Listen to our newest podcast episode where we discuss bonds, youth sports, and the lottery. The full transcription is below or you can follow this link to listen.
Untucked Episode 70
Meghan Tait: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone. Welcome to the newest episode of untucked. This is our 70th episode. So thank you guys all for listening. Uh, today we’re gonna talk, talk about bonds and why it’s important. Um, To understand mechanically, how they work, especially in a rising interest rate environment. We’re gonna discuss the impacts of youth sports on families, not just the athlete itself.
And then finally, we’re gonna talk about the lottery. Hope you enjoy. The opinions expressed on this podcast are our own and do not reflect the opinions or views of FC advisory, the financial coach group or the new wealth project, nothing discussed on this podcast should be interpreted as investment advice.
Welcome to episode 70 of untucked. This is Megan
Jeff Mastronardo: and Mike. This is Jeff. So you guys have heard like the saying like blind is a bat. Yeah. You probably know this, but like, you know, bats are not blind. Right. [00:01:00]
Meghan Tait: Can’t they see it in like,
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah, pretty much, but like, why do, like, I’ve always thought bats are blind, but they’re not.
Meghan Tait: Can they say in the D see in the daytime
Jeff Mastronardo: bats of small eyes with very sensitive vision, which helps them see in conditions, we might consider pitch black so they can basically see in the dark can
Mike Traynor: they only see in the dark though?
Jeff Mastronardo: Well, they don’t have sharp and colorful vision like humans have, but they don’t need.
Like think of a bats, like vision is similar to like a dark adapted, like vision, but they
Meghan Tait: sleep during the day. Right. You, you don’t need to see during the day. Did you see the bat on Twitter? Yeah. How big, like five feet, five feet, five, sorry, feet. A real life bat. it was somewhere in a foreign
Mike Traynor: country. Yeah, it was very
Jeff Mastronardo: far away from here, but like it had a five foot wings span.
No, where the body of the bat was the body of.
Meghan Tait: Oh. And it was hanging upside down, dude. I will show it to you right now. [00:02:00] Yeah. Sleeping or whatever. Yeah. It’s wrapped up in it’s. Oh, scary, scary. Why do you guys believe everything
Jeff Mastronardo: you see on Twitter?
Meghan Tait: Okay. Um, cause I mean, that’s legitimate question. That’s where I get all of my information.
Mike Traynor: I mean, I didn’t fact check
Jeff Mastronardo: it, but you might wanna, like, you fact checked all my, uh, My fun facts.
Meghan Tait: Five foot bat in the Philippines. Yes, it’s real. No, it won’t eat you. It’s an herbivore
Jeff Mastronardo: herbivore. That’s the fakest thing I’ve ever seen. that’s the fakes it’s like literally in someone’s garage. Like there’s a motorcycle right next to it.
It’s
Meghan Tait: the middle of the
Jeff Mastronardo: stop. It’s so fake. Get outta here. Okay. I’m not buying it. Ooh. Looks like it’s like literally a man in a costume looks like bat. sports. I mean, should, shall I get rolling? Oh God. Are you guys still not paying attention to the Phillies? [00:03:00] Um,
Mike Traynor: why should I
Meghan Tait: not, not because I’m paying more attention now.
Not because I want to though. So it’s unwanted attention. Okay. That I’m giving. That I’m giving them. Yeah. So
Mike Traynor: Bryce, Harper’s not back, right? No, wouldn’t it be funny if he comes back and they go on like a two and 15 run?
Jeff Mastronardo: Well, I mean he’s, if, if he comes back, which they’re thinking probably like, September-ish hope.
I mean, he’s just gonna be a designated hitter. That’s all he’s been this year. So, I mean, he strikes out like every time he gets up, I guess maybe that could be bad. I don’t think that’s gonna happen. If Bryce Harper’s in a position where he can actually swing the swing it bat, dude, like they’ve won like 12 of their last 13 games.
Like they’ve been on a ridiculous tear and like winning, like, [00:04:00] like last night was a great example. I’m sure both of you were tuned in. I
Meghan Tait: stopped watching and they were losing, so they were
Jeff Mastronardo: losing three to one to the Florida Marlins at home, going into the bottom of the eighth. Excuse me, they scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth.
That’s exciting. It’s go four, three, and then closer comes in top of the nine, like 1, 2, 3, and then came over and I’ll say this, like the emotion from the players. It’s it’s legit. Like these guys believe they have each other’s backs. They’re pumped up. Like Kyle Schwarber hits a hits, a single, which drives in, I think the tying.
and like his face and his like fist pump and his like clapping hands, like he was jacked up. And then he goes from first to third on like, um, on a, on a blooper out to, to the outfield should have got thrown on a third, but it was a bad throw. So he makes [00:05:00] it, and then he’s like the winning round. Like it was just, it was awesome.
An awesome game. They won in great fashion.
Mike Traynor: Cool. I mean, so like maybe they limp into a wild card position or something. No, they already
Jeff Mastronardo: have like the, the, the, like the set, like I think the first or second wild card.
Mike Traynor: Yeah. But that’s what I mean if they just stay where they are,
Jeff Mastronardo: they’re not limping in they’re 14 games above 500 dude.
Mike Traynor: That’s not great. okay. So then, so then there there’ll be what, 94 and whatever. Gotta get a hundred wins in this league, man.
Jeff Mastronardo: what do they mean? They, they won 82 games last year. They haven’t made the playoffs in over a decade. Like the goal is to make the playoffs. I don’t care how they do it. They wouldn
Meghan Tait: left for here.
Just mediocrity.
Jeff Mastronardo: Right? You should know you should. I do season ticket holder just expanded seasons day.
Meghan Tait: Partial. [00:06:00]
Jeff Mastronardo: I’ll say this we’ll wrap up on the Phils. It’s fun. It’s fun. Baseball. I know you guys don’t enjoy watching baseball. but it’s fun baseball to watch right now. And like they’re a team that I would imagine most teams in the league right now are like, dude, we don’t wanna play the Phillies.
Cause they’re, they’re just, they’re hot now. They just took two of, they just took the first two from the Marlins. They’re literally losing to the Marlins right now, three nothing in the bottom of the sixth. And then they play four games against the Mets, like this weekend. So. That is good.
Mike Traynor: You could have a, might have a different tune next week, different tune next week.
Like this
Meghan Tait: might be the curse of Jeff mess.
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. They lose four to the Mets, man. That’s going, that could hurt sets them back. That that sets ’em back a little bit. But I mean, they, I think we’re like 10 games away from the Braves. They’re three behind the Braves now. So. Yeah. They’re they’re looking good.
They made a few moves. I’m not sure [00:07:00] if you’re aware, got a picture. Noah Sy guard. Not aware. Yeah. Yeah. They made some, some decent moves too. So should be exciting. Good, nice. It’s
Meghan Tait: great birds. Yeah. How far out are. The month,
Jeff Mastronardo: uh, they have a game, like I think tonight that’s preseason I
Meghan Tait: real games.
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. We’re a month, three weeks a month.
So I don’t know. Have you got, have you guys been following the birds lately? Has anybody aware of what’s happening? What’s to follow? So their game one they’re home or their they’re opener. They’re season opener. I mean, have you, you guys are on Twitter haven’t you seen like. The, the Detroit lines at practice.
Like the guy, like, almost like in tears, like pep talking the team? No. Okay. So there was a dude in the practice, I forget his name and he’s like, got the guys in the huddle and he’s like, so emotional. Like he’s like, I almost cry over this stuff. And he’s like, [00:08:00] this
Meghan Tait: is a lions player or an Eagles player.
Jeff Mastronardo: Okay. Lions player talking to the, like the pack of lions, like, like just jacked up, like they’re ready to go to fricking war. Yeah. Bird’s first game is in. So we have the birds coming off of like a season that they maybe outperformed what we expected and then have done all this off season. Like, I mean, they’re the best team on paper.
Yeah. You have the lions that just got humiliated last season and game one. Like, I wouldn’t wanna play the lions game one now they’re still a bad team.
Meghan Tait: Yeah. And they’re the hard knocks. It was probably. for TV, you know, it was probably just entertainment that guy. Mm-hmm you think
Jeff Mastronardo: you almost cried? Yeah.
Grown ass man. Just to like for TV actors do it all the time. Yeah. He’s not an actor. He’s an
Meghan Tait: athlete. Yeah. But I mean, I think, you know,
Mike Traynor: he probably himself for post playing career.
Meghan Tait: Yeah. He saw HBO max in the, in the stands and thought, this is my moment. [00:09:00]
Jeff Mastronardo: So the concern is like, oh my God, are we gonna lose to the lions?
Like
Meghan Tait: week one whose concern. W IP callers mostly. No, it’s actually
Jeff Mastronardo: more like w I P people.
Meghan Tait: Oh, okay.
Jeff Mastronardo: Like that, that’s what they’re debating right now. Like, and a lot of them are like, they’re still the Alliance, like, okay. So we won’t beat ’em 44 to three, like we did last year. We’ll beat ’em 44 to 20, but can you imagine the birds lose weak one at Detroit?
How awful that would be. Mm-hmm I’m geeked up for the birds, man. Yeah. I am every year. All right. Good feedback from you guys. moving on.
Meghan Tait: Just, this is like dead sports timely. There is nothing .
Mike Traynor: I mean, we’re gonna talk about the union. Anybody got a take?
Jeff Mastronardo: Nah, I got nothing on, I mean, I will go back to the Phils I can talk about the Phils all day.
Meghan Tait: Kevin Durant apparently has said that Philadelphia [00:10:00] is a destination he’s willing to play. Really. He demanded a trade from Brooklyn. So that’s the NBA, Twitter drama of the day. Where did we get
Jeff Mastronardo: hardened from Brooklyn? Yeah. What’s what’s wrong with Brooklyn? Like no one wants to
Meghan Tait: play there. Oh my God. Um, yeah, so.
Everything that’s come out has basically just been that, um, they don’t like the co Steve Nash is the coach. So Duran doesn’t like the coach Kyrie. Doesn’t like the coach, not nothing about harden or anything he’s said about the organization has come out. So this is mainly Kyrie and Kevin Duran Durant. Um, and then just the, the owner of the team, the, the GM, like all of the people making decisions, he said he doesn’t like the direction that they’re going.
Um, so he basically said Boston and Philly are his two ideal landing spots to, but [00:11:00] both teams would have to give up everything. Like, what do you mean? What’s everything, everything but harden and indeed. Maxi, which like I’m willing to do
Jeff Mastronardo: I love maxi, man. I don’t know. I’d have, I’d have a hard time with that until we won the championship, then I’d be over it.
Meghan Tait: Uh, Tobias Harris got married over the weekend and there’s a picture of Matis. Thibo. Tobias Harris, Tyrese, maxi, and somebody else, all Sixers players and someone commented future Brooklyn starting one
Jeff Mastronardo: I mean, look, social media, they pulled it off and I don’t care who they unload and they kept harden and beat in maxi and got Duran to what I’d be like.
Meghan Tait: The, I, I don’t think keeping maxi would be possible, but yeah. I mean, I think that would be the most ideal [00:12:00] situation. Everybody on Twitter is talking about like, do you give up maxi for Duran?
It’s like, of course, of course you do. Like you do it in a heartbeat. Um, that would be the toughest. He would be the toughest one to part with everybody else. As far as I’m concerned, you can send him the Serb. I don’t care. Yep.
Jeff Mastronardo: When did that news come out about the Duran two days
Meghan Tait: ago. Okay. Yeah.
Jeff Mastronardo: Boston or Philly.
Meghan Tait: Yeah. I mean, Boston would have to get rid of like Jaylen brown. Like they’d have to get rid of significant pieces too again in replacement. Like you’re being replaced by Kevin Duran, but he’s still coming off of a, you know, Achilles.
And
Jeff Mastronardo: the only issue with that is like, we, if, if they. Sixers unloaded all those guys for Duran. It’s like, we still have the same problem we had last year. No bench, no bench.
Meghan Tait: Yeah. Yep. You just hope that a healthy harden, Joe and Katie is enough, [00:13:00] which probably is you think so? Yeah. In seven. Yeah.
Jeff Mastronardo: Do you think George ne yang can kind of
Meghan Tait: I think he actually was the other one in that picture.
all right. Let’s talk about bonds.
Jeff Mastronardo: Let’s do it super exciting.
Meghan Tait: So today’s coach’s corner is why you shouldn’t abandon bonds. It was written by Matt Sheridan. Um, who’s from Vanguard Matt’s article reminds bond investors that the impacts a rising interest rate environment has on their bond portfolio. Bond total returns have two components, price, and return from income.
And this article describes how long term investors should care more about total bond returns instead of negative short term impacts on bond prices. You wanna explain
Jeff Mastronardo: that? I mean, I’ve been dying for Mike to talk about this just because for years I’ve heard him say like, [00:14:00] like. We like gotta get out of bonds.
Like bonds are just bad. There’s like mathematically, they have no upside whatsoever. So I’m kind of curious is this is the environment that we’re in. Finally fulfilling the prophecy. You’ve been proclaiming. no,
Mike Traynor: I, my, my point was that when bond yields, I don’t, when I’m talking about bonds, I’m talking about just to keep it simple treasury.
So no risk of default, there’s all kinds of other bonds that have other factors like that, that drive returns, but just keep it simple treasuries when they were yielding, you know, 1.5% for a 10 year treasury, which
Jeff Mastronardo: is, is like a year ago. That’s I, I loan money to the federal government. Mm-hmm to us treasury for 10 years, I give them a thousand.
They’re gonna hold it for 10 years. And over that 10 year timeframe, they’re gonna gimme 150 bucks a year. Mm-hmm in interest. And that fluctuates,
Mike Traynor: no, it doesn’t that, that bond, that individual bond does exactly
Jeff Mastronardo: what you just say when you buy that 10 year, that, [00:15:00] that 1.5 doesn’t change. Right. And then
Mike Traynor: 10 years from now, you get your thousand 8,000 bucks back.
Okay. So, um, and bonds are just a math equation because, so, so when you. Invest in a bond, that’s giving you a one point, 1.5% yield for 10 years. You can pretty much expect that that’s going to be that that is gonna be your return. Does
the
Jeff Mastronardo: yield compound?
Mike Traynor: No. Right. So, but you are gonna like, presumably you’re gonna invest that $150 in whatever’s the prevailing rate.
So if, if yields are higher throughout the course of 10 years, you’re gonna get a better return on that interest. But what, when we talk about bonds, I think we, we talk about bond funds. We don’t deal in individual bonds because bond funds give you lots of more benefits of diversification and the really important part of that.
And, and back to the long term comment that was in the, that was in Megan’s intro is that, you know, a lot of investors look at those yields and they say, why would I, why [00:16:00] do I own bonds? Why do we even bother with bonds? The return is not even keeping up with inflation. And it’s like, yeah. Um, but if you have a long term time, horizon and rates go up, the, the price of the bond goes down instantly in reaction to the fact that rates are now higher than what the coupon was paying or is paying.
So of course the math says you’re gonna pay less for that bond than a new bond. That’s paying a higher rate. But bond funds have thousands of bonds in them that are constantly maturing and rolling over into the new issues. So you’re what, what you’re getting. If you own a bond fund and you, and you have a, you know, reasonably long time horizon, you’re getting higher and higher returns just naturally because you’re the interest that you’re, that you’re earning is getting reinvested in, in higher rates.
And the bonds that mature are get are getting reinvested in new bonds that are paying higher rates. So. You’re making up for the temporary decline in the price of the bond fund over [00:17:00] time as other bonds mature. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s kind of the math of it. And so. The counterintuitively, like, cause a lot of people they know, they know that, okay.
If interest rates go up, the price of my bond fund goes down and that’s bad. But if you don’t need the money for a long time and, and bond bonds act also as a buffer to, you know, the stock part of what you own, um, usually you, you actually should. rooting for higher rates as a bond fund investor and, and ignoring the fact that like this year’s a perfect example.
First, you know, seven, eight months of the year bond funds are down 8%, 9%, even 10 in some cases. And that’s, by the way, unprecedented, it’s never happened that a year has never gotten off to that start, uh, in, in bond funds or bonds. Um, and obviously that’s because of the spike in interest rates that happened.
Mm-hmm . At the, really at the early part of the year. [00:18:00] So like we tell people that, Hey, you’re, you’re now you’re now earning. Like, it was, it was really painful to be making one and a half percent on your bond funds last year, um, or the year before. But now they’re actually, they’re yielding the yields higher.
Your return is gonna be higher. Assuming rates don’t go right back down to where they were. and, and they serve an important role in the, in the, in the portfolio. I mean, again, I get back to the it’s math, it’s pure math. You have the interest payments that come in the reinvestment rate. Um, the compounding of that reinvestment over, over, over time.
And, you know, you’re, you’re not, I mean, you’re not gonna like shoot the lights out by owning like boring bond funds, but they serve an important role. They generate income for you and they, and. Typically act as a yin to the yang for the stock portion of it. [00:19:00]
Jeff Mastronardo: So as interest rates go up, I understand the value of your bond goes down.
But obviously if you hold that bond until maturity, you get back what you paid for it. Yep. Yep. In most cases. So you’re, you’re benefiting from the higher interest that is happening because interest rates are going up. So in a bond fund where the value is down. but your, your yield, because your interest rate is higher, how do you get that total return to come back?
Like what drives the value of the bonds back up time? Right. So like I have, so now my bond fund is like an average three year maturity and the average yield on it is like, uh, four and a half percent. So that’s the yield I’m gonna get on that fund. What’s gonna drive the value of those bonds back up, bonds maturing and taking that and having that reinvested into a new
Mike Traynor: bond.
Yeah. Okay. They’re gonna own bonds that are paying higher that are worth
Jeff Mastronardo: more. So you just gotta hold them. Yes. You just gotta hold [00:20:00] the fund. You got it. So it works just like stocks. You just gotta hold the fund. Yeah. And they’ll come back. Yeah. So talk to me about you in, in the past saying. Bonds like mathematically, like there’s no good.
That’s gonna come of them in the near in. I think you were thinking more like near term.
Mike Traynor: Yeah. And, and also just, or were you panic? We’re still in the same case, uh, which is you’re you always want to be, uh, cognizant of what inflation is because your thousand dollars that you put in today and you’re getting back in 10 years, you’re getting that same thousand dollars back.
And if inflation has made that thousand worth 800. You’ve you’ve you’ve lost ground. So
Jeff Mastronardo: you need the interest to be above
Mike Traynor: inflation. It’s owning bonds in a where inflation is much higher than like the, the interest rate. The prevailing interest rate environment is, is not good. Um, and hopefully we’re in a I’ll call it, hopefully we’re in a co somewhat temporary inflationary position now where it’s way higher than what [00:21:00] bonds are yielding.
There’s obviously there’s way more where we’re getting away from the, the topic a little bit, but, um, that’s, that’s the, that’s the important part of, of owning bond funds. And one of the ways to kind of deal with that is the, the treasury issues what’s called inflation protected bonds, which were they, they adjust the coupon periodically based on.
Um, inflation is and inflation expectations are, so that kind of helps buffer you against losing ground to an inflation. If you’re just holding bonds, treasuries. It’s,
Jeff Mastronardo: it’s one of the things I forgot. Like we, you and I were talking earlier this year. About like bond funds and man they’re, they’re, they’re down eight, nine, 10%.
Um, and your comment was, yeah, but the interest is, is a, is much higher than it was six months ago. And I totally forgot about that. Right? Like if, if people are, are looking at their portfolios for income, that picture looks better now. Because the interest is higher. And I forgot about that.
Meghan Tait: Yeah, for [00:22:00] sure. I think it’s all of this, the math of it.
Right. Makes sense. And I think if you can explain that in a way that people understand what you did, that’s helpful, but the environment that we’re in now, right. Especially with retired investors, seeing their stock and bond portfolio down, right. It, regardless of whether or not the math works. It’s just concerning.
I mean, I, I feel like we’ve, we’ve certainly had to explain and reiterate stock market volatility, right. And what it, how to manage through it. And you have contingencies in place and blah, blah, blah. Like all of those things we’ve said a lot, but for people who, you know, 50, 40 to 50% of their. portfolio is in bonds and we’re seeing, you know, eight, nine, 10%, even if it is temporary price volatility, mm-hmm, , it’s still very alarming.
So I think the, the mechanics of how bonds [00:23:00] work are very easily forgotten yeah. If they’re even known at all. Um, so being able to kind of walk through it as you just did, I it’s. It’s the only way to make sense of it. The outcomes are obviously the interest rate rising is unknown, but like the outcome of owning a bond fund is relatively predictable compared to a sock fund.
Jeff Mastronardo: True. And it’s predictable. If you own an individual bond as well, way more
Mike Traynor: predictable, you own
Jeff Mastronardo: an individual bond. Yeah. So it’s like it’s and the same, but the same rule applies. If you can hold that bond for a long time, until it matures, you’re gonna get back what you paid. The issue is if you need the money.
Yeah. Beforehand, the value of your bonds down, you paid a thousand bucks for it, but now they’re only gonna give you 800 cuz you need it now. Whereas if you were just to hold it until it matures, you’re gonna get your a thousand
Mike Traynor: bucks back. Yep. And you’re gonna get the benefit of reinvesting all that interest at higher rates along the way.
So, [00:24:00] um, I think
Jeff Mastronardo: that’s to, to your point, mate, I think that’s what a lot of people forget the mechanics of how bonds work because the interest component. Is so important to the bond. Yeah.
Mike Traynor: Compounding in bond funds is arguably more impactful than compounding in stocks like dividend reinvestment and stuff like that.
Just because of the, um, they’re generally paying higher yields than, uh, dividend paying stocks. And they’re. They’re reinvested more frequently. Um, so I think it’s actually the, the compounding part of that is lost on a lot of people. And I think, and it’s, it’s, it’s sort of subtle and it’s not very apparent unless you kind of take the time to describe it and understand it.
Um, but again, it all gets back to Jeff. You just said it all gets back to your time horizon. If it’s long, you shouldn’t. you shouldn’t care that there’s a temporary drop in bond, uh, bond prices, and you should be happy that you’re now getting three and four and, uh, [00:25:00] higher yields.
Jeff Mastronardo: Um,
Meghan Tait: yeah, I’m sure most people don’t actually go to our articles after we talk about them.
And this piece is, you know, maybe a little bit more technical, but the chart that is shown that shows the price return and total return for bonds. Pretty impactful, like showing to your point, Mike, how important that income component, the, the interest payment that compounding is to your return as a bond fund owner is huge.
I mean, that’s, the price has nothing to do
Jeff Mastronardo: with it literally. And that makes sense, right? Well, you just get back what you pay.
Mike Traynor: Right? And they, they kind of cherry picked a really bad time for bonds. Sure. Which was 1975 to 83 interest rates were through the roof. um, and they just show that you’re the income component and then the interest on the interest, the compounding component was pretty dramatic and yeah, you ended up, you ended up at the end of that time period, [00:26:00] like to the good, yeah, for sure.
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah. So Matt, Sharon and at Vanguard makes good case hold, hold onto your bond funds. Don’t bond.
Meghan Tait: shout out Matt. all right. Moving on. The downsides of having an athlete in the family written by Linda Flanigan. Linda’s the author of take back the game, a book about how youth sports, the youth sports industry is capitalized on parents’ worries about their kids’ futures.
And in this article, Linda describes the effect. This relentless over training, uh, has on the rest of. House the household members. So I feel like there’s just been a lot of talk about right. Kids involved in sports and that the athlete itself, the impact that those, you know, commitments physically, mentally, emotionally have on them.
And this was a take about everybody who exists in that kid’s life. Yeah. Yeah. So, or I should say household, this was
Mike Traynor: in the Atlantic, by the way. [00:27:00]
Jeff Mastronardo: so red flags, but ,
Mike Traynor: but I was just thinking same thing, Meg, which is it, it tries to paint. I mean, obviously there’s some whackjob parents in every youth sport and then there’s others that are reasonable and kind of went into it with the right approach.
So to try to paint everybody with the same brush, I think was a little off, but, um, I’ll throw it to you. Jeff, what was your take? Um, as a youth sport parent?
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah, I find it very difficult just because I think there’s so many crazy. There’s so many crazy parents and crazy kids that everybody feels like it’s so important.
Um, like my kid’s gonna go pro my kid has to make this team. Um, and it, it, it drives some of the other kids and parents who maybe like, I’m not that. Delusional, [00:28:00] my kid isn’t that delusional, but I’ve had myself in situations where I’m like talking and arguing with like the club about like my kid should be on that team.
like, it makes not, not that it made me delusional, but like, there’s so many crazies and so many politics that you end up if your kid’s in the club sport, or even the middle school sport. Cause I’m referring to the middle school. Yeah. Like where it, they start making you a little crazy because it’s, it could be like pretty unfair or pretty tilted and yeah.
It’s I don’t think it tears. The families apart. I just think it, it, it, it more kind of fills the kids heads with like too much expectation for, for like where sports are gonna take them too much of expectation of how good they have to be. Um, and it, I think it’s. That’s not the intent. The intent of it was that these kids get a good [00:29:00] experience, underst understand and learn like gamesmanship and companionship and friendship.
And I, I, my personal experience is they’re not getting a whole lot of that. It’s going the other way, because it’s so competitive and the kids are assholes these days and they’re very, there’s a lot of bullying and you suck. And you’re the reason why we lost the game. And I don’t remember that kind of shit.
When I was a kid, we were more of a team because no one had expectations of going anywhere with
Mike Traynor: it. Yeah. I mean, I think the article takes the angle that, you know, they talk a lot about how much the average family spends on their kids’ sport and. The hours of family time that are taken away and the sibling jealousies and all this, like for example, the one line in here was in my research, I found that the biggest drain on parents’ time comes from attending sports events.
I had to reread that, like that was never a drain on my time. I loved [00:30:00] attending love. I love watching. And so did, so did my entire family and it’s like, Drain on parents’ time. Like, so that, that just kind of, I was like out on this article after I read, read that and those, those kinds of things. Um, but Jeff, I, to your point, yeah, I think, I feel I’ve always felt that there’s a big difference between a team sport and an individual sport when it comes to like this subject.
Um, cuz I know that one of the things that. think is very beneficial. Forget about what sport it is. It’s it’s making, in some cases, lifelong friends with your teammates and learning how to be a teammate and you know, what role play, what role everyone plays. Like I think those are important life lessons.
Um, forget about the sport and what the purpose of it. Like, again, me too. I know there was no like, oh, this is gonna be a springboard to. A scholarship or something like never. Right. It was always [00:31:00] just deal. Are you having fun? Do you want to like, do you want to go back? Yeah. Uh, are you having a good experience and like for us and with, um, with will specifically, I mean, he had a great 10 year youth sport career in, in hockey.
Yeah. So, um, anyway, and, and again, the whole, the whole, like making the argument that youth sports are overdone. Families are getting, you know, divided or damaged in some way. I. I’m sure that’s the case. I, I just think that that’s the, the
Meghan Tait: exception, not the rule most dramatic. Yeah. I think it’s a very dramatic take.
I, I mean, do you know, does mom have to take one kid while dad takes the other sure. Is dad going away one weekend with one while the other while mom stays home or vice versa? Of course. But. Wouldn’t that be any activity kids are involved in. Like, if you know, we’re, we’re picking on [00:32:00] sports here and look, I’ll talk shit about you sports all day.
I’m not, I’m not one. Who’s gonna really promote a lot of this institution, cuz I do believe a lot of it is. Money and, and money grabbing and, and specifically based on how much these programs can, can get from families. But I don’t think the existence of these things is fundamentally dividing families. I mean, I grew up with four siblings and like sports.
It’s what we did together. Now, everyone else in my family sucked, but like, , I’m just kidding. But like, we, we played sports, even if it wasn’t, we were obviously all weren’t on the same teams, but like, that’s what we did when we hung out, we shot hoops. We would, you know, have a catch, like so sports and maybe, and I don’t think my family was different.
Like, I think that’s how a lot of siblings around the same ages who have interest in those. Spent their time and then siblings who had interest in other things, whether it was video games or, you know, performing arts or something like that, probably did those things [00:33:00] together. I, I just, and, and that’s what I see with the kids.
I coach now like older sister plays basketball, younger sister tries basketball. Youngest sister didn’t like it. So maybe she’s in dance, but like, to me, it’s, it’s, it’s maybe the opposite. It breeds interest in these things and then give, gives kids an opportunity to decide whether or not they like it. So I, I feel like the division of the family is unfair.
Um, if anything, it, it maybe gives more opportunity to younger kids, the younger of the siblings to try things because older brother did or older sister
Jeff Mastronardo: did. I mean, it divided us last year. Like meet my family. Like I had Colin traveled a lot, so it was Colin and I, every weekend I was away from my wife. I was away from my other two kids.
Um, now my other child or my other three kids, um, my oldest was in college. So [00:34:00] if I was home that weekend, I wasn’t seeing her my 15 year old daughter. Was locked in her room anyway. And it’s not like she wanted like me to take her shopping or anything. And my other son was playing video games. So like, I don’t know, like how much more time I was gonna spend with them.
So it divided me from the rest of my family, but it also, like I spent a lot of good time with Colin. Yeah. And I have the ability to make up that time with my other kids as well. Yeah, I don’t see it as a, as much. And like, none of my children were like, oh, you’ve been with Kyle and so much. Why aren’t you spending time with me?
Sure. I mean, that may be an indictment of me as a, as a father, but,
Meghan Tait: and again, I don’t think we’re, we’re saying that that probably doesn’t happen. I’m sure there are cases where, what you just described leads to, Hey, I haven’t hung out with dad in a long time. I just don’t think it. More often than the latter.
It might be.
Jeff Mastronardo: I mean, there’s a lot of delusional people out there and [00:35:00] dad might be like, let’s go Johnny. Right. We just got back from football practice, but I’m taking you to the field again so we can work on your like, you know, yeah. I, I, I guess you hurt or whatever. And then, and then they’re just so delusional that they spend all that time with that child.
I mean, it. Yeah, I’m sure it’s happening. I bet it’s happening more often than you think it’s
Mike Traynor: happening. I think you’re right. I mean, we see it. I think you’re right there. Um, but I, I think again, I still think it’s the minority. I don’t think it’s
Meghan Tait: that’s I guess what I’m saying. I, I don’t disagree that it’s happening.
I just don’t think it’s. This article where, you know, youth sports should be condemned because of what they’re doing to the kids who didn’t go to the tournament. Like, it just seems like a, a little bit much, I
Jeff Mastronardo: think youth, youth sports needs like a fricking facelift man, like
Mike Traynor: big time. Well, the look, I mean, I think that what’s happened is that they’ve seized the opportunity to capitalize on these parents who, yeah.
You know, for example, how [00:36:00] many multi-sport. High school kids are there anymore. None. Yeah, you you’re for you’re, you’re kind of pressured into specialized picking that one sport pretty early on. And now there’s it’s 12 months a year or pretty close to it, even baseball. Um and that’s no, I don’t, I’m not picking on baseball, but I mean, remember, I mean, it was
Meghan Tait: just right.
You played little league for eight weeks. Yeah.
Mike Traynor: And then, yeah, that was it. Um, but every sport is virtually year round now. Yeah.
Meghan Tait: we could, I mean, we could talk a million different angles about the youths. Wanna talk about the lottery instead? Sure. The
Mike Traynor: article was the, the recent 1.2. Yeah. Billion dollar mega, whatever jackpot and some of the takes I’ve read about it were just I’m.
- I’m gonna nitpick on one of them. So the way lotteries work is that the headline number is if you take it [00:37:00] over 30 years. Yeah. Right. And in like an annuity. Yeah. The headline number, you get 1.2 billion divided by 30, whatever that is. So you get X amount of year for 30. It equals 1.2. Almost nobody takes that.
They take the lump
Jeff Mastronardo: sum. Why wouldn’t they, why would, why wouldn’t you take that
Mike Traynor: deal? Because if you die in five years,
Jeff Mastronardo: you’ve only gotten, why would you, I was just, I want, I was asking him to explain to, oh, the public, right?
Mike Traynor: You’re you’re leaving
Jeff Mastronardo: any money on because when you it’s, it’s a life only annuity.
Yeah. If, when, if you, you were the winner. Yeah. If you, well, I used to where, where we used to have an office. a woman’s husband wa like a woman who worked behind like the front desk, her husband, like she told me her, my husband wanted the lottery. I’m like, oh my God, it’s crazy. She’s like, yeah. He gets like $5,000 a week for life.
I’m like, that’s a game changer. Like that’s huge. And I said to her, and she looked at me like I had 12 heads. I’m like, this is what you should do. You should take a thousand dollars of that 5,000 a week [00:38:00] and buy a life insurance policy. so like 4,000 bucks a month, 48 grand, like buy as much life insurance as you can on.
She looked at me like I was freaking crazy. did she do it? No, she never did it, but that’s, that’s the point? Like, if, if you die it just stops. Yeah. So, and the time value of money is like so important too. Right? Right. That’s
Mike Traynor: so, so in this case, um, it’s 1.2 billion. If you take it over 30 years, 40 million a year, whatever.
Um, the love sum was like 700. Yep. And. Which is what the person gross got gross, gross. Right. And then the, how much in tax the taxes are call it 300 million. So there’s 400 and some million that actually was netted to the winner.
Jeff Mastronardo: Where’s the tax go fed gov or does it go to a, the state? Well, some goes to state too, right?
Mike Traynor: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm so, but, but one of the takes I heard I read on this, just so annoying, like some, some blogger. Oh, the IRS got [00:39:00] 800 million of the, of the 1.2 billion. And it’s a whole railing against the, the, the, the IRS and something like, Hey idiot. the IRS got their actual, like percentage of the payout, which was 300 of 700, whatever it is.
I mean, how do you,
Jeff Mastronardo: people are idiots? How do you not like,
Mike Traynor: but I guess it’s a great, it’s a great. Reminder of how illiterate people are when it comes to just what you talked about. Jeff, like an annuity is gonna be worth nominally way more than a lump sum today in every case, because yes. Right? Yeah. So
Jeff Mastronardo: like I’d rather get net 350 million today.
Mm-hmm than like 40 million a year for the next 30 years.
Mike Traynor: Yes. Yes. If that math is correct. And so the other math was correct. The other quirk is that they fed withholding is, and I might be a little wrong on this, but I think it’s 24% of the that’s right. Of the [00:40:00] 700. so what’s gonna happen with this person?
Yeah. Is next April 15th? Yeah. They’re gonna owe tens of millions of dollars. Like, I don’t know what the, the math is more to the IRS. It’s gonna be another and unless they get, unless they have advice from someone just like, Hey, like pay the IRS now or, you know, quarterly or set aside. Yeah. And I, I, I believe this has happened to a lot of people before that have won big chunks.
They, they just either don’t know or forget. They owe more taxes than has have been withhold. I don’t know why. Yeah. Why is it a flat? Is that maybe that’s the max withholding, um, in the system, which wouldn’t surprise me. It’s the IRS after. All right, right. Um, but anyway, fun fact for
Jeff Mastronardo: you there, is there any benefit to the system, to the tax system?
If they don’t withhold enough or if they don’t pay enough in taxes, then come the following April. They’re gonna owe taxes and penalty. Correct. And probably interest.
Mike Traynor: Yeah. But what if they have [00:41:00] spent all the money, then they don’t, they can’t get, they get, they can’t collect anything. I, I don’t know why that’s set up that way, but it’s
Jeff Mastronardo: not.
I mean, isn’t that a fun fact, like don’t mul aren’t there a lot of. Lottery winners like big LA that end up going. Oh, think
Mike Traynor: broke. Yeah. I think, I think the statistics are like stagger really depressing. Cause all everybody comes outta the woodwork with their hands out. Right. Cousins and high school friends.
And
Jeff Mastronardo: would you tell anybody if you won the lottery? uh, no, not many people. I wouldn’t tell anyone. My problem is I think my wife would tell everyone your wife would put it
Meghan Tait: on
Jeff Mastronardo: Facebook. Well, uh, never would win
Mike Traynor: it because I think it’s, this is the other aspect of latters for me, it’s always been a pet peeve of mine.
The government’s despicable they’re despicable. Every state runs their power ball prey on, um, lower income people who feel it’s maybe they’re only shot out of financial hardship. Yeah. And they, I mean, I forget that the mind boggling stats on how much people, um, [00:42:00] like below the poverty line, I’ll say spend on lottery tickets.
Jeff Mastronardo: Doesn’t it benefit older Pennsylvanians though. oh gosh, kidding me. I love a lottery. I haven’t played in a long time. I love getting. Somewhere between 20 to a hundred hours in tickets on the, on the big one. So you didn’t play this one?
Meghan Tait: I did not. I did not. When we were kids, my dad would only play the big ones and like every time would tell us he won every time never won.
So he, like, we would. Spend, I can remember sitting at family dinners, like what we would do with the money. And then the next day Meg, we won. And I mean, we were young, young, so every time we fell for it and you know, at this point he’s probably won seven lotteries or eight laies in my lifetime, not a dime to show for it.
I would, I don’t think
Jeff Mastronardo: I would change anything. Stop. You think I’d like sell my house and move to a new house? Yes. Oh my God. Okay. I think I would just bank. [00:43:00] Four
Meghan Tait: 350 million stop. Yeah.
Jeff Mastronardo: Well, what are you gonna start spending it?
Meghan Tait: you couldn’t spend it in your lifetime if
Jeff Mastronardo: you tried. I know, but like the numbers still, like, to me, like the numbers still makes sense.
Like why would I go buy a house in Florida? I’ll just V R B O a place for a month or two or three? No, you wouldn’t.
Meghan Tait: You, I just buy a house in Florida. You would buy a house and then you give keys to all of your friends. Yes, you would. You would. I would
Jeff Mastronardo: pay off all my friends mortgages. That’s what I would.
Meghan Tait: Okay. No, I get that debt, but paying off
Jeff Mastronardo: debt, like the house just adds another complexity for me. Another house adds another
Meghan Tait: what complexity. Well, the house has, you’re not doing anything. Then you put someone on the payroll
Jeff Mastronardo: down there you’re not doing. And then you gotta worry about like, people like skimming.
No, like there’s more complexity. You gotta hire people to do everything. No. And then you,
Meghan Tait: Kayla moves to Florida and she lives,
Jeff Mastronardo: trust her. She’d skim off the top and, and
Mike Traynor: you buy lottery tickets and then yet, yet you’re not gonna really,
Meghan Tait: that’s insane. That’s the craziest,
Jeff Mastronardo: I will use the benefit. I just won’t like make it like as [00:44:00] obvious.
I’m not
Meghan Tait: saying you have to buy a, you know, 50 million mansion, but you’re gonna have a house in San Diego. You’d have a house in Florida.
Jeff Mastronardo: I would get, you would get a plane. I would get a plane. a plane. I’d get to not have to like go to the air. I mean, still have to go to the airport, but not have to go through like the same security and worry about like what, what time the flight leaves and layovers not.
I
Mike Traynor: don’t think you would get a plane, you would get a, I think would do net jets or
Jeff Mastronardo: something like that. Yeah. Whatever charter, private and have access to planes. Yeah.
Meghan Tait: more than American airlines.
Jeff Mastronardo: Alrighty. Top five. Let’s do it.
Meghan Tait: All right guys. Frozen treats.
Jeff Mastronardo: I mean, can.
Meghan Tait: I’ll just let you guys do it. Can I admit to something though, before we even start, I immediately went desserty sweet treats. [00:45:00] Okay. Not thinking about like, like a frozen dumpling.
Jeff Mastronardo: a
Meghan Tait: frozen dumpling, like trader Joe’s makes frozen pot stickers that are banging. Like, does that count the frozen?
You eat them? Yeah. And bag like you don’t cook them. No, you cook them. Oh, so this is something you consume frozen. So I did it right. I did it correctly. Yes. It’s a cold treat. okay.
Jeff Mastronardo: Well they start cold. No, no that, but you don’t eat it cold. You eat it warm.
Meghan Tait: Okay. I just wanted to make sure I did it correctly then.
Okay. Good.
Jeff Mastronardo: Who wants to go first? Why don’t you go first? Frozen dumpling. frozen dumplings.
Meghan Tait: Um, alright. I mean that are mostly ice cream in nature, so I vote Wendy’s frost. Hmm, that’s a good one with a side of fries preferred, but they’re not frozen. So good. Um, a chip witch preferably on the beach.
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah, I had that one.
So did I
Meghan Tait: uh, big fan of dil, lots [00:46:00]
Jeff Mastronardo: that thought, like ice cream and
Meghan Tait: water. Ice, water. Ice. Yeah, mango preferred version. Okay. Uh, Ben and Jerry’s half baked.
Mike Traynor: Think I’ve ever had that one. Oh,
Jeff Mastronardo: it’s so good, dude. It’s
Meghan Tait: chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Okay. Brownie bits. I’m out and cookie dough. I’m out. I’m
Mike Traynor: out. What?
Don’t like brownies or cookie dough. Ooh.
Meghan Tait: Who doesn’t like brownies this guy. um, and then the, uh, girl scout, cookie, peanut butter patties out of the freezer is the only way we’ll eat them. That’s a good one. Okay. Who’s up
Mike Traynor: next. All right. Mines. Aren’t mine are not good. So Jeff probably got the best. I also had a chip witch on there.
Um, I’ve got the DQ blizzard with Reese’s. Uh, mm-hmm cups. That’s a good one.
Jeff Mastronardo: I mean, I’ve never had it. I just see the pictures and they look phenomen.
Meghan Tait: You’ve never had a blizzard. Can’t I mean,
Jeff Mastronardo: I
Mike Traynor: oh, ice candy ice. [00:47:00] um, I have the Ben and Jerry’s, but cherry Garcia is my favorite.
Jeff Mastronardo: What is the cherry? Does it have like pieces of Cher’s in and
Mike Traynor: disgust and like, um,
Meghan Tait: chocolate chip.
You can, you can have that. Ben and Jerry made a mistake. Oh,
Mike Traynor: I have your standard, like old staple ice cream sandwich. I mean
Jeff Mastronardo: just a reg cookie cookies. Yeah. Like the
Mike Traynor: ones you used to have in like elementary school, not
Meghan Tait: chocolate covered in any way. Oh no, just a
Mike Traynor: regular. Yeah. Wow. And then my last one on here is, um, an orange creamsicle.
I was
Jeff Mastronardo: dude, I was gonna say before we even did the top, I, if that’s on anyone’s list, I’m out. , it’s the most disgusting dessert on the planet. No.
Meghan Tait: Not a big fan either.
Jeff Mastronardo: It’s the orange Popsicle with like cream in the middle. Yeah. That’s terrible, dude.
Meghan Tait: Terrible. I’m with Jeff on the side. Better than brownie.
Thanks.
Jeff Mastronardo: all right. So right off the top had chip witch had ice cream sandwich. [00:48:00] I mean just an old fashioned water ice with like the, with the, with the wooden
Meghan Tait: stick. Oh, like the Italian
Jeff Mastronardo: ice. Yeah. I’m a huge fan of those man. What flavor? I’m typically a cherry guy. Yeah. If I go to a Ritas, I’ll maybe ask for like half cherry, half lemon, I like to mix ’em, which is kind of good.
Although sometimes the Ritas, like the cherry has cherry bits, the lemon has lemon bits. Yeah. So if I can get like a true Italian water rice, like on a boardwalk with vanilla, I’m sorry with, um, uh, Le lemon and cherry, like that’s that’s good stuff right there. dude, I love a freeze. are they the, the tubes, the tubes that the liquid you throw ’em in the freezer and like,
Meghan Tait: they definitely cause cancer or something you think so?
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah, for sure. Well, what I do find maybe you guys have had similar experiences, but I do find odd about them is like sometimes when you eat, ’em like your throat, like you have to like, like kind of, [00:49:00]
Meghan Tait: have you ever had that experience? I can’t speak to that specifically. I feel like they would survive like an apocalypse.
like if, if a bomb was dropped yeah. And you opened up a freezer, they would still be there. probably melted or, but then you’d freeze them again. And to me, that just, it means you probably shouldn’t need them.
Jeff Mastronardo: sounds like you put a lot of thought into the freeze pop Meg. Um, and then my last one, and I don’t know if this counts, it’s more of a dessert, but.
A hot, like a warm brownie with vanilla ice cream on top with like hot fudge and all like that is just dynamite.
Meghan Tait: I mean, not for Mike, but
Jeff Mastronardo: yeah, you like you, do you Jeff, like a brownie with vanilla ice cream dude. Like the brownie
Mike Traynor: part of it. I, you can
Meghan Tait: have it and you won’t do like a cookie in that scenario either like a cookie.
So do you not like sweet
Mike Traynor: [00:50:00] treats? Mostly not.
Jeff Mastronardo: Yeah, I don’t eat a lot of em, but I do like thoroughly enjoy them. You know, I don’t,
Meghan Tait: I like them and I eat a lot of them,
Jeff Mastronardo: like on the beach in Avalon and in Seattle, like they have like the cha like Choco taco, like I’m
Meghan Tait: just like Choco, taco’s gone
Jeff Mastronardo: forever. Oh really?
Mm-hmm , mm-hmm , I’ve always found it
Meghan Tait: to be stupid. You know what contact bars I probably could add on my list, a terrible as
Jeff Mastronardo: well. It’s really the shell breaks. And then like, then you end up eating just a shell part and then the vanilla’s. funny.
Mike Traynor: What about like frozen grapes on the beach? You ever do that?
It’s terrible. How would you do that? You’re not a grape
Jeff Mastronardo: guy. I do like grapes. Like I don’t just don’t understand why you would freeze a grape
Mike Traynor: on the beach. It’s nice.
Meghan Tait: all right. Thank you for listening.
Jeff Mastronardo: See
Mike Traynor: ya.
Jeff Mastronardo: Thanks for listening.
