Peter Dunn: [00:00:00] Happy Christmas. Happy Christmas. Oh, it's the holiday and happy Hanukkah. Happy Kwanzaa. Kristen, what am I missing? I feel like I'm missing a holiday.
Kristen Ahlenius: I don't
Peter Dunn: know. Happy all the holidays. Welcome to the Pete the Planet show. Last show of 2024. Joining me Dame is on sabbatical. No, I don't know. Like how long gone for three weeks?
That's like junior sabbatical.
Kristen Ahlenius: It is, but in his defense, we announced holiday closure a little late around here and Dame's work anniversary is at the end of the year. So he had some time saved up. So
Peter Dunn: I honestly have no idea how any of that works. Hello, Rev Renfro. I don't. Kristen. I told you earlier today.
We're sitting out in the main space. I'm getting some work done. And I was like, Hey, on Monday, does so and so want to go to lunch? They're like, we're closed on Monday. And I'm like, ah, okay don't tell my wife. Cause I want to come [00:01:00] to work. Hey, Andy happy holidays to you. We miss Dame as. We've got an eventful show given that we're going to be off for two weeks.
So this is the last show. So I don't know about you, Kristen, but do you get frustrated when you go to a podcast feed and you look for that day when your podcast is supposed to come out and it doesn't come out and you're like,
Kristen Ahlenius: dang it. And they didn't tell me.
Peter Dunn: Yeah,
Kristen Ahlenius: that's really upsetting for me.
Peter Dunn: What do you think of the move of the repost of an older show?
Do you like that move? Hi,
Kristen Ahlenius: Rochelle. If it depends on how loyal I am to that show in particular, because some of my shows I've seen them all. So if you're giving me a repeat, I'm very upset.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, I feel that way too. Do you ever start a new show and you start a new show and you just start where you start, and it's not like an episodic one, it's just like a new episode.
It's not episodic, it's just a new episode. And you start there, and then you go back and catch the library over time. Do you ever do that?
Kristen Ahlenius: No, because I feel like for [00:02:00] that to happen, you have to watch it live.
Peter Dunn: Watch it. I'm not talking. You watch your podcast. I guess people are currently watching this podcast.
Hey, Dan. Hello, Rick.
Kristen Ahlenius: I watch all my podcasts. Do you? Do you really? You don't? And I wouldn't say like intently, but like the video is playing.
Peter Dunn: I consume my podcasts usually around 5 a. m. I've woken up for now the third time because I'm a. Geriatric, sure. And so then I can't sleep. So I just put on my pillow causing all sorts of rays to go into my head or whatever.
And I just listened to podcasts for a couple hours. And so I consume a couple of podcasts by 7 a. m. every day. Hi, JL. Hello, Andy. Still sleeping. Oh, I already said hi to Andy. All right. Do you want to do the show? Oh, my do you listen to your podcast while you rock rocking update? I haven't rocked in a while, but I need to rock Christie.
How many New Year's resolutions you want to share here? Are you doing dry [00:03:00] January?
Kristen Ahlenius: Oh yeah.
Peter Dunn: Okay. I am too. I'm going to try to do dry quarter, see what happens. By the way, I'm starting on the 5th because I'm going to be in New York. So I'm sorry, I can't help it.
Kristen Ahlenius: So not dry January.
Peter Dunn: Dry most February, but it's not like anyway.
Yeah, I'm going to work out more. I, whatever. Okay, let's do a show. I do want to note that tonight I'm doing a comedy show. My cousin, Danny Dunn, for those in Indianapolis, their tickets are still available. Victory Field, where the Indianapolis Indians play baseball games, there's like a nice corporate suite area in there and Danny Dunn and friends, I'm apparently his friend, despite the fact that I'm his cousin I'm hosting the show, so I'll do some jokes, I'll bring up the comedians, do some more jokes, bring up more comedians.
Rick Swinks wants me to do 75 Hard. Here's the thing. Kristen, you've done 75 Hard, haven't you?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah, a few times. In fact, I'm wrestling with the idea of [00:04:00] starting the new year with 75 hard.
Peter Dunn: I'll look into it, Rick, because you've never guided me astray, but I'll just say this. I'm very soft, and the idea of going 75 hard feels like it might be able to kill me.
Might kill me.
Kristen Ahlenius: Do 75 soft.
Peter Dunn: Is that a thing?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah.
Peter Dunn: Oh, great. Boy. All of a sudden, Rick works for Nike. Do it! Anyway, comedy show. Kristen, here's the thing about the comedy show tonight. I've had a very busy week. So I will be working on my material as I drive down to Victory Field tonight, and we'll we'll just go with it.
We'll just go with it.
Kristen Ahlenius: I am glad I'm not you.
Peter Dunn: Mainly just Purdue jokes is what I'm gonna make because IU and Notre Dame played tonight. Okay, let's do a show because no one gives a rip about any of what I'm talking about. What do you want to start with? We have a couple things.
Kristen Ahlenius: I have no You say it always has to be the best segment, so whichever one you feel like is the best.
Do I say that?
Peter Dunn: The first segment's the best segment?
Kristen Ahlenius: That it has to be meaty. Like it's got [00:05:00] to be real. So you usually start with like your column. Wow. That's what you said.
Peter Dunn: Who said? No one even knows what that means. Hey, I'm working on my Spanish right now.
Kristen Ahlenius: Oh.
Peter Dunn: Yeah.
Kristen Ahlenius: Do you have an app?
Peter Dunn: Tell me more.
Duolingo. Same. I'm working on it. I think I'll share this with you. My son's playing in the Latin league soccer. And I'm just like, I'm a visitor in that community. And I want to like, I want to so many people. Who don't speak English as their primary language, learn English so they can better communicate in certain situations yet.
We tend to not do that. So I'm like, I want to do that. That's fair. How long
Kristen Ahlenius: have you been committed to your Duolingo journey?
Peter Dunn: About a week and a half in. Oh.
Kristen Ahlenius: No, it's new. That's fair. That's fair.
Peter Dunn: I'm not going to work on it with you here, cause,
Kristen Ahlenius: for the best.
Peter Dunn: Okay, let's start in three.
We'll just go with it. Three, three, two, this week on the Pete, the planner show, we answer your money [00:06:00] questions. Here's how the show works. You email us, ask Pete at Pete, the planner. com. That's ask Pete at Pete, the planner. com. And if your personal finance question rises to the level of genius, you probably won't read it on the air, but if you need some help, we will help you with that.
Joining me as always most times is Kristen Alenius. Kristen, hello. Hello, Pete. Damien Dunn, who has the same last name as me, looks remotely like me is not here this week. He is on junior sabbatical. Yes, indeed. Okay. Donde esta la biblioteca? I'm working on my Spanish, so throughout the show I will be giving you Spanish phrases and that means, where is The library.
Thank you. Okay. Kristen, I want to start with a little guessing game for you. It turns out as you may or may not know, you are between the ages of 21 and 35. I am indeed. And if you added those ages together, that's closer to my [00:07:00] age. No. So there was a report that came out this week of the old, what should a person have saved by the time they're this age?
And so I'd like to do a little guessing game with you.
Kristen Ahlenius: Okay.
Peter Dunn: We're going to do our best here. And we're going to, we're going to start with. For a worker earning the median income in the country. Okay, so a worker Having the median income you should have Three times your salary by the age of 40 Six times your salary by the time you're 50 and eight times by the time you're 60 Okay that and so what this report is saying is as a rule of thumb You want three times your salary by the age of 40?
Kristen Kind of doing some reverse math here. That means at age 40, you would want 126, 000 to know that you have some level of financial stability. [00:08:00] Okay. You are a personal finance expert. You are a certified financial planner practitioner. Indeed, you hear a 40 year old has 126, 000 set aside for retirement.
What do you think?
Kristen Ahlenius: I have many thoughts and it's because that number just does not tell any sort of story. It doesn't give us any context around how long they've made that income, how well they've done with their saving. Have they had. Relationship transitions that have affected their retirement savings.
What is their household saving look like? I have so many thoughts.
Peter Dunn: All right. So I will say this. Let's say I am where I'm just I'm working. I'm working and I average the median income in this country and I'm 40 years old. I have 126, 000. That's pretty solid.
Kristen Ahlenius: I
Peter Dunn: think it's
Kristen Ahlenius: pretty solid. I was gonna say I don't feel like it's enough.
Peter Dunn: Oh, it's not enough, but it's [00:09:00] pretty solid.
Kristen Ahlenius: Because it's relative, right? That's what's so hard about this advice, is people see these numbers that they don't have, or this idea that We had for so long nationally that, Hey, you need a million dollars to retire successfully. It feels so out of reach and people just throw their hands up.
So that could be where my trepidation comes in there.
Peter Dunn: Go banking rates. com pulled 1000 working American ages, 21 and older, and have been in their current roles for at least one year
Kristen Ahlenius: of those
Peter Dunn: 1000 Americans. What percentage of those people don't have a 401k, Kristin? No 401k at
Kristen Ahlenius: all.
Peter Dunn: Of a thousand working Americans, what percentage don't have a 401k?
Kristen Ahlenius: 25 percent
Peter Dunn: What? So when I heard that, I was like, man, this is some skewed data because they clearly didn't ask certain types of professions. So I do not feel like that data point is [00:10:00] a cross section of this working class United States. Okay. How about this? Of that thousand people, specifically workers, 21 to 35 specifically.
21 to 35. What percentage have less than 25, 000?
Kristen Ahlenius: A third of them.
Peter Dunn: 33%. Close. Close. 20%. 20%. 20%.
Kristen Ahlenius: Okay. That's better than I expected.
Peter Dunn: How, what percentage have between 25 and 50k by the time they're 35?
Kristen Ahlenius: Can I go back to my 33 percent guess?
Peter Dunn: 31. 7%. That's a great guess. Okay. Let's see what you do with this between 15, a hundred, what percentage of people by the time the 35 is basically what it's saying.
Kristen Ahlenius: Okay.
Peter Dunn: Have between 50 to a hundred and their 401k.
Kristen Ahlenius: 65 percent
Peter Dunn: how could it be 65 when we've already [00:11:00] done those other percentages?
Kristen Ahlenius: Oh, that's a really great question So whatever is left 100 minus 33 minus
Peter Dunn: oddly. Okay, so interesting, right? oddly, the answer is 33 percent so so listen we went 20%
Kristen Ahlenius: 20,
Peter Dunn: 30, 30, and now that means there's 10 left over.
So between 100 and 500, 000, roughly 10 percent of people age 35 have between 100 and 500, 000. And then no one surveyed had more than 500, 000.
Kristen Ahlenius: Okay, can you, one, I didn't realize there was still going to be a bracket left, so I was trying to get whatever's left, but the takeaway here is that people are, that they pulled because obviously the sample wasn't representative, are on track?
Peter Dunn: I don't know if they, they pulled that out, but I would simply say, If you have between [00:12:00] 100, 000 and 500, 000 in your 401k by the time you're 35, that's pretty solid. That's, you're gonna be, obviously the higher the better. The fact that a third of people between 50 and 100, that's not necessarily discouraging by any means.
Have between 50 and 133%. I'd be a little nervous at the 25 to 50%, which is also a 30 or 25 to 50,000, which is also a third.
.
What is a person when they hear this, what are they supposed to do with this? If, let's say you're 34 years old, you got 75 grand. Which puts you in the middle sort of third there.
You're supposed to feel bad about yourself? Are you supposed to contextualize everything else that's happened to your life that led to that? What are you supposed to do, Kristin?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah, you're absolutely sit in that awareness. Contextualize what that means for you, your lifestyle, your income, your unique circumstances.
And then look toward a plan of action. Start to build a plan to, if you need to make up a difference, say, Hey, I didn't say that well in my early twenties or my mid late [00:13:00] twenties and say, what is it going to take to, right? The ship, if you will.
Peter Dunn: I do think there's a more of an appetite, at least in Gen Z to invest.
I think my question would be is it investing in retirement? I feel like I have no data because I generally don't. I have no data, but I believe Gen Z does more non qualified investing than previous generations because of things like alternative investment classes and cryptocurrencies and those sorts of things.
Do you get a sense that Gen Z is doing more non qualified investing?
Kristen Ahlenius: I would agree with that. And again, we don't have the data to support that, but I think it's just a byproduct of the access that we have to investing. I don't think that I think previous generations would have been inclined to do the same if they had an app that allowed them to buy securities on their phone.
Peter Dunn: This is interesting. This is interesting because to that very point, when I was in high school, I invested a lot. Like I was an ongoing [00:14:00] investor and I knew of probably two or three other people at an 1800 person high school that also did that. Again, I didn't survey all 1800 kids at Pike high school in 1996, but I know I was actively investing.
I knew a couple other nerds were too. Today, anecdotally, the stories I hear of my daughter's friends and people I know as kids, a much larger cross section of kids are invested. I would say 10 percent of high school kids are actively investing, which is pretty wild. I think it's awesome. It's a made up stat.
I would, we should do a study. All right. Coming up after the break, the top 10 personal finance stories. Of 2024. That's next, right here on the Pete the Planner Show. I'm Pete the Planner.
10%? I might buy that.[00:15:00]
Kristen Ahlenius: I don't know.
Peter Dunn: I would also have to, probably, area codes, or zip codes, probably contribute to that as well.
Sure.
Kristen Ahlenius (2): Sure.
Peter Dunn: Sure. Alright. Are you ready for these top 10 stories?
All right, let's just crank through them. What we'll do is I'll bring them up and then we will talk about the impact.
What we can do is we'll bring them up, we'll talk about the impact they had this year, and then maybe we'll try to say will that trend continue in 2025?
Kristen Ahlenius: Oh, interesting. I also think our level of awareness of some of these things would be telling.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, that's true. I haven't really read through the list, so we'll find out.
Good deal. Go figure. Three, two, one. Back on the Pete the Planner show. Kristen, happy Christmas to you.
Kristen Ahlenius: Happy Christmas indeed.
Peter Dunn: And all the other holidays which you celebrate New Year's.
Kristen Ahlenius (2): Yeah,
Peter Dunn: so happy New Year's to you. I'm going to be in [00:16:00] New York the day after New Year's Eve, so it could smell like a sock.
Kristen Ahlenius: Ew.
Peter Dunn: I know, but we're going to steer clear of that area for sure. All right, Kristen. Top 10 personal finance stories of 2024 compiled by my GPT, my chat GPT has done this for me. Thank you, AI. By the way. Yes. Have we talked about Alexa on this show recently? Like the Amazon. I don't believe we have.
OG AI. Bye. Let me give you some disclosures real quick. I am an Amazon shareholder. Okay. I also don't want to anger Jeff Bezos. Fair. It is the, it's gotten terrible. Agreed. It's terrible. So you could argue it was the original AI. It's like this companion that knows stuff, that searches. It's terrible.
It's somehow gotten worse. And like, how is it that this thing, which [00:17:00] if I'm cooking and I don't mean like seventh grade boys talk about cooking, which is like performing well in sports, but I'm literally preparing a meal for my family. If I say, Hey, Alexa, what's a good substitute for this or that?
I don't know. But if I get on my phone and I just go to chat GPT and I use the verbal thing and ask, so I want to be able to activate that anytime. What do we do? Anyway, top 10 stories. Number one, student loan forgiveness initiatives. The Biden administration continued efforts to alleviate student loan forgiving billions of thousands, billions for thousands of borrowers through various programs.
In fact, Kristen, just this morning, there was a big news drop about another batch of student loan forgiveness. Massive story. My prediction is that it's going to be a massive story for a different reason in 2025 that is not so great. Kristen, what do you think?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah, I would agree with that. The Biden Harris administration takes credit.
And I mean it when I say that for 180 [00:18:00] billion for nearly five Americans. And the reason I use those words specifically is that 78 billion of it was through public service loan forgiveness. But I definitely agree it's I think we're gonna hear so much about student loans, ongoing court challenges, people trying to buy back payments.
It's a mess and I think that it will be very negative in 25 unfortunately.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, I want to clarify one point that you made there is yes, the Biden and Harris Biden. Harris administration did do some specific thing to have student loans forgiven for people. A vast majority of those student loans forgiven of which they took credit for had nothing to do with them.
It's just that people qualified for them because it's a calendar driven program and their 120 payments were up. So I agree. I think it's those stories are all going to turn negative. And I think there's a reasonable cool. Not a majority possibility, but a reasonable possibility. The public service loan forgiveness gets flipped on its head a little bit in the next [00:19:00] couple of years, but we'll see.
Next credit card rewards programs, scrutiny, the consumer financial protection bureau, warrant credit card issuers against devaluing or canceling reward points, emphasizing the importance of transparency and fairness and reward programs. Chris, I can be honest with you. I don't remember that story here in 2024.
Do you?
Kristen Ahlenius: I don't remember it either, but I am very out of touch with the credit card reward world. I think sometimes people are very in tune with what cards are best. So I think it's just lack of exposure for me.
Peter Dunn: I will say. My airline miles that I have through a particular airline when they change those programs so radically that it, it devalues them to this crazy level.
I, because of business travel and all these things, I have all these points and rewards on things. They made a significant change to the program this year. Boy, it stinks. Like it, it actually makes me feel like I lost thousands [00:20:00] of dollars somehow. So I'm glad there is some scrutiny there, though. I would argue.
Isn't there talks of the CFPB going away under the Trump administration?
Kristen Ahlenius: I think there's a lot of talk of a lot of things going away.
Peter Dunn: Okay, so do we expect more scrutiny for that and for airlines? I'll say airlines because I know the Transportation Administration Department of Transportation was, under Pete Buttigieg, was really into sticking it to airlines if they did weird stuff.
I think that trend does not continue in 2025.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah, I don't think it does either.
Peter Dunn: Generation Z's income expectations is the third story of 2024. Many Gen Z individuals express belief that an annual income A 500, 000 is necessary for financial success reflecting concerns of a rising living costs and economic instability.
While I had not seen that exact number, maybe I have and I've dismissed it so I can sleep at [00:21:00] night. I do think every generation. To be fair, that makes its way into the workforce has increased salary expectations. So on some level, Kristen, I'm trying to be fair. I don't feel like we should really stick it to Gen Z because they're Gen Z.
I think every generation feels this way.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah, I think I couldn't agree more. Every generation wants more than the previous generation. So the challenge here is the stark difference between the expectations of millennials and Gen Z that I find slightly concerning, but hope that we see more of that level out as that generation spends more time in the workforce.
You
Peter Dunn: are a much younger, A human being than I am. But at one point in time, younger generations were always talked about as being entitled. And I think this headline actually captures the truth better is that they're expectant. And I think expectant is different than entitled.
And I would also again, it's important to acknowledge. From the [00:22:00] what it costs to live and survive as a young person today a lot more expensive than it was When I was that 22 year old that expected a reasonable base salary, by the way The standard base salary when I got out of college in the year 2000 was 30 grand If you could come out making 30 grand you're fine.
For what it's worth. All right next story of the year buy now pay later Industry grows. The BNPL rolls off the tongue sector saw significant expansion with companies like a firm securing substantial funding commitments, indicating a shift in consumer credit preferences. Kristen, will the buy now pay later trend continue?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yes. And I think it's going to get worse. You can affirm everything for easy payments. I see that every time I go to buy something online. I think it only gets worse.
Peter Dunn: Side note, my seventh grader starts a personal finance course when he comes back to school after the holiday break. So he's got his required seventh grade [00:23:00] personal finance course.
And I'm fascinated to know. If they talk about BNPL, because if I'm a young developing mind around money and I see the Affirm or whatever Klarna logo every time I see something online, I need some help understanding what that is. I'm just curious if they're going to talk about that.
Kristen Ahlenius: I would hope. That they are, but you never know.
Peter Dunn: You know what I'm going to do? I think we're going to have Ted, my son, come on and give regular personal finance updates on the show of what he's learning as a seventh grader. You want to do that?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yes.
Peter Dunn: I've also joked on can you imagine you're the teacher and you got some. Some kid it's my dad's a personal finance expert.
And you're just like, okay, go to the principal's office. Detention. My auntie, Kristen knows a lot too. All right. Final one before the break retirement regrets among older Americans. Surveys revealed common retirement [00:24:00] regrets, including inadequate savings and over reliance on social security offering lessons for younger generations to improve their financial planning.
Kristen, that's one of the top stories of the year that people didn't retire with enough assets. And they depended too much on social security. How is that even news? That's just called Tuesday.
Kristen Ahlenius: Exactly. And that's speaks to, we're going to continue to see this because collectively we are behind from a retirement perspective.
Peter Dunn: So let's do this after the break. We're going to hit the next five trends 2024. Will they continue? By the way, that last one will continue into infinity. I'm Pete, the planner, and this is the Pete, the planner show. We know how the show's going this week, don't we? What do you think Dame's doing right now?
Kristen Ahlenius: That's a great question. Not watching the show.
Peter Dunn: My daughter thinks I should fly to Turkey over the break and get a hair transplant. She said it at [00:25:00] dinner last night. I was like, Hey, what are you guys getting me for Christmas? And she goes, I know what we should get you. And I was like, Oh, I'd love to hear that.
She's like a plane ticket to Turkey. And I was like, and why would that be? And she said, so you can, and she just did like a hand motion. I'm like, Hey, that's really funny. And I love that. I've. partially helped create that sense of humor. B, how dare ye,
Kristen Ahlenius: I've said it before and I'll say it again. I am not tough enough to be a regular at your household.
Our
Peter Dunn: kitchen table is brutal.
Kristen Ahlenius: Nope, not for me.
Peter Dunn: Brutal.
Kristen Ahlenius: I'm
Peter Dunn: soft. Okay. I'm soft.
Kristen Ahlenius: I am. I'll cry.
Peter Dunn: Da. And we start again in three, two, one back on the Pete, the planner show. It's the holiday edition, final show of the year. And then we will go to best of for a couple of weeks where, you know next Friday is [00:26:00] what is the 27th, which is a really.
Important day to not work. And then of course the next week I'm on vacation. Okay. Kristen, we're hitting the top 10 personal finance stories of 2024. Here's what we've hit so far. Student loan forgiveness was a hot topic. Credit card rewrote reward programs were scrutinized. Generation Z's income expectations were wild.
Buy now pay later industry grew like crazy. And the last one we covered before the break is that retirement regrets. Exist among older Americans, Kristen. Yeah. What?
Kristen Ahlenius: Of course. And
Peter Dunn: yes, that one will persist. The next one, who Nelly financial literacy influencers on the rise, personal finance influence, such as Vivian too.
Gained prominence by providing accessible financial advice through [00:27:00] social media platforms, empowering individuals to make informed financial decisions. Kristen, I think you and I share the sentiment that we are very thankful that there are some personal finance influencers out there. Delivering tried and true advice, correct?
Kristen Ahlenius: I, yes, could not agree more. We need more financial literacy.
Peter Dunn: And with all due respect, I have no idea who Vivian too is, and she likely has no idea who I am. So that's okay. That's just how a planet of 7 billion people work. That being said there's a lot of bad. There is, there's a lot of bad that does definitely more harm than good.
Kristen Ahlenius: So if people are looking for good, if they're trying to increase their exposure to financial literacy. Other than the Pete the Planner show, do you have any people that you think they should watch? Do you have any favorites?
Peter Dunn: No, because I don't want to be the old guy. I don't I am the old guy now.
By the way friend of the show, Rochelle, notes on our live stream that Vivian is awesome. Great. She's got the Rochelle seal of [00:28:00] approval. So Vivian is awesome. That's what we've learned. I don't know. I'll just tell you the evolution of that industry in the last 20 years has been certainly interesting.
It was sort of Robert Kiyosaki, Dave Ramsey, David Bach. Susie Orman got in there, and that's when I started to try to get on that train, had that way and made some progress for sure. I don't know, I don't know the landscape today though. And I will say this cynically. I think, yes, that is about helping people, but I also think the trappings of social media and monetization of social media also turn into just the fame game.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah, that's fair.
Peter Dunn: I was subject to that too, so whatever. Okay. Oh, look at this. Rachelle says she recommends this show and her financial literacy teaching. Did we know Rachelle teaches financial literacy?
Kristen Ahlenius: No,
Peter Dunn: Michelle, I'm sorry. I didn't know that you and Andy, we got a few practitioners [00:29:00] here. All right.
Number seven, personal finance story of 2024 tax loss harvesting strategies. Despite market gains, investors utilize tax loss selling to offset gains with losses from underperforming securities. That's the, that's a top 10 story of 2024. According to my chat, GPT,
Kristen Ahlenius: I think your chat GPT is broken.
Peter Dunn: It's drunk. That's, that's literally every year. I would say maybe there's more automated strategies with robo investors, but like betterment, they've been doing that for a decade.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah, that's fair. I have my brokerage account set up for that. There's a little box that you check when you start your account.
I couldn't tell you a thing that they bought or sold this year. But it's their
Peter Dunn: tax lost harvesting. So will that trend continue?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah. Yeah. We'll always has
Peter Dunn: number eight and boy, do I wish our bald friend was here? Potential government shutdown concerns, fear of a U S government shutdown due to spending bill disagreements, [00:30:00] created market volatility, highlighting the impact of political decisions.
On personal finances, Kristen, I have to admit to you, even as early as this morning, I was listening to a podcast on this. I don't know if I've ever had more complex and mixed feelings about a topic in my entire life as it relates to personal finance. Like I don't want there to be a government shutdown.
I also know that funding for the Washington commanders football team stadium that was in a version of the spinning bill that was being voted on makes absolutely no sense. So this idea that like we should be able to come to a conclusion of how to avoid a shutdown, but the more stuff that gets slapped on those bills by Both sides of the aisles and the give, okay, we'll put this on.
And if you put this on, it's a mess, it's a mess. And I also, I have more feelings that start to turn political, so I don't really want to go there, but I don't want the government to shut down what tomorrow is that what we're up against? [00:31:00] Do you think? We're in the prediction game here on this show.
We've got for our Sunday listeners, by the way, tomorrow is yesterday for our Tuesday listeners. Tomorrow is last week. I think it happens. I think, I don't think they come to a deal. Do you?
Kristen Ahlenius: No, because this happens, this hat for the majority of my adulthood, this is the conversation that we have now.
I don't know. Was it? Tell us about it. Was it always like this?
Peter Dunn: No, you are right. Your adulthood is about what? 10 years old ish. Yeah. Maybe a little further back. I'd say my adulthood is 25 years old. I'd say 18 to 20 years of it's been that way, but it's also possible this first five years I wasn't paying attention.
Kristen Ahlenius: That's fair. That
Peter Dunn: hair is handsome.
Yeah, that's a weird one. That's a weird one because I don't want to get into it too much, honestly, because this is not a politics show and I'm just not, [00:32:00] we can talk about the economy. There's some good and the bad that's going to come with that, but the idea that a professional football team stadium in Washington, D.
C. is part of that bill is insane.
Kristen Ahlenius: But the revenue,
Peter Dunn: Pete. Oh, don't start with me. Number nine, personal finance story of the year, credit card debt management with rising consumer credit card debt. Financial experts like Kristen Alani has emphasized strategies for effective debt management, including budgeting and prudent spending to maintain financial health.
That's a story of the year.
Kristen Ahlenius: Okay, hold on. To be fair, in a rising interest rate environment, when credit card debt is generally variable, I think that we felt the squeeze more than we had in a lower rate environment. I don't think that anything actually changed surrounding our credit card spending and habits as a nation, but those increased interest rates.
do force pressure on the consumer.
Peter Dunn: Sometimes they feel great about chat [00:33:00] GPT and what it's able to provide to me and the value it delivers to my life on a daily basis. Others have not really exposed themselves to it. I use it all the time. For everything, including this list of top 10 stories of 2024, and it's a terrible list.
You know what? I'm going to send a message. I don't like your work here. Are you nice to AI? Generally, but they need feedback. I appreciate your feedback. Let's refine this. Okay. Number 10. And this is why, like Kristen, you're, I'm going to have to lean on you here. As always, you are the backbone of the show.
Number 10 story of 2024. Women's financial empowerment efforts despite notable achievements, a significant wage and gap persisted between men and women, prompting initiatives to empower women financially and address systemic disparities. Did you feel that in 2024? Was that happening in 2024?[00:34:00]
Kristen Ahlenius: I don't know that I did necessarily. But what I will say is we're having a lot more conversations collectively about gender differences and investing and things like that. And we also are seeing more female creators in personal finance. We're seeing more women achieve designations or certification. In my world, yes, but I And bias,
Peter Dunn: you know what?
That's a great point. And I actually love that. There, there are, because of content creators and how that all works today, there's more female influencers in personal finance. And that I love, cause sometimes when you're looking for that little nudge or you want representation, you want someone that maybe looks like you, or feels like you, or talks like you.
And I love it. It's fantastic. Let's do this. Let's take a break. Come back with the final biggest waste of money of the week.
Kristen Ahlenius: You
Peter Dunn: could call it waste of the year and the news that's next on Pete the Planner show. I'm Pete the Planner.
Kristen Ahlenius: I'm
Peter Dunn: flying through the show.
Kristen Ahlenius: I know we're not doing [00:35:00] any Think fun.
Peter Dunn: Oh, we aren't?
Kristen Ahlenius: No.
Peter Dunn: I've been having fun.
Kristen Ahlenius: Dame must be the humor for the show.
Peter Dunn: He must be. That's what everyone says. Everyone's man, that Damien, he sure is funny.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah.
Peter Dunn: The number of people saying that? I don't know. Okay. You got your news stories fired up?
Kristen Ahlenius: I do. I thought about sending them to you for you to read them, but
Peter Dunn: Do you want me to do it?
Kristen Ahlenius: No, I'm fine.
Peter Dunn: Okay, I'll just react. I'm trying to use my brain to write my stand up material for tonight since I haven't written it yet. Do you want any, do you want me to try out anything on you?
Kristen Ahlenius: I don't want to feel the pressure to laugh.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, the delivery's hard too. It's like a cold, I can't, I'll figure it out.
I'm not actually worried about it. But I do need to dedicate some brain power to it at some point today. That's fair.
Kristen Ahlenius: Alright. So you're coaching the IU Notre Dame game. Bummer.
Peter Dunn: [00:36:00] College football games are 35 hours long. I'm going to catch the second half, it's the over my morning overnight oats, I'll be able to, there's a joke in there.
All right, let's go queen. And three, two, one, this week's biggest waste of money of the week, right here on the Pete, the planter show is the work you are two 30. Polaris watch or works watches have traditionally been black, gray, or a muted texture timeout granted black and gray or colors. A muted texture is a texture.
Their watches have traditionally been black, gray, or a muted texture. I terrible copy. Yeah, probably could have used another proofread on that one. Yeah, that's not parallel structure back to it, which makes the UR 230 Polaris a true break from the norm. [00:37:00] Its case is carved from a block of proprietary fiberglass enhanced ceramic that's more resistant to impacts than ceramic alone.
Wow, Kristen, can you believe that? It's more, more resistant to impact than ceramic itself. The materials, visible fibers also give it a shimmering quality, which stands in contrast with the nearly all black, your work caliber, you are seven 30 movement. Words hermetically sealed inside a strong box like container.
It powers the three armed carousel, each holding a rotating block with four hours numerals while a skeletonized hand points to the minutes. It's also equipped with an airbrake designed to modulate the winding power. According to the wearer's level of activity, the watch sits on a white vulcanized rubber strap and is limited to 35.
Examples. This is the dumbest thing I think [00:38:00] I've ever seen. Kristen, for something so obnoxious that copy was written like this, what in the world would you what do you think it's worth?
Kristen Ahlenius: There were so many words in there that I had never heard before, and an equal amount of words that I've never heard used in those contexts
Peter Dunn: before.
Just a watch, kids. Just a watch. What do you think it costs?
Kristen Ahlenius: It is, there's only 35 of them, there's vulcanized rubber. This is a 700
watch. What?
Peter Dunn: What? What did you say?
Kristen Ahlenius: I said seven hundred.
Peter Dunn: Seven hundred.
Kristen Ahlenius: Is it a lot more? Should I multiply by ten?
Peter Dunn: Kristen, you said a seven hundred dollar watch? What? It's a hundred and seventy thousand dollars. Oh my god. This Congratulations, Kristen, on your worst guess of 2024. It only took fifty [00:39:00] some shows for you to show How poorly your brain estimates The cost of items.
Congratulations.
Kristen Ahlenius: Listen, I'm a woman for the people. We don't know how much these things cost.
Peter Dunn: That was terrible. Kristen, what is in the news this week?
Kristen Ahlenius: The change in loan servicers caused nearly 2 million duplicate student loan records to appear on borrower's credit reports. The faulty transfer of student loan accounts from Melnett to Mojila in 2023 led to quote millions of consumer credit reporting errors, end quote.
The change in loan servicers caused nearly 2 million duplicate records to appear while hundreds of thousands of borrowers credit scores were reported incorrectly for up to a year and a half. Mojila appears to have failed to inform the credit reporting companies of each loan transfer from Nelnet.
Mojila did not immediately respond to a request for comment. That stinks. It does.
Peter Dunn: Because, when people go [00:40:00] to have to fix it. It's not easy. It's a terrible process. Meanwhile they're impacted with their debt to income ratio. They're impacted where they try to go get correct interest rates on a car loan or a home loan, and there's nothing they can do about it.
And the government's just Oh, sorry.
Kristen Ahlenius: Sorry, we hired people that are incompetent. are bad.
Peter Dunn: That's terrible. You know what it takes to get something off a credit report?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah.
Peter Dunn: This is not a, Oh, okay. We'll just reverse it. No.
Kristen Ahlenius: Oh, because then they have to reach out to those companies and Mohila already wasn't doing what they were supposed to do.
The thing that's troubling to me in this is apparently Mohila, which is The company that received the student loans was supposed to report that they were no longer with Nelnet. Why isn't Nelnet just reporting that the loans have moved from them? Why would that be the new servicer's responsibility?
Peter Dunn: Not only that, but [00:41:00] if they can't get the that what you just said, there's no way they're going to get the correction right,
Kristen Ahlenius: no, and I've seen anecdotally people who are like, oh, my student loans fall off my credit report, now what? And I'm like, don't expect that to stay. They'll find you eventually.
Peter Dunn: This, okay, so just let's just think of a person here because it's just a lot easier. This happens to a guy named Gary. He discovers that when he runs his credit report, Gary is I don't know what to do. By the time it takes him figure out what to do, it gets fixed. This is at least an 18 month to two year problem for Gary, in my opinion.
Kristen Ahlenius: I would agree with that, but also what is the forcing function that then Gary realizes this is incorrect because everything is going to look correct on the new services portal and Gary, like most Americans is probably not checking their credit report and if they do, people don't understand generally if they've never looked before that their student loans are being [00:42:00] reported.
As itemized loans versus an aggregate. So Gary is overwhelmed just by that in and of itself, much less the misrep like reporting from Mohila and or Nelnet.
Peter Dunn: The other interesting part about that is people can be so overwhelmed with their student loan debt and they just give up knowing anything about it.
So if it does go up significantly, he may think he actually owes it.
Kristen Ahlenius: Agreed.
Peter Dunn: When you started reading this story, I was like, Oh, that's interesting. Now I'm actually mad. As
Kristen Ahlenius: because the government pays these people, they pay the servicers to manage these obligations that is their job and they fail over and over.
Peter Dunn: What else is in the news?
Kristen Ahlenius: Would you like something more uplifting? Yes. Yes, please. If you ditched cable for YouTube TV because it was cheaper and you wouldn't have to speak to another human being on the phone in order to cancel. [00:43:00] Only one of those things is still true. The internet platform told subscribers that it's raising the cost of its monthly subscription to 83 starting January 13th, up 10 from its current price, roughly in line with the average U.
S. cable TV bill. My question for you, Pete, is when was the last time you went back over your streaming services and Ended some of those relationships.
Peter Dunn: I think I did last year. Maybe at this time, I may have done like a canceled big Disney plus. I'll say this though. I got YouTube TV on a seven day trial or something earlier this year to try to watch a Caitlin Clark game for the fever because I couldn't get on my normal TV.
And I was like, and I sent alarm to cancel it, six days in or whatever. I almost would have preferred to call someone to cancel it because it was so hard to figure out how to cancel it. And I was like, I have a college degree, I run a tech company, and I couldn't figure it out. And so I'm like, [00:44:00] man, I would have rather just waited online and had someone yell at me.
Kristen Ahlenius: Or try to convince you to stay. Yeah.
Peter Dunn: I probably, you know what, to to your point maybe here, maybe I this holiday I can spend some time looking at subscriptions to see ones I don't use. I will tell you. A television subscription that I use a lot more this year than I previously had is Paramount Plus.
Really? Here's the thing. My wife says that any fiction media I consume is a fantasy of mine. Of I am a cowboy, I am a spy, I am a, I'm an oil rancher, whatever. All these Taylor Sheridan shows on Paramount Plus. Who's gonna
Kristen Ahlenius (2): say that?
Peter Dunn: She's she mocks me incessantly about most things because she sits at our kitchen table.
Kristen Ahlenius: Right.
Peter Dunn: Every single one of them. I'm like, I'm in every single one. Good. Good. Although I will say the mayor of Kingstown is the weirdest show ever. I haven't watched that one. It was with Jeremy Renner. He's this fixer. He's this go between, [00:45:00] between prisoners, prison guards, the police. And the feds, and he's this former felon that everyone trusts to keep the peace in the prison.
It's the dumbest idea ever, but I love it. All right, Kristen, this is it for the year next year. When we come back, I got promises. The show is going to go in some fun, new directions. I may be more handsome when we come back. If I go to Turkey for hair plugs and so much more, Kristen, thank you. Everyone else sending you good vibes.
Cause good vibes are all bits in the budget. I'm Pete, the planner. Speed The Planet Show. Do you like Taylor and Sheridan shows? I used to. Ooh, is there a story there?
Kristen Ahlenius: I just
Peter Dunn: That felt like I got punched in the face.
Kristen Ahlenius: I'm just over him writing himself as like a main character into shows. I think that he's better as a writer and not as the cowboy hero.[00:46:00]
Peter Dunn: That's, those are Yellowstone style. Did you watch Linus?
Kristen Ahlenius: I've only watched Yellowstone. Okay,
Peter Dunn: he's written, I've watched four or five of the series and he's written themselves into two, Yellowstone and then Linus, but then it's a bit part of Linus. Linus is phenomenal.
Kristen Ahlenius: This last season of Yellowstone was
Peter Dunn: I gave up on Yellowstone once I went through the hiatus.
I can't get back. I forget everything within a week. I gotta binge a show because otherwise I'm toast.
Kristen Ahlenius: The good news is the last season was so disjointed from the series previously, you wouldn't have to have remembered everything.
Peter Dunn: Oh yeah, that stinks.
Kristen Ahlenius: It's just all about Taylor Sheridan.
Peter Dunn: What are you going to do over the break?
Anything significant or fun?
Kristen Ahlenius: That's a fabulous question. Probably help do some repairs on a rental property for my mom. And hopefully finish up some honey do list items for the house to sell it. That's not fun. I [00:47:00] don't know if I'm doing anything fun.
Peter Dunn: Look at this. Your sister and I are basically best friends.
Are you seeing what she just put?
Kristen Ahlenius: I know. I know.
Peter Dunn: That's
Kristen Ahlenius: right. Like 1883 or whatever that one is in.
Peter Dunn: Kaitlyn and I are BFF. I'm going to New York at the end of the break for a little fun. I'm going to work on our YouTube channel. I wanted to, I want to make it a little better.
Kristen Ahlenius: Love that.
Peter Dunn: And I had to finish writing a book that I've been putting off.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah. Are you going to dabble in YouTube shorts for the YouTube channel? Like how involved are we getting in this?
Peter Dunn: We will see. Yeah. We do have some YouTube shorts. They're just not, whatever. Rick Swink says he had to Google share it. Google Taylor Sheridan. I've only seen him in Sons of Anarchy.
Also a great show. You ever watched Sons of Anarchy? Sorry. So many shows.
Kristen Ahlenius: I know. And I've seen, I just, none of those are really, I don't know, not so much my vibe. [00:48:00]
Peter Dunn: Kristen 2025 is going to be a big year around here.
Kristen Ahlenius: It is. I'm excited. Some
Peter Dunn: fun changes to the show. You're gonna get a donkey or two.
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah. I've been looking up videos of proper care for donkeys.
I need to be prepared.
Peter Dunn: I am not going to Google ass care.
Kristen Ahlenius: Probably a good move.
Peter Dunn: Yeah, at least not at work. Alright. This was fun. Kristen, thanks for a fun year. Thank you. I don't know if I'm going to talk to you again before 2025, now that I think about this. Why, when what do we, we'll probably text, but I don't think I want to talk to you.
Kristen Ahlenius: Probably not. No. How do you feel about that?
Peter Dunn: I get a little sad. Sad. I do love when we were able to text on the Kristen and co group text chain.
Kristen Ahlenius: Tom's always trying to get me to like message you guys about things that you say on the show. And I'm like, no, text him yourself.
Peter Dunn: Here's the good news.
I forget most of the things I say seconds after it comes out of my mouth, so I wouldn't even understand the reference. And by the way, you just used his government name. All [00:49:00] right. That's it everybody. Thanks for hanging out with us this year. Next year is going to be a pretty fun, so stay tuned a little more firepower for you next year.
What do we say? Oh yeah. Stay getting money.
