NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
From Eggflation to Ghost Jobs: Roasting 2024’s Biggest Financial Turkeys
Thu, 28 Nov 2024
Celebrate 2024’s Financial Turkeys as we spotlight the year's biggest money blunders and share tips to avoid them yourself. Why are grocery prices so high in 2024? What are ghost jobs and how do they affect job seekers? Hosts Sean Pyles and Sara Rathner roast the year’s “Financial Turkeys” (pun intended), spotlighting the biggest money misfortunes of 2024 and offering listeners a chance to commiserate over shared financial frustrations. They share their own takes on this year’s financial flops and invite listeners to reflect on how these issues have affected their lives, turning financial woes into a shared laugh or sigh of relief. Sign up for your free credit score and get credit-building insights personalized to you when you register at https://nerdwallet.com. In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: grocery inflation, ghost jobs, rising food prices, fake job postings, job market trends, financial blunders, job hunting frustrations, eggflation, financial commiseration, high grocery costs, job market challenges, fake job ads, grocery shopping struggles, and rising costs of food. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email [email protected]. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the biggest financial turkeys of 2024?
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
And I'm Sarah Raffner. Sean, happy Thanksgiving.
Oh, and happy Thanksgiving to you too, Sarah. On this day of thanks, I would like to thank all of our listeners for participating in the grand smart money experiment. We love getting and answering your questions, and we appreciate all of you and your loyal listenership.
It really is a privilege to be here in front of the microphone interacting with folks, helping them with their finances. I have to say, I really enjoy hearing about people's lives and the financial decisions that they're hoping to get help with. And not just because I am a nosy person, but also because I just like to know what's on people's minds.
and how we can help people. It really is an honor. I've been answering the questions of smart money listeners for a few years now, and sometimes people ask if I get bored of answering similar questions over and over. And I always say no, because in truth, each listener's question is different.
Whatever someone wants help with is informed by their own financial background and experiences and their current financial goals. And I just find that stuff endlessly interesting.
So do I. And besides, listeners join us at different points, at different episodes. So it is helpful to repeat topics once in a while. And if you're making a really tough financial decision, sometimes you have to hear about it a few times before you feel comfortable actually taking any sort of action. We're here to examine all sorts of money stuff from multiple angles.
We are all about informed decisions, and it's our job to give you that information. For all of those great and wonderful episodes, today we are handing out our 2024 Financial Turkey Awards. And by turkeys, we mean things that really missed the mark in the financial world. And let me tell you, there were a number of turkeys this year.
That's true. So Sean, what do winners get?
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Chapter 2: Why are grocery prices so high in 2024?
Good job, Sarah. Love that pun. And a solid and on theme nominee for the food holiday. By the way, I'm going to say I'm still upset about how much my cream cheese costs nowadays, although I will not give up my bagels. Okay, Sarah, what's your next candidate?
That's a highly specific food item to be upset about, but okay, that's fine. I love a good bagel and cream cheese myself. All right, so my next candidate, ghost jobs. And I am not talking about seasonal work as an actor in a haunted house attraction.
These are job listings online that look completely real, but the role either doesn't actually exist or it's already been filled and the company is still advertising it as if they're still looking for candidates. According to a May 2024 survey by Resume Builder, 40% of companies posted a fake job listing this year, and 3 in 10 companies currently have active fake listings.
So why the heck do companies do this? Because this is really annoying. A couple reasons. One is to look open to new talent or make it seem to the outside audience that the company is growing. Sometimes they just like seeing what talent is out there so they can have a collection of potential future employees.
Hmm.
I mean, listen, we already know that. AI is coming for us all. So we don't need to be reminded of that year round. You know what I mean? Anyway, what really is terrible about this is that some companies will go as far as actually interviewing job candidates with zero intention of moving forward with them in any way. And I know a number of people who are job hunting right now.
And ghost jobs are a huge waste of their time. That's time that they could be spending on interviews that could actually lead to real job offers.
Wow, Sarah, I got to admit, I had not heard of the ghost job phenomenon, but it is really messed up. What a cruel way to play with people who are desperate for employment in some cases. Yikes. So, Sarah, you've given us your nominees. Which one wins your 2024 Financial Turkey Award?
I've got to go with ghost jobs. And like you said, it is cruel to toy with people who are just trying to find a way to support themselves and their families. Yeah, don't mess with compensation companies.
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