Friday Flight - Political $ Planning, Free Electricity, & Cash is Cringe (plus Instacart Iniquity, Advent Calendars, more...) #1074

Summary

Podcast Summary: How to Money – Friday Flight: Political $ Planning, Free Electricity, & Cash is Cringe (#1074)

Hosts: Joel & Matt
Podcast: How to Money (iHeartPodcasts)
Date: December 12, 2025

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Overview

In this Friday Flight episode, Joel and Matt tackle the week's top personal finance stories, from the influence of politics on financial planning, the possibilities of free (or cheaper) electricity, why Gen Z thinks “cash is cringe,” renting vs. owning everything, and eye-opening price manipulation trends at Instacart. The duo brings their characteristic blend of practical advice, skepticism about over-consumption, and playful banter, making personal finance relatable and jargon-free.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Advent Calendar Phenomenon – Frugal Fun or Self-Indulgence?

[02:19–07:45]

• Hand-Me-Down Advent Calendar: Joel shares his family’s secondhand Harry Potter Funko Pop advent calendar—a frugal and reusable twist on holiday fun.
  • “So it’s a free advent calendar…but the kids are loving it.” —Joel (03:29)
• Luxury Advent Calendars: They discuss a Harper’s article on expensive adult advent calendars (makeup, jewelry, wine, perfume), poking fun at the consumer excess.
  • Matt highlights that while the religious origins of Advent have faded in popular culture, intentionally marking time can have value—but adult indulgence feels “wasteful” and juvenile.
  • “There are less serious adults in the world.” —Matt (07:14)
  • Both agree: Kids? Fun. Adults? Maybe rethink the overindulgence.

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2. Political $ Planning – How Much Should Politics Influence Your Finances?

[07:56–12:02]

• Clients and Advisors Talk Politics: Recent survey of Certified Financial Planners (CFPs) show policy and political fallout are dominating client conversations.
  • Policy changes (deductions, tax rules, new account types) make these discussions relevant but over-fixating can lead to poor financial decisions.
  • “Focusing too much on politics or fixating on potential changes…can also leave us feeling stuck.” —Joel (09:17)
• Stay Optimistic, Stay Flexible: Most people are optimistic about meeting goals next year (citing Pew Research). It’s important to tune out hype, make minor pivots, and prepare but not panic.

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3. Retirement Uncertainty – Stop Chasing A “Magic Number”

[10:19–12:02]

• Retirement Guesswork: Both men and women are often just guessing at how much they’ll need.
  • “Fixate less on the number…and just knowing that you’ve got some flexibility.” —Matt (11:19)
• Life is Dynamic: The key is adaptability—needs and expenses will fluctuate over decades. Prepare to pivot, rather than worry about hitting one target figure.

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4. Free Electricity? Incentives and Smart Habits

[12:02–17:58]

• Leah Stokes’ “Free Electricity” Proposal: Should electricity be free at certain hours (e.g., mid-day) to incentivize grid-friendly consumption? Some utilities already offer cheaper rates during off-peak times.
  • “If electricity were free…people would overconsume it” —Matt (12:07)
• Smart Usage: Both hosts share tips: set thermostats low at night, use space heaters only when needed, and schedule appliance use during cheaper hours.
  • “It’s when it’s opaque how much it’s costing…that’s when you don’t change your habits.” —Joel (17:00)
• Awareness & Incentives: Being conscious of usage makes savings possible. Tech and policy can guide people to be more efficient.

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5. AI & The Job Market – Threat or Opportunity?

[18:03–21:43]

• MIT Study: AI could technically replace 12% of jobs (“Iceberg Index”). The shift is more about capability than immediate layoffs.
  • “AI can do a lot of tasks, but it can’t do a job.” —Joel (21:15)
• Host Reflections: They joke about “Guaranteed Human” podcast intros, reflecting on the surprising cultural impact of AI (no flying cars, but chatbots instead).
• Wisdom vs. Automation: Friend of the show Allison Schrager argues AI will deepen the shortage of skilled workers, not eliminate jobs en masse. Critical thinking, effective communication, and judgment remain crucial.

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6. Gen Z: “Cash is Cringe” & The Rental Economy

[24:25–33:44]

Cashless Preferences

[24:25–27:21]

• Gen Z & Physical Money: Cash now only makes up ~10% of payments; for younger folks, cash feels like fun money or “not real.”
  • “[For Gen Z], cash isn’t king. It’s a joke.” —Joel (24:32)
• Old Habits vs. New: Previous generations worried about credit card debt. Now, the danger is treating all cash as play money and losing discipline.

Contributing to the Household (or Not)

[27:29–30:47]

• Adult Kids Not Paying Rent: 60% of adult children living at home don’t pitch in for expenses, which can hurt parents’ finances and kids’ readiness.
  • Matt shares how his parents prepped him to pay rent after high school, and he’s having the same conversation early with his own.
  • “Teach them to be functioning, contributing members of society.” —Matt (28:19)

Renting Everything

[31:30–33:44]

• Rise of Renting: Gen Z increasingly prefers renting (clothes, baby gear, camping equipment, etc.) over owning.
  • Hosts endorse renting for one-off needs (formalwear, infrequently used items) but warn the cost must justify the convenience (should save at least 50% to be worth it).
  • “Borrowing can be even better than renting for some things.” —Joel (33:20)
  • Caution: Recurring rentals can get expensive fast.

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7. Instacart Iniquity – Opaque, Algorithmic Pricing

[33:44–39:29]

• Dynamic Pricing Nightmare: Groundwork Collective + Consumer Reports found Instacart charges wildly different prices for the same items, from the same stores, at the same time, depending on the customer.
  • “The pricing—it’s not just dynamic, it’s seemingly random.” —Matt (34:04)
• Personal Experience: Matt discovers a 50% markup on a $175 Aldi order when he saw the real in-store receipt compared to his Instacart charge ($261). This made him swear off casual use.
  • “The scales fell from my eyes. I saw the light.” —Matt (37:10)
• Takeaway: Convenience is costly—and consumers should regularly check real-world prices to avoid desensitization to price increases. Services like Instacart may reward impulse control but can stealthily add major costs.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Overly Fancy Holiday Consumption:
  “For kids, I’m like, okay…it’s fun, it’s a little treat. But it’s the adults…that rubs me the wrong way.” —Matt ([07:13])
• On Politics & Investing:
  “The pessimists are their own worst enemy.” —Matt ([10:20])
• On Flexibility in Planning:
  “The more comfortable I get with knowing that life might look very different in the future…it just puts me at ease…we've got the ability to pivot.” —Matt ([11:45])
• On AI Displacement Fears:
  “AI can do a lot of tasks, but it can’t do a job.” —Joel ([21:15])
• On Algorithmic Pricing:
  “The pricing—it’s not just dynamic, it’s seemingly random…eggs might cost one person $3.99 and another $4.69.” —Matt ([34:04])
• On Instacart Markup Epiphany:
  “The scales fell from my eyes. I saw the light.” —Matt ([37:10])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Advent Calendar Rant & Reflection: [02:19–07:45]
• Political $ Planning: [07:56–12:02]
• Retirement Planning Uncertainty: [10:19–12:02]
• Electricity Pricing & Efficiency: [12:02–17:58]
• AI and the Future of Work: [18:03–21:43]
• Gen Z: Cash is Cringe: [24:25–27:21]
• Gen Z & Paying Rent at Home: [27:29–30:47]
• Renting vs. Owning Everything: [31:30–33:44]
• Instacart’s Secret Markups: [33:44–39:29]

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Tone and Style

• Conversational, friendly, lightly skeptical, and focused on practical financial wisdom over hype or “hot takes.”
• Emphasis on reflection, intentionality, and skepticism of both outdated traditions and new tech-driven trends.

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Final Thoughts

This Friday Flight was packed with engaging stories and practical money lessons:

• Reflect on consumption—especially as adults during the holiday season.
• Keep politics in perspective when making financial plans.
• Don’t sweat hitting a perfect retirement number; cultivate flexibility and habits.
• Consider electricity-use incentives as smart financial behavior.
• Watch for new tech’s impact (AI, algorithmic pricing) while retaining timeless skills (critical thinking, communication).
• Stay vigilant with cash, digital payments… and especially convenience services like Instacart.

And above all, don’t be afraid to question, adapt, and keep having open conversations—whether it’s about paying rent at home or finding a better way to save on your next grocery bill.

Transcript

[Matt]

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[Joel]

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[Joel]

Welcome to how to money. I'm Joel.

[Matt]

I'm Matt.

[Joel]

Today we're talking political money planning, free electricity and cash is cringe.

[Matt]

You know what buddy? This is our Friday flight and we're going to get to the top stor stories from this past week. What's you got to know here about Advent calendars? Did you recently get one?

[Joel]

Well, so we got a hand me down Advent calendar this year.

[Matt]

How do you do a hand me down?

[Joel]

I'll tell you I will tell you. Gosh.

[Matt]

So I'm gonna go ahead and decide ahead of time. Cheap Joel. Not frugal.

[Joel]

No, it's actually really cool. And the kids are loving it. So it's like, all right, Harry Potter funk. Funko pop. Is that what it's called? The.

[Matt]

I don't know what that is.

[Joel]

They're like these plastic figurines of. Of all the Harry Potter figures. And I think they do them for all sorts of different genres like Marvel Universe and stuff like that. And so every day they get a new little Harry Potter funko pop. It was from my father in law. He was like, oh, we used this before with. And so now my kids are using it and they're loving it. And it's super reusable, man.

[Matt]

I don't get it. The idea is that you break the perforated paper and you unfold it and then you pull it out and then you consume it. Normally, if that's food, you eat it, but if it's a play thing, it means you play with it.

[Joel]

You can play with it. But I guess the.

[Matt]

They just keep the pieces.

[Joel]

They kept the pieces.

[Matt]

Stuck them back in.

[Joel]

Stuck them back in.

[Matt]

So funny.

[Joel]

And we get to round two, baby. Round two.

[Matt]

I love that.

[Joel]

Well, I love it too. So it's a free font advent calendar. But the.

[Matt]

All right, fine, I will. I've changed my virtual sign it back to.

[Joel]

Okay, back to front. Thank you. What kicked me. Well, maybe want to like mention this was I saw this article in Harper's about the, like the beauty Bizarre.

[Matt]

Yeah, I guess it's one of your go tos.

[Joel]

No, I just kind of randomly stumble upon it. Yeah, yeah. And it was about super duper fancy advent calendars that people are using these days where you get like makeup or jewelry or perfume every day.

[Matt]

There are some very, very fancy ones.

[Joel]

Didn't realize that was a thing.

[Matt]

This raises the stakes because you got the. What is it? The Costco. And folks have even written to us about the Costco wine.

[Joel]

Oh, the wine wine calendar.

[Matt]

And they're like, it's so good. There's some really good wines in there. I totally get that as a way to even sample.

[Joel]

I'll wait till it goes on clearance.

[Matt]

Yeah, we can enjoy that in the new year.

[Joel]

Yeah, go on the 26th and get the leftover ones.

[Matt]

There's a big. A really big difference between your second hand Advent Keller, though, and some of these perfume ones that are like hundreds of. I've seen these before. I've heard folks talk about them. What do you think about those?

[Joel]

It seems ridiculous to me, but I agree. I don't wear perfume matte, so maybe that's.

[Matt]

I wear a scent. You want to hear my take?

[Joel]

Sure.

[Matt]

So there's two ways to think about it, or at least the way I'm thinking about it, which is from like a religious lens. Maybe I'll give you a unexpected take, which is from like, from a Christian lens. I actually don't really mind because I think a lot of folks out there who are believers are gonna, are gonna say, oh my gosh, I can't believe, oh, you, you actually aren't a real Christian, blah, blah, blah.

[Joel]

But like, because you support perfumey Advent calendars, I don't think that's in the Apostles Creed anyway.

[Matt]

Well, and what is the. For the majority of Americans out there, how much does Christ have to do.

[Joel]

With the birth of Christ?

[Matt]

Very little. And like, I mean, come on, like, the Advent season is all about anticipation and waiting for the birth of Christ in the ultimate, you know, like the second coming at some point off in the future as well. But how many Americans actually subscribe to that? For them, Christmas is just Christmas trees, Santa the 25th, the holidays, very super generic. And so from that same thing about.

[Joel]

Easter being Easter bunnies. Yeah.

[Matt]

And so I guess from that standpoint, I don't really care. From a religious standpoint, all much the fact that it's, you know, this holiday's been, that it's been hijacked. And honestly, I do think that there could be some good, like the more focus that's brought to the season, even if it's not like on the mark, I think can be good because I think it can allow folks to be a bit more reflective. Like you. You are counting down days.

[Joel]

Not what I expected you to say. I know.

[Matt]

See, I told you I've been thinking about this recently. You're counting down the days. And just the marking of time, I think is a good practice for folks that just puts them in touch with their waning days here on earth.

[Joel]

Right.

[Matt]

Like, and that is not something that we often do as adults, measuring time. That being said, from a personal finance standpoint, I totally hate it because a lot of times it just, it feels so wasteful, man. It feels so consumption based. It feels so mindless. Unless, for instance, you are, you're like, oh my gosh, this Advent calendar, the perfume one has all the scents, all the flavors. Oh, this wine has all these different brands or vineyards that I've been wanting to try. If you see it as a Way to. It's like a giant sampler platter. Okay. I could see some, some benefit there, but I think it's the adults who are latching on to Advent, the Advent calendars that rubs me the wrong. Like for kids, I'm like, okay, whatever. Like they, it's fun, it's a little treat, it's a little toy. They can have fun, but it's as grown ups kind of latching on to this. What feels a bit more like a sort of juvenile thing.

[Joel]

Yeah.

[Matt]

I don't know. I don't want to like yuck on anyone's yum. But like that's the part that feels like there are less serious adults in the world. I see over there smiling. Do you, do you agree?

[Joel]

I mean, I just, I think these things get so expensive and so self indulgent that it's the self indulgence. I just, I just not something that I would want to partake in. And I do see it as just another form of consumption in a season that is so marked by it. So I don't know, but maybe we'll get off our high horses and move on. Get to the rest of the Friday flight.

[Matt]

If it's something that you're partaking in very intentionally, more power to you. I think there are lots of different ways that we can celebrate the holidays and bring some joy into our lives, especially towards the end of the year for sure.

[Joel]

All right, all right, let's keep going. Political conversations, Matt, they are dominating financial planning conversations right now. This is according to a recent survey of CFPs. And half of those CFPs say that politics and policy fallout are essentially unavoidable topics right now. That every time or most of the time when a client is coming into a meeting with them, politics is at the forefront of the conversation, or at least it's a meaningful part of it. I think in some ways that's understandable, right? Like we've had meaningful changes, policy changes in recent years that don't just impact our spending and savings rates. They can have a real impact on our tax rate, which account we choose to invest in, even new accounts being brought to bear, like the Trump accounts that we talked about last week, whether or not we take the standard deduction. These are all really big things. And political moves have essentially made them a necessary part of the conversation. That's part of the reason that the Friday flight exists. Those conversations matter and they really do impact how we proceed on our wealth building journey. So we talk about, hey, what's going on in the news right now. And how does it impact you? Because there are regularly things that come about from a political and policy perspective that will touch your finances. But I also think it's important to note that focusing too much on politics or fixating on potential changes in government or policy can also leave us feeling stuck. And it leaves a lot of people doing things that are in their own worst interest. Yeah.

[Matt]

As they're overly fixating on, like, the more speculative news as opposed to the actual changes.

[Joel]

Or even just saying, like, oh, my party, that one that I support didn't get elected, maybe I should. That's the battle of essay.

[Matt]

That's the worst way to interpret any sort of political. It's like from a policy standpoint, we're going downhill now.

[Joel]

So, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt]

You are definitely going to shoot yourself in the foot.

[Joel]

And if you look at history, that's just like never the case.

[Matt]

Yeah. I think you can make minor pivots, but also consider tuning out just the bonkers and the problematic news cycle. And most folks are, according to Pew, My favorite part, there's a survey that they conducted and my favorite part of the survey was that most people, they have an optimistic outlook about their ability to achieve the goals that they have in the coming year. This is one of those instances again where it's just like, everything's going to hell in a handbasket, but I think I'm going to be okay next year.

[Joel]

Yeah.

[Matt]

These folks, they've rightly identified that they should be investing like an optimistic. The pessimists are their own worst enemy. Another story we saw was about as we're talking about investing here, Joel, it was about women who were guessing about how much they're going to need in retirement. And this is, I think that was the headline just to catch the eyeballs. But let's be honest, everyone does this. Men do this, too. So we're going to speak to both. It's really hard to perfectly know how much you should be aiming to amass in your nest egg in your retirement accounts. We don't know what the market's going to do. We don't know how our lives are going to end up unfolding. We don't know how long we're going to live. Right. There's a big difference in what your investments and maybe specifically your spending, what that might look like if you knew you were only going to live to age 75 as opposed to age 95. I would say fixate less on the number that you're aiming for and just.

[Joel]

More like a 2 million or 1.5 million headline number and more on what.

[Matt]

You can control and just knowing that you've got some sort of flexibility. It comes to retirement, you're not locked. That's the thing. Any as you are looking off to the future, anything that like you are picturing just what a typical year might look like from a spending standpoint. But whatever it is that you're identifying, it's not going to be that year end and year out. It's going to be very dynamic. There's going to be ups, there's going to be downs. And I think the. I don't know, the more comfortable this is something maybe I'm speaking from my personal experience, but the more comfortable I get with knowing that life might look very different in the future. I don't know, it just puts me at ease knowing that like we've got the ability to pivot a little bit to change our expectations and that it's not going to lead to the end of our personal world.

[Joel]

Yeah. Yep, agreed. All right, Matt, what if electricity were free?

[Matt]

You'd like that people would over consume it.

[Joel]

That's true. That is true. When you make a good ridiculously cheap then people are going to. But now that electricity has gotten more expensive, I wonder if people are dialing back their usage because. And they're being more thoughtful about like where they set the thermostat and especially this winter like putting on some extra clothes. So that's what I'm telling my kids right now. It's frustrating.

[Matt]

Bump up that you want to know our latest hack, quote unquote hack is that we. So we keep the heat upstairs where we sleep set to 60, which is pretty chilly for a lot of folks, but every one of us loves it to be cooler at night. And then I'll crank it up. This indicates too that I've got this manual dumb thermostat and I can't wait to replace it in the coming year with the state energy tax credit where they make it super affordable. You can only do two a year, so I replaced two last year. Gonna replace the third this coming year. Just a heads up for everybody on my personal plans when it comes to our H Vac. But I will crank it up in the morning. That way it's not brutally painful as everyone's getting ready for school, getting ready to start their day. But then I crank it back down to 60 degrees.

[Joel]

That being said, I do something very similar.

[Matt]

Our biggest pain point is getting in and out of the shower. Kate especially hates it. She like she's Like, I don't like getting out of the shower. It is freaking freezing. So I remembered that we had some radiator, radiator style electric heaters in our storage shed out, out back. So I went up, grab that bad boy, dusted it off and I was.

[Joel]

Like, we talked about that not too long ago. The space heaters, baby.

[Matt]

That's right. Well, it was in the back of my mind still, I guess, brought it in, crank that thing up. And now anytime she, by the time she gets out of the shower, it's nice and toasty in there. It feels good, man.

[Joel]

There you go.

[Matt]

It's like we don't need to heat the entire house just when we're getting out of the shower, you know?

[Joel]

Well, if electricity were free, you're right back to electricity. People would use a lot of it. Well, this author, Leah Stokes, she recently proposed in the Atlantic that maybe electricity should be free. And basically her proposal was that electricity should be cheaper, if not completely free just in the middle of the day. Right. Because like maybe like noon to 2 or something like that. Why? Well, she says because the grid is more overloaded at night and it would bring down costs of nighttime demand. People would demand less electricity in the evening if they did use their electricity more during the day. Right. So the only way really to do this is to strongly incentivize people to use those electric, heavy electricity, heavy appliances when there's less demand. Some places like San Diego are trying this. Some electric companies have kind of taken the carrot in the stick approach. You can opt for a plan with a lower rate during off peak hours and higher ones during peak hours. So you're kind of like spreading that window of how much you pay on electricity. It can be dirt cheap at certain parts of the day and even more expensive than it normally is at other parts of the day to incentivize you to use that electricity at the time that's most convenient for the power company. Right? Yeah.

[Matt]

That reduces the strain on the grid.

[Joel]

That's right, yeah. And so similar to tracking our expenses, we're all more likely to make a change if we're aware of our usage. And we're incentivized by positively and negatively to act differently. The less energy we use, less infrastructure that's needed, which would lower our costs. Makes me think, Matt, we have a listeners who have like electric cars and they've written in about the power plan that they're on. They save a ton of money by being really thoughtful about the plan they pick and then being incredibly thoughtful as well, about when they're using electricity, whether it's dishwasher, washer, dryer, stuff like that and when they're charging their cars. And it's not just for people with EVs like these super off peak hours.

[Matt]

Super off peak.

[Joel]

You got to be willing to change your habits, your habits a little bit.

[Matt]

Yeah, yeah, I, I do. I wouldn't be surprised though. Some folks are like, well that, that's great to hear, but sorry, I've got a job so I can't do laundry in the middle of the day. I can't do all my cooking and.

[Joel]

AI robot is what I would say to that.

[Matt]

But I mean what I would say to that truly is that like, well yeah, like you have to introduce the incentives and create the systems that help to reduce the strain on a system. Right. That like wherever there's stress, because of the fact that it's a limited resource, you do what you can to like you said, sort of spread out that consumption and you get to a certain point, like if it was free, I bet there would be some folks would consider like, you know what, like between childcare and taxes, just everything else, the part time job is looking a little bit less attractive. We could nix that bill. Oh, also slight bonus, we're paying basically nothing for electricity during the day. They, these are pros and cons.

[Joel]

Right.

[Matt]

And you have to weigh the expense, you have to weigh the trade offs between what it is. That seems like the slam dunk decision which is working to make more money versus oh, maybe there are some other ways here that we can save a whole lot of money that would render that potential job less effective.

[Joel]

I'd love to see more of this though. I think there's so many ways that we can incentivize people to do the, to change their behavior. I remember seeing this study from Great Britain back in the day and when people were just aware of how much it was costing them, let's say to boil their tea, like to boil water to make tea. They were just more thoughtful about when and how they did it and when electricity cost less. Like they were like, oh yeah, maybe I'll have my tea then. And I just. People will make those decisions. It's when it's opaque how much it's costing or you just get your bill at the end of the month and you're like, ah, that's expensive. Yeah.

[Matt]

What's budget billing or what's it called when.

[Joel]

Well, budget billing is the way to make it feel less like that.

[Matt]

Yeah. Where you are essentially immune to your.

[Joel]

Consumption that insulates you.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Joel]

Even more.

[Matt]

Don't like.

[Joel]

Right. We want the opposite so the you're even more aware so you can make the changes to save yourself money.

[Matt]

Instead of budget building, let's call it like acute consumption budgeting. Like where you really feel the like, oh, I want there to be a similar electrode when we turn something on where she's like, oh, oh yeah, that, that is costing us money.

[Joel]

I think.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Joel]

Zapping people into the right behavior is the way to go.

[Matt]

Electrotherapy, it's always worked.

[Joel]

It always works.

[Matt]

Let's talk about the job market. A lot of us have seen that it is cooled if not frozen as of late. And well, the reasons for that are pretty complex. But AI is certainly one of those reasons. And there's a new study from MIT that finds that AI is currently essentially it has the capacity to replace almost 12% of the workforce. Actually it's 11.7 to be exact. And it's based on something called the iceberg index, which is this forward looking index that's attempting to forecast how AI is going to impact the job market. And you know, the study is not saying that we should expect mass layoffs any day now, but it is saying that AI has the capabilities to do even more now. And I think a lot of its capabilities are only now being discovered as folks are discovering applications for it, trying.

[Joel]

To integrate it into the workforce. Like it's just happening more and more.

[Matt]

Yeah, their typical sort of work day. And so this doesn't mean that folks should be shaking in their boots, but I do think we should continue to pay attention to our network and to growing our skills in order to thrive in an economy that's going to be more AI dependent and to get super meta with it. Joel, I wonder if listeners have noticed that like all the.

[Joel]

That you're not real anymore.

[Matt]

This is all AI super accurate. No, the fact that I heart the little stinger at the beginning of the podcast now it says guaranteed human, which is like the most dystopian crazy. Who would have thought I thing that I think has happened yet. You know, like we all wanted flying cars in the future and we didn't really get flying cars because not yet. I don't think we're ever gonna have flying cars because they're gonna be too noisy. Like think about how loud little drones are. Nobody, nobody likes that sound. So flying cars will never be at.

[Joel]

Least self driving cars. I'll take that.

[Matt]

Self driving is. That is the future. But instead of getting flying cars instead we got AI chatbots that we all get to listen to or interact with.

[Joel]

And some of which we get to fall in love with if we're so inclined. I would avoid it if I were you, though. I wouldn't do that. Okay. But friend of the show, Allison Schrager. Matt, she actually tended to disagree with this study, and I really liked her take. She wrote that AI is going to cause a shortage, actually of skilled workers and that much of the population isn't really able to make the most of this technology. I think when it comes down to it, at least in its current iteration, AI can be a solid tool. But like we've been saying, like, it's not a great replacement for humans who have wisdom and judgment. There's still a lot of AI hallucination. There's a lot of inaccurate information. And I just think critical thinking might be the most needed skill right now out there in the workforce. Great communication, great writing skills. You're like, oh, chatgpt can do the writing for me. Well, no, it can't. Well, you can. It might be able to hone some of your writing.

[Matt]

It can do the writing for you. But are you writing about the right thing? And that is up to you to decide whether or not you are even in the right direction.

[Joel]

Even still, like, when you read somebody who's a great writer, AI can't match that. It just can't. From what I've seen. Maybe. Maybe someday.

[Matt]

Not yet.

[Joel]

Not yet. And I think maybe what it boils down to is that AI can do a lot of tasks, but it can't do a job. So maybe AI proficiency or feeling like depending on what you do, knowing how to use it in the context of your work can help you get ahead or at least be less redundant knowing how to use AI effectively. But AI coming for jobs? I think there's less truth to that than maybe some of the headlines want us to think.

[Matt]

Yeah, I totally agree, Joel. We got more to get to. We're going to talk about how Gen Z, how they essentially want to rent everything, own nothing. We'll get to that more right after this. You probably think it's too soon to join aarp, right? Well, let's take a minute to talk about it. Where do you see yourself in 15 years, more specifically your career, your health, your social life? What are you doing now to help you to get there? Well, there are tons of ways for you to start preparing today for your future with aarp.

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[Matt]

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Whether you manage one property or 10, Lodify helps you run your rental like a real business. How to Money listeners get 20% off with code how to [e-mail] all right, we're back. It's time to get to the ludicrous headline of the week. This one comes from Business Insider.

[Matt]

I'm actually excited about. I feel like we've got a bunch of ludicrous stories here in the coming.

[Joel]

Yeah, in the second half, some of these really could have.

[Matt]

There could be multiple ludicrous stories.

[Joel]

So yeah, get ready to hold onto your hats, be on the seat of your pants here. The Business Insider article was titled, for Gen Z, cash isn't king. It's a joke. And when you look at the stats, of course, cash usage has been on the decline for years. I think it's used now for just something like 10% of overall transactions. Maybe a little bit more than that. So cash is no longer the norm. I don't know, Matt. I was talking to somebody about this the other day. I just don't like coins jingling around in my pocket, even if it's a small purchase. I'm like 32 cents. Oh gosh, that's like two pennies and a nickel and a quarter. And I'm just, I don't know, I hate that stuff jingling around. So it's probably one of the most annoying things and part of the reason I stay away from cash. Even after that conversation we had with Jay Zagorski back in episode 995 where he was trying to convince us to use cash, I just write old Jay Z, I've done it maybe a little bit more, but not as much as he would like.

[Matt]

I haven't increased my cash usage at all.

[Joel]

Really.

[Matt]

Yeah, I feel bad because. Yeah. For all the reasons that he said, it's important for us to occasionally use it.

[Joel]

Yeah. Well, I keep some cash on hand always because you just never know. And also, like, we still. I don't go to restaurants with like valets very often, man. But I went just recently and I was like, oh man, I'm so glad I have some cash.

[Matt]

Where'd you go? You went to some fancy.

[Joel]

One of our favorite in town restaurants.

[Matt]

Oh, I know what you're talking about.

[Joel]

Is going to close by the river. What we.

[Matt]

Oh yeah, that place always, always has had a valet.

[Joel]

Yeah. And it's closing and we were like, we got to go before it's gone.

[Matt]

Pour one out.

[Joel]

A lot of good memories there. Okay. But Gen Z years, because cash is no longer the norm. Cash having cash has kind of created these weird feelings for them. Previous generations of non digital natives, they struggled with controlling credit card usage. Right. Digitally spending and reconciling those transactions, that was the odd new thing. But now the opposite is true for younger folks. And Gen Z' ers consistently report that cash feels like it doesn't exist and they use it like fun money. Cash is still tangible though, right? It can either help or hurt your progress that you're making towards your financial goals. And so to use cash or credit cards, to use any form of money that comes into your life as Willy nilly. Because it's like, fake. It doesn't feel real. It doesn't make sense to me. I get the propensity, but I just don't think it's wise. It's totally fine, I think, to use cash that you get for like a birthday or for the holidays to splurge. But if you treat all physical money as though it's not real, it's going to have consequences. That's right.

[Matt]

Yeah. Cash is, in fact, real. And I think some of those habits could even bleed into how it is that you use credit cards, how you use your digital dollars. I think one solution is to maybe put all of your cash into an envelope to help you to save for just a bigger expense. Like. Like a vacation.

[Joel]

Right?

[Matt]

Like, you got a jar, pretty big jar, and you're throwing change, you're throwing bills in there. But, Joel, speaking of young people, this is the story. I was actually.

[Joel]

I like that idea, by the way. Can I just say, having the envelope and then you're like, instead of frittering it away, you're putting it towards something bigger, fake money, towards a real thing that you want to accomplish. That's a big one.

[Matt]

Yeah, totally. Okay, so this is the story I was excited about. I wanted to mention how young people. We're talking about Gen Z, adult kids paying rent. And maybe this shouldn't have surprised me, but apparently 60% of kids don't contribute a dime towards their household expenses.

[Joel]

And. And not just like kids, but adult children.

[Matt]

Exactly.

[Joel]

Because your kids don't contribute.

[Matt]

But they don't. But guess what? Things are gonna change when they are adults. And I'm not even kidding. This is a conversation. I mean, basically the story talked about how parents are being financially harmed. Cause they're like, oh, my gosh, I'm barely able to set money aside from my own retirement. And in addition to that, like, what are you teaching your kids?

[Joel]

Right?

[Matt]

You're teaching that, oh, we're always gonna be there for you. And yes, you should always be there for them. But how are you also equipping them to be real adults? Out. Oh, my gosh. This kind of goes back to the whole Advent sort of adult Advent calendars a little bit, like, teach them to be functioning, contributing members of society. And I think there's a potential, there's a possibility for them to not learn that lesson if they aren't having to chip in at all when it comes to groceries or cleaning the house or paying. And I'm not even talking about market rent, but just something to where they've got some skin in the game. And this is something that I'm gonna give my parents mad credit. This is a conversation that we started having when I was like 13 years old where my dad was just like, guess what? Once you graduate high school, you're gonna start. If you, if you want to live here, you're gonna start paying rent.

[Joel]

What if he was like, when you're 15, 500 bucks a month maybe?

[Matt]

I think that would have been not fair because I was like, why did.

[Joel]

You bring me into this world, dad? But could have created some strife.

[Matt]

And guess what? Like, let's be honest. Our parents don't always get everything right. Like, we shouldn't just, like, blindly adopt the parenting methods that I think are. That your parents employed. Perhaps you should think critically about it. But. And this is one that I thought about, and I thought, oh, my gosh, that was such a great way to get me thinking about it. Because my parents wanted to make sure that I successfully launched out into the world. And if I was hanging out because I was incentivized to, because I had a free place to stay and mom's cooking and, oh, she's also doing my laundry.

[Joel]

They saw that Matthew McConaughey movie and they were like, we don't want our son to be like that.

[Matt]

He's not going to fail to launch. And this is literally a conversation I've had now with my 12 year old. Not like as a threat, but just something that we've talked about of like, hey, you know, once you're an adult, once you are 18 years old, if you're sticking around, you're going to contribute to the household expenses. And when you start having these conversations early on, it's going to be better. It's going to be better for your relationship. They're gonna be able to start thinking about how, oh, I gotta have things figured out. I need to have a plan. Guess what? I didn't have a great plan, but I had something in mind and I was able to.

[Joel]

And you also knew if you zoomed back in, what was gonna happen. You knew the consequences. The reality of that, like, you're gonna have to pay money. Exactly. So, like, gonna have to do something. Yeah, I think. Yeah, Matt, you're right. Like, that in particular was revelatory to me. The fact that parents are at this point with their adult children, they're like, I don't know what to do. Cause they're not contributing. And it's costing, it's costing me money. And I feel like I Can't achieve the goals I need to achieve. And I think you're spot on. It starts earlier.

[Matt]

The earlier the better.

[Joel]

You have to have those combos along the way because they can't, you can't just like move back and then be like, you need, I think you should pay something. And they're like, what are you talking about? Like, it's, it's just tougher to have that conversation later on down the line. You got to be, and you don't need to be harsh about it. Sit your 8 year old down and be like, you're going to be a productive economic unit here in the next five years.

[Matt]

Okay, Son doesn't need to go down like that. But it does lead to just better conversation. Like, and, because that, like, that's what led to conversations about college and scholarships and getting a job and all of this. It's like, I just even think about it from the standpoint as a parent, like, how are you equipping your kids? What potentials do they have that they're not even able to tap into because they're not being pushed at all to.

[Joel]

Pursue something 100% okay. On the note of renting, another Business Insider article we saw, which was awesome, was talking about young folks wanting to rent everything. And so, yeah, not just like, you.

[Matt]

Love renting, Joel, I hear you say that a lot. You say, don't buy a house. Renting is unravel.

[Joel]

We've been accused of that, haven't we? And I am more for renting than a lot of things even than maybe I used to be. Like, it, it doesn't always make sense to buy stuff like whether you can borrow or rent. It might make more sense depending on what we're talking about and especially when we're talking about housing. We've talked about that a lot, so maybe we'll skip talking about that. But I'm talking about renting clothes and baby gear and camping equipment. Like, that's, that's what Gen Z is like, I'm not going to buy that stuff. I'm going to rent it. And there's no one size fits all answer to whether buying or renting is better on some of those consumer goods. I think, you know, it's so much dependent. Like, how frequently am I going to use that item? Or is it a one and done sort of thing? Like if you're not going to use it again, a formal dress or a tuxedo, Rent that puppy. Yeah, it's expensive to rent, but it's more expensive to buy than never Use it again. How much money do you stand to save? Save. That's a. I think an important question when you're talking about buying versus renting. If renting isn't going to save you at least 50%, buying is probably a better choice. Also, like borrowing, could you borrow something instead? Like, renting is one of those things where all of these companies have come into the space to try to say, like, great, come, like, get it from us and we'll, you know, you'll be able to. You don't have to pay full freight. You can send it back. But it's still expensive to use some of these newfangled services. And can you borrow that fancy dress from a friend instead of. Or a tuxedo? Like, I don't know, maybe it's not going to look quite as cut and perfect on you. I'm not sure. But we did like, Emily rented a fancy dress from a site called Nuuly and it was great. But also looking back, I'm like, that was inexpensive experience. I get why you might use it sometimes, but also wouldn't want to use it frequently. It's one of those things where you can do it every single month. And some people do get new clothes shipped to their doorstep every single month. That seems excessive.

[Matt]

Yeah, There's a trade off there, right? It's the value cost trade off. Which actually leads us to my favorite story of this entire Friday flight Groundwork. Collective and Consumer Reports looked into Instacart's algorithmic pricing model. Some of you have probably heard about this.

[Joel]

What they found just broke, I think like yesterday. So it's pretty new.

[Matt]

The pricing, it's not just dynamic, it's seemingly random. And so even when shoppers opt for the same item from the same store at the literal same time, the price can vary pretty meaningfully. So eggs might cost one person like $3.99, and it's gonna cost the other person $4.69.

[Joel]

So basically one of our listeners in South Carolina or California or in US here, where we are, same time, same story. Yep. Different computers, different prices. Different prices. Yeah. Talking about the same. I guess maybe it makes sense from different locations, Right. Oh, you're in Nevada and eggs cost more there for some reason.

[Matt]

Whatever.

[Joel]

But like even close locations, like just across, you're getting different prices. Yeah.

[Matt]

I guess the big reason I'm just excited that this broke is cause it's calling into light some of Instacart's the somewhat opaque way that they're doing business, which we're all about price transparency. And I can't believe that we haven't talked about this, Joel, because this is something I learned last month. At the beginning of last month, we started using Instacart a little bit, specifically because we've got one car and it's just like, gosh, okay, this one person can't pick up this. Also run to the store, also make this happen. Got a lot of competing goals. And so the way I thought about.

[Joel]

It was, like, it was cheaper than getting another car.

[Matt]

It was not cheaper to purchase another vehicle. So we said, hey, let's. This is a great instance to use Instacart. But then you get used to using it, right? And you're just kind of without even thinking about, ah, let's just do the Instacart again. Let's do it again. Until we ordered some groceries. The guy, the Instacart worker, dropped them off and he left the Aldi receipt in the bags. And nobody else has ever done that before. And so I compared the price of the actual goods where I or Kate to run in and have made that purchase versus what we paid Instacart, and what the Receipt said was $175, the Instacart order, or, you know, like, when it was all said and done with all the fees, 225, $261.

[Joel]

Wow.

[Matt]

It was 50% more expensive. And we have not used Instacart since because I could not get over how much more expensive it was. Dude. Yeah, I was like, I spent the whole weekend like Kate, and we're just like, looking, looking at each other, like, shaking our heads because for a minute they were using it pretty solidly. Just, you know, you kind of get used to the. The luxury of it. It's incredibly convenient. But just know that obviously you know that you're paying more for it, but you kind of turn a. A blind eye to it and thinking, oh, it's worth it. Oh, we can afford it. But, dude, facing the hard facts, the numbers made me realize that it's not that I'm never going to use it again if again, we are independent. And I can't get out there because Kate's doing this other event and we still are rocking the one car family thing. Okay, we'll place the Instacart order because, yes, for us, that's one of the solutions to not having a second vehicle. But, oh, my gosh, the scales fell from my eyes. I saw the light.

[Joel]

Well, I think this was. I think this was revelatory from that. Like, we are Starting to see one. The price is not the price anymore online. Like, it's just constantly moving. But it's not just dynamic, it's becoming individualized. And Instacart is probably what it seems like is running tests to be like, well, does Sheila in Denver, does she care if eggs are $4 or if they're $4.50? Like, they're still within this range where she's probably not going to bat an eye, so let's go and charge her more. And I think this is just going to happen more and more, and we as consumers have to be more wary. And that means going into the supermarket more regularly so that we understand what the prices are and whether or not the prices we're getting from the online service that we're using is within reason or not. Because I get that it is a convenience play. And in some ways. In some ways, Matt, I think using something like Instacart can potentially save you money if you're an impulse buyer. Like, if you're going in there and you're hungry and, like, I think about even just going in, sticking to the grocery list. Yeah. Going into Costco, there's like, the treasure hunt mentality. And maybe you, like, put all these other things in your cart that you otherwise wouldn't have purchased. Like, there is. There's real downside to that. But, yeah, this is. This is very interesting to see. And you have to be really careful. Like, it can be a time and money saver, but ultimately, if you're not paying attention, it could cost you a lot. It was so revelatory for us. Yeah. I feel like I want to be the kind of individual who could still go on the Price Is Right with the host Drew Carey, and kind of know what things cost on average.

[Matt]

You got to be a man of the people, man. Like, you got to set. Yeah. It's just. It puts you in touch with reality, actually, going to the grocery store. And if people are complaining that, like, the affordability is going down, I think from now on, my first question is going to be like, yeah, do you actually go in the grocery store yourself, or are you getting those groceries delivered? Because if so, I. I now understand. I was upset. I was pissed when I saw how much we had been paying.

[Joel]

And if you think inflation is impacting your groceries, start using Instacart and you'll see it happen even more. I think we'll become more desensitized to price increases using a service like this on the reg. And so you just. Yeah. Be aware. Know that this is happening and we'll we'll post a link to this and some of the other stories we mentioned in the Show Notes. But this is one of those where you're like, okay, it makes me think twice about using this service. Just on repeat. That's right.

[Matt]

But buddy, that's gonna be it for this Friday flight. Listeners can find our Show Notes up on the [e-mail] that's where you'll find our newsletter signup as well as our favorite credit cards. Howtomoney.com no doubt.

[Joel]

All right, buddy. Until next time, Best friends out.

[Matt]

Best friends.

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[Matt]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Joel]

Guaranteed Human.