Ep. 1419: Where it's open tax season with Aunt Jill Schlesinger

-What's going on everyone? It's Monday, February 3rd, 2014. Welcome to The 404 Show. I'm Jeff Bakalar. -Me? Next? -You're next. -I'm Aunt Jill. -I'm Justin Yu. -Welcome to the program. Ariel is here in spirit, but he's mic less. -I actually think we-- -I feel bad about that. -we do have a fourth mic, right? -I feel bad. -I thought we did. It's just not-- -There isn't one. -It's just not-- It just doesn't have a home in terms of like a stand. -Don't you think he should have his own camera right there? -He does have his own cam. Yeah. -Yeah, but-- Okay. But then and a mic as well where it's like-- -Yeah. -he's running this show. -But guess who's got his mic right now. -I'm bi-atch. -Yes. -Took this mic. -You've pointed her out. -Ariel, sorry. I feel bad. -It's alright. We're gonna get this-- the fourth mic stand situation fixed and then everyone's gonna have a mic-- -Exactly. -which is gotta get our [unk] check. -Right. -Here's what we've got to do. -Wait a minute, so-- All right, forget it. I'll ask that after. -So, what's up? Welcome back to the show. -It's been a long time-- -It's been super long time. -'Cause we didn't-- Happy New Year! -Happy New Year! -And you guys-- -You can't-- We can't do that in February. -Why not? -Well, it's Chinese New Year, you can say for that. -Exactly. -When is it? -It was-- It's on Friday. -It's like a couple of days ago, right? -All right. -Yeah, it was on Friday. -I didn't say anything. -Well, we were-- were doing the Q-Bert Show. -Right. -Yeah, we were interviewing and that will bring the-- -Because it's the year of the horse. -It is the year of the horse. -Cool. -Why do I know that? -Because you're a horse. -No, I am not. Because of the Chinese markets are closed for an entire week during the lunar New Year celebration. -Yeah. -Good for them. -Now, you go. -We know how to relax. -We know-- Yeah, right. -Yeah. We only relax for this one week for the rest of the year. -Did you read that article by Amy Chua, the one who wrote the Tiger Mom thing? -Oh, Tiger Mom. No, I didn't. -She wrote a followup article with her husband. They were about to publish a book, which is basically like "Why are Chinese and Jews so hyper and crazy and successful?" That's literally like it's basically the thesis of the book like "Why are certain ethnic groups so crazy?" -I don't know. I like her. -If that were the case like our show should be way better. -Well, it is-- it's awesome. -Maybe it's gotten up here. -Maybe, it's all we got here. -Oh, I have a great 404 story. -All right, excellent. -Okay. So two weeks ago, I was at a friend of mine was being honored at the New York Public Library. Fancy schmancy event, right? -Okay. -It was a gala. -It was a bit of a gala-- not a gala, but it's-- a celebration. -I just like that word-- gala. -I wasn't wearing a ball gown or anything. -Sure. Sure. Sure. -So, my friend was becoming the president of the board of a college called Simon's Rock. -Okay. -Okay. And Simon's Rock is a very cool place, progressive, blah, blah, blah. -Uh huh. -Anyway, I'm there hanging out. A guy comes up to me and he looks at me and goes, "Aunt Jill?" -Oh my God. That's amazing. -Right. Okay. And so he looks, you know, like a guy in a suit, kinda normal. -Kinda normal. -Right. -What a great if that you [unk] and he's hearing this. -Okay, but wait a second. So, he is-- 'cause I told him to listen to that-- So, he goes "I love that show." -Yeah. -And I said that's so great. His name is Morgan and so hi, Morgan. -Cool. What's up, Morgan? -We love you more again and-- -Yeah, buddy. he is the CEO of a website called Money. Net and he's the author of the bestselling "Oil." -He's got the Money. Net. -Yes, pretty good. -Yeah. -Anyway, he loves the show so much. So much that he started saying like, "You know, maybe I should advertise on the show." I'm like, "Maybe you should." -I don't think it's a maybe. -I think yeah. -Maybe Morgan should be the sole sponsor of this show. -I think we can give him February to have a discount. -I think so. I think certainly today. -I think-- -Today's show is brought to you by Morgan. -He definitely got today. That was pro-bono. -That's was good though, right? -Yeah, I know for sure. -Nobody else calls you Aunt Jill besides this appearance, right? -Pretty much. Although, now people-- -Unless you have like real nieces and nephews like real Aunt Jill. -I do, but they don't call me Aunt Jill. They only call me Jill. So, the funny thing is that a couple of people actually from The 404 had seen me recently like-- -Okay. -in weird places and people who were even my age, this old, who will say to me, "You're Aunt Jill, right?" -No way! -Yeah, I swear to God. So, it's been kinda cool. -Wow! -That is excellent. -Yeah. And then one guy is like, "Yeah, I think I saw you in CBS Evening News also." -Yeah. -Like an extra add on like-- -Like the add on. -Whatever. -But the real accomplishment was 404. -Exactly. -And the footnote. -You guys are making it. You don't believe you are-- -It was prime time. -you are rocking the media world. -It's good. -That's right. -Things are better right now. -It's cool. We got to keep going. -It's true. -We need to hear things like this every once in a while. -It's great. -That's why we have you on the show. -People love you so much. -We need that shot getting that injection of confidence. -Yeah. -I'm just selling you. I think it's kinda cool. -Yeah. -All right on. -All right. That's what-- That's what I got about that. -Sweet. Let's show and tell. What you got here? -Wait a minute, do you want that Super Bowl first? -Oh yeah, that Super Bowl. You mean the big game. -Yeah. -The big game? -Yeah. -Are we not allowed to say it the other way? -Super Bowl? -Yeah. -I don't know. -Why can't we? -We didn't pay for it. -I have no idea. -What? -We heard somewhere-- This was way back-- -This was way back-- back land when we were a three-person show. But that third person told us that we weren't allowed to say Super Bowl because we had to pay for the rights to say it. -He made crap up all the time. -So, that's what we didn't say about the game. -Definitely, he made crap up all the time. -He made crap up all the time. -But I'm positive about that, but I think there was like an editorial maybe like note came out a couple of years ago. -Really? -Yeah, but I think that was just for like when you write. -Oh what-- -I don't think it was for like podcast and shows itself. -What else did you describe it as Fox's Super Bowl? -The big game like the big game. -I don't think that's possible. -Yeah. -That seems impossible. -Anyway, regardless what you think-- -Anyway, the Super Bowl-- -what you think? -It was terrible game. -It's the worst game I've ever seen. -Ever? -It was so boring and stupid. -It might have been not as bad as like some Islander games that I've seen recently. -That's so true, but the best spot like that first play was so hilarious. -And so telling. -And when you saw the slow-mo replay-- -Yeah. Yeah. -and Peyton Manning did such a derp faces, that ball just passed by has not-- -Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was great. -He just knew like oh-- -Papap Papap Papap. -This is what we're gonna have right now. -Right. It was a little bit of $6 million-man moment. -Yeah. Absolutely. -You know, it was a terrible game and-- -It was. -I knew it was gonna be a terrible game. -I kind-- I'm kinda happy it was so bad. -You are? -Well 'cause I always look like every opportunity that I see for like a big major American sport to fail is a chance for hockey like get that much better. -Interesting. -That's how I see. -That's an interesting. So, you want a demise of something instead of the success. -Yeah. Well, there's a lot of people proclaiming that football is like not on its way out, but there-- in like two decades' time, you're gonna have either a massive re-working of how this sport is played just because of the concussions and how many people are going to Super-- -I mean it is kind of crazy. I mean did you hear and see the guy when they're playing the guy who's Mike-- -Yeah. -and a couple of the hits were so brutal. -It's crazy. -It's scary. And I mean I know hockey is a tough game-- -Of course. -but it's not head-to-head thing. -It's not. It's because they're like kind of not-- I wanna say they're taught to go in with their helmet first, but it's just like the culture of the sport-- -Yeah. -where you-- you've really do bang around your head and it's not so much like the big blows. I think it's just the repetition-- -Yes. -especially like linesmen who every single play it's just like crunch-- -I know. -every play-- every play, crunch, crunch, crunch. -And you sometimes see them walk around a little, looked a little dazed, right? -They do for sure. -Don't they? -Yeah. -It's a little scary. -It is. -I mean look at Joe Namath. -Oh my God. -Joe Namath-- And he was a quarterback. -Okay. Can I just say, "What was like he's wearing?" -Home boy like he's messed up. -That dude is crazy. -He's-- But he also has come up like "Yeah, my brain is F." -Yeah. Why did he have to wear that fur? He looks like a pimp from 1974. -He did look like-- Did you see that? -He looked terrible. He looked terrible, then he flips the coin before they-- -Yeah, and the refs like, oh, he's like go home Joe, you're drunk. -Right. Yeah. And I-- -What happened with the coin? -He did like a premature coin toss without even asking anyone to call heads or tails. He just tossed it-- -Right. -Like two-- -and the referees like, "Okay, Joe." He's like, "Who gave this guy to come on-- -Could you see Phil Simms-- Phil Simms in the back are like rolling his eyeballs like, here we go. -Slapping his forehead. -Oh man. -Anyway-- -It's said though. -It is. -Like it's funny because, you know, he's kind of like being a good sport about it, but at the same time it's super sad because he's not well. -I know. And you know that settlement is crazy. -It's a joke, though. -It's a joke. It's so bad. -So catch just enough on us 'cause I don't think he- -So, the NFL and the Players Union came to an agreement on a settlement for it. I think it was like 750. -Some-- 700 something. -Something like it's $750 million, which is like a tiny amount considering how many people have been impacted by this. And there's this whole project where, you know, there's been a series of autopsies after Major League football players die and they go into an autopsy and they look at their brains and there's just one area of the brain that is subject to incredible pressure from football. The found it over and over again and like so many-- and the NFL denies it for so long. -Yeah. -It was like they're like a tobacco company basically, right? -For sure. It's the same exact sort of relationship. And so now all of a sudden they said, "Oh, we have a settlement. Everything is fine." The judge is like not so fast. I'm not sure that settlement is enough so it will be interesting. -There is also the most-- I think the most upsetting stuff lies and the fact that there's a lot of covering up. -Oh yeah. -That seems to be going on. ESPN got really pressured by the NFL when a report was like to really world-renowned neuroscientists were like saying like this is a serious effing deal. -Yeah. -And ESPN got pressured to like not air the study and stuff like that. So, there's a lot of covering up what's going on to them. -Yeah, there's actually-- There was, I think, pretty good thing from public television frontline did a thing about concussions. -Yeah. -It was- -There's one on PB-- Was that the PBS? -Yeah. It was sobering man and you listen to that and you think I would never let my kid play football. -Yeah, it sucks. -It's scary. -For sure especially someone young constantly getting rocking the head. -Yeah. -That can't be good. That's just common sense. But for me it's, you know, we were talking about this a little bit watching the game last night and you think yourself you're like, "All right, we'll-- do you wanna live, you know, for 60 years? The last 10 would be mosh, but you're getting paid like tens of million dollars a year. Do you think that's like-- Do you think that's what people understand it's like a trade off?" -Except-- I mean, the end it's not just 10 years. It could be like 20 years. -Sure. It could be anything. -These people are depressed on what happens to their family when they killed themselves. -Right. It's super sad. -It's horrible. It's so bad. -It is. -So something has to change. -It does. You know, you look-- And I know this argument is brought up all the time, but like you look like other sports that are arguably just as-- as maintained as much contact and I'm not talking about hockey. I'm talking about Rugby or like Australian Rules Football. Rugby, they don't ever wear helmets and there seems to be- -Is there something they said about that because you're wearing a helmet you actually feel like you're- -Yeah. -You think it's like a bulletproof vest. -Right. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. -Right. I guess. -And I think that's-- that's one thing. I mean, look, you saw all those boxers. I mean boxing basically used to be this like premier sport across the world. -Right. -And now it has seen as like the crazy people who box, who have to basically be brain damage for the rest of your life. It's terrible. -It's really a casualty of the job. -It's horrible. Oh, all right. What's your favorite commercial? -What's my favorite-- I definitely like the Squarespace commercial. Overall, I just wanna come and say they were terrible. They were. I mean, come on they're empirically awful. Justin, you didn't see-- -I saw a couple of them. -I thought the Squarespace one was good. I thought the one where the father kept like saving the kid from hurting himself, I thought that was good. That trick photography that looks pretty good, but that was really the only two that's stood up. -You didn't like the puppy one 'cause you're not as wimpy as us. -Because I'm-- No, the puppy one was all right-- -It's so cute. -but it's just like that horse would destroy that puppy if they ever really hang out. -No. Because if you watch like I did, the making-- -Yeah, they got along? -of the Budweiser. Yes, that's what they said. -You don't think the Clydesdales would just be like me, puppy snoop out of that thing? -The Clydesdales basically they-- they basically said-- No, they said the Clydesdales are actually so gentle that they really didn't-- -Really? -it wasn't that hard. -They are previously large horses. -And what's the hard part for them was to get the Clydesdale to jump over the fence. That was a big thing. And so cute though. I love that one. I did like the RadioShack one. -The 80s thing? -Halo like 80s Throwback. -You can't even play wearing in it. -Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. -We really like, "Oh what the heck that they cut their hair." -Six-- Therefore, like maybe a six of us like, "Wow!" -But it was fun. That was a fun one. -Yeah. -But generally speaking, it was-- it was just not really edgy or interesting. -Yeah. -And here's the other question. Okay, so I love that puppy ad. -Sure. -34 million views on YouTube before the game started. -Sure, which is crazy now that like commercials have to live be on the confines of the game of the broadcast. -Yup. Absolutely. Well-- -Because you're spending $4 million for 30 seconds, you gotta get more of your money's worth-- -Yeah. -that you got substantial-- -Yeah. But let me ask you a question, I'm not gonna buy Budweiser beer because of it so-- -I won't do anything for any commercial. -So then the question becomes like, I know-- like if you advertise online at least you can say, okay, Morgan is sponsoring The 404 Show and they click on Morgan's website and they did something with Morgan and you can quantify it. How on earth you quantify the success of this commercial? Is it just branding and that's the deal like, we'll stand-- -I think for Doritos, for Budweiser, I think that is just like, you know-- I think it's just like brand awareness. -Uh huh. -I know-- I think for stuff when you look at like Squarespace, I think the majority of the people watching the game outside had no idea what Squarespace was. -Right. -But if they're thinking about doing a website now, maybe they enjoyed it and they'll do it. I think there's a reasonable sort of, you know, cause and effect with commercials like that. -Right. -For Doritos like-- Doritos isn't in trouble. -Right. -You know, that's a brand awareness. -Anyone know how many people downloaded the YouTube song? Do you know about the promotion they did it with you too? -What the hell is-- YouTube promoting and it's like-- -It's not-- I'll tell you why. -they're always gonna do awesome. -It is the-- I agree. -Yeah. -But it was actually a deal to get money into the bonus-- -Charity. -RED, charity. -All right. -They got for every download, they get-- said, "Okay, you can download this new YouTube song for free-- -Sure. -for the next 24 hours and for download on iTunes, Bank of America will give a dollar to RED. -All right. -So, that's kind of a cool promotion. -I think that's cool. Sure. -The question is like what is Bank of America get out of it. -Right. -It's not like, "Oh, I'm gonna open up a checking accounting with Bank of America 'cause they give a dollar to RED. -Right. It's a way of sort thing. -But it's just sort of like a good corporate citizen thing. -Right. -So, I wonder how many downloads they got. -Was the song good? Did you listen to the song? -It seemed it sounded good. It certainly kind of a little bit-- You know that sometimes YouTube can do like schmaltzy songs like it sounded like one of those schmaltzy songs. -I wanted you to say something else. I wanted you really-- You know how YouTube isn't that good-- -No, I would never say that-- -What is schmaltzy? -Schmaltzy, it's like very emotional, you know. -Okay. -You know, it can be a little bit over that song, you know. -Don't you remember we-- like back in the day we had an episode about the word schmaltzy? -Yeah. -This is all coming back. -It did. -Yeah. -It's like all the discussion. Yeah. -But anyway, it's something like invisible or invincible or something like that. -Right. Okay. -Anyway, we'll check it out. But suffice to say that of all those ads, look at that cute puppy. -Uh huh. -That puppy, he is just-- -Come on. -Oh, this is ridiculous. -Yeah. -He is unbelievable. -For sure. -It's ridiculous. Actually, I didn't-- -I'm not upset with that puppy. -Let me just say one thing. I did not wanna buy a Budweiser, but I do wanna get a dog-- -Oh, you do. -just like-- yeah. From that-- like that makes-- -You like Golden? -I don't know Golden. If I were like-- If I had a big place and I live in New York City, I would get like an awesome chocolate lab. -Oh, that's a cute dog. -Yeah. I love that. But-- -What I realized watching the Super Bowl was that the vast majority, if not every single one of them say for, you know, those Squarespaces, they're just not for us. It's for like the rest of the country. -What do you mean "us"? Who's us? Us on the coasts? -Yeah. Like it's just the majority of people watching this game-- -You sound like [unk] right now. -No, I'm not trying to be, but like-- -I thought you were saying that because we're young, we've already seen them before the Super Bowl aired. -No. I'm talking about when like they show a cowboy with the truck. -Uh huh. -That's clearly not for any of us. -You know, you're not American. You're not American. -Like it's not for-- That commercial is not for you. -Well, it's not for young people that live in New York, but-- -But many-- -Right. -the whole country isn't-- -Of course. Exactly, that's what I'm saying. It's just interesting to me and I-- and I-- for a second I'm like, "Man, you know, people-- the world over like see that and that's-- and they think America and they think like the bulls and the cowboys and like the horses and that sort of thing. -Yeah, that's a part of it. -It's interesting. -Right. -Oh, I'm not saying I'm ashamed of it. -Part of. -It's a huge part of our country-- -But it's not how you would connect to it. -of our country's culture. But yeah, it's just-- -Right. -it's a little strange. -Those car commercials crack me up because of massive trucks or something. -Yeah. -I'm like, "Oh my God, can you imagine that in midtown. -Right. Yeah. It's crazy. -It is. It is. -It's a little-- -So, at 8:58 after the-- Did you like to have time show? -I did actually. I don't-- Like I have no problem with Bruno Mars. I think he-- -A lot of guys are saying to me like, "Oh, I like it even though he's a little girly." -I don't really think he's girly. -I don't think he's girly. I think he's cool. -I think he's got like a really-- he's got like shades of like, you know, Michael Jackson in the Jackson Five. -Yeah, a little old school hip-hop. -So, it was like that, [unk] a little bit. -Yeah. -I dig them and then I wish Red Hot Chili Peppers got like more than like a chorus. -Do you know that I-- I heard that-- -They're so good. That's awesome. -They are so good. I heard that he was the one who got them involved. -Bruno Mars. Yeah. -Yeah. -Oh, that's cool. -Because he thought it would be cool to bring them on. -And they played at the Barclay Center the night before. -Oh. Is that where you were? -I was not there. My brother was there. -Uh huh. -Yeah. I'd seen them about a year ago. -They're old now, huh. -They're like in their early 50s and they can-- they still got it. -It's amazing and great bodies. -Oh yeah for sure. They look great. Oh, their guitar-- the guitar player, which they always swapped out, he's like in his 20s, but I maintained it like Anthony Kiedis has arguably sounded better the older he's gotten. -Is that right? -I think so. -Maybe he's doing fewer drugs. -Like I feel that's definitely the case. -No. -I had seen him-- I'd seen Red Hot maybe like 10 years ago and I was just not impressed with his voice. When I saw them last May, I was like, "All right, he is either having coaching or he just sounds better a lot now, I think." -I was surprised that it wasn't like Springsteen. I really thought, oh, it's gonna be-- -He'd already done that. -Yeah, I know. -He'd done it. He did it like three years ago. -I know, but it was in New Jersey, whatever, the swamps in Jersey. Anyway, I turned it off at 8:58 'cause I had to watch [unk]. -Oh my God. -Oh, yes. Yes. So-- -That was like maybe in the halftime, right? -It was right after the halftime show. -Yeah. -I'm like, "Okay, I'm done. That's it." -Yeah. The game was over in the first quarter. -Game was totally over. Why invest anymore of my value. -Yeah, you're right. -It sucks for those advertisers in the second half. -Oh, I know. I mean, can you imagine? -They ate it. They ate it and like we were saying the fourth quarter is the most expensive. -Is that right? Because in case it is a closed game. -Right. And then-- I mean, if you're gonna have people watching and it's gonna be the end of the game, right? -I would see-- -The beginning-- -Yeah, I was gonna say-- -Imagine like kickoff and the end are the most expensive. -Yeah. Right. And so we're you surprised that-- I won't even want to talk to you. We're you surprised that Seattle won? -I don't know enough about football to really like understand why they won. -I just wanna say that I proclaimed last July that Seattle is gonna win the Super Bowl for no other reason. -Huh. Where were you for that propped that at the beginning of the season? -Isn't that amazing? Because my friend-- like literally my friend's nephew is one of the coaches of the Seahawks and I was talking to her and she's like, "You know what? I think the Hawks are really gonna be great this year." And I said, "Great." Great enough that I can like go out in public and said that she's like, "Absolutely." -Sure. -So, I-- Yeah. That was great. -That's cool. -And so I got it on tape. -There-- I mean, I don't know a lot about either team, but it was very apparent that their defense was just out of control. -You know what's interesting always with these teams, right. That you have-- It's a long season and it's all about when you pick, right? -Sure. -And so I felt bad because I felt, "Oh my God, you know, the Broncos their last game should have been the playoffs when the beat New England. They just left too much on the field there." -Right. -Yeah. -That happens, you know. -Like you said, you could tell right away. -It was not gonna be their day. -Uh huh. Also sad news, Philip Seymour Hoffman died. -Yeah, I saw that yesterday. -What? -That was-- That's shocking. -That is crazy. -I didn't know-- Obviously, that was a big deal yesterday. Did you even know he had a drug problem? I didn't know that. -I didn't-- I think-- I knew because it was on-- I think they did a thing with him on 60 Minutes and I think-- -But that was like '06, right? -Yeah. And I think that he had said on that. I remember this that he said he had a drug problem. -Uh huh. -And so evidently he was sober for like 20 something years. When off the wagon either last year or the year before, he went to rehab. Theoretically, he was clean according to like people who knew him. They thought he was clean. -Yeah. -And then this happened. It's just heartbreaking, three kids and young. -Super sad. Super sad. -And it's just like such a talent. -So talented. -Like that's been the headline, but-- -And you know what? On Saturday I was watching "Big Lebowski" and I forgot he was on it. -Yeah. He's so freakin' fun. -Right. -And people like-- people, you know, they gave him all the credit for the-- you know, he won an Oscar for Capote and he won-- -Yeah. -but like he was hilarious too in [unk] Club. -Yes. -he's always hilarious. -Yeah. -Obviously Big Lebowski like the dude could do anything. -Yeah. Yeah and he was not afraid to do anything. -Yeah. -How cool is that like you don't usually get these actors usually kind of played safe. He did really great stuff. -And he did artist stuff. -Yeah. Exactly. -He did artist stuff. He did theater. -Really cool. -He did like Mission Impossible. -I know. -It's super very upsetting. -I know. Very sad. -Did you ever have my friend who's the addiction guy? -No. We've been talking to him. -Oh yeah. -We wanna-- We basically wanna get our audience to cue up a bunch of questions, which we will do this month-- -Oh, excellent. -and then hopefully by the end of the month we'll have him on. -I'm just wondering like how often people relapse after that long. -Yeah. -You know what I mean like that's amazing to me. -It's scary. It's scary. I was listening to an interview with RD Laing. -Uh huh. -And-- -Poor RD. -he has not had an easy go especially his childhood. He had a pretty, awful childhood, but the whole like relapse thing, he'd been to-- like these guys they go to rehab and they go and they get cleaned and then like something happens and it's just-- it's really frightening. -It is, right? -And I think like, you know, after a point it's just like man, it really is like a mental condition already. -Yeah. It's a disease that you're living with. It's like, oh, I had cancer and it's now like-- I hate when people said like, "Oh, I'm cancer free." I always felt like that's like tempting fate. It's like, "I'm cancer free today and I hope I remained." But like you never know, but you're always living under that cloud that something could happen and I think that's why so many times like addicts will say like, you know-- you know, I'm recovering-- -Right. -right that active. -Yeah. -They're like on the path. Yeah. -Because-- -Some people do it though. Some people, you know, they're addicted to heroin and then they just turned it off one day. -I know. I know. What's difference between-- And then what's the difference between the person who can and can't? You know what I mean? -You think it's-- -It might be circumstances-- -Maybe it's biological. -or do you think it's like what their [unk], their friends. Who knows, yeah, maybe biological? -It's sad, though. -But the thing is what's scary to me is that they-- they can't control their brain-- -Yeah. -and they can't-- and I'm not saying they're weak or anything. They're just-- They're out of control and that's very scary thing to think about. -It is, right? Wow, this is such a deep show. -It is. -Holy smokes. -But you brought up. Yeah, your buddy Josh-- -Yeah. -We're talking. We're gonna him on, but he specializes in like internet addiction too, which is an interesting thing. -Yeah. -And also if we could say that now, if you guys would have a question about internet addiction, or even addiction in general-- -Uh huh. -like a lot of people don't know they're addicted. They feel like. -Well, there's a lot of people who lived their lives and they're like, "Well, I go to work. I have my life." Things are okay and yet there are certain ways that people use drugs or alcohol to get through a day that I think, you know, makes one person to be a recreational user and another person an addict. -Sure. -But-- So, I don't know, ask Josh. Josh is actually sort of like my nephew. -Okay. -He would be like-- He would be the kind of person that you could say, "What was Aunt Jill really like?" -Okay. That's a whole another show. -So, he knows me from way back when. -But seriously, if you do have concerns about that topic of addiction in general or specifically internet, email us the404@cnet.com. We're gonna try and get a bunch of questions in the halfway before we have Josh on and we'll have that ready for him when he does come on. Also before we get to the topics of the day that you brought with you, I want to really quickly pimp and then we'll bring this up again later in the week. This is-- -25 more times. -Yeah. -Because we're contractually obligated to do so. GameSpot, our sister video game review website game spot has a pretty kickass contest going on. It's called the Ultimate Upgrade Sweepstakes. Head on over to gamespot.com/ultimateupgrade and you can win a pretty sweet setup. You get a TV. You get a soundbar. You get Turtle Beach Call of Duty Phantom limited edition gaming headset, and you get to pick a PS4 or an Xbox One. -What would you pick? -Not a liberty to say. -Okay. -Enter for your chance to win gamespot.com/ultimateupgrade. Why the hell would you not wanna win something like this? -Maybe 'cause you're mean. You don't play a game. -Well, right. -I can pick-- -But I would think the vast majority of our listeners-- -Yeah, they might. -Would say, "No, I don't want-- -No, I give it to you. -I don't want $8,000 worth of free stuff. -How much? -It's like-- I would imagine it's closed to $8,000. -Wait a minute. -Now, it's for-- what? -Come on, do that again. -No purchase necessary kids. -Come on, switch. -So, head on over at gamespot.com/ultimateupgrade. -Look at CBS Interactive rockin' it. -It's pretty awesome. You know, I become pretty fun to those games about people over the last six months, so-- -Finally. -Finally. It took long enough. -You brought them along. -But it was until we actually worked together on a big project-- -Right. -where I was like, "You know what? These dudes do-- -They are right. -and I love them, so go check it out." -Mark-- You see him kissing up like this. It's amazing. -What marker you're saying? -It becomes-- you know, your boss mark. They only becoming an amazing corporate citizen, isn't it? -Yeah, it's working. -It's unbelievable. -It's not just yet. -Not yet. -No. All right, now let me pimp my-- -All right. So what scares to you? Yeah. -Okay. So, you know, people rarely will ask me to try a product. -Right. -Mostly what they'll say is who should I talk to at CNET and I usually will come to you guys. -Sure. -Remember I did that with Scotland. -Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. -I'm like, "Who is-- So, we're trying to figure out who. So, a friend of mine has a PR Company and it just so happen my sister-in-law helps her out-- -Okay. -and they get this client that's basically like power charging blah, blah company, you know, devices, batteries, they send me those things. So, they send me these massive package of crap right before CES, and I'm like, "I'm not gonna see them so I don't have to do anything with it." And so my sister-in-law is like, "You know what? Use the stuff. You might be surprised, which I'm always like, "Whatever." Right? -Yeah. -Anyway, I started using like this-- there's a battery here. -Yeah. -And there's, you know, a case. -A case. -And then there's all this like chargers. It's like 5,000 chargers. -There's 5000. -And there were like so many of them and so the name of the company is Ventev-- V-E-N-T-E-V. And they send me all those stuff and I tell you the truth, it was like there's this thing they call "rapid chargers." There was piece of paper. You can't- -First glance, do not look into rapid charger. -So-- Well, you put it into-- -Cigarette lighter. -the cigarette lighter and boom! -Right. Yeah. -And not only that, the thing I like about it is like if Jackie wants to put her Blackberry and then I wanna do my iPhone at the same time- -Right. -in the same charger, boom! Done. -You're done. -All right. That's why I got for you. It's kind of cool. What do I know? -So, here's the thing like-- and I get it and I'm not saying, you know- -Here we go spoken holes and-- -I'm just trying to say like these things are dime a dozen like everyone's making these things. -Yes. Right. Right. So, what's different about these guys? -So, here's-- So, but the thing I think is cool is what Justin has in his hand. So, the thing I like right away and, again, we can't like say these are good or bad. We haven't tested them. -What do we know? Right. -We don't know. -I'm just trying to look nice. -Share to what Justin is caressing over there. It's a battery that I like because if you look at the two USB ports, one of them is for how many amps? -One is for 2.1 amps and the other is for 1 amp. -Right. So, that's really cool because new phones now, I just got LG G2, it only charges normally with 1.8 amps or higher, which-- -Aha. -which the 2.1 will suffice. So, that's awesome to me. So, that's something that I wanna hear again to. -Do you wanna hear something completely superficial? -Sure. -I like it because I like the color of this case-- -The color, right. -and the cords are all very pretty colors like they're all in my car. -Right. You're just an easy pushover on it's-- -Totally. Totally pushover page. Anyway, that's what I got for you. Pam and Marylou, I hope you're all both happy and I expect a nice launch out of this. -Yes. So, this is-- I mean, you know, if they want this stuff like review, they should send it to us to review to the people. -They got it that they sent it to the person. They said there you go, don't worry. Once they found out they got into the right person to review it down, they don't need me anymore. -Yeah. -Right. -But I thought I would do it because I'm a nice girl-- -Yeah. -Because you're freakin' really nice. -And-- -Oh, so this is interesting. It looks like this top piece might come off and maybe fit other models of the phone. That's cool. -Wow! -Was that for a Samsung? -This looks like it's for a Samsung phone. Yeah. -I would actually get this instead so you're not-- you don't have to use it on your phone only-- -Right. -Yeah. -or charge your MP3 player, whatever. Well, I'm curious- -The only thing is you have to remember to charge this thing-- -Right. Eventually. -which is necessary. -Right. -For sure. -Anyway, there it is. That's my first time pimping a product. -That's cool. -She will just review-- Jill brought tech on the show. -Is that really-- -Yeah. -So, you've been using it though. -Yes, I have. -I mean, you wanna give it like something a 10. -So, I'm giving-- Really? Do I have to do that give it like-- -Give it like a-- -of a letter grade. -Wait a minute. How am I supposed to not do that because you're like nothing is a 10 or-- But don't you get [unk] to top 10. -No. My rule is-- My rule is-- No, I do list so-- -Jeff never gives a perfect score. -I never give perfect score 'cause nothing is perfect. -All right. I don't know. I can't even speak to that. It was easy for someone who's an idiot like me. How about that? It worked. -It works. Yeah, that's true. -All right. So, it's idiot proof. -Idiot proof. -That Jill idiot-proof stamp of approval. -The idiot-proof-- It's a foam done, right? And then you wanna talk about money and I think-- -Nice. They'll like it. -you know what I mean? -Yeah. -By the way, today-- Happy anniversary! Today is the 101st anniversary of the income tax becoming a real thing for all of us. -So, I got a question. You weren't alive when that happened. -Yeah. Oddly enough, no. -Was it-- -It's an amendment to the Constitution. -Was it always this indecipherable? -Yes. -Or like was it even from the Gecko? -No, I don't think it-- -It was super confusing? -No, I don't think it was as confusing, but it's pretty confusing now. -Yeah. -By the IRS open up and ready to take your taxes. -Yeah. -As of January 30-- -I just got my W2. -Yeah. But that's right, it's coming in January 31st. -Right. -They opened up. Check this out. I was doing this research for-- I'm doing a TV segment on this tomorrow. The IRS says that if you e-file, there are fewer than 1% of mistakes. If when people e-file, there's 20% mistake rate, error rate when they have paper filing. -That makes sense. -Isn't that crazy? -Yeah. Because you know what happens is, of course, when you're e-filing it, it takes it through every single thing. -It will let you do it. And also it let you do it, right? -And you tend to actually sign it and your-- you know, double check the numbers. Anyway, so that blew me away. If you make less than 58 grand, check it out. -Uh huh. -Free tax filing software at IRS.gov. -That's cool. -So, 58 grand or less, free software. It's very good actually. -Yeah. -And if you think you do a refund, you wanna get your taxes done sooner rather than later, right? -Right. -Because you're just letting the money sit there. Right. And if you think you owe money, chill out. File a little bit later, pay your taxes. Always pay your taxes. -Right. -Always. -Don't-- -Yeah. -Always like you do not mess around with that. -Do not do that. -Sure. -You wanna screw with your landlord? No problem. -Right. -Do not screw with the IRS. -If you wanna screw with your landlord, go ahead. -You just don't wanna screw the IRS. -All right. -So, it is tax season and happy tax season. -Oh, thank you. -I'll say happy [unk] TV a lot. -Do you consider-- Oh, that's why you like it, right? -I'm a whore. -Let's isolate that all. -Exactly. -Some would tell me you got that. Tell me. Tell me you got that. -Yeah. -I'm sure that Ariel is already, you know, flagged that ready-- ready for the test-- -Sit in and out. -Right. Right. Exactly. Best of Ariel right there. -All right. So, we got some questions in. -Okay. -Did you hear anything, yes or no? -I got some. -This is from Twitter coming in right now. Jeson wants to know, can you talk about a realistic way to pay off my student loans? You the best! Now, there's not a lot of information here. -Okay. Well, the best way to pay off any debt is you start tracking how much money you're spending today and Justin can attest to the fact that that is horrible exercise and I need-- -But once you have MINT-- -MINT is awesome. It's changed your life, right? -Yeah. Yeah. I'm on that MINT. -You still used it? -Yeah, definitely. -You know, what happens is that until you really do it, you don't get where your money is going. -Right. -So, what you're trying to do is say, "All right, you know what? I don't have that much money to deal with so what I should I do. I try to find some little chunk of money that I can put extra down on my highest interest debt first and you work your way down. I just met with a friend of mine, poor thing. She's like has say 18 grand of old student loans. She's got a divorce. She's got messy, credit card debt buildup and she's got like 12 grand of credit card debt. And so she-- You know what she wanted to do was pay off the smallest balances just to get rid of them except they happened to be with the lowest interest rate. I said I-- -Right, it's like one, you know-- -So, what you really wanna do, you wanna concentrate on the highest interest rate and whittle it down from there. -Right. -If you're having a really hard time with your student loan, you should think about consolidating, if you do have federal loans. -Are interest rates on student loans usually higher than credit card? -No, lower. -Yeah. -And there are some people who can qualify for income based repayment. You know, you went to a really expensive school, but you got a crap job and you're not making that much money and they'll work with you to do it. -Yeah. -So, explore your options. There's an awesome website. I had to pump this website 'cause I think it's so great, finaid.org, finaid.org. A guy who runs it is so super smart, great resource there and he'll tie about lots of sort of things to watch out for. But I think that for most people, the big question is, you know, why are you borrowing so much money for an education that's not gonna get you a high-paying job, right? -Gotcha. -Yeah. -And so we just wanna limit that when possible. You know, you go to a state school or you go to community college for a couple years and you transfer in. Sure. -You don't get your fancy degree, but you don't go in to hack up your eyeballs. -Right. -All right. -Good? -Good advice. -Right. -That's a realistic way to do it. Next question from Twitter comes from Scott. Scott says, "I have no 401K matching, so where should I put my money and how much of it should I put in?" I'm new to the workforce so I can take risk. -Well, just 'cause you're new to the workforce or just 'cause you're young doesn't mean you should take risk. But you know what? Here's the thing. Even if there's no match, it may be that your 401K is a good plan. -Uh huh. -So, there are-- it depends where the 401K is. If you've got a plan that's had a Fidelity or a Vanguard or T. Rowe Price or Charles Schwab, it's a good plan. You still may wanna use the 401K because it's a simple way to put-- get your money to work. -Right. -Otherwise, what you can do is you can put money into a Roth IRA and I don't know how much you make, but maybe there's a way for you to use both, maybe you can put money in your 401K and then also put money in your Roth. Remember that Roth is limited by how much you make and how much you earn, so you got to check the rules of it. -Interesting. -But you don't have to-- you don't have to sort of say like throw away my 401K just because they don't match. If it's a decent play, you can use that and you should. -Yeah. -Here's a really good question-- -I'll determine that. -Target, you know, a crap, right? -Yes. -Recently with the credit card hacking. -Yeah. -We got a question in through e-mail who wants to know: Is it a good idea to use Target's free credit monitoring?-- -Absolutely. -that they just need to offer? -Yes. Yes. Absolutely. -So, they forwarded the whole e-mail, but-- -Yes, use it. -to sum it up, you know, it was like the CEO personally apologizing to you [unk] and they're gonna do through April 23rd of this year, they're gonna give free year of identity theft protection from experience. -Yeah. Yeah. You got to do that and if your identity was stolen, which sucks, you have to contact one of the big three credit reporting agencies. -Yeah. -They'll report it to the other two and then you have to actually go on to the FTC website and put your, you know, put in a credit and identity theft for port. -Yeah. -And then you're also supposed to go to the police and actually create a police report. -That so sounds like a lot of fun. -And so anyway-- and then things that people do where they have credit reporting, they have like-- they would normally pay for a service like that. -Sure. Sure. -And so now, you're getting it for free. You should also be really careful in checking your credit bills 'cause you know they may have had new cards open up, new things that could crap up, and you wanna check your activity and you may wanna put a credit freeze on your accounts, which basically says, you know, no one can look into your credit. -Gotcha. -And so keep an eye on that. That's just-- That was just the worse. -Yeah. Right in a hot off Twitter five minutes ago, Clemente asks, do you feel we are in a correction phase-- -Oh, what a great question. -given the current state of-- -Hold on a second, can you just look up to cnbc.com. Let's see what the markets are doing right now 'cause I love this. This is such a-- -Yeah. -The Dow was down 250 points. Okay. -So there you go. You seem excited about that. -I'm so excited. Okay. -Most people they've run for the [unk] -Just horrified. Let me just see. What is that say percentage twice on the S&P 1.5%? -1.47%. -There you go, 1.5. I can't see a thing, but that I could say. -Right. -So, here's the deal. Through Fridays close, the month of January sucked for stock investors. The Dow was down 5.3%. The S&P was down 3.6%. The NASDAQ was down 1.7%. -So, why are you so freakin' happy? -Because you know what, the markets were up 30% last years. It's okay to take a breather. -Right. -Okay. -So, the question-- -Because-- I feel like isn't January historically a slow month? -Nah, it's usually a good month actually. -Yeah. I would-- Because I would think, you know, after the holidays people are in like a little bit of a-- -You'd think-- But it's like people-- What happens to a lot of people get bonus money in January and they put to work. -Only short spending. Okay. -So, here's the thing. A correction is defined as 10% or more of a drop from the previous peak, okay? Corrections in the U.S. markets happened about every year and a half, okay? Generally speaking, it's been over two years since we've had a drop of more than 10%. So, we are overdue for a correction. -Gotcha. -So, I just said to you that through Friday, we were down 3.6% in the S&P, now we're down another 1.5, so that's a 5%. So, we're halfway there, okay? -Uh huh. -We're not in correction yet. Anyone who's an investor who watches the show who has at least 10 years to go before you need your money, you should be rooting for the stock market to go down. You should be like jumping up and down. -Because [unk] going out? -Because you're putting money into your 401K every paycheck and you get to buy shares at cheaper levels. -Right. -So, I'm sorry if it screws your parents who are living off their money, so be it. -But you're helping them out anyway probably. -It generally speaking you probably will be. So, this is a great and healthy part of the cycle when you look at financial markets. You cannot expect. 30% returns were huge last year, which just not normal. -Yeah. Sure. -And so having the market go down from here is actually a really good and healthy part of this phase of the cycle. -All right. -All right, you're feeling better? -Yeah, absolutely. I feel fine about all this. -I know you do. -All my money is in my mattress so I don't care what the hell happen to the stock market. -Do you wanna hear? This is a great e-mail. Ted writes that he loves my show. He says, "I'm your age, but I discovered you from your 404 appearances." He goes, "I must be one of their older listeners." -No. We have a gigantic elderly-- I don't say elderly. That's a long word. -Oh my God, he just called me elderly. -We have higher than our age. -You have to say geriatric. -Yeah. -I was gonna say geriatric. -Yeah. I just gonna say like the-- shady pines of- -It does always appear to me like that sort of moment where I realize I'm actually close-- I think I'm closer in age as your parents than to you or it might be just in between. -I think you're right in between. I actually know you're closer than me. -Yeah. -With you again, 35? -I'm not saying that-- Yeah, exactly. Let me see what Ted says. A while ago, I think you're on The 404 and you mentioned you didn't like Suze Orman. I assumed-- I assumed you meant professionally. I don't like her either. It's just I can't pinpoint why I don't like her. -She's annoying. -And she's annoying. I vaguely remember hearing her say something a few years ago that was just plain wrong, but for the life for me I can't remember what it was. In any case, why don't you like Suze Orman? I'd like to have a cogent reason to sight to people, i.e., my mom, who for some reason really liked her. -A lot of people-- A lot of people love her. They think she's like the financial Jesus Christ. -Loves-- I know. If you will-- -If you will. -of the female version. Okay, let me just-- -But, she's super annoying and I would like-- I know-- Could this ever really happened in reality-- -Yeah. -where like you and Suze Orman just fistfight. -I would love that. -Oh, I like to see that. -A celebrity deathmatch. -How would you pay for that? -I think you'll-- -I would-- -I would pay literally a thousand dollars just to watch. -Yeah. -I would kick her ass. -There she is right behind you looking over-- -I would kick her ass. I really would. -You would pummel her. She would like to go-- -You know what? I'd love to do it. It's like-- -into physical therapy. -I would love to like play one-on-one basketball with her. That's what I would love. That would be great. -Oh, that would be interesting. -I mean you are probably a foot taller than her. -I will be so-- Anyway-- -That's not really a fair fight. -Let me tell a few things. Can I give you a great-- I'm not also-- I can't believe on pimping. Everybody today-- -We've only like 6 minutes. -All right. So, you got to check out my friend's book. Helaine Olen wrote this book called Pound Foolish and she actually even appeared on Jon Stewart. -Oh, really? -You know financial book gets on Jon Stewart. -No, I mean you got-- you got the-- -So, it's called Pound Foolish exposing the dark side of the personal finance industry. It was so well written and she does a takedown of Suze Orman that is so delicious. -Or, she probably takes down everyone who has liked a self-help or something like that. -Yes, exactly. And she basically says, "You know what? I hate the idea that these people are like saying you could be a millionaire, which is baloney 'cause it's not true." -Right. -And she also says one of the things that she really hates is that Suze Orman for so long we talk about putting money in stocks. Everyone should be in stocks and then it came out later that she only invests in bonds. -Well, the thing is then-- -That's so annoying. -she sort of exposed the fact that a lot of these people like the Cramer's of the World like-- -Yeah. -that they kind of know that they have power in the market and then they like-- -Yeah. I mean I don't know Cramer-- -they'll use that to their-- -I mean, I actually-- So, here's the weird thing about Cramer. Cramer is a great-- you know, he's got a shtick and I get it. -Right. -He's actually a smart guy. -Sure. -I cannot necessarily-- -I don't think Suze Orman might be smart-- -I don't-- How would you know that? -You know what? You're right. I don't know. -Because I'm not saying-- like I happened to know that Cramer is smart. -I'd been fooled-- Right. I'd been fooled by her marketing team and her planning team. -Here's the thing. And by the way, you know that her girlfriends like her marketing team. -Oh, really? -I don't like the fact when people wag their fingers on me. -Okay. -So, if you saw that picture of her again, I hate that idea hate that somebody's like-- -Yeah. She's always just like, don't be an idiot. -She's got that Nancy Grace thing, though. -Yeah, or Doctor Laura, right? -I don't know who that is. -She's like a call-in shrink, though she's not a shrink. She's liked got her degree in Physical Education or something. But anyway, you know, these people who like-- I don't know like I think that sometimes it's weird that listeners or viewers must like the idea of getting their butts kicked, you know. -Yeah. -I think that's the only way that they are able to sort of resign themselves to the fact that I'm wrong or like-- or maybe that's they only way that they can like self-correct. -Well, you know-- So, the thing about Helaine's book which I love so much, which is-- it's like. You know, just 'cause you drink one less cappuccino is not gonna mean that you're not gonna have bad luck, right. You know, bad things can happen to people. They really can and so I don't love the idea that personal finance gurus' book say that, you know, if you just change your behavior, everything will be great. Sometimes bad crap can happen. You can lose your job at the wrong time. You can get sick and not have insurance and that doesn't make you a bad person and I feel like there's somehow like this marrying of bad luck makes you a bad guy. -Right. -And I just can't buy into that. And you know what? And I can't buy into like everyone on welfare is a bad person or everyone who is on long-term unemployment like crap happens to people. I need to talk to them and so maybe these people it's been so long since they've actually talked to a real person that they don't get it. -Sure. -That bad things can happen and we don't have a system that takes care of a lot of those bad circumstances. -Those [unk] Yeah. -Exactly. Can I ask you one more question? -Yeah, we got time-- we just have time for one more. -All right. This guy Matt wrote to me and he says he saw me on The 404 and he says, "I think to spread to word of you and your show, I think you should do an AMA on Reddit." -Oh, that's not-- -What is that and I don't know what that means? -[unk] -You screwed anything and we can help you out with that-- -All right. -'cause we have contacts at Reddit that I can hook you up with it, so-- -All right. I don't know what that means, but thank you very much, Matt. -Well, you might have just like sealed your faith for like a crap little work. Basically, here's what it is. It's-- You know what Reddit is? -Yes. -So, there's a section of Reddit called Ask Me Anything. -Oh. -And you basically just opening up yourself to a huge form of people question and answer. -Oh, that's kind of cool. -And the best questions get voted to the top and you sort of like-- so, basically the way you said it up is you say, "Hey, I'm this person." -And they say-- he said there's a subreddit personal finance. -Right. Well, I would maybe advertise the AMA in there. We can help you out with that. -It's all right. There you go. -Yeah. -But there's a good company to Barack Obama did one recently? -Who's that? -Yeah. -Oh God. -I've done an AMA when that Playstation 4 came out. I did that. -Interesting. All right, well, this is great. -It's fun, but it's a lot of work. -I'm not scared of work. -No, you're not and you're good at work. -All right, anymore questions on-- -That's it. We kind of have to get out of here. -We got to eat lunch. -We have to eat lunch. -And you got to go to that meeting. -Absolutely. Thank you for being here. -Oh, thank you. -Always a pleasure. -I like coming here on this crazy weather that is all set. -Yeah, this is nice. -I'm wearing jeans. I'm wearing my slipper boots, which are fat-- -You're looking sharp. You're looking sharp. -We're all comfy. -And I love being with you guys, you know that. -Oh, I know. We love you too, Jill. -Maybe I should be in this studio when Josh's here and I can make fun of him. -I would love nothing more than that. -I like that. I remember when he was born. -Really? And so is he our age-- -He's a little-- Yeah, he's a little bit older than you, but just a couple of years maybe. -All right. We look forward to that. Again, if you've got an interesting question about addiction, even if it's drugs or computing or internet sort of stuff, start asking, start sending them in. If you wanna stay anonymous, that's totally cool. Just let us know. -Right. And we'll ask our buddy Josh all these interesting questions about human addiction. -I won't go out and get to the Ventev datada. -The datada. -The datada. The new one-- The new one improved datada. -Ventev. That's V-E-N-T-E-V. -All right. -I don't know what. I like this. -There you go. It's got the-- What is it the idiot proof? -The Jill Schlesinger idiot-proof stamp of approval. -That will do it for us today. The 404@cnet.com is the e-mail. Make sure you reach out and get in touch with the show. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and all that other good stuff. Until tomorrow, I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Aunt Jill. -And I'm Justin Yu. -And that's Ariel Nunez in the background. -Yeah, Ariel. -We'll be back tomorrow. Everyone have an awesome Monday. We'll see you soon.