Personal Finance Gets Personal — A Surprise Q&A with Cadeem Lalor and Bethan Moorcraft

This week on Half Banked, we decided to have a little fun. Or at least the producers did.

As we near the end of Season 1, we wanted to take a break from the grind of interviewing experts and dissecting the latest in personal finance news and topics. So we decided to it was our hosts to take a turn in the hot seat.

Who are the people behind the voices you hear every week? This week on Half Banked, the show’s producers turn the tables on Bethan and Cadeem to ask them some big money questions that haven't been discussed on the podcast yet. At random. With no prep.  From their quirkiest financial habits to what they would do with a million dollars, Cadeem and Bethan have gamely agreed to play along with their producers' antics and give their honest, unprepared answers and thoughts on various money matters.  

So sit back and enjoy as we get personal about personal finance at their expense.

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Transcript

Cadeem Lalor: 0:04

I'm Cadeem, Lalor,

Bethan Moorcraft: 0:05

and I'm Bethan Moorcraft.

Cadeem Lalor: 0:06

And this is the Half Banked podcast brought to you by money.ca.

Bethan Moorcraft: 0:09

This week on the podcast, we've decided to shake things up a bit.

Cadeem Lalor: 0:12

Instead of diving into one topic with the help of experts, we're going to explore a bunch of topics, just the two of us.

Bethan Moorcraft: 0:18

And to make things even more interesting-

Cadeem Lalor: 0:20

-That's one word for it,-

Bethan Moorcraft: 0:21

-we have absolutely no idea what the topics are going to be. Now, I'm not sure what we did to annoy our producers, but they decided to give us this episode with very little prep time. And to make matters worse, they're going to throw some random personal questions at us as well.

Cadeem Lalor: 0:34

This may be a payback from one producer for not doing an episode on Magic the Gathering cards. But anyways, we hope you enjoy the chaos. Before us, we have the Wheel of Finance, actually, it's just our computer with a topics randomizer and a sound effects. But hey, this is a podcast.

Bethan Moorcraft: 0:47

So what we're going to do is spin the wheel,-

Cadeem Lalor: 0:50

click a button on the randomizer -

Bethan Moorcraft: 0:52

-and then talk about whatever topic we land on.

Cadeem Lalor: 0:54

We're not going to get through all the topics, but we'll see how many we can squeeze into this episode.

Bethan Moorcraft: 0:58

All right, so let's spin the virtual wheel and find out what our first topic is. Is University worth it? Ooh,

Cadeem Lalor: 1:08

That's a good one.

Bethan Moorcraft: 1:08

Yeah. I've often thought about this, actually, I studied English Literature and Language at university. I was a real book nerd. I loved everything about kind of studying language, etc. But I look back, and I think it was a passion. And I don't know that it necessarily took me to where I am today. After that undergraduate degree. I then did a master's in news journalism, which was very much a kind of skills based course, it was a sort of nine to five, I actually felt like I was a journalist throughout that year. So that kind of set me up for my current career. But in order to get there, that's four years worth of student debt, which hurts.

Cadeem Lalor: 1:49

I think about what I did did for my undergrad as well, like politics history with the intention of being able to get into that field after. But I guess sometimes, it's not just about the degree itself. It's kind of, you know, do you get skills, anything applicable connections, any work experience as you go through that program, because in the case of me, doing the politics history program, I was going to the University of Ottawa, and I hoped to be able to get a co op placement. But it's just because not being bilingual really hindered my chances of doing that. And then that kind of took away from all you know, a big piece of why I went there in the first place.

Bethan Moorcraft: 2:20

And let's just talk quickly, though, about paying for university, we've kind of touched on it a little bit, but I feel the weight of my student debt. It's, you know, I'm paying back to the UK, it's a large sum, and, it honestly, hurts myself. But it's just one of those things, it just comes out of my paycheck every month. And there we are. But that's the other thing you need to think about in terms of, you know, how you finance education, and whether you go down the route that I have done, because while I'm glad I did it, the interest rates on mine, are, you know, punitive, I would say.

Cadeem Lalor: 2:59

I think a piece of that, too, is going to university, kind of like for the right reason, because there was a study, I looked at a while back that said that some people go to university just because it's like what they're supposed to do after high school, they're not really sure what they want to do with their career, they kind of pick a random degree. And it's just it's kind of too expensive to just do that just because they're just, yeah, if you're not sure that you can really use it, you're not really sure what you want to do with it afterwards. You're like, we just as we've discussed, you kind of need to have a line in terms of who do you want to network with, like what kind of companies you want to work with, you sort of need to know that have a sense of that, at least before you go into it because you know,$20,000 Plus, on average for like an average four year degree. And you know, more if you're international student, you can't afford to like not know where you want to go with it.

Bethan Moorcraft: 3:37

So question for you, then. If you could turn back time, would you do it all again? Or would you do anything differently?

Cadeem Lalor: 3:43

I think for me, I definitely would try to get some like part time work or volunteering or definitely would have been more proactive about trying to get work experience. For my first degree, even if I couldn't get the co-op placements, try to network talk to my professors, the ones I got along with better, see if I could get some sort of work on space, my resume. Basically, before I left that four year degree, for sure.

Bethan Moorcraft: 4:03

I think I may have chosen a different topic to study undergrad, but you know, I loved my course. So, you know, there's that too. I definitely needed to try a bit harder to network and kind of build a, I guess, like a personal professional brand for myself from a younger age. That's a very kind of big task to put on yourself as a 18, 19 year old. But I think the earlier you can think about some of those things and be proactive about your career is the better.

Cadeem Lalor: 4:42

Okay, so now it's time for one of our mystery questions. Let's see. So courtesy of this jar in front of me, I'm gonna pull one out. Let's see what we get your most annoying financial habit. How would your partner describe your money habits slash loved ones?

Bethan Moorcraft: 4:56

Oh, I think I'm overcautious. I'm a no. Alwyas a no, oh, no, too risky. Oh, you know, I don't want to do that. So I feel like that can be frustrating. And I also if I need to buy something, I go camping a lot, for example. And there's always something new that you need. Sleeping mat or a sleeping bag or whatever got most of it now, but I will research for weeks waiting for the price to change, and it never does. There'll be a sale, I'll wait for the sale. Whereas if you just buy it, then you can enjoy it straightaway. So that's probably the biggest bugbear against me. I'd say.

Cadeem Lalor: 5:34

That's not too bad, actually. I mean, like, seems like you're, you know, like to definitely research the things you buy, make sure that the best. So not the worst thing in the world. Maybe there's a middle point. But like, that's, I think that's better than the opposite. At least, I think, in my case, I think sometimes a small thing I think actually one of our previous guests pointed out, sometimes what you could do is like you'll forget you already have something in the fridge or whatever, then you go buy it again. And that just kindly and I think sometimes I have done that. It's like I'll buy more like blue cheese, whatever. Oh, we already have that. Okay, I didn't know. So something small like that, basically. But I think overall, though, think partner would describe as you know, pretty cautious. But at the same time, I think we both like going out we both like travelling a bit when we can. But I would say Annika's probably more better with like not going out eating as much, I think. Yeah, I think with her, I definitely get way less Skip the DIshes. So that's a that's a good thing. So now let's spin the wheel and see what our second topic is gonna be. Okay, retirement prep versus YOLO, trying to appeal to the young kids out there. So let's dive into this one a little bit.

Bethan Moorcraft: 6:40

I'll start off by saying I say YOLO. But perhaps that's the Brit or the Welsh person in me? Who knows?

Cadeem Lalor: 6:46

I never thought of that. Actually, do they say"ya-low" over there?

Bethan Moorcraft: 6:48

We definitely do. Retirement prep versus YOLO? Well, this is an interesting one, because I have never thought about retirement prep more than doing this job. Before that. It was just kind of, you know, a pension in the backseat,

Cadeem Lalor: 7:04

Yeah and maybe some RSP contribution.

Bethan Moorcraft: 7:06

....Some RSP contribution contributions. I think my view on retirement planning at the moment, and this is not advice, is that I have other milestones directly ahead of me that require the minimal savings that I have.

Cadeem Lalor: 7:23

Same boat for sure. Yeah.

Bethan Moorcraft: 7:24

So like Cadeem, I know you're you're getting married this summer, that is not a small expense,

Cadeem Lalor: 7:30

Exactly, like, because I feel there's so many different things like huge expenses that come up before you get to that point. I think at this point, when it comes to retirement prep, it's legit, literally trying to put like, maybe 100 200 away kind of thing a month, and then you know, like hope that adds up. Because I always say, you know, $50, this month, by the time you're 60, whatever it's gonna add up to this much. And that's kind of been the extent of what I've done so far. Just because you think about, you know, trying to get a house and then had some of the costs that will come with it. Like, obviously, being my partner was a big piece of why we're able to do that being single, I don't think it wouldn't have happened yet. So doing that, and then also costs that come with having a house and that kind of like the maintenance mortgage and so forth. And then you know, wedding now and then you think about maybe kids and a few years, possibly. And then and then after that you're thinking even 20 years down the line, you're like, Okay, now I can start saving, but not really because then you want to possibly save up for their schooling too.

Bethan Moorcraft: 8:20

Education...

Cadeem Lalor: 8:21

Yeah, so then it's like, okay, so when do you really start trying to put away you know, huge chunks of money just seems like the only thing that's workable at the moment is just a small sums and trying to do that consistently.

Bethan Moorcraft: 8:30

Yeah, definitely. The chipping away method. We can a coin that here.

Cadeem Lalor: 8:34

Yeah, I think that's, that seems like the only thing surmountable is like, you know, hit that, hitting, you know, mid six figures, and it's all good to go. But at the moment, it's just, that's all I can do.

Bethan Moorcraft: 8:44

Yeah. I also, I mean, I don't know about you, but it feels like the retirement age seems to be just drifting further and further away into the future.

Cadeem Lalor: 8:53

No. 100%. And it seems like, you know, because you can take it, I think, maybe US example, I know, you can take it early sometimes. But then it's like reduced benefits if you do so you kind of ideally don't want to do that. So I'm just like, Okay, I guess you kind of want to stick it out. And I guess for me, too, I've always thought that ideally, if I have, you know, mental capacity and physical capacity of I'll probably still do some type of work once I hit retirement age, even if it's not like a nine to five type of thing, have you established yourself where you can continue to, you know, freelance or speaking, whatever it is, and still be able to have some money coming in. But then I wouldn't want that to like have to be financial necessity. At that point. It's just kind of like, it's I want to keep my mind active, I want to keep contributing whatever, as opposed to, you know, I have to keep working, you know, until the day I die, pretty much.

Bethan Moorcraft: 9:33

Now, I do understand the yellow mentality too, because, you know, if you look back to the pandemic, we couldn't spend anything. There was no discretionary spending, I was sat in my backyard reading books, and now suddenly, everything's back open again, or it has been for the last year or so. And there are opportunities that, you know, I feel like I missed missed out on some that was I was, you know, mid- to late-20s During that time, and that's a time where you want to be going out with friends and things exploring and trying new things and new foods, etc. So I do pretty much understand this sort of live for today invest in yourself idea.

Cadeem Lalor: 10:09

A social piece of it, too is realizing Okay, so getting married now and then probably kids the next few years like you're I honestly don't want to get on a plane with a toddler I'm not bothered to deal with it. So like, I want to try to travel as much as I can at this stage. And yeah, you know, learning things to like travelling to New Orleans and just like seeing a new culture and then also seeing, you know, being able to like, see a guy slap an alligator, you know, just interesting experiences that just, you know, very well rounded. And like I said, I'm not trying to do any of those trips with a toddler myself, fiance is kind of down like I'm not doing it. So I'm understanding to be locked down for a few years, try to do it now.

Bethan Moorcraft: 10:38

Interesting that you just slapped in seeing a guide, slap it out threw in seeing a guy slap an alligator.

Cadeem Lalor: 10:44

That's what I'm willing to invest in myself, you know, like what I've seen that live, you know, a few feet away if I had not done that I would not have so.

Bethan Moorcraft: 10:51

this idea of investing yourself can expand into so many different areas. I know in another Half Banked episode, we're going to look at investing. But there's, you know, that idea of spending money to on self improvement or self education or all of these different types of things, even wellness. And you know, we touched on some of those episodes, in a previous episode on mental health as well. Kind of like investing in yourself in how you're living today. I think it's worth it.

Cadeem Lalor: 11:21

Exactly. Because a piece of it mental health, avoiding burnout, all things that relate to financial success as well. Alright, let's pick our next mystery question. What did you do with your first ever paycheck?

Bethan Moorcraft: 11:36

I think my first ever job I was actually a cricket coach. Yeah, back in the UK, I used to play a lot of cricket. And I'm pretty sure my first paycheck went towards some new gear like a bat or a new helmet. So it was working in the sport that I loved to fund the sport that I loved. I'm I'm happy with that. How about you?

Cadeem Lalor: 12:00

That's awesome. I don't think I have a My story's not as cool. I'm pretty sure like what like Wonderland. So first paycheck from that was probably maybe going out with a friend kind of thing. Like being able to have like more than like two beers without it hurting my bank account too much.

Bethan Moorcraft: 12:14

You're gonna say one of those extra large slushies.

Cadeem Lalor: 12:18

I guess I was never into those as much. So I think that was that was that was my come up basically.

Bethan Moorcraft: 12:29

All right, my turn to spin the wheel. Here we go. Okay, financial literacy. That's a big one.

Cadeem Lalor: 12:40

Absolutely. And I guess I'm wondering if we want to just focus on basic financial literacy at an early age? I think we've touched on we always try to touch on a little bit as we're older. But I think this is something that should apply. Like, as you're growing up, basically,

Bethan Moorcraft: 12:52

Definitely. Well, we should start there. Because, you know, the earlier the better, in my opinion.

Cadeem Lalor: 12:56

100%. So I think there's some programs from what I know, I think across Canada, trying to, you know, put it in, maybe like, elementary school curriculums. But that's, I think only the last like 10 years, there's really been focused on that I remember growing up, I'd never learned about simple things, just like budgeting and so forth. That's all stuff. I just kind of learned the hard way, basically, when I kind of went off to university for the first time by myself at 17. So I think there's definitely a better roadmap for that. What did you- What was your experience, like trying to learn financial literacy?

Bethan Moorcraft: 13:25

I had absolutely no financial literacy taught in school. For me, it was very much steep learning curves all the way through higher education. I remember paying my first water bill and thinking, you know, what do I have to do? Like, who do I call, you know, things like that. It should be straightforward. You know, you leave home and you should be equipped to do all of these things. But unfortunately, for us, our age group, I don't think that was well taught at schools. I do believe there is an effort now to improve that address that Yeah. And we had James Battiston and one of the earlier podcast episodes, that was about who do you trust with your money? And he said, there's actually quite a lot of educational tools and free resources at public libraries and things like that. And there's of course lots of stuff online too. But I think the issue is that you have to search that out

Cadeem Lalor: 14:18

Yeah exactly. And the searching can like be you know, make a conscious effort and then also you know, with online especially nowadays, like we look at you know, Tik Tok all these finfluencers, people who are not really qualified to be giving financial advice telling kind of impressionable young people like you know, buy this stock, you'll get like $10,000 in one month, that digital- just creates kind of more danger in a sense if you don't know the good stuff to look out for I think that if you want to dive into financial literacy online, you need a base level of literacy to start with. And now I think like social media is just kind of made that much harder.

Bethan Moorcraft: 14:48

Yeah, definitely. And just going back to the school point, I just wish someone had dragged me into a classroom and you know, made me learn about how to do my taxes and what what all these different boxes mean and you know what, what is investing in the stock market? You know?

Cadeem Lalor: 15:03

And then also because I'm coming from the UK as well, I mean, I think like, what was your, have you filed your taxes for the first time, like in Canada, I'm guessing by now?

Bethan Moorcraft: 15:11

Yes. The story behind that for people who don't know, in the UK as a salaried employee, often your taxes, you pay income tax through a system called P.A.Y.E or p a y e, which is pay as you earn. And so your employer or your pension provider will take your income tax and your National Insurance tax out of your wages before you get it. So essentially, you just take your money and go. So before I moved to Canada, I'd actually never filed taxes. So when I got my first T4 at age 24, I was like, Whoa, what is this? What are all these boxes? What do I do? You know, I did a lot of reading. But there's there's a lot to take in actually just to kind of understand what it all means. So I think in the end, I used some sort of online tax prep platform, I don't know if it was TurboTax, and Wealthsimple, or one of those. But in the years that have followed, I've kind of learned a bit more. And also, I don't know that I necessarily optimized my tax return by doing it that way. And that's important.

Cadeem Lalor: 16:15

But that's the thing, because like, in my case, I'm lucky that my uncle like, he helps me with them. He's an accountant. So he's able to get all the credits, like asked about all the different things and that stuff, you also really don't know unless you can have to go online Google through that, like, see what can apply to you and so forth. You know, there's like work from home credits and all that. But that stuff, I would not have thought if I was just doing it myself. And obviously taxes get more complicated if you also have like a second job or you like for at least self employed, all that makes everything more complicated and stuff. But yeah, you kind of stuck just kind of learning yourself, or trusting someone, at least in my case made it easier to trust this person because you know, related by blood, but not everyone necesarilly has the luxury of having the person that you're related to and doing their taxes and so forth.

Bethan Moorcraft: 16:52

Yeah, definitely. Just kind of building on the newcomer to get to Canada issue. I read a stat recently, it was last week, I think that the Canadian government counted more than 800,000 foreign students in Canada at the end of last year, which is a 31% increase over the previous year. And a lot of those students like I love it here, I'm sure they do. A lot of students will stay in Canada on a postgraduate work permit, then they may get permanent residency and you know, down the line may even become citizens. They're all learning a new financial system, when they move here, and it's different around the world. Like, you might think the UK and Canada is quite similar. And of course, there are similarities. But I had to learn a lot in the first few years when I moved here.

Cadeem Lalor: 17:38

I mean, yeah, filing taxes. That's a huge one. Yeah. And then even just when it comes, I guess to like moving somewhere else and finding like the value of things because even as you move from province to province, I have some family that kind of lives in Yellowknife the cost of goods like you know, vegetables much more expensive over there, kind of knowing good value for goods. Basically, that's one small thing that might not translate sometimes, depending on what country you're coming from.

Bethan Moorcraft: 17:58

The other one for me was the use of credit cards. So when I as a young person in the UK, and I think this is quite common, I pretty much only used a debit card. It was good for a few reasons. You know, I only spent the money that I had, at a very small overdraft never tried to never go into it. And what did what why would I use a credit card to use money that I didn't technically have? That was my thought process at the time. Moving here, I now realize that, you know, almost everyone uses a credit card for all things, all purchases.

Cadeem Lalor: 18:32

And you started pretty early. Because I'm trying to think about my first one I had about university. Yeah, for sure.

Bethan Moorcraft: 18:37

Yeah. And that. I mean, obviously there are benefits. You build up your credit score, you have protections that you wouldn't have on a debit card, all sorts of things like that. But I do personally think that it may lead to some what's the word I'm looking for? Spending and not unnecessary spending, careless spending, maybe among young people, I remember looking at some students, I came to U of T for an exchange for a few months. And there were students with huge widescreen TVs, you know, that was me watching you know, Netflix on my phone. I just thought how are you affording to buy that and it's all been put on a credit card so I don't know for me that was a bit of a culture shock a big change but you know, everyone learns differently.

Cadeem Lalor: 19:30

Yeah, cuz I touched on it in the very first episode, Bank of Parents, for a while I was like doing you know, going out and spending for like, you know, Uber or like cab rides at the time I guess before Uber not to date myself too much. But spending cab rides you know, on the putting them on the credit card and kind of not thinking much about it, but that stuff adds up. You know, like weekend over weekend next, you know, it's a few hundred dollars added up over something that you just you're not really thinking about it because it's just so easy, you know, to have the card, put the code in at the time, whatever. And then just good to go. So you know, it does make I think piece of it aside cash, it just makes it harder to track in a sense unless you're actually making sure you go in online checking your statement. And that's something that that's a small thing I've learned to like be more careful of as I go along, is now I just kind of like have like, you know, weekly or bi-weekly check in on my statement, look into the purchases instead of just scanning, scanning, scanning, and just leaving it at that.

Bethan Moorcraft: 20:17

Yeah. And there are lots of apps and tools and things like that, that you can use to do that to keep track of your finances in a better way.

Cadeem Lalor: 20:26

And there are some for specifically for like subscriptions to other which is a small point. But apparently, like, it's pretty common for people to spend, you know, $50 plus one-hundred dollars plus a month on subscriptions they're not even using. So that's a small thing is checking checking for those things you don't use anymore. And again, with a credit card, it's easy to forget about those expenses.

Bethan Moorcraft: 20:43

So, you know, thinking about this, would you describe yourself today as a financially literate person?

Cadeem Lalor: 20:52

I'm still I'm still more to learn. I think that there's so many different areas of financial education, I think, I think budgeting I've definitely become better with like, just in terms of kind of like judging the value of something I'm buying, you know, is it worth it, kind of trying to look long term, but also looking long term balancing the short term, something I'm still working on, like our whole retirement talk. But then also, I think investing is something that I'm still, you know, definitely not very versed in, so trying to get better with that. But compared to where I was, like, 10 years ago, miles ahead, for sure.

Bethan Moorcraft: 21:21

Yeah, that's good. I would say the same. But there's always new things to learn, as you said, so, you know, we're talking a few days after the Bank of Canada raised interest rates to 5%. I'm not sure if you asked just the average person on the street that they would understand fully what that meant for their finances for future purchases for loans, etc.

Cadeem Lalor: 21:44

Honestly, before I started working here, I don't think I would have either, so that that just shows that.

Bethan Moorcraft: 21:49

Yeah, and that's something, you know, we can talk about financial literacy in schools, you know, education for newcomers all of these different things, and just kind of learning through experience as well. But being able to pick apart what's changing in the current economy is another kind of important thing that we need to figure out a better way to kind of break down into normal language,

Cadeem Lalor: 22:14

Because I was gonna say, if you had an economics class, they might teach the primary piece, but they might not tie it back to if you have any sort of, you know, mortgage and so forth. How does that affect you directly? I think part of like, how you make it more applicable is tying it back, kind of like at that level. And then you know, even just introducing classes that teach people things like filing taxes, opening a bank account, budget, credit card debt, you know, why you don't want it like the interest, all of those things that people kind of gloss over when they're trying to sell you credit cards.

Bethan Moorcraft: 22:46

All right, my turn for the jar. And our next random question, what is the first thing you ever saved up to save up to buy that you are proud of?

Cadeem Lalor: 22:57

Oh, I think what I from what I can remember, was getting one of my mom's family friends, she's staying over for a while with us. And she's just very helpful, very supportive, like over a summer. So when I saved up enough, she like needed a new robe, my mom had suggested. So I got her a new one. And that's kind of my first gift to someone else with like all of my own money.

Bethan Moorcraft: 23:16

Yeah, kind of building on that this isn't necessarily a gift or an object that I bought. But I remember the first time I took my mom to the ballet, right? It's just like something that you could experience you can share with someone. And often I think it is with parents because they've, they spend money to bring you up and take you and give you experiences and when you can give that back one day, it feels so good.

Cadeem Lalor: 23:41

And so thanks. I thought that counts for them to they definitely just appreciate that gesture.

Bethan Moorcraft: 23:44

Yeah, definitely. That was a good day. All right. And the next random question from the jar. What is the first thing you would do or buy if you received a million dollars?

Cadeem Lalor: 24:00

I guess my head right now goes to just like paying off a house and agreeing to a big, but I feel like in Toronto's like it might just like, barely be be enough anyway. So I guess yeah, that is where my head goes.

Bethan Moorcraft: 24:13

Well, I mean, I didn't want to be boring, but I'd love to get on the housing ladder. So that would help. Let's do something a bit more outrageous.

Cadeem Lalor: 24:21

Exactly. So like well, we'll say housing is kind of the default answer it has to be especially living in GTA so go to your real answer.

Bethan Moorcraft: 24:27

I'd buy a one way trip to Hawaii let's go...

Cadeem Lalor: 24:30

I was honestly thinking travel to like honestly probably just want to be able to just honestly travel a lot a bunch of places in mind like Australia, Jamaica, of course. All right, last random question. What's the worst buyer's remorse you've ever had?

Bethan Moorcraft: 24:48

I've bought a few bad phones in my day. I don't know that it's the worst buyer's remorse, but it's the first thing that came to my head. I refuse to spend money on phones because... I... You know, occasionally drop them. Occasionally leave them places. That's just the phone is my nemesis. So I keep buying, you know, I might buy a $200 phone or, you know, these days to get anything good. You've got to spend 500 plus. So, yes, I do you know, I trust I have I had a trusty Samsung for years. And then I switched over to some to another brand. And it was awful. I hated it.

Cadeem Lalor: 25:28

I'm trying those thankfully, I guess like a house isn't on is my answer, that would really suck. That was I guess, one of the things that might this might qualify and also taught me a little lesson to like the lesson sometimes of just like, buying quality instead. So like for jeans, basically, like, sometimes I go to more expensive places like Jack and Jones. I'm like, like$100 jeans is ridiculous. So I'm like, let me just go to like, you know, Walmart or go to wherever, and I buy those ones. And they can fit okay, but they just wear out like in literally two months, the same level of wear, I'd get from the more expensive ones and like a year, sometimes, you know, year and a half. So I figured it actually worked out to being cheaper over time to just buy the one expensive pair one time. And then do that. I thought that was that was my lesson on, you know, quality over quantity for something so at least.

Bethan Moorcraft: 26:11

Do you feel like you realize that at a certain age because I I feel like I understand that and I try to go by that these days, but probably didn't when I was 21?

Cadeem Lalor: 26:23

No, I definitely think that definitely would have applied I think I wasn't even in the position to really be able to buy quality over quantity when I was younger. That's a slideshow, but there's like a whole I think there was something Terry Pritchard wrote, Pratchett wrote about like, this allegory of the soldier, you know, the one who gets the expensive boots who keep him, you know, safe from rain and all that stuff. You can buy the one pair, they last him this long. But the other poor soldier has to buy the cheaper pair and you cannot afford to buy an expensive pair. But he ends up paying more long over the long term with a cheaper pair of boots because he can't spend the amount for the more expensive ones at one time. So I think that kind of solidified it. But honestly, that lesson only clicks with the jeans like the last I say that's last five, six years. Well, big thanks for producers that actually turned out better than I thought it would be.

Bethan Moorcraft: 27:06

Yeah, thanks, producers. That was really fun.

Cadeem Lalor: 27:08

If you're still listening to our rambling, thank you.

Bethan Moorcraft: 27:11

topics you want us to cover, please email us at hello@halfbanked.com And that was Half Banked. If you like this episode, be sure to subscribe rate and review us on Apple, Spotify or wherever you're listening to this podcast.

Cadeem Lalor: 27:31

Special thanks to executive producer Samantha Emann and producers Kevin Hamilton, Shane Murphy, James Battiston, and technical producers Marie Alcober, and Muhammad Tabish.

Bethan Moorcraft: 27:39

For more information you can check out halfbanked.com.

Cadeem Lalor: 27:42

Until next time.