Business
Keep It Simple!
In this episode of DIY Money, hosts Ali and Logan discuss the emotional journey of pursuing personal goals, particularly in running, and how setbacks can lead to renewed determination. They also tackl...
Keep It Simple!
Business •
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Interactive Transcript
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Hey, this is Ali and thanks for listening to the show.
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Give us a five star review where you listen and share this episode with someone who might
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need to hear it.
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Now, enjoy the show.
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Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.
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Listening to another edition of DIY Money!
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DIY Money!
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Hey, I want to first thank all the new listeners.
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I don't know.
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I never know.
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We never know what brings you here.
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Clearly someone posted about it.
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I mean, just happened, but we basically have doubled listeners in the last week.
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Yeah, it's awesome.
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So, welcome all of you, probably starting with episodes going back months and months
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ago to catch up.
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So, maybe you never get to this one for many, many months.
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Welcome again.
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Welcome.
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I hope you enjoyed the other 798 episodes.
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I hope we still have people that go all the way back to Benjit.
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That's fun.
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You think so?
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I mean, I don't even know.
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I couldn't even scroll that far back.
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It's so funny.
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It's just so many up to scroll, scroll, scroll.
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Speaking of scrolling, I'm reading or listening to a new book.
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I highly recommend this book.
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It is colorful to a degree, but you'd expect that out of this.
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It's the biography of Andre Agassi.
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I'm not a tennis player.
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Never been a tennis player at all.
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But wow, this book is fantastic.
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I'm almost through it.
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And then the other day on my Spotify, all these little locks came up and I'm like, what?
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So you get nothing.
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Good day, sir.
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I'm almost done with this book.
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Now I can't even finish it.
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And apparently, didn't know this.
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You get a certain number of hours each month.
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And then they're like, oh, no, super you.
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And they want you to buy the book, which of course I didn't do.
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So I'll just have to wait another six or seven, five or six days.
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Do you have any of your reading days?
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So with that, because I think the book kind of goes hand in hand with what is going on
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on your world, give us a running update.
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I know.
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This is a dramatic pause.
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I know my running friends who listen to this already know this.
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You already know this because you are in this running world that is a weird little bubble
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microcosm of crazy.
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But a few weeks ago, I reported I was so excited and elated to have achieved my goal of
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running a marathon in two hours, three hours.
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So that'd be awesome.
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Three hours and 10 minutes and 50 seconds.
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My Boston qualifying time for my age group was three hours and 15 minutes giving me a
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two, four minute and 10 second cushion.
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I think I probably talked about on the podcast that I was, you know, I was on the fence with
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that.
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I'd heard a lot of arguments that because of the broad five minute reduction they did
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last year.
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So a year ago, my time was 320 that the qualifying, you know, gap would not be much, maybe two
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or three minutes.
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So I felt good about my four 10.
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However, there were a lot of data crunchers out there that were basically saying, you know,
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it's going to be like six or seven and you have no shot.
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So I was on the fence and it's kind of one of those things that if I didn't get it,
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I would have liked to have, I mean, you know, all know where the story's going by now,
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but I would have liked to be like, ah, it's a seven minute gap.
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Like you didn't get it and, you know, you're not even close.
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I missed it Logan by 24 seconds.
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I'd like to speak to the manager.
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That's so painful.
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Less than a second, a mile.
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And I will tell you, 48 years of age, I thought I was done with like gut punches.
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I mean, clearly anything can happen family wise, health wise.
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I mean, you know, it just, I'm sure I'm not done with it, but you know what I mean?
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It's been a long, long time since I have had a rug pull like this and wow.
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I mean, you go through all the emotions.
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I'm so happy I have a great network of people genuinely.
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Like I don't get from anybody that, oh, sorry, man.
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And then they're mine.
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They're like, ah, you sucker.
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I don't feel that at all.
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Maybe there's people out there.
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I doubt it.
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Well, maybe.
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But my point is is that I went through these range of emotions.
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First I had this pity party for about 24 hours.
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By the way, I just found this out like two days ago.
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Yeah.
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So fresh.
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Yeah.
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24 hours ago, I or 24 hours I had a pity party.
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I basically just sat around one evening, watched a bunch of television.
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Like it just was, I was like, I don't know what to do.
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Like, what am I going to do?
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And I think the, as I've marinated on this through some long runs, of course.
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It wasn't so much like I didn't get it.
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It is what it is.
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Like, okay, if I was talking to myself, I'd be like, suck it up.
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Like you didn't get it.
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You didn't, you just got to get faster.
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You got to get fitter.
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You got to go for it again.
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But then the reality sets in of like that seven more months of training.
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Like especially in the winter, that was not on my bucket list.
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Like, ah, so there was this whole thing of like, well, just don't do it then.
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And then you're like, well, of course I'm going to do it.
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Like I have 24 seconds.
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Like, are you kidding me?
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So yeah, I've begun again.
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I will not talk about it on this podcast, you know, too often.
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I'm sure it'll come up.
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But I have slated a race seven months from now.
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And I'm going to rebuild the base and get after it.
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And, and candidly, I mean, I'm going to try to absolutely destroy my time.
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Absolutely.
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Like just not even like, when I cross that finish line,
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it's not even going to be like, yep, not even close.
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So that's my update.
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Painful.
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That is painful painful perseverance.
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But it happens.
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I mean, let this be a lesson.
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Everybody who's had a front row seat to this, meaning you've what listen to
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podcasts for longer than a cup of coffee.
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This has been a lifelong goal of mine.
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I thought I reached it.
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I felt pretty good about it.
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I'm again, I was kind of on the fence, but I felt pretty good about it.
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And then, no, not only did you not reach it after basically two years of training,
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Anna, Anna, three hour and 10 minute effort, you missed it by 24 seconds.
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So no soup for you.
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No soup for you.
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Ha.
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All right, let's move on.
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Oh, good.
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I'm sure we'll still reminisce about it.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, it's just, I feel so bad for you.
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I appreciate it.
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But you'll train and you'll probably be under three hours the next month.
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That's the goal.
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Do we legally have to say that?
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No, this is just how I talk and I really love my bombas.
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Go beast mode.
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Anyways, podcast sponsored by jewel financial.
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Visit us on the web, j-o-u-l-e, financial.com.
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Also some of our other fine sponsors.
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All right.
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We have an interesting question today.
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I know we waffled on putting this on the show because it's pretty niche.
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But I think we can take a broader approach to maybe how we or I or whatever look at some of the more complex decisions that maybe come up every day.
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So, mundo, what do you got?
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D-I-Y!
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Greetings, DIY money crew from San Diego, California.
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This is mundo.
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My question for you is how to evaluate two employer benefits.
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Essentially, my employer offers to provide us a lease company car, which the Ray Jenner Simu can use for personal use.
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We also provide a gas card, maintain the vehicle as well as insurance.
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Or we could take a employer payment of $600 for a vehicle if it's a personal car.
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And they will also provide a gas card as well as cover insurance, tires and brakes as needed.
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So my question for you, what's the best way to go long term?
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I'm thinking that maybe taking the personal and then being able to sell that down the line.
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I would put some money in my pocket minus expenses for maintenance versus having no expenses or responsibilities if I keep the lease car.
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I think so. I appreciate your time and efforts and it's been great to see you all grow in your roles.
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Thank you.
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Oh, mundo, that's first time I've heard the end of that.
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That was nice.
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I think through the whole, I get to the meat and potatoes.
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But thank you for that great compliment. That was really nice.
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So, I'm going to approach this a variety of ways.
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And I'll be really interested to hear what Logan has to say.
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From the particulars of the two scenarios you've presented, I think the only thing you need to do some further due diligence.
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And so what he's going to do is we're going to have a couple of questions on his tax ramifications.
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There's a there's a value to the lease that they're giving you the gas card that they're giving you the insurance that they're giving you.
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And I'm assuming this is dangerous, but I'm going to assume that they're going to estimate that value at around $600 a month.
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And hence they're going to give you the $600 and possibly the tax valuation is roughly the same at the end of the year.
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But check that because what could happen is you could be like, whoa, wait a second.
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This one is a lot more tax than this one and so on and so forth.
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That may not influence the decision at all. It may.
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However, that being said, let's assume they're pretty equal.
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Okay.
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I don't like the path you're going down with the whole like $600 you own the car.
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You're looking at selling it in the future, et cetera.
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And I'll tell you why simplicity.
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I think there is a there is a value in simplicity that you're not looking at.
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And I don't know what that dollar amount is, but I think it's big.
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And if they are going to provide you a least automobile that will be new every few years, a gas card insurance,
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like it's one less thing in your life.
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You have to even think about.
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I mean, when that thing goes, you know, starts to get old or is challenged or whatever, you're going to turn it in and get a new one.
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Right.
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Like, I don't think you want to be in the car flipping business is where I'm going with this.
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And the reason I again, we coffled on this question because it's so niche.
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Most of our audience is not going to have this option.
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What a great option, by the way, what a great employer.
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Maybe, right?
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Or they're terrible and they just trying to keep you with this with this benefit.
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Anyways, but a lot of times we don't evaluate decisions and look at the additional value of the simplicity.
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Of the options.
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And I think that's a mistake.
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Yeah.
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I also, I wouldn't put in the same vein as paying off a house, meaning, meaning a lot of times you'll hear me say, I paid off my mortgage years and years ago.
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Mathematically, what a dumb move.
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However, I don't have a mortgage.
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It makes me sleep well at night.
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It gives me peace of mind to buy markets when everybody else is selling and panicking because I don't have a mortgage and yada yada.
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So I don't think it's in that camp, but it could be in the camp of, you know, this is a little extreme, but do we want to buy a home at the beach that we love or do we want to rent one?
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And when you run the numbers, you might be like, gosh, it makes sense to buy this house because we go every year, we love it, you know, et cetera, we're going to build equity.
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But what's the value of you getting a phone call?
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Hey, you know, we had a storm.
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What do you want to do about this roof?
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By the way, we had somebody check and there's four feet of water in there.
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Yep.
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The homeowner.
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I mean, there's an old rule I have saved me many times.
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If I can't drive to a piece of real estate in a day, and I'm going to even say like a couple hours, I'm not touching it at all.
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So the simplicity of it, I think in my opinion, would be a no-brainer.
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Like I just give me the lease, give me the gas card, give me the insurance, what a brand new car.
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I'm not dealing with it.
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It's one less thing to deal with in your life.
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And Mundo, I like that.
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I like that.
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What say you Logan?
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Everybody stand back.
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Yeah, I'm going to just take a completely different approach to this, which is probably a stretch, if I'm honest.
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But I think one thing that I thought about when I listened to this question is I think when people get benefits or when they don't maybe have something at the front of mind, then they replace it with other things in their life.
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So I'm thinking about this amazing employer benefit that you get, where you get a car or you get $600 or you get a lease vehicle or whatever it is.
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And I'm thinking, okay, that's fantastic.
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But then what do you need to do now that you get that employer benefit?
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Well, what you need to do is you need to save that extra money.
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The extra money that normal people are going to have to put in an account for a car or have a car payment if that's, you know, if that's what you had to do and hopefully you're paying that off.
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But what I'm saying is most people have to save for a car or they have to plan on having a car in the future.
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You now have the opportunity through your benefits package to put that money away, sock it into an account and grow it for retirement or for other goals or for a house or whatever it might be in the future.
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So I would highly recommend looking into that and looking at doing some of that into the future because we have seen multiple, multiple times like when student loans went on forbearance for a couple of years.
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People were like, awesome, don't have a student loan payment.
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It's probably going to get forgiven.
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I don't have to worry about it anymore.
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And they adjusted their style of living.
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They adjusted what they're doing on a month-to-month basis to now spend that $3, $4, $5, or in your case, maybe $600 a month, that would go to a car and insurance or would go to a student loan.
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They now eat out more or they now spend it on chachkes or nonsense.
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You're getting an opportunity through your employer to be able to save more, to be able to put more money aside for other goals in your life.
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I would take advantage of it specifically because you also don't know how long you're going to be with that employer.
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I think people have gone a lot, very long time thinking that all jobs are secure and who knows what kind of cycle we could go through where we don't have those opportunities or benefits get cut or whatever might happen in the future.
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So make sure you take advantage of this great opportunity you have that your employer is providing and save that additional money.
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Clint is going to love that.
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I love it. Excellent. I like that.
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I don't think there was a totally opposite track. I thought that was a good track.
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We'll take it.
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Again, I'll just say in your case, you might run all these numbers and say, you know, it's an opportunity to flip a car or whatever.
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But be very careful that are you really wanting to go in the car flipping business, right?
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I mean, again, that's the question.
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If that's something you want to do as a side business and whatever and you're good at it and you know cars and that makes perfect sense, wonderful, but is the juice worth the squeeze.
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The last thing I'll leave you with is a lot of times folks will come to me with business ideas or opportunities or whatever it might be for them.
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They're just bouncing the ideas and I say, well, what's the maximum that you think you could do in this while, oh, man, I could bring in another couple hundred dollars a week.
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And I'm like, okay, so that's $200 a week. Is that safe? Yeah.
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Okay, so that's $800 the month. So $9600 for the year.
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Like, you good with making less than 10 grand on this over the course of a year.
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And when you when you put it in that context, they're like, oh, yeah, that's a lot of work.
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That doesn't feel like something I'm interested in.
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I'm like, yeah, like I get it.
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So again, evaluate it from all those throw in the value of simplicity and make sure you, you know, again, look at all the different variables and make a decision accordingly, which we know you'll make a wise decision.
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All Mundo did was sent us an audio file.
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I'm guessing through his phone went to voice memo, emailed it in to podcast at DIY money.org.
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That's podcast at DIY money.org. Since we use it on the show, we'll give them a $25 Amazon gift card.
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Keep those questions coming. We love them. What makes the show? Remember, friends, the secret to wealth is pretty simple.
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Live on less than you make. Invest the rest and do so for a very long time. Make it a great one.
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Thanks for listening to this episode of the show. If you want your question paired on the show, be sure to send that to us and you'll get $25 Amazon gift card.
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This show is for entertainment and educational purposes only and is not intended as personal financial advice.
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Before making any financial decision, please do your homework and consult a financial advisor as needed.
Topics Covered
DIY Money
marathon training
running goals
Boston qualifying time
employer benefits evaluation
lease company car
personal vehicle payment
financial decision making
tax ramifications
simplicity in choices
long-term financial planning
running community support
book recommendations
Andre Agassi biography
personal development