If you've ever wondered if there's more in life and your career waiting for you than your current job, then today's mentor is someone you want to listen to! On today's show, we welcome Michael Balter to the basement to discuss his career path and how he pivoted in a big way!

In our headline segment, we see some shocking (eye-roll) news about one store's credit card and how they are going to make up the lost revenue that they can charge in late fees. OG is not surprised.

And, finally, stick around for Doug's trivia loosely tied to April 15th. It's a stretch, but he's going with it.

FULL SHOW NOTES: https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/career-pivots-for-the-win-1503

Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201

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How do you know when the time is right to walk away from a career? Do you even want to? Can you afford to? Our roundtable discussion centers around thinking about retirement and how to prepare yourself financially so you can stay retired. We welcome Founder/President of Capital City Wealth Management, CFP® Benjamin Brandt, to join Paula Pant and Len Penzo.

How do you factor paying for health insurance into your early retirement planning? What about debt payments? When you retire, there will be greater spending in some areas that you may not think about while still working.

FULL SHOW NOTES: https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/why-you-should-retire-by-62-1502

Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.StackingBenjamins.com/201

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Did you recently come into some money? Are you expecting to in the near future? How have you treated "found money" in the past? With millions of Americans receiving their income tax refund, today we discuss what smart Stackers do with "found" money.

Not only that, but we also dive deeper into tips for how to decide ahead of time what you will do with any windfalls that come your way throughout the year, so you don't have to worry about blowing investing the entire amount on a brand new El Camino.

Be sure to stick around for Doug's this-day-in-baseball-history-themed trivia question!

FULL SHOW NOTES: https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/what-to-do-with-your-tax-refund-1501

Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201

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How can simply being kind (and using math) bring more Benjamins into your life? Today we explore the topic of how changing your outlook towards others can attract more abundance and wealth in life when Joe sits down with our mentor, the brilliant James Rhee, MIT professor and author of the hit book red helicopter: a parable for our times: lead change with kindness (plus a little math).

In our headline, we talk about the recent cutback in spending on lavish weddings, and how much is too much to expect to spend on your nuptials? Plus, how do you get out of budget for attending a wedding you've been invited to?

Stick around for Doug's wandering trivia! You're sure to not feel any older after his knowledge!

FULL SHOW NOTES: https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/kindness-math-and-benjamins-1500

Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201

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Today's episode is our 1499th episode! On today's celebratory show, we dive into some of your success stories! Plus, ever wonder how you achieve anything big in life? Just get started! On today's episode you'll get a behind the scenes look at the evolution of Stacking Benjamins. We go into what lessons we've learned along the way and how we strive to keep improving.

Stacker Christine from Seattle calls in to share her story, and how listening to the show inspired her to change her social circles and the conversations she was having with others.

We dive into best practices for building your business as an entrepreneur and how to build your network and reputation.

Stacker Derek calls in to express his gratitude for the show and all of the regular contributors. Lambo calls in to share how listening to and learning from the show has helped him improve his financial life.

Stacker Billy from San Francisco called in to give a shoutout to us and express gratitude for the help in making positive changes in his financial life.

FULL SHOW NOTES: https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/past-present-future-of-sb-episode-1499-celebration

Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.StackingBenjamins.com/201

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The word is out on using low-cost investments over complex Wall Street strategies (and if you don't believe us, we'll quote SIGNIFICANT studies on today's show). Yet, new expensive products are built every day promising better/faster/more wealth. What do you need to know to simplify your strategy and stay the course? In today's headline segment we'll dive into diversification and keeping your portfolio simple. We'll share why it's important to question more complex strategies, and discuss solutions that wealthy investors truly are using to increase future income streams while keeping things low cost. We'll also shine a light on a popular investment manager who's working directly opposite the trend that we're suggesting, Cathie Wood of ARK Investments. We'll share the wild ride up and our thoughts on her recent issues and disastrous returns.

We'll also take a call from James, wondering about ABLE accounts. These are wonderful tools for people with special needs who are diagnosed early in life, and can help individuals avoid significant taxes. How do they work? What do you need to know? We'll share.

Of course, we'll also dive into Doug's amazing trivia question of the day, which shines a light on a high cost investment option: hedge funds...while saving time for a TikTok minute you won't want to miss.

FULL SHOW NOTES: https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/all-about-fees-and-you-1498

Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201

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Busy does not equal productive. In fact, how often have you watched as someone who was too busy to reach the important items on their mile-long list? Sadly, we're addicted to the to-do list but not addicted enough to processes that actually increase our happiness, creativity, or effectiveness. True productivity begins with CALM, according to today's mentor, Laura Martin. She created the productivity expert role at Google, and joins us today to share hints and tips to make you not only more relaxed, but also a fountain of productivity, no matter what you want to do.

Beyond that, we have an amazing headline, Joe & OG share the biggest laughs of their lives, and Doug FINALLY gives maybe his best advice ever.

Oh, and former President Barack Obama stops by.

FULL SHOW NOTES: https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/more-productivity-less-guilt-1497

Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201

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One of the most frustrating moments in any investor or saver's life is when you figure out that you fell prey to a "gotcha" you didn't expect and either lose money, opportunity, or both. Even if your favorite financial tool, strategy or advisor doesn't mean to inflict a "gotcha" on you, because we often don't know what we don't know, we use tools or people inefficiently, causing damage to ourselves we didn't expect. Today we talk about intended and unintended "gotchas" in financial products with three people who know and who've seen many problems firsthand. All of them are Certified Financial Planners, and all three are hosts of great podcasts. Shannah Game (Everyone's Talkin' Money), Roger Whitney (Retirement Answer Man), and our very own OG debate and discuss many of the nuanced (and sometimes not-so-nuanced) "gotchas" in investments, insurances, financial planning, and more.

That's not all though. Of course we take a break halfway through for our weekly trivia contest between our contributors. Today? Doug's building bridges! You'll have to hear it yourself and maybe guess your answer. Can you beat our contestants?

FULL SHOW NOTES: https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/person-finance-gotchas-1496

Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.StackingBenjamins.com/201

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If you plan on living a long life (and who doesn't want that?), you'll need to create over thirty years' worth of cash flow. Studies show that the average person wants to retire at the "normal" age of mid-60s but also plans to live to reach the century mark. If that's you, you're in luck because today we're joined by the CFO of one of the country's greatest comedy clubs and a guy who's a professional comedian himself, Bob Wheeler. Bob joins the guys for the entire show to talk about longevity and planning and maybe share a few laughs.

We also spend some time talking about two controversial approaches to paying down debt and banking: Velocity banking and Infinite banking. We describe both concepts and share the good, bad, and unfortunately, the ugly.

That's not all. Doug is partying hard because it's the anniversary of the date the shoelace was patented! There's nothing like a basement-based party with a top comedian, your money jokes, and discussions of annuities, longevity, and getting started.

FULL SHOW NOTES: https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/make-your-money-last-30-years-bob-wheeler-1495

Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201

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Our mentor today is one of the foremost thinkers and practitioners in the financial planning space. Peter Mallouk joins us to dispel the myth that the stock market is like the stock market, that the bond market is still dangerous (a year later), that AI is coming for our jobs, that you'll find safety in a savings account, and that gold is a great investment. It's a dynamic discussion with the man who wrote a financial book with Tony Robbins a few years ago, who owns the Kansas City Royals baseball team, and who is one of the top financial planners in the country.

In our headline segment, we do something we often don't engage in: philosophy. But today, philosophical discussion meets behavioral finance (much more our strong suit), in a Wall Street Journal piece about passive investing and capitalism. Is passive investing killing the stock market, and then by extension, capitalism? While we probably won't solve the world's problems or "fix" the stock market, we will discuss the basics of passive investing (positives and negatives), the problem of (and also the advantages in) not knowing what's going on with the companies in which you've invested, and the importance of diversification, balanced portfolios, and avoiding recency bias.

Of course, Doug shares a trivia question fresh out of Scotland. He'll use an important marker of today's date in history (Robert the Bruce's birthday) to shine the light on one of the most iconic pieces of real estate in the world, Robert's castle.

We also help a Stacker who said, "I'd better call Saul...Sehy and OG!" He wonders about becoming a financial planner when you don't have a college degree. Is it more difficult to gain experience?

FULL SHOW NOTES: https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/getting-your-financial-plan-right-1494

Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201

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