The Stacking Benjamins Show

Today we tackle last week's horrible--and then later not so horrible--market. We'll discuss making smart moves, avoiding panic, rational decisions, diversification, avoiding biases (like the market will always go down or the market is going to turn around soon) and more.

H. Luke Landes from the Plutus Foundation and Plutus Awards joins Paula Pant and Len Penzo on Joe's dad's shortwave chat. OG discusses avoiding looking at your 401k. Doug has trivia....and much more!

Thanks to MagnifyMoney & SoFi for sponsoring our podcast.

Live from the floor of Podcast Movement 2015: two roundtables with some of the top podcasters in the personal finance space: J. David Stein, James Kinson, Miranda Marquit, Steve Stewart, Roger Whitney and Phillip Taylor join us around the microphone to talk podcasting and personal finance trends. It was good to get out of the basement!

Also, as an additional bonus, our super fan Cece flew from Boston to Fort Worth to hang out with us at the conference. How did she like it? What's she learning? We talked to Cece about her financial situation and more.

Thanks to MagnifyMoney and SoFi for sponsoring the podcast.

Not sure how to use your retirement plan well? Jason Hull explains some of the best (and worst) ways people use their 401k AND unveils for SB listeners his new financial planning tool. 

Joe & OG not only tackle headlines about another politician who might not be handling money well....they answer a listener letter about hiring a financial advisor. What are the keys to know?

There's lots more, including PK from DQYDJ.net, back with an explanation of "accredited investor." What the heck does that mean? You'll find out.

Thanks to SoFi and MagnifyMoney for sponsoring our podcast!

Pete Dunn, AKA Pete the Planner, joins Greg and Len today to talk about high rent payments, rigged company reports and gourmet dog food. How do you make ends meet when 30 percent of your money has to go to your landlord? How do you pick stocks when company CFOs admit they're "massaging" the numbers? How do you control your budget when your dog eats better food than you?

That's not all, though. We answer your letters about bad 401k plans and purchasing exchange traded funds AND review the new hit film Mission Impossible.

Thanks to MagnifyMoney and SoFi for sponsoring our show!

How do you help investors figure out how to pay lower fees for investing AND change the way they invest? Brad Lawler from the DRAFT app joins us on today's podcast to talk about their new creation. You know how much we love new technology and the team at DRAFT have come up with a way to integrate social sharing and fee analysis into a single tool so that you can see how you're doing vs. other similar investors and how your costs stack up.

This week we also begin our latest Friday puzzle! If you love a good challenge, hang around until the end of the episode to see how it works! Maybe you'll take home the Amazon gift card AND a prize package we'll put together specifically for you.

Thanks to MagnifyMoney.com and SoFi for sponsoring our podcast!

Thias from ItPaysDividends.com is back for another round (he MUST be a big fan of basements). We discuss commodities. They're at WAY low prices. Does that mean it's time to buy? Thias, Greg and Paula will weigh in on that. They'll also talk about car dealers and some of the top tricks they'll get to take more money from your wallet.

Joe & OG answer a listener letter about bonds. Should you sit in cash and wait for what looks like the inevitable bond price drop? We also have headlines, review the Netflix film Haute Cuisine and more!

Thanks to SoFi and MagnifyMoney for sponsoring our podcast.

Steve Roberts, author of the new book Football and Financial Planning, joins us to celebrate the start of a new pigskin season. We'll compare all the positions on the field to different financial products as we discuss the good, bad and ugly.

Our headlines include one about trying your hardest to run out of money. How do you plan so that you're breathing your last breath as you're spending the very last cent?

Finally, we take some great letters about cash reserves and bonds AND review the HBO series Veep.

All notes and links for everything mentioned in this episode are at StackingBenjamins.com.

Special thanks to MagnifyMoney and SoFi for sponsoring our podcast.

Mike Melissinos was the brand new kid on Wall Street when the bottom fell out. Not only was he on the scene...he was at Bear Sterns, one of the first big "dominos" in the ugly Wall Street fall. How did he get the job on Wall Street? What was it like working the daily trading desk grind, and what was it like being on the scene when he found out Bear Stearns was going under? We'll find out today.

We'll also tackle Mike's trading today, heading us the Melissinos fund. How does it work? What is "trend following"? How does he manage risk? 

--As a bonus, at the end of today's show, we'll do something rare....talk about how the podcast sausage gets made. Joe just returned from the Podcast Movement conference, and that's a good opportunity to talk about the state of the show and where Stacking Benjamins is headed in the future.

Thanks to Magnify Money and SoFi for sponsoring the podcast!

By popular demand, the Top 5 is back! Today we tackle the Top 5 Dumbest Rules of Thumb. While rules of thumb are a great place to start, some are better than others. To advisors and former financial advisors (like us) SOME rules of thumb are like finger nails on a chalkboard. What are the worst offenders? We'll list them today.

In the headlines, another company decides to throw their roboadvisor offering in the ring. Who is it? What can we expect?

We answer a listener question about higher interest savings AND OG talks about his favorite new business-based television shows.

Thanks to MagnifyMoney and SoFi for sponsoring our show!

"The Donald" just revealed his stock picks. In our headlines, a reporter dug into the numbers to see if Donald Trump's claims of "excellence" are maybe a hair over-exaggerated. We'll find out.

Thias Shefchik from the new finance blog ItPaysDividends.com joins Greg McFarlane and Paula Pant on today's roundtable. They tackle a listener question about 1031 exchanges, an article on baseline knowledge you need to know for retirement, and more!

Joe & OG answer two great listener questions.

We review the film Ant Man. Is it another Marvel winner or just another stupid superhero? We'll give you our .02.

As if that weren't enough, we throw in Doug's trivia and much much more.

Thanks to MagnifyMoney and SoFi for sponsoring the podcast.