October 20, 2023 • 33 mins
Time for a Friday Flight- our little sampling of the week’s financial news and what it means for your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we boil them down to specific takeaways that will allow you to kick off the weekend informed and help you to get ahead with your money. In this episode we explain some relevant and helpful stories like: if Broadway Roulette is frugal or cheap, mediocre matches, millennial millionaires, status quo-ing your way to wealth, scam susceptibility, cheap ugly homes, $1 houses, timeshares making a comeback, fee transparency, it shouldn’t cost money to get money, old phones are still secure, & social media diets.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to had of money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today we're talking cheap ugly homes, scam susceptibility, and
time shares making a comeback.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh time shares, man, this makes me think.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
So a few weeks ago, didn't you know we had
the whole family down for Fall break at Disney. I
think got those tents set up all over the place,
and I'm pretty sure is it Disney Vacation Club?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Uh huh, I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Did you not sidle up to one of those, one
of those guys and get like a free cup or
T shirt or something like that while you were down there?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I wasn't interested.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
No, but I think what they're going to give them
the time of day to even understand whether or not
it was a time share, now that I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It probably is.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, and Matt speaking of vacations, Emily and now, we
just got back from a real quick anniversary trip, went
to New York City and.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Just yeah, you had a good time, right, Yeah, we
had a great time. We saw a couple of shows
on Broadway.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
We uh, but we tried this website called Broadway Roulette
dot com, and it is what you think it is.
It is like taking a chance on what on what
show you're actually going to see instead of handpicking it.
You're going to get a discount by kind of taking
whatever comes your way, and you can cross off actually
a few names of shows that you're like, yeah, definitely
(01:25):
don't want to see that one, which is which is nice?
And so we were like, all right, we're gonna give
this a shot. This sounds kind of like fun. I
also kind of like the randomness of not knowing until
we got the show and we were like, oh man,
that's actually not a show.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
We're terribly wait.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Wait y'all get stoked to see And by the way,
I heard about this website from somebody who writes for
our site, Our brit and so no shade on brit.
But like, we ended up getting this show about Neil
Diamond's life, and I'm like, honestly, I don't see what
I don't know what people see.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
And that hadn't been like a hoodie and blowfish, well
you would have been all for. I would have eaten
it up, but not Neil Diamond, I guess I assume.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Fortunately, we were, by the way, the youngest people in
that theater by substantial margin. So people people in their
late thirties, not Neil Diamon people. People in their seventies,
most definitely Neil Diamond people, or at least a lot
of them. But my frugal or cheap I guess for
having tried this out, I.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Gotta give it a go.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
You think, so, oh, absolutely well, I assume it comes
at a massive discount, right, Yes, okay, It's not like
they're just choosing it for you and you just and you.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Still have to pay.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
No, They're basically giving you the leftovers at a at
a at a reduced price, which is nice, but I
will say it makes me looking enough later I didn't
get as much of a reduced price as I hoped.
Really well, so, well, like it depends on the show
and the day and all that kind of stuff. But
there were better shows that I was excited to see
that Emily and I actually paid full price for it
was like an extra twenty bucks or something like that,
and so in retrospect, I think I was twenty dollars savings.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I would have looked younger and harder. Yeah. I mean again,
it depends on the show and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
So how much did you save though when you looked
it up, well, versus that actual show, I don't think
we save very much.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, because it's one of the it's one of the
thows that still has tickets.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
And then you're like, well, dang, I spent all that
time having paid the same amount that all these other
folks paid, but who are obviously excited to see it.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
But uh, well, I mean.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Those ticket prices are dynamics, so it's hard to say
how much, you say, but and maybe you end up
getting the show of your dreams that typically costs way
more money.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
But it was.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
It was a really fun exercise, and I'm always it's it's.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
A fun story to be able to tell.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Like we're literally in there with all these awesome old folks,
like listening to all these Neil Diamond songs. We don't
know what they are, Okay, except for Sweet Caroline, I
know that one. Well is that that's the only one
thing I even knew that was Neil personally. Well, I'm
glad y'all tried it, because, yeah, if you have the
opportunity to potentially save, it would be different if y'all
lived in New York and you'd seen a bunch of
different shows, and you're like, I'm not going to take
(03:44):
the chance of going to see something that I've already seen.
But for you it was a chance to see pretty much.
I mean, you've seen a few shows, but not many things.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
They were all new to us based exactly, and so
we were all right, cool, as long as we don't
get this, this, this, and this.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
But if we've crossed out, could have been able to cross.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Off just a few more and we would have we
would have found something that we were happy without a van,
your sixth one would have definitely Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
So and in retrospect, we should have left others all
the week. But it's it's okay, it's okay. And we
got to go see some other really really great shows
while we were there too. We had the best time,
and it was a pretty inexpensive quick getaway, especially because
we used points to to get there Southwest points. But
just goes to show that sometimes sometimes it's worth the
gamble and other times, you know, yes you see Neil
(04:28):
Diamonds not playing roulette.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah for it, But uh, all right, let's keep it
with men. This is our Friday flight.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Well, we have a nice little sampling of some of
the different stories that we found most interesting this week.
But actually, let's go ahead and start off by updating
some information from Monday's episode, the Ask How the Money episode,
where we answered Kyle's question about getting the the IRA
match from Robin Hood. Oh yeah, it turns out Robin
Hood now has some competition in the IRA matching space
(04:56):
so far. This is something that they have recently announced
they're gonna do as well.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
One of the bigger fintech companies out there, so Fi. Yeah, yeah,
I think I believe they have the stadium naming rights
to do they still Sacramento or.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I don't know, something like that.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, but yeah, listener, Hannah, she's she actually emailed us
one just like, Hey, by the way, I heard you'll
talk about Robin Sofi is doing this now as well.
Lost Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's brand new. But they currently
say that the offer ends at the end of the year,
which makes it not all that helpful in reality because
of the ongoing nature of the match at Roblin Like
that is what makes it appealing, Let's be honest, opposed
(05:31):
to just like like I would not hop over there
just to get a mash on your contributions to the
end of the year for.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Twenty twenty three. Well, especially since we're hoping that very
much money. A lot of our listeners have already made
a lot of their contributions to the roth IRA already.
So if they if they've already come close to maxing
it out or whatever, then you've already made the contributions
for the year. You can't go back and do it
with somebody else.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah, we'll see, I mean FI like they could certainly
choose to keep this as an ongoing benefit, an ongoing
feature in the coming years if this long is successful.
But one of the things that I guess where so
FI stands maybe a little bit taller than Robinhood, they've
actually instituted just a two year vesting period, which is
better than the five year vesting period that comes with
(06:14):
the Robinhood match. They also have a slightly cheaper seventy
five dollars outgoing transfer fee still robinhoods but is Yeah,
rob robin Hood's is one hundred dollars. But I also
noticed too that Sofi they are excluding any money that
you transfer or any money that you roll over to
an IRA, whereas robin Hood there is no cap, so
(06:34):
you are still getting match on dollars that you transfer
or roll over. That's one of the It's truly one
of the only reasons I'm actually considering going with it
because of I'm like, oh my gosh, it certainly healthier
than just ongoing contributions moving forward. But either way, the
concept of an IRA match is like it's still sort
of in its infancy with some of these fintech players.
It's functioning more as a loss leader. But if you're savvy,
(06:57):
you might just be able to use it to your advantage.
In particular, if you do not have access to a
match where you have an outside company helping you out
with your retirement, like us, we don't have anybody else
helping us to.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Retire dress right, No, we got We're doing it ourselves.
But just like we talked about on Monday, there's there's
some perks here, but there are some downsides, right, and
you have to know what those downsides are. That five
year vesting period is one of the toughest things to
stomach about the Robinhood, the Robinhood gift, right, that Robinhood
match and so FI dials that back by a few years,
but two years is still a long time. And so
(07:29):
you have to know the gory details of these plans
before you just say so, let me get the match.
Although I think it's cool and I love that this
is happening, just be aware of those specifics, Read through
all the FAQs, make sure you know what you're getting.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Into, kind of know what all the catches are.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah, and Matt, given our conversation with doctor Twiney about
this was a few weeks ago about the generational differences
that exist, especially what we honed in on personal finance
and kind of money and the differences between generations on
those fronts, well, we thought this story deserve to mention because,
defying the narrative yet again, millennials are in fact crushing
(08:04):
it when it comes to saving four retirements. There were
new numbers that came number one. Yeah, we are take
that Boomers and Gen xers. Well, these new numbers from
Vanguard show that millennials as a generation have been saving really,
really well for retirements. And this just jives with everything
that doctor Twayy was telling us on that episode. Despite
(08:25):
the popular refrain and the headlines from across the popular narrative,
the news of sphere like millennials are on track to
replace sixty percent of their salary in those post retirement
years based on what they've been able to save and
rack up so far in their iras and their four
to one k's and those other like tax advantaged accounts.
And that's just a pretty sizable leap over the generations
(08:47):
that have gone before. This is like, it goes to
show that there's a whole lot of momentum essentially that
the millennials have been able to grab onto when it
comes to making progress with their finances and their retirement
accoun balances. Are kind of showing the reality of how
much they've been able to achieve.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Sure, So I think one of the cooler aspects of
this story and some of the research is the stat
that the new automation features like auto enrollment, like that
that is a big part of why millennials have more
dollars in their retirement accounts and their tax avage retirement accounts. So, yes,
millennials are doing better financially than the media that's on,
but behavioral finance techniques it seems to be making a
(09:27):
massive difference. So for instance, sixty percent of companies that
use Vanguard well the auto enroll new employees into the
four to win k offerings that they have that's currently.
Fifteen years ago it was just ten percent, So you're
comparing sixty percent today that who are auto and rolled
versus ten fifteen years ago. So there, I've certainly been
(09:47):
a lot of positive changes on the investing front over
the past couple of decades. I'm looking at just lower costs,
like the lower expense ratios on different fees, and just
we talked about this with Paul Merriman, the invention of
target date funds where game changers have to mess with
it at all, but making investing the default is one
of the best advances that we've seen. It's so basic,
(10:09):
yet it's having obviously such a positive impact. And when
it comes to like product managers or policy like folks
who manage benefits with companies, the ability to take advantage
of our desire to maintain the status quote right, like
that's the status quo bias where it's like, well, I've
always been investing, so I guess I'll just go ahead
and continue to invest, as opposed to making the active decision.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Of should I start investing now?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
It's like, well, no, you don't even have to ask
yourself that question more because you have all always been
investing since since you were hired.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
It goes to show that it doesn't always take some
new fangled, fancy ETF although I'm glad target date funds exist.
Sometimes it is this these like minor behavioral tweaks or yeah,
just like an auto enrollment kind of thing that's going
to make the big difference. Is going to do a
lot of the heavy lifting. It's not because millennials are
so much more disciplined than the people that went before them.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
More discipline, they're not smarter.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Because the default choice is different, right, And so I
do think that's a big part of why and much
to the benefits for millennials as well. And Matt speaking
of generational differences, well, there's a recent Deloitte survey which
showed the counterintuitive reality that we're living in and most
of us we probably think of boomers maybe as being
(11:21):
the most susceptible to falling prey to a scam. Just
we're just thinking, okay, well, maybe their cognitive ability has
declined late seventies, early eighties sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Not as familiar with the technology.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Perhaps they're the kind of person who's going to get
the phone call or the text message or the email
and they're going to click the link. But I guess
that bias is actually is actually wrong. Given this new data,
it turns out that gen z false for scams far
more frequently than somebody in their sixties or seventies, and
(11:52):
gen zers are actually three times more likely to get
caught in an online scam than a baby boomer.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Is why is that?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Well, it's largely because they spend so much more time online, sure, right,
And while scam artists have a lower batting average with
gen zers, like they're not nabbing as many for as
many attempts, they're getting way more chances. So email, social media,
dating sites, e commerce, all of those are the likely
places that people are going to fall victim to a
(12:18):
scam attempt. So I guess our advice to you is
to be careful what links you click. It's easy to
think that as a savvy youngster who's been on the
internet since they came out of the womb, who's been
tiktoking since they were like three and a half or
something like that, that you're not going to be the
one and that these scams, well, they can't phase you.
They can't get you. The truth is they are getting
(12:40):
younger people more and more and more. I think scammers
are going to where the people are. Those slightly more
subtile attempts are actually working, and they're parting people from
their money. It's sort of like the chance of getting
bit by a shark or astronomically low. But guess what,
if you're a diver, or if you're a surfer and
you spend inordinate amount of time in the ocean, chances
(13:02):
are slightly higher that you will be the one who's
actually bit by a shark as versus somebody who listened
Iowa like the chances of them falling prey to a shark,
the chances slim. The chances go out precipitably, precipitously.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
It's still unlikely that you're going to get mid to
my shark right exactly and look out too like a
lot of different employers deploy these phishing email training emails
or I don't know what exactly they call them, but
basically they're trying to make sure that their employees are smart.
And in particular, this is a pretty consequential thing. If
(13:36):
you have an employee who clicks a.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Link where they were scanned by and like an outsider, right,
like in particular, if you have access to like.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Bill pay or other financial documents or payroll for instance.
But companies are employing these outside companies to basically send
out these emails to determine who needs the training. And
so if you do clickly, I guess you probably do
need the training. But best thing to do is just
to avoid it altogether in the first place.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Always always look at the sender, right.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah, yeah, don't look at the display name, but actually
look at the stinking email.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Because I so, you know, somebody's been sending me emails
from Matt all mixed like no joke, like they know
are you serious? Yes, like they know me, so we're
best buds. And I get scam emails with your name
on it for real. But then I look at the
sender and clearly, like what's written in the in the
body of the emails ridiculous too.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Do you get it for this to me? I will
next time?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
That is crazy, I think too. One of the biggest
like the essence of every scam is to get people
to act quickly. It's all about sure, like, hey, you
got to do this, you got to do it right, away.
There's like the utility scam, which maybe they'll call your
place to business and say, hey, you didn't pay your
utility bill. You got to go right now and pay it,
or we're shutting off your power. And a business owner knows, hey,
if they shut off my power that I'm gonna lose productivity.
(14:47):
Blahla blah blah blah. They're willing to do whatever it
takes to get that to make sure the power stays on.
But oftentimes that is a scam. That is not how
a utility company would contact you, and they wouldn't say
we're turning off your power in twenty minutes or else right,
and so like if you.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Hang up the phone, we cut the power. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
So I think this is in the mafia rights utility
come or in this case it's a scammer.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I think staying calm, asking for details that goes a
long way to shutting the scammer down.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Okay, So the Journal they had an article detailing that
folks these days they really don't want to buy a
fixer upper. So I think it's all those shows on HGTV, right,
it made them want the finished product to not actually
do the work themselves. There's I think there's always been
some truth to this, especially when it comes.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
To the home that Johanna did. I don't want to
actually do the work.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
I want the nice home as opposed to going in
and doing the grunt work in order to get it done.
But a lot of first time home buyers have a
hard time seeing past just the dingy carpet and the
eighties wallpaper to what the home could potentially be. But
this also presents, in our opinion, just a massive opportunity
for how to money listeners out there who want to
buy a home, but they just feel like it's out
(15:55):
of reach. Why not op for the ugly house because
it's going to be cheaper because you'll have less competition
to deal with other folks aren't gonna want to buy
that ugly home. And then you can fix some of
those things with your own elbow grease over time. When
you have the spare cash the ability to get a
deal on a home. I think it's often going to
take just a different mindset than what it is that
(16:17):
a lot of first time home buyers are.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
What it is that they're looking for.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, and I think you're right to target or to highlight,
specifically first time home buyers. That's particularly something that they're like, well,
I don't know about this. I'm willing something smaller as
long as it's fully updated. But the less updated it is,
the more you can increase that equity on your own.
And I know, yeah, you might be moving in and
the bathroom might not be to your taste or the
(16:40):
paint color might need to be changed over time, But
the more and more you make up those updates, the
more the value is going to increase, and it's going
to go that those dollars are going to flow into
your pocket, not somebody else's.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
So I think you're right. I think that's a.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Really really good thing to make people aware of. And
you could even be like our friend Carl who we'veviewed
before on the show, Mister fifteen hundred, who does live
in flips. It's not for everyone, not for the fint
of heart, but it's a savvy wate to grow your wealth,
to live in the home while you're doing the work,
and then I don't know, maybe you sell it and
move on down the road and you pocket those gains
tax free, which is what's so great about living flips.
(17:12):
But also be sure not to bite off more than
you can chew. It makes me think of money Pit Matt,
the Tom Hanks movie. So you definitely you don't, definitely
don't want to go overboard and be like, I'm gonna
tear this one down to the studs.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
And I've never even, you.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Know, replaced the basic working mechanism of a toilet. So
there's this article in Life Hacker about buying incredibly cheap
homes via some of these government programs that exist. Some
of the homes can cost as little as a dollar,
which is crazy to think about, but there are things
that can go wrong and that it's too A lot
of these homes are in parts of the country that
you might not even want to take up residence in, right,
(17:44):
you might not want to live in. Maybe they're parts
of the country where there's an exodus going on, and
the renovations required can be significant, Like we're not talking
about the basics of paint and some tile. You might
need like a bulldozer and a framing crew and a
general contractor. And I hadn't heard much about these programs,
but it potentially proves the saying about certain things being
(18:05):
too good to be true. Hey, there's a really cheap
home over here, Well it needs some fixes, but make
sure also you know the scope of the work that
you're getting into. Its possible to say, all right, I'm
going to diy some of this stuff, but if it's
massively over your head and it turns into a money pit,
you could find yourself losing financially in that scenario.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Yeah, And in particular, like the one dollar homes that
you can buy, like some of the different government programs,
they require like there are strings attached and oftentimes they
require updating. We're all for people making their own decisions,
but you need to make sure that you know what
is going to be required of you. You don't need
to basically just start following cheap old homes, which is
(18:43):
a rabbit trail that I totally went down, and start
following cheap old homes here in the States. Over in Europe,
and they've got all these amazing, historic, beautiful homes.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Oh, cheap Scandinavian homes.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Yes, dude, they are so cool and they're all on
fjords yep. But it's not necessarily about just getting a
good deal, because I mean, I guess that's why I
was intrigued by it because I thought I've renovated a
few homes, like I've flipped one sold one before, but
it's not like the live and flip approach would not
be something that Kate would be all for. And there's
just more into buying a home than just making sure
(19:15):
that you're getting a good deal. There's a lot of
additional factors like we've talked about here on the show. Yeah,
but I think it's good because it can be basic stuff.
But as long as you're not looking for like the
perfect package, that's what everybody's looking for, right Oh yeah,
And so if you're willing to zig when others are
zagon when everyone else is looking for like the perfect
HGTV looking home, and you can see the ability character
(19:35):
the bones right as they say, then I think you stand.
You can stand to make some of those changes over
time and financially benefit That's right, all right, Matt. We
got more to get to on this episode, and we're
gonna touch on fees, but we're also going to talk
about how long you can actually keep a phone, how
long is it actually going to stay updated, how long
is it safe.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
We'll get to that and more right after this.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Right, we are back from the break and it is
now time for our ludicrous headline of the week, and
this one is from USA today. The headline reads, time
shares are making it comeback with younger Americans and here
is the appeal. Yeah, let's talk about time shares because
new stats show that more than half of time share
owners are now in the millennial and not even millennials,
(20:25):
but Gen Z generations as well, which really surprised me.
And it's not just because they're inheriting them, which is
definitely the case. They're actually going out there and they're
buying them, like proactively pursuing times Yes, I didn't realize
that timeshares hell the same sway for young folks, but
apparently they do. But it's costing them dearly. So a
(20:45):
lot of folks are gonna tout timeshares because they've come
a long ways from maybe twenty thirty years ago. Because
today some timeshares allow for more flexibility than they used to.
You don't necessarily have to stay at the exact same place.
So what they've got these different systems where you can
use the points that you've accrued within a system at
a bunch of different destinations. Around the world that they manage.
But then you can use those points. You can deploy
(21:06):
these points in other ways. You can put them towards cruises,
for instance, like other excursions even are rentals. But that
being said, they are still a crappy product and we
would not encourage you to check them out.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah, it sounds better and it is better in some
ways than you said. The more flexibility, but it still
doesn't make them good or a decent thing to spend
your money.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
They're just less bad today, right, Right.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
They still come with fees attached, right, including sure annual
maintenance fees which can run into the four figures pretty
easily each and every single year. And this article Matt
in USA today at the very end, they sneak this
sentence in The resale market for timeshare is a buyer's market.
And it's true because while some folks are glad they
made the purchase, the vast majority of people are not
(21:50):
because of how draining it can be on their personal finances. Right,
They didn't necessarily go out with the goal of buying
a timeshare. Most people get talked into purchasing one and
then getting rid of that timeshare is about as easy
as getting rid of your skin, right, you don't.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
It's impossible to do.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Or tough to shake it darn near impossible. And so
you know, we're all we're all for taking vacations, we're
all for spending money on fun travel experiences, but you
don't have to buy a time.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Share to do that.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Avoid them, and especially when you're talking about something that's
basically impossible to sell or you're going to lose your
shirt and you know a bunch of other money inside
of that shirt as you try to sell that time share,
that is the biggest indicator. I think that they're not
worth the nearly the price that they're being sold for.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, like you said, it's the ongoing fees and not
knowing necessarily. I mean, we know where the fees are
going to go. They're going up. There's no way that
those annual fees are coming down. And you have no
idea of how high those fees are going to go
and what you've signed up for in the future. That's
what's that's one of the worst parts about.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
These fast times.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
And I love that the that the selling point is
more flexibility, But guess what's even more flexibility than flexible
than a timeshare, you choosing, choosing that you want to
go ever you want to go, and you can use like,
guess what's even more flexible the credit card rewards points
that you earned through Chase Afire Preferred or Capitol one
benchres You can you can choose hotels across the world
and they're not just certain brand hotels or anything like that,
(23:09):
or just or your timeshare network that's as vast as that, right,
Or you're hard earned dollars and just finding the best
deal on a place you want to stay.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
That's a much better way to go than go with
the time share.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Everyone accepts you astylished Right. Let's talk about fee transparency
because the Biden administration and the State of California, they
have both had their sights set on eliminating junk fees.
Governor Gavin Newsom he actually just signed a law that
will make fees much more transparent moving forward. And just
because of the sheer size of California, this bill is
(23:39):
going to have ramifications across the country.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Makes me think of the EU.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Is it the EU who required that the iPhones have
the you know, the standard USBC charging port And because
of that, guess what all iPhones now have that regardless
of where they're sould even though they're not mandated to
have them here in the United States.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
They were like, what a of course, not a manufacturer
got to do it.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Yes, So companies have already seen the writing on the
wall and they have proactively made changes. Ticketmaster actually did this. Basically,
they're no longer surprising you with their fee. Instead, they're
just letting you know up front. So it's important to
know here they're not actually lowering their fees, they're just
they're just becoming more transparent. But while transparency doesn't eliminate
(24:22):
excess fees, it actually is really good at reducing some
customer frustration, where consumers now have the ability to comparison
shop and they're not shocked on the back end, where
it's not where it doesn't feel like a bait and switch.
You can go into these transactions more informed.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yeah, eyes wide open, and you're right. Yet, the Ticketmaster knew.
They're trying to be good, good little boys and girls
over there because they realize that there are other actions
that could be taken against them at some point in
the future, and so they're like, well, let's go ahead
and do this now. And look like the good little
boy who did the right thing. Well, but you're right, man,
it's not changing the actual fees. It's just putting them
up front and center. And so you're going to see
(24:58):
that more and more when you're shopping with different, different
providers online. And the truth is, fees are always going
to be with us, right, even with these attempts to
make them less hidden, less difficult to spot. And there's
one place where fees remain elevated, and that's when you
grab cash to the ATM. Bank Rate reports that those
fees are at an all time high, basically four dollars and
(25:18):
seventy three cents every time you're going to pull cash
out of an ATM. That's the average of what you're
going to get charged in ATM fees. And I don't
know about you, I don't remember the last time I
used an ATM.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Hasn't been a while for you, I literally can't remember.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah, it feels like kind of a relic of a
bygone era that most people don't need to use ATMs
for anything. A lot of those cash payment apps like
Venmo and stuff like that have made it easier to
get around that as well, around not having cash. But
if you like to grab cash at the ATM regularly,
seeing that is kind of shocking. Just make sure you're
using the right ATM when you're pulling cash out, because
most banks have a network of free ATMs where you're
(25:54):
not going to get charged a dime for taking your
own money out right, Like Capital One, for instance, I've
been in Capital One for a long long time. They
use all point ATMs, and so they have something like
they have tens of thousands of ATMs around the country
at like every Target, Walgreens and CBS, and so that way,
if I did need cash, I wouldn't know where to
go and I wouldn't be charged some ridiculous fee because
(26:15):
I'm with the bank that has a network effect right
that they're giving me the discount for you like multiple networks.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I think that's one of the reasons Capital One has
so many stinking options is because like they're on multiple networks.
And so if that is something that you that is
important to you, the ability to get your hands on
some cash, yeah, make sure you're with a bank that
has a vast network like that, or I think Schwab
is one of the banks that says, hey, guess what,
we don't care where you get your cash. We'll just
reimburse all those fees. And so that that's one of
(26:41):
the biggest perks that Schwab offers. Has a been one
with Chuck, Yeah, or I'm not opposed to just use
your your check card. I mean, we're huge promonents of
using your credit card because of the different benefits and
the protections that they allow. But if you want to
use your card once to be able to get some
cash back for free at a supermarket station by the
gum and get the two sure, like you like in
high school, where you're like getting a mountain dew in
(27:03):
order to get your hands on fifty bucks.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
But that's obviously a consideration as well.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Let's talk about how long your old phone is good for.
It turns out it's going to be longer than you think.
A friend of mine he actually he got a new
to him old iPhone eight and you got it for free,
and he was very excited about it initially, but then
he was bummed once Apple started making all the new
releases and he found out that he wasn't going to
get the new iOS. And I was like, dude, as
(27:29):
a free phone, you do not need to be complaining
about this. He was a little bummed, but what he
needed to understand was that the new iOS update it
didn't necessarily make his phone a total brick. He's not
going to get the latest features, but it will in
fact still get security updates, which means if you're still
happy with the phone, you can keep it. Actually, I
(27:49):
think going back to iPhone like the new iPhone se
as well as iPhone six, I think I think they're
on like iOS fifteen, so you can have like a
ten year old phone and you know what, it can
still be completely functional and completely safe.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah. I think a lot of people here, oh my version.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
I think iPhone X is not receiving the update to
the newest iOS either, and people think it's time to
scrap it. If I'm not getting the new IIOS, then
I need to get rid of my phone.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
The iOS upgrades are pretty minimal too, and so as
long as the current iOS which serves your phone, even
if it's the older version is still being updated, which
they are fifteen and sixteen, your phone is still fine.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
It's still safe.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
Yeah, absolutely, And so Google they've actually just announced that
they're going to provide seven years of updates for their
newest pixel phones.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
So this is all great news.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
And like you said, there aren't massive technological leaps that
are taking place with each new phone and each iOS
that's being released. But as long as it's being protected,
as long as you are receiving those security updates, what
that means is that we can keep those phones around
for longer. And it's just an example of the fact
that it's not planned obsolescence that's causing us to have
(28:53):
to go out and purchase a new phone. It's more
of our own appetites. It's our own desires to have
the latest and greatest thing. I feel like planning obsolescence
is going to get the blame. They're gonna take the
fall for a lot of the stuff, when in reality,
it's like, hey, no, no, no, you need to take responsibility.
You need to own up to the fact that you
just want the new phone. It's easy to either be
misinformed or to use it as an excuse. Yeah yeah,
(29:14):
to be like, oh, it's not gonna get the latest,
it's time for me to move on, and when that's
not necessarily the case, and it's good to say I
was glad to see Google say that because Google had
been kind of the one holdout in some ways of
committing to longevity of these phones and saying, hey, seven
years that that feels like a robust amount of time
that you can plan on keeping that phone. And who
I mean, who knows what phones are gonna look like
in seven years or whether we're either going to be
(29:35):
using phonese that's going to be allural neuralink implant. That
might be true, and it's also a little frightening. But yeah,
speaking of phones, there's this new Gallup poll and it
found that the average team spends almost five hours a
day on social media. And I don't want embellish too much,
it's four point eight to be exact, but social media
(29:56):
and YouTube are the main culprit's TikTok and YouTube in
particular where they're spending the bulk of that time. And
the data points to parental involvement being key in screen
time reduction. Basically, if you don't think it's healthy for
your child to be tethered to that screen as much
as they are, it's up to you to implement reasonable restrictions.
And there's nothing wrong with using digital tools, it's just
(30:18):
about using them in the way that they're meant to
be that allow us to continue a healthy relationship to
those digital screens that that we've become so accustomed to.
But clear connections have obviously been made between heavy phone
and social media usage and declining mental health. And so
it's not just our kiddos who need to ditch the
phone more either.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Man.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
I see that stat and I'm like, four point zero.
That's insane. But then I look at myself and I
have to be a little honest, and I have to
realize that I need to make adjustments in my own life.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Yeah, do you use screen time on the I phone?
I you are a new convert to the iPhone?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
On Space and they've got I'm sure they have it
on Google on the droid soft.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
They have something as well.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
But it's not something I've done. And I'm actually like,
I want to implement that, but I'm honestly a little
nervous because I'm afraid of what I'm going to what
I'm gonna discover, which is probably all the more reason
to actually implement it. Just to keep tabs on my
social media and just phone usage in general.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, So I mean that's a that's a scary stat
to see. It's clearly leading to other societal problems and
other personal individual problems, and even as non digital natives. Matt,
you know, you and I were grandpa millennials. Essentially, we
didn't grow up with smartphones. We still remember flip phones,
remember pages, We remember you know, dial up internet, all
that kind of stuff. Yeah, those were the good old days.
But it's a good reminder to I think, to all
(31:33):
of us and to me as well reading that, they're like,
I need to make some changes too, and I need
to get off the screen more, get out there in nature,
get out there with with real friends.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Just think of all the other things that you could
do if we weren't if all of our time not all,
I don't know, I don't want to say all of
our time, but a significant portion of our time was
getting just sucked and drained siphoned away from us.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
And to me, this is one other great argument for
kids being able to work jobs when they're in high school,
because if you're like, wait a second, how much are
you on the phone doing social or you can definitely
work two.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Hours part time job, bru. I know you could work.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You could work two hours a day whatever, eight hours
a week something like that after school.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
You can fit it in.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
You sound like a fast food manager. If you're leaning,
you can be cleaning. That was definitely what my check
floy manager told me back in there. If you get
time to lean, you got time.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
It's okay.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Let's just say that that's a high bar to set, like, oh,
if if you're spending that much on social media, you
should you should go out there and get a job.
Even just like, just let's drop the media Apart from
social media, let's just focus on the social part of things, right,
The ability for kids just to play with one another,
to actually interact in real life, to run around a neighborhood,
to play sports, just all of the things that I
think are highly underrated when it comes to childhood development.
(32:44):
And I think a part of that is because it's
not quantifiable. It's not something that you can put a
finger with a part time job. It's less about the
money and more about the lessons you learn. But you
can still point put your finger on an income like
a dollar amount, like, oh, this is how much I make.
I think there's an inherent challenge when it comes to
value doing something like kids being kids. I think it's
going to lead to just a happier and healthier generation
(33:06):
if these are things that we can lean into.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Well, especially when we talk about the problem of bullying.
And bullying is a problem in the school, but if
you can be constantly tethered to it now at home
getting bullied by the same people, get away from it.
Used to be able to get a break, you know. Yeah,
So all good reasons to put the phone down a
little bit more to encourage your kids to.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Do the same.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
All right, social, so box over, that's going to do
it for this episode of Ount of Money. We appreciate
you as always joining us. You can find show notes
and links to some of the articles that we referenced
on today's show up on the website at howtomoney dot com.
That's right, man, So until next time, best friends Out,
Best Friends Out,
Welcome to had of money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today we're talking cheap ugly homes, scam susceptibility, and
time shares making a comeback.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh time shares, man, this makes me think.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
So a few weeks ago, didn't you know we had
the whole family down for Fall break at Disney. I
think got those tents set up all over the place,
and I'm pretty sure is it Disney Vacation Club?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Uh huh, I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Did you not sidle up to one of those, one
of those guys and get like a free cup or
T shirt or something like that while you were down there?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I wasn't interested.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
No, but I think what they're going to give them
the time of day to even understand whether or not
it was a time share, now that I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
It probably is.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, and Matt speaking of vacations, Emily and now, we
just got back from a real quick anniversary trip, went
to New York City and.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Just yeah, you had a good time, right, Yeah, we
had a great time. We saw a couple of shows
on Broadway.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
We uh, but we tried this website called Broadway Roulette
dot com, and it is what you think it is.
It is like taking a chance on what on what
show you're actually going to see instead of handpicking it.
You're going to get a discount by kind of taking
whatever comes your way, and you can cross off actually
a few names of shows that you're like, yeah, definitely
(01:25):
don't want to see that one, which is which is nice?
And so we were like, all right, we're gonna give
this a shot. This sounds kind of like fun. I
also kind of like the randomness of not knowing until
we got the show and we were like, oh man,
that's actually not a show.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
We're terribly wait.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Wait y'all get stoked to see And by the way,
I heard about this website from somebody who writes for
our site, Our brit and so no shade on brit.
But like, we ended up getting this show about Neil
Diamond's life, and I'm like, honestly, I don't see what
I don't know what people see.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
And that hadn't been like a hoodie and blowfish, well
you would have been all for. I would have eaten
it up, but not Neil Diamond, I guess I assume.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Fortunately, we were, by the way, the youngest people in
that theater by substantial margin. So people people in their
late thirties, not Neil Diamon people. People in their seventies,
most definitely Neil Diamond people, or at least a lot
of them. But my frugal or cheap I guess for
having tried this out, I.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Gotta give it a go.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
You think, so, oh, absolutely well, I assume it comes
at a massive discount, right, Yes, okay, It's not like
they're just choosing it for you and you just and you.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Still have to pay.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
No, They're basically giving you the leftovers at a at
a at a reduced price, which is nice, but I
will say it makes me looking enough later I didn't
get as much of a reduced price as I hoped.
Really well, so, well, like it depends on the show
and the day and all that kind of stuff. But
there were better shows that I was excited to see
that Emily and I actually paid full price for it
was like an extra twenty bucks or something like that,
and so in retrospect, I think I was twenty dollars savings.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I would have looked younger and harder. Yeah. I mean again,
it depends on the show and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
So how much did you save though when you looked
it up, well, versus that actual show, I don't think
we save very much.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, because it's one of the it's one of the
thows that still has tickets.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
And then you're like, well, dang, I spent all that
time having paid the same amount that all these other
folks paid, but who are obviously excited to see it.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
But uh, well, I mean.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Those ticket prices are dynamics, so it's hard to say
how much, you say, but and maybe you end up
getting the show of your dreams that typically costs way
more money.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
But it was.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
It was a really fun exercise, and I'm always it's it's.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
A fun story to be able to tell.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Like we're literally in there with all these awesome old folks,
like listening to all these Neil Diamond songs. We don't
know what they are, Okay, except for Sweet Caroline, I
know that one. Well is that that's the only one
thing I even knew that was Neil personally. Well, I'm
glad y'all tried it, because, yeah, if you have the
opportunity to potentially save, it would be different if y'all
lived in New York and you'd seen a bunch of
different shows, and you're like, I'm not going to take
(03:44):
the chance of going to see something that I've already seen.
But for you it was a chance to see pretty much.
I mean, you've seen a few shows, but not many things.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
They were all new to us based exactly, and so
we were all right, cool, as long as we don't
get this, this, this, and this.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
But if we've crossed out, could have been able to cross.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Off just a few more and we would have we
would have found something that we were happy without a van,
your sixth one would have definitely Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
So and in retrospect, we should have left others all
the week. But it's it's okay, it's okay. And we
got to go see some other really really great shows
while we were there too. We had the best time,
and it was a pretty inexpensive quick getaway, especially because
we used points to to get there Southwest points. But
just goes to show that sometimes sometimes it's worth the
gamble and other times, you know, yes you see Neil
(04:28):
Diamonds not playing roulette.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah for it, But uh, all right, let's keep it
with men. This is our Friday flight.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Well, we have a nice little sampling of some of
the different stories that we found most interesting this week.
But actually, let's go ahead and start off by updating
some information from Monday's episode, the Ask How the Money episode,
where we answered Kyle's question about getting the the IRA
match from Robin Hood. Oh yeah, it turns out Robin
Hood now has some competition in the IRA matching space
(04:56):
so far. This is something that they have recently announced
they're gonna do as well.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
One of the bigger fintech companies out there, so Fi. Yeah, yeah,
I think I believe they have the stadium naming rights
to do they still Sacramento or.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I don't know, something like that.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, but yeah, listener, Hannah, she's she actually emailed us
one just like, Hey, by the way, I heard you'll
talk about Robin Sofi is doing this now as well.
Lost Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's brand new. But they currently
say that the offer ends at the end of the year,
which makes it not all that helpful in reality because
of the ongoing nature of the match at Roblin Like
that is what makes it appealing, Let's be honest, opposed
(05:31):
to just like like I would not hop over there
just to get a mash on your contributions to the
end of the year for.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Twenty twenty three. Well, especially since we're hoping that very
much money. A lot of our listeners have already made
a lot of their contributions to the roth IRA already.
So if they if they've already come close to maxing
it out or whatever, then you've already made the contributions
for the year. You can't go back and do it
with somebody else.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah, we'll see, I mean FI like they could certainly
choose to keep this as an ongoing benefit, an ongoing
feature in the coming years if this long is successful.
But one of the things that I guess where so
FI stands maybe a little bit taller than Robinhood, they've
actually instituted just a two year vesting period, which is
better than the five year vesting period that comes with
(06:14):
the Robinhood match. They also have a slightly cheaper seventy
five dollars outgoing transfer fee still robinhoods but is Yeah,
rob robin Hood's is one hundred dollars. But I also
noticed too that Sofi they are excluding any money that
you transfer or any money that you roll over to
an IRA, whereas robin Hood there is no cap, so
(06:34):
you are still getting match on dollars that you transfer
or roll over. That's one of the It's truly one
of the only reasons I'm actually considering going with it
because of I'm like, oh my gosh, it certainly healthier
than just ongoing contributions moving forward. But either way, the
concept of an IRA match is like it's still sort
of in its infancy with some of these fintech players.
It's functioning more as a loss leader. But if you're savvy,
(06:57):
you might just be able to use it to your advantage.
In particular, if you do not have access to a
match where you have an outside company helping you out
with your retirement, like us, we don't have anybody else
helping us to.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Retire dress right, No, we got We're doing it ourselves.
But just like we talked about on Monday, there's there's
some perks here, but there are some downsides, right, and
you have to know what those downsides are. That five
year vesting period is one of the toughest things to
stomach about the Robinhood, the Robinhood gift, right, that Robinhood
match and so FI dials that back by a few years,
but two years is still a long time. And so
(07:29):
you have to know the gory details of these plans
before you just say so, let me get the match.
Although I think it's cool and I love that this
is happening, just be aware of those specifics, Read through
all the FAQs, make sure you know what you're getting.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Into, kind of know what all the catches are.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah, and Matt, given our conversation with doctor Twiney about
this was a few weeks ago about the generational differences
that exist, especially what we honed in on personal finance
and kind of money and the differences between generations on
those fronts, well, we thought this story deserve to mention because,
defying the narrative yet again, millennials are in fact crushing
(08:04):
it when it comes to saving four retirements. There were
new numbers that came number one. Yeah, we are take
that Boomers and Gen xers. Well, these new numbers from
Vanguard show that millennials as a generation have been saving really,
really well for retirements. And this just jives with everything
that doctor Twayy was telling us on that episode. Despite
(08:25):
the popular refrain and the headlines from across the popular narrative,
the news of sphere like millennials are on track to
replace sixty percent of their salary in those post retirement
years based on what they've been able to save and
rack up so far in their iras and their four
to one k's and those other like tax advantaged accounts.
And that's just a pretty sizable leap over the generations
(08:47):
that have gone before. This is like, it goes to
show that there's a whole lot of momentum essentially that
the millennials have been able to grab onto when it
comes to making progress with their finances and their retirement
accoun balances. Are kind of showing the reality of how
much they've been able to achieve.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Sure, So I think one of the cooler aspects of
this story and some of the research is the stat
that the new automation features like auto enrollment, like that
that is a big part of why millennials have more
dollars in their retirement accounts and their tax avage retirement accounts. So, yes,
millennials are doing better financially than the media that's on,
but behavioral finance techniques it seems to be making a
(09:27):
massive difference. So for instance, sixty percent of companies that
use Vanguard well the auto enroll new employees into the
four to win k offerings that they have that's currently.
Fifteen years ago it was just ten percent, So you're
comparing sixty percent today that who are auto and rolled
versus ten fifteen years ago. So there, I've certainly been
(09:47):
a lot of positive changes on the investing front over
the past couple of decades. I'm looking at just lower costs,
like the lower expense ratios on different fees, and just
we talked about this with Paul Merriman, the invention of
target date funds where game changers have to mess with
it at all, but making investing the default is one
of the best advances that we've seen. It's so basic,
(10:09):
yet it's having obviously such a positive impact. And when
it comes to like product managers or policy like folks
who manage benefits with companies, the ability to take advantage
of our desire to maintain the status quote right, like
that's the status quo bias where it's like, well, I've
always been investing, so I guess I'll just go ahead
and continue to invest, as opposed to making the active decision.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Of should I start investing now?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
It's like, well, no, you don't even have to ask
yourself that question more because you have all always been
investing since since you were hired.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
It goes to show that it doesn't always take some
new fangled, fancy ETF although I'm glad target date funds exist.
Sometimes it is this these like minor behavioral tweaks or yeah,
just like an auto enrollment kind of thing that's going
to make the big difference. Is going to do a
lot of the heavy lifting. It's not because millennials are
so much more disciplined than the people that went before them.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
More discipline, they're not smarter.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Because the default choice is different, right, And so I
do think that's a big part of why and much
to the benefits for millennials as well. And Matt speaking
of generational differences, well, there's a recent Deloitte survey which
showed the counterintuitive reality that we're living in and most
of us we probably think of boomers maybe as being
(11:21):
the most susceptible to falling prey to a scam. Just
we're just thinking, okay, well, maybe their cognitive ability has
declined late seventies, early eighties sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Not as familiar with the technology.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Perhaps they're the kind of person who's going to get
the phone call or the text message or the email
and they're going to click the link. But I guess
that bias is actually is actually wrong. Given this new data,
it turns out that gen z false for scams far
more frequently than somebody in their sixties or seventies, and
(11:52):
gen zers are actually three times more likely to get
caught in an online scam than a baby boomer.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Is why is that?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Well, it's largely because they spend so much more time online, sure, right,
And while scam artists have a lower batting average with
gen zers, like they're not nabbing as many for as
many attempts, they're getting way more chances. So email, social media,
dating sites, e commerce, all of those are the likely
places that people are going to fall victim to a
(12:18):
scam attempt. So I guess our advice to you is
to be careful what links you click. It's easy to
think that as a savvy youngster who's been on the
internet since they came out of the womb, who's been
tiktoking since they were like three and a half or
something like that, that you're not going to be the
one and that these scams, well, they can't phase you.
They can't get you. The truth is they are getting
(12:40):
younger people more and more and more. I think scammers
are going to where the people are. Those slightly more
subtile attempts are actually working, and they're parting people from
their money. It's sort of like the chance of getting
bit by a shark or astronomically low. But guess what,
if you're a diver, or if you're a surfer and
you spend inordinate amount of time in the ocean, chances
(13:02):
are slightly higher that you will be the one who's
actually bit by a shark as versus somebody who listened
Iowa like the chances of them falling prey to a shark,
the chances slim. The chances go out precipitably, precipitously.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
It's still unlikely that you're going to get mid to
my shark right exactly and look out too like a
lot of different employers deploy these phishing email training emails
or I don't know what exactly they call them, but
basically they're trying to make sure that their employees are smart.
And in particular, this is a pretty consequential thing. If
(13:36):
you have an employee who clicks a.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Link where they were scanned by and like an outsider, right,
like in particular, if you have access to like.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Bill pay or other financial documents or payroll for instance.
But companies are employing these outside companies to basically send
out these emails to determine who needs the training. And
so if you do clickly, I guess you probably do
need the training. But best thing to do is just
to avoid it altogether in the first place.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Always always look at the sender, right.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah, yeah, don't look at the display name, but actually
look at the stinking email.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Because I so, you know, somebody's been sending me emails
from Matt all mixed like no joke, like they know
are you serious? Yes, like they know me, so we're
best buds. And I get scam emails with your name
on it for real. But then I look at the
sender and clearly, like what's written in the in the
body of the emails ridiculous too.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Do you get it for this to me? I will
next time?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
That is crazy, I think too. One of the biggest
like the essence of every scam is to get people
to act quickly. It's all about sure, like, hey, you
got to do this, you got to do it right, away.
There's like the utility scam, which maybe they'll call your
place to business and say, hey, you didn't pay your
utility bill. You got to go right now and pay it,
or we're shutting off your power. And a business owner knows, hey,
if they shut off my power that I'm gonna lose productivity.
(14:47):
Blahla blah blah blah. They're willing to do whatever it
takes to get that to make sure the power stays on.
But oftentimes that is a scam. That is not how
a utility company would contact you, and they wouldn't say
we're turning off your power in twenty minutes or else right,
and so like if you.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Hang up the phone, we cut the power. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
So I think this is in the mafia rights utility
come or in this case it's a scammer.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I think staying calm, asking for details that goes a
long way to shutting the scammer down.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Okay, So the Journal they had an article detailing that
folks these days they really don't want to buy a
fixer upper. So I think it's all those shows on HGTV, right,
it made them want the finished product to not actually
do the work themselves. There's I think there's always been
some truth to this, especially when it comes.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
To the home that Johanna did. I don't want to
actually do the work.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
I want the nice home as opposed to going in
and doing the grunt work in order to get it done.
But a lot of first time home buyers have a
hard time seeing past just the dingy carpet and the
eighties wallpaper to what the home could potentially be. But
this also presents, in our opinion, just a massive opportunity
for how to money listeners out there who want to
buy a home, but they just feel like it's out
(15:55):
of reach. Why not op for the ugly house because
it's going to be cheaper because you'll have less competition
to deal with other folks aren't gonna want to buy
that ugly home. And then you can fix some of
those things with your own elbow grease over time. When
you have the spare cash the ability to get a
deal on a home. I think it's often going to
take just a different mindset than what it is that
(16:17):
a lot of first time home buyers are.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
What it is that they're looking for.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, and I think you're right to target or to highlight,
specifically first time home buyers. That's particularly something that they're like, well,
I don't know about this. I'm willing something smaller as
long as it's fully updated. But the less updated it is,
the more you can increase that equity on your own.
And I know, yeah, you might be moving in and
the bathroom might not be to your taste or the
(16:40):
paint color might need to be changed over time, But
the more and more you make up those updates, the
more the value is going to increase, and it's going
to go that those dollars are going to flow into
your pocket, not somebody else's.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
So I think you're right. I think that's a.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Really really good thing to make people aware of. And
you could even be like our friend Carl who we'veviewed
before on the show, Mister fifteen hundred, who does live
in flips. It's not for everyone, not for the fint
of heart, but it's a savvy wate to grow your wealth,
to live in the home while you're doing the work,
and then I don't know, maybe you sell it and
move on down the road and you pocket those gains
tax free, which is what's so great about living flips.
(17:12):
But also be sure not to bite off more than
you can chew. It makes me think of money Pit Matt,
the Tom Hanks movie. So you definitely you don't, definitely
don't want to go overboard and be like, I'm gonna
tear this one down to the studs.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
And I've never even, you.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Know, replaced the basic working mechanism of a toilet. So
there's this article in Life Hacker about buying incredibly cheap
homes via some of these government programs that exist. Some
of the homes can cost as little as a dollar,
which is crazy to think about, but there are things
that can go wrong and that it's too A lot
of these homes are in parts of the country that
you might not even want to take up residence in, right,
(17:44):
you might not want to live in. Maybe they're parts
of the country where there's an exodus going on, and
the renovations required can be significant, Like we're not talking
about the basics of paint and some tile. You might
need like a bulldozer and a framing crew and a
general contractor. And I hadn't heard much about these programs,
but it potentially proves the saying about certain things being
(18:05):
too good to be true. Hey, there's a really cheap
home over here, Well it needs some fixes, but make
sure also you know the scope of the work that
you're getting into. Its possible to say, all right, I'm
going to diy some of this stuff, but if it's
massively over your head and it turns into a money pit,
you could find yourself losing financially in that scenario.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Yeah, And in particular, like the one dollar homes that
you can buy, like some of the different government programs,
they require like there are strings attached and oftentimes they
require updating. We're all for people making their own decisions,
but you need to make sure that you know what
is going to be required of you. You don't need
to basically just start following cheap old homes, which is
(18:43):
a rabbit trail that I totally went down, and start
following cheap old homes here in the States. Over in Europe,
and they've got all these amazing, historic, beautiful homes.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Oh, cheap Scandinavian homes.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Yes, dude, they are so cool and they're all on
fjords yep. But it's not necessarily about just getting a
good deal, because I mean, I guess that's why I
was intrigued by it because I thought I've renovated a
few homes, like I've flipped one sold one before, but
it's not like the live and flip approach would not
be something that Kate would be all for. And there's
just more into buying a home than just making sure
(19:15):
that you're getting a good deal. There's a lot of
additional factors like we've talked about here on the show. Yeah,
but I think it's good because it can be basic stuff.
But as long as you're not looking for like the
perfect package, that's what everybody's looking for, right Oh yeah,
And so if you're willing to zig when others are
zagon when everyone else is looking for like the perfect
HGTV looking home, and you can see the ability character
(19:35):
the bones right as they say, then I think you stand.
You can stand to make some of those changes over
time and financially benefit That's right, all right, Matt. We
got more to get to on this episode, and we're
gonna touch on fees, but we're also going to talk
about how long you can actually keep a phone, how
long is it actually going to stay updated, how long
is it safe.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
We'll get to that and more right after this.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Right, we are back from the break and it is
now time for our ludicrous headline of the week, and
this one is from USA today. The headline reads, time
shares are making it comeback with younger Americans and here
is the appeal. Yeah, let's talk about time shares because
new stats show that more than half of time share
owners are now in the millennial and not even millennials,
(20:25):
but Gen Z generations as well, which really surprised me.
And it's not just because they're inheriting them, which is
definitely the case. They're actually going out there and they're
buying them, like proactively pursuing times Yes, I didn't realize
that timeshares hell the same sway for young folks, but
apparently they do. But it's costing them dearly. So a
(20:45):
lot of folks are gonna tout timeshares because they've come
a long ways from maybe twenty thirty years ago. Because
today some timeshares allow for more flexibility than they used to.
You don't necessarily have to stay at the exact same place.
So what they've got these different systems where you can
use the points that you've accrued within a system at
a bunch of different destinations. Around the world that they manage.
But then you can use those points. You can deploy
(21:06):
these points in other ways. You can put them towards cruises,
for instance, like other excursions even are rentals. But that
being said, they are still a crappy product and we
would not encourage you to check them out.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah, it sounds better and it is better in some
ways than you said. The more flexibility, but it still
doesn't make them good or a decent thing to spend
your money.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
They're just less bad today, right, Right.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
They still come with fees attached, right, including sure annual
maintenance fees which can run into the four figures pretty
easily each and every single year. And this article Matt
in USA today at the very end, they sneak this
sentence in The resale market for timeshare is a buyer's market.
And it's true because while some folks are glad they
made the purchase, the vast majority of people are not
(21:50):
because of how draining it can be on their personal finances. Right,
They didn't necessarily go out with the goal of buying
a timeshare. Most people get talked into purchasing one and
then getting rid of that timeshare is about as easy
as getting rid of your skin, right, you don't.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
It's impossible to do.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Or tough to shake it darn near impossible. And so
you know, we're all we're all for taking vacations, we're
all for spending money on fun travel experiences, but you
don't have to buy a time.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Share to do that.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Avoid them, and especially when you're talking about something that's
basically impossible to sell or you're going to lose your
shirt and you know a bunch of other money inside
of that shirt as you try to sell that time share,
that is the biggest indicator. I think that they're not
worth the nearly the price that they're being sold for.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yeah, like you said, it's the ongoing fees and not
knowing necessarily. I mean, we know where the fees are
going to go. They're going up. There's no way that
those annual fees are coming down. And you have no
idea of how high those fees are going to go
and what you've signed up for in the future. That's
what's that's one of the worst parts about.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
These fast times.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
And I love that the that the selling point is
more flexibility, But guess what's even more flexibility than flexible
than a timeshare, you choosing, choosing that you want to
go ever you want to go, and you can use like,
guess what's even more flexible the credit card rewards points
that you earned through Chase Afire Preferred or Capitol one
benchres You can you can choose hotels across the world
and they're not just certain brand hotels or anything like that,
(23:09):
or just or your timeshare network that's as vast as that, right,
Or you're hard earned dollars and just finding the best
deal on a place you want to stay.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
That's a much better way to go than go with
the time share.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Everyone accepts you astylished Right. Let's talk about fee transparency
because the Biden administration and the State of California, they
have both had their sights set on eliminating junk fees.
Governor Gavin Newsom he actually just signed a law that
will make fees much more transparent moving forward. And just
because of the sheer size of California, this bill is
(23:39):
going to have ramifications across the country.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Makes me think of the EU.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Is it the EU who required that the iPhones have
the you know, the standard USBC charging port And because
of that, guess what all iPhones now have that regardless
of where they're sould even though they're not mandated to
have them here in the United States.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
They were like, what a of course, not a manufacturer
got to do it.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Yes, So companies have already seen the writing on the
wall and they have proactively made changes. Ticketmaster actually did this. Basically,
they're no longer surprising you with their fee. Instead, they're
just letting you know up front. So it's important to
know here they're not actually lowering their fees, they're just
they're just becoming more transparent. But while transparency doesn't eliminate
(24:22):
excess fees, it actually is really good at reducing some
customer frustration, where consumers now have the ability to comparison
shop and they're not shocked on the back end, where
it's not where it doesn't feel like a bait and switch.
You can go into these transactions more informed.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yeah, eyes wide open, and you're right. Yet, the Ticketmaster knew.
They're trying to be good, good little boys and girls
over there because they realize that there are other actions
that could be taken against them at some point in
the future, and so they're like, well, let's go ahead
and do this now. And look like the good little
boy who did the right thing. Well, but you're right, man,
it's not changing the actual fees. It's just putting them
up front and center. And so you're going to see
(24:58):
that more and more when you're shopping with different, different
providers online. And the truth is, fees are always going
to be with us, right, even with these attempts to
make them less hidden, less difficult to spot. And there's
one place where fees remain elevated, and that's when you
grab cash to the ATM. Bank Rate reports that those
fees are at an all time high, basically four dollars and
(25:18):
seventy three cents every time you're going to pull cash
out of an ATM. That's the average of what you're
going to get charged in ATM fees. And I don't
know about you, I don't remember the last time I
used an ATM.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Hasn't been a while for you, I literally can't remember.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah, it feels like kind of a relic of a
bygone era that most people don't need to use ATMs
for anything. A lot of those cash payment apps like
Venmo and stuff like that have made it easier to
get around that as well, around not having cash. But
if you like to grab cash at the ATM regularly,
seeing that is kind of shocking. Just make sure you're
using the right ATM when you're pulling cash out, because
most banks have a network of free ATMs where you're
(25:54):
not going to get charged a dime for taking your
own money out right, Like Capital One, for instance, I've
been in Capital One for a long long time. They
use all point ATMs, and so they have something like
they have tens of thousands of ATMs around the country
at like every Target, Walgreens and CBS, and so that way,
if I did need cash, I wouldn't know where to
go and I wouldn't be charged some ridiculous fee because
(26:15):
I'm with the bank that has a network effect right
that they're giving me the discount for you like multiple networks.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I think that's one of the reasons Capital One has
so many stinking options is because like they're on multiple networks.
And so if that is something that you that is
important to you, the ability to get your hands on
some cash, yeah, make sure you're with a bank that
has a vast network like that, or I think Schwab
is one of the banks that says, hey, guess what,
we don't care where you get your cash. We'll just
reimburse all those fees. And so that that's one of
(26:41):
the biggest perks that Schwab offers. Has a been one
with Chuck, Yeah, or I'm not opposed to just use
your your check card. I mean, we're huge promonents of
using your credit card because of the different benefits and
the protections that they allow. But if you want to
use your card once to be able to get some
cash back for free at a supermarket station by the
gum and get the two sure, like you like in
high school, where you're like getting a mountain dew in
(27:03):
order to get your hands on fifty bucks.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
But that's obviously a consideration as well.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Let's talk about how long your old phone is good for.
It turns out it's going to be longer than you think.
A friend of mine he actually he got a new
to him old iPhone eight and you got it for free,
and he was very excited about it initially, but then
he was bummed once Apple started making all the new
releases and he found out that he wasn't going to
get the new iOS. And I was like, dude, as
(27:29):
a free phone, you do not need to be complaining
about this. He was a little bummed, but what he
needed to understand was that the new iOS update it
didn't necessarily make his phone a total brick. He's not
going to get the latest features, but it will in
fact still get security updates, which means if you're still
happy with the phone, you can keep it. Actually, I
(27:49):
think going back to iPhone like the new iPhone se
as well as iPhone six, I think I think they're
on like iOS fifteen, so you can have like a
ten year old phone and you know what, it can
still be completely functional and completely safe.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah. I think a lot of people here, oh my version.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
I think iPhone X is not receiving the update to
the newest iOS either, and people think it's time to
scrap it. If I'm not getting the new IIOS, then
I need to get rid of my phone.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
The iOS upgrades are pretty minimal too, and so as
long as the current iOS which serves your phone, even
if it's the older version is still being updated, which
they are fifteen and sixteen, your phone is still fine.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
It's still safe.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
Yeah, absolutely, And so Google they've actually just announced that
they're going to provide seven years of updates for their
newest pixel phones.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
So this is all great news.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
And like you said, there aren't massive technological leaps that
are taking place with each new phone and each iOS
that's being released. But as long as it's being protected,
as long as you are receiving those security updates, what
that means is that we can keep those phones around
for longer. And it's just an example of the fact
that it's not planned obsolescence that's causing us to have
(28:53):
to go out and purchase a new phone. It's more
of our own appetites. It's our own desires to have
the latest and greatest thing. I feel like planning obsolescence
is going to get the blame. They're gonna take the
fall for a lot of the stuff, when in reality,
it's like, hey, no, no, no, you need to take responsibility.
You need to own up to the fact that you
just want the new phone. It's easy to either be
misinformed or to use it as an excuse. Yeah yeah,
(29:14):
to be like, oh, it's not gonna get the latest,
it's time for me to move on, and when that's
not necessarily the case, and it's good to say I
was glad to see Google say that because Google had
been kind of the one holdout in some ways of
committing to longevity of these phones and saying, hey, seven
years that that feels like a robust amount of time
that you can plan on keeping that phone. And who
I mean, who knows what phones are gonna look like
in seven years or whether we're either going to be
(29:35):
using phonese that's going to be allural neuralink implant. That
might be true, and it's also a little frightening. But yeah,
speaking of phones, there's this new Gallup poll and it
found that the average team spends almost five hours a
day on social media. And I don't want embellish too much,
it's four point eight to be exact, but social media
(29:56):
and YouTube are the main culprit's TikTok and YouTube in
particular where they're spending the bulk of that time. And
the data points to parental involvement being key in screen
time reduction. Basically, if you don't think it's healthy for
your child to be tethered to that screen as much
as they are, it's up to you to implement reasonable restrictions.
And there's nothing wrong with using digital tools, it's just
(30:18):
about using them in the way that they're meant to
be that allow us to continue a healthy relationship to
those digital screens that that we've become so accustomed to.
But clear connections have obviously been made between heavy phone
and social media usage and declining mental health. And so
it's not just our kiddos who need to ditch the
phone more either.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Man.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
I see that stat and I'm like, four point zero.
That's insane. But then I look at myself and I
have to be a little honest, and I have to
realize that I need to make adjustments in my own life.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Yeah, do you use screen time on the I phone?
I you are a new convert to the iPhone?
Speaker 3 (30:52):
On Space and they've got I'm sure they have it
on Google on the droid soft.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
They have something as well.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
But it's not something I've done. And I'm actually like,
I want to implement that, but I'm honestly a little
nervous because I'm afraid of what I'm going to what
I'm gonna discover, which is probably all the more reason
to actually implement it. Just to keep tabs on my
social media and just phone usage in general.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, So I mean that's a that's a scary stat
to see. It's clearly leading to other societal problems and
other personal individual problems, and even as non digital natives. Matt,
you know, you and I were grandpa millennials. Essentially, we
didn't grow up with smartphones. We still remember flip phones,
remember pages, We remember you know, dial up internet, all
that kind of stuff. Yeah, those were the good old days.
But it's a good reminder to I think, to all
(31:33):
of us and to me as well reading that, they're like,
I need to make some changes too, and I need
to get off the screen more, get out there in nature,
get out there with with real friends.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Just think of all the other things that you could
do if we weren't if all of our time not all,
I don't know, I don't want to say all of
our time, but a significant portion of our time was
getting just sucked and drained siphoned away from us.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
And to me, this is one other great argument for
kids being able to work jobs when they're in high school,
because if you're like, wait a second, how much are
you on the phone doing social or you can definitely
work two.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Hours part time job, bru. I know you could work.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
You could work two hours a day whatever, eight hours
a week something like that after school.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
You can fit it in.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
You sound like a fast food manager. If you're leaning,
you can be cleaning. That was definitely what my check
floy manager told me back in there. If you get
time to lean, you got time.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
It's okay.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Let's just say that that's a high bar to set, like, oh,
if if you're spending that much on social media, you
should you should go out there and get a job.
Even just like, just let's drop the media Apart from
social media, let's just focus on the social part of things, right,
The ability for kids just to play with one another,
to actually interact in real life, to run around a neighborhood,
to play sports, just all of the things that I
think are highly underrated when it comes to childhood development.
(32:44):
And I think a part of that is because it's
not quantifiable. It's not something that you can put a
finger with a part time job. It's less about the
money and more about the lessons you learn. But you
can still point put your finger on an income like
a dollar amount, like, oh, this is how much I make.
I think there's an inherent challenge when it comes to
value doing something like kids being kids. I think it's
going to lead to just a happier and healthier generation
(33:06):
if these are things that we can lean into.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Well, especially when we talk about the problem of bullying.
And bullying is a problem in the school, but if
you can be constantly tethered to it now at home
getting bullied by the same people, get away from it.
Used to be able to get a break, you know. Yeah,
So all good reasons to put the phone down a
little bit more to encourage your kids to.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Do the same.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
All right, social, so box over, that's going to do
it for this episode of Ount of Money. We appreciate
you as always joining us. You can find show notes
and links to some of the articles that we referenced
on today's show up on the website at howtomoney dot com.
That's right, man, So until next time, best friends Out,
Best Friends Out,
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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