New Coins, Treasures & Travel Points

Drew: 00:31
Okay. All right, go ahead. Go ahead. Okay, I'll start it. Yeah.

Jeff: 00:34
 So uh welcome to uh to two cents. We wanted to kind of do a little recap video or or revisit video from topics that we've talked about uh on previous videos. Okay. Um because there's there's some things that have been happening over the last few months that uh could could you know the world does the world does tend to turn. Yes, yes.

Jeff: 00:55
It it it moves on, even even though we don't always well, we always wanted to, I suppose, but yeah.

Drew: 01:00
Okay. 

Drew: 01:00
So yeah. So um topic uh number one that we had talked about on a previous episode was the Trump accounts. So I wanted to give a little update on Trump accounts and my personal experience because now I was able to set up an account finally. Um so you did so you got so you got it. I did I did did get the Trump account and I was I did get the the thousand dollar seed money, um the Trump seed money. Um and that was that was invested when it was supposed to. I got the the money on the fourth. Um and then that was because that was a what a Saturday that the fourth of July was the share it was invested on the sixth.

Jeff: 01:34
Okay. Um so so so it is definitely a thing. It is definitely a thing. It's not something that was you know, because you we talked about this in the original uh episode, but it's been politicized a lot because of the name attached to the account. Right, right. And we are not sitting here telling you that we are you know beholden to any political party or affiliation or any of that stuff. As a matter of fact, there are times whenever we just we just let it go.

Drew & Jeff: 02:03
Right.

Jeff: 02:03
Yeah. But at the end of the day, these are a monetary instrument that people are being told about, and we want to educate people, right? Right, right. And just because there's a particular name attached to it, kind of like we said about the Roth IRA back in the day. Did you know that Roth IRAs are not an acronym? I did not know that before our conversation. Yeah. Yeah. So Roth IRAs are named after Senator William V. Roth, uh, who was a longtime serving senator from Delaware. And he was the one that came up with the idea of the Roth IRA being uh a taxable IRA now and then not having to pay taxes on it later. For those of you that know want to know the difference between a traditional and a Roth, that's pretty much the basic difference, is whether it's tax deferred now or tax deferred later. Right. Um, and so we call them Roth IRA. Uh just because there's a particular name attached to it doesn't necessarily make the product itself bad or good. Right. You have to, you know, sort of weigh it and examine it on its own merit. Yep. Right. So very well said. Right. So okay, so please continue that.

Drew: 03:08
Okay, so so to take a few steps back. Um, so I uh initially said that I wanted this account whenever I uh had my taxes done for this past year, and they filled out um a form uh IRS form 4547. Okay, so that that initiated that you wanted the the uh the uh Trump account.

Jeff: 03:30
I wonder I wonder if that means that uh does that imply that there are at least 4,547 accounts like different IRAs tax forms. Or versions, yeah, yeah. I don't know.

Drew: 03:40
Yeah, that's a good question. Um so when I when I filled this out, they said, okay, in in uh May, you'll be getting uh an email with some more instructions on what to do once you know they figure everything out.

Jeff: 03:53
Okay.

Drew: 03:54
So I was checking my email, checking my email, um, and I but I didn't even know what where this email was coming from. I get spam email all the time. So I Googled it and um I was supposed to be receiving an email from no reply at trumpaccounts.treasury.gov. So I was built that into my filter, you know, look for that, look for that uh put put that on the put that on like the thing, you know, on the yeah. Yeah, yeah. So um it was mid to end June. Um I was I was sitting in bed, we couldn't get my son to sleep, and it was late at night. And I checked my email and it popped up, and I was like, okay, I gotta do this right now. I'm gonna follow the instructions. Yeah. And it was simple. It was go download this app from the the Apple store, Google Play Store, and you know, input

Drew: 04:40
 the the information that they were looking for, and they they wanted the the birth date, the address, social security number of the the child that the account is.

Jeff: 04:48
Okay, I was gonna say because the account is the correct me if remind me, the account is actually in your son's name, correct? The account is in my son's name, yeah. And then you are the account manager or what have you.

Drew: 04:59
Okay, gotcha. Um so the the actual process was really simple. I downloaded the app. Um it was uh it was a Robin Hood app, and I found out later that Robin Hood is the the trustee for all of the money. Okay at the uh you know, at least for now. Um down the road, you're able to kind of roll that into your own, you know, brokerage account or or whatever. Um but so for now, um that's that's who owns it. But it was real simple. Um so I was able to log in. Um, like I said, the money was was there, but it wasn't uh invested for a few days later. And it the the app is very intuitive. It lets you know, it shows you what it was invested in, how much it's what what you know, how much it's made, um, and it gives you a slider that you can say um because we had talked before of what this would be worth at age 18, age 60. Right, right, right. And there was and it was a surprising um it was a surprising number. Uh it was a surprising number, but it was a little misleading. Okay. So whenever we were talking about it, that was that was assuming you were putting money in. The the the numbers that we were we were spitting

Drew: 06:06
 out was yeah, you were contributing regularly, monthly.

Jeff: 06:09
Uh yeah, but I thought didn't we do didn't we say if you even if you just took the thousand and then never touched it, didn't we give a number? It wasn't nearly as high, but it was it was still a number. I mean, it was still more than a tumble. Yeah, yeah, it was how much is the Trump account likely to be worth? Again, assuming you put nothing into it, um how much is it likely to be worth at retirement or say like age like 55?

Drew: 06:37
55, um, that would be worth $243,000. Having put nothing in, if you if you put in the $5,000 a year um from you know from when you opened it till 55, that would be roughly $13 million. So at the time we were recording this, it's currently at $1,018.62 is what that account is worth.

Jeff: 07:02
Okay.

Drew: 07:02
And so you've made $18.60.

Jeff: 07:05
Since July 4th. Right, right. Okay.

Drew: 07:07
And it I mean it goes up, I mean it's it's live, so like it's it's currently changing since right now. Oh, okay. I gotcha. It's a real live ticker. Um, so the funny thing is, and and I don't know why I check this like daily. I mean, it doesn't really matter. But there was 17 and a half years before, yeah. So there were last week it the the stock market had you know dipped and it went like $900, $990 and some odd time. So it's like, oh my god, I'm losing everything. It's like this was a thousand dollars free to begin with, so why am I working anyway? I got you. So so by age 18, if you didn't put anything in, they're estimating at the the current um cost of this this um in or this the stock is three thousand three hundred and ninety-five dollars.

Jeff: 07:56
Okay. Um so you're gonna essentially they're they're saying that it they're they're predicting that there's a good chance you'll triple the in the you'll be originally I don't even say it was an investment because you didn't put the money in.

Drew: 08:09
It was true, but yeah, okay. And by age 60, if you didn't put any in and and your child, once they take over the account, didn't doesn't put anything in, um, it would be worth at at the current rate sixty-three thousand six hundred and eighty-six dollars. Okay.

Jeff: 08:25
Well, I mean it's a free sixty-three thousand dollars. I mean, and you know, right. Um that's not that's not a terrible deal. Right. Now now it's so go ahead.

Drew: 08:35
If so, if you would put fifty dollars in every month uh until you handed it off to your to your child, and then that child put in fifty dollars until the age of sixty, that would shoot up to five hundred and ninety-four thousand dollars and fifty uh or five hundred and ninety-four thousand and fifty-six dollars. So you're so you so fifty bucks a month, yeah.

Jeff: 08:57
And they're predicting that that changes sixty thousand into almost half a million, over half a million. Yeah, that's what that's at least what the app's saying right now.

Drew: 09:06
Wow. Yeah. That's impressive. Yeah. So I mean, I guess you don't have to put a whole heck of a lot in to make a difference uh down the road. And that's a kind of a good a good lesson to to you know share is yeah, you don't always need to put in a ton of money every month to uh to an account, you know. If you gotta have a spare ten, twenty dollars, it'll add up down the road.

Jeff: 09:27
You know, yeah. I mean, um, and uh to to your point, um it is a prediction of sorts, it's right an educated guess. Right, it's constantly changing. Yeah, and you never know, right. Um but uh statistically speaking, and we've said this on the program before, but statistically speaking, over enough time the stock market makes you money. Right. Right. Um it is uh an average of eight to ten percent return over a decade. So over any given 10 year span, statistically, you're likely to make eight to ten percent on your investment in the stock market.

Drew: 10:05
Yeah, I think I think yeah, it was conservative. I think they were saying about seven percent was what they're averaging. So yeah.

Jeff: 10:10
So yeah, so and and in a way that's good. Conservative is good. You you want to, you know, if if they predict a half a million and you get 750,000, then hey, great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's extra.

Drew: 10:21
Right, right. Um icing on the cake, yeah.

Jeff: 10:23
But if you're you know the other way around, then you're then you're you know, you're left feeling bitter and disappointed. So no, but that's I I mean I know we we held this up as an example in the original program. And if anybody wants to learn more about these or or hear some more of the the prediction or the extrapolations that we did, uh they can go back and listen to that uh episode. Yeah. But um, I know that we definitely held this up as as a one example of what it means to plan for retirement. Yep. The the earlier you start saving, the better off you're likely to be. Um, and it's those, it's that law of exponents. You know, it's you know, that that uh half a million dollars. I'd be curious, does it can you put any age into that?

Drew: 11:10
Uh no, it was it's uh you can put any dollar amount in for a monthly. But you can't predict it at any given age. No.

Jeff: 11:18
I I would be willing to bet if we were to do the math that at fifty it's nowhere near a half a million. Uh yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Like you would go from zero to fifty and probably be at you know two hundred and fifty thousand or or maybe you know a little bit more. It's that last ten years of the exponential growth that gets you to that half a million dollars. Right.

Drew: 11:41
You know, so I mean I'll show you just you can look at the graph even. I mean, oh yeah, you can see you know, from age one to I mean the curve is drastic.

Jeff: 11:52
The curve is drastic. I mean, you're right. By the time the way the way this looks, like by the time that he's 30, he's gonna be saying, Why did my dad ever do this? Yeah, right, right. You know, this thing's worth nothing.

Drew: 12:04
Right. Um, but this one, you know what? And so don't get discouraged, you know, keep contributing, you know, and eventually it'll it'll it'll pan out. Yes.

Jeff: 12:11
Yeah, and and I would like to think that this might be an opportunity for you to also be able to teach him a little bit about yeah this kind of stuff um earlier in the in his life than what most of us were. I mean, I wasn't taught this stuff whenever I was a kid. Yeah.

Drew: 12:25
I mean, my my dad was was really good with numbers and and good with like you know, the stock market and stuff like that, but there was it was not a lot of visual stuff like this, where yeah, you know, the kids these days are visual learners. I'm a virtual, and so I was never interested in that kind of stuff when I was younger, you know?

Jeff: 12:38
Yeah. I mean, if somebody had graphed it out for me like that whenever I was 20, I I'm I I can't guarantee I would have paid attention, but I probably would have had a better chance of paying attention. Yeah. Um, especially seeing that tall graph at the end, you know, like um I can get there, but it's just you know gonna take some time. Yeah, yeah. All right, cool.

Drew: 12:54
Yeah. Um, okay. Cool update. Next. 

Drew: 12:57
Next. Um, so we haven't talked about this particular topic, but we've talked about coins and and such in the past. Um, so this year, uh the the semi-quincentennial uh 250th uh anniversary of our nation. Yes, uh, the Mint has or is releasing uh five commemorative uh quarters throughout the year. Um a few of them have already been released. There, I think there's two um still left even at the for the time of this release. Um but they are the Mayflower Compact, the American Revolutionary War, the United States Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Gettysburg Address. Okay. They released the Declaration of Independence coin, I believe, in June. Um early, early June. And so the the cool thing about the Declaration of Independence coin is they also released a limited amount of I'm gonna say a limited edition version. So they released 250,000 uh quarters that had a what they're calling a what they call a privy mark. Okay, it's it's a it's a little um uh raised area that that says uh July 4th. Okay. Um so that that's like your your your limited edition run. And they the mint added these uh into regular circulating coins, regular circulating quarters before the fourth of July. They didn't say specifically when they you know released them, gotcha, but that they would hit banks and retailers and stuff like that before the fourth of July.

Jeff: 14:31
So So the so so so this isn't the commemorative coin you see at two o'clock in the morning that's rotating on a little spindle. Like this is an actual coin that's in circulation that you could find, you know, fine, right, right.

Drew: 14:42
Okay, yeah. So so so the hunt is on was on, you know. Um, and I was interested in it. My dad was is into coin collecting, and yeah, he's hey, you know, you work at a bank, see if there's any quarters, you know. And I had no such luck. And you know, I'd hunt like everybody else and go to different stores, and you know, hey, if I get a quarter, you know, check all my change, you know, religiously now. Do I have a declaration of independence quarter? Um Is there is there a picture of what it looks like online somewhere?

Jeff: 15:09
Yeah, yeah, I will pop up. So you so you can look at you if you're looking through your change, yeah, you know what you're looking for. Yeah.

Drew: 15:14
Yeah, the mint has has pictures of all of the coins.

Jeff: 15:17
I thought maybe it was like one of those puzzles like my mother used to put together whenever I was a kid that you didn't know what it looked like.

Drew: 15:21
You decided to put it together and see what it looked like for a yeah. Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no. There's there's lots of pictures. And so I mean, so I was looking for one of these coins too. And because we didn't know when the coin actually came out, I was I was um monitoring eBay. Um so I figured as soon as someone had posted one of these for sale that you know you could find them, you know, in in circulating coins. Yeah, smart fish. The the the prices of these things were ridiculous. They were like fifteen hundred dollars that these were going for. Now, since then, I mean it's you know, weeks later, the price has significantly dropped. You can get one for 100 to 200 now, but it's still that's still a lot for a quarter.

Jeff: 15:58
Yeah.

Drew: 15:58
Um, and they're they're they're kind of estimating that there's going to be like two different price ranges as time goes by. So you as time uh goes by, you know, further and further from as time goes by. As these quarters have been out longer and longer and in circulation, and they're getting beat up and banged up, they're eventually going to be worth, you know, just a little bit above face value. But then you'll have you'll have the the people who have found these right in the beginning where they're mint or close to mint. Uh and those may still fetch the fifteen hundred dollars or more, you know, depending on the road, yeah. Depending on what the what the you know the value of it is.

Jeff: 16:36
But yeah, I mean it's it's it's time plus rarity, right? Right. Right. Uh plus plus um um um demand. Right. Right. So just because something's old doesn't make it historical, right? Just because something is not in demand or uh not uh not common doesn't make it historical. You kind of you kind of have to need those two things and you need people to want it. Right, right. Uh, but but coins are are usually typically in that group, right? So um 30

Jeff: 17:03
 years from now, if you find one of these early on enough and you and you keep it in great condition, it it might be worth something. Yeah, that's neat.

Drew: 17:09
So we we found Declaration of Independence quarters. We've we've found three or four of them so far. Um we still have not found the the the Fourth of July privy mint version, but to to I'm gonna pull a Drew and give numbers and you know all that kind of stuff. Oh, please. Yes, okay, so the Nalonomics. Okay, okay. So 250,000 seems like a large number, right? It it it seems that way. So so they have produced or will produce 147.8 million declaration of independence quarters, of which 250,000 will have the preview mark. So that's 0.17%. Yeah, that's that's not that many. So I've been looking for to not and and I haven't been looking, you know, like hardcore looking, but every time I get change, I look at pennies too. Because I'd like to get uh as many 2025 pennies as I can get because it's the year my son. No, yeah, right. The year my son was born too. So I want to collect. Oh yeah, there's that. There's that, there's that, yeah, yeah. Not not just because that's the year last year that minted it. Yeah, yeah. But you know, for sentimental or you know, reasons I want to get I'm collecting you know coins from from the year of his birth. Um that's been hard to find. Yeah and and they minted pennies for the first part of of 2025. Um, they minted 1.3 billion 2025 pennies. And I've yet to find one, you know, in you know, regular circulation looking. Uh to even to put that in perspective, uh, in 2024 they minted 3.2 uh billion pennies. So by the time the the penny was no longer a thing, um, it was about half of what they normally mint on a regular year. Yeah.

Jeff: 18:54
So and the and and right now there are a bunch of 2025 pennies that are currently lining the floor of a uh bodega somewhere. You know, you know what I've seen people doing that. They use pennies and then they cover it in resin and they may turn it into like their flooring and stuff. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's it looks neat, but it's probably technically against the law.

Drew: 19:12
I'm sure it is the same thing as with like the smash penny machines. I mean, I don't know how that's uh you know legal, but I guess it is because nobody cares enough about a penny to throw a fuss. I guess I mean eventually you will. I mean, yeah, but yeah, I get so excited. I see a shiny coin or a penny on the floor or in my pocket, and uh you know what I get from change, and it's always a 2024 or 2023. Yeah.

Jeff: 19:34
I wonder if anybody I bet people were putting them on the tracks whenever the uh the uh wanted to do that, yeah. Yeah, but you p yeah the you because you mentioned the penny machines, right? Yeah, but people used to put them on railroad tracks and the trains would run over them and straight them out. And I saw there were a lot of people when the uh big boy the big boy was going around the country, they were going out and they were putting putting people.

Drew: 19:54
Yeah, I saw some for for sale online, you know, on Facebook Marketplace or whatever. I know, yeah, yeah. I wanted to do that because we we did end up going in and seeing it. And did you? Yeah, I as soon as we got to where where we were looking at it, um, there's a police officer walking the tracks, making sure everything was okay. So you know, can't do anything illegal or or frowned upon, you know. Yeah. So uh didn't get to do that. But um Okay. Okay, moving on. Next segment. 

Drew: 20:23
Uh so keeping with the coin theme, uh, we could talk about the the new uh one dollar Trump coin that is coming out in the fall. Do I have to give my disclaimer again?

Jeff: 20:34
I'm just asking about it.

Drew: 20:36
Well, this one actually has his face on it. This is not just a name tied to this coin, his likeness will be on the coin, which is what is is uh a problem. Um you know legally, uh you can't have a sitting president or actually anyone alive on on US currency. Um but I guess in 2020 there was a law that that um was signed that these 250th anniversary coins, there's an exception for that. So that's how they're getting around that.

Jeff: 21:07
So so what you're saying is that this was done in 2020. So theoretically, no matter who was president in 2025 or 2026, they could be on a coin. They could be on a coin. Right. Okay, yeah. So it just so happens, right? But so again, right, not necessarily a Trump thing, but he just happens to be the sitting president at the time of the what is it? It's not a by it's is a semi semi-quintenal semi-quincentennial. That's what you said earlier.

Drew: 21:33
Yeah, yeah, because you know, we've got to make these things complicated, right? 250th anniversary. Yeah, um, okay. Um, so yeah, that'll be out in the fall. It's it's in um production now out of the Philadelphia Mint. Okay. Um they didn't say how many they're they're minting, um, but you'll be able to buy them in rolls and and bags from the mint. And I I assume they're they'd be in circulation kind of like a Sakchawea dollars type thing.

Jeff: 21:55
Okay, so that was gonna be my next question, too. Is this one of those ones that rotates on this on the thing at night at 230? the morning or no i don't believe so i think i think it's gonna be uh you know actually you can you can find it in circulation yeah so i mean just just as a just as a for instance the those commemorative coins that you see like late at night and stuff like that when they say like oh this thing is you know this gold coin for 1995 yeah it is like the tiniest amount of gold like it is not a double eagle okay it's five thousand plus dollars an ounce right now yeah yeah so the that you know be aware yeah it's but yeah coated plated whatever yeah right yeah yeah um okay so but also do we know what this looks like yet uh we do we'll pop it up I'm curious I I does does the hair flop in the breeze no it does not so so the the the obverse or the heads uh uh design uh has the portrait of Donald Trump with the inscription Liberty in God We Trust and the the 1776 to 2026 which we see on a lot of coins um right now that are the commemorative coins okay on the reverse on the tails uh tail side it is the presidential seal uh which shows an eagle holding an olive branch and a bundle of arrows with a shield um with a banner and the shield contains uh additional uh inscription 250 in honor of the semi-quincentennial uh unite of the United States do you know do you know what the uh the things that the eagle is holding do you know what they signify the the the arrows we did talk about this and it was pointing it's yeah pointing towards well there's the olive branch in the one for peace yeah and the the arrows in the other do you know how many there are arrows there are uh thirteen there are thirteen the original thirteen colonies yeah right and the arrow and the eagle faces which direction uh I don't remember the eagle faces toward the olive branch towards the olive branch because the you want to face peace you want to correct okay okay so the the idea being that our nation favors peace okay yeah but will defend itself if necessary I have to watch that episode again yeah just in case anybody missed it but we did cover that yeah yeah I got history into this episode of course of course but at least it's history we've talked about you know so fair all right and and I've edited it so I've seen it you know a dozen times um also uh he will be uh his Trump signature will be soon appear on US paper currency um the move marks the first time a sitting US president will have their signature appear on legal tender okay yeah huh interesting how long is that gonna last I didn't I didn't see that but um if I find that I will pop that up on the screen and put it in the description I was just curious yeah I don't know I mean I there's always gonna be to be fair I think there's always gonna be special circumstances around major events yeah I mean yeah you know a lot of us like hope hopefully your son will be around for the actual um tricentennial right but I probably won't yeah yeah yeah I mean yeah it's it's I'm gonna be really pushing that I would be ninety six yeah um which is not to say I couldn't be there 85 86 yeah yeah um but um so you know you only get one of these things in most most people only get to see one of these things in their lifetime so yeah yeah you tend to make a big a big deal about it sure and um and you want to have something special to commemorate it and so forth and it's it's certainly not the first time that any president has um wanted to make sure that they were immortalized in some way so um all right so I mean you know whoever would have been president is it was going to be on the coin it just happens to be

Jeff: 25:32
 President Trump.

Drew: 25:33
Yep okay what do we got next uh final topic for this this little discussion um we found a uh uh an article um talking about uh credit card points and you know rewards and and what yeah because we had talked about you know you cashing in reward points at the end of the year to to buy your Christmas presents or or what have you yeah um and a USAA um survey has shown that that sh that is shifting that mentality of saving up your points for a vacation or a big purchase okay at the end of the year or whatever um there's that is shifting towards more everyday spending so you you build up a few dollars in in in points and you spend it. Okay. And they're saying that people are doing that because they're buying using it to buy groceries and gas and everyday things. So they're using it more as a uh budget coupon. Yeah like a coupon type thing.

Jeff: 26:30
Yeah yeah yeah I mean that's that's basically I think what it would come down to is basically it's a coupon. And it's like oh I earned 10 bucks I'm gonna take $10 off my grocery bill.

Drew: 26:38
Yeah yeah um I tend to be one of those guys though that I I I don't do you have a rewards card of any kind or anything okay yeah yeah yeah um do you save them or do you it's how you normally normally normally I yeah so I I used to save them till around Christmas time and yeah you know rack up a few dollars and when you're spending a lot of money at Christmas time any few dollars of savings feels like a giant win. Oh yeah it definitely does so I would usually save it up but I I have found that um especially if um if it's something that I know I'm gonna keep like I use them for online online shopping. Yeah um I guess now you can use those certain certain cards allow like point of sale like immediate savings like you can cash your you know you swipe your card at whatever store and you can you know cash your points in but I usually use mine for online shopping and if it's something I'm I'm going to keep that I know I'm gonna keep uh and not return then I'll I'll I'll use my points whatever I have on it because I don't know how that works like yeah I don't know how you would get the do they give you return back or do you just get cash back I don't know either so yeah yeah usually if it's something like that I I'm gonna keep um that I'll I'll use my points for yeah how about you um we have we I think I may mention this we have a travel rewards card um my wife has family that lives in Kansas so um we have a tra and we basically put everything on there that we throughout the throughout the month so we'll we'll put all of our groceries on there we put our cable bill on there our gas bill our electric bill like everything gets paid on that and then we pay it off in one lump sum every month um so we never get charged interest which is great um but we've earned um enough money that we're actually gonna go to Kansas this year basically for free.

Jeff: 28:20
Oh that's awesome which is awesome yeah yeah um you know and uh so yeah I mean it I guess it depends on on your point of view like if it's a if it's a rewards card like what you have where you can sort of use it toward everyday purchases then you know hey there's nothing wrong with using them up. I mean it's better than letting them sit there and never get used. Right. Um I that's that's tech actually a big problem for me even with stuff that has no intrinsic value like I there's a game that I play on my phone where you can earn like bonus power ups and things like that. I have hundreds of them just sitting there and and and people make like my my wife my friends that play the game as well they they make fun of me they're like why don't you use these things I'm like well I might need them someday. Yeah yeah you know and they're like but have you never needed them yet I'm like well yeah there have been times I've been stuck on a level for three weeks or something like that. Why do you use them? Yeah yeah I didn't want to use them I have the same problem with things like points. You know I think points involve I you know I don't want to I don't want to I don't want to uh or doll or reward dollars or whatever it's like oh I have these but I don't I'll I'll save them for a rainy day.

Drew: 29:27
Yeah yeah and then you know it can be a hurricane outside and I'll still be like ah I don't know if I want to use those yeah um so I remember having a I had a uh rewards card um back when I first was starting or was trying to build credit up uh you know when I turned 18. Sure um had a had a rewards card but it it the rewards were not it wasn't monetary it was like it was actual points and then you went on this website and you picked out like objects like you could get like like the old notebook like the old wheel of fortune with the floating head I'll take this I'll take the the ceramic dog right and never yeah and and it it like it didn't equate like the number of points to to the object like 5,000

Drew: 30:10
 points got you a notebook or right right you know like 200 points got you a nice pen. And then you never turn it like when you used to get tickets at the arcade or you'll you'd go to the surprise booth with 10,000 tickets and you got like a cheap plastic right size we my my wife and I uh went to a a mall over the this past weekend and we went to an arcade um and it was a mall that for whatever I the a lot of the stores um the power was out and the power had been out for for like two months. Oh um okay for like 80% of the stores and we didn't do that who Googles you know hey this this mall you know to see if everything's up and running you know we didn't do that so most of us just assume that if it's a mall it's not up and running anymore. Right well so we walked in and I'm thinking okay this is worse than our mall you know yeah yeah um but no the the the tr some transformer blue and and 80% of the mall was dark. Um no escalators and no elevators which was a pain to take a uh when you have a stroller up and down yeah anyway uh so one of the th one of the stores that was opened was uh an arcade and um now you don't use coins or anything like that you have a swipe card like a credit card um because you don't of course you did you don't get tickets anymore it goes directly onto your card well you'll never put a declaration of independence quarter in there but you're not that nice no but it's not as satisfying you know no it's not but anyway I think I put I put $20 on this card just for something to do because we got to this dead mall and we wanted to like make it worthwhile. So sure we we burned $20 in like you know 15 minutes because it's not hard to do. And but we ended up with like a bouncy ball two rubber duckies and some other little chotchkey that did not equate to $20 worth you know right but but yeah same thing.

Jeff: 31:58
Well you came away with more than you would have had you spent $15 or $20 in a casino. So you know yeah you're probably still further ahead there. But yeah um arcades are just cheap casinos is my cause is my is what I'm convinced of these days you know teaching kids to gamble yep yep yeah um yeah I remember that though I remember I remember going to do you remember showbiz pizza place or are you old enough for for showbiz no or Chucky well Chucky Cheese yeah so Chuck E. Cheese had like a whole big animatronic band at one point. Yeah and then they sort of pared it down to the mouse. But the uh there there was a Showbiz Pizza Place back in the day that had the whole rock of fire explosion and it had like a three stage animatronic group of oh stuff. Okay. Uh there was like the the Billy Bob on the one guy on the one stage with like a little parrot that came up out of the I think it was a parrot came up out of like an oil drum. Okay. And then there was like the main stage where they had like the drummer that was a bear and they had the keyboardist that was a gorilla and stuff. And then they had a they had a stand-up comic that was a wolf on the other side. Okay. And but anyway you could see and you got these tokens you're like you know and you would you so you first of all kind of like the the credit card thing or the um the game card thing that you said you had to do when you were there you sort of traded your money for tokens. Yeah right and then you would use the tokens in the games and then the games would spit out tickets and I I'm I'm convinced that it got progressively less uh uh uh uh desirable of a of an interchange ratio when you exchanged the money for the coins and then the coins for the tickets and then the tickets for the prizes. Yeah yeah uh it was just worse and worse and worse for you the whole way down.

Drew: 33:38
Yeah you know well the the weird thing was none of these games um were like whole number like credits. Okay. A game might be 12.1 credits. Oh so okay it's like impossible once you get down to like the very end to to like find something that takes like that exact number credits you always end up with with something left on your card.

Jeff: 34:01
Yeah yeah smart yeah uh yeah plus I would imagine that also makes it more difficult for you to sort of mentally keep track of where you are yeah you know because you're like oh 12.3 and then 3.5 and then 16.1 you're like I don't know how much money I have a left on this card until it's it and then you can't do anymore. Yeah. Yeah so that's yeah that's interesting.

Drew: 34:21
Yeah not as fun but that's interesting. All right all right well that's cool. What else you got? Anything? I I think that was the end of my list. Aww that's a bummer yeah okay well that was fun.

Drew: 34:32
 Yeah a little recap of of some old episodes or you know some some updated information I guess. Yeah absolutely yeah um yeah thanks very much that's cool have a good day you too yeah 

Drew: 34:46
this podcast focuses on having valuable conversations on various topics related to banking and financial health. The podcast is grounded in having open conversations with professionals and experts with the goal of helping to take some of the mystery out of financial and related topics as learning about financial products and services can help you make more informed financial decisions. Please keep in mind that the information contained within this podcast and any resources available for download from our website or other resources relating to bank chats is not intended and should not be understood or interpreted to be financial advice. The hosts, guests and production staff of BankChatly recommend that you seek advice from a trusted financial professional before making financial decisions. The hosts of BankCats are not attorneys, accountants or financial advisors and the program is simply intended as one source of information. The podcast is not a substitute for a financial professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation thank you for listening please check out our full library of episodes which can be found on the Ameriserve.com website. You can also download or stream the podcast from your favorite podcast app