Tips for Swifties to keep costs down while enjoying all Taylor has to offer

Are you struggling with the cost for tickets to see The Eras Tour? Still trying to decide if you need every variant of "1989 (Taylor's Version)" on vinyl or CD? 

The costs of being a Taylor Swift fan are high, but there are ways to manage your spending to keep from blowing your budget.  

On the latest episode of PennyWise, host Nat Cardona is joibed by Elizabeth Ayoola of NerdWallet to guide Swifties through getting the full Taylor experience without blowing swiftly though your bank account.

Read more on NerdWallet here!

About this program

Nat Cardona is host of PennyWise as well as Lee Enterprise's true-crime podcast Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Episode transcript

Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:

Welcome to Pennywise Lee Enterprises podcast. I'm your host, Nat Cardona

Today's finance-ocused topic is Taylor Swift. Ah, yes, you heard that right. As of this recording, her mega-popular Eras tour is on the road and fans have shelled out unfathomable amounts of money to sit in seats worse than in the nosebleeds to dress like her while they attend and to collect every item under the sun that has Taylor's name stamped or attached to it.

Let's think beyond the life of her tour is chasing her ongoing music merchandizing a financial-friendly decision or more of a burden on your financial well-being. Thankfully, Nerdwallet personal finance writer Elizabeth Ayoola is here to help guide Swifties in the right direction. 

I am not a Taylor Swift fan. I don't get what is going on with this. I mean, I can understand fandom and stuff like that, so you're going to really have to help guide through the logic behind some of these purchases that people decide to make. Yeah. So today we're talking about Taylor Swift and the good old business woman that she is and her entertainment. Oh, my God. Mega stardom, whatever you want to call it that she has. Though the Eras tour is going on right now, very cutthroat market out there for those tickets and all of that jazz.

Whether you buy them directly from Ticketmaster, you're getting them at resale value. People are going insane and spending tons of money. Really, the first thing that came to my mind is when people are making these big purchases for a ticket for themselves for a Taylor Swift concert. What would be your suggestion in way of funding it? Like, should you really should you shop that much money from your checking account, or is this an appropriate time for a credit card purchase? 

Well, you got it. So I would say the latter. Credit cards can be very helpful when it comes to credit card rewards. Right. So people can take advantage of credit card rewards, which usually basically give you money for spending money. And yes, it's free money. So if you get the right card, specifically a cashback card and you use that card to buy your ticket, then at least, you know, you get some money back after spending all that money on the ticket. You know, assuming that it's expensive and even if it's inexpensive, you still get some money back. So you can be a Swifty and also get paid for being one. 

Mm hmm. Is there any element of restraint that you would suggest one would have? I mean, these people are really big fans and it is that big ticket purchase. I mean, I know you keep you're not in everyone's minds telling them what to do. But is is it okay to splurge sometimes like that? 

Well, it's such a sentimental thing. I wouldn't say there's a right or wrong to splurge like that, but I think the primary thing is planning, budgeting, saving. Right. So one thing that people could do, especially the diehard fans, is create a Taylor Swift budget. Right. So you could open yourself maybe a high yield savings account and dedicate that literally towards all of your merch, concert tickets and everything else and just pop money in there every month. It may be five or $10. It could be more depending on how crazy you go. But I think another key thing to remember is not to impulse spend, if possible. So before you're making that purchase, whether it's on buying your third concert ticket or buying some more merit. Ask yourself, is this thing really going to bring me joy or is this just like a knee jerk reaction to her dropping a new album or her dropping some new merch? And is it going to put me in a bad financial spot? Sure. I'm glad you mentioned that the budgeting and saving, because I realize that there's this new slew of concert dates that she put out and they're quite far out. So you could potentially have a year plus to be budgeting for this. And like you said, five bucks here, ten bucks here, and then, you know, that's a win win for everyone, I guess.

Heading into the whole merchandizing thing. The segue would ideally be when you're at the concert and you see that T-shirt or sweatshirt or whatever have you. Again, is this a justifiable moment when your T-shirt that's 100% cotton is 50 bucks at least, or is this one of those things that you should kind of just like stay away from?

Well, again, I'm just going to bring up the budget again because I can sometimes be a shopper myself. So I know the struggle, but something I personally do is create a budget for things. So again, if you say an A cash, actually bring in cash for the concert might be another way to tackle that. So if you say I'm only going to bring 50 bucks to the concert, this is all I have. My cards are at home and please don't use Apple Pay on your phone. Okay. I'm not saying don't, but you might be tempted to do that. Right. But if you only have that cash, then you have no choice but to spend what is on you. So, again, you know, having some self-control and saying, this is my budget, this is my limit, and I'm not going to exceed that.

I love that idea. I have to use that idea. But I need to be more careful with my cash because the joke is when I go to like live sporting events or concerts, I have a couple of beers and I drop my cash out. Oh, no, no, that would suck. That looks like that. Yeah. So do better than me.

But that is a good way. Taylor Swift, like I said at the beginning, is a really, really good businesswoman knows how to make her money and put out her products and this and that. So concert and current to her side, she's doing all those rereleases of her albums and re-recordings and this and that. But it seems that it's not just on one download or one CD or one rocker that you can buy. It's multiple options, maybe with different cover or that kind of thing, different kind of collectible details, I guess, whatever have you. What what's your advice there when something like this or of the different collectible CDs, they all of the same music are $15 a pop? I could see someone spiraling and being like, I need all four. You know, even though they're all the same thing, like, what is your advice here?

So that is a tough one, especially if you're an impulse buyer again. But I think it's just reminding yourself that, you know, do I really need every version and every color? Is this really going to bring me more joy again? And also, just remembering that there are always going to be more albums, there's always going to be more merch, and you literally don't necessarily have to buy every single one.

But if you're itching and you must. Another tip is just, as I mentioned, credit card rewards before. Maybe you can let those kind of the cash points that you build up or the cash you build up, rather, you can let it build up and sit in your account and you can say, Hey, I'm going to use my cash rewards to buy a couple. But again, set a limit for yourself, whether it's two three so that you're not just spiraling out of control and buying literally everything that drops. Be general message that I'm getting here is stay away from that impulse knee jerk kind of purchasing. In so many respects in life, but mostly if you're 60, probably. Yes. Yes. And if it helps.

I personally blocked Zara on my phone because I was all week long. Zara. So if you need to block the website with the vs. dropping so that you can. You know, our phones make it so easy to make purchases, right? So you know, you're just going to go on there if you need to block that whatever you need to do to kind of restrain yourself, just do it.

Love it. Love it. Unfollow that account. It's hard to follow Taylor Swift, if you love gets to use. If you have anything else you want to touch on with this, lay it on me. If you've got any other thoughts on this whole topic, nothing much more except if people want. Like you said, the main theme here is budgeting, save, saving and trying to avoid impulse spending.

So we have more tips on Nerdwallet for how to budget, save and make the right financial decision when it comes to music and toys as well. And the one thing I will say about Nerdwallet is much of the information you all put out there, it still allows you to have fun. That good old balance. That was important because otherwise if you restrict yourself too much, then you go crazy.

It's just like with the dieting and stuff and then you overspend, right? And money is the tool is supposed to bring you joy. It's supposed to make life easier. So you should get happiness from things you spend your money on too. Bing, bing, bing. There we go as well. 

Thank you so much, Elizabeth. 

You're welcome.

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PennyWise is a show about money, personal finance, investing and travel. Hosted by Nat Cardona, the program features a variety of financial experts who can help save you money.