Your Path to a Cost-Effective Car SB1651

Summary

The Stacking Benjamins Show: Your Path to a Cost-Effective Car (Episode SB1651)
Release Date: March 3, 2025

---

Introduction

In this episode of The Stacking Benjamins Show, hosts Joe Saul-Sehy and OG delve into the intricacies of purchasing a cost-effective vehicle. Building upon their previous discussions from episode 22 with Phil Reed of Edmunds, they explore whether past automotive advice remains relevant today. Additionally, the episode features insightful Q&A segments on retirement planning and time management tips for the self-employed.

---

Buying a Car with Phil Reed

Timestamp: [19:56]
The highlight of the episode is an in-depth interview with Phil Reed, Senior Consumer Editor at Edmunds.com. Phil shares expert advice on navigating the car-buying process, focusing on whether to opt for a new or used vehicle.

New vs. Used Cars
Timestamp: [21:16]
Phil challenges the traditional notion that used cars are always the better financial choice. He states:

“In fact, on our website we have a section called New, Cheaper Than Used. There are instances where you can almost get a new car once you factor in rebates and financing, cheaper than a used car.”
— Phil Reed

He recommends looking for used cars that are three to five years old, as these often offer a sweet spot where depreciation has stabilized, providing reliability without the steep initial loss in value.

Budgeting for Your First Car
Timestamp: [22:53]
Phil advises that car payments should not exceed 20% of your take-home pay. This conservative approach ensures financial flexibility in unforeseen circumstances. He emphasizes:

“Nothing tells you what's going to happen next in life. You need to ensure your car payment is manageable even if unexpected expenses arise.”
— Phil Reed

Negotiating with Dealers
Timestamp: [27:49]
Understanding the dealer experience is crucial. Phil recommends:

“Being prepared is the best way to deal with the fear of negotiating. Even just taking an hour of research can save you $1,000 to $2,000.”
— Phil Reed

He suggests setting a low opening offer to remain in the negotiation ballpark without alienating the dealer.

Leasing vs. Buying
Timestamp: [31:39]
Phil explains that leasing can be a viable option, especially with lease specials on economy cars. He recommends:

“Decide to lease for no longer than three years and limit your down payment to no more than $1,000.”
— Phil Reed

This strategy allows for predictable expenses and flexibility to upgrade vehicles periodically.

Final Tips
Timestamp: [35:08]
Phil’s overarching advice for first-time car buyers includes:

1. Know the True Market Value: Utilize Edmunds’ data to understand what others are paying for the same vehicle.
2. Research the Dealer: Check dealer ratings and reviews to ensure a smooth purchasing experience.

---

Listener Q&A: Retirement Planning

Timestamp: [09:14]
Listener Andy poses a question about navigating retirement calculators and replacing income post-retirement. OG and Joe provide detailed strategies:

Inflation and Investment Returns
OG suggests using a 3.5% inflation rate based on historical averages and recommends maintaining a diversified portfolio with a significant equity component to ensure growth over a longer retirement period.

Joe adds:

“Take the amount you plan to spend each year and use it as the basis for your retirement calculations, adjusting for inflation to see if your savings will meet your needs.”
— Joe Saul-Sehy

Guaranteed Income Streams
Dominique points out that Andy’s Navy pensions provide a stable income, reducing the need to rely solely on investments.

---

Time Management for the Self-Employed with Carrie Smith and Paula Pant

Timestamp: [39:54]
Carrie Smith from Careful Sense and Paula Pant from Afford Anything share valuable tips on maximizing productivity and managing time effectively as self-employed individuals.

Handling Distractions
Carrie emphasizes the importance of limiting social media usage:

“Social media is a big distraction. Implementing strategies like batching email responses and setting specific times for social media can significantly enhance productivity.”
— Carrie Smith

Email Management
Paula discusses effective email strategies:

“Batch processing your emails and maintaining an organized inbox prevents it from becoming a productivity sinkhole.”
— Paula Pant

Prioritizing Tasks
Both guests agree on the necessity of prioritizing tasks based on personal energy levels and sticking to a structured schedule to ensure that high-impact tasks are completed efficiently.

---

Listener Reviews and Community Feedback

Timestamp: [15:23]
Joe reads out appreciative reviews from listeners, highlighting the podcast’s balance of financial advice and entertainment. Notable feedback includes:

“A very good podcast based on finance and supported by comedy. It strikes a great balance of fun and functional.”
— Listener rwb20

Another review from Canada praises the show’s informative segments:

“Really enjoyed it. Very informative listening on the 401 in Ontario, Canada.”
— Listener Uncook

---

Conclusion and What's Next

As the episode wraps up, Joe and OG tease upcoming content, including a supplemental Friday show with interviews and interactive games for listeners. They encourage audience engagement through reviews and participation in new segments.

---

Notable Quotes Summary

1. Phil Reed on New vs. Used:

   “In fact, on our website we have a section called New, Cheaper Than Used. There are instances where you can almost get a new car once you factor in rebates and financing, cheaper than a used car.”

2. Phil Reed on Budgeting:

   “Nothing tells you what's going to happen next in life. You need to ensure your car payment is manageable even if unexpected expenses arise.”

3. Joe Saul-Sehy on Retirement:

   “Take the amount you plan to spend each year and use it as the basis for your retirement calculations, adjusting for inflation to see if your savings will meet your needs.”

4. Carrie Smith on Distractions:

   “Social media is a big distraction. Implementing strategies like batching email responses and setting specific times for social media can significantly enhance productivity.”

5. Paula Pant on Email Management:

   “Batch processing your emails and maintaining an organized inbox prevents it from becoming a productivity sinkhole.”

---

Resources Mentioned

• Edmunds.com: For car buying guides and calculators.
  stackingbenjamins.com (Tax Guide)
• CarefulSense.com and AffordAnything.com: For time management and financial tips.

---

This episode of The Stacking Benjamins Show offers a comprehensive guide for first-time car buyers, along with practical advice on retirement planning and productivity for the self-employed. Whether you're navigating the car market or seeking to optimize your daily routines, this episode provides valuable insights to help you make informed financial decisions.

Transcript

[Joe Salsihai]

Small business owners.

[OG]

State Farm's there with small business insurance to fit your specific needs. Whether you're starting a new venture or growing an existing one, State Farm helps you choose the right coverage to protect what matters most. Working with a local State Farm agent helps you understand your coverage options, offering local support to help you achieve your goals. Focus on turning your passion into a thriving business, knowing your insurance can change as your business grows. Stay Farm here to help you succeed with your business. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there well, debt can really take a toll on you. Between minimum payments and interest rates, it's really stressful and at times feels like you just can't get ahead. Navy Federal Credit Union understands debt's a huge stressor and they're here to help. Navy Federal Credit Union has all the financial tools and resources you need to dominate debt. So the first thing you do Stackers, you put together your debt payoff strategy. Think like you're a cfo. Create a strategy. Don't just have debt. Figure out exactly what your plan is and then use Navy Federal tools like these. Right now, Navy Federal Credit Union is offering a 0% intro APR on credit card balance transfers for 12 months. Plus you can get 250 when you spend 2500 dollars in your first 90 days on a cash rewards or cash rewards plus credit card. Don't let that drag you down. Visit Navy federal.org to start dominating debt today. Navy Federal Credit Union Our members are the mission. Navy Federal is insured by NCUA. After the intro rate expires, variable APRs are 15.15% to 18%. There's why you want a debt strategy based on credit worthiness. Rates are subject to change. ATM fees for cash advances are up to $1 at non Navy Federal ATMs.

[Joe Salsihai]

Hey there stackers.

[OG]

Welcome to an episode of the Stacky Benjamin Show. I'm co host Joe Sal Sehei and we got a great show today because Tina on our team said, you know what, we haven't talked about cars in a while. So I dug in and you know what? In the last 12 months, we really haven't talked much about cars. But Back on episode 22, Phil Reed, senior editor at Edmunds and I remember hearing Phil Reed all over the place on the news back then. Phil Reed from Edmonds joined us to talk about how to buy a car.

[Joe Salsihai]

What to look for when you're buying.

[OG]

A used car or a new car and what I'd love love to hear from you, whether it is in our Facebook group, the Basement or if you're listening on Spotify where we can have a nice chat in the comment section over there. I'd love to hear whether this advice is dated because listening to it, the microphone sound dated on this episode. OG Blair's a little bit our round table episode, which is the second half. And some more great advice by the way, in that half of the episode from Paula Dominique Brown and Carrie Smith. Carrie Smith and Dominic Brown have now been on our podcast in so, so, so long and it was great to hear their voice again as they dish out some fantastic tips. But regardless, I'd love to hear, even though this is 10 years ago, episode 22. We're on episode 1651 right now. 1651. Does this advice still hold up today? And I think, like me, you might be surprised. So that's coming up. One piece of housekeeping before we get there. Our Tax Guide goes online on Wednesday. Stackybenjamins.com tax guide we worked our butt off on this like we did our HR Guide. So now we're up to two guides. Our HR guide came out back in October. We update the guide every month. You pay for it one time.

[Joe Salsihai]

We're going to have a party to.

[OG]

Talk all about it on Wednesday at 6pm Eastern, 5pm Central. That would be 3pm Pacific Mountain Time. You're squeezed in there at 4.

[Joe Salsihai]

We're going to walk through it, have.

[OG]

A kickoff party and the guide will be live on Wednesday. Join us there or head to stacking benjamins.com taxguide like all the guides that we're releasing, you buy it one time. We update it every month. Your tax situation may change. The government's always changing the tax game. We keep this up to date for you. The whole first half of the guide is tax planning. The second half of the guide is tax filing. All different situations are included. This thing is jam packed and what's cool over the course of the next year. Already we have a Runway of ways we're going to take it from amazingly useful to just as mom says, like butter, a text guide like butter. All right. Stacking benjamins.com tax guide for that we have a couple sponsors that make sure that we can keep on keeping on and you don't pay a cent for all this goodness. And then we're in the way. Way back machine 2015 and does this advice still hold up? Either let me know in our Facebook group or if you're on Spotify, leave us a comment and we'll chat about it. Buying a car with Phil Reed from edmunds.com what did I get you for?

[Joe Salsihai]

I bought a car. Turned out to be an alien robot.

[Phil Reed]

Who knew?

[Joe Salsihai]

Live from my parents basement, this is the Stacking Benjamin Show. I'm Joe Salsihai, Average Joe on our blog and with my partner in crime, the other guy, we operate this super secret podcast about earning, saving and spending with a plan. You'll find notes for the [e-mail] and as always, you can send your emails with questions, comments or keys to the brand new car to joestackingbenjamins.com and here he is. The man, the myth, the legend, the.

[Dominique Brown]

OG what is going on?

[Joe Salsihai]

You've been hanging out with Eminem.

[Dominique Brown]

Oh yeah. Well, I played in a golf tournament this week and I really don't listen to a lot of rap, but it turns out I like to listen to rap while I play golf.

[Joe Salsihai]

Gets you fired up. Yeah, well, mom says she doesn't care that it's rap. She just always beats on the floor. Turn that stuff down. And we. Oh, I know, she just, just annoys me.

[Dominique Brown]

Can't hear you, ma. The music's too loud.

[Joe Salsihai]

We got a great show today. We got fantastic show.

[Dominique Brown]

You know why Phil, you say so?

[Joe Salsihai]

Because I say so. Ta da. That's it. Thank you. We're done. Phil Reed, senior consumer editor at Edmund Edmonds.

[Dominique Brown]

You know Edmunds, I visit that website quite frequently.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yes, we have Phil Reed, the senior consumer editor from Edmunds there. He's going to teach us how to buy a car. Should be pretty dangerous, I gotta tell you.

[Dominique Brown]

Dangerous. You know, I'm such an impulsive shopper, man. That's why I can't go do that stuff.

[Joe Salsihai]

Well then you gotta hang out here and listen to Phil because I gotta tell you, the last time I bought a car, we watched an Edmunds video beforehand. And it wasn't just for me. It was that Cheryl and I had the same game plan because have you ever gone into the place with your spouse and you're on one plane of thinking and they're on a different plane and the salesperson just wedges right between those? Yeah, not good.

[Dominique Brown]

As a matter of fact, the last two new cars that I bought, I bought without my wife's involvement.

[Joe Salsihai]

Oh, did you bring them home as a surprise?

[Dominique Brown]

Kind of. The last one that she got her car, it was when our second son was born. I pulled in the driveway and went, do you like it?

[Joe Salsihai]

What do you think?

[Dominique Brown]

She comes out, you know, like four days after, you know, post delivery. She went, sure, whatever.

[Joe Salsihai]

Just an important.

[Dominique Brown]

Here's your New car, sweetheart.

[Joe Salsihai]

An important financial decision that you. Well, you guys had already decided to buy a car. I remember that story. It was just your job to go to get that thing done. We also will also do Guess the Voice. We have just a packed, packed show today. We're going to talk about a movie called the World's End that was recently in theaters. You could probably still find it in some theaters. But for now, let's move. Hey, OG we get tons and tons of emails and mom finally said, you know, get this stuff off the counter. And I keep forgetting to actually talk about the emails that we have. And so I think we should go through these because there's actually some good questions in here that we can also answer. First question just came in a few days ago from Andy. Andy says Joe, avid listener to both of your podcasts. This and our other podcasts for those of you new to the show is called Two Guys and you'd money. And not only for the information, but also entertainment. Seems Andy's heart up for entertainment. OG Even when the content of your podcast doesn't contain things I'm interested in, I'll end up listening to it twice. How about that?

[Paula Pant]

Wow.

[Joe Salsihai]

Now my question. I retired from the Navy in 2007. I'm working toward my second retirement, government service. My wife is also employed by the government. I've researched a number of retirement calculators and I find them all a little confusing. What if I just said, andy, that's two of us. I don't understand any of this stuff. Andy, how did you help your clients to determine their retirement needs and goals? Personally, I'd like to replace 100% of my income when I retire. But what are good calculations for returns and inflation? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for the question, Andy, and thanks for the nice compliments. But OG I'm sure we've got some thoughts about that.

[Dominique Brown]

Well, this is a. This is like a real legitimate question. This isn't something that I thought they were all going to be like. So is it cloudy where you are today? Yes. Moving on to the next question. You can use historical averages for inflation, so I always use like 3.5%. It's not really scientific. It's just the most recent 20 years, give or take, is about 3, 3.5%. I think historically it's closer to four if you go back a long time, But I think 3, 3.5% is fine with that. For investment returns, it's all going to depend on what sort of allocation you use. I tend to be on the side of the fence that says that even if you're 60 and you retire, you still need to have 30 year money. So you got to have money that's available for you and growing when you're 90. And the only place that you can do that is in equity. So I like to have a real small amount, a couple years worth of distributions in cash, another couple, three, four years in shorter term fixed income type things like short term bonds or CDs or something, and the rest seven year plus money. That's all invested in a nice diversified portfolio of equities.

[Joe Salsihai]

What that does, that helps you keep your rate of return higher. You know, you see a lot of people that talk about, well I'm retired, so I got all my money in CDs earning 3%. Well, if you're 65 or 70, what's the chance you're going to spend the money that you need at 90 today? You're not going to do that. It doesn't matter how much money you have. A lot of times people say, well I have so much money so I got to protect it. Well, you're still going to need money at 90, aren't you? So yeah, so what I like doing is taking not the amount that you're going to earn. I like taking the amount of money that you're going to spend each year. And if you're far away, if you're in your 20s or 30s and you're doing this calculation, just look at the amount of money that you, you know, throw up a ballpark number because it's going to change right in today's dollars. I'd like to spend $50,000 a year. If you're close to retirement, take out a budget sheet and go line by line over what you think that your expenses are going to be and then add in the things that you want to do. Know, some people want to travel more, some people want to play golf more like og, some people want to, you know, buy classic cars, whatever, add those things in, then use OG's inflation of 3.5% over time, which all the calculators at Yahoo, at MSN, CNM Money, those will all let you put in the 3.5% and what rate of return you want and see if you have enough money to make it based on what you want.

[Dominique Brown]

The other thing that I would say it sounds like it's unique to Andy. He's got a pension from the Navy and as a former service member, and it sounds like he's getting working on another pension. So there's going to be a lot of guaranteed income coming in their world, you know, even if it's only fifteen hundred dollars a month or something like that from a couple of those, you know, a lot of your living expenses might just come from fixed income and.

[Joe Salsihai]

That'S why you don't. I don't start anyway with replacing my income.

[Dominique Brown]

You got to buy stuff.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah, big difference between the income line and the expense line. So thanks for the note, Andy. I also followed up with Andy over email on that note too, but thought that that was worth sharing with everyone. Next question's from Ryan. It says I've not heard Dr. Dean on your podcast for a long time. I was wondering if that's because of conflict of interest on his part or if he's onto doing other things. I know he's running for Georgia Senate at one point and that is a conflict of interest. Actually it would be nice if you could give an update on him if possible. So thanks for the, thanks for the question, Ryan. Dr. Dean, I actually talked to you last week. O.G.

[Dominique Brown]

How about that? Lots of doctoring going on and lots of politicalness going on.

[Joe Salsihai]

I think a lot of politicalness going on. And he actually has changed his job. He's now more of an administrator in the town that he lives in in Georgia than a full time doctor because of all of his jobs with the, the Georgia Congress. You know, he never, when he left, he never mentioned a conflict of interest. I think there probably would be. I mean, who wants to, who wants to have your competitor using against you on billboards that you were on Stacking Benjamins?

[Dominique Brown]

You want to know who you voted for? Listen to this show. Listen to these two idiots. He probably went, I got to distance myself as quickly as possible from these guys.

[Joe Salsihai]

Tanya asked, and it's a rather long note, but Tanya asked if we have any tips for a new podcaster she is considering.

[Dominique Brown]

Don't.

[Joe Salsihai]

Avoid abort. Just that mission should end right now.

[Dominique Brown]

Yes.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah, a few tips on my end. So thanks Tanya, for the question. Make a podcast that you like to listen to. This, this, this podcast came about because it's the type of podcast I would want. Oh gee. And I, as you guys know we have ADD, which is why every segment is 15 minutes or less because we want to go on to the next thing. We have a longest show because I enjoy listening to shows that are 60 minutes or more and I know when we first started our show we got some pushback on that and I know looking at the statistics that there are people listen to our show for half an hour and that's fine because I do that with other shows. I'd listen to the first 20 minutes, half an hour and then I run out of time and catch the next one. That's great. That's also why we put things like the movies and the fun stuff we do at the end of the show and try to give you information at the start. Invest in a good microphone. We didn't do that. You and I didn't do that when we first started and we both upgraded our microphones. That helped a ton. Also, what other.

[Dominique Brown]

I was going to say, I think probably the time. You might underestimate the amount of time that you need to put it together at first.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah. Because this, the 70 minute show takes me probably, I'm gonna say between five and six hours over the weekend to edit and that's a. It is a ton of editing. And we still manage this.

[Dominique Brown]

And that's down. That's down from probably 12 or 15 hours.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yes. Right when we first started the early parts.

[Paula Pant]

Yeah.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah. And somehow we still managed to sound horrible.

[Dominique Brown]

Well, speak for yourself.

[Joe Salsihai]

We edit. We edit the heck out of the show. So that's that. I also need to thank a few people here that gave us reviews in itunes. If you could give us a review in itun. That is fantastic for the show. It shows itunes that we are a show worth listening to. We are on the top 200 in the investing category of itunes. So thanks to everybody who listens. But here are a few. So thank you to rwb20 who gave us a review a couple weeks ago. A very good podcast based on finance and supported by comedy. It's all unintentional comedy OG they always have a very good roundtable discussion. Although some of them are not there from the previous miles of show like Dr. Dean. You can also learn a lot from the top five when they haven't. The movie review section is great because it's kept me from seeing movies I did not think I would like. It's kept me from seeing movies I did not think I would like. And after the reviews confirmed it and made me go and watch some obscure movies. I also like the random facts that Doug, Mom's neighbor Doug sprinkles in each episode. Stacking Benjamin has come a long way from Worst of the Free Financial Advisor which was our first iteration of the show. Worst of the Free Financial Advisor is a great show. Oh, I think I might have to disagree them there. And they have improved upon it and kept the drive going to put On a great show. Thank you rwb20 for that one. Also, Steve Stewart was kind enough to share with us some reviews that have been on the Canadian itunes because we don't get to see those. Being in the US we don't get to see the Canadian ones. So this one is from Uncook and says had a great solo drive. Listened to three episodes back to back to back, including the Secret Hidden segments. What is he talking about? This?

[Dominique Brown]

What is he talking about? Secret Hidden.

[Joe Salsihai]

I have no idea. Really enjoyed it. Very important. That's right. Really enjoyed it. Very informative listening on the 401 in Ontario, Canada. We've been on the 401 before.

[Dominique Brown]

I have.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah.

[Dominique Brown]

I always get confused on the speed limit, so I just drive 200, whatever that means. 200 until the Mounties come and get me.

[Joe Salsihai]

Earth units. Well, they can't catch up with you on their horses.

[Dominique Brown]

Dang. Zing.

[Joe Salsihai]

So you're good. Hey.

[Dominique Brown]

You'Ll never catch me, coppers.

[Joe Salsihai]

Next is from Ghost Dumpy. And this one is Two Guys and you'd Money was absolutely my favorite podcast. Entertaining cast, entertaining content. And we actually learned something that they.

[Dominique Brown]

Learned something out of what, a hundred episodes, give or take, that we've had out of this whole thing.

[Joe Salsihai]

That's right. He's learned three.

[Dominique Brown]

They finally learned something.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah. This is the new version of that same great podcast and I look forward to. To new episodes. So please, thank you, by the way. Go Stumpy in Canada and Uncook in Canada also. And RWB20 in the US for those very kind reviews. And please, if. If you can give us a shout.

[Dominique Brown]

Out and but only nice thing, just don't. Don't write crappy things. Or if you do, it better be funny. Yeah, that guy. That guy was funny.

[Joe Salsihai]

That's awesome. All right, all right. Mom's checked his credentials. This guy waiting at the top of the stairs talking to Mom. It really is Phil Reed. We got a guy from Edmonds on here. Is it. Is that when you know you've reached the big time? When Edmund's almost sitting here? Yeah. You should see the car this guy's driving.

[Dominique Brown]

I bet. Probably for free, too.

[Joe Salsihai]

That's right. Let's bring him down to the basement. Phil Read. All right, so when you're looking to buy your first car, it's a great idea to have good help in your corner. And we come to your rescue. We've got senior consumer Advice Editor at Edmunds.com, Mr. Phil Reed with us in the basement. Welcome to the basement, Phil it's good.

[Phil Reed]

To be with you.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah. So, you know, when I think about your job, I think that you know, and tell me this is the truth, Phil, that Edmunds. What you guys do is sit around and play with cars all day and test drive exotic vehicles. Is that really what you do?

[Phil Reed]

Yeah, absolutely. It is. It's funny, when I first started working here, I got an email from my boss and he said, hey, you know, I know you guys are busy, but there are cars down in the garage. Get the keys and go out and drive them. And I thought, you know, that's the exact opposite of any other job you would have. They would tell you to get back to your desk and start working. Our work was to drive cars and figure out what was good to buy and communicate that to our readers.

[Joe Salsihai]

Where can I get an application?

[Phil Reed]

Well, we have a jobs tab on our website and we're hiring.

[Joe Salsihai]

All right, well, there you go, everybody. See, we hook you up with a great job. So you're buying your first car. Phil, should you look new or used? Because I've heard traditionally everyone says you should probably go with a used car because when a new car comes off the lot that it automatically depreciates. But I know lately with the price of used cars going up and up, as that becomes a truism, new car dealers offering better deals, that that may be more of a flat line. What do you think, new or used for your first vehicle?

[Phil Reed]

Well, you know, you've got a good point, which is that the whole question has changed in recent years partially because of the factors that you mentioned, but also because the depreciation of certain cars is very low. And then combined with that, the low interest financing that they offer and some of the rebates, it blurs the whole question of new versus used. In fact, on our website we have a section called New, cheaper than used. There are instances where you can almost get a new car once you factor in rebates and financing, cheaper than you could get a used car. But that doesn't mean that all used cars should be discounted. You have to go out a little farther. In other words, and this might be good for people that are buying their first car, you have to really age it more than about three years. A used car between three and five years is a good sweet spot for buying a used car and probably for a lot of first time car buyers. And here's why. Mainly the depreciation is in the first and second year, and then it kind of flattens out the depreciation curve for A couple of years and it doesn't drop off again until about the sixth year. And in there you can still get a really, really good, reliable car. And in some cases you might be able to buy a car that's even still under the warranty. So that's a good place to shop. And I've always been a use car shopper. You know, we're here in the basement and I can tell you I'm really cheap too.

[Joe Salsihai]

Well, for my budget, when I'm looking at my overall budget. Are there some rules of thumb that you guys have about how much car I should be looking at?

[Phil Reed]

Yeah. Well, if you're going to be financing, which means taking out a loan for the car, we say that you shouldn't spend more than 20% of your take home pay on your car payment. So if you're in a household, you know, it would be 20% of the household budget if you're sharing a car then, you know, probably one of the first things that people do if they take the moment time to run the math on this would be they would find that this was very restrictive. It's only a rule of thumb. You can break it. Nobody's going to arrest you. Because if your priority is to drive around in more car, then you know, it's up to you. But, but a good rule of thumb is 20% of your take home pay. And with that, that means that you might be getting an older car or a lesser car or many other things. But here's the reason why it's a good idea to be a little conservative about that. And that is because nobody tells you what's going to happen next in life. And we saw this very clearly that in 2008 when the bottom dropped out of the economy, suddenly people, people needed to hang onto their car. They couldn't afford that new car that they really wanted. They had to wait until 2013 until they could really splurge again.

[Joe Salsihai]

That makes me think too that when you're thinking about your car and you don't know what happens, that looking at things like gas mileage and wear and tear and how long the car's going to last are probably also important factors.

[Phil Reed]

Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, I would put personally gas mileage at the top because we know that the price of gas is not going to go down. I mean, it will go down temporarily, but it's on an upward trend and it's nice not to be caught unprepared for that. So fuel efficiency is definitely good as far as wear and tear goes. You have more control over that than you do over gas prices, obviously. Now, if we're talking about the first car, you may not really know what your relationship with cars is going to be. I've owned a whole bunch of cars, so I already know I take pretty good care of cars, and I kind of have a tendency to baby them. If you're unsure of how you're going to treat your first car, why not get a used car? Because you'll pay a lot less in depreciation. There are a lot of good used cars out there. The only downside of used cars is it requires more expertise to shop for a used car. And that's because with the new car, you know the condition level, it's supposed to be as perfect as it can be. But with used car, all used cars are different. So you're going to need to spend a fair amount of time making sure that this is in good shape and pricing it accordingly before you make an offer on it.

[Joe Salsihai]

How do you do that, Phil? Make sure that that car is not a lemon that you're walking away with.

[Phil Reed]

You know, this is a good time to shop for a used car, and that is because we have more tools than we used to because of the Internet. We have vehicle history reports, which are not necessarily 100% reliable, but they're a great way to start your shopping. What I like to tell people is to get a subscription for one of these services as soon as you go into the used car shopping cycle and before you even pick up the phone to call the owner, before you call the dealer, before you drive across town to see it, run the vehicle history report, because it will give you a very good snapshot of how many owners, whether it has had any mechanical problems, whether there may be a collision that's been involved, and you can then both price it better. Also know whether or not you should go out of your way to go and inspect the car. So that's really step number one, and that's a huge advantage to you as a shopper. The other thing is that for used car shopping, you can cast a wider net because of the Internet. Internet, get it? Internet, yeah. And so you can basically decide what kind of car you want and then just enlarge your search territory or just try different search sites until you find it. And this means that you can probably get three or four good candidates, see what the pricing is. You also have access to sites such as ours that have very good vehicle appraisers so that you can appraise the vehicle of the car and make a very accurate offer should you decide to go forward with trying to buy that car.

[Joe Salsihai]

I know I used Edmunds extensively that way for my last car and it was amazing to see the price differences in dealers and private owners on any single type of car, any single model. I mean, they were all over the map. So your site was incredible for that. On that note, let's talk about the dealer experience. If somebody decides to work with a car dealer, because these people are in the business, as you know, Phil, of knowing exactly what they're doing, knowing how the game works, and if you're buying your first car, you probably have no idea how do you score your best price with a dealer.

[Phil Reed]

You started that by saying if this is your first car. So we're assuming, I guess, that this is the first time you've gone through that experience and everybody has to go through it for the first time once. And it is daunting. I mean, I'm here at Edmunds, a lot of people contact me and I know that the fear that precedes car shopping, particularly for the first time, can be pretty high. And, and of course, being prepared is really the best way to deal with that. More specifically, kind of knowing and knowing at what point to begin the negotiation, things like that, how to negotiate, even if it's very simple, even just sort of a basic sort of overview of what to expect can be very powerful and prepare people quite well. You know, a lot of people will say, well, before you go car shopping, do your homework. I've always steered clear of that because nobody likes doing homework. What I tell people instead is if you take an hour of research, you can probably save yourself between $1,000 and $2,000 when it comes to negotiating and the whole big picture of all of the things that could occur to you at the dealership. The other thing too, particularly, because if you're a first time car shopper, that may mean that you're fairly young. This presents a little bit of a problem for some young people because young people are taught to respect older people. The dealer's going to probably be older. However, it's about you and your money. So you should have the expectation to stand up for yourself and make the right deal. This doesn't mean that you should try to take every penny of profit from the dealer. One thing that you should sort of relax about is that the dealer does have a chance to make profit. They should. They got the car, they paid for it, they reconditioned it. Hopefully there may be a warranty included with it so you're getting added value than just whatever they paid for the car. At the same time, you do have a chance to negotiate. Depending on your personality, you could do it even aggressively. By that, I don't mean yelling and screaming. What I mean is, you know, setting a fairly aggressive opening price. It's funny, people always say aggressive. What they mean is really low opening price. There's kind of an art to figuring out where to start a negotiation. And the simplest way to say that is you need to be in the ballpark, but on the low end as possible. Because if you make too low of an offer, they're just going to not treat you as if you're a real buyer. They're just going to say, well, thanks for coming in and I'll see you later. If you make a low offer and they say, well, that's a whole lot less than we were trying to get for this car, but we'll take the offer to the manager. You know that you're in the ballpark and you're probably in business, so take.

[Joe Salsihai]

It to the manager is a good sign. I mean, that's kind of a keyword for you're in the. You're in the ballpark.

[Phil Reed]

Yeah, it is, because it means that they're going to deal with you. What will happen at that point is they'll come back probably with a counter offer. In some cases, they may take it to the manager and come back and just say, we can't do it at this price. So you may either need to go to another dealership or improve even your opening offer. So that's one way to do it. Another would be to get them to state the first price. This gets kind of tricky because there's so many different styles of negotiating. And one of the things that car lots do, and they do quite well, is they may have the price on the windshield of the car and then they may say, reduce this week and it'll be $500 less. And then even that's crossed out and it could say Internet special. So the net effect of this is it makes you feel as if they've already negotiated with themselves and you can go no lower. Now maybe you can even go lower, maybe that's a good price. But again, go back to the pricing guides and use your knowledge of the market to make that determination.

[Joe Salsihai]

Is the process any different if you're leasing?

[Phil Reed]

Yes, it is different. And first time people probably are not going to be driven to leasing. However, that's changed a little bit lately because they're starting to offer lease specials on some economy cars such as the Fiat 500 and the Mazda 3. Those are very popular lease cars. They're also popular cars with younger people and first time car shoppers. Yeah, leasing. First of all, leasing really confuses people because a lot of the terms are different and very often the salesperson that you're negotiating with might sort of try and throw you off by saying, oh well, that doesn't apply to leasing. That's just buying or you're just mistaken or whatever. But really, probably one of the simplest strategies with leasing is to decide how you want to lease for. We recommend leasing for no longer than three years. So two or three years are good lease period. Need to figure out how much you want to put down. We recommend no more than $1,000. And then from there you need to figure out can you get by with 12,000 miles a year. That's usually what most leases include. And then you can go shopping with those parameters and go to several dealers, call them on the Internet department through the Internet department and just say, hey, here's what I want for my car, 12,000 miles a year, three year lease, whatever. Give me your best price and you could get probably four or five quotes. They'll probably all be fairly similar, but one may be substantially lower. You can also try to negotiate down from there or basically bargain the dealers against each other. In other words, have them compete for your business.

[Joe Salsihai]

Phil, we'll link to the guide for first time home [e-mail] on our show [e-mail] 22 for episode 22. And I'm also going to link to the new new cheaper than used article. Is there anything else that we should probably link to as well?

[Phil Reed]

Well, we do have a suite of calculators and these are really powerful because if you put in your zip code you will see that it pulls in the registry information and also the local sales tax. It will also pull in the value, the true market value of the car. So the auto calculators are really good for budgeting. We have an affordability affordability calculator and we have several new products coming out. One of them is called price prompt and this is a way to get an upfront stated good discounted price on a new car. We may in the future also have a similar product for lease promise because we found that the number one concern of car buyers is not getting a clear upfront price. So we're trying to solve that by having price promise.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah, the whole negotiation thing drives me.

[Phil Reed]

Crazy and you're not alone. I mean, I once, as an experiment, went in to a car dealership and I just said, give me a price on this car. And it was a joke, you know, it was like, well, what are you willing to pay? And it's like, well, no, I'm not negotiating, I'm just asking for a price. And it went on in sort of a Abbott and Costello fashion for a long time.

[Joe Salsihai]

Imagine if that happened at Walmart over baked beans. You know, give me the price of that.

[Phil Reed]

Yeah, we would never get on with our lives.

[Joe Salsihai]

No, it'd be horrible.

[Phil Reed]

Never have the time.

[Joe Salsihai]

Well, one big last tip that you would have. If there's one overarching tip, Phil, that you have for somebody going out to buy their first car, what would that be?

[Phil Reed]

Well, can I have two? The first would be make sure that you know the true market value of this vehicle. We actually collect a lot of data on the actual sales, the purchase price of the car. So in other words, what other people have bought that car for? So you should know that. And that will be a guide for you as you negotiate. And then the other thing is, do a little research in terms of the dealer. Check dealer ratings and reviews on our site and also Google them and see whether this is, you know, a dealership that you want to do business with. Because if you find good people to deal with, the whole process is going to move forward much more smoothly.

[Doug]

Hey there, old friends, remember me? It's Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. Alright, here's this week's trivia question. What does the tech company name Cisco stand for? Holy cow. Trivia fans. It's Joe's mom's neighbor Doug with this week's trivia answer. What does the tech company name Cisco stand for? Well, it's short for San Francisco, where Cisco was founded. Hate to tell you this, but the most entertaining part of the show is now over. The guys will be back in just a second to help you fall back to sleep.

[Joe Salsihai]

Alright, we got the shortwave gang hanging out supposedly. Let's, let's go check out and see what they're doing. All right, everybody, let's walk over to my dad shortwave and see if we can get the greatest minds in the nation on the line to talk for a few minutes. And I believe we have, from Atlanta, Georgia, the woman, the myth, the legend, Paula Pant.

[Carrie Smith]

Hey, how's it going?

[Joe Salsihai]

So you are in the closet.

[Carrie Smith]

I'm in the closet. I am. I have an announcement. I'm in the closet.

[Joe Salsihai]

You are? Is it A big closet.

[Carrie Smith]

It is, it is. It's a walk in closet.

[Joe Salsihai]

Oh, well, that makes it much better.

[Carrie Smith]

It's, it's, it's nice. It's IKEA shelving. If you have to be in a closet, this is the one to be in.

[Joe Salsihai]

That is the one. Well, I'll be right over.

[Carrie Smith]

So I'm recording from the closet for the sake of the listeners. Just so you all know, I'm not making a joke. I'm literally taking this from a closet right now.

[Joe Salsihai]

Paula goes out of her way. Whether it's from the Hooters parking lot, the closet Paris. She will be on the call. And up north of her, north and east of her in Washington D.C. it is Mr. Dominique Brown.

[Paula Pant]

How's it going everybody? Am I the only person that gets sleepy after they drink wine? Seriously, I'm exhausted.

[Joe Salsihai]

Oh, you've been drinking wine all afternoon? Just getting ready for the show.

[Paula Pant]

Just a bottle.

[Carrie Smith]

Have you been drinking it straight from the bottle?

[Paula Pant]

No, it was just, you know, bottles don't last that long. And I just tore it up and I was like, whoa, I'm sleeping.

[Joe Salsihai]

Well, he doesn't know if it's straight from the bottle because he can't see around it with a paper bag in the way.

[Paula Pant]

There you go.

[Carrie Smith]

At least it's not from a box.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yes. Is Franzi a box?

[Paula Pant]

Hey, hey. Now box of wine is frugal.

[Joe Salsihai]

And guess who's back. Guess who is back all the way from lovely Texas. It is Carrie Smith.

[H]

Hey, glad to be back.

[Joe Salsihai]

Where have you been, Carrie?

[H]

Well, I have not been in Texas. I've been in Colorado.

[Joe Salsihai]

Are you in Colorado now?

[H]

No, we are back in Texas now, thank goodness.

[Joe Salsihai]

Are you in a closet?

[H]

No.

[Joe Salsihai]

Well, welcome back from rainy Colorado, right?

[H]

Yeah, I know, crazy. It got kind of scary up there. But we made it out okay.

[Joe Salsihai]

My wife has a cousin in Boulder and just hearing the reports, it's just, you know, you're horrified and you feel so bad for those people. It's just. Wow.

[H]

Oh, yeah. We actually were in Boulder like the day after it happened and it was crazy. I mean, my car got stuck, the whole deal.

[Joe Salsihai]

Unbelievable. For those of you that don't know, Carrie, Kerry has a website called Careful Sense. And actually, Carrie, we're going to lean on you this week because a writer on your site, Katherine Alford, otherwise known as Kat Kat, has an awesome article that we thought we'd talk about called six Solutions for Maximizing youg Time While Self Employed. And the reason I wanted to talk about it here was because you Know on the show we talk about earning and saving and spending with a plan and we haven't talked about earning for a while. And this really for me, even though these are great for self employed people that you got to be a self starter more and more in any business you have to be a self starter. So I thought these were great tips for everybody. So tell us a little bit about the piece.

[Carrie Smith]

Sure.

[H]

Kat is chronicling her leap to self employment. So it's basically six months to be a full time blogger. So she's sharing the different things that she's coming across as she's trying to build up her business, get more income and maximize her time so she can eventually quit and become her own boss. I work with other self employed people and I share my tips and tricks that I've learned since I made that leap too. And we came up with some of the biggest distractions that we come across, both self employed and just in general. Especially with the Internet today, it's really easy to get into that time suck and you get into that sort of. What is it called? Alice in Wonderland, Just the endless hole. So we talk about some of the big points.

[Joe Salsihai]

What's one you'd like to point us to to start with?

[H]

Well, definitely social media. That is a big distraction when working online. You know, especially women love Pinterest.

[Joe Salsihai]

You know, I had a partner that would spend all day on Facebook and what he didn't know was that when he was on Facebook, if we got on Facebook later that night, there's a timestamp that says when you were on Facebook.

[H]

Oh, wow.

[Joe Salsihai]

So everybody in our entire firm knew that this guy spent his whole afternoon on Facebook. Paula, Dom, you guys have any problems there or know of any horror stories of people in social media accounts?

[Paula Pant]

Oh, definitely. Especially government employees or corporate employees trying to go under the radar. They don't know that there's probably an IT department tracking your every move. And if you're one of those people that they want to get rid of, you can easily get fired based off the fact that you've been on social media websites.

[Carrie Smith]

Wow, I didn't know that.

[Joe Salsihai]

I worked in a office where we all paid the same office manager. That woman was also in charge of our it. And one day she told me, she said, well, what's funny with our provider? I can see every website that everybody goes to. And she said, you can't believe some of the websites that these people go to with their door closed.

[Paula Pant]

I got a weird story here. When I was in before, I used to work at it. Around my junior year, one of the executives printed out pornography, black and white porn on the printer, and then left it. Didn't go get it immediately. Left it there all day. And then eventually, you know, it prints your name, and then it prints what your documents are underneath. So if you just pick up the package, you're like, oh, this is. And it was just black and white just there on the printer. People do the stupidest things, I swear.

[Joe Salsihai]

That's unbelievable. That's not where you thought we were taking this conversation, did you, Carrie?

[H]

Yeah, we started off in social media, ended up in pornography.

[Joe Salsihai]

But I think that. But I think the point is, is not only going to be a black hole, it can also be. More and more employers are looking at your Facebook account before they decide to hire you to see what types of stuff you're putting up there.

[H]

Yeah, I was actually reading that. The way it's going now is the people that you're friends with on Facebook can influence your ability to get good credit or to be approved for something that relates to your credit score.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah, that's scary. What's another one, Kerri?

[H]

Definitely the email inbox. I mean, that is a big struggle of mine. I don't like messing with it. And then when I do start having to reply to messages and stuff, it seems just like it takes hours and hours. So I actually came up with a system that I use called batching. So I only look at my email, and I only answer emails certain times of every day of every week. That has helped a lot.

[Joe Salsihai]

Ah, cuts down from the big time suck. Paula, what do you do with your email?

[Carrie Smith]

I actually do the same thing, and it's because transitioning from one activity to the next can be very distracting. If you batch. If you just put aside a couple hours, like, say, I don't know, every Monday from 4 to 6, and say these are the two hours that I'm just gonna go through everything in my inbox. That's super helpful. Just super, super helpful. The other thing, I'm a big believer in not leaving anything in your inbox. If there's something that I need to reference later, like an email that I've sent myself or an email that somebody has sent me that is an actionable activity, I'll stick it in a folder, label, do, or, you know, there are other folders, like future blog posts is a folder, someday maybe is a folder. But I just don't let things fester in my inbox. Everything gets filed into wherever it's supposed to be.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah, I got to get there because my current strategy of leaving it open in front of me all the time isn't working well.

[Carrie Smith]

Well, it's stressful. It's stressful to look at is.

[Joe Salsihai]

And you're right, you get derailed. Because I'll be in the middle of a blog post and somebody will email me about something that, you know, I need to answer in the next. I don't need to answer it now, but I really be great if I had an answer in the next four hours. I find myself forgetting about the, you know, whatever the current thing is, and instead I go working on whatever the flame of the moment is.

[Paula Pant]

So, Kerry, I want to ask you a question. How do you handle phone calls? I have a horrible problem just answering my phone and it's always something. It's like that email that comes in and, you know, you should ignore it, but I pick up my phone anyway. Then I'm just roped in into just something that just takes me off my current task.

[H]

I have no problem letting it go to voicemail. I don't pick up the phone unless it's a scheduled call. And then I make a lot of people who want to jump on a phone call with me schedule through the online scheduler that I have, so they have to pick a time that I'm available and that they're available, and then that's when I set aside to talk to them. Otherwise I just let it go to voicemail.

[Joe Salsihai]

That's what I did when I was a financial planner, too, because otherwise I would get stuck on the phone. And if at all possible, I would try to email back or text back, because text and email versus calling. I mean, when I talk to somebody face to face, I get involved in all these pleasantries. How you doing? How are the kids? How are the family? If I can text or email, it's socially acceptable for me to be a little more blunt where it seems like I'm rude if I do that on the phone.

[H]

One thing that Kat mentioned when she was writing the post is that she logs out of her email inbox. So she uses Gmail, but she logs out of everything. So she won't waste time with any of Gmail or any of the apps that go along with Google. So that keeps her focused.

[Joe Salsihai]

I'm about to try out a new email and I don't even have the name of it in front of me, but AOL has developed it, believe it or not. Remember aol? AOL developed it and it was a great article in Fast Company about how they did it. And I've subscribed, but I haven't yet started. And actually this weekend I'm going to try it out. So maybe in the next podcast I'll tell everybody how it went. But basically what it does is a lot of what you're talking about with folders and with Inbox zero Paula where it automatically takes your emails. And based on past emails that were about the same types of things, it puts them in prearranged stacks, they call them, so that when you get in there, it kind of makes assumptions. This is probably some retail thing. This is probably a friend. This is probably a. And it stacks your email. So we'll see if that works. Yeah, I'll let you know.

[Carrie Smith]

Google just stuff with Gmail, they just came out with various types of inboxes. So you've got your primary inbox social media promotion. I mean, that was just unveiled recently, within the past month. And it's super helpful because rather than having to sort through blog posts that I subscribe to and notices that so and so mentioned me on Twitter, I mean, you know, those get filed away and when I'm ready to look at them, I can look at them.

[Joe Salsihai]

Hey, let's skip to the second part of your article. There's more there. And we will link to it Carrie at it'[e-mail], but also on the show [e-mail] 22 and the second half of Kat's article is about maximizing your time, which I am all about right now.

[H]

The first one she talks about is.

[Joe Salsihai]

Waking up earlier, which that is not an option.

[H]

Yes. I mean, it is sort of hard to get up earlier every day and try and fit something in. But it's like when you're trying to be healthy or eat right, you need to make it a priority at the beginning of your day. Otherwise it tends to get lost in the shuffle or you get tired or something comes up or more emergency or whatever. So I totally agree with that. And that's something I implement too. Is waking up an extra hour to half an hour early to prioritize my day.

[Joe Salsihai]

A big side of that that I like, that she talks about is recognizing what tasks you normally do better at which time. And I know we had Laura VanderCam on the Two Guys in youn Money show back in, I think in March, and Laura said the same thing, which is if you recognize what type of tasks you do best in the day and you can organize your day around those tasks, tasks you're gonna do A better job, so I'm a better writer first thing in the morning. So I try to do all my writing first thing in the morning.

[Paula Pant]

I do it kind of the reverse. I like to organize my day before I go to bed, so when I get up in the morning, I'm the most productive and I just get right into a task.

[Joe Salsihai]

Oh, I like that too.

[Paula Pant]

I find that in the morning, if I organize my day, I take a little bit longer than I should when I should be really just working and getting stuff done.

[Carrie Smith]

I do the same thing the every night before bed, I write out a list of what I want to accomplish the next day. And that actually for me it's a de stressor as well because otherwise I'll be laying awake in bed, like stressed out and thinking about what I need to do. If I get it down on paper, I can go to sleep peacefully. For the past couple of weeks, I've been waking up at 5:30 in the morning working out and then starting my workday around roughly around 7:30 to 8:00. And I've seen a huge productivity boost from that.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah, I've been working out first thing in the morning too. And I'll tell you that my brain, the power just when I get done working out is so much higher, isn't it?

[Carrie Smith]

Yeah, it's incredible. Although the one thing I will give the caveat that right around one or two in the afternoon I'm ready for a nap.

[Joe Salsihai]

I totally am. I'm with you there.

[H]

Yeah. Well, speaking of naps, I have been doing this test, this experiment to see how productive I can be. Days I don't take naps and the days I do take naps and it is crazy how productive you can be by just taking like a half an hour, you know, cat nap. I know there's a bunch of studies out there and I know that's something that NASA looked at too and everything, but I have tripled my productivity in the afternoons just from taking a break and sleeping.

[Joe Salsihai]

So the Spanish have it right with the siesta.

[H]

Yes.

[Joe Salsihai]

What's another point that Kat has on her ways to maximize your time?

[H]

She talks about saying no to everyone. And this is something that I've struggled with too because for some reason when you work at home, everybody's like, oh, you're at home today. Here, let me just bring over my kids or let me drop off this stuff. And they don't understand that, you know, you need to block off this time for your professional and personal stuff, talking to your family and friends. Letting people know this is work time and just being upfront with them is really great for time management.

[Carrie Smith]

You know, I actually just wrote a blog post that came out today about creating a don't do list. Figuring out the stuff that you're not gonna do and how that's just as important. It goes to what you were saying about saying no. It's so critical to say no to things and to decide not to do things. It's arguably more important than the stuff that you actually do.

[Joe Salsihai]

I had a mentor once whose best advice he ever gave me that I still remember to this day was don't get in the weeds. So whenever anybody gives me a task that's very complicated and the place it's going to take me is going to give me, you know, a marginal rate of success over where I am right now, I try to delegate that to somebody else. I just. I can't do it. Dom.

[Paula Pant]

I am a fan of supreme, delicate delegation. Honestly, you should spend your money on. Spend your time on the money task as much as you can. 90%, 95% of that time and everything else. Outsource that.

[Joe Salsihai]

I'll link to a book. There's a great book on this subject that I really enjoyed that made a big difference for me. I'm sure you've all heard of the One Minute Manager series, but the One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey is all about this, which is you're sitting wherever you work, and somebody comes in, and the first thing they say is, we have a problem. Well, they back up for a second, and the author says, it's funny how language works, because before that moment, you didn't have a problem. The other person had a problem. But the second that they said, we have a problem now, one arm of the monkey is now around your back. And what happens to most people, they want to be nice to the person that walked into their office. They say, okay, I'll take care of the problem. And now the monkey's off their back. They walk out of your office, and guess who's got the monkey?

[Phil Reed]

You do.

[Joe Salsihai]

But a fantastic analogy, and I always think about that. Whenever anybody says, oh, we've got to do something. No, you've got to do something. Something. And I might help you.

[Paula Pant]

You know what's funny? Because I have this person who's just like, hey, how do you think we should move forward with this? I'm all like, isn't that your job? Seriously, like, why? I understand. I'm very frank, I'm very forward. I like to be either confident or arrogant, whatever you want to call me, you. And people tend to just throw me things and I'm like, dude, I don't, I don't. That's your job. So that whole we got a problem thing, I totally relate. I really, I really do.

[Joe Salsihai]

It's unbelievable. Like all the one minute manager books, it's, it sits right on. Kerry, how about you?

[H]

I have a big thing about this is your deal. You know, your lack of planning does not institute an emergency on my part. You know that saying. And I totally go the opposite direction. I'm like, like, well, that's cool. I'm glad that you have this emergency. Don't drag me into it.

[Joe Salsihai]

Well, thank Kat for us for the awesome topic this week. This was really cool.

[H]

Yeah, I want to give her a shout out if you want to read more about her or whatever. You can always go to my site and read her story or of course head over to her site, budgetblonde.com.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah, she is a very good site. So let's talk about what's going on on all your sites in the next week. Why don't we start with. Well, Carrie, you're the guest. Why don't you go first. What's coming up at carefulsense?

[H]

Well, I have some really exciting stuff in the works. I've been working on a four week challenge to working smarter, not harder. And so that will be launched October 1st and it will have a bunch of expert interviews and some videos and really good resources and stuff in there and it'll be one post per week. So I'm really excited about that.

[Joe Salsihai]

That's cool. We'll have a link to our from our show [e-mail]. paula, what's happening at afford anything? Not at your finance is simplified but.

[Carrie Smith]

At afford anything, you finally got it right.

[Joe Salsihai]

Well, you know, I was just trying to be a matchmaker, make you a little extra money by working Dom's site. But I guess it didn't work.

[Carrie Smith]

Jeff Rose, our good friend Jeff Rose has come out with a book called finance. So I will be reviewing that book and talking about that book next week and Jason Hull from Hull Financial Planning will guest posting on my site next week.

[Joe Salsihai]

That is awesome because as you know, Jeff was on our show a couple weeks ago and Jason Hull is going to be on our new show called the short stack next Friday.

[Carrie Smith]

Oh, nice.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah. So great minds, huh?

[Carrie Smith]

Exactly, Exactly.

[Joe Salsihai]

I know both. Cool. Well, that's awesome. Dom, what's happening at your finances Simplified.

[Paula Pant]

I have three. I'm sorry, I Have three secrets of wealth I learned from. From Oprah Winfrey. And what is a loan? Just basic stuff covering. Just in case. Just in case. I realized that, you know, a lot of personal finance bloggers don't cover the basics. So I'm trying to break it back there. And then three secrets of wealth I learned from Bill Cosby.

[Joe Salsihai]

So you're going through all the celebrities. You had Michael Jordan, too?

[Paula Pant]

Yes, I had Michael Jordan. I had. Who did I have? I had Diddy. I'm going to be talking about Reginald Lewis, who's the first African American to have owned a billionaire company. So I'm just kind of going through the pace, going through the motions.

[Joe Salsihai]

That is it. All right, thanks for a great week, everyone. Hey, I got a great idea, OG what's that? Oh, another great show. Another great show.

[Dominique Brown]

Well, we don't need to use adjectives. Let's just.

[Joe Salsihai]

Another show.

[Dominique Brown]

Another show. Let's lower.

[Joe Salsihai]

Lower expectations. Another show. So you have been invested not in movies lately, but in a TV show called Breaking Bad.

[Dominique Brown]

It's unbelievable. I mean, I think there's two episodes left. When this thing airs, there will be one episode left. If you haven't taken the time to go through that yet, you are missing out.

[Joe Salsihai]

I have not. I think I told you I watched the first episode of that. It was way too depressing for me, and. And I stopped. But you've told me previously that I gotta watch, like, three episodes and you'll be hooked.

[Dominique Brown]

My wife started watching the show this final season, and I said, well, that's dumb. You're gonna watch the last, like, six episodes or whatever. You're gonna know how it ends. She says, whatever, I'll just watch it with you. And after, like, the first episode, she went, yeah, I'm gonna need to actually go back and figure out what the heck's going on. But now they're. You know, I think there's six. Six seasons into it, 50 shows or something.

[Joe Salsihai]

So, yeah, she's gonna have a lot of catching up to do. On my end, I saw a movie by a director named Edgar Wright and starring a man named Simon Pegg. And this is called the World's End.

[I]

Ever had one of those nights that starts out like any other but ends up being the best night of your life? I did. Our goal that night was simple. 12 pubs, 12 pints from the first post to the World's End. But that night, we never made it. I saw the boys the other day. We're gonna go back to Newton.

[Phil Reed]

Hanging haven.

[I]

Why? Five guys, 12 pubs.

[Joe Salsihai]

50 pints, 60 points.

[Carrie Smith]

Steady on, you alky.

[I]

This is our chance to finally finish what we started. We are gonna do the Gold Mile and this time we are gonna see it through to the bitter end. Or lager end. Good evening, Raymondo. The prodigal sons returned.

[Phil Reed]

Hi.

[Joe Salsihai]

What do you recommend Beer?

[I]

Mmm, one tap water.

[Phil Reed]

What?

[I]

What the hen is this?

[Joe Salsihai]

Why are we even here?

[I]

We are here to get annihilated.

[Phil Reed]

You come back and everything's sort of weird.

[Joe Salsihai]

I suggest you get on your way.

[Phil Reed]

It's not us that's changed, it's the terrorist man.

[Joe Salsihai]

In this movie, OG in this movie you've got this guy named Gary King. Gary King called himself the King in, in college. And he wants to go get the band back together, get all his friends back together that all hung out together and got rowdy and they want to go back to their. He wants to take them back to their hometown. And the thing is, everybody at the start of the show has moved on with their life, except for Gary King. For Gary King, that moment when they were all buddies back in the day, those were the best days of his life. In fact, the show opens with him sitting in a circle and I think it's like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting or something. Oh boy. And he tells this story and you know, at first it just sounds like he's the narrator. You don't know. He's sitting in a circle and he's. And by the way, this is the great thing about a director like Edgar Wright. Edgar Wright did Scott Pilgrim, he did Shaun of the Dead. He does these movies that have all these great cut ins and he's got this real vision of how he wants to make the movie. So Simon Pegg, Gary King starts off as the narrator talking about this wonderful thing that happened, but how they didn't make it. And then it goes away from the narration and all the scenes of their youth and going to all these different bars. There's 12 bars they tried to go to on this bar crawl, the last bar being called the World's End. Anyway, it pans out and he's sitting in a circle of people and everybody's looking all weirded out while he's got a big smile on his face. And the, the person in charge says, well, that wasn't the best day of your life, was it? You know, and he kind of goes, well, yeah, I really think it was. And that's the beginning of the movie. And I don't know if he's an aa, but he's at some support Group. So he gets the band back together, and that's the first half the movie. Halfway through the movie, OG it is not a spoiler because this was. In all the previews, you find out that this town that they move from, everybody is an alien, and all their old friends have been replaced by aliens. And so it goes from this buddy movie to this almost, you know, we got to kill zombies, we got to kill aliens. It becomes this really dorky, different thing. And what was cool was Cheryl hadn't seen any of the previews, hadn't heard anything about it. And when I took her, when the first thing happens with an alien, she turns to be like, whoa, hold on.

[Dominique Brown]

That escalated quickly.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yes, exactly right. I can't say much about it without giving a lot of it away. Martin Freeman is in this movie, who was in the Hobbit and is in Sherlock, and he's one of the hot British actors. You've got five great actors. You've got some great cameos in the movie. You have a wonderful director. This is a movie that based on the fact that they're killing aliens and they're on a bar crawl. Is not my kind of movie, but.

[Dominique Brown]

Yeah, nor mine so far.

[Joe Salsihai]

But is always the case. It's how they do it. It is. It's how they got the job done. Like when I went to see the first Hunger Games movie, right, I was telling people, hey, the Hunger Games, you got to read this book. Well, what's it about? Oh, it's about these kids. They throw them in a ring and they got to kill each other. It's like, nah, I'll pass.

[Dominique Brown]

No, thanks.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah, yeah. This is that kind of deal where I thought it was a really fun movie. It was a. It was a very fun mate. Big, solid thumbs up if you can go see the World's End. I think you're gonna really enjoy it. That is our show, homie.

[Dominique Brown]

Another one down, huh?

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah. Is your golf season about over? It's getting cold there in the Midwest.

[Dominique Brown]

I don't even want to talk about it. We're going to Disney in a couple weeks, though.

[Joe Salsihai]

Disney. We got to talk about your Disney tips. And we get closer to that when.

[Dominique Brown]

We do that next week.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah, let's do that. All right, well, now you gotta preview next week's episode. Oh, big.

[Dominique Brown]

Oh, big freeze. Everybody stop. What's happening?

[OG]

Stop.

[Joe Salsihai]

Big last thing. We got a new show coming out on Friday.

[Dominique Brown]

Kind of loud. Are we doing more?

[Joe Salsihai]

We are doing another one.

[Dominique Brown]

So are you sure that there's market demand for this two Guys, I'm asking, I'm asking around and people are going, what? You're on a podcast?

[Joe Salsihai]

What? What's a podcast?

[Dominique Brown]

Podcast. Never heard of it.

[Joe Salsihai]

So here's the deal. We have. This show will stay on Monday. On Wednesday, it will be two guys. Your money is going to move from Thursday to Wednesday so that on Friday we are going to bring you a supplemental show of and you don't need to sign up for it. It will be on this stream and it will be. This is Episode what? Episode 22. So that'll be episode 22. W. And I got to tell you two things. So this show is our wild and crazy variety show, the Wednesday show. For those of you that subscribe to Two guys and you'd money, you know, that's you and I just talking about one simple financial topic for 10 to 12 minutes. This show is one more interview that we just couldn't squeeze in, which is with somebody great in the financial arena talking about one good idea that they had. So Wednesday is a great idea that we have, and then Friday is a good idea we found that somebody else has. So that will be on Friday. I'll tell you, with a Friday show, we're gonna be playing a game. And here's the thing, OG people listening to that show are going to have to guess even what the game. We're not even going to tell you what the game is. So the game will last several weeks. If you figure out what the game is and you can email me at joestackingbenjamins, you will win a $20Amazon gift card and we'll see if anybody. You don't think everybody's gonna get the game?

[Dominique Brown]

I know I don't.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's see how well people listen. We've got great interviews, which is a great reason to listen, but you know us, we can't do anything without being just goofy beyond belief. So we've got. We've got this and that is coming out Friday.

[Dominique Brown]

All right.

[Joe Salsihai]

All right. Have a fantastic week. If you're listening to this on Monday, fabulously awesome. If you're not listening to this on Monday, have a great whatever day.

[Dominique Brown]

Plus7.

[Doug]

This show is the property of the Free Financial Advisor, LLC. Copyright 2013. PK can be found at his other gig on dqydj.net or curled up on the floor in a fetal position next to the freezer. Paula Pant appears courtesy of afford anything.com Dominic Brown or hello Ladies appears courtesy of yourfinancessimplified.com it appears I've fallen and I can't get up. Apple appears to be cranking out new iPhones about every 15 days. Odds are you're listening to this while waiting in line for the next one. The people responsible for this show have been sacked.

[Joe Salsihai]

All right, I told the story on the blog, but, but, but you haven't. I don't think you've seen it. Did you see what happened to us last weekend driving home from Arkansas?

[Dominique Brown]

You got accosted by a whole bunch of Arkansanians.

[Joe Salsihai]

Just about. They actually helped me. Me. So between here and Fayetteville, where my daughter goes to college at the University of Arkansas, we have parents weekend this last week and it was fantastic. But we're on our way home and I had to edit the podcast because generally I edit it on Saturday and Sunday I take it and make it more bite sized bits. So I hadn't done any of that. So it's six o'clock Sunday evening and I haven't started yet, so.

[Dominique Brown]

Boy.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah. So Cheryl's doing something she never does, which is driving home in my family.

[Dominique Brown]

When my kids say, why does daddy always drive? And I say, because we want to live.

[Joe Salsihai]

Well, Cheryl's nickname, which she always grins kind of sheepishly, she's accepted it in my family and with her family, frankly, is Crash.

[Dominique Brown]

Oh boy.

[Joe Salsihai]

Because she can cause an accident as well as the next guy. But that's not why she's called Crash. Oh gee. She's called Crash because bad stuff happens to her. She will be sitting at a red light and somebody will just rear end her. She'll be in a parking lot and somebody will park next to her and open their door hard into our, our sidewall. You know, she, she just has stuff, stuff happens to her all the time. She had a deer come out of the woods and she swerved to miss it. And the deer still managed to hit the side of our car and just.

[Dominique Brown]

Never supposed to swerve to miss a deer.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah, probably should have gone straight, but.

[Dominique Brown]

Anyway, let's go straight.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah, well, she, she. Yeah. So anyway, we are driving home and the way between here and Fayetteville is Ozark Mountains. It's just, it's just all very, very pretty ride going there, but it is up, down and around. And so I've got my head down. I'm. I'm working on the podcast. All of a sudden, Cheryl lays on the break, swerves to the left. You hear this little and then, and you don't really feel anything. You just hear this little bump and then, and then she's going to get. And immediately she turns to me, defensive, very defensively, and goes, it wasn't my fault. And I said, I said, what do you, what do you mean it wasn't your fault? She goes, she goes, I had to, I had to swerve to miss the bird. So I think of a bird, right? Like a, like a chickadee, you know, I'm like, okay, well, well, bird. She goes, she goes, I know, it was big bird. It was, it was a big bird. Okay, so we're driving, we're driving along further, we get about a mile further down the road and I think, okay, we hit this little chickadee and it rolled off when from the front of my hood up over the grill comes this gigantic wing, right? Stretches up and then it stretches back down and Cheryl and I look at each other and we swore holes. And then, and then I'm hoping, oh, I hope this thing just rolls off.

[Dominique Brown]

The side, you know, who wants to deal?

[Joe Salsihai]

Please, please, please, please, please roll off the side. And then sure enough, about half a mile further, the wing comes up again and goes back down. And so on the right hand side of the road is this big. You know those gas stations and fast food places all rolled into one. It's like a fried chicken and whatever.

[Dominique Brown]

Deal delivery you're delivering to the.

[Joe Salsihai]

Front door. So we pull in, we pull in and immediately Cheryl gets out. I'm still trying to power down my computer. And she gets out of the car.

[Dominique Brown]

Honestly, no, no, no, no. You were like, I don't want to see this thing. I don't want to deal with that. Oh, no, no, my wife. He made the mess. You cleaned it up. Sweetheart, I'm gonna sit right here.

[Joe Salsihai]

I will be right up front. I was taking my time.

[Dominique Brown]

I know you were taking my time. I gotta turn my computer off first. I'd hate for that thing to get too hot.

[Joe Salsihai]

I think I gotta retie these shoes. And then I might have to read the owner's manual to see how this might work.

[Dominique Brown]

Exactly. What do you do? Yeah, bird lodged in your grill of your car.

[Joe Salsihai]

So she, so she gets out of the car, she goes around to the front and to go into the restroom, looks to the front, puts her hand over her mouth and goes, oh my God, Joe. And then she walks into the bathroom, right? With this, this. It's your problem, catalook.

[Dominique Brown]

Yeah.

[Joe Salsihai]

And so I get out and before I even look, I'm immediately looking around my management experience, right? When I have people working, who's looking.

[Dominique Brown]

At this, who can we get backed in the. Pulled into the restaurant or backed into the restaurant.

[Joe Salsihai]

Who can help me with this thing? And I've got these two old guys sitting off to the side on these benches because we're in this little, tiny. I mean, I could hear banjos playing. We're in the middle of nowhere, Arkansas. And it is kind of scary. It's usually this. I don't. I don't. I don't stop generally in these little spots. So anyway, this. I go around to the front, and here, half in my grill and half out, and the hole was not very big. Is an adult hawk. And there is. There is only two parts of its body that are not lodged between the grill and the radiator, and that is one wing and its head. And it's alive. And it's not happy to be there.

[Dominique Brown]

I bet not.

[Joe Salsihai]

And I'm not happy it's there, and it is staring at me, and I'm staring at it. We both are thinking the same thing. Let's. Let's find a way to get it out. But I'm not putting my hand anywhere near that beak, right? So then I can't find anybody to delegate to, because this is two old guys, and they are deep in conversation, and I'm not gonna just go ask him. So I just kind of look around like, hey, okay, nobody. And. But there's lots of cars around, but everybody's inside. So my second thing, and I'm sure this is what the pros do. I go around. I open up the hood. I open up the hood from the side, thinking that I will get behind it. There's got to be from the top, like, a cavity, and I can get. I'm sure this is exactly the pros do. They call it the stick method, where you stick a stick in there and you kind of chop. Just take it out, right, without having to touch it. And so. And. And then you got all these people rolling their eyes now at City Boy Joe. So unfortunately, I'll tell everybody, there is no such thing. There is no opening from the top. There's no way to get in there, right, To. To get the thing out from the back. So now I'm stuck. So out the door of the. Of the gas station slash restaurant slash convenience store comes this. This dude, this young guy. And Cheryl's not. Not that far behind him. But, you know, they wasn't. Like, she talked to him. The guy comes up and he goes. He goes, oh, car trouble. Sees my. Sees my hood open. And I said, you got to see this now. This is where reality, like my previous version of reality and what happened? What's the opposite? Emerge.

[Dominique Brown]

Diverge.

[Joe Salsihai]

They diverge. Because I'd never seen anything like this before, dude. The guy comes around the front and I think he's gonna go, holy. Like I did. Oh my God, this is horrible. He comes around the front, looks at, takes one look at the board and goes, huh? Like, like it's the 34th time he's seen a, he's seen a hawk in a guy's, in a guy's grill. So then without even stopping, without asking me if I need help, whatever, he takes his hand down there, he wraps it around the, the one wing that's out. He puts the other hand in the hole, he wedges it in the hole and puts down the other wing. The bird is trying to turn and bite off his arm, but the bird can't get his beak around that far. And he takes the bird out and he's holding it and he holds it like right up to his face and he goes, yeah, he ain't happy. Really? Yeah.

[Dominique Brown]

By car at 50 miles an hour.

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah. So this old guy comes out of the, out of the restaurant, a different old guy. Not the two, the two are still sitting there, but this third guy comes out, walks over, walks over and sees the guy holding the bird. He says very casually, he goes, he goes, oh, you know, hawking your grill, huh? Like, again, like, what do these people do?

[Dominique Brown]

Is this like the international commonplace?

[Joe Salsihai]

Yeah, yeah. But then I also realized we are in the middle of Tyson chicken country and this guy picked it up like he's been picking up birds all the time. He must have worked at some one of these because when I lived in the country I did that for a day before I quit, actually half a shift. And but the people that were there all the time, they just picked up these chicken with, you know, no problem and didn't worry about the pecking or the scratches or whatever. So the guy, the guy throws the hawk, it goes maybe 15ft and it lands and it just looks dazed. And the old guy in the back goes, oh, he's hurting. Young guy goes, no, he'll be alright. Walks over again, reaches down to pick it up. The hawk, like, tries to turn to peck at his hand again, but not sincerely. And he goes, no, he's just really dazed. He's just really out of it. And then he throws him again and he goes 15ft again and lands. If you want to see pictures of this, it'[e-mail] but but, but, but, but nobody does, but. The icing on the cake. The icing on the cake. And this is where, where it's pretty funny. I just. By this time, I just need to go in and use the restroom and. And just, you know, get away. So I walk in, and the kid who's working in the little fried chicken place in there, there. There's maybe six people standing around, and he's saying. And then he reaches in the grill and he pulls out a hawk. And that's when I knew that the legend of Crash Cheryl was beginning to spread.