co-host00:01
Peter Dunn
Well, hello, everybody. It's Peter Dunn with Peter Planner show. I'm the host 14th year. I think it's the 14th year. I'm bad, but I think it's 14 years this show has been around and you're thinking, how is that possible? Not how is so no one canceled this outright. And the reason is because it's a podcast. You actually can't cancel a podcast. But reality is it's actually on the radio, too. No one cares. Joining me this week as a co host is Kristen Ahlenius. Kristen, hello.
00:31
Kristen Ahlenius
Hello.
00:32
Peter Dunn
How are you?
00:33
Kristen Ahlenius
I'm doing well. How are you?
00:34
Peter Dunn
Good. To the dismay of a short program this week. But I do need to make a very important viewer note and listener note. Some of you remember Damien mentioned last week on the show that he was going on vacation to Marco Island, Florida. Damian did go to Marco Island, Florida. And I will let him tell his own story next week, if he so pleases. But Damian got home safely, so he and his family got home safely back to his studio, so we're thankful for that, his story to tell. Hello, everybody. We're going to start the show. We've got how far does a million dollars go in retirement? What was the question? How did you pose it? It was beautiful. What was it?
01:18
Kristen Ahlenius
It was to be financially well, do you have to have some degree of frugality?
01:24
Peter Dunn
That's beautiful. And then so much more. So much more. All right, let's start the show. Let me be ready in three, two that's not ready. Here we go. 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 we maybe we'll answer your question on the we'll just we won't respond. And maybe it just ends up in our spam folder, and it'll just be, know, yelling into the wind. I don't know if that's a phrase. Joining me this week as a co host, as she so often does, kristen Ahlenius, director of education at Your Money line. That's your title, correct?
02:11
Kristen Ahlenius
Yes.
02:12
Peter Dunn
I don't know why I froze up on that for a second. That was strange.
02:15
Kristen Ahlenius
That's okay.
02:16
Peter Dunn
Kristen, how far can a million dollars go in retirement? My group text chain, me and my boys a friend of mine texted that the other day. He's like, what do you guys think? And I'm like, why are you dressing the other people? Because you happen to have me in the text chain. Just ask me. And it made me think, how far can a million dollars legitimately go in retirement? So how shall we begin to attack this question?
02:44
Kristen Ahlenius
Well, there's the technically rule of thumb correct answer, which is if you take three and a half, anywhere from 3%, depending on how conservative you want to be as far as a draw rate, we're talking 30,000, $40,000 a year, pre tax, maybe, depending on what type of vehicle it is in retirement. That's the technically correct answer.
03:06
Peter Dunn
So it could technically last you forever if you're not taking too much income off of them. And you could more or less pay yourself $3,000 a month in perpetuity.
03:19
Kristen Ahlenius
That's the idea, yeah.
03:21
Peter Dunn
Right. But then it became maybe this is actually a question about exhaustion as opposed to perpetuity. Maybe it's, if I had a 25 year retirement, how do I best get my head around my ability to spend that money into the ground? Do you think anyone looks at the retirement or thinks about the retirement and says, I'm going to be retired 20 years. This money needs to last 20 years. And if they do that, it's a giant mistake. Right. Because if you're wrong and you live.
03:57
Kristen Ahlenius
Longer, you're sort of in trouble 100%. And the other reality a professor I had is an undergrad shout out to Jay. He used to always say he taught our retirement planning class, and he would say, retirement is go. Go slow, go, and then no go. And the reality is that your spending is going to fluctuate depending on your phase in retirement as well. So when you're retired and it's like, hey, we want to go and do and see these things that we haven't done, that could be a more expensive phase. And then on the tail end of that, if you need long term care, self funding, long term care is a really big ask, and not a lot of people can pull that off. So the question truly is kind of impossible to answer when you consider those factors.
04:43
Peter Dunn
I feel like a lot of people, maybe it's just culturally there's this idea that you just need your house paid off and you need a million dollars, and anyone can retire. I don't know. So let's take a moment and walk through the logic of that for a second. So let's say you retire and your Social Security income. Let's pick one. What do you want? Do you want to go one person? Let's go one person?
05:05
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah.
05:06
Peter Dunn
$2,000 a month? Or do you want me to go higher?
05:08
Kristen Ahlenius
That's fine.
05:09
Peter Dunn
Okay. $2,000 a month. You've got a million dollars. That's going to be we'll call it $3,000 a month, right. Are you good with that?
05:17
Kristen Ahlenius
That's fine.
05:18
Peter Dunn
And so now we've got $5,000 a month, $60,000 annually with no housing expenses, right. No mortgage or rent. Kristen, someone can retire on that, right?
05:31
Kristen Ahlenius
Oh, yeah. I would hope.
05:35
Peter Dunn
Where where does it fall apart, though? It falls apart with what's? The first go? There's no go. Slogo.
05:42
Kristen Ahlenius
Go. Go.
05:43
Peter Dunn
What is it? Go.
05:44
Kristen Ahlenius
Go.
05:44
Peter Dunn
Okay. I was like mojo. And I was like, I don't think that's involved my dog. Oh, wow. Mojito is the dog, but you say mojo around kids so that you don't get popped for delinquency of a minor or whatever. It's the delinquency. No. What is it? No one cares. So where'd it go wrong if someone is too aggressive pulling more than $5,000 a month? If it starts to creep to $6,000, like, oh, we're going on a vacation. So now my $60,000 that I have available, I actually spent 75 this year, or I need a new roof on my house, and I don't have money in savings. And so then the million doesn't become an income producing entity. It becomes an emergency fund too. Right. That's where it goes weird.
06:31
Kristen Ahlenius
That's exactly where it goes weird. That was going to be my example is in an attempt, something that's really hard to balance in pre retirement, in just what we see, anecdotally is trying to pay off that house before retirement, but also maintaining that house because house maintenance is very expensive. So if you're three years into retirement, especially if you retired now, for example, sequence of return risk is a whole nother ballgame. And then you need new windows on the house. We've totally changed the trajectory of your long term goals by retiring in a down market and then needing extra funds right away.
07:09
Peter Dunn
Do you have a feeling of how today's current inflationary environment might play out long term for retirement planning? Are you still looking at 2.8% to 3%, or do you think that has to tick up to take into account the modern times?
07:26
Kristen Ahlenius
It probably has to tick up. But as I kind of discussed before this show, I just created a financial plan for a class I'm in, and I use 3% as my assumption, but that actually was probably more grounded in wishes and hopes than the reality that I think that we might have to face at least maybe in the intermediate term. But I still used 3% because I would like for that to be true.
07:49
Peter Dunn
You know, the other element of where this might fall apart is that if a person is currently earning more than $60,000 a year and from a net perspective, a take home perspective, they're spending and living on more than what would net out in retirement. I think that could be an issue because I find that trying to replicate the lifestyle you've lived for decades on a different structured income, I think that's where this can go awry. And when people don't even account for the different tax status of that income and the tax ramifications of it, yeah, 100%.
08:30
Kristen Ahlenius
That's why we work with power percentage. It's a proprietary metric that we have here that you and some others developed. And we have to break dependence on our income as we lead into retirement. And I'm not saying that doesn't mean eat ramen and save everything so that you can retire early. It means ensuring that there is a seamless or as seamless of a transition as we can have as you go from income earning years to living off of the income that you kind of withheld, I guess, would be the term.
09:00
Peter Dunn
I know that we're trying to take a giant topic, oh, I don't know, retirement and trying to distill it down to a nine minute and 22 2nd segment today. But I'll also note where this can go off the rails is when a person is about to retire, they make a massive housing change. And so then they go to their empty nester home or their forever home, whatever people call things. Forever home. Yeah. And it changes the dynamics of not only their utility payments, it changes the dynamics of upkeep and maintenance. And I feel like that pre retirement housing choice has as much to do with retirement success as just about anything else.
09:41
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah, I totally agree. And the other reality is that as you age, you will be reliant on other people for maintenance and even simple things like lawn maintenance and things like that. So if you have a support system that's willing to help you with that's great. But if you don't, those are expenses that you may not have counted on in your working years either.
10:03
Peter Dunn
Well, yeah, you made me think of the old retirement condo where the condominium fee climbs and it feels like you've paid off the condo, but it is still a regular expense. Now, having lived in a condo before, I know that feeling, and maybe you know that same feeling, too, Kristen.
10:23
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah, I do live in an old people condo, so it's fine.
10:27
Peter Dunn
You're the whippersnapper that keeps everyone on their toes in your community.
10:31
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah, absolutely.
10:33
Peter Dunn
Nice. All right, here's what we're going to do. Kristen, you brought up a question before the show. I think it's a brilliant question. In order to be considered financially well, does a person have to have some degree of frugality? That's where we're going to spend, I believe, the majority of the rest of the program today. Do you have to be a little bit frugal, a little bit cheap to be financially well? That's all next right here on the Planner show. Mom, Pete the planner. All right. So Jeremy just says good morning. Thinking of doing a drinking game every time Pete does an accent drink. Always enjoy the show. Kristen, do I do that many accents?
11:09
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't know. I'm going to have to pay attention.
11:12
Peter Dunn
Now, I'm not in denial, but I know I do little like I'll do like a voice, little characters. Yeah, it's like, well, I don't know.
11:22
Kristen Ahlenius
Maybe that's what Jeremy means.
11:24
Peter Dunn
Well, now I'm going to be sensitive to it. Okay, so for the live streaming audience, every time I apparently use a different voice, oh, little voice like this. I do things like, oh, jason notes that he's room stalking. Kristen's bookshelf looks a little more stocked this week, but the liquor bottle is noticeably absent. Well, when she enjoyed the liquor, she got very productive and put a bunch of stuff up on there.
11:53
Kristen Ahlenius
I thought maybe I should add a couple books to my bookshelf.
11:56
Peter Dunn
Jason, let's take a deep. Look into your bookshelf here. I know you always hate this shot. You've got the tractor at the top. You've got your Problem Solver of the Year award here from your moneyline. You've got your college degree, you've got some books, and you've got a Van Halen album, and then you've got a trophy from work as well, which was called a Golden Peter, which that whole award package has been sunset. You know what I mean?
12:25
Kristen Ahlenius
That's true.
12:26
Peter Dunn
I didn't mean to say what I didn't mean to. Let's move on. Okay, segment number two in three, two, one. Back on the Pete the Planner show. Kristen Alanius, director of education at Your Moneyline, joins me here today. Damien's on vacation. Kristen, before the show, you and I were doing a little chat, as they, I believe the kids call it, and you said to know I've been wondering how frugal a person needs to be. How much frugality do they have to have in them in order to consider themselves financially well? And I think that's a really interesting question, and here's why. Because I think a lot of people are smart with money, and by smart with money, they know how to make it, they know how to grow it. But it's their own lack of frugality that gets them into trouble. They've got really expensive tastes.
13:25
Peter Dunn
They want everything to be the best. And that's where having a lot of money, yet needing a lot of money, creates some problems. So plain and simple, Kristen, on a scale of one to ten, how much frugality does a person need in order to be considered financially?
13:45
Kristen Ahlenius
Well, this is so hard because I have a follow up thought as I've continued to noodle on it, but if I have to pin it down on the scale, I would say like maybe three to four.
13:59
Peter Dunn
Okay, you need to be a three to a four to be financially well. What are you?
14:05
Kristen Ahlenius
Depends on who you ask. I think if you asked anybody that knows me, they would probably say I'm like an eight. But I don't feel like I'm that bad, so maybe like a five.
14:15
Peter Dunn
What do you think I am?
14:18
Kristen Ahlenius
Oh, that's hard. Maybe a three.
14:23
Peter Dunn
I think I'm probably a three. What do you have to be a three? I'm probably at the bottom end of that, but there's certain things I just don't spend a lot of money on that a lot of people do.
14:36
Kristen Ahlenius
Exactly. That's my exact thought. And the other thing, too, is it as much about awareness that subsequently creates that frugality and not actually being frugal by nature. So because I look at my budget, I start my day with my budget smoothie every day, and I see where my money goes, I feel like I have a different relationship with my money. And then when I see how much it costs to go to the grocery store or how much my electric bill was, this month. I think it creates more awareness and then in turn makes me more frugal.
15:14
Peter Dunn
Can we just say that if you look at the primary budget categories in your life, you need to have two or three in which you are frugal. Let's say there's ten primary budget categories. Can't we just say that three of them have to be peppered with frugality? Okay, so yours is food, right? Other than when you go to Subway.
15:35
Kristen Ahlenius
The grocery store, I will go out to eat and have a drink and do that, but to go to the grocery store, I'm not buying name brand, I'm just not doing it.
15:44
Peter Dunn
I would say cars, we're frugal, and we used to be more frugal than we are now, but we're frugal when it comes to cars. How about you? You've got a big giant behemoth of a car?
15:59
Kristen Ahlenius
I do, but I hope to never have a car payment again forever. And the car choice that I made was very deliberate, with that being the long term plan. So, yes, not super frugal in the short term, but the goal is to provide long term decreased expenses in the category that is transportation.
16:23
Peter Dunn
As I'm sitting here thinking about this whole concept, it's fascinating because I can only think of a couple of categories in which I would claim to be frugal, and I think a very frugal person can name various categories of which they have sensitivity. So my other big category would be vacations. We go on vacation but quite frugally, right? We will use my frequent flyer miles and those sorts of things so we don't end up spending a lot on vacation. What about you when it comes to vacations, do you have any sense of frugality or not? Really?
16:58
Kristen Ahlenius
Tons. That's why I fly, like budget airlines, where you have to put your knees into your chest to get into your seat, looking for deals on hotels. I plan my vacation, although I'm very fortunate, not everyone has the ability to do that. But we have a pretty generous vacation policy here, and it gives me the freedom to say, well, I'd like to go when it's cheap, so let's plan to go somewhere when it's cheap and then take that time off.
17:28
Peter Dunn
Yeah. What's your category of the greatest extravagance, then? What is your biggest extravagance? What do you spend the most on that? No one knows until now?
17:40
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't know that I really spend.
17:44
Peter Dunn
Why? You're an eight.
17:46
Kristen Ahlenius
My really boring but true answer is probably. I mean, my dogs are pretty expensive and some people might think that they're spoiled and that's egregious. So maybe my pets.
17:58
Peter Dunn
Yeah, for us it's food and kids activities.
18:03
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah, that's fair.
18:05
Peter Dunn
And I guess the strange thing about that is I was of course, hypercritical at one point in my career about how much people spend on their kids. And I will admit that travel, sports, and that's all our kids do, I will note that criticism lacked the nuance it probably should have, being that the nuance was meant to say in relation to saving for your financial goals. Sure, if a person is full throttle spending money on their kids now and ignoring the future, not only for the kids but for themselves, then that's a problem. But if you happen to spend a lot of money on your kids, but you also are funding your goals, then obviously that's not as big of an issue.
18:50
Kristen Ahlenius
Sure. So what if it's not one specific category? And what if it's just a general level of awareness just across the board? Like, maybe somebody makes a little bit of extra payment on their mortgage, they're mindful about their thermostat, they plan out trips to vacations like we talked about. If you just kind of have this general level of awareness and just try and bring everything down, like 10%, that can totally change the game as far as your short term stability is concerned.
19:25
Peter Dunn
Okay, so this got really interesting all of a sudden, because now there's two additional ways to view this. You could say, one, I'm paying more on my mortgage, whether that's a good idea or not. Yet, that is sort of a frugal practical mindset. But then there's the danger side of this to say I only buy things when they're on sale, which sounds like justification to buy anything when it's on.
19:49
Kristen Ahlenius
That's true. That's fair.
19:52
Peter Dunn
Yeah. This is really interesting because thinking about reducing your expenses can often justify more expenses.
20:01
Kristen Ahlenius
That's why I have to have a budget smoothie. You just have to know. You have to have your finger on.
20:05
Peter Dunn
The people are wondering about this budget smoothie. You've been featured on the Internet for your budget smoothie prowess. Please tell the people about your budget smoothie. It's all anyone's talking about.
20:17
Kristen Ahlenius
Well, I was on a podcast, and the question was, it was a wellness podcast, and the host asked me, what is your kale and your Kryptonite? And I said that it might seem like a set up, but my kale is that I start every day with looking just really quickly at my budget. It takes me less than five minutes, but that's always how I start my day. It's on my Google task list, and I think that it makes me more aware, and I think that it increases my level of financial wellness. And I called it a budget smoothie versus, like, a kale or a spinach smoothie.
20:52
Peter Dunn
So you look at your budget every day?
20:56
Kristen Ahlenius
Every day.
20:58
Peter Dunn
And you said you're an eight on the frugality scale.
21:01
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah.
21:02
Peter Dunn
Kristen, you're a twelve on the frugality.
21:06
Kristen Ahlenius
That doesn't make me frugal. My mom just gave me grief for how much I spent on this shirt the other day. I still spend money. I've just I had a coupon, but it still was oh, I'm cheap. It's fine.
21:24
Peter Dunn
We've talked about this on the show. I got bit by the savings bug here in the last couple of months, like, big time today's payday here at your moneyline, as you know.
21:35
Kristen Ahlenius
Oh, yeah.
21:38
Peter Dunn
And I've already been in this morning and made a transfer into savings. It's a new habit, an additional habit, I should say, that's developed in the last couple of months. So it is weird when you do this for a living, how those things happen. So let's do this. Let's take a break. Coming up after the break, more discussions of frugality and fun. I'm Pete the planner. Did that count as a voice?
22:00
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah, probably. Drink.
22:07
Peter Dunn
Budget smoothie. PTP quote J. O is commenting there, my good friend Julie. I think that household is probably seven or eight in terms of mean. They they track their stuff pretty religiously, and they have certain extravagances, whether it's wine or but they keep it pretty tight. All right, Kristen, where do we go from here? We got any meat left on that bone?
22:39
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't know. I mean, the utility thing was an original idea, but that kind of.
22:48
Peter Dunn
Let'S go with student loan forgiveness flying apart.
22:52
Kristen Ahlenius
Oh, man.
22:53
Peter Dunn
I know it's a news story for.
22:55
Kristen Ahlenius
You, but my soapbox.
22:57
Peter Dunn
Okay, so we'll get ready to go in three, two, one. Back on the Pizza Planner show. Kristen, I don't know if you saw this, but this week it appears President Biden's executive order surrounding student loan forgiveness starting to unravel a little bit. We helped people understand what the original executive order was several weeks ago, and we did hedge and say, this stuff still needs to get through and it's not guaranteed. This sweater is starting to unravel a little bit. How big is the hole at this point, and how much bigger is the hole going to get? Kristen?
23:40
Kristen Ahlenius
Well, right now, the original announcement said that the loans had to be owned by the Department of Education. And if you're someone who doesn't work in that space, that might seem like an obvious statement. Federal student loans should be held by the Department of Education. But the reality is that prior to 2010, about 80% of federal student loans were guaranteed by the Department of Ed. They weren't owned by the Department of Ed. There is a distinction with the difference, unfortunately. And what originally happened was that they said as long as you consolidate those loans. So if your loan wasn't owned by Doe, if you had an FFEL or a Perkins loan, you could consolidate it to a direct loan, which is a loan that is owned by the Department of Education. And then you could have the $10,000 in forgiveness depending on your income level and whether you were a Pell grant recipient as of I don't know when the announcement went up on the Department of Education's website, but people started noticing it yesterday.
24:44
Kristen Ahlenius
If you did not consolidate your loan before Wednesday, and you are one of those people, you are no longer eligible for student loan forgiveness.
24:53
Peter Dunn
Okay.
24:55
Kristen Ahlenius
No, that's a lot. That's what just happened.
24:58
Peter Dunn
Let's focus on the last part here. So if people didn't take an action, and that action was consolidation of some sort by Wednesday of this past week correct. They are no longer eligible forgiveness.
25:14
Kristen Ahlenius
An estimated 770,000 people are no longer eligible for student loan forgiveness.
25:19
Peter Dunn
Was there any indication, other than your gut feeling, was there any indication that people needed to do that?
25:31
Kristen Ahlenius
Maybe just I think I'm biased. I don't think to the average viewer or just the average person that you would have thought, I need to do this immediately, because the Department of Ed also pushed out these statements about the form will be ready in October. So there was kind of this what do I need to do now mentality. And the answer was, we'll just wait. We're working on the form. And if someone has loans that were from before 2010, they were going to be one of the people that had to fill out the form anyway. So I'm sure they probably feel a little misled, and I think that's an understandable feeling. But no, I don't think that if you aren't someone who works in this space, I don't think that you would have known that you needed to get that done two days ago.
26:17
Peter Dunn
Yeah, let's say it's early September. You and I are at a party, and we are having some ranch waters. Yeah, but it's only 08:30 P.m. Because I'm still at the party.
26:31
Kristen Ahlenius
Okay.
26:32
Peter Dunn
Because otherwise I'd be home. You crack past 837, I'm not interested, okay? I'm painting a scene here. Don't get me distracted.
26:40
Kristen Ahlenius
Sorry.
26:41
Peter Dunn
So I'm hitting the heavy appetizers pretty good at this point, almost embarrassing my significant other. She's like, you got to save some okay, I would continue.
26:51
Kristen Ahlenius
Okay.
26:51
Peter Dunn
And let's say someone else comes in the conversation. They're like, yeah, I've got these types of loans, honestly. Would you in early September, Christian, would you have said, hey, take action right now in hope that you don't get left out in the cold? Would you have said that to someone, or would you not have had the foresight to have done that?
27:10
Kristen Ahlenius
Probably yes. But I've for a while made the argument that there are so few people that benefit from not moving their loans to a direct consolidation loan that it's just so hard to justify not making that move. There are exceptions to that rule, and I have no shame. I would have asked the person for more information. Like, if you have a really high outstanding amount of interest, it might not make sense for you, for example, but I probably would have said consolidate your loan, because here we go again. Because at the start of the pandemic, these borrowers didn't have their loans paused right away either. They continue to be forgotten despite the fact that they hold the oldest loans in the portfolio. And to not be forgotten, you have to be part of the primary loan program because otherwise we just pretend that these people don't exist.
28:03
Peter Dunn
I'm going to ask you a question that you could take political if you wanted to take politically, you don't have to and do whatever you want. How did this gap come to be? And is this a mistake? Was this an oversight? Was this always intended to be this way? That at the end of September, 700,000 people who were excited that they got some relief would be disappointed? Was this poor communication, what just happened in the last several weeks that left 700,000 people ineligible for something that they were previously eligible for? Kind of.
28:46
Kristen Ahlenius
I think it was oversight. I think when you're looking at the tens of millions of people that were eligible for student loan forgiveness and looking at trying to figure out a way to make this make sense logistically, I think that they were just forgotten. And then the original announcement says that the Department of Education was working with private lenders and servicers to try and figure out a way to include these people. And the website does still say that they're trying to work with the servicers. But the problem is those contracts were signed decades ago. And I don't know what leverage the Doe has in this space because those servicers are counting on income from servicing those loans. So to get them to just give them up, I don't really know how that would work.
29:33
Peter Dunn
Well to pile on because that's what's about to happen. Several Republican led states sue to block the plan to erase student loan debt. The Republican Attorney General of Arkansas, also pronounced Arkansas, filed the lawsuit, joined by Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, South Carolina and Nebraska to halt this I was going to say legislation, but it's not legislation to halt this order. There's two things here. Number one, saw this coming. Saw this coming. We'll talk about whether we think it's going to work or not, but the second thing that sticks out to me is a Hoosier, someone who lives indiana. I can't believe Indiana has not joined in on this.
30:20
Kristen Ahlenius
That's true. That's fair.
30:21
Peter Dunn
That is shocking. I mean, our Attorney General loves to jump in on stuff like this. I can't believe he and I think we're eventually going to find out why. But do you think based on your extensive legal and political background, what do you think? Does this work?
30:40
Kristen Ahlenius
No. I think that it'll be a fight for a while until something else is a headline. And I think that's more grounded in my hope, in my fear for people who have felt like they were going to receive this relief. I can't let myself believe that this will be undone. I just can't wrap my head around that.
31:03
Peter Dunn
I don't know if it was the pandemic with all of the stimulus packages where large aggregate spending and expenditures related to the government started to feel like monopoly money. But the total cost of this package over ten years is $379,000,000,000 or $30 billion a year. Roughly $30 billion a year. I have to admit to you, I am at a point where I don't know if that's a lot of money or not, either.
31:30
Kristen Ahlenius
Is that bad?
31:32
Peter Dunn
Well, I don't know. It's funny. My kids at the dinner table a couple of months ago, were just trying to get the kids to say what they thought stuff costs, like a car or a house or a vacation. And they were clueless. They were like they're given dumb answers. That's how I feel about this. I don't know if $30 billion a year is a lot for student loan forgiveness, and that makes me sad. And people might think that I should not host a radio show, but hosting a radio show doesn't mean you're smart. It just means that I don't know what it means, actually. Just a narcissism play, I'm pretty sure.
32:10
Kristen Ahlenius
That seems aggressive.
32:12
Peter Dunn
It is what it is. All right, Kristen, so before we go to the break, does student loan forgiveness go through? Yes, it happens. Boy. Okay, you know what? I'm going to go with yes, it does as well, but I think there's going to be additional roadblocks along the way. Coming up after the break. Speaking over roadblocks, there's the voice drink. Coming up after the break, biggest waste of money of the week and the news. I'm Pete the planner. Man, I am predictable. Someone said they like the demon voice. Who doesn't love the demon voice? It's so good.
32:50
Kristen Ahlenius
That's fair.
32:52
Peter Dunn
The demon voice. There's actually a different version of it.
32:55
Damian Dunn
And it's if you change the pitch.
32:58
Peter Dunn
This is the demon voice.
32:59
Kristen Ahlenius
It's sort of like an elf voice. We call this the elf voice.
33:02
Peter Dunn
And this is damian Dunn joins the program. Special guest Damian Dunn from a hurricane shelter.
33:12
Kristen Ahlenius
He brought the bison with him.
33:14
Peter Dunn
So, Dame, here's the problem I have right now.
33:17
Damian Dunn
You've got a lot of stuff to do.
33:18
Peter Dunn
No, I legitimately have to go in, like, ten minutes, so we're going to do this segment. All right. Hang out, because I got to edit the show because I have an 11:00 call, so oh, my gosh, dame, there's so much to talk about. Can we just check in with you and then when we start the segment and then tease next week's show where you just give us the story if you choose to tell the story.
33:41
Damian Dunn
Yeah, sure.
33:42
Peter Dunn
Are you planning on sharing your adventure?
33:44
Damian Dunn
I am an open book, Pete.
33:46
Peter Dunn
Okay. It's so good to see you. You know that's that Lululemon sweatshirt fashion camo. Wait a second. Dame is wearing a Lululemon fashion camo sweatshirt? I have rubbed off on that.
34:03
Damian Dunn
Do you do you want to know who provided the funds for this?
34:06
Peter Dunn
Me.
34:07
Damian Dunn
The queen.
34:11
Kristen Ahlenius
Yes.
34:12
Damian Dunn
It was a Christmas gift.
34:13
Kristen Ahlenius
It was a Christmas gift.
34:17
Peter Dunn
Okay, here we go. Queen of England, may she rest in peace. Oh, the other queen. Sorry.
34:23
Damian Dunn
Yeah.
34:25
Peter Dunn
Okay. Oh, man. Damon's back. This is exciting. The audience is going to lose their mind. Three, two, one. This week's biggest waste of money of the week right here on the Pizza Planner show is it's called the stadium good Sneaker safe? Stadium goods and German safe manufacturer Dot Ling have collaborated on a limited edition collection of sneaker safes. The trunk like cases come in three luxury finishes, including cowhide calf leather, faux ostrich and faux alligator, and protect collections with rechargeable fingerprint lock and motion triggered sound alarm. Inside, an Italian alcantara interior displays kick with Led lighting and features vents to increase airflow. Each piece will be handmade to order in Dotling's Cindy Fingan factories, with production limited to just 15 examples. Kristen, not only am I going toss to you to see what you believe this thing costs, but I'm also going to welcome our weather correspondent to the program.
35:39
Peter Dunn
Damien Dunn makes it to the fourth segment of the show after being in Marco Island, Florida. So we will start with kristen, how much do you think this thing costs?
35:49
Kristen Ahlenius
I have no idea because shoes can be so expensive. And if you're going to be the kind of person who keeps your shoes in a locked safe, that's ventilated and everything else that you just said, I feel like it's got to be extravagant. But extravagant is such a relative word. Is it $1,000?
36:14
Peter Dunn
Damian, what do you think? Damien, what do you think?
36:19
Damian Dunn
Man, I thought it was a single pair safe, but I was wildly wrong. This has got to be $1,250.
36:30
Peter Dunn
This is $33,600. And that's why it's the biggest waste of money of the week. Before we get to the news, let's address the elephant in the room. Sorry, Dame. Come on, you haven't gained that much weight. Dame. Welcome back from Marco Island, Florida. We're really glad you're okay.
36:55
Damian Dunn
I would like to submit that my vacation days were the biggest waste of money ever at this point, but, yeah, it's good to be back. It was absolutely wild. 24 hours going from what we thought was going to happen to evacuating the island and Florida at that point. So we can get into that story next week.
37:24
Peter Dunn
Well, you know what? Scrap the damian, I already told one. Scrap the damien, I already told one.
37:30
Kristen Ahlenius
Of my news stories anyway.
37:32
Peter Dunn
So, Damian, you and your wonderful family went to vacation in Marco Island, and you got there what day? So, Damien, you and your wonderful family went to vacation in Marco Island, and you got there what day?
37:40
Damian Dunn
Last Saturday.
37:41
Peter Dunn
Okay. You flew down, rented a.
37:47
Damian Dunn
Mean it's Florida, man. You might as well have a convertible and enjoy what little of the good weather we thought were going to have. I mean, there was a little bit of a calculated decision taken there because we knew there was a storm brewing out in the Gulf, but we thought there's every bit of chance that it's just a couple days of rain for us as opposed to anything else. So went ahead with our plans and flew down, got the convertible, and drove down and enjoyed a couple of really nice days there on the beach. And then things changed a little bit real quick.
38:23
Peter Dunn
Before you went, was there any talk of canceling your trip?
38:26
Damian Dunn
No.
38:26
Peter Dunn
Okay, so you get there. What day did you raise an eyebrow of? Like, do we have to make a decision here?
38:34
Damian Dunn
I think Mrs. Advice and I looked at each other Sunday night and said, maybe we ought to check and just see kind of what the contingency plans are at this point. And so Monday morning, I went down to the front desk and said, hey, I don't know if you know this, but there's something going on out in the Gulf, and we've got a lot of people here and a lot of people on the island. I'm not sure what's going on. I was given the story, which I still believe to be very true. I haven't seen any pictures of where we stayed yet, but it's elevated, it's built on pilings, and it's category five rated plus, and it's really a pretty phenomenal structure. I would be shocked if water got to the area where the pool is in the upper level. So we thought, all right, well, unless this gets a direct hit, we're probably going to be all right.
39:31
Damian Dunn
And then the weather continued to progress, and we looked at the maps and looked at where the hurricane was, and then looked back at where were on the map and thought, okay, it was a little uncomfortable, but I think we can do this.
39:44
Peter Dunn
You know what?
39:44
Damian Dunn
How many kids get to tell their friends that? My parents took us on vacation, and we got to see our very first hurricane, so maybe this will be a good thing for us to just weather out and teach our kids about resilience. Tuesday afternoon, things were looking drastically different. And at 730 that evening, we got a knock on our door and said, hi, you got to go. The bridges are going to close to get off the island in probably about 30 minutes. Got to go. We hadn't packed.
40:20
Peter Dunn
Did you forget a charger? I always forget a charger at a hotel.
40:23
Damian Dunn
We forgot one yeti.
40:24
Peter Dunn
Cup.
40:25
Damian Dunn
That was it.
40:25
Peter Dunn
Oh, that's, like, $1,000.
40:27
Damian Dunn
I know.
40:28
Peter Dunn
That's the biggest waste of money of the trip is the Yeti cup.
40:31
Damian Dunn
No yetis are replaceable. Yetis are replaceable, Pete. Yetis.
40:34
Peter Dunn
Okay, so we've got three and a half minutes here, so, Dame, you guys jump in the convertible.
40:44
Damian Dunn
I don't know if you know this, Pete, but convertibles have tops that go up, and they keep you protected from the elements.
40:49
Peter Dunn
Yeah, but it's cloth. Top cloth.
40:52
Damian Dunn
Yeah, it's still cloth. Yeah, but it's just rain at this point.
40:55
Peter Dunn
I love that bald guy. Tries to explain how convertibles work to another bald guy. There's just something sort of like we both have convertibles.
41:03
Damian Dunn
We hop in the car, make it onto mainland, and start headed towards the airport, because that's where were going to return our convertible and pick up an SUV and beat feet to get out of harm's way. But as we're driving to the airport, we're listening to the radio and trying to pay attention to what's going on. Rain is coming down probably harder than I've ever experienced at making visibility virtually zero at times.
41:34
Peter Dunn
So nervous right now, man.
41:36
Damian Dunn
Well, wait. And so the emergency sound comes across. The radio says, tornadic activity spotted here and here, and 30 seconds later, we pass a sign that says, that's exactly where we're at. So we did. The only thing we could do is just continue traveling through as fast as we can.
42:03
Kristen Ahlenius
What, are you going to stop?
42:05
Peter Dunn
Yeah, stop.
42:06
Damian Dunn
Get in a ditch. Drown in a ditch. So we keep going because we figure there's some delay between the time that report is generated and then broadcast, so it's probably already passed at that point. And plus, they came on and said, there's no guarantee that this actually touched the ground. It's just in the air. All right, well, here we go. So we just kept on going and eventually made it to the airport. I'm pretty confident were the last person to get a car out of Fort Myers Airport. The company that we rented the convertible from had abandoned the airport at that point, and so they closed their lots off. And so we left it outside their lot and got excellent service from National Rent A Car or whatever their full proper name is. They were fabulous to work with. They got us into the biggest, heaviest thing I could possibly get my hands on, and we escaped.
43:09
Peter Dunn
Man. I don't know if I was ready for that, now that I hear it.
43:12
Kristen Ahlenius
Oh, my gosh.
43:14
Peter Dunn
All right, well, I got a million questions. I'm going to take all of them off the air, though, because I just want to know how the kids are and Mrs. Advice and all that. I don't really want to go through that on the air, but Kristen and I are really glad you're safe, and we're glad you guys made that decision. And I think it's going to be really strange to eventually see pictures of that area that you just spent time, so absolutely.
43:38
Damian Dunn
And if you've got any fury, go find the Red Cross send that way. It's going to be a long recovery for a lot of people that are in great need down there.
43:47
Peter Dunn
All right, so, Dame, thanks for coming and popping in and giving us that story. Kristen, as always, thank you for the news items you brought us this week, which was just a hurricane story for Dame. Everybody else, we're sending you good vibes because good vibes are all that's in the budget other than the funds we're going to donate to the red cross, and we hope you do the same. We'll see you next week. This is the mean, not that this matters and this is really dramatic, but I literally have the chills right now, Dame, because this is about me, not about your experience.
44:24
Damian Dunn
This is about me. I'm affected. It was an experience. I don't care to ever go through that again. And should we have made decisions earlier? Probably. But we made the best decisions we could with the information that we had given to us by people we trusted to give us the best information possible. They've been through things like this and they had an experience there's all sorts of crazy stuff. When they came and knocked on our door, they gave us a copy of the notice of evacuation, gave us maps to shelters that just happened to be closer to where the landfall of the hurricane was going to be. And the timestamp on the facts that they got facts still was 2 hours before we got it.
45:23
Peter Dunn
And it's with that we're going to go. I do have to go. Jeremiah so I hope you don't like storm stories. Dame, I'm actually going to give you a call this afternoon. I'd love to if you're available. If you're taking phone calls. Kristen, you became all of a sudden very uninteresting in this segment.
45:41
Kristen Ahlenius
It's fine.
45:42
Peter Dunn
Can you do better?
45:44
Kristen Ahlenius
I cannot.
45:46
Peter Dunn
Okay. Thanks, everybody. We appreciate you. We're glad Dame's safe and wishing for the best for all the people in southwest Florida and all of Florida and now South Carolina. So American red Cross. You can text and make a donation. $10 via text. I don't know the number. You can google it. I'm not a walking google. Stay getting money. Bye.
