Speaker 1: It is five oh five here on a Thursday morning
Speaker 1: at Kentucky and his morning news on News Radio eight
Speaker 1: forty whas Snick Coffee. That is me Scott Fitzgeral alongside
Speaker 1: John Alden, also alongside John Shannon. We'll have your news
Speaker 1: coming up in about twenty five minutes here on this
Speaker 1: warm and dry right now Thursday morning. If you are
Speaker 1: one of the early risers, can I say I'm an
Speaker 1: early riser now, guys, I feel like I'm I mean,
Speaker 1: I've not done this as long as you guys, as
Speaker 1: far as the early rising, but I mean you are.
Speaker 1: We're certainly how many people get up early. I mean,
Speaker 1: sure there are some that get up earlier than we do.
Speaker 1: But if you're an early riser, consider yourself lucky if
Speaker 1: you've already major commute, because as far as I can tell,
Speaker 1: it's dry currently and that's a good thing. But the
Speaker 1: rain is going to be here. It sounds like right
Speaker 1: around the time a lot of folks are making their
Speaker 1: morning commute, So just be ready. We'll get you updated
Speaker 1: on all that. Your first update on traffic and weather
Speaker 1: will be in the next few minutes. But timing is
Speaker 1: not on the side of those that make a commute
Speaker 1: across the Kennedy Bridge, which I do feel for those
Speaker 1: folks because I did a little research. Believe it or not,
Speaker 1: I do prepare for this show, at least I try.
Speaker 1: I try my best. But when it comes to the
Speaker 1: Kennedy Bridge, if you have, if you've been taking the
Speaker 1: same route to work to school your daily commute, and
Speaker 1: I guess it really doesn't depend on what time of
Speaker 1: the day it is. Obviously there are peak times when
Speaker 1: traffic is much worse at certain times.
Speaker 2: Of the day.
Speaker 1: But if you are, let's say, for years now, your
Speaker 1: day includes trips across the Kennedy Bridge, don't you have
Speaker 1: like an alternate strategy? I mean, don't you have I
Speaker 1: mean again, you may not have a great alternate strategy
Speaker 1: as far as a different path you can take. But
Speaker 1: that bridge has been closed down quite a bit to
Speaker 1: where nobody looks forward to it. I'm sure it's an
Speaker 1: inconvenience for a lot. Obviously, necessary work needs to be
Speaker 1: done when it comes to repairs, construction, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But I do feel for those who you know, this
Speaker 1: is probably not a good good time. It's not good timing.
Speaker 1: I mean, nobody wants rainy rainy weather, whenever you've got
Speaker 1: already lane closures on a very very busy, busy bridge.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, Nick, And you've got to have a backup
Speaker 3: plan in place. In fact, there's a spot in sixty
Speaker 3: four now, if you're heading sixty four west or east.
Speaker 3: It's a tiny little spot, my boy, it throws your
Speaker 3: morning commute. It's right there by Norton Hospital where they're
Speaker 3: doing some work there, and it throws your commute off
Speaker 3: if you're used to taking that avenue. And we don't
Speaker 3: have to worry about it to your point. But I'm
Speaker 3: sure there are folks that already have it mapped out
Speaker 3: how they want to get around, how they want to go.
Speaker 3: My wife, for instance, it took her a while to
Speaker 3: get used to coming from downtown. She's not used to
Speaker 3: it being such a long commute. I'm like, well, if
Speaker 3: you're taking sixty four to some degree seventy one, it's
Speaker 3: going to take you a while. And she goes. My
Speaker 3: app took me around here, and I still sat in traffic.
Speaker 1: So as I think about alternate routes, that was probably
Speaker 1: a pretty stupid way because you got to cross a bridge.
Speaker 1: There's not a whole lot of those so stars routes right.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know you don't have many options. It's
Speaker 1: probably just I would say, just you now know after
Speaker 1: the first couple of days maybe of just seeing because
Speaker 1: it's the left lane and shoulder that's going to be closed,
Speaker 1: and as far as how long it's going to be closed,
Speaker 1: tough to know exactly. Full construction will begin mid July,
Speaker 1: but it was closed down meaning the left lane and
Speaker 1: shoulder yesterday as of yesterday, and then they're going to
Speaker 1: get started today. But I would say you give it
Speaker 1: a couple of days and then you probably just get
Speaker 1: a better idea of how much earlier you need to
Speaker 1: leave compared to when you do whenever there's not construction
Speaker 1: and lane closure going on.
Speaker 3: And you can commensate, and you learn to commensate and
Speaker 3: learn to get around a hindrance, no doubt. I'm noticing,
Speaker 3: like even here in downtown Louisville, when we come downtown
Speaker 3: and they're repairing a lot of the like our sewage
Speaker 3: infrastructure needs massive upgrades, and it's going on throughout the city,
Speaker 3: and I see it in different intersections. You're like frustrated, like,
Speaker 3: oh man, I hold up, Like it feels like they're
Speaker 3: working on a building over here for Street Live Kitty
Speaker 3: corner from the selback. They've been working on that building forever,
Speaker 3: but you still have to kind of navigate around that,
Speaker 3: and it botches people up. We're just lucky enough that
Speaker 3: we come in this early. Yes we are, Yeah, that
Speaker 3: that happens.
Speaker 1: And just my curiosity even that early, I mean, you're
Speaker 1: still probably I guess it just depends. I don't know.
Speaker 1: When you've never taken a specific route as far as
Speaker 1: a daily commute, you just don't know. But the amount
Speaker 1: of lane closure events on the on the Kennedy Bridge
Speaker 1: in the last six years since twenty nineteen, it happened.
Speaker 1: It was once in twenty nineteen, twice in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: also twice in twenty twenty two, one time in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, and then twenty twenty four it was closed
Speaker 1: down three different times. So this is this is something unfortunately,
Speaker 1: they're probably used to. I don't think you want to
Speaker 1: be used to it, but it's probably not something that's
Speaker 1: gonna throw you way off if you've been making this
Speaker 1: same this same journey I beat each and every day.
Speaker 3: I'd be curious to see how many people decide to
Speaker 3: just pay the toll and go the other.
Speaker 1: Route could be yeah, I mean yeah, I mean if
Speaker 1: if it shaved off a little bit of time or
Speaker 1: maybe a lot of time, I mean you would, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it could be. I'm not someone that does well just
Speaker 1: sitting exactly. If I've got to add a little bit
Speaker 1: of time, but I'm moving, I might I might take
Speaker 1: that route. That's just me yep, all right. It is
Speaker 1: five to ten here a Kentucky. It his morning News
Speaker 1: on news radio eight forty whas, your folks, your first
Speaker 1: update on trafficking weather coming up right now right here
Speaker 1: on eight forty whas. Good morning, Kentucky, Ina. It is
Speaker 1: five point fifteen here at Kentucky and his morning News
Speaker 1: on news radio eight forty whas. We'll have a conversation
Speaker 1: coming up here at five forty five. Rory O'Neal of
Speaker 1: NBC News is going to join us. We will talk
Speaker 1: about Trump's bill, the Big Beautiful Bill, of course, is
Speaker 1: what he's calling it. Also also chat with Rory a
Speaker 1: little bit about your money. Rent falling around the country,
Speaker 1: the average retirement fund at an all time high. Yet, of course,
Speaker 1: as a lot of you probably know, the cost of
Speaker 1: living that is only going up, So roy o'nil's going
Speaker 1: to join us. Coming up, coming up about five forty five,
Speaker 1: we'll talk some sports with Scott Fitzgerald, who will give
Speaker 1: us the first sports update in about ten minutes. The
Speaker 1: NBA Finals start tonight. I'm worried, guys, You're fine, not
Speaker 1: about my pacers. I mean, they may lose because they're
Speaker 1: the underdog for good reason. But I want to watch it.
Speaker 1: But I think I'm gonna have to concede.
Speaker 3: I thought about you last night, dude. I was watching
Speaker 3: the Stanley Cup finals and I went, so, you made it. Yeah, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: I went to I was.
Speaker 1: I was about to say you you wild son of
Speaker 1: a dude.
Speaker 3: I know it all too well, but I thought about
Speaker 3: you last night.
Speaker 4: There is a bit of a solution. You could take
Speaker 4: a couple of hour nap this afternoon, two or three
Speaker 4: hours if you're able to.
Speaker 3: I know you got kids to take.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tough. Uh, here's what I have. I don't
Speaker 1: know if this is just me really trying to convince
Speaker 1: myself that that that I'm not going to eventually hit
Speaker 1: some big wall here as I've made a huge adjustment
Speaker 1: when it comes to sleep schedule, but if I if
Speaker 1: I just sit or maybe even lay, and I can't
Speaker 1: because I can't fall asleep. I mean, I guess I could,
Speaker 1: you know, eventually I probably would, but I just I
Speaker 1: just lay and hope to get a quick little power nap, catnap,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it. But even if I
Speaker 1: lay down, I don't and I don't feel like within
Speaker 1: an hour's time I've really gotten much actual sleep where
Speaker 1: I have, you know, fallen asleep. If I get up
Speaker 1: and realize, okay, I tried and you know, didn't work out,
Speaker 1: I still feel rested, right like, Mentally, I'm not sleep sleeping,
Speaker 1: but at least that's something.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what I've learned. And I talked to
Speaker 3: my wife about this all the time. She gets Sunday scaries,
Speaker 3: so Sunday night she doesn't sleep, and I told her,
Speaker 3: I said, listen to your body. If you have Sunday scaries,
Speaker 3: that's not a bad thing. Just listen to your body.
Speaker 3: If you're not tired and you can't sleep, don't try
Speaker 3: to sleep, because you're just gonna get more frustrated. That's true,
Speaker 3: you know. And so if you're feeling there's down there, yeah,
Speaker 3: exactly dude. I mean there's been times where I've stayed
Speaker 3: up and watched the game because I simply was not tired.
Speaker 3: The game was good, I went to bed. Was I
Speaker 3: tired the next day? Probably? But eventually my body's going
Speaker 3: to regulate me back into my cycle. I'll probably come
Speaker 3: home the following day, go to bed early, and then
Speaker 3: things will calibrate itself. That's at least what I've learned.
Speaker 3: Just don't fight if you think you need to.
Speaker 1: Get to sleep, yeah, and because then it just becomes
Speaker 1: I mean, for me, I would just become angry.
Speaker 3: That's what you do. That's exactly what you do.
Speaker 2: Bro.
Speaker 3: So if you are off tonight watching the Pacers and
Speaker 3: you feel yourself going, hey, I'm cool, I'm gonna watch this,
Speaker 3: do it.
Speaker 1: So it may just be one of those mornings where
Speaker 1: I just don't sleep. Yeah, and I just come I've
Speaker 1: done that. I joke, because I don't think I would.
Speaker 3: I would.
Speaker 1: I mean that would be a dangerous thing to do.
Speaker 1: I mean not literally, but obviously it wouldn't be wise.
Speaker 1: But when I have had to try to force myself
Speaker 1: to go to bed whenever I would do post game
Speaker 1: basketball shows, I mean, just watching the game alone, It's
Speaker 1: hard for me to fall asleep because if you're into
Speaker 1: the game, you know you're up, you're energized. And then
Speaker 1: when I just get to yelling for an hour and
Speaker 1: going back and forth with callers in regards to what
Speaker 1: happened in the game. In a perfect world, I would
Speaker 1: be able to just, you know, walk upstairs from our
Speaker 1: basement studio set up and just lay down and go
Speaker 1: to sleep. But it's never ever worked that way. I
Speaker 1: don't think.
Speaker 3: That's not to say you're not gonna be I'm not
Speaker 3: gonna tell any but you're not gonna be tired. If
Speaker 3: you do stay up, you will be. But ultimately, when
Speaker 3: that night comes around, you'll fall asleep and your body
Speaker 3: will regulate itself.
Speaker 1: Yep, it's gonna play itself out. Yeah, it's gonna play
Speaker 1: self out. That's so, that's for sure. All right Again,
Speaker 1: we'll talk some more sports coming up here shortly with Scott.
Speaker 1: Something else that I'm sure will come up throughout the
Speaker 1: morning here, as we did here yesterday in Louisville from
Speaker 1: Governor Andy Basheer as he announced the pre k for
Speaker 1: All initiative, which is to help boost Kentucky's public public
Speaker 1: education system and job growth, more access to those children
Speaker 1: in the state when it comes to pre K. But also,
Speaker 1: as you could expect, there's other things that came up
Speaker 1: in those conversations. He gave a little bit of an
Speaker 1: update on the deadly tornado that took place earlier, actually
Speaker 1: in mid May, that of course took nineteen people's lives.
Speaker 1: Although still very appreciative of the administration when it comes
Speaker 1: to the help and support that the state of Kentucky
Speaker 1: has received. Not surprising to hear that Vasher did express
Speaker 1: some concerns about the federal funding cuts and whatnot. And then,
Speaker 1: as you could expect, also he was asked about a
Speaker 1: potential presidential run. There's been a lot of speculation of that.
Speaker 1: We can certainly continue that conversation, not just this morning,
Speaker 1: but obviously that'll be something that's talked about quite a bit.
Speaker 1: But when I was listening to the interview that he
Speaker 1: did WKY yesterday or just I guess more so his
Speaker 1: media availability, I know many were probably there to get
Speaker 1: the microphone and camera in front of in front of
Speaker 1: his sheer. It did take me back to not a
Speaker 1: fun time that was the pandemic right during COVID, but
Speaker 1: just how he without really doing anything sensational, no big story,
Speaker 1: he kind of became like a very popular guy, not
Speaker 1: just around here but nationally and you know here he
Speaker 1: is five years later from that, and there's talks of
Speaker 1: him potentially running for president. So yeah, if I'd asked
Speaker 1: you three or four years ago, would you would you
Speaker 1: have thought he would he would be, you know, somebody
Speaker 1: that not only others would potentially want to run, but
Speaker 1: he may consider doing it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, to your point, he's got that that that likability
Speaker 3: with it no matter. I understand some of the right
Speaker 3: would disagree with that, but he's got that likability, that
Speaker 3: personality that's conversational. Yeah, that he brings to the table.
Speaker 1: No doubt. All Right, another update of traffic and weather
Speaker 1: coming up right now, and then we'll hit on sports
Speaker 1: on News Radio eight forty whas. Thank you, John at
Speaker 1: is five thirty five here Kentucky in this morning news
Speaker 1: Nick coffee with you, Scott Fitzgered alongside John Alden and
Speaker 1: of course John Shannon. The crew is here. We are
Speaker 1: fully assembled and ready to get this, to get this
Speaker 1: Thursday started. It's been something we've talked about throughout the week,
Speaker 1: and that is the super Regional Action returning to Jim
Speaker 1: Patterson Stadium, good timing the twenty year anniversary of Jim
Speaker 1: Patterson Stadium opening, and now they are gonna host Miami,
Speaker 1: just a couple of wins away from getting back to Omaha.
Speaker 1: And they sold out a ticket yesterday, which isn't uncommon
Speaker 1: for Louisville whenever they host these type of postseason events.
Speaker 1: But weather does not look to be on their side
Speaker 1: as far as that game one and the forecast. But
Speaker 1: we'll get more updates on weather, and who knows, maybe
Speaker 1: things can change from now until until that first pitch.
Speaker 1: But we've had some warm weather these last few days, Fellows,
Speaker 1: We've got I think near ninety it was one Tuesday
Speaker 1: and Wednesday. Yeah, And this is something that and this
Speaker 1: is this is one of many things actually that makes
Speaker 1: me realize that I'm I'm different than most. I'm in
Speaker 1: the minority. And that is the temperature that it needs
Speaker 1: to be outside and also in your home for you
Speaker 1: to crack on the AC and just say, all right,
Speaker 1: the summer's here. I've given up. I can see mother Nature.
Speaker 1: You've let me know that I need to turn the
Speaker 1: AC on because I think i'm I'm not as tough
Speaker 1: as others because to me, I've had the AC on
Speaker 1: for a long long time. And I'm gonna share some
Speaker 1: numbers with you guys. But before we get to it,
Speaker 1: is there a number that you need to see for
Speaker 1: you to say, okay, AC's going on? Do you and
Speaker 1: your significant other is there a Are you all on
Speaker 1: the same page or do you fight back and forth? Hey,
Speaker 1: we need the AC on. No we don't. Well, we'll
Speaker 1: tough it out. We don't need a hive, we don't
Speaker 1: need an expensive bill. Is there is there any set
Speaker 1: standard in the Fitzgerald House or the Alden House?
Speaker 3: It is I'm going through this right now. Ironic you
Speaker 3: bring this up my daughter's home out of the year,
Speaker 3: she's moving into her apartment. She wants it was set
Speaker 3: on sixty nine, and for some reason, my OCD kicks
Speaker 3: in and I need it on seventy because I'm so
Speaker 3: scared it's going to go out. But as I was
Speaker 3: telling you off the air yesterday, my daughter will come home,
Speaker 3: open the house up because it faces the south, because
Speaker 3: she likes the sun which heats up the house. Threw
Speaker 3: the air conditioner down to sixty nine and then throw
Speaker 3: on three blankets. I'm like, not get off, and it.
Speaker 1: Seems like it defeats the purpose of having the AC
Speaker 1: if you've got all those blankets on right boom.
Speaker 3: And then since I lost all the weight, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I used to dread summer, dude, when I was heavier,
Speaker 3: I used to hate it because it was just muggy.
Speaker 3: I didn't have air conditioning in my car. It was nasty.
Speaker 3: Now I can tolerate the hot weather more. But to
Speaker 3: your point, I think my wife likes to turn it
Speaker 3: on just for the circulation part. Now we do keep
Speaker 3: it on autocirque, so it rolls the air through the house.
Speaker 1: Am I am I incorrect in thinking that maybe if
Speaker 1: you were a bachelor, you might like never turn it on,
Speaker 1: because I feel like.
Speaker 2: No, I would.
Speaker 3: I would. It gets a little hot. It gets a
Speaker 3: little hot for me, and I still am not a
Speaker 3: fan of the heat. I'm just for talking with you.
Speaker 1: I'm not a big heat gy, what about you, John?
Speaker 4: As soon as I start sweating in bed at night
Speaker 4: as from the A that usually happens midway through a
Speaker 4: but when we have a couple of warm days, right,
Speaker 4: One thing my wife and I do, especially during the summer.
Speaker 4: During the day, we'll keep it on a higher temperature,
Speaker 4: like seventy or seventy two, and so at night we'll
Speaker 4: kind of reward ourselves. I guess that's what we want,
Speaker 4: what you want to call it, by lowering down to
Speaker 4: this might be a little much.
Speaker 3: Sixty eight, we do sixty eight at night.
Speaker 1: So okay, you make me not feel as alone because
Speaker 1: I'm with you. I mean, sixty eight degrees in our
Speaker 1: house as far as setting the thermostat is probably the
Speaker 1: average for us during the really, really really hot summer months.
Speaker 1: And I mean I thought that most were like that.
Speaker 1: And everybody's different, everybody's preferences are different, but this is
Speaker 1: one of those, this study survey whatever that I just
Speaker 1: have a hard time believing because most Americans, it says,
Speaker 1: they turn their ac in their home on when the
Speaker 1: indoor temperatures reach between seventy five and seventy eight. That
Speaker 1: could be what is the is the tipping point right
Speaker 1: where you've just decided, Okay, enough's enough, it's this hot.
Speaker 1: But the thought of your house being between seventy five
Speaker 1: in seventy eight consistently, I mean that's not I mean,
Speaker 1: that's not burning up but I mean, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't think i'd be comfortable.
Speaker 3: It's toasty. Yeah, it's toasty, And I don't really get
Speaker 3: to the point. As you mentioned, I know a lot
Speaker 3: of people that do that, go I'm going to fight
Speaker 3: it out. It comes down to basically, how do I feel.
Speaker 1: Some people really just like challenging themselves right They're seeing
Speaker 1: how long they can go. I mean, I have I
Speaker 1: have a friend who he's just wired different. He will
Speaker 1: he will really see how long he can he can
Speaker 1: go without, you know, running out of gas, Like he'll
Speaker 1: he'll ride put the gas light on, and sure enough,
Speaker 1: when you do that, you know you'll you'll win enough
Speaker 1: to where you feel like, yeah, have phone, I made
Speaker 1: it here. And then you'll have times where you run
Speaker 1: out of gas and you know, dude, I think having
Speaker 1: that happened once would make me never try to fight
Speaker 1: it again.
Speaker 3: I get down, I get down to a quarter of
Speaker 3: a tank, dude, and I'm filling out here because that's
Speaker 3: I'm waiting turning.
Speaker 1: Rory O'Neil's gonna join us, coming up here in just
Speaker 1: a few minutes, and we'll have another update on traffic
Speaker 1: and weather coming your way right here. On Who's Radio
Speaker 1: eight forty whas it's about forty five here Kentucky and
Speaker 1: it's Morning News and we are now joined here by
Speaker 1: Rory Oneild NBC News. Rory, give us the latest on
Speaker 1: the Trump Big beautiful bill. Obviously a big talking point
Speaker 1: here lately, and a lot of thoughts out there from
Speaker 1: a lot of folks.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there certainly are. And look right now, the bill
Speaker 5: is in the Senate and there are lots of dividing lines.
Speaker 5: Look for issues over salt. That's the state and local
Speaker 5: tax deduction. The House got that deduction up to forty
Speaker 5: thousand dollars from the current ten thousand dollars, but the
Speaker 5: Senate may bulk at this. Keep in mind there's not
Speaker 5: a lot of support for it. So salt lets people
Speaker 5: in high tax states like New Jersey, New York, Illinois, California,
Speaker 5: they can deduct what they spend on state and local
Speaker 5: taxes from their federal taxes. It's down ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 5: They're trying to up it to forty thousand dollars, but
Speaker 5: that deal costs about three hundred and fifty billion dollars.
Speaker 5: And senators from places like Texas and Oak Home to
Speaker 5: say why are we supporting bad tax policies from California
Speaker 5: and New York?
Speaker 2: You know, why are we paying for that?
Speaker 5: And then among Republicans in the Senate, there's very little
Speaker 5: support because there are no Republicans from California, from New York,
Speaker 5: from Illinois to support this. So there really isn't a
Speaker 5: big advocate in the Senate to keep Salt in there.
Speaker 5: So that's going to be interesting to watch because if
Speaker 5: it gets back to the House and there are changes made,
Speaker 5: we couldn't see a bit of a revolt from the
Speaker 5: Salt caucus over there.
Speaker 1: Elon Musk has publicly called the bill a disgusting abomination
Speaker 1: and urged lawmakers to quote kill the bill. What's been
Speaker 1: the reaction from this high profile criticism from Elon Musk?
Speaker 1: He's been pretty outspoken on it, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if this is going to have any influence on the
Speaker 1: Senates deliberations, but just I don't know this, This to
Speaker 1: me seems as outspoken as you can get on.
Speaker 5: It, right, Yeah, don't hold back, Elon, tell me how
Speaker 5: you're really exactly. Language is tough, but look, it's also
Speaker 5: giving a lot of cover to some Republicans who don't
Speaker 5: like some of the provisions, the fact that it puts
Speaker 5: the country deeper into debt, on a track to fifty
Speaker 5: fifty trillion dollars in total debt, and some of the
Speaker 5: Medicaid cuts are also not liked by senators like Josh Hawley,
Speaker 5: who have called it political suicide.
Speaker 2: So it could give a lot of cover for Republicans.
Speaker 5: To actually say, you know what, I don't like this
Speaker 5: thing either, Let's keep reworking it. The problem is whatever
Speaker 5: changes they make in the Senate then have to go
Speaker 5: back to the House and the big beautiful bill has
Speaker 5: to be voted on there, and it only got out
Speaker 5: of the House on one vote. So it's really going
Speaker 5: to be very difficult for Republicans to try to find
Speaker 5: something to appease everyone.
Speaker 1: Roy and Neale, NBC News is our guest. You're on
Speaker 1: news radio eight forty whas let's talk a little money
Speaker 1: rent falling around the country. Average retirement fund it's at
Speaker 1: an all time high. However, cost of living keeps going up.
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of our listeners this morning are
Speaker 1: well aware of that. What can you tell us about
Speaker 1: any potential improvement in that regard.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just an interesting data point that the median US
Speaker 5: asking rent fell one percent of the month of May
Speaker 5: now down to sixteen hundred and thirty three dollars. That's
Speaker 5: about seventy two bucks below where it was at the
Speaker 5: record high in August of twenty twenty two, So it's
Speaker 5: it's trending downward, which is just an interesting data point here.
Speaker 5: We are seeing more Americans trying to squirrel away money.
Speaker 5: The average floro one case savings plan now has fourteen
Speaker 5: point three percent contributions on average, so people are Americans
Speaker 5: are putting away fourteen point three percent of their income
Speaker 5: into those four oh one cas. That's a really interesting
Speaker 5: trend because Americans aren't notoriously not savers, right. We like
Speaker 5: to spend, spend, spend, And there's a new report that
Speaker 5: shows you need to make about two hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 5: in this country for your family of four to.
Speaker 2: Be quote unquote comfortable.
Speaker 5: That would be fifty percent to cover your needs, thirty
Speaker 5: percent for your wants, twenty percent for debt and savings. Well,
Speaker 5: only seven states, say, only in seven states do you
Speaker 5: need to earn less than two hundred thousand dollars to
Speaker 5: feel that way. Louisiana, South Dakota, Mississippi the cheapest of
Speaker 5: them all one hundred and eighty six grand a year
Speaker 5: to feel comfortable.
Speaker 1: Wow, when it comes to the high cost of living
Speaker 1: and it continuing to go up, what are there certain
Speaker 1: things that maybe we've seen Americans decide to sacrifice and
Speaker 1: no longer use their their their income quite as much
Speaker 1: on certain things, just to just to kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: be prepared for this.
Speaker 2: Well, we haven't seen them give up on travel. We
Speaker 2: know that.
Speaker 5: Well, this may be the first summer we start to
Speaker 5: see perhaps a decline in domestic travel, but international travel
Speaker 5: still remains strong. You know, the consumer is keeping this
Speaker 5: economy afloat. You know, we have seen a shift perhaps
Speaker 5: away from as many material goods to experiences that you know,
Speaker 5: people would rather spend money on travel now than buy
Speaker 5: a new couch or a big screen TV. So maybe
Speaker 5: that trend is changing a little bit. But yeah, according
Speaker 5: to the numbers, we keep on spending. It was down
Speaker 5: a little bit last month, but still we are spending.
Speaker 5: We spend, spend, spend.
Speaker 1: YEP, I'm not totally shocked to hear that. Rory is
Speaker 1: always thanks for your time this morning. Thanks Nick, That's
Speaker 1: Rory O'Neal, NBC News. We've got another update of traffic
Speaker 1: and weather coming your way. Also another update of sports
Speaker 1: with Scott Fitzgerald, So hang out with us.
Speaker 3: It's five point
Speaker 1: Fifty here at News Radio eight forty whas