The Best One Yet - BONUS 💰 “The Money Pod” — Our Best Money stories from 2024

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

#1. Wells Fargo launched a credit card you can pay rent with… but they underestimated how Savvy Millennials would use it. (6/24/2024)#2. An Olympic gold medal winner has a day job — as an investment banker… so we’ll tell you the secret to a successful side hustle. (8/7/2024)#3. Legendary Wall Street investor Larry Fink wrote a whole letter about DINKs… so we need to talk about your retirement plan already. (3/27/2024)Share this episode with your financially savviest buddy… actually, send it to the one who still owes you $50 for brunch.We’ll be back on Monday, January 6th, with our regular TBOY podcasts. But look out for more bonus pods from us dropping over the holidays.And if you crave more business storytelling from us? Check out our weekly deepdive show: “The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with. From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly. Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.—-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. And today's MoneyPod is the best one yet. The top three money stories you need to know today. Yeah, it is. This is episode number four of our holiday bonus week. It's the best of money. Our best stories of the year on personal finance, careers, and investing.

So share this episode with your financially savviest buddy. Actually, send this episode to your buddy who still loves you $25 for brunch. Yeah, your buddy Timmy. So whether you're a dink, a dinkwad, or a dinkwad ass, we got three fantastic stories. Jack, what's on today's bonus pod? That Venmo invoice is still outstanding, Timmy. Awkward. For our first story, it's from June 24, 2024.

Wells Fargo launched a credit card that you can pay rent with. True. And it was so successful, it became a failure. Because Wells Fargo underestimated savvy millennials. For our second story, it's from August 7th. That's when the newest Olympic gold medal winner had a day job as an investment banker. We're going to tell you the secret to a successful side hustle. And our third and final story is from March 27th.

The big story on Wall Street, then, was how dinks were going to retire. Larry Fink published his annual letter, so we need to talk about your retirement. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What a fantastic mix of money stories. I love that mix. I'm going to try to say it like the girl from TikTok, okay? You got this, you got this. You got this. I'm looking for a man in finance.

Trust Fund, 6-5. Blue eyes. And with a deep understanding of tax advantage Roth IRAs. That is in 2024, money was bigger than ever. Literally. Stock markets were at record highs. But value meals were also at record highs. In this economy, you want a discount on that double-digit latte. But in this economy, you also wanted crypto in your portfolio. That's why this year we covered enough money stories to make Jerome Powell bust an interest rate. Yeah, bagels get bonuses. Cupcakes get cash. That's what we We covered the rise of a brand new fee this year called the Flake Fee. If you cancel on a restaurant, they're going to charge you 50 bucks. We found out that Warren Buffett, the best investor of all time, is holding a record amount of

his money in cash. $300 billion, that's 50 lifts worth of cash. We also covered when Bitcoin hit its $100,000 milestone. It was Bitcoin's BitMitsva. And when lab-grown diamonds passed natural diamonds in sales. That is a financial trick shot. We discovered this year that Gen Z is running vending machines as a side hustle. And we figured out how Goldman Sachs promotes bankers to partners when they started as interns.

Those stories were all fantastic. But these are our three best money stories of 2024. Jack and I whipped them up for you because you're a freak in the spreadsheets. If you're still listening, Dave Ramsey, we hope you don't hate us. We won't take it personally, Dave. Jack, let's hit those three money stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm.

It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. Even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

Yiddies, let's go back to June 24th, 2024, when we got a big story on rent and credit Wells Fargo made a huge mistake. They underestimated us. They did, Jack. Let's jump into it. Wells Fargo launched a credit card with built. That was so good. It was too good. More like Felswargo. Because they're losing $10 million every month. And it's all because of savvy millennial credit card customers. Oh, yeah, it is. You know what we're talking about. Every friend group has a points person. And you know who we're talking about. Yeah. It's actually me. I'm optimizing points for every financial transaction using just the right credit card. You got that one buddy, not your buddy, Timmy, who's like, Amex for travel, Sapphire for dinner.

You better not buy those bananas unless you're getting 2% points cash back. And that one credit card friend, she's like the Allen Turing of credit cards. Because she's like constantly calculating the points per dollar ratio and then judging you when you don't. She's like Professor John Nash, like writing calculations on the mirror. You know what I mean? It's a beautiful mind. Yet these credit card companies, they offer you points and perks on your purchases. to literally buy your loyalty, and they're doing perks more than ever. So, Wells Fargo partnered with a

startup called Built Last Year to launch a huge new credit card. And it was huge because this credit card would let you pay your rent. Yeties, if you rent, you know this already. Your landlord will not accept credit card payments for you to pay your rent because your landlord doesn't want to pay that two to three percent credit card fee, even though your rent is the biggest expense in your life. To get around that, Built, the credit card startup will literally mail a check to your landlord on your behalf, because you're the credit card holder. Now, we've covered Built before on the pod. They're a $3 billion startup that is booming because people want points and they want to build

credit on rent, which is a huge chunk of your spending. And Wells Fargo wanted in on that booming. So they launched a built and Wells Fargo co-branded credit card last year. And Jack, how did this brand new rent credit card work in its first year? It's extremely popular. They got one million accounts in the first year. And that rent card, it is the rent card. One million accounts. Wells Fargo is freaking out. Bill was excited. Everyone was having a good time with this brand new credit card until they checked the numbers. Yeah. Yet is here's the wild problem. Apparently Wells Fargo miscalculated the credit card math. More precisely,

they underestimated you, the millennial credit card customer. Because savvy millennial took advantage of the generous points-taking opportunity and they cashed in big time. Because rent is such a huge chunk of our monthly expenses, one couple managed to rack up 126,000 points just because of their rent payments. In fact, that one couple went viral because they used those points to buy three flights to Europe on Virgin Airlines. Two of them were in business class on a new plane, and it didn't cost them a penny. Ipso facto, this new Wells Fargo credit card basically paid for the

their European vacation. And that's the problem here yet is because all those points are free to you, but they're not free to the credit card company. Wells Fargo has to pay for all those points that you redeem, and that gets costly. Now, Wells Fargo knows that points are costly, but they expected to make up for those points costs in other ways. According to Wall Street Journal reporting, Wells Fargo expected that 65% of your credit card spending would be on non-rent payments, like restaurant payments, groceries, whatever. But instead, users did the opposite. They pretty much just used the card to pay for their rent.

According to Business Insider reporting, Wells Fargo expected dozens of purchases on this card every month. They'd hope that this card would become your go-to. But instead, users only use the card for the bare minimum five purchases a month. So, Yeties, Wells Fargo got a million new credit card customers in record time, but those credit card customers were savvy, and they were taken advantage of the points on the rent. And then they'd use other credit cards that offer better points for everything else they spent money on.

Great for the customer, bad for Wells Fargo. So add it all up, Bessies, and Wells Fargo is losing, get this, $10 million a month on this specific rent credit card. Because of savvy millennial customers. And now Wells Fargo is trying to get out of the deal, but they can't for like another five years. It's called an early termination fee. Sorry, Wells Fargo. I'd like to speak to a representative, says Wells Fargo, to the most. themselves. So what's the takeaway for our buddies who are anyone with a credit card? Credit cards can lose you a lot of money or they can make you some money. Yeties, if you carry a credit card balance month to month and you don't pay off the entire amount every month, then you pay interest. That's credit

card debt. It's actually the worst kind of debt. It is. Because right now you pay 30% interest on that credit card debt. And interest is how credit card companies make the most of their money. And that's exactly what Wells Fargo was hoping for. Wells Fargo expected that 50% to 75% of your balance would not be paid off month to month so they could collect a lot of interest. But customers only left 15 to 25% of their balances on the card. So Wells Fargo miscalculated again. And that's actually the biggest reason that Wells Fargo is going to lose $120 million this year just on this one credit card. Wells Fargo's miscalculation was about the savviness of their millennial credit card. customers. Instead of paying 30% interest, these customers are essentially collecting 2% interest

from Wells Fargo. Instead of paying interest, Wells Fargo customers paid their balance off every month, and they collected a whole bunch of points. There it is. There's the proof. Credit cards can lose you a lot of money, or they can actually make you some money. Yeties, let's now go back to August 7th, 2024, when we covered the Olympics, specifically side hustlers of the Olympics. We have something in common with that. We do, we do. And it's not that we're both world-class athletes. No, no, this is good, though. You're going to love this. We're going to tell you how to side hustle. Let's hit it, Jack. The surprise star of these Olympics is actually a full-time investment banker by day. So we have to tell you the secret about the side hustle. The secret to a successful side hustle.

But Jack, can you start by setting the scene for us, please? Dwight Eisenhower was present. We hadn't landed on the moon yet. And the Super Bowl wasn't even a thing. Because the scene, Jack, is setting, is 1960 America. The last time the U.S. won a gold medal in rowing 64 years ago. Until this week, when the U.S. men's four-person rowing team won gold in the 2000-meter race. A huge win for the entire team, right? But the highlight was one rower in particular. Justin Best, because rowing is actually his side hustle.

Get this besties. Justin Best is actually a first. full-time investment banker. The man went to Drexel in Philadelphia, and for the last four years, he's been working at Union Square Advisors, a finance firm. And we're talking about a man in finance, six five, blue eyes. And honestly, he may not have a trust fund, Jack, but he's going to give a trust fund to his kids. Because he's a gold medal winner now. Yes, he is. So Jack and I actually found out his schedule for work in San Francisco. You want to share it with everyone, Jack? He wakes up at 5.30 to train rowing in the East Bay. He's at work by 930, and then he's trained

training again after work, and he finally gets to bed at 11. We're talking not just spreadsheets. He's doing late-night sprints yetis. And to celebrate his gold, this week he proposed to his girlfriend in front of the Eiffel Tower. And next week, he's getting on a Zoom call because again, he's a full-time investment banker, which leads to the big surprise. In the Olympics, side hustling isn't the exception. It's actually the rule. Now yet he's, LeBron James, Simone Biles, the soccer teams at the Olympics, Some athletes in a few sports can be full-time pros like them. But for the majority of Olympic athletes, pursuing perfection in a sport does not pay the bills. Yeah.

In fact, almost the entire swim team for the United States has a day job that isn't swimming in a pool. Nick Fink, who won a medal for breaststroke, he's a full-time engineer. Oh, and then, Jack, how about Liana Mutia, who's the judo champion for the United States in the Olympics? Back home, she's a software analyst at Comcast. We know because we just added her. on LinkedIn, no joke. In fact, Home Depot, a huge employer based out of Atlanta, which hosted the Olympics in the 90s. Yeah. They're famous for having a program to support their employees who are Olympic and Paralympic athletes on the side. Jack, what were the numbers you discovered from Home Depot,

by the way? Home Depot boasts proudly that 660 employees of there were also athletes who trained for the Olympics while working at Home Depot. Oh, and by the way, it's not just the Olympics, is it, man? Overall, for America, 36% of us have some kind of a side hustle now, according to a survey from bank rate. Some of us do it for extra pay. Some of us do it for curiosity. But guess what? It's not just America and it's not just the Olympians. It's us. Yes, Jack and me too. We started this company as a side hustle. We did. Ten years ago, this podcast began as a side hustle. When we were men in finance. But now we're full-time potters, baby. We're also 5'10, but you round up to 5-11. And that kind of get to the six-foot Jack. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone with the

side hustle? The secret to a successful side hustle isn't just communication. It's over-communication. Now, ladies, when Jack and I started this company as a side hustle back in 2012, we were afraid to tell our work. Like, Jack, I thought UBS was going to straight up fire me and then call your boss and get you fired. I know, I know. But when we finally did tell our bosses, they were fine with it. It was relief, right? It was such a relief for us. You know, he's instead of sneaking around, getting worried, and like working on this podcast on the subway on the way home from work. We could be open and honest that we have a day job. We're doing a great job on our day job.

Yeah. But we also have the side hustle we're passionate about. And here's the key, Jack and I realize, you don't just communicate to your boss that you have a side hustle. You need to over communicate. The cost of over communicating with your boss is it may become annoying to them. Your boss may be annoyed that you're sending them so many emails telling them what you're working on outside work. But the benefit is transparency and company. Your boss knows exactly what you're working on,

and they're less likely to try to shut down your side hustle. In fact, funny thing, but that rower, Justin Best, said that over-communication with his banker boss was the key to his side hustle success. Yeties, a majority of Olympians, and more than a third of Americans, have a side hustle today. Well, the secret to a successful side hustle isn't communication. It's over-communication.

Dude, how about you try it with isn't just communication. See, that's over-communication. See, that's overcommunication. Now a quick word from our sponsor. Now, Yeties, let's go back to March 27th, 2024, when we covered millennial retirement. Because, yeah, millennials got to start thinking about retirement. This story is about 401Ks, IRAs, and what the haze.

I don't know what that last one is, but I like the check. Let's in it. Let's jump in. For our third and final story, America's biggest money manager thinks that America faces a fiscal time bomb. So we're talking retirement, millennial retirement, and how saving money actually saves you in taxes too. Jack, let's kick it off with some trivia. Biggest investment company in the world. Who is it? Where is it? What are we talking about? It's BlackRock. Midtown Manhattan. It's run and it's founded by CEO Lawrence Fink, aka Larry Fink. BlackRock manages $10 trillion of assets for clients. Jack, could you sprinkle on some context? We understand, man. That's enough money to acquire the company lift 2,000 times.

It's 2,000 lifts. But yet he's Larry, the man who founded this company, says that he founded the company for two particular reasons. First reason was to get rich by building a big successful company. Let's be honest. The second reason, though, was to help people invest their money right so that they can retire comfortably? Well, Larry Think is a respected man in the financial community

and he just published his annual shareholder letter. In that letter, he said he hopes every American can live their first. final years with dignity and financial freedom. That sounds lovely. But Jack, there is one problem he points out, right? The data suggests that most Americans won't be able to live out their final years with dignity and financial freedom. So he's got some ideas to fix that and Jack and I jumped in T-boy style. What Larry's talking about, by the way, is extremely relevant to us. He's talking about millennial retirement. Yeah, millennial retirement. Like you're dinks today, but you're retired tomorrow. Larry Fink says it will be much more expensive for millennial millie

to retire in 30 years than it is for Millie's parents to retire today. It's not just because millennials are going to want to eat avocado toast at 5 p.m. senior supper dinner every night when they're retired. Now, the big reason retirement will be way more expensive in 30 years is that people are living longer. And it takes more money to retire if you live longer. Look, it's fantastic if OZempe helps you lose weight and therefore live 10 years longer. That's great.

That's beautiful. That's wonderful. But 10 extra years of Delbo. Boca Vista retirement community, Jack. That's going to add up, man. That is expensive. And 10 extra years of sending birthday checks to those grandkids, you're going to be sending a money when they're like 60.

Not grandkids. Great, great grandkids. You're going to be like 140 years old. Your great, great grandkids are going to ask for like money for their class trip to Mars. If you live until you're 110, then you're retired for like 50 years. It's a lot of time to have no income and be spending money at Del Boca Vista. You're going to look fantastic.

But yet his Fink says that we should push back the retirement age to reflect the longer life expectancy, which we think makes sense. But he also says that more Americans should invest in the stock market to prepare for their retirement. If your savings do nothing in a savings account, then you won't be able to afford the pickleball club over in Fort Laudel now. But if your savings grow 10% per year instead, as the stock market historically has, then maybe you can afford that pickleball match.

Now, Jack, we should point out that this man, Larry Fink, running the biggest manager of money on earth is a little bit biased on that point. The solution he's proposing that we all put more money in the stock market would put money in his pocket too. But the spirit of it, we do like. And we want to add to it with our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone who's going to retire one day? If you need another reason to invest in your retirement, here it is. You'll pay less taxes if you do. Yeties, our government is literally offering you a pass on paying taxes if you invest in retirement accounts. It's just a fact.

It's true. The government wants us to invest in retirement so much, they're letting us take a free pass on paying taxes. So, besties, here's out on this one. If you put money into the stock market through a traditional brokerage app like Robin Hood, you pay taxes twice on that money. You pay taxes first when you earned that money through your paycheck,

and then you pay taxes a second time when the money you invested in the brokerage app makes any gains. But here's the key. With retirement accounts, only pay taxes once, not twice. Both an IRA and a 401k, they let you withdraw money in retirement, having paid taxes only once. And it's the same story with college savings accounts for your kid. The government lets you skip one of the two tax payments.

And tax payments could be huge. Like, your tax payments could be 20%, 30% or 40% of the gains. It's a huge difference, huge difference, Jan. So Larry Fink, America's biggest money man is urging Americans to invest more into their retirement. The besties, if you need another reason to invest in retirement, here it is. You pay less taxes if you invest in retirement. Yeties, those are the three best money stories of 2024. But one second, chiching, chiching.

Was that a cash register? Because, Jack, I think it's time for the best fact yet on money from 2024. All right, this one's actually from the interview we did with Tori Dunlap about compounding interest. Yeah, this is from our live show in Seattle when we interviewed the financial feminist. about money matters. And Jack, this was a wild one. Right, here's the question. What would you rather have one single penny that doubles every day for a month or $1 million? So would you rather have a penny that doubles every day for a month or a million dollars in cash now? Shocker, but you want that penny. Yeah, you want that penny. Because after 30 days

of doubling, okay, after one day of doubling, it's two cents, then four cents, then eight cents, 16, 32. Before you know it, at the end of 30 days, it's worth 10 million, 737,418.24. That's right. If that penny doubles 30 times, it's worth over 10 million bucks. The point here is that if you buy a stock and it grows only 10% a year, 10% a year doesn't sound like that much, maybe. Just like a penny doubling every day, doesn't sound like very much either. Look at this. That stock compounded for 40 years until you retire. the stock you bought is now worth 45 times as much. And that is the power of compounding when it comes to money. A little money today becomes a lot of money in 30 or 40 years.

Yeties, you looked fantastic for our money bonus pod. Jack, who do you think the best he should send this one to? Probably, I was going to say accountant, but that's such a lame answer. Jack, I'm going to say 90% of everyone who works in finance is under 6.5. So send it to all your buddies who are under 6.5. like everyone. Let's be honest. Send it to your buddies who you want to impress, because this is a great show. H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y. That's how we grow the pod, and these are the kind of stories and takeaways that we hope everyone enjoys. Have you had the best one yet? If you know, you know. Oh, and by the way, we got two

more bonus pods coming at you next week, and they're from our new show, the best idea yet. I can't wait. You're going to hear the full episodes on Monday and Thursday next week. 45 minutes, the untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with. We whip that up for you extra special. In the meantime, we'll see you next week.