Next Level University

#1779 - Paying For Certainty Is Sometimes Worth It

Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Is it worth spending extra to make sure everything goes smoothly? In this episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros share a funny and insightful story about a movie date that didn’t go as planned. They discuss the balance between saving money and paying for convenience, showing how small choices affect our experiences. Listen to this heartwarming tale about making the best of unexpected situations and learn when it might be worth paying for certainty. Whether you aim to improve your movie nights or make smarter financial decisions, this episode offers valuable tips for spending wisely and enjoying life.

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Show notes:
(2:04) An interesting movie theater experience
(6:01) Turning a setback into a memorable date night
(8:06) Optimal decision-making
(13:57) At NLU, we want you to win! So, we’re giving tools and resources to ensure your success. Join our Monthly Meet-up every first Thursday of the month at 5 PM. https:

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Speaker 1

Next Level Nation. Welcome back to another episode of Next Level University, where we help you level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth. Today for episode number 1,779,. Paying for certainty is sometimes worth it. Had a little trip to the movies this weekend.

Speaker 2

No Friday. On Friday, I was actually very eager to hear from you and taryn about this movie twisters. Yeah, I love the first one, huge fan unfortunately, I have nothing to give you.

Speaker 1

Yes, uh, due to the story, I'm gonna tell you. So alan myself, emilia, taryn, the the family units that we have together have been trying to save money, try to save as much money as possible, because at times when we make more money, we spend more money. And there's been a lot of expenses and the team has grown and all very, very good things, but life has gotten quite expensive. So we're trying to focus on saving money and Taryn and I had a plan we're going to go to the movies on Friday. That's going to be our date night Friday. I'm working until 6. We'll do a 7 o'clock show, 7.15. It's going to be great.

Speaker 1

I was still dieting, so it was like you can have popcorn or whatever. I'll probably just get nothing, but it's okay. We're going to go to the movies. And Taryn said I have AAA and since I have AAA, I can get $30 tickets for, I think, $15. Nice, and we're going to save 50%.

An interesting movie theater experience

Speaker 1

She said the only downside is we can't buy our tickets in advance. So we can buy quote unquote tickets, but we can't pick where we sit. And I said okay, how does that work? And she said well, when you, you buy the tickets. It's essentially you're buying two tickets and then when you go to the movie theater you can go to any movie you want. It's like, all right, that sounds pretty cool. I said just an fyi, I think twisters is like the number one movie in the world right now. So friday night at seven o'clock we might get there and there might not be any seats. And I said but that's, that's up to you. Normally I would probably say we should pre-order, but I know we're trying to save money and, in the spirit of trying to save money, I'm open to whatever. And she said all right, let's ride the lightning. Sometimes we say that when we stay up later than we should, you want to ride the lightning? I said all right, let's ride the lightning, let's see what happens. So it worked.

Speaker 1

Friday got off an interview at six. Right around six we hung for a little bit, played with the cats for a little bit. The movie theater's only like 20 minutes down the road. So we go to the movie theater, we get our tickets, quote, unquote, and we go to the front, to the box office and we said, hey, two for Twister, twisters, whatever the hell it's called. We don't have real tickets. We have these AAA tickets, and then they said we could just choose our seats when we got here. And they said ooh, front row only at this point and I said ah, interesting, that was my guess.

Speaker 2

Total shocker, I thought that might happen.

Speaker 1

Total shocker. And we said, yeah, no worries, give us 1A and 2A, ain't nothing but a G thing. It's fine, no biggie. Sat in the front row before. This is nothing. So we get I think taryn got something, I don't know some sort of drink and we go walk into the movie theater and it's like, oh, this is a cool theater, this is nice. The screen is like curved, it's like this is gonna be great and we keep walking, walking, and we find our seats super comfy, very comfortable seats, sit down, recline. And then, when I tell you it was, I was looking up at the ceiling. So if you're on YouTube you can see this is kind of what. I was literally looking up this high and I tried to take a picture of it, but you just couldn't. The picture actually made it look really good Because the way the light was, there was a reflection.

Speaker 2

And the iPhone with the wide lens. Yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1

So we had a giggle about it and I said, okay, here we are. Here we are at the movies, this is going to be, we're going to do it. And Taryn was like babe, I'm sorry. I immediately she's like I'm sorry, we messed up. And I said no, I mean, we're here, I don't really care, it's not not the end of the world and these seats are comfortable. I'm probably gonna fall asleep anyway because I'm tired, no worries. And then we got to the point where we both agreed, honestly, we're not gonna stay. I'm getting a headache from looking up at this screen. I feel like I'm gonna have a panic attack. I feel like I'm in the movie. I feel like I'm in the twister.

Speaker 1

It was just not well, we didn't even get to that. We didn't. We were at the, at the previews, so we were like, all right, we're gonna leave. And we went out and she was like let's just try to get our money back. And you know me, I, I hate that. I hate confrontations. I'm like, ah no, I mean, it's like 15 bucks, nothing in the world. She's like let's get our money back, nice, so so we went up and I said, hey, we didn't realize the front row was like in the screen. Is there any way we can exchange these? And maybe we'll come back to another movie.

Speaker 2

And they're like yeah, yeah, for sure we didn't realize.

Speaker 1

We didn't realize we were going to be in the movie.

Speaker 2

Yeah, we didn't want to be in the middle of the twisters.

Speaker 1

And then we were walking to the car and Taryn's like, do you want to say? You told me so and I said no, no, I don't know, I'm weird with stuff like that. We had the date night planned. I'm glad we got to go experience it. It was funny. I had a good time. Then we went for a cruise and then we went to get ice cream. Ice cream was cash only, didn't have any cash, so we didn't get any ice cream. And then we came home and I don't know if we watched a movie or something when we got home. So the point of this is Solid date day.

Speaker 1

It was a solid. I told Taryn when we got home I said that was one of my favorite date days ever. Seriously, we were holding hands in the car, singing together. It was awesome. The windows were down. It was beautiful out the sunset it was like one of the most picturesque sunsets ever.

Speaker 1

The best things in life are free. Yeah, they are, they are. So that's kind of where we came up with. This episode is yeah, awesome, you want to save money. Awesome, love it. There are some things that might be worth there. There are some level of certainty that you might want to pay for.

Turning a setback into a memorable date night

Speaker 1

Yeah, parking is always one for me. If, if I can advance pay parking somewhere and it's two dollars more, I'd rather do that. I'd rather just do that, because at least I know I'm gonna have a parking spot when we go wherever. Or I love making reservations. I'm a huge spot when we go wherever. Or I love making reservations. I'm a huge fan. If I go somewhere to eat, I want to make reservations because I don't want to get there and then be hungry and oh, I can't wait to get the whatever. Oh yeah, no, we don't have any seats. I'm going to wait two hours. No, I don't want to wait two hours. I want to go to the Cheesecake Factory. There's always seats there. Those are big places. So just an example.

Speaker 2

So just to clarify something, Kev, when you mentioned us. We're going to do an episode on this tomorrow. Earn more, spend less is the equation for financial abundance. It really is that simple Earn more, spend less. Obviously, we're trying to do that equation better, but it's not just out of scarcity, it's out of wanting to buy homes. We want to upgrade our life over the next couple of years Me, Amelia, you and Taryn. So a lot of this is goal-oriented as well. It's not just scarcity, right.

Speaker 1

Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 2

And so what Kev's really referring to here, and we kind of talked behind the scenes about this, this when is it optimal to spend the extra money? In this case? Obviously, in hindsight, you spend the extra 15 bucks. Make sure you can actually see the film. I almost wish you did. I could have comped your ticket and that way I could get a nice review from you guys on whether or not I should go see it. I'm obviously joking, but there's a couple lessons in all this, and number one is make the best of it. I think you've always done a good job at that.

Optimal decision-making

Speaker 1

I try, I didn't care. It's like whether we see the movie or not. I have no skin in the game. I don't care if we see the movie or not. Really, I've heard it's a good movie. Whatever, I don't care, it doesn't bother me. Well, we can't get ice, ice cream. It's not the end of the world. I don't really care that much. Better for the diet. It was definitely. I mean, I was gonna get ice cream anyway, really. But that's just where we are. We did, we attempted to do what we intended on doing. I've, I'm good with that. I'm good with that. If we go somewhere and the place is closed, it's like I don't. I'm pretty sure we we drove like an hour and a half one time years ago to go someplace and it was closed and I was like, yeah, whatever, it's okay, no worries, go somewhere else or we can just go home.

Speaker 2

Whatever, a lot of people would consider that like a ruined day. A lot of people have a really hard time with that. I dated someone in the past that I always struggled because when things didn't go our way which is life, I think, I think that's life they would be very, they would handle it very poorly. And why do you think that you are so okay with that?

Speaker 1

Because I don't. I don't really care whether we do it or not in the first place, not that I don't care, but it's like I'm not. If you said to me hey, we're going to a restaurant and we get to the restaurant, we have to go to a different restaurant and I didn't know anything about the restaurant.

Speaker 1

It's like yeah whatever, it's still food, just going to a different place with a different menu, I don't really. We can go see the movie another time. It's not the end of the world. We get our money back. That's cool. We can go see it next weekend, in my mind. I don't know. I don't know. I'm weird with stuff like that, I think.

Speaker 2

Well, to bring it back to the original point, when is it time to pay the extra money for the certainty and when is that not optimal? And this is one of the reasons why it's so hard to be a podcaster or a coach or a trainer or a speaker. I would say coach a little less. But group coaching can be challenging in this. You're speaking to 10 different individuals in group coaching and the context of their circumstances dictates whether or not Group coaching is a great investment. But if you have no money and can't afford groceries, it's not.

Speaker 1

Yeah, we've never been that business, though, that says, if you're down to your last $10, you should spend it at NLU. It's like, no, you shouldn't. Nope, definitely not. I don't think you should.

Speaker 2

I think you should hang on to that $10.

Speaker 1

We talked about this recently. Did we already talk about it?

Speaker 2

You thought we did a finance episode recently and then you went and researched it was a year ago yeah, I don't, it's.

Speaker 1

I'm all over it's. I'm all over that. I can't believe we're almost at 1800. It feels like we were just at 1700 are we gonna do 100?

Speaker 2

wrap up like a?

Speaker 1

no, what are we? Not no no, I feel like we we only do those every 500 now okay every hundred's. 100 is like you know, when you get to a certain point, when you get to 1,000, you can't do them every 100.

Speaker 2

We should do a 2024 wrap-up for sure, let's do a half, we can do a 20. Seven-month-in wrap-up of 2024. 2024 has been. You started off with shingles.

Speaker 1

I did start off with shingles. I can't believe that was only. I can't believe that was only. I know, yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. 2024 has been very challenging.

Speaker 2

2023, in hindsight, was really good. 2022 was wild. 2021 was tail end of COVID-ish middle of COVID.

Speaker 1

Yeah, anyways, you asked me a question. I don't remember what it was.

Speaker 2

The question was yeah, how do? Okay, so Group coaching, for example.

Speaker 1

Oh, yes, yes.

Speaker 2

Okay, it's yeah, yeah go ahead.

Speaker 1

I was just going to say I, because there's a lot of people out there that would say oh my goodness, you're down to your last $5,000?. All right, cool, if you're down to your last $5,000, you should buy this course and it'll teach you how to make a million dollars. It buy this course and it'll teach you how to make a million dollars. It's like, most likely won't, though most likely won't. It costs five thousand, but you're probably not going to make five thousand. And one most likely who says it's a good course? Why? How do you? How do I?

Speaker 1

know I'm gonna make money with it. How do I know? You just didn't put it together on a saturday because you want to make five thousand dollars. Son, I think people are weird with stuff like that. Very weird, let's go into why.

Speaker 2

Okay, so when is group coaching optimal? Not group coaching, but metaphorically.

Speaker 1

Okay when you're okay if you invest the money and you get nothing out of it, yeah, that's fine, it's great I think that's Because, again, at NLU, we always do our best to make sure that that's not the case and if you don't have a bad experience, let us know, We'll give you your money back. But again, it's not just that we're not talking specifically about NLU. Yeah, it can't. It can't be the make or break thing Like if I put the last $500 I have into this, I'll get $50,000 back. If I don't, I'm going to be in a lot of trouble that it can't be the total reliance. If that's the case, that's a dangerous game.

Speaker 2

I bought a course for $600, called Jumpstart I think that was. It was two payments of $299. And it was a six-week course. I want to say, and this was back in Q1 or the beginning of Q2. And I remember thinking to myself this was right on the edge. The course that I really wanted was $8,000.

Speaker 2

And again, I could, we could have done it, but it's not optimal. And someone would say, well, why not? It's going to make you more money, it's a business course. Well, if my business was making 6 million this year, then you're right, that would be optimal. Of course that would be optimal. So everything is relative. It's like well, why don't you have a mansion on the beach? Well, because that mortgage payment is not doable right now. I think that that's one thing that I would teach our younger selves if we could go back. It's being an adult. You have to make decisions that are optimal, and when you're a kid, you so. For example, I got an Xbox. The very first Xbox, when it first came out, was $300, way back. And I got that for an early Christmas present and each game was what?

Speaker 1

$60?, Something like that $50 or $60 back then At least $50. Yeah, at least $50.

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Speaker 2

And when you're a kid, there's no, there's no downside to that. Really, you don't have to pay bills when you're 11 or whatever. So it's almost like we learn that we can get stuff without paying for it when we're young, and I think this is why people who grow up in abundance sometimes struggle with money, because they learn that you can get stuff without paying for it in a way and that's a whole nother conversation but it is optimal for an 11 year old to get an xbox when. But imagine if, instead of getting me that xbox, my mom sat me down and said hey, you got to go work to make that 300 bucks. I think that would have taught me a lot more I do.

Speaker 1

I feel like we've lost the plot of the episode completely at this point A little bit.

Speaker 2

I think it's about earning more money and spending less money. That's what I thought.

Speaker 1

That's the next episode. You, son of a bitch, oh, that's my bad. Yeah, you lost the plot completely. I did.

Speaker 2

I merged them, I merged them, I merged them. Completely Optimal decision-making.

Speaker 1

That's what we're going to talk about tomorrow. Okay, fair, that's what we're going to talk about tomorrow. Fair, that's my bad and that's why I said you lost the plot. Bring us back. Bring us back Because I realized the direction.

Speaker 1

Paying for certainty is sometimes worth it. Maybe it's not paying for certainty, maybe it's Okay. So I used to live with Matt. You've heard about Matt, if you've listened to this podcast, matt and I lived together for I don't even know three or four years, maybe, maybe, yeah, maybe four years.

Speaker 1

I moved in with him right when, the year before I was going to leave my job. I didn't know I was going to leave my job at this point, but I knew I was miserable and I figured, maybe if I move in with him I can save money and if that happens it'll make life easier. And when I moved in with him, it was a top and bottom duplex. We were going to live in the bottom and we were going to renovate the upstairs and he was going to make an income property and eventually he then has both the units occupied and he lives somewhere else and we would be working all Saturday and all Sunday and we would order food and we would get it delivered. Even if it was more expensive, like DoorDash, we would do all of that. It didn't matter, because in our minds, I would rather pay for the extra time for us to work on this house. We have so much momentum. I'm gonna have to change my clothes to get in my car because I paint all over myself. Then we're gonna have to go down to the place. Both of us are probably gonna go. Then, when we get back, we're not gonna want to to start again and it's just going to be a pain in the butt. Let's just get the food delivered, take 15 minutes and eat quick and then get back to work. You're paying for convenience at that point.

Paying convenience

Speaker 1

Now, is that optimal if we're both trying to save money and we're just sitting there in our pajamas on a Sunday and we have nothing but time? No, it's not, as it's just not as optimal, and that's why it's a very it's a very strange time because anybody not anybody, but most of you whether you're watching or listening, depending on where you live in the world have access to DoorDash and Grubhub. Those are very successful companies, but they're not very successful companies because people only use them when it's optimal. Yeah, they're very successful companies, because a lot of people use them just for convenience and it's actually they're just paying for laziness and again, I'm guilty of this Just as much as anybody else. But I've made a conscious decision. If I'm going to order food Kev, are you really going to pay six bucks for someone to bring this to you, or 10 bucks, depending on how much you're? Is that convenience worth it? That's whether it's convenience, certainty, time is it worth it? Is the trade-off worth it? Is the conversation?

Speaker 2

So there's three buckets of money that I teach my clients, and it's very, very simple, very, very important. The first one is directly profitable, the second one is indirectly profitable and then the third one is not profitable. So you and Matt sitting in your pajamas ordering DoorDash is not profitable.

Speaker 1

It's a good time though.

Speaker 2

Unless you're having a business conversation, in which case it probably is, but you two playing Call of time, though? Unless you're having a business conversation, in which case it probably is, but you two playing Call of Duty, shooting the show in your pajamas.

Speaker 1

We had a lot of business conversations. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

I know, I understand.

Speaker 1

Also, just so you know. Sorry to interrupt you, I'm switching the episode. We're not going to do the finance one next, so I'm going to put it yeah, we can. I mean, it's the same episode. You know what I? Mean yeah, yeah, yeah, so I'll give us a day, I'll give us a buffer.

Speaker 2

Okay, just want to let you know Cool, all right, so the first one is directly profitable. Second one is indirectly profitable. Third one is not profitable. I sit my clients down, business coaching and I have a little digital asset that has. That's the idea here. So if kevin and matt are sitting in their pajamas ordering doordash, it's not optimal to spend an extra 50 bucks for convenience when they could easily just do it themselves that kind of thing. So what the idea? Is everyone out there watching or listening, since this is just becoming a finance wealth creation episode health, wealth and love Kevin and I sat down and we just haven't done wealth that much.

Speaker 1

We have not.

Three buckets of money

Speaker 2

He also obviously had a fascinating wealth conversation with the twisters going in. I didn't realize we're going to be in the movie. So ask yourself what are the activities that you do that are directly profitable? That's going to work, being paid for the work that you're doing. If you're in your own business, it's doing the coaching or doing the freelancer work or audio editing or whatever it is Okay. Then there's indirectly profitable, which right now, the podcast Kevin and I. This is indirectly a profitable endeavor because it leads to business success. So for you, that could be prospecting, that could be meeting people, networking event, whatever it could be, even personal development. Technically, if you're sitting there doing personal development, maybe you get door dash so you don't lose focus in this metaphor. Then there's not profitable activities. This is the stuff that is just for fun. That just isn't profitable. Now one more short thing. I know we got to jump.

Speaker 2

One of the things that I find the most profound is that when you are doing directly profitable things, you're so engaged in that activity that you're not spending money usually. So it's actually. Let's say, you make $10 an hour or we'll do $20 an hour. Okay, you make $20 an hour. I have a client of mine that does uber eats for extra capital. Okay, when she's doing uber eats, she's also learning and she's not spending money. So she's learning and doing uber eats, driving for uber eats and she's not spending.

Speaker 2

One of the reasons why I think people end up struggling financially is because they don't understand that being someone who works a lot actually saves you money while you're making money, because when you're sitting around doing not much, you actually end up spending a lot of money. Being leisurely and enjoying your day ends up. You end up just finding ways to spend money. I think we've all been there. So when you do double down on directly profitable activities, you really not only make money with that hour, but you also don't spend any money in that hour. So not only are you making that 20 bucks, you're also not spending any money either. So it's kind of it's a hypothetical 40 bucks so to speak amazon.

Speaker 1

It's a dangerous game you're calling your name. You're just sitting there. Next thing you know you're browsing amazon for something anything you're on facebook targeted advertisements.

Speaker 2

I always joke about these pip decks that I bought. Facebook got me man, facebook got you. Yeah, facebook got me facebook advertisement got me son of a, b, yeah, but if I was focused on directly profitable activities, I wouldn't have been on facebook. Being bored is part of the reason why we spend money. We don't have been on Facebook. Being bored is part of the reason why we spend money. We don't have Human beings in general.

Struggling financially

Speaker 1

It can be expensive. It can be expensive. So, yeah, ask yourself what for you, what is worth paying for Really? Maybe it's not certainty, maybe it's not convenient, maybe it's something else, I don't know. Maybe it's significance, maybe it's comedy, maybe whatever. Maybe it's significance, maybe it's comedy, Maybe whatever. Whatever it is, whatever it is, in this case it was certainty. It was. Yeah, maybe if we pay the extra $15, we'll get to pick our seats early and we know that we'll be sitting in a good spot. Because that would have happened. Right, if we bought the tickets on Monday, four days ahead of schedule, we would have probably been able to get whatever seat we wanted. That wasn't the case, no worries. But the lesson for us was hey, next time let's just kick in the extra 15 bucks because we're going to be driving there. Then we're going to be like, okay, what should we do? Would we have had a better relationship weekend if we went and saw the movie? There's a lot of things to deconstruct I would have asked you how it was, I would have told you.

Speaker 1

I fell asleep 15 minutes in I have no idea.

Speaker 2

I seriously doubt it, man, that movie's got some loud noises doesn't.

Speaker 1

Now you think that matters. I love the loud noises. I become one with them. Become one with them. One of the things I used to do when I couldn't sleep is I would play the tv, and don't do this. I'm not saying this is what you should do, but I would play the TV and meditation sounds at the same time. Always put me out. I think your brain can only focus on one thing at a time, not two. That was my thesis.

Speaker 1

I always fell asleep Because your brain can't focus on anything, so it just goes away, it just goes out you just put yourself out, can't focus on anything, so it just goes away.

Speaker 2

It just goes out.

Financial wisdom

Speaker 1

So that's my that's my thesis Very, very scientific. All right, if you are into self-improvement which you are if you're watching or listening to this podcast, make sure you are subscribed so you never miss an opportunity to get to the next level. I know growth is challenging and life happens and some days you don't want to learn. I completely understand. But if you get a little notification that NLU just dropped an episode, maybe it'll help you learn that day a little kick in the butt. So make sure you are subscribed.

Speaker 2

And if you want help becoming more successful, that is really my main focus 24 people that I coach. My main focus is just helping them align with their goals and be more successful. And if you feel like you don't have clarity, you don't have certainty, you don't know which path to take, I've got you. I reverse engineer these things for people all the time. It's my favorite work in the world. It's my favorite work in the world. Helping you be more successful is my favorite work. Please reach out.

Speaker 1

As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at NLU we don't have fans.