The Daily Valet. - 8/18/22, Thursday

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Thursday, August 18th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

I confess, I suffered many overdraft fees during my wild days of youthful spending.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

Overdraft Fees Are Big Business

But they may not be for much longer as banks reduce or drop the fees entirely

Bank of America announced on Wednesday that the revenue it gets from overdrafts has dropped 90% from a year ago—after the bank reduced overdraft fees to $10 from $35 and eliminated fees for bounced checks.

The nation’s largest banks are finally moving away from the practice of charging exorbitant fees on what are mostly small-dollar purchases after years of public pressure. Overdraft fees provided billions of dollars in additional revenue for some of the biggest banks in 2021, while boosting the profits of smaller ones.

U.S. consumers who frequently overdraft their accounts drive more than half of the profitability of mass-market checking accounts, Bloomberg reports. So-called “free” checking accounts actually cost Americans more than $8 billion a year.

Earlier this year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau put out a request for comments about junk fees—part of its push against overdraft and other charges. For some, the fee is nothing more than a pesky inconvenience, but for others it can cause serious financial headaches. CFPB research found that consumers who pay more than 10 overdraft fees per year end up paying nearly 75% of all overdraft fees. On average, these consumers pay $380 in overdraft fees during the course of a year—and they’re usually the ones who can least afford it.

Starting in the middle of 2021, regional banks such as PNC and Capital One, as well as the online bank Ally, announced plans to eliminate overdraft fees (or find ways to reduce them). Most of the banks said the fees largely impacted the poor and racial minorities, or that the pandemic had shown the banks they could earn significant profits without charging fees.

Recent moves from Washington to Wall Street give reason to think overdraft fees are finally about to disappear entirely. The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services recently voted to send a bill to the full House that outlines how abusive the fees are and would prevent or limit banks from charging too much in the future. Of course, Bloomberg warns that some banks are already devising replacements for overdraft-related service charges—pushing customers into new kinds of accounts that often come with other fees.

↦ FYI: Life is expensive enough without unnecessary fees. LifeHacker has compiled all the stupid fees you should aim to never pay.

Are You Ready to “Quiet Quit”?

Workers are doing the bare minimum in pursuit of a better work-life balance

Sometimes, there are three versions of your job. There's your official job description, the job you actually do and the one that your company expects of you. Most of us are willing to go above and beyond at times—to impress the boss or maybe just not get fired. But what if that becomes the norm?

Then you might have to look into “quiet quitting.” According to recent reports and a flood of TikTok posts, some young professionals are saying no to hustle culture. And this rebellion against the rise-and-grind ethos is called “quiet quitting.” It's not about really getting off the company payroll—the idea is to stay on it—but doing the bare minimum to focus your time on the things you do outside of the office.

And the sentiment is starkly visible in Gallup's latest polling on worker engagement. Just 31% of workers born after 1989—Gen Z and younger millennials—say they're engaged at work. It's clear that people are exhausted and burnt out. And easing up is far easier when you're working remotely, when there's no pressure to show your face at the office from 9 to 5 (or longer), reports the Wall Street Journal.

Some workers aptly point out that there's little reward for excelling at your job. But, then, others see it as an opportunity. The Journal found several workers are using the extra time to get multiple jobs, realizing that remote work means they can be mediocre at two jobs instead of good at one.

↦ FYI: According to APA’s 2021 Work and Well-being Survey, 32% reported emotional exhaustion and an astounding 44% reported physical fatigue—a 38% increase since 2019.

Partner

Get your vitamins from real food not supplements. You've probably heard that before, but now there's a new and easy way to do that.

What’s Happening in Ukraine?

A missile strike on a residential building kills civilians as Russia’s offensive stalls

A Russian strike on Kharkiv killed at least seven people and wounded 16 others, Ukraine's state emergencies services said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called it a “vile and cynical attack on civilians,” adding “We will not forgive, we will take revenge.”

In Russian-occupied Crimea, a spate of explosions and fires has turned the area from a secure rear Russian base into a new battleground in the war—demonstrating both Moscow's vulnerability and the Ukrainians' capacity to strike deep behind enemy lines.

According to the New York Times, Russia has not made any major territorial advances since early July when it captured the city of Lysychansk, securing the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian forces have been using long-range Western weapons to try to degrade Russian combat capability, attacking deep beyond the front lines to hit command and control centers, ammunition depots and vital supply routes.

As the war nears the six-month mark, the two sides are engaged in a grinding war of attrition, fighting village to village, largely in the country's east.

↦ Meanwhile: Chinese troops will travel to Russia to take part in joint military exercises “unrelated to the current international and regional situation.”

Everyone’s Sipping Tequila

What was once just cheap shots has become the go-to drink that everyone’s ordering

This year, Americans for the first time will spend more money on tequila than they will on whiskeys. By 2023, the spirit also will have supplanted vodka, making it the U.S.'s most-purchased booze by value.

And it just keeps growing. The global tequila market size is expected to soar to $14.35 billion by 2028. And apparently, the market is being driven by “premiumization”, with a booming surge in premium and luxury bottles outpacing that of lower-priced variants.

GQ says we should blame George Clooney. After launching Casamigos in 2013, Clooney and his partners eventually sold their company to beverage giant Diageo for $700 million. “Now every f#cking celebrity has a fucking tequila brand,” Andrea Hernández, consumer-product expert and consultant, told the magazine. “The meteoric boom of tequila actually led to a shortage of the agave plant that's used,” he added.

Tequila's popularity has also inspired a rise in other agave-based spirits coming from outside of Mexico. Distillers are increasingly producing agave in markets such as South Africa and the United States. While legally not able to be called tequila, these agave-based spirits hold similar attributes and distillation techniques as tequila, while also offering a locality and craft appeal to curious drinkers. Of course, the other part of tequila's appeal is a confluence of the wellness craze (low calorie, not-bad hangovers), and its downright tasty flavor profile, right?

↦ FYI: I once got the chance to visit the agave highlands of Jalisco to see how tequila was made. Here are the ten things I learned.

In Other News

↦ What the New $80 Billion for the IRS Really Means for Your Taxes

↦ It’s a Bad Time to Buy an iPhone

↦ Jonah Hill Will Not Promote His New Movies Because of Mental Health

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Kid Cudi

Flip phones

Gender reveal madness

Partner

Don’t Take Vitamins. Eat Them.

GEM Daily Essentials gives you all your key daily nutrition in one satisfying bite

If you take your health seriously, then you know nutrition is paramount to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. But it's not always easy to ensure that you're getting all the vital nutrients every day, which is why so many of us take supplements. But you've probably heard that dietitians recommend getting vitamins and minerals from real food instead of pills. Our bodies get more from real food.

That was the idea behind GEM Daily Essentials. These tasty chews give you all your key daily nutrition in one delicious bite. Featuring only real whole food and clean, plant-based ingredients, GEM delivers more than 15 key vitamins, minerals and herbs that fill the gaps in your diet and provide extra support for better energy, mood and focus. As an added bonus, they also help clear your skin.

Unlike most multivitamins, GEM contains no fillers or synthetics—only real food ingredients that your body knows and can better absorb. There's no unnecessary megadosing either. Just real nutrients your body needs to feel its best, all in one simple and satisfying bite. Choose from Lemon Raspberry, Citrus Ginger or Cacao—all of which come conveniently delivered each month in eco-friendly compostable pouches. What's more, they also offer Calm Essentials and Sleep Essentials that bring the same nutritional science to help you fight stress and insomnia naturally. Try some this week and get half off your first order.

↦ Try It: Get 50% off your first month's subscription with code VALET

What We’re Eyeing

A desert boot is a desert boot, right? Wrong. Astorflex already made some of the best suede desert boots for your money, but they've just introduced a slight tweak to modernize it just so. Like the classic chukkas, they're made in Italy the old fashioned way with full-grain roughout calf leather (and a soft, smooth interior). And they've got a memory foam insole lined in soft calfskin for ultimate, all-day comfort. But the silhouette has been streamlined and the natural crepe rubber soles have been cut in a smooth, wedge profile. The changes are small, but they give an old school shoe a whole new vibe.

↦ Get It: $165 by Astorflex