Owning a pet can be “ruff”, which is why Josh and Austin are breaking down the pet industry, true costs of owning a dog, whether or not you should get a pet, and so much more! From scheduling vet appointments to giving unconditional love, pets will truly become a vital part of your day-to-day life – especially in terms of finances. This is why it’s important to know all that pet ownership entails. Listen now to hear more!
Main Talking Points
[1:05] – Austin & Josh’s Pet Ownership History
[5:17] – Pet Statistics
[10:05] – Taking A Look into the Pet Industry
[11:52] – The True Cost of Dog Ownership
[15:10] – Dad Joke of the Week (Pet Edition)
[16:00] – Opportunity Cost of Pets & Industry Trends
[20:15] – Should You Invest in Pet Trends?
[23:19] – Words of Wisdom
Links & Resources
20 Facts About Pet Ownership- Pet Keen
Pet Ownership Statistics – Spots.com
The Cost of Owning a Dog – American Kennel Club
Invest With Us – The Invested Dads
Free Guide: 8 Timeless Principles of Investing
Social Media
Full Transcript
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:
All right. Hey, hey, hey, welcome back to The Invested Dads Podcast. The podcast, where we take you on a journey to better your financial future. I am Austin Wilson, research analyst at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management.
Josh Robb:
And I am Josh Robb, Director of Financial Planning at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. So Austin, how can people help us grow this podcast?
Austin Wilson:
Yeah, we would love it if you would subscribe and get our latest episode every single Thursday. We have not missed one yet and we’re going to keep them coming. And we would love it, also, if you would leave us a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify or whatever podcast app you listen to. We would love it if you would leave us a review. So today we are going to be looking into… Wait for it…
Ruff, ruff, ruff, grr, grr…
Austin Wilson:
The economics of pet ownership.
Josh Robb:
Yes. In one word, owning a pet is “ruff”.
[1:05] – Austin & Josh’s Pet Ownership History
Austin Wilson:
It’s ruff. Yes, it really is. It’s expensive. So I guess we should probably start this off, Josh. How about you get us started? What is the story of your pet ownership history?
Josh Robb:
Yes. So I’ll just go back through my 17 years of marriage.
Austin Wilson:
I’ll bring, should I get some tissues ready?
Josh Robb:
That’s right.
Austin Wilson:
‘Cause you might get a little sad here.
Josh Robb:
Yeah. So just we’ll look back. We won’t go to my childhood, but just the last 17 years of marriage. Shortly after getting married, my wife and I got a small little dog. And so I should start by saying I have allergies. And so I have to be careful which types of dog breeds I have.
Austin Wilson:
That’s right.
Josh Robb:
‘Cause my allergies are for pet dander of some sorts.
Austin Wilson:
So naturally you had an out.
Josh Robb:
Yeah. I did have an excuse, but we found a non… or a hyper-allergenic dog.
Austin Wilson:
Selective breeding.
Josh Robb:
A little West Highland Terrier Miniature Schnauzer, a cute little white dog. And then handful of years after that, we got a second dog, which was a golden doodle, golden retriever poodle mix. So we had two dogs and sadly, they both have passed since then, but it’d been 17 years.
Austin Wilson:
That’s been a long time.
Josh Robb:
So they both had good lives, good long lives. And then we have, back in 2020, before COVID yes, but before COVID-
Austin Wilson:
It was. It was.
Josh Robb:
We bought a dog.
Austin Wilson:
It was like January or something.
Josh Robb:
We got it like the beginning of February, right before. But we had ordered, or talked to the-
Austin Wilson:
Ordered it on Amazon.
Josh Robb:
Whatever you call that. And in fact, long story, we were waiting for the price to go down and there were some leftover dogs from a litter,
Austin Wilson:
Leftovers.
Josh Robb:
And they were lowering the prices. And there was one that we ended up getting.
Austin Wilson:
It’s practically free.
Josh Robb:
He is a Burmese Mountain Dog/Poodle mix, a Burme-doodle. He’s now two years old and weighs- a hundred pounds. Yeah. And so big dog, big puppy.
Austin Wilson:
We’ve tried to use him to pull sleds.
Josh Robb:
Yes. And he can.
Austin Wilson:
Yeah, when he wants to.
Josh Robb:
He just needs to know what he’s doing.
Austin Wilson:
Exactly. So that’s Josh’s history about pets. I have a similar situation, excluding pets as a kid. So my wife, Jen, I love dearly. My in-laws, Jeff and Julia, I love them dearly. They did not allow poor Jenna to have a pet growing up. So Jenna was-
Josh Robb:
A lot of makeup time.
Austin Wilson:
I know. She was itching to get a dog of some sort. So, when we were engaged, we bought a house. And my buddy, Tim, and I… What’s up, Tim… We’re bachen’ it in the bachelor pad before we got married. She was going to move in once we got married. So sweet bachelor pad, we had this perfect layout.
Josh Robb:
Great setup. Yeah.
Austin Wilson:
It was awesome. Jenna’s like, “Hey, so technically we own a house now. So, what do you think about getting a dog?” And she’s like, “Oh, by the way, my friend’s mom is giving one away.”
Josh Robb:
Yes. Free.
Austin Wilson:
It’s a free dog. This dog, they just don’t have the energy to take care of it. She lives in the laundry room all the time.
Josh Robb:
Great. The friend or the dog? Who lived in the laundry room? The dog did. Okay.
Austin Wilson:
So it was her friend’s mom. I think. So we drove to, I don’t even know where, on the 4th of July in 2015. I think. And we went and got this free dog, and we took it with us on a road trip right away. Took it and got it cleaned up ’cause it was gross. And it had all kinds of health problems and skin issues and food allergies. We didn’t really know what was going on.
But she was like, at that point, an eight-year-old Australian Shepherd named Sophia. We still have our Australian Shepherd named Sophia, who is not eight anymore. She was eight when we got her. That makes her- she’s turning 15 this year.
Josh Robb:
Wow. That’s good life.
Austin Wilson:
And she’s had her ups and downs the last few years. We thought we were going to lose her a couple times and she keeps coming back. And so, that’s okay. So then before we had our daughter, we were on a date to see Finding Dory, ’cause that’s what young married couples do is go on dates to see Pixar movies. And on our way home, Jenna was like, “Hey, what do you think about looking at one of these dogs?” And there was a picture of a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, from a local breeder. And so, we went and looked, and I was like, “Hmm, I guess that’s kind of cute.” Now, none of these dogs are my idea.
Josh Robb:
You’re just along for ride.
Austin Wilson:
I’m along for the ride. But I picked out Samson. So we have Samson and Sophia. And it’s funny because he’s small. He’s not like a Samson, like you would think. But, he’s funny. So anyway, we have two dogs. We’re not dog people.
Josh Robb:
No?
Austin Wilson:
There’s a lot of things to consider that we’re going to talk about when you get dogs, but we have two dog.
Josh Robb:
You have two dogs.
[5:17] – Pet Statistics
Austin Wilson:
So that’s kind of where we’re at. Let’s talk about some pet statistics specifically here in the United States. And this is from an article from petkeen.com. We’ll ink that article in the show notes. “20 Stats You Should Probably Know”. Number one… 85 million U.S. households own at least one pet.
Josh Robb:
Which is what percentage, 70% of all households?
Austin Wilson:
That’s about right.
Josh Robb:
Wow. That’s a lot of pets.
Austin Wilson:
60% of U.S. pet owners are female.
Josh Robb:
Interesting.
Austin Wilson:
Number three, millennials are the generation most likely to own pets, accounting for 32% of all pet owners. So, about a third of pet owners are millennials. It’s a great generation. Number four, approximately 23 million U.S. households added a pet between March, 2020, and May, 2021. Not quite, Josh, 23 million households. So that’s about almost a quarter.
Josh Robb:
That’s the COVID timeframe.
Austin Wilson:
COVID pets. Number five, about 69 million households in the U.S. own at least one dog. That’s a lot. Number six, roughly 45.3 million U.S. households own at least a cat. Number seven…
Josh Robb:
There’s some overlap, there.
Austin Wilson:
There is some overlap, I’m assuming, yes. Number seven, Americans owned an average of 1.46 dogs per household. So that’s like you own a lab and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel 1.46.
Josh Robb:
Or you’re like go in with your neighbor and you get the front half of the dog, and they get the back half. You split it up.
Austin Wilson:
Shared custody. So after a divorce, you share custody of the dog. You get half a dog. That’s where we’re at there. Number eight, 36% of dogs were purchased from breeders between March, 2020, and May, 2021. Number nine, 33% of cats were acquired from friends, relatives or neighbors during the same period because no one wants cats and they’re just giving them away like rice. If you pay for a cat, that’s just dumb. There are so many free cats out there.
Josh Robb:
Just walk around for a little bit. You’ll find cat.
Austin Wilson:
I have have 30 in my neighborhood. I’ll stop trying to run over them. I don’t actually do that. I just don’t slow down… Number 10, the Labrador Retriever is the most popular dog breed in America, with 98,300 registered in 2020. That’s a lot.
Josh Robb:
That’s just registered, pure bred registration.
Austin Wilson:
But Labrador Retriever.
Josh Robb:
So a lab.
Austin Wilson:
Number 11, freshwater fish are the third most popular pet in the U.S., owned by 11.8 million households.
Josh Robb:
So I’m guessing it goes dogs, cats, fish.
Austin Wilson:
That’s what I’m guessing.
Josh Robb:
All right.
Austin Wilson:
Well, saltwater fish, Number 12, are the least popular pets found in only 2.9 million households, but 2.9 million’s still a lot. That’s crazy. Number 13, 85% of dog owners and 76% of cat owners consider their pets family.
Josh Robb:
Hmm, Family.
Austin Wilson:
And I will say that while I’m not a dog person and my wife’s not a dog person and we have two dogs. So we can look at this from the outside in. We had family pictures done with our pets at one point. With four kids, that’s okay. Number 14, the state with the highest rate of pet ownership is Wyoming at 72%. That’s a lot.
Josh Robb:
They probably 100% think that they’re family.
Austin Wilson:
That’s exactly, that’s all they have out there. Number 15, the rate of pet ownership is highest among people living in mobile homes at 73.8%.
Josh Robb:
Interesting stat.
Austin Wilson:
That is an interesting stat. So, if you wonder why you see all those cats around the mobile home areas, that’s because they’re all from there. Number 16, the percentage of poultry, yes, poultry, so that would be- Birds, chickens, turkeys, anything else considered poultry? Ducks? I don’t know. That increased by 23% between 2012 and 2017.
Josh Robb:
As pets.
Austin Wilson:
As pets. That’s not for eating. I think of Joey and Chandler. The fish in there or the chicken and the duck. Chicken and the duck. Chicken and the duck one, chicken and the duck two, at the end. Craziness. Number 17, approximately 6.3 million cats and dogs wind up in U.S. animal shelters every year.
Josh Robb:
That’s sad.
Austin Wilson:
6.3 million. There are, Number 18, between 30 and 40 million community cats in the U.S. So those are the stray cats.
Josh Robb:
30 to 40 million.
Austin Wilson:
I think that 30 to 40 million might be in my neighborhood. They’re always on our porch. They’re all over the place. I do not feed them because they’re not my cats. Some people do feed them. That’s why they’re still there.
Josh Robb:
That’s why there’s 30 to 40 million of them.
Austin Wilson:
Yeah. Number 19, 90% of dogs and 87% of cats adopted during the pandemic were still with their owners in May of 2021.
Josh Robb:
That’s good. That’s good.
Austin Wilson:
So it wasn’t that much of a phase. Now, a lot of people were still pretty COVID conscious at that point. So maybe they still were home, but that was only as of May 2021. And last but not least, Number 20, approximately 390,000 dogs and 530,000 cats are euthanized in U.S. shelters annual annually.
Josh Robb:
That’s sad.
Austin Wilson:
So if you think about what goes into the shelter, 6.3 million, 390,000, not that many. I mean, it’s a lot, as in proportion to what goes to the shelter. So that’s why everyone says gets your cats and dogs neutered and spayed. Because they can’t take care of them, not enough people.
[10:05] – Taking A Look into the Pet Industry
Austin Wilson:
So let’s talk about, take a step back. Look at the pet industry in general. And this is according to spots.com. We have a link in the show notes. Pets, pet products and pet care all part of a 103.6 billion national industry, billion with a B. That’s big. 40.5% of revenue is from food and treats alone. How do you feel about that, Josh?
Josh Robb:
That seems-
Austin Wilson:
That seems about right. Food is expensive. That seems about right.
Josh Robb:
I would love to see then… So, you’ve got food is 40%. Pet care, so if I look at vet costs, I wonder where that sits? Is that another-
Austin Wilson:
I’ll tell you.
Josh Robb:
– 40%?
Austin Wilson:
I don’t have it by percent. I have it by dollars.
Josh Robb:
That’s what I was wondering. Because my guess is probably 80% or more is on the general welfare of your animal, whether it’s food or care.
Austin Wilson:
It’s true. Actually, according to, which we’re going to get to an AKC article, the average spent per year on food and vet care is about the same, at 400 and some dollars.
Josh Robb:
So if it’s 40, 40, then you’re at 80%, 81%, is on the care and then you got all your fun stuff. Right?
Austin Wilson:
Exactly. So that is a big industry. The pet industry is growing by 11.6% every year. That’s a big bunch of growth. The average pet-owning household spends $1,120 per year on their pets. Now some of these numbers are a little bit different depending on where you’re pulling them from. But yeah, that’s $1,100. Two in three American households include at least one pet, similar to the number we looked at above. Two corporations consume 49% of the pet industry’s market share. And globally… So this is not just U.S… globally, the pet industry is worth 232 billion dollars. So more than double the U.S.
Josh Robb:
I saw Gen-Z spends almost $2,000 a year on pets.
Austin Wilson:
Well they have to get those… the sweaters and the avocado toast for their dogs.
Josh Robb:
Avocado toast, avocado treats.
[11:52]- The True Cost of Dog Ownership
Austin Wilson:
Avocado treats. So let’s talk about the true cost of dog ownership. And this is from an AKC article looking at averages. But I do want to point out that 47% of people said that the cost of dog ownership would not deter them from getting another dog. And I want to say that I have two dogs and I know that that should not be true. And you should consider the cost when you get another dog or a dog in general because here are some numbers that might shock you. So there’s-
Josh Robb:
These are averages?
Austin Wilson:
These are averages. One-time expenses, this is just dogs. One-time expenses versus annual expenses. So one-time expenses, purchase and adoption fees average $646. Seems a bit high, but maybe that’s right. Spraying and neutering costs, $160. Emergency visits, surgeries on the one-time expenses, average $631. Training fees and supplies, $340. General other supplies like a bowl, crate, leashes, $350. Total one-time expenses, $2,127. Let’s look at annual expenses. Now this is average. Average annual expenses on food, $446. Vet care checkups and shots, $423. Travel, $279.
Josh Robb:
Where are you going?
Austin Wilson:
I don’t know. Grooming, $190. Pet sitting, walking and boarding $223. And that’s something that I really want to plead with people who are listening, who don’t have pets and are considering it. Please consider pet sitting and the boarding side of things before you consider getting a dog. Because if you’re young and single, especially, and you’re thinking about getting a pet, you can’t just up and leave whenever you want.
Josh Robb:
That’s true.
Austin Wilson:
Because you now have someone depending on you. Toys and treats $217. Ongoing training, which my dogs certainly don’t get, $254. And dog events… I don’t know what that means.
Josh Robb:
Birthday parties. Their friends’ birthday parties.
Austin Wilson:
AKC says there are $457, totaling $2,489 per year on average. So that’s a lot of money.
Josh Robb:
Seems higher than the other stat. But again, they’re looking all and all on average.
Austin Wilson:
Maybe this is in Los Angeles.
Josh Robb:
Probably dogs are the most expensive.
Austin Wilson:
Dogs are the most expensive, but they’re also the most common.
Josh Robb:
Although with fish, if you figure the electric bill included in running your tank, that would add up over time. I would think, too.
Austin Wilson:
I mean, a fish only lives like eight weeks.
Josh Robb:
If you have a tank, you have ongoing, you’re probably constantly replacing them, but either way.
Austin Wilson:
So an interesting thing that’s become quite popular is pet insurance. So, you and I have health insurance. We have life insurance. We have disability, whatever. These are the insurances that humans have. Well, it’s become very popular lately to have pet insurance. So, this is similar to health insurance for humans, but for your pets. As of 2020, 27% of pets had insurance. And that was up from 18% in 2019. That’s a lot!
And according to money.com, which we’ll link in the show notes, pet insurance helps pay for your pet’s medical care with many policies covering up to 90% of your vet bills. However, that proportion varies by insurer and will by your preferences. In addition, some procedures and care are excluded from coverage. With some policies, you can also hit annual or lifetime caps on payments, which can mean some bills aren’t covered at all. It can be challenging to find comprehensive coverage for your dog or cat in an affordable monthly premium. So that is something that is very new, and I think worth thinking about. But Josh, I think it’s time for break.
[15:10] – Dad Joke of the Week (Pet Edition)
Josh Robb:
Yes. So in lieu of talking about pets, I thought I would do a dad joke of the week and I would do one about pets. All right. I got two for you actually, if you don’t mind.
Austin Wilson:
Oh, bring it.
Josh Robb:
The first one is more just a phrase or a funny. So, you heard the raining cats and dogs.
Austin Wilson:
Oh, it’s raining cats and dogs. Yeah.
Josh Robb:
You know what happens when it rains cats and dogs?
Austin Wilson:
Oh, I did at one point, but I don’t know.
Josh Robb:
You better watch out. You might step in a poodle.
Austin Wilson:
Poodle, that’s funny.
Josh Robb:
But here’s the other one. You’ll like this one. What do you give a dog who has a fever – besides the medical insurance?
Austin Wilson:
You got me beat.
Josh Robb:
Mustard, because that’s the best thing for a hot dog.
Austin Wilson:
Mustard. That is really funny.
Josh Robb:
Hot dog.
[16:00]- Opportunity Cost of Pets & Industry Trends
Austin Wilson:
Well hot dog, Josh. That’s a good one. So because I’m a nerd, I want to talk about the opportunity cost of pets.
Josh Robb:
Ooh, okay.
Austin Wilson:
And this may sound, again, like I’m on the anti-pet bandwagon. That’s not what I’m going for. But these are some thoughts. So, if you think about the annual cost of pet ownership, depending on what we are looking at, one to $2,000 per year on the lower end. If you invest one to $2,000, just the first time, just the one year, for 30 years at 8%, that is about 10 to $20,000. You multiply it by 10, roughly. That is essentially what that would be. So, is one year of pet ownership worth 10 to $20,000 of future money?
That’s something everyone must ask themselves. And everyone must make that choice on their own. Is five years of pet ownership worth 50 to a $100,000? I don’t know. Everyone’s got to choose that. But remember that’s not the actual cost coming out of your pocket, but that’s what you could have grown your money to by investing.
Josh Robb:
If you invested it.
Austin Wilson:
So dogs, in that case, are even less affordable, if you’re thinking about the opportunity costs that you’re giving up for them.
Josh Robb:
Same is true for everything. Right? That’s the-
Austin Wilson:
Nope, just pets.
Josh Robb:
How you think about spending.
Austin Wilson:
Haircuts.
Josh Robb:
When we talked about budgeting, we talked about that in the past. But is what I’m spending on-
Austin Wilson:
Worth it?
Josh Robb:
Worth the cost of giving up that cash that I could be using for other things, paying debt or investing?
Austin Wilson:
That’s why I stopped getting haircuts.
Josh Robb:
That’s right. Just grow it out. Gave it up, too expensive. It’s not worth it.
Austin Wilson:
That’s a Warren Buffet-ism. Is this haircut really worth $3,000 or whatever it is, what he says? So the better way, in my opinion, to ride the pet trend, which is growing rapidly, is to invest in it.
Josh Robb:
Ah, but when we’re talking about investments, as always, this is not a recommendation.
Austin Wilson:
This is our compliance officer coming out.
Josh Robb:
It’s just the options or opportunities out there. We are not recommending any of these that we’re mentioning. We are just highlighting some of the ones out there, especially those with fun names because I like that.
Austin Wilson:
They are fun names. So one name you may have heard of is Colgate Palmolive, ticker CL. That is a consumer goods company. Produces food through its Hills Pet Nutrition business. They also make to toothpaste, recommended by one out of one dentist I know. General Mills, ticker GIS, the consumer foods conglomerate, owns Blue Buffalo, which is growing rapidly and quite expensive. That’s the gourmet bougie.
Josh Robb:
Nice food.
Austin Wilson:
Yeah. The bougie food.
Josh Robb:
Ooh, fancy.
Austin Wilson:
I’m too good for Walmart, Kroger food. Jam Smucker’s another one. Ticker SJM. This is another consumer goods company that produces pet food under the Rachel Ray, Nutrish, Meow Mix and Milk Bone brand names.
Josh Robb:
Milk Bone treats.
Austin Wilson:
We use Rachel Ray dog food right now. That’s the latest one we’re on and our dogs seem to like it. She’s really lowered her food standards from cooking for people to dog food.
Josh Robb:
It’s the ingredients, you know – natural.
Austin Wilson:
The next one is Mars, privately owned company, but it’s behind candy bars and pet food like Mars Pet Care. And then a couple other companies, Nestle, which is a Swiss consumer company. They own Purina, very popular. Spectrum Brands is a smaller company that owns Eukanuba and Iams, which those are pretty popular. So, I’m surprised the company’s small. Some more modern, maybe more specified to pets, but less about food.
Josh Robb:
Those are all conglomerates.
Austin Wilson:
Those are food or conglomerates. These are some overall Pet Trends, Chewy, C-H-W-Y. E-Commerce Play On pet supplies, offering all kinds of stuff shipped to your door, went public in 2019. Trupanion, T-R-U-P, that provides pet insurance for your animal companions.
Josh Robb:
There you go.
Austin Wilson:
And that could be a way to capture that trend if it becomes more and more popular. The original Bark Company, ticker BARK, Bark.
Josh Robb:
Boom, nailed it.
Austin Wilson:
That’s Josh’s ticker of the day. I don’t know, maybe. It might be.
Josh Robb:
There’s another one.
Austin Wilson:
They went public in 2021, and they do a subscription service of-
Josh Robb:
Oh, a subscription service. So much fun!
Austin Wilson:
Subscription service for dog toys. Another one is IDEX Laboratories, IDXX. It’s a pet diagnostic, like dog blood work test company. Pretty cool. And here’s, this is the one I think Josh is most excited about.
Josh Robb:
This is it.
Austin Wilson:
This is the ProShares Pet Care ETF. So, if you’re looking at not a specific company, but you want to ride the wave through an ETF, ticker PAWZ, paws.
Josh Robb:
I love it.
[20:15] – Should You Invest in Pet Trends?
Austin Wilson:
Paws. So, they really track a pet care index. So, you’re just more diversified there. So those are some ways to get exposure through investing in this trend. The question though, Josh, we always must ask is, should you invest in this trend? Guess what I’m going to say, Austin? Moderation, depends, one of the two.
Josh Robb:
It depends. And you should always invest in moderation. What it really does depend. Is this something that you are passionate about and you think will do good long term? And so that’s a reason. The other thing is if you’re globally diversified, especially here in the United States, you look at a Colgate or General Mills. You probably own a portion of them in a diversified portfolio.
Austin Wilson:
In an index fund or whatever. It’s already there.
Josh Robb:
They’re a consumer staple. They’re hanging around. They’ve been here for a long time. So you may have some exposure there already without even realizing it. So, should you invest in this trend? Like a lot of things, it really just depends on what your goals are, what your objectives are. And really, if you just have a passion for that. Sometimes people like to expose themselves to that piece of the industry a little more just ‘cause they have a buy in there.
Austin Wilson:
And if you have any questions about that, talk to your advisor because they will be happy to answer whatever questions you have about.
Josh Robb:
Bring your pet in to meet the advisor.
Austin Wilson:
Don’t do that if you come into our office.
Josh Robb:
Yeah, I’m allergic.
Austin Wilson:
Yeah. Josh is allergic. So, here’s a question. Should you get a pet?
Josh Robb:
Well, that just depends.
Austin Wilson:
Wow.
Josh Robb:
Look, two in a row. But really it depends on your family situation. First one, like Austin’s been relentlessly pointing out in this episode is, can you afford it? Because what you don’t want to do, at all honesty-
Austin Wilson:
We talked about it.
Josh Robb:
We’ve been talking about it.
Austin Wilson:
Yeah, like housework.
Josh Robb:
What you don’t want to do is buy a pet and then take him to the shelter because you can longer manage him. That is just sad. And no one wants to see an animal suffer. So that’s the key. Can we afford and take care of this dog and provide it what it needs? Because dogs have needs just like a lot of other creatures and people out there. But should you get a pet? It really depends on where you’re at with your life, where you’re at with your financial situation and what your goals are. Because like you mentioned, it does take time, does take effort, does take money – to raise an animal.
Austin Wilson:
Yeah. I would recommend… I know I’ve come across maybe as more as the anti dogger in this conversation… But I would say it does clearly depend. I would say it’s not worth getting a pet right now if it would sacrifice your other goals that you’re working towards financially, in terms of your saving or your investing or your paying down debt or whatever those are. Those should clearly come first. If you have some discretionary income left over, while I did talk about the opportunity cost, you actually have freedom to do that, if you would like. So it’s up to you. That being said, looking back at my early 20 something self, I may have looked into it a little bit further, mostly from the aspect of not the financial side… The financial side’s real.
Josh Robb:
It’s the time.
Austin Wilson:
And it’s more real for some people. But it’s the time. And the effort of leaving is probably the thing that stresses me out the most, even to this day, about pet ownership. So that’s something that I would think about, but everyone’s got to make that choice for themselves. And I leave you with some words of wisdom.
[23:19]- Words of Wisdom
Josh Robb:
Words of wisdom.
Austin Wilson:
And these words of wisdom are something that I hope ring true for many of you. There’s no such thing as a free dog.
Josh Robb:
Or a free pet in general.
Austin Wilson:
Or a free pet or anything like-
Josh Robb:
For instance, you have your story about the free dog.
Austin Wilson:
My “free” dog?
Josh Robb:
That’s lovely. But I always think back to the fair or those places where you get the fish. And like most of the time it’s like, “I really didn’t pay for this fish.” But you’ve got to go buy a bowl. You’ve got to buy the food and you end up spending a lot more than you thought you would.
Austin Wilson:
There is no such thing as a free dog. So, Josh, wrap us up.
Josh Robb:
Thanks for listening to this episode. Make sure you share it with your friends and family and all pet owners around. If you have any questions or thoughts or a story-
Austin Wilson:
Send it directly to me, because I’m going to get all the hate mail.
Josh Robb:
Or any stories about pets, shoot us an email at helloattheinvesteddads.com.
Austin Wilson:
All right. Well until next Thursday, have a great week. Not a “ruff” one.
Josh Robb:
There you go. Talk to you later. Bye.
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 guest 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 forecast 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 principle. There is no assurance that any investment plan or strategy will be successful.
