August 17, 2025 • 32 mins
Hertz is using AI to assess damage to its cars. And customers aren't happy about it. HTM tells you how to protect yourself!
Ask HTM: Quay wants to know how to handle an inheritance wisely.
Hybrid work is no longer the norm. And more folks are finding themselves working at all hours of the day and night. That's not good!
Ask HTM: Carm wants to know why his credit union is offering him free life insurance. What's the catch!?
Ask HTM: Quay wants to know how to handle an inheritance wisely.
Hybrid work is no longer the norm. And more folks are finding themselves working at all hours of the day and night. That's not good!
Ask HTM: Carm wants to know why his credit union is offering him free life insurance. What's the catch!?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
K IF I AM six forty. You're listening to How
to Money on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
All Joel and Matt want to do is help you save,
invest and enjoy more of what matters. This is how
to Money with Joel Larsgard and Matt altmics.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
This is how to Money. I'm Joel Larsgard and I
am Matt ALTMX. If you are over on Facebook and
you want to join a group of like minded folks
who have money questions and insight, please go ahead and
join the how to Money Facebook group. Now at is time,
of course, for the ludicrous headline of the week, We're
gonna spend a minute here talking about artificial intelligence, the
(01:12):
old AI. It's kind of new, but it's yeah, I
don't know, I don't know. I feel like at this
point it does feel like there's too much talk about it.
But this is where the rubber hits the road right here,
Matt with this storyecifically, I like this story a whole lot. Actually,
I mean that in a very literal sense. It does.
This one's from Sherwood headline reads Hurts says it's AI
(01:33):
powered damage scanners are supposed to enhance your customer experience
and part Okay, So I was just saying that I
am glad that I actually like, I'm a big fan
of the store. Sherewan is out there doing some real,
some real journalism. Yeah, they are, because it's just like
Robin Hood's news brand, which initially when they rolled it out.
So this is a little bit of media talk, right.
So there's some shows we listen to and they the
(01:55):
whole time they just talk about media and some of
the different outlets and what's wrong with the world of
media specifically. So this is gonna be our tiny little
segment perhaps to drill down on as we as we
talk about that. But I was skeptical of Sherwood initially.
First of all, it's kind of a too catchy of
a name coming from Robinhood as a trading platform. It's like,
of course you're gonna name your your news outlet media
(02:19):
outlet here think Sherwood. But the author of this piece
was listening in to the Earnings Call of Hurts and
that's how he discovered the fact that they were implementing
some of this AI say again quote quote unquote enhance
the customer experience, and it turns out that it's actually
harming the customer. Well, that's like the.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Nitty gritty stuff that you have to do as a
reporter to get the good story, right, Yeah, listen to
the earnings calls, and I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Because because the thing is that these companies are not
broadcasting necessarily, some of them are and they're learning really quickly.
Oh well, yeah, when we are using this against you,
customers don't like that. But if they are quietly mentioning
it on a on an earnings call, they're thinking, all right,
this isn't Noman is going to hear about this except
for the investors, and it's going to positively impact our
share price, which it did in this case. But the
(03:05):
customer out there, the renters of vehicles, they're not going
to hear about it. No, we heard about it.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Well they are, they're hearing about it. And so so
customers are basically saying that they've received post rental bills
for damage that they didn't inflict on the car they rented.
So they're like, what to the AI scanners, Yeah, I
didn't get in an accident, I didn't bump into anything
like Matt did in Scotland like that wasn't me so good?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Thing? That was pre AI scanner.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Well Sherwood says that one customer was charged one hundred
ninety five dollars for a dent that looked like it
crashed into an ant.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, it's a.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Really funny, great description, And I get that Hurtz wants
to save on labor costs by having AI scanned cars
for damage versus using humans, But they and other car
rental companies they run the risk of alienating their customers
by fabricating these charges. And have you seen what they
look like, Matt. It looks kind of like what humans
(03:56):
walk through at the airport as they go through security.
Those scanners TSA scanners kind of like that for a car,
and it's like taking these, you know, three sixty videos
and photos. And it has obviously with think about how
good cameras are now, how much detail they can get into,
and they can find those seemingly insignificant scratches that you
probably didn't even put on the car. It was there already,
and then they can say, yeah, previous customer, this is
(04:19):
on you.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
But if it was there already, wouldn't it have been
caught by the previous.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Renter, you would think so maybe, but they're also so
minor that a human never would have done anything about it.
And yeah, typically you wouldn't be charged for a minor,
minor scratch. So I think one like the guy at Scotland.
I was just like, oh, you know, gotta He's like, oh,
don't worry about it. Yeah, I'm not going to even try. Well,
And one of the one of the things people can
do to protect themselves is to just is to take
(04:45):
a three sixty video as you're walking around the car
zero your own skin.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
I always take a ton of photos.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And that way, if you get called out you get
some sort of bill in the mail, you can be
like no, no, no, that was here before or what are
you talking about, Like do it before and after and
then say it's not on my video or I don't
see anything here.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, that way you can at least have a fighting chance. Yeah,
I get it. I'm of two minds because on from
the renter's perspective, you don't want to get hit with
a bill for a small little ding. But like from
well even from a renter's like imagine you're the next rent,
right and like, as this happens over the course of
multiple rentals multiple renters, you end up getting a car
that's all dinged up, Like that's not what you're paying
for when you rent a brain new vehicle. So from
(05:24):
a renter's point of view, it's it keeps the standards high.
But then also for hurts, they're you know, they unload
these vehicles after a couple of years and when they
go to auction these things off. If if you got
a car that's all dinged up with nothing to show
for it, well you're going to get a whole lot
less for it. But I will say one of the
other examples was like a drop out of water was
on the car and that was initially excited by one
(05:45):
of the customers. It was flagged to a customer as
a dent and they're like, no, man, that's some rain.
That was like, that's water, and they apologize, really, oh sorry,
Actually I don't even even know if they apologize. But
he didn't have to pay anything because of that. So
you just got to be careful if it's not ready
for prime time yet. That's another reason to maybe slow
the role when it comes to implementing some of this.
But It's just fascinating because how it is that a
(06:07):
company rolls something like this out has such an impact
on how a company's perceived, which then therefore has an
impact on the share price of that company if it's
publicly traded, or even if you want to work for it.
There's new research from Charter that links the financial health
and the stock market returns of a company to how
it is perceived by the workforce. So, for instance, when
(06:28):
folks want to work for a particular employer, it has
many benefits enhancing that specific brand, right, they're attracting there
and retaining talent. It's limiting turnover, which leads to even
more positive results for that company. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
That like, the actual hiring process and training of new
employees costs so much money that if there's a high turnover,
it's an expense exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And this then of course improves customer service and gender's
loyalty from customers. It's an upward spiral. Basically. It just
makes me think about all the different pr professionals who
are out there. If you are, if you know somebody
that has the work the title at work of like
chief storyteller, Like all the prfects are just like fist
pumping and just like so happy because they're like, yeah,
see what we do matters. Because truly, something like hers,
(07:13):
if they were to have rolled that out in a
very public way, they would have gotten lambasted. I mean
they they're getting called out on it already as it is,
But I've got to think that something like this is
a much easier thing to get past as opposed to
rolling this out as a new feature where they just
get ridiculed and made a fun of by the market. Well,
what you were just.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Talking about too, with kind of where people want to
work and how that enhances a brand, it makes me
think that, like, if I was out there looking for
a job in the workforce, instead of just looking for
positions that were reflected what I was interested in, I
would be looking towards employers who have a great reputation
amongst their employees, and I would be looking for positions
(07:54):
at those companies that I was interested in absolutely, because like,
I want to work for a company that treats people well,
that offers great benefit. It's where I could stay for
a long time instead of just getting the position in
the salary I was interested in, because that I don't
know it might not be there as long, it might
not be as good of an experience.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Totally agree. Yeah, that's why these narratives, though, are so important,
because it's almost like a self fulfilling prophecy. Yeah right.
If you say that you believe in something, it attracts
people who then believe in that. A couple of brands
come to mind, but I'm not going to focus on
them at this point in time.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
All right, Hey, we got more money saving information to
get to.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
You're listening to how to Money with Joel Larsgard on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Don't forget to sign up for the how to Money newsletter.
You can find that up at how tomoney dot com
slash newsletter.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Let's hear from a listener now who has recently found
himself with some additional cash on hand. What should he
do with those dollars?
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Hey, Joel and Matt, it's Quay again, still all the
way from Shanja and China. While we're working on things
with immigration from my wife. We were hit with a
devastating surprise passed away this past October grief aside. My
stepfather just paid me my mom's minority share of the
equity from their retirement property they moved into less than
(09:10):
a year ago. That equity amounts to just north of
one hundred thousand dollars. This brings up two questions for
my wife and me. The first is how to approach
this influx of money. With the money we pushed ourselves
in the money year five, we have no debts besides
my student loans that are still on the borrow defense
program and a mortgage that has been turned into a
(09:33):
somewhat profitable investment property. We have a long term goal
of four to seven years from now. We'll want to
get a house and plant roots in America, but we
could make that push to get our IRA and brokerage
accounts to one hundred thousand dollars or more. We know
that getting around that area tilts the compounding heavily in
(09:54):
our favor. So what should we do with the extra
money and where should we put it? Last quick question
is a lot shorter. What are the tax applications for
twenty twenty five after receiving this money? Are there any
Thanks y'all for any thoughts and suggestions During these ups
and downs.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Over the last couple of.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Years, man Quay has been listening for a long time,
and pretty sure Quay.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Is a holder of how the money socks.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Where I hope you wears, hope you six them on
his feet, because if you just like hold them up,
it don't really very much. Yeah, but Kuai, thanks for
thanks for listening for so long. So sorry to hear
about your mom's passing. And as anybody knows, everybody knows
who's lost somebody, like money doesn't make up for it.
But it is also true that a six figure lump
sum it can make a big difference in your ability
(10:43):
to hit your financial goal. So I think you can
even think about how you use this money as a
way to honor your mom's legacy.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So yeah, we'll offer a few ways to potentially use
that inheritance wisely to.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Grow your wealth.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
And I don't know, Matt, but before we talk about
like investing it, maybe you have like a you don't
want to be prudent with like every dollar that you
get from an inheritance.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
What do you think, yes, he should you think? So, yeah, yeah,
Quay is he's been doing the right thing for a
long time and he's just going to continue to do
the right thing for Yeah, no, I do think, like truly,
because of the fact that we kind of know Quay
and he's been making smart moves with his money, it's
okay to occasionally like just let off the gas a
little bit, right, and so to take a little bit
of that money and just spend a little bit a
(11:28):
bit more frivolously maybe on something that you otherwise wouldn't
spend money on.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Quay, It's kind of like all work and no play
makes Jack a dooy, I think, especially when it's a
sum of money that you weren't expecting and all you
do is bear down and do the quote unquote right
thing with it, I think he can take some bluster.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Out of it. It just depends on the person, though, Like
there's a lot of folks who are just like, Nope,
that money is just like all the rest of my money,
and it's going to enter into the machine and the
machine is going I mean that's more of my approach, yeah,
where like I'm not going to necessarily change my life.
But I do understand how for some folks, especially I
don't know, it's something that's tied more to an individual
(12:06):
like that, that that could be a way for them
to set apart some funds away for them to remember
that you know that individual that loved one in a
way that brings back good memories.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Sure, I had a friend, it's a trip or even
like an I mouth just thinking like what if koy
about knee bike and every time he rode that bike,
you thought about his mom. It's kind of like when
I go on vacation and I get an article of clothing,
whether it's like a hat or a shirt. I love
that versus something that is like an inanimate object in
my house because like every time I put it on,
I smile. Loves my face because I think about that trip,
And maybe it's the same thing.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Really happens when the shirt wears out there and you
throw it away? Do you forget it? Do you forget
about this question? And I probably forget about the trip.
Then you're like, oh, what a vacation? Yeah, yeah, well
I guess in a similar way, I was gonna mention
a friend of mine when his grandma died. He used
some he was like really into watches, or I think
he was maybe wanting to get into watches, and so
he used some of that money to buy himself a
(12:58):
nice time piece that he wears to this day and
every time, Yeah, he looks at that, he just remembers
the legacy that she was able to set up, and
in their case, it had a lot to do with
real estate as well. So I don't know, I felt
like that was a was the first time I had
heard one of my peers doing something similar to that
as well. But I think that's worth considering, especially given
that Quay has been making a lot of the right
(13:20):
money moves over a pretty long period of time.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, don't go crazy, but a small splurge with a
portion of this money could be smart And quite sounds
like your home purchase is far enough away that other
priorities make more sense than to be like funneling money
into a savings account for a down payment. And I
like the goal of getting your tax advantaged accounts ROTH IRA,
hopefully you said Ira. I'm not sure if it's a
ROTH and your tax baile brokerage account into six figures
(13:46):
that I'm just reminded. I think maybe I mentioned this
quote recently, but Charlie Munger talks about you should do
everything humanly possible to get to that first hundred K,
whether it's like walking and using coupons. It doesn't matter
to whatever it takes to get there, because that is
it is an important, important threshold across so that then, yes,
your money started it just it just feels like your
(14:06):
money is working for you in a more significant way
once you get to that level of wealth. And the
WROTH I think in particular, is a killer account because
if your personal finance situation continues to make progress, you
might never need to tap it in order to buy
that house five plus years from now. You might be like, oh, yeah,
we were maxing out the WROTH, but we also were
savement on the side, and so we did both things
at once. But you're also going to have the ability
(14:29):
to use some of those WROTH contribution dollars to help
fund a payment a down payment if you have to.
And so the flexibility of the WROTH is one of
the key attributes that make it excellent. So our goal
will be to max that out I think before contributing
really anything to your taxable broke's account and then putting
that in second place. So I would just kind of
make a plan to max it out each and every year,
(14:50):
so hold on to enough cash to fully fund it.
And you know, twenty twenty six and then twenty twenty
seven as well, just so that you're not missing out
on any dollar that you can stick into your roth.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah, we're unfortunate circumstances to arise. You can still max
out that account. I wanted to speak. You mentioned kind
of the Charlie Munger quote and the sixth figure retirement
portfolio amount. I don't think there's any magic to hitting
one hundred k. I do some mental magic, I think
it is. Yeah, I think I do think there's some
like some numbers behind it as well, right, But I
(15:22):
just the fact that you get to six figures though,
that's just a lot of fun. Going from five figures
that you've been at for quite a while to six figures.
It just psychologically it feels like a money win. But
I think one of the things that happens once you
get around and again it's not hitting that six figure mark,
but once you start getting a portfolio that's around one
hundred thousand dollars, is that the returns on your investment
(15:45):
start to equal roughly about what it is that you
can contribute yourself, right, And so it's sort of like
this this point, and it's again it's not like a
hard line that you're crossing. But you know, once you
start getting up there, close to seventy eight ninety thousand,
it feels like somebody else is contributing to your retirement
account in addition to you, where it feels like the
(16:06):
winds at your back a little bit. And obviously the
more it builds beyond that, it's it's even better.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Those like sub thirty or forty thousand dollars accounts, you
still feel like you're doing all the heavy liftings.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
So you're right, that's like you're spitting into the wind.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, and then once you get towards like the seven
figure mark, that's where it starts to feel like the
portfolio is doing more work than you are in your day.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Jus getting yeah and yeah, not just when it comes
to your contributions, but how much you could potentially even
earn at your full time job. I love it.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
You're listening to How To Money with Joel Larsgard on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
If you're on Facebook, by the way, you want to
join a group of like minded folks who have money questions,
who have money insights, please go join the how to
Money Facebook group.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Joe let's talk about hybrid work, because I think this
is an instance where we're gonna have to eat some crow.
Remember we had an episode called I think it was
called hybrid work.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Is here to say that we're wrong sometimes.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Oh yeah, and we're gonna call ourselves out on it.
I'm okay, following on the sword here. Hybrid work is
no longer than norm and worker leverage is on the decline.
More than half of the top Fortune one hundred companies
are requiring employees to be back at the office full time.
So I guess it's maybe Fortune fifty companies. We got
(17:22):
it from the Fortune five undreds to the one hundred
to the fifty. But for folks who who got used
to like a zero commute basically if they got used
to having more flexible time, or maybe even some of
those folks even moved right, They're like, oh, location doesn't
even matter.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
I'm moving out to the country because I don't have
that commute. And then the employer comes to knocking and says,
yes you do.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
They're like, oh, maybe I'll move to Boise like Matt
was thinking, which is very short lift, which I'm so glad.
Oh my gosh, I'm so glad that was very short lived.
Of course, it's nice to get paid, but is it
worth going back to these this sort of old prepayan
pre COVID normalcy. There are certainly pros and cons to it.
I think there are more pro for younger workers who
are looking to show that they've got the initiative, they
(18:04):
got what it takes. They're trying to learn from their
peers that FaceTime. Yeah, but if your employer is pushing
for some serious back to office, you know, policies that
you aren't okay with, I would recommend to just politely
push back. See if this is something that you can discuss.
Is this the conversation worth having? Hey, maybe this is
maybe we can have some sort of roundtable this go.
(18:25):
I don't know, like, what's it called out there in
the corporate world, folks, I'm lacking when it comes to
the most latest experience of what it's like to be
in the corporate world.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
That or you.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Despite the cooling labor market, it might even be worth
looking elsewhere if this is not something this if it
has been very clearly communicated that this isn't a conversation
we're having anymore.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Because I still think those flexible policies are gonna matter
to workers and for the best workers out there for sure,
And I think that a lot of companies. Yeah, you
can try to go all draconian, but you will eventually
have some brain drain and those people are gonna want
to go to companies that have a little more exability.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
I was talking to a friend who just.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Got a new job at one of those big tech companies,
and he was like, yeah, I have to go in.
I think I forget if he said four or five
days a week, but all I have to do is
like be there for a little bit. So I think
going in ten to two or ten to three, and
I'm avoiding traffic on both ends. But I'm in the
office and so it's I'm giving them what they want,
(19:22):
but I'm kind of getting what I want at the
same time. And I do think the companies are gonna
have to be better. Yeah, if you I.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Think on both ends. Yeah, right, Like like for the employee,
it's just like all right, cool, you're getting in there,
You're having some of those face to face meetings. Yeah,
being a little bit more collaborative, which is I think
still easier without having to go do it over Zoom
or teams or whatever.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, and maybe you're doing something that in the morning,
a little bit of that when you get home, but
you're not at the office all day totally. Let's talk
about me some of the downsides of work from home.
There's this new work Trend Index report and they said
that one of the biggest downsides and this is something
I think we've seen spiral out of control, Matt. They're
calling it the infinite work day and basic it was
a Microsoft report that found that workers are starting they're
(20:03):
looking at an email at six am, likely right after
they wake up. And then those workers are battling messages
on a ton of different fronts like Slack and Microsoft teams,
and then text messages and phone calls, so they feel
like they're getting inundated with requests or with coworker chatter
from every direction. Then also they're working into the evening
(20:24):
with a whole lot of folks, a high percentage of
people digging back into their inbox between eight and ten pm. Oh,
and then guess what, the weekends aren't free of work.
Either you're maybe expected to respond or you're at least
checking stuff trying to stay up on it, even though
you're not supposed to be working. And then there's this
just the reality of work these days, where there's constant interruptions.
(20:46):
On average, every two minutes, you're being interrupted by a
ping from somewhere, And it makes me think of Cal Newport.
One of his first books was called Deep Work, and man,
how do you actually get deep work done? When it
feels like you can't? You're constantly playing whack a mole, right,
whether it's with messages or emails, or you're just kind
of you never have that time to actually deeply focus
(21:06):
on a task.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah, what was the number? I think it was like
twenty three minutes. Once you are once you are distracted
from something, it takes you twenty three minutes to kind
of regain your focus to be able to hit that
deep work again. Yeah, which we love saying when we're
talking about distractions. But I'm also I don't know. I
don't know if I totally believe that twenty three minutes
that's like a long time lot. Sometimes your mind wanders
for a while, But I don't know, like I get it.
(21:28):
I could be I get distracted easily, but I guess
even if it's half of that, like, let's just say,
even if it's ten minutes, that's a lot of time
when you are getting distracted as often as oftentimes we are.
And I think it's probably a good idea to have
some like non office hours during the day where if
you are working on a big project or you know
some people like you mentioned pr people just a second ago, Matt, Well,
a lot of those people like their job is to
(21:49):
constantly be in their inbox. So that's that's just a
different type of profession, right, But then there are other
professions where you're like, no, I have to work on
this project and I cannot be like emailing and slacking
while I'm trying to get that thing done, and you
carving out an hour in the afternoon and thirty minutes
in the morning or whatever, but carving out these specific
times where you're not responsive and kind of letting people
know that, whether it's an away from the desk message
(22:11):
or something like that on slack, letting your boss know, hey,
I'm gonna be unreachable, but it's gonna make sure I'm
able to meet the deadline. That's really important to kind
of set I think those expectations and allow that time
for yourself to do what you need to do so
that you can actually be productive and not just be
responding to whatever someone else tells you as urgent in
the moment. Yeah, you said away from desk. Obviously, away
(22:32):
from office makes it seem like you're not even on location.
Away from desk, it's just like, well, he's around, but
what's he even doing. Maybe he's over there playing ping pong.
I wo like to even call it like an away
from email or away from Slack sort of message, because
it's like, no, I'm sitting here, I'm working. I'm just
trying to do the important stuff. I just muted this
right now exactly like I'm sitting here. We're a part
of this, but let's have some dedicated time to the
project at hand that we're trying to be able to
(22:53):
deliver in two weeks. Yeah, that sort of thing. Or
maybe you can just leave all the notifications on Joel,
but just put earplugs and that's what I do here
in the office. Yeah, you've done that. How do you
feel when I put my your plugs in? Because sometimes
I get even distracted by my co workers are typing,
And when I say coworkers, everyone knows I'm talking about you.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
There's not many of them. That doesn't bother me. I think,
even something super simple, if I need something, I'll let
you know. Yeah you can well wave, but I can
kind of hear you.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
But it's enough to kind of blunt the sharp stimulus
of messages. Other sounds like folks who honestly folks who
go in and work in like a coffee shop. I
don't know how they do that, and maybe I'm just
overly sensitive, but I like the vibe. I like the
scene of going and working somewhere where there's a lot
of people. But man, the distractions. I'd never get anything done.
I would not. Well, I know why you wouldn't, because
(23:38):
you're talking to everybody. Yeah, I'm ignoring people, but then
I'm thinking about the fact that I've ignored them. But
if I if I.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Really have to dig in and get something done, I'm
usually taking like clicking out of the email you shouldt down.
If I see the number popping up, I'm tempted to
go over there and get in, and I get distracted.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Pretty quickly, and then command Q on the on the mail.
When do I actually get back to the task. Here
you go?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
You know, all right, we've got more to get to
On today's show.
Speaker 5 (24:05):
You're listening to How To Money with Joel Larsgard on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Don't forget to sign up for the how to Money newsletter.
You can find that up at how tomoney dot com
slash newsletter.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
It is now time for the Facebook Question of the Week,
which is from carm You think that's short for Carmen?
Makes you think of the bear Carmel? Carme? Oh? Is
that how he spelts it? I don't know what was
his full name. I don't remember. He's Carmen. I think
they called him Carmen. I think so. Okay, season three
and that's a great was it? I haven't watched season four.
I've heard good things. Oh when did it come out?
(24:39):
A couple months ago? Okay? I totally fell off? Okay,
carm said, I got an offer for two thousand dollars
in life insurance for free from my credit union. What's
the catch, Joel? Should carm be eliminating their membership with
the credit union? Should they they should be fleeing? What
do you think?
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Maybe you know, roll Malotov cocktail through their window. That's
what I would do. Be like, what are you guys
trying to do in violence. No, don't look at gift
horse in the mouth.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Calm domestic terrorism is advocating for total joke. Please don't
do that. Don't do that. No a joke.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Don't look at gift force in the mouth. But this,
I think is a fully fledged free offer. It sounds
like a sweet park and it could be. But but yes,
of course the Credit Union also has self interested reasons.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
For sending this out to you. One.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
They want they want you to continue to be a
member because if you value this perk that they're offering
that doesn't cost them very much at all, you might
stick around as a customer.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Yeah, you're not going to go running for the hills. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
In fact, you think, uh, well that's the place I'm
going to turn when I need not a loan or
a home loan. Because they're such sweethearts, you know you're
gonna be endeared to the Credit Union, which makes sense.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
And you know the number one buying your love. Yeah, yeah,
to a certain extent. That's how business works, is that
what sales are just a way to sweeten the sweeten
the pot a little bit. Sometimes trying to buy your allegiance.
I was gonna say, the number one thing that credit
unions need to do is just like to update their websites. Yeah, dude,
like the interfaces, the what do you call it, like
when you log in the platforms and dashboards interface, the
(26:09):
user interface with every single credit union that I've dealt with,
the local ones, yeah, that's true. The national ones are
much better. They are better. Yeah, I'm thinking about the
local ones, which tend to offer the best rates when
it comes to different loan products. They're terrible. Yeah, Like
it's the most backwards thing to go in there and
to like link an account or to try to find
any information. But we still love credit unions because they
(26:31):
offer the best rates barely most of the time on
most loan products. So I was saying, I said barely too.
We still love them, Yeah, yeah, we still love they
most definitely offer the best, the best rates. Yeah, we
still love them barely. They're like hanging on by a wire. Okay,
Well back.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
To krm's question though, I think the main reason that
they're sending this out is that they're hoping that KARM
buys more life insurance. Right, it's kind of this like, uh,
this teaser, it's like, well, we're going to give you
this for free, but really you're going to be left
one more.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
It's kind of like a laced potato chip or something
like that. You can't eat just one.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
And they're like, bet, you can't survive on just two
thousand dollars for the life insurance. And now that you
know that you need some life insurance and you got
a little bit, they're going to assume that you're going
to be knocking down their door to get more. Right,
that's true, two thousand bucks in life insurance, it's not
going to go very far. But now that they've wet
your appetite, maybe you're gonna want that five hundred thousand
dollars or maybe even a million dollar policy. And then
(27:25):
you know they they just scored a little repindue. Heck yeah,
So it's just a marketing ploy for them. That being said,
you probably don't want to call that number and to
get a policy in the heat of the moment. I
think it would be better for you to shop around,
and Policy Genius is great for that.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
We are seriously big fans of what it is that
they're doing. Costco. They actually offer dis kind of life
insurance policies for their customers as well. I think those
are probably going to be the two best recommendations we have.
But check out our site for more details on how
to figure out what term that you should be opting for.
How much coverage it is that you need because it's
more than two thousand dollars. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And by
(28:02):
the way, term life is most definitely what it is
that you want to go with. We'll take questions from
time to time about whole life some of the different
types of life insurance out there. It gets funky, and
it's also going to cost you way too much money,
and it kind of co mingles that investing slash life
insurance benefit those those premiums can be ten to fifteen
times higher and stay away. You got better things to
do with that money.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Some folks might say, well, I have this, say, free
policy from my employer, so maybe I don't need additional coverage.
That's also not true, because those policies typically cover like
one times your wages, maybe a little more if you
have a generous employer. But these two, even just those
two policies together, you might be like, great, Miked, I
get paid seventy five thousand dollars a year, got this
extra two grand seventy seven thousand dollars worth coverage. Look
(28:44):
at me, that's awesome, And that is thirty.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Times thirty five times better than what it is that
carm gotta obvious.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, that'd be great if you had that much, but
you also probably need more. You need a policy of
your own right, and you can buy more through your employer,
but it's a lot more expensive. Typically it's only a
good idea unless you if you have like extreme pre
existing conditions.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Yeah, and again it's it is kind of like a
marketing ploy a little bit. It's just like, oh, they
tease you with a little, free, free, little sampler. It's
just like costco. They give you the taste, and it's
just like, oh, before you know it, dropping way too
much money on Aussie bites which are so delicious but's
so expensive. Let's get to this email from Riley. He wrote,
at the beginning of this year, I was notified by
(29:24):
my credit card account that my credit took a hit,
so I pulled it up. Turned out that for some reason,
my auto pay was on a That turns out my
autopay on a student loan account, which had been fined
for years, got messed up and wasn't paying. This notification
hit me in February, and the account stopped paying in January.
So that was two installments of what is technically three loans,
even though they are through the same creditor. That was
(29:47):
a pretty hard hit to my credit and I thought
there was nothing I could do, But I just came
across the good will adjustments where you can basically ask
for forgiveness. Anyway, I'm looking into it, but wasn't sure
if you had already gone over that. With that something
you could do. Sometimes Joel's talk about goodwill and not
that cunting. Not that good will.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Yeah, go get your T shirts there, they're much cheaper
and not goodwill hunting. Don't buy your underwear though, that's weird.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Don't do that.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
So Riley's not alone in getting dinged on his credit
score right now due to his student loans. That is
happening across the country to literally millions of people, and
it's only going to get worse in the fall. A
lot of folks being impacted negatively by the restart of payments,
not having yeah, maybe not having a connected account anymore,
or not having the money to pay for their payment
(30:32):
because they weren't assuming it was going to come back.
There's just a lot of and we'll continue to cover
it on Friday flights and stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
What's happening in the student loan space. It's not pretty.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
And yes, for Riley in particular, maybe for others as well.
If you have a significant impact to your credit score
because of an inability to pay a student loan payment
or some kerfuffle like Riley experienced, a good will letter
I think can be a smart way to proceed. You're
not telling the servicer that they screwed up and they
need to fix it. You're not pointing the finger and
being like you've done me wrong. You're telling them that
(31:01):
you made a mistake, and then you're asking for grace.
And I think that can be a smart tactic. Like
you know, I would do it probably after I made
a couple of on time payments. They're more likely to
grant you this goodwill adjustment and say, all right, we'll
remove that mark from your credit report if you're back
on track and you're paying on time. But you have
a pretty good track record over the prior years, So
(31:24):
I would think I would think that they would be
at least willing to entertain the idea.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
I get it. That's right, and I'll say too, you
don't have to start from scratch. Student loan lawyer stan
Lee Tate. He's actually got some great resources that will
link to. He's got a good template over on a
site that we will link to in our show notes.
That way, you can take that make it your own,
offer a great explanation Riley as to what went on
what happened there. I guess you could like ask chatchipt
(31:48):
to write you something, But the fact that Stanley's already
got something up on his site, I feel like that's helpful.
Stanley does a great job covering the student loan space
and kind of what's happening and the changes, and we
try to get him on the show once, didn't we
we did? I think he said no. Oh.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
I think he was like, I'm too busy for laying
podcasts like yours. And we're like, oh, okay, that's that's
a bummer, because we really.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Like what you do. Stanley. If you hear about this,
we would still love to have you on. Yeah, for sure, anytime.
I can't remember why it was that it didn't work out,
but we'll go barking up that tree again, sir, all right, well,
we hope that helps Riley.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Thank you as always for listening to the show. We
appreciate your time and attention. You can always find more
money saving information up on our website at howtomoney dot com.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
We'll see you back here next week.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
You've been listening to How to Money with Joel Larsgard.
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty twelve pm to two pm on Sunday, and anytime
on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
K IF I AM six forty. You're listening to How
to Money on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
All Joel and Matt want to do is help you save,
invest and enjoy more of what matters. This is how
to Money with Joel Larsgard and Matt altmics.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
This is how to Money. I'm Joel Larsgard and I
am Matt ALTMX. If you are over on Facebook and
you want to join a group of like minded folks
who have money questions and insight, please go ahead and
join the how to Money Facebook group. Now at is time,
of course, for the ludicrous headline of the week, We're
gonna spend a minute here talking about artificial intelligence, the
(01:12):
old AI. It's kind of new, but it's yeah, I
don't know, I don't know. I feel like at this
point it does feel like there's too much talk about it.
But this is where the rubber hits the road right here,
Matt with this storyecifically, I like this story a whole lot. Actually,
I mean that in a very literal sense. It does.
This one's from Sherwood headline reads Hurts says it's AI
(01:33):
powered damage scanners are supposed to enhance your customer experience
and part Okay, So I was just saying that I
am glad that I actually like, I'm a big fan
of the store. Sherewan is out there doing some real,
some real journalism. Yeah, they are, because it's just like
Robin Hood's news brand, which initially when they rolled it out.
So this is a little bit of media talk, right.
So there's some shows we listen to and they the
(01:55):
whole time they just talk about media and some of
the different outlets and what's wrong with the world of
media specifically. So this is gonna be our tiny little
segment perhaps to drill down on as we as we
talk about that. But I was skeptical of Sherwood initially.
First of all, it's kind of a too catchy of
a name coming from Robinhood as a trading platform. It's like,
of course you're gonna name your your news outlet media
(02:19):
outlet here think Sherwood. But the author of this piece
was listening in to the Earnings Call of Hurts and
that's how he discovered the fact that they were implementing
some of this AI say again quote quote unquote enhance
the customer experience, and it turns out that it's actually
harming the customer. Well, that's like the.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Nitty gritty stuff that you have to do as a
reporter to get the good story, right, Yeah, listen to
the earnings calls, and I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Because because the thing is that these companies are not
broadcasting necessarily, some of them are and they're learning really quickly.
Oh well, yeah, when we are using this against you,
customers don't like that. But if they are quietly mentioning
it on a on an earnings call, they're thinking, all right,
this isn't Noman is going to hear about this except
for the investors, and it's going to positively impact our
share price, which it did in this case. But the
(03:05):
customer out there, the renters of vehicles, they're not going
to hear about it. No, we heard about it.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Well they are, they're hearing about it. And so so
customers are basically saying that they've received post rental bills
for damage that they didn't inflict on the car they rented.
So they're like, what to the AI scanners, Yeah, I
didn't get in an accident, I didn't bump into anything
like Matt did in Scotland like that wasn't me so good?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Thing? That was pre AI scanner.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Well Sherwood says that one customer was charged one hundred
ninety five dollars for a dent that looked like it
crashed into an ant.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, it's a.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Really funny, great description, And I get that Hurtz wants
to save on labor costs by having AI scanned cars
for damage versus using humans, But they and other car
rental companies they run the risk of alienating their customers
by fabricating these charges. And have you seen what they
look like, Matt. It looks kind of like what humans
(03:56):
walk through at the airport as they go through security.
Those scanners TSA scanners kind of like that for a car,
and it's like taking these, you know, three sixty videos
and photos. And it has obviously with think about how
good cameras are now, how much detail they can get into,
and they can find those seemingly insignificant scratches that you
probably didn't even put on the car. It was there already,
and then they can say, yeah, previous customer, this is
(04:19):
on you.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
But if it was there already, wouldn't it have been
caught by the previous.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Renter, you would think so maybe, but they're also so
minor that a human never would have done anything about it.
And yeah, typically you wouldn't be charged for a minor,
minor scratch. So I think one like the guy at Scotland.
I was just like, oh, you know, gotta He's like, oh,
don't worry about it. Yeah, I'm not going to even try. Well,
And one of the one of the things people can
do to protect themselves is to just is to take
(04:45):
a three sixty video as you're walking around the car
zero your own skin.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
I always take a ton of photos.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And that way, if you get called out you get
some sort of bill in the mail, you can be
like no, no, no, that was here before or what are
you talking about, Like do it before and after and
then say it's not on my video or I don't
see anything here.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, that way you can at least have a fighting chance. Yeah,
I get it. I'm of two minds because on from
the renter's perspective, you don't want to get hit with
a bill for a small little ding. But like from
well even from a renter's like imagine you're the next rent,
right and like, as this happens over the course of
multiple rentals multiple renters, you end up getting a car
that's all dinged up, Like that's not what you're paying
for when you rent a brain new vehicle. So from
(05:24):
a renter's point of view, it's it keeps the standards high.
But then also for hurts, they're you know, they unload
these vehicles after a couple of years and when they
go to auction these things off. If if you got
a car that's all dinged up with nothing to show
for it, well you're going to get a whole lot
less for it. But I will say one of the
other examples was like a drop out of water was
on the car and that was initially excited by one
(05:45):
of the customers. It was flagged to a customer as
a dent and they're like, no, man, that's some rain.
That was like, that's water, and they apologize, really, oh sorry,
Actually I don't even even know if they apologize. But
he didn't have to pay anything because of that. So
you just got to be careful if it's not ready
for prime time yet. That's another reason to maybe slow
the role when it comes to implementing some of this.
But It's just fascinating because how it is that a
(06:07):
company rolls something like this out has such an impact
on how a company's perceived, which then therefore has an
impact on the share price of that company if it's
publicly traded, or even if you want to work for it.
There's new research from Charter that links the financial health
and the stock market returns of a company to how
it is perceived by the workforce. So, for instance, when
(06:28):
folks want to work for a particular employer, it has
many benefits enhancing that specific brand, right, they're attracting there
and retaining talent. It's limiting turnover, which leads to even
more positive results for that company. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
That like, the actual hiring process and training of new
employees costs so much money that if there's a high turnover,
it's an expense exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And this then of course improves customer service and gender's
loyalty from customers. It's an upward spiral. Basically. It just
makes me think about all the different pr professionals who
are out there. If you are, if you know somebody
that has the work the title at work of like
chief storyteller, Like all the prfects are just like fist
pumping and just like so happy because they're like, yeah,
see what we do matters. Because truly, something like hers,
(07:13):
if they were to have rolled that out in a
very public way, they would have gotten lambasted. I mean
they they're getting called out on it already as it is,
But I've got to think that something like this is
a much easier thing to get past as opposed to
rolling this out as a new feature where they just
get ridiculed and made a fun of by the market. Well,
what you were just.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Talking about too, with kind of where people want to
work and how that enhances a brand, it makes me
think that, like, if I was out there looking for
a job in the workforce, instead of just looking for
positions that were reflected what I was interested in, I
would be looking towards employers who have a great reputation
amongst their employees, and I would be looking for positions
(07:54):
at those companies that I was interested in absolutely, because like,
I want to work for a company that treats people well,
that offers great benefit. It's where I could stay for
a long time instead of just getting the position in
the salary I was interested in, because that I don't
know it might not be there as long, it might
not be as good of an experience.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Totally agree. Yeah, that's why these narratives, though, are so important,
because it's almost like a self fulfilling prophecy. Yeah right.
If you say that you believe in something, it attracts
people who then believe in that. A couple of brands
come to mind, but I'm not going to focus on
them at this point in time.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
All right, Hey, we got more money saving information to
get to.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
You're listening to how to Money with Joel Larsgard on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Don't forget to sign up for the how to Money newsletter.
You can find that up at how tomoney dot com
slash newsletter.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Let's hear from a listener now who has recently found
himself with some additional cash on hand. What should he
do with those dollars?
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Hey, Joel and Matt, it's Quay again, still all the
way from Shanja and China. While we're working on things
with immigration from my wife. We were hit with a
devastating surprise passed away this past October grief aside. My
stepfather just paid me my mom's minority share of the
equity from their retirement property they moved into less than
(09:10):
a year ago. That equity amounts to just north of
one hundred thousand dollars. This brings up two questions for
my wife and me. The first is how to approach
this influx of money. With the money we pushed ourselves
in the money year five, we have no debts besides
my student loans that are still on the borrow defense
program and a mortgage that has been turned into a
(09:33):
somewhat profitable investment property. We have a long term goal
of four to seven years from now. We'll want to
get a house and plant roots in America, but we
could make that push to get our IRA and brokerage
accounts to one hundred thousand dollars or more. We know
that getting around that area tilts the compounding heavily in
(09:54):
our favor. So what should we do with the extra
money and where should we put it? Last quick question
is a lot shorter. What are the tax applications for
twenty twenty five after receiving this money? Are there any
Thanks y'all for any thoughts and suggestions During these ups
and downs.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Over the last couple of.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Years, man Quay has been listening for a long time,
and pretty sure Quay.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Is a holder of how the money socks.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Where I hope you wears, hope you six them on
his feet, because if you just like hold them up,
it don't really very much. Yeah, but Kuai, thanks for
thanks for listening for so long. So sorry to hear
about your mom's passing. And as anybody knows, everybody knows
who's lost somebody, like money doesn't make up for it.
But it is also true that a six figure lump
sum it can make a big difference in your ability
(10:43):
to hit your financial goal. So I think you can
even think about how you use this money as a
way to honor your mom's legacy.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So yeah, we'll offer a few ways to potentially use
that inheritance wisely to.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Grow your wealth.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
And I don't know, Matt, but before we talk about
like investing it, maybe you have like a you don't
want to be prudent with like every dollar that you
get from an inheritance.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
What do you think, yes, he should you think? So, yeah, yeah,
Quay is he's been doing the right thing for a
long time and he's just going to continue to do
the right thing for Yeah, no, I do think, like truly,
because of the fact that we kind of know Quay
and he's been making smart moves with his money, it's
okay to occasionally like just let off the gas a
little bit, right, and so to take a little bit
of that money and just spend a little bit a
(11:28):
bit more frivolously maybe on something that you otherwise wouldn't
spend money on.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Quay, It's kind of like all work and no play
makes Jack a dooy, I think, especially when it's a
sum of money that you weren't expecting and all you
do is bear down and do the quote unquote right
thing with it, I think he can take some bluster.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Out of it. It just depends on the person, though, Like
there's a lot of folks who are just like, Nope,
that money is just like all the rest of my money,
and it's going to enter into the machine and the
machine is going I mean that's more of my approach, yeah,
where like I'm not going to necessarily change my life.
But I do understand how for some folks, especially I
don't know, it's something that's tied more to an individual
(12:06):
like that, that that could be a way for them
to set apart some funds away for them to remember
that you know that individual that loved one in a
way that brings back good memories.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Sure, I had a friend, it's a trip or even
like an I mouth just thinking like what if koy
about knee bike and every time he rode that bike,
you thought about his mom. It's kind of like when
I go on vacation and I get an article of clothing,
whether it's like a hat or a shirt. I love
that versus something that is like an inanimate object in
my house because like every time I put it on,
I smile. Loves my face because I think about that trip,
And maybe it's the same thing.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Really happens when the shirt wears out there and you
throw it away? Do you forget it? Do you forget
about this question? And I probably forget about the trip.
Then you're like, oh, what a vacation? Yeah, yeah, well
I guess in a similar way, I was gonna mention
a friend of mine when his grandma died. He used
some he was like really into watches, or I think
he was maybe wanting to get into watches, and so
he used some of that money to buy himself a
(12:58):
nice time piece that he wears to this day and
every time, Yeah, he looks at that, he just remembers
the legacy that she was able to set up, and
in their case, it had a lot to do with
real estate as well. So I don't know, I felt
like that was a was the first time I had
heard one of my peers doing something similar to that
as well. But I think that's worth considering, especially given
that Quay has been making a lot of the right
(13:20):
money moves over a pretty long period of time.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, don't go crazy, but a small splurge with a
portion of this money could be smart And quite sounds
like your home purchase is far enough away that other
priorities make more sense than to be like funneling money
into a savings account for a down payment. And I
like the goal of getting your tax advantaged accounts ROTH IRA,
hopefully you said Ira. I'm not sure if it's a
ROTH and your tax baile brokerage account into six figures
(13:46):
that I'm just reminded. I think maybe I mentioned this
quote recently, but Charlie Munger talks about you should do
everything humanly possible to get to that first hundred K,
whether it's like walking and using coupons. It doesn't matter
to whatever it takes to get there, because that is
it is an important, important threshold across so that then, yes,
your money started it just it just feels like your
(14:06):
money is working for you in a more significant way
once you get to that level of wealth. And the
WROTH I think in particular, is a killer account because
if your personal finance situation continues to make progress, you
might never need to tap it in order to buy
that house five plus years from now. You might be like, oh, yeah,
we were maxing out the WROTH, but we also were
savement on the side, and so we did both things
at once. But you're also going to have the ability
(14:29):
to use some of those WROTH contribution dollars to help
fund a payment a down payment if you have to.
And so the flexibility of the WROTH is one of
the key attributes that make it excellent. So our goal
will be to max that out I think before contributing
really anything to your taxable broke's account and then putting
that in second place. So I would just kind of
make a plan to max it out each and every year,
(14:50):
so hold on to enough cash to fully fund it.
And you know, twenty twenty six and then twenty twenty
seven as well, just so that you're not missing out
on any dollar that you can stick into your roth.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah, we're unfortunate circumstances to arise. You can still max
out that account. I wanted to speak. You mentioned kind
of the Charlie Munger quote and the sixth figure retirement
portfolio amount. I don't think there's any magic to hitting
one hundred k. I do some mental magic, I think
it is. Yeah, I think I do think there's some
like some numbers behind it as well, right, But I
(15:22):
just the fact that you get to six figures though,
that's just a lot of fun. Going from five figures
that you've been at for quite a while to six figures.
It just psychologically it feels like a money win. But
I think one of the things that happens once you
get around and again it's not hitting that six figure mark,
but once you start getting a portfolio that's around one
hundred thousand dollars, is that the returns on your investment
(15:45):
start to equal roughly about what it is that you
can contribute yourself, right, And so it's sort of like
this this point, and it's again it's not like a
hard line that you're crossing. But you know, once you
start getting up there, close to seventy eight ninety thousand,
it feels like somebody else is contributing to your retirement
account in addition to you, where it feels like the
(16:06):
winds at your back a little bit. And obviously the
more it builds beyond that, it's it's even better.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Those like sub thirty or forty thousand dollars accounts, you
still feel like you're doing all the heavy liftings.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
So you're right, that's like you're spitting into the wind.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, and then once you get towards like the seven
figure mark, that's where it starts to feel like the
portfolio is doing more work than you are in your day.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Jus getting yeah and yeah, not just when it comes
to your contributions, but how much you could potentially even
earn at your full time job. I love it.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
You're listening to How To Money with Joel Larsgard on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
If you're on Facebook, by the way, you want to
join a group of like minded folks who have money questions,
who have money insights, please go join the how to
Money Facebook group.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Joe let's talk about hybrid work, because I think this
is an instance where we're gonna have to eat some crow.
Remember we had an episode called I think it was
called hybrid work.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Is here to say that we're wrong sometimes.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Oh yeah, and we're gonna call ourselves out on it.
I'm okay, following on the sword here. Hybrid work is
no longer than norm and worker leverage is on the decline.
More than half of the top Fortune one hundred companies
are requiring employees to be back at the office full time.
So I guess it's maybe Fortune fifty companies. We got
(17:22):
it from the Fortune five undreds to the one hundred
to the fifty. But for folks who who got used
to like a zero commute basically if they got used
to having more flexible time, or maybe even some of
those folks even moved right, They're like, oh, location doesn't
even matter.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
I'm moving out to the country because I don't have
that commute. And then the employer comes to knocking and says,
yes you do.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
They're like, oh, maybe I'll move to Boise like Matt
was thinking, which is very short lift, which I'm so glad.
Oh my gosh, I'm so glad that was very short lived.
Of course, it's nice to get paid, but is it
worth going back to these this sort of old prepayan
pre COVID normalcy. There are certainly pros and cons to it.
I think there are more pro for younger workers who
are looking to show that they've got the initiative, they
(18:04):
got what it takes. They're trying to learn from their
peers that FaceTime. Yeah, but if your employer is pushing
for some serious back to office, you know, policies that
you aren't okay with, I would recommend to just politely
push back. See if this is something that you can discuss.
Is this the conversation worth having? Hey, maybe this is
maybe we can have some sort of roundtable this go.
(18:25):
I don't know, like, what's it called out there in
the corporate world, folks, I'm lacking when it comes to
the most latest experience of what it's like to be
in the corporate world.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
That or you.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Despite the cooling labor market, it might even be worth
looking elsewhere if this is not something this if it
has been very clearly communicated that this isn't a conversation
we're having anymore.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Because I still think those flexible policies are gonna matter
to workers and for the best workers out there for sure,
And I think that a lot of companies. Yeah, you
can try to go all draconian, but you will eventually
have some brain drain and those people are gonna want
to go to companies that have a little more exability.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
I was talking to a friend who just.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Got a new job at one of those big tech companies,
and he was like, yeah, I have to go in.
I think I forget if he said four or five
days a week, but all I have to do is
like be there for a little bit. So I think
going in ten to two or ten to three, and
I'm avoiding traffic on both ends. But I'm in the
office and so it's I'm giving them what they want,
(19:22):
but I'm kind of getting what I want at the
same time. And I do think the companies are gonna
have to be better. Yeah, if you I.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Think on both ends. Yeah, right, Like like for the employee,
it's just like all right, cool, you're getting in there,
You're having some of those face to face meetings. Yeah,
being a little bit more collaborative, which is I think
still easier without having to go do it over Zoom
or teams or whatever.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, and maybe you're doing something that in the morning,
a little bit of that when you get home, but
you're not at the office all day totally. Let's talk
about me some of the downsides of work from home.
There's this new work Trend Index report and they said
that one of the biggest downsides and this is something
I think we've seen spiral out of control, Matt. They're
calling it the infinite work day and basic it was
a Microsoft report that found that workers are starting they're
(20:03):
looking at an email at six am, likely right after
they wake up. And then those workers are battling messages
on a ton of different fronts like Slack and Microsoft teams,
and then text messages and phone calls, so they feel
like they're getting inundated with requests or with coworker chatter
from every direction. Then also they're working into the evening
(20:24):
with a whole lot of folks, a high percentage of
people digging back into their inbox between eight and ten pm. Oh,
and then guess what, the weekends aren't free of work.
Either you're maybe expected to respond or you're at least
checking stuff trying to stay up on it, even though
you're not supposed to be working. And then there's this
just the reality of work these days, where there's constant interruptions.
(20:46):
On average, every two minutes, you're being interrupted by a
ping from somewhere, And it makes me think of Cal Newport.
One of his first books was called Deep Work, and man,
how do you actually get deep work done? When it
feels like you can't? You're constantly playing whack a mole, right,
whether it's with messages or emails, or you're just kind
of you never have that time to actually deeply focus
(21:06):
on a task.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah, what was the number? I think it was like
twenty three minutes. Once you are once you are distracted
from something, it takes you twenty three minutes to kind
of regain your focus to be able to hit that
deep work again. Yeah, which we love saying when we're
talking about distractions. But I'm also I don't know. I
don't know if I totally believe that twenty three minutes
that's like a long time lot. Sometimes your mind wanders
for a while, But I don't know, like I get it.
(21:28):
I could be I get distracted easily, but I guess
even if it's half of that, like, let's just say,
even if it's ten minutes, that's a lot of time
when you are getting distracted as often as oftentimes we are.
And I think it's probably a good idea to have
some like non office hours during the day where if
you are working on a big project or you know
some people like you mentioned pr people just a second ago, Matt, Well,
a lot of those people like their job is to
(21:49):
constantly be in their inbox. So that's that's just a
different type of profession, right, But then there are other
professions where you're like, no, I have to work on
this project and I cannot be like emailing and slacking
while I'm trying to get that thing done, and you
carving out an hour in the afternoon and thirty minutes
in the morning or whatever, but carving out these specific
times where you're not responsive and kind of letting people
know that, whether it's an away from the desk message
(22:11):
or something like that on slack, letting your boss know, hey,
I'm gonna be unreachable, but it's gonna make sure I'm
able to meet the deadline. That's really important to kind
of set I think those expectations and allow that time
for yourself to do what you need to do so
that you can actually be productive and not just be
responding to whatever someone else tells you as urgent in
the moment. Yeah, you said away from desk. Obviously, away
(22:32):
from office makes it seem like you're not even on location.
Away from desk, it's just like, well, he's around, but
what's he even doing. Maybe he's over there playing ping pong.
I wo like to even call it like an away
from email or away from Slack sort of message, because
it's like, no, I'm sitting here, I'm working. I'm just
trying to do the important stuff. I just muted this
right now exactly like I'm sitting here. We're a part
of this, but let's have some dedicated time to the
project at hand that we're trying to be able to
(22:53):
deliver in two weeks. Yeah, that sort of thing. Or
maybe you can just leave all the notifications on Joel,
but just put earplugs and that's what I do here
in the office. Yeah, you've done that. How do you
feel when I put my your plugs in? Because sometimes
I get even distracted by my co workers are typing,
And when I say coworkers, everyone knows I'm talking about you.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
There's not many of them. That doesn't bother me. I think,
even something super simple, if I need something, I'll let
you know. Yeah you can well wave, but I can
kind of hear you.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
But it's enough to kind of blunt the sharp stimulus
of messages. Other sounds like folks who honestly folks who
go in and work in like a coffee shop. I
don't know how they do that, and maybe I'm just
overly sensitive, but I like the vibe. I like the
scene of going and working somewhere where there's a lot
of people. But man, the distractions. I'd never get anything done.
I would not. Well, I know why you wouldn't, because
(23:38):
you're talking to everybody. Yeah, I'm ignoring people, but then
I'm thinking about the fact that I've ignored them. But
if I if I.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Really have to dig in and get something done, I'm
usually taking like clicking out of the email you shouldt down.
If I see the number popping up, I'm tempted to
go over there and get in, and I get distracted.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Pretty quickly, and then command Q on the on the mail.
When do I actually get back to the task. Here
you go?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
You know, all right, we've got more to get to
On today's show.
Speaker 5 (24:05):
You're listening to How To Money with Joel Larsgard on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Don't forget to sign up for the how to Money newsletter.
You can find that up at how tomoney dot com
slash newsletter.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
It is now time for the Facebook Question of the Week,
which is from carm You think that's short for Carmen?
Makes you think of the bear Carmel? Carme? Oh? Is
that how he spelts it? I don't know what was
his full name. I don't remember. He's Carmen. I think
they called him Carmen. I think so. Okay, season three
and that's a great was it? I haven't watched season four.
I've heard good things. Oh when did it come out?
(24:39):
A couple months ago? Okay? I totally fell off? Okay,
carm said, I got an offer for two thousand dollars
in life insurance for free from my credit union. What's
the catch, Joel? Should carm be eliminating their membership with
the credit union? Should they they should be fleeing? What
do you think?
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Maybe you know, roll Malotov cocktail through their window. That's
what I would do. Be like, what are you guys
trying to do in violence. No, don't look at gift
horse in the mouth.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Calm domestic terrorism is advocating for total joke. Please don't
do that. Don't do that. No a joke.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Don't look at gift force in the mouth. But this,
I think is a fully fledged free offer. It sounds
like a sweet park and it could be. But but yes,
of course the Credit Union also has self interested reasons.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
For sending this out to you. One.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
They want they want you to continue to be a
member because if you value this perk that they're offering
that doesn't cost them very much at all, you might
stick around as a customer.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Yeah, you're not going to go running for the hills. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
In fact, you think, uh, well that's the place I'm
going to turn when I need not a loan or
a home loan. Because they're such sweethearts, you know you're
gonna be endeared to the Credit Union, which makes sense.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
And you know the number one buying your love. Yeah, yeah,
to a certain extent. That's how business works, is that
what sales are just a way to sweeten the sweeten
the pot a little bit. Sometimes trying to buy your allegiance.
I was gonna say, the number one thing that credit
unions need to do is just like to update their websites. Yeah, dude,
like the interfaces, the what do you call it, like
when you log in the platforms and dashboards interface, the
(26:09):
user interface with every single credit union that I've dealt with,
the local ones, yeah, that's true. The national ones are
much better. They are better. Yeah, I'm thinking about the
local ones, which tend to offer the best rates when
it comes to different loan products. They're terrible. Yeah, Like
it's the most backwards thing to go in there and
to like link an account or to try to find
any information. But we still love credit unions because they
(26:31):
offer the best rates barely most of the time on
most loan products. So I was saying, I said barely too.
We still love them, Yeah, yeah, we still love they
most definitely offer the best, the best rates. Yeah, we
still love them barely. They're like hanging on by a wire. Okay,
Well back.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
To krm's question though, I think the main reason that
they're sending this out is that they're hoping that KARM
buys more life insurance. Right, it's kind of this like, uh,
this teaser, it's like, well, we're going to give you
this for free, but really you're going to be left
one more.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
It's kind of like a laced potato chip or something
like that. You can't eat just one.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
And they're like, bet, you can't survive on just two
thousand dollars for the life insurance. And now that you
know that you need some life insurance and you got
a little bit, they're going to assume that you're going
to be knocking down their door to get more. Right,
that's true, two thousand bucks in life insurance, it's not
going to go very far. But now that they've wet
your appetite, maybe you're gonna want that five hundred thousand
dollars or maybe even a million dollar policy. And then
(27:25):
you know they they just scored a little repindue. Heck yeah,
So it's just a marketing ploy for them. That being said,
you probably don't want to call that number and to
get a policy in the heat of the moment. I
think it would be better for you to shop around,
and Policy Genius is great for that.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
We are seriously big fans of what it is that
they're doing. Costco. They actually offer dis kind of life
insurance policies for their customers as well. I think those
are probably going to be the two best recommendations we have.
But check out our site for more details on how
to figure out what term that you should be opting for.
How much coverage it is that you need because it's
more than two thousand dollars. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And by
(28:02):
the way, term life is most definitely what it is
that you want to go with. We'll take questions from
time to time about whole life some of the different
types of life insurance out there. It gets funky, and
it's also going to cost you way too much money,
and it kind of co mingles that investing slash life
insurance benefit those those premiums can be ten to fifteen
times higher and stay away. You got better things to
do with that money.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Some folks might say, well, I have this, say, free
policy from my employer, so maybe I don't need additional coverage.
That's also not true, because those policies typically cover like
one times your wages, maybe a little more if you
have a generous employer. But these two, even just those
two policies together, you might be like, great, Miked, I
get paid seventy five thousand dollars a year, got this
extra two grand seventy seven thousand dollars worth coverage. Look
(28:44):
at me, that's awesome, And that is thirty.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Times thirty five times better than what it is that
carm gotta obvious.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, that'd be great if you had that much, but
you also probably need more. You need a policy of
your own right, and you can buy more through your employer,
but it's a lot more expensive. Typically it's only a
good idea unless you if you have like extreme pre
existing conditions.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Yeah, and again it's it is kind of like a
marketing ploy a little bit. It's just like, oh, they
tease you with a little, free, free, little sampler. It's
just like costco. They give you the taste, and it's
just like, oh, before you know it, dropping way too
much money on Aussie bites which are so delicious but's
so expensive. Let's get to this email from Riley. He wrote,
at the beginning of this year, I was notified by
(29:24):
my credit card account that my credit took a hit,
so I pulled it up. Turned out that for some reason,
my auto pay was on a That turns out my
autopay on a student loan account, which had been fined
for years, got messed up and wasn't paying. This notification
hit me in February, and the account stopped paying in January.
So that was two installments of what is technically three loans,
even though they are through the same creditor. That was
(29:47):
a pretty hard hit to my credit and I thought
there was nothing I could do, But I just came
across the good will adjustments where you can basically ask
for forgiveness. Anyway, I'm looking into it, but wasn't sure
if you had already gone over that. With that something
you could do. Sometimes Joel's talk about goodwill and not
that cunting. Not that good will.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Yeah, go get your T shirts there, they're much cheaper
and not goodwill hunting. Don't buy your underwear though, that's weird.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Don't do that.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
So Riley's not alone in getting dinged on his credit
score right now due to his student loans. That is
happening across the country to literally millions of people, and
it's only going to get worse in the fall. A
lot of folks being impacted negatively by the restart of payments,
not having yeah, maybe not having a connected account anymore,
or not having the money to pay for their payment
(30:32):
because they weren't assuming it was going to come back.
There's just a lot of and we'll continue to cover
it on Friday flights and stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
What's happening in the student loan space. It's not pretty.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
And yes, for Riley in particular, maybe for others as well.
If you have a significant impact to your credit score
because of an inability to pay a student loan payment
or some kerfuffle like Riley experienced, a good will letter
I think can be a smart way to proceed. You're
not telling the servicer that they screwed up and they
need to fix it. You're not pointing the finger and
being like you've done me wrong. You're telling them that
(31:01):
you made a mistake, and then you're asking for grace.
And I think that can be a smart tactic. Like
you know, I would do it probably after I made
a couple of on time payments. They're more likely to
grant you this goodwill adjustment and say, all right, we'll
remove that mark from your credit report if you're back
on track and you're paying on time. But you have
a pretty good track record over the prior years, So
(31:24):
I would think I would think that they would be
at least willing to entertain the idea.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
I get it. That's right, and I'll say too, you
don't have to start from scratch. Student loan lawyer stan
Lee Tate. He's actually got some great resources that will
link to. He's got a good template over on a
site that we will link to in our show notes.
That way, you can take that make it your own,
offer a great explanation Riley as to what went on
what happened there. I guess you could like ask chatchipt
(31:48):
to write you something, But the fact that Stanley's already
got something up on his site, I feel like that's helpful.
Stanley does a great job covering the student loan space
and kind of what's happening and the changes, and we
try to get him on the show once, didn't we
we did? I think he said no. Oh.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
I think he was like, I'm too busy for laying
podcasts like yours. And we're like, oh, okay, that's that's
a bummer, because we really.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Like what you do. Stanley. If you hear about this,
we would still love to have you on. Yeah, for sure, anytime.
I can't remember why it was that it didn't work out,
but we'll go barking up that tree again, sir, all right, well,
we hope that helps Riley.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Thank you as always for listening to the show. We
appreciate your time and attention. You can always find more
money saving information up on our website at howtomoney dot com.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
We'll see you back here next week.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
You've been listening to How to Money with Joel Larsgard.
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty twelve pm to two pm on Sunday, and anytime
on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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