145: Our Black Friday & Cyber Monday Playbook — Saving You Hundreds

0:00Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your door. expertly cleaned and folded so you could take the time once spent folding and sorting and waiting to finally pursue a whole new version of you like tea time you or this tea time you or even this tea time you said you hear about Dave or even tea time tea time tea time you so update on Dave it's up to you we'll take the laundry rinse it's time to be great when you walk into a Burlington you're walking into amazing prices and great gifts. That's main character energy. Because at Burlington, the holiday savings aren't the only things turning heads.

0:41Discover quality finds and perfect presents for everyone on your list, even those who are hard to shop for. Toys and jewelry to new beauty brands and styles, these gifts go seamlessly from our stores to under your tree. Seriously, with these savings, why shop anywhere else? Burlington Deals Brands Wow. Hey everyone and welcome back to the Rich Habits Podcast, a top 10 business podcast on Spotify brought to you by Public.com. By the end of this episode, you'll know exactly how to navigate Black Friday and Cyber Monday without getting manipulated into buying stuff that you simply don't need. My name is Austin Hankwitz.

1:18I'm joined by my co-host Robert Croak. Robert is a seasoned entrepreneur with lifetime revenues of over 300 million. I'm a multimillionaire in my late 20s with a background in finance and economics. As the show name might suggest every episode, we talk about rich habits as they relate to business, finance, and mindset. So Robert, what are we gonna be talking about in today's episode? In this episode of the Rich Habits podcast, we're talking about Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It's Thanksgiving week and I'm excited for the turkey, but like you all, I'm more excited to find the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

1:52So we're gonna be pulling back the curtain on why businesses push these specific shopping days so aggressively, which deals are actually worth your time and which deals are designed to separate you from your money and not in a good way. Black Friday isn't about helping you save money. It's about businesses hitting their quarterly numbers, clearing out old inventory and using psychological tricks to get you to spend money you weren't even planning to spend. So by the end of this episode, you will know the business strategy taking place behind the scenes on these shopping days, what's actually worth buying, what you should avoid, and some practical tools that you can use to make sure that you get real deals and not bogus ones.

2:33The average American spends over$1 ,000 during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and most of that spending is on stuff they didn't even and weren't even planning to buy until they saw that 70 % off and those giant red letters. Now, there are legitimate deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And if you're strategic, if you know what you're looking for, and if you don't fall for those tricks, you can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars. But the key is being intentional and not impulsive. Robert, let's start this episode by sort of pulling back the curtain as to why businesses go so crazy during Black Friday and Cyber Monday offering all of these different deals.

3:14Let's talk about the business strategy here. Yeah, it's definitely wild right now in our timelines. You can't get away from it. Everywhere you look, there's a deal, deal, deal, all the crazy clickbait stuff happening. And the first real reason is quarterly earnings. For most retailers, Q4, which is October, November, and December, is the most important quarter of the year for their bottom line. This is when they make 30 to 40 % of their annual revenue. So Black Friday kicks off the holiday shopping season, and if businesses can get that early momentum, they're more than likely to hit their business numbers and keep their shareholders happy throughout this period.

3:54Now, the second reason why businesses go so hard during Black Friday is because of their inventory cycles, right? So retailers need to clear out that old inventory to make room for new products. For example, you got the TV manufacturers who want to get rid of last year's models before those new ones come out in January. Black Friday is a perfect excuse to liquidate that inventory at a discount. And the third point here, it's all about psychology of scarcity and urgency. Businesses know if they can create a sense of urgency, people will make those impulse purchases. That's why you see all over everywhere, limited time, only three left in stock.

4:30Sale ends tonight, plastered everywhere. And that is to get you to be nervous and scared and think that it's the end of the world if you don't click buy right now. So be careful out there. So now that we understand the strategy behind Black Friday and Cyber Monday, let's talk about real tactical advice on how to make sure that you're getting a good deal this weekend. So the first tool that you need to have in your tool belt is called Camel, Camel, Camel. Literally Camel, Camel, Camel. Just go type it in on Google. It's for Amazon. It's a free website that tracks Amazon price history. You paste in the Amazon product link and it shows you the price history over the last few months.

5:10Now, this is important because if something says Black Friday, Cyber Monday, it's on sale for$50, but it was also$50 just two weeks ago, you now know that the sale is bogus and you're not really saving any money. It takes 30 seconds to go look up products on their websites. Definitely go do this to make sure that you're avoiding these bogus sales that are a little bit more rampant than you might think. And our second tool today is Honey. This is a browser extension that automatically applies coupon codes at checkout. It works on thousands of websites. You can add something to your cart, go to checkout, click the Honey button, and it tries every coupon code in its database to get you the best deal.

5:49And the cool part about Honey is it's completely free. This one should be in your back pocket regardless of Black Friday or Cyber Monday, especially if you do as much online shopping as I do. Another tool slash resource to use this weekend when you're doing your Black Friday, Cyber Monday shopping is Rakuten, which gives you cash back when you shop at specific retailers. So during Black Friday, that cash back percentage usually goes up. So you might be getting 10 % cash back at Nike or 8 % cash back at Best Buy or maybe 5 % cash back at Amazon by going through Rakuten. It's literally free money.

6:24I've used Rakuten. It's a pretty cool website. And the next one for me is Slick Deals. This is a website where people post deals that they find. The community votes on them so the best deals rise to the top. So if you're looking for something specific, set up a deal alert with Slick Deals and they will notify you when it's on sale. We just signed up ourselves and it's actually very real and useful. I love Slick Deals myself. Yeah, we just made a count on Slick Deals. We poked around a little bit, found some AirPods that were on sale for like 40 % off. Some like Apple Watch stuff that was on sale, depending on like the Costco checkout stuff.

6:58Like it's legit Slick Deals. I had my doubts in the beginning, but definitely go check that one out. Something else to remember here, kind of like a little pro tip, Robert, is most of these major retailers have price match policies, right? So if you buy something and the price drops within 7 to 30 days, they're going to refund you the difference. Think Best Buy, Target, Amazon, right? They're all doing this. So if you buy something on Black Friday and the price drops maybe for a Cyber Monday or a Tuesday deal, who knows? You can get that difference refunded to you, allowing you to ensure that there's no money left on the table.

7:28And Black Friday and Cyber Monday aside, something everyone needs to know, and if you already know it, great, good for you. But over 40 % of the websites in the United States have an abandoned cart sequence. So when you're going to go buy something, especially a high ticket item, and you're in no rush to get it, go in and add it to your cart and abandon the cart. Don't buy it right away. And usually within 24 to 48 hours, it will start you in their email sequence. and you'll get a warm-up email saying, hey, we noticed you stopped by, you didn't buy. By the second or third email, you'll get a 10 to 30 % off coupon that you can apply to that same purchase.

8:06So be patient, use the abandoned cart sequence and save more money regardless of what time of year it is. I love that breakdown, Robert. I've not done that myself, but it's something I feel like I should have done when I bought my suitcases recently. Those things are like 600 bucks. Yes. All right, now let's talk about what you should be buying on Black Friday, right? Things that are actually getting discounted in real quantifiable amounts and other things that you maybe should avoid because you might get a better deal later or it's just not really that popular of an item on Black Friday. So let's start with what you should be buying.

8:39First up, electronics. Think TVs, laptops, tablets. Electronics are almost always cheaper during Black Friday. TVs especially. They're up to 40 or even 50 % off. Appliances, washers, dryers, refrigerators, right? These retailers are trying to clear out their older models and these discounts could be significant, maybe 20 or 30 % off. Also, don't forget about those small kitchen appliances like your air fryers, your coffee makers, and your stand mixers. These are the classic Black Friday deals. Small kitchen appliances get heavily discounted because they're pretty popular gift items. So if you've been wanting that Instapod or maybe a new air fryer or you want a stand mixture like I do, maybe this is a good time to buy one.

9:19Up next are wireless headphones, Bluetooth speakers, and other audio equipment. They are consistently discounted during Black Friday. I actually bought a new Bose speaker. It was normally like 300 bucks. I bought it for like 180 or$200 Black Friday a couple of years ago. Highly recommend doing something like that if you need a new speaker setup. And finally, think board games, video games, and Lego sets. All of these will see real discounts during Black Friday. Now that we know what to buy, Robert, walk us through what not to buy. Yeah. First, I want to click back on that for anyone listening right now that's building a house, renovating a house, that's thinking about buying a house and moving forward, maybe it's for an investment property.

9:58This is a really good time if you know what you're buying to get ahead of it by saving tons of money on these appliances and some of the things that are really good deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So think ahead on those because that's a way to save maybe thousands of dollars putting things in your house or property you're buying that you're gonna have in a couple months and getting ahead of it. So here are the things not to buy. And this is going to sound a little counterintuitive, but winter clothes. I know everyone thinks it's a good time to buy those, but they're much better deals if you don't need them right away in January or February, not November.

10:32So remember that because that's when the retailers give much better deals at the beginning of the year, not at the end of the year. Number two, furniture. It's always better in January, February, and March around President's Day to buy that new couch, buy that new whatever you're buying that's that big ticket item because it's just not gonna be a real deal, one of those bogus deals if you buy it during Black Friday or Cyber Monday. And number three, of course, this is a big one, and that is gym memberships and gym equipment. Always January for this because that's when everyone is out there hawking to get new customers and getting rid of old inventory because of all of those New Year's resolutions, because everyone says they're going to do it this year and get in shape.

11:15So they go ahead and buy all those weights and buy the stair climbers. And then a couple months later, they turn them into clothing racks. So just keep that in mind. Those are my three takeaways that aren't real deals and I wouldn't worry about during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So if you are a Black Friday, Cyber Monday shopper, be sure to focus on those electronics, the big appliances, the small kitchen appliances, the audio equipment, those board games, video games, things like that. And be sure to avoid winter clothing, furniture, and gym memberships, not because they're bad per se, but because you can likely get a much better deal at a different time in the year.

11:54All right, Robert, so let's wrap up the episode with a step-by-step playbook on how to win on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Here is the game plan. Take out the notepad. It's time to lock in. Step one, I need you to make a list before Black Friday even starts. You need to write down exactly what you need or have been planning to buy. Don't just go in blind. Don't just go browse. You have to know what you want so you don't overspend, right? Step two is research those regular prices using camel, camel, camel, or even Google Shopping to see if you're actually getting a deal or if it's bogus. Step three is to set a budget and actually stick to it.

12:32Decide how much you're willing to spend. Don't go over that number. So if you want to spend 500, actually spend 500. Don't spend seven because you saw a cool deal, right? Step four is to use the tools we've talked about. Honey, Rakuten, Slick Deals, Camel, Camel, Camel, stuff like that. They're free and they always work. And Robert, the most important step, step number five, what is it? Don't buy something just because it's on sale. This is the most important rule. have a plan, stick to the plan. A deal is only a deal if you are already planning to buy it. If you weren't planning to buy it, it's not a sale.

13:07It's just you spending money that you didn't budget for. So our closing thoughts today is look at Black Friday and Cyber Monday and they can be great opportunities to save money on things you're already planning to buy. But they can also be traps that can get you to spend money on stuff you shouldn't spend money on and that you don't need. The key is to be intentional and having a budget. Don't get swept up in the hype and the fake urgency of the 70 % off signs you're going to see everywhere. Because we don't want you to suffer the holiday blues in January, February, March, where you're playing catch up on all the credit card debt.

13:41Because you went wild on these sales and you couldn't control yourself. Yeah, please don't do that. That's a terrible idea. No one going to credit card debt. Okay, let's just not do that for Black Friday. But if you are smart, use the right tools. you have a budget you have a list you stick to those things you certainly can come out ahead you can get some real deals on those electronics those appliances and other big purchases you just got to play the game better than they expect you to play it and that's why you listen to the rich habits podcast because we're always here to help you take back control of your money to our listeners do us a favor if you enjoyed this episode if you learned something from this episode please consider sharing it with a friend we all know someone who's that black friday or cyber monday junkie and they're always trying to find those great deals, send this episode to them.

14:24I think they're going to love it. And do not forget, because I remember growing up, my dad, when he was around, would always say this, how disheartening it was that on Thanksgiving, right, all these people, they would leave their Thanksgiving dinner table early to go camp outside of a Best Buy to get a TV. Don't forget, Thanksgiving is the time to be with your friends and family and be thankful for the life you have and all the incredible things that you've been blessed with in this world. So despite the deals and the fun stuff that takes place and the chaos of that late Thursday night, early Friday morning, don't forget to enjoy your Thanksgiving this week as well.

15:00That's right. Thanksgiving is all about family. It's settling down. Put the phone down a little bit, unless you're watching the Rich Habits podcast, and just really relax and enjoy yourself. With that being said, Austin, did you see this? The Wall Street Journal just reported the highest price ever paid for a work of modern art at auction. It just happened the other day. So guess the number. $50 million? $100 million? Not either. $236 million for one piece of work. And it matters for you more than you would think. Our partner, Masterworks, makes investing in multi-million dollar artwork practical by offering shares in iconic works like Banksy, Basquiat, Picasso, and others.

15:42And we've been investing with them since 2021. While stocks have been all over the place lately, the art market has been unusually quiet. That's the thing about art. It often moves independently. Recently, Masterworks data shows contemporary and post-war art has outpaced the S &P 500 by 15 % with near zero correlation from 1995 to 2025 to the stock market. And today, nearly every major asset class is sitting at or maybe near those all-time highs. Many are starting to move in the same direction, right? So meanwhile, the art market may be emerging from this three-year downturn, which is the longest bear market that's taken place since the 1990s.

16:25The record sale, hopefully, will signify a nice shift in the art market. And historically, art has actually had some compelling rebounds. So after the dot-com crash, the art market grew by 24 % annually for a decade. And after 2008, it grew 11 % annually for 12 years per Masterworks metrics here. So with tons of major firms now warning about a near-term stock market pullback, which very well could impact most major asset classes and pull them down with it, Art remains one of those few diversifiers in a portfolio that could be unaffected and still have equity-like or better potential returns. Usually diversifying can mean sacrificing higher returns like with bonds or CDs, but not necessarily with art.

17:13So it's not hard to understand why wealthy collectors use it as one bucket for their capital. Masterworks investors have already invested over$1.25 billion across 500 plus pieces of artwork, and they've sold 25 so far, including two this month, with annualized net returns of 14.6%, 17.6%, and 17.8 % on works held over a year, excluding unsold works. So skip the waitlist at masterworks.art front slash rich habits, link in the show notes below. And as with any investment, past performance is not indicative of future returns. Investing involves risks. Sell returns are not inclusive of unsold works.

17:55Important regulation A disclosures can be found at masterworks.com forward slash CD. As you guys know, Robert and I both like Masterworks. We've used it for a while now. It's a great way to diversify your portfolio without having to worry too much about the crazy ups and downs that come with investing in the stock market and some of these high growth octane sectors that we're in. So seriously, go check out Masterworks. We really think you guys are going to enjoy using the platform. They are incredible. All right, Robert, let's now jump to our Q &A section of this episode. As you guys know, every episode, we like to answer some questions from our audience.

18:28If you have a question to ask us, DM us on Instagram at richhabitspodcast or email us at richhabitspodcast at gmail.com. All right. Our first question comes from Jessica. Jessica says, thank you for all the valuable information you share. I'd love your take on a situation my husband and I are currently working through. We're in our late 30s and we're building a house in a subdivided lot with a$500 ,000 budget. Our annual income is$220 ,000. Right now, we have$200 ,000 in a high-yield cash account on public.com,$125 ,000 in a brokerage account,$15 ,000 in a checking account,$320 ,000 in retirement accounts, and we have a construction loan with$70 ,000 available and the ability to draw another $425 ,000 at about a 6 % interest rate.

19:17Plus, we have a$275 ,000 HELOC on our current home. So my question is, when we finish the construction of this new home and we sell our current home, we expect about$600 ,000 of proceeds after selling costs, leaving us around$325 ,000 after we pay off the HELOC. So should we use that money to one, pay down the construction loan, two, invest it in the markets, or three, replenish our high yield savings account? We'd love to get your thoughts on this situation. This is a pretty cool question, Robert. What do you think about Jessica and what she's doing with her husband here with building this house and after they sell it, right?

19:59What do you think that she should do with this extra, let's call it 325 grand? Yeah, I think it's a little complicated, but I'm going to take a shot at walking through it. I think they're doing a great job. I would say with these proceeds, once this is all said and done, I would definitely do what they described. I would get that money invested and not put all of it down towards paying off this new loan, especially at six and a quarter percent. I think that's a great place to be. And I'm assuming this is an all-in-one mortgage. So you're going to be able to get it done, one payment, super easy, and in your budget.

20:30So I like that idea. And the other thing I would take on this is, I wouldn't reload your emergency fund with so much cash. I don't see a world of why you need over$100 ,000 in a high-yield savings account. Generally, we're saying three to six months, and I don't think your expenses would be that high,$20 ,000 a month to need that much in your emergency fund. So I would dial that back some, have more of the money going towards making sure that HELOC is paid down and invest the rest just like you described. I think it's a great breakdown. I'm right there with you. I think, you know, having that emergency fund of three to six months, if you want to lean on the six months, cause you're a little bit more conservative, cool, all good.

21:11No problem there. But once you have that sort of figured out, I do think that keeping the construction loan where it is, right. Cause it's at six and a quarter percent, which yeah, it's, it's up there, right. My, my mortgage here is at a six and a half percent interest rate as well, but not really trying to pay it down too fast. So I'd keep the construction loan where it is and invest the rest, right? I would invest that couple hundred thousand here, call it 300 grand into the markets. Now, the real question is, Robert, where should they invest it, right? So you know we've got this sort of protocol, match beats Roth beats taxable, which means invest up to the match in your 401k to get the free money, max out your Roth IRA, both you and your spouse, go back to that 401k and max it out if and only if you have autonomy.

21:57If you do not have autonomy, which means you can pick your investments and they pick those investments for you, which nine times out of 10, they're pretty crappy investments. Then don't worry about it. Up to the match is all you got to do there. Put the rest in a bridge account on public.com. That's your normal taxable brokerage account. Now here's what I would do. I would honestly take that two or$300 ,000 and direct index it on public. So you're getting some automated tax loss harvesting behind the scenes. To my understanding, you should be able to direct index most, if not all this money pretty easily on public and to my experience direct indexing across the years here, you should be able to expect about 11 to 15 % of your original investment into the direct index to be returned to you as tax loss harvested capital losses.

22:48So if you direct index$300 ,000 here, assuming conservatively 10 % of that over that call it 18-24 month period of time, so about 30 ,000, can be written off as a capital loss. So that's kind of how I would expect the numbers to shake out if I were in your situation. That's a great breakdown. I love that for them and anyone else listening. Great question though. Now our next question comes from Daniel S. Daniel says, hey guys, I'm in a bit of a pickle and could really use your help. I'm currently$75 ,000 in debt, which happened after losing a high paying job without an emergency fund in place.

23:24Over the last nine months, I've been saving aggressively in putting every extra dollar I save into cryptocurrency, mainly XRP, Ethereum, and Bitcoin. I have$24 ,000 now invested into these three cryptocurrencies. The more I listen to your podcast, the more I realize I probably need to shift my focus toward paying down my debt and building a stronger financial base instead of putting everything into crypto. My question is, should I rebalance the crypto I've built and use some of it to pay off my debt, or should I redirect it into index funds instead. I'm trying to figure out the smartest, most stable way forward.

24:00Thank you for all the value you provide. Oh, man. Oh, man. All right, Robert, we got to give our friend Daniel S. here some tough love. So Daniel, what we like to encourage people to say and do and always think about here is the slogan of you can't out invest high interest debt. I would argue your$75 ,000 is high interest debt, consumer debt of some sort. If it could be a personal loan, it could be your credit card at 0 % APR. I don't care what it is. It's probably high interest debt. I really wish over this last nine months, you instead took that$24 ,000, set$5 ,000 of it aside as a little starter emergency fund so you don't have to go more into debt.

24:40The other$19 ,000 would then be used to pay off the$75 ,000 and you just sort of like, you know, attack it with a vengeance there. But man, this is tough because what sucks here is the crypto markets are currently in the pooper and that's not good either. So here's what I would do if I were in your shoes. One, stop going into debt like full stop, which I think you probably have. So like full stop, make sure you're making money. Make sure like you can actually like sustain a lifestyle here where you don't have to perpetually go more into debt. Two, I'm optimistic we'll see some sort of short-term bounce in crypto.

25:12Right now it seems like we're headed toward the 85 ,000 range with Bitcoin if we're not already there by the time this episode comes out. I think we'll see some sort of short-term bounce back closer to 100 maybe even above 100 000 before a real flush out in 2026 i am hoping that that short-term bounce gives you a little bit better leverage to get out of your crypto position take as much as you can here even if it's at a loss right use that to pay off your your debt have your emergency fund and do not ever do anything like this again and then after you've paid off your debt because again it's high interest debt to our assumption here because You can't out invest high interest debt.