Ask HTM - IRA Raiding for a Down Payment, Study Abroad: PAID, & Maintaining an 826 Credit Score #904
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Joe, our family took an amazing trip this year to the georgia coast to we stayed at this incredible airbnb. We were spreading the cost after us. We explored IT a bit. The house IT was a big part of how memorable that trip was, and that's what I loved doing for my guest when I was an airbed host as well.

Yeah, you're good at the two, man. Thank you. And now being a st is easier than ever with my hosts. You can access a network of high quality local coasts who can help you get your home ready for guests. Find a cohoes at airbnb 点 com slash host。

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an explore today and start earning the miles that lead to unforgettable places and new destinations tomorrow. Cards issued by J P Morgan chase bank in a member fdi c subject credit approval offer, subject to change terms supply. Welcome to have a money. I'm do and I am and today, or answering your listen questions.

The right happy monday, everybody is a great monday, joe, to be hosting a personal finance podcast every .

monday is a great monday map because we're so like.

hey, it's true and not just any monday. Just like honestly, I let's just just take a moment and think all of our listeners out there, the ability for us to be to create this podcast, we've got the best job in the world and space and we should do you yeah you thank you for listen. Like anywhere we go from here, it's just going to be this going to be not as good .

just like the poncas he's Better. Yeah I don't know. You're right.

If IT meant us to work in any time, I think about doing something else is like, yes, that as good as podcasting with joe is just a ton of fun ability for us to enjoy a craft beer right here. Talk about personal finance. I think .

about showing a but I I don't know like you're like then .

take a financial IT most likely yes, I think I don't know how much you get paid here.

What is just hard to yeah pay the bill I think on a moment erself yeah but I I love like meaning folks so that part of the .

job I would I could see doing that no, we do in fact have listening questions. We've got a listener who's thinking about tapping a retirement account for a downpayment on our home. We're going to show whether not we think that's koa.

Another listening is looking to get some study abroad paid for not by her, maybe by somebody else. We're going to talk about maintaining a high credit score without necessarily having a juggle. A bunch of credit cards will get to that and more during today's episode.

Sure will. Let's talk about charity navigator, that charity navigator cause specially. So I navigator, i'm going to really good mood today.

I think charity navigator IT makes me they're like consumer reports, but with less consuming, so kind, like forgiving. yes. So maybe should we call giving charity reports? And then obviously, you realized our charity navigator just a much Better name.

I'll tell them you're going to be you're .

join their marketing. No.

they get in on at on point. So I wanted to highly this man, because um we're getting to the end of the year, people have giving on their minds and tax breaks for giving and up like that and as well they should. We're going to talk more about that actually in the coming weeks.

But charity navigate released this new thing called cosway. And what their their intention behind IT is essential to create a sort of etf for people who wants to give this paced c causes. I just think this is a really cool product because you can choose the cause that matters most of you others like clean water, animal rescue, there are like a shorty's board of different causes that you can say that's the one that matters proposed to me. And you can give your money to that cause via this new cosway feature and you're giving to a bunch of different highly rated organizations that support that one cause. So I just thought that was kind of A A fun new giving teacher that they they just .

put out just right. yeah. And we actually talked about the right amount to give to charity back. And epo de five ninety six. We talked about that because obviously, not only is a good for the organizations that you're giving to, but there's something that that does to you, man, like as a giver, as the one who is being charted regardless if you are spiritual, whether not you believe in god or whether you just believe in karma in the universe.

Like there is something good about being generous and like being willing to say, okay, like there is some money, some income that i'm generating that i'm not necessarily gonna try my darkness to hang on to claw back every single. Ah exactly. So I would recommend for fox a go listen to that .

if they haven't. I always say I think this is a cool feature, but I also am not going to participate in charity navigate calls way, not because I think it's sucks, because I should do think it's neat, but because I am more of the I like the donor vice fun model that we've talked about. We have written about two on the website, maybe linked to a couple of articles in the show notes that we have. But yeah, my money goes to my daffy account and that's how i'm giving because it's just streamlines everything for me.

But really get a form from one organization as both like that's honestly the best part. The fact that like it's great to be able to so quick pitch on donor advice ones. What's great about IT is the ability to, let's say, glump your giving.

And maybe when you're you're not going to get the center deduction, that's going to be the year that you're going to automates your giving. And so the ability to see some these additional tax benefits, I think, is great, but you may not necessarily know all the organza that you want to give to in that moment in time. So the ability to kind of have to sit there and the sort of it's what a waiting room you know like giving dollars have gone to the Dennis office. They're waiting on their turn to be deployed.

The other cool thing about the donor vice fund is it's more than a waiting room. You can grow your money. As people are money nerds. It's like fun to grow your money for future giving.

So you put in the certain amount and then he give like down the road and and hopeful that money is he got more money now to give away. So I love that future too, but i'm all about kind of innovation in the giving space. We haven't seen enough of that, and it's cool to see a more meta mentioned. The beer or having on the service of this one is called juice quest IT is by scoff law brewing there actually out of land and not too far away from where we are.

It's it's a local beer here. We gave our thoughts .

on this one at the end of the episode. And if you have a money question and we'd love to hear from you, you just essentially record a voice memo on the map on your phone, send IT over our way, hopefully can take you next week on the show if you want. Kind of the needy, greedy on how to go about doing that, how money to come slash, ask that list to a question about tapping retirement accounts for a purchase this listen wants to make.

Hey, met and joe. My name is Andrea, and i'm from lencs, michigan. My husband, I are looking to buy our first home and have some questions.

As you know, the iron allows individuals to withdraw to ten thousand dollars from their air rates to buy their first home. Obviously, this isn't the most ideal situation, and we want to avoid that if we can. But if one or both of us took this step, IT would allow to have more or savings to use for other homework sts in fees.

We are interested to hear what you recommend. We really enjoy the central podcast. Your voices helped us a lot. Thanks so much.

Joe, can you pick your injury? And her husband both listening together, like my holding hand, sort of a couple therapy vote.

something like the fireside chance that fd. r. Used together. Maybe she's got old school speak that that looks like a radio from the one thousand nine hundred .

twenties and the spirit of state Lewis style radio. The kids are like hands on on the chin in, on the floor of the fire, going in the back. Andrew, thank you for your question, and congrats on, I will say, the steps that you have taken to get you in the position to where you might be purchasing a home very soon because I appreciate your red defeat. This is not yeah appreciate your head to take money out of your retirement accounts to make this happen because like just because you are allowed to tap some those retirement accounts for a downpayment, that doesn't mean that IT is advisable because I would say in an ideal world, you just lead those dollars in your eye to grow and to compound for your future. Those are retirement dollars and instead you take just a little bit longer to save .

up yeah you said idea a world though that and you're right like the tradeoffs are the ultimate reality of every money decision that we make and that is like, hey, in in perfect times, that's what we would suggest. But hey, we don't live in perfect times and so should you take money out of your I ra Andrea in order to fuel your downpayment abilities? Even though we're talking about imperfect decisions, we would say still probably not.

Those dollars should be considered semi secret, like a almost sacred. When you stick them in there, the goal is to leave them in there and to not tap them, even though there are special exceptions. In the case of a home down payment, right, you have access to ten thousand dollars of rathie earnings, for instance, in addition of the contributions you have made over the years, you can tap those for the downpayment without paying tax and penalties um on on those funds.

But the harm you be doing would be a interrupting the compounding of those dollars way earlier right then you otherwise word and we d rather you not take this out so you might get the home you want. But opting to snatch those dollars back far too soon is going to cost you more than you think you could leave you with a six figure shortfall in retirement, right? If you're talking about taking money out of a traditional area right now, that you're going to own taxes on the ten thousand dollars that you might pull out early, which means is not going as far as you think either.

So I just think of this as I get why people want to do IT. And IT is allowed. And so they're like, cool. Maybe I IT sounds like something I should hit up. There's like specifically the irs has designated the venue for me to take, but I just think that IT doesn't make sense for most people.

Yeah, I can I send like she's just thinking about maybe doing this with the traditional because he just said the ten thousand only is what she's taken to account. And so for her and her husband, if she's looking at twenty thousand dollars and looking off into the future, SHE might be thinking to herself twenty thousand dollars. That's nothing when IT comes to retirement dollars.

But twenty thousand dollars right now, I would make a massive difference in our ability to like that changes some of our criteria. We know the kind of home that we're looking at, but that's the thing like don't forget that we're talking about compounding here. And so we're not talking about twenty thousand dollars in forty years like in forty years at twenty thousand dollars can compound up to like around a million dollars.

We're talking about a substantially larger amount of money down the road is not just about how much you're setting aside the day, it's what that can compound into. So just keep that mind and you can undo this either because you can get that money back in, you can cut that money back until those ira accounts and invested because of annual contribution limits. We would rather see you have less of a done payment or maybe just to reconsider what IT is you can afford.

You know could you opt for a slightly more affordable home that won't require as much cash? A little worry that you might be prioritizing a more expensive home like something a bit nicer er or even having a smaller monthly mortgage payment at the expense of those tax advantage dollars growing for your future. And you also mentioned the additional costs and the fees that you'd be able to cover a with some of the extra money on hand.

Well, those are really important to plan for these closing costs. Maintenance that could set you back a decent chunk, some deferred maintenance maybe that the property might need not to mentioned like you're gonna to decorate. And a lot of times for a lot of folks, when you buy a home, it's a little bit bigger than the space.

Ord n. So you're thinking we we got to get a new sofa like some even if is used, is still cost money. And so we are OK with you not bringing less.

Just sit like a full twenty percent down payment to the closing table on your first home purchase. I will say saving up like five percent for that down payment and then top of that having cash for some of those other necessities. I think that is very important. That's crucial.

And if you can't meet that requirement without tapping your retirement funds to get there, we would say then it's just too soon in the process, and you probably need to rent for another year or two and continue saving up right to a mass the amount you need to buy the home that you want.

I think the only exception that two kind of this advice would be if you were house hacking because if you're taking out money from one investment account to fund another, a very different types of investment, yeah they're very different. But I think that can be a reasonable choice. I about calling in and saying, hey, listen, it's got this spaceman apartment that i'm planned to airbnb and then and that's going to, I think, produce significant returns. So ultimately, you're going to lower our housing costs by whole lot. Or may we're taking about buying triplex living in one year, turning out the other two. Well, then you're doing something completely different and you're turning your housing costs on their face yeah and if you are into the house hacking lifestyle, if you're willing to go to those extremes, then taking money out of one investment to fund another, I just have a lot more leniency for if it's just to fund a nicer single family home purchase though I sympathy, but I don't have a lot of but i'm not willing to sign off on the totally degree.

Another cavet too. And I don't think Andrew ws in this position. But if they have a massive amount already set aside in the retirement accounts, students say this, but let's say they've got five hundred thousand combined in four in case.

Okay, i'm fine with you taken twenty thousand eggs, esty, because of the fact that would be such a small drop in the bucket of their overall retirement savings. That's good point. But I didn't ceara hear that .

in dangerous point. Yeah, if they're thirty five and they they're well on their way to if they they do have something in half a million dollars invested, saved up already in retirement accounts versus, hey, we're taking twenty Green and out of our total of sixty that would frighten me more too because hey, you just haven't built up enough to allow yourself I think the lux xury of tapping those funds are early.

And I hope that our cautious approaches isn't shutting down your goal of home otherness. That is not our intent here. We we don't think home ownership is a necessity to building wealth.

It's more of a lifestyle can be an awesome one but unite. We both owner own homes. I mean cayard they have a mortal to teach them so um the bank go on so home at this point time, but we want the same thing for you.

We just don't want you to rush IT, right? We don't want you to bite off more than you can chew or to hamstring your other future financial goals by maybe putting this a goal of home wners ship before prioritising saving up for IT and leaving your retirement accounts contact totally. And I think .

sometimes constraining yourself where you are not tapping this easily accessible bucket of future money, I think that could sometimes lead to the most creative resorts.

So for instance, are there any local first time down payment assistance programs that something I would do some digin around on, see if that's available to you even to shifting? How is that you think about this purchase? Like if there's a way for you to maybe even sort of game fy the sacrifices that you're able to make in the here now because you want because for you in your husband, this is a shared goal and is so important it's worth sacrificing like I think and that's what I did with kate.

My we were in our early twenty years, we didn't hardly have any money. But man, we didn't. We stop going out to eat.

We were cutting left and right to fine ways to decrease our expenses and at the same time, increasing our income. And that's when we started our our side business, which turned into a full fledge business. And that allowed us to put on a great downpayment on our first home. That's when we sold our that's what we saw the jeep, but that was some additional money that we were able to put towards our home because for us, that was so important. And so I don't know if you can make IT almost like this focal point, not to get obsessive over, but for IT to inform why IT is you willing to make some sacrifices in the here and now? I think it's so going to get a little obsessive too, if it's important to you IT just depends on on how into what you are.

Not only could we get the fifteen grand or what whatever our hundred C R V drive is worth, but then we also save the money on insurance costs. Boy, that's just like tapping are I R A, except not now. We just sold a valuable asset instead.

And in first this when I got my first house, I burned out a room in IT um during that time to kind of I knew I could afford about myself, but I was like me this is another way just for me to make this a slammed done purchase. There are all sorts of like outside of the box choices. You can make matter specifically use word like constraints.

And I do think that constraining yourself in a particular way of for a specific goal can lead to creativity, can of unleash some creativity in your life that might have otherwise lain dormant. So that's what we will encourage you. Torts, Andrea, I think you can still hit your goal and potentially still on the time line you want while not tapping the irr ray at the same time. And you're going to be happier decades down the road because, hey, you are able to buy the house and you are also able to keep your retirement accounts intact.

Us, right, man. But we've got more to get to on today's episode, including someone who's looking to are looking for an alternative to taking our student loans. We're get to that more right after this.

If you're looking to take your money game to the next level, then you can't keep doing the same old things that you've always done. Maybe you are saving up for a wedding or maybe like A A lot of folks, you're socking away money for a solid down payment on your new home. Well, that's awesome.

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Yeah, I felt so good to have that taken care of once kitten mi had a first kiddo to get life insurance in place role to know that the bulk of their expenses would be covered to something were to happen to me and for us. IT was the conversation where kate realized that she'd want to be able to stay in the house that we had recently purchased. Do not have to worry about mortgage payments. That is what took the scales for us. And if you already have life insurance through work and may not protect all of your family's needs or follow you if you leave that job, so consider your own term .

life insurance policy, secure your families tomorrow. But you have piece of mind today had a policy genius dot com to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. That's policy genius 点 com。 Are in that we're back time me, it's some more wister questions. Let us get to a question about best practices for win to tap social security.

Hi, this is rebeca from connected. My question relates to taking social security when one spouse is greater than ten years Younger than the older spouse, a one hundred and twenty two months Younger than my husband, and he started taking social security at eight seventy. And I know there are specific rules regarding spousal social security when one spouses more than ten years Younger than the other.

And i'm reading the that go documents and it's really confusing to me. So could you explain that to us? thanks. Have a great day. So when you first listening .

to her biggest question, did you think for a second that he was one hundred something years old the way he said that SHE, which he said, I am a one hundred wait .

at long social security.

You ve waited too long revecce that we really appreciate .

your question and if she's listening the podcast at one hundred plus years of us.

like more power to get special state.

just send at heart ever .

I wanted to say like I love rebeca that you're spouse waited to take social security until he turned seventy because that's going to ensure that he gets like not just the maximum retirement benefit but the additional delayed retirement credit. There are far too many folks out there who tapping social security when they are first allowed, right when they turn sixty two or shortly there after.

And that can cost the six figures over the coming decades. And IT also means that you minimize that, pay out, which is a known quantity. This is something that is certain.

You eliminate risk by in this case, by waiting. So unlike future marker returns, the which certainly have the ability to be outsized. I know I about to talk out of both sides of my math because I love investing in the market.

But at that point time hopely, you have invested enough in the market in the the best goal for you to snag the certain higher paycheck IT just all IT .

depends on what you plan on doing with the money too. Because like I think about like my dads specifically, he and this is an unpopular sort of take, but he took the check as soon as I was available to him. He didn't need the money necessarily. So he's been investing those monthly payments for something like the last four years.

And i'm pretty he's done really well even Better if you know watch the stock mark and what is one over the past four years, but even outside of the past four years and what the markets return there, generally speaking, the stock market, right, we can look at historical returns and you're looking at ten percent, not including inflation. And so if you don't need the money and you have the discipline on hand to be able to invest some of those dollars, I think that, that can be that can be a great move as well about something. But there are so many factors I go into whether or not you should do that, that depends on whether or not most folks they need that, right? Like this is an additional money that they .

are looking to just and that just right. And I think it's important mention like your dad is in a different position, but most people, my parents included, like they need the certainty, ty, that comes along with a guarantee eight percent return that you get by delaying that track each and every year, right? yeah. And there is kind like your pointing out matter. There's a lot of nuance about when you tap your security.

There's not one right answer and there's even more new answer right in this particular question because we're talking about a significant age gap um between these the partners and a lot depends to on your health, like how you you're feeling um when you turn and turn to your sixties and you kind of get to that point in time where you can tap your security if you have, let's say, a diagnosis or you feel like your general health trajectory is just going downward um then yeah you inclined to tap sal security earlier than what the experts would suggest. IT also depends on what your spouse is doing, right? How much debt you have, what what does your investment portfolio a look like, what you cash flow needs, that those are all I think, really important .

questions yeah if if you need that money yeah if you don't have the cash low, then oh no, we're taking social security because that's what .

IT won't be like a million times easier to answer this question if you the date of your death, right, if you could say, of course, well, lucky me, i'm not dying for another thirty five years. So that makes sense for me to point. Or if you know what the future market returns would be.

But those are two unusual questions. I I think for the average person, then the best thing to do is two point a little bit longer to take her own security to to bake in that guarantee check. And that can also shift, by the way, my mom, SHE, was planning on holding off on taking social security and just taking a little more out of retirement accounts.

But SHE had a recent diagnosis. I am really talked about this on the show, probably not planning on talking mente in depth right now, but this has changed their planning and the way they think about security. So he has now type of security, which makes sense, like this is something we talk about together. So this is this is also a fluid conversation, is not necessarily something you come to and answer on.

And you said that to forget IT. That is one of the great things to about this is that once you make a decision, you can, to a certain extent, you can undo IT. You can change your mind on the road, but likely the best claiming strategy here for you.

Rebeca is free to take social security as soon as possible, especially since her husband, since he waited until the optimal time to take his. This is what's known as a split strategy. And so that means that you're claiming at two different points in time and you're onna have two checks coming in for as long as possible.

And then if your husband were to pass away before you, which is I know this is awkward to say, but this is likely given actuarial tables, given the fact that you are so much Younger, well, you're gonna eligible to receive his inevitably much higher check at that point. So that means more money each every month now, but that also means more money for you. If you were to become widow, I think that's likely the best option.

Yeah agree. I think that in her specific scenario, this is this is what I would suggest and and we're not even talking about waiting to claim. And so full retirement age for rebeca claiming at sixty two could make the most sense for her. And it's funny because to talking about waiting and waiting, waiting, but her husband did the waiting.

And so maybe now SHE can tap hours earlier and you're getting the answer .

to this question can buried greatly depending on couple specific factors, too, right? There is no one size fits all answer, but the biggest thing for rebeca, given the parameter SHE mentioned, is that her husband took the smart out waiting to claim and that acts kind of like I don't i'm going to call A A social security insurance policy for her in the future, right? And he has basically gotten the maximum check.

He was allowed access this insurance policy for himself in for Rebecca. And then this also allows them to minimize the amount they're taken from retirement accounts by having those two checks coming in as soon as possible um allowing money in the market in their polling case in their irrate to continue to grow to. So to me that that's the best out for Rebecca and husband moving forward in regards to social security.

yeah, there are some great tools out these days that can help you to make the most optimize decision rebeca maximize my social security. That's a great one that some economists out there have developed. It's not free. I'll say that it's going to cost you a little bit of money. I think it's like fifty box for a year.

But that being said, I think it's well worth at given the amount of money that is at stake here with your social security, you could also hire a financial adviser to talk through the the process kins. The added benefit hears that they would look at your entire financial situation, which I could see some benefit there. If you are interested, check out hello net in that is only one hundred and fifty dollars an hour. Again, this is a low feet and not screw something that's just so massive that could help long lasting implications. And you like a fruit and is .

for cheering mam, and to say frugal, right? To pay for help IT is like what we talk about in when he comes to paying for tax help, tax advice. Often times is that few hundred dollars, three, four, five hundred dollars to to pay, to attack professional, to help you assess way and follow your taxes, could save you a lot more money on the back and they can save you big books. And it's different .

when you are early on in your financial journey, right? Like there's not a whole of decision that can be done like widely diversified low cost index fans. Boom, there you go. We just save you .

a bunch of money. I don't have any real properties. My taxes are pretty ic like the DIY thing.

Totally fine. yeah. You can do cash up taxes or the iris direct file, whatever is. The stakes are low, but when there is more .

money on the line, especially once you are getting towards the end of your financial journey, I think hiring and adviser could be well worth IT reback. We have, like, as you pointed in the right direction, jos here from a listener who is looking to minimize student loan is but not just any student loan. This is like a potential student with like a very specific purpose.

Good morning, joe. I listening you on clarify. Thanks for your great money tips. I always enjoy hearing them.

My twenty two old daughters been accepted into a program to study next semester in japan. She's an international business matter with the japanese minor at costa norton. She's looking to get a student on to help pay for IT.

It's a senior year, and this is the only desch e's personally taking on in her education. We have paid for the rest. I was wondering if there are any special student loans that are Better for studying abroad.

If so, could you recommend the best places to search for that long? This is sort of a timely process since he had was accepted. Duty is, are rolling forward quickly.

You always have such great information, and I trust what you share. I want to help my daughter get alone. That is the best for her. Thanks so much for your time, Megan.

Jo, did you say Megan or Megan? He was Megan because we have a friend named Megan and she's the only Megan we know never .

one yeah unique name. But I pressure, this was Megan. And man, actually don't think .

we have talked about this. Yeah, say this, this is all you SHE addressed. You only get back.

sit back. And the pill, kitt. Will the homebody pocket actually ares locally on caffe in los Angeles on the weekends? Now we have regular appearances on the station too. It's been a really fund, great partnership, us. And so basically unite or mixing new media and classic media.

But did you ever think, and how proud is your dad that you are now heard on A M radio in one of the biggest in the country? I don't think you know. So really you think he does? No, he does know.

I'll call him. Okay, you you have to shoot my time. Actually, we're not old and new medium media. Once you go head in to cinema snail mail.

they had IT. How do that? But yeah, no, it's it's a cool to get to be on such a great radio station and to get to serve the people of los Angeles st.

But that lets go on to Megan question. We ve got to say first off, great parenting by you, Megan. I'm it's incredible that you be able to get your daughter through college debt free until this point.

We don't actually see that as being incumbent on all parents that they have to provide that with their deadbeat parents or anything like that. There are just so many ways to pay for college these days, but IT really is incredible gift and you're setting her up for success. So big good's to you on that front.

i'll draw this. Begged the question, did you ever stay abroad? I think I know the instead of this, but gives you an opportunity to talk about your college experience.

No, no, I did not. Yeah, I I went, I get three months roadtrip around the country after college, but felt like you're study abroad, the west coast, right? The grand canyon.

You like a foreign n staying during that street. You are learning other thing, learning about life. Yeah, I I did, but wish I had me too well.

I back packed. So one summer and IT wasn't like for the whole summer is just for like two weeks. I think that means some friends, we we backpacked italy on a shoestring, crazy, shoestring budget, sleeping in train stations and tunnels under tracks like that.

anything. Yeah true backbone lifetime le oh my gosh yeah in retrospect CT, i'm not entirely sure how he survived. But on the other hand, that's how that we lived back in the day.

And I think is one of we take less risks today. I guess maybe i'm really zing also one of those things you can get away with when you're late teens, early twenty years, you can never get away with any other point in your life. And I think the same thing is true.

Like my little trip in honor court station, while going around the country, IT would be tough to pull off these days, but not just for a person of my age. Mean, yeah, I get to. And I think they are still more power to.

And let's talk about actually paying for this study abroad program. I would suggest this. First, look around for free money.

Free money, always Better than you, your own money, spending your own money. Start there before. Start talking about something alone, right? exactly.

So we talked about scholarships on the show before most recent, we talked about giving scholarships with jostling pearson on episodes sixty of the podcast. And there's just no reason not to look for scholarships even at this point in the game, you might say. But this is like the last semester or this is the last expense we're going to face.

I don't want to do the scholarship thing, and I would say that would be short signed. You should go look for scholarships and try to find things they are going to meet. They're going be able to meet your knee because the R A, E.

Of spending some time in that endeavor IT can be significant. Don't assume that you have to pay cash or that you have to take out alone. And in particular, check out h, there's actually a government website study abroad dot state dot gov.

If you go there, you're going to find a lot of helpful resources, including links to specific scholarships for people who are going to study abroad. And I just think, like math, that website it's dedicated to make in her daughters needs here. I I would not leave that stone in term.

Do they also tell you how i'd like where the phin pack on the front under your pants .

so as to really bugged yeah the money? While some like advice under your sure like with the cabal street.

actually foreign countries often incentivize us to come over for a period of time. And so you might find that you qualify our money when you click on financial resources there on that site, specifically looked to the gillman scholarship, which can land her like anywhere between five and eight thousand dollars in funds .

that don't need to be paid back. My favorite of .

money doesn't cost some. So however, you able, the paper all, or at least most of the trip by finding some these generous travel abroad programme and scholarships in that way you can still graduate that free while also having having this invaluable experience yeah like I .

think the experience is probably worth paying for um if you have to but the goal list to even right goals to get the experience without being out the money um and because you treat is there might be additional money that's required out of your your own pocket or out of your daughter's pocket, I do want to say you might want her to pay for some of this. Don't assume that it's on you.

Yes, exactly. I mean, especially IT will choose a senior and so this is like the perfect time for her to rank into adult. You know it's one thing at the beginning of like the school year, but like the whole point is to build a successful ly, launch a Young person out into the world.

And so may what Better way than to take on some of these financial responsibility, ie is about to be be a full blow adult, right? right? So why not if she's not going to do the network to find some scholarships, at least be the one who he does have to take out the loans if necessary?

exactly. yeah. And I think it's also it's it's worth pointing out you might need to or might be the best option to take out a little bit of student loan debt order to cover the cost.

Graduating with zero debt is the ideal, but taking on a little bit in her senior year for this program, IT seems reasonable to and if there is financial need that your family has, you can apply for a pile grant, right, maybe to pay for that study abroad program as well. I think the other thing met that I would look into, I would just, I would start poking around at the financial aid office at her school. I would have hercon that dolt to this yourself.

I would have your daughter call or visit the office in person to see what funds might be available for like a semester abroad. Yes, I guarantee you that i've had this question one hundred times over. You're not the first person asking and you just never know what's available until you ask. You might find you're literally talking to the people who deal in this twenty four seven like they eat sleepin breathe money for college. So I would go talk to the experts in in the financial aid office and you might find that they have resources, that they have suggestions that you have thought of yet.

Yeah, now we will say this does sound like an amazing program. And so we don't want to discourage what sounds like an amazing experience. We want you to find out that free money.

But if you can find any, the last resort would be to take out a federal student one for the amount that's needed. You can typically get a loan for the study abroad programme. And if you can't, that's when this is like a very, very latest resort.

A private student loan IT might become a necessity, certainly not our favorite, but you should likely be borrowing like a pretty dank small amount, right? Like we're just talking about this sounds like this is is this her actual final semester? We're talking about formas of living and studying in a .

different and I think I answered to this question would potentially be a little bit different if he was calling IT, if man, he was calling in and saying anybody had boatloads of sture's hundred twenty thousand great position, fact. That means there's a lot of flexibility here. And I think that you can prioritize the experience even though I think there are ways to get IT to cost less out, less money at a pocket. I think you can prioritize experience over the money on this one.

Yeah because is there's a quickly closing window sort of like you saying as far as like the application of lines like but not just on the specific program but in life like right now is the time that he has to be able to go on this trip sort like when you were Younger.

That's when you have the opportunity to go on that road trip and sleep in the back your hondo right the hunt of station wagon or whatever, like sleeping underneath train tracks in malan, italy, which probably would not be ever be advisable. Anybody that was IT was a very small period of time where I was able to do that. And if we keep going down the track, I feel like we're going to be going to turn into the mentality. It's important to keep in mind, though, that we see the potential here for this, for her to receive just like an outsize return from this experience that vastly out ways what you might be taking on in students lanes.

even private student. yes. So I just had a conversation with my wife, family, with her step mom and and her stemmons daughter recently graduate to got a job and is saying she's saying, actually, I think to quit, I think we are going to travel abroad for a while and the time step I asked me he was like, you're going to tell this is about idea, right?

You're going to tell her that this is going to cost her like money and a talking about the four O N K and unity uni, i'm thinking those three months that I took off literally quitting my first job in order to take that trip. I'm so glad to day like i've zero regrets and I was like, so so I don't have your back on this one um your daughter should quit. You should go pursuit this opportunity, take a few months off to go get an experience like this. It's like changing.

So the jobs will still be there. And of course, the student loans will still be there. But the ability for her to keep that to a minimum, I think he has the ability to quickly pay that off as quickly as possible once she's back earning a paycheck and has also had her world view completely shifted from what she's had up to this point, no doubt.

I mean, you ve got more to get to on this upset, including we're to take A A frugal or cheap. And a question about cancelling cardigans you don't use anymore. We get to that more right up for this.

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met. I both love to travel. I went up to california this year.

I hike my first fourteen thousand foot peak. Congrats, man. Was mm.

experience for me? Heck, yeah. And while joe was doing that, I was in ardo expLoring a rocky mountains national park, staying at an adorable area.

Bb, just around the corner. Of course, when we travel, we love finding the perfect airbnb to stay in. And i've actually enjoyed being a host on air bb over the years as well. It's easy and I found that I was a smart way to supplement my income yeah.

And now hosting for longer trips is even easier than ever with co hosts. Airbnb gives you access to a network of high quality local coasts who can help take care of your home and your guests when you're not there. Find a cohosh at airbnb d com slash host.

All we are back from the break some of line in this point, how to money episode. This asked how to money episode.

Can you realize we refine that?

But IT is now time for the facebook question of the week, which is from brain and who has a frugal, cheap. And he wrote, I was in a used book story yesterday, and I found one book I wanted. But rather than immediately buy IT, I looked up the audio book on spotify to listen to later. We did buy some other stuff from that store before leaving. Joe, is this a frugal cheap?

What do you think think it's frugal? Yeah yeah. I don't love use bookstore, by the way and that's actually the prize I dangle in front of my daughters. If they get one hundred on their spelling test, they get a free use book um of they're choosing and so I think but do you actually go to with a use .

bookstore to buy the book?

You should know because my kids love physical books. I'm more of an audio book guy but but I still I mean I still buy use books on, okay, on there's some books I like to actually own. You very rarely to, almost never do I actually buy new books.

definitely. But honestly, I don't even like you like this. I'm on physical books. So for me, like if I had to read the my top choice, its audio books all the way, but then after that not too far down R E books, the ability for me to bus out my kindle paper White, it's so great.

Yeah, it's so good because if you're like, hold something, okay, well, you just told this little frame are you just going to do when you can advances the page is you just can roll that film onto the screen and you just put some pressure there goes to the next page. I like books out. I don't know if you know this.

I have dry skin, and so I have to dry fingers, and I always have to look my finger to grab the page to be able to torney. That must be hard. It's annoying. So I literally don't like physical for that reason.

That will thank you for that insight into you reading have its I also like audio books, but I prefer physical book second uh e books last.

So for you, like when you take the girls, it's like the whole event is the fact that you're going somewhere. It's like an activity, it's an outing.

And then and then for them, I think IT feels like i'm getting the book I want and I get to hold didn't read IT my daughter like litter every morning I go wake up one of them, at least she's in her bed reading already. And so I want incentivize that too. That's one of the great things .

you can activities one hundred percent like, yeah we are all about reading, not use the library because yeah I feel like but if they read over and over.

like the old old books, come on like we going to read those one hundred times.

there are certain classics. But like for those honestly, like there are certain series in classics where we've purchased because it's like, okay, we want our own copy and all the kids are going to read through these multiple times, but the vast majority of reading that they're doing is via books that they've cked up from the library. And like on the week week, like literally he goes every single week. And I think we've talked about how we've got like the maximum a number of books that they will allow you to check out and not going to shift the conversation to talking about taxes. But if you're going to pay these taxes, it's like may as well be a benefit of certainly, super users comes to utilizing our local public library.

I think we should get back to a brain. And I do you think it's frugal to go into your user ooks for he said he bought something. So it's not like he's literally just going in there. Define title so he can undo a spot I play. The other .

thing was I was that why got IT that I realized? So he was say he is afraid that he was going into the actual store till I get .

ideas for books. And then he a couple of bason stuff he saw on the store, but then he also bought a couple of things too. And it's worth mentioning as well that if you are into audio book, spotify actually is a pretty good project on that front.

Finally, allegiant competitor to auto. Ah you're big on the spotify. I mean, I did IT for a while.

I haven't done IT lately, but I would do IT again. It's they're actually be fifteen hours worth of listening time. They've got a pretty good selection of audio books. It's not quite as um as substantial as honble but still really then good. So I think it's a good compliment to the free books you can get on the libya and to the books maybe you might buy the use .

books or yeah okay, I don't think get totally this question initially. So so the way he's asking IT basically sort is equivalent to saying, hey, would you go into a store to try on a jacket to get sized and then buy that same jacket online from an online retailer at a much this kind of Price and so he's saying that because the fact that you purchase something else, it's not cheap.

It's fruit yeah that's really saying, yeah well, I let me I think even even if you were to do that like stores know that that is an inherent part of coming into the store like like get you in other ways, like in thinking of the point of sale purchases like the canes or there's something on clearance. And so you're like, oh, shoe, maybe I go head and make that happen. Like you know like there are other ways that stores get you. And I think I don't know, i'm not just i'm not saying, hey, go into all your local bricking orders and try on shoes and they go online to see if you can find the same parachutes use. But I also think that there are ways that stores sort of account for the fact that there are folks who are just coming in there shopping, but they're going to kind of get your their hooks in you and like a different way.

Yeah, I think especially though on those small businesses that are like illness of your community, the stores that you want to see exist, support them h one hundred percent. And so if yeah especially like A A use bookstore, they're not breaking in cash, i'm pretty sure. But they are like fantastic places that i'm so glad they exist. And I would rather spend some extra money at my local use bookstore just to in hopes that this days open for many more years to come instead of cheaping out then same fifty cents by bike on ebay or something like that. Yeah.

I think he comes down to what IT is you want to see in the community. It's what I mean, there's a local establishment that opened near as well. And I was just like I literally talking about creating a life on my budget to force myself to like i'm going to go there anyway yeah but to sort of force myself to go there because I want that business, the small business, to do well.

And so in a similar way, I think yeah, putting money towards the businesses you want to see succeed. And even though I personally mean I gained a whole lot of utility out of a used independent bookstore is still something I like. I like the idea and I want is to be there even if it's sort of like this romantic idea of like, oh, being able to go in there on a rainy day with get a cup .

of coffee and and right tly. So like there are certain things that are worth the coffee might be the same at one coffee shop person other, but I pay for the experience of a specific coffee shop. Maybe the use books are like, can I get IT cheaper on some sort of website on the internet like an ebay? sure.

Um but there is something about the novelty and the joy that comes from proposing your favorite use books or and the syndic ity of stumbling upon maybe something that you hadn't seen before that's prety cool. There's something really valuable about that. So um I think ah we keep in mind those other intangible benefits that you get from shopping in the store like that too.

They get let's get to our last question that this an email question from Linda SHE says, how do I cancel old credit cards that I have not used? I have a final score of eight, twenty six, but I do not want to lower my school. I pay off most my cards unless I have interest. Three terms.

eight, six. That's exactly what I have, right? I just checked.

But word brothers should like credit card home's or something. Let's get to the logistics like the mechanics here, lda. It's actually not that hard to cancel your credit card.

There is typically in eight hundred number on the back of the card that you should be able to call or you just log into your account online and you can cancel that way. So there's how do you do IT. So it's time not to get to the part of the question that you aren't asking, which is is something always my favorite part that you should do.

And I would say probably not I get the maybe you have a desire to simplify your personal finances. You want to clean things up and so why not get rid of an old car that you don't use anymore? Um well, the reason is because there are consequences in doing so.

You, namely the drop in your credit score and then you at mt. Would not get to be exist on an equal playing field anymore. He would now be above you. He be at eight.

twenty six.

thirteen, something like that right in closing your court, just going to have an impact on multiple fronts like you're talking about giving rid of cards you've had for a long time. Those cards are doing U A service. On the credit score front, they're lengthening your credit history, which is one factor in your credit score.

They're also increasing how much credit you have available to you, which helps with what's known as your credit utilization rate. And that's one of the biggest factors, right, that goes into your credit score. So there are these two major factors that you're dinging by canceling a couple of cards that you don't want to Carry anymore. And so if you get rid of a few of them, you could harm your score meaningfully. I mean, you probably I could drag you down to like seven ten um but but you could see fifteen thousand and thirty point in depending on how many cards you close and kind of how their impacting in your .

score right now. Yeah and one of the downsides to just completely ignoring in the car is the fact that they that the card issue would close IT on you. And so. A suggestion we might have is to put a recurring bill like something like netflix on each one of those cards and then just have to automatically paid off every single month.

And so IT, basically, when you saw that car getting paid from you or checking the account, you would then begin to associate a certain card with that specific utility, right? You don't have to actually love those cards around with. You don't have to Carry them.

But this will keep those cards alive and active, and they will stay there in your credit mix, which is going to keep your score in that, that upper a one. Now I would say I think the main reason to close the car would be if you don't use IT at all and IT is got an annual fee. But even then, you can just ask for a card downgrade. And so it's not something that you would like necessarily need to completely get rid of. But also, I going to highly IT the fact that you don't have to have a perfect credit score, right, like we are just joking about getting doing from an eight thousand and six to eight nine h or you're got forbid eight thirty as long as you are aren't getting taken all way down to like the lower or seven hundred and I think is in seven forty typically the lower limit. And as long as you are above seven forty, you going to five for the .

best terms to be either seven forty or seven sixty is so if you're seven sixty plus.

you're good to go. So you're in the eight hundred ds, you are in great territory. But again, I totally understand if you're just done with IT and you don't want to mess with us anymore, think of we've got friends who have paid off mortgage, joe, and they had lower interest strates on those mortgage.

But for them personally, this is what they wanted in their life. And if that's the case, what's not the most financially optimized thing to do? But I think it's totally within reason. If that's something that you wanted to do, that's going to put IT a personal finance.

That's what is all about here, totally within reason to close those as long as you're doing IT smart tly and over time so that you don't yeah harm yourself too much and maybe cost yourself if you're applying for a mortgage in you don't qualify for the best rate and best terms anymore, that would be really sad because that could cost you literally thousands of dollars.

So if that's the case, you need the user credit or for a significant purchase in the near future will hold off. Don't do a yet. Um but if that's not the case, then your score will likely have time to recover.

And so you can take this out if you really want to our mat. Let's get back to the beer that we had on today's up. So this one is called juice quest.

It's a hazy ipa by the good folks over at scotland. W wing. What we're thoughts, well, my first .

thoughts are at the top is be the main character, which I don't like that like like inspiration. Have you seen like the main main character energy like on billboards or something like .

I don't love like inspiration from libraries, like give me good beer. I don't necessarily need a pep tok.

I will say the reason it's got like a eight big design motive gone on. And so I understands be the main character your journey starts now got a very like alta like quality to IT. Then when I think about that, I makes me think I should really like the braining.

But I don't know, this is not really resonating with me, but the actual beer, in this case, is definitely resonating with me. Man, this is like a classic hay ipa, super clean. Actually, you and I, this is a beer that we enjoyed somewhat recently at a conference.

And I was shocked how taste IT was the reason I won't pick up a six back because Scott law, that makes some solid bears, but typically not ones that I go out of my way for. But I really frequent like this one. This like.

it's so good I like to do. It's not like a plus plus. It's like a solid a this is this could be like a fridge staple if you exactly super in the hazy, especially because IT comes and i'm a big fan of this.

The twelve month six back, I know the four pack sixteen month thing is taken off. That's what people are into these days. I when I crack a beer, often times that which I don't do is often anymore. And I just want one twelve th.

You are looking for a four sixty thousand. I'm even sharing a twelve on spirit sometimes with kate, right, because we enjoy beer on the show. And so i'm trying to keep my my craft beer and check. Yes.

to be honest, we're too old to be drinking like three bears a day. So this is a good beer. This is one I think that I would keep the fridge because IT is significantly juicy, going to be able to get IT locally.

It's going to be fresh guy like this one to so that's going to do IT map for this episode will put links to some of the the resources that we mentioned up in the shoonoo on our website at how to money. Dom, there's much, much more helpful personal finance info for you that exists up there all the time. Head to have the money to com. You won't be disappointed, right?

So what's so next time?

Best friends out. Best friends out.

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