Financial Festivus 2024: Celebrating Listener Money Wins #925

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to had the Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and
today we're celebrating your money wins.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Waiting, are you not going to call this the financial Festivus?
That's what we've called it in years past. It's got
a nice ring to it. You love alliteration, financial festivus?
Should I change the title the episode back to financials?
I didn't think that through. Well, all right, you know
this makes me think of what have I told you
the story about I was going to start singing celebration

(00:46):
by Cool in the game. Did I tell you the story?
How back in the day when I worked at the
Adding Advertising agency, that when it was someone's birthday and
we had like a company lunch, that I would on
the office phone. I would hit the PA button and
I would play cool in the gag to signify that
it was time for us to party. Here you go,
but you gotta have a cue. I was the My

(01:07):
office was the closest one to the kitchen, so I
could see when the cake would show up and the
sandwiches from Jason's Deli witch up as well. And uh yeah,
maybe that's why I'm not there anymore. Because I thought
it was a ton of fun, but maybe everyone else didn't.
They're like, man, I was so annoying. I'm glad he's gone.
It's like, dude, I was on a call that started
blasting through the phone. Oh man.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
It reminds me of actually one of my first my
first job in radio in the morning newsroom, the.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Samuel Jackson Staks on.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
A Plane movie came out, and I would play that
clip out loud in the newsroom like at like, you know,
six am, because we're there super early, just to like
get you all laughed, to get the juice flowing, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
And they laughed. But I got imagine probably by like
the twelfth time I did it, they were like, yeah,
that's that's enough. That's yeah. I could totally see myself
there in the newsroom with you cracking up enjoyed it.
But also other folks, because I think if I were
in an environment where somebody was doing that now, I'd
be like, come on, man, just like I know, I'm
a gradual old man. Now let's just like get on
with him. Probably he's twenty one. We'll forgive him. But

(02:05):
this is our financial festivus. This is how we celebrate
money wins, and in part we do this because we
are oftentimes in such a stink and hurry, like we
go from one checkbox you know, on our to do
list to the next, oftentimes without even acknowledging that, like
we were able to accomplish something, right, without acknowledging the
fact that there are hurdles or sacrifices that we overcame

(02:28):
in order to achieve whatever goal it was that we're
seeking after.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
It's so important to recognize to name it because when
you name it, you're able to enjoy the fruits of
your labor instead of just immediately moving on to the
next thing, which is such an American way of life, right.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, absolutely, And so we want to share these because
hopefully it comes across as encouraging to you listeners out
there obviously. I mean we talk through the different scenarios
that listeners find themselves in and try to provide feedback,
but oftentimes we don't hear Again, what's on the tail
end of that.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, the result of all it's hard to work and
usually the problem never the finale, like things wrapped up.
So this is fun to do, I think. The other
hopefully it's encouraging.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
The other reason we do this is sort of an
encouragement and maybe you haven't even thought about making this
a goal something that somebody else has just succeeded in
and you're like, wait a second, now this is motivating
me to create loftier.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Goals for myself. It's right, or you're able.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
To say, oh, that's cool, man, I similarly accomplished this
thing three years ago.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
But look where I am now. It reminds you.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Of a previous financial accomplishment you've had totally, and yeah,
this whole thing, I think it's a virtuous cycle. Hopefully,
Matt that sharing these listener money wins it's encouraging to me.
It's fun to see what the how to money community
is doing totally.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
But yeah, do you want to.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Start off and we'll share maybe our money wins for.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Ye some quick how to money host listeners. Sure no,
not listener wins money wins. So I was thinking and
for us, the biggest thing that we've done this year, man,
that's I guess different from all previous years was the
fact that we didn't invest a single dollar this year,
which I think a lot we correct corrected.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
I do you remember it was from our business we did,
but you as an individal still investing.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Okay, so specifically have not invested within a personal IRA. Yeah,
for the first time in probably what like two decades
I literally can't remember. But and so I think a
lot of folks would hear that and say, dude, that's
not a money win, that's like a money loss, and
so what an idiot, I'm turning off this podcast. Now.
The flip side of that, like the other side of
the coin, is the fact that we have like intentionally

(04:23):
chosen to spend an extremely large amount of money on
a home edition just to renovate our home, and on
a home gym. Let's be honest, that wasn't cheap, but hey,
that's going to save me money. That's Kate's out there,
were not having to pay that monthly membership. Okay. So
here's the win part of it. The fact that we
frontloaded the sacrifice and invested aggressively like early on, put

(04:45):
us in a position to where we felt comfortable saying,
you know what, we don't need to optimize our investing.
We don't have to invest every single dollar that we're
capable of investing. Maybe we can coast a little bit,
but to have our values refre and what it is
that we're spending on for us to be able to
prioritize the thing things that we want to prioritize.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Also, you're not taking on any debt to fund this project,
which is amazing. So yeah, yeah, you're dialing back on
the investing, but no helock at nine and a half
percent or something like that, which is a big win.
And I for one cannot wait to sell hopefully enter
the extensive east wing of the new edition. The it's
almost like beating the beast. You know, there's at the

(05:26):
side of the castle you're not supposed to go to.
I think that's what this is going to look like.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
I will say Kate literally texted me today and said
that she can see her studio or like where her
studio is going to go, like the walls that create that,
and she's so pumped because and again.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
I don't know if you've mentioned, Kate makes jewelry, really
cool jewelry, and before we move, she was getting into ceramics,
and so she just when we moved a few years ago,
she did not have the space to be able to
continue doing that.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
And not only does she have the time now, but
she hopefully very soon will have the space to be
able to pursue that, which I'm so stoked for her.
So that's my anti money. When do you have an
actual money Well, I'm an actual money when here.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Okay, just to not go too far afield, but yes,
I think our big money win was paying our last
grad school tuition payment for for Emily. So she graduates
in May. We you know, paid the paid this last
semester's tuition and that's exciting.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
She's actually making it like it's the final check. Yeah,
we'll have to sign.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
She's making like a small stipend right now in her
insurt internship year.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Nice. It's it's not much and enough to cover lunch.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Pales in comparison. Yeah, yeah, and it pales in comparison
to the tuition amount. But I'm looking forward to like, hey,
we're turning the corner at some point next year.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
In literally turn the quarter, Like, no longer are you
paying into this. It will start paying out towards you. Yeah,
which is receiving.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
I'm going to get to kick back and relax, let
my wife bring home the bills and do it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Well okay, so I we should have gotten the bottle
of something with a cork to be able to should
have you know, to do like a little bit of
ASMR here on the podcast, Like folks are into that.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Man, I think I actually have a chamade and my
fridge at home then I got from Costco, and I
doesn't have a cork in it.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
I don't know, it's been a long time since stuff.
I've had a chemet, but I do have a pop
top here with a bottle. So let's go ahead and
do this. Oh that's an interesting sound. It actually had
more of a little air build up there than I'll listen,
look forward. What is this? This is a sayson for Monday
night brewing that we're gonna have a little small batch.
I even know what it's called. Well and pour this

(07:25):
for us. That sounds good.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
While you're doing that, I'll just mention normally we use
these episodes to answer listener questions. Obviously we're not doing
that this week, but we'll be back, uh next week
answering your listener questions. If you have a money question,
please do send it our way and you can find
the directions at had to money dot com, slash ask
and actually Matt. Before we get to the listener money once,
let's start with one listener question. We got like a
bunch of listener once details, well just one because and

(07:49):
the reason we wanted to get to this is because
it's like a literal end of your money question, and
uh okay, we couldn't hold off any longer.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
Man, Joel, This is Joe from Minnesota. Actually got Mary
in western North Carolina pretty recently and it was beautiful.
I kind of wonder why I don't live there sometimes.
I wanted to ask you guys a question about some
annual record keeping and numbers that I should be keeping
tabs on as I look over my data year to year.

(08:17):
A couple things that I have been keeping track of
are my net worth as well as my overall investment
account balance. And some other things that I'm looking to
add to that are my effective and marginal tax rates
as well as my savings rate. But is there anything
else to you guys keep track of yourselves or that
you recommend to others as we get closer to the

(08:40):
end of year?

Speaker 4 (08:41):
Thanks?

Speaker 1 (08:41):
All right, Matt, Let's rip through this one quick, because
we got money wins to get to.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yes we do, but Joe will help you out here.
This is important and I understand why you wanted to
take it before. Otherwise we would have had a wait
like all of next year to be able to take
Joe's question. First of all, Joe, I'll say congrats on
getting married, because, yes, Western North Carolina. Here's a little secret.
Kate and I always thought that we would actually end
up moving up there after five years of marriage living

(09:07):
in Atlanta. But you met me and you couldn't. You
start a business, you put down roots, you buy in
a neighborhood, which is, yes, where we met Joel, and
then you're like, wait a minute, we could see ourselves
actually raising a family here in Atlanta. But it's still
a great place to visit, and especially now, Oh my gosh.
I mean so obviously, Hurricane Helene destroyed Asheville specifically in
a lot of western North Carolina, but tourism dollars is

(09:30):
what that area needs to get it back on its feet,
because that's Asheville specifically. I mean, the vast majority of
what supported that city was tourism, and so the ability
for us to get back up there and kind of
to support it in our own feeble little way is
honestly exactly what needs to be done, even though it
kind of feels like like it feels a little off.

(09:51):
You know, It's just like, man, these guys are like suffering.
Like businesses got completely destroyed. People's homes were lost, obviously
lots of lies we're also lost as well. But man,
their ability to resume what normal life looks like is
I think going to be hugely dependent on folks getting
back up there. And I've already seen that happening.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
There's so much resilience from the small business community in
the Asheville area and some of my favorite businesses that
exist there that I follow on social media or stuff
like that. Just like the way they're going about things,
like they're working their butts off, and you know, it's
tough to lose that and try to rebuild, but they're
doing it, and they're committed to reopening their businesses, and yeah,

(10:27):
it's going to take us supporting them to make sure
they succeed.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeap tangent, though that's not what Joe's asking about.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Well, first, congrats to Joe on getting married, right, And
I'm glad that he's keeping track of his net worth
because like, when it comes to money metrics, that's a
crucial one. Your net worth is like one of the
most important things to be tracking, because I think watching
your net worth evolve over time and increase over time,
that's edifying, right, and that's almost like a reinforcing mechanism

(10:52):
to help us continue doing the right thing right. And
then on top of that, being able to plot out
your net worth and see the gains year over year,
then decade after a decade, it's just kind of telling
your brain what you're doing is working. And so I
think Joe spot on on this one, like everyone out there,
everyone listening to this, should be tracking their net worth
and just that one metric is gonna give so much insight.

(11:16):
Not knowing that though, it kind of makes it feel
like you're flying blind.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Totally. Yeah, And it's not that hard either. You can
just go with some of the different apps or software
out there, like empower or Monarch Money. They can do
that for you pretty easily. They aggregate all your accounts
there in one place, keep those running totals happening. But
I also love that you're planning to track your savings
rate as well as your different tax rates, because I
think knowing those is going to be incredibly helpful when

(11:40):
it comes to what decisions you choose to make moving forward.
For instance, let's say your savings rate is thirty five percent,
which is solid, Well, you might find that you have
more comfort in lowering that should additional needs a rise,
you know, should you have other life goals in mind.
I'm speaking out of personal experience here speaking to my

(12:01):
home renovation.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Can justify dialing it back more if you realize you've
had a substantial savings rate, yes, for many years.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Or even just like taking your foot off the gas
completely for a year or two. But when it comes
to your tax rate, if you are overestimating your taxes,
you might find that knowing your effective tax rate that
could allow you to make you know, slightly different decisions
moving forward. Makes me think of a friend, Joel, who
has recently laid off, and one of the things he
was a little worried about was the fact that he's

(12:27):
going to be receiving because he's been there for so long,
He's going to receive like a third of his salary
next year that he would have earned next year all
at the end of this year. So he's thinking, oh, shoot,
what's that going to do to my taxes? He's kind
of stressed about it. He's going to go see his accountant.
But this is an instance where if you knew your
effective tax rate, thinking that maybe okay, not enough is

(12:48):
going to be withheld, you know from my pay stub
that you could make an estimated payment come January just
by doing some simple math. So you're right.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Knowing those numbers kind of helps you make your form
decisions about let's say, whether you want to conte contribute
to a WROTH version of an account or a traditional
version of account, whether you want to do some sort
of Roth conversion that kind of stuff too. So yeah,
I think keeping track of that makes sense as well.
But what else should you be tracking year to year?
I think it's a good idea to keep track of
your contribution amounts for each account. You're going to want

(13:18):
to note the account type in the amounts of your contribution.
This not only helps you see, oh, hey, I've been
able to ramp up my contributions over the years, and
you know, if you're maxing it out let's say every year,
well you are going to be by default contributing more
as the contribution limit increases over the years. But it's
also going to allow you to track that for tax
purposes too. And for withdrawal purposes later down the road,

(13:39):
and it'll be particularly helpful I think if your account
gets sold elsewhere. We've had those questions from how to
money listeners who are like, I don't know how much
I put in in a given year, and now my
account is with this other company and they don't seem
to have the records, which can be a frustrating place
to find yourself.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah. Well, I mean the fact is so this is
incredibly important when it comes to if you are interested
in retiring early, because one of the amazing benefits of
a roth ira is the fact that you can what, oh,
you can withdraw any of your contributions. But most brokerages
don't keep track of when you take money out of
that account as to whether or not that was a
contribution or whether those are earnings. They don't delineate between

(14:14):
Like it's not like when you go to take money
out of your roth ira, they're like, would you like
to take ten thousand dollars out of you know, from
your contributions? No, Like, it's all those dollars are co
mingled together, and so you have there is a record
of that. But they don't provide enough detail to satisfy
the irs, and so that the onus is on you
to declare that, oh, no, this money that I'm taking out,

(14:35):
for instance, out of a roth Ira, that those are
dollars that I contributed. That way you don't get that way.
You can be like, don't tax me, bro, like, these
are my contributions. So keep that in mind, especially if
you're interested in early retirement, Joe. But on that note,
if you have an HSA, make sure that you implement
a solid system to track your health care expenses as well,
because documenting those is going to be crucial when it

(14:57):
comes to again making withdrawals in the future. Sure, so
a lot of these numbers that are worth tracking are
particularly important if you're interested in early retirement. But honestly,
even if that's not a goal of yours, I think
the ability to keep up with some of these metrics
it's helpful, man, you know, like you've heard the saying,
what gets measured gets managed, And if you want to

(15:18):
see some of these numbers improve, well, just the ability
to keep up with them year over year to kind
of see some trends, you're gonna be able to see
a massive difference when it comes to your personal finance.
We were doing that.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
Literally, just talking about this in regards to like blood
panel man measuring kind of what's going on.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
With your health, right, you know, middle aged mental This
is like right before we hit record on the podcast,
and yeah, like it's true. Like when you kind of know.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
Some of the reality, the underlying reality of what's going
on with your health, and you're tracking your progress over time,
chances are you're just more in tune with the reality
of what's going on. Yeah, and you're likely to make
adjustments to improve your situation. The same is true with money.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
And it's not that any of these numbers are of
vital importance right now, but the ability to see that
changes over time can alert you to certain things that
might be slightly off. This is also just on my
mind as well, because it's towards the end of the year,
and Joe, one of the things I keep up with
different categories of spending every single year in order to
compare to previous years, to see fluctuations, to be able

(16:17):
to see and I run the math and see what
the percentage increase or decreases, and so with that mind, like,
one of the ones I've noticed this year is the
fact that our what we call extracurricular spending is up
seventy four percent wow, compared to last year. And so
what that allows us to do is say, WHOA, what's
that all about? And then if we want to drill
down a little bit deeper, we can figure out what

(16:38):
we spent that money on. But we also know that, oh, yeah,
we gymnastics, let's see, camps, even software that we buy
on our computer at home to be able to supplement
the kids learning, like all that kind of stuff. It's like, yeah,
we actually we know that we spent more on that,
and that aligns with our values and what it is
that we're prioritizing this past year. And so in that

(17:00):
case we can say no need for concern here, but
it f it was in a category where we weren't
intentionally looking to spend more money. That's where you say, hey,
what's going on? What's going on over here? And it
allows you to make some tweaks if needed.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Yeah, and I don't think everybody out there necessarily needs
to track every single time of what they spend. But
let's say you're tracking maybe the most important categories, the
ones that have the most potential for fluctuation, whether it's
groceries needing out, whether it's travel, whatever. That is tracking
a few of those categories so you can see whether
or not you're making monumental changes. Like you said, Matta,

(17:33):
it might not mean you need to change anything, but
it at least informs and it reminds you, Hey, I
am spending meaningful money on the stuff that matters to
me most, so you're doing it proactively. All right, let's
move on to Listener money wins. Matt, Is it now
actually time for this time financial first of us? Yeah,
and we got a bunch of good ones, a bunch
of good ones to share. So let's start maybe with
one from listener.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
Austin.

Speaker 5 (17:52):
Hey, guys, it's Austin from Alabama. I just wanted to
share that I'm the biggest money when from this year
has been crossing over the million dollar networth threat at
thirty five years old. Thank you for all that you
guys do and for providing advice that has helped me
to meet the milestone.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
A thirty five year old millionaire, Joel, That is incredible
and actually so Austin. He shared a bunch of other
money wins via email. He only really started paying attention
to his personal finances about four years ago. Wow, and
the progress that he and his family have made in
less than half a decade is insane. So Austin, congrats,

(18:29):
kudos to you. Actually, I think he's they're going to
have their third baby any day now. You know what
the big.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Smart money move he said in that email he's going
to do. They're having a c section schedule for the
end of December. So that's again, you're going to get
the tax break for the full year of having that child,
even though you only had.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Him for a couple of days, and get that extra
two thousand dollars. Was that frugal or cheap? Jowel to brilliant? Obviously,
you don't make decisions like that based purely on, you know,
for financial reasons. But hey, if you're only like changing
the date by a few days and the doctor's like,
oh yeah, we can just do it whenever, Yeah, I
think that's totally smart.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Get that extra year of child tax credit. Don't compromise
the health of no doubt the model baby. But like, yeah,
all right, Matt.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
I guarantee I guarantee that there are more c sections
scheduled for the last week in December than there are
in the first week of January. I would love to
see stats on that, but I'm sure you're right me too.
I'm gonna go digging, all right, Let's get to another one.
This one comes from listener mail.

Speaker 6 (19:23):
Hi'm Matt and Joel. It's Mel from Connecticut. I've been
an avid listener since the porn out poor days. My
money whins this year are. First, I paid off my
student loan debt. I now have no debt except my mortgage.
When I first moved to Connecticut six years ago, I
was almost eighty thousand dollars in consumer and student loan debt.
Thanks to your guidance, I have slowly gotten out of it. Second,

(19:45):
now that I'm no longer paying my own student debt,
I started a five twenty nine for my one year
old son, so hopefully he won't ever be in the
same situation I just escaped. Lastly, this is the first
year I contributed the annual max to my TSP. When
I first got my job, I couldn't fathom contributing the max,
but increase the percentage. I contributed twice a year, and
here we are. It helped keep my lifestyle creep and

(20:08):
check with every bump and salary going towards my TSP.
I want to thank you for the way you have
fundamentally changed my psychology of money. You've totally changed my life,
and seventy plus year old Mail will be so grateful
to you. Keep spreading great energy and vibes. Best friends out.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Did Mel just say that we have fundamentally changed your life, Joel?
I think Mel's given us maybe slightly too much credit. Probably, Yeah,
I think so. I think so, But that's very kind
of purt. Oh my gosh. We love hearing listener money
wines like this, and I guarantee that seventy year old
Mail is going to be in an incredible position all
because of the changes now that you have made to
your life. Amazing job at following through and putting into

(20:48):
action some of the things that we talk about here
on the show. We're so pumped for you to not
have any student loans anymore. It's huge, and I love
how you are now using that payment to fund your
little dude's future education needs as well. That way, I
think she said that so that he can escape and
not have to deal with the same hardship that she faced,
which is amazing. I mean, that's all about man.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
When you talk to first generation immigrants, that's always what
they're trying to do for the next generation. But it
doesn't just apply to immigrants, Like we all want to
set our kids up like for success, and that doesn't
always or even usually mean giving them money.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
But whatever we.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Can do to get our own finances right so that
we can help the next generation do the same is
I think a meaningful goal that most of us have.
And the cool thing is, Melt, you're not even doing
that at the expense of funding your own retirement. We
hear so many people who are prioritizing a five to
twenty nine plan before they have like put the oxygen
mask on themselves using the airplane metaphor, and so kudos

(21:43):
to you for getting your own stuff right, innck. Yeah,
then focusing on what you can do for the next generation.
And I think it's just amazing. It's an amazing feeling
to get to the point where you can do that.
So we just wish you continued success. I mean, we've
been around for what a little over six years now, Matt,
and the fact that has been listening for that long
and since the.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Start, that's honestly, even more admirable the fact that she
stuck with us. She didn't ditch just because we're idiots.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
But yeah, we've got more listener money wins that we
want to get to a bunch more. So we'll hit
up some of our favorite wins that how money listeners
experience this year right after this, All right.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Joe, we are back for the break. We've got plenty
more money wins to get to, everything from utilizing Facebook
marketplace to expensive home repairs. But let's get to this
listener money when pertaining to some travel rewards.

Speaker 7 (22:37):
Hey guys, this is Michael from Chicago. I'm calling with
a money win that is actually two years in the making.
My partner and I traveled during the Southwest holiday maildown
in December twenty twenty two, and it didn't really end
up affecting us, but I always think of what you
guys say about how it doesn't hurt to ask. So
after we got home, I made a case to Southwest

(22:57):
that we deserved some points. They gave us twenty five
thousand points per person, which was awesome. A couple weeks later,
in January, I got an email saying that I'd earned
a Companion Pass, and then another email a couple days
later saying I'd earned a list. I can't stress enough
neither of these things was accurate at all. I know
the Southwest rules and points thresholds backwards and forwards. We

(23:20):
did not qualify for Companion Pass or for a list.
There wasn't a promo, there wasn't anything. I really think
they just made a mistake somewhere in giving us all
those travel meltdown points. But suddenly we had a whole
year of Companion Pass totally out of nowhere, which means
we hadn't planned for it, and we're both in our
thirties with full time jobs. But as you guys know,
when the Companion Pass comes calling, you answer. So we

(23:43):
started traveling and I earned a Southwest credit card bonus
and a few referral bonuses to renew the Companion Pass
through the end of this year. And in the last
twenty three months, I have flown twenty nine Southwest round
trip itineraries, including to twice, and used the Companion Pass
to bring my partner Sonya along for free on almost

(24:05):
all of them, a fewer for work, but most of
them she came with and because on one of these trips,
we gave up our seats and took a flight just
ninety minutes later in exchange for eight hundred dollars in
Southwest credit per ticket. In addition to having spent no
money on any of this, we actually have more flight credit,
money and more points at the end of these two

(24:25):
years twenty nine round trips in than we had when
this all started. And I'm pretty sure it's all just
because we asked a harmless question and we got lucky.
So thanks for the show, guys, Happy holidays, Matt.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
This reminds me of the Biblical parable of the loaves
and the fish, and it just keeps on going and
there's baskets overflowing at the end. That's what's happening with
Michael here with his travel more than we started with.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, while we're eating the whole time. And Guardian, Yeah, it.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
Really, I mean impressive what Michael was able to accomplish
with one phone call. And this appears to be the
gift that keeps on giving. I feel like Michael single
handleay is to put the Southwest out of business.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
I will say, okay, so let's let's give a quick
refresher on the Southwest companion pass because unlike other airlines,
for instance, Delta, they're a great carrier, but they've got
a companion pass or companion certificate. And guess what it's
good for. It's good for one round trip ticket, not
the Southwest companion pass the year that you get it,
as well as the entire next year. You have a

(25:24):
companion pass. And what that means is that when you
buy your own Southwest ticket, you add a companion for
absolutely free. You still have to pay fees, which is
literally I think it's eleven dollars and twenty cents, So
that is what you're paying in order to have someone
fly with you.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
Which is why you can take twenty nine flights round
trip flights because.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
You can afford the yeah yeah, thirty times eleven.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
Especially that the cool thing too is you can pay
with points and then have your companion fly for free
on the companion pass, so you might be forking over
literally just dollars for the fees.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
There is incredible. It is the absolute best travel deal
that is out there. And we got an article over
on the site at how to money dot com that
will make sure to link to you because now, honestly
is the perfect time to start pursuing the companion pass,
because what will happen. You get yourself a new Southwest
card now and you start spending on it, and you
could have the points racked up within a few months
if you spend correctly over the course, you know, with

(26:18):
a personal card with a business card. And here's the thing.
You also don't have to have like a fully fledged
s corporation with like ten employees to have a business. Yes,
you can be a sole proprietor. And so the ability
to get the personal card the corporate card literally within
the months, you could have a companion pass for the
rest of twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six as well.
And that's hopefully literally what Michael did.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah, hopefully you can utilize full years basically as effectively
as he was able to what Hawaii twice So good? Amazing,
So yeah, pretty cool. But yeah, to check out that
article linked in the show notes. Let's get to another
money win map. This one is a retirement money win.

Speaker 8 (26:53):
Hi. I'm Jennifer from North Carolina and my big money
win for twenty twenty four is that I'm maxing out
my four oh one K for the first time and
looking forward to doing so again in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Short and sweet, but this is another sick milestone. Congrats
Jennifer Man to twenty three thousand dollars funneled into a
tax advantage account that is off the charts excellent, And
I think, did she say she's gonna do this do
this again next year? This is awesome. And I simultaneously
want to address the fact that this is like a
dream goal for many younger how to money listeners out there,

(27:27):
or maybe not even younger, just folks who have like
only recently siled up next to their personal finances and
realized that, like they got to start making some changes,
but it often takes many years of doing the right
thing in order to get there. But massive congrats to you, Jennifer.
The only thing I would say is, like, if you
want to take this to the next level, the pro
level is to start saving in the current year for
next year's contributions. You do it all in January. You

(27:50):
do it all in January, because according to history, you
are going to see higher returns by lump some investing
at the beginning of the year as opposed to dollar
cost averaging over the course of the year. There you go.
For instance, twenty twenty four, you're looking at like thirty
percent in the SMP like that, I would much rather
have that total dollar amount earning that full thirty percent
as opposed to whatever the gradual amount is over over

(28:12):
the course of the year.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
We'll need a dollar cost at nice to kind of
be able to wipe your hands up. It'd be like,
got her done, Now let me move on to other
bigger girls.

Speaker 8 (28:18):
See you.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
But again, even just maxing it out, it's tough to do.
Massive congrats to you, Jennifer. Nicely done, Matt, let's hear
from another listener in North Carolina.

Speaker 9 (28:28):
Hey, Matt and Joel, this is Matt again from Lincolnton,
North Carolina. Longtime listener, third time caller. I wanted to
share a recent money hack with y'all that pertains to
a conversation you had on a recent episode about Apple
car pluss. My wife drives at two thousand and five
Toya Foreigner that we love. It's a perfect size for
our family, runs great, and best of all, we don't
have a car payment. The major downside is that the

(28:49):
entertainment package is super outdated. We brains from the idea
of getting her a newer car, but came to the
conclusion that we could increase our enployment of the current
car for a lot less money by just having a
new receiver installed that includes features we want like Bluetooth
and CarPlay. The price range for a new receivers anywhere
from two hundred dollars to two thousand dollars depending on
what features you want and if you buy it from
Best Buy and they want to saw it in your
vehicle for free. One we decided on it was about

(29:12):
there hundred fifty bucks as a bonus. I saw a
new headlighte on it yesterday that I paid a hundred
bucks for. It took me about two hours of work
in my driveway, which included a ten minute YouTube video
I watched on how to do it. So for us
on the price of a typical car payment, we have
a greatly increase our enjoyment level with our current car
that we put on keeping for at least a few
more years.

Speaker 4 (29:29):
I love the show, Joel.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
This begs the question did you get yourself a Bluetooth
speaker to uh or are you going to go big
and get you an Apple car Play installed? There on
the old Acura we actually.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Got a whole lot of emails and Facebook comments after
we talked about this on the show and someone sent
me something on Amazon. It's actually a screen that doesn't
get mounted in where your radio unit used to be.
It sets on top of your dashboard and so it's
just like Happy Medium. You can get it for like
one hundred and twenty bucks and it has Apple car
play and does it how's it wired into it? It's

(30:02):
still FM transmitter. It's not wired into the sound system.
But interesting that way. You kind of have like the
digital display that you can mess with.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
But does that sound good? The transmitter? I think back
in the day you could get the dongle on your iPod.
This is like decades ago, I mean literally, but like
you'd always have to find the station, I know, and
you have to change you sometimes.

Speaker 8 (30:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah, so that's the downside.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
That was what That's why I did not go in
that direction. And I haven't done anything yet. I literally
just play it out on my phone to.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Even gotten like yourself, like the little Beats pill thing
set there, and.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
I'm sure I've got some sort of Bluetooth speaker rumming
around the house somewhere.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
You you were hating on that suggestion, but I think
that's the that could be the best one for you.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
I saw a good sale at Best Buy for one
made by Pioneer or whatever. It's like a touchscreen with
Android Auto and Apple Play car Play. But I still like,
I don't know, I'm too cheap to put that kind
of money into that car.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
I just rather spend it on other things. Yeah, well, Matt,
congrats to you watching the the YouTube video on how
to do that install. That coupled with the fact that
you got this thing for just one hundred bucks, massive win.
And we always sing the praises of keeping the old
car on the road for longer because having no car payment. Man,
that is worth enduring a whole lot of things. Because
a car payment for the next six years. Maah, that

(31:15):
is too treacherous to imagine. On that note, let's hit
up another automobile win from listener Mike.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
Hey, guys, Mike, Massachusetts, Happy holidays. Let's talk about the
quick win that everyone can do with the money this season,
and that's check Facebook marketplace for winter tires. There's tons
of people trying to unload them. I was able just
to find in my next town over four steel rims
that had perfect blizzak winter tires on for the New
England weathers and for fifty bucks, it was a no brainer.

(31:44):
Good luck tire hunting guys.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
Man, we don't know what winter is down here in Georgia,
so this is something we need. But thank you for
the tip anyway, Mike.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Yeah, I also don't know why, Like why are folks
unloading winter tires now? Like, don't you think that folks
would be looking to stock up or get winner think?
I don't know. This is something I don't know because
I've never lived in the north.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
But I will say Facebook Marketplace that is a good
tip for the one, because I think it's the best
thing about Facebook these days, besides of course the out
of money Facebook group.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
What about Facebook dating? That's the new I've never done it,
I have either, but like that's the new thing where
evidently it's like Facebook dating has skyrocketed, especially among younger.
Younger users are getting on.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Facebook in order to really Yeah, okay, maybe we can
get link up somebody out of money listeners who are
interested in I'm.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
Pretty sure find a frugal mate for a second. There,
I'm like, wait, did I make this story up? I'm
pretty sure I read this.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Okay, No, that makes sense. I mean that with given
what Facebook has, the kind of user base that they
have and stuff like that, it would make sense that
they would wait in essentially crush all the other dating apps.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
They totally could. And it makes sense too, because that's like,
that is what's so great about Facebook Marketplace is that
you're able to find something approximate to wherever you live,
and don't you also want to date somebody who lives
close to you as well, because I mean, I don't
like to drive across town for hardly anything. Yeah, but Mike,
I'm glad you were able to do that for some
winter tires. Oh, Joe, I wanted to share as well.

(33:05):
Not only is it good for buying used items, but
it's also great for selling things yourself. And I'm like
this close to selling my cargo bike. I'm no longer
going to be the proud owner of a gold Yuba Mundo.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
At some point the kids get too big and we
all grow them. The times changed it for another year,
but then I'm sure I'll be rid of mine too.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
But Joe, let's keep moving. Laura shared over on Facebook.
She said I started budgeting and tracking spending for the
first time for our family and have at last tackled
so much of my anxiety around money and started truly
saving it. All sounds so basic, but it's made such
a huge impact on our lives. The podcast is my
go to weekly pep talk on keeping everything up and

(33:45):
making healthy money choices. Thanks for the empowerment. M Yeah,
the pep talk. That's what we're here for. Joel Man,
I always gonna love this episode if she thinks our
regular episodes are like a good pump me up sort
of episode to listen to. The financial Festivus is where
and I.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Really do think encouragement is an important part of the
recipe of getting your money together right, and you need
maybe people who have that infectious enthusiasm that you can
do it, or are like, hey, spurring each other on
towards kind of doing the right thing with their finances.
Whether that's somebody who's like physically in your life, whether
it's a coworker or a spouse or a best friend
or something like that, or whether it's your virtual best

(34:22):
friends who you hang out with all the podcast front.
Hopefully we can help you in that regard because it's
the tips and the tools, but then it's also kind
of the encouragement you can do this and losing your
money anxiety. That is one of my favorite things to
hear because I just think, Matt, most folks walk around
and you know, the money issues are plaguing the nether
regions of their brains, and then the impact that it

(34:44):
can have on their overall lives is just substantial, and
it's amazingly true what Laura shared that knowing where your
money is going is half the battle. Once you kind
of know that, that's when you can start to iterate
and make different choices and changes. So mad props to
Laura for yeah, doing the simil but the simple thing's
not always easy.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
The simple things, man, are what moved the needle. Like
the basics are so powerful because oftentimes it's the fancy,
the new fangled whatever that's out there, like that is
oftentimes what gets the most press But man, I think
the most impactful things are typically the simplest and the
ability for folks to see where their money is going,
not unlike I was talking about where it's just like,
oh wow, we spent seventy four percent more in granted

(35:23):
you don't have to be dialed in that much, but
to be able to know, to have an account of
where your money has gone, I think can help you
to make the small tweaks necessary.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
To me, it makes me think of, like in the
NBA or something, a half court shot to win the game.
It's gonna get a lot of press, it's gonna get
a lot of highlights. But if you're just the person
who's constantly shooting ninety percent from free throw range you are,
and you're at the free throw line fairly regularly, you're
gonna win your team far more games over the course
of a season than that occasional half court shot. So, yeah,

(35:51):
do the You probably don't understand what I'm talking about
right now.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
Matt sounds good. Yeah. Yeah. When you said half court shot,
I'm picturing like the guy that gets called out there
or the girl it gets caught out there for like
a like some contest, and if they like sink the first,
you got to do the layup, then you do the
free throw, then you do the three pointer, and then
if you make all those shots, you get to do
the half court yet throw, and if so, then you
win like ten grand But NBA players, especially like.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
The good ones can hit those half court shots more
often than you think. But man, it's those free throws.
It's like, if you shoot sixty percent versus ninety percent
from free throw land, you're gonna make a massive difference
in your team's win and lost record.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
I believe it all right.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Lisa shared a brief one on Facebook. She said, we
had money saved to handle multiple large and very necessary
repairs to our home.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
That was her money win for this year. Man, that's
the old emergency fund coming and clutch for Lisa. Congrats
not on having to make those repairs, but being prepared
to be able to maintain your home, Because owning a
home it can be so gratifying, Like I personally, I
really enjoy spending money on my house, but it can
also cost an arm and a leg in a bad

(36:53):
way if you aren't ready for it. It can be
such a nightmare if you are not prepared. So yeah,
I hate that you had to sink all the money
into repairs, but I'm glad to hear that you had
the cash on hand to be able to pay for
that so to where you didn't have to go into debt. Yeah,
to be able to make that roof repair or to
repair that water main bust that happened right when you
weren't expecting. Why we talked about home ownership going into

(37:13):
it with eyes wide open. Everyone makes it sound like
it's this no brainer for everyone to buy a home,
and it can be smart for some people. But man,
you got to be financially prepared, and Lisa was. So
that is a big money win. Yeah, So on that note,
Jessica's money win, it was huge and also had to
do with housing. My husband got twenty thousand dollars of
student loans forgiven that, plus actually using a budget apt religiously,

(37:34):
we were able to afford our dream house, well a
reasonable within our budget dream house that is. So that
was Jessica's win.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
We all have to settle for that. Man, none of
us can truly afford our dream house. If I was
to actually like look through and find, well, what else
would ideally like to live in, it's probably something fancy
on the Georgia coast or something like that that I
can't actually afford, never will be able to. But yeah,
the realistic dream house, yeah realistic. And so that's a
big money win. And yeah, congrats on using a budget

(38:04):
system to get there. It's always nice to have debt forgiven,
just taken out of your life. Who knows what is
going to happen with student loans moving forward, But I'm
so happy, Jessica for you for your husband to be
able to get that out of your life and reduce
your debt payments so that you can afford the house
that you want.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
Yeah, and like I want to highlight that for like
one more second longer, Like they didn't just go out
to like a nice dinner, they were able to afford
their quote unquote dream house. Yeah, by yes, like you said, Jill,
having some loans forgiven, but then just tracking their money
again going back to the basics here.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Well, and the truth is typically if you have student
loans forgiven, it means you worked at a lower paid
job for many, many years, so you sacrifice in order
to get that. It's not like it was just so
true some sort of gift.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
Right, Yeah, all right, Emily wrote paying myself first by
automating our retirement contributions to come out of our checking
account on set dates of each month, picking up the
phone and regularly asking for discounts Promptei with medical bill
got me a ten percent reduction in that bill, asking
for a bundled discount with our insurance saved a significant amount.
Getting three quotes on long care allowed me to make

(39:03):
an informed choice staying. Emily's got like a bundle of
money wins this past year. But they're all good.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
They're all good, And I even just like the we
talk about getting multiple quotes on stuff, Matt, And that
could be particularly impactful if you're buying a house. But
even just something as simple as like a long care service,
someone might charge you one hundred and twenty bucks a month.
Someone else might say, oh, that's one eighty sixty bucks
a month. For the course of a year, that's going
to be over seven hundred bucks man. So yeah, keeping
those multiple quotes really matters, that's right.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
But we've got more financial festivists to get to. If
you like good news, we'll keep listening, all.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Right, Matt, how the money listener money win a palooza,
or as you like to call it, financial festivists, which
I also like, continues, We've got more of your money
wins to share.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
Times.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Come on, if any of your old coworkers are listening
right now, they're shuddering remembering those days, all right, I'm
jealous of a listener. When that that Flavio shared, he said, we.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Went all the time. Is that how you say it,
Flavio or is it Flavio Flavio, Probably Flavio. Sorry, I
don't don't know. I literally don't know.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
This was in the how of Money Facebook group that
he posted this, a lot of people posted their money
once there he said, we went on a two week
anniversary trip to Argentina. It was great to have plenty
of money saved up for it. We splurged where we
thought it was worth splurging, and we were frugal with
other things.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
This is sort of like, this is what I would
call selective splurging Flavio or now I'm being like, I'm
like super self conscious over whether or not it's Flavio
or Flavio. But I'm so glad you did Flavio like Fabio, yeah, Flavio, Yeah,
I'm so glad you enjoyed your trip. And this is
sort of like the inverse of the home repair. It's like,
in that case, I'm bummed that that happened to them,

(40:43):
but I'm so glad that they were prepared. In this case,
I'm so glad that this happened to you. This is
something you were looking forward to, and of course the
fact that you were prepared for it is huge. I
always think about travel too, Matt. I like to have
one distinct memory that I pay extra money for that
always sticks out in my mind. And like, for instance,
when I went to Hawaii, this was probably like thirteen
years ago, and I did a motorized hang glidder tour
and it cost me. I still remember.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
It costs me two hundred and fifty dollars and I
remember like sweating it out because that was a really
really really expensive thing for me at the time, but
it was so worth it and cheap.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
Joel Frugal.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
Joel was like, don't do it, don't do it, but
it's such a good memory for me that I'm glad
I did. And when you travel and you're spending all
this money to go to that place, I at least
pick one thing maybe that's worth spending a little extra
money on. You're going to have those memories for years
to come.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
On live And hopefully you didn't splurge on the plane
tickets because the plane tickets were cheap. Yeah yeah, not you,
but even everybody out there, because like I know, like
for some people they're splurge is the upgraded seats, special drinks.
I don't know whatever it is that people spend money
on when they're flying, but like that's where you had
the opportunity to save the most and then hopefully you
can splurge on more unique opportunities and experiences like what

(41:49):
you just shared with listeners. Joel Ryan, he hit a
money when milestone. He wrote, we hit a net worth
of one million dollars back in March twenty twenty was
the first year we had a six figure income, and
even now it's not much over six figures. We became
debt free in March of twenty eleven and only had
a net worth then around forty thousand dollars. Compounding interest

(42:13):
truly is amazing. Ryan, You just wait because now that
you like, yeah, you hit that net worth of a
million bucks, like you just hang onto your hat because
and it's probably grown a lot since March. I'm sure. Yeah,
But like he he's paying attention I guess to his
income and like that has a pretty big impact on

(42:33):
obviously how much you're able to save. But like at
this point in the game, for him, it's gonna be
it's less about what he's earning every single year, and
it has more to do with how much he's already
got socked away, how much he's already got invested that's
going to continue to yeah, to earn that interest as
it continues to compound.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Compounding returns will continue to just wow you, I think
in the coming years. And I think it's just this
also highlights Matt that you can become a millionaire without
making six figures. I think, yeah, popular opinion in this
country kind of Debbie Downer on, oh, I don't make
much money, there's no way I can get there. And
I think about just those early years when I was
part time, where I was full time making twenty something

(43:09):
thousand dollars a year, still putting a percentage at least
of my pay in there. I was doing the right
thing consistently. It gets you where you want to go. Like,
you might not be getting there quite as fast as
you'd like to, but Ryan still hit that threshold and
it didn't take a massive income in order to get there.
So I think the same can be true for a
bunch of how to money listeners.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
Let's uh.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
An anonymous Facebook poster said, my wife was laid off
on Monday. While this is an ideal, we're okay. She
got about two months worth of pay in severance and
we have twenty five thousand bucks in our e fund
thanks to this podcast and community. This setback does not
feel like the end of the world, and we can
look at the bright side, like being able to spend
more time with our son around the holidays. I just
wanted to share because you never know how quickly your

(43:49):
situation can change, so managing debt and having a solid
emergency fund is important. Because of this, she does not
feel the need to rush into a new job just
for the paycheck either.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
Man. That stands out to me the last thing he
wrote there, because obviously it's awful to lose a job,
but it's even worse if your financial situation is a
total fiasco, and far too many folks have to take
the first job that's available to them, the first job
that's offered, which might mean make less pay or a
less rewarding career. And you know that bigger emergency fund

(44:19):
is all about preventing you from having to make the
most expedient decision in favor of being able to make
one that's going to be best for you over the
long term. Yes, and so, man, it just buys you
more time. And I'm again this is a terrible situation
to find yourself in, but I'm so glad that you
were well prepared for.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
And having to take the first thing that comes along
can completely derail your future earnings if you have to
take something that's kind of maybe an inferior position to
what you're used to or you're overqualified for. So I
love that and having your your personal finances in order.
This is why we talk about developing that three to
six month emergency fund, because that's what this is here

(44:58):
to prevent. And that's why instead of investing every dollar
beyond having one month, you want to have more saved
up so that in case this scenario arises, you're prepared
you can withstand the difficulty. So, man, this is a
great money win from this anonymous listener. Matt, you want
to give us the next one?

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Yeah, this one is from Amber, She writes, Hi, Matt
and Joel, my husband and I had several money wins
in twenty twenty four, but the one I am most
proud of is that we have religiously tracked our spending
all year via Google spreadsheets, which included specific categories and
expected versus actual spending. This has been an eye opening
exercise that allowed us to save an additional twenty one

(45:36):
thousand dollars in cash, as well as pay for all
of our landscaping home improvements, which was seven thousand dollars
out of pocket this year. Hot Dog highly recommend that
everyone tracks their spending again. The ability to move the
needle so significantly by just paying attention, like I'm sure
I think for Amber, probably what blew her away was
the fact that, like she didn't say anything about making

(45:59):
more money. What she said was that we did this
one thing and all of a sudden, it seems like
we pulled thirty thousand dollars out of nowhere.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
It's just like it's like a pulling a rabbit out
of a hat. I'm sure what it felt like. It's
like interested development. When they said that there's always money
in the banana stand. I think there's always money in
the budget.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
Matt.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
It's like there's more money than you think there is.
It's just that we pittle it away, and not even
on purpose. But when you start paying attention, it's amazing
how just focusing on your finances a little bit more.
You're gonna earnurve some dollars you didn't know you had.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
You whip those dollars into shape. And even though our
recent conversation with Dana Morinda, you know, she's she's not
all for budgeting, but from everything we've seen, it just works.
Pat shared elder problem solved. Medicare does not cover dental care.
It's a real problem for seniors. Every tooth that goes
costs you at least two thousand dollars for our root,

(46:49):
Canal and Crown. And let's not even talk about implants.
I got dentures problem solved. Okay. I like this approach. Yeah,
you just pull the teeth out, getting all gone. Getting
this is like, I don't know. This is almost in
line with instead of having an expensive burial with an
expensive plot that you pay for with a fancy coffin

(47:09):
ahead of time, She's like, maybe we'll just go the
cremation route. Man, Yeah, you know the pine box from Costco. Right, Like,
there are certain things you want to prioritize. And I'm
not gonna lie. If my teeth start to go in
my later years, I'm totally gonna I think go the
denture I could do.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
I could see you going the George Washington wooden teeth
rout too. Oh my god, Well you don't want to
know what his actual teeth were made of. Oh well there,
I mean it would, but also like it's a it's
kind of dark.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
Okay, let's not go there.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
But Pat, congrats on that money. When Matt one more,
Leslie had one. She said, after listening to the show
for about five years, we finally switched away from our big,
bad bank to Navy Federal, and just one month we
made more interest on our savings than we did in
the whole last year with the big bank. We still
get value out of having local branches, and switching to
Navy Federal has been a way to have that, but

(47:56):
not the terrible offerings of a big bank.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
Love it.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
This is one of those things we talk about all
the time, and I wonder if it falls on deaf
years or if most of our listeners have done this
at some already. But we continue to bang that drum
because it is such an important part of a healthy
financial plan, is having a bank that doesn't hate you.
And Leslie made the move.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
Yeah, I feel like and I love how she wrote,
like the big the big bad bank like makes me
think of like the big bad wolf, but like having
a solid bank or credit union, Like it's such a
foundational thing. It's almost like getting enough sleep every every
single night. Like it's just a no, like this is
a default sort of thing that oftentimes people they want
to move on to the flashier things. I feel, like

(48:36):
a good bank and budgeting, or like getting enough sleep
and drinking enough water during the day. You know, it's
like they're the kind of things that people don't want
to pay attention to. Everybody wants wants to move on
to like supplements and these procedures just whatever else that
you want to do to like optimize your health, when
in reality.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
It's like, let's let's start with the basics first, man, Yeah,
it's was it John Wooden, the coach of UCLA. Who
would I think have the wrong guy?

Speaker 2 (49:01):
I think back.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
I mean this was like many many decades ago. I
think he would have his players like retie their shoelaces
multiple times, like before they started practice, and he was
he was like just this sort of story, let's get
the basics down, guys. And it seems silly, but there
really is something to the importance of the basics and
the trying to move past those things and get onto

(49:23):
like Tomahawk's lamb dunks or.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
Something like that.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Maybe I'm making a lot of basketball references randomly in
this episode for some reason, a basketball state of might.
I don't even really watch basketball, but yeah, I think
moving past the basics too quickly is a bad idea.
Like you want to get those things covered, feel like
you're you're solid in those regards, and that's going to
move the needle like seventy to eighty percent of the way,
and then you can, you know, gradually address the remaining
twenty percent of the important money questions that you have.

(49:47):
But big money went for Leslie for sure, getting rid
of the big bank. Finally, that's right, Let's get back
to our beer, Joel. So at the beginning I said,
I just called this small batch by Monday Night Brewery.
But that's just the line of beers whatever. So there's
this even smaller.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
Label that is really aged, so I can barely read it,
and it looks like it says Falling Sea Tap or
something like that, but no, it says Falling Star. So
the little bottom part of our war off there as
well as the middle of the sky Falling Star and
I looked it up online, so there you go, which
is this is a tart Seyson ale age on second

(50:24):
used cherries Montmorency cherries specifically that were left over after
a spontaneous brew.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
What do you think about this beer, dude? This is
one of my absolute favorite beer styles. Tart seysons so
good like non tart saisons with a little.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Bit of the cherry action going on.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
Yes, just a little bit of that cherry coming through.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
This is like the perfect barrel age sour.

Speaker 7 (50:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
I mean, I'd even be okay with more fruit, but
the fact that it's second used cherries, you're not going
to get as much of the flavor coming through, but it's
still I'm a big fan of tart saisons and with
a little bit of that fruit action in it, Man,
this thing is super tasty.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Well balanced, So it's got the right amount of sweetness
going on, with a right on a funk as well
that you get from like you can taste the previous
spontaneous ale that this was derived from. Yeah, essentially, and.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
There's something it's really hard to describe what funk means
in a beer, but you know. It's one of the
things where you know it when you taste it. Yeah,
and it's delicious, Like once.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
You've experienced a spontaneously fermented beer, you just know what
it tastes like.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
And it's just got this like depth in this there's
a level of like interesting vibes being put out by
the funkiness of the beer. The way it kind of
comes across your tongue and the different sorts of flavor
impact it has like on your psyche is like significant.
So I am a big fan. This is my jam.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
Joel's really taking this beer to hearts made me crazy, Matt.
This one's been aged as well, so it's bottled back
in April of twenty twenty two. Some beers like fresh
hop IPAs you want to drink as soon as possible.
But beers like this, dude, just find cellared. They're good
for many years down the road. Sometimes they just get
better with time. Indeed, like you my friend. Yeah, well, dude,
this is the last episode of twenty twenty four. So

(51:58):
to everyone out there, we hope you have a great
New Year's Eve tomorrow, and hey, we'll actually have an
episode for you here come January first. So you can
look forward to that one. We're not slacking plus fantastic
twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
And not to dampen all the money wins from today, Matt,
but it's time to start plotting out what sort of
wins you want to accomplish in twenty twenty five. So
I know that's on people's minds right now. Be thinking
about it and make sure you have some audacious money
goal set for yourself. Can't wait to hear from you
a year from now after you crush.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
Them exactly, But buddy, that's going to be it until
next time. Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,

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Joel Larsgaard

Matthew Altmix

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