The Intersection of Cost and Value

This week, I dive into my poor spending habits in my 20's that put me way behind the eight ball for the financial future, the lesson that I learned the hard way and the advice I would give my past self and daughter when she gets older. 

For the Sponsor I Wish I Had, shoes with style! The Travis Matthew Cuater shoe - lightweight, sexy looking, partially made from recycled materials. 

In the Just The Tip segment, take a look at single vineyard wine the next time you need to pick up a bottle. 

For the Whisper In, it's @pizzofart on IG, YouTube and Facebook. Delicious, homemade pizza from a regular oven in your kitchen. 

Music by purple-planet.com
music by Wondershare Filmora 12

SIDMEDIA.net
@saturdayisdadurdaymedia on IG
@Saturdayisdadurdaymedia on YouTube

Transcript

Holy shit, that I spend a lot of money in my 20s that I could not afford to spend

Welcome back to the story lesson advice podcast part of Saturday is Saturday media. Thank you very much for listening. Please don't forget to check out my website where I have blogs going up every week, s ID media dotnet as well as my YouTube channel. Saturday is Saturday media, we've got clips from the podcast, as well as the full episode. And I'm going to be adding other videos shortly in the form of some product reviews, some book reviews, some cooking videos, so stay tuned for all of that. Alright, so I said, Holy shit, did I spend a lot of money in my 20s that I could not afford to spend? And show of hands? How many people have also been there? Yeah, that's what I thought Basically, everyone now we've all made stupid decisions when we were younger in our 20s and spent money on things or did things that we probably shouldn't have done. But for me, I think I might hold the record for the amount of money that was spent poorly that could have been spent or saved wisely. And so a quick story for me is, I worked for an inside sales office, and it was 100% Commission. And I finally made a little bit of money, not a lot of money, just a little bit of money enough to live comfortably in your 20s. And what did I do? Did I invest that into a 401k? Did I invest that into stocks? Or did I invest that into a rental property? No, I decided to not invest that and instead promptly run and buy a lease, a stupid car that I couldn't afford. I leased a Mercedes, a little C class Mercedes, not even like the real big Mercedes, not even the real Mercedes. This is like the one that you still have diapers on if you're going to buy. So that's what I did. So instead of taking money that I could have spent wisely and set myself up for the future. What did I do? I pitched my money away on a car I couldn't afford and didn't need. And then when that lease was up three years later, and I was still making a decent amount of money. Again, not a lot, but a decent amount of money. What did I do? Did I learn from my mistakes? No, no, no, I promptly turned around and ran to a different dealership and spent even more money leasing a car that I still couldn't afford. Now that one was a Volkswagen CC, which by the way, was probably the coolest car I've ever owned. It was super nice car for bucket seats. Two Tone interior had a moonroof, really, really sexy car really cool, but doesn't matter because you know what's even sexier, having a 401k having investments in stocks or rental properties, or whatever it is. So two examples there of good chunks of money that I just pissed away, my eyes will light it on fire in my 20s. And I think we've all been there with with some things, I also used to fall spontaneously into the striped shirt been over an Express, or banana republic that happened quite frequently. And the only way I could seem to claw my way out was just by throwing money at new shirts. I also spent a lot of money on on cologne that I couldn't afford on watches that I didn't need, and all sorts of stuff. So the story is I look back over my 20s was, I spent money I lived foolishly in my 20s as many of us do. And I think I was living that way for what I thought was cool, or what I thought was what other people or women would notice, or like or be appealing to, or I was living some mocked up lifestyle in my head. I didn't even have a frame of reference. So I don't even know what that was all about. But

yeah, that was the the story of my 20s was spending foolishly and I'm curious to know how many other of us have been in that situation where you look back on your 20s. And you could just kick yourself in the ass you think, man, if I would have just done something better with that money, I could have been so much further ahead. And eventually I ended up spending something which in theory is a good investment or a good way to spend your money. And I talked about this on previous episodes is I went to culinary school. Now I talked about how that was me following my passion. And that was also my ego driving a lot of that decision. And it was not probably the best decision that I could have or should have made. But the idea of hey, I'm going to invest back into myself, I'm going to educate myself. I'm going to do something to improve myself so that I can go be more valuable in society in the world and to myself and my family and my loved ones. That in and of itself is a great idea. That's how you should be spending money on yourself. Instead of spending

Spending money at yourself. Like in the form of the cars and the clothes and the stupid material things, spend money on yourself on getting better on learning new skills and developing new talents. That's really what I should have done. But instead, Alas, my 20s was spent just throwing money around spilling money over the bar that I didn't have money to do that with. And I am kicking myself constantly. I wish I could go back and just slap myself and say, Dude, just don't buy this. And I'm curious to know, do you feel the same way? Oh.

All right. And now it's time for today's sponsor, I wish I had and today's sponsor I wish I had is a fantastic product and I have used for a long time and also kind of makes me feel a little older. But that's okay. Because I am a little older. You might be able to see this if you're watching on YouTube on the Saturday is Saturday media channel on YouTube. But what I am showing here for this week is a Travis Matthew product. Everybody knows the brand, Travis Matthew. And this is a shoe called the equator except it's spelled see you a t e r so hard to spell hard to pronounce, not hard to wear and not hard to absolutely love. These are some shoes, this color is in navy. And I bought these shoes because I don't know if anybody else feels this way. But shoes to me, they have to speak to me. And if you look behind me on video, you can see I've got a couple of pair of Jordans that my good friend Ryan got me for my 40th birthday. But shoes have to speak to me, I can't just go buy a pair of shoes and be fine as we talk about practical ways to spend your money like I did not do in my 20s. But when I think about shoes, they have to speak to me they have to say you need these right now. And one of the things that's difficult is as we as a society, you're kind of transitioning into sort of this business athleisure casual wear for a lot of stuff is finding clothes and shoes that strike that balance of hey, I can wear this to a business meaning I can wear this on a date, I can wear this to get groceries, I can wear this with a nice buttoned down whatever. And it used to be you kind of had your formal, you know expensive dress shoes that were not very comfortable that you would wear and then you had kind of your casual shoes that you could wear on a casual Friday. But there wasn't really something it was hard to find a good pair of shoes to fit in between. So that's what this is. The Travis Matthew quatre. These are super lightweight, they're breathable, they're made from partly recycled materials. I have them in the navy color. They're incredibly comfortable, they're incredibly easy to put on and take off, which is we get older is definitely helpful. So I recommend check these out on their website on their Instagram page, I actually went into the store over in Scottsdale, close to where I live. And everybody there that helped me couldn't have been more helpful. It was a really cool store. They have a unbelievable pool table that I believe is all glass when you walk in. It's either a pool table or ping pong table, but it is awesome. So if you are near Travis Matthews store, go and check it out. If you're not get online, check the shoes out the Travis Matthew quatre shoes, today's sponsor I wish I had.

Alright, so I gave you the story of me just pissing away a lot of money in my 20s buying a lot of things that I absolutely didn't need and couldn't afford. And that is really frustrating to look back on and think about and I try to ask myself, Okay, what's the lesson that I can learn from that, or multiple lessons that I can learn and maybe pass on to my daughter when she's older or pass on to myself, or anybody else that's listening. And I think for me, the the takeaway looking back is, I was spending a bunch of money on things that I thought brought me value, or that brought me some sort of a status or something. But I think it really boils down to it, I thought that it was bringing me value. And what I've come to realize is spending money on a car, for example, like the Mercedes that I had, or the Volkswagen that I bought, you know, I was spending three, four or $500 a month on a lease payment, which is just ridiculous when you think about it. But if I would have bought a Honda Civic or a Honda Accord, which is a safer car, a better gas mileage car, a better resale value car, and my payment was 200 bucks a month. When I look at that, versus $200 A month versus you know, three, four or $500 in a month. Am I getting 345 $100 $200 more value out of those other two cars than I am out of the Honda Accord. Now sure, from a looks perspective, and a prestige perspective, and all of that and yes, when you close the door to a Mercedes, it closes

A little bit different than if you close the door to a Honda, or the Ford Edge that my wife and I drive.

But when you really think and take a look at it, are you getting 234 $100 more value, every time you drive that vehicle, when you're looking at the safety features, the resale value of it, when you're looking at the drivability, the gas, mileage, all those kinds of things, the ease to getting it repaired, the cost of getting it repaired the cost of even things like an oil change, or, you know, just fixing something minor, are you getting more value out of that expensive vehicle. And my wife and I were looking

back in 2019 at a new car, because the one that we had, we had a GMC Terrain, and that was on its last leg it was the steering wheel would would just vibrate uncontrollably from like 45 miles an hour to like 60 miles an hour. So you know, safety. But we had a daughter and we said, Okay, it's time to get a safe vehicle. This thing has been going for us for 10 years. And it's time to time to get a new car. And we were looking we were drawn to you know, wanting to take a look at BMW X five or x seven Volkswagen Atlas, which I absolutely love.

And maybe even like a Land Rover, and we looked at some of the higher end, SUVs, Lexus and everything like that. And then we stumbled upon what we have now, which is a Honda passport, I think it was the first or second year that they came out with the vehicle. And we started looking at it and we're like, okay, for Honda's this is a pretty good looking SUV. And then it had the most cargo space out of any vehicle in its class. It had very good gas mileage and had great resale value, great safety rating. And it was about $40,000 less than all those other cars that we were looking at buying. And what the conversation that we had was exactly are we getting the value our money's worth, if we go with the the more expensive vehicle and I'm not Pooh poohing anybody that drives a Lexus, or a Range Rover or Mercedes or anything like that. I'm not, I'm not calling anybody out or shaming anybody. I'm just saying for us at the time. And with our budget, we were thinking, okay, we'd like those vehicles, because they look nicer, and they're cooler, and they've got a few more, you know, fun bells and whistles. But at the end of the day, are we getting the difference in cost? Are we getting that value from that purchase? And what we discovered was no, we're not. And the lion's share of the driving that we do, is not worth necessarily having an exponentially more vehicle. So the decision that we made in the lesson that we learned was that we were just simply not going to get the value out of a more expensive vehicle. As long as we had enough boxes checked to meet the safety and the drivability and the gas mileage and the resale and all of that. And I kind of look back and overlay that onto my 20s as the lesson that I learned, which was, am I getting $100 more value out of Krita Ventus cologne as opposed to buying everyday jack or whatever it's called that target. Probably not. Maybe one smells better than the other. But am I can I quantify that value? No. And if you have that cologne, that's great. Creative. Ventus is a very popular cologne. And it's it's pretty good. But when I break it down like that, I just don't see myself getting more value from things like that. I see myself wanting to feel like I have more value. So I gravitate towards the expensive things. I did this with watches as well, I bought plenty of watches that I couldn't afford. And they were well known brands and whatever. And guess what they tell time just the same as a watch from fossil that is $80 or $50. Or they tell the same amount of time correctly as a watch from Walmart, or target or Amazon or whatever. So the lesson that I would tell myself and learn is you are not getting the value that you think you are when you overspend for things, especially when they're outside of your budget.

Alright, now it's time for this week's just the tip segment. And for this week's just the tip segment I'm going to talk about wine briefly. And I want to throw all the disclaimers out there on the front end. I am not a wine expert. I am not a wine aficionado. I am simply someone who enjoys wine. Like God, Michael Scott from the office when he swirls around a white and smells and says this is a nice white wine. So I'm slightly above that, but that's about it. But one of the things I did learn when my wife and I were fortunate enough to go to Napa. And then I also learned this from when I cooked in restaurants and talk to the sommeliers that we had on staff who were actually applying wine experts was oftentimes not always, but oftentimes if you can find a wine that is made from a sea

single vineyard, you're often going to find that the winemakers are able to give those grapes a little bit more TLC, a little bit more care. And they're able to have a little bit more control over the growth and the quality and the time to select and the whole process. So if you are in, in a wine store, I would highly recommend taking a look or asking whoever is there. If they can point you to any wines, whatever, whatever bridal you like if there's Pinot, or cab or, or mirlo. But don't don't tell anybody on sideways movie to drink for a while. But anything, any any wine that you like, is see if you can ask, Hey, do you have anything from a single vineyard and two of my favorites are Hyde. And Barnett and Barnett, I am partial to simply because I was able to go to that vineyard, it is way up in the mountains in I believe st Halina near Napa. And we were actually there and got to sit on like this, this little table area that just overlooked right into the valley of Napa Valley. And as we were up there, it was really sunny out and it was warm. And we had our jackets off. And then all of a sudden, all these clouds rolled in and they rolled into the point where like we could barely see each other across the table. It was like the craziest thing that I ever seen in my life, you could not see down into the valley anymore. With your jackets back on it was really cold. And then 2030 minutes later, it kind of pass through and you could see each other easily again and see back down into the valley again, that was always a really neat experience. So my recommendation again, with all the disclaimers that I am not a sommelier or an aficionado or an expert or anything like that is sometimes not always but sometimes if you look for a single vineyard wine, you can often find a little bit higher quality and a little bit more well rounded and balanced wine because those winemakers are able to give those grapes and the whole process a little extra TLC. So that is this week's just the tip.

Alright, so we talked about the story of me pissing away money in my 20s I think I said money's I meant money. I hate when people use the word money's mo N, ie s, it's a business term. I love it, because it's hilarious. But give me a break. It's money. But whatever.

The story of me losing money, spending money wasting money in my 20s buying a whole bunch of stuff I couldn't afford. The lesson from that was I was not getting anywhere close to the value for those purchases that I thought I was I wasn't getting $250 a month more value out of my car payment for a lease with a Mercedes than I would have been if I would have had a Honda Accord, I was not getting $150 more value per bottle when I bought an expensive bottle the clone versus what I should have bought, which is just something nice and reasonable from Target or Sephora or wherever. And the advice that I would give to myself if I could go back in time. And the advice that I try to give myself all the time now and that I would will share with my daughter when she's older, and maybe it's helpful to anybody else is find the intersection of cost and value. And that is where we need to live. Not saying that we can't go out and spend money on nice things or have nice things. Not saying that we can't splurge and buy something that's really nice. But oftentimes, what is driving our financial decisions is maybe good intention, but misplaced or maybe it's not good intention. But oftentimes we are spending beyond our means. And we know we are and I'm not shaming anybody because I do it too. And my wife does it too. But when we really stop and think and look at it is finding that intersection of cost and value. And a great way for me to give you an example of that is with bourbon. I love bourbon. Again, not an expert, not an aficionado. I just like to drink it. And I like what I like and I know you know a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny little bit about bourbon compared to what most people know who like bourbon. But what I have found and a lot of this is true with wine as well is that there's an there's a kind of a comfort zone or a zone of your intersection of cost and value. And to me so much good bourbon is affordable in the 20 to $50 range. And somewhere in there is where you should be able to find all the bourbon you would ever need to be able to sip on whenever you feel like it. And on either end of the spectrum is hey, if I'm making you know, trash can punch okay, maybe I get a $7 bottle of bourbon. If I'm gonna buy you know, my spouse or my spouse is gonna buy me intent Beth, a nice bottle of bourbon. Maybe we go a little north of that $50 price range or you're going to do something you know, need to have a really nice bottle at home or for a gift or something. Sure, but by and large, the intersect

To have COST AND VALUE FOR bourbon is anywhere from 20 to $50. If you can't find a good tasting bourbon, then that's that's on you. And the same with what most people think that as the cost of wine goes up that that you're going to get a better tasting wine. And sure, in theory, that that is that is true, but I think you could, for 99% of us that don't have the magical dancing palate, including me, I think the the value that you can extract from a 25 to $50 bottle of wine is tremendous. And you can have an entire garage full of wine at that price point. But you think about that you have people over and you want to you want to impress them, do you want to impress them with an expensive bottle of wine that now you have to say awkwardly, you know, hey, this was $100 bottle? Or do you want to impress them with a great tasting bottle of wine or a great tasting bourbon? So my advice is live at the intersection of cost and value.

Oh,

okay, now it's time for this week's whisperer.

And this week, is an Instagram account that I absolutely love. And it's called bits of art, bi, CC, O, F, AR T, kind of like pizza art piece of art. And I love this because if anybody knows me, you know that my first, second and third favorite food is pizza. I absolutely love pizza. At that this account, the guy who runs this, and post all these videos is absolutely awesome, because he makes absolutely killer pizzas out of his regular oven at home. And what I think is really great about that, for the average person is that you don't need to have a bunch of fancy equipment to make a really great pizza. And it's not that hard to do. I was intimidated by making pizza dough. And by working with pizza dough, and by trying to flatten that out and use my hands to stretch out the pizza dough. But once you get over that fear of ruining a pizza dough ball, then it's no big deal. And you can really have fun. And this account piece of art does a great job and showing a whole bunch of great pizzas, and very easy recipes. And there's links to products to help with that. And equipment to help with that. So I highly recommend checking out bits of art on Instagram, on YouTube. Also on Facebook. This week, whisper Ed beats apart Instagram account.

All right, so let's have our cooldown and recap what we talked about the story me spending a lot of money I didn't have and couldn't afford to spend in my 20s on things that I didn't need and couldn't afford to have like cars, apartments, clothes, watches, spending money at the bar, not worth. The lesson that I learned is that there was no way that I was getting the value from those purchases that I thought I was getting. The advice that I would give myself and my daughter when she's older and to anybody else that's listening is find the intersection of cost and value. And let's try to spend as much time as we can there. And I am not Pooh poohing anybody that decides to spend money on different purchases, whether that's a house or a car, or a watch or a vacation or whatever it is you do you boo, I am simply saying that if we look at it, we probably could do a better job myself included myself leading the charge on this, finding that intersection of cost and value, getting something a little bit more reasonably priced, a little bit more budget friendly, and really getting maximum value from that purchase. So that is my advice. The sponsor I wish I had today got in front of me right here is the Travis Matthew quatre shoe. It is unbelievably soft, comfortable, lightweight, breathable, it's made from partly recycled materials. I have it in a navy color. It looks great with a pair of work pants, it looks great with a pair of shorts. It looks great with a pair of jeans gives you a ton of options to wear, whether it's at work on a date or just bumming around on the weekend. That just the tip segment I said, letting everybody know I am not a wine expert is that oftentimes if you look for a wine that is made by a single vineyard, then you have a higher probability of maybe getting a little bit more well rounded, balanced and oftentimes higher quality wine because that winemaker can really focus on giving the grapes all the attention they need from start to finish and given you

One hell of a product. Two examples I have of that single vineyard, winemakers are Hyde and Barnett those are two of my favorite Barnett was one that I had been to absolutely loved it.

The whisper in is piece of art PIZZOF AR T It's an account that's on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. It is absolutely awesome. I love pizza. My wife loves pizza and my daughter loves pizza. I think most of the world loves pizza. But the guy does a really cool job of making a lot of pizzas and he just does it at home in his regular oven. So takes all the kind of mystique out of you don't need a super fancy pizza oven. You don't need a whole bunch of fancy equipment. All you need is a decent recipe for your dough and and Bob's your uncle. So there you go. Thank you very much for listening. As I mentioned we have weekly updates on our my YouTube channel with videos. And we have I have weekly blogs coming on the website Sid media dotnet if you're enjoying this, please give us a give me a follow a a rate a thumbs up share it with anybody as we travel through the holiday season. If you're on a plane and you're bored, hopefully this isn't the worst thing you'll listen to all week. So Happy Holidays to everyone and we will see you next week on the story lesson advice podcast.