[00:00:05] Speaker A: You're listening to casual talk radio where common sense is still the norm. Whether you're a new or longtime listener, we appreciate you joining us today. Visit
[email protected]. And now here's your host, Leister.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: A very happy new year. Casual talk radio
[email protected]. My name is Leister. I am your host. Welcome or welcome back, whichever your situation is.
I'm a little frustrated. Not frustrated, I'm a little perturbed. Perturbed is a better word for it. I'm seeing some things that bother me about the larger economy, finance and everything, and I wanted to tell a story because I think it may help some people.
So for those that have listened for a while, they've already heard this, and I'll share the story briefly. I have two cars. I'm not supposed to have two cars, but I have two cars paid for, paid cash, but one of them I'm trying to sell, and simply because I don't drive it, I don't really need it. I bought it at a time when I didn't have a car, and then I ended up buying the car I really wanted, and then I was trying to get rid of this one. And then there was a whole bunch of chaos with the title. I got that solved, so that's clean.
Then I got word that there was a not quite a recall. I can't call it a recall, but basically what happened is apparently there was some sort of social media challenge of sorts that was leading to an increase of theft of this particular vehicle in certain areas. Because the manufacturer did not bother to put so most vehicles, modern vehicles will have a way to kill the engine right away if there's theft or something else.
And apparently this manufacturer did not spend the money to put it in the car. Now, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. As I thought about it, maybe that's not a bad thing because it means that government big brother, same time, it's like, well, that means it could be stolen easier because there's no way to have stopped it. Although it has an alarm, it has all these things. Anyhow, so I've been trying to sell it, and I in the past could sell almost anything on Craigslist. And perhaps this is regional, I don't know, but it's gotten worse to just sell something on Craigslist than it ever has. I don't know what the heck that's all about, but I put the ad up. I didn't realize that Craigslist charges, but fine, $5, whatever it was, put the ad up. It's got pictures, I've got transparent pictures of there's a couple of dings and things, no problem. This is, I think, a really good quality car. It's got really low mileage for the year. It's a brand new cat converter. It runs really good. It's got great turn radius and the whole nine. Good car for somebody. It's the kind of car I would get for somebody graduating high school, or somebody going through college that just needed some transportation, basic transportation, or somebody that's a single mother type of it's that kind. So I figure, okay, this should be an easy sell. I get one person. And what Craigslist used to be, to put in perspective, because I've sold a lot on Craigslist. What it used to be is it obfuscates as it hides your email. When you communicate back and forth on email, all you really have to do is because you see there's photos on the site, so you don't need to you just agree, where do you want to meet, when do you want to meet, and how do you plan to pay it's? Three questions, and it's better in email. One email to send it, one email to respond. You coordinate where it is and you make the deal. This is how I got my monopoly set, because that's what I did. So, okay, I put it out there. I said, no, just email me, no phone, nothing. Email. I get a ping, says, well, like phone number. I said no, all you got to do is email back and tell me where, when, and how are you paying? Is that it? Never heard back. And again, this may be regional, but I've never had a situation where it was this difficult sell something.
I also saw where Craigslist and some of these others, they're basically pushing this Venmo crap and this cash app crap, and all these, and I've had people even ask, know, how come you don't do Venmo or cash app or whatever?
And there's a very strong reason if you're new. I work technology for a living. It's what I do for a living. That means I have a very solid understanding of how it works, its pros, its cons, as well as its risks. And the one thing about all of those apps, cash app, Venmo, PayPal, whatever, they will happily block access to your money. Whatever the f they feel like it, they'll just block your access to your money, and then they make it hard to get back access to your funds. I know what you're thinking, that never happened to me.
Just because you hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't happen. PayPal was notorious for this. You can search it yourself. There's countless stories about PayPal blocking access to money. I think Venmo was the other 1 second, and then cash app was third. That's why I don't do it. You may not know that Venmo and cash app in particular, they are largely run by an organization called early Warning systems. Early warning systems is part of an alliance of banks. The banks got together and decided to build all these little tools, these stove type tools that sounded good to the kids, because that's who it appeals to, is the little kids swiping on their phone to be able to play with their money on their phone. The banks knew that early warning systems is not new. Early warning systems is a throwback to the old days when you could write a check at the local store. There used to be that little sticker up there that said, yeah, we're going to decide whether or not we'll accept your check or not right on the fly. And in some cases, you could be completely blacklisted from writing a check at the store that just transitioned over to these digital type tools. So you might be thinking, well, they only do that to the people that are doing something illegal. No, they do it based on a computer making a determination that is faulty. Well, this transaction amount is too high or your account is too new, or the person you're sending to a receipting from is too new, or the country that they're in is too far.
It's all garbage because let's take the transaction amount too high. That means I can't use it for this type of transaction where I'm trying to simply sell a car because I'm trying to sell it for a good amount of money, it's going to be a number of zeros behind it. So those tools are not going to do it because they're going to put some limit on the ability to send or some limit on the ability to receive, or they'll just block it and hold it for a month or whatever, and you have no recourse. See, if you had a recourse, if our government actually took care of you, they would say, no, you are not allowed to withhold money that people have entrusted you with. Those services are allowed to do it because they're doing it under the auspice of financial security. That's what they claim. Mind you, though, I could do the same transaction with the same dollar amount I want at a local bank, and they won't blink twice. So what they say, these Venmos and cash apps to the world is crap. It is not to protect you. It is not to protect the government. That's not what it's about. It's simply an inconvenience because they can't because they can't really afford to do it right up front. Now, later, after you've been let's say you're doing money all over the place, $5, $10, whatever, and you're bought in and they've already gotten access to your personal information that they've sold and made a profit off of, then they're all happy to open up the gates on that. So then they encourage you to tell your friends and family, just get on this cash app so I can send you money whenever. I will not be doing that because I understand what they're doing with your information, number one. And number two, I will not have my funds blockaded from me when the local bank does not do that. So if somebody wants to transact with me, ACH is perfectly fine. Wire transfers are perfectly fine. Cash is perfectly fine. Other than that, we're done. I'll even take a cashier's check from the bank again, they won't blink twice at you. You could walk into the bank and say, I want a cashier's check for $9,000. Bank won't blink twice as long as you got the money in the account. You show your ID, they won't blink twice. You hand me that cashier's check, I take it to my bank. My bank will happily accept it and release the funds right away because they know it's guaranteed money. None of this garbage of holding funds, none of this garbage of identity verification on the phone, none of this garbage of text message verification with a code, none of this garbage of having to know your address because your bank already knows your address. You save a lot of overhead. But I, despite my every effort, cannot get people to understand and decouple from the matrix that has been imposed upon them by this organization, getting them to jump on board with all this. And so now it's almost like a disease around me. All these people are trying to ask and in some cases force all this crap, just like text message verification. I can't stand it. I'll say that for a different episode.
So I wasn't going to sell the car because all this garbage where people, for whatever reason, refused to simply give me an email, tell me where, when and how to purchase the car or from me. So there's that. And then transactions where they're trying to force all these garbage applications, where, no, I'm not going to violate my privacy. I'm not going to have my money withheld from me over this.
The other day, I was trying to go down, I went down to McDonald's.
The total of mine was $14.67. I gave the guy a $10 bill and a $5 bill. This guy, first of all, he was kind of oh cash.
He couldn't figure out how to get the cash register to tell him the change and he couldn't calculate it in his head.
That's scary. But he had to pull out his phone to do the calculation to understand the change. And then he struggled to figure out which of the denominations of coins it needed to be. That's how bad this is. Because he assumed, oh, just going to swipe the card, that he didn't have to do any work. Like, this is bad because that's one of the fundamentals you're taught is around cash and cash handling. And he wasn't that young, so I know he's been taught how to handle cash. And this guy can't calculate change in his head from fourteen sixty seven to fifteen dollars. Are we serious?
The other day now I was frustrated, whatever, the other day, so that I go to because I had my eye on a different car. Not because I need it, but because I want to upgrade. But my thing is, I am not doing car loans ever again because they're a scam. I'm not doing credit cards because they're a scam. I refuse. So if I'm going to buy a car, it needs to be cash out. Done. Drive off, you're done. I don't have to hear from you, jackoffs, ever again. So I had done some research. I'm looking for a car that has it's a car for normal freaking people. I'm not doing an SUV, so it's got to have the right features. It's got to be attractive inside. It's got to be reasonably attractive outside. It cannot be one of those tiny little garbages. It's got to be attractive.
The Honda Accord has been stepping up its game. I was very impressed with what I saw. And if you are around my age, you heard the story. The moment you drive it off the lot, it depreciates $10,000. I'm sure you've heard this right. So the new version of this car is the 2024. As I record this, the 2024 version of the car is going for like, 35 to 40 grand. So by my math, I should be able to pull off a used model for about 25 grand. And that's about reasonable. I should be able to pull that. And based on the trade value I expect for my two cars, there's simply no way. I shouldn't be able to get at least ten to 15 grand for the both of them, minimum, likely more. But I'm conservative. And then I have money ready to go in the account. I write you a check and we're done. I go to the dealer. They got two used.
Okay, what's the price of your new 35 to 40 grand, depending on the features. What's the price of your used 35 to 40 grand?
That's got to be a typo. No, that's what it is. Because they're in high demand, but they're used. That means somebody give them back to you. So they can't be too high demand. They're used and you got 8000 miles on this damn thing. There's no way it should be the same price as the brand new one. What sense does that make? You should be compelled to try to get rid of these, so you should be dropping that price. This guy is doing everything he can to try to get my trade. Okay, what year is that and what model is that? What make is that? I know what he's trying to do. And my call to action to you guys is don't let them guide the conversation because they're just going to wheel and dill you into a scam. Trust me. I was there in 1998. So I refuse. No, I'm not answering your questions.
Make sure the car's price is within your budget. Number one, the car's price must be within your budget. Set a budget. How much is the most I'm willing to spend on this damn thing? And before you ever walk in there, settle on that number, period. When you go in there, hold fast to that number and tell them. Unless you can get that car to that price, we're not going to make a deal here. And sometimes they may surprise you. Likely they're not going to. So I already knew 28 grand is probably the most I'm willing to tolerate for a used freaking car where the brand new one is 35 minimum. There's no way I'm going to justify more than $28,000 for a used version of this car. I just won't do it. So he keeps trying to steer to the used and I'm telling him, no, we got to talk about this. And he wasn't going to budge. And he kept saying, well, you're not going to find it, but less because it's a hybrid, this Accord, and the hybrid is a requirement for me. I'm not going to do a gas vehicle because that's a step back. We should all be arguably driving hybrids by now.
Car prices are way out of whack. And I can tell what he's doing. He's basically saying, we can get you in the car. And I know what he's going to do. He's going to try to steer me to a loan. And I'm not doing a loan. I refuse as I'm leaving and I'm looking at everything that's happening.
So cars are available, but they're way the frick overpriced. You can't deal the used because the used, they're trying to force a technology that's not going to make any sense.
And most importantly, this is my story.
They're all pushing towards loans. More and more loans, more and more credit. There was just a study that talked about subprime borrowers.
A subprime borrower essentially says, your credit is not good enough for us to offer you a good rate, so we're going to offer you a predatory rate in exchange for letting you have borrowed money. And the study essentially said that people are defaulting on these subprime loans as expected, which is why they're subprime loans.
Duh well, part of the reason why there was so many more subprime loans issued is because of the pandemic. Because what was happening during the pandemic, and I'm sure you all know this, and I'm preaching to the choir, they were closing down businesses. Companies were actively firing or quote, laying off people or just straight up terminating them for trying to withhold their body from being vandalized in any way. Right? My body, my choice no longer applied during that situation. And so the company sided with the government and turned on the people. And the people no longer mattered. And so we had actually businesses shut down. We had a lot of businesses shut down. Businesses have been around for decades shut down because they were forced to close and or they had boycotts going on and or they cut too many dang people during the pandemic. You had the Amazons of the world spike up and hire crazy numbers of people after they started opening things up and the swell of delivery orders went down. Amazon cut the vast majority of those people they hired. Same with Google. Same with Microsoft. Why? Because people became expendable.
I make a pretty good amount of money in my endeavor. I make a pretty good amount of money especially when I got the bump up.
I can't imagine because at this point there are people that probably make a quarter of what I make and for them that's really good money. That's how much I make. So I can't imagine those people and how they were able to sustain and continue to sustain as I see the prices of things as I see how harder it is to transact and do basic transactions and I can only imagine the amount of people that are living check to check now versus what it used to be. And I know what the message would be.
Dual income reliance is not the right answer. But that's what the employers bank on. They bank on well we'll pay you just enough and if you have two incomes in your family it's good enough. No I've learned you should make enough to where your income by yourself is enough to live comfortably and to save.
Because if you rely on that dual income as we learned during the Pandemic what happens when one of those incomes gets cut? You're screwed. The government knows that. They know that. They didn't care. The employers know that. They knew that they didn't care. You have to care because no matter what they're not going to take care of you. The government will swear that you have all these services available should you unemployment or whatever in case you lose money. And it is true certain of the services are made available like health care and food, right services and those kinds of things. But there's all these conditions and hoops around them and so they make it hard to get it. It's there but they make it hard to get it. And don't get me started on the financial services. They make it hard to get access to these things because they don't want you to have the money directly. They want you to have the reliance, the dependency on these other things but they make it hard to get to those.
If you get to a situation where you lose one of those incomes that was coming in on a steady basis and you budgeted around a dual income you're screwed. Especially because many people have never trained themselves to re budget according to a singular income. So the message should be to budget around one income, not two. And if your income is not enough to where you can throw some money in savings or something else it's even worse in an era where we no longer have pensions. Really. And the 401K is a joke. Don't get me started on that. It's harder to get ahead and it's harder to stay ahead when something goes south that's outside of your control that might be a furlough that's outside of your control, that's shutting down critical services that happens to affect your job, could be your job just acting completely Nazi out from underneath. You could be ESG, you name it. There's all these things that now derail your ability to make money. The answer is not guaranteed income. None of that's the right answer. The real answer from my lens, and this is my perspective on it, the real answer is you as an individual should do everything you can, as hard as it is, to make sure that your income as an individual is always not only sufficient, it's more than sufficient. You're making more than the minimum you need to. On the next episode, and I've committed this because I saw some very bad news recently. On the next episode, I'm going to talk about the attack on women and you might be intrigued on what I'm talking about. There's an attack on women. There's actively an attack on women and they have a part to play in this because statistics talk about how much less women make compared to men.
I'm going to debunk some of those, but I'm going to talk about the general attack on women because it's important. Because if you are a female and you're listening to this, you might be shocked to understand it's going to be a hell of a lot harder for you to do what I'm describing in sense that making more than the minimum necessary to survive. Because if you just settle for the minimum necessary to survive, you're not going to make it. You're not going to survive. I guarantee you, no matter what, the government's not going to take care of you. It may sound good, but trust me, there's always strings attached. And those strings, when they're taken, it's not going to feel good in the end game. So you can take my advice or leave it. I'm still going to share the advice because some may see value in what I share.
Big picture though, I'm very concerned about the economy overall and financial state and everything else that's going on and I'm not looking forward. I think we got a bubble that's about to pop sometime in mid to late 2024, possibly 2025. I think we're going to have a bubble that's going to pop. Because if it's true that there's this many subprime loans going belly up and this many people that extended themselves just to survive through the pandemic still as we come out of it and of course the prices of things going sky high and inflation going sky high and things going out of control, but the employers see no reason to give salaries that actually make sense to where people can live comfortably. It doesn't look good in the short term. I hope I'm wrong. I'm just calling like I see it. I truly hope I'm wrong because I again make a pretty good amount of money and even I, I feel the pinch. And I can't imagine what it must feel like for somebody that makes a fraction of what I do to survive in what we're currently seeing.
You it?
