The Stacking Benjamins Show

Maybe you've heard the Jim Rohn phrase, "You are the average of the five people around you." Is that true for you? Probably. If you're looking to improve either your net worth, your career, or just your friendships, giving careful thought to your "tribe" will pay dividends. Today we'll work from a recent Tony Robbins piece on this topic with three people who work hard to surround themselves with good, uplifting people. Aaron Velky, the head of the Stacking Benjamins Money Club (but probably more important, the head of financial education company Ortus Academy), will give us some great advice. Also, we'll hear great ideas from Paula Pant from Afford Anything and OG as well. It's a great episode that you'll want to listen to before setting your 2021 goals.Plus, our Stacking Benjamins Scholarship Mastery course is about to go into session! If you are either heading to school yourself, have a family member or friend in school, or a high school junior or senior, we're going to tell you all of the important dates coming up this year for scholarships AND we'll detail how our course works so you can get in before the deadline, which is Friday, December 11th.Our anonymous caller to the Magnify Money line today is receiving a $500,000 inheritance. His parents want him to connect with their financial advisor, but he's been doing good so far by investing in low-cost funds on his own. Our caller and his wife has have no debt other than their mortgage. He asks: is it time to bring an advisor on board, or should he stick with what's been working so far?With everyone posting their year-end music reviews, Doug decided to share some of his own. Fancy yourself top-notch when it comes to your music trivia? Today is for you.Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Looking for quick ways to save a few more bucks? Or, are you too busy to even slow down and think about stashing some extra cash every month? While we don't promise taking the light bulb out of your oven will bring you riches, we ARE fans of quick, time-conscious hacks that save you some Benjamins. Lisa Rowan, the author of the hit new book Money Hacks, joins the basement airwaves today to share some of the 275+ money hacks she's collected.Plus, could your salary size be completely out of your control? Maybe so, if you believe a new survey that suggests there's a BIG correlation between the size of a man's package and how much bacon he brings home. (Don't shoot the messenger). In more traditional finance news, Joe and OG also cover what the new (possible) Treasury secretary-elect, Janet Yellen, might mean for the economy.Nick has been having trouble getting disability insurance for his wife, so we'll throw him the Haven Life line. She suffers from depression and anxiety. Nick asks: how can he cover their insurance gap? As always, OG and Joe come to the rescue.As always, we'll save time for Doug's trivia. You'll hear it for yourself... but let's say you might find Doug a bit peculiar today.Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Think you don't know the first thing about investing? Bola Sokunbi makes it clear that not only is investing EASIER than you might think, it also can be a lot of fun. We'll define some of the popular terms you'll hear, talk through some of the basics, and dive into what you really need to invest so that you feel confident about getting where you want to go with your financial goals.Also today, we dive into a popular sports figure who spends north of a million dollars a year on coaching. A million dollars? Doesn't that sound like a waste of money? We'll maybe change your mind on how you view expenses to "sharpen the saw" (as popular author Stephen Covey has written). We'll also talk about the difference between how professionals invest versus the amount of money thatGlen calls in during our Haven Life Line with some questions about the government Thrift Savings Plan. Glen has left his contributions alone and now that they've grown he's looking to consolidate his various workplace funds into a Vanguard account. He asks: can his TSP contributions be rolled over? Does the face Glen made contributions in Iraq change how his money is treated?Of course we'll also give Doug some time to share his trivia. Today's theme? Think you're in tune with digital purchasing trends? (That's a weird sentence). You can test your mettle with Doug's Cyber-Monday themed trivia.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you aren't interested in shopping on Black Friday weekend, we've got you covered with one of our FAVORITE episodes. Every year we dive into our favorite board games about money and economics AND we invite some board game insider friends to help us learn about some new fun games. I'm super excited that the guys from the No Cube Zone (Coniff, Jordan, and Rippee) join us today to dive in to not only our top-5 games about money or economics, but also their top 5 games to share with family this holiday season.Plus, we'll continue the theme by dumping our normal Friday Fintech Segment for a Friday Board Game exclusive. The subscription game company making Hunt A Killer just was named the #6 fastest growing company in the USA by Inc. We'll dive into the game, how it's made, what the firm's focused on, and how exactly a subscription game works with co-founders Ryan Hogan and Derrick Smith.It's nearly two hours of board game goodness, friends, and Thanksgiving weekend discussions. We're thankful you're spending it with us! Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you're looking for new tech toys for the holidays this year, we bring you today good news and bad news. The good news is that we're going to cover LOTS of ground and some of the hottest and coolest tech we've seen in years. On the bad news side? It's going to be harder than ever to get your hands on any of it. Today we're geeking out on the hottest of the hot and the newest of the new tech with our friend Bridget Carey from CNET. Bridget, as she has every year with us (and as she does daily in her CNET videos and reviews), breaks down everything you need to know to have a geeky, techie holiday season.And if the hot new tech you're looking for has four wheels we also have you covered. Slow down before you run off and buy the flashiest car, because you may be surprised how much the value drops when you drive off the lot. We'll talk to Karl Brauer from iSeeCars.com about a new study showing which models and brands hold their value best AND which cars you may want to avoid.During the Haven Life line call-in segment of the show, August calls in with a question not too many people consider: do office workers sitting behind a computer everyday need occupation disability insurance? After all, what could go wrong? We'll share suggestions about disability coverage and what you need to cover.Plus, what in the world is going on with this "OLED" business? Seems like everything from smart TVs to new iPhones are promising the latest and greatest OLED devices. During Doug's trivia, he'll test your 2020 electronic knowledge... if he can find the answer himself, that is.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today kicks off our big U.S. Thanksgiving holiday week of shows, and today we start it off right by sharing all of the good, bad, and ugly deals YOU can score this Black Friday. Regina Conway from Slickdeals.net joins us to help save your wallet and point out some of the issues not-careful shoppers may face. Where should you spend your hard-earned cash to get the most bang for your buck this holiday shopping season? Which retailers are offering the best deals on hot items? What deals aren't worth the wait? What's different this year because of COVD? Whatever your question is - Regina has you covered.Plus, did Pfizer's CEO break laws while insider trading his company's stock when it exploded recently? Financial disclosures show that the CEO, Albert Bourla, sold almost $6 million in stock the same day the company's vaccine news broke. After our discussion on what REALLY happened - we'll turn our heads to yet another report of a criminal advisor fleecing his clients to the tune of $320,000. The short and sweet? Be beyond suspicious of any advisor who might promise you quick riches.During the Haven Life Line, we take a question on peer-to-peer lending. We recommended LendingTree the last time we discussed P2P, but caller Greg says the company has since become a bank. He asks: what's our take now? Are there any companies we recommend?As always, Doug will give his own share of the airtime for his trivia. Today? He's bringing it back with some old-school Black Friday trivia.Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you're lucky enough to have a job now, and you've been still chasing your dream, what does your "finish line" look like? You won finance! Hooray! With everything you want behind you, what's next? Answering these questions and more are today's contributors: Jennifer Grimson from the Micro Empires podcast; Len Penzo from the LenPenzo.com blog, and our own Stacking Benjamins podcast co-host, OG. While the question seems nice and someday-ish, I think today you'll find that you're closer to "enough" than you may think.Halfway through the show we'll break from our conversation and move over to your wellness checkup. Like Suze Orman said (in a number of words), what do riches mean without your health? During this week's middle segment, we take a quick break from FinTech to cover health and wellness with MetPro's co-founder Angelo Poli, who will break down how important proper nutrition really is - both for your health AND your bottom line.What's your next step when you're at absolute zero? No cash, no residence, no job? That's what our contributors have been tasked to help with today, and our special guest Jennifer Grimson is the perfect person to ask. Jennifer has had to start from zero... TWICE. Today Jennifer and our panel share what you should do when you find yourself starting with nowhere to turn.As always, we'll save some airtime halfway through for Doug's game show. Doug will start out with a freebie: The country of Nigeria commands the largest GDP in Africa. The question? How much is it?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We've recorded a ton of episodes. At the point we hit stop on this one, we're officially nearly at 1,000...but when you count all of the previous podcasts, the shortened episodes that we used to NOT count, and the special events, we're well over 1,500 episodes. Not ONCE during that time did we stop and ask ourselves, "Should we actually give people the framework that we're working from?"Today we do that.Joe and OG have a frank conversation about the art of fooling around, about sharing mistakes instead of victories, and about including stories from many points of view. If you've listened to the Stacking Benjamins show once or a thousand times, we hope you'll enjoy the first episode where we discuss the SB Creed.Of course, we will STILL lean on Doug for a trivia question. We're not heathens.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What happens when you find three great storytellers and ask them to share their personal journeys toward a better life, LIVE? You get a nearly two-hour YouTube special that we're going to replay for you right here! The STACK event features the co-author of the classic financial philosophy book Your Money Or Your Life, Vicki Robin, who will talk about her journey learning for herself why finding a different path to financial security was important. We also feature a guy who's story has resonated with many (especially lately after a feature video in the Million Stories series was released), Michael Santos. Michael found himself incarcerated at a young age but not only turned around his own life, he also is passionate and focused on helping others going through trouble turn their lives around. Finally, and kicking off our show, we'll introduce you to Dan Chan, a man who's not only entertained billionaires, but a guy who's had to pivot with his business since COVID-19. How did he go from working at PayPal to chasing his dream? He'll share his journey today!If you'd like to join us for the live, unedited event, where you can ask questions, hang out with other Stackers, and possibly take home one of our participant prizes, sign up for our newsletter, The Stacker, at http://stackingbenjamins.com/stacker.Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let's not mince words. It's been a pretty s%$! year. BUT there have been TONS of fantastic financial lessons you could have learned from 2020, and many skills you've probably figured out already that you NEED in the future. So what are those skills? We'll share the top 5 list our friend Katie Brewer, CFP listed on a recent blog post. Here to help us dive into their take on all of these skills is Joe's co-host on the Money With Friends podcast, Bobbi Rebell. Plus, from Afford Anything, we'll get help from Paula Pant...AND from Len Penzo dot com, we'll hear from Len Penzo.In our Friday FinTech segment, we'll speak with Qube founder Ryan Clark about how they've created an envelope budgeting system for 2020 and beyond. Not familiar with the envelope budgeting system? We'll explain how it works AND how Ryan's team uses technology to help you do better with your money.Plus, during our MagnifyMoney.com segment, we'll take a question from a listener who wonders what designations he should pursue to coach people on their money. He's thought about becoming a Certified Financial Planner, but thinks for the type of coaching he wants to do, that it might be overkill. You'll love how the team today discusses which designations might be best (spoiler: we don't agree).Of course, we'll also leave time for Doug's amazing trivia challenge, which today is all about the World Wide Web. Can you nail the answer without looking it up?Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices