Americans are in the middle of the largest wealth transfer in history. Trillions of dollars are moving between generations right now. But what do you actually do when half a million dollars lands in your account? And on the other side of that question: when it’s your turn to give, do you leave it when you die or give it while you’re alive? Do you split it equally or based on need? And what about the inheritance that has nothing to do with money at all? Joe asks Paula Pant, OG, and Doc G to answer all of it honestly.
What You’ll Walk Away With
- What Paula, OG, and Doc G would each do before noon on the day they found out — and why OG’s first move is to make a list of questions while Paula immediately calls her accountant
- Why Doc G, currently in the decumulation phase, would give some away and consider lending money to his son for a property before investing a dollar
- OG’s 40/20/40 framework for any unexpected windfall: 40% to investing, 20% to guilt-free spending, 40% to debt payoff or a medium-term goal — and why it works for $1,000 checks and $500,000 checks alike
- The grief factor: why Paula says the first thing she thinks of when she hears the word inheritance is grief — and why emotional cloudiness is the most underestimated risk in how people handle inherited money
- Would you tell anyone? All three guests have different answers — and the reasons matter
- Give it while you’re alive or leave it when you die: what the King Lear scenario has to do with your estate plan, and why Paula’s answer depends entirely on her end-of-life care risk
- Pay for college or leave an inheritance: Doc G picks college, OG picks experiences, and the reasoning behind each choice reveals two completely different theories of compounding
- Equal inheritance versus needs-based inheritance: why Doc G has already had the conversation with his kids and why he’s not apologizing for unequal parenting
- What people at the end of life actually want to leave behind — Doc G’s hospice experience in one of the most memorable moments of the episode
- The non-financial legacy each panelist is trying to leave — and Doug’s surprisingly moving answer about where joy actually comes from
Why This Matters Now
The wealth transfer is already happening. Whether you’re on the giving end or the receiving end, the decisions made in the first days after money changes hands tend to be the ones people regret most. This episode is the conversation to have beforehand.
From the Basement
Paula Pant, OG, and Doc G work through the full inheritance question — tactics, emotions, purpose, and legacy — in one of the more wide-ranging Friday conversations this show has produced. Paula tries to win the trivia competition for the first time in longer than anyone cares to admit, immediately hoping she gets to thank the Academy. Doug closes with something nobody saw coming.
Resources Mentioned
Stacking Benjamins Community — stackingbenjamins.com/basement
Earn and Invest podcast — Doc G (Jordan Grumet); upcoming episode with Dr. Jaspal Singh on the case for ambitious careers; wherever you listen to podcasts
Afford Anything podcast — Paula Pant; recent episode with Dr. Julia Garcia on five habits of hope; wherever you listen to podcasts
Stacking Benjamins Newsletter (The 201) — stackingbenjamins.com/201
OG financial planning calendar — stackingbenjamins.com/og
Our Topic: I Unexpectedly Inherited $850,000—but I’m Already Wealthy. What Do I Do With It?
During our conversation, you’ll hear us mention:
- Wealth transfer
- Inheritance planning
- Sudden windfalls
- Tax implications
- Money market funds
- Investment choices
- Rental properties
- Paying debt
- Guilt-free spending
- Family communication
- Giving while living
- College funding
- Experiences versus money
- Unequal inheritance
- Parenting fairness
- Credit card debt
- Diners Club
- Money and happiness
- Grief and money
- Financial literacy
- Purpose and money
- Hedonic treadmill
- Human connection
- Legacy planning
- Family stories
- Values passed down
- Career influence
- Hope habits
- YouTube livestreams
Our Contributors
A big thanks to our contributors! You can check out more links for our guests below.
Doc G
Another thanks to Doc G for joining our contributors this week! Hear more from Doc G on his podcast, Earn & Invest, on Apple Podcasts.
Check out his latest book The Purpose Code: How to unlock meaning, maximize happiness, and leave a lasting legacy.
Paula Pant
Check out Paula’s site and amazing podcast at AffordAnything.com
Follow Paula on Twitter: @AffordAnything
OG
For more on OG and his firm’s page, click here.
Doug’s Game Show Trivia
- According to the Federal Reserve, as of 2025, approximately how much total credit card debt do Americans owe?
Mentioned in today’s show
- Mars Men® Testosterone Supplement (tell them The Stacking Benjamins Show sent you.
Join Us on Monday!
Tune in on Monday when we’re talking about what to consider BEFORE you borrow
Miss our last show? Check it out here: Dana Anspach on the Four Phases of Retirement — And Why Your Go-Go Years Are the Most Important (SB1859) | Stacking Benjamins.
Written by: Kevin Bailey
Episode transcript
[00:00:00] opener: Stacking Benjamins is not for everyone. Side effects may include euphoria, increased ability to meet your goals, and aggression from people wondering, quote, “What the hell your secret is.” Stacking Benjamins may be habit-forming, especially if you stick around for the entire episode, wink, wink. Please check with your doctor to see if Stacking Benjamins is right for you
[00:00:20] Doug: Live from the basement of the YouTube headquarters, it’s the Stacking Benjamins show
[00:00:35] Doug: I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug, and experts estimate that Americans will pass along trillions of dollars over the next few years. That’s enough money for every American to buy three jet skis, two Taylor Swift tickets, and one slightly used Olive Garden. On today’s show, whether you’re giving money, receiving money, or just dreaming, does an inheritance ruin lives?
[00:00:58] Doug: We’ll ask our guests. But that’s not all. Halfway through this riveting discussion, we’ll pause briefly to see who will win this week’s installment of our year-long trivia competition. Can defending champ Jessi Kramer continue to close the gap on OG? Let’s find out. And now, a guy who’s trying to help you close the gap on financial security, it’s Joe Saul-Sehy.
[00:01:28] Joe: Hey there, Stackers. I am Joe Saul-Sehy here in mom’s basement. Doug, I got a question for you, man. A, a slightly used Olive Garden.
[00:01:38] Doug: Yeah, some of those are pretty tired right now, and those are the ones you could snatch up with that inheritance.
[00:01:43] Joe: Olive Garden at Texarkana always seems to be pretty robust. Well- And I often wonder why because, uh-
[00:01:49] Doug: When it’s the four-star restaurant in town, it’s gonna be a hot ticket Easy.
[00:01:53] Joe: We got some quality barbecue and some quality burgers here Yeah.
[00:02:00] Doug: Okay. I take- I’m sure you do, Joe. But do they offer unlimited breadsticks?
[00:02:06] Joe: No, they don’t. But a guy who will, if you stop by his half of the basement, Mr. OG will give you free breadsticks, won’t you?
[00:02:12] OG: Um, yeah, we don’t do a lot of carb loading in our house.
[00:02:15] OG: Um, so, uh, you can have all the steak you want.
[00:02:19] Joe: But you’re training for this big event in a few weeks. You’re not carb loading around that?
[00:02:24] OG: I mean, I am, but for our guests we wouldn’t.
[00:02:27] Joe: What that means, Doug, I have breadsticks, but you can’t have breadsticks.
[00:02:32] OG: I, I have a sleeve of Oreos that I just ate. You can have a piece of chicken.
[00:02:39] Joe: It’s fantastic. Paula Pant’s here from Afford Anything. Would you love to go over to OG’s house and have some chicken?
[00:02:47] Paula: Uh, I am a fan of chicken, yes. You know, protein’s gotta be balanced with some carbs and some fats. Like, I’m, I’m all about the balanced plate.
[00:02:55] Joe: The balanced meal.
[00:02:56] Paula: Yeah, balanced me- meal
[00:02:57] Joe: You can afford a lot of different meals, just don’t focus on one meal.
[00:03:02] Joe: I’m trying to, like, re-do the Afford Anything- Yeah … logo. Yeah,
[00:03:05] Paula: you
[00:03:06] Joe: can eat, you
[00:03:06] Paula: can eat anything and eat everything.
[00:03:09] Joe: And eat everything, in moderation. And the guy who we like, we’ve had too much moderation around him, from the Earn and Invest podcast, Mr. Doc G is here.
[00:03:20] Doc G: So my wife and I used to go to Olive Garden, and they’d say, “Do you want a super salad?”
[00:03:25] Doc G: And she’d say, “Yes, I do want a super salad.” And it took her a while to realize it was soup or salad. But-
[00:03:30] Joe: It t- And she’s like, “This is just a, this is just an okay salad, not a super salad.”
[00:03:34] Doc G: I want the super salad, yes.
[00:03:37] Joe: I thought your wife had the dad joke down. But, but she really thought that it was a great salad.
[00:03:42] Joe: No, she
[00:03:43] Doc G: really thought it was a super salad. She, she really did. Yes. Yeah. ‘
[00:03:45] Joe: Cause my latest dad joke, Jordan, has been, you know, when they ask if you’ve got reservations, I always say, “Yes, but I decided to come anyway.” And they never, and they never get it. It just-
[00:03:57] Doc G: But Paula liked that, so it’s okay.
[00:03:59] Paula: That’s a good one.
[00:04:01] Joe: But Doug’s just given me the eye roll, so maybe not. Well, something that, uh, we have no eye roll around is this big wealth transfer that’s happening in America. In fact, this is how big it is. Come on, guys. How big is it?
[00:04:15] Paula: How big is it? How big is
[00:04:16] Doc G: it?
[00:04:16] Joe: It’s so big that Paula Pant had an episode at Afford Anything about this very topic recently, right?
[00:04:25] Paula: Sure, yes. Absolutely.
[00:04:27] Joe: Yes. We might have talked about the wealth transfer. Well,
[00:04:30] Paula: we answered a listener question. Listener was getting some inheritance.
[00:04:33] Joe: Yes, exactly. And I thought, you know what? There is a huge wealth transfer going on, so we can’t come up with our own things to talk about, Paula, so we gotta figure out what Afford Anything’s talking about-
[00:04:45] Joe: and talk about that even more. But very seriously, you get an amount of money Today we called it half a million dollars. What does that mean for your life? Does it change your life substantially? What would you do with that money? And then on the other side, if you’re giving the inheritance, what… Do you put strings on it?
[00:05:02] Joe: Do you, do you determine how you’re gonna give that money? We’re gonna dive into all things inheritance and purpose and motivation and what that does. Does it have the intended effect on today’s show. Before we get to all of that, you know, uh, here’s the deal, guys One of the sneaky parts of getting older is that the scoreboard doesn’t always tell the whole story.
[00:05:28] Joe: Why, why do they have me reading this, Doug? I’m young and spry. Like, I have no idea. Getting older? What is that all about?
[00:05:35] OG: Says the guy with a busted ankle.
[00:05:37] Joe: Yeah.
[00:05:38] OG: Yeah.
[00:05:39] Joe: Well, the sneaky part, oh, yeah, you might still be doing the same workouts, putting in the same hours at work, and trying to stay on top of everything, but somehow your energy, your focus, your recovery just doesn’t feel quite the same.
[00:05:52] Joe: A lot of men don’t realize that testosterone naturally changes as we age, and there’s another factor involved called SHBG. Oh, boy, do we say that on our family, SHBG? I d- oh, that’s a protein that binds to testosterone in the body. I’m so happy. Think of it like having money invested, but not all of it’s readily available when you need it.
[00:06:12] Joe: That’s one reason Mars Men has been getting attention. Mars Men’s designed to support healthy testosterone levels using eight natural agreements, ingredients, including, get this as I try to say these, tongkat. You know what that is, Doc G, tongkat?
[00:06:29] Doc G: I have no idea.
[00:06:31] Joe: It’s tongkat ali. Somebody knows what that is.
[00:06:35] Joe: I’m sure it’s a great thing. Shilajit, plus vitamin D, you know what that is, zinc, boron, and more. It’s made in the USA, third-party tested and designed to support energy, focus, stamina, and overall vitality without synthetic hormones or injections. And if you’re skeptical, that’s fair. They back it with a 90-day money-back guarantee so you can decide for yourself.
[00:06:58] Joe: And for a limited time, Stackers, you’re gonna get 50% off for life, plus free shipping and three free gifts. Not one, Paula, not two, but three free gifts at mengotomars.com. That’s mengotomars.com for 50% off and three free gifts when you check out. After you purchase, they’re gonna ask you where you heard about them, by the way.
[00:07:18] Joe: Please don’t leave them hanging, and support us by telling them the Stacking Benjamins show sent you. All right, we have another sponsor who helps us keep on keeping on. We’re gonna hear from them. We only have two ad breaks during the show now and in the middle of our trivia, which is at the midway point.
[00:07:36] Joe: Doc G, you’re playing for Jesse Cramer. Jesse’s been catching up. Can you keep it going? We’re gonna find out, Doc G can keep Jesse’s attack going. Or maybe Paula will score one. Maybe it’s… I- is it a full moon, Paula? Or
[00:07:51] Paula: are you g- A broken clock is right twice a day.
[00:07:54] Joe: Mayb- maybe Paula’s gonna get one, or maybe OG springs ahead.
[00:07:57] Joe: We’re gonna find all that at the midway break. Anyway, right now we’re gonna hear from our sponsor, and then we’re gonna talk about inheritances and really maybe some of the unintended consequences Okay, team, let’s do a quick show of hands. Who thinks a $500,000 inheritance would improve almost anybody’s life?
[00:08:18] Joe: Paula, hand in the air.
[00:08:19] Paula: Define improve.
[00:08:21] Joe: Oh, well, that’s interesting. Doc G, I think you’ve sprung your hand, it came up so fast. Oh, yeah. You think it would improve. Yeah. Yeah. OG, half a million bucks improve almost anybody’s life? You are on mute, my friend.
[00:08:33] OG: I got it. Chill, bruh. It’s takes a second to frigging click it.
[00:08:38] Joe: I saw your mouth move and nothing come out.
[00:08:40] OG: You know, story of my life. I, uh, I do think half a million dollars would be, you know… I’d need some more context, but-
[00:08:47] Joe: All right …
[00:08:48] OG: it’d be pretty fun. It’d be a fun Tuesday afternoon at the casino, that’s for sure.
[00:08:51] Joe: Well, let, let’s stick with you then, OG. So it’s 9:00 AM tomorrow, you open your email, and a relative you barely thought about.
[00:09:01] Joe: So there’s- My
[00:09:02] OG: uncle from Nigeria. Yes.
[00:09:04] Joe: So let’s say this prince left you half a million bucks. But the reason I say that is because, Paul, you and I have talked about this a lot, about there’s so much emotion around money. I just wanna remove that emotion. All right? Okay. So this relative, you don’t really know them, so there’s not much emotion around it.
[00:09:20] Joe: What’s the first thing you do before noon when you find out that you were just given half a million bucks?
[00:09:26] OG: All right, a few qualifying questions. Do I know that this is legitimate?
[00:09:30] Joe: It is legitimate, and it’s yours.
[00:09:32] OG: I, I… And I have no doubts about the legitimacy. Like, this is-
[00:09:36] Joe: Nope. No doubts at all. This is your cash.
[00:09:38] OG: Okay. The first thing that I do before noon. I mean, boy, I have so many questions. I’m, I guess maybe make a list of questions that I have. That’s probably what I would do. I would make a list of questions. How’s… Is that a good enough answer? Or do you wanna know the questions I’d ask?
[00:09:54] Joe: Well, I’d love to know.
[00:09:55] Joe: What are a couple of those questions? What do you mean?
[00:09:57] OG: I’d ask in what form is this inheritance. Is this a, a Range Rover and a suitcase of cash?
[00:10:03] Joe: All cash. All cash.
[00:10:04] OG: Like, literal cash? Is this a brokerage account? Is this a bank account somewhere that I gotta… Is it gonna be as a check? Someone wiring me the money?
[00:10:14] Joe: How does that change everything?
[00:10:15] OG: Well, I mean, is it an IRA? That’s gonna change the tax type of stuff. If it’s invested presently, that, if that has some tax implications, uh, or could or maybe affects my asset allocation personally if all of a sudden somebody goes, “Here’s half a million dollars of SpaceX stock.”
[00:10:30] OG: Um, be like, “Well, I already have half a million. What do I need…” No, I’m just kidding. Um, let’s just say it’s a cash and I have to sign for the check when it comes in the mail from UPS.
[00:10:41] Joe: You’re just thinking tactical things, all the tactical things, all the tactical pieces.
[00:10:46] OG: Yeah, I mean, I’m kinda laying it out there.
[00:10:47] OG: I’d, I’d have a lot of questions. Yeah. I’d be thinking about taxes.
[00:10:51] Joe: All right.
[00:10:51] OG: And I would be thinking about who not to blab it to.
[00:10:55] Joe: Oh, that’s interesting. Not tell people.
[00:10:57] OG: Or who to blab it to, and be like, call my brother or something and be like, “Hey, did you check your email today?” Like, “Nothing in mine.” Like, “Sucker.”
[00:11:04] OG: Click.
[00:11:06] Joe: Would you tell Mrs. OG?
[00:11:07] OG: Well, yeah, of course.
[00:11:09] Joe: Call your accountant?
[00:11:11] OG: There’s a, there’s a funny lyric in a rap song that starts with that line. Um- No, I don’t think accountants can help with this
[00:11:20] Joe: Book a vacation, pay off debt?
[00:11:22] OG: Um, I wouldn’t book a vacation. I might think about paying off debt.
[00:11:27] Joe: All right.
[00:11:27] Joe: Paula? Mm-hmm. Half a million bucks, first thing you do.
[00:11:32] Paula: I also had the same first question of is this currently invested?
[00:11:35] Joe: It’s all cash.
[00:11:37] Paula: It’s all cash.
[00:11:38] Joe: All cash, not invested. Let’s, let’s make it really easy.
[00:11:42] Paula: Wow. I would contact my accountant to see what the tax implications are, and I would put it into investments.
[00:11:51] Paula: I would move it into, uh, to the extent that I could tax-protect it by maxing out every contribution that I can make to various tax-advantaged accounts, I would do that.
[00:12:00] Joe: Immediately. You wouldn’t book a vacation?
[00:12:02] Paula: No. No. You
[00:12:03] Joe: wouldn’t pay off debt?
[00:12:04] Paula: Uh, I don’t currently have any debt.
[00:12:06] Joe: You wouldn’t sit on it- Scoreboard
[00:12:08] Joe: for a long … a long, a long period of time?
[00:12:11] Paula: I mean, if by sit on it you mean put it into, like, VTSAX, that’s my version of sitting on it.
[00:12:17] Joe: Okay.
[00:12:17] Paula: I would not necessarily put the whole thing into VTSAX specifically, but I would think about what portion of it do I wanna put into index funds, what portion of it do I wanna use to maybe pay cash for a rental property, or split it into a two down payments for two rental properties perhaps.
[00:12:36] Joe: Is there a difference between what you would do with it and what you should do with it?
[00:12:40] Paula: Mm. ‘
[00:12:40] Joe: Cause for me there kinda is. Like, there’s what I probably should do, but there’s also gonna be a little bit of fun involved that maybe I shouldn’t do.
[00:12:48] Paula: Well, so I think if you had asked me the same question when I was in my early 20s, and 500,000 would have been, like, a very significant, like, pretty life-changing amount of money at that time, there m- may have been more of a difference.
[00:13:05] Joe: That’s kinda interesting, though.
[00:13:07] Paula: There…
[00:13:07] Joe: Yeah. ‘Cause it seems like there’d be more of a difference now when you have more flexibility than- You might feel more compelled to buckle down. You know what I mean?
[00:13:18] Paula: Yeah, no. I mean, back then it’s like such an unimaginable sum of money
[00:13:22] Joe: that- Yeah, but then it’s more life-changing, so then you would put it all in investments.
[00:13:26] Joe: If you’re at a point now where you’ve got flexibility, then you’re like, “Uh, fuck, I’m going to Aruba.”
[00:13:31] Paula: Well, I, I think the difference is I don’t really dream of going to Aruba, and if I wanted to do that I would just do it.
[00:13:37] Joe: You’d, you’d just do it anyway.
[00:13:38] Paula: I would just do it now. Yeah.
[00:13:39] Joe: Yeah. All right, Jordan. How about you, man?
[00:13:42] Joe: Half a million bucks shows up.
[00:13:44] Doc G: Uh, obviously it depends when you get this. At this point in my life I’m actually in pretty much the deaccumulation stage, so my biggest problem actually is access to cash, ’cause it costs me money, right? Every time I wanna like… Let’s say I wanted to spend $500,000, I would have to liquidate $500,000 of equities and pay all the taxes and move things around.
[00:14:02] Doc G: It’d be a big pain. So if someone just gave me $500,000, I’d probably hopefully give away some percentage of it. And, uh, I was thinking a 1933 Lou Gehrig, uh-
[00:14:12] Joe: There you
[00:14:13] Doc G: go … grade eight. Grade eight would be good. Or, well, my son was talking about buying a property, and I was thinking maybe I could mortgage him, but I don’t have really the cash around, so maybe that could do that.
[00:14:23] Doc G: I can think of lots of things. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t invest it and I wouldn’t save it. Like, at this point in my life, that makes no sense. Uh, but if I was 25 or 30, oh yeah, I would put it right in the stock market.
[00:14:32] Joe: Would you tell anybody?
[00:14:35] Doc G: I don’t know if it would make any difference. Um, I tend not to, like especially, you know, if you’re a content producer who talks about personal finance, you might talk a little bit more openly about your money than normally.
[00:14:46] Doc G: But if I was a, not a content producer and just your average Joe, uh, making, getting a $500,000, I probably wouldn’t.
[00:14:53] Joe: Would you call advisors or accountants?
[00:14:56] Doc G: Again, it depends on what stage in life you are. I think at this point, no, because I’d be s- be spending it, so I don’t think there’s anything they could give me advice on.
[00:15:03] Doc G: Um, and assuming again it was straightforward and I didn’t have to worry about tax issues ’cause it was a Roth IRA or it was a traditional IRA that… But if it was just inheriting plain old cash- Yeah. No, I probably wouldn’t call an advisor, not at this stage.
[00:15:17] Joe: Paul, I didn’t ask you. Would you tell anybody?
[00:15:19] Paula: Uh, I would tell an accountant. I would call an accountant immediately just to go over all the details and make sure I fully understand the tax implications.
[00:15:25] Joe: But wouldn’t mention it to anybody else?
[00:15:27] Paula: No.
[00:15:29] Joe: It’s interesting. I would love to see what you are thinking, uh, Stackers that are hanging out with us.
[00:15:33] Joe: Looks like we got a number of Stackers hanging out with us, but we’ve got nothing in the, in the chat right now, and I th- that could be our platform that is messing up. Let us know, Stackers, if you’re hanging out with us, what actually you would do. All right.
[00:15:45] OG: I, I have another comment on this, actually- Yeah
[00:15:47] OG: Joe, because Jordan actually brought up something that I thought was kind of interesting. He said, you know, “Hopefully I’d give some of this money away.” I think the important thing is, and maybe this is, like, too solution-based, but no matter what, you have to go a little bit slower with it. The, the only time that this is something similar that’s happened to me, I was just thinking about this and, well, what if this happened, you know, the lottery thing, but this kind of happened when we sold a rental property.
[00:16:12] OG: I wasn’t expecting to make any money on it and did, and it was like, oh, we have all this lump sum of money now that wasn’t part of the equation. And I just remember sitting down and talking to the kids about it, like, “Here’s how much money it is,” and it was in the context of, like, learning because in their mind, you know, being however old they were at the time, 14 or 12 or something like that, it was like I could say $10,000, $100,000, or $100 million and it was all an insane amount of money that was unspendable.
[00:16:37] OG: So I wanted them to appreciate, like, it’s, you know, just ’cause it’s a couple of hundred thousand dollars doesn’t mean it’s, like, this never-ending stream. But we did end up giving them some and, and helping them start from an investing standpoint and that sort of thing. So the answer to my part of the question is I probably would just put it in a money market fund and just think about what to do next.
[00:16:56] OG: That’s literally maybe the, the, the 90-second answer, ’cause there’s a million things you could do with it.
[00:17:02] Joe: Sure. Well, and I’m glad you said that because that was where I was going next, OG. And Paula, for you, if y- Mm-hmm … if it’s a close friend that gets half a million dollars, let’s say they tell you, what do you tell them?
[00:17:13] Joe: The same thing, go slow?
[00:17:15] Paula: Yeah. I mean, I, I would ask the same questions that you’ve just asked. Like, do you have any debt? How well-funded are your retirement accounts? Do you have any aspirations of owning rental property? Because not everybody wants to do that. I personally love it, but it’s not for everyone.
[00:17:31] Paula: If they are an entrepreneur, so that, I guess that was the one thing that I didn’t mention. So one of the things that I would be thinking about is do I wanna take some of this money and put it into growing Afford Anything? And so if that friend was an entrepreneur, then I’d probably go over their business expenses with them and say, “Right, how’s your business doing?
[00:17:48] Paula: Do you need the funding to make one or two strategic hires who might be able to grow your business?” And you just, you need to front-load that capital to make those hires, uh, so that six months or 12 months down the road, the value that those new hires produce can then turn into business revenue. Like, that would be the other question.
[00:18:08] Joe: Well, and that’s interesting, Jordan, because you, you said you’re in the decumulation phase, mean, uh, you’re trying to spend some of the money that you’ve saved. I- if somebody’s in a different phase of life than you, how would you advise them?
[00:18:22] Doc G: Well, I could tell you actually what I did. So this has happened to me.
[00:18:25] Doc G: I mean, I’ve actually gotten two inheritances throughout my life, both in the five-figure sum, not in the six-figure sum. My first inheritance, when my grandfather died, I was 19, and that all went right into the stock market and was the beginning or the base of my wealth. That’s where I kind of started accumulating money.
[00:18:42] Doc G: And then the second time, when my grandmother died, I was just finishing residency. The lump sum I got from her went right into a down payment on our first house, the one I still live in today. I think, as Paul was saying, it really depends on your life situation. I mean, there’s so many different variables about how that money could serve you best, depending on your age, depending on your financial situation, depending on how much debt you have.
[00:19:08] Doc G: Just like anyone giving advice, you’d really have to kind of look at, at the details of where they’re at to try to get the best benefit out of any lump sum of money. I think if you can use a little bit for instant gratification, that’s good. Not everything, but just a little bit. And if you can use a little bit in being generous, you’ve kind of assured two different kinds of happiness, and, uh, the rest, hopefully you use it for a good long-term plan.
[00:19:32] Joe: I was wondering about that when Doc G said maybe have some fun with it, OG. You know, a lot of the time I saw people when I was an advisor, and they would go overboard on spending all the money. Is it a good idea to maybe cordon off and use a little bit of the money for fun so that you don’t feel compelled to blow through it?
[00:19:51] OG: Well, there’s two emotions that happen, you know, when you spend money, uh, especially kind of found money. You feel, like the excitement of doing it, and then the buyer’s remorse of doing it like the two competing things. And when you don’t have a clear plan on what, what money should go for, you always wonder if you should be doing something different with it.
[00:20:09] OG: And this doesn’t have to be a lump sum that’s an inheritance. It could be something as simple as, “I got an unexpected bonus from work, and it’s 10K, and I, m- you know, the Stacking Benjamins people tell me I should probably invest some, but kind of also wanna redo some part of the bathroom, and we also kind of haven’t gone on vacation in a while.”
[00:20:26] OG: And so no matter what one of those things you do with some of the money, you’re be ba- in the back of your mind thinking, “I should be doing this other thing. I should be doing this debt pay down. I should be investing it for later.” The best way to handle that is to establish in advance what you’re gonna do with excess money, and it’s just part of your family dynamic and part of your family kind of open communication, whether family is you, or you and your spouse, or you, your spouse, and your kids, whatever.
[00:20:50] OG: So what we do in our house, very simply, is generally speaking, uh, 40% of extra money will go to investing. 20% of it goes to just some unaccounted for fun. You know, you just blow it and with- Yeah … no remorse. And then 40% goes to debt pay down or something, you know, some other medium-term project that might be going on, something like, uh, you know, college funding or something like that, so some stuff that’s going on.
[00:21:12] OG: So it keeps it easy for us to not have to like every single day sit down and go like, or every single time this happens to go, “Oh, there’s a little extra money. Now what do we do with this?” You know, and it works for $1,000 checks. It works for $10,000 checks, and it works for $500,000 checks.
[00:21:26] Joe: That’s super. Build the fencing ahead of time.
[00:21:28] OG: Now, in reality, is somebody gonna likely spend $100,000 on a vacation if you’ve never done that before? You probably won’t, but honestly, if you were gonna do it, that would be the time to do it, to kinda Jordan’s point. It’s like, if you were never gonna do it but you always wanted to- Take the family to, you know, the, the two-week safari or something.
[00:21:47] OG: I mean, you easily could spend 50 or 80 grand, National Geographic trip.
[00:21:51] Joe: Yeah, you, you just got home from Disney. Isn’t 100,000 bucks like three days at Disney?
[00:21:55] OG: Yeah, I mean, well, it’s four, but yeah. I mean, roughly.
[00:21:59] Joe: Let’s turn this around a little bit. Let’s say that you’re the one giving the inheritance. So instead of receiving it, what would you do if you were giving it?
[00:22:08] Joe: So let me give you an either/or, Paula.
[00:22:10] Doc G: Mm-hmm.
[00:22:11] Joe: Leave $500,000 when you die, or leave the equivalent of $500,000, $25,000 a year to specific people, specific things throughout your lifetime. In other words, $25,000 per year for what, 12 years?
[00:22:27] Paula: Okay.
[00:22:27] Joe: What, what am I talking about? 20 years. For some number of years- Okay
[00:22:33] Joe: for a guy that can’t do math live on YouTube.
[00:22:34] Paula: So my clarifying question, in that scenario, what percentage of my overall net worth would $500,000 represent?
[00:22:42] Joe: I don’t know, so let’s do this. Let’s just say you’ve already earmarked $500,000, and you have the ability to do it either way. Right. Would you rather give it when you die, or would you rather give $25,000 a year while you’re alive?
[00:22:56] Paula: So the reason that I ask is because all else being equal, I would rather do it when I’m alive. However, I don’t want to subject myself to the risk of not having adequate money for, uh, dementia care that I might need, critical end of life care that I might need when I’m in my 90s. New
[00:23:12] OG: ankle.
[00:23:13] Paula: Y- yeah, exactly.
[00:23:16] Paula: It’s hitting close to home. The risk of giving it away when I’m alive, I mean, I pr- I would prefer to do that so I could direct where it goes and how it goes and- But you’re
[00:23:25] Joe: worried about a King Lear scenario?
[00:23:27] Paula: Yeah. Joe never misses an opportunity to reference King Lear. So if you listen to enough episodes, take a shot every time he mentions King Lear.
[00:23:38] Paula: If
[00:23:38] Joe: you’re playing the bingo card. Yeah. I had to. It was right there, Paula. I had
[00:23:43] Paula: to. Yeah, so that’s the caveat there.
[00:23:46] Joe: All right. Jordan, uh, pay for college or leave an inheritance?
[00:23:50] Doc G: Pay for co- Both, hopefully.
[00:23:52] Joe: Well, you gotta choose one or the other.
[00:23:54] Doc G: Pay for college.
[00:23:55] Joe: How come?
[00:23:56] Doc G: I’m a big fan of compounding. The sooner they’re saving and investing, the less debt they have when they start, the more likelihood that they’re gonna accumulate massive wealth over time.
[00:24:07] Doc G: And so why wait until they, you know… Hopefully, if I live to a nice old age, uh, they won’t even get that inheritance until they’re in their 60s, and by then they’re gonna already be established. Why not start them off on the right foot now so that they can accumulate wealth much faster?
[00:24:22] Joe: But what about the King Lear scenario where they hold college…
[00:24:24] Joe: No, I’m kidding. Yeah, maybe not. OG, I saved this one specifically for you. You can either leave money or you can pay for experiences.
[00:24:34] OG: Uh, 1000% paying for experiences.
[00:24:37] Joe: Don’t worry about the-
[00:24:38] OG: But again, hopefully both.
[00:24:39] Joe: Yeah. But does that change depending on who you’re talking to?
[00:24:43] OG: Uh, it does, but I, you know, again, if you have done an adequate job of your personal financial planning, it’s very hard to appreciate compounding in advance.
[00:24:54] OG: Like, human brain just has a hard time understanding how that works and believing it, even if you’ve witnessed it in the past. I know everyone on this call for sure, and probably 95% of people listening, unless they just recently got started in their, in their career, has 10 times their investment portfolio from one point to another point.
[00:25:15] OG: Either it’s today 10 times bigger than it was at the beginning or, or, you know, it was– You started out, Jordan, with a little deposit from grandpa. That’s probably 10 times, and it’s probably 10 times again, maybe even. Who knows? But, but if I told you, “Well, you know, you’re probably 10 times again,” you go, “Nah, that’s not gonna happen.”
[00:25:32] OG: W- w- why not? You’ve already done it. In fact, you’ve probably done it twice. So it’s hard to, for– like Paula was saying, it’s hard to look into the future crystal ball and say, “I mean, I know the math says I’m gonna have 20 million bucks, but I better wait until I get the 20 million before I spend like I have 20 million,” which is true.
[00:25:50] OG: You should have some certainty around that before you, you know, start putting everything on, you know, lines of credit, ’cause someday I’m gonna have 20 million bucks. But there does come a point in time where you should be able to, you know, be far enough down the line that you go, “Hey, I, I’m good.” You know?
[00:26:04] OG: I c- I can’t- I, I, I can’t break this plan. In which case, you know, you have the option at that point in time to kind of pull forward some of those end of life, you know, grants and say, “What… Is there something that we can do today that, uh, you know, that we can influence the, the next group of people over?”
[00:26:23] Joe: Before we go to our trivia challenge, Jordan, we’ll give you this one. You have two children. They both have different needs. Let’s say that in the future, one has a really big financial need, the other one doesn’t have much of a need. Do you leave everything equally or do you do different amounts based on the need?
[00:26:45] Doc G: Oh, I’m definitely in favor of unequal parenting, and in fact, I’ve already had this conversation with my kids over the years over and over again. Uh, my son would come to me and he’d be like, “You know, you’re letting my daughter Layla get away with stuff you’d never let me get away with.” And I said, “Of course I am.
[00:27:00] Doc G: You have different needs. You’re different people. You have different strengths and different weaknesses.” And the fact is my son I help with some things and my daughter I help with others, and they are not gonna be equal and they’re not gonna be the same because they have different needs and different strengths and different weaknesses.
[00:27:15] Doc G: You know, one of your kids might really be strong financially, but they might need more of your physical help. They might need you there to help take care of their grandkids. They might need something that’s non-monetary. Whereas your other kid, uh, might have all that taken care of, but maybe never generates lots of revenue.
[00:27:31] Doc G: So I feel like you should parent your kids, or at least I try to parent my kids to their needs, not to fairness.
[00:27:38] Joe: You don’t also follow that up with your son with, “Well, and she’s my favorite”? ‘Cause that would create fireworks.
[00:27:43] Doc G: Well, well, I do do that to razz him, but- … but yes.
[00:27:47] Joe: Yeah, of course she’s gonna get more.
[00:27:49] Joe: All right, we’re gonna get even more philosophical in the second half about does half a million dollars change your life or does it… ‘Cause for the three of you, the things that you do with it, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to change your life just based on the answers that you gave. It seems like it would just be more of the same.
[00:28:09] Joe: I’m interested to find out, giving and receiving, about half a million dollars changing a life. But for now what I’m interested in is to see who’s gonna win this week’s version of our challenge, because we have a year-long trivia challenge that happens on the Stacking Benjamins show. Jesse Cramer is our defending champion, and Doug, he has been roaring the last couple weeks, and the score’s gotten a little bit tighter.
[00:28:33] Joe: What’s our score so far for 2026?
[00:28:37] Doug: He sure has, Joe. Jesse has made things a little spicy down here in the basement in more ways than one. We still have OG in the lead at nine, but he’s been a little stagnant there at nine. Plateaued, one might say. Jesse is, uh, screaming into his rear view mirror at seven points, and Paula is, um Well, she’s, you know, she’s turning onto the freeway any minute now at three points.
[00:29:00] Joe: Any second. Yeah. It’s like you’re waiting for it to arrive. You’re like, you’re watching your Uber, and it just- Yeah … it, it just sits there waiting to turn the corner. I, I- Almost there … think
[00:29:08] Doug: we need to get some more people to sit in for Paula. Like, Paula needs- … to go on vacation. Pretty sure that’s where the three points happen.
[00:29:15] Doc G: I think we should have, uh, OG play for Jesse, and I’ll play for OG today.
[00:29:22] Joe: I think OG has a chance to be ahead of the halfway point before July hits. That’s gonna be big news. So based on where we’re at so far this year, OG’s gonna answer first. Doc G playing for Jesse, you will answer second. Paula gets the, what we always call an advantage of going last.
[00:29:41] Joe: I’ve yet to see the advantage. But, uh, Doug, you’ve got this week’s question. What are we, uh, contemplating?
[00:29:51] Doug: Hey there, stackers. I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. You know, I was thinking recently about all the important inventions in history. That you got the wheel, of course. You got indoor plumbing, microchips, stretchy waistbands, that little table inside your pizza box so the cheese doesn’t… You know, the big stuff.
[00:30:06] Doug: Well, June 26th marks the birthday of Ralph Schneider, one of the founders of Diners Club, so he’s widely considered the inventor of the first modern credit card. Now, story goes that Schneider and his business partner got the idea after a businessman forgot his wallet while dining at a restaurant in New York, which got me thinking.
[00:30:25] Doug: I mean, forgetting your wallet in 1950 was a lot different than today. Back then, you’d quickly find yourself washing dishes next to some parolee with eight fingers just to pay off your tab. Today, you just tap your phone, you know, you tap your watch, your belt buckle, whatever other appliance has a payment chip hidden in it.
[00:30:43] Doug: I’ve tried it. It works. So here’s today, here’s today’s question. According to the Federal Reserve, Americans collectively carry a lot of credit card debt. As of 2025, approximately how much total credit card debt do Americans owe? I’ll be back right after OG teaches Joe how to tap-to-pay with a flip phone.
[00:31:04] Joe: Oh, that’ll be fun. Nothing I’d rather have right now than a flip phone. Get rid of my iPhone. OG, how much credit card debt we carrying, 2025?
[00:31:14] OG: I don’t know if you guys have seen this, I don’t want to say trend, ’cause it’s not really a trend, but it was going… It, it was on all of our feeds while we were at Disney.
[00:31:22] OG: Like, somebody would take their credit card and put it into, like, a little magic wand thing. And so when you tap to pay, it’s like you’re, like, you’ve got a little- …
[00:31:33] Joe: ding.
[00:31:33] OG: That got me thinking, does Doug have one of those in his belt buckle and he’s all just like- “Here’s your payment.” Oh, I
[00:31:38] Doug: do. Ding. Absolutely how I do it.
[00:31:43] OG: Ding. That’s exactly how I do it. I’ll give you your payment. Hold on.
[00:31:46] Joe: This is so uncomfortable.
[00:31:47] Doug: So much fun at the grocery
[00:31:48] Joe: store. I gotta bring out the magic wand. And then he has to follow it up with- Then he has to follow it up with, “No, really.”
[00:31:57] OG: Hold on. I need that thing a little closer to my belt buckle, if you know what I mean.
[00:32:01] Doug: I’m surprised OG didn’t say, “You know, this credit card debt, that’s from my hometown. It all is originated from my hometown.”
[00:32:08] OG: Well, you had me at, uh, belt buckle payment ideas, and I- Yes … have to say it was, that’s what was spinning there for a while. Uh, so total credit card debt, so to be fair, we are excluding mortgage debt, we are excluding auto loan debt.
[00:32:22] OG: Uh, this is just purely credit card debt?
[00:32:25] Doug: Correct.
[00:32:26] OG: Uh, and as of December of ’25, or any time in 2025? Not that it matters much. Oh, my God. Um, boy, this is a big number.
[00:32:40] OG: I wanna say that total credit card debt as of 2025, uh, was approaching $427 billion
[00:32:49] Joe: 427 billion with a B. Doc, what are you gonna do with that?
[00:32:56] Doc G: I was trying to think this out, right? So there’s 350 million Americans, right? And so I don’t know how many adults that makes. Maybe 200 million adults, and so then the question becomes what’s the average credit card debt of each adult?
[00:33:13] Doc G: Could it be 5,000, 2,000? And then I have to figure out how to do the math of 200 million times 2 or 3,000. It’s
[00:33:20] OG: a lot
[00:33:20] Doc G: of zeros. I th- so, so I’m thinking it’s in the, uh, the question is, is in the hundreds of, of billions or trillions. Uh, I’m gonna say I don’t, I don’t wanna squeeze OG here, ’cause I think I f- I feel like I did that last time to him.
[00:33:34] Doc G: How much did OG say? I, I was thinking about 600 billion.
[00:33:37] Joe: 4, 427 billion.
[00:33:39] Doc G: I’m gonna go higher than that. I’m gonna say it’s 600 billion.
[00:33:45] Joe: 600 billion. So Paula, we’ve got a lot of debt, and then we got even more debt.
[00:33:51] Paula: Whew, okay. So yeah, I agree. So about 200 million adults. Man, I can’t calculate that many zeros in my head.
[00:34:01] Doc G: I know. That was my problem too.
[00:34:02] Paula: Yeah, yeah. 200 million adults
[00:34:09] Doc G: While she’s thinking, I wanted to take out my calculator, but then I was like- Mm … they’re gonna see me looking at my calculator and think I’m cheating. Yeah. So I was trying to get the zeros too. So I did not, even though I was tempted, not to look it up, but to take out my calculator- We, we would never
[00:34:22] OG: accuse you of cheating
[00:34:23] Doc G: to make sure I got
[00:34:24] OG: the zeros right. Just like we never accuse Paula of cheating.
[00:34:26] Joe: Yes. It’s, it, w- we reserve our cheating accusations for Jesse.
[00:34:31] OG: Or the guests that play on Jesse’s behalf.
[00:34:36] Paula: I guess I’ll take the upside, 601.
[00:34:39] Joe: $601
[00:34:47] Joe: billion with a B. So we got 427, $601 billion. Who’s right? We’ll be right back. We’ll find out. OG, you kicked this off by saying 427 billion. Both Doc and Paula went higher than that, substantially higher than that. What are you thinking?
[00:35:02] OG: Well, I could picture the chart that I read, uh, where this was, so I have now since looked it up and I, um, I was inaccurate- Don’t
[00:35:11] OG: in my memory.
[00:35:12] Joe: Don’t. But,
[00:35:13] OG: um-
[00:35:13] Joe: Don’t …
[00:35:14] OG: but I can, um- … I, I feel less strongly than I did five minutes ago. God. ‘Cause I knew what the chart looked like. I was like, “Okay, it’s this, and then it’s this, and there’s a little arrow,” and, like, I was trying to remember what that number was. Well, the reason I didn’t remember was because it was expressed in percentages as a parenthetical of the chart, which was largely denominated in mortgage debt.
[00:35:36] OG: So, uh, but I was off on, um, s- the scale. Let’s just put it that way.
[00:35:42] Joe: Doc, sounds like, uh, OG looked it up. You feeling good?
[00:35:45] Doc G: Uh, I’m thinking 3,000 was too low on credit card debt, so I’m thinking that probably Paula’s right, but we’ll
[00:35:52] OG: see. Oh. Should’ve done the math. I never thought about doing the math of it.
[00:35:55] OG: That would’ve- Paula … got me closer.
[00:35:57] Joe: Paula, are you about to get your first win-
[00:35:59] Paula: I mean- …
[00:36:00] Joe: in a long time?
[00:36:00] Paula: I wasn’t necessarily feeling confident, but based on what OG said- … now I’m feeling a little bit better.
[00:36:07] Joe: It might be. Is it the best Friday Paula’s had in a long, long time? Doug?
[00:36:17] Doug: Well, hey there, Stackers. I’m Costco Visa record holder and guy who thought Ralph Schneider was the one who starred in those Deuce Bigalow movies, Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug. Before the break, we were talking about Ralph Schneider, the Diners Club card, and credit cards. So yeah, I did a little more research on him.
[00:36:34] Doug: You know, if Schneider had spent less time starring as a hilarious janitor on a 1970s sitcom and more time inventing rewards points, he might’ve really made something of himself. Rewards points are incredible, aren’t they? Banks’ll give you a free hotel room if you just spend enough money to accidentally finance a bass boat.
[00:36:50] Doug: I mean, you know, like hyp- hypothetically. I mean, who would, who would do that? It’s ridiculous. Anyway, we asked our panelists, as of 2025, approximately how much total credit card debt do Americans owe? And as you know, I’m not gonna just hand you the answer, but I will tell you that OG was $773 billion low.
[00:37:12] Joe: Oh, no.
[00:37:12] Doug: Doc G was $600 billion low. Oh, no. And Paula was just $599 billion away, because the correct answer is $1.2 trillion, giving Paula a rare self-earned trivia point.
[00:37:26] Paula: Wow.
[00:37:27] Joe: What the hell’s going on?
[00:37:29] Paula: Incredible. I didn’t have a speech prepared. Well, um, I’d like to start by thanking The Academy. I would like to thank, uh, Neighbor Doug.
[00:37:40] Joe: You could honestly say, I’ve seen your parents, so you could say, “I’d like to thank all the little people- … in my life,” ’cause I think they’re-
[00:37:48] Doc G: That’s low. That’s low, Joe. That’s low …
[00:37:49] Joe: my
[00:37:49] Doc G: parents
[00:37:50] Paula: catch sprays.
[00:37:51] Joe: I think they’re even shorter than you, Paula.
[00:37:53] Paula: Well, my mom is shorter than me. Yeah.
[00:37:55] Joe: Your mom, yes.
[00:37:56] Paula: My mom is.
[00:37:56] Joe: Petite family, very petite family. But when, yeah, when people say they’d like to thank the little people, I was like, “Well, they’re your… Thank your parents. They’re there.” Uh, it’s fantastic. Congratulations, Paula.
[00:38:07] Paula: Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[00:38:10] Joe: Let’s stick with you, then, as the winner because I wanna stop talking about money for a second.
[00:38:14] Joe: I wanna talk about emotions, psychology. Paula, somebody inherits $500,000, what does that do to somebody?
[00:38:23] Paula: Well, it’s gonna depend on two things. One is how close were they to the person who left them this money? Whenever I hear the word inheritance, the first… Thank you. Thank you to the people in chat who are congratulating me.
[00:38:35] Paula: I have to take a moment to say that because this is so rare. Um, yeah, when I hear the word inheritance, the first thing that comes to mind is grief. Because more often than not, if somebody’s received an inheritance, it’s because someone they loved and who loved them has just passed. And when someone who you loved who loves you gives you a portion of their life’s work and, you know, makes that their legacy, it bestows upon you a certain responsibility to, to steward it well.
[00:39:07] Paula: And then that is a setup for massive guilt down the road if you end up mismanaging it, overspending it, investing it poorly, et cetera, which unfortunately a lot of people do because, uh, many parents will pass down money but they don’t pass down financial literacy. So to your question, Joe, how does it change a person to inherit that money?
[00:39:27] Paula: It’s going to depend on your relationship with the person who gave it to you. It’s gonna depend on the amount of financial literacy that you have. It’s gonna depend on the degree of grief and emotion that clouds your decision-making. And it’s also going to depend on what net worth you had to start with, because receiving $500 if you have a net worth of 20 grand or negative 20 grand is very different than receiving 500,000 when you already have a net worth of maybe three or four million.
[00:39:56] Joe: There’s a study that was done a long time ago that people still quote, Doc. You’ll know this better than me. I think that study’s been debunked, right? About o- only X amount of money can create happiness. You know which one I’m talking about? Only- Mm-hmm … 70,000 or 90,000 or t- I, I don’t remember the number.
[00:40:11] Doc G: Yeah, so there is a lot of argument about it. The newer studies, and Paula probably can help me with this too. Mm-hmm. The newer studies seem to show, for instance, for people who care about money, there is an increase in happiness in the more money you earn. But it’s, the rate of rise might not be as higher as it is for, like, the first whatever, 70, or now it might be $100,000.
[00:40:36] Doc G: It’s changed obviously since the original studies. But I always tell people that, you know, you compare that to the Harvard Adult Health study, which seems to show that the connection between money and happiness isn’t very large. It’s actually human communications and community… or human connections and community that seem to be in the largest long-term study we’ve ever done about happiness.
[00:40:57] Doc G: Money doesn’t seem to play as big of a role as people think.
[00:41:00] Joe: You, you, you might have written a book about purpose.
[00:41:03] Doc G: I, I might have.
[00:41:04] Joe: It might even be in the title. Does money create purpose? Does it remove purpose?
[00:41:09] Doc G: No, I mean, money is a tool. It can be used as a tool to free up your time so that you can do more purposeful things, or it also can be a tool you use to become a better version of yourself and practice that purpose.
[00:41:24] Doc G: So, you know, I obviously have lots of thoughts about how important money is, and I think there’s a continuum. I, I think I’ve mentioned it on one of these Friday shows before. The cheapest use of money is to buy things, and we understand the hedonic treadmill, and that happiness comes and goes quickly. I think you can go further down the continuum of slightly better uses, experiences.
[00:41:43] Doc G: This is the die with zero ethos, right? Buy all the experiences you can. But I actually, I don’t think that’s actually the highest use of money. I think the highest use of money actually is to become the best version of yourself you can, and so to become more intentional and build yourself into the type of person you want to be who exhibits the type of purpose you want to exhibit.
[00:42:02] Doc G: But what gets real interesting and maybe even exciting about that is when you start getting better aligned with what seems purposeful to you, you actually realize that money’s probably not necessary most of the time. In my mind, at least per my beliefs, I think the connection between money and happiness is pretty tenuous.
[00:42:18] Doc G: We know on the edges, right, if you have zero money, having enough money to have food and shelter and those kind of things certainly can, can improve your happiness quite a bit. But, you know, if you’re really looking for happiness through money, and we have all these studies about lottery winners and how they generally aren’t happier and they blow that money quickly.
[00:42:35] Joe: Yeah.
[00:42:35] Doc G: We know that it generally doesn’t fix things.
[00:42:39] Joe: Yeah, it’s just more money, mo- What’s that? More money, more problems. It was Tony Robbins, OG, I think, who said that, you know, when you’re creating new things, it’s either because of inspiration or perspiration. And I think as I’m hearing Doc talk about purpose and about, you know, money and purpose not really aligning, that what I’ve seen is, as people get more and more and more money, that the perspiration goes away.
[00:43:03] Joe: “I’m not gonna really worry about this, so yeah, I’ve got this cool idea. But I could do it today, I could do it next week, I could do it five years from now.” Next thing you know, five years is gone and you’ve done nothing. For that reason, do you think that maybe more money doesn’t help you reach bigger goals?
[00:43:23] OG: See, he yelled at me one time for being on mute. I yelled back, and now he just does hand and arm signals.
[00:43:29] Joe: I wasn’t gonna say it again. Just gonna tap my ear.
[00:43:32] OG: I don’t know what you’re trying to get at here. Are you saying that-
[00:43:36] Joe: Let me tell you. Let me tell you specifically. Yeah.
[00:43:38] OG: I’m gonna put this- I’m kinda confused by the question
[00:43:39] OG: I’m
[00:43:39] Joe: gonna put this much more, um… So I’ll tell you a story. There, there’s a person I know, built a big website, built a huge community, sold at a fairly young age. They’ve said out loud before in many places that when they built that website, they were young, they were hungry, they needed it to succeed. And because they needed it to succeed, they made sure it was successful.
[00:44:02] Joe: They worked long hours. They built this thing that got big enough where in their early 40s they were able to sell it for a, not a little money, not a lot of money, for a ton of money. I’ve seen this same person now go through five different ideas and really not invest that type of perspiration in any of the ideas, ’cause they have plenty of money.
[00:44:26] Joe: They have plenty of stuff, and w- w- when the idea starts to get a little bit hard, they, you know, “I’m just not gonna do this anymore.” Obviously, every idea gets difficult. So my question is, if one of these ideas might bring something wonderful to the universe, it might be their purpose, is the fact that they have a ton of money keeping them from that purpose?
[00:44:46] OG: I don’t know that it’s our responsibility to judge other people on what they choose to do or not do. Like, dude’s rich and doesn’t wanna do anything, like, YOLO, man. You don’t owe me anything. Like, why, why would I say, “But there might be a trapped idea that, you know, cures cancer in there. You just need to work harder.”
[00:45:05] OG: Okay. You know, I, I don’t, I don’t think that that’s a, an angle that makes a lot of sense to me. I, I believe that as you increase your net worth, that when you’re on one side of that transac- or, um, a journey, you believe that all I have to do is just a little bit more and then I’ll be okay. And then I think when you get on the other side of the journey, you recognize there is no more that will make it any better than it already is.
[00:45:31] OG: And maybe spinning this a little differently than what you were talking about originally, Joe, but in some of the groups that I belong to, in entrepreneur groups and that sort of thing, you know, the conversation around can you retire? Should you retire? Should you stop doing this? Should you sell? You know, comes up a little bit, and the common refrain or pushback that we give or get is, is one of two things.
[00:45:52] OG: It’s like, well, is there something money-wise that you are trying to do that you can’t do right now, and that this money would help you do if you sold or if you did whatever? Or is there some time thing that you don’t have that you need to get because you need to kind of step away from this? Because you’re, you know, you can’t go on vacation or you can’t…
[00:46:11] OG: And if you’re doing all you wanna do with your money, largely, and you’re doing all you wanna do with your time, largely, like, what else do you wanna do? Y- like, it’s great. You’re living the dream, and sometimes the dream is still working nine to five, Monday to Friday. I think when you’re on, like, the front edge of this, you think or believe as soon as I get to X dollars, then I can finally be done.
[00:46:34] OG: I can finally… This is the whole fire movement, right? Like, I can finally retire from this crappy job. And it’s like, well, first of all, why would you work a crappy job if you have a choice? And secondly, I think you’ll realize when you get to two million, three million, five million, 10 million, like some number, you’ll just be like, “Okay, another 10 million stacked on top of 10 doesn’t do anything different- It’s still you
[00:46:55] OG: than the first ten I have.” And- Yeah, you’re still
[00:46:56] Joe: here …
[00:46:56] OG: if I didn’t like giving money away or I didn’t like spending time with my family or I didn’t like investing in my community or I didn’t like– Like magically having 10 million bucks in the bank isn’t gonna make you wanna do those things. If you already hate your family, you’re not gonna like ’em more because now they’re using your Amex card to go to the Four Seasons.
[00:47:13] OG: Like, that doesn’t… Like, that’s exactly the opposite of how you’ll feel. You’ll be more resentful. You know, you’ll hate more spending time with them. I think the myth of, like, having enough, like, en-enough is a, it’s a construct. It’s whatever it means to you So if your buddy sold his company and is, like, eating Bon Bons and playing Xbox and mowing the grass by himself and that’s his vibe, get after it, man.
[00:47:39] Joe: Well, I d- Like,
[00:47:40] OG: God bless him …
[00:47:41] Joe: you know, I don’t know what’s going on in his head, and I’m not as judgy as- Sure …
[00:47:44] OG: as I No, no, I know, I know you’re not. It was… That’s why it’s like- As I made
[00:47:46] Joe: that sound.
[00:47:47] OG: No, that’s, that’s why you wanted to put it out there. Do we not also look at other people in our lives who maybe aren’t living up to their potential but aren’t rich, and you’re like, “You know, if you put as much energy into work as you do playing Xbox, you might have better grades.”
[00:47:59] OG: Exactly. You know, like- It’s true … has that ever come out? Yeah, of course it does, right? We all
[00:48:02] Joe: have opinions. Well, yes, because the other side… Sure, the other side of that equation might be, you know, he’s had five different things. I phrased it as, you know, he didn’t push past the tough part ’cause he’s got plenty of money, but it could’ve been he’s also now smart enough to know it’s going nowhere.
[00:48:15] OG: Yeah. Yes, this is like, I gotta exit stage left and get after the next idea. Yeah. That could be.
[00:48:19] Joe: Yeah, save your time. Paula?
[00:48:20] Paula: Well, I, I think a lot of it is going to depend on is… So these five other ideas that this dude has, is he pursuing them to make money or is he pursuing them to solve a problem? Because if you identify a problem that you are really committed to solving, then that becomes the reason for the engine behind the perspiration.
[00:48:40] Joe: Okay, so let’s say that’s the case. Mm-hmm. Does having more money make him less dedicated to solving the problem? Because it’s a problem- No … for a lot of people, but he, he ain’t gonna have no more problems.
[00:48:52] Paula: No, no, I think it makes that person more dedicated towards solving that problem, because now they have resources that they can put behind that problem, and they could do that in one of two ways.
[00:49:02] Paula: It might be that they literally are taking some of their net worth and using it to hire people, invest in software, like, to build out the infrastructure that helps solve that problem, or it might simply be that they are living on their net worth. They don’t need to draw a salary for themselves, and because they don’t need to draw a salary for themselves, they can now de- Profit motive doesn’t
[00:49:23] Joe: matter anymore.
[00:49:23] Paula: Yeah. Yeah. So now they have the freedom to dedicate 40, 50, 60 hours a week towards solving this problem without necessarily needing to collect a paycheck. Either way, one way or the other, either way you slice it, you are either directly or indirectly applying your resources towards solving that problem.
[00:49:40] Joe: That is interesting, because y- you see that. Some people that have plenty of money are able to solve problems that, uh, capitalism struggles with just because there’s not enough profit in it for a lot of entrepreneurs to go there. Doc, I wanna ask you something that I wanna ask the rest of the people on the panel because of your unique position as a hospice physician.
[00:50:02] Joe: What did you find over the years that most people want to leave behind?
[00:50:07] Doc G: Basically, it seems like they wanna leave a piece of themselves behind, right? So this idea of, “I may no longer be here, but a piece of me will still be out in the world. People will still remember me. What I’ve been and what I’ve done had consequences that will continue and go on.”
[00:50:26] Doc G: Money can do that, right? If you leave money, if you give it to foundations, if you give it to family members who then use it to live wonderful, great lives. I think what we often forget is what we really leave behind is our funny stories and our way of doing things and the problems we solved and how the next generation learns from us.
[00:50:47] Doc G: You know, I often tell the story when I’m giving a talk from my book, The Purpose Code, this idea of my maternal grandfather, who I never met, loved math, and so he became an accountant, and he passed that down to my mom. Because my mom was good at math, she also became an accountant, and she ended up loving it, and because she loved it, I tried on that identity as a little kid, and I loved math, too.
[00:51:06] Doc G: And I was bad. I had a learning disability, and I was bad at reading, and I probably would’ve thought everything was lost, but I was particularly good at math. Like, that all came from my maternal grandfather, the guy I never met. I think we sometimes get too caught up in our monetary legacy, but the truth of the matter is we pass down all sorts of things through our genetics and through our actions, and those things do have consequences, and they do continue on, I think, after you die.
[00:51:32] Doc G: After lo- long after you’ve left physically this earth, uh, there are pieces of you that go on, and I think that can be really comforting because maybe we have to stop worrying about what we do with that inheritance or how much money we make and start thinking more about being kinda good people who connect with the people around us because it’s in those connections, right?
[00:51:50] Doc G: When you go to a funeral, and the people stand up and say something nice about the person, no one says, “Boy, there was that time they made a million dollars.” They say, “There was that time that I needed help, and so-and-so showed up, and they were so good at this thing, and I was struggling with it, and they, like, came in and told me exactly how to do it, and boy, that really saved my life that day.”
[00:52:09] Doc G: That’s what people kinda remember
[00:52:13] Joe: It’s interesting you brought that up because the last question that I wanted to ask all three of you today, and I’ll start with you, is that’s the non-financial inheritance that you received, your love of math. What non-financial inheritance are you trying to leave?
[00:52:29] Doc G: I would hope that I will leave my love of words and writing.
[00:52:34] Doc G: I would hope that I leave my kindness and openness to help people. I would hope that I left this idea with my kids and the people who knew me that you can learn a profession and be good at it, and yet realize it’s not for you and have the courage to do something else. Yeah. And my humor and my connection.
[00:52:54] Doc G: I mean, I hope I leave all that. Like, just whatever, you know, the things that are deeply important to me, I hope those carry on with my kids and my friends and-
[00:53:04] Joe: And your ability to finish second in trivia?
[00:53:06] Doc G: Yeah, my ability… And my, my ability to own that I finish second- … or even third in trivia is what I wanna leave for the future generations.
[00:53:15] Joe: Paula?
[00:53:16] Paula: Yeah. I think directly what I’ll leave behind is, I, I hate the word content, but, like, it is my content. Everything I write, every podcast interview, uh, every podcast episode that I produce, every video that I record, that is what I will leave behind. Like, that will be remembered until those people die, and then it will be forgotten.
[00:53:39] Joe: Unless they pass it on. Yeah. Some of those Afford Anything shows, especially with that awesome guy who helps you answer questions, like.
[00:53:48] Paula: The example that I provide, like, what I teach people through role modeling and the way that that impacts their lives, and then the way that they impact the world through…
[00:54:02] Paula: You know, they, they see the behavior that I role model, and that impacts their life, and then that has the ripple effect. I think that’s the other more indirect legacy.
[00:54:13] Joe: You affect one person who affects another person.
[00:54:15] Paula: Yeah.
[00:54:16] Joe: Yeah, yeah. OG?
[00:54:19] OG: Well, I’m not sure that I can say anything that these other two already haven’t.
[00:54:22] OG: I was like, oh, man. Like, I was gonna say, like, my comic book collection- … then all of a sudden Jordan’s like, “My love of words and writing-” Right. “… and, you know, my philosophy.” I’m like, “Oh, crap. I’m way behind.” I thought you were gonna say, “
[00:54:36] Joe: My l- my love of reading Jordan’s writing.”
[00:54:39] OG: Yes. Like, I got some stuff I need to, like, put together, I guess.
[00:54:45] OG: I think just people will say that dude left it all on the field. I think the message that I’ve always had for my kids is like, it’s all or nothing. You know? We’re either gonna be good at math or not do it at all type of thing, and, uh, lean into your unique ability and be, be amazing at the thing that you’re amazing at and, um, that’ll be your contribution to society.
[00:55:08] OG: And if you can manage to s- piece together a bunch of people who are good at things that are adjacent to the things that you’re good at, and you’ve got like a little unique ability team, which is what we’ve got here today, then, you know, collectively we put a good thing out there all together, so That’s a little too touchy-feely for OG, I gotta be honest
[00:55:25] Joe: That’s up there.
[00:55:26] Joe: I would say, d- having known you for a long time, the fact that your clients are better off knowing you than if they hadn’t, just, uh- I hope they say
[00:55:34] OG: that, yeah …
[00:55:35] Joe: I mean, you won’t go into that very much, but I will, having, uh, worked with you for a long time. Uh, Doug, what’s your non-financial thing, the El Camino?
[00:55:42] Doug: That’s incredibly financial, Joe. Uh, El Caminos are so valuable. I don’t know anybody that could really separate the car from its value in a monetary standpoint, so I do- I don’t think that’s really an appropriate answer. I, I, you know, this is deeper than I expected going today, and, uh, put on the spot, I think I’m only considering and thinking about leaving anything non-monetary to, directly to the, the people that are in my, I’ll say my nuclear family.
[00:56:13] Doug: And what I’ve h- they’ve already figured out is where you find joy and where you find happiness is entirely from within. There’s nobody or anything that is going to give that to you, so you have to define it for yourself and generate that for yourself, and if you can do that, there’s joy and happiness everywhere.
[00:56:32] Doug: And it doesn’t matter if you have all the money that Mom and I might leave you or all of the money that you might earn. It- that’s irrelevant if you can’t find the joy and happiness within yourself, so that’s what I, I hope to leave them with that notion.
[00:56:46] Joe: What the hell’s going on today? Paula wins trivia, and Doug says-
[00:56:49] Joe: something incredibly inspirational at the end. Like, this is the weirdest episode. You can- Is it my birthday or something? Do you notice- … you shit
[00:56:55] Doug: on yourself.
[00:56:56] Paula: Do you notice Doug has an empty flask behind him? Look at that. It wasn’t
[00:57:01] Doug: empty 10 minutes ago, Paula.
[00:57:06] Joe: All right, that’s gonna wrap it up for this last weekend in June. I can’t believe July is right around the corner. OG halfway to winning, well, to tying the 18 points, but this week Paula gets a little closer. Maybe if Paula goes on a big run the second half, she’s gonna win it all. Let’s find out what you guys are all doing this weekend.
[00:57:27] Joe: OG, last weekend in June, what do you got on tap?
[00:57:30] OG: Is today June 25th-ish or something? It is. Or is it-
[00:57:34] Joe: Yes.
[00:57:34] OG: Oh, okay. I was just double-checking, uh-
[00:57:37] Joe: It is always fun, by the way, doing this live on YouTube, and we’re pretending it’s a Friday.
[00:57:41] OG: Yeah. Uh, what’s going on this weekend? Um, same thing as every weekend so far, uh, this year.
[00:57:47] OG: I will be peddling my little, uh, bicycle with a basket in the front across, uh- Ching
[00:57:51] Joe: ching … uh,
[00:57:52] OG: yeah, with a little bell. And, um- Got baseball cards for the spokes … actually getting ready for, uh, I’m going to Colorado on Monday, so up we go. We’re in the final stretch, two weeks to go. So, um, if you guys don’t hear from me after July 11th, you know what happened.
[00:58:05] OG: I, you know, did a Greg Louganis off a mountain somewhere and-
[00:58:11] Joe: But he had water, so it did end up being- Yeah … end up being okay. He made
[00:58:15] OG: it. There’s no water where I’m-
[00:58:16] Joe: Yeah. Well-
[00:58:16] OG: Where we’re going, we don’t need water.
[00:58:20] Joe: Paula Pant on the Afford Anything show, what’s happening?
[00:58:23] Paula: On the Afford Anything podcast, last week we had Dr. Julia Garcia on the show. She is a psychologist who writes about five habits of hope, five mental health habits to give you more hope, hope about your career, your investments, the economy.
[00:58:42] Paula: Her premise is that hope is a habit, and she helps you build that habit
[00:58:46] Joe: All of these stats around the power of optimism and how important it is to be optimistic, and hope has gotta be a big part of that.
[00:58:52] Paula: Mm, exactly.
[00:58:53] Joe: Yeah. Wow. So
[00:58:54] Paula: that’s on the Afford Anything podcast.
[00:58:56] Joe: That’s fantastic. Love it. As I do the Earn and Invest podcast, our brother podcast, what’s going on there, Doug?
[00:59:05] Doc G: This week, I actually have Dr. Jaspal Singh on. This is actually a close friend of mine. I met him, get this, we were both volunteering in the emergency room as freshmen in college. Whoa. We were both pre-med gunners, and I wanted to chat with him because, you know, sometimes, especially in these circles where we talk about things like financial independence, we can almost sound really anti-career.
[00:59:31] Doc G: We have an interesting history, both of us, of, of being high achievers, and this idea of being in the room where it happens, building a career of influence, getting in on some of the bigger conversations, and changing the world. I wanted to do a kind of a pro-career episode, where we talked about kinda some of the joys about going out there and actually taking on the big roles.
[00:59:52] Doc G: Not, not for the money, but for the glory, and, and, you know, effecting change.
[00:59:57] Joe: Oh, that’s so cool. And that’s at Earn and Invest, where finer podcast are found. And always just a deep, really interesting conversation, as it is on the Afford Anything show. Guys, that’s gonna do it for today. If you wanna hang out with us while we make these shows, uh, we are live on YouTube most Mondays, so come join us on a Monday.
[01:00:16] Joe: We had a lot of fun with our group. Uh, they were slow to chat today, as you saw, but came around. It has been fun watching them. A lot of congratulations for Paula.
[01:00:27] Doc G: Aw, thank you. I was gonna say, Paul- Paula got a lot of love in these chat, in this chat this time, man. Aw, thank you so much. Thank you to everyone for believing
[01:00:31] Joe: in me.
[01:00:33] Joe: We knew someday it was gonna all come true.
[01:00:37] Doug: I’m just laughing at Paula’s interpretation of complete surprise and disbelief. As, “They believe in me.”
[01:00:45] Paula: I developed a habit of hope.
[01:00:49] Joe: She’s already learning from that. Yeah. If you know somebody, by the way, who has an inheritance on the way or is thinking about possibly giving an inheritance, uh, is contemplating this, this would be a great episode, ’cause I love how the three of you are able to really give a lot of guidance and walk through the spectrum of emotions and thoughts and some of the tactics without getting really preachy, which I really appreciate.
[01:01:12] Joe: All right.
[01:01:13] OG: Also, I can just drop my Venmo in there.
[01:01:16] Joe: Yeah. And that, that, that’s the perfect ending right there. I will be a
[01:01:19] OG: good steward of your money for- It would be f- … the foreseeable future. It
[01:01:22] Joe: would be fantastic if you wanna give it to your favorite podcasters. I’ll f- I’ll, I’ll put my name in the hat, too, OG, for that one.
[01:01:28] Joe: All right. Doug, you’ve got it from here. There’s a lot of to-dos on the list. What should be our top three?
[01:01:33] Doug: Well, Joe, first, take some advice from Paula. If you come into some money, consider contacting your accountant or tax advisor to figure out how you can protect as much as possible Second, remember the sage musings of OG.
[01:01:46] Doug: What you do with found money should be dictated by your plan and your financial policy statement. But the big lesson, if you’re buying a boat on your credit card, you might as well go ahead and get the fish finder and the, the GPS controlled trolling motor and that sparkly paint job. You’ll probably get a personal thank you note from your bank.
[01:02:05] Doug: I mean, go big or go home, am I right? Thanks to Doc G for joining us today. You’ll find the Earn and Invest podcast earning your hard-earned listening time wherever you listen to podcasts. We’ll also include links in our show notes at stackingbenjamins.com. Thanks to Paula Pant for hanging out with us today.
[01:02:25] Doug: You can’t afford everything, but you can afford to listen to her fabulous podcast, Afford Anything, wherever you listen to finer podcasts. You know why? ‘Cause it’s free, that’s why. Thanks also to OG for joining us. Looking for good financial planning help? Head to stackingbenjamins.com/og for his calendar.
[01:02:45] Doug: This show is the property of SP Podcast LLC, copyright 2026, and is created by Joe Saul-Sehy. You’ll find out about our awesome team at stackingbenjamins.com, along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. Come say hello. And oh yeah, before I go, not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don’t take advice from people you don’t know.
[01:03:11] Doug: This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any financial decisions, speak with a real financial advisor. I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug, and we’ll see you next time back here at the Stacking Benjamins show.
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