August 2, 2024 • 34 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: paying for the Olympics, uninsured drivers ruining the party, pay per mile insurance, Social Security fears, centenarian CDs, kiddo credit scores, increasing financial anxiety, more money more happiness, bundling is back, and an all-sports streaming app.
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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.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and today we're talking about social security, fears,
increasing anxiety, so lots of bad stuff, and then bundling
is back. That's nice that you ended on behind o
(00:30):
Joel talking about bundling as opposed to all the things
that make us sad, that make us depressed, fear, anxiety, worry.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, tune into this episode. Are I feel like we
do our best.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
To try to avoid some of the fear mongering here
on the show, but it is important to kind of
talk about what it is that folks are facing. We're
not trying to ignore the realities of you know, the
average American. And this is going to be like a
Zolaf for your ears, is what I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Also, so speaking of the average American, I bet there's
a lot of folks watching the Olympics. Have you been
watching the Olympics at all?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Join, We have been watching some. Yeah, I'm sure if
you you if you were going to uh plunk down
the change and uh We're gonna talk more about streaming
later on the show. But I'll tell you this, the
only reason we have Peacock is because Emily accidentally signed
up for Instacart. I can, and so, but that comes
with the free peacock, so we have Yeah, so we
have peacock because of that.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
So I thought you didn't have to be signed up.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
We're auto unrenewed. But we unrenewed the auto renew so
that it doesn't happen again.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I thought you could use Instacart without signing up for it.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Do you can? Yes, you can.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
That's which is why I was so frustrated by it,
as opposed to having the members. Not blaming my lovely wife,
but just saying it happened completely again, so it's been
included with your with your Instacart. Well, he said, do
you pay for that a year in advance? Like, yeah,
I think it's I forget, I think it's like one
hundred bucks for a seer. But like, then again we
got the peacock. At least we're not paying extra. Watch
(01:47):
the Olympics, all right, frustrating, but there's a there's a
slight silver lending. Don't bring it back up, Matt. For
a second, I was waffling as to whether or not
we're gonna splurge and and you know, pay for peacock.
But I'm like, you know what, for like, we're not
like a sports heavy family, like the kids, we aren't
really doing a.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Star wrestling, Yeah, just a thumb wrestling specifically, But I thought,
you know what.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Like that's something we're looking to change, and just the
ability to be inspired by athletes that are at the
top of their game. Like I think back to when
I was a kid watching the ninety six Olympics in
Atlanta Michael Johnson, Michael Johnson baby like watching him sprint
in sprint towards gold and I'm like, come on, like
that just made me want to get out there. Honestly,
I wonder if that's the part of why I started
(02:28):
running with my dad. Yeah, like around that point in time.
Could are the ability to inspire especially younger generations like
your kids?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
For sure? I think that's Olympics does that more than
professional sports? Uh? Do you have a favorite moment so far? Ooh?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
So we Okay, I haven't personally watched a ton. The
kids they've certainly watched more Olympics than I have. The
so gymnastic Okay, no, swimming, I'll say swimming because you know,
early on in the Olympics there's a lot of gymnastics,
a lot of swimming.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And specifically Katie Ladecki. Dude, what a beast. He's amazing
her is what was.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
The fifteen hundred freestyle? Her ability to just destroy everybody else, Like,
to me, that is incredibly inspiring, Like it's not that
long of her race for a second place to be
ten seconds behind you.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, I don't know, man, that's just I love that.
It's impressive.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
And swimming is really impressive too, because I'm not a
great swimmer. I never I've never like swimm competitively. I've
never done a triathlon. And to see them just like
cutting through the water like just glass.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
It's just so bad for those trithletes swimming in that river,
oh my gosh. Oh yeah, they're like it does not
taste good. All right, And we'll get to the money
saving stuff here in a second. But what about you though, Yeah,
I think that my highlights so far was and I
didn't watch it live, but just seeing it after the fact,
was the US women's rugby team. The way they picked
up that ball, they ran it in and they beat Australia.
(03:46):
They beat like Australia, that's their game, man, is rugby, right,
So Australians are saying, like, come on, this is all
we have. Don't take that away from us. From us, well,
it ended like one hundred year metal drought, so I
think that's really cool. I don't think I realized it was. Yeah,
I don't think we'd ever want to medal. I guess
the men's maybe had like a century ago. But uh,
but what we're really looking forward to, what we're waiting
(04:07):
on is the break dancing competition. That's what my son's
is really interested.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
On because he took a specific breakdancing class that he took.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
What is that slated? I think that's like coming up
in the week or so. So yeah, well literally you're
gonna you're gonna that. We're gonna watch that for sure.
I mean there's all these really interesting random sports that
the Olympics hasn't I like getting into the kind of
the nuanced ones too, because yeah, it is gymnastics, swimming
and then track and field coming up. But then some
of those weird ones are that those fun to.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Tune getten in for like archery, where they're like that's
kind of impressive, yeah, but I precision that comes with
like a beat.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Did you see there was a video there a bee
landed on as they were shooting. It the craziest thing,
and it messed up their shot. And you're like, you
trained all these years and then that happen. It's it's unreal.
All right, Enough about the Olympics. I hope you're enjoying
watching it. But let's get to the Friday flight and
the quick sampling of stories we found interesting this week.
We're gonna talk about how they pertain to your personal finances.
Ma let's start off by talking about insurance for just
(05:03):
a second. It is amazing. It's amazing how just a
few percentage points can have an impact. Talking about sports,
it's like these like small margins of error, right. That's
true when it comes to how much we're investing for
the future, too. An extra percentage point invested or an
extra percentage point of return adds up over time. The
mortgage rate that we have is going to impact your
what you pay on a monthly basis significantly. And then
(05:25):
the percentage of uninsured drivers, right, that is something else
that's impacting us all right now. Because there's been an
uptick in folks ditching car insurance. It's costing all of
us more money. Every single one of us who's listening
to this podcast. Sorry, we're paying more because of those
negligent folks. Right.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
The number is apparently ticked up from the eleven percent
range to fourteen percent over the past couple of years,
And Matt, I could see that number increasing as auto
insurance rates continue to climb. Yeah, it's like this self
fulfilling prophecy. Right, it continues to get worse because rates
go up, people drop their car insurance. That reduces the
number of custom that the insurance companies have, which only
(06:02):
compounds the pricing problems. Sure, So, yeah, this isn't the
only factor impacting the rapid rise in insurance cost, but
it is one of them. And I guess our suggestion
here to folks would be double check your uninsured motorist protection.
Make sure you've got solid coverage amounts. Our advice is
not to.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Do more of those folks on the road. Yeah, our
advice is not to become one of those uninsured motors. Sure.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And so this isn't backed in any research or anything
like that, but I would be willing to guess that
the same folks who have made the decision to not
have insurance on their vehicle, which it's illegal in all
but like a couple of states that those folks also
probably don't make the best decisions in other areas of life,
including whether or not they should should I sneak out
there and try to make this turn.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
When there's a car company. Yeah, you know, one thing
I don't know the answer to is what percentage of
accidents have an uninsured driver in that accident. I guess
it's more than just a percentage of on insured drivers.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, And I don't know. I don't know is that
fair seeing that? Is that judging a book.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
By its cover? But I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I've got to think that there is some positive correlation
there between those two.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And I also, Matt judge books by their cover.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So sometimes you do. But yeah, increasing the coverage, certainly
it might cost you more, but not having enough that
could come back to bite you at the end of
the day.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
That's an example of being cheap not frugal.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And one thing that some folks are doing to save
on car insurance without jeeping out is opting for pay
by the mile insurance. So companies out there like Metro
Mile they sprung up for this very reason, but many
of the major issuers out there, they've sort of jumped
on the spandwagon as well. But the fact is this
only really makes sense for folks who don't drive much,
(07:38):
like fewer than four thousand miles a year. That's typically
the line of demarcation. If you're below that, you could
typically save a ton. If you're above that, though, it
probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense for you.
And so for instance, if you're like a byke commuter,
or maybe you work from home most of the time,
well it might be worth looking into. But for the
average American, I don't think it makes much sense. But
(08:00):
one thing worth mentioning. You might save money, but simultaneously
you might be losing some privacy because the insurance company
they've got a track how many miles that you're driving somehow,
whether that's through an app on your phone or whether
that's through a device that's plugged into the vehicle. And
so just keep that in mind that for the folks
out there who aren't into having their privacy invaded, that's
(08:21):
one of the concessions you're going to have to make
in order to save And what just.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
One other thing on that on this front, mat is
you a lot of insurance companies will offer you a
discount if you drive fewer miles, so they're not monitoring,
but if you can prove to them, essentially that you
drive fewer than seventy five hundred miles a year, and
typically you're just auto, you're reporting your O doometer reading
or whatever, and they'll send you something in the mail
to just recertify, Hey, this is how many miles I
drove in the past year. They'll offer you a discount
(08:46):
on insurance too. So it might just maybe that's the
happy medium for a lot of folks, because four thousand
miles that's not many and not there.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, exactly exactly, like it would take somebody who's like
living in a city center, who works like three blocks away,
that kind of thing. That's right, like your sister, perhaps
they really might qualify. Yeah, I bet they would.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah. All right, let's talk about Social Security for a second.
The younger generation, they seem to overwhelmingly believe that Social
Security has scam like elements, that they're paying into this
system with every paycheck, but that they're never going to
get to experience any future benefit, or at least not meaningfully.
So confidence is lowest of course among the twenty and
(09:24):
thirty somethings. Matt. You can call it paranoid, you can
call it being cautious. But these worries obviously don't come
from nowhere. We've talked about this on the show before too,
what's going on with social security? Our politicians have continued
to kick the can down the road. I mean, Matt,
is any president presidential candidate meaningfully addressing the shortfall of
Social Security? Not right now? No, I don't think so.
At some point, I think we're going to have to
(09:45):
maybe the libertarian candidate. I don't know. I don't even
know their name. I don't even know if they know
their own name. But yeah, this means that every year
we wait to fix a broken system, and that means
it's a harder We're going to be up for a
harder pivot in the future. But these people, they're not
just waiting on Poul peticians to do something. They're taking
matters into their own hands. These these youngsters who don't
believe that the future of social Security looks right for them,
(10:07):
and what they're opting to do, Matt is increase their
own personal savings. Right, Yeah, we're all about that. This
was documented a story well documented in the Wall Street Journal.
A lot of these folks are leaving that potential Social
Security payment out of their retirement calculations altogether. And so
I will say this to Matt, I get the wuo
who I get where they're coming from. We're all for.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Personal responsibility, yeah, and you taking more action to impact
your taking matters into your hands personal future. Yeah, but
this also might be taking things too far because I
don't believe that these people are also going to get
not a nothing from Social Security true when they hit
their retirement age.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, we actually didn't in depth dive back in episode
four thirteen on Social Security, and a lot of what
we said back then remains true about social Security today
because demographics they are not on our side. In fact,
they've probably actually even gotten.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Worse since that episode. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
So like it's going to be strained in.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Most of their developed countries, but ours certainly in hours.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, but we're going to continue to see straining like
on the system in the coming years with fewer folks
paying into it, which means younger folks might see a
reduction in benefits, which also means that you are likely
going to need to bear more of the burden to
fund your own retirement, which is why we can get
excited about folks starting to take steps in that direction.
And our thrust on the show is just to talk
(11:25):
regularly about securing your own retirement via the available avenues
to us, and just to boil it down to the basics,
dollar cost average and too index funds in a tax
advantaged account. Do that for decades. But it's not rocket science,
no exactly, it's not all that difficult. But I also
think though, that it could be a good idea to
create a my Social Security account over at SSA dot gov,
(11:48):
where you can log in you can see an estimate
of your likely social Security amount. I actually think it
might be helpful for you to see what your likely
payolt might be and honestly to get your hopes up
a little bit, because I think what that does is
it might allow a lot of folks to think, oh,
wait a minute, when the time does come for there
to either be higher taxes which are very likely in
(12:09):
the future, or a reduction and benefits free just to
understand why that's the case. The reality of the future
of social security needs to be grounded in actual reality,
as opposed to this sort of pipe dream, which is
what we've seen politicians continue to do by ignoring the
situation that we find ourselves in.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
And I think it's also important to note. You might
see you're going to see a projected amount based on
your current income and the number of years that you've worked,
assuming that you're going to continue to work the full
amount of years in order to get to your maximum payout.
And what I would do when I log in there
and I saw that number, Matt, I would cut it
by twenty five percent, because I think it's highly unlikely
that even if you're a gen zer, you're going to
(12:46):
get the rug pulled out from under you completely.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
It's not going to be completely gone, but.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
From all the projections, it seems like payouts will go
down what in the in twenty thirty three, early twenty
thirties for retirees if something's not done to fix this problem.
So just note, yeah, look at the number, be encouraged,
but also be a realist and realize that number probably
isn't going to be exactly what you're gonna receive in retirement.
We're gonna have to change the system in order to
(13:10):
keep it solvent for future generations.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, I think it's just it's helpful to think about it.
And I think we said this on that Deep Dive
episode too that we did on Social Security. But almost
see it as like like the cherry on top, right, Like,
it's not like it's I don't know, do you think
it needs to be more than that? Actually, well it's
the three leg's still right, as we talked about it
being like the nuts, because there's actual substance. Is that unfamiliar?
It's like we're talking about like an ice cream Sunday
and it's like, well, a cherry on top or whip cream,
(13:34):
there's not much substance there.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
But it's actually you should int haal the whip cream
bay exactly, and it can just get evaporate or something
like that, it just melts.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
But it's like there is some true substance to what
it is that you're likely going to receive, but you
just don't necessarily want to fully bank on that.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Yeah. I agreed, And so maybe don't go down the
super dismal, pessimistic rabbit hole that some of the people
profiled in this article. We're going down saying like I
don't think I'm gonna get any money from that. Yeah,
because it's a popular program, it's not going away completely.
But also realize that Social Security ain't going to cover
the majority of your retirement needs. And yeah, most of
(14:09):
it really does come down to you and your ability
to increase your savings rate to prepare for your own
financial future. And Matt, that brings me to another interesting
product that I was kind of baffled by this article
in Yahoo Finance about a CD that lasts for one
hundred years. Did you see that? No?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Okay, so this was super weird that you would potentially
lock up your money. You get paid a rate of
four point seventy five percent, which is pretty good these
days we're talking about a CD.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Does't makes any sense. But you lock up your money for.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
A century, how would you do that? You'd have to
be it's like a time capsule.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah, it'll be fresh born hoping. So apparently this is
like partly to be able to leave money to your
heirs and.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
So that's opens time capsules. Not you, but like the
future generation exactly do that. And then but if you
tap this this CD early, you pay ten years worth
of interest, which it's incredible. And if you've got that
long to wait, I would say, there are so few
reasons not to be investing that money and said, so, yeah,
I think the bank was called the Walden Mutual Bank.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Sorry, but I'm out. I'm not into that product.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Okay, while we're talking about planning ahead, oftentimes you do
that when you are raising your kids. Let's talk about
giving your kid a financial head start. There are certainly
a lot of ways to do that. You could open
one of these one hundred year CDs.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
But at least once when they're eighty five.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
One realistic way is to help them get a great
credit score. There's new data from trains Union. They find
that young people who are being granted authorized user access
is more than.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Doubled over the past decade.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
And so if you're a parent adding your child to
your credit card accounts, that's going to allow them to
launch into life with a great credit score. Of course,
that assumes that you are making your payments on time,
that you're paying off your balance on time and in
full every single month. Otherwise you're gonna do the exact
opposite answering your kids right. Capital one in particular, that
they've got no minimum age for authorized users, so Basically,
(16:05):
I think as long as you've your kid's got a
social Security number, you can add them to your account.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I think every credit card issuer takes a different tact.
I want to say, American Express, they have to be
at least thirteen. So, yeah, look at the fine print
and see, well how old does my kid have to
be to become an authorized user? But you can start
them on. You can start them as newborns. Oh yeah,
it's totally impressive.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, that's going to give them a nice little head start.
And I was thinking about it and it made me
realize too that I think because of how easy it is,
I think for those parents out there who aren't doing this,
I almost feel like that like there's collective action that
is taking place, and because it's so easy, because more
folks are doing it, that essentially your kids almost like
at a disadvantage because you're not taking advantage of this,
you know.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Like it makes me think.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Of college, which there is a very high bar to entry, right,
Like it costs a lot of money. You're looking at
like a four year degree. But how like over the
past number of decades, how many jobs and industries do
we see where like the minimum threshold, like what you
needed to have was at least a four your degree. Yeah,
and so it's like, what is it like? Credit score
inflation essentially seems like it might be happening, and because
(17:06):
of that, that could potentially put your kid at a
disadvantage once they're launching out into life.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
And we know, of course, the credit score is only
one piece of a healthy financial life, and don't obsess
over and what you teach your kids matters more than
making sure that they have a seven hundred and twenty
credit score, seven hundred and fifty credit score when they
turn eighteen. But this is just one thing you can
do for them that takes a few minutes and you
can kind of get them started off on the right foot,
at least from a credit perspective. But yeah, I think
(17:33):
the bigger thing is talking to them about, oh ya,
what it looks like to handle their credit responsible is
much more important. That's much more important. All Right, We've
got more to get to on this episode, and including
we're going to talk about a new study about money
and happiness. How are they related to one another? It
kind of contradicts previous studies. We'll get to that and
more right after this.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Right, we are back for the break and Joel, we'll
get to talking about your feelings here in a minute.
We've got actually multiple stories about how does you feel?
Did you see Inside Out? How I specifically feel about
how you Yeah, okay, you're looking quite chipper this morning.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Did you did you see did y'all see Inside Out? Too? Oh?
We did have. We already talked about that on the show. Oh,
we might have. Okay, let's just stop solid. Okay, is
that how we do things here? Yeah, this is a
live edit. Now let's talk about anxiety, which is that
was one of the characters the added to the movie,
the main character. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
A new Discover survey finds that anxiety and avoidance that
they are driving the financial lives of many Americans.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
That's the headline of their report.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, which is not terribly shocking, but it's it's not good.
Eighty percent of folks admit to feeling some anxiety about money,
but roughly a third say that it is moderate to severe,
and dude, ossibly it's like debilitating levels of anxiety exactly.
But what stood out to me is the opposite, like
the negative of that eighty percent, which is the fact
(18:58):
that there are twenty percent of folks that basically feel
zero stress about money.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Maybe, which who are these people?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
They're sitting on their pillow in low disposition, not worrying
about their money at all, floading through life. But even because,
like I don't know, if you are doing a great
job with your finances, you're crushing it, that doesn't mean
that money isn't still a stressor at times. But of
course I feel for the folks who just regularly feel
anxious about money. For a decent chunk of folks, it's
literally about not having enough money. But many others out there,
(19:27):
they're worried about the far off future and just the
different what ifs in life, like losing a job, maybe
experiencing a recession, what that would do to their finances.
And we talked about emergency funds last week and having
more money on hand. It certainly is not a perfect solution,
but adding to your liquidity, just little by little, I
think is Honestly, it's one of the best solutions. And
(19:48):
I would love to see some sort of study done
where you have somebody who's living paycheck to paycheck and
if they were able to have some sort of financial
margin in their life, where they've got three to six
months worth of living expenses set us, Like just think
about what that would do to so many folks.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Like we have some studies like that from like basic
income studies that have been done, and is it interesting
to see how families respond, How they end up working less,
they end up feeling more financially secure, they end up
seeming to have better relationships with the people they do
life with. So I guess like that knowing that there's
an increased paycheck coming in every single month, whether it's
(20:24):
five hundred bucks or whatever, it does add to a
lot of people's peace of mind.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, simultaneously that I think there's something disempowering about like
some sort of UBI implementation. But so I guess as
I'll think it through margin. Like what my mind went
to was just like one of the other things that
we have a finite amount of, which is time. Like
just think about if you're trying to make an appointment
or if you're trying to like if you're trying to
catch a flight, you could leave at the very last minute.
(20:48):
And what that means, though, is that every single stop
along the way, every red light, every traffic slow down
or congestion or accident that you come across has you
just like completely stressed out because what I mean, like
you on the first day of school this week, Yeah,
oh my gosh, dude. Yeah, circumstances out of your control.
But yes, car didn't start. Might be time for a
new battery. Imagine though, if you take that same situation
(21:11):
and you just add thirty minutes to it, add an
hour to like, oh, let's just make sure we've got
plenty of time there at the airport, like a stoplight
or a slowdown. It's just you're like, Okay, no problem,
because I've got plenty of time.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Same thing is true when it comes to your finances
and when we talk about anxiety and avoidance, Matt, we're
also talking about kind of things that are going on
in your mind. And you and I were not mental
health professionals, and honestly, for some people, the best course
of action might be to see somebody like a financial therapist.
We've had a few different financial therapists on this podcast
over the years, because we do think that mental side
of money is so important, and so it's not just
(21:44):
about more money in the bank account. There are probably
other things that you need to do as well. And
I think it's just really important to put things in
perspective as well. Remember that progress takes a long time,
you know, whether we're talking about debt payoff, saving for retirement.
I think for some reason, Matt, everybody feels like they're behind,
but you're not racing anybody. And the more you let
anxiety take the reins, the harder it can be to
(22:07):
take action to drive progress. We feel powerless, we like
let that anxiety suck us off the ability and the
drive to get going on some of those money goals
that we have. I think unchecked anxiety can often lead
to unhelpful coping mechanisms, which like doom scrolling on your
phone or something like that, right or yo yo method,
attempts of fixing things, spending sprees that aren't terribly helpful,
(22:30):
that are actually perpetuating the problem. So I would suggest
checking out episode three seventy one where we talk about
how to use anxiety and stress to your advantage jiu
Jitsu style, because avoidance only makes the problem worse. We
know this same thing. If you haven't a fight with
your spouse, it's like, well, let's just not talk about
it and just agree to silently hate each other in
(22:51):
the process. Like, that's not a good way to move forward,
I say, tackling one money problem at a time, tracking
your progress, getting help if you need it. Those are
going to be the way to benefit yourself when it
comes to making progress with your money. Just don't let
these two reactions of anxiety and avoidance become the norm
in your financial life. Totally.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, let's keep talking about feelings. Studies about money and
happiness have found results all across the board. So there
are some studies out there that suggest that there's a
limit to the amount of happiness that money can buy,
that basically, beyond a low six figure income, you're essentially
going to see almost no increase to your levels of happiness.
But there's a new study from the Wharton School that
(23:30):
says that you can get even more happiness from money.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
So the reason why, though, this is what's so important.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
It's not because now all of a sudden you can
afford a boat when that was something you only dreamed
about before.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
A researcher, I haven't met many happy boat owners. No, no, yeah,
it's always I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
The curve of diminishing returns is like even steeper, looks
like a boat than even like a new.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Car, rent a boat for the weekend, guys, by way,
try that out.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
But one of the researchers summed it up like this,
and this is a quote, A greater feeling of control
over life can explaining about seventy five percent of the
association between money and happiness. So I think a big
part of what's happening is that when people have more money,
they have more control over their lives autonomy, like having
(24:14):
more agency. This we love because we know that using
money to increase your lifestyle, like certainly that's nice to
a degree, but it's what you don't spend that offers
you these greater levels of control. We're talking about that
margin and having money in the bank to where you're
not stressing over every little bump in the room.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Well, we talked about that with our lives a little
bit too recently at the beach matt and that was
a super fun convo. Really enjoyed that one. Hope listeners
enjoyed that one. But yeah, that that is what has
over time, It's been that greater level of freedom, flexibility,
and then that allows for optionality when it comes to
how much we work, what sort of work we pursue
(24:52):
and the ability to say no to things that we
don't want to do. But that takes again, that takes time.
But that is one of the biggest benefits that money
can provide. So I love that that maybe earning two
fifty k instead of one hundred k is going but
can potentially bring greater levels of happiness. Just make sure
you're spending quote unquote or saving that money in the
(25:14):
right way to achieve that happiness. That's right.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Spend it on your own freedom, right, not on stuff exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
So GQ, of all places, Matt, I know one of
your favorite magazines, you're so stylish.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Oh, thank you, better than your favorite, which is maxim
I remember that way?
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Is that what? It still exists? Kidding? I don't know.
Does Yeah, we won't go there, Okay, so all places.
GQ had an article recently discussing how human beings are
wired and basically that we get used to things incredibly quickly.
We've talked about this before, Matt. The science behind kind
of are our brains and hacking happiness and what's known
(25:47):
as the hedonic treadmill. That once we get on the
hedonic treadmill, it's kind of hard to get off that
even when something ridiculously cool happens to you, we tend
to migrate back towards our baseline levels of happiness, and.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Not just something really cool happens, but even when something
really like terrible happens, right, like the worst thing that
could potentially happen to you in life, Because.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Like this, humans can overcome.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
It was a study on quadriplegics, which is for a
lot of folks, probably one of the worst things they
could imagine. But even still those folks were able to
regain this sort of baseline of happiness, which is astounding.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, so you know, winning the lottery or buying a
new car feels amazing, but three months in, it's hard
to remember how we used to live, and our appreciation
for the new ride isn't the same. Fortunately, the same
is true on the other side. Like you just mentioned, Matt,
resilience is kind of built into our human DNA as well.
And it just makes me think about our como with
Darius Feru recently about stoicism. It's this powerful tool in
(26:38):
our arsenal against the hedonic treadmill. So I would suggest
going back and listen to that recent episode. If you
haven't gratitude, I think is another approach math that we
should all be taking here. Building wealth is awesome, but
life is so much more than that. So put your
wealth building efforts in their proper place. They're important. But
I think the more we kind of put that money
into action attempting to make ourselves happier by buying more stuff,
(27:05):
actually it's gonna have the opposite impact. It's going to
leave us without that optionality. It's going to leave us
with more things that like just clog our mind, clog
our brains. So I think GQ was spot on on
this one.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
That's one that they got right, Joel as opposed to
I don't know what colors you are and aren't allowed
to wear at certain points right here. So it turns
out bundling is back Disney Hulu as well as Max,
which I'm still getting used to saying, not HBO Max.
They just announced that the price that you're going to
pay if you want all three is going to be
(27:35):
seventeen dollars a month with ADS, and it's going to
be thirty dollars without. If I was bundling, that would
be the one that I'd be going for.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
They're combining forces here exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Exactly, and so that's a pretty solid discount over what
you'd pay for each one of those individually. But streaming
service operators, they aren't dumb. And part of the reason
that they're doing this, that they're offering this new bundle,
is because people are finally wising up. They're rotating out
their subscriptions. They're canceling after they've binged their favorite show,
which isn't great for their bottom line, of course, and
(28:07):
so if they can toss you a better price for
multiple services, they're hoping that it's gonna be a little
stickier that you're never gonna leave.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Oh, seventeen bucks a month, Well, I get all three,
so I'm just gonna keep it year round, exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
So you need to be like me and my family
and resist like we've resisted Disney.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Still, you're not paying for any streaming services currently, right.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Well, we don't technically count Amazon Prime because that almost
feels like it's hard to fault. Yeah, but yeah, I
don't know. It's to the kids' dismay. That's one Disney
in particular is one that we've been avoiding. But even
though we did splurge on peacock.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I'm gonna give them some pitchforks so they can march
around the house. Here.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Here is one reason that I felt very comfortable. So
you know, you can justify it and try to inspire
your kids to get out there and be an athlete
that kind of thing, and it's just eh, the Olympics
are fun, right, But also there is a finish line
put a good metaphor as far as the Olympics. But
there is a eight that I know I'm going to
cancel peacock. You know what date that is, Joel, when
(29:04):
the Olympics forever one month in. It is August twelfth,
which is the day after August eleventh, which is when
the closing ceremony is. So I think that's the difference.
If you know that you can be disciplined and focused
and be like surgical with how it is that you
you stream, if you are all about looking to cut
back and save while still being able to experience different
forms of entertainment, that I still think you can get
(29:26):
the best deal by not bundling and not falling parade
to some of these offerings.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I think that's exactly right. I think the bundle to
the person who loves a good deal like myself. Matt.
When I first read this, I was like, Oh, that's
a great deal. And then the more I thought about it,
I was like, do you have the time to be
able to spend those services at the same time. That's
the thing is, I really don't watch nearly as much
TV as I used to. I know, the average American
we talk about that, like how much TV they watched
(29:50):
in America's past time, probably be better if they watch less.
And part of the way you can do that is
just having fewer options at your disposal. You're probably going
to watch less TV, you're less tempted, and you're gonna
spend less month. But this bundle is probably going to
you want to get your money's word, and you're gonna
watch more TV. And it's also just gonna be it's
gonna be stickier, like you aren't going to cancel in
the same way. But I think you're right, Matt. One off, Hey,
(30:11):
I'm watching the Olympics. That's why I have Peacock. Hey,
I'm watching this one show and then once it's over,
I'm gonna cancel that too.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Just be ruthless about that. And I think that these
bundles are gonna cause people to be less ruthless about
cutting their subscriptions.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
That's the whole point. It seems like a good deal.
They're gonna make it easy for you.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah, yeah, you're gonna end up spending more.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
All Right. On the streaming note, an all sports streaming
app is coming this fall. This has kind of been
in the works, kind of being talked about for months
and months and months now, and that's been for most people,
matt the most expensive part of their cable or streaming package.
So if you had cable back in the day and
you didn't watch sports, you were the sucker because ESPN
was by far the most expensive thing in your cable
(30:51):
TV package and you were paying for it even while
you were just watching HGTV. Right, but streaming sports might
be getting better. Venue Sports is the name of this
new service. It's a joint venture by Fox and others
to basically beam collegiate and pro athletics onto your TV.
And while this service is going to feature a lot
(31:12):
of sports action, including what ESPN channels FS one, F
S two, I think T and T, although I think
they're losing the NBA, so it's going to be interesting
to see how that works out. It's not going to
include all the sports, right, and there's a lot of
soccer you're going to miss out on it. It's not
going to include streaming specific games that Amazon and Netflix run,
so if you're like looking for those specialty football games
(31:33):
or peacock I think they're going to have some NFL
playoff games too. It's also not gonna include apparently the
regional sports channels, which is a big miss. And the
price is forty three bucks a month, so if a
couple of your favorite sports on aren't on there, that's
up there. Yeah, that's a lot of money and it's
probably gonna be worth it to some sports nuts map,
but for a lot of other people. I don't know
if it will be. Again, I'm curious to see how
(31:55):
this shakes out. We don't know all the details yet,
But it also sounds like they're gonna include in you
this new service in a bundle of sorts with some
of the ones we just mentioned, which could make the
price more attractive to sell them a lot like cable TV, right, dude, exactly. Yeah,
like we're slowly reverting back to like why don't we
just does to go back I think a lot of
folks are, well, I honestly wanting to go back to
(32:16):
just paying for cable because which makes you think, well,
why don't you just do that in the first place.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yeah, I think a lot of people will find themselves
something like YouTube TV. It costs more, but it might
provide the best of all worlds because you are getting
some of those other channels included too.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Yeah, I think that can make sense.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
It might be better than cable, But a lot of
people going back to cable for good reason. I do
think a lot of folks, though, are going to be
willing to pay this higher price for sports because, like,
if you think about other forms of entertainment, like other
TV shows, there are a lot of replacements or whatever,
Like there are substitutes we like the Bear. Well, if
you don't have uh Hulu, but you kind of want
to watch them cooking drama, maybe you know you watch
(32:50):
some like Top Chef episodes or Yah, there's a lot
a lot of different cooking shows out there. See watched
friend of the show Frankie Clenza for free over on
Taste Made. But when it comes to sports, when if
you're a fan of a particular team, there's no substitute,
And so because of that and given like the high
price point of live sports, if you're gonna, if you're
looking to do it in real life, you're used to
paying like tons of money for like going to see
(33:13):
one match, one game in person, and said, the ability
to have that for a much reduced price and still
be able to see your favorite team, I mean, I
think that's why there has been such a premium plays
on sports, because there is no substitute as opposed to
other forms of entertainment that we watch on TV.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
That's right, You're exactly right. By the way that I
saw Roku is, which is free streaming, you can get
Sunday Major League Baseball games or at least like one
or two of them I think, on Roku for free
these days. So that's kind of cool. Like almost nothing
in the sports streaming world is free except for that.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
That feels very like very American, like Sunday afternoon with
a baseball game on.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Doesn't that sound good? Yeah? Well, and don't forget about
Antenna's too, by the way, over the air, there's still
a lot of stuff you can watch there, including some
sports pretty easily as well. From yeah or for free
I don't.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I still don't understand exactly how it works, but a
lot of a lot of the new TVs like that,
We've got a Samsung frame and we get hundreds of
channels through the box somehow, like we are not paying
for cable. And when we got this TV, I was
playing into of course, hook up my thirty dollars digital
HD antenna, you know, like the little flat thing he
taped to the window. But then I realized I didn't
(34:20):
have to do that. So there's just there's a lot
of content out there that you don't even have to
pay for. Yep, that's true that we want to point
folks towards. But let's wrap it up.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Man.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
That's gonna be it for this episode. We hope everybody
has a fantastic weekend. We'll see you back here on
Monday with a fresh batch of listener questions for you.
So until next time, best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.
Welcome to Had of Money.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and today we're talking about social security, fears,
increasing anxiety, so lots of bad stuff, and then bundling
is back. That's nice that you ended on behind o
(00:30):
Joel talking about bundling as opposed to all the things
that make us sad, that make us depressed, fear, anxiety, worry.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, tune into this episode. Are I feel like we
do our best.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
To try to avoid some of the fear mongering here
on the show, but it is important to kind of
talk about what it is that folks are facing. We're
not trying to ignore the realities of you know, the
average American. And this is going to be like a
Zolaf for your ears, is what I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Also, so speaking of the average American, I bet there's
a lot of folks watching the Olympics. Have you been
watching the Olympics at all?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Join, We have been watching some. Yeah, I'm sure if
you you if you were going to uh plunk down
the change and uh We're gonna talk more about streaming
later on the show. But I'll tell you this, the
only reason we have Peacock is because Emily accidentally signed
up for Instacart. I can, and so, but that comes
with the free peacock, so we have Yeah, so we
have peacock because of that.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
So I thought you didn't have to be signed up.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
We're auto unrenewed. But we unrenewed the auto renew so
that it doesn't happen again.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I thought you could use Instacart without signing up for it.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Do you can? Yes, you can.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
That's which is why I was so frustrated by it,
as opposed to having the members. Not blaming my lovely wife,
but just saying it happened completely again, so it's been
included with your with your Instacart. Well, he said, do
you pay for that a year in advance? Like, yeah,
I think it's I forget, I think it's like one
hundred bucks for a seer. But like, then again we
got the peacock. At least we're not paying extra. Watch
(01:47):
the Olympics, all right, frustrating, but there's a there's a
slight silver lending. Don't bring it back up, Matt. For
a second, I was waffling as to whether or not
we're gonna splurge and and you know, pay for peacock.
But I'm like, you know what, for like, we're not
like a sports heavy family, like the kids, we aren't
really doing a.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Star wrestling, Yeah, just a thumb wrestling specifically, But I thought,
you know what.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Like that's something we're looking to change, and just the
ability to be inspired by athletes that are at the
top of their game. Like I think back to when
I was a kid watching the ninety six Olympics in
Atlanta Michael Johnson, Michael Johnson baby like watching him sprint
in sprint towards gold and I'm like, come on, like
that just made me want to get out there. Honestly,
I wonder if that's the part of why I started
(02:28):
running with my dad. Yeah, like around that point in time.
Could are the ability to inspire especially younger generations like
your kids?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
For sure? I think that's Olympics does that more than
professional sports? Uh? Do you have a favorite moment so far? Ooh?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
So we Okay, I haven't personally watched a ton. The
kids they've certainly watched more Olympics than I have. The
so gymnastic Okay, no, swimming, I'll say swimming because you know,
early on in the Olympics there's a lot of gymnastics,
a lot of swimming.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And specifically Katie Ladecki. Dude, what a beast. He's amazing
her is what was.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
The fifteen hundred freestyle? Her ability to just destroy everybody else, Like,
to me, that is incredibly inspiring, Like it's not that
long of her race for a second place to be
ten seconds behind you.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, I don't know, man, that's just I love that.
It's impressive.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
And swimming is really impressive too, because I'm not a
great swimmer. I never I've never like swimm competitively. I've
never done a triathlon. And to see them just like
cutting through the water like just glass.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
It's just so bad for those trithletes swimming in that river,
oh my gosh. Oh yeah, they're like it does not
taste good. All right, And we'll get to the money
saving stuff here in a second. But what about you though, Yeah,
I think that my highlights so far was and I
didn't watch it live, but just seeing it after the fact,
was the US women's rugby team. The way they picked
up that ball, they ran it in and they beat Australia.
(03:46):
They beat like Australia, that's their game, man, is rugby, right,
So Australians are saying, like, come on, this is all
we have. Don't take that away from us. From us, well,
it ended like one hundred year metal drought, so I
think that's really cool. I don't think I realized it was. Yeah,
I don't think we'd ever want to medal. I guess
the men's maybe had like a century ago. But uh,
but what we're really looking forward to, what we're waiting
(04:07):
on is the break dancing competition. That's what my son's
is really interested.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
On because he took a specific breakdancing class that he took.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
What is that slated? I think that's like coming up
in the week or so. So yeah, well literally you're
gonna you're gonna that. We're gonna watch that for sure.
I mean there's all these really interesting random sports that
the Olympics hasn't I like getting into the kind of
the nuanced ones too, because yeah, it is gymnastics, swimming
and then track and field coming up. But then some
of those weird ones are that those fun to.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Tune getten in for like archery, where they're like that's
kind of impressive, yeah, but I precision that comes with
like a beat.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Did you see there was a video there a bee
landed on as they were shooting. It the craziest thing,
and it messed up their shot. And you're like, you
trained all these years and then that happen. It's it's unreal.
All right, Enough about the Olympics. I hope you're enjoying
watching it. But let's get to the Friday flight and
the quick sampling of stories we found interesting this week.
We're gonna talk about how they pertain to your personal finances.
Ma let's start off by talking about insurance for just
(05:03):
a second. It is amazing. It's amazing how just a
few percentage points can have an impact. Talking about sports,
it's like these like small margins of error, right. That's
true when it comes to how much we're investing for
the future, too. An extra percentage point invested or an
extra percentage point of return adds up over time. The
mortgage rate that we have is going to impact your
what you pay on a monthly basis significantly. And then
(05:25):
the percentage of uninsured drivers, right, that is something else
that's impacting us all right now. Because there's been an
uptick in folks ditching car insurance. It's costing all of
us more money. Every single one of us who's listening
to this podcast. Sorry, we're paying more because of those
negligent folks. Right.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
The number is apparently ticked up from the eleven percent
range to fourteen percent over the past couple of years,
And Matt, I could see that number increasing as auto
insurance rates continue to climb. Yeah, it's like this self
fulfilling prophecy. Right, it continues to get worse because rates
go up, people drop their car insurance. That reduces the
number of custom that the insurance companies have, which only
(06:02):
compounds the pricing problems. Sure, So, yeah, this isn't the
only factor impacting the rapid rise in insurance cost, but
it is one of them. And I guess our suggestion
here to folks would be double check your uninsured motorist protection.
Make sure you've got solid coverage amounts. Our advice is
not to.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Do more of those folks on the road. Yeah, our
advice is not to become one of those uninsured motors. Sure.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And so this isn't backed in any research or anything
like that, but I would be willing to guess that
the same folks who have made the decision to not
have insurance on their vehicle, which it's illegal in all
but like a couple of states that those folks also
probably don't make the best decisions in other areas of life,
including whether or not they should should I sneak out
there and try to make this turn.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
When there's a car company. Yeah, you know, one thing
I don't know the answer to is what percentage of
accidents have an uninsured driver in that accident. I guess
it's more than just a percentage of on insured drivers.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, And I don't know. I don't know is that
fair seeing that? Is that judging a book.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
By its cover? But I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I've got to think that there is some positive correlation
there between those two.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And I also, Matt judge books by their cover.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So sometimes you do. But yeah, increasing the coverage, certainly
it might cost you more, but not having enough that
could come back to bite you at the end of
the day.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
That's an example of being cheap not frugal.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And one thing that some folks are doing to save
on car insurance without jeeping out is opting for pay
by the mile insurance. So companies out there like Metro
Mile they sprung up for this very reason, but many
of the major issuers out there, they've sort of jumped
on the spandwagon as well. But the fact is this
only really makes sense for folks who don't drive much,
(07:38):
like fewer than four thousand miles a year. That's typically
the line of demarcation. If you're below that, you could
typically save a ton. If you're above that, though, it
probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense for you.
And so for instance, if you're like a byke commuter,
or maybe you work from home most of the time,
well it might be worth looking into. But for the
average American, I don't think it makes much sense. But
(08:00):
one thing worth mentioning. You might save money, but simultaneously
you might be losing some privacy because the insurance company
they've got a track how many miles that you're driving somehow,
whether that's through an app on your phone or whether
that's through a device that's plugged into the vehicle. And
so just keep that in mind that for the folks
out there who aren't into having their privacy invaded, that's
(08:21):
one of the concessions you're going to have to make
in order to save And what just.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
One other thing on that on this front, mat is
you a lot of insurance companies will offer you a
discount if you drive fewer miles, so they're not monitoring,
but if you can prove to them, essentially that you
drive fewer than seventy five hundred miles a year, and
typically you're just auto, you're reporting your O doometer reading
or whatever, and they'll send you something in the mail
to just recertify, Hey, this is how many miles I
drove in the past year. They'll offer you a discount
(08:46):
on insurance too. So it might just maybe that's the
happy medium for a lot of folks, because four thousand
miles that's not many and not there.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, exactly exactly, like it would take somebody who's like
living in a city center, who works like three blocks away,
that kind of thing. That's right, like your sister, perhaps
they really might qualify. Yeah, I bet they would.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah. All right, let's talk about Social Security for a second.
The younger generation, they seem to overwhelmingly believe that Social
Security has scam like elements, that they're paying into this
system with every paycheck, but that they're never going to
get to experience any future benefit, or at least not meaningfully.
So confidence is lowest of course among the twenty and
(09:24):
thirty somethings. Matt. You can call it paranoid, you can
call it being cautious. But these worries obviously don't come
from nowhere. We've talked about this on the show before too,
what's going on with social security? Our politicians have continued
to kick the can down the road. I mean, Matt,
is any president presidential candidate meaningfully addressing the shortfall of
Social Security? Not right now? No, I don't think so.
At some point, I think we're going to have to
(09:45):
maybe the libertarian candidate. I don't know. I don't even
know their name. I don't even know if they know
their own name. But yeah, this means that every year
we wait to fix a broken system, and that means
it's a harder We're going to be up for a
harder pivot in the future. But these people, they're not
just waiting on Poul peticians to do something. They're taking
matters into their own hands. These these youngsters who don't
believe that the future of social Security looks right for them,
(10:07):
and what they're opting to do, Matt is increase their
own personal savings. Right, Yeah, we're all about that. This
was documented a story well documented in the Wall Street Journal.
A lot of these folks are leaving that potential Social
Security payment out of their retirement calculations altogether. And so
I will say this to Matt, I get the wuo
who I get where they're coming from. We're all for.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Personal responsibility, yeah, and you taking more action to impact
your taking matters into your hands personal future. Yeah, but
this also might be taking things too far because I
don't believe that these people are also going to get
not a nothing from Social Security true when they hit
their retirement age.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, we actually didn't in depth dive back in episode
four thirteen on Social Security, and a lot of what
we said back then remains true about social Security today
because demographics they are not on our side. In fact,
they've probably actually even gotten.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Worse since that episode. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
So like it's going to be strained in.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Most of their developed countries, but ours certainly in hours.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, but we're going to continue to see straining like
on the system in the coming years with fewer folks
paying into it, which means younger folks might see a
reduction in benefits, which also means that you are likely
going to need to bear more of the burden to
fund your own retirement, which is why we can get
excited about folks starting to take steps in that direction.
And our thrust on the show is just to talk
(11:25):
regularly about securing your own retirement via the available avenues
to us, and just to boil it down to the basics,
dollar cost average and too index funds in a tax
advantaged account. Do that for decades. But it's not rocket science,
no exactly, it's not all that difficult. But I also
think though, that it could be a good idea to
create a my Social Security account over at SSA dot gov,
(11:48):
where you can log in you can see an estimate
of your likely social Security amount. I actually think it
might be helpful for you to see what your likely
payolt might be and honestly to get your hopes up
a little bit, because I think what that does is
it might allow a lot of folks to think, oh,
wait a minute, when the time does come for there
to either be higher taxes which are very likely in
(12:09):
the future, or a reduction and benefits free just to
understand why that's the case. The reality of the future
of social security needs to be grounded in actual reality,
as opposed to this sort of pipe dream, which is
what we've seen politicians continue to do by ignoring the
situation that we find ourselves in.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
And I think it's also important to note. You might
see you're going to see a projected amount based on
your current income and the number of years that you've worked,
assuming that you're going to continue to work the full
amount of years in order to get to your maximum payout.
And what I would do when I log in there
and I saw that number, Matt, I would cut it
by twenty five percent, because I think it's highly unlikely
that even if you're a gen zer, you're going to
(12:46):
get the rug pulled out from under you completely.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
It's not going to be completely gone, but.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
From all the projections, it seems like payouts will go
down what in the in twenty thirty three, early twenty
thirties for retirees if something's not done to fix this problem.
So just note, yeah, look at the number, be encouraged,
but also be a realist and realize that number probably
isn't going to be exactly what you're gonna receive in retirement.
We're gonna have to change the system in order to
(13:10):
keep it solvent for future generations.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, I think it's just it's helpful to think about it.
And I think we said this on that Deep Dive
episode too that we did on Social Security. But almost
see it as like like the cherry on top, right, Like,
it's not like it's I don't know, do you think
it needs to be more than that? Actually, well it's
the three leg's still right, as we talked about it
being like the nuts, because there's actual substance. Is that unfamiliar?
It's like we're talking about like an ice cream Sunday
and it's like, well, a cherry on top or whip cream,
(13:34):
there's not much substance there.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
But it's actually you should int haal the whip cream
bay exactly, and it can just get evaporate or something
like that, it just melts.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
But it's like there is some true substance to what
it is that you're likely going to receive, but you
just don't necessarily want to fully bank on that.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Yeah. I agreed, And so maybe don't go down the
super dismal, pessimistic rabbit hole that some of the people
profiled in this article. We're going down saying like I
don't think I'm gonna get any money from that. Yeah,
because it's a popular program, it's not going away completely.
But also realize that Social Security ain't going to cover
the majority of your retirement needs. And yeah, most of
(14:09):
it really does come down to you and your ability
to increase your savings rate to prepare for your own
financial future. And Matt, that brings me to another interesting
product that I was kind of baffled by this article
in Yahoo Finance about a CD that lasts for one
hundred years. Did you see that? No?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Okay, so this was super weird that you would potentially
lock up your money. You get paid a rate of
four point seventy five percent, which is pretty good these
days we're talking about a CD.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Does't makes any sense. But you lock up your money for.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
A century, how would you do that? You'd have to
be it's like a time capsule.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah, it'll be fresh born hoping. So apparently this is
like partly to be able to leave money to your
heirs and.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
So that's opens time capsules. Not you, but like the
future generation exactly do that. And then but if you
tap this this CD early, you pay ten years worth
of interest, which it's incredible. And if you've got that
long to wait, I would say, there are so few
reasons not to be investing that money and said, so, yeah,
I think the bank was called the Walden Mutual Bank.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Sorry, but I'm out. I'm not into that product.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Okay, while we're talking about planning ahead, oftentimes you do
that when you are raising your kids. Let's talk about
giving your kid a financial head start. There are certainly
a lot of ways to do that. You could open
one of these one hundred year CDs.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
But at least once when they're eighty five.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
One realistic way is to help them get a great
credit score. There's new data from trains Union. They find
that young people who are being granted authorized user access
is more than.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Doubled over the past decade.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
And so if you're a parent adding your child to
your credit card accounts, that's going to allow them to
launch into life with a great credit score. Of course,
that assumes that you are making your payments on time,
that you're paying off your balance on time and in
full every single month. Otherwise you're gonna do the exact
opposite answering your kids right. Capital one in particular, that
they've got no minimum age for authorized users, so Basically,
(16:05):
I think as long as you've your kid's got a
social Security number, you can add them to your account.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I think every credit card issuer takes a different tact.
I want to say, American Express, they have to be
at least thirteen. So, yeah, look at the fine print
and see, well how old does my kid have to
be to become an authorized user? But you can start
them on. You can start them as newborns. Oh yeah,
it's totally impressive.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, that's going to give them a nice little head start.
And I was thinking about it and it made me
realize too that I think because of how easy it is,
I think for those parents out there who aren't doing this,
I almost feel like that like there's collective action that
is taking place, and because it's so easy, because more
folks are doing it, that essentially your kids almost like
at a disadvantage because you're not taking advantage of this,
you know.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Like it makes me think.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Of college, which there is a very high bar to entry, right,
Like it costs a lot of money. You're looking at
like a four year degree. But how like over the
past number of decades, how many jobs and industries do
we see where like the minimum threshold, like what you
needed to have was at least a four your degree. Yeah,
and so it's like, what is it like? Credit score
inflation essentially seems like it might be happening, and because
(17:06):
of that, that could potentially put your kid at a
disadvantage once they're launching out into life.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
And we know, of course, the credit score is only
one piece of a healthy financial life, and don't obsess
over and what you teach your kids matters more than
making sure that they have a seven hundred and twenty
credit score, seven hundred and fifty credit score when they
turn eighteen. But this is just one thing you can
do for them that takes a few minutes and you
can kind of get them started off on the right foot,
at least from a credit perspective. But yeah, I think
(17:33):
the bigger thing is talking to them about, oh ya,
what it looks like to handle their credit responsible is
much more important. That's much more important. All Right, We've
got more to get to on this episode, and including
we're going to talk about a new study about money
and happiness. How are they related to one another? It
kind of contradicts previous studies. We'll get to that and
more right after this.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Right, we are back for the break and Joel, we'll
get to talking about your feelings here in a minute.
We've got actually multiple stories about how does you feel?
Did you see Inside Out? How I specifically feel about
how you Yeah, okay, you're looking quite chipper this morning.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Did you did you see did y'all see Inside Out? Too? Oh?
We did have. We already talked about that on the show. Oh,
we might have. Okay, let's just stop solid. Okay, is
that how we do things here? Yeah, this is a
live edit. Now let's talk about anxiety, which is that
was one of the characters the added to the movie,
the main character. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
A new Discover survey finds that anxiety and avoidance that
they are driving the financial lives of many Americans.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
That's the headline of their report.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, which is not terribly shocking, but it's it's not good.
Eighty percent of folks admit to feeling some anxiety about money,
but roughly a third say that it is moderate to severe,
and dude, ossibly it's like debilitating levels of anxiety exactly.
But what stood out to me is the opposite, like
the negative of that eighty percent, which is the fact
(18:58):
that there are twenty percent of folks that basically feel
zero stress about money.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Maybe, which who are these people?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
They're sitting on their pillow in low disposition, not worrying
about their money at all, floading through life. But even because,
like I don't know, if you are doing a great
job with your finances, you're crushing it, that doesn't mean
that money isn't still a stressor at times. But of
course I feel for the folks who just regularly feel
anxious about money. For a decent chunk of folks, it's
literally about not having enough money. But many others out there,
(19:27):
they're worried about the far off future and just the
different what ifs in life, like losing a job, maybe
experiencing a recession, what that would do to their finances.
And we talked about emergency funds last week and having
more money on hand. It certainly is not a perfect solution,
but adding to your liquidity, just little by little, I
think is Honestly, it's one of the best solutions. And
(19:48):
I would love to see some sort of study done
where you have somebody who's living paycheck to paycheck and
if they were able to have some sort of financial
margin in their life, where they've got three to six
months worth of living expenses set us, Like just think
about what that would do to so many folks.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Like we have some studies like that from like basic
income studies that have been done, and is it interesting
to see how families respond, How they end up working less,
they end up feeling more financially secure, they end up
seeming to have better relationships with the people they do
life with. So I guess like that knowing that there's
an increased paycheck coming in every single month, whether it's
(20:24):
five hundred bucks or whatever, it does add to a
lot of people's peace of mind.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, simultaneously that I think there's something disempowering about like
some sort of UBI implementation. But so I guess as
I'll think it through margin. Like what my mind went
to was just like one of the other things that
we have a finite amount of, which is time. Like
just think about if you're trying to make an appointment
or if you're trying to like if you're trying to
catch a flight, you could leave at the very last minute.
(20:48):
And what that means, though, is that every single stop
along the way, every red light, every traffic slow down
or congestion or accident that you come across has you
just like completely stressed out because what I mean, like
you on the first day of school this week, Yeah,
oh my gosh, dude. Yeah, circumstances out of your control.
But yes, car didn't start. Might be time for a
new battery. Imagine though, if you take that same situation
(21:11):
and you just add thirty minutes to it, add an
hour to like, oh, let's just make sure we've got
plenty of time there at the airport, like a stoplight
or a slowdown. It's just you're like, Okay, no problem,
because I've got plenty of time.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Same thing is true when it comes to your finances
and when we talk about anxiety and avoidance, Matt, we're
also talking about kind of things that are going on
in your mind. And you and I were not mental
health professionals, and honestly, for some people, the best course
of action might be to see somebody like a financial therapist.
We've had a few different financial therapists on this podcast
over the years, because we do think that mental side
of money is so important, and so it's not just
(21:44):
about more money in the bank account. There are probably
other things that you need to do as well. And
I think it's just really important to put things in
perspective as well. Remember that progress takes a long time,
you know, whether we're talking about debt payoff, saving for retirement.
I think for some reason, Matt, everybody feels like they're behind,
but you're not racing anybody. And the more you let
anxiety take the reins, the harder it can be to
(22:07):
take action to drive progress. We feel powerless, we like
let that anxiety suck us off the ability and the
drive to get going on some of those money goals
that we have. I think unchecked anxiety can often lead
to unhelpful coping mechanisms, which like doom scrolling on your
phone or something like that, right or yo yo method,
attempts of fixing things, spending sprees that aren't terribly helpful,
(22:30):
that are actually perpetuating the problem. So I would suggest
checking out episode three seventy one where we talk about
how to use anxiety and stress to your advantage jiu
Jitsu style, because avoidance only makes the problem worse. We
know this same thing. If you haven't a fight with
your spouse, it's like, well, let's just not talk about
it and just agree to silently hate each other in
(22:51):
the process. Like, that's not a good way to move forward,
I say, tackling one money problem at a time, tracking
your progress, getting help if you need it. Those are
going to be the way to benefit yourself when it
comes to making progress with your money. Just don't let
these two reactions of anxiety and avoidance become the norm
in your financial life. Totally.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, let's keep talking about feelings. Studies about money and
happiness have found results all across the board. So there
are some studies out there that suggest that there's a
limit to the amount of happiness that money can buy,
that basically, beyond a low six figure income, you're essentially
going to see almost no increase to your levels of happiness.
But there's a new study from the Wharton School that
(23:30):
says that you can get even more happiness from money.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
So the reason why, though, this is what's so important.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
It's not because now all of a sudden you can
afford a boat when that was something you only dreamed
about before.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
A researcher, I haven't met many happy boat owners. No, no, yeah,
it's always I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
The curve of diminishing returns is like even steeper, looks
like a boat than even like a new.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Car, rent a boat for the weekend, guys, by way,
try that out.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
But one of the researchers summed it up like this,
and this is a quote, A greater feeling of control
over life can explaining about seventy five percent of the
association between money and happiness. So I think a big
part of what's happening is that when people have more money,
they have more control over their lives autonomy, like having
(24:14):
more agency. This we love because we know that using
money to increase your lifestyle, like certainly that's nice to
a degree, but it's what you don't spend that offers
you these greater levels of control. We're talking about that
margin and having money in the bank to where you're
not stressing over every little bump in the room.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Well, we talked about that with our lives a little
bit too recently at the beach matt and that was
a super fun convo. Really enjoyed that one. Hope listeners
enjoyed that one. But yeah, that that is what has
over time, It's been that greater level of freedom, flexibility,
and then that allows for optionality when it comes to
how much we work, what sort of work we pursue
(24:52):
and the ability to say no to things that we
don't want to do. But that takes again, that takes time.
But that is one of the biggest benefits that money
can provide. So I love that that maybe earning two
fifty k instead of one hundred k is going but
can potentially bring greater levels of happiness. Just make sure
you're spending quote unquote or saving that money in the
(25:14):
right way to achieve that happiness. That's right.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Spend it on your own freedom, right, not on stuff exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
So GQ, of all places, Matt, I know one of
your favorite magazines, you're so stylish.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Oh, thank you, better than your favorite, which is maxim
I remember that way?
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Is that what? It still exists? Kidding? I don't know.
Does Yeah, we won't go there, Okay, so all places.
GQ had an article recently discussing how human beings are
wired and basically that we get used to things incredibly quickly.
We've talked about this before, Matt. The science behind kind
of are our brains and hacking happiness and what's known
(25:47):
as the hedonic treadmill. That once we get on the
hedonic treadmill, it's kind of hard to get off that
even when something ridiculously cool happens to you, we tend
to migrate back towards our baseline levels of happiness, and.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Not just something really cool happens, but even when something
really like terrible happens, right, like the worst thing that
could potentially happen to you in life, Because.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Like this, humans can overcome.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
It was a study on quadriplegics, which is for a
lot of folks, probably one of the worst things they
could imagine. But even still those folks were able to
regain this sort of baseline of happiness, which is astounding.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, so you know, winning the lottery or buying a
new car feels amazing, but three months in, it's hard
to remember how we used to live, and our appreciation
for the new ride isn't the same. Fortunately, the same
is true on the other side. Like you just mentioned, Matt,
resilience is kind of built into our human DNA as well.
And it just makes me think about our como with
Darius Feru recently about stoicism. It's this powerful tool in
(26:38):
our arsenal against the hedonic treadmill. So I would suggest
going back and listen to that recent episode. If you
haven't gratitude, I think is another approach math that we
should all be taking here. Building wealth is awesome, but
life is so much more than that. So put your
wealth building efforts in their proper place. They're important. But
I think the more we kind of put that money
into action attempting to make ourselves happier by buying more stuff,
(27:05):
actually it's gonna have the opposite impact. It's going to
leave us without that optionality. It's going to leave us
with more things that like just clog our mind, clog
our brains. So I think GQ was spot on on
this one.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
That's one that they got right, Joel as opposed to
I don't know what colors you are and aren't allowed
to wear at certain points right here. So it turns
out bundling is back Disney Hulu as well as Max,
which I'm still getting used to saying, not HBO Max.
They just announced that the price that you're going to
pay if you want all three is going to be
(27:35):
seventeen dollars a month with ADS, and it's going to
be thirty dollars without. If I was bundling, that would
be the one that I'd be going for.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
They're combining forces here exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Exactly, and so that's a pretty solid discount over what
you'd pay for each one of those individually. But streaming
service operators, they aren't dumb. And part of the reason
that they're doing this, that they're offering this new bundle,
is because people are finally wising up. They're rotating out
their subscriptions. They're canceling after they've binged their favorite show,
which isn't great for their bottom line, of course, and
(28:07):
so if they can toss you a better price for
multiple services, they're hoping that it's gonna be a little
stickier that you're never gonna leave.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Oh, seventeen bucks a month, Well, I get all three,
so I'm just gonna keep it year round, exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
So you need to be like me and my family
and resist like we've resisted Disney.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Still, you're not paying for any streaming services currently, right.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Well, we don't technically count Amazon Prime because that almost
feels like it's hard to fault. Yeah, but yeah, I
don't know. It's to the kids' dismay. That's one Disney
in particular is one that we've been avoiding. But even
though we did splurge on peacock.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I'm gonna give them some pitchforks so they can march
around the house. Here.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Here is one reason that I felt very comfortable. So
you know, you can justify it and try to inspire
your kids to get out there and be an athlete
that kind of thing, and it's just eh, the Olympics
are fun, right, But also there is a finish line
put a good metaphor as far as the Olympics. But
there is a eight that I know I'm going to
cancel peacock. You know what date that is, Joel, when
(29:04):
the Olympics forever one month in. It is August twelfth,
which is the day after August eleventh, which is when
the closing ceremony is. So I think that's the difference.
If you know that you can be disciplined and focused
and be like surgical with how it is that you
you stream, if you are all about looking to cut
back and save while still being able to experience different
forms of entertainment, that I still think you can get
(29:26):
the best deal by not bundling and not falling parade
to some of these offerings.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I think that's exactly right. I think the bundle to
the person who loves a good deal like myself. Matt.
When I first read this, I was like, Oh, that's
a great deal. And then the more I thought about it,
I was like, do you have the time to be
able to spend those services at the same time. That's
the thing is, I really don't watch nearly as much
TV as I used to. I know, the average American
we talk about that, like how much TV they watched
(29:50):
in America's past time, probably be better if they watch less.
And part of the way you can do that is
just having fewer options at your disposal. You're probably going
to watch less TV, you're less tempted, and you're gonna
spend less month. But this bundle is probably going to
you want to get your money's word, and you're gonna
watch more TV. And it's also just gonna be it's
gonna be stickier, like you aren't going to cancel in
the same way. But I think you're right, Matt. One off, Hey,
(30:11):
I'm watching the Olympics. That's why I have Peacock. Hey,
I'm watching this one show and then once it's over,
I'm gonna cancel that too.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Just be ruthless about that. And I think that these
bundles are gonna cause people to be less ruthless about
cutting their subscriptions.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
That's the whole point. It seems like a good deal.
They're gonna make it easy for you.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah, yeah, you're gonna end up spending more.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
All Right. On the streaming note, an all sports streaming
app is coming this fall. This has kind of been
in the works, kind of being talked about for months
and months and months now, and that's been for most people,
matt the most expensive part of their cable or streaming package.
So if you had cable back in the day and
you didn't watch sports, you were the sucker because ESPN
was by far the most expensive thing in your cable
(30:51):
TV package and you were paying for it even while
you were just watching HGTV. Right, but streaming sports might
be getting better. Venue Sports is the name of this
new service. It's a joint venture by Fox and others
to basically beam collegiate and pro athletics onto your TV.
And while this service is going to feature a lot
(31:12):
of sports action, including what ESPN channels FS one, F
S two, I think T and T, although I think
they're losing the NBA, so it's going to be interesting
to see how that works out. It's not going to
include all the sports, right, and there's a lot of
soccer you're going to miss out on it. It's not
going to include streaming specific games that Amazon and Netflix run,
so if you're like looking for those specialty football games
(31:33):
or peacock I think they're going to have some NFL
playoff games too. It's also not gonna include apparently the
regional sports channels, which is a big miss. And the
price is forty three bucks a month, so if a
couple of your favorite sports on aren't on there, that's
up there. Yeah, that's a lot of money and it's
probably gonna be worth it to some sports nuts map,
but for a lot of other people. I don't know
if it will be. Again, I'm curious to see how
(31:55):
this shakes out. We don't know all the details yet,
But it also sounds like they're gonna include in you
this new service in a bundle of sorts with some
of the ones we just mentioned, which could make the
price more attractive to sell them a lot like cable TV, right, dude, exactly. Yeah,
like we're slowly reverting back to like why don't we
just does to go back I think a lot of
folks are, well, I honestly wanting to go back to
(32:16):
just paying for cable because which makes you think, well,
why don't you just do that in the first place.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yeah, I think a lot of people will find themselves
something like YouTube TV. It costs more, but it might
provide the best of all worlds because you are getting
some of those other channels included too.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Yeah, I think that can make sense.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
It might be better than cable, But a lot of
people going back to cable for good reason. I do
think a lot of folks, though, are going to be
willing to pay this higher price for sports because, like,
if you think about other forms of entertainment, like other
TV shows, there are a lot of replacements or whatever,
Like there are substitutes we like the Bear. Well, if
you don't have uh Hulu, but you kind of want
to watch them cooking drama, maybe you know you watch
(32:50):
some like Top Chef episodes or Yah, there's a lot
a lot of different cooking shows out there. See watched
friend of the show Frankie Clenza for free over on
Taste Made. But when it comes to sports, when if
you're a fan of a particular team, there's no substitute,
And so because of that and given like the high
price point of live sports, if you're gonna, if you're
looking to do it in real life, you're used to
paying like tons of money for like going to see
(33:13):
one match, one game in person, and said, the ability
to have that for a much reduced price and still
be able to see your favorite team, I mean, I
think that's why there has been such a premium plays
on sports, because there is no substitute as opposed to
other forms of entertainment that we watch on TV.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
That's right, You're exactly right. By the way that I
saw Roku is, which is free streaming, you can get
Sunday Major League Baseball games or at least like one
or two of them I think, on Roku for free
these days. So that's kind of cool. Like almost nothing
in the sports streaming world is free except for that.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
That feels very like very American, like Sunday afternoon with
a baseball game on.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Doesn't that sound good? Yeah? Well, and don't forget about
Antenna's too, by the way, over the air, there's still
a lot of stuff you can watch there, including some
sports pretty easily as well. From yeah or for free
I don't.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I still don't understand exactly how it works, but a
lot of a lot of the new TVs like that,
We've got a Samsung frame and we get hundreds of
channels through the box somehow, like we are not paying
for cable. And when we got this TV, I was
playing into of course, hook up my thirty dollars digital
HD antenna, you know, like the little flat thing he
taped to the window. But then I realized I didn't
(34:20):
have to do that. So there's just there's a lot
of content out there that you don't even have to
pay for. Yep, that's true that we want to point
folks towards. But let's wrap it up.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Man.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
That's gonna be it for this episode. We hope everybody
has a fantastic weekend. We'll see you back here on
Monday with a fresh batch of listener questions for you.
So until next time, best Friends Out, Best Friends Out.
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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