Friday Flight - Stealthy Skimpflation, Janky Job Markets, & Day-Trading Doris #1101

Summary

Podcast Summary: How To Money – Friday Flight - Stealthy Skimpflation, Janky Job Markets, & Day-Trading Doris (#1101)

Date: February 13, 2026
Hosts: Joel & Matt
Podcast: How to Money by iHeartPodcasts

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Overview

In this engaging Friday Flight episode, Joel and Matt tackle some of the latest (and quirkiest) trends in personal finance and lifestyle economics. Key topics include “skimpflation,” surprising price drops in everyday sectors, where to get the cheapest groceries, the evolving and shaky job market, the rise of unretiring boomers—and why retirees should maybe day trade less. The hosts’ signature blend of practical advice, lighthearted banter, and real-world anecdotes makes for both an entertaining and informative listen.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Skimpflation: Sneaky Changes in Product Quality

• Definition & Examples
  • Skimpflation is when companies maintain package and price but lower product or ingredient quality to save costs.
  • Joel: “It’s like the same size steak but just like a lower quality.” (02:05)
• Shrinkflation vs. Skimpflation
  • Hosts generally prefer shrinkflation as it at least maintains quality rather than cutting corners.
  • Matt: “I kind of like the idea of shrinkflation over skimpflation...at least you’re maintaining the quality.” (02:38)
• Consumer Reactions
  • Joel warns consumers will notice and push back: “I think consumers are going to sniff that stuff out and be frustrated by it.” (02:14)

2. Affordability & Recent Price Drops

• Housing & Insurance
  • Noting a shift: homebuyers moving from bidding wars to getting 8% discounts; auto insurance rates dropping by 6% nationally.
  • Matt: “For years we were only talking about insurance rates going up...so it’s good to see that trend.” (06:43)
  • Joel: “Be loyal to your spouse, be loyal to your friends, be less loyal to your insurance company, because that’s how you’re going to save money.” (07:13)
• Food Products
  • Price drops on Lays, Doritos, and General Mills products, but hosts caution: “chips, cereal, those prepackaged goods...don’t really represent great value, even if prices are becoming a little more reasonable.” (08:18)
  • Matt: “Real foods, baby. That’s how you’re going to save money at the grocery store.” (08:39)

3. Best Grocery Stores for Value

• Consumer Reports Highlights
  • Notably, Costco beat out Aldi, Lidl, and Walmart for lowest price basket in several markets.
  • Matt: “Grocery prices can vary by more than 33% depending on where you shop, even within the same city.” (09:55)
• Quality vs. Cost
  • Whole Foods provides an upscale (and expensive) experience; Costco hits a “sweet spot” for both quality and price.
  • Joel: “Costco ... almost at that level of Whole Foods in terms of quality. But the price is so much better.” (12:04)

4. Food Delivery & Takeout Trap

• Costly Convenience
  • Apps like UberEats, Grubhub, etc., drive huge markups (70–120% higher).
  • Joel: “Advice is to go cold turkey. Avoid these apps completely... It’s just not worth it. Go pick it up yourself or make a nice little meal at home.” (15:24)
  • Shifting consumption: “Three in four restaurant orders are not eaten at the restaurant anymore... when you look at a new fast food restaurant being built, the dining room is tiny or non existent.” (13:40)

5. Job Market: Getting Janky

• Bread Hunters & AI Obstacles
  • New trend: job seekers paying headhunters (“bread hunters”) to find jobs (at steep prices and mixed results).
  • Matt: “They documented one bread hunter...charges job seekers $1,500 in fees every single month... and 10% of your first year’s salary.” (16:26)
• Ghost Jobs & Robot Gatekeepers
  • ~40% of postings are not for real jobs; AI screens out resumes before any human looks.
  • Joel: “It’s not a human looking at resumes. So you have to game the system... keyword stuffing.” (18:03)
  • Key advice: “Dig the well before you’re thirsty.” Network before you need a job. (19:38)
• Side Hustles vs. Gig Work
  • Matt: “If you find yourself continually in that cycle, we recommend a side hustle... something where you have autonomy... you can scale.” (22:24)
  • Baking side hustles (e.g. sourdough) can generate real income and résumé-worthy experience.

6. Retirement & Day-Trading Boomers

• Ludicrous Headline: Ban Day-Trading Doris!
  • Increasing numbers of retirees are actively trading—often to their financial detriment.
  • Matt: “It turns out once someone retires, they’ve got more time... But that does not translate to superior returns.” (26:32)
• Advice for Retirees
  • Develop diverse, meaningful hobbies; consider part-time work or volunteering instead of being glued to the market.
  • Joel: “Trust the process, trust the numbers... not being overly fixated on everyday, you know, movements in the market.” (28:23)
  • Personal anecdote: Joel’s dad enjoys volunteering for Meals on Wheels—boosting his wellbeing and social connections. (29:44)
• “Unretiring” Boomers
  • AARP survey: 7% of retirees going back to work, about half for finances, half for purpose.
  • Matt: “I think it can make a ton of sense for folks as they're looking for purpose, community, sense of belonging and overall life satisfaction.” (32:19)

7. Housing Market and Homeownership

• TrumpRX Pharmacy Launch
  • President Trump’s new drug discount website (limited selection, mostly brand-name GLP-1s). Useful primarily for uninsured, less so for those with standard insurance. (33:02–34:25)
• Presidential Comments on Housing
  • Trump stated: “I don’t want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up for people that own their homes,” a stance the hosts criticize for hurting wannabe buyers. (34:42)
• Home Buying with Friends: Caution Advised
  • Tempting in high-price markets, but fraught: differs greatly from renting, can get messy if a friendship falls apart.
  • Joel: “Rent with your friends instead and then save and invest more. Rent with your friends is great.” (37:58–38:03)
• New Mortgage Credit Rules & Credit Repair Scams
  • Fannie Mae drops hard 620 credit score minimum, now looks at holistic risk.
  • Joel: “Your credit score is a really important part of your personal finance hygiene... don’t pay people to repair your credit or file false identity theft reports.” (41:34–42:10)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Skimpflation:
  Joel: “It’s like the same size steak but just like a lower quality.” (02:05)

• On Shopping Around for Insurance:
  Joel: “Be loyal to your spouse, be loyal to your friends, be less loyal to your insurance company, because that’s how you’re going to save money.” (07:13)

• On Food Delivery Apps:
  Joel: “Advice is to go cold turkey. Avoid these apps completely... It’s just not worth it.” (15:24)

• On Side Hustles vs. Gig Work:
  Matt: “We would most definitely recommend instead to look to a side hustle, something that you can scale, something where you have autonomy...” (22:24)

• On Retiree Day-Trading:
  Matt: “Actively trading often leads to the reverse—to lower returns.” (26:48) Joel: “Trust the process, trust the numbers.” (28:23)

• On Networking for Jobs:
  Joel (crediting Jordan Harbinger): “Dig the well before you’re thirsty.” (19:38)

• On Credit Score Fixes:
  Joel: "Do not listen to the influencers... telling you that you can fix your credit score by filing one of these reports or that they can do it for you if you pay them money. That’s a waste of your money, waste of your time." (41:34)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Skimpflation defined: 01:13 – 05:51
• Price drops (Housing, insurance, groceries): 05:58 – 12:49
• Grocery store value and experiences: 09:44 – 12:49
• Food delivery inflation: 12:50 – 15:34
• Job market & bread hunters: 15:34 – 20:48
• Job networking & side hustles: 18:03 – 25:33
• Retiree day-trading & unretirement: 25:48 – 32:19
• TrumpRX pharmacy news: 33:02 – 34:25
• Presidential comment on housing: 34:25 – 37:04
• Buying homes with friends: 37:04 – 39:07
• Credit score changes & scams: 39:07 – 42:10

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Tone & Style

The episode is conversational, analytical, and often playful—rooted in sound yet accessible advice. Both Joel and Matt use humor, personal stories, and expert references to make complex financial topics relatable and actionable for their listeners.

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For Listeners

If you missed the episode, this summary will catch you up on why the quality of your chips may be slipping, where to get the best grocery deals, the dangers and opportunities in today’s job market, the ups and downs of retiring (and unretiring)—and why sometimes, the best financial advice comes with a side of real food.

Transcript

[Matt]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Joel]

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[Joel]

Welcome to how to Money. I'm Joel.

[Matt]

And I am Matt.

[Joel]

Today we're talking plunging prices, janky job markets and day trading. Dori.

[Matt]

So is Doris your go to old person name, Joel?

[Joel]

Well, I would say it's usually Janet. I just couldn't find an alliterative way to say that one. But that's because of Blue.

[Matt]

The letters didn't match up exactly. You do Janet because of.

[Joel]

I put a lot of thought in those titles, Matt.

[Matt]

Janet because of Bluey, because that's the go. The go to grandma name there. Yeah, no, we're talking, yeah, boomers, folks who are retiring, who are day trading more. But dude, let's just kick things off. Actually, we've got a lot to get to today. Let's talk about skimpflation, not shrinkflation. Skimpflation, which is, and I'm not actually sure if this is a term that friend of the show Nick Magiuli coined, but he wrote about it recently over on his blog, essentially. So let me define it, which is essentially when a company chooses to go with inferior products or ingredients that go into something that they are manufacturing, all in an effort to. To keep prices low.

[Joel]

Right.

[Matt]

So rather than raise prices on consumers.

[Joel]

Or shrink the package that you're getting.

[Matt]

Which is the aptly named shrinkflation, instead it's like, oh, you're still getting the same amount of stuff, but maybe that stuff isn't quite as good.

[Joel]

It's like the same size steak but just like a lower quality.

[Matt]

Yeah, maybe it's like the choice instead of the prime, a little less marbling going on. But what do you think about that?

[Joel]

I think it's an understandable reaction to rising prices, but I think consumers are going to sniff that stuff out and be frustrated by it. I think people don't mind you and I have talked about how shrinkflation is actually understandable. Like I get it. I get how producers want to offer people the same quality product, but just a little bit less of it and keep the price the same instead of raising prices. That's a reasonable response.

[Matt]

I kind of like the idea of shrinkflation over skinflation.

[Joel]

Yeah.

[Matt]

I think this one is kind of like you're maintaining the quality. It's just like, but do you need all that you think you need or could you get by with 10% less?

[Joel]

This one frustrates me a little bit more. I don't know that I've encountered it, though, the way Nick Magiulli was talking about.

[Matt]

Well, it's oftentimes because it is hidden, right. It's not something that you would notice right away. And I am of two minds as I think about this, because on one hand, I like the fact that consumers have a choice. Like, essentially, people are able to continue to receive the goods that they're receiving, albeit maybe at a slightly lower quality. Or sometimes it's like a service, right? With where someone's being replaced by automation, AI, chat bot, that kind of a thing. And so you're receiving an inferior product in that way. But if that means that that good, that service is accessible to a larger group of people, I can get behind that. Like, that is the good side of things. The potential downsides might be that it lends itself more to like a throwaway kind of consumption culture. Right. If something isn't going to last, it just makes you think of probably, I don't know, half the stuff you might buy on Amazon where you're just like, is this actually going to last? I guess that's the downside. But on the other end of things, you still have the ability to pay for nicer or higher quality items. Like you mentioned meat, right? And man, if folks are still able to get pretty dang good quality meat at Costco or somewhere more affordable, but if they want to go to their local butcher, because it's just like, oh, it's really hard to beat those steak burgers that I know you're such a fan of.

[Joel]

You love them. I do.

[Matt]

Then, like, that's your ability. Like, you have an option there to spend a little bit more for the higher quality and you'll absolutely love it. But that doesn't negate other people being able to get something that is a bit more affordable for them. So personally, I'm fine with it.

[Joel]

And you can also.

[Matt]

I'm fine with it.

[Joel]

Offer your feedback to the retailer, to the small business, to the big business and say, hey, guess what? I'm sending this back because it's not as good as it used to be or go talk to the owner and say, hey man, I've noticed this feels like it's not the same product that you used to sell. What's going on?

[Matt]

I know life is full of trade offs, but I don't like the trade off that you've recently made.

[Joel]

We all have a voice, right? And that's the great thing about free markets.

[Matt]

That's what I was about to say.

[Joel]

We're not tethered to anything.

[Matt]

Is there a better option than the ability for producers, for business owners to experiment a little bit and maybe let's just say it's not about maintaining an affordable price for consumers. Let's just say it's them looking at shareholders and saying, okay, let's see how we can increase returns and make this a more profitable company. If it works, then it works. If it doesn't work, it's going to come back to bite you in the butt. It is a self correcting system and in that way it, I think it's hard to beat the structure of capitalism.

[Joel]

There's always been kind of this worry and fear about a race to the bottom. And the truth is at some point consumers are like, don't like it. Yeah, great, it's super cheap, but it sucks. And so I don't want that. And I'm willing to pay more for higher quality. And the great thing is we have like tiers of choices. And if I want the bare bottom, low rung tier that's going to break within like two days, like I, I can choose that, but, but then I also have the ability to pay for something that's higher quality, better made, that's going to stick around in my life for longer.

[Matt]

I love it, man. I love that there's so many options here in the United States, but inflation.

[Joel]

We'Ll keep that term around in the Rolodex.

[Matt]

But let's continue the conversation. Talk about affordability and rising prices, which is obviously a concern for a lot of folks. But we are seeing signs of some important sectors that are experiencing real downward price movements. Specifically want to highlight home buyers. Instead of paying 10% above asking price like they three to four years ago, they are getting an average 8% price reduction these days. Things are also moving in the right direction on car insurance rates, auto insurance, they're falling by an average of 6% across the country over the past year. This is according to Insurify, which is fantastic. I feel like for years we were only talking about insurance rates going up, home insurance, ooh, I don't know where things stand with homeowners yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see a correction there.

[Joel]

Right?

[Matt]

Like as we have witnessed the jolts of what we've experienced, you know, over the past five, six years play out in the market as we are resuming some hopeful sense of normalcy. But just remember that savings go to those who shop around. So when we're talking about insurance, make sure that you're considering an independent agent. Get multiple quotes out there. If you are loyal to the same insurer that you've had for forever, if you feel some sort of emotional attachment, just know that they're going to take advantage of that and you're going to pay more.

[Joel]

Be loyal to your spouse, be loyal to your friends, be less loyal to your insurance company, because that's how you're going to save money. And yeah, I think the four years before last year, Matt, prices on insurance went up something over 40%. So it was like shocking to a lot of people. And especially in like California or Florida, a lot of people are like freaking out and understandably so. It was a budget buster. So it's good to see that trend.

[Matt]

Providers were completely leaving those states. In particular. I get it.

[Joel]

Ye in lesser money saving news, you can also get that bag of sour cream and onion or salt and vinegar for a little bit less. Now, chips. Chips, baby. Yeah. PepsiCo, which owns Lays, Doritos, all that kind of stuff, they announced that they're lowering prices on chips by about 15% or up to 15%. So when they say up to, I guess, I don't know. How much are you actually going to say about chips? We'll see. General Mills, they also made promises about lowering prices on some of their food items. Cheerios, cheese, Annie's Mac and cheese, which I think they purport to be healthier, but I don't know if it actually is, man, I'm going to have to have to do some.

[Matt]

Yeah, I ain't buying it.

[Joel]

Scientific research on that, but, you know, while this could lead to slightly lower prices on some items, shelf pricing is ultimately up to the retailer. And, and as most folks know, chips, cereal, those prepackaged goods, they don't really represent great value, even if prices are becoming a little more reasonable. Real foods, baby. That's how you're going to save money at the grocery store.

[Matt]

Listen to Maha Joel over here talking about real food, eat real food.

[Joel]

Do they have room for Maha dads like you, Matt? They do, because I hear all the talk about Maha moms, but I'm sure.

[Matt]

There'S a strong dad, Kentucky as well.

[Joel]

And by the way, we're not politically affiliated with that, but I'm all for people eating real foods.

[Matt]

Yeah, aside from political affiliation, I'm just going to agree with the fact that people should be eating real food at home if you can, because that's how you're going to save the most money. Speaking of which, Consumer Reports just released a list of the most and least expensive grocery stores. Obviously, where you shop is highly correlated to your ability to save money in the food portion of your budget each and every single month. And their data points to something that we've been talking about here on the show for a long time. And I love this stat because this aligns perfectly with what I personally experienced, which is that grocery prices can vary by more than 33% depending on where you shop, even within the same city. And this is literally exactly what we saw. Our grocery budget go down by 33%. It was cut by a third once we started shopping at Aldi versus our local traditional grocery store.

[Joel]

That's essentially what Aldi purports in their ads too, is that they can save 30 plus percent on people's groceries. And we're talking about like Consumer Reports basically says they're not lying.

[Matt]

Six years ago is I think when we, or gosh, maybe it was seven years ago when the Aldi that was close to us first opened up back in the day. And it was like a budget godsend, man. Like, it was fantastic to see that relief.

[Joel]

Oh, but did you notice?

[Matt]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'll get to that part. Costco surprisingly beat Aldi. They not only beat Aldi, but they beat Lidl and Walmart on the basket of goods that Consumer Reports tested. And I don't exactly know.

[Joel]

I love it when stuff like that checks with my priors.

[Matt]

Well, I will say I was diving into the research and they did it based on different markets around the country. And the market closest to us, Costco and Aldi, it was the same. Okay, so that's the national average. And so that did get me to thinking, though. Like I talk about how much we save specifically with Aldi, but I'm thinking, well, shoot, maybe in other markets people aren't saving nearly as much versus either way you're saving. So the baseline was Walmart. All those numbers were compared to Walmart was the baseline because you can, they are literally everywhere, as opposed to like a BJ's. You may not, you may not have one of those. You may not have an Aldi. Near you, but.

[Joel]

Or Lidl Little.

[Matt]

It's Lidl.

[Joel]

It's called Lidl.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Joel]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt]

But, yeah.

[Joel]

And we're fortunate to have all of those by us.

[Matt]

But it's amazing.

[Joel]

Yeah. Where you shop matters so much. And when you look at the numbers, of course, like, Whole Foods was the top 40% more on average than, than Walmart.

[Matt]

I believe it. Because have you ever been to a Whole Foods recently and seen the number of employees walking around making it look so nice? What's a great. I'll explain that to one of our, one of our kids recently. And they're like, why is it so much more expensive? I'm like, do you see how nice it is in there compared to the fact that, like at Aldi, all the food is in the cardboard boxes that it was shipped to the store in? It is a nicer experience. And I mean, in part, it's not for the nicer experience, but we do buy like our go to Coffee Bean, the counterculture beans that we buy, they sell at Whole Foods. And if you're lucky, the two pound bags go on sale like once or twice a month. So that's when we try to load up. And I'm just like, it's a very different experience. And people are willing to pay for that nicer experience and in a lot of cases, for higher quality goods. Although that's not always the case. Right. Because Costco in particular, they've got some of those nicer name brands.

[Joel]

To me, that's why Costco hits the sweet spot, because they're like almost at that level of Whole Foods in terms of quality. But the price is so much better because when I go into Whole Foods, I just, I have like, sticker shock. I can't believe some of the prices in there, but I get it.

[Matt]

I will say I'm only buying things in Whole Foods that I can't find anywhere else. Like, for instance, a special meal that requires bok choy because we're doing like a Korean meal for, you know, for the family.

[Joel]

Well, in Whole Foods, I feel like the pricing has gotten better since Amazon took over ownership. So from that perspective, it's at least presents. It's, it's less of a gut punch to go in there and shop, but it's just, I think it's really just important for people to know that if you want to pay 30% more, yeah, go to these other grocery stores. But if you want to pay the lowest possible price, it's, you know, Aldi and Costco are pretty much at the top of the list.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Joel]

The opposite of hitting up a cheap grocery store isn't ordering takeout though. It's. It's having your takeout delivered. Which still. Matt. Hate it. It's one of my, One of my pet peeves. The worst dude. Trying to convince everyone in the United States of America to avoid those apps. Even after the cute super bowl ads apparently. I think it was.

[Matt]

Were there like Grubhub.

[Joel]

I think there was. Or something maybe for UberEats. And I think it had Matthew McConaughey and Bradley Cooper in it.

[Matt]

Okay.

[Joel]

And I think that was. That was literally the only ad I remember because I watched very little of the super bowl because I'm.

[Matt]

I didn't.

[Joel]

I'm not in the loop.

[Matt]

Normally I go back and I will Google like give me a list of all the best ones and I'll watch. I didn't even do that this year. I didn't. I didn't follow up on the best advertisements. I feel like it's. Gone are the days of the Budweiser frogs back in the 90s. That was peak. That was peak super bowl commercial.

[Joel]

Peak super bowl ad. Sorry. They're not, they're not better than that.

[Matt]

It'll make them like they used to these days.

[Joel]

No, it's true. But three and four restaurant orders, it turns out, are not eaten at the restaurant anymore. Wow. That's crazy.

[Matt]

That's actually more than I would have expected.

[Joel]

And that's why when you look at a new fast food restaurant being built, the dining room is tiny or non existent. Like the drive thru orders. I have friends who work for a fast food restaurant and they're making them with doors.

[Matt]

As opposed to drive through windows? No, through doors. Because that way people can more easily get out and hand you the food directly because they got multiple lines going.

[Joel]

Through something like 90% their orders now. And I think it used to be like 60 pre Covid come through the drive thru which is. Which is crazy.

[Matt]

What a change in culture.

[Joel]

Yeah. But a lot of people have even gotten used to ordering single items despite the massive cost. So it's like I'm just feeling like a coffee or I'm feeling like a pastry. Boom. Hit it on the app. And that $5 coffee turns into $12 or the pastry, that's seven turns into 15. And so someone, someone in this article in the New York Times profiled is spending $700 a week on takeout a week.

[Matt]

That's insane.

[Joel]

I didn't know it's possible, but I guess it is.

[Matt]

I'M assuming they're an outlier.

[Joel]

I think so. I don't think that's what the average person is doing.

[Matt]

But.

[Joel]

But even folks who truly can afford that luxury are partaking at an alarming rate. And people who can't are as well. Like people who just don't have the money. They don't have the salary to justify buying food on these apps and paying a whole lot more. The New York Times then documented the guilt that people feel when they order food with regularity. But people are like, they're addicted. They're feeling reliant on the ease and convenience now, which is just not good. And I don't want to sound like an old man. I don't want to sound like a Luddite, but my goodness, the advice is to go cold turkey. Avoid these apps completely. They are. You're talking about paying somewhere between 70 and 120% more for your food items by ordering on the app because there's all those fees and tipping and stuff like that that are involved with it. It's just not worth it. Go pick it up yourself or make a nice little meal at home.

[Matt]

Totally agree, man. Let's talk about the job market, Joel. There's been a whole lot of chatter about that these days. The unemployment rate is still low, but the job market is just in a really tough spot. I'm hearing from friends who are applying with, like, they are in the job market. They're applying for jobs regularly. They're hearing crickets. And it is showing up in the data as well. So the Journal, they documented a role reversal that highlights just how stagnant things have gotten. So folks are now paying headhunters to help them land potential gigs, as opposed. Like, I saw one headline was like, the people are going from headhunters to bread hunters.

[Joel]

Right?

[Matt]

So rather than a company hiring a headhunter to find good employees, these individuals are hiring these specialists to find them a job. Yeah, and I get the, like, the appeal, right? Like, I get the, like, oh my gosh, I need some help.

[Joel]

But you got to be careful here.

[Matt]

Because I was shocked to see at how expensive some of these services can be. They documented one bread hunter is what I'll refer to how they charge job seekers 1500 dollars in fees every single month. And then there was.

[Joel]

It's worse than getting your food delivered, dude.

[Matt]

It gets worse because they're talking about if they land you a job, like, you owe them 10% of your first year's salary, which is mind blowing. And by the way, sounds like a.

[Joel]

Deal with the mob. Yeah, or we'll break your kneecaps.

[Matt]

In that example, they've only placed 20 of 44 clients. So it's not like, I don't know, not super promising. So I understand that being unemployed or even being underemployed, right? Like you're saying to yourself, I could be earning more and I'm looking for something different. I understand that this can be a slog and it's not easy, but, man, if you could just treat your job hunt like an actual job as opposed to thinking, oh, yeah, this is something I'm going to kind of casually do on the side. No, no, no. If this is something you want to do, the job market's getting more competitive, and it's not because people are getting hired. It's just because companies are locking down. Business is unpredictable right now. So a lot of companies aren't willing to make moves as opposed to just hunkering down with what they got.

[Joel]

Low hire, low fire. That's the environment. That's the environment we're in. And part of what makes the job environment harder to navigate is artificial intelligence as well. Right. It's not just AI eliminating jobs, which is part of it, certainly on the margins, I think, but it's ghost jobs that get posted. And 40% of companies apparently post jobs that they aren't actually hiring for. I guess it makes it look to the public like they're doing better.

[Matt]

They're.

[Joel]

The company is like gangbusters, right? They're doing great. And robot gatekeepers are frustrating people who apply for jobs too. So not only are these like fake job listings, or let's say they, they list the job even though they have an internal candidate who they're going to promote into that job anyway. But they listed on the job boards and it's just, it's not accessible. But also we're talking about the fact that it's not a human looking at resumes. And so you have to game the system. You have to, you have to satisfy the robots even to get to a human to. To consider you for that job. So I just mean Job Hunter is just not. It's not for the faint of heart these days. The modern era has just has made like keyword stuffing, SEO for your resume essentially a crucial necessity. The key is to look at the job listing. What are the important words they've highlighted in there? Put those in your own resume so that you can get past those robot gatekeepers. But I think this also highlights something else. I was talking to a friend today, Matt about just how, man, sometimes the talking to a human is. Is the best way forward. The old analog approach. And I think that's true in a lot of ways in job hunting as well. Right. That networking relentlessly getting in touch with people that you've worked with in the past. And as we. The phrase we've used for years, thanks to Jordan Harbinger, is dig the well before you're thirsty. So it's like, oh, I think I want a new job sometime within the next year. Pound the pavement now. Touch base with people in your network regularly. Now that's ultimately what's going to help you land a job. If you're fresher with robot gatekeepers, talk to a bunch of humans.

[Matt]

Yeah, yeah. And so Jordan, it's worth mentioning too, so friend of the show, Jordan Harbinger. This is back when we, this is our predecessor to the interviews was what we called money pros. And he delivered a whole, whole lot of great advice. It might be actually time to reach out if you want to talk to somebody. Yeah, either him or somebody else, though, who is specializing in folks who are entering the job market and how to be incredibly competitive. But the idea of digging the well is essentially like I remember him talking about this, just he was methodical and relentless about reaching out to people on a daily basis. You'd reach out to like 20, 30, 40 different people just to check in folks who's worked with on previous projects, literally trying to figure out how people are doing. So that in large part that the well is there when you get thirsty.

[Joel]

Right.

[Matt]

So you find yourself in a pinch. And oh, by the way, you are already top of mind of that person because y' all are already talking about something else now. I think Jordan would also say that, no, it's not purely an extractive sort of maneuver. You are fostering communication and networking and finding ways to provide value for them so that ultimately it's win, win, because people are gonna be able to see through the sort of networking from a gaming to system kind of, kind of way as well.

[Joel]

If you're like, hey, can we get coffee? And then your first line is like, I'm in dire straits, I need a job. I mean, that's just, that's not how you play the game. And honestly, it's just kind of fun to stay in touch with people. Hey, what are you up to these days? And then at some point, like that connection can come back and serve you well.

[Matt]

Potentially lead to everyone.

[Joel]

Or maybe you can help them out in the future.

[Matt]

Everyone doing better off. Yeah, Also, I would say consider making your own job. The times they featured a, well, I guess not just a single home bakery, like multiple home bakeries who are crushing it. They're talking about these different side hustles, different at home businesses. And for folks who are looking for different amounts of self employment and flexibility, making sourdough, baking and selling sourdough at home I think is going to be very appealing. Plus, it's very pretty. You know, like, you see the bread, like, it just looks so good. I think that's one of the reasons too that sourdough has really taken off because it like, lends itself to like the new social media platform. Crusty Loaf, my gosh, looks with like.

[Joel]

The little design on the top. It's so beautiful.

[Matt]

It looks so good. But folks are, I mean, they were profiling multiple at home bakeries who are making close to six figures, which is incredibly impressive. And I think it's just easier to start a side hustle in this way as well. And whether we're talking about a physical product or even just doing work on the side, right, like this is even just outside of creating bread in your kitchen, we are. This is something we've talked about in the past. And I don't even know if we've been consistent as to how we call like what we would call this. But there is a difference between a side gig, or I'm sorry, or like gig work and a side hustle.

[Joel]

Right.

[Matt]

And so if you find yourself in financial straits and you're just like, oh, I could use some extra cash, okay, a little bit of gig work here and there to be able to create a certain amount of money, I'm not gonna blame you for that. But if you find yourself continually in that cycle, then, man, we would most definitely recommend instead to look to a side hustle, something that you can scale, something where you are playing by your own rules. Like, you are setting the rules, you are finding the clients and the customers something that you have autonomy over, that ultimately, yeah, you can turn into a fully fledged side business. And there's a big difference between that and saying, oh, lowest bar of entry, I'm going to go drive for Uber, drive for Lyft. Some of these companies that actually don't encourage the type of behavior, as we've so documented so far in this episode, we don't want to see a whole lot of folks participating in food delivery.

[Joel]

On either side of that economy.

[Matt]

Yeah, exactly.

[Joel]

Yeah, the gig work, you're right. Typically you're going to get paid more quickly, right? It's like you. It's like a little thing that you can turn on instantly, but the, the flow is just never going to be nearly as strong as being able to build up your own side hustle. Does your sister in law, wouldn't she doing like some baking from home? How's that? Is she doing okay with that?

[Matt]

She was not profiled in this piece. I mean, they enjoy it and they do it, I think, for a lot of their friends and their neighborhood, but they live in a really isolated neighborhood out in the middle of nowhere. And so I think it's. It'd be really difficult for them to scale beyond that specific neighborhood. But then again, the neighborhood's huge, so.

[Joel]

Wouldn'T you want to buy bread from a place called Nowhere Baking? I would. What a great name. Middle of Nowhere. Yeah.

[Matt]

Why not?

[Joel]

Something like that. Yeah. I think there's just so many ways to go about this or to think about making money on the side. Or if let's say one, one partner is working, the other person is at home, it's like, well, all right, how can I do something like that? Energizes me. That kind of keeps the resume alive that. That allows me to be creative.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Joel]

A side hustle can, can like really meet all those things. It can be a labor of love. Like, we got a friend right now who's got a bakery business that he's expanding. And it's been slow, but sure. But like, he's proven the model. He's making a little bit of money.

[Matt]

I actually don't even know which one you're referring to because I can think of at least two of them. You got one more on the sweets and more on the savory. Yeah, but yeah, there's, there's. Yeah, I like what you said too, about as far as the resume, because let's say you did go back to work. If this is something that you were truly going after and took it seriously, you could literally point to that. Like, let's say you built a website or you've got a social media presence. You'd be like, oh, yeah, this is what I was working on all of a sudden. Oh, you actually were attempting to start your own business. As opposed to someone who might say that, like, oh, I was trying my own thing. But then if you've got nothing to show for it. Yeah, it's interesting to think through that. There's a way to almost prove that you've got what it takes. I can create something beautiful. But that maybe just the market wasn't fully behind and thus is the reason.

[Joel]

It didn't work and launching your own thing, it requires so many skills like let's say it's a bakery. You still have to master video and photography and social media and marketing. Like there's all these other elements when you run your own thing beyond just the making of the thing. Right.

[Matt]

So yeah, I think it makes, yeah, I think what you're saying is it makes you attractive to a potential future more corporate hire 100% alright, we got.

[Joel]

More to get to Matt including we're going to talk about old people and they're acting like gen zers. I don't like it. I wanted to stop. We'll talk about that more right after this.

[Matt]

Alright buddy, we are back from the break and of course it is now time for the ludicrous headline of the week which is from Alpha Architect. Headline reads Retired investors should stop trading so much. And this might surprise people because most folks think of younger investors. It's Gen Z. Those are the ones who are constantly trading. Those are the ones out there making ill advised investing moves. WSB the subreddit Wall StreetBets it's not full of a bunch of boomers who are sitting around. That being said, it turns out a lot of older Americans aren't immune from day trading either as the new white paper finds. It turns out once someone retires they've got more time on their hands.

[Joel]

I've heard this.

[Matt]

They've got like they're sitting there watching cnbc. They have the ability, the potential to just trade to their heart's content. But that of course does not translate to superior returns. Actively trading often leads to the reverse to lower returns. And so if you are approaching retirement, make sure that you have a plan for avoiding this behavior. Make sure that you have developed hobbies over time. And, and I know I'm guessing a lot of our listeners are actually a good bit younger and so if you're listening and you're like oh man, I've got older, I'm thinking about my uncle or I'm thinking about my parents and if they seem more keen, if they're talking more about different companies and trades like check in on them like instead I would, yeah try to be like a sounding board, maybe encourage them to partake in some of these different hobby like what else are you doing? Like who are you hanging out with? I would try to point them in that direction as opposed to finding ways for them to juice their retirement nest egg.

[Joel]

So I live on a street with quite a few folks who are Right there, just having retired, they're in their late 60s, early 70s kind of thing. I like hanging out with old folks. They're fun. I walk my neighborhood a lot and so I run into them and there are a couple of those fellas talking the other day, walking their dogs, and they were just stopping to talk and, and they know what I do.

[Matt]

And they're like, well, you like, got room for one more?

[Joel]

They were like, market's up 2% today, Joel. And I'm like, yeah, like, cool. It's just funny how they pay attention to it. And it makes sense in some ways because they got a lot of money.

[Matt]

At stake, their only source of income.

[Joel]

Yeah, but I think you do pay.

[Matt]

A little more attention to the fluctuations of the market. I think when you are tapping your funds as opposed to seeing the market down being an opportunity, opportunity to buy for them. It's like, all right, maybe I'm not going to spend quite as much this month when I withdraw my, my standard cost of living, but I. From the market.

[Joel]

I think having a plan is really important. And then also not being overly fixated on everyday, you know, movements in the market because trust the process, trust the numbers. Exactly. And I think it can. It makes it a lot more likely that you're going to make some moves when you're paying attention and then you're, well, you're paying attention to the analysis. And, oh, this guy over here said that, that this is the next sector that's going to boom as software is busting or something like that. It's like, well, take that with a grain of salt. I don't know, maybe another idea. You said hobbies. Maybe volunteering. That's another way forward for a lot of retirees to spend time doing other productive things and less time focused on what's going on with your portfolio. I think a lot of retirees find themselves not only trading more frequently, but spending more time watching TV and scrolling social media these days, which is not great. I think serving others can reduce some of those negative inputs. And there's some evidence that's been shown to reduce aging. My dad, Matt, has recently started serving, doing meals on wheels and delivering meals to people who are older than he is and in more need. And I can tell that she's been so good for him to get out and about and have those quick conversations with people while he delivers the meal. He puts about a smile on their face during the day and so just, just. Yeah, I think that's. Encourage the people in your life to not just fixate on their own life and portfolio. But caring for others too.

[Matt]

Yeah, I mean life is more than just. Yeah, you're looking beyond yourself. And I mean, it's not a surprise, like I saw in that same report that they talk about less of a risk of heart attack, decreased blood pressure, decreased levels of depression overall, generally higher levels of life satisfaction, which is no surprise at all. And I would actually the big question I think, is it correlative, is it correlation or is it causation? Because I know the folks over at Harvard who are doing the longitudinal study, the happiness study would say, well, that's because when you volunteer, when you are reaching out to others, what does that do? It puts you in contact with other people. Friendship, relationships, deep relationships, These are all things that are fed by volunteering, by getting out there and not, you know, dooms rolling.

[Joel]

Yeah.

[Matt]

And feeling like you got to do something with your portfolio, which is what.

[Joel]

Most people are missing when they leave work. They're like glad in some ways they don't.

[Matt]

They're missing that camaraderie, don't have to work anymore.

[Joel]

Maybe their manager was not fun to work for or something like that.

[Matt]

Physically demanding labor, you know, all sorts of reasons.

[Joel]

But they miss the relational aspect of it. And serving is. And volunteering is a way to get a lot of that relational benefit without the take this job and shove it sort of mentality.

[Matt]

Yeah, well, on top of that, a lot of folks are. I shouldn't say a lot, lot of folks, but more folks are unretiring. There is a AARP survey that found that more older Americans are looking for a job these days. And some are trying to increase their income in order to combat rising prices. But also there is a large percentage as well who cite boredom in the desire to stay active. So they realize that, oh man, there was something good that was coming out of me going to work. It wasn't just financial finances were about half of the folks. Of the people. There's something like 7% of retirees are going back to work. Of that 7%, about half of folks same. They need the money because. Yeah, because of just day to day costs. But a large percentage of the rest of that was because they were like, oh, wait a minute, that work was able to provide me a whole lot of good. And I think if you think about.

[Joel]

If you had to retire right now, you'd miss me so much. I would.

[Matt]

And then I'd be like, hey, you want to go do start another business or something? You know, I mean, honestly. But I guess I want to, to point folks to something like a part time job in retirement. Right. Like, it's certainly probably not going to be as prestigious, it's probably not going to be as lucrative as your old full time job, even if you were working full time hours at this part time job. But I think it can make a ton of sense for folks as they're looking for purpose, community, sense of belonging and overall life satisfaction.

[Joel]

My uncle got a part time job at a greyhound racing track, interestingly enough. Nice. He was like a videographer for local TV station and then he transitioned and he was doing the video stuff for the, for the dog races.

[Matt]

He's like, I love the dog races, so why not?

[Joel]

He took me there one time.

[Matt]

He's like, I'm spending every weekend there anyway. Now they pay me to be there as opposed to I used to pay them.

[Joel]

Let's hope he's not gambling away all the money he made doing that. All right, let's talk about politics for a second. And we're not going to get political here, but there's a lot happening kind of in the current event space to add to his list of firsts, Matt, President Trump. I think he's the only American president who has launched a pharmacy. So Trump RX is now live. We talked about that. For better or worse.

[Matt]

I feel like back in the day, I'm sure that like Hoover or somebody used to own a pharmacy before he entered into the political field. Did he, you think? I mean, there's got to be somebody, somebody, some connection. One of those guys back in the day had a pharmacy.

[Joel]

You might be right.

[Matt]

This is a different kind of pharmacy.

[Joel]

Yes.

[Matt]

Is what you're getting at.

[Joel]

Yeah, yeah. Well, it seems like it could be particularly beneficial to people who don't have insurance. Although I will say Goodrx is far more flexible. It includes a lot more prescription drugs. TrumpRx currently just has a really small roster of available drugs, including some of the popular name brand GLP1s. But if you have insurance, you're likely going to do better going that way. And the thing is, you don't actually buy the drugs from the site that the administration has set up. It works kind of like those coupon sites like Goodrx. And so it gives you a voucher that you can present to the pharmacy to get the listed preferred price. And so if you have traditional insurance, again, it's less likely to be of value, but it is likely, it's worth seeing at least and checking if the medication you use is listed on TrumpRx's site. And if you can save money using it. I don't know how many people this is gonna help, Matt, but I definitely. It's gonna help some people. And I guess President Trump was able to use the bully pulpit to a certain extent to maybe shame the pharma companies into lowering prices on at least a handful of medications.

[Matt]

Yeah. Well, there's more Trump news. Let's talk about home prices, because the president made some comments on housing recently that I thought were worth addressing. So in a Cabinet meeting, he literally said this line, Joel. He said, I don't want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive housing prices up for people that own their homes, which.

[Joel]

The rich get richer.

[Matt]

I don't love that. I don't like this line of thinking, even though I think there's a. I think it might be more beneficial from a political perspective. Right. But, like, it's beneficial for people who already own their homes. But obviously, there's a whole lot of folks who don't own their homes. And what you're talking about, there is less housing affordability, but generally speaking, our country needs more housing, particularly in highly desirable areas. And this is kind of going back to conversations we've had, like, the ability. I like. I don't think the government should do anything here. And luckily, the good news is, I think there's very little that President Trump can do that the executive branch can do when it comes to housing prices. But what we need are more options.

[Joel]

Housing is pretty local, and it's pretty local zoning regulations and requirements that prevent or incentivize building to be able to.

[Matt]

Incentivize the kind of building that that specific area needs. Right. And, like, that's what's so great about just the different markets out there, is because you might have a town or an area that needs more affordable starter homes. And. And you do see neighborhoods that are being developed where the homes are closer together. Oh, man, those yards are tiny. Who would ever want to live there? Gosh, there's like, no backyard at all. Well, plenty of people would love to be able to buy those homes because they're more affordable as opposed to someone else. You know, there's. We've also seen neighborhoods, new developments going up that are just really sinking. Nice. Really nice. And you're thinking, oh, wow, who the heck can afford that? There's plenty of folks who can afford a very nice neighborhood like little McMansion as well. So I don't know. Again, I think the free market is maybe not the only solution here, but it's Certainly the structure that we need to see in order for. In order for folks to be able to get the houses that they want.

[Joel]

I don't know if that take is just because he's a real estate developer or. And like prices going up is, you know, real estate developers usually do well when that happens. But I think when you're talking about a country of where there's tens of millions of young folks who would love to get in on the housing pipeline, and it has been one of the, if not the most predominant way that people feel like they enter the middle class and experiencing that equity growth. It's one of the number one ways that people build wealth in this country. So say that out loud. That you don't necessarily want young Americans to participate in that, I think feels pretty deflating.

[Matt]

Yeah. I don't know the full context, but I do know he was in Davos when he said that, so I don't know. He's speaking to the crowd.

[Joel]

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, one thing you don't want to do if you're thinking about buying a home is to buy a home with friends. Because as prices stay high, the appeal of buying a home with someone else, I think it becomes. I don't know, it sounds nicer, right? You're like, okay, well, if I can't buy a home by myself, then let me loop in one of my friends who also has the same desire to buy a home. Let's do it together, buddy. Come on.

[Matt]

Best friends out. Yeah, let's do it. Like Matt Joel.

[Joel]

That's right.

[Matt]

Which we've never purchased a home together. No, we haven't. No, we haven't started a business together. But that's different than something that feels more permanent, like a house.

[Joel]

Yes, exactly. And some people will say, oh, it's going to lower this entry barrier. Right. It makes affordability a little less of an issue if you've got two people, you know, joining in that down payment and on the monthly payment. But there are real potential pitfalls to this strategy. First, renting is a lot cheaper right now across most of the country. That's true. So rent with your friends instead and then save and invest more. Rent with your friends is great.

[Matt]

Yeah, friends are great. Do the things with your friends.

[Joel]

That's right.

[Matt]

Something less permanent, though, like renting.

[Joel]

Right.

[Matt]

That's the way to win.

[Joel]

Because guess what? You guys have a falling out or have a tough time. Well, that lease is up in four months or something like that, and you don't have much longer. You have to deal with them. But if you bought the house together and you're like, I don't like you anymore, then that can create real issues. What if your friend loses his or her job? Or what if your friendship just can't endure the strain of living together? There are all of these things that could lead to financial instability for one person in this partnership and it impacts both of your investment and both of your need to have a roof over your head, tying up capital, rooting yourselves to the same spot when you buy a house together. I think there's just, there's just too much in, in that proposition. And I just can't in good conscience tell people that co buying with a home with a buddy is a great idea. And something else, man. If the housing market softens, like forced selling can lead to real losses for both people. When you're ready to buy a home with someone you're married to, right. Or someone that you have a long term loving relationship with, I think that's different than just like going in with a friend.

[Matt]

Totally agree. On that note, folks might have heard something about credit score rules for mortgages that might be changing. So it's been reported that there are no longer minimum credit score requirements for conventional loans forever. I don't know. For as long as I know the minimum necessary score has been 620. And it is kind of true that there's no longer like a hard minimum score requirement. Lenders will now be evaluating risk holistically, which includes your, your debt load, your income stability, your savings, things like that. Like they're looking at the whole picture, which actually I think is great.

[Joel]

I love they're taking into account savings because that's like one thing that they didn't seem to care about before.

[Matt]

They're taking more of like a manual underwriting sort of approach to mortgage lending as opposed to before where it just seemed like they were just ignorantly running the numbers through the system. So credit scores are only one piece of the pie. That being said, your credit score is still going to play a very large role. It'll influence whether or not you get approved and it can impact what rate you qualify for. So this isn't to say that like, oh yeah, credit scores don't matter anymore. No. 740, like anything above that is, and it likely always will be clutch in order for you to receive the best rates and the best terms. Just know that they're going to start looking at other aspects of your personal finances, not just the quote unquote, sacred FICO score.

[Joel]

The FTC talking about Credit scores. Matt, the FTC recently released a consumer alert about terrible credit repair tips that are giving people false hope about being able to get their credit score back in decent shape. Let's say you're in the 560s and you're like, you just heard what Matt said and you're like, I can buy a house now. Well, not so fast. Maybe not. And then you're like, okay, I guess I need to get that credit score bumped up then. Well, that's. Well, yes, you do. Like that's really important, right? Your credit score is a really important part of your personal finance hygiene. And having a good credit score matters in so many areas of your financial life. When your credit score sucks, it can be frustrating. The impact can be far reaching, which makes it really easy for people who are in that position to fall for bad advice or attempt to pay someone to get the issue resolved quickly. But this warning that the, that the Federal Trade Commission issued is all about not paying people to repair your credit or filing what's known as a false identity theft report in order to get information removed. Because if the information is accurate, it's not going to be removed. And apparently I didn't realize this. Matt, it's a crime. It could be crime. I don't know that you're gonna like get tossed behind bars for this. But.

[Matt]

But you're lying.

[Joel]

But you're lying.

[Matt]

You're paying somebody to lie for you.

[Joel]

That's right. That's right. So don't do that. Do not listen to the influencers out there on TikTok telling you that you can fix your credit score by filing one of these reports or that they can do it for you if you pay them money. That's a waste of your money, waste of your time. Fixing your credit is gonna take some time and some responsible usage of the credit that's at your disposal. Which often involves learning the ropes of how the scoring model works. We have great articles up on howtomoney.com about that. We'll link to some of our favorites in the show notes that'll help you if you're trying to figure out how do I get my credit score back into good shape?

[Matt]

And of course those show notes can be found up on the [e-mail] head over there and we hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. We'll see you back here on Monday. Until next time, best friends out. Best friends out. This is an Iheart podcast.

[Joel]

Guaranteed human.