Ep. 1254: Where can you spare a Bitcoin?

-It's Monday, April 22nd. Thanks for tuning in to the 404 Show. I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Aunt Jill. -I'm Mark Licea. -Yeah, you are. -I love it. -Mark-- -We got Mark Licea on the ones and twos today while Ariel is at West and we also have Jill Schlesinger in the studio today. A round of applause for both of these people. -Oh. Yeah. Yeah. -[unk] for us. -I love to-- I like seeing Mark here but I got nervous on might what you do with-- what you do with Ariel. -With Ariel. -I got nervous. -He's in a closet right now. -Jill comes in, she's like, "What did you do with him?" as if we, you know-- -Did something bad. -[unk] some men's shoes and-- -I don't know. -[unk] herself. -Look, you can't tell these days. Who knows? -You never know. -I know what I'm saying. -So what's up? How you been? -Oh, hockey season is killing me. -Yeah? Really? Why do you gotta bring up sore subjects like that, huh? -I'm just telling you that the-- that I was going to-- -What the fuck? -wear an Islander jersey today. -Okay. -But my-- -I'm an-- I'm an Islander fan right now too. Yeah. -Yeah, I know you are. But my beloved said, "Oh, don't you dare jinx it." -Right. -Jinx it, like-- -Right. Right. -Okay. -So that, to me, that's crazy, okay? -I think she's nuts. I do but-- -Okay. -you know, I love her to death but she's a crazy-- You know, the first time I-- did I tell you about the first time I went to an Islander game with her? -No. -Oh my God. So she said identical twin. -Okay. -Okay? So it's 11 years ago. We're going-- or 10 and a half years ago-- we go to this Islander game and she and her sister are wearing jerseys and they are identical and so tend to get thrown up on the jumbo [unk] every now and again-- -Uh huh. -Oh that's so-- -'cause they're identical twins wearing jerseys, right? -Wearing the same jersey. Yeah. -And they act like these nice smart empowered women turned into freaking lunatics during the game. -Yeah. -That's cool that they like the Islanders so much though. -Well, 'cause you know, they grew up on the island-- -Right. -at a time-- like, when they were teenagers, the Islanders are winning four-- -One of the best teams. -Stanley Cups-- -Yeah. -in a row, right? -They were just killing it. Yeah. -So anyway, all I can say is I wasn't allowed to wear an Islander jersey. I was supposed to tell you today that you-- your Devils need to do a better job-- -Yeah. -at the last game of the season-- -Yeah. -against the Rags-- I mean, the Rangers. -I freaking hate the Rangers so much. -Everybody does. Every-- We even get Justin to hate the Rangers just 'cause. -And he doesn't even understand what-- -Yeah. He has no idea what's even happening. -He don't even know why they play. He doesn't even know why they play. -Right? -That last get-- No, I have no idea. -You know. -Oh, what happened over the weekend? They're not in the playoffs anymore? The Devils? -The Devils, they had no chance. -Poor Devils. -They dug themselves a nasty grave, a lot of injuries and all this stuff but, you know, they could have made life a little more difficult for the Rangers but they didn't 'cause they lost to them yesterday. -Uh huh. -They'll have a chance to do it again next Saturday. But I think there's a bigger conversation here with like superstition. I don't-- -Yeah, I think it's a little nuts. -To me, like-- It's not even in sports. I know people who won't do-- They won't order certain things on menus because they don't like the sound or some sort of, you know, ambiguous and, you know, non-tangible idea. Crazy. -Uh huh. -Justin. Chinese, isn't there an unlucky number for Chinese? -Yeah, seven. -Four. -Four. -I thought it was seven. -Yeah, it's four. -And eight is lucky. -Yeah, eight is lucky. -Why is four unlucky? -Four is unlucky because the word for four is-- it sounds a lot like death, the word for death. It's say-- It says death. -[unk]. One, two, three, death-- -Death. -Five, yeah. -Five, six-- -That's how it goes. Of course. -So you don't wanna be four anything. -Yeah. I just-- -So what happens if you-- -There's no four-year-olds in China or anything. -You just go right to five. -Yeah, you just go three to five. -Is it-- -But-- -Well, think about it. In America, used to-- there used to not be thirteenth floors. -There-- -Yeah. -[unk] doesn't have a thirteenth floor. -Lunacy. I have to say it. -Yeah. -That's so funny. I love that. -Lunacy. -Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's good though. -It's absurd. -I know it's nuts. But now, I sort of feel like thirteen is lucky. I'm a contrarian in that way. -I just don't think people really just-- are-- they're just not of this planet. -I know. -Like get with the real world-- -Well, what-- -'cause guess what? If you're on the fourteenth floor and that thirteen is the real-- -You're really on the thirteenth floor. -You're really on the-- -I know. I know. -All right? -But it's-- people do take this seriously. You know, it's like that obsessive compulsive kind of person who can't step on a crack. You guys watch Girls? Didn't we have this conversation-- -We did. Yeah. -a couple of times ago? -Uh huh. -Yeah. -And she like really took a turn for the crazy-- -Yeah. -OCD role, right? -She took a turn for the crazy? -The crazies and-- But you know, someone said to me like, "That's what it's like to be OCDS." -Yeah. -Imagine that, like-- -That's a disorder. -Right. There's like-- This is a-- -That's a mental disorder. -Okay. But don't you think it's a mental disorder to ban me from wearing an Islander jersey? -Yes. -There's something mentally disturbing about that. -But that doesn't prevent your loved one from living their lives the way-- -No, that's true. -it impacts someone with OCD. -That is true. Although I said, well, when they-- when the Rangers were playing the Islanders, said, "Let's just go scout tickets for the game." She's, "Oh no. I could never go to the game live. That's too torturous for me-- -Yeah. -'cause if they lost, then I couldn't bear it." -Uh huh. Nothing-- you know, people don't-- If you're that passionate about a sport-- -Nuts. -people just don't get it. -Yeah, [unk] crazy. -Like you either get it or you don't. -Yeah, I get it. -The agony that you drive yourself because the team that you like is on the idea, you know what I mean? -Yeah, it's not even going-- your team. -You're not even on the team-- -You're not playing on that team. -because you have no attachment to this team, maybe a little financial, monetarily. -Every-- -Whatever it is. -So anyway, that's what's been going on for me. Also, I have a-- some big breaking news. -What's that? -I'm glad I wasn't here last week 'cause last-- Wasn't last week the weirdest week of the-- -Yeah, it was a-- -plaguing a long, long time. -It was a-- -Terribly disturbing week. -Yeah. -It was a disturbing week but I think it was also a very-- It was a growing up week. -For whom? -For the internet. -And how so? -I think that grew up a little bit. -You think just because of like the reporting in Twitter and all of that-- -I think everyone for a second and unfortunately, it takes a catastrophic event like this-- -Yeah. -Yeah. -But I think just for once, everyone was like, "Whoa. This internet is crazy." -Yeah. -You what I mean? And I think that really opened a lot of people's eyes. -I just-- -I do-- So I honestly think and I-- -Yeah, I think-- I think last week, everyone realized they're just addicted to breaking news. -Yeah. -Speaking of which-- -Yeah, well let me just say once again-- -[unk] feeling about this. -about that though. Isn't it amazing how in-- because everyone is so completely compulsive about breaking news and being first, I-- you can get so screwed up in that because I feel-- -It's not worth it. -like I seriously felt back for John King on CNN. I really did. -Yeah. -The guy is just like-- its source in local law enforcement says we have a suspect. -Right. -So he says, I've got a source and he trusts the source who's been right a million different times. -Uh huh. -And then, it's wrong. -Right. -How embarrassing. -Yeah, I-- is it as embarrassing as putting something on the front page of a newspaper? -Okay, but that was-- See that I think was-- -What do you think of that? -I thought that-- I thought that was [unk]. I think that was so mean and I thought it was premeditated. I thought that they posted a terrible thing. Well, if you guys don't know, they posted a photo of-- which-- I think the caption was "bag man". -Yeah. -So bag man authorities are seeking these two individuals. -Two guys, right? And there was no-- I don't know how they got that picture anyway. Do we know where that picture came from? -I think it was from Reddit. -Well, it was-- -Not to blame the Reddit [unk]-- -It was on Reddit. -but it was on Reddit. Yeah. -It was everywhere. -Right. -It was a-- It was a-- It was a-- It was an image that was every-- made its rounds on the internet the day before. -Right. And so they put it on the front page, not corroborating anything. -That's what I don't understand. -And it's like you're a newspaper. You know, it's not like even you're retweeting it as some yutz. You're a newspaper, a big newspaper-- -Yeah. -and this poor guy is like freaking out. He's like, "Holy crap. That's me." -Right. -He went to-- -And he's a-- -He didn't go to the courthouse? -Yeah, he went to-- He went to the police and he said like, "I'm a high school student. Like this is gonna follow me. I'm not gonna get into college." -Right. -He's like freaking out. -Yeah, as he should. -And-- but they never issued an apology or a retraction. -And that's arguably worse. -Terrible. -Right? -Terrible. Yeah. -How does that-- How do you support this behavior? -And Rupert Murdoch has tweeted something about like, you know, something that was alluded to it but didn't-- -Yeah. -apologize. -I think they said that the FBI provided the photo in the first place-- -Right. Like, "Oh, it's a mix up, right?" -and that it was retracted at the same time. -Like, "Whoops, the FBI gave this to us." -Right. -This was-- -Still, you published it. -Yeah. -So-- -It's terrible. -Yeah. -The front page of a tangible newspaper is not the same thing as a tweet. -I know, right? -You can't just yank that back and be like, "Oop." -I know, and I felt so bad for this kid. But that was-- that was about the worst and I thought that was a little bit different-- -That was the first. That's-- -because there was clearly also like this racist overtone to the whole thing where they start to talk about it like the suspect is of brown skin color-- -Yeah. -and like, really? You know, do we have to do that? I don't know. I didn't like that either. -For a country that loves to like put all these things out in front, right, -Uh huh. -we-- and I feel like there's been an effort to cover everyone's track and sort of just be like let's look at this totally indifferently. But I think the whole language of the way we operate-- -Uh huh. -needs to be examined. -Yeah, I mean-- -Just-- Like, what I don't understand is-- and I don't wanna get too, you know, morbid but this thing happens in Boston, awful. -Right? -Right? Nothing good about any of this stuff. The thing in Newtown, terrible. -Right? -One is a terrorist act, one is like a crazy person. -Right. -So I-- -That's the difference. -why-- what's the difference? -Yeah. That's a-- -Right? -That's a good point. And I will take it one step further which was because I'm a New Yorker and this made me a little bit crazy, is that I was listening to a lot of Boston media and they're kept-- they kept equating it to 9/11. -Why does it have to be a competition? -Exactly. And I was like, "Wait a minute. Why are we doing this? Because it's a-- these are just separate terrible events and frankly, there is no equivalency to, you know, these two guys doing something horrible on one-- in one town and three people dying, and like four guys doing something crazy and 3,000 people died. You-- We don't equate that. They're just bad things-- -That is bad. -that happened, right? -You don't have to-- -I like the idea though. I think that you're right. I think-- I like the idea that terrorists could be used to describe the Newtown shooting also-- -How is that not the same thing? -'cause he terrorized-- Yeah. It's-- because terrorist is such a loaded word also and then we have like, well is it domestic or is it foreign? -No, you know what it is. We just outplay things and they just become-- we become desensitized by the-- -Uh huh. -nomenclature. -Yeah. -And they just like-- -Oh, it's such a big word-- -Well, they just like-- -nomenclature. -No, that's not-- -Did you hear that? -Belittled my vocabulary, huh? -No, I'm just saying that's a pretty big word. -It's-- -Again-- -But don't you agree though-- -Yeah. -that like the-- it loses its meaning and we have to like evolve and move on to a bigger, scarier word? -Yeah. That-- I'm pretty scared by that word. -I don't-- I mean, it's not a good word but-- -You know what's also weird to me? How about-- I don't know about you guys but all this talk about like on the Sunday talk show was funny about, well now, we see that we're not safe. I'm like, "Who feels safe?" Is this just because we're in New York? Like, there's no way I ever feel 100 percent safe. It doesn't mean that I think about it all the time but tell me you don't open your eyes when you're walking through Penn Station, just keep an eye out, like, "Let me just see what's going on." Like it's a sixth sense, you do it. -It's like this-- It-- -Right? -Yeah. It's just-- it doesn't feel good. It's not a fun thing. -No. But I-- But I would say that the world is finally catching up to Aunt Jill who has been paranoid well before 9/11. -Yeah? -I just want you to know that. -You are? -Yeah. Well before that, I was totally paranoid. -I mean there's some terrible crap happening on the reg for-- -That's it. -decades. -And as a-- as the woman with a lot of Jewish DNA, I'd like to focus on all the bad news-- -Yeah. -concentrate on that and figure out how it's gonna play out here. -Right. -I mean, really. Anyway, it's a terrible week and during that terrible week, I had breaking news. -You did? -I did. -What happened? -I launched my new website. -Whoa. Whoa. -Yeah. Yeah. -I mean, I'm surprised this hasn't made headlines, I mean. -It's amazing that it's not trending. -Yeah. -I don't understand it but I-- evidently, tragedy trumps the good things, you know. We like good news too. -Yeah. -So here's what happened. I put up this brand new website which is not up right-- Oh, there it is. Oh, that cute-- -Look at that professional photograph right there. -I know. Well, that happened to be a professional photo. Oh-- -Whoa. Ooh. -Okay. There it-- -I think someone's got some flash animation on this. -Yes. So-- I think so. We need some new photos. So anyway, this is my new website which I'm-- Oh, look. There it is. You see that? -Oh there's that terrible-- -That terrible man. -shirt. -That terrible, terrible man. My radio producer. -And you let him produce your show? -I do. It's amazing that we get along so well. -Can you fire him? -I should, shouldn't I? -Jill-- -I do-- it-- And I need a section in my blog where I-- maybe I should just call the section Aunt Jill on the 404. -Yeah. I think you should have-- -Yeah. -like a header that says Aunt Jill. -Now, I got-- I paid for this whole thing. Now, I gotta have a whole section for yourself? -You can put it on the radio. -It's returning-- -I put it on the radio. -You're returning it. It's like getting a refund. -Yeah. -What's with the URL here? Can you go to jillonmoney still-- -Yeah. -.com? -So-- -Yeah. -Okay. So go to jillonmoney.com and check out Jill's new website-- -Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. -Yeah. -for all things Jill. -Yeah. Jillonmoney.com. -It's a-- It's a really nice website and I really like the logo too. I think it's a smart logo with the dollar sign-- -Yeah. -and J. -Kinda looks like a JS, right? -It's cool. -Jill Schlesinger. -Oh, I didn't-- -Bang. -Aah. -I just saw the money. -It's amazing. -Anyway, so I'll be blogging here at jillonmoney.com. I have a nice RSS feed so you all can download, upload, and do all what you wanna do. And the radio show is still Jill On Money. And so I'm psyched. I'm totally psyched. -Look at you. -I am. You know what? I-- -You can't even watch the smile. -I can't-- I have the blank-eating grin on my face. -Yeah. -Yeah. -It's all-- It's really cool. So I-- you know, I still-- and I got a new title last week. -Oh, yeah? What's that? -Made this up completely. -You made up your title? -Kind of. Because I left the interactive site of CBS-- -Right. -to go more-- spend more time on radio and TV. So my title is-- pay attention-- CBS News Senior Business Analyst. -That's not-- I feel like that's not made up. -A little bit-- -That's-- -It's a-- it's believable but it is made up-- -It's believable. -but it's pretty good. -Senior-- So how much business-- -Senior Business Analyst. -have you been analyzing? -I've been analyzing a ton of business. -Yeah. -So I've been-- you know, I do my radio and TV for CBS and I got my website where I'm blogging and appearing on the 404. I think that's enough of a digital footprint for me. What do you think? -Yeah. -It's kinda cool that you worked out a way to still come on the program-- -Totally. -which is really important. -Totally important. I would come on every day. -Yeah. -I really would. I mean-- But you wouldn't have me. -Right. Well, no-- what I mean-- you know, then we'd have to re-work a lot of days here. -I know, but I could just be your-- like your sidekick. -Yeah. -You-- your Andy or whatever. -Yeah, right. -Right. -You know what I wanna talk to you about? -What's that? -Have you heard of Bitcoin? -I knew you were gonna say that. Before you said it, I knew you were gonna say it and I felt like, "Oh my God. He's gonna say it." And-- -Is that bad 'cause you know what it is? -No, what's scary is that I've-- I'm scared how well I know you, that like you're my brother, my little-- my nephew is what I should call you. -I was the mistake. Yeah. -Now, you're like my older nephew. -Yeah. -You guys are my older nephews. -Yeah. -That's the deal, right? -Especially Mark. -Mark, much older? No. -No, he's younger than all of us. -He is? -He's the youngest one in the room. Yeah. -Is that right? -Yeah, he's 20. -What are you? -Yeah, I just-- -27? -turned 20. -27? -Just turned 20. -21 and a half. He's legal. -He's 28. You just turned 28. -Yeah. Yeah, he's young. -27. -27. -Yeah. -Wow. -Yeah. -What are you doing then? What's going on? -He's-- -I'm so distracted, I'm just trying to make sure because everytime, I'm like focusing on the conversation. Here we go-- -Yeah. -See-- for example, -Right. There-- Oh. -There he is. -I'm gonna focus on the conversation-- -Yeah. -I end up not switching correctly so-- -Right. -I've noticed this about myself. -Can I just tell you-- -For the first ten seconds, I'm trying to switch it. -You know, within eight minutes of me meeting Mark that what did I-- like he's like, "Oh I work for CNET." Then I, "Oh, I work at Money. I--" He's just-- I-- What do I say to him? "Are you single?" I was like, "Oh, my God. He is the most lovely best-looking amazing dude and--" -Really? -Yeah. Yeah. -Why was that not the first-- -You should-- -pretty much within the first eight minutes. -It was pretty much right off the bat. -Yeah. -I was like, "Hi. How are you?" She's like, "Are you single?" -I could not believe it. -I was like, "Well, not here." -I could not believe it. -You should hear how Stacy talks about him. -Right? I-- Stacy and I can have a whole conversation. I'm telling you. All right. Where were we? -We were talking about-- -Okay. Bitcoin. -Bitcoin. -Okay. So here's the deal with Bitcoin. -Yeah. -Oh, 'cause I'm really curious to hear what you think and know about it. -If-- Could you type in bitcoin for a second? -Okay. -I wanna show you something that's cool. -'Cause Bitcoin's been around for a very long time. -Since 2009. -That's a long time. -That's funny that you say it's very long. -Well, that-- -Internet time, that's like a decade. -True. Okay. So if you go to Bitcoin, write Bitcoin chart-- -Okay. -so we can show you where just for-- See the-- Okay. Go to the charts, just click on that. -Right here? -Uh huh. -Bitcoin charts. -Yeah. And I want to-- Oh-- Okay. Click on like that chart there so people can see how crazy a ride this thing is. -Bitcoin is like this roller-coaster. -Okay. So here's what it is. It's a virtual currency. -Right. -Okay? So what happens is there is a way to actually download currency online and what-- you can use it to pay for certain stuff. The reason why I say certain stuff is that like-- -There's a bigger range-- -if you go to your-- if you go to your bodega across the street, they may not take Bitcoins. -Right. -But certain online retailers-- -And-- -are taking Bitcoins. -brick and mortar ones do too. -And some very few brick and mortar ones. -Very few. -Okay. So here's what happens. So it's this very anonymous, interesting development. -Right. -And in 2009, this comes out kind of as a sleeper for a couple of years. No one's really thinking-- Well, it's a financial crisis, right, and it comes as a result of this idea that what is currency worth? What is our money worth, right? What's a dollar worth? It used to be worth some amount of gold but we went off the gold standard and now currency is just based on trust, what we agree that we're gonna say, "Okay. A dollar is worth a dollar and here's how much it will buy." And Bitcoin kind of came around because people were freaking out and they're saying that we don't know what anything is worth anymore. -Right. -Right? And the market was tumbling and everything was nuts. So flash forward to about 2011 and Bitcoin is starting to-- like, went from, let's say, if they priced it in dollars and euros and it went from say, a few cents of per bit coin to like a dollar a Bitcoin to $2, -Right. -to like $13 per Bitcoin in the beginning of the year. At which point, things started to get kind of interesting because people are starting to pay attention. I talked about it like a couple of years ago. It's like a funny, interesting way to conceive about what is money worth and now all of a sudden, we saw Bitcoin go from, say, $13, $14, $15, up to the 40's. -Yeah. -Then, right when Cyprus was basically going into bank accounts and saying, "Okay. You've got money here. We're gonna take money out of your account to pay for our bailout." Bitcoin went to $266. -Uh huh. -Now, it's back in the 40's and the 50's and people are really starting to say, "Well, maybe this idea of an electronic currency has--" -That's constantly changing. -that's constantly changing has some merit." Now, here's the downside. It's not regulated. -Right. -And you know, that's kind of crazy. Now-- -It could be messed with a little bit, right? -Totally can be messed with, -Yeah. -could be manipulated, could be speculative. And from the-- from the Federal Reserves' point of view, and which I think they're gonna start to get in on this is they say it also can be used to launder money. -Right. -Right? -Well, yeah. I-- It sounds like an-- you know, the kind of concept of Bitcoin is one of these-- it's like flirting with quantum physics. -Yeah. -You know, it's like this intangible sort of abstract idea. Some people really get it. Some people don't. You hear about it a lot. It sounds like it was invented to sort of-- -As an answer to like-- -very-- maybe transactions, right? -Well, I don't-- I don't know-- even know if that's-- I-- -I'm sure it's being used for a legal activity. -I'm sure it has been. -Yeah. -I think that it was really created because people were saying why is it that we arbitrarily say a dollar is worth a dollar, right? -Right. -I mean, so-- This is like a very existential-- -Sure. -financial conversation. -Yeah. -And it's fascinating because it is true that the only reason a dollar is worth a dollar is 'cause we all agree-- -Right. -that that's the case. But when you look at Bitcoin, I think that there are people who are, you know, like-- you know, honestly, they're programmers, they're super smart people, right? They're saying, "Well, why is that the dollar is worth a dollar?" And who says that-- it also can get into conspiracy theorists, right-- -Right. -'cause you can get these wing nuts who are like, "And you can't trust the government and-- -Right. -you gotta overthrow the government and buy Bitcoins." -Yeah. -So, it ranges-- when the Euro crisis really escalated, it got a little of attention, then it retreated. And then when the Cyprus thing reared up, it went crazy again, has retreated. Look, do I think that you should go out and buy Bitcoins? No. If you wanna go have some fun and fool around with it? Yeah. -Yeah. -Go-- like going to AC. -Yeah. Here's the craziest thing. -Yeah. -And when I first-- I still don't understand it. You can make Bitcoins. -Right. You have to have a pretty big ass computer to do it. -You can-- You can like render them. -Yes. -You ever heard this, Justin? -No. -Hold on a second. -You know it-- -I-- -I'm just going over to sit next to Justin for a second. Pardon me. -Look at this. -Right? Have you-- you've-- -No, I haven't heard that you can make Bitcoins. -So you can-- -How do you-- -you can use like processing power, more like what folding at home was with the PlayStation 3's. -Yeah. -You use like this hybrid computing process to calculate really advanced math equations and crap like that. -Uh huh. -There was like a certain sort of same idea with Bitcoin. You can make it. You couldn't just-- It wouldn't be significant but you can make like fraction upon fractions-- -Uh huh. -of this little, you know, currency values. -Yeah. -So Jill, what do you-- what are you checking out now? -If you go-- there is actually a site where you can download the program. -That makes that? -Yeah. -Yeah. -So-- -But would you need like NASA computers to have that-- -Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You need a massive-- like you have to be a serious-- -Yeah. -computer person. -[unk] says Bitcoins are not trackable which is why they're so popular. Wonder how many super packs will use that as a way to further [unk]. -I love that. So now, we marry all sorts of conspiracy theories-- -Yeah. -with the ultimate bastardization of any idea, which is politics. -Right. Exactly. -I love that. -Well-- -You know what? But it's an interesting thing. I'll tell you what's also fascination. So Bitcoins are skyrocketing and last week, at the same time, gold is plummeting. -Yeah. Weird, right? -It was fascinating and it just shows you that so many of these things that are real manias, you have to just guard against. -Right. And you said-- -Remember, I was on this show-- -you gotta keep your distance. -I was on this show in September, by the way, after Apple made an all-time high of $705 this year. -Oh my God. Where is it at now? Something crazy, right? -Under $400. Down 45%. -It's crazy. -So every mania, you should be looking over your shoulder and saying, "Okay. Wait a minute. What-- What's gonna happen?" -Yeah. -"What's the bad thing that can happen?" -For sure. For sure. All right. We don't have a terrible amount of time today. I wanna get to some of your questions. -Okay. You ready? -So-- Yeah, let's roll. -David writes, "I'm not that investment-savvy, can you expect-- suggest some no-load funds to invest in? I've got about $50,000 grand to do something with. I'm totally scared of the market. I wanna be cautious about where we put it." -So you just bet on football. -Bet on-- Put it-- Here's a great-- There was a great European product that was created, a great outgrowth of the crisis. You literally-- They built a safe into a mattress. -Oh, really? -Isn't that awesome? I love that. -That is fun. -So here's the thing. If you wanna buy no-load mutual funds which means you buy them, they have no commission and no fee to buy them. There are a lot of ways to do it. Some of the biggest fund families, the ones that I really like, are Vanguard, T Rowe Price, Fidelity. You can buy through Charles Schwab, has a platform. You can buy it, you know, through a no-- a low-cost or no-cost brokerage firm, but those are the biggies and-- -Yeah. -I think when you stick to those, the greatest thing you do is you avoid these big, fat fees. And if you can avoid fees, you're gonna be better off in the long run. If you're really scared of the market, then don't be a stock market investor. -Right. -And that's fine, but you know, you gotta know that you're gonna lose out when things turn around and things are good. -Right. -So that's a biggie. -What are you-- From the chatroom, can we do one of these-- -Yeah, sure. -What do you think of diamond investments? -Oh, diamonds as an investment-- the exchange trader fund is called DIA-- or diamonds as in the rock on my finger? -I think they mean the rock 'cause they were-- Oh, it was-- they said something about pink diamonds? -Oh pink diamonds. Well, you know-- Look, all these things, precious metals, diamonds, all that crap-- I mean, it's awesome but like I wouldn't use it as an investment. -Aren't diamonds? -A girl's best friend? Yes. -Well, obviously. -Uh huh. -But aren't they fictionally valued? -Well, every-- -Because there are no real value of like-- I understand gold-- -Well-- -is like a standard that we used to be on. -No, I mean-- as diamonds are just valued based on what anyone's willing to pay for it. -Right. Right. -So you gotta go find it. When-- -So essentially, they're really worth nothing. -Yeah, supply and demand. -Yeah. Yeah. -Right? It's what-- the same thing as currency, right? -I just like-- I just like saying that because I have a big anti-diamond thing. -Really? -I'm not like-- the way their minds-- so that's terrible too but like-- just don't like-- I just think it's-- -That it's arbitrarily-- -And I think it's silly. -Why do we like-- -We can just-- -Why do we like a diamond versus coal? -It's just silly to me. -I know. -It's like, "Oh we found shiny rock in the ground. Let's make it worth money." -I'm sure Stacy would love to hear you talking about this. -I know. -It doesn't matter. She's got the diamond. It's over. -Yeah. -The story is over. But for people, you know, moving forward-- -I know. You're right. You make-- -Well, you just-- You can-- -You're making a point. -I get-- -[unk] is. -You're making a good point. -It's like, oh, you got-- -Oh, this is a cool, shiny rock. -Yeah. -Let's put it on my finger and make it cost $15,000. All right. -Check this out. [unk] writes that he's a listener on the podcast and the 404. His parents are from China. They've got a U.S. green card and they've got some-- most of their saving's in China and they also have a pension from the Chinese government and they're retired and she-- he said, "They both recently got green cards and I don't know what taxes I need to file." Interesting, right? -You know? -I had to look it up-- -Okay. -but I looked up on the IRS website which says, "As soon as you acquire a green card, you automatically are classified as a U.S. tax resident and must report all of your income whether earned abroad or domestically to the IRS." -If you-- -Okay. -So it doesn't mean that you're gonna pay taxes but you gotta say, "Here's what I made. Here are the taxes I paid in China. And, do I owe you anything, Uncle Sam?" -Uh huh. -So you can't just blow it off. Just-- -In other words, if you-- even if you don't even live here. If you have a green card and you are considered a U.S. taxpaying person. -Yeah. So there's no like-- -No-- Yeah. -amnesty or anything? -No. No. No. -Okay. -Definitely not. Eric wants to know about-- He's got $7000 in his 401-K. He says he's doing well, blah, blah, blah. He says, "How about with precious metals, maybe I should put all my money into silver." What? I mean, it-- Come on. -Yeah, don't-- -Don't do that. -It's not a thing to do. -And what-- you don't pick one asset and just roll the dice. -You gotta diversify. -You got that right, sister. -Oh, right. Yeah. -[unk] show. -Yeah. -So-- -[unk] financial. -same deal, like roll the-- Remember when we've talked about this one, when we had a lot of people who say, "I left a job. What do I do?" -Yeah. -You leave your job. You roll over your old retirement account into your new company's plan or into an IRA roll over account. You don't pay any fees to do that. -Right. -You keep it simple. You invest in a no-load, indexed fund like a Vanguard stock fund and a Vanguard bond fun. Really plain vanilla, don't go crazy. -Okay. -What else you got over there? Anything? 'Cause I got more gear. -Let's go. Let's do one more of yours and then we actually have to-- -Go? -get out of here. Yeah. I know. -Good Lord. -I know. -Just killed me today. -It's tough. We only have like a half hour today. -I know. Corey is-- says, "I never miss you on the 404." -Oh. -I love these guys-- and girls. "And I'm a new subscriber to jillonmoney, which you can download on iTunes." I should get you guys do like a liner for that. -We can. -Okay. "So I need some Aunt Jill wisdom. I'm 28 years old. I have a home in Tennessee. I got a mortgage on the home--" Okay. He's got-- His wife still owns the home from her previous marriage. -Uh huh. -And the house is worth $95,000. The mortgage is $92,000. -Wow. -Yeah, that's so-- He's, you know, close to being basically break-even on this property. -Yeah. -Right? "We intended to sell it. We had to rent it. There were no buyers." Anyway, blah, blah, blah. She's got a less than desirable interest rate 'cause she can't refinance. The original mortgage is in her name and the ex-husband's name. -Uh huh. -That prevents you from refinancing? -Well, he's got to agree to be on the mortgage with her-- -So he-- -and maybe they can't and maybe that's-- -So it's just caught up in their relationship. -It's caught in that-- "We wanna sell the house. We don't want credit troubles." Blah, blah, blah. "We wanna put the home back on the market. We know that we need about $10,000 on cash to ensure that we can cover the commission and the closing costs." -Yeah. Interesting. -"Do you think it's in our best interest to suck it up as landlords and keep renting or should we look for a loan to allow us to have the cash ready to cover the cost? Should I borrow against equity in my home? Should I borrow against my 401-K?" -Jesus. -All right. -I mean, this is-- this is something you have to answer 'cause this is-- -I'm gonna answer this. -there's a lot of variables there. -Here's the deal. If it sucks to be a landlord-- -Yeah. -Let me just say that ten times over. -What, you've been-- you've been one? -No, but it's hard. I've had clients who have been landlords. It's a hard job. -I mean, just think about it. It totally sucks 'cause you're on the hook for everything. -Everything, exactly. -Yeah. -That said-- -Renting doesn't suck. Being the guy-- -Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. -Yeah. Yeah. -So what I would say, Corey, is this. If you can suck it up for another year, the housing market is getting better. -Yeah. -Okay? So what you're hoping for is this home that's valued at $95,000 and you owe $92, you're just hoping for like another $5,000 or $8,000 in valuation to tick up a little bit. And I think if you can wait one more year, presuming you can get renters and you're covering your cost, it probably would be really wise to do that-- -Yeah. -and just hang in there. It sucks, I know, but I would hate to see you have to go through a whole process of getting a loan from your 401-K or getting a loan against your other house. It's a bummer of a situation but I think you're closer to the end than the beginning and that's the good news. -Okay. -All right? So we hang in there. -There's a light-- -A light at the end of the tunnel. Hey, by the way, someone wrote in-- Alessandra wants to know, budget vacation ideas. Let's go around the room. Budget vacation ideas. What do you got? -Stay-cation. Yeah. -You want a stay-cation. Stay home. -But you know what? If you're in a city like even if you-- I mean, not everyone is in New York but explore your own city. -Yeah. -I think that's a great idea. I-- -You know what I mean? Like there's so much you can really do. -And there's always that time where-- no matter where you live, there's something you haven't done that's really close to you. -Right. -Yeah. -And so I agree. I think the stay-cation is great, and then, you know, do something like totally indulgent and fun for a day. If you mean to go, like go to a day spa or something-- -Yeah. -and then-- and chill out and like take that week, take your time, re-charge your batteries. Don't check your work email. -I was gonna say leave your phone at home. -Forget about it-- -Yeah. -and do that and just like-- You know one of the things, I was talking to somebody over the weekend and they said, "You know, I just took a walk through Central Park-- -Uh huh. -and I forgot how beautiful it is. -It's freaking awesome. -Right? -It's all fake but it's freaking awesome. -What do you mean fake? -Central Park is completely fake. -What-- I have no idea how to respond to that. Like-- -It's just-- -What do you mean, there's like fake trees? -Man-made park. -It's a man-made park. -Yes, of course, it's a man-made park. -Yeah. -Yeah. -It's a beautiful, public works project. -I struggle with that. I struggle-- -Why? -Across that park is man-made too. -It's a struggle on it. It was like-- -Batter Park is man-made too. -on the ethical thing. I just-- -All is native. -struggle. -Why can't you just appreciate the beauty? -Yeah. -Why? -[unk]. I love it. -So then-- -I'm just saying it's beautiful. -I wanted to say when we think about cheap vacations too, is that-- If you go to a lot of local-- like sustainable farms, they'll let you stay over if you volunteer your work and then you can take advantage of all the nature around you; go on hikes, go to the beach [unk]. -Oh, I love that idea. -Let's see-- -And you can just spend time outdoors. -My friend does-- -Yeah. -All for free. -and my friend-- -When did you-- Did you do that? -I'm gonna do it. -That's a great idea. -Crunchy [unk] over here. -I love that. I have a friend who does a Habitat for Humanity [unk]. -That's cool. -But that's heavy duty work. -Yeah. -Yeah. -Like you can't mess around with that. -What do you-- So what are you gonna do, tractor boy? -I'm going to a place on April 13th that's called Garden of Eve. -Where-- -It's in Long Island. -Yeah. -Where? -And it's-- I forgot-- Riverhead? -Oh, nice. Right. Way out. -Yeah. So you just go in the farm for about a week. You help them with their-- with their-- -You're going for a week? -Yeah. -When are you doing this? -I told you. I sent you an invite-- -Oh, man. -Where is this? Where is this? -on Google Calendar. -Can you like document the whole process? -Yeah. I'll tell you about it when I get there. -I love this. -All right. Cool, man. -That would be cool but it's a free vacation. -That sounds awesome. -Who is sending me the logo from the 404 so I'll put it on the website? -I can take care of that. -Uh huh. -I'll do it for you. -I'm definitely gonna-- and so I just-- I'm gonna use the old embed code like every other schmuck. -Yeah. No, you just-- I'm gonna send you the image. -I can't do the [unk], remember? -Right. But I'm gonna send you the image and you can embed the show in the Youtube version of the show. That's a lot easier, I think. -Will you give the instructions for that? -I will, Jill. Don't worry. -Thank God. And Jill give any financial advice but, you know, blogging advice-- -I'm always-- -it's not bad though. I'm updating the site by myself. -I'm blown away at your suaveness. I am. I am. -Oh my God. -I truly am. Before we say goodbye for the day, we must share this amazing piece of artwork that was submitted to us this morning. -Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. -This is from our buddy, R-E-I-Q. -Uh huh. -I don't know how you pronounce it. Reiq? -I like R-E-- -Check out this-- -Oh, my God. -Look at this caricature he gave. -That's incredible. -Unreal. -So I love that and I really want one for myself. -It looks so cool. -You gotta put one in there and maybe a little-- maybe I'll just be like sort of the little pop up on your shoulder like Aunt Jill. -Yeah. Like you could be like the good Jill on one side and the evil Jill on the other. -Yeah. -Yeah. -I would probably be the evil Jill for you, Jeff-- -Yeah. -and the good one for Justin. Yeah. -Yeah. -Good enough for me. -There I am, flirting with Justin again. -I like it. -You can check out our buddy's site. There's a link-- and we'll put it in the show notes today. -It's cool. -This is awesome. -It is hot. -It is amazing. -This was a contest entry or-- -No. -No. -they just did this because they love you? -Volunteer. -What is that-- Remember the day who did the plaques? -Yeah. -Yeah. -I love those. I still have my plaque. -Cool. -Yeah. That's right. It is. -That's the one thing I took out of interactive. I'm like, "Let me get--" And I have one and he signed the back of mine. -Oh, no way. -Yeah. -That was the 404 one? -That was the old-- Yeah. The old logo. -Oh, the old one. Right. Got you. -Wow. -'Cause he has to do one for Natalie, so whatever. -Oh yeah. -Uh huh. -And-- -I can see where my career is gonna go next. -We-- I got in touch with him the other day. We're sending something out to him, just as like a nice, you know, how you doing. -Yeah. -Well, good. -It's gonna be-- It's gonna be awesome. -I love it. I'm so psyched. -It's pretty awesome. -Well, anyway, this is-- I wanna see that one more time. Can I just see that? -Yeah. -Yeah. -Look at this. -Bring it up. -Let me see that. -Yeah. Bring this up. -God. -It's freaking-- -It's so good. -It is so good and-- -You know why it's good? It's-- -'Cause of your red hair? -Yeah. -No, well the red hair is fine but it's good because it's like a drawing that I'm not embarrassed about. -Yeah. -You know what's great about it? -Am I Asian? I had no idea until I saw this picture. -It's funny 'cause I show-- You don't look Asian in this. -No, this is great. I love it. -Is that bad? You know, you-- -No. No. It looks awesome. -I think he's an incredible artist. -Yeah. -Amazing. -He captured-- I just love how he's got all that-- -I love that he has-- the printout of paper-- -Yeah. -Yeah. Yeah. -You always used to show. That's great. -I like-- I like he's got the print and then I love that he's-- his captions. -Yeah. -I love you and-- This is wrong. -Yeah. -Just wrong. -Yeah. -That such a Jeff is-- -It's great. -It's so perfect. -Me, trying to be positive and you shutting me down. -Well, you know, that's the way the world works. -It's what this show is all about. -Again, thanks to Reiq. Check out his website where he has a bunch of other amazingly-- -Cool. I gotta check that out. -impressive art. -Yeah. -We have such talented listeners. -And avid-- -Thank you so much. -and wonderful. -Yeah. Brilliant. Brilliant stuff. -Yep. -We gotta say goodbye. Check out JillonMoney.com and follow Jill @JillonMoney on Twitter. You'll be back in a few weeks and we'll rock and roll. -Absolutely. -All right. -Rock and roll, baby. -We'll see you guys on Tuesday. 866-404 CNET. You can also reach us through email the404@cnet.com. Guest this week. I think-- I know we have Peter Ha, Friday. -Uh huh. -And I think maybe one or two scattered within. More on that tomorrow. We'll see you then. I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Aunt Jill. -And I'm Mark Licea. -Don't be so enthusiastic. -I'm Mark Licea. -He's like, "I'm glad this is over." -You did a good job today, dude. -Oh, thank you. -You did. -He's the best. -Round of applause for Mark. -Excellent. Back here tomorrow. We'll see you.