« Back to Blog

Untucked Episode 72

Listen to our newest podcast episode where we discuss dispensing general advice, personal money habits, and vacation rental stories.  The full transcription is below or you can follow this link to listen.

Untucked Episode 72

Meghan Tait: [00:00:00] Hey guys, welcome back to untucked. On this episode, we are going to discuss, uh, the forums in which people choose to ask for financial advice. Um, we are going to talk about personal money habits and how they’re formed, and then, uh, vacation rental horror stories. Enjoy the opinions expressed on this podcast are our own, and they do not reflect the opinions or views of FC advisory, the financial coach group or the new wealth project, nothing discussed on this podcast should be interpreted as investment advice.

Welcome to episode 72 of untucked. This is Megan and

Jeff Mastronardo: Mike, and this is Jeff. So you guys probably know I have like two fun facts that you probably know both of. But I’m gonna throw them out. And my backup is in case, you know, the first one, obviously. Okay. So did you know that like hot water freezes faster than cold water?

No. Interesting. [00:01:00] You had to have known that as an ice hockey guy. I feel like I know that for some reason, like why else would they use hot water with the Zamboni to cut the ice? yeah. You, you didn’t know it, huh? I mean, yeah.

Meghan Tait: Yeah. I think I did. It was somewhere, you know, it somewhere in his brain, you

Jeff Mastronardo: know that you can’t lick your own elbow.

Yeah, I okay. That’s why I

Mike Traynor: was my background. There’s gotta be somebody who

Meghan Tait: can, like, who has small arm, like freakishly small arm.

Jeff Mastronardo: It’s gotta be freakishly. All right.

Meghan Tait: Okay. You wanna get in

the

Jeff Mastronardo: fills? I guess not Mike seems perturbed by it. Um, but I’m gonna get into it anyway. 75 and 53, maybe.

Meghan Tait: So where are we

Jeff Mastronardo: on your bet?

We’re 11 wins away. They have like 25 more games. They’re gonna win like 40% of their games. . I mean, they, they will do mm-hmm they’re gonna get 86 wins. Mm-hmm um, two rough series. They lo they got swept by Gabe Kapler in [00:02:00] the giants. It’s embarrassing. Yeah. I think it was at home too. And the series before that, I think they lost two of three to that Arizona diamond backs.

Who, who, who stink? I mean, both of those teams are terrible, but you know, they rallied, they came back and they just. two or three from the Marlins. Although last night was a, was a bad loss. They were up four to three in the fifth. They end up losing six to two or six to five, like the Marlin scored like two runs in the top of the ninth on a, on a bad play by Reese Hoskins.

So

Meghan Tait: isn’t he a bad fielder?

Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. Which like, so, like we knew that like we knew going into the season that we’re going to lose a few games because of our defense. And it, I mean, that just is what happened last happened. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Traynor: So haven’t, they been really bad since har Harper returned

Jeff Mastronardo: probably I’d have to go back and check, but yet re like their last 10 games, they [00:03:00] three and seven O yeah.

Mike Traynor: So I’m looking at this they’re are only two and a half games ahead of the. Uh, brewers for the final wild

Jeff Mastronardo: that right? Yeah. It’s close. Yeah. Yeah. They’re out. I mean the brewers, they, yeah, they should, they should be better than the brewers. They should. They have a game in hand on the brewers, so they’re fine.

They’re golden. They’re gonna make the playoffs. They’re golden. They’re gonna make the playoffs dude. Their schedule stinks. Like they have the wash, they have the, they just wrapped up with the Marlins. They got the nationals, the Marlins again, Braves blue Jays Braves, cubbies nationals. Astros like they sh yeah, they’re gonna get 86 wins.

That’ll get ’em into the playoffs. Don’t sweat at Mike. We’re go. We’re going, you’ll be watching playoff baseball. Okay.

Meghan Tait: I don’t think Mike’s sweating it. We got birds this weekend. Yeah. Oh, we got nothing to really talk about though. No, not until our next pod. I mean, the only

Jeff Mastronardo: thing I’ll bring up since you guys have nothing to talk about, cause you don’t [00:04:00] listen to sports talk radio

Meghan Tait: and my life is better for it.

Jeff Mastronardo: Like, I’m listening to the guy today. He’s like, like they’re talking about, you know, they’re gonna be 10 and seven. They’re gonna be 11 and six, blah, blah, blah. Like they’re speculating. And the one guy on the radio is like, they’re a good team. I’m like, how can you say they’re a good team? Like they had, they were nine and six last year.

They’ve snuck into the playoffs. They got their asses kicked in the playoffs. I mean, I know they’ve added new pieces, but they haven’t played one game as a new. ,

Mike Traynor: but I don’t, I think it’s fair to call a team a good team. Meaning on paper. Yeah. That’s what he’s saying or whoever is saying it right.

Jeff Mastronardo: Who cares about on paper?

Like, if that’s what he’s saying, if that’s what he’s saying, like they’re a good team on paper. Who cares you do cuz you listen to sports talk. No, I don’t. I don’t, I don’t care about my team on paper. Well, nobody does. I mean, that’s,

Meghan Tait: that’s just sports talk. Yeah. And the season hasn’t started, no [00:05:00] games have been played.

What else have they gonna

Jeff Mastronardo: discuss? It just needs to be worded differently. I think they can be a good team this year. not, they’re a good, not making this statement. They’re a good. ,

Meghan Tait: this is a weird thing to be like,

Jeff Mastronardo: it’s, it’s petty, but I’m it’s petty, but dude let, if they, if they beat up on the, on the lions on Sunday, like they win 40 to seven.

You’re cool with it. I’m cool with like, they look like they’re gonna be a good team. They’re a good team. They just beat another professional football team by like

Meghan Tait: 38 points. So when, at what point are they a good team when the season’s completed and you have no,

Jeff Mastronardo: no. I mean, I think if we get a couple games under our belt and we know like, you know, we.

it’s a bad loss to whatever team. Like we’re better than that. You know, once you’ve gotten a sense for like how good Jaylen Herz is, who is the key to this season? Because we know all the other guys can play, right? We know a J brown can play. We know Devonte Smith can play. We know our offensive line is good.

Like those are all known factors. The unknown as Jalen hurts. And [00:06:00] if he sucks this year, they lose.

Mike Traynor: So you, you do fantasy football, right. Have you ever said to yourself? Wow, I got a good team here. on paper. Yeah. On paper. So you’re

Jeff Mastronardo: you’re but I haven’t made a blanket statement to like the universe. Oh, the

Meghan Tait: universe.

We’re gonna call the listeners of like, w I P the. Yeah. I mean, they’re a very,

Jeff Mastronardo: ah, God dynamic group.

Meghan Tait: uh, alright. You wanna get in the coach’s corner? Okay. So for the coach’s corner, we, um, we wanted to talk about kind of a specific topic. We often come across public forums where people seek financial advice, market watches, a website, uh, it’s a pretty popular, one of the example of this.

Um, we receive solicitations from. Different outlets asking for, um, us as advisors to kind of answer some of these questions people [00:07:00] have. And what we wanted to discuss today is how difficult that really is the idea that, that people are seeking kind of specific. You know, they have specific questions, they’re looking for specific answers, but they’re asking them to kind of a broad based forum, um, and how difficult it is for us to maybe respond.

Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. And I don’t, I mean, I’m guilty of it as well, analogous to other areas. Yeah. Other areas like I know I’ve spoken to like doctor friends of mine. I do my shoulder. like, it really hurts like here and here. What do you think that is? And they look at me like, Dude. I have no idea. Do you have a headache as well?

And does your lower back hurt? Because if, if, if it’s that, then you have cancer. If it’s, if you don’t have those symptoms, then you probably tore your rotator cuff. So I know I’m guilty of it in, in other areas. And I’m not saying that we’re as important as doctors or as lawyers, but I know that I’ve made that mistake as well.

And it’s not like, [00:08:00] dude, my, my car’s making this noise. Okay. We know that it’s probably your alternator.

Mike Traynor: Did you just put lawyers ahead of.

Jeff Mastronardo: Us for us. Mm-hmm I mean, I was. Trying to be humble. okay.

Mike Traynor: I would never like lump lawyers into that. Like, you know, most important. Anyway, you just alienated all of our

Jeff Mastronardo: lawyer listeners okay.

Not loyal listeners, lawyer listeners. .

Meghan Tait: Um, the example that we discussed was, um, it was from Napa, which is. Not it’s an organization for fee only financial advisors. And they send emails to us advisors who are registered on their platform. And this email was from a reporter who was working on a story and would like insights to a particular situation.

And then it’s a couple of lines about. A husband and [00:09:00] wife, my wife and I need help. We’re in our fifties selling our home, working full time. Um, how could a financial advisor help us? Like we, we get like three lines of information about those people. Um, we wanna maximize what we have, how can a financial advisor help us do that?

That’s it? That’s the

Jeff Mastronardo: line we wanna maximize what we have, like where do we even start? Yeah, my, my first. what do you mean by that? Yeah. Like what, when you say I wanna maximize what we have, what do, what do you mean by that? Does that mean you want to get the most growth possible on your investments? Or does that mean you want to achieve all the goals that you have outlined for yourselves?

I just don’t. I don’t know where to start when people have those questions.

Meghan Tait: I, yeah, I think oftentimes if it’s presented to us this way, there there’s no answer. There’s a follow up question. There’s follow up. Series of questions. And, and I think it would be doing a disservice to anybody attempting to answer [00:10:00] that without asking more questions.

Yeah.

Mike Traynor: Like the, the, how can a financial advisor help us or me? I think the answer to that question is first, we need to know whether you can be helped. Yeah. Right? Like there are people who can’t be. because they don’t take the advice or they don’t execute on it, or they don’t, um, allow someone else to do it on their behalf or whatever it is.

Cuz there’s dozens of things that have to go into the answer to those questions. It’s not, I mean, I would say, well, uh, firstly, you’re selling your house. You well find a realtor. number one. I it’s, it’s silly these, these little things and there’s, it gets back to the Susie or, and Dave Ramsey stuff. Um, an audience member, a caller has a similar thing with, with like two lines of facts about their, their situation.

And then they’re expecting, and they get it. They get an answer from Sue or Dave, um, [00:11:00] which is worth nothing without the context of all the other stuff that’s going on.

Jeff Mastronardo: Okay.

Meghan Tait: Uh, what, how can people feel good about any response they get? Yeah,

Jeff Mastronardo: they can’t cuz the response to that, to that person. How can a financial planner help us?

Well, a good financial planner is going to help you maximize what you have. They’re going to uncover things that you’re not. to the best of your ability and make sure that you do them and hold you accountable. They’re gonna make sure you maximize all your savings, all your protection, planning, all your estate plan.

They’re gonna maximize every part of your plan that you’re doing. They want specifics though,

Meghan Tait: right? That doesn’t help that doesn’t answer their question. That, that,

Jeff Mastronardo: that that’s like you’re dodging my question. Yes. Yes. And what do you charge? ? You know, I mean, that’s their, that’s their follow up? Yeah. I mean, I think.

I’m surprised at the Susie Ormans and the Dave Ramseys of [00:12:00] the world still exist because it’s such kind of male practice to me. Yeah. To be answering those questions. When you really, you need to dig in like, it’s it’s if I wanna lose weight, like how do I do that? Well, don’t eat for two weeks. I mean, that’s, that’s a, there’s a, there’s a, there’s one option.

There’s so much more to it. Yeah. So I don’t know how those platforms still exist, especially like, as a fiduciary. You can’t answer that

Meghan Tait: question. I mean, but we’re not, we get this stuff from, from clients too. I mean, I now not about their own situation. I got an email recently where. A client asked about their kid’s situation.

My son just got a new job. He has his old 401k and he wants to cash it out and pay down debt. What should he do that? Was it, do you

Jeff Mastronardo: feel bad? Like not

Meghan Tait: answering? No. I, I said I can’t answer this question with just what you’ve shared. If it’s an important enough [00:13:00] conversation, that’s what we should, what we should do.

I haven’t heard a response from the person and, and I mean, But we, we get that from our clients who know how much information we have on them. How many questions we have to ask. So it’s not just people who are kind of DIYers seeking. I I’ll say random advice. It’s it’s people who know what we do. it’s

dude,

Jeff Mastronardo: even if they’re like, how much can I put in a Roth IRA this year?

Yeah. I don’t know. how much money do you make? Yeah. You might not be able to put any yeah, like it’s not even that black and white, like it’s not $6,500. No, that’s not the answer. Yeah. It may not be. Cuz then you might tell that person, they may make three 50 a year put money in a Roth IRA and they gotta pull it back out.

Yeah. Like it’s. Complicated. It just, I remember my mechanic, like I dropped my car off and he was taking me to work and he’s like, Hey, um, I got 10 grand. Like what should I put it in? Yeah. And I’m like sitting in like the passenger seat and I’m like,[00:14:00]

I don’t know, man. Like, yeah, there’s, there’s a lot more questions I need to ask to, to be able to. Guide you the right way? Uh, I mean, but like, if I’m just gonna I’m like, do you know what? Just put it in the total sock talk market. I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know.

Meghan Tait: I, we touched on that a little last pot. I feel like, um, I don’t remember exactly how we got there, but it was that question that we got get answered most often.

Yeah. If I have a little money to invest, what should I do with it? Yeah.

Jeff Mastronardo: like, what, what, like what should I be doing different now? Like what should I be putting money in? Like that’s everybody wants to know. It’s either. What’s the hot, like investment that you guys know about or it’s these more broad questions?

Um, yeah, my kids going to college in a few years, like how should we, like, what’s the, how do we maximize like scholarship grants? Yeah. Yeah. How do we maximize grants? Like.

Meghan Tait: I, the college one is hysterical to me. I feel like that’s something we come [00:15:00] across kind of often. Yeah. When people come here and they’re, you know, the kids enrolling in the fall and it’s June, what should I do?

Write a check or go to a bank and ask for money. Like there’s

Jeff Mastronardo: nothing send your kid to Penn state. I got

Mike Traynor: this. I mean, it’s funny. This is a, a friend who called. um, you know, a month or two months before the semester started. Mm-hmm , you know, I guess the tuition bill was, was showing up and this isn’t somebody, I, I know anything about their personal situation in detail at all.

Hey, uh, how do I do, what, what should I do? Like, what do you mean? What should you do? and then he is like, I I’m thinking about, maybe I should just like. Tap my, uh, retirement account, which I think is all that there was yeah. Or is, and I I’m just like, I, I, I got no answer for you. If, if you think I’m just gonna like, be able to answer that question right now, without knowing a single thing [00:16:00] about what you have, what you’re doing and where, like it was panic, but as a panic call.

Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. Yeah. I hate to laugh at it, but it it’s, it’s kind of funny to me when we get those questions. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think like the, the takeaway. like, if, if you have a question like that, if you are going to engage with a financial planner, you have to be prepared to like share all of your information.

Yeah. Cause no, like reputable advisor is going to answer the question unless they see your tax return, unless they know where all your money is, unless they know how much money you make. I mean, they have, we have to know everything and you have to be prepared to share that if you want a serious thoughtful.

Advisable

Meghan Tait: answer. Yeah. And it should be a red flag if someone isn’t requesting that information or following up with additional questions, because then it’s likely, Hey, I have a quick, easy solution for you. That’s going to pay me some

Jeff Mastronardo: form of commission something. Yeah. Yeah. If [00:17:00] someone’s just gonna answer it, run away.

Meghan Tait: cool. The next topic is based on a conversation we recently had that got us thinking about personal money habits and where they derive from. We were speaking with a woman who was divorced early in her life and raised two children on her own. She worked extremely hard to care for a family, and now is a lot of pride in what she has, um, and what she’s not really willing to accept in terms of help from others.

So we. the topic for today could be, you know, experiences, um, how you were raised, the different things that maybe shape and form our money habits. Yeah. This

Jeff Mastronardo: one’s an extreme example. I’d say. I mean, she, it

Meghan Tait: feels extreme recently. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

Jeff Mastronardo: I mean, she was with her, her, her new man for many years recently married.

and over the last decade or two, like is unwilling for him to [00:18:00] cover expenses. She has to split them 50 50, and she’s got no money. Mm-hmm like, she’s going to run out of money, splitting expenses with him. Mm-hmm because she’s too proud to just let him. because he’s got a different situation than her. Yeah.

Um, and it’s just, everybody has their own. Yes. Everyone has their own. I mean, we have multimillion dollar clients who don’t spend a penny, right? Like literally don’t spend a penny, like have holes in their shirts. We have depression, baby clients who, same thing, like do not spend money. We have, I don’t even know which generation I am.

What am I X. X. So like 30, 40 year olds. Yeah. X you’re X, right. 35 to 50 year olds. That just, they, they make hundreds of thousands of dollars and spend every dollar mm-hmm and don’t save mm-hmm it’s it. It’s crazy. It’s not crazy to me. It’s just very interesting. That’s interesting. Yeah. As a, as an advisor, seeing all these [00:19:00] different people and these different methodologies they have with their money.

and part of our job is trying to correct it. And it’s pretty much impossible.

Meghan Tait: I, I think maybe more than correct. It’s, it’s acknowledged that like, and I think that’s more, that’s more the nuance in financial planning is that what applies to you to Jeff? Doesn’t apply to you. Mike doesn’t apply to me, Megan and I think good advisors have to.

Except that, that, that the way people think about their money is different, you know, person to person.

Jeff Mastronardo: Um, that’s like front of mind for us. Yeah. That’s like the main things we deal with. Yeah.

Meghan Tait: Yeah. Do we have any other examples? You named a few, um,

Mike Traynor: do you, yeah, I have, so I have a good friend, um, and getting back to like the habits that they.

That were maybe ingrained in them or they grew up around. So he, [00:20:00] he ended up, um, being very successful, creating a business that is worth a lot of money. And he has, he has, I mean, financially secure, um, from that standpoint, But this same guy and, and he also will, will easily make sizable investments in like startups and risky ventures that are pitched to him from his, you know, whoever he’s talking to.

But at the same time, he won’t spend 30 cents on a golf tee. Right? Like

Jeff Mastronardo: he’s, he’s cause that’s a ridiculous price for a golf too. I think you’re like, I am

Mike Traynor: a bag, a bag of cheese, but I mean the, the, the day to day cheapness. Is off the charts. Mm-hmm and that yet this is a person. And I, and I, and I think about that and I think that he’s, those are habits that he grew up around and in.

Yeah. And never will leave him, even though he has this, you know, [00:21:00] Personal balance sheet. I’ll say that that would not be consistent with someone who, um, is seeking out the two for one coffee deals. You know, I, I,

Jeff Mastronardo: I can’t, the cheapness is the one I can’t wrap my brain around. I just, I can’t wrap my brain around it.

Like it’s, there’s, there’s, there’s two differences about that. Right? You have the, the wealthy people that are cheap, but it’s cheap in, in one way or another. It’s like, um, they’re trying to sell me that sweater, but it’s $300. That’s ridiculous. I’m not gonna spend that versus I need a new sweater. There’s one for $30.

Mm I’ll. Just wear this one, right? Like that’s a different kind of cheap. Yeah. Like I don’t like being ripped off mm-hmm I certainly no problem spending money, but I don’t like being ripped off. It’s more the principle it’s but we see a lot of the wealthy. dude, you don’t have to go for the two for one deal.

You don’t have to [00:22:00] go, dude. I bumped into ex clients at like, like multimillionaires at like the four 30. Like what is it fi like five o’clock happy hour at places like you don’t need. And like sneaking a glass of wine that I bought them. out the front door cause like, Hey, we were leaving, but Jeff Ball, glass of wine, let’s just take that with us.

We don’t wanna waste that. Like, dude, what’s wrong with you? Yeah. I can’t wrap my brain around the cheap, the cheap side of it.

Mike Traynor: I think maybe for a lot of people, you know, that were made that way or became that way or were taught that way, no matter how financially successful they become or financial secure, they.

That part never leaves them. Do they

Jeff Mastronardo: have an advisor?

Mike Traynor: Uh, I would say an advisor. No. The, the, the individuals that this person works with are [00:23:00] like the, the Goldman guy. Or like the private equity guy who’s pitching a, a deal and that sort of thing.

Jeff Mastronardo: And I’m asking that because an advisor would sit down and like, explain to this person, it’s how much money you have.

This is what it would, I don’t think that would

Mike Traynor: do. You don’t think that would matter? It would not matter at all. This is, this is the

Jeff Mastronardo: stripes, that person like talking about goals and legacy in yourself and, you know, using your money, like to create experiences for yourself and your family and your leg. a good advisor.

Can maybe, maybe move the needle a little bit with that guy is my point. I,

Mike Traynor: I don’t, but I think that’s separate from cuz those things may be happening like the, those big things, but the day to day little nickel and dimey things that are just unbelievable. for a person of means to be, you know, to be kind of spending a lot of time to avoid the, you know, I’ll drive, I’ll drive an extra 20 miles.

So I don’t have to pay the toll or something like that. Like those kind of things.

Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. I have, uh, a, a [00:24:00] person I know, and him and his wife are completely on different sides. Like they’re not, I don’t think they’re rolling in it, but they’re not broke. They’re not poor. and garage door needs to stay down.

Lights need to stay off. Thermostat needs to go up one more degree, like, and he’s blown away by it. Mm-hmm like, and he talks to me about it, like, oh my God. Like, and it drives him crazy. Like, but it’s CR like, it’s, you have to just understand, like you said earlier, like everyone is different. Their approach to money is different.

Mm-hmm it’s and like, we have to. figure that out. What, what makes people tick when it comes to money early in the relationship? Yeah. And I said earlier, like try to correct it. Maybe not correct it, but get them to maybe see what, or like you used the word acknowledge. Let like, be honest with them. Like, look man, you are, you’re one of those people that just has a lot of money and you have [00:25:00] it because you worked hard to accumulate it and you, and you didn’t, you didn’t spend and that’s why you have it.

But then what’s the point. Now we have to teach you. how to spend your money and then it’s okay to spend your money.

Meghan Tait: I, I think it’s, I mean, it’s definitely generational too, right? I mean, I, I work with people who are the children of depression people, right. But then I personally in my community is 30 to 35 years old and the mentality around money is far more spend first.

Like life is now. We want to experience now instant gratification. So I think that that’s gonna continue to be part of this as well. And I don’t wanna like, you know, generalize too much, but I look at my friends and there’s a much different consideration around. retire. Like, I don’t need to say for retirement, I’m not gonna be here that, you [00:26:00] know, it’s like, I don’t, I don’t need to think about that yet.

Um, so that’s, what’s interesting to me is that now my group is kind of in a place where people are making decent money and they’re able to afford to do kind of what they want when they want. And it. It, it maybe gets a little bit too extreme, you know, people get a little bit irresponsible with spending and in my, you know, kind of view of it and that’s not judgemental.

It’s just, it just is. Right. Um, so I’m kind of, I see the opposite with my friends. It’s like, no, one’s cheap, but like no one thinks about right. Like what’s being spent what their credit card bill is. So it’s, again, I think that the kind of generational and like, Kind of life mentality plays a lot into it.

Like what, what are your priorities? And if it’s not to think about your kind of future self, then it’s very much a spend first [00:27:00] mentality now.

Jeff Mastronardo: And where do you think for your generation? Cause the, the generation before you didn’t have that, like where do they pick that

Meghan Tait: up? Social media. Okay. I think a lot of the influence of like what other people are doing, keeping up with the Joneses, wanting to be the, the traveler, the spender have the nicest thing.

We live in a comparison culture. And I think it, it gets to people whether they’re willing to admit it or not. I think it’s like, I want the nicer thing. I want the, the newest car. I want the nicest house, even if it’s. Stretching, um, financially, I, I think that that’s an element of my generation growing up and, and, you know, having money for the first time.

It’s I think it’s our biggest kind of obstacle is not trying to like compare yourself to everybody else.

Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. I guess the, the idea that we make more [00:28:00] money. Then our parents probably made, um, like even like, you know, right outta college, like you’re making a decent living, whereas 20, 30 years ago, I mean, you had to struggle.

Like people worked hard and didn’t make a whole lot of money and had to say, talking about it made 20,

Mike Traynor: 30 years ago. That’s me.

Jeff Mastronardo: I’m in the room. I’m still in the room.

Meghan Tait: Isn’t that all

Jeff Mastronardo: relative? I don’t, I don’t think so. Meg, I mean, like I’m thinking about our clients, some of our, our, our financial coach group clients.

I hear the stories like we wor we busted our asses working. We both worked and we never took vacations. We never took time off. We saved every dollar. We lived paycheck to paycheck,

Meghan Tait: like. They did both work people that generation. Okay. Maybe, maybe

Jeff Mastronardo: that, maybe that was the difference. Whereas like today, like kids are like, oh, I worked so hard.

I just need to like, go party now, like, dude, the generation before you like worked hard and like didn’t

Meghan Tait: party, but, but like there’s a balance, right? Because we’re [00:29:00] now dealing with multi multimillionaires who don’t have anything to show for it. They have no life experiences. Right. And here we are at 70 and 70.

Trying to will them to do something more with their money. I’m not saying my generation and like, let’s go party and that’s not where all of the money’s going. I’m not saying that’s the right answer either. There has to be a balance between doing now, experiencing now, but also. recognizing that, you know, your 70 year old self will thank you for doing some saving or something.

Yeah.

Jeff Mastronardo: And I think a challenge is gonna be, this other generation is gonna die and they’re gonna leave a lot of money, this generation that yeah. Has no skills when it comes to yes. Money management and budgeting and all that

Meghan Tait: stuff. And I you’re right. I completely agree with

Jeff Mastronardo: that state. Like, that’s gonna be a huge challenge for us.

When the 55, 60 year old, who has no money now, all of a sudden her it’s 1,000,005 and like, oh yeah, we did everything. Right, man. Look, I’m a multimillionaire now, like, dude, you had no money like two days ago. Right.

Mike Traynor: I agree. I think [00:30:00] that’s a good point. Yeah. I agree. Talk about very often the, um, the lack of competence on the part of a lot of that, that demographic.

Yeah. Who is gonna inherit. Yeah. Yeah. Um, something, yeah.

Jeff Mastronardo: I’m interested to see how that yeah. Transition of wealth turns. .

Meghan Tait: Yeah, cuz I feel like everything that we talk about is just the amount of money. Right? Right. It’s like, this is generational, whatever, but no one talks about the actual execution of it or what’s gonna happen when it happens.

All right. Moving on. what’s next? Uh, we have vacation rentals to talk about mm-hmm um, the article seven things, your Airbnb host won’t tell you was just kind of a topic that we wanted to maybe more specifically discuss, um, good and bad experiences with Airbnbs. BBOs renting your buddy’s shore house. Any, uh, any good.[00:31:00]

Mike Traynor: Jeff. You have a lot,

Jeff Mastronardo: right? I have a few. I mean, I have one, like we rented this place in Fort Myers for Melissa’s 40th. I mean, the place was awesome. It was beautiful. My issue was I was doing some like research prior. Oh my God. I forgot about, and the management company, you know, I find out who the management company is of the property.

Cause we gotta like, you know, get access to the place and it’s run by this guy and he’s like, like fresh outta jail and he looks like a thug and you know, just, it, it raised some concern for me. Um, I remember talking to people about it before he went and one guy I was talking, he was like, dude, I wouldn’t go one.

Yeah. Don’t you don’t go. Um, yeah, couldn’t get a whole lot of information on, on him, but where was enough though? I was able to like conclusively determine in jail for specific offenses. Fresh out works for mom or dad’s company [00:32:00] now managing property. And I’m like, Ooh. So that’s like, you have free access to like, right.

That’s the concern. Yeah. All these property. Yeah. So turns out place was great. Yeah. Place was awesome. Other than the fact that like, couldn’t get the front door to like work from the standpoint of like lock . So that definitely had me concerned on my stay. like at, at night I was concerned going to bed, like knowing that the front door like doesn’t lock.

Yeah. And there’s a potential criminal that knows this. Yeah. And knows we’re there. But that was, I would say, other than that, a good experience, we had another experience renting a, like a condo in Seattle, New Jersey, um, all is going well. and then like we all go to the beach one day, like probably later in the day, like three [00:33:00] o’clock and ended up staying till like six let’s go home.

We start making dinner. Everybody’s showering up and just toilets and showers are just overflowing water into the condo, all over shutting people down, like stop showering. Don’t flush toilet. we’re all like we’re all Sandy, except for the two people that were showering long story short, the plumber that came out can’t fix it.

I mean, the place we, we were told, we can’t stay there. Yeah. So speaking to the owner of the property and I’m a, a fairly level headed person. So I’m not like upset. I’m not yelling, I’m not mad at the person. I’m just like, man, you’re shit happens. Yeah. Like you have water. Like we’ve done our best to make sure it doesn’t get on the hardwoods.

It stays in the master bath and not all over the master bedroom. Um, guy was nice enough to say, look, I have, he, he did what he was supposed to do. And this is what I, what I, what I would imagine [00:34:00] should be done if I’m the owner of that condo. Cause it’s now. Wednesday or Thursday, we have it till Saturday.

He says, I have another property. You know, like a block down the road. You can go there. You can stay there. It’s above a pizza shop. Um, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Um, and we were like, no, we’re, we’re, we’re good. We’re not, I’m not packing on moving to another place unpacking. He’s like, well, regardless whether you go there or not, I’m refunding you for the whole week and that’s in my opinion, what should be done?

Yeah. We ended up now it’s 11 o’clock at night. When this, when all the dust settled, we were like, Mastro. Pack it up and like packed everybody up. We were out the door by like 1130, got all the spices out of the cabinets. And we were home by like 1 30, 2 o’clock, but it was a, it was like a disaster. Yeah. Uh, it’s awful absolute disaster.

You’ve never had an experience like that.

Mike Traynor: No, I mean, we rented, um, before we, [00:35:00] we had a place we rented every summer in, you know, Avalon, whatever stone

Jeff Mastronardo: Harbor, the same place we used, the same rental,

Mike Traynor: all was a different place every time and never had an issue as a renter at all. They were all smooth. Um, and then even VRBO OS we would do like in another.

here and there never an issue in, in Paris. We did one. Um, it was fine, but as someone who has had renters mm-hmm , um, in fact, like we didn’t rent it this summer in part, because I was just too concerned about there was going to be an issue that maybe something would break on our end and I’d have to deal with it, but more so just getting really cranky.

you know, jerks that, that, that were rude and demanding. Like we had, cuz we never had, um, that same renter, like every, like for a month or two weeks, whatever it was every year. And we could, you could rely that they, [00:36:00] they loved the place and their nice people. Um, last year it was a sour taste cuz we had getting phone calls, like why is there not a hair dryer in every bathroom?

Oh, I remember that. And it. you think this is a hotel? I mean, what, what, and, and, you know, a lot of stuff like that, that was just so annoying. And

Jeff Mastronardo: we paid 6,000 this week. We should have hair dryers. It’s like, sorry to make that voice. It’s like, it could have been the guy bitching about it.

Mike Traynor: yeah. So being the owner also has its own set of challenges.

Like I it’s like, it’s very like off putting to even want to deal with that stuff, unless it’s the. same renter. Every time

Jeff Mastronardo: I, I would say as an, as an owner that would rent to people. Have you ever thought of, you know, I’m just gonna like give a deal to like friends. We have done that, that, that way. Like, I know my friend isn’t gonna bust my balls.

They’ll probably handle a problem on their, on their own. Or if there is an issue, they won’t bring it up to me. I mean, that way it’s,

Mike Traynor: we haven’t really rented it to [00:37:00] friends. but people that we know, we have people that we know, but we’re not like people that we don’t hang out with him. Right. And the one time we did that, the place was disgusting.

They left us stuff. Oh my gosh. Really? Yeah. And so it’s like, Ugh. Okay. We’re not doing that again. Um, yeah, ticky. So I would say like, for friends. I would be like, Hey, if you want, the place is empty, if you want to use it. Yeah. It’s, it’s yours, you know, I’m, I’m not in the rental business. Um, we’ll, we’ll probably rent it again at some point, but I’m, I don’t, I’m not looking forward to it.

Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. You know, I have a buddy that we went to Toronto for something and he got an Airbnb. And I remember, so we have to be at like the, the symposium we’re going to like the next morning at like, you know, we get in on Friday. We’re gonna be there Saturday at like 8:00 AM. And you got like a knock on the door at like three o’clock in the morning.

Someone else had the Airbnb, like they double booked him and ended up like booting him at [00:38:00] three o’clock in the morning. Oh, yeah. Like. I think most of the time they go fairly smooth.

Meghan Tait: Right? I’ve used Airbnb a ton, uh, here internationally. And I’ve had maybe two or three weird, bad. I don’t even know if bad one.

We rented a house in the Poconos, a bunch like with a group of like 15 people. And. . I mean, we were very misled by the pictures, right? Mm-hmm like they looked, the house looked beautiful and gorgeous and new and updated, and it was a trashcan. I think that’s

Jeff Mastronardo: what this article talked a little

Meghan Tait: bit about. Now.

We, we were okay with it. Like we were looking for a place to hang out to like, you know, go skiing one day. We didn’t need super, super nice, but it was a little bit off putting obviously to like, It, we didn’t even know if we were at the right house. Like it was that dramatic and then it was dirty. Like, we weren’t confident that like the sheets were [00:39:00] cleaned, you know?

So there’s those types of things. There’s like a hole in the wall that like led to the outside so there we were like, what I’m

Jeff Mastronardo: picturing is just,

Meghan Tait: it’s pretty much probably exactly what you’re picturing. So that was, that was not great. We stayed, but, you know,

Jeff Mastronardo: did you. Do you like Yelp after and like, or post a review, like this is super misleading.

Like, so other people

Meghan Tait: don’t. Yeah. So when we got there, we contacted the host right away and we were basically like, what the, what is this? We were like, there’s no clean sheaths. There’s a hole in the wall. There was a pair of like dirty underwear in one of the bathrooms. Like, so we made all of that very like.

Aware of that as soon as we checked in. Um, and then, yeah, the app, the air, the way the Airbnb site works is they ask for your feedback immediately after, and they’re like it pretty much, was it clean? Does it look like what they said it would look like? Did they have linens towels? Like all of the things that you expect and we’re just like, no, [00:40:00] across the board, like, wouldn’t stay here again now.

They don’t PO. The way that Airbnb’s algorithm works your reviews. Obviously the best ones are what land on the right site. The first page, someone would have to click through to see a poor review, but, um, another experience we were staying in Atlanta and it was in a high rise building. We get to the building and then I get a message from the Airbnb host saying.

I can’t meet you at the building, meet us at, meet at the bar down the street. And I was like, can you imagine that like, doesn’t sound great. No, it’s daytime. And I mean, my boyfriend was with me, but we were both like, it’s like sketchy. Yeah. Um, but we also had nowhere else to say, and it was a, I mean, it was a apartment building where you needed a fob to even get in the front door.

So we go [00:41:00] to the bar, the, I can’t

Jeff Mastronardo: meet you at the building. Yeah. But I can meet you at the bar down the

Meghan Tait: street. Yeah. So we get there. And we’re like, what’s this for? Why can’t we meet you at the address of the place? And he is like, oh, well, it’s an apartment building that I lease. There’s no Airbnb rentals allow.

I was like, are we gonna get in trouble for being here? He’s like, no, no, no. Just, if anybody asks, don’t say you’re Airbnb and I was like, okay, can we just have the

Jeff Mastronardo: keys please? So he didn’t want to exchange there didn’t want anybody to see that happen.

Meghan Tait: so we got in, it was fine, but then I had to meet him at the bar down the street to give him his keys back again.

So that was weird. Yeah. That’s and there was nothing on the, on the. Page about like, Hey, this is gonna be some sort of like secret key exchange. So it

Jeff Mastronardo: was weird. Yeah. I think it’s kind of, I, you know, unfortunately with like the technology’s [00:42:00] awesome, the fact that you can rent places, you can rent out rooms in your house is awesome.

It’s just hit or miss man. You’re either gonna, you, you can find a gold mine or you can find the hole in the wall. Yeah. Place and.

Meghan Tait: it’s a risk you run, I think for the experience, because yeah, you go to the hotel and hotels are great, but when you have a group of 15 people, hotels are tough.

Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Traynor: We’re we’re um, just one quick thing.

We’re, we’re trying to book, uh, a ski trip out west in the, um, right after the new year and yeah, but it’s funny. We were just talking about this cuz. let’s look at the hotels and the mm-hmm , you know, the, the condos or the stuff that’s like sponsored by the mountain. And we ended up like, or I should say Pam ended up like looking at a bunch of VRBO OS and she’s like, I don’t know.

I found one, but same thing, like it’s risky. Yeah. Cause you don’t know what you’re gonna get when you show up there. So we ended up at, um, just [00:43:00] bailing on the whole V RBO, Airbnb thing altogether for that

Meghan Tait: reason. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve basically come to the conclusion that. If it’s more than four people in a group, we’ll look for something bigger.

Mm-hmm but if it’s just two or four people, like just get hotel rooms. Yeah.

Jeff Mastronardo: Good advice, Mike.

Meghan Tait: all right. Top five restaurant chains.

Mike Traynor: So this includes sit down. This includes takeout. Oh yeah. This includes every flavor of. Quote, unquote restaurants, right? Yeah. Eating

Jeff Mastronardo: establishment. That’s all. I that’s

Meghan Tait: how I went establishments.

So it’s pretty all encompassing. Yeah. Cuz I have two that I’m I was unsure about, but now I feel more comfortable. Okay. After you just said that I’m not going first.

Jeff Mastronardo: I’ll go first. Okay. I got seasons 52. I knew it. I knew it. It’s a great, it’s a great chain. [00:44:00] Ah, I got Del Frisco’s. Okay. They’re fantastic. Yeah, I liked all.

I got bonefish. I knew it. Yep.

Meghan Tait: frigging Jeff and sponsored by Jeff and

Jeff Mastronardo: Rinardo Boston market. Oh, Ew. You’re kidding me.

Mike Traynor: I love Boston. It’s amazing. They’re still

Jeff Mastronardo: in business. Are they even, there’s one in Westchester

Meghan Tait: that is shocking to me. An I.

Jeff Mastronardo: Oh, love an IHOP too. Oh my God. I mean, I love an IHOP for breakfast really?

Oh, they got like strawberry syrup. They got all different flavors. It’s fantastic. All right, I’m gonna go.

Mike Traynor: I’ll go next. I got no overlap there. Um, I didn’t think you would, I’m gonna throw capital grill on. Yeah. You know, as a steakhouse. Yeah. Yeah. I’m gonna, I’m gonna put one fast food joint on here.

Jeff Mastronardo: It was all mine,

Mike Traynor: [00:45:00] just because like, if, if you break down Wendy’s the, to me, they have they’re.

If you want a burger it’s it’s I like it. It’s good. I think the frost alone gets them on the list. Their fries are great. And then they have chicken sandwiches. If you wanna get one of spicy,

Jeff Mastronardo: see chicken sandwiches, phenomenal.

Mike Traynor: It’s better than like almost any other

Jeff Mastronardo: chain hands down. All right. I put ones above McDonald’s burger king.

I put him

Mike Traynor: above. Yeah. I, I I’m with you. I’ve got. I’m gonna go, uh, Jersey mics. I’ve Megan’s, Megan’s

Jeff Mastronardo: cringing. I’m very curious. Are they good? Our, our kids

Mike Traynor: trash cans, our kids love it. And I tried it once or twice. And I’m, I’m a fan. What are they

Jeff Mastronardo: just like HOKs,

Mike Traynor: it’s like cheese steaks and you know, stuff like that.

You get cheese steaks.

Jeff Mastronardo: It’s it’s hot and cold. Yeah. Interesting. And

Meghan Tait: then lot better than Premo. Not better than capital. I, I

Mike Traynor: had

Jeff Mastronardo: Premo on backup list. You doing your list right now? No,

Mike Traynor: I don’t have either of those. Um, and my last one I’m gonna go with, this is a little niche, but I love the. The anti S [00:46:00] pretzels.

Oh two. They’re

Jeff Mastronardo: good. They’re so they’re so good. They’re so good. That’s a great one. Yeah. I don’t know if that’s really considered a restaurant. It’s a chain.

Mike Traynor: I mean,

Meghan Tait: yeah. He said eating establishment, which it would be, I said it would

Jeff Mastronardo: be like DQ. That was almost on my list.

Meghan Tait: I thought about Coldstone. Yeah.

Um, okay. So

Jeff Mastronardo: you said DQ, right? Yeah. You called it Coldstone.

Meghan Tait: No cold. Stone’s another place. That’s an alternative DQ. Got it. Um, alright. So I had seasons 52 and I a. Um, I’m going to see your Wendy’s and raise you shake shack because it is pretty good, far superior burgers. I’ve never had, I’ve never had, I agree that Wendy’s has more of a variety, but the food at shake shack.

Okay. Better. That’s a good one. Probably. Um, also Popeyes . Oh

Jeff Mastronardo: my God. Yeah.

Meghan Tait: Their chicken sandwich. I’ve never had. Yeah. It’s

Jeff Mastronardo: good. Elite. They still have biscuits, right? Yeah. I mean, Roy Rogers was, would’ve been on my list except there’s [00:47:00] only one at like, like the

Mike Traynor: turnpike, like exit

Jeff Mastronardo: 210 and I’ve never eaten there.

Meghan Tait: Okay. So Popeye’s shake shack, Annie and seasons 52. And I can get down with a red Robin burger. Oh,

Mike Traynor: all right. I got a little red Robin story. No,

Jeff Mastronardo: no, no. Don’t tell me, don’t tell me you can tell me off the air. Okay.

Mike Traynor: Is it gross? Well, I got a chicken sandwich that was fresh out of the package that hadn’t been cooked at all.

And I took a bite into it. Oh,

Meghan Tait: mm-hmm . I mean, I normally get

Jeff Mastronardo: burgers, like it was raw or it was frozen. It was fully raw. Oh,

Meghan Tait: it’s devastating. Yeah.

Mike Traynor: So I not on my,

Jeff Mastronardo: not on your list. One only red Robin, Robin. All. All right. Well, thanks for listening. See ya. See ya.