Today we focus on accountability, diving into what it means to be responsible for your financial decisions. One recent blog post states that it’s easier than ever to get yourself into massive trouble with your money. To what extent is this your fault? How can you protect yourself better from making a mistake that leaves you in financial ruin? We discuss the rapid pace at which bad decisions can be made due to modern conveniences like apps and online services. Jesse Cramer (Best Interest Podcast) emphasizes the importance of finding a ‘bigger Yes’ to avoid impulsive spending, while Paula Pant (Afford Anything) speaks on the broad accessibility of money-making opportunities in the digital age. OG suggests taking actionable steps towards financial goals to keep the momentum going.
Today’s trivia quiz is all about the history of ‘The Tonight Show,’ and maybe features a tangent or two about toga parties. For a bit of drama, there’s a video clip debunking myths about cash value life insurance. Overall, as always, today we bring you an engaging mix of humor and practical financial advice.
- Introduction and Opening Remarks
- Show Introduction and Guest Lineup
- Welcoming the Hosts and Guests
- Discussion on Accountability and Financial Responsibility
- Main Topic: The Degenerate Economy
- Debate on Government Intervention and Free Market
- The Role of SEC and Financial Disclosures
- Gambling, Lotteries, and Financial Ethics
- Trivia Contest
- Nostalgia and TV Memories
- The Tonight Show Timeline
- Guessing the Debut Year
- Revealing the Correct Answer
- Financial Advice and Scams
- Creating a Financial Plan
- Weekend Plans and Wrap-Up
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: Personal responsibility
You are on your own (Abnormal Returns)
During our conversation, you’ll hear us mention:
- The role of government in protecting consumers.
- Financial Planning
- Behavioral Finance
- Setting Financial Goals
- Breaking Down Large Tasks
- Investing vs. Gambling
- Managing Tax Documents
- Creating Lists for Financial Organization
- Impulsive Spending Triggers
- The Importance of Small Steps
- Lottery Gambling
- Accountability in Spending
- Long-Term Financial Goals
- Finding Your “Bigger Yes”
- Dining Out and Impulse Decisions
- Motivation in Personal Finance
- Preparing for Tax Season
- Investing in Personal Growth
- Financial Education Resources
- Impact of Technology on Spending
- Saving for a Down Payment on a House
- Negotiation Skills for Financial Improvement
- The role of regulation in private enterprise
Our Contributors
A big thanks to our contributors! You can check out more links for our guests below.
Jesse Cramer
Another thanks to Jesse Cramer for joining our contributors this week! Hear more from Jesse on his show, The Best Interest Podcast at The Best Interest – Complex Personal Finance Made Easy Podcast Series – Apple Podcasts.
Learn how you can work with Jesse by visiting The Best Interest – Invest in Knowledge.
Paula Pant
Check Out Paula’s site and amazing podcast: AffordAnything.com
Follow Paula on Twitter: @AffordAnything
OG
For more on OG and his firm’s page, click here.
Doug’s Game Show Trivia
- What year did ‘Tonight!’ debut on today’s date in history?
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.
Mentioned in today’s show
Join Us on Monday!
Tune in on Monday when chef and entrepreneur Erin Wade will share her story swapping the suit as a lawyer and throwing on an apron to create of one of the USA’s top restaurants.
Miss our last show? Check it out here: Inspiring Financial Independence Stories and Lessons from Missteps (LIVE from CampFI Midwest 2025) SB1579.
Written by: Kevin Bailey
Episode transcript
[00:00:00] Uh, 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. [00:00:21] Live from the basement of the YouTube headquarters. It’s the Stacking Benjamin Show. [00:00:37] I am Joe’s mom’s neighbor. Duggan, does our opening theme remind you of the Tonight Show? Well, if it does, you are in luck because today, just like Fallon in the Gang, we’re talking to some top guests, including the guy behind the best Interest podcast, Jesse Cramer, and the woman who’s hoping that someday she can afford everything, but right now can just afford anything. [00:01:01] It’s Paula Pant and the man who’s never been more excited. You know, and it’s Friday, it’s og. And what are they talking about? You ask. We’ll be diving into the topic of accountability. You’re on your own, says one famous blogger. And we’ll ask what that statement really means. But that’s not all of course. [00:01:25] We’ll also continue our year long money trivia contest with our contributors and now a guy who’d be just like Jimmy Fallon to be found a way to become handsome and grow hair and learn to sing. Dance a little bit. Be funny. Do a couple of impersonations. Should I keep going? Oh my, no, it’s Joe Saw. See? Hi. [00:01:54] Hey Stackers. Welcome to the uh, Doug Fire podcast. I’m Joe’s. See hi. And. Too. We got a great show for you today, Doug. How are you joining your last show? Is it fun? That’s, this is, uh, it’s gonna be a heck of a lot of fun. Now I can say anything I want. I’m already can. That’s right. The chains are off. He, he’s considering the rest of this podcast to be the exit interview. [00:02:15] It’s exactly where it goes. I’ll tell you what I’m thinking. Well, I gotta tell you guys what we’re thinking. We’re thinking we got a great show for you today. Let’s meet the players. Uh, Mr. OG is playing today with us. How are you, my friend? Uh, super Awesome. Thank you for asking Day off for me today. So I’m just, uh, back here helping you guys. [00:02:33] I should be, uh, on working, working on your day off, doing God’s work. Yeah. Well I understand it to be double time, so we just, uh, make sure we’re clear about that come payroll time. I’m happy to be, yes. The woman who is always double timing but never running, maybe walking fast. Paula Panta is here. Yeah, that does. [00:02:51] So what’s double of zero? Easy, cowboy, easy. What’s two times zero? But yeah, but you’re right. I am never running, I am not a runner. I am opposed to running what I do, set the treadmill at like 2.6 miles per hour, sometimes 2.7 miles per hour if you getting crazy. Oh, exactly. Whoa. Slow down. But yeah, hey, I’m five one. [00:03:12] I’ve got like a short stride, but I will then put the treadmill up at like, you know, a 12% grade, so, wow. Yeah. Walking uphill. Yeah, exactly. Like a both ways. Like the Nepalese Mountain climber. I am. That’s perfect. With, with Zero Elevation. Yeah, exactly. Right at sea level. That’s fabulous. Now, Paula, if there were, you know how contentious this election like every election is, right? [00:03:34] Yeah. I think if somebody would come out against running, you would become a one-issue voter. Ooh. Well, I mean, I do think that people should have the freedom to run if they so choose. I just, uh, no matter what kind of sicko they might be. Yeah, exactly. If you want to. Yeah. Benjamin Franklin wanted to protect that. [00:03:56] Right. And the guy who is ready for winter to come, because it’s the end of September. Jesse Cramer’s here. You’re way up there. Way, way, way north. Jesse, is it snowing yet? Let’s get the weather report. It’s not snowing yet, at least. Uh, not that I can tell, but it could snow soon. October. Snow is not out. The question here in Rochester and I, I just wanted to comment. [00:04:15] I really like how in most places in this world, if, uh, if you get let go of an employer, you are walked out, you are no longer allowed to make decisions. But here on Stacking Benjamins, we just give Doug a microphone. Like say whatever you want. That’s perfect. Our HR department may a little lax, Jesse, that’s a great policy. [00:04:31] Maybe slightly lax. Well, we’re not gonna be lax about this. You know who sponsors this show? Jesse, I’m excited to find out. Is it State Farm today? It is. It is State Farm. Yes. Yes. They’re so good to us. Jesse, did I cheat? Did I cheat to get that right? You, you might have showed up at the last recording. This episode brought to you by State Farm. [00:04:52] If you’re a small business owner, it isn’t just your business, it’s your life. Whatever your business might be, whether it’s cheating or whatever it might be, you want somebody who understands, and that’s where State Farm Small Business Insurance comes in. State Farm agents, their small business owners too, and know what it takes to help you personalize your policies for your small business needs. [00:05:10] You guys ready? Everybody ready to do this with me? Neighbor? Like a good neighbor? Good neighbor. Stay, stay miss there. Yeah. That’s great, Paula. They’re gonna, they’re gonna kick us out soon. Talk to your local agent today. Well, we’ve got a great show. Today’s show actually meant to kind of put, you know, there’s the carrot and the stick. [00:05:32] I think today’s episode is a little bit of the stick because I found this. Yes, og. So excited. Yes. OG hates carrots. It’s about time. Bring the wood. We’ve done, we’ve done almost 1700 episodes and finally won OGs down with the most excited. I’ve seen him in months. Gonna share the negativity. But this, uh, comes to us from a blog called Abnormal Returns and it’s the Ritholtz gang of, uh, bloggers and they’ve got a message that maybe, maybe we all need to hear. [00:06:05] It’s kinda a little Dr. Phil Day on the Stacking Benjamin Show. How’s that working out for you? But before we do that, state Farm’s not the only sponsor we have. We have a couple more that make it free. Let’s hear from them today, and we’re gonna get this started. We got Jesse Cramer here, OGs here, and fired up. [00:06:20] And Paula Pan is here, along with Doug doing his last show. Let’s get on it. Oh my God, that’s funny. It’s not that funny, Joe. It really, it’s not making me laugh as much as it’s making you laugh, because I’m starting to believe it as I, as I’ve mentioned this piece, that’s the inspiration for today’s chat comes to us from the Abnormal Returns blog@numberreturns.com, and it is written by the Director of Investment Education at RI Holt’s, uh, wealth Management. [00:06:55] Oh, Todd Hanta, bless you. Todd Hanta, who’s the Director of Investor Education at at Ritz ols. Uh, thanks for the help of that. Jesse, let’s dive into what he says, because the name of this piece is. You are on your own. And he says, the rise of the degenerate economy, degenerate economy, it’s obvious to everyone now, is Howard Linson writes quote, the degenerate economy is definitely bleak, but it’s not going away. [00:07:23] The bottom line is no one’s coming to save you. I. From blowing up your financial life, not even the SEC. Then he goes on this little mini rant where he talks about, uh, writer Robin Wigglesworth, who was, was on the show. Robin when he was on our podcast, was talking about the surprising fact that no, it wasn’t, uh, John Bogle who created the index fund. [00:07:45] John Bogle was actually against the first index fund. It was a bunch of other people, and we’ll link to that episode in the show notes back from October of 2021 when he was on. But Robin was talking about there was just approved a leveraged long micro strategy, ETF, ticker symbol NSTX and Robin Bemoan the fact that this is a product that is going to make, guess how many people Money og, guess how many people it’s gonna make money? [00:08:13] Uh, one or two. Basically whoever owns it. Whoever manages it and gets paid for it, whoever the creators of the fund are. The salespeople get rich. Anybody. Yeah, that’s true. Anybody on the creation team makes money. Anybody who buys this garbage is out money, and yet the S-E-C-O-G does nothing. He complains. [00:08:36] Does this surprise you? Well, no. The SEC doesn’t exist to prevent you from doing anything dumb. They, they exist to make sure that everybody’s following the same rules and regulations. There’s, there’s no rule that says that they have to stop what they decide to be a bad investment. Because honestly, if there’s a market for garbage, then it actually serves a purpose, right? [00:09:00] Even if it’s detrimental to the people who, who might be investing in it, it, the, the economy, the capital market has said, we’ll take this stuff. It’s like any other free market thing. It’s like if you wanna sell your house for a million dollars, but it’s worth 500, nobody’s gonna buy it. But if you wanna sell it for a million and it’s worth 2 million, you’ll have a whole long line of people that wanna do it. [00:09:21] Let the economy decide where the money should flow. This product is needed, it’s priced correctly, and it performs the way it should. It’ll attract money and it will prosper. If it’s a piece of crap and it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do and it costs too much and so and so forth, then it won’t, it’ll cease to exist. [00:09:38] It’s not the SEC’s job to say This company could be successful and this company cannot. We, just to make sure everybody’s disclosing everything correctly so that you can make an intelligent decision as an investor. Do you agree with that point of view, Jesse, that this is just capitalism at work? I mean, I, I agree with what OG said, but we’re gonna go down an interesting conversational path today, which is a little bit political or a little bit social in nature. [00:10:04] You know, socioeconomic in nature, where I. You know, my mind immediately jumped to the idea that, uh, as a society we’ve decided that heroin and methamphetamine are very illegal, that tobacco and alcohol are allowed, but with some restrictions, uh, but that you can eat all the sugar you want. I could sit here and make arguments that all those things are unhealthy for you. [00:10:23] Someone could make an argument and say, we should restrict all of them. Another person should make an argument and say, let people take whatever sort of substances they want. And this conversation is, is gonna be similar in nature, just financial, in nature, which is to say, well, should any sort of financial instrument anywhere on earth be legal? [00:10:39] Does the government have a role in protecting us? Or, or, you know, who in the government decides what needs to be protected against? And, and that’s where you kind of get this slippery slope or this gray area that I think it should be a fun conversation because of that. Yeah. Paula, where do you come down there? [00:10:53] The more interventionist a government is, the more opportunity there is for lobbying and special interests to take hold and sway those interventionist policies. I’m not sure that a group of bureaucrats are the best decision makers when it comes to assessing the quality of either nutrition or investments. [00:11:14] And so to that end, it seems that so long as there are sufficient disclosures, so long as there is sufficient transparency, it is ultimately the free market and the end user that should decide. Based on what you just said, when Jesse talks about, you know, compares it to other types of products, you’re saying let it be legal like, like whatever it is, let it be legal and buyer beware. [00:11:39] Yeah, exactly. Again, transparency is important. Disclosure is important because that is how people become informed consumers and make informed decisions beyond that. You have the information, it’s up to you to make the decision. I think that there is a misconception, Jesse, about what the SEC does. I know I’ve seen online forums, I’m sure you’ve seen online forums. [00:12:00] I can’t believe the government doesn’t anything about this. And yet when you take what OG and what Paula just said and what you just said, you know, that’s not really the SEC’s job. And so I think there’s a lot of people out there that don’t realize, hey, nobody’s coming to help you. Don’t blame the SEC if you get stuck in this stuff, this garbage, this, uh, what’s it called? [00:12:20] MSTX or whatever the other piece of garbage is that’s on you. Yeah, I mean is it outright fraud? Like the SEC part of the SEC’s job is to preventing an outright fraud or, or like things that are purely predatory in nature OGs Right. To some extent, which is in this case, I mean, I haven’t looked in this to the specific ETF and, and just so we’re clear, I mean in case any listeners are confused, this is an ETF. [00:12:46] If, if my understanding is corrected, and I’m actually looking to, you guys, correct me if I’m wrong, this ETF holds one single stock micro strategies in a levered fashion. So you’re kind of doubling down your bets and you say, well, why do you need to do that? And, and the answer is because some investors out there want higher octane exposure to this one company, MicroStrategy. [00:13:05] And a lot of micro strategies, uh, valuation is tied to Bitcoin. If you didn’t know. So it’s like kind of this weird Bitcoin cryptocurrency play. And as long as investors are aware of that from the SEC’s point of view, as long as you know what you’re getting into, go ahead and get into it. Again. It, it kind of comes down to this conversation and it’s the difference between what’s legal or what’s ethical or moral. [00:13:27] I, I don’t know where I come down on it, but, uh, for the same reason why some people look at Las Vegas and say that gambling is immoral and we shouldn’t have it legalized. That’s probably the same reason why some people might come down on this and say, well, this leveraged ETF, it’s, it’s just stupid. And, and you have to look out for yourself. [00:13:42] You’re on your own. It is amazing. OG to Jesse’s point, the author here starts to go into gambling, right? And how a lot of investors. Aren’t investing their gambling. Heck, last Friday, Paul, you were sharing that during the, during the Covid time, like everybody else, you put some money in account and, Hey, because of boredom, I’m going to not invest. [00:14:01] I’m gonna gamble stocks. Mm-Hmm. And do some meme stock fund. Yep. And he quotes this, uh, man Alex Kirschner at Slate. The quote is, there’s a certain old fashioned spirit of competition in a regular sports bet, but the founding fathers of betting, whoever they were, did not envision you throwing away your car payment on an eight Legg parlay hinged on several conference USA basketball games. [00:14:24] They did not imagine you’d be able to do it in 30 seconds from your phone with any prompts asking you. So maybe think about it for a second. Like og there is, it’s amazing how there’s no backstop now. You could blow more money than you ever had on DraftKings in 30 seconds, your entire paycheck and more. [00:14:43] And there’s no backstop at all. Well, yes, and, and I know that there’s, different states have different rules and so they’re leaving it at the state level. Texas, of course, doesn’t allow any of that, you know, so if you try to log into DraftKings or whatever you’re. You know, interesting. Uh, app Azure is, it’s not gonna work. [00:15:01] That’s why VPN sales are through the roof in Texas. No, you can’t even do it with a VPN. Don’t ask me how I know, but I’m just saying like, uh, but I do know that on some of the casino apps, they do have things that will pop up after a while, be like, Hey, so you’ve been doing, you’ve been spinning this wheel for about an hour and a half, maybe you wanna take a break. [00:15:19] Where they don’t do that in person. So at least on the app, they can kind of pre-program those alerts to, to alert you. But, but yeah, exactly right. Like who’s the judge, jury, and executioner of you deciding whether or not you get to spend your money in any way you decide to do it right. Short of. Being completely illegal. [00:15:39] And I guess, you know, there’s that right big broad brushstroke that Paula said of like, well, who gets to decide that? Politicians somebody. Yeah. What’s up? Your vacuum cleaner salesman is here. Oh, I don’t, I don’t get that joke, but, okay. Well, oh, we can hear a doorbell loud and clear. Yeah. Doorbell ringing, uh, somewhere We have no idea where. [00:15:58] Cool. Well, hopefully not from me continue. But anyways, I liked what Paula said about, you know, as long as the disclosure is there, and I was thinking back in like the tobacco industry, right? And how, for how many years it was like, oh, it’s totally fine. Your doctor prescribed smoking for, for health reasons and how silly that sounds. [00:16:16] But the issue wasn’t that people didn’t know that it was bad for ’em. ’cause undoubtedly, you know, it doesn’t make any logical sense to most people that inhaling a bunch of smoke into your lungs would be healthy. The problem was, was that all of the politicians were bought out. A lot of them were, and all the information associated with it about exactly how bad it was, kept on getting buried more and more and very hard to get out into the public, whether it was from the lobbyists or whatever. [00:16:46] So I think, I think, and you’re seeing this with using smoking as an example, you’re seeing this with like vaping, right? Like what was the story with vaping for the first X number of years? It was wrong. It’s just water vapors. I’m like, wait a second. That doesn’t sound healthy either. I’m not a fish. I don’t think I’m supposed to inhale water. [00:17:05] You know, it’s like, but why do I feel different if IS you know, smoke of vape thing or whatever it is, like, well, it’s all the chemicals. Like, right, so how did they get in there? It’s just water vapors. And now all of a sudden everybody’s like, yeah, okay, that’s not healthy either. It’s like, really? And I mean, it seems like they condensed the timeframe from, from how long it took the, the public to get around to that. [00:17:27] As long as you have the opportunity to have the information. If you know that this is a fair game of poker or you know that this is a fair game at the casino, as fair as you can make a casino game, or it’s a fair game in the stock market, why? Why do I have to have somebody say, well, listen, I don’t think you’re, I don’t think you’re in a good enough spot to be able to handle this right now. [00:17:46] So, uh, we’re not gonna let you do it. You know, I mean, if it’s a fair thing, I should be able to do it. It’s my money. But the author does bring up the speed at which we can make bad decisions. Has definitely increased like the, like the rapidity of these bad decisions. It is funny that, you know, we used to talk about, we talked about blowing your budget. [00:18:06] We would talk about for maybe the first seven or eight years of this podcast, it was going to restaurants, right? If you go to a restaurant, a random Tuesday, and you just don’t care, you’re just doing it ’cause you’re a little lazy, that’s kind of stupid and you’re just blowing cash. And like contributor Greg McFarland used to say, if you order alcohol, you know, just because you’re out at this random dinner and you don’t care, you’re wasting Yeah. [00:18:28] Just drinking at home. Am I right? Doug? Yeah. Perfect. Absolutely. Mm-Hmm. Just get the alcohol in you at home ahead of time. Pre-game, at the very least. But think about the discussions we’ve had lately on this show. Are we wasting money on DoorDash? Right. We’re having the restaurant and having it come to us, and I can do that on my phone. [00:18:48] I’m not having the neighbor take me to the airport. I’m using Uber to take me to the airport. I’m not, uh, buying anything. I’m renting all my stuff. I can do all this from my phone. Yeah. But all those things have served an economic purpose and are viable solutions to problems. For every person that says Uber sucks, there’s a bunch of people who are like, this is a godsend. [00:19:10] Because now I have a bunch of transportation options. Where in my town I had one taxi guy. And now I have 20 Uber drivers who can help me get around and do the things that I couldn’t do before. So it’s definitely served a purpose, right? And again, same thing with DoorDash. So who is it to say, Joe, look, I know your money situation. [00:19:33] You probably should just eat at home today. But for the person, wait a minute though. But for the person who is broke, or the person who’s just coming outta college and just starting off, Paula, it’s easier than ever to get yourself into trouble. Yes, but it’s also easier than ever to get yourself to earn money, to get yourself up the ladder. [00:19:54] It’s now easier than ever it used to be, before the internet in the 1980s and the 1990s, if you wanted a side hustle, you would have to go to a brick and mortar establishment and take a second job. Now it’s easier than ever to make money from your phone. So it’s easier than ever in both directions, like gambling. [00:20:14] That’s how you do it. Fastest. I know. The fastest. Well, Jesse, it’s funny, when I first read the header of this piece, you are on your own. I’m like, oh, this is generic. And I wasn’t even gonna open it. And then I saw who was writing it and I’m like, okay, these guys established group, he’s an established writer. [00:20:31] I start reading it. It’s obviously a very interesting topic, but truly, Jesse, to Paula’s point you, you gotta decide for yourself which team you’re gonna play on. No one’s looking out for you, Joe. And I mean, I don’t mind taking the other side of this conversation to some extent. I, I’m happy to go back and forth a little bit only because here we go. [00:20:48] I think, you know, and this I’m stealing some words from the late great Charlie Munger here. Uh, state sponsored lotteries are disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization. Sports gambling, like all gambling is a tax on ignorance. I don’t think they actually add anything to society. I. So again, it’s, I don’t know whether it’s the government’s job to tell us how we can or can’t spend our money in that case, I’m, I’m willing to hear, uh, listen to other thoughts. [00:21:14] But yeah, I mean, I personally think the lottery and sports gambling are not adding anything to society. I think we’d all be better off if, uh, someone came in and got rid of them. I don’t think that we need to, you know, in the spirit of free market, allow a for-profit gambling company to create an unbelievably addictive app to, to send out to, like you alluded to Joe, to people who are fresh outta college or just off on their own. [00:21:41] And it’s the susceptible to, um, you know, we’re all human. We all fall for addictions in the same kind of way or ways. And yeah, I, I just don’t think it’s a net positive for society. And I think it’s okay to look at things that way, not from the individual point of view, but from the society point of view and just say, is this a good thing for us to have or not? [00:22:02] Anybody, [00:22:07] he’s just gonna let it go. Damn hot take. I know that was, I apparently, Jesse, you dropped the mic. ’cause nobody wants the other side of that one. Well, they’re definitely bad. Let’s, no, I was just gonna, it’s i’ll, I’ll bite. I mean the, uh, Dave was, what does Dave Ramsey say about, um, uh, lotteries? It’s tax on poor people. [00:22:26] Certainly. Well, I’ve heard Was it gambling or lotteries? I don’t know who said it, but Tax on people who are bad at math. Bad at math. Yeah. It’s a tax on Ignorances. Well, Seth Godin in this piece, they quote Seth Godin, who by the way, is gonna be on the show in about a month. Awesome. Seth writes, someone’s going to win the lottery, but it probably won’t be us. [00:22:42] Which is another point. Yeah. If I buy the bang of millions today, there’s a chance. Right. You’re saying I got a chance. You’re telling me I got a chance. Somebody gotta win it. Now, I don’t know these numbers for a fact, Jesse, but I see the advertisements. So maybe it’s true, or maybe it’s partially true or maybe it’s not true at all. [00:23:02] But in Texas, I see the thing that says, you know, you should play Mega Millions because last year it generated $6 billion for Texas schools generated from what? Well, I’m guessing from the people who paid half the money went to the, to the winners, and half the money went to to the, you know, it’s a tax, like you said. [00:23:22] So I mean, there is some transfer that’s happening, right, where it’s going to allegedly schools. I don’t know if that’s true or not. If we wanted to generate $6 billion for schools, I think there’s a more efficient and equitable way would be my, would be my counter argument. I, you know, I’m just saying like the money’s coming from people who maybe they just wanna entertain themselves, which that’s one thing. [00:23:48] Some of these people, their only hope to get out of their circumstance is to hope to win the lottery. And we know that’s a losing bet, quite literally. Right? Or they just simply don’t understand the math of it all. And that’s a losing bet. I think if we need to raise money for schools, which is a good way, a thing to do, I think there’s a better way of doing it than running a lottery. [00:24:08] Oh, undoubtedly, undoubtedly. I’m not suggesting that this is the, the best solution. Yeah, I get it. I get it. But, uh, you know, I’m trying to put a little lipstick on the pig. That’s fair. That’s fair. Paula. You know, regardless of the ultimate social outcome, it seems authoritarian and patronizing to tell others how to spend their own money in the same way that we wouldn’t, you know, time is money and we can’t tell people how to spend their time. [00:24:34] If people want to. Be unemployed and sit on the couch and eat Cheetos and watch Netflix marathons. They’re free to do so for as long as they can find a way to pay whatever bills they may have. You can’t tell people how to spend their time. Likewise, time is money. You can’t tell people how to spend their money, and people will make decisions about both time and money as necessity pertains. [00:24:58] I mean, the same thing is true Paula, right? For somebody who’s wildly successful, saves a bunch of money and leaves their lucrative, high productive career at 45, right? And you go like, well, why are you leaving right now? You’re, you’ve got so much to give. And it’s like, well, I’m good man. You can’t make me work. [00:25:16] You know, I’m, I’m, I’m happy and content where I am. You know, so where’s the line drawn on somebody saying, this is good for you, or This is not ’cause forcing me to, I. Or restricting me from doing one thing is the same as saying, well, you’re 45, you’re a great doctor. I mean, you can’t quit yet. We need good doctors. [00:25:37] We need you to come to work for the next 15 years. You’re like, I don’t wanna do that. That’s, yeah, exactly. It’s authoritarian to try to, to be the dictator of that. It is interesting though, because you, you know, you think about the lottery system. To go back to the lottery analogy, then how come we don’t let individuals run their own lotteries? [00:25:55] Right. Individual people run their, their, their lotteries and ’cause of lotteries, by the way. Mm-Hmm. We used to, and the lotteries were incredibly predatory, and so they made them state governed so that we, we had some box on it. So it’s funny how this does come down to partially some arbitrary lines. I don’t wanna stop there. [00:26:13] Yeah. I, I also want to, you know, I was, I would also add to that real quick, Joe, you mentioned a lot of, as soon as you said this about predatory, I thought about, uh, like the payday loans, right? That’s been really rained in over the years and it’s like, again, at some. A little counterpoint, I suppose, but at, at some level, somebody has to step in and go like, dude, you can’t charge somebody 3000% interest. [00:26:35] Like we get it. You’re lending somebody some money, it’s a risk and so and so forth. But you have to have some sort of cap and, and you know, states have come in, or banking rules have come in and said, this is the, this is the maximum. Like why did they pick that number as the maximum and not 1% higher? I don’t know. [00:26:51] Somebody somewhere said, I’m the expert at this. And yeah. Supposedly self-appointed expert. Probably Jesse. Yeah, I mean, I, the last part I agree with og, which is like, where do you draw the line and why do you draw the line there? But I do think it’s interesting that there are some issues where we as a society have said, no, we’re not gonna allow one group of people to take advantage of another group of people, right? [00:27:15] We’re not gonna allow, uh, loan sharks to take advantage of people who need payday loans. So in, in that case, the legal philosophers out there said, we’re drawing the line. And in other cases, maybe they shouldn’t, but, but going back to the whole authoritarianism or, you know, is it authoritarian to say, I wanna live in a society where people aren’t taken advantage of by their lack of math skills? [00:27:38] I don’t know. The state of New York tells me that I can only drive home at 65 miles an hour. Are they infringing upon my liberties? I don’t think so. I think there’s a good reason why that law’s in place. And again, I’m, I’m kind of going away from the whole personal finance podcast. You can kick me off anytime you want, but, uh, God, you and Doug leaving on the same episode. [00:27:57] Yeah. Careful. He’s in the mood today. Jesse. Don’t tempt him. I think it’s a really cool conversation actually. I think we should have, as a society, we should have more conversations where we’re all kind of look at each other and be like, why are the rules the way they are? Respectfully? Why are the rules the way they are? [00:28:11] So I’m really enjoying this. This goes back to when John Hope Bryant was on the show, because you know, his big point is there are very few ills in society that don’t get solved when the poorest zip codes out there get their credit scores raised. I. Like if we help them and, and often it’s a matter of math skills and not getting the memo and not understanding how wealth building works. [00:28:34] And so protecting those people. It is, it is an interesting conundrum that I’m sure we’re gonna solve in the next half hour. I’m very certain we’re gonna solve all of this in 30 minutes, but we’re, we are gonna take a break right now. And by the way, when I come back to this, I wanna talk about social media. [00:28:49] ’cause when we say that you’re on your own, oh man, some of the great sounding garbage that’s on social media is just incredible. I’m gonna play one for you. But at the halfway point of every Friday show, we have this year long competition between our frequent contributors, Paula Pant, og, and mom, who lately has been. [00:29:08] Not very well, she said lately, by the way, by, uh, by Jesse. She liked it better, Jesse, when you cheated. But, um, you know, maybe, maybe we gotta go first. He cheats and then he brings on his dumb politics onto the show. Here he is. She’s just saying she liked you better when you nailed the answer. That’s all she said. [00:29:29] But anyway, we have a score. And Jesse, well, it’s not looking that great, bud. It’s looking good for somebody, but it’s not you and it’s not. Paula Og last week increased his lead. He has 14 mom, AKA. Jesse has 10 and Paula has eight. Paula, I think if you’re gonna win, I think you gotta get going this week, sister. [00:29:50] Woo. All right. It’s the time. This is the decision maker for the 2024 outcome. Well, I don’t know if it is, but you know, near the end of the season when they’re like, if they don’t win today, right? We’re getting close to that spot. But I’d love to see a Paula pant run. Starting today, but Doug has the question. [00:30:08] Doug, what are we focused on on this fine Friday? [00:30:14] Hey there, stackers. I’m Joe’s mobs, neighbor, Doug, and today’s a big day and money making history for tonight. You know what I’m saying? Of course. Tonight is what we’re all about today. That doesn’t make any sense either. Um, what I’m trying to say is that tonight first came online. On what day? On this day or, you know, tonight. [00:30:35] You know. How about the what year? Yeah, that’s it. That’s it. That’s it. Uh, what year? Today was tonight. First. Tonight. Nothing. I mean, you get, you get what I’m trying to say, right? I got it. I’m picking up at your laying down. Let’s, uh, I’m gonna try it this way. Years study. Here we go. To clarify, what year did the show called? [00:30:57] Tonight? Later To Become The Tonight Show. First Air. Yes. That’s it. I got it. I nailed it. That’s better, right? We’ll do it one more time. There you go. What year did the show called? Tonight? Later To Become The Tonight Show. First Air on today’s date. Tonight, like years ago. I’ll be back with the answer as soon as I practice saying he, Joey, [00:31:27] that didn’t sound right. That’s got a ring to it. I don’t know. That’s perfect. That’s great. We should start every show with that. Alright, og, you are going first. The Tonight Show debuted on today’s day in history. What year? Well, I’m old enough to remember that there was a point in time when TV would stop. [00:31:46] I don’t think Jesse or Paula would know that they played the national anthem and then everything went off. It’s also ’cause you grew up in the sticks and they did that out there back then. No, I didn’t. I grew up in a city. You wake up because they had the uh, they had the national anthem playing and then there was just fuzz and then it went to snow. [00:32:06] Yeah. Yeah. What TV wasn’t 24 hours? What? From the Be? No, I’m, wow. It’s incredible. I didn’t know that. Yeah, like literally it would be the national anthem and then it would just end. Yeah. Like then TV was over, says if you’re not in bed yet, you better be. ’cause there’s nothing to watch until 7:00 AM today. [00:32:23] We’re ending our broadcast A at WKBS. Yeah. Whatever this station is, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. It’s just, you know, you’d think they’d play like Taps or something and then what happened, grandpa, I know enough old guy stories. I’m just trying to place like when that could have happened. So tonight’s show, Fallon. [00:32:46] The guy before him. Car Guy, Jay, Leno. Jimmy. I don’t know. Is Jimmy in there? Is there Johnny? There’s a lot of Jays and I feel like there was more people before Johnny Carson. So I’m gonna say that the Tonight, you said tonight and then it changed to the Tonight Show. I’m gonna assume it’s kind of one continuous thing that just rebranded it. [00:33:08] It is, yeah. And not get cute with it. Uh, I’m gonna say that it started, uh, September the 27th in, uh, 18. I’m just kidding. 19. I just wanna see Paul and say 1462 in 2000 and, uh, let’s see, 19 and, uh, 56. 1956. 1956. I feel like that’s a really good number. I’m very, I’m very excited about that number. Why? I just feel good. [00:33:41] It’s like I got a lot of tingle came through me when I said it. Okay, Jesse. Weird. Uh, no tingle over here. Is that the question? So, 56. Uh, interesting answer. Now. My parents were born in 55 and 58, and just something about seeing their childhood pictures. I just feel like the Tonight Show and that kind of brand of TV wasn’t quite there yet, but I also think by like 1970, I’m, I’m, I’m thinking to myself like Carson might have started in the early seventies and I don’t think he was the first one either. [00:34:14] So I’m gonna say a little bit later than Josh. I’m gonna say 67. 1967. That was my second guess. Paula, what do you think? You got a, got 11 years between those? Yikes. I mean, the question is, do I guess that it’s somewhere in between those years? Or do I take, take the upside. I’m gonna take the upside I. Jesse, your guess was what? [00:34:42] 1967? Yeah. I, I said 67, but I did mean 1967, not 67 ad 1967. All right. I’ll take 1968. 1968. That was a fine year. That was a great year. Mm-Hmm. For civilization. 1968. Maybe the best year that when you were born. Could’ve been. Might’ve been. I was born at some point. Yeah. So long ago, wasn’t it Paula? Night Easy. [00:35:09] 1968. 1967. 1956 on the board. Who is gonna take this one home? We’ll find out in a second. We’ll be right back. og, you opened up, uh, this whole thing at 1956, and I gotta say Jesse and Paula think that you might be a decade off. What are you thinking? Feeling it. Feeling the flow. I’m in the zone. Just feeling good. [00:35:32] That’s a little creepy. The tingle. It was the tingle, just feeling his flow. I was gonna say 48 actually, I was gonna say 1948. Who then I thought right after World War ii, probably not when it happened. Give him a little bit of time after that. That’s how I get to the fifties. Like back to the future time. [00:35:49] Marty McFly, Jesse. Yeah, I’m, I’m feeling okay, Joe. I’m just doing some math in my head. So what if it’s, if it’s 62 to 67, that’s my sweet spot here. If it’s before 62, it goes to og. I think so. I, I’m feeling pretty good mid sixties. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There’s a chance, there’s a chance. It could be early sixties, right? [00:36:09] When Joe was born maybe a s mid early, right? Right. Uh, but then again, right. It could be 68, 69, 70. I, I’m feeling okay. Not great, but, okay. But Paul, if it was 2011, you’re gonna win this thing. Well, I mean, so there was Johnny Carson. I feel like Carson started in the seventies. Yeah. Anybody know this off the top of their head? [00:36:28] Yeah. Yeah. Johnny Carson was in the seventies. I don’t know if there’s anybody before Carson. I’ve never heard of anybody be before Carson. You know, when I first heard the question, I thought, eh, probably in the sixties or early seventies. So yeah, I feel I feel decent with 68. Well, let’s find out if, uh, Paula’s finally got her intuition machine working right. [00:36:48] I. Doug, who’s gonna win this thing? [00:36:55] Hey there, stackers. I’m Ed McMahon, fan club president and guy who loves to dance to music by the Roots Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug Tonight, later to be called The Tonight Show, has had some iconic hosts. The first was Steve Allen, but probably the most iconic was Johnny Carson, who started, well, I’m not gonna tell you that. [00:37:17] Of course, the biggest fiasco in late night centered on the Tonight Show, as well as Conan O’Brien was hired and then replaced by his predecessor, Jay Leno. Man, was that a mess? But this question isn’t messy. What year did Tonight debut on today’s date in history? Well, I can tell you that Paula was just 14 years off. [00:37:39] Jesse was 13 years off an OG guessing 1956 was just two years off. The correct answer is 1954, making the soul sucking Captain Evil, our very own sick Lord. Today’s winner. Wow. Oh Lord. And now back to our ragtag group of misfits. And there do Well, Paul, I thought when you said you’re taking over, I’m like, that means 1955. [00:38:05] Right? Please take 1955. You’re taking 1955. Please God take 1955. And by the way, when OG first said 1956 Doug, I thought the answer was 1956. Yeah. And I was like, holy crap. Is he cheating too? Like do we have just eating as contagious? Nope. Nope. So good. And I almost kind of gave it away a little. I don’t think we have. [00:38:27] We never have. We can be certain 1700 episodes. I can be certain. Oh, okay. Paula, Johnny Carson started in 1962. He was on 1962 to 1992. 30 years. Wow. And before him was a guy named Jack Parr. I think Jack Parr that. I think that’s right. Yes. And Steve Allen before him. Wow. So long, long history wait. And TV ended. [00:38:52] That’s the part I still can’t get over. TV just ended at a certain point. I just exploded. Paula’s brain, she couldn’t even comprehend the question. How do you even do that? I’ve, I’ve, I’ve never heard of this. Paula’s head explosion is brought to you by deposit accounts.com. You know what happens when you go to deposit accounts.com Paula, you learn that your deposit accounts also end after 11:00 PM You deposit for as long as you sign up for it contractually. [00:39:19] But you compare more than 275,000 deposit rates from over 11,000 bags and credit unions for free. Savings accounts right now, if you’re in the top 1%, you’re getting 4.91% national average 0.5. I know the huge banks are still paying 0.01 or 0.03. So check out yours and then check out deposit accounts. [00:39:39] Click on savings accounts, CDs, checking money market, and it’s easy to compare, ditch, switch, and save at deposit counts from Lending Tree. Paula. Paula. You know the light on a refrigerator also goes off when you close the door, right? That’s, well, that’s still true today. TV ending is no longer true, nor has that been true in my lifetime. [00:39:59] The refrigerator door light, I just did a quick Google search, Paula, for you. Apparently the first all 24 hour broadcast was New York City Channel two in 1982. Wow. Whoa. That was the very first one. So think about into the nineties, you had plenty of smaller stations that were still like the last guy out would just shut it off. [00:40:20] He’d be like, all right, let’s a wrap, everybody. Pow. Flip off the switch, right? TV was over. Geez. The focus on today is nobody’s there to save you. And the pace at which, uh, you can mess up your money is, uh, faster than ever before is the hypothesis. So we’ve already talked about gambling, about gambling on investments, inve investing in a way that’s gambling some crappy products and oversight. [00:40:45] I wanna play you something that, uh, a member of our basement Facebook group brought to our attention. This is, um, well, this was presented as what the IRS doesn’t want you to know. And this comes from Instagram. Life insurance is the world’s safest industry. There’s an account that yields five to six times more than long-term CDs that’s guaranteed returns in most cases, does not have to be reported to the IRS could be accessed by any time without penalty, lets you retire 100% income tax free. [00:41:16] And yet almost no one knows how wonderful these plans are because the government places tight restrictions on the advertising of these accounts. Even though they are 100% legal, why are they secret? I’ll tell you in a moment. The only way to prove that is to own some. Now, why? Why can’t we advertise all the greatness of cash value life insurance? [00:41:37] You ready? The government places tight controls and restrictions on the advertising on these accounts because they can’t make a dime off of them. If we sold cash value life insurance to everybody in America, there’d be no tax revenue for these guys to screw up when the money goes in. It accumulates without current taxation. [00:41:55] When you take it out as a retirement benefit, it is paid out tax free, and when you die, the death benefit is paid tax free. Let me ask you something, don’t you think you ought to get out there and tell America this right now? Guys, obviously talking to insurance agents about the miracle of, uh, permanent life insurance. [00:42:12] Chris, he’s talking to agents and not consumers and people who know us know that you can use, there’s, by the way, I don’t think there’s anything he said that’s not true except for his conjecture that, um, that the government want doesn’t want you to know about it because they can’t tax it. Jesse seems like buyer beware when it comes to what you see even online now. [00:42:36] Yeah, I mean, I, I have to go back through and listen to that point by point and see if I, there are a few of those things made me raise my active eyebrows here, but yeah, I, I mean, social media is rife with, uh, insurance sales pitches or investing sales pitches or just sales pitches of various types. [00:42:53] They’re everywhere. I get sent them pretty frequently of, you know, Jesse, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? Whether it’s from a. A reader, a listener, a client, whoever, people see these things. A good sales pitch can be very compelling and make you really think to yourself like, oh, maybe there is something here. [00:43:09] And it trickles down. And if you don’t have anyone to bounce these ideas off of Yeah, I, I could see how someone would, uh, chase one of these pipe dreams down a rabbit hole and, and find themself in a pretty tough spot. I mean, online is disguised as advice, not a sales pitch. Right. Right. I mean, yeah, a lot of it is, but yeah. [00:43:29] You know, it’s, it’s always good to look into these things and say, who’s the speaker and, and what are their incentives? And again, this is, I think the second time today, I’ll bring up Charlie Munger, who’s famous, simple quote, show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcomes. Mm-Hmm. If you understand someone’s incentives, you can understand the outcomes that they’re looking for. [00:43:46] And if, if, if someone with no dog in the fight is giving that speech that you just played for us, Joe. Okay. That’s one thing. If it’s a individual who profits from the insurance industry and is speaking to insurance agents about selling more insurance products to, to people like you and I, well all of a sudden now it, it kind of changes the way that we should look at that statement, doesn’t it? [00:44:05] Yeah. We’ve got a lot of hills we just created that people need to battle on. Paula, so let’s start on the other side of this. Let’s go from the negativity of we can screw this up faster than ever to the positive. Where do we begin? I mean, obviously marketers are after us. Mm-Hmm. Faster than ever and they can take our money faster than ever. [00:44:25] So if I’m starting to put my financial plan together in 2024 mm-Hmm. Or beyond, what is step one of creating a rock solid plan to not just stave off the types of people we were talking about and stupidity. And create a plan. Hmm. Well, I’d say the first step is to get educated, because the more that you know about a given subject matter, the more that you are able to see through marketing, spin, and make, you know, intelligent assessments of different ideas, different products, different services, different plans. [00:45:00] Where do you start that education on the Stacking Benjamin Show? Probably, or, yeah. Yeah. You do. You, you truly do. You listen to podcasts, you read books. What’s great about books is that, as opposed to things that are published on TikTok, there’s a vetting process when it comes to books, assuming the book is traditionally published. [00:45:17] And so there’s a much more rigorous vetting and editing process before a major publishing house puts that material out for public consumption. And so what’s funny about that though, those walls, as you know, are also coming down quickly as well. Mm-Hmm. They are, but there are. You know, the big five publishers, they trade on reputation in a way that some smaller publishers don’t. [00:45:40] Now, that isn’t to say, oh, avoid smaller publishers. ’cause that’s where a lot of innovation comes from. But education is reading and listening to a very broad array of voices, with a broad array of opinions. And you start to not just hear what they’re saying, but unravel why they’re saying something. So if you think of an XY axis, right? [00:46:03] The, the horizontal axis is what people think, right? If you think about discourse being along a spectrum, there is the spectrum of what you think, but then that vertical axis, the y axis is how you think. And there’s lower level thinking that appeals to base. You know, fear, greed like it, it appeals to really base visceral. [00:46:31] Elements of the human experience. And then there’s higher level thinking where we think in nuance and abstraction. And so as you consume material, you filter not necessarily for what somebody thinks, which exists on that horizontal line, but rather for how they think which exists on the vertical line. [00:46:52] And you’ll find thinkers who are in that higher level of the Y axis who might have a broad range of opinions along that X axis. And that’s where you can really start to see how nuanced critical thinkers may disagree on the end subject matter. But what you learn from them is you learn their processes. [00:47:13] So you learn that regardless of your opinion about the hypothesis, you learn, which scientists have a good fundamental decision making process. It’s funny. Halfway through college I changed my strategy from taking my electives based on the titles of the courses, to instead taking my electives based on the strengths of the teachers. [00:47:36] Almost exactly what you’re talking about, right? Because I wanted to see how these great thinkers at, uh, Michigan State thought even though the classes were harder, it made education a ton more fun. Mm-Hmm. Oh gee. You know, Paula talked about getting educated, but I said recently the camp fight isn’t about what you know, it’s about what you do. [00:47:56] Right? There’s these, uh, broke professors out there all around us that have studied and studied, studied, do nothing with it. When it comes to rubber meets the road, what is the thing you do first when you’re trying to put together your plan? I’m still stuck on the great thinker, Michigan State content. [00:48:11] Just lemme get past tons of great thinkers. Versus that ugly school closer. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the reality is, is that it’s just yellow. It’s not maze, by the way. I know, I know that. We, uh, I know that we were making fun of Ohio on Monday and, uh, what’s the color? Doug Scarlet, but come on, maize. Really? Maize, it’s a very distinct shade of yellow. [00:48:35] My God. It’s a type of yellow. It’s a type of court. Come to East Lansing, the non pompous part of the state where we just call it yellow. We call yellow. Yellow. Our uniforms are green and white. Fight. Fight. Anyway, og, back to you. Back to me. Burn a couch. Rah rah. Yes. We won a game. Burn a couch. We lost a game. [00:48:54] Burn a couch. Like, wait. What? I think the biggest piece when it comes to all of this stuff is the action that you can take the most logical next thing. Tony Robbins is really well known for goal setting and, and conversations around goal attainment and, and kind of your mindset thinking about this. And one of the things that he talks about is to never leave the thought of a goal without doing the first logical step. [00:49:21] Like whatever the next thing is. If you’re, if you’re thinking about, oh, you know, be fun to go to Europe for a week, or it’d be fun to take a, the family trip to, I don’t know, Peru, or, you know, just making places up. You could like, you know, you gotta order the, the travel book about Peru or, you know, or do whatever, right? [00:49:39] Like do the next logical thing in the process. You’re not gonna book a trip to Europe without figuring out what country you wanna visit or countries, you know, you, you gotta do the next logical thing. And so when it comes to your financial planning and it’s like you’re thinking, oh, I should probably do something for retirement. [00:49:54] Well do the next logical thing, set an appointment with HR people and go, Hey, what, what, you know, what options do I have here? Or go on Schwab or Fidelity and open an account and set up. Set up 50 bucks going into it so that it’s funded, you know, do the most logical next step. You don’t have to get to build full financial plan, buy life insurance, create my estate plan, meet with the CPA, you don’t have to do all that stuff. [00:50:17] Yeah. Eventually those things show up, but do the first best thing, and that will just start the snowball of momentum a little bit. You and I were having a great conversation earlier today off Mike on this same topic. We were talking about a good financial planning firm, and you said og, that when, when somebody asked the creator of this firm why they were so successful, he didn’t say, because we do comprehensive planning, and they do. [00:50:43] He didn’t say, because of the way that we work with our clients successful because we do. You said what? Yeah. We just solve whatever problem they need. Yeah. We, we solve, in solve what they’re worried about right. Then. Which is, if you’re passionate about something right now, go do the thing about that thing that will lead you to comprehensive, which is I think OG where this firm got with their clients. [00:51:05] Yeah. If you’re working on this for yourself, it doesn’t matter if it’s fitness, if it’s health related, if it’s money, if it’s your taxes, you know, I mean, pretty soon we’re gonna be talking about that. It’s like sitting down on a Saturday afternoon with TurboTax and a bunch of PDFs on your computer or trying to wrangle all those things is a giant pain in the butt. [00:51:25] But you can think about it in like little steps and go, well, what’s the most logical thing? Oh, I should download all of my tax documents, or hell make a list of all the places I have money so I know where to go to download all the tax documents. You know what I mean? Like you don’t have to do your taxes all at one day when you think about it in January, and that’s a goal to get my taxes done, go. [00:51:43] First thing I should do is write down where all my money is. Oh, I’ve got some money at Schwab. I’ve got money at the bank. I’ve got money in my 401k. You know, I work two jobs this year, so I should get two W twos. Make a list of that stuff and now you’ve just moved a little bit down the field. You’re gonna be, to your point, more comprehensive because you’ve taken the small steps and not jumped to, I gotta show up at the CPA’s office with all my stuff. [00:52:03] ’cause that turns into, oh, I forgot this form. I know you filed by taxes already, but I just got this from, I, I forgot. It’s a bigger mess. Jesse, you know that in this piece they’re talking about all of these, uh, problems that Right. We decide to gamble on the lottery or we decide that we’re going to do something, whatever it might be, do something dumb with our money. [00:52:25] That doesn’t happen when you’re fired up about financial planning because when you’re geeked about something, maybe the first month, the first two months, the first three months, you’re gonna be great at it. How do you guard against the types of things we talked about today when you know it’s a, that normal Tuesday and you’re thinking maybe I should go out to dinner. [00:52:46] So, I’m sorry, it’s a Tuesday. I’m looking to go out to dinner and, and what’s the question now? And you’ve got the DraftKings app in your hand. Gotcha. And you pass, you pass the liquor store where it says it’s $5 billion today. Right. How do you guard against all that stuff when you’re not fired up anymore? [00:53:01] It’s just a random m withdrawal for the Powerball. Yeah. You’re back to regular life. Mm-Hmm. I wish I remembered the exact source of the person who said this, but the idea is that, uh, in order to say no to something, it helps to have a bigger Yes. And, and the meaning there would be like, okay. If I’m gonna say no to pulling out the DraftKings app, or hopefully I’m gonna say no to downloading it in the first place. [00:53:24] It helps if in the back of my mind I have this bigger, over looming. Yes. Which is that, you know, maybe I wanna save up money every month because we’re trying to put money down on a down payment on our house. And that’s this really big Yes, that exists somewhere in my financial plan. Or maybe, you know, once a quarter I take my family out to a really nice meal. [00:53:42] And in order for me to save money for that, well I have, I have to say no to some things in life. So, strictly speaking, from a like behavioral finance hacking, financial planning point of view, uh, one of the ways in which we can more easily say no to quote unquote bad spending or, or dangerous spending in our life, is to have some bigger, more exciting Yes. [00:54:02] That we’re working toward, know what the goals cost. I love that. ’cause we often know what the sweater costs right in front of us that I’m gonna, I’m gonna drop some money on, but I have no idea what the goal costs. And whether I’m a head or behind. I love that. That’s great. Joe, don’t you already have enough Cosby sweaters? [00:54:18] I mean, just step away, Cosby from the, we go to Cosby. Why do we go to Bill Cosby here? You know, you had a whole bunch of those, those Cosby sweaters. I’ve seen you wear them cardigans. Oh, we could just call it a cardigan rather than all the stuff that comes with Bill Cosby references. Wow. You know, your Kevin Spacey sweaters are just well done, well done. [00:54:44] Paula got a whole bunch of those. I think that is a great place, uh, to leave it. We will look at this on our show notes page at stacky Benjamins dot com. We’ll have a link. And for now though, let’s talk about what people could do after this. They clearly, Jesse, want to go to that, uh, better interest, better investing, maybe the best interest podcast. [00:55:05] That’d be great. They could go to any of the three podcasts, but if they do wanna hear me, the best interest is the way to find it. What’s new? Boy, by the time this, uh, airs, there might be a new a MA episode out, which is cool. Joe, you might be joining us soon. So we’ve got some really good things in the hopper, whether they’re live yet or not. [00:55:22] Exciting stuff. Awesome. I like that. Air of mystery, Jesse. Like, what is it? I don’t know. Just come see at the best Interest podcast. It, it was like that insurance sales guy. I, we can’t even advertise about it. You’re just gonna have to wait and see. The government doesn’t want you to know about the best. [00:55:37] The best is to own one. They can’t tax me. That’s why they never talk about it. That’s great. The best way to know about it’s to sign up. og. Just sign up. og, what do you got going on this fine? Uh, last weekend of September. Oh, it’s fantastic. It’s a great weekend. Hoko going on in the OG house with a senior and Esfa more so that’s cool. [00:55:56] Uh, Hoko dance tomorrow. Big, big thing. I, I wasn’t invited, but I understand it to be a big thing. And my brother’s in town to visit. It’s his birthday today too. I know. It’s your bride’s birthday today. It is. Happy, happy birthday to Cheryl today. This is Joe Sia. Anyway, but uh, uh, yeah, so just, we’re just kinda hanging out this weekend, quiet weekend. [00:56:17] The kids are gonna be gone partying, doing kid stuff and me and my brother are gonna get a little cray cray. Oh boy. Well, some high noons will be involved. What is, what’s the, uh, what’s the other brand? High Noon and, uh, truly, truly, truly huh? White Claw. White Claw. There you go. White Claw. Yeah. Yeah. White Claws and high Noons. [00:56:37] Oh, that’s, that’s gonna be flow if they had that stuff on tap. Whoa. That would be sickening. Let’s go back to 1991 and grab the burs and James off the, those were good. Some box wine. Oh, bad dog. 2020. Actually box wine’s gotten better. But anyway, Paula, either that or I’m just getting older and I just don’t care. [00:56:56] Box wine is legit. P Paula people could pause right now and go to the Ford. Anything show they flip over to that right after this? What are they going to hear from your melodic tones? Oh, I thank you. The, the Dnet, uh, they are going to hear this is Negotiation week on the Afford Anything podcast because this is the week when we, I’m not sure if I want to or not then. [00:57:17] No, I don’t. I’m sorry. Uh, yes, I’m here all week. Uh, this is the week when we are making our course on how to negotiate specifically with a focus on how to negotiate for a raise. Although we’ll also teach you how to negotiate for a car or a, a freelance contract or anything like that, but with a super focus on how to get a raise. [00:57:41] This is the week when we are opening that course up to a beta tester cohort. So if you want to get in on the ground floor, be part of the founder’s crew and get access to it for. Cheaper than it will ever be. This is the week to do it. So the September 23rd through 27th is the week that it’s available and, uh, that is rapidly coming to a close. [00:58:04] Awesome. And that is on the Afford Anything podcast? Yes. Where Find your podcast r And you know what, and we’ll, we’ll link to the negotiation course specifically on our show notes page. I would love that. Thank you. Thank you Paula. And thank you Jesse. And thank you og. It’s been another great Friday. Doug, wrap this up with a big old bow. [00:58:26] What, uh, should be on our to-do list today? Well, since this’ll be my last time ever doing a wrap up for an episode, I hope I can go out with a bang here. That was hyperbole. Of course you’re coming back. Hmm. Okay. I don’t hear a lot of veracity in the tone. Your voice there, Joe, but it sounds like he’s about to take Paula’s negotiation class. [00:58:44] Now. He’s gonna be asking for a raise. That’s right. We’ll give him 40% more money. Right. Here’s what’s stacked up. Can I just do it? Get outta here. Here’s what’s stacked up on our to-do list for today. First, take some advice from Jesse. Get a couple of really kind of mild, totally non-vocational takes today. [00:59:03] Didn’t drop the mic or anything. Hey Jesse, how about summarizing one of those for us? Don’t be a stupid gambler, but instead find your deeper. Yes. Ooh. Alright. Alright. Hey, second Paula. Before we turn off the podcast transmitter for the night, please enlighten us about your thoughts on accountability. It is easier than ever to blow your money, but it’s also easier than ever to make money because you can do both of those from your phone. [00:59:33] So you’re saying DraftKings is okay, but the big lesson, don’t try to create your own tonight show set in the basement. I mean, you take one bedsheet off the line one time, you wrap it around your waist and mom thinks we’re going all toga party down here. Hey, that’s an idea. Who wants to have a toga party? [00:59:53] No. Hi. You’re lost. I was gonna recreate that scene from Caligula with the grapes. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Not those grapes. Relax. Thanks to Jesse Cramer for joining us today. You’ll find his best interest podcast wherever amazing podcasts are. Found. Thanks to Paula Pan for hanging out with us today. You’ll find her fabulous podcast, afford anything wherever you listen to finer podcasts. [01:00:19] And thanks also to OG for joining us. Looking for good financial planning. Help head to Stacking Benjamins dot com slash OG for his calendar. This show is the property of SB podcasts LLC, copyright 2024, 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. [01:00:48] 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.
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