September 26, 2025 • 38 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:
- Coffee tariffs
- Avoiding the import tax
- Just in case financial planning
- Startup investing
- Investing like Nance
- Quitting quarterly earnings
- Consumer caste system
- Vegas surge pricing
- Noble Mobile
- Credit scores crashing
- A better scoring model?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to HATA Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and today
we're talking just in case planning, consumer cast systems, and
credit scores crashing. That's right, buddy.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
This is our Friday Flight, a little collection of some
of the best headlines out there, the ones that pertain
to your personal finances.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We hope everyone has had a good week so far. Yeah,
it's been a good one for me, Matt. Nice and
lovely weather, although still too hot. I'm ready for real fall.
Come on, yeah, real fall, let's pick it come soon.
Let's protest? Can we can you protest that? Yeah? Why not?
Who listens? You can protest anything? Yeah, that's true. Okay,
So one thing I wanted to highlight a smart financial
(00:56):
move my daughter made the other Day's kind of like
a small thing. But you're like, ah, man, they're learning,
they're listening. But she by the dip. She bought the dip. Nice. No, nice, Alma. No,
she's not investing yet. I'm investing on her behalf in
five point nine plans, which might turn in the Rath
dollar someday. We'll see. But no, what she did, this
is a little shopping decision she made. She and my
wife Emily. They stopped by a vented shop after school.
(01:20):
There's a cool little vented shop that's not I know,
which is the one you run past? Yeah, right all
the time. I've actually never stopped foot in there. But
they keep putting stuff out, like out onto the curb,
and it keeps catching my eye and I'm like, I
need to go check that out. I step in when
I get tired of running it, and then they're like,
you're sweaty, get out of here. So she went in
there and she saw an old cabbage patch doll. And
if you don't know what a cabbage patch doll is
(01:41):
like old, look it up.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Old school, like one of the ogs from the eighties. Yes,
I'm assuming that's when they were initially. Oh yeah berthed right, yes, no,
you can actually go. We went this spring back to
the cabbage patch right what they call the nursery, general
hospital or whatever it is. Yeah, and cabbage patch doll
get get birthed from a tree.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
It's a weird like that's exactly how they do it. Yep, yep,
just like that. That's how you were made. Son. Uh, Well,
I had one of these dolls when I was growing up.
Do you wanna do you want to venture a guess
as to what my cabbage patch doll's name was? You
had an actual cabbach. I thought they were mostly for
the little girl. Some boys have them too, I really did.
I didn't know that. Don't shame me. I thought the
(02:24):
boy dolls were. I liked him the my buddies, you
remember my buddy that might have been after the cabbage
I don't know wherever I go he goes. And then
they came out with a kid's sister of the next year.
Oh that's right, Yeah, kids sister. They have boy cabbage
patch dolls. And okay, I've got all the accessories and
stuff my cabbage patch Yeah no, no clue. Dick Rubin Okay,
(02:45):
that's a great name for a cabbage patch doll, isn't it.
Is he also like a hip hop art I think
my mom still has Is he a producer? For sure?
For sure? He was a mobile multi media mobile. Okay,
But so mine was named Rick Ross. So back to
my story, I had a cabbage Patch stal This runs
in the family. It's this place in Georgia, rural Georgia.
You can go you can actually see the cabbage patch dolls.
(03:07):
But Selma sees the vintage one and she's like, I
want this nice, And she's like, you know what, though,
I'm not sure how much I want this. I think
it was twenty five dollars. Do I want it? Twenty
five dollars.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Kind of pricey for an old doll Yeah, no, it
it is, but I guess like the vintage ones actually
go for more, and the new ones are actually kind
of expensive.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Like we went in the spring, I was like, oh much, really,
I forget they have different tears, right, So some of
them were like fifty bucks and some of them were
like one hundred and fifty bucks. They got really expensive.
That twenty five bucks actually seems reasonable based on we saw.
And so she was like, I'm gonna, actually, mom, can
we come back tomorrow. I'm going to think it over.
So she instituted the twenty four hour rule to decide
(03:46):
whether or not she actually wanted to spend twenty five
bucks on this doll She did go back the next day.
She bought it. She's glad she did it, but that
only like confirms I think that she made the right move.
She waited it out to see, and this is I
think something more of us should be saying I want
that thing, but how bad do I want it? I
don't know. Let me sleep on it, and I don't
think I'll go back to that website or I'll go
(04:07):
back to that store tomorrow. And I realized that can
be inconvenient sometimes, but it will in all likelihood prevent
us from making some poor choices that we come to
regret later on. Yep, I think that's awesome. I think, yeah,
I totally agree.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
More of us should implement that, like a cool down
period where we just like step away from the item,
rethink our life choices exactly. So I was like, I
was proud of her. Yeah, you should be a man.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
But hey, let's talk about is this related at all?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
No, it's not related. No segue here, Let's talk about
tariffs the generally speaking. I feel like the impact of
teriffs on the American economy it's been muted, at least
so far, but we are starting to see some price increases,
including a recent inflation uptick that seems to be connected.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
To tariff policy.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I think that's one of the concerns that the FED
had when it came to lowering rates, is that.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Oh, But on one hand.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
We're seeing inflation maybe start to take back up. But
on the other hand, I think they're certainly more concerned
with the soft job market.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
It's the needle they have to threat because they have
that tool mandate. It's a tough, tough job, I think.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
But the Supreme Court they're going to hear the case
four in the case against tariff mandates by the President soon.
But specifically, if you like coffee, I would pray for
a quick end to the tariff policy madness. Fifty percent
terariffs have been imposed against Brazil. These were implemented for
largely political and for relational reasons, but they have led
(05:30):
to quick run ups in the cost of raw beans
coffee beans.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We get something like a third of our coffee beans
from Brazil in particular, so that's gonna have a big
implant impact on the market.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
It's is it the Robusto genus or whatever oly beans?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Or is it which are those better or worse? I forget?
Or is it the Arab, Arabic or Arabica. I think
those are the superior beans. Yeah, I forget.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
My favorite beans come from Ethiopia, So oh, what's the
terrific against Ethiopia? I should looked that up no idea
right now, it's probably like ninety per.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
It's probably changed sixteen times in the past few months,
that's true.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
But generally speaking, we've seen price increases of twenty percent
or so on coffee beans. Prices could obviously get even higher.
But I think this means we're gonna start We're gonna
have to start making some you know, Like folks are
always like, oh, should I take my luncheon? It seems
like such a pedestrian move right, Like it's not very
a very attractive thing as opposed to like going out
to eat. But this is a case where I think
(06:25):
making a cup of coffee at home it's going to
become more and more attractive. And coffee specifically is just
an example of something that we can't really produce here
in the United States. The coffee beans that we make
are of genus tarrapicus. Yeah like that, but I don't
want to Hawaii. It doesn't make it home solid.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Why that's right, But not enough to fill all our
cups in the morning in Hawaiian coffee.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So they're all keep they're keeping all the really good
stuff for themselves. They send over like the partially ten
percent comans.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah, I brought you back some real hundred percent Hawaiian coffee,
and it was I told you it was quite expensive,
so demired, I must really like you if I brought
back one hundred percent? Do you really like me? Yeah?
I really appreciate it. I brewed. I brewed the heck
out of that coffee. It is. It is just shocking
how and I guess it makes sense why it's so
expensive there, and it's it's just much cheaper in some
(07:14):
other countries. But I guess I'm going to be angling
maybe for some Costa Rican coffee mat instead of Brazilian coffee.
But it's going to impact the entire coffee market. And
then has got some good stuff. Specifically, there's some single
origin from ald oh Man. I don't even think about that.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
You can specifically choose. I've never thought about the single
origin stuff though. There's from a tariff's perspective, and so
there's there's a Peru Costa Rica they've got oh Man.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, the Brazilian coffee is going to be a luxury
good soon.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I'm curious if they've seen those sell out, because folks
are one of those prices are holding steady and therefore
just driving demand, let's just reduce in the supply of
the coffee on the actual shelves.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Fascinating. It is so fast, it's crazy, all the domino
effect of the tariffs, and then write the on that note,
like the ex inventory that many US companies had purchased,
it is starting to run thin, which means that new
orders are going to cost individuals more because of these terraffs.
And I don't see a way in which most of
the price increases are not going to be passed on
(08:13):
to customers. There have been like some people saying, oh, well,
maybe the companies are just gonna eat the tariffs and
they're not going to pass on price hikes, but that,
especially in low margin industries, that's just not possible. And
so like shoe companies are are one example of a
sector that is now feeling the price hikes with each
order that they place. And other companies now are being
(08:35):
accused of evading tariffs by undervaluing imports. So it just
kind of creates a bunch of crummy reactions right where
companies feel like they have to try to minimize the
impact of tariffs by lying about the value of the
of the goods that their import.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Under reporting the goods. So yeah, yeah, I saw that
whirlpool specifically. It was accusing some of the figures like, hey,
how like we've seen some significant declines on some of
these guys, but they're the same number of boat what's
coming across what's going on here?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, yeah, which I get. It feels starts to feel unfair.
And then you know, another surprise bill that's hitting individual
consumers directly is coming from online shopping. It's becoming more
of a regular currents that you get like a bill
after the fact that you weren't expecting. Many international post
offices and companies are suspending shipping to the US for
the time being. That there's this little Australian boutique, clothing
(09:24):
boutique that Emily likes and I got something for a
while back, and I went back to their site just
to check it out, and they were like, hey, guess what,
for the time being, we're not shipping to the United
States at all until we kind of figure out what's
going on with the tariffs. And it is just this
continual moving target that they have found it safest to
cut themselves off from even selling to American citizens, So
be careful buying internationally until more clarity comes on these tariffs.
(09:47):
But I just hope even if tariff policy remains somewhat
in place, that we just kind of settle on something
and it's not a whack a mole sort of thing anymore. Yah.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, No, I think that's one of the biggest implications.
Like on an individual level, it leads to and they
cided different stories of folks who were getting Yeah, they're
getting slapped with like these tariff bills that weren't paid
at the port. And so therefore you as the consumer
before it's like, hey, you can either pay for this
now or once you receive the item, you can pay
for it right there on the spot. And that's just
(10:17):
going to lead to people not making these purchases. And
so as individuals it decreases expenses and small business owners
from a small business standpoint, you don't invest because you
are uncertain what the future holds. And ultimately, eventually, at
some point, this is going to lead to the economy
grinding to a halt as folks are kind of like,
what is about to happen because there is no uncertainty.
(10:38):
And I'm sure that's something that that the current administration
is wanting to avoid. Actually, that's one of the reasons
why why Trump was pushing so hard for the rate cuts,
because what does that do. It juices the economy, right,
and so that allows him, I think a little more
runway to be able to use these terrors from a
political negotiation standpoint. As to whether or not he will succeed,
(10:59):
we shall see. But on a related personal finance note CNN,
they were advocating for a just in case financial plan,
and they contend that with this economic uncertainty that we're
all experiencing, that it's wise to have plans for unpleasant
potential scenarios. And some folks might find that to be depressing,
but I think the exact opposite. I think the more
(11:21):
that you can game plan these different nasty scenarios that
might unfold, the easier it's going to be to prepare.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
So what that.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Means is keep an eye on your expenses. I would say,
to check your insurance, make sure that you are properly
insured and certainly well I guess this goes with expenses,
but make sure we talk about a bare bones budget.
That is something that we highly suggest. We've heard that
thing back up, We've dedicated an entire episode. I forget
what number it is, but I'll link to it in
the show notes for this episode when we talked about
(11:49):
what a bare bones budget is. But also from and
from an investing standpoint, you might want to think through
how you would react to just a big stock market
drops and just make sure that you are invested accordingly
that you can if you've got a long enough runway,
all right, I can handle the volatility, the ups and
the downs.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
But maybe not.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
If you are close closer to retirement, or if you
are an early retiree. But ultimately, I think just in case,
financial plan is something that you hope you don't have
to use, but it is a smart exercise and it's
certainly great to have when the need arises. It's like
having that first aid kit. You don't get it thinking
like I can't wait to use this. You get it thinking,
(12:31):
all right, this is something that's I'm going to have
on hand because I'm gonna I am an adult and
I want to be prepared.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
So that makes me think of when we were. When
I was in the woods a couple months ago with
some of my friends and a rock hit the Achilles
of one of one of the guys on the trip,
and it was pretty nasty. But we had fortunately a
nurse practitioner with us, and of course he had all
the proper accouterments, and someone else had brought some whiskey
(12:59):
that you could pour on to disinfect the wound. It
was a waste of whiskey, but it actually worked out.
It was good.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I would have been like, no, that's fine, pretty sure,
there's no nasty germs on the rock.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
We're in the middle of nowhere, right, yeah, which he
probably would have been fine. But man, having that needle
and thread and sewing it up while, I mean, it
was pretty awesome to watch. I can't lie. Yeah, but
just that, yeah, that being prepared, right, having it just
in case. He was like, most every other time I've
gone out in the woods, I've never needed this. I've
always had it, and I've just never used it before.
This was the first time. It makes makes think of
(13:31):
another friend who.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Makes it makes me before you move on. It makes
me wonder if folks who are in the medical industry,
and in particular first responders, EMTs. It makes me wonder
if they tend to be more financially prepared, because if
that's how you approach your work and how you sort
of see physical activity and the risks involved there. I mean,
certainly it would be very easy to translate that into
(13:53):
your personal finances.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
It also makes me think of a friend who, by
the way, when he goes to a restaurant, he's always
like game planning. One of some bad dude comes in
here and you know, starts making threats or whatever, like
what's what am I gonna do? Is there table I
can kick cober and hide behind? Is there an exit
quick to my left or something like that? And I
think I always kind of laugh at that, but I.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Was gonna say that was me until you talked about
the table, because, like I got I also always do that,
like whenever kid and I, like we went out for
a date night last night, and I always prefer the
seat where I can see the front door, because if
someone comes in there and it's act at all acts,
it all crazy.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I want to be able to get you know, have
a game plan. Yeah, And that's exactly what you're talking
about here. The game plan, but for your finance is
like is it likely to occur? No, but like if
it does, you'll be ready. You want to be prepared, Yeah,
I was talk about investing for a second, Matt, we
talked about Robin Hood for a second. Last week. They
have a new fund. They're starting up a new fund
that is going to allow you to invest in startups,
(14:46):
companies that are just getting launched and so that they're
so called venture fund is going to allow individual investors
on the platform to make money on the hottest startups
before they go public, which sounds so awesome, like, Yeah,
you're gonna give me access to those Marc Antreesen companies,
right the Ubers before they were Uber, before anybody knew
(15:07):
who they were. Cutting edge, give me some of that. Well,
when you look at the numbers funding startups, it doesn't
typically work out very well. Morning Star and I quote
said this fund could spell disaster for investors. Basically, they
highlighted the structure of this fund, the likely fees investors
are going to pay, and Robinhood's inexperience in this space.
(15:28):
And it's cool, like the proliferation of investment options that
we have, you can invest in almost anything under the
sun these days, but we think disciplined investors are going
to avoid sexy funds like this. They're going to opt
for the boring route to build wealth instead, I think
this is like the candy version of what you should
(15:48):
be including in your diet. Yeah, maybe a small amount
on occasion is good, but like we're all for the
meat and the potatoes and the veggies, right, And that's
really index funds when it comes down to it, that's
going to give you your whole balanced diet. And you
just don't really need anything like this in your life.
That's true. Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
So on a related note, one of the goat investing writers,
Jason's Wig, he had an excellent article about why you
don't want to trade like a member of Congress. In
his first line in that piece, he lays out the
problem and he writes, the peak of a bull market
and the bottom of a bear market have one thing
in common. Buy and hold investing starts to feel like
a total waste of time, which is that's like the.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Pushback I feel like we hear, especially now, they're like,
I could have made so much more money doing all
this other stuff. Matt Joel, why were you telling me
to do the basic boring thing?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, it could be really tough to watch others out
there crush it, in particular while they are investing in
what seems like a more haphazard way. Not just in
a haphazard way, but in a very insider trading kind
of way, because we've seen this with politicians both on
the right and the left, when it comes to the
information that they have access to, and it's like they're
(16:53):
essentially day trading, Like it's like it's their job, their
actual job, what they should be doing is legislative, but
instead what they're doing is making trades.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
On the daily I guess. I mean, they haven't done
much legislating, so maybe they feel like they've got extra
time on their hands.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I know. Well, so that's I think that's the biggest
That's one of the things that bothers me the most.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
First of all.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I mean, I think members of Congress they should be
forced to not liquidate, but either put their folio under
lock and key while they are in Congress, while they
are on special committees, or you are just invested in
the overall American stock market right either S and P
five hundred or the total US stock market, because like,
(17:32):
don't you, as a member of Congress want to just
see the entire country improve as a whole. So that's
one issue, But you speak to a whole other problem. Yes,
it totally sucks to see these individuals getting rich off
of some of this insider information. Some of that can
be mitigated a little bit by the fact that they
have to disclose their trades and you can even in
(17:54):
what sixty days typically right, otherwise you're penalized, but the
penalty is really small. And so, but bottom line, like, like,
there's a Nancy Pelosi tracker and you can invest.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Literally the fund in anc that's the.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Ticker, and you can invest just like she does and
attempt to outperform the market. And she has done incredibly
well for herself because of information that she is privy to.
But it's one thing if they were actually doing their
job and legislating and engaging in great debate, having these
conversations and pushing forward bills. But you don't see that, right,
And so it's what it appears to be is that
(18:28):
members of Congress are getting wealthy and wealthier based on
the information that they have while not actually doing their job,
the thing that they're supposed to do. So it's coming
at the expense of everyday Americans. It's like, why does
my qualify myself as why does mister Smith go to Washington.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Now, it's to enlargen his own balance sheet, and it's
not to do his civic duty for the country. Is
what it feels like. And you call it Nancy Pelosi,
but like truly Republicans and down both participate in this.
And we've actually seen she's just the most notorious. Yeah,
and we've seen Democrat senator say, hey, actually we want
to put austock for this. John Assof from Georgia said,
(19:05):
here's a bill, guys, let's get behind this. Let's stop
the insanity of single stock trading by elected officials. And
there were crickets crickets in response to that proposal. So
there have been efforts, but nothing has actually happened so far.
And I think too, Matt, like, when stocks are flying high,
it just feels easier for people to make riskier bets,
(19:26):
especially because they're feeling some of that FOMO. But the tortoise, right,
the index fund investor wins and does quite well over time.
Don't give into that, and you'll be glad. You'll be
glad that you invested in the simple, boring way. I
think down the line, when other people are reeling maybe
from some of their single stock bets or from some
of their targeted investments that don't really pay off and
(19:49):
real quickly. I wanted to touch on quarterly earnings because
that's been something that's kind of been going around lately.
President Trump has basically said quarterly earnings reports should go away.
Actually President Obama said something similar like fifteen years ago.
And I wonder if investors like what this is? This
is not good? What's going to happen here? Well, one,
we don't know what's going to happen with this, and
whether or not quarterly earnings reports are going to be
(20:09):
turned into like semi annual earnings reports. They might be,
and this could be a multi year long process to
get there. But Alison Schreger, who we've had on the show,
she's a Bloomberg colonist, she wrote about why that's actually
probably a good thing to not have quarterly earnings reports,
and it's because you know, transparency is important, right, and
it's a necessary thing from our publicly traded companies. But
(20:29):
she also said, and I think I agree with her,
that quarterly reports are overkill, right, and they lead to
riskier company behavior focusing on short term results and as
long term investors I don't know. I don't really care
about quarterly earnings reports myself, Like, you know, we should
be immune to some of that news. Yeah, so some
people say, hey, less information means riskier markets. But again,
(20:50):
I think for index fund investors, yeah, whether quarterly earnings
reports stick around, whether we go to semi annual, shouldn't
be a big deal for any of us.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, this is something that this isn't entirely new, not
only in the US, but abroad too. This is something
that the EU did back in twenty thirteen, and there's
no conclusive evidence that it was good or bad. Like,
the only thing that they can definitively point to is
the fact that the administrative costs have gone down because
they don't have to report totally as opposed to just
a couple of times a year. So either way, I
(21:19):
don't think this should be something that should impact.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Individual investors one way or the other. But buddy, we
got more to get to.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
We're gonna talk a little bit about Andrew Yang as
well as casinos.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
More politician talk.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, but actually a little little less political in this case.
We'll get to those stories though, and more.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Right after this, we're back to the break It's now
time for the ludicrous headline of the week. This one
comes from Business Insider and Matt. When I saw this headline,
it just made me mad. It just made me mad,
and I was like, I gotta click through, I gotta
read this article. And it only made me madder. Headline
(22:00):
read America's new consumer caste system. And when you hear
cast system, you're like, oh my gosh, what is happening
that divides people into these groups that they can't get
out of at all? That sounds frustrating or terrible, Like
what is this that this author is talking about. Well,
the rest of the article is not much better than
the headline, and the writer accuses companies of dividing consumers
(22:25):
into categories, right, the haves and the have nots, essentially,
and the writer highlights in particular well once she's going
after one of my favors here at Costco. She said,
Costco's new hours for executive members. That's one of the
main culprit It's like the richie riches can get in
an hour early and the rest of the unwashed masses
(22:46):
have to sit in the parking lot and watch while
other people shop, Like, what are you talking about? That's
utterly ridiculous to step back, don't talk to back about
my costco. Yeah. She also talked about paying to eliminate
ads on streaming service. This is another sign of the
cast system that she's pointing out. Some people can pay
(23:06):
for the no ad services and others have to watch
the ads. How terrible is that? Well, I think the
problem with the reference to cast is that individuals had
no choice about their position in society inside of a
cast system. It's like you're born into something and there
was no way to get out of it, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
You literally have no choice. It depends on your family,
your family of origins like this. Does that sound like America, Joel, No, it.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Was this immovable fate from birth, and that's that's not
the case in American society. And you and I, we
can choose to pay for ad removal on our streaming
or we can choose to spring for the executive membership
or vice versa. We can choose the opposite. So different
tiers of service are a benefit to consumers, allowing more choice.
It is not some sort of dastardly sorting mechanism that
(23:53):
this author tries to make it sound like it that
one frustrated me. Let's call her out. Her name is Emily.
I think her name's Emily Stewart. Okay, Emily Stewart. And
you're welcome to come on here and defend yourself if
you want to chat about it. But I'm sorry, I
just completely.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Just I will say, she doesn't she leans into like
the cast sort of framework a little bit in the article.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
I'm willing to cut her a little bit, a little
bit of slack because.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
I know that when you are online, when you're a journalist,
you come up with these articles and oftentimes there's an
editor that takes it, they edit it, they slap a
new headline up there, and then they publish it. So
it may not be her as much, but maybe they
were wanting to lean more into that sort of cast system.
But that being said, I completely agree with what you're saying,
Like no need to cue the Lee Greenwood music, but
(24:37):
like this is why America is so amazing. We have
the freedom, We have the liberty to make the kind
of choices that we want to make when it comes
to how we what we do with our in life,
Like what we choose to do not just with our money,
but what we can do whatever we want, as long
as we're of course not impinging on the rights of
other people around us. But like, that is what makes
America so great, and we have nothing close to any
(24:58):
sort of cast system.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah, and some people choose not to be members of
Costco at all because they're like, bulk buying sounds dumb.
I don't care about that, don't need it, awesome, don't want.
Some people choose to live in vans Now by the river,
like where whatever you want to do, man, this is
the kind of place where that is viable. And yeah,
I think that's actually probably that's part of the problem
(25:19):
is that we pit We make it sound like, oh,
this is what the elites can afford, and this is
what the non elites are stuck with. And I think
there's just a lot of choice in there, Like there's
a lot of things I could afford, Matt, I choose
not to because I don't care about it and I
don't want that in my life. You've got that freedom, man.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, we also need more Chris Farley references in our podcast.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yes, The Las Vegas Review.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Journal had an article about the rise and surge pricing
on everything basically at many of the bigger casinos now,
so prices on the strip bar are certainly already high
by comparison, but they can vary now by the hour.
So for instance, maybe you want a bottle of water
at the MGM, Well, it might cost you two dollars
(25:59):
in the morning, but it'll be three dollars and fifty
cents later that night. The same thing is the case
with beer six bucks and then eight bucks later on
in the evening. It's interesting because I think most folks
staying out of casino, they're not terribly price conscious anyway,
so it's likely why they will depend that it's before
or after their Yeah, how much they've gambled away their
(26:21):
all their money. It's true, so maybe this is a
good target market to try this to try this out on.
But what I don't like here in particular is the
fact that like we've seen these models when it comes
to airlines and when it comes to like uber pricing, right.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Surge pricing.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
But the reason that works is because there is a
limited amount of supply, and I think folks are willing
to let surge pricing like they're willing to give it
a buy if they know that the actual supply is limited.
There are only so many flights going to Las Vegas,
and all those limited flights, there are only so many seats,
and so if there is a massive demand, we'll shoot,
maybe we need to up.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
The price a little bit.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
That's a way of essentially the market prices are telling
you what it is worth to consumers. In this case,
I would wager that they basically have an unlimited supply
of water bottles and of beer, so they are imposing
this artificial scarcity on the supply. I think that right
there is when consumers are going to get pissed because
(27:19):
they're going to say, wait a minute, you've got tons
of this stuff. It shouldn't cost any more now than
it does than it did earlier. So that is the
that's it's a fine line between it being acceptable and
it being this what feels like a cash grap as
different companies are trying to adopt these pricing models where
they are in a lot of cases are necessary. I
think dynamic pricing can be a fair and just way
(27:41):
of allocating goods, except for when there are plenty of
goods and you're just doing this because it's worked in
other industries. Is why Wendy's backed off. If you remember,
they were like.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Hey, we're gonna do dynamic pricing. A burger might cost
this much at eleven am and this much at twelve
thirty when there's like more foot traffic. It's probably gonna
cost a little more then in the store. And Winny's
was like, got so much crap for that that they decided, Okay,
people are so mad, we got we gotta completely.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
They've got a limitless no liah burgers back there in
the cooler. Right, they're not frozen. Yeah, they're in the fridge.
That's right, that's what I hear, never frozen. And so yeah,
I think the best thing you can do as a
consumer is just to walk away from stupid prices. Yes, yeah,
literally vote with your dollars, vote with your feet.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
And some people are like, oh, but I'm thirsty, And
I'd be like, you know what, I'm gonna go keep
walking and find a water fountain. If prices for parking
are too expensive around the event, I'm going to I
park further away. Matt like, these are the kind of
decisions the other are annoying, Right, It annoys people. They're like,
but I don't want to have to do that. But
these are the kind of decisions I think we have
to make as consumers in the kind of society we
(28:40):
live in.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Like that we're free to make. Yeah, as Americans, that's right,
Maybe that's right, speaking of a lot of singing this America. Well,
American politician Andrew Yang just launched a new NB and O,
which is basically one of those you know, tiny cell
phone network networks mobile virtual network operators what that stands for.
He calls it no Mobile.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
And he's awesome. The goal is, fun to say, Noble Mobile,
Noble Mobile. He's trying to align the profit motive with
the behavior that individual cell phone users are trying to achieve.
And so the price initially sounds like it's too much
fifty bucks a month for unlimited talk, text and twenty
gigs of data, But Noble Mobile wants to incentivize you
(29:21):
to be on your phone less. So for every gig
of data you don't use, you're going to basically get
rewards equivalent to something like a dollar per gig for
the data you're not using. And so I like this idea, Matt,
I dig what Noble Mobile is trying to do. But
here's the flip side of that. Even if you didn't
use a single gig, you get twenty bucks back, right,
which means you're still paying more for Noble Mobile service
(29:44):
than you would be for Mint Mobile or US Mobile,
who are a couple of our favorites. So you know, yes,
you would be paying less than the average cell phone bill,
which is I think something like eighty eighty three eighty
five bucks around the country. But you can do even
better than that. So I like the incentive thing. I
think it's kind of cool. I like the proliferation of
you know, fairly inexpensive cell phone carriers. I'm still gravitate
(30:06):
towards a couple of those other guys.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
So yeah, but then you wouldn't be able to say
Noble Mobile on the basis or on the regular he
does have a nice ring to it, it does, sure,
Nobyl Mobile.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
That'd be different. I would probably went with you, I
don't think so.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Credit scores are dropping across the country, Joel. Did you
know that you knew that I heard that we talked
about this. We've been seeing scores rise pretty significantly over
the past twenty years, from an average of six eighty
eight back in two thousand and five to an average
in twenty twenty three of seven eighteen, and you might
be thinking.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Oh, maybe this is the era of Personal Finance podcast.
Maybe Matt and Jewell finally had a positive impact on society.
Maybe maybe feels probably I'm gonna say probably, yeah, yeah.
But it's also a case of credit score inflation. Basically
that seven twenty isn't isn't the seven to twenty of.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Yesteryear, which is like great inflation at schools where yeah,
four point zero zho isn't what it used to be
back when we're in school jool. But I have many
teacher friends in my life and relatives, and the way
they talk about how they have to grade their students now,
it's so different than what we experience when we don't
have to, yeah, have to.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Although it's maybe they do because it's been implemented from
the top by that principle or in that district. But
there's some pressure, for sure.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
There definitely is.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
But generally speaking, what we're saying is that folks scores
have increased due to this gentle upward trend that we
have all been experiencing. But that being said, debt is
becoming more of a problem now. Both from a headline
amount of debt that is out there, balances that are
being held, amounts that are delinquent also from an interest
(31:42):
rate perspective. But because of that, credit scores are slipping.
Fourteen percent of gen Zers have seen their score decline
by fifty points or more. And I think the resumption
of student loan payments that likely has a lot to.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Do with it.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
And specifically, I want to call out quick fixes that
are marketed, that are advertised out there, because those can
create more problems in your life. But generally speaking, one
of the things we tried to do here on the
show is to explain how the credit scoring model works.
We want folks to pay attention to it. We want
folks to pay attention to their scores because it has
a wide ranging influence on your financial life, not just
(32:18):
your ability, not just the rate that you're paying on
a credit card balance, which we don't want you to do.
But yeah, it has a wide again, wide ranging impact.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
And maybe I overstated it with credit scores crashing at
the beginning of the pod, maybe max, because I think
the average decline has been something like two points. But
I think we are in an era where we saw
a lot more leniency being baked into the models of
the credit scoring system, and we're just seeing less of
that now, and especially with the multi year long posit
(32:48):
student loans, it's just shocking for people to have that
payment back in their lives again, and many cannot afford
to make that payment. And because of that, I think, yeah,
they're going to start to see their credit scores get hit.
And there's a lot of collatteral damage from having a
falling credit score, So make sure you're paying attention to that.
One other thing worth considering while we're talking about credit scores,
(33:10):
maybe updating the credit scoring system. We're not a huge
fan of the way it works, and the three major
credit bureaus often they are unresponsive to individuals who have
a problem or feel like that their credit score isn't
reflective of and their credit report has misinformation on it right,
like it's not accurate. And a new study reveals that
(33:31):
there might be a better way to calculate credit scores,
basically only looking at prior borrowing history. That's not always
the best way, the best tactic to take because it
does leave some folks out of the credit market. And
so this study found that they looked at shopping habits right,
and they said, well, actually someone's shopping habits can shed
light on their likelihood of repaying debts. So I think
(33:55):
expanding maybe the pool of data, there's a lot more
we can draw from now, including like whether or not
people make their rent payments on time. That's a big
one that is getting factored in more and more, but
it's still there's a huge lack of that data in
the credit scoring models, including more of the buy now,
pay later stuff, which the buy now, pay later companies
are kind of like kicking their feet. They don't really
(34:16):
want that to be the case. That data would be
helpful in kind of coming up with better credit scoring
models and credit scores. And then I think based on
the study it said, hey, when we go with this
shopping data, it actually it helps more people get into
their ability to get into the credit economy, but without
(34:36):
really distorting it.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
You know, I almost see that as like a negative
though as far as getting more folks in, because like especially,
I mean, do we want to more easily be able
to provide higher amounts of credit for new borrowers?
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Right?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Like as in personally, I'm like, I don't think I
necessarily want to. It's a trade off, like we're always trading,
in particular these days, our information for better rates, free apps,
different things like that. A person, I'm less interested in that,
But I'm also like, I don't know. Maybe it's okay
that there's a twenty five year old out there who's
never had a credit card, you know, for whatever reason,
that's fine, But as our twenty three year old, I
(35:11):
should say, and they're like, Okay, I'm kind.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Of getting my own place now I'm not in college.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Maybe I need to get a student credit card that's
got like a tiny revolving balance or whatever.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, like a small credit limit, a.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Small credit limit, Yeah, like five hundred dollars credit limit
or eight hundred dollars credit limit, and the ability for
them to make some small mistakes with a limited amount
of dollars. Right, It's kind of like you get the
guardrails up a little bit when you're like when you're bowling. So,
I don't know, I think regardless, being aware of how
it is.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
That the scoring models work and paying attention.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
To that is like, that's the biggest takeaway, regardless certainly
the data breaches. I think that's a big improvement. I
think that's an area where we and luckily, hey knock
on Wooden was the last time we.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Heard about a data breach. When it comes to the
at least it had. It might be because all of
the data has been breached.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
I don't know, there's like no more data to reach, Like, yeah,
they has all the data.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
No, I get what you're saying. I do think that
there are other elements, especially for like let's say a
recent graduate, Well, hey, what about what were your grades?
Like what was your attendance like in school? Like those
kind of things could factor into somebody's whether or not
those that person who's a credit worthy borrow.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Let's start this starts feeling really technically. You know, it's like,
oh man, they know everything about you. And it's one
thing if you're going to take out a two hundred
thousand dollars he lock on your home, it's like, okay,
let's make sure we have all the financial information that
we can find on you that you know you're gonna
have to scrape together all this info. It's another thing
when you're talking about like access to an additional five
(36:43):
thousand or something like that. But it'll be interesting, I think,
to see how how it all shakes out and how
different scoring models evolve. Especially like you said, as by
now pay later, he was able to get incorporated, which
I think is vital.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
That's so important. I think the biggest problem here, what
it comes down to, is that too many people who
exist in the credit scoring system, because we all do,
whether whether or not we want to, we are we're
essentially in this grandfathered into this system that we didn't
choose to be a part of. Understanding the system is crucial,
(37:15):
and there's just a huge chunk of Americans who are
a part of it, but they don't know how it works.
And the more you understand how it works, you know
that paying your bills on time is crucial, that having
you know, a low credit utilization rate is one of
those big things that impacts your score in a massive way.
If you can learn how the credit scoring system works,
we have information up on our site if you're curious.
(37:35):
But I if you can learn how the system works
and then act inside of that system accordingly, you might
be frustrated by it occasionally, but you can succeed inside
of it even if the system is you know, not
the best. And we would have done something different if
we were starting something if we were starting over completely
from scratch. That's true. All right, man, let's get out
of here.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
We hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and we will
see you back here. We will be back here your podcatcher,
in your earbuds, in your car stereo, or wherever it
is that you happen to listen to our podcast here
on Monday with a fresh ask how To Money episode.
But buddy, until next time, best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.
Welcome to HATA Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and today
we're talking just in case planning, consumer cast systems, and
credit scores crashing. That's right, buddy.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
This is our Friday Flight, a little collection of some
of the best headlines out there, the ones that pertain
to your personal finances.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We hope everyone has had a good week so far. Yeah,
it's been a good one for me, Matt. Nice and
lovely weather, although still too hot. I'm ready for real fall.
Come on, yeah, real fall, let's pick it come soon.
Let's protest? Can we can you protest that? Yeah? Why not?
Who listens? You can protest anything? Yeah, that's true. Okay,
So one thing I wanted to highlight a smart financial
(00:56):
move my daughter made the other Day's kind of like
a small thing. But you're like, ah, man, they're learning,
they're listening. But she by the dip. She bought the dip. Nice. No, nice, Alma. No,
she's not investing yet. I'm investing on her behalf in
five point nine plans, which might turn in the Rath
dollar someday. We'll see. But no, what she did, this
is a little shopping decision she made. She and my
wife Emily. They stopped by a vented shop after school.
(01:20):
There's a cool little vented shop that's not I know,
which is the one you run past? Yeah, right all
the time. I've actually never stopped foot in there. But
they keep putting stuff out, like out onto the curb,
and it keeps catching my eye and I'm like, I
need to go check that out. I step in when
I get tired of running it, and then they're like,
you're sweaty, get out of here. So she went in
there and she saw an old cabbage patch doll. And
if you don't know what a cabbage patch doll is
(01:41):
like old, look it up.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Old school, like one of the ogs from the eighties. Yes,
I'm assuming that's when they were initially. Oh yeah berthed right, yes, no,
you can actually go. We went this spring back to
the cabbage patch right what they call the nursery, general
hospital or whatever it is. Yeah, and cabbage patch doll
get get birthed from a tree.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
It's a weird like that's exactly how they do it. Yep, yep,
just like that. That's how you were made. Son. Uh, Well,
I had one of these dolls when I was growing up.
Do you wanna do you want to venture a guess
as to what my cabbage patch doll's name was? You
had an actual cabbach. I thought they were mostly for
the little girl. Some boys have them too, I really did.
I didn't know that. Don't shame me. I thought the
(02:24):
boy dolls were. I liked him the my buddies, you
remember my buddy that might have been after the cabbage
I don't know wherever I go he goes. And then
they came out with a kid's sister of the next year.
Oh that's right, Yeah, kids sister. They have boy cabbage
patch dolls. And okay, I've got all the accessories and
stuff my cabbage patch Yeah no, no clue. Dick Rubin Okay,
(02:45):
that's a great name for a cabbage patch doll, isn't it.
Is he also like a hip hop art I think
my mom still has Is he a producer? For sure?
For sure? He was a mobile multi media mobile. Okay,
But so mine was named Rick Ross. So back to
my story, I had a cabbage Patch stal This runs
in the family. It's this place in Georgia, rural Georgia.
You can go you can actually see the cabbage patch dolls.
(03:07):
But Selma sees the vintage one and she's like, I
want this nice, And she's like, you know what, though,
I'm not sure how much I want this. I think
it was twenty five dollars. Do I want it? Twenty
five dollars.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Kind of pricey for an old doll Yeah, no, it
it is, but I guess like the vintage ones actually
go for more, and the new ones are actually kind
of expensive.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Like we went in the spring, I was like, oh much, really,
I forget they have different tears, right, So some of
them were like fifty bucks and some of them were
like one hundred and fifty bucks. They got really expensive.
That twenty five bucks actually seems reasonable based on we saw.
And so she was like, I'm gonna, actually, mom, can
we come back tomorrow. I'm going to think it over.
So she instituted the twenty four hour rule to decide
(03:46):
whether or not she actually wanted to spend twenty five
bucks on this doll She did go back the next day.
She bought it. She's glad she did it, but that
only like confirms I think that she made the right move.
She waited it out to see, and this is I
think something more of us should be saying I want
that thing, but how bad do I want it? I
don't know. Let me sleep on it, and I don't
think I'll go back to that website or I'll go
(04:07):
back to that store tomorrow. And I realized that can
be inconvenient sometimes, but it will in all likelihood prevent
us from making some poor choices that we come to
regret later on. Yep, I think that's awesome. I think, yeah,
I totally agree.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
More of us should implement that, like a cool down
period where we just like step away from the item,
rethink our life choices exactly. So I was like, I
was proud of her. Yeah, you should be a man.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
But hey, let's talk about is this related at all?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
No, it's not related. No segue here, Let's talk about
tariffs the generally speaking. I feel like the impact of
teriffs on the American economy it's been muted, at least
so far, but we are starting to see some price increases,
including a recent inflation uptick that seems to be connected.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
To tariff policy.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I think that's one of the concerns that the FED
had when it came to lowering rates, is that.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Oh, But on one hand.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
We're seeing inflation maybe start to take back up. But
on the other hand, I think they're certainly more concerned
with the soft job market.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
It's the needle they have to threat because they have
that tool mandate. It's a tough, tough job, I think.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
But the Supreme Court they're going to hear the case
four in the case against tariff mandates by the President soon.
But specifically, if you like coffee, I would pray for
a quick end to the tariff policy madness. Fifty percent
terariffs have been imposed against Brazil. These were implemented for
largely political and for relational reasons, but they have led
(05:30):
to quick run ups in the cost of raw beans
coffee beans.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We get something like a third of our coffee beans
from Brazil in particular, so that's gonna have a big
implant impact on the market.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
It's is it the Robusto genus or whatever oly beans?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Or is it which are those better or worse? I forget?
Or is it the Arab, Arabic or Arabica. I think
those are the superior beans. Yeah, I forget.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
My favorite beans come from Ethiopia, So oh, what's the
terrific against Ethiopia? I should looked that up no idea
right now, it's probably like ninety per.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
It's probably changed sixteen times in the past few months,
that's true.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
But generally speaking, we've seen price increases of twenty percent
or so on coffee beans. Prices could obviously get even higher.
But I think this means we're gonna start We're gonna
have to start making some you know, Like folks are
always like, oh, should I take my luncheon? It seems
like such a pedestrian move right, Like it's not very
a very attractive thing as opposed to like going out
to eat. But this is a case where I think
(06:25):
making a cup of coffee at home it's going to
become more and more attractive. And coffee specifically is just
an example of something that we can't really produce here
in the United States. The coffee beans that we make
are of genus tarrapicus. Yeah like that, but I don't
want to Hawaii. It doesn't make it home solid.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Why that's right, But not enough to fill all our
cups in the morning in Hawaiian coffee.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So they're all keep they're keeping all the really good
stuff for themselves. They send over like the partially ten
percent comans.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah, I brought you back some real hundred percent Hawaiian coffee,
and it was I told you it was quite expensive,
so demired, I must really like you if I brought
back one hundred percent? Do you really like me? Yeah?
I really appreciate it. I brewed. I brewed the heck
out of that coffee. It is. It is just shocking
how and I guess it makes sense why it's so
expensive there, and it's it's just much cheaper in some
(07:14):
other countries. But I guess I'm going to be angling
maybe for some Costa Rican coffee mat instead of Brazilian coffee.
But it's going to impact the entire coffee market. And
then has got some good stuff. Specifically, there's some single
origin from ald oh Man. I don't even think about that.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
You can specifically choose. I've never thought about the single
origin stuff though. There's from a tariff's perspective, and so
there's there's a Peru Costa Rica they've got oh Man.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, the Brazilian coffee is going to be a luxury
good soon.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I'm curious if they've seen those sell out, because folks
are one of those prices are holding steady and therefore
just driving demand, let's just reduce in the supply of
the coffee on the actual shelves.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Fascinating. It is so fast, it's crazy, all the domino
effect of the tariffs, and then write the on that note,
like the ex inventory that many US companies had purchased,
it is starting to run thin, which means that new
orders are going to cost individuals more because of these terraffs.
And I don't see a way in which most of
the price increases are not going to be passed on
(08:13):
to customers. There have been like some people saying, oh, well,
maybe the companies are just gonna eat the tariffs and
they're not going to pass on price hikes, but that,
especially in low margin industries, that's just not possible. And
so like shoe companies are are one example of a
sector that is now feeling the price hikes with each
order that they place. And other companies now are being
(08:35):
accused of evading tariffs by undervaluing imports. So it just
kind of creates a bunch of crummy reactions right where
companies feel like they have to try to minimize the
impact of tariffs by lying about the value of the
of the goods that their import.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Under reporting the goods. So yeah, yeah, I saw that
whirlpool specifically. It was accusing some of the figures like, hey,
how like we've seen some significant declines on some of
these guys, but they're the same number of boat what's
coming across what's going on here?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, yeah, which I get. It feels starts to feel unfair.
And then you know, another surprise bill that's hitting individual
consumers directly is coming from online shopping. It's becoming more
of a regular currents that you get like a bill
after the fact that you weren't expecting. Many international post
offices and companies are suspending shipping to the US for
the time being. That there's this little Australian boutique, clothing
(09:24):
boutique that Emily likes and I got something for a
while back, and I went back to their site just
to check it out, and they were like, hey, guess what,
for the time being, we're not shipping to the United
States at all until we kind of figure out what's
going on with the tariffs. And it is just this
continual moving target that they have found it safest to
cut themselves off from even selling to American citizens, So
be careful buying internationally until more clarity comes on these tariffs.
(09:47):
But I just hope even if tariff policy remains somewhat
in place, that we just kind of settle on something
and it's not a whack a mole sort of thing anymore. Yah.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, No, I think that's one of the biggest implications.
Like on an individual level, it leads to and they
cided different stories of folks who were getting Yeah, they're
getting slapped with like these tariff bills that weren't paid
at the port. And so therefore you as the consumer
before it's like, hey, you can either pay for this
now or once you receive the item, you can pay
for it right there on the spot. And that's just
(10:17):
going to lead to people not making these purchases. And
so as individuals it decreases expenses and small business owners
from a small business standpoint, you don't invest because you
are uncertain what the future holds. And ultimately, eventually, at
some point, this is going to lead to the economy
grinding to a halt as folks are kind of like,
what is about to happen because there is no uncertainty.
(10:38):
And I'm sure that's something that that the current administration
is wanting to avoid. Actually, that's one of the reasons
why why Trump was pushing so hard for the rate cuts,
because what does that do. It juices the economy, right,
and so that allows him, I think a little more
runway to be able to use these terrors from a
political negotiation standpoint. As to whether or not he will succeed,
(10:59):
we shall see. But on a related personal finance note CNN,
they were advocating for a just in case financial plan,
and they contend that with this economic uncertainty that we're
all experiencing, that it's wise to have plans for unpleasant
potential scenarios. And some folks might find that to be depressing,
but I think the exact opposite. I think the more
(11:21):
that you can game plan these different nasty scenarios that
might unfold, the easier it's going to be to prepare.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
So what that.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Means is keep an eye on your expenses. I would say,
to check your insurance, make sure that you are properly
insured and certainly well I guess this goes with expenses,
but make sure we talk about a bare bones budget.
That is something that we highly suggest. We've heard that
thing back up, We've dedicated an entire episode. I forget
what number it is, but I'll link to it in
the show notes for this episode when we talked about
(11:49):
what a bare bones budget is. But also from and
from an investing standpoint, you might want to think through
how you would react to just a big stock market
drops and just make sure that you are invested accordingly
that you can if you've got a long enough runway,
all right, I can handle the volatility, the ups and
the downs.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
But maybe not.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
If you are close closer to retirement, or if you
are an early retiree. But ultimately, I think just in case,
financial plan is something that you hope you don't have
to use, but it is a smart exercise and it's
certainly great to have when the need arises. It's like
having that first aid kit. You don't get it thinking
like I can't wait to use this. You get it thinking,
(12:31):
all right, this is something that's I'm going to have
on hand because I'm gonna I am an adult and
I want to be prepared.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
So that makes me think of when we were. When
I was in the woods a couple months ago with
some of my friends and a rock hit the Achilles
of one of one of the guys on the trip,
and it was pretty nasty. But we had fortunately a
nurse practitioner with us, and of course he had all
the proper accouterments, and someone else had brought some whiskey
(12:59):
that you could pour on to disinfect the wound. It
was a waste of whiskey, but it actually worked out.
It was good.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I would have been like, no, that's fine, pretty sure,
there's no nasty germs on the rock.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
We're in the middle of nowhere, right, yeah, which he
probably would have been fine. But man, having that needle
and thread and sewing it up while, I mean, it
was pretty awesome to watch. I can't lie. Yeah, but
just that, yeah, that being prepared, right, having it just
in case. He was like, most every other time I've
gone out in the woods, I've never needed this. I've
always had it, and I've just never used it before.
This was the first time. It makes makes think of
(13:31):
another friend who.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Makes it makes me before you move on. It makes
me wonder if folks who are in the medical industry,
and in particular first responders, EMTs. It makes me wonder
if they tend to be more financially prepared, because if
that's how you approach your work and how you sort
of see physical activity and the risks involved there. I mean,
certainly it would be very easy to translate that into
(13:53):
your personal finances.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
It also makes me think of a friend who, by
the way, when he goes to a restaurant, he's always
like game planning. One of some bad dude comes in
here and you know, starts making threats or whatever, like
what's what am I gonna do? Is there table I
can kick cober and hide behind? Is there an exit
quick to my left or something like that? And I
think I always kind of laugh at that, but I.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Was gonna say that was me until you talked about
the table, because, like I got I also always do that,
like whenever kid and I, like we went out for
a date night last night, and I always prefer the
seat where I can see the front door, because if
someone comes in there and it's act at all acts,
it all crazy.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I want to be able to get you know, have
a game plan. Yeah, And that's exactly what you're talking
about here. The game plan, but for your finance is
like is it likely to occur? No, but like if
it does, you'll be ready. You want to be prepared, Yeah,
I was talk about investing for a second, Matt, we
talked about Robin Hood for a second. Last week. They
have a new fund. They're starting up a new fund
that is going to allow you to invest in startups,
(14:46):
companies that are just getting launched and so that they're
so called venture fund is going to allow individual investors
on the platform to make money on the hottest startups
before they go public, which sounds so awesome, like, Yeah,
you're gonna give me access to those Marc Antreesen companies,
right the Ubers before they were Uber, before anybody knew
(15:07):
who they were. Cutting edge, give me some of that. Well,
when you look at the numbers funding startups, it doesn't
typically work out very well. Morning Star and I quote
said this fund could spell disaster for investors. Basically, they
highlighted the structure of this fund, the likely fees investors
are going to pay, and Robinhood's inexperience in this space.
(15:28):
And it's cool, like the proliferation of investment options that
we have, you can invest in almost anything under the
sun these days, but we think disciplined investors are going
to avoid sexy funds like this. They're going to opt
for the boring route to build wealth instead, I think
this is like the candy version of what you should
(15:48):
be including in your diet. Yeah, maybe a small amount
on occasion is good, but like we're all for the
meat and the potatoes and the veggies, right, And that's
really index funds when it comes down to it, that's
going to give you your whole balanced diet. And you
just don't really need anything like this in your life.
That's true. Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
So on a related note, one of the goat investing writers,
Jason's Wig, he had an excellent article about why you
don't want to trade like a member of Congress. In
his first line in that piece, he lays out the
problem and he writes, the peak of a bull market
and the bottom of a bear market have one thing
in common. Buy and hold investing starts to feel like
a total waste of time, which is that's like the.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Pushback I feel like we hear, especially now, they're like,
I could have made so much more money doing all
this other stuff. Matt Joel, why were you telling me
to do the basic boring thing?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, it could be really tough to watch others out
there crush it, in particular while they are investing in
what seems like a more haphazard way. Not just in
a haphazard way, but in a very insider trading kind
of way, because we've seen this with politicians both on
the right and the left, when it comes to the
information that they have access to, and it's like they're
(16:53):
essentially day trading, Like it's like it's their job, their
actual job, what they should be doing is legislative, but
instead what they're doing is making trades.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
On the daily I guess. I mean, they haven't done
much legislating, so maybe they feel like they've got extra
time on their hands.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I know. Well, so that's I think that's the biggest
That's one of the things that bothers me the most.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
First of all.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I mean, I think members of Congress they should be
forced to not liquidate, but either put their folio under
lock and key while they are in Congress, while they
are on special committees, or you are just invested in
the overall American stock market right either S and P
five hundred or the total US stock market, because like,
(17:32):
don't you, as a member of Congress want to just
see the entire country improve as a whole. So that's
one issue, But you speak to a whole other problem. Yes,
it totally sucks to see these individuals getting rich off
of some of this insider information. Some of that can
be mitigated a little bit by the fact that they
have to disclose their trades and you can even in
(17:54):
what sixty days typically right, otherwise you're penalized, but the
penalty is really small. And so, but bottom line, like, like,
there's a Nancy Pelosi tracker and you can invest.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Literally the fund in anc that's the.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Ticker, and you can invest just like she does and
attempt to outperform the market. And she has done incredibly
well for herself because of information that she is privy to.
But it's one thing if they were actually doing their
job and legislating and engaging in great debate, having these
conversations and pushing forward bills. But you don't see that, right,
And so it's what it appears to be is that
(18:28):
members of Congress are getting wealthy and wealthier based on
the information that they have while not actually doing their job,
the thing that they're supposed to do. So it's coming
at the expense of everyday Americans. It's like, why does
my qualify myself as why does mister Smith go to Washington.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Now, it's to enlargen his own balance sheet, and it's
not to do his civic duty for the country. Is
what it feels like. And you call it Nancy Pelosi,
but like truly Republicans and down both participate in this.
And we've actually seen she's just the most notorious. Yeah,
and we've seen Democrat senator say, hey, actually we want
to put austock for this. John Assof from Georgia said,
(19:05):
here's a bill, guys, let's get behind this. Let's stop
the insanity of single stock trading by elected officials. And
there were crickets crickets in response to that proposal. So
there have been efforts, but nothing has actually happened so far.
And I think too, Matt, like, when stocks are flying high,
it just feels easier for people to make riskier bets,
(19:26):
especially because they're feeling some of that FOMO. But the tortoise, right,
the index fund investor wins and does quite well over time.
Don't give into that, and you'll be glad. You'll be
glad that you invested in the simple, boring way. I
think down the line, when other people are reeling maybe
from some of their single stock bets or from some
of their targeted investments that don't really pay off and
(19:49):
real quickly. I wanted to touch on quarterly earnings because
that's been something that's kind of been going around lately.
President Trump has basically said quarterly earnings reports should go away.
Actually President Obama said something similar like fifteen years ago.
And I wonder if investors like what this is? This
is not good? What's going to happen here? Well, one,
we don't know what's going to happen with this, and
whether or not quarterly earnings reports are going to be
(20:09):
turned into like semi annual earnings reports. They might be,
and this could be a multi year long process to
get there. But Alison Schreger, who we've had on the show,
she's a Bloomberg colonist, she wrote about why that's actually
probably a good thing to not have quarterly earnings reports,
and it's because you know, transparency is important, right, and
it's a necessary thing from our publicly traded companies. But
(20:29):
she also said, and I think I agree with her,
that quarterly reports are overkill, right, and they lead to
riskier company behavior focusing on short term results and as
long term investors I don't know. I don't really care
about quarterly earnings reports myself, Like, you know, we should
be immune to some of that news. Yeah, so some
people say, hey, less information means riskier markets. But again,
(20:50):
I think for index fund investors, yeah, whether quarterly earnings
reports stick around, whether we go to semi annual, shouldn't
be a big deal for any of us.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, this is something that this isn't entirely new, not
only in the US, but abroad too. This is something
that the EU did back in twenty thirteen, and there's
no conclusive evidence that it was good or bad. Like,
the only thing that they can definitively point to is
the fact that the administrative costs have gone down because
they don't have to report totally as opposed to just
a couple of times a year. So either way, I
(21:19):
don't think this should be something that should impact.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Individual investors one way or the other. But buddy, we
got more to get to.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
We're gonna talk a little bit about Andrew Yang as
well as casinos.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
More politician talk.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, but actually a little little less political in this case.
We'll get to those stories though, and more.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Right after this, we're back to the break It's now
time for the ludicrous headline of the week. This one
comes from Business Insider and Matt. When I saw this headline,
it just made me mad. It just made me mad,
and I was like, I gotta click through, I gotta
read this article. And it only made me madder. Headline
(22:00):
read America's new consumer caste system. And when you hear
cast system, you're like, oh my gosh, what is happening
that divides people into these groups that they can't get
out of at all? That sounds frustrating or terrible, Like
what is this that this author is talking about. Well,
the rest of the article is not much better than
the headline, and the writer accuses companies of dividing consumers
(22:25):
into categories, right, the haves and the have nots, essentially,
and the writer highlights in particular well once she's going
after one of my favors here at Costco. She said,
Costco's new hours for executive members. That's one of the
main culprit It's like the richie riches can get in
an hour early and the rest of the unwashed masses
(22:46):
have to sit in the parking lot and watch while
other people shop, Like, what are you talking about? That's
utterly ridiculous to step back, don't talk to back about
my costco. Yeah. She also talked about paying to eliminate
ads on streaming service. This is another sign of the
cast system that she's pointing out. Some people can pay
(23:06):
for the no ad services and others have to watch
the ads. How terrible is that? Well, I think the
problem with the reference to cast is that individuals had
no choice about their position in society inside of a
cast system. It's like you're born into something and there
was no way to get out of it, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
You literally have no choice. It depends on your family,
your family of origins like this. Does that sound like America, Joel, No, it.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Was this immovable fate from birth, and that's that's not
the case in American society. And you and I, we
can choose to pay for ad removal on our streaming
or we can choose to spring for the executive membership
or vice versa. We can choose the opposite. So different
tiers of service are a benefit to consumers, allowing more choice.
It is not some sort of dastardly sorting mechanism that
(23:53):
this author tries to make it sound like it that
one frustrated me. Let's call her out. Her name is Emily.
I think her name's Emily Stewart. Okay, Emily Stewart. And
you're welcome to come on here and defend yourself if
you want to chat about it. But I'm sorry, I
just completely.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Just I will say, she doesn't she leans into like
the cast sort of framework a little bit in the article.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
I'm willing to cut her a little bit, a little
bit of slack because.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
I know that when you are online, when you're a journalist,
you come up with these articles and oftentimes there's an
editor that takes it, they edit it, they slap a
new headline up there, and then they publish it. So
it may not be her as much, but maybe they
were wanting to lean more into that sort of cast system.
But that being said, I completely agree with what you're saying,
Like no need to cue the Lee Greenwood music, but
(24:37):
like this is why America is so amazing. We have
the freedom, We have the liberty to make the kind
of choices that we want to make when it comes
to how we what we do with our in life,
Like what we choose to do not just with our money,
but what we can do whatever we want, as long
as we're of course not impinging on the rights of
other people around us. But like, that is what makes
America so great, and we have nothing close to any
(24:58):
sort of cast system.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah, and some people choose not to be members of
Costco at all because they're like, bulk buying sounds dumb.
I don't care about that, don't need it, awesome, don't want.
Some people choose to live in vans Now by the river,
like where whatever you want to do, man, this is
the kind of place where that is viable. And yeah,
I think that's actually probably that's part of the problem
(25:19):
is that we pit We make it sound like, oh,
this is what the elites can afford, and this is
what the non elites are stuck with. And I think
there's just a lot of choice in there, Like there's
a lot of things I could afford, Matt, I choose
not to because I don't care about it and I
don't want that in my life. You've got that freedom, man.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, we also need more Chris Farley references in our podcast.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yes, The Las Vegas Review.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Journal had an article about the rise and surge pricing
on everything basically at many of the bigger casinos now,
so prices on the strip bar are certainly already high
by comparison, but they can vary now by the hour.
So for instance, maybe you want a bottle of water
at the MGM, Well, it might cost you two dollars
(25:59):
in the morning, but it'll be three dollars and fifty
cents later that night. The same thing is the case
with beer six bucks and then eight bucks later on
in the evening. It's interesting because I think most folks
staying out of casino, they're not terribly price conscious anyway,
so it's likely why they will depend that it's before
or after their Yeah, how much they've gambled away their
(26:21):
all their money. It's true, so maybe this is a
good target market to try this to try this out on.
But what I don't like here in particular is the
fact that like we've seen these models when it comes
to airlines and when it comes to like uber pricing, right.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Surge pricing.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
But the reason that works is because there is a
limited amount of supply, and I think folks are willing
to let surge pricing like they're willing to give it
a buy if they know that the actual supply is limited.
There are only so many flights going to Las Vegas,
and all those limited flights, there are only so many seats,
and so if there is a massive demand, we'll shoot,
maybe we need to up.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
The price a little bit.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
That's a way of essentially the market prices are telling
you what it is worth to consumers. In this case,
I would wager that they basically have an unlimited supply
of water bottles and of beer, so they are imposing
this artificial scarcity on the supply. I think that right
there is when consumers are going to get pissed because
(27:19):
they're going to say, wait a minute, you've got tons
of this stuff. It shouldn't cost any more now than
it does than it did earlier. So that is the
that's it's a fine line between it being acceptable and
it being this what feels like a cash grap as
different companies are trying to adopt these pricing models where
they are in a lot of cases are necessary. I
think dynamic pricing can be a fair and just way
(27:41):
of allocating goods, except for when there are plenty of
goods and you're just doing this because it's worked in
other industries. Is why Wendy's backed off. If you remember,
they were like.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Hey, we're gonna do dynamic pricing. A burger might cost
this much at eleven am and this much at twelve
thirty when there's like more foot traffic. It's probably gonna
cost a little more then in the store. And Winny's
was like, got so much crap for that that they decided, Okay,
people are so mad, we got we gotta completely.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
They've got a limitless no liah burgers back there in
the cooler. Right, they're not frozen. Yeah, they're in the fridge.
That's right, that's what I hear, never frozen. And so yeah,
I think the best thing you can do as a
consumer is just to walk away from stupid prices. Yes, yeah,
literally vote with your dollars, vote with your feet.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
And some people are like, oh, but I'm thirsty, And
I'd be like, you know what, I'm gonna go keep
walking and find a water fountain. If prices for parking
are too expensive around the event, I'm going to I
park further away. Matt like, these are the kind of
decisions the other are annoying, Right, It annoys people. They're like,
but I don't want to have to do that. But
these are the kind of decisions I think we have
to make as consumers in the kind of society we
(28:40):
live in.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Like that we're free to make. Yeah, as Americans, that's right,
Maybe that's right, speaking of a lot of singing this America. Well,
American politician Andrew Yang just launched a new NB and O,
which is basically one of those you know, tiny cell
phone network networks mobile virtual network operators what that stands for.
He calls it no Mobile.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
And he's awesome. The goal is, fun to say, Noble Mobile,
Noble Mobile. He's trying to align the profit motive with
the behavior that individual cell phone users are trying to achieve.
And so the price initially sounds like it's too much
fifty bucks a month for unlimited talk, text and twenty
gigs of data, But Noble Mobile wants to incentivize you
(29:21):
to be on your phone less. So for every gig
of data you don't use, you're going to basically get
rewards equivalent to something like a dollar per gig for
the data you're not using. And so I like this idea, Matt,
I dig what Noble Mobile is trying to do. But
here's the flip side of that. Even if you didn't
use a single gig, you get twenty bucks back, right,
which means you're still paying more for Noble Mobile service
(29:44):
than you would be for Mint Mobile or US Mobile,
who are a couple of our favorites. So you know, yes,
you would be paying less than the average cell phone bill,
which is I think something like eighty eighty three eighty
five bucks around the country. But you can do even
better than that. So I like the incentive thing. I
think it's kind of cool. I like the proliferation of
you know, fairly inexpensive cell phone carriers. I'm still gravitate
(30:06):
towards a couple of those other guys.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
So yeah, but then you wouldn't be able to say
Noble Mobile on the basis or on the regular he
does have a nice ring to it, it does, sure,
Nobyl Mobile.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
That'd be different. I would probably went with you, I
don't think so.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Credit scores are dropping across the country, Joel. Did you
know that you knew that I heard that we talked
about this. We've been seeing scores rise pretty significantly over
the past twenty years, from an average of six eighty
eight back in two thousand and five to an average
in twenty twenty three of seven eighteen, and you might
be thinking.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Oh, maybe this is the era of Personal Finance podcast.
Maybe Matt and Jewell finally had a positive impact on society.
Maybe maybe feels probably I'm gonna say probably, yeah, yeah.
But it's also a case of credit score inflation. Basically
that seven twenty isn't isn't the seven to twenty of.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Yesteryear, which is like great inflation at schools where yeah,
four point zero zho isn't what it used to be
back when we're in school jool. But I have many
teacher friends in my life and relatives, and the way
they talk about how they have to grade their students now,
it's so different than what we experience when we don't
have to, yeah, have to.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Although it's maybe they do because it's been implemented from
the top by that principle or in that district. But
there's some pressure, for sure.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
There definitely is.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
But generally speaking, what we're saying is that folks scores
have increased due to this gentle upward trend that we
have all been experiencing. But that being said, debt is
becoming more of a problem now. Both from a headline
amount of debt that is out there, balances that are
being held, amounts that are delinquent also from an interest
(31:42):
rate perspective. But because of that, credit scores are slipping.
Fourteen percent of gen Zers have seen their score decline
by fifty points or more. And I think the resumption
of student loan payments that likely has a lot to.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Do with it.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
And specifically, I want to call out quick fixes that
are marketed, that are advertised out there, because those can
create more problems in your life. But generally speaking, one
of the things we tried to do here on the
show is to explain how the credit scoring model works.
We want folks to pay attention to it. We want
folks to pay attention to their scores because it has
a wide ranging influence on your financial life, not just
(32:18):
your ability, not just the rate that you're paying on
a credit card balance, which we don't want you to do.
But yeah, it has a wide again, wide ranging impact.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
And maybe I overstated it with credit scores crashing at
the beginning of the pod, maybe max, because I think
the average decline has been something like two points. But
I think we are in an era where we saw
a lot more leniency being baked into the models of
the credit scoring system, and we're just seeing less of
that now, and especially with the multi year long posit
(32:48):
student loans, it's just shocking for people to have that
payment back in their lives again, and many cannot afford
to make that payment. And because of that, I think, yeah,
they're going to start to see their credit scores get hit.
And there's a lot of collatteral damage from having a
falling credit score, So make sure you're paying attention to that.
One other thing worth considering while we're talking about credit scores,
(33:10):
maybe updating the credit scoring system. We're not a huge
fan of the way it works, and the three major
credit bureaus often they are unresponsive to individuals who have
a problem or feel like that their credit score isn't
reflective of and their credit report has misinformation on it right,
like it's not accurate. And a new study reveals that
(33:31):
there might be a better way to calculate credit scores,
basically only looking at prior borrowing history. That's not always
the best way, the best tactic to take because it
does leave some folks out of the credit market. And
so this study found that they looked at shopping habits right,
and they said, well, actually someone's shopping habits can shed
light on their likelihood of repaying debts. So I think
(33:55):
expanding maybe the pool of data, there's a lot more
we can draw from now, including like whether or not
people make their rent payments on time. That's a big
one that is getting factored in more and more, but
it's still there's a huge lack of that data in
the credit scoring models, including more of the buy now,
pay later stuff, which the buy now, pay later companies
are kind of like kicking their feet. They don't really
(34:16):
want that to be the case. That data would be
helpful in kind of coming up with better credit scoring
models and credit scores. And then I think based on
the study it said, hey, when we go with this
shopping data, it actually it helps more people get into
their ability to get into the credit economy, but without
(34:36):
really distorting it.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
You know, I almost see that as like a negative
though as far as getting more folks in, because like especially,
I mean, do we want to more easily be able
to provide higher amounts of credit for new borrowers?
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Right?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Like as in personally, I'm like, I don't think I
necessarily want to. It's a trade off, like we're always trading,
in particular these days, our information for better rates, free apps,
different things like that. A person, I'm less interested in that,
But I'm also like, I don't know. Maybe it's okay
that there's a twenty five year old out there who's
never had a credit card, you know, for whatever reason,
that's fine, But as our twenty three year old, I
(35:11):
should say, and they're like, Okay, I'm kind.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Of getting my own place now I'm not in college.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Maybe I need to get a student credit card that's
got like a tiny revolving balance or whatever.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, like a small credit limit, a.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Small credit limit, Yeah, like five hundred dollars credit limit
or eight hundred dollars credit limit, and the ability for
them to make some small mistakes with a limited amount
of dollars. Right, It's kind of like you get the
guardrails up a little bit when you're like when you're bowling. So,
I don't know, I think regardless, being aware of how
it is.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
That the scoring models work and paying attention.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
To that is like, that's the biggest takeaway, regardless certainly
the data breaches. I think that's a big improvement. I
think that's an area where we and luckily, hey knock
on Wooden was the last time we.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Heard about a data breach. When it comes to the
at least it had. It might be because all of
the data has been breached.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
I don't know, there's like no more data to reach, Like, yeah,
they has all the data.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
No, I get what you're saying. I do think that
there are other elements, especially for like let's say a
recent graduate, Well, hey, what about what were your grades?
Like what was your attendance like in school? Like those
kind of things could factor into somebody's whether or not
those that person who's a credit worthy borrow.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Let's start this starts feeling really technically. You know, it's like,
oh man, they know everything about you. And it's one
thing if you're going to take out a two hundred
thousand dollars he lock on your home, it's like, okay,
let's make sure we have all the financial information that
we can find on you that you know you're gonna
have to scrape together all this info. It's another thing
when you're talking about like access to an additional five
(36:43):
thousand or something like that. But it'll be interesting, I think,
to see how how it all shakes out and how
different scoring models evolve. Especially like you said, as by
now pay later, he was able to get incorporated, which
I think is vital.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
That's so important. I think the biggest problem here, what
it comes down to, is that too many people who
exist in the credit scoring system, because we all do,
whether whether or not we want to, we are we're
essentially in this grandfathered into this system that we didn't
choose to be a part of. Understanding the system is crucial,
(37:15):
and there's just a huge chunk of Americans who are
a part of it, but they don't know how it works.
And the more you understand how it works, you know
that paying your bills on time is crucial, that having
you know, a low credit utilization rate is one of
those big things that impacts your score in a massive way.
If you can learn how the credit scoring system works,
we have information up on our site if you're curious.
(37:35):
But I if you can learn how the system works
and then act inside of that system accordingly, you might
be frustrated by it occasionally, but you can succeed inside
of it even if the system is you know, not
the best. And we would have done something different if
we were starting something if we were starting over completely
from scratch. That's true. All right, man, let's get out
of here.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
We hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and we will
see you back here. We will be back here your podcatcher,
in your earbuds, in your car stereo, or wherever it
is that you happen to listen to our podcast here
on Monday with a fresh ask how To Money episode.
But buddy, until next time, best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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