May 8, 2025 • 16 mins
Neil Saavedra fills in for Bill on this Thursday Morning. The host of ‘How to Money’ Joel Larsgaard joins the show to talk about Americans claiming social security early out of fear, buying a new car before tariff prices hit is causing another problem, and taking a more minimalist approach in life.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Neil Savadri here with the Morning show Gang, Happy Thursday
to you.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
You know what that means. You hear that soundtrack, that.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Means Joelar's guard is swaggering in Are you swaggering?
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Sir? Always bring the swagger every time.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I have a host of Out of Money Sundays noon
to two pm. Great show if you haven't heard it,
and of course you can find him at How to Money?
Joel How are you, sir? Oh, I'm phenomenal, Neil. It's
good to be talking with you. Nice talk to you.
Still seven feet tall with a dozen.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Kids trying to be Yeah, not a dozen yet, but
working towards it.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We'll get there. It was your family like.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Vikings, Well from the realm of the Vikings, that's for sure.
There's probably Vikings in our history. There's probably a bloody,
gory past I don't know about. You're like a tall
guy and you are making minions. I love it, which
is why you've got swinging an axe, yeh, which is
why you got to protect your money so social security.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
You have been talking on your show about people freaking
out because of tariffs and the like and doing this
kind of preemptive buying. Right, You're talking about them going
out and buying cars or doing things because they go, oh,
the price is going to go.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Now there's another concern, and that's people claiming social security
early out of fear.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
What's going on?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, yeah, I mean when you think about it, Neil,
a lot of us do things out of fear instead
of really taking the time to assess the situation and
say what's in my rational best interest. There's a whole
lot of uh. And I think part of this is
news media. It's headlines. It's the twenty four hour news cycle,
and so you see stuff about, oh man cuts up
(01:46):
the Social Security administration. Oh man, I can't I can't
get anybody on the phone there.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And then on top of that, you see the.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Perpetual headlines that are just saying, hey, social Security Security
is moving towards insolvency. And so people are like, wait
a second, like is that money going to be there
for me? And so people who are retiring now they're
in their sixties, they're saying, I'm going to get the
money while it's there, because I don't know if it's
(02:14):
going to be there in the future. And so what
this is leading to is people doing the thing that's
actually not in their ultimate best interest because of worry
and fear, And so they're taking the Social Security bird
in the hand at age like sixty two instead of
waiting more years because they're just like thinking, I don't
know is the money going to be there if I wait?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You know, out of all the things, you know, I
like coupling, I love being married, I love it. I
love having a partner in life. But out of all
the things that my wife and I talk about, we
talk about that fear factor with money.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
How people lead with fear?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
What is it about money that makes like everything is is.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Fear based with money, which is a weird. I never
want to be that guy.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I just never want to be that person make more money,
but you know, I don't want to make myself crazy.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So how can we lead with fear? So well?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
One of my favorite quotes from a financial writer named
Morgan Housel is that you should invest like an optimist
and save like a pessimist because there is some room
for pessimism right in money, because we all know unexpected
things can happen, and so it's you don't want to
have this like rose colored glasses Pollyanna view of the
world and just say, like, what will be will be,
and I don't have to worry about tomorrow. I want
(03:27):
you to plan and think about those things. But yeah,
but if you can invest like an optimist and say
our better days are ahead, but also save in such
a way where you're like I am planning and I
am prepared for things to come down the pike. I
talked about this with Amy on Tuesday for a quick minute.
Vanguard basically found, Hey, if you have at least two
thousand dollars in the bank, you're going to reduce your
(03:49):
financial stress significantly. You're going to be more prepared for
an emergency. Just two thousand bucks, Like the stakes aren't
even that high, but obviously I want people to have
even more than that in savings. But it's amazing how
just a little bit of money and samey's can really
reduce a lot of that fear.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So I think that's.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Part of it is you have to and you also
have to just like look at the data. When you
look at the data around something like social Security, the
benefit is like seventy five percent higher if you wait
to claim social Security until age seventy instead of taking
it at age sixty two, and to break even point
for a person who takes socialit party, you have to
take a lot of other circumstances into account, including are
(04:26):
you married and how's your health? That kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
But a lot of.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
People are claiming at age sixty two and their fit
as a fiddle, and they're expecting to live hopefully till
they're ninety, and they would have been better off waiting,
at least from a financial perspective. And this makes something
like a six figure difference for a lot of retirees
over the course of that extra Decade's.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So funny you mentioned that because I heard you listening
to Wake Up Call with Amy, and I immediately told
my wife when we you know, debriefed for the day
at the end of the day about that, and like,
you know, okay, where are we healthy, where do we
feel we're healthy? And do we have enough in the
bank and those types of things. You know, in California,
(05:09):
two thousand bucks in savings is gas money, sure, but
you know, but we looked at we used that to
jump off and to look at everything and to where
we are. And you know, it's funny you were talking
about how you don't take things for granted, and you
have to be a little pessimistic when it comes to money.
A really wonderful word of wisdom from my father in
(05:31):
law one time. You know, this was years ago, and
things were shaky. I know they're always shaky in radio,
and I said, I don't worry, because I would do
anything to feed my family. I would, you know, manual labor,
whatever it is. And he put his hand on my
shoulder and he goes, I know you believe that, and
I know in your heart of hearts you would, but
(05:53):
there'll be a day when your body can't back that up.
And it's like he said, and it hit me, Yeah,
there's physically you know, I would dig ditches, I'd do
whatever it takes. But he said, yeah, but your body
won't be able to do that. So you have there's
just there is some forethinking and all of this to
make sure that when your body does not work at
(06:15):
its prime anymore, you have that you have this to
fall back on. Any any prognostication as to what's going
on with Social Security and when there might be a breakdown.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Well, so all the predictions are basically saying that the
Social Security Trust Fund is going to run out in
basically a decade, and so what happens though when that's
the case, Well, there are still a whole lot of
people like you and me who are working and we're
paying into the Social Security system with every paycheck that
we get, and so because of that, it's not that
(06:52):
Social Security goes away completely. And this is something that
people should be planning for, especially younger people. If you're
in your thirties and forties, is like, well, if long
into the back end of Social Security's website, they'll project
what you're likely to get when you reach retirement age,
and that benefits likely to be cut by twenty five
percent when we reach that date if nothing is done
(07:14):
in the meantime. And the tough thing is Congress and politicians.
They've they've had very little stomach to address the issue
of Social Security. So it's not that, hey, everything's rosy
and the Social Security the way Social Security is constructed
is totally flawless and everything's going to be okay. That's
not what I'm saying either. I just I think specifically
(07:35):
for people in their sixties, waiting extra years makes sense
from an extra benefit perspective. For younger folks, you do
have to be aware, and we have to hold our
politicians feet to the fire and say, hey, what are
you going to do about this to make sure social
security is actually going to be around, And there's a
number of things that likely need to be done in
concert to ensure that social security stays around for centuries
(07:56):
to come.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
I feel, you know, I don't know why, Joel, but
I feel like I've been hearing that ten year date
or over and over.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
It's like the h in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Excuse me when they started the Earth Day and they
said they we had a decade before all hell was
going to break loose and the world was going to implode.
And here we are still saying in ten years the
world's going to implode. But you really feel like if
something's not done in ten years, is the top of
that heap?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I do, And again, I don't think it's an implosion, right,
So I don't want to make it sound like that,
but there is.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
There is a fear monger, Joel large guard fear monger.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
No implosion will take place, but it will be a
cut in benefits that is effective immediately once we get
to that point. And so people it's it's and I
believe that that that would be from what I've seen,
that that iteration of Social Security with like a reduced
payout would be totally fine until like the year twenty
(08:59):
eighty five or ninety. So it's again, it's not some
sort of implosion or doomsday cliff. But it is important
for younger folks who are investing for their future to
be more cognizant of the fact that social security might
not be there in the same way.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
That it is now.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
But for retirees or for people who are in their sixties,
I wouldn't rush to claim at sixty two or sixty
three just because I'm worried about that future social security spiral,
but I would so. And by the way, there is
this cool software. It costs like forty five bucks. I
want to say to check out maximize mysocial security dot
(09:36):
com and it could.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Be well worth you looking into that.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
If you're trying to figure out when is the best
date for you to claim, they'll ask you a bunch
of questions. You can kind of calculate when your highest
benefit is going to be. And I think it's worth
it because you're talking about so much in potential money
that you could be missing out on if you don't.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Okay, so we moved from social Security onto cars. Tariffs
at all, rising prices is going to cause a whole
other problem with our finances.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I mean, nobody's tired of hearing or talking about tariffs,
are they They're just it's really fun every time to
keep talking about. Although fortunately there's been a little bit
less in the headlines about tariffs and I don't know, man,
where do things go from here is a big question,
but it's interesting. One of the things that we talked
we have talked about is kind of the pre buying
(10:31):
phenomena that people are saying, well, the tariff riding is
on the wall, maybe I should go ahead and buy
stuff that I was like otherwise going to hold off,
maybe buy a few months from now, or I don't know,
maybe it wasn't even on my radar. But tariff's kind
of going back to the fear thing that we discussed Neil.
It's well, if they're coming down the pike, I'm getting
(10:52):
a little scared. Maybe I should buy something now and
it'll save me money. And this is kind of the
Black Friday mentality that's kind of been beaten in to
all of us as American consumers is like, well, buy
it when it's a deal, or before it gets more expensive.
And there was this article in Bloomberg basically saying, hey,
that sort of mentality is leaving people with a debt problem,
(11:14):
because yeah, maybe it's not the worst idea in the
world if you have the cash, if you were going
to make that purchase anyway, and you're like, hey, a
few months from now, it.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Is going to get more expensive.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
But for a lot of people, they don't have the cash,
and they weren't necessarily prepared to make a big purchase,
especially on something like an automobile. And so yeah, if
it comes with a nine percent interest rate attached to it,
and you bought more than you can actually afford, and
you signed up for a seven year car loan, well,
beating the tariffs wasn't really a win.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And I think there are a lot.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Of people kind of taking that sort of mentality, let
me go ahead and beat the tariffs, and ultimately what
they're doing is like self immolation. Wow, maybe too extreme.
I don't know, No, I love it. I love it that.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, I think that's a good way of financial self emolation. Yes,
I got it. I was hoping it wasn't that. I'm like,
are you holding the axe right now? But yeah, it's
an interesting thing to watch because I have a lot
of hobbies in like manufacturing and creating and building at home,
(12:24):
so you know, a lot of three D printers and
the like they're coming out of China and watching this
whole thing unfold. I went to buy some parts the
other day and I looked from like Timu or something,
and I looked and I'm like, that price is not right.
And I looked on Amazon and the exact same product
(12:46):
was half the cost on Amazon because they must have
had you know, local you know, local warehouses that have
the stock or inventory in them or something, but.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Half the price. And I was like, wow.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
And what you're what you're getting to is the fact that, hey,
these tariffs have been implemented and and yes, some of
them have been rolled back a little bit, but there's
still widespread tariffs on most of the countries.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
In the world.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
And and you're right, like some of these businesses pre
bought a lot of stuff, they have stocked up on
some of the items that are most important to their business,
and and they haven't yet had to raise prices, but
slowly but surely those prices are going to go up.
And this gets to kind of the comment that President
Trump made about how many dolls eleven year old girls
(13:36):
should own, and and so the thing that he's been
kind of unwilling to admit, but in a moment of
candor actually kind of came out of his mouth was like, well, yeah,
maybe everyone should be okay with with owning less stuff.
And from a minimalist perspective, I totally get that. I
think if it's a personal choice to say, I know
I'm gonna I'm gonna make an informed decision to buy less,
(13:58):
to consume less and save money and save the planet,
I think that's a wonderful thing. It's something we talk
about on the show often. I think it's I think
it also that sort of ingrained frugal mindset can help
you save and invest more, gives you more optionality for
your future. But if it's this sort of forced imposition
that tariffs are going to put on us of like
you won't be able to buy some of the things
(14:19):
that you wanted to buy, I think that's going to
be pretty untenable. And I'm curious to see how this
shakes out. But but you're right, like we're starting to
see that trickle trickling in of higher prices and how
high they go and how widespread those higher prices get,
and how it's going to impact how consumers feel about
the policies.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
On that note, I'm a big fan of repair and
refurbish and I wish we'd get back to some of
those skills that we had, yeah, you know in the
day's past.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I really do.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Some things are made very we've gotten very disposable, especially
with electronics, and you're.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Spot on, spot on, and there's this you're right, and
that is one of the things I think that some
of the cheaper goods that come out of China, it's
like we think of them as throwaway devices, like the
toaster that you get or whatever.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Sure, and there's I love the idea.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
There's kind of the buy for life thing that happens,
whether it's like darn Tov socks or or whether it's
like speed Queen washers and dryers.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I don't know if you know about that.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
But yeah, they have like an epic warranty and they're
built differently, and so yeah, they cost more upfront. But
I'm all about people paying a little bit more upfront
for something that's hopefully going to last a heck of
a lot longer. And yeah, I hate the kind of
planed obsolescence.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yes that a lot of our electronics go oh my gosh,
just just google that term and the light bulb and
you will go down a rabbit hole.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
But all right, my friend.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Always good to talk to you, Joel, and I really
do enjoy the show and all the wisdom you guys
throw out in a fun way. You and Matt so
a host of how to Money Sunday Noon to two.
How To Money Joel is where you can find them
on the socials there. Thanks buddyreciate you.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Appreciate you. To Neil, thanks, we'll talk again soon.
Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Neil Savadri here with the Morning show Gang, Happy Thursday
to you.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
You know what that means. You hear that soundtrack, that.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Means Joelar's guard is swaggering in Are you swaggering?
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Sir? Always bring the swagger every time.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I have a host of Out of Money Sundays noon
to two pm. Great show if you haven't heard it,
and of course you can find him at How to Money?
Joel How are you, sir? Oh, I'm phenomenal, Neil. It's
good to be talking with you. Nice talk to you.
Still seven feet tall with a dozen.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Kids trying to be Yeah, not a dozen yet, but
working towards it.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We'll get there. It was your family like.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Vikings, Well from the realm of the Vikings, that's for sure.
There's probably Vikings in our history. There's probably a bloody,
gory past I don't know about. You're like a tall
guy and you are making minions. I love it, which
is why you've got swinging an axe, yeh, which is
why you got to protect your money so social security.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
You have been talking on your show about people freaking
out because of tariffs and the like and doing this
kind of preemptive buying. Right, You're talking about them going
out and buying cars or doing things because they go, oh,
the price is going to go.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Now there's another concern, and that's people claiming social security
early out of fear.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
What's going on?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, yeah, I mean when you think about it, Neil,
a lot of us do things out of fear instead
of really taking the time to assess the situation and
say what's in my rational best interest. There's a whole
lot of uh. And I think part of this is
news media. It's headlines. It's the twenty four hour news cycle,
and so you see stuff about, oh man cuts up
(01:46):
the Social Security administration. Oh man, I can't I can't
get anybody on the phone there.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And then on top of that, you see the.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Perpetual headlines that are just saying, hey, social Security Security
is moving towards insolvency. And so people are like, wait
a second, like is that money going to be there
for me? And so people who are retiring now they're
in their sixties, they're saying, I'm going to get the
money while it's there, because I don't know if it's
(02:14):
going to be there in the future. And so what
this is leading to is people doing the thing that's
actually not in their ultimate best interest because of worry
and fear, And so they're taking the Social Security bird
in the hand at age like sixty two instead of
waiting more years because they're just like thinking, I don't
know is the money going to be there if I wait?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You know, out of all the things, you know, I
like coupling, I love being married, I love it. I
love having a partner in life. But out of all
the things that my wife and I talk about, we
talk about that fear factor with money.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
How people lead with fear?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
What is it about money that makes like everything is is.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Fear based with money, which is a weird. I never
want to be that guy.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I just never want to be that person make more money,
but you know, I don't want to make myself crazy.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So how can we lead with fear? So well?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
One of my favorite quotes from a financial writer named
Morgan Housel is that you should invest like an optimist
and save like a pessimist because there is some room
for pessimism right in money, because we all know unexpected
things can happen, and so it's you don't want to
have this like rose colored glasses Pollyanna view of the
world and just say, like, what will be will be,
and I don't have to worry about tomorrow. I want
(03:27):
you to plan and think about those things. But yeah,
but if you can invest like an optimist and say
our better days are ahead, but also save in such
a way where you're like I am planning and I
am prepared for things to come down the pike. I
talked about this with Amy on Tuesday for a quick minute.
Vanguard basically found, Hey, if you have at least two
thousand dollars in the bank, you're going to reduce your
(03:49):
financial stress significantly. You're going to be more prepared for
an emergency. Just two thousand bucks, Like the stakes aren't
even that high, but obviously I want people to have
even more than that in savings. But it's amazing how
just a little bit of money and samey's can really
reduce a lot of that fear.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So I think that's.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Part of it is you have to and you also
have to just like look at the data. When you
look at the data around something like social Security, the
benefit is like seventy five percent higher if you wait
to claim social Security until age seventy instead of taking
it at age sixty two, and to break even point
for a person who takes socialit party, you have to
take a lot of other circumstances into account, including are
(04:26):
you married and how's your health? That kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
But a lot of.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
People are claiming at age sixty two and their fit
as a fiddle, and they're expecting to live hopefully till
they're ninety, and they would have been better off waiting,
at least from a financial perspective. And this makes something
like a six figure difference for a lot of retirees
over the course of that extra Decade's.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So funny you mentioned that because I heard you listening
to Wake Up Call with Amy, and I immediately told
my wife when we you know, debriefed for the day
at the end of the day about that, and like,
you know, okay, where are we healthy, where do we
feel we're healthy? And do we have enough in the
bank and those types of things. You know, in California,
(05:09):
two thousand bucks in savings is gas money, sure, but
you know, but we looked at we used that to
jump off and to look at everything and to where
we are. And you know, it's funny you were talking
about how you don't take things for granted, and you
have to be a little pessimistic when it comes to money.
A really wonderful word of wisdom from my father in
(05:31):
law one time. You know, this was years ago, and
things were shaky. I know they're always shaky in radio,
and I said, I don't worry, because I would do
anything to feed my family. I would, you know, manual labor,
whatever it is. And he put his hand on my
shoulder and he goes, I know you believe that, and
I know in your heart of hearts you would, but
(05:53):
there'll be a day when your body can't back that up.
And it's like he said, and it hit me, Yeah,
there's physically you know, I would dig ditches, I'd do
whatever it takes. But he said, yeah, but your body
won't be able to do that. So you have there's
just there is some forethinking and all of this to
make sure that when your body does not work at
(06:15):
its prime anymore, you have that you have this to
fall back on. Any any prognostication as to what's going
on with Social Security and when there might be a breakdown.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Well, so all the predictions are basically saying that the
Social Security Trust Fund is going to run out in
basically a decade, and so what happens though when that's
the case, Well, there are still a whole lot of
people like you and me who are working and we're
paying into the Social Security system with every paycheck that
we get, and so because of that, it's not that
(06:52):
Social Security goes away completely. And this is something that
people should be planning for, especially younger people. If you're
in your thirties and forties, is like, well, if long
into the back end of Social Security's website, they'll project
what you're likely to get when you reach retirement age,
and that benefits likely to be cut by twenty five
percent when we reach that date if nothing is done
(07:14):
in the meantime. And the tough thing is Congress and politicians.
They've they've had very little stomach to address the issue
of Social Security. So it's not that, hey, everything's rosy
and the Social Security the way Social Security is constructed
is totally flawless and everything's going to be okay. That's
not what I'm saying either. I just I think specifically
(07:35):
for people in their sixties, waiting extra years makes sense
from an extra benefit perspective. For younger folks, you do
have to be aware, and we have to hold our
politicians feet to the fire and say, hey, what are
you going to do about this to make sure social
security is actually going to be around, And there's a
number of things that likely need to be done in
concert to ensure that social security stays around for centuries
(07:56):
to come.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
I feel, you know, I don't know why, Joel, but
I feel like I've been hearing that ten year date
or over and over.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
It's like the h in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Excuse me when they started the Earth Day and they
said they we had a decade before all hell was
going to break loose and the world was going to implode.
And here we are still saying in ten years the
world's going to implode. But you really feel like if
something's not done in ten years, is the top of
that heap?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I do, And again, I don't think it's an implosion, right,
So I don't want to make it sound like that,
but there is.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
There is a fear monger, Joel large guard fear monger.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
No implosion will take place, but it will be a
cut in benefits that is effective immediately once we get
to that point. And so people it's it's and I
believe that that that would be from what I've seen,
that that iteration of Social Security with like a reduced
payout would be totally fine until like the year twenty
(08:59):
eighty five or ninety. So it's again, it's not some
sort of implosion or doomsday cliff. But it is important
for younger folks who are investing for their future to
be more cognizant of the fact that social security might
not be there in the same way.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
That it is now.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
But for retirees or for people who are in their sixties,
I wouldn't rush to claim at sixty two or sixty
three just because I'm worried about that future social security spiral,
but I would so. And by the way, there is
this cool software. It costs like forty five bucks. I
want to say to check out maximize mysocial security dot
(09:36):
com and it could.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Be well worth you looking into that.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
If you're trying to figure out when is the best
date for you to claim, they'll ask you a bunch
of questions. You can kind of calculate when your highest
benefit is going to be. And I think it's worth
it because you're talking about so much in potential money
that you could be missing out on if you don't.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Okay, so we moved from social Security onto cars. Tariffs
at all, rising prices is going to cause a whole
other problem with our finances.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I mean, nobody's tired of hearing or talking about tariffs,
are they They're just it's really fun every time to
keep talking about. Although fortunately there's been a little bit
less in the headlines about tariffs and I don't know, man,
where do things go from here is a big question,
but it's interesting. One of the things that we talked
we have talked about is kind of the pre buying
(10:31):
phenomena that people are saying, well, the tariff riding is
on the wall, maybe I should go ahead and buy
stuff that I was like otherwise going to hold off,
maybe buy a few months from now, or I don't know,
maybe it wasn't even on my radar. But tariff's kind
of going back to the fear thing that we discussed Neil.
It's well, if they're coming down the pike, I'm getting
(10:52):
a little scared. Maybe I should buy something now and
it'll save me money. And this is kind of the
Black Friday mentality that's kind of been beaten in to
all of us as American consumers is like, well, buy
it when it's a deal, or before it gets more expensive.
And there was this article in Bloomberg basically saying, hey,
that sort of mentality is leaving people with a debt problem,
(11:14):
because yeah, maybe it's not the worst idea in the
world if you have the cash, if you were going
to make that purchase anyway, and you're like, hey, a
few months from now, it.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Is going to get more expensive.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
But for a lot of people, they don't have the cash,
and they weren't necessarily prepared to make a big purchase,
especially on something like an automobile. And so yeah, if
it comes with a nine percent interest rate attached to it,
and you bought more than you can actually afford, and
you signed up for a seven year car loan, well,
beating the tariffs wasn't really a win.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And I think there are a lot.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Of people kind of taking that sort of mentality, let
me go ahead and beat the tariffs, and ultimately what
they're doing is like self immolation. Wow, maybe too extreme.
I don't know, No, I love it. I love it that.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, I think that's a good way of financial self emolation. Yes,
I got it. I was hoping it wasn't that. I'm like,
are you holding the axe right now? But yeah, it's
an interesting thing to watch because I have a lot
of hobbies in like manufacturing and creating and building at home,
(12:24):
so you know, a lot of three D printers and
the like they're coming out of China and watching this
whole thing unfold. I went to buy some parts the
other day and I looked from like Timu or something,
and I looked and I'm like, that price is not right.
And I looked on Amazon and the exact same product
(12:46):
was half the cost on Amazon because they must have
had you know, local you know, local warehouses that have
the stock or inventory in them or something, but.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Half the price. And I was like, wow.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
And what you're what you're getting to is the fact that, hey,
these tariffs have been implemented and and yes, some of
them have been rolled back a little bit, but there's
still widespread tariffs on most of the countries.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
In the world.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
And and you're right, like some of these businesses pre
bought a lot of stuff, they have stocked up on
some of the items that are most important to their business,
and and they haven't yet had to raise prices, but
slowly but surely those prices are going to go up.
And this gets to kind of the comment that President
Trump made about how many dolls eleven year old girls
(13:36):
should own, and and so the thing that he's been
kind of unwilling to admit, but in a moment of
candor actually kind of came out of his mouth was like, well, yeah,
maybe everyone should be okay with with owning less stuff.
And from a minimalist perspective, I totally get that. I
think if it's a personal choice to say, I know
I'm gonna I'm gonna make an informed decision to buy less,
(13:58):
to consume less and save money and save the planet,
I think that's a wonderful thing. It's something we talk
about on the show often. I think it's I think
it also that sort of ingrained frugal mindset can help
you save and invest more, gives you more optionality for
your future. But if it's this sort of forced imposition
that tariffs are going to put on us of like
you won't be able to buy some of the things
(14:19):
that you wanted to buy, I think that's going to
be pretty untenable. And I'm curious to see how this
shakes out. But but you're right, like we're starting to
see that trickle trickling in of higher prices and how
high they go and how widespread those higher prices get,
and how it's going to impact how consumers feel about
the policies.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
On that note, I'm a big fan of repair and
refurbish and I wish we'd get back to some of
those skills that we had, yeah, you know in the
day's past.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I really do.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Some things are made very we've gotten very disposable, especially
with electronics, and you're.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Spot on, spot on, and there's this you're right, and
that is one of the things I think that some
of the cheaper goods that come out of China, it's
like we think of them as throwaway devices, like the
toaster that you get or whatever.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Sure, and there's I love the idea.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
There's kind of the buy for life thing that happens,
whether it's like darn Tov socks or or whether it's
like speed Queen washers and dryers.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I don't know if you know about that.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
But yeah, they have like an epic warranty and they're
built differently, and so yeah, they cost more upfront. But
I'm all about people paying a little bit more upfront
for something that's hopefully going to last a heck of
a lot longer. And yeah, I hate the kind of
planed obsolescence.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yes that a lot of our electronics go oh my gosh,
just just google that term and the light bulb and
you will go down a rabbit hole.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
But all right, my friend.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Always good to talk to you, Joel, and I really
do enjoy the show and all the wisdom you guys
throw out in a fun way. You and Matt so
a host of how to Money Sunday Noon to two.
How To Money Joel is where you can find them
on the socials there. Thanks buddyreciate you.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Appreciate you. To Neil, thanks, we'll talk again soon.
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