September 5, 2025 • 39 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: Walden Pond and your wallet, stocks at all-time highs, more ETFs than you can shake a stick at, forgotten 401k, peaking pessimism, creating your own American Dream, loyalty is for losers, locking down 5 years of internet, Prime purge, travel tips, the cheapest flights, and what’s up with tariffs.
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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 on Matt. Today
we're talking Forgotten four oh one. K's peaking pessimism and
loyalty is for losers.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Happy Friday everyone, He said, peaking pessimism. Did you ever
watch was it Peaky Blinders? No? But I have an
old school kill. She is a Mann. Yeah, he's He's
such a great actor. He really is, and I think
my respect for him went up. I read some interview
on him like this a couple of years ago, and
he is so out of uh, he's so disconnected from
(00:47):
like pop culture and technology. Like I'm gonna make this up,
but like he hardly even like has an email account,
and he does.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
He doesn't even know that Travis and Taylor got engaged.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
There's a jay Z. He's very very old school. I
respect that, but he's also at a position luxury or
privilege to be able to disconnect it.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
But he's no Daniel day Lewis, who is apparently has
a new film coming out, but that his Sun directed.
Oh I saw that retired, but he came, he came
out of retirement. I'm totally gonna do it. Of course,
I'm gonna watch that movie. What's it about I don't
even care. I don't know. Daniel day Lewis is the
greatest actor of our time, so I will watch it.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I put him up there with Killian Early, Yeah, for sure.
But no, Okay, we're getting off track right right out
of the gay. This is our Friday flight when we're
going to talk about personal finance, not what movies.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Were excited to see this week. Well, one more little
quick side tangent. Let me tell you, Matt about my
recent trip to the woods of California, Central California.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Share it with me.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Okay, So in what I learned this there's a personal
financi lesson here, but really I just want to tell
you about my trip. There's a moral to the story, yeah,
to the lesson. So went with a bunch of friends
did a backpacking trip, like nine mile hike in to
this place called Thousand Island Lake right underneath this beautiful
mountain called Banner Peak in the Eastern sire As. It
was incredible.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Well, there are actually a thousand islands within this lake.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
A lot of islands. I didn't count them, but I
was like, they probably like round it up. My guess I.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Would have said, like thirty five Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That was more than thirty five, but less than a thousand. Nice,
but it just sounds nice. So yeah, I just had
the best time completely checking out from reality email technology,
similar to Killian Murphy, right, like just not being engaged
with my phone and screens and all that kind of stuff.
That's half the half the glory I think of being
(02:37):
out there in the wilderness. But I think it just
also reminds me that I can do and actually enjoy
my life more with less that when my life is simplified,
I can actually find more piece more mental clarity, And
so I just I use it obviously, like I'm not
going to I'm not going to live out in the
(02:59):
woods a tent for the rest of my days. Are
you attempting to be a lot? I No, I'm know
Ralph Waldo Emerson like or Henry David Throw Henry. I
guess it's Throw not Emerson who lived in you know,
by Walden pond in that like ramshack hole, uh get
up that he had, but.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
He only did that for like a couple of years. Yeah,
I think like two or three years.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, I think really, when you dig in, you're like, hey,
I don't even know that he committed as hard as
he made it sound.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Like, great job with the narrative, but I don't think
you actually you didn't fully commit, right right, So.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And neither shall I. Neither shall I. But I will
take lessons away from this and just it's a good
reminder to myself that I need a whole lot less
to be happy in that and that even actually sometimes
my happiness increases when I partake of a fewer things.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Totally. I do think that that is a great general
lesson that more folks probably need to hear, right, because
we're just trying to like stuff our lives, especially with
with stuff, because you're like, you know, sleeping on a
sleeping pad and a tent. You're like, I've got way
more stuff than this at home. Yeah, But I think
for a lot of the do think that more possessions
is the it is going to be the secret to
(04:04):
their happiness. But it's not to degrade or to demote
the like that's the craft beer equivalent. It's why we
have things that we love that truly do bring us
joy and light us up. I'm curious too if so
much of you finding maybe some contentment had to do
with the fact of not how you spent your money, right,
like the fact that you've got few possessions, because that
can take a weird left turn into like minimalism. Like
(04:24):
even that in and of itself becomes this cultural aesthetic
that cost that can cost a lot of money as
opposed to how you spent your time, because you were
talking about how your conversation having some awesome conversations with
these other dudes who are doing the same thing, and
there's nothing else there, you know, Like it's just kind
of you've like stripped down to your soul and so
you're able to connect like at a deeper level, which
(04:46):
I think is the more and more countercultural thing to
do in our current modern day lives that are so
full of noise, responsibilities, different things like that.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I think I think there's a lot of truth to that.
I think it's just like, hey, connection matters more than stuf.
But then the other thing is when you have to
go to the bathroom in a hole that you dug
in the ground with a trowel, you just really appreciate
the toilet when you come back, as opposed to just
thinking toilets are normal. You're like, thank God for indoor
plumbing because that isn't that wasn't normal for most of
human history.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
That is a modern luxury. Yeah, I will take Yeah,
I'm not going to give up my toilet.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Same when you're like making food in a bag that
you bought at ARII or that kind of thing. You're
like when you get home and you have a My
buddy's wife made us a pot roast when we came back,
and it was like, it felt like the greatest thing
I'd ever eaten in my life, just because you're used
to eating something so lowly, the camp meal, and so yeah,
I guess all that stuff really factors in to make me.
(05:41):
It makes it an indelible experience that's like marked on
my person. But I also take something away from it
into normal life, and I just have a greater appreciation
for the things that maybe I at times took for
granted beforehand, it maybe often took for granted.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Provides Yeah, I could see it providing some good perspective. Yeah.
I bring that up because as I think, you know,
you're really okay, there's going to be a personal finance
element to this as well, But like, isn't that not
what we are striving towards? Like any time we talk
about being smarter with your money, and you're spending and
you're saving, and you're investing. We're we're trying to push
folks towards financial freedom, for some degree of financial independence,
(06:15):
and what is that except for the ability to have
control over your time and and the ability for us
to fill that time with things that matter more, which
is more difficult to quantify because, like you're having deeper
conversations in community relationship. These aren't things that you can
take a picture of, right, or something that you can
buy at the store that you can you can curate
(06:37):
on your fee to where you're demonstrating to other people that, oh,
I've got my life, like I've got the good life.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Right, Like a new car is not a screen grab
of an acount balance exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, it's it's harder to quantify, But truly, I think
those are the kinds of things that aren't sexy because
they're tougher to quantify, but they are the things that
I think ultimately lead to greater level what greater levels
of happiness?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Okay, let's go from existential talk to investing talk, because
how do we get this is the place where you
greater levels?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
How you get there.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Investing is part of it, right, let's do it. Has
anyone noticed, anyone out there noticed that the stock market
is doing pretty good, rightly, doing quite well. I noticed
all time highs on repeat. It feels it feels like
over over the last many months. And you know, the tariffs,
meddling with the Fed, they don't Neither of those things
seems to have had a negative impact on investors sentiment.
It's a everyone's just hitting the buy button. And this
(07:29):
has led not only to, like I said, record highs,
but record high valuations. And so the S and P
five hundred is trading at three point twenty five times earnings,
which is actually higher than it traded before the dot
com boom and bust happened. Right, So, I guess what
that means. What that signifies is that the stock market
is kind of frothy right now, and some folks are
(07:51):
starting to get nervous. Does this mean the stock market
is overvalued and then a correction is imminent? I don't know, potentially,
Like anyone's guess, it's really really hard to say. But
it's interesting to see, Matt. Even some of the people
that you and I tend to tend to look to
as really intelligent folks writing in the investing space. Like,
(08:12):
for instance, friend of the show Nick Maduli just wrote
about how he is making slight changes to his investments
because of where stocks are at from evaluation perspective. But
I found it interesting he's only making a slight change,
and the reason he gave for making the slight change
is not even because of high valuations. It's because of
his own goals are changing. There you go, He's like, Hey,
I just got married. I'm planning on buying a home soon.
(08:33):
That's why I'm actually going to change. And I'm still
eighty percent invested in stocks, but I have other goals
with some of these some of these investment dollars. So
I guess when it comes down to it, you and
I would say, yeah, correction could happen. There's a decent
chance a correction could happen, right, that's a normal part
of being an investor in the market. Sure returns could
be lower than average in the coming years, it wouldn't
(08:54):
surprise me. But if you've got a long enough timeline,
I think the advice is still to stay the course.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yes, say the course man, and I think this is
a good reminder too, that the market going up into
the right, though, we can look back at history and
see that the market does that consistently, Like if you
look at an individual month or even a year, like
I think about twenty twenty two, when the market sure
is terrible, but you look at twenty three and twenty fours,
it's like, oh, those are really good, great years. When
(09:21):
you zoom out even further, you see that the market
does consistently go up into the right, but it doesn't
do it consecutively. There are years when, yeah, you're not
going to do so well. So if you are used
to consecutive years of seeing your returns in the twenty
percent plus range, it's not always going to be that way. Yeah,
So if you do want to continue to invest, though,
(09:41):
like we would recommend and suggest that you do, which
funds should you choose? There are now more ETFs than
individual stocks these days, as Sam Row he pointed out
morning Star, they've got data and they find that you
can invest in four thousand, three hundred and seventy ETFs,
but there's always something. There's only like four and seventy
(10:02):
two individual stocks, which is kind of crazy to think that, Wait,
how can there be more ETF and there are actual
companies that make up those ETFs. Yeah. I also appreciated
there's they were analogizing it though to like, hey, there's
only how many notes ore there, like twelve notes, but
there's like millions of songs out there, or there's like
there's only so many rests or so many ingredients that
(10:23):
go into making a recipe. It's just about how you
want to slice and dice it to basically suit your
own tastes or like we're just saying, your own goals.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
And ETFs are kind of like the basket of funds
that you choose to invest in it that is the recipe. Yeah, yeah,
and you can Yeah, the number of baskets you can
create that is endless really when it comes to these
ETFs configurations.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Totally. Yeah. And it also makes me think about investing
in AI. Let's say that's something that you do want
to You're like, oh, yeah, maybe this is something I
should do well. Which are the three dozen specialty niche
ETFs that specialize in AI? Should you even choose, Joel,
are you investing in any AI funds? No?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Investing in companies that do AI? Just by fact of
investing in the s and P five hundred and thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
For proving making my point for me. Eight out of
the ten top companies that are in the SMP are
basically tech slash AI companies. In media, Microsoft Video is
like the most directly AI related, but like yeah, Google
slash out of the Amazon and Apple Tesla, these are
all companies that are leaning heavy into the AI AI space,
(11:35):
And honestly it even concerns me of how much like
back in the day, I remember thinking, no, the future
is all tech and like to that extent, a large
portion of our portfolio was Vanguard's tech ETF. But over
the years I changed my tune and move more to
the to the SMP. I even feel that way now
where I'm just like, man, the amount of weight that
is going into the tech sector, even with m SMP
(11:56):
makes me a little bit uncomfortable. But tech outperformance continue, Yeah, exactly.
So all that to say, I'm not specifically looking at
something that is AI or tech focus because the SMP
has a whole lot of that. Instead, I'm just sticking
with the general SMP and might even consider kind of
like dialing back even to a little bit more of
just the total stock market. I think too.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
What this reveals is that there's a lot of choice
out there for an investor who individual investor is trying
to figure out how to proceed when it comes to investing,
and I think that abundance of choice can actually be difficult. Right,
Like you're you see this laundry list of ETFs and
you're like, well, which sector should I invest in? And
inside of that, like which brand name ETF should I
(12:40):
be going with? And like it can feel really overwhelming,
and it's like, I think ETFs. I would love for ETFs.
I love that companies can launch whatever ones that they want,
But in a lot of ways, I wish that for
individual investors it looked more like Aldi, where you walk
in and you're like, there's just fewer choices.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I've eliminated eliminated that paradox of choice.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
So you just have to create figure out which ETFs
make the most sense for you, and that can be difficult.
So we suggest low cost, well diversified ETFs. And so, Matt,
the one that you're fond of have been talking about
for years VU, I love VU. That's a great one
to consider. F z Rocks from Fidelity. F z r
(13:20):
o X is the symbol is another great fund to
consider for especially for people in the wealth building phase
of their lives. But just know that there's like a
billion tways is out there essentially for you when it
comes to investing, but only a few that really make
a lot of sense. Are the really or even all
that necessary?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Totally another bad investing move, well, that might be forgetting
about your account altogether. USA today they report that there
is something like one point seven trillion dollars that's lost
currently in four oh one k accounts. The average lost
four one K balance is over fifty thousand dollars, which
you might be thinking, how is that possible? It's like
(14:00):
misplaced in your car or something.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
It's not just like the the change in the couch cushions.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
This is this far surpasses Yeah. But that being said,
you know it could have been an account from years
ago that was worth maybe a lot less at that
point in time. Certainly it's grown over time due to compounding. Right,
it's basically been working in the background on autopilot. And
I would say, if there is even a small chance
that you meet that you might be one of these folks,
head over to Unclaimed Retirement Benefits DOT com and you
(14:28):
can see if essentially you're like, oh wait a minute,
a forge, Yeah, yeah, there's there's this. I had a
four one K going on that I wasn't even contributing to.
My employer was taking care of it for me. We
just want to make sure that you are entitled to
all of your money that might be floating out there.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
And give him how much we're talking about, like, it's
what did you say? It's like a fifth, a quarter
or something of all four one k money is in
these I.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Didn't say that, but I think that was in that art.
Yeah as well, it's crazy to think it's that much.
That is also beginning. Yeah, it's also an estimate, so
it's not like they have quantified every single one of
these dollars. These are estimates, but even still, the fact
that some of these estimates are that high makes me,
It makes me cringe a little bit. I feel bad
for all this folks on one hand. On the other hand,
(15:11):
I'm also a little actually kind of okay with it
because it tells me that these folks have been treating
their retirement dollars like they should, like you basically want
to almost have forgotten about it, not forgotten about it
so much that you actually forget that it exists.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, you still want access to those dollars in your
retirement years. So at Capitalized actually is a company that
we've talked about who can help you do rollovers for free. Well,
they can also help you find lost retirement accounts. We'll
link to that in the show notes. But yeah, if
you're like, I think I had a four one K
back in the day, I'm not sure. Given the incredible numbers,
(15:46):
the overall amount of outstanding four one K dollars that
people might have forgotten about, it's worth just worth doing
a search. All right, let's talk about let's talk about
hard work. Most Americans these days don't seem to think
that hard work pays off the ways that it used to.
This is according to a New Wall Street Journal survey.
So pessimistic beliefs they continue to increase, as something like
(16:08):
seventy percent of Americans they just don't believe or maybe
never believed, that working harder is going to help you
achieve the American dream. So in the year two thousand,
the opposite was true. It's like seventy five plus percent
of people thought that, yeah, if I work harder I
can achieve the American dream. Even as recently as two
thousand and five, it was a vast majority of people saying, yeah,
(16:29):
I also believe that. But for some reason the numbers
have become diametrically opposed, and a lot fewer people believe
that their life can be better than the one that
their parents lived. I don't know about you, but it's
kind of hard for me to pinpoint a specific reason
for this lack of hope. I think maybe higher prices
is part of that inflation. People feel like everything costs more,
(16:51):
and maybe my raises haven't been keeping up with that,
and so that does feel demoralizing, which I get, especially
when you're talking about home prices and younger generations who
are saying I would like to own a home, feels
like it's never going to happen given the current climate,
and then just general worry about the future. That seems
to be kind of maybe at the crux of I
totally agree of how people are feeling, and I think
(17:14):
we have to point out that it is true that
the economy has pain points for a lot of people.
It's not like the economy is humming along, working incredibly
for everyone. We talk about record highs. Well, there's a
significant number of Americans who don't have any money invested
in the stock market, so they're not feeling the benefits.
They're not feeling that massive net worth increase that people
(17:35):
who have been consistently investing have been seeing. And it
is true also that hard work alone doesn't necessarily mean
you're going to get meaningful results and build a whole
lot of wealth. But I think it's crucial to find
a way to provide value right in order to increase
your compensation, not just to work your butt off. It's
a little bit of both. But I also think that
pessimism can be this self fulfilling prophecy, and despite headwinds,
(17:58):
it's still really possible to live a great life and
to build wealth in this country. So I think very possible.
Seeing seeing these numbers just kind of, I don't know,
made me sad.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah, I think this is an instance too where if
it bleeds, it leads right, Like this is the negative
headline it made, you know, it made the rounds. I'm
sure a lot of folks have maybe heard folks refer
to it. But like and I hate to be like
the old man yelling at the sky. But like, I
feel like this could be love it. I feel like
this could be an instance too to where we're just
spending too much time online. Yeah, like we like I
don't want to make everything about smartphones, but we're sitting
(18:26):
there on our devices. We're too online. We're being endlessly entertained,
We're endlessly scrolling, and even the very act of scrolling
without having as we're getting sucked into the algorithm. Like
that is just this discipline destroyer as opposed to getting
out there kicking butt, trying to find a way to
and it feels made your life better. It feels like
everyone else has a better life than us when we're scrolling,
(18:47):
you know, because guess what's the part of the algorithm?
Because guess what, That's exactly how I feel when I scroll. Ye,
And that's why I try to avoid it, because I
know what happens to me when I scroll. I think
other people are living their best life and I'm over
here living an average one. Yep, you don't want to
get sucked into that man, as opposed to the folks
who are actually out there taking risks. And I do
think like a part of the uncertainty, especially that we've
experienced over the past five years has led to like,
(19:10):
when there's uncertainty, you're just not sure what's what the
future holds, and so I think you are less likely
to take risks. But this reminds me of an article
I saw about gen Z entrepreneurs, because they're the ones
out there who are taking those risks, like working their
butts off, and specifically they're also trying to avoid the
office jobs that come with just a two percent anal
race in search of something that's more energizing, something that's
(19:31):
a bit more lucrative. High school grads, they are less
interested in paying for that two hundred thousand dollars degree
and instead or hopping into the workforce early, whether it's
this article documented folks becoming real estate agents, which is
a bit tougher to do right now, opting for specialized
like the trade work, basically like blue collar work, which man,
(19:53):
I totally appreciate this, you know, the enterprising nature that
gen Z seems to be reviving. I think the crucial
way to make sure the American dream works for you
is to avoid the major traps, right Like, you want
to zig while everyone else is zagging. And if the
college and you know, buying a home route. If those
paths are going to be too expensive, if it's going
to tie you down, well that's when you have the
(20:15):
opportunity to create a different dream that doesn't involve those things.
And that is the reason why I still think that
the US is still the best place for you to
essentially blaze your own trail.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
It's better than the vast majority of the rest of
the world. And I think maybe two people assume when
we're talking about the American dream that it has to
look like this stock American lifestyle. I think the American
dream can look like whatever you wanted to look like.
That's what we're saying here, that's what's cool about it. Yeah,
it doesn't have to look like the four bedroom, three
bathroom house with the white pick offence. I think for
some people that is their dream, and maybe it's harder
(20:48):
to achieve that now that it has been in the past.
But for other people, it's living that van life right
and traveling around the country, which has in many ways
become easier than ever before to pull off. And I
guess I wonder if that's maybe some of the pessimism
too revealed in this survey. Is like, well, I can't
live that classic suburban nineteen sixties sort of lifestyle that
(21:10):
my parents lived, but maybe your American dream can look better,
just different, because I do think that people's hopes and
aspirations have actually changed. What people want out of life
has changed, since I think.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
You're saying basically, do you even want that? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
And I love I love to see because I think
gen Z there's a lot of you know, intergenerational picking
but okay, boomer, that kind of sort of thing. But
I love that gen Z seems to be taking this
tact where they're kind of grabbing life by the reins
and they're saying.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
By the horns.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yeah, I think a lot of people are like but
I was told to get the college degree and it
was really expensive, and now I find myself in a
place where it's harder for me to achieve the American dream.
And I get that, and that's a difficult position to
be in. But I also thought, I love that gen
Z is kind of starting to question those things out
of the gate and saying no, no, no, no. I think
what I want is this, and I don't necessarily need
the college education to get there, and so not that
(22:01):
not that college is bad or that everyone should avoid.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
It, But I just it's worth asking the question.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
That's worth asking the question, and it's worth thinking a
little differently. Gen Z seems to be to be doing that,
to kind of be responding to the incentives that are
out there and the costs that are that are being
placed on us. And if we can, like you said,
zig when other people are zagging, I think we can
live that American dream, even it doesn't look like the
classic idealized version totally.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Joel, You've got more. He gets to we're gonna talk
about when might be the best time to book some
upcoming travel that you've got planned for later the year.
Gets to that plus more. Right after this, our Matt,
we're back. It's time for the ludicrous headline of the week.
(22:47):
This one comes from Business Insider, and it says, customer
loyalty is a sham.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
True words, a sham.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Never been spoken. It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I do think that it's a ludicrous in a good way.
There are some ways right in which being loyal can
benefit you in many aspects of life.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
About like the punch cards you just want, like your
free ice cream.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Yeah, although my local ice cream shop changed ownership and
they don't don't do the punch cards anymore, which the
one where they mix it all together, no gone gone
or the punch card.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I've got like three of those. Well, the problem is
that they would always just initial it. It seems very unofficial,
super smudgy and yeah, as opposed to having some like
custom bespoke puncher with.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
You know, right, it's hard. It's a lot harder to
forge that.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
I'm very sad to hear that they're doing doing away
with the customer loyalty cards. You weren't cheating the loyalty
card system, Okay, I'm upstanding, honest citizen and consumer.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
I know that to be true. Okay, but so so
sorry to hear about that can result in free ice
cream at least it used to be able to and
the only upside right, But companies, as it turns out,
love loyal customers.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
They love it.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
They want your loyals. We're on the customer side, right,
But us, we as customers, might be getting the short
end of the stick because often they don't offer better
perks because we're loyal. In fact, they take advantage of
our loyalty. So the longer you continue doing business with
a particular retailer or a particular store, particular business, the
(24:13):
more you're likely to pay. So if you're too loyalty
your insurance company, for instance, your premiums are probably going
to be higher than they otherwise should be. Classic example,
sometimes people are like, man, got dropped by my insurance company.
I'm paying with them for twenty five years. They don't
care about you because they don't care that you were loyal.
You cared about your loyalty, they didn't. If you only
fly one airline, for instance, Matt, I've met many of
(24:34):
these people who are like, hey, help me find a deal,
but I only fly this airline and I only fly
on these specific dates. And I'm like, yeah, that's really
hard to find a deal that way. Then, And if
you only fly one airline, you're regularly paying too much
for tickets. You're beholden to their loyalty program, even though
it's not as beneficial as shopping around and saving money.
If you stick with one of the big banks, your
savings rate suffers. Right, There's an endless litany of examples
(24:56):
I can give here where loyalty is actually costing you.
And that's with this article was pointing out shopping around
and switching it can feel like a chore, but twenty
bucks a month or whatever it is, it really can
add up. Matt, I was just talking with a friend
and he was telling me how much he was spending
on cell phone service. And I was like, well, I'm
with US Mobile, just letting you know, here's how much
(25:16):
I pay. And he was like, wow, man, I just
ran the numbers. I thought I was getting like free
iPhones and stuff from my carrier. But even even when
I factor in buying my own iPhone, I'm going to
save more than one hundred dollars a month for my
family by switching cell phone service. And so he switched immediately.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
He did it.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
He got rid of the loyalty to the company he'd
been with for a long time and went with one
of the new upstarts. He's consumer success to consumer success story.
Those are the kind of things I think most of
us don't question though. We're just kind of like, we
keep doing the thing we've been doing, and ye we
prize that loyalty. The companies that we do business with don't.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
That's that maintaining the status quo, that's that inertia bias.
Which is totally natural, right, Like, I think it's totally
natural to want to see consistency in life because sort
of like we were just talking about entrepreneurship, when you
can look ahead and you it feels like you have
a rough idea of what the future holds, then that
allows you to make other pivots, make other measured risks
(26:09):
that tend to lead to let's say, entrepreneurship or or
something that you otherwise would not have partaken in. But
when everything feels like it's up in the air, I
think sometimes you can be I don't know, you're just
a little less prone to take some of those risks.
And so we seek that consistency in lots of areas
in life, and it's not just a chore.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Even if it's working against us.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah, even well, that's the thing I think some folks
are used to kind of like that slow like letting
of blood as opposed to like ripping the baniond aid
off and making the switch. But I'm glad that your
buddy was able to do that. Another company that you
might not want to be loyal to is your home
internet provider, and you can realize similar savings there because
back in the day. There used to be basically zero options.
(26:50):
You just had the local cable company. But that has
changed at least a little bit, largely in things to
the different cell phone companies out there who are offering
the five G at home service. This isn't something that
I've personally paid for or taken advantage of, Joel, but
it does mean that there are more opportunities to save,
and it's just like.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Another challenger in the mix, right.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Well, competition, Yeah, the open market. It's a good thing.
And some of the different companies out there are offering
multi year price locks, which is got me looking twice.
So T Mobile specifically, they've got this thirty five dollars
a month plan for five years, and normally I would
I don't know, I'm not the one to take the bait,
but then I saw the five years a part and
(27:30):
I thought, wait a minute, that's pretty good. That's got
me looking at the coverage map. I'm just like, okay,
what is it? All right? I got the ultra I'm
in the ultra zone, baby, that's what That's what you need. Downside,
I think you might have to go with the T
Mobile service in order to fully take advantage of that
low offering. Yeah, so what fifty bucks? Otherwise maybe I can't.
I can't remember off the top of my head, but
(27:51):
it's worth considering because I think if you can do
a little bit of exploring, you got to shop around,
you can potentially save a ton of money by making
the switch. And I think there's a chance to the
fact that that's even being offered. You know, if you
are in a zone that has that as an option,
you might be able to even reach out to your
current cable provider, let them know what the current competition
(28:12):
with they're advertising, and you can even potentially get your
current rate lord without having to go through all the
rigama role of switching.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Providerscent Yeah, just like, hey, I'm finding a better deal elsewhere.
I'm thinking about it and see what they say. Uh yeah,
just I guess, don't be too loyal or too priced
insensitive exactly on your hands? Wait exactly they're saving to
be had, Matt, Are you and I are we too
loyal to Amazon Prime?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
That's I don't think so, No, Okay, I do. I
wish I try to always price shop and price compared.
I will say so. Specifically, Walmart is one of the
other big big, heavy hitters, and the app just isn't
as good. If you're searching for something, it'll pull up
like five thousand different results, and I feel like I'm
buying some sort of bootleg shampoo from China or something
(28:57):
like that, as opposed to what it feels like slight,
a slightly more walled garden where it's a bit more curated.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
I think that a little extra lead in your hair
follicles is actually good for you. Oh yeah, can you
can you tell? Yeah's adding some more volume? Uh huh?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
So I just wasn't that Dinner X. Dinner X back
in the day is like a dander rough shampoo and
it used to. They're like, you can you can tell
it's working because you can feel it tingle. But then
like it had like coal tar, Oh really or something
crazy like that was terrible. Yeah, I'm like, how is
there not some sort of class action lawsuit? Again?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
I don't remember the shampoo at all, but I remember
because I remember my dad using it. I remember as
like a six year old trying it one time, and
I'm just like, it burned.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Dad, don't use that shampoo anymore. Well, sorry, I asked
a question about Amazon Prime because you and I have
done the household sharing. Yeah, we have because there was nothing,
no rule against it, kind of like Netflix used to
allow you to share passwords. In fact, in many ways
they encouraged it. Some of the other streaming services did
the same. Now that's not in vogue. They're cracking down
(29:57):
on a password sharing. Amazon is similarly cracked down on
the household sharing policy. Now you can only do the
sharing if that person actually lives under your roof. So yeah,
I guess you and I now need to consider our
relationship to Amazon and whether or not we want to
pony up for our individual Prime memberships every year instead
of splitting the cost.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah, that's true. I had a quick conversation with my
wife and she's pretty convinced that we're not going to
be getting rid of I will say Amazon is really
smart because they're dangling the carrot and they're saying, hey,
is it fifteen bucks that's being offered for up until
the end of the year for your first year. Yeah,
and so for the folks out there who haven't been
directly paying, it's just smart. Is they're just as opposed
(30:38):
to I don't know, it's an easier transition to turn
in the screws real tight exactly. So in that part,
I think Amazon's being pretty smart. So it feels like
the cool weather is here. You hear folks talking about
the pumpkins spice slote, even though the heat waves across
the US feel like they've only recently subsided.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Oh, we're not gonna it's been hot. It has been,
but finally a little bit of cool weather. And I
don't drink pumpkins spice matt iVOD it like the plague.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
I certainly do as well. We're gonna jump, gonna jump
right over a personal badge of honor. Cozy season goes
straight to winter. We're gonna talk about the holidays here,
which feels maybe a little bit inappropriate, but of course
it's a smart thing to do, not just when it
comes to Christmas gifts, where we want folks saving all
year round.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Right like, start checking on that, thinking, finally.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
That's something you started back in January, but also when
it comes to traveling around the holidays. That's what we're
talking about here, because if you are planning on flying,
let's say, to see a family or to see friends,
it might be time to start looking at prices, it
might be time to start setting the airfare alerts because
the top match booking days to pay the lowest possible
(31:40):
price just around the bend, potentially even mid to late September.
Of course, try to have flexible dates. That's what's going
to allow you to save the most. But just keep
that in mind. It's gonna be here before you know it.
You can head over to Google Flights use that to
your advantage as well. Monitor prices even after you book.
If maybe it's something you've already knocked out, but if
(32:02):
you see prices drop, you might be able to cancel,
get a refund, rebook that same the same flight, or
that same travel for even less money.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
That's what I'm doing with a hotel room. Then I'm
gonna be for New York next month for a quick
little trip because.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
You dropped the prices on that Jennet.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Well, prices went up and I had not booked yet,
and so I'm super bumped. So I'm pivoted to a
cheaper hotel for the time being, but I'm still still
got my eyes on the hotel that I would like
to stay at. It's like right out of a Wes
Anderson movie and I want to stay back there.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Oh, is that you're talking about the ship one, the
one the maritime that's got the round windows.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Yes, it's awesome. It's like I love that hotel so much,
but it's quite expensive. And so if price is dropped,
she should talk about loyalty. If price is drop, I'm
not being loyal If price is drop, I'll go back.
If prices don't drop, I'm switching to the other.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I'm not going to do it right.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
But the same is true for booking your flights in particular.
Be ready to pounce when you see a deal. And
Google's so great on the Google Flight features to tell
you kind of hey, this is normal pricing for right now,
or this is you know, a pretty good deal, you
should jump on it. I love how they kind of
help you in that decision making process. Google Flights also
recently announced an AI based deal feature that they just launched.
(33:15):
It's called flight Deals and it's in beta right now,
beta testing. And this is I think great for folks
who aren't sure where they want to go, but they
want to get a pretty sweet deal. They just want
to travel some more awesome and they don't want to
pay a ton of money. To do it, and Matt,
this goes right in line with our ethos for travel.
It's like, hey, don't figure out where you want to travel,
(33:37):
figure out where it's cheap to travel to, and then say, yeah,
I guess that looks pretty cool. Let me look into
it and book a place that's inexpensive and allow that
to kind of guide you when it comes to your
destinations that you pick, it means you're going to spend
a whole lot less on travel and maybe even be
able to travel travel more, or you increase your budget
(33:59):
in other possible parts of your travel. Maybe it's the
craft breweries you're going to, right, you can spend more
on the craft beer if you spend less on the flight.
So you can go to Google dot com slash flights,
slash deals, and man, I was just there checking it out,
seeing what kind of good deals they had. And Greece
round trip for less than five hundred bucks in October.
(34:20):
Greese wasn't on my radar. I don't think I can
put another trip into my calendar this year. This is
not going to do happen for me, not going.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
To swing it.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
No, But I was like percolating, you know, and it's like,
that's a great deal to a really cool place. Not
gonna happen for me right now, but I'm gonna I'm
gonna use this service and see if it can help
me find.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
So that was over the future. That was so, that
was the existing Did you say that was at the
deals the deal's page whatever?
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Yeah, okay, yeah, Google dot Com slash flights, slash deals.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Nice. I will say, so I explored the new beta
AI Google Flight deals page or whatever. What was the
the gymnasts Kayla Moroni or whatever. The I'm not impressed.
The silver Medalist you were impressed. I was not impressed
because it just seemed like it was essentially the Google
Explorer feature right where you're in a different in a
(35:08):
different way, and that's where display and that's the part
of me that is so I don't want to say disappointed,
but like, I feel like there's just so much hype
around AI and someone like Google saying, oh, come check out.
They're touting their AI Travel Explorer thing, but it's basically
taking the Explore results and they're repackaging it. It feels less
like magic and more like a formatting change essentially, which
(35:32):
I get because I think that's the part of it
that we are drawn to this I don't know, little
AI right here, like like we like stories, like we
like other people, and so it's fun to talk to
something or somebody else that feels like another person. And
so when AI is just like, yeah, let me look
into that for you. Oh, this is what I found.
What do you think would you like me to do this?
You feel like you're connecting to somebody else, like you
(35:53):
have a digital butler exactly, And it's great, but I
don't know. I don't want to get folks too excited
about this, And of course it's in. It's in, so
I wouldn't go over there and expect to find more
amazing deals than what you could previously find.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
But who knows, maybe it'll get better, maybe it'll be
superior to and if.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
So, then I am all for it. Yeah, but uh,
it's just a small critique within the AI landscape.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yeah, not to take it back to AI. It does
sometimes feel like it's AI everything and you're just like,
all right.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
In some ways, I do think it'll be a little home. Yeah,
it'll be great, But this is an instance where it
just feels like repackaging of something that they're already doing.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
All right, Matt, let's touch briefly on tariffs before we departed.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Let's get political.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
We've tried tried to not talk about it. We had
to talk about it for a while and then we
were like, everyone's talking about it, let's not talk about
it too much. But the legality of top down tariff
mandates from the White House, it's kind of been questionable
from the beginning, like does the President have the authority
to just willy nilly, say fifty percent tariffs on India,
(36:54):
ten percent tariffs, fifteen percent tariffs on the EU, or
is that really the job of Congress to establish tariff policy?
And so a federal appeals court has ruled that President
Trump does not have the sole authority to tariff nations
as he wishes, and so tariffs are actually going to
remain in place for the time being. The Trump administration
is hoping that the Supreme Court will weigh in soon.
(37:16):
And when you look at kind of all the talk
about tariffs, well, it feels like the bark has been
worse than the bite. They've yet to have this major
impact on US consumers. We haven't seen price increases to
the point that many people predicted. I don't think that
means that they're not going to cause real waves if
they are allowed to remain intact stick around. So much
depends on how big the tariffs are, and especially the
(37:38):
longer they remain, some of that front loading that companies
were doing goes away, and we will start to see
some of those price increases. But whether or not the
tariffs are allowed to remain, that remains to be seen,
and we will you and I will keep following, keep
talking about it here on the show.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Totally. Yeah, this is an instance to where there does
not seem to be some sort of like golden thread
that runs through any sort of current administration ideology, right
Like it just feels more like grasping out straw is
because what's also what else is in the headlines? Well,
there's a lot of things in the headlights, but there's
all so much pressure to get the FED to lower rates.
But if these terraffs actually stick around, prices are likely
(38:15):
to go up. Inflation kicks in, which means that there's
a higher likelihood of rates staying high. So it's almost
as if the terriff's going away. Would it seems like
this might be the best thing for our actual economy,
because things would go things would blow up because we're
guaranteeing that prices aren't going to be unduly raised because
of these additional tariff slash taxi.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
If all the tariff threats and realities went away tomorrow,
just think what would happen to the stock market.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
It would be pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Yeah, it would be, and there'd be a lot more
certainty for businesses and for consumers. But we'll see where
things land with all this because we will court rulings.
All right, Matt, that's going to do it. For this episode,
we should give a newsletter shout out to a couple
of folks who refer to their friends to the how
Many newsletters and you can sign up at how money
(39:01):
dot com slash newsletter. But Peter w and d Wilts,
we appreciate you letting other folks know about the about
the newsletter. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
That's right, and that's gonna be it. We hope everyone
has a fantastic weekend. We'll see you back here on Monday, buddy.
Until next time, Best friends out, Best Friends Out.
Welcome to Had of Money. I'm Joel on Matt. Today
we're talking Forgotten four oh one. K's peaking pessimism and
loyalty is for losers.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Happy Friday everyone, He said, peaking pessimism. Did you ever
watch was it Peaky Blinders? No? But I have an
old school kill. She is a Mann. Yeah, he's He's
such a great actor. He really is, and I think
my respect for him went up. I read some interview
on him like this a couple of years ago, and
he is so out of uh, he's so disconnected from
(00:47):
like pop culture and technology. Like I'm gonna make this up,
but like he hardly even like has an email account,
and he does.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
He doesn't even know that Travis and Taylor got engaged.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
There's a jay Z. He's very very old school. I
respect that, but he's also at a position luxury or
privilege to be able to disconnect it.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
But he's no Daniel day Lewis, who is apparently has
a new film coming out, but that his Sun directed.
Oh I saw that retired, but he came, he came
out of retirement. I'm totally gonna do it. Of course,
I'm gonna watch that movie. What's it about I don't
even care. I don't know. Daniel day Lewis is the
greatest actor of our time, so I will watch it.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I put him up there with Killian Early, Yeah, for sure.
But no, Okay, we're getting off track right right out
of the gay. This is our Friday flight when we're
going to talk about personal finance, not what movies.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Were excited to see this week. Well, one more little
quick side tangent. Let me tell you, Matt about my
recent trip to the woods of California, Central California.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Share it with me.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Okay, So in what I learned this there's a personal
financi lesson here, but really I just want to tell
you about my trip. There's a moral to the story, yeah,
to the lesson. So went with a bunch of friends
did a backpacking trip, like nine mile hike in to
this place called Thousand Island Lake right underneath this beautiful
mountain called Banner Peak in the Eastern sire As. It
was incredible.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Well, there are actually a thousand islands within this lake.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
A lot of islands. I didn't count them, but I
was like, they probably like round it up. My guess I.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Would have said, like thirty five Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That was more than thirty five, but less than a thousand. Nice,
but it just sounds nice. So yeah, I just had
the best time completely checking out from reality email technology,
similar to Killian Murphy, right, like just not being engaged
with my phone and screens and all that kind of stuff.
That's half the half the glory I think of being
(02:37):
out there in the wilderness. But I think it just
also reminds me that I can do and actually enjoy
my life more with less that when my life is simplified,
I can actually find more piece more mental clarity, And
so I just I use it obviously, like I'm not
going to I'm not going to live out in the
(02:59):
woods a tent for the rest of my days. Are
you attempting to be a lot? I No, I'm know
Ralph Waldo Emerson like or Henry David Throw Henry. I
guess it's Throw not Emerson who lived in you know,
by Walden pond in that like ramshack hole, uh get
up that he had, but.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
He only did that for like a couple of years. Yeah,
I think like two or three years.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, I think really, when you dig in, you're like, hey,
I don't even know that he committed as hard as
he made it sound.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Like, great job with the narrative, but I don't think
you actually you didn't fully commit, right right, So.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And neither shall I. Neither shall I. But I will
take lessons away from this and just it's a good
reminder to myself that I need a whole lot less
to be happy in that and that even actually sometimes
my happiness increases when I partake of a fewer things.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Totally. I do think that that is a great general
lesson that more folks probably need to hear, right, because
we're just trying to like stuff our lives, especially with
with stuff, because you're like, you know, sleeping on a
sleeping pad and a tent. You're like, I've got way
more stuff than this at home. Yeah, But I think
for a lot of the do think that more possessions
is the it is going to be the secret to
(04:04):
their happiness. But it's not to degrade or to demote
the like that's the craft beer equivalent. It's why we
have things that we love that truly do bring us
joy and light us up. I'm curious too if so
much of you finding maybe some contentment had to do
with the fact of not how you spent your money, right,
like the fact that you've got few possessions, because that
can take a weird left turn into like minimalism. Like
(04:24):
even that in and of itself becomes this cultural aesthetic
that cost that can cost a lot of money as
opposed to how you spent your time, because you were
talking about how your conversation having some awesome conversations with
these other dudes who are doing the same thing, and
there's nothing else there, you know, Like it's just kind
of you've like stripped down to your soul and so
you're able to connect like at a deeper level, which
(04:46):
I think is the more and more countercultural thing to
do in our current modern day lives that are so
full of noise, responsibilities, different things like that.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I think I think there's a lot of truth to that.
I think it's just like, hey, connection matters more than stuf.
But then the other thing is when you have to
go to the bathroom in a hole that you dug
in the ground with a trowel, you just really appreciate
the toilet when you come back, as opposed to just
thinking toilets are normal. You're like, thank God for indoor
plumbing because that isn't that wasn't normal for most of
human history.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
That is a modern luxury. Yeah, I will take Yeah,
I'm not going to give up my toilet.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Same when you're like making food in a bag that
you bought at ARII or that kind of thing. You're
like when you get home and you have a My
buddy's wife made us a pot roast when we came back,
and it was like, it felt like the greatest thing
I'd ever eaten in my life, just because you're used
to eating something so lowly, the camp meal, and so yeah,
I guess all that stuff really factors in to make me.
(05:41):
It makes it an indelible experience that's like marked on
my person. But I also take something away from it
into normal life, and I just have a greater appreciation
for the things that maybe I at times took for
granted beforehand, it maybe often took for granted.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Provides Yeah, I could see it providing some good perspective. Yeah.
I bring that up because as I think, you know,
you're really okay, there's going to be a personal finance
element to this as well, But like, isn't that not
what we are striving towards? Like any time we talk
about being smarter with your money, and you're spending and
you're saving, and you're investing. We're we're trying to push
folks towards financial freedom, for some degree of financial independence,
(06:15):
and what is that except for the ability to have
control over your time and and the ability for us
to fill that time with things that matter more, which
is more difficult to quantify because, like you're having deeper
conversations in community relationship. These aren't things that you can
take a picture of, right, or something that you can
buy at the store that you can you can curate
(06:37):
on your fee to where you're demonstrating to other people that, oh,
I've got my life, like I've got the good life.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Right, Like a new car is not a screen grab
of an acount balance exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, it's it's harder to quantify, But truly, I think
those are the kinds of things that aren't sexy because
they're tougher to quantify, but they are the things that
I think ultimately lead to greater level what greater levels
of happiness?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Okay, let's go from existential talk to investing talk, because
how do we get this is the place where you
greater levels?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
How you get there.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Investing is part of it, right, let's do it. Has
anyone noticed, anyone out there noticed that the stock market
is doing pretty good, rightly, doing quite well. I noticed
all time highs on repeat. It feels it feels like
over over the last many months. And you know, the tariffs,
meddling with the Fed, they don't Neither of those things
seems to have had a negative impact on investors sentiment.
It's a everyone's just hitting the buy button. And this
(07:29):
has led not only to, like I said, record highs,
but record high valuations. And so the S and P
five hundred is trading at three point twenty five times earnings,
which is actually higher than it traded before the dot
com boom and bust happened. Right, So, I guess what
that means. What that signifies is that the stock market
is kind of frothy right now, and some folks are
(07:51):
starting to get nervous. Does this mean the stock market
is overvalued and then a correction is imminent? I don't know, potentially,
Like anyone's guess, it's really really hard to say. But
it's interesting to see, Matt. Even some of the people
that you and I tend to tend to look to
as really intelligent folks writing in the investing space. Like,
(08:12):
for instance, friend of the show Nick Maduli just wrote
about how he is making slight changes to his investments
because of where stocks are at from evaluation perspective. But
I found it interesting he's only making a slight change,
and the reason he gave for making the slight change
is not even because of high valuations. It's because of
his own goals are changing. There you go, He's like, Hey,
I just got married. I'm planning on buying a home soon.
(08:33):
That's why I'm actually going to change. And I'm still
eighty percent invested in stocks, but I have other goals
with some of these some of these investment dollars. So
I guess when it comes down to it, you and
I would say, yeah, correction could happen. There's a decent
chance a correction could happen, right, that's a normal part
of being an investor in the market. Sure returns could
be lower than average in the coming years, it wouldn't
(08:54):
surprise me. But if you've got a long enough timeline,
I think the advice is still to stay the course.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yes, say the course man, and I think this is
a good reminder too, that the market going up into
the right, though, we can look back at history and
see that the market does that consistently, Like if you
look at an individual month or even a year, like
I think about twenty twenty two, when the market sure
is terrible, but you look at twenty three and twenty fours,
it's like, oh, those are really good, great years. When
(09:21):
you zoom out even further, you see that the market
does consistently go up into the right, but it doesn't
do it consecutively. There are years when, yeah, you're not
going to do so well. So if you are used
to consecutive years of seeing your returns in the twenty
percent plus range, it's not always going to be that way. Yeah,
So if you do want to continue to invest, though,
(09:41):
like we would recommend and suggest that you do, which
funds should you choose? There are now more ETFs than
individual stocks these days, as Sam Row he pointed out
morning Star, they've got data and they find that you
can invest in four thousand, three hundred and seventy ETFs,
but there's always something. There's only like four and seventy
(10:02):
two individual stocks, which is kind of crazy to think that, Wait,
how can there be more ETF and there are actual
companies that make up those ETFs. Yeah. I also appreciated
there's they were analogizing it though to like, hey, there's
only how many notes ore there, like twelve notes, but
there's like millions of songs out there, or there's like
there's only so many rests or so many ingredients that
(10:23):
go into making a recipe. It's just about how you
want to slice and dice it to basically suit your
own tastes or like we're just saying, your own goals.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
And ETFs are kind of like the basket of funds
that you choose to invest in it that is the recipe. Yeah, yeah,
and you can Yeah, the number of baskets you can
create that is endless really when it comes to these
ETFs configurations.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Totally. Yeah. And it also makes me think about investing
in AI. Let's say that's something that you do want
to You're like, oh, yeah, maybe this is something I
should do well. Which are the three dozen specialty niche
ETFs that specialize in AI? Should you even choose, Joel,
are you investing in any AI funds? No?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Investing in companies that do AI? Just by fact of
investing in the s and P five hundred and thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
For proving making my point for me. Eight out of
the ten top companies that are in the SMP are
basically tech slash AI companies. In media, Microsoft Video is
like the most directly AI related, but like yeah, Google
slash out of the Amazon and Apple Tesla, these are
all companies that are leaning heavy into the AI AI space,
(11:35):
And honestly it even concerns me of how much like
back in the day, I remember thinking, no, the future
is all tech and like to that extent, a large
portion of our portfolio was Vanguard's tech ETF. But over
the years I changed my tune and move more to
the to the SMP. I even feel that way now
where I'm just like, man, the amount of weight that
is going into the tech sector, even with m SMP
(11:56):
makes me a little bit uncomfortable. But tech outperformance continue, Yeah, exactly.
So all that to say, I'm not specifically looking at
something that is AI or tech focus because the SMP
has a whole lot of that. Instead, I'm just sticking
with the general SMP and might even consider kind of
like dialing back even to a little bit more of
just the total stock market. I think too.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
What this reveals is that there's a lot of choice
out there for an investor who individual investor is trying
to figure out how to proceed when it comes to investing,
and I think that abundance of choice can actually be difficult. Right,
Like you're you see this laundry list of ETFs and
you're like, well, which sector should I invest in? And
inside of that, like which brand name ETF should I
(12:40):
be going with? And like it can feel really overwhelming,
and it's like, I think ETFs. I would love for ETFs.
I love that companies can launch whatever ones that they want,
But in a lot of ways, I wish that for
individual investors it looked more like Aldi, where you walk
in and you're like, there's just fewer choices.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
I've eliminated eliminated that paradox of choice.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
So you just have to create figure out which ETFs
make the most sense for you, and that can be difficult.
So we suggest low cost, well diversified ETFs. And so, Matt,
the one that you're fond of have been talking about
for years VU, I love VU. That's a great one
to consider. F z Rocks from Fidelity. F z r
(13:20):
o X is the symbol is another great fund to
consider for especially for people in the wealth building phase
of their lives. But just know that there's like a
billion tways is out there essentially for you when it
comes to investing, but only a few that really make
a lot of sense. Are the really or even all
that necessary?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Totally another bad investing move, well, that might be forgetting
about your account altogether. USA today they report that there
is something like one point seven trillion dollars that's lost
currently in four oh one k accounts. The average lost
four one K balance is over fifty thousand dollars, which
you might be thinking, how is that possible? It's like
(14:00):
misplaced in your car or something.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
It's not just like the the change in the couch cushions.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
This is this far surpasses Yeah. But that being said,
you know it could have been an account from years
ago that was worth maybe a lot less at that
point in time. Certainly it's grown over time due to compounding. Right,
it's basically been working in the background on autopilot. And
I would say, if there is even a small chance
that you meet that you might be one of these folks,
head over to Unclaimed Retirement Benefits DOT com and you
(14:28):
can see if essentially you're like, oh wait a minute,
a forge, Yeah, yeah, there's there's this. I had a
four one K going on that I wasn't even contributing to.
My employer was taking care of it for me. We
just want to make sure that you are entitled to
all of your money that might be floating out there.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
And give him how much we're talking about, like, it's
what did you say? It's like a fifth, a quarter
or something of all four one k money is in
these I.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Didn't say that, but I think that was in that art.
Yeah as well, it's crazy to think it's that much.
That is also beginning. Yeah, it's also an estimate, so
it's not like they have quantified every single one of
these dollars. These are estimates, but even still, the fact
that some of these estimates are that high makes me,
It makes me cringe a little bit. I feel bad
for all this folks on one hand. On the other hand,
(15:11):
I'm also a little actually kind of okay with it
because it tells me that these folks have been treating
their retirement dollars like they should, like you basically want
to almost have forgotten about it, not forgotten about it
so much that you actually forget that it exists.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, you still want access to those dollars in your
retirement years. So at Capitalized actually is a company that
we've talked about who can help you do rollovers for free. Well,
they can also help you find lost retirement accounts. We'll
link to that in the show notes. But yeah, if
you're like, I think I had a four one K
back in the day, I'm not sure. Given the incredible numbers,
(15:46):
the overall amount of outstanding four one K dollars that
people might have forgotten about, it's worth just worth doing
a search. All right, let's talk about let's talk about
hard work. Most Americans these days don't seem to think
that hard work pays off the ways that it used to.
This is according to a New Wall Street Journal survey.
So pessimistic beliefs they continue to increase, as something like
(16:08):
seventy percent of Americans they just don't believe or maybe
never believed, that working harder is going to help you
achieve the American dream. So in the year two thousand,
the opposite was true. It's like seventy five plus percent
of people thought that, yeah, if I work harder I
can achieve the American dream. Even as recently as two
thousand and five, it was a vast majority of people saying, yeah,
(16:29):
I also believe that. But for some reason the numbers
have become diametrically opposed, and a lot fewer people believe
that their life can be better than the one that
their parents lived. I don't know about you, but it's
kind of hard for me to pinpoint a specific reason
for this lack of hope. I think maybe higher prices
is part of that inflation. People feel like everything costs more,
(16:51):
and maybe my raises haven't been keeping up with that,
and so that does feel demoralizing, which I get, especially
when you're talking about home prices and younger generations who
are saying I would like to own a home, feels
like it's never going to happen given the current climate,
and then just general worry about the future. That seems
to be kind of maybe at the crux of I
totally agree of how people are feeling, and I think
(17:14):
we have to point out that it is true that
the economy has pain points for a lot of people.
It's not like the economy is humming along, working incredibly
for everyone. We talk about record highs. Well, there's a
significant number of Americans who don't have any money invested
in the stock market, so they're not feeling the benefits.
They're not feeling that massive net worth increase that people
(17:35):
who have been consistently investing have been seeing. And it
is true also that hard work alone doesn't necessarily mean
you're going to get meaningful results and build a whole
lot of wealth. But I think it's crucial to find
a way to provide value right in order to increase
your compensation, not just to work your butt off. It's
a little bit of both. But I also think that
pessimism can be this self fulfilling prophecy, and despite headwinds,
(17:58):
it's still really possible to live a great life and
to build wealth in this country. So I think very possible.
Seeing seeing these numbers just kind of, I don't know,
made me sad.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah, I think this is an instance too where if
it bleeds, it leads right, Like this is the negative
headline it made, you know, it made the rounds. I'm
sure a lot of folks have maybe heard folks refer
to it. But like and I hate to be like
the old man yelling at the sky. But like, I
feel like this could be love it. I feel like
this could be an instance too to where we're just
spending too much time online. Yeah, like we like I
don't want to make everything about smartphones, but we're sitting
(18:26):
there on our devices. We're too online. We're being endlessly entertained,
We're endlessly scrolling, and even the very act of scrolling
without having as we're getting sucked into the algorithm. Like
that is just this discipline destroyer as opposed to getting
out there kicking butt, trying to find a way to
and it feels made your life better. It feels like
everyone else has a better life than us when we're scrolling,
(18:47):
you know, because guess what's the part of the algorithm?
Because guess what, That's exactly how I feel when I scroll. Ye,
And that's why I try to avoid it, because I
know what happens to me when I scroll. I think
other people are living their best life and I'm over
here living an average one. Yep, you don't want to
get sucked into that man, as opposed to the folks
who are actually out there taking risks. And I do
think like a part of the uncertainty, especially that we've
experienced over the past five years has led to like,
(19:10):
when there's uncertainty, you're just not sure what's what the
future holds, and so I think you are less likely
to take risks. But this reminds me of an article
I saw about gen Z entrepreneurs, because they're the ones
out there who are taking those risks, like working their
butts off, and specifically they're also trying to avoid the
office jobs that come with just a two percent anal
race in search of something that's more energizing, something that's
(19:31):
a bit more lucrative. High school grads, they are less
interested in paying for that two hundred thousand dollars degree
and instead or hopping into the workforce early, whether it's
this article documented folks becoming real estate agents, which is
a bit tougher to do right now, opting for specialized
like the trade work, basically like blue collar work, which man,
(19:53):
I totally appreciate this, you know, the enterprising nature that
gen Z seems to be reviving. I think the crucial
way to make sure the American dream works for you
is to avoid the major traps, right Like, you want
to zig while everyone else is zagging. And if the
college and you know, buying a home route. If those
paths are going to be too expensive, if it's going
to tie you down, well that's when you have the
(20:15):
opportunity to create a different dream that doesn't involve those things.
And that is the reason why I still think that
the US is still the best place for you to
essentially blaze your own trail.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
It's better than the vast majority of the rest of
the world. And I think maybe two people assume when
we're talking about the American dream that it has to
look like this stock American lifestyle. I think the American
dream can look like whatever you wanted to look like.
That's what we're saying here, that's what's cool about it. Yeah,
it doesn't have to look like the four bedroom, three
bathroom house with the white pick offence. I think for
some people that is their dream, and maybe it's harder
(20:48):
to achieve that now that it has been in the past.
But for other people, it's living that van life right
and traveling around the country, which has in many ways
become easier than ever before to pull off. And I
guess I wonder if that's maybe some of the pessimism
too revealed in this survey. Is like, well, I can't
live that classic suburban nineteen sixties sort of lifestyle that
(21:10):
my parents lived, but maybe your American dream can look better,
just different, because I do think that people's hopes and
aspirations have actually changed. What people want out of life
has changed, since I think.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
You're saying basically, do you even want that? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:24):
And I love I love to see because I think
gen Z there's a lot of you know, intergenerational picking
but okay, boomer, that kind of sort of thing. But
I love that gen Z seems to be taking this
tact where they're kind of grabbing life by the reins
and they're saying.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
By the horns.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yeah, I think a lot of people are like but
I was told to get the college degree and it
was really expensive, and now I find myself in a
place where it's harder for me to achieve the American dream.
And I get that, and that's a difficult position to
be in. But I also thought, I love that gen
Z is kind of starting to question those things out
of the gate and saying no, no, no, no. I think
what I want is this, and I don't necessarily need
the college education to get there, and so not that
(22:01):
not that college is bad or that everyone should avoid.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
It, But I just it's worth asking the question.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
That's worth asking the question, and it's worth thinking a
little differently. Gen Z seems to be to be doing that,
to kind of be responding to the incentives that are
out there and the costs that are that are being
placed on us. And if we can, like you said,
zig when other people are zagging, I think we can
live that American dream, even it doesn't look like the
classic idealized version totally.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Joel, You've got more. He gets to we're gonna talk
about when might be the best time to book some
upcoming travel that you've got planned for later the year.
Gets to that plus more. Right after this, our Matt,
we're back. It's time for the ludicrous headline of the week.
(22:47):
This one comes from Business Insider, and it says, customer
loyalty is a sham.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
True words, a sham.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Never been spoken. It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I do think that it's a ludicrous in a good way.
There are some ways right in which being loyal can
benefit you in many aspects of life.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
About like the punch cards you just want, like your
free ice cream.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Yeah, although my local ice cream shop changed ownership and
they don't don't do the punch cards anymore, which the
one where they mix it all together, no gone gone
or the punch card.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I've got like three of those. Well, the problem is
that they would always just initial it. It seems very unofficial,
super smudgy and yeah, as opposed to having some like
custom bespoke puncher with.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
You know, right, it's hard. It's a lot harder to
forge that.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
I'm very sad to hear that they're doing doing away
with the customer loyalty cards. You weren't cheating the loyalty
card system, Okay, I'm upstanding, honest citizen and consumer.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
I know that to be true. Okay, but so so
sorry to hear about that can result in free ice
cream at least it used to be able to and
the only upside right, But companies, as it turns out,
love loyal customers.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
They love it.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
They want your loyals. We're on the customer side, right,
But us, we as customers, might be getting the short
end of the stick because often they don't offer better
perks because we're loyal. In fact, they take advantage of
our loyalty. So the longer you continue doing business with
a particular retailer or a particular store, particular business, the
(24:13):
more you're likely to pay. So if you're too loyalty
your insurance company, for instance, your premiums are probably going
to be higher than they otherwise should be. Classic example,
sometimes people are like, man, got dropped by my insurance company.
I'm paying with them for twenty five years. They don't
care about you because they don't care that you were loyal.
You cared about your loyalty, they didn't. If you only
fly one airline, for instance, Matt, I've met many of
(24:34):
these people who are like, hey, help me find a deal,
but I only fly this airline and I only fly
on these specific dates. And I'm like, yeah, that's really
hard to find a deal that way. Then, And if
you only fly one airline, you're regularly paying too much
for tickets. You're beholden to their loyalty program, even though
it's not as beneficial as shopping around and saving money.
If you stick with one of the big banks, your
savings rate suffers. Right, There's an endless litany of examples
(24:56):
I can give here where loyalty is actually costing you.
And that's with this article was pointing out shopping around
and switching it can feel like a chore, but twenty
bucks a month or whatever it is, it really can
add up. Matt, I was just talking with a friend
and he was telling me how much he was spending
on cell phone service. And I was like, well, I'm
with US Mobile, just letting you know, here's how much
(25:16):
I pay. And he was like, wow, man, I just
ran the numbers. I thought I was getting like free
iPhones and stuff from my carrier. But even even when
I factor in buying my own iPhone, I'm going to
save more than one hundred dollars a month for my
family by switching cell phone service. And so he switched immediately.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
He did it.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
He got rid of the loyalty to the company he'd
been with for a long time and went with one
of the new upstarts. He's consumer success to consumer success story.
Those are the kind of things I think most of
us don't question though. We're just kind of like, we
keep doing the thing we've been doing, and ye we
prize that loyalty. The companies that we do business with don't.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
That's that maintaining the status quo, that's that inertia bias.
Which is totally natural, right, Like, I think it's totally
natural to want to see consistency in life because sort
of like we were just talking about entrepreneurship, when you
can look ahead and you it feels like you have
a rough idea of what the future holds, then that
allows you to make other pivots, make other measured risks
(26:09):
that tend to lead to let's say, entrepreneurship or or
something that you otherwise would not have partaken in. But
when everything feels like it's up in the air, I
think sometimes you can be I don't know, you're just
a little less prone to take some of those risks.
And so we seek that consistency in lots of areas
in life, and it's not just a chore.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Even if it's working against us.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah, even well, that's the thing I think some folks
are used to kind of like that slow like letting
of blood as opposed to like ripping the baniond aid
off and making the switch. But I'm glad that your
buddy was able to do that. Another company that you
might not want to be loyal to is your home
internet provider, and you can realize similar savings there because
back in the day. There used to be basically zero options.
(26:50):
You just had the local cable company. But that has
changed at least a little bit, largely in things to
the different cell phone companies out there who are offering
the five G at home service. This isn't something that
I've personally paid for or taken advantage of, Joel, but
it does mean that there are more opportunities to save,
and it's just like.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Another challenger in the mix, right.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Well, competition, Yeah, the open market. It's a good thing.
And some of the different companies out there are offering
multi year price locks, which is got me looking twice.
So T Mobile specifically, they've got this thirty five dollars
a month plan for five years, and normally I would
I don't know, I'm not the one to take the bait,
but then I saw the five years a part and
(27:30):
I thought, wait a minute, that's pretty good. That's got
me looking at the coverage map. I'm just like, okay,
what is it? All right? I got the ultra I'm
in the ultra zone, baby, that's what That's what you need. Downside,
I think you might have to go with the T
Mobile service in order to fully take advantage of that
low offering. Yeah, so what fifty bucks? Otherwise maybe I can't.
I can't remember off the top of my head, but
(27:51):
it's worth considering because I think if you can do
a little bit of exploring, you got to shop around,
you can potentially save a ton of money by making
the switch. And I think there's a chance to the
fact that that's even being offered. You know, if you
are in a zone that has that as an option,
you might be able to even reach out to your
current cable provider, let them know what the current competition
(28:12):
with they're advertising, and you can even potentially get your
current rate lord without having to go through all the
rigama role of switching.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Providerscent Yeah, just like, hey, I'm finding a better deal elsewhere.
I'm thinking about it and see what they say. Uh yeah,
just I guess, don't be too loyal or too priced
insensitive exactly on your hands? Wait exactly they're saving to
be had, Matt, Are you and I are we too
loyal to Amazon Prime?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
That's I don't think so, No, Okay, I do. I
wish I try to always price shop and price compared.
I will say so. Specifically, Walmart is one of the
other big big, heavy hitters, and the app just isn't
as good. If you're searching for something, it'll pull up
like five thousand different results, and I feel like I'm
buying some sort of bootleg shampoo from China or something
(28:57):
like that, as opposed to what it feels like slight,
a slightly more walled garden where it's a bit more curated.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
I think that a little extra lead in your hair
follicles is actually good for you. Oh yeah, can you
can you tell? Yeah's adding some more volume? Uh huh?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
So I just wasn't that Dinner X. Dinner X back
in the day is like a dander rough shampoo and
it used to. They're like, you can you can tell
it's working because you can feel it tingle. But then
like it had like coal tar, Oh really or something
crazy like that was terrible. Yeah, I'm like, how is
there not some sort of class action lawsuit? Again?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
I don't remember the shampoo at all, but I remember
because I remember my dad using it. I remember as
like a six year old trying it one time, and
I'm just like, it burned.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Dad, don't use that shampoo anymore. Well, sorry, I asked
a question about Amazon Prime because you and I have
done the household sharing. Yeah, we have because there was nothing,
no rule against it, kind of like Netflix used to
allow you to share passwords. In fact, in many ways
they encouraged it. Some of the other streaming services did
the same. Now that's not in vogue. They're cracking down
(29:57):
on a password sharing. Amazon is similarly cracked down on
the household sharing policy. Now you can only do the
sharing if that person actually lives under your roof. So yeah,
I guess you and I now need to consider our
relationship to Amazon and whether or not we want to
pony up for our individual Prime memberships every year instead
of splitting the cost.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah, that's true. I had a quick conversation with my
wife and she's pretty convinced that we're not going to
be getting rid of I will say Amazon is really
smart because they're dangling the carrot and they're saying, hey,
is it fifteen bucks that's being offered for up until
the end of the year for your first year. Yeah,
and so for the folks out there who haven't been
directly paying, it's just smart. Is they're just as opposed
(30:38):
to I don't know, it's an easier transition to turn
in the screws real tight exactly. So in that part,
I think Amazon's being pretty smart. So it feels like
the cool weather is here. You hear folks talking about
the pumpkins spice slote, even though the heat waves across
the US feel like they've only recently subsided.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Oh, we're not gonna it's been hot. It has been,
but finally a little bit of cool weather. And I
don't drink pumpkins spice matt iVOD it like the plague.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
I certainly do as well. We're gonna jump, gonna jump
right over a personal badge of honor. Cozy season goes
straight to winter. We're gonna talk about the holidays here,
which feels maybe a little bit inappropriate, but of course
it's a smart thing to do, not just when it
comes to Christmas gifts, where we want folks saving all
year round.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Right like, start checking on that, thinking, finally.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
That's something you started back in January, but also when
it comes to traveling around the holidays. That's what we're
talking about here, because if you are planning on flying,
let's say, to see a family or to see friends,
it might be time to start looking at prices, it
might be time to start setting the airfare alerts because
the top match booking days to pay the lowest possible
(31:40):
price just around the bend, potentially even mid to late September.
Of course, try to have flexible dates. That's what's going
to allow you to save the most. But just keep
that in mind. It's gonna be here before you know it.
You can head over to Google Flights use that to
your advantage as well. Monitor prices even after you book.
If maybe it's something you've already knocked out, but if
(32:02):
you see prices drop, you might be able to cancel,
get a refund, rebook that same the same flight, or
that same travel for even less money.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
That's what I'm doing with a hotel room. Then I'm
gonna be for New York next month for a quick
little trip because.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
You dropped the prices on that Jennet.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Well, prices went up and I had not booked yet,
and so I'm super bumped. So I'm pivoted to a
cheaper hotel for the time being, but I'm still still
got my eyes on the hotel that I would like
to stay at. It's like right out of a Wes
Anderson movie and I want to stay back there.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Oh, is that you're talking about the ship one, the
one the maritime that's got the round windows.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Yes, it's awesome. It's like I love that hotel so much,
but it's quite expensive. And so if price is dropped,
she should talk about loyalty. If price is drop, I'm
not being loyal If price is drop, I'll go back.
If prices don't drop, I'm switching to the other.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I'm not going to do it right.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
But the same is true for booking your flights in particular.
Be ready to pounce when you see a deal. And
Google's so great on the Google Flight features to tell
you kind of hey, this is normal pricing for right now,
or this is you know, a pretty good deal, you
should jump on it. I love how they kind of
help you in that decision making process. Google Flights also
recently announced an AI based deal feature that they just launched.
(33:15):
It's called flight Deals and it's in beta right now,
beta testing. And this is I think great for folks
who aren't sure where they want to go, but they
want to get a pretty sweet deal. They just want
to travel some more awesome and they don't want to
pay a ton of money. To do it, and Matt,
this goes right in line with our ethos for travel.
It's like, hey, don't figure out where you want to travel,
(33:37):
figure out where it's cheap to travel to, and then say, yeah,
I guess that looks pretty cool. Let me look into
it and book a place that's inexpensive and allow that
to kind of guide you when it comes to your
destinations that you pick, it means you're going to spend
a whole lot less on travel and maybe even be
able to travel travel more, or you increase your budget
(33:59):
in other possible parts of your travel. Maybe it's the
craft breweries you're going to, right, you can spend more
on the craft beer if you spend less on the flight.
So you can go to Google dot com slash flights,
slash deals, and man, I was just there checking it out,
seeing what kind of good deals they had. And Greece
round trip for less than five hundred bucks in October.
(34:20):
Greese wasn't on my radar. I don't think I can
put another trip into my calendar this year. This is
not going to do happen for me, not going.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
To swing it.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
No, But I was like percolating, you know, and it's like,
that's a great deal to a really cool place. Not
gonna happen for me right now, but I'm gonna I'm
gonna use this service and see if it can help
me find.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
So that was over the future. That was so, that
was the existing Did you say that was at the
deals the deal's page whatever?
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Yeah, okay, yeah, Google dot Com slash flights, slash deals.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Nice. I will say, so I explored the new beta
AI Google Flight deals page or whatever. What was the
the gymnasts Kayla Moroni or whatever. The I'm not impressed.
The silver Medalist you were impressed. I was not impressed
because it just seemed like it was essentially the Google
Explorer feature right where you're in a different in a
(35:08):
different way, and that's where display and that's the part
of me that is so I don't want to say disappointed,
but like, I feel like there's just so much hype
around AI and someone like Google saying, oh, come check out.
They're touting their AI Travel Explorer thing, but it's basically
taking the Explore results and they're repackaging it. It feels less
like magic and more like a formatting change essentially, which
(35:32):
I get because I think that's the part of it
that we are drawn to this I don't know, little
AI right here, like like we like stories, like we
like other people, and so it's fun to talk to
something or somebody else that feels like another person. And
so when AI is just like, yeah, let me look
into that for you. Oh, this is what I found.
What do you think would you like me to do this?
You feel like you're connecting to somebody else, like you
(35:53):
have a digital butler exactly, And it's great, but I
don't know. I don't want to get folks too excited
about this, And of course it's in. It's in, so
I wouldn't go over there and expect to find more
amazing deals than what you could previously find.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
But who knows, maybe it'll get better, maybe it'll be
superior to and if.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
So, then I am all for it. Yeah, but uh,
it's just a small critique within the AI landscape.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yeah, not to take it back to AI. It does
sometimes feel like it's AI everything and you're just like,
all right.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
In some ways, I do think it'll be a little home. Yeah,
it'll be great, But this is an instance where it
just feels like repackaging of something that they're already doing.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
All right, Matt, let's touch briefly on tariffs before we departed.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Let's get political.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
We've tried tried to not talk about it. We had
to talk about it for a while and then we
were like, everyone's talking about it, let's not talk about
it too much. But the legality of top down tariff
mandates from the White House, it's kind of been questionable
from the beginning, like does the President have the authority
to just willy nilly, say fifty percent tariffs on India,
(36:54):
ten percent tariffs, fifteen percent tariffs on the EU, or
is that really the job of Congress to establish tariff policy?
And so a federal appeals court has ruled that President
Trump does not have the sole authority to tariff nations
as he wishes, and so tariffs are actually going to
remain in place for the time being. The Trump administration
is hoping that the Supreme Court will weigh in soon.
(37:16):
And when you look at kind of all the talk
about tariffs, well, it feels like the bark has been
worse than the bite. They've yet to have this major
impact on US consumers. We haven't seen price increases to
the point that many people predicted. I don't think that
means that they're not going to cause real waves if
they are allowed to remain intact stick around. So much
depends on how big the tariffs are, and especially the
(37:38):
longer they remain, some of that front loading that companies
were doing goes away, and we will start to see
some of those price increases. But whether or not the
tariffs are allowed to remain, that remains to be seen,
and we will you and I will keep following, keep
talking about it here on the show.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Totally. Yeah, this is an instance to where there does
not seem to be some sort of like golden thread
that runs through any sort of current administration ideology, right
Like it just feels more like grasping out straw is
because what's also what else is in the headlines? Well,
there's a lot of things in the headlights, but there's
all so much pressure to get the FED to lower rates.
But if these terraffs actually stick around, prices are likely
(38:15):
to go up. Inflation kicks in, which means that there's
a higher likelihood of rates staying high. So it's almost
as if the terriff's going away. Would it seems like
this might be the best thing for our actual economy,
because things would go things would blow up because we're
guaranteeing that prices aren't going to be unduly raised because
of these additional tariff slash taxi.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
If all the tariff threats and realities went away tomorrow,
just think what would happen to the stock market.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
It would be pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Yeah, it would be, and there'd be a lot more
certainty for businesses and for consumers. But we'll see where
things land with all this because we will court rulings.
All right, Matt, that's going to do it. For this episode,
we should give a newsletter shout out to a couple
of folks who refer to their friends to the how
Many newsletters and you can sign up at how money
(39:01):
dot com slash newsletter. But Peter w and d Wilts,
we appreciate you letting other folks know about the about
the newsletter. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
That's right, and that's gonna be it. We hope everyone
has a fantastic weekend. We'll see you back here on Monday, buddy.
Until next time, Best friends out, Best Friends Out.
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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