Market volatility, overthinking portfolios, and why simple might be smarter.
Trade wars. Tariffs. Tumbling markets. When headlines scream and your portfolio wobbles, what’s a Stacker to do? Today, we tackle how to invest confidently during uncertain times—without overcomplicating your strategy or losing sleep.
We start by breaking down smart ways to manage volatility, whether you’re just getting started or already a seasoned investor. Then we dig into a great question from Stacker Ryan: should you stick with a diversified portfolio or choose a one-stop fund solution like those from Dimensional or Avantis?
🧠 In this episode:
- How to hedge against market swings without panicking
- Why keeping it simple could beat fancy fund strategies
- What most investors get wrong about stock market “danger”
- The power of a long-term mindset and how it pays off
- Tips for building confidence in your own investment decisions
We also take a break for the TikTok Minute (yes, we found another gem), and Doug brings a trivia challenge that’ll take you back to the dawn of the space race.
And later, we open the mailbag:
- A listener asks how to plan solo for retirement
- …and also wonders how much is too much for an emergency fund
It’s a full basement session—investing insights, listener Q&A, and a few unexpected left turns.
Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201
Enjoy!
Our TikTok Minute
Our Headline
- Don’t Blame Trump for All of the Stock Market’s Problems (Wall Street Journal)
- Goldman favors yen to hedge against volatility (InvestmentNews)
Doug’s Trivia
- Collectively, as a group, what did NASA call the first seven astronauts?
Better call Saul…Sehy & OG
- Stacker Ryan from Tennessee has a question about portfolio construction – whether to DIY or invest in an all-in-one “fund of funds.”
Have a question for the show?
Want more than just the show notes? How about our newsletter with STACKS of related, deeper links?
- Check out The 201, our email that comes with every Monday and Wednesday episode, PLUS a list of more than 19 of the top money lessons Joe’s learned over his own life about money. From credit to cash reserves, and insurance to investing, we’ll tackle all of these. Head to StackingBenjamins.com/the201 to sign up (it’s free and we will never give away your email to others).
Join Us Friday!
Tune in on Friday when we’re diving into ways to fight fear in investing.
Written by: Kevin Bailey
Miss our last show? Listen here: 60-Day Hustle and Legacy Building (with Rudy Mawer)
Episode transcript
STACk 04-09 Smothing Out -steve
[00:00:00] Doug: 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. [00:00:11] bit: Hey guys, mics are hot. Quiet on the set. [00:00:22] Doug: Live from Joe’s mom’s basement. It’s the Stacking Benjamin Show.I am Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Duggan with all this talk about tariffs and trade wars and consumer buying slowdowns. How do you effectively hedge against all of this volatility? Whether you are new to investing or a seasoned pro, we’ll talk about smoothing out your ride in the stock market on today’s show, plus we’ll help stack Orion decide between.
Using a diversified portfolio or a single fund that combines the best of all worlds, why not just keep investing simple. All that plus our world famous TikTok Minute and my world famous trivia challenge, and now two guys who are buckled in and. Or like strapped down to their gurneys and they’re cleared For takeoff, it’s Joe and o Jean.
[00:01:27] Joe: I just wanna know what airline you’ve been flying. Doug strapped your gurney and ready for takeoff. Hey everybody. Alright. Welcome to uh, Doug’s weird Airline fantasy podcast. I’m Joe Saal, average Joe Money. On the tweeter machine. And man, we are ready to roll on a Potpourri episode, og, because we’ve got topics and more topics and heck, even more topics.How are you today, my friend?
[00:01:54] OG: I am, uh, I’m just happy to be here. Uh, thanks for asking. How are you doing today? [00:01:59] Joe: I am happy you’re here, but you and I get in some rain like the next five days in a row. It’s supposed to rain you building your arc. [00:02:06] OG: You know how people put those little, uh, blow up things around their cars, the little hail protectors?I don’t know. They probably don’t do that in Texarkana, but, um, what?
[00:02:14] Doug: Nobody does [00:02:15] OG: that. Yeah, they do. Yes, they do. It’s like a big giant balloon that you put around your, it’s [00:02:21] Doug: prophylactic, isn’t it? Huh? It’s a prophylactic device. Oh. [00:02:26] OG: Uh, could be, but it’s for your car. And it goes around the whole thing. And it’s like a big net.Not net, but it’s like a big blow up thing. So the hail doesn’t get your car. You guys don’t do that?
[00:02:35] Joe: We don’t have ’em in Texarkana. No. Not, not like there, we, [00:02:37] Doug: we just invented these things up in the north called garages. [00:02:41] OG: We have those too. But when you, when your garage is only a three car garage, what are you gonna do with your fourth car? [00:02:49] Doug: So. [00:02:51] OG: So, so, [00:02:52] Doug: so, so good. [00:02:53] OG: I mean, what you gotta pick Mercedes or McLaren? Which one’s getting protected today? [00:02:57] Doug: The high school kids’. Land Rover gets to stay outside. Yeah. [00:03:00] OG: I mean that’s always is the challenge, right? You’re like, okay, and then what, what are you doing with the Porsche? And maybe Federal’s gonna hit you with a higher insurance cost.You know? ’cause you gotta hail claim,
[00:03:09] Joe: you know, those insurance costs get you every time, Doug. Yeah, every, every time. You’re damn right, they get me. We got a great show. We are already rolling, starting off, poking each other. It’s gonna be great. You get a full hour of this, everybody. But to kick things off, we’re gonna start off with a fantastic headline about ways, some experts, you’re talking about, you smoothing out the ride in the stock market.But before we shine a light on that for you, we got a couple of, uh, sponsors who make sure this is free for you so you don’t have to pay a dime for any of this. Goodness. And. We’re gonna hear from them and then into today’s headline.
[00:03:46] headlines: Hello Darlings, and now it’s time for your favorite part of the show, our Stacking Benjamin’s headlines. [00:03:53] Joe: Our headline today comes to us from the Wall Street Journal. Last week on Wednesday afternoon, the White House announced Stephen uh, Moore sweeping tariffs. John Ro wrote this piece in the Wall Street Journal. Don’t blame Trump for all the stock markets problems. Of course, we’ve had in response to the tariffs and also lots of other factors.We have had a stock market that has, uh, trended lower, to put it mildly the past couple months. John writes this OG with the s and p 500, having suffered a correction in the word quote, recession being uttered across Wall Street. It’s tempting to link the fate of the stock market to the Trump trade war, but investors shouldn’t forget that danger can come from many directions.
That last sentence that Ndro wrote, I really, really, really like. ’cause here’s what happens. We get focused on one lever, right? We get focused on one thing and one of the things that really historically have happened in my 30 plus years doing this, your going on 30 years doing this, God,
[00:04:59] OG: that’s a long time. [00:05:00] Joe: The things that really affect the market, OG come out of the blue sometimes, right? They are things that you didn’t expect. Some of the black swan events that happen or this thing happened, or it’s a conglomeration of 50 million things that occur. And sure we’ve got this easy tariff stuff right in front of us, but I love, I love, love, love what syndrome’s implying here.Don’t get so myopic that you’re just focused on one thing and you forget. Danger’s always lurking when you’re investor around every corner.
[00:05:33] OG: I take issue with this whole concept altogether. To be clear, we’re not trying to make a political argument one way or the other here. This is not like, it’s not [00:05:42] Joe: that bad.Trust this
[00:05:43] OG: guy. No, we’re not like, no, no, no. You know, it’s not. It has nothing to do with the politics of this. [00:05:47] Joe: And also, og, to be clear, the day before this piece came out last week, the Wall Street Journal had another piece come out saying, ’cause this obviously sounds pro-Trump from the beginning of the piece. [00:05:57] OG: Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. It’s like we’re not having a, we don’t have a dog in that, [00:06:00] Joe: huh? Yeah. Wall Street Journal had a piece the day before. They said that Trump’s tariffs are like a $36 trillion tax levied on the American public, so they called the tariff. So even the Wall Street Journal, I don’t think is being political here. [00:06:18] OG: Yeah. Well, so here’s the thing. I was listening to what the opening was here, and you said there’s danger lurking everywhere. I think that’s an awful way to look at investing. I think it’s a great way to look at investing. No way. None of this is Dan. This is, this is completely normal. If you look at the stock market and go, oh my God, there’s danger around every corner I got, uh, you’re never gonna do anything.Why would you, if. Doug’s going out to chop trees down in his yard because of the ice storm from two weeks ago, and he’s like, oh my gosh. There’s danger around every corner. He might not do it. Investing is not dangerous. There’s nothing dangerous about it. Danger is not investing. It has nothing to do with tariffs or the market going up or going down or sideways.
This is all. Short term, who gives a crap? If you’re investing in the stock market right now, or you’ve been investing for the last year or five years, 10 years, 30 years, whatever your time horizon has to be, 10 years plus. If you’re an idiot and you’re putting money in stocks right now that you need a year from now or two years from now, that’s being stupid.
That’s not being dangerous. That’s just being dumb. Don’t do that kind of crap. But if you’re investing for the future. None of this matters and none of it’s dangerous. The only thing dangerous is not investing because you’re worried about the tariffs or whatever else. Chaos theory. The stupid Wall Street Journal wants to, no, I this is put out there and scare the hell outta it.
I
[00:07:36] Joe: mean, this might be semantics, but if you are investing for a year out, the market is dangerous. It is dangerous and it will take away your money with a one year timeframe. And listen, Doug’s staying inside of his house. If there’s a, you know, trees across his driveway and there’s the chance that ice might hit him on the head, him staying in his house forever there chance, chance might hit him [00:07:58] OG: on the head. [00:07:59] Joe: Well, there’s the short term and obvious and the long term and not so obvious, right? If we focus on the short term and obvious quote, danger, then we’re never gonna freaking do anything. But the problem is, I know, is that the prescription, in this case of doing nothing hurts the patient. I. Which is I think a hundred percent my point.Once you realize there’s zero
[00:08:18] OG: danger to investing, [00:08:19] Joe: a hundred percent, there’s danger and there’s risk. If you invest in a penny stock, that stock could go to zero. Heck, if you invest in a stock that’s even trading today for a hundred dollars a share, that stock could go. Zero. That is a real and present danger with the stock market.What you are talking about is getting thoughtful about it and how do you get thoughtful about the stock market? You actually take into account all the, that could go wrong. You guard against those things, you guard against those dangers. So you’ve got two options when it comes to investing in the stock market.
Number one, don’t do it. What happens? Then? Let’s go to that outcome, right? Which is your point or outcome Number two is, if I recognize that, what am I gonna do? Number one, I’m gonna get diversified. There’s a way to avert the danger. Number two is I’m gonna think not about one year or two years or what’s going on with the trade war, I’m gonna think in 10, 20, 15, you know, 30 year increments.
That’s averting the danger. It’s not, not dangerous, it is not, not. It is dangerous. And once you realize that it’s dangerous, and then you start. Figuring out how you’re going to play that game in a way that gives you the outcome that you need to get where you want to go, then. Then I think you’re a kickass investor.
So I couldn’t disagree more. Man. It’s dangerous as all get out. I can tell
[00:09:41] OG: you’re all fired up, [00:09:42] Joe: man. Why are you yelling at us, man? I know. Well, because it’s stupid. [00:09:45] Doug: He’s still yelling. It’s so, it’s so stupid. [00:09:47] OG: Well, well, I wouldn’t call my comments stupid. It’s not dangerous. Yeah, it’s dangerous. [00:09:51] Doug: Whoa, whoa. [00:09:52] OG: No, this is part of the problem.With people who say things like, I can’t invest in the stock market. It’s too risky because they’re afraid of the boogeyman. That doesn’t exist.
[00:10:06] Joe: That boogieman does exist. There is no boogieman. That boogeyman does exist. [00:10:11] OG: If you wanna pick on a specific thing, like if I buy penny stocks, I could go, bro. Well, yeah, no kidding.When I say investing, I’m talking about if you’re. Putting a hundred bucks a month or a week or day or whatever your thing is into the s and p 500. If you’re putting a hundred bucks a month into the international markets, if you’re putting a hundred bucks a month into small cap, and it’s, I’m talking about the big broad brush stroke of.
Investing not a particular thing. Yes, you could die penniless if you put all your money in Apple or you could be a billionaire. I don’t know what’s gonna happen.
[00:10:45] Joe: But that is broad brushstroke. Broad brushstroke of investing is, this is a stock in the stock market. [00:10:50] OG: If you put your money in a mutual fund or an ETF, that is broadly diversified, there is zero.Zero concern. So you
[00:11:00] Doug: immediately, the example you immediately went to, to get yourself all worked up was picking an individual stock. Nobody’s ever said that. No, no. [00:11:08] Joe: What he went to was getting away from the danger by doing something that, because he’s educated in this area, he knows how to do. [00:11:16] OG: That’s what he did.I’m saying, so focusing on, I talk to a normal person on the street and I say to them, why are you not invested in the market right now? People will reply with a general phrase of, it’s risky. It’s risky. And why do they think it’s risky? Because of stupid pieces like this Wall Street Journal article that say.
Don’t invest in the market right now because of tariffs or do invest because it’s tariffs. But know your scary monster. There is absolutely nothing risky about owning the economy of the United States for the next 30 years. Why do people
[00:11:50] Joe: think that way? [00:11:51] OG: Not a, why do people this nonsense, because of this article of people going, it’s so scary, it’s dangerous.So are you saying, again, you gotta be careful with the danger around the corner? Are you saying, because
[00:12:01] Joe: I think what I hear you saying is if we. Don’t get educated on this and we don’t understand that this is irrelevant, this whole thing. And if we take a long-term approach, then we don’t have to be worried at all. [00:12:18] OG: Why not have a Wall Street Journal article? [00:12:20] Joe: How do, how do we get that way? [00:12:22] OG: Why not have a Wall Street Journal article that says Investing is never dangerous. When you’re diversified and you have a 20 year time horizon, [00:12:33] Joe: you put a caveat on it. I love it. He, he puts a caveat on it when you’re diversified and if you have a 20 year time horizon.And how do we understand that?
[00:12:42] OG: Og? I said at the very beginning that if you’re investing in the stock market today for money, you need tomorrow, that that’s stupid. It’s not dangerous, it’s stupid. It may turn into be a good decision driving a hundred miles an hour down the highway. Is stupid. You may get there faster or you may end up in a burning heap of molten metal.I mean, I don’t know what’s gonna happen because it’s dangerous. That’s the same thing. Well, I would, I would submit to the, to the court that driving a hundred miles an hour down the interstate is dangerous. Yes, I would, I would, I would. I would capitulate to that. But investing in the stock market’s not danger.
I don’t care. You have your opinion. You’re very committed to it. And I also am committed to mine. Next topic, your Honor,
[00:13:27] Joe: I think you’re committed to it because you’ve already mitigated the risk. You’ve already mitigated the risk in your head. You’ve mitigated the risk. But the reason we have this podcast is to help people mitigate that risk and to learn how to avert the danger.I would mitigate it of the stock market by
[00:13:40] OG: saying that there is none. If you start with the premise that there is none, there is no danger, then you’re more likely to go down that path. If you start with the premise of it’s dangerous unless you follow all these specific rules, then it’s like, well, I don’t know.It still sounds dangerous. You already had those rules. I’m just saying, you just put, you just put those rules in place. Tell people it’s not dangerous. Let’s just start by saying investing is a smart thing to do and it’s not dangerous and everybody should do it.
[00:14:06] Joe: Well, how about this one? Let, it’s not, let, it’s, if it’s not dangerous and it’s really easy, let’s go to this headline.This headline from Investment News, Goldman Sachs. I mean, there’s a, there’s a smart company with people that I should pay attention to. Goldman Sachs Group Incorporated expects the Y to climb to the low 140 levels against the dollar. This year’s jitters around US growth and trade in a totally not dangerous market.
Bolster. Demand for the safest aspects I added. Not dangerous by the way
[00:14:33] OG: we got that part. Thanks. [00:14:34] Joe: The yen offers investors the best currency hedge should the chances of a US recession increase. Says. Akia [00:14:44] OG: says some guy at Goldman Sachs or gal one of the two Makia Trev. I’m sorry. Kam. Akia. Spell it. Oh, spell that. Can you use it in a sentence please? [00:14:56] Joe: K-K-A-M-A-K-S-H-Y-A. I’m whoa. Head of Global Foreign Exchange. Interest rates and emerging market strategies. Bad person. The yen tends to do best when US real rates and US equities are falling together.Trivedi said an interview in New York, Japan’s currency screens is a more attractive hedge for the downside view on US growth than it has done for some time. What we led with was that, uh, Goldman Sachs, very smart people, says that if you just buy some yen, then, then we’re good to go.
[00:15:26] OG: Okay, I should I invest in foreign companies? [00:15:30] Joe: Absolutely. Yeah. Foreign, not scary [00:15:32] OG: at all. [00:15:32] Joe: Not not foreign companies. I’m talking about. Foreign exchange. The Forex, buy some yen. Go buy some yen. [00:15:41] OG: Okay. I mean, that’s pretty concentrated. I wouldn’t do that. That seems a little silly, but [00:15:47] Joe: why wouldn’t you [00:15:48] OG: do that? Why? Just wonder why you [00:15:51] Joe: wouldn’t do that. It’s not, I mean, it’s not smart.Why would, why would you, why is it not smart? Just, just avoid the word. Just go ahead and avoid the word.
[00:16:04] OG: You want me to say that it’s dangerous? Is that what you want me to say? I guess advice is hella dangerous. It’s horrible [00:16:09] Joe: advice. Do you know anything about the yen? Does our average stacker know anything about the yen?They don’t know anything about the Japanese Yen, but my keyboard, it’s
[00:16:17] OG: a Y with two lines on it. [00:16:21] Joe: That’s all you need to know. That’s all. That’s all we need to know. Hedging. That’s not [00:16:25] OG: investing. Hedging against down markets. Speculation. It’s not investing. It’s not investing. It’s speculating. Different thing.Which you learned how hedging transactions have a net outcome of zero. That’s not investing. That’s speculation.
[00:16:43] Joe: I think this idea, Doug, we, we mentioned at the open that we were gonna tell you how to smooth out the stock market. I. This is how Goldman Sachs says he smooth it out. Oog you just [00:16:51] OG: smooth, smooth Joe out is what we need to do. [00:16:55] Joe: Yeah. Dunno why you briley this morning. Somebody’s a team needs a mood leveler. [00:16:58] OG: No, [00:16:58] Joe: I do not. I do not understand why I’m playing the villain in your show. I do not understand. I don’t [00:17:03] OG: understand why you’re playing villain in your own show, but that’s usually my job. But I’m letting you roll with it, buddy.Wow. We good cop, bad cop. We switched roles all of a sudden and it’s kind of nice over here. It’s warm and fuzzy and you know, it feels nice. I
[00:17:17] Joe: think the way that you smooth it out is exactly what you were saying earlier. Get a 30 year horizon. Get a 20 year horizon. Don’t be dangerous. Don’t, don’t, don’t.Just
[00:17:28] OG: don’t be dangerous. [00:17:29] Joe: Don’t think about the short term volatility. Stay diversified and don’t think about that. I think that’s the way to mitigate against the danger in the market. Yeah. There’s danger. The danger, the danger in the market is that you’re gonna play it day to day. That’s the danger in the market stupidity, is that you’re gonna play the day-to-day game.You’re gonna play the tariff game, you’re gonna play the, how do I smooth it out? Why am I trying to smooth out a market when volatility is my best friend? It
[00:17:51] OG: always goes up. Yeah. There’s no danger. There’s no downside. [00:17:55] Doug: That’s [00:17:55] OG: what [00:17:55] Joe: you [00:17:55] OG: said. Yeah. There’s no danger. [00:17:58] Joe: What’s going on here, [00:17:59] Doug: Doug? There’s no danger in long-term money.Amen is what I think we’re all trying to say here. Amen. Right. By all of us. Don’t invest your two your money
[00:18:11] Joe: in yen. Please God, do not try to smooth out the market. If you don’t need this money for 20 years, why are you trying to smooth it out? Why are you trying to make your ride smoother? I think it’s a better idea.I think it’s a much better idea to realize there’s gonna be bumps in the road. And I love this idea that they can come from anywhere back to SRO and uh, the Wall Street Journal piece, og the fact that those bumps can come from anywhere at any time and knowing they can come from anywhere at any time makes it a more comfortable, it makes less
[00:18:37] bit: dangerous. [00:18:38] Joe: It doesn’t make it less dangerous. It makes it equally as dangerous. But think about this. This is actually interesting when it comes to fear, when it comes to people’s fears, and I’ve used this analogy before, if the plane starts bouncing around. The plane starts bouncing around with turbulence and the pilot doesn’t come on and tell me there’s gonna be turbulence right?Then I start freaking out. I think there’s a bunch of stuff happening up there. I think there’s like smoke coming from the consoles. The pilots are screaming, we’re going down. If the pilot comes on ahead of time. That’s what you think. If the pilot comes on. Yes, a hundred percent. That’s
[00:19:11] OG: immediately where your mind goes.Wow. Oh my God, he didn’t say anything. We’re all D. We’re all dead.
[00:19:16] Joe: Yeah. When you’ve got this very turbulent plane, a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Do I get nervous when I fly? Hell yeah. I get nervous, but when the pilot comes on ahead of time and tells me, you know what? This is gonna be a bumpy flight. This is going to be a bumpy flight.There’s no danger. We called ahead. We know exactly what there is. If you just sit in your seats with your seatbelt fastened, things are gonna be just fine. A
[00:19:37] OG: danger at all. [00:19:38] Joe: It’s gonna be, it’s totally [00:19:38] OG: normal. [00:19:39] Joe: It’s gonna be just fine. [00:19:40] OG: It’s not gonna be dangerous.So then I have, Joe has the, yeah, for those of you not looking on YouTube right now, Joe has the, I’m gonna reach across the table and punch you in the throat. Look, he’s, he’s about that close.
[00:19:55] Joe: So then I have two choices. OG choice one is I don’t, I don’t make the flight, which is what you’re talking about.The stock market is dangerous, so I’m not going to invest. Okay.
[00:20:03] OG: I, well, I think there’s a lot of people who think that, yeah, I do. [00:20:06] Joe: Right. And what’s that outcome? If you follow that outcome to the very end, you [00:20:10] OG: have to walk. [00:20:11] Joe: Yeah. Yeah. And think about it. You’re never gonna reach your goal. [00:20:14] OG: Never gonna get it. [00:20:14] Joe: You’re 100% never gonna, very dangerous. It’s fine. You can do that. You can go, you know what? I don’t get in a plane. Then there’s not a chance of a plane crash. There’s not a chance that my seat belt’s on Buffalo and I, but you might get attacked [00:20:26] OG: by a wolf instead on your hike to Orlando with your family, [00:20:30] Joe: which is interesting because there is danger in the thing that you choose, right?I mean, Stephen Covey talks about you pick up one end of the stick, the other comes with it. If you decide I’m walking, I. You, you think there’s no danger there? There’s a ton of danger there. Like there’s a’s a bunch of danger there. Yeah. So I think that fully analyzing, analyzing what the danger would be and then going from there and this idea Goldman favoring yen to hedge against volatility, just absolutely incredibly ridiculous.
We’ll dive more into volatility and into all the different risks because I think there’s a ton of different risks in your portfolio and when we focus just on one, uh, tariffs are gonna get me. I think we’re, we’re in big trouble apparently. Apparently there’s
[00:21:13] Doug: wolves and air turbulence and sticks. There’s all kinds of threats. [00:21:18] Joe: Stack benjamins.com/ 2 0 1 to sign up for, for the 2 0 1 time for our TikTok minute. This is a part of the show where we shine a light on a TikTok creator who’s either doing something brilliant or air quotes brilliant. Oh gee, you think we’re gonna hear brilliance right now? Or some, uh, some maybe ear quotes. [00:21:37] OG: I’m so scared to answer. Um, I’m gonna say air quotes. [00:21:45] Joe: We’re talking on Monday about Seth Rogan and having too much money. I guess this is a nice, uh, follow up. This is, uh, one of my favorite comedians. Doug, I think you liked this guy too. Uh, Jimmy Carr. Oh yeah. This is Jimmy Carr. Not being funny, just talking about his career and how he became a comedian. [00:22:02] bit: I didn’t leave my job to be rich and famous on tv. I. I left my job for, I don’t, yeah, Yoho ho a Pirate’s life for me. We’re doing comedy. I’m doing a gig above a pub. Someone gave me 20 pounds cash in hand. That was, I mean, it was crazy. I’ve had like a good job. But it’s that thing where you go the good is the enemy of the best.How much to not live your life, how much to not follow your dreams? How much do I have to give you across the table? Now, I’m saying this to you now, right? You are. You’re a wealthy man. You’re an investor or whatever, so it’s gonna be a high figure. But for most people in their mid twenties, they’ve just left college or early twenties, they’ve left college.
And you go, they give you 35 grand to compromise on everything and always be tithe and just, um, work to my time and people go, okay. That’s the, the thing of like working for someone else is. I think that that’s the big shift, right? So the, the, my standup is a metaphor in the book. I’m not trying to get people to become standups, frankly.
I don’t need the fucking competition. But the idea of going, going and doing your thing, even if it’s less successful, but doing your thing, being your boss, being your CEO, great that I’m all about that. When people tell me they’ve started a little business or done a little thing, you just go, yeah.
[00:23:17] Joe: I love this idea that Jimmy brings up again of, uh, trading money for time.Like how much money is it gonna take OG for you to give up on that thing that’s a 10 and instead go, you know what? I’ll do the seven.
[00:23:27] OG: I’ll do [00:23:27] Joe: the six. [00:23:28] OG: I like this quote. Yoho ho and a Pirate’s life for me. [00:23:32] Joe: I do too. [00:23:33] OG: Yeah. [00:23:34] Joe: You know, it’s funny because it’s not the twos and threes in our life that we can easily identify that are the thorns.’cause we get rid of those in a hurry. Right. It’s the sixes and the sevens where it’s like, yeah, it’s okay. You know what? It’s okay. Those I think are the problem points for a lot of us in our life, and I don’t know if it’s necessarily working for somebody else. That’s the issue. It’s actually designing your own curriculum, right?
Designing your own life. Good stuff from Jimmy Carr. Uh, by the way, thanks to Julie for sending that to us. If you’ve got a TikTok you’d like us to watch, it was pretty inspiring. Usually people send me funny ones. It was pretty inspiring Julie, [email protected] for that. Coming up in the second half, we’re going to help a stacker in need, diversify his portfolio.
Uh, sources say, oh gee, there’s a bunch of danger in the stock market. So I
[00:24:22] OG: guess we’ll see. We’re gonna [00:24:22] Joe: see if we can help him out, help a stacker in need. But first, Doug, you’ve got some trivia for us today. What’s on tap in this day in history? [00:24:35] Doug: Hey there, stackers. I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug in Houston. Has been home to a ton of interesting fun, including back on this date, April 9th, 1965 when the Astrodome opened. There’s fun thing, number one, and then as if that wasn’t enough. Mickey Mantle. He went ahead and hit a home run in an exhibition game between the Astros and the Yankees the day it opened.Are you kidding me? I asked Joe’s mom if she ever made the trip down I 49 to the Astrodome, and she said she would never go into a filthy place like that. I’m like, filthy, ma. Whatcha talking about? She’s like, yeah, the Astrodome. Oh no. Hard pass. She said it. She said it. So after I clarified that Astros referred to astronauts another term.
She had completely misconstrued. I also shared that even further back in 1959, NASA picked their first astronauts. Today, on today’s date, April 9th, most going on to amazing achievements, well-deserved fame and piles of Benjamin’s. But here’s today’s question, collectively as a group and toto. What did NASA call these first seven astronauts?
I’ll be back right after I go study the planets. Joe’s mom keeps asking about Uranus, which she also doesn’t fully grasp as an orbiting body.
Hey there, stackers. I’m Uranus Observer and guy who loves astrology. No, no, no, no, no. Did I say it wrong? Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. The seven astronauts selected by NASA on today’s. Date back in 1959. Why are you making me laugh? Are nearly all household names. While sadly, Gus Grissom died when Apollo one caught fire.
The other six achieved amazing feats. Here’s a sample. Alan Shepherd became the first American in space in 1961 and the fifth man to walk on the moon. 1971, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. And oh yeah, a senator. And Gordon Cooper was the first American to spend an entire day in space and the first to sleep in space, or at least the first one to admit he fell asleep in space.
Imagine sleeping in space and to think someday we’ll even be able to send probes to Mars. We did that. Huh. All right. Well, today’s question collectively was, what did we call these first seven astronauts? They were the Mercury seven. Because Why not? And now back to the two rocket drivers operating this podcast surgery thing.
[00:27:27] Joe: Oh, inside Joke for the Win OG right there. Rocket Drivers. Mm-hmm. What? Rocket Drivers. A little shout out to our good friend Frank Bologna for that. You think Frank’s a fan of the show? Uh, maybe. [00:27:39] OG: Yes. He should be. Yes. [00:27:40] Joe: Frank was a person that called them Rocket Drivers Doug, a long, long time ago. Okay. Thanks Frank.Not even being facetious was like, doesn’t take a rocket driver to figure that out. Frank did not know that was Rocket. Scientist could have been, Hey, let’s help a stacker in need time to help out a stacker who said, you know how to better call Saul? See hi in og. This is the part of the show where we help out a stacker.
If you would like us to help [email protected] slash voicemail gets you front and center, and you can be every bit as cool as cucumber. Doug, oh, the other side of the
[00:28:16] caller: pillow. And Ryan. Hey Joe and og. This is Ryan from Tennessee. I really appreciate your take on personal finance investing. Joe has talked about the efficient frontier on multiple occasions in the last few months.I know he has also mentioned having holdings with dimensional fund advisors. I’m drawn towards dimensional philosophy of factor tills towards small cap value and profitability. On the Fama French five factor model, I’m also drawn to the idea of a all in one fund portfolio. For simplicity dimensional world equity, ETF symbol DFAW is a fund of funds.
It’s well diversified with approximately 12,000 companies across 45 countries, and it holds mild factor tilts towards small value and streaming companies based on profitability, all with an expense ratio of 0.25%. Its portfolio is roughly 72% US 18% International developed 8% emerging markets and 2% REITs.
Ivantis investors has a similar global equity ETF, ticker symbol A VGE, which is slightly more value and lends towards smaller capitalization than DFAW. What is your opinion of a all in one fund? Portfolio like DFAW or A VGE, which covers multiple asset classes already as a simplified substitute to the efficient Frontier portfolio made of multiple holdings.
Thanks.
[00:29:41] Joe: Hey, Ryan, thank you so much for the question. First of all, let’s kind of help out people that don’t have any clue what, uh, Ryan’s talking about here. Let’s begin OG with this idea of. Dimensional funds, and he talks about Fama and French. So what is it that Dimensional is doing as a fund company that Ryan wants more of? [00:30:01] OG: Yeah, so Dimensional is a fund manufacturer. Just like you would use Vanguard in a sentence and say, I have a Vanguard fund, or I have an iShares, or I have a Fidelity fund. Dimensional is a investment company. Avantis is another company mentioned, they’re part of American Century. They’re a fun company also.So. As a matter of fact, I was just looking this up to try to find it. They, they just put out a full length movie. I dunno, is it a full feature film? An hour long, two hours maybe documentary of how Dimensional started. But the long and the short of it is they, as well as Ivantis are very focused on the academic piece of investing.
A lot of the academic research that’s come out of investing in different, different, um, Nobel winning, uh, investing theory. People have gone on to work with or consult with Dimensional, and so a lot of their, a lot of their investing behavior is kind of focused on that. What’s the, it looks like you’ve got the name of it, Joe.
What was the name of I do.
[00:30:55] Joe: It’s called Tune Out the Noise and it’s an Errol Morris film. [00:30:59] OG: Yeah. And it’s on YouTube, you can find it for free. So it’s uh, it’s great. Tune out the noise. And so a lot of academic research has gone into Dimensional. I’m sure that’s true for lots of companies. Dimensional kind of leans on it quite a bit.And, and one of the things that they’ve really focused on is what’s called the FMA French three Factor model. I. And, uh, that was really kind of put out in the seventies and then formalized in the nineties. The idea being that there’s areas of the market that exhibit higher expected returns, and those areas are stocks do better than bonds.
Value Companies do better than growth companies and small companies do better than big, and now they are working on profitable companies do better than unprofitable. Shocking rocket science, you know, this long
[00:31:42] Doug: to get to that [00:31:43] OG: blinding flash to the well. The way that I think about it is that makes sense to us, but the nerds at the nerdery are trying to prove it mathematically.So for them, the way that they think about these different factors are these different areas of. The market is, it has to transcend location and time. So it’s not just, well, yeah, value did great in the US from 1970 to 1974, so therefore, no, it does good all the time against in all market cycles. In all market conditions across the globe.
I. You can imagine it’s pretty difficult to, to kind of posit this theory and then let it get blown up by a bunch of other academic people until they get to the point where somebody goes, yes, we can prove mathematically that profitable companies do better than profitable, despite the fact that we go, yeah, I could’ve told you that I give me the Nobel Prize.
I, I should, I should know, or stocks do better than bonds. Right? It’s like. We know that, but we know it because we have the history. What the math people are trying to do is to prove it, focus on investing.
[00:32:40] Joe: And by the way, just as I’m reading down through this piece, og, there’s a quote from Paul Mehrman who people may know on this show.’cause we talk about Paul quite a bit. Yeah. He and his team do a bunch of research and he talks about all the research that he’s done is based on research that he originally found. From Dimensional, like he started with the research that Dimensional’s been doing and then just expanded it from there. So even Paul is pointing at the Dimensional nerdery as you put it.
Yeah. Saying Hey, these guys are really into the science of why,
[00:33:12] OG: and David Booth would tell you. So he was the founder of Dimensional, one of the co-founders of Dimensional and, and he would tell you luck played a lot into this for him because he happened to be at the VER University of Chicago when all of these finance guys were there, all doing this research all at the same time.And so a different person at a different college or a different, you know, all of this may not have transpired, but if you look at their board, it’s just packed with noble laureates in any event. So Dimensional has this theory that if you create a index portfolio, but then do some tilts, that’s what they call it, some tilts toward these factors of smaller value profitability, that you’re gonna get a smidge higher expected return.
They seem to be right, but you know, tomorrow’s not promised to everybody. So we’ll see what happens in the future. Avantis is another company that does this, interestingly enough, started by some members of the original Dimensional team, so I’m not privy to that whole story, but maybe there is some sort of breakup and all of a sudden, you know, now there’s two companies that do it.
So very similar. Avantis tends to lean more heavily into the factor tilts than Dimensional does. They kinda. They’re gonna be a little bit more, more tilty, if that makes sense. So what Ryan’s talking about here is if he believes that, if he believes the dimensional guys, right? And he says, Hey, I like this line of thinking.
This makes sense to me. I support this research, or I support the fact that they’ve done the research, and I believe that, I believe that story. We happen to also, by the way, we heavily invest in dimensional ivantis. Can I skip to the end and just have one fund that does it all? Do I have to have a small cap fund and a large cap and a international and emerging markets and that sort of thing?
Or can I combine that into one, whether it’s a dimensional one, avantis one, or you know, other places have factor tilt models two. And uh, the answer is, yeah, you can do one. I. Why do you have to complicate it? There’s some benefits to having multiple funds, and one of the benefits would be rebalancing, potentially capital gains, capital loss harvesting.
There’s some tax benefits to being able to trade and rebalance and that sort of thing depending on how those positions are behaving. However, if this is an IRA or a Roth IRA and you’re like, I just need one that gets me home. There’s a lot worse you can do than complicate your life of having 15 different ETFs in your Roth IRA.
So the short answer to all of this is, yeah, that’s a fine option. There’s, whether it’s the fund that he selected or one of the funds that he selected, or, or a different variation of it, it’s all equity. So just be aware of that, you know, there’s no fixed income in, in those portfolios, so you have to, uh, you know, account for the fact that there’s gonna be some pretty, pretty wild bouncing arounds, if that makes sense.
If you need some fixed income or if you need some cash in your portfolio, you’d have to buy that separately.
[00:36:02] Joe: I definitely like both of these better than a target date fund. It’s not trying to quote lay in the plane. They’re not trying to guess what your goals are. Mm-hmm. Like you, I certainly have an appreciation for having your own asset allocation.I also think that it’s a little stickier when you know why you’re in the individual funds. Because I do think with my earlier diatribe about risk, I think the risk is that you don’t understand what you’re doing. That to me is the danger in your portfolio is that,
[00:36:31] OG: yeah, [00:36:31] Joe: I don’t get why I’m here. And so I just wanna keep it easy in quotes.And so then the plane starts doing weird stuff and now I’m just, you know, grabbing my parachute and wrecking my own strategy. You know, that’s why I kinda like building it, but certainly, listen, I don’t think it needs to be complicated. Three, four funds. It doesn’t have to be 85 funds. And you know, I’ve got one little string for everything.
[00:36:56] OG: Yeah. And I’m pointing out one thing that you said that I forgot to mention, this is different than a target date fund because I think some people might hear this and go, wait a second, a fund of funds. I thought, I thought, whoa, whoa. You know, OG Hass been raging against the machine for that for 20 years.Like what is going on? So the difference between a target date fund and this, there’s some similarities. One similarity is it’s a fund of funds. So the, the, the fund he mentioned has five different ETFs inside of it to make one ETF. So, so you can go buy those five. Or you can just have one, right? If you want that asset allocation that they provide, that’s the same in a target day fund.
And in this, the difference is, is a target day fund will say, oh, you’re 20 years from retirement. You need to be more conservative. You’re 15 years from retirement, you need to be more conservative. You’re 10. It’s gonna, to your point, you’re say, laying the plane, it’s gonna continue to get more conservative as you approach the target date of the fund.
If you buy a 2040 fund. As you get closer to 2040, you get more and more conservative. This is a static allocation, so it’s not gonna change in so much as being more conservative might change in terms of what Dimensional wants the allocation to be. But it’s not gonna say like, oh, there’s not an end date for this fund, if that makes sense.
[00:38:08] Joe: Yeah. [00:38:08] OG: It’s, this is the allocation. This is what we’re gonna go with. [00:38:11] Joe: For that reason, I like it a lot better [00:38:12] OG: as well than a target day fund compared to a target day fund. Yeah. Yeah. Not the same. [00:38:16] Joe: Good stuff. Ryan. Thank you so much for the question. If you’ve got a question for us, uh, bring it, man. It’s, uh, stacking benjamins.com/voicemail gets you on and, uh, OG can explain, you know, what’s going on here, why would we have one fund and why do we think differently about this than a target date fund?’cause we definitely, definitely, definitely do. Alright, that is, uh, it, except for Doug. I think we’ve got. Yeah, we got a letter. We do. We got a letter on the back porch. We,
[00:38:45] Doug: we do, yeah. We got a letter from a listener. And, and if Michelle had just, you know, been brave enough to call in, she could have gotten a t-shirt for this.It’s a great letter. She, she makes some great suggestions or has some great questions and if we could have heard her amazing voice. She would’ve gotten a t-shirt out of the deal. But Ash, she doesn’t, there’s another thing I just need to preface this with, but I had to read between the lines a little bit on this letter because she’s saying some things in here that she didn’t actually type out.
But I just, I sort of, after reading it a few times, I figured it out. So here we go. She says, hi Joe. I’ve been listening to the show since 2020. It’s one of the only podcasts I subscribe to. I love it and have learned so much. Oh, that’s nice. From Doug? Yeah. Oh, I didn’t see that in there. That was one of those things, like after I read the whole thing implied, I just, it was implied when I put, like I did the grammatical math for how she put the whole letter together.
I realized that’s really what she was trying to say. I’d like to make two episode suggestions for the Wednesday episodes with you and og and then she says again, between the lines, the boring parts. When Doug’s not talking, she says. One, a deep dive into everything you consider for an emergency fund.
You’ve consistently talked about three to six months of living expenses, but OG recently mentioned he had raised their home insurance deductible and would cover roof replacement and some other expenses out of pocket. That got me thinking what else should be included in an emergency fund slash cash reserve?
Sounds like it could be a large amount of cash. So do you keep it all in cash or like 50% in cash and 50 in treasuries, since you most likely won’t need the entire fund at the same time. That’s all question one. Uh, and then question two was, could you have an episode about financial retirement planning for a single person?
Is it the same as for couples or are there some differences? A lot of examples on the show are about couples, and as a single person, I sometimes wonder if everything applies to me like term life insurance. Parentheses this time she just spells it out. She didn’t make me read between the lines, no kids or specifics around retirement.
Keep up the great work. Let’s have more. Doug. Thanks. Michelle
[00:40:50] Joe: didn’t read that in the letter either, but of course implied [00:40:52] Doug: she was just, yeah, [00:40:53] Joe: implied [00:40:54] Doug: helping her out. [00:40:55] Joe: Michelle. Those are fantastic by the way. We also in the basement Facebook group, had some people that wanted more on, uh, crypto and also wanted more on infinite banking.Wanted to know how those, those no. Those things work well, here’s what I like. I mean, you know, we’ve been doing these deep dive episodes with Barry Ritholtz, with Molly Fletcher. We’re gonna do another one, uh, next week with, uh, Kevin Evers from the Harvard Business Review on the genius, the strategic genius of Taylor Swift.
We’re gonna do a, a full week on everything. I mean from, from, uh, uh. Managing your career, which we could all be better at to managing your money, diversification, all these different things that we lump into financial planning or career, but really round out just having more benjamins. But all these happened.
On Barry Ritholtz his week when he was talking about how not to invest, and I love Doug, that it got people really excited about, Hey, can we talk about this one? Can we talk about this one? Can we talk that is exactly what we want with these deep dives? Like how do I go get more? And man, if you wanna write to me and find out where to get some of this goodness that, ’cause we can’t cover everything like infinite banking, we won’t be covering on the show.
I’m happy to point out places to learn more about why you don’t wanna do it.
[00:42:19] Doug: What, you know, something we could consider putting together. Joe is like a weekly newsletter that goes deeper in depth on these things. If only we had a weekly newsletter that did it. Actually, I should think about making one of those, [00:42:29] Joe: actually, that is interesting about kind of refocusing Kevin’s work around like infinite baking.How does infinite baking work or how does, you know, whatever that thing might be. But I do love og the, the idea of, uh, you know, emergency funds are ubiquitous enough that, uh, I. I would love on one of these episodes to tackle good and bad in your emergency fund. And that’ll include insurances, right?
Because emergency fund. Yeah. And insurances kind of all together. So Michelle, game on on that one. Give us a few weeks. We work on a five week schedule, so we’re on that one. In terms of, I like,
[00:43:01] Doug: yeah, Doug. Oh, I was just gonna say I liked her second question also about, uh, single retirement planning for single people, because we don’t talk about that enough.I think all because all of us are. Less than single. We probably don’t think about that.
[00:43:16] Joe: Well, and we should. Yeah. And that’s the danger point, right? I mean, the danger point for us is using analogies that have to do with, you know, Cheryl and I, you know, Mrs. Og, whatever, idiot. Kids as well, kids. And that’s something that we need to be more mindful of.I don’t wanna do episodes that are just for married people. And I don’t wanna do episodes that are just for single people. I wanna do episodes that we can all learn from, but making sure that we’re looping everybody in and including everything. Because, as an example, Michelle, when it comes to insurances, the reason you have insurance, 99% of the time, the reason you have insurance, OG, is to protect the people that are left when you pass away.
So to Michelle’s point, if she’s single and nobody’s relying on her for this money coming in, there’s not an insurance need. That’s just one type of insurance though. Yeah, we’re talking about life insurance. Well, she was talking specifically about life insurance, term life insurance. I sometimes wonder if everything applies to me, like term life insurance.
No, kids.
[00:44:18] Doug: Yeah. I think that was an example, but I mean, could it be different for what you do for long-term, long-term, uh, disability as a single person versus a single, uh, uh, married person? I don’t know, but I, I think she just threw that out as an example. But I think there are a lot of, all these little, um, specific products, uh, that we should dive into. [00:44:38] OG: I think it’s good feedback and we’ll just have to be a little bit more mindful of the fact that, you know, using our anecdotal stories are helpful to a lot of people. But then also maybe just throw in a little bit about if you’re this type of person or if you’re this type of person, [00:44:53] Doug: we could go back.You’ve got some amazing stories from when you were in the service, when you were single OG that are, I don’t think we’ve, of those.
[00:45:01] Joe: Okay. On that note, scratch that. Thank [00:45:04] OG: you for the note yourself. For the record, I was never single in the service. Oh, Mrs. OG would tell you that I, there was never a single time in the service and you still [00:45:14] Doug: did those things.Oh my God.
[00:45:16] OG: Oh man. Oh boy. He’s kidding everyone. I am a trustworthy young man. [00:45:22] Joe: How come you don’t come at him like you came at me? I. Why would you just let that go? I have my honor. [00:45:25] OG: Your Honor. [00:45:27] Joe: Just don’t, don’t know. [00:45:28] OG: Wow. Because I have as many skeletons of Dougs in the closet that I can reveal. He knows. It’s like, you know the concept where we both have nuclear arms pointed at each other in Russia. [00:45:38] Joe: Mutual destruction. Oh, gee’s. Like you wanna go here? Do you really wanna go here? We can [00:45:41] OG: play this game if you want. It’s gonna end badly for both Moscow and DC are annihilated. [00:45:48] Joe: How far down this rabbit hole do you wanna go? [00:45:51] OG: Yeah. I’m gonna go for a walk, fellas. What do you think about that plan? [00:45:53] Joe: Going for a walk. [00:45:55] OG: Yeah. Yeah. Are we, are we, I feel like we’re wrapping it up. I think we are just caught up. Let you know what I’m gonna do next. [00:46:00] Joe: Well, and that’s exactly, oh, gee, what I wanna say before it starts raining, right? Yeah. Doug, what should we have learned on today’s show? [00:46:07] Doug: Well, Joe, first take some advice from our headline.You should always expect downturns in the market hedging against it. That’ll go sideways in a hurry, just to be clear, because there’s tons of danger, Doug. It’s so, so dangerous unless you can predict the future. And here’s a tip, you can’t second choosing the one size fits all fund. Maybe, but it’s always better to begin with the end in mind and choose funds based on your goal, not on ease of management, but as a single dimensional or avantis fund.
A good idea. It can be, but the big lesson, don’t ask Joe’s mom who her favorite astronaut is. She’ll share a story about my favorite pair of chaps that we’d have to delete from this podcast. It’s a family show. Ma, how many times do I have to tell you? Oh.
This show is the property of SB Podcast LLC, copyright 2025, and is created by Joe Saul Sea. Hi, Joe gets help from a few of our neighborhood friends. You’ll find out about our awesome [email protected], along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots.
Come say hello. Oh yeah. And before I go, not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don’t take advice from people you don’t know. This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any financial decisions, speak with a real financial advisor. I’m Joe’s Moms Neighbor, Duggan. We’ll see you next time back here at the Stacking Benjamin Show.
[00:48:33] aftershow2: Welcome [00:48:34] Joe: to the after show, man. I’m looking at the after show agenda guys. This is gonna be, this is gonna be a packed one. Rapid fire. Yeah. Well, let’s start off, ’cause you two guys have been playing. Um, we, we’ve actually, we haven’t talked about video games in a while. Doug, you and our friend Eric have been playing, uh, some golf lately and you guys have been schooling, uh, you guys basically kicking my ass. [00:48:55] Doug: Yeah. [00:48:55] Joe: On the golf course. That’s why [00:48:56] Doug: it’s so fun. [00:48:57] Joe: Yes. [00:48:58] Doug: I love playing that. It’s a great social game to play because you can have a great conversation, you know, there’s enough action to keep you occupied and focused on the game, but really you can just hang out and talk. [00:49:12] Joe: That’s, that’s really all we’re doing, sharing what’s going on with our families and Yeah.Yeah, our lives. Eric and I
[00:49:16] Doug: have a great time, and you’re there too. [00:49:20] Joe: You guys are there to, it’s funny because after nine holes, I’m losing so bad. We play skins, which means you try to win the hole and, uh, oh, I, I was naked. I’m not supposed to. I [00:49:30] OG: was just gonna say, that’s a different game that Doug plays. [00:49:34] Joe: I thought skins referred to.Oh my bad. Looks like
[00:49:36] OG: I lose again. [00:49:42] Joe: Stop it boys. The holes become worth more and more as you push on a hole as people tie. But after nine holes, I always, both, both times we’ve done that, Doug, I’ve gone, okay. Nine holes in, I’m not winning. I should probably go get more to drink ’cause that’s gonna help. [00:49:57] Doug: Yes. That’s when the word starts slurring.Yes. So we’ve had a great time playing that. And then, um, you know what Gia played some Sniper Elite. Sniper Elite came out with a stop gap called Sniper Elite Resistance. And it’s a stopgap because. Sniper Lead six is taking so long to get developed that they, and there was a lot of demand in the marketplace for something new.
So they farmed out to some other publishing company, development studio like the ip. I guess it’s almost like, and they gave him the engine and you know, and all the other stuff, but they farmed out the, the level design and a little bit of the story and it’s really just sniper Elite five with like, I think it’s six new maps.
Is that right? Og?
[00:50:47] OG: Um, [00:50:48] Doug: something like that. No, [00:50:49] OG: I mean, there’s a lot of similarities. I know that there’s, like, when you play again, you’re like, this feels a lot like. Something from the previous game. [00:50:57] Doug: Well, well, yeah, there’s eight levels on seven new maps. You actually go back to the first map again within the same game.But, um, it’s just fun, right? I mean, it’s it’s all the same stuff. Yeah. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s just a fun game. I
[00:51:12] Joe: couldn’t stop dying in that game. I was on the original map out by the farmhouse. It was like a farmhouse. There’s a bunch of Germans inside and I’m hiding in the grass. And those jerks find me, those damn Nazis find me every time and I end up on the wrong side of the sniper. [00:51:28] Doug: I’m surprised actually. ’cause you’re good at the stealth games. Like I know you want to talk about Indiana Jones and I couldn’t finish that and you. You nailed it and you loved it. It sounds like Indiana Jones was [00:51:38] Joe: just too open world for what you liked, Doug. [00:51:42] Doug: Well, that’s true. Yeah, it’s very open world and I don’t like it when there’s no clear path to get me from point A to, you know, plot point A to plot point B. [00:51:49] Joe: Indiana Jones for me, felt like playing a movie, but it was very open world. You can just go off course and go try to find these things, these hidden things. A lot of puzzles in the game. Not a lot of head-to-head confrontation. If you’ve gotta fire your gun, every other Nazi on the level’s gonna hear the gun go off and you’re dead immediately.Like, I tried to fire my gun maybe three different times, and next thing you know, I’ve got 12 people on top of me and I’m done.
[00:52:13] Doug: I just noticed a common theme about both of these games and why we like them. Do you get to mess with Nazis? [00:52:19] Joe: Nazis? Oh, it’s so fun. It is so far. Nazis. Yeah. N but it’s a good time.You will say this about Indiana Jones, Doug, which is the dude that does the voice, so they license, oh my God. Harrison Ford’s likeness. So it looks like Harrison Ford. And then the dude that does his voice is brilliant.
[00:52:36] Doug: I was shocked when you told me that. I thought they’d used like ai, they had some voice samplings from Harrison Ford and then just used an AI engine to generate all the dialogue.’cause it is spot on. It’s really good.
[00:52:49] Joe: So, so, so good. So, uh, sniper Elite and Indiana Jones. A couple good games last week. Oh gee. We were talking about reacher and neither you nor I had seen the last episode of Reacher, uh, on either the Monday or Wednesday show. So let’s finish that up. Did you watch the conclusion? [00:53:05] OG: Uh, yeah, I, I got, uh, I was two episodes behind, so I got to watch seven and eight, kind of back to back, which was good. [00:53:10] Joe: Yeah. The conclusion, the fight with Polly really good action sequence takes a long time. It takes a long time. So, Polly Doug is this huge security guard, just this monster I [00:53:24] Doug: on. I’m going to watch this.Do I want, should I take my headphone out? No. Do I wanna hear this? No. This
[00:53:28] Joe: will be spoiler free. You know, in episode one. Oh gee, this isn’t giving anything away. In episode one, you know there’s gonna be a fight between reacher and Pauly, like there’s gotta be, or you’re reacher’s, [00:53:38] OG: whatever. In real life, the actor Adam Richon is what?Six three is huge. 2 2 65 6 4 2 65 6.
[00:53:47] Joe: I think he’s six 13. Six 13. Yeah. [00:53:49] OG: Now he’s probably six two or six three, but he’s a big man, Pauly. It’s towers over this dude. Just, wow. Like it’s not even, it’s not even like, it’d be like Doug standing next to like a 10 U pitcher, you know? Just, you’re just such a girth of a man compared to this, you know, little kid.Yes, I am.
[00:54:08] Joe: Which is why Doug likes to stand next to 10 year olds every chance he gets, [00:54:11] OG: which is why Doug hangs out with 10. Oh my God. There’s candy in the van. [00:54:16] Joe: Oh my God. No, no, no favorable comparisons though. Favorable. Look at me. Look how big I am compared to the 10-year-old. Yeah. Reach your season three.Doug.
[00:54:27] Doug: So worth it. I should watch it. Sounds like you guys went all the way through it. [00:54:29] OG: Yeah, I liked it. I mean, it’s very formulaic now. I think season one was still the best. I don’t remember much from season two. This one was also all but season two sucked. It’s a very, I didn’t think, I think two sucked.You get a sense. I don’t think any of ’em sucked. They’re very popcorny, you know, like, okay, I get to go watch, reach, or kick somebody’s ass and. It’s kind of fun. It’s cool.
[00:54:50] Doug: My favorite part about all of that is not, you guys haven’t even mentioned it, it’s the dialogue. It’s the witty, like straight laced lines that he gets to deliver to make people look stupid. [00:55:02] Joe: Richardson said that in an interview that, you know, an action film is an action film, is an action film, Doug, and at its core, it could be kind of boring, right? He said a hundred percent of the fun for him was playing that character and being able to look. Scan or being able to do something that that is a hilarious line or just the way he’s able to say the line in a monotone voice.He’s like trying to come up with that was the whole fun for him of being in that role. I believe it. Versus being 2 85 and you know, just ripped,
[00:55:37] OG: jacked and tan. [00:55:39] Joe: Yeah, [00:55:39] Doug: because I’m ripped and amazing every day in real life, but when I get to act, I can be smart too. [00:55:45] Joe: I know Reacher go watch it or go play Sniper Elite or Indiana Jones or uh, PGA Golf. [00:56:00] aftershow2: All right, I have to belch. [00:56:03] Doug: Okay. Keep that. Keep that in, Steve. No, do not keep that in Steve. Fine. I’ll do it again. Not scared there. Nice turn, Joe. It’s an after, after show. Steve. No, God no. Please God. Let’s go. [00:56:24] OG: Let’s have some audio of my prep tomorrow. Oh, [00:56:28] Doug: that prep? Yeah. Okay. 3, 2, 1. Live from Joe’s mom’s basement.It’s the Stacking Benjamin Show. I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor Duggan. With all this talk about tariffs and trade wars and consumer buying slowdowns, how do you effectively hedge against all of this volatility? Whether you are new to investing or a seasoned pro, we’ll talk about smoothing out your ride in the stock market on today’s show.
Plus we’ll help stacker Ryan decide between using a diversified portfolio or a single fund that combines the best of all worlds. Why not just keep investing simple? I think I said, why not? Why not? Why not? Your mom asked 3, 2, 1. Why not just keep investing? Simple, all that, plus our world. You talk. It’s you.
Go ahead. I’m sure it’s good. Go ahead.
[00:57:25] OG: No, it’s just simply, it’d be an adverb. Simple’s an adjective. [00:57:30] Doug: Why not just keep it, keep investing simply. Yeah. [00:57:35] Joe: Why not keep it simple? Why not keep it simply? No, that’s incorrect. [00:57:41] OG: Simply, why not keep it simply, simply as an ad verb it. I know it’s investing is the verb.Keep investing.
[00:57:51] Doug: Investing is a, is a noun clause, I think, in this case. Why not just keep, keep is the verb. Why not just keep my3, 2, 1?
[00:58:05] OG: Depends on what you’re modifying. Are we trying to modify the word investing or the words keep, are we trying to keep simply or investing simple? [00:58:17] Doug: We could just simply keep on investing. [00:58:20] Joe: We could just simply do it the way it’s written, not worry about it. [00:58:25] Doug: We should go back to belching. So much more entertaining.3, 2, 1. I have to do it again, don’t I? I’m afraid he’s gonna jump in again when I do it. 3, 2, 1. Why not just keep investing simple, all that. Plus our world famous TikTok Minute and yours Trulys World. No, that’s a screwed up sentence. Yours, trulys, yours, be Trulys. Yours, trulys. You couldn’t have waited to edit that one, Josh.
[00:58:56] OG: Oh, no, I’ve, I’ve been put in my place.
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