Business
Watch the Nerds Sweat It Out: Hot Wings Meet Hot Money Takes (Video Episode)
In this spicy episode of Smart Money, hosts Sean Piles and Elizabeth Ayola are joined by YouTube creator Steven Smith for a unique blend of hot wings and even hotter financial takes. As they tackle va...
Watch the Nerds Sweat It Out: Hot Wings Meet Hot Money Takes (Video Episode)
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Interactive Transcript
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voting closes on Tuesday, October the 9th, put it in your calendar, and hop to it.
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And thank you for your support, as always.
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I do not believe that there is a such thing as saving.
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I think saving money is a myth. Yeah, same more.
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Don't say Liz Betoji to go spend all your money. I'm not telling you to go and spend all
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your money at the mall today. Or maybe I did just say that. Maybe it's the hot sauce talking.
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I don't know. And I think it might actually be the thing that can solve our issues with inflation.
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On smart money, we love to give you our spicy financial takes. And today we're getting it extra hot.
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We're doing our very first round of our hot takes and hot wings. I'm your host, Sean Piles,
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joining my co-host, Elizabeth Ayola. We have Steven Smith, a YouTube creator for Nerd Wallet.
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So we're going to have some hot wings here and give you our takes about all things money.
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And hopefully we don't sweat too much. Let's do it. All right. And thank you guys for having me.
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We're going to start this off. And we'll be starting with the green jalapeno sauce.
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And that's going to be our number one. Okay. Let's take it. Okay. Yes.
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I have celery because I'm not a chicken eater at the moment. So let's see how hot sauce and celery goes.
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Oh, I just am out on this one. Oh, yeah. So are we are we making this fair? Do we have to pour
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the same amount of sauce on each chicken? No, I think you can. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let me just
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actually roll it. There you go for it. We can make sure we're all going to try it.
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What are you getting notes of?
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Um, definitely a lot of jalapeno. But it is very mild. Okay. I will say that. So I'm going to go
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light with this steak. I do not believe that there's a such thing as saving money.
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I think saving money is a myth. Yeah. Same more. Well, with the rate of inflation right now,
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it is impossible for you to save money long term because it's being printed faster than you can make
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it. So if you were to just keep saving, saving, saving, eventually you would save yourself into
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oblivion. At some point, you have to invest and make more money than what the rate of inflation is.
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That's why we often encourage folks to use high old savings accounts because right now,
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the yield is better than that of the rate of inflation. So that is one way to say how to inflation.
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Although, of course, investing is most folks best way to say how to inflation.
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So are you saying then that you feel like specifically saving and a checking account doesn't exist?
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Like that's a horrible idea because for a checking, you'll get what 0.0001%
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and at the rate of inflation, long term, it's closer to like 8%. So even with a high yield savings
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account, what is it like 4.9%? So we're lucky to get a 4%. But I mean, right now, the rate of
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inflation is like a little over 2%. So if you have a high yield savings account, that's around 4%.
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You are saying ahead if you're using that. Historically, though, like for example, if you work a
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nine to five job, you can look at the data as far as how much things cost compared to the salaries
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and no matter how you look at it, it's un-proportionate. You're right that.
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You can't keep that up. Yeah, inflation is outpacing wage growth and it has for many years.
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And it's a point. So the things are tough. Okay. Well, let's get this thing moving along.
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We got a second sauce here. So what are we, what are we thinking? If we have to rank this sauce,
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I give it a minus zero. Yeah, yeah. It tastes really good. I don't want to knock this hot sauce
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because it's a local one. No, it tastes really, but not so hot. Shout out to old Pueblo poblano,
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Mexican sauces. Thank you for your authentic green jalapeno sauce.
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This is now a commercial for hot sauce. They got a plus. Yeah.
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Stephen, can you pass the second one? Absolutely.
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We have, we're talking serious bone-sucking wing sauce, honey and habanero, not going on a bone
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for me, going on even more celery. Okay. It's kind of thick like barbecue sauce.
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Is this your first time doing celery and hot sauce? It actually is because usually you have
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celery to counter like the hot wings or whatever you're having. So basically you're cheating.
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I just don't want to eat chicken. It's kind of gross to me. No offense. No, I respect that.
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Okay. Are you going to pour it on the side? Yeah, I'm doing a little fancy dip over here. You know?
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Hmm. Okay. All right. Here you go. Thank you. Okay. I'm getting the honey. I'm getting the habanero.
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The habanero is kind of building. There's some actual heat to this. Okay.
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I like it. I love a good barbecue sauce. Yeah.
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Any sweet. I'm beginning to sweat a little bit. Okay. A little bit. But this is totally
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like edible. I would eat this with like a veggie chicken nugget if I had them.
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Hmm. Now dad got some spice. Okay. Wow. And my hot take for a slightly hotter sauce.
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Because I'm going to be, most people struggle with what they want in life because they view
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money as something that happens to them versus something that they have control over versus something
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that they can take agency over and direct. A lot of folks just to be their paycheck is what kind
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of is bestowed upon them. And they don't really have a lot of intentionality about where it's going.
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And that's a huge mistake along the terms of what you want from your life. I agree, but I feel like
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most people don't know because nobody's teaching them, you know? That's what we're here for.
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No, that's what we're here for. But I think the basic is what do you want out of your life? That's
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where you start and then your money is a tool to accomplish that. Yeah. People don't think about it
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in that way. They think money is just what's covering my rent this week or covering the groceries.
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Not something that you can actually enact in a greater way. But the problem is though, when
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you're trying to work for money, when do you actually have the time to think about
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how do I actually make more or how do I grow this money? You're just trying to survive.
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Yes. So it's kind of a hard thing to think about when this is all that you know, you've been
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talked to be a consumer, not an investor. Mm hmm. Got a bland capitalism for that capitalism we're talking
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of. So here we have the mango habanero hot sauce by heartbreaking dawn. It's very creative name.
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All right. So while I'm poor and malo sauce, my hot take is that every child should be born
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with a custodian account with a certain amount of money in it. And they should not be allowed
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to withdraw that money until they take a financial education course. That's my hot take.
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That would be a nice little safety net. It would be. And it kind of reminds me of the
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Trump accounts that were announced for. I didn't want to say that. Yes, but it's only for a very
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limited amount of time. It's a thousand dollars. And it's essentially like a retirement account
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for kids that are born within like a year or so. But there aren't parameters. Excuse me.
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Spicy. Sorry. I don't want to interrupt your digesting. No, I agree with you. I think that
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people aren't given a lot of financial education. We all know that we talk about it a lot because
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we didn't have that growing up. But we have views on a trust. Oh, thank you so much.
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I personally have a trust for my son. I do not believe children or young people whose brains
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are not fully developed can handle large amounts of money unless they got that financial
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education from when they were younger and just have really good impulse control. So I like the idea
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of you being able to determine the terms of when and how they receive that money. And I know that
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if I received an inheritance at the age of 20, it'll be all gone now. But if I received it now,
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now that I'm working and I have education that I have, I know exactly what I would do with it.
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You've got that fully developed free, prefrontal, prefrontal cortex that kicks in when you're
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around 25. There you go. Now what happens if they were able to pass your financial literacy course,
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but they just go ahead and blow the money. Then that's on them. We can't blame the government.
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It's not the government's fault. It's not capitalism fault anymore. That's on you, right? Because
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you got the education, you got the funds and you still chose to blow it. How's that sauce,
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this is a trickster. You were coughing earlier. So it seems like, but you're kind of liking it.
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You're eating it. It's not. But I'm Nigerian. We eat really spicy food. So I don't know if
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y'all are going to beat me. I think two was spicy. You're going to three. I was going to say the same
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thing. I think I might switch them. Yeah. It's really good. To me, this seems like a good every day
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kind of sauce. Yeah. Yeah. I could have it on like eggs in the morning on tacos. Pretty versatile.
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All right. Round four. Stephen kick us off. What's the sauce? Round four. We have Lucifer's last blast.
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Lucifer has a, if you can see that, he has a fireball part. So I mean, I'm a
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something that is something diarrhea in the blast. Got it. No, I'm liking this. This is going to be the one.
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I'm breaking sweat. Listen. I'm sweating currently. I also need to take off my sweater. Why am I?
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Oh, and it's taken a while to get this one. It's thick for a blast. Okay. Oh, blasted. Let's see.
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Blasted. Now this hot tea, right?
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This one is good. Spicy. This is the one. Well, not really spicy, but it is good.
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Not spicy. What do you mean? Not yet. It has like a little tingle. I'm wondering if this is the
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kind of hot sauce that builds up over time. And then in a minute, you're going to be really sweating
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and regretting this. That it wasn't spicy. Oh, no, this thing Lucifer.
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They said, but we'll see for the hot take. Yeah. I believe the next, let's say, I'll do 15 years.
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Our, if the dollar is still present, I believe it's going to be backed by cryptocurrency.
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To tell, why do you think this? We already have some plans in effect to make it a reserve. So
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have a Bitcoin reserve. And then I think that if you look at an inverted chart, right? And you look at
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real estate versus let's say something like a Bitcoin, you can see that right now it takes way more
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dollars to purchase real estate, but it takes less Bitcoin to purchase real estate. So I would just
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say that it's an asset that is getting really, really huge right now. And I think it might actually
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be the thing that can solve our issues with inflation. Oh, this is a tricky first-mart money.
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We need to call an economist. We are conservative when it comes to
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Yeah. I was just speaking with our producer who was saying that they were speaking with an economist
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saying that they predict crypto. I think that kind of sums it up. That's going to happen to crypto.
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That's what's going to happen. According to many economist predictions.
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You know, okay, okay, I just have my first bite of this.
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So the salary is certainly making everything a lot sweeter, but the physical effects of this,
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like, earning the back of my throat are really taking that. I got you. You didn't get any of that?
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I'm from New Orleans. So this is just catch up to you basically.
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I've been eating crawfish my whole life. I'm solid.
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Elizabeth, your eyes are watering. I'm scared of you. No reaction.
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Yeah, you were completely unfazed by this. I went to Vegas and tried every single hot chicken
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place that they put in front of you. Ghost pepper, whatever. It wasn't enough.
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So what do you do? I'm concerned.
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Is your digestive system okay? Do you take a fiber supplement?
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You know it was crazy though. I will probably still have the Lucifer later.
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But right now it hurts. It's have some more. I want to see how much you can have.
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We have another wing with the list. I'll save it for the last one. And then after we're done,
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I'll probably put some on the side. This because the third one's probably my favorite.
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I think I need some more milk. Elizabeth can you grab some milk right out of frame?
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You're singing a little song over there. Ow, ow, ow.
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Just speaking through breaths and whispers. Elizabeth's gone nonverbal over here.
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I also live in Vegas too. Yeah, it's hot. I don't get how people can live in places like that.
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The temperature. I say as we're in Scottsdale. It's too hot.
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Are we sunscreen? I'm black. So you can imagine it. I'm choked. I'm milked. Yeah.
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You're not. So you're taking precautions. You're saying that you're not impervious to all heat.
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The heat from the sun is you don't mess with that. But from hot sauce, you're not fazed.
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Can I get my apple juice, please? I have some apple juice around here. Thank you, Hillary.
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The Hillary, Georgia, we shout out. And the credits just passed me some apple juice. Thank you.
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Thank you.
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You want to set this is really helping. Sweet.
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Yeah, down that wing. There you go.
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Elizabeth is lightly shaking.
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Is it my turn? I think it's your turn.
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You know, do you want the honors of doing the spiciest one?
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What?
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It's my turn in that case. Oh, thank you, shy.
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Our other producer, shy, brought us some, some dry bagels. We were laughing at these bagels earlier.
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You said only a baby needs a bagel. We're the babies now. There's something reviving about the sauce.
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It's just exhilarating. It's going through your whole.
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Is it a gentleman rush? Yeah.
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What's your hot take, Sean? I haven't even gotten to the hot sauce yet. Can you pass it?
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Oh, I did all that. You didn't have it yet?
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No. Oh, my gosh.
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What's the name of that one?
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This one is called Ferver. It has a Reaper chili, which I think is the hottest pepper.
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If not, I mean, it's one of the hottest peppers. If not the hottest.
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The hottest. Okay.
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Well, 2.2 million on Scoville, my producer, tells me.
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And so, Stephen, I kind of want you to kick this off, but it's my turn to do it.
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I could.
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This is the final sauce. I would have 5.
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And we'll see how it goes. I think because this is the last one, we've got to all share our
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spiciest take. And Elizabeth, you know, I wish you the best. Here you go, Stephen.
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You don't mean it.
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I do. I sincerely, I'm, you know, I look out for you. I let Elizabeth bar my cardigan earlier.
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It's so selfless. That was so sweet.
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Oh, I'm not worried. It's fine. Everyone in the background is saying too much sauce on this.
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And I say, we're fine. Okay. So I kind of wait. I want us all to have it at the same time.
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Oh, wait, Stephen just chomp tried it. Well, you need twice as much as I just get to baseline.
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I'm sorry. You're good. You're good. It is good, though. It is good.
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I continue to be really concerned. No, I think you guys are really like this one.
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I think the last one was spicier, honestly.
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Ready, Elizabeth? Three, two, one. Right.
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That's milder. I need a bit. I almost got it. Okay. It's starting sweet. Wait.
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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like it.
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I think that one is the best one.
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You know, I'm still I'm liking the mango one the most. But this one I was kind of expecting to be.
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I thought it was going to be. Yeah. I was expecting this to really hurt.
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Are your feet supposed to start tingling?
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That's how you know it was good. I think no. Okay. Okay. I'm going to give my hot take.
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And it's also a structural one like you like you had earlier, Elizabeth. And it's the
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fact that it's entirely too easy to get into consumer debt in this country.
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Everywhere you go, you have debt options thrown at you. In fact, people who file for bankruptcy
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and right after they file for bankruptcy, they are given loads and loads of credit card offers
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because the credit card companies know that they can't file for bankruptcy for another seven to ten years.
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And that puts people into a lot of debt. We're encouraged to use Klarna at Chipotle nowadays.
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It's just ridiculous. And I think it makes it accessible.
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Oh, you've got to use Klarna Chipotle. I don't use Klarna period.
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But you can use by now pay later for food delivery.
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I know. Oh wow.
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Yes. And I think we just accept it as a given in how we manage our finances in this country.
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And it's pretty twisted and puts people in a lot of serious problems and they can't get out of
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this debt. I think it's a problem when you use that for gas. I'm seeing that too now.
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Where it's like you have to finance your gas. Yeah.
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That goes back to what you were saying earlier about income not keeping a pace with the cost of living.
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Yes. Elizabeth, you seem like you have some thoughts over there.
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Well, I mean, in a previous episode, I did say, I said, what I say Sean,
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you said that buy now pay later can be a good tool for budgeting.
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Yeah. And you got some heat for that from listeners.
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I did get some real heat and there's heat in my mouth right now.
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And I still do think that buy now pay later could be a use for tool for people who have self-control
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and for people who pay their payments in four. I don't know about Chipotle.
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If you're struggling, show me if you girls three bail or you have a big bill and you don't want to
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get charged interest on your credit card and you know that she can responsibly play in four
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and FYI, give me a second. FYI, there will be included in credit scores come fall. I think
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that's very soon. So for people, this could be a tool that they can use and I know I'm probably
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going to get more hate mail that's all right in, you know, in order to boost their credit score.
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However, I'm only saying this hot take for people who haven't had a run budgeting and are not
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prone to impulse spending. Yeah, I don't think you should rely on it, but it's a tool that you can
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We've talked about how debt is just a tool, but it's so accessible that it's easy for a lot of people
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to get in over their heads and then spend years and years and years paying off this debt.
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Oftentimes for things that they may just need to get by like gas.
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I'm out of the spurning and it's not right and we shouldn't live with that, but we have to
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challenge you out to one hot take. Yeah, if you had allergies, this is what you would need. Yeah,
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I'm a challenge. You're out of one hot take. Can you take it? Give us what you got.
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I think, well, no, no, that's not how it's going. Get you another cello. We get you another
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bottle of hot take for ourselves. So since for me, this was the spiciest one. Lucifer's last
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bladder. I can't talk. Repersauce is going to be the finale. Okay. All right. I'm shaking a little
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guys. I see your hands shaking the Elizabeth. Don't drop that bottle. I don't want to stay
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in your white snakes. Thanks. Always looking out. What's one that you think was the spicest
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Stephen? Definitely. This one was definitely the spiciest. You've got to break a sweat. Your
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hands seem pretty stable. You're stronger than us. We have to say it. We have to acknowledge it.
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No, this is just the dream from youth. All right, everyone. Final bites.
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Okay.
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The spirit has taken all of the best.
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Lucifer is in the building. I will note that Elizabeth is doing this completely of her own free
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world. She's not being coerced into doing this. Live in life on the edge. You're a thrill seeker.
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You're an adrenaline junkie. We all know this. I'll be a good hot take. My final hot take is,
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I think people should blow up their budget at least once in their life, especially people who
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are penny-pinterest. Spend a dollar. Okay. Or spend a hundred. Or spend a little more. So I'm not saying
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spend your way into poverty or a deep hole. But I do think that we need to remember that money is
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there to be spent and also our relationship with our finances ebbs and flows. Sometimes we're doing
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everything perfectly. Sometimes we're not, right? Also our budgets are very tied to seasons that
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were in in life sometimes and how we spend our money. And sometimes you're going through a
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hard time and you overspend. But that doesn't need to be the end of the road. So spend a little
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money. Don't say Elizabeth told you to go spend all your money. I'm not telling you to go and
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spend all your money at the mall today. Or maybe I did just say that. Maybe it's the hot sauce talking.
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I don't know. Blow up your budget like you're blowing up your digestive system with this hot sauce.
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Oh, I got it. I got it. Set a budget for blowing up your budget. That's the thing. Yeah.
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Responsibly irresponsible. Yeah, I like that.
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Stephen, do you want to give us another? Do you have anything else?
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Let me see. Oh, well, this is probably not really a hot take. But I think that money is
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a construct. It's not real. The only thing that has value is labor. People are valuable.
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Yeah. And that's it. I really think that it's the most fictitious thing. And it's just made up.
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And we all just started agreeing to the same lie. Yeah, but yeah, we still got to pay that rent.
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Don't we? Hold here. Did you know that credit actually existed before money did? Yes. Before we had
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dollars or whatever it was called back in Mesopotamia, we just had a credit system. And that's all
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of his built on his kind of trust with each other and also a tallie system. Oh, Mike, this hurt.
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Well, thank you guys so much. This has been really quite a physical and mental experience,
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a test of our endurancees and many capacities. And I think Elizabeth and I were
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going to have to go for a walk and get something to call this down. I don't know how to make it.
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Stephen, thank you for joining us on this. First time on the podcast. I'm sure we'll have you back.
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I do want to say that our opinions today are just our own personal opinions and that
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are a reflection of house views of the company and our wallet ink. So do not take the message.
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We're back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions.
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This episode we're coming to you from a studio in Scottsdale, Arizona, where we're joined by a
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listener, Sandra, who has some questions about whether she should keep repairing her car or
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get a new one. Sandra, welcome to Smart Money. Thank you. It's great to be here.
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So talk with us first about Scottsdale. I've never been here before. Now there is Elizabeth.
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What's your favorite thing to do or what's something that is beautiful in Scottsdale? Folks
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might not be aware of. Yeah, well, Scottsdale is known for I think a couple of things. So hiking
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and golf. Okay. Yes, that tracks not golf. Okay. Got it. Do you have any favorite hikes that you
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recommend? Everybody's pretty familiar with Camelback. So that is a good one. But be aware that
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it can tend to be a little traffic key. Okay. There's not a bit more difficult as well.
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But it is very much fun. Cool. Well, let's dive into your questions. I want to hear about your car
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a little bit. What kind of car do you have and why are you thinking of getting rid of it?
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Yeah. So I have an Acura MDX. I have had the car for about nine years now. And it has a little
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over 92,000 miles on it. And it's overall in great shape. However, I did just take it for an oil
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or an oil change. And they did tell me that there's about $2,700 for cars that I need to do.
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That aren't things that are necessarily wrong, but are things that based off of the mileage,
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I need to look into fixing. Oh, I've been there. I recently have that happen with my car issues as
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well. So is that the main driver for you wanting to change your car? We're thinking about it.
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Well, it's that as well as knowing that the next car that I would like to get is an EV. So the
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house that I just got in January does have solar and is working very well for me. So I know that
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by utilizing that, I'd be able to save on gas. Okay. So you're thinking maybe of making some
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quick moves and getting electric vehicles. Right? Okay. Yes. Yes. But I'm also unsure when I think
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about opportunity costs based off of the looming tariffs that will at some point start to also
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impact the cost of a vehicle. But knowing that I am putting my savings into a high-yield savings
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account right now. So which one is better to continue to save until I have enough money to just
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pay for it and cash or based off of the current situation thinking about the cost of the new car.
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But then outweighing what the current trade-in value is, how do I figure out what that perfect point
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in time is for me to get the new vehicle? Well, I love to hear that you have a high-yield savings
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account. As you know, we're big fans of those on smart money. There are a few different rules of
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thumb that people consider when they're debating whether to trade in the car that needs maintenance
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or keep repairing it. And one is whether your repair costs are greater than the value of your car.
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So effectively your car is totaled. Another one is whether your repair costs would cost more than
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the monthly payment on a new car. And that might be kind of hard to hit because the average car
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payment for a new car in July of 2025 was just under $750. So you have a few thousand dollars
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of maintenance. A few months of a car payment would well surpass that. But you also, I mean,
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you might be a person who just likes having a new car. Is that you? Do you like trading in cars
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every so often? I don't. This is probably the longest that I've had a car. I do have my eyes
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out though for all the additional safety features that come with new cars, especially when I think
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about the EVs. And then what have kind of been I'm curious to know your patterns because I was
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going to ask you that earlier in terms of if you're the type of person who likes to drive a car
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into the ground. So what made you shift to keeping this car for nine years and how long have you
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kept your previous car for? My previous car was a coupe. So it was two doors and I was pregnant
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with my first daughter. So I did not want to manage putting the car seat in. Not very practical.
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I'm not practical at all. So therefore I got this vehicle as an SUV to be with me longer term.
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So it has treated me really well. I have not had a lot of car maintenance. But I did just put
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in January new tires on it. And there was an additional maintenance expense. So I've already
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spent about $2,500 this year. And in Acura, that's a luxury vehicle. Do you have to put premium gas
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in your car? I do have to put premium gas. Yeah, correct. I have to put premium gas in my car.
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And I feel kind of like an idiot every time I do it because I have a luxury vehicle. But it makes
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the car last longer. So it's well worth the money. Just like any kind of repairs that you're going
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to be putting into your vehicle, it'll make it last that much longer. In doing some research into
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an Acura MDX that had this conversation, I saw that they actually have lower repair costs and
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other cars in that category. So you have a great ride there. And they can last quite a long time. So
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I did some sort of cost benefit analysis numbers myself. So buckle up, no pun intended because I
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have some things for you to think about here. So your car has like 92,000 miles on it, right? It's
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about 10 years old is what I mentioned nine, but I was running with 10. And so you're putting about
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9,200 miles in your car each year, which is actually less than the average, which is around like 12,000
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a year. So that means your car could last you quite a long time. The average lifespan of an
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Acura MDX, according to some measures is around 250,000 miles. That means it would take you 17
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more years to actually hit that point. So you could have a good long life with this car. And then
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you could save however much monthly that you put toward a new car payment and put that into other
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financial goals, like saving for retirement or savings account for your kids education. How have
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you thought about the financial goal maybe buying a new car as a comparison to other things you might
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want to do with this money? Yeah, I've definitely considered that because things that I'm saving for
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include for sure the kids, whether that be when they need a vehicle, which is not going to be
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thankfully for another eight years. Okay. So that's when that would occur. And then also for their
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education, obviously, my savings, I do have enough in my savings. So that is not something that I'm
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concerned about. I have more than six months worth of expenses in my savings. So I feel like
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that's all really good. The one thing that I'm also considering though as I determine shifts with
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how I spend my money is that I did like I mentioned by a house in January. So that interest rate,
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I was able to get around a six four. Okay. And I mean not bad for January 2025. Yeah. So but talking
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with my mortgage broker, I'm currently able to think about refinancing closer to like a five five
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and not less. And so you must have a good credit score. I do have a good graduation.
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Congratulations. Do you want to share all on track? We have our six months emergency fund. We have
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a good credit score going like well done. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm considering because I did
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refinance from unfortunately, I had it like around a 2.2%. Yeah. That must have hurt to lose. Yeah,
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I heard a lot. Yeah. I had refinance to the 2.2 back then and was able to maintain my mortgage
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payments to go to a 20 year. And so having 17 years left on that to go to now a 30 year with
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the same payment, I'm definitely looking at do I pay a little bit more each month, have refinancing
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to about a 5.5 ish and go to either 20 or 15. Well, a rule of thumb that our mortgage owners recommend
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is that if you can get about like three quarters of a percentage point off your mortgage
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with the APR, then it may be worth refinancing. It seems like you would be able to hit that. But it's
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also a matter of breaking even because you have a lot of costs that are associated with refinancing.
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So if you're going to stay in the house long term, that might be a smart move for you too. Do you
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have five 2.9s for your kids for college savings? I do. But I feel like that situation's a little
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complex. So that's why I've been now putting more of my money into just a separate high-yields
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savings account for them. So say more about it being complex for you. Yeah. So with my situation,
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I'm divorced and we jointly put money into 5.29s for the kids. And he has continued to put some money
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as well. However, his mother has quite a bit of money. And she has shown that she is not
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trying away from spending on the kids. And so what could happen is that she might decide to pay for
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you know, a good amount of the kids we don't know. And so it because I know 5.29s,
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it kind of limits you in terms of how you're going to spend that money. I'm airing on the side of
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going a different route. Well, I have good news. I don't know if you heard that money inside of
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5.29 can be rolled into a Roth for kids. I didn't know if you knew that that change has happened.
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Were you aware of that? I was not aware of that. Yeah, because I was also on the fence about 5.29s
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because we don't know my child is seven. Where the world is going to be in 20 years, right? So I was
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like, well, what if he doesn't want to go to college or he takes a different route. But now,
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there are limitations around it. Money can be put into a Roth for them so you can start saving
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for retirement for guys. I also want to know. So say you buy a new car. It seems like you have
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expensive tastes, which I can relate to. What else could you do each month with $750?
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Well, I could travel. That's a good goal. We haven't talked about that.
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Yeah, so that's not really a goal, but I do like to travel. But no, I would not be spending
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$750 some money. That'd be a good travel. That's some nice trips. Very nice trips.
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I did want to pivot quickly because Sean did that awesome analysis and you didn't give us feedback
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on what you thought about it. So what did you think about the cost analysis he did in terms of you?
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I personally would not want to keep a car for 17 years, despite what I'm saving, but what were your
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thoughts on that? Yeah, I agree. I don't think that I would keep it for 17 years. What went on in
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the back of my mind is, is there though that opportunity of, again, not knowing what my ex is
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wanting to do to continue to drive it for that long? And then when my oldest who in eight years
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will be able to drive, do I have to vehicle along to her instead? And do I wait that long and then
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by myself the new vehicle? Yeah, that might be a smart move too, because the car by that point will
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still have some legs on it. And you probably don't want to give your kid a brand new car, right? This
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one will already be, this car is paid off, right? So you could think about putting the money that
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you would theoretically put toward a new car payment into a brokerage account or a high old savings
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account specifically for this goal, because your time horizon is eight years. That's beyond the five
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year minimum that we recommend for people to invest. So you'd be able to weather the ups and down to
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the market. Hopefully have this money grow a little bit. And then you could either potentially buy a
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car out riding cash or at least put a huge chunk down and have a very minimal car payment.
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I like that idea. Yeah. And the meantime though, maintenance is super important. Are you staying on
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top of these regular like mileage, milestones that you're hitting in terms of like spark plugs,
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tires, all of that stuff? Yes, I am. I was considering that if I don't go forward with buying a new
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vehicle right now, as I think about that high amount of repairs, I would probably want to talk to
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the mechanics and understand if this is something that I can kind of separate out and then do one
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right now, wait and do another in six months. How can I break this up a little bit because I really
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don't want to pull much from my savings? Yeah. And that's just because of the sort of emotional hit
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of it. It seems like you're making a decent amount. You could theoretically put enough toward a
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car payment, but paying all of that out of pocket, $2,200 something dollars just doesn't feel good.
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Is that what you're coming at from? Exactly. I would say that I'm a bit more conservative.
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When it comes to money, I really want to feel financially secure and that is the most important
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thing to me, which is probably why I'm not that person that likes to get new cars all the time,
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as well as why this is weighing so heavily on me right now. Yeah. I'll share that I have a car
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that is about as old as yours. It's a 2015 or I guess it's a 2016, but you know, they come out in 2015.
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I just rolled over 70 something thousand miles on it. I personally am planning on driving it
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into the ground and part because it has a CD player, which I love. A little bit of interest charm.
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I have my CD collection in my car and I just don't like having a car payment. I just paid off my
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car in February and the idea of going back to having some debt hanging over me doesn't feel great,
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especially because APRs for car loans have gone up as interest rates have stayed really elevated.
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So even if you have great credit, which you do, it seems you're still going to be paying a decent
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amount of interest and that's money you could be putting towards something else instead of
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paying interest. And I always find this conversation interesting because I was going to ask you how
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much does and I don't want to say social pressure, but sometimes we just want something new and shiny,
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right? And I think there's sometimes a lot of shame around that when there doesn't necessarily
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have to be if you can afford it and it's not wrecking your finances. Money is there to bring you
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joy too, as I always say, right? So I guess you kind of answered that with saying that you're
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conservative, but I'm somewhere in the middle. I pay off my car loan next year. So my son asked me
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the other day, when are you getting a new car? And I was like, well, do you have $25,000 to buy
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me a new car? If you're lucky, that'd be a cheap car. I know, right? In this economy exactly.
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That's how much I bought mine for though. But similar to you guys, I think me being financially
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stable or just using that money for other things is more important than me having a new car at this
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time. So I will pay it off next year and like Sean, keep driving it until it can't drive anymore.
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Yeah, and you have nine years until your son's going to be driving. Exactly.
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Oh, no, he's expensive. He says he wants to test the truck. So that, yeah, that's what he wants.
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Good luck. Okay. How are you feeling about this sort of cost benefit analysis currently? Do
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any other questions around car buying that we haven't touched on yet? I think the only other
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thing that I think about is as I've looked into interest rates based off of my credit score and
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some things that are out there right now is that it does look like there is opportunity for me to
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have an interest rate on a car payment that is lower than what I am able to get back from my high
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yield savings. So how does that play into it? That would be nice if you could get that. What kind
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of interest rates are you seeing? Just out of curiosity. Well, there's there's some out there that's
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based off of the dealership where it's zero. Oh, okay. And so yeah. So it's basically free car,
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free financing, whereas others are closer to about a 2.5%. Again, these are like all through dealerships
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and I would want to look in terms of all of the different avenues to refinance before pulling
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the trigger. And so as I think about that, if I am able to get at a lower interest rate and knowing,
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the future cost will be going up, is that still something based off of the analysis that I should
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hold on to and potentially give my car to my older daughter? If you can get zero APR financing on a car
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that would be great because for the best credit score right now, we're seeing interest rates around
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5% or above. So that's a tough call too because we don't know where interest rates are going to be
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going. We don't exactly know where car payments are going to be going, but we assume up, right?
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But you could still probably get a better return from your money by investing it over the long
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term or just holding on to that cash because as you said, you're someone who likes to retain your
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liquidity and you are conservative. So I think for me, I wouldn't want to see that money going out
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each month just for a depreciating asset like a car payment. And yes, again, you want to get a good
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deal when you can, but just trying to guess and speculate about what you might have to pay in the
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future, it could be less. The car market could totally shift and we don't know where it's going.
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You could actually find a more affordable car in the future. So I wouldn't make any big decisions
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based on where you think it might go just because things are kind of trending one way currently
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when you do have so much more time potentially with your car. But that's just me and I tend to be
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conservative around that payments. And also you're in a good position. You have a great emergency
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fund. You have savings. You can afford a car if you want a new car. So I think you have a lot of good
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options and that's a good place to start from. So based on our conversation, where are you
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leaning towards Sandra? Where are you more leading towards? I think I'm leaning towards
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running it in the ground or passing it over. Oh, yes.
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Because that's what I would do. I love that. I think that's a bad idea. And there's something that
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feels kind of noble about that too, where you're like, look, I'm saving money. I don't need to put
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money into this new shiny thing as tempting as that is. And I'm sure your daughter would be able
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to get some good use out of it. And yeah, see where the market goes. And again, what else would you
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do with that money each month? Have those vacations? Exactly. Well, we would love to hear about if you
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do change your mind and get the shiny new car, please let us know. And we'd love to know how that
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works out financially for you as well. Well, thank you for coming on and talking with us, Sandra.
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Thank you, Sean and Elizabeth. If you enjoyed our conversation and you're interested in getting
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a financial strategy tailored specifically to your needs, then you may want to consider working with
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a financial planner. You can get matched with a financial planner for free using Nerd Wallet Advisors
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match. You can find a link to that in today's show notes. And that's all we have for this episode.
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Remember, listener that we're here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and
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call or text us your questions at 901 73063 73 that's 901 730 nerd. You can send us an email too at
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podcast at nerdwallet.com. Join us next time to hear about how to set your child up for financial
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success and our brief disclaimer. We are not your financial or investment advisors. This
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nerdy information is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and it might not
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apply to your specific circumstances. This episode was produced by Tess Vigland and Amahel Hoskey
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with help from Shai Ronin Hillary Georgi helped with editing Nick Charisamy mixed her audio and a big
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thank you to Nerd Wallet's editors for all their help. Join us next time to hear about how to set
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your child up for financial success. All the smart money on your favorite podcast app including
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