term stuff and not just for retirement.
That's the great thing. Once you kind of start to
do well saving your retirement accounts over a period of time,
start investing more in a brokerage accounts so that you
can fund some of those bigger things, bigger goals that
you're that you're trying to save four that are years
down the road. And I would I would even say
(44:44):
not even just bigger, but like more fun, because retirement
isn't necessarily fun, right, like, well, hopefully it's gonna be fun. Well,
it'll be fun, but it's like for a lot of people,
it's not exciting to think about saving. The third time
achangible thing is it's kind of like this period of
time that most people associate with not working, which a
lot of us really love work. We enjoy what we do.
And so yeah, money year seven to be able to
(45:06):
start saving towards like whether it's a certain maybe it
is a second home, or maybe this it's some sort
of amazing vacation. Those are some of the really rad
goals that I think that can really get folks excited
about saving more money. Yeah, and and Nathan is putting
his money straight into those index funds, which and he's
got both of his basis covered because he's got VT
(45:27):
sacks with you and he's got voo with me a
little bit of both, And so we would say, like
advisors make sense for some folks, but not for most folks. One,
most advisors just don't care about you. If you don't
have a net worth that's bumping. And so we we
love that you're feeling comfortable enough, Nathan, to go about
investing alone. I think maybe when you get to some
bigger decisions, you might want the help or the input
(45:49):
of a hired hand who has a lot of history
working with clients to help them achieve their goals. But
for so many of our listeners go the d I
Y route, going it alone and just continuing this stock
money away for the future in those index funds is
the way to go. That's right, Yeah, especially for retirement investing.
It's a lot simpler than people think. There's low cost,
widely diversified index funds in those tax advantaged accounts. That's
(46:11):
the way to go. And Nathan, you know, we would
like to make more listener hangs happen, uh in this
coming year. We had one in Atlanta this year. We
had one in Austin a little earlier this year as well.
I think Athens. It's definitely on our short list. Hopefully
we can make something happen there soon. Those were definitely
a blast. And what's really fun too is the ability
to meet up with listeners because you're immediately talking about
(46:33):
all the same stuff. We're cut from the same cloth.
Were frugal and oftentimes since we do meet at breweries,
we've also got that instantly Bonda I swear, and most
of those listener hangouts, I talked about money with almost nobody.
We talked about so many other things, like the people
that listen to the show, they're just cool or at
least I want to come to the hangout, and it was.
It was a blast. I definitely want to make more
of those happening next year totally. Hopefully we'll be able
(46:55):
to meet more how the money listeners and doing cool
stuff with their money in the near future. All right,
Matt and and I agree, And and this is just
I think a great way to finish the year. It's
fun for us. Hopefully this was fun for you, And
we would say to all of you out there, be
sure to take a minute to celebrate any of your
financial wins, even if they seem small, even if they
seem insignificant. But it was an important step getting you
(47:15):
on the right path. Take a minute to celebrate before
you start making those New Year's resolutions, because because it's
informative and it's motivational to see those victories as you
start planning for the upcoming year and how you want
to continue to build on the money wins that you've
been able to rack up so far. And I think, yeah,
one other piece of advice here to wrap up this
episode is if you want to see more money wins,
(47:38):
you want to get more money encouragements. You feel like
maybe you're an island and there aren't many people in
your life that you have been able to strike up
and have conversations about money with yet so far, then
we would say join the how the Money Facebook group.
It is an awesome place where people are encouraging, They
ask good questions, they offer advice, and they're sharing their
own personal wins throughout the year. It's just encouraging to
(48:00):
see kind of what other people are doing, how they're
doing it, and you you can take lessons every day
from that group into your own life in order to
help you to continue to make progress. That's right. So
it's a really important community. And I mentioned you know
how Nathan was kind of like an m v P
podcast listener with the amount of minutes that he uh
notched on his belts. If if he's the m v
P listener, I want to say, Ali is the m
(48:22):
v P beer donator because we were enjoying this coconut
PM don This is an American style with cold brew
coffee by Trillium there brewed there in Massachusetts. Dude, tell
me your thoughts on this beer. This beer was next level, dude.
It was off the chain, as the kids say. Do
the kids say that anymore? I don't know anymore. You
(48:43):
said that as a kid, I did. I've never stopped
the chain, Guys, I still say that, but I'm lame.
But I've never had a stout quite like this, And
I mean that in the best possible way. It was delicious,
and it combined two of my favorite things, which are
beer and cold brew coffee, and so the concentration of
the coffee flavors were fantastic, and the overall flavor profile
(49:05):
of this beer was just impressive. And I didn't expect
anything less from Trillion, but even still, I didn't know
that it was going to be this delicious. It was
like it was really really good and mad props to
Alec for sending this one away because I, um, yeah,
I'm kind of in love. I feel like that this
beer had so much nuance in my mind. Uh, this
(49:26):
beer has a touch more sweetness than I think what
you what you typically go for, uh, but which I
am all about. Like the coconut sort of sweetness that
they had going on I thought was perfect And just
generally speaking, I feel like that they were able to
brew this beer with such finesse, with such nuance, because
a lot of the bigger stocks that we have, they
just like smack you in the face with the roastiness
(49:48):
or the coffee flavors or the barrel aged flavors that
they've got going on. But this one was just so nuanced,
so subtle. They just sasted like the work of a
true brew master. Whoever it is that brewed this beer.
The coffee notes were just right, the coconut notes were
just right, and just the overall weight because sometimes it
can just almost be too thick as well, and this
one did not have that. It was just like it
(50:10):
rode the line perfectly. Ali, thank you so much for
sending this one our way. We're actually looking forward to
a couple other Trillion beers coming up here soon as well. Yep.
Obviously we love beer and we get to try some
of the best in the world which Trillion is making.
We are super thankful, so thank you and Matt. That's
the end of this episode. It was a really fun one.
I love celebrating listener money wins every single year. And
(50:30):
we still got one more episode to get to you.
Oh yeah, you hang on, We've got one more for
our Friday flight, but two I think is going to
be a great year for the HTAH Money community. I'm
looking forward to see how the podcast shifts and changes
and how we're able to hopefully reach more people with
helpful money advice. That's the goal here, and hopefully next
year we've got a lot more money wins to share
(50:52):
from a greater variety of how the Money listeners. Next year,
we want to hear from you and what it is
that you did with your money exactly. We've got three
five days, make some progress, make something happen, Alright, Matt.
That's going to do it for this episode until next time.
Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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