Black Friday Tech: What’s Worth Buying (And What’s Just Hype) SB1766

Black Friday’s coming, your inbox is screaming deals at you, and you’re trying to figure out: is this tech actually worth it, or will it be collecting dust by Valentine’s Day?

Joe Saul-Sehy, guest co-host CFP Anna Allem, and Neighbor Doug bring in Bridget Carey from CNET to cut through the holiday tech chaos. Bridget’s spent her career testing gadgets, and she’s here to tell you what’s actually worth your money this season—from Nintendo’s surprisingly strong lineup to handheld gaming devices like Steam Deck and Xbox Cloud that might replace your console. She also warns you away from AI-powered appliances that still feel like they’re arguing with you instead of helping.

Bridget breaks down the smart way to approach Black Friday and Cyber Monday without wrecking your December budget, which deals are real and which are manufactured hype, and why some tech gifts send a very specific message to your in-laws (and maybe not the one you want).

Then the conversation shifts from tech temptations to investing platforms—specifically Robinhood. The confetti animations are fun, the interface is slick, but is it actually built for serious long-term investing? Joe and Anna dig into where Robinhood works, where it distracts, and why your retirement plan might need something more substantial than gamified stock trading and crypto side quests.

Plus: Doug delivers Thanksgiving-adjacent trivia, and the crew takes a nostalgic detour through Skip-Its and Long Furbys that’ll fuel your next holiday gathering conversation.

What You’ll Walk Away With:

• Bridget Carey’s insider guide to which holiday tech deals are legit and which are overhyped garbage

• The best gaming and gadget gifts this season (from someone who actually tests this stuff for a living)

• Why some AI appliances still feel like expensive beta tests you’re paying to debug

• Smart strategies for Black Friday and Cyber Monday that don’t demolish your December budget

• The honest truth about Robinhood: where it shines and where serious investors should look elsewhere

• How investing platforms subtly influence your behavior—and whether that’s helping or hurting you

• How to stay grounded when shiny objects (tech or financial) start calling your name

This Episode Is For You If:

• You’re staring at Black Friday ads wondering which deals are actually worth it

• You want tech gift advice from someone who isn’t trying to sell you something

• You’ve been using Robinhood and wonder if it’s actually helping your long-term investing goals

• You’re curious whether the flashy features on investing apps are making you a better or worse investor

• You need a reality check before holiday spending turns into January regret

Before You Hit Play, Ask Yourself:

What’s the worst tech purchase you’ve ever made? Bonus points if it broke before New Year’s. Drop it in the comments—misery loves company, and we’re building the ultimate “do not buy” list together.

Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201

Enjoy!

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Our Headline

• Robinhood Is Quietly Building a Fintech Ecosystem for the Next Generation (Motley Fool)

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Doug’s Trivia

• What piece of tech does the average person in the world replace every three and a half years, but Americans replace every two and a half years?

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Want more than just the show notes? How about our newsletter with STACKS of related, deeper links?

• Check out The 201, our email that comes with every Monday and Wednesday episode, PLUS a list of more than 19 of the top money lessons Joe’s learned over his own life about money. From credit to cash reserves, and insurance to investing, we’ll tackle all of these. Head to StackingBenjamins.com/the201 to sign up (it’s free and we will never give away your email to others).

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Other Mentions

• Bridget Carey – YouTube
• Bridget Carey’s Instagram
• Bridget Carey (@bridgetswidgets) | TikTok
• Bridget Carey LinkedIn

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Join Us Friday!

Tune in on Friday when it’s all board games with our special guest board game mentor, from Pittsburgh’s famous Games Unlimited, we welcome Kylie Primus.

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Written by: Kevin Bailey

Miss our last show? Listen here: The Smart Person’s Guide to Black Friday Deals (SB1765)

Episode transcript

[00:00:00] letters!: No, I

[00:00:05] letters!: You’ll shoot your eye out kid. Merry Christmas. How? How? How?

[00:00:19] Doug: Live from Joe’s mom’s basement. It’s the Stacking Benjamin Show.

[00:00:34] Doug: I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Duggan. Every year a bunch of new tech comes out, and this year all of it seems to feature ai. But what tech is actually worth your hard earned money and what’s just fab junk? You’ll end up being a beta tester. For our mentor today is Bridget Carey from cnet, who will share the good, bad, and ugly of holiday tech deals so you don’t waste your money.

[00:01:00] Doug: Plus, in our headline segment, one brokerage firm is upping their game to control your whole wallet, which is it. We’ll share and hear Joe groan from about five states away. Relax, Joe. I’m sure they’re just worried about making things better for their customers. Not, and speaking of better, of course, I’ll share a better part of this show my trivia question.

[00:01:26] Doug: And now two people who are the hot new tech in personal finance, Joe Saul-Sehy, and CFP Anna A

[00:01:41] Joe: Hey, there’s Stackers. Happy pre-Thanksgiving to you the day before Thanksgiving. We’re all stretching out, getting ready for the big beast tomorrow if you’re in the other 46 countries where people listen to Stacking Benjamins. Happy Wednesday to you. We kicked OG to the curb today. Actually, he’s traveling this week, which means lucky us.

[00:02:03] Joe: We get the upgrade ’cause Anna ELAMs here. How are you? 

[00:02:06] Anna: I’m doing so good. I am ready for Thanksgiving. Ready to just feast all day. 

[00:02:12] Joe: Is Thanksgiving at your house? Do you go somewhere? 

[00:02:15] Anna: Oh, no, no, no way. We go to my in-law’s house. We switch it up every year depending on like my parents or my husband’s parents.

[00:02:24] Anna: Both are great options. We have really great cooks in our family, so 

[00:02:27] Doug: Oh, that’s good. What do you volunteer to bring? Like those little crispy onion things. Love that. Go on top of the casserole. I love those. I love those. Like, are you really, like you bring napkins? 

[00:02:36] Anna: That’s a great question. Um, we are still figuring that out.

[00:02:39] Anna: I know it’s the day before Thanksgiving, but we are still working on, on what we’re bringing. My mother-in-law, like has it on lock. She’s been doing this for so long that. Sometimes I just bring a little appetizer, a little dip. Here’s what you 

[00:02:53] Doug: need to realize. If you’re not getting asked for anything, that means nobody trusts you to bring 

[00:02:58] Anna: anything.

[00:02:58] Anna: Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly. 

[00:03:00] Joe: Can you see Anna Thanksgiving defending her honor? No. They’re nacho cheese. Flavored nacho cheese. 

[00:03:07] Anna: You have to try it 

[00:03:09] Joe: just opened the bag. It’s fresh. Look how they come in triangles. It’s really, really cool. Well, we got a great show today, guys, because I think Bridget dug it how many years?

[00:03:22] Joe: Maybe 10 years. Bridget Carey’s been helping this all over the years. Yeah, bridge has been nice enough to help us with tech for a long time. Of course, she is one of the main voices over at CNET and we were very lucky early on to get her to be a stacker the day before Thanksgiving. And man, with all this new tech that comes out every year, so much of it is junk.

[00:03:41] Joe: And Bridget has a great gift at making it fun and funny to show you how stupid some of this technology is, and at the same time tell you how cool it is. And because Bridget has children, Bridget loves diving into tech for kids as well. So sit back, because we’re about to talk to Bridget Carey. This is part of our yearly triumvirate of shows.

[00:04:05] Joe: If you missed Monday, not only did you miss comedian, you just 

[00:04:08] Doug: wanted 

[00:04:09] Joe: to use the word triumvirate. 

[00:04:10] Anna: I was like, did you 

[00:04:12] Joe: trifecta? 

[00:04:15] Anna: What does that mean? Triumvirate? I feel like you combine three words into one. It’s, 

[00:04:19] Doug: it’s the, uh, trilogy. Trilogy, yeah. Is is that better? Yeah. A triumvirate is often like three powerful beings.

[00:04:29] Doug: Yes. That all combine. Yes. Yes. To become onerous. Well, no, but three. Fantastic. But House, the Senate and the judicial system would be considered a, we could use all caps to 

[00:04:41] Joe: go the Monday, the Wednesday, the Friday this week we could do that. It could be the triumvirate, the shows. It can be, but Reina Conway on Monday at Slick Deals, Bridget Carey doing tech.

[00:04:53] Joe: This is every year she does, she does this great tech segment. And then on Friday, you know, Doug. The board game episode, Joe learned a new word, fast, the triumvirate of shows, but first, the woman who is the Queen of tech at cnet, Bridget Carey. Before we hear from Bridget though, we got a couple sponsors who help us keep on keeping on, and so we’re gonna hear from them.

[00:05:18] Joe: You’re not gonna pay a dime for any of this because of them. We’ll hear from them. And then Bridget Carey is going to help you make better tech decisions this Black Friday.

[00:05:35] Joe: And you know, it’s the day before Thanksgiving, and you also know it is two days before Black Friday when Bridget Carey’s here. How are you? Hey Joe. Good to be here. Hey, I don’t know where to start. I don’t know if we start with all the news that you cover now on your regular beat with Apple. I think, I don’t wanna start there.

[00:05:51] Joe: I think I wanna start with the thing. I just saw you on TikTok and Nintendo, what, two days ago, three days ago. You had a little bit of fun with Nintendo. 

[00:06:00] Bridget: This is the year of Nintendo stuff. I mean, I think this is the year of the Nintendo Switch too, but Nintendo was kind of like showcasing like all the stuff you could buy that’s not a video game, because that’s also another big gift thing this year.

[00:06:11] Bridget: There’s so many fans. You get backpacks and purses and high fashion items. I mean we, we’ve gotten to the point where like adults with adult money who grew up with Nintendo or like I would like a high fashion jacket that says Mario Kart for over a hundred dollars. Yeah, I 

[00:06:23] Joe: think it’s the 2025 version of adults with Legos like in the early two thousands, you know?

[00:06:28] Bridget: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think that’s still going on with Legos too. Right. 

[00:06:32] Joe: Good point. Good point. Uh, so what’s hot at Nintendo then? 

[00:06:35] Bridget: This being the year where we get the new switch too console, that’s really becoming like the hot tech gift for all ages right now. I mean, if you haven’t already got one kind of thing, but usually for kids it’s always like saving for the holidays.

[00:06:47] Bridget: I think it’s one of those items that this Black Friday everyone’s looking to see, is there any deal on a new console? It’s the hottest thing I would say. You gotta grab a bundle, if you can find one. A bundle being like the machine that comes with a hot game like Mario Kart. Sometimes they come with games like Pokemon, but there also is this feeling that when there’s a new console, like how many more things do you have to buy with it?

[00:07:08] Bridget: And I would say if you’re stressing out, because these consoles can get expensive, know that the old switch stuff still works with the new one. You don’t have to buy a new uh, console controller. Guess what? I’m getting my kids this. They don’t watch your show, thank goodness. But I’m getting my kids this switch too, and I’m gonna let them use the old controllers to save some money.

[00:07:26] Bridget: You don’t have to buy everything all at once. But yeah, there are obviously a couple hug games that people wanna get with this too. Like there’s a new Donkey Kong game. 

[00:07:33] Joe: Oh, awesome. Like the new Donkey Kong ride, which you rode. Epic universe. 

[00:07:37] Bridget: Oh my gosh. What, what a year for Nintendo. They opened Epic universe, the theme park in Florida too, with everything going on.

[00:07:44] Bridget: They have to have a new movies coming out with another Super Mario movie. Yeah, it’s just nonstop. Everyone’s talking about the Zelda movie, so I think it’s almost like they’re kind of going on this path that’s like a little Disney-esque, but like, they’re almost doing like a different version of like the theme parks, the movies, and now video games kind of all coming together.

[00:07:59] Joe: It feels so, so congruent. Does it? It totally feels very Disney-esque. By the way. I’m very disappointed that your kids aren’t stackers yet at their advanced stage, but we’ll move on. I’ll, I’ll try to, I’ll try to get over it. I’ll 

[00:08:11] Bridget: have to, I’ll, I’ll start small. I’ll get them a debit card someday. That’s, come on.

[00:08:14] Bridget: I’m a six and 9-year-old. 

[00:08:17] Joe: Whatever. I don’t need excuses. No excuses. Bridget, by the way, can we talk then, uh, animal Crossing? I know you got a bunch of stuff for me. I just have stuff for you and I wanna talk to Animal Crossing because I also saw you unwrap this, uh, thing in the last month that we’re like, uh, animal Crossing Crocs.

[00:08:35] Bridget: Oh yeah. I’ve never owned a croc before. I’m gonna be totally honest. But suddenly at my door to promote their Crocs, they have like animal crossing crocs with little critters on them. I think I’m becoming a sucker for this stuff because when your kids are a fan of something, you suddenly, you’re like, yeah, oh, we could bond for Crocs now.

[00:08:53] Bridget: Absolutely. This is adorable. My, my fashion session just went out the window. Suddenly I’m like, next I need like my Bowser backpack. That is like a big shell with spikes in it. Then it’ll bring it all together. Are they worth it though? Are they hot? Everyone at school can’t stop talking about them when the kids have it.

[00:09:09] Bridget: So I think this is more like hotter for kids. Yes. 

[00:09:11] Joe: Than it is, 

[00:09:12] Bridget: but they make ’em in adult sizes. 

[00:09:14] Joe: Of course they do. Again, for people that are still living their kids with ears, I’ll cover with 

[00:09:18] Bridget: something and if, and if your vice is going with animal crossing Crocs. More power to you. 

[00:09:23] Joe: I wanted to talk about those Crocs because of, of course, animal crossing and video games.

[00:09:27] Joe: But let’s also, if you don’t mind, stick with consoles for a second because one thing I also know is that with the Xbox, they just finally released a handheld with the help of another company. And I know beforehand people were saying, are people gonna buy it? People are not gonna buy it. This seems to be a hot thing this year though.

[00:09:42] Bridget: I think when it comes to like these other handhelds, like in Nintendo, you’re kind of in that, that Nintendo world. It’s the only way you can get games like Mario and, and, and some of other Nintendo’s properties like Kirby and Zelda. So you’re gonna get like this family friendlys about the switch, almost like you feel like you’re, you could just leave your kids with these games and it’s okay, but the world kind of opens up into a little more adult when you have older family who wanna do the Xbox.

[00:10:05] Bridget: And yes, Jesus has this like handheld, and these things are expensive though you’re dropping nearly a grand for all of these bells and whistles to take your Xbox games on the go. And there are other alternatives out there. If you don’t wanna buy the brand new whizzbang one, there’s something called a steam deck.

[00:10:20] Bridget: Sometimes you have to be a little bit tech savvy, have a little patience because it does open up the ability to kind of play other PC games. I think that’s the trend now. Gamers who want to have a lot of options. Are starting to get more options. They don’t have to be stuck in just your PlayStation world or just your Xbox World.

[00:10:35] Bridget: Games are kind of now crossing over. We’re even seeing games that traditionally, were always on one console or even going to Nintendo. So as the years progress now, if you want a lot more options, you’re gonna go with something that’s made by the company that’s like a steam deck and be able to kind of go, oh, I can get all kinds of games.

[00:10:52] Bridget: I don’t have to be held in by, because in my day when I was a PlayStation kid, I didn’t play a lot of Xbox games until I bought an Xbox. But yeah, they’re kind of blurry now. But I think a lot of people are looking at these essentially like Windows machines that you can have in your hand and take on the go.

[00:11:07] Joe: Well, and a lot of times these consoles have subscriptions attached, but I know that the prices, a couple years ago, you and I were talking about how Game Pass Xboxes. You know, subscription service looked to be like a category winner. Like this was just a great deal for somebody in your family to give to them that plays games or maybe heck take advantage of it yourself, but they just raised the price so high is, oh, there’s a 

[00:11:29] Bridget: lot of pushback for that price.

[00:11:30] Joe: Yeah. Is it worth it anymore at what, $40 a month or something? 

[00:11:33] Bridget: It’s one of those things where like if you like access to that, you end up going, well, you weigh it out. Like I am, I’m a little bit on the cheap side when it comes to like online subscriptions. I don’t even do the really cheap Nintendo online subscription ’cause I’m still in the old school physical media all the way.

[00:11:47] Bridget: Let me just save money and enjoy one game at a time. But a lot of people do want that freedom to play with their friends and then they kind of go, well matter what, I have to play with my friends online. I have to get it. And they’ll also want all the access instantly. So I think it depends how, how much you’re into that world.

[00:12:01] Bridget: But I know there were a lot of people kind of rolling their eyes at all these price hikes right now. That’s 

[00:12:05] Joe: a $500 crossover point. I mean, you gotta buy $500 worth of games to make that make sense and. I don’t, 

[00:12:12] Bridget: I don’t know if it does anymore, especially when so many older games go on sale that you could just buy digitally.

[00:12:16] Joe: Yeah. Yeah. I don’t get it. So console wise, unless you had something else, any hot console stuff, 

[00:12:23] Bridget: I think it really just keeps coming back to like, you go in the store, a Nintendo Switch, all the kids are around it, and so that’s really it. There is a little bit of maybe nuance to like, do you need to buy all the little things that come with the switch?

[00:12:36] Bridget: There’s a new camera this year that you could do. I don’t think you need the camera right away. Grandparents kinda get worried that they wanna buy a gift for their grandkids and they’re like, well, what kind of game? Guess what? The old game still work. You can get a sale. There’s like lots of Black Friday sales on old games that are still great.

[00:12:51] Bridget: And then on top of all of that, there’s a new memory card. You need a special kind of memory card. So I feel like save that stuff for like the after holiday sales. Like, oh, worry about that later. Just, just get the system up right now. 

[00:13:06] Joe: That’s great advice. Let’s go to household items. I’m gonna give you two letters, Bridget.

[00:13:11] Joe: Tell me what’s going on technology wise, like in household goods, kitchen stuff with these two letters, ai. 

[00:13:20] Bridget: Oh man. I don’t need AI control in my rice cookers. But there’s a lot of stuff like that now. It’s a little gimmick. I kind of feel what a lot of consumers are feeling where we just want things to work.

[00:13:30] Bridget: I just got a new washing machine. I don’t really care if it has AI in it. Just please wash the clothes. That’s it. This is a really good time for the smaller appliances that don’t really have so much AI in them. So expect the kitchen appliances to be really on sale right now for Black Friday, and you’re gonna probably get a good deal on something if you’ve been eyeball.

[00:13:46] Bridget: And believe it not air fryers are still hot year after year. And then the other place that sometimes kind of walks into that AI world is televisions. Black Friday is big for televisions, right? I think you can kind of try to steer away from connecting your TV to the internet and still have a great time.

[00:14:02] Bridget: Don’t worry about that. Maybe being your like number one priority on a feature. I think everyone wants a 65 inch tv. That’s like the kind of like what we see consumers really hungry for a good tv, but when you’re kinda shopping right now, there are just so many deals that seem excellent and it can get a little confusing like, oh my gosh, Amazon’s got this TV and Target’s got that tv.

[00:14:22] Bridget: Which one do I go for? Just decide before you get involved in everything, what kind of screen is important to you? Oh, lid is the best. Do you care about how many ports it has in the back? Like narrow down a few things before you go crazy and then see, is that TV any good? You can you, you can do a Google search before you hit, put it in your cart.

[00:14:41] Bridget: You don’t have to panic anymore. You can see is this a brand I’ve heard of? If you haven’t heard of the brand, I dunno if I’d go for it, but Yeah. You know, things like that. Do your research. And when it comes to like. Appliances. Otherwise it’s always a hot time for kitchen appliances in general. Um, and sometimes things like Keurig, you’re gonna see the accessories for those appliances have really good Black Friday sales, like Keurig coffee pods, that’s the time to buy those.

[00:15:04] Joe: Is there any obvious gotchas around the area of TVs where people, you see people frequently make the mistake that they go, man, I regret that purchase. 

[00:15:13] Bridget: I think it comes down to not knowing who made that tv. Like you just see a big red markdown on an advertisement or on an Amazon page and you go, wait, what exactly did I buy?

[00:15:25] Bridget: I just was going for like the big markdown, but sometimes these TVs are marked down for a long time. There are ways you can track the price history of a products markdown. There are website extensions, one called Kea, K-E-E-P-A. You can like download these ahead of time before you start going shop. Crazy in general.

[00:15:42] Bridget: It’ll tell you, oh yeah, this item that you found on Amazon, copy paste it in the extension. It’ll tell you, oh yeah, it’s always on sale every three months. Then you can go, oh, maybe it’s, maybe it’s not that big of a sale. They just put a big red letter here to kinda make me feel like it’s more I need to act now.

[00:15:57] Bridget: Yeah. It’s all about that urgency, right? Yeah. It’s all about, oh, I had to act now. It’s just, it’s just too good to be true. Well, guess what? There’s gonna be sales constantly. You can kind of take a little breath, even if it wasn’t the best sale. Give yourself permission to get a good deal, even if it’s not the best deal.

[00:16:11] Bridget: You don’t have a time machine. You might not have had the best deal that was like two months ago. I mean, maybe you do have a time machine, but either way, you never know. Just give yourself permission to say, you know what? I’m getting a sale right now on something I need, or something I want even. It’s not the best sale.

[00:16:26] Bridget: I’m gonna feel good about it. 

[00:16:28] Joe: I love that advice because I’m a baseball fan and being a money guy, I’m a Warren Buffet fan, and Warren Buffet once said, there’s no such thing as a called strike with investing. You’re saying the same thing about these sales. There’s no such thing as a called strike.

[00:16:38] Joe: Nobody’s gonna get mad if you skip this one. 

[00:16:42] Bridget: And there are different items that go on sale now. Like this is a big tech time. Right. That’s why you got me on that. That’s right. Because I was talking about tech. But maybe it’s not the best time for clothing or furniture. It depends. It depends on what you need.

[00:16:53] Bridget: So I always go with a plan. Like right now I need a rug for my house. I’m gonna go for a rug sale, but I’m not gonna get everything right now. 

[00:16:59] Joe: Oh. If you live closer. I have two rugs that we’re in great condition that we just, we were doing a remodel. I wasn’t gonna drive ’em all the way to New York. I might, might take me a, a few days to get it there.

[00:17:10] Bridget: I’ll TaskRabbit it or something. There you’re, yeah. 

[00:17:12] Joe: Could you see that drive to Texarkana to pick up my rug? It might change the value of maybe my buddy Joe’s rug. Yeah. Uh, I was gonna ask next, let’s move into the war. That is, but I wanna start off with your usual beat. Uh, let’s talk about what’s going on for all of our Apple lovers.

[00:17:30] Joe: What’s fun and exciting in the world of Apple? 

[00:17:33] Bridget: Well, this is the time to buy an iPad. If there ever was a time to buy an iPad, black Friday, we’re seeing really good deals. I also think this is a great time for the Apple Watch that’s new, but it doesn’t have as many whizzbang features. It’s called the Apple Watch se big discounts there.

[00:17:51] Bridget: Every year there’s a new Apple something, right? You know, and has a, has another little extra feature in it. But guess what? The one from yesterday year, last year, the one that’s maybe doesn’t have every feature in it, they’re still very good. They still do everything you want to do. They just might miss one small health tracking feature.

[00:18:07] Bridget: So if that one small health tracking feature, like being able to track, you know, your oxygen levels or whatever it might be, if you can live without that. You’re getting great deals for Black Friday. I’m looking at even last year’s, uh, s uh, let’s see. It’s the, there’s so many long names for these. The Apple Watch series 10 would be last year.

[00:18:27] Bridget: Series 11 is this year. This year’s on sale, but even bigger sales on last year’s, and I’ve been wearing them every year. I can’t really tell the difference too much between them, you know? So I’m just saying you’re gonna have some good deals if you could just wait till it get last year’s model. Also, I’m giving everyone an Apple air tag this year.

[00:18:43] Bridget: That’s that little tracker circle. Yeah. That you just stick. Throw it on keys. It’s been saving my sanity, but also they’re really heavily discounted more than years past right now, especially these bundles I’m seeing on Amazon and where not, that’s because there’s rumors that there might be a new one coming out, but it’s still gonna track your stuff.

[00:18:59] Bridget: Like who cares if you got, or the next year it’s a tracker, it’s gonna track your stuff. It’s gonna be great. Pop it in stockings. There you go. So I’m gonna do that 

[00:19:08] Joe: based on you saying the epi air tags. Last year I went and finally did it. Like I felt like I was so cool. But 20 years after these things and, and did it, it was far easier to set up than I thought it was gonna be.

[00:19:18] Joe: Like in my head. I don’t know why I thought, oh, this is gonna be a pain in the ass. It was so easy. Two seconds later, bam, it’s in my bag. And then I can watch my luggage disappear at the airport and still not do anything about it. But I know where it’s lost in the airport, 

[00:19:30] Bridget: but there’s so many uses for it too.

[00:19:31] Bridget: I mean, usually you need a new like little coin battery every year, right? But. I have a key chain hooked on my kid’s backpack, and I have it set that if it ever goes outside of this certain boundary, that I’ll get a little ping, like fabulous f yi. And the backpack has left a boundary. But yeah, it’s wallets.

[00:19:46] Bridget: And the best part is it makes a little sound, so I lose my keys. I have it on my key chain. I’m like walking around the house like this, make the sound, where, where are my keys? It goes, beep, beep, beep. I, I, I’ve lost my brain after all these years of doing it. So it saves me 

[00:19:58] Joe: Is is that advice though, to go late model last year’s model with the watch?

[00:20:03] Joe: Is that the same advice with the iPad? 

[00:20:05] Bridget: Yeah, but because I don’t think iPads change all that much also. But the mini, sometimes they don’t get refreshed every year. Whatever models they are, like right now, they have, the latest ones have an M four chip, and last year was an M three. They are doing. Far beyond anything you might need for Apple intelligence if you wanna push it to limit for all these apps.

[00:20:25] Bridget: I think only pro users that might need some specialized video or photography tools might take a pause and go, okay, do I have the right model I need? ’cause I use it every day. But if you’re talking about getting an iPad for a family who wants to take it on flights to be able to watch media to do their homework, I usually am very hesitant to buy an iPad because you don’t need to buy them that often to begin with.

[00:20:47] Bridget: But if you know someone who could like, Hey, they could use another tablet that’s updated the iPad many for me this year. That’s the one I’m looking at. And then there’s a lot of pencils accessories too. There’s many different varieties. That’s a big headache for people. ’cause certain apple pencils work only with certain units.

[00:21:02] Bridget: Go for the cheapest one, the high-end ones. The pros, they have stylist sensitivity. You just doodling on it. If for a younger person, perhaps, you know, like just go with the cheaper model, it’s okay. And there’s some good deals on the pencils too. But all these deals I’m mentioning with Apple products, they’re with retailers, they’re with your Amazons and your targets and your Best Buys.

[00:21:21] Bridget: And Walmarts, apple itself doesn’t ever put these on sale. If you go to an Apple store, they’re gonna say, we’re gonna give you a gift card that you could spend next time. So this is the time to shop at all of the retail stores, not necessarily Apples stores, unless you just love Apple so much, you want a gift card to gift to someone else later.

[00:21:39] Bridget: Maybe that’s the way you do another gift. So it’s, it’s all about strategy here. 

[00:21:42] Joe: You know, mom’s neighbor, Doug told me about a great, uh, app that I didn’t know existed. Bridget, you probably knew this existed forever. It’s called Duet. And when I go on the road, my iPad becomes a second screen so I can be in a hotel room working and have two screens.

[00:21:57] Joe: Super easy to use. Super easy to set up. I had no idea that thing existed. You’re 

[00:22:00] Bridget: so more tech savvy than me. I’ve heard of these things. I’m still like giving my one laptop. 

[00:22:05] Joe: Okay. Right now for all the stackers that are listening or that are keeping score, it’s Bridget Carry 99 Joe one. That’s the score currently.

[00:22:12] Joe: I’ll see if I can get number two, but there’s another word you’ll see. Often people, you know, they’ll be shopping online for an iPad or a watch or a Mac, or heck, any electronic device, they’ll see the word refurbished. How afraid the word refurbished should we be. 

[00:22:27] Bridget: I have bought refurbished and I bought the scariest kind of refurbished.

[00:22:31] Bridget: I bought the refurbished you put in your ears. So I bought EarPods from beats that have refurbished and they were great. Uh, so don’t be afraid over refurbished. Cool. I would only do it from like reputable stores that if you feel something did go wrong, you can kind of take it back and say, this isn’t up to the quality that I expect.

[00:22:49] Joe: Oh, that’s good. So know the return policy. 

[00:22:51] Bridget: I think this is also a year where I’m studying return policies more. I feel like with everything going on right now, there’s just a little more tension that I’m worried about. Like I used to be able to just return anything at any store. There’s a little more sensitivity to how long you can return something or if you have that receipt.

[00:23:05] Bridget: So yes, do be holding onto your receipts for everything, I think more than ever this year. But yeah, refurbished works great, especially if it’s not something you need for a performance reason, like it’s hard to explain. But when it comes to kid tech. I’m always getting refurbished if I have the option to save a lot on it.

[00:23:23] Bridget: Especially if it’s, you know, not something that is that old. See there’s a fine line where I’m getting at. You can get refurbished, but how old is that tech? Are we talking? It’s five years old. All right, now I’m gonna start to take back a little bit of that advice. I’m gonna go, okay. Like there’s a balance of the age of the product.

[00:23:39] Bridget: Is it last year’s model of how far we’re going back two years old and then there’s the refurbished. So if it’s brand new, refurbished, I feel a little better about being able to get more life outta that product than if it’s many years old and refurbished. Now we’re Stacking, Stacking, we’re Stacking problems that could happen.

[00:23:55] Joe: It’s like a half step below. It could be the text that have stepped below, but the refurbished is so five years down here and refurbished, uh, down there. Yeah. ’cause 

[00:24:03] Bridget: battery life’s also an issue too, that you wanna make sure you’re getting the most out of it. 

[00:24:07] Joe: Yeah. We have almost lost Android people hanging there.

[00:24:11] Joe: WW you’re next. Uh, the Androids are going, what about us, Bridget, what about us? I don’t use any of those Apple products. I know that you don’t cover it as part of your regular beat, but certainly you’re looking at the competition across the algo and what’s Google bringing? 

[00:24:24] Bridget: Android always has a lot of more budget options than Apple ever does.

[00:24:27] Bridget: That’s the thing. That’s why Android users know that they’re smarter than all of us because they’re always getting better deals and they have more freedom. But people who are like locked into the Apple ecosystem are always like, Bridget, is there a sale on phones? And I’m like, no, there’s never a sale on phones.

[00:24:41] Bridget: Let it go. But Android folks can always get like $150, 200 phone. So I think the sales, when it comes to like, you know, different deals there, usually the carriers kind of have some Black Friday deals that they kind of like to bundle things together. In general though, kind of going off of Apple a little bit too, it’s another big time for Amazon, not Android, but another a.

[00:25:00] Bridget: Amazon obviously has all of its own brands. There’s so many brands now. There’s the Ring, the Echo, the Fire tv, the Kindle. There’s also Blink. If you need to accessorize your home, add another smart thing to another room, add a little security system to the ecosystem you already set up, that’s when you go for it.

[00:25:16] Bridget: ’cause Amazon has really good deals for this. I think some people are a little hesitant when they already have certain kind of brand ecosystems in their home. Yeah. 

[00:25:23] Joe: But they’re 

[00:25:23] Bridget: starting to play together better now. There’s something called. Matter. It’s kind of techy, but it’s a, it’s basically a language where all these smart products are talking to each other better.

[00:25:33] Bridget: It used to be you need it all Samsung, you need it all. Amazon, you need it all Google. But now in my house, I’m noticing I can have a couple different devices. I can play my Apple music on my Echo smart speaker. And so it makes me go, there’s a little bit of more wiggle room to experiment if you wanna try something new without feeling like you had to throw out your old stuff.

[00:25:51] Joe: I just got an amp for my Sonos, so all my, the house we moved into has, uh, wired speakers and I was able to hook those all up to my Sonos using this cool Amp product. Not cheap, but made it so that all the existing tech that was in the house worked with what I was already using, you know, my existing system, which was pretty cool.

[00:26:08] Joe: Two more things I was hoping to cover. One is a big one that, that I saw on a Reddit thread recently. They’re all talking about this. Bridget, I think it was Ring, was it ring that for some of their older doorbell systems and security stuff. They just discontinued it. You, your doorbell that you bought, that’s three, four or five generations old.

[00:26:27] Joe: I don’t remember. I don’t know which one just now doesn’t work anymore. They just don’t support it. 

[00:26:32] Bridget: I had a issue with this this year. Uh, great thing happened. I bought my first home. No more renting. Hey, that’s great. And then I get into your home that has a Google Nest. There’s a thermostat in it. I’m like, great.

[00:26:45] Bridget: I get to have my first smart thermostat. Hold on a second alert. It was discontinued in October. It’s basically becoming dumb, so dumb that I can’t even use my phone to change the temperature. I have to manually do it, and it’s also, now that it happened, it’s now a dumb thermostat. There go, Hey, don’t worry about it.

[00:27:03] Bridget: We’ll give you a discount to buy a brand new one. A discount. It still costs me $150. Yeah, to buy a new one. I am absolutely outraged over this because you have a right to be able to just. Use it basically, like you shouldn’t have to have something that is an essential part of your house. Suddenly go, we changed our mind, we’re not working anymore.

[00:27:23] Bridget: How hard was it to just be able to take my phone and to be able to see what my temperature is? This is stuff I can do with toys at home. Why? Why is a thermostat from Google suddenly going, huh, guess you gotta buy a new one, folks. Thanks for playing. And so I think a lot of consumers are getting really angry now.

[00:27:39] Bridget: It all this ai, all the, all these smarts and these products, the fact that you could digitally download something and the next day it not be in your library. There is a consumer rage and distrust now over, are you just gonna let these companies change the rules mid-game when you already own the physical product?

[00:27:56] Bridget: So yeah, I’m a little, I’m a little upset about that. I have to go install the new one now. 

[00:28:00] Joe: Yeah, but do we have an option? I mean, either a, I get angry and I accept it and I just go buy the new one for 150 bucks or I just don’t play the game. Is there a third option? 

[00:28:11] Bridget: I really think I’ve been going more into the dumb category, so I don’t play the game.

[00:28:15] Bridget: Yeah, I’m getting, I’m getting a little mad about it too, honestly, like I’m a little weird. I still now am buying cars that are used that have a key and are less screen and more like less computer, more car, please, because. You hear it too? Oh, you, you can’t operate your car unless you have a system, a software update.

[00:28:30] Bridget: So the fact that we as consumers are losing control, it’s something to look into when you’re making a big investment into something. And I think that a lot of people who like invested in Google and the Nest, it’s such a mess. They might be looking to what we’re rumored to hear about Apple getting into this space.

[00:28:44] Bridget: It’s, there’s a lot of buzz right now that Apple’s getting into the smart home space. So even though they’re really late in the game, anyone who’s really angry about problems with their doorbells not working and problems with their thermostats, suddenly like changing the temperature on them and going down, they’re gonna be looking to Apple.

[00:28:59] Bridget: So sometimes it benefits Apple to be late in the game. They just come in and go, Hey, here we go. 

[00:29:04] Joe: All right, let’s go. I saved the best for last, I think, which is there’s three kids in the Kerry household, the two real kids, and then Bridget. So a little bit slightly with three kids in the household. What’s cool in the toy aisle that people might see under their tree or under the Hanukkah bush this year?

[00:29:21] Bridget: Okay, so for anyone who’s new, I have been covering the toy industry as like a side beat for a long time, uh, especially tech toys, and I’m seeing fewer cool tech toys, dare I say, because I think a lot of companies, with everything going on with the tariffs and the pressures of the economy, they’re just having fewer product choices, right?

[00:29:38] Bridget: Everything’s going back to the classics. It’s going back to your basic magna doodles and light brights, and let’s go back in nostalgia, tried and true fewer options. But I have seen a few tech toys that do make me smile and are great gift ideas for any age. We talked about Nintendo in the beginning. Have you heard about the Nintendo alarm clock?

[00:29:56] Bridget: Because this thing is so much fun and it’s so silly. But it’s called Alarm O. Like everything has an O at the end, Mario Alarm O. They have updated this. Nintendo has updated this silly little alarm clock for the past year. It keeps adding music and games that you can wake up to an enemy shouting at you from your favorite video game.

[00:30:17] Bridget: And you have to move. You have to move to get outta bed. And of course, if you have a spouse, they’re like, what the heck is this? Please make it stop. But if you wanna have a little fun and your kids wanna have something that motivates them to get up, I love this thing. I’ve been recommending it. I think it’s hard with tech toys because sometimes you hit this price point where you’re like, why do I wanna pay so much money for a toy?

[00:30:37] Bridget: I think toys have become really expensive now. I’ve seen some tech toys, like you hear about the Tony, where like it says box, you put a little figurine on top and it. It’s able to play books and audio, books and music, so it’s screen free, but then every one of those little figurines adds up. It’s like 20 bucks or so for every figurine.

[00:30:54] Bridget: So it’s hard for me to recommend that to parents when I’m like, you just wanna get longevity out of a toy. But there is one tech toy that I think is the king of the tech toys this year. And talking about nostalgia. We’re going back to Furby. Hasbro has made a crazy Furby. It’s long Furby. That’s not the official name.

[00:31:11] Bridget: I’m calling it that ’cause you can imagine it in your head. Imagine a very long snake like Furby. It’s rainbow colored and it’s so silly. It’s so fun and delightful. It even has like meditation in yoga and goofy rhymes and touch games that my kids can’t stop playing with this thing more than me. When Bie first came out and I loved bie, so I feel like Hasbro has got the formula right somehow on this weird creature that we’ve heard in our pop culture essence for decades now.

[00:31:41] Bridget: It is expensive. It’s between 16 and $70. If you can find a sale on Black Friday, go for it. But you will at least know in that in that case, you are gonna get a good amount of play time out of that one. Yeah, it is hard with tech toys. People are just looking for a good deal and so I just go with the basics.

[00:31:56] Bridget: I mean, go with Skip It. I, I saw Skip It’s back. That’s like a to from the nineties. That’s incredible. You don’t have to have a lot of tech. You can have fun. 

[00:32:03] Joe: The last. Thing I thought you’d say on this podcast today was skip it. Like, wait, what? 

[00:32:09] Bridget: Just skip it. Like, what is she talking about? Don’t skip it.

[00:32:12] Bridget: She’s telling to skip some. No, no. It’s the thing you, you swung around your foot and it had a whole little song. I don’t think kids know jingles anymore. They don’t watch commercials. Everything is streaming. But there was a whole, like we used to get hooked on toys just from the jingles. Right. But yeah, it’s like a hopping type of jump rope with your feet.

[00:32:27] Bridget: Yeah. There you go. Maybe we should skip them for all of our white elephant gifts. So we’re all healthier too. We’re all moving our bodies. 

[00:32:35] Joe: That is good. Move less greens, more move. So just start skipping. What I like about things like the Nintendo clock is what you said about them continuing to support it and adding new stuff and new games.

[00:32:47] Joe: I think that’s really cool when you buy something and the company just keeps updating it. I know our doorbell system keeps downloading other fun doorbell rings for every holiday. Every year they have a couple new ones. Our hue lighting system, which was expensive to put in, but they’re consistently giving me these cool new lighting features that I can just go and, oh look, we’re in Rio de Janeiro or wherever we wanna be.

[00:33:10] Bridget: Give us value Exactly when you’re, especially when you’re investing so much in these products. You start to have distrust if you can’t get life out of it, you know? So it’s great to see that. That’s why I’m recommending it. ’cause yeah, I’m like, okay, if Nintendo’s still updating this crazy thing called an alarm clock, go for it.

[00:33:25] Bridget: ’cause then I know it’s gonna have some fun, longevity. And my kids though, they keep sending alarms at really odd times throughout the day. So that is a downside. 

[00:33:32] Joe: Oh, that’s not good. That is not good. Yes. That that’s fabulous. If only you enjoyed your job, Bridget, I wish you enjoyed yourself. It you’ve come here and never bring any energy and it makes me feel bad.

[00:33:44] Bridget: I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I 

[00:33:45] Joe: do my best. I’m doing my best. If there was only a show where people could get this energy all the time, if only there was a show, Bridget, oh, 

[00:33:52] Bridget: I might be able to help you here. Wow. Really? Yes. There’s a show I do called One More Thing Every Friday on cnet YouTube channel. Check it out.

[00:34:01] Bridget: Always talking about something crazy. 

[00:34:03] Joe: Awesome. And we’ll link to that in the show notes. And, um, following Bridget on socials, I’ll link to Bridget social channels ’cause it’s always a blast. Bridget, thank you so much for mentoring us on Tech in 2025. I told Reina who’s here every Monday this week. It’s always the Reina and Bridget show that I feel like every time I write you, it feels like I just hung up with you.

[00:34:25] Joe: So we’ll see you in 11 months, AK tomorrow. 

[00:34:28] Bridget: Oh yeah, it’s, it’s always wild in tech. And ask Ragina about toys that like are no longer maybe coming with batteries this year. Oh, I feel like everyone should be looking for batteries this Black Friday. ’cause these companies are kind of cutting corners in interesting ways.

[00:34:42] Bridget: And I’ve picked up a few that don’t have batteries included. Batteries not included is the theme of this year. I think 

[00:34:46] Joe: that’s crap. Well, especially if it’s going in a gift. Yeah. The recipient can’t play it. 

[00:34:52] Bridget: Oh yeah. Everyone needs to look at their accessories now if they’re given things.

[00:35:00] Doug: Hey there, stackers. I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Duggan. Wow, that is a lot of cool new tech. Joe’s mom thinks I’m a techie just ’cause I still know how to change the batteries in her discman player. Who knew that artifact would last this long? No, no, no. Ma, I’m not calling you an artifact. He’s talking about the disc.

[00:35:19] Doug: Man. That woman’s got some ears for an artifact. Hitting. Hitting. Before I get into more trouble, here’s today’s question. What piece of tech does the average person in the world replace Every three and a half years, but Americans replace every two and a half years. I’ll be back right after I go see if there’s a way to get Joe’s mom’s record player to automatically play the next Barry Manalow album.

[00:35:45] Doug: Man, that’d be genius.

[00:35:57] Doug: Hey there, stackers. I’m vinyl lover and guy who just found out record players could play multiple albums even back in the seventies. Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. Well, apparently technology has moved faster than me. Who knew you could load multiple vinyls onto a stereo record player? It’s genius. Of course, as I always say, if the Atari ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

[00:36:21] Doug: For you. Kids who don’t know what an Atari is, uncle Doug will cover that in a future episode. Here was today’s trivia. What piece of tech does the average person in the world replace every three and a half years, but the average American replaces it every two and a half years because of course we do.

[00:36:37] Doug: That would be your cell phone. And now two people who clearly aren’t phoning in this episode, Joe and Anna. 

[00:36:48] bumper: Hello fellow stackers. I’m Michelle from Enid, Oklahoma. When I’m not taming Lions as a veterinary technician at an AllCat clinic, I’m Stacking Benjamins. 

[00:36:59] Joe: Big thanks to Bridget Carey for spending time with us every year.

[00:37:03] Joe: A whole new list of fun toys. Doug, I think that was a race to see just how many pieces of obsolete tech we could mention in one trivia segment. A Anna, are you familiar with the record player automatically bringing down the next album? 

[00:37:20] Doug: No. There’s no way you are. 

[00:37:23] Anna: Wait, what are you? I don’t understand the question.

[00:37:24] Anna: I’m sorry, Joe. She doesn’t 

[00:37:25] Doug: gonna get it. See, she doesn’t even know what the question is. Finals made a huge comeback, right? I think it’s now like the second, yeah. Biggest selling medium for music. But still the 

[00:37:36] Joe: idea of the automatic right mind now doesn’t have the automatic thing like it had in the seventies.

[00:37:43] Anna: What is automatic versus not automatic on this 

[00:37:46] Doug: record player? You know, the single in the middle of a record player, the little silver nub that you know, that centers your album Uhhuh when you put it on the record player back in the seventies, they would have really tall ones of those. I don’t know, maybe let’s say four to six inches tall.

[00:38:00] Doug: And you could put, you put your first record all the way down to the bottom, put the needle on you play. But you could stack, uh, several other albums on top and this little device at the top of that silver spindle would keep them up there. Just played 

[00:38:12] Joe: one after another 

[00:38:13] Doug: and just, and then when the needle got to the very end of that first record that was playing, it would retract drop the next album and then the arm would go back over and start playing the first track of the next album.

[00:38:24] Doug: So your records would just sort of sequentially drop on top of one another. And uh, it was like, yeah, it was magic. 

[00:38:31] Anna: That makes so much sense. We actually had a record player for a while and I was like, this is kind of annoying. ’cause you gotta go back every 45 minutes and put something new on, like, if you have people over, you’re now tending to the record player also.

[00:38:45] Anna: Oh my God. There’s no shuffle. And also, yeah, and the food in the oven like use just too much to deal with it one time. So that would be nice to have. 

[00:38:54] Joe: How about the Atari? Are you familiar with the Atari? 

[00:38:57] Anna: I am not. We might need to go over that in a future episode. Didn’t have 

[00:39:00] Joe: that one. What about the Discman?

[00:39:03] Anna: Is that like a Walkman? 

[00:39:04] Joe: It was, but it’s where they had the big honking CD for CDs inside and you would walk with your CD and it would skip about once every seven steps. 

[00:39:12] Anna: I kind of remember that. Um, I actually think we had some of those in our house growing up that were not used pretty 

[00:39:20] Doug: soon after.

[00:39:22] Doug: Skewing to a younger demo sucks. Like this is so painful to have her on. I think we should abandon all of our efforts to get a younger audience ’cause Anna’s just crushing me. 

[00:39:34] Anna: Sorry, Doug. 

[00:39:35] Doug: Bridget is about to come back downstairs 

[00:39:37] Joe: and slap us. Like slap like what are you doing, child For a co-host all this tech, she tries to tell us about the new stuff and we’re stuck in the seventies and eighties.

[00:39:46] Joe: Hey guys. Uh, let’s do a headline. 

[00:39:48] headlines: Hello Darlings. And now it’s time for your favorite part of the show, our Stacking Benjamin’s headlines. 

[00:39:55] Joe: Our headline today comes to us from The Motley Fool. This is written by Lawrence Naga. Lawrence writes, oh my Robinhood, I just threw up in my mouth. I said the word Robinhood is quietly building a FinTech ecosystem.

[00:40:12] Joe: For the next generation. Oh, that’s, isn’t that nice? Robinhood, the company that takes from the poor and gives to their wallet. Isn’t that what Robin Hood’s all about? 

[00:40:23] Doug: By the way, how did they not foresee the play on that name when they were thinking of their new company name? I 

[00:40:29] Joe: think they, they did. I think it is.

[00:40:31] Joe: So the jokes on you if you use Robinhood and you don’t get that, Ugh, Robinhood Nasdaq, HOOD. Even their ticker symbol is Hood. I didn’t 

[00:40:46] Anna: know 

[00:40:46] Joe: that. They tell you so many ways that they’re ripping you off. And I know Doug was like, we’re gonna see Joe’s head explode. I had no idea, Doug, you were going here, but holy be, ugh, Robinhood.

[00:40:59] Joe: Okay, I’m gonna get it together. Has long been known for changing how people trade stocks. That’s what Lawrence wrote with a straight face. Long been known for changing how people trade stocks, but the company’s next act might prove more meaningful and less visible. After years of being labeled a mean stock platform, Robinhood is quietly building the foundation of a broader FinTech ecosystem.

[00:41:21] Joe: The funny thing is they got all those mean stock people mad at them too. And I’m sure you’re a big Robinhood user. 

[00:41:27] Anna: No, shockingly wow. I’m not a big Robinhood user, and so I kind of, you know, I knew we were gonna be talking about this today. I had to reach out to some people even younger than me, shockingly whoa.

[00:41:37] Anna: To kind of get, get, I talked to my brother-in-law about this ’cause he’s in, you know, he, he likes to get into finance and to trading and I was like, I think you probably use this. And tried to just pick his brain like, why do you like this and what do you, what are you doing? So does he use Robin Hood? He does use Robin Hood.

[00:41:57] Doug: I feel like you were about to say, what’s the matter with you? Why are you using this? I, I was that big pause was Anna 

[00:42:04] Joe: looking at the look on my face? Like who are 

[00:42:06] Anna: you 

[00:42:06] Joe: related to? 

[00:42:07] Anna: Well, I think a lot of the younger generation uses it and for people who are not looking to, they’re not really saving for the long-term right now.

[00:42:17] Anna: Sure, sure. Like they’re focused on doing this for fun. Like this is just kind of getting them into the trading environment and just getting them exposed to that. That’s what’s fun about Robinhood. But for someone who’s looking to do this for like long-term savings, diversification, like getting away from the gamification of trading, it’s not really for you, 

[00:42:40] Joe: but this is what frustrates me, Anna, is that it’s not all that stuff is what Robinhood has taught people to like to say, Hey, this is the fun platform.

[00:42:51] Joe: The spread the difference between the buy and the ask. So let’s walk through what both of those are. So when you go on any platform and you go to buy a stock, you go to buy a stock. And immediately, if you pay attention, no matter which platform you buy it on, you automatically have lost money because the way that everybody between you and the trade makes money is not just the fee that people used to pay, which no longer is there any fee on most of the main platforms.

[00:43:20] Joe: They make money based on the difference between those two numbers. So if you’re buying a stock and it’s $37. It might be 37 and eighth on the other side of that trade, and that eighth is the money that everybody makes between the, let’s say it’s the Nasdaq Exchange, let’s say it’s the broker, it’s all the intermediaries, all those people.

[00:43:42] Joe: They have a bigger spread at Robinhood than any other platform. They are taking money from you while they’re telling you it’s more fun. You can do the same trade at Vanguard. You could do the same trade at Fidelity, you can do the same trade at Schwab. It’s equally as fun, except they’re not ripping you off.

[00:44:04] Joe: That’s number one. The second thing that drives me crazy is, is that Robinhood has had, how many times over the last 10 years, Doug, have we gone over the SEC fines that Robinhood has had to pay? I mean, I’m thinking eight, eight times maybe. Yeah. And I’m not exaggerating, but this company is always in trouble for lying to their customers.

[00:44:27] Joe: And so either one of two things are happening, and I don’t like either one of ’em, either. On one hand, they’re incompetent, which I don’t wanna work with a company that’s incompetent or they’re lying to you and they have the fees built in because they know they’re lying. And so they’re just accepting the fact that the SEC is gonna come down on them.

[00:44:46] Joe: At one point they even said that their, you were protected in their money market, their sweep account, because you had SIPC insurance. Robinhood knew damn well the SIPC insurance has nothing to do with your money market. And it doesn’t protect you in that way. And yet Robinhood decided to do that. It, it so frustrates me, Anna, when I hear people go well, I use it because it’s fun because I’m just trying you, you can have fun in so many different places.

[00:45:18] Anna: Yeah. I think Robinhood though. And I understand exactly what you’re saying with all the things that they’ve done regulatory wise and where they’ve increased fees and all of that. But then on the other side of it, like it is really positioned to market very well to my generation and the generation below me a hundred 

[00:45:37] Joe: percent.

[00:45:38] Anna: And that’s where you might be paying this extra fee, and you might be okay with it because you are getting a different experience than if you were to be on the Schwab. Mobile app or if you were on Fidelity mobile app, it looks differently. I was on their website yesterday. It made me want to open up a credit card, like I was getting sucked into it because it looks so nice.

[00:45:59] Anna: Like it is a different experience than downloading your Schwab app. 

[00:46:04] Joe: For sure. And this is why, you know when you see things that work on you, like gamification. Robin Hood’s fantastic at gamification, but if gamification works on you, we already know it does. Every behavioral scientist says this gamifying Anna, like setting up an emergency fund, turning that into a game or like, let’s eat all the food in the freezer challenge before we go grocery shopping again, turning this stuff into a game the way that Robinhood does.

[00:46:30] Joe: You could do this same gamification and make your whole life, which seems onerous financially. Sometimes people are like, oh my God, you talk finance. Really? It’s so boring. It doesn’t have to be boring. 

[00:46:42] Anna: Yeah. And the gamification can go in two different directions. And Robinhood kind of does that. Like it’s getting you involved in trading and understanding the markets and especially with their futures trading now that they have.

[00:46:55] Anna: But then there’s like the opposite side of things where they were starting to get into trouble because when you would do trades, they would have like confetti. I don’t really, yeah. Confetti and like all that kind of stuff and it’s just sucking you into it a little bit and making it a little bit more gambling.

[00:47:08] Joe: They paid a fine for that as well. Mm-hmm. Everybody because they were encouraging you to day trade. 

[00:47:15] Anna: Yeah. ’cause it’s gamifying it in a bad way. Whereas there’s like the gamification where, I don’t know if Robinhood does this, but other apps do this where you’re like rounding up or you’re doing ways to, like you said, increase your emergency fund, doing different things to better your financial picture.

[00:47:31] Anna: They kind of have both things and they probably need to figure that out. 

[00:47:36] Joe: Well, apparently they figured it all out because they found ways to get money out of our wallet and into their app. The headline this year tells one story. Lawrence Wrights, Robin Hood’s profitable. The stocks rallied as part of the s and p 500.

[00:47:48] Joe: Now that’s how Big Robin Hood’s gotten. But the more important story lies beneath the surface. The business model itself is evolving. In the second quarter, Robin Hood’s revenue, listen to this rose, 45% year over year powered by growth across the board in transaction interest and other revenues, equity option crypto and interest income, all grew by high double digit percentages.

[00:48:10] Joe: The company’s diversification over the years means that now as nine businesses generating a hundred million or more in annualized revenue, nine different businesses that generate a hundred million or more in annualized revenue, and yet it’s fun. It’s funny, the fines don’t matter. The fees don’t matter, Anna.

[00:48:29] Joe: It doesn’t matter. Hey, this thing’s fun and now they’re encouraging you to do even more good stuff. This futures trading you wanna talk about, they’re allowing you to bet on what comes next. 

[00:48:39] Anna: Yeah, I kinda look at this new, so futures trading where you can basically bet on things that are happening within politics or things that are happening within the economy.

[00:48:50] Anna: And I think they also have a sports aspect to that too. 

[00:48:53] Joe: Yeah. Almost going head to head with DraftKings. 

[00:48:55] Anna: Yeah. I kind of look at it as almost an elevated DraftKings or FanDuel, like it’s for people who, if you aren’t necessarily into sports, or maybe you are, but you just are, you already are signed up with Robinhood and you’re already within that platform.

[00:49:13] Anna: And so it’s just easy to go in there and start doing it. It’s kind of like an elevated version of that. You feel different than if you were on your DraftKings app, which I don’t know entirely ’cause I don’t do sports betting, but when I look at it had 

[00:49:27] Joe: three to one odd she’d say she didn’t do sports betting.

[00:49:29] Joe: Done. Mm-hmm. I had three to one think I cleaned up on that. Anyway. Sorry. 

[00:49:35] Anna: You guys actually had a a bet against that? 

[00:49:37] Doug: We did. Oh yeah, we totally did. There’s several more. I’ve already won. Two that you don’t know about just since you’ve started talking. 

[00:49:46] Anna: I don’t like this anymore. 

[00:49:49] Doug: It’s all a joke. We don’t, 

[00:49:51] Anna: okay.

[00:49:51] Anna: Okay. We’ve no bets. Okay. Actually that 

[00:49:54] Joe: you know of. 

[00:49:55] Anna: Now I’m, yeah, now I’m on my guard. 

[00:49:57] Joe: No, no. That was just more, more, more. Anyway. Bad humor. Okay. 

[00:50:02] Anna: I don’t use betting apps, but this feels like because of what I know about Robinhood, I don’t think I would go in and create an account and do this, but I can see how this would be very.

[00:50:13] Anna: Attractive to people. 

[00:50:15] Joe: Well, think about this, Anna. I mean, it’s attractive because the whole gambling thing for people that aren’t into gambling, which by the way used to be me not into gambling at all. And then when I went to Vegas, like the first hour I was there, I was like, this is stupid. And then I won.

[00:50:34] Joe: And when you win for the first time, I realized I gotta get the hell outta here because this is way too fun and it’s way too dangerous. And I think that if I’ve got my long-term money in the same app, that is my betting app, which Robinhood allows you to do. I mean, imagine how addictive this is. I could go, you know what, if the Fed lowers interest rates next quarter, I’m gonna make a bunch of money.

[00:50:58] Joe: That thing’s a layup. I’m gonna take some of my money, my exchange traded funds, just move it over here for this one bet and then I’ll quote, put it right back, right? I start borrowing to do even more gambling, which. I mean, I, I don’t know any successful investors who that’s the cornerstone of their financial plan.

[00:51:15] Anna: Yeah. I think where this app could come into your financial picture is like, not with your long-term money. It is 97% of your net worth is somewhere else is with these traditional custodians. And this is a fun little game. And, and that’s the other thing with Robinhood is I feel like they were trying to get away from this, like gamification and they were trying to get away from this stereotype of being this, and now they’re almost doubling down on it.

[00:51:43] Anna: Owning a little bit. Yeah. They’re owning it, which is fine, but it also can’t be marketed as what you’re using to say for the long term, or like having your IRA in there. That’s not a good thing. It should be two separate. Account so that, like you said, you’re not gonna look at your IRA and be like, oh, you know what?

[00:52:03] Anna: I could pull this money out. It’s okay if I have my penalties on it and I can use it over here. Or even a brokerage account, like some money, but not everything. 

[00:52:12] Joe: They are really working, man. They are working with some financial planners now. They have a wealth management division. They are totally trying to make it your one-stop shop for everything.

[00:52:26] Joe: It is concerning. What also concerns me at the bottom of this piece, which I’ll link to on our show notes page at Stacking Benjamins, it says, what does this mean for investors? Robin Hood’s transformation is still in motion. Regulation and competition will continue to shape its path. Well, clearly regulation hasn’t shaped its path because they’ve been heavily regulated, they’ve been heavily fined, and they still continue to do a bunch of the same stuff over and over and over again.

[00:52:51] Joe: It’s amazing, but it says, for investors who think in years not quarters, this is a growth story worth watching. It has been fascinating to see how Robinhood continues to, to be the app that people go toward. And yet how many, we’re not the only podcast telling people, and listen, Schwab’s not your buddy, Fidelity’s not your buddy, they’re just not actively doing some of the crazy things that are going on, on, on at Robinhood.

[00:53:18] Anna: Yeah. I do wonder if like in a couple years we’ll get a Robinhood docuseries or documentary of some sort, 

[00:53:24] Doug: almost like the WeWork series Uhhuh. 

[00:53:26] Anna: Yeah. I wonder if that’s on the horizon. Yeah. 

[00:53:28] Doug: The Enron smartest guys in the room. Mm-hmm. It seems like what they’ve really figured out is how to market a product and a vertical that’s very intimidating to the average person and younger people, and made it feel like this is an easy way to, to get into.

[00:53:46] Doug: Finances and managing my finances and my investing, despite all of the darkness behind it, they’ve just made it more palatable. And the Schwabs and the, you know, pick one t Rowe Prices and everybody else who’s offering the same kinds of things. Still probably, this is, I’m guessing. Maybe Anna, you can, you can answer this, but I think they still probably feel like the old guard just seems kind of stayed 

[00:54:11] Joe: kind of blind.

[00:54:12] Joe: Yeah. 

[00:54:12] Doug: Staid and musty and, and complicated. And I gotta hire somebody to do this stuff for me. And in Robinhood, it’s an app and I can have it on my phone and I can do it. The other guys offer the same things, but they just have this stigma, this stank that’s all over ’em that Robinhood doesn’t. 

[00:54:28] Joe: Well, it’s funny that you say that, Doug, because A, it goes back, Anna, to what you said, how much this fomo, right, among who they’re marketing to.

[00:54:36] Joe: It does become a little bit of fomo. Everybody else that I know uses Robinhood. Why would I not use Robinhood? And even if I pay a little more, who cares? But the second thing is, and in this piece they talk about this, Robinhood is actually fighting the opposite battle. They’re trying now to B, get this, get people who are much more state investors.

[00:54:55] Joe: To accept them as a true competitor. And Robinhood, you’ll do that, in my view, when you start acting like one 

[00:55:03] Anna: of the true Yeah. Competitors, I think they just need to double down on the market that they have right now, which is hard because there’s a limit today’s day. There’s a limit to that. Like those people aren’t gonna have a ton of money until they start inheriting or until they start working more, getting older.

[00:55:22] Anna: It’s kind of limited at that point, and I think people in different generations older are not go. The more they double down on this, like we keep saying the gamification of it, the less those people, the older generations are gonna wanna come to this app. They feel better and I feel better with using Schwab Fidelity like we’ve talked about some of the more boring custodians than Robinhood.

[00:55:45] Anna: It sounds like a fun thing, but not for a majority of my assets. 

[00:55:50] Joe: Yeah, I love the gamification of the things that I’m trying to do with my money. I don’t love gamifying where I’m managing my money. I’ll link to this in the show notes page at stacky Benjamins dot com. We’re gonna transfer over to the back porch, Doug, and some good news.

[00:56:07] letters!: We just got a letter. We just got a letter. We just got a letter. Wonder who it’s for. 

[00:56:14] Doug: Yeah, sure thing, Joe. But can we play the full version, like the three minute version of, we just got a letter from Blues Clues. ’cause that’s the best song. Like, did you see Anna as soon as, as soon as it was playing, she’s gonna dancing a little bit.

[00:56:26] Doug: Like it just from a backup. A better 

[00:56:28] Anna: time. 

[00:56:28] Doug: Yeah. It just makes you happy. That’s all. But here’s what the letter says, Joe enjoyed episode 1751 about money problems are not, they’re not reading problems. 

[00:56:42] Joe: Not, they 

[00:56:42] Doug: not 

[00:56:42] Joe: be. They, they, they not be reading problem B problem. This is tough. This job is so much harder than people realize.

[00:56:50] Joe: That was our episode with Carl Richards, uh, New York Times longtime columnist, the sketch guy at the New York Times. And we had a wonderful discussion about early money memories and early money experiences and how much that shapes you. It was a fascinating discussion, uh, in episode 1751. 

[00:57:09] Doug: That’s great. Joe, can we get back to our listener’s letter or are you gonna go down memory lane a little longer?

[00:57:14] Doug: I just wanted to tell everybody what the hell he’s gonna be talking about. Okay, fine. I’ll start over. Enjoyed episode SB 1751 about money problems are not math problems. They are people problems. Loved your first money memory being your bike as it really hit home. And I thought I’d share. I still have my 1974 Rally Grand Prix.

[00:57:34] Doug: Wow. Which I have rebuilt four times. It’s the first time I had to pay for a bike. Instead of getting one as a gift, I had to sell my mini bike. Oh God. I loved mini bikes and still took out a loan from my parents to purchase it. Hold on. He sold a mini bike and still couldn’t afford the rally Grand Prix and to take out a loan.

[00:57:54] Doug: Did A-B-N-P-L with his parents strong, positive money experience at age 13 and that bike has never let me down. Still enjoy riding it. Signed Hell’s Angel. Chris apparently has this little rally bike gang around his neighborhood. 

[00:58:13] Joe: You think, you think Chris has a rally Grand Prix tramp stamp cruising the neighborhood 

[00:58:19] Doug: with his, uh, with his baseball cards in the spokes rally Grand Prix.

[00:58:23] Doug: There’s people super into bikes, man. There’s a whole submarket for buying and selling parts for those bikes and they can get really valuable. When, 

[00:58:32] Joe: when I finished this last marathon in January, I’m going to, to the bike. I just, I just love bicycling. It’s fun. Anna, you spend much time on a bicycle. 

[00:58:39] Anna: Not as much anymore, but we were really into bikes.

[00:58:41] Anna: We did a little mountain biking too. 

[00:58:43] Joe: We just got these mountain bike trails in the park down. Maybe two mounts from my house. They are hard, man. Yeah, I mean, you spend your entire time looking for the next route that’s gonna, you know, make you flip over the handlebars. 

[00:58:56] Anna: Yep. You end up like in the creek a little bit and.

[00:58:59] Anna: Sometimes walking, but it’s fun. 

[00:59:01] Joe: It is, it is fun. I I, I actually am excited about doing that more. Thank you, Chris, for the kind note in the trip down memory lane. Doug, what else we got on the back porch? 

[00:59:12] Doug: We could talk about those losers, Joel and Matt and, uh, this whole Voices for Good charity event that we’ve completely crushed.

[00:59:21] Doug: Like nobody has owned Joel and Matt like we have, 

[00:59:26] Joe: and we’re hoping so because we recorded this ahead of time. And if we’re not owning Joel and Matt are bad. 

[00:59:32] Doug: Well, I mean, but I hope we are even if somehow they miraculously got their parents to donate like a hundred thousand dollars to beat us. We still own them.

[00:59:41] Doug: Like from a podcasting perspective, dude crush. 

[00:59:44] Joe: Yeah. I mean in the stacker community, just in general. Yeah. Far more giving than those how to money people. Are you familiar at all, Anna, with the how to Money community? 

[00:59:52] Anna: No way. I would never set foot over there. Ho 

[00:59:55] Doug: why doesn’t she know about ’em? ’cause they 

[00:59:57] Joe: suck.

[01:00:00] Joe: Well, let’s describe Anna, why they suck. They suck because Joel and Matt are just too damn nice. You ever know those people that are just too nice? 

[01:00:06] Anna: Yeah, I don’t like them. 

[01:00:07] Joe: They’re just nice guys. I mean, gross, who wants any of that? And, and they’re, they’re tips on their show, like, so practical. It just, oh.

[01:00:16] Joe: Unbelievable. Yeah, we can do a great job here. Okay, so we already said we’re going to have a behind the scenes party if we hit 10,000 and guys, we blew 10,000 away on day number one. So thanks to you. We’ve also had, at the time that we record this, more pledges by you then any of the other seven podcasts.

[01:00:38] Joe: There’s eight podcasts in this competition. Some of them which are celebrity podcast ackers, have been, have been more giving than every other podcast. And for that, we thank you. And so does Karen Holland, who runs the nonprofit that we’re raising money for gifting Send Teaching Children Great Money Habits with the Does it Make Sense score?

[01:00:58] Joe: You can actually go to gifting sense.org and you can take the Does it make sense score? And by the way, when you’re looking at all the tech that Bridget talked about today. If you’re excited about it, go to gifting sense.org and take the, does it make Sense Score? It’s always free. This is a hundred percent nonprofit Care makes $0 on the Does it make Sense score.

[01:01:18] Joe: And it’s so intuitive and so, so great to use, not just with kids, but heck with, with Youth Friday’s Board game episode. I might have to do the, does it make Sense score, Doug, every single after everything that our guest Kylie says on Friday. ’cause might want a board game or two talking about 

[01:01:36] Doug: like the instructions for the games that are more complicated than College 400 level courses.

[01:01:41] Doug: Is that what you mean by, does it make 

[01:01:42] Joe: sense? If, if, if by complicated, you mean the Good Games uhhuh, then? Yes. So Stacking Benjamins dot com slash. Stacking hope, which is what our basement Facebook group wanted to call our giving campaign. And let’s put this away. If we do, if we win this thing, which it looks like we might first quarter of next year, we’re gonna help you set up your financial dashboard.

[01:02:06] Joe: Uh, we’re gonna do a financial dashboard webinar for everybody helping you figure out how to use apps, how to have better money conversations, how to, how to build your roadmap so that when you are going fast in 2026, you’re able to navigate your money really well. It’s really important to have a good roadmap.

[01:02:27] Joe: And if we win, that’s our stretch goal, guys. So let’s bring it home these last few days of November. Anna, thank you so much for playing with us today. Thanks for having me, Joe. It was super fun. Uh, where do people find you? People want help from the amazing Anna alum. How do we find you? 

[01:02:47] Anna: If you wanna find me, go to Stacking Benjamins dot com slash og and just when you are scheduling a meeting, just ask for me.

[01:02:54] Anna: There’s some questions you can fill out within there. 

[01:02:57] Joe: This was a hundred percent Doug and upgrade today, working with Anna. 

[01:03:00] Doug: Yeah, it, again, the bar is low, but, uh, really enjoyed it. I just didn’t love how, um, old Anna made. How made you feel, Doug? Yeah, that’s okay. That part wasn’t as fun as I expected, Doug.

[01:03:12] Anna: Sometimes it’s important to check in with reality, so that’s kind of what I provided today for you. 

[01:03:17] Joe: Super. Doug, bring it home, man. What should we have learned on today’s episode? 

[01:03:23] Doug: Well, Joe first take some advice from Bridget Carey. Not all tech is created equal. Just because it says AI enhanced doesn’t mean it’s worth your money.

[01:03:33] Doug: Second Robinhood, yep. Stealing from stackers and padding their wallet. Sounds about right, but the big lesson, I can’t wait to see the look on Joe’s mom’s face when she sees the slick new tech I bought her. There’s these like magic seeds in a high tech bag, and you put it in a microwave and it turns into popcorn, turns in minutes.

[01:03:58] Doug: What do they think of next? Annie, you wanna tell him? 

[01:04:01] Anna: I think you should tell him. Uh, 

[01:04:02] Joe: I ain’t 

[01:04:03] Doug: tell 

[01:04:03] Joe: him. 

[01:04:05] Doug: Thanks to Bridget Carey for joining us today. You’ll find all the hot tech [email protected] and we’ll share how to follow Bridget on social media on our show notes at Stacking Benjamins dot com. Thanks to Anna Allen for joining us.

[01:04:19] Doug: Looking for good financial planning help. You’ll find Anna’s calendar for a meeting at Stacking Benjamins dot com slash og and just request Anna, this show is the property of s SP podcasts LC copyright 2025 and is created by Joe Saul-Sehy. Joe gets some help from a few of our neighborhood friends.

[01:04:40] Doug: You’ll find out about our awesome team at Stacking Benjamins dot com, along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. Come say hello. Oh yeah. And before I go, not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don’t take advice from people you don’t know.

[01:04:59] Doug: This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any financial decisions, speak with a real financial advisor. I’m Joe’s Mom’s Neighbor, Duggan. We’ll see you next time back here at the Stacking Benjamin Show.

[01:06:02] Joe: Happy Thanksgiving stackers. Happy Thanksgiving, Anna. 

[01:06:05] Anna: Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving to you. 

[01:06:07] Joe: Happy Thanksgiving. Doug. 

[01:06:09] Doug: You know what? I’m thankful for almost being done with this episode.