Peter Dunn: [00:00:00] Well, hello, you know, Damien Dunn, my, my dear, my man, my dear friend and I decided to do a work event together yesterday. All right. So we do it a live stream on LinkedIn. We, some of you may have tuned in by mistake and with regret. And so we're, it was really to HR teams and leadership teams talking about like why it matters when people struggle financially.
Like why it matters to the company, and that's very real. That is the world of which we live. And so here's the thing. In the midst of trying to be clever during that event, I may have conflated two very dynamic cultural moments. And to discuss this, I bring on the rest of the team. Dame, Kristen, hello.
Hello. Dame pointed this out to me after the event was over. And [00:01:00] I, I cringed. For a good seven minutes. So Dame, I was trying to be clever that a 401k loan is like one step forward, two steps back. And so I was like, Hmm, we call that the old Leonard Skinner. And what I, what I was trying to do is I remember a Leonard Skinner lyric.
I loosely remembered a Lynyrd Skynyrd lyric in which there was steps towards the door and what in fact I actually did was I conflated that idea with Apol Abdul song, from the 1990s called Opposites Attract. Yeah. So needless to say dam, I hope no one noticed.
Damian Dunn: Oh, I'm sure everybody noticed. Well, at least those who have any [00:02:00] experience with with music from the.
70s through 90s.
Peter Dunn: It was embarrassing. Hi, Kristen. Hello. Both you guys were at the office this week at the same time to less Yeah, I did you guys there was an Easter egg? I don't know if you knew that an Easter egg buried within our conversation missed I was wearing a camouflage dress shirt under my sweater didn't even see it Yeah, I did see that.
Yeah. Stolen Valor. Hey we have a quick show today. Unfortunately, it's my fault as always. But I, at the end of this first segment, I do have some athletic news to share with you both. Oh, yes,
Damian Dunn: loose, loosely athletic. Did you sign a big contract this week to
Peter Dunn: calm down? Okay. Calm down. Jameson points out.
It ain't fiction. It's a natural fact. It's exactly right. Opposites attract Kristen real quick because this is important. [00:03:00] Where does your knowledge of Paula Abdul in her moment? What's your relationship with that moment in time?
Kristen Ahlenius: Zero relation. My exposure to Paula is American Idol.
Peter Dunn: Greg recognized the puffin sweatshirt made it in today.
Um, Dame, dare I say, I don't wanna use the word hot, but not from like a, you know, like an aesthetics, but although an aesthetics, she was the hottest thing in the world. And thing, I mean, like, Act. Okay. I'm not being pejorative here for a couple of years. No. Yes.
Damian Dunn: Yeah. She, the story from going from a Laker girl to, you know, having this giant, yeah, she was a cheerleader for the Lakers and then turned it into a huge musical career.
And then it just kind of
Peter Dunn: all went away. Yeah. It was. But then she was on American Idol. Remember she was one of the judges on American Idol for a while.
Damian Dunn: Kristen, she had Keanu Reeves in one of her music videos. [00:04:00]
Kristen Ahlenius: Was I living when those things
Peter Dunn: happened? Oh, probably not. The show starts in Kristen starts pulling the I'm young card.
We move on. Well, we have a short show today. 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 as askpete at petetheplanner. com. That's ask Pete. Pete, the planner. com and I'll be darned. That's exactly what we're doing this week.
Three email questions from you guessed it. Emailers joining me to discuss and to answer these questions. They give the good answers. I'm here for pressing record. Kristen Alanius and Damien Dunn. Hello. Good day. Good day. I'm not sure if this is our holiday show or not. I actually, we have not talked about the schedule going forward but hello.
Happy holidays. Same to you. Fantastic. Here we go. lEt me make sure I'm on the right one. Hey guys and gal podcast listener here. [00:05:00] I'll try to be brief. I'm 45, the wife is 40. Time out! Granted. Dame, I have learned after 23 years of marriage that if I ever reference my wife as THE wife, I will stop the count on years of marriage.
Damian Dunn: Thoughts? Well, here's what we know. They are a podcast listener. The wife is
Peter Dunn: not. Okay. She's about 15 years into an education career. Time out.
Damian Dunn: You're going through them awfully fast, sir. That
Peter Dunn: could mean she's 15. I don't think so. Time in. And can begin drawing from a pension in as little as 12 years. I am the wild card.
I just left a 20 plus year corporate career to get into education. I'm looking to work for 10 more years and the pension won't provide much value to me. We make about 180 K's per year. Now I have about 500 K and a prior 401k [00:06:00] timeout. No, it's a lot of K's. I'm no longer contributing to any retirement account aside from mandatory contributions to the state pension.
This money is in the most aggressive predetermined set of funds, very low expense ratios, because I worked for an asset management company. The very much desire to offer this to employees. I also have about one hundred and seventy. Okay. And a taxable brokerage account as well. Did we still contribute 1, 500 per month to these funds are mostly in low expense S and P index ETFs.
We've never used a planner or advisor of any kind, though. I recently met one through the school district. He is a fiduciary. He thinks a good strategy for some or all of that 401k money is to roll it into a variable annuity tracking the s and p that has a downside buffer and an upside cap. I must admit, this is all very new to me.
Does this seem like a reasonable strategy given our station [00:07:00] in life and our goals? I'll paste a link below if this is helpful. Thanks. Interested to hear your thoughts. Austin d. Gonna pretend that last name's done just. Yeah. He's our brother. Kristen, do you want to go first? I have thoughts, and I'm sure Game does.
What do you think? I
Kristen Ahlenius: have thoughts, too. When I first read this email, I had kind of a gut reaction. But then I thought to myself, Austin, we might be putting the cart before the horse here. Because if the two of you read that second paragraph there Austin is no longer contributing to any retirement account, but is contributing 1, 500 a month to a taxable brokerage account, which is so similar to the conversation we had.
You guys, I'm bad at time last week, the week before, I don't know when it was, but why are we not contributing to retirement accounts right now?
Peter Dunn: That's interesting. That's an interesting tag because [00:08:00] I I'm thinking he thinks he's going to have 2 million. At least between a million and 2 million in a 401k or in qualified retirement by the time he retires.
And I think he's trying to, per your point, make sure he doesn't over contribute.
Damian Dunn: Dane. Yeah. I think he's, he, he is looking at this as he's going to have a pretty full bucket on the qualified side. They're going to have a pension from us for, from the wife. As well as potentially a small one from him. If they decide to leave it there instead of roll that value out into additional qualified monies and then they're gonna have social security.
I'm assuming they're gonna have social security that their state they live in or the district that they live in will still provide social security instead of just the state or the pension through the education. So I think he's trying to diversify Asset location for retirement coming up and I don't
Peter Dunn: hate it.
[00:09:00] Okay, let's talk about a variable annuity. Let's talk about a qualified, qualified money going into a variable annuity. So one of the reasons a person would purchase an annuity is to get in a sense, the effect of tax qualification. That is to defer growth. Defer taxes on the growth and until you withdraw.
So that is like a, one of the reasons people purchase an annuity by the mere fact that this is a qualified account that he's thinking about rolling over, you don't get like a double tax advantage, uh, effect there. So that is always one piece of criticism. People levy in this regard, Dame, uh, in full disclosure when I was a financial advisor, occasionally.
I facilitated this exact type of transaction when it made sense. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I do know that variable annuities can be incredibly expensive. And what scares [00:10:00] me about this for this feller is that he is so into low expense of funds, he mentions it twice. And by going to a variable annuity, he will go to the highest expensed.
Investment you can possibly
Damian Dunn: imagine. Yeah. And beyond, beyond the expenses, there's a contradiction here. He says that he's invested in his what was it? The pre the most aggressive predetermined set of funds, but yet you're going to track the S and P 500 and cap it. So you're, you're very clearly comfortable with some risk tolerance.
You've got plenty of time between now and retirement. You're going to end up costing yourself return. Over that time period if you're going to keep yourself constrained to a range of returns Instead of just get letting the market do what the market does So I I don't personally it doesn't sound like a variable annuity is in their best interest right now But it could be in the future.
I don't know,
Peter Dunn: Kristen. I've always [00:11:00] thought that age matters in a situation like this to Dame's point. And to my point about age, if this person was 55 and had a conservative to moderate risk tolerance, I could see this. But at 45 and the wife being 40 with so much time to recover and being aggressive.
How much do you take into account that they're only in their forties?
Kristen Ahlenius: I think it's a primary factor is their age. To your point, we're not anywhere near to a place from a retirement or from a time horizon perspective that we're talking about pulling that risk back. And then something else is kind of part of that end of that conversation is it always.
Kind of gives me pause and we weren't there to hear the context of this. But when like the summary of the conversation is this person is a fiduciary that we met with at the school for an hour, I'm like the buzzword there makes me a little anxious. Like, why are we just throwing that out in a [00:12:00] one hour conversation about an annuity for a 40
Peter Dunn: I want to get myself in trouble here probably with friend's name.
If you're a fiduciary and within an hour you recommend a variable annuity, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Damian Dunn: You would have to have some very, very strong indicators, I would think, to make a recommendation of a variable annuity in that time period.
Peter Dunn: Chris, yeah, like let's get a little more, a little more pointed here.
Do you think this person's a fiduciary?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yes, but not their fiduciary.
Peter Dunn: Dane, do you think a fiduciary would recommend a variable annuity for a 45 year old?
Damian Dunn: It may be a very certain circumstance, but everything that's been shared here seems that may not be the case.
Peter Dunn: So Austin, here's the thing. We don't know all the details.
This fiduciary you met with might know more of the details of your life than you've shared with [00:13:00] us. But I would say the three headed monster that is the Kristanenko. Doesn't love this one. Is that fair, Kristen? That's absolutely fair. Dame? A hundred percent. Great. Let's take a break. Coming up after the break, uh, an email question that involves weddings and bachelorette parties.
I'm in, I'm Pete, the planner, and I can't wait to answer this question. All right. I don't know. I mean, you can't use the F word for a 45 year old and all of a sudden you're getting a VA.
Kristen Ahlenius: I just thought that's in an hour, in an hour or less.
Damian Dunn: How many variable annuities do you think that guy, that fiduciary, I don't even know if it's a guy that, that fiduciary recommends to teachers at that school because they're comfortable with the idea of annuities and pensions
Peter Dunn: via 403Bs and yes pretty, pretty frequently.
Yeah. Lovely. You know, I'm going way. We don't have time. Yeah, we just really don't have time for this.[00:14:00] Okay. So let me just tell you my story. I was at Ted soccer practice the other night and one of the other soccer dads, who's one of the coaches who was a D one athlete was grew up in England, was like a nationally recognized athlete over there came in and, and performed sports in the the U S and is around 40 years old.
So he's about six years, my younger, if not younger, good friend. So. He said, Hey, can you help me out? I was like, ah, Dame, you know me. I love to help. We need another player on our men's soccer team, indoor league. And I was like, yeah, absolutely. I'm in. Dame, as you, I love soccer. Love it. I love football and the beautiful game.
Here's the problem. Never played. I've coached I have cleats, boots, if you will. And it's a 30 and older league.
Damian Dunn: You are going to get run into the ground. [00:15:00]
Peter Dunn: So, and, and it's also worth noting. I am in the worst shape of my life. I went home and shared this bit of news with my partner. She wasn't displeased.
She was actually mad. She crossed over from. Not happy to anger. So next week on the show, if we have a show, we're going to do a, like, what will be injured Achilles knees? We're going to, we're going to do that next week. Okay. Excellent. Did
Damian Dunn: she, did she immediately ask about life and disability insurances?
Peter Dunn: I can't really disclose private conversations with a Mrs.
planer on the air,
Damian Dunn: you know, that's fair. And you know, you're right. I apologize to you and Mrs.
Peter Dunn: Planner. You should. All right, let's start the segment. 3, 2, 1. Back on the Pete the Planner show, answering your money questions. As always, you can email us, [00:16:00] askpete, PeteThePlanner. com, askpete at PeteThePlanner.
com and you will get our answers. Our being Kristen and Dame and me. Here's a question. Hi, Kristen and company. First of all, I love the show. Question about short term investments. I'm in my late 20s and have a few life events I'm saving for, including two weddings bachelorette parties included, they aren't this person's, in 2024.
One destination wedding in 2025, also not mine. Purchasing an engagement ring in 2024, finally mine, yay. I, do I have any timeouts left? No.
Damian Dunn: Yes. Yes. Whoa. Granted. A special, special timeout privilege is granted to the host of the
Peter Dunn: show. This, so far, this is specifically why I don't have friends. You know? No, no.
Please explain. No, my presence [00:17:00] is your present. Like I'm not, I mean, that's a lot of stuff. It's a lot. I went to one destination bachelor party for my brother in law in Vegas. And needless to say, I was the adult. I was the fuddy duddy, and I served that role well, but this is just too much going on here.
Damian Dunn: You had this period in your life, in your 20s though, where all your friends were getting married and your calendar in the summer was Basically booked because it was from one church to
Peter Dunn: another. It was a different time, Kristen. There weren't hashtags and gender reveals and everything else. Yeah,
Kristen Ahlenius: there are a lot of parties these days.
Peter Dunn: I make around 75, 000 a year with quarterly bonuses of around 7, 000. I max out my 401k contributions. Contribute a good amount to my HSA and participate in my company's ESPP. No car or house payments and no student or credit card loans in my high yield savings account 4. 35%. I have my [00:18:00] emergency fund of 10, 000, an additional 10, 000 of savings.
Can I have another one? Yeah, this is good. I know. Time it with the upcoming spending. I have planned. I'm trying to amp up my savings, but am I doing this right? I want my money to work for me and with the timeline of some of these larger spending plans. What should I do? Where should I keep my money? Is the high yield savings account the best option?
Should I take a bonus and put it somewhere so that in two years when wedding season is over and I'm focused on my wedding? Other financial goals. Thank you Mac from Minnesota. Pete, you should work your story about the Russian locksmith into the comedy routine, or at least the impression. I thought about that, actually.
Good point. Thanks for listening. Kristen, I mean, you got to get the first shot here.
Kristen Ahlenius: Okay, so I A couple things stand out to me, and the first, which I mentioned to Dame yesterday, and then quickly was like, save it for the show, save it for the show, is that the emailer [00:19:00] has no car or house payment, which to me says two things, and I want to first congratulate the emailer, because not having these larger expenses and still being able to save aggressively, that's often where we see people get into positions where They're living off of where their power percentage isn't as great or they're living off of a greater percentage of that discretionary income.
So kudos to the emailer for maxing out your 4 0 1 KHSA things like that.
Peter Dunn: However, , okay. Ooh, there's a however coming ,
Kristen Ahlenius: however, I think that the amount it is, the 401k savings is great, but how much of a hundred k then on an annual basis, and I maybe should have done this math before, is the emailer.
Saving, like, is it, is it really enough, given that we don't have a house or a car payment?
Peter Dunn: I would view that more of like, in, are we going with Mac as a young lady? [00:20:00] Because you don't know, but I, I, enough clues are there, can we just default, or should we not?
Damian Dunn: I don't, I, the same question was going through my head, I, I think
Peter Dunn: For what it's worth, Mac is an incredibly cute name.
Yeah. Yeah, for a young man, or a young woman! Yeah. Because of the K. The K, yeah. M A K. Mackenzie? My point is, Mac is going through a season of life that she isn't thinking too far ahead, but is thinking in the two to three year chunks, which is certainly better than six month chunks, right? Absolutely.
Damian Dunn: Yeah, I like that.
I mean, yeah, Mac has absolutely crushed it with savings at this point. To Kristen's point, I don't know. I'm asking to do more. I mean, if we start doing the math just back of the napkin, there's 22, 500 being saved for 401k. It says a good amount. What do you want to assume in the HSA, [00:21:00] Kristen? Two grand.
Two grand. Okay. So we're at 24, 24 5 now. You have to think they're still making monthly contributions to emergency fund and additional savings, but we don't know what the rate is. So at least 25 percent of their gross income is being saved. You think that's reasonable?
Kristen Ahlenius: Yeah. Yeah, I think the thing that I'm struggling with is that 25 percent ish of a 100, 000 income, give or take some taxes, we're talking about 1, 500 for housing expense that Mac doesn't have.
So I think that's maybe where I'm getting a little hung up is 1, 500 a month. That would in be in most budgets isn't in max budget and maybe that ten those That 20, 000 in savings has been saved at that rate. We don't necessarily know that so Mac I mean, I trust your judgment on this one just
Damian Dunn: just because there's no house payment doesn't mean there's not rent being paid in some way shape or form We don't [00:22:00] we can't necessarily assume that just because there's no car payment doesn't mean that they have free transportation those those costs are in there somewhere they just aren't being allocated and in this email in a traditional sense so I I think that money's being spent the level of which we just don't know.
Peter Dunn: You know, I'm an old fashioned fella, you know, this thing. Oh, yeah. What if Mac is actually living with her future fiance right now? That's what I thought. Yeah, I think that's the, I think that's the thing. And that's why she, if that's what we're going with here is contributing to the engagement ring fund.
yeAh, because if you're, I'm, I'm jumping to all sorts of conclusions, I need to jump to conclusions, Matt, if they ever went into production office space I, I think if they were living apart and they were still in that level of courtship where they're trying to figure out if they're getting married, they probably wouldn't save for a ring together.
But when you combine the fact that [00:23:00] she doesn't have a house payment and she, she is participating in the engagement ring savings. I feel like they live together and that is why their household income is much higher than 100.
Damian Dunn: I
Peter Dunn: think that's a safe assumption. Look at me. I'm like a carny. I can guess. So
Kristen Ahlenius: the real question that Mac actually asked now that we've made all these assumptions and probably gotten a lot wrong and Mac, we're really sorry for
Damian Dunn: that.
Not that. Feel free to email us about how wrong we were. Don't email
Peter Dunn: me. Where
Kristen Ahlenius: to put the money, I think that the answer that Mac, you probably know to be true is that the high yield savings account, because it seems like the money's coming right back out of your account about as fast as it's going in, because in two big purchases in 24, a big purchase in 25, a big, maybe big purchase in 24, I get that some of these things have a little bit longer timeline, but as we're going, it kind of seems like the money is coming [00:24:00] In and out,
Peter Dunn: I just got caught.
No matter gender. I'm not concerned with gender, but I do feel like I feel bad that way. I showed it just made it easier to talk about to choose this. So, so Mac, all apologies if we went the wrong direction. I will also note though. Don't we have to get into a fact how much people actually spend on engagement rings these days?
Isn't that because if I'm being fuddy duddy, I'm got to be fuddy duddy. Yes time for you to be a fuddy duddy I mean, we got a minute. We got a minute. We got like that I mean you're talking about bachelor, but you know what bachelorette parties makes it again seem like max a woman
Why doesn't Matt just move to Nashville because that's where all the bachelorette parties are going to be anyway. It reduces the expense. That's why I don't go to Nashville. All right, let's do this. Let's take a break. Everybody calm down. Dame's going to go have a protein bar and we're going to come back and we're going to talk about our favorite books.
Personal [00:25:00] finance and otherwise, all that's next right here on the Pete the Planner show, Pete the Planner.
You guys didn't see me coughing so you guys can talk while I offer silence to the crowd. Thank you. Both Mary Lou and Rick thinks Mack are, my gosh, my conjugation is just garbage these days. Both those folks think Mack is a, is a guy, but I don't want this to be the thing though, you know what I mean?
Yeah. Doesn't, don't. Who
Kristen Ahlenius: cares? It doesn't
Peter Dunn: really matter. Mac, I just don't want offend you. I love you either way. I, I don't really care. I think it's a girl though. I
Damian Dunn: think it is too. I think Mac is short from McKenzie.
Peter Dunn: I do too. I'm gonna Google McKenzie in Minnesota and see what we come up with. , if, if you just didn't picture the cat meme.
Yeah. The Yes. . Okay. Let's just keep it rocking because I literally cannot be late or I will get fired. Okay. [00:26:00] The thought of that. Yikes. Okay, in three, two, back on the Pete the Planner show, emails coming out the wazoo. Dame, where is the
Damian Dunn: wazoo? We can talk about that off the air.
Peter Dunn: Good day, Pete. Ouch.
Damian Dunn: Looks like you're on your own for this one.
Peter Dunn: Longtime listener, occasional emailer here. In your December 1st show, you and Dame. We're talking about the quotes of the late Charles Munger. One of those mentioned was about having an avid reading lifestyle, to which you echoed that same sentiment. That got me wondering, what are some of your personal favorite books or proverbial must reads amongst you, Dame, and Christy?
Looking forward to hearing the responses, Todd, P. S., at this point I'm convinced your epitaph will read, ask my family about the two and a half percent mortgage rate I [00:27:00] once had. True. Dame, what did I say in pre show today about my
Damian Dunn: mortgage? You have to go pay it. Make sure that you had time in your calendar to go pay that bad boy today.
In
Peter Dunn: person, baby. Oh my. Okay. Okay. Who wants to go, or do you want to go round robin, like we'll just offer one and keep going. But
Kristen Ahlenius: I have a list.
Peter Dunn: Gee mini Christmas, Kristen. Have you heard of a Kindle or like Audible? I have one of
Kristen Ahlenius: those too. These are just the physical copies that I
Peter Dunn: have. Oh, I don't want to get distracted, but we're on the air, so it doesn't matter if we're distracted.
Do you guys know when the earth runs out of wood? No, I've done that. I've done them. No, you haven't. I had a weird night. No, I have. I had a weird night like two weekends ago. You know what I mean? But weird. And so I started going like, when are we out of trees? Because I, I was drinking some whiskey and I was, Doug was Doug there.[00:28:00]
No, Doug was not there. I was drinking some whiskey and I thought, Hmm, this is really nice. Barrel aged. And I was like, man, bourbon's really popular. Where are they getting all the wood for all these barrels? We're going to be out of wood soon. So then I did some research on when the planet could theoretically be out of wood.
Before we get into our book list, I want you each to take a guest number of guests and number of years in which we're out of wood.
Damian Dunn: I mean, this is, is this all things considered like all things considered, like all use of a product and the re replanting and everything. Okay. Oh
my.
Peter Dunn: Yes. Replanting is is included.
Kristen Ahlenius: You're going to make me guess two different things on this show
Peter Dunn: today. Yeah. Yeah. They're good. They're both going to be terrible guesses. Dane, where are you at? 5, 000 years. Okay. Christy. Oh, half that. Christy is much closer. 300 years were out of wood. That's not true. No, and this isn't like a [00:29:00] conservation thing per se.
That may or it was on the internet. Yeah, who funded that? Yeah. Kristen, what's your book reading list of which you're contributing to it possibly being 250 years?
Kristen Ahlenius: My first one that I have is probably, I think you two both love it. It's kind of finance related. It's for
Peter Dunn: economics. That's one of your, like, favorite of all time.
Yes. Well, I
Kristen Ahlenius: mean, they have to be, like, kind I mean, this is a personal finance show, so I feel like there has to be some, some degree
Peter Dunn: of So I can't bring up my Danielle Steele novels?
Kristen Ahlenius: Probably not what the emailer
Peter Dunn: was hoping for. Okay, so for economics, Dani, do you want to go?
Damian Dunn: I don't have it because it's on a Kindle, but the geometry of wealth by Brian Portnoy I thought it was really good.
Talks about you know, happiness and finances and how everything fits together. Geometry of wealth is, is pretty darn good read as well.
Peter Dunn: If Damon, Kristen could plug their ears just for a quick second, so I can just talk to the listener. If neither of them say one of the dozen of [00:30:00] books that I've personally written.
This may be their last week on the show. Okay. I, I'm going to sort of D how did you know to unplug your ears? I caught you. , sorry. I'm deviating right off the personal finance track and going more business memoir style shoe dog by Phil Knight. It was the story of the founding of, of Nike.
I've read it three times. It's really great. Have you
Damian Dunn: ever listened to it? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I've, I've, I've really enjoyed the the audio book of that.
Peter Dunn: Kristen.
Kristen Ahlenius: This one, the four tendencies is one of my like all time favorite books. It's about how we need accountability, whether that's by external or internal expectations.
And I think it's really telling when it comes to like. how you need to find motivation and how to hold yourself accountable. For me, for example, I'm going to show up for other people before I show up for myself. So it kind of gives you like tips and tricks for how to get you to do the things [00:31:00] that you know you need to do.
Great.
Peter Dunn: Gretchen Rubin. Gretchen Rubin, damn.
Damian Dunn: This one goes into it's also outside of the world of finance, but it's a lot of it can be applied to your financial life and there are a number of books like these. This one happens to be the power of habit by Charles Duhigg. Pete, we've, we've gone through that one together, but you can easily slide atomic habits in there, which has been wildly, wildly popular.
Very, very similar in Goal of all those books, but they're just so well written and make everything seem so attainable that they are very well worth your time and your dollars to to buy them.
Peter Dunn: If it's not completely obvious, I don't actually read personal finance books at this point, so I am going to just keep going on my list.
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe. It goes through the Sackler family, discusses the founding of Purdue Pharmaceuticals and Oxycontin [00:32:00] and all of that sort of thing. It's incredibly good. Anything by Patrick Radden Keefe. is amazing, is absolutely amazing. And I'm going to double up. I also love Kitchen Confidential, which was Anthony Bourdain's first book.
I love that book as well. Kristen?
Kristen Ahlenius: In the comments, in the Facebook comments, Jameson brought up the millionaire next door. Jameson, I will give you the millionaire next door and I will up you. women millionaire women next door. This is on my TBR. It's my to be read because this book when it was written, 92 percent of the millionaires that they interviewed or that they talked to were men.
So seven years, I think, or 10 years later, they came back and wrote a book about millionaire women next door, which is on my to be
Peter Dunn: read. That's cool. I didn't know that. That's nice, Dan.
Damian Dunn: This is a classic. You can find it on bookshelves everywhere. 60 days to change by Peter Dunn. It is absolutely life changing and make sure you Oh, it looks like I [00:33:00] didn't make it all the way through this one.
Peter Dunn: Maybe, 60 days. That could be. That's what people are saying about it.
Damian Dunn: Yeah. Yeah. It's a 30 days to 60 days to change. Dane, what's your real one? Actually I, it's really weird that this topic came up because you and I got an email from friend of the show Gordon, uh, this past week who was raving about the psychology of money by Morgan Housel.
Right there as well. I have read it. I mean, it's 4. 7 stars on Amazon. So, I mean, that should, should tell you a little something, but that one is very, very highly regarded in the personal finance.
Peter Dunn: community. Now, I do have to talk about a book that changed my life. And I really wholeheartedly believe this.
In 2007 I read it and I also have to say, I'm not sure it's stood the test of time. Okay. But I've talked about this in company audience quite a bit. The success principles by Jack Canfield. I read it in 2007 [00:34:00] and it literally changed. It changed my life completely. I feel like it was speaking to me.
There's 67 principles of being a successful business person. Now here's the problem. Why did Kristen, how I say this? It is antiquated in its. Discussion of the interplay from a gender perspective, probably an age perspective in maybe other demographics. So it's, it's, I don't know, I'll go back and read it.
I'm like, well, this gal said, and I'm like, I don't really talk like that. So the success print of principles absolutely changed my life and I have a marked up copy in my office right now. Kristen's back.
Kristen Ahlenius: I have one on my shelf. This book we read as a team. Get what's yours. I will say that it, it's hard to get through, but if you're someone coming up on social security, this book has so, so, so much information in it.
Peter Dunn: Finally, Dan, last one's yours.
Damian Dunn: I will say one page financial plan by Carl Richards [00:35:00] or there's another one that's it's a pretty good I will teach you about be rich by Ramit Sethi that is, is also very similar in, in format, but very good basic finance, personal financial plan stuff in
Peter Dunn: there.
We did it. Great. Fantastic. Kristen, congrats on not saying any of my books. That seems like a weird choice. All right, coming up after the break, biggest waste of money of the week, purchasing my books and the news right here on the Pete the Planner Show. I'm Pete the Planner. Cutsy. Cutsy.
Here's the thing though. My writing style has evolved so much from when I wrote my last book in 2015 that I don't even think I like my books anymore. To be honest, I love my columns. I like my, I like where I'm at now as a writer, but man, 20, if they were okay, I'll give them a six out of 10. So buy him or don't, I don't care.
Damian Dunn: You've got a chance to go through and have the revised additions now and just have a whole new lease on life [00:36:00] almost.
Peter Dunn: I have time for that. I'm in a soccer team. I'm a sock. I'm on a, I'm on a club on a pitch
Damian Dunn: for a week. What's the cut process for a C league men's soccer team.
Peter Dunn: They needed bodies. I have to go by shin guards.
I'm a 46 year old man buying shin guards. Yeah. My son is offering to train me. Nice for a
Damian Dunn: little hour
Peter Dunn: talking. He is my son. Okay, let's keep it moving.
All right. Ready? Go three, two, one. This week's biggest waste of money of the week right here on the Pete, the planner show is.
Empirical by Doritos Nacho Cheese Spirit. Empirical is known for its inventive, [00:37:00] unusual spirits. Perhaps none are more unusual than this collaboration with Doritos. Crafted using a vacuum distillation process, this surprisingly clear liquid claims to taste just like the snack food staple. with initial flavors of umami and nacho cheese giving way to the corn base and a salty finish.
While Empirical includes sipping it neat in their recommendations, we find the nacho tinged takes on the Margarita and Bloody Mary far more plausibly palatable. Bottled at 42 percent alcohol by volume in a 750 milliliter bottle. It will be available in January at select retailers with online pre orders open.
Now you can buy it from Empirical direct from Empirical Kristin n n nachos, booze. This is nacho bottle.
Kristen Ahlenius: No one likes nacho cheese [00:38:00] Doritos more than me. I have Doritos and cottage cheese for lunch more
Peter Dunn: often. Never eating again. That's what I needed and turned on my weight loss journey. Some people go with a zempic. I just needed that phrase. Thank you. I'll never eat again.
Kristen Ahlenius: Together in a bowl. No.
Damian Dunn: Like, do you mash them up and then just spoon them?
Absolutely
Kristen Ahlenius: I do. And if you have never tried it, I don't want to hear your negativity. That's
Peter Dunn: terrible, Kristen. It's
Kristen Ahlenius: delicious. However, I don't want to drink. Nacho cheese Doritos. So, whatever the price is too much, but I'm going 57.
Peter Dunn: Dame, I somehow dislike her now. That was so
Damian Dunn: gross. And look at all the comments of affirmation to this culinary delight streaming in from the com Oh, there aren't
Peter Dunn: any.
I was, I was like, wait oh, no,
Damian Dunn: I'm supposed to guess now on this [00:39:00] abomination. I agree. Whatever it is, is too much. Christy gave a great guess. I gotta be honest. Price is right. Rules. You said 57. Yeah, I did. Fifty
Peter Dunn: eight. What? Sixty five. Yeah. Dave wins. Yeah. See, that's, that's that's a vet there. Dave, what's in the news this week?
Damian Dunn: The Federal Reserve has two mandates, inflation and unemployment, and for two years, it seemed as if only the first mattered, raising interest rates so steeply that it knew it was courting recession. This week? It pivoted that you're getting a quote. You're getting now back to the point where both mandates are important.
Fed chair, Jeremy Powell. That's Jerome. We call him Jeremy in our club. I told reporters Wednesday after the central banks meeting, we'll be very much keeping that in mind as we make policy going forward. Yeah, that was a quote because I wouldn't have said it that way. The pivot means that [00:40:00] the Fed is ready to backstop the economic recovery, but it doesn't rule out a recession.
Just makes one much less likely. Officially, the Fed is still unsatisfied with inflation, which Powell said remains too high. Officially, it says it's more likely to raise rates than cut them at their next few meetings. Unofficially, wink wink, the Fed thinks inflation, which has fallen much faster than almost anyone expected, will be in the vicinity of its 2 percent target before long, and the priority in the coming year will be lowering rates enough to prevent
Peter Dunn: a recession.
That's exactly what's going to happen, by the way. They are going to lower the rate twice in 2024. I, I can't say the G word. Dame says three times. Kristen? I
Kristen Ahlenius: don't know. You guys, this news cycle makes me tired.
Peter Dunn: Well, I mean, maybe it's all the cottage cheese and Doritos.
Kristen Ahlenius: I haven't had [00:41:00] lunch yet today.
Peter Dunn: Dame, do you believe Okay, this is going to get controversial.
Do you believe the Fed succeeded? And tamping down inflation this time around, you know, you did not want that question.
Damian Dunn: No, I, I, I, no, I don't. I think they tinkered with things way too much and it potentially could have come under control much faster had they let the market do its normal thing.
Peter Dunn: All right, Kristen, do you think the Fed succeeded?
Kristen Ahlenius: I would probably say no. I mean, has inflation come down? Yes, but correlation and causation are, you could argue, like, was it really because of the Fed? So, I mean, no.
Peter Dunn: So, what, okay, okay, so, you, you, how did it come down, then? Well,
Kristen Ahlenius: I mean, eventually Well, I, [00:42:00] I don't know.
I guess maybe.
Peter Dunn: I don't know. I, I think it did. I think it worked. And I don't disagree with the criticism and this or that, but I, I think it worked. That doesn't mean I agree with how they did it or the length of this, but I think it worked. By the nature that they're good, but now, but here's what they're gonna do.
They're just oversteering this thing, you know. That's where it's gonna go. They're just gonna just keep tweaking the wheel, you know. Yeah,
Damian Dunn: I'm, I'm not real confident about
Peter Dunn: 2024. What else is in the news this week?
Damian Dunn: The amount of money Americans plan to allocate for the holidays this year is on track to surpass pre pandemic levels for the first time.
Good job, everybody. Don't do that. In 2023, holiday spending is expected to grow between 3 and 4 percent over 2022 volumes to between 957 [00:43:00] billion, 966 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Almost 80 percent of Americans are prepared to dish out of up to 1, 000 this holiday season, according to a recent Bank of America survey.
Bank of America, at least they're doing something right for you, Pete. Roughly 43 percent of respondents plan to spend less this year and 57 percent said they would limit expenditures to the same or more, with 9 percent planning a significantly bigger splurge. Millennials, by the way, were three times more likely to spend big compared to other generations.
Despite budgeting for healthy holiday spending, guessing game, what percentage said they did not expect to take on any debt to purchase holiday gifts? What? Percentage,
Peter Dunn: it's going to be something like 65%, but they're wrong. That that's the, that's the Rob, right? By 70%.
Damian Dunn: So they
Peter Dunn: did not, I'm [00:44:00] sorry. They have no idea what they're talking about, right?
Kristen, did you spend more this year than you did last year? Yes, I did. Dame?
Damian Dunn: yEah. I did. So did
Peter Dunn: I. I think also stage of lifetime, Kristen said this one out as our kids get older, Dame, like the things that they, they want and whatever, they just get more expensive. It's like, Oh, I'm going to get Percy from Thomas the train.
It's 7. It's like, no, no, I don't think so. Yeah. It doesn't work like that anymore. No,
Damian Dunn: unfortunately it does not. They you can't even go buy a nice sweatshirt for them anymore without spending way, way, way too much.
Peter Dunn: When I was a boy, we made our own sweatshirts. We just got cotton. One last story,
Damian Dunn: maybe?
Inflation and rising costs are pushing an increasing number of Americans who have already retired back into the workforce. Here's our good, feel good story to end the show. Some 12 percent of Americans said they plan to work again in the New Year with 61 percent citing rising costs as the [00:45:00] reason.
Besides inflation, 34 percent say they plan to return to work because they did not prepare adequately for retirement. Let that be a cautionary tale, 34%. An additional 34 percent need money to help pay debt. And 34 percent plan to return because they're bored and need to keep
Peter Dunn: busy. Is this, is this story about intention or about an actual trend that is occurring?
That's a trend.
Damian Dunn: Well you know what, it might be just about intention at this point. Because they go on to say social security is not covering nearly as much as it used to and They they need some additional revenue to cover ends
Peter Dunn: You know what? I'd love to do at some point on the show is like based on the new economy because it's always new Where do those people go back into the labor force?
What does that look like? You know, do they, do they go into serving? Do they go into bartending? Are they going to a different place than they used to? So maybe that's right. So I don't know if this is the last show of the year because I haven't planned that far ahead. If it is Feliz Navidad [00:46:00] and a happy new year.
If not, see you later. Kristen, hello, Dame. Goodbye. I'm running out of words, sending you good vibes. Good vibes are all that's in the budget. I'm Pete the Planner. This is Pete the Planner Show. I don't know. I sort of just had a spasm of words there, guys. That's good. That shouldn't alarm you. Nope. Okay, Jeremiah.
I gotta go. Kristen, that's disgusting.
Kristen Ahlenius: I'm sorry.
Peter Dunn: Is it whole milk cottage cheese or is it like low fat cottage cheese? Low
Kristen Ahlenius: fat, small curd, cottage cheese, nacho cheese, Doritos.
Peter Dunn: Cause the, the large curd would just be too much.
Kristen Ahlenius: Right, that would be disgusting.
Peter Dunn: Extra, ugh. cAn I also point something out? No. I've knowingly never had.
And how can you be so critical? I mean, have you met me? I, the, the [00:47:00] visual texture looks so abhorrent. I couldn't do it.
Damian Dunn: Not a big tapioca pudding guy either. I
Peter Dunn: like tapioca though, cause my, my mother in law made it. And I was like, I'm not eating those fish eyeballs. And then I took a bite and I was like, wow, this is delicious.
Yeah. yOur sister weighs in on this. It's genetic. Apparently, the spicy, sweet chili Doritos and college cheese is as good as well as Alenius, like German for cottage cheese or something.
Kristen Ahlenius: We get it from our mom. My mom, you see cottage cheese a lot. What's
Peter Dunn: the origin of the name Alenius? What's like the the Swedish?
Swedish. Mm hmm. Hmm. Who knew? Okay. What? Go ahead. Kristen, Kristen,
Damian Dunn: Kristen knew. Kristen, who knew? Kristen. Oh,
Peter Dunn: she knew. Guys, I don't know if we're doing a show next week because we got like the pancake breakfast next Friday morning. You know what I'm saying? Mm hmm. I
Damian Dunn: think it's scheduled to start after the show.
Peter Dunn: Oh, it is? I think so. Why am I [00:48:00] the last to know? They're going to have a watch party.
Kristen Ahlenius: Well, I thought about coming to that, but I didn't know what we were doing for radio, so. I can,
Peter Dunn: you can be in the studio and I'll go in my office.
Kristen Ahlenius: I'll go in your office. Why? I don't know. The studio intimidates me. I don't know.
Peter Dunn: What's it? If you're watching online today, we changed some settings on the camera so I don't look orange anymore. You're welcome. So nice. Wait, did you fix it, Dave?
Damian Dunn: No, I was saying you're welcome to the audiences watching so they don't have to look at you orange
Peter Dunn: Peter. Danza says pancakes are great for soccer training nutrition.
I do want to note that I set my alarm to get up and ride the peloton this morning. And then when I went into my room to get changed post workout, Mrs. Penner said, Oh, did you ride? And I said, no, no, no. I'm going to, I'm going to give that a shot after, after work.
Oh Lord. Okay. I gotta go. Love you. Stay getting [00:49:00] money.
