00:02
Peter Dunn
It's turkey season. That's right, y'all, it's time to take that bird, put it on your table, then put it in your face. I'm sorry, I don't know what to do there and then did that. Hi, everyone. It's Kristen Ahlenius and Peter Dunn on the Pete the Planner show. Kristen, what was that?
00:20
Kristen Ahlenius
That was my wave because right when you said that they couldn't see me and I was going and I was like, oh, that's just like my permanent face on the show. I'm thinking about doing this the whole show. Does that work? Excellent.
00:34
Peter Dunn
So, Kristen, you and I have done six live shows together this week. This is the 7th one.
00:41
Kristen Ahlenius
Yes.
00:42
Peter Dunn
To say we're a little bit slap happy might be an understatement.
00:46
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah.
00:48
Peter Dunn
So we're going to do our best. We are off next week to give thanks to Black Friday. And you might be noticing that Damien is not here, but in fact he is here and he's got a special guest down in the Magic Kingdom. It's Damian Dunn and Phil The Shoe Schumann, executive Director of Financial Wellness at Indiana University. What's your title again? It changes. I got it.
01:16
Kristen Ahlenius
Right.
01:16
Peter Dunn
You forgot the and education at the end of it. But that was pretty good. I think that's your best ever. So you two gentlemen are in the happiest place on earth in a hotel room together. Can we have a little more context? I have actually a story that I would love to share with you off the air about my hotel room. It's not nearly as bad as the hotel rooms that Phil experienced earlier this week, but you will get a kick out of it. Phil and Dame are down at a conference. What's the name of the conference? The AFCPE symposium. Oh, I love a good six letter acronym. What Afcaf? Almost CPE. It's association of Financial Planning, Counseling and Education. I believe it could be. It sounds close. It sounds you guys, it's so good to see you. We're glad. And given the idea that were putting on a podcast here, this is a live stream and people will hang up or stop watching.
02:23
Peter Dunn
We're going to let you go. So nice. That was my briefest show appearance ever. Yeah, well, you did have the show appearance when you barely survived a hurricane. I had a true go avoid death again to get more showtime. I think you're onto it now. I'm in Florida. All right, boys, you guys have fun down there with Mickey and Goofy. We'll do, yeah.
02:53
Kristen Ahlenius
Thank you.
02:54
Peter Dunn
All right, Kristen, enough of that. Tom Foolery. Tom Foolery, man. It's been a week so we are going to get the show going and get after it. We are off next week and so let's do the show here. Podcast listeners are just like, what a dumpster.
03:12
Kristen Ahlenius
It is.
03:12
Peter Dunn
It is. Good call. Absolutely. Okay, setting my clock here. And three, two, one. This week on the Pete the Planner show we answer your money questions. Here's how the show works. You email us at askpete@petetheplanner.com. That's askpete@petetheplanner.com and we will address your concerns. Usually on the show, we've got three people. In fact, we actually have a new show poster. The three people are me, Damien Dunn, who is of no relation, and Kristen Ahlenius, the director of Education at Your Moneyline Dame is in the Magic Kingdom. So it's just Kristen and.
03:56
Kristen Ahlenius
Yes, yes. Happy Thanksgiving week. I was going to say sort of, but you're right.
04:00
Peter Dunn
Do you prepare a particular dish this time of year?
04:05
Kristen Ahlenius
No, not really. I am bringing these. They're meatballs. They're stuffing meatballs and they have cranberries in them and they're delicious. That's what I'm planning to take to the ones I'm invited to.
04:18
Peter Dunn
Wow, that sounds nice. I make the whole meal for my family. It's my Super Bowl, so I want everyone to put me in your thoughts and prayers. Kristen, you put together a segment for us this week. What is it called? Myth or math? What are we calling this?
04:32
Kristen Ahlenius
We can call it Miscellaneous Myths if you'd like.
04:35
Peter Dunn
Miscellaneous money myths or slaps or caps. I don't know what we're going to call it. I don't know what's happening. Miscellaneous money, myths. And we're going to weigh in on them. Some of them may be true. Right. Some of them may be false. And that's the direction we're going to go. So, Kristen, have at it.
04:54
Kristen Ahlenius
The first one is making your car payment twice a month versus when it's due saves you.
05:05
Peter Dunn
I would assume this is true, but primarily because of daily interest, not calculating at a higher amount. Naturally. Then that would also be true for making a mortgage payment twice over the course of a month. Right?
05:21
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah. The way simple interest is calculated is that your daily interest is calculated based on your current outstanding balance. So if you're reducing that balance halfway through the month, your interest is then calculated based on that lower balance. Probably not going to save you oodles and oodles of cash or anything, but actually, if I hear someone say this, I just don't correct them or clarify, because I think that what it does is it encourages a positive behavior. I think making your large payments twice a month versus once a month is the better approach. I usually let people do that.
06:01
Peter Dunn
So, now, a couple of things on this. Number one, this would not work for a car lease.
06:07
Kristen Ahlenius
Right.
06:08
Peter Dunn
You would not work for a car lease. Number two is clearly, I know this tip, but I've never done that for my mortgage. And as I've sort of recast my cash flow here recently, as you and I have discussed, I did that last weekend. Maybe I'll consider that. I wonder how much that shaves off. Do you know? Is there a rule of thumb there?
06:31
Kristen Ahlenius
Well, it's hard because the higher your loan balance and the higher your interest rate, the more of an impact it's going to have. But I like it because I don't even care as much. I mean, I do obviously care about the dollar savings, but what I found to be true in my personal life is if I give myself access to the entire mortgage payment for the second half of the month, I have this because I run my life off of my debit card. I have this idea that there's more money there than there really is, and I find that I spend a little bit more having access to that additional cash. So I like to get it out of my account. It's like this mental accounting thing for me, I think.
07:11
Peter Dunn
Yeah. Dan's following along on Facebook Live, because we do stream our show live, not just here on the radio notes. Pete's going to walk into the bank and pay the mortgage twice a month. Now, that's a commitment. As many of you know, I still pay my mortgage payment in person, physically, at the bank, because I love to it. I don't know why. I don't get suckers. I don't get a toaster or a shotgun or whatever you get at banks. I simply just like paying my mortgage in person. Yeah, Kristen, I'm going to do the math on that. But to your point, the higher the interest rate, the bigger difference it makes, I think. I've got a two and a half percent interest rate, so I don't know if it's going to be worth the extra drive.
07:50
Kristen Ahlenius
Probably not. And the other thing to note, too, is that a lot of lenders won't let you make a half payment until you're paid ahead. So it's not as easy as it sounds to say, well, I've made my November mortgage payment, then I'm going to turn right back around on the 15th and make half a payment, or you'd have to make the whole payment on the 15th. My lender wouldn't let me do that, so I'm technically paying half a month ahead when I make my payment.
08:17
Peter Dunn
So that's a great nuanced point there, right? Because otherwise you're just making a half payment and they're like, hey, give me the rest.
08:23
Kristen Ahlenius
We don't want this. Yeah.
08:25
Peter Dunn
What is the next miscellaneous myth?
08:29
Kristen Ahlenius
It's not worth saving if you can only save a small amount.
08:34
Peter Dunn
Do people say that? Actually? Yeah, I've heard people say that, yeah.
08:38
Kristen Ahlenius
Like, oh, it's $50. Big deal. It's like, well, $50 is $50. It adds up.
08:45
Peter Dunn
Okay, so that's clearly a myth, right? It does add up. Story time. Back in the day, some 20, almost 23 years ago, when Mrs. Planner and I got married and I was an investment advisor, I think she started putting, like, $50 away, and it's just one random mutual fund. And short of the market falling this year, there's, like $36,000 in there now, right. It adds up. And we look at that money, and I don't even know what we consider that money to be other than the ultimate lesson to someday tell our kids. It adds up.
09:26
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah, it does.
09:28
Peter Dunn
I think the other side of this, too, is it's about exercising the muscle of savings.
09:34
Kristen Ahlenius
There it is.
09:35
Peter Dunn
And that's where I think this has a lot of validity, is that you have to withhold some of your income from yourself so you don't become so dependent on your income. And this is a great mechanism to do that.
09:50
Kristen Ahlenius
Exactly. Both of these myths so far have come back to behaviorally. There's an additional benefit, and that's exactly what it is. It's flexing that savings muscle. It's learning how to live off of less than your income. Even if it's like I said, it's $50, you're decreasing your dependency on your income.
10:10
Peter Dunn
We do talk about behavior a lot on this show, and odly, enough. We don't talk about money that much on this show or math that much on this show. But we do talk about behavior, and I think there's so much information out there, you can Google anything and learn how to run your financial life, but unless it's behavior based, you're ignoring the primary element that will either lead to success or failure. And so that's why I like these first two myths. Give me one more before we hit a break.
10:43
Kristen Ahlenius
Real estate is a passive investment.
10:49
Peter Dunn
Okay. Real estate is a passive investment. I'm supposed to say I almost said passive aggressive investment, which is nothing. And I'm to say whether that is true or false. I think most people talk about it as true, but I would assume it's false.
11:06
Kristen Ahlenius
That's exactly where my head's at is. I think that the narrative in that space is like, buy your first house and then keep it, and then rent your second house so that you can have passive income. There is nothing passive about being a landlord. You've done it. There's nothing passive about it. So I personally don't think it's a passive investment, but I think that the terminology used in this space leads people to believe that it's passive.
11:34
Peter Dunn
That's an excellent point. Passive income, I think, is often a phrase used incorrectly. Right. Because there's a lot of work, there's a lot of risk. In many cases, you're throwing good money after a situation. This breaks or that breaks, you got to fix that. It does not feel passive. Now, I'm sure there are certain real estate investments that are pretty rather turnkey, but it still doesn't feel like passive income to me.
12:05
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't think being a landlord in the sense that people talk about building wealth through real estate, that is what I do not think is passive.
12:12
Peter Dunn
Have you ever been landlord?
12:14
Kristen Ahlenius
No, I have not. Not yet.
12:16
Peter Dunn
I have, and it's terrible for me. You know me very well, and it's just not something that was good for me. It was not a good thing. All right, so let's do this. We're going to take a break. We're going to think about your stuffed meatball recipe that you were talking about earlier. Lots of people want the recipe, and then we're more miscellaneous myths next right here on the Pete the Planner show on Pete the Planner. All right. So people are really into that. So it's like a stovetop stuffing stuffed meatballs or something.
12:52
Kristen Ahlenius
It's stovetop stuffing with, like, a breakfast sausage and cranberry sauce, and there's, like, seasonings and some butter, and I don't remember. I think the cranberry sauce is what holds it together. I got to look at the recipe, though.
13:07
Peter Dunn
Okay. I thought they were, like, a meat and then stuffed.
13:14
Kristen Ahlenius
You're right. My description was deceiving. Really? It's a stuffing ball with stuffing ball, sausage, and cranberries inside.
13:23
Peter Dunn
I got to admit, my brain is not stuffing stuffed meatballs. Sounds better than stuffing balls.
13:31
Kristen Ahlenius
Could be. Yeah.
13:32
Peter Dunn
It's all in the presentation.
13:35
Kristen Ahlenius
I'm sorry. I'm tired.
13:37
Peter Dunn
Kristen, did you bring your stuffing balls and you're like, yeah, here they are. Is that how it goes down?
13:46
Kristen Ahlenius
No.
13:46
Peter Dunn
This is the first time you made them?
13:48
Kristen Ahlenius
Well, I haven't been Indiana for Thanksgiving for, like, five years.
13:52
Peter Dunn
What's that have to do with this? There's no stuffing in Arizona or Texas.
13:57
Kristen Ahlenius
No, it's just that when you're away from these seven Thanksgivings that I'm invited to this year, you don't feel the same level of pressure. I think.
14:09
Peter Dunn
Thanksgiving. Okay. So Veronica still wants the recipe if you can somehow post it somewhere. My favorite part of Thanksgiving, if I have to actually pick a moment, is after we're done eating. I go and cut a piece of pecan pie. I go pour a glass of bourbon, and I go in a different room for where everyone else is, and I have this moment of quiet, and it's delicious.
14:34
Kristen Ahlenius
Yes. I can absolutely turn the pecan pie into a pecan bar, and I'm game.
14:41
Peter Dunn
Are you anti pie?
14:43
Kristen Ahlenius
Not anti pie, but my mom makes these pecan bars that are just out of this world.
14:50
Peter Dunn
I'm hungry now. This is a bad idea.
14:52
Kristen Ahlenius
This was a terrible idea. I'm hungry.
14:54
Peter Dunn
Okay, start the show. Three, two, one. Back on the Pete the planner show. Doing a little miscellaneous money myths here with Kristen. Miscellaneous money myths? It's a play on words. Kristen, so far we've covered that. Making a car payment twice in a month, splitting in half, will, in fact, make you pay off your car faster, as will your mortgage. We then address the idea that real estate is not, in fact, passive income, because it takes a lot of work. And what's the third one we did?
15:34
Kristen Ahlenius
It's not worth saving if the amount is small.
15:36
Peter Dunn
No, it's ridiculous. Of course. It's always worth saving. All right, hit us with number four.
15:41
Kristen Ahlenius
You need to carry a balance on your credit card to increase your credit score.
15:46
Peter Dunn
Okay. You need to carry a balance on your credit card to increase your credit score. Lots of people believe this to be true. Tremendous number of people believe this to be true. I don't believe this to be true. Kristen.
16:02
Kristen Ahlenius
I also don't believe this to be true. And a myth that's adjacent to this would be that you need to take out some sort of liability in order to increase your credit score. Like you need to have a personal loan to get credit. Also a myth.
16:17
Peter Dunn
I think this is a very dangerous myth, if we're being honest, because what someone will do is they'll carry a small balance over. Now, there are good practices of how to build healthy credit. Like, if you've got a credit line that's $500, you don't want to hit the $500 max on it consistently. Even over the course of the month, you want your balance to below the 50% threshold. But actually, now that I'm saying that out loud, Kristen, if you're not carrying a balance, it's just a statement balance. I don't know if that matters.
16:49
Kristen Ahlenius
Right, well, and the thing is, you don't want to be over. I mean, it depends. Like 40. I always say 30. Let's just play it safe. But it's when your statement cuts, so you just want to make sure that you're always keeping that balance low and to avoid that from a behavior perspective, too. If you're going to use a credit card, it's my personal opinion that you should use it like a debit card. So if you make a purchase, just pay it off. There's no harm in paying it off. You don't have to have a balance when your statement cuts, even if you plan to pay it off and not pay any interest.
17:22
Peter Dunn
Okay, so interesting. Of course, I've heard people do this before, but it begs the question, so you don't use a credit card to give you cash flow advantage. Instead, you use the credit card, go right back home or get on your app and transfer the money from checking to pay off. So theoretically, you are making payments on your credit card on a really consistent basis.
17:49
Kristen Ahlenius
On a consistent basis. Discover Regularly will tell me payments more than one payment made in a three day period may not reflect immediately on your account. Because if my Hulu or whatever comes off of my Discover card, I just pay it off.
18:05
Peter Dunn
Do you think that the way I'm going to ask this question is passive aggressive? I just want you to know.
18:10
Kristen Ahlenius
Excellent.
18:11
Peter Dunn
Okay. I'm being honest. Right?
18:12
Kristen Ahlenius
Okay.
18:12
Peter Dunn
Yeah. Do you think that's an effective repeatable technique for other people?
18:19
Kristen Ahlenius
No.
18:22
Peter Dunn
You're nuts.
18:23
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah. Hello? Budget smoothie. I'm doing that consistently, and now I know other people who in the comments. I pay mine weekly or whatever. That's perfectly fine, too. And for the most part, my credit card usage is my recurring expenses, which I track separately through the app that I use. So I have a pretty good idea of, okay, this week, this is what I can expect to be here because that's when the auto pay is scheduled.
18:54
Peter Dunn
Is this your version of me going to the bank in person to pay my mortgage?
19:00
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah, probably.
19:02
Peter Dunn
I don't think it's that crazy. I think it sounds stressful, though.
19:11
Kristen Ahlenius
I'm just anxious, high strung person, so maybe I just don't think that it's weird.
19:17
Peter Dunn
I don't think it's weird. I just think it feels high maintenance, I guess, is where I'm going with that touche.
19:22
Kristen Ahlenius
It requires daily involvement, but legitimately takes five minutes. I mean, every day I sit down right before work, check lunch money, log in to Discover, and I'm done. It takes me five minutes or less.
19:37
Peter Dunn
Yeah. Chris in the comments here on Facebook Live stream, no, it's less stressful than having the balance pile up, and that is 100% true. And you know what? As I'm thinking out loud, as I often do on this show, if you're trying to teach a person to manage credit for the first time, like right out of school or something, I think this is actually a pretty safe technique to use. I mean, there's very little risk of accumulating a balance if you do this technique.
20:07
Kristen Ahlenius
Very little risk. Now, if someone doesn't want to be as annoying as I am with this, what I suggest, if they're trying to build credit, they don't have any credit history. Because that's one of the other myths, too, is like, your credit score doesn't matter. Well, unfortunately, in the world we live in, your credit score really does matter to some degree. So if you need to build a credit score and you don't want to use a credit card or be involved like I am, just only use it for something that you're not running the risk of overspending, like fuel for your car. You're not going to overspend at the gas station.
20:46
Peter Dunn
So now I got to know. So why are you doing this? Is it to build credit because you've got credit, or are you doing it to get points so you can go to Sizzler or Red Lobster and stuff? Why are you doing this? Why are you using a credit card instead of a debit card?
21:01
Kristen Ahlenius
Originally, it was for points because Discover used to do really nice cash back on the quarter. Like, they would do 5% cash back bonuses at places that I was spending most of my money, like the grocery store and gas stations and stuff. And now I'm just kind of in the habit of doing it that way. I will say that I don't use my credit card nearly as much. It was also for a level of protection as well. If my card was compromised, there was more flexibility with a credit card than a debit card. And at other times in my life, I've been way more concerned about, oh, my goodness, if this happens, I might financially be in trouble. So kind of an old habit that I'm phasing myself out of. It's just old habits. Die hard, I think.
21:44
Peter Dunn
Got it. All right, next myth.
21:48
Kristen Ahlenius
The next myth is that I love this one. Renting is throwing away your money.
21:54
Peter Dunn
Come on.
21:55
Kristen Ahlenius
I know, but people need to hear it.
21:57
Peter Dunn
All right? You're not throwing away your money if you're renting. You're not. You are throwing away your money if you buy a home and you're not in the position to actually afford that home, which is what happens time and time again. It is so much worse to barely be able to afford the home you're buying than to rent. And I will not view another viewpoint from that. It is absolutely absurd.
22:28
Kristen Ahlenius
I agree. But people need to hear. Just heard this. This one was Damien's idea. We were kind of, like going back and forth about some different ones, and I was like, you know, that was my first instinct, too, was like, oh, come like, we say that all the time. And I'm like, but I just heard it this week. I just had someone tell me this week. And so I was like, I just don't think it can be said enough.
22:47
Peter Dunn
Do you think it's one of those this is fascinating to me, right? Because this is one of those things that people say a lot. They hear it. It's passed down from generations, and it is both wrong and dangerous. What is another thing, the only thing you can think is like something medical or diet related or fitness related that is this wrong and dangerous as renting is throwing away your money, which is just absurd.
23:16
Kristen Ahlenius
Is it because the stakes are so high, because we don't spend money? Is that why it's the most dangerous thing that has kind of, like, continued to hold bandwidth in this space? Is it because the stakes are so high? Because most of us are spending 25 plus percent of our income here? It's like, what other financial decision over the long term could have that much of an impact? Is that why?
23:40
Peter Dunn
Yeah, I think so. I think the other side of this, too, is it's related to your rental income is not exactly passive income because it's about risk. People don't understand when you rent, there's just not that much risk. When you own a home, the financial risks are endless. Forget you have insurance. I'm talking about something breaks, you got to fix it. And if you don't, then it accumulates. So anyway, coming up after the break, more of this. I don't know exactly what this is, but this is what we're doing. And it's the Pete the Planner show. Do we have another segment out of this, do you think, or no, they.
24:25
Kristen Ahlenius
Get a little bit less good.
24:28
Peter Dunn
What were we going to do? What was the third one? Podcast listeners, you get to listen to the show. What was it?
24:33
Kristen Ahlenius
The Question.
24:34
Peter Dunn
Do we want to do the Question? I haven't read it, so that'll make it good. All right, we're going to do a question. Is there answer to the question?
24:47
Kristen Ahlenius
This question is not about money, in my opinion.
24:49
Peter Dunn
Oh, good. I love those.
24:51
Kristen Ahlenius
Which makes it perfect.
24:53
Peter Dunn
Okay.
24:53
Kristen Ahlenius
For the show.
24:54
Peter Dunn
It's from a guy named Doug. Oh, don't use my name. No, I'm just kidding. That would be amazing. It's not Doug. It's Gary. All right. Stuffing, huh?
25:09
Kristen Ahlenius
Yes.
25:10
Peter Dunn
Ever have those protein balls that are like wheat germ? And what do we get? Chocolate chips and coconut. Mrs. Planner makes them.
25:23
Kristen Ahlenius
Oh, what? Are they good?
25:24
Peter Dunn
They've got honey and peanut butter. They're delicious. They're like a healthy snack. But there's honey peanut butter in chocolate chips.
25:35
Kristen Ahlenius
Is it just called healthy because it's homemade?
25:41
Peter Dunn
I don't know. Sarah said they got a lot of Planner. Sorry. Just use your government name. Rick is shocked that we're actually using a question that someone emailed.
25:52
Kristen Ahlenius
Fair.
25:52
Peter Dunn
Fair criticism. Here's the thing. I don't like people's questions. They're dumb.
25:57
Kristen Ahlenius
Every week you start the show with, we answer your money questions, and every week we ignore your money questions.
26:06
Peter Dunn
Maybe I'll start the show different when we come back from Thanksgiving. You know what we will come back on? The next show we do will be on, like, December 3. I think I will have turned another year old during I mean, I will be older and possibly Kristen. Wait for it. I may mature prior to the next show.
26:32
Kristen Ahlenius
Doubtful.
26:34
Peter Dunn
Little Spence, 49, dropping in to wish us a happy Thanksgiving into Dame two Lil Spence. I hope that you have a big turkey for the whole Spence crew, little or otherwise. What if I got mature?
26:52
Kristen Ahlenius
We would be canceled.
26:57
Peter Dunn
Did I tell you? Maybe I did. So I have some bunch of YouTube videos. There's one from years ago, like, does your spouse qualify for Social Security? It was just like a straight to cam, like two minute spiel. And randomly. Last week, a YouTube comment popped up from that video, and it was just a woman who was very upset. And it said, Just get to the point. You're not a comedian. And so I looked back on that video because, I mean, it was probably six, seven years ago, and there was another comment on that video from, like, two years ago that said, you're not funny. Just give us the answer. And I thought, that is the ultimate in funny. That is funny that two people are upset that they think I'm funny or not funny. That is, in itself, very funny.
27:49
Kristen Ahlenius
It's ironic, is what it is.
27:51
Peter Dunn
Don't you think?
27:53
Kristen Ahlenius
If you wanted a straight answer, why didn't you just Google it and read a boring article about it?
27:58
Peter Dunn
Yeah, you get some weirdo in a studio. Is that a Def Leppard shirt you're wearing? Kristen wants to know. They were one of the many 80s bands that shaped my early music interest. Saw them live in Rockford, Illinois.
28:12
Kristen Ahlenius
Nice.
28:13
Peter Dunn
Okay, question time. Here we go. Three, two, one. Back on the Pete the Planner show, this time answering your money question. Received an email from a gentleman named Doug in the state of Ohio. Where? Doesn't matter. Good day. Longtime podcast listener, first time emailer and fellow balding guy. I really cut to the chase there, didn't it? At a recent family dinner, my wife and I were discussing how great it be to both of our two adult children and their families. Wait. How great it be to have both of our two adult children and their families live close so we could help the grandkids have family dinners together and generally be more intrusive into their lives. To my surprise, both children agreed. Wow. The plan we hatched was for my wife and I to buy a ten to 20 acre property with a house for us, then subdivide off three to five acres for each child so they could build a house.
29:08
Peter Dunn
The children would then be closed, but not right on top of us. Okay. So far, so good, right? Is it about to get weird?
29:15
Kristen Ahlenius
Well, just go ahead.
29:18
Peter Dunn
We've been looking, and prices for suitable properties range from 900,000 to 1.2 million. Wow. That's not exactly Little House on the Prairie. I mean, that's salty. Our income is 150,000 American dollars per year, of which 70,000 is military retirement. Well, I mean, thank you for your service. My military retirement is cost adjusted for inflation and includes medical care for my wife and I for our rest of our lives. As it should be. Both my wife and I are 58 years old and plan to work either full or part time until 67, when our combined Social Security would be $40,000 or more per year. In retirement, we expect to need $100,000 per year, so we expect to be able to live on military retirement and Social Security. Our net worth is $2.4 million. We have no debt, no pending big expenses like weddings on the horizon.
30:10
Peter Dunn
Our current $500,000 house is paid off. We have $800,000 in IRAs, a million in brokerage account, 100,000 in cash. Our investments are in stock and bond mutual funds, and our power percentage for the last ten years has been between 28 and 35%. By the way, for those that don't know, power percentage is a proprietary metric we use here at Your Moneyline to measure how much of a person's income is going to increase their net worth. The plan is to pay cash for the new family, compound the use of the word compound.
30:42
Kristen Ahlenius
It's so good.
30:43
Peter Dunn
It's good. Using some of our cash, some of the brokerage accounts, plus the proceeds from the sale of our current home. So the question is, can we afford spending a million dollars on property and having that much for the portfolio be in our house? All right, Kristen, I mean, you're the financial expert here. I'm just the pretty face.
31:00
Kristen Ahlenius
Do you have a gut reaction?
31:03
Peter Dunn
My coffee was a little acidic this morning. Yeah.
31:06
Kristen Ahlenius
As it probably should be. Yeah. Unless it's.
31:12
Peter Dunn
Yeah, I do have a gut reaction, and I don't know if it's just because I'm tired and it's the end of the week. Yeah, just do it, man. Sure, go ahead.
31:20
Kristen Ahlenius
My financial gut reaction is like, just do it. They have income that they can count on that's less than what they actually need. They have the nest egg saved. They can objectively afford to do this. However, five acres of space between houses is not as much as it sounds.
31:44
Peter Dunn
Okay, this is good. I live on an 8th of an acre next to my neighbor, who lives on, like, a 9th of an acre. Okay.
31:51
Kristen Ahlenius
But three to five acres is really not that much space between you and your children. And my fear is that maybe over the long term, living so close to your children, the allure might wear off.
32:10
Peter Dunn
One square miles is 640 acres.
32:21
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't know. It didn't say how close they live now, right?
32:25
Peter Dunn
No, it just spread out all over the place or whatever.
32:29
Kristen Ahlenius
Because depending on how close you live now and then being that close to your adult children, it may not be exciting for a long time. Maybe.
32:44
Peter Dunn
Okay. So financially, I have no problem with this. I'm just going to put it out there. I think they should do it financially, because on some levels, you save up this nest egg, you've paid off your house. I say they do it, but you're thinking they're going to get annoyed with each other.
33:06
Kristen Ahlenius
Yes. And then depending on where you live, having five acres of land can be an interesting amount of property to have, because people who want land don't want five acres, and people who don't want land probably don't want five acres. And the houses are going to be assume I would assume that they're going to build them in a way that makes sense for them. So you might be putting yourself in a pretty niche position if you find out that this doesn't work for you.
33:35
Peter Dunn
But they say here the plan would be to buy ten to 20 acres, then subdivide three to five acres for each child so they could build a house. So that changes it, right? Three houses on 15 to 20 acres.
33:50
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah. But again, I guess for me, it's more about thinking about an exit strategy should you need to have one. That would be my only caveat to this, is be really deliberate about how you build and where you build.
34:05
Peter Dunn
So then this begs the question, kristen, how far away should you live from your adult family members? Because that's what you're saying here. Because if you're saying, well, a mile would make more sense, is that what you're saying? What is the right amount? I live 2 miles away from my parents, and I see them when I want to see them, and they see me when they want to see me, and it's not that much because they don't want to see me because I'm annoying. But if we lived on five acres, they may have to see me more.
34:37
Kristen Ahlenius
It just depends, I guess, on your situation. I've lived thousands of miles away from my family for a while, and the interesting thing is that I've moved much closer. Both of my parents are within 5 miles of my house now, and I talk to them less than when I lived thousands of miles away because I tend to not leave my house. I'm a hermit.
35:00
Peter Dunn
Big Rick Swink brings up a great point in the Facebook Live chat occurring right now. What happens if one of the children, adult children, wants to leave and then is there like a first rider refusal? There's this unoccupied house and some other family then moves into get that actually is a bigger problem than anything else.
35:22
Kristen Ahlenius
Well, and then it brings up something that I saw in a previous role that I had, which was that, okay, if, let's say one of the children doesn't longer term is like, this really isn't for us. And the parents say, well, we can objectively afford to keep the house for now, and then it becomes a, well, this is our family's deal, so maybe grandkids have the opportunity to buy the house. It can make it very hard to divide an estate when you want to keep certain components very keep certain components together because if you want that financial equity, if you're forcing other members of the family to buy out that house, I think it gets sticky. I think it gets tough.
36:06
Peter Dunn
You know what? I'm with you there too. So now you've talked me out of go ahead and do it, and now.
36:11
Kristen Ahlenius
I'm to I just think you have to have several contingency plans and you have to have exit strategies in case this doesn't work like you thought. And then if it does work exactly like you thought, how does the next generation have an opportunity to replicate this in an affordable way?
36:31
Peter Dunn
I think it's neat that a family actually likes each other enough to want to do this. I'm both half joking and half serious, and that is lovely. That is so great. And it's not to say, well, it won't always be that way because who am I to say that? But life can get in the way of someone gets a new job or interests change or I don't know, you want to go from country mouse to city mouse. I don't know. So I don't have any advice here other than to say, follow Kristen's advice, which is to just have an exit strategy if you're going to do it but you can easily afford it, don't that's a non factor here. You've put yourself in that position.
37:14
Kristen Ahlenius
Kudos for that, by the way.
37:16
Peter Dunn
Kristen, what if I bought hundreds of acres and then had everyone here at your moneyline have little plots of land and we lived on your moneyline compound. What do you think of that?
37:27
Kristen Ahlenius
Can we have cattle?
37:29
Peter Dunn
Cattle?
37:30
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah.
37:30
Peter Dunn
Well, here's the thing. We got a lot of meat eaters here, but we've also got some vegan coworkers. The cattle may not be a good idea. The cattle will disappear. And we're getting fattened up and then the gig is up. So let's do this. Let's take a break. And then coming up after the break, biggest waste of money of the week. And this is a good one this week. And of course, the news. I'm Pete the planner. This is the Pete, the planner. Show your moneyline. Tiny house compound. We could call it the compound interest. I'm sorry.
38:07
Kristen Ahlenius
Run with that.
38:09
Peter Dunn
I don't know what's happening anymore in my life. Pies ranked. Pies ranked top five. Pies start from five and then 4321. What?
38:23
Kristen Ahlenius
I'm not really much of a pie gal. Peanut butter pie and pumpkin. That's pretty much it.
38:32
Peter Dunn
Top pie in the world is a derby pie. Like a pecan and chocolate pie.
38:39
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't think I've ever had that.
38:41
Peter Dunn
Next peanut butter pie. Next. Apple pie. Next pecan pie. And then finally, Boston cream pie. My man Brian pinken says Blueberry Pie. Your sister says apple.
38:54
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah, she probably just woke up.
38:56
Peter Dunn
She was supposed to be on the show today.
38:58
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah, she was.
39:00
Peter Dunn
It was going to be Friends giving. Elaine's giving.
39:04
Kristen Ahlenius
She literally said, I think I'd rather sit at home and be a troll. And I said, okay, that's fine.
39:12
Peter Dunn
All right, let's finish the show. I'm getting slacks coming in, people asking me things.
39:18
Kristen Ahlenius
You're busy?
39:19
Peter Dunn
Do you slack someone when you know they are? Yeah. What's the slack etiquette? Do you slack someone when you know they're in the midst of doing something so that when they get done with it, they can view it? Or do you wait until you know they're done with something so you can be more interactive?
39:36
Kristen Ahlenius
It depends on how high stakes it is, like the thing that they're doing. So when you and Damien used to be on the radio, just like, without me, I would not send a message to Damien. If I thought I needed something, I would wait. Or now you can schedule the slack, but if it's like just a meeting, I'll send the slack so that they can see it when they're done.
39:56
Peter Dunn
Yeah, my slack fills up. It turns out a lot of people send messages. That's not a flex. I don't know.
40:05
Kristen Ahlenius
Weird.
40:06
Peter Dunn
I don't know. Okay, let's do a segment. We're going to pull up my things. My things.
40:13
Kristen Ahlenius
Oh, man.
40:14
Peter Dunn
What? Oh, you got to do the news. Dame's going to be so judgmental.
40:18
Kristen Ahlenius
What? No. Biggest waste of money of the week. I'm so bad at guessing.
40:23
Peter Dunn
Oh, I got to actually see what it costs. Actually, it says it right in the to. Don't worry. You don't have to guess. I just think it's a waste of money.
40:35
Kristen Ahlenius
Thank goodness.
40:36
Peter Dunn
Okay, here we go. Three, two, one. This week's biggest waste of money of the week, right here on the Pizza Planner show is Dusk Smart Sunglasses. The timeless eyewear icon has been given a new age upgrade with ampere's Dusk Smart Sunglasses. The app enabled frames load the classic wayfarer silhouette with a range of tech savvy features fitted with electrochromic lenses. Am I saying that right? Electrochromic. Electrochromic lenses wearers have full control of the tent level and can choose the ideal shade based on the conditions outside. Favorites can be saved as presets on the app and loaded in the frame for instant adjustments with a hidden button at the temple. An integrated microphone and speaker are also included to make calls or listen to music, podcasts or audiobooks on the go. While a built in tracking system linked with Apple's find, my tracking program ensures you'll never misplace them.
41:43
Peter Dunn
Frames are available in classic black or two tone navy and teal with either polarized black tent or polarized mirrored tent lenses. Kristen, unbelievably. Cool concept, right? Yeah, but come on. Here's what would happen for me because.
42:08
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't tread lightly.
42:11
Peter Dunn
Why?
42:12
Kristen Ahlenius
Because I don't have the lens changing version of this. But I do have audio sunglasses.
42:22
Peter Dunn
You have audio sunglasses? Why would you admit that publicly?
42:28
Kristen Ahlenius
Because they're awesome.
42:29
Peter Dunn
How are they awesome?
42:31
Kristen Ahlenius
They are incredible. My eyes are very sensitive to sunlight. I lived in the desert where it was sunny 99 out of 100 days, and they have built in speakers, so you can still hear the traffic around you, but you can listen to music, which just makes you safer. And Bose has had this version. The only difference is the lenses don't change. But Bose has had these for a couple of years, and I have them, and they're wonderful.
42:58
Peter Dunn
And how much did those cost, Kristen?
43:01
Kristen Ahlenius
They didn't cost me anything. They were a gift. But they're wonderful.
43:05
Peter Dunn
Ten out of ten Bose sunglasses, 124. 50 Bose frames, tenor, black. Interesting. Anyway, Kristen, what's in the news this.
43:17
Kristen Ahlenius
Week, Frontier Airlines announces an unlimited flight pass. All you can fly, $600.
43:28
Peter Dunn
Like, for the year or a month?
43:31
Kristen Ahlenius
For the year. You ready for the catches?
43:34
Peter Dunn
Yes, I'm ready for the catch. Because what's the catch?
43:39
Kristen Ahlenius
So it's unlimited flights between Denver and their other US based destinations. I didn't look up how many places that means you could go, but this is only out of their Denver airport. It's an introductory offer. For starters, the first year is 600. The automatic renewal price, 1000. I thought you were going to get.
44:00
Peter Dunn
I was, but I was going to.
44:01
Kristen Ahlenius
Wait until you give the rest of the answer $1,999. Okay, so it triples after the introductory offer. There are 50, some OD blackout dates, which include Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve, and most of the good spring break dates. And the best part about this whole thing, tickets aren't available to book and confirm until the day before departure.
44:30
Peter Dunn
So this is not good.
44:32
Kristen Ahlenius
This is horrible. And last seat availability is not guaranteed. You can be bumped from your flight.
44:39
Peter Dunn
Okay, so let's pass. I will say I love frontier airlines tails on their plane because they have a different woodland creature on each or a different animal on each plane.
44:51
Kristen Ahlenius
Do they?
44:53
Peter Dunn
Yes. My kids, when we fly somewhere, they always look for the frontier planes because there's like, oh, there's a snow fox. I don't know if there's such thing as a snow fox. What else is in the news?
45:05
Kristen Ahlenius
Taylor Swift tickets listed for thousands on StubHub after millions flood ticketmaster.
45:12
Peter Dunn
You have a disclosure to put out here? I think if you're going to read the news, you need to be honest.
45:18
Kristen Ahlenius
Well, I'm a Swiftie and I didn't get tickets, so I'm upset and I feel like other people should know why I'm upset because it's egregious.
45:25
Peter Dunn
Okay, can you explain this to me? Because I purposefully have avoided trying to learn about this, but I'm willing to listen.
45:32
Kristen Ahlenius
So what happened was that ticketmaster had, quote, unprecedented high demand for Taylor Swift's 52 arena tour that kicks off in the beginning of next year. So the tickets went on sale. They ranged from price from as cheap as $49 to as much as like 800 and some OD dollars for VIP packages. What happened was the ticketmaster website could not handle the traffic. They gave away too many presale codes, sold out all of the stadiums, and there was supposed to be general ticket sales this Friday today, and they had to cancel that because they didn't intend to, apparently, but they sold out all the stadiums. Taylor Swift sold over 2 million tickets in one day, which is the most any other artist has ever sold.
46:17
Peter Dunn
So why are people mad at Ticketmaster?
46:21
Kristen Ahlenius
People are mad because in 2010, ticketmaster and live nation merged and people are arguing that they have created a monopoly and that they don't have any reason to provide a better user experience to the customer because the rich just get richer by they just provide these tickets you have to pay for them. And then secondary platforms or resale platforms like StubHub are reselling the tickets now. So the highest listed resale price I think yesterday when I was looking a floor seat in Atlanta, someone had it listed for $35,000. And the cheapest now you can get into a venue, the face value of a nosebleed ticket was $49. The cheapest resale value is $350.
47:12
Peter Dunn
Isn't the bigger issue something that people are missing here and that you'd have to fight traffic and find a parking place to do any of this, which is just not worth it.
47:23
Kristen Ahlenius
People go to NFL games every week. That's where she's playing.
47:26
Peter Dunn
I know, but just this idea of like, it's at night. People are know, I'm not clearly not a concert person because I'm not fun. Shocking, I might consider a daytime concert that's outside. That's about it. Why does a concert have to be at night?
47:49
Kristen Ahlenius
So, like, summer fest or no, that's too many people.
47:54
Peter Dunn
I'm thinking, like, fest. I don't want anything that's a fest.
48:00
Kristen Ahlenius
Okay.
48:02
Peter Dunn
Too many.
48:02
Kristen Ahlenius
Good. Yeah. The rest of this is that now lawmakers are involved. So the Tennessee Attorney General has opened a consumer protection investigation. And again, the argument is that Ticketmaster and Live Nation should have never been able to merge. And this instance is shedding new light on something that others have been arguing about for some time.
48:25
Peter Dunn
I just think this whole story is really about parking. What else is in the news?
48:31
Kristen Ahlenius
Your favorite story of the month? FTX.
48:35
Peter Dunn
Oh, my gosh.
48:37
Kristen Ahlenius
FTX employees were claiming expenses through their online chat, like Slack. If you use Slack or Teams, they were claiming their expenses through online chat. And then they were using, apparently emojis to approve or deny expenses. Their bankruptcy filing. I think they filed on the 11th, maybe. But some more of these facts have come to light, which include them never having board meetings due to the fact that they didn't have a board of directors. The exchange was using employees personal names to purchase real estate in the Bahamas with corporate funds. They were just signing over deeds in employees names, apparently. And as a result, 130 affiliated companies have filed bankruptcy proceedings.
49:22
Peter Dunn
They had no CFO. They had no board of directors.
49:25
Kristen Ahlenius
So bad.
49:27
Peter Dunn
I mean, look, there's just so much here, but I get stuck on the board of directors and CFO. Yes, we are a nice company. We are small. We have less than 30 people right now. We have a board of directors and a CFO. Right. And it's like people trusted this person with billions of dollars.
49:51
Kristen Ahlenius
Billions.
49:51
Peter Dunn
I just don't get it. Anyway.
49:53
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't get it either.
49:54
Peter Dunn
The FTX story is the new enron, very clearly. Oh, well, kristen, have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope the stuffing balls that you're going to provide for your loved ones are well received.
50:08
Kristen Ahlenius
Thank you. Enjoy your Super Bowl.
50:11
Peter Dunn
Thank you. Everyone else, I'm sending you good vibes because good vibes are all that's in the budget. I'm Pete the planner. Happy Thanksgiving. We'll see you next time. Won't see anybody. It's radio. What the hell am I talking about? Oh, now, do I have to put an explicit lyric thing on there? Because I said, I don't think so.
50:30
Kristen Ahlenius
I think you're allowed to say that.
50:34
Peter Dunn
I don't know what's here. My kids will listen.
50:39
Kristen Ahlenius
Shout out to my dogs, because this is the first time I've ever had them here for the show because I get nervous that they're going to cause a ruckus. And they were literally silent the whole time.
50:49
Peter Dunn
Can you show them to the audit? Can I go full screen with you and you can show us your dogs?
50:54
Kristen Ahlenius
They're literally snoozing so hard right now.
50:57
Peter Dunn
You can't okay, hold on. Let me go solo. She's waking up the dogs. She muted.
51:07
Kristen Ahlenius
They're not having it muted because I didn't want to whistle into the mic. They're sharing a bed and they will not get up right now.
51:16
Peter Dunn
Well, we tried. People are. No, kristen, I'm leaving. Same this meeting to go do other things. So best of luck with your life.
51:33
Kristen Ahlenius
Thank you.
51:34
Peter Dunn
Everyone else, no, you're welcome. Everyone else, stay getting money.
