Even as thrifty undergrads, we could afford to be fans.

But when I moved to New York from the Midwest in 2007, I found it so expensive to be a baseball fan that I essentially gave up. On my meager pay, I couldn’t afford the cable channels that would allow me to watch White Sox games. I tried to become a Mets fan, and even (gulp) a Yankees fan, but the experience of going to games was simply too costly: A forty dollar ticket, a few ten-dollar beers, and a meal, plus the cost of the subway rides would quickly spill over $80, and that’s without buying a t-shirt, hat, or cocktail, which I love to do.

As Stash’s resident broke person, I decided to make it my mission to find out why being a baseball fan has become cost-prohibitive for me, and if I have any power to fix that…without getting a job on Wall Street.

The numbers

It’s true: The cost of attending a Major League baseball game has skyrocketed everywhere over the last thirteen years.

According to BeyondtheBoxscore, ticket prices rose approximately 20 percent faster than both the median income and cost of living from 2006 to 2016. A Statista study shows that the average, regular ticket price increased 50 percent (from $22.21 to $32.44), from 2006 to 2018. And for the first time in 15 years, 2018’s baseball attendance failed to surpass 70 million, while the MLB is making more money than ever, Forbes reports. This means that while attendance is down, presumably in part due to ticket prices, the MLB is making money hand over fist because they’ve jacked up ticket prices so drastically.

For me, the result of these increases looks like a non-premium seat at a Mets game for an average of $27.60, or a good seat for $91.43. The average cost of a beer at Citi Field? $11. You’re killin’ me, New York.

But it’s Cubs fans who shell out the most for tickets, with regular seats costing an average of $59.49 this year, and premium seats going for $241.99, according to TeamMarketingReport. (Although their beers are only $9.50.)

And on average, a regular ticket in 2019 is $32.99, and a premium is $119.03. The average beer cost is $5.97. This year’s national Fan Cost Index, which measures the cost for a family of four to get tickets, parking, four sodas, two beers, four hot dogs, and two souvenir caps, is $234.38. In 2006, the average MLB FCI was $162.86.

In short, going to a game has gotten a lot more expensive, even if you’re rooting for this season’s cheapest team to see: The Arizona Diamondbacks.

So – what’s a thrifty baseball fan to do?

Buying MLB tickets on a secondary market—such as SeatGeek or StubHub—won’t often save you money, according to data gathered by TicketIQblog, which measures ticket prices when they’re resold. You’ll get lucky sometimes, but overall, these markets are more about giving you access to games, not giving you access on the cheap.

However, there are a few ways to save money on tickets:

1. Find deals on each teams’ official website. This suggestion came from Team Marketing Report, and sounded too easy to be true. But when I checked the Mets website, there was a Dunkin Donuts-sponsored deal on their homepage for $15 baseline box tickets that would normally cost $57 apiece. Of course, this game was on a Sunday, not on a more-desirable Saturday night.
2. Groupon. There are things I’d never pay full price for: a spray tan, eyelash extensions, a facial. So why am I paying full price for baseball tickets? I clicked over to Groupon to see if they had any good deals going on. And while they didn’t have Mets tickets for sale, they did have Yankees tickets for $15 instead of $41.80, which Groupon proudly displayed as 64 percent off.
3. The Ballpark App. This official MLB app allows you to upgrade seats at a discount once you’re in the ballpark. So if you’re willing to take a chance, you could snag cheap nosebleeds and see what kind of deal the team is offering after the first inning. However, many teams don’t allow for huge discounts here, so as not to upset high-paying season ticket holders.

So there are a few options for the broke baseball fan to get into the game. Unfortunately, concession prices are much less flexible—you’re pretty much stuck with whatever your team has set. And if your favorite part of baseball has more to do with IPAs than ERAs, you should probably just pack up and move to Denver, where the average beer is just $3.00.

In fact, I think I may have a new favorite team. Go Rockies!

The post How to Be a Baseball Fan on a Budget appeared first on Stash Learn.

Super Bowl ads are notoriously funny, creative, and over the top. In some cases, they can feature movie stars or celebrities that swell production budgets. For that reason, people will pile in front of the TV to watch them, with football playing second fiddle.

Advertisers spend all that money to build their brands and attract new customers. Last year, 103 million people watched the Super Bowl, giving brands exposure to lots of eyeballs–and their ads are often given a second life on YouTube, where they can be watched over and over again.

And advertising is one of the reasons that football is such a big business. In 2018, advertisers spent an average of $5.24 million for a 30-second ad, totaling up to $482 million overall, according to industry data. Since the Super Bowl first debuted in 1967, advertisers have spent nearly $5 billion on airtime.

Here are the biggest Super Bowl spenders over the past two decades, according to market research firm Kantar Media.

Top Super Bowl Advertisers 1995-2017

Source: Kantar Media, 2019

Top Super Bowl Advertisers: Companies (2018)

These companies were the most prolific advertising spenders during last year’s Super Bowl (2018):

Source: Kantar Media, 2019

Top Super Bowl Advertisers: Sectors

On a broader scale, which industries spend the most showcasing their goods and services during the Super Bowl? Traditionally, spending is dominated by a few key sectors–and that remained true during the big game in 2017, according to industry data.

1. Food and beverage – $84.6 million
2. Automotive sector – $71.8 million
3. Media – $63.1 million

Get in on the Action

These companies–and others–are spending big bucks on Super Bowl Sunday to make sure consumers know about their products. You can invest in companies like these by purchasing stocks and ETFs on Stash.

The post The Business of Super Bowl Ads appeared first on Stash Learn.

In 2018, the average U.S. consumer spent more than $80 preparing for, and enjoying, the Super Bowl–the NFL championship game. According to a 2018 survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF), an estimated 188.5 million people watched last year’s matchup between New England and Philadelphia, shelling out more than $15 billion on apparel, Super Bowl party preparations, and booze.

Super spending

How are consumers supersizing their spending for the Super Bowl? Here are some examples.

• 11% will buy team apparel or accessories.
• 8% will buy a new TV.
• 18% will host a Super Bowl party, and 28% will attend one.

The biggest and most widespread expense is food and drinks, which 82% of Americans say they plan to purchase for the Super Bowl according to the NRF. When it comes to food and drinks, we have even more delicious data to share:

• Holy cluck! Consumers will eat around 1.33 billion chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday. That’s enough chicken to circle the Earth nearly three times.

• Domino’s sells 13 million slices on Super Bowl Sunday, 30% more than usual.

• Americans bought more than $580 million dollars’ worth of beer during the Super Bowl in 2015. And spent another $109 million on liquor.

Other holiday spending

While the Super Bowl is only one of many national events on which U.S. consumers love to spend money, they tend to shell out more for it than other national celebrations. Here’s how their spending stacks up, according to data from the NRF.

Also, during the holiday season—roughly November through the beginning of January—Americans spend roughly $900 per person on gifts alone.

The post How Much Americans Spend During the Super Bowl appeared first on Stash Learn.

The National Football League (NFL) is viewed favorably by 57% of Americans, and 37% say it’s their favorite sport to watch, far more than any other sport, according to recent survey data from Gallup. There’s clearly demand for bone-crunching hits, pick-sixes, and 60-yard field goal attempts among U.S. consumers.

And where there’s demand, there’s an opportunity to make money. And when it comes to football, there’s an awful lot of it to be made.

Footballconomics

Football’s two primary economic engines in the U.S. are the NFL and college football, and the two generate billions in revenue:

• $14 billion—Total NFL revenue in 2017.
• $31.9 million—Average revenue per FBS NCAA football team/school (129 total, as of 2018).

How football makes money

Billions of dollars flow through the football economy every year from sources including merchandising and endorsement deals. But the bulk is driven through sales of broadcasting rights.

The complete financials for leagues like the NFL are private, but we do know some details regarding the NFL’s media revenues:

• Fox Sports will pay the NFL $3 billion to broadcast “Thursday Night Football” for five years.
• Verizon will pay the NFL $1.5 billion to stream games to subscribers for five years.
• The NFL has TV broadcast contracts with CBS, ESPN, Fox, and NBC that expire in 2022.

College football

College football is played between U.S. universities and colleges (with one exception). There are 777 schools, around the country, in various divisions, that field football teams. The college game is played at four levels, or divisions (the biggest and most popular being the Football Bowl Subdivision, FBS), under the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

College football players are technically amateurs—they aren’t paid, and instead, most players are granted athletic scholarships and room and board by their college or university—the college game generates massive revenues.

All college sports combined (including basketball, baseball, and other sports) generated $1.06 billion in 2017, the most ever. Football is responsible for the majority of it.

College football works differently than the NFL, as groups of schools, or conferences, negotiate together for better deals. These are the average payouts for broadcasting rights, per school, in each of the “Power 5” FBS conferences in 2017:

• Southeastern Conference (SEC)—$40.9 million
• Big Ten—$35 million
• Big 12—$35 million
• Pac-12—$29 million
• ACC—$27 million

While these revenues come primarily from broadcasting rights, football groups also generate money from licensing deals, video games, sponsorships, and equipment agreements. For example, Nike inked a deal with the NFL to supply all on-field equipment, to all 32 teams, until 2028. The NFL is also partnering with sports merchandise company Fanatics to sell replica jerseys and gear in retail stores.

College teams negotiate their own deals on a per-school basis, and they vary wildly in value. The most valuable current agreement, between the UCLA and Under Armour, nets the school nearly $13 million per year until 2032.

Adding it all up

What does all of that revenue add up to? Valuable franchises. Here are the most valuable NFL teams in the league, according to Forbes:

And here are the most valuable college football programs, according to the Wall Street Journal:

While college football players don’t get paid to play, the NFL has some of the world’s highest-paid athletes, when accounting for salary and endorsement deals, according to recent data from Forbes:

• $67.3 million per year–Matt Ryan, quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons
• $59.5 million per year–Matthew Stafford, quarterback for the Detroit Lions
• $42.9 million per year–Drew Brees, quarterback for the New Orleans Saints
• The average NFL player earns $2.1 million per year, and the league minimum is $500,000 per year.

The game has issues, however.

While football has proven to be a money-maker, the sport faces a slew of on and off-the-field issues.

The NCAA, for example, has been criticized for earning hundreds of millions of dollars while players remain unpaid—and if there’s a change to the existing model, college football as we know it may cease to exist.

The NFL, likewise, is being dragged into political battles, and dealing with recent revelations concerning the long-term effects of playing the game. Specifically, many former players develop brain damage, creating questions about how safe the game truly is.

Despite the game’s controversies, it continues to captivate millions of Americans. And if you’re a football fan and want to get in on the action, you can put your money in the field by investing in companies that operate in and around the game on Stash.

The post Go Deep! Football is America’s Favorite Sport, and a Money-Making Machine appeared first on Stash Learn.

Here’s what you may not have known: Many of the strategies you use to create your dream fantasy football team are useful for first-time investors.

The best thing about creating a portfolio is that you don’t have to bite your nails through a draft or hurry home to make your picks. And unlike fantasy football, you can invest any time and make decisions when you’re ready.

Here are a few ways that fantasy football can teach you about investing:

Diversify your roster

Your roster is sort of like your portfolio. A roster is the list of all your players. A portfolio holds all your investments.

Just like you wouldn’t want to put all your hopes on a superstar quarterback and fill the rest of your team with bench warmers, you wouldn’t want just one trendy, overly-touted stock in your portfolio. If that stock gets hit, your portfolio will feel the pain. Same thing for your roster if your quarterback tears his ACL.

This is where diversification comes in.

You want a variety of players from different teams with different skills that can pick up the slack if one of your best players is a bust. The same is true for your investment portfolio. 

In short: A diversified roster will make sure your team keeps moving in the case of a setback. A diversified portfolio will balance out your risk in case one sector or company fumbles.

Don’t have a home bias

Do you pledge allegiance to the NFC South? If so, you may be likely to fill your roster with Falcons, Panthers, and Buccaneers.

Pats, Giants, and Bills? No way.

Does this sound like you? Then you have, in investment terms, home bias. And that can limit the potential of your roster. Your bias toward Southern teams keeps you from harnessing the talent of players from other teams. Especially if your players are used to playing in the heat but choke when faced with frigid weather.

In the investment world, home bias means that you have a propensity to invest most or all of your money in equities (that’s stocks) from American companies. Home bias can keep you from realizing gains from international equities, which can balance out your portfolio.

If the U.S. stock market hits a stumbling block due to political strife or sudden sell-off, your international holdings may hold steady. After all, the Japanese market may not be reacting to the same things our markets do.

Don’t overreact to Fantasy Football chatter

The rumor mill is always swirling. ESPN says your breakout running back looked like he was limping after last night’s game. Bleacher Report says that a coach is thinking about keeping your best wide receiver on the bench. TMZ says your quarterback is now dating an Instagram star. Sports commentators and columnists are paid to make hay out of speculation to keep you on the edge of your couch. But that doesn’t mean you should trade your best players because of rumors.

The same is true for investing.

Tech sites and market analysts are quick to point out each company’s misstep. But listening to every bit of news and chatter can keep you from looking at the big picture or the overall health of the company. Just like your RB may have just had a pebble in his shoe, a crummy quarter may not indicate that you’ve made a bad investment.

Don’t be guided by emotion

Sometimes, a bad day at the office can coincide with a player’s bad night on the field. It happens. Your frustrations at work can spill over onto your roster. When your best quarterback throws two interceptions in a row, you may decide he’s more trouble than he’s worth.

So you trade him.

Then he proceeds to have the best season of his career. And you kick yourself because you let emotions guide your decisions.

Emotions can also lead you to make rash investment decisions. A sudden feeling of panic about your job can make you feel uneasy about your finances. So you sell your investments because you want to see more cash in your checking account. But then the market goes up and you’ve locked in your losses. You would have been better off holding on to your investments and not let your fleeting feelings of worry get in the way of your financial strategy.

Looking for investments to lead you to the Super Bowl?

Check out the ETFs and stocks available on Stash.

The post How Fantasy Football Can Teach You About Investing appeared first on Stash Learn.

If you’ve just relocated to a new city, it can be even harder. When you’re also trying to stick to a budget, it can seem next to impossible. Spending money night after night at local bars, trying to make friends can really start to strain your lonely wallet.

But with a little trial and error, I was able to form lasting relationships without spending an arm and a leg.

Here’s how I did it.

Join groups on MeetUp.com*

MeetUp.com is a website that allows people to start groups based around shared interests like hiking, mystery novels or dogs.  Each group creates its own schedule and attendance varies based on the type of activity and the number of people  in the group. Membership on MeetUp is free to all users.

I joined more than 20 groups in Denver, eager to see what kind of people I would meet. I tried a running group, a book club, a movie club and an art journaling meet-up. Each topic seemed to attract a different type of person, and I ended up meeting tons of interesting people.

But with a little trial and error, I was able to form lasting relationships without spending an arm and a leg.

My movie club was filled with older divorcees looking to meet new people, while my running group was mostly full of twenty-somethings, also new to Denver. A few months after the move, my social calendar was consistently booked solid.

Since you can pick and choose which events you want to attend, the costs are really up to you. For example, the running group I joined was free, and we’d meet at the nearby park to do the three-mile loop. Afterwards people would get beers at a local bar. The film club was the most expensive, since everyone would go out for a nice meal after the movie. I only went a few times, but it was worth it to see Oscar winning movies like “Spotlight” and a free early screening of “Sisters” with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

Volunteer for organizations

Volunteering is the perfect solution for people who want to explore their city, give their time and meet new people. You can volunteer for specific organizations or for events you’d like to attend in exchange for free entry. Some popular volunteer organizations include United Way, your local Humane Society or Meals on Wheels.

Many non-profits host auctions, concerts, and other fun events to get people to come out and support. It’s a great way to learn what’s happening in your new city and how people are trying to make change.

I worked for a nonprofit that provided resources and assistance for underserved cancer patients. We worked closely with other volunteers, and I became friends with them outside of the organization, since I saw them on a regular basis.

Time has value. Almost every non-profit has a need for volunteers and all most of them ask that you show up on a regular basis and commit to what you signed up for. The more often you come, the more likely you are to see the same people and develop friendships.

Find a Sports League

A few months after moving to Denver I joined a bowling league. I’m not good at bowling, but I was new in town and didn’t have many friends. What better way to build camaraderie than by competing together?

I got the idea of joining a sports league from my friend Melanie, who played in a kickball league every week. She told me seeing people on a regular basis helped her form deeper relationships. I liked that idea.  Bowling was pretty cheap too–It cost me $60 for six weeks, which included a shared lane once a week with my group. Any food and beer I decided to buy at the alley was extra, and I budgeted accordingly.

We met at this newly-built bowling alley that offered artisanal nachos and poutine (a Canadian cult-favorite french fries and cheese curds gravy).  I met my friend Abby, a flight attendant who would always share stories about rude passengers, and my friend Alex who loved to make fun of my bowling.

When it came to bowling, it was more about the fun than improving my skills. Sometimes I’d go multiple games in a row without hitting a single strike. But I wasn’t there because I was great at bowling. In fact, none of us were. We were all there because we wanted to make new friends.

Eventually our team became a genuine group of friends. We started watching “Game of Throne” together every Sunday at my friend Brittany’s apartment, and attending musicals at the performing arts center. To date, it’s been the best and cheapest way I’ve made new friends.

We don’t bowl anymore, but now we get together for trivia nights at a local bar–which fits our more un-athletic and geeky style.

Find free programs

Shortly after moving to Denver, I signed up for a couple local e-newsletters that advertised what was going on each week. There were notices for free zoo days, brewery tours, indie movies at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and more.

Once you know a few people in town, invite them to these outings – they’ll be a lot less expensive than the typical restaurant dinner or bar night.

I’m planning to move back to my old base of Indianapolis next year, but I’ll be leaving behind a great group of friends that I never thought I’d have. And when I relocate, I’ll know the best way to make new friends.

The post How to Make Friends in a New City (Without Going Broke) appeared first on Stash Learn.

Like what you’re hearing? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts).

If you’re a fantasy football veteran (or a newbie, like me), you’ve learned a lot about how to build a great team that can take you through the season.

Here’s what you may not have known: Many of the strategies you used to create your fantasy football roster are useful when it comes to building an investment portfolio.

I get into the end zone with my fantasy football teacher and guru, Ryan Finneran. (He’s also on Stash’s brokerage and operations team.)

We’ll be tackling (no pun intended!) a different topic every week but we really, really want to hear from you!

Got a question you’d like us to answer on the show? Drop us a line at teachmehowtomoney@stash.com. We’ll do our best to get to all of them.

The post Podcast: Learn About Fantasy Football and Investing with Ryan Finneran appeared first on Stash Learn.