The Stacking Benjamins Show

Where do you turn when being poor has you exhausted? When you feel like you just can't think about ways to make money any longer? On a bigger scale, what's the secret to breaking out of poverty and the cycle of always being in debt? While we won't promise to solve the world's longest-running crisis in one podcast, our contributors all share their experiences and thoughts about working to overcome poverty. They share how they endured their own individual situations, and how they (and you) can plan and work towards getting out of a dark hole yourself. There aren't any quick fixes, but we do offer solid financial strategies that'll move you past the paycheck to paycheck lifestyle.

How about some "free" Bitcoin? During our Friday Fintech segment we'll talk to Quontic Bank founder-CEO Steve Schnall. The digital bank, which offers a Bitcoin "cash-back" rewards card, also handles non-traditional mortgages to help under-served people who need it most. You'll especially want to listen to this one if you're in the hospitality business or any other industry with hard to document income.

We end the show with a question from Nick. He tells us he's got an offer for a 2% cash back card. Nick is excited about using the card, but worried about his credit utilization rate. He's heard that 30% credit utilization is as high as he can go before his credit is negatively affected. Nick also asks if his credit is hit right away, or only when his statement is sent out. Our contributors share a full round of their thoughts before calling it quits for the weekend.

Of course, Doug has some airtime for his trivia game-show.

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What separates you from everyone else? What gives you a competitive edge? According to William Green, who's interviewed hundreds of the richest investors on the planet, most of us don't have a competitive investing edge. But there's good news: that's okay, as long as you know who or what you're emulating. Today he'll pull on interviews from his new book, Richer, Wiser Happier, How the World's Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life, to share how we can overcome our disadvantages and turn them into strengths. He'll also share some of the often-overlooked personal sides of a few investing magnates that we don't often get to see. You'll hear human stories about Jack Bogle and Warren Buffett, among others.

Keeping (in)famous people in mind, we'll also cover Bernie Madoff - and scams - during our headlines. The mastermind behind the largest Ponzi scheme to date, Madoff often served as a stark reminder of the things that can happen when investors turn over their cash to unethical advisors. We'll also share the latest developments of the advisor who ran away with millions of his clients' dollars, and a few scam experiences of our own.

Plus, if you're still waiting to file your 2017 taxes (I'm being serious), you only have limited time before Uncle Sam claims your cash for himself. I understand procrastination as much as the next wait-until-the-night-before person, but this is something you'll want to do sooner rather than later.

During our Haven Life line segment, we help out James, who has dreams of becoming a financial planner. His bigger issue? He already has student loan debt from another degree. James asks: can he become an advisor with no relevant degree or experience? Joe and OG give James all the information he needs to get started on his path. 

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How do you take care of your money? Is it dollar by dollar? Or do you swipe plastic (like we used to), hoping that the math in your head has worked out? Today we'll help you take control with a discussion about creating a budget meeting, changing your money mindset, and gaining the confidence you need to drive your goals. It's a powerful show and we're excited for you to hear it.

Featured Guest: Catherine Alford

Catherine Alford shares tips to help you take control of your life by utilizing the skills you already use every day. Cat's new book, Mom's Got Money: a millennial mom's guide to managing money like a boss has strategies, tactics, and ideas anyone can use. From money meetings to making small changes in your decisions leading to big habit and money improvements, there's plenty of options right within reach.

Do You Really Own Your Virtual Investments?

We'll also dive into the world of NFTs. Let's assume you're fully funding your other retirement vehicles and you're interested in putting some fun money into a fun NFT spot like NBA Top Shot. (Which is a new blockchain virtual sports card marketplace... thing).

You actually made a nice profit and want to cash out... and here comes the headache. You realize it'll take months for your gains to become liquid, but you need cash yesterday. What now?

It doesn't matter if you're investing in a Traditional or Roth IRA, annuities, virtual card trading marketplaces, or anything else - always make sure you understand what you're throwing your hard-earned Benjamins in. We explain more during our headlines.

Vacationing Next Year? Buy Now!

In our own little version of market timing, all signs point to "recoup lost revenue" when it comes to the airlines industry. If you're sure you'll travel next year, it might be good sense to buy that ticket now. We discuss travel, airlines, and more during our second piece.

The Haven Life Line: Terrible 401k Options? Here's What To Do

Kyle calls in and tells us he has terrible 401k options. His workplace plan offers one index fund and a host of high expense ratio plans. While he invests some cash for the company match, most of his contributions go towards his IRA. Kyle asks: what should he do in this situation? How can he get his workplace to offer better plans?

As always, we'll save some airtime for Doug's trivia.

Enjoy!

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You've saved and invested diligently for years and you're now sitting on a fat stack of Benjamins. When's the right time to say f*** it and start spending cash like there's no tomorrow? Today our contributors share their big spender to saver money stories and give their thoughts on retiring WAY early... on less than a million dollars. It's not always about the bottom dollar, but also lost potential income (and raises) if you need to return to work years down the road, lost marketability as your skills age, and outdated professional networks as your co-workers move on to other opportunities.

Joining us on the roundtable this week is Diania Merriam, founder of the FIRE-Movement inspired EconoME Conference, Len Penzo from the LenPenzo.com blog, and OG from our own podcast.

Friday Fintech: Health and Wellness Expert Angelo Poli from MetPro.co

After our contributors finish swapping money stories, Joe sits down with health and wellness expert Angelo Poli from MetPro.co. With summer right around the corner, we polled our Stacker community for all the health and exercise questions they've been dying to get answered. From questions on aging metabolisms to intermittent fasting, and of course, time-efficient (and free) workouts even the busiest Stackers can do at home... Angelo covers it all and then some.

Listener Voicemail: HSA Horror Stories?

Our anonymous caller, who we refer to as Sal, calls in with some HSA questions. For years he was told he only needed the Explanation of Benefits form (think something like a medical statement) before finding out he actually needed his receipts as well. While this was an easy fix, Sal asks: what other blind spots could he have? What HSA horror stories should he know about - and avoid?

As always, Doug has some post-Fintech airtime to deliver his game-show trivia.

Enjoy!

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How do you make money driving for ride sharing companies? Credit card hacking? Churning bank accounts? How do you help your family plan? What's it like to meet with financial advisors? Today members of our community, Alan, Claudia, and Jon are kind enough to share their wisdom and experiences in all of these areas! Plus, we'll also share an important headline about doing your homework before investing, another on helping your community, and more.

Of course, we'll also throw out the Haven Life line to a caller with a great question about estate planning. That comes after Doug's trivia and a few of your emails.

Enjoy! 

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How much of this stuff goes over your head? What are the absolute first things you need to know about when you're rolling out on your own? Today high school personal finance teacher and author Jake Cousineau joins us to dive into the very first items you should include on your list of lessons to learn about money as you begin your journey. From the double-edged sword of interest to simple banking and ideas on budgeting and saving, we'll share some of Jake's favorite tips so that you can leave today's show more prepared than you were before you listened.

Annuities Changing Standards: Our Headlines

States are rolling out some new rules around annuity sales, which largely are meant to mimic the SEC's Reg BI (best interest). While industry spokespeople say it's a step in the right directions, consumer advocates say it isn't enough. Today we'll share how annuities work, where the problems are in the industry, and how these new state-by-state rules may change the game (or not).

We'll also share our TikTok creator video minute, and today we'll share a refreshing story. An online "guru" actually apologizes for leading his followers into a scam. While we love the sentiment, who would have known (hear the sarcasm coming?) that a StarWars universe-themed crypto coin called Mando might be fake.

We'll also share the latest worldwide real estate news. Inflated prices aren't just happening in your back yard. Around the world we're seeing some eye-popping numbers. What's the takeaway? We'll talk real estate today!

Of course, we'll also throw out the Haven Life line AND save time for Doug's trivia. It's another great day in the basement!

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Are you coasting or actually planning your next move? Living in the land of "I should" or "I might" versus "I'm where I want to be right now?" Whether it's balancing your happiness with your career choices, changing industries, family planning, or deciding how long you want to work until retirement - lifestyle choices encompasses all of our financial decisions. Today we ask our contributors: what's the design for your lifestyle? What drives your motivations, career choices, retirement plans, and financial decisions? It's a great discussion with plenty of overlap with financial independence, and one you can use for a diagnostic in your own life once you hear how it's done.

Welcome to a live-making of the Stacking Benjamins show! Recorded during Podbean's Finance Podcast Week, we had the opportunity to showcase a behind-the-scenes making of the podcast in front of a live audience, and it was lots of fun that you'll hear today. Our round table has a big discussion on lifestyle design this week using their cell phones. For this one, excuse our worse-than-usual audio. We promise the engaging conversation will be worth it.

Our Listener Mail: What (Non-Financial) Podcasts Do We Like?

We finish our live show with a letter from Lou: he's heard us talk plenty about our favorite TV shows and movies, but what about our favorite non-money related podcast? Our contributors deliver: from podcasts like Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald'‪s‬ and Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase‪!‬, to This Week in Virolog‪y‬ and more, you'll hear plenty of our favorite podcasts we love to binge when we're not thinking about money. (Except for one contributor who always is thinking about money - but we'll leave that one a surprise).

Of course, we couldn't possibly do a live show without giving up some airtime for Doug's trivia.

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Don't think you can overthink your money decisions? Study's show that sadly, you're wrong. Not only will overthinking cause you to create overly complex plans, but you'll give up early on strategies, fail to move when you need decisive action, and exhaust yourself with going over the options "just one more time." Overthinking rarely involves positive thoughts, and you can't win when you're not confident. Today we'll help you solve that issue. Long time listeners will remember the last time we had Jon Acuff on the show back in 2017, (find that here: Give Yourself The Gift of “Finished”).

In Jon's new book Soundtracks, he explores how our thought process and the stories we tell ourselves impacts our everyday lives, AND how you change your own soundtrack to solve your problems with overthinking.

Give Enough Cash and Even The Spenders Pay Up... Eventually

Remember the news the weeks after the first stimulus checks hit? Everyone waiting for the first piece of evidence to release their blog posts and podcast episodes about how everyone ran out and bought fancy 4k's and PS5s? (We totally didn't do that...not us!)

Well, a new study shows that given ample cash to clear out the Amazon wish list, many people HAVE ended up paying off their bills. During our headlines Joe and OG discuss paying down debt, the double penalty of being stuck in a debt cycle, and how you can walk away from the I Can't mindset.

How The Pandemic Changed Our Retirement Worries

The pandemic challenged a lot of the conventional thinking behind emergency funds, healthcare, and and retirement living. A newly released Fidelity report queried investor retirement worries, and while there were some surprises, other figures proved that not all financial thinking needs to be redrawn from the ground up.

Doc G from the Earn & Invest podcast joins us today to discuss what the report means for the broader retirement conversation AND what the numbers mean to you.

The Haven Life Line: What's the deal with Fundrise?

Sean is interested in investing with Fundrise, and wants to know our thoughts. While the company has seemed to change up their marketing since they first came on our radar we still have some reservations, and OG and I actually differ on a few thoughts here.

Never familiar with REITs? We'll explain your options on the show, but you can get started here: Traded vs. Non-Traded REITs: Which Is Best for You?

Enjoy!

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This seems like an easy decision, doesn't it? Skimp on the party and invest money in your dream residence. Yet, don't we always say to invest in experiences because they appreciate in your mind (becoming more epic as the years pass), instead of things that clutter our lives? Co-hosts of the new Netflix reality show Marriage or Mortgage, wedding planner Sarah Miller and real estate pro Nichole Holmes, join us for a fun discussion on a dilemma many newlyweds face: how much cash do you spend on making your dream wedding a reality, and at what cost to your future home?

We know, this is a financial podcast, and financial nerds are definitely biased on this one, but Sarah raises some pretty good points, and you just might surprise yourself when you're nodding along. We're not saying you should go for broke on a huge wedding (though if you do, please invite us), but Sarah's reasoning isn't exactly in contrast with our own money philosophy.

Making "Fun Money" on trading apps? Watch out for the tax bill.

In our headlines segment, we'll relive the horror story one Robinhood trader experienced when he found he had an $800,000 tax bill. Worse news? He could have avoided it fairly easily if he knew one rule that we'll share on today's show.

Tiktok of the Week: Amazon beats Walmart because of... adult toys?

In our TikTok minute you'll find that it isn't just young, aggressive traders (or at least TikTok talkers) who are making bizarre statements about financial success. So are television anchors.

Want early retirement? Try buying a school bus!

How great is this? One man in his twenties decided to cut out 40 years of saving and instead retire right now. We'll share his story and what it means for you.

BUT that's not all. Of course, we'll throw out the Haven Life line to a lucky listener AND we'll dovetail in some of Doug's amazing trivia.

Enjoy!

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Brush off the passport, pack the bags, and plop down in your favorite lazy spot because we're going global on today's show! In this special Living Abroad episode, we invite world travelers living in various countries to share how they did it, what they should've learned earlier, and what life experiences they've gained since settling into their new lives.

Joining our round table is a French native and former Guatemala-living Pauline Paquin from the Reach Financial Independence blog, Jim White from the Route to Retire blog (who moved to Panama with his wife and daughter at 43), and Travis Luther, author of Fun Side of the Wall, a book explaining why baby boomers are flocking to Mexico for retirement.

Friday Fintech: Jassby - An App for Families

After our trio wraps up all things travel Joe sits down with Benny Nachman, founder of the family money-sharing app Jassby. The app provides an easy-to-use system that lets parents assign responsibilities to children, pay allowances, and even setup a virtual debit card.

Listener Voicemail: Gifting Stocks?

During our MagnifyMoney segment, we take on a question about gifting stocks to students from high school teacher Jake. Additionally, he asks, is there a good way to buy fractional shares as a gift? A few of the stocks his students are interested in are a few hundred dollars a piece... not exactly feasible to buy for a whole class.

As always, Doug has some post-Fintech airtime to deliver his game-show trivia.

Enjoy!

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