07:56
Peter Dunn
You. I was rolling out my recycling bin this morning, like so many people do, and I hear more glass than plastic. Why? Well, that's really about the habits that we have in our home. And I thought to myself, you know, like so many people before me go, who's separating this? We've got paper, we got cardboard, we got nine types of plastic with the triangles and we've got glass. I'm sure it's sorted, but I'm stuffing plastic within paper and bottles within plastic, and I've realized that A, I'm a tedious person that has these thoughts that are unoriginal, and B, too much time on my hands. Welcome to the manifestation of having too much time on your hands. A podcast? Kristen, Dame. Hello.
08:52
Kristen Ahlenius
Hello.
08:53
Damian Dunn
Good day.
08:54
Peter Dunn
How often does your recycling come, kristen every other week. Dame same for you? Same every week for you know It's not a hot take because it's sort of an old take. It's not a fresh take, I should say. I'm not convinced it actually gets sorted. No offense. It's like the old Pin and Teller they show on Showtime is like BS or whatever. I don't know.
09:23
Kristen Ahlenius
It probably doesn't. I'm pretty sure that where I'm at right now. They're not currently recycling, but also if you're not treating your recycling properly, it's not being recycled. Like removing outer plastic labels and rinsing it out a lot of places then can't use it. So most of what you're putting in the recycling can, they probably can't use.
09:41
Peter Dunn
Boy, this is uplifting.
09:43
Kristen Ahlenius
Sorry.
09:44
Peter Dunn
No, we did it. Dame, do you clean out the peanut butter jar before you put it in?
09:49
Damian Dunn
I don't eat peanut butter know.
09:52
Peter Dunn
I know that. That was the why.
09:54
Damian Dunn
Yeah, thanks. Because it doesn't taste right after COVID. Peanut butter does not taste like the.
10:00
Peter Dunn
Worst thing that can happen to someone I know, especially a dad. Okay, let's do this. We've got a fun show today and it is, unfortunately, Jeremiah, one of those shows in which my life is going to take precedence over the show. So we're going to have to go quickly. Dane, we got a food segment today. Peanut butter no, better honey. Kristen, you ever get down on the peanut butter and honey sandwich?
10:25
Kristen Ahlenius
Not usually. Peanut butter and banana, like in a waffle.
10:30
Peter Dunn
You had to crack the honey. So we're going to talk honey today. Then we're going to talk about signs that your financial stability is slipping. I think it's called having two teenagers. And then finally maybe the mailbag. We'll see what happens. Maybe some witty banter about recycling. I don't know what's in the bag. We'll see what happens. Daniel says PB H for life. Oh, I feel you there. Yeah, that's what I grew up on. Damien, people are feeling you were literally the only other person I know had COVID caused peanut butter. That's wild. It's always fun to read things on a podcast and reference what is on the screen when the listener can't hear it.
11:14
Damian Dunn
Yeah, that's awesome.
11:16
Peter Dunn
Okay, let's bring Sarah in. Hold on, Sarah. Hello.
11:21
Speaker 4
Hey, thanks so much for having me on, guys. I appreciate it.
11:23
Peter Dunn
All right, so Sarah also is a podcaster. Sarah, you have a legal podcast?
11:26
Speaker 4
Yeah, that's right. It's called the perpetual stew. I am the dummy layman alongside my co host, Matthew Goodman, who is an attorney, a legal educator, a judicial educator, was a professor at Wash U in St. Louis. And if you like legislation, if you're kind of a policy wonk and a nerd, I think you'd really like that.
11:45
Peter Dunn
So do you hit like, local issues or are you hitting constitutional issues? What are you hitting?
11:51
Damian Dunn
Everything.
11:51
Peter Dunn
Yes.
11:51
Speaker 4
Answer yes. Local issues. We're big into a lot of people feel kind of defeatist about national politics. And our whole thing is most of your life in terms of where it intersects with politics is at the state and municipal level, and you actually have a lot of power there. And so we like to talk about national issues and then say, and this is where you can get a good local foothold and really cause some change.
12:17
Peter Dunn
Legal stew, is that what you the.
12:18
Speaker 4
Perpetual Stew after the medieval practice of leaving a pot on the fire? The law and our lives and the changes are all just ingredients that go into this perpetual stew.
12:29
Peter Dunn
It's like recycling. Call me dame. Do you see what I did there?
12:34
Damian Dunn
Yeah, I see what you tried to do there.
12:37
Peter Dunn
That didn't go well. Here's the truth, people. I tried to be fancy today. I asked Kristen to give me a word 5 seconds before the show started, and I was going to tell an opening story about that word. The word she gave me was plastic. And for some reason I thought I'd come up with something creative about recycling. And it didn't go over well. And I'm going to have to sit with that for the rest of the day. It was fun, actually, for the rest of the weekend. It's bros weekend. Dame, Ted and I are heading to Michigan to play soccer against eleven year.
13:03
Damian Dunn
Old I think they're going to beat you, Pete.
13:07
Speaker 4
I was going to say height wise, I think Pete's going to stomp them. Just like Pete and Ted.
13:13
Peter Dunn
Yeah, ted's very excited. It's boys weekend. He called me Brada this morning. I don't know, he's watching too much YouTube. All right, let's start the show. We're going to introduce Sarah at the top of the show and let me get my timer out. Then we'll get ready to go. Listeners love this. Listeners love this. Okay, here we go. Nope, that's not it. 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, askpeat@peteeplanner.com that's, askpete@peteeplanner.com, and here's what will happen. Sometimes nothing. That's the nature of sending an email. You could have just wasted your time. Or we can answer the email on the air and we're possibly can do that later today. Joining me, as always is Kristen Alanius, director of Education at your Money line. Hello, Kristen.
14:06
Peter Dunn
Hello, Pete and Damien Andrew Dunn. That spells dad. Hello.
14:10
Damian Dunn
Good day.
14:11
Peter Dunn
Sorry I made you step on me. Okay, so you guys, I don't know if you know me, but I love food. I am accused of being a food snob around here and I tend to comment on what people are eating for lunch. Damien, you've noticed this just a couple of times?
14:28
Damian Dunn
Yes.
14:28
Peter Dunn
Kristen, you have clearly noticed this as well?
14:31
Kristen Ahlenius
Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes I feel self conscious when I come to the office and just eat a salad.
14:36
Peter Dunn
Yeah, well, it's okay. It's been a salad week for I've been had sandwich sadness all week. But anyway, here's why I bring this up. A couple of years ago, I discovered something here locally that is like my favorite thing in the world and it's called scorpion honey. And it is hot. Honey is a thing. Scorpion honey is locally made. It's very different. And the founder of Scorpion Honey and Metal Honey Foods joins us now. Her name is Sarah Murrell. Sarah, hello.
15:00
Speaker 4
Hey, thanks for having me.
15:01
Peter Dunn
So I wanted to have you on because obviously I like business, I like your spicy. I thought, you know, wouldn't it be interesting if the average person got a look inside of what it is to be a gourmet food startup? The farmers markets, the shipping, the supply issues, preparing in kitchens. And not to tell a story of sadness and despair, but really to say what it takes to produce a handcrafted food item, especially in the state of Indiana. So is that a good launching point for this conversation?
15:31
Speaker 4
In fact, your prompt there, Kristen, about plastic is actually the perfect jumping off point because we just know if I had to step on a soapbox, it would be to not hold yourself to an absolutely absurd ideological standard, which I started selling all my products in glass when I first started in. Glass, as you know, is significantly heavier than plastic. And because I was I say this with all the love and affection and acceptance of my lovely farmers market customers, but it does speak to just like, a certain ideological strata of sort of food ethics. And I wanted to make the most ethically perfect local glass is the most recyclable substance that you can package a food in. This also doesn't leach any plastics, any microplastics. And that's all well and good, but I thought that people would be really interested in recycling with glass.
16:29
Speaker 4
They don't care. They just don't care. I also thought that the product could be good enough that it would absorb the extra cost to ship something with a 1.34 specific gravity in a big old glass bottle. And that is just I've been pounding my head against this brick wall for two and a half years now and my head hurts and I'm done. So we're switching over to plastic.
16:56
Peter Dunn
Well, it's funny. So, Sarah, over the years I have watched on Instagram, when you tell someone you watch them on actually, it's inherently creepy, but it's designed that post I.
17:06
Speaker 4
Post I know what's you know.
17:08
Peter Dunn
I've watched this unfold and I find it fascinating from what kind of price you get on the raw honey and then where you grow your peppers to where you bottle. So let's step back for a second. The original product you put out was scorpion honey. Trinidad Scorpion peppers infused into honey. Talk to us about how this even came to be.
17:34
Speaker 4
Yeah. So over the pandemic, I used to work in live music PR work for do three one seven and Mlkb. The local concert promoters here. And pandemic happened. Live Nation pulls their ad budget. My whole salary came from Live Nation. Simply passed that money through Mlkb and do three one seven. And it came to me and they said, yoink, we are going to need that money back while we make $0. And so, through no fault of their own, of course, do 307 and Mokb said, sorry, we don't have any money for you. And I was like, Dang. So while I was unloading dairy trucks, I had all kinds of side jobs during the actual panning and lockdown, but I also vehemently refused to waste my precious time on Earth mowing grass. So I have a big raised bed kitchen garden in my front yard instead of grass, and I was growing all kinds of stuff.
18:24
Speaker 4
And one of the things that I grew was a couple of these Trinidad Scorpion pepper plants. If you've never seen them, they look like bell peppers that have been put into like a shrinker and a dehydrator. And they have almost zero water content. They have like a ten or 20% water content. And I wanted to make a hot sauce, but I didn't want to cook because anytime you infuse a capsaicin product with steam, you're turning all the air into your house into mace, you just might as well empty out some pepper spray cans. Who knew? Like a fabrize bottle, right? So I didn't want to do that. And just some fun chemistry facts about honey. It has a starting PH of 3.9, which is about the same as Florida orange juice and also bricks. So BRICS, like the ice cream store that is named after the bricks score.
19:13
Speaker 4
So the brick score is what is how you test the sugar content of things. So between its brick score, its PH and its enzyme content, honey is an incredible preservative. There have been Egyptian tombs open up where the actual sarcophagus was filled with honey and like enough to cover the body in there. So I went ahead with that process and the resulting product was this Bright Day Glow orange product. And I Googled the trademark office, and no one had called anything Scorpion Honey, and no one owned the trademark. So I named it that, and I trademarked it. And if you want to make Scorpion Honey, pay me.
19:53
Peter Dunn
Well, I'll say this. So we have a few minutes left. I I love it. I absolutely love I put it on know hot honey has become a yeah. And the weird thing about this is, Sarah, I've cheated on you. I've bought other hot honey, and I just wanted to publicly admit this. It's not nearly as good. It's not even close. Appreciate that. One of my friends is on the live stream right now who's often at my house, and they enjoy Scorpion Honey because I've given them some and had it at our house. People can buy it@metalhoney.com. But this also spurred other products for you. Like every business that solves a problem, you create more problems of your own by expanding and adding products. So now you sell at a farmers market on a pretty regular basis. How many farmers markets can people get metal Honey at?
20:46
Speaker 4
Four farmers markets, that'd be Wednesday City Market, ten to 130 in front of the City Market, and then SoBro, 430 to 730, 49th in college. And then on Saturday is Benford Market and Garfield Park Farmers Market. So lots of places.
21:01
Peter Dunn
How fun have the metrics of a startup been for you of looking at shipping and those sorts of do you enjoy that before you went in, or have you had to enjoy it?
21:11
Speaker 4
You're correct in that. I really put off dealing with that as long as possible, but I use Shopify, and Shopify is an incredibly robust platform in terms of its reporting and in terms of integrating it into other you can download basically anything that you want as a report and sort of do your magic bleep bloops in the Excel sheet. And you run the numbers long enough and you cannot avoid the problems that they tell you about. Right. It's like having a KGB spy on the inside of your own business.
21:44
Peter Dunn
It's true. And so I've, of course, tried a lot of your stuff. I'd love for people to go to Metalhoney.com, support your business. And it's funny, when you go to a restaurant now, there's always some dish with hot honey on it. I mean, it is a thing. It's great on pizza. It's great with cheese. I love it on any fried food with a minute left. Sarah, I don't want to ask what's next, because that sort of sometimes trivializes and marginalizes all the work you've put in, but what's on the horizon for you might be the cleaner way to.
22:20
Speaker 4
Ask know, I have very little emotional connection. I feel like a dog breeder more than a parent. People talk about business, so I'm ready to sell this dog. If anybody wants to become the next owners of Metal Honey Foods, I'm ready to move on. I'm just kidding. I mean, I love this brand, but the whole thing from the beginning was meant to be something that could become a copacking or a contract packaging brand. So that's kind of the next, like, three to five years is moving that off into me not doing any of the production, which would be really cool. And then probably honestly cutting down on some of the stuff that we've experimented with that's not selling and just streamlining and keeping it going well.
22:57
Peter Dunn
Awesome. So go to metalhoney.com, buy some honey. Buy scorpion honey. It's my favorite. It's got the pizza planner seals approval. This pizza planner will be right back after this. Awesome. Thank you, Sarah. That was fun. That was awesome. Dame, have you had it?
23:15
Damian Dunn
No.
23:16
Peter Dunn
Kristen, have you had it?
23:18
Kristen Ahlenius
I haven't, but I'm feeling like a piece of toast and some cottage cheese and some hot honey. I feel like that would be a vibe.
23:27
Peter Dunn
Yeah, go ahead.
23:27
Speaker 4
Can I run an idea by you guys for my anniversary?
23:30
Peter Dunn
Oh, yes.
23:31
Speaker 4
So I was going to partner with I have a couple of friends who are chocolateiers, and I was going to make a white chocolate. It was going to be called the sky burial as, like, a challenge. So it's a coffin shaped white chocolate in the middle is like a super concentrated, super spicy form of scorpion honey. And of course, it's a big promotional thing. We take everybody's video of people eating it, and you still have to pay for it, and you sign a little waiver and it's a whole thing. What do you think?
23:56
Peter Dunn
That's genius.
23:57
Kristen Ahlenius
I think people would do it. I'd be scared, though.
24:00
Speaker 4
Yes. That's what we want. We want a little healthy fear injected into the process.
24:04
Peter Dunn
Sarah, the best compliment I can pay you, so I give your honey to a lot of like I give it as a gift. And so here's the best compliment I can pay you. I've given it to both my mother in law and my mother who have returned it because it's too hot. And I don't know why, but I think that's amazing. It just makes me laugh.
24:24
Damian Dunn
I like it.
24:25
Speaker 4
That makes me so happy. I love the irony. I just started dating a guy who is type one diabetic and hates spicy food, and I'm like, yes, here we go. This is the universe working.
24:35
Peter Dunn
That's perfect. Well, my wife likes attractive people, and she married not. It's not that unusual. Little May December. Sarah, thanks very much for being on the show. Appreciate you best of.
24:47
Speaker 4
Yeah, thank you so much, Pete. I really appreciate it. Bye.
24:51
Peter Dunn
Sounds fun. Yeah.
24:55
Kristen Ahlenius
I'm scared now. Is it too spicy? It's not that spicy.
25:01
Peter Dunn
It's intense.
25:02
Kristen Ahlenius
Okay.
25:03
Peter Dunn
I love it, though. It's not too spicy. If you're on a one to five, you can order wing sauce. What are you ordering? Four.
25:12
Kristen Ahlenius
Oh, I can order a four.
25:13
Peter Dunn
Oh, you're fine.
25:14
Kristen Ahlenius
Okay.
25:15
Peter Dunn
Yeah, it's a four to five. Yeah, it's delicious. Dame, do you like spicy food?
25:20
Damian Dunn
No.
25:21
Peter Dunn
Okay. I didn't think so. So I didn't ask you on the.
25:23
Damian Dunn
What about this says, yes. Give me spicy food on brand.
25:29
Peter Dunn
Yeah. What do you think of Dame? I think of Caliente.
25:32
Damian Dunn
Yeah. My son, actually, nobody in our family really likes hot stuff. My son, for some reason, I think he watched too much YouTube and all the challenges, but he started and his friends started dabbling with hotter stuff. He enjoys some spicy wings every now and then.
25:50
Peter Dunn
They go spicy wings. Let's get on the next segment. Damon, I'm going to intro us, and then it got tossed to you and are you good explaining your idea here?
25:59
Damian Dunn
Yeah, I can muddle through something. Yeah. Or I'll give you a word.
26:03
Peter Dunn
Plastic.
26:04
Damian Dunn
Okay.
26:04
Peter Dunn
God, how much of a bomb was that?
26:06
Damian Dunn
It was fine.
26:07
Peter Dunn
No, I don't think it was.
26:09
Kristen Ahlenius
Dame, is that an old improv exercise?
26:12
Peter Dunn
So I had a friend who was a cop. Have I told you this story before?
26:15
Kristen Ahlenius
No, but do we have time for this?
26:17
Peter Dunn
No, Jeremiah, we don't have time. But I'm going to tell it anyway. He's a cop, and I used to ride with him, and when he'd go and pull someone over for a legitimate traffic infraction, he would say, give me a word. And I would give him a word because you could hear the audio on his police camera back in the car as you're writing, and he was Micked up. And he would use that word oh, my every time. And it would just be ridiculous. And it probably would have gotten him fired. Needless to say, he's no longer a police officer. But it was a lot of fun.
27:00
Kristen Ahlenius
I'm glad you had fun.
27:02
Damian Dunn
Yeah.
27:02
Peter Dunn
I used to ride along with him all the time. The shift would be from, like, five at night to five in the morning, and I would do it on the weekends because I just loved it.
27:10
Damian Dunn
Now I have to worry about you said he'd pull them over for legitimate reasons. Now I have to worry about cops pulling people over for non legitimate reasons.
27:17
Peter Dunn
Meow to do improv exercises.
27:21
Damian Dunn
Yeah.
27:22
Peter Dunn
Okay, let's do the show. Three, two, one. Back on the Pizza Planner show. If you missed the first segment, that's on you, man. It really is on you. But go to pizzaplanner.com. Listen to the podcast. We just missed our interview with Sarah Murrell, who is the founder of Metal Honey Scorpion. Honey, it's hot. Honey. It's a food. It's a gourmet. It's made locally indianapolis, and it's delicious, and I want you to buy it. I have no affiliation with Sarah other than my wife's name, sarah. And that particular Sarah is not my wife. Dame, for a few weeks, you've been you know, we should talk on the show. Is what are signs that a person's financial stability is starting to slip. You and your team serve hundreds of thousands of people on a regular basis, on annual basis in regards to answering their financial issues, you can start to see their symptoms of their bigger financial ills.
28:09
Peter Dunn
So did I describe that well?
28:13
Damian Dunn
Yeah, we absolutely help tons and tons of people, and we dig into numbers all the time and behaviors and whatnot, but this was actually born out of a more personal, introspection kind of thing. As you're going through your daily life and paying bills and trying to make sure you've got money where it should be going, I started thinking, how do I know, outside of power percentage, of course, that my financial stability might be slipping? Because what the indication may be for me, just that gut feeling or that little thing that you notice as you're flipping through some papers or you get a bill, it could be different for different groups of people. So I thought it'd be interesting if maybe we all discussed what we notice or what grabs our attention and we think, OOH, is everything okay? Am I doing am I still hitting all my goals?
29:06
Damian Dunn
Am I still making that progress forward? Or am I still keeping things in check that need to be kept in check? I'll start since it was my idea, I think it's only fair. The biggest indication for me is the size of the credit card bill on a month in, month out basis. Now, we pay it off every month. That's not the issue. But we should have a general range of spending that we have on a month in, month out basis, not counting, of course, travel, weekends for kids, athletics and vacations and things like that. But we know roughly where things are going to fall. And I know that if it starts to stretch outside of a certain limit, I'm going to start pushing the boundaries on is the income there every month to cash flow that or are we going to have to dip into savings for something else?
29:54
Damian Dunn
So, Pete, you and I have discussed multiple times that we espouse the lazy man's budget, where we just make sure that everything is taken care of, upfront all our savings goals, all the debt, whatever that is taken care of. And we don't keep that close of an eye on everything else that's going on in our financial life. Doesn't work for everybody, happens to work for us. And so I've found that, for better or worse, that credit card bill is the biggest indicator for me on how things are going inside of my house financially.
30:26
Peter Dunn
Yeah, mine's not terribly different. It's on that spectrum. It's how many carryout containers are in the fridge at any given time. So my daughter is notorious for overordering and then just saying I'll eat it later and put it in the fridge. So if we go in there and there's carry out containers for three or four different places at one time, then I'm like, what are we doing why am I not just making spaghetti and meatballs myself? That's how I know, is when our fridge gets too many carryout containers that we probably spent too much. And the other thing I would say about that, too, is also food related. If I start to feel unhealthy, like actual nutritionally unhealthy, it's because we're blowing money on unhealthy food.
31:12
Damian Dunn
Interesting.
31:13
Peter Dunn
Kristen, what's your tell?
31:16
Kristen Ahlenius
Both of those are really relatable, and for me, mine is related. Maybe sort of adjacent, is that my spending ebbs and flows big with the seasons because, as we know, I love to go to concerts. So summertime is when I spend a lot more just by design than in the winter. So I'm putting money away to have those fun weekends in the winter. But then what I sometimes find is that I get a taste of what it's like to just kind of spend what feels like frivolously. And then I can be prone to overspending my Apple Watch. So I can be prone to overspending when I kind of get a taste of what it's like to have kind of like this blase attitude about spending money. So I think for me, it's just the time of year is pretty indicative of whether or not I'm as financially.
32:11
Speaker 4
Stable as I could be.
32:12
Peter Dunn
James, do you blow more money in the last six weeks of the year like most people?
32:17
Damian Dunn
It's a good question. Historically, yes, because you've got gifts and you've got events and all sorts of stuff that's going on, but in general, yeah, I'm wondering if that trend is going to keep up going into the future just because of some changes that we've had in our personal lives.
32:38
Peter Dunn
But.
32:40
Damian Dunn
Yeah, I do. How about you?
32:42
Peter Dunn
I do. For me, it's food. It's the food episode of the Pizza Planner show, Food. Because around the holidays, let's say I want to make a big roast or something and have my family. Or what I'll do is I'll go and buy a really expensive roast, but then I'll be like, oh, I need this because I just want the meal to be like the best. And I blow so much money at the grocery store the last six weeks of the year. It's probably the biggest thing, but I mean, it's still out of the spirit of the holiday and generosity, but it's just like making food for people.
33:16
Damian Dunn
And the one thing the three of us all know, and that may not be readily apparent to the casual observer or listener, food is where most people get upside down really quick on spending, whether it's dining out, whether it's making multiple trips to the grocery without a plan on what you're going to buy. However you're consuming food, that's the easiest place to overspend on a consistent basis. So if you're finding yourself short at the end of every month, I'm not saying starve yourself. I'm just saying make some conscious food decisions and see if you might be able to save a few bucks pretty easily, honestly, by examining where you're spending that money.
33:52
Peter Dunn
Kristen, what do you think that other from a discretionary standpoint, what's the biggest category of overspending for most people outside of food?
34:01
Kristen Ahlenius
I would maybe say that it's like what I would call not maybe unnecessary home maintenance. So, like things you don't have to do to your home, but they make your home feel better. I think there's a lot of social pressure there, really, whether it's, oh, yeah, and maybe it's just because I'm a millennial and my house is new to me and maybe that's something I feel or I see more in my circle, but it's that pressure to have window treatments or new blinds or patio furniture. And like I said, maybe it's just because my friends aren't as established because I'm younger. But sorry, I think that's an area where people my age can really overspend.
34:46
Peter Dunn
Dan, what would be your guess, second category, outside of food that we see the most overspending?
34:52
Damian Dunn
I think it's a toss up what historically it may have been versus what it's going to be going forward. I really am worried that housing is going to be the issue that people overspend on and choose up a bigger percentage of their income than it used to, just because of the decisions that people are faced with these days. Rent is higher. We all know mortgages are higher, especially if you're going to go into the house that you want or try and stretch into that house that you can grow into, you're going to end up paying significantly more, especially once you tack on all the maintenance that comes along with it. And insurance. And we all know, we've discussed at least once over the past couple of weeks that insurance rates are going up tremendously as well. Since home values are going up, property taxes are going to go up as well.
35:35
Damian Dunn
So housing, I think, is going to be a big challenge for people to keep under control in the coming years.
35:40
Peter Dunn
All right, in the next segment, actually, can we have a housing discussion? Because I want to talk about whether people really lower their buying target price based on interest rates, whether they should or shouldn't and do or they don't. And so I want to talk about that, but I also want to say, here's the category I think people overspend on, and this will secure my reputation as a Buzkill vacations. I think people overspend on vacations. Now, I know that it isolated often to one, two, arguably three events, depending on who you are, but I think that release that holiday, as one might say, overseas, I think people spend a ton on vacations. Not that they shouldn't, that's not the point of this, but I think that's where you see an inordinate amount of spending in relation to financial goals. So let's do this. Let's take.
36:33
Peter Dunn
A break. Coming up after the break, here's the discussion. If interest rates are 7% and you were going to buy a $300,000 house, should you do it anyway or should you lower it to 240? I'm Pete the Planner. This is the Pete the Planner show. Just hijacked.
36:51
Damian Dunn
That we could have said weddings is what people chronically spend too much money on, but hopefully you're not having too.
36:57
Peter Dunn
Many of mean if you less than five is usually the thing I go with.
37:02
Damian Dunn
There weddings.
37:06
Peter Dunn
Jeremy listening mortgage lender here, just walking out of a closing listening to your show. Welcome. Well, hopefully you have AirPods.
37:19
Damian Dunn
Hopefully they find yeah. What are you going to do with that?
37:24
Peter Dunn
Commission check boy. Okay, let's keep it moving. Are you guys good with this topic? I announced it publicly, so it doesn't matter.
37:35
Damian Dunn
We're going to do it anyway.
37:36
Peter Dunn
Okay. In three, two, one. Back on the Pizza Planner show. Kristen, interest rates are high. They just are high. They're high as they've been in a very long time. Odly enough. They're not as high as they were when I bought my first home in the year 2000. So go figure. But we have had low interest rate environments for quite some time. And so this means as the housing market has heated up, as home prices have increased, and now with mortgage rates increasing, there's this mania to try to get into a house as those houses climb in price, but the affordability is going the other direction. So my question to you, Kristen, is this. After a 35 2nd set up, my question is this should a person take interest rates into account on their home buying journey, especially as they're changing? Like if interest rates go from seven to 7.2 and I'm in this 60 day process of now a 56 2nd set up, I'm in this process of buying a home, should my budget then go from, again, 300,000 to now 270 because of this?
38:45
Peter Dunn
Should a person do that? Honestly.
38:49
Kristen Ahlenius
I think technically, but I would work the math in a different direction. Ideally, you know what you have available for a down payment and you know, percentage wise, what you're willing to spend or what you should spend, not what you're able to spend on a home. And by nature, it reduces the amount of house that you're shopping for as interest rates rise. Right.
39:11
Peter Dunn
I guess my hypothesis is, and Dame correct me here, I think if someone starts home shopping and I'm picking up, our range is $300,000. So they're looking. They're looking in the winter, home buying season comes around. In the spring, they're still looking in that 300,000 range. And as we all know, because we've all done it, then you bump that range up to 315. All the while, interest rates have climbed in your original thought of, oh, we can afford 300, and then someone just locks in on that 300, 315, and then that's where someone finds themselves over house because they are not taking into consideration the high interest rate. Dame, does that track or is this like made up thing?
39:48
Damian Dunn
No, I absolutely think it tracks. I mean, unless the home you are buying has a money tree in the backyard, you are in big trouble. If you lock yourself into a dollar figure without taking into account all the other things that are going to cost you money on a month in, month out basis. It could be the interest rate, it could be maybe you're moving into a more expensive part of town or a more expensive town with bigger higher property taxes. Insurance is going to be higher. You have to be conscious of all of those factors as you are making your home buying, purchase. And once you are locked in, you might be stuck there for a while. You want to make sure that you can easily afford this housing decision for the next five to ten years, if not longer.
40:34
Peter Dunn
Yeah. Kristen, the other side of this is someone's confidence in their income, right? They have the confidence in the stability of their employment, but beyond that, they capture some sort of created confidence around.
40:49
Kristen Ahlenius
That income going up 100%. And then one of the words that dame or phrases that Dame said in there is that you might be stuck there. And I think that the alternate of that is I understand what he was saying is that make a good decision because you might be stuck there. But I think that those words are easily the justification for moving to that higher price point. Well, we're going to have to be here. This is something that I want to make sure that I really like or like. My favorite thing that people say is this is our forever home. And I'm like it's not because you're going to die.
41:26
Peter Dunn
Is that what you mean?
41:27
Kristen Ahlenius
Not where I was going with that also true. But I think that some of those things that we're talking about are the justification that sometimes is used to move into those higher, less affordable price points.
41:41
Peter Dunn
Okay, so how about this? I take the third angle to you are stuck there and the idea that you feel like you're stuck there is in itself this false premise. Because if you find yourself in a financial jam and the only fixed element is we are staying here, you are going to remain in that financial conundrum, whereas the solution is to get out of the house. Damien, I've told you the story, but 5 billion times you've heard it. A good friend that's ruined their financial life with this very thing until they decide, you know what, let's just sell the house. And they did and everything got better, right? I don't know. I just feel like this is happening a lot right now based on interest rates, based on the flurry of the market, and I think it's going to impact all sorts of things. I think it's going to impact student loans because people are not going to be able to have enough money to save for the kids to college education.
42:35
Peter Dunn
I think it's going to have an impact on parent plus loans. I think it's going to have an impact on retirement. I don't know. Is the sky falling? Kristen, am I freaking out here?
42:44
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't think that we're quite to sky falling, but I do think that the more we spend collectively on what is already the largest expense in most households, the more difficult it is to navigate our future financial lives. And that's the thing that I'm always trying to help someone see and to understand is if you can give yourself more flexibility in this category that's already dominating your budget, you have what is a true exhale, not a false exhale like we talk about a lot on this show. In my opinion, it's a true exhale. It allows you the opportunity to fund other goals, to have more opportunities for ebbs and flows in your finances, and it's contingent on that house purchase.
43:26
Peter Dunn
Yeah. So Dame, to your original question here today, what are signs of instability that relates to being OOH.
43:36
Damian Dunn
Signs of instability that relate to being overhoused? Coming up short on oh, gosh. So would coming up short on utility bills be one of your potential?
43:48
Peter Dunn
Interesting. That's super interesting, right? Because your utility bills far exceed 10% of your income. That would be an interesting one. Here's one that I think of. If your mortgage payment is at or above or around 40% of your take home pay and you're underfunding retirement and you have a Dwindling emergency fund, I think that is housing induced instability.
44:16
Damian Dunn
Yeah, I wouldn't disagree with that. By the way, for those of you listening, outside of the Midwest, we understand housing prices very significantly and maybe you don't have transportation costs and you can move some of those monies into your housing budget, but in general, there's a right range for everybody on what they should be spending for their housing. You just have to be in tune with that and make sure you're not going over the line in other places.
44:40
Peter Dunn
Kristen, on our live stream, listener Andy notes that pushing off maintenance because he can't afford Mean telltale sign, right?
44:50
Kristen Ahlenius
Oh, a hundred percent. And the other one I was thinking of mean, I don't know how recently the two of you got your property tax assessments, but mine was ugly. I didn't like it because that's the other side of the housing tulip market mania is that now your property taxes have gone up by extreme percent. But if you feel that you can't really afford that increase, if that increase is legitimately causing you worry, stress, anxiety, financial grief, that's not where the bulk of your mortgage payment is going anyway. So if that increase puts a strain on your budget, my inclination would be that you're already at the top of it.
45:30
Peter Dunn
Dame, do you remember we used to talk about this was years ago. We used to talk about when someone buys a new construction home and the property tax, the initial property tax escrow payment is based on the land and land alone and what. Sometimes it can take 18 months or something like that.
45:48
Damian Dunn
No, yeah, there is a definite cycle for that to pick up. I don't know, about 18 months is definitely on the long side. I would probably within a year, but I guess it depends on how quickly your home is finished and the tax cycle that you're falling. But, yeah, property taxes can be a big surprise down the road if you haven't done some research into what you would anticipate paying.
46:09
Peter Dunn
So think about this, Kristen. Someone makes a housing decision based on their confidence, this weird confidence in their income and going up, oh, we'll be able to grow into the payment. And then home insurance gets more expensive, property taxes get more insurance get more expensive. And then all of a sudden, what you thought you could handle meanwhile, in an inflationary environment where your groceries are getting 11% more expensive, I think there's a lot of hidden real estate related pain right now. I don't know how we would figure this out other than foreclosures, but I don't know. Dame, it's my working theory.
46:50
Damian Dunn
There's a lot of interesting stuff out there right now with everybody, assuming that people who have 3% mortgages aren't going anywhere for a while. And there's other housing needs. So new construction is going to continue to boom for a while.
47:03
Peter Dunn
Before we go to the break, I got an email solicitation this week for a cash out mortgage for seven and a half percent. No, thank you. Coming up after the break, the biggest waste of money of the week in the news, I'm Pete the Planner. This is the Pete the Planner show. Can you imagine getting rid of a two and a half percent mortgage to cash out and refinance all everything to seven and a half percent? Why would like that is criminal. That email is criminal.
47:32
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't disagree.
47:33
Damian Dunn
It's my money and I want it now.
47:36
Kristen Ahlenius
Also, Danza made a really good point. The side effects of an expensive home. There's just more that comes with that.
47:45
Peter Dunn
I mowed my grass in 90 whatever degree heat this week in seven minutes.
47:51
Damian Dunn
Shirt off.
47:54
Peter Dunn
You want me to take my shirt off?
47:55
Damian Dunn
No, we're mowing your shirt off while you're mowing.
47:58
Peter Dunn
No. I've transitioned into dad bucket hat and long sleeve UV protection shirt to mow the man. Wells Fargo is now suggesting tapping into your home equity in lieu of I know. Okay, Dame, let's keep it moving. Jeremiah, we got stuff to that's on me. Let's start in three, two, one. This week's biggest waste of money of the week, right here on The Pete the Planner Show is trying to get there. The Ferrari Endurance few automaker the Ferrari Endurance few automakers can match the cachet of Ferrari in endurance racing. Despite 50 years having passed since Maranello's last top tier works entry at Le Mons, no one knows what that means. The allure of the French track is irresistible. And Ferrari will be returning to the highest level of competition with the 499 P. Here's where we get to it, guys. Everyone calm down, okay? To mark the occasion, Ferrari has released Endurance, a radical book detailing the firm's history in endurance racing.
49:19
Peter Dunn
Like their cars, Endurance is unique. Bound in riveted aluminum like vintage race cars and encased in a carbon fiber case with NACA duct. A nod to modern racing tech, the book runs 312 pages in homage to the 312 P. Dame, is that something? Is it an engine?
49:39
Damian Dunn
Yeah, it's a car.
49:41
Peter Dunn
Oh. No one knows the race car that dominated there you go. Endurance events in 1972. So, Kristen, this is a book called Ferrari Endurance.
49:52
Kristen Ahlenius
Okay.
49:53
Peter Dunn
And how much would you pay for it? Not how much would you pay for it. Wrong. How much does it cost is the question. I'm sorry. Thanks, Dave.
50:02
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't know how much it costs. Whatever it costs is too much. But I'm going to go with $300.
50:11
Peter Dunn
Okay. Dame, what's your guess?
50:15
Damian Dunn
I'm going to go with you know what? I'm going to go $3,120 for the 312.
50:29
Peter Dunn
Trick. What if both of you are so wrong?
50:33
Damian Dunn
Is it twelve grand or something like that?
50:39
Peter Dunn
I'm going to wait till it gets on the shelves of half price books. Name what's in the news this week.
50:47
Damian Dunn
Pete, this one might actually hit close to home because I think we're going to stop and see how many of these things apply. You'll understand shortly. In a little over a month since joining Inter Miami, messi has far exceeded the lofty expectations set for him, boosting the fortunes of the team. Major league soccer and Brands basking in the glow of his superstardom. On Saturday night, messi scored his 10th goal in seven games and his team into Miami, which was pretty bad before he joined won the league's cup tournament in penalties. With his 44th trophy, messi became the most decorated soccer player ever.
51:23
Peter Dunn
Pause.
51:24
Damian Dunn
Pete, you were pumped about that.
51:27
Peter Dunn
I've watched all the games that he's played in since he's been in the US. I watched one on Wednesday night as he is now going to the finals of the US cup, a different cup. And he's going to win that against Houston on September 27. Go ahead.
51:39
Damian Dunn
The secondary effects of Messi's magnificent month have been astounding. For example, Apple subscriptions to MLS's season pass on Apple TV Plus have more than doubled since Messi joined inner Miami. One of the team owners tweeted in recent earnings call, apple CEO Tim Apple tim Cook, said he could not be happier with how the partnership was going. Pete, do you own an MLS season pass on Apple TV Plus.
52:07
Peter Dunn
Well, I'm going to let Kristen guess since she's the world's greatest financial guesser.
52:11
Kristen Ahlenius
The answer is yes.
52:12
Peter Dunn
Of course I do. Yeah.
52:13
Damian Dunn
All right, check one for one. Jersey sales. Messi's now iconic pink inter Miami jersey was the top seller across all sports for Fanatics last month. An Adidas spokesperson told Reuters that the demand for Messi's jersey in Miami has, quote, truly been unprecedented. Pete, how many messy jerseys are in your house?
52:39
Kristen Ahlenius
That's embarrassing.
52:40
Peter Dunn
No, it's not. It's not. I'm trying to answer accurately. Ted has an Argentina jersey. Okay?
52:47
Damian Dunn
Yep.
52:47
Peter Dunn
But I don't think Messi's on the back. I think it's just a general jersey that doesn't have the label. But I'll count that one. We talked about this at dinner the other night. He wants a pink.
52:58
Damian Dunn
He's a big jersey guy. I know that. So I assume there would be at least one and likely multiple.
53:03
Peter Dunn
Sure.
53:04
Damian Dunn
But anyway, ticket prices, much like Swifties did for the Heiress tour, fans around the country have packed stadiums when Messi comes town, selling ticket prices skyrocketing to more than 1700% on resale sites, a game that sands Messi would have drawn a sparse crowd last week's. Philly versus Inner Miami match had standing room, ticket only tickets going for $241 and field level seats going for pete, you want to guess?
53:31
Peter Dunn
I'm guessing 800.
53:33
Damian Dunn
You're wrong. Pete, will you go see Messi play?
53:43
Peter Dunn
Yes, we will, but I have several friends that already have tickets. We eventually will go. Probably let them come down a little bit, but once in a lifetime experience. Wait till we'll just drive our Ferrari endurance there.
54:00
Damian Dunn
That'd be a lame.
54:01
Peter Dunn
Wow. That segment worked for you?
54:03
Damian Dunn
Yeah, I think it was great.
54:07
Peter Dunn
Good for you. What else is in the news?
54:10
Damian Dunn
Americans may have high standards for many things. Turns out sushi isn't one. The grocery store operator Kroger, is the biggest purveyor of sushi in the country, selling more than 40 million pieces a year, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company realized that it was number one back in 2020, and in the past three years has ramped up its sushi offerings to claim even more market share. Quote, when customers think of sushi, we want them to think of Kroger, one exec said. But it's not just Kroger. Grocery stores across US are benefiting from consumers choosing an 899 California roll over an omacase dinner night. Sushi sales at US retailers have risen more than 70% in the past year.
54:50
Peter Dunn
Dan, where are you on sushi? You like it? Don't like it?
54:53
Damian Dunn
Yeah, it's fine. I tell you, I had eel a number of years ago, and it was delicious.
54:59
Peter Dunn
Unagi.
55:00
Kristen Ahlenius
Kristen, I used to think I didn't like sushi and recently have been converted and had the best sushi in Myrtle Beach, like, three weeks ago. So good.
55:10
Peter Dunn
Nice. Yes. I'm a fan as well. You know, here's the thing about our friends at Kroger, and we want to be kind to all people in the business community. I think it's great that they're opening people up to that. But to claim that when you want people to think of Sushi, you want to think of Kroger. I don't know. I'd probably keep that copy to myself. Right?
55:28
Damian Dunn
Yeah. That seems a little aggressive. I mean, everybody's got to have goals. I'm all for that, but I don't know. That's your lane.
55:36
Peter Dunn
What else?
55:38
Damian Dunn
You know what? My watch broke, so I don't know how much time we've got left. How big of a story can I go with here?
55:42
Peter Dunn
We have two minutes and 26 seconds.
55:45
Damian Dunn
Pay for new hires is starting to shrivel after years of hefty salary bumps requiring workers to reset what financial gains they expect from switching to a new job. Wages, especially for people who change jobs, climbed in recent years as companies competed for workers to fill pandemic induced labor shortages. But now, as the job market cools, businesses become more cautious in their hiring. Many companies are paying new recruits less than they did just months ago, in some cases much less. Among postings for more than 20,000 job titles on Zip recruiters site this year, the average pay for the majority of roles has declined substantially from last year. Some of the steepest drops have been in technology, transportation, and other sectors that experienced frenzy hiring sprees in 2021 and early 2022. Pete, I think the tide is starting to turn back in favor of the employer in the great labor struggle.
56:38
Peter Dunn
Yeah, that's true. I think when it was nice to see that ground had been made up in terms of having income increase across the country. The hope that I think most people hold, even myself as an employer, is that if employers are going to take control again, that they do it with a sense of goodwill and don't pull too hard and take back some of the gains that were made. But I don't have a lot of faith that's going to happen here. It will happen, but other places, I'm not so sure.
57:13
Damian Dunn
Kristen, you're friends with lots of youngs. Are they experiencing something similar?
57:18
Kristen Ahlenius
I don't think from an income perspective, I think in lieu of that, more advantageous work weeks. Like, I have lots of friends who work four days a week in lieu of potentially not having received that higher comp.
57:31
Peter Dunn
I didn't know how. So many friends with part time jobs. That's interesting.
57:36
Damian Dunn
Are you talking four tens or four eight or what kind of work structure are you talking here?
57:41
Kristen Ahlenius
Four eight.
57:43
Peter Dunn
Part time is fun.
57:47
Speaker 4
All right.
57:47
Peter Dunn
Are you trying to set off an argument at our executive meeting next Wednesday?
57:50
Kristen Ahlenius
Absolutely not.
57:52
Peter Dunn
Well, I know what side I might be on anyway. Actually, I will say that during the pandemic, we had a four day work week, did we not?
58:01
Kristen Ahlenius
Yes, we did.
58:02
Peter Dunn
That's all we have time for, because good times. How does it work? Good vibes are all that's in the budget. Thanks for listening. I'm still Pete the planner. Wow. That was a delightful end of the show.
58:15
Damian Dunn
Matches the start.
58:16
Peter Dunn
Oh, my gosh, what a crappy show by me. I feel like I have self awareness. I feel like I know when I bomb. And I will give myself a C to C minus today. I'm sorry. It wasn't my best work. Not because I didn't want it to be. Just wasn't.
58:40
Damian Dunn
Those of you still in the comments, do you agree with Pete's c secret?
58:43
Peter Dunn
Don't stroke my ego here. Now, let's be honest here. So, Dame, we've done this for a very long time together. Not my best.
58:52
Damian Dunn
I mean, you're right. It was not your best performance. Was it drastically worse?
59:01
Peter Dunn
No, I think it was.
59:03
Kristen Ahlenius
Kristen, I don't think it was. I always think that you're harder on yourself. Sometimes when I go back and watch, I'm like, I can see where you might have felt places were a fumble. Never think I always think you're more critical on you than as an audience member. We are.
59:19
Peter Dunn
She said planning the next segment.
59:21
Speaker 4
Was this your first week, your first show?
59:23
Peter Dunn
Danza, planning the next segment while recording was OD. You know, odly enough. I thought that was the best thing I did on the show today, was give the third segment new inspiration in the second segment. I think it's funny. The radio show may have actually been fine. I think the podcast is going to suck.
59:44
Damian Dunn
I can't wait for those ratings.
59:47
Kristen Ahlenius
I think people think it's a bit that you do when you say that you don't know what we're doing on the show. So maybe planning it in the segment did feel out of pocket, but that's because it's not a bit.
01:00:01
Peter Dunn
That's all. I got to go. Thank you very much. I won't give you C minus next week, I promise. Goodbye, Kristen. Goodbye, Dame. Everyone else, stay getting money.
