D&P Highlight: It's getting bad for us all.

0:00Hey, it's Jen Hatmaker. Here's what I've learned in midlife. Joy isn't the reward you earn after all the work is done. Joy is the work. That's what this new series on For the Love is all about. The sacred, yes. It's choosing delight, rest, and pleasure on purpose. Because saying yes to yourself, that's the thing that finally lets you fill your table with everybody else. Come find your sacred yes with me. Follow and listen to For the Love wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to the Dana and Parks podcast on KMBZ. Coming up later on in the show, Americans are chronically fatigued. You'll be shocked what percentage of Americans say they are fatigued all the time. You may not know the name, but you one trillion percent will know who we're about to talk about here. The sudden death being reported in the last couple of hours of days of our lives actor Robert

1:01Kelker Kelly, who has died at the age of 62. If you can picture like Eddie Rabbit during, well, I love a rainy night with the dark or dark eyes. Yes. Dark flowing hair, dark beard. You know exactly who this actor is. He played Bo Brady on days of our lives, right? When you and I were in, that had been late high school early college years. I know this because I was addicted to days of our lives. And he left the show for a while and came back. That would have been the late 80s. And I believe he came back in the early 90s. He joined days of our lives in 1992 as Bo Brady. Played the character opposite Hope Brady and Lisa Rennas Billy Reed. This was when Lisa Rennout, now famous for all kinds of different things. The lady who played Hope Brady is hot. Played opposite him. He worked as a professional pilot. Died at the age of 62 found in bed after saying he was experiencing chest pain.

2:0662. That's too young. Played young. And lived in Missouri. St. Peters. lived out his life after his days of our lives. Days in St. Peters. Missouri Robert was 62. Story here. Over the last 12 months in the Midwest, inflation has gone up 3.8%. That is a modestly high increase compared to the Federal Reserve's target of a yearly 2% increase. That in addition to other factors seems to be taking a toll on Kansans in particular, who were found to be in the most financial distress out of all 50 states. In a study conducted over the summer by personal finance service Wallet Hub. The study defines financial distress as having credit accounts with payments deferred because of financial hardship or with forbearance when a lender allows a loaner to pause or reduce their payments because of a financial hardship. The study looked at nine metrics on six overall

3:06categories to determine their ranking. Credit score, people with accounts in financial distress, average number of accounts in distress, change in the number of bankruptcy filings over the last year and both debt and loans online search traffic. Kansans were the most financially distressed in the entire country. Number one and number one on the bad side. I would prefer to say number 50 because it keeps saying we're ranked number one. That's not good. Four percent of Kansans own distressed financial accounts. Kansans was in the middle high end of the rankings in a couple of the other metrics and then when you factor them all together, sure. Dead last. I'm surprised only because I would have guessed like with most things we would have seen that result in the South. And so I don't know is that a wake up call? Is it specifically in Kansas? Are we doing something wrong or should we be doing something different? I'm all of those answers. You know, we need better financial literacy education and all of those things. I'm just

4:09surprised where the worst. I'm glad you brought that up. We were talking about that last week and you and I could not recall taking a financial literacy class when we were in school. And we know. I think we mentioned that on the air because we got a number of texts saying, oh, it is, it is taught now in high school financial literacy. Okay. But understanding it and following it, maybe there's a gap there. Well, and quite frankly, if I was a junior or senior in high school and you were trying to explain to me, you know, an annual APR. I don't know that I would have gotten it. The story last week was that Kansas got a D grade for their financial literacy courses. I believe Missouri got an A grade for theirs. When I was in high school, it was not required. So that requirement has been implemented at least since 2015. And you didn't take it? No. I mean, I knew how to balance a checkbook because my mom taught me. I knew I had a righted check and still have never written one for myself. Oh, you're missing out. I wonder if collectively, collectively, and this is

5:11a generational thing, if we somehow are more disconnected because it's so easy on our cell phones to balance things and spend money. And it's harder to track, maybe for some people, because it's all virtually coming in and out. Whereas I remember my grandparents sitting down at a table once a week and going through the financials. And how many of us do that anymore? My mom still does. Week to week. Good for her. She still balances her checkbook. I can't remember the last time I balanced a checkbook. I think I tried it in college and then it was never right. And I'm like, and math wasn't for you. There are people listening like who chew the penny. They want every on Reddit true crime doesn't come from journalists. It comes from the victims, the witnesses, and sometimes the suspects themselves. Every Tuesday on Crimes of Reddit, we read these posts out out loud. I'm Sabrina Deanna Roga, and I'm Alexis Linkletter. One of us brings the story,

6:15the other goes in blind, reacting in real time, just like you. New episodes dropped every Tuesday. Listen to and follow Crimes of Reddit, available now wherever you get your podcasts. The thing to match. They keep their eyes closed. Yes. They go looking for it. And that takes work to do. Whereas you just kind of keep an eye on your bank account and okay, that's Netflix. That looks right. And there's Rent that came out. And maybe this came the paycheck came in that we're just not quite paying enough attention to it the way we used to. And with regard to the bad debt from the text line, I read an article a while back that we have the biggest gap of salaries and increase in rent, inflation, et cetera. That is a fact. We are absolutely experiencing that right now when we've been experiencing it year over year. So as folks have been getting their average of 2%. Well, if we've been averaging 3% or 4% to 5%, or a couple of years ago was 9%, that 2% does nothing. Right. The money coming in ain't meant to the number going out. A story here from Channel 9 as the rise in home prices outpaces income.

7:15Many first time buyers don't earn enough to afford even a starter home. This is the latest data from the National Association of Realtors. Shows that the monthly mortgage payment for a typical starter home in the US was $2,158. Yeah. Wow. Do you remember your first mortgage? Yep. How much was it? $900. Yours was $1,900. For a brand new house, three bedroom two bath in Olayfa. ours was not a new home in Topeka, but our very first home. And I look at kids' jacks age. All of his buddies are starting to look to try and buy. Can you imagine buying right now? Never even understanding that we were at 2.5% or whatever you got on your Shawnee homes. God is it three somewhere? It's just under three. Yeah, it's not going to be higher than three where you go into a bank today. What is it? Seven now? It's back to seven. Seven as of last week. And so we were talking about this the other day.

8:17Some of his buddies who bought, let's say four years ago or three years ago, are paying like half of what his buddies and their wives are going to pay now for the exact same house because the interest is so much more. So if you're listening to your 25, 26, 27 years old, you are living the APR education nightmare in real time. See, and when I bought the house in Roman Park in 2010, that was at the height of the Great Recession. My mortgage on that house, and in a grand, it was a small house, three bedroom one bath and one car garage, whatever. I love that house. My mortgage was $710 a month. Yeah. And that was 18, no, 16 years ago. Orges way higher than that. And how do you say to someone then starting out your first or your second job, your starter home? While you're over here paying rent that's $2,000 a month, how do you save for that first house with the interest rates? It's a double punch. And then the flip side of that is, God, if you're

9:21trying to sell a house right now, where are you going to go? I, I'm not saying houses aren't selling, but like friends of ours are downsizing. Okay. That's a big deal right now. We've talked about it. It's downsize. It makes almost zero fiscal sense to downsize right now, which is why you haven't. I know it's why you haven't. It's God. No. In what world would you trade a 2.9 interest rate for a seven? Most people would never, ever do it. It also explains why the average age of the first time home buyer went from 31 to 41 in less than five years. Now that's an insane statistic. By the way, we were mentioning the typical starter home mortgages now $2,158. That would require a first time buyer to earn an income of no less than $104,000 a year. And have 25, 30 grand sitting in their bank as a down payment. Right. No, I mean, we are, we have begun the discussion about downsizing. It's a very serious

10:27discussion. But am I going to trade to your point just a moment ago, Dana? Am I going to trade a 2.9% interest rate for a seven? And then what am I really saving by downsizing? You know, that's seven percent's going to eat up. I'm 55 years old. I'm not getting a 30 year mortgage next time. I'm not going to pay on a mortgage so I'm 85. Speaking of financial literacy, guess who's about to make his first credit card payment? All the family. Really? All $9 of it? No, I'm back to her out. Good. What did you put on it? Can I ask? So I had to get a secured loan. So I put a thousand down the time where they'd give me a credit card. Good lord. And I think it took me like two weeks to rack up a thousand bucks on that bad boy. And it's been sitting waiting for the statement to come through ever since. Nice. Getting my credit. Well, congratulations. I'm really exciting. 913 586 777 985 867 798. If you miss a segment,

11:29be sure to check out the Dana Parks podcast. You can follow us on Apple podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for listening to the Dana and parks podcast on KMBZ. Catch us online anytime on KMBZ.com or get the podcasts wherever you get your podcast. Every week on the Moth podcast, you'll hear true stories that will intrigue you, inspire you, and make you laugh. He said, is there anything in your diet that might be spiking your blood sugar? I said, sometimes I eat pizza until I'm unconscious. He said, I think that might be it. For real stories live on stage, from comedians, astronauts, accountants, farmers, and people just like you, follow and listen to the Moth wherever you get your podcasts.