📈 Spending Swiftly

Earlier this month Taylor Swift announced a new tour to go along with her most recent album “Midnights” which set all kinds of records. Admittedly, I am not a super fan (known as a “Swiftie”), but I have been known to drunkenly sing along to a couple of songs back in college. And it totally wasn’t anything embarrassing either.

Taylor Swift - Love Story

So, now that we are clear that I definitely haven’t ever embarrassed myself singing Taylor Swift, let’s talk about something that was embarrassing. Ticketmaster’s management of the ticket sales for her new tour.

I probably don’t need to convince you how much Ticketmaster sucks. Between the fees, the horrible website, and the fact that it is essentially the only place to buy tickets we would be hard-pressed to find a supporter of Ticketmaster aside from its investors. And, to that point, Congress is using this fiasco to swiftly (it's a pun-heavy blog) investigate the monopoly Ticketmaster has on ticket sales.

This is the point of the blog where you ask what this has to do with personal finance and honestly I wasn’t sure until you asked. 

But first, this shows what true monopoly power does, it causes poor service and high prices. We previously defended large companies while raising (extremely low) prices in the face of inflation. However, in this case, Ticketmaster’s monopoly has clearly harmed the consumer, because not only did their site crash and make it impossible to buy tickets but those who did, sold it at massive markups.

No one we like wins in this scenario. Swifties can’t get or can’t afford tickets, and Taylor herself misses out on revenue while Ticketmaster profits along with bots and resellers. 

Secondly, it brings up the idea of spending money. Something we rarely talk about in this blog. We are always talking about saving money in retirement accounts, and emergency funds, and also telling you to avoid fun things like crypto.

But every once in a while we like to say it’s okay to spend some money like we did here.  Highlighting the absurdity of only focusing on saving money.

So as the holidays approach we would like to stress the fact that it's okay to buy a new TV (2 TV living rooms is the only way to live don’t @ me WAGS) or a vacation to get away from it all. Just because Bezos is telling us to stop buying, who the fuck is he?

Last I checked he retired.

Bo Burnham: Inside - Jeff Bezos

And honestly, the Taylor Swift prism is a good way to look at how to spend. While you “can’t” put a price on an experience, you can decide what is worth enjoying and what is worth foregoing to meet your financial goals. Paying $200 face value to go see a concert, even after the outrageous parking, beers, and inevitable hangover IS WORTH IT.

On the other hand, paying $20k (even if you could) or even $2k for the same experience simply isn’t worth it. We could do all the long-term math about how much that money could be worth in 20 years and blah blah blah…

What’s the Upside?

Our core ideology is there is no one true right answer to any given question in personal finance. It is “personal” for a reason. We simply like to give advice and maybe more importantly call out bullshit. 

In today’s blog that means calling out a monopoly even if it is something as inconsequential as Taylor Swift tickets. At the same time, I fully endorse seeing Taylor and embarrassing yourself singing in the process. 

Because you can’t take it with you.

ZAYN, Taylor Swift - I Don’t Wanna Live Forever (Fifty Shades Darker)

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For Your Weekend

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The World Cup of Microsoft Excel by Jacob Stern (The Atlantic)

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Can the Broncos Salvage Their Russell Wilson Bet? by Steven Ruiz

For years, Denver seemed a franchise quarterback away from contention. Now the Broncos are supposed to have one, and yet everything is going wrong. Are the ills of this offense fixable? If not, what other paths do the Broncos have going forward?

Watch

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix)

The clever details, amusing name-drops, and precisely pointed digs at vapid celebrity culture keep Johnson’s movie zippy when it threatens to drag. In following up his 2019 smash hit “Knives Out,” the writer/director has expanded his storytelling scope in every way. Everything is bigger, flashier, and twistier. (Rogerebert.com)

Chuckle