The Stacking Benjamins Show

What does diversification really mean? Contrary to popular opinion, there's more to good diversification than just spreading your money around. But how does it work? Today we'll tackle a recent piece from the Wall Street Journal that dives into popular myths about diversification. Believe it or not there's more to it than just "spreading your money around."Before I forget - a big thanks to today's roundtable contributors! You can find more from Miranda Marquit at MirandaMarquit.com and freelancewriteracademy.com; Paula Pant at AffordAnything.com; AND you can get help in your financial corner from OG HERE.As far as financial independence and doing all the "right things," Jeff is pretty set. After years of effort getting to this point, Jeff now finds himself thinking less about his finances. What's the solution here? Find a hobby? Earn more cash? Buy products from all of our sponsors? Our roundtable will share their thoughts during our Magnify Money segment.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mike Rosenfeld is what some people call boxer Jeison Rosario's "secret weapon." Boxing fan are fired up this week because Saturday features a title bout on Showtime between Jeison Rosario and Jermell Charlo, and today, Coach Mike joins us to share how he's worked with not just Jeison but with top professionals to bring energy, focus, and drive to whatever they do. We'll even share an exercise that Coach Mike uses (and that you can use, too) to improve your performance immediately.How much whiskey does it take to buy a house? It almost sounds like the start of a joke, but one U.K. man is laughing all the way to the bank. After discovering the value off his Macallan whiskey collection has skyrocketed, he plans to use his newfound cash as a down payment for a home.We'll round out today's show with a question most of us have asked at one point or another: are financial advisors worth the price? How hard could it be, right? Instead of answering a voicemail on today's Haven Life Line, we're turning our attention to a Reddit post that we think perfectly encapsulates why you should have an advisor as a buffer between you and your money. This might be one of the biggest money mistakes you never want to make. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What are you doing to be best in class? What's your curriculum toward success? Why wouldn't you create your own personal MBA to achieve your goals? If you did, what would you study? Today we're going to help you sharpen the saw by welcoming Josh Kaufman, author of the Personal MBA, a book that came out 10 years ago (and now has a new 10th anniversary edition), but is even more meaningful today than it was then. Build more skills and you'll be rewarded with far more Benjamins...Plus, during our headlines segment, we'll feature TWO stories about borrowers either having their student loan debt erased or who were suing to have it expelled. We'll ask attorney Leslie Tayne her thought about whether these rulings will open up opportunities for YOU to discharge your student loans.We'll finish out today's show with one big question: do you tell your kids either your net worth or your total investments? We asked the same question to our SB Basement Facebook group, and received a range of responses. We'll share not only our own, but a nice range of parent responses during our segment.As always, Doug will also get the spotlight during the halftime. On the menu for today? Fantasy Trivia! (I went into this one blind and I'm proud to say I actually got this one right.)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Would you cut birthday parties, holiday get-togethers, attending work events, or giving gifts? How much would you cut to live a financially lean "simple life"? One Reddit user has taken these steps (and more!) in an attempt to stay on course. After our special surprise celebrity reader delivers today's piece, we'll ask our roundtable for their thoughts. Has lean living gone too far? Is financial independence worth these sacrifices? Today we are joined by Olympic gold-medalist turned financial planner, Lauryn Williams; comedian and host of the Crazy Money podcast, Paul Ollinger; and the guy you know and love - Len Penzo of the LenPenzo.com blog.Halfway through the show we'll take a break from our discussion while Joe rings up Zach Pettet. The last time we talked to Zach was when he was on stage on behalf of Fountain City Fintech during our Stacking Benjamins Live Tour. Today, Zach has his own podcast examining the world of fintech: For Fintech's Sake. During the segment, we'll poke Zach's brain to find out where the world of fintech is at now, AND ask what's in store for the future of fintech.During our MagnifyMoney call, we'll give some advice to an anonymous caller who is interested in investing. While she doesn't have enough extra cash to buy whole stocks, she could buy fractional shares. Because E-Trade doesn't offer fractional shares, our caller would have to open an account with another firm. Any advice? What good brokerage firms offer fractional shares? Is this even a good idea at all?Plus during Doug's trivia gameshow, we'll celebrate the U.S. Air Force's 73rd birthday. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How I Built This. It's the case-study story that Guy Raz, creator and host of NPR's How I Built This podcast, has been told many times. Today we'll flip the script on Guy and ask him: what led him to build his hit podcast? We don't stop there, we'll also get inside Guy's head and ask about some of the common themes among the stories he's heard. We'll ask about business as war, fear, building loyal fans, and what drives these founders...often "normal" people, toward success?Plus, thinking about leaving this all behind the hot moment that countries begin accepting American passports? During our headlines segment, we'll share a list that already has my vote for the best title of 2020: 4 tropical places you can live well for less than 2000 dollars. (Anyone else working remotely bookmarking this)?In our second piece: has the college education model finally met its match? Welcome to Google's newest venture: higher education. Google's new certificate program can be completed in just about six months, and at a fraction of the cost of a traditional college. Ka-ching! While large companies are already signing on to honor the certificate, we won't know its true value until we collect some solid data on the hiring rates of graduates.Later, during our Haven Life Line, Francisco calls in with a question about expense ratios. Would switching from a high-to-low expense ratio account be a good move? Does that answer change for tax-advantaged accounts?Of course, there will still be time for Doug's trivia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How many times have you lost and thought, "I'm going to learn to do better the next time, so I win." What did you learn specifically from losing? Author Mary Pilon asked the same question and put together an anthology on stories about epic losses that shines a spotlight on the struggle involved trying to reach the top of anything. If you're inspired--like we are--by stories of other's struggle so we don't feel so alone, you're going to be super excited listening to Mary share a few epic stories from the book.Next, has Robinhood finally attracted its share of regulator attention? During our headlines, we'll recap the numerous reasons why you shouldn't use Robinhood for your investing. Plus, in our second piece, are you heading to retirement disaster by underestimating your life expectancy?During the Haven Life Line, we'll take a question about short-term investing from Matt. He's currently in college, and looking to invest $2000 for a couple of year. Where's the best Matt can invest his money? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the happiest podcast on earth? Do you know where we stole that catchphrase from? If you do, you just might be a product of marketing. Companies spend millions of dollars each year trying to get you to remember their brand. Today we'll prove just how much we remember marketing with a game show episode where we slightly change the brand slogans and see if our roundtable participants (OG, Paula and Len) can come up with them. How many can you get right? ...and is that a good thing?Plus, halfway through the show, insurance company Hippo and home security firm Simplisafe join us to talk about a new study talking about home insecurity. With the pandemic, the average person feels less secure about their home life. As a response, they've also teamed up with a new partnership. We'll share details about the study and the partnership on today's show.Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What happened to the sharing economy? The new work model promised to give workers flexibility and new income streams, while people with excess could share what they had with people looking for help. What it turned into is a different matter: lots of people earning below minimum wage, an over-saturation of workers all competing for the same prime hours, and headline-making lawsuits from companies looking to minimize their responsibility to workers. These are all things new gig workers can expect when joining the new "gig" field. Today we chat with Juliet Schor, author of the new best-selling book, After The Gig. During our interview Juliet will share the business strategies that kick-started the shift in direction large gig and sharing companies made, how gig workers don't know how much they're truly making, and we'll also dive into possible solutions to the gig economy's current problems.In our headlines segment, we'll ask, "Why half of the millennial generation have canceled their travel credit cards?" Plus, Fidelity is now offering their first Bitcoin fund. Should you pay any attention?We'll finish out the show with our Haven Life Line. Retired clergyman Bill calls in asking if he can really take out a tax-free housing disbursement from his 403b if the money was made through clergy work.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ever wish you had better habits? Whether you're not getting out of bed for that morning run, or you stay up too late before an important meeting in the morning, or you can't stop breaking the budget - we've all asked ourselves, "why did I do that AGAIN?" Dr. Joseph Cardillo, best-selling author of multiple books on the intersection of mindfulness and health not only knows the answer to that, he's sharing the solution on today's show! In his new book, 12 Rules of Attention, Dr. Cardillo goes through easy-to-follow steps on how you can stop bad habits in their tracks, AND how to trick your brain into establishing habits that'll make you a superstar in whatever area of your life you wish to improve.Brittany Spears is back in the news. In our headlines segment we'll review how her father has served as her conservator for twelve years (taking care of Spears' money), and now the pop star wants him out. So, what does it mean to have a conservator? How can someone make sure everything is on the up-and-up? We'll share that and recall one famous conservator horror story which saw one extremely rich widow fight homelessness. Plus, what's a headlines segment without talking about money and video games? Today we'll also cover the beef between Apple and Epic Games. It's...wait for it...pretty....epic.We'll also throw out the Haven Life line today to listener Swaggenit, who was notified by Turbotax that because he already contributes to his 401k, he won't receive any tax benefit for his IRA. He asks: because he doesn't receive a tax advantage now and he's contributing post-tax money, will the money be tax-free when he withdraws it? Is there a good reason to keep contributing to his IRA?As always, we'll of course save some time for Doug's trivia, who's keeping his Independence Day questions going strong. Enjoy!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The one and only Scott Alan Turner from Financial Rockstar podcast joins the fun this week. He, Len Penzo and Joe tackle financial insecurity, mortgages and horrible Valentine's gifts.Also, we're ending our Rewind week with some pretty special segments. Check out our original show notes below:At the halfway point we have a great visit with Thomas Smyth from AskTrim.com about his new app. Trim dives into your accounts to find forgotten subscriptions you're paying and unsubscribes you (if you wish).AS IF that's not enough, we're excited at the end of the episode to share some time with the star of SoFi's new Super Bowl commercial, Brandon Williams. We'll talk about the experience and his investing passion - real estate.That’s it for this week of rewinds! Coming Monday: We’ll chat with Dr. Joseph Cardillo, author of 12 Rules of Attention: How to Avoid Screw-ups, Free Up Headspace, Do More and Be More at Work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices