December 20, 2024 • 37 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: Costco Instacart HACK, stockpiling before the tariffs, travel trade-offs, working from HELM, international stock exposure, fake T-Mobile fees, axed overdraft fees, memecoin madness, homebuyer closing scams, Fidelity insights, positive downstream effects of homeownership, & housing inventory spikes.
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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 travel
trade offs, mean coin madness, and housing inventory increases.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Welcome to the how to Money Friday flight, where we
take the weeks top headlines, specifically how they pertain to
your personal finances, and we tell you what you should
be doing with that knowledge that we're providing a prescription, Joel.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
For all the listeners out there to know whether myself
as a financial pharmacist, Matt as a financial doctor.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Is that somebody's website. Oh, I'm thinking of doctor of Credit.
Oh yeah, that's a good one, Joel. I see you've
got a note here about something you did recently, pretending
to Costco, one of our favorite retailers.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I'm going to even wholesalers, I should say, use an
overused word hack. So I didn't realize that for all
you're going for all the clicks with Costco and hack,
that's right, that's right, and throwing one more company for
good measure, Instacart. And so I I think I've mentioned
that my wife uses instacart sometimes or like especially in
(01:18):
a particularly busy week, after she tricked you into subscribing
to it for another year, and I was.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Like, why do we have this? We don't need this,
but she's like, oh no, I forgot, Joel, I swear
I forgot. Yeah I don't. I'm not buying it.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
But so it has become on occasion nice to order
something to be Instart card when when things are crazy,
when life is insane. But gosh, it just it feels
like a gut punch every time. And I don't know why.
Maybe I'm just ridiculously cheap at times. And and so
everything not only costs more on Instacart, but then you
also got a fig factor in tipping and the delivery fee,
(01:54):
and so the cost versus going to the grocery store yourself,
it's significantly higher.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
But what I did realize until just this past week
for some reason, is that Costco sells discounted Instacart gift cards.
So you can get a one hundred dollars gift card
for eighty bucks. And I've always say, so, I didn't
realize that.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, So I've always said, can you take that card
and immediately apply it to your account? Immediately? Sweet?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yes, nice, immediately, so you can just literally get that
sweet discount on your groceries and.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Really discount like right out of the gate. Yeah, oh
that's awesome, and.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You can buy you can use that gift card if
you're using the same day shopping on Costco because it's
done through Instacart, and recently they had a discount thirty
bucks off one hundred dollars order if you do same
day Costco, and so I use that combined with a
discounted Instacart gift card.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So it was like, probably was actually this is actually
maybe as you had it gone or even cheaper. There's
actually even a little bit cheaper.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
But like, yeah, so if you are an Instacart user
or it at least lessens the pain and it brings
those prices kind of more in line with what you'd
see in the store. So I don't know, man, like
we might start using it more because of this. Okay,
if it wasn't for the dis kind of gift card,
I'd be like, no way, Jose.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
But well, two things. Two things. You said that it
feels like a gut punch every time. Yeah, And I
think Emily would say, Joel, you need to continue to
do the work to figure out why that evokes that
kind of emotional reaction out of you, Well.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
It's because I could go and do the shopping myself,
and I don't mind doing it, and it would save
a lot of money, but there are times I.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Don't have the time. But then, secondly, can you get
your insta cart shopper to pick up those gift cards,
bring it home and then you apply like can you
do me? Because are they physically in the store, Like
do you have to go there? Go the store?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Actually, but you can buy them online on costco site too,
so same price.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Okay, Yeah, So I wondered if you first had to
get the ball rolling by first getting them to buy
the card for you, they bring it to your house.
You then apply it to the next order, and then
every time you place an order you haven't pick up
yeah a Costco Insta card gift card or two that
you apply to your order. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I don't know if you actually can, but you can
buy directly from Costco's website. You're so you're going to
go on that front. It's like a turbo charger on
a vehicle.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It's like it requires a little bit of gas to
get I think going, but once it's going, the exhausted
in fact powers the engine and truthfully dows work something like,
even if we do.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
This more, I still enjoy going to Costco on occasion.
So it's one of those things that I don't want
to do all my shopping online, but at least now
when we do it, it feels like we're not getting
taken advantage of it. And not that instat Car's is
taking advantage of anyone, but the price service, but the
price differential.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Is can be extreme.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And so if you're getting an extra twenty bucks off
every one hundred dollars, it puts the prices at least
more in line with what they would be if you
were just to go shopping yourself.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
It's not as much of a gut punch. Yeah. Well,
on a related note, when it comes to consumption retail,
some consumers out there are worried about how terrorists are
going to impact prices, and they are stocking up on
goods similar to the like the early days of COVID.
You remember, remember those oh yeah, terrible days when folks
are like hoarding toilet papers because of all the things. Yeah,
people we're telling people not to do that. Didn't want
(04:54):
to do that because it was.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, it meant like if you beat by three things
of toilet papers other people can't.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
It's dumb. Yeah, it's so dumb. Seeing in they highlighted
folks who are buying extra groceries now in preparation for
what they assume are going to be higher prices in
the near future. And if steperd terifs are in our
future higher prices, they're inevitable. So some folks are increasing
their grocery budgets now, they're purchasing those non perishables in
bulk in hopes that it's going to save them money
(05:20):
later on. But man, it's also so hard to plan
for such an uncertain future to pull some of those
future purchasing dollars into the present when we don't even
know if this is going to be a reality.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
It's like, should I let the rhetoric impact my actions
right now or should I kind of wait and see
what happens.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And like, honestly, the savings aren't going to be that massive,
because like, first of all, prices do tend to go
up in the future no matter what, just because of inflation,
but like not always, that's not always the case. If
you're thinking about it, like I'm just thinking about flat screens,
for instance, they've only gotten bigger and nicer and less expensive,
so your tesla's in recent years. Yeah, and if you're thinking, oh, well,
I let's go ahead and make that happen, oh, never
(05:58):
mind the fact that the best deal that you might
be able to snag would be Super Bowl season, which
happens to be, you know, a couple months away. But
by trying to like it's almost like timing the market. Honestly,
it makes me think about folks who have some money
on hand and they're thinking about investing, and they're thinking, ooh,
I can't buy right now. It's it's you know, it's
at an all time high, but like, okay, you're gonna
wait until it drops a couple percentage points. Sure, okay,
(06:21):
maybe you get a slightly better deal, but you're not
even saving all that much. Like if you're talking about
let's say someone's dollar cost averaging into the market, it's
like five hundred bucks on voo, right, and so it
drops a couple percent So maybe you're able to save
ten dollars. That's not gonna move the needle when it
comes to the dollars you haven't invested. If you're talking
about five hundred one thousand dollars. Sure it does a difference,
(06:42):
it makes much bigger difference. But when it comes to
the amount of groceries that we can keep on hand
that are not gonna perish, it just seems completely silly
to me. Small potatoes. I hate it, small potatoes.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
So and we have to use some sort of food
terminology when they'll describing me because I'm talking about food.
But I think, yeah, I think you're spot on, and
I think the only time I'm stocking up on groceries
is when there's a great sale on something I'm going
to use fairly quickly. Right, So if there's like my
coffee last week, yeah, exactly, you talked about buying six
bags at one time.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Sitting here and joining it right now.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
That's a perfect example, perfect example of kind of Hey,
it's not that I'm doing this because of promises of
future terrorists. I'm doing this because there's I'm gonna drink
this coffee in short order and I'm gonna save six
bucks a bag or whatever.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
The benefit is being realized now. It's not the promise
of things getting worse in the future. Yeah. Yeah, So
I don't know that this is like a pattern that
we're going to see.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Hopefully it's not a widespread for them. Yeah, I agree,
I don't think it is all right. But what about
saving on travel? Well, that's something right that travel now
Joel Well, travel get on sale, get more expensive because
of tarraft's who knows, but yeah, one thing that people
can do. I think people are always looking for travel
saving tips. This was an interesting article on the Wall
Street Journal about how sharing a bathroom can make your
(07:56):
trip far less expensive, and actually, interestingly enough, you might
have to go this route if you book an Airbnb
in New York these days, thanks to new rules that
require the host to be in the home when they're
running it out. So no more ah, the host is
out of town. They're running the property out to you. No,
you're going to be under the same roof with the host,
specifically in New York. Though the trade off though of
(08:18):
staying under the same roof with the host, it might
be worth it because your other option at this point
in New York City is a hotel room. And like
I said, there's this article in the Wall Street Journal
and the travel writer spent five hundred and thirty bucks
for three days in a shared apartment, which costs less
than one night in a similar hotel. There is the
you know, slightly slightly awkward privacy thing text the host, Hey,
(08:41):
is it okay if I use the bathroom now? Which
is weird if you're not used to it, but think
Shuto attacks.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Hey, don't go in there for another fifteen minutes. Let
it air out for a bit. I've got the fan on,
so considerative agel.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
That's right, But I mean we all know this saving
money typically involves trade offs, right. There are exceptions, I
think cell phone service, where you don't really get a
vastly inferior product. You're just saving a lot of money.
But I think it's the least important to note that
by making choices that might make you a little less
comfortable or give you a little less privacy, you could
(09:13):
dramatically reduce the price of your next trip. And it
just doesn't doesn't just have to be in New York City.
It could be maybe another trip you're taking. You say, listen,
actually I'm willing to endure that slight discomfort because of
how much money.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I'm going to say. Yeah, Well, you mentioned that journal
article where that writer spent three days traveling. How about
three hundred and sixty five days. Joel Virgin Voyages has
announced that you can purchase an annual pass and you
can cruise as much as you want for one hundred
and twenty thousand dollars. You can literally do this every
day of the year to anywhere in the world that
(09:46):
Virgin Cruises go. And you're gonna get unlimited Wi Fi
so that you can work while out there on the water.
You get specialty coffees, laundry service, all the fancy things
that you would come to expect from a nice cruise,
but not my cup of tea. Man, you're not gonna
do this. One hundred and twenty thousand dollars is a
massive chunk of change.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Can you imagine if we took out of money on
the road and buy on the road, I mean on
the water.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
It's funny that you mentioned that. Like Richard Bronson said,
it's not working from home, it's working from the helm.
For folks who are looking to travel year round, I
wouldn't do this, but I think for a lot of
folks who might live in higher cost of living areas,
like do crunch the numbers, it could actually make sense.
We were just talking about New York. If you are.
I mean if because of the fact I mean we're
(10:30):
talking meals, that's a massive expense as well, like when
you include all of your expenses. I think for a
certain select type of individual, this could make sense for me.
You know, we're not going to say all six members, yeah,
of our family on the water. No, I would.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I would not in my future very quickly go insane
and jump overboard. I think it would probably take little less.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Than a week.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I don't know, though, I've never been on a cruise,
so I assume that. But I also there's other things
I've assumed that I wouldn't like, and that I end
up liking those things. So maybe I would enjoy cruising.
Maybe I need to give it a go.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
But do they have treadmills on the cruise? I'm I'm
assuming they do. I just run around the deck. How
many I think, how many laps would have to do? Yeah,
I would rather like they got fancy treadmills. You've got screens?
Do they do that with like I know they do
with peloton like on the trainers where you can actually
buke certain courses, like certain stages of the Twitter France,
for instance. Can you do that with running as well,
where someone's strapped on a go pro and it's like,
(11:24):
all right, this is a ten k run, or here's
a twenty miler. How cool would that be? That would
be I don't know. I'd still rather get outside. Oh
I would too. But if you're stuck on a boat, yeah,
or opted and chosen to be on a boat, and
maybe that's an alternative.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, one hundred and twenty k though, that's still steep,
a big chunk of change, but it's interesting. And there
have been stories of retirees saying, actually, it's going to
be cheaper for me.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
To as opposed to assist a living.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
And I get to live the life I want instead
of going in this other direction. But yeah, not for me.
Let's talk about investing for a second, Matt. When you
and I when we talk about investing, we often mention
low cost index funds as the best option for younger investors,
in particular who are in what we call the wealth
building phase of their life. So they're like, why not
go one hundred percent stock index funds when you have
(12:09):
many decades right to let those investments grow. Well, new
research finds that being one hundred percent stock heavy, it
might be the best route for even more folks, not
just people in the wealth building phase of their life,
but also folks who are in the wealth preservation stage
of their life. But instead of staying one hundred percent
(12:30):
invested in like the S and P five funded or
a total stock market fund, which is typically what we
recommend or opting for like let's say a target date fund, right,
that's going to become more conservative as you age. An
Emory professor Emory close by where we live, says that
you should have a third of your assets in US
stocks and two thirds in foreign market stocks for optimal results.
(12:55):
And basically the argument is that not only will your
higher stock exposure increase earnings over the decades, but surprisingly,
and this shocked me, the allocation that she's suggesting is
also better at helping you not run out of money
in retirement too, and by quite a bit. It's really
interesting to see that just having the combo of US
(13:15):
and international stocks not only produces better results but also
shields you against kind of certain downsides of having something
more like a sixty forty portfolio that a whole lot
of financial advisors would recommend for people who are later
in their investing years.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Sure, I will say I'm going to put a couple
holes in it though, because I think there's a couple
of problems. One, well, this isn't actually a problem, but
it's not a professor. It was an assistant professor. So
no shade throne necessarily. Yeah, but I wanted to you
mentioned that because.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
You assistant manager or assistant to the manager. But one
of the reasons that people opt for the sixty to
forty portfolio where they have bonds is because of the
fact that they're looking to smooth out the ride. And
by going from a one hundred percent US stocks to
then one third two thirds US stocks to international stock,
you're not at all reducing any volatility, and that is
oftentimes what folks are looking.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
For in this portfolio is to keep them to essentially
hold the course, and so by removing that, that's I
think one of the biggest questions is that can you
handle the ups and the downs. But another assumption here
too is that like this study, I mean, it was
backwards looking, so you're looking at performance based on what
international securities have done. And yes, like there have been
(14:26):
periods of time where it has outperformed, but dude, we
don't know what the future holds. And if they're counting
on some of these higher performance periods of time being
what the future holds, you're saying that this is what's
going to happen in the future. And nobody knows what's
going to happen in the future, and so I think
the only one of the thing we can do is
make our best predictions. We make the past, and that's
the same.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That's the same with like why we make our suggestions
is based on kind of the last one hundred years
of stock market histories.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Sure, sure, but I guess I think about the US
companies as well, and like we are only living in
more and more globalized world. The biggest companies in the
US have massive global international presence, right, and so like
as the US goes, typically I think the world goes.
But we just don't know exactly what some of those
emerging markets and what some of those other international index
(15:15):
funds are going to do. But one thing that we
do know, something that is guaranteed, are the fees that
those different funds charge you. And so looking to minimize
that essentially is certainly a recipe more of a recipe
for success. And somebody that consistently does that is Vanguard,
And so I will say, if you are looking for
a single fund that comes, you know, kind of close
to this but has a they do have a higher
(15:36):
US allocation, it's Vanguard's VT. I think their expense ratio
is like point zero seven percent, which is still crazy low.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
But if you're looking to be like one hundred percent
stocks and you're looking for I think it's basically two
thirds US and one third international, that's a pretty cool
fund because.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
You get all of that in one low cost basket.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
So if you kind of hear this, or you look
into the study and we'll put a link to the
study in the show notes, if you want to kind
of dig in a little deeper, which we would recommend
before you just sure take the headline and say, oh,
I'm changing my allocation tomorrow. But yeah, if you dig
into it and you say, actually, this makes a lot
of sense to me, and this is how I want
to my portfolio to look buying something like a one
(16:13):
stop shop like the Vanguard's VT fund, that's that's a
pretty cool It's pretty cool that exists.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Sure, So Joel, speaking of expense ratios, maybe not expense ratios,
but fees. There's been a class action lawsuit fout against
T Mobile for disguising a fee to look like a
government charge. So they've been charging three dollars and forty
nine cents a month for something called the Regulatory Programs
and Telecom Recovery fee, and customers they tend to assume
(16:40):
that this is a fee charged by the government. Sounds
like the government fee to me the way they highlight
it if so that's totally understandable, but it's not that
money goes straight to T Mobile and maybe also to
pay spokespeople like Snoop Dogg or Zach Brath, Donald Faison, scrubs.
That's they're the latest some fancy I cost celebrities and
(17:02):
they're singing on the TV. I think that's what they've
been doing with the money instead. And we have no
idea if the slawsuits going to go anywhere, but I
think T Mobile should do better on the transparency front.
And to make it doubly bad, not only did they
call this fee that the regulatory programs blah blah blah,
but they also, like on the bill, they put it
under the government fees section, and so they were disguising
(17:22):
incredibly misleading. Even more, Yeah, like I would almost be
willing to give them a buy if it goes up
there under the section in accounting, like under what it
is that they received. But the fact that they stuck
it under their further exacerbates the problem and makes T
mobile and that looks so good.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yes, in this case of the big cell phone companies,
T Mobile has been the best, But turns.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Out they're all they're all bad. It turns out they're
all bad.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
It turns out, yeah, maybe they're better than rising At
and T, but they're still not as good as our
favorite low cost carriers. And if you haven't looked to
carriers like Mint Mobile or US Mobile, you should because
they're not charging ridiculous fees and in fact, the price
that they quote on their website is the price. It's
not like, oh, additional fees and taxes required, No, it's
all encompassing the number that they quote you right up
(18:07):
with us bumble seventeen fifty months, seventeen to fifty a months.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Man, sorry to beat it. We've been on it for
three months or so now, three or some months. I've
been enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Haven't had a problem. Speaking of fees, though, Matt and
switching to a new company. Another fee is on the
chopping block right now, and it's overdraft fees that banks charge.
And some people might say, oh, thank goodness, it's about time.
Other people might say, oh, really, I don't think I've
paid one of those in a long time. Well, the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau they finalize this rule to cap
over draft fees at five bucks. And it is true
(18:39):
when you look at what's happened has happened with overdraft
fees over the past decade, it's kind of insane, like
those costs have gone up much faster than the rate
of inflation. And some banks are charging like forty bucks
for one overdraft fee. And some banks have been accused
and have actually I think been found guilty of prioritizing
your spending, like the hardes you make to maximize the
(19:01):
amount of overdraft fees that they can charge you, which
is a pretty sick thing to do. But I think
at the same time, Matt and we you and I've
talked about this, the market has actually provided solutions to this.
A lot of banks have said, oh, we see how
how much people color customers actually hate these overdraft fees.
We're going to provide solutions and we're actually going to
maybe completely eradicate over draftees.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
We're not going to charge them at all.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
And those banks stand out, and those are the banks
that you and I tend to recommend, Like most of
our favorite online banks have said we've done away with
overdraft fees altogether, Capital One ally and CI like all
three of those have just said, screw it, We're not
charging people this ridiculous fee that they hate.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Discover your Discover that's grand central station of your personal
finances over There's what's so great too, is that they've
done this under their own volition. Yeah, right, Like it
didn't take any rules. What they've realized is that, oh,
by treating our customers with some decency and respect, we
will garner all the praise from all the podcasts, all
the nerds out there to talk about this stuff, like
you and me, nobody's paying, Well, are we sponsored by
(20:03):
any of these right now? Well, you're not being paid
to say any of this. Like these are awesome banks.
They do a fantastic job. And whether or not their.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Banks we've been talking about for years and years and
years for years, because they offer that widest range of
like their solid online banks that don't charge ridiculous fees,
and they have good customer service, and they pay good
rates of interest, and so like, why would anybody be
sticking with the big banks that are charging ridiculous over
draft fees even if you don't incur them like the
fact that they are doing that to other people who
(20:30):
bank with them. I would get out of there as
fast as I could.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
This is an instance where letting the free market work,
allowing these companies to continue to innovate and not loading
them down with regulatory hoops that they have to jump through,
is the way to go. Like, I would much rather
a bank spend time thinking through how it is that
they can delight their customers, as opposed to hiring howard
of many new folks that are needed for compliance.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, well, in this regulatory hoop, interestingly enough, it might
be overturned pretty quickly, which is come the next.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
It's almost like an emiration, so as opposed to something
that company decides it's going to be a part of,
like the ethos and character of their companies because they
take care of folks.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
As we've noticed in the past few years, it's a
yo yo effect, and there are promises made that don't
always get kept, or somebody else comes into power and
makes a different decision, And so we have to do
what's best for us and work with companies that prioritize
good customer service and not charging us ridiculous fees. Speaking
of the free market, Matt, there is a free market
in the cryptocurrency space, but it's kind of run amuck.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
We'll talk about that right after this. The Friday Flight continues, Joel.
We've got more stories to get to. It is now
time for the ludicrous headline of the week, which is
this one might be more ludicrous than most it is.
(21:48):
This one is from the website decrypt, which is a
crypto currency website, news all in one sort of site,
and the headline reads, hot air rises is fart coin meme?
How can you get even say with us a straight face.
I'm sure you're so glad that I'm the one that
that gets to share the story fart coin, mean coin
(22:12):
explodes as dgens buy for the lulls I actually needed.
I had to look up djen because I was like degenerates,
Well I didn't. There's actually dgen is a type of
crypto as well, So I know I've heard that as well.
But yeah, they're talking about degenerates folks who are gambling essentially,
and that's sort of the moral of the story. Fart coin,
no joke. It's worth more than one billion dollars right now. Uh.
(22:34):
There's another Dalist social media celebrity out there. You may
have heard of, Haley Welch. She launched a stupid meme
coin a couple of weeks ago, made millions of dollars
while everyone else while they lost money. Dude, the crypto
space it's totally rife with chicanery, with fraud, with speculation.
Thus the Degon's headline, there is clearly a difference between
(22:55):
bitcoin and this is one of the very few cryptocurrencies
that I that I own. It's it's one of the
cryptocurrencies that actually I think have potential. There's a difference
between that and many of the other want to be
digital coins out there. Ben Callen from into the crypto verse,
he said very recently that ninety nine point nine percent
of crypto that is out there actually is a scam.
(23:18):
And so we want to put this on your radar
because as cryptocurrencies sore, I think the tendency is to
pile on to all these ridiculous joke coins, which is
honestly what I it's. It's ridiculous because the problem is
if people start to think that this is how you
actually invest, If this is how you're just going to
throw a few dollars just to say you own whatever
(23:40):
you want to say you want to part coin or
you want to buy it for your loved ones for
Christmas or something. I get, I understand, I gotart coin, honey,
But it's the The problem is when you start making
some money and then you start brainwashing yourself into thinking
that this is reality, that this is how you actually invest.
Because I think the vast majority of folks I do
think think that they know that this is a joke. Yeah,
(24:01):
I don't think there are many folks who are a
billion of investing a crypto within their IRA thinking that
this is what they're going to retire on. They were
in it for the entertainment value. They're doing it because
it's fun, because so they can tell their buddy that, hey,
I just bought a part coin. It's like w It's
like fake wrestling, Like people know that it's fake. People
like and they are in I didn't know. Thanks for
bursting my bumble. They are in on the joke. But
(24:23):
the problem is, I think if these folks start to
experience some actual return, not everybody, then you start to think, oh,
this is this is the ticket to well.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
For instance, the Haley watch coin that you referenced, like
that one, Uh, there are lawsuits accusing her of creating
this and pumping it up, and everyone else holding the
bag at the end of the at the end of
the day. So I think you're right to a certain extent. Farcoin.
Everybody should know it's a joke. It should be self explanatory.
But in other but when some of these celebrities get
(24:51):
into the space, they mind their audience and filter money
from their pockets to their own. And I think that's
unseen and people don't fall for it, please, But I
think some people out there are falling for it in
the space. Like you said, there are a couple of
legitimate offerings, I think, but the vast majority is completely illegitimate.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
That's true. Far Cooin, like, it's not necessarily a scam,
but it is idiotic. But there is a scam that
you should watch out for. This one could cost you
more than almost any other scam that's out there, more
than farcoin going to zero, more than you throwing twenty
bucks into farc cooin, I guess. But it's the real
estate closing scam where wiring instructions are sent from a
(25:32):
crook instead of your actual closing attorney. So obviously what
happens here is the down payment that you wired, it
just it totally vanishes. And this scam, it's happening more
and more because of how much money is at stake.
You think about it. You know, five, ten, twenty percent
down payment on a median home in America today, This
is a significant amount of money. This is truly a scam,
(25:55):
tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars being lost,
and it makes me so concerned for the folks out there, actually,
for a lot of folks who've never wired money before.
And of course the screamers go to where the money
can be made, and.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
So we want folks to you get an official email,
oftentimes potentially even from the closing attorney you're working with,
but with artificial instructions, and so the key is then a.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Surrouting number and a bank account that is not the
closing attorney who's going to hold that money.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Don't grow, don't call the number of this on the email.
Go to the website of your closing attorney and call
them and confirm that you have the right wiring instructions.
Confirm it with your real estate agent too. That the
truth is just a few extra minutes of double checking.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Matt.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
I did closed on a real estate deal not too
long ago, and double checking those details ahead of time
was something that they stressed, Hey, call us before you
actually wire the funds, and I'm glad they're doing it.
That there are more warnings going out about this, but
the stakes are really high, so make sure you pay attention.
All right, let's talk about a new study from the
good folks over at Fidelity Matt, and they highlighted the
(26:57):
fact that parents should be talking to their kids about money.
Totally agree, duh, But there are some good underneath that,
some good underlying stuff. So fifty six percent of folks
said that their family didn't talk about money when they
were kids, which I think makes sense. I would actually
think that'd be even higher than maybe.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Money feels like a taboo topic even within families. Sadly,
and eighty two or percent of those folks said, man,
I wish my family had talked about money. They feel
like they missed out on something because their family was
kind of deathly silent about sure topic of finance.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, and I bet of the fifty fifty was the
fifty six percent of folks who said that their families
did talk about it, I bet it was done in
a not very healthy negative way. Like I'm sure the
conversations that they can think of probably started with but
we can't afford that. Yeah, you know, as opposed to
I don't know, just healthier ways of talking about it.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Even if there were conversations, a lot of them were bad,
I'm sure sure. And for folks the folks in the
survey who consider themselves wealthy, by the way, the main
reasons they cite were investing, strategically, saving from a young age,
and consistently saving me poor of their paychecks, which just
made me realize, as we've always said here on the show,
building wealth is not rocket science, and teaching those basic
(28:09):
realities to the next generation it's not either. I think
sometimes parents maybe overthink, they make it more complicated than
it needs to be. Hey, if I want to talk
to my kid about money, I have to have it
all together, and the truth is you don't. It's these
simple things that passing down those basic building blocks is
really crucial. Like you don't have to be a math whiz,
right in order to help your kid understand basic division
(28:31):
and multiplication. And I think similarly with money, the same
thing's true.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Totally agree. Yeah, I think the way we should talk
with our kids about money should be similar to the
way that we invest, which is early and often right.
So you want to invest early because you want to
allow there to be a lot more time to allow
your funds to compound. Same thing when it comes to
these different lessons that we're imparting on our kids, the
ability for them to absorb these lessons, see them lived
out in your household, before launching, before taking to the
(28:55):
win and flying off and starting their own life.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
And it could be as simple as like a convo
in the grocery store about why you're choosing this can
of green beans.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
That's the other one and that's why, And that's where
the often comes into play as well. It doesn't have
to be like this big, major thing because you can't
have a major bees chat. Yeah, You can't have big,
major conversations constantly, but they can be smaller conversations of like, yeah, actually,
we're not going to buy the strawberries because they're not
on sale and those that's really expensive. Sorry, you know,
we're just not gonna do that. Maybe next week or
even Like when I'm thinking about a conversation I had
(29:23):
with my kids recently about a car an expensive car repair.
Kate was asking how much it costs, and I told her,
and the kids were like, what it costs that much money?
I was like, yeah, that's just that's how much it costs.
But don't worry. We were prepared because this is something
that we knew was going to happen regularly. Maintaining your
vehicle is a cost that is not a surprise, is
something to be expected, and so every month we set
(29:43):
some money aside and a sinking fund some people call
them savings buckets, and boom, all of a sudden, they're
like like internalizing how it is they should approach taking
care of their things over time. It's not this big, major,
like you said, birds and the bees kind of conversation,
but I think it can be something as casual as
commenting on price of something in the grocery store, or
even a slightly bigger conversation.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Don't make it all negative, have some positive conversations. Yeah,
the great things that hey like.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
We were prepared to be able to make this repair
and now we have the ability to drive a vehicle
that serves us well. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Something else that was cited in this study was that
seventy eight percent of folks who have a financial plan
they're confident about their financial future, and only twenty six
percent or a quarter of folks who don't have a
plan have confidence about their ability to build wealth. And
I think that's also important to highlight. You don't even
have to have a complex plan, but you have to
have a plan. You have to know where you want
(30:35):
to go.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
It's a good idea to have an idea, yeah, goal.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
If you kind of have some sort of semblance of
a roadmap, you know at least the general direction in
you're heading, you're more likely to get there. And I think,
Matt my actually absolute favorite part of the survey is
that almost three quarters of respondents, seventy five percent of
folks think that the next generation is going to achieve
a higher level of wealth than they did and that
(30:59):
we've seen more pessimism recently about our ability to achieve
the American dream or the next generation's ability, and a
lot of folks have soured on it. But don't count
me in that camp. I think that American dynamism is
alive and well, and I too think that my kids
will be able to achieve a better future.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
So that to me was good news.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
That there's just kind of some more general optimism about
the future of our country and the younger generation.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Right, man, let's talk about housing. Sometimes, depending on what
we want to communicate to listeners, sometimes we place it
in the camp of like, oh, this is a terrible thing.
You should seriously consider renting, think about all the benefits
from renting. But there are some news stats about home
ownership that are out that make it sound like the
greatest thing since slice bread. There's a white paper in
Science Daily and they found that if you own a home,
(31:45):
you live longer by six months. Almost the study.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
The fact that I own multiple homes because I'm a landlord,
does that mean I'm going to live even longer?
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Years and year? Amazing? It's going to shorten your life. Actually,
the additional stress the study in this white paper control
for factors such as education, race, income, marital status as well.
But then on top of having a longer lifespan, the
average home owner also has a much higher net worth
than the typical renter. The median net worth of a
(32:15):
renter in the US is ten thousand dollars. The media
networth of a homeowner is four hundred thousand dollars, which
is a massive gap. That's I would say that that's
a much bigger there's a bigger difference there than even
living longer, right like six months. I mean, that's a
long time, but it's four hundred thousand dollars versus ten
thousand dollars. That's that's huge forty X. That being said,
(32:38):
I don't think it's quite this simple, dude. I think
this honestly, it probably boils more down to correlation versus causeation.
From a wealth building standpoint, it's like, okay, in order
to own a home, by defaults, that typically means you've
put down a down payment, so yes, you have saved
up the money. So by like, it's hard to own
a home if you have not saved up the wealth, right,
(32:58):
and so I kind of understand it from that standpoint,
But from the from the sand point of living longer,
I'm not totally sure. It doesn't quite match up quite
as well.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
My thought was that maybe that boils down to some
sort of a relational thing, that renters are more transient,
and that like if you buy a home, you've put
down roots, and the connections that you have with the
people in your community maybe stronger. And there is significant
evidence about the fact that, like our relational happiness, it
is going to impact our well being and ultimately our lifespans.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
I think that has a big part to do with it.
And if you think about family as well, and I
know that there are tons of families out there who rents,
who not only rent homes but also might rent an
apartment as well, But I also think that on average,
there are most likely more families living in homes as
opposed to renting in an apartment. But I'm also thinking
about too, if you own your own home, that kind
of it does set the stage for you to be
(33:49):
physically more active, like imagine just like like even taking
your trash can out of the street as opposed to
dropping a bag of trash down the chuot in an apartment,
or like getting out and cut in your grass or
there are certain things and it's not guaranteed, right, just
by owning a home, does that mean you are going
to live long?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Because some of those apartments and that my sister has
lived in or whatever, the gyms they have are.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Incredible, so exactly, yeah, exactly, And I guess most people
don't have the gym at their house.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yeah, So, I mean it's really hard to know why
this is the case. I think when it comes down
to why homeowners have a higher net worth, typically that's
because of the forced method of savings that owning.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Real estate is the equity build up for sure, and
so that.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Renters are instead of banking the extra money the difference
between what they spend on rent versus what they would
have spent on a mortgage, they're spending the money instead
of saving it. And so it doesn't mean that it's
the most efficient way to build wealth. It just means
that it's the lived experience, I guess, of the way
people who own homes build wealth versus the ways renters do.
(34:51):
But given the average return in the stock market versus
the real estate market, investing in the stock market is
a clear winner. Overtime, maybe it hasn't been over the
past like four or five years. I mean, although I
don't know, the stock market has performed incredibly well similar
to the real estate market. But yeah, the truth is
buying a home means you have to maintain the home.
There are a bunch of costs associated with owning a
home as well. But yeah, we're not against home ownership
(35:13):
or real estate investing. We have episodes on both going
back into our catalog, and if done well, you can
clearly build wealth doing either owning stocks or owning a home.
But take these headlines, I think with a grain of salt,
there is no one way to the top or to
living longer. You can easily become a multi millionaire via
smart investing as a renter, or by going the real
(35:36):
estate ownership route. There's just no one size fits all solution.
Matt and I think sometimes when these surveys come out
or these numbers come out, people say, oh, great, there
is another reason to latch onto home ownership as my
ticket to financial independence.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
And it doesn't have to be.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
It doesn't have to be. And hopefully too, this is
like a kind of a helpful condolence for folks who
want to own a home, but find it kind of
financially impossible right now.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Well, that being said, if home ownership is a goal
of years, we've got some good news, So we're gonna
end this show on a positive note. Home listings are increasing,
and as we know with supply and demand, more supply
is likely over time going to ensure that prices continue
to moderate some I think we're still unlikely to see
prices decline significantly, but more homes on the market, particularly
(36:21):
in states like Florida, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Washington, Vermont. These
are all states that have massive upticks in the past
couple months. That's an important indicator of a softening housing
market that seems to represent a slow path back to
a more normal pre pan housing market.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I think ten states at this point now have more
listenings than they had pre pandemic. Like they've gotten back
really nice to that space and it's I love seeing it.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yeah, in either way, just the ability for folks who
have felt locked out of the housing market, the ability
for morehouses to come on the market. That's going to
allow things to yees soften, level off, or at least
not increase at the clip that it has been over
the past four and there are a lot of reasons
why more supply doesn't necessarily mean like significant drops in
housing prices, but over time, like if there are fewer
(37:09):
shoppers and more sellers, then I think we will see
more moderation and pricing and potentially even price declines. So
that is potentially good news for news out there for
all the millennials who have been like who feel behind,
feel like they missed out exactly. But that's gonna be
it for this Friday flight. We hope everyone out there
has a fantastic weekend. Enjoy any holiday parties that you
might be attending. Yeah, we got our holiday Christmas party tonight. Yeah,
(37:32):
I'm looking forward to that. That's gonna be good. But
we hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and we'll see
back here on Monday. So buddy, 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 travel
trade offs, mean coin madness, and housing inventory increases.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Welcome to the how to Money Friday flight, where we
take the weeks top headlines, specifically how they pertain to
your personal finances, and we tell you what you should
be doing with that knowledge that we're providing a prescription, Joel.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
For all the listeners out there to know whether myself
as a financial pharmacist, Matt as a financial doctor.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Is that somebody's website. Oh, I'm thinking of doctor of Credit.
Oh yeah, that's a good one, Joel. I see you've
got a note here about something you did recently, pretending
to Costco, one of our favorite retailers.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I'm going to even wholesalers, I should say, use an
overused word hack. So I didn't realize that for all
you're going for all the clicks with Costco and hack,
that's right, that's right, and throwing one more company for
good measure, Instacart. And so I I think I've mentioned
that my wife uses instacart sometimes or like especially in
(01:18):
a particularly busy week, after she tricked you into subscribing
to it for another year, and I was.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Like, why do we have this? We don't need this,
but she's like, oh no, I forgot, Joel, I swear
I forgot. Yeah I don't. I'm not buying it.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
But so it has become on occasion nice to order
something to be Instart card when when things are crazy,
when life is insane. But gosh, it just it feels
like a gut punch every time. And I don't know why.
Maybe I'm just ridiculously cheap at times. And and so
everything not only costs more on Instacart, but then you
also got a fig factor in tipping and the delivery fee,
(01:54):
and so the cost versus going to the grocery store yourself,
it's significantly higher.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
But what I did realize until just this past week
for some reason, is that Costco sells discounted Instacart gift cards.
So you can get a one hundred dollars gift card
for eighty bucks. And I've always say, so, I didn't
realize that.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, So I've always said, can you take that card
and immediately apply it to your account? Immediately? Sweet?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yes, nice, immediately, so you can just literally get that
sweet discount on your groceries and.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Really discount like right out of the gate. Yeah, oh
that's awesome, and.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You can buy you can use that gift card if
you're using the same day shopping on Costco because it's
done through Instacart, and recently they had a discount thirty
bucks off one hundred dollars order if you do same
day Costco, and so I use that combined with a
discounted Instacart gift card.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So it was like, probably was actually this is actually
maybe as you had it gone or even cheaper. There's
actually even a little bit cheaper.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
But like, yeah, so if you are an Instacart user
or it at least lessens the pain and it brings
those prices kind of more in line with what you'd
see in the store. So I don't know, man, like
we might start using it more because of this. Okay,
if it wasn't for the dis kind of gift card,
I'd be like, no way, Jose.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
But well, two things. Two things. You said that it
feels like a gut punch every time. Yeah, And I
think Emily would say, Joel, you need to continue to
do the work to figure out why that evokes that
kind of emotional reaction out of you, Well.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
It's because I could go and do the shopping myself,
and I don't mind doing it, and it would save
a lot of money, but there are times I.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Don't have the time. But then, secondly, can you get
your insta cart shopper to pick up those gift cards,
bring it home and then you apply like can you
do me? Because are they physically in the store, Like
do you have to go there? Go the store?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Actually, but you can buy them online on costco site too,
so same price.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Okay, Yeah, So I wondered if you first had to
get the ball rolling by first getting them to buy
the card for you, they bring it to your house.
You then apply it to the next order, and then
every time you place an order you haven't pick up
yeah a Costco Insta card gift card or two that
you apply to your order. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I don't know if you actually can, but you can
buy directly from Costco's website. You're so you're going to
go on that front. It's like a turbo charger on
a vehicle.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It's like it requires a little bit of gas to
get I think going, but once it's going, the exhausted
in fact powers the engine and truthfully dows work something like,
even if we do.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
This more, I still enjoy going to Costco on occasion.
So it's one of those things that I don't want
to do all my shopping online, but at least now
when we do it, it feels like we're not getting
taken advantage of it. And not that instat Car's is
taking advantage of anyone, but the price service, but the
price differential.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Is can be extreme.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And so if you're getting an extra twenty bucks off
every one hundred dollars, it puts the prices at least
more in line with what they would be if you
were just to go shopping yourself.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
It's not as much of a gut punch. Yeah. Well,
on a related note, when it comes to consumption retail,
some consumers out there are worried about how terrorists are
going to impact prices, and they are stocking up on
goods similar to the like the early days of COVID.
You remember, remember those oh yeah, terrible days when folks
are like hoarding toilet papers because of all the things. Yeah,
people we're telling people not to do that. Didn't want
(04:54):
to do that because it was.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, it meant like if you beat by three things
of toilet papers other people can't.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
It's dumb. Yeah, it's so dumb. Seeing in they highlighted
folks who are buying extra groceries now in preparation for
what they assume are going to be higher prices in
the near future. And if steperd terifs are in our
future higher prices, they're inevitable. So some folks are increasing
their grocery budgets now, they're purchasing those non perishables in
bulk in hopes that it's going to save them money
(05:20):
later on. But man, it's also so hard to plan
for such an uncertain future to pull some of those
future purchasing dollars into the present when we don't even
know if this is going to be a reality.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
It's like, should I let the rhetoric impact my actions
right now or should I kind of wait and see
what happens.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And like, honestly, the savings aren't going to be that massive,
because like, first of all, prices do tend to go
up in the future no matter what, just because of inflation,
but like not always, that's not always the case. If
you're thinking about it, like I'm just thinking about flat screens,
for instance, they've only gotten bigger and nicer and less expensive,
so your tesla's in recent years. Yeah, and if you're thinking, oh, well,
I let's go ahead and make that happen, oh, never
(05:58):
mind the fact that the best deal that you might
be able to snag would be Super Bowl season, which
happens to be, you know, a couple months away. But
by trying to like it's almost like timing the market. Honestly,
it makes me think about folks who have some money
on hand and they're thinking about investing, and they're thinking, ooh,
I can't buy right now. It's it's you know, it's
at an all time high, but like, okay, you're gonna
wait until it drops a couple percentage points. Sure, okay,
(06:21):
maybe you get a slightly better deal, but you're not
even saving all that much. Like if you're talking about
let's say someone's dollar cost averaging into the market, it's
like five hundred bucks on voo, right, and so it
drops a couple percent So maybe you're able to save
ten dollars. That's not gonna move the needle when it
comes to the dollars you haven't invested. If you're talking
about five hundred one thousand dollars. Sure it does a difference,
(06:42):
it makes much bigger difference. But when it comes to
the amount of groceries that we can keep on hand
that are not gonna perish, it just seems completely silly
to me. Small potatoes. I hate it, small potatoes.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
So and we have to use some sort of food
terminology when they'll describing me because I'm talking about food.
But I think, yeah, I think you're spot on, and
I think the only time I'm stocking up on groceries
is when there's a great sale on something I'm going
to use fairly quickly. Right, So if there's like my
coffee last week, yeah, exactly, you talked about buying six
bags at one time.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Sitting here and joining it right now.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
That's a perfect example, perfect example of kind of Hey,
it's not that I'm doing this because of promises of
future terrorists. I'm doing this because there's I'm gonna drink
this coffee in short order and I'm gonna save six
bucks a bag or whatever.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
The benefit is being realized now. It's not the promise
of things getting worse in the future. Yeah. Yeah, So
I don't know that this is like a pattern that
we're going to see.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Hopefully it's not a widespread for them. Yeah, I agree,
I don't think it is all right. But what about
saving on travel? Well, that's something right that travel now
Joel Well, travel get on sale, get more expensive because
of tarraft's who knows, but yeah, one thing that people
can do. I think people are always looking for travel
saving tips. This was an interesting article on the Wall
Street Journal about how sharing a bathroom can make your
(07:56):
trip far less expensive, and actually, interestingly enough, you might
have to go this route if you book an Airbnb
in New York these days, thanks to new rules that
require the host to be in the home when they're
running it out. So no more ah, the host is
out of town. They're running the property out to you. No,
you're going to be under the same roof with the host,
specifically in New York. Though the trade off though of
(08:18):
staying under the same roof with the host, it might
be worth it because your other option at this point
in New York City is a hotel room. And like
I said, there's this article in the Wall Street Journal
and the travel writer spent five hundred and thirty bucks
for three days in a shared apartment, which costs less
than one night in a similar hotel. There is the
you know, slightly slightly awkward privacy thing text the host, Hey,
(08:41):
is it okay if I use the bathroom now? Which
is weird if you're not used to it, but think
Shuto attacks.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Hey, don't go in there for another fifteen minutes. Let
it air out for a bit. I've got the fan on,
so considerative agel.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
That's right, But I mean we all know this saving
money typically involves trade offs, right. There are exceptions, I
think cell phone service, where you don't really get a
vastly inferior product. You're just saving a lot of money.
But I think it's the least important to note that
by making choices that might make you a little less
comfortable or give you a little less privacy, you could
(09:13):
dramatically reduce the price of your next trip. And it
just doesn't doesn't just have to be in New York City.
It could be maybe another trip you're taking. You say, listen,
actually I'm willing to endure that slight discomfort because of
how much money.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I'm going to say. Yeah, Well, you mentioned that journal
article where that writer spent three days traveling. How about
three hundred and sixty five days. Joel Virgin Voyages has
announced that you can purchase an annual pass and you
can cruise as much as you want for one hundred
and twenty thousand dollars. You can literally do this every
day of the year to anywhere in the world that
(09:46):
Virgin Cruises go. And you're gonna get unlimited Wi Fi
so that you can work while out there on the water.
You get specialty coffees, laundry service, all the fancy things
that you would come to expect from a nice cruise,
but not my cup of tea. Man, you're not gonna
do this. One hundred and twenty thousand dollars is a
massive chunk of change.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Can you imagine if we took out of money on
the road and buy on the road, I mean on
the water.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
It's funny that you mentioned that. Like Richard Bronson said,
it's not working from home, it's working from the helm.
For folks who are looking to travel year round, I
wouldn't do this, but I think for a lot of
folks who might live in higher cost of living areas,
like do crunch the numbers, it could actually make sense.
We were just talking about New York. If you are.
I mean if because of the fact I mean we're
(10:30):
talking meals, that's a massive expense as well, like when
you include all of your expenses. I think for a
certain select type of individual, this could make sense for me.
You know, we're not going to say all six members, yeah,
of our family on the water. No, I would.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I would not in my future very quickly go insane
and jump overboard. I think it would probably take little less.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Than a week.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I don't know, though, I've never been on a cruise,
so I assume that. But I also there's other things
I've assumed that I wouldn't like, and that I end
up liking those things. So maybe I would enjoy cruising.
Maybe I need to give it a go.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
But do they have treadmills on the cruise? I'm I'm
assuming they do. I just run around the deck. How
many I think, how many laps would have to do? Yeah,
I would rather like they got fancy treadmills. You've got screens?
Do they do that with like I know they do
with peloton like on the trainers where you can actually
buke certain courses, like certain stages of the Twitter France,
for instance. Can you do that with running as well,
where someone's strapped on a go pro and it's like,
(11:24):
all right, this is a ten k run, or here's
a twenty miler. How cool would that be? That would
be I don't know. I'd still rather get outside. Oh
I would too. But if you're stuck on a boat, yeah,
or opted and chosen to be on a boat, and
maybe that's an alternative.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, one hundred and twenty k though, that's still steep,
a big chunk of change, but it's interesting. And there
have been stories of retirees saying, actually, it's going to
be cheaper for me.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
To as opposed to assist a living.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
And I get to live the life I want instead
of going in this other direction. But yeah, not for me.
Let's talk about investing for a second, Matt. When you
and I when we talk about investing, we often mention
low cost index funds as the best option for younger investors,
in particular who are in what we call the wealth
building phase of their life. So they're like, why not
go one hundred percent stock index funds when you have
(12:09):
many decades right to let those investments grow. Well, new
research finds that being one hundred percent stock heavy, it
might be the best route for even more folks, not
just people in the wealth building phase of their life,
but also folks who are in the wealth preservation stage
of their life. But instead of staying one hundred percent
(12:30):
invested in like the S and P five funded or
a total stock market fund, which is typically what we
recommend or opting for like let's say a target date fund, right,
that's going to become more conservative as you age. An
Emory professor Emory close by where we live, says that
you should have a third of your assets in US
stocks and two thirds in foreign market stocks for optimal results.
(12:55):
And basically the argument is that not only will your
higher stock exposure increase earnings over the decades, but surprisingly,
and this shocked me, the allocation that she's suggesting is
also better at helping you not run out of money
in retirement too, and by quite a bit. It's really
interesting to see that just having the combo of US
(13:15):
and international stocks not only produces better results but also
shields you against kind of certain downsides of having something
more like a sixty forty portfolio that a whole lot
of financial advisors would recommend for people who are later
in their investing years.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Sure, I will say I'm going to put a couple
holes in it though, because I think there's a couple
of problems. One, well, this isn't actually a problem, but
it's not a professor. It was an assistant professor. So
no shade throne necessarily. Yeah, but I wanted to you
mentioned that because.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
You assistant manager or assistant to the manager. But one
of the reasons that people opt for the sixty to
forty portfolio where they have bonds is because of the
fact that they're looking to smooth out the ride. And
by going from a one hundred percent US stocks to
then one third two thirds US stocks to international stock,
you're not at all reducing any volatility, and that is
oftentimes what folks are looking.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
For in this portfolio is to keep them to essentially
hold the course, and so by removing that, that's I
think one of the biggest questions is that can you
handle the ups and the downs. But another assumption here
too is that like this study, I mean, it was
backwards looking, so you're looking at performance based on what
international securities have done. And yes, like there have been
(14:26):
periods of time where it has outperformed, but dude, we
don't know what the future holds. And if they're counting
on some of these higher performance periods of time being
what the future holds, you're saying that this is what's
going to happen in the future. And nobody knows what's
going to happen in the future, and so I think
the only one of the thing we can do is
make our best predictions. We make the past, and that's
the same.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That's the same with like why we make our suggestions
is based on kind of the last one hundred years
of stock market histories.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Sure, sure, but I guess I think about the US
companies as well, and like we are only living in
more and more globalized world. The biggest companies in the
US have massive global international presence, right, and so like
as the US goes, typically I think the world goes.
But we just don't know exactly what some of those
emerging markets and what some of those other international index
(15:15):
funds are going to do. But one thing that we
do know, something that is guaranteed, are the fees that
those different funds charge you. And so looking to minimize
that essentially is certainly a recipe more of a recipe
for success. And somebody that consistently does that is Vanguard,
And so I will say, if you are looking for
a single fund that comes, you know, kind of close
to this but has a they do have a higher
(15:36):
US allocation, it's Vanguard's VT. I think their expense ratio
is like point zero seven percent, which is still crazy low.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
But if you're looking to be like one hundred percent
stocks and you're looking for I think it's basically two
thirds US and one third international, that's a pretty cool
fund because.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
You get all of that in one low cost basket.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
So if you kind of hear this, or you look
into the study and we'll put a link to the
study in the show notes, if you want to kind
of dig in a little deeper, which we would recommend
before you just sure take the headline and say, oh,
I'm changing my allocation tomorrow. But yeah, if you dig
into it and you say, actually, this makes a lot
of sense to me, and this is how I want
to my portfolio to look buying something like a one
(16:13):
stop shop like the Vanguard's VT fund, that's that's a
pretty cool It's pretty cool that exists.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Sure, So Joel, speaking of expense ratios, maybe not expense ratios,
but fees. There's been a class action lawsuit fout against
T Mobile for disguising a fee to look like a
government charge. So they've been charging three dollars and forty
nine cents a month for something called the Regulatory Programs
and Telecom Recovery fee, and customers they tend to assume
(16:40):
that this is a fee charged by the government. Sounds
like the government fee to me the way they highlight
it if so that's totally understandable, but it's not that
money goes straight to T Mobile and maybe also to
pay spokespeople like Snoop Dogg or Zach Brath, Donald Faison, scrubs.
That's they're the latest some fancy I cost celebrities and
(17:02):
they're singing on the TV. I think that's what they've
been doing with the money instead. And we have no
idea if the slawsuits going to go anywhere, but I
think T Mobile should do better on the transparency front.
And to make it doubly bad, not only did they
call this fee that the regulatory programs blah blah blah,
but they also, like on the bill, they put it
under the government fees section, and so they were disguising
(17:22):
incredibly misleading. Even more, Yeah, like I would almost be
willing to give them a buy if it goes up
there under the section in accounting, like under what it
is that they received. But the fact that they stuck
it under their further exacerbates the problem and makes T
mobile and that looks so good.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yes, in this case of the big cell phone companies,
T Mobile has been the best, But turns.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Out they're all they're all bad. It turns out they're
all bad.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
It turns out, yeah, maybe they're better than rising At
and T, but they're still not as good as our
favorite low cost carriers. And if you haven't looked to
carriers like Mint Mobile or US Mobile, you should because
they're not charging ridiculous fees and in fact, the price
that they quote on their website is the price. It's
not like, oh, additional fees and taxes required, No, it's
all encompassing the number that they quote you right up
(18:07):
with us bumble seventeen fifty months, seventeen to fifty a months.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Man, sorry to beat it. We've been on it for
three months or so now, three or some months. I've
been enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Haven't had a problem. Speaking of fees, though, Matt and
switching to a new company. Another fee is on the
chopping block right now, and it's overdraft fees that banks charge.
And some people might say, oh, thank goodness, it's about time.
Other people might say, oh, really, I don't think I've
paid one of those in a long time. Well, the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau they finalize this rule to cap
over draft fees at five bucks. And it is true
(18:39):
when you look at what's happened has happened with overdraft
fees over the past decade, it's kind of insane, like
those costs have gone up much faster than the rate
of inflation. And some banks are charging like forty bucks
for one overdraft fee. And some banks have been accused
and have actually I think been found guilty of prioritizing
your spending, like the hardes you make to maximize the
(19:01):
amount of overdraft fees that they can charge you, which
is a pretty sick thing to do. But I think
at the same time, Matt and we you and I've
talked about this, the market has actually provided solutions to this.
A lot of banks have said, oh, we see how
how much people color customers actually hate these overdraft fees.
We're going to provide solutions and we're actually going to
maybe completely eradicate over draftees.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
We're not going to charge them at all.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
And those banks stand out, and those are the banks
that you and I tend to recommend, Like most of
our favorite online banks have said we've done away with
overdraft fees altogether, Capital One ally and CI like all
three of those have just said, screw it, We're not
charging people this ridiculous fee that they hate.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Discover your Discover that's grand central station of your personal
finances over There's what's so great too, is that they've
done this under their own volition. Yeah, right, Like it
didn't take any rules. What they've realized is that, oh,
by treating our customers with some decency and respect, we
will garner all the praise from all the podcasts, all
the nerds out there to talk about this stuff, like
you and me, nobody's paying, Well, are we sponsored by
(20:03):
any of these right now? Well, you're not being paid
to say any of this. Like these are awesome banks.
They do a fantastic job. And whether or not their.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Banks we've been talking about for years and years and
years for years, because they offer that widest range of
like their solid online banks that don't charge ridiculous fees,
and they have good customer service, and they pay good
rates of interest, and so like, why would anybody be
sticking with the big banks that are charging ridiculous over
draft fees even if you don't incur them like the
fact that they are doing that to other people who
(20:30):
bank with them. I would get out of there as
fast as I could.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
This is an instance where letting the free market work,
allowing these companies to continue to innovate and not loading
them down with regulatory hoops that they have to jump through,
is the way to go. Like, I would much rather
a bank spend time thinking through how it is that
they can delight their customers, as opposed to hiring howard
of many new folks that are needed for compliance.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yeah, well, in this regulatory hoop, interestingly enough, it might
be overturned pretty quickly, which is come the next.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
It's almost like an emiration, so as opposed to something
that company decides it's going to be a part of,
like the ethos and character of their companies because they
take care of folks.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
As we've noticed in the past few years, it's a
yo yo effect, and there are promises made that don't
always get kept, or somebody else comes into power and
makes a different decision, And so we have to do
what's best for us and work with companies that prioritize
good customer service and not charging us ridiculous fees. Speaking
of the free market, Matt, there is a free market
in the cryptocurrency space, but it's kind of run amuck.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
We'll talk about that right after this. The Friday Flight continues, Joel.
We've got more stories to get to. It is now
time for the ludicrous headline of the week, which is
this one might be more ludicrous than most it is.
(21:48):
This one is from the website decrypt, which is a
crypto currency website, news all in one sort of site,
and the headline reads, hot air rises is fart coin meme?
How can you get even say with us a straight face.
I'm sure you're so glad that I'm the one that
that gets to share the story fart coin, mean coin
(22:12):
explodes as dgens buy for the lulls I actually needed.
I had to look up djen because I was like degenerates,
Well I didn't. There's actually dgen is a type of
crypto as well, So I know I've heard that as well.
But yeah, they're talking about degenerates folks who are gambling essentially,
and that's sort of the moral of the story. Fart coin,
no joke. It's worth more than one billion dollars right now. Uh.
(22:34):
There's another Dalist social media celebrity out there. You may
have heard of, Haley Welch. She launched a stupid meme
coin a couple of weeks ago, made millions of dollars
while everyone else while they lost money. Dude, the crypto
space it's totally rife with chicanery, with fraud, with speculation.
Thus the Degon's headline, there is clearly a difference between
(22:55):
bitcoin and this is one of the very few cryptocurrencies
that I that I own. It's it's one of the
cryptocurrencies that actually I think have potential. There's a difference
between that and many of the other want to be
digital coins out there. Ben Callen from into the crypto verse,
he said very recently that ninety nine point nine percent
of crypto that is out there actually is a scam.
(23:18):
And so we want to put this on your radar
because as cryptocurrencies sore, I think the tendency is to
pile on to all these ridiculous joke coins, which is
honestly what I it's. It's ridiculous because the problem is
if people start to think that this is how you
actually invest, If this is how you're just going to
throw a few dollars just to say you own whatever
(23:40):
you want to say you want to part coin or
you want to buy it for your loved ones for
Christmas or something. I get, I understand, I gotart coin, honey,
But it's the The problem is when you start making
some money and then you start brainwashing yourself into thinking
that this is reality, that this is how you actually invest.
Because I think the vast majority of folks I do
think think that they know that this is a joke. Yeah,
(24:01):
I don't think there are many folks who are a
billion of investing a crypto within their IRA thinking that
this is what they're going to retire on. They were
in it for the entertainment value. They're doing it because
it's fun, because so they can tell their buddy that, hey,
I just bought a part coin. It's like w It's
like fake wrestling, Like people know that it's fake. People
like and they are in I didn't know. Thanks for
bursting my bumble. They are in on the joke. But
(24:23):
the problem is, I think if these folks start to
experience some actual return, not everybody, then you start to think, oh,
this is this is the ticket to well.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
For instance, the Haley watch coin that you referenced, like
that one, Uh, there are lawsuits accusing her of creating
this and pumping it up, and everyone else holding the
bag at the end of the at the end of
the day. So I think you're right to a certain extent. Farcoin.
Everybody should know it's a joke. It should be self explanatory.
But in other but when some of these celebrities get
(24:51):
into the space, they mind their audience and filter money
from their pockets to their own. And I think that's
unseen and people don't fall for it, please, But I
think some people out there are falling for it in
the space. Like you said, there are a couple of
legitimate offerings, I think, but the vast majority is completely illegitimate.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
That's true. Far Cooin, like, it's not necessarily a scam,
but it is idiotic. But there is a scam that
you should watch out for. This one could cost you
more than almost any other scam that's out there, more
than farcoin going to zero, more than you throwing twenty
bucks into farc cooin, I guess. But it's the real
estate closing scam where wiring instructions are sent from a
(25:32):
crook instead of your actual closing attorney. So obviously what
happens here is the down payment that you wired, it
just it totally vanishes. And this scam, it's happening more
and more because of how much money is at stake.
You think about it. You know, five, ten, twenty percent
down payment on a median home in America today, This
is a significant amount of money. This is truly a scam,
(25:55):
tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars being lost,
and it makes me so concerned for the folks out there, actually,
for a lot of folks who've never wired money before.
And of course the screamers go to where the money
can be made, and.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
So we want folks to you get an official email,
oftentimes potentially even from the closing attorney you're working with,
but with artificial instructions, and so the key is then a.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Surrouting number and a bank account that is not the
closing attorney who's going to hold that money.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Don't grow, don't call the number of this on the email.
Go to the website of your closing attorney and call
them and confirm that you have the right wiring instructions.
Confirm it with your real estate agent too. That the
truth is just a few extra minutes of double checking.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Matt.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
I did closed on a real estate deal not too
long ago, and double checking those details ahead of time
was something that they stressed, Hey, call us before you
actually wire the funds, and I'm glad they're doing it.
That there are more warnings going out about this, but
the stakes are really high, so make sure you pay attention.
All right, let's talk about a new study from the
good folks over at Fidelity Matt, and they highlighted the
(26:57):
fact that parents should be talking to their kids about money.
Totally agree, duh, But there are some good underneath that,
some good underlying stuff. So fifty six percent of folks
said that their family didn't talk about money when they
were kids, which I think makes sense. I would actually
think that'd be even higher than maybe.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Money feels like a taboo topic even within families. Sadly,
and eighty two or percent of those folks said, man,
I wish my family had talked about money. They feel
like they missed out on something because their family was
kind of deathly silent about sure topic of finance.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, and I bet of the fifty fifty was the
fifty six percent of folks who said that their families
did talk about it, I bet it was done in
a not very healthy negative way. Like I'm sure the
conversations that they can think of probably started with but
we can't afford that. Yeah, you know, as opposed to
I don't know, just healthier ways of talking about it.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Even if there were conversations, a lot of them were bad,
I'm sure sure. And for folks the folks in the
survey who consider themselves wealthy, by the way, the main
reasons they cite were investing, strategically, saving from a young age,
and consistently saving me poor of their paychecks, which just
made me realize, as we've always said here on the show,
building wealth is not rocket science, and teaching those basic
(28:09):
realities to the next generation it's not either. I think
sometimes parents maybe overthink, they make it more complicated than
it needs to be. Hey, if I want to talk
to my kid about money, I have to have it
all together, and the truth is you don't. It's these
simple things that passing down those basic building blocks is
really crucial. Like you don't have to be a math whiz,
right in order to help your kid understand basic division
(28:31):
and multiplication. And I think similarly with money, the same
thing's true.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Totally agree. Yeah, I think the way we should talk
with our kids about money should be similar to the
way that we invest, which is early and often right.
So you want to invest early because you want to
allow there to be a lot more time to allow
your funds to compound. Same thing when it comes to
these different lessons that we're imparting on our kids, the
ability for them to absorb these lessons, see them lived
out in your household, before launching, before taking to the
(28:55):
win and flying off and starting their own life.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
And it could be as simple as like a convo
in the grocery store about why you're choosing this can
of green beans.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
That's the other one and that's why, And that's where
the often comes into play as well. It doesn't have
to be like this big, major thing because you can't
have a major bees chat. Yeah, You can't have big,
major conversations constantly, but they can be smaller conversations of like, yeah, actually,
we're not going to buy the strawberries because they're not
on sale and those that's really expensive. Sorry, you know,
we're just not gonna do that. Maybe next week or
even Like when I'm thinking about a conversation I had
(29:23):
with my kids recently about a car an expensive car repair.
Kate was asking how much it costs, and I told her,
and the kids were like, what it costs that much money?
I was like, yeah, that's just that's how much it costs.
But don't worry. We were prepared because this is something
that we knew was going to happen regularly. Maintaining your
vehicle is a cost that is not a surprise, is
something to be expected, and so every month we set
(29:43):
some money aside and a sinking fund some people call
them savings buckets, and boom, all of a sudden, they're
like like internalizing how it is they should approach taking
care of their things over time. It's not this big, major,
like you said, birds and the bees kind of conversation,
but I think it can be something as casual as
commenting on price of something in the grocery store, or
even a slightly bigger conversation.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Don't make it all negative, have some positive conversations. Yeah,
the great things that hey like.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
We were prepared to be able to make this repair
and now we have the ability to drive a vehicle
that serves us well. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Something else that was cited in this study was that
seventy eight percent of folks who have a financial plan
they're confident about their financial future, and only twenty six
percent or a quarter of folks who don't have a
plan have confidence about their ability to build wealth. And
I think that's also important to highlight. You don't even
have to have a complex plan, but you have to
have a plan. You have to know where you want
(30:35):
to go.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
It's a good idea to have an idea, yeah, goal.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
If you kind of have some sort of semblance of
a roadmap, you know at least the general direction in
you're heading, you're more likely to get there. And I think,
Matt my actually absolute favorite part of the survey is
that almost three quarters of respondents, seventy five percent of
folks think that the next generation is going to achieve
a higher level of wealth than they did and that
(30:59):
we've seen more pessimism recently about our ability to achieve
the American dream or the next generation's ability, and a
lot of folks have soured on it. But don't count
me in that camp. I think that American dynamism is
alive and well, and I too think that my kids
will be able to achieve a better future.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
So that to me was good news.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
That there's just kind of some more general optimism about
the future of our country and the younger generation.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Right, man, let's talk about housing. Sometimes, depending on what
we want to communicate to listeners, sometimes we place it
in the camp of like, oh, this is a terrible thing.
You should seriously consider renting, think about all the benefits
from renting. But there are some news stats about home
ownership that are out that make it sound like the
greatest thing since slice bread. There's a white paper in
Science Daily and they found that if you own a home,
(31:45):
you live longer by six months. Almost the study.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
The fact that I own multiple homes because I'm a landlord,
does that mean I'm going to live even longer?
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Years and year? Amazing? It's going to shorten your life. Actually,
the additional stress the study in this white paper control
for factors such as education, race, income, marital status as well.
But then on top of having a longer lifespan, the
average home owner also has a much higher net worth
than the typical renter. The median net worth of a
(32:15):
renter in the US is ten thousand dollars. The media
networth of a homeowner is four hundred thousand dollars, which
is a massive gap. That's I would say that that's
a much bigger there's a bigger difference there than even
living longer, right like six months. I mean, that's a
long time, but it's four hundred thousand dollars versus ten
thousand dollars. That's that's huge forty X. That being said,
(32:38):
I don't think it's quite this simple, dude. I think
this honestly, it probably boils more down to correlation versus causeation.
From a wealth building standpoint, it's like, okay, in order
to own a home, by defaults, that typically means you've
put down a down payment, so yes, you have saved
up the money. So by like, it's hard to own
a home if you have not saved up the wealth, right,
(32:58):
and so I kind of understand it from that standpoint,
But from the from the sand point of living longer,
I'm not totally sure. It doesn't quite match up quite
as well.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
My thought was that maybe that boils down to some
sort of a relational thing, that renters are more transient,
and that like if you buy a home, you've put
down roots, and the connections that you have with the
people in your community maybe stronger. And there is significant
evidence about the fact that, like our relational happiness, it
is going to impact our well being and ultimately our lifespans.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
I think that has a big part to do with it.
And if you think about family as well, and I
know that there are tons of families out there who rents,
who not only rent homes but also might rent an
apartment as well, But I also think that on average,
there are most likely more families living in homes as
opposed to renting in an apartment. But I'm also thinking
about too, if you own your own home, that kind
of it does set the stage for you to be
(33:49):
physically more active, like imagine just like like even taking
your trash can out of the street as opposed to
dropping a bag of trash down the chuot in an apartment,
or like getting out and cut in your grass or
there are certain things and it's not guaranteed, right, just
by owning a home, does that mean you are going
to live long?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Because some of those apartments and that my sister has
lived in or whatever, the gyms they have are.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Incredible, so exactly, yeah, exactly, And I guess most people
don't have the gym at their house.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yeah, So, I mean it's really hard to know why
this is the case. I think when it comes down
to why homeowners have a higher net worth, typically that's
because of the forced method of savings that owning.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Real estate is the equity build up for sure, and
so that.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Renters are instead of banking the extra money the difference
between what they spend on rent versus what they would
have spent on a mortgage, they're spending the money instead
of saving it. And so it doesn't mean that it's
the most efficient way to build wealth. It just means
that it's the lived experience, I guess, of the way
people who own homes build wealth versus the ways renters do.
(34:51):
But given the average return in the stock market versus
the real estate market, investing in the stock market is
a clear winner. Overtime, maybe it hasn't been over the
past like four or five years. I mean, although I
don't know, the stock market has performed incredibly well similar
to the real estate market. But yeah, the truth is
buying a home means you have to maintain the home.
There are a bunch of costs associated with owning a
home as well. But yeah, we're not against home ownership
(35:13):
or real estate investing. We have episodes on both going
back into our catalog, and if done well, you can
clearly build wealth doing either owning stocks or owning a home.
But take these headlines, I think with a grain of salt,
there is no one way to the top or to
living longer. You can easily become a multi millionaire via
smart investing as a renter, or by going the real
(35:36):
estate ownership route. There's just no one size fits all solution.
Matt and I think sometimes when these surveys come out
or these numbers come out, people say, oh, great, there
is another reason to latch onto home ownership as my
ticket to financial independence.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
And it doesn't have to be.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
It doesn't have to be. And hopefully too, this is
like a kind of a helpful condolence for folks who
want to own a home, but find it kind of
financially impossible right now.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Well, that being said, if home ownership is a goal
of years, we've got some good news, So we're gonna
end this show on a positive note. Home listings are increasing,
and as we know with supply and demand, more supply
is likely over time going to ensure that prices continue
to moderate some I think we're still unlikely to see
prices decline significantly, but more homes on the market, particularly
(36:21):
in states like Florida, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, Washington, Vermont. These
are all states that have massive upticks in the past
couple months. That's an important indicator of a softening housing
market that seems to represent a slow path back to
a more normal pre pan housing market.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I think ten states at this point now have more
listenings than they had pre pandemic. Like they've gotten back
really nice to that space and it's I love seeing it.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yeah, in either way, just the ability for folks who
have felt locked out of the housing market, the ability
for morehouses to come on the market. That's going to
allow things to yees soften, level off, or at least
not increase at the clip that it has been over
the past four and there are a lot of reasons
why more supply doesn't necessarily mean like significant drops in
housing prices, but over time, like if there are fewer
(37:09):
shoppers and more sellers, then I think we will see
more moderation and pricing and potentially even price declines. So
that is potentially good news for news out there for
all the millennials who have been like who feel behind,
feel like they missed out exactly. But that's gonna be
it for this Friday flight. We hope everyone out there
has a fantastic weekend. Enjoy any holiday parties that you
might be attending. Yeah, we got our holiday Christmas party tonight. Yeah,
(37:32):
I'm looking forward to that. That's gonna be good. But
we hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and we'll see
back here on Monday. So buddy, until next time, Best
friends out, Best Friends Out,
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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