00:02
Peter Dunn
All right, here's the schedule over the next few weeks here on The Pete the Planner Show, there is a podcast right now. How do you know that? Well, you literally downloaded this and are listening to us. So there is a podcast this week, which is Tuesday the 7th. And then next week, there is no podcast, there is no radio show, there is no live stream. We are on hiatus, and in the next week, there will not be a live stream. We will do it midweek like we are right now, which is a Wednesday. That's the housekeeping, ladies and gentlemen. We've got a full crew in the house today. We've got the regulars, Kristen Ahlenius and Damian Dunn. Kristen, welcome back to the program.
00:41
Kristen Ahlenius
I am glad to be back. I feel like I've been away a lot here of so yeah, you're like.
00:47
Peter Dunn
A big celebrity get for us. We have to make time for.
00:53
Kristen Ahlenius
That'S. That's exactly what it is. Kristen and company.
00:56
Peter Dunn
Yeah. And speaking of and co, hello, dame.
01:00
Damian Dunn
Has she been gone? I haven't really got I watched the show.
01:05
Kristen Ahlenius
I know that's not true.
01:08
Peter Dunn
Wow. All right, I'm going turtleneck today. I just thought I'd give a little visual for the podcast listeners so they can lose their appetite.
01:18
Damian Dunn
Kristen, are you going to ask the question? What is it turned in?
01:25
Kristen Ahlenius
I was told to not give turtleneck tips on the radio because I'm no fun, so I won't ask.
01:31
Peter Dunn
When I was donning this tortoise neck this morning, I thought to myself, I'm not kidding, should I turn the turtleneck in? And in fact, in my bedroom mirror, I stood in front of it, I turned the turtleneck in and it looked utterly ridiculous. And so I turned the turtleneck back out and there we go. Grant says someone should get me a hairless cat to pet because I'm like a Dr. Evil meets that's amazing number two. I think actually like more number two than I do Dr. Evil. But Grant, I feel you. Okay. Oh, wait. Oh, no. Danza is currently live with the Money Guy show. And now wait, Danza, you do other shows? How's that not the takeaway of this?
02:23
Kristen Ahlenius
I'm a little hurt. Really?
02:24
Peter Dunn
No, it's all right. I'm sure it's a better show. Okay, let's do the show. It's an email question extravaganza.
02:34
Damian Dunn
Sure.
02:35
Peter Dunn
I don't know. In 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, askpete@petetheplanner.com that's, askpete@petetheplanner.com. And what will end up happening is what's going to happen right now to you in your ear holes. We're going to answer these questions like people email us questions. They're financial. We answer them because we know what we're doing and then we don't try to sell you things, which is amazing and rare. Frankly, it's quite rare. So joining me, as always, Kristen Ahlenius. And by always, I mean sometimes. She's here. Kristen Ahlenius, director of Education at your money line. Hello, Kristen.
03:12
Kristen Ahlenius
Hello, Pete.
03:13
Peter Dunn
And my fellow Bald, Damian Dunn, vice President of Advice at Your Moneyline. Hello, Dame.
03:19
Damian Dunn
Good day, Pete.
03:20
Peter Dunn
All right, so here's the question. Dear Pete and or Dame and or Ms. Ahlenius, whoever is on this week see you feel seen and heard.
03:29
Kristen Ahlenius
Now, Kristen girl uses her PTO, like, twice.
03:33
Peter Dunn
We have a high school junior and also a graduating senior who will be headed to college in the fall. So we have a high school junior and a graduating senior who will be headed college. For the purpose of this note, let's focus on the senior, and then we'll apply the learnings to his sister. Not sure what sale of personal data to blame, but the junk mail credit card offers for Lincoln have already started to arrive at our home. Would like to help him establish credit in the right way. A few notes for your context as I set up our questions. Number one, he has traditional checking account with traditional savings account tied to it. We have access to these accounts and can move money around as needed. So when he goes to college, we could help him cover costs by simply moving into his checking account and use his debit card as needed.
04:18
Peter Dunn
We don't intend to pay him an allowance while he's there, but if the needs arises, we can help a brother out. Second, we've been burned by fraudulent charges in the past, and so I'm inclined to want him to have a credit card, not just his debit. That allows for a bit more flexibility, protection if there's fraud. In the event of a problem with the debit card, he could lean on the credit card or vice versa. You get the point. Number three, we have our credit frozen mom, dad and both kids. So any move we make will crowd the pain in the neck hassle of unlocking credit temporarily. No big deal, but frustrating, yeah. 90 seconds of your time. By 90 seconds, I mean, what four minutes or so? Here comes the questions. How should we consider helping a young person going off to college of salvage credit while educating on the slippery slope of credit cards?
05:02
Peter Dunn
Two we recently saw a social media post about adding your youngster as an authorized user on your own credit card. I can see the potential benefits, but frankly, we only have one card that we use for expenses, and I don't want the bills for his charges. Blah, blah. No offense on the blah, but the rest was just blah. Number three, if you support the idea of him having a separate student credit card, what tips do you have for him and us to consider in terms of banks and number four? Finally, I assume you would support the idea of refreezing the credit after we open a credit card. Is there any good reason for a college student to have unfrozen credit. Those are all the questions. That's the show, everybody. Good night. Okay, amazing setup from a former listener of the year, right? Amazing questions. Kristen, what sticks out to you?
05:49
Kristen Ahlenius
The thing that sticks out to me is what considerations when you're establishing your first card? Because if you're accustomed to being like a one credit card type family, that's how you grew up, that's what you intend to do. And then once you've had that card for a while, you don't want to close it because that could shorten the length of your credit history. So choosing that card is pretty important in my opinion.
06:15
Peter Dunn
You know what? I hadn't considered that. I hadn't considered that. Dame, what else have I not considered?
06:22
Damian Dunn
I'm just trying to figure out why his dad wants to cheat him out of the experience of just signing up for a card and getting a t shirt or a two liter or Mountain Dew out of the deal.
06:31
Peter Dunn
I've told you this story before. My brother in law, one of his first jobs was signing people up for credit cards at a local department store. And if they signed up, they got a picture frame that had a bear on it and on the box it just said polyresin bear frame. And so whenever I think about my brother in law, I think about him ruining people's credit over polyresin bear frames. Yeah, Dane, that is the ubiquitous college experience. I think there's a rather easy answer to this one in my opinion. But now I feel like Kristen's going to give a better answer. So let's do Hollywood Square style. I'll give a bad answer. Dame, you are officially the judge here. So Kristen and I will each present our case and you have to say who has the better methodology. Kristen, would you like to go first or second?
07:18
Kristen Ahlenius
I would like to go second, please.
07:20
Peter Dunn
Of course you would. I think the young man gets a secured credit card secured by a deposit of cash somewhere between five hundred dollars to one thousand dollars. I recommend that he puts one category of spending on said credit card and repays it every month. I like one category of spending because once you say, well, I'll put this on it and this on it, this is where you get out of control. So maybe fuel or for those that have hair care needs, those sorts of things, but that would be my recommendation. Secured credit card, $1,000 limit. If ish 500, doesn't really matter. And I would absolutely not make him an authorized user on their credit card and I would refreeze the credit. You definitely don't want a college student with unfrozen credit. That is my submission to the court. What say you? Miscellaneous?
08:18
Kristen Ahlenius
Unfortunately, for argument's sake, I pretty much exclusively agree. But my initial thought was if there's a card that you like better that maybe doesn't have a secured option, could mom and dad technically act as the secure of that card and just say, like, hey, this would be your get out of jail free card. I'm assuming they trust their kid. Maybe you can't trust your kids. I don't know. I don't have any kids, so maybe you can't trust him, I don't know. But I do agree, one category of purchase, and I would actually push that a little bit further and make it something that is not fun to buy. I know that in college, my sister and I both did this. Gas for our cars is the only thing that we would put on our credit card, because there's no risk of mismanaging that spending, because nobody likes to go to the gas station and put 50, 60, whatever, dollars in your gas tank.
09:14
Damian Dunn
All right.
09:15
Peter Dunn
The judge say, I think I have.
09:18
Damian Dunn
To side primarily with Pete on this one, probably because he was first and you chose poorly, Chris, and you went second. Whereas if you would have said this first, you likely would have pulled out the win here. But Pete's reasoning was sound. You added some nice color to the end, but Pete gets the count.
09:37
Peter Dunn
Kristen I would like to dig in a little bit on the idea of having his parents secure it or whatever sign for it, cosign if you I don't like it, but I mean, look, you're parsing words at that point.
09:51
Kristen Ahlenius
I guess I should clarify. I don't mean formally be the co signer. I mean, it's his own thing, he's the only one that's on the hook. But if your kid runs up a $500 balance on his card because he doesn't understand really the implications of that, you have to know, are you going to bail him out or not? Because if they are going to bail him out, then is there really a point in the secured card option if he has more options outside the secured card space? I haven't shopped for a credit card in a long time, so that could be a moot point. It's just something to consider.
10:24
Peter Dunn
Yeah, I agree with your very initial statement, which was, make sure whatever you're getting is something that you want to have for a while. And so that actually makes a secured card not the best option. Right. Because then are you going to get rid of the secured credit card? Are you just going to keep making deposits? Can you transition a secured credit card to unsecured? I don't actually know the answer to that. Dame, do you know that?
10:49
Damian Dunn
I think you can, but I don't know for sure.
10:52
Peter Dunn
If you could. If you can find one that you can transition from or secured to unsecured, I would consider that. I don't mean here's what I know about this kid, by the way. He's an incredibly responsible young man. And so I don't think trust is the issue but I think there can also be training wheels and the training wheels is the secured nature of I also I think dame can attest as a parent, you trust your kids, but you also don't want to put them in situations of which, if they mess up, that you're going to have to pay for it.
11:26
Damian Dunn
Yeah. And I don't want them to feel like they need to cover any potential mistakes by delaying coming and asking for help and making potentially a small problem into something bigger as well.
11:38
Peter Dunn
All right, well, there we go. There's the answer. That's the only answer in the world. It's not, but I hope you like it. If you want your email answered, then, well, my God, you got an email. It's askpete@petetheplanner.com that's askpete@petetheplanner.com and Kristen and company will answer that. Coming up after the break, a giant bonus that you and I didn't get but this person did. What should they do with it? That's next on the Pete he Planner show. I don't know why I'm generally more surprised by my good outros than I am at my bad. Like I have a bad out and I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. And I have a good one. I'm like, wow, look at that, man. Yeah.
12:20
Kristen Ahlenius
I feel like you've been on your game with the outros lately, though.
12:23
Peter Dunn
I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. I agree. Thank you for saying that.
12:27
Kristen Ahlenius
You're welcome.
12:28
Peter Dunn
Every once in a while I can see it in his eyes. I'll start too early and Dane goes, oh, boy, 35 2nd rap.
12:42
Kristen Ahlenius
Those just make me nervous because I'm like, is he going to maybe ask me just one more thing? Because this is a long outro so I'm ready just in case. But sometimes you just run with it.
12:53
Peter Dunn
I am going to do that in the next segment.
12:55
Kristen Ahlenius
Ask me something at the last with 5 seconds left.
12:58
Damian Dunn
You absolutely will. He's done it to me.
13:00
Kristen Ahlenius
That's how I'll end the segment. Absolutely.
13:04
Peter Dunn
Three, two, one. Back on the Pete the Planner show. Answering your money questions. So we got one, we had several today. This one is from a person. I believe the person's name is Hennefer. If I believe the J is Hennefer. Hi, Pete. Kristen and Damian. You know, Damien, every time I read your name I'm like, man, I wish people called. You know why? I don't know. I don't.
13:37
Damian Dunn
No, no.
13:38
Peter Dunn
How do you recommend making the most out of receiving a lump sum? Okay, so before we go much further here, dame, do you want to give like a privilege check here for us?
13:47
Damian Dunn
Please be aware that this situation is not indicative of the situation that everybody faces and we realize that there is a large amount of privilege likely due to this person's hard work in their lifetime. But don't be turned off by the.
14:03
Peter Dunn
Numbers and possibly luck and opportunity.
14:05
Damian Dunn
Sure.
14:05
Peter Dunn
And like you said, don't be turned off by the numbers. Please don't try to learn something from it. If you need to subtract one of the zeros or two of the zeros, then go right ahead. Seriously? That's your warning?
14:19
Kristen Ahlenius
Seriously?
14:20
Peter Dunn
My spouse and I have a young kid and live in a fairly affordable Midwest city, west Des Moines. Sounds lovely. When my spouse and I met in our early twenty s, I was making 25,000 American dollars and he was making 35,000 American dollars. Now in our late 30s, we don't talk anymore. Oh, wait, no, that's not the email. I make between 150,170 thousand annually and he makes somewhere between 80 to 90. Talk about a glow up. Before we had a kid, we worked extra jobs and saved aggressively to pay off our student loan debt and then pay off our cars. We've never had any credit card debt. We've always been contributing at least the match to our 401 KS. And a few years ago, when our salaries rose, were able to start maxing out to the IRS limit on both 401 KS annually. And together we max out our HSAs and our Dcfsas.
15:14
Peter Dunn
That's a big acronym every year as well. And we put $5,000 a year in our kids 529 plans until we got the lump sum of our emergency fund was around $30,000. Okay, so far, if I'm being honest, everything's pretty I don't want to say it's standard, but this is approachable, right?
15:36
Damian Dunn
Stable, reasonable. It's definitely on the upper end of what we might expect, but it is not out of line.
15:43
Peter Dunn
We currently owe about $130,000 on our mortgage. Okay, are you ready for this is my favorite part. This is my favorite part. Not the big number. I'm going to tell you in about 10 seconds. Eight years remaining on the ten year refi at 2.2.1 is as low as.
16:01
Kristen Ahlenius
I've heard cries in 5.5.
16:06
Peter Dunn
Last year, I received a major bonus of around pre tax 400,000 American dollars in addition to my regular salary. And we feel pretty far outside of our depth to feel like we know what we're doing, everything that we should do with that money. After getting the lump sum, we interviewed several financial people based on referrals and picked one to help us invest our money. We moved $150,000 of the sum into an investment fund and are focused on keeping the other same habits we had before, including all the contributions. No plans to buy cars or houses or anything crazy. We know we have too much sitting in our 3.6% interest savings account. Still 120 grand. But with the industry that we both work in being so volatile, we're being extraordinarily cautious for the next few months. Are there blind spots we should think about? Is it going to take a while to feel like we know what we're doing?
17:01
Peter Dunn
We just want to make sure that we're not missing anything. All right, so there you what, Dame? You get the first shot at this one.
17:12
Damian Dunn
First of all, congratulations. And I think you've taken a lot of very appropriate steps into what you should have been doing with this money. I don't think I would have recommended anybody approach it any differently. The thing that stands out to me is that you've got a large chunk of money sitting in the savings account and you're concerned about it. I am not. Because of the very next statement that follows that the industry that we are both work in being so volatile. We all went through some really rough financial times over the last few years, and we saw through your moneyline, the idea, the concept of what people were comfortable with in emergency funds stretch drastically over a very short period of time from two, three months. Trying to get somebody convinced that three months was an appropriate amount was sometimes really hard. Pre pandemic.
18:06
Damian Dunn
During pandemic, three sounded pretty darn reasonable, and we saw that stretch to 6812 months regularly. So if you are in an industry that is volatile, I don't think you are out of line to have that. And don't feel guilty about it. You're doing great with your contributions anyway, and you just gave them likely a nice boost with what was left over from that pre tax bonus. I don't think you're doing anything wrong. I would put a stamp of approval.
18:36
Peter Dunn
On this before I make a very weird, arguably uncomfortable and nuanced statement. Kristen, do you want to go?
18:44
Kristen Ahlenius
Sure, I would love to. Can I ask a question that might be a hot take? Yes.
18:50
Peter Dunn
Yeah.
18:51
Kristen Ahlenius
Could they behind from a retirement perspective? Oh, I'm looking at well, because they were making a significantly lower wage than they are now, and while they've always contributed, they were contributing in their early working years at a much lower rate. So if you in retirement, want to live the lifestyle that you're living now, is it possible that money should be earmarked for retirement?
19:24
Peter Dunn
Well, that's a really interesting point for people who had lower wages and then WABA because what you're saying is doctors wait a second. No, there's no doctors getting a $400,000 bonus. But anyway, don't doctors go through this exact same thing where they are instantly behind on retirement savings for five to eight years?
19:45
Damian Dunn
Sure.
19:47
Peter Dunn
That's interesting.
19:48
Damian Dunn
I think it's possible if I'm doing the math right now and I'm making some educated guesses based on what they've shared, they're putting away 17%. Yeah, I was going to come up with numbers 17% to 20%, but 17% isn't counting. I don't think it's counting HSAs, Dcfsas 529s, anything like that. So they're putting away roughly 20% of their income right now, and they just got a nice boost with what they had. So I don't know. We could run the math if we had more time to do it, but we don't on this segment.
20:27
Peter Dunn
All right. I don't even remember what my really hot take was. I got to look through what's going on here. Oh, yeah. I remember what it was. Okay, listen, here's the thing. I love situations like this. Obviously, it's always nice when $400,000 tricks into your house, but this is why when people prepare for success by having the right habits and having the right vehicles going, then when these sorts of things happens, it actually sets you up for life. And so here's my example of the difference here the fact that there was the muscle and the mechanism of contributions happening. Then this idea of if you're good with money and you get more money, you're going to be good with that money. So that's what happens. But if you don't tend to make good financial decisions or you wait until you have money to start saving money, then when this extra money comes in, then you end up not knowing what to do.
21:30
Peter Dunn
So that's the first part of what I have to say. The second part is where it gets weird. This is why I honestly prefer situations like this. And I find them a lot more stable than those of professional athletes having worked with professional athletes with their finances in the past, where there's these bursts of money over oftentimes a four to eight year period and the numbers. You add another zero on here. By the way, this is a much more sustainable financial life than something ten times the magnitude of it. And that is why I love the financial business. And to take that point one step further, subtract this, make this one 10th of this story the same is true if you can create the structure and have the mechanism and Social Security comes and fills in the gaps, you can have a sustainable life, too.
22:23
Peter Dunn
Is that not right, Kristen?
22:26
Kristen Ahlenius
Absolutely, it is.
22:27
Peter Dunn
Coming up after the break, more of the Pete the Planner show. I'm Pete the planner.
22:39
Kristen Ahlenius
You gave a little bit of the presentation I gave yesterday, and I don't even think you watched it, so that was kind of creepy.
22:45
Peter Dunn
What are you talking about? I didn't watch. Watch.
22:56
Kristen Ahlenius
Way to support the team, ma'am.
22:58
Damian Dunn
Well, Kristen, you absolutely should have started launching into a five minute explanation. He forced him to cut you off.
23:06
Kristen Ahlenius
No, because he has to edit the show really quickly before he leaves.
23:12
Peter Dunn
Okay.
23:13
Kristen Ahlenius
I tried to find you yesterday, by the way, to see if you wanted to go to McAllister's for lunch, but you were what time? After I was done yesterday? I think you were at lunch. I just went in to see because obviously I had to have did yeah.
23:28
Peter Dunn
I can't remember about yesterday, but yeah. Well, that stinks. I would have gone over there and bought you an iced tea the size of dame's head.
23:34
Kristen Ahlenius
No kidding.
23:37
Peter Dunn
What dame do you like that made a face?
23:41
Kristen Ahlenius
My head's probably bigger than Damien's. Anyway, it's fine.
23:44
Damian Dunn
It's the new challenge. We'll get measures out and tape measures out.
23:48
Kristen Ahlenius
Please don't.
23:49
Peter Dunn
All right. Okay. Who has the biggest head on the show and are we going to measure not figuratively. No, that's weird. Literally, but literally the biggest. And we're going to measure from, like, what right above the nose, like, top of the nose, circumference around. All right, so place your bets. Dame, who is the biggest head on the show?
24:12
Damian Dunn
I think it's me.
24:13
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't want to get my feelings hurt because it's going to be me.
24:16
Peter Dunn
You know what? I think it's Christy's big head.
24:19
Kristen Ahlenius
Big head?
24:20
Peter Dunn
Yeah. It's like a Macy's Thanksgiving balloon.
24:24
Damian Dunn
Can you wear normal snapbacks?
24:26
Peter Dunn
Oh, great question. And what setting are you on? Yeah.
24:33
Kristen Ahlenius
All the ones I have are just, like, the adjust. Like, they slide, so I don't know.
24:39
Damian Dunn
1980S golf course hat there with the bratz class.
24:44
Kristen Ahlenius
Bingo.
24:46
Peter Dunn
That's so true. That's so true. Is it slossinger?
24:52
Kristen Ahlenius
That means nothing to me.
24:54
Peter Dunn
Exactly. So you don't have a hat with the little pegs. You can go grab right now and show us the setting.
25:01
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't think so. I think all three of the ones that are in my rotation slide.
25:06
Peter Dunn
Dame, where do you go?
25:09
Damian Dunn
One of the last two?
25:10
Kristen Ahlenius
Usually your head might be bigger than mine.
25:14
Peter Dunn
Holy cow. If it's perfectly overlapped, I go two over.
25:22
Damian Dunn
Baby head.
25:26
Peter Dunn
Dave, you've got a giant nugget. I've never realized that.
25:31
Damian Dunn
I tried to tell you.
25:32
Peter Dunn
Okay, so here's the question at hand. Kristen, this is just for you. If we filled Dame's head with dime, how much money would we have?
25:44
Kristen Ahlenius
I have no idea.
25:46
Peter Dunn
No, I mean, we got to know.
25:48
Damian Dunn
I'll try and find an app that will estimate the volume of my head for you and we can figure this out.
25:55
Peter Dunn
Kristen, turn your head to the side.
25:56
Kristen Ahlenius
No.
25:57
Peter Dunn
Come on. No, this is just a financial show. Can you please this is a financial show. The profile of your head. Look at my head. It is tiny. I have, like, a tiniest.
26:11
Kristen Ahlenius
Your head is small? Yeah.
26:15
Peter Dunn
I feel like HR could get involved after the show. She's out there. Should I grab her? She doesn't I mean, grab her. You know what I mean by grab.
26:24
Damian Dunn
Yeah. Holy moly.
26:28
Peter Dunn
Okay, so what are we doing? We're doing the update on Iron.
26:33
Kristen Ahlenius
I mean, you told him you were going to do that last time.
26:36
Peter Dunn
I don't remember the original email, but I guess we'll read a second email and figure it out.
26:44
Damian Dunn
Is there enough to make a whole segment out of the yes.
26:47
Peter Dunn
Caitlin, I am wearing a turtleneck.
26:49
Damian Dunn
There we go.
26:50
Peter Dunn
Now your sister's going to jump in. Caitlin, how big a head does your sister have?
26:55
Kristen Ahlenius
Caitlin and I both have huge heads.
26:58
Peter Dunn
All right. Caitlin, do you have a giant head?
27:00
Kristen Ahlenius
Yes.
27:01
Damian Dunn
It's so big.
27:02
Peter Dunn
If everyone's listening from the other room, they don't know what's going on, and they're just hearing me go, Caitlin, do you have a giant head? They're like, how's our boss? What's going on with him today?
27:11
Damian Dunn
Must be recording radio.
27:13
Peter Dunn
Must being himself. Okay, those giant head radio. All right, let's get started in three, two, one. Back on the pete the planner show. When people email us emails, few millise questions at askpete@petetheplanner.com we answer them and sometimes we have to fill in the gaps, right? Because sometimes the question is missing something. Well, a couple of weeks ago we had an email from a gentleman by the name of Ian from Chicago and he has a follow up email to us that I think maybe explores some of the things we discussed. Now if you're like me and you're tuning in and it's like, wow, maybe the context for the first email would be helpful. I feel the same way because I don't remember it. So we're going to try to get through this together and maybe my big headed co hosts can figure out how to fill in the gaps with their giant heads.
28:07
Peter Dunn
Hey there Kristen and company. Wow, y'all took my question. I did not realize that Ian was from Kentucky. Thank you for sorting through the small novel of an email and making my freaking week fantastic. Side note, Dane was right. I get iron enough to make explainers like that not uncommon. Love how you all roll. Anyway, enough compliments for us, but you asked me a question back for savings. At the time of my original email, excluding investment and retirement accounts, I had $30,000 in my account prices. Right? Rules. Pete wins. Including in, there is $12,000 in my emergency fund and the rest is earmarked for other savings and donating goals. Currently working towards a six month uninterrupted lifestyle emergency fund and hope to be there in the next few months, which is why I didn't mention in my novel I want to pause there for a second.
28:58
Peter Dunn
I don't know if I've is that a thing? It sounds like a thing. A six month uninterrupted lifestyle emergency fund. Someone has clearly made that a thing.
29:07
Kristen Ahlenius
Well that's what the two of you just we don't call it that.
29:13
Peter Dunn
Yeah, I'm saying I'm making more guesses here about Ian. I think this is a consumer of personal finance content and someone out there is saying six month uninterrupted lifestyle emergency fund and I think that's interesting.
29:32
Damian Dunn
Yeah, I think a lot of people have the idea or the concept that emergency fund could be used or when they're building an emergency fund, it has to be replacing income dollars and not certain expense dollars. So I would guess that a number of folks wander into the concept and starting an emergency fund with the idea that they are replacing income for an uninterrupted lifestyle fund, not just an emergency fund.
30:01
Peter Dunn
Okay, well let me dig on that though, Kristen. If I lose my job and that's an emergency, right? And so I go to my emergency fund, how practical is it to be like, well, business as usual, let's go get bubble tea. Are you going to do that for six months?
30:20
Kristen Ahlenius
If you've put in the. Work in the past to be able to sustain your lifestyle. Is there anything wrong with that? And it's probably also come out of this place of personal finance experts. We are so guilty of this. The three of us, too, of just being like, yeah, save three to six months for an. Like, what does that even you know, Ian has just taken the extra time to define what that means for if.
30:46
Damian Dunn
What if Ian is we know he's young. What if he's in a profession that there are transitions every once in a while where you can expect to maybe have a couple of months off every once in a while, but you're going to get hired again, you're going to find another source of income on a pretty regular basis, and he just wants to live his life as uninterrupted as possible.
31:08
Kristen Ahlenius
Travel nurse.
31:10
Peter Dunn
Oh, can we talk about travel nurses here in a second? Sure. We put a timeout neither of you know much about travel.
31:17
Kristen Ahlenius
My I actually just helped one of my best friends with her budget because it's hard for her as a travel nurse.
31:24
Peter Dunn
Yeah, okay, we'll come back to that. Kristen was right about the debt's origins. Despite the relatively recent change in gross income, I've carried a balance of my credit card since I graduated college as a way to fill gaps and live outside my means while I was making much less. I've struggled over the years with wiping out my credit card debt at the expense of other financial security goals, including my emergency fund. But my credit card has always remained a high priority. Last year, I went about three quarters without accruing interest. That's good. That's actually great. One of my goals for this year is to wipe out the residual debt by June, just in time for the student loan interest freeze to expire. As a bit of an update, I used a portion of the returned funds, minus the market losses from last year, to pay my taxes and the $1,800 left over I sent to my credit card balance.
32:12
Peter Dunn
So we end there. So that's the rest of the update. Anything else worth chewing on there, ladies and gentlemen? Go.
32:20
Damian Dunn
Ian did a great job not consuming that into his lifestyle and not leveraging that money appropriately.
32:27
Peter Dunn
Travel nurses. Travel. I have several cousins, I think at least three that are travel nurses from the same family. There are ten kids in that family and three of them, I believe, are travel nurses. And they're all over instagram, having a great time. They're very good looking, which I don't know if that matters other than to say it probably helps to have fun when you're very good looking. I wouldn't know anyway. They seem to be like travel nurse. You go make some coin, live some life, try out a new area. And what's the financial reality of that, Kristen? Because you just put together a budget for someone.
33:03
Kristen Ahlenius
The thing that was hard in the case that I helped with is that she wanted to make sure that she had enough downtime between jobs to feel, like, calm when she went to the next she's. She lives indy, and so she was going from kentucky to indy to north Carolina, and then when she's not working between those jobs, how do you plan for that? And so that was the structure of her and I's conversation is like, well, you decide how long you want to be off. What does it take for me to not have a change in my lifestyle? Much like what Ian was describing, she saves that during her twelve week contract or whatever so that she can take that time off to move to the next place.
33:45
Peter Dunn
Yeah. Dame, what other general professions and industries have unusual incomes like that? Realtors always jumps out to me as just like a highly unusual frequency of income. Travel, nurse, and then you get into things like food service workers in school districts and bus drivers, transportation people in school districts. What else?
34:07
Damian Dunn
Even the basic ones that we would think like a car salesman is going to have very fluctuating income based on the state of the economy and especially if you're selling different brands, they may become less affordable and you might have all of your income dry up real quick. So people who are on commission basis, depending on the economy, could be at risk for having very uneven income.
34:30
Peter Dunn
Kristen, what jumps out to you?
34:32
Kristen Ahlenius
Commodities.
34:34
Peter Dunn
Commodities?
34:35
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah. If you raise animals for a living, if you farm for a very cyclical as far as income and expenses huge swings usually.
34:46
Peter Dunn
Rick Swank offers Alaskan commercial fishermen. What was the show? The biggest.
34:54
Kristen Ahlenius
Catch?
34:55
Peter Dunn
Deadliest Catch. The biggest catch like a weight loss show where you catch actually anyway. Yeah, I think for many of us we strive for high incomes, but the frequency of which you are paid can sometimes impact that. I don't know why this turned into a professional athlete show today, but back in the day, when I used to manage money for professional athletes for my football players, at least they got paid 17 weeks in a row. Which were at the time were the 17 weeks of the season and then for 35 weeks for the rest of the year, they'd got no compensation. So yeah, in some cases people were making seven figures and many of the guys I was working with, they were making mid six figures. People who had never really had a job above an hourly wage, so they didn't have a lot of experience managing money.
35:44
Peter Dunn
And then you get 17 giant paychecks in a row. First one shocks you, second one is like, I can't believe this is true. Third one is let's go. And then on number 17 you're like, how am I going to make it another 35 weeks? And so the frequency of which you are paid is wildly important in terms of financial success.
36:03
Damian Dunn
It's a really interesting question. If it's the same amount, is the frequency of pay or is the amount of pay the more determining factor of your success? It's a good question.
36:15
Peter Dunn
Blog post. Blog.
36:17
Damian Dunn
Blog.
36:18
Peter Dunn
Web blog. All right, here's what we're going to do. We're going to take a break. This is the best part of the show, everybody. And by the best part of the show, I mean it's where Dame gets to talk the most and Kristen and I just get to listen to all the little jokes that he wrote into his news stories. And he doesn't think we like them because we never mentioned them, but we really love them and it is our favorite part of the show. So that's coming up next, news with Dame as well as biggest waste of money of the week. If you want to be on this radio show, you cannot be, but your question can be. Askpete@petetheplanner.com that's. Ask Pete all one word@peteheplanner.com. Kristen, is there any other way for people to be on the show?
36:59
Kristen Ahlenius
No.
37:00
Peter Dunn
That's next on the Pete the Planner show. I'm Pete the planner.
37:05
Kristen Ahlenius
I was not paying attention.
37:06
Peter Dunn
This is the new thing. It's the new thing.
37:10
Kristen Ahlenius
I was literally looking at my calendar, was not paying attention to self.
37:15
Peter Dunn
I caught you slipping.
37:17
Kristen Ahlenius
You did big time.
37:23
Peter Dunn
Pete's trying to make Dame's head even bigger with those compliments. Do we know Jason Brown? I mean, I know he's on here a lot, but I'm like, wait, do I know Jason Brown? Because he's very funny.
37:37
Damian Dunn
I don't know Jason.
37:40
Peter Dunn
Do we know each other? I'm not trying to be weird or I it's such a common sounding name. It's like one of those things I probably know for Jason Brown's.
37:49
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't know. Dan's comment is my favorite one of the show.
37:54
Peter Dunn
Totally not the same, but I legit struggled going from paid every other week to twice a month. It's practically the same and yet not at all. It's not the kristen, you know, this is an interesting topic because you took me to school on this. You did. When we switched why are you guys both laughing? Because, Dame, do you remember this?
38:16
Damian Dunn
Because I was so glad it wasn't me.
38:18
Peter Dunn
Sorry. Yeah. So we switched pay frequencies here, what, last year? I don't know, maybe yeah, went from 26 pay to 24 pay. And I was like, oh, just plan for I got out in front of it. I was like, hey, I just want to let you know but then I think I said something stupid, like, shouldn't be that big a deal. You'll be fine, in a rather dismissive way. And then Kristen was, let me stop you right there. And then you read me the truth.
38:49
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't know if I was quite so aggressive. I probably went, hey, maybe possibly this is possibly something sort of that maybe you should consider. I'm sure that's how I approached it.
39:00
Peter Dunn
I felt attacked.
39:03
Kristen Ahlenius
Sorry.
39:03
Peter Dunn
I didn't feel attacked. No, it was fine. It was appropriate. And by the way, be as aggressive as you like. I have a turtleneck on. I can take it turned outwards. Oh, go ahead.
39:16
Kristen Ahlenius
I was just going to say that it's not the same thing, especially when you have a long pay period and you're someone who lives paycheck to paycheck, like so many people do. If you get an extra weekend on a pay period and that's when you do your grocery shopping, that can literally break your budget.
39:35
Peter Dunn
Heard. I know people hate when people say that.
39:39
Kristen Ahlenius
Excellent.
39:41
Peter Dunn
All right, let's carry on. Just practicing. Okay, here we go. Biggest waste of out of the way in three, two, one. This week's biggest waste of money of the week right here on the Pete the Planner show is the escape knife. Yes, that's right. Hey, everyone on the sorry. Here we go. The escape knife. It's small enough to overlook that's by design the Gearward escape knife is meant as a last resort tool in the event of a kidnapping. Its blade is made from a rust proof ceramic that's ten times stronger than steel with a 1.25 inch cutting edge that's just long enough to be useful. Made in Canada. So it's kind it has a low profile that's easy to slip behind the label of your jeans into your shoes or anywhere else you don't think it can be found. For those watching here on the program, the live stream, it is about the size of a dime, oddly enough.
40:52
Peter Dunn
What would you say, dame across it's two and a half to three dimes across?
40:56
Damian Dunn
Yeah, probably.
40:58
Peter Dunn
All right, so the escape knife. Kristen, you are, as we all know, on this show, the worst guesser on the planet when it relates to items like this. And so I'm going to let you guess first. What do you believe this knife to cost? Jeez. That is odly specific, dame.
41:21
Damian Dunn
This is really good because knives in many cases are drastically overpriced. So I'm going to go with $68.
41:32
Peter Dunn
Okay. A little bit of a trick question. Little bit of a trick question here. It's not actually that expensive. It's $20. But here's the bigger point. Is it worth the paranoia of thinking you're going to get kidnapped to every day to prepare for your kidnapping? Is the spending $20 on that paranoia really worth it? And I would say that is not a healthy way to live in these United States in which we live in. Do you view that any differently, Dame?
42:02
Damian Dunn
You would end up absolutely using that for something else and dulling the blade or breaking it, and it would become worthless and you'd have to spend another $20 on another kidnap proof knife.
42:12
Peter Dunn
Can we do a little knife chat here for a second? I saw something the other day I wanted to run by people who might care. Yeah. Okay. Kristen I don't know where you line up on pocket cutlery, but I know Dame's big in the world of utilities in his know, so dame I was at an outdoor, like, a camping store sort of things that have, like, patagonia in Merrill, these sorts of brands, right? And I'm not a knife person, as you know this. And I go over there. I'm looking at knives. They're kind of cool to look at, but I mean, I don't really want to buy any. And so I look at this knife and I'm looking at the guy that comes over. He's like, look at that. And I'm like, hey, look at that. And he goes, Check this out. And he pulls it out, and it's a beautiful looking knife.
42:56
Peter Dunn
He presses a button and it pops up like a switchblade. Like you're going to get cut by a guy in a black leather jacket with greased back hair. And I was like, sir. I think his name was Trevor. Sir. That's a switchblade. And he's, you know, things have changed. He says it's not it's called, like a pop up knife. Dame do you know about these switchblades?
43:25
Damian Dunn
Yeah, it's not technically a switchblade. It's an automatic knife is what they're called. But, yeah, I mean, there's a number of companies that make them benchmade kershaw, and those are the big name ones, but yeah, absolutely. You want me to bring one down to the office?
43:42
Peter Dunn
Yeah, but here's the I would like one of those, but it feels like I could I don't know.
43:48
Damian Dunn
It feels mean in your hands. It probably is.
43:52
Peter Dunn
Yeah. I'm lethal. Dame what's in the news this week?
43:56
Damian Dunn
It's never been easier to trick yourself into paying $250 for a pair of jeans because Apple rolled out its Buy Now Pay Later service yesterday, marking the tech company's latest foray into financial services. The feature. Apple Pay Later. That's the name. Apple Pay later was introduced to randomly selected Apple Pay users. Sure. Randomly, and will become available to more customers over the next few months. The program allows consumers to split purchases into four payments spread over six weeks with no interest and no fees. People using the iPhone's Wallet app can borrow anywhere from $50 to $1,000 using Apple Pay Later, the service can be used to make online and in app purchases with merchants that accept Apple Pay. Users will be required to link a debit card to their loan repayment method, and credit cards won't be accepted for payments. This is what I found interesting.
44:53
Damian Dunn
Apple Financing, a unit of Apple will be handling the credit assessment and lending for the program. Apple financing will begin reporting Apple pay later loans to us. Credit bureaus starting this fall, meaning they will be reflected in users credit profiles. Do you think people will use this in order to build credit scores?
45:19
Peter Dunn
Well, you don't think so? Not as the primary objective.
45:26
Damian Dunn
Dame no, just as an excuse on why this is okay, because I'm trying to I think about the email from the first. If it was just a normal college student who didn't have a credit card but had access to this feature, potentially, and linked a debit card, yeah, sure. Why not try and build my credit this way?
45:50
Kristen Ahlenius
Maybe this is a unique well, no, it's just that maybe it's a unique experience as a young woman, is that you literally get pitched that at the register at a department store is like, open a store credit card for these. That's already a pitch. I don't know. Does that not happen to the two of you when you buy?
46:10
Peter Dunn
Well, as an old happens I have to say this. I think this is genius from Apple. I mean, just absolutely genius. And I think it will have very positive impacts on what they are trying to accomplish. I also think it's going to be a consumer nightmare.
46:31
Kristen Ahlenius
Yes.
46:34
Peter Dunn
We'Re being quite frank here. There's a $1000 iPhone that people typically finance through their payments of their cell phone bills anyway. So that's already one version of this. And I think what Apple said is, why are we having a middleman through? Like, why not just take it straight to consumers? And that's what it feels like, at.
46:54
Damian Dunn
Least telling you Apple's well on their way to being their own bank.
46:57
Peter Dunn
You said it, what, two, three weeks ago? Yes. What else is in the news? Young Damon to keep up with rising.
47:03
Damian Dunn
Costs, many young adults turn to a likely safety net their parents. From buying groceries to paying for their cell phone plan or covering health and auto insurance, 45% of parents with a child over 18 provide them with at least some financial support, according to a recent report by Savings.com. On average guessing game time, folks, these parents are spending more than X dollars a month helping their adult children make ends meet.
47:30
Peter Dunn
All right, Dame, I'm going. Well, he knows.
47:34
Damian Dunn
I know.
47:36
Peter Dunn
What's wrong?
47:37
Kristen Ahlenius
Well, I think we all know, but go ahead, Pete.
47:40
Peter Dunn
I don't know. I sent the article. I didn't read it. Okay.
47:47
Damian Dunn
Kristen said she read it.
47:49
Peter Dunn
Kristen. Now we're checking her memory.
47:52
Kristen Ahlenius
I think it was $1,400 a month.
47:56
Damian Dunn
Helping their adult children make ends meet and parents nearing retirement contribute the most to their children to the tune of about $2,100 a month on average, while only putting $643 a month into their retirement accounts.
48:10
Peter Dunn
It's hard to talk about this without sounding judgmental. We probably should have started there. I don't think any of us are judging or mocking or anything like that, but the numbers are still a little bit shocking, if we're all being honest here.
48:21
Damian Dunn
Yeah, we've seen reports like this saying that the lack of appropriate saving for people reaching or nearing retirement, and there have always been a number of reasons put forth, but this one's a little surprising.
48:38
Peter Dunn
What's weird, as my kids get older, my daughter being 14 now getting closer to the reality of having to come to a decision point of whether to support her as a young adult. My take, what was once a flaming hot, cheeto take on all of like, leave him alone. It is softened, but not because I plan on helping her. I think it's just yet another example of me as a young personal finance expert formerly giving these laser hot takes, when in fact, there's a little bit more nuance once you experience a young teen. Right? Yeah.
49:15
Damian Dunn
I would have loved to have seen this study done five years ago and.
49:18
Peter Dunn
Compared you know, that's a really good point. Right. Because of how the pandemic and everything changed. Everything. Anyway, that's all we have time for the show this week, right, Kristen?
49:28
Kristen Ahlenius
Right.
49:29
Peter Dunn
Any good vibes? Good vibes? Are all that's in the budget? I'm Pete the planner. This is the show.
49:36
Kristen Ahlenius
I was paying.
49:37
Damian Dunn
Attention that Time might be my new favorite part of the show. I like it a lot.
49:41
Peter Dunn
I hate it, which is why it's great. Okay, well, in the spirit of love and timeness I don't know what timeness is. I'm leaving. Goodbye. I am going to edit the show, put it up. We will not have a show for a week, everyone. So binge watch the money Guy. Do we know the money guy? Yeah.
50:05
Damian Dunn
I don't know.
50:06
Peter Dunn
Look him up. Actually, let's look him up right now, and let's send everyone to him for a week. All right, so the money guy podcast. Okay, hold on. The money guy show. Okay, here we go. Moneyguy.com. Go there and listen to their show for the next week. We are paying it for word. If you like their show better than us, that's fine. That's fine. Don't come back. We don't need you.
50:31
Damian Dunn
Or go. Listen to Andy Hill's Podcast.
50:33
Peter Dunn
That's a good oh, yeah. Money and marriage, right?
50:35
Damian Dunn
Money, kids and marriage, I think.
50:36
Peter Dunn
Money, kids and marriage. You don't forget the kids.
50:39
Damian Dunn
Yeah.
50:40
Peter Dunn
All right. Fantastic. That's it. Chris and Dame. Goodbye. Everyone else, stay getting money.
