May 15, 2020 • 22 mins
Friday episodes are all about the effects of Covid-19 on your personal finances. There’s a lot of news and information out there, but we are distilling it down to specific takeaways that will allow you to weather this surreal health and financial crisis. In today’s timely episode we cover a lot of good news we’ve come across in the past week. We also address how spending is up home improvement, whether there is more stimulus money heading our way, and where to look for new jobs.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I and Matt,
and today we're discussing where to look for a new
job and more stimulus money. That's right, buddy, We've got
(00:25):
a lot of good news to cover today as well
as a few key points, a few key articles that
we want to discuss as well. But first thing, I
notice your hair is getting kind of long. You normally
are really on top of the haircuts, right, like, I
hardly ever see your hair touch your ears, and I
am noticing that these days. You normally get the great
Clips bundle where you get like tin haircuts for a
(00:46):
hundred bucks or something where you only pay like ten
dollars a haircut, right, I've done that before. I also
often usually I go to the Supercuts training program, which
is free haircuts, so that's something I like to do
as well. But you know, both have been closed down
for I'm sure some of these are back open and running,
but I just haven't had the will to go in
and get a hair cut yet. It still feels a
little early. Yeah, yeah, so it's still a little scriggly,
(01:07):
and you usually cut your own hair. But man, even that,
you've been a little lazy and let let's be honest.
I'm trying to show some solidarity, all right, Lots of
folks aren't cutting their hair, so I think, hey, even
though I cut my own hair, maybe i'll just kind
of show some support for my best buddy. It means
a lot, I can. I'll tell you that. Well, I'm
glad to hear. But but yeah, a lot of folks
aren't used to cutting their hair. And I'm sure there
are some folks out there who probably haven't done the
(01:28):
best job when it comes to trying to cut their
own hair, maybe getting their kids hair. Yeah, I've seen
neighbors on the porch totally cutting their own kids hair,
cutting their spouses hair. I mean, just it's funny to
like it's in public, right, people people cutting each other's hair.
So it used to be done though, like odd on
the back patio, you know, like out on the concrete
right next to the yard. It's like we've stepped back
in time. It's the sixties again. You snap on the
(01:48):
leaf blower, that hair's gone. It's perfect the way to
do it. Or even better, reverse that and get the
like leaf sucker attachment. You know, if you have a blower,
it's like the world's largest flow be there you go,
that'll snap your scalp right off. Though, well, I'd be
so interested to know which of our listeners have tried
doing a self haircut, who's never never done done so
before it maybe doesn't look so great, or or they've
just gotten so long and scribedly that that it looks
(02:09):
pretty bad. Also, um, and so yeah, if you have
a terrible haircut, pick you want to send to us?
Just uh yeah, shoot that picture over to how the
money pot at gmail dot com. And man, I think
we should should post the worst quarantine haircut on our
Instagram page. What do you think that sounds like fun? Man,
let's do it. Yeah, send over the most botched haircut
and we'll make sure everyone gets to see it. Yeah,
we'll post it sometime next week once we receive a
(02:30):
few awful submissions, and should be fun to see other
people's terrible hair news at this this time too. Sounds
good man, all right, but first the good news. Let's
get to it, man, some of the best news. Because obviously,
you know, we talked last week about bike's being out
of stock all over the place, bike repair people just
being quite quite busy. We had a listener who works
in a bike repair shops say, yeah, it's true, we're
(02:51):
really busy, and it's really cool to see. Actually, a
lot of cities around the world, but also around the
United States, have been shutting down certain streets in order
to a how citizens to bike and walk and run
on those streets while staying safe. Right, and this allows
people to continue to exercise while social distancing, because let's
be honest, it's really hard to do so on the sidewalks.
I've noticed that in my neighborhood, one of the streets
(03:12):
are still alive and well, right where we live, where
cars are still allowed to roam free. People are trying
to get their exercise on, especially in this beautiful weather,
on the sidewalks, and it's making it really really hard
to stay six ft away from me. Basically, only one
party can walk along the sidewalk before you know, somebody
else coming along and gets kicked out in the street. Basically, yeah,
of course, due to social distancing. But even on top
of that, so many more folks have been outside running, walking,
(03:35):
riding their bikes. It's really cool to see that some
of these different cities and communities are taking proactive steps
in order to make it safer. Specifically, Seattle has announced
that they are permanently shutting down twenty miles of streets
in order to allow for safer pedestrian use, which is
freaking amazing twenty miles of streets where cars aren't allowed
to go. Love it. Yeah, I love that it started
(03:56):
up as a test and now they're implementing it for forever. Yeah,
that's the best way to do it. Oakland they've instituted
something similar, but they haven't announced if that change will
be permanent. But I really do think that that's such
an easy way to kind of test it out. You know,
we've seen that even here in Atlanta when it comes
to bike lanes. One of the ways to test if
a certain street or certain area will do well with
bike lanes and reduced lane sizes is to set up
(04:18):
temporary bike lanes where you partition the street a little
bit with cones, and that can inform the city planners
as to whether or not that's going to work and
what kind of impact that that will have on traffic. Um.
You know, and just the other week we talked about
small reduction in cities in this pandemic might be the
perfect time to prioritize alternative methods of transportation flag bikes. Yeah,
if you're getting used to the clean blue skies in
(04:38):
your city, well, it won't be long until they're back
to being smog infested hell holes unless we actually keep
some of these, uh, some of these changes around, right,
and so I love that Seattle is making some of
these things permanent. I would love to see more bike lanes,
more prioritization of alternative transportation. Matt. Let's got into the
next piece of good news. Everybody's favorite chef, Guy Fietti. Right, everybody?
(04:59):
I mean, is there anybody that has a favorite chef
that's not Guy Fieri, because I'd like to talk to them.
Oh my gosh, he is an interesting dude. Take the
back seat, Gordon Ramsey, it's Guy Fieri. St Okay, okay.
So I've got a quick question for you. So, in
the spirit of our show How the Money, we normally
have a craft beer on every episode except Friday episodes
because we tend to make these shorter. But a guy
who was a type of beer, what kind of beer
(05:21):
would he be? So I'm thinking he would be an
I p a that was left on the shelf a
little too long it's so good maybe, or maybe like
a logger that that was kind of like left out
in the sun on the beach a little bit too long.
It's kind of gone stale, it's kind of gone sour
a little bit. Yep. Maybe, but I'm thinking like a
Belgian wit with like because he's got his bleached hair whatever,
(05:43):
Like Belgian wit with like some crazy adjunct throwing down
like pickles, like licorice, or it's something funky bacon. Actually,
he'd be like a beer that shouldn't have bacon added
to it, but they'd be baking it right. Well, so
so Guy Fietti. Actually, you know, we're making fun of
him a little bit, but everybody loves the show Diners, Drive,
Ins and Dives. It. I think it plays on the
Food Network probably seven at least a couple of days
(06:04):
of the year. So there's gonna be like a Memorial
Day Diner Diner, Strive, Ins and Dives a thon. But
you know, one cool thing, Guy Fietti has raised more
than twenty million dollars for restaurant workers in need. He's
partnered with the National Restaurant Association and they're sending out
grants of five to two workers that that do have
needs right now, which is really cool. And forty grants
have been given out already, So big props to Guy Fieri. Yeah,
(06:27):
that is really cool. Yeah, we'll make fun of him,
but that's seriously good stuff, seriously good stuff. And at
the same time, Matt, there's a local nonprofit where we
live called the Giving Kitchen, and it's doing something really similar.
It's been doing this actually for a long time, for
for a lot of years, and I think there's I
believe yeah, And and they've been stepping up in a
in an even bigger way during this time because obviously
with how impacted the restaurant industry has been, um, I
(06:50):
think they've just ramped into hyper drive in order to
be able to help out as many restaurant workers as
they can. Yeah, they've even kitching us all that they
have given over two thirty thousand dollars two restaurant workers
in need since the COVID nineteen pandemic started affecting Georgia.
That's huge, super cool, uh, Joel. Some other good news
is that chord cutting, you know, we love chord cutting,
(07:10):
It has hit a record high and interestingly enough, though
this is coming from businesses like bars and restaurants, hotels,
these sports bar style businesses, they pay a lot of
money every month to the pay TV companies. And so
this is just a reminder that if you are still
paying big bucks to a traditional TV company for traditional cable,
(07:30):
question ask yourself is are you getting what you're paying for?
Or you know, maybe you can cut the cord and
save big money altogether. You know, the answer to both
of these questions is, yes, you can't cut the chord.
Is it really something we need these days? No? Are
you even receiving what you're paying for? No? No, Because
there's no live sports right That's that's one of the
biggest reasons that people still stick with their with their
(07:52):
regular pay TV package. And and really even that has
been an excuse that gets thrown out the window because
their services like Sling and YouTube TV and and I
think Hulu does live sports too. But yeah, there's all
these ways to be able to access live sports at
a fraction of the price. And so, yeah, just in
case you haven't noticed, there aren't any live sports right
now unless you're willing to watch Korean baseball. Um, is
(08:14):
that a knock on me? I'm just saying if if
that's stream baseball sounds like the worst thing ether you
if you got to get your sports fixed. Though maybe
maybe it'll do. But yeah, no, no sports right now.
Potential good news for soccer fans and MLS, though the
season might continue down in Florida with teams playing in Orlando.
We're not sure about that. There's all sorts of negotiations.
I know Baseball is looking to potentially play all their
(08:35):
games in Arizona, So it'll be interesting to see kind
of whether we get any sort of sporting events this
year at all. Yeah, it's good to see that there's
sort of a light on the horizon that there might
be some sort of sports competition that we'll get be
able to partake in this year with the Olympics not
happening this year. I mean, I know, I personally, I
really enjoy watching the Olympics and seeing that competition and
seeing folks really push themselves and kind of get you excited.
(08:57):
I tend to work out more when when I'm watching
the Olympics and paint your face red. But but but yeah,
obviously that's missing, and it's exciting to see that there's
a chance that some of that, you know, might be
happening later this year. Yeah, and if folks want to
know more about cutting the cord, if you're a little
inspired and you realized, oh yeah, I do have a
two dollar bill coming in the mail every single month
that I probably should ditch if I can, well, check
(09:19):
out episode one oh seven. That's where we kind of
went in depth on a chord cutting and how you
can kind of piece together a streaming package. I don't
know how dated it is, Matt though at this time,
because you know, those streaming packages are changing all the time,
but I think it's probably still pretty relevant. Yeah, totally, man,
Hulu Plus is still around, YouTube Live all those guys,
But yeah, be sure to check that one out. We
also wanted to talk about home improvement Joel. Uh, spending
(09:39):
is up when it comes to the money that we
spend on our homes. Um. Actually, it's one of the
only segments of consumer spending that has actually increased since
the pandemic has begun. And that makes sense. The more
we are starting to notice imperfections, we start to think
about these different projects we want to do. Plus, we've
all got a little more time on our hands as well,
so so many of us might be taking up gardening,
like hey and I. Others are looking to do some
(10:00):
basic landscaping around their house. There's that saying right where
someone says that if you show me, you know your
calendar and your bank statement, I'll show you where your
heart is. But this is almost like the reversal of that.
Our hearts are stuck at home, and so that's just
where we're spending all of our time, my default, and
we're spending our money there as well more of our money. Yeah,
that's true, Matt. I've been into a Lows and a
home depot out of necessity, uh once each since the
(10:22):
pandemic began. They were crazy crowded both times. It was
just interesting to see that. You know, people were for
the most part wearing masks, but it was it was
just a little crazy at how many people are packed
into these major retailers, right, it was like grocery store crowded. Um.
And so yeah, it's especially early on during the lockdown, right,
like everybody's like, I've got nothing else to do, I'm
(10:43):
gonna work out in the yard. Yeah, yeah, for sure,
I need a new rake. So yeah, if you're a
home improvement shopping make sure to stay safe and well,
it's not a bad idea to take on some extra
projects around the house. Just make sure you actually have
the cash on hand to be able to do so.
I know it can be exciting to take on some
home improvement projects and when you're bored out of your mind,
that might be like the only thing you feel like
you can do. Um, but just yeah, make sure you're
(11:04):
not taking on more than you can chew when it
comes to the actual repair and then also when it
comes to your budget. A man some wise words there.
You know, Kate and I we've always been home bodies,
but you know, mostly by choice. In our expenses tend
to reflect that. After a good bit of consideration, we
decided to renovate our home a couple of years ago
for that very reason. We're going to be spending a
lot of our time at home, especially the next eighteen
(11:25):
years while we're raising kids. So our thought was, let's
make sure the space is gonna work for us. Of course,
we were able to kind of roll some house hacking
into it by finishing out the basement apartment slash recording studio,
but it is interesting to see more folks joining us
and though okay, now we kind of made the choice
proactively to be home buddies, even if this pandemic is
essentially forcing them to become home buddies. It's not what
(11:46):
everybody wants to be doing, but it's sort of the
reality these days. Yeah, And I will say, there's something
just amazing about the feeling that you get from being
able to accomplish something around your house. And I love it.
I'm addicted to that feeling. You can look at it
every day for you know, the rest of your life
or or however long you're in that home. You get
to enjoy the fruits of your labors. And so, yeah,
putting in a new toilet or or whatever it is.
(12:07):
You know that and and some of those things too.
Ma Out we've talked about some of these home repair
items that you might do could actually save you money
over time, specifically like installing a low flow toilet. Oftentimes
there's a rebate through the water company. So uh, speaking
of saving on your home improvement projects, by the way, coupons,
getting coupons before you go to the big box home
improvement retailers is is really smart because you can save
(12:27):
some big money on some of those projects. On an
appliance that you're upgrading or some lumber that you're holling home.
So if you've never looked for coupons on eBay, it
might be worth the time and the money. If you're
planning to make a really large purchase at one of
those stores like Lows or Home Depot, there are tons
of merchants offering ten percent off or twenty dollars off
your next hundred dollar purchase. But it's important to note
look for a seller who has at least positive feedback rating, because, yeah,
(12:50):
doing business with a seller that has a lot of
solid ratings is really important on eBay. But but yeah,
getting that coupon, getting a couple of coupons, maybe if
you're planning on doing a couple of major purchases, spending
a few dollars on a coupon on eBay can save
you fifty on the backside, Yeah, easily. A lot of
times they do come in little bundles of like three coupons,
So make sure that you pay attention to the expiration
(13:12):
dates as well, because sometimes exploration dates will be within
like a week, let's say, like it's really good to
get them right before you go to the store and
use them. Yeah, for sure. All right, Matt, Well, we
got more to get to, including the potential for more
stimulus money coming our way. Let's get to that. And
it's also some really important information about where people should
be going in order to find jobs. It might not
be just the traditional websites you're thinking about, So we'll
(13:34):
talk about that right after the break. All right, Joe,
we are back from the break, and you know, before
we talk about where to find a new job, right,
let's talk about stimulus bills. There have been a lot
of different stimulus measures that have taken place man over
(13:56):
the past couple of months. Right, like Congress, the government
has done stuff, the Fed, they've taken measures to ensure
that our economy stays the float. Obviously, when what we've
experienced ourselves directly stimulus checks, that was really nice. But
there seems to kind of always be something in the
headlines about a potential new stimulus bill, and so I
think that might have a lot of folks wondering, are like,
am I going to receive more money? Am I gonna
(14:17):
get another check? And even just this week, the House
has proposed another stimulus bill, right, another three trillion dollar bill.
And so we wanted to let you know that obviously
we're aware of these proposed bills and packages, but the
fact is it's not law yet, but we are going
to be closely watching it. Yeah, it's vaporware at this
point in time. And there have been a few proposed
(14:38):
stimulus bills at this point. So if you're just flipping
through the headlines, and there are a lot of kind
of got your headlines that are like, are you gonna
get two thousand dollars a month for the next year, um,
And that was actually a stimulus bill that was proposed
by a really small group of Democrats in the House,
I believe a few weeks ago or a month ago.
And and then now the recent one this week on
Tuesday that that the House Democrats. It's also proposed the
(15:01):
three trillion dollar one matt And if you're just reading
the headlines, it sure looks like there's more money coming
your way in the mailbox. But if you dig a
little deeper, these bills often take a lot of time
to hash out. There's a really good chance of these bills,
um don't make it to the Senate or don't have
any sort of bipartisan support. So I just wanted to
let people know that. You know, while there might potentially
be more stimulus money coming at some point in the future,
(15:22):
at least for right now, I don't see um it
on the near term horizon. Maybe in a month or
two if things continue to be dire and we continue
to be locked down. Hopefully that's not the case, right,
Hopefully we're starting to see coronavirus being being dealt an
even bigger blow and and less people getting infected, fewer deaths,
and then and then the need for for a new
stimulus package becomes even less necessary. So um, yeah, we'll
(15:44):
keep you informed though if there's any real movement um
on one of these stimulus packages, because yeah, I know
a lot of people are hurting still, and and that
money it sounds good, It sounds tantalizing when you read
the headline, but um, the reality of it is still
far from secure, right yeah. And also, we're gonna pay
attention to these bills when they specifically affect us as
individuals as well. A lot of these stimulus bills and
(16:07):
measures taken, they're addressing small businesses and specific industries as well.
And while that's interesting, right, we dabble in the overall
economy but we're specifically interested in how that affects us
as individuals, as investors and savers and spenders, and so
we're going to make sure that we pay attention to
the news from that standpoint, and that's what we're going
to continue to bring you. We're gonna distill down that
(16:28):
information and we're gonna let you know how that's specifically
going to affect you. So for now, don't be worried
and overwhelmed by all these headlines at this point, these
are just proposals, and we'll keep you posted. Yeah, all right, Matts.
Something that really does affect people right now is is
there a lot of people out of work and and
there are a lot of people hoping to go back
and work for the employer that they were just most
recently with. You know, fortunately for so many people, they're
(16:50):
they're getting the unemployment money, although in some states it's
not coming quickly enough, sadly, But it's important to note
right that it doesn't necessarily make sense to only look
at the major job posting websites. You've got a much
better shot at being rehired, at getting a new job
if you go to the right place LinkedIn and Monster
and indeed, those all do a good job at connecting
(17:10):
a large segment of our country with job opportunities that
are out there. But we're talking about rehiring on a
massive scale that we've never seen before. We're talking about
unemployment rate, So it's a legitimate question as to whether
or not these a few major websites can handle the
massive load of applicants that are going to be coming.
The amount of people trying to get back in the
workforce all at one point in time is just this
(17:31):
is something that we've never seen before. So I think,
you know, we've got some strategies to help people actually
find the jobs that fit their sector right instead of
just going to the big websites that they've heard of, yeah,
LinkedIn Monster. Indeed, like those larger job finding sites like
those are considered horizontal job platforms because they span lots
of different industries. And the answer is though, that they
(17:52):
probably won't be able to handle that load right. According
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the typical turnover rate
business has had over the past few years was a
round three to four percent. There isn't likely going to
be much success with those current job sites when that
rate spikes or right when this is ten times what
we're used to seeing. Yeah, so basically I wouldn't say
forsake those job websites altogether, but you need to look
(18:14):
at other job sites, vertical job sites in particular. It's
important to note that there are sector specific hiring sites
that you really need to check if you've been laid off,
so you'll likely be connected to more job opportunities that
are specifically in your field, and hiring is going to
happen at a faster pace on those websites too, right,
because they because the employer who's doing the hiring is
(18:34):
automatically gonna know basically that you're in that field. So
it's it's sort of like Matt when when we used
to go to Craigslist for everything, right, and people used
to even go there looking for relationships, so they're looking
for love the personals, and that's just not how it
works anymore. Right, there's bumble and tender, and now there's
offer up and Facebook marketplace for for looking for used
(18:54):
goods around you, there's Zillo and redfin. When you're looking
for for housing, I used to always go to Craigslist
one looking for a rental house that's just not the
case anymore. You find these specialized sites, and it's the
same thing kind of with job hunting. Everything has become
more specialized, including where you go to find a potential
new job. Yeah, so let's talk about some of these
different examples. Let's kind of dive into some of these
sites who are focusing on specific industries or at least
(19:16):
different types of people, right, different types of workers. One
that's awesome is shift. That's a great site for military
vets to check out. For folks in the hospitality industry,
checkout quick and that's q W I c K as
well as paired. Those are both sites that you should
look into. Hire dot com is a great site specifically
for software engineers to find work. And then the mom
Project is an amazing site for working moms to find
(19:39):
employers who are thoughtful about work life integration and really
all hiring sites should probably focus on that a little
bit more, in particular with us working from home and
with more dad's being the state at home figure as well. Yeah, completely,
and one more Heroes Jobs is a really cool app
for retail jobs. You know, I think with the amount
of rapid hiring that is probably gonna be taking place
(20:00):
of the coming months. Job applications are are probably gonna
look a lot more like this, Yeah, like they do
on heroes. Like heroes, jobs is basically you you create
like a super quick video, um, and there's just a
couple of questions and so the hiring just happens so
much faster. And because you're applying for one specific kind
of job within a certain sector, the it's it's really streamlined.
(20:20):
So I think, yeah, then they focus on what is important,
like what's important with the retail job kind of how
you're able to talk to somebody, right, like the face
to face and so it makes total sense that they
want to see a video of you talking to the
camera talking to somebody, because that's what matters in retail jobs.
Engineer not so much, right, Software engineer just gonna hire
dot com and fill out the form, No video necessary,
you don't have to talk and in order to secure
(20:41):
that job. Probably, But yeah, I think it's important to
note that those vertical platforms, those vertical hiring platforms are
gonna be way more important than they even typically are.
And if you're searching for a job, going to those sites,
in particular sites that are within your industry that are
specialized hiring people with your skills and your experience, you're
gonna have a much better or time I think finding employment.
(21:02):
Let's talk about also, Matt where the jobs are right
on average, healthcare and tech jobs are doing a little
bit better than other industries. All industries that are posting
fewer jobs than they were last year. Of course, right
beauty and wellness, hair salons, spas, childcare, dental, and veterinarian
positions have all seemed pretty sharp declines. That's obviously because
those positions require a lot of face to face contact.
What we don't know, of course, is how quickly those
(21:23):
industries will be able to resume business in a way
that resembles how things looked pre COVID. It'll be interesting
to see. But hopefully the stuff we just laid out
and we'll put links to all those sites in the
show notes, hopefully that can help you as you're looking
to to find new work in a crowded field of candidates.
If you can stand out from the crowd by applying
for jobs on a particular site that specializes in your field,
(21:45):
I think you're gonna find more opportunities, and I think
you're gonna get quicker responses. Nice, all right man, Well,
that's gonna be it for this episode. We'll we'll be
sure to link to those different websites in our show
notes for this episode, and it's all our listeners out
there as well. Don't forget to send in those botched
hair cut pictures because we want to see you're amazing
scissor skills or your lack thereof if you're getting really shaggy. Yeah, exactly,
just send those pistols via email at how to Money
(22:07):
Pod at gmail dot com. Alright, man, that's gonna do
it for this episode. Until next time. Best Friends Out,
Best Friends Out,
Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I and Matt,
and today we're discussing where to look for a new
job and more stimulus money. That's right, buddy, We've got
(00:25):
a lot of good news to cover today as well
as a few key points, a few key articles that
we want to discuss as well. But first thing, I
notice your hair is getting kind of long. You normally
are really on top of the haircuts, right, like, I
hardly ever see your hair touch your ears, and I
am noticing that these days. You normally get the great
Clips bundle where you get like tin haircuts for a
(00:46):
hundred bucks or something where you only pay like ten
dollars a haircut, right, I've done that before. I also
often usually I go to the Supercuts training program, which
is free haircuts, so that's something I like to do
as well. But you know, both have been closed down
for I'm sure some of these are back open and running,
but I just haven't had the will to go in
and get a hair cut yet. It still feels a
little early. Yeah, yeah, so it's still a little scriggly,
(01:07):
and you usually cut your own hair. But man, even that,
you've been a little lazy and let let's be honest.
I'm trying to show some solidarity, all right, Lots of
folks aren't cutting their hair, so I think, hey, even
though I cut my own hair, maybe i'll just kind
of show some support for my best buddy. It means
a lot, I can. I'll tell you that. Well, I'm
glad to hear. But but yeah, a lot of folks
aren't used to cutting their hair. And I'm sure there
are some folks out there who probably haven't done the
(01:28):
best job when it comes to trying to cut their
own hair, maybe getting their kids hair. Yeah, I've seen
neighbors on the porch totally cutting their own kids hair,
cutting their spouses hair. I mean, just it's funny to
like it's in public, right, people people cutting each other's hair.
So it used to be done though, like odd on
the back patio, you know, like out on the concrete
right next to the yard. It's like we've stepped back
in time. It's the sixties again. You snap on the
(01:48):
leaf blower, that hair's gone. It's perfect the way to
do it. Or even better, reverse that and get the
like leaf sucker attachment. You know, if you have a blower,
it's like the world's largest flow be there you go,
that'll snap your scalp right off. Though, well, I'd be
so interested to know which of our listeners have tried
doing a self haircut, who's never never done done so
before it maybe doesn't look so great, or or they've
just gotten so long and scribedly that that it looks
(02:09):
pretty bad. Also, um, and so yeah, if you have
a terrible haircut, pick you want to send to us?
Just uh yeah, shoot that picture over to how the
money pot at gmail dot com. And man, I think
we should should post the worst quarantine haircut on our
Instagram page. What do you think that sounds like fun? Man,
let's do it. Yeah, send over the most botched haircut
and we'll make sure everyone gets to see it. Yeah,
we'll post it sometime next week once we receive a
(02:30):
few awful submissions, and should be fun to see other
people's terrible hair news at this this time too. Sounds
good man, all right, but first the good news. Let's
get to it, man, some of the best news. Because obviously,
you know, we talked last week about bike's being out
of stock all over the place, bike repair people just
being quite quite busy. We had a listener who works
in a bike repair shops say, yeah, it's true, we're
(02:51):
really busy, and it's really cool to see. Actually, a
lot of cities around the world, but also around the
United States, have been shutting down certain streets in order
to a how citizens to bike and walk and run
on those streets while staying safe. Right, and this allows
people to continue to exercise while social distancing, because let's
be honest, it's really hard to do so on the sidewalks.
I've noticed that in my neighborhood, one of the streets
(03:12):
are still alive and well, right where we live, where
cars are still allowed to roam free. People are trying
to get their exercise on, especially in this beautiful weather,
on the sidewalks, and it's making it really really hard
to stay six ft away from me. Basically, only one
party can walk along the sidewalk before you know, somebody
else coming along and gets kicked out in the street. Basically, yeah,
of course, due to social distancing. But even on top
of that, so many more folks have been outside running, walking,
(03:35):
riding their bikes. It's really cool to see that some
of these different cities and communities are taking proactive steps
in order to make it safer. Specifically, Seattle has announced
that they are permanently shutting down twenty miles of streets
in order to allow for safer pedestrian use, which is
freaking amazing twenty miles of streets where cars aren't allowed
to go. Love it. Yeah, I love that it started
(03:56):
up as a test and now they're implementing it for forever. Yeah,
that's the best way to do it. Oakland they've instituted
something similar, but they haven't announced if that change will
be permanent. But I really do think that that's such
an easy way to kind of test it out. You know,
we've seen that even here in Atlanta when it comes
to bike lanes. One of the ways to test if
a certain street or certain area will do well with
bike lanes and reduced lane sizes is to set up
(04:18):
temporary bike lanes where you partition the street a little
bit with cones, and that can inform the city planners
as to whether or not that's going to work and
what kind of impact that that will have on traffic. Um.
You know, and just the other week we talked about
small reduction in cities in this pandemic might be the
perfect time to prioritize alternative methods of transportation flag bikes. Yeah,
if you're getting used to the clean blue skies in
(04:38):
your city, well, it won't be long until they're back
to being smog infested hell holes unless we actually keep
some of these, uh, some of these changes around, right,
and so I love that Seattle is making some of
these things permanent. I would love to see more bike lanes,
more prioritization of alternative transportation. Matt. Let's got into the
next piece of good news. Everybody's favorite chef, Guy Fietti. Right, everybody?
(04:59):
I mean, is there anybody that has a favorite chef
that's not Guy Fieri, because I'd like to talk to them.
Oh my gosh, he is an interesting dude. Take the
back seat, Gordon Ramsey, it's Guy Fieri. St Okay, okay.
So I've got a quick question for you. So, in
the spirit of our show How the Money, we normally
have a craft beer on every episode except Friday episodes
because we tend to make these shorter. But a guy
who was a type of beer, what kind of beer
(05:21):
would he be? So I'm thinking he would be an
I p a that was left on the shelf a
little too long it's so good maybe, or maybe like
a logger that that was kind of like left out
in the sun on the beach a little bit too long.
It's kind of gone stale, it's kind of gone sour
a little bit. Yep. Maybe, but I'm thinking like a
Belgian wit with like because he's got his bleached hair whatever,
(05:43):
Like Belgian wit with like some crazy adjunct throwing down
like pickles, like licorice, or it's something funky bacon. Actually,
he'd be like a beer that shouldn't have bacon added
to it, but they'd be baking it right. Well, so
so Guy Fietti. Actually, you know, we're making fun of
him a little bit, but everybody loves the show Diners, Drive,
Ins and Dives. It. I think it plays on the
Food Network probably seven at least a couple of days
(06:04):
of the year. So there's gonna be like a Memorial
Day Diner Diner, Strive, Ins and Dives a thon. But
you know, one cool thing, Guy Fietti has raised more
than twenty million dollars for restaurant workers in need. He's
partnered with the National Restaurant Association and they're sending out
grants of five to two workers that that do have
needs right now, which is really cool. And forty grants
have been given out already, So big props to Guy Fieri. Yeah,
(06:27):
that is really cool. Yeah, we'll make fun of him,
but that's seriously good stuff, seriously good stuff. And at
the same time, Matt, there's a local nonprofit where we
live called the Giving Kitchen, and it's doing something really similar.
It's been doing this actually for a long time, for
for a lot of years, and I think there's I
believe yeah, And and they've been stepping up in a
in an even bigger way during this time because obviously
with how impacted the restaurant industry has been, um, I
(06:50):
think they've just ramped into hyper drive in order to
be able to help out as many restaurant workers as
they can. Yeah, they've even kitching us all that they
have given over two thirty thousand dollars two restaurant workers
in need since the COVID nineteen pandemic started affecting Georgia.
That's huge, super cool, uh, Joel. Some other good news
is that chord cutting, you know, we love chord cutting,
(07:10):
It has hit a record high and interestingly enough, though
this is coming from businesses like bars and restaurants, hotels,
these sports bar style businesses, they pay a lot of
money every month to the pay TV companies. And so
this is just a reminder that if you are still
paying big bucks to a traditional TV company for traditional cable,
(07:30):
question ask yourself is are you getting what you're paying for?
Or you know, maybe you can cut the cord and
save big money altogether. You know, the answer to both
of these questions is, yes, you can't cut the chord.
Is it really something we need these days? No? Are
you even receiving what you're paying for? No? No, Because
there's no live sports right That's that's one of the
biggest reasons that people still stick with their with their
(07:52):
regular pay TV package. And and really even that has
been an excuse that gets thrown out the window because
their services like Sling and YouTube TV and and I
think Hulu does live sports too. But yeah, there's all
these ways to be able to access live sports at
a fraction of the price. And so, yeah, just in
case you haven't noticed, there aren't any live sports right
now unless you're willing to watch Korean baseball. Um, is
(08:14):
that a knock on me? I'm just saying if if
that's stream baseball sounds like the worst thing ether you
if you got to get your sports fixed. Though maybe
maybe it'll do. But yeah, no, no sports right now.
Potential good news for soccer fans and MLS, though the
season might continue down in Florida with teams playing in Orlando.
We're not sure about that. There's all sorts of negotiations.
I know Baseball is looking to potentially play all their
(08:35):
games in Arizona, So it'll be interesting to see kind
of whether we get any sort of sporting events this
year at all. Yeah, it's good to see that there's
sort of a light on the horizon that there might
be some sort of sports competition that we'll get be
able to partake in this year with the Olympics not
happening this year. I mean, I know, I personally, I
really enjoy watching the Olympics and seeing that competition and
seeing folks really push themselves and kind of get you excited.
(08:57):
I tend to work out more when when I'm watching
the Olympics and paint your face red. But but but yeah,
obviously that's missing, and it's exciting to see that there's
a chance that some of that, you know, might be
happening later this year. Yeah, and if folks want to
know more about cutting the cord, if you're a little
inspired and you realized, oh yeah, I do have a
two dollar bill coming in the mail every single month
that I probably should ditch if I can, well, check
(09:19):
out episode one oh seven. That's where we kind of
went in depth on a chord cutting and how you
can kind of piece together a streaming package. I don't
know how dated it is, Matt though at this time,
because you know, those streaming packages are changing all the time,
but I think it's probably still pretty relevant. Yeah, totally, man,
Hulu Plus is still around, YouTube Live all those guys,
But yeah, be sure to check that one out. We
also wanted to talk about home improvement Joel. Uh, spending
(09:39):
is up when it comes to the money that we
spend on our homes. Um. Actually, it's one of the
only segments of consumer spending that has actually increased since
the pandemic has begun. And that makes sense. The more
we are starting to notice imperfections, we start to think
about these different projects we want to do. Plus, we've
all got a little more time on our hands as well,
so so many of us might be taking up gardening,
like hey and I. Others are looking to do some
(10:00):
basic landscaping around their house. There's that saying right where
someone says that if you show me, you know your
calendar and your bank statement, I'll show you where your
heart is. But this is almost like the reversal of that.
Our hearts are stuck at home, and so that's just
where we're spending all of our time, my default, and
we're spending our money there as well more of our money. Yeah,
that's true, Matt. I've been into a Lows and a
home depot out of necessity, uh once each since the
(10:22):
pandemic began. They were crazy crowded both times. It was
just interesting to see that. You know, people were for
the most part wearing masks, but it was it was
just a little crazy at how many people are packed
into these major retailers, right, it was like grocery store crowded. Um.
And so yeah, it's especially early on during the lockdown, right,
like everybody's like, I've got nothing else to do, I'm
(10:43):
gonna work out in the yard. Yeah, yeah, for sure,
I need a new rake. So yeah, if you're a
home improvement shopping make sure to stay safe and well,
it's not a bad idea to take on some extra
projects around the house. Just make sure you actually have
the cash on hand to be able to do so.
I know it can be exciting to take on some
home improvement projects and when you're bored out of your mind,
that might be like the only thing you feel like
you can do. Um, but just yeah, make sure you're
(11:04):
not taking on more than you can chew when it
comes to the actual repair and then also when it
comes to your budget. A man some wise words there.
You know, Kate and I we've always been home bodies,
but you know, mostly by choice. In our expenses tend
to reflect that. After a good bit of consideration, we
decided to renovate our home a couple of years ago
for that very reason. We're going to be spending a
lot of our time at home, especially the next eighteen
(11:25):
years while we're raising kids. So our thought was, let's
make sure the space is gonna work for us. Of course,
we were able to kind of roll some house hacking
into it by finishing out the basement apartment slash recording studio,
but it is interesting to see more folks joining us
and though okay, now we kind of made the choice
proactively to be home buddies, even if this pandemic is
essentially forcing them to become home buddies. It's not what
(11:46):
everybody wants to be doing, but it's sort of the
reality these days. Yeah, And I will say, there's something
just amazing about the feeling that you get from being
able to accomplish something around your house. And I love it.
I'm addicted to that feeling. You can look at it
every day for you know, the rest of your life
or or however long you're in that home. You get
to enjoy the fruits of your labors. And so, yeah,
putting in a new toilet or or whatever it is.
(12:07):
You know that and and some of those things too.
Ma Out we've talked about some of these home repair
items that you might do could actually save you money
over time, specifically like installing a low flow toilet. Oftentimes
there's a rebate through the water company. So uh, speaking
of saving on your home improvement projects, by the way, coupons,
getting coupons before you go to the big box home
improvement retailers is is really smart because you can save
(12:27):
some big money on some of those projects. On an
appliance that you're upgrading or some lumber that you're holling home.
So if you've never looked for coupons on eBay, it
might be worth the time and the money. If you're
planning to make a really large purchase at one of
those stores like Lows or Home Depot, there are tons
of merchants offering ten percent off or twenty dollars off
your next hundred dollar purchase. But it's important to note
look for a seller who has at least positive feedback rating, because, yeah,
(12:50):
doing business with a seller that has a lot of
solid ratings is really important on eBay. But but yeah,
getting that coupon, getting a couple of coupons, maybe if
you're planning on doing a couple of major purchases, spending
a few dollars on a coupon on eBay can save
you fifty on the backside, Yeah, easily. A lot of
times they do come in little bundles of like three coupons,
So make sure that you pay attention to the expiration
(13:12):
dates as well, because sometimes exploration dates will be within
like a week, let's say, like it's really good to
get them right before you go to the store and
use them. Yeah, for sure. All right, Matt, Well, we
got more to get to, including the potential for more
stimulus money coming our way. Let's get to that. And
it's also some really important information about where people should
be going in order to find jobs. It might not
be just the traditional websites you're thinking about, So we'll
(13:34):
talk about that right after the break. All right, Joe,
we are back from the break, and you know, before
we talk about where to find a new job, right,
let's talk about stimulus bills. There have been a lot
of different stimulus measures that have taken place man over
(13:56):
the past couple of months. Right, like Congress, the government
has done stuff, the Fed, they've taken measures to ensure
that our economy stays the float. Obviously, when what we've
experienced ourselves directly stimulus checks, that was really nice. But
there seems to kind of always be something in the
headlines about a potential new stimulus bill, and so I
think that might have a lot of folks wondering, are like,
am I going to receive more money? Am I gonna
(14:17):
get another check? And even just this week, the House
has proposed another stimulus bill, right, another three trillion dollar bill.
And so we wanted to let you know that obviously
we're aware of these proposed bills and packages, but the
fact is it's not law yet, but we are going
to be closely watching it. Yeah, it's vaporware at this
point in time. And there have been a few proposed
(14:38):
stimulus bills at this point. So if you're just flipping
through the headlines, and there are a lot of kind
of got your headlines that are like, are you gonna
get two thousand dollars a month for the next year, um,
And that was actually a stimulus bill that was proposed
by a really small group of Democrats in the House,
I believe a few weeks ago or a month ago.
And and then now the recent one this week on
Tuesday that that the House Democrats. It's also proposed the
(15:01):
three trillion dollar one matt And if you're just reading
the headlines, it sure looks like there's more money coming
your way in the mailbox. But if you dig a
little deeper, these bills often take a lot of time
to hash out. There's a really good chance of these bills,
um don't make it to the Senate or don't have
any sort of bipartisan support. So I just wanted to
let people know that. You know, while there might potentially
be more stimulus money coming at some point in the future,
(15:22):
at least for right now, I don't see um it
on the near term horizon. Maybe in a month or
two if things continue to be dire and we continue
to be locked down. Hopefully that's not the case, right,
Hopefully we're starting to see coronavirus being being dealt an
even bigger blow and and less people getting infected, fewer deaths,
and then and then the need for for a new
stimulus package becomes even less necessary. So um, yeah, we'll
(15:44):
keep you informed though if there's any real movement um
on one of these stimulus packages, because yeah, I know
a lot of people are hurting still, and and that
money it sounds good, It sounds tantalizing when you read
the headline, but um, the reality of it is still
far from secure, right yeah. And also, we're gonna pay
attention to these bills when they specifically affect us as
individuals as well. A lot of these stimulus bills and
(16:07):
measures taken, they're addressing small businesses and specific industries as well.
And while that's interesting, right, we dabble in the overall
economy but we're specifically interested in how that affects us
as individuals, as investors and savers and spenders, and so
we're going to make sure that we pay attention to
the news from that standpoint, and that's what we're going
to continue to bring you. We're gonna distill down that
(16:28):
information and we're gonna let you know how that's specifically
going to affect you. So for now, don't be worried
and overwhelmed by all these headlines at this point, these
are just proposals, and we'll keep you posted. Yeah, all right, Matts.
Something that really does affect people right now is is
there a lot of people out of work and and
there are a lot of people hoping to go back
and work for the employer that they were just most
recently with. You know, fortunately for so many people, they're
(16:50):
they're getting the unemployment money, although in some states it's
not coming quickly enough, sadly, But it's important to note
right that it doesn't necessarily make sense to only look
at the major job posting websites. You've got a much
better shot at being rehired, at getting a new job
if you go to the right place LinkedIn and Monster
and indeed, those all do a good job at connecting
(17:10):
a large segment of our country with job opportunities that
are out there. But we're talking about rehiring on a
massive scale that we've never seen before. We're talking about
unemployment rate, So it's a legitimate question as to whether
or not these a few major websites can handle the
massive load of applicants that are going to be coming.
The amount of people trying to get back in the
workforce all at one point in time is just this
(17:31):
is something that we've never seen before. So I think,
you know, we've got some strategies to help people actually
find the jobs that fit their sector right instead of
just going to the big websites that they've heard of, yeah,
LinkedIn Monster. Indeed, like those larger job finding sites like
those are considered horizontal job platforms because they span lots
of different industries. And the answer is though, that they
(17:52):
probably won't be able to handle that load right. According
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the typical turnover rate
business has had over the past few years was a
round three to four percent. There isn't likely going to
be much success with those current job sites when that
rate spikes or right when this is ten times what
we're used to seeing. Yeah, so basically I wouldn't say
forsake those job websites altogether, but you need to look
(18:14):
at other job sites, vertical job sites in particular. It's
important to note that there are sector specific hiring sites
that you really need to check if you've been laid off,
so you'll likely be connected to more job opportunities that
are specifically in your field, and hiring is going to
happen at a faster pace on those websites too, right,
because they because the employer who's doing the hiring is
(18:34):
automatically gonna know basically that you're in that field. So
it's it's sort of like Matt when when we used
to go to Craigslist for everything, right, and people used
to even go there looking for relationships, so they're looking
for love the personals, and that's just not how it
works anymore. Right, there's bumble and tender, and now there's
offer up and Facebook marketplace for for looking for used
(18:54):
goods around you, there's Zillo and redfin. When you're looking
for for housing, I used to always go to Craigslist
one looking for a rental house that's just not the
case anymore. You find these specialized sites, and it's the
same thing kind of with job hunting. Everything has become
more specialized, including where you go to find a potential
new job. Yeah, so let's talk about some of these
different examples. Let's kind of dive into some of these
sites who are focusing on specific industries or at least
(19:16):
different types of people, right, different types of workers. One
that's awesome is shift. That's a great site for military
vets to check out. For folks in the hospitality industry,
checkout quick and that's q W I c K as
well as paired. Those are both sites that you should
look into. Hire dot com is a great site specifically
for software engineers to find work. And then the mom
Project is an amazing site for working moms to find
(19:39):
employers who are thoughtful about work life integration and really
all hiring sites should probably focus on that a little
bit more, in particular with us working from home and
with more dad's being the state at home figure as well. Yeah, completely,
and one more Heroes Jobs is a really cool app
for retail jobs. You know, I think with the amount
of rapid hiring that is probably gonna be taking place
(20:00):
of the coming months. Job applications are are probably gonna
look a lot more like this, Yeah, like they do
on heroes. Like heroes, jobs is basically you you create
like a super quick video, um, and there's just a
couple of questions and so the hiring just happens so
much faster. And because you're applying for one specific kind
of job within a certain sector, the it's it's really streamlined.
(20:20):
So I think, yeah, then they focus on what is important,
like what's important with the retail job kind of how
you're able to talk to somebody, right, like the face
to face and so it makes total sense that they
want to see a video of you talking to the
camera talking to somebody, because that's what matters in retail jobs.
Engineer not so much, right, Software engineer just gonna hire
dot com and fill out the form, No video necessary,
you don't have to talk and in order to secure
(20:41):
that job. Probably, But yeah, I think it's important to
note that those vertical platforms, those vertical hiring platforms are
gonna be way more important than they even typically are.
And if you're searching for a job, going to those sites,
in particular sites that are within your industry that are
specialized hiring people with your skills and your experience, you're
gonna have a much better or time I think finding employment.
(21:02):
Let's talk about also, Matt where the jobs are right
on average, healthcare and tech jobs are doing a little
bit better than other industries. All industries that are posting
fewer jobs than they were last year. Of course, right
beauty and wellness, hair salons, spas, childcare, dental, and veterinarian
positions have all seemed pretty sharp declines. That's obviously because
those positions require a lot of face to face contact.
What we don't know, of course, is how quickly those
(21:23):
industries will be able to resume business in a way
that resembles how things looked pre COVID. It'll be interesting
to see. But hopefully the stuff we just laid out
and we'll put links to all those sites in the
show notes, hopefully that can help you as you're looking
to to find new work in a crowded field of candidates.
If you can stand out from the crowd by applying
for jobs on a particular site that specializes in your field,
(21:45):
I think you're gonna find more opportunities, and I think
you're gonna get quicker responses. Nice, all right man, Well,
that's gonna be it for this episode. We'll we'll be
sure to link to those different websites in our show
notes for this episode, and it's all our listeners out
there as well. Don't forget to send in those botched
hair cut pictures because we want to see you're amazing
scissor skills or your lack thereof if you're getting really shaggy. Yeah, exactly,
just send those pistols via email at how to Money
(22:07):
Pod at gmail dot com. Alright, man, that's gonna do
it for this episode. Until next time. Best Friends Out,
Best Friends Out,
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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