40 Ways to Take Control of Your Money -- Which Ones Actually Work (SB1839)

Summary

Stacking Benjamins Show: "40 Ways to Take Control of Your Money – Which Ones Actually Work" (SB1839)

Podcast: The Stacking Benjamins Show
Hosts: Joe Saul-Sehy, Josh “OG” Bannerman, CFP
Guests for this episode: Len Penzo (lenpenzo.com), Mrs. Adventure Rich (adventurerich.com)
Air Date: May 8, 2026
Episode Theme: Dissecting 40 practical (and impractical) strategies to take control of your finances—and which actually move the needle.

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Episode Overview

This Friday roundtable episode brings together some of personal finance blogging’s most candid and insightful voices for a lively, practical conversation about real-world money management. Joe Saul-Sehy hosts, joined by Len Penzo and special guest Mrs. Adventure Rich. Together, they break down a list of “40 Things You Can Do Today to Take Control of Your Money” and discuss which are actually worth your energy (and which are just financial busy work). They also hit on deeper topics around inflation, lifestyle inflation, and lasting behavioral change, all with the show’s trademark banter and relatability.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Two Kinds of Inflation, One Priceless Sandwich (10:50–15:24)

• The Power of Automation

  • Mrs. Adventure Rich’s favorite tip: Make your savings automatic (“Set it, forget it.”)
    • "We're not tempted by it…my paycheck is smaller now only because everything's automatically heading to retirement, to savings." —Mrs. Adventure Rich (13:42)
    • Discussed as a psychological hack that overrides discipline and prevents lifestyle inflation.

• Lifestyle Inflation vs. Waistline Inflation

  • Len Penzo draws a humorous parallel: as you automate savings to prevent lifestyle inflation, you might still face “waistline inflation”…from, say, test-driving too many sandwiches.

• Living Below Your Means and Automating Raises

  • Mrs. Adventure Rich details how all raises and extra money automatically flow to savings or goals (car fund, vacation fund, emergency fund) rather than checking.
    • “If I get an increase, the increase goes into the savings accounts.” —Mrs. Adventure Rich (17:41)

• Len’s "Strategic Plan" Mindset

  • He shares his technique: mapping major purchases and financial milestones 10 years out, which curbs the urge for major spending and helps maintain focus.
    • “When you see that plan laid out…how you're going to spend your money over [10] years, it keeps you from saying, ‘I've got to spend this now.’” —Len Penzo (17:47)

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2. Small Hacks vs. Big Wins: Which Are Worth It? (19:17–24:13)

• Len’s Favorite Small Tactic: Save ("Invest") Spare Change

  • Example: His parents drop a quarter into a jar every time they do laundry, totaling $400/year for Christmas gifts.

• Joe’s Approach: "Tip Yourself" App

  • Applauds the idea of rewarding yourself for good habits, and stashing small amounts for specific fun uses.

• Mrs. Adventure Rich Pushes Back

  • Sees the “spare change” method as trivial compared to fundamental behavioral shifts.
    • “I am a big fan of the bigger lifestyle changes and habits….Make the sandwich at home…you’ve saved $10 rather than 38 cents.” —Mrs. Adventure Rich (21:37)
  • Focus is on mindshare: spend energy on meaningful changes.

• Consensus: Time & Energy Should Match Payoff

  • Both acknowledge small automation is fine, but not where core effort should be spent.

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3. Dumbest and Best Advice on the List? (24:10–24:17)

• Dumb: Shopping at Multiple Grocery Stores to Save a Few Cents
  • Len’s pick: Not worth the time and extra spending on gas and impulse buys.
    • “You'll end up spending more money driving around in gas trying to save a few dimes…” —Len Penzo (23:40)
• Mrs. Adventure Rich Agrees
  • Added time and impulse spending offset any gains.
    • “...the running in and out of stores, you’re always like, ‘Oh it’s a quick run. 45 minutes later...’" —Mrs. Adventure Rich (24:00)

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4. Flipping Your Financial Focus: Big Picture Factors (24:17–31:59)

Segment: Kiplinger’s "Flip Your Financial Focus" (24:17–31:59)

• Five Commonly Ignored But Vital Financial Issues

  1. Inflation

     • Both Len and Joe stress how calculators ignore erosion in purchasing power over decades.
     • "Inflation is eroding your purchasing power…that $500,000 isn't going to buy what you think." —Len Penzo (25:03)
     • Humorous throwback: remembering when Hershey bars cost a nickel and Slurpees a dime (25:52).

  2. Sequence of Return Risk

     • Mrs. Adventure Rich: Younger people can ride out the market; as retirement nears, it’s crucial to get more defensive.
       • "Five years out, that’s when we’ll start to…see where’s our risk tolerance." (28:32)
     • Len: At retirement, a bad timing for a market drop can have major effects (“...I have to get very defensive…” —Len Penzo (29:31))

  3. The 4% Rule

     • Mrs. AR: Says the 4% withdrawal rule is well known in the FIRE/finance blog world, but not outside of it.
     • Len: Suggests 3–3.5% is safer given longevity trends.

  4 & 5. Tax Planning and Health Care Costs

  • Both acknowledged as under-discussed essentials for pre-retirees.

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5. Motivation and Mental Game: Letters to Your Future Self (32:51–36:33)

Segment: Debts to Riches’ Motivation Hack

• FutureMe.org: Send emails to your future self as encouragement.

• Mrs. Adventure Rich’s Letter to Herself

  • "Always remember to live some portion of your retirement today…Nothing is stopping me from doing that today." —Mrs. Adventure Rich (33:41)
  • Emphasizes fitting small joys and adventures into daily life, even during busy seasons.

• Len’s Letter to Young Self

  • Wishes he’d told himself not to worry about market swings: "It's only money"—don’t let fear block you from investing and seizing time’s power.

• Joe’s Guided Self-Talk

  • His advice: "Feel the fear but live anyway. Just keep moving forward and it’s gonna be okay." (36:09)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

“My paycheck now…is smaller than my paycheck five years ago…because everything’s automatically heading to retirement, to savings.”
—Mrs. Adventure Rich (13:42)

“It’s not about discipline…it’s about recognizing one time that you made a great move and then replicating that over and over.”
—Joe Saul-Sehy (14:18)

“I have a plan where I’ve planned out big expenditures ten years out into the future…when you see that plan…keeps you from spending money prematurely.”
—Len Penzo (17:47)

“I am a big fan of the bigger lifestyle changes and habits…make the sandwich at home…save ten dollars instead of thirty-eight cents.”
—Mrs. Adventure Rich (21:37)

“It’s only money…When I was just starting out of college, every dollar was precious to me…I was afraid to invest because I was going to lose some money…if I wasn’t so fearful, I would have invested more earlier.”
—Len Penzo (35:12)

“Always remember to live some portion of your retirement today…Nothing is stopping me from doing that today.”
—Mrs. Adventure Rich (33:41)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction, setup, and hosts banter: 10:00–12:18
• The Value of Automation & Avoiding Lifestyle Inflation: 13:42–15:13
• Big Picture Habits vs. Trivial Hacks: 19:25–24:13
• Inflation, Sequence of Return Risk & Retirement Planning: 24:17–31:59
• Motivation, Letters to Future Self: 32:51–36:33
• Wrap-up and Blog Plugs: 36:45–38:42

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Tone and Style

• Light-hearted, witty, and conversational—true to the essence of the Stacking Benjamins show.
• Candid disagreement is welcome (especially between Len and Mrs. AR), but always with mutual respect and a touch of playful teasing.
• Relatable, real-world stories are prioritized over theory.

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Summary Takeaways

• Spend your energy where it pays off: automate the big stuff, focus on meaningful shifts, and don’t sweat the trivial micro-hacks.
• Inflation and sequence of return risk are crucial in long-term planning—don’t let overlooked details derail your future lifestyle.
• Motivation is a marathon; engineer your environment, maintain community, and don’t wait for retirement to build joy into your life.
• Money management doesn’t have to be a grind—embrace adventure without waiting for “someday.”

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For more:
Check out Mrs. Adventure Rich at adventurerich.com and Len Penzo at lenpenzo.com.
Show notes and more resources at stackingbenjamins.com.

Transcript

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

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[Len Penzo]

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[Joe Saul-Sehy]

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[Len Penzo]

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[Joe Saul-Sehy]

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[Len Penzo]

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[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Hey there, stackers. Today we got a packed Friday round table. And honestly, this one goes everywhere in the best way. We're talking about simple ways to take control of your money. What actually works, what's a total waste of time where people focus. Too much energy for way too little payoff. And that's what happens all the time, right? We end up in this just sphere of nothingness when it comes to money. It takes us six hours to save 15 cents. And then we realize that the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. And yet often it's those little tiny things that take us where we want to go. So we're going to dive into big picture stuff like inflation and why the numbers you see might not tell the whole story. Some practical strategies so that you can build momentum faster and even a few things that might sound smart at first but don't really move the needle when you look closer. Plus, because it's a Friday, we couldn't help ourselves. We're also going to wander into everything lifestyle inflation. And what's most interesting about this is it. Well, all of these things getting away from busy money habits to effective ones are things that resonate today. And yet it's a greatest hits episode because this happened originally back in 2017. And it's the greatest tip for two reasons. Number one, we had an anonymous blogger on who's just. She had such a great voice and like a lot of anonymous bloggers in the community, she is now long gone and we totally miss her. She called herself Mrs. Adventure Rich. And also different than most of our Friday roundtables, we only have two participants besides me. It's going to be Mrs. Adventure Rich and Len Penzo. And this smaller Conversation I think actually makes it a little more dynamic. But as I was going through picking what we were going to end this week with, I wanted something that is all lessons we can use today and yet from nine years ago. So next week we're back with all new episodes. All right, we've got a couple sponsors help us keep on keeping on. The first one is the Vault. I actually used this last week. I like the protections. I immediately went and took my name off of all of these public sites that sell your information. Not only emails, but the reduction in snail mail that I received right after I did that. Incredible. Of course, the Vault does a lot more, but I used it for subscriptions and I found yet another subscription. I had just gone through all my subscriptions, thought that I get rid of everything. It turns out that I had yet another subscription that's going to end up saving me about $250 a year. Cha Ching. Keep the subscriptions you value. Get rid of the rest. Stacking benjamin.com vault to check it out. If you're new here, we only have sponsors in two spots in the show. A couple right now and in the middle of the show. And that is it. Thanks for spending Greatest Hits week with me. We'll see you back here on Monday. Work on stacking Benjamins all weekend guys. See you then. I had a breakfast mentoring meeting yesterday with a young woman who was just amazing. She is graduating from college with a degree in wealth management and she reached out hoping for some pointers. And listen, if somebody's in Texarkana and wants to go into this beautiful field of personal finance and helping people get their money together, that is incredible. But even more incredible is how she reached out, how she was trying to network and I was having a discussion that finding the right person and avoiding the wrong person for a role, that's what can make or break an organization. And we just don't see that many qualified people. So how do you find them? Well, indeed Sponsored Jobs is a boost whenever you need to find quality talent. If you're hiring, Indeed is all you need. You can stop struggling to get your job post even seen on other sites. 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As you hear this, I just got

back from keynoting the Millionaire Money Mentors Conference in Florida. I'm sure I had a great time, even though I haven't gone yet as I record this. But I know wherever any Stacking Benjamins people are, it's always a party, isn't it? But what makes it even better party is the fact that when you see pictures of me, those clothes came from Quints. I've been getting intentional lately about what I wear day to day and on stage and leaning in more into pieces that feel easy, that are comfortable, that I can travel with and still look put together. It just makes getting dressed simpler. Whether I'm at home or on the road. Quince has been my go to. The fabrics feel elevated, the fits are clean. Everything just works without needing to overthink it. Quince has all the wardrobe staples for spring. Think 100% European linen shorts and shirts from $34. Lightweight, breathable and comfortable, but still look put together and clean. 100% Pima cotton tees with a softness that has to be felt. Their pants also hit that same balance, relaxed and comfortable, but still polished enough to wear pretty much anywhere. Everything's priced 50 to 80% less than what you'd find at similar brands. Quint works directly with ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen, so you're getting premium materials without the markup. Between the pants that feel so incredibly comfortable and and my favorite is still that first cashmere sweater that I got. It is so nice. It's great to feel good because you know that your wardrobe looks good and it didn't cost anywhere near what I thought clothing that looks like that would cost. It should be the same for you. Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to quint.com sb and because you're a stacker, you'll get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N C E.comSB for free shipping. 365 day returns. Quint.comSB there are like 30 raised pizzas.

[Len Penzo]

They all claim to be the original, but the real ones on 11th.

[Doug (Joe's mom's neighbor)]

Live from Joe's mom's basement, it's the Stacking Benjamin Show. Hey, everyone. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor Doug, and I just put on my yoga pants and ugg boots. I'm headed out to get a pumpkin spice latte because today is the first day of fall. I'm not kidding around this year, folks. And here to help us celebrate, we're talking with some of the biggest rock stars on the financial interweb machine about easy ways to improve your finances, flip your financial focus, and more. First, we welcome from the Adventure Rich blog, Mrs. Adventure Rich. God, who names their kid that? Jeez, it takes all kinds, doesn't it? And joining us from a bunker somewhere under Los Angeles, the creator of the blog, lenpenzo.com George Bush. Just kidding, it's Len Penzo. Now here's a guy who loves him some pumpkin spice, Joe Salsihai.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Because when the shoe fits.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to Friday on the Stacking Benjamin show. Ending your week in the right way.

I am Joe Salsihal.

Average Joe Money on Twitter back here in the basement to help you do

a better job with your money.

And you know what, we've got a fantastic roundtable today. Mrs. Adventure Rich is going to join us on the show. But let's get on it. All right? Let's walk across the basement here and fire up my dad shortwave, see if we can get some of the greatest minds in financial writing on the line. And if they're not available, then let's just get anybody. No, I'm joking because of course I'm joking because we're going to Southern California first where I think Mr. Len Penzo is waiting for us.

[Len Penzo]

Joe, how are you, my friend?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Dude, you're there. Thank goodness you're there.

[Len Penzo]

Congratulations on your award.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Thank you. Congratulations on your award.

[Len Penzo]

Well, you're, you're. Yeah, right. But you get all the credit, my friend. It's well deserved and it was great meeting up with you out there in Anaheim for dinner and had a great time.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

We did have a great time. For those of you that don't know What Len's talking about, we beat some way bigger talent than us. Way, way bigger talent than us. At the Academy of Podcasters Awards. Best business podcast went to us over, like, Tim Ferriss, Planet Money.

[Len Penzo]

Awesome.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

The pitch, how I built this. Another NPR show that I like. Jocko Pat Flynn, Michael Stelzner, and social media marketing world, just Ray Edwards. Big shows.

[Len Penzo]

So fantastic. Joe. Feathering your cat, my friend.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Pretty amazing.

[Len Penzo]

Well deserved.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

It's all because. It's all because I know you. Either that or I owe some judge 20 bucks somewhere. I don't know. And guess what, Len, we're gonna go to my old neck of the woods, actually, north of my old neck of the woods, to the Michigan area, Northern Michigan, where Mrs. Adventure Rich from the Adventure Rich blog is going to join us tonight. Are you there?

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Hello. Hello. How are you? Joe?

[Doug (Joe's mom's neighbor)]

Hey.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Fantastic. How are you?

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Doing really well, living the life up here in Northern Michigan.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Well, I'm so glad I got to meet you a couple months ago, and I'm also glad that you could join us today and save this show, because

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

I'll give it a try.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

So tell everybody about the Adventure Rich blog because I love what you guys are doing.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Yeah. So Adventure Rich, we cover two kind of separate but intertwined topics, personal finance and adventure. So personal finance will cover our financial philosophy, frugality, and our journey towards financial independence and maybe early retirement. And you guys, on the adventure side, we see so many of our friends and family in what we would call the daily grind. And whether you're in debt, whether you're in the accumulation phase, whether you're in college, life doesn't have to be a grind. It's a beautiful adventure. There's so many things you can do right here and now. And so we want to have everyone live a life of adventure.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I love that idea of not waiting until you're old to have the adventure. Like, don't wait till you're Lempenzo's age to start having adventures.

[Len Penzo]

You know what? I'm the old man. Yes. I'm probably twice as old as you, Mrs. Ar, so you've got plenty of time.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

We don't have to talk numbers here.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Life is not a number, just adventure, Len.

Adventure.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

And that's the thing. Always an adventure. That's our motto here.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Absolutely.

Well, I can already tell this show's going to be an adventure. So let's jump into it that we're going to start off with a piece that I [e-mail] this written by Alex Thomas Sadler. 40 things you can do today to take control of your money. And Mrs. A.R. we're going to call you to keep it short. Which one of these 40 did you really like? Because there's some cool stuff in here.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Yeah, so first of all, 40, man, that would take all day. But I love number four, which was making a savings automatic. This is a huge thing for Mr. Adventure. Rich and I. We try to make as much of our savings automatically, not only practically, so we can just not even think about it. We said it, forget it. We're not tempted by it. But then also kind of psychologically, I love the fact that my paycheck now going into my checking account is smaller than my paycheck five years ago when I started my career. And it's all because everything's automatically heading to retirement, to savings, to my HSA, my 401k, everything like that. So I can't touch it. It's great.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I love what she's saying, Len, because it's not about discipline. Right. It's about making sure the money just automatically goes where you want it.

[Len Penzo]

Absolutely. And you know what? We're getting there, the old folks that we are being the honeybee, you know, it's been a slow process getting automated like that, but yes, and we're getting there and it does make things so much easier.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

But it's funny, Mrs. A.R. you know, when I talk to really wealthy people and you talk to them about discipline, they say it's not about discipline, it's about recognizing one time that you made a great move and then replicating that over and over. It seems like that's what you guys are doing.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Yes. Yep. Absolutely. I think that was a huge thing is learning that there was such thing as lifestyle inflation. And if we didn't act now and act accordingly to say, hey, we're going to stop this in some way. The money in the bank just, it'll look, you know, money in the checking account will look like you have money, but money in a savings or retirement account, it's not as visible. And I love kind of stashing it away and pretending it isn't there and letting it pile up in the background.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Let me ask you about one.

[Len Penzo]

Wait. I just. Joe, I want to just remind Mrs. Ar one thing. There's another type of inflation that I'm suffering from now, and that's waistline inflation. And that happens as you get older too.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

That's, that's what happens when you're always test driving sandwiches and ice cream.

[Doug (Joe's mom's neighbor)]

Right.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

That's why you have those taste Tests. Oh, I can't wait for the BLT again. You don't have to have. You don't have to have eight of them, Len.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

After that episode, my husband came home hungry.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Oh, I bet he did. I bet I was hungry and I had to talk to him.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

So I know exactly, I'm not going to lie. That night after that episode, we made sandwiches for dinner. We grilled them up and we made sandwiches.

[Len Penzo]

Hey, he didn't get upset at the cheese sandwich, did he?

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Oh, no, not at all. My goodness, Our son, he should be made of peanut butter and jelly.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

But cheese sandwiches, though, are borderline child abuse. Isn't that what, what the review said, Len?

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Yeah, well, donut tell anyone then, because I feed them to my son all the time.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Oh, boy. Child Protective Services. Thank Goodness you're anonymous, Mrs. Ar.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Exactly.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Well, let me ask you something though, while we're, while we're talking about this. So you, like Len, work for the man during the day, and when you get, when you get a pay raise, you know, obviously you avoid lifestyle inflation because you save a percent of your income into your 401k or whatever plans that you have. But, but how do you avoid the rest of it going to lifestyle inflation? Do you go in and, and adjust your savings up? What do you do?

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Yes, actually. So the checking account that we have is the last account that gets money from our paycheck. So what happens first is, you know, it goes to some of the retirement accounts, hsa, dependent Care, fsa, and then it actually gets direct deposited into. Once we've maxed all of those out so we can't do any more, the rest, we start to direct deposit into different savings accounts separate from our checking account. Different bank. It's an online bank. We use Ally Bank. And so we're saving whether it's for an emergency fund, whether it's for our next car, which might be 5, 10 years off, but we'll put throw 50, 100 bucks a paycheck in there to save up so that we can buy a used car when the time comes, whatever the financial goal is. It could even be a vacation fund. But we tried to throw that into the savings accounts and the last thing that money goes to is that checking account.

[Len Penzo]

What do you do?

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Really keep that low.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Do you have money then go from savings into checking, or do you still have direct deposit from work into check?

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

I still have check, yeah. Direct deposited into checking, but it's a set number and that number doesn't change.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Gotcha.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Oh, so if any, if I Get an increase, the increase goes into the savings accounts.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Beat that, Len Penzo.

[Len Penzo]

Okay, well, that's all good. We do the same thing, Mrs. A.R. another thing I do to prevent lifestyle inflation is we do something called we have a strategic plan. I've been doing this for, oh, my gosh, 20 years. And I plan things to keep myself from getting excited and spending all my money all at once. I have a plan where I've planned out big expenditures 10 years out into the future. And when you. It's kind of like a really ultimate, big 30,000 foot view of your finances. And when you see that plan laid out like that, how you're going to spend your money over 10 years, it keeps you from saying, oh, I've got to spend this now. I've got to, you know, I've got to buy this car now. No, I'm going to buy it five years from now because it's in the strategic plan. So it kind of gives you. It kind of keeps you from spending money prematurely. That's another way to help.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

That's awesome. Do you then basically chart a roadmap so kind of say, hey, we have these different milestones and markers with maybe numbers tied to them and work towards those goals?

[Len Penzo]

Yes, I do.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

I really.

[Len Penzo]

Here's. Here's the scary thing now. I'm. I'm getting to the point now where it says dead. I'm at the end of the strategic plan and I see dead, so it's kind of scary.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Here's a bigger thing. Here's a bigger thing. Mrs. A.R. is that the honeybee? Mrs. Penzo has her very own strategic plan, which has nothing to do with Len's strategic plan.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

The hidden strategic plan.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah. Guess who's doing.

[Len Penzo]

Hey, Joe, have you seen it? Because I want to. You got to. You got to help a guy out.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

It's in that notebook. Top secret, right?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

That one. The one that says, don't open this, Len. Right. Len, which one of these do you like? Of these 40 things that Clark Howard

[Len Penzo]

talks about, this one's going to sound lame and everybody's going to roll their eyes. It's a very small one, but to me it is really. Let me just. It's number 16. Invest your spare change. And it's amazing how much spare change you can collect in a year. And I think I've given this example once before on your podcast, Joe. The example of my parents. What they do is not really spare change, but I guess it is, is every time they do a load of clothes, they take a quarter from the chain, from their change, and they put it in their savings jar. And how much money do you think they save? This is just my mom and my dad. They don't have a family. How much do you think they save every year doing loads of clothes?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Oh, I can't imagine. But it's got to be in the hundreds of dollars.

[Len Penzo]

It is. It's $400 just by saying, hey, every time I do a load of clothes or dry, I'm going to throw a quarter in the jar. And they save $400, and at the end of the year, they use that for their Christmas gifts or what have you. So they're not investing it, but hey, they're saving it and they're using it for something worthwhile.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

So they charge themselves like they're a coin laundry service.

[Len Penzo]

Yes, exactly. Yep.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Really interesting.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I like an app called Tip yourself that we've talked about before on the show where every time you do something fun, you know, you tip your waiters at the restaurant. Why wouldn't you tip yourself when you do something? So when I go out on a run, I'll tip myself a few dollars. So it's almost the same thing, Len, where I look at the money in my checking account and I go, yeah, I could tip myself five bucks. And so I tip it, and now I've got a bunch of money sitting in a spot for my next vacation that wasn't sitting there before. And you guess how much of the difference I felt in my life? None.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, well, you know what, though? It works, right?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yes. Some of these are dumb. I mean, some of these of the 40 are really dumb. So, Mrs. Ar, which one of these is a total waste of time?

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Len, you may have redeemed it a little bit, but number 16 was actually my total waste of time. And I do have this written down, so you can absolutely check this out. Not lying. So here's my thought. It's actually funny because I'm going to use some of your own arguments against you. Anyways, do you want to come back next week?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Wait a minute, hold on. We got to stop the show for a second. Mrs. Ar, do you want to come on every week?

[Doug (Joe's mom's neighbor)]

Just.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Just come on and fight with lead every week. That's perfect.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

All right, so I get the whole invest the change and invest, you know, your pennies and dimes, But I am a big fan of the bigger lifestyle changes and habits. So what I was thinking is, hey, I can go to Panera Bread and I can spend $10.62 on a sandwich and an app will save rounded up to 11, save the extra 38 cents. So 38 cents. Saved $11 out of my page or out of my checking account. There you go. Or I can take Len's sandwiches, make it at home, make a turkey and Swiss sandwich for 62 cents. And I've just saved $10 rather than spending 11 to only save 38 cents. So I think that's where I see the bigger habit change, like make the sandwich at home, make the bigger financial decisions, like buying a car, buying a house, investing, rather than the small pennies here and there.

[Len Penzo]

Len, I would just suggest maybe Mrs. A.R. just needs to get her clothes more

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

dirty, do laundry a few more times.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I do like that idea, though, focusing on the big things. But it seems, Len, I mean, to save you a little bit, that's easy enough for them to do where it really isn't. I mean, it sounds like what Mrs. A.R. is talking about, it's mindshare. Don't spend any of your mind on that.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, hey, no, what Mrs. A.R. said is I totally agree with. With Mrs. A.R. and that I'm not going to argue. I'm not going to argue that at all. She has a good point, too. And to be fair, I did say it was a small thing. It's just something that I liked. And it was. To me, it was something that was easy. Something. An easy way to make a few hundred bucks, you know, squeeze out a few hundred bucks out of your budget every year.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Well, yeah, and that's where I do think you have redeemed it a little bit for me.

[Len Penzo]

But go easy on me, Mrs. Air. You're gonna make me cry. Don't make me cry on Joe's podcast.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

You don't want to have Len cry when Len cries. The whole thing. That. Oh, it's horrible, Just horrible. Len, which one of these sucks?

[Len Penzo]

Which one did Mrs. A.R. pick?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

She picked yours that she liked.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Oh, yeah, Number four. Number four.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah. Automatic savings. That's for the birds.

[Len Penzo]

No, I like that one. No, you know what? The one that. Number 22, the shop at more than one grocery store. You know what? I figured you'd end up spending more money driving around in gas trying to save a few dimes on a certain product than just getting everything you need at the one grocery store, not to

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

mention your own time. Time is valuable. And the running in and out of stores, you're always like, oh, it's a quick run. I'll just run into Walmart. That never happens, right? 45 minutes later, you're out of there, Right.

[Len Penzo]

So. So you agree, miss I picked a good one there, right?

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

I absolutely agree. That was another good, good downer on the 40 list.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Virtual High five here. Let's move on to our second piece, guys, which comes to us from Kiplinger. And this is a piece written by Michael Martin, investment advisor representative with Legacy Financial Partners. He says, Len Penzo, that it's time to flip your financial focus. What's he talking about?

[Len Penzo]

Well, he's saying that no matter how much you have in your portfolio or how conservative you're investing it, there are certain things that your advisor needs to be covering with you when you talk about money that people tend to overlook. And he gave five of them. The first one is a big one with me is inflation.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah, let's dive right into that one because inflation's a big one with me. We talk about on the show fairly often.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Yeah.

[Len Penzo]

I think, you know, people will say, like, for example, they'll look at these numbers that you see, the calculators, the investment calculators. Well, if I have this much money and I and I set aside $10,000 a year and I earn 7% a year for 30 years, when I'm 65, I have whatever, you know, half a million dollars in the bank, you know, and most people look at that number at today's purchasing power, and you have to remember that that inflation is eroding your purchasing power. That is your loss of purchasing power every year. And so 30 years from now, that $500,000 isn't going to buy what you think it's going to buy if you're associating it with today's purchasing power. So that's something that's very important. You have to keep in mind before

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

you go, Mrs. A.R. i want to play a little game called old guys reminiscing.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

All right, go for it, Len.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

When you were a kid, you went down to the corner store and you were getting a Hershey bar or a Kit Kat. What did that cost?

[Len Penzo]

Hershey bars were five cents when I was a kid.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I remember, I remember 15. I don't remember five.

[Len Penzo]

Well, I'm a little older than you. Yeah. And I remember when they went to 10 and then I remember when they went to. Let me give you one, Joe, that Slurpees. When you went to the 711 store, how much was the small Slurpee?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I lived way out in the country, so I didn't experience Slurpees until I was in college. So by then it was like a buck.

[Len Penzo]

It was a dime A dime for a small Slurpee.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah, yeah. Remember when the Big Gulp came around?

[Len Penzo]

There's multiple, you know, there's a big. Somebody did, I think New York Times or somebody did a story on the Big Gulps. The Big Gulps over the years have increased. Right. Originally it was 36 ounces, then it went to 44 ounces. Then it went to the Super Big Gulp. Then it went to the mega Super Big Gulp. And I think you can get like 128 ounce super mega, mega, super big gold now if you want.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

All I can think of is who's got a bladder that big? That's all.

[Len Penzo]

You use the cup. When you're done, you use the cup.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Is that what you do? It's a. It's a double threat. Yeah, that's right. That's why you pay extra for the big, big one. Hey, gotta take a quick break from our awesome discussion with Mrs. Adventure Rich and Len Penzo. All right, let's go to our discussion with Mrs. Adventure Rich and Len Penzo from lenpenzo.com. Inflation. What's funny is, is that you see, you know, Jim Rogers, one of the great investment gurus, says, don't even look at government statistics. And I don't want to talk government. I don't want to talk about politics. But I do want to say that if you believe government statistics about inflation, you're fooling yourself.

[Len Penzo]

Yes, I agree. The reason for that, Joe, is since I think it was like the early 80s, the original consumer price inflation index, the formula has been changed multiple times over the last 20 or 30 years. It's like changing your ruler. A foot is 12 inches and then 10 years later they say, oh, no, now a foot is 15 inches. That makes it even more difficult. And they do that to hide the inflation.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah, I mean, just like breakfast cereals, when they left the price the same, they just made the box smaller. I thought, I thought that was awesome. They're like, wow, the price didn't change. Want to see my dogs? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Mrs. A.R. let's go to you for the second one. This is sequence of return risk. And I'm wondering, as somebody who's a younger investor, is this the type of thing that you worry about yet? Do you think about sequence of return risk or you like. I'll deal with that later.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

It's definitely an ideal with it later type of a thing especially. So we're a big fan in this household of the, the long game index investing. So the ups and downs, as long as we still have our jobs or still have funds to be investing. We want to just kind of ride out the market. And so we're not too worried right now if there is a downturn or if there's ups and downs. But as we get closer to whether our retirement date is at a traditional retirement or whether we're retiring a little bit early from traditional employment, I think about five years out, that's when we'll start to get a little bit more nervous or a little bit more watchful, I should say, is trying to take a look and see where's our risk tolerance. Because right now it's very high. It's primarily we're invested in stocks, but I think that would change if we were coming up closer to our retirement date.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah, Len, Speaking of, speaking of,

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

I

[Len Penzo]

got a few years to go. I got a few years.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah. But this idea of sequence of return risk, I agree with the author here. People don't pay attention to that enough.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Yeah.

[Len Penzo]

Especially, you know, and as somebody who's at the other end of the spectrum from Mrs. Ar, you know, I have to be careful. You know, a downturn now or in the, you know, that lasts. Right. As soon as I'm about to retire really can take a big hit out of my, my retirement savings. So I have to get very defensive and I have to, you know, do everything I can to maintain what I have, because I don't have the time. As you get everybody, as you get older, you have less time to recover from. From downturns.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Well, luckily you got defensive 15 years ago, which made you successfully avoid. You successfully avoided seven of the last two downturns, which is awesome.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, I've totally missed out. And everybody knows this. I've totally missed out on the last five years.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I can't.

[Len Penzo]

Mainly in the stock market.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I can't stop pouring salt in that wound. I can't.

[Len Penzo]

No, that's okay, Joe.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Every chance I get, I'm sorry. I feel bad.

[Len Penzo]

I still sleep well at night.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

But for people that don't, I do

[Len Penzo]

look at those returns and go, my God, what have I missed?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

But for people that don't know what sequence of return risk is, it's that you have bad returns. And I think people have gotten this just from our discussion. You've bad returns. Specifically at the worst time, just as you're headed into retirement, the market takes. And now you're getting more conservative with your money at the same time that you've lost a bunch of money. So you have to, you have to watch out for that the third one on this list that I want to talk about is the 4% rule. I was so surprised, Mrs. A.R. to see the 4% rule on here because I mean, don't you think the 4% rule where you can take 4% out of your investments and rely on that for your whole life? Like that's, that's rule of thumb number one we all live by.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

That's what I was going to say. I know it's definitely a popular concept in the personal finance world and in especially the fire community for so financial independence, retire early. But honestly, I had never heard of the 4% rule prior to getting involved with following personal finance blogs. So that's one where, while it seems so second nature to me, I could see where if I hadn't been handed the millionaire next door outside of college, I never would have stumbled upon personal finance. I probably would be oblivious to this rule. So not too surprised that it shows up on a list.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah. Len, how about you? Do you believe the 4% rule should be more like the 3% rule or 3.5% rule?

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, I kind of do. Only because people are living longer and so, and you know me, Joe, and your listeners, I'm just super conservative. So yeah, I think I would go down to at least three and a half percent.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah. The last two on this list, by the way, are tax planning and healthcare costs. And those are obviously big ones, but we'll let people read those on their own. If they head to our show [e-mail] we'll link to it. I want to move to our third piece, which I thought was a ton of fun. This is from a blog called Debts to Riches. Ditch Debt, Find Freedom. And it's letters to my future self. And it says on my debt free journey, I've learned that motivation is everything. If we want to see progress, we have to engineer our environment to bump ourselves along to success. Gamify, automate and habitify, I love that are my watchwords. Support is a major component of achievement, so surrounding yourself with people who encourage you is a key. That's why I joined the debt free community on Instagram when I first started getting serious about paying down my $130,000 of student loan debt. Wonder, wonder, by the way, Len, what Greg would say about $130,000 in student loan debt. But yeah, yeah, thank goodness he's not here.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Working towards the big number.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah, that is a big number. Working toward a common goal along with hundreds of others brings a sense of community and accomplishment. So what what the blogger here is saying debts to riches at the end is maybe I need to motivate myself and to get myself fired up once again, to use Mrs. Ar's term, the fire. Financial independence. Retire early. She sends herself encouraging letters from the past using this cool thing, futureme.org where you can send an email from now to the future telling yourself to keep it up and giving yourself things to remember that you want to make sure that you don't forget. And I thought this was great. What is something? And we'll go ladies first. Mrs. AR, what would you today send your future self that you got to remember maybe five years from now, ten years from now?

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Absolutely. So I think what I would send is I would tell myself to always remember to live some portion of your retirement today. So if I'm always imagining that my retirement is going to be waking up with a cup of coffee and watching the sunrise and reading a book or going for a run midday or, you know, watching the sunset with my family, those are great things to look forward to. But nothing is stopping me from doing that today. My husband and I both have full time jobs. We have a son. We might have an early meeting or a late meeting that would cause me not to be able to do this as often. But I can take steps and live my retirement dream today. So I want to always remind myself of that and kind of going back to adventure Rich itself. Live a life of adventure.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

That's awesome. I love that. Do you think you're gonna forget that though? Do you think at any point you'll forget that?

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

So the thing is though, I generally I don't. But then I'll have those days even now or even a week or so where, you know, things are crazy, work is busy, the toddler's going through the phase where he doesn't sleep at night, everything like that. Right. And so life happens and there's times where it is a lot harder to remind yourself to just stop for a second, look around and say, hey, this is pretty good. And if I want to, I can just take a pause and go do something I really enjoy, even if it's just for five minutes.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

That's fantastic. And it is. You're right. It's easy, especially with kids, to go, all of a sudden it's just gone. And then you realize that it's gone and you're trying to furiously get it back. Len, how about you? Your future self?

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, it's only money. And what I mean by that, that's what I would tell myself when I was younger, when I was just starting out, out of college, every dollar was precious to me. It was so precious to me. I was afraid to invest because I was afraid I was going to lose some money. Oh, my stock is down 5, you know, a percent today or 2%. What happens if, man, if I wasn't so fearful, I would have invested more earlier and I would have made more money again. That cautious nature of me, you know, people when, especially 20 somethings, hey, invest, be free. Don't worry about it. Invest and then forget it. Don't follow your, you know, every rise and fall of the market. Don't worry about it. Everything's gonna work out. You got your whole life ahead of you. You have plenty of time to recover. Don't be afraid to lose a little money.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I tell myself, remember to throw away that tuna fish.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Oh gosh,

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

if you haven't done it yet, it's probably pretty bad by now. No, gosh, I wouldn't tell myself that. I would tell myself, you know what I tell myself every day right now, which is to, I feel a lot of fear all the time and to go ahead and feel the fear but to live anyway, you know, just keep moving, keep moving forward and it's gonna, it's gonna be okay.

[Len Penzo]

So yes, it is.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

How about that for psychological and kind of deep. That's it. That's all the depth you're going to get on this show because we're going to keep it moving. We'll let our guest go last, Len Penzo. What's [e-mail]?

[Len Penzo]

hey Joe, a really cool article, 15 things that are Better to rent than buy. I think you might be surprised at a few of them.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Thank you. Moving off that, Mrs. Avenger Rich, thank you very much for joining us. Even though Len Penzo.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Absolutely my pleasure.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Even though Len Penzo is disgusting, knowing what I think he's thinking, I wasn't thinking, look it up on Google.

[Len Penzo]

There's a, there's a joke there.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Tell us, tell us before Lud keeps going. Tell us what's going on@adventure rich.com.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

absolutely. So at Adventure Rich, I've been sharing a couple stories and lessons learned from my first year of working full time remote for a Fortune 40 company. So a couple of things there on that. Some updates on our personal finance, our net worth and then I'm also participating in a September savings month where a couple of us bloggers led by the lady in the black over at the lady intheblack.com. i believe that's the URL, I can double check that. But she is having a couple of us do a challenge where if we get a coupon savings or a savings on a discounted price, instead of just taking that and nodding at it, we actually put that into a savings account. So I'll be joining her on that challenge throughout the month of September.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

We're going to have her on. Do you know her, Len?

[Len Penzo]

No, I don't, Joe.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

She's a fiend on Twitter. Like just a. Just a Twitter Twitter fiend. So awesome. Yeah, we definitely have to have her on at some point. That's awesome. And we'll leak to obviously, but venture rich.com thanks for coming on. Sorry you had to spend almost an hour with us.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

It's been my pleasure. And I've had a beer to keep me going.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

That's good.

[Len Penzo]

And this is ar. I still like you even if you. You don't like my number 16.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

All right, well that's good. If I ever come back to Southern California, I'll come say hi or maybe.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Awesome. Thanks for playing, guys.

[Len Penzo]

Thanks.

[Mrs. Adventure Rich]

Have a good.

[Doug (Joe's mom's neighbor)]

Special thanks to Mrs. Adventure Rich for joining us today. You'll find her [e-mail] Len Penzo appears courtesy of lenpenzo.com Special thanks also to Dr. Charisse Roth from Ask Vet for joining today. For more information on how they help you take care of your pets, head to Ask Vet. This show was created by Joe Salsihai, produced by Richie Rutter Reese and engineered by the amazing Steve Stewart. Kathleen Selmans handles design, newsletter and classroom opportunities online. Visit us on Twitter at sbenjaminscast or on our Facebook page. Shannon Cowan is our community manager and social media guru. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor Doug, and I'm pretty much the guy in charge of everything around here. Trust me, this well oiled machine didn't get like this all by itself. SB Podcasts may receive payment on the show from sponsors and guests in the form of books, giveaway items, discounts or other remuneration. There's no way you would take advice from these dorks. But like Joe's mom always says, don't take advice from people you don't know. This show is for entertainment purposes only. And before making any financial moves, consult with a real financial advisor.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Okay, I've sat here trying to think

[Len Penzo]

of something pleasant to say after that and I can't.