Remember the line in Lord of the Rings, “One ring to rule them all?” How about, “One tax shelter, available to all of us, to be the best of all?” Today we’ll identify THAT investment shelter, tell you how to use it (and tips to avoid using it incorrectly). Here’s a hint: it’s NOT the health savings account (which may be better), because that account is not available to everyone. This type is truly a tool that everyone can use in the USA.
Of course, that’s not all. We’ll talk MORE about this special tax shelter by sharing a TikTok minute that focuses on just how many people TALK about this shelter. It’s truly amazing.
We’ll also answer a call from a stacker who’s wondering if she should pay her house off or invest the money she has to finalize her mortgage. Which would you do? We’ll share our advice with you AND her today!
Of course, we’ll also feature Doug’s rhyming trivia, and much, much more.
Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201
Enjoy!
Our Headlines
Our TikTok Minute
Doug’s Trivia
- What poet wrote SMART, which details maybe some not-so-great money moves?
Better call Saul…Sehy & OG
- Stacker Shannell called in with a question about what financial moves she and her husband should make as they approach retirement.
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Written by: Kevin Bailey
Miss our last show? Listen here: Want More Money? Help Someone Else Become Financially Savvy (with John Hope Bryant)
Episode transcript
[00:00:00] In a world where overspending debt and keeping up with the Joneses rules us all, with the voices from the merchants, restaurants, and credit companies, Lord, over the common man, out of the darkness, like a beacon of hope comes a new voice. A voice that’s rich and creamy like your favorite butter and delicious. [00:00:26] Like Cheeseburger pizza on your diet cheat day. It’s the Stacking Benjamin Show. [00:00:40] Doug: Live from Joe’s mom’s basement. It’s the Stacking Benjamin Show. [00:00:54] I am Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Duggan Man, if we got a deal for you coming up, we’ll offer you the. Number one greatest. That’s right. Greatest savings vehicle of all time for young people. What is it? Is it Nvidia stock, uh, variable universal life insurance policy with a guaranteed benefit rider? Believe it or not, it’s neither. [00:01:16] We’re walking you through the single most best bestest investment type to rule them all. Bud. That’s not all bud. Wait, there’s more. There’s one group of people who know how to talk about the greatest investment of all time, and we’ll hear all about them in our TikTok minute plus, we’ll answer a call from stacker Chanel who said, Hey, I ought to call Saul. [00:01:40] See hi and OG with my money question. You’ll love this call. Full disclosure, Chanel is my new BFF. And now two guys who auto invests in better cologne. It’s Joe and o Ju ju g. [00:02:02] Joe: Better cologne. That’s my animal instinct for great podcasting Sex. Panther emanates from me. Podcast Panther. Maybe og, which, uh, which Kylie uh, Jenner fragrance are you wearing this morning? [00:02:19] OG: So I found this, um, video on Instagram of a pilot. This is how I bought this cologne. Honestly, I was like, Hey, if it works for this dude, it works for me. [00:02:30] Doug: Did you really buy this cologne? I did. That’s when I was thinking you bought cologne. [00:02:36] Joe: I was, I wasn’t thinking that. This video is is, uh, well, let’s give it a listen. [00:02:43] bit: Coppi smelling like Tom Ford, Ambre Leather, because when you smell good, you fly Good. That’s lost for aim. Part 69, [00:02:55] OG: when you smell good, this guy makes a bunch of videos. A bunch of short videos about him flying. He is got a lot of energy and I was like, Tom Ford, I recognize that brand. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll check it out. It Tom Ford. Ombre Leather is legit. So I must say that is my new favorite. Mrs. OG likes it. Uh, she could, she tolerates it, but [00:03:16] Joe: he seems to have more peppi his step today, Doug that he did on Monday. [00:03:19] Maybe he discovered the Tom Ford between now and now and Monday. He’s turning himself on. You’re saying [00:03:25] OG: I do smell pretty good. Hey [00:03:26] Joe: everybody, welcome to Wednesday on the Stacky Benjamin Show. I am Joe Sulci, high average Joe Money on Twitter across the card table from me. I. Is, uh, I’m a good friend. og, how are you this morning, man? [00:03:36] OG: The guy who will buy anything, even if it’s not a real advertisement. [00:03:41] Joe: Those are the best ones. Now, that’s influencer marketing. Ah, that’s influencer marketing right there, which is great. And to my right over here, Mr. Neighbor Doug, how are you this morning? I’m fantastic, Joe, how are you? How do you smell this morning? [00:03:53] I can’t smell you down here. [00:03:54] Doug: I finally brush my teeth so I don’t smell like coffee. Thank God. Yeah, [00:03:58] Joe: that’s good. Or whiskey or both. Why does that to be either or? On a Wednesday morning, we get a great show. We’re gonna talk about a a lot. Today we dive into the greatest financial construct of all time. Oh gee. [00:04:12] I know you were surprised when Doug said that. It probably isn’t a variable universal life policy with a, I mean, [00:04:18] OG: those are pretty sweet Benefit [00:04:19] Joe: Rider. Guaranteed [00:04:19] OG: Benefit [00:04:20] Joe: Rider. Yes. We’re gonna dive into that in just a second, but we have some sponsors that make the show free so that you don’t have to pay for it. [00:04:27] We got a couple right now and we’re getting on with it. Big headline today. So let’s move. [00:04:33] bit: Hello Darlings, and now it’s time for your favorite part of the show, our Stacking Benjamins headlines. [00:04:40] Joe: Our headline comes to us from CNBC. This is written by young reporter. I. Anna Teresa Sola. Anna wrote, I opened two accounts to help grow my savings. [00:04:52] Here’s what I learned as a Gen Z personal finance reporter. So Anna is diving into personal finance and she writes that one of her goals for this year is to be more intentional with her savings. I like that. og, let’s stop there on her first key point that one of her goals is to be more intentional. I think a lot of times when people are just in school or they’re just exiting school, they think some of this stuff we talk about, about having this specific goal and that specific goal and that specific goal, probably not as important as just getting savings going like. [00:05:26] I don’t know that it matters how intentional you are besides the fact that you’re intentional about building the muscle of getting money saved. Do you agree with that? [00:05:35] OG: I think when you’re starting out, it’s really difficult to kind of forecast what this future retirement or future financial independence or, you know, if you haven’t started a family yet, what that looks like if you’re even going to what that looks like for college costs. [00:05:48] And you know, it’s hard to have the big goals, but you can try to prevent the big mistakes. I, I think probably for young people, the biggest mistake is consumer debt. So if you can be intentional, like she says around creating a spending plan. Understand. Look, when you’re in your twenties, you’re, you’re not at your peak earning years. [00:06:09] Probably you might not have just a hundred dollars a month left over and we, you hear all this stuff, whether it’s from us or from other people, about, you gotta max out your 401k. You gotta max out your Roth, you gotta max out your HSA, you gotta have six months and a, an emergency fund. You don’t have to do all of that. [00:06:24] Day one. Build a spending plan so that you’ve got. Look to your point, the muscle of saving, and even if that little bit of saving is $50 a month or a hundred dollars a month or $200 a month, figure out a way to automate it so that it will just build from there. It’s not the fact that you’re maxed out your 401k or maxed out your Roth at 22. [00:06:45] I mean, if you can do that, that’s great, but you don’t have to. You have to get to the point of making the small changes toward that over your twenties and into your thirties. [00:06:55] Joe: Yeah, the idea of intentionality. I love that you talk about around your spending because being intentional about only buying those things that actually light you up and not what everybody else is buying. [00:07:07] Like I fell into that trap. You might’ve fallen into that trap. OG, we both talk about me, me buying stuff. No. That’s impossible. We both, I think, uh, struggled with this and had I not struggled with that and just bought stuff that I was going to use and I was going to enjoy versus buying stuff that I thought I quote should have, you know, Mm-Hmm. [00:07:25] That I thought would be phenomenal. That ended up not being phenomenal. I would’ve been, I think, much, much, much further along. So, examining your spending, I think you’re spot on with that one. She dives into as she gets intentional. She’s learned about two different things, but the first one is a doozy, and she said a lot of opportunity lies ahead, especially as a Gen Z adult. [00:07:47] We often doom scroll and read headlines about how the globe is becoming more uninhabitable with each passing day. You’ve got all of this strife. You’ve got all this political stuff happening that we talked about on Monday. There’s economic uncertainty. What do we do? There’s always economic uncertainty. [00:08:02] She says, putting money aside now will serve me in the future, whether to retire someday or secure housing, or remedy an emergency in the near term. If I’m lucky, the money I save today will could also benefit my future generation. She’s even thinking about legacy early on, which is amazing. But the first vehicle she writes, the Roth IRA, is an incredible savings vehicle. [00:08:25] I do not disagree with their OG at all. A hundred percent. Like if you’re not sure what retirement quote plan to use, what? What tax shelter to use. I kind of think just starting off with a Roth IRA is a hundred percent in order off operations a great one to begin with. [00:08:43] OG: Especially if you don’t have a workplace account, if you’re gig employed, if you are. [00:08:48] Contract if you’re a freelancer, if you’re self-employed and you’re like, I just need to find something to put some money in. Yeah. A Roth is a fantastic place to start because of all the, all the gosh it has. It’s so many escape patches and benefit. I know we’re gonna talk about it, but it’s, yeah. It’s like a Swiss Army knife. [00:09:07] Joe: Yeah. Money. Money grows tax-free. You have all these escape hatches. To your point, you can take out money early if there is an emergency. You have all kinds. It creates tax flexibility in the future. You’re not gonna pay tax on the gains every year. You’re not gonna pay tax on the gains while it’s in there, until you take it out. [00:09:25] So all those things. So let’s start off, and by the way, if you got the Roth 401k option at work in your Gen Z, I think the Roth option almost a hundred percent of the time. I can’t think of a, can you think of a reason why you would go with the pretax 401k option versus a Roth? If somebody’s 25. [00:09:42] OG: No. Yeah, I mean, the difference is, is that the pre-tax side, you’re gonna save some money on taxes today, but you’re gonna pay those taxes in the future, presumably at a higher, higher tax rate. [00:09:54] Again, you look at your earnings when you’re in your twenties and thirties, you’re probably not at your peak earning years, and some people are, but you’re probably not during that time. And if you are, you know, if you’re slaying it, you’re making 500 grand a year. You’re like, oh, I need to do this. Save money on taxes. [00:10:12] Like you’re saving five or six grand or seven grand on taxes. I mean, that’s a lot of money, but against 500 K, it’s really, you know, you’re not moving the needle. Right. Your tax bill on $500,000 is 200. Or it’s 1 95 or it’s 2 0 5, right? I mean like it’s a lot of money and I get it that the $10,000 swings, you know, it’s not zero, but the benefit of having that money be tax free forever. [00:10:39] The problem with starting out with it being pre-tax is that if you then make a change in the future, you will see that immediate tax hit right away in your paycheck and the tax hit being you used to have money tax deferred and now you’re paying it with after you’re saving after tax in the Roth. And so if you’re maxing out your 401k and you’ve done it always pre-tax, and now you make the switch and you’re 35, you’ve always done 23,000 a year, you’ve always maxed out for 10 years, and now you go, oh, I need to switch. [00:11:09] You will immediately see a five or $7,000 change in your, in your take home. You’re like, immediately, the next paycheck you’ll be like. I feel like $700 light. [00:11:18] Joe: Well, you’ll also have to then adjust your tax withholding also, oj I mean, you could, it could materially change your withholding. [00:11:24] OG: Yeah, maybe you have to change it or maybe not, but it will automatically be adjusted, of course, because you have higher taxable income, so you’re gonna have, you know that next paycheck you will feel $700 lighter. [00:11:34] So. About systems and trying to like set them up to trick yourself. I love the idea of just starting out with it because if you’re a college age, you know, adult or you’re just starting to enter the workforce, or you get a huge pay raise, these are great times to make these savings adjustments because you haven’t got used to it yet. [00:11:54] You see the, the stories of medical professionals who are residents and then become, you know, whatever, full fledged doctors, and they go from making 60 grand a year to $400,000 a year. That first paycheck is your opportunity to reset it. ’cause you can go from making 60, you can go live on one 60, you’ll feel like a king and still save a hundred thousand dollars. [00:12:13] But the only way to do that is to not have that first check, have that extra a hundred k in it, if that makes sense. If you’re looking to make a change, a great time to do that is if you have a big, a big cash flow change, you get a pay raise. You were making 75 grand, you got a promotion, now you make a hundred. [00:12:29] Flip it now. Just do it right now. Add all your savings back. I mean, life was good three days ago, right? You probably didn’t know you were gonna, I mean, maybe you were in line for the promotion, what you like, you weren’t spending probably like you had it yet, so just, just wait a year. Just give yourself one year of, I’m gonna save all this difference, and that’s gonna be the new slope of the savings and income and lifestyle appreciation. [00:12:53] I’m gonna just delay one year and you’ll get on a different path altogether. [00:12:57] Joe: When it comes to your savings, there are three things that move the needle more than anything else here. Housing, your transportation cost, and your grocery bill. If we take those top two, your housing cost, if you’re used to living with roommates. [00:13:12] And living with roommates doesn’t bother you. Then continuing that for a few more years, and also living in an apartment that’s way smaller than something you can afford, way less expensive than something that you can quote afford. You get used to that. You begin to build that muscle and you’re never going to. [00:13:28] Experience some of these crunches that a lot of people have later. Same thing with cars. If you don’t buy a brand new car, the second you get your first job, you continue to buy used cars, you’re much more likely to continue to buy used cars in your thirties and in your forties and even in your fifties. [00:13:44] It’s gonna be more difficult for you to change. You’re just used to it. And the same thing I think you’re saying with the Roth IRA. If you make it so that your cashflow feels a certain way. Then you’re gonna put more money into, okay. We’ve talked about how exciting the Roth IRA is. We haven’t really defined this. [00:13:59] You talked about escape hatches and all this stuff. So Roth, IRA, let’s begin with this tax thing. Money goes in after tax, which means less money’s gonna go in. You’re gonna take the tax hit, but you’re going to, then every dollar of that’s going to be tax free later. What are these escape hatches though, that you talk about? [00:14:17] og, about being able to get money out? [00:14:20] OG: Well, I’m saying in case something doesn’t go exactly according to plan, right? It’s a retirement account and you need to treat it like it’s a retirement account and it’s for your financial independence time. But for whatever reason, people have it in their, in their minds, this is the government that, you know, you can’t retire until you’re 59 and a half, which by the way, who the hell came up with 59 and a half? [00:14:42] Like, what in the heck is going on with i, I just don’t even get it. Who did that? That’s what I wanna know. I, it sounds like something Doug would do. Honestly, I, I got an idea guys. Let’s do 59 and a half. Some [00:14:55] Joe: people want 59, somewhat 60. Let’s just split the uprights. [00:14:59] OG: Let’s just split the difference. So we’ve got it in our heads that 59 and a half is our financial independence time. [00:15:04] But the reality is, is that you can access your money for retirement if you’re retired. And if you are 47 and financially independent and retired, guess what? You can access your retirement then. You just have to do it, you know, in a manner that’s that’s acceptable to the government. You have to follow some rules, but let’s say that there’s some stuff that happens in your life that maybe changes. [00:15:23] Maybe it’s not just financial independence gets a little faster, but there’s other things that happen. For example, for a Roth IRA, you can withdraw $10,000 penalty free for a new home purchase. You can do that up to $10,000 through your lifetime, so it doesn’t even have to be one transaction. You could do 5,000 now and 5,000 next time. [00:15:42] You can always take out your contributions if the account’s been open five years. What’s really cool about this is, you know, some of us got jobs when we were 11, 12, 16, 18, you know, a little bit of job in college. Maybe open a Roth IRA and put 50 bucks in it. Start that five year clock right now because then you don’t have to wait for the, for, it’s not five years for every dollar, it’s five years from the account open. [00:16:08] So if you open it when you’re 18, you have your summer job and you put 50 bucks in it. All of this money that you contribute from now on is yours. After you’re age 23, so if something goes haywire or life situation changes or whatever, and you need to take out your principle, you can do that. You have all this flexibility. [00:16:25] You can take money out for education expenses if you need it. You can take money out for, uh, healthcare expenses. You can take money out for healthcare expenses if you aren’t employed, if you’ve got unreimbursed medical expenses, if you’re disabled, if you are in a federally qualified disaster area, if you have an IRS. [00:16:42] Problem. You can use the money for that. You know, so there’s all these different ways, these escape hatches if you actually need the money. Now, if you don’t and you’re like, but I really wanna go to Europe next summer, well then you gotta pay a penalty on that. But if you’re using it for what it’s supposed to be, which is your, your long-term financial independence, there are some outs. [00:17:02] If life doesn’t go in the exact straight line, which we know it never does, that you might forecast when you’re 27 years old getting started. [00:17:10] Doug: You know what, I like a lot of what you just said. Oh gee. But earlier you talked about just throw 50 bucks in it, throw, you know, whatever you can. On the socials and everywhere in media, it seems like every topic has to be the extreme. [00:17:23] I maxed out my Roth already and it’s February, you know, or whatever. And it just makes people feel like, well, what’s the point if I can only throw 50 bucks in and that’s not gonna do anything, so I shouldn’t, shouldn’t bother doing it. ’cause everybody else is maxing everything out. And I hate that about what you see on socials and in the media. [00:17:41] I, I wish that message that you just gave would. Would get screamed from the mountain tops and from the Instagram tops or whatever it is. [00:17:48] Joe: It’s funny, when I’ve, when I’ve done that in the past, Doug too, I put $50 in. I start thinking about the next $50. Like, okay, how can I do this again? Can I do this again? [00:17:58] And then my subconscious brain begins working on. How can I make more money? Find more money so that I can keep this thing going? You do get this positive reinforcement every time that you deliberately put money away. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely prefer automating this, not deliberately finding 50 bucks every time. [00:18:14] ’cause you’re making it way harder than it needs to be. Just hide money from yourself and have it going automatically is way better. But I do, I put 50 bucks in something. I’m like, oh, uh, let’s see if I can put $50 more in Luen stock. [00:18:25] Doug: That’s like me when I don’t eat the whole bag of potato chips. I’m like, oh, can I do that again? [00:18:30] Oh, can I just half a bag of the family size of, uh, crunchy Cheetos? [00:18:34] Joe: Well, and that’s what he does og. He’s the first half. He’s like, well, look at that. I only eat half. Let’s see if I can only eat half again. Mama didn’t raise no quitters. Then he eats the other half. And he’s like, look at that. [00:18:42] Doug: I did it in two servings instead of one. [00:18:44] If it’s open in your pantry, it’s as good as eating. Like those calories are already happening. Let’s just get it over with. Well, they’re gonna get stale. [00:18:52] Joe: Yes. I mean, you don’t want the chips in there getting stale. It’s gross. [00:18:55] OG: You brought up a good point, Doug, with the consistency of, of the investing and the impact of investing a little bit. [00:19:01] I was talking about put $50 in to start the five year clock. So that opens up these flexibility options of, of you being able to, you know, access your contributions in the future. If you wait until you’re 23 and you just graduated college and maybe you are putting the 7,000 a year in that, now the clock starts at 23. [00:19:21] So you have to wait until you’re 28 to be able to, to ax those contributions. Got it. But you’re right, in terms of the, the compounding. Compounding is one of these really weird things. That you don’t actually see the benefit of by looking out into the future. In fact, I would argue that most people don’t believe that compounding works looking out into the future because you can just do a Excel worksheet, say, okay, I’m putting in $50 every week of my paycheck, you know, at 7% growth, and I’m gonna do this for the next 30 years, and I have 30 bajillion dollars. [00:19:51] Like, that’s not true. Well, no, it is true. If you did the formula right in Excel, the math is right. You just don’t believe that that’s the case. But what happens is you do that systematically. You save $50, you save a hundred dollars, whatever it is. Yeah. You know what? The first year, you’re not gonna notice anything, right? [00:20:07] Like, dude, I thought I was saving money. I only got like 500 bucks in this thing. Yep, that’s right. It’s not that. It’s the fact that that $500 is gonna double six times, and the power of it is always visible in the rear view mirror. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone through a financial plan with a client. [00:20:24] Looked back and found, you know, like I said, you know, just, this is fun. It’s been five years. Let’s look at your financial plan from five years ago. Do you remember when your net worth was? $71,000? You had all those student loans. You, you know, your 401k balance was 81 grand? They’re like, wait, what? Your income was 71,000? [00:20:42] You know, you just don’t see it because it’s just life happening right in front of you. But when you take the time to look backwards. See how far it’s come. Now you can start to appreciate that compounding a nephew and niece. My wife and I were able to set up a 5 29 for them and we put 50 bucks a month in, let legitimately $50 a month. [00:21:00] We didn’t do it every month ’cause there were some times where we didn’t, but pretty much, and they both went to college and they both got $12,000 or five 20 nines. That’s not anywhere near the cost of college. You know, it’s not even in the ballpark of the cost of college, but you know what it is, it’s the cost of about a year and a half of a state school tuition where they both went and it was just 50 bucks, you know? [00:21:22] So like if you have your kids or you’re doing your Roth IRA, yeah, $50, it’s not, I mean, it’s probably not gonna get you all the way there. I’m not suggesting that that’s the thing, but it’s the behavior of doing 50 next time, doing 55, next time doing 60 and so on and so forth. But even the power of that $50 a month over a 20 year period pays for a year and a half of college, not a year and a half at Harvard, I get that, but a year and a half in a nice state school. [00:21:48] I mean, that’s pretty awesome for kind of setting up 50 bucks 18 years ago and not really thinking about it. I mean to the point where we didn’t have the login. It was at a 5 29 company that we don’t even use anymore, and we had to call. We had to call like three separate times. They’re like, yeah, you need to get a pin number, and then you we’re like, okay, mail us the pin. [00:22:06] They’re like, are you still at blah, blah, blah? We’re like, no, we’ve moved twice since then. Oh, okay. Well, we have to send a, you know, which in this [00:22:12] Joe: case is a great problem to have. It’s a great problem to have. [00:22:15] OG: It was like literally, it took us three months to log into this account because they had to send all these address confirmations to all these other places to confirm that. [00:22:23] I was really, but you’re not [00:22:24] Joe: just stealing the [00:22:25] OG: account. Yeah, I really, because that’s what they do. They send the, the confirmation to the old address to make sure it gets returned or whatever. Anyways, it took forever and finally we were like, holy crap, this is like 12 grand. That’s pretty awesome. Also, how do we turn this $50 a month thing off? [00:22:38] ’cause you know, she’s gonna school now. I don’t, I wanna put this on my kids, but you know, start the 50 just so the clock starts, but then also do 50 because. Give yourself enough time. It just, it’s, it’s bizarre how fast this stuff piles up. [00:22:51] Joe: Well, and the 50 early OG to your point, is what Anna says in this piece, which I love that intentionality, right? [00:22:56] You get that 50 moving, you’re being more intentional than you were the day before. Yeah, and that’s, that’s what it takes. Is there a time when you wouldn’t use a Roth? IRA? I can think of one. I really don’t like starting first with a Roth IRA for college. I get why some people do it, but I love the Roth IRA as tax-free retirement money. [00:23:14] So much that diluting it with college money doesn’t make that much sense to me. [00:23:19] OG: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t use a Roth for college and in fact I wouldn’t do anything for college unless my own financial independence was on track. Again, back to this, you know, we have to have everything all done exactly at the, at the same time type of idea. [00:23:32] Doug, you were talking about this with your, with your socials, which is partly why I don’t do that crap anymore. It’s like nobody posts real life stuff. Everybody, everybody posts all their, you know, the six minutes of good in their day, which is also cool, but it kinda sets a false expectation of like how life really is. [00:23:52] But I wouldn’t do all these other things. Unless I had the momentum going and I had the confidence that I was on track for my other, my personal financial goals, right. You know, I wanna make sure that my emergency fund is good to go. I wanna make sure that my consumer debt is moving in the right direction. [00:24:10] I think a lot of people think that it has to be all or nothing, right? Like, I have to build all of my cash reserve right now, then I can get rid of all of my debt, then I can save for all of my retirement. It’s like, well, you can do little bits of these things if you’re moving. Moving the ship in the right direction. [00:24:27] But when you start taking care of other people, I want to do that knowing that I’m on the right path for my own, you know, my immediate family, in this case, me and my spouse. So kids are good, want ’em to have a good education, but I’m not gonna sacrifice my retirement risk. It not happening in exchange for, you know, a few extra dollars and a 5 29, [00:24:49] Joe: I believe there’s, uh, three pieces to this puzzle that Anna’s latched onto. [00:24:53] The first piece is this intentionality in getting money safe. Second is using the right tax shelter, Roth, IRA. I love the term use Swiss Army knife. Third one then is investing that money based on your timeframe. We’ve talked about that elsewhere. We’ll also talk about it in our newsletter, the 2 0 1, [00:25:09] OG: all stocks all the time, which [00:25:10] Joe: comes out tomorrow. [00:25:11] Yeah. Biden Index Fund. If you’re just starting out, you know a good one is just the total stock market index. The one by Vanguard is very good. Fidelity’s got one too. So wherever you’re at, just buy the stock market. Don’t worry about getting fancy. You can get intentional about that, uh, later on as your portfolio grows. [00:25:30] Got [00:25:30] OG: rid of study the other day, Joe, that half of 401k balances are in target date funds. D. That was my reaction too. Do, no, not dough. I’m gonna [00:25:42] Joe: save [00:25:42] OG: that for another day. [00:25:43] Joe: I know we have new stackers going. Why? Why, why, why? Well, we will save that for another day. Tune in [00:25:47] OG: next week as we destroy target day funds for the 700th time. [00:25:50] I was gonna say, [00:25:50] Doug: or listen to every other episode of our last 11 years. That’s right. You can do better [00:25:56] Joe: people. Let’s move on instead of the TikTok minute, this is the part of the show where we shine a light on a TikTok creator who is either doing something brilliant or air quotes brilliant, og, you think today is brilliant? [00:26:08] Or air quotes brilliant. Oh, why did I do that? Doug, what am I thinking? Every time TikTok is the [00:26:14] OG: devil, [00:26:14] Doug: it’s been a right into it. You used to go like to OG one week and then me the other week. I know, and now it’s just all OG all the time and everybody knows his answer so bad [00:26:23] OG: and everybody listens now, don’t they? [00:26:25] Don’t they Doug? [00:26:26] Joe: Yeah. To see how wrong he’s been week in and week out. About half the time he’s wrong ’cause we pick some good ones. You know, you wonder like how Roth IRA is different than a traditional IRA and uh, you see those people that are just hanging out as you’re driving down the street late at night, a bunch of kids hanging out in the neighborhood. [00:26:48] Well, you know, those are the people that are talking about the difference between Roth IRA and traditional IRA. Pretending like they’re those kids hanging out. This is, uh, comedians Will Ferrell, Ron Funes, and uh, a few others. [00:27:03] bit: The great thing about an IRA is if you need the money for education or first home mother, make withdrawal penalty free. [00:27:09] I still don’t get the dinner between Roth and a traditional IRAs. What’s wrong with you? This shit is pre-taxed. No, no, no. It’s okay. A lot of people get confused by that. No, this. Mess around and get us all this. What you mean? You got five years receipt and the strip club ain’t no home office. That’s a red flag. [00:27:27] Bitch. Hey, stop. Are you old friends, right? Jojo? You might be right. Strip club isn’t a home office. You’re asking to be audited, son. But it’s being right. More important than friendship, huh? That’s That’s what they’re [00:27:40] OG: talking about out there on the corner. It’s a great movie. It’s such a funny movie. Get Hard, right? [00:27:45] Rap Fudges Will Ferrell. What movie is that? Is that the name of the movie? Get Hard. [00:27:48] Doug: I. Oh, is that Gethard? That’s from Gethard. Yeah. That’s great. That’s why I don’t know it ’cause nobody has seen that movie except you. [00:27:55] OG: I’ve seen it probably a dozen times. Him and, uh, oh my God. Him and um, uh, Kevin Hart. [00:28:01] Kevin Hart. He just assumes that the guy who watches his car, uh, has been to prison. [00:28:07] Joe: Just, [00:28:08] OG: oh, no. So awfully bad. Oh, no. But then Kevin Hart turns it into an opportunity to make money. He’s like, all right, I’ll roll with this. Like, I’ll just, I’ll play this game. And then it obviously figures out that that’s not the case. [00:28:21] Joe: Cheryl and I just got done watching, uh, the series Loot on Apple tv, uh, season two and, and liked it a lot. But um, Ron Funes is very funny on that. In fact, uh, Cheryl’s headed to Seattle to visit our son while I’ll be at FinCon in October and he’s gonna be live there. So she’s going to see Ron. Your [00:28:39] Doug: son’s gonna be live? [00:28:40] Live. Oh, Ron. [00:28:40] Joe: My son will be live there too. Yes. If you wanna see Nick and Ron Funes at the same time, one of them will be easier to spot ’cause he’ll be on stage. I’m not gonna tell you which one. Uh, you can see them both coming up in just a minute. We’re going to answer a call from Chanel who thought that she should call Saul and og. [00:29:01] But before we get to that Doug, you’ve got our trivia for today. What’s on tap This fine Wednesday. [00:29:10] Doug: Hey there stackers. I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug, and today according to this crazy holiday calendar, Joe’s mom got me is National Poetry Day. So, because I’m such an established, respected poet, I could never stoop to sharing my brilliant rhymes on this podcast, but I thought we’d fire up the old chat GPT machine and ask it to write the best Stacking Benjamin podcast poem the world has ever seen. [00:29:37] Or, or hurt while we give chat GPTA minute to craft that poem. Let’s talk about maybe one of the best poems about money called Smart, and it was all about how a father gives his child a dollar and the child trades it. For two shiny quarters because quote two is more than one. Duh. So our question today is what poet wrote the poem? [00:30:01] Smart. Which details may be some not so great Money moves. I’ll be back with the answer and chat. GT’s attempt to save this podcast with 2020 four’s. Best Stacking Benjamin Paul. [00:30:24] Hey there, stackers. I’m the basement’s resident rhymer, and the guy who’s redder than roses when it’s this hot outside Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug, it’s all of us. Okay. I fed Jet GPT, everything we needed for it to create the world’s best poem about Stacking Benjamins. And here’s what it gave me. Oh wait. Um, hey Steve, can you cue some like really dramatic, thoughtful poetry music for us? [00:30:51] Okay, good. Thanks. Here we go. Stacking. Benjamins the podcast to know with Joe OG and Doug, the star of the show. Oh, all right. Oh God. Okay. It’s figuring it out. I like this. Here we go. A mix of finance, fun, and laughs galore for your money needs. It’s never a bore. Joe’s the captain of this money ship. Oh, we’re there we go for the worst. [00:31:14] No, this is not going well. Guiding us all on a financial trip. He’ll tell a bad joke, but here’s the thing bad. The worse the joke, the more you’ll clinging. That’s good. You want the listeners right? OGs the pro with wisdom to spare. He’ll build your wealth with the greatest of care. But don’t be fooled by his serious tone. [00:31:35] His puns are grown worthy. Yet so well known and nothing but this is where nothing, yeah, right. He’s just dead silent. But this is where it really gets good. Then there’s Doug, the announcer guy with trivia that’ll make you ask why. His voice booms out with a lively cheer and his jokes. Well, that’s why you’re here. [00:31:59] Yes, they’ll teach you to save, invest, and plan, but expect a joke at every turn, man. It’s finance with Flair, a comedy spree with Joe OG and Doug the absolute best part of the whole show. You’ll agree. I might have edited that one. So tune in to Stacking Benjamins today where money talks in a quirky way with dad jokes and puns so bright. [00:32:22] You’ll laugh, you’ll learn. It’s pure delight. All right, Steve, you can, you can turn that music off. Yeah, it was a pretty good effort, right? Chat. Uh, you could coulda led with the star of the show instead of just Joe and og. Nobody’s here for them. Let’s get back to trivia. Today’s question was this, maybe the most famous American poem about money is called Smart and was written about a father who gives his child a dollar and the child trades it for two shiny quarters because quote two is more than one. [00:32:54] Well, that famous poem was written by the great American writer. She Silverstein. Silverstein was truly a renaissance man. He was not only a poet and writer, but also US military veteran, singer songwriter. Musician and cartoonist. I think he was also like a gold gloves boxer too. Was he really? No, I just made that part up. [00:33:15] But I mean, you believe me for a second. I wouldn’t doubt it. Doubt it. With all the stuff he did. I know. And now back to the two guys cartooning all over this episode, Joe and og [00:33:26] Joe: Shell Silverstein is so awesome. Yeah, just, just incredible. I looked up when he passed away, 1999, shell, Silverstein. We lost him. [00:33:34] Really? I would not have [00:33:35] Doug: guessed that. You would’ve thought that it was earlier? Yeah, a lot earlier. I would’ve said it was like early eighties or something. Wrote The boy named Sue. Did he [00:33:43] Joe: write the the Johnny Cash Song Boy named Sue? He did. Yep. How about that? I did not know that. I did not know that. [00:33:51] Doug: The Giving Tree and, yeah, so many. [00:33:53] The Giving Tree initially warms your heart, but then you realize, man, that’s depressing. It’s so depressing. It’s like, oh, [00:34:00] Joe: cats and the cradles on the radio. Yeah, let’s listen to it. It’s just like that, and then you’re like, no. [00:34:05] Doug: What the hell am I thinking? I’ve become the worst person ever. [00:34:10] Joe: I gotta call somebody. [00:34:13] Yeah. Hey, time to answer a call from somebody that said, you know what? We better call Saul. See, hi and og. This is where we shine the light on a stacker who needs some help with their money and we’re always here to help. And, uh, you know, today we’re gonna help our buddy Chanel, Hey, Chanel. [00:34:31] caller: Hi, Joe and og. This is Chanel and I would like to say that I absolutely love Doug. I think he’s fantastic. I’d love to have an extra large yes Doug shirt to sleep in. [00:34:39] Joe: Yes. Okay. [00:34:40] caller: That being said, um, my and I are on the cusp turning 50. We have about $2 million in our retirement. Four. Oh and Ira. My husband currently puts away 19 700 in his four Oh. [00:34:53] And I put about 27 500 away in my four. Oh, I know. Mega backdoor. Another question for another time, because I wanna retire in the next 10 to 12 years. My husband plans to retire around 70. We do wanna have the house paid off before I retire. Amount is. [00:35:16] $6 payment, so add the money in four. [00:35:28] It comes out to about 54, 3 90, and that would take about six years to pay our house off. The question is, should we do that? I’m a disabled veteran. My daughters, their education is taken care of because of my status here in Indiana. So they can go to any state school for free. Plus I have a daughter who wants to go into ROTC, please. [00:35:46] Um, I look forward to, uh, hearing your response. [00:35:49] Joe: Chanel, thank you for your service. Sorry to hear that you like Doug. Of course, we’re gonna send you a Doug 2024 T-shirt ’cause. We’ve gotta make sure that we get Doug’s contribution to this election circus [00:36:02] Doug: that is dominating [00:36:04] Joe: the best [00:36:04] Doug: write-in [00:36:05] Joe: candidate ever. [00:36:07] It’s the right candidate at the right time. Uh uh oh gee. Should she pay the house off? [00:36:13] OG: I was trying to do the math as she was doing it to see how close she was to being able to pay it off. I didn’t hear her say, here’s what my normal payment is. I just heard her say, here’s what I’m paying extra. So I had to try to guess on that. [00:36:25] So the goal was to have the house paid off in 10 years. Is that kind of as you understood it and, and her question is, should I, instead of paying it off in 10 years, pay it off in five or six because I can just take all of our savings and put it toward the house. I don’t really like that idea of stopping the 401k savings or retirement plan savings. [00:36:45] I think for a couple of reasons. I’m guessing that most of the money that you’re contributing is pre-tax. There’s some tax savings there. If it’s a Roth, then obviously there’s no tax savings there. I think Charlie Munger is the one that said this, or you know, Warren Buffett, one of these two guys, just don’t unnecessarily interrupt. [00:37:03] Compounding, and you’ve got 10 years to go before you retire. You’ve got 2 million bucks, you’re saving $40,000 a year. $50,000 a year in your 401k. That’s another half a million that’s gonna go in your 401k plans. That money will also double and then your existing money will double. You know, some of that contribution will you got employer matches and that sort of thing as well. [00:37:25] Unless your mortgage interest rate is really, really, really, really, really high, like eight 9%, which I can’t imagine that it would be, but if that is, then I think you could just refinance it. But I just don’t see why you would want to at this point. You’ve already got a plan to pay it off in 10 years. [00:37:43] That was your goal anyway. Why would you want to direct more money to the thing that’s gonna have lower interest? Like lower interest outcomes? I guess maybe there’s some change to that. If you were saying, well as soon as the house is paid off, then we can sell it and we can move to such and such a place. [00:37:59] And I still don’t see why I would want to do that any more aggressively than you are, especially since you’re probably kind of trending toward peak earning years. You’re saving a bunch of money toward retirement. You wanna be done in, you know, the next, uh, decade or so. Uh, don’t get in the way. This has worked really well. [00:38:18] I would keep my foot on the gas. I will say there is an opportunity, uh, an opportunity to more aggressively pay down the house with excess money. I. What I mean by that is, let’s say that you’re in a position that you have maybe some bonus opportunity or, uh, you get stock options or restricted shares as bonus or something like that. [00:38:36] What you could do is say, alright, moving forward, any additional money beyond what we already make and save, we’re gonna direct X percent of that toward our house. So you think about the next 10 years, you’re likely gonna get pay raises. Maybe you’re in a position that gets a bonus, maybe you get some stock or something like that. [00:38:53] You might have opportunities over the next 10 years. To say, oh, my income increased, you know, $5,000 a year. I’m gonna take that after tax money and I’m just gonna add that to my pile of contributions toward the house. That would pull it back a little bit, you know, from 10 to maybe seven or something like that, you know, if you did it that way. [00:39:12] I just, it just doesn’t gimme a big warm and fuzzy to, to take money that can grow at equity rates, market rates, and pay off a house That. I’m guessing the interest rate’s pretty low, [00:39:23] Joe: especially when retiring at such a young age, there’s so much life left. Like having that extra growth, I think is gonna be hugely beneficial. [00:39:32] OG: Yeah, I mean, you’re still getting the growth on the house, right? You’re just Sure you just have an equity gap. But it’s not, it’s not equity returns in a no single family house, right? You’re getting 3% a year on your house. Equity markets grow at 10. People say, well, no, my house has gone up 10% a year for the last, I get that, but over time it’s a lower number and you’re not doing anything with the house, right? [00:39:53] Like presumably you’re just paying it off so that you can live without a mortgage payment in retirement. You’re not turning that into capital that could be deployed in other places. So your favorite story, Joe, about house equity is it’s really hard to like carve off a bathroom to go pay. Right. You know, pay a tax bill or something, you know, it’s just. [00:40:11] It’s hard to borrow against the house, you know, if you don’t have income to support it, it’s really bizarre. ’cause you’re like, well, I’ve got this equity, you know, I’ve got a 500,000 house to paid off. Can I go get a 300,000 loan? The bank’s like, sure, what’s your income? You’re like, oh, I’m retired. They’re like, yeah, no. [00:40:24] Joe: Yeah, because they don’t want the house. I own it free and clear. Are you kidding me? It’s mine. You can, yeah. Nope, nope, sorry. [00:40:30] OG: They want the payment. They don’t want your house. They want the payment. They want the interest that you’re gonna pay over time. So. I like keeping on the plan. Maybe if you wanna get more aggressive, take extra money that you have coming your way over the years. [00:40:43] Pay raises, bonuses, stock options, whatever. Maybe direct some of that toward the house and just keep your foot on the gas with your retirement savings. [00:40:50] Joe: She did mention the og, you know, where they really sit. I’m assuming that she has that goal covered. She’s got her retirement goal covered with her savings plan as is, but is your answer materially different? [00:41:03] Like if she’s just rocking retirement has plenty of money and she can get more conservative and pay the house off. You know what I mean? Like if she’s, if she could live her wildest dream retirement than I might be. My answer to that might change then it might be, yeah, go ahead and pay it off. Well, [00:41:18] OG: I mean, certainly we don’t know what her spending is. [00:41:19] She says she has $2 million in retirement accounts now. Basically that’s 4 million in the future. I just see the opportunity to save another 500 K between now and then, and the compounding that that 500,000 is gonna provide. You know, over the course of the next 10, 15 years, that’s basically another million of retirement assets. [00:41:37] Yeah. You know, so why not? It’s arbitrage at this point on the balance sheet, it might look somewhat similar in the short run, right? It’s like I pay down the principle of the house, so then the equity balance is the same. Net worth looks the same, but you can’t spend the equity in your house, and you’ve already got a plan to pay it off aggressively. [00:41:53] 10 years anyway. I don’t know. Um, I like having a million more dollars in the bank. That just sounds like a better retirement because here’s the thing. Ultimately, I wanna have the most flexibility in the future. Let’s fast forward six years from now, you’re doing your thing and all of a sudden your boss says, yeah, you’re outta here. [00:42:14] And you’re like, well, no, I, I need four more years. My plan is four years, but your boss goes, our plan is now, so you’re done. Or your husband plans on working until he’s 70 and his boss says at 60, you’re done. Having extra money saved between now and then gives you more flexibility in the future. You can turn around and pay it off then. [00:42:31] You know, if you want. So I just like the idea of more flexibility, the better. [00:42:37] Joe: Chanel, thanks for the question. Great question. Yeah, if you’ve got a question for us. Oh, Doug, there’s only one reason you like that question. [00:42:43] Doug: Yeah, no. Chanel clearly is a cognitive giant. I mean, she’s obviously one of the smartest people that we’ve had call into the show. [00:42:51] Um, I. Pretty sure she probably already knew that answer. She just wanted to hear it Validated by og Hey Chanel, um, you are incredibly smart. Don’t screw it up by letting your kids go to iu. Like if you’ve got free in-state tuition, don’t, don’t mess it up and send them to iu. [00:43:07] OG: Indiana’s got a great business school. [00:43:08] You know, Indiana’s business school is number eight in the country. It depends on. [00:43:12] Doug: Yeah, for hot chicks, maybe beautiful campus too, but it is a beautiful campus. Mm-Hmm. That’s really all they’ve got. But the really smart kids, they’ve got a go to. They’ve got a [00:43:19] OG: top 10 business program and a great campus that [00:43:22] Doug: sucks. [00:43:22] Granite’s pretty high up there too. And there’s all the other stuff, so you need to, you need to go to three Amazing [00:43:28] OG: football programs are pretty much on par between those two schools. Basketball kicks the outta iu. I mean, in the last year or two? No, no, no. He’s, how many national championships does Purdue have? [00:43:42] Joe: Matt, PA, the whole Matt Painter. Period. They’ve been better than, uh, and, [00:43:45] Doug: and the whole Gene, Katy, period. They were better than iu. They really, IU good. Been good. Many na good since Bobby Knight left that how many natt? One less than iu. There you go. Yeah. Chanel just, just do it right. Send ’em to West Lafayette and be done with it. [00:44:02] Oh boy. [00:44:02] OG: I’d send my kids to East Lafayette long before I’d send ’em to West Lafayette. If you’ve got a question for us or regular Lafayette, you don’t even have to go to the west side or east side for that matter. Just go to regular Lafayette. It’s way better than the western part of the city. [00:44:20] Joe: Head to Stacking Benjamins dot com slash voicemail. [00:44:23] If you’ve got a question for og, do you wanna hear chicken? Check chicken? Look out for us. We’re the trains, we’re [00:44:27] Doug: coming at you Choo. As opposed to Hoosiers, that not even Hoosiers know what that is. They don’t have a mascot. It’s a [00:44:35] OG: basketball player. It’s [00:44:37] Doug: obviously [00:44:37] OG: a basketball [00:44:38] Doug: player. Then you don’t wanna be that in the last 30 years. [00:44:42] Joe: It is. Hey, the net is equally as high. In, in, in Bloomington, as it is in West Lafayette, right. Take up measure. Isn’t that what Hoosiers is? Isn’t that what it is? That’s, yeah. Uh, gene Hackman did that in the movie Hoosiers. [00:44:57] Doug: Gene [00:44:58] OG: Hackman. [00:44:58] Joe: Yeah. We go out there and we measure it. Yeah. And it’s the same. That’s what a Hoosier is. [00:45:01] A Hoosiers. Gene Hackman, [00:45:03] OG: obviously. Uh, that’s a great movie. I might watch that again this weekend. [00:45:07] Doug: That is a great movie. That is a fantastic movie. Movie’s a great [00:45:09] OG: movie to watch with your kids. Yeah. [00:45:11] Doug: Hoosiers, also Dennis Hopper, the drunk. [00:45:14] OG: Well, as opposed to Dennis Hopper, the. Right. No offense, rest in peace. [00:45:21] But what’s [00:45:22] Doug: uh, that’s a great, that’s a great movie. It really is. And Gene Hackman, it’s like that. And [00:45:25] OG: remember, remember the Titans? Those are the two sports [00:45:28] Doug: movies. I would agree. I love remember The Titans, but Gene Hackman thought Hoosiers was gonna ruin his career. He was so pissed off doing that movie that he wanted nothing to do with it. [00:45:37] Didn’t wanna go to the premier. Didn’t wanna do the, the revoice overs that they often have to do after production’s done. They sometimes have to go into a studio and, and Revoice stuff didn’t wanna do any of that. So, uh, he was a bit wrong. [00:45:51] Joe: Speaking of movies, I think we just wandered outta the back porch, Doug without even, without even knowing it. [00:45:55] I never leave the back porch. Back Porch is the part of the show. It’s the end of the show where we talk about, uh, things going on in the community. We talk about, uh, movies that we’ve seen, TV shows we watched. I mentioned that I just finished season two of Loot. It’s a series that as we began it, uh, Cheryl did not like it at all. [00:46:16] And, uh, stuck with it ’cause I thought it was very funny. And, uh, by the end of, by the end of the first season, she was hooked as well and season two was even better. These characters just continue to grow on you. Very funny, very funny. Show Good to half hour fun. Below Deck, below deck, below Deck’s. The name of Medi, the show you like. [00:46:33] Yes. Deck. [00:46:34] Doug: I’m so into Below Deck Mediterranean. Are you kidding me? Oh my God. It is the best trashy reality tv, bachelorette tv. [00:46:41] OG: On a, uh, boat, on a, uh, luxury yacht, [00:46:44] Doug: it’s so much better than that. Look, I can’t, I’ve watched every minute of Bachelor and Bachelorette for like the last 10 years against my will. [00:46:53] Largely false, and I don’t remember a single name of a bachelor bachelorette contestant. You [00:46:59] OG: can’t say against my will. I distinctly remember you saying I can’t play golf today. The season Premier is on. [00:47:06] Doug: Busted. [00:47:07] OG: Busted. That is a hundred percent happened, [00:47:10] Doug: but I know all of the characters from all four Seasons that I’ve watched of Below Deck Mediterranean. [00:47:15] So good. It’s the best track. Wait until [00:47:17] OG: you get below deck, uh, Croatian or wherever. I don’t know that there’s like a. There’s like a bunch of different areas I think. [00:47:24] Doug: Yeah, I think they do the Caribbean. There’s Australia, maybe Caribbean. Yeah, I’m sure I can’t wait. I’ve got years of programming years gold ahead of me. [00:47:33] I think people [00:47:34] Joe: thought, oh gee, we hit a low on Monday when we did the about my. And now we’re talking about Below Deck Mediterranean. So good. What’s the subtext in that show? There must be some underlying themes that, uh, in that show, nothing could be more surface [00:47:50] OG: level. So, so my experience with this show is a week long period. [00:47:55] We went, the last time we went to Disney, I got the flu so bad I couldn’t move. And the only thing that was on during the day was this freaking show. So good. So I watched. Episode after episode after episode of this show for an entire week, while my fa, my family would be like, it’s 7:00 AM We’re going to breakfast, dad, we’ll see you later. [00:48:17] I’m like, it’s okay. I’ll be fine. And you had the best vacation ever. I laid on the couch. It was pretty sucky, honestly, like it was. It was not great. [00:48:26] Joe: A woman who’s been on the show three or four times, Linda P. Jones, I used to also be on the Money Tree podcast with her, uh, financial influencer. She actually Doug rented the boat. [00:48:36] They were on an episode because it was her and her friends that were the. Clients on the boat. I think I [00:48:42] Doug: Oh wow. So she had a first, I might’ve watched that in the last like week. I’m gonna go back and look ’cause I do six hours. Remember a financial person on there and, and who brought friends. That’s honestly what most of the guests are. [00:48:56] They seem to be, and I know I’ve heard they get a discount for being guests on the show. So they get that to rent that boat cheaper than you normally would, not. You’re pretty sure not. [00:49:06] Joe: No, Linda was not very happy because she had expected a bigger discount and they kind of, they kind of tell you that, oh, and then they, and, and in my understanding, it’s been a long time, it’s been. [00:49:19] Four years maybe since Linda and I talked about this. Oh. But yeah, but I seem to remember the discount now. She’s like, I, I’m paid a ton of money. Wow. Those things are super expensive. I think it [00:49:28] Doug: started in 2014, so that, and she might have been on season two or so, so call it 2016. That is a while ago. It does seem like many, many of the guests are there advertising something. [00:49:42] And they don’t get a lot of screen time, but there’ll be at least a quick mention, uh, when they’re doing the prep for the, when before the guests come on board. They’ll have this session where the captain is like reading through the profiles of the guests and they’re describing, oh, this is so and so, and he is a motivational speaker and he, his company is such and such. [00:50:01] So they get that little quick mention. There was one guest who was really cheesy. They were like trial lawyers or something, and he’s wearing the T-shirt of his company and a hat that said trial lawyer on it. Pretty, oh God, it was pretty bad. Um, I don’t think, remember, I remember the [00:50:13] Joe: dudes that were Day traders. [00:50:14] I watched the one the day Trader and his buddies, and they trashed the boat and they’re just complete jerks. [00:50:19] Doug: Yeah. And then, uh, right now the episode I’m halfway through is Johnny Damon, the baseball player. Wow. Really? Yeah. Yeah. So he is not advertising anything, but maybe just other than keeping his name relevant, that part’s a little cheesy, but I wanna go back and see if I can find Linda P. [00:50:35] Jones stuff’s [00:50:35] OG: expensive. I have a friend who. Went down to the British Virgin Islands and was like, this place is amazing. I need to figure out how to own a business down here. He and a buddy went in 50 50 on a, on a gigantic catamaran, like one that you can live on and staffed it with a, a captain and a chef and a first maid and wow, whatever, and rents the boat out for, you know, people go down and they get to sail around the Virgin Islands. [00:51:00] We were talking about a Christmas trip. I said, yeah, I’m trying to do something with the kids, you know, for Christmas. He goes, oh, I, I’ve actually got this week open. Here, go to this website and you guys can, I mean, it’s perfect. It’s great for family, you know? Yeah. You go see some sites and I’m like, oh, sweet. [00:51:13] I pull it up and I’m like, 48,000 for a week. [00:51:17] Doug: Holy cow. How about, [00:51:18] OG: no. [00:51:19] Doug: Well, these ships I’m below deck are roughly 200. Oh, yeah. They’re not catamarans. No. Right. Yeah. They’re roughly like 202 to two 50 a week, so it’s, I did the math. I’m not doing right now in thousands, [00:51:30] OG: not dollars. Yeah, you’re in hundreds of thousands of dollars, not dollars, [00:51:34] Doug: $50,000 a week. [00:51:36] Yeah. And I, I, I think I did that. Maybe I’m wrong on that, but, ’cause I, I divided it down to like per day, it’s like 28,000 a day. So multiply that times seven, but it’s a crazy amount of money. [00:51:47] OG: Yeah. [00:51:48] Doug: And then they’re giving $20,000 tips at the end, [00:51:51] OG: right? Yeah. At the end, a big wad of cash to everybody. I give ’em like a bunch of Subway gift cards. [00:51:57] Had a pet on the back. Don’t spit in your bath water. There’s a tip. What? Don’t spit in your bath water. What? Where did that come from? Nobody has ever said that. 1937 called and they would like their pun back. What? Like the reference. Uh, well, it’s a [00:52:11] Joe: good tip. [00:52:12] OG: It is a good [00:52:12] Joe: tip. Don’t do that. [00:52:14] OG: That’s what she said. [00:52:14] When [00:52:14] Joe: we were in the Virgin Islands Oji, we took not a catamaran for a week and wasn’t $250,000. We spent like a whopping few hundred bucks to do a day trip into the. British Virgin Island. So shooter right here one day with a bunch of people we didn’t know. Did you paddle it yourself? Basically [00:52:30] OG: Joe did a booze cruise and uh, we totally [00:52:33] Joe: did. [00:52:34] So here’s, here’s what happened. There’s a bar called the Soggy Dollar, very famous bar in the Virgin Islands where there’s no dock. All the boats just kind of, uh, park and then you swim up, which is why it’s a soggy dollar. ’cause you had to swim up to the, to the beach. You know, we’re drinking painkillers like there’s no tomorrow. [00:52:52] And, and, uh, after, after, by the way, you’ve had about seven or eight painkillers. They hand you a snorkel mask and I’m like, I wonder what the don’t, what’s the liability insurance like on these things because I am hammered and looking at beautiful fish. But then we go to the soggy dollar and so we jump overboard and I kind of, uh. [00:53:13] Hang out in the ocean for a few seconds because well, the becomes your ocean. [00:53:18] OG: See a man about a horse? [00:53:20] Joe: Yes. Cheryl’s like, what are you doing as, I’m just looking off into the distance. [00:53:24] Doug: Nothing. It’s really warm here. You got that thousand yard stare. [00:53:31] Joe: I’m, dude, you guys just go on without me. I’ll be here for a second. [00:53:34] And then I, uh, Judy, I swim up to the beach. And the saki dollar’s off to like the left, there’s like four or five bars, uh, including the saki dollar, and that’s off to the left where I come up, there’s a bunch of kayaks and a few palm trees, and there’s this dude sitting under the palm trees. And so I, I get out of the water and the guy looks at me and goes, cocaine. [00:53:58] And I, I do the big suburban dad thing, like total, like in hindsight, I didn’t realize I’d done the suburban dad, but in hindsight I totally did. Because he goes, cocaine. And I go, oh no man. I’m good. Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate the offer, my friend, but I have plenty of cocaine. Did you, [00:54:17] Doug: as you stepped around him, did you go, oh, oh, watch out for deer on your drive home? [00:54:26] Joe: You be careful out there selling that cocaine, man. So suburban dad. No, I’m good. Even afterwards, I’m like, no, I’m, I’m good. Yeah, [00:54:35] OG: that’s Joe’s version. [00:54:36] Joe: Below deck, British version, island Edition. There might be one of those. So there I was on my [00:54:40] OG: booze cruise home with a nose full of nose beers and, uh, [00:54:45] Joe: no, the devil’s dust. [00:54:46] So then I have the cocaine. I. [00:54:49] OG: No, don’t do that. Uh, [00:54:51] Joe: soggy dollar. Alright, uh, one more thing. I will be in Minneapolis next Thursday. My son Nick and I we’re having a pre-party camp fire happening over Labor Day weekend. So Thursday night I. Our local stackers are going to be there along with, uh, fans of, uh, the financial independence community. [00:55:10] So come out and hang out with us in Stillwater, just south of Minneapolis at River Siren. Starts at six 30 to get your ticket, Stacking Benjamins dot com slash meetup. And I hope to see all of you there. Doug, I think you’ve got the end of this man. What should we have learned on this particular episode? [00:55:26] Doug: Well, Joe first take some advice from our headline, investing outside of a Roth IRA. Use that tax shelter to reduce friction to your portfolio. Investing is a three part equation. Saving enough money using the right tax, shelter, and investing based on your timeframe, nail all three of those, and you’re more likely to win with your money. [00:55:46] Second, take some advice from OG thinking about paying off your house. If you’re super smart like Chanel and I can call her Chanel because we’re best friends. Now. Work for flexibility, not just paying off your house. You’ve got lots of great years ahead of you. Hey, Chanel, I’ll call you later. I’m having a few people over for my annual Barry Manalow appreciation event. [00:56:07] You can sing weekends in New England at the top of your lungs with us. It’ll be great. And remember Boiler Up, but the big lesson. Hey, chat, GPTI got some poetry for you right here. There was once a man from Nantucket who told Joe and. [00:56:28] This show is the property of SB podcasts LLC, copyright 2024, and is created by Joe Saul Cihi. Joe gets help from a few of our neighborhood friends. You’ll find out about our awesome team at Stacking Benjamins dot com, along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. [00:56:48] 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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