October 18, 2024 • 35 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: click to cancel, better business policies, longer loans, upside down autos, AI generated podcasts, Flyhomes, luxury goods inverted supply/demand, pricey lotto tickets, would you tattoo?, cloudy forecast for real estate in the sunshine state, prepaying principal, and higher heating bills.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Head of Money. I'm Joel, I am Matt.
Today we're talking about longer loans, pre paying principle, and
higher heating bills. That's right, buddy. This is our Friday Flight,
(00:28):
the weekly round up, our weekly roundup of the news
and how it pertains to your personal finances, so that
you don't have to spend all of your life combing
through the headlines and the articles to find the ones
that are going to impact your bank account.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I pick the most important stuff, share it with you
and stuff, and we offer our hot takes.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
It's kind of what we do. Honestly, you want to
kick things off. Speaking of hot takes. With the Federal
Trade Commission, we might disagree.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
On this because I know you know we're going to disagree.
You disaground this, but I think this is potentially a
really good thing. The FTC just announced this week that
they're going to do a click to a click to
cancel rule. And basically what the FDC wants is for
companies to not be allowed to if they make it
really easy to sign up on their website or via
their app. Hey guess what they need to make it
(01:13):
just as easy to cancel, and I think it was
earlier this year met the cable companies testified in front
of the FTC and they basically said, listen, if we
make it easy to cancel, then people are actually going
to cancel our service, and we don't want that. And
the FTC was like, that's the point, so that people
can cancel if they want to. And I think the
cable companies actually retain a massive number of people who
(01:34):
try to cancel because they call to cancel, they're forced
to call, they can't they can't use, you know, go
to the internet website of the provider and cancel, and
because of that, they end up talking them in or
they offer him a deal or something like that. It's
just this rig and role that I think consumers are
tired of in many ways. I just tried to cancel
something the other day, a streaming service, and it was
like hard to find the grade out cancel button at
(01:55):
the bottom.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And there's like six steps that you have to go through.
When it's like the same color as the background, right,
it's literally impossible unless I select all and then I
see it highlight right.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
It's like trying to find the unsubscribed button on the
bottom of an email sometimes it's like finding ale in
a haysack. But so I kind of like this, it's
not set in stone yet. There's like six months I
think before this becomes official. You just had actually trouble
canceling a gym membership, and.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
So we're not gonna talk about that though.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
But actually that's one of the things is gym's make
it really hard to cancel. People end up sticking around
pay an extra, whereas if they made it easier to cancel,
I think people would be They wouldn't find themselves paying
for stuff that they're not getting or that they don't want.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, I am of two minds with it, because I
certainly understand. I see the appeal right the ability to
cancel the same way that you subscribed. It makes it's
common sense. But at the same time, I just don't
like how we've arrived at that point. Like I like
the result and what the end result might be, but
instead of the government getting involved, obviously, I would rather
see the free and open market decide and the ability
for us as consumers to vote with our dollars or
(02:57):
leave a review, a negative review, cant or with our
dollars because they're making it so hard for us to
leave because your dollars are all tied up. Yeah, but
just the ability to tell your friends about it, I
think is it's just a simpler, more straightforward way of
achieving the same ends as opposed to what I see
being the more complex, expensive way to achieve this sense
(03:18):
by having a government agency potentially enforce this, because what
does that actually look like, the government to step in
and say, hey, they'll do business like this, Like, that's
the part of it that that turns me off, and
I would rather see consumers be able to vote with
your dollars. Yeah. But either way though, I mean, we'll see.
And obviously if it goes through, and it's a part
of how businesses are forced to implement some of these changes,
(03:42):
I'm all for it because it's like, okay, well if
that's if that's the rule, then we abide by the
rule and we all get to benefit. In this case
as a consumer, Yeah, I'll be thankful for it. And
I think, yeah, if you want to cancel your service,
it should be you shouldn't have to go to an
AI bought and chat and and jump through a bunch
of hoops. When it was they made it super simple
(04:03):
to sign up. That to me feels kind of like
a bait and switch, and I think it's a dirty practice. Yeah,
I just think there are better ways for businesses to
run their businesses. This makes me think of a kind
of a random story that we came across this week,
Home Depot. What they're doing now. They're having their corporate folks,
their corporate employees, and the CEO is the one who
implemented this. But they have to go to an actual
home Depot store to work once a quarter. And the
(04:26):
goal here is for the people who might be a
bit more detached from the end product and for the
services that they're providing to be more connected to you know,
what the boots on the ground are actually encountering. And
I think this can only be good for morale and
for business. This is a smart business move, Yes, And
this is like the perfect example I think of how
instead of this being some like mandated from on high,
from like a government agency, here is an individual company deciding,
(04:49):
you know what we need to get. We need to
be more in touch with how it is that our
consumers are seeing the end product, and that is going
to allow us to innovate. It's going to allow us
to make changes. We're going to be able to see that, like, oh,
we don't like it when we make whatever it is
is at a home Depot story right, And like, well,
I hate it that we make customers stand over here
when they're making returns. Why can't we do this? And
like there are these small little tweaks along the way
that you can implement.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And I think in big companies it's really easy for
the people at the top to get out of become
out of touch with what's happening at maybe the individual
retail locations. And like Sam Walton was famous for visiting
like all the Walmarts and even visiting his competitors and
stuff like that too, to get a sense for what's
happening on the ground level. And I think many CEOs
don't do that. So the fact that Home Depot is
(05:30):
doing it feels like kind of like that the show
Undercover Boss now, where the CEO would dress up and
work like a day in the minds or something like
that with the normies that worked for the company. And
I think that's a good thing. All the pleabs, I
think that's a great thing. Like Home Depot will probably
benefit from this as a post.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
And so what we'll see is a business like home
deepot continue to innovate and do well. Their stocks will
continue to go up, customer service is going to remain high.
And then if you see other companies that aren't innovating,
like I think us all that Kmart is, they've got
like one more store or something that's going to end
up closing. Amazing. That's an example of a store that
that didn't do that didn't keep up with the times exactly.
(06:09):
And so it's up to the I think it can
serve their customer well, were on a company company to
company level as opposed to it being something that needs
to be mandated from on high.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, let's talk about something else, Matt. Let's talk about
car Loans. We don't like them.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I hate them.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
We've never liked them. We talked smack about them regularly
on the show. And it's it's one of those things
where it has been a problem in the past, and
it's this problem is getting worse because as car prices
have risen, interest rates have also gone up, and so
car affordability has one of the been one of the
biggest categories, the hardest hit categories by inflation. So yeah, eggs.
(06:41):
It stinks that those costs more, but the car probably
impacts your budget far more than just the eggs, and
it's it's just not a fun situation right to be
in if you're looking to upgrade your vehicle, because you're
staring at the price tag the bottom line and you're
freaking out. You're not used to paying this much for
a car, especially if it's been five, six, seven years
since you've had buy one.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Hopefully even longer.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Hopefully even longer. While you drive your car, you don't
have to put up with this problem. But new numbers
from Edmunds find that people aren't necessarily trading down to
a cheaper automobile or saving up longer. What they're doing
is they're increasing the payoff timeline so that they can
snag the car they want. This is really bad.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
News in our estimation see here in this.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Eighty four month car loans now account for almost one
in five of the overall loans that were issued in
just this past quarter. That has doubled in just the
past few years, and then so the average car loan
length is now sixty eight months Matt, so people are
a lot more people opting for the eighty four, but
the average is sixty eight. That's more than five and
a half years to pay off the car that you're buying.
(07:45):
Outrageously bad news, and it could come with serious financial
consequences for people down the line. On top of that,
nearly one in four consumers owe more on their car
loan than the vehicle is worth, so they're upside down
in their ride. Something like twenty twenty five, twenty six,
twenty seven percent of people upside down on their vehicles.
The national average for upside down balances is sixty four
(08:07):
one hundred dollars. So talk about being in financial trouble
when you own more than the car is worth. If
you're in an act terrible or if you feel like you
need to trade your car up, sorry, you still owe
a bunch of money on it. That gets people into
even worse car loans when they trade it in and
they get another car on top of.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
That, then it perpetuates. It creates a six cycle, and
we want people to avoid car loans all together. We
want you to keep your current car on the road.
Maintaining your vehicles highly underrated. Everybody wants to hit the
easy button, and what easy means is expensive signing up
for a new loan to where they don't have to
like take the car into the shop. Like literally this morning,
(08:42):
I spent like five ten minutes the car. The tire
pressure gauge light came on on the dash and I
ignored it for a couple of days, and Kate was like, hey,
what's that all about. I'm like, okay, I finally get
to it. But most people don't like even doing that.
But spending some time, even if it's cold outside, to
get out there and get the tire pressure backup means
those tires are going to last longer. But we need
to do that with all aspects of our car. But
(09:03):
then if you eventually do want to get a new vehicle,
just keep saving up. If you can be the opposite
of the average American on this front, if you can
stay disciplined to keep car debt out of your life,
you're going to be shocked at how this single choice,
just as one choice, can help you to make financial
progress in leaps and bounds. Yea, as a friend of
the show car dealership Guy, he said this in his
new newsletter. I'll quote this. He wrote, Longer loan terms
(09:25):
can make monthly payments easier to manage. Sure, that's why
people do it. Yeah, but most Americans aren't looking to
hold onto their cars for seven years. The real risk
is that these extended loans increase the chance of carrying
negative equity into their next purchase if they even keep
up with their payments in the first place, which is
one hundred percent true. So we don't want you to
put yourself in this position. I think Joel would say, Hey,
(09:48):
it's so, if you're going to get a loan, make
sure to limit it to you know, forty eight months
or maybe or less. Certainly that's much better than the
seven year terms car even a smaller loan term. But man,
you can get reliable vehicles by saving up cash. I
think most Americans who are finding themselves in a position
where they're looking at a new vehicle aren't in a
highly urgent situation. Uh. And instead it's more of a
(10:09):
lifestyle upgrade. And they're more Americans are financing these lifestyle upgrades.
And that's what I hate seeing.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
And I think just because it's become normal, just because
everybody's doing it. I mean, I don't know if your
mom ever said this to you, map, but my mom
but always yeah, just because everyone else is doing it.
I mean, you're going to do it too. If Matt
jumped off a bridge, Joel, would you do it too?
And I'd be like, I don't know, maybe if there's
water below and it looks kind of fun, it's only
like thirty feet. Sure, I was actually really into that
high school you were in a bridge jumping, so maybe
I would mom. And maybe I'm actually undermining my own
(10:35):
point here, but yeah, if everyone else is.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Doing what I failed to Dijoel was oftentimes check the water,
like for down trees, that's that's oh really, Oh yeah,
you gotta you gotta do that. If you're gonna do
some like cliff jumping, rock jumping at the lake, trestle
train trestle jumping, you always need to check the water,
makes sense, make sure it's clear of any debris.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And r or else you can have a major accident,
right exactly exactly, So I think I think you've gone
as straight here from my point.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Matt all sorts of it amount of money, how to
save money by not going to the hospital, But I
think it's just so normal.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
And when we talk about what the average person should
spend on their car payment, or if you look at
like rules of Thumb, typically it's ten percent of your
overall income should or can go to car stuff. I
would prefer to be for most folks for that to
be far smaller, and that just gives you so much
more flexibility in terms of vacation. You want to go
on increasing your saving and investment investment rate. So just
(11:27):
because everybody around you's doing it, doesn't mean that we
should do it too. And I just see that like
this current situation for a significant portion of American consumers,
mat it's untenable and it's going to lead to some
really horrendous side effects down the road. From a personal
finance standpoint, So keeping your car expenses and your car
note if you have to take one on to a minimum,
(11:49):
and being really thoughtful about, Okay, how long is it
going to take me to pay this off? And then
how can I continue to bank that money so that
I don't ever have to have a car loan in
the future.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
That's the goal seven year car loans here that daysh
Let's go ahead and talk about artificial intelligence, Joel, I
personally don't exactly know. I guess what to think about AI,
how it will impact our future. Are we all going
to live in the Matrix someday? I actually don't think so,
but some folks have if we lived in the Matrix
and had to watch that movie on repeat. Interesting, I
(12:19):
haven't thought about that. It's feeling a little too meta. Yeah,
do our younger listeners even though what the matrix is.
I'm sure they've heard of it. But if you haven't
seen it, they have, Like the newer Matrix come out
a few years ago, right, revolution, Yeah, revolutions, I think
the only go to fifty year old people. The first
one still holds up by the way. I think they're
all decent. But at the time it was like mind
bending in a way that our minds hadn't been. But
(12:42):
I enjoyed reading an MIT professor who recently wrote that
he believes that AI can only do basically five percent
of all jobs right now. Basically, you're saying it could
help some folks and replace others, but that is not
going to like foment and economic revolution that's going to
render all humans obsolete. And I'll say I'm actually I
hope he's right, because there have been some recent stories
(13:04):
about Google's new AI generated podcasts. Have you heard some
of those, Joel, It's uncanny what they're able to do.
I'm a little I was quaking in my Adidas when
I read them. Matt look consered. Actually, are you actually
worried about that?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Is that I'm not because I just think I think
the biggest thing that AI can't do is personality generated.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So like I can't make it fun, right, I mean,
they might think they can make it fun, but it's
going to be this sort of sterile version of fun
as opposed to like the real stuff that we're experiencing
in our day to day lives. Think about this.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Think about how cheap it's gotten to listen to the
music you want to listen to, whatever album, whatever song,
whatever artist you want to listen to, deep cuts, no matter.
You can listen to it for for for your cheap.
But think about how much money people pay to go
see a concert in person. It's insane. The yeah, the
price tag for concerts for big artists and stuff like
(13:52):
that has gone through the roof. And I think people
more than ever want authenticity. They want real life, they
want real people, they want experiences, and I think I
don't know, hopefully hopefully listening to Matt Joel is in
experience of sorts that people will want to listen to
even though they are going to be AI podcasts out there.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
They want a little rougher around the edges, and that's
what we're able to provide. That's right.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
They want the stumbles, they want the bumbles, they want
a few ums on occasion.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I think, so whatever other idiocy we might come up
with it.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, but I think that's a really smart prediction. I
think that's probably true, Matt. Five percent of jobs interrupted
significantly by AI. That makes sense to me. I think
some of the massive doomsayers on AI, I don't know.
I just I don't see that future to take them seriously. Yeah,
one industry we'd love to see disrupted by AI is
real estate. And that's because real estate commissions make it
(14:39):
so much more expensive. You're buying sell homes, Kirkma, the
realtors with the pitchforks.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah, they're like, oh, you're justifying your profession, but you're
coming after hours, sorry, guys, shirks.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
And that's not because we hate real estate agents and
we think that and I don't think that that AI
is going to reduce the need for good realtors, but
I think it will maybe grease the kids and potentially
bring commission back into a reasonable range total. And there's
this new company that's basically trying to bring those costs down.
It's billing itself as AI for home buying. It's called
(15:09):
fly Homes. So I was reading an article about this,
Matt and basically, this company believes that over time, AI
is going to help answer most of the questions that
you have about a home that you want to buy. So, hey,
not only did you find it on Zilo, you got
some basic information. Now you go to fly homes and
you're like, hey, has this cross space ever been flooded?
Or there's other questions you can ask. And this AI
(15:30):
is going to learn about like apparently all the homes
in the country, and it's going to be able to
give you more informations and then I'll help you even
write an offer. It might even help you negotiate. What
happens if two ais are negotiating against each other, I
have no idea. Both of those systems just completely break down,
and it's like the seventies game or seventies movie wargames.
You remember that, no, I.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Don't involve the computer. Ok yeah, I'm playing against itself
running different scenarios. Okay, yeah, I mean maybe it ends
up being like that. I don't know if fly homes
like how if this is ready for primetime, or if
in a few years, as they continue to make progress,
will this actually be able to help consumers. I don't
see artificial intelligence replacing agents now, but I do see
it becoming maybe an accessory and helping to bring down
(16:13):
costs for consumers, just maybe a helpful tool for agents
to maximize their time, a way to reduce the transaction costs,
because yeah, they're prohibitive in so many ways, and I
do think they prevent the housing market from being as
fluid as it could be. The pricing model, like the
way the pricing structure works or has worked in the
past when it comes to realtors. That's I think that's
the biggest thing that's going to get disrupted. And as
(16:33):
I think about it, the biggest the best parallel that
I can think of are financial advisors. And in the past,
typically the structure for payment is assets under management, and
so if you've got clients and they're worth tons of money, dude,
you are rolling in it. Yeah, But now the way
it works. Oftentimes it's a flat fee, so you get
the services, and maybe it's not yeah, okay, maybe they're
(16:53):
not taking you out to lunch, maybe you're not going
golfing with them, and because you're a you're not a
big high roller or anything like that. But you are being
provided the services that they're able to provide all of
their clients, regardless of how much money they make. And
in a similar way, I think the same might be
true when it comes to realtors, Like, why just because
you are selling a house that's eight hundred thousand dollars
as opposed to four hundred thousand dollars, does that mean
(17:14):
you should be making twice as much when maybe you
did it twice the work. I don't think so, and
so in that way, and again and all the realtors
are going to come after us.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
They they don't like the three percent rule being threatened
because it and again, of.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Course it hurts their bottom line.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
But when you look at the numbers, there's a ton
of real estate agents who don't make much money, and
that's because typically they're doing it super part time.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
O their license and they only help out their friends.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Right, there's a lot of agents out there, though, the
agents who make a lot of sales or help a
lot of people through it the year, they do quite
well for themselves, and I'm not worried about those people
not being able to continue doing well for themselves.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I'm just a full timers are going to be fine.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
I just think that there's probably a more fair way
to compensate, and for some agents it might even end
up meaning that they make more. Matt, We've got more
to get to on this episode. We're actually going to
talk about real estate prices going down in some parts
of the country. We'll get to that and more right
after this.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
All right, buddy, we are back from the break, and
of course now we've got our ludicrous headline of the week,
which this week is from Wired magazine. I used to
actually be a subscriber to the physical Wired magazine back
in the day. I was into the text.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I saw that the Atlantic just increased the number of
physical magazines are sending out to give a year from
ten to twelve. I was like, our magazine's back.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
And I think this goes to like people want physical stuff.
Yeah they are, they are, well the onion. I think
it was like a decade ago stopped actually creating something
that you could hold. Yeah, but then they I think
they're realizing this is something similar. I'm all about it
because I'm actually I like this trend.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
There are a couple of magazines like I don't think
I subscribed to any magazines right now, physical magazines, and
part of me wants to go subscribe to a couple
just because there's something about getting into the mail holding
in your hands.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
It's special and the design choices that go into like
the just the paper weight, like all the old school
journalism magazine folks are like, yeah, yeah, bring them back.
But again, this headline is from Wired, and the headline reads,
the more this releix costs, the more you want it.
We're gonna knock on luxury a little bit. This is
why we don't buy fancy stuff, Joel. I try not
(19:20):
to care about luxury goods, and in part it's because
the finest luxury good makers out there, they typically raise
prices much faster than the rate of inflation. Yet it
only makes their products. So for instance, Swiss watches fancy
handmade bags, it makes them more desirable, which sounds.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Like the opposite should be true, right If this is
how luxury works, though, Josaster in the rate of inflation,
then what like, why do I want it more?
Speaker 1 (19:45):
It's the forbidden fruit. That's why we buy these goods
in a desire to signify social status. And we'll keep
buying these goods that are widely considered exclusive because of
what it reveals to the people around us, what it
signals as so good. Old Teddy Roosevelt said, this comparison
is the thief of joy. But Joel, it'll also rob
(20:06):
you of your hard earned money. It robs you with
the freedom that it could have bought you instead when
we focus on buying not only stuff, but luxury goods
that have very little intrinsic value.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
And I think for some people, Matt, it's okay to
desire some things that are upper echelon or that are nicer.
And if you have the money to spend on those things,
and you've budgeted appropriately and you're doing all the other
smart stuff with your money and Rolexes or your craft
beer equivalent or something, that's fine, Like I've got no
beef with you on that. But I think sometimes people
buy the things they can't afford in an attempt to
(20:36):
signal and they're not doing the other things, and they
put themselves into financial buying because of it. So you
got to watch out for that. And the other side
of the coin to Matt is, I'm curious to hear
your thoughts on this. I hear that like, Rolexes continue
to go up in value, so it's an investment, Joel.
I guess in some ways it could be right. So
maybe you don't trick yourself into thinking of it that way.
(20:57):
But when you see like some of those vintage Rolexes,
or there's some kind to rolexes that continue to go
up in value if you take care of it year
after year, maybe that's one reason to at least not
be as down on luxury goods as it might otherwise be.
Sure doesn't mean I'm buying one.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
That's how you can justify it. No, I'm not interested personally.
I am more of a speedmaster, an Omega speedmaster guy. Yeah,
less of a Rolex fan. How much does this cost?
Just as much? I think? Oh really? Oh yeah, especially one? No. No,
I just have looked at him from afar and I
don't think I will ever be able to allow myself
to actually do it because of all the things I
just said, like, I'm trying to try and buy you
(21:31):
one for your birthday. Dude, if you did that, that
would be stupid, But I would totally wear it, Like
do I put it next to my garment watch or yeah,
like what do I do at that point? One on
each rest? No. I mean we've I think we shared
the story about how Kate and I were on a
date and there was a watch club meeting at one
of our favorite local spots, and man, the ability to
(21:51):
get my I was like, what are you guys doing?
And I see all these watches and they're they're collectors. Yeah.
It was also encouraging to hear that you can kind
of get into it without dropping ridiculous amounts of money
on some of the the you know, the Omegas or
the Rolexes. There's a lot of other sort of like
medium tier brands as well. If that's something that you're into,
I feel like, I'm man, if you've got the money,
if you are in if gosh that I can't believe.
(22:11):
I so easily, like jiu jitsued myself into like trying
to say that this is okay to get I was
gonna add this. You just we talked about physical magazines
for just a second. I think physical like analog goods. Also,
because we live in such a digital world, something like
a handmade watch, analog watch. There's something cool about that
in an age where everything's on a screen, way cooler
(22:32):
than like an Apple watch. So maybe buy a really
expensive rolex everyone, Oh my god, it's just kidding. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Uh, something else that's skyrocketing and price a lottery tickets.
Those are going to cost more starting in April. So
instead of two bucks for your mega million's ticket, it's
not gonna cost five dollars five spot.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I feel steep feels a lot, yeah, a lot more
expensive two dollars. It's just like, oh, you got a
couple ones laying around, Well, I was gonna end up
losing those anyway, right, right, But now you're.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Like, you'll lose file five dollars five And of course
there's gonna be more winners, there's gonna be bigger prizes. Still,
your odds of winning are truly going to be abysmal.
And your once a week habit, which is akin to
tossing money in the garbage, which might have been cute
at two dollars, now at five bucks. I think it
deserves more serious line of questioning. Twenty bucks a month
matt for the average person, I get, I think, and
(23:19):
I think the average lottery player spends a whole lot
more than that already, and if the price goes up,
you know they might be dropping like one hundred dollars
or more a month. That can especially when you think
about the compounding realities of that money going to work
for you in retirement accounts. That money could do a
whole lot on your behalf. And I don't know, maybe
all of us in the how of money community, maybe
we can simultaneously commit to avoiding lottery tickets and luxury
(23:41):
goods at the same time.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
What if, yeah, what if lottery tickets are somebody's craft
beer equivalent. Oh, I don't know. I don't know if
you can justify that as I think you can anything,
right Like, That's why it's so hard for us to
knock on stuff, which is part of it.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Why but most people do it out of habit, or
they do it out of hope, and they're doing it
because they're I don't know, they think that, yeah, they
need the big time payout. They can't they can't be
patient and wait for thirty or forty years to build
that wealth. But that's really the tried and true way
to do it.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
And that's a muscle worth developing. Yeah, I hate that.
It's more of a reflexive action for a lot of folks,
and that's when folks are mindlessly sort of losing their money.
There's a big difference between that and like, I don't know,
twice a year being like, hey, every year I take
my tax return and I use two dollars of that
to buy a lot of ticket. Like I don't know
if it's like a tradition or or maybe like well
we always stick one lottery ticket in Christmas stocking or
(24:31):
something like that. There's a big difference between that and
like reflexively going every week on you know, Friday afternoon
exactly that kind of thing. So, speaking of prices, Joel,
so was it last week we talked about tattoos how
much they cost? Like I joked about getting an experience
tattoo on that experience New York Times. I think they
heard us talking about that. They just had an article
about how expensive tattoos have gotten. The global tattoo market
(24:53):
is two point two billion dollars. I had no idea
that it was that big of an industry and more
America are paying big money to make their body a
living work of art, and I can appreciate that. I
can I understand folks who are into that. My wife
wants to get attended. Does she really does what she
want to get? Does she know like a wave somewhere? Yeah? Oh?
(25:14):
Be the way? Is there like a counseling thing? A
question I need? I need to take it a little bit.
Didn't ask her why she thought it looked cool. I
thought she's like the beach. Yeah, but she's not like
obsessed with the beach. If you're obsessed with the beach,
that's when you get like, yeah, I don't Yeah, maybe
it's like a go with the flow. Oh okay, yeah.
I can't believe you haven't asked her why she was away.
(25:34):
I didn't ask her. Now now I feel dumb. What
if you're like, I want to get a tattoo and
you're like, I want to get a sunflower on my
forearm when you let her to ask you? Why? Be
Based on that Postmalon song, Yeah, it's a good song.
I think it's just worth putting this out there because
that you know, We've all seen friends get tattoos that
to them represented something meaningful at that point in time,
but then they end up loathing the ink that you
(25:57):
know they adored just a few years earlier. Big money
on the because then you've got, you know, not just
the cost involved with getting a tattoo, that's one thing,
a couple hundred per hour, but then the time the
cost to remove the tattoo that is also worth considering
as well. You got to think about if you don't
end up loving that tattoo and the tattoo removal part
(26:18):
of the industry that's actually one third of the tattoo
market these days. I have a buddy who's so fascinated,
who is obsessed with Lord of the Rings, and he's
covering up some of his old tattoos because he, I
guess doesn't like them or doesn't feel like they represent
him in the same way anymore. So he's getting these
massive Thord of the Rings scenes over the top of
those old tattoos. And I think that's something else people do.
They either got him removed giant Gollum on those ye
(26:39):
is it? Is it?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Pete Davidson from Saturday Night Live that like has gotten
has spent a ton of money getting tattoos removed they
got earlier on in life. So this is one of
the things with me. We're like, think long and hard.
I guess before you get the body art. Tattoos can
be super cool and I just have never.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Had tattoos more expensive than you think.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Well, I just think, I like, I've never been able
to find something that I'm like, I'm almost positive I'm
gonna love that for the rest of my life. Can't
wait when I'm eighty two to look down at that thing. Yeah,
that wrinkled tattoo, that's that's at enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Like. There are very few things in my life where
that I feel that resolute and where I trust myself
to be that steadfast like years and years. Like family
is one, and so you know, I could see myself.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
That was the one thing I thought about getting really
some sort of like Shuonish version of my family, like
tattooed on caricature of your whole fa one of my
favorite artists representation of my family. But I just haven't.
I just haven't been able to make that plunge get
you a black cat tips, That's what I was taking.
Version of everyone yes, exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
That could be cool.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
It could be, but I still probably won't do it.
So yeah, get body art if you're into it, but
just make sure you actually are sure you want it,
because it can be expensive to put on and to
take off. Now, let's talk about real estate for a second.
As prices go up, at some point, consumer stop buying, right,
I think, go on buyer strike. They say it's it's
too much. I'm backing out of the market. And we
know this too. What goes up at an unsustainable pace
(28:05):
must eventually chill out and come back down to earth,
and that is what's happening in certain parts of the
real estate market. Florida, for instance, was red hot for
years more than the rest of the country, but the
Florida market seems to be calming down quite a bit.
I think this is partly thanks to recent violent storms,
rising home insurance costs, and price fatigue, but I think
price fatigue started before some of this other stuff too.
(28:28):
Those factors have all combined to just reduced interest in
Florida real estate in general. And so this is bad news,
I guess if you own a home in Florida. But
it's good news for want to be home buyers. And
I think this is extending past just Florida specifically too.
I mean, we went through a stretch of rapidly increasing prices,
multiple offers on every home home sales going for one
(28:50):
hundred thousand dollars more than what the asking price was,
and then asking prices jumping conventionally too. But just like
prices in many other parts of the economy, the housing
market is more normalizing. So it just feels like we're
living in a more normal American economy right now than
we were a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
And that's just a nice change, that's true. Yeah, so
if you already own a home and recently purchased it,
you might love the home, but not the rate. That
was actually a term that was gaining popularity. Was it
last year a couple of years ago. Marry the home,
date the rate. Yeah, we crapped on that a lot.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yeah, we hate on realtors a lot, don't we, Joel, Well, no, no,
we talked. That was about that was about refinancing, and
they were saying, oh, listen, buy the home and guess
what you don't like the rate, you can refinance like
six months down the road.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
That was like, yeah, and look where ray. Traditionally that
was a realtor rallying cry to be like, no, you
can still buy the home, like this is only temporary. Yeah,
but and look at rates. Yeah, they're still not doing great.
They did. Friend of the Show, Michelle Singletary. She wrote
in an article in The Washington Post about how you
actually don't have to refinance to reduce what you pay
an interest. She didn't suggest refinancing, because again, rates haven't
(29:55):
dropped enough to make that a smart idea for almost anyone. Instead,
she was pointed to paying extra towards your principal balance.
So this is a classic suggestion, And yes, it it's
going to reduce the overall amount of interest that you're
going to pay over the life of the loan because
specifically of the fact that you're going to reduce your
payoff timeline. But that doesn't mean that you should start
(30:17):
funneling more money towards your mortgage. If let's say you
are investing, let's say you're saving like a baller, Yeah,
maybe that's something you can consider, But we don't think
that you should prioritize a mortgage payoff if it means
not achieving the other goals. In your life and the
biggest So again, by paying towards your principal balance, yes,
(30:37):
you are going to eliminate that mortgage like seven years sooner. Right,
This is the two Like, what is that if you
pay twice two extra payments every single year. I think
it's something like you're taking it from a thirty year
mortgage down to a twenty three your mortgage bi weekly,
that's what you're doing. Yeah, extra payment a year exactly,
that's right. But guess what, you're not realizing that benefit
until the twenty years down the line. And so if
(30:57):
you're thinking that this is some way that you're going
to be able to reduce what it is that you're
paying every single month towards your mortgage, No, you're not
reducing your monthly cash flow that's going that's leaving your
bank account. This is this is a forced method of savings.
And to actually realize a reduced payment at some point,
what you would have to do is, yes, either refinance,
hoping that rates are going to come down. But the
(31:18):
problem here though, refinancing is pretty expensive, and so the
other alternative is to see if you can get your
mortgage recast, which is where the lender reamateurizes your payment
schedule based on the principal balance that is remaining. But
that guess what, that also costs money too, so that
there's no like sort of cost less than refining. It
costs less, but there's no free lunch here, And so instead,
(31:40):
we would much rather see folks avoid adopting the mindset
of oh, I hate debt, and instead, if hey, if
you want to save a bunch, sock that money into
your savings account, find different ways of investing that money.
But paying your mortgage early is typically not something that
we can that we like to get behind.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
You should hate most debt, but mortgage debt is the
exception to the rule. I think that like most debt
that people call in and ask us about matt, we're like,
get rid of it as soon as possible. Mortgage debt, though,
is one of those that we say, oh, actually, there's
a bunch of other things you could do with this,
And in fact, there's certain benefits to having extra liquid
cash on hand right That gives you a lot more freedom,
(32:16):
more flexibility, and so we'd likely rather see you invest
those dollars, especially if you're earlier on your financial journey,
do that instead of prioritizing that mortgage payoff. So we
love Michelle Singletary, just don't. And for some people this
might be the best move, but it's certainly not for everybody.
So I think if we're blanket telling everyone get rid
of your house debt as quickly as possible, you might
be missing out on other ways to grow your net
(32:37):
worth instead of just trying to pay down a debt
that's not actually one of the worst debts you have.
All right, should you increase your utility budget in preparation
for higher winter heating prices. It's starting to get cold, Matt.
We've turned on the heat for the first time recently.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
I love it. Yeah, I love turn on the heat
drives out there. Well, actually it's not the heat that
dries out there. It's just lower temperatures carry less humidity.
And if I talked too much about humidity in the
air recently, maybe this you could have been a weather
man and in another life. I find it fascinating.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, that's all, and so much of like whether or
not you're going to encounter higher heating prices this winter,
it depends on where you live, and it depends on
where you're getting your information. So CNN basically said, had
an article saying higher electricity bills are coming this winter,
and it sounded really scary, But then you read the
fine print and you're like, it seems like they're not
going up. They're going up at a slower rate than
(33:28):
the rate of inflation, for sure. And then the Wall
Street Journal had an article detailing the abundance of natural gas,
which is going to lead to lower utility costs for
a big chunk of folks in the states that use
natural gas for heating MAP. I don't know about you,
but my price per therm plummeted when I recently shopped around.
And so you live, if you live in a state
with deregulated natural gas, I forget how many there are,
(33:50):
but shopping around could save you a bundle if you
just keep paying what you're paying, if you're on the
if you're not in some sort of locked in rate, Yeah,
did you get to pay more? Did you get to
the end of your two year lock basically yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
And so then I love locking in another another chunk
of time at an even lower rates.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
So much cheaper, so much cheaper this time around. So
if use heating oil, it's gonna cost you a bit
more this winter, but still not a whole lot more
than last year according to the estimates that we've seen.
But ultimately how much you spend depends less on rising
prices at least in this current environment, and more on
a combination of the weather. Because if it's super duper
cold where you live, like you're gonna need to use
more energy to heat your home. And then where you
(34:28):
set thermostat, Matt, I think something people don't think about
a whole lot and might sound cheap to some folks,
sounds cheap to my kids, I think lots of times.
But the lower you set that thermostat, hopefully without you know,
make your fingers and your extremities go numb. But that's
gonna that's gonna help you save a bundle on heating too.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Just put some clothes on and we practice turn it
down a few degrees when you leave the house to
go to work too. We practice what we preach. We're
sitting here, you are wearing a cozy hoodie. I am
wearing a little Patagoia puff puffer jacket, and that's what's
keeping our heat pump from having to blast, which costs
us money. Right, But that's gonna be it for the
US Friday flight. We hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.
We will link to the different stories that we mentioned
(35:05):
during this episode up in our show notes at howdomoney
dot com. So buddy, hope you have a good one.
Until next time, best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,
Welcome to Head of Money. I'm Joel, I am Matt.
Today we're talking about longer loans, pre paying principle, and
higher heating bills. That's right, buddy. This is our Friday Flight,
(00:28):
the weekly round up, our weekly roundup of the news
and how it pertains to your personal finances, so that
you don't have to spend all of your life combing
through the headlines and the articles to find the ones
that are going to impact your bank account.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I pick the most important stuff, share it with you
and stuff, and we offer our hot takes.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
It's kind of what we do. Honestly, you want to
kick things off. Speaking of hot takes. With the Federal
Trade Commission, we might disagree.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
On this because I know you know we're going to disagree.
You disaground this, but I think this is potentially a
really good thing. The FTC just announced this week that
they're going to do a click to a click to
cancel rule. And basically what the FDC wants is for
companies to not be allowed to if they make it
really easy to sign up on their website or via
their app. Hey guess what they need to make it
(01:13):
just as easy to cancel, and I think it was
earlier this year met the cable companies testified in front
of the FTC and they basically said, listen, if we
make it easy to cancel, then people are actually going
to cancel our service, and we don't want that. And
the FTC was like, that's the point, so that people
can cancel if they want to. And I think the
cable companies actually retain a massive number of people who
(01:34):
try to cancel because they call to cancel, they're forced
to call, they can't they can't use, you know, go
to the internet website of the provider and cancel, and
because of that, they end up talking them in or
they offer him a deal or something like that. It's
just this rig and role that I think consumers are
tired of in many ways. I just tried to cancel
something the other day, a streaming service, and it was
like hard to find the grade out cancel button at
(01:55):
the bottom.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And there's like six steps that you have to go through.
When it's like the same color as the background, right,
it's literally impossible unless I select all and then I
see it highlight right.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
It's like trying to find the unsubscribed button on the
bottom of an email sometimes it's like finding ale in
a haysack. But so I kind of like this, it's
not set in stone yet. There's like six months I
think before this becomes official. You just had actually trouble
canceling a gym membership, and.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
So we're not gonna talk about that though.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
But actually that's one of the things is gym's make
it really hard to cancel. People end up sticking around
pay an extra, whereas if they made it easier to cancel,
I think people would be They wouldn't find themselves paying
for stuff that they're not getting or that they don't want.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, I am of two minds with it, because I
certainly understand. I see the appeal right the ability to
cancel the same way that you subscribed. It makes it's
common sense. But at the same time, I just don't
like how we've arrived at that point. Like I like
the result and what the end result might be, but
instead of the government getting involved, obviously, I would rather
see the free and open market decide and the ability
for us as consumers to vote with our dollars or
(02:57):
leave a review, a negative review, cant or with our
dollars because they're making it so hard for us to
leave because your dollars are all tied up. Yeah, but
just the ability to tell your friends about it, I
think is it's just a simpler, more straightforward way of
achieving the same ends as opposed to what I see
being the more complex, expensive way to achieve this sense
(03:18):
by having a government agency potentially enforce this, because what
does that actually look like, the government to step in
and say, hey, they'll do business like this, Like, that's
the part of it that that turns me off, and
I would rather see consumers be able to vote with
your dollars. Yeah. But either way though, I mean, we'll see.
And obviously if it goes through, and it's a part
of how businesses are forced to implement some of these changes,
(03:42):
I'm all for it because it's like, okay, well if
that's if that's the rule, then we abide by the
rule and we all get to benefit. In this case
as a consumer, Yeah, I'll be thankful for it. And
I think, yeah, if you want to cancel your service,
it should be you shouldn't have to go to an
AI bought and chat and and jump through a bunch
of hoops. When it was they made it super simple
(04:03):
to sign up. That to me feels kind of like
a bait and switch, and I think it's a dirty practice. Yeah,
I just think there are better ways for businesses to
run their businesses. This makes me think of a kind
of a random story that we came across this week,
Home Depot. What they're doing now. They're having their corporate folks,
their corporate employees, and the CEO is the one who
implemented this. But they have to go to an actual
home Depot store to work once a quarter. And the
(04:26):
goal here is for the people who might be a
bit more detached from the end product and for the
services that they're providing to be more connected to you know,
what the boots on the ground are actually encountering. And
I think this can only be good for morale and
for business. This is a smart business move, Yes, And
this is like the perfect example I think of how
instead of this being some like mandated from on high,
from like a government agency, here is an individual company deciding,
(04:49):
you know what we need to get. We need to
be more in touch with how it is that our
consumers are seeing the end product, and that is going
to allow us to innovate. It's going to allow us
to make changes. We're going to be able to see that, like, oh,
we don't like it when we make whatever it is
is at a home Depot story right, And like, well,
I hate it that we make customers stand over here
when they're making returns. Why can't we do this? And
like there are these small little tweaks along the way
that you can implement.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And I think in big companies it's really easy for
the people at the top to get out of become
out of touch with what's happening at maybe the individual
retail locations. And like Sam Walton was famous for visiting
like all the Walmarts and even visiting his competitors and
stuff like that too, to get a sense for what's
happening on the ground level. And I think many CEOs
don't do that. So the fact that Home Depot is
(05:30):
doing it feels like kind of like that the show
Undercover Boss now, where the CEO would dress up and
work like a day in the minds or something like
that with the normies that worked for the company. And
I think that's a good thing. All the pleabs, I
think that's a great thing. Like Home Depot will probably
benefit from this as a post.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
And so what we'll see is a business like home
deepot continue to innovate and do well. Their stocks will
continue to go up, customer service is going to remain high.
And then if you see other companies that aren't innovating,
like I think us all that Kmart is, they've got
like one more store or something that's going to end
up closing. Amazing. That's an example of a store that
that didn't do that didn't keep up with the times exactly.
(06:09):
And so it's up to the I think it can
serve their customer well, were on a company company to
company level as opposed to it being something that needs
to be mandated from on high.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, let's talk about something else, Matt. Let's talk about
car Loans. We don't like them.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I hate them.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
We've never liked them. We talked smack about them regularly
on the show. And it's it's one of those things
where it has been a problem in the past, and
it's this problem is getting worse because as car prices
have risen, interest rates have also gone up, and so
car affordability has one of the been one of the
biggest categories, the hardest hit categories by inflation. So yeah, eggs.
(06:41):
It stinks that those costs more, but the car probably
impacts your budget far more than just the eggs, and
it's it's just not a fun situation right to be
in if you're looking to upgrade your vehicle, because you're
staring at the price tag the bottom line and you're
freaking out. You're not used to paying this much for
a car, especially if it's been five, six, seven years
since you've had buy one.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Hopefully even longer.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Hopefully even longer. While you drive your car, you don't
have to put up with this problem. But new numbers
from Edmunds find that people aren't necessarily trading down to
a cheaper automobile or saving up longer. What they're doing
is they're increasing the payoff timeline so that they can
snag the car they want. This is really bad.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
News in our estimation see here in this.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Eighty four month car loans now account for almost one
in five of the overall loans that were issued in
just this past quarter. That has doubled in just the
past few years, and then so the average car loan
length is now sixty eight months Matt, so people are
a lot more people opting for the eighty four, but
the average is sixty eight. That's more than five and
a half years to pay off the car that you're buying.
(07:45):
Outrageously bad news, and it could come with serious financial
consequences for people down the line. On top of that,
nearly one in four consumers owe more on their car
loan than the vehicle is worth, so they're upside down
in their ride. Something like twenty twenty five, twenty six,
twenty seven percent of people upside down on their vehicles.
The national average for upside down balances is sixty four
(08:07):
one hundred dollars. So talk about being in financial trouble
when you own more than the car is worth. If
you're in an act terrible or if you feel like you
need to trade your car up, sorry, you still owe
a bunch of money on it. That gets people into
even worse car loans when they trade it in and
they get another car on top of.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
That, then it perpetuates. It creates a six cycle, and
we want people to avoid car loans all together. We
want you to keep your current car on the road.
Maintaining your vehicles highly underrated. Everybody wants to hit the
easy button, and what easy means is expensive signing up
for a new loan to where they don't have to
like take the car into the shop. Like literally this morning,
(08:42):
I spent like five ten minutes the car. The tire
pressure gauge light came on on the dash and I
ignored it for a couple of days, and Kate was like, hey,
what's that all about. I'm like, okay, I finally get
to it. But most people don't like even doing that.
But spending some time, even if it's cold outside, to
get out there and get the tire pressure backup means
those tires are going to last longer. But we need
to do that with all aspects of our car. But
(09:03):
then if you eventually do want to get a new vehicle,
just keep saving up. If you can be the opposite
of the average American on this front, if you can
stay disciplined to keep car debt out of your life,
you're going to be shocked at how this single choice,
just as one choice, can help you to make financial
progress in leaps and bounds. Yea, as a friend of
the show car dealership Guy, he said this in his
new newsletter. I'll quote this. He wrote, Longer loan terms
(09:25):
can make monthly payments easier to manage. Sure, that's why
people do it. Yeah, but most Americans aren't looking to
hold onto their cars for seven years. The real risk
is that these extended loans increase the chance of carrying
negative equity into their next purchase if they even keep
up with their payments in the first place, which is
one hundred percent true. So we don't want you to
put yourself in this position. I think Joel would say, Hey,
(09:48):
it's so, if you're going to get a loan, make
sure to limit it to you know, forty eight months
or maybe or less. Certainly that's much better than the
seven year terms car even a smaller loan term. But man,
you can get reliable vehicles by saving up cash. I
think most Americans who are finding themselves in a position
where they're looking at a new vehicle aren't in a
highly urgent situation. Uh. And instead it's more of a
(10:09):
lifestyle upgrade. And they're more Americans are financing these lifestyle upgrades.
And that's what I hate seeing.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
And I think just because it's become normal, just because
everybody's doing it. I mean, I don't know if your
mom ever said this to you, map, but my mom
but always yeah, just because everyone else is doing it.
I mean, you're going to do it too. If Matt
jumped off a bridge, Joel, would you do it too?
And I'd be like, I don't know, maybe if there's
water below and it looks kind of fun, it's only
like thirty feet. Sure, I was actually really into that
high school you were in a bridge jumping, so maybe
I would mom. And maybe I'm actually undermining my own
(10:35):
point here, but yeah, if everyone else is.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Doing what I failed to Dijoel was oftentimes check the water,
like for down trees, that's that's oh really, Oh yeah,
you gotta you gotta do that. If you're gonna do
some like cliff jumping, rock jumping at the lake, trestle
train trestle jumping, you always need to check the water,
makes sense, make sure it's clear of any debris.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And r or else you can have a major accident,
right exactly exactly, So I think I think you've gone
as straight here from my point.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Matt all sorts of it amount of money, how to
save money by not going to the hospital, But I
think it's just so normal.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
And when we talk about what the average person should
spend on their car payment, or if you look at
like rules of Thumb, typically it's ten percent of your
overall income should or can go to car stuff. I
would prefer to be for most folks for that to
be far smaller, and that just gives you so much
more flexibility in terms of vacation. You want to go
on increasing your saving and investment investment rate. So just
(11:27):
because everybody around you's doing it, doesn't mean that we
should do it too. And I just see that like
this current situation for a significant portion of American consumers,
mat it's untenable and it's going to lead to some
really horrendous side effects down the road. From a personal
finance standpoint, So keeping your car expenses and your car
note if you have to take one on to a minimum,
(11:49):
and being really thoughtful about, Okay, how long is it
going to take me to pay this off? And then
how can I continue to bank that money so that
I don't ever have to have a car loan in
the future.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
That's the goal seven year car loans here that daysh
Let's go ahead and talk about artificial intelligence, Joel, I
personally don't exactly know. I guess what to think about AI,
how it will impact our future. Are we all going
to live in the Matrix someday? I actually don't think so,
but some folks have if we lived in the Matrix
and had to watch that movie on repeat. Interesting, I
(12:19):
haven't thought about that. It's feeling a little too meta. Yeah,
do our younger listeners even though what the matrix is.
I'm sure they've heard of it. But if you haven't
seen it, they have, Like the newer Matrix come out
a few years ago, right, revolution, Yeah, revolutions, I think
the only go to fifty year old people. The first
one still holds up by the way. I think they're
all decent. But at the time it was like mind
bending in a way that our minds hadn't been. But
(12:42):
I enjoyed reading an MIT professor who recently wrote that
he believes that AI can only do basically five percent
of all jobs right now. Basically, you're saying it could
help some folks and replace others, but that is not
going to like foment and economic revolution that's going to
render all humans obsolete. And I'll say I'm actually I
hope he's right, because there have been some recent stories
(13:04):
about Google's new AI generated podcasts. Have you heard some
of those, Joel, It's uncanny what they're able to do.
I'm a little I was quaking in my Adidas when
I read them. Matt look consered. Actually, are you actually
worried about that?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Is that I'm not because I just think I think
the biggest thing that AI can't do is personality generated.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So like I can't make it fun, right, I mean,
they might think they can make it fun, but it's
going to be this sort of sterile version of fun
as opposed to like the real stuff that we're experiencing
in our day to day lives. Think about this.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Think about how cheap it's gotten to listen to the
music you want to listen to, whatever album, whatever song,
whatever artist you want to listen to, deep cuts, no matter.
You can listen to it for for for your cheap.
But think about how much money people pay to go
see a concert in person. It's insane. The yeah, the
price tag for concerts for big artists and stuff like
(13:52):
that has gone through the roof. And I think people
more than ever want authenticity. They want real life, they
want real people, they want experiences, and I think I
don't know, hopefully hopefully listening to Matt Joel is in
experience of sorts that people will want to listen to
even though they are going to be AI podcasts out there.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
They want a little rougher around the edges, and that's
what we're able to provide. That's right.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
They want the stumbles, they want the bumbles, they want
a few ums on occasion.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I think, so whatever other idiocy we might come up
with it.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, but I think that's a really smart prediction. I
think that's probably true, Matt. Five percent of jobs interrupted
significantly by AI. That makes sense to me. I think
some of the massive doomsayers on AI, I don't know.
I just I don't see that future to take them seriously. Yeah,
one industry we'd love to see disrupted by AI is
real estate. And that's because real estate commissions make it
(14:39):
so much more expensive. You're buying sell homes, Kirkma, the
realtors with the pitchforks.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah, they're like, oh, you're justifying your profession, but you're
coming after hours, sorry, guys, shirks.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
And that's not because we hate real estate agents and
we think that and I don't think that that AI
is going to reduce the need for good realtors, but
I think it will maybe grease the kids and potentially
bring commission back into a reasonable range total. And there's
this new company that's basically trying to bring those costs down.
It's billing itself as AI for home buying. It's called
(15:09):
fly Homes. So I was reading an article about this,
Matt and basically, this company believes that over time, AI
is going to help answer most of the questions that
you have about a home that you want to buy. So, hey,
not only did you find it on Zilo, you got
some basic information. Now you go to fly homes and
you're like, hey, has this cross space ever been flooded?
Or there's other questions you can ask. And this AI
(15:30):
is going to learn about like apparently all the homes
in the country, and it's going to be able to
give you more informations and then I'll help you even
write an offer. It might even help you negotiate. What
happens if two ais are negotiating against each other, I
have no idea. Both of those systems just completely break down,
and it's like the seventies game or seventies movie wargames.
You remember that, no, I.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Don't involve the computer. Ok yeah, I'm playing against itself
running different scenarios. Okay, yeah, I mean maybe it ends
up being like that. I don't know if fly homes
like how if this is ready for primetime, or if
in a few years, as they continue to make progress,
will this actually be able to help consumers. I don't
see artificial intelligence replacing agents now, but I do see
it becoming maybe an accessory and helping to bring down
(16:13):
costs for consumers, just maybe a helpful tool for agents
to maximize their time, a way to reduce the transaction costs,
because yeah, they're prohibitive in so many ways, and I
do think they prevent the housing market from being as
fluid as it could be. The pricing model, like the
way the pricing structure works or has worked in the
past when it comes to realtors. That's I think that's
the biggest thing that's going to get disrupted. And as
(16:33):
I think about it, the biggest the best parallel that
I can think of are financial advisors. And in the past,
typically the structure for payment is assets under management, and
so if you've got clients and they're worth tons of money, dude,
you are rolling in it. Yeah, But now the way
it works. Oftentimes it's a flat fee, so you get
the services, and maybe it's not yeah, okay, maybe they're
(16:53):
not taking you out to lunch, maybe you're not going
golfing with them, and because you're a you're not a
big high roller or anything like that. But you are being
provided the services that they're able to provide all of
their clients, regardless of how much money they make. And
in a similar way, I think the same might be
true when it comes to realtors, Like, why just because
you are selling a house that's eight hundred thousand dollars
as opposed to four hundred thousand dollars, does that mean
(17:14):
you should be making twice as much when maybe you
did it twice the work. I don't think so, and
so in that way, and again and all the realtors
are going to come after us.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
They they don't like the three percent rule being threatened
because it and again, of.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Course it hurts their bottom line.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
But when you look at the numbers, there's a ton
of real estate agents who don't make much money, and
that's because typically they're doing it super part time.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
O their license and they only help out their friends.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Right, there's a lot of agents out there, though, the
agents who make a lot of sales or help a
lot of people through it the year, they do quite
well for themselves, and I'm not worried about those people
not being able to continue doing well for themselves.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
I'm just a full timers are going to be fine.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
I just think that there's probably a more fair way
to compensate, and for some agents it might even end
up meaning that they make more. Matt, We've got more
to get to on this episode. We're actually going to
talk about real estate prices going down in some parts
of the country. We'll get to that and more right
after this.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
All right, buddy, we are back from the break, and
of course now we've got our ludicrous headline of the week,
which this week is from Wired magazine. I used to
actually be a subscriber to the physical Wired magazine back
in the day. I was into the text.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I saw that the Atlantic just increased the number of
physical magazines are sending out to give a year from
ten to twelve. I was like, our magazine's back.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
And I think this goes to like people want physical stuff.
Yeah they are, they are, well the onion. I think
it was like a decade ago stopped actually creating something
that you could hold. Yeah, but then they I think
they're realizing this is something similar. I'm all about it
because I'm actually I like this trend.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
There are a couple of magazines like I don't think
I subscribed to any magazines right now, physical magazines, and
part of me wants to go subscribe to a couple
just because there's something about getting into the mail holding
in your hands.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
It's special and the design choices that go into like
the just the paper weight, like all the old school
journalism magazine folks are like, yeah, yeah, bring them back.
But again, this headline is from Wired, and the headline reads,
the more this releix costs, the more you want it.
We're gonna knock on luxury a little bit. This is
why we don't buy fancy stuff, Joel. I try not
(19:20):
to care about luxury goods, and in part it's because
the finest luxury good makers out there, they typically raise
prices much faster than the rate of inflation. Yet it
only makes their products. So for instance, Swiss watches fancy
handmade bags, it makes them more desirable, which sounds.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Like the opposite should be true, right If this is
how luxury works, though, Josaster in the rate of inflation,
then what like, why do I want it more?
Speaker 1 (19:45):
It's the forbidden fruit. That's why we buy these goods
in a desire to signify social status. And we'll keep
buying these goods that are widely considered exclusive because of
what it reveals to the people around us, what it
signals as so good. Old Teddy Roosevelt said, this comparison
is the thief of joy. But Joel, it'll also rob
(20:06):
you of your hard earned money. It robs you with
the freedom that it could have bought you instead when
we focus on buying not only stuff, but luxury goods
that have very little intrinsic value.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
And I think for some people, Matt, it's okay to
desire some things that are upper echelon or that are nicer.
And if you have the money to spend on those things,
and you've budgeted appropriately and you're doing all the other
smart stuff with your money and Rolexes or your craft
beer equivalent or something, that's fine, Like I've got no
beef with you on that. But I think sometimes people
buy the things they can't afford in an attempt to
(20:36):
signal and they're not doing the other things, and they
put themselves into financial buying because of it. So you
got to watch out for that. And the other side
of the coin to Matt is, I'm curious to hear
your thoughts on this. I hear that like, Rolexes continue
to go up in value, so it's an investment, Joel.
I guess in some ways it could be right. So
maybe you don't trick yourself into thinking of it that way.
(20:57):
But when you see like some of those vintage Rolexes,
or there's some kind to rolexes that continue to go
up in value if you take care of it year
after year, maybe that's one reason to at least not
be as down on luxury goods as it might otherwise be.
Sure doesn't mean I'm buying one.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
That's how you can justify it. No, I'm not interested personally.
I am more of a speedmaster, an Omega speedmaster guy. Yeah,
less of a Rolex fan. How much does this cost?
Just as much? I think? Oh really? Oh yeah, especially one? No. No,
I just have looked at him from afar and I
don't think I will ever be able to allow myself
to actually do it because of all the things I
just said, like, I'm trying to try and buy you
(21:31):
one for your birthday. Dude, if you did that, that
would be stupid, But I would totally wear it, Like
do I put it next to my garment watch or yeah,
like what do I do at that point? One on
each rest? No. I mean we've I think we shared
the story about how Kate and I were on a
date and there was a watch club meeting at one
of our favorite local spots, and man, the ability to
(21:51):
get my I was like, what are you guys doing?
And I see all these watches and they're they're collectors. Yeah.
It was also encouraging to hear that you can kind
of get into it without dropping ridiculous amounts of money
on some of the the you know, the Omegas or
the Rolexes. There's a lot of other sort of like
medium tier brands as well. If that's something that you're into,
I feel like, I'm man, if you've got the money,
if you are in if gosh that I can't believe.
(22:11):
I so easily, like jiu jitsued myself into like trying
to say that this is okay to get I was
gonna add this. You just we talked about physical magazines
for just a second. I think physical like analog goods. Also,
because we live in such a digital world, something like
a handmade watch, analog watch. There's something cool about that
in an age where everything's on a screen, way cooler
(22:32):
than like an Apple watch. So maybe buy a really
expensive rolex everyone, Oh my god, it's just kidding. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Uh, something else that's skyrocketing and price a lottery tickets.
Those are going to cost more starting in April. So
instead of two bucks for your mega million's ticket, it's
not gonna cost five dollars five spot.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I feel steep feels a lot, yeah, a lot more
expensive two dollars. It's just like, oh, you got a
couple ones laying around, Well, I was gonna end up
losing those anyway, right, right, But now you're.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Like, you'll lose file five dollars five And of course
there's gonna be more winners, there's gonna be bigger prizes. Still,
your odds of winning are truly going to be abysmal.
And your once a week habit, which is akin to
tossing money in the garbage, which might have been cute
at two dollars, now at five bucks. I think it
deserves more serious line of questioning. Twenty bucks a month
matt for the average person, I get, I think, and
(23:19):
I think the average lottery player spends a whole lot
more than that already, and if the price goes up,
you know they might be dropping like one hundred dollars
or more a month. That can especially when you think
about the compounding realities of that money going to work
for you in retirement accounts. That money could do a
whole lot on your behalf. And I don't know, maybe
all of us in the how of money community, maybe
we can simultaneously commit to avoiding lottery tickets and luxury
(23:41):
goods at the same time.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
What if, yeah, what if lottery tickets are somebody's craft
beer equivalent. Oh, I don't know. I don't know if
you can justify that as I think you can anything,
right Like, That's why it's so hard for us to
knock on stuff, which is part of it.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Why but most people do it out of habit, or
they do it out of hope, and they're doing it
because they're I don't know, they think that, yeah, they
need the big time payout. They can't they can't be
patient and wait for thirty or forty years to build
that wealth. But that's really the tried and true way
to do it.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
And that's a muscle worth developing. Yeah, I hate that.
It's more of a reflexive action for a lot of folks,
and that's when folks are mindlessly sort of losing their money.
There's a big difference between that and like, I don't know,
twice a year being like, hey, every year I take
my tax return and I use two dollars of that
to buy a lot of ticket. Like I don't know
if it's like a tradition or or maybe like well
we always stick one lottery ticket in Christmas stocking or
(24:31):
something like that. There's a big difference between that and
like reflexively going every week on you know, Friday afternoon
exactly that kind of thing. So, speaking of prices, Joel,
so was it last week we talked about tattoos how
much they cost? Like I joked about getting an experience
tattoo on that experience New York Times. I think they
heard us talking about that. They just had an article
about how expensive tattoos have gotten. The global tattoo market
(24:53):
is two point two billion dollars. I had no idea
that it was that big of an industry and more
America are paying big money to make their body a
living work of art, and I can appreciate that. I
can I understand folks who are into that. My wife
wants to get attended. Does she really does what she
want to get? Does she know like a wave somewhere? Yeah? Oh?
(25:14):
Be the way? Is there like a counseling thing? A
question I need? I need to take it a little bit.
Didn't ask her why she thought it looked cool. I
thought she's like the beach. Yeah, but she's not like
obsessed with the beach. If you're obsessed with the beach,
that's when you get like, yeah, I don't Yeah, maybe
it's like a go with the flow. Oh okay, yeah.
I can't believe you haven't asked her why she was away.
(25:34):
I didn't ask her. Now now I feel dumb. What
if you're like, I want to get a tattoo and
you're like, I want to get a sunflower on my
forearm when you let her to ask you? Why? Be
Based on that Postmalon song, Yeah, it's a good song.
I think it's just worth putting this out there because
that you know, We've all seen friends get tattoos that
to them represented something meaningful at that point in time,
but then they end up loathing the ink that you
(25:57):
know they adored just a few years earlier. Big money
on the because then you've got, you know, not just
the cost involved with getting a tattoo, that's one thing,
a couple hundred per hour, but then the time the
cost to remove the tattoo that is also worth considering
as well. You got to think about if you don't
end up loving that tattoo and the tattoo removal part
(26:18):
of the industry that's actually one third of the tattoo
market these days. I have a buddy who's so fascinated,
who is obsessed with Lord of the Rings, and he's
covering up some of his old tattoos because he, I
guess doesn't like them or doesn't feel like they represent
him in the same way anymore. So he's getting these
massive Thord of the Rings scenes over the top of
those old tattoos. And I think that's something else people do.
They either got him removed giant Gollum on those ye
(26:39):
is it? Is it?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Pete Davidson from Saturday Night Live that like has gotten
has spent a ton of money getting tattoos removed they
got earlier on in life. So this is one of
the things with me. We're like, think long and hard.
I guess before you get the body art. Tattoos can
be super cool and I just have never.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Had tattoos more expensive than you think.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Well, I just think, I like, I've never been able
to find something that I'm like, I'm almost positive I'm
gonna love that for the rest of my life. Can't
wait when I'm eighty two to look down at that thing. Yeah,
that wrinkled tattoo, that's that's at enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Like. There are very few things in my life where
that I feel that resolute and where I trust myself
to be that steadfast like years and years. Like family
is one, and so you know, I could see myself.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
That was the one thing I thought about getting really
some sort of like Shuonish version of my family, like
tattooed on caricature of your whole fa one of my
favorite artists representation of my family. But I just haven't.
I just haven't been able to make that plunge get
you a black cat tips, That's what I was taking.
Version of everyone yes, exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
That could be cool.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
It could be, but I still probably won't do it.
So yeah, get body art if you're into it, but
just make sure you actually are sure you want it,
because it can be expensive to put on and to
take off. Now, let's talk about real estate for a second.
As prices go up, at some point, consumer stop buying, right,
I think, go on buyer strike. They say it's it's
too much. I'm backing out of the market. And we
know this too. What goes up at an unsustainable pace
(28:05):
must eventually chill out and come back down to earth,
and that is what's happening in certain parts of the
real estate market. Florida, for instance, was red hot for
years more than the rest of the country, but the
Florida market seems to be calming down quite a bit.
I think this is partly thanks to recent violent storms,
rising home insurance costs, and price fatigue, but I think
price fatigue started before some of this other stuff too.
(28:28):
Those factors have all combined to just reduced interest in
Florida real estate in general. And so this is bad news,
I guess if you own a home in Florida. But
it's good news for want to be home buyers. And
I think this is extending past just Florida specifically too.
I mean, we went through a stretch of rapidly increasing prices,
multiple offers on every home home sales going for one
(28:50):
hundred thousand dollars more than what the asking price was,
and then asking prices jumping conventionally too. But just like
prices in many other parts of the economy, the housing
market is more normalizing. So it just feels like we're
living in a more normal American economy right now than
we were a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
And that's just a nice change, that's true. Yeah, so
if you already own a home and recently purchased it,
you might love the home, but not the rate. That
was actually a term that was gaining popularity. Was it
last year a couple of years ago. Marry the home,
date the rate. Yeah, we crapped on that a lot.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yeah, we hate on realtors a lot, don't we, Joel, Well, no, no,
we talked. That was about that was about refinancing, and
they were saying, oh, listen, buy the home and guess
what you don't like the rate, you can refinance like
six months down the road.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
That was like, yeah, and look where ray. Traditionally that
was a realtor rallying cry to be like, no, you
can still buy the home, like this is only temporary. Yeah,
but and look at rates. Yeah, they're still not doing great.
They did. Friend of the Show, Michelle Singletary. She wrote
in an article in The Washington Post about how you
actually don't have to refinance to reduce what you pay
an interest. She didn't suggest refinancing, because again, rates haven't
(29:55):
dropped enough to make that a smart idea for almost anyone. Instead,
she was pointed to paying extra towards your principal balance.
So this is a classic suggestion, And yes, it it's
going to reduce the overall amount of interest that you're
going to pay over the life of the loan because
specifically of the fact that you're going to reduce your
payoff timeline. But that doesn't mean that you should start
(30:17):
funneling more money towards your mortgage. If let's say you
are investing, let's say you're saving like a baller, Yeah,
maybe that's something you can consider, But we don't think
that you should prioritize a mortgage payoff if it means
not achieving the other goals. In your life and the
biggest So again, by paying towards your principal balance, yes,
(30:37):
you are going to eliminate that mortgage like seven years sooner. Right,
This is the two Like, what is that if you
pay twice two extra payments every single year. I think
it's something like you're taking it from a thirty year
mortgage down to a twenty three your mortgage bi weekly,
that's what you're doing. Yeah, extra payment a year exactly,
that's right. But guess what, you're not realizing that benefit
until the twenty years down the line. And so if
(30:57):
you're thinking that this is some way that you're going
to be able to reduce what it is that you're
paying every single month towards your mortgage, No, you're not
reducing your monthly cash flow that's going that's leaving your
bank account. This is this is a forced method of savings.
And to actually realize a reduced payment at some point,
what you would have to do is, yes, either refinance,
hoping that rates are going to come down. But the
(31:18):
problem here though, refinancing is pretty expensive, and so the
other alternative is to see if you can get your
mortgage recast, which is where the lender reamateurizes your payment
schedule based on the principal balance that is remaining. But
that guess what, that also costs money too, so that
there's no like sort of cost less than refining. It
costs less, but there's no free lunch here, And so instead,
(31:40):
we would much rather see folks avoid adopting the mindset
of oh, I hate debt, and instead, if hey, if
you want to save a bunch, sock that money into
your savings account, find different ways of investing that money.
But paying your mortgage early is typically not something that
we can that we like to get behind.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
You should hate most debt, but mortgage debt is the
exception to the rule. I think that like most debt
that people call in and ask us about matt, we're like,
get rid of it as soon as possible. Mortgage debt, though,
is one of those that we say, oh, actually, there's
a bunch of other things you could do with this,
And in fact, there's certain benefits to having extra liquid
cash on hand right That gives you a lot more freedom,
(32:16):
more flexibility, and so we'd likely rather see you invest
those dollars, especially if you're earlier on your financial journey,
do that instead of prioritizing that mortgage payoff. So we
love Michelle Singletary, just don't. And for some people this
might be the best move, but it's certainly not for everybody.
So I think if we're blanket telling everyone get rid
of your house debt as quickly as possible, you might
be missing out on other ways to grow your net
(32:37):
worth instead of just trying to pay down a debt
that's not actually one of the worst debts you have.
All right, should you increase your utility budget in preparation
for higher winter heating prices. It's starting to get cold, Matt.
We've turned on the heat for the first time recently.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
I love it. Yeah, I love turn on the heat
drives out there. Well, actually it's not the heat that
dries out there. It's just lower temperatures carry less humidity.
And if I talked too much about humidity in the
air recently, maybe this you could have been a weather
man and in another life. I find it fascinating.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, that's all, and so much of like whether or
not you're going to encounter higher heating prices this winter,
it depends on where you live, and it depends on
where you're getting your information. So CNN basically said, had
an article saying higher electricity bills are coming this winter,
and it sounded really scary, But then you read the
fine print and you're like, it seems like they're not
going up. They're going up at a slower rate than
(33:28):
the rate of inflation, for sure. And then the Wall
Street Journal had an article detailing the abundance of natural gas,
which is going to lead to lower utility costs for
a big chunk of folks in the states that use
natural gas for heating MAP. I don't know about you,
but my price per therm plummeted when I recently shopped around.
And so you live, if you live in a state
with deregulated natural gas, I forget how many there are,
(33:50):
but shopping around could save you a bundle if you
just keep paying what you're paying, if you're on the
if you're not in some sort of locked in rate, Yeah,
did you get to pay more? Did you get to
the end of your two year lock basically yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
And so then I love locking in another another chunk
of time at an even lower rates.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
So much cheaper, so much cheaper this time around. So
if use heating oil, it's gonna cost you a bit
more this winter, but still not a whole lot more
than last year according to the estimates that we've seen.
But ultimately how much you spend depends less on rising
prices at least in this current environment, and more on
a combination of the weather. Because if it's super duper
cold where you live, like you're gonna need to use
more energy to heat your home. And then where you
(34:28):
set thermostat, Matt, I think something people don't think about
a whole lot and might sound cheap to some folks,
sounds cheap to my kids, I think lots of times.
But the lower you set that thermostat, hopefully without you know,
make your fingers and your extremities go numb. But that's
gonna that's gonna help you save a bundle on heating too.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Just put some clothes on and we practice turn it
down a few degrees when you leave the house to
go to work too. We practice what we preach. We're
sitting here, you are wearing a cozy hoodie. I am
wearing a little Patagoia puff puffer jacket, and that's what's
keeping our heat pump from having to blast, which costs
us money. Right, But that's gonna be it for the
US Friday flight. We hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.
We will link to the different stories that we mentioned
(35:05):
during this episode up in our show notes at howdomoney
dot com. So buddy, hope you have a good one.
Until next time, best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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