The Stacking Benjamins Show

Buildings, sidewalks, statues, plaques...they all tell stories that are nearly hidden from view. You can take a walk out of your front door if you live in nearly any city, and there are stories all around you. The great news? They're all free. And, like a puzzle, the stories of a 99% invisible city can keep you occupied for hour after fascinating hour. Today we chat with Roman Mars from the 99% Invisible podcast about a few of these stories. We'll talk about park in Australia, a baseball player in Japan, and sidewalks...everywhere.Over $1 billion in bitcoin has been seized by the U.S. government. We'll share how and why, and also dive a little into bitcoin in general. Has it become a more stable landscape for investors? Plus, in the search for lower taxes and a better bottom line, Rock Legend Gene Simmons has decided to wave his California estate (and California taxes) goodbye. High taxes vs. good friends and memories of the neighborhood. Which would you choose?Plus, we'll throw out the Haven Life line to August, who wants to rollover his Roth 401k to a Roth IRA when he retires. He's already seeded the IRA with $500. Is there any reason to invest in one account over the other? August asks, does the answer change if he's plans to retire early?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today's wide-ranging chat with the Invest Diva, Kiana Danial, we hear about her personal story of setting high goals and achieving them. From her family's flight from Iran to working on becoming an engineer, being fired from a Wall Street job and more, Kiana's done it all, and today we'll talk about how you can pivot your way to success. We'll also talk about popular brokerage app Robinhood, making videos that people want to watch, the FOMO people felt during the heady Bitcoin run up, and more.Plus, remember the old saying: if it's too good to be true, it probably is? Make that doubly so if what you're talking about involves investing or finances. We'll share yet another story of investors being fleeced out of their life savings after being roped in by too-good-to-be-true financial scams. And also, Suze Orman is back in the news. A recent health scare has the queen of money talk thinking critically about the relationship between money and health.During our Haven Life line, Ronnie Jo calls in asking for good financial advice for her 19 year-old sister. She'd like to make sure her sister can navigate the financial waters, and Joe and OG deliver advice that'll serve anyone well, young adult or not.Of course, we can't have a show without giving Doug some airtime. His trivia for today? Something about Einstein? Or winning money? Who really knows?Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's show, we bring you a cornucopia of November financial topics! Is your rule of thumb going to leave you broke in retirement? We'll start off by talking about the nerd's updated version of the 4% rule and maybe throw in some advice explaining why generalized guidelines aren't the best investing strategy. Plus, in homage to our older roundtables, we'll give our contributors a few more headlines to chew on, including a new plan to push required minimum distributions to 75, AND our roundtable will cover the new college savings plan ranking system from Morningstar. Making today's super-show happen is our amazing team of contributors: Michael Anderson of the Big Idea podcast; Paula Pant from the Afford Anything podcast, and from our very own podcast, OG.Halfway through the show, we'll FINALLY share our main topic, bow to avoid a holiday hangover. Joe and Belinda Rosenblum will talk about how to set up a strategy to make sure this is the year you finally are able to get ahead financially, or at the very least, stay afloat during the holiday season.We'll finish today's show with some salacious gossip thanks to our question from Shane. He says that he loves our pieces on financial crimes, but what about the the less popular crimes? Shane wants to hear about daring financial crimes like money laundering and check kiting. Does our panel deliver? Yes! So make some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy this week's MagnifyMoney segment.Of course, we'll always save some time for Doug. Think you know your sports history? You'll love Doug's question today.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What can we learn from market wizards, the name Jack Schwager gives to traders who routinely beat the index? Even if you aren't trying to trade the market, but instead want to just be competent, you can learn a ton. Jack Schwager has studied the best and brightest in the industry for years and today we talk to him about patience, discipline, love of the game, and more. You can use ALL of these ideas to be a better investor, even if, like most of us, you're a member of the buy-and-hold tribe.Plus, in our headlines segment, how hard is it to get your will done? Our engineer extraordinaire, Steve Stewart, just finished his. Joe and OG ask him about how and why he completed his plan, and how difficult it was. We'll also throw out the Haven Life line to Peter, who wonders about his investment strategy, and of course, we save time for Doug's amazing, post-election trivia. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While everyone struggles to get along through COVID-19, if you're lucky enough to be healthy and safe, NOW may be a great time to find ways to earn more money. By using skills you already have, you can begin to build wealth and put your financial house in order. Today we'll talk to Mr. I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Ramit Sethi, about the power of networking, college, working online, transferring skills, and more. It's a powerful discussion that hopefully will move you from being defensive in 2020 to going on offense.When's the last time your family reviewed your household fire safety plan? Good financial planning goes beyond the adrenaline-fueled excitement of long-term investing and emergency funds. During our headlines we'll be joined by Steve Kerber, Director of the UL Firefighter Safety Research Institute. Steve will share essential safety tips on how you can keep your family - and physical property - safe from a fire emergency. PLUS, you can watch a new video below from the Firefighter Safety Research Institute showing just how little time you have to escape a home fire.In our second piece, we'll discuss the importance of things like disability insurance. In a tragic incident, a cyclist has been reportedly left brain-damaged after a split-second accident with a dog. Many people go without when it comes to insurance with excuses like, "I'm safe!", or "nothing bad ever happens to me!" The other side of that coin is that accidents are just that... accidents.We'll finish out the show with a Haven Life line question on HSAs (Health Savings Account) and HRAs (Health Reimbursement Arrangement). Ethan will be switching jobs soon, and his new employer only offers a HRA. Ethan wants to keep contributing to his HSA even without the extra employer benefits, but wants to know: can he contribute to both the HRA and HSA?Plus, with the election looming tomorrow, Doug's campaign is in full swing. He'll use some of his mid-show airtime to quiz his loyal voters on how many electoral votes he'll need to take the White House. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's show we're mixing the ghoulish past with the horrific NOW. Chuck Jaffe from Money Life with Chuck Jaffe joins us to share how he's scaring his neighborhood kids this year into better money habits AND then we rewind (this is our rewind week!) to Sandy Smith sharing how she spent just under $5000 on her wedding and had the ultimate experience for herself, her husband, and their friends. It's a great now/rewind episode of Stacking Benjamins (plus we share an AWESOME event coming up for all Stackers on 11/10...join us!). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's more spooky than an investing story gone wrong? Nothing... if we're discussing your net worth. Today the Fintern brings us back to our time with CFA Rick Ferri, who dropped by the basement and scared us silly with some absolutely HORRIBLE investing stories.Plus, Nick Clements from MagnifyMoney.com also joined the show to talk about our (then) recent discussions around technology and pricing structures.Of course, we also had headlines, Doug's trivia, and more.Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Happy Rewind Week Stackers! We're kicking off Monday strong with a special show that used to be a fan-favorite: a Joe and OG Top 5. Today's topic? How to react to market volatility. It was relevant then, and it's relevant now. There's no featured guest on today's show - but there's also a whole bunch more of Joe and OG banter than you'd normally have. (Some people say that's a good enough trade-off).You can read the short and sweet original show notes below:It's another Top 5 episode! Today Joe & OG tell you their top 5 ways to handle bouncing markets.In headlines we tackle the herd mentality down markets create and signs that it's time for a new advisor.We also fire up the Quotacy hotline for the first time, where Sam asks about stretch IRA rules.It's all that and more on today's show!Thanks to Candid and Netsuite for sponsoring the Stacking Benjamins show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Worried it's next to impossible to get your finances in order by this point? What if I told you it could happen by Thanksgiving? (For those of you caught in the infamous 2020 haze, that's a little more than a month away). Today our roundtable crew share their personal tricks of the trade they employ to manage their budget, lower their expenses, and keep charge of their finances. Joining us on our roundtable is the mind behind the Own Your Money brand and Stacking Benjamins' partner in our Making Money Easy course, Belinda Rosenblum; Kevin Payne from the popular Family Money Adventure blog; and basement regular Len Penzo... from the aptly named Len Penzo dot com blog.After our contributors finish sharing their top finance tips, we'll give them a break while we shine some light on small businesses and what they've been experiencing this year. Helping us shine that spotlight is Kabbage co-founder, Kathryn Petralia. Kabbage was the second biggest PPP loan provider, and Kathryn will share the mistakes she's seen businesses make, what businesses should be doing right now, and what we can maybe expect in the future.We'll finish out the show with our Magnify Money segment - our caller Jambalaya wants to self-insure his health costs. He breaks his plan for his, and makes sure to let us know that he's otherwise healthy. Jambalaya asks for our seal of approval: is his plan sound, or, in his words, "should I keep it simple stupid?" Our roundtable will share their thoughts on our caller's plan.Naturally, we'll make some airtime for Doug's Friday trivia game show. This week's question? The original iPod sale price! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you make a decision about your money, do you weigh how that plays against your long term goals? Doing so is called considering your "opportunity cost." Today's guest talks about both the process of thinking about opportunities AND discusses how to weigh down markets. Should you move your money? He's been through a ton of down markets and has a world of experience with them. Today we're airing a very special episode with JL Collins, author of The Simple Path to Wealth. Doc G (in an interview originally aired on the Plutus award-winning Earn and Invest podcast) caught up with Collins last year, and asked him many questions, that we'll play for you today.What's your first response after finding out your online portfolio has been liquidated and cleared of its cash? Okay... so after THAT, you're probably calling your financial advisor until they pick up the phone, right? At the very least, solo investors should call the support line for their online brokerage.. right? What happens when NO ONE is available to help you figure out where the money went....or worse yet, when you do get a reply back it says that you'll need to hold tight for a few weeks? That's exactly what's happening to Robinhood investors... we'll unveil yet another issue at the troubled brokerage during our headlines segment.In our second headline: day-traders are often ignored by long term investors, but new research indicates these very-same day-traders could be a driving force behind market fluctuations, including the market rebound this year. Don't worry - we'll cover what that means to you and your plan.We'll finish out the show with a call from Ryan, who wants to know more about family contributions to a 529 plan. Ryan and his wife are expecting their first child, and would like their family members to contribute to their child's 529 plan instead of traditional gifts. Are there any online portals their family can use, or is it up to Ryan and his wife to collect contributions and investing the cash?Of course, we'll save some time for Doug's trivia. Doug was feeling generous today with his dino-trivia, and opted for multiple choice responses... enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices