Today, Josh and Austin are talking about mobile payments! Contactless and digital payment methods have become increasingly popular in recent years because they offer many benefits for consumers and businesses alike. On the other hand, there are some concerns about the effects this technology will have on spending habits. Be sure to tune in to this week’s episode of The Invested Dads Podcast for discussion around mobile payments and how they are changing the game of purchasing!
Main Talking Points
[1:02] – What are Mobile Payments? & Which Ones Do Josh & Austin Use?
[6:13] – Mobile Payments Statistics
[12:06] – Dad Joke of the Week!
[12:29] – The Consumer Vs. Business Side of Mobile Payments
[17:32] – Ways You Can Invest in the Mobile Payments Trend
[20:06] – Mobile Payments Are Here to Stay
Links & Resources
Who Uses Mobile Payments? (Pew Research)
Mobile Payments in the US – Statistics & Facts (Statista)
Free Guide: 8 Timeless Principles of Investing
Social Media
Full Transcript
Intro:
Welcome to The Invested Dads Podcast, simplifying financial topics so that you can take action and make your financial situation better, helping you to understand the current world of financial planning and investments. Here are your hosts, Josh Robb and Austin Wilson.
Austin Wilson:
Oh, I didn’t even read that. All right, you ready to rock and roll? Just eat that cookie, finish that up. All right. Hey, hey, hey, welcome back to The Invested Dads Podcast. Today, Josh and I are going to talk about one of my favorite investment themes of 2020 and that is mobile payments.
Josh Robb:
That’s right. So those are car loans?
Austin Wilson:
No, no, no, no.
Josh Robb:
Okay. So that’s when I get a cell phone, but I want to pay full price, I spread over 24 months?
Austin Wilson:
Not that either.
Josh Robb:
Okay. It must have been the cost to put that thing above my baby’s crib that they look at?
Austin Wilson:
Nope. Again, Josh, it is not what you’re thinking.
Josh Robb:
Oh, so what is-
Austin Wilson:
So mobile payments is pretty much, I mean paying for things really in any way that isn’t physical cash money.
[1:02] – What are Mobile Payments? And Which Ones Do Josh & Austin Use?
Josh Robb:
Okay, I got you. So mobile payments, most people would probably think about smart phones, right?
Austin Wilson:
Boom.
Josh Robb:
That’s where you do this mobile payment-
Austin Wilson:
That’s right.
Josh Robb:
More often than not. I mean, it’s something you could do on your iPad or computer-
Austin Wilson:
Right.
Josh Robb:
Which would I guess be a mobile payment-
Austin Wilson:
It could be.
Josh Robb:
But in general we’re talking smartphones using that to pay for purchase. Okay. So there’s a lot out there.
Austin Wilson:
True. And every day and more often.
Josh Robb:
And we’re going to serve the whole room, which is you and me about technologies and use. All right, so-
Austin Wilson:
This is not a very big sample survey we’re working on.
Josh Robb:
100% of the people in this room are getting surveyed, so it’s very accurate. Austin, what do you use?
Austin Wilson:
Yeah, so I’m pretty sure I use all of them-
Josh Robb:
Okay.
Austin Wilson:
So, yes is my answer. Apple Pay is my favorite, actually I have the Apple Card, but I have all my cards loaded to my phone and a lot of them to my watch. And I love using that to contactless pay at the store. I love using that to pay people money, person to person or whatever. I actually honestly get angry, not really angry, just frustrated when the store does not take Apple Pay because I’m like, “It’s 2020, are you living in the Fred Flintstone era?”
Josh Robb:
Yeah.
Austin Wilson:
But side note, Kroger does not take that, so that’s kind of one reason why I stopped shopping there, aside from the fact that Aldi is really, really cheap… So, Aldi for life. But yeah, so gas stations are getting in on it, it’s a game changer. Super, super awesome. But I also have-
Josh Robb:
Do the carts at Aldi do Apple Pay?
Austin Wilson:
Oh, that is the next step. But I feel you’d have to Apple Pay more than 25 cents to get your card.
Josh Robb:
Oh, okay.
Austin Wilson:
Yeah, that is such-
Josh Robb:
That’s it. There’s where it’ll be, next step.
Austin Wilson:
Isn’t that creative though, how they save so much money on, A, you don’t get bags or they don’t bag your food, so to save money on that, but they also don’t have carts being stolen. So-
Josh Robb:
Is that a big deal?
Austin Wilson:
Apparently-
Josh Robb:
The carts disappear all the time.
Austin Wilson:
Why do you think they use the quarter thing?
Josh Robb:
I don’t know. I just thought it was the weirdest thing.
Austin Wilson:
Okay. That’s our Aldi tangent for the day. I also use Venmo very limited, mostly to people with non iPhones, which I’m like, “Come on, join the 21st century,” because-
Josh Robb:
Right. I don’t want to talk about-
Austin Wilson:
If you have an iPhone, you can use Apple Pay. I have PayPal, I use for some online purposes. I’ve used Square before. We use Zelle sometimes for our bank. So yeah, I think I use all of them, but I would say the vast majority of what we do is with Apple Pay. What about you Josh?
Josh Robb:
Yep. So, I pay my mobile phone bill and that counts as a mobile payment.
Austin Wilson:
That’s a mobile payment.
Josh Robb:
Yeah, a payment for my mobile.
Austin Wilson:
Where do you pay for it? On your phone?
Josh Robb:
No, that would be crazy, yeah.
Austin Wilson:
So you use-
Josh Robb:
That’d be a loop with no money.
Austin Wilson:
You send envelop of cash.
Josh Robb:
Yes.
Austin Wilson:
To Spectrum?
Josh Robb:
Quarters and pennies. But no, honestly I have the capability. I have my phone, I have a Samsung phone, so I have Samsung Pay.
Austin Wilson:
Oh, that’s why you don’t use them because your phone doesn’t operate in this current day and age.
Josh Robb:
But it’s there, it’s available. I just don’t use it. I don’t know why, I’m liking cash less with this whole coronavirus that was going through earlier this year.
Austin Wilson:
I don’t want those germs. I looked at my wallet, I have $4 in it.
Josh Robb:
Yeah.
Austin Wilson:
And I haven’t touched that $4 in a month.
Josh Robb:
Part of the reason why I think I carry cash is my kid’s teeth had been falling out like crazy and-
Austin Wilson:
Oh, that’s a dollar a pop.
Josh Robb:
I know. The stinking tooth fairy shows up all the time.
Austin Wilson:
Does inflation get that?
Josh Robb:
It’s a dollar.
Austin Wilson:
It’s still a dollar. It was a dollar when I was a kid.
Josh Robb:
It’s been a dollar in… And tooth fairy-
Austin Wilson:
Inflation has not kept up.
Josh Robb:
I mean, it’s fantasy land, they don’t experience inflation at all.
Austin Wilson:
The tooth fairy does not know inflation.
Josh Robb:
Yeah, but honestly if someone owes me money, I usually say talk to my wife and she does the magic voodoo phone stuff that gets money from one spot to another.
Austin Wilson:
That’s witchcraft for sure.
Josh Robb:
I mean, I have a pretend dollar my phone, do you want my pretend dollar? Sure, here you go. Don’t try to cash it, it’s a pretend.
Austin Wilson:
So, that’s really a funny thing because I borrowed… So my barber now takes credit cards-
Josh Robb:
Yep.
Austin Wilson:
But for a long time, he did not, so I had to take cash. And the only reason I need to cash ever was to go get my haircut which was once a month. So one day I went and got a haircut and I had to borrow money off of Josh-
Josh Robb:
Yep.
Austin Wilson:
…To go get a haircut and I went to pay him back and I was like, “Hey, can I just Venmo you or whatever.”
Josh Robb:
Yeah.
Austin Wilson:
And he’s like, “Ah, talk to my wife.”
Josh Robb:
Yep.
Austin Wilson:
So then I had to talk to my wife, talked to his wife to get her money. It was a mess. Josh, you got to get with it.
Josh Robb:
I had my people call your people, that’s how it works.
Austin Wilson:
I’m just going to write you an IOU.
Josh Robb:
That works. But honestly, I understand how it works and I’ll probably try to maybe utilize a little more, take advantage of it, but in general, I mean, I’ve used PayPal online and then the Nemo thing, finding Nemo is the hardest part for me.
Austin Wilson:
Finding Nemo.
Josh Robb:
Yeah, I don’t know where it’s at-
Austin Wilson:
Can you Nemo me?
Josh Robb:
My money goes there so, I’m trying to find Nemo right now.
Austin Wilson:
It’s a black hole.
Josh Robb:
Yeah, it just disappears. So-
Austin Wilson:
Just keep swimming, man. Just keep swimming.
Josh Robb:
It’s one of those where the technology is new, newer I should say, but it’s been around for a little while and the more it’s been accepted by people as a transactional way of doing business, the more businesses jump on board because they’re going to have to pay for these types of things, these transactional costs. So, unless they see value in people using it, they’re not going to adopt it. So like you’re saying, Apple has the majority of these payments here in the U S right now-
Austin Wilson:
Right.
Josh Robb:
And so they are being adopted more and more. And then as people are seeing that, they want to make sure that if someone shows up without it, they can make him happy wherever that is.
[6:13] – Mobile Payments Statistics
Josh Robb:
So speaking of that, statista.com which we will link in the show notes, they had a survey and their survey was done in 2019, so last year and were all the way through the fourth quarter-
Austin Wilson:
I got you.
Josh Robb:
But when they survey, they ask the question, which service have you used in the past 12 months? So they want to know actually used, not heard of or anything like that-
Austin Wilson:
Right, right.
Josh Robb:
But yeah, actual use, 51% said Apple Pay-
Austin Wilson:
That would be me, yeah.
Josh Robb:
So again, that’s the top one, 34% said Google Pay and then 22% said Samsung Pay. Those were some of the top ones and then PayPal and Venmo and all those other ones were on there as well and they varied on different rankings. Now PayPal and Venmo are just together-
Austin Wilson:
So that’s very interesting, if you add those up, 51, 34 and 22 you get more than 100%.
Josh Robb:
Yes, because remember they asked which one of these have you used in the past 12 months? So, if I did-
Austin Wilson:
So, someone switched phones or-
Josh Robb:
Or if I use Apple and then I use Samsung, maybe they have an overlap or maybe within the family.
Austin Wilson:
Oh, with your phone you can probably use Google or Samsung Pay.
Josh Robb:
Yeah, I could use both. And then again with some of the other ones too, PayPal, Venmo, they may have used PayPal online on a computer-
Austin Wilson:
Yep.
Josh Robb:
…And then that would have counted as well. So you’re right, it’s not inclusive, which only one did you use, obviously-
Austin Wilson:
Correct.
Josh Robb:
…If they’re asking about their family, if my wife has an iPhone and I have a Samsung phone, we could have used both and check both boxes.
Austin Wilson:
True.
Josh Robb:
They also asked, and this was in the fourth quarter, Venmo had net payment volume of $29 billions, which is a lot of money moving-
Austin Wilson:
Billion with a B.
Josh Robb:
Billion with a B. A lot of money fictitiously moving back and forth.
Austin Wilson:
It’s fake money.
Josh Robb:
Fake money, you don’t see it, but that amounted to a 56% growth year over year.
Austin Wilson:
That’s a lot of growth.
Josh Robb:
So, there’s a lot of people adopting this use of like you said, so you go out to eat with friends, you pay one bill and then you can-
Austin Wilson:
Split it up.
Josh Robb:
…Get that, make each other whole on how much, one person orders a salad and another person orders a steak and then they-
Austin Wilson:
Split it up evenly.
Josh Robb:
I have to pay this amount? This is horrible.
Austin Wilson:
If you look at PayPal, PayPal owns Venmo-
Josh Robb:
Yep.
Austin Wilson:
… If you look at PayPal’s stock the last handful of years, you will see this trend growing.
Josh Robb:
Yeah.
Austin Wilson:
And their stock price has done very well.
Josh Robb:
They follow suit, yeah.
Austin Wilson:
For sure.
Josh Robb:
Also Venmo in the fourth quarter had 40 million active accounts.
Austin Wilson:
That’s a lot.
Josh Robb:
It’s a lot. So, I guess if they’re getting that 56% growth year over year on their volume, you would assume probably those accounts are growing as well-
Austin Wilson:
True.
Josh Robb:
So more and more people are adopting this, so-
Austin Wilson:
So Findlay has 50,000 people in it-
Josh Robb:
Yeah.
Austin Wilson:
So, that’s a lot of multiples of Findlay.
Josh Robb:
Yes. Yep. And the Pew Trust did some research back in 2016 and found, and this again was 2016 so it’s grown since then. 39% of all mobile payment users were millennials. So when we talk about who’s using this thing, millennials are the majority in this sector for now. They’re the early adopters to this technology.
Austin Wilson:
So, we’re both millennials-
Josh Robb:
Yep.
Austin Wilson:
I’m a millennial. I would say that in 2016, I don’t even know if I was using, I guess I had a PayPal account probably for eBay or whatever, but other than that I was not using Apple Pay. I didn’t even know if Venmo was very popular.
Josh Robb:
Yeah.
Austin Wilson:
Very limited back then, but still 39% of millennials.
Josh Robb:
Yeah. And part of this 2016 research showed that the people using it majority were in large cities.
Austin Wilson:
I got you.
Josh Robb:
And so, that was where it was adopted first. The convenience, the ease of that technology. It was also the more educated you were, the higher percentage of people used it as well. I don’t know how that correlates-
Austin Wilson:
Right.
Josh Robb:
More than… maybe because of disposable income, they’re more likely to try that out and see what happens. If there was a scammer, their money disappears, maybe they were less worried about it-
Austin Wilson:
Right.
Josh Robb:
I’m not sure, but that was one of the other things in that survey. And so going back to the generational, 39% of millennials had used mobile payment. They only make up 28% of the US population. So, a large portion of them are using the mobile payment.
Austin Wilson:
Right, exactly.
Josh Robb:
So another way of looking at that, only 18% of non-mobile paying people are millennials.
Austin Wilson:
So, millennials make up the vast majority of mobile payment users.
Josh Robb:
Yes, they are the vast majority. Yep.
Austin Wilson:
Yep.
Josh Robb:
And almost three fourths, 72% of all mobile payments are either millennials or Gen-Xers. And so that’s the big group right there that’s really taking this technology. And it’s probably true when you go technology across the board, because those are the people that adopting and utilizing technology most.
Austin Wilson:
That’d be 18 year old, adults in general, all the way up to 50?
Josh Robb:
Yep. Yeah, yeah. Right around there. And so again, that’s 72% of all mobile payments, but it’s only just over half the population is making up three fourths of all mobile users-
Austin Wilson:
Right.
Josh Robb:
So again, those populations are overwhelmingly using this technology.
Austin Wilson:
Yeah, for sure. It’s definitely changing and this younger crowd is driving that change.
Josh Robb:
Yep. And then also in 2019 there was another research that was done for marketing, but they found that 29% of smartphone owners made a mobile payment in the US. So it’s adopted just under one third of the people US-
Austin Wilson:
Yeah.
Josh Robb:
Now that’s cool. One third also have done a person to person transfer, so like you were talking about when you owe somebody money sending that. That’s pretty neat, but can you guess what the China’s adoption rate is? So ours is 29%, where’s China at?
Austin Wilson:
I mean, I feel China is a little bit more on mobile first and I kind of in my head think it’s 77%.
Josh Robb:
81%.
Austin Wilson:
Wow.
Josh Robb:
Yeah. So they have really adapted to this technology.
Austin Wilson:
So, maybe it’s because they are becoming not so much an emerging economy, but a major economy later when this is already a thing that their people are just going straight there.
Josh Robb:
Yeah. And when you look at the companies there that are doing the same thing, when you look at our PayPal and our Apple Pay, those type things, those Chinese companies just dwarf Apple’s revenue per transactions.
Austin Wilson:
Oh, I’m sure. Yeah.
Josh Robb:
It’s just incredible. So it’s not just U S, globally, there’s a lot of people using mobile payment.
[12:06] – Your Dad Joke of the Week!
Austin Wilson:
Josh?
Josh Robb:
Yep.
Austin Wilson:
Are you ready for the dad joke of the week?
Josh Robb:
I’m ready.
Austin Wilson:
All right, I got one for you. It is quite the doozy. So, I had to write down which number it was in my book.
Josh Robb:
Okay.
Austin Wilson:
Did you hear about the kidnapping?
Josh Robb:
I did not. What kidnapping?
Austin Wilson:
Oh, he’s fine, he woke up eventually.
Josh Robb:
The kid napping.
Austin Wilson:
So, that’s the dad joke of the week.
Josh Robb:
I like it.
[12:29] – The Consumer Vs. Business Side of Mobile Payments
Austin Wilson:
So, as we like to do with these investment themes, we’re kind of going to break down the consumer case and the business case for this trend. So, consumer case overall, relatively straightforward. As someone, myself who would prefer less talking and interaction with the world admittedly the fact that I don’t have to go to a bank or hand someone check or money in person, it’s very, very appealing to me. And the convenience of contactless payments with your phone is huge.
So for the consumer, the major case for mobile payments in general is all about convenience. I guess security is also another one because if you think you cannot have your cash stolen out of your pocket, you can have your phone stolen I guess, but they can’t use your thumbprint or whatever to mobile pay, but you can’t have your debit physical card, credit card or debit card hacked at a scammer, at a gas station or whatever. So there’s definitely some security there too. I would also say that you could make this case that sanitation is better with less physical money changing hands and less interaction with those people. But again, I’ve heard some really gross statistics on people’s cell phones, the germs on those.
Josh Robb:
Yeah, phones are gross.
Austin Wilson:
So, maybe we’ll say, maybe on that one. But as far as a business case goes, it’s kind of also built on the convenience case. So if money changing hands is easier, people will be able and more apt to do it more often. When this happens card issuers, tech companies, the PayPals of the world, they all skim a tiny amount off the top for a transaction fee or whatever. And that is good. And that can add up very quickly with millions and billions of dollars being transacted. So, you layer in the fact that when you use these services, your data is theirs, so they know how to market to you, they know your habits and trends and where you shop and how you shop and what you buy. And the fact that this is generally software based, so they have very little overhead costs, it’s super scalable once you build it. This technology, obviously there’s the maintenance, but you don’t have to make huge investments going forward. You have a very winning business model with some bonkers margins.
Josh Robb:
Oh, yeah. Yep. And so when we think about that, businesses love this new technology for the convenience. People love this new technology for the convenience, but the question I’m asking: is this convenience is a good thing when it comes to spending money?
Austin Wilson:
Right.
Josh Robb:
So there’s some in our industry that say, the harder it is to separate you from your money, the better you’re going to be because it’s not so easy to just make it disappear.
Austin Wilson:
Yeah. That’s a very Dave Ramsey thinking.
Josh Robb:
Yeah. He’s one of the big ones-
Austin Wilson:
Yep, he is a proponent of that.
Josh Robb:
And he says, each dollar that you have has to have a purpose within your budget. It’s got to be going somewhere or else it disappears.
Austin Wilson:
Right.
Josh Robb:
Our human nature is we tend to enjoy life and if we have some extra money, most people tend to spend it on something-
Austin Wilson:
Yep.
Josh Robb:
And so there’s nothing wrong with that, but cash, you see it physically and so if I look at my wallet and it’s less, then I’m kind of aware that. If I look at my phone and it looks exactly the same it did before I make the transaction, it’s harder to get that, where am I at in the scale of my budget when you don’t see that.
Austin Wilson:
Yeah.
Josh Robb:
Now the flip side is with technology and with my phone, there are budgeting apps that can all link and carry transactions and you can track all that without seeing physical dollars. So, what you want to do is kind of an envelope system where you can add each budget item had a kind of a set amount of money and you kind of set that aside for it, well you can do that on your phone-
Austin Wilson:
Oh, yeah.
Josh Robb:
…And see exactly where it’s at. So, the convenience is great, but for people who struggle, the convenience can be a hindrance because it’s so easy and you don’t realize $10 here, $20 here, I’m going to the store, I buy this and I buy that. And all those little ones eat away and when they accumulate together, you’re like, “Man, why did I spend so much money at Walmart?”
Austin Wilson:
Exactly.
Josh Robb:
There’s all those little trips you made to buy one thing here, one thing there. So in general, I think there was a quote that said, with great power comes great responsibility. Someone said that.
Austin Wilson:
It’s from the Uncle Ben, Wild Rice company.
Josh Robb:
Yeah, Uncle Ben liked it. But that’s important. When we have this new technology, you need to be responsible with it and understand how that will impact you. A lot of people, not a big deal-
Austin Wilson:
Right.
Josh Robb:
For them, they’ll say, “I can see it.” For instance, although I don’t use my mobile payment since I linked it to my cards, I get an alert every time the cards are used. So I can see that.”
Austin Wilson:
That’s kind of handy thing, yeah.
Josh Robb:
I like it and I just, okay, it makes sense. I’m the one doing it or I know my wife is shopping, she’s buying whatever and so it’s there. But technology should help us, not hinder us. So that’s always the key-
Austin Wilson:
True.
Josh Robb:
…is, did this make my life better or did it make it more difficult? And it could be more convenient, but did it make it better? And that’s always the key when you’re asking yourself with finances is if I’m heading towards a goal, is this helping me get there or will this be another stumbling block for me along the way?
Austin Wilson:
I think anything taken to an excess can become a hindrance. So, like we were just saying, if it’s way too easy now because of this wonderful technology which can be used for good and it can be used for convenience and ease and security. If it’s too easy that it causes you to change the way you spend, that might be a red flag.
Josh Robb:
Yep.
[17:32] – Ways You Can Invest in the Mobile Payments Trend
Austin Wilson:
All right, so next I think we should talk about how you can invest in this trend and remember that I’m going to give you some ideas of companies or maybe there’s an ETF I’m going to talk about that are in this mobile payment space that gets you exposure to this theme or this trend, but you should always talk to your financial advisor and see if any of this fits into your financial plan in the overall portfolio allocation, risk tolerance and picture for your goals.
Josh Robb:
Yeah, this is not advice, it’s just here’s the players playing in this field.
Austin Wilson:
Exactly. So if you look at generally stocks, so individual stocks that you could hold, some exposure that you could get would be through the cell phone manufacturers themselves. So Apple obviously makes a ton of iPhones, but they also have mobile payment technology on their iPhones through Apple Pay and stuff like that. Google and Samsung, kind of the same exposure there. They make phones and make operating systems, they have the payment functions in there and they are benefited from those things. So, that’s an exposure, but that’s an exposure where the payment portion is relatively small, as a portion of their total business. So, maybe if you’re looking for a risk, maybe it’s a little less risky. Another way to look at it is credit card companies obviously are preparing their cards and they are as issuers to be accepted on all of these mobile payment technologies.
So, companies like MasterCard, Visa, American Express, these are companies that you can put their card right on your phone and you can use that to pay mobily, which is really, really cool. So, you can get exposure in that way. You can also look at things like a person to person payment system, like PayPal, Square, those kinds of things. Even banks, while kind of counterintuitive, they have ways to pay mobily with like integration with Zelle-
Josh Robb:
Is that the one where you can look at houses for sale?
Austin Wilson:
I was thinking that Zelles are the things that prance across the prairie in Africa.
Josh Robb:
That might have been it.
Austin Wilson:
So, those are some individual kind of ways to get some exposure to that. But you can also look at an ETF, so an exchange traded fund, that kind of is focused on mobile payments. And I’ve not looked into the nuts and bolts of the specific ETF, but I was looking at ETFs that get some mobile payment exposure and the ticker is IPAY.
Josh Robb:
Okay. They did it.
Austin Wilson:
I-P-A-Y.
Josh Robb:
Yeah.
Austin Wilson:
So, someone came up with that and it was a-
Josh Robb:
Someone got their money on that one.
Austin Wilson:
So, that is the ETFMG prime mobile payments ETF. So that ETF has focused on companies in this space and it’s really a cool way to get some exposure without looking at an individual company, kind of getting a broad picture of that.
[20:06] – Mobile Payments Are Here to Stay
Austin Wilson:
So Josh, wrap it up. Any final thoughts on mobile payments, the impact of a financial plan, the economy and convenience? Is it a trend? Is it here to stay?
Josh Robb:
Yeah, I mean I would say it’s here to stay in the sense that, I don’t know what new technology will come. Maybe we won’t need our phone as much, but the idea of-
Austin Wilson:
I’m going to think you $8 right now.
Josh Robb:
Yes, that’s right. But the idea of the transaction without the actual physical dollars, it started with credit cards and that was a new technology, no more money, it’s all on this credit. And then now we’ve moved to the same concept of credit, you’re promising to pay somebody but the money itself is somewhere else. But just moving from-
Austin Wilson:
It’s in the air.
Josh Robb:
Account to account. But it’s there to stay. That technology is here and I think it will only advance as we go.
Austin Wilson:
Right.
Josh Robb:
Make it easier for those to go back and forth and then also the safety will be improved, because the last thing you want is first some sort of transaction to cause someone to have access to accounts that they shouldn’t and so that’s getting better all the time.
Austin Wilson:
And we are in a mobile-first society now. Everyone, it seems… Not everyone, but nearly everyone has a smartphone and they’re always on it doing tons of stuff on it. So if you have the ability to use that as another part of your life, so for your banking or your finances or your payments, chances are it’s going to become a bigger part of how you do things.
Josh Robb:
Yeah. And then too, I know Amazon, we didn’t mention this at all in those kind of investment things, but the concept of they had their stores where you walk in, you’d grab everything you want and everything is kind of the RFID thing-
Austin Wilson:
You walk out.
Josh Robb:
And you just walk out and it charges it to your account that you have linked. I mean, that’s mobile payment right there-
Austin Wilson:
That’s the ultimate mobile payment. Yeah.
Josh Robb:
The concept is right there, I’m eliminating the whole concept of waiting in line and checking out. It’s when I walk in, I’m agreeing, anything I leave with, I’m paying for and you can charge me. And so that concept again, as technology advances is there.
Austin Wilson:
I love that idea because those lines at the registers can get pretty long.
Josh Robb:
Yeah.
Austin Wilson:
And sometimes when you have a very wiggly two-year-old.
Josh Robb:
And you know what I just thought too-
Austin Wilson:
That’s hard.
Josh Robb:
Do you think that would help with-
Austin Wilson:
Shoplifting.
Josh Robb:
Shoplifting? You ran out with it.
Austin Wilson:
They charged you.
Josh Robb:
They charged you for it. I don’t know, I just had that thought.
Austin Wilson:
As always, remember to check out our free gift to you on our website. It is a brief list of eight timeless principles of investing. These are overarching investment themes meant to keep you on track to meet your long-term goals and if you are anything like us, you’ve noticed the extreme volatility in the first half of 2020 so far and maybe some of these would be some good reminders just to keep on the forefront of your mind as you’re hopefully not watching the news, but if you see the news on TV with the stock market. So check it out, it’s free on our website.
Josh Robb:
Yep. And also if you’d like to help us out for our podcast, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and this is the most important one, if you have any ideas or topics you’d like us to talk about, send us an email at hello at theinvesteddads.com.
Austin Wilson:
That’s right.
Josh Robb:
That’s our favorite way to come up with ideas is knowing that something that’s one of our listeners would like to learn a little more about.
Austin Wilson:
For sure.
Josh Robb:
Then also, please share this episode with your friends and family and that’s all we got for today.
Austin Wilson:
Yeah, in case you missed it, check out our recent episode where we discussed the Internet of Things. Thanks.
Josh Robb:
All right, talk to you later.
Austin Wilson:
Bye.
Intro:
Thank you for listening to The Invested Dads Podcast. This episode has ended, but your journey towards a better financial future doesn’t have to, head over to theinvesteddads.com to access all the links and resources mentioned in today’s show. If you enjoyed this episode and we had a positive impact on your life, leave us a review, click subscribe and don’t miss the next episode.
Josh Robb and Austin Wilson work for Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. All opinions expressed by Josh, Austin or any podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for investment decisions. Clients of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast.
There is no guarantee that the statements, opinions or forecasts provided herein will prove to be correct. Past performance may not be indicative of future results, indices are not available for direct investment. Any investor who attempts to mimic the performance of an index would incur fees and expenses which would reduce returns. Securities investing involves risk, including the potential for loss of principal. There is no assurance that any investment plan or strategy will be successful.
