Pick Up the Phone

These days, we do most of our payments online. But in this week's episode, Dave and Ryan talk you through an old-school method that might be the most surefire way there is to save money on your monthly bills.

David Smyth and Ryan Petrunyak talk about family, finances and fun. Learn more about Family Financial Partners at familyfinancialpartners.com.

Securities offered through The O.N. Equity Sales Company, Member FINRA/SIPC, One Financial Way Cincinnati, Ohio 45242 (513) 794-6794. David Smyth is an Investment Advisor Representative offering Investment Advisory services through O.N. Investment Management Company. Estate planning services provided in conjunction with your licensed legal advisor.

Transcript

0:21

Hey, everyone. We're back. Another episode of In My Day. It's October already. The leaves are getting ready to change. How you doing today, Dave? I'm doing great, Ryan. I am ready for a month that has no holidays. Yeah, I don't count Halloween, so. Oh, I didn't think about that. Yeah. You doing a Halloween party this year? I'm going to a couple's costume party, so we'll see how that goes. Oh, that's fun. Any specific theme? Not that I know of, but that doesn't mean there's not one. You know, back in my day, Ryan, One way they did Halloween costume parties, which kind of got fun, right? Because everybody eventually runs out of just coming as a couple. So, some of the more aggressive Halloween parties we go to, they would actually have a theme, and they'd have a letter theme. So they'd have an A party one year, a D party, an M party, an R party, a T party, right? And every Halloween costume for the couple, you had to go as something that started with that letter. Oh, you get some wonky and wacky costumes. It wasn't stuff you could just buy on the shelf at Party City. We'll say what you will about the Millennials, but at least we got rid of that. Ha ha ha! Please! I just hope you're going to a letter party, so... We'll find out. Alright, so this time of year, everyone is trying to get all the work done they can. And we're kind of all overwhelmed because like for me with kids at home, we've got school activities, we've got communications from teachers, weeks where sometimes we get to hear from the guidance counselor or the principal. I've got regular work meetings at the office. We've got, football tailgates and all kinds of fun. Keeneland's going on, right? So, and then when I, when I have time to check my email, right? Or, or God forbid, go to the actual U. S. Postal Service mailbox, there's just all kinds of junk mail, spam, and offers for me. And sometimes I look at those even myself and I think, what should I do with this? And the natural thing that, I know we've both talked about is, is what should I do? Well, the first thing you could do is shred it. Fair enough. So that would get rid of 98 percent of the problems. Absolutely. That's the majority of them. However, what we were talking about before we got on the show is we always talk about how people are constantly trying to save money in this way or that way by, you know, clipping coupons or not going out to that dinner to eat or contributing to the Roth like we always talk about. What we don't talk about enough is how they can pick up the phone and call other people and save money in different ways. Just pick up the phone. Just pick up the phone. Don't make a pile of stuff. When you get something, you open it immediately. Just pick up the phone. So, the other day I got my home and car insurance renewal. Oh, I hate those. And they bumped it up. They always bump it up. Should I call them? I definitely would pick up the phone and give them a call and be like, Hey, how many accidents did I have this last year? I'm trying to think if Katie's crashed a car. I don't think she has. I think we're good. Okay, see, that's the key thing. Then, then, maybe like, well... Maybe don't pick up the phone. Don't pick up the phone if you crash the car. Check with your wife before you pick up the phone. But, if you didn't have any claims at all, right, there is something called inflation. But you can call your agent and be like, hey, now that I've been a customer for fill in the blank number of years, are there any other discounts available? Is there anything we can do without reducing the quality of my insurance, to... Reduce my costs. Yeah. And you might be surprised. Sometimes they can get back in the system, rejigger it, and you end up with a price that is very reasonable. But you got to pick up the phone. All right. Well that's on my to do list next week. You know, one thing that I always think about is I had a conversation with a client the other day and they sent me a text message and it was just a picture of an American express offer for a better savings account. Right. And it was paying like four and a quarter percent. There's a lot of those out there right now. Tons of them. And, and, you know, he just got an email, right, from Amex. And he's an Amex customer. A lot of us have American Express cards. And it was just like, hey, you could get a better interest on your savings. And he's like, should I do this? And I was like, why would you do that? And he's like, well, because my bank account only pays me two percent. And I was like, your bank account only pays you two percent? And he's like, yeah, why? And I was like... Dude, you need to call your bank. I won't even name the bank. You need to call the bank and pick up the phone. Yeah, right. He texted me ten minutes later, and he said they were robbing me. They were robbing me blind. He said, so they bumped his rate. Yeah, thanks for the heads up. They're paying me four and a half percent. Yeah, and he didn't he didn't have to move the money anywhere. Yeah, he just just picking up the phone Asking for it. They'll give it to him. Yeah real simple, but again just little ways to make money No coupon clipping needed, right? Yeah. Simple. So keep it on the credit card theme. This is another one. Just pick up the phone. Yeah. Another conversation with a client who's a business owner. Okay. The business that he's in has a lot of credit card transactions. So for those of you out there that don't run a business and don't know how it works, when you swipe your credit card, the business has to pay a percent to the credit card company as a fee. Well, He was complaining about it, saying that it was really hurting his bottom line and there were a lot of, it was kind of pinching him a little bit and he was trying to figure out ways to save money and if he should switch, whether he should still allow people to swipe all the different kinds of credit cards. And I was like, why don't you just call the credit card company and see if they'll work with you on the rate a little bit. And they did. They helped him out a little bit and brought it down. Because he has such a high volume of those transactions, they were able to bring that rate down the other way. So, it's one of those things that... It doesn't seem like a lot as a business owner when it's just, you know, a couple dollars here, a couple dollars there, but over time when you have a lot of those transactions it really adds up and people have been able to lower the rate by calling another way you save money with credit card companies. You know, you just made me think about calling a vendor and, and asking for a lower rate. What about, is there anyone out there that still has cable? I do. What? I do. You're kidding me. I'm the only millennial in, in the entire generation that has a computer. Tell me, is this like a role reversal thing? Like, I'm, I'm all smart TVs and YouTube TV and... All these apps, and you've actually got a cable coming into your house? I will tell you why. Because I am, anyone that knows me knows I am a die hard Ravens fan. And also Kentucky basketball and everything else. And my biggest pet peeve, one of my biggest pet peeves, is when I'm sitting there and a lot of times I'll be doing work emails or something while I'm watching a game or looking at my phone for whatever else, and if I get a text saying, Oh my God, what a play! And it's third and six. And the Ravens haven't quite thrown that touchdown pass yet, and it's ahead. So the streaming, when I streamed them, and it was 30 seconds behind, it drove me nuts, because if my buddies were out at a bar or something, it would text me, hey, did you see that? Drove me nuts. Oh, I get it. Okay, I never even thought of that. That's the only reason, that is the only reason I overpay for cable. You want real time. I may be the last person paying for cable, because that is my pet peeve. But, yeah. So do they keep jacking your rates up? Well, I almost cancelled it last month when so we have Spectrum and Spectrum and Disney had that whole dispute with it was like a contract dispute where basically they pulled ESPN right before the first Monday Night Football game. Well, that wasn't going to work, so I called Spectrum all angry and I'm like, well, I'm going to cancel it. Like, this is so, I, you know, I was all upset and the sales guy at Spectrum was like, well, you've already paid through September 22nd or whatever it was and so there's really no benefit if you cancel now. Why don't you just wait until the 20th and cancel it and make sure, and then if we end up working out a deal before then, you can keep your services. I'm like. That's a fair train of thought. So I left it and they ended up resolving it. So now I'm overpaying for cable again. But you didn't get a discount. I did get a discount because they were charging me for like a bundle package for 8. So they took 8 off my bill. There you go. Ka ching, ka ching. I think it was 8. 99 actually. So, 9. Well, at least on a per call rate, that's not a bad, you know. It was worth it. Every time you pick up the phone, make 8. 99 a month going forward. It's not too bad. A little extra money in the savings account. So another area that I've seen, it's been in the news quite a bit, is people are now having to repay their student loans. And these loans were deferred forever and everybody was convinced, right, that That everybody's student loan was going to be forgiven, that what you signed up for and committed to, you weren't going to be required to actually uphold, and now you're having to make payments again. There's a lot of people I think that are suffering with those payments. Absolutely. Well it's a case by case basis there too. Because some people have lower rates than others, some people's are a little higher. Regardless, it's worth looking into. To refinance those into some other kind of loan. Do a consolidation loan. I mean there's a lot of different ways you can look into it and the benefit of living in today's world where everything's so quick is There's several online lenders that you can use. I'm not going to name any specific but you can go on to a lot of those different online lenders and it takes five minutes just put in your information and it'll run your credit report and run All the information you have on the debts you have, income, everything else, and it'll give you an offer. And then at that point, it's not necessarily always the best thing to take it, but you can at least take a look at it and say, Hey, you know, this is a lower rate, lower payment, and I'm paid off in the same amount of time. That can be a good thing. You know, or sometimes they can just bump it out a little farther and give you that flexibility income wise that you need. Sometimes it'll lower the rate and shorten the duration that you're paying it. But. Pay the same amount each month, but just be done with it quicker. And sometimes it won't. It's not going to be great for everybody because, you know, rates can be higher for some than others. So it's not a, not a foolproof answer, but it's definitely worth looking into whether it's calling your local bank, picking up the phone, Yeah, I always think whether it's a student loan whether it's a mortgage And you're just trying to figure out a way to better cash flow it right, and you're not sure Should I refinance and extend the terms should I consolidate for example all my student loans? Or are there one or two that I should leave off because the rates are better You know these are things that Well, to us, it's very apparent what a person should do. I know the average person when they're getting either emails in their inbox about this stuff or just a stack of mail that they've even opened and piled up on the corner of the kitchen counter and they're like, I'm going to talk to somebody, I'm going to talk to somebody. The reality is they tend to get frozen a little bit. It can be overwhelming. I mean, there's so many different numbers. Get thrown at you. And it's a lot. Yeah. So I'll do it every day. That's a lot. So in that situation, I mean, the pickup, the phone would be just give us a call. Yeah. You know, call us at the office. And say, hey, I've just got a question. And a lot of people think, oh, it's got to be something about my portfolio, or something about my kid's college, or it's got to be something about my life insurance, right? And the answer is, absolutely not. It can be something about your savings account at your bank. It can be something about your student loan, something about your mortgage. There's so many different areas where, your car insurance, where we may not offer those services, but we certainly can weigh in from the planning side. On whether you're getting a reasonable, comparable deal knowing what the market looks like. Yeah, and anyone that knows you and I knows that we don't mind talking and they also know that we don't love emails. So, call us, pick up the phone. Yeah, call us, pick up the phone. You know, you bring up a good point on email. Yeah. There are so many times where I get an email from someone and they have taken the time to write out a very well thought email. And yet when I read it... I have no freaking clue what they're actually asking me to do. Yeah. Like, it could go two or three ways, right? And, and so I'll literally pick up the phone and call them only to find out that I'm really glad I called them because before I went down this rabbit hole of providing all sorts of back history or whatnot, you know, that they were actually just asking this question, mixed into four paragraphs of. Thoughts. Yeah, so really do I think in our relationships with our clients picking up the phone and calling them or if you're listening Picking up the phone and calling us whether you're a client or not Even if you have just have a general financial question, just take advantage of us because we're we're literally a free resource for that. Yeah Now what what about Ryan? I mean every now and then right? I'll get a fax on our office fax machine or I'll get a text Right to me or I get an email from me and it's always from the same guy It's usually a Nigerian prince and he's offering me a deal to split like diamonds with me Yeah, what do I do then? Well, I remember this because back when I was an intern you walked into my Des the one day. He said, hey Ryan, I just got this offer from this guy in Nigeria that says he'll give us three million dollars. And I know you're a college student, so if you can get this done without giving him any information, then I'll split it with you. How did it go? I was like, wow, this guy's just rude. I didn't even know Dave at the time. I'm like, this guy. Like, he thinks he's funny or something. No. I forgot about that. That makes sense that I did that. That does sound like something I would do. Yeah. I'm still not going to apologize for it. No, that's okay. So even as an intern, you knew better than to call the guy. In the world of scam calls, I think that most people know that the Nigerian Prince thing is not real and that when the IRS calls and says that you owe back taxes from 2012. And you can settle over the phone with your credit card or your banking and routing information. Just send them a green dot card for 998, yeah, that's, yeah. So there, I think most people... Recognize those, but there are, you gotta be careful. And the other side is, I mean, on that, we do have a lot, most likely they're not listening to this podcast, but we do have a lot of older, elderly clients, and you understand why all these scammers are out there and they're so aggressive because every year, I can look back at the year and I'd have a, if I kept them as like pieces of paper of the stories I've been told of what people have fallen for, I'd have a pile of paper where, you know, someone thought it was real and or they got kind of got scared by the person on the phone to follow through and send them two or three or four thousand dollars, you know, and, and that's funny. I mean, they go after the older generation on purpose. I remember one that I talked to somebody they called and said, your son, they had the woman's son's name, and they told her her son was in jail and needed her to wire money to bail him out. And she was like, well he's in jail, he probably deserved it, so. So she That's a good, that's a good mother. She was pretty with it, so, but yeah. So, yeah. Oh, gracious. But there's a lot of those out there, you just have to be careful. So if you're listening today, and we hope you've been a little entertained, but the idea at the end of the day is just, If you've got questions on something, just pick up the phone. This is the time of year. Give us a call. You know, we won't take too much of your time. We know you won't take too much of our time. We'll answer your question. We can also chit chat sports, we can chit chat holiday plans, all that, if you've got time for it. If not, and you just say, hey, I just got a brief question, pick up the phone and give us a call. Absolutely. How can they reach us? You can reach us at 859 219 1006 is the office number. I'm guessing a lot of you guys out there have our cell phone numbers too, so feel free to call. They have, we don't need to give 'em out. We know, we know, we know they have Dave's cell phone numbers. If we put 'em out there, we're just gonna get more spam calls. I'll tell you what, you will get a lot of i r s calls at that point. They'll be calling me like Nigerian Diamond printed people. They'll be all kind of Russian oil guys. You know? Have I got a deal for you? Lordy. There you go. Well, thank you guys for listening to another episode of End My Day. And just remember, pick up the phone.