The Stacking Benjamins Show

We’re super happy to present to you this year’s Plutus Award finalists. There are 30 categories this year and you’ll hear ALL of the commentary about these awards plus the complete rundown.

Joining us for the award presentation are Harlan Landes, creator of the Plutus Awards, and Miranda Marquit from Planting Money Seeds AND Plutus Awards director. For the commentary roundtable, we welcome the author of Mindful Millionaire, Leisa Peterson, the woman behind the Fioneers blog, Jess, and Mr. Do You Even Blog, Pete McPherson.

Enjoy!

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How can you become better with money? The good news: it's simple! The bad news? Just like anything else it will require a bit of work. Lucky for you, we're covering some of our favorite exercises (call them whatever you want if the word "exercise" isn't doing it for you) to make you better with your money. On that note, we want to give a big thanks to Eric and Kali Roberge for today's piece! Eric wrote it on the Beyond Your Hammock blog, and Kali has so nicely agreed to be our celebrity reader. To tackle the topic, this week's roundtable guests include Natalie Torres-Haddad, author of Financially Savvy in 20 minutes, Len Penzo from the LenPenzo.com blog, and OG from our very own podcast.

Taking vacation could be hard enough BEFORE most of us started to work from home. Either from company culture, a disorganized office, or simply grinding to pull ahead of the pack - there are a ton of reasons people don't feel comfortable asking for time off. Now you can add working from home and becoming virtually connected to the office all day to your list of problems. What's an employee to do? Helping us navigate the new waters is our (not so physically) near and dear friend, Suzanne Lucas from the Evil HR Lady blog.

We'll finish the show with our MagnifyMoney segment. Kelvin calls in with what he admits is a great problem to have: him and his wife are set and well on the way to early retirement if they choose to do so. Now the problem... how in the world do they get out of the hustle and save mindset? Once someone "makes" it, how do they start enjoying their money?

Of course, halfway through the show we'll carve out some time for Doug's game show trivia. 

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Looking to save more cash, but don't know where to look? Today we welcome Dan Ariely, Chief Behavioral Economist with Qapital, and professor and expert on psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University. According to Dan, the best strategy may not necessarily be about adding more cash to your bottom line but reprioritizing the money you already have. Instead of trying to out-earn your spending habits, realign your focus to make the cash you earn go further for you each week.

Plus, every week it seems like another online bank cuts their rate and super-savers are upset at the loss of "free cash." During our headlines, we'll discuss why recent rate drops shouldn't be the end of the world AND we'll also cover the reasons behind a recent surge in new accounts with robo-advisors.

When it comes to saving your cash, should you stack more Benjamins in your wedding fund or your IRA? Our anonymous caller lets us know that he's putting away $1000 a month for his wedding, but only $500 into his Roth. He won't have any extra cash available when he becomes eligible to contribute to his 401k. Our caller asks: should he pull back on his wedding savings?

Of course, we'll save some time for Doug's trivia. Enjoy!

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We talk often on the show about growth-oriented investments, but what if you wanted higher income-paying tools for your portfolio? Will Rhind, CEO of GraniteShares, is a guy who knows income, his HIPS ETF is specifically engineered to create high income streams. Today we'll talk with Will about many of the different types of investments that go into his ETF. We'll dive into how they work, what could make income streams expand and contract, and also what could make an income-producing portfolio volatile. Also, because his background is also in commodities, we'll ask him about gold in a portfolio and his view of current markets.

Plus, have you been giving out your social security number in exchange for free cruise trips? Admittedly that may not seem like such an attractive offer in the current environment, but non-cruise related financial scams are on the rise. From pyramid schemes to nefarious bank activity, you'll find yourself double-checking you finances after listening to today's headlines.

During our Haven Life Line we'll answer a question from Derek, who is wondering if he should switch to his company's workplace health plan. He says the workplace health insurance seems worse than what he already has. Is there any reason to switch?

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Here's a shock (or not....): LOTS of people are feeling stress right now - so if you're feeling overwhelmed, you aren't alone. Admittedly there aren't answers for everything, but that doesn't mean it's time to throw priorities, goals, and self-care out the window. In the words of Lin Manuel's Arron Burr: "I am the one thing in life I can control." (Thanks J.D. Roth, for reminding me there's a Hamilton line for everything!) During today's show, we'll ask our roundtable: when life becomes stressful, what's your emergency plan to take back the reins? How do you get life back on track? A big thanks to our contributors today: CFP Katie Brewer from Your Richest Life, Len Penzo from the LenPenzo.com blog, and Paula Pant from the Afford Anything podcast. Another special thanks to today's celebrity reader: Jason Vitug. You can find more from Jason at his site JasonVitug.com

Halfway through the show we'll give our roundtable a break while Joe rings up Kelly Lannan, VP of Young Investors at Fidelity. The financial company has released a new investing app, Fidelity Inspire, and is designed to help young adults plan, save, and invest for their financial goals. We'll dive into all the different offerings and features the app brings during our interview with Kelly.

After our fintech segment we'll keep Doug's Friday gameshow going strong. Tune in to see who wins it this week!

We'll finish off today's show with an all-too real question posed to Peter Dunn: when your adult kid is laid off and needs help paying the bills, what do you do? We'll ask our roundtable for their take before rolling the end credits. 

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What if you could talk about inflation in a way that actually hit home? Today we'll do just that by diving into the cost of a brown bag lunch sandwich. What does a sandwich cost? How has the price changed over time? Len Penzo has been comparing the prices of brown bag sandwiches for twelve years, and for seven of those we've been tracking it on the show with him. Today's show is one long-time fans will know and love, and one that we hope our new listeners won't miss... it's our annual fan-favorite: the Len Penzo Sandwich Survey. How much has the cost of making classic sandwiches increased year over year? What sandwich gets you the most bite for your buck? We'll compare baloney, PB&J, turkey and swiss, the BLT, and more.

Plus, is your neighborhood restaurant going to stay a little quieter for good? During our headlines segment of the show, we'll dive into a piece detailing how more than half of businesses that closed on Yelp during the pandemic are shutting their doors permanently. In our second piece, Jim from the Route to Retire blog has found his Panama retirement dream ending sooner than expected after the pandemic hit. What should you do if you find your retirement going off track during YEAR ONE?

Later in the show, instead of answering a listener voicemail during the Haven Life Line, we'll use a blog piece covering what financial information you should have learned so far in 2020. This year has been full of lessons, and you'll want to make sure you haven't missed any.

As always, we'll make sure and save some time for Doug's trivia. Enjoy!

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Sure, financial planners work with people, but many only work with you ONCE you have your act together and you're ready to begin working on big-money problems. What do you do if you're just learning how to set up a budget, get out of credit card debt, or save systematically? Today we'll tackle all of that with Rebecca Wiggins, the executive director of the Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Education, on how financial coaches (not financial advisors...that's something else!) help people like you set up a better financial life.

Plus, we don't know if you've looked lately at gold prices...but if not, BAM! It's through the roof. Should you buy some? In our headlines segment, we'll share a piece that Joe and OG just might agree with on the topic.... Also, LSU football star Joe Burrows has become a rich man after signing an NFL deal. However, this star says that he only plans to live off endorsements... and his dad says Joe can finally get out of his parent's basement. (Looks like Joe should have thought twice before signing a cash-packed contract). Is living in a basement bad? Should Burrows think twice before saving all that money? We'll have some answers and takeaways today.

After we break for Doug's trivia today, we'll finish up the show with the Haven Life Line. When the wealthy in-laws want to help finance your new house, do you take their money? How can you accept large sums of money without big tax implications? Should you accept a 6-figure gift from parents? We'll cover it all for Jim, who wrote in with his VERY first-world dilemma. 

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Ah, the simple life. With all of the chaos in the world, how do we get back to basics? Today our roundtable crew are going to help you reboot, rejuvenate, and revive your live with ideas from a recent blog post about 30 tips for simple living. We'll talk about everything from diet and exercise to reading more often. That'll help you focus better, feel stronger longer, and most importantly (for our show, anyway), Stack More Benjamins.

Plus, during our Friday FinTech segment, we'll speak to Jesse Meacham, creator of You Need a Budget, or YNAB, as fans of the software call it. While you may be familiar with YNAB, have you heard the origin story of this groundbreaking system? Jesse will walk Joe through the early years and how YNAB works to help more people keep better track of their money.

Of course, we'll still save time for Doug's amazing trivia.

Would you like a sheet to begin working on our favorite tips? Joe's mom has made an accountability sheet! Just head to stackingbenjamins.com/simpleliving. That way you can get started on actually implementing what you heard!

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How do you make the topic of money actually fun? That's the question the Singleton Foundation asked, and CEO Shelly Miles and Executive Producer Lisa Freberg join us today to explain how they pulled it off. They not only found talented creators to bring together a video channel that resembles Netflix for money nerds, but they also thought deeply about exactly how to turn each story into a longer discussion. Today we'll talk about how they've made money discussions compelling, fun, and best of all, habit-changing.

Big news happened recently in mutual fund land. Vanguard is throwing in the towel on one of its products. Plus, as they attempt to tread water, colleges have turned to mass layoffs. What does that mean for the college experience? We'll share our thoughts.

And in today's Haven Life Line call, Seth has some business debt to pay off. He'd expected to make enough money on the side to pay it off but that hasn't happened. So instead, he plans to use his W2 income to wipe it out. Should he approach it like regular debt and pay off the highest interest loans first?

...and of course, we'll save time for some of Doug's "working like a dog" trivia. Enjoy!

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Are we focused too much on being liked? From the workplace to our personal lives, most of us don't want to be the person who rocks the boat. Go with the flow, right? Antarctic expedition leader Rachael Robertson says that approach to leadership (or even following) couldn't be more wrong. An honest - yes that means having tough conversations! - workplace is more constructive than an office focused on making sure everyone is getting along every day.

Plus, remember the 401k article going around suggesting a 401k plan doesn't make much sense anymore for savers? Yeah... hope you didn't immediately pull out your entire retirement fund after reading that because we're covering that topic today and may have a different opinion.

During the Haven Life Line, how can Shawn figure out the right allocation for his portfolio? Should he go 90% stock, even 100%? When it's time to retire, how does Shawn pull out his cash? He's in his early 50s and think he has enough Benjamins to retire soon.

As always, we'll also make sure and save some time for Doug's trivia.

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