What’s scarier than a haunted house? Looking at your retirement account after ignoring it for five years.
Joe Saul-Sehy, OG, and Doug welcome back Chuck Jaffe (Money Life with Chuck Jaffe) for his legendary annual Halloween visit—and this year, he’s bringing two treats to the basement.
First up: Chuck’s Halloween Money Game for kids. Picture this: trick-or-treaters can take one piece of candy and walk away… or they can play a game where they might win more candy, actual money, or lose it all. It’s economics wrapped in a Snickers bar. Chuck breaks down how each choice teaches kids (and parents) about risk, reward, delayed gratification, and why sometimes the safe bet is actually the smart bet. If you’ve got kids—or just want a genius way to gamify money lessons—you’ll want to steal this.
Then things get spooky. Real Stackers share their most bone-chilling financial horror stories: the credit union error that nearly cost someone their house, the coworker’s “advice” that turned into a disaster, and the procrastination that haunted someone for years. These aren’t fictional frights—they’re real mistakes that real people are still recovering from. And every story comes with the lesson that could’ve prevented it.
Plus: Doug’s trivia takes a Halloween turn (naturally), and Joe and OG debate whether government incentives are more trick or treat.
What You’ll Walk Away With:
- Chuck Jaffe’s brilliant Halloween Money Game—how to teach kids about risk, reward, and smart decisions using candy
- The economic principles hiding in every trick-or-treat choice (and how to explain them without killing the fun)
- Real Stacker horror stories: the financial mistakes that haunt people for years
- The red flags that could save you from starring in your own money nightmare
- Why the scariest financial advice often comes from people who mean well
This Episode Is For You If:
You’ve got a money skeleton in your closet and want to know you’re not the only one
You want a creative way to teach kids about money that doesn’t involve a boring lecture
You’ve ever made a financial decision you wish you could take back
You want to learn from other people’s mistakes instead of making them all yourself
FULL SHOW NOTES: https://stackingbenjamins.com/frightening-halloween-stories-with-chuck-jaffe-1753
Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201
Enjoy!
Monday Mentor: Chuck Jaffe
Big thanks to Chuck Jaffe for joining us today. To learn more about Chuck, visit Money Life with Chuck Jaffe. Grab yourself a copy of the book Getting Started in Finding a Financial Advisor
Doug’s Trivia
- Peter Stump was executed in 1589 after being accused of being what type of wolf, spawning a whole genre of classic horror?
Have a question for the show?
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Other Mentions
Join Us Wednesday
Tune in on Wednesday when we’re sharing money communication horror stories with two people who’ve seen them – Doug and Heather Boneparth! This conversation will be like an exorcism for your communication demons!
Written by: Kevin Bailey
Miss our last show? Listen here: You’ve Got Enough Money to Quit. Should You? SB1752
Episode transcript
[00:00:00] Joe: It’s Monday morning and good news here in the basement. Doug is home from the Knitting Festival, [00:00:04] Doug: which [00:00:04] Joe: he goes to every year. Did you knit something nice for us? Did you give us mittens, super bowl [00:00:08] Doug: of knitting [00:00:09] Joe: mi ends [00:00:10] Doug: mitten? No, no, no. I, uh, I drive, I am a, uh, designated driver just to, uh, transport the wife back and forth to Reinbeck New York each year for the Super Bowl of knitting, as I call it, just keeping her safe. [00:00:25] Joe: Well, guess what we do at the beginning of every Monday show? We have the Super Bowl of intros, where we all raise our mugs and say this, on behalf of the men and Women making podcast to Mom’s basement and the men and women at Navy Federal Credit Union, who serve our troops, it kept us safe all weekend while Doug was transporting the crazy knitting mob, the knitting mafia, taking them from place to place. [00:00:49] Joe: It’s totally a mafia. Thank you for keeping them safe. Thanks, everybody. Cheers. Let’s go stack some Benjamins. [00:00:59] opener: Oh, it’s Monday, baby. It’s f-ing Monday. Start of the new week. It’s raining outside. It’s cold, it’s gloomy. There’s every reason to not be excited, but guess what, baby? We are excited, we’re motivated, we’re dangerous and disciplined. [00:01:16] opener: We have a new week in front of us. A new week to chase After every dream. We want a new week. [00:01:27] Doug: Live from Joe’s mom’s basement. It’s the Stacking Benjamins show. [00:01:41] Doug: I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. And what ghoulish tricks do we have up our sleeve today? Frightful ones. Of course. On today’s show, we hear this year’s version of the greatest Halloween game ever played with the one and only Chuck Jaffe in our headline segment, your Ghoulishly Haunted Money Stories. What items have Gone Bump in the Night with your wallet? [00:02:02] Doug: You’ll find out all of this and more. And speaking of terrifyingly funny of course, then I’ll share some hella crazy trivia. And now two guys who are scary ’cause they look like those nasty neighbors from the HOA. It’s Joe. Oh and oh Ju. [00:02:25] Joe: That is the most frightening Halloween costume. We’re here from the H-O-A-O-G. We’re just here to help. [00:02:31] Doug: We’d like to, uh, talk to you about your mailbox. [00:02:34] Joe: Yeah, if we could, uh, talk to you about your lighting outside of your house, that would be great. We got a great show today. You know, it’s gonna be, uh, exciting stack of Benjamin Show. [00:02:44] Joe: We got three bleeps in the first 25 seconds. What OG said he was gonna do a cold open for us, Doug. I had no idea that was coming. [00:02:52] Doug: That was a [00:02:53] Joe: bucket [00:02:54] Doug: of cold on [00:02:54] Joe: my face. Talk about Wake [00:02:55] OG: us up. I got a whole week tune in Wednesday for Wednesdays. Wow. Holy cow. We’re good. Somebody found the internet again. [00:03:03] OG: Somebody found the internet again [00:03:06] Joe: and it’s gonna be fun for OG for like the first, the next 27 seconds. It’s gonna be really fun. And then he’s gonna turn it back off. Go. What the heck was I doing? We got a great show today as, uh, Doug so succinctly explained. We got the Chuck Jaffe here, og and that means that we are gonna have some fun with Halloween like we do every year. [00:03:28] Joe: Uh, you’re getting ready to have some fun with Halloween, aren’t you? [00:03:31] OG: Yeah, we are, uh, presently in the, uh, in the mouse house right now. Gonna go to the not so [00:03:36] Joe: scary Halloween party tomorrow. [00:03:38] OG: It’s super [00:03:38] Joe: scary for you though. I mean, let’s be real. [00:03:40] OG: All the villains are out. Have you ever been. No, [00:03:42] Joe: I’ve never have been, but I’ve heard it’s [00:03:44] OG: fantastic. [00:03:45] OG: It’s insanely fantastic. All the villains. That’s the only time you can see ’em is at the Halloween party. [00:03:50] Joe: I’ve heard Getting the queen of hearts, I think her autograph in your autograph book mm-hmm. Is one of the few autographs that actually the Uber geeks at Disney will pay for. They want that. Doug wants that. [00:04:03] Joe: Look at Doug. Doug is so excited. [00:04:05] OG: He’s so for lo that he doesn’t, he just, he just remembered that he’s missing that one. [00:04:11] Joe: Oh, we got a super show. We got a super week. We’re doing all things Halloween, all week long and we’re gonna kick it off with the Chuck Jaffe. Chuck back in the 1990s, back when I was a financial planner, gather around kids, and I’ll tell you stories about the old days, but one thing I used to do was uh, I read Chuck Jaffe columns religiously and I would clip them out. [00:04:32] Joe: And when my clients wondered about long-term care and how to approach it or whatever, and they wanted a third party, Chuck Jaffe always the voice of reason. Of course, now he’s the host of the Money Life with Chuck Jaffe show, but he’s even better known as the guy who every single Halloween season comes down to the basement to explain this cool game he plays in his neighborhood. [00:04:55] Joe: He turns Halloween into a fun economic game and you can too. And we’re gonna talk to him about this year’s iteration of the game. So that’s what’s on tap that. And we asked all of you stackers about your money horror stories. We’re gonna hear those today. So sit back and relax and get ready for some ghoulishly fun money nerdery. [00:05:17] Joe: But first we got a couple of sponsors to make sure we can keep on keeping on so that you don’t have to pay a dime for any of this Halloween flavor. Goodness. We’re gonna hear from them. And then Chuck Jaffe joins us here at Mom’s Basement [00:05:37] Joe: and it wouldn’t be Halloween week. Wouldn’t be able to kick off the week without this gentleman who comes, by the way, every year dressed up is like a semi cynical journalist type podcasting guy. Been around the block. Chuck Jaffe ISS back. How are you man? I’m great. Trick or treat, Joe, that is [00:05:55] Chuck: a [00:05:56] Joe: scary, scary [00:05:57] Chuck: uniform you bring down here every year, my friend. [00:05:59] Chuck: You know, my favorite Halloween costume always involved things with a box. I, when I was a kid, it was always like, can I do something that I gotta wear a box and, and make a box into a costume? And I am a huge believer and I have it ready at the drop of a hat that, uh, an ATM machine makes a fabulous, fabulous costume. [00:06:19] Chuck: I’m ready. It could [00:06:20] Joe: be ATM machine that’s outta order. Like, it’s just seems like every time now that I need an ATM machine, which is never, I always find the one that’s not in order. And maybe it’s because fewer people want ATM machines, but that’s a whole different, whole different thing. Let’s focus on this year’s edition of your amazing game that you play at Halloween for people that, well, everybody knows Chuck. [00:06:45] Joe: ’cause as you were coming down the stairs, you heard us talk about the game and about how you come here every year to celebrate Halloween with us. But I guess I wanna ask you this, as you play the game with kids year after year, after year, do you find that the average kid who comes to play your game instead of just getting. [00:07:03] Joe: Halloween candy, are they generally good at it? Are they bad at it? Like what do you really like about the decision [00:07:09] Chuck: making that you see in front of you? Well, I think what you have to recognize is they are as good at it as they put the time and effort in to do it. If what they want to do is move on, then they will make whatever choice is impulsive. [00:07:25] Chuck: If what they want to do is figure out how to get a win and they wanna decide what that win would be, they become great consumers. And it, it’s an important lesson because I think that’s how we are. We all know people, like my wife will tell you, you know, she doesn’t really care about money. She, she needs it, she wants it, et cetera. [00:07:46] Chuck: But it has never been like, she’s not the one who’s gonna go, oh, let me figure out the best way to save this way. She’ll use a coupon if it’s handy, but she won’t spend any time looking forward or what have you. So. We know adults are the same way that that some have a real interest in this and try to make it work and others don’t. [00:08:04] Chuck: And kids, it’s almost ingrained in them from the beginning. ’cause you will see the kids who are like, yeah, I’ve been here before. Just gimme a candy bar, just gimme a buck or whatever. And you get the other ones who really wanna dig in and figure it out. And none of them are wrong. But you do kind of hope and, and maybe I’ll get it if I live here long enough ’cause I’ve been doing this now for 10 years, that you’ll see some of those things play out. [00:08:29] Chuck: But again, I’ve had great conversations with kids about risk. I have kids who really want to understand what’s done. I’ve had kids who have won big, who come back the next year and are like, I won big. The odds of me doing that twice are so slim. I’ll take a different choice. They’re already counting a reversion to the mean. [00:08:46] Chuck: Exactly. Which is really interesting. When you think you’re so far ahead, why wouldn’t you just take another chance? Yet, that’s how they come wired. So some of it is how they’re wired. Some of it is, you know, they’re dressed in costume and they’re going out. What they do like is that this is different. And that’s why I, I’ll tell everyone, you can do this at home. [00:09:08] Chuck: And my joke is always for the people go, I only get a few people for Halloween. Let me explain. If you only get a few people for Halloween, there’s an easy way to do this. Go buy full sized versions of your favorite candy or your spouse’s favorite candy, then take a couple of envelopes, however many candy bars you have, take that many envelopes, put a dollar in each envelope, and $5 in one envelope. [00:09:33] Chuck: And when the kids come, offer them the choice cash or candy, and see what they take. Because what you’re gonna be left with is a your favorite candy bar or your spouse’s favorite candy. So there’s nothing wrong with that. And B, you gave out full size candy bars or money, which encourages them to come back and we’d all like more trick or treaters on Halloween. [00:09:52] Chuck: Uh, the, the waistline, your dentist might not agree, Chuck. Uh, you know, if, for those who get way too much candy or if you don’t do this for yourself, candy is currency on Halloween. So if you don’t do like, I’m gonna give out cash or candy. The way I do come back the other way, I always tell the story of my two kids. [00:10:11] Chuck: I had one daughter who only liked plain chocolate and the other was a garbage can. She would eat anything. And the result is when they first get home, they’d lay out their candy and the one who only ate chocolate would trade whatever she had, you know, kind of straight up, oh, I’ll give you one of these for this, but then she’d get to where her sister only had like three plain chocolate bars left, and her sister put the screws to her. [00:10:35] Chuck: Her sister was like, no, you want my last three plain chocolate bars. I’ll take pretty much everything else you’ve got. Are you saying the tariffs got pretty high? Yeah, exactly. But it teaches them economic value. There is a real thing in all of this that the lessons are real and they’re being learned in other ways. [00:10:55] Chuck: But if you feel that you got, you know, gee, I didn’t get a fair deal. Why didn’t I get a fair deal? Well, it’s because I wasn’t willing to compromise here. Those are negotiating skills that someday are gonna be something that helps you with a car or with a job or whatever, and you might as well learn ’em on the easiest currency you’re ever gonna get. [00:11:13] Chuck: So I love Halloween as a teaching tool. Beyond all of the things that make me love Halloween. I got one more [00:11:19] Joe: thing, Chuck. Before we get into this year’s version of the game, which I can’t wait to hear, it’s one of the most exciting things I do every year is hear about the new game. Like I’m just so excited. [00:11:28] Joe: But before we do that, you haven’t incorporated this into the game yet, but you talk about your one daughter who loves the chocolate bar and so the other daughter makes her pay. There is a chocolate bar that kids like more than any other you told me, which I did not find surprising. ’cause this is a good candy bar. [00:11:47] Joe: But you haven’t incorporated in the game yet either. [00:11:49] Chuck: Well, one of the changes we made a couple years ago, and for anybody who’s hearing this for the first time, I started this about 10 years ago and basically once I got to where it was a little more cooked out. I then took it my way and went extreme with it. [00:12:04] Chuck: But every year it changes. And if I lived in a perfect world, I’d do it. And then I’d give my neighbor last year’s version and they do that and it would just keep going. ’cause then you could have real, I mean, trust me, I’ve talked to award-winning behavioral finance economists on how valuable this skillset is. [00:12:20] Chuck: And the, the information that we get is, but last year, well, I think it was two years ago, I switched to where it was a full-size candy bar. So for years it was only you came to my house, your return on investment was, was three fun sized pieces of candy. I [00:12:35] Joe: call ‘ [00:12:35] Chuck: em frustrating [00:12:35] Joe: size chuck, not, not fun, size, frustrating [00:12:37] Chuck: size. [00:12:38] Chuck: Okay. But they were, at least, they weren’t the tiny, the really tiny ones, right? Yeah, right. And so you get three of those, and I ultimately changed it to a full-sized candy bar. Now a full-sized candy bar has a retail value of a dollar 69, but I’m cheap and I’m getting ’em for about 75 cents each on a sale. [00:12:55] Chuck: So truthfully, I’m not spending any more money. And by the way, this only applies to kids third grade and up. Younger kids just get three full fun-size candy bars or frustrating sized candy bars and off they go. When I first changed, I did full-size candy bars. I bought whatever was on sale. Well, last year what was on sale was Nestle’s Crunch Bars. [00:13:15] Chuck: It was Nestle’s Crunch Bars and Hershey Bars was what I had. And we ran out of Crunch Bars. And normally the full size candy bar since we went to it was not a big attraction the year before, but with the Crunch Bars, every Crunch Bar went, I love Crunch bars so much. Yeah. And, and again, so you need to understand that the, the base case for a kid, third grade and up when they come to my house is now you can have a full-size candy bar or you can have a dollar bill. [00:13:48] Chuck: Now again, candy on Halloween is cheap, even if it’s a full-size candy bar, my neighbors probably gave you. A couple of other pieces that have as much weight to them. So candy is cheap and you’d be better off taking the full size candy bar. It’s a retail value of a dollar 59 even, or 69, even though I only paid 75 cents for it. [00:14:10] Chuck: The retail value, a dollar 69, the retail value of the dollar. $1. So candy would actually be the better choice. And then we get into the wild stuff. And I will tell you that, yeah, I now believe that the candy that you pick matters, and it’s not, I, I don’t know whether that’s Crunch Bars were not as prevalent among my neighbors or whether it’s, yeah, you know, a plain candy bar, Hershey Bar was boring, but whatever it is, the Crunch Bars last year, literally, I had a couple of kids when the last Crunch Bar one was like, well, I would’ve done that, but now I’m not going. [00:14:47] Chuck: But there’s no Crunch Bar. Exactly. When, when, when the Crunch Bar was now just any other candy bar, they were like, no. [00:14:55] Joe: Who [00:14:55] Chuck: knew it’s an [00:14:56] Joe: almond joy. Forget it. Okay, so the base, the base trade you got to this year, like it was last year, I think full size candy bar or a dollar. But wait, there’s more this year? [00:15:07] Joe: Yeah, [00:15:07] Chuck: well, there’s more every year and actually I really liked what we did last year, so I’m not changing the other base trades. So this part is also what we did last year. Your choice, instead of taking the full size candy bar or the dollar bill, was you could trade me two pieces of fun size candy, though I will tell you some of my neighbors are so cheap. [00:15:28] Chuck: It’s not even the frustrating size. It’s the tiny, really. Like I know what your properties are worth, guys, you can spend more on candy, two pieces of candy retail value, somewhere between a quarter and 33 cents to pick an envelope that has between a quarter and $8. Half the envelopes have 25 or 50 cents, but the average envelope was a dollar 60. [00:15:51] Chuck: That means that the expected value of this choice. A dollar 25, which is the average envelope minus the cost of the candy you traded. So again, if your choice was a dollar or a dollar 69 of candy in a candy bar or a dollar 25 by trading me some candy and getting some cash and hoping it’ll be worth more than a dollar, or you could play the lottery, you would trade me five pieces of candy to pick from 25 envelopes. [00:16:24] Chuck: There’s a $25 jackpot, but just one envelope that has the money in it. So the average per envelope, a dollar, that’s the same dollar you could have gotten by just taking a dollar. But now you’ve traded me five pieces of candy. That’s more than a dollar’s worth of candy. So your expected value is negative. [00:16:47] Chuck: And oh, by the way, lots of kids go home with nothing. Now you want the twist, Joe. ’cause this year. We have always said, don’t open the envelopes around us. We don’t wanna know because in part, I have to tell the next kid. And if I know that the jackpot’s been given out, which I did one year because a kid won, they got to the edge of my property, they opened it, they start jumping up and down and they’re thanking me ’cause they had won the big jackpot. [00:17:13] Chuck: I still have all the other kids coming and I want this to be an experiment and I want them to learn the lessons, but I don’t wanna feel like a monster on Halloween. I took your candy and I gave you nothing. You’re going home happy handed and, and I knew you would get nothing. Right? Like that’s the worst. [00:17:27] Chuck: But this year, if you want, you can open those envelopes in the big lottery option in front of us. And if you lose, we’ll give you a second Chance lottery. The second chance lottery. You’re gonna give us five more pieces of candy. Because it’s the second chance the jackpot is only worth 20 bucks. So you’re actually spending the same amount of money for even less of a reward, which we hope will give you the, did you have twice as much fun? [00:18:01] Chuck: ’cause if you didn’t have twice as much fun, there’s a valuable lesson there, which is, although I’ve never bought a lottery ticket myself, I understand it and I think there’s real value in playing. What if games around the lottery. I think that is a wonderful thing that you can do when the lottery jackpot gets big. [00:18:17] Chuck: Have a conversation, even if you’re not in it, about what you would do and how you would prioritize things and then cut it down. Go, oh, I didn’t win a billion dollars. What would happen if I won a million dollars? What would happen if I won a hundred thousand? What would happen if I won 10,000? Because a $10,000 windfall is very reasonable in a lot of people’s lives. [00:18:34] Chuck: How would you prioritize what you’re doing? So I don’t mind lottery. But the idea that like, oh, I bought 10 tickets. Did you get 10 times the enjoyment? Did you get 10 times the what if value did you get? No, you pretty much didn’t. So the result of that is, I’m hoping we’re gonna teach that lesson, but I don’t know. [00:18:55] Chuck: ’cause it might teach them, Hey gamble, take another chance. Even though it’s a stupid chance and, and maybe you can, can come out somehow ahead. But the math lesson here too, [00:19:07] Joe: which I like, ’cause I think for kids they might not get that I spent double the amount of candy, which means that the prize is worth less. [00:19:15] Joe: But also by diminishing the prize level, I think it drives that part home. Every dollar you throw in this, the price is worth less money. [00:19:24] Chuck: That’s correct. So that’s my twist for this year is Second Chance Lottery, which means I’m taking more candy from babies. [00:19:35] Joe: But only the ones that say that they wanna play now. [00:19:37] Joe: And by the way, to set this up too, everybody, if you’re brand new to this segment of the show, we should go back to some basics here, Chuck. You also have a piece of paper that you send them home with that kind of explains things so parents can be on board with it. And this is great stackers if you’re gonna do this, if you’re gonna emulate Chuck’s game here. [00:19:56] Joe: This piece of paper, I think, uh, helps drive it home. [00:19:59] Chuck: And in fact, the piece of paper is essential for two reasons. One is that, yes, you hope when the kids would take it home that they will find it and they get it. Even if they’re making the small trades, you get the small envelope it, et cetera. ’cause every envelope, the good thing about the paper is the paper helps make it more difficult for a kid to figure out what’s in the envelope as they’re looking. [00:20:18] Chuck: They’re looking for is the envelope bigger? Trust me, kids will game any system you have, try to figure it all out, et cetera. And we’ve had to go to some great lengths to try to make sure that kids are, and, and mind you, the lengths we go to. Every one of those envelopes that has, that you’re trading two pieces of candy for has a coin in it. [00:20:39] Chuck: Right? But that coin is gonna be a quarter, a half dollar, or a $1 coin. So the $8 jackpot is a $1 coin, a $5 bill, and a $2 bill. And that way it isn’t much bigger than something that has $3 and 50 cents in it, which is a $2 bill, a $1 bill, and a half dollar. And it doesn’t feel that much different from something that has a $1 coin in it. [00:21:06] Chuck: That’s what we’re trying to do to make it that if somebody’s touching ’em, they don’t quite know, they can’t figure it out, et cetera. So yeah, we have to do some of those things. And the second chance lottery will have a bigger piece of paper in it, which will have that much more of an explanation of what happens if you played the second chance. [00:21:26] Chuck: And the second chance you cannot open in front of us, you’re gonna take it and go. You’re gone. So you don’t know that one. We did have kids last year who gaslighted us into thinking that they had won the jackpot. They literally went away from us. We heard them celebrating when they came back. ’cause I live on a cul-de-sac. [00:21:44] Chuck: So they passed me coming in and then they walked by on the way out. When they walked by on the way out, they were like celebrating. We thought it had been won and then we opened up the envelopes and, nope. We still had our money. What’s interesting is I [00:21:58] Joe: love the risk reward, uh, continuum here, Chuck. [00:22:03] Joe: Clearly the trade that is the, the safest trade is still the dollar of the candy bar, right? I mean, either side of that trade is still, I’m coming home with something. So I’m good either way there no matter what I do. Although you look at the currency of the candy, the candy being worth more monetarily. [00:22:22] Joe: But, but on this particular day, I have a whole damn bag of that and I don’t have a ready market to move that into money. So for that reason, the dollar bill might resonate more. Yeah. So there’s that on the safety end, but on the other, the lottery end, you’ve got a whole different, you know, thing going on. [00:22:43] Joe: I’m wondering proportionally last year, what proportion of the kids, because. In all of these, you’re playing with house money, right? You totally, truly, they’re risking nothing, uh, different than when we’re investing. How many kids go crazy and do the lottery versus the kids that decide they want the safe bet? [00:23:04] Joe: How does that work out proportionally? [00:23:06] Chuck: Well, it, it does change a little bit by year because I’ve done things, I’ve done things where the lottery was a better proposition. I’ve done things where the lottery is a worse proposition. I like that it’s now a dollar, you know, is the average envelope. So it, it kind of works out that way. [00:23:22] Chuck: It still is the biggest choice because, and it makes sense that it would be not entirely from a risk perspective, but again, because the, the candy as currency is cheap to them, and the chance that they could win 25 bucks, which does, especially as the kids get up to fifth, sixth, seventh grade, it starts to mean more to them. [00:23:42] Chuck: Like they recognize that like winning 25 bucks. Would be a big deal. So that coupled with the [00:23:47] Joe: novelty factor of, Hey, I’m not getting this at every other house. The Jaffe house is the party house. [00:23:53] Chuck: It’s a lot of fun. I mean, the kids know what’s coming. The kids who’ve been in the neighborhood know what’s coming. [00:23:58] Chuck: And we live in a neighborhood that there’s no through streets. Like you come in off of the, the main drag and everything ends in a cul-de-sac. And by the way, with Halloween being on a Friday night this year, I am super excited ’cause it’ll be great. And I live my cul-de-sac, pretty much everybody does. The nines, like they’re all the way dressed up. [00:24:20] Chuck: There’s all kinds of lights and moving whatever, and all these other sorts of things. So it’s a lot of fun. It’s funny, we’re [00:24:26] Joe: having some work done at our house and uh, so I’m in this, uh, Airbnb duplex right now, but it’s on this street that’s known for big time Halloween. And Cheryl’s like, do you wanna do this? [00:24:37] Joe: I’m like, it’s our one year that we get to do a huge Halloween party. Like let’s take part in, it’s gonna be fun. So, I don’t know, it’s an opportunity for me. I love the Nestle Crunch, but the Kit Kat is where it’s at. I gotta [00:24:49] Chuck: say Kit Kat, if, if you know the answer is only, are you going to spend up for that. [00:24:55] Chuck: I think, like I said, if you’re, for the people who don’t get. A lot of trick or treaters the right way to do it. Rather than buying the, the frustrating size, buy the full size bars and then, you know, you can offer the cash as an option. That’s what we do [00:25:09] Joe: generally, is the, uh, full-size bars. I haven’t done the game. [00:25:13] Joe: I need to do the game this year with all the craziness in my life. I probably won’t do the game, but I need to take, I need to do the game. I think the game is be as much fun for me as it clearly is for the kids. I think it’s as fun for you as it is for the kids. So I gotta get down with the game. This year though, I expect to have based on hanging out with people that have lived in this area, trick or treaters in the hundreds, hundreds of trick or treaters. [00:25:41] Joe: So I doubt I’m doing full-size [00:25:43] Chuck: candy bars. Yeah. People have asked me about the money. Look, I do spend a little bit more. It’s also because I write about it, I talk about it, et cetera. It’s a tax deduction for me if I really wanna take it. Sure. Which is just kind of wild when you think about that too. Does any of [00:25:56] Joe: that tax deduction accidentally end up in your stomach accidentally? [00:25:59] Joe: You know, oops, I can’t believe it. I accidentally, well, I can’t, [00:26:02] Chuck: I, I don’t know that I’m allowed to feed them candy that I haven’t tested myself. I think that’s fair. You can’t have that stuff going out willy-nilly. And once Halloween is over, I mean, it might be that that candy gets thrown out. That’s a possibility. [00:26:18] Chuck: And at least in terms of the IRS, I’m not keeping it for a full year. ’cause then it wouldn’t be good the following year. So whatever does not get used for Halloween is still a tax deduction. Fair point. [00:26:29] Joe: No, no. It’s still is part of the office. As you’re doing the Money Life show, you have to keep the sugar level up. [00:26:36] Joe: I mean, it’s hashtag science, chuck, [00:26:40] Chuck: but I, I really do encourage this and like I said, if you don’t do this or you’re out with your kids, again, if you’re gonna take a little bit of your kids’ candy, as much as it’s a joke or whatever. Do it with something. If your kids come back with sacks of candy, find there, there are charities you can donate it to. [00:26:57] Chuck: You can send it to places like orthodontists, collect it and send it to the troops. Things along those lines. You know what, it’s a really good thing to do. And then put the money lesson in with, Hey, we’d like to donate this. So which ones, you know, I, I will give you value for some of your candy. It’s not a bad lesson to teach. [00:27:17] Chuck: You can get by with some candy. You don’t need all of this candy. Place a value on which ones you, you like the most. You don’t want to give those up. Place a value on those you like the least. I’d be perfectly happy if everybody took my whatever it is, because I’m not gonna eat them anyway. Great. What kind of value can you get? [00:27:34] Chuck: And maybe that value again, is just in giving it away. This has no value to you, but let’s give it away and teach that kind of frugality where, you know, translate it to being an adult and you’re on a buy nothing group on a Facebook page going, Hey. I don’t need this motor oil that I found and somebody else is saving a couple of bucks and you’re just being a good citizen and a good neighbor. [00:27:56] Chuck: Not [00:27:56] Joe: only will you hear stackers, the results of what happened after Halloween, uh, on the Money Life Show with Chuck Jaffe, but there’s a festival going on, I swear, every day on the Money Life Show. What’s coming up, Chuck? Besides after Halloween, we’re gonna hear the results [00:28:15] Chuck: of the game. We have a segment on the show that we call the Money Life Market call, where we talk with money managers about how they do their job, what they’re picking, et cetera. [00:28:22] Chuck: And we don’t talk politics on my show, but we do have one coming where we are talking to somebody who runs the MAGA fund and somebody who runs the Dems Fund on like day after each other. And the interesting thing is, is just about the methodology and what you’re gonna find out is that the methodologies are very similar. [00:28:44] Chuck: It’s just, you know, you’re sort of looking at research and in one case going, okay, I’ll lean left or I’ll lean right. That’s an interesting one that’s coming. We’ve got some great guests. Rob Anot from Research Affiliates has done a tremendous amount of research about how maybe the indexes we have are not truly reflective of everything that’s going on. [00:29:02] Chuck: We talked with him about that, all kinds of things. Oh, and, and Richard Thaler has a new book out. The Nobel Prize Winning Behavioral Economist has a new book out with Alex Imus, and we’ll be talking about that on the show every day. There’s something great to talk about. [00:29:17] Joe: Yeah, I wish there was something going on. [00:29:18] Joe: If only you had something going on, Chuck, it would be perfect. Yes. But for you, [00:29:23] Chuck: Joe, I am the Halloween money [00:29:26] Doug: monster. [00:29:33] Doug: Hey there, stackers. I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug, and here’s a Halloween week birthday for you. Way back in 1958, Simon Labon lead singer of the classic eighties band, Duran Duran was born. Duran Duran, of course, is known for their hit hungry like the wolf and other finger tappers. Sometimes I, I tap my fingers really hard to that song, more like finger bangers. [00:29:54] Doug: Actually, sometimes I try to tap my fingers to the music on OGs back, just, just banging. Og. I love rhythm. Joe’s mom told me once that my rhythm is so good, I should take it out and twerk in the streets. But what she really said was, get that dancing outta my house. So we all know what she was insinuating, don’t we? [00:30:13] Doug: It’s fun to dance on the speed bump. I got those legs moving all crazy, like Michael Jackson’s thriller video out in that hump. I went from finger banging to humping something I thought was cool, but apparently the Texarkana cops didn’t feel as passionate about. But enough about me since we are talking hungry like the wolf. [00:30:31] Doug: Let’s talk about wolves who have a close tie with Halloween serial killer Peter Stump. There’s two peas on that. Peter Stump. Stump was execute. Stump was executed in 1589 after being accused of being what type of wolf spawning a whole genre of classic horror. I’ll be back right after I figure out if twerking really is a quote, crime against humanity. [00:30:56] Doug: As Sergeant Sly down at the police station said, I object sly. [00:31:14] Doug: Hey there, stackers. I’m Halloween Tweer and Guy who’s apparently gonna have to go back to just finger banging his favorite songs. Joe’s Mom’s Neighbor, Doug, to celebrate Simon Labon from Duran Duran’s birthday today. And the fact that we are kicking off Halloween week, we’re talking wolves. And one in particular, Peter Stump was accused of being a type of wolf associated with Halloween and suffered the death penalty for it. [00:31:42] Doug: What type of wolf was it? Well, if you said werewolf, oh no, I see what that, that’s werewolf. I got it. If you said werewolf, you might have just answered my easiest trivia question of the year. And speaking of easy, but definitely not on the eyes. Back to Joe and og. [00:32:03] shout out: Hi, I am David Stein. When I’m not talking to other people about money, on money for the rest of us, I’m Stacking Benjamins [00:32:11] Joe: werewolves in the news. Simon Labon, you’re a big Durang Duram fan, aren’t you? Og? Uh, yeah. Yes, [00:32:19] Doug: of [00:32:19] Joe: course. I [00:32:19] Doug: think you gotta be, Doug. You are. I was a, I mean, at the time I wasn’t actually, no, they were a little too poppy for me at the time, but I have come to appreciate their music. [00:32:30] Joe: I actually like the music they made in the 1990s, like, come on, done. You know, the later songs after everybody thought they were washed up and no, [00:32:40] Doug: because they were, [00:32:42] Joe: they weren’t. That song might’ve sold more copies than any song, but hungry like the Wolf. Wow. It was good stuff. Speaking of good stuff, thanks again to Chuck Jaffe OG at Your house. [00:32:52] Joe: What game do you play at Trick or Treat Day? [00:32:55] OG: Uh, my favorite game to play after Halloween, although, to be fair, the boys are. Well past trick or treating now it’s just Caroline, but when they were younger, we played the game of, let’s see how taxes affect your candy. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Consumption. And it’s like, well, here’s your money candy and here’s the tax man’s candy. [00:33:15] OG: The tax guy always gets first dibs of all the good stuff, like the full size Reese’s and the full size, Milky Ways, and all the good candy. And then you get left, you get what’s the leftover That’s, that’s the game that I play. [00:33:29] Joe: We used to always play what it would be like living in a high taxation state. [00:33:33] Joe: Yeah, [00:33:34] OG: same thing. [00:33:34] Joe: Three for the tax man, one for the, mm-hmm. [00:33:37] Doug: Welcome to New York kids. We have peanut allergies in our house. My kids had peanut allergies, so we had a little different, it wasn’t taxation, but it was just extra cautious parenting. When, uh, I would grab a Starburst outta their bag or something like, you know, Twizzler just to double [00:33:53] OG: check. [00:33:53] OG: Make sure it’s clean. [00:33:54] Doug: Yeah. Dad, that there’s no peanuts in there, but it was sitting next to the Snickers bar fin. So [00:34:00] OG: cross contamination. That is the thing. Yes. You, you never, yeah, you can’t be too safe. Too safe. [00:34:05] Doug: You don’t know what [00:34:06] Joe: could have happened at the Kroger before you picked [00:34:07] Doug: it up. I’m gonna test this one and if it’s, you know, then you can have the rest of them. [00:34:12] Joe: Smart. Move Smart parenting Doug. Good parenting. [00:34:15] Doug: That’s all it is. [00:34:16] Joe: We had some stackers who sent in there. Halloween delicious stories. And man, man, they, they brought ’em today. Uh, we’ve got four of your biggest money horror stories and Doug’s gonna do dramatic readings for us. And I think our first one, dramatic. [00:34:37] Joe: Do you need a second to get into character, Doug? Okay. What’s my motivation? Yes, but our first one comes to us from Luis. He [00:34:45] Doug: wrote a little [00:34:45] Joe: novelette, [00:34:46] Doug: didn’t he? Oh, this is scary. Okay, here we go. Luis. I used to tell myself I had plenty of time. Retirement felt like some distant chapter, something I’d worry about once I had more money. [00:35:01] Doug: So I waited and waited. A few missed contributions. Didn’t seem like a big deal, a vacation here, a new phone there. I told myself I’ll start next year, but now as I approach my forties, I can feel it the years that have slipped away. And lately I’ve been having these dreams. Soft eerie piano fades in in them. [00:35:25] Doug: I’m back in my twenties sitting at my laptop. The words open Roth, IRA glow on the screen, but every time I reach a click in my hand, it freezes and I hear it. That song, that’s incessant song q Eerie children’s chant, echoing like a nightmare. One, two, Freddy’s timing, you three, four. You are saving no more. [00:35:50] Doug: Five six. Your budget won’t stick. Seven eight. Your nest egg’s too late nine 10. He’s here Again. Metal scrape Freddy’s glove, dragging across steel. That’s when I see him. Freddy a Krueger. He doesn’t chase. He collects every bad decision I make accrues to him. Every year I didn’t invest. He took what I didn’t earn. [00:36:17] Doug: Every raise I didn’t save. He stored away for himself. Every I’ll start. Next year, another deposit in his account. He doesn’t need claws or fire. Just silence. Inaction, tick and grows. Loud or distorted. Faint whispers of one, two overlapping. I try to wake up. I try to wake up, but the clock keeps ticking and I swear every time I close my eyes. [00:36:43] Doug: Pause. Silence. Then the faint children’s chant begins to creep back in. One, two. Freddy’s timing, you three, four. You are saving no more. Freddy, ah, Kruger is back. Maybe my finest work. I mean, do we need any more to this [00:37:06] Joe: episode? Who needs dug in the three ghosts this year? We don’t need that. We got our new May. [00:37:13] Joe: Maybe we should produce this one. You know, do the production sound effects. Nice job, by the way. Nice job, Luis, on that one. Freddie, uh, Kruger, and by the way, in our basement Facebook group, he’s got like this mix of Ben Franklin and Freddie Kruger, og, like all mixed into one. So very scary. Very, very scary. [00:37:36] Joe: The rest of these tales are a little more personal. Jennifer has one that, um, well for all of you of a certain age and remember the pain in the ass of changing your direct deposit, which I think has gotten significantly easier now. But, uh, Jennifer ta. Well, Doug, take it away with Jennifer’s Tale of Credit Union. [00:37:56] Joe: Wo. [00:37:57] Doug: Jennifer writes, I started a new job and decided to join their credit union, so I switched all my bank stuff to the credit union. It was a long time ago, so I don’t think we had direct deposit. I deposited my boyfriend’s paycheck and it took like two weeks to cash, so I overdrew my brand new account. [00:38:19] Doug: They froze everything and it was a frigging nightmare on my street. [00:38:25] Joe: Another [00:38:25] Doug: Freddy [00:38:25] Joe: Kruger reference. I think our stackers have a, a theme here. [00:38:31] Doug: It was a frigging nightmare on my street. I like that. [00:38:34] Joe: I recently. Had to transfer a bunch of money from one account to another, and PayPal held it up for, I’m gonna say 10 days, og. [00:38:45] Joe: Is that even legal? Is that [00:38:47] OG: why? Why would you use PayPal to transfer money from one account to another? [00:38:50] Joe: It was a long story, long, long, long, long, long story. Well, that’s [00:38:53] OG: why then ’cause, ’cause you used the most inefficient way of transferring money. Let me put it in this other thing. [00:39:01] Joe: It would’ve been a way better idea to just go Pony Express. [00:39:06] OG: Just get IESs, man. That’s the way to roll. Just stacks of cash [00:39:10] Joe: stacks and stacks of Benjamins. Well, let’s move on to, uh, Cesar, who has. Well, we all have gotten bad advice from coworkers before, but uh, uh, Cesars might be, I get bad advice [00:39:22] OG: from you idiots every week. [00:39:23] Joe: Yeah. Cesars might be the worst. [00:39:26] Doug: That’s my first job in high school. [00:39:28] Doug: I was taught a valuable financial hack by a coworker. She told me as soon as I get paid, I should immediately withdraw my entire paycheck and then fill up my gas tank with my empty bank account since they would allow the overdraft. I’m still haunted to this day when wondering where this coworker has ended up in life. [00:39:50] Joe: I hate to admit this, but back in my terrible with money days, I remember OG playing the uh oh, that check’s not gonna clear for three days game. [00:40:02] OG: Yeah. I mean, that’s not a thing anymore, right? Kiting checks no. Used to be. I mean, it was, it was a whole game in and of itself, man. I haven’t [00:40:09] Doug: heard that phrase in a long time. [00:40:10] Doug: Yeah. ‘ [00:40:10] OG: cause it’s not a thing. ’cause Check 21 screwed that all up. And made, uh, made checks come out right away. So I just, oh man. Which is the way it should be. Obviously if you don’t have the money, don’t write a check. But you used to be able to like write a check on Thursday for groceries and be like, and I get paid on Friday though, so it’s gonna be, it’ll be okay. [00:40:30] Joe: It’ll be good. It’ll be, it’ll fine. [00:40:31] OG: By the time all the dust settles, everything will work itself [00:40:35] Joe: out. And then for god knows what reason it wouldn’t be. And then I would get, [00:40:40] OG: well, I get, I mean the reason was because people were doing, I will gladly pay you for two cheeseburgers tomorrow for one cheeseburger today. [00:40:47] OG: That’s why. [00:40:48] Joe: No, I’m saying I would go on Thursday. No, it’s gonna be good. It’ll be fine. And then that check for God saying for what reason, then would bounce, [00:40:55] OG: then something would happen, and then the next one [00:40:56] Joe: would bounce. Then the next one bounce. ’cause you forgot [00:40:58] OG: the checks Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday that you also wrote. [00:41:02] OG: Yes. Write ’em down in your, your little check register. Remember those? [00:41:04] Joe: That $30 overdraft fee would trigger another bounce that I hadn’t expected, and it was such an amazing experience. It was living the ugly, ugly, ugly life back then when I read Caesar’s originally. And Doug, even now while you’re going through it, I just think about all, how many times have you seen all this bad advice from coworkers? [00:41:25] Joe: People have got into your office, OG or or, or Doug known bad advice from coworkers. I mean, the 401k loan. How many times have you had a coworker go, oh, it’s you’re borrowing from yourself. Don’t take that loan from the bank. What are you doing? Just borrow from yourself, og. It’s gonna be great. [00:41:43] OG: I mean, at the end of the day, it is your money, and if you need to have it for some reason, you can have it. [00:41:49] OG: But the, like, the least efficient place is gonna be to take it from your 401k. Maybe it’s a smidge more efficient than credit cards. But when you think about it, after you add the fact that you’re paying back with after tax money and you’re paying an interest rate, albeit to yourself, and the fact that you’re losing out on the potential growth of that money for that, that loan period, that adds up to be a lot of opportunity cost wasted. [00:42:13] OG: You know, I know it seems simple, like, well, I just take 50 grand out and I’m gonna pay myself back over five years. That’s, you know, $800 a month and I’ll be a little interest, but I’m paying the interest to myself. I take 50 out, I put back 55, but I’m, I’m the beneficiary of that 55. So that’s a good deal. [00:42:30] OG: But you have to think through the other pieces of that, which are, you know, that 50 is not in the market for five years as you’re paying that loan back, or 10 if you borrow for the house and then you’re paying it back with after tax money. So. It’s not, it’s not really awesome. [00:42:43] Doug: I would tell [00:42:43] OG: No, I look, I think I’d probably rather you use that money than, how do we say it is, is it better to use that than to go into like credit card debt? [00:42:54] OG: Probably. I don’t know. I, I really still, I would really wanna know like what the problem is, you know? And is there another way out? [00:43:02] Joe: Here’s the problem I always saw when people would take a 401k loan versus the credit card debt, it’s because they know that the credit card debt is ugly. So they avoid it, but then they get in the habit of borrowing against their retirement over and over and over. [00:43:15] Joe: ’cause oh, this is quote so much better. Well, no, [00:43:19] OG: it’s like a home equity loan on your house. It sounds cool at first because it’s your money. Just, but then you just have a longer mortgage with more debt. Right. And just [00:43:28] Joe: keep digging into it. Digging into it. [00:43:30] OG: Yeah. [00:43:30] Joe: You know, there’s another one that I don’t see as much anymore, but I used to see all the time, which was why, why would you let these mutual funds rip you off? [00:43:39] Joe: You know that the company we work at, look at how this stock goes. Just put all your money in the stock of the company that you work at and, and because we work here, we can follow it all the time. I would get clients in my office all the time that were like, oh, uh, I just follow our stock and I know when it’s going up and I know when it’s gonna go down. [00:43:56] Joe: And I do that. And then I would go do the homework for them just to prove that they were wasting so much time. And if they just bought an index fund, they would’ve done way better. It felt like they were doing great because they’re, I don’t know, standing with their hand on the trigger all the time. If you know what I mean, [00:44:21] OG: standing with your hand on the trigger. We were all thinking [00:44:23] Joe: it. You said it. Sometimes the analogy doesn’t flow off my tongue the way I, I’d I it, I like it. [00:44:28] OG: I’m gonna start using that one from now on. Well, you know, Bob, he was standing there with his hand on the trigger, huh? [00:44:35] Joe: Oh, we gotta pivot away from this very quickly. [00:44:38] Joe: Uh, stacker, Annette has the last but not least, story of money horror. I think we’ve all done this one where we come up with a brilliant scheme and it might not go the way you hoped it would’ve. [00:44:52] Doug: We’ve outsmarted ourselves seven days before our cross country move wpa. Okay, that’s Washington to Pennsylvania. [00:45:02] Doug: Oh, that’s not a, that’s not a sound effect in parentheses, wpa. Sorry. Annette move from Washington to Pennsylvania. But I like Wooah better. We had a brilliant plan to save money, sell our small pickup, buy a bigger used truck and trailer on Facebook Haul. I don’t even know what this accent is anymore. Haul everything ourselves and sell it all. [00:45:27] Doug: When we arrived, a move with zero transport costs. Genius, right? The truck bought. The trailer, ghosted never showed scrambling. We rented the largest trailer available. Here’s the chilling twist. Our original truck could have towed it, but nay, I added that. We limped to Pennsylvania. Wallets bleeding from repairs, sold the truck for way less than expected. [00:45:57] Doug: Our money saving plan turned out to be the most expensive idea we’d ever had. [00:46:05] Joe: I wanna get to the expensive idea, but do you think OG in the middle of her academy award-winning scenes, Natalie goes, I’m adding a little extra crying here. [00:46:16] OG: A little flare. [00:46:18] Joe: I’m, I’m gonna, I’m gonna ad lib a little bit. I grade in the middle of your favorite movie. [00:46:25] Joe: I added that. Just a little bonus. I bring it to you. What’s, what’s no charge? What’s the what? What’s the ballet one? Black Swan. Yeah. I added that extra tear. She just looks right at the camera. That extra tear. Not in the script. Brilliant, brilliant. I just love how you gotta stop and tell us all [00:46:45] Doug: I added that Annette didn’t write that. [00:46:47] Doug: I want you to know what my brilliance and which brilliance is Annette’s audience [00:46:52] Joe: deserves to know. I can’t tell you, Annette, how many times I’ve had a money saving plan that went awry like this. I remember this one actually worked out fine. Our family was headed to Yellowstone and we were gonna make several stops along the way, so we decided to rent a car. [00:47:08] Joe: And when I looked at all the rental prices, it was way, way, way less expensive to go through Enterprise. And so I pull in, into Enterprise, I take all the stuff that we’re taking on vacation, all the camping equipment, and I put it all out on our, in our driveway. And then I go to Enterprise. I’ve, Cheryl dropped me off there on her way in into work. [00:47:26] Joe: She’s gonna work half a day while I get the car packed. I walk in and I’m signing all the stuff, and it says in the contract, you will not drive this car outside of Michigan, Indiana, or Ohio. And I’m going all the way to Yellowstone. It’s the day of. So I signed the thing and oh my goodness. Talk about just a trip where every time my kids got anywhere near the car, like I parked way far away from everything else. [00:47:55] Joe: And on the way back, on the way back, I’m like, oh, my g how am I gonna explain all this mileage? We went to, we went to Wyoming and Montana and back. So, uh, I came up with this crazy concocted story that we were, I was helping my brother move to the upper peninsula and I had to make five trips to the, to the up to potent. [00:48:22] Joe: He moved to Eagle Harbor. Oh my, it was, it was the worst. It was the worst. [00:48:28] Doug: This logic reminds me, basically of every power tool I’ve ever bought. Because you always say to yourself, oh, I need this great angle grinder, or this chop saw, ’cause I’ll save all this money and all the projects down the road. You do the one project and the thing sits there collecting dust. [00:48:44] Joe: It’s like, it’s free, right? Yeah. In your head you’re like, this is gonna be free. What do they call it? Originally it was girl math and now it’s power tool math. [00:48:51] Doug: Yeah. That the, the guy math has been around a lot longer. I think we just didn’t put a name to it. No, I know guys who’ve done this with wood, wood splitters. [00:48:59] Doug: Oh. I’ll just make my own firewood. So that’s gonna be cheaper. A, a, a cord of fire depending on where you live. This is, you know, but a hundred bucks max, uh, 60 in some more rural areas. Yeah. [00:49:12] Joe: This guy Moses delivers it. To me for not much money. [00:49:16] Doug: Sometimes they’ll stack it for you and the splitters, [00:49:18] Joe: a couple of grand. [00:49:19] Joe: I feel bad, so I go help him. I don’t get a discount, but I just don’t like watching a dude stack by wood. Well, I sit there standing next to him. Pardon? [00:49:29] Joe: But you know, you’re standing there with a cup of coffee while some dudes do a manual labor. Yes. Yeah. This is great. That’s the worst. I’m like, Nope. Not that looks heavy. Not can. Yeah. Wow. Are you sweating? It’d be horrible. Thank you stackers for contributing to our Halloween Goodness. If you’ve got a Tale of Horror, uh, please either call it in stacky Benjamins dot com slash voicemail or go join our Facebook group and tell us your. [00:49:56] Joe: Tale of Money, who Good week to do that time for us to mosey out on the back porch. And, uh, we’ve had some good ones this week, Doug, this last week in October. Next week the guides get updated, so we’ll have all of that Stacking Benjamins dot com slash guides for everybody that owns the guides. The new updates are looking good. [00:50:14] Joe: Can’t wait to tell you about those, but we’re gonna wait. We always like to make them a surprise, but I guess, uh, what are we leading off here with Doug, Brian [00:50:22] Doug: Stacker. Brian left us this in the basement. He says, uh, he’s and he, man, he is bringing Ninja dad puns so Ninja. Doug has no idea what this means. No, I don’t. [00:50:31] Doug: I’m gonna just read this ’cause I know you love this, Joe. I’m gonna read it and we’ll see, uh, you know, if anybody else can figure out the puzzle, he says, I’m gonna make my Christmas decorations out of a hundred dollars bills. Then I’ll have a wreath of Franklin’s. [00:50:47] Chuck: Just got it. I just got it. You gotta say it out loud. [00:50:51] Chuck: I wanna see if OG gets it. [00:50:53] Doug: Yeah, of course. I got it. [00:50:55] Chuck: Of course I got [00:50:56] Doug: it. Of course. I’m just waiting to see if you get it. Then I’ll have Aretha [00:51:01] Joe: Franklin’s. Aretha Franklin. Oh, so good. Brian wrote that and it took me 10 minutes and I noticed, because I think a lot of people saw it and didn’t get it. Brian, like, I think Facebook showed it to maybe 150 people. [00:51:15] Joe: It didn’t show it to me till it had been there for five days and it’s, it’s our freaking basement and it didn’t show me and I see this thing and I’m like, what? Hold on. And then, oh my God, when it hit, it hit. Nice job, Brian. [00:51:28] Doug: Then you finally gave it some R-E-S-P-E-C-T. [00:51:37] Doug: See what I did there? Alright, let’s move on to Derek Derek’s submission. He says, hi Joe, just listened to your show today, how to deliver the wow. And wanted to reply to your after interview topic. Thank you for mentioning that. If your 401k doesn’t offer the Roth option, so you can’t catch up, you can always open a brokerage account. [00:51:57] Doug: I get so annoyed with the baseline assumption that people can’t save unless their employer provides X, Y, and Z for them. Come on, people take some responsibility and then Derek adds. I look forward to meeting you at MM 2026 in April. [00:52:12] Joe: I didn’t know that was out yet, Doug, but I will be seeing Derek and others at the Millionaire Money Mentors 2026, April 23rd of the 26th in Florida. [00:52:22] Joe: Be my first trip to the Villages og. I think you get to your last, [00:52:30] Joe: you get to a certain age, they start inviting you to the, to the villages, [00:52:34] Doug: and then slowly you’re like, this place is awesome. Everybody’s smoking dope all the time. Is is that what the village is known for? I, oh my God, yes. Dude. The sex is off the hook in that place too. I’ve heard not, I don’t know. Should I have said no to this deal? [00:52:52] Doug: This is sounding, I don’t think you were prepared for the hedonism at the villages when they [00:52:57] Joe: invited me. It says it’s designed to be family friendly, but maybe family really friendly. Right? I don’t know. It’s gonna be a lot of fun, but seriously, oh gee, how many times have we talked about this? And Derek, thanks for the kind words, but we always talk about these government programs. [00:53:11] Joe: There’s no need to wait for a government program to do the right thing in your financial plan. Just, just go do the thing, don’t go well. But I, I can’t save more because I, I’m saving the max that the government says I can save. [00:53:25] OG: I mean, if the government says the max that you can save is $23,500, but your plan says you need to save 25,000. [00:53:31] OG: If I were you, I’d save 25. I’d figure out where to put that other 1500 bucks. You know, don’t wanna be [00:53:37] Joe: broke. It was interesting, Derek clients would often when I was an advisor, come into my office worried about the economy, the stuff happening with the Federal Reserve, things happening with the government, and they get off on all this stuff. [00:53:51] Joe: And I’d open up the plan to the back and I’d say, okay, based on your plan, we need to be at X amount of money. Let’s see if you’re a header behind. And immediately when we took it away from what the Fed was doing, what the government was doing, and we looked instead at what you were doing and or not doing, all of a sudden we were dealing with stuff under our control. [00:54:10] Joe: And it was such, such a better financial plan, such a better way to attack financial planning. Focus your time on the stuff that you could control. [00:54:17] Doug: Good stuff. [00:54:18] Joe: I [00:54:19] Doug: got one more Joe. Ah, yeah. Carrie Underwood actually sent us something carry under on the Facebook Underwood. Big fan of the show. Big fan of the show. [00:54:28] Doug: Carrie says, Joe tells Uranus joke, my husband, what? Are you listening to me? This is where I get all our financial advice. [00:54:38] OG: It seems reasonable. Fun fact about Carrie Underwood. You know she does the Sunday night football commercial. Yeah, yeah. Or kind of lead in, whatever you wanna call, call that the lead in. [00:54:45] Doug: Yeah. [00:54:46] OG: There are 18 Sunday night football games. How much is her contract? [00:54:52] Doug: $18. No. [00:54:54] OG: Incorrect. [00:54:55] Doug: No, I actually think it’s like 18 million. ’cause doesn’t she sing a slightly different song? Million dollars [00:55:00] OG: a week? Yeah, you got it. [00:55:01] Doug: I’ve heard. I don’t pay attention closely to [00:55:03] OG: it. You put that little, you know, it’s the Lions and Tampa on Monday night or whatever like that. [00:55:09] OG: Little bit change. Just a little bit, you know, just. That makes it a new song. [00:55:12] Joe: I don’t know that I could stoop to do a million dollars in episode of Stack of Benjamins. I know. I [00:55:16] OG: mean, I mean, it’s just like, you know, poor people talk. I got that, but I’m just saying, could you imagine having to do this for only a million in episodes? [00:55:24] OG: Oh, [00:55:25] Joe: gross. Gross. Thank you Stackers for all the fun this week. Thanks for, uh, lending us your ears. Coming up on Wednesday, we’re gonna talk about communication, whether it’s with your roommate, your friends, your, your loved ones, your spouse. Doug and Heather Bonaparte are here. Doug Bonaparte of the Big Hair. [00:55:45] Joe: Doug Bonaparte joining us in in the basement. He’s a certified financial planner in Manhattan, uh, known for his Wims that are on Twitter, uh, or XI guess we call it. The kids all call it X these days. Now, Doug Bonaparte and Heather Bonaparte coming down to the basement to talk about the. Horrors of bad communication in your financial plan. [00:56:09] Joe: That’s on Wednesday, but we end this show every day the same, which is by, for some reason we asked Doug. Doug, what [00:56:18] Doug: are our big takeaways today? If there’s anybody who can take all of this knowledge and distill it down, it’s me. So here we go. Joe, what should we have learned today? First, take some advice from Chuck Jaffe. [00:56:30] Doug: Lean into your holidays. Every day is a great day to teach kids about money, but when you can combine a holiday and a money lesson, kids will be listening and ready to play along. Second, framing your financial picture as a horror story. Begin by working on your foundation emergency Fund. First budget to create cash flow. [00:56:51] Doug: See if you can earn more and set up automation. Soon you’ll be Stacking those Benjamins tall. Tall, and look under the bed. But the big lesson, don’t try to joke with Sergeant Slaty of the Texarkana Police Department about Duran Duran. How’s I supposed to know? He had all the Simon Lab LeBron posters in his room, every one of ’em. [00:57:12] Doug: I’ll bet that guy Finger bangs all the Duran Duran songs. Thanks to Chuck Jaffe for sharing this year’s Halloween money game. You’ll find Chuck’s Money Life with Wait for it. Chuck Jaffe. Also, wherever you’re listening to us right now, what money games are you going to play at Halloween? Let us know. Drop us a line at the website or share on Spotify. [00:57:37] Doug: We’d love to hear how you teach and celebrate. This show is the property of SP podcast LLC, copyright 2025, and is created by Joe Saul-Sehy. Joe gets help from a few of our neighborhood friends. 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. [00:58:01] Doug: 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. 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. [00:59:13] Joe: Welcome to the After show. Hey, I’ve got this piece from navigator research.org, which candy. Is America’s favorite Halloween candy, not the one that they give out the most, or they, uh, eat the most of Snickers. Snickers is number two on this list. [00:59:35] Doug: So you’re saying this isn’t data driven, this isn’t like how much is purchased or No, they just ask people, they [00:59:41] Joe: ask people what’s their favorite. [00:59:45] Doug: Oh, yeah, that’s different. ’cause I think the number one by data is Kit Kat. [00:59:48] Joe: Kit Kat is number four. According to Hershey Bar People’s, uh, Hershey Bar didn’t even make the top 10. I think it’s, I think it’s three peanut butter cups a minute. Well, it says chocolate bar. So that would include Hershey, I, I suppose. [01:00:03] Joe: Uh, so Snickers is 11% Kick Kat at eight. Chocolate Bar six. And Doug [01:00:10] Doug: Reese’s Peanut butter cups [01:00:11] Joe: 29%. Easily number one. Yeah. Number two was Snickers. At 11. I think Reese’s has really figured [01:00:21] Doug: out the right. Reese’s. [01:00:22] OG: The guy’s name is Reese and it’s his. It’s Reese’s. Reese’s. [01:00:26] Chuck: Reese’s. [01:00:27] OG: God, you people are incorrigible. [01:00:29] OG: I’m gonna go get more coffee. You can do this. Dumb to end the show.
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