Sensible Cash Podcast — From Eggflation to Ghost Jobs: Roasting 2024’s Largest Monetary Turkeys

Welcome to NerdWallet’s Sensible Cash podcast, the place we reply your real-world cash questions. On this episode:

Have a good time 2024’s Monetary Turkeys as we highlight the 12 months’s largest cash blunders and share tricks to keep away from them your self.

Why are grocery costs so excessive in 2024? What are ghost jobs and the way do they have an effect on job seekers? Hosts Sean Pyles and Sara Rathner roast the 12 months’s “Monetary Turkeys” (pun supposed), spotlighting the largest cash misfortunes of 2024 and providing listeners an opportunity to commiserate over shared monetary frustrations. They share their very own takes on this 12 months’s monetary flops and invite listeners to mirror on how these points have affected their lives, turning monetary woes right into a shared chuckle or sigh of aid.

Take a look at this episode in your favourite podcast platform, together with:

NerdWallet tales associated to this episode:

This transcript was generated from podcast audio by an AI instrument.

Welcome to NerdWallet’s Sensible Cash podcast, the place you ship us your cash questions and we reply them with the assistance of our genius Nerds. I am Sean Pyles.

And I am Sara Rathner. Sean, joyful Thanksgiving.

Oh, and a contented Thanksgiving to you too, Sara. On today of thanks, I want to thank all of our listeners for taking part within the grand Sensible Cash experiment. We love getting and answering your questions, and we admire all of you and your loyal listenership.

It truly is a privilege to be right here in entrance of the microphone interacting with people, serving to them with their funds. I’ve to say, I actually take pleasure in listening to about folks’s lives and the monetary selections that they are hoping to get assist with. And never simply because I’m a nosy individual, but additionally as a result of I identical to to know what’s on folks’s minds.

And the way we might help folks. It truly is an honor. I have been answering the questions of Sensible Cash listeners for a number of years now, and typically folks ask if I get tired of answering comparable questions time and again. And I at all times say no as a result of in fact, every listener’s query is completely different. No matter somebody desires assist with is knowledgeable by their very own monetary background and experiences and their present monetary targets, and I simply discover that stuff endlessly fascinating.

So do I. And moreover, listeners be part of us at completely different factors, at completely different episodes. So it’s useful to repeat subjects every now and then. And in the event you’re making a extremely powerful monetary determination, typically it’s important to hear about it a number of occasions earlier than you are feeling snug really taking any kind of motion. We’re right here to look at all types of cash stuff from a number of angles.

We’re all about knowledgeable selections, and it is our job to provide you that data. For all of these nice and fantastic episodes, as we speak, we’re handing out our 2024 Monetary Turkey Awards. And by turkeys, we imply issues that basically missed the mark within the monetary world. And let me inform you, there have been numerous turkeys this 12 months.

That is true. So Sean, what do winners get?

A damaged wishbone and unsalted gravy.

Yuck. No person desires these. That is like getting socks—

Yeah. Effectively, in a second, we bestow honors on the monetary turkeys of 2024. However when you’ve got a cash query for the Nerds, we invite you to name us or textual content us any time, together with holidays, on the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That is 901-730-NERD. Or e-mail us at [email protected].

And if you wish to nominate your personal Monetary Turkey of the 12 months Award, we’re all ears, so tell us. We’ll be again in a second with our nominees and winners for monetary or financial turkeys of the 12 months. Stick with us.

Okay, we’re again and prepared with our nominees and winners of the Sensible Cash 2024 Monetary Turkeys of the 12 months. Sara, what’s your first candidate?

If we will speak turkey, let’s focus on grocery inflation. Bear in mind eggflation? That was really a 2023 downside. That peaked in January of that 12 months, but it surely’s nonetheless actually arduous to get out of the shop typically with out spending 50 bucks on only a few objects. And meals costs are up considerably since 2019, due to all the pieces from provide chain points to hen flu to the conflict in Ukraine. And in line with the USDA, as US family incomes rise, these households really spend extra money on meals, however their meals spending represents a smaller share of earnings.

So take a look at it this fashion. Taking a look at knowledge from 2022, households within the lowest earnings quintile spent 31.3% of their earnings on meals. That is almost a 3rd of their family earnings. On the opposite aspect of the coin, households within the highest earnings quintile spent simply 8% of their earnings on meals. So this can be a downside that impacts US households throughout the board, but it surely’s affecting particular kinds of households way more critically. So we’ll must see how this continues to play out. Excessive meals costs could be arduous to abdomen…pun supposed.

Good job, Sara. Love that pun. And a stable and on-theme nominee for the meals vacation. By the best way, I’ll say I am nonetheless upset about how a lot my cream cheese prices these days, though I can’t surrender my bagels. Okay, Sara, what’s your subsequent candidate?

That is a extremely particular meals merchandise to be upset about, however okay. That is positive. I really like a very good bagel and cream cheese myself. All proper, so my subsequent candidate: ghost jobs, and I’m not speaking about seasonal work as an actor in a haunted home attraction. These are job listings on-line that look utterly actual, however the function both does not really exist or it is already been stuffed and the corporate’s nonetheless promoting it as in the event that they’re nonetheless on the lookout for candidates.

In accordance with a Might 2024 survey by Resume Builder, 40% of corporations posted a faux job itemizing this 12 months, and three in 10 corporations at the moment have lively faux listings. So why the heck do corporations do that? As a result of that is actually annoying. A pair causes. One is to look open to new expertise or make it appear to the surface viewers that the corporate is rising. Typically they identical to seeing what expertise is on the market to allow them to have a set of potential future staff.

They could even be doing this to trick current staff into considering they’re about to get some aid if the corporate’s been understaffed. And even worse, they’re doing this to remind their current staff that they are replaceable. I imply, hear, all of us already know that AI is coming for us all, so we do not should be reminded of that 12 months spherical. You recognize what I imply?

Anyway, what actually is horrible about that is that some corporations will go so far as really interviewing job candidates with zero intention of shifting ahead with them in any method. And I do know numerous people who find themselves job looking proper now, and ghost jobs are an enormous waste of their time. That is time that they may very well be spending on interviews that would really result in actual job presents.

Wow. Sara, I’ve received to confess, I had not heard of the ghost job phenomenon, however it’s actually tousled. What a merciless solution to play with people who find themselves determined for employment in some instances. Yikes. So Sara, you’ve got given us your nominees. Which one wins your 2024 Monetary Turkey Award?

I’ve received to go along with ghost jobs. And such as you mentioned, it’s merciless to toy with people who find themselves simply looking for a solution to help themselves and their households. Yeah, do not mess with compensation, corporations.

A stable winner. Unsalted gravy for all of the ghost job posters.

Might these recruiters be lined in unsalted gravy the best way folks will get slimed on Nickelodeon.

Oh, sure. I’d love that.

All proper, Sean. So these had been my nominees. What are yours?

First up, I want to nominate one of the crucial grotesque turkeys within the monetary world, scams and scammers. We did a particular sequence about scams earlier this 12 months and heard from folks, together with my very own dad, who’ve been put by means of all types of hell attempting to reclaim their cash and their lives after they had been financially assaulted by scammers. And it looks like each week there’s yet one more report a few huge knowledge breach, which signifies that we’re all uncovered but once more to scammers who’re attempting to make a buck off of our private data.

It is a stable nomination, Sean. It is really easy to fall for a rip-off, and none of us are immune.

Yeah. In order we at all times say, people, freeze your credit score stories and repeatedly monitor your accounts for any humorous enterprise. You’ll be able to join your free credit score rating and get credit-building insights customized to you once you register at nerdwallet.com. So we’ll put a hyperlink to that in as we speak’s present notes.

Good plug, Sean. I see what you probably did there.

Sure. I am simply attempting to provide people helpful assets, as at all times. Onto my second turkey. It is barely conceptual, so stick with me. It’s the hole between how we’re all informed the economic system is doing and how we really feel in regards to the economic system. We noticed a great deal of financial stories all through 2024 exhibiting that the job market continued to be resilient, even when it cooled a bit. And inflation definitely slowed. However issues nonetheless do not feel nice, proper? Such as you had been saying earlier, Sara, grocery purchasing is just not an gratifying expertise. It is painful. And there is some knowledge to again this up too. Bank card delinquency charges are as excessive as they have been since 2011, in line with the Federal Reserve Financial institution of St. Louis. The economic system simply continues to really feel actually bizarre, bizarre sort of like how a turkey appears to be like bizarre. It is each majestic and lumpy on the identical time.

Truthfully, I do not assume I’ve ever heard majestic and lumpy in the identical sentence earlier than. And truthfully, I hope to by no means hear that once more, so thanks for that second I by no means need to relive.

All proper, Sean, what’s your winner for the 2024 Monetary Turkey Award?

It is received to be scams and scammers, the individuals who perpetrate these scams. And that is one thing that we’re all susceptible to on a regular basis. It is tremendous scary and never sufficient is being achieved to guard us from these criminals, so everybody, keep vigilant.

Sure. Simply assume that everybody’s out to get you, and make them show they’re legit. Let all bizarre calls go to voicemail and solely name them again in the event that they’re actual. Screening your calls is a time-honored custom that goes again to the times of answering machines, and I say we carry it again.

And do what you’ll be able to to guard your private data. Don’t go giving out your Social Safety quantity willy-nilly, even when it is perhaps already on the market.

Yeah. Truthfully, it most likely is.

I chuckle, however actually, I cry on the within.

I do know. It’s unhappy and scary. Effectively, Sara, now that we’ve handed out some turkeys, how about we go eat a few of our personal, or I suppose in my quasi-vegetarian family, I will go eat some nut loaf.

What the hell is a nut loaf?

It is precisely what it appears like. It is a huge mush of nuts and mushrooms and it is actually good. Plenty of cheese in it too.

Ew. Oh, no. Each time you point out one other ingredient, you make it worse.

I swear these items style higher than they sound.

They received to rename it. They should… Oh, oh, nut loaf.

Yeah. The branding round nut loaf may very well be improved, I will give them that. However I swear, it is actually, actually good. Anyway, that is all we’ve for this episode. We right here at Sensible Cash want you and yours a really joyful Thanksgiving and an exquisite vacation season to return. And bear in mind, after all, that we’re right here for you and your cash questions, so ship them our method. Name or textual content us on the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. You may also e-mail us at [email protected]. Go to nerdwallet.com/podcast for more information on this episode. And bear in mind, you’ll be able to comply with the present in your favourite podcast app, together with Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to routinely obtain new episodes.

At the moment’s episode was produced by Tess Vigeland and edited by Sean. Megan Maurer blended our audio. And here is our transient disclaimer. We aren’t monetary or funding advisors. This nerdy data is supplied for basic instructional and leisure functions and should not apply to your particular circumstances.

And with that mentioned, till subsequent time, flip to the Nerds.

It is good. I swear it’s.

It is received the worst identify. No, it simply sounds so bland. It is like…

It is not bland. It is stuffed with umami taste.

It is mushrooms and cashews, walnuts. I feel there’s some almonds in there. Plenty of cheese. It is like 50% cheese.

I imply, I am down with 50% cheese. However there will need to have been an previous Twitter account that did this. It was like bizarre recipes from mid-century.

And it sort of appears like a kind of issues that folks ate for dinner within the 60s.