Mike Jones.

Mike Jones.

Mike Jones.

Remember that?

I'm trying to remember the phone number.

Oh.

330-8004.

First rapper gave his name, his telephone number out.

So smart on a song.

Yeah, it was brilliant.

But then he fell off.

He was so good, though.

Paul Wall.

No, Paul's still relevant.

Paul wall is relevant because he makes grills.

Not because, you know.

Yeah.

Not because he's a rapper, because he's good at rapping.

And he's like.

He's a Johnny Dang, homie.

Drive slow, homie.

Drive slow, homie.

You know?

You know?

Well, maybe we should do a little thing called a podcast.

You ready to do this thing?

I'm already.

I'm ready to do this.

This thing.

Well, welcome back to the number one financial literacy podcast in the world.

Sitting next to me on my left is my partner in crime, Christopher Nahibi.

Sitting next to me on my right, my partner in time.

The long, long road of time.

The one and only side, Omar.

The very wide of podcasting.

Thank you so much.

And behind the ones and twos, we're still missing DJ Odun.

We love you, bro.

I don't think he's coming back.

Dude, I miss you, bro.

And you still haven't said, I miss you too, because you don't listen.

He doesn't listen to show and he doesn't respond to my messages.

He doesn't accept my collaborations.

He's got babies on babies on babies.

You.

Yeah, I'm.

I'm the jilted lover who hasn't taken the hint.

That's.

That's where we're at right about now.

So we have a very interesting show for everybody today.

Did you actually read the show notes?

I did read the show notes.

Oh.

So you know what we're talking about today.

Let's first of all start off by saying we feel terrible about the fires in Los Angeles.

Well, yeah, so natural disasters have been pretty prevalent the last couple of years, and for a lot of people listening to the show, they think, okay, well, this.

This is a financial literacy podcast.

You know, how is this really something that we would talk about in the show?

Obviously, there's a human side of it.

There's the, you know, condolences, the loss of value, possessions, life.

In some cases, it's.

It's a tragedy to see what is probably going to go down as the most damaging fire in u.

S.

History.

Yeah, two.

Two of the four fires are the two largest in the state of California.

Yeah, it's going to be pretty interesting.

But the one question I kept getting over and over and over again was, you know, what is the impact on the state and the individuals financially?

I've gotten like three or four DMS today.

I've had people actually call me and have the conversation, shout out to Stan.

Stan called me and.

And he was like, dude, I feel so bad.

Like, how does this impact people financially?

What does it look like?

And so, first and foremost, our thoughts and prayers with all the people that are impacted, the families, firefighters, everybody.

It's a tough situation and it's terrible.

Yeah.

But it.

It did strike a chord with me from a financial literacy perspective, because as you and I know, probably better than most insurance in the state of California, but across the country has changed pretty dramatically over the last couple years.

You've seen it in response to inflation, but certainly there's been an increasing cadence of natural disasters, which have cost a lot of the insurance companies quite a bit of money.

Doesn't matter if it's hurricanes, floods, fires, whatever the case may be.

And as a response to this, what typically happens is these insurance companies will either increase the cost, decrease the amount of coverage, or just pull out entirely from providing the coverage for that state.

Right.

So in California, this is particularly impactful because there was also a recent large fire here not too long ago up in Northern California.

It kind of decimated a town there.

There was the Maui fire, which was pretty impactful.

So about a year ago, right?

Yeah, about a year ago.

So there's been a lot going on in the insurance space.

And I wanted to talk a little bit about the history in California's home insurance space and why this is actually really scary stuff.

Yeah.

From a financial perspective, which we should.

Yeah, I think we should also do a quick little breakdown of what people can expect that's covered in an homeowner's insurance policy.

Yeah.

So before we get there, let's talk about some of the kind of the background.

By sheer happenstance, a Wall Street Journal article came out today called California was already in Home Insurance crisis Before Los Angeles infernos began.

Industry officials warned of widespread economic damage on par with some of the biggest fire disasters in recent memory.

However, this story in California goes back a little ways.

California is the biggest home insurance market in the US Right?

Lots of expensive homes, lots of density of homes, massive density, population of people.

Right.

You got to think just that area alone, the Pacific Palisades.

Yeah.

The average median home price there is probably a couple million dollars.

It's.

It's an expensive area, but there's also people, all sorts of Socioeconomic, you know, gaps that have been impacted by this and homeowners insurance is interesting.

It doesn't really matter how much your home is worth.

You're going to pay your premium.

It's going to cost you the same emotional toll damage as it costs somebody who's got a, you know, big ass house.

But yeah, there's, there's that, there's that component behind this.

And I don't know how much we want to get into the other side of this too, where the systematic failures that have taken place.

I mean, the city of LA cut the budget for the fire department by over $20 million when this was, this was understood that this is an ongoing problem.

I don't know if you caught that clip going around on social media where Rogan had somebody on.

Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan, Joe Rogan had somebody, had somebody on where they were literally discussing this issue and that LA has just been getting lucky all these years.

All it's going to take is the wind to blow in one direction one time.

Yeah, we literally had this conversation six months ago.

Yeah, it doesn't surprise me at all.

I mean, the infrastructure in, in Los Angeles has been neglected for a number of years.

There's lots of political reasons and I don't want to get into all that.

But suffice it to say I hope this more than anything for the state of California, from an insurance liability perspective is a wake up call, but certainly from a political perspective that it's a wake up call, that a lot of these extremisms when it comes to political views is having significant ramifications to people in the state.

I think you're gonna see a lot of people be really, really upset about their politicians and the things that they did not do leading up to this.

And Joe Rogan's one example of many.

So not only is California the biggest home insurance market in the US but it's also one of the toughest for companies to navigate.

This state accounted for eight of the 10 costliest U.S.

wildfires through the years.

And after adjusting for inflation, according to Aon, I mean there's unequivocally California has the most fire damage period.

Oh yeah.

When you think about it, you know.

That makes sense, especially on this one.

So the statistics that I read before coming on the show tonight, this is as of what we know right now, I think several of the fires are 0% contained.

So I mean, damage is still, you know, still going.

And I think it's upwards of 20,000 acres.

Right?

Yeah.

So someone was asking Me, you know, Chris, like, what are the impacts?

And I told him, I said, dude, you have 00% containment.

The impacts are still growing.

Right.

That's like asking me in the middle of an earthquake how long it's going to last.

Yeah, you know, you just don't know.

All I can tell you is, is that the way this is typically tracked from an insurance perspective is they take all the cities with impacted zip codes and anything in that zip code is an impacted region by assumption until such time as they say that it's not impacted.

Right, exactly.

So it's not really, it's not rocket science.

I mean, you can't really figure out which homes are impacted, which properties are impacted, what, where, where and why.

You just gotta play the game out over time.

Right now though, you shouldn't be thinking about the money.

To put things into perspective, one acre is approximately 43,000 square feet.

Yeah, we're talking about 20, 25,000 acres.

As of right now, that's over like 20,000 football fields.

And the wind is supposed to pick up tonight.

I should point out we are recording this day later than we normally do.

This is Thursday, January 9th, and the reason why we record a little late today is because I got stuck putting up a 77 inch TV that was ridiculous in my house last night.

But it also made sense for us to kind of give the fires a little more time.

Before we brought this topic up, we did want to bring it up on the show.

So let's get into a little bit of history on California insurance and explain why this is such a challenging kind of thing.

Yes.

So despite the risk in California, it is typically, it has historically been a consumer friendly state for laws which for decades kept home insurance rates relatively low compared with the national average, at least according to industry data.

And the reason why this is important was, is that these laws changed recently politically and insurance companies started charging a whole hell of a lot more money.

Now politically, insurance companies will typically lobby to do so.

And I'm not saying insurance companies are good or bad, although every time I have this conversation somebody inevitably says that, you know, you don't understand our side of the insurance, you know, argument or their side of the insurance argument.

And you're never going to win it.

And I'm not trying to have that fight.

This is just matter of fact.

Okay.

Leading insurers have pulled back from the state of California, leaving many in the path of the fires with only bare bones insurance.

Something known as California Fair Plan is going to come up here.

We'll talk about that.

What does bare bones mean?

So bare bones means, well, insurance provided by state sponsored insurer or the last resort, or worse, no insurance at all.

So if you're going to have typical insurance that you pay for, think farmers and state farm.

Mm.

You can get pretty good hazard insurance coverage that'll cover your replacement costs.

New.

Right.

You got your dwelling coverage, the coverage for the house.

Right.

There's personal property coverage, there's liability coverage, loss of use, and even things like medical payments.

Yep.

In some cases you can get hotel stays covered for.

In the case of natural disasters, there's some really good things you can add onto your insurance policy.

And generally speaking, the larger insurance companies, if they are insuring your properties, then you generally got those benefits.

However, there is something called California Fair Plan, and we'll get into that in a little bit.

But effectively, California Fair Plan is your.

If you can't get insurance in the state of California because nobody will insure your property, maybe you're in a flood zone, maybe you're in a fire hazard zone, maybe you're just in a place that they consider to be too risky and nobody will ensure you can go.

California Fair Plan, it generally doesn't cover a whole lot.

No.

Yeah.

It covers the bare minimum.

It covers a bare minimum for you to meet the insurance requirements for your lender.

Yes.

But generally speaking, you're not going to get your replacement cost new.

Which means you cannot replace that building fully with the insurance proceeds you're going to get.

So you're going to come out of pocket for the difference.

And that difference in some of these really expensive homes is big.

Well, you got to think.

And now, now you fall back on the systematic failures.

If you're one of these homeowners, Right.

That has lived here for however many years.

And I know there's, there's some, there's, you know, areas that there are more expensive homes that were affected by this and there was areas that homes weren't as expensive.

Right.

But let's just, let's just look at the Pacific Palisades.

If you're living there, Right.

And you've paid whatever you've paid in state income taxes and whatever you've paid over the years in property taxes, there's a certain level that you would expect, like, okay, we'll be taken care of.

Yeah.

And in the budget that gets put in place will make sure that we're all taken care of.

This is just property taxes.

You're paying, local municipality taxes, all that, your local sales tax, your state sales tax.

I Mean you're paying for.

This is one of the highest tax states in the country.

So there's a certain level of expectations, I believe, that come with that.

And now the real genuine concern is for people, some of those homes are definitely underinsured, if insured at all.

Some people, I've heard cases of some of the homes, the insurance cost was so high that they elected to not get insurance because homes are already paid off.

Yeah.

So if your home is paid off and you don't have a lender, generally speaking, most people get hazard insurance because their lender requires it.

And they certainly give you kind of a list of what they require.

Typically, they get an appraisal for your property when you get financed.

And in that appraisal they do.

One of the approaches to value they use is a replacement cost.

New.

How much would it cost to replace this property with a new one in the worst case event scenario that it was burned down?

Right.

That figure is generally your quote, insurance requirements if you have a lender.

Now, if you don't have a lender, it's always smart to have hazard insurance because if this happens, you need to rebuild it.

But you can choose whatever value to insure your property for that you want.

You can overinsure it and cost more money, or you can underinsure it and it costs less money, or you could not have any insurance at all and just say, hey, look, I'm not really likely to have my house burned out and not forget.

What type, what economic time are we currently living in?

What are we going through?

There was a Hollywood strike not too long ago.

Yeah.

And a lot of people from Hollywood were living in these areas.

I didn't peg you for a Hollywood guy.

But now, now that you're talking about something with such subject matter, expertise, the classes make sense.

Oh, now you get why you're trying to be sophisticated.

Exactly.

I would not be surprised and I will not be surprised if people just absolutely walk away from it all.

And I'm afraid that that might be part.

I'm really afraid of that happening.

You've seen an exodus of celebrities and, you know, actors in particular from California to other tax haven states.

Nevada, Mark Wahlberg, Florida.

Stallone, Texas.

Texas, Joe Rogan, McConaughey.

There's a lot of people who have left like Malibu's region or, you know, some of the higher imports of Los Angeles to go the Avon.

I think Tennessee is Tennessee now.

I believe so.

Yeah, I know that.

That makes sense, knowing the Yvonne.

Yeah.

So I think a lot of people who were this is going to sound very political and I don't, I don't mean to over stigmatize it, but I would say Democrats today are very much different than Democrats during like Kennedy's era.

I think Kennedy's era, Democrats were more like Republicans today.

Yes, I think we've gotten very extreme in what is a Democrat and what is a Republican.

And I'm not trying to put any names associated with it as much as to say is that this state more than many other states has been very politicized.

And I think that this might bring a lot of people who otherwise identified as Democrats back towards the middle of the spectrum saying, hey, could be this.

Is, this is wrong, it might need to happen.

I mean this tends to happen in any situation, not just politics.

When there's an overcorrection one way or the other, the pendulum needs to swing back so far the other way in order to correct things that it, I mean it might, there might need to be something this catastrophic in order for that to happen.

So let's finish out this Wall Street Journal article.

Even before the fires were sparked, millions of homeowners in the Golden State, especially those in the path of LA infernos, faced double digit insurance rate increases, non renewals or a dearth of any available private coverage.

There just wasn't anything out there.

And I've seen it firsthand.

People will go get California Fair Plan as their last possible resort and they'll get the absolute bare bones minimum that they can get coverage wise just because they can't afford to cover the property more than that.

And if you're owning an income producing property and you're not one you're living in, you're going to get as much insurance as you need to, but not a penny more because it's going to take away from your cash flow, that free cash flow every single month.

And as we know those properties under already harsh increases in taxes and you know, insurance, everything else.

So leading insurers including State Farm and Allstate have stopped selling new home insurance policies in the state of California, saying that rate increases approved by regulators were insufficient to cover their losses, including from the devastating wildfires of 2017 and 2018 in this state.

To put things into perspective here I got some stats from State Farm.

They chose to not renew 30,000 home policies in California.

It's this year and they ended 69% of policies in the Pacific Palisades, which.

Is kind of crazy given where this fire is at.

Like that's a big, almost 70% of their policy coverage.

In the palace.

Now, hopefully those people went out and got new coverage, but I can guarantee you it was more expensive or it's California fair plan.

It's a bare minimum.

Right.

And California actually has laws in place to where, you know, some of these insurance companies actually need to carry a certain percentage of policies in these dangerous areas.

So if they're going to, you know, provide coverage in the state of California.

Yeah.

A certain percentage, whatever, I don't know what that percentage is, needs to be, you know, directed towards these areas, which.

I think is a terrible idea because then they're just going to say we're not going to be in the state, which is effectively what some of these, some of these insurers did.

God knows what's going to happen.

Yeah.

So it's terrible situation.

Our heart goes out to everybody.

We wanted to start the show on a more of a serious note, but because it is the higher standard, I mean, we're going to take the low bar.

And I had to bring a little bit of levity to a topic that is very heavy for those of you who listen to the show consistently.

You know how much of a fan we are of Jim Cramer.

I could not believe this.

There was no way that this happened.

Yeah.

How is this possible?

One of my favorite X accounts, which is a parody account, is called Not Jerome Powell.

The the face of the account is of course Jerome Powell, head secretary of the fomc.

Yeah.

Well, for those of you who don't know, Jim Cramer has made a pattern in practice out of pretty much guaranteeing whatever he says the opposite's going to happen.

So much.

So there's an Inverse Kramer tracked ETF fund called SGIM.

It was launched in 2023 by Tuttle Capital Management as a tongue in cheek investment vehicle designed to do the opposite of stock recommendations made by the television personality Jim Kramer.

Right.

The fund aimed to short sell stocks Kramer endorsed and buy those he advised against, capitalizing on the humorous notion that doing the opposite of his advice could be profitable.

So suffice it to say, he has a bit of a reputation.

Yeah, not, not good one.

Not very well on 1625.

Okay.

That is what, three days ago, four days ago.

Whatever.

Traveling to California tomorrow.

Thank God there aren't wildfires right now.

They always happen this time of year.

Jim Cramer and of course not.

Your own pal reposts and says, I knew it, I knew it.

Like why he's got to stop posting.

Right.

You, you gotta stop just talking.

You should take a Jim Cramer vow of silence.

Because nothing that Comes out of your mouth is good, bro.

Like, what has he been like, why does he feel so comfortable still?

I.

I don't know.

He knows this is out there in the ether.

Some of the things that he's gotten wrong.

All right, you got a list?

I got a list.

This is not going to be good.

Bear Stearns in 2008.

On March 11, 2008, Kramer advised investors not to withdraw their money from Bear Stearns, asserting the company was stable.

Less than one week later, collapsed.

Sorry, Jimbo.

Jeez.

Come on, Guy.

In 2012, Netflix November 2012, Kramer recommended selling Netflix shares.

Contrary to his advice, Netflix stocks surged by approximately 174%.

So you got both situations, right?

One where it fails and then one day where he succeeds.

Seeds.

The opposite.

Works every time.

This one hurts.

First Republic Bank 2023, not too long ago.

Oh yeah, I remember this.

He endorsed the hell out of him.

On March 10, 2023, Kramer referred to First Republic bank as a very good bank.

Yeah, which they were.

I like them too.

Yeah, I like them too.

Doesn't mean they didn't get jinxed by Jim Kramer though.

That's the thing.

Shortly thereafter, the bank stock plummeted by 65% in pre market trading.

Ah, Jimbo.

And lastly, Meta's threads app in 2023.

Really?

In July 2023, Kramer predicted the Meta's new app, Threads would surpass Twitter or what we now know as X.

Despite initial interest, Threads experienced a significant decline in daily users, failing to meet Kramer's expectations.

Even though, even though the stock price is still doing okay.

Sidebar here.

You're still on the threads, bro.

I do use it to just cross pollinate a little bit, but according to what I'm seeing today, TikTok is done on 119 in the United States.

119, yeah.

So 10 days from now they're, they're saying, hey, we're shutting down in the.

US So where are people going to.

I think you're going to see a surge in activity in Instagram is my guess.

With these kinds of apps, right, there's always a new one for like the younger generation that you think.

I remember there was vine, was vine, was a popular one, then that got replaced and I remember Snapchat was one and the Snapchat came back again for content creators.

They were on the verge of death at one point time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I'm actually surprised that they managed to somehow still stay around.

They pay, they pay the most for content creators now.

I've heard that.

Yeah.

So that's why you always see like a lot of people who are like a big following on Instagram try to push you their Snapchat or like post their Snapchat images.

So you go there.

Yeah.

Is because they make more money with more views on Snapchat.

So for a while they were trying to like drive flow there because they just got paid more.

Got it.

But I got to tell you, I feel pretty good about TikTok going away.

I'm all for it.

I'm all for it.

I'm all for it.

Yeah, I know.

Have you ever bought anything on the TikTok shopping or whatever?

No.

And I try to put our merch on the store and dude, it was so.

I don't want to sound.

It's gonna sound terrible.

It was so like, what's that Chinese website like Timu.

Oh, Timo Wish.

I've never used the Wish app, but it had like these temu, like Chinese influence vibes where it wasn't like exactly ergonomic and user friendly.

Shein.

Is that another one?

Sheen.

That's the discount clothing line.

But yeah, yeah, yeah, it just, it.

Just didn't, it wasn't.

Logistically didn't make sense.

So I tried to like.

And then I had to go through another site and then this and that just, just to like sell our merch.

And I got to the point where I'm like, you know what, I don't even like our merch as much.

Wait, and then they give you a really hard time on getting like validated or.

Oh yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

No, you had all these credentials, all these articles and they just didn't want to verify you.

So yeah, this is, this is kind of interesting story.

I don't have like a lot of.

I've got like 9,000 followers on, on TikTok.

I had a bunch of videos pop off and a really like well known agency was like, yo, like, we'll submit you to get you verified your account.

And this is literally the exact same time.

This is pre, like you could pay for your verification stuff.

This is just back in the day when, you know, you had to beat certain notability standards.

Right, Right.

So they submitted me at the same time to, to ins, to Instagram Meta.

Right, okay.

And they're like, oh, do you want your Facebook verified?

I'm like, no, no, no, no.

Just, just submit this.

So the same time Instagram, same time TikTok.

At the time we, we cited a Wall Street Journal article, a Bloomberg article, Architectural Digest.

Architectural Digest is one of Them a Market watch article.

Like a bunch of, like, maybe a Forbes one too.

And there's a.

Probably a Forbes one.

Like a bunch of articles that I did that directly cited me and talked about.

Because you have to meet this certain kind of weird, like, advertising criteria.

Yeah, it's not my subject matter expertise.

I don't know, whatever.

So we didn't hear back from Instagram and I just assumed it didn't happen.

And then with Tick Tock, we heard, they heard, we heard back saying, you don't meet the standard.

Your articles don't meet the standards of notoriety.

What do you want?

I'm like, bro, it's Wall Street Journal.

Yeah, what do you want, Barack to come out here and say my name?

I don't understand.

Yeah.

And then they're like.

And then it was like, oh, you don't have enough of them?

I'm like, bro, I've done 70, I think, in like the one year period at that point in time, I'd done like 70 media mentions.

Yeah.

Like, I had been mentioned 70 times in the media like that year.

And it was all like, you know, quotes on stuff that referenced what I did for a living, you know, one way or the other.

And I was like, all right, whatever.

These guys are idiots.

Like, I don't.

Meanwhile, I wake up one day and like, I'll never Forget.

I was 3 o'clock in the morning, I wake up, I'm using the bathroom.

I'm on Instagram.

Because you.

What you do when you go to the bathroom 3:00 in the morning, Right.

You can lie to yourself.

Tell you you don't, you.

I don't.

I don't.

I swear to God, I don't.

You don't take your phone to the bathroom.

You go to the bathroom.

It's probably the only time I don't take my phone to the bathroom.

I'm not.

I don't even realize that I'm awake at that time.

Apparently I do this thing where I, I talk.

I don't remember these, the conversations I had.

That's not good.

It's very bad.

What is that?

What does that mean?

What does that mean?

I think it means you're psychologically stimulated before you go to bed and you just can't let it go.

But really, no, no, no, no, no.

I'm.

I mean, so if I wake up from like the kids coming into the room or something, right.

I'm.

I'm handling it the way I would normally handle it.

But you don't remember it.

But I don't Remember, it means you're a psychopath.

That's.

That makes sense.

That's textbook, right?

Like, you had an episode where you don't remember.

I.

Yeah, it's.

You're a crazy person.

It's crazy.

This makes a lot of sense.

Like, I'm not surprised by anything you just said.

Apparently.

Apparently, my.

Apparently, my wife woke up the other night.

This was a couple weeks ago, actually, I forgot to tell you.

She woke up the other night because I was laughing in my sleep and.

You cussed at her.

No, no, no, no.

This gets way better.

She's.

I'm laughing.

She thinks I'm, like, rolled over on my side, and I'm laughing because I'm looking at my phone or something.

She realizes I'm still asleep, and then she's like, saeed, what are you doing?

And apparently I just started clapping.

That.

That sounds exactly like.

Sounds like I was dreaming of an episode.

You having a dream of talking shit?

Yeah, I was like, I need.

After hearing that, I was like, we need to put cameras in the room.

I want to watch myself one night.

No, you don't.

It's.

Yeah, I know.

It's creepy.

My wife will do this thing where she.

She lays on her back.

She sleeps on her back.

She weirdo sleeping there.

I start off on my back every night.

Yeah, but you.

But you don't finish there.

No, I don't know.

Yeah, see, like, I'll start off my back.

Sometimes I'll fall asleep with that.

But generally I fall asleep on my side.

Yeah, there's mixed things on that.

Right.

It's like, it's.

You're not supposed.

It's not good for you.

Right.

You should be sleeping on your side.

Yeah.

I think it's like you're.

You got a borderline psychological problem if you can sleep on your back all night long.

That's not normal.

Right.

There have been times where I have gone to sleep on my back and I woken up and it feels like I did not move an inch.

Yeah, I get it every once in a while.

Fine.

Yeah.

My wife does that.

And then she sleeps with her arms up above her head.

Oh, like this.

Yeah.

But I'm always worried about getting Bruce Lee elbowed in the face.

Yeah, that's.

You know, because you guys are also on the queen, too.

So you guys are really, like.

I try to be close.

Yeah, of course.

That's why this show makes sense to me.

I got to be close.

But yeah, man.

Like it.

I'll wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and she'll be like inches from my face.

I've been elbowed in the face.

Do you know what it's like to be woken up with an elbow in the face?

No, that's happened to me on multiple occasions.

I've gotten, I've gotten a foot to my face from like one of my kids.

No, no, not the same thing as your wife.

Like straight.

You gotta, yeah, you gotta question whether she was actually asleep.

Yeah, I'm like, this girl wasn't asleep.

She woke up and she's Let me.

Hold on, hold on.

A little sidebar.

Continue the side of our conversation.

That's why I talk about the show.

No, if you, if, if and when one day you do decide to get a bigger home.

Right.

I don't know, man.

Those days.

I know what's going on.

I get it.

Belicious.

For the sake of this conversation, let's say if you do.

Right.

Do you think you guys will.

Can always stay in a queen?

No, I like myself a big king size bed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

It feels like she's way far away now.

Right.

Like when we go stay at hotels and we get like a king size bed or like California king size bed.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Like it just feels like a game changer.

Yeah.

Like I'm like, come back.

It just, it just feels weird.

Yeah.

But I mean, like I like our small place.

Not to say that we didn't just spend $200,000 on an office.

That's right.

New studio in the works.

Yeah, we're gonna do some things.

We're gonna try to do some things.

Although I don't, I don't know how I should.

I feel like bad about leaving this space or.

I love this space.

This is, this is the first home.

It is.

I do feel like you were pointing out the other ceiling is.

Might be higher.

I don't know.

No, lower.

The same.

Right.

We'll see.

Do some measurements.

Yeah, we'll probably figure that out.

Yeah.

All right.

Space is a space.

Yeah.

You're where home is at.

Yeah.

All right, so let's talk about the Federal Reserve.

We've talked about on the show a number of times over the last couple of months about how there seems to be a very changing narrative from the Fed.

And I was very, very skeptical of the December rate cut being, you know, a sure thing.

And it turns out the rhetoric was that there was some current concern by them that maybe they shouldn't do it.

And certainly the big take home from the last Fed meeting was they were going to have possibly Two rate cuts next year.

Well, that changing conservative mentality as it relates to inflation continues, as a matter of fact, today.

Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said Thursday today that she could have backed a pause in interest rates last month because Chris said so on the Higher Standard podcast.

That's all she said.

That's not what she said.

But I would.

I'm just trying to point out the fact that maybe I knew something.

Right.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I mean, maybe.

You know, look, at the end of the day, I feel like there was enough data out there for them to not cut rates by 25 basis points.

Yeah.

But that.

We feel as if that they knew that would have shaken the markets too much, and instead they're going to really start pushing that higher for longer narrative again.

Yeah.

And they're going to say that, oh, we've finally reached our neutral rate.

This is perfect.

This is the perfect place where we need to be.

And if we do cut rates, which will be two times, it'll be later in the year.

Well, Bowman is actually at Mon.

In Monarch today in Laguna Beach.

That's where this is at.

It was at the, I think the American Bakers Conference.

She.

She didn't want to check in.

What do you mean?

You know, that's what they do.

That's what they do in the hood.

You can't come to our part of the hood and not check in.

You got to pay me a toll, bro.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

You got to do that.

I mean, come on.

Well, you know, when you're spinning a narrative that matches my narrative, I'm going to give you some leeway.

If you came into my hood throwing a different gang sign, it'd be different.

Okay.

But she came in the hood throwing up the pause sign, so we're good.

Okay.

We're on the same page.

So she said a pause in interest rates last month could have been supported, but a cut as a quote, last step in the central bank's policy for recalibration.

That's.

That's the new vernacular policy recalibration.

Okay.

Becoming the latest Fed official to use cautionary language about the path forward for monetary policy.

So, you know, Saeed, inflation is transitory.

It comes and it goes, comes and it goes.

Yeah.

Well, now we're having a bit of a policy recalibration.

Okay.

Saeed, I would like to have a policy recalibration as it relates to our.

Relationship that doesn't feel.

I would like to.

It doesn't feel good for me.

Yeah.

I would like to talk about the intro to the Show.

Do we need to tell people to listen to the higher standard when they're clicking on something that says the higher standard?

No, but we need to tell them to make sure they hit that, like, button.

Subscribe, ring that notification bell, do all the moist, goody good stuff.

I mean, hopefully you're enjoying the viewing pleasures on Spotify as well, and leave us a review.

That was cold blooded.

They used that as a segue.

That was cold blooded.

That's not right.

Oh, that's not right.

That's what I do.

That's a gangster move right there.

All right, so Bowman's concern is that progress on bringing down inflation looks to be stalling.

You don't say.

Saying Thursday that she cannot rule out the risk that such a stalling could continue, effectively saying that the bond market's getting a little nutty out there.

I mean, Christopher, mortgage rates are supposed to come down by now.

Oh, my God.

I cannot tell you how much salt in the wounds I've been throwing on social media.

How many?

Y'all remember when you said it was gonna go down?

Hey, how many?

Yeah, how about them apples?

On average, how many I told you sos are you throwing out a day on average?

I've had to stay off of social media the last couple days because it's getting bad.

Yeah.

As soon as I heard mortgage rates are hitting 8%, I was like, oh, hold my pen.

It's going there, unfortunately.

And I'm, I'm like, look, man, like I told people it there, there was.

When you get out of a yield curve inversion, these are trends that have happened every single time, right?

Every single time, Every single time someone's like, oh, this time it's different.

No, it's never different.

Never different.

Okay, stop.

If something has happened every single time you've had a yield curve inversion, why are we ignoring it as a possibility this time?

And that's what everybody did.

And I think it's as simple as most people don't have the financial literacy and they're going, okay, if the fed funds, the cost of banks to borrow goes down, then banks are going to reduce things and rates go down because their cost of funds goes down.

No.

Can I ask you a question?

Yeah.

If, if you came into the studio the last 10 times, and every time out of the last 10 times, I chose to just smack you in the face right when you walked in.

I like this.

You like this?

Sexy.

What are you going to think is going to happen on the 11th time.

We go make out?

This time is going to be different.

Yeah, that's what realtors are doing right now.

This time's going to be different.

Realtors are like, look, look.

10 out of the last 10 times this has happened.

This, this.

No, it's different this time, Saeed.

Why?

What makes it so different?

Because you couldn't possibly slap me again, right?

That would be ridiculous.

You wouldn't do it.

For the 11th time, this is the.

Yeah, obviously I know it's coming.

This is.

And by the way, it's this methodology.

I know I'm a sidebar here, but I'm doing this for all the fans out there that shoot me, shoot me and hit me up in the DM saying, thank you for bringing in sports topics into the show.

This is the same ideology that has ruined the NBA.

What?

Yeah, it's just them thinking that we just keep shooting threes.

Law of averages are going to work out.

And then the game has just been ruined by three point shooting.

The law of average is going to work out.

Let's just keep shooting.

I don't know.

I can make a compelling argument that a dunk tonight by Mr.

Edwards was ruining the game.

I mean, it was.

It was probably one of the most embarrassing facials I've seen on NBA television.

He's has so many of those.

He's.

Yeah, he's, I think my son's favorite new player.

And he's just so arrogant when he's done.

So that's what makes him so great.

He's so authentic.

He's so raw.

He's.

There's no media training.

He doesn't care.

I'm just gonna be who I am.

Can I, can I say something?

When he dunks on somebody, the smirk on his face, it's bad, man.

Yeah.

Oh, he lets him know, too.

Like, oh, yeah, he lets them know.

That's what I love about it.

Here's the part that bothers me the most.

And you're gonna take, you're gonna take objection to this.

I know that I look at him as just a naturally gifted, one in a million phenomenal athlete.

He is not in incredible shape, though.

Like, that man is not.

Like, he's not taking care of his diet.

He's not taking care of his diet.

No.

Dude.

Gilbert arena said this on his podcast not too long ago.

Did he?

I did not.

Yeah.

They talk about this so, like, gibberish.

These kids are young.

Yeah.

Think about the diet that they had coming into this.

You now are handing them millions of dollars, bro.

They're not hiring chefs right now.

They're still eating the way they've been eating.

Oh, yeah.

You know, just working.

Can you imagine if that dude had that level of talent and put in the work that like Kobe did?

Oh, gosh, yeah.

I mean, Kobe looked like he was in abnormally athletic shape.

No.

Yeah.

So Anthony Edwards is not.

He looks.

He looks like he's having some tacos.

You want to put a tinfoil hat on?

Do you want.

You.

I don't even think you know about these rumors.

Oh, Jordan's son.

He looks just like him.

It has to be.

You can't.

There's no way that it's not right.

He looks like a Michael Jordan clone with a little more muscle mass on him.

I want it to be true so bad.

It's hard to not.

Have you seen the side by side shots of those two, bro?

There's so many similarities.

I don't even watch NBA and I'm like, that's Michael Jordan, son.

He looked just like him.

Right?

Got the swagger and everything.

Yeah, but you only can do that kind of stuff to people if you know that Jordan's your dad.

Yeah, man.

Right?

Like I.

The.

The.

There.

There's just no.

But, but he does.

That's.

That's the problem.

He doesn't know who his dad is.

That's.

He doesn't know whose dad is.

No, I didn't realize that.

That's.

That's the.

Why.

Why do you think the rumors stem from?

Because he looks just like Michael Jordan.

And he also does not know who his dad is.

Wow.

That's not good.

That's not.

I mean, might be good.

I think he's doing all right.

I remember that scene from Life.

I'm the pappy.

No, it's.

I'm that boy.

Everybody coming out the woodwork trying to get some.

Some of that money.

Give you a dad, a check, boy.

All right.

Given the lack of continued progress on lowering inflation and the ongoing strength in the economic activity and in the labor market.

Little asterisk in the labor market list.

Ongoing strength of the labor market.

That's a.

That's a questionable statement at this particular juncture, but I'm gonna go ahead and let Ms.

Bowman off the hook here.

I could have supported taking no action at the December meeting.

She said in a speech in Laguna Beach, California, today.

Now that the Fed has cut rates by a full percentage point since last September, the level of those rates is closer to Bowman's estimated rate for neutral policy, a reference to level that is intended to neither boost nor.

Nor slow economic growth.

Quoting again here.

I supported the December policy action, because in my view, it represented the committee's final step in the policy recalibration phase.

There's that statement again.

Bowman said, noting that she now wants a cautious and gradual approach to adjusting policy.

You know, drawing policy in the back.

Like, who died and made you king?

Anecdotally, Remember that first Ray cut?

That was 50 basis points.

Yeah.

We were like, damn.

Yeah.

That if that didn't signal that we made a mistake.

Yeah.

Oops, sorry, y'all.

Yeah.

I mean, damn.

Right.

Right.

You can't go from driving a Honda Accord and buy a Lambo.

Can't do that.

You know, you got to step up, get a Mercedes slowly.

Right, exactly.

Get yourself a G wagon.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Well, Bowman is officially on the record for being opposed to the first jumbo size rate cut in September, by the way.

She was like, what are y'all doing?

I mean, I agree.

What are y'all doing?

I don't think they should have.

I think a lot of the rhetoric.

And she's not the only Fed FOMC member that has come out recently, challenging a lot of the future forecast.

I truly believe that they are trying to say, hey, look, we sent some tough tides ahead.

Well, I also.

I also don't believe that they're only going to cut rates twice this year.

Yeah.

I think that they're going to need to do some.

Some bailing out.

Oh, and they're going to have to cut rates a lot more in order to just save the government.

Save the government.

Wow.

You're not supposed to.

You're not even going to go for, like, save the banks or something?

Like, you just save the government, save all of us.

No.

Yeah.

The banks are already in a much better position right now.

Okay.

So we know that.

So you think the national debt's gonna be a problem?

Is that what you.

Yeah, national debt is gonna be a problem.

Interest payments are gonna be a problem.

Obviously, the.

The budget, they're not gonna be able.

They're not.

I'm sorry.

Elon's not gonna be able to save this, bro.

Just give the government alone the.

The fact that.

The fact that Elon signed up for this, I'm a little disappointed.

The fact that he is that arrogant, he thinks I'm a step in and I'm gonna save the day.

Do you think he's that arrogant, bro?

How are you going to come in and claim that you're going to be the Department of Government Efficiency?

Right, That's Doge.

Right?

You disrespect Doge like that?

Boy.

And then you're going to come in and not change anything and make it more efficient.

Like you're going to put your name on this.

I would have.

What do you mean?

Not change anything and make it more efficient?

You think he's going to make it more efficient?

By efficiency, I'm.

What?

I mean, I think what he.

Because he's been talking about spending.

He's been talking about the budget.

Yeah.

No, man.

That money.

If he does save anything, they're gonna find a way to spend that money elsewhere.

They're not going to be saving money.

The deficit's only going to continue to rise.

You know this.

You think that it's not.

You think over the course of the next four years, while Elon's in charge of Doge with Ramaswamy, you think that the Bet.

The deficit isn't going to continue to rise at a cadence that.

At the cadence that it has been.

Okay, well, we have compound interest working against that.

So, I mean, that.

That's a huge.

That's what I'm saying.

How are you.

Why would you sign up to do this?

This is terrible for you.

I don't think he signed up just to fix the national debt.

I think he signed up just to make the government more efficient in general, which, as a natural byproduct, should help ultimately, over time, the national debt.

I don't think it's possible, bruh.

I don't think there's.

You can't change it all in.

In two years, four years.

Come on, man.

This is a much bigger problem.

It's a little arrogant on his part.

If you're going to call Kobe out and LeBron out for being so arrogant, how are you not going to call this out?

Call a spade a spade.

Damn.

Out here firing, huh?

Look, I wish him the best.

I would love for him to.

To be successful.

I just don't understand where the.

How are you so positive?

How do you.

Where's the faith coming from?

Me?

Yeah.

It's not blind faith.

It's not.

I know.

Just because he's been successful with a few companies.

No, because I think that.

Okay, let's be a little candid here.

Okay.

I think that there's a lot of parts of the government that could use a huge technological infrastructural boost.

Mm.

I'll use a great example.

Irs.

Right.

I believe the IRS just has really outdated tech.

I agree.

Okay.

If Elon can come in better and improve their tech stack in such a way that at least it's a little bit more Modern, up to date.

You could remove a lot of the human redundancy and save the government some money.

Some.

Some.

That's not a huge part of the budget, though.

Yeah, well, I mean, what do you want me to.

Come on, man.

I'm just being honest.

Look, he.

He claimed that I'm gonna buy Twitter and I'm gonna clean up the bots.

You know, those bots are still there, if not 50 of the users.

I mean.

I mean, it's pretty.

Yeah, I got, like, what I got.

I'm actually got 726 followers.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure 725 of my bots.

Yeah, it's all good.

No more faceless accounts, bro.

All right, can we just stay on track?

Stay on track, bro.

I got a whole section dedicated to you at this I love you.

I got a whole Saeed mental improvement mastermind.

Rub your guru's weenie like.

Like section.

Oh, you're gonna drop some.

Yeah, we're gonna drop some knowledge on some people.

Do it if we get there 43 minutes into the show.

You can't stop being Chatty Cathy for five minutes.

Come on.

I thought we were hating on Elon Musk.

Shame on you.

I thought there's a rumor that he's.

Michael Jordan's son, too.

All right, so I want to point out, for reference, before we go on to future comments, that the Fed's preferred inflation gauge remains above the 2% target.

They've said they've been trying to hit 2%.

The personal consumption expenditures PCE year over year change is at 2.4%.

Core PC removing food and energy is at 2.8%.

The Fed's targeting 2%, so it's slightly above.

If you remove shelter from this equation, though, you are there from an inflation perspective.

So I say this because jobs, as Bowman said, sound stable, but are they really, though?

I mean, they're definitely not.

There were more.

I think there were more job cuts last year than in the last 15 years, excluding the pandemic.

All right, sugar plum, we're gonna move fast through this so we can get to that moist stuff at the end of the show that people.

The moist really seem to enjoy.

The tres leches part of the show.

You're not a tres leches guy, bro.

If you're not a tres leches guy, I don't want to talk.

We can't be friends.

Yeah.

If you don't like tres leches, questionable behavior on your part.

Who doesn't like that?

All right, you got two options.

Tres leches am I distracting again.

Or dos leches.

No, tres leches.

Or creme brulee.

Ooh, yeah, See that?

It's got the crispy top on the creme brulee.

I like it because it's.

It's hard on top and then it gets nice and creamy.

I'm not doing this to you.

No, no.

I have to put a different warning on the show every time.

The setup was perfect.

No, I'm not.

No.

All right, that's Saeed at higher standard podcast.com if you guys like to make complaints.

All right, so the Bureau of Labor Statistics will report December employee figures on Friday tomor tomorrow, January 10th, when the December consumer price index releases on January 15th.

Did I screw that up?

No, that's right.

Then.

Then the December Consumer price index.

Yeah, January 15th.

Policymakers will have both reports in front of them when they next meet on January 28th through 29th for the next FOMC meeting.

So tomorrow, December employment figures and then December Consumer Price index on the 15th and then FOMC meeting January 28th through 29th.

But, and I'm citing Bravo's research here, this is an ominous sign.

The unemployment rate has moved above its 36 month moving average.

But, Saeed, what does that mean?

What does it mean, Christopher?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

Such a development has happened 10 prior times since 1952.

Remember when we talked at the beginning of the show and we said this aid comes in and slaps me 10 times?

That was the segue for this.

You didn't appreciate it.

No, I did.

I was just.

I was.

I put it in the back pocket.

Oh, back pocket.

See, A true comedian will continue to circle back to the content that we're bringing.

The front full circle.

Right?

I don't expect you amateurs to understand this, but us professionals, we get it that I'm weaving a pattern.

I see what you're doing there.

Okay?

I mean, let's be honest.

You're a professional.

Those meta glasses you got on right now, they're feeding you content in your ear holes.

You don't know that.

While we're doing this augmented reality.

Yeah, I know what you're wearing.

I got my notes.

My notes are just feeding.

That's fine without glasses.

Cheating bastard.

Every single time this has happened.

Not once, not twice, not some of the time.

Every single time, the unemployment rate has moved past its 36 month moving average.

Every single time, it has ended in a recession.

But this time it's different.

No, it's different this time, Chris.

No, it's not different.

This Time.

It's not different.

I mean, there's an argument to be made that we've been in a recession the entire time.

That's the part that hurts the most.

Yeah.

And it does hurt the most.

But you know what doesn't hurt?

This is the truth.

Take it or leave it.

That's the truth.

Okay.

And just when you thought it was about ready to get a little less painful.

The December jobs report expected to show hiring slowdown.

Steady unemployment rate according to this Yahoo Finance article.

So I thought.

Wait a minute.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

So doesn't that sound like an oxymoron?

The December jobs report is expected to show hiring slowing down, but we have a steady unemployment rate.

Yeah.

So way less people are hiring, but it's steady unemployment, so nobody's getting fired.

Yeah, exactly.

The masks don't mask to me.

Yeah.

So I decided I would read this silly ass article.

Okay.

Because that's what I do when I see silly ass titles.

The December jobs report is expected to show hiring slowed in the final month of 2024 while the unemployment rate was flat.

Shenanigans.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly jobs report is slated for release at 8:30am Eastern Time on Friday.

Tomorrow, economists expect non farm payroll to have risen by 165,000 in December while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.2% according to the consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

I'm going to say that ain't the number.

In November, the US economy added just 227,000 jobs.

So obviously 227,000 jobs added to down to 165,000 jobs added.

Seasonality, you can say whatever you want.

As a labor market rebounded from severe weather disruptions and worker strikes that impacted prior reports.

I think we have some severe weather stuff going on right now, frankly.

Right.

You got a huge cold front going through the Midwest.

You've got a fire in California.

So I think there's going to be some impacts here.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate increased to 4.2% from 4.1% during the month.

So during that month, with 227,000 jobs added and those weather pattern related issues, we expected, you know, 4.2, a slight 0.1% increase, but now with less jobs added, but yet no alleged weather issues, we're saying that we expected to say the same.

What?

Doesn't make sense?

Okay, so I'm gonna read a quote because what good does it do to read an article without a good quote?

Right.

We think that job growth in December will be much softer than November's 227,000.

Print.

Because the latter included payback for October's hurricane disruptions, particularly in manufacturing.

Bank of America Securities.

US Economist Shri Mishra, Great name, wrote in a note to clients.

Investors should also keep an eye on revisions which have been large in recent months due to low response rates.

So I don't know about the employment numbers, but they don't sound as strong as Bowman thinks they are.

They don't sound as strong, and there should be a greater issue taken with this.

I feel like a lot of the tools that the Federal Reserve uses to, you know, decide on where they like to take their policy, they're just different data points that they can use and pull to move forward whatever agenda that they.

That they want to use.

Right.

You.

You shouldn't really use an unemployment figure to decide whether, you know, the labor force is, you know, soft or weak or strong because it doesn't tell the whole picture.

I wrote down here a couple different things that should be taken into account.

It excludes discouraged workers, people that aren't looking.

Looking for work.

Right there.

It ignore.

Ignores underemployment.

It does not reflect labor force participation.

Yeah.

Which is a questionable.

Just.

Right.

In general.

Yeah.

And it overlooks job qualities.

Right.

Wages might not be the same.

There could be.

Just because more people are employed does not mean they're getting paid enough to maintain the lifestyle that they need.

Right.

So myself included.

You know what I mean?

I'm just saying.

I gotta buy studios, bro.

Come on, Dog.

Son wants the new Jays.

You know, they're not cheap anymore.

They never were, bro.

It's like a whole hustle now.

You can't just buy them at retail.

If you want the good ones, you got to buy them off, like, a secondary site, and there's a wholesale in the middle.

It's like, what happened?

Yeah, man.

Why do we all.

It's this whole thing.

All right.

I'm gonna get quickly through the next article so we can get to the meat.

We can get through that tantalizing, beefy.

Portion of the show, the Hawaiian rib eye, if you will.

Yeah.

Which we really.

We really gotta.

Yeah, yeah.

We're overdue.

We gotta go back.

All right.

Consumer revolving credit in the US Just fell off a cliff.

Okay.

Last six months, the drop is even larger than the drop seen in 2008, second largest behind 20.

20 drops like the one we just saw have rarely ever been seen outside of a credit event.

This comes as consumers have taken $400 billion of credit card debt in under four years.

A hundred billion dollar A year average.

So this got me thinking, okay, Money can be stressful.

Lack of money can be really stressful.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I think it's the root cause of a lot of problems for a lot of people.

And the episode that we're working on is Money Stress in America, Breaking down financial anxiety.

Okay.

So I thought we would structure the show the way that we have, because, number one, there's some really tumultuous things going on in California that are exasperated by insurance and the stress and the emotions around possibly losing your home, losing your possessions, and your life changing dramatically.

Then you've got unemployment numbers which are volatile and changing.

We're seeing this stagnant Fed target number.

We don't have a clear idea of the Fed policy.

It's been changing a lot.

And then you have all of this debt.

While you're getting these red flags about a recession, you should feel some type of way, you should feel nervous, especially.

Because the people that are really steering this ship after us, going through what we've gone through over the greater course of the last two years, it doesn't really feel like they got a good grasp of things.

Yeah.

So I'm going to do a lot of reading from an article that I found from Men's Health, of all things, about the stressless guide to managing money.

Ooh.

And I did not expect this article to be as good as it was.

All right, so I'm going to do a little bit of reading, and I apologize for the reading, but bear with me.

Shout out Men's Health.

Yeah, this has actually got some really valuable pieces of information in it.

47% of American adults say they are stressed out about money and their mental health is suffering because of it.

According to a May report from Bankrate.

Turn to social media for a quote break from all of that and you're inundated with posts about money dysmorphia, loud budgeting and financial fasting.

Not to mention, if you go to Saeed's feed and you see Lambos and Ferraris and Alex Hermosi and Cody Sanchez and everybody and their mother telling about all the ways you should be getting rich just like them by charging you to teach you how to get rich.

So they get rich by telling you that they're buying companies or do investments or private equity, but they're really just investing in your privates.

It's weird.

The whole thing's weird, right?

On the surface, finance seems like it's all nuts and bolts, says Spencer Sherman, founder and financial advisor at Abacus wealth partners and author of the Cure for Money Madness.

But classic money management strategies, like sticking to the 50, 30, 20 budgeting rule.

And for a reminder, 50% of your money goes to necessities, 30% goes to the things you want, and 20% goes into savings.

A topic site is covered multiple times in the show.

And not buying overpriced sneakers.

I don't know why you would not buy overpriced sneakers, but you have to have a.

You have to have one pair in rotation.

Yeah.

Tend to snip away at that stress rather than pulling out the root.

So money intersects with our sense of survival.

Right?

It's in our basic human, like, instinct to survive.

And fearing for money is like fearing not having the ability to defend yourself in the wild.

Right.

Or survive in the wild.

It's one of those things that you've got to constantly be alert about, because if you don't have it, you die.

Right.

And I'm being a little bit dramatic, but that's the way people feel.

I mean, you could continue on with your life and still feel dead inside.

So because money intersects with our sense of survival, it's also what makes it so scary.

Sherman says it's like a grizzly bear coming at us.

Except bear.

Except bear spray doesn't work on money, stress.

You need strategies.

By the way, if a giant fucking bear was coming at me, I'm not.

Hitting the bear spray, bro.

I'm hitting the shotgun.

Okay?

You.

Oh, come on.

You don't.

You don't even carry a shotgun.

If I'm gonna be someplace that bears are, you're not carrying a shotgun.

That's a lie.

You're not going to Big Bear with a shotgun.

Okay, Just because I'm calling B.S.

Bear doesn't mean there's bears there.

You know there are.

Okay.

Do you know bears can smell, like, thousands of times more than, like, a.

A dog, Right?

Which is basset hound or something, which.

Can smell 100 times better than a human.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wild.

It's.

It's an insanity number.

Like, bears can smell food.

I can't.

I actually can't even stomach the videos online where people post that they got closer encounters with bears.

I'm like, that thing would have ripped you to shreds.

Yeah, bro, I ain't.

What are you doing?

Nope.

They tell you you're supposed to, like, stand up and scream.

Let me tell you what I'm not gonna do.

Yeah.

My wife's like, you're not a camper, honey.

Yeah.

Because, bro, you're reckless.

Here and there's no bears.

You know what I mean?

Right?

Put you in a place there's bears and you'd be reckless like this.

I don't understand.

Like, where's the, what's the draw to put yourself in that kind of environment?

I don't know.

I don't get it.

I don't know.

But the guys are sitting like, you know, in trees with bows.

That's different.

Okay?

Those people feel like they're prepared.

I feel like they're prepared.

Yeah.

No, no, no.

All right, let's keep going.

All right, I'm gonna give you three pieces of advice for your psychological health, for your mental well being.

All right, what's advice?

Number one, mask, bro.

Try to be a little more authentic.

All right, what is it, bro?

Hit me with it.

That's gross.

All right, number one, lose the money judgment.

Let me explain.

View your bank account as numbers that help you take action, not as indictments.

Okay?

For example, if you have less than you should, you can freak out and criticize yourself for being irresponsible or whatever self blaming narrative you choose.

I hate myself is kind of mine.

You can fault your optimism for thinking that college was worth the price and feel sure there's no way to get ahead or take a vacation to manage the stress.

Okay.

Or you can look at those numbers as indicators of where you are.

That can help you decide what to do next.

Accepting the reality and not feeling bad about it is a whole hell of a lot more valuable to you than just feeling terrible about it.

Absolutely.

I, I, I look at it like playing, playing golf, right?

Set at the ball for a tee shot.

No different than you set up your budget.

This is how I want to spend my money.

You take a swing, you know, you spend your money a certain kind of way.

It lands a certain, it lands somewhere that's not where you intended it to go.

If you continue to harp on the mistake that you just made, guess what's going to happen?

Your next swing is going to be just as bad, if not worse, versus letting that go and planning for the next shot.

God damn.

I do this, bro.

We're in the golf analogy phase.

It's not ice in your veins.

That's, that's, that's not what that means.

I check with kids, they say that means something very different.

Okay, when it's off to the side, I didn't go middle.

It's off to the side.

You can't do that on the show.

I've got to blur it out now.

People can be like, why did he blow out his hands?

Why is he throwing up gang signs?

Yeah, it's not.

It's not what you think it means.

All right, all right.

So should you try to make more money and spend less?

Well, when you pay attention to the numbers without judgment, you often have a wiser response to them.

Don't pretend you're not bothered by what you see.

We don't want to push away the pain.

We want to try and see if we can be with it and cultivate some resilience.

Sherman says, as therapists like to say, sit with feelings, try to accept your situation.

You might realize it's not where I wish I were right now, but it is where I am.

So I will make some changes.

This will help you take and make doable steps in a healthier direction.

I love that.

I really, genuinely love that advice.

Simple concept.

Own your position.

Yes.

Accept it.

And if you don't like it, don't get down on yourself.

Use that as the motivation for change.

Absolutely.

Simple advice.

Sounds simple.

You'd be stunned how many people carry around the stress because they feel irresponsible regarding their financial position.

Number two, list what you're telling yourself.

Now, this one sounded strange at first, but bear with me.

It actually makes a lot of sense.

Okay, what's your money script?

Contemplate your beliefs about money.

Money causes fights, or having a lot of money shows that I'm a valuable person.

Or the mature thing is to do is to stay at home and save instead of go out with friends.

Money beliefs are often formed early, so think back to your earliest money memories probably came from your parents.

Did your parents fight about money in front of you?

You know, a lot of our parents did.

Did they buy you stuff all the time?

Right.

I mean, there was that.

We talked about it on a couple episodes ago where there's that study out of Purdue University that said a majority of our money habits are established around the age of seven.

Yeah.

To your point, were your parents stingy or did you rarely go out to eat with them?

Because these things affect how you think and feel about money.

Now, it doesn't mean that you agree with it and you do the same thing they did.

You could be doing the total opposite because they did what they did.

True.

So if you reflect on how you came to regard money the way you do, you'll start to recognize where your stressors actually come from.

Are your stressors about money more about your childhood upbringing than they are about the lack thereof?

Right.

And I have a lot of these with my dad.

Growing up, my dad was very cavalier with money, but very flashy with it.

When.

And now in my age, I'm not very cavalier with money and I'm not very flashy with it.

And I know that comes from a place of fear.

It drives me.

And I've talked on the show like, I don't ever want to be poor again.

I've been there.

I don't want to go back.

Right.

So to me, it's.

It's a significant thing.

Yeah.

So the third and last piece of advice, and there are some classic money scripts I want to get into.

So don't.

Don't cut the show off early.

There's some good, moist, goody good stuff, as I would say towards the end here.

Number three, ask if those beliefs that you've just written down are still serving you well.

So number one, don't feel bad about your position.

Yes.

Okay.

Accept it.

Use it as motivation.

Number two, figure out why you feel that way and why your beliefs are what they are.

Look at your history.

Look at your where you are today and why you feel that way.

Write those things down.

And number three, ask you if those beliefs are helping you get to where you want to go.

I know it sounds kind of like hippie ish and shit.

Yeah.

Cliche.

But honestly, you can't get to where you want to go unless you know where you came from.

This is your roadmap.

Okay.

Once you realize there is an old belief that no longer aligns with you, you are now empowered to think differently when you want, when it shows up, says Jack Howard, head of money wellness at Ally, who devised the bank's online workshops.

For instance, ask yourself whether overspending to look like you're keeping up is really still important to you.

Some people that might be brothers, it's probably not.

So is there a script that better serves you now?

Like, for example, my worth isn't defined by how much I make.

Success is about living in alignment with my values.

Right.

So in workshops, Howard has participants write out their old beliefs and then write out new ones next to them.

Right.

So you can do that easily.

Put a little T square there.

I like people to think that I'm successful, right.

So I spend money to have people think I'm successful.

On the right side, you could say I want to feel comfortable and secure, and money makes me feel successful.

So this entire practice is something that I feel like the younger generation and even some of the older generation.

Right.

Would probably better serve them than a vision board.

Oh, a thousand percent.

Vision boards are Asinine.

Yeah.

This.

This is literally like tackling on your problems head on.

Yeah, take.

Take your problems head on.

Some ownership.

Own them.

Yeah.

You know your trauma.

You gotta look in the mirror.

Right.

A vision board is like a fantasy.

It's the lotto ticket.

Yeah.

You don't need that.

Yeah.

That ain't gonna do you no good.

I'm gonna manifest it, Chris.

Yeah, yeah.

Huh?

Sure.

I'm sure.

I'm sure you are.

Name one person who's like, you know, Chris, I got a million dollars today because I put it on a vision board.

Yeah.

That's how I got this.

I manifested this money.

No, you didn't.

I know.

No, I heard somebody the other day.

It was one of the parents that my kids are friends with.

They're like, oh, we did.

We stayed home for New Year's and we did vision boards.

I'm like, yeah.

I mean, that's the thing.

Maybe not cute, maybe for toxic, maybe for the kids to spark conversations.

No, no.

If it's a way to get a conversation going, maybe you've done this before.

By the way, vision board thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, look, it was.

It was a tool.

Let me get there.

Don't people do this?

But then I did this.

You're a liar.

No, but it was a good way to spark a conversation.

Oh, you say you want this.

What.

What are.

What steps are we going to take to make sure we get there?

Yeah.

All right, let's wrap this up.

I want to be mindful of time.

So, for instance, another example of, you know, kind of this, choosing which beliefs are serving you.

Well, still old script.

Money creates happiness.

Howard recalls someone who overspent on gifts for their kids as a result of growing up with little money.

So they're now trying to make up for that with their kids.

That's where their source of trauma comes from.

The parent realized that time with the kids, not the gifts, led to happy memories.

The new script experiences created happiness.

Yeah, for.

For our listeners out there that don't have kids yet, or maybe if your kids are, you know, really young.

I noticed at a very early age that we would buy my kids gifts and they'd have fun with the box.

Sometimes more than they would have a.

Couple hours and then done.

They were.

They were having more fun with the Amazon box.

Yeah, man.

You know what I mean?

Come on.

It's a thing.

It's dopamine.

So I'm going to read classic money scripts.

If this doesn't make sense to you, they will.

But I think they're very valuable if you don't know which one of these applies to you by just hearing what they are and describing it.

We're also going to have a link to this quiz in the show notes so you can figure out which one of these best suits you.

So you get an idea for how money impacts you.

I love this.

Right?

All right, so there are four basic money scripts according to assistant, developed by Brad Clonce.

He's a psychiatrist and an associate professor at Creighton University's Hayter College of Business.

If you're having a hard time identifying yours from the descriptions that I'm giving you here, you can use a quiz located@your mentalwealthadvisors.com or you can find the link in the show notes.

Number one, Money avoidant.

You avoid dealing with your finances, possibly because you have negative views about money.

It causes problems.

You don't deserve it.

It's taboo.

Whatever reason it is, you tend to avoid it.

Your money avoidant.

You need to know these things about yourself.

Number two, Money vigilant.

Right.

You believe it is important to work for your money and save it.

Money might help you feel safe, but spending it can come with unnecessary anxiety.

You may also feel the need to hide what you're buying or feel embarrassed about it.

Right.

And I'm not saying any one of these are good or bad, but knowing how you fit into the mold teaches you a little bit about yourself.

Number three, Money status seeking.

Shout out to my homies in Lambos.

You tend to link your self worth to your wealth.

You like to show others what you got and can overspend as a result.

Yeah, shout out to all the people on Instagram telling me that you can help us build our page or build our pocket.

Yeah, dude.

Every day.

All the bros.

Every day.

And last but not least, money worshiping.

Praise the Lord Jesus.

You generally think that wealth is the answer.

Allah.

Everything is better if you have money.

Wow.

Yeah, everybody on social media.

But it's kind of hard point not to argue.

Yeah, but that that can lead to never being satisfied with what you have.

You may also buy things in an attempt to find happiness.

Yes, understanding whether you're money avoidant, money vigilant, money status seeking or money worshiping helps you figure out when you look in the mirror where your insecurities may be derived from.

Yeah, it's a tough day and age to adopt this and really take ownership and believe.

And believe in it because of everything that you know, we're consuming on social media all the time.

It's True.

And that's okay too, is it?

Yeah, look, it's, it's a, it's a journey.

It's not a destination.

And I think the most important thing is that you start.

The one that scares me the most for people, that is the money avoidant one, right?

Where you're avoiding dealing with your finances.

Because if you're avoiding it and not taking ownership and understanding your position, then you're not even in the game.

Forget playing the game.

You're not in the game and you're, I mean, you're delaying the inevitable and you're only making things harder later.

We talk about on the show all the time, the number one thing that we tell people to do is, you know, understand your finances so that you can set up your future.

We talk about compound interest, we talk about dollar cost averaging, right?

And just doing something that you can.

Right?

Just because you create a plan and you're afraid that it's not the perfect plan does.

Does not mean you can't adjust the plan later.

Right.

As you continue to learn and grow and you go on this journey, there will be adjustments that, that are made.

Maybe you.

The plan is for you to eventually own a bunch of real estate because you think that's safe or, you know, that's the type of income that you want to be able to make.

And then you realize, like, no, this is not for me, right?

Maybe you get unfortunately screwed over by a couple of property managers and it's just not.

Not your thing, right?

You head over to the investment side, you open a brokerage account and you start learning about investments.

The whole, the whole point about this whole process is you never stop learning.

Never stop.

I've learned an incredible amount in the last couple of years myself about things from just a financial perspective.

I didn't know that.

I thought I knew well.

And I can tell you that if you never stop, those who really enjoy the process of learning what they don't know in the financial realm tend to do better with money over the long run because they know what they don't know at a certain juncture.

And if you don't know about the bond market, you probably shouldn't be investing in bonds.

Right?

If you don't know about the stock market, you probably shouldn't be investing in the stock market.

Or if you invest in them, you seek advice and counsel from somebody who's got subject matter expertise.

You don't.

The problem that I see most notably is that people will either say, I don't know anything, so I'm just not going to do it.

Or they believe they know more about a topic than they should.

So food for thought.

I hope that it's a good psychological exercise for everybody.

If you do it and something to think about, you don't necessarily need to sit down and write it down and do it.

But just having the internal dialogue with yourself and thinking about who you are in that spectrum, I think has value.

Yeah, there's definitely room for improvement for everybody.

The idea is money and finances are stressful.

You need to do what you can to make that stress as low as possible for you.

And the more you know about your current position will reduce that stress.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right, man.

Well, that's a show.

That's a great show.

Thank you for that.

That was good.

Speaking straight to you, brother.

Yeah, I know, brother.

Yeah.

With these LeBron's unions.

Mention anything about my LeBron's?

Yeah, they're questionable.

Or these specifically for you.

That pearl?

It's pearl.

Is that the colorway you're wearing pearl?

I'm wearing pearls, baby.

I found a way to rock some pearls.

I'm gonna leave no comment on this one.

All right.

Got anything else?

Nope.

All right, good night, everybody.

Okay, bye.

The remix.