💰 “The (Ex)Finance Bro’s Guide To $$$” — Nick & Jack interviewed on Wild 'Til 9

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Best One Yet – “The (Ex)Finance Bro’s Guide To $$$”

Podcast: The Best One Yet
Hosts: Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell
Episode Crosspost: Interviewed on Wild ’Til 9 with Lauren & Jeremy
Date: September 4, 2025
Theme: Accessible, engaging personal finance advice ("ex-finance bros" vibes), demystifying investing, credit, and money life for all—especially for those intimidated by traditional finance content.

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Episode Overview

In this crossover episode, Nick and Jack—hosts of the pop-biz news podcast The Best One Yet—sit down with Lauren and Jeremy from Wild ’Til 9. They share everything from their journey out of traditional finance, to plain-English investing tips, to the realities of money management in relationships. Designed for everyone who feels intimidated or out of place in "finance bro" culture, the episode dismantles stereotypes and makes money topics engaging, relatable, and fun.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Who Are Nick & Jack? (03:07–07:10)

• Former "finance bros" with deep roots in both creative and business worlds.
• Started the original Market Snacks as a side hustle while in finance—anonymously at first due to corporate compliance.
• Stress that they're ex-finance bros: “Do not identify as finance bros. No, I would say certainly not. We retired. Yeah. Ex." (05:17 – Nick)
• Always felt out of place in the finance world—more interested in storytelling, humor, and creativity.

Notable Quote:

“What you only had was really creative interests that couldn't be satisfied in finance, like writing and, and the arts and. And being creative.” — Nick (05:58)

2. Making Business News “Edutainment” (10:16–13:04)

• Importance of blending education with entertainment: “It’s gotta be edutainment.” (10:29 – Lauren)
• No "finance" in the podcast title or description—meant to be accessible, not off-putting.
• The “pop-biz” approach: intersection of business news, daily life, and pop culture.
• Theme song inspired by Fresh Prince and written by Black Lack. It's become a community rallying point.

Notable Quote:

“If you're looking for a finance podcast, we might not be the one for you.” — Jack (12:42)

3. The Side Hustle Story: Building Their Business (07:03–14:38)

• Kept their newsletter secret while working at banks—using white text in emails to hide communications.
• Transitioned to podcasting; eventually sold to Robinhood, then spun out independently with a brighter, more fun mission.

Notable Quote:

“We started in a world where there is so much news Everywhere... Content is king. But we like to say curation is queen.” — Nick (20:22)

4. How They Actually Make Personal Finance Relatable (18:00–26:09)

• Prioritize accuracy and approachability (Jack's obsession: fact-checking; Nick: humor and ambition).
• Everyday examples: Dr. Pepper vs. Pepsi, dinosaur bones as investments, how kids listen in ("Yetis" & "Besties" community).
• Audience skews ~45% women, and proportion is growing—content intentionally transcends the “finance bro” stereotype.

Notable Quote:

“Everything around us is actually related to business, and we just don't even realize it.” — Nick (09:24)

5. Investing for Absolute Beginners (28:01–41:12)

How to Think About Stocks

• Stocks = Ownership. “If you buy a stock, you own part of a company.” (28:41–Jack)
• First step: Invest in companies you love and understand (e.g. “dating your stock”).
• Start small: If you’re about to spend $200 on Nikes, consider buying $200 of Nike stock instead.

Smoothies & ETFs

• For beginners, individual stocks are riskier; the “smoothie” of investing is buying an ETF.
• ETFs (“Exchange Traded Funds”) = a basket of many companies’ stocks, spreading risk.
• S&P 500 ETF (Vanguard or Spider): “A smoothie of the 500 biggest publicly traded companies.”

How to Get Started

• Open a brokerage account (Robinhood, Schwab, etc.), connect your bank, and buy shares.
• Only invest money you can afford to lose, and expect to hold for multiple years.

On “Guaranteed” Returns & FOMO

• S&P 500 has averaged ~10% annual return over a century, but not guaranteed.
• Beware get-rich-quick schemes; FOMO (“fear of missing out”) leads to poor investment decisions.

Notable Quotes:

“The best performing asset we've ever had was the one we thought about the least, which was simply buying an ETF.” — Nick (38:31)
“Finance Bros who boast... do worse than those who simply put their money in an S&P 500 ETF.” — Jack (39:34)

6. Credit Cards, Emergencies, and Money Habits (43:08–52:23)

• Credit Cards: Gen Z far more likely to use credit cards early than millennials—who were scarred by the 2008 recession.
• Jack waited until after college for a credit card, recommends against co-signing for credit cards; save favors for bigger loans.
• The “budget brunch” approach: Make checking credit card statements and financial planning a fun, recurring couples’ activity.
• Couple communication is key. Finances are a top reason for divorce; transparency and routine are crucial.

Notable Quotes:

“Wild statistic... There’s a correlation between opening your mail and having good financial outcomes.” — Jack (50:29)
“Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to finance.” — Jack (51:00)

7. Economics 101: Why Not Just Print More Money? (54:45–58:33)

• Dollars are like pizza slices; printing more money is cutting the same pizza into more (but smaller) pieces.
• Printing money dilutes value (inflation).
• *“Printing money calms the banks down, which can prevent something much worse.” — Jack (56:38)
• The real goal is to “grow the pizza”—expand the economy's size through productivity and confidence.

8. Savings, Rent, and “NIMBYism” (58:38–63:04)

• Rule of thumb: Keep at least three months’ living expenses in savings for emergencies.
• Max rent should be 30% of income, but rising rents mean this isn't always feasible.
• Housing shortages (and NIMBYism: “Not In My Back Yard”) are big structural problems.

Notable Quotes:

“The economy is wildly interconnected... If you have to pick one issue that may have the biggest impact on so many elements of our lives, it could simply be the construction of more houses.” — Nick (61:43)

9. Relationships & Money — Merging Finances (63:09–66:00)

• Merging finances can be revealing and helpful for relationships, but is not mandatory.
• The “trip test”: Take a vacation with a shared budget and account before combining everything for good.
• Proactive communication about money helps avoid surprises and resentment.

10. The “Finance Bro” Stereotypes (66:11–68:51)

• Why do finance bros love vests? Practicality (weather, sweat), but also part of the culture.
• Dress codes are self-reinforcing; “guys dress up for guys.”
• Office fashion quirks and inside jokes exposed, but with humor and self-awareness.

11. The Meet Cutes — How Nick & Jack Met Their Wives (68:54–73:35)

• Both stories: sentimental, a little absurd, and long-distance challenges.
• Jack: Met at a Vermont beer fest, traveled for a Mets game, epic rom com-style pursuit.
• Nick: Met on day one of college, long game, recommendation letter, long distance.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Ex-Finance Bro Identity:
  “We retired. Yeah. Ex.” (05:19, Jack)

• On Side Hustles and Creativity:
  “Everything around us is actually related to business, and we just don't even realize it.” (09:24, Nick)

• On “Edutainment”:
  “If you're looking for a finance podcast, we might not be the one for you.” (12:42, Jack)

• On ETFs:
  “The best performing asset we've ever had was ... simply buying an ETF.” (38:31, Nick)

• On Financial FOMO:
  “FOMO can become no mo.” (42:18, Nick)

• On Mail and Money Outcomes:
  “There's a correlation between opening your mail and having good financial outcomes.” (50:29, Jack)

• On Money in Relationships:
  “Treating that credit card statement moment like a date... that's a great opportunity to get on the same page together.” (49:00, Nick)

• On Merging Finances:
  “You don’t want to be a surprise when you're bidding on your first house ... and realize maybe the credit ratings are a little different than you expect.” (63:48, Nick)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:07 – Nick & Jack’s finance origin stories
• 10:16 – Making finance entertaining: “edutainment”
• 18:00 – Fact-checking, humor, and what each host brings to the pod
• 28:01 – “How do I even start investing?”
• 35:46 – The “smoothie” approach: ETFs, S&P 500
• 43:08 – Building credit, credit cards, and generational differences
• 49:00 – Budget brunch and financial transparency in relationships
• 54:45 – Printing money & the pizza analogy
• 58:38 – Emergency savings and living costs
• 63:09 – Merging finances as a couple; “the trip test”
• 66:11 – The mystique of the finance bro vest
• 68:54 – How the hosts met their wives

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Language & Tone

The entire episode is peppered with rapid, witty banter, playful jabs at “finance bro” stereotypes, and plain-language analogies (“smoothie of stocks”, “pizza slice” for inflation). Both pairs of hosts riff with warmth and authenticity, making even the driest of finance topics accessible, humorous, and practical.

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Final Takeaways

• Finance CAN be accessible, entertaining, and for everyone—especially when it’s stripped of jargon and elitism.
• Start with what you know and love; use simple strategies (like ETFs) for lifelong financial health.
• Communication is everything: whether it’s in business, with a partner, or just with your own finances.
• If you want to feel “brighter every day,” meld business news, pop culture, and humor—T Boy style.

Where to Find Nick & Jack:
Listen to The Best One Yet on all major podcast platforms, Monday through Friday; pop-biz news made fun, insightful, and actually relevant.

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For anyone looking to feel empowered around money—without the “finance bro” energy—this episode is your best one yet.

Transcript

[A]

Yetis, Jack and I are nearly wrapped with our two weeks out of the recording studio for our final vacation drop.

[B]

We've got an awesome conversation originally published on the WildTail 9 podcast.

[A]

Lauren and Jeremy are two of our favorite podcasters and influencers, and we sat down in Los Angeles to chat with them about personal finance, money investing, making money, not losing money, all that good stuff.

[B]

We cosplayed as Warren Buffett as best as we could.

[A]

We also shared our meet cute stories, didn't we, Jack?

[B]

How I met Alex and how you met Molly. And dude, it was tough following how I met Alex. Yes, it was.

[A]

So, besties, enjoy the episode and we'll be back with you for our usual T boy pod on Monday.

[B]

We have something. We know you just got married on April 7th.

[C]

Oh, boy.

[B]

But given that we've been talking about weddings and finances for two days in a row now, Lauren, we actually have some financial vows we've written for the two of you that we'd like you to exchange.

[C]

Everyone sit back down.

[D]

Yeah, everyone sit back down.

[A]

I think this is the real wedding, to be honest.

[D]

Yep.

[C]

Let's go home.

[A]

Now. A quick break.

[B]

Switching topics to one of our favorite sponsors, Vital Proteins.

[A]

Yeah, it is. We've told you about vital proteins. They help support our hair, skin, nail, bone and joint health with those collagen peptides.

[B]

But after doing their ads for a few months, we told Vital Proteins, hey, we. We like to shake things up, okay?

[A]

But then they took us too literally. And guess what product Vital Proteins just launched.

[B]

A ready to drink collagen protein shake with a smooth chocolate taste.

[A]

They shook it up too much. We're talking 30 grams of protein. Enough to grow a third bicep, I think.

[B]

Nick. I've been using vital proteins for my coffee. Now I use it for my bicep curls, too.

[A]

It's all the benefits of vital proteins collagen. But in an 11 ounce shake, you can grab, go and shake.

[B]

So go to www.vitalproteins.com to learn more and where to buy. Get 20% off your next order by entering promo code T boy at checkout. Airbnb Yetis.

[A]

Our show actually started as a side hustle over 10 years ago. It began in secret. Outside of our bank jobs.

[B]

We were worried we'd get fired, so we didn't tell our bosses and we even left our names off the website. Now, that was our side hustle, a media startup.

[A]

But there are other side hustles that.

[B]

Are a lot less risky than that and that have 0% chance of getting you fired. Like being a host on Airbnb in.

[A]

This economy, it's a fun and rewarding way to make money off the thing. You're already paying for your house or your apartment.

[B]

I've hosted two previous apartments and my current chalet on Airbnb.

[A]

And when no one's using it, why not welcome a family, a couple that just got engaged?

[B]

You already have an Airbnb. You just didn't realize it yet.

[A]

Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how [e-mail] host good. I can't control this.

[B]

We're talking about the slip and fall, right?

[C]

And with that, welcome back to Wild Till Nine.

[D]

Joining us today is the dynamic duo Nick and Jack from the hit pop biz news podcast, the best one yet. T. Boy, do we want to. Do we want to identify our T boys. We've got.

[A]

This is Nick, this is Jack.

[D]

Oh, that was so crazy. It sounded exactly like.

[B]

It's like we've done it 1500 times.

[D]

No kidding.

[C]

Probably more.

[D]

Okay, wait. I. I have more hype. Previously the host of the iconic Snacks daily podcast acquired by Robin Hood. They've spread their wings and left the nest and are bringing you three daily news stories that will leave you a little more in the know every single weekday. We've secured our own in in house finance bros for the episode. Not sure about the trust funds. I think one's got blue eyes. Yeah, one's got blue eyes. Not quite six five combined. And regardless way, a clearing six five together for sure. And we are big fans nonetheless.

[A]

Thank you so much, guys. That was the best intro yet.

[B]

We're both 5 10.

[D]

No way.

[B]

Our college coaches listed us at 5 11.

[C]

Wait, they lied to 511?

[A]

No, I think it was like this, Jack. We're actually five ten. We tell people five eleven. The college coaches heard six foot and.

[B]

Then they wrote six one on the roster. I actually showed up to. You know, I walked on. I told you.

[C]

Well, you told everybody, but yeah, you go.

[B]

Well, I went to my college recruiting trip, which, like, I invited myself to, to be honest.

[C]

And this is D. D3.3. Got it.

[B]

Yeah. I was known as D3BO back then, by the way.

[C]

The bestie. The bestie.

[B]

The bestie. So I actually put playing cards in both of my shoes to increase my height.

[D]

Wow.

[C]

But you had, like, run in this?

[B]

No, I didn't have to run. Just like, winter time. I was visiting. I was checking out the campus. More of a personality. Old school lips.

[C]

Yeah, old school lips before, like, Amazon you just order things.

[B]

Yeah. Cuz quarterbacks are supposed to not be 5 10.

[C]

How tall are they supposed to be?

[B]

Brady's 64.

[C]

Okay.

[D]

Is he really?

[C]

Yeah, he doesn't give off 64 energy. He gives off 510 energy.

[D]

Okay, guys, we're starting. We're starting way too bro to have a 98% female audience. Okay, so let's reel it in. Okay, so we. I feel like we can't not talk about the viral TikTok Finance Bro Anthem that's been going around.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And you'd heard this before, I assume, right?

[D]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[A]

Trust fund.

[D]

Trust fund.

[C]

Now that you guys are just finishing sentences, do you.

[D]

Do you guys still identify as finance bros? Kind of.

[B]

Nick.

[A]

Do not identify as finance bros.

[B]

No, I would say certainly not. We retired. Yeah. Ex.

[D]

We reformed boy for Jeremy.

[C]

We don't.

[A]

Yeah, we don't.

[C]

We don't. We haven't in 10 years. We have it in 10 years. But. But sure, for sure.

[A]

No, but it's really. That is a really interesting question because I actually think that's something people assume when you're a guy and you work in finance that you're a finance bro. You love spreadsheets, you love hanging out with other bros and you love just grabbing beer. And I think frankly Jack and I always felt different in finance and like, frankly felt like an outlier even if you look like a classic typical stereotypical finance guy.

[C]

And you do. Yeah.

[B]

These books by their covers were finance.

[A]

Well, but what you only had was really creative interests that couldn't be satisfied in finance, like writing and, and the arts and. And being creative.

[B]

Humor and awareness.

[A]

Humor that you can't do in a.

[B]

Realization that like making profits is not the only thing in the world.

[C]

What? But did you major in finance in college?

[B]

Economics. We went to a liberal arts school.

[A]

Yeah, I didn't.

[B]

History. Sorry, history. And.

[A]

And frankly took a lot of creative courses in college, like creative writing and.

[D]

Hang on, this is my blowing. Hang on, wait, hang on, back up. Economics and not money.

[C]

No, economics is pretty money.

[D]

No, no, no.

[B]

Money in history.

[D]

His history.

[A]

Yeah. And Jack and I call in and Jack took a lot of courses outside of economics too.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

And frankly, I actually doubled majored. I have German and economics.

[C]

Ah, Invader references.

[D]

There you go.

[C]

So what were you going to do with that German major, by the way?

[B]

Well, I ended up working at a German investment.

[C]

Great answer.

[D]

Great answer, actually. So you actually applied literally both of your majors?

[B]

I did, believe it or not. And I actually had some great clients. So Nick and I side hustled our newsletter for five years.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

Before we turn it into our full.

[C]

House, we're secretive about. In the beginning.

[B]

Yeah. We were anonymous.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Financial institutions have compliance departments.

[D]

Right.

[B]

And they do not like you saying that you're doing anything except working for the company to maximize the profits.

[A]

Just to set the scene here. Jack and I would finish a day of working at an investment bank, and then we would get on the subway and text each other. All right, what stories are we covering today? Lululemon's earnings. We got a cool angle.

[B]

Afterwards, you work all day and then go.

[C]

Right.

[A]

Sometimes we would even send emails to each other from our company. Emails. But we would turn the text white.

[B]

Genius.

[C]

Genius. Not, but genius.

[A]

And literally, we would, like, do this on the end. Then we would write a newsletter every day on the subway, coming home and. And get this out.

[C]

Foia, is it. Is that the agency that, like, goes in finra. Finra.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Like, looks through, like, all the emails?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

They're like, oh, my God.

[B]

Dude.

[A]

Sending all these blank.

[C]

I tried. I tried the exact same thing with turnitin.com doesn't work.

[B]

So when Nick left, finally, they. They had a stack of papers this big. He had a meeting with HR that.

[A]

Was like, last weeks.

[B]

They said, nick, what is Market Snacks?

[A]

And that was our startup secretly.

[B]

But anyway, it all worked out. We didn't get in trouble. We actually. We grew the audience anonymously. There was no name attached to the Market Snacks newsletter, but of course, we told everyone to sign up and, like, push that hardcore.

[C]

It's like, people around. You knew, right?

[B]

Yeah, people around. Close friends.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

They knew. We often. Until an advertiser said, hey, can we be your first advertiser? And then we were like, oh, my God, we're gonna make money off.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So that's when we came clean with our bosses and filed it as an outside business activity.

[C]

Oh, so you actually officially went through the.

[B]

We went through the official channels after about a year.

[C]

And you both had a Series 7, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And you can lose that if you. Okay.

[D]

For everyone else, What's a Series 7?

[A]

Don't ask me.

[B]

7 is a license that is required to basically work in the finance industry.

[C]

Y.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

And, you know, it's not like the bar for becoming a lawyer, but you can get kicked out kind of of the finance industry if you do unethical things or if you're caught engaged in fraud or stuff like that. So we determined that what we were doing was not conflict at all.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

It wasn't fraud.

[C]

We determined that we were not.

[B]

Our compliance department approved it.

[A]

Jack and I also just had this. This deep belief early on that we still believe today that everything around us is actually related to business, and we just don't even realize it.

[C]

Sure.

[A]

Like, we just had a whole conversation about Jeremy's passion for khakis from Abercrombie. Everything we kind of said about that is reflected in Abber Crom's earnings report that just came out and affected the stock. And so Jack and I have always felt these are stories that need to be told and how fun it is to tell these stories, but they need.

[C]

To be told by somebody who understands what it takes to. To pass the Series 7 and doesn't want to use it.

[B]

That was us.

[C]

Believe it or not.

[B]

That was us.

[C]

But otherwise, it's just the.

[A]

The.

[C]

The perspective is so. The importance of the technical information outweighs entertainment. And, like, I'm ADHD as hell. Like, if something's not, like, actually engaging, I'm out. Even if it's on, it's just filler.

[D]

I think on the opposite side of that, too. Like, I'm not adhd. Like, I'm locked in when I listen to a podcast. But if something is going to be, like, too wordy or feel, like, a little too educational and it's leaning on that side versus, like, entertaining, like, I'm also out because I'm here for a.

[C]

Good time, it's gotta be edutainment.

[D]

It's gotta be. It's. Yeah, it's gotta be edutainment. And so I feel like the way that you guys have packaged it and made it digestible for someone like me who doesn't have any business background, you.

[C]

Just sneak it in there. You hide it.

[B]

We do sneak it in there.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

And then you throw an amazing theme song on it two times in a row.

[B]

So the first time we ever encountered Jeremy and Lauren was on Instagram when they posted their dog, Moose, and the two of them dancing to the theme.

[D]

Song of our podcast and the new theme song, the T Boy Pod. Theme song inspired by Prince of Bel Air, right?

[B]

Yeah. First Prince of Belair.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Really?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

It tells the story of Nick and me meeting 16 years ago, and a.

[A]

Great rap duo down in Texas called Black Lack wrote the song.

[B]

I was going to ask you.

[D]

Yeah. How you found them.

[B]

Yeah. Let. Let's. Can we play it?

[C]

Yeah. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm.

[A]

It's the best one yet. But the best is the norm.

[C]

Jack. Nick.

[D]

That's it. I don't even think that a practice 50%.

[C]

That's a fat tip. T boy city on your at list.

[A]

If you know, you know. Cause we read to go.

[C]

We can't wait no more. So just start the show. Start the show. I love it.

[D]

So good.

[C]

The video is cute, too. I never seen the video. I only listen.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[D]

Such a bop.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it's like, we did a live show in New York the other day, and we played that, and people were, like, dancing in their seats.

[C]

And that's kind of crazy. Like, to hear her, like, know the.

[A]

Words to a song when I tell you.

[D]

I also don't know the words to anything. Like, I. I, like, don't have that little. I don't have.

[C]

But also, that's. I think that's why. That's why there's a. An unreasonable amount of finance podcasts out in the world with, like, two guys talking to each other who think that they know what they're talking about. You guys just found a way to, like, actually package it and have good information, but, like, without the package, nobody cares.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So, Lauren, I love that you listen every day. Thank you so much for listening every day. Most of our audience listens every day. We've done 1500 episodes of this show.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

And we actually don't have the word finance in the title or description of our podcast, even though that's because that would be misleading.

[C]

Yep.

[A]

If you.

[B]

If you're looking for a finance podcast, we might not be the one for you, you know?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

We are for people who are interested in finance, economics, and business, but don't want a podcast. That is just that.

[C]

Right.

[D]

If I saw. If I saw the tag finance, I wouldn't even. I'd glaze over.

[B]

Yeah. You see a logo.

[A]

It looks like a fashion logo almost. It's not about. And just the idea of a show being called the best one yet. Like, the reason why Jack and I said that and why the title of our whole product of our whole podcast is the best one yet is when we started podcasting, Jack and I would say, like, hey, that episode we just did, that was, like, the best one we've done. And then we just kind of kept saying it on the show. And then our audience embraced and was like, hey, I just had, like, the best smoothie yet. I just had the best outfit yet. And we realized this was, like, a mindset people were living.

[B]

We emailed each other in white text.

[C]

That it was the best One yet again, the. The decisions that go into these things. Not all that deep.

[B]

No. So we actually did go deep after we left Robinhood after working there for three years. So we sold the company to Robinhood in 2018. Three years later, we spun it out. We. We spun out the podcast and became independent again. But we had months of legal back and forth.

[D]

Totally.

[B]

We had time to prepare. So we did a brand strategy activity where we asked ourselves, what is the show? And it is not a finance show. And we came up with the term pop biz, which were dedicated to. We'd actually been doing for years. Pop culture articulated it. The intersection of business and pop culture. And we came up with a mission, which is to make people's day feel brighter. And brighter is the perfect word because it's both becoming smarter because Nick and I pour all of the best insights and takeaways we've ever had in our 20 years of academic and professional life into the show. But also brighter because Nick and I are having a blast every morning. We are best friends who have incredible comfort with each other and chemistry with each other and inside jokes and references to bring into the show.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So it actually kind of.

[D]

So goddamn wholesome. Right.

[C]

Because if you didn't love what you were doing, this would not be.

[D]

The audience knows. They can feel that. They can totally feel that.

[B]

Nick is outrageously funny. I like to say that humor was invented in New York City, which is where Nick is born and raised.

[C]

Yeah. You can tell. He's got, like, the energy.

[B]

It does. Yeah, I did.

[A]

I slipped on the stairs earlier. I think I was just too rambunctious.

[B]

And the amount of calories I've burned in my life because of laughter during the recording with the podcast.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. I'd be £50.

[C]

What do you bring to the show?

[B]

Yeah, that's a good question.

[A]

Funny today to the show.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

We did a story this week on how Dr. Pepper just passed Pepsi to become the number two soda, by the way.

[C]

As it should have. Yeah, it should have.

[A]

Jeremy's been one of the best fighting this fight.

[D]

He has been. Yeah, he's been fighting the good fight.

[B]

For Dr. Peppy for you.

[A]

Jack revealed on the show he'd never.

[C]

Had a Dr. Pepper and now he's about to drink a warm one.

[D]

I know the one yesterday was also warm.

[B]

Lauren is the only way I've had it.

[A]

Lauren gave him his first doctor.

[B]

I get a glass of ice. Actually. Is there any way we can.

[C]

Do you think I'm just like a. He looks at me and Goes, can I get a glass of ice, big guy?

[D]

You know what's like because.

[C]

Because of how much I love Dr. Pepper.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Talk amongst yourself.

[A]

One big ice cube, not the small ones.

[D]

Yeah. He's like, can I get the. The whiskey on the. Whiskey on the. On the rock.

[A]

Dr. Pepe Cube, please. Jack wants to enjoy all 23 flavors.

[D]

You know what, though? You should experience this on ice because it is a different experience. Because the warm, shaken purse Dr. Pepe that you had from me and then you had a warm butt Dr. Pepe from another guy. Right. Who approached you that his pants.

[A]

Yeah. Now that Jack's told the world he had never had a Dr. Pepper until this week, he's getting inundated with Dr. Pepper.

[B]

The following day, two fans, including Lauren, gave me a Dr. Pepper. But I actually do know what I bring to the show. Yes. I'm going to wait for Jeremy to get back. But Lauren, are you familiar with enneagrams?

[D]

Yeah, we did a whole episode. Yes, we are. Yeah. What are your. What are your enneagrams?

[B]

So I'm a hard enneagram one with a four wing. Nick's enneagram three. So Nick's best thing that he brings to the table, besides his humor, is ambition and a demand for excellence.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

What I bring to the show is probably, like, in one word, integrity.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

And I am obsessed with the fact checking and make sure that everything that's in our show is correct.

[D]

Right.

[B]

Factual on point, not missing a major element or storyline, that it's our takeaway.

[A]

No one's gonna notice this except for Jack that, like, we had a line today in the podcast about Lululemon and it was about like, quarter over quarter sales. And Jack's like, no, that's annual sales. And he caught that fact.

[B]

Well, look, I am big on information and accuracy and, like, there's so much falseness out there.

[D]

Totally.

[B]

And. And misleading headlines. And so that is a very important thing that our audience knows that what they're hearing from us is correct and they can tell their friends with confidence knowing that they got it from us.

[D]

Do you have like a certain. And you know, you don't have to name it, but like, is there a certain source? Or like, do you fact check it a certain amount of times to be like, okay, this is. This is validated in my mind.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like if. If Nick drafted a fact, you know, I'll highlight the text. Right. Click it, Google it. Yeah. But I want to go as primary as possible. So the best place to fact check is the company Itself, which issues quarterly earnings reports.

[D]

Just direct.

[B]

Yeah. And then we are aware of like the hierarchy of. Of news agencies.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And we look for the best news agencies like the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Reuters, ap, They're all very good. And if they cite it, we can rest assured that it's already been fact checked by them.

[A]

Okay. How powerful. And Jeremy.

[D]

Here we go. He's got the fancy cups too.

[B]

Gentlemen, look at this. The dog's supposed to be dragged.

[A]

Has never looked better.

[D]

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

[C]

Well, when you first started, were you a finance show?

[B]

Yes. When we first started our newsletter, we were a finance show. Okay. And what we were trying to achieve, this was 2011.

[C]

Right.

[B]

We wanted to create a daily email newsletter so that people could go to one place and get everything they needed.

[D]

Right.

[B]

Instead of having to juggle a bunch of different news sources one place. I want three stories and I don't want to decide what three stories to read. I just want to know this is it.

[C]

By the way, that's what kept me listening to the show. It allowed me to have something new to talk about every day.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

No matter what.

[D]

Right. When you're in a new room.

[A]

Oh, totally.

[B]

That's.

[A]

That's every episode we think like, will this story and this insight help you become a more interesting person in the world? Well, this intro we just did about dinosaur bones as investments, that's something you're going to want to share on a Saturday.

[D]

Can I get the pronunciation of your dinosaur choice again?

[B]

Velociraptor. Velociraptor.

[C]

Ah.

[A]

Exactly what I said. Velociraptor. Not Bella.

[D]

I was like, I'm sorry.

[B]

Don't ask him the name of Luigi's brother.

[D]

Go ahead.

[A]

Velasiraptor. Mario.

[C]

Don't say Mario. You. You're so New York.

[B]

New York.

[C]

That's why.

[B]

That's at New York.

[C]

Which is like, with a population as Italian as they are.

[A]

Yeah. You know, it's crazy. It's just how we did.

[C]

Okay.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. So, Jeremy, speaking of like wanting to tell people things, read in your newsletter.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

That is why we created it at the very beginning. Because we were applying for jobs while seniors in college and we were not caught up on the news because like I said, our mailboxes were stuffed with Wall street journals and it was overwhelming. So we wanted like a one stop place every day you go to be informed and to impress people in job interview.

[A]

One thing Jack and I said, how.

[B]

We started in a world where there.

[A]

Is so much news Everywhere. And we're all getting push notifications. Yeah. Content is king.

[C]

Right.

[A]

But we like to say curation is queen.

[B]

Curation is a huge value that we provide.

[C]

You guys actually taught me a very, very valuable lesson, which is that being in the routine business is a much better and more like, longevity perspective to these things. Because, like, you don't need any one piece of content to outperform. You just need someone to go, I'm going to have a drive every day.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah, I need something.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Isn't that the joy of podcasting that you guys find with your listeners, too? Is that podcasting is a. Jack. Jack always says it's a multitasking medium.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Our listeners right now. Your listeners are right now. They are right now cooking a meal. They are on the way to work, and they're on a treadmill.

[C]

I find it weird if someone was sitting there going, that's like David Putty.

[B]

Remember in the Seinfeld episode, he's on an airplane.

[C]

That was you guys thing.

[B]

Well, Elaine is dating this doofus. And he's sitting next to him. He's sitting next to Elaine on the airplane, and it's a long flight, and Elaine is about to, like, go to sleep, and she's like, you gonna take a nap? And he goes, no, darn it. You gonna read a book? He goes, no, no. He's just sitting there looking at the bathroom.

[A]

Rawdogging.

[B]

That's what Elaine realizes. She has to break up with him.

[C]

Is that the original. Ick.

[D]

I mean, Nancy. But also, like, if you can. If you can just be in your mind for that long, like.

[C]

But I would challenge that person. Come over here. Get in here.

[D]

Yeah, get in here.

[C]

Let's see if he could stare into the distance.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

You don't want a fucking distraction, too.

[D]

I totally agree. No, I feel like between you guys, my two daily shows are you guys and the Philip DeFranco Show.

[C]

I don't know if you guys watch.

[D]

This stuff, but he does a great job of, like, bringing together my two worlds of like, like pop culture news. Ish. But also, like, influencer creator space, too.

[C]

Well, you guys actually allowed me, like, when I tell you that when I first. Well, first I gave her the theme song first. And just listen to this.

[A]

Start with the theme song there.

[C]

But when she was listening to snacks with. Without me, I felt a moment of, like, a little bit of jealousy. But also on top of it was like a. Yeah, wow. Someone found a way to talk secretly about some business things. And Lauren's interested. This is this is fascinating.

[D]

He makes me sound like all I want to, like, look at are sparkling.

[C]

I don't know how you. I don't know how you find the time. By consuming all of TikTok every day.

[D]

Yeah, I do consume all of TikTok.

[C]

Still finding 20 minutes for you guys.

[D]

Do consume all of TikTok.

[A]

No, that means a lot.

[C]

Sorry. That's my point. I cut somebody off at that point.

[D]

So who's your demographic? Because obviously, like, we are able to be so two different people who typically consume such different media, but fall in the same, like, Venn diagram.

[C]

You're the crack.

[D]

You guys are the crack. And we're so happy to be here.

[B]

I'll let you with the numbers and nickel hit you with the anecdote.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

I love you guys are. About 40% of our audience is between the age of 27 and 35.

[D]

Yeah. Okay, that makes sense.

[B]

45% female, 55% male.

[C]

Really?

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah. That's shocking.

[B]

Love that the female proportion has grown over time because, like I said, we started explicitly financing 10 years ago. Yeah. And over time, we realized that's not what we are.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And so our audience, most of our new listeners are women, which is fantastic.

[C]

That's. That. That if. That. If you can find a stat for that, that's fucking cool. Like, that's amazing.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

How many guys can say that? Like, you guys, the type of content you make, and I know it's not finance, but how many people could say, like, we're actually growing our female audience, like, as much as you are?

[A]

We're really proud of it. And we also just are having fun with it because it's who we are. Like, we're doing stories that resonate for us and they resonate for our audience. And, you know, the audience comes with us for this entire journey, which has been fun.

[C]

That's cool.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We call our audience the Yetis and the Besties.

[B]

But Nick is share some anecdotes about, like, the types of listeners who have reached out to us.

[A]

Oh, like, who specifically pings us and is like, hey.

[B]

Well, a lot of parents drive with their kids on the way to school and. And we love that. So we avoid swearing, knowing there's a lot of kids.

[D]

That was the first question I asked. I was like. I was like, do you have children, listeners? Where do we. Where do we sit on cursing?

[A]

So at the end of our show, this fun detail is Jack and I do shout outs for our listeners. Like, they say shout outs. And when Jack and I are doing the Shout outs. It's like, yeah, Jack and I are a couple guys in our 30s, and we're speaking to this ambitious millennial audience. But the shout outs are for, like, Greg turning seven. Yosemite's got a bar mit bat mitzvah. And, like, that little Johnny has a test show.

[B]

He's gonna crush it. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

And you know what? That's wholesome as hell.

[C]

Yeah. But, like, there's something about, like, it feels like a family then.

[A]

Yeah, but you guys must have a wide range of listeners, too. And this gets to a core point about both our shows is laughter and humor just transcends all. You can reach anyone if someone is laughing. It doesn't matter who they are or where they are.

[D]

Totally.

[A]

And that. That's an exciting thing.

[D]

Totally agree. I think. I think for us, the biggest mind fuck that we always encounter is that because we, like. I don't know, I feel like the things that we talk about are, you know, not. We're. We're a lifestyle podcast, not an education podcast. And so when we have someone who's, like, in med school, we're like, like, oh, my God, you're using your gray matter right now. Listening to an hour of us. Yeah. What a compliment.

[C]

Concerns me about the future.

[D]

Yeah, exactly. I'm like, oh, we're shaping a part of your day that's a little terrifying for your future patient.

[C]

Once I'll see the message. Like, when I turn my brain off, I turn you guys on. I go, thank you.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know what, you guys, I don't think you're doing yourself enough justice on this because you're dealing with universal challenges sometimes.

[B]

Oh, my God. For example, your calling shows are incredible.

[A]

The call in shows where you're actually answering these challenges. And then also with the wedding stuff, I mean, I wish this was around when Jack and I had gotten wedding. When Jack and I had gotten married. Because, like, when Jeremy, when you guys were talking about wedding bingo and how you, after the show, had prepared bingo for what happened during the wedding. Like, what a fun way to look back on your wedding. And also something that should be almost part of everyone's wedding process.

[C]

Well, if nothing else and exercise and things are going to go wrong.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And it's okay.

[A]

Humility. It gives you humility.

[D]

Yeah, Agreed. Agreed.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So, you know, most people who know about finance learn it from their parents or their, like, uncle who works in finance. That's how most finance people learned their finances. Yeah, but most people don't have parents or an uncle who work in Finance. Right.

[D]

Okay. This is. You're. You're literally for, like, are you segwaying us, for example, us being an education pod podcast is that I read Segue as SAU at some point, and it's been a fun inside joke for a whole audience.

[B]

I called it vagina when I was in sixth grade. I was like, what's a vagina? I was looking for vagina.

[C]

Vagina.

[B]

Yeah. I'm talking about sex education in sixth grade.

[D]

Oh, got it, got it, got it, got it.

[B]

It's one of those words that I've. I'd only read.

[D]

I never said it out loud. Excuse me.

[B]

It was a segue from your segue.

[D]

Yeah. So we sago. So this is a great to go into our next segment because we polled the Tilly's and asked them essentially for, like, so just some basic, like, if you had the opportunity to chat with, like, a finance bro, like, what would you ask that you guys are going.

[C]

To be their uncles today and you're.

[D]

Going to be the nice, friendly finance uncle.

[A]

We can say this.

[D]

It's. It's just like, so wild how little everyone knows. And like, myself included, like, my parents are both, like, would say medium educated. My mom has an MBA and, like, medium educated. No, no, but my dad. My dad just graduated high school and then started working.

[C]

Mean, average.

[D]

What?

[C]

Just the average.

[D]

Yeah, exactly. Exact.

[B]

Cool.

[D]

So it's like, like, my mom had an mba. Got it, got it.

[C]

We've been. We've been. I mean, we're covering. We're obsessed with the finance Bro lately, and so we had to bring them in.

[D]

Yeah. Jeremy has played every remix ever of the Finance Bro song. But. But anyway, all to say is that I feel like everyone, especially like a female. The female demographic is so intimidated. They feel like they know nothing. They feel like they don't have a resource that they can trust and they're paralyzed in not knowing what to do, so they do nothing.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Well, we have so much to share.

[D]

And with that, let's go into our.

[C]

First question, and let's be clear. The very first thing to know is that obviously you should go watch the show or listen to the show. However, this is a good start and a good idea. If you can get through this segment, I think you're going to enjoy the show.

[A]

Great.

[D]

And also I want to be like, to tee this up. The. The one of the number one questions that I feel like encapsulates all of this.

[C]

That's a fun way to say that.

[D]

Encapsulate.

[B]

Encapsulates it's like Pulitzer Prize, the old Pulitzer.

[D]

Is that one of the questions that someone submitted was so great and it was just what do?

[C]

Yeah, right.

[D]

What do. What do?

[A]

Investing.

[C]

Is that a question?

[D]

What do? That's the question. So anyway, investing. What's the best way to start? What do first?

[B]

Maybe stocks are ownership in a company. And if you buy a stock, you own part of a company. So Nick and I are the 5050 owners of Nick and Jack Studios. That's the company that we operate our show under.

[C]

It's been the same company since day one. Or was that like Robin Hood?

[A]

Now it's post Robin Hood.

[B]

Yeah, prior to that it was something else.

[A]

But we've reincorporated.

[B]

So we have two shares in the company and we each own one.

[C]

Oh, okay, that's cool.

[B]

Nike has 10 million shares. You can own one of them and own one 10 millionth of the company. So Nick and I make profits. At the end of the year, we each take home 50% of the profits.

[C]

That's cool.

[B]

When Nike makes profits, they split it up into 1/10 millionth each. And each share is entitled to 1/10 millionth of the Nike profits. So that's the really cool thing about stocks is you literally become an owner. It's great to make money through working and through a W2 and through a salary, but you can. What do rich people have? They own things, right? Rich people own things. And the stock market is the easiest, most accessible way at a low cost to begin owning things. Buying a house is great, but those cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and buying a stock can be $1.

[A]

And when it comes to buying a stock, Jack and I kind of approach it and we think people should approach it. Just like you do when you're dating someone serious. When you get serious about dating, you don't just pick a random company out of nowhere. And you don't just pick a random company because then someone told you about it.

[C]

Dating a stock.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You think you have date for stock.

[B]

The first stock you ever invest in should be a company you friggin love.

[A]

You know, you feel it, you wear it. Maybe you've gotten used to it. You can walk into a store and say, I think things are going in the right direction or the wrong direction because I know how populated it is in aisle.

[C]

Krispy Kreme was mine.

[A]

Krispy Kreme, there you go.

[C]

You know why, Mom, I like donuts.

[A]

Yeah, that's universal.

[B]

Crushed, by the way. This is Jack. I own stock of Krispy Kreme too.

[A]

There you go, wow, really?

[B]

This is.

[A]

I consume Krispy Kreme.

[D]

This is Lauren. I also post me abnormal amount of.

[C]

We're so far away from finance, we don't actually have to make disclosures.

[D]

Why? He didn't say he owned it. He just said he ate it.

[B]

Here's the best way to start is to buy stock in a company you love. I don't know how much it is. Maybe you're about to buy a $200 pair of Nikes. Maybe the next time you're about to buy Nikes, instead of buying Nikes, you buy Nike stocks. That can be the first way. You are now an owner, a part owner of Nike.

[A]

Arguably, you're going to get more value than you would have out of the shoes. And you're buying an amount that you know you can afford.

[B]

Now, chances are over time, your stock is going to grow in value by 10% per year.

[D]

Oh, is that the. Okay, that's.

[B]

That's the stock market historical average of the last hundred years.

[A]

Not guaranteed, but more likely than not.

[C]

So I'm hearing guaranteed money.

[B]

All you have to do is how.

[D]

To get rich quick.

[C]

And this is Jack's advice. Guaranteed 10% compound interest on this to be amazing.

[B]

And that's the thing. There's. There's none of that get rich quick. And if someone's offering you that turn away because there's no such thing.

[D]

Because it's not real.

[A]

There's no such thing as you're dating that stock just like you would anyone who you're dating. You check in on it. You are going to every quarter get their earnings report. You can check it out and see how the company's financially doing. Get to know them, share the idea with friends. Soft launch it and hard launch it.

[B]

Years, it's going to double in value. You're going to sell it at a 100% gain and use the proceeds to not just buy yourself those Nikes that you passed on five years ago, but to buy the person you're actually dating Nikes to.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

And then you'll realize the glory of stock ownership, which is that you get richer. It's incredible.

[C]

Or less poor.

[B]

Or less.

[C]

That's how I feel.

[D]

Sure.

[A]

Now, a quick word from our sponsor.

[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

Yeah.

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So sign up for a free 30 day Audible training trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.comt boy@&t business Yeti is starting your own business. It ain't easy. When we first got our daily newsletter off the ground that led to this podcast a decade ago, we definitely did not get everything right.

[B]

Remember, we initially bummed Wi fi off of hotel lobbies. Classic move. And then the concierge kicked us out. So coffee shop free Wi fi became our godsend.

[A]

Another latte shout out to all the.

[B]

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[A]

Oh, what's the coach of the bathroom again? Honestly, if we could do it all over, we would probably invest in our own less bootleggy Internet.

[B]

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[A]

Which is the main thing you want in a provider. Less time stressing, more time for you to work on your business.

[B]

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[A]

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[D]

I've got two questions on behalf of all of the uneducated finance noobs. 1. How how buy? How do? And then two how long? How long by?

[B]

Okay, how long hold by?

[D]

How long hold when sell?

[C]

How buy?

[B]

How old?

[A]

The first answer to your second question is you only want to invest money that you're only open to losing. If you can't afford to lose that money, it should not be getting invested and therefore that means you hold the money until you need that money. So the answer to how long depends on your money needs.

[C]

But if you didn't need it to begin with, you wouldn't have invested it. But how do you know?

[A]

Because things change. Maybe five years later you need to buy a house and then you may need that money.

[B]

Well, right you can.

[A]

That's an opportunity to then pull the.

[B]

Best early investment I ever had. I sold it right after my wedding because we came up $10,000 short and I needed to pay for the open bar right you paid for the open Baroku Proceeds.

[D]

Roku Roku.

[B]

How buy. You open up a brokerage account.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

And you have to give any company security number. We worked at Robinhood for three years. Yeah, I do most of my investing through Robinhood.

[C]

Oh, okay, that's cool.

[B]

You're going to have to give your Social Security number. That's totally normal. Open the account, link your bank account, fund it with some money, and then push buy on the Nike stock.

[D]

And then buy. Yeah, okay, great.

[C]

And then just wait.

[A]

But Jack and I also think, like, right now, we've talked about individual stocks, but the real opportunity that we think makes the most sense for people, especially beginner stage, is not an individual stock, but the smoothie of stocks. And what is that, Jack?

[B]

The smoothie is an etf. So an ETF is a smoothie of stocks. So instead of it being just one company that you're becoming a part owner in, if you buy an etf, you are buying into a bunch of companies.

[C]

What does ETF stand for?

[B]

Exchange traded fund.

[C]

Yeah, ETFs better.

[A]

It's the financial. It's the financial equivalent of the Hailey Bieber Erewhon smoothie.

[D]

So Dixie. Okay, this is. This is how you get to my demographic right here. This is our language.

[B]

Keep going, L. A. Keep going.

[C]

Ingredients are okay, but. But what it makes together is fantastic.

[B]

How many ingredients are in a Haley bieber smoothie?

[A]

Like 50.

[D]

Like, 50. Also cost.

[B]

Like, our favorite ETF has 500 ingredients, and it's the 500 biggest publicly traded companies in the U.S. what's that called? It's called the. The. There's two different ones. There's one from Vanguard, the S&P 500 ETF, and there's another one from Spider, the S&P 500 ETF.

[C]

Got it. Okay.

[B]

Anyway, Nick and I invest, basically the money we have left over at the end of the year from our income and our costs. We invest it in the S. P 500. It's a smoothie of the top 500.

[C]

Stocks in America, just at a high level.

[B]

Hold.

[D]

What's the S? P 500.

[B]

It is a stock market index.

[C]

Okay, what does that mean?

[D]

Break it down for me. Like, I'm five.

[C]

No, by the way, like, none of this is ever taught. Like, if you're listening to this and you don't know what, like, what's being said. Yeah, great. Nobody else. No one else.

[B]

Trivia. Trivia, Jeremy.

[C]

Oh, God.

[B]

What is the most valuable company in the United States right now?

[D]

Walmart. No, wait. That had the most.

[B]

It had the highest revenue.

[D]

Revenue.

[B]

I know, but it's not the most valuable. All right.

[C]

Fastest growing would be Nvidia.

[B]

Nvidia is the second most valuable company in the United States. Number three.

[A]

No longer.

[B]

Microsoft.

[D]

Microsoft, because AI is crushing right now.

[B]

If we went beyond 1, 2 and 3 like we just did, all the way down to 500.

[D]

Yeah, that. Okay, great. That's a great visualization I feel like too.

[C]

And that's based on what figure?

[A]

That's based on their value by market capitalization, which is valuing the company by taking the stock price multiplied by the number of shares available to the public. And that's what gives a company its value.

[B]

So we said earlier that Nike has 10 million shares. If the price of those shares are $1, then market cap for Nike is 10 million shares times $1.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

Nike's market cap is $10 million.

[D]

Amazing. I'm with you.

[C]

And like, I assume that because it's a constant, like a dynamic, you know, someone's worth more. Something like, do people go on and off the s and P500 every day?

[A]

Yeah, it gets.

[B]

Not every day. There's. There's a company that's in charge of like inductees and they kick some companies out.

[C]

Which one? What company is that? Actually, I don't know that.

[B]

It's called Standard and Poor's.

[A]

Which S and P?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But this smoothie. And the reason why, actually a funny thing Jack and I should share is we've, we bought a lot of stocks. We've done complicated transactions, we've done options. However, the best performing asset we've ever had was the one we thought about the least, which was Simply buying an ETF, an exchange traded fund of the S&P 500.

[C]

Are you guys guys or spider guys?

[B]

I'm a Vanguard guy.

[C]

Okay. Yeah.

[B]

Last year the s and P 500 gained 23% in value. This year it's already up 15%. And combine the two, that's like 40% higher than the beginning of 2020.

[C]

In fact, on inflation, you're only down 60%.

[A]

Now, of course, there's no guarantee that buying basically one purchase of the whole stock market will always go up. But what Jack and I think is so interesting about this example is that everyone talks about individual stocks. You know, you got to buy shares of Apple at this price. You got to buy shares of Nvidia at this price. This semiconductor stock, the S&P 500, is considered the most boring out of all those investments. And yet it's been the most stable and reliable in Our entire portfolio.

[B]

So here's the secret. Finance Bros who boast about the stocks they invest in. Crypto Bros who invest about the crypto they invest in. They do worse than those who simply put their money in an S&P 500 ETF. You actually learn that in finance classes in college. The data shows it, but men do not believe it.

[C]

I heard a stat that women actually outperform men in finance.

[B]

That's correct.

[C]

Across the board.

[B]

That is correct.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Men think they can outperform the rest of the market.

[D]

Right.

[B]

Nick and I have tried. We felt that urge to full disclosure. We're former finance bros. Yeah. We tried to outperform the S&P 500.

[A]

Doesn't work.

[B]

We failed.

[C]

Well, 23% is pretty damn good.

[B]

I know. Yeah.

[C]

But every year, this is gonna. My. This is gonna be my year.

[A]

You know what the mistake a lot of people make is, Is they think that investing is like video games. They think it's like Nintendo, where your goal is to get a level higher. A level higher. A level higher. More and more complex. The reality is you don't have to win the game of investing by getting to level 10. You can win on level one by doing the simplest investing of all.

[D]

So get the Hailey Bieber smoothie.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And anyone can open a Vanguard account. Correct.

[B]

Vanguard is. Is not an account that you open. So Vanguard is not a brokerage. Vanguard.

[C]

You interact with Vanguard through a brokerage.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Got it.

[B]

So Vanguard creates ETFs, which are like stocks that you can buy through a brokerage account.

[C]

And you can buy that in Robinhood, Correct?

[B]

Yes. And, you know, there's. There's etrade, there's Schwab. There's a bunch of different brokerages.

[C]

I think we're Schwab people.

[B]

I think those three I just mentioned are great places for people to start. They're free. Anyone can do it. There's no commissions on any of them, so it's all good.

[C]

Cool.

[D]

Wow. That's great advice. I feel like I learned more right now than I did every time I've sat down with my own money person and been like, can you break this down for me? Because I just feel like it's so hard to have a professional and an expert break it down because they don't know what I don't know.

[C]

Well, out of curiosity, has there ever been a extended period, call it five, 10 years, since the beginning of the S and P, where people lost money by investing into it?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

People have lost money during recessions and depressions.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

In 2008, when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and we had the financial crisis, the s and P500 fell by 37%.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

So if all your money was in the S&P 500.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And you didn't have cash on the side as an emergency fund, by the.

[C]

Way, for audio centers. Jack's pointing to himself when he says cash. He said cash on the side and like held himself really, really highly. Sorry, go ahead.

[B]

I don't know why I did that.

[C]

I know why.

[B]

The conversation for another therapist, but keep going. And then when the pandemic hit, it fell by 33.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

So like Nick said, only invest money that you are prepared and you won't be destroyed if you lose.

[A]

And that's why Jack and I like to say when it comes to investing, FOMO can become no mo. Like when you buy stock because. And you think in your head, I am doing this partially because other people are doing it.

[B]

GameStop, GameStop, GameStop.

[A]

That's typically because the price of it has gotten really high. That means you're investing with fomo. You're afraid of missing out. And what we found generally in the stock market, if everyone is investing at the same time and everyone is fomo, that tends to drop because that's not a real value driving the stock price inflated. And your FOMO investment becomes no mo.

[B]

Right. So if you are only investing because of fomo, you are probably too late.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And you're one of the final people getting in and to pop. And you will lose money and you'll.

[A]

Happen so many times you have to say no mo. You need balance in the universe.

[D]

Yeah, Go ahead. Go ahead.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Becomes no more.

[A]

There we go.

[D]

Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so next question please. Oh, so a lot of. A lot of questions about credit cards and building credit. So this is kind of like a multi part.

[B]

I'm loving it.

[D]

Thoughts on co signing on credit with friends or family?

[B]

Like a credit card?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Don't think it's necessary. Save that. Ask for when you're buying a car or buying a house.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

I didn't have a credit card until I was 22. After college, I was able to apply with no credit and get a basic beginner credit card. And over time I built up credit. I got a platinum credit card at some point and eventually I bought a house. That was perfectly a fine way to do it.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

I think you can save that guarantor or co signer. Ask that favor for something that's harder to get, like a house. Credit cards. If you don't Have a credit rating. You can get a beginner credit card.

[D]

You're Canadian. So I got here to America and was like, hello, I would like. I would like your. Your most beginner America credit card, please. Yeah, as a Canadian, here's my Visa. Yeah, exactly. And they were like, give us money and that becomes your credit limit. So I could. I. There was no, there was no limit on how much money I would give them, but they would literally hold that and be like, if I give them $1,000, they're like, here's a car with $1,000 limit. And so I had to play that game after building all this credit in Canada for so many years and start all over again.

[A]

Wow. Well, actually, this reminds me of a story we just did. Jack and I just did a story on how the biggest generational divide between millennials and Gen Z credit cards.

[C]

Wait, how so?

[A]

Yes, when we were in our 20s. So like a deck over a decade ago, us millennials, only 60% or so of our generation at the time had credit cards. But for gen zers right now at that same age, and they're at 20, 80 some percent have credit cards.

[B]

I'm the Enneagram one. Let me just precise.

[A]

Get me the exact number.

[B]

81% of Gen Zers between 22 and 24 right now have a credit card.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

So people between 22, 24.

[C]

Wait, so but if you had to.

[B]

Take it over 10 years ago, the millennials at the same age was 61.

[C]

That's a massive shift.

[B]

We actually think the reason for that is that millennials got scarred by the financial crisis. Yeah, we were just talking about, we.

[A]

Heard debt, debt, debt, debt, debt, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

[B]

Almost destroyed the country. We had Occupy Wall Street. We had home foreclosures. It was awful. Yeah, unemployment was like 11, three times higher than we have today. So debt was a bad thing in our minds. When we graduated from college, Gen Z doesn't have that trauma they see after.

[D]

Pay, and they're like, let me split this into four different payments on my credit card.

[B]

I'll take two.

[C]

No, no, no, don't worry about that.

[D]

Don't even worry. This TikTok should be.

[C]

Put that wall away.

[A]

Colonial is my boyfriend.

[C]

But so like, if you had it over again, you would still not get a credit card earlier?

[B]

No. In fact, if I had a credit card in college, I would have spent money I didn't have and came with my tail between my legs to my parents and asked for a bailout.

[C]

Got it.

[B]

And if they had given me that Bailout. It would have taught me a bad lesson.

[D]

Right, right, right, right.

[B]

I actually think that my, like, fiscal responsibility is because I did not have a credit card in college and I only spent what I had.

[C]

See, I don't have enough money to buy stuff, so I had to get a credit card in college and then I. Well, I didn't even bother.

[B]

Did you pay it back?

[C]

Well, I did, yeah. If I had asked my mom for bailout, she would have said, you're funny. You're funny. By the way, could I get that degree now? Oh, no degree. Oh no bailout.

[B]

I think it's, it's great that that worked for you. I guess you got yours like three years younger than I got.

[C]

Actually, my mom signed on when I was 15.

[D]

Mine too.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

I was 16, I think, when my mom was like, head on over to President's Choice, which is like a show. What would President's Choice be comparable to.

[C]

In America, you don't even have a president.

[D]

Yeah, I know, but that was a grand name. I know, I know. It's like, it's like, it's like RC Cola.

[C]

What?

[D]

Wait, what you're talking about? Like, so I had a President's Choice credit card. Oh, huh. Which was basically President's Choice was like the, the top level, no name brand maker in Canada. And so they also had this like financial.

[A]

Choice and Walmart.

[D]

Similar. Similar, yeah.

[B]

Because like Walmart does Costco maybe like they have similar.

[D]

Yeah, similar.

[C]

Well, I think it's funny, like all these companies that are essentially just turning their business model into, we have a credit card and, and we also kind of have a product, but mostly just.

[D]

Like, oh my God, everybody buys me at home goods. They're like a home guard way.

[A]

Yeah. Airlines are basically credit card companies.

[B]

They have a little side hustle of.

[A]

Transporting people in the air.

[D]

Right?

[C]

It is a grocery company.

[D]

Yeah, it's a grocery company. Yeah, exactly.

[B]

Sam's Choice.

[C]

It was funny. Mine was a BP credit card for gas. Oh, yeah.

[A]

Different need.

[C]

And I used it for. Not gas. Bad.

[D]

Bad.

[C]

It was bad.

[A]

Well, a big question when you have a credit card.

[B]

From whom?

[C]

Mom. Yeah, yeah, Mom, I needed whatever the that was.

[A]

Right before the show, Jack and I were actually chatting about best practices for credit cards. And we were saying, we wonder why you're so late. When you first got your credit card, did you check your statement every month?

[C]

I don't think I've ever checked a statement ever.

[A]

Really?

[C]

Yeah. Not because, by the way. Not because.

[D]

What a flex. Damn.

[C]

No.

[A]

Must be nice.

[C]

No, no, no, only because, like, I have bad habits and. No, that's. I'm being facetious. I. I didn't do a good job early, and I think I've now fallen back into that.

[B]

Who. So you just pay it without checking every month.

[C]

It's in fact, auto pay. I hope for the best.

[A]

Well, one of Jackson, My, like, best practices we always share with people with relationships too, is around this transparency and the routine of creating habits around checking your credit card statement and turning it into kind of a fun moment. Like making it a kind of budget brunch conversation once a month. Like, what's your day of the month, Jack, where you always check your credit card? The 15th. Mine's the third. On the third of the month, I sit down, go through the credit card. But if you're in a relationship, it's actually a great opportunity to get on the same page together.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

A lot of couples who merge their finances like I have with my wife, kind of one person's in charge of the finances.

[D]

Sure.

[B]

But we highly recommend that the other person be aware.

[D]

Right.

[B]

And kind of participate in that 15th of the month for me, third of the month for Nick. Because that is a form of communication that's really important.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

The statistics show that, like, finances are a major driver of the divorce. Does that happen in this country?

[C]

Is it the top where you say the top? Yeah. It's over infidelity. Correct.

[B]

That sounds right.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I'll say it really confidently. I believe in America one more time.

[D]

Over time.

[C]

We got three white guys in this room. If we just say it really boldly.

[D]

You can get away.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[C]

Usually you're not in this room, but.

[D]

Yeah, we usually make decisions and then.

[C]

And then you have to deal with.

[D]

The consequences and that in such as life. Next question.

[A]

Honestly treating. Treating that credit card statement moment like a date, you know, treating it with the same kind of fun that you would have at a date.

[C]

All the interesting finance bros just fell off.

[A]

You know, of being like. And having. Instead of having. Building. You talked on your show actually the other day about how resentment gets built in relationships. One way to avoid resentment getting built is not just, like you said, communicating, but having the conversation together and going through the statement and not having resentment. Hey, why did you buy that thing? And never discuss it until you have an argument? Discuss it there like, oh, my God, we spent 58 bucks on that thing. I don't know if we can do that anymore.

[C]

But you almost don't feel a pain until you see it on the statement. Because in person, it's like, it's attached to, like, the little dope.

[D]

Like, oh, that's fake money.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[D]

Apple Pay, fake money.

[B]

Wild statistic we learned when we were working at Robinhood.

[A]

This is crazy.

[B]

There's a correlation between opening your mail and having good financial outcomes.

[C]

Oh, boy.

[B]

If you don't check your mail, that is associated with having debt problems and bad financial outcomes.

[A]

There are exceptions to every rule, of course.

[D]

Okay, okay.

[B]

We understand the anxiety one can have when you get a bunch of mail and you don't think anything's good is going to be in there.

[C]

It's not.

[D]

It's never good.

[B]

It's never good. And honestly, reading your credit card statement can feel never good, too. But the solution is not burying your head in the sand. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to finance.

[C]

I think I had audio issues in this last second.

[D]

Any piece of mail that shows up at our house, I immediately am like, scary mail, scary mail. Scary mail goes.

[B]

Here's the nice thing, though. On the 15th of the month, I actually look forward to it because I have a spreadsheet that has 120 columns because I've been doing this for 10 years. Oh, my God. So we can show you ours. Yeah. Every month for the last 10 years, I have paid my bills on the 15th and checked to see how the family's entire finances are. Wow. With the very bottom number being the net worth. And that has grown over time, and it is very satisfying. Some. Some months it's down, and sometimes it's down several months in a row. And I'll be like, alex, we really gotta stop.

[A]

And honestly, it's like a financial diary. Like, there's a notes tab in ours and I'll put notes. And when I go back and to see, compare to last year, be like, oh, yeah, this was because that, like, amazing trip that we took to Santa Barbara, that was an expensive month, but it was worth it.

[B]

We didn't take any trips and we didn't make any large purchases, and we had higher net worth than the months prior because we paid off a little bit of debt and our investments did well in the stock market. And it feels really good.

[C]

But the common denominator here is, like, allowing that conversation to exist in your own mind and then sharing it with your partner. Yeah, that's cool.

[A]

Absolutely.

[B]

It's communication which is a cornerstone of every good relationship. Yeah.

[D]

Amazing.

[A]

Now a quick word from our sponsor, Yetis. This episode is brought to you by Prizepix. You and I, we make decisions every day. But on Prize Picks, being right can get you paid.

[B]

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[A]

And bestie, since I'm co hosting here with the starting backup D3 quarterback, Jack, can you tell me what it's like being right on the football field?

[B]

To clarify, I am undefeated in senior year games in which I threw touchdown passes. All right, never mind Jack.

[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[D]

I stand by this one thoroughly. Why can't we just print more money?

[A]

Oh, pizza. Let's talk pizza. Can we talk pizza, Jack? I'd love to talk about talk pizza.

[C]

I love it.

[B]

So a pizza is cut into eight slices.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

We could cut it into 16 slices.

[D]

Okay.

[A]

The equivalent of printing more money.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

Why?

[B]

Because there is only a finite amount of value in this world.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

If we took every dollar in the United States right now and printed another dollar for it.

[C]

We've done that a couple times.

[B]

All that would happen is that the value of each dollar gets cut in half.

[A]

It would be the equivalent of taking a pie pizza and cutting it up into more slices so that there'd be more slices available to everyone.

[C]

But why? Why? In simple terms, because I understand what you're saying. I do. But why? For the average person to understand, like, If I get $2, I now have 2. If I get $4, I have 4. Why does it matter if everybody doesn't get more?

[B]

That's a really good question. I think it's best explained this way. If everyone becomes twice as rich, like because we printed a dollar for every dollar, then everyone's going to feel rich and try to go out and buy.

[C]

Right.

[B]

And the people who are selling are going to suddenly see more buyers and they're going to raise the price, and they're going to keep doing that until the prices double because then things will be back to an equilibrium from before.

[C]

So it's a lot about, like, the relation of your money to somebody else's money.

[A]

So, like, if we take that pizza pie, cut it up from eight slices into 16. Yes. You'll have more slices, but those will be smaller slices, less valuable slices, because.

[B]

Nothing fundamental has changed. If we just push the printer on.

[C]

Right.

[B]

The economy is the pizza. And turning on the printer does not change the economy.

[C]

So why do we keep printing money?

[B]

To loosen financial conditions during crisis.

[D]

Yeah, I mean, that's.

[B]

That's the quick answer.

[D]

Right.

[C]

And when.

[B]

When the pandemic hit, that was a financial crisis. And, like, we needed banks to chill out.

[C]

Okay. So when.

[B]

Sometimes printing money calms the banks down, which can prevent something much worse.

[C]

So when. When we hear money's being printed.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

We should think what?

[B]

Dilution.

[C]

Let's try another word.

[A]

We should be thinking losing value.

[B]

We should think we're simply taking a pizza and cutting it into smaller slices.

[C]

So whatever. Whatever amount of pizza people have, they have technically the same amount at, you know what it looks like, but it's worth less.

[A]

Correct.

[B]

You'll have, you'll have more slices, but they're smaller.

[C]

Got it.

[B]

And if you do cut the pizza from eight to 12 slices, everything's just going to be twice as expensive. It's like, oh, everything's back to the same.

[A]

Here's the sad, scary thing about inflation is that when those prices go up, like let's say you are going to use your money and now you have more money to buy something at the grocery store. And now everyone can buy bananas at the grocery store. And now they notice everyone can buy more bananas, so they raise the price of bananas. Yes, the banana seller at the grocery store is making more money, but then he has less buying power because when he goes to buy something somewhere else, the same thing will happen to him. His dollar will go less far.

[B]

The key is that the pizza has not changed.

[C]

Right.

[B]

All that's happened is the slices have changed. That's why the best economic policies are ones that grow the size of the pizza. And the way that we do that.

[C]

Oh, we gotta grow pizza. We gotta ask the wrong question.

[D]

Got it.

[B]

Just grow the pizza is Pizza tree.

[D]

Pizza tree.

[B]

We. So we need like confidence for people to go out and spend money. Because when people spend money, someone is selling them a product and then they make another product. And like we need more products to be made and sold and bought and produced. And that's just like, honestly, at the end of the day, it's confidence. Believe it or not, confidence is the most important thing for a growing economy.

[C]

Well, I asked you why people, why do we print money to make the banks chill out? It's like, it's really.

[B]

Just chill.

[C]

Like it's gonna be fine. Yeah, but just chill, please.

[B]

Fear is the worst thing for an economy. Confidence is the best thing for an economy.

[C]

Wow.

[D]

Interesting.

[B]

Great takeaway.

[D]

Okay. Okay, pizza tree, here we come. Next question.

[C]

Good question. How much should you have in your savings or in your emergency.

[D]

Your emergency funds? Because I feel like savings can fluctuate so much for different people. But like for an emergency savings, people think about that.

[A]

There's a standard answer on this. And when it comes to your emergency savings, it's three months worth of cash to get you through your daily 3 month needs.

[C]

Got it, got it. So if that's a great money starting today. Yeah. In 90 days you're not starving.

[A]

Standard three months.

[B]

Three months. 91.

[C]

But 90, you're good.

[B]

Three months of your living costs. Yeah.

[D]

Wow, that's, that's so straightforward. I love when There's a straight, like the, the pizza. The pizza tree. That one still makes my brain hurt a little bit. But this answer is so nice and just like a nice little bow on it.

[B]

And if you've gone through your finances, the 15th of every month, you know how much a month of your life costs, Multiply it by three. That's the cash that you need on the side. Don't put that in the stock market. Do not put that in crypto, because those are volatile trash.

[D]

Yeah. There's actually a question that isn't in the slideshow that someone asked that I was curious about, because I feel like.

[C]

You can just go and ask your question.

[B]

What do you mean?

[C]

Yeah, somebody asked me this question. I'm. I'm going to ask you.

[D]

No, no, no, no. Because I will anyways. Because, Jack, I feel like you've just got numbers running through your head. Is there an average percentage that people should be spending on their rent that pertains to their income?

[C]

Good question.

[B]

Yes. But unfortunately. Let me, let me explain. So 30% is like the maximum.

[D]

Oh, wow.

[B]

You should spend on your rent.

[C]

Why is that?

[B]

It's. It's the amount that economists say basically, like, economists have figured out how much food costs, how much heating costs, how much medicine costs, how much schooling costs.

[A]

Where your core needs are.

[B]

And those are like at least 70 to do the bare minimum.

[A]

So you need to survive a typical person's income on that money.

[B]

Right. Unfortunately, rents have risen so crazy high.

[D]

Right.

[B]

You. You can't, like, if you have to pay more than 30%, you have to pay more than 30%.

[D]

Right. For somewhere to live.

[A]

So also city dependent, actually.

[D]

So. Yeah.

[B]

That recently the United States, on average, renters are paying 30% of their income.

[C]

So it's supposed to be at the max, the average.

[D]

Right.

[B]

So, like, what we really freaking need in this country is more apartments.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

More buildings and more houses. That would be the pie getting bigger. And for some reason, people keep on, like, stopping housing developments from getting built. It's a major problem.

[D]

Yeah, got it. I mean, a great answer. Great answer.

[C]

So when you hear housing development in your city, say yes. Yeah.

[B]

You should really say yes. Absolutely. And don't you dare be pro housing. But not in my backyard. Yeah, that's called the nimby.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah, that's called the what?

[C]

Nimby.

[B]

Nimby. It's like a type of hypocrisy where you want something to happen because it'll be good for the world.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

As long as it's not going to Affect me personally.

[C]

Very anti finance pro view finance for you. What he just said put him in a category that some people are going to love or hate. And I love, I love it. But it's true. We are, I think we're so protective of what's ours and we don't mess it up, which I think is. Is natural. However, I think we also need to realize that, like, if there's not enough space for people and people are pushed to their limit, you're not going to.

[D]

Care whether or not doing your part in making the pizza bigger.

[A]

Also, the economy is wildly interconnected and Jack and I have just noticed that if you have to pick one issue that may have the biggest impact on so many other elements of our lives, it could simply be the construction of more houses. It could simply be that simple.

[B]

I read this basic book of philosophy recently, okay. And there's one way to think about right and wrong. Excuse me on my enneagram one horse here for a second. There's one way to think of right and wrong, which is if everyone did it the way that I do it, would society be okay?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So when it comes to nimby, if everyone said, yes, let's do it, but not in my backyard, we'd be, yeah, yeah. Then we would get no new construction.

[D]

NIMBY is my friend's cat's nickname, so I'm having trouble getting on board with nimby, but outside of that, I'm so on board. My mom's analogy for this one is that if you make a decision, if it was put on the front page of the newspaper, would you feel good about it?

[B]

Love that.

[C]

And wow, have I done plenty of things that I would rather not be.

[A]

On the front line. A lot of these housing decisions are made in a private vote where that's not public. So it's a good thing to think about.

[C]

But there are very few things that, like, are almost like, universal. It is true. Apply it to it and it will be true. And like that. I don't know if that one breaks anywhere. Maybe it does, but I can't think of where it would.

[D]

So don't be a nimby unless you're my friend's cat named Nimbus. Next question.

[C]

Go ahead.

[D]

What's your advice on combining finances after marriage? We have a lot of, I feel like newlyweds or engagement engaged couples. Pod listeners.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Jack did this and I did this. We both did this in our marriages. Right after getting married. Is combining finances and when is it.

[C]

Not a good idea, though?

[A]

It's not necessarily something you have to do. But Jack and I have found that in our relationships with the couples that we've also spoken with, that level of transparency just leads to an understanding of the other person that frankly makes you maybe understand them in a new and different way. Like how they spend. That's another side of their personality.

[D]

Right.

[A]

But also it sets you up to make bigger financial decisions down the road.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

You don't want to be a surprise when you're bidding on your first house a few years later and then realize maybe the credit ratings are a little different than you expect.

[C]

Sure. Well, if someone wanted to get started but didn't want to go all the.

[A]

Way in, where's a good place for combining finance?

[C]

Yeah. Let's say you already did start a business together.

[D]

No joint account.

[C]

Sure. What's that look like?

[A]

A joint checking account.

[B]

Nick tells. How about your little mini test, which is a trip.

[A]

Oh yeah, the trip test. So a great way to actually figure out what you're like combining finances as a couple without the long term commitment of it. You can do this before you even get married. Is a trip a fling? A fling when you go on vacation with someone because that's kind of a microcosm of a whole relationship.

[B]

Create a budget for that trip together.

[A]

Create a little account where you put the money in with that budget.

[C]

Okay. So you'd go through. Through the exercise. Actually going to grab an account together at a bank.

[A]

Yeah. You could set up an account. Really?

[B]

Set up sub accounts too.

[A]

Yeah. Even a Venmo account.

[C]

So great. I love that you said that because I. If for some reason someone didn't. Because I don't know what's, what's Social Security? Get linked together. If you were to start a bank account with somebody else. Correct.

[A]

Both share your Social Security numbers. Typically.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

You don't have to entrust each other with that.

[A]

But let's say you go with them.

[C]

All right.

[A]

You don't even have to leave the country. Let's say you go on a trip from Los Angeles to Charleston, South Carolina. You have a great time in Charleston. It's a four day trip, long weekend adventure.

[D]

Right.

[A]

You're going to say we're going to budget this much on food and beverage, $1,000. We're going to budget 1500 on the hotel for the four nights. And we're going to budget this much in airfare. We're going to pull from our accounts, put it in this. And then when you go on the trip, that's when you get tested in real time. That's where you're going to see. Oh, how much did we spend on food? How do we deal with. Wait, this may be over budget. Should we do this extra meal or should we not get those oysters? And that's a great way to really kind of check in and test for a future.

[D]

Right.

[C]

And to your point, if you cannot get through a fun weekend with somebody doing something a little bit different, probably an indicator. Yeah, not necessarily. But, like, I can totally see where a younger version of me, like, having to plan something with a girl that I was dating at the time going very poorly. It would have illuminated some, like, you know what? Maybe this isn't forever.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

A single trip test.

[C]

I like it.

[D]

I mean, you guys really do have, like, a story to apply to everything. It's wild.

[C]

Yeah. It's like you guys are like 600 years old.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Just live through things.

[D]

I know.

[C]

Oh, past lives.

[D]

Next question.

[C]

More questions.

[D]

Oh, my God. When I tell you this was 50 of the questions that we got about why do finance bros love vests so much?

[A]

I think because it gets really windy sometimes. This right straight at you, you want to be really prepared.

[B]

Yeah. Nick thinks about these vertical columns of wind that just hit your torso.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

You gotta be prepared.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

For all those times this is hot and this is like. You gotta like. No, this is hot and this is cold.

[D]

Like, did the best. Was the best theory true in the finance institutions that you worked at first?

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

First off. So it is.

[B]

I wore them too.

[D]

You did. A former best wearer.

[B]

Well, finance bros Lives live in cities and they have to get in the subway. And the subway is hot. But then above ground is cold.

[D]

Oh, the amount of hot flashes that.

[B]

I've had, every finance building turns on the ac. Way too cold.

[D]

Right.

[B]

And so the. The vest is perfect.

[C]

But nobody falls for survival. They want to, like, freeze. Like, you got to keep people up, keep people awake.

[A]

There's actually we should disclose this because not everyone listening is in finance, but there's some insider things that we are aware of, Jack.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

For example, when you're working on spreadsheets, there tends to be a movement of the arms that results in perspiration and an unhealthy smell. So one thing finance bros are too afraid to share, but Jack and I will do so on this podcast.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

Is that when doing spreadsheets, the vest is a way to thank you, Jack, for checking me. Thank you. Thank you. When doing spreadsheets, crunching them, the vest allows for a perspiration airflow.

[C]

It's an athletic choice.

[D]

No, no. This sounds like survival to me.

[A]

Yes, yes, yes.

[D]

This is survival.

[C]

I don't think I ever realized the trials and tribulations.

[D]

No, I didn't.

[B]

I didn't.

[D]

And another question that we had someone submit was, she was like, I work on Wall street, but not in finance. She was like, why do. Why does everyone get so dressed up to go sit in a cubicle?

[B]

Great question.

[A]

You know how there's, like, sometimes people say, girls dress up for girls.

[D]

Yes.

[A]

Guys dress up for guys. And we should just say, that's fair. We don't talk about.

[C]

We never talk about that.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. In fact, we might have to edit that out.

[A]

You're looking at those pleated pants. Yeah.

[D]

Like, yeah, man, this guy's butt looks great in these Lululemon cargoes.

[C]

What comes out of your mouth? Sup?

[D]

Right?

[C]

Right?

[D]

That's the exchange.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Right.

[C]

Okay.

[D]

Okay. I think that's a totally fair question because, yeah, girls, I dressed for. I dressed for the girl to be like, no. Love you so much, babe.

[C]

Just get on.

[D]

I dress for the girl who is like, wow, I love that outfit. That is so cute. Yeah, I actually see girls say that, like, the more that their significant other doesn't like their outfit, the more fashionable it is.

[C]

Wow. That's.

[D]

Again, love you, babe. Last question. Where can I meet and marry a finance bro? And so essentially, this is, I guess, how did you meet your wife?

[A]

Jack, why don't you share?

[B]

How did you guys meet? I met my wife. I was at a bachelor party with my buddy Mike in Vermont at a beer festival.

[C]

Okay.

[D]

Oh, my God.

[B]

Alex was there, too. Struck up a conversation.

[D]

Who approached?

[C]

Yeah, who approached?

[B]

So, dude, she was actually supposed to meet up with somebody on Tinder.

[A]

Really?

[B]

But she saw him across the way, and he looked like a creep. And so her friend kind of pulled her over to the. To my buddy and me.

[A]

Huge move by the friend.

[B]

I know.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Wow. Game changer. Lexi and my buddy Mike, who invited me to this bachelor party.

[A]

Amazing.

[B]

They're the reasons Alex and I are together. Anyway, hit it up. You know, she was from Long island, but skied in New York. My dad's from Long island and I'm from Vermont. Excuse me. Sorry. We both had Vermont in New York connections. Long story short, got her number. I was living in New York City at the time. So I went back to New York after the bachelor party, and she came down to New York to go to a Mets game with her cousin because she's From Long Island. And I had her number. I was texting her and she was at the Mets game. And I'm like, I'm gonna go see her. So I took the subway to Citi Field in Queens. Didn't have a ticket.

[C]

Not on the way, out of the way.

[B]

It was an hour long subway ride, ladies.

[D]

If he wanted to, he will.

[C]

That's right. That's right.

[B]

Seventh inning of the game. I figured I could scalp tickets. Something I'd never actually done. Yeah. Outside of a spot seven dittings. But the scalpers had gone home because it was the seventh day.

[C]

No. No rationale.

[B]

So I went to the ticket office and said I pulled a goodwill hunting. I'm here about a girl.

[D]

Stop.

[B]

He says, is it just you? I said, it's just me. He turns his head and slides a ticket across the counter.

[D]

Jack, you're kidding.

[B]

That should have been at the wedding. That ticket.

[A]

We gotta go find this ticket.

[B]

Happened to be in the section next to her.

[D]

No.

[B]

I show up and she screams. Couldn't believe I had.

[A]

Oh my God.

[C]

But think about what that means to somebody. It's like they didn't know where your intentions were. It's like, no, no. This guy just showed up in a way that's like.

[D]

Did you give her context? Were you like, I'm gonna try and get there.

[B]

I text her to that I was coming.

[D]

But yeah.

[B]

She must have not believed it because she'd only seen me at the brew fest.

[C]

Sure.

[D]

Right.

[B]

For like an hour.

[C]

So. But like perfect example of like the, the, the, the. The things you're willing to go through in the beginning relationship. If you like somebody, they should be very clear.

[D]

Like that is out of a book.

[C]

Yeah. That's beautiful.

[B]

Beautiful. It was.

[D]

You can tell this story. For sure.

[B]

It was beautiful. We spent the entire summer together. I took the summer off from work because I was about to go to. Because you were in love school and I was in love.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

She took the summer off because she was a teacher. We spent the entire summer together.

[D]

Oh my.

[B]

And then we started our relationship long distance. Because I went to Michigan for grad school. And after a couple years she was going to move to Michigan with me. But then we sold our company to Robinhood. We moved to California. I proposed to her right before she had to tell her work that she was going to California. Yeah. I mean, so that you could tell.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

Her work.

[D]

To be like my fiance.

[B]

My fiance.

[C]

And now fast forward house.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Kid child.

[B]

Two kids. Two boys.

[A]

Two kids.

[C]

And River.

[B]

And river the puppy the most wonderful.

[C]

I think you should have gone first.

[A]

It was a Yankees game and I was pitching.

[C]

Okay. Uh huh. Keep going.

[A]

I'm involved in the origin. I met Jack my first year in college as my freshman year roommate. And Jack and I walked in together, like we said, Seinfeld DVDs. And a few minutes later is when I met my now wife, Molly.

[D]

No way.

[B]

Really? Because we hosted the first party of the year.

[A]

Yes, we did.

[B]

In our incredibly tiny dorm room, same size as this room.

[C]

What?

[B]

25 people in that room. Molly was one of them. We have pictures of.

[A]

And Jack and I both met Molly and her friends. But I remember turning to Jack and we were both just like, wow, great girl. And we both just said, she's a great girl.

[C]

That's the nicest.

[B]

She was dating somebody.

[C]

Sure.

[B]

For like.

[C]

But she happened to be nice for.

[B]

The next couple years actually.

[C]

Oh, you. You put in.

[B]

He put in words.

[D]

There's a long game.

[A]

Long game, long game and long distance. Because I ended up transferring schools and Molly wrote my recommendation letter to transfer colleges.

[C]

How's that work?

[A]

Because she was someone who I thought could write an interesting angle on me. And so Molly, actually, she was part of my life right after you left. Yeah. And then we ended up getting together and having a long distance relationship after I changed schools. We went from being 30ft apart.

[D]

No way.

[A]

To 300 miles apart and dating.

[D]

Wow. And how long did you guys do long distance for?

[A]

We did long distance for a year and a half. And it's, you know, a wonderful test of long distance in Jackson. Long distance too, before. And it's. It's challenge. Jack and I are in a kind of long distance relationship sometimes too.

[D]

Yeah. But I feel like it's the foundation that you build beforehand. It's like you guys had the foundation of friendship. You had the foundation of that summer. And you, you guys have both together as, you know, work husbands.

[C]

Well, Lauren and I were doing distance when I lived in Beverly Hills. Yeah, it was really hard.

[D]

Beverly Hills, to where we are now was basically long distance is in.

[C]

I mean that could get up to 45.

[D]

If, if he lived on the west side, we. I probably wouldn't have gone on a first date.

[A]

Yeah, you got to have them. You got to have a boundary.

[D]

You got to have boundaries.

[C]

I mean, everyone. You know where the line is and that's where it is. Yeah.

[D]

Okay. Wow. Okay, wait, you didn't.

[C]

So where does one go to find a finance. Where did we find him?

[A]

Where do they go?

[C]

She. She's listening right Now. And she goes, I think I'd like to at least try. Where does she go?

[A]

Well, first, she may not need that finance bro. He probably needs her more than she needs him.

[D]

You're so right.

[C]

And that's all the time we have this week on the episode.

[D]

I'm not exactly nothing you can say that's better than that.

[C]

Where do you guys check you out? Where do they see you? How do they listen to you? What's the best and easiest way to see if this is something they're interested in doing every day?

[B]

The Best One yet is the name of the podcast.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

You can find us anywhere. You listen to a pod, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube. The best one Yet. We publish Monday through Friday every morning, the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. The intersection of business news and pop culture. This is the only news that you need.

[A]

We look at the world through a.

[B]

Business lens instead of political lens, and it will make you feel brighter every day.

[A]

Jack and I call it T Boy for short. The Best One Yet. Every episode really is the best one we've ever done, and we're really proud of it. And there's nothing more fun than me getting to do this with Jack every day.

[B]

Nicholas.

[A]

Nothing more fun than.

[C]

I think we have chemistry.

[D]

I think you guys actually love each other more than we do.

[B]

We do love each other.

[C]

Just get what you guys have. I mean, that'd be beautiful.

[A]

Well, it's Dr. Pepper.

[D]

It's Dr. Pepe.

[C]

Thank you so much for coming all the way out up here. We appreciate you guys.

[D]

Over and down.

[C]

Over and down.

[D]

Over and down. Of Vermont and down here. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And this was so great.

[C]

You guys have entertained me from afar. You've now entertained me from the same room. I appreciate you both.

[D]

And now we're going to thank very.

[B]

Much, both of you.

[C]

Everybody else, see you next week.

[B]

Oh, before we go, we actually have one more thing.

[A]

A little surprise for you guys.

[C]

What?

[B]

We have something we know you just got married on April 7th.

[C]

Oh, boy.

[B]

But given that we've been talking about weddings and finances for two days in a row now, we actually have some financial vows we've written for the two of you that we'd like you to exchange.

[C]

Everyone sit back down.

[D]

Yeah, everyone sit back.

[A]

This is the real wedding, to be honest.

[D]

Okay, so should we hold hands? Come here.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

We will give you a script.

[D]

Oh, right. We have to. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[B]

Lauren, you're first.

[D]

Okay, I'm first.

[C]

Oh, thank God.

[D]

Oh, no, I don't Know some of these words?

[B]

Yeah, you do.

[D]

No. No. 401K. What is that?

[C]

Oh, I think we have one together.

[D]

I'm kidding. Okay. Ready, baby? Are you ready?

[B]

Your financial rouse.

[D]

Give me your hand.

[A]

Lauren and Jeremy, give me your hand.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

The floor, the podium is yours.

[B]

The diamond we have gathered here today.

[D]

Thank you so much. I, Lauren, take you, Jeremy, for my lawfully wedded financial beneficiary.

[C]

Hell yeah.

[D]

For richer or poorer, I vow to never pay the restaurant tab without double checking. Which I so do. It actually makes him uncomfortable that I check the tab.

[C]

It's so weird.

[D]

So uncomfortable when I look. Always comparison shop to make sure we're getting a good deal. I'm half Asian. I love a deal. And maximize contributions to my 401k.

[C]

Somebody else takes care of that for you, but yeah, I think you're doing that.

[D]

And love you, Rachel. Until death do us part.

[C]

Or if you cut off a finger because we talked about that. I'm Jeremy. Hi. I, Jeremy, take you, Lauren, for my lawfully wedded sugar mama. For rich or poor, I vow to never miss an Amex payment. Never miss an Amex payment. You wouldn't. That's stupid.

[A]

No.

[C]

Always optimize deductions on our gross income. Not to mention my health savings account. And before hunting any movie, we'll first check to see if it's available on one of the streamers who we already pay for.

[D]

You guys nailed these.

[C]

This is great. Truly, this is until death do us part. And even after then.

[A]

And Jeremy, in the name of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, we take and take and wear this ring as a sign of your love, faithfulness and eternally balanced budgets. By the power vested in us by the New York Stock Exchange, we now pronounce you husband and wife.

[B]

You may now co sign this 1040 tax form.

[C]

I don't think I know what a 1040 is.

[A]

You are now financially wed. That's even.

[D]

More serious than the real day.

[C]

This is way more serious. But thank. I didn't know we had like wordsmiths in front of us. This is beautiful. Wow. With that, Lafayette, we will see you guys next week.

[D]

Goodbye.

[C]

Bye, guys.

[A]

Yetis, you look fantastic over there, Jack. I can't wait to see you on Monday, man. We're back to the usual show.

[B]

This is gonna be huge.

[A]

It's gonna be huge. What a vacation. Hopefully. Hope you enjoyed all these bonus episodes. Besties. And Jack and I can't wait to see you Monday.

[B]

If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad free right now by joining Wondery and the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

[A]

Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.

[B]

And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey we want to.

[A]

Get to know you. And now a next level moment from ATT Business. Say you've sent out a gigantic shipment of pillows and they need to be there in time for International Sleep day. You've got AT and T5G so you're fully confident, but the vendor isn't responding. And International Sleep Day is tomorrow. Luckily, AT&T 5G lets you deal with any issues with ease, so the pillows will get delivered and everyone can sleep soundly, especially you. AT&T5G requires a compatible plan and device coverage not available everywhere. Learn [e-mail] 5G Network.