A recent major media outlet reports that people earning less than $50,000 per year aren’t eating at restaurants as often as they did a year ago, and that eating away from home is becoming a trait increasingly more for the wealthy. Today we talk about not only this trend but others as we help you grab a firm hold on your wallet. One of the “big three” expense categories is food cost, and cutting your restaurant tab can be an effective way to sock more money toward financial independence. We’ll share tools, strategies, and anecdotes from people who’ve successfully navigated the restaurant game on today’s show.
Plus, we share a TikTok minute from one creator who’s more than a little worried about homeowners and renters insurance. You’ll hear why and how to make better decisions around these policies. Then we look at other communities online and answer random questions we’ve seen on the web that we think haven’t been answered very well. We talk CD rates, driving for DoorDash, and more.
Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201
Enjoy!
Our Headlines
- Dining out is increasingly a domain of the wealthy. Restaurants are feeling it. (MarketWatch)
- The Restaurant Trends That Defined 2023 (Bon Appetit)
Our TikTok Minute
Doug’s Trivia
- How many years was the patent pending for the Wright Brothers’ flying machine, before it was actually granted?
Better call Saul…Sehy & OG
- Joe and OG offer unsolicited advice to posters in other online forums: the legitimacy of taking on Door Dash, Uber, etc. to make extra money and the long-term viability of signing up for such services – as well as other ways to increase your income.
They also tackle the state of interest rates and whether it’s worth it to jump on a higher-rate CD.
Watch on our YouTube channel:
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Written by: Kevin Bailey
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Episode transcript
[00:00:00] Joe: If you had access to a car like this, would you take it back right away? Neither would I. [00:00:21] Doug: Live from Joe’s mom’s basement. It’s the Stacking Benjamin Show. [00:00:36] Doug: I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. And how’s your restaurant budget? With a holiday weekend looming, we take a look at trends in the kitchen and give you some tips to reshape your wallet and in our TikTok minute, how are your property coverages? Last week, we covered boat owners. This week we might go in a slightly different direction. [00:00:54] Doug: And of course we’ll answer a question from not one, but two stackers who thought, you know what? I’d better call Saul. See hi and og. And of course I’ll share some airborne trivia. And now two guys who invented this podcast, it’s Joe and o ju. [00:01:17] Joe: Feels like yesterday that we invented it. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Stacky Benjamin Show. If you’re new here, sit back and relax because what you don’t know is you’ve got an hour of money. Fun coming. We’ve got some great headlines. We’ve got a wonderful TikTok. Minute is Doug. So, uh, amazingly kicked off the show by explaining, but we also have the incredible. [00:01:44] Joe: The man himself, Mr. og, across the hot cart table, which takes this, by the way, from like an an A minus podcast to a plus plus. [00:01:52] OG: Yes, a triple plus 105%. It’s absolutely super. We got so much go. All those gurus that are like, we give 110% like, sir, that is, that is physiologically impossible. To give over 100%. [00:02:08] OG: By, by by definition. [00:02:10] Joe: I saw a, uh, older woman telling everyone on TikTok just yesterday while I was looking for our TikTok, minute og, she said, always give a hundred percent except when donating blood, which I think is ah, is a good safety tip. Safety tip for everyone as we get started. Speaking of safety, the [00:02:29] OG: wisdom on TikTok is profound, is [00:02:31] Joe: incredible. [00:02:32] Joe: The don’t, don’t need a college degree to go there. We’ve got a great show. You know what? It all starts off with great, uh, sponsors who keep the show free for all of us. So hang out with these amazing brands for the next couple minutes. Oh, G’s here. Neighbor Doug’s here. We got a fantastic headline that we’re gonna dive into here on Wild Wednesday. [00:02:53] Joe: So let’s move. [00:02:54] bit: Hello Darlings. And now it’s time for your favorite part of the show, our Stacking Benjamins headlines. [00:03:00] Joe: Today’s headline comes to us from Market Watch, and this is written by uh, Steph, writer Zoe Hanh. Zoey writes, dining out is increasingly a domain of the wealthy, and restaurants are feeling it. [00:03:15] Joe: And I don’t know, og, before we dive into this piece, which is incredibly interesting, you know, looking at the trends and what’s going on in the restaurant industry, there’s another trend, which is what’s going on in your wallet. I kind of feel like right out of the pandemic, people were willing to break the budget on restaurants and going to eat out. [00:03:34] Joe: God knows we haven’t been in public for a long time. I also kind of felt that personally with the, we gotta go travel and you know, the surge at airports and all of the problems that airlines have had, staffing up and rental car companies. Now I feel like part of this is kind of just back to normal. I mean, dining out is increasingly a domain of the wealthy, frankly. [00:03:57] Joe: If you’re worried about your well [00:03:58] OG: sensationalized. [00:03:58] Joe: Yeah. If you’re worried about your wallet in the first place, shouldn’t it be. [00:04:04] OG: It’s a hot take. [00:04:07] Doug: Wait a minute. My mind is blown. [00:04:10] OG: It’s an interesting spin on that. I mean, obviously if you’re worried about goal attainment or, or, or making ends meet, let’s just go back to like just literally putting food on the table, right? [00:04:20] OG: Like just times our little snugger. Snugger more, more, more be snugger, be be more snugger, snuggly. Like my bike shorts. To me, that seems like the first place that you go to, to, to cut out, right? Isn’t that the, isn’t that the, isn’t that the easy one? It does mean, we went on dinner twice this weekend and I was like, both times I just shook my head and I was just like, you gotta be kidding me. [00:04:39] Joe: I just remember, this might be an old guy story, but, but I just remember when I was a kid. When I was a kid, way back in the day. We went out to a restaurant, it was a big fricking deal, og It was a big deal. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve gone through seasons of my life now, where going out to a restaurant means it’s Tuesday, right? [00:04:56] OG: Yeah. Or Wednesday. It’s Tuesday at lunch, right? Yeah. It’s, it’s lunchtime and uh, and we’ll be going out for, uh, dinner also and breakfast the next morning if, uh, the mood strikes. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s increasingly more expensive too. You look at like the areas of inflation, um. There’s all this talk going on right now about how the Fed has, has barely tamed inflation, right? [00:05:20] OG: So where are the two largest places for rising costs right now? It’s in housing, both with interest rates and trying to buy new house and you know, all the downstream effects of that. And then also the rent costs have increased and continue to increase. That’s causing a lot of stress for a lot of people and food. [00:05:38] OG: Basically, and to some extent energy, you know, gas prices and heating and cooling and that sort of thing, but really it’s food and housing. Those are the real person feeling type of costs. So yeah, we are definitely feeling that. Undoubtedly, [00:05:50] Joe: I think this is not necessarily a bad trend. I think, you know, we, we talk about living with intentionality. [00:05:56] Joe: A place where a lot of us don’t live intentionally is just heading out because, you know what, I just don’t feel like making dinner tonight, so I’m gonna go spend a bunch of extra money while I’m there. Well, and it’s, I have a cocktail. It’s so much worse [00:06:05] OG: than that. Even. It’s so much worse than that now because of DoorDash and Uber Eats, because now it used to be like, I don’t feel like making anything. [00:06:12] OG: Let’s run out and, and at least you’d sit down and have a meal. Now it’s like, I don’t feel like even putting pants on or cooking. I. So someone summon this food for me, please. Uh, you understand It will be cooked an hour ago by the time it gets to you, and it’ll be cold when it’s on your porch. Yeah. That’s what microwaves are from. [00:06:31] OG: And it’s a 20% [00:06:32] Doug: surcharge. Yeah. Yeah. And you understand it’s gonna be $38 for that burger and, and for least. [00:06:36] OG: To 20% surcharge. Doug’s a big fan of Jersey Mike’s, and every time I’d call Doug, when I’m gonna lunch, I’m like, ah, you know, where should I go out to lunch? He’s like, well, I think Jersey Mike’s should be a good for you. [00:06:46] OG: And so one time I ordered Jersey Mike’s DoorDash because I was like, it’s all the way down the road. It’s way, it’s at least two miles away. It’s way down there. I bet it was double after tip. And the delivery fee and the price increase that they have on, you know, because they, they charge extra. It’s like a higher. [00:07:05] OG: Uh, menu price, right? It’s not the same price as it is in the store, right on the app. And then, and then there’s a fee on top of it and, you know, tip and so on and so forth. I bet it was double for the same sandwich. I was like, it’s crazy. This is crazy. This is nuts. What am I doing for a sandwich? You’ll have to get two. [00:07:19] OG: Yeah. Just [00:07:20] Doug: to amortize the delivery cost. Yeah. Should [00:07:22] OG: get dinner while I’m at. [00:07:24] Doug: It helps you, you get two of those giants, that’s food for a month. For regular people, two meals for me. [00:07:30] Joe: Zoe writes that, uh, dine Brands Global Inc. The owner of the Pancake Chain IHOP and the restaurant Chain, Applebee’s said its earnings call last Wednesday. [00:07:40] Joe: Fewer consumers earning $50,000 a year and below visitors restaurants in the past quarter. Even when they do, they are more aggressively managing the amount they spend. Dine Brand. CEO, John Peyton told investors, man, I, and I remember OG when I was, when it was close to the vest, I really wanted. To go to restaurants, but I also wanted it to be a big occasion and I would also make big occasions, and I think this is great no matter who you are, man, cooking at home and putting on some nice music, even for the big occasion and getting your brain out of the day’s work by cooking. [00:08:17] Joe: Because man, if you’re not paying attention to that knife right now, bad things are gonna happen. Like that’ll take your, your brain off the day and you may eat a little healthier. But I think if you’re earning less than $50,000 a year. The regrettable trip to IHOP might not make as much sense. [00:08:33] OG: Yeah, I can’t agree with you more on this. [00:08:34] OG: I mean, when it, when it comes to the, the biggest line items in, in anybody’s budget, generally speaking, is, is gonna be food, energy, and housing. So if you have an issue with cash flow, you have to look to those three things to, to figure it out. I mean, why, why wouldn’t you? That is the number one place to go. [00:08:53] Joe: I have a kind of a, a pivot here. As I was researching this, I was like, what have the trends been lately? With dining and, uh, Bon Appetit has a nice year end piece that talks about last year and 2023, what the biggest restaurant trends were. And so I was also trying to see if this shaped, uh, people’s experience when you know that, that they didn’t wanna dine out as often. [00:09:20] Joe: And, and, and one of the things that that came up was because of all of the, the, the restaurants competing so much against each other. They’re increasingly turning into fun houses, was the word Bon Appetit uses, meaning it’s this over the top experience with lots and lots of theming, lots of over the top be our guest, uh, the waiter constantly in your face with a lot going on and. [00:09:47] Joe: I don’t know. Part of this might be the same thing as the, you know, the Marvel movies. We just had Disney Chairman say, you know what? We’re gonna scale these back to two a year after the Marvels had the absolute worst opening and just the general trend of people going to see all these superhero movies is going through the floor. [00:10:04] Joe: I don’t know about you, but I’m. I’m way sick of superhero movies. Maybe we’re getting sick of, I haven’t seen one [00:10:09] OG: in years. [00:10:09] Joe: Maybe we’re getting sick of dining out too. And so they’re trying to give us more. And because of that, I’m like, yeah, I don’t need, I don’t need my waiter to be my buddy. I just, I just need a quiet night at a corner table. [00:10:21] Joe: You know, like [00:10:21] Doug: it when they sit down at the empty chair at your table and like lean back a little bit and try to act like, Hey, I’m part of your family. Now remember the old, old days, [00:10:29] Joe: uh, there was a restaurant in Chicago called Ed Debevic’s where they did that on purpose. Oh yeah. You guys remember that? [00:10:34] Joe: Oh yeah. Oh, that was so great. The waiter comes over and she goes, Hey, um, if you wanna know, I’ll be right back, but if you wanna know what the specials are, if you can read, they’re right in front of you. And, uh, make sure you tip big ’cause my kid needs braces. I’ll be right back. [00:10:49] Doug: That was her opening salvo. [00:10:50] Doug: That was the whole shtick though. When you went there, you knew walking in the door or you figured it out pretty fast, then that was part of the entertainment that they were gonna be obnoxious purpose. [00:10:59] Joe: It was so great. [00:11:00] Doug: But when that’s not part of the deal. No. Agreed. But the waiter wait, agreed, waitress comes and does that hard pass. [00:11:05] Doug: Yes. [00:11:05] OG: I didn’t need you to be my friend. Joe’s like, I need you to fill my wine. And cook my steak. [00:11:10] Joe: Well, I get it. I like, you know, I like a warm fuzzy, and I do like a waiter who gets it, but come on. But the second one here speaks to this, uh, same thing. Not only is it expensive to go to a restaurant, it’s more expensive, especially if you order a salad. [00:11:25] Joe: You know how people often would go, Hey, I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna get the salad. So that I save some money? Not anymore. Uh, she writes, if you’ve dined out recently and spent over $20 on a pile of greens, I’m sorry to say, you’re not alone. Lettuce price has been soaring for over a year because of both inflation and an insect born virus that destroys acres of the crop in California’s Salinas Valley. [00:11:47] Joe: Doug said, my bad. I didn’t mean to take ’em out there. [00:11:53] Doug: You take a leak in one bush. Next thing you know you’ve decimated crops. Doug’s like I was nowhere [00:11:58] Joe: near, near the Salinas Valley. I don’t even know where that is. I promise that supplies, by the way, nearly half of the lettuce in the us, don’t get me wrong, but heaping mound of leafy greens in a vinegarette can be divine. [00:12:09] Joe: Says the author of this piece, take New York’s iconic Italian restaurant via Kar. What a wonderful phrase. What a, what a wonderful phrase. Via, oh, that’s something different. That’s a Kuna Matata where the beloved Insala Verde tops out at 21 bucks. Well, it was $16 in 2016, which still isn’t cheap, but has less, [00:12:29] Doug: yeah, sticker shocks. [00:12:30] Doug: Salads have always been, I mean, forever, for as long as I can remember, people have always looked at whatever the price was on the menu and thought for a salad. I’m not paying that for a salad. The other thing to remember is. Produce is highly perishable. So restaurants have a lot of waste on produce stuff and so they’re, they’re more expensive ’cause you’re covering all the stuff that they didn’t sell that gets thrown out almost daily. [00:12:53] Doug: So they’ve always been, forget about recent inflation and the rate of it and so forth. Salad have always been more expensive at, at restaurants because of the waste that has to get paid for somehow. [00:13:04] Joe: It’s funny though, the author of this piece says 2016, it costs 16 bucks. So the price has gone up by a third, right? [00:13:13] Joe: Uh, according to my math, about a third, oh gee, if we look at inflation and price is doubling about every 16, 17 years and going up by a third is just natural inflation. I mean, this is just, well, [00:13:26] OG: prices should double every 25 ish years. We’re just seeing it double faster than that lately. [00:13:33] Joe: Third up on this list, anything can be a martini. [00:13:36] Joe: This idea that all of a sudden, I’ve seen this at restaurants nonstop. 50 million martinis on it. A dirty pasta water martini. A squid ink martini. They write, it’s OGs favorite martini. This is [00:13:48] OG: old fashions. Old fashions became all the rage in the last eight years. I bet. Yeah. They did breakfast [00:13:54] Joe: Martini OG had three of those before we hit record this morning. [00:13:59] OG: It is Wednesday. [00:14:01] Joe: Yeah. Think about the price of that martini. I mean, there’s a what? $20 drink? If you’re lucky, you have two of those you just added and then have dinner. [00:14:10] OG: Yeah. [00:14:11] Joe: Tons of money. Scoring a reservation is still a contact sport. They talk about if you’re trying to take the family to a. To a good restaurant that’s getting worse. [00:14:18] Joe: And in fact it’s getting worse because now we have peoples doing scalping. Have you guys seen this? [00:14:23] Doug: Yeah. There there’s a secondary market now for that’s horrible. And a lot of times it’s the servers in that restaurant who are jumping on OpenTable or whatever app, grabbing the reservations, and then they’re off on the sidewalk selling them, [00:14:37] Joe: selling them for even more. [00:14:39] Joe: And then finally, and this is the big one, this is a huge trend. Well, there’s two more. Late night craving Your favorite restaurant’s open late. Again, I think that’s just a sign of the time and trying to make some more money when, uh, business might not be as good. But then the last one, tipping is confusing everyone. [00:14:54] Joe: Even more. [00:14:55] Doug: Yeah. Not only how frequent, but did we just talk about this in the last couple of weeks? If not, I know it’s going around. Is that at the bottom of either on the screen, on that little iPad that you get the, uh, opportunity to tip or on the, it’s just gonna ask [00:15:06] OG: you some questions here. Please go ahead and take a look at those. [00:15:09] OG: Right? And they turn it around like, I don’t [00:15:10] Doug: know what it’s gonna say. It’s just gonna ask you some stuff. You’re so soft. [00:15:13] OG: Ask for a tip if you’re gonna ask for it. So click here for the tip. [00:15:17] Doug: There’s that, but, but people are now realizing if you can do the math in your head, what they’ll say is 15%. Then there’ll be the actual dollar amount right below it, on the box, on the screen, or at the bottom of your receipt where they print out 15% equals and it’s like 24%. [00:15:31] Doug: They’re doing the math intentionally wrong. What are they doing? Adding the tax? They’re adding the text? No, not even that. I mean, they’re just, they’re just making up numbers. They’re just making up numbers. So a lot of people won’t do the math. They look at the bottom of the receipt, you know, you get the printed receipt. [00:15:43] Doug: Sure. And you’re like, oh, I can’t do that. I can’t figure out what 20% is on this tip. So the look at the bottom of the, the, oh, thank you. They did it for me. It says that 15%, 20% right here is $40. When the total sub, including tax on your bill was like $50. I only had the salad. And they’re trying to just like sneak the, oh, okay. [00:16:01] Doug: They said 20% is 40 bucks. So I’ll just add that in. Have you [00:16:04] OG: guys uh, drawn a line in the sand yet on the, uh, on the tipping? Or do you just f it? Like do you just always do it? Do you always never do it? Do you go I do it in these circumstances. Always across the board. [00:16:17] Doug: If I sat down and somebody brought me food. [00:16:20] Doug: Always, always tip and at least 20 [00:16:22] OG: on, on the total bill or, or do or do you, yeah. Do you, I do You look at the number and take out the tax and [00:16:27] Doug: No, and I don’t know if that, it’s habit slash laziness. I do the total number. I include the tax and I under, I totally get why you shouldn’t tip. I’m, why am I tipping the government for TA taxing me extra? [00:16:39] Doug: I get it. It’s just been since the day I started tipping. I always just did the total amount and I just keep doing it. It’s stupid. [00:16:45] Joe: Well, but on the other side, Doug, I also think that somebody that’s in that industry needs the money a little worse than I do, you know? Well, right, so, so tipping a little more, what does it mean to me versus what does it mean to them? [00:16:54] Joe: It’s the Counter Service OG that gets me. And I’m like, where? Where’s my line here? Like, what is it? Zero tip, is it? ’cause you know, this person’s. Busting their butt. But on the other side, do I, do I need to give you a tip because you brought crap to the counter that I walked up to, to get the thing. Like, where’s that line? [00:17:12] OG: That’s what I’m asking you guys. [00:17:14] Joe: I know it’s hard, it’s difficult. I tip, but I tip less. He’s answering your question with a question. I do tip, but I tip less. [00:17:19] Doug: Yeah. And on I’m like you, Joe. I guess on that it’s, it’s kind of mood dependent. I either tip less, which is happens probably 75% of the time and 25% of the time. [00:17:30] Doug: I don’t tip. Yeah. If I drove 15 minutes to go pick up my pizza, yeah. 10 minutes to go pick up my pizza and I, you know, I’m either gonna tip 10% or zero. [00:17:39] OG: I’m with you Doug. If I’m doing the work, you know you tip for service. Right. That’s what the whole idea is. If somebody carries your bags from the hotel or you know, whatever, you get a good table at the restaurant using a restaurant example, you, you’re getting something for that. [00:17:53] OG: If you walk up to the counter and you’re pouring your own coffee. Out of the to-go coffee maker thing, you know? And then they’re like, alright, cool. It’s $4 for your cup of coffee. And it says, how much do you wanna tip $1, $2 or $3? I’m like, uh, it’s d none of the above. I walked in here, I got my own coffee out of the thing here. [00:18:11] OG: You did nothing other than spin around the, [00:18:13] Doug: and you know, a lot of times on the screens back to my pizza place example, there is no, no tip option on the screen that they flip around. It took me several visits to figure out how I could get past that screen without tip. A custom tip zero, custom tip zero or, um, you can, I realized you can just sign your name and hit submit and not tap one of the boxes. [00:18:33] Doug: But it, it wasn’t obvious. I’m not that right. Yeah, because you have to [00:18:36] OG: have that down pat, like wherever you go. Otherwise you look like a tool. You’re trying to avoid the two. You, you have to look like, you know what you’re doing. Like, oh yeah. Exit sign just a bit. And then you can get your pizza and walk out of there without, I still kind of [00:18:47] Joe: cowardly too, because you, you just wanna look good enough for you to get your ass out the door. [00:18:51] Joe: Yeah. [00:18:52] Doug: No, I, I think, ’cause I know they know where the, like the 50% tip box is on the screen, so I’ll like reach my hand up there, but I won’t actually touch the screen. My god. Put your hand, [00:19:01] OG: put one hand there and the, but, but you’re using your left hand to hit the zero. Unbelievable. Got one finger. Your double finger [00:19:07] Joe: it. [00:19:07] Joe: Look over. Bam. The hard part for me is not the employee who ends up getting the brunt of it, and this is who you feel bad for. It truly is the restaurant owner taking advantage of the situation going, oh, you know what? I can pass on a lot of my labor cost to the end person. I’ll tell you how, how hard this guilt runs. [00:19:27] Joe: We were in Nepal. That is not a tipping culture at all. You would go to a place and you’d be like, oh, I need to tip. And I remember our guide even going, yeah, there, there is no tip expected here. There’s none. I’m like, oh, I kind of feel bad if I give nothing. We sat down at this rate. Yeah, but that’s not what we do. [00:19:42] Joe: You don’t have to do that here. I. It is so ingrained in us to feel bad about it, I guess is the point, right? Except for you two jerks saying how you’re manipulating the system. [00:19:52] Doug: No, we just got done telling you that if we sit down I and have gotten service, we always tip and I actually tip pretty, you know I’m a frequent 30% percent. [00:20:00] Doug: You’re like [00:20:00] OG: eight to 10%. That’s right. [00:20:04] Doug: But it’s, it’s the walkup stuff. Have you [00:20:05] Joe: ever gone to dinner with, uh, somebody who is a, uh, patriarch or matriarch of the family? I’m not talking about just mom or dad, but like older relatives and they decide to pay and you see the tip that they’re leaving and it is embarrassingly low. [00:20:24] Joe: Like [00:20:24] Doug: embarrassingly [00:20:25] Joe: from that time [00:20:25] Doug: we went out to eat with Joe [00:20:27] Joe: oj. Embarrassingly low. I have been known Doug, to your point, to go out to the car with everybody and go, oh my God, I left my glasses on purpose so that I can go back and not embarrass the older relative and leave more money. ’cause I’m like, yeah, that’s a [00:20:44] Doug: great play, Joe, because that’s totally in character for you to have actually left your glasses anyways so that everybody’s like, there’s Joe again. [00:20:51] Doug: That’s why. Glasses. He’d forget his nose if it wasn’t glued to his face. I [00:20:55] OG: always wonder how come you always forget your glasses A ton when, when we go out to dinner? But now I figured out why. Well, [00:21:00] Joe: the good news is knowing the two of you as well as I do, I will say this defending Your Honor, even though it is, it is funny. [00:21:05] Joe: You guys are good tipper. I mean, you, you take care of the, the way staff. There’s nobody, nobody not getting, uh, their fair share when OG or Doug around, [00:21:13] Doug: but we are all in this now. They’re, I mean. Pizza place again, I’m getting charged 4%, three or 4% to use a credit card. So you just mentioned Joe, the vendors, the retailers are, are feeling very comfortable pushing all of those costs back to us. [00:21:28] Doug: And if you sit down at a restaurant, the other thing you’re gonna see is a kitchen. Tip or a kitchen gratuity in addition to your server gratuity. So now it’s an extra 3% for credit card, the standard 20 to 30% for your server and a kitchen gratuity. If you guys, you’re looking at me like you haven’t seen those on your receipt? [00:21:46] Doug: No, [00:21:47] Joe: actually what I’m, what I’m looking at you like hopefully. Clearly got the signal wrong is I’m winking Doug. No, the, that’s not what that means at all. I’m kicking you under the table for a different reason. I don’t mind any of that if it’s presented before the meal. If I sit down a restaurant and the restaurant tour goes, Hey, just so you know, this is the way we operate this. [00:22:10] Joe: We don’t wanna depend on people’s. Generosity. So just the cost of this is going to be X amount more to make sure the kitchen gets some X amount more for this. And that’s a piece of the total pie. Like it’s almost like the airline. Don’t tell me, don’t tell me that it’s gonna be an extra $5 bag fee. Don’t tell me that it’s gonna be an extra $20. [00:22:30] Joe: You know, whatever. Just put it in there and if you itemize it for me. If you mind performing, you’re like, Hey, just so you know, because it also lets me realize I don’t need to tip as much. You’re also telling me ahead of time as the restaurateur, you’re like, you know what? We’re gonna put this on your bill so you know ahead of time. [00:22:48] Joe: If you tell me ahead of time, then I can walk out. I can say, no, you know what? Not for me. What I hate is I get to the end of the meal and bam, there it is. No, thank you. [00:22:59] OG: So you’d rather the salad be 2150? [00:23:01] Doug: Honestly, yeah. I think that’s what he’s saying. And I think I would too. [00:23:04] Joe: I’d rather if I know it ahead of time than I can walk out and go, I’m not eating here. [00:23:07] Joe: Versus you have the crap, you, you, you give me this stuff later Doug that you’re talking about. ’cause I hate it when that’s added. Yeah. It’s not, it’s [00:23:13] OG: not your job to manage that guy’s business. Right. Like if he needs to charge more to be operationally sound or, you know, whatever, then, then you, you know, as the business owner, you need to figure that out and then present a compelling product, not Right, right. [00:23:27] OG: Not hit me with it on the back end. Be like, well this is the, this is the kitchen tax. [00:23:31] Joe: If they tell me this is how we’re doing it ahead of time. And I sit down, then I get to choose and I’m like, no, I really like this restaurant, and either that’s okay or that’s not, but I, I decide to sit here. So you don’t [00:23:40] Doug: mind getting, you don’t mind all these little line item charges as long as you know about it ahead of time. [00:23:44] Doug: Absolutely. Because what I thought you were saying is just bury all that. Oh, I think put it all in the, I think that’s even better [00:23:49] Joe: by the way. [00:23:49] Doug: Just bury it. Yeah, that’s what I want. And then I can decide, oh, that’s an expensive restaurant. I might not go there or That’s good, but I don’t want the salad to still be 18 bucks. [00:23:59] Doug: But then have six different line items at the end of the night on my bill that all cover it, all that that budget, [00:24:05] OG: valet, valet fee. Front house staff fee. Yeah. Kitchen staff fee, resort fee management, staff fee taxes. Well, [00:24:12] Doug: those are just taxes, resort taxes, whole different world. It’s a all different thing [00:24:15] OG: at the Fairfield Inn Resort fee. [00:24:17] OG: You’re like, no, I’m not paying that. This is not a resort. No offense. It’s a fair field. I like ’em. I go there all the time, but it’s not a resort. [00:24:25] Doug: They, the colloquial term is tourist tax on those, but they call ’em city taxes sometimes instead of resort fees, but that’s just, that’s just the locality saying, Hey, we gotta get an extra five bucks from these people who are clearly visitors. [00:24:38] Doug: Speaking of that, I just booked an airplane ticket last night on Lingus. You get to the end. Yeah, that was, was that where you get a little [00:24:45] Joe: extra? [00:24:46] Doug: Yeah. Well that’s something different. [00:24:52] Doug: Lingus your ticket gives you, it’s just funny. It doesn’t matter how you say it, it’s just funny. But they, it wanted to charge $2 to get a, a text confirmation of the book. Oh my [00:25:06] Joe: God. [00:25:07] Doug: Nice. Now, luckily it said it, it was like big, bold number. You couldn’t miss it. It wasn’t tiny little, but I just, I had to read it like three times. [00:25:15] Doug: Like there’s no, this isn’t real. There’s no way I. Two bucks to send me a text that, yeah, you got my booking when I got an email, like 48 seconds after I completed the booking. Anyways, that was bizarre to me that that’s where they would choose to try to get a couple of bucks. [00:25:28] Joe: You talk to industry insiders about why they do this, because Doug, you know, for me, I’m like, just charge me $2 more and please make it free. [00:25:36] Joe: Because I so appreciate this concluded. But you talk to industry insiders and, and, and they will tell you, especially for the airline industry, we add those things piece by piece because people will just look for what is the point A to point B cheapest price possible. You can get me there and then they will accept the add-ons more. [00:25:54] Joe: You know what I mean? They will accept the add-ons, but yeah, that’s why that versus they wont, that’s why they advertise [00:25:58] OG: when you go to like kayak and go, you know, what’s the cheapest flight? You see all the cheap flights and you’re like, oh. 2 97 to Detroit. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a great deal. And you click on, it’s like, well, that’s basic economy. [00:26:08] OG: Uh, you don’t get a seat, you don’t get, you have to stand and there’s no bags and you can’t bring anything. And you’re like, okay, well I definitely need to bring a suitcase. They’re like, okay, well it’s not two nine, it’s just gonna go up a little bit. It’s 3 97. To your point, Joe, it’s like that incremental. [00:26:21] OG: It’s like, well, it’s only $50 more, but you wouldn’t have clicked on it. You wouldn’t have even seen it in the list of options. That’s all they want when you search. They wanna [00:26:28] Joe: be the top of the list of options, get you there and go, okay, am I gonna back out? ’cause I’m already knee deep in this bd, bd, [00:26:34] OG: bd, bing, [00:26:34] Joe: bink. [00:26:35] OG: Yeah, [00:26:35] Joe: it’s garbage. It’s garbage. But to their point, we’re the ones that encourage it by continually clicking the cheapest option. So how do we get here? Why are we talking about this? Well, you guys [00:26:44] OG: do that. I sort by the most expensive. [00:26:46] Joe: That’s a great point, Doug, because I wanna bring this back full circle to where we began and the place that we began is if we, if we start off with, you know, restaurant prices going up, tipping price of lettuce, all of this ancillary stuff we talked about, if we talked about do I value going out to dinner tonight or not, and begin there, I think that we, we end up in a much, much happier place. [00:27:07] Joe: If we make this intentional, our budget’s happier because for better or worse, we either spent the money or we didn’t spend the money. But then second, we end up with a day that is congruent with what we were hoping for. I think a great place to end this. We should [00:27:20] OG: do a no going out to eat challenge. [00:27:22] Doug: Oh, you would fail. [00:27:23] Doug: You’re gonna be like Kramer. You are, you’re gonna come in 38 seconds later and go, I’m out. [00:27:28] Joe: I can’t do this until I get back home because Yeah, clearly part of on the road is I don’t have a kitchen. We [00:27:33] OG: have to agree to the terms of the contest, obviously. Let’s do that though. We’re gonna schedule this. [00:27:37] OG: This is the contest, [00:27:37] Doug: just like the Seinfeld episode with the naked lady across the street, clean her house. I saw a burger. The greatest episode in Seinfeld history, maybe in all of sitcom history. And this is a Stacking Benjamins version of it. Yes. I walk by a steak and shake. I’m out. Oh, I I will be the master of my domain. [00:27:54] Doug: For sure. [00:27:56] Joe: You know, there’s a great place the fact that we get to choose. I think a lot of people take for granted. We get to choose whether we eat out or not. I mean, how great a world do we live in where we have all of these possibilities around us? And I think a great place to, uh, end this is with Doug, uh, little, uh. [00:28:10] Joe: Thing you gave us from, uh, a comedian Jimmy Carr. Oh yeah. Who I think is, uh, not screwing around when he says that we need to remember this [00:28:20] bit: one had a hot shower until 50 years ago. Well, look, when you stand in a hot shower, just for a moment, just go, well, no one that you admire from a hundred years ago had this simple pleasure in life. [00:28:29] bit: There’s been a hundred billion people ever. Right. We are in the top, top percentile in terms of the luck that we have had, the, the lives like the, the, the calorific intake that we just take for granted. The fact that our children don’t die, uh, you know, in the first year, the, the modern medicine and our lives and our, the entertainment that we get, we are living like kings. [00:28:51] bit: I. And yet life has never been objectively better and subjectively worse. So we’ve got this thing where we, we sort of, you know, how happy are you? Well, it’s, it’s your quality of life minus envy. That’s how happy you are. And it’s easy to look at everyone else and how they’re doing and, and not take pleasure in what you have [00:29:14] Joe: So, so, so powerful. [00:29:16] Joe: And the pleasure that we can go out to a restaurant, we sometimes just take that for granted. Versus how great is this? Yeah. [00:29:23] Doug: Happiness is equal to your quality of life, minus envy. I love that. Yeah. When I saw that and I was, it was Jimmy Carr, you’re waiting for some punchline and there wasn’t one. It was just, it was insightful and I don’t even know if that’s his original quote or if he bought, I don’t care. [00:29:36] Doug: It’s great and well delivered and we should remember it. [00:29:39] Joe: I think sometimes Doug heaven, the comedian deliver it makes it even more meaningful, right? Yeah. Because you’re like, this guy screws around. He’s not messing around about that. By the way, that’s what, [00:29:47] Doug: when I say smart stuff on this show, that’s what people think. [00:29:51] Joe: Is that what they think? I’ve been often wondering what they think time. By the way, that could have been our TikTok minute, but I decided it was a great way to close that out and just really put a pin on it. I mean, that’s a great end of that discussion, but time for our TikTok minute where we shine a light on some TikTok creator who’s either showing us something brilliant or air quotes. [00:30:07] Joe: Brilliant. Oh gee, we went to Doug last time. So, uh, what do you think? We got some brilliance or air quotes. [00:30:13] OG: TikTok is the devil, and, uh, it’s never brilliant. So let’s get after it. [00:30:17] Joe: This is one of my favorite TikTok creators. It’s a guy, uh, named Grant, and these are Grant’s. Game wrecks. Grant is a guy who, who recommends board games to people. [00:30:27] Joe: They have something for everybody. So of course, I’m a big fan of, uh, grant. This is Grant’s. Uh, TikTok. Early last week, [00:30:36] tiktok: two days ago, a car crashed into my house and left a huge hole in the wall. This is not a joke. This is real life. I’ll tell you, it’s given me a pretty different perspective on the Kool-Aid. [00:30:47] tiktok: Man, I. I used to think it was funny when he came crashing through walls, and now I’m like, but do they have renter’s insurance? This experience has also made me realize how singularly focused board gamers are sometimes, because I posted photos of the car running into my house and so many gamers commented on them like they were trying to steal your board games. [00:31:07] tiktok: Did they damage your board games? Please tell me your board games are okay. Yes, my board games are fine. If you’d like to play a game about crashing cars, check out Thunder Road vendetta. It’s really fun and there’s a lot of crashing in it. [00:31:23] Joe: You can’t end it [00:31:24] Doug: without, without saying this is pitiful. But if you still want one og, you just got sucker punched. [00:31:29] OG: This is clearly board game door humor. Yeah, and I. I have not. I did just, did you look at our faces? [00:31:35] Doug: Faces the whole time that was playing Joe. ’cause OG and I were just like, when is this gonna get good? No. [00:31:40] Joe: So there wasn’t supposed to be anything funny there. Number one, good mission accomplished. Hashtag winning. [00:31:48] OG: Joe’s triggered. We triggered him. Smoke is starting to come out of his ears. [00:31:53] Joe: How many times have you guys heard, no, I’m a safe skier. No, I’m a safe driver. I don’t need renter’s insurance. This dude who’s got nothing to do with any of this stuff, he’s doing the dorky thing that you guys couldn’t unfocus on and a car went through his wall, a car, and [00:32:09] OG: they’re done that got that T-shirt [00:32:11] Joe: on a random day, went through his wall. [00:32:14] Joe: It was pretty random [00:32:15] OG: coming home from church, like it was a Sunday afternoon drive. I get it. It happens. And even when you do have insurance, you’re screwed. Just so [00:32:23] Joe: you know, what, what does this audience do? They focus on the one thing, right? We focus on the one thing and, oh, gee, you’re focused on something totally different at that time, and a dude ran a car through your wall, like ran a car through your wall. [00:32:37] Joe: I know, I know. It was awesome. This crime happens when we don’t expect it to happen. I mean, this stuff just comes outta the blue and you’re like, what the, what the hell? So, um, [00:32:47] bit: that was great. [00:32:48] Joe: I think it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s so fun. It’s so absolutely fun. You’re like, oh, good. My whole next two weeks are completely destroyed. [00:32:55] Joe: I gotta focus on something I completely don’t wanna focus on. And, um, yeah, renter’s insurance for the win, I think. Absolutely. When you see those things like the neighborhood where the bullet goes through the wall in the living room. Like somebody’s just sitting there watching television and your life changes in Harvey. [00:33:13] Joe: How many guests have we had on where the car flips going down the highway? You know, there’s some car that comes at them while they’re driving down the highway. There was no, no place to go. Just not about you. So big stuff, but hey, you guys focused on the board games. Wow. Because that was what that was all about. [00:33:28] Joe: You just got dunk done. We couldn’t get around that. So Doug, I did look at your faces and I saw your faces. [00:33:35] Doug: Good work. We’ve awoken the giant. [00:33:38] Joe: Coming up next, Doug’s gonna finally get hilarious. Hopefully. God, hopefully I. [00:33:42] Doug: With maybe some trivia we never know. It’s a surprise even to me. Hey there, stackers. [00:33:47] Doug: I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. On this day in 1906, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright were granted a patent for what would be the first ever airplane, which they called a flying machine. There’s no truth to the fact that once they got the machine airborne, they charged an extra 10 spot for a passenger’s luggage and another 20 if you wanted to board early. [00:34:06] Doug: And two bucks for a text confirmation of the reservation. Those patents wouldn’t come until later, which reminds me, I have this great invention idea for two cars. You can like snap together and make a van patent pending. It would be a great way for families to travel all together without needing to buy a third vehicle. [00:34:24] Doug: I also invented a lawnmower with a built-in pedometer patent pending to make yard work more fun. Oh, and um, oh, I got this great idea for a couch folds into the wall patent pending like a Murphy bed. That way you can pull it out when you’re having a party and need extra seating. Or, whoa, mate, maybe it should be a bunch of individual chairs around the room that fold into the wall. [00:34:43] Doug: Hey, you know what? Let’s give that one a good patent and pending too, because like I just thought of it. Those chairs could help people spread out, mingle, you know, I bet you could make all kinds of Murphy stuff patent and pending for entertaining. The possibilities are endless, but they’re all my patents. [00:34:58] Doug: They’re all pending. Today’s trivia question is, how many years was the patent pending for the Wright Brothers flying machine before it was granted? I’ll be back right after I finish sketching out my next invention [00:35:10] bit: patent pending. [00:35:19] Doug: Hey there, stackers. I’m serial inventor and modern day William Murphy, Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. When the Wright brothers filed the patent for the first airplane under the name flying machine, they had yet to actually take flight in the vehicle. It would be another nine months from the filing before the very first airplane, which they named the W right flyer would successfully complete a flight. [00:35:41] Doug: It’s not true that the first flight was delayed at DFW for weather either. Today’s trivia question is how many years was the patent pending for the Wright Brothers flying machine before it was actually granted the answer? While it may seem nerve wracking to file a patent for an invention that hasn’t even been proven to work, patents can remain pending for years. [00:36:01] Doug: Giving inventors plenty of time to improve their ideas. The Wright brothers ended up waiting just over three years before they received an official patent for the first airplane. Now someone just needs to invent one that doesn’t fall apart in the sky. [00:36:14] Joe: Patent [00:36:14] Doug: pending. And now back to Joe and og. [00:36:17] Joe: Could you imagine the Wright brothers of bag fees to go, what? [00:36:20] Joe: 38 yards? Hey, uh, listen, Orville, if you wanna bring that along, that’s gonna take a, uh [00:36:25] OG: Oh, you [00:36:25] Joe: wanna go [00:36:25] OG: 40 yards? I heard there was a big fight about the, uh, the armrest. That’s right. [00:36:31] Doug: Who’s gonna, who’s gonna get it? And you know, they, they didn’t actually fly first. You know that right? Oh yeah. Hot stir. Yeah. [00:36:40] Doug: Yeah. It was Glen Curtis. Glen Curtis flew first on Qca Lake in New York on the water. The reason that the Wright brothers are credited with flying first was because their family promised the W right flyer to the Smithsonian. As long as the Smithsonian would document, publish and make the signs. That said, this was the first flight. [00:37:04] Joe: So says you, so the Smithsonian’s a bunch of Liars [00:37:07] Doug: Smithsonian, it’s, they’re in on the conspiracy. There’s a huge lawsuit Curtis family lost, but they’ve got documentation that Glen Curtis did it first. [00:37:17] OG: Mm. Agree to disagree. [00:37:19] Doug: Well, yeah. Mr. Pilate here thinks he just knows everything that’s ever been in the air. [00:37:25] OG: I think the people in Cuca Lake and trying to, they know the truth. Trying to steal one. [00:37:30] Doug: It wasn’t even them, it was the Kurt one. Okay, fine. Glen Curtis and Sasquatch G. If you, if you live in the Finger Lakes region right into the show, support me. Because I know, you know, wow. [00:37:41] Joe: Time for us to support some stackers who said, you know what, uh, we better call Saul Cihi and og. [00:37:48] Joe: This is where we pick OGs brain about some of the questions that you guys have. And you know what? I actually wanna do something fun today. Today we’re gonna do a little, uh, thing we call. Questions nobody asked us. We have a couple questions that I found in other forums, other financial forums that I’m like, really, really, people are talking about this stuff? [00:38:10] Joe: So let’s go to one. I’m gonna leave the names of these forums, uh, nameless. But here’s one. Somebody asks in another forum, does anyone else in here grind out driving for DoorDash for extra money? Been doing it for a couple weeks and so far it’s not too bad for some extra vacation money. Oji, what do you think about these, uh, side hustles about driving DoorDash, Uber, Lyft? [00:38:31] OG: Well, I think there’s plenty of people who have been successful doing it. I think that there’s a lot of unseen costs that happen that you have to consider as you’re doing the math on whether or not it’s worth it. And really the, the biggest one is the wear and tear on your, on your vehicle, the potential extra increase in insurance costs. [00:38:52] OG: Sorry, insurance costs. Thank you. Sounds so horrible to say it that way. Oh, uh, because you know, you need to disclose that to your insurance carrier to make sure that the insurance is properly insured on your vehicle. Insured. Okay. I keep doing it. Oh yeah, keep going. Oh, [00:39:10] Doug: the hairs, all the hairs are standing up on end right now. [00:39:12] OG: So I think, I think when it comes to the money, we look at the dollars and and go, oh, you know, I can make an extra 200 bucks a week. That’d be great. I knew a guy who was a realtor who drove Uber just to and from the airport on Friday nights and Saturday mornings and said, I’m gonna do it all night. You know, all the late night flights that come in Friday and all the early morning flights that leave families on Saturday until I make a thousand bucks. [00:39:36] OG: You know, I start at nine o’clock at night and that was his, his side hustle of, you know, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m, I’m working all night, basically pulling an all-nighter. And, uh, sometimes he, sometimes he, he, he was done by, you know, midnight or 1:00 AM just depended on the volume, but there’s a lot of extra. [00:39:54] OG: Unseen cost there that you have to, that you have to recognize. [00:39:57] Joe: Yeah. I love, uh, thinking about that because between fuel cost, auto wear and tear, all the stuff that you talked about, even those airports, you talk about og, they will impose a fee on the Uber driver coming in and outta the airport. Yeah. [00:40:09] Joe: Which adds to their cost. The issue that I have is that you definitely, I think you definitely wanna make this short term. Either way, because these companies have already said that they’re trying to get rid of you as they invest heavily in automation to get rid of you. So the game is going to change. [00:40:26] Joe: And when I talk to long-term, Uber and DoorDash drivers, they say the game already has changed. Like as they encounter more and more people that don’t do that to anything more than back of the envelope math, that these companies also take more for them. So you truly have to, when I, when I talk to people that have done a, done a great job and made good money at this, they know exactly to your point, OG the exact hours to drive. [00:40:49] Joe: The exact roots to drive the end customer that they’re looking for is they accept or deny if the platform they’re working on will let them do that. Uh, uh, rides, whether it’s for a meal, for goods or for passengers. These people really have it down to a science, but they also know the game’s gonna change in the future. [00:41:08] Joe: It’s not your game. Yeah. It’s somebody else’s playing field you’re playing on. And once you get the math down, they will find a way to change that game as it fits them. But heck, if you’re getting outta debt, don’t go start a website. Like don’t go do some, start a big time company. Just go pick up some extra money. [00:41:25] Joe: And that’s easier than ever before. Uh, I got a couple extra thousand dollars of credit card debt. Let’s go. Uh, blast that out by driving Uber. [00:41:34] OG: Not a bad idea. [00:41:35] Joe: I think there’s a bigger thing here, og, which is, you know, this person is talking about making some extra vacation money. If I’m looking at extra vacation money, is there a bigger lens here? [00:41:45] Joe: Like thinking about how do I just make it so I don’t need to make some extra vacation money? Are there maybe longer term or passive income opportunities or ways to increase my income elsewhere so that I just don’t have to drive DoorDash at all? [00:42:02] OG: Well, do you know, you know, the number one way to increase your income is to change companies within your industry. [00:42:10] OG: Change companies within your industry. And, uh, people are so hesitant to do that because of all the baggage that goes with that. And, and sometimes there is some pretty nasty baggage that you gotta be aware of. But, um, study after study shows that, you know, I would rather pay somebody who’s well qualified than bring somebody on and try to train them up to that qualification. [00:42:32] OG: The second part of it is when you have that change, you are getting right sized in your income based on your role and years of experience and, and you know, kind of career where you’re at. And then you stay at the company and we just all accept these three to 4% cost of living raises every year. When in reality that role, you know, could potentially have a higher, uh, salary kind of component to it, or higher compensate total compensation component to it because of external factors that you’re not participating in. [00:43:00] OG: You know, the new person that got hired just got stock options. You’ve never had those before or they got a higher salary because that’s the going rate for that role. And frankly, companies just have no interest in going back to most of the time, have no interest going back to their, their employees and going, Hey, guess what? [00:43:17] OG: The market says that you 10 people all should get $20,000 pay raises this year to even you out with the market. They’d just rather keep you, you know, and give you a nice three to 4% raise. Little bonus at the end, everybody’s happy. I. So if you’re really looking for a pay bump. Check out a similar role at a competitor, and my guess is, is that you’d be surprised even if you don’t wanna move. [00:43:38] OG: Now, listen, I think Doug, you and I have talked about this a little offline before you can play this card. One time the, Hey, I wasn’t looking, but I was approached by a recruiter. I played the game. Here’s the offer from. Ford. I’d rather stay at General Motors. You get to play that card one time. Yeah, maybe. [00:43:54] OG: Maybe once. Yeah. Sometimes they go, no, you’re right. You should take that job. That’s right. So you can’t even fit it. It has to be like a literal job offer that you are willing and ready to take. [00:44:03] Doug: Well, and then, but you [00:44:04] OG: can [00:44:05] Doug: And you’re gonna burn a bridge either way. [00:44:07] bit: Oh [00:44:07] Doug: yeah. Hundred percent. If it’s a real offer, if it’s a real offer from Ford and you get the raise you were looking for at gm, you. [00:44:13] Doug: You don’t get to go back to Ford anytime in the next decade. Yeah. Yeah. And look for a job again. [00:44:18] Joe: Yeah. Well, and there’s, there’s another piece I read from a recruiter, I believe it was in, um, the Wall Street Journal was talking about. The other problem is that you’re also, even when you stay at the job with the new raise, you now became the least trusted person in your department. [00:44:35] OG: A hundred percent, yeah. You’re the first to go if there’s a job elimination coming or something like that. So. Very touchy subject. [00:44:41] Doug: And more often than not, data will show that that person that you paid to stay is gonna leave anyways probably in the next three years. [00:44:49] Joe: Oh yeah. And what’s funny is we’re saying it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, just be where the consequences. [00:44:53] Joe: Yeah. [00:44:53] OG: Right. Sure. No, it is. I mean, we have perfect ex. I know you guys know people, Doug probably happened to you in your career and the, and people that you know working in your industry, I know it happened to. To, to my wife and her business, like in her consulting business. I mean, just simply moving laterally from one company to another was such a huge increase in comp. [00:45:10] OG: She ended up going back to her other company. It kind of, not hat in hand, but just like, Hey, you know, this is really not what I thought it would be. And after the fact, her former boss, who then became her, you know, new boss again, said, you know, by the way, did you just leave ’cause of the money? ’cause we would’ve just paid you the money. [00:45:28] OG: If you would’ve asked, and it was a perf, it was probably a 30% increase in comp, just a lateral move. And then when she came back, she got that pay. And plus some, you know, it was like a, a, a two year cycle of these gigantic pay increases by, by moving laterally between two companies. [00:45:42] Doug: No wonder you can get Jersey mics on DoorDash. [00:45:45] OG: Yeah, well she’s been retired since 2016, so it’s all on credit card. It’s better. It’s on DoorDash Plus interest 29.99. Repeating of course percent. [00:45:59] Joe: I did not see this answer, by the way. The answer that we just gave about, uh, driving DoorDash on this, uh, this forum, so our stackers should be happy. We were able, I think, to give them a much, much better answer. [00:46:11] Joe: I was like, I think we can do this better. Wait, I’m not gonna type on another forum. I’ll just keep our stackers, the trust us, give them the better answer. Here’s another one from somebody else’s forum, this person. Said Ally CD rates have dropped. Is everyone seeing this across the board with other banks? [00:46:29] Joe: And I was about to jump in again and go, okay, this is, this is the thing. And I thought, Nope, let’s take this to our podcast. So og, when you hear allies, uh, CD rates have dropped. First, first thought that, uh, enters OGs brain. [00:46:46] OG: Uh, the first thought is, oh, why would you care and have a cd? That’s honestly my first thought. [00:46:51] OG: Yeah, that is number one. Why the hell do you have a cd? I mean, the, the reason, the reasons are because you believe interest rates to decline in the future, and you can lock in a higher rate today. But the disparity between the higher rate today and current rates today. Are not great enough to offset the liquidity factor of having their money today. [00:47:10] OG: And what I mean by that is, let’s say that you look at CD rates today. So let’s head over to deposit accounts.com and look at their, you know, one year CD rate. That’s as of today. And top 1%, 5.52% I. You can get a money market rate at, you know, in your Schwab account for 5.3, 5.4 right now. To me, that extra 0.1% is so insignificant versus the fact that I have to lock my money up for a year to get that 5.52. [00:47:38] OG: That’s, that’s not a good trade in my book. Now here’s what could happen. Interest rates could crater over the next year. And, and more. So it would be impactful if it happened immediately where, where I could have locked in a year’s worth of interest at 5.52, but now interest rates are 3.32. And you go, oh, geez, you could have had that extra 2%, but I challenge you to do the math on how much money you’re actually putting in there. [00:48:03] OG: You know, unless you’re talking about a hundred, $200,000 worth of CD money, it’s not really a lot. You know, if you’re going, well, this is $10,000. I mean, 200 bucks is not zero. It’s not a lot, you know what I mean? And then you’re locking the money up for an entire year. So honestly, I find a great money market account or a great high yield savings account and, um, and, and enjoy the liquidity on that. [00:48:27] Joe: Yeah. I think if you begin with the end in mind, if you start off with your goal, you’re very rarely gonna choose a cd. Don’t get me wrong, og, you just pointed out a place where it might fit. Three years ago, you and I would’ve been hard pressed to even place any like CDs. Just not competitive. Not a competitive product. [00:48:46] Joe: There’s a second thing. Let’s talk about ally savings rates coming down, ally rates on CDs coming down, and the implication here, whenever I read these online is that, oh, allies getting cheap. That’s not what’s happening, OG at all. I mean, the fact that, I don’t know, it’s, it’s 2024. We always have a new crop of investors. [00:49:08] Joe: I thought we’d explain that. That’s not what’s going on. When Ally lowers their rate on CDs, you’re not gonna go over to American Express and their rate’s going up on CDs at the same time, unless it’s some type of a teaser rate. I mean these, these people, yeah, generally [00:49:22] OG: not. [00:49:22] Joe: Yeah. These people all are at the same well. [00:49:25] Joe: So if Allies going down, Amex is going down, capital One is going down. Navy Federal Credit Union is going down. All companies are lowering the rates at their CDs together. If they’re not doing it today, they’ve considered it and they’re holding their own, but they’re certainly not going up with rates. So this is more a sign of the time. [00:49:46] Joe: I think og, what people have to do is, if you’re with Ally, the bigger question is ally rates went down. Are they still one of the, and maybe this is what this person was implying, are they still one of the top places to go get a cd? Because generally the top places remain the top places. [00:50:03] bit: Yeah. [00:50:03] Joe: For long periods of time, I’d rather pick a spot that’s competitive and stay there than worry about whether my CD is going down. [00:50:11] Joe: That said, is laddering CDs [00:50:14] OG: coming back? I mean, it’s the same thing as before, right? It’s the same issue. To ladder it out means that either you have to accept a lower rate on a shorter time period today to build it out from day one, or you have to have the capital to, to, you know, to do this over the course of a, a long period of time. [00:50:34] OG: And, and the difference between 5.4 and 5.5 just doesn’t really excite me and. What if the rates go up? We haven’t even talked about that. And you get an immediate response in your savings account, generally speaking, or an immediate response in your money market fund. But now you’ve got a year long CD that’s at that lower rate, so that could be even worse. [00:50:56] OG: I just don’t see the benefit of the added complexity of laddering CDs when the yield curve, this is the term, the yield curve is very flat. There’s no, there’s no profound difference between a six month rate, a year rate, and 18 month and two year rate. It’s like, you know, you have to go out way far to see better rates, and then you’re locking your money up for a significantly longer period of time, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, which no one would do for cash. [00:51:23] Joe: We will get back to your questions. Uh, next week back on the show. If you’ve got a question for us, stack you Benjamins dot com slash voicemail. I thought these were just two pretty important things. Concepts one goes down, they all go down, begin the end of mind. You don’t have to worry about CD rates and driving for DoorDash. [00:51:37] Joe: There’s a bunch of hidden math that you should probably do before you even decide to make that move. Could be good, good for a short amount of time, but realize you’re not playing on your turf. You’re playing on somebody else’s stack of Benjamins dot com slash voicemail. By the way, if you’re not here because you’re worried about driving DoorDash or you’re not worried about LI CD rates, you’re worried because. [00:51:55] Joe: You know what? I don’t really have a plan at all, and I need to begin thinking about the end in mind and getting my assets so they dovetail with my goals. Well, OG and his team are taking clients, so if you had to stack Benjamins dot com slash og, you’ll get a link to his financial planning firm’s calendar, and that’s the first step in seeing how you can make better decisions the rest of the year. [00:52:16] Joe: We’re, we’re going on halfway through the year people. Unbelievable. Can you believe it? It’s crazy that, uh, we got Memorial Day this weekend. Let’s go over to the back porch. We got a couple things. Uh, first one Doug is, is that, uh, we’re gonna be in Boston tomorrow, and Malden Faces Brewing Join, uh, me, Paula Pant, my son, Nick, my daughter Autumn, and uh, well a bunch of you guys, I’m super excited about our Boston meetup, stacky Benjamins dot com slash meetup to get your ticket. [00:52:47] Joe: To come join us, uh, tomorrow in Boston should be Carl, Carl [00:52:51] Doug: Mulin, [00:52:52] Joe: Massachusetts, Carl Mulden. There’s a blast from the past. What are you guys doing og? What’s going on? [00:52:58] OG: Uh, well we had Hamilton tickets, but the, uh, association that runs the softball for my daughter’s second grade softball team incorrectly posted and disclosed incorrect playoff dates and times. [00:53:11] OG: Oh God. So, uh, this way back when Hamilton tickets went on sale, and then we sent a kind email to the association and said, Hey, just so you know. In the written material and on the website you have, uh, this as your playoff times and you, you know, you can’t change ’em because this is what everybody’s banking on. [00:53:27] OG: A lot of other teams also complained because, uh, you know, whatever. And they went, yeah, sorry, tough patties. So, uh, so I’m gonna second grade baseball on Friday. Really excited for, instead of Hamilton and, um, second [00:53:41] Doug: grade baseball, [00:53:42] OG: so it’d be great. Uh, second grade softball. Sorry, softball, uh, but they, you know, the girls play well. [00:53:47] OG: They’re really, I mean, they’re trying hard, they’re very athletic, which is cool. Uh, just kind of bummed. We’re not doing Hamilton otherwise. Uh, probably throw something, uh, meaty on the grill on Sunday or Monday. Little golf, [00:53:58] Joe: I’m trying to find, and I, and I can’t find these, uh. These, these people. It’s a recent Instagram TikTok thing where it’s the travel team coaches talking to the travel team parents. [00:54:11] Joe: And going, Hey. Uh, so, so just so you know, um, the first week we’re gonna be down the road about 10 miles the second week we’re in Ecuador. Yep. And the parents, the parents like, I didn’t know this required a visa. Like I, I, I don’t You’d have a visa. And then by the way, we will find out when we’re there, if we take at least third place that we could qualify for an event, uh, in Cuba. [00:54:32] Joe: Right after that, which is, and it’s not even like the number one event. It’s like the, so the soccer silver B team championship semi qualifier in Cuba. We will be going to, well, I don’t, I don’t know if I have money with that. Oh, you don’t, Tim, you don’t have money. Is your kid committed to travel soccer? [00:54:50] OG: Yeah. Yeah. This isn’t travel anything. This is just second grade. It’s just BS that the people who organized it. You know, [00:54:57] Joe: on a holiday weekend, can you say she’s not coming that weekend or not? We wanted it to be on Saturday. [00:55:01] OG: That’s where we want it to be. That’s where they, well actually, they said it was gonna be starting that weekend and usually playoffs run a week. [00:55:07] OG: You know, ’cause you have to do a couple of games to kind of, and so like a joke, what they’re doing is they’re putting it all on one day and going, or two days. It’s these two days and we can be done. [00:55:16] Joe: It’s gonna suck one way or another. Why not get all the suck out in two days? [00:55:20] OG: Yeah. Suck faster as my good friend Manolo says on golf. [00:55:26] Joe: Ah, so you’re gonna play golf. You’re gonna test the fairways. Test the bunkers. Probably use the [00:55:32] OG: smoker a little bit. Have a little, uh, I don’t go bunkers, bro. On [00:55:34] Joe: the [00:55:34] Doug: fairways. Oh [00:55:36] OG: yeah, that’s right bro. [00:55:38] Doug: Smoker. Barely know her. Doug. Doug, what are you doing? Come on. You teed it right up. Was there, you knew I was gonna swing at that. [00:55:48] Doug: It was right there. I could read. It’s, the title is right on it. Uh, same. You know, same thing. We don’t have any big plans. I’m not tra that I know of. We’re not traveling anywhere. I’ve got a little bit of travel later in the summer as aforementioned. RE Lingus. [00:56:06] Doug: It’s just funny. It’s like the word meatloaf. You can’t say it. You can’t say Lingus and not laugh. Just takes the mind. They should have that as like dark places, [00:56:15] Joe: you know, you’ve got your title and then the subheading, you know? Yeah. Like the, that should be their, their Lingus. You can’t say her name without laughing. [00:56:24] OG: It’s always funny. You’ll laugh your way [00:56:25] Joe: through our service. [00:56:27] OG: Tagline. Tagline, yes. [00:56:29] Joe: Air Lingus. We love servicing you. Is that too far? [00:56:36] Doug: No, actually I think that’s pretty good. Uh, that’s later in the summer though. I think for Memorial Day weekend. I’m just gonna, uh, get some fishing in, get some golfing in and, um, there’s probably gonna be a beverage or two. [00:56:48] Doug: Watch the Indy 500. No. No. Oh, really? No. I like the Indy 500 on in the background. Yeah. I like fast paced sports like fishing and golf and golf where stuff happens. [00:57:08] Doug: Well, [00:57:09] OG: two 20 in the back straightaway. Not fast enough for Doug. No, [00:57:12] Joe: not at all. All right. That’s it. Happy four hours. I don’t know if it’s Happy Memorial Day. We never know how to do this greeting, but uh, I hope you and your family, you remember those, uh, people who came before us and people who, um, made this country what it is. [00:57:29] Joe: If you’re in the United States, if you’re outside the United States, happy weekend. Right? Come on over. Yeah, come on over. It’s great. And grill with og. We have Monday off. Yes. They’re like, where do you live, og? Oh, look at the time I got a, uh, [00:57:41] Doug: Doug. What should we have learned today? Quick, quick, quick. Well, Joe, first take some advice from our headline, whether you’re at restaurants 24 7 or cooking more at home, start with your goals and work backwards. [00:57:53] Doug: And that can include eating healthy. Also saving time for the important stuff can also be a goal. If you work backwards, you’ll have fewer regrets about whether you stayed home or ate at a restaurant. Second, how’s your homeowner’s insurance or renter’s coverage? You never know when someone might say hello by driving their Impala through your living room, but what’s the biggest to do? [00:58:15] Doug: I gotta talk to Joe’s mom about going back to college to become a patent lawyer so I can save money on all my inventions. Hey, send in your buddy’s mom to file patents for you. I’m gonna say patent pending on that idea. That’s a pretty good one. You just say it right? You say patent pending and like you lock that in and [00:58:32] Joe: it happens. [00:58:33] Doug: It just, yeah, I’m sure that’s the way it works. Nobody else can ever take it. It’s gotta be. This show is the property of SB podcasts, LLC, copyright 2024, and is created by Joe Sulci High. Our producer is Karen Repine. Karen and Joe get help from a few of our neighborhood friends. You’ll find out about our awesome team at Stacking Benjamins dot com along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. [00:58:59] Doug: Come say hello. Oh yeah, and before I go. Not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don’t take advice from people you don’t know. This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any financial decisions, speak with a real financial advisor. I’m Joe’s Mom’s Neighbor, Duggan. We’ll see you next time back here at the Stacking Benjamin Show.
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