0:01

You're listening to bill Handle on demand from KFI AM six forty. You are

0:09

listening to the Bill Handle Show. And this is kf I AM six forty

0:22

bill Handle here on a Thursday morning, March twenty eight. Okay, here

0:31

is a story I want to share with you. And his name is Joel

0:33

Larsgard. I'm a story. Sure, why not? Because everything I because

0:39

what I do is I open up every hour with here's the story I want

0:43

to do with you. So Joel, let me start. There was a

0:45

little boy named Joel Larsgard who was born a poor black boy in the ghetto.

0:51

This story is going to be one of the best ever, I think.

0:55

Joel the host of How To Monday, how To Money Sunday twelve to

0:58

two pm at how to Money, Joel is his social address. All right,

1:03

Joel, we bring you aboard whenever they're well, actually every week.

1:07

But this week I want to talk about or you answer the question about the

1:10

new visa and MasterCard agreements that is going to impact retailers, which means it's

1:15

going to impact us. Yeah, that's exactly right. And so basically this

1:19

is like multiple decades worth of litigation that's getting settled and I will say that

1:26

what's going to happen in the aftermath of those negotiations it's kind of small ultimately

1:30

in the grand scheme of things. The big problem is that visa and MasterCard

1:34

swipe fees are a big line item in the budget of any business, because,

1:38

yeah, who pays with cash anymore, right, And when you pay

1:42

with the credit card, that costs the retailer money. And the biggest retailers

1:47

in the country they just have found ways to absorb the cost passed on those

1:49

extra costs to their customers. But it's the small businesses that in particular kind

1:55

of get hit the hardest. And one of the things that's going to happen

1:57

in the aftermath of these negotiations is the really really top tier credit cards,

2:05

the ones that offer the best rewards and typically come with like a really high

2:07

annual fee. Those are going to be subject to increased fees at the checkout

2:13

counter if the retailer decides to go in that direction. And I'm not well,

2:19

I am pitching, I guess, but I do commercials for a company

2:22

called quantum Epay, and they are a point of sales and credit card organization

2:28

that it works at retail level. And one of the things I talk about

2:32

is the amount of money that retailers and businesses who take epays actually pay for

2:38

those transactions, and it is all over the place. There doesn't seem to

2:45

be amongst retailers a real argument. I mean, they'll look to shave pennies

2:50

off of a product they're selling. You know, they're buying for two dollars

2:53

and forty eight cents wholesale, and they'll work their butts off for two dollars

2:57

and forty six cents, yet at the same time absorb these crazy fees just

3:01

to process the money going through. Is how much of that is passed on?

3:07

I mean all of it is passed on, But how much of that

3:09

actually affects our price? I mean, it certainly all does. And the

3:14

thing is, the people at the biggest disadvantage are the people paying cash because

3:17

the roughly three percent of every transaction is going to vsaid MasterCard when you swipe

3:23

your card, and of course the prices are going to go up commensurately,

3:28

but at least when you swipe your card, you're getting rewards. You're getting

3:31

you know, travel miles, you're getting two percent cash back, whatever it

3:35

is, or with the new in case of the new Robin Hood card,

3:37

potentially three percent cash back, which is kind of interesting, but you are

3:43

you're essentially subsidizing the people who pay with the credit cards if you're paying with

3:46

cash. So it's and it's VSA and MasterCard have this entrenched system where neither

3:53

of them has any desire to upset the apple cart. And I do think

3:57

technology over time is going to make it easier to pay in other less expensive

4:01

ways, but for the time being, this feels like a minor, minor

4:05

concession to businesses everywhere because basically Visa MasterCards say we're gonna drop our fees by

4:12

point zero four percent, it's almost nothing. It's a drop in the bucket.

4:17

And they're also saying, well, we'll do it for a limited time like three ish years, and then guess what, we can do whatever we

4:23

want with the fees. Again. The interesting thing too on this is,

4:26

like I said, the really high end credit cards are the ones that retailers

4:30

are going to be able to say, actually, you're gonna have to pay extra to pay with that credit card. Oh, I think, yeah,

4:33

that happens all the time. Well, think about how that makes an adversarial

4:38

relationship for the retailer with their customer. Customers are gonna say, wait a

4:42

second, I'm not used to I'm not used to paying an extra dollar to

4:45

be able to use this credit card. Why don't you treat all credit cards the same? And so I think, even though retailers are going to be

4:50

allowed to do this, a lot of retailers aren't going to charge people extra,

4:54

and so they're just going to continue to be in this quandary. Yeah,

4:57

well, I opened but account a couple of days ago at Chase because

5:00

I moved. As you know, I got in a new place and right around the corner there's a Chase, and I went in there to open up

5:06

an account and depending on the money, and then I'm doing some remodeling,

5:10

so I have a chunk of money and in this remodeling account and the guy

5:15

I am the kind of cleric, the guy in that little office was telling

5:18

me about all these different services and balances, and literally I looked at a

5:24

card that had eight different credit cards attached to it, eight of them,

5:29

and he goes, this one costs you ninety five dollars a year, and

5:32

here's what you get. And by the way, these are the services we

5:35

offer, and if you keep your balance below X amount of money and you

5:41

get this card, it's thirty five dollars per month to stay in the program.

5:47

It was I couldn't make high nor hair of that. It just made

5:50

no sense to me. And is that getting more prevalent where you simply have

5:54

so many choices you're overwhelmed. It's like streaming services. I mean, it's

5:57

crazy. It's true. There's a proliferation of credit card offers and they're all

6:02

catering to different customers. And the truth is some people say, a five

6:05

hundred dollars annual fee, why in the world did anyone get one of those

6:09

credit cards? Well, when you look at the fine print, and when

6:13

you look at the bone cash back bonus you might get from signing up for

6:15

that credit card, and you look at the ongoing rewards you can glean from

6:18

that credit card. Depending on how you spend, depending on kind of what

6:23

your lifestyle is like, those credit cards might more than pay for that annual

6:26

fee. My sister has a credit card that has a six hundred ninety five

6:30

dollars annual fee from AMEX, but it's worth it because they travel so stinking

6:33

much that they get a lot of value back from though. There's a two

6:38

hundred dollars hotel credit here, or a travel credit there, and all sorts

6:41

of lounge access. Those are the kind of things that make those high end

6:45

credit cards worth it for some people. But there is this It is a

6:49

tale of the haves and have nots, like it so often is in American

6:53

society, right where the people the fifty percent of people who have a credit

6:57

card balance or recurring balance every single month paying high fees and interest to the

7:01

credit card companies, and then other people make out like bandits getting insane rewards

7:06

and they're paying their bills on time. And so it works out for some

7:10

and it works out to the you know, in a really awful way for

7:13

others. Yeah, that's simply dealing with your financial life logically and rationally.

7:18

All right. Now, We've talked about this many, many times, and

7:23

this has been a bug up my butt, and it's something that I've been

7:26

looking at seriously for twenty twenty five years, and that is the retirement crisis.

7:34

I have averted yet because I've been thinking about it and dealing it with

7:39

it for maybe the last thirty years. But a lot of Americans don't.

7:45

Yeah, I mean a lot of people are. They're not even aware that they should be saving for retirement until they reach their forties, and by then

7:51

you've missed out on a lot of ample time to be stocking money, even

7:56

if it's little bits. I want to just like encourage people always, even

7:59

if it's just like two percent of your paycheck or twenty bucks, you know,

8:03

on a bi weekly basis, Like those dollars really do add up, and they help to increase your ability to compound those dollars for decades to come.

8:09

So even and plus it just starts that habit I want. I want people in their early twenties when they start work to just set aside, even

8:16

if you can only forward just a small, small amount, like get it

8:18

going, because that habit kicks in and you can always build on that habit.

8:22

But starting a new habit is always difficult. But there was the CEO

8:26

of Blackrock, Larry fing He's been talking about this. I feel like every

8:28

story in my news feed lately has been Larry Fink talking about the growing retirement

8:33

crisis. And he's not wrong, especially as we're experienced, like our population

8:41

in the United States and around the world is aging. I was just reading

8:43

a story this morning about how adult diapers are taking over kid diapers in Japan.

8:48

That's how dire the demographics are getting in certain parts of the world.

8:54

And the United States is not as bad as Japan, but we're experiencing that

8:56

too, and so we have to as living longer, we have to be

9:01

more careful about saving and investing for retirement, being more thoughtful and being willing

9:07

to kind of cut back on some of our spending now to make sure that

9:09

we actually have enough prepared for those future years. Yeah, I live this

9:13

at home. I've got my two daughters, one Pamela, who is a

9:20

fanatic saver. She would she saves an amazing amount of money and is putting

9:26

away for retirement. I mean even to the point where she dumpster dives for

9:30

food. I mean she wants to save money. And then my other one,

9:33

Barbara, her new thing is she's spending all of her money on tattoos.

9:37

For some reason, she wants to join the circus. I have no

9:39

idea why, but it's and I had no idea that tattoos are that expensive.

9:46

Holy moly, you put that away. It adds up, It adds

9:52

up. Yeah, so I told her it's amazing too, Like you think

9:54

about all those little things to add up. And this is something I talk about all the time on the show. It's it's the subscriptions here or the

10:00

There was an article in the Journal just a couple of weeks ago about one

10:03

of the writers ended up buying a Tesla. He could afford monthly payments on

10:07

a Tesla because he cut back on a bunch of different subscription services that he

10:09

has. And that sounds ridiculous, that sounds it sounds absurd, but you

10:16

can save hundreds of dollars a month. That can add up to the price

10:18

of the car you're buying. And you know, maybe that's an extreme example.

10:22

But the thing is, it's dribs and drabs, it's here and there, it's going out to eat. When you look at the stats of how

10:26

much Americans go out to eat, we spend more money eating out than than

10:30

we do on groceries. That was not the case ten years ago. And

10:33

so part of it is kind of our habits not knowing how to or when

10:37

to save and invest for retirement. And part of it is our consumption habits

10:41

just buying stuff without thinking about it. The stuff were subscribed to, and

10:46

so it's you know, even twenty bucks here and there. I know,

10:48

the latte factor gets overdone. Don't eat the avocado toast. And I hate

10:52

some of that advice too, but there's also at least some truth to that

10:56

sure that if we would cut back on some of those things and put twenty bucks fifty ffty bucks aside here or there, it would make a dramatic difference.

11:03

Yeah. And and the cost of food, Neil and I talk about

11:05

this all the time, is beyond ridiculous. I went to an Italian restaurant

11:09

last night with my family and got handed the bill and I had to say

11:13

to the server, Hey, it's only this table I'm paying for. Well,

11:18

and that was about to go up as you guys were talking about.

11:20

I mean, it's all insane. Yeah, it's it's going to get even

11:24

more expensive to go out to eat in California, and so you you just

11:26

have to be prepared. And what that means is saving up for those expenses

11:31

and probably going out to eat less. Yeah, and your mentor Clark is

11:35

his favorite restaurant on the planet is the Costco in Mallei buck fifty hot,

11:43

dofty Hot, dog. Yeah, Buck fifty hot dog. He lives for

11:46

that. That's not changing. It's one of the few things that hasn't changed,

11:50

you know, that's true. All Right, Joel, we'll catch you

11:52

this Sunday twelve to two. And your social address, if people want to

11:56

reach him, is how to money, Joel, take care, have a

11:58

good weekend, Joel. Thanks Bill, you too, Okay. Now,

12:03

there is or are several pilot programs around that give money to renters who are

12:09

people. Now, the program that subsidizes rent Section eight housing has been around

12:16

forever, but it is number one complicated, and there's a bureaucracy there that

12:22

is just a god awful bess. When you think about it, you talk

12:26

about how tangled up it is. You start with someone being poor meeting the

12:31

requirements of Section eight housing, and if you reach that level down to that

12:35

level under minimum requirements, then you are eligible for vouchers, which then go

12:45

to housing authorities, which then go to landlords, and landlords have to apply

12:52

for Section eight housing so they can will accept those vouchers. There are inspectors

12:58

that come out to look at the property to see if it meets federal Section

13:03

eight housing minimums and it gets pretty complicated, and they're a waiting lists because

13:11

there aren't that many apartment buildings, not many owners that allow Section eight housing.

13:15

They don't want to deal with these people. And the folks that are

13:20

eligible pay a third of the rent, and if they're way below that,

13:24

what will end up happening. It'll all be subsidized. All they do is

13:28

pay a third of the rent. Someone makes one thousand dollars a month,

13:30

they're paying three hundred dollars a month for rent. And if it's Section eight

13:33

housing, the government picks up the rest of it. If it's twenty five

13:37

hundred dollars a month, the government pays twenty two hundred dollars of it.

13:41

So that is what Section eight housing is. So there are some pilot programs

13:46

out there that just give money to people for rent. Here it is go

13:52

out and rent what you want, go out and rent where you want.

13:56

We'll pay you cash, and it seems to work. On the pilot program.

14:03

It seems to work. First of all, landlords don't even have to

14:05

ask because there's enough money to pay the rent. A tenant comes in,

14:11

Yeah, here's the rent, and I'm gonna pay you. And even if

14:16

you are limited income. You can still get great credit if you pay your

14:18

bills on time and don't go crazy. So you come in with the job

14:22

that doesn't pay you a lot of money, you come in with a decent

14:26

credit rating, and you come in saying you guys are gonna get paid market just check it out. So those pilot programs are well, they're being run

14:33

all over the country, small, small pilot programs. And just now HUD

14:39

Health and a human Oh god, what is That's that? A Department of

14:43

Housing and Urban Development? I always forget because they've changed that name a few

14:46

times. So HUD has come in, and within HUD there's a mixed feeling.

14:52

Some I think it's a great idea because of the bureaucracy of current Section

14:58

eight housing, and others think that, you know, it works so well

15:03

the way we're doing it now, the controls are so good that we ought

15:07

to keep the program. Problem with the program now is there are either months

15:13

or years long waiting lines. Also, some people don't even use them,

15:18

and the bureaucracy is so much you have to jump through all hoops. And

15:24

with these new pilot programs and it's just straight out giving cash to people.

15:28

Government subsidies, and it's called all kinds of things guaranteed income subsidy programs.

15:35

Remember Andrew Yang who ran for president last go round, ran for the Republican

15:41

nomination, and everybody laughed at him. Thousand dollars a month for every man,

15:46

woman, and child in the United States, straight out, no requirements.

15:52

I mean, I would make it, means tested it. Certainly a

15:54

Warren Buffett doesn't need one thousand dollars. So if you're making one hundred thousand

15:56

dollars a year, you need one thousand dollars a month. Yeah, if

16:00

you live in southern California, you do. How about boyfriends and girlfriends for

16:06

everybody? Yeah, that's great. Yeah, you don't have to don't have

16:08

to bathe, you don't have to shave, you don't have to make yourself

16:11

look presentable, and just everyone gets it. When would you have thought that

16:15

one hundred thousand dollars a year was a middle class or lower middle class income.

16:23

If you have two bread earners who make fifty thousand dollars each, one

16:30

hundred grand a year is not considered a decent or a good lifestyle. So

16:34

yesterday morning, during handle on the News, Amy King brought up a story

16:40

about the dollar store. Whatever. Yeah, that the majority, the new

16:45

majority of their customers make around one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a year

16:56

going to dollar stores. Now I go, I like it. I go,

17:00

and it wouldn't matter what kind of money I made. I why not

17:03

get a good deal. Yeah, No, it's great men, it's great stuff. I mean you can get I mean, I've been to the Dollar

17:07

Store and it's the stuff is unbelievable. They have produce, now, don't

17:11

they. Yes, you can buy it bananas, They're all yeah, I

17:15

mean you can buy already eating food and you get it in a ridiculously eat

17:22

But like, didn't chapels with bites taken out of them? Didn't you get

17:25

Marjorie's ring from there? Uh, we don't talk about that. She doesn't

17:30

know no idea. You know, she's never actually taken it to a jewel.

17:36

Who is going to say this is a cubics or conium. I just want to let you know that it's a nice rock, but it's not.

17:41

Even the official cubics are spelt with a K. It's like crab cakes with

17:48

a K. All right, Every Monday through Friday, seven pm to ten

17:52

pm is later with mo Kelly, and what we do on Thursday is earlier

17:56

with mo Kelly. Why good morning, Good morning Bill. Okay, so

18:03

usually we don't talk financial stuff, but this time around we're going to because

18:07

this is fairly and this is big news in the world of entertainment. AMC

18:11

entertainment shares are plunging on this proposed stock sale. Box office is just plummeting.

18:19

And is it going We knew box office was going to go down because

18:23

of streaming services and because of what the pandemic. You didn't want to be

18:26

near people. But is this bigger faster than anticipated? Yes, And all

18:33

of these things that we've been discussing over the past year, Bill, you

18:37

and me are coming together. There is the pandemic. There is the overall

18:41

box office quote with their fewer movies being produced. And there's also this is

18:47

residual from the strikes from the WGA, the actors strike and everything surrounding that.

18:53

So there was a cash a loss of cash available to movie theater and

19:00

AMC being the biggest one is the one who was hardest hit. And there's

19:03

something else here that I think people should take it take into account. This

19:07

has been a growing trend, but the strikes exacerbated it and highlighted it.

19:11

So this is telling you where the industry's going. And AMC the past few

19:17

weeks we've talked about the news that they've made. They were celebrating the new

19:22

Nicole Kidman videos. They're going to be showing the Olympics, and also they're

19:26

going to have zoom rooms in AMC. They are struggling to find reasons to

19:30

get you at me in the theater. You know, I used to We've

19:33

talked about this before too. I was probably one of those biggest fans of

19:38

the movie theater companies. I would go twice a week. I mean,

19:41

I did one hundred movies a year. I mean I really really enjoyed going

19:47

to movies. And then as I started watching and the streaming services kind of

19:52

exploded, I stopped going to movies. And I was told, and this

19:56

again was the pitch from the movie companies, you don't get the same experience

20:00

at home. The movie theaters give you this great experience. And I'm thinking,

20:04

what experience. I'm in a recliner chair, I've got a huge screen,

20:10

I've got great sound, and I can stop it and go pee because

20:14

I'm drinking so much diet coke and it's costing me because I buy it by

20:19

the case thirty cents. I can what am I doing? Why would you

20:23

talk about experience? And the movie theaters are still struggling to catch up to

20:29

the home experience. Our TV screens are eighty inches or sometimes even larger,

20:33

and everything you said, Bill is true. And also the window is shorter

20:37

in which movies are in theaters. If I don't want to necessarily go to

20:41

the theater to see Doom too well, I know it's going to hit streaming

20:44

in thirty days, So there's that that they're working against as well. I

20:48

don't think a movie theater experience will ever be able to keep up with the

20:52

home experience now given the advancements in home theater technology. Yeah, they can't.

20:56

I mean there's no way they can compete. You've got the box office

21:00

waiting for the movie to show up, You're sitting next to people that you

21:03

don't want to sit next to if it's crowded. I mean, the seats

21:07

in certain theaters could be very comfortable. I mean now they have the half

21:11

reclining seats of stadium seating, so virtually everybody does that, but I don't

21:15

know how they're going to beat a good system at home. It's impossible.

21:18

And then now they're getting the technology for home viewing is just insane. It's

21:25

as good as movie theaters, if not better, I would say better because

21:27

you don't have to waste the time or gas and dedicated time of three and

21:32

a half hours going and returning. You can watch a movie when you want,

21:37

how you want, where you are, and you go and pick up

21:40

one of those twelve or twenty four packs of Orville Reagan Baker's popcorn that cost

21:48

you seventy five cents instead of nine dollars. Hey, is it going to

21:52

effectively all this? This is going to put movie theaters out of business where

21:56

they become very very niche Yeah. I think you'll have maybe the art house

22:00

theaters especialty theaters, but as far as the large chains where you'll be able

22:03

to find a movie theater you know, every five or six blocks, I

22:07

think those days are gone. And you're seeing it happen with AMC. They

22:11

are strapped for cash and they're just trying to hold on. At this point.

22:15

Now there are market forces which had nothing to do with them. Such

22:18

as the strike in the pandemic. But we are here. Doesn't matter.

22:22

It is okay, Mo. Catch you next Thursday and tonight. Of course

22:26

you are on later with Mo Kelly as you are Monday through Friday seven to

22:30

ten pm. Have a good one. So take care of MO. All

22:33

right. So, I mean he does a lot of general talk. MO

22:37

does a lot of stuff, but his wheelhouse, in many ways, his

22:41

entertainment. That's why we go. He's our default guide to entertainment. All

22:44

right. I think we're done, guys. Boy another another day. Another

22:48

eighty cents used to be a dollar, but we were for iHeart and we're

22:52

back again tomorrow, Amy King, five o'clock in the morning with wake up

22:56

call. The rest of us are back here, say to nine. I

23:00

hear people in the hallway screaming, and I don't know if the microphone picks

23:03

it up, but boy, that is disconcerting. All right, tomorrow is

23:07

it? This is kf I Am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.

23:14

You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show. Catch my show Monday through

23:17

Friday six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.