What could be better than clearing clutter and saving money at the same time? And just in time for the upcoming holiday season! Maybe you’ll end up with more cash in your pocket to get through the traditionally rough holiday season with more money in your pocket. On today’s special roundtable discussion, we dive into an article about what you can avoid buying and reduce clutter. We’re joined by Columbia Magazine recipient and Afford Anything’s creator, Paula Pant; Bunker Quarterly recipient and creator of the award-winning blog lenpenzo.com, Len Penzo; and Mr. “I only read the articles” and co-host of this here podcast, OG. Of course, to clear clutter, they each recycle copies of their favorite papers!
In the second half of the show, you’ll hear the dramatic finale of our clutter-clearing debate. Tempers are guaranteed to flare, feelings will be disregarded, and a certain podcast host’s decency will be brought into question. It’s just another game show episode of the Stacking Benjamins show!
Finally, stick around for our intense year-long financial nerd trivia! No clutter clearing is required here. With Paula and Len tied for first place for the past few weeks, will one of them finally break the tie and claim sole possession of first place? Will O “Do you believe in miracles?” G continue his improbable comeback and force the field into a 3-way tie? Tune in and find out! Join us for fun to clear the clutter in your brain! Before you know it, you’ll be selling that old NordicTrack and jumping on the “let’s save money” train!
Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.StackingBenjamins.com/201
Enjoy!
Watch on our YouTube Channel:
Our Topic: What past purchases do you see cluttering up your place and think, “what a waste of money”?
Items to Stop Buying to Save Money and Curb Clutter (Women who Money)
During our conversation you’ll hear us mention:
- How smart spending can benefit your financial and mental health.
- Do outdoor and recreational items qualify as exercise equipment?
Our Contributors
A big thanks to our contributors! You can check out more links for our guests below.
Paula Pant
Check Out Paula’s site and amazing podcast: AffordAnything.com
Follow Paula on Twitter: @AffordAnything
Len Penzo
Visit Len Penzo dot Com for the off-beat personal finance blog for responsible people.
OG
For more on OG and his firm’s page, click here.
Doug’s Game Show Trivia
- What percentage of Google’s daily searches have never been looked up before?
DepositAccounts
Thanks to DepositAccounts.com for sponsoring Stacking Benjamins. DepositsAccounts.com is the #1 place to go when you’re looking to see if your rate is the BEST rate on savings, CDs, money markets, and even checking accounts! Check out ALL of the rates ranked from best to worst (and see the national averages) at DepositAccounts.com.
Join Us Monday!
Tune in for a very special episode on Monday when we’ll come to you from Camp FI in Denton, Texas! There he sits down with some Stackers to hear their stories. You won’t want to miss it!
Miss our last show? Check it out here: Trading Time For Money: Building a Small But Mighty Real Estate Empire (SB1408).
Written by: Kevin Bailey
Episode transcript
Hey everyone, just a reminder to tell Joe’s mom she looks like she lost weight because I accidentally parked on the grass again. Hey
guys, mics are hot. Quiet on the set.
Live from Joe’s mom’s basement. It’s the Stacking Benjamin
Shark.
I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor Dug, and today it’s game show time. One of those things you should stop buying to save money. and get rid of clutter? Joining us to answer that question, we welcome our youngest team member from afford anything, Paula Pant. And we welcome from TikTok fame, Charli D’Amelio. Wow! She’s busy with her 9.
3 million followers, so we’re just bringing you her grandpa’s best friend, Len Penzo. And of course, the guy who’s not sure what TikTok even is, and has probably never heard of Charli D’Amelio, our very own But that’s not all. Halfway through the show, we’ll play yet another game with my inquiring trivia question.
And now, a guy who only knows cap is something you wear, it’s Joe Saul
Sehy! Hey everybody, welcome to Friday, and you know what, Doug, when it comes to, uh, cap, I feel like I’m becoming more large cap every day. I just got home from vacation, and I went from maybe mid cap to large cap. You
really have no idea what that means, do you? What’s that? No cap. No cap,
yeah. Um, I thought you were talking about like small cap, large cap, mid cap.
No? Oh my god.
No? Anybody? Oh god, our demographics are soaring through the roof. Well, here, and to prove it We’re crushing the 80 to 100 year old market. Prove
it
across the
card table from me. OG’s here. How’s your cap, OG? You got it on your head? As my kids
would say, stop the cap. Stop the
cap.
Yes. Good.
Don’t know what they mean, but they say it to me all the time.
Nobody really
knows what it means. Stop the cap. Ask kids that age who use it in a sentence. They don’t even know. Stop the cap.
And the woman in Manhattan who’s bringing all the reese to this show. See, I know that one. It’s, uh, Paula Pant. How are you?
It’s giving
eye roll.
No?
It’s, uh, it’s giving, uh, try hard. What can I say? Ooh, try hard. That’s
a, That’s one. Oh,
I think. Thank you.
Thank you. Fantastic. Good. You showed up on time.
Yeah, wow. Really, really applauding the bare minimum here.
High standards. Within the, uh, margin of, uh, uh, the standard deviation.
Yeah. I’m stacking Benjamins
time. Anyway, uh, we’re happy you’re here at Deep Under Los Angeles. The guy who, uh, is all cap and riz. It’s, uh, Mr.
Lentenzo. I’m freaking old, because I don’t know what the hell you guys are talking about. The only thing I know is, you know, my daughter, all the time, she’s been saying slay.
She always says slay now. Slay, slay. So I know that means good, right? When somebody says slay, that means good. But all this other stuff, I don’t know what
you’re talking about. Aren’t people that say slay like turning 30 this year? Well, she’s not that
old. I don’t know. That just
shows me how out of touch I am.
I don’t know. Well, we’re here to slay another game show episode, which is exciting, Doug. Cause get this, we’re going to be awarding two points today, not just one. And our score, Len has 11, Paula somehow, some way has 11 and OG who we, I think pronounced dead like a month ago has 10. So ostensibly OG could take the lead today.
Yeah, what the hell’s going on? What is happening? It’s it’s it’s like he’s the Seattle Mariners of
this podcast. Venus is aligned with Uranus. I just
don’t want to go there. And in fact, we got the HR people talking to Doug while they talk to him. You guys can listen to this. I think you guys got to give Doug the other talk as well.
Doug, hang on. All right. You got that? Page seven of the manual?
Third time this week. It is horrible.
We’ve got Paula, OG, Len, and Doug. We got the original crew here, so let’s get started. You guys know what that sound means. It’s time for a game show. This is the episode where we pick some, uh, usually fairly ridiculous piece off the internet, which is some crazy list.
Len is already shaking his head. I haven’t even announced what it is, Len. You’re already shaking your head. You know, I was
telling the honeybee today, but I go, oh, I go, it’s game show day and it’s freaking, it’s so frustrating because half the time we give good, good answers and they’re not on the list.
And then these wild answers are on the list. So it’s completely, it’s.
It’s frustrating the answers you guys usually come up with, which the reason I love our game show is better than what’s on the list. I, I love that. This list. I don’t know Doug, I think this is actually a competent one. I know the writers of this list, uh, they’re a pretty, pretty good, uh, duo.
I’ll just leave it at that. We’ll announce where it’s from later on. But these are items. Items that you, uh, should either, let me make sure I get the wording right. These are items to stop buying, to save money, and curb clutter. And those are some key words there. You’re trying to both save money and curb clutter.
We’re now, uh, halfway through September, which means that it’s a good time to… You know, clear out, clear out stuff. Get, uh, it’s like the start of the fiscal year here, I think. I felt like, OG, every September, my practice when I was a planner would get busy. Your practice pretty busy right now?
Yep, from now until, uh, November.
Thanksgiving. Yeah,
seriously, that that time of year, then you get to Thanksgiving and nobody wants to talk about saving money. They want to talk about spending it. So let’s do that. Let’s curb clutter. We get to start with the person. This is horrible. Who’s in last place gets to go first. So weird to say, Oh, gee, you’re getting first crack at this now.
Also, guys, this is a hard one. There’s only eight on this entire list. We’ve done a list with 20. There’s only eight and we’re going to do three rounds. So I think there’s going to be a lot that aren’t on this list. The
good news for them is, I would say Joe, there’s more like eight categories. So they could name something that might fall into one of the categories.
Does that sound right to you?
Yeah. These are, these are fairly wide.
Yeah. So even OG has a shot. So
what’s the question again? These are items to stop buying, to save money, and reduce
clutter. Items or lists? A list of things. These are things. Okay.
How complicated
is that, Len? I’m going to say… Name a thing that if you bought would create clutter and take
money out of your pocket.
Can I go? Can I go? Can I go? Sorry. Thank
you. Got
a little worked up there. I’m going to say periodicals. I’m thinking magazine subscriptions, newspaper subscriptions. Takes up a lot of space. A lot of them just stack up in the corner. You don’t know what to do with them. Cost money. Save money. Do it digitally.
Periodicals. Final answer.
Are periodicals on the list? No, but that is a good one. I have a family member. It’s not a good
one if I didn’t
get a point. Who has stacks. Stacks of periodicals around their house. An older relative and, um, Just lots and lots of them. All interesting stuff, but it just adds up. How do you guys deal with that?
Len, do you have subscription study magazines? I used to
subscribe to a lot of magazines, but now I, let’s see, what do I, we, the only magazine our household subscribes to now is People magazine.
People. People magazine. How do you make sure they don’t stack up?
Uh, well, we give them to, is this an, this could be an answer, probably, I guess not, we give them to, for example, my relatives.
We read them, and then we give them to, or, we have a dentist friend, uh, or dentist, he’s not a friend. Oh, a dentist always wants them. Yes, and we give them to him sometimes, too. Hey, you want our, want these? Uh, people, yeah, sure, you know, and he puts them on the, he puts them on the table.
Yeah, right. I don’t know
what happens to them them away, you know, people
appreciate them.
Well, that’s what I was going to ask was if you get like some sort of a dentist discount for that. Yeah, right. No. No? Oh, I don’t, you’re not a good negotiator, Len. You should be negotiating that, that harder. Paula, do you get any subscriptions?
No, no, I don’t get any subscriptions. Well, I do get Columbia University Magazine.
It’s a quarterly. Oh, does
this flex? Oh, for God’s sake. God. You just freaking graduated like yesterday.
I also get, I get this, uh, this Intellectual Elite Magazine. Do you guys get that? It’s weird.
Well, there’s my Mensa membership, but that’s about it. Brainiacs Monthly.
It’s the only periodical that I get. Uh, I get it four times a year, and actually the way that I’ve dealt with it, so I started actually getting this, the person who lived in my apartment before me had also gone to Columbia and so I started getting his, he went to the school of dentistry, so like every, for a couple of years, I would get his magazines and then I would get these letters from the school of dentistry asking for alumni donations.
It’s like seeing your
future. Yeah,
yeah. Now your subscription only cost you a hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
I got a full ride, are you kidding? Cost them a hundred and eighty thousand dollars. So yeah, I’ve actually, I’ve been getting this for years, even before I had any affiliation with the school, just by virtue of like moving into a place that got these.
And so what I’ve been doing with them is I just take them on airplanes. And I’ll read them on a flight and then I’ll just leave them in the seat pocket in front of me. Oh, that’s nice.
Pass it on for somebody else. Exactly. Yes. Exactly. And by the way, just for all the people out there wondering, she just likes Columbia Magazine for the articles.
That’s the only reason. I just read it for the articles. That’s it. OG, uh, subscriptions around your house?
We have so many that’s why I thought about it. Yeah I mean only a few that I can think of that we actually subscribe to but there’s so many Marketing things that are disguised as magazines now. I don’t know how we got on this list, but but we get a Maybe it’s every other month.
So bi monthly, I guess that would be a mountain house living and it’s just this beautiful architectural magazine of mountain homes And you know, priced into like the, you know, a couple, a couple of commas in there and the design and all this other sort of architecture. And it’s just a fantastic magazine to just sit and thumb through and dream.
You’re, you’re not just reading those articles.
I’m not, I’m only there for the
pictures,
but I don’t know how we got it. You know what I mean? It just showed up one day. It’s it’s, but it’s clearly a marketing advertisement of some kind. So we have a shred company. Actually, I found the one and only. Shred company that will come to my house and I have a closet that I have a shred bin in and they everything goes into this big giant bag and Some poor guy has to come up every couple of months and drag that thing out of my house and throw it into the meat grinder.
Doug?
I don’t know. I just thought he’s taking all the fun away from Remember in the old days when you’d find your dad’s stash at Dirty Magazines? And OG is shredding them all, he’s depriving his kids
of that opportunity. Yeah, at the Mountain House Magazine and Yeah, Cirrus Pilot Monthly. Yeah, those are page turners for the, for the kids.
Dad, I never knew that’s how a propeller worked. Dad’s not a just head. You can’t go by what’s on the, in the
pictures. Zero points for OG and, uh, that means that Mr. Penzo, you’re up next. Oh, okay.
Well, um, how about a yard sale?
Is a yard sale a thing that you can buy? Can you buy a yard sale? Oh, it’s something
you have to buy?
See, that’s why I was
asking. Something big. McFly. Yeah, these are, these are… McFly. These
are… I thought you meant things from a yard sale, like scavenging at yard sales on the weekends.
Is it? Well, you’d have to tell us what the things would be. These are things you avoid buying. You avoid
buying. Things you avoid, oh, now you’re telling me.
Things you avoid buying
to do clutter.
Buy avoiding will prevent clutter
and save you
money. I thought it was good, because I was really struggling. I had some things down, but I was like, what the heck? So I thought that was a good answer for things. Okay, so things to avoid buying to. Okay, how about souvenirs when you go to a, like a, a um, You know, uh, like Bali, hypothetically, don’t buy souvenirs.
Yeah. Don’t
buy souvenirs is souvenirs on the list.
I think so. Yes.
On this list, they actually call it, Len, they call it collectibles. Yeah, that’s what I was looking at. In general. And collectibles, it says, uh, Doug, have you scrolled down to that one? Yep, I
did. I just landed on that. I was giving it a thumbs up as well.
Read that off to us if you don’t mind. So it depends on why you’re buying them in the first place. If you purchase collectibles because you enjoy them, that’s one thing. But if you buy collectibles with the expectation of increasing value over time, that’s a different story. So your life’s a beach t shirt from Daytona.
It’s not gonna appreciate in value.
Yeah. So one for Len. You know, what’s funny is Len, we used to collect this, uh, Christmas in the city. stuff, uh, Dickens village thing. And Doug, you remember when I had, when we lived close to each other, had that set up and finally it got so big that I couldn’t even put, we wasted so much money on that.
That for me was like having a neighbor with a pool. Like I love going over to see how much you guys love Christmas, but I sure as hell didn’t want that crap in my house.
That was actually, yeah, the collectibles was, was a bad thing. Uh, Paula, you ever have a collection there in your huge, uh, Manhattan sprawls?
Not, not in the, uh, the sprawling Manhattan, but, uh, when I was a kid, I had a stamp collection and a coin collection cause I was a fun kid. Um,
I was a lonely kid.
I had a coin collection too, Paula.
I had stamps. I did the stamp piece. That was fun. OG, how about you? Collections? Collectibles?
Uh, no. Nope. Not my
jam. Not a big collector. But wait, I don’t know. I’ve been to your house. I saw a collection of wine at your house. Well, indeed. I
do collect wine.
The low cost collection. Doug, you were gonna say?
No, I was gonna say Paula’s collection increased in value.
She collected coins. With inflation, that quarter probably inflated. it decrease in value? That’s not
how that works. I’m fairly certain that’s the opposite. Not if
it was from 1964 or earlier, it probably is quadrupled in value. See, that’s that. That’s what I meant. Ten times the value. Yes.
See, and Paula gave it away.
I know, right?
Right. Was that back in Cincinnati and you just gave it to some kid on the
playground? Yeah, that was back in Cincinnati I have no idea what even happened to it. I left for college and that was the last I ever saw of any
of that I don’t know what happened to my stamps either. Uh, no idea. But Paula, back to you.
Speaking of Paula, uh, we got one off the list. There’s still seven out there. These are things to buy to avoid clutter and save some
money. Yeah. So well, Len took the thing that I was going to say. I was going to say souvenirs because I was immediately thinking, you know, like the Myrtle Beach t shirt kind of a thing, a hard rock cafe shot glass.
Easy ,
snow globes. Are you
looking at me . But since you brought up Christmas, I will venture to avoid buying holiday decor.
Avoid holiday decor. Is that on the list? Woo. That is holiday decorations on the list. Uh, Doug, you got, uh, what they wrote about this one. Hoji.
What? Hoji. Hoji steaming. Hoji.
Yes!
Now Hoji knows what Len feels like every usual time we play. We play these games. Uh, uh, Doug, what does this say about holiday
decorations? Well, it says the average American spends over 200 on winter holiday decorations alone. And when you factor in other seasons and holidays. Two hundred whole dollars?
Costs quickly add up. The decor is often bulky, cheaply made, plastic, and trendy. It only gets used a few weeks every year, if you use it at all. It’s not to mention that it takes up tons of space and often ends up in the trash. In other words, cutting back on seasonal decor is a practical way to save money and reduce clutter.
Okay, Scrooge.
Fabulous. Sounds great. Why don’t we all work on Christmas too while we’re at it?
Oh, that’s a good idea. Is work on Christmas on the list? All right, that’s the end of round one. Oh gee, what’s the score around one?
I believe
that means
OG has zero.
Yes, exactly. No, I was kind of thinking about Paula has one, and Len has one.
If you’re not on YouTube, you’ll never believe how we made it to two.
They’re the number one in my
book. Len has one, Paula one, OG zero. We go to round two, and we do round two in reverse, and that means that, uh, Len, you get to, uh, you get to go first.
No, Paula gets to go first. No, Paula. What am I talking about? Oh
no, I gotta come up with another thing! Eek, eek, um, Mhm, hm. I’d like to buy a vowel. Things to avoid buying in order to reduce clutter.
And save money. If
a person had a garage, what would be inside of it? Um, like…
A car jumpstarter kit.
Foreshadowing. Wow,
that is, yes, weirdly placed.
That’s just what I would imagine would be in somebody’s garage, were they to
own a car. Maybe more on
that later. This is the episode where I strongly encourage everybody to be on YouTube.
Uh, anyway. This might be too specific, but what about exercise equipment?
Is exercise equipment on the list? What? Absolutely. Outdoor and recreational items.
Yeah, I guess I was thinking of the outdoor part more than the recreational.
That is broad. That is really broad. brush stroke. I wouldn’t call Outdoor and recreational equipment goes into That’s not recreational.
Workout equipment? Workout equipment is recreational
equipment. Workout equipment is recreational, yeah. Like a
bicycle. That’s That’s not
recreational. But when you have me read A bicycle’s not
recreation? Look, when you have me read this one, there’s only one phrase that saves your thumbs up compared to my thumbs down, and OG and Len are gonna have your head.
But okay, if you want to award the points, Master Game Show MC dude, go
ahead. We already did, so let’s read the piece. Okay.
Outdoor items are used seasonally and often get left outside in weather. Plastic furniture Doesn’t sound like exercise equipment. Camping gear, pool toys, grills, and smokers. And, here’s the one thing that might save her, sporting equipment, take up space and get thrown away.
Sporting equipment’s like a
football or a wiffle bat.
Working out is a sport? It’s a
requirement. Yeah, that’s not a
sport. Okay, she apparently already got the point, so the complaining is useless. That doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t buy and use these items, but think twice about plastic or poorly made purchases and those difficult to store and maintain.
Instead, focus on high quality items you can easily maintain and store. Or consider borrowing or renting. There it is. We’re not working out at all.
Yeah, you could, you could borrow it. Hey, don’t bother
cooking on your grill. Let’s save some money.
Who needs it? But borrow a grill. OG, just go over to your neighbor and borrow a grill.
How hard is that?
This is going to be turned into yet another roundtable where we attack the piece. Or we have
an asterisk over the piece again. I think that’s every single one, isn’t it? All right, Paula gets two points here for the second round, so that gives her three. Len? You get to keep pace if you get, uh, this one right.
Um, gosh.
Clutter. Clutter’s up my I’m thinking of trying what’s Clutter’s up my house. Uh, this is, this is really, this is really hard. Uh, how about old games? Old board games? Ah! Oh, shut
up! He’s just going right after you. Nice.
Shots fired. Just,
holy cow. Ben’s like, screw the game, now enjoy the
impersonal. he just said no.
Whoa.
Playing dirty here. Clearly not
on the list. That’s funny because I see it several places. I could categorize it based on your previous categorization. I could find several places to insert games.
Are board games on the list?
Which one of these? I don’t see which one you’re talking about.
Well, if I say any of them, I’m going to give answers away. Yes, I know.
Can’t
you just say the first one, the second one, the third one, the fourth one, the fifth one?
Are you talking about the first one? Because anything fits under the first
one.
Uh, yeah, that was one of
them. Yeah, that’s the only one. Okay. That is, that’s the only one I see. But that was, that was even, well, isn’t that good enough? Wait,
wait. Was if you’re gonna allow, uh, workout equipment under recreation, I
did
hear everything fits under that one.
So it was way, way, way broader than Paula’s.
How about the way I was gonna say, how about the one we just did? Recreational items? Yeah. Isn’t a game a recreational item? Well, Paul
already got that one though. But you can’t award it
twice. Not a board game. A board game wouldn’t be a recreational equipment.
Easy. It is recreational . But Paula
didn’t say recreational, she said exercise equipment.
Paula said exercise equipment clearly not on the list. Isn’t
recreational equipment.
That’s right. But But you don’t enjoy exercising, Lynn?
No. Do you
stop
the cat. What Psycho does, like,
uh, all right, og, uh, chance of wait. So that is a no. So that’s a no. That is a no, it’s a no. You’re getting a no. That is a no.
That is a no. O. G. Chance to keep pace. I’m going
to try to be as broadly based as Paula was to see if I can steal a few points here. I’m going to say clothing.
Is clothing on the list trendy clothing or shoes? Trendy clothing and shoes, much like maybe like, wow, Paul, those are beautiful socks. Whose face is that on the
YouTube audience.
You’re
welcome. Would that happen to be your face on those socks?
It would happen to be my face on these socks. Yes. That’s not narcissistic. Joe, what socks are you wearing
at the moment? I have none on, thank you, because I would never wear socks with my face on them. Uh huh. Never.
Never is a strong word, Joe.
Sure, sure, sure. Did you pay for those yourself? Like did you? I did
not. No, no. So Joe and I both had a, uh, Someone who listens to each of our respective shows, send us socks with our face on them. Super exciting. Yes. A listener. A listener. That’s the word I’m looking for. Yes. Yes. Yes. A listener sent these socks to both
Joe and I.
Somehow, OG didn’t get socks with his face on them. Weird. Neither did I. And that means, two rounds of this shindigger over. Paula Pant with three points, OG with two, and Len Penzo gets back in his rightful spot. Under protest. Under protest. Game Show Day with one. Third round, though, is three points. Three points for third round.
We got five out of, uh, no, we’ve got four. that are left on the board. But before we get to that, time for our normal game show. We do this every Friday on the show. This is the part of the show where we ask a trivia question to our three frequent flyers here, Len, Paula, and OG. And, uh, well, we’re going to award another point.
Doug. What’s today’s Friday trivia question?
Hey
there stackers. I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor Doug. You know when I was a kid The only search engine we had to look things up on was the Dewey Decimal System And you had to walk down to the local library to use it uphill both ways snowing and Hurricanein the whole time! Once you got to the library, you’d have to search through a bunch of tiny drawers filled with notecards to look for what you needed.
Or in my case, you’d leave a notecard of your own to let people know where the best party was that weekend. Wait a minute, hold
on, hold on a second. Hold on. Didn’t you say earlier that we were, uh, not appealing to the young people and we’re doing trivia about the Dewey Decimal
System? The trivia is not about the
Dewey Decimal System.
You are complaining that I’m like an old guy and really we’re doing Dewey Decimal System. This, this’ll get the 20 year olds. This’ll get them. Can I go
now? Go ahead. The very first card catalog was created at Harvard, not Columbia, Harvard in 1840, which makes sense given all the books they make you read there.
Now that we’re in the digital age, see how I just zoomed it right back to the young folks? Oh, here they come. Libraries have replaced that search system with their own specialized online inventory, sort of like Google, but just for books and not other cool stuff like pictures of bitchin El Caminos.
Launched in 1998, Google performs an astounding 8. 5 billion searches every single day. Today’s trivia question is… What percentage of those daily searches have never, ever been looked up before? I’ll be right back with the answer after I return this, uh, this library book I checked out in 97.
We’ve got, we got a company here that’s made billions and billions of Benjamins and we start with It’s weird because he’s in last place today, but he’s got to go first on the trivia, Mr.
Penzo.
So what is this? This is the number of searches that are done that have never been searched before. So
the
percentage, what percent of searches every day have never, ever been looked up before?
Well, that’s, isn’t
that, so that’s as of when, as of today, I mean, wouldn’t that, I mean, that shouldn’t be a constant, that should be a slowly decaying curve.
This is just on the…
Average
day? Yes. Yeah, but over time, right? And when the first came out, right, I’d say, you know, 80 percent of the searches were never searched before, but then over time that that’s going to decay down to almost nothing, you would think. I think it’s a small
number. Whatever helps you say an answer faster, that’s what my answer is going to
be.
I’m going
to say… Um, exercise equipment.
Laughter.
Correct! Laughter. That seemed to be a catch all. That seemed to be a good one. No, I will, um, I will say, um, I think it’s low. I’m going to say it’s, uh, 5%.
5 percent is Len’s answer. We go to Paula.
Well, on one hand, okay, I see the argument for a steep decay at the beginning when Google first comes out.
On the other hand, there are new topics that could be searched about now that could not be searched about previously. For example, AI, right?
Nobody knew at all anything about AI in the 50s.
Well, I mean, there was AI, but not the way there is today, you know. So, as knowledge pushes boundaries, there are more things to search about, because the expanse of human knowledge grows.
Also, as more things get added to
the internet Hold on a second, Paula. Where did Len go to take a nap while you’re
I was actually thinking about running to grab a Diet Coke, so I’m gonna follow Len’s lead in a moment. Alright, I think that Len guessed high. Being in second place, though. Don’t want to get Chelsea Brennan’d. I’m gonna guess 1%. 1%?
Well, OG, you’ve got 5 and you got 1. Yeah, the only
right answer here is 5.
0000001 percent and higher. I think it’s a really small number, but I have to, I have to bet the table. And the table says I got 95 percent on the upside, so. I’m taking everything
above Len. Alright, so Len gets capped on the upside, and we got 5. 001, 5 percent and 1%. Who’s right? Repeating, of course. We’ll be back.
Len, you kicked this thing off with 5%. Len’s not here.
Hey, I returned. I returned with my Diet Coke and with, uh, some
pumpkin bread. Very quickly. And, uh, so Paula, you had 1%. What are you thinking? It’s because I broadcast
out of my kitchen. Um. Oh. Oh. So, honestly, I was thinking that the real answer is probably somewhere between one half of one percent to two percent.
So that was why I guessed one. Alright.
OG, you got 5. 0001. and up. What are you
thinking? I’m thinking that the odds will ever be in my
favor. Where have we heard that before? And yet, Doug, he said he’s never heard Harry Potter. He’s never seen Harry Potter. He knows nothing. That’s not from Harry Potter. I know, but how do you see the, how do you, how do you do the Mockingjay series and not do, uh, not do, not do that?
Anyway, uh, Len. I
apologize, um, I apologize, I’m not going to tell you why I
had to go. Yes, now you have to. Hemorrhoids again, Len? It
involves being 50.
Oh, wow. See, I was just going to guess that he needed a snack.
Yeah, I actually, I actually thought you, that was a statement about Paula going on forever before she gets 1%.
I
literally thought you were just going to go get a snack. I did the same. No,
you don’t need Paula. My snacks are usually right here with
me. I was like, oh, Len got a, cool. I’m kind of hungry too. I had to let
go. I had to let go of some snacks.
No.
Thanks. Not telling us, but telling us.
I won’t tell you if it was swampy or not,
Len OG took 5. 0001, so he took the upside, but you still got between 5 and what, 3%? So feeling good?
No, I actually I really think it’s less than 1 percent but I didn’t want to I was didn’t think anybody would go lower than me But somebody did
well, we played a game of hello. Can you go apparently? Doug you’ve got the answer man.
Who’s right on this one? Hey there
stackers I’m Motley Crue fan and guy who apparently owes the Lake County Library a lot of money Joe’s mom’s neighbor Doug I’ve been Googling all kinds of stuff today, like, uh, you know, what are the top 10 sandwiches? Or where can I get my jorts tailored? Or uh, you know, like, what are the five deadliest snakes and are any of them in Joe’s mom’s backyard?
Or how long can I hold my breath underwater? All kinds of stuff! Google is so popular that it’s become the generic word for looking up information on the internet. Since its inception, it has helped billions of people learn more, do more, and maybe, most importantly, save money. Google is so good at Googling.
That I found the answer to today’s trivia question on, yeah, Google. Today’s trivia question was, what percentage of its daily searches have never been looked up before? Well… Glenn guessed 5, Paul guessed 1, OG, I’m rounding you up to 6, cause I don’t feel like dealing with decimals. You were all way under, because the answer is actually 15%!
Meaning, OG is
our winner, and
yes, on track to possibly create a three way.
Unbelievable. Unbelievable. That’s
high. I really thought that, I thought it would be less than that. That’s really high. That’s like one in every six or seven searches. That’s crazy.
But think of the weird s that people typed in
there.
I guess. Jeez. I actually, Len, I slacked Doug partway through this going, this is way too high. There’s no way it’s 15. This is a piece from the BBC. Yeah,
I thought it was, I honestly thought it was like 056 or something like that, but I didn’t want to say one or two, I wanted to kind of play the game and, but, it, wow.
Wow.
And then the game played you. There it is.
Yes, it did. Well, let’s get to the final round of our big game because last round of the big game is brought to you by… Depositaccounts. com. Paul Payne, you know what happens when you go to Depositaccounts. com?
You learn how to find accounts in which you can make deposits.
You do! Which is savings accounts, checking accounts, money markets, and CDs, all rated head to head against each other. Uh, we are a little early in recording this, but listen to this. The day we’re recording, you want to go to Depositaccounts. com yourself to see this. Top 1% of all savings accounts today, 4.74%.
The national average though 0.45%. Huge difference between the national average and the top 1%. They look at the same for CDs checking and money markets, 275,000 deposit rates from 11,000 banks of credit unions all ranked against each other for free. Deposit accounts.com. All right, time for our thrilling three point round and uh, we are going to start then with Mr.
Penso because he is in last currently. This will move you from worst to first, Len, if you get it.
Um, I don’t know. Clutter. It’s hard because I’m, you know what, I’m not a cluttery person by, I mean, I get rid of things too early. I’m one of those people that throw things away because I don’t like clutter and then it haunts me.
And like a year later, I threw away something that I needed. So there’s really not a lot of clutter here. And I’m trying to think what’s in my house that’s cluttery.
Well, think about some of those things you’ve thrown away, maybe. Because I should look at the things on this list, three of them, three out of the four that are left.
You know, there’s
a thing right behind me here is a bookshelf and there are a crap load of books. In that bookshelf. And I tell Maria, I tell her, I was like, man, can you get rid of some of those? So let’s say books.
Is books on the list, Doug? It is not on the list. Which means, Len, congratulations, you will finish this game in last place as usual.
So it feels very, feels like a very comfortable spot, but books, books are a good one. When we, when we, uh, moved, I actually read a piece. OG that said that, you know, some of these books that are on your bookshelf and you’re like, ooh, I really like these like three lines, four lines. You’re actually stopping other people from maybe reading that book.
It’d be better to donate to the library instead of sit on your shelf where nobody can see it. So to Len’s point, Take the book and donate it
as you see the background of all books all books. Yes, but Other people have access to it. So you don’t want to go to the library.
You don’t touch somebody else’s book Is that what you’re saying?
I’m
just you know, these are my books pretty soon They won’t make any books and I’ll be rich because I’ll be the only one with
books 12
Uh, Paul, I feel like we’re talking to the wrong crowd here about getting rid of books though. Are you a book hoarder? Yeah,
I am an absolute book hoarder and proud of it. So one of my dreams is that eventually in life, I want to have a home that has like a big library in it. Like Beauty and the Beast style.
Giant library. Uh, it needs a turret. It needs a fireplace. Ladder. Yeah, a big ladder. Yeah. Yeah. Turret
like a machine gun ? No, no.
The , it’d be, um, the turre, the house be kind of like a, a bay window, except it, um, goes all the way around. It goes all the way around. It’s not exactly 360, it’s like two 70 degree angle, you know, a two 70 degree
circle.
You know, there are homes in my neighborhood with those turret, uh, those, those kind of, and they’re empty. You can’t even get up there. But they, they look cool from outside. Yeah. Wow.
But then they’re empty spaces.
Why would they be
empty? Yeah.
Paul is picturing a window seat with a little blanket over her feet and a cat and some like Celestial Seasonings
tea.
Yeah. It’s going to be amazing. There’s going to be like trap doors in the library. Oh boy. Cool. Maybe the whole thing will actually. Also, um, there’ll be like a hidden bookshelf that like you tapped, so it’ll be speakeasy style in this house. Teach you to another dimension. Yeah, Narnia. Narnia. So that’s So anyway, so in the In the meantime, I’m just hoarding all of these books.
Can you see? Can
you? There’s some books. You and OG have seven
books. That’s a great start, Paula.
Put a ladder up there and you’ve
got your dream. There you go.
More books.
And Paula, as short as you are with the ladder, you could reach that top shelf.
Can you see the Kraft macaroni and cheese right up there?
Keeps other books. Doubles as a pantry. This podcast is going into Narnia. If we don’t get, we don’t get moving. All right, Paula. What is your last answer? So I’m gonna guess No, wait a minute, you’re in first place, aren’t you? It’s OG’s turn, I’m sorry. OG is to see if he can, uh, if he can put some pressure on you here.
I was going to go
with books also, Len, so thank you for taking that bullet, cause… Hey, look, I saved ya, yeah, I was
pretty certain that that was going to be… Did you try exercise equipment? Try that! That seems to be a catch all.
I’m going to try sporting goods, grills, you know, things that people hoard, things like a smoker.
Boy, if I had a nickel for every smoker I hoarded over my lifetime, I’m sure glad I got rid of that. All the clutter and… Money I saved. All right. I will say one thing though, that, uh, I have no business owning in any way, shape or form. I’m going to say any sort of tool, power or otherwise. That’s a really good one.
Tools like unnecessary, unnecessary tools. Like just hire somebody else to do it. I don’t know if you save money doing that, but you sure save clutter. Tools. Come on. Big money, no whammy. Big money, no whammy. No whammy. Big money, no whammy. Stop!
Is tools on the list, Doug, or is Paula going to win the game?
Maybe. Maybe.
Because he didn’t specify what the use of the tools
were. I think there’s a word there that’s missing.
I said power tools. I said, I said garage tool. It’s in my garage. He’s
burying it, Doug. None of that’s it. That’s not it. Shoot, he was so close. You were so close. Yes. This is horse s It’s not it.
And somehow, someway, Paula Pant has won the game. What? Oh god.
Somehow. Okay, let me hear the one that you thought it was and how I got
screwed. Wait, can I tell you the guess that I was going to have? Yes,
absolutely.
It was going to be, uh, lawn and yard stuff.
Well, that was in the category. So help me
God, if you tell me that that’s the answer.
Well, no, we already
used that one. Okay. Yes. That was in the, what was it called? Outdoor, where’d it go? That’s
in the outdoor
stuff. Plastic furniture. But a
lawnmower kind of thing? That would be like lawn
and
yard. Get rid of your lawnmower? Well then,
yeah. Says the gal from New York City.
What is that crap?
What was the one, Doug, that you thought I got but I didn’t?
Yeah. Well, so here’s where I thought you were in the vicinity anyways, where it’s a single purpose appliances and kitchen gadgets, small appliances and could you get plentiful in thrift stores, yard sales, you were
so close. That was my other guess.
He was between tools and
appliances. Yeah, but like if you hadn’t specified some of the stuff you did, like,
you know, garage. Honestly, I was between tools and appliances. But, but I still
protest. I still protest. Games is recreation equipment. Right? I would. I say games. But then it would be recreational equipment.
But
she’d
already guessed recreational equipment. Yeah, but exercise equipment isn’t, but Paula got credit for it.
What were the other answers that, uh, this piece. I
think it’s recreational equipment. Because if you, if you think of bikes, if you think of… Exercise equipment is recreational equipment. Like, think of uh, REI, recreational equipment.
Len’s about to send me, all of a sudden I’m gonna get some salt from Len.
Gonna get a horse head in your bed
is what he’s gonna get. No, it’s all, good. It’s just
fun playing
around with you. There was one idea I was surprised that nobody got, which was… Home decor, like throw pillows, knick knacks, throw rugs, low quality trendy items, yes, the knick knacks,
that’s a good one, the
padding rack, give a dog a bone, knick knacks,
absolutely.
And the one that I thought was amazing, and by the way, this piece, uh, to give credit where credit’s due, is from the Women Who Money team, which is a Plutus Award winning site. It’s Amy Blacklock, who’s been on the show a couple times, Vicki Cooke, Amanda Kay, and Lori are the Women Who Money. And so this was a Women Who Money list.
But the other ones, Doug, the one items on sale just because they’re on sale, which was. Len, that was kind of your, your yard sale. I was thinking you were headed there. You know, people pick up junk at yard sale just because it’s on sale. So it’s this, I have relatives that do these interest items. Well, that’s
a catch all the
way.
Yard sale stuff could be anything. I would
argue that the tools are quite often on sale. And I went I only bought the ones
on sale. Doug, if you would have said, uh, uh, tools that were on sale, we would have given it to them. Well, I only
buy things on sale. By definition, they’re
for sale. Items on sale just because they’re on sale.
And then the last one, which I thought was hilarious and is so true. Organizing bins and containers.
Oh! To keep all your crap in. So you don’t throw the crap away, you just put it somewhere else. But those actually
work. I wish Mrs. O. G. heard this. They’re like,
get rid of this stuff.
You buy boxes of cereal and pour the boxes of cereal into other boxes of cereal.
Yeah,
we have that. We have that too. I
like it. The people who go rent off site storage facilities for all their crap, because they don’t want to get rid of it. They’re going to pay more to store it someplace
else. Well, because their garage is full too. Their garage is full. The cars are out in the driveway and then they still have an online.
Yeah, it’s
just crazy. And all they’re wishing they had in the garage that they don’t is a car charger brick. If they had one of those. Foreshadowing. If only. If only. It turns out. All right. Paula gets a point. OG gets a point, which means Paula Pant is in first place. What the hell is going on? Right?
Wow.
Hold on. I don’t remember, but when we do these game shows, do those points go towards the yearly trivia competition? They do.
Absolutely. They do? Yeah. Where else would they go? Doug,
where have you been? If I’d have got it, it would have been quite an epic comeback.
But there’s still time. Paula with 12, OG with 11, and Len with 10?
Uh, Len
with 11 as well.
Yes. But the only good thing that’s come out of this is I finally get to pick last, which is a huge advantage of this game. So, I am definitely looking forward to the next several days. Trivia
questions. This is gonna be exciting. I thought it wasn’t gonna be exciting a couple months ago and look at what happened Well, hey, I’m also excited to hear about what you guys got going on this fine mid september weekend.
Oh gee, what do you got?
Nothing, the kids got a bi week from football. So, so I think we’re gonna do some college tours this weekend as
Oh, Feb, it’s that time.
Kind of check out where The spawn may go. Oh,
that’s disgusting.
Wow. Mr. Penzo, what’s going on here at Lempenzo. com?
Oh, I’m on vacation. Just stop on by Lenpenso.
com. There’s lots of things you can check out and, uh, have fun and see some stupid comments from me. So I don’t care. Just, I don’t know. I’m on vacation. I’m closing out
the summer. Len is, Len is actually, I know he’s in the middle now of writing a piece called Why Exercise Equipment Is Not Recreation. Top 10
Reasons.
You know what? In honor of this exact, I have, I have an old article. I’m going to pull it up. 10 ways to get physically fit for free, for free, for free. That’s what’s going to be at Lenpenso. com. You come over here and check that out. 10 ways to get physically fit for free.
Perfect. Which is just to spite me and Paula.
Hey, I get to pick last. I know this is all good. Speaking of Paula, Paula, what’s going on at Afford Anything?
At Afford Anything, we are In the final few days of offering our rental property investing course, Your First Rental Property, which Joe, you and I have chatted about that quite a bit. It’s an amazing course.
There’s like way more than I could even say about it in this moment, but affordanything. com slash VIP list has a ton of info. So, check it out. And
if you want to hear Paula’s interview on the Stacking Deeds podcast, our sister show, you can hear that. And, you don’t even have to go to the Stacking Deeds feed, we did a replay on our off week, uh, last week.
So you can just go back just a few shows and you’ll hear Paula and I talking about. Uh, real estate in general, Paul’s real estate journey and your first, your first round of property.
Yeah, absolutely. So check out stacking deeds slash stacking benjamins .
Yes, absolutely. Well, that’s gonna do it for today.
Another, uh, dug another game show with an asterisk after it. We, we managed to continually controversial asterisks after each one of these, but, uh, there’s gotta be at least three takeaways. Uh, what do you think the top three are?
Well, Joe, first, take some advice from the writers of this piece. Reduce clutter and clean up your budget at the same time.
Win, win, and clean! Second, for you freaks buying all the exercise equipment just to be used as a staging point for your laundry, just stop. You’re not foolin anybody, but the big lesson… When it comes to coral snakes, if red touches yellow, he’s a deadly fellow. If red touches black, venom he lacks. Just a little tip I learned from Googling.
What the hell? I just got it from Googling. I Googled the things about the… Deadly snakes in mom’s backyard. Potential
deadly snakes.
Yeah.
Okay, now I’m going to do the thing, the part where I say the things about the people that are on the show, so. Thanks to Paula Pan for hanging out with us today. You’ll find her fabulous podcast, Afford Anything, wherever you listen to Finder Podcasts. Thanks to Len Penzo for joining us today. You can find Len at Lenpenzo.
com slash yard sale. Thanks also to OG for joining us today. Looking for good financial planning help? Head to StackingBenjamins. com slash OG for his calendar. This show is the property of SB Podcasts LLC copyright 2023 and is created by Joe Saul Sehy. Our producer is Karen Repine. This show was written by Lisa Curry, who’s also the host of the Long Story Long Podcast.
with help from me, Joe, and Doc G from the Earn Invest podcast. Kevin Bailey helps us take a deeper dive into all the topics covered on each episode in our newsletter called The 201. You’ll find the 411 on all things money at The 201. Just visit stackingbenjamins. com slash 201. Wonder how beautiful we all are?
Of course you’ll never know if you don’t check out our YouTube version of this show, engineered for you. by Tina Ichenberg. Then you’ll see once and for all that I’m the best thing going for this podcast. Once we bottle up all this goodness, we ship it to our engineer, the amazing Steve Stewart. Steve helps the rest of our team sound nearly as good as I do right now.
Want to chat with friends about the show later? Mom’s friend Gertrude and Kate Youngkin are our social media coordinators, and Gertrude is the room mother in our Facebook group called The Basement. Say hello when you see us posting online. To join all the basement fun with other stackers, type stackingbenjamins.
com slash basement. 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, Doug, and we’ll see you next time back here at the Stacking
Benjamins show.
So we were
supposed to be. Hold on, hold on a second. Yeah, we were supposed to be live.
Yes, we were. We were supposed to be live. It is my fault that we are not. If people
saw this, by the way, on our social media channel, that we were going to be live, one of you should raise your hand. As to
who the culprit might be.
And you totally threw her under the bus when you canceled it, didn’t you?
Well, it’s, it’s true. It’s true. It’s well deserved. It’s well deserved. Yes. Uh, so everybody else was prepared to do it live on Fireside. I was not, I cannot find the equipment anywhere. I know.
Hold on a second, Paul, before you go further, you own a huge piece of real estate there in Manhattan.
You’ve got like a monster, uh, place.
Oh my goodness. 600 square
feet. Not six feet or 60 feet. That’s 600.
Isn’t that triple the size of the average New York apartment though? I mean, that’s pretty dang.
Everybody tells me, so you can see my kitchen for, for those of you watching this on YouTube, you can see my kitchen in the background.
This is by New York standards considered a massive kitchen. Like everyone who comes over is like, wow. Yeah, seriously. So
do you only invite homeless people over?
So this is my kitchen. This right here is my living room. This is my home office. That right there is your money tree. There’s a, like kind of a couch with a C and that’s, that’s the whole.
And then on that, through that closed door, there’s a bedroom and that’s it. So that’s the whole apartment. Uh, just
giving you a money tree because you’re growing weed? Is that what it is?
Oh, no, it’s a money tree. See, check it out. It’s a money tree. And see, it’s doing well, so that means I… It looks
a lot like something else that’s around.
Yeah, that sure does. To your left, is that the swimming pool? Looks like, uh… Over there?
Paula’s in the rope business.
She needs a new side hustle, Len.
By the way, I hope… Oh, go ahead. Oh, no, go, go, go for it. I was going to change topics because I am distracted by the fact that we have two Joes on today’s podcast. Who’s got
two Joes? What are you don’t see it? I don’t know what you’re talking about, dude. No.
Look at Len and Joe.
Compare Len and Joe and tell me that they’re not brothers.
One…
We’re hot. Yeah, we’re handsome dudes. We are
handsome. I’ll give you that. We are hot.
Proof that you get more handsome with
age. I think Doug’s been smoking the money tree.
I think so too. So anyway, Paula, we were going to be live. Okay, so
yes, we’re going to be live, and I needed the equipment for it, and I know the equipment is in my apartment.
It’s not that big of an apartment, so it’s gotta be here somewhere. There aren’t that many places it could possibly be, so I start looking through everything. I still don’t find it, but here’s what I do find. I found a jump starter power bank, which is, I think it’s, I think it helps start a car. I don’t have a car, so I don’t know why I have this.
Can you send it to me? There you go! There you go! I should give this away as
prizes.
It’s prizes. Clean out Paula’s closet. I have, I
think I won this at FinCon, it’s still in the original plastic packaging. A Fire TV 4K stick? You can still see it in plastic, because I don’t own a TV. You just got the apartment tour, I don’t have a TV in here.
You can take that to O. G. ‘s house and leave it there, because we were just talking about that somebody left a fire stick at his house and he has no idea who it is.
I have a cigarette adapter for, for said car that I don’t own. I have, Oh that
is, that’s a car what? That’s a USB
adapter. It’s a range extender.
I have an internet range extender for my 600 square foot
apartment. To reach the other 200 feet.
Yes. And then my personal favorite, and Joe, I save the best for last, this is just for you, a pair of socks with my face on it.
And you didn’t remember or realize that you owned any of these things until you went searching for the equipment to do our live show.
I was reminded of the socks with my face on it last week. I had forgotten about my face socks until last week when I noticed a certain gentleman sporting a certain pair of socks.
Joe?
No, not me. Couldn’t have been me.
Or a podcast movement, Joe sits down, uh, crosses his legs and everyone can see he’s got a pair of socks with his face on them. God, talk about an ego. Which was the moment that I remembered, I also own a pair of socks with my face on
it. I hide mine on my underwear. You guys have it out there on your socks for everybody to see?
It was, yeah, just entertaining me. But that’s nice, Paula. We should, we should, you should have worn yours and we could have been twins. Everybody would have mistaken us for twins. Like Doug talks about Len and I. Oh, mine
are not for wearing. These are just display socks.
I think mine were meant to be display socks, but then I panicked.
Thanks to Len Penzo for joining us today. You can find Len at LenPenzo. com slash yard sale. How do you not
say LenPenzo. com slash. Exercise equipment.
Slash exercise equipment is not outdoor,
you know, or whatever. No, I know. I actually was leaning that way, but then I just got done doing that for the second takeaway. And I thought I can’t keep hammering on the
exercise equipment. I wasn’t listening. It’s just
a slash treadmills are us or something like that.
Yard sale is
more, uh, succinct. It’s more pithy. It was
also his ridiculously. This is a ridiculous first
answer. Well, I
totally misunderstood the question. Clearly.
You’re kidding. You didn’t say it loud enough, Doug. You didn’t say it loud enough.
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