Life is Life!

Season Finale! Answers to Our Most Asked Questions and Faves of 2022

• Felipe Arevalo, Chase Peckham, Katie Utterback • Season 6 • Episode 162

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Can you believe we are in the middle of December??? Crazy! What a year 2022 has been for us. Personal tragedy, success stories, inflation, crypto, road trips and the flu making a huge comeback after taking a back seat to Covid-19 for a bit.

In this final episode of 2022 we discuss all of those and look back to our favorite moments as well as answer some of the most common questions we were asked. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year all!

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Talk Wealth to me, a Safe Space podcast where we chat about anything and everything related to personal finance. The information contained in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute as accounting, legal, tax, or other professional advice.

Chase Peckham:

Hello everybody and welcome to Smart With Your Money Live and the final episode of Talk Wealth To Me Live, or we'll talk, excuse me, Talk Wealth to Me, the podcast, uh, of 2022. We will be taking a small break from the podcast. We will come be coming back in the new year with a new look and even a new name possibly. So we're gonna be, uh, rebranding, uh, the podcast, exciting news coming up, which we'll talk about as we go. But I'm so excited to have both Felipe and our friend Katie, who is gonna be there, I hope, back and forth here and there. But we're just super excited to be there with you today and to talk about everything. That was 2022, which was, for me, personally, a roller coaster of a year. Um, I know that most of us had crazy roller coaster years in 2020, and then a little bit in 2021 with Covid, a pandemic and everything else that was going on. But for me, this was probably the most difficult year of my life, and yet this podcast, uh, thrived. It was, it was super fun to do. And Phil, today we get to relive some of those things and answer a bunch of the questions that we got during the year.

Felipe Arevalo:

We do. And if anyone's watching and they have another question, uh, you know, feel free to drop'em in the chat, comment it over on, on Facebook, and, and it'll be relayed over to us. But, you know, different type of presentation for SWYM Live today. But, you know, kind of looking back at the year there was, and, and, and then looking forward, first we wanted to go over some of our most common questions that we've heard in 2022. And this could be a long list, uh, but try to exclude the ones that, the ones that we hear regularly just throughout the years and, and maybe include just the three that we hear it a lot. Heard a lot in 2022. Um, we'll kind of briefly explain them, although each one of these could be its own college course. So<laugh>,

Chase Peckham:

They really could

Felipe Arevalo:

Not explaining it in, in its complete detail, but we also have had episodes on them. So maybe, uh, you'll hear about a couple of'em here coming up. The first one is, was Inflation.

Chase Peckham:

Oh boy.<laugh>. And the, it's

Felipe Arevalo:

So funny,

Chase Peckham:

There are a couple generations that have no idea what inflation is,

Felipe Arevalo:

Right.

Chase Peckham:

Especially this last, this this most recent, this

Felipe Arevalo:

Most recent one. I mean, I remember learning about it in college, but, but it was just something you learn. Uh, and, and we'll touch on inflation a couple times today, but basically it's the increased cost of living. And I'm not gonna do it justice if I try and explain it, but we've had a couple episodes on inflation with, uh, professor Jim Charkins, and you'll hear a little excerpt of one coming up here. I really, really recommend you check those out because it's gonna give you a much more in-depth and better elaborated explanation of what inflation is. And even then you're sitting there like, I, I've taken a couple econ classes at this point, and I, I think I got it. But you learn more about it as inflation. I mean, as you experience it

Chase Peckham:

Yeah. In inflation is something that we deal with every single year. It's, it's part of our, it's just part of our economic life. Um,

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah.

Chase Peckham:

We as, as, uh, even we all know the word inflation and we hear it and we get those 3% paid, you know, pay increases typically, because that's typically what the cost of living goes up per year. Uh, but then we have those abnormal years, those years where, you know, we've heard of recessions, we've heard of those things where it's things are less expensive, but the cost of, you know, different products and goods changes all over the place. And yet in with this inflation that we're seeing this year, the cost of just about everything.

Felipe Arevalo:

Right.

Chase Peckham:

Went up. And there's tons of reasons for that. And Jim Charkins talkings about it. Talk about one of my favorite guests. Uh, he, he really makes it so easy. He makes economics so easy to understand and so interesting, uh, that, uh,

Felipe Arevalo:

yeah,

Chase Peckham:

it does spell out what the reasons are, but what it does mean for all of us.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. And, and a simple way to look at it is if you think about pushing your shopping cart at the grocery line and you get to the register, there was a time where there was a dollar amount. You go back a year and a half to your everyday groceries, that dollar amount at your checkout, your items are, you know, it was for a lot of us are are similar.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah.

Felipe Arevalo:

From week to week, that price amount is gonna be higher than it was a year and a half ago.

Chase Peckham:

Yep.

Felipe Arevalo:

And it's to the point where you might notice it and say, wait a minute, what happened? Like, what did my kids sneak into my shopping cart when I wasn't looking? Because the price has just gone up. So definitely

Chase Peckham:

$50 Yeah.$50 trip last year could is probably in the sixties or even seventies this

Felipe Arevalo:

Year. Yeah. Depending on the items, interest rates are going up. But what does that mean to me? It can mean a lot, you know, interest rates going up, has, uh,

Chase Peckham:

Everything to do with inflation.

Felipe Arevalo:

Every, it's, it's inflation. It's the fed's, uh, attempt to curl only hold back inflation. Um, we're obviously looking at the, hoping that they find the right balancing point, which is harder than, than I think most of us would, would appreciate. But interest rates go up, that means your variable debt interest rates go up like your credit cards.

Chase Peckham:

Oh yeah.

Felipe Arevalo:

If you're carrying a credit card balance, this can make your payoff debt journey a lot more difficult because you're paying at a higher percentage point.

Chase Peckham:

Yes.

Felipe Arevalo:

This affects your ability and, and you know how much you would pay if you were to take out a bigger loan, say a mortgage. And I think we saw that in the mortgage mar in the real estate market a lot lending has changed. And I tell people during presentations, it's not because your credit got worse that you can't get a 3% anymore, it's just that they're not there anymore.

Chase Peckham:

That's right.

Felipe Arevalo:

That, that interest rate has, has climbed up and what it does is it makes it less affordable and it makes it more difficult to purchase the same big purchase, for example, a home, it's a lot harder to do it now than it was a year and a half ago, or you're just at a different price point at this point in time and.

Chase Peckham:

Right.

Felipe Arevalo:

Uh, that, you know, that makes it difficult to spend, which then less spending should help inflation. And that's the idea behind the whole cycle. So, you know, buckle in 2023 might have more inflation and more interest rate questions, who knows?

Chase Peckham:

It just means you may not be able to afford as much car or as much house, uh, that you would've when interest rates were down in the, you know, all time lows.

Felipe Arevalo:

Right.

Chase Peckham:

Um, but this is, you know, you, you look back at the, in the se late seventies and eighties, uh, when, when things were quote unquote good and interest rates were pretty comparable, they were at the seven percents for a house, which is crazy, but it's also the cost of housing wasn't anywhere near what it is.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yes.

Chase Peckham:

Today.

Felipe Arevalo:

That's definitely something where that the increased interest rate yet to correlate with decreased house prizes prices, at least in our market,

Chase Peckham:

At least in our market,

Felipe Arevalo:

a lot of markets, uh, around the country. So we'll see if that.

Chase Peckham:

They have definitely flattened out, though

Felipe Arevalo:

It has, it's not climbing at the ridiculous rate that it had been for the previous two years. Uh, then the last question from this section is, so how do I budget with all this going on?<laugh>?

Chase Peckham:

It's a common question. In fact,

Felipe Arevalo:

That's a common question. Yeah. I think that could fit pretty much in any year<laugh>. But this one was a special one. You know, Chase, as you mentioned in the fact that you have that at high inflation, you had that housing, whether it's going up in a lot of areas like here in San Diego, the fact that people were out there buying houses left and right and now they can't, that's made the very tight renters market even harder.

Chase Peckham:

Right.

Felipe Arevalo:

Because all of a sudden people who were looking to be homeowners are back in the renting market and, and you hear the stories of people, you know, having to move and all of a sudden they're looking around like, how am I gonna be able to afford the new rent?

Chase Peckham:

Right.

Felipe Arevalo:

And, and you know, your grocery trips, your gas prices, all that increasing, although gas, you know, knock on Wood's, been a little lower here in San Diego. Um,

Chase Peckham:

It's really, really sad when your daughter says, dad, look,

Felipe Arevalo:

It's a

Chase Peckham:

Gas is only$4 a gallon.

Felipe Arevalo:

Right?

Speaker 4:

<laugh>.

Felipe Arevalo:

I'm Like, it was very exciting. I saw it on a couple like, uh, Facebook groups and stuff where people were saying, guys, gas is$4 at Costco, but you,

Chase Peckham:

That's what makes me crazy is a lot of, you know, they, they can, they set these prices and then they get us kind of used. They take us to this top price and then they get us what we think four is good. No, it's not.

Felipe Arevalo:

We would've been yelling and screaming about four in the negative direction just a few years ago.

Chase Peckham:

Yes. It should not cost people a hundred dollars to fill up their gas tanks. It just shouldn't.

Felipe Arevalo:

It was getting close even from my Honda Civic<laugh>, that that prices were getting high<laugh>. I feel for you with the, what do you

Chase Peckham:

Think it's like with my truck and my Yukon?

Felipe Arevalo:

That's what I'm saying I feel for, and I was pumping gas, looking at the price on my civic. I'm like, how you gotta be kidding me. Um, this is a tiny car, so, you know, how do you budget for it? Track your expenses, find the budgeting method that works for you. And often, and I start with track your expenses, because a lot of times we think we know how much we spend on things. I talk to people all the time and we do the budgets one-on-one, and we get to the end and I say, Hey, looks good. Looks like you have an extra four or$500 sitting around at the end of the month. And they'd look at me like, I'm crazy. And, and, and you messed up your math. No, I didn't do it. The computer did. Cuz otherwise I would mess up the math. But it's because you, we don't know exactly how much we spend on some of these things unless you've tracked them, unless you've taken the time to look it up. So they think they spend$400 on groceries, but they don't, you know, they think they spend$150 eating out, but you don't, you might spend more. So tracking those expenses, finding those small leaks. I think it was Benjamin Franklin said,"small leaks sink great ships." And that is true because those small little leaks are the ones that oftentimes keep you from accomplishing your bigger financial goals whatever those are.

Chase Peckham:

You had to bring up leaks, you had to bring up leaks.

Felipe Arevalo:

<laugh>, we had like three episodes on, on leaks. I was shaking my head yesterday and I had a day off to to watch the World Cup and I spent the whole morning talking to plumbers<laugh>. So

Chase Peckham:

How many of those plumbers said, oh, we don't work on, on uh, water heaters.

Felipe Arevalo:

No, I had'em, but they were like, yeah, we can get you in on like Thursday. I was like, are you kidding me? It's a hot water heater. It's 30 something degrees in the morning and I can't<laugh>, I can't go without a water heater until Thursday. So I had to continue my journey until I found one and I was like, look, I'll make it there tonight. Uh, and I, so, you know, but like, whoa, you had a morning off? What'd you do? Talked to plumbers. Um, had some

Chase Peckham:

Well, you know, speaking of leaks, that's why I'm, I mentioned that we, we don't have a kitchen currently. Uh, so we have nothing to cook our food on. So the kids and I have had to eat out and we're just trying to figure all kinds of different ways to eat more healthy,

Felipe Arevalo:

Get creative,

Chase Peckham:

eat a little bit. Yeah. And so we've had to keep receipts for all this food and it's ex, I mean, wow,

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah.

Chase Peckham:

How much I am spending per week, uh, on, on food. Cuz I had to do that with the insurance company and we figured out, okay, we as a family spend about anywhere from 125 to 150 a week on food when we do, so the, the insurance company will pay on top of that everything. And I flew by that by like day three with eating out. It's just even, and, and you know, again, I'm not eating out at fast food restaurants.

Felipe Arevalo:

Right.

Chase Peckham:

I'm not going to eat like that. I mean, we could eat cheaper, but it would also be excruciatingly bad for us. I do not need to.

Felipe Arevalo:

You end up like Supersize me.

Chase Peckham:

documentary of supersize me, Right.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. Morgan Spurlock

Chase Peckham:

Yeah, we are not gonna do that. I am not gonna do that to my teenagers. So we need to try to eat somewhat more healthy and some good fresh food and it is very difficult to do that.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah.

Chase Peckham:

When you're eating out.

Felipe Arevalo:

Sarah and I just watched it in an effort to motivate myself to not go out and eat so much. I remember like that documentary was so,

Chase Peckham:

You know, it tastes that good for a reason, right?

Felipe Arevalo:

Oh yeah. So we rewatched it

Chase Peckham:

Crap in It all.

Felipe Arevalo:

I she watched it for the first time I rewatched it and it made me like Yeah. Like I didn't already, now I have like an extra reason not to go out and eat, uh, aside from the finances, but, you know,<laugh>

Chase Peckham:

Look that correlation how cheap food is relative to

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. Real food. And if you know an expert on, not you Chase, but if anyone's out there and knows an expert on like food deserts and, and things like that, I'd love to talk to'em next year for the podcast. Otherwise I'm gonna have to go find one because I think it's, it's a really cool.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah.

Felipe Arevalo:

Um, topic that I think we we need to cover. But so switching gears here from kind of our regular swim live to some of the things that we did this year on the podcast, and I'll also try and play little audio clips of, of some of these episodes as we go, is just to kind of hear, you can hear how it goes, you know, how the conversation kind of tends to, you know, um, progress and we're gonna do fan favorites, you know, which episodes got the most listens in from the first half. So those episodes released in 2022, but, uh, June or before out of, and then we're gonna do, cuz otherwise it's not fair for the second half. Uh, you know, otherwise those don't have enough time for you guys to, to listen to'em and catch up. So, um, those are QR codes as this, as the episodes come in, you can go ahead and uh, check them out there. First one is Inflation Today. We've talked about it. We had Professor Jim Charkins.

Chase Peckham:

That's fun.

Felipe Arevalo:

It was a cool episode. I think it was also, um, on your favorites Chase.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah.

Felipe Arevalo:

I believe is one of, it

Chase Peckham:

Was on my favorite

Felipe Arevalo:

Chase's favorites. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. So I'm gonna do some audio sharing here. Everyone let me know if you can hear it. Um, we don't share a lot of audio, so, um,<laugh>, uh, and that's for a reason. So

Chase Peckham:

He did explain this so easily though. I mean for, you know, something that you would think would be so boring yet it's so important to us. It was really, really fun right. To listen to what he had to say.

Felipe Arevalo:

Super. And he, and he's uh, he's, I know you hear economics and you think, oh, I don't know. I don't know if I wanna listen to economics professor.

Chase Peckham:

Oh yeah.

Felipe Arevalo:

But this guy's good. Uh, and he's very entertaining. So, um, let me, I have it queued up here. Um, and let me know Chase, if you can hear it.

Dr. Jim Charkins:

Experienced it. And so it was a boring subject and uh, you know, we had stuff on the test and usually they kind of got it right. But, uh,<laugh> the good news now, or the bad news, is that everybody does know, uh, what inflation is. Anybody who's looking for a car, anybody who's paying rent or house payments, uh, anybody who's eating, uh, we all know what inflation is. Uh, you know, the, uh, the statistical data that we use, the, the main one that the, that the news uses anyway, not the Federal Reserve, but the news Consumer Price index. And that's a measurement of a basket of goods that the Bureau of Labor Statistics prices, uh, every month. Uh, and then they measure, uh, what the average price of all those products are. And so if we look at the, uh, the latest consumer price index number, uh, it's the highest in 40 years.

Felipe Arevalo:

Oh, definitely. And this was a April of last year, uh, episodes or or April of this year. So.

Chase Peckham:

April of this year. Don't put us in 23 yet.<laugh>, I'm, I'm not ready to be 51 yet.

Felipe Arevalo:

I'm ready to jump into 2023<laugh>

Chase Peckham:

Ahead. I'm ready to get outta this year actually.

Felipe Arevalo:

So this is, this is again, one of your favorites. Uh, one of my favorites, um, as well. And, and, and I think it's just cuz he makes economics so easy to digest, which was not my experience when I took economics multiple times in college.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah.

Felipe Arevalo:

Macro and micro. And as a business major, you gotta take both of them. So, I mean, I struggled to get through those courses. I,

Chase Peckham:

I'm just super excited that our fans, uh, are the people that listened to this. The listeners, um, really liked this too, cuz it was one of my favorites.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. It, so it was really cool. That was our most listened to, uh, 2022 episode. Um, so, you know, it was a really, really good one. Um, so shout out,

Chase Peckham:

Shout out to jim.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah, absolutely. We're gonna have to have'em back, uh, this year again to kind of give us an update. And then for the next band favorite, we have, um, impulse purchases come in all shapes and sizes.<laugh>, uh, that was our second most.

Chase Peckham:

This didn't make my top three, but it was right there. I was going, I was almost there because this had a lot to do with my life at the time.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. So I have a little clip of that one here,

Chase Peckham:

How things in life change. But not only that, the things that we do by impulse, the impulse by something

Felipe Arevalo:

I'm an impulse buyer by nature

Chase Peckham:

By all of us have experience with. Right? Even if you are not consi, even if you are not one of those people that just impulse buys all the time, right? But we have all gotten to a place where for whatever reason, whatever's going on in our lives at that general moment, however we're feeling sometimes buying something, purchasing something, coming up with a new exercise plan, whatever it might be, we get super excited about it. We go out and we spend the money on it, and then we go, did we actually follow through with it? Is it something that we still do? Is it, or is it, is that gadget collecting dust?

Felipe Arevalo:

So that was, uh, the second most listened to episode of, uh, the ones you released this year. So,

Chase Peckham:

Uh, I will tell you that the puppy that my wife really, really wanted the impulse buy this was right before Kerri got sick, really sick. Uh, I mean, she'd already been diagnosed with cancer, but you know, she was doing really well and then she really wanted that bigger dog. And we got the poodle pointer. And when Kerri got really sick, she was only like three and a half months. So it was, here I am with this ver a poodle pointer. So German short hair pointer and a poodle. We're talking all kinds of energy and needs a job to do, you know, they're bird dogs for the most part. Um, yeah, so I would like to thank Ryan and Blake, who I have, uh, our, our dear, dear Bailey, um, training her and getting her ready to come back home out there in Knoxville, Tennessee. Uh, that, that was an impulse buy, I found out later, I got stories from a few of Kerri's colleagues, uh, about Bailey. And she was like, Hey, I got cancer. I'll do, I I'm just going to pull the trigger. Whatever I'm gonna, I want This<laugh>,

Felipe Arevalo:

I want it.

Chase Peckham:

Um, and, but it's funny cuz Carrie later apologized to me saying, I'm sorry, you know, that you're gonna have to do all, you know, work with this. But, um, she'll be a sweet dog and we'll have her back here soon.

Felipe Arevalo:

Good, good. Um, so you know that that was the second most, and then the third most listened to episode, uh, released last year or this year, um, was House Poor in Seattle reaching for happiness. That was also in February. That was sparked,

Chase Peckham:

That was a Twitter deal, right?

Felipe Arevalo:

Uh, it was an, it was actually an article, um, that we came across, um, New York Times article.

Chase Peckham:

That's right.

Felipe Arevalo:

That got us thinking about it. Um, so here's a, a clip from, from that one 20% increase in Montana is a much smaller dollar amount than a 10% increase in Seattle. What's,

Katie Utterback:

But, but I do think there's something to be said though about the energy of like the city where you live. And I think that there's a problem when we start comparing the like how much I paid for a house in San Diego to how much my brother-in-law paid for a house in Fairfield, Iowa<laugh>. It's not the same.

Chase Peckham:

It is not the same.

Katie Utterback:

It's you, you might have a bigger house, you might have a smaller mortgage, but for me, the cost of living out here, not having to deal with winter is worth it.

Felipe Arevalo:

Oh, I agree. I wouldn't leave San Diego. Uh,

Katie Utterback:

And also, I mean, I lived on the East coast before and the cost that I I paid for food was outrageous because the produce is not fresh.

Chase Peckham:

That's not nearly as good as here.

Katie Utterback:

Little things like that.

Chase Peckham:

We get spoiled.

Felipe Arevalo:

And they don't have Mexican food.

Katie Utterback:

No, they don't.<laugh>

Felipe Arevalo:

East coast people. Taco Bell is not Mexican food. Let me just get that off my chest.

Katie Utterback:

Oh, it wasn't even Taco Bell out there. What, what?

Felipe Arevalo:

So we also talked about food a couple times.<laugh>. Um, I,

Chase Peckham:

I agree with Katie a hundred percent, by the way.

Felipe Arevalo:

Oh, I agree.

Chase Peckham:

There is a reason they say we pay the sunshine tax out here.

Felipe Arevalo:

I agree. The fact that I could go take a jog pretty much any day of the week, uh,

Chase Peckham:

yeah.

Felipe Arevalo:

And, and get away with it without having to put on layers and layers and layers, I think is,

Chase Peckham:

Look, I took a walk down at Lolla, be at the, at the cove this morning and it was, it's brisk and it's chilly for us a man. Was it beautiful?

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. So switching gears to the second half episodes, July and later, and I wanted to put this one in its own category just because these episodes haven't been out as much otherwise the whole year was gonna be from the first half of the year.

Chase Peckham:

Of course. That makes sense.

Felipe Arevalo:

The first one, listen to second half of the year was the road trip one, um, that, that Katie and I did, where we just kind of went over, um, my road trip experience some tips on how to handle, uh, financially handle a, a road trip. So I wanted to play a clip from that one. Uh, and as I'm playing'em, I'm closing the tabs so I can get to'em faster, which really have a choice. But no, it, it was, uh, you know, it was hot too. You can't predict what the weather's gonna be like. Your road trip ends up in the middle of a heat wave. Um, you couldn't have planned that. Uh, I was, I think it's an Outcast song or you could plan a perfect picnic, but you can't predict the weather<laugh>. Um, you know, and, and it's so true because you just can't, you don't know it's gonna be a hundred plus degrees, uh, when you, when you're in that town and you're, you know, not gonna be wanting to go on a five mile hike, you know, it just, yeah, there's some cool hikes, but it's a hundred degrees, I don't want to do'em. And we're at Elevation, you know, and it's humid, so you have to take all that into account. So it was, it was good to be able to have that flexibility, uh, along the way.

Speaker 8:

Oh yeah, that's good. And I mean,$30 extra a night for that peace of mind if something happens that just seems like it's,

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. So that was a fun episode and I, the clip there is I paid extra to have the ability to cancel because you know how they offer you the non-refundable rate and then the refundable rate and.

Chase Peckham:

Yes.

Felipe Arevalo:

If you go in and you don't hit the, and you just say, I'm gonna be there no matter what, now you're stuck in whatever you planned out, you're gonna lose everything. It reduces your flexibility and. Yeah. You know, like I said, you're in Denver, it's a hundred plus, it's humid. And

Chase Peckham:

So you decided to drive right through and just not stay.

Felipe Arevalo:

No, we decided to, uh, change our route and not go back through ar not go down into Arizona where it was even hotter and then work our way back.

Chase Peckham:

Gotcha.

Felipe Arevalo:

Stay in Denver in the Colorado area a little longer. Uh Gotcha. And not go through four corners into the Arizona desert.

Chase Peckham:

That was one of the episodes I missed, wasn't it?

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah, yeah. So we were gonna do like arches and four corners and, you know, the petrified forests in, in Arizona. It, it was a hundred plus. We weren't gonna actually go do all that stuff. So we stayed on the mountains a little longer and then worked our way back through.

Chase Peckham:

Smart.

Felipe Arevalo:

Utah. Uh,

Chase Peckham:

Another trip, another road trip to do that at a different time of year.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. August in Arizona. Not really.

Chase Peckham:

Southern Utah is hotter than heck.

Felipe Arevalo:

Oh yeah. That whole area is is is just way more than a San Diego, uh,<laugh> San Diegans can handle. Uh, and then next one, I think Chase this is, um, and that was one of my favorites, the, the road trip episode. Um, you know, so it was a fan favorite and it was, uh, one of my favorites. This next one, a fan favorite and one of Chase's favorites, um, is the, the medical billing episode with Dr. Virgi. And we talked about the different, uh, medical billing stuff. And honestly, this might be the one where I learned the most. I was clueless as to all this stuff.

Chase Peckham:

Well, it's, most of us are. That's why it was my favorite. And it just so happened that, you know, we found this, and I was interested in this because of what I was going through, what my wife and I were going through at the time with Kerri b you know, I have never really had to deal with any kind of major medical bills except outside of working with people who had them. Right. And knowing, you know, there was a lot of, and, and that is a big deal throughout our country, medical bills. Um, in fact, there's a reason that, um, intuit not, not into it, excuse me, FICO has changed into FICO nine, the, the weight of medical bills. Uh, because it's, there's, it's just so prevalent in our society and it's really not a true statement on whether you're a, you could be a, a good to lend to or not. Um, you know, they should, you can take a risk on somebody. They might pay all their bills, but then they get hit with hundreds of thousand dollars of medical bills that they can't pay, and all of a sudden they're not lend worthy. That doesn't make any sense at all.

Felipe Arevalo:

Absolutely.

Chase Peckham:

Um, and then with Kerri getting diagnosed and us now having to work that whole world of, you know, weekly visits, specialist visits, you know, regular chemo, all those things, it was, it, it, it was mind boggling how crazy it was to see the medical bills that come in and what they would cost if we didn't have the insurance and the way the insurance companies work. Uh, and by the way, it, it's very similar to, um, homeowner's insurance too in, I mean, they auto insurance. I mean, they, they, there's a reason that they have all these vendors that they would, you know, highly because they negotiate prices. So it, she was amazing and.

Felipe Arevalo:

yeah.

Chase Peckham:

Spelling out how to work the system. Um,

Felipe Arevalo:

yeah.

Chase Peckham:

Even if you're underinsured.

Felipe Arevalo:

Absolutely. So I have a little clip here. Let me play a little clip of this one.

Chase Peckham:

Added stress that you<laugh> you were already taking on because you're sick and your family is stressed because you're Sick. Um,

Dr. Virgie Bright Ellington:

Exactly. And there's endorphins, there's issues, you know, you're, you're be, if you weren't sick before, you're sick when you open the bill. Right. The stress is significant. And Felipe apologies, I don't want to be,

Felipe Arevalo:

But, um, I think that one got messed up where I had it queued up, but did she mention something about, um, CPT codes? Um,

Chase Peckham:

yeah.

Felipe Arevalo:

Which I thought was really eyeopening, like you mentioned, and, and how the billing, the that first bill that you get may not be the official bill that you are, you know, gonna pay. So make sure that you ask for those. So if you.

Chase Peckham:

Yes.

Felipe Arevalo:

Um, if you ever find yourself having to deal with, um, just medical billing, take and listen to this episode. Cuz I think it's, I learned a ton. Um, just the fact that there were CTP codes I think was, was enough to be like, oh man, there's just so much in there. And, and like we talked about during the episode, it takes<laugh>. You almost have to be a medical billing expert to be able to understand this stuff. And, you know, it definitely goes a long way, uh, to have that knowledge.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah, it was a great episode and if you haven't heard it go back, do yourself a favor. It is well worth it.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. And then the last one of the fan favorites, one was, um, preparing your child for real life experiences, um,

Chase Peckham:

Experiences Or expenses,

Felipe Arevalo:

Expenses,<laugh>, um,

Chase Peckham:

They go hand in hand too.

Felipe Arevalo:

Same idea. Uh,<laugh>. So hopefully this clip is at the, at the right spot when I play it.

Chase Peckham:

Uh, so many kids are, and friends of mine who are dropping their kids off at college for the first time and.

Felipe Arevalo:

That's crazy.

Chase Peckham:

Saying goodbye and, and can some of them going finally empty nesters. Um, some of them, their first child going off to college, and this is a big topic about what kids are prepared for when they are gonna go off to school or move out of the house to go take on a, a a a career, a a, a new career.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. I, I follow a lot of the SDSU accounts on, on social media. Um, and I, they keep posting. So this was, uh, after one of my news segments that I had talked about youth and some of the tips for youth who are just leaving home for the first time and, you know, some of the eye-opening experiences and things parents can do to kind of prepare their kids for that. You're on your own type of scenario. And, and I, people liked it. I think it was timely too with a lot of people, you know, leaving home for the first time. How do you keep'em from becoming a boomerang child that leaves and has to come back.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah.

Felipe Arevalo:

Because they weren't financially ready

Chase Peckham:

And Well, and trying to mi everybody's gonna make mistakes. Everybody's gonna, you know, do some dumb things we, we still do as adults. But if you can mitigate that, you know, if you can just understand a little bit more to where you're not in a major trouble when you're first really just starting out in your life

Felipe Arevalo:

And you could prepare your kids for this even well before, ideally, well before they're heading out the door.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah. I mean, as I've learned, as I'm learning teenagers here, Phil, both my kids are, you know, my daughter's almost there as a full-blown teenager. Um, I don't know anything. Uh, they know everything. So, uh, I, I've been told that this changes. I've been told that they, they, they'll they'll come back and tell me that I do know something. Uh, but Right. You know,

Felipe Arevalo:

Hard Not at the moment.

Chase Peckham:

Tell it's hard to tell kids<laugh>, uh, what they should do.

Felipe Arevalo:

Well, I always tell people, my my parents, uh, did a good job of, they did their best to try and get me to save money, avoid debt, all that stuff. Now did I listen? No, but they tried and I didn't make a lot of good financial decisions in my early twenties, but the few that I did was only because, you know, a test drive a Corvette down in Mission Valley and the guy's telling me he get me financed. And the only reason I didn't buy it because I, my my mom sees me pull up in a bright yellow Corvette, she is going to lose her Mind.

Chase Peckham:

How old were you?

Felipe Arevalo:

In my early twenties.

Chase Peckham:

Oh good gosh.

Felipe Arevalo:

But this was the early two thousands when everyone was lending money to everyone and, you know, didn't matter that<laugh> it didn't matter that I was in my early twenties living

Chase Peckham:

At home with mom and dad, but check out my car.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah, exactly.<laugh>. But I stuck to my fuel efficient four door sedan.

Chase Peckham:

Not uncommon though. Uncommon.

Felipe Arevalo:

I know. Yeah. I hadn't thought about it. Which kind of brings us to our, uh, some of our favorites. Not the fan favorites, but the ones we enjoyed. And we've already touched on a few of'em for both of us. But speaking of cars, Chase, we were talking before and you mentioned one of your favorites, um, was, uh, one that we came up with the topic actually from a Twitter.

Chase Peckham:

Yes,

Felipe Arevalo:

That right?

Chase Peckham:

Yep. That was one of, we did a couple of those where there were some just absolute crazy, uh,

Felipe Arevalo:

we did.

Chase Peckham:

Twitter conversations, uh, that were very interesting. And this one, this was one of, this was definitely one of my favorites because this was just, unfortunately we see it far too often and, and it just kind of came to the forefront.

Felipe Arevalo:

So I got here the clip that kind of goes over that one,

Chase Peckham:

This tweet that this woman sent out and, and I quote, just sold a 2015 Audi to a 26 year old whose main concerns were paying zero down and having something better than a Nissan. And that's in quotes that better than a Nissan in quotes. So it turns out that this, uh, person's, um, monthly payment is$835 a month. Apparently. She's really hyped about it. Uh, and her APR is 28%. Yes, you heard that correctly. 28%. And she finishes the tweet with, and she didn't even ask. And a little kind of a disturbed, uh, emoji face.

Felipe Arevalo:

Right.

Chase Peckham:

Phil, you sent this to us

Felipe Arevalo:

And we see it Chase. You're right. It unfortunately, it's something that we see. This isn't the first time we've heard of it. This isn't the first time we've, and we've had people at presentations come up to us and tell us like, man, I really messed this up, didn't I?

Chase Peckham:

I get cold sweats. Just hearing that a little bit. I yes, and you're right. I mean, I don't know how many presentations that we've done talking about lending and interest rates and those kinds of things and kids coming up or you know, a few just sinking in their desks full, putting their hands in their face, you know, like shaking Their head of like, oh gosh, what did I do?

Felipe Arevalo:

What have I done?<laugh>,

Chase Peckham:

Right.

Felipe Arevalo:

So that's, that was one of, uh, your favorites and I think your other favorite was, uh, the medical billing.

Chase Peckham:

Yep.

Felipe Arevalo:

Right. And what was your third one?

Chase Peckham:

Um, my third one.

Felipe Arevalo:

Oh, I have it. I have the clip here. It was, uh, cryptocurrency.

Chase Peckham:

Cryptocurrency with Paul. Yep.

Felipe Arevalo:

So lemme play crypto,

Chase Peckham:

which is really timely right now, by the way.

Felipe Arevalo:

Oh, I know. Crypto is especially Yeah. Yeah.

Paul Lim:

And that he should really pay attention to it. That's what really got him into it. So can we take some of those lessons and apply it to money? And the answer is yes. So I'm gonna tell you some of the axiomatic rules of money and here's how this works. Pretend you guys crash, landed on a desert island or something like that and you're in charge of rebuilding society and someone's put you in charge of determining what we should use for money on this little island of ours. Cause we're gonna be here for a while. Should we use sand? Should we use apples? Should we use seashells? Like what's, what's the right way as far as rules of money? Well, Ludwig von Mises figured this out a long time ago and the acronym to remember here is du Puls. It's not perfect cuz there's only one U in this whole thing, but I'm gonna go through this acronym for you. And this is what we'll use to determine the rules of money. So the first D is durability, right? You can't have a storage of currency that's gonna rot for something like that. So using food on the desert island, that would be a bad idea, right? The visibility, you gotta be able to divide it into small pieces to give people change. So giant rocks wouldn't work because you need to be able to give people change or something like that. Same reason portability is peak. You gotta be able to carry this thing around. Another reason why giant rocks would be a bad decision, right? Uniformity, they all have to kind of look the same. So whatever you're gonna use as far as your currency.

Felipe Arevalo:

So I think this one was great because Paul really goes in and that whole example,

Chase Peckham:

oh it was awesome

Felipe Arevalo:

Really goes in on like you start thinking about it and oh, that's where money gets its value. That's where gets.

Chase Peckham:

It cleared it up for me. Yeah, it was really, it was really good.

Felipe Arevalo:

So then he applies all those topics to cryptocurrency and that one was so cool that we actually had to make that conversation a two-part, uh, after we recorded. So it was the first one's kind of the history of the money and understanding what gives money value. And then the second part, part two was more of how do we incorporate that into cryptocurrency and what gives that its value. So very interesting conversation. And cryptocurrency has been all over the news,

Chase Peckham:

All over the news recently.

Felipe Arevalo:

All, I mean all year really.

Chase Peckham:

We got people gonna be going to jail.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah.

Chase Peckham:

Lots of fraud.

Felipe Arevalo:

Just arrested in, in The Bahamas of all places. So.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah.

Felipe Arevalo:

Um, very interesting. Um, so those are your three uh, episodes.

Chase Peckham:

Those were my favorite. Schitt's Creek was up there.

Felipe Arevalo:

Oh yeah, Schitt's Creek

Chase Peckham:

loved that. I love that episode.

Felipe Arevalo:

That was a really good episode that, um.

Chase Peckham:

Katie.

Felipe Arevalo:

We did on Yeah, Katie on Katie's blog post and uh, it

Chase Peckham:

Was all our, we love that show and it was,

Felipe Arevalo:

We do all like this good. So it made it very easy, like the money lessons that we learned. My other one I did the road trip one, the inflation one, which you've already covered. The one we haven't covered was coffee. We got to talk about coffee and you and I both are drinking coffee as we speak. So, uh, cheers on, on some coffee. I think mine's Dunkin'. And we, we got to talk to a coffee co-op and how they do coffee and I have the little clip here, which I thought was really cool. And I got to learn about coffee, not just like the financials behind it, but then also some of the actual coffee stuff.

Rob McClure:

Who was growing a coffee, what kind of work was involved, um, and really motivate us as a roaster to really do our best. We have the lighter end of the log to lift, if you like, uh, to do our best to uh, make that coffee, whatever kind of season they had. Cuz you know, coffee is an agricultural product. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's less great, sometimes there's pest issues. There's all kinds of stuff we have to ride out with the grower cooperatives we work with. So to really take that coffee, find the right roast temperature, get the most out of it through the best blending package it, well, you know, have bright labels are our art was stands, uh, it stands out quite a bit.

Chase Peckham:

It sure does.

:

On the shelf. Um, we really wanted everything that we did to move the farmer's coffee as much as was possible. Um,

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. And that was a clip from, uh, that episode. It was Just coffee co-op and I bought some of thier coffee.

Chase Peckham:

That was so cool About how the effects of the economic situation in not only here in America, but where they were getting the coffee and how it changed some of those farmer's lives.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah.

Chase Peckham:

Uh, and and that was phenomenal.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. I think it was really cool. And and it's something that we're all, I mean, we love.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah.

Felipe Arevalo:

So it it made it and, and not just us, but it's one of America's favorite drinks, coffee. So,

Chase Peckham:

And you ordered, you ordered some of their coffee. Didn't you?

Felipe Arevalo:

I did order some of their coffee. It was delicious. I ordered it whole beans so I could, uh, um, grind it myself. And then I even took the time to French press some of it, so it's like, let me give it its fair shot.

Chase Peckham:

Wow.

Felipe Arevalo:

So I, most of it through the drip machine, but I did, uh, French press the, the first batch of each bag and I thought they were awesome. I,

Chase Peckham:

I love coffee, but I don't know what french press means. So that, that I just, that's something you just threw on me today,<laugh>. Is that something I should be doing?

Felipe Arevalo:

No, it's too time consuming.

Chase Peckham:

Okay, good. Glad to know that.

Felipe Arevalo:

And then you gotta clean the, the stuff when you're done. It's so much more work. That's why I only did like the first one or two.

Chase Peckham:

Okay.

Felipe Arevalo:

And then I just did it with a regular drip machine, uh, but<laugh>, so, you know, that was one of my favorites. So I dunno, cha um, Katie wants to drop if she's in the chat, any of her favorites. Um, that would be cool. But those are, it was a fun, it was a fun podcast year. We had some pretty cool episodes, some really cool guests. Um,

Chase Peckham:

Yeah, we did.

Felipe Arevalo:

And you know, it was, it was a lot of learning. Um, Bob Wheeler, oh, Katie was saying she loved the Bob Wheeler episode, um, which was an awesome one talking about, um,<laugh> learning how no one really knows what they're doing.<laugh> Absolutely. And he was great because he is like a comedian accountant, which is an odd combination.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah he was good.

Felipe Arevalo:

Just to start off with, um, and he's in the comedy world, so it, it was really cool talking to him.

Chase Peckham:

He was funny.

Felipe Arevalo:

He was very funny and not something CPA funny.

Chase Peckham:

Right.

Felipe Arevalo:

Don't always go together. Sorry to, to our CPA friends. But, um, and then, uh, Katie also mentioned the episode we did with, uh, our friend Howard Eskew, uh, professor at, uh, San Diego Mesa College and Southwestern Community College. Um, and we talked to him about like youth and, um, you know, his experiences with money growing up and, and how he's, that's shaped how he gives back and how he's always, always, always makes sure to pay himself first. Uh, so, so I think the, that conversation with, with Howard was, was great. And that's another guest, uh, we should have back. We'll have,

Chase Peckham:

That's a passionate man.

Felipe Arevalo:

Um, you talk about someone who's all about spreading personal finances.

Chase Peckham:

Oh yeah.

Felipe Arevalo:

Uh, you got<laugh> Howard. He's the real deal.

Chase Peckham:

He's a lovely human being too.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. So, you know, and, and he's spreading all over Mesa all over, um,

Chase Peckham:

San Diego

Felipe Arevalo:

Southwestern College.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah. He's making a difference. That Man.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. So really cool, really cool episode. And he listens. So he's one of our listeners. So Howard, hope you're having a good day. Uh,<laugh>.

Chase Peckham:

I'm just buttering you up, Howard

Felipe Arevalo:

Because we'll get, we'll get texts from Howard and like, Hey, that was a good episode guys. I really like this or that. So thank you for listening Howard, uh,<laugh>. And so then, uh, that's it for the year end review. Uh, we got the big announcement, Chase kind of mentioned earlier, but, uh, no more talk wealth to me. Yeah.

Chase Peckham:

Talk wealth to me. We're going through a little bit of a brand change. Um, we'll we will be having a new name, a new look, but just it, the topics are gonna be the same. Everything else is gonna be the same. Uh, it's, it's as popular as this is has become, uh, we've been told that our name needs to to change a bit. So we, there will be a, a big change. It'll be coming out, uh, on social media here in the soon, uh, very, very soon. Um, we will be back at middle, uh, late January, uh, with season seven, uh, we will be heading into, I believe around 150 something episodes. 160 episodes

Felipe Arevalo:

I think. So we're in, yeah, we we're quite a bit, uh, I don't remember the exact number, but yeah, we're in like 160 something range.

Chase Peckham:

Right. And the big, the big one was is this is, you know, we talk about personal finance a lot and, but what we found out from fans is how much they liked, uh, the fact that it's so non, uh, just math, uh, that it's real life situations that, that that finances money. They're things that, that we make these decisions. Uh, they're fi every all these decisions that we make are that they, they will have an effect on us financially. Uh, and, and we forget that sometimes. So, uh, it, that name is gonna kind of bring it in is a little bit less just money and about money and life, which is is what we all, we all want to make better is, is live a better and happier, uh, life and not being stressed out by finances, um, can help us get to that place.

Felipe Arevalo:

Yeah. And I think Katie,

Chase Peckham:

so we're looking forward to it.

Felipe Arevalo:

Katie mentioned we're at 161 episodes published so far.

Chase Peckham:

So there you go.

Felipe Arevalo:

162.

Chase Peckham:

I should know that since I publish'em every week.

Felipe Arevalo:

I know<laugh> and I, and then I tweet about'em and then I make the little clips for it. But<laugh>, so it's hard to keep track of the number. It keeps ticking up. So,

Chase Peckham:

And they run into each other. I mean, remember you asked me what one? Well, it's one of my favorites. And, uh,

Felipe Arevalo:

You.

Chase Peckham:

Oops,

Felipe Arevalo:

You mentioned one. I was like, oh, that's a good one. And then we.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah, but that was in 2021.

Felipe Arevalo:

2021 Chase<laugh>.

Chase Peckham:

Whoops.

Felipe Arevalo:

So try again. Um, and I was wondering why did we, why is that not one of the fan favorites? I remember it being a very popular one. Squid Game, two coming out soon.

Chase Peckham:

Squid Game. That was, it was the squid game episode.

Felipe Arevalo:

We might have to make a Squid Game. Uh, episode number two. Also, after we all go and watch the new season on Netflix, if you and Katie,

Chase Peckham:

No thanks I Dunno how that's,

Felipe Arevalo:

Wanna muster up watching.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah that, that's crazy.<laugh> crazy.

Felipe Arevalo:

So we do talk about everything and, and, you know, check it out wherever you get your other favorite podcasts. Obviously we're, we're in your top. We probably showed up in your, uh, Spotify year, year-end review, uh, the Warped. So, uh, wherever else you get your your podcast, check us out. Not all the episodes are gonna apply to you. That's all right. There's plenty of'em. So you'll find something for everyone and you know, you know, we, we keep'em entertaining as as best we can while we also keep them educational. So tune in.

Chase Peckham:

Yeah. Well, I mean, as we close down this year, I, I want to say thank you to everyone. Um, the, the, you know, it's been a, it's been a rough year for myself and my kids, my family, um, and, uh, this podcast and, and work is, um, my, my work family has been incredibly supportive. Um, Phil, I want to thank you, uh, Katie for all the help in, uh, fill in the blanks when I couldn't be there. And, um, you know, I'm, I'm very grateful for all the people that I do have in my life and that includes all our listeners. Um, and wish you all a very, very happy holidays.

Felipe Arevalo:

Happy holidays.

Chase Peckham:

And a new Year. I'm looking forward to a new year

Felipe Arevalo:

And the new year turning of, uh, turning of the page. We're go into 2023 and, uh, save travels for anyone doing any travels during the holidays. Um, and yeah, thank you everybody, and we'll see you all next year.