April 27, 2025 • 33 mins
Retiring early can come with regrets. Be careful what you wish for!
Ask HTM: Jonathan wants to know the role that faith plays in our approach to finances.
Is attending a timeshare presentation a good way to get a cheap vacation? Maybe. But be careful!
Ask HTM: Does it ever make sense to sell stock to pay off mortgage principal early?
Ask HTM: Jonathan wants to know the role that faith plays in our approach to finances.
Is attending a timeshare presentation a good way to get a cheap vacation? Maybe. But be careful!
Ask HTM: Does it ever make sense to sell stock to pay off mortgage principal early?
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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 lars Guard and Matt Altmix KF
(00:49):
I Am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
This is how Some Money. I am Matt Alt Mixed.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And I am Joel Larsgard and we're glad to have
you along for the show today. By the way, if
you're looking for the right credit card for your wallet,
well you want to be able to use it responsibly.
But if you do that, if you pay your credit
card on time and in full every single month, well
check out our credit card tool. You can find that
up on the website at howtomoney dot com. And of course,
(01:16):
now it is time for the ludicrous headline of the week.
This one is from the Globe and Mail.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
In the headline reads, they worked hard to retire early,
now they're dealing with regrets. And this article profiles to
the quintessential early fire adherents, specifically up in Canada, who
worked as hard as they possibly could in order to
be done with work forever. And then of course they
just realized it was a giant mistake and that they
(01:42):
wish they wouldn't have done that. They expressed similar regrets
of actually working too hard where they were missing out
on hobbies and relationships along the way, And then, of
course what happens they encounter a serious amount of boredom
after abandoning the work world altogether.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Like where my friends at Dude thought we were gonna
hang out, Oh wait, they're still working.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
It's amazing how much structure and intellectual stimulation work can
provide us. It's just incredibly ironic. How the thing that
allowed anybody who has retired early so working hard, oftentimes
working a lot, or earning a fat paycheck. Now those things,
oftentimes are the things that are keeping you from being
able to develop the other aspects of life that make
(02:21):
life truly I don't want to say worth living, but
that just rounded out and you remove this one element.
So not only, of course are you missing out on
oh man, I'm not getting an income anymore, but also,
oh man, all my friends are still in there makes
me think of severance, which you haven't watched still haven't kay?
And I actually recently finished season two. I'm a fan.
(02:43):
Some folks aren't happy with how it ended. I also
can't wait to see where it goes next. I'm a
huge fan. But I'm mentioning this because we have to
be so incredibly intentional and proactive when it comes to
fostering and cultivating and growing the other aspects of life
that we can oftentimes just completely forget about. Like I'm
talking about physical health, intellectual simulation, relationships specifically, was highlighted
(03:07):
in this article. The ability to grow these areas of
our lives in ways that require that just take an iota,
honestly of thought. And unfortunately, that's just a touch more
than what most folks are doing. And of course there's
folksho are finding a whole lot of yeah, sadness, regret
they're going back to work when they don't even need
the money. Yeah, big chunks, something like sixty percent of
those people. Because it provides some of the some of
(03:28):
the structure, which is fascinating.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
We've seen that in our own lives of friendships with
people in the fire space. And yeah, it's there's some
like the first month you're just recovering from burnout, essentially
from the job you had, and then after that you
start twiddling your thumbs.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
You're like, what am I going to do?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And maybe you pick up a project or two, But
there's so much time in the day then, and you
don't have the people around you that you want to
spend your that you want to spend that time with.
So often and many of them have gone back to
get jobs sometimes it's so nice gig work and stuff
like that, which has been interesting to watch. So I
don't know, maybe instead of fire, we should think about
(04:05):
working longer, like not retiring at age forty and working
fewer hours now. And interestingly enough, Gallup found that that's
been a real trend actually over the past five years
that full time employees have been reducing the number of
hours they work on average, and this is basically a
post COVID trend where young workers they've limited work hours
(04:25):
even more. They've reduced the number of hours that they
work by about two hours a week, which when you
think about it, I mean, that's a decent chunk of
like what six percent off of your work week every week.
That's kind of a big deal. And as Gallup put it,
they said, over a year, that's the equivalent of older
employees taking an extra week off of work and younger
employees taking essentially an extra two weeks off of work.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Every single one.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Of us has different goals, and Matt and I aren't
going to prescribe your goals or the exact way to
get them, because that's for you to figure out. But yeah,
while some of our fire friends are really enjoying themselves,
some of them aren't. And we want you to think
twice before you need jerk jump up to like a
seventy percent savings rade or something like that, so you
can quit work before everyone else that you know and
(05:09):
decide whether or not that's the life you want, or
if maybe a more sustainable way is to reduce the
amount of time that you're putting toward work in the
here Now, I kind of like this trend, Matt where
people are saying, I'm gonna claw back song my life now,
I'm not waiting till this verbial future retirement date.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Well, yeah, I mean none of us are promised that future,
like I think. I think that's one of the biggest things, right.
I'm actually I'm still thinking about the Canadians, the Canadian
Fire adherents, and how much of that do you think
has to do with the fact that they're in Canada,
Like it's colder up there, it's further north, there's less sunshine,
and so it's like truly the work day, like it's
maybe like the highlight, it's it's actually like spend time
(05:46):
outdoors where there's all the Canadian listeners out there are
gonna send you all their hate. Man, well, even within
the US, Like I do wonder if it's less of
a problem in the US because even within the United States,
folks are where are they moving. They're moving to the
sun Belt. They're moving to the Southern States because they
want to be in an environment that's just more comfortable.
And if you have to go on a like a
big vacation in order to experience warm temperatures, there's a
(06:09):
big difference between that and being able to step outside,
going for a walk around like the neighborhood or visiting
the park, right, Like, that's way more affordable. That's something
that you can do on a sustainable basis, versus saying,
all right, we gotta you know, step out of the tundra. Yeah, yeah,
I know, all of Canada isn't frozen. No, I think
like frozen desert Alberta for sure. Yeah, but there's a
(06:30):
lot a lot of fantastic there's a lot of Canada
that's frozen and very cold, yes, but there's also a
lot of fantastic cities that are basically the United States.
Just the thought I had. But one of the alternatives
to like going crazy making massive sacrifices in the here
and now in order to be able to retire early
could look like taking what folks are calling many retirements.
(06:52):
This is actually something we've talked about on the show
a couple times, actually in the more recent podcast episode History,
but the the New York Times they just highlighted folks
who have been jumping on this trend, the mini retirement trend.
And so instead of retirement being this all or nothing
sort of thing, a better goal could be just taking
some work breaks, like like take a month off, take
(07:13):
a two or three months off. Certainly plan for it,
but you don't have to have millions of dollars saved
in order to pull this off. You can use that
time to travel. Certainly not mandatory, though, especially if you
don't have the savings in order to pull this off,
it could just look like, you know, taking an extended.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Break is a Katie North that we talked with recently,
and I thought she had a lot of good tips
for what it could look like to plan a sabbatical
and to talk about kind of what goals you might
be seeking to achieve.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
During that time.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Like, yeah, yeah, you're listening to How To Money with
Joel Larsgard on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
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 (07:57):
All right, this is not something that we do reg
but let's hear a question from a listener who is
asking about faith and finances.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
Hi, Joel and Matt, this is Jonathan and debuque Iowa.
A recent episode, you mentioned you might do and ask
me anything episode and if you ever do that. The
question that came to mind for me was what is
the role of religious faith, if any, in your lives
and your approach to finances. I know it doesn't have
(08:25):
to be relevant to your main topic, but I think
it might be anyway, since faith does shape the way
we live our lives, set our priorities, and use our resources.
I greatly enjoy the show, look forward to hearing more.
God bless Oh Matt, let's get to it.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I like this question. Yeah, And by the way.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Jonathan asked, he mentioned the and ask me anything episode.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
We totally need to do that.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
We're going I think we're going to so you know
what's approaching quickly episode one thousand, that's what we're going
to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That's what we're gonna do it. So if it's like
two three months out, I guess if listening to the
answer to this question or if you're just like man,
there's something always wanted to know about Matt and Joel,
but it's not really a money question, right, so literally
like a redditz ask me anything, like honestly, should we
even take money related questions? Like but everything or unless
it's something specific about how we it can pertain too,
(09:16):
I guess, But yeah, not the typical investing kind of question.
We want just like crazy off the wall, completely random
style questions. That's that's that's what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Like what tattoo is on Matt's lower back? Right, we
can answer that question on everyone.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Everyone knows it's aaldy. I appreciate you asking the Jonathan
because we're we're more than willing to talk about the
role of faith in our lives, but we just don't
typically do it in this like a pushy way on
the podcast because we know we've got listeners out there
who do subscribe to just various different belief systems, some
don't have a belief system at all. And while our
faith does influence how we think about money, how could
(09:52):
it not. Of course, we don't want to purposefully alienate
anyone from a money education just because we're being a
little too heavy handed when it ca comes to what
it is that we believe. It makes me even think
about how we talk about politics on the show. We
don't we're not diving into partisan politics. We will talk
about policy, and it's not that you and I don't
have opinions or thoughts on that. No, we do have opinions.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
My favorite thing is when we do veer a little
bit too much into the political talk. And of course
we get emails from folks and they're like, hey, guys,
but what I love is when they incorrectly assume the
opposite belief that we're on the other side of the aisle.
Basically because What that means is that I have approached
this from like a neutral point of view, Like if
the Republicans do something that's stupid, we talk about it.
(10:32):
If the Democrats are saying something dumb, we're talking about it.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
On the very rare occasion where either one of them
does something that's mildly good, we talk about that too.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Not all negative here, but yes, And so that's a
big part of why we don't talk about it directly.
Is it who is it? Is it Michael Jordan, who's
just like Republicans by sneakers? Yeah? Whatever, Yeah, like that
whole thing. So that's that's how we try to approach
talking about personal finance.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, and faith. So let's that makes sense. Like we're
regular church goers and our faith is an essential part
of our lives. And it is amazing, Matt, how much
the Bible talks about money. So how could you not
be a Christian and have the Bibles, Like everything that
you read in the scripture influence how you think and
talk and react to money issues that come up in
(11:17):
your life. There's like practical wisdom right in the Proverbs.
There's a lot of less practical, more heart related teaching
that Jesus makes in the New Testament. And I want
to say this too. If you're a listener and you've had,
let's say, a bad experience with the Church, or you
disagree with the claims of Christianity and you're like, oh,
man Joel or Christians, I don't know if I want
(11:37):
to listen to them anymore. I think just know that
we don't necessarily align ourselves with everybody who calls themselves
a Christian publicly. And there's a lot of I think
popular Christians who believe things differently than we believe. And
there's also I think it's important to mention there's a
lot of helpful wisdom for handling money in the scriptures.
Even if you're the kind of person that says, I
(11:59):
don't really abscribe to that whole Christianity thing, I don't
believe in miracles, blah blah blah, just reading some parts
of the Scriptures can be really enlightening when it comes
to how you think about money.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
I think there's a lot of wisdom there that's true. Yeah,
I mean there are some very direct, like practical things
that you can learn from Proverbs about specifically. The Proverbs
in particular has a lot to say about money. For
for instance, that's why our family tithes ten percent to
our local church, and then we give even beyond that
when we feel called to. So that's like a very
like pragmatic practical approach to like what you should do
(12:29):
with your money according to what the Bible says.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, well, and people even come down varying beliefs on that,
whether tithing is like.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yeah, and at that point you're like nitpicking in my opinion,
I don't personally like to get bogged down in the details. Instead,
and you kind of touched on this, but like the
speaking to the heart, and the heart of my faith
comes down to loving God and loving your neighbor. And
specifically because God is like this, all sovereign, all powerful being,
what that means and what that tells me is that
(12:57):
and this is the more sort of philosophical approach to
how faith impacts how I live my life and as
well as how I handle my money. But because everything
I have is basically from God, what that means is
that nothing I have is mine. And so especially when
it comes to my net my personal net worth, the
net worth of my family, my house, my retirement, my savings,
(13:17):
is not really mine. And so because of that that
it's also incredibly temporal, yes, exactly, And so I guess
the outflow of that kind of attitude is that I
just have a very open posture, like I have very
open hands to the things that are mine quote unquote mine,
and instead I'm called to steward those things. Well, it
doesn't mean that I make foolish decisions, like I still
(13:39):
try to be smart and wise and I work hard,
like we're still called to be. There's a lot of
the proverbs about that too. Yeah, yeah, like faithfully diligent
with the gifts that God has given me. But at
the same time, at the end of the day, my
faith tells me that it's not up to me. Uh Like,
at the end of the day, I don't have to
earn my way to salvation or heaven or whatever it
(14:00):
is that you think is you know, in the afterlife.
I believe that those are aspects that are completely controlled
by God and that have already been satisfied. Yeah. I
don't want to go down some long theological uh yeah, yeah,
well okay, but I felt like that that was the
most quasi generic way to talk about faith, and just
like the overall posture of my heart and kind of
(14:23):
how we relate to money.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
One of the things you're hinting at a little bit
is the reality of paradox in the Christian life. And
I think that's actually one of the most fascinating things
about being a Christian is like there's all it's like
many signs of a diamond or something like that, and
you turn it over and you see new realities of
it sparkling in the light. And that's that's how I
feel about faith too, and about the scriptures, is like
the more I dive in, the more there is to
(14:45):
kind of uncover and learn from. And what seems maybe
really bold and emphatic on the surface might have a
lot of layers underneath that are worth dissecting. And and
kind of goes to what you said, Matt, you said,
Jesus is teaching is kind of it's always it's aimed
at the heart. And there's even scripture passages about being generous,
not with the poor and the downcast, although there is that,
(15:06):
but even with your enemies, right, which is a countercultural thing.
It goes against some of our most human instincts towards
self protection. And I think that's why you and I, Matt,
we talked purposefully about not looking to get rich but
to build wealth, which I think is very different, a
very different mentality, and why we should use money to
spend on things we care about within reason, like there
are scriptures to back up all those things that we
(15:30):
kind of espouse here on the show, and we discuss
the joy that giving money away can engender. It's obviously
tough to filter all biblical teaching into our philosophy, and
we use outside resources too to help us think about
money well, but because that's what we're trying to do personally,
I think it's inevitably going to come across in the
content we create. There's just no way to kind of
(15:52):
divorce the two completely totally.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
And you touched on this quickly. But don't assume that
because Joel and I are both practicing Christians that we
endorse everything thing that another Christian influencer or broadcaster or
writer or someone on the internet might say or that
they might espouse, because I mean, obviously Christians aren't perfect,
neither are we, but a lot of the incredibly vocal
elements can just be at odds. I would say, with
(16:15):
maybe what we believe what we practice, if not in
content and what they're saying, at least in the tone
right like and sometimes of both, it's it's being delivered,
and sometimes sometimes both.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
But and honestly, we could probably talk about this subject
in particular for many, many hours, but we will leave
it there for now.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
You're listening to how to Money with Joel Larsgard on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
If you have a money question, we'll send it our way.
All you have to do is record your question on
the voice memo app there on your phone and send
it over via email. You can find the simple instructions
at how toomoney dot com, forward slash ask.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
All right, let's talk about travel, and let's specifically talk
about timeshares. Matt I saw an article this week about
the writer basically said, hey, I use a timeshare to
get a discounted vacation. The writer was able to score
three nights in Vegas for one hundred and fifty bucks,
and then they snagged like a bunch of Hilton points
on top of it, which was probably gonna give them
nice four or five free hotel.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Nights or something like that. Here's the big reveal. I
wrote that article just kidding.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
No, but you did something very similar in the past.
And so the catch, of course is that you have
to attend a mandatory timeshare presentation or your charge for
the full price of the stay. And so the author
correctly outlines just how costly a timeshare can be, which
I appreciate in the article. And then the ongoing fees
they go up every single year. And she didn't really
(17:38):
talk about this much, but when you think about the
sales tactics that are often using these timeshare presentations, they
can be pretty intense, a lot of pressure, man, and
you might go from one salesperson to another, being kind
of shoved around from room to room, kind of like
hot lights under the hot lights or something like that,
like sign on the dotted line. Here's how it greated is,
here's the discount we're going to offer you today. We
(17:58):
employed the whole good cod back, oh for sure. Yeah,
and I've got kids too. Let's trying to identify with you,
get down on your level. There are all sorts of
things that happened in a timeshare presentation that could get
you to sign on the dotted line when you shouldn't.
And so yeah, I don't know. I guess I'm curious
to hear your take. She was pretty thrilled because she
got to go on a Vegas vacation saved for like,
you know, nine hundred bucks or something.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Also when I did it as well, Man, this has
been years since we did this, but I attended one
of these during spring break in college. Actually I just
graduated college and I went on spring break with Kate
and her friends. So it was a lot of fun.
And as we're checking into the hotel, they were like, hey,
by the way, if you attend this time share presentation,
you know, I don't even know if they called it
a timeshare presentation. I felt like we were completely vacation package. Yeah,
(18:41):
I feel like they weren't very clear as to what
it was all week. Get that word is so tainted
now they will try, but even at that point in time,
I don't know if we would have even known either way.
All we knew was that we sit through this meeting,
we get free breakfast, including Momoss by the way, which
was a huge perk. We're like, oh, that sounds nice, fancy.
I didn't realize the spring break was gonna be so
nice as well. As we each were going to receive
(19:02):
a one hundred dollar visa check card or whatever, and dude,
I don't know if it was because we didn't have
the money to spend, but we sat through chatted with
the lady. Actually, I do remember she turned to us
and said, y'all aren't gonna sign anything and get one
of these are You were like, no, we don't have
the money to do that, and she was like, well,
you'd never know. Some kids were in here, and we
(19:23):
were kids at the time basically, but some folks were
in here last week and one of them busted out
an AMEX black card, and at that point in time,
I didn't even know what an AX black card. I
was like, oh, okay, sounds nice, but like it's like
an invite only sort of fancy card. They were rolling
in the money is basically what she was pointing to. Okay,
but it didn't take her long to realize that we
were not rolling. Would you do that same thing now?
(19:45):
It depends on how long right got it?
Speaker 1 (19:46):
You got to know how to value your time, de Yeah, exactly.
It depends on how good the perk is. Because one
hundred dollars gift card to spend an hour and a
half your time, Like I don't think I do that
today when you're twenty two, you're like, all right, huge deal.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Your bucks is a huge deal.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, that allowed us to she made a lot more.
She's gonna get a bunch of free nights. Oh the
hotel stays on top of that vacation. But you also
just have to realize and understand maybe how susceptible you
might be to the hard sale, because those timeshare presentations.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Are not for the faint of heart. Got to be
able to say no.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Talk to someone else recently who said, man, they tried
to like bar the door on my way out, and like,
it can get truly that sort of vicious in a
timeshare presentation.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
So I have not been to one.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It makes me want to do one, just so I
can talk about it here on the show, and just
so I can have had that experience.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Gosh, what was it? Was it last year? A couple
of years ago. There's a steak dinner that was being
presented for something, and you and I we thought about
actually going because oh yeah, and honestly it was a
stay of the Insider pitch, but also is at a
like a pretty good steakhouse and so we're just like, oh,
why not. Then we could talk about it on the show,
But again it came down to us not We're like,
dang it, I don't want to drive all the way
in town to that through the present.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah on Thursday night, exactly. Yeah, Okay, let's talk about
hotels too. Booking a hotel can be kind of crazy
these there's all these third party sites, some of what
you've heard of, some of what you haven't, and then
prices can vary meaningfully, mostly because of extra fees that
are added from site to site, and it's tough to
know which ones are legit and if they're even gonna
(21:14):
save you money. Copycat hotel sites in particular, are ripping
people off. This is according to an article from the
Wall Street Journal. And so even if they're showing up
in Google results, I think some people assume Matt that, oh,
if I google this hotel and a range of dates,
that whatever sites they feed me, they're probably gonna be fine,
Like I can book through here, and I'm going to
get a better deal, especially if it's a well designed site.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
You know. I think that's sometimes where folks are getting
making not making the best decision as well. Because it's like,
oh man, this actually looks I've been to the real
web the or the actual hotel's website, but this looks
even better. So certainly I'm going to get a better
deal over here.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yeah, but no, alas it's not true, and the fees
are typically ridiculous when you like what looks like a
better price initially, well, when you click all the way
through and you see the price after fees, going to
pay way too much. And most of these sites are
non refundable, like the rooms are non refundable on those sites,
So you make the booking and there's nothing you can
(22:08):
do about it.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
There's no recourse.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
I would say, check the url of the site that
you're looking at when you're going to book a hotel
and just be careful where you book and what seemed like.
And I think you can still get a better deal
on hotels through hot wire and Priceline, but the deals
aren't as good as they used to be. Like ten
years ago, those sites were incredible and like the savings
you could get were ridiculous. But the hotel chains have
(22:32):
caught on and they are often offering great deals directly
to consumers when you book through their website. They're also
you might be able to get that refundable room in
case you're not sure about where you want to stay
and you want still the ability to shop around. Have
that bird in the hand, but just watch out where
you're booking and compare prices on multiple different sites, including
(22:53):
the hotel's website before you just like clickbook.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Totally agree.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
You're listening to How To Money with Joel Larsgard on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
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 (23:10):
It is now time for the Facebook Question of the Week,
which is from Merriweather, who wrote, I joined a new
company last year in about forty percent of my total
compensation is a stock grant that vests quarterly over a
few years. I'm also a new homeowner one undred thousand
dollars mortgage at a five point eight percent interest rate.
Prior to buying my home, my plan for those quarterly
(23:32):
stock vests was to immediately trade into something like vtsas
or vou through my brokerage account. Now that I look
at how much of my first few years of mortgage
payments will go to interest. Right now, it's about eighty percent.
I'm entertaining the idea of selling some of that stock
as it vests and paying off some of the principle
of my mortgage until I reach a certain loan to value.
(23:53):
I'm at nine point six percent right now for reference.
The logical, financially independently minded side of my brain says,
just dump it in the market. But I'm wondering if
there's a little bit of nuance here in the first
few years of my mortgage when that interest is front loaded.
Additional information, Emergency Fund four one k HSA and traditional
IRA are fully funded major props. Let's just start right there.
(24:16):
That's awesome. And I also get Matt.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
When you take out a mortgage and if you look
at the amortization schedule and you look at how much
interest you're paying first principle, it's shocking. Especially in those
initial years. You're like, am I putting anything towards the
actual paying down of the loan balance? And the truth
is not.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Really in the banks definitely getting their money.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yeah, And that's why I think it is particularly if
you take out a thirty of your mortgage every time
you move if you're only there for five years, man,
think about how little of a dent you've made in
the balance of that loan. It's you've mostly been paying interest,
so that's not fun, which I get and I want
to say too, Meriwether's really smart here for not wanting
(24:58):
to hold too much company stock. Right your head, Meriweather
was in the right place opting for an index fund instead,
because truth be told, the right amount of company stock
to own is zero. Because you've already got so many
eggs in that basket that's where your payche come from.
You don't necessarily want significant holdings of stock in your
company at the same time, so it is smart to
(25:20):
do something different with that money as it bests. Although
be sure to keep tax consequences in mind too. That
is true just because of taxes. Though I would not
want to hold far too much company stock. I would rather,
I think, pay tax that's necessary in order to pivot
my investments.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Unload and diversify totally. Yeah, but the heart of Merriweather's question,
I don't think it has a super clear answer, because
you can't lose dumping it into the market if you
plan to hold on to those investments for decades to come.
But because of where your mortgage is at as far
as interest rate and your loan to value ratio goes,
you are likely paying PMI mortgage insurance. And so I
(25:58):
like the idea of taking this quarterly fests and using
them as a way to pay down your principle quickly,
at least until you get to the range of like
twenty twenty two percent loan to value, allowing you to
rid yourself of that super annoying PMI because you're not
only reducing the life of the loan by doing this,
you're also getting rid of that extra fee a lot
(26:19):
more quickly. And it's almost like there's like this there's
a lightweight finish line right there at the you know,
at the twenty percent to twenty two percent range where
it would audo is that that's when it automatically drops off.
Twenty two percent is typically where automatically falls off.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
You can petition ahead of time, Yeah yeah, but if
you think, like, let's say the value of your home
has gone up and the loan devalut Yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
That's just a great goal to strive after that. But
then maybe beyond that just kind of pump your brakes up. Yes,
point one hundred percent. I think that's a wise move.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
And then then once you get there, that's when you
invest more instead of continuing to pay down the mortgage,
because we don't we don't want you to pay off
the mortgage and just go hog wild with with those
stock vestments and just say, oh, I'm gonna get rid
of this mortgage is quickly as possible. We really don't
even want you to go beyond getting rid of that
private mortgage insurance. We just want you to make that
(27:07):
your first goal. And then once pmi's eradicated, then take
those future stock grants and ramp up your investments in
a diversified way. Of course, it's kind of a both
and approach right where you can be attacking this problem,
which is a good problem to have, right with an
optimized approach, I think is this is at least.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
What I would do, Matt.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I would want to pay it on that work, especially
we're talking about five point eight percent, we're talking about PMI.
Let's frontload some of that mortgage payoff and then let's
back off pay only what's agreed and invest with those
additional dollars.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
That's right, Let's take another quick one from Adel, who
wrote recommendations for an affordable cell phone provider with international options.
Thank you. What do you think, Joel? So maybe you
just lose ditch the phone all together and just go
with the old school Italy on the shoe string, get
your paper map.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
There you go, get the Rick Steves book and then
get a carrier pigeon. If you want to send messages
to your friends and loved one. You don't need to
send messages.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
That is one choice. Just yeah, third old school, not
even all that old school, like only twenty years ago,
that's true, you know, like you couldn't do that twenty
years ago.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
No, and now it's it's expected. Once you were able
to call, it was like crazy expensive and now the
price has gone down. But that doesn't mean that the
price is insignificant, at least with some carrier source. Let's discuss.
I love the idea of having all your cell phone
service under one roof with a US based provider. I
think that would make things easiest for most people. But
(28:29):
sadly that's that's just too expensive in most cases. It's
just not the frugal move. The big cell phone companies,
they tend to charge a daily, a weekly, or a
monthly fee. I think like Verizon charges like twelve bucks
a day to use your phone overseas, which I mean,
when you think about what it used to be, it's like, oh,
that's pretty cheap. But when you think about what other
competitors are offering, it's actually really expensive, and that can
(28:49):
that can add up. Let's say we're talking about a
multi week trip, and so Matt, you and I we
tried using Mint Mobiles planning when we were in Scotland.
Our data ran out what felt like instantly.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
The first day. Yeah, and it wasn't cheap, and it
just felt insufficient. It sucked.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
The only carrier that includes international coverage in the monthly
cost at a fairly reasonable rate I think is Google Fi,
and so the best price you get the best price
from them if you have four lines that you're looking
to move over. But I think if you don't travel regularly,
let's say this is a one time a year, one
week a year sort of thing, there's just no need
to pay more every month, even at Google Fi's pretty
(29:24):
solid rates.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yeah, and of course we got to talk about US
Mobile because they've got the lowest monthly price that we
found they also similar to Google Fi, they've got these
premium plans that include some international data, calling and texting
while you are kicking it overseas while you're abroad. But
those more expensive plans likely only make sense if you
also have a smart watch because of the way they're
(29:46):
pricing works. And then if you go, like if you
are traveling only like once or twice a year, like,
why would you then pay for the enhanced coverage twelve
months out of the year. That's not likely going to
be the case for most folks, And so your best
bet is going to be to go with a third
party e some seller because of how incredibly easy they've
made it. You don't have to scramble and find a
(30:07):
local provider once you land. It's so incredibly affordable. It's
the slam dunk. It's the slam dunk option.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I remember when people first started going overseas and they yeah,
they would find a local typically was like.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
A corner bodega or is there something like, Yeah, you
just got to find something near behind it would.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Get the physical sim they would pop out the one
from their phone, they'd pop the new one in and
they were able to save a good bit of money
going using their phone overseas, almost using it like they
were a local where they were traveling.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
To, which was cool.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
And now E Sims just said like, hold my beer,
this is gonna be We're gonna make this way way easier.
And so air a Low in particular seems to be
the best of the bunch. Yeah, but feel free to
shop around and I love that under I was looking
at their website, Matt, you can really just kind of
buy what you need, right. They have ladder like options,
So oh, hey, I needed to I need this many
gigs of data, this much calling and texting, and you
(30:57):
can say, well, here's what I think I'm gonna need,
or here's what I think i'mnna need. Then you can just
choose based on your budget and how much you think
you're gonna use. Just remember you're likely gonna have Wi
Fi where you're staying and at restaurants if you need it.
That's also a nice perk is that it's easier just
to kind of even stumble upon a Wi Fi network
and hop on and just wing it if you got
to do a couple of things. Yeah, yeah, but it
(31:18):
is I think nice to have some connectivity while you're
walking around, but instead of paying twelve bucks a day, right,
if you don't need tons of data, you can get
by paying something like ten dollars a month. So that's
how big of a price efforts it can be going
with air low instead of going with your provider, your
a US based provider, And so you're going to get
a better deal if you buy your eSIM for a
(31:38):
specific country. But if you're going to multiple countries in Europe,
for instance, you can buy a regional SIM.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
It just costs a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
So if you know, hey, I'm only going to Scotland,
you buy the Scotland SIM, you're gonna say money versus
getting kind of the euro eSIM. But if you're going
to multiple countries, that's probably going to be the best
option too.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Yeah. Another option too, if you're traveling with a group
of folks then you're all wanting data, is to have
a separate device, so you are, you know, you've got
sell your cellular data being provided to that device and
then everyone can just tap into that one singular pocket
router essentially. So that's a way to even save even
more as opposed to everyone kind of doing their own
their own own which is great, especially if you've got
(32:17):
kids and multiple devices, and.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Just look about how like before you take off, you
can or why you're in the air or whatever, literally
in the settings of your phone go and switch so
easy the provider.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
That you're using.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
You've already loaded the air low up to your phone
and that way. Yeah, you're not even like I've heard
horror stories of people turning on their phone and all
these texts come through and they're charged a massive amount
of money. It's like you don't even have to wait
until you land and deal with that possibility.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I love it, man, and that is going to do
it for today. Thank you for listening. We appreciate your
time and attention. We'll see you back here next week.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
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 lars Guard and Matt Altmix KF
(00:49):
I Am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
This is how Some Money. I am Matt Alt Mixed.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And I am Joel Larsgard and we're glad to have
you along for the show today. By the way, if
you're looking for the right credit card for your wallet,
well you want to be able to use it responsibly.
But if you do that, if you pay your credit
card on time and in full every single month, well
check out our credit card tool. You can find that
up on the website at howtomoney dot com. And of course,
(01:16):
now it is time for the ludicrous headline of the week.
This one is from the Globe and Mail.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
In the headline reads, they worked hard to retire early,
now they're dealing with regrets. And this article profiles to
the quintessential early fire adherents, specifically up in Canada, who
worked as hard as they possibly could in order to
be done with work forever. And then of course they
just realized it was a giant mistake and that they
(01:42):
wish they wouldn't have done that. They expressed similar regrets
of actually working too hard where they were missing out
on hobbies and relationships along the way, And then, of
course what happens they encounter a serious amount of boredom
after abandoning the work world altogether.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Like where my friends at Dude thought we were gonna
hang out, Oh wait, they're still working.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
It's amazing how much structure and intellectual stimulation work can
provide us. It's just incredibly ironic. How the thing that
allowed anybody who has retired early so working hard, oftentimes
working a lot, or earning a fat paycheck. Now those things,
oftentimes are the things that are keeping you from being
able to develop the other aspects of life that make
(02:21):
life truly I don't want to say worth living, but
that just rounded out and you remove this one element.
So not only, of course are you missing out on
oh man, I'm not getting an income anymore, but also,
oh man, all my friends are still in there makes
me think of severance, which you haven't watched still haven't kay?
And I actually recently finished season two. I'm a fan.
(02:43):
Some folks aren't happy with how it ended. I also
can't wait to see where it goes next. I'm a
huge fan. But I'm mentioning this because we have to
be so incredibly intentional and proactive when it comes to
fostering and cultivating and growing the other aspects of life
that we can oftentimes just completely forget about. Like I'm
talking about physical health, intellectual simulation, relationships specifically, was highlighted
(03:07):
in this article. The ability to grow these areas of
our lives in ways that require that just take an iota,
honestly of thought. And unfortunately, that's just a touch more
than what most folks are doing. And of course there's
folksho are finding a whole lot of yeah, sadness, regret
they're going back to work when they don't even need
the money. Yeah, big chunks, something like sixty percent of
those people. Because it provides some of the some of
(03:28):
the structure, which is fascinating.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
We've seen that in our own lives of friendships with
people in the fire space. And yeah, it's there's some
like the first month you're just recovering from burnout, essentially
from the job you had, and then after that you
start twiddling your thumbs.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
You're like, what am I going to do?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And maybe you pick up a project or two, But
there's so much time in the day then, and you
don't have the people around you that you want to
spend your that you want to spend that time with.
So often and many of them have gone back to
get jobs sometimes it's so nice gig work and stuff
like that, which has been interesting to watch. So I
don't know, maybe instead of fire, we should think about
(04:05):
working longer, like not retiring at age forty and working
fewer hours now. And interestingly enough, Gallup found that that's
been a real trend actually over the past five years
that full time employees have been reducing the number of
hours they work on average, and this is basically a
post COVID trend where young workers they've limited work hours
(04:25):
even more. They've reduced the number of hours that they
work by about two hours a week, which when you
think about it, I mean, that's a decent chunk of
like what six percent off of your work week every week.
That's kind of a big deal. And as Gallup put it,
they said, over a year, that's the equivalent of older
employees taking an extra week off of work and younger
employees taking essentially an extra two weeks off of work.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Every single one.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Of us has different goals, and Matt and I aren't
going to prescribe your goals or the exact way to
get them, because that's for you to figure out. But yeah,
while some of our fire friends are really enjoying themselves,
some of them aren't. And we want you to think
twice before you need jerk jump up to like a
seventy percent savings rade or something like that, so you
can quit work before everyone else that you know and
(05:09):
decide whether or not that's the life you want, or
if maybe a more sustainable way is to reduce the
amount of time that you're putting toward work in the
here Now, I kind of like this trend, Matt where
people are saying, I'm gonna claw back song my life now,
I'm not waiting till this verbial future retirement date.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Well, yeah, I mean none of us are promised that future,
like I think. I think that's one of the biggest things, right.
I'm actually I'm still thinking about the Canadians, the Canadian
Fire adherents, and how much of that do you think
has to do with the fact that they're in Canada,
Like it's colder up there, it's further north, there's less sunshine,
and so it's like truly the work day, like it's
maybe like the highlight, it's it's actually like spend time
(05:46):
outdoors where there's all the Canadian listeners out there are
gonna send you all their hate. Man, well, even within
the US, Like I do wonder if it's less of
a problem in the US because even within the United States,
folks are where are they moving. They're moving to the
sun Belt. They're moving to the Southern States because they
want to be in an environment that's just more comfortable.
And if you have to go on a like a
big vacation in order to experience warm temperatures, there's a
(06:09):
big difference between that and being able to step outside,
going for a walk around like the neighborhood or visiting
the park, right, Like, that's way more affordable. That's something
that you can do on a sustainable basis, versus saying,
all right, we gotta you know, step out of the tundra. Yeah, yeah,
I know, all of Canada isn't frozen. No, I think
like frozen desert Alberta for sure. Yeah, but there's a
(06:30):
lot a lot of fantastic there's a lot of Canada
that's frozen and very cold, yes, but there's also a
lot of fantastic cities that are basically the United States.
Just the thought I had. But one of the alternatives
to like going crazy making massive sacrifices in the here
and now in order to be able to retire early
could look like taking what folks are calling many retirements.
(06:52):
This is actually something we've talked about on the show
a couple times, actually in the more recent podcast episode History,
but the the New York Times they just highlighted folks
who have been jumping on this trend, the mini retirement trend.
And so instead of retirement being this all or nothing
sort of thing, a better goal could be just taking
some work breaks, like like take a month off, take
(07:13):
a two or three months off. Certainly plan for it,
but you don't have to have millions of dollars saved
in order to pull this off. You can use that
time to travel. Certainly not mandatory, though, especially if you
don't have the savings in order to pull this off,
it could just look like, you know, taking an extended.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Break is a Katie North that we talked with recently,
and I thought she had a lot of good tips
for what it could look like to plan a sabbatical
and to talk about kind of what goals you might
be seeking to achieve.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
During that time.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Like, yeah, yeah, you're listening to How To Money with
Joel Larsgard on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
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 (07:57):
All right, this is not something that we do reg
but let's hear a question from a listener who is
asking about faith and finances.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
Hi, Joel and Matt, this is Jonathan and debuque Iowa.
A recent episode, you mentioned you might do and ask
me anything episode and if you ever do that. The
question that came to mind for me was what is
the role of religious faith, if any, in your lives
and your approach to finances. I know it doesn't have
(08:25):
to be relevant to your main topic, but I think
it might be anyway, since faith does shape the way
we live our lives, set our priorities, and use our resources.
I greatly enjoy the show, look forward to hearing more.
God bless Oh Matt, let's get to it.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I like this question. Yeah, And by the way.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Jonathan asked, he mentioned the and ask me anything episode.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
We totally need to do that.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
We're going I think we're going to so you know
what's approaching quickly episode one thousand, that's what we're going
to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That's what we're gonna do it. So if it's like
two three months out, I guess if listening to the
answer to this question or if you're just like man,
there's something always wanted to know about Matt and Joel,
but it's not really a money question, right, so literally
like a redditz ask me anything, like honestly, should we
even take money related questions? Like but everything or unless
it's something specific about how we it can pertain too,
(09:16):
I guess, But yeah, not the typical investing kind of question.
We want just like crazy off the wall, completely random
style questions. That's that's that's what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Like what tattoo is on Matt's lower back? Right, we
can answer that question on everyone.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Everyone knows it's aaldy. I appreciate you asking the Jonathan
because we're we're more than willing to talk about the
role of faith in our lives, but we just don't
typically do it in this like a pushy way on
the podcast because we know we've got listeners out there
who do subscribe to just various different belief systems, some
don't have a belief system at all. And while our
faith does influence how we think about money, how could
(09:52):
it not. Of course, we don't want to purposefully alienate
anyone from a money education just because we're being a
little too heavy handed when it ca comes to what
it is that we believe. It makes me even think
about how we talk about politics on the show. We
don't we're not diving into partisan politics. We will talk
about policy, and it's not that you and I don't
have opinions or thoughts on that. No, we do have opinions.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
My favorite thing is when we do veer a little
bit too much into the political talk. And of course
we get emails from folks and they're like, hey, guys,
but what I love is when they incorrectly assume the
opposite belief that we're on the other side of the aisle.
Basically because What that means is that I have approached
this from like a neutral point of view, Like if
the Republicans do something that's stupid, we talk about it.
(10:32):
If the Democrats are saying something dumb, we're talking about it.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
On the very rare occasion where either one of them
does something that's mildly good, we talk about that too.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Not all negative here, but yes, And so that's a
big part of why we don't talk about it directly.
Is it who is it? Is it Michael Jordan, who's
just like Republicans by sneakers? Yeah? Whatever, Yeah, like that
whole thing. So that's that's how we try to approach
talking about personal finance.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, and faith. So let's that makes sense. Like we're
regular church goers and our faith is an essential part
of our lives. And it is amazing, Matt, how much
the Bible talks about money. So how could you not
be a Christian and have the Bibles, Like everything that
you read in the scripture influence how you think and
talk and react to money issues that come up in
(11:17):
your life. There's like practical wisdom right in the Proverbs.
There's a lot of less practical, more heart related teaching
that Jesus makes in the New Testament. And I want
to say this too. If you're a listener and you've had,
let's say, a bad experience with the Church, or you
disagree with the claims of Christianity and you're like, oh,
man Joel or Christians, I don't know if I want
(11:37):
to listen to them anymore. I think just know that
we don't necessarily align ourselves with everybody who calls themselves
a Christian publicly. And there's a lot of I think
popular Christians who believe things differently than we believe. And
there's also I think it's important to mention there's a
lot of helpful wisdom for handling money in the scriptures.
Even if you're the kind of person that says, I
(11:59):
don't really abscribe to that whole Christianity thing, I don't
believe in miracles, blah blah blah, just reading some parts
of the Scriptures can be really enlightening when it comes
to how you think about money.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
I think there's a lot of wisdom there that's true. Yeah,
I mean there are some very direct, like practical things
that you can learn from Proverbs about specifically. The Proverbs
in particular has a lot to say about money. For
for instance, that's why our family tithes ten percent to
our local church, and then we give even beyond that
when we feel called to. So that's like a very
like pragmatic practical approach to like what you should do
(12:29):
with your money according to what the Bible says.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, well, and people even come down varying beliefs on that,
whether tithing is like.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yeah, and at that point you're like nitpicking in my opinion,
I don't personally like to get bogged down in the details. Instead,
and you kind of touched on this, but like the
speaking to the heart, and the heart of my faith
comes down to loving God and loving your neighbor. And
specifically because God is like this, all sovereign, all powerful being,
what that means and what that tells me is that
(12:57):
and this is the more sort of philosophical approach to
how faith impacts how I live my life and as
well as how I handle my money. But because everything
I have is basically from God, what that means is
that nothing I have is mine. And so especially when
it comes to my net my personal net worth, the
net worth of my family, my house, my retirement, my savings,
(13:17):
is not really mine. And so because of that that
it's also incredibly temporal, yes, exactly, And so I guess
the outflow of that kind of attitude is that I
just have a very open posture, like I have very
open hands to the things that are mine quote unquote mine,
and instead I'm called to steward those things. Well, it
doesn't mean that I make foolish decisions, like I still
(13:39):
try to be smart and wise and I work hard,
like we're still called to be. There's a lot of
the proverbs about that too. Yeah, yeah, like faithfully diligent
with the gifts that God has given me. But at
the same time, at the end of the day, my
faith tells me that it's not up to me. Uh Like,
at the end of the day, I don't have to
earn my way to salvation or heaven or whatever it
(14:00):
is that you think is you know, in the afterlife.
I believe that those are aspects that are completely controlled
by God and that have already been satisfied. Yeah. I
don't want to go down some long theological uh yeah, yeah,
well okay, but I felt like that that was the
most quasi generic way to talk about faith, and just
like the overall posture of my heart and kind of
(14:23):
how we relate to money.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
One of the things you're hinting at a little bit
is the reality of paradox in the Christian life. And
I think that's actually one of the most fascinating things
about being a Christian is like there's all it's like
many signs of a diamond or something like that, and
you turn it over and you see new realities of
it sparkling in the light. And that's that's how I
feel about faith too, and about the scriptures, is like
the more I dive in, the more there is to
(14:45):
kind of uncover and learn from. And what seems maybe
really bold and emphatic on the surface might have a
lot of layers underneath that are worth dissecting. And and
kind of goes to what you said, Matt, you said,
Jesus is teaching is kind of it's always it's aimed
at the heart. And there's even scripture passages about being generous,
not with the poor and the downcast, although there is that,
(15:06):
but even with your enemies, right, which is a countercultural thing.
It goes against some of our most human instincts towards
self protection. And I think that's why you and I, Matt,
we talked purposefully about not looking to get rich but
to build wealth, which I think is very different, a
very different mentality, and why we should use money to
spend on things we care about within reason, like there
are scriptures to back up all those things that we
(15:30):
kind of espouse here on the show, and we discuss
the joy that giving money away can engender. It's obviously
tough to filter all biblical teaching into our philosophy, and
we use outside resources too to help us think about
money well, but because that's what we're trying to do personally,
I think it's inevitably going to come across in the
content we create. There's just no way to kind of
(15:52):
divorce the two completely totally.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
And you touched on this quickly. But don't assume that
because Joel and I are both practicing Christians that we
endorse everything thing that another Christian influencer or broadcaster or
writer or someone on the internet might say or that
they might espouse, because I mean, obviously Christians aren't perfect,
neither are we, but a lot of the incredibly vocal
elements can just be at odds. I would say, with
(16:15):
maybe what we believe what we practice, if not in
content and what they're saying, at least in the tone
right like and sometimes of both, it's it's being delivered,
and sometimes sometimes both.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
But and honestly, we could probably talk about this subject
in particular for many, many hours, but we will leave
it there for now.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
You're listening to how to Money with Joel Larsgard on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
If you have a money question, we'll send it our way.
All you have to do is record your question on
the voice memo app there on your phone and send
it over via email. You can find the simple instructions
at how toomoney dot com, forward slash ask.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
All right, let's talk about travel, and let's specifically talk
about timeshares. Matt I saw an article this week about
the writer basically said, hey, I use a timeshare to
get a discounted vacation. The writer was able to score
three nights in Vegas for one hundred and fifty bucks,
and then they snagged like a bunch of Hilton points
on top of it, which was probably gonna give them
nice four or five free hotel.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Nights or something like that. Here's the big reveal. I
wrote that article just kidding.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
No, but you did something very similar in the past.
And so the catch, of course is that you have
to attend a mandatory timeshare presentation or your charge for
the full price of the stay. And so the author
correctly outlines just how costly a timeshare can be, which
I appreciate in the article. And then the ongoing fees
they go up every single year. And she didn't really
(17:38):
talk about this much, but when you think about the
sales tactics that are often using these timeshare presentations, they
can be pretty intense, a lot of pressure, man, and
you might go from one salesperson to another, being kind
of shoved around from room to room, kind of like
hot lights under the hot lights or something like that,
like sign on the dotted line. Here's how it greated is,
here's the discount we're going to offer you today. We
(17:58):
employed the whole good cod back, oh for sure. Yeah,
and I've got kids too. Let's trying to identify with you,
get down on your level. There are all sorts of
things that happened in a timeshare presentation that could get
you to sign on the dotted line when you shouldn't.
And so yeah, I don't know. I guess I'm curious
to hear your take. She was pretty thrilled because she
got to go on a Vegas vacation saved for like,
you know, nine hundred bucks or something.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Also when I did it as well, Man, this has
been years since we did this, but I attended one
of these during spring break in college. Actually I just
graduated college and I went on spring break with Kate
and her friends. So it was a lot of fun.
And as we're checking into the hotel, they were like, hey,
by the way, if you attend this time share presentation,
you know, I don't even know if they called it
a timeshare presentation. I felt like we were completely vacation package. Yeah,
(18:41):
I feel like they weren't very clear as to what
it was all week. Get that word is so tainted
now they will try, but even at that point in time,
I don't know if we would have even known either way.
All we knew was that we sit through this meeting,
we get free breakfast, including Momoss by the way, which
was a huge perk. We're like, oh, that sounds nice, fancy.
I didn't realize the spring break was gonna be so
nice as well. As we each were going to receive
(19:02):
a one hundred dollar visa check card or whatever, and dude,
I don't know if it was because we didn't have
the money to spend, but we sat through chatted with
the lady. Actually, I do remember she turned to us
and said, y'all aren't gonna sign anything and get one
of these are You were like, no, we don't have
the money to do that, and she was like, well,
you'd never know. Some kids were in here, and we
(19:23):
were kids at the time basically, but some folks were
in here last week and one of them busted out
an AMEX black card, and at that point in time,
I didn't even know what an AX black card. I
was like, oh, okay, sounds nice, but like it's like
an invite only sort of fancy card. They were rolling
in the money is basically what she was pointing to. Okay,
but it didn't take her long to realize that we
were not rolling. Would you do that same thing now?
(19:45):
It depends on how long right got it?
Speaker 1 (19:46):
You got to know how to value your time, de Yeah, exactly.
It depends on how good the perk is. Because one
hundred dollars gift card to spend an hour and a
half your time, Like I don't think I do that
today when you're twenty two, you're like, all right, huge deal.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Your bucks is a huge deal.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, that allowed us to she made a lot more.
She's gonna get a bunch of free nights. Oh the
hotel stays on top of that vacation. But you also
just have to realize and understand maybe how susceptible you
might be to the hard sale, because those timeshare presentations.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Are not for the faint of heart. Got to be
able to say no.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Talk to someone else recently who said, man, they tried
to like bar the door on my way out, and like,
it can get truly that sort of vicious in a
timeshare presentation.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
So I have not been to one.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
It makes me want to do one, just so I
can talk about it here on the show, and just
so I can have had that experience.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Gosh, what was it? Was it last year? A couple
of years ago. There's a steak dinner that was being
presented for something, and you and I we thought about
actually going because oh yeah, and honestly it was a
stay of the Insider pitch, but also is at a
like a pretty good steakhouse and so we're just like, oh,
why not. Then we could talk about it on the show,
But again it came down to us not We're like,
dang it, I don't want to drive all the way
in town to that through the present.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yeah on Thursday night, exactly. Yeah, Okay, let's talk about
hotels too. Booking a hotel can be kind of crazy
these there's all these third party sites, some of what
you've heard of, some of what you haven't, and then
prices can vary meaningfully, mostly because of extra fees that
are added from site to site, and it's tough to
know which ones are legit and if they're even gonna
(21:14):
save you money. Copycat hotel sites in particular, are ripping
people off. This is according to an article from the
Wall Street Journal. And so even if they're showing up
in Google results, I think some people assume Matt that, oh,
if I google this hotel and a range of dates,
that whatever sites they feed me, they're probably gonna be fine,
Like I can book through here, and I'm going to
get a better deal, especially if it's a well designed site.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
You know. I think that's sometimes where folks are getting
making not making the best decision as well. Because it's like,
oh man, this actually looks I've been to the real
web the or the actual hotel's website, but this looks
even better. So certainly I'm going to get a better
deal over here.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yeah, but no, alas it's not true, and the fees
are typically ridiculous when you like what looks like a
better price initially, well, when you click all the way
through and you see the price after fees, going to
pay way too much. And most of these sites are
non refundable, like the rooms are non refundable on those sites,
So you make the booking and there's nothing you can
(22:08):
do about it.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
There's no recourse.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
I would say, check the url of the site that
you're looking at when you're going to book a hotel
and just be careful where you book and what seemed like.
And I think you can still get a better deal
on hotels through hot wire and Priceline, but the deals
aren't as good as they used to be. Like ten
years ago, those sites were incredible and like the savings
you could get were ridiculous. But the hotel chains have
(22:32):
caught on and they are often offering great deals directly
to consumers when you book through their website. They're also
you might be able to get that refundable room in
case you're not sure about where you want to stay
and you want still the ability to shop around. Have
that bird in the hand, but just watch out where
you're booking and compare prices on multiple different sites, including
(22:53):
the hotel's website before you just like clickbook.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Totally agree.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
You're listening to How To Money with Joel Larsgard on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
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 (23:10):
It is now time for the Facebook Question of the Week,
which is from Merriweather, who wrote, I joined a new
company last year in about forty percent of my total
compensation is a stock grant that vests quarterly over a
few years. I'm also a new homeowner one undred thousand
dollars mortgage at a five point eight percent interest rate.
Prior to buying my home, my plan for those quarterly
(23:32):
stock vests was to immediately trade into something like vtsas
or vou through my brokerage account. Now that I look
at how much of my first few years of mortgage
payments will go to interest. Right now, it's about eighty percent.
I'm entertaining the idea of selling some of that stock
as it vests and paying off some of the principle
of my mortgage until I reach a certain loan to value.
(23:53):
I'm at nine point six percent right now for reference.
The logical, financially independently minded side of my brain says,
just dump it in the market. But I'm wondering if
there's a little bit of nuance here in the first
few years of my mortgage when that interest is front loaded.
Additional information, Emergency Fund four one k HSA and traditional
IRA are fully funded major props. Let's just start right there.
(24:16):
That's awesome. And I also get Matt.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
When you take out a mortgage and if you look
at the amortization schedule and you look at how much
interest you're paying first principle, it's shocking. Especially in those
initial years. You're like, am I putting anything towards the
actual paying down of the loan balance? And the truth
is not.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Really in the banks definitely getting their money.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yeah, And that's why I think it is particularly if
you take out a thirty of your mortgage every time
you move if you're only there for five years, man,
think about how little of a dent you've made in
the balance of that loan. It's you've mostly been paying interest,
so that's not fun, which I get and I want
to say too, Meriwether's really smart here for not wanting
(24:58):
to hold too much company stock. Right your head, Meriweather
was in the right place opting for an index fund instead,
because truth be told, the right amount of company stock
to own is zero. Because you've already got so many
eggs in that basket that's where your payche come from.
You don't necessarily want significant holdings of stock in your
company at the same time, so it is smart to
(25:20):
do something different with that money as it bests. Although
be sure to keep tax consequences in mind too. That
is true just because of taxes. Though I would not
want to hold far too much company stock. I would rather,
I think, pay tax that's necessary in order to pivot
my investments.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Unload and diversify totally. Yeah, but the heart of Merriweather's question,
I don't think it has a super clear answer, because
you can't lose dumping it into the market if you
plan to hold on to those investments for decades to come.
But because of where your mortgage is at as far
as interest rate and your loan to value ratio goes,
you are likely paying PMI mortgage insurance. And so I
(25:58):
like the idea of taking this quarterly fests and using
them as a way to pay down your principle quickly,
at least until you get to the range of like
twenty twenty two percent loan to value, allowing you to
rid yourself of that super annoying PMI because you're not
only reducing the life of the loan by doing this,
you're also getting rid of that extra fee a lot
(26:19):
more quickly. And it's almost like there's like this there's
a lightweight finish line right there at the you know,
at the twenty percent to twenty two percent range where
it would audo is that that's when it automatically drops off.
Twenty two percent is typically where automatically falls off.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
You can petition ahead of time, Yeah yeah, but if
you think, like, let's say the value of your home
has gone up and the loan devalut Yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
That's just a great goal to strive after that. But
then maybe beyond that just kind of pump your brakes up. Yes,
point one hundred percent. I think that's a wise move.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
And then then once you get there, that's when you
invest more instead of continuing to pay down the mortgage,
because we don't we don't want you to pay off
the mortgage and just go hog wild with with those
stock vestments and just say, oh, I'm gonna get rid
of this mortgage is quickly as possible. We really don't
even want you to go beyond getting rid of that
private mortgage insurance. We just want you to make that
(27:07):
your first goal. And then once pmi's eradicated, then take
those future stock grants and ramp up your investments in
a diversified way. Of course, it's kind of a both
and approach right where you can be attacking this problem,
which is a good problem to have, right with an
optimized approach, I think is this is at least.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
What I would do, Matt.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
I would want to pay it on that work, especially
we're talking about five point eight percent, we're talking about PMI.
Let's frontload some of that mortgage payoff and then let's
back off pay only what's agreed and invest with those
additional dollars.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
That's right, Let's take another quick one from Adel, who
wrote recommendations for an affordable cell phone provider with international options.
Thank you. What do you think, Joel? So maybe you
just lose ditch the phone all together and just go
with the old school Italy on the shoe string, get
your paper map.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
There you go, get the Rick Steves book and then
get a carrier pigeon. If you want to send messages
to your friends and loved one. You don't need to
send messages.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
That is one choice. Just yeah, third old school, not
even all that old school, like only twenty years ago,
that's true, you know, like you couldn't do that twenty
years ago.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
No, and now it's it's expected. Once you were able
to call, it was like crazy expensive and now the
price has gone down. But that doesn't mean that the
price is insignificant, at least with some carrier source. Let's discuss.
I love the idea of having all your cell phone
service under one roof with a US based provider. I
think that would make things easiest for most people. But
(28:29):
sadly that's that's just too expensive in most cases. It's
just not the frugal move. The big cell phone companies,
they tend to charge a daily, a weekly, or a
monthly fee. I think like Verizon charges like twelve bucks
a day to use your phone overseas, which I mean,
when you think about what it used to be, it's like, oh,
that's pretty cheap. But when you think about what other
competitors are offering, it's actually really expensive, and that can
(28:49):
that can add up. Let's say we're talking about a
multi week trip, and so Matt, you and I we
tried using Mint Mobiles planning when we were in Scotland.
Our data ran out what felt like instantly.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
The first day. Yeah, and it wasn't cheap, and it
just felt insufficient. It sucked.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
The only carrier that includes international coverage in the monthly
cost at a fairly reasonable rate I think is Google Fi,
and so the best price you get the best price
from them if you have four lines that you're looking
to move over. But I think if you don't travel regularly,
let's say this is a one time a year, one
week a year sort of thing, there's just no need
to pay more every month, even at Google Fi's pretty
(29:24):
solid rates.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yeah, and of course we got to talk about US
Mobile because they've got the lowest monthly price that we
found they also similar to Google Fi, they've got these
premium plans that include some international data, calling and texting
while you are kicking it overseas while you're abroad. But
those more expensive plans likely only make sense if you
also have a smart watch because of the way they're
(29:46):
pricing works. And then if you go, like if you
are traveling only like once or twice a year, like,
why would you then pay for the enhanced coverage twelve
months out of the year. That's not likely going to
be the case for most folks, And so your best
bet is going to be to go with a third
party e some seller because of how incredibly easy they've
made it. You don't have to scramble and find a
(30:07):
local provider once you land. It's so incredibly affordable. It's
the slam dunk. It's the slam dunk option.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I remember when people first started going overseas and they yeah,
they would find a local typically was like.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
A corner bodega or is there something like, Yeah, you
just got to find something near behind it would.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Get the physical sim they would pop out the one
from their phone, they'd pop the new one in and
they were able to save a good bit of money
going using their phone overseas, almost using it like they
were a local where they were traveling.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
To, which was cool.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
And now E Sims just said like, hold my beer,
this is gonna be We're gonna make this way way easier.
And so air a Low in particular seems to be
the best of the bunch. Yeah, but feel free to
shop around and I love that under I was looking
at their website, Matt, you can really just kind of
buy what you need, right. They have ladder like options,
So oh, hey, I needed to I need this many
gigs of data, this much calling and texting, and you
(30:57):
can say, well, here's what I think I'm gonna need,
or here's what I think i'mnna need. Then you can just
choose based on your budget and how much you think
you're gonna use. Just remember you're likely gonna have Wi
Fi where you're staying and at restaurants if you need it.
That's also a nice perk is that it's easier just
to kind of even stumble upon a Wi Fi network
and hop on and just wing it if you got
to do a couple of things. Yeah, yeah, but it
(31:18):
is I think nice to have some connectivity while you're
walking around, but instead of paying twelve bucks a day, right,
if you don't need tons of data, you can get
by paying something like ten dollars a month. So that's
how big of a price efforts it can be going
with air low instead of going with your provider, your
a US based provider, And so you're going to get
a better deal if you buy your eSIM for a
(31:38):
specific country. But if you're going to multiple countries in Europe,
for instance, you can buy a regional SIM.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
It just costs a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
So if you know, hey, I'm only going to Scotland,
you buy the Scotland SIM, you're gonna say money versus
getting kind of the euro eSIM. But if you're going
to multiple countries, that's probably going to be the best
option too.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Yeah. Another option too, if you're traveling with a group
of folks then you're all wanting data, is to have
a separate device, so you are, you know, you've got
sell your cellular data being provided to that device and
then everyone can just tap into that one singular pocket
router essentially. So that's a way to even save even
more as opposed to everyone kind of doing their own
their own own which is great, especially if you've got
(32:17):
kids and multiple devices, and.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Just look about how like before you take off, you
can or why you're in the air or whatever, literally
in the settings of your phone go and switch so
easy the provider.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
That you're using.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
You've already loaded the air low up to your phone
and that way. Yeah, you're not even like I've heard
horror stories of people turning on their phone and all
these texts come through and they're charged a massive amount
of money. It's like you don't even have to wait
until you land and deal with that possibility.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I love it, man, and that is going to do
it for today. Thank you for listening. We appreciate your
time and attention. We'll see you back here next week.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
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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