July 12, 2024 • 36 mins
Time for a Friday Flight- our little sampling of the week’s financial news and what it means for your personal finances. There are a lot of headlines out there, but we boil them down to specific takeaways that will allow you to kick off the weekend informed and help you to get ahead with your money. In this episode we explain some relevant and helpful stories like: forever ever stamps, Costco membership price increases, personal finance 101, cohabitating to save, forgotten free streaming, ubiquitous betting, big bank threats, buh-bye paper checks, credit card disputes on the rise, longevity by design, & no dice noncompetes.
Want more How To Money in your life? Here are some additional ways to get ahead with your personal finances:
- Knowing your ‘money gear’ is a crucial part of your personal finance journey. Start here.
- Sign up for the weekly HTM newsletter. It’s fun, free, & practical.
- Join a thriving community of fellow money in the HTM Facebook group.
- Find the best credit card for you with our new credit card tool!
- Massively reduce your cell phone bill each month by switching to a discount provider like Mint Mobile.
And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money. Have an awesome weekend!
Best friends out!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Had of Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt.
Today we're talking about cohabitating to save big bank threats
and longevity by design. That's right.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Those are just a few of the stories that we're
gonna get to during today's Friday flight, our sampling of
the different headlines that we've come across this week.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Happy Friday, everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Before we get into it, Joel, you might be proud
to hear that I've done this. But I hopped over
into the how to Money Facebook group.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Wow, you're never there. I don't often Facebook, Joel.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
When I do Facebook, Joel, I go to the how
to Money group, the community page there, which is a
fantastic spot.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
The only way to do Facebook properly, especially in the election,
Like avoid everything else, just go to the how of
Money Facebook group. It's like a train.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It's so hard to look away from the just all
that's going on in our political arena today. But I
noticed that listener, Allison. She posted the fact that Forever
stamps they're going up in price next week on Sunday.
So this is a little PSA. I mean, she's stuck
it out there. I think it's a PSA for everybody
over there in the how to Money Facebook group to hey,
(01:22):
go ahead and pick pick yourself up some of those
forever stamps before the price goes up. I think five
cents to seventy seventy three seasons sixty eight.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
And I know most people are gonna be like Matt,
I don't use stamps anymore. People do the Saint nineteen
eighty two dude. But there are a lot of people
who are like, I'm getting married, I'm about to send
out a bunch of stuff, so it's the perfect time
to stock up. Go get your stamps now before the
price goes up. I think for most people they don't
necessarily need to stock up. But for people who have
something that they're gonna do some sort of mass mailing campaign, definitely,
(01:52):
what about you, Are you gonna go and get something, snake,
because I don't have any big an say. I think
I would if it was even like ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
But even now, we hardly ever mail things anymore. It's
just not something that we do. But here's the other
side of the coin. It's just like, well, what would
it hurt? Because it makes me think about why two K?
So you know, for those who don't know y two
k was this whole phenomenon of folks that the world
was gonna shut down New Year's Eve as soon as
(02:20):
the clock ticked to the year two thousand, basically January first,
that our computers wouldn't be able to handle it, and
everything was two thousand and everything was going to come
crashing down.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
And I remember folks hoarding things specifically. I remember folks
loading up on gasoline.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Because I think one of the fears was that, oh,
gas stations, they're not going to be able to handle.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
It, satellites are gonna be falling out of the air.
Gasoline is not something that you can hoard very well
because these giant jugs is probably kind of dangerous. But stamps,
I don't know. You could buy like multiple books.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
You could have an entire binder if you want to do, yeah,
full of Forever stamps there on your shelf. You could
without getting looked out funny about your neighbors.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Maybe this is like just a PSA for like five
percent of the audience where it's like, all right, cool,
I am a heavy stamps user. I like this, which
I actually love, Like I wish I did write more
letters to people like that instead of emails or text
or something like that. It's it's a beautiful way of corresponding,
but most of us just aren't aren't writing enough letters
like that to need to stock up on stamps. But
(03:21):
if you do, it's a good time to do it.
That's true.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I also saw that, speaking of prices going up, costco
the raison, they're the cost of their membership.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
How do you feel about this? I don't care? Does it?
I mean? Either it's five bucks, it's only five bucks,
and five bucks for regular members, ten bucks for executive members.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Oh I didn't. I didn't know that. Oh, but here's
an executive son. So no, I'm pissed. No, I'm honestly.
They could raise it one hundred bucks and I would
still pay it, would you really?
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Truly? Yes? I get enough value? Okay, what about what
would it take for you to don't reconsider? I don't know.
I've I've tried tried to think about that. It would
have to be hundreds of dollars you're.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Saying, I'm just going with my knee jerk. You saying
one hundred made me feel made me kind of like
squirn them a little bit. So I think I would
have to seriously consider it. Well, I was talking to
a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
A friend who is an executive member and spends a
ton of money, and the cool thing is you get
that's true the cash back exactly. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
And that's the other thing there. While Costco's doing this
if you're a heavy spender executive member, which I am
not to his extent, but he gets the max back
every year, which is a thousand bucks from Costco for
being an executive member. I feel like Costco is that
(04:22):
cap to twelve fifty? Oughtn't know that. Yes, So that
was part of this announcement too, so the benefit and
you're reading the fine print. The other thing Costco did
here was raise wages for all the hourly employees. So
I'm like, Costco, take my money, you're the best. It's
cost of doing business. And it had been seven years
since their price increase. It let their last price increase,
(04:42):
so this only makes sense.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
They've made it through the entire post pandemic period without
raising the cost of membership. Makes me feel like it's
a good time to buy one more share of Costco.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, and it might be like two percent of Costco
members who are saying, I don't know about this. This
is going to change my decision on whether or not
to keep my Costco membership. But I can't imagine that
it's a big percentage because the value is there for
most people who shop at Cosco. If you're single and
you're like, I haven't been going there much anyway, and
I don't know about the buying goods in bulk. It's
not necessarily working out for my lifestyle, then yeah, maybe
(05:12):
you don't need your Costco membership. It's always a good
time to reassess. I think it is when they're depressing.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
We recently are visiting my folks and because they go
to Costco, they end up buying tons of.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Whatever it is that they buy.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And I swear there and I appreciate it them giving
us groceries, but it'll be like this giant bag of almonds.
We're all just pure, unadulterated almonds that are like on
the verge of going bad. And they're like, we don't
know what to do with a skull bad. Yeah, there's oil.
So anytime there's oil in some being.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Years, right, oil spoils Joel. It starts to taste.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I don't know how to describe it, but kind of
not good. Okay, It's just like it's just an off flavor.
I wouldn't call it raincid, but eventually that's that is
what it gets to.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure it breaks out at some point,
but I can't imagine it breaks down.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It's not like honey that you can walk up in
a tomb unearth it, you know, millennia later and it's
still good.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, we'll be in like Pharaoh's too. That sounds right, Yeah,
sounds right. Okay, let's keep moving on, mat we got
more stories. Let's talk about personal finance classes in high schools.
They're becoming the norm around the country, and that trend
continues as California Governor Gavin Newsom he signed a law
requiring standalone personal finance courses for all high schoolers before graduation.
I don't think it kicks in till like the twenty
(06:21):
twenty eight school year, maybe twenty twenty seven, something like that,
but now somewhere close to seven in ten high school
students are going to have at least a taste of
personal finance knowledge funneled their way before graduation. And so
you and I I think people are going to guess
what we think about this. We love it. We're homers.
This is how to money. Yeah, we're all about this.
We want people to know more about how to handle
(06:41):
their personal finance as well.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Know.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
We actually shared a study recently and it found that
the lifetime savings that someone experiences who has taken a
personal finance course in high school versus someone who didn't
is more than one hundred thousand bucks, like one hundred
and thirty thousand bucks or something like that over their lifetime.
We think that checks out and that makes it and
this potentially the most valuable class a kid might take
in high school. Sorry, calculus, you were up in the running,
(07:05):
but you lost to the personal finance class. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
A part of those studies show that students who end
up taking these personal finance courses they are better at
avoiding the worst kinds of debt like payday loans, like
carrying credit card balances, and because of that, they end
up with higher credit scores. And anyone listening to how
many knows the power of investing whether you are twenty
two years old or whether you're sixty two years old, but.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Starting young is clutch, And just imagine starting to invest
like forty years sooner, investing one to two percent more
over the decades.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
All of these things add up in a significant way,
making a six figure difference in your future network.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
So it doesn't surprise me at all. And congrats to
California on this.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
We can't wait to see these these classes becoming more
commonplace because not everyone is getting personal finance knowledge. Folks
aren't talking about money in a casual, informative, helpful way
at home or even among their friends. And I'm really
excited about the conversations that this is going to spark.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, and it's not a panacea, like it's not going
to fix all the financial problems that we have going
on in this country, and it's probably not going to
dramatically alter some of the statistics that we read year
in and year out. But it is going to make
a difference in the lives of many kids, and it's
at least going to give them a baseline knowledge to
move through and so then they can question things as
the older they get. It's easier than to question or
(08:25):
to push back against a quote that you get on
a mortgage or something like that. You're like, wait a second,
but my credit score is actually pretty good. I know
this because I learned about credit scores in high school
and I track it a little bit now, or fees
in a four oh one k. I just feel like
people are going to be more empowered moving forward if
they have at least a little bit of knowledge which
they're going to gain from a class like this. So
(08:46):
kudos to California. This is awesome. All right, let's talk
about cohabitating, Matt, and the question comes up. I think
for a lot of people, especially as inflation has become
more of a problem, should I move in with somebody
else in order to save money? I think the answer
I can't answer the question for you. You have to answer
that for yourself. I guess, but it depends on your personality,
(09:07):
your risk tolerance. I remember being if you like people
touching your stuff, yeah, or it's like, well, actually this
will save me money, but that person's like pig pen
or something that they're really they're dirty and they don't
clean up out for themselves. That can make for a
tough roommate situation. But I remember being so excited when
Emily and I were getting married. Part of it was
like having two incomes, right, But the other part was
(09:29):
having one roof of our heads and it felt like
a massive paar race at the time. Do you remember
that feeling well?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I mean yeah, I mean housing is a massive line
item on everyone's budget every single month, and so to
consolidate that, it basically it feels like you like you're
winning on both ends, Like you are as a family
unit receiving more income, but then on top of that
you get to reduce some of your expenses.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
It's awesome. And I guess they call it the single
tax right where if you're living alone, and it's true,
it feels like you're paying more because most of the
time you are. But a New York Times article documented
the rise of young couples moving in together, with saving
money being the primary motive. And not trying to be
prudes here, but if you decide to move in with
someone after dating for a few months, you could be
setting yourself up for relational failure and personal hardship. And
(10:10):
it's I think, just be careful. If saving money is
the main thrust of why you're moving in with someone,
it can actually end up costing you in the end. Yeah,
it feels like if it feels.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Like a case of the tail wagging the dog like
it should be that this is a result. This is
a benefit that you receive once you find somebody that
you want to commit to a long term relationship with.
I'm less cautious for folks who are willing to who
are wanting to move in together with a roommate, because
I think that's a very time tested, cost effective way
of reducing your expenses, right, but you don't know who
(10:42):
they are, certainly, absolutely, but even still, I mean like
I feel like that's one step towards house hacking, and
it's like, hey, let's figure out how long we're gonna
do this.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Whereas when it gets romantic.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I feel like that's really where the wires can get crossed,
because then there's a whole like roommates, it's kind of
like a business transaction almost. It's like, hey, can we coexist? Okay, great,
here's your room, here's my room. This is how we're
gonna do this. Yeah, right, well, and you're right. I
think the other thing you need to consider is the
potential financial downsides of doing this. So yeah, you might
save money for a few months, but then if you
(11:12):
have to break the lease or that person does end
up saying Listen, this isn't working. I'm moving back with
my parents. You're stuck with the lease, and you're paying
more than you were for that one bedroom apartment on
your own because now you've got two three bedrooms, or
maybe you don't need those additional rooms, and hopefully you
can be scrappy enough to then find some additional roommates.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Because yeah, you're gonna find yourself in a pinch, so
put the ball in your court.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, we do want folks to be a little more
thoughtful as they approach this. We don't want it especially,
I don't want it to be a knee jerk reaction,
especially for couples who are like, hey, we've been dating
for a couple of months, man, we could really save
a whole lot by doing this. I think you need
to really know yourself, and especially I'm more open to it,
I guess if folks are older, because when you're older,
you kind of know what you're looking for. It's like
(11:55):
when you're younger, like somebody who's dating somebody in high
school and they want to get married and like, okay,
come on, like you've only you've been dating for a year,
do you actually know each other? It's like, when you're younger,
you need like maybe you need like three or four
years of dating to actually know that person. But by
the time you're thirty years old, thirty five, forty years old,
like you know exactly what you're looking for you with.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Your relational event. I don't know how true that is.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I just know when I see people and they're in
their like thirties or forties and they've been dating somebody
for three four months and they want to get married
or they want to move in together, that's not nearly
as much of a red flag as opposed to someone
making that decision when they're fresh out of high school.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
That's actually I'm actually gonna disagree with he really, I
think there's some of the most successful marriages I know
are people who got married in nineteen or twenty. And
I know some people right now and they only dated
for like three months. Well maybe not three months, that's
what I'm saying, like seven or eight.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I'm fine with people getting married right out of high school,
but oftentimes they have dated for at least two years
that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
You see what I'm saying, Yeah, yeah, okay, I've been then.
I just was literally talking to a friend recently and
he's in his forties and he's dating and he's been
literally been dating a girl for three months and she
was like, I'm ready to like take this. The next
he was like, I'm ready to break up. And so
I don't know. It's just it's it's weird out there,
and it's always on the maturity of the person you're
talking to. I'm guessing and what they're looking for. Yeah. Yeah,
(13:11):
relationships are hard, man, And so I think you just
have to Again. I get the desire to save money,
especially as costurizing fortunately cost youre going down slightly for
renters across a lot of the country, but just be
careful before you're making a when you're making a commitment
to somebody a financially, it's a big financial commitment that
goes along with it and might seem like it's going
to save shave you money on the front end, but
it might not on the back end.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Totally agree, All right, man, Let's talk about streaming, because
with the insane number of streaming services that are out
out there and the exorbitant price increases that we've seen
over the past couple of years, it seems like more
folks are checking out the free options at their disposal.
Of course, downside their ads supported you hate aside.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
I'm not a fan of.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And that's fine, you know, if I don't want to
do that, So if I want to go with the service,
I might pay a little extra.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
But you can find some decent stuff out there, and
more folks are already watching ads on the paid services anyway, right,
their prices just didn't go up quite as much, and
so that's one of the ways they were able to
keep their prices in check by Amazon Prime watching the
occasional ad they put the ads on there. I mean,
you want to save a little bit of money, you're
gonna pay for the ad supported model. But guess what, Yeah,
there are free options that have that are AD supported too.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, we don't want folks to forget about Roku Pluto
is it tuby tubby?
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I don't even know how to pronounce this. I've always
read about it.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
But Samsung they've even got a free service, and one
of our favorite.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Library apps, Hoopla, they've got a free service as well.
I think I saw that The Whale is available on Hoopla.
That's the movie. Oh so you've seen it? Really good?
This is. I watched it on an airplane.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Nice, it feels like a good airplane movie. But Brendan
Fraser kith on a fan, so that's probably why we
haven't seen that when she never got past his role
in the Mummy.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I never saw the Mummy. So I remember Brendan Fraser
from Encino.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Man, Oh, that's where you plays the caveman, right, yeah,
with poly short that's right. Bottom line, we want folks
to remember that there are free options out there if
you're looking to reduce your budget how much you're spending
on entertainment. Of course, the downside though, is that there's
a whole lot of.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Crap that you have to filter through. And the other thing, Matt,
I have literally I found myself watching so much less TV.
Part of that is because I'm like waking up earlier
to try to run more so I'm not apathetic human being.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, and got less time in the evenings to yeah,
PLoP down in front of this, Like, how long is
it going to take me to finish The Bear season three?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
I don't know. It's probably gonna take me like two months,
and so.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I haven't even started it. My list of things to
watch just continues to get longer. I haven't even seen Oppenheimer.
I shared that with you the other day. You can't
believe it.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
You're like, wait, what that is great? You need to
do that one soon. But I get it. Yeah, it's
harder to find the time, especially when you're prioritizing other things,
and for prioritizing saving money on TV go with some
of these free services or watch less TV in general.
Three there you go. All right, let's talk about gambling, Matt,
one of your favorite pastimes, but it's your bigger gambler though,
I'm sorry, true I do.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Again, we're not prudes. I don't want job. Joel likes
to gamble on dog racing and cock fights. Well, actually
did go to a dog racing track and you raised
combat for fighting.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
No, didn't do that, but I appreciate that. So okay,
let's talk about gambling for just a second. Though it's
becoming I think, more acceptable in our culture. It's not
just Vegas or going to the riverboats of Mississippi to gamble,
but like, let's at your fingertips all the time. They
are state lotteries that kind of stuff. And sports gambling,
of course, is the one where i've seen the massive growth,
and all the advertisements that are just maybe want to
(16:28):
punch myself in the face every time I see them
because they're so ubiquitous. But now there's a new way
you can gamble, a new way you can be a degenerate,
and that is to bet on economic predictions if you're
so inclined. So I guess we can all think or
blame this company called Interactive Brokers for making this a reality.
They launched something called forecast Trader on Monday. Now you
(16:50):
can bet on the CPI number, what's it going to be?
If you bet that it was going to stay the same,
you would have been wrong. You would have lost money
because it went down when it was reported on Thursday.
You can bet on the jobs report, the Fed Fund's right.
Are they going to cut in September? Are they not? Ooh,
I want to gamble on that thing. What could go wrong? Right?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Well, you could yeah, read like an enduth bio on
jer own pal and then that way you get the
inside track, right right, Knowledge is power, jool.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
What's your any Gram number? Jeromee Pwell, that's gonna help
me out and make a better bet. Let me be clear,
I don't like the fact that this exists, but it's
hard for the libertarian side of me to not be like,
but it should be allowed to exist, right like, it
shouldn't necessarily be banned, I think. But what this means, though,
is that the responsibility is on you, especially if you
are more of a financial nerd and in the past
you found yourself drawn towards betting. Well, this could be
(17:37):
recipe for disaster for you specifically, And I think one
thing to do, like what's difficult about gambling is realizing
the ultimate cost of the little piddly what you could
perceive as the piddley amounts of money that you're spending
every week, every single month, And to that we would
recommend the rule of one seventy three, which is a
simple formula where you can take a recurring expense that
you experienced every single month, you simply multiply by one
(18:00):
hundred and seventy three, and that is the future investment
amount where you to take that monthly expense and invest
it rather than spend it every single month. And there's
just that disconnect, and it's so hard for us to
predict how we're going to feel about something and the
impacts that were the small steps. The small things that
we're doing today are everyday actions and the long term
consequences of that. And so the rule of one to
(18:22):
seventy three, that's what you can do with those monthly
expenses to truly realize the magnitude of these monthly expenses.
We always want to minimize them, right, We want to say, ah,
it's just a few bucks here and there. In some
ways that's true, But then the other thing is, well,
how much could it be if you were to eradicate
that from your life? And it's at least worth knowing
the trade off that you're making looking at it in
the face. And that's what the rule of one seventy
(18:43):
three helps you do. Exactly the other thing I think
when we're talking about gambling, again, not apprude. I like
to play blackjack. I probably haven't liked played blackjack in
a casino in like a decade or somewhere close to it.
But have a limit and make it part of your
entertainment budget. Sure, so if it's your thing, and maybe
in that this is the thing that just I guess
irks me or makes me sad mad. It's just the
(19:04):
it being at people's fingertips. It being easier than ever before.
At least you had to like drive somewhere and go
do the thing. And now it's like you can get
addicted and nobody know about it and be losing a
whole heck of a lot of money. And I do
think that we're going to see a new era of
gambling in this country that's gonna ruin individual lives, It's
going to harm families, and that I'm sad about that. So, yeah,
(19:24):
be careful before you enter into anything like this, and
think about whether or not gambling is worth part of
your entertainment budget before you begin.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, and if you have found in the past this
to be a slippery slope for you, just avoid it altogether.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Not worth it. Yeah, all right, Joel, We've.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Got more to get to, including some new bank fees
that some customers can expect.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
We'll get to that more right after this. All right,
Friday flight continues Matthew, and we got to get to
the Lucros headline of the week. As usual, this one
comes to the Wall Street Journal and the headline reads
JP Morgan Warren's customers prepare to pay for checking accounts. No, sorry,
(20:09):
heads up, Joel. Yeah, this was like a Wall Street
Journal exclusive story, by the way, Chase checking account, they
interviewed a lot more expensive. Not Jamie Diamond, but like
the person's right below him, And she was basically saying, listen,
Chase Bank, if some of these government regulations that are
being proposed come to pass, all of our customers are
going to pay more money. And it feels like this
this veiled threat or empty threat. And my response to
(20:32):
you is no, thank you, big bank over lords. I'm
not going to do that. So basically, yeah, she was saying,
the capping of overdraft and late fees that the government
has proposed, the CFPB has been proposing, well, that would
increase their cost of doing business, and they're going to
have to pass on those increased costs to customers. They
used words like sweeping and significant. That's what's going to
(20:53):
have to happen when these changes are made. That's what
their customers are going to feel. And you know, the
poor banks basically wouldn't able to offer you an account
without levying a meaningful monthly fee. Insert single emoji tier
face here, Matthew for the banks. Let me get out
my tiny violin and play a little song for them.
These caps that are being proposed on. Some of these
(21:13):
fees will potentially, yes, reduce rewards for some customers. But
this threat from Chase is silly. I don't even know
why you agreed, the interviewer do this article. There are
hundreds of banks offering better products and services for far
less money these days than what Chase is offering. Many
of these banks have proactively eliminated these fees already. We're
(21:34):
talking about ally, we're talking about capital one. They've said, yeah,
before the government does anything, we're just going to get
rid of these altogether to be better for our customers.
And so this public threat, combined with their lack of
competitiveness in the personal banking space, should have any decent
money loving person, person who wants the best for their
own finances jumping ship from Chase. This threat just makes
(21:56):
me want people to leave in bigger numbers.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, it's interesting how they've positioned it that, hey, our
costs are going to be going up, But in reality,
what's going on here is that their profits are going down,
and so they're trying to maintain their profits. Is not
that the actual that their actual expenses are actually increasing. So,
while we're talking about banking let's talk about personal checks.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
When's the last time you write a personal check, Joel,
can you remember? It's been a hot minute, Probably been
a couple years. Actually, We've got.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
We had some yard work done, some work outside, and
had to bust out. He's like, oh, yeah, we need
a deposit today. I was like, yeah, sure, let me
run in. Could not find the check book. I literally
don't know where it is. I think we lost it.
But it doesn't even matter though, because I was able
to zell that individual that money.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
As opposed to actually write a check. There are so
many other options, and this is something that Target has
wised up to.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Starting next week, they're not going to accept paper checks anymore.
Aldi Whole Foods, I'm pretty sure they already asked paper
checks as a payment option, and fewer than three percent
of overall transactions they were done with a personal check
in twenty twenty three. So I wanted to share this
just to give folks a heads up out there, because personally,
(23:05):
I'm all for this because checks they've obviously fallen out
of favor. It's just inefficient, you know, like they slow
down the checkout line, much to the chagrin of not
only the shoppers who are waiting in line behind them.
But I'm sure to the folks who are working in
their registers and from our perspective, they're just an inferior
form of payment because when handled, well, what do we
(23:25):
want folks to use their credit cards? We want you
to realize the different benefits that are able to be
offered there. We know that this might be an unpopular
opinion for some folks out there who do still rely
on checks. So just a heads up that the times, Joel,
they're a change.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
In Yes, I'd be curious to know, by the way,
if any had a money listener out there says, guys,
you're off base here. I like writing checks. I go
to Target. I'm actually really upset they're making this move.
Send us an email. I would love to know why
somebody still writes checks these days, because, yeah, they're an
inferior form of payment. I'd be okay without lowing them altogether. Yeah,
and you're right, Matt, like when labor costs have gone up,
(24:00):
the longer the cashiers sitting there watching you, you know,
endorse your check and stuff like that just going to
cost them more money.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yeah, everybody just wants to get out of there anyway, right,
And I know everyone's tired of you're going to.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Talk about Aldie, but is so great because it's so quick.
Can you remember when Aldi used to not accept credit cards? Oh? Barely? Yeah,
that was sad. It was. It was such a great
day when they started accepting cards. But they're able just
to whip those items right over that scanner, getting right
into the card. Amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Like you look down to reach for your phone to
Apple pay or to pull out a credit card, and
you look up and they're aready done. They're just like
standing there waiting on you.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I'm just like, how did you do that? Same with
legal because they can They've got two places that they
can slide your grocery good at. The barcodes are like
one entire side of a box. Yeah, I love it.
Two really smart grocery operations. UT's speaking of credit cards, Matt.
Credit card disputes are one of the top reasons to
use a credit card because if the company you do
business with doesn't hold up there into the bargain, you
(24:53):
have recourse. Not true if you wrote a check. And
the number of credit card transactions that end with a
dispute are grow, They've gone up nearly forty percent since
twenty nineteen. I think, Matt, more people are realizing that
this is one of the privileges that come with using
your credit card at the point of purchase, in that
filing a dispute isn't really all that difficult. But credit
(25:13):
card companies are also finding then more people are abusing
the chargeback system right they're attempting to claw their money
back from a legitimate purchase. This costs the credit card
company and the business that you're doing. That charge back
against time and money can be really frustrating for the merchants,
and so our suggestion to you use the chargeback system
the way it was intended, because it is a benefit
(25:35):
of purchasing with a credit card, but don't abuse the system,
because if you become one of I could just see
rule changes being made to the way chargebacks are done. Matt.
If chargeback fraud essentially becomes like rampant normal, exactly, this
is why we can't have nice things. It's like people
abusing those super generous return policies some of our favorite retailers,
and then those retailers have to say, we have to
tweet this a little bit to prevent people from taking
(25:58):
this generous return policy to its like in degree.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
All right, let's talk about planned obsolescence, because it is
a real problem in I'm thinking about technology specifically, and
maybe toys, maybe virtually in every area of personal consumption,
many businesses are making items that just aren't meant to
last very long and all. But that is not true
of all gadgets out there, and it's certainly worth highlighting
(26:20):
the companies, the folks who are doing a good job
on that front. I'm specifically thinking of Darn Tough. I've
got a pair of their socks and they got that
lifetime warranty. Get a little hole, any issues with your socks,
send them back.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
They're gonna cost like ten x one a normal pair
of socks costs, but then they're incredibly come basically last forever.
Oh one other company on that I want to mention.
I'm not personally warranting, but one of my friends recently
got a new washing and dryer by a company called
speed Queen. Have you heard of them? No? So apparently
it's faster, and apparently they have like a three year
warranty and just it's much easier to fix and repair those.
(26:52):
Was it like a German company. I don't I know
when it comes.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
To dishwashers, the was bosh, Yeah, those are the ones
that are always at the top of the heat speak queen.
I'll keep that in mind. But I'm also thinking of
Apple because they released a white paper last week called
Longevity by Design, and they discussed their progress towards product longevity.
Stat's fine that Apple users are keeping their iPhones around longer.
(27:15):
Hundreds of millions of iPhones are still being used well
beyond five years from the date of purchase, and folks
are holding on to their phones longer for a bunch
of reasons. Of course, cost, but there are fewer carrier
cell phone carrier subsidies these days, and honestly, there's just
not a whole lot of innovation that's taking place.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
We've talked about that. We had a listener question maybe
last month, a couple months ago, or of the iPhone twelve,
So we're talking about, yeah, twelve or even maybe is
even thirteen, And I'm like, oh my gosh, a twelve
pro or thirteen pro. Those are still really great phones.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
But just perhaps to Apple for creating phones that tend
to last longer then their Android peers, even if they
do cost a fair bit more on the front end
much of the time. Yeah, I think it's worth thinking
through and just waste as well.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Environment.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
That's one of the things that I've that I've felt
convicted on where I know not everybody has the ability
to spend more upfront on an item like that, but
if you do have the financial ability to, it makes
sense on multiple fronts that that's something that you should
probably at least consider.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, I'm not gonna say that you have to do it.
I think you're right. I mean think people have become
more conscious about cost per use when it comes to
their clothing items. I think cost per year of ownership
is another great way to maybe think about your cell
phone because you could opt for the three hundred dollars
model and let's say it last two years, but the
but the thousand dollars model is going to last you
for six. Well, then you're talking, I don't know, you're
(28:36):
comparing the right thing as opposed to just the upfront cost. Right,
And if you buy something that's going to last a
heck of a lot longer, you can delay your upgrade cycle.
That's awesome. So I agree. I mean, I think it's
it's good to see that Apple products are being kept
around longer. And I think you're exactly right too. It
used to be people had the upgrade cycle because they
were paying more for their cell phone service and this
(28:57):
was like included. And the more we've decoupled buying the
phone from the price of the service, people have found
like they're realizing the full cost of the phone instead
of it being packaged into what their monthly bill.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
It feels like there's more price transparency and consumers are
able to make more informed decisions.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
And then there's more price sensitivity and that's good, Like
we want people to be price sensitive so that it's
going to change their actions, right, And so this is
all good news. Not all companies are keen on solving
customer pain points, though. The Journal this week detailed Vanguard's
horrible customer service these days. Oh yeah, and this has
been something it's been kind of a slow moving tidal
(29:32):
wave over the past few years. Vanguard customer is not
nearly as happy with the way Vanguard is doing business.
And we mentioned recently the Vanguard is going to start
charging money if you want to place trades via the phone.
We get that there's a freeway to do trades, do
it online right if you want to avoid that fee.
But Vanguard has let down a lot of its loyal customers,
not by raising fees, their funds are still great and
(29:52):
low cost, but by not helping them out when they
have a problem. Vanguard ranked last in customer service satisfaction
the major brokerages last year, and they say they're spending
money in an effort to mitigate customer issues and to
modernize things. I think they're spending like a billion dollars
or something like that on their app and website, but
it's just not happening fast enough. And if you want
(30:14):
to reach a human being a Vanguard, it can be tough.
And so we still love Vanguard, but we hope they
fix these issues. And if you're just starting out, if
you're trying to figure out where to invest, I don't know,
Fidelity and Schwab might be better options if you're just
starting out. I think Vanguard even has limited customer service
hours between a certain window during the day. Fidelity and
Shop are like twenty four to seven, So I see
(30:34):
that as at least one check mark in favor of
Fidelity Swab over Vanguard.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, I'm curious to see if Vanguard is essentially experimenting
and trying to figure out what folks are more willing
to get on board with, because on one hand, it's like, Okay,
we can maintain good service, but hey.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
We're going to charge you more.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
On the other end of the spectrum, it's like, well,
we can get the price the same, but we're going
to reduce what we're giving you, and in this case,
obviously they're reducing what they're delivering. Like there's one that
we tend to be like, oh, that's fine, I don't
care if you charge more fees when it comes to
making phone trades. That's not something we do. But overall
as an as a company, I'm curious to like what
they end up deciding, because maybe what they find is
(31:12):
that there's more they get more pushback from folks who
don't want to pay fees when it comes to making
this phone calls, and though we are more interested in
seeing customer service maintained at a higher level, maybe that's
not something that they hear back from.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Well, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I think a lot of folks I'm curious to see
if they trend in one direction or the other.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
The article highlighted people who are who are leaving Vanguard
because of this. Yeah, and so at some point Vanguard
not only are they getting a bad reputation, getting a
black eye with the public, but actually losing customer They're
losing customers, they're losing revenue because of this, and so
you got to figure out the happy medium. You're right,
you could like have one ring customer service, white glove
service or something like that, but it's too costly. It's
(31:50):
gonna it's going to raise it's going to raise the
cost of the service that people have to pay. Vanguard's
got to find a better happy medium than this. Though
there's carrots and there are sticks, Joel.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Something that is in legal limbo right now is the
non compete band that the Federal Trade Commission is trying
to push.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Through, something you and I have butted heads again about.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
We don't butt heads off to see eye to eye
on everything, but a federal judge they delayed the implementation
of this band citing a lack of authority from the
regulatory agency. We're not legal scholars or anything, but I
think one of the recent Supreme Court rulings about government
agency power could have something to do with this.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
The Chevron case.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
I believe that the Chevron doctrine. Okay, you got a PhD. Apparently,
we're also not fans of non competes, though in most industries,
bottom line, they prevent workers from taking higher paying positions
with a competitor. It stimey's their ability for career advancement
without having to move. We are not a fan, but
this is another again, another area where I'm kind of like,
(32:52):
should it be banned? Though even though I'm not personally
a fan, I think personally I think it's up to
the business to decide how it is that they want
to transact business with their customers or in this case,
how they want to treat their employees. And that being said,
I'm not a fan because I am always going to
advocate for you as a consumer and for you in
this case as an employee. We want folks out there
(33:14):
to have options, to have the freedom to make decisions
and to go with whatever employer that they want to.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
There's still some states, by the way, that don't allow
non competes or that have more strenuous rules about non competes.
This would have been some sort of federal ban exactly,
But yeah, in this case, with this noncompete ban being
thrown out for the time being, it's up to you
to know what your future or potential employer is asking
you to sign and to push back on that and say, listen,
(33:40):
I'd love to take this job, but I'm not signing
this thing because it's gonna This is rubbish. Yeah, and
use that word too, it's so British it does. And
you might say, my plan is to be here for
years to come, but I am not going to limit
my future abilities by signing something like this. And if
I can't get this job because I refuse to sign it,
guess what, I'm really talented. I'm going to go find
somewhere else. And so you just have to know that
(34:01):
before you sign something.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Exactly, I think it's a contract, right And at the
end of the day, when you sign your name to something,
it's one thing to click the Spotify music agreement or whatever.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Right. Yeah, it's low stakes. Getting hired by a company,
purchasing a home. These are instances where you're going to
take a little more time and make sure that you're
reading the fine print. I will readily admit I don't
read all the fine print for everything. That I click.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Nobody does, very few people do, and I don't hate
to envision a world where we do need to read
every single one of these things, especially with all the
different updates and the different apps that we install on
our phones. But those are all lower stake situations as
opposed to something like taking a new job with an
employer that you're excited.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
About yeah, and then realizing, wait a second, this isn't
a great situation for me, and then you got to
wait two years before being able to work in that
industry again, at least within a certain geographical area. So
new bummer not competes can really hamstring your financial future.
And you've got to be your own advocate on this one. Heck, yeah,
look at us.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
See, I feel like we kind of both into the
middle a little bit there that I think we both
still maintain our position, just without focusing on the negatives.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Yeah, but all right, that's gonna be it for this
Friday flight. We'll see you back here on Monday. We
hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. And by the way,
leave us a review over at Apple podcast or wherever
you listen if you haven't already yet done that for us.
Say something nice to me. I appreciate it MAT's new mustache.
While you're leaving that really talking about the it's gonna
last for maybe like one more week. I think. I
(35:27):
just I've never grown a mustache before, and I kind
of want to see what I'm capable of. Doc. I
just want to see like eighteen reviews on there and
whatever you want to say, a yes vote or a
no vote for the mustache. So three words about the mustache?
Should he ditch it or not?
Speaker 2 (35:41):
All right, but that's gonna be it until next time.
Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,
Welcome to Had of Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt.
Today we're talking about cohabitating to save big bank threats
and longevity by design. That's right.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Those are just a few of the stories that we're
gonna get to during today's Friday flight, our sampling of
the different headlines that we've come across this week.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Happy Friday, everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Before we get into it, Joel, you might be proud
to hear that I've done this. But I hopped over
into the how to Money Facebook group.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Wow, you're never there. I don't often Facebook, Joel.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
When I do Facebook, Joel, I go to the how
to Money group, the community page there, which is a
fantastic spot.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
The only way to do Facebook properly, especially in the election,
Like avoid everything else, just go to the how of
Money Facebook group. It's like a train.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It's so hard to look away from the just all
that's going on in our political arena today. But I
noticed that listener, Allison. She posted the fact that Forever
stamps they're going up in price next week on Sunday.
So this is a little PSA. I mean, she's stuck
it out there. I think it's a PSA for everybody
over there in the how to Money Facebook group to hey,
(01:22):
go ahead and pick pick yourself up some of those
forever stamps before the price goes up. I think five
cents to seventy seventy three seasons sixty eight.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
And I know most people are gonna be like Matt,
I don't use stamps anymore. People do the Saint nineteen
eighty two dude. But there are a lot of people
who are like, I'm getting married, I'm about to send
out a bunch of stuff, so it's the perfect time
to stock up. Go get your stamps now before the
price goes up. I think for most people they don't
necessarily need to stock up. But for people who have
something that they're gonna do some sort of mass mailing campaign, definitely,
(01:52):
what about you, Are you gonna go and get something, snake,
because I don't have any big an say. I think
I would if it was even like ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
But even now, we hardly ever mail things anymore. It's
just not something that we do. But here's the other
side of the coin. It's just like, well, what would
it hurt? Because it makes me think about why two K?
So you know, for those who don't know y two
k was this whole phenomenon of folks that the world
was gonna shut down New Year's Eve as soon as
(02:20):
the clock ticked to the year two thousand, basically January first,
that our computers wouldn't be able to handle it, and
everything was two thousand and everything was going to come
crashing down.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
And I remember folks hoarding things specifically. I remember folks
loading up on gasoline.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Because I think one of the fears was that, oh,
gas stations, they're not going to be able to handle.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
It, satellites are gonna be falling out of the air.
Gasoline is not something that you can hoard very well
because these giant jugs is probably kind of dangerous. But stamps,
I don't know. You could buy like multiple books.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
You could have an entire binder if you want to do, yeah,
full of Forever stamps there on your shelf. You could
without getting looked out funny about your neighbors.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Maybe this is like just a PSA for like five
percent of the audience where it's like, all right, cool,
I am a heavy stamps user. I like this, which
I actually love, Like I wish I did write more
letters to people like that instead of emails or text
or something like that. It's it's a beautiful way of corresponding,
but most of us just aren't aren't writing enough letters
like that to need to stock up on stamps. But
(03:21):
if you do, it's a good time to do it.
That's true.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I also saw that, speaking of prices going up, costco
the raison, they're the cost of their membership.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
How do you feel about this? I don't care? Does it?
I mean? Either it's five bucks, it's only five bucks,
and five bucks for regular members, ten bucks for executive members.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Oh I didn't. I didn't know that. Oh, but here's
an executive son. So no, I'm pissed. No, I'm honestly.
They could raise it one hundred bucks and I would
still pay it, would you really?
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Truly? Yes? I get enough value? Okay, what about what
would it take for you to don't reconsider? I don't know.
I've I've tried tried to think about that. It would
have to be hundreds of dollars you're.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Saying, I'm just going with my knee jerk. You saying
one hundred made me feel made me kind of like
squirn them a little bit. So I think I would
have to seriously consider it. Well, I was talking to
a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
A friend who is an executive member and spends a
ton of money, and the cool thing is you get
that's true the cash back exactly. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
And that's the other thing there. While Costco's doing this
if you're a heavy spender executive member, which I am
not to his extent, but he gets the max back
every year, which is a thousand bucks from Costco for
being an executive member. I feel like Costco is that
(04:22):
cap to twelve fifty? Oughtn't know that. Yes, So that
was part of this announcement too, so the benefit and
you're reading the fine print. The other thing Costco did
here was raise wages for all the hourly employees. So
I'm like, Costco, take my money, you're the best. It's
cost of doing business. And it had been seven years
since their price increase. It let their last price increase,
(04:42):
so this only makes sense.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
They've made it through the entire post pandemic period without
raising the cost of membership. Makes me feel like it's
a good time to buy one more share of Costco.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, and it might be like two percent of Costco
members who are saying, I don't know about this. This
is going to change my decision on whether or not
to keep my Costco membership. But I can't imagine that
it's a big percentage because the value is there for
most people who shop at Cosco. If you're single and
you're like, I haven't been going there much anyway, and
I don't know about the buying goods in bulk. It's
not necessarily working out for my lifestyle, then yeah, maybe
(05:12):
you don't need your Costco membership. It's always a good
time to reassess. I think it is when they're depressing.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
We recently are visiting my folks and because they go
to Costco, they end up buying tons of.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Whatever it is that they buy.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And I swear there and I appreciate it them giving
us groceries, but it'll be like this giant bag of almonds.
We're all just pure, unadulterated almonds that are like on
the verge of going bad. And they're like, we don't
know what to do with a skull bad. Yeah, there's oil.
So anytime there's oil in some being.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Years, right, oil spoils Joel. It starts to taste.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I don't know how to describe it, but kind of
not good. Okay, It's just like it's just an off flavor.
I wouldn't call it raincid, but eventually that's that is
what it gets to.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure it breaks out at some point,
but I can't imagine it breaks down.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It's not like honey that you can walk up in
a tomb unearth it, you know, millennia later and it's
still good.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, we'll be in like Pharaoh's too. That sounds right, Yeah,
sounds right. Okay, let's keep moving on, mat we got
more stories. Let's talk about personal finance classes in high schools.
They're becoming the norm around the country, and that trend
continues as California Governor Gavin Newsom he signed a law
requiring standalone personal finance courses for all high schoolers before graduation.
I don't think it kicks in till like the twenty
(06:21):
twenty eight school year, maybe twenty twenty seven, something like that,
but now somewhere close to seven in ten high school
students are going to have at least a taste of
personal finance knowledge funneled their way before graduation. And so
you and I I think people are going to guess
what we think about this. We love it. We're homers.
This is how to money. Yeah, we're all about this.
We want people to know more about how to handle
(06:41):
their personal finance as well.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Know.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
We actually shared a study recently and it found that
the lifetime savings that someone experiences who has taken a
personal finance course in high school versus someone who didn't
is more than one hundred thousand bucks, like one hundred
and thirty thousand bucks or something like that over their lifetime.
We think that checks out and that makes it and
this potentially the most valuable class a kid might take
in high school. Sorry, calculus, you were up in the running,
(07:05):
but you lost to the personal finance class. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
A part of those studies show that students who end
up taking these personal finance courses they are better at
avoiding the worst kinds of debt like payday loans, like
carrying credit card balances, and because of that, they end
up with higher credit scores. And anyone listening to how
many knows the power of investing whether you are twenty
two years old or whether you're sixty two years old, but.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Starting young is clutch, And just imagine starting to invest
like forty years sooner, investing one to two percent more
over the decades.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
All of these things add up in a significant way,
making a six figure difference in your future network.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
So it doesn't surprise me at all. And congrats to
California on this.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
We can't wait to see these these classes becoming more
commonplace because not everyone is getting personal finance knowledge. Folks
aren't talking about money in a casual, informative, helpful way
at home or even among their friends. And I'm really
excited about the conversations that this is going to spark.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, and it's not a panacea, like it's not going
to fix all the financial problems that we have going
on in this country, and it's probably not going to
dramatically alter some of the statistics that we read year
in and year out. But it is going to make
a difference in the lives of many kids, and it's
at least going to give them a baseline knowledge to
move through and so then they can question things as
the older they get. It's easier than to question or
(08:25):
to push back against a quote that you get on
a mortgage or something like that. You're like, wait a second,
but my credit score is actually pretty good. I know
this because I learned about credit scores in high school
and I track it a little bit now, or fees
in a four oh one k. I just feel like
people are going to be more empowered moving forward if
they have at least a little bit of knowledge which
they're going to gain from a class like this. So
(08:46):
kudos to California. This is awesome. All right, let's talk
about cohabitating, Matt, and the question comes up. I think
for a lot of people, especially as inflation has become
more of a problem, should I move in with somebody
else in order to save money? I think the answer
I can't answer the question for you. You have to answer
that for yourself. I guess, but it depends on your personality,
(09:07):
your risk tolerance. I remember being if you like people
touching your stuff, yeah, or it's like, well, actually this
will save me money, but that person's like pig pen
or something that they're really they're dirty and they don't
clean up out for themselves. That can make for a
tough roommate situation. But I remember being so excited when
Emily and I were getting married. Part of it was
like having two incomes, right, But the other part was
(09:29):
having one roof of our heads and it felt like
a massive paar race at the time. Do you remember
that feeling well?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I mean yeah, I mean housing is a massive line
item on everyone's budget every single month, and so to
consolidate that, it basically it feels like you like you're
winning on both ends, Like you are as a family
unit receiving more income, but then on top of that
you get to reduce some of your expenses.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
It's awesome. And I guess they call it the single
tax right where if you're living alone, and it's true,
it feels like you're paying more because most of the
time you are. But a New York Times article documented
the rise of young couples moving in together, with saving
money being the primary motive. And not trying to be
prudes here, but if you decide to move in with
someone after dating for a few months, you could be
setting yourself up for relational failure and personal hardship. And
(10:10):
it's I think, just be careful. If saving money is
the main thrust of why you're moving in with someone,
it can actually end up costing you in the end. Yeah,
it feels like if it feels.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Like a case of the tail wagging the dog like
it should be that this is a result. This is
a benefit that you receive once you find somebody that
you want to commit to a long term relationship with.
I'm less cautious for folks who are willing to who
are wanting to move in together with a roommate, because
I think that's a very time tested, cost effective way
of reducing your expenses, right, but you don't know who
(10:42):
they are, certainly, absolutely, but even still, I mean like
I feel like that's one step towards house hacking, and
it's like, hey, let's figure out how long we're gonna
do this.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Whereas when it gets romantic.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I feel like that's really where the wires can get crossed,
because then there's a whole like roommates, it's kind of
like a business transaction almost. It's like, hey, can we coexist? Okay, great,
here's your room, here's my room. This is how we're
gonna do this. Yeah, right, well, and you're right. I
think the other thing you need to consider is the
potential financial downsides of doing this. So yeah, you might
save money for a few months, but then if you
(11:12):
have to break the lease or that person does end
up saying Listen, this isn't working. I'm moving back with
my parents. You're stuck with the lease, and you're paying
more than you were for that one bedroom apartment on
your own because now you've got two three bedrooms, or
maybe you don't need those additional rooms, and hopefully you
can be scrappy enough to then find some additional roommates.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Because yeah, you're gonna find yourself in a pinch, so
put the ball in your court.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, we do want folks to be a little more
thoughtful as they approach this. We don't want it especially,
I don't want it to be a knee jerk reaction,
especially for couples who are like, hey, we've been dating
for a couple of months, man, we could really save
a whole lot by doing this. I think you need
to really know yourself, and especially I'm more open to it,
I guess if folks are older, because when you're older,
you kind of know what you're looking for. It's like
(11:55):
when you're younger, like somebody who's dating somebody in high
school and they want to get married and like, okay,
come on, like you've only you've been dating for a year,
do you actually know each other? It's like, when you're younger,
you need like maybe you need like three or four
years of dating to actually know that person. But by
the time you're thirty years old, thirty five, forty years old,
like you know exactly what you're looking for you with.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Your relational event. I don't know how true that is.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I just know when I see people and they're in
their like thirties or forties and they've been dating somebody
for three four months and they want to get married
or they want to move in together, that's not nearly
as much of a red flag as opposed to someone
making that decision when they're fresh out of high school.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
That's actually I'm actually gonna disagree with he really, I
think there's some of the most successful marriages I know
are people who got married in nineteen or twenty. And
I know some people right now and they only dated
for like three months. Well maybe not three months, that's
what I'm saying, like seven or eight.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I'm fine with people getting married right out of high school,
but oftentimes they have dated for at least two years
that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
You see what I'm saying, Yeah, yeah, okay, I've been then.
I just was literally talking to a friend recently and
he's in his forties and he's dating and he's been
literally been dating a girl for three months and she
was like, I'm ready to like take this. The next
he was like, I'm ready to break up. And so
I don't know. It's just it's it's weird out there,
and it's always on the maturity of the person you're
talking to. I'm guessing and what they're looking for. Yeah. Yeah,
(13:11):
relationships are hard, man, And so I think you just
have to Again. I get the desire to save money,
especially as costurizing fortunately cost youre going down slightly for
renters across a lot of the country, but just be
careful before you're making a when you're making a commitment
to somebody a financially, it's a big financial commitment that
goes along with it and might seem like it's going
to save shave you money on the front end, but
it might not on the back end.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Totally agree, All right, man, Let's talk about streaming, because
with the insane number of streaming services that are out
out there and the exorbitant price increases that we've seen
over the past couple of years, it seems like more
folks are checking out the free options at their disposal.
Of course, downside their ads supported you hate aside.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
I'm not a fan of.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And that's fine, you know, if I don't want to
do that, So if I want to go with the service,
I might pay a little extra.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
But you can find some decent stuff out there, and
more folks are already watching ads on the paid services anyway, right,
their prices just didn't go up quite as much, and
so that's one of the ways they were able to
keep their prices in check by Amazon Prime watching the
occasional ad they put the ads on there. I mean,
you want to save a little bit of money, you're
gonna pay for the ad supported model. But guess what, Yeah,
there are free options that have that are AD supported too.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, we don't want folks to forget about Roku Pluto
is it tuby tubby?
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I don't even know how to pronounce this. I've always
read about it.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
But Samsung they've even got a free service, and one
of our favorite.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Library apps, Hoopla, they've got a free service as well.
I think I saw that The Whale is available on Hoopla.
That's the movie. Oh so you've seen it? Really good?
This is. I watched it on an airplane.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Nice, it feels like a good airplane movie. But Brendan
Fraser kith on a fan, so that's probably why we
haven't seen that when she never got past his role
in the Mummy.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I never saw the Mummy. So I remember Brendan Fraser
from Encino.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Man, Oh, that's where you plays the caveman, right, yeah,
with poly short that's right. Bottom line, we want folks
to remember that there are free options out there if
you're looking to reduce your budget how much you're spending
on entertainment. Of course, the downside though, is that there's
a whole lot of.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Crap that you have to filter through. And the other thing, Matt,
I have literally I found myself watching so much less TV.
Part of that is because I'm like waking up earlier
to try to run more so I'm not apathetic human being.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, and got less time in the evenings to yeah,
PLoP down in front of this, Like, how long is
it going to take me to finish The Bear season three?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
I don't know. It's probably gonna take me like two months,
and so.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I haven't even started it. My list of things to
watch just continues to get longer. I haven't even seen Oppenheimer.
I shared that with you the other day. You can't
believe it.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
You're like, wait, what that is great? You need to
do that one soon. But I get it. Yeah, it's
harder to find the time, especially when you're prioritizing other things,
and for prioritizing saving money on TV go with some
of these free services or watch less TV in general.
Three there you go. All right, let's talk about gambling, Matt,
one of your favorite pastimes, but it's your bigger gambler though,
I'm sorry, true I do.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Again, we're not prudes. I don't want job. Joel likes
to gamble on dog racing and cock fights. Well, actually
did go to a dog racing track and you raised
combat for fighting.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
No, didn't do that, but I appreciate that. So okay,
let's talk about gambling for just a second. Though it's
becoming I think, more acceptable in our culture. It's not
just Vegas or going to the riverboats of Mississippi to gamble,
but like, let's at your fingertips all the time. They
are state lotteries that kind of stuff. And sports gambling,
of course, is the one where i've seen the massive growth,
and all the advertisements that are just maybe want to
(16:28):
punch myself in the face every time I see them
because they're so ubiquitous. But now there's a new way
you can gamble, a new way you can be a degenerate,
and that is to bet on economic predictions if you're
so inclined. So I guess we can all think or
blame this company called Interactive Brokers for making this a reality.
They launched something called forecast Trader on Monday. Now you
(16:50):
can bet on the CPI number, what's it going to be?
If you bet that it was going to stay the same,
you would have been wrong. You would have lost money
because it went down when it was reported on Thursday.
You can bet on the jobs report, the Fed Fund's right.
Are they going to cut in September? Are they not? Ooh,
I want to gamble on that thing. What could go wrong? Right?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Well, you could yeah, read like an enduth bio on
jer own pal and then that way you get the
inside track, right right, Knowledge is power, jool.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
What's your any Gram number? Jeromee Pwell, that's gonna help
me out and make a better bet. Let me be clear,
I don't like the fact that this exists, but it's
hard for the libertarian side of me to not be like,
but it should be allowed to exist, right like, it
shouldn't necessarily be banned, I think. But what this means, though,
is that the responsibility is on you, especially if you
are more of a financial nerd and in the past
you found yourself drawn towards betting. Well, this could be
(17:37):
recipe for disaster for you specifically, And I think one
thing to do, like what's difficult about gambling is realizing
the ultimate cost of the little piddly what you could
perceive as the piddley amounts of money that you're spending
every week, every single month, And to that we would
recommend the rule of one seventy three, which is a
simple formula where you can take a recurring expense that
you experienced every single month, you simply multiply by one
(18:00):
hundred and seventy three, and that is the future investment
amount where you to take that monthly expense and invest
it rather than spend it every single month. And there's
just that disconnect, and it's so hard for us to
predict how we're going to feel about something and the
impacts that were the small steps. The small things that
we're doing today are everyday actions and the long term
consequences of that. And so the rule of one to
(18:22):
seventy three, that's what you can do with those monthly
expenses to truly realize the magnitude of these monthly expenses.
We always want to minimize them, right, We want to say, ah,
it's just a few bucks here and there. In some
ways that's true, But then the other thing is, well,
how much could it be if you were to eradicate
that from your life? And it's at least worth knowing
the trade off that you're making looking at it in
the face. And that's what the rule of one seventy
(18:43):
three helps you do. Exactly the other thing I think
when we're talking about gambling, again, not apprude. I like
to play blackjack. I probably haven't liked played blackjack in
a casino in like a decade or somewhere close to it.
But have a limit and make it part of your
entertainment budget. Sure, so if it's your thing, and maybe
in that this is the thing that just I guess
irks me or makes me sad mad. It's just the
(19:04):
it being at people's fingertips. It being easier than ever before.
At least you had to like drive somewhere and go
do the thing. And now it's like you can get
addicted and nobody know about it and be losing a
whole heck of a lot of money. And I do
think that we're going to see a new era of
gambling in this country that's gonna ruin individual lives, It's
going to harm families, and that I'm sad about that. So, yeah,
(19:24):
be careful before you enter into anything like this, and
think about whether or not gambling is worth part of
your entertainment budget before you begin.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, and if you have found in the past this
to be a slippery slope for you, just avoid it altogether.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Not worth it. Yeah, all right, Joel, We've.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Got more to get to, including some new bank fees
that some customers can expect.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
We'll get to that more right after this. All right,
Friday flight continues Matthew, and we got to get to
the Lucros headline of the week. As usual, this one
comes to the Wall Street Journal and the headline reads
JP Morgan Warren's customers prepare to pay for checking accounts. No, sorry,
(20:09):
heads up, Joel. Yeah, this was like a Wall Street
Journal exclusive story, by the way, Chase checking account, they
interviewed a lot more expensive. Not Jamie Diamond, but like
the person's right below him, And she was basically saying, listen,
Chase Bank, if some of these government regulations that are
being proposed come to pass, all of our customers are
going to pay more money. And it feels like this
this veiled threat or empty threat. And my response to
(20:32):
you is no, thank you, big bank over lords. I'm
not going to do that. So basically, yeah, she was saying,
the capping of overdraft and late fees that the government
has proposed, the CFPB has been proposing, well, that would
increase their cost of doing business, and they're going to
have to pass on those increased costs to customers. They
used words like sweeping and significant. That's what's going to
(20:53):
have to happen when these changes are made. That's what
their customers are going to feel. And you know, the
poor banks basically wouldn't able to offer you an account
without levying a meaningful monthly fee. Insert single emoji tier
face here, Matthew for the banks. Let me get out
my tiny violin and play a little song for them.
These caps that are being proposed on. Some of these
(21:13):
fees will potentially, yes, reduce rewards for some customers. But
this threat from Chase is silly. I don't even know
why you agreed, the interviewer do this article. There are
hundreds of banks offering better products and services for far
less money these days than what Chase is offering. Many
of these banks have proactively eliminated these fees already. We're
(21:34):
talking about ally, we're talking about capital one. They've said, yeah,
before the government does anything, we're just going to get
rid of these altogether to be better for our customers.
And so this public threat, combined with their lack of
competitiveness in the personal banking space, should have any decent
money loving person, person who wants the best for their
own finances jumping ship from Chase. This threat just makes
(21:56):
me want people to leave in bigger numbers.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, it's interesting how they've positioned it that, hey, our
costs are going to be going up, But in reality,
what's going on here is that their profits are going down,
and so they're trying to maintain their profits. Is not
that the actual that their actual expenses are actually increasing. So,
while we're talking about banking let's talk about personal checks.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
When's the last time you write a personal check, Joel,
can you remember? It's been a hot minute, Probably been
a couple years. Actually, We've got.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
We had some yard work done, some work outside, and
had to bust out. He's like, oh, yeah, we need
a deposit today. I was like, yeah, sure, let me
run in. Could not find the check book. I literally
don't know where it is. I think we lost it.
But it doesn't even matter though, because I was able
to zell that individual that money.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
As opposed to actually write a check. There are so
many other options, and this is something that Target has
wised up to.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Starting next week, they're not going to accept paper checks anymore.
Aldi Whole Foods, I'm pretty sure they already asked paper
checks as a payment option, and fewer than three percent
of overall transactions they were done with a personal check
in twenty twenty three. So I wanted to share this
just to give folks a heads up out there, because personally,
(23:05):
I'm all for this because checks they've obviously fallen out
of favor. It's just inefficient, you know, like they slow
down the checkout line, much to the chagrin of not
only the shoppers who are waiting in line behind them.
But I'm sure to the folks who are working in
their registers and from our perspective, they're just an inferior
form of payment because when handled, well, what do we
(23:25):
want folks to use their credit cards? We want you
to realize the different benefits that are able to be
offered there. We know that this might be an unpopular
opinion for some folks out there who do still rely
on checks. So just a heads up that the times, Joel,
they're a change.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
In Yes, I'd be curious to know, by the way,
if any had a money listener out there says, guys,
you're off base here. I like writing checks. I go
to Target. I'm actually really upset they're making this move.
Send us an email. I would love to know why
somebody still writes checks these days, because, yeah, they're an
inferior form of payment. I'd be okay without lowing them altogether. Yeah,
and you're right, Matt, like when labor costs have gone up,
(24:00):
the longer the cashiers sitting there watching you, you know,
endorse your check and stuff like that just going to
cost them more money.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yeah, everybody just wants to get out of there anyway, right,
And I know everyone's tired of you're going to.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Talk about Aldie, but is so great because it's so quick.
Can you remember when Aldi used to not accept credit cards? Oh? Barely? Yeah,
that was sad. It was. It was such a great
day when they started accepting cards. But they're able just
to whip those items right over that scanner, getting right
into the card. Amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Like you look down to reach for your phone to
Apple pay or to pull out a credit card, and
you look up and they're aready done. They're just like
standing there waiting on you.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I'm just like, how did you do that? Same with
legal because they can They've got two places that they
can slide your grocery good at. The barcodes are like
one entire side of a box. Yeah, I love it.
Two really smart grocery operations. UT's speaking of credit cards, Matt.
Credit card disputes are one of the top reasons to
use a credit card because if the company you do
business with doesn't hold up there into the bargain, you
(24:53):
have recourse. Not true if you wrote a check. And
the number of credit card transactions that end with a
dispute are grow, They've gone up nearly forty percent since
twenty nineteen. I think, Matt, more people are realizing that
this is one of the privileges that come with using
your credit card at the point of purchase, in that
filing a dispute isn't really all that difficult. But credit
(25:13):
card companies are also finding then more people are abusing
the chargeback system right they're attempting to claw their money
back from a legitimate purchase. This costs the credit card
company and the business that you're doing. That charge back
against time and money can be really frustrating for the merchants,
and so our suggestion to you use the chargeback system
the way it was intended, because it is a benefit
(25:35):
of purchasing with a credit card, but don't abuse the system,
because if you become one of I could just see
rule changes being made to the way chargebacks are done. Matt.
If chargeback fraud essentially becomes like rampant normal, exactly, this
is why we can't have nice things. It's like people
abusing those super generous return policies some of our favorite retailers,
and then those retailers have to say, we have to
tweet this a little bit to prevent people from taking
(25:58):
this generous return policy to its like in degree.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
All right, let's talk about planned obsolescence, because it is
a real problem in I'm thinking about technology specifically, and
maybe toys, maybe virtually in every area of personal consumption,
many businesses are making items that just aren't meant to
last very long and all. But that is not true
of all gadgets out there, and it's certainly worth highlighting
(26:20):
the companies, the folks who are doing a good job
on that front. I'm specifically thinking of Darn Tough. I've
got a pair of their socks and they got that
lifetime warranty. Get a little hole, any issues with your socks,
send them back.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
They're gonna cost like ten x one a normal pair
of socks costs, but then they're incredibly come basically last forever.
Oh one other company on that I want to mention.
I'm not personally warranting, but one of my friends recently
got a new washing and dryer by a company called
speed Queen. Have you heard of them? No? So apparently
it's faster, and apparently they have like a three year
warranty and just it's much easier to fix and repair those.
(26:52):
Was it like a German company. I don't I know
when it comes.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
To dishwashers, the was bosh, Yeah, those are the ones
that are always at the top of the heat speak queen.
I'll keep that in mind. But I'm also thinking of
Apple because they released a white paper last week called
Longevity by Design, and they discussed their progress towards product longevity.
Stat's fine that Apple users are keeping their iPhones around longer.
(27:15):
Hundreds of millions of iPhones are still being used well
beyond five years from the date of purchase, and folks
are holding on to their phones longer for a bunch
of reasons. Of course, cost, but there are fewer carrier
cell phone carrier subsidies these days, and honestly, there's just
not a whole lot of innovation that's taking place.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
We've talked about that. We had a listener question maybe
last month, a couple months ago, or of the iPhone twelve,
So we're talking about, yeah, twelve or even maybe is
even thirteen, And I'm like, oh my gosh, a twelve
pro or thirteen pro. Those are still really great phones.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
But just perhaps to Apple for creating phones that tend
to last longer then their Android peers, even if they
do cost a fair bit more on the front end
much of the time. Yeah, I think it's worth thinking
through and just waste as well.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Environment.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
That's one of the things that I've that I've felt
convicted on where I know not everybody has the ability
to spend more upfront on an item like that, but
if you do have the financial ability to, it makes
sense on multiple fronts that that's something that you should
probably at least consider.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, I'm not gonna say that you have to do it.
I think you're right. I mean think people have become
more conscious about cost per use when it comes to
their clothing items. I think cost per year of ownership
is another great way to maybe think about your cell
phone because you could opt for the three hundred dollars
model and let's say it last two years, but the
but the thousand dollars model is going to last you
for six. Well, then you're talking, I don't know, you're
(28:36):
comparing the right thing as opposed to just the upfront cost. Right,
And if you buy something that's going to last a
heck of a lot longer, you can delay your upgrade cycle.
That's awesome. So I agree. I mean, I think it's
it's good to see that Apple products are being kept
around longer. And I think you're exactly right too. It
used to be people had the upgrade cycle because they
were paying more for their cell phone service and this
(28:57):
was like included. And the more we've decoupled buying the
phone from the price of the service, people have found
like they're realizing the full cost of the phone instead
of it being packaged into what their monthly bill.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
It feels like there's more price transparency and consumers are
able to make more informed decisions.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
And then there's more price sensitivity and that's good, Like
we want people to be price sensitive so that it's
going to change their actions, right, And so this is
all good news. Not all companies are keen on solving
customer pain points, though. The Journal this week detailed Vanguard's
horrible customer service these days. Oh yeah, and this has
been something it's been kind of a slow moving tidal
(29:32):
wave over the past few years. Vanguard customer is not
nearly as happy with the way Vanguard is doing business.
And we mentioned recently the Vanguard is going to start
charging money if you want to place trades via the phone.
We get that there's a freeway to do trades, do
it online right if you want to avoid that fee.
But Vanguard has let down a lot of its loyal customers,
not by raising fees, their funds are still great and
(29:52):
low cost, but by not helping them out when they
have a problem. Vanguard ranked last in customer service satisfaction
the major brokerages last year, and they say they're spending
money in an effort to mitigate customer issues and to
modernize things. I think they're spending like a billion dollars
or something like that on their app and website, but
it's just not happening fast enough. And if you want
(30:14):
to reach a human being a Vanguard, it can be tough.
And so we still love Vanguard, but we hope they
fix these issues. And if you're just starting out, if
you're trying to figure out where to invest, I don't know,
Fidelity and Schwab might be better options if you're just
starting out. I think Vanguard even has limited customer service
hours between a certain window during the day. Fidelity and
Shop are like twenty four to seven, So I see
(30:34):
that as at least one check mark in favor of
Fidelity Swab over Vanguard.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Yeah, I'm curious to see if Vanguard is essentially experimenting
and trying to figure out what folks are more willing
to get on board with, because on one hand, it's like, Okay,
we can maintain good service, but hey.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
We're going to charge you more.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
On the other end of the spectrum, it's like, well,
we can get the price the same, but we're going
to reduce what we're giving you, and in this case,
obviously they're reducing what they're delivering. Like there's one that
we tend to be like, oh, that's fine, I don't
care if you charge more fees when it comes to
making phone trades. That's not something we do. But overall
as an as a company, I'm curious to like what
they end up deciding, because maybe what they find is
(31:12):
that there's more they get more pushback from folks who
don't want to pay fees when it comes to making
this phone calls, and though we are more interested in
seeing customer service maintained at a higher level, maybe that's
not something that they hear back from.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Well, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I think a lot of folks I'm curious to see
if they trend in one direction or the other.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
The article highlighted people who are who are leaving Vanguard
because of this. Yeah, and so at some point Vanguard
not only are they getting a bad reputation, getting a
black eye with the public, but actually losing customer They're
losing customers, they're losing revenue because of this, and so
you got to figure out the happy medium. You're right,
you could like have one ring customer service, white glove
service or something like that, but it's too costly. It's
(31:50):
gonna it's going to raise it's going to raise the
cost of the service that people have to pay. Vanguard's
got to find a better happy medium than this. Though
there's carrots and there are sticks, Joel.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Something that is in legal limbo right now is the
non compete band that the Federal Trade Commission is trying
to push.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Through, something you and I have butted heads again about.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
We don't butt heads off to see eye to eye
on everything, but a federal judge they delayed the implementation
of this band citing a lack of authority from the
regulatory agency. We're not legal scholars or anything, but I
think one of the recent Supreme Court rulings about government
agency power could have something to do with this.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
The Chevron case.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
I believe that the Chevron doctrine. Okay, you got a PhD. Apparently,
we're also not fans of non competes, though in most industries,
bottom line, they prevent workers from taking higher paying positions
with a competitor. It stimey's their ability for career advancement
without having to move. We are not a fan, but
this is another again, another area where I'm kind of like,
(32:52):
should it be banned? Though even though I'm not personally
a fan, I think personally I think it's up to
the business to decide how it is that they want
to transact business with their customers or in this case,
how they want to treat their employees. And that being said,
I'm not a fan because I am always going to
advocate for you as a consumer and for you in
this case as an employee. We want folks out there
(33:14):
to have options, to have the freedom to make decisions
and to go with whatever employer that they want to.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
There's still some states, by the way, that don't allow
non competes or that have more strenuous rules about non competes.
This would have been some sort of federal ban exactly,
But yeah, in this case, with this noncompete ban being
thrown out for the time being, it's up to you
to know what your future or potential employer is asking
you to sign and to push back on that and say, listen,
(33:40):
I'd love to take this job, but I'm not signing
this thing because it's gonna This is rubbish. Yeah, and
use that word too, it's so British it does. And
you might say, my plan is to be here for
years to come, but I am not going to limit
my future abilities by signing something like this. And if
I can't get this job because I refuse to sign it,
guess what, I'm really talented. I'm going to go find
somewhere else. And so you just have to know that
(34:01):
before you sign something.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Exactly, I think it's a contract, right And at the
end of the day, when you sign your name to something,
it's one thing to click the Spotify music agreement or whatever.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Right. Yeah, it's low stakes. Getting hired by a company,
purchasing a home. These are instances where you're going to
take a little more time and make sure that you're
reading the fine print. I will readily admit I don't
read all the fine print for everything. That I click.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Nobody does, very few people do, and I don't hate
to envision a world where we do need to read
every single one of these things, especially with all the
different updates and the different apps that we install on
our phones. But those are all lower stake situations as
opposed to something like taking a new job with an
employer that you're excited.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
About yeah, and then realizing, wait a second, this isn't
a great situation for me, and then you got to
wait two years before being able to work in that
industry again, at least within a certain geographical area. So
new bummer not competes can really hamstring your financial future.
And you've got to be your own advocate on this one. Heck, yeah,
look at us.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
See, I feel like we kind of both into the
middle a little bit there that I think we both
still maintain our position, just without focusing on the negatives.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Yeah, but all right, that's gonna be it for this
Friday flight. We'll see you back here on Monday. We
hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. And by the way,
leave us a review over at Apple podcast or wherever
you listen if you haven't already yet done that for us.
Say something nice to me. I appreciate it MAT's new mustache.
While you're leaving that really talking about the it's gonna
last for maybe like one more week. I think. I
(35:27):
just I've never grown a mustache before, and I kind
of want to see what I'm capable of. Doc. I
just want to see like eighteen reviews on there and
whatever you want to say, a yes vote or a
no vote for the mustache. So three words about the mustache?
Should he ditch it or not?
Speaker 2 (35:41):
All right, but that's gonna be it until next time.
Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
Popular Podcasts
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.