Black Friday Tech: What's Worth Buying (And What's Just Hype) SB1766

Summary

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The Stacking Benjamins Show

Episode SB1766 – Black Friday Tech: What's Worth Buying (And What's Just Hype)

Release Date: November 26, 2025
Main Guests: Joe Saul-Sehy (host), Anna Allum (co-host), Bridget Carey (CNET Editor/Tech Expert), Doug (Joe's Mom's neighbor)

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Episode Overview

This fun, fast-paced pre-Thanksgiving episode tackles the wild world of Black Friday tech deals. Joe and Anna—filling in for OG—welcome CNET’s Bridget Carey, a long-time friend of the show and renowned tech expert, for her annual breakdown of what holiday tech is truly worth your money…and what’s just flashy, over-hyped junk. From the latest game consoles and AI-infused appliances to smart home gadgets, nostalgic toys, and the pros and cons of buying refurbished tech, this episode delivers actionable advice, consumer protection tips, and plenty of laughs. Sprinkled throughout are notable soundbites, helpful buying strategies, and a lively, conversational tone that makes financial literacy feel like a basement card game among friends.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Hot Holiday & Black Friday Tech Trends

(08:05–15:35)

• Nintendo Mania: This Black Friday is all about Nintendo—especially the new Switch 2 console, bundles with hit games, and a flood of nostalgia-branded gear for adults and kids alike.

  • Quote: “This is the year of Nintendo stuff. I mean, I think this is the year of the Nintendo Switch 2.” – Bridget (08:30)
  • High-fashion Mario Kart jackets, Animal Crossing Crocs, and backpacks are in demand.
  • For gifting: “You don’t have to buy everything all at once…all the old Switch stuff still works with the new one.” – Bridget (09:17)

• Handheld Gaming Expands: New handheld Xbox device (in partnership with Asus), as well as the versatile Steam Deck, are opening up the gaming universe.

  • Emphasis on portability and cross-platform access is big for both adults and kids.
  • Quote: "Gamers who want a lot of options are starting to get more options.” – Bridget (12:32)
  • Warning: “These things are expensive though. You’re dropping nearly a grand…” – Bridget (12:22)

• Subscription Gaming, Are the Deals Still Worth It?

  • Xbox Game Pass and similar services have gotten pricier, prompting people to reconsider if the vast access is actually cost-effective.
  • Quote: "There’s a $500 crossover point ... I don’t know if it does anymore." – Joe (14:35)
  • Bridget suggests: Older games go on sale often—don’t overlook them for value.

2. Smart Home & AI—Hype vs. Value

(15:35–19:29)

• AI Everywhere (Maybe Too Much)

  • From rice cookers to TVs, AI is a marketing buzzword but often doesn’t add value. “I don’t need AI control in my rice cookers…It’s all gimmick.” – Bridget (15:51)
  • Buy appliances (like air fryers, coffee pods, TVs) based more on core function and real needs.

• TV Buying Tips

  • “Decide before you get involved in everything what kind of screen is important…OLED is the best.” – Bridget (16:21)
  • Use extensions like Keepa to track price history and avoid the urgency trap.
  • Quote: “There are website extensions…It’ll tell you, oh yeah, it’s always on sale every three months.” – Bridget (17:51)
  • Don’t chase “the best deal ever”—all sales aren’t that special, and permission to NOT buy is powerful.

3. Key Advice for Apple, Android, & Refurbished Tech Shoppers

(19:40–26:37)

• Apple Devices & Accessories

  • Best Black Friday deals are not at Apple Stores, but at major retailers (Amazon, Target, Best Buy, Walmart).
  • “This is the time to buy an iPad…great time for the Apple Watch SE. But last year’s models are still great!” – Bridget (20:03)
  • AirTags are “heavily discounted”—perfect for stocking stuffers (21:34).
  • Tip: “Go for last year’s model to save. Most new features are incremental.”
  • Beware of the Apple Pencil compatibility headache; go cheap unless you’re a pro user.

• Refurbished Tech—Good or Bad?

  • Don’t fear it, especially if from trusted retailers and not too old. “I have bought refurbished…and they were great.” – Bridget (24:57)
  • Always know the return policy. Watch battery life on older/refurbished items.

• Android Deals

  • More budget options than Apple; carrier bundle deals are common.
  • Amazon-brand smart home tech (Ring, Echo, etc.) steeply discounted.
  • Increasing “Matter” compatibility means smart devices from different brands work together more easily.

4. Consumer Risks: Planned Obsolescence & Support

(28:21–31:34)

• Forced Upgrades & Discontinued Support
  • Companies (like Ring and Google Nest) discontinuing support for older products, rendering expensive hardware dumb or useless.
  • “There is a consumer rage and distrust now over…are you just going to let these companies change the rules mid-game?” – Bridget (29:44)
  • Sometimes “going dumb” (less smart tech) is more reliable!

5. Toys & Gifts: What’s Worth it for Kids and Families

(31:51–36:01)

• Nostalgia Rules the Toy Aisle
  • Fewer high-tech toys this year; core classics (Light Bright, Magna Doodle, even Skip-It!) are resurging.
  • Nintendo’s Alarmo (a Mario-themed alarm clock with games & updates) is a weird, fun favorite.
  • This year’s “king” tech toy: Long Furby (snake-like, interactive, meditative) – “so fun and delightful!”
  • Toys have gotten pricier; watch for the cost of accessories (e.g., audiobook figurines).
  • Batteries often not included—double-check when shopping.

6. Headline Discussion: Robinhood – Fintech Growth and Red Flags

(45:12–61:06)

• Robinhood’s Evolution

  • The trading app is diversifying into a full financial ecosystem, boasting nine business lines earning $100 million+ each.
  • Quote: “Robinhood, the company that takes from the poor and gives to their wallet.” – Joe (45:12)

• Gamification of Finance

  • Anna notes its appeal to younger digital natives; Joe rails against its hidden costs, regulatory violations, and the dangers of treating real investing like a game.
  • “They are taking money from you while telling you it’s more fun.” – Joe (48:10)
  • “Robinhood paid fines for encouraging you to day trade.” – Joe (52:24)
  • Sober warning: Keep fun money separate from serious long-term investments.
  • Robinhood’s foray into futures trading and prediction markets likened to “an elevated DraftKings”—blurring the line between investing and betting.

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Noteworthy Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Parenting and Gifting:
  “If you’re not getting asked for anything [for Thanksgiving], that means nobody trusts you to bring anything.” – Doug (03:38)
• On Console Upgrades:
  “You don’t have to buy everything all at once. All the old Switch stuff still works with the new one.” – Bridget (09:17)
• On AI in Appliances:
  “I don’t need AI control in my rice cookers. But there’s a lot of stuff like that now. It’s all gimmick.” – Bridget (15:51)
• On Buying Refurb:
  “I have bought refurbished…and they were great. So don’t be afraid to refurbish.” – Bridget (24:57)
• On Smart Home Obsolescence:
  “You have a right to be able to just use it…you shouldn’t have to have something that is an essential part of your house suddenly go ‘we changed our mind – we’re not working anymore.’” – Bridget (29:02)
• On Classic Toys:
  “I have seen a few tech toys that do make me smile…and there is one tech toy that I think is the king…Long Furby!” – Bridget (33:00)
• On Robinhood:
  “Robinhood, the company that takes from the poor and gives to their wallet.” – Joe (45:12)
  “They are taking money from you while telling you it’s more fun…The fines don’t matter, the fees don’t matter…Hey, this thing’s fun.” – Joe (48:10; 53:00)
• On Gamification:
  “Robinhood kind of does both things…They probably need to figure that out.” – Anna (52:52)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Nintendo/Nostalgic Gaming: 08:05–12:12
• Handhelds & Subscriptions: 12:12–15:35
• Household Tech & AI: 15:35–19:29
• Apple Buying Tips: 19:40–24:12
• Refurbished Tech: 24:57–26:37
• Android & Amazon Devices: 26:37–28:21
• Smart Home Risks: 28:21–31:34
• Toys & Gifts: 31:51–36:01
• Headline—Robinhood Deep Dive: 45:12–61:06

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Actionable Takeaways & Bridget’s “Rules of Thumb”

• Don’t rush or panic-buy big-ticket tech on Black Friday.
• Older models (consoles, watches, iPads) offer great value—major features rarely justify premium prices.
• Appliance AI features are mostly overhyped—focus on true utility.
• Check return policies and battery replacement needs—especially for “refurbished” or discounted products.
• Console bundles (with games) maximize gifting value.
• If gifting smart home gear, stick to reputable brands and beware of discontinued support.
• Kids: Long Furby, Nintendo Alarmo, and classics like Skip-It get the Bridget Carey seal of fun.

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Resources & Links

• Bridget Carey on CNET & YouTube: “One More Thing” (Fridays)
• Use the Keepa extension to check Amazon price history (17:51)
• For financial wellness and kid-friendly money teaching: giftingsense.org
• Episode Show Notes

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Closing Thoughts

This episode channels what Stacking Benjamins does best—lots of laughs, nostalgia for simpler times, and practical advice for making better holiday spending choices. Bridget’s clear-eyed skepticism about high-priced, overhyped tech (especially anything “AI-enabled”) gives listeners permission to avoid the FOMO and shop smarter. Anna’s perspective bridges generations, and Joe steers the conversation with empathy and clarity—especially on the Robinhood debate.

Final Joe Wisdom: “I love the gamification of the things I’m trying to do with my money. I don’t love gamifying where I’m managing my money.” (61:06)

Bridget’s parting shot: “Batteries not included is the theme of this year!” (36:58)

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For more laughs, gift strategies, and personal finance wonkiness, tune in to future SB triumvirate episodes—all from the comfort of Joe’s Mom’s basement!

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Transcript

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

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[McDonald's Announcer]

Extra value meals are back. That means 10 tender juicy McNuggets and.

[Bridget Carey]

Medium fries and a drink are just.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

$8 only at McDonald's for a limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska and California. And for delivery.

[Bridget Carey]

No, no. I want an official red rider carbon nitrogen 200 jet range mandolay rifle.

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

You'll shoot your eye out, kid.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Merry Christmas.

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

Ho ho ho. Live from Joe's mom's basement, it's the Stacking Benjamin show. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor Doug and every year a bunch of new tech comes out. And this year all of it seems to feature AI. But what tech is actually worth your hard earned money? And what's just fad junk? You'll end up being a beta tester for our mentor today is Bridget Carey from cnet who will share the good, bad and ugly of holiday tech deals so you don't waste your money. Plus, in our headline segment, one brokerage firm is upping their game to control your whole wallet. Which is it? We'll share and hear Joe groan from about five states away. Relax Joe. Sure, they're just worried about making things better for their customers.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Not.

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

And speaking of better, of course I'll share a better er, part of this show. My trivia question. And now two people who are the hot new tech in personal finance? Joe, Sal Sehei and CFP Anna Alam.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Hey there stackers. Happy pre Thanksgiving to you. Day before Thanksgiving, we're all stretching out, getting ready for the big beast tomorrow. If you're in the other 46 countries where people listen to Stacking Benjamins, Happy Wednesday to you. We kicked OG to the curb today. Actually he's traveling this week which means lucky us, we get the upgrade because Anna Ellum's here. How are you?

[Anna Allum]

I'm doing so good. I am ready for Thanksgiving. Ready to just feast all day.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Is Thanksgiving at your house? Do you go somewhere?

[Anna Allum]

Oh no, no, no way. We go to my in laws house. We switch it up every year depending on like my parents or my husband's parents both are great options. We have really great cooks in our family, so.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Oh, that's good.

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

What do you volunteer to bring? Like those little crispy onion things that go on top of the casserole you really like? You bring napkins?

[Anna Allum]

That's a great question. We are still figuring that out. I know it's the day before Thanksgiving, but we are still on what we're bringing. My mother in law, like, has it unlocked. She's been doing this for so long that sometimes I just bring a little appetizer. A little.

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

Here's what you need to realize. If you're not getting asked for anything, that means nobody trusts you to bring anything.

[Anna Allum]

Yeah, exactly.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Can you see Anna at Thanksgiving defending her honor? No, they're nacho cheese. Flavored nacho cheese.

[Anna Allum]

You have to try it.

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

I just opened the bag. It's fresh.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Look how they come in triangles. It's really, really cool. Well, we got a great show today, guys, because I think Bridget. Doug, how many years? Maybe 10 years. Bridget Carey's been all of the years.

[Bridget Carey]

Yeah.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Bridget's been nice enough to help us with tech for a long time. Of course, she is one of the main voices over at cnet and we were very lucky early on to get her to be a stacker the day before Thanksgiving. And man, with all this new tech that comes out every year, so much of it is junk. And Bridget has a great gift at making it fun and funny to show you how stupid some of this technology is and at the same time tell you how cool it is. And because Bridget has children, Bridget loves diving into tech for kids as well. So sit back because we're about to talk to Bridget Carey. This is part of our yearly triumvirate of shows. If you missed Monday, not only did you miss comedian, you just wanted to.

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

Use the word triumvirate.

[Bridget Carey]

I was like, did you trifecta.

[Anna Allum]

What does that mean? Triumvirate. I feel like you combine three words into one.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

It's the trilogy.

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

Trilogy.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Is that better?

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

Yeah. A triumvirate is often like three powerful beings.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Yes.

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

That all combined to become onerous.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Well, no, but three fantastic.

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

House, the senate, and the judicial system would be considered.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

We could use all caps to go the Monday, the Wednesday, the Friday this week. We could do that. It could be the triumvirate of shows.

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

It can be.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

But Regina Conway on Monday at Slick Deals. Bridget Cary doing tech. This is every year she does. She does this great tech segment. And then on Friday, you know, Doug, the board game episode.

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

Joe learned a new Word Fastic, the triumvirate of shows.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

But first, the woman who is the queen of tech at C net, Bridget Carry. Before we hear from Bridget though, we got a couple sponsors who help us keep on keeping on and so we're going to hear from them. You're not going to pay a dime for any of this because of them. We'll hear from them and then Bridget Carrey is going to help you make better tech decisions this Black Friday. It's time for Black Friday, Dell Technologies biggest sale of the year. Enjoy the lowest prices of the year on select PCs like the Dell 16 plus, featuring Intel Core Ultra processors and with built in advanced features. It's the PC that helps you do more faster plus earn Dell rewards and enjoy many other benefits like free shipping, price match guarantee and expert support. They also have huge deals on accessories that pair perfectly with your Dell PC and make perfect gifts for everyone on your list. Shop [e-mail] deals.

[McDonald's Announcer]

Kevin Harlan here. This Black Friday prime is taking over with an incredible day of live sports. Black Friday football is at the center of it all with the Chicago Bears taking on the Philadelphia Eagles at 3 Eastern. Immediately after that, it's an exciting Emirates NBA cup doubleheader. The Bucs will take on the Knicks at 7pm Then the Mavericks will be in LA against the Lakers at 10. It's the final night of knockout rounds as teams vie for a spot in the quarterfinals. And the whole day starts on the links with the Capital One skins game as four elite PGA golfers face off with $4 million on the line. Black Friday game day tees off with a Capital One skins game at 9am Eastern. Then it's Black Friday football with the Bears and Eagles at threes. And it all culminates with the doubleheader of NBA basketball, the Emirates cup action featuring the Bucks at Knicks at 7 and the Mavs at the Lakers at 10. And it's all only on Prime.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

And you know it's the day before Thanksgiving. And you also know it is two days before Black Friday when Bridget Carey's here. How are you?

[Bridget Carey]

Hey Joe. Good to be here.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Hey, I don't know where to start. I don't know if we start with all the news that you cover now on your regular beat with Apple. I think I don't want to start there. I think I want to start with the thing I just saw you on TikTok and Nintendo, what, two days ago, three days ago you had a little bit of fun with Nintendo.

[Bridget Carey]

This is the year of Nintendo stuff. I mean, I Think this is the year of the Nintendo Switch too. But Nintendo was kind of like showcasing like all the stuff you could buy that's not a video game because that's also another big gift thing this year. There's so many fans. You get backpacks and purses and high fashion items. I mean, we've gotten to the point where like, adults with adult money who grew up with Nintendo are like, I would like a high fashion jacket that says Mario kart for over $100.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Yeah, I think it's the 2025 version of adults with Legos, like in the early 2000s, you know.

[Bridget Carey]

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think that's still going on with Lego stage.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Good point. So what's hot at Nintendo then?

[Bridget Carey]

This being the year where we get the new Switch 2 console that's really becoming like the hot tech gift for all ages right now. I mean, if you haven't already got one kind of thing. But usually for kids, it's always like saving for the holidays. And so I think it's one of those items that this Black Friday everyone's looking to see. Is there any deal on a new console? It's the hottest thing, I would say. You got to grab a bundle if you can find one. A bundle being like the machine that comes with a hot game like Mario Kart, sometimes they come with games like Pokemon. But there also is this feeling that when there's a new console, like, how many more things do you have to buy with it? And I would say if you're stressing out because these consoles can get expensive, know that the old Switch stuff still works with the new one. You don't have to buy a new console controller. Guess what? I'm getting my kids this. They don't watch your show, thank goodness. But I'm getting my kids this Switch too. And I'm going to let them use the old controllers to save some money. You don't have to buy everything all at once. But yeah, there are obviously a couple hot games that people want to get with this too. Like there's a new Donkey Kong game.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Oh, awesome. Like the new Donkey Kong ride, which you rode. Epic Universe.

[Bridget Carey]

Oh, my gosh, what a year for Nintendo. They opened Epic Universe, the theme park in Florida too. With everything going on, they have to have a new movie coming out with another Super Mario movie. Yeah, it's just not stuff everyone's talking about the Zelda movie. So I think it's almost like they're kind of going on this path that's like a little Disney esque but like they're almost doing like a different version of like the theme parks, the movies, and now video games kind of all coming together.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

It feels so, so congruent. It totally feels very Disney esque. By the way, I'm very disappointed that your kids aren't stackers yet at their advanced age. But we'll move on. I'll try to get over it.

[Bridget Carey]

I'll start small. I'll get them a debit card someday. Come on, I have a six and nine year old.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Whatever. I don't need excuses. No excuses. Bridget, by the way, can we talk then? Animal Crossing. I know you got a bunch of stuff for me. I just have stuff for you. And I want to talk Animal Crossing because I also saw you unwrap this thing in the last month that were like Animal Crossing crocs.

[Bridget Carey]

Oh yeah. I've never owned a croc before. I'm going to be totally honest. But suddenly at my door to promote their crocs, they have like Animal Crossing crocs with little critters on them. I think I'm becoming a sucker for this stuff because when your kids are a fan of something, you suddenly are like, oh, we can bond over crocs now. Absolutely. This is adorable. My fashion sense just went out the window. Suddenly I'm like, next, I need my bowser backpack. That is like a big shell with sp. It'll bring it all together.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Are they worth it though? Are they hot?

[Bridget Carey]

Everyone at school can't stop talking about them when the kids have it. So I think this is more like hotter for kids. But they make them in adult sizes.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Of course they do. Again for people that are still living their kids at yours.

[Bridget Carey]

And if your vice is going with Animal Crossing Crocs, more power to you.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

I wanted to talk about those crocs because of course Animal Crossing and video games. But let's also, if you don't mind, stick with consoles for a second because one thing I also know is that with the Xbox, they just finally released a handheld with the help of another company. And I know beforehand people were saying, are people going to buy it? Are people not going to buy it? This seems to be a hot thing this year though.

[Bridget Carey]

I think when it comes to like these other handhelds like in Nintendo, you're kind of in that Nintendo world. It's the only way you can get games like Mario and some of other Nintendo's properties like Kirby and Zelda. So you're going to get like this family friendliness about the Switch. Almost like you feel like you could just leave your kids with these games and it's okay. But the world kind of opens up into a little more adult when you have older family who want to do the Xbox. And yes, Asus has this like handheld. And these things are expensive though. You're dropping nearly a grand for all of these bells and whistles to take your Xbox games on the go. And there are other alternatives out there. If you don't want to buy the brand new Whiz Bang one. There's something called a Steam deck. Sometimes you have to be a little bit tech savvy, have a little patience, because it does open up the ability to kind of play other PC games. I think that's the trend now. Gamers who want to have a lot of options are starting to get more options. They don't have to be stuck in just your PlayStation world or just your Xbox world. Games are kind of now crossing over. We're even seeing games that traditionally were always on one console or even going to Nintendo. So as the years progress now if you want a lot more options, you're going to go with something that's made by the company that's like a Steam deck and be able to kind of go, oh, I can get all kinds of games. I don't have to be held in by. Because in my day when I was a PlayStation kid, I didn't play a lot of Xbox games until I bought an Xbox. But yeah, they are kind of blurring now. But I think a lot of people are looking at these essentially like Windows machines that you can have in your hand and take on the go.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Well, and a lot of times these consoles have subscriptions attached. But I know that the prices. A couple years ago, you and I were talking about how Game Pass, Xbox's subscription service looked to be like a category winner. Like this was just a great deal for somebody in your family to give to them that plays games or maybe, heck, take advantage of it yourself. But they just raised the price so high is, oh, there's a lot of.

[Bridget Carey]

Pushback for that price.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Yeah. Is it worth it anymore at what, $40 a month or something?

[Bridget Carey]

It's one of those things where like, if you like access to that, you end up going well, you weigh it out. Like I'm. I'm a little bit on the cheap side when it comes to like online subscriptions. I don't even do the really cheap Nintendo online subscription because I'm still in the old school physical media all the way. Let me just save money and enjoy one game at a Time. But a lot of people do want that freedom to play with their friends. And then they kind of go, well, no matter what, I have to play with my friends online, I have to get it. And they'll also want all the access instantly. So I think it depends how, how much you're into that world. But I know there were a lot of people kind of rolling their eyes at all these price hikes right now.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

That's a $500 crossover point. I mean, you gotta buy $500 worth of games to make that make sense. And I don't know.

[Bridget Carey]

I don't know if it does anymore. Especially when so many older games go on sale that you could just buy digitally.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Yeah, yeah. I don't get it. So console wise, unless you had something else, any console stuff, I think it.

[Bridget Carey]

Really just keeps going back to, like, you go in the store, it's Nintendo Switch, all the kids are around it. And so that's really it. There is a little bit of maybe nuance to like, do you need to buy all the little things that come with the Switch? There's a new camera this year that you could do. I don't think you need the camera right away. Grandparents kind of get worried that they want to buy a gift for their grandkids and they're like, well, what kind of game? Guess what? The old games still work. You can get a sale. There's like lots of Black Friday sales on old games that are still great. And then on top of all of that, there's a new memory card. You need a special kind of memory card. So I feel like, save that stuff for like the after holiday sales. Like, oh, worry about that later. Just, just get the system up right now.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

That's great advice. Let's go to household items. I'm going to give you two letters. Bridget, tell me what's going on technology wise, like in household goods, kitchen stuff with these two letters. AI.

[Bridget Carey]

Oh, man. I don't need AI control in my rice cookers. But there's a lot of stuff like that now. It's all gimmick. I kind of feel what a lot of consumers are feeling where we just want things to work. I just got a new washing machine. Don't really care if it has AI in it. Just please wash the clothes. That's it. This is a really good time for the smaller appliances that don't really have so much AI in them. So expect the kitchen appliances to be really on sale right now for Black Friday and you're going to probably get a good deal on something. If you've been eyeballing, believe it or not, air fryers are still hot year after year. And then the other place that sometimes kind of walks into that AI world is televisions. Black Friday is big for televisions, right? I think you can kind of try to steer away from connecting your TV to the Internet and still have a great time. Don't worry about that maybe being your like number one priority on a feature. I think everyone wants a 65 inch TV. That's like the kind of like where we see consumers really hungry for a good tv. But when you're kind of shopping right now, there are just so many deals that seem excellent and it can get a little confusing. Like, oh my gosh, Amazon's got this TV and Target's got that tv. Which one do I go for? Just decide before you get involved in everything what kind of screen is important to you. OLED is the best. Do you care about how many ports it has in the back? Like, narrow down a few things before you go crazy and then see, is that TV any good? You can, you can do a Google search before you hit put it in your cart. You don't have to panic anymore. You can see, is this a brand I've heard of? If you haven't heard of the brand, I don't know if I'd go for it. But you know, things like that, do your research. And when it comes to like the appliances, otherwise it's always a hot time for kitchen appliances in general. And sometimes things like Keurig, you're going to see the accessories for those appliances have really good Black Friday sales like Keurig Coffee Pods. That's the time to buy those.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Is there any obvious gotchas around the area of TVs where people, you see people frequently make the mistake that they go, man, I regret that purchase.

[Bridget Carey]

I think it comes down to not knowing who made that tv. Like you just see a big red markdown on an advertisement or on an Amazon page and you go, wait, what exactly did I buy? I just was going for like the big markdown. But sometimes these TVs are marked down for a long time. There are ways you can track the price history of a product's markdown. There are website extensions. One's called Keepa K E E P A. You can like download these ahead of time before you start going shop crazy in general, it'll tell you, oh yeah. This item that you found on Amazon copy, paste it in the extension, It'll tell you, oh yeah. It's always on sale every three months. Then you can go, oh, maybe it's. Maybe it's not that big of a sale. They just put a big red letter here to kind of make me feel like it's more. I need to act now. It's all about that urgency, right? It's all about, oh, I have to act now. It's just. It's just too good to be true. Well, guess what? There's going to be sales constantly. You can kind of take a little breath. Even if it wasn't the best sale, give yourself permission to get a good deal. Even if it's not the best deal, you don't have a time machine. You might not have had the best deal. That was like two months ago. I mean, maybe you do have a time machine, but either way, you never know. Just give yourself permission to say, you know what? I'm getting a sale right now on something I need or something I want. Even it's not the best sale, I'm going to feel good about it.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

I love that advice because I'm a baseball fan and being a money guy, I'm a Warren Buffett fan. And Warren Buffett once said, there's no such thing as a called strike with investing. You're saying the same thing about these sales. There's no such thing as a called strike. Nobody's going to get mad if you skip this one.

[Bridget Carey]

And there are different items that go on sale now. Like, this is a big tech time. Right? That's why you got me on tech. But maybe it's not the best time for clothing or furniture. It depends. It depends on what you need. So I always go with a plan. Like right now, I need a rug for my house. I'm going to go for a rug sale, but I'm not going to get everything right now.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

If you live closer. I had two rugs that were in great condition that we just. We were doing a remodel. I wasn't going to drive him all the way to New York. Might take me a few days to get it there.

[Bridget Carey]

I'll task rabbit it or something.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Yeah, could you see that? Drive to Texarkana to pick up my rug. It might change the value of my buddy Joe's rug. Yeah, I was going to ask next, let's move into the war, that is. But I want to start off with your usual beat. Let's talk about what's going on for all of our Apple lovers. What's fun and exciting in the world of Apple?

[Bridget Carey]

Well, this is the time to buy an iPad. If there ever was a time to buy an iPad. Black Friday, we're seeing really good deals. I also think this is a great time for the Apple Watch. That's new, but it doesn't have as many whiz bang features. It's called the Apple Watch Se. Big discounts there. Every year there's a new Apple something, right? You know, it has another little extra feature in it. But guess what? The one from yesteryear last year, the one that's maybe doesn't have every feature in it. They're still very good. They still do everything you want to do. They just might miss one small health tracking feature. So if that one small health tracking feature, like being able to track, you know, your oxygen levels or whatever it might be. If you can live without that, you're getting great deals for Black Friday. I'm looking at even last year's S. Uh, let's see. It's the. There's so many long names to these. The Apple Watch Series 10 would be last year. Series 11 is this year. This year's on sale. But even bigger sales on last year's. And I've been wearing them every year. I can't really tell the difference too much between them, you know. So I'm just saying you're gonna have some good deals if you could just wait till get last year's model. Also, I'm giving everyone an Apple airtag this year. That's that little tracker circle that you just stick, throw it on keys. It's been saving my sanity. But also they're really heavily discounted more than years past right now. Especially these bundles I'm see on Amazon and where not. That's because there's rumors that there might be a new one coming out. But it's still going to track your stuff. Like, who cares? Have you got the ships or the next years? It's a tracker. It's going to track your stuff. It's going to be great. Pop it in stockings. There you go. So I'm going to do that based.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

On you saying the Apple Air tags. Last year I went and finally did it. Like, I felt like I was so cool. But 20 years after these things and did it, it was far easier to set up than I thought it was going to be. Like in my head, I don't know why I thought, oh, this is going to be a pain in the ass. It was so easy. Two seconds later, bam, it's in my bag. And then I can watch my luggage disappear at the airport and still not do anything about it. But I know where it's lost in the airport.

[Bridget Carey]

But there's so many uses for it too. I mean usually you need a new like little coin battery every year, right? But I have a keychain hooked on my kids backpack and I have it set that if it ever goes outside of this certain boundary that I'll get a little ping. Like FYI, the backpack has left a boundary. But yeah, it's wallets. And the best part is it makes a little sound. So I lose my keys, I have it on my keychain. I'm like walking around the house like this. Make the sound, where are my keys? It goes beep, beep, beep, beep. I've lost my brain after all these years of doing it. So it saves me.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Is that advice though to go late model last year's model with the watch, is that the same advice with the iPad?

[Bridget Carey]

Yeah, but because I don't think iPads change all that much also. But the mini, sometimes they don't get refreshed every year whatever models they are. Like right now they have the latest ones have an M4 chip and last year has an M3. They are doing far beyond anything you might need for Apple intelligence. If you want to push it to limit for all these apps. I think only pro users that might need some specialized video or photography tools might take a pause and go, okay, do I have the right model I need? Because I use it every day. But if you're talking about getting an iPad for a family who wants to take it on flights to be able to watch media, to do their homework, I usually am very hesitant to buy an iPad because you don't need to buy them that often to begin with. But if you know someone who could like, hey, they could use another tablet that's updated the iPad mini for me this year, that's the one I'm looking at. And then there's a lot of pencils, accessories too. There's many different varieties. That's a big headache for people because certain Apple pencils work only with certain units. Go for the cheapest one, the high end ones, the pros, they have stylus sensitivity. You just doodling on it. If you're a younger person, perhaps you know, like just go with the cheaper model, it's okay. And there's some good deals on the pencils too. But all these deals I'm mentioning with Apple products, they're with retailers, they're with your Amazons and your Targets and your Best Buys and Walmarts. Apple itself doesn't ever Put these on sale. If you go to an Apple store, they're going to say, we're going to give you a gift card that you could spend next time. So this is the time to shop at all of the retail stores, not necessarily Apple stores. Unless you just love Apple so much you want a gift card to gift to someone else later. Maybe that's the way you do another gift. So it's. It's all about strategy here.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

You know, Mom's neighbor Doug told me about a great app that I didn't know existed. Bridget, you probably knew this existed forever. It's called Duet. And when I go on the road, my iPad becomes a second screen, so I can be in a hotel room working and have two screens. Super easy to use, super easy to set up. I had no idea that thing existed.

[Bridget Carey]

You're so more tech savvy than me. I've heard of these things. I'm still like, give me my one laptop.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Okay, Right now, for all the stackers that are listening or that are keeping score, it's Bridget Cary, 99 Joe 1. That's the score. Currently, I'll see if I can get number two. But there's another word you'll see. Often people, you know, they'll be shopping online for an iPad or a watch or a Mac or, heck, any electronic device. They'll see the word refurbished. How afraid the word refurbished should we be?

[Bridget Carey]

I have bought refurbished, and I bought the scariest kind of refurbished. I bought the refurbished you put in your ears. So I bought EarPods from Beats that I refurbished, and they were great. So don't be afraid to refurbish.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Cool.

[Bridget Carey]

I would only do it from, like, reputable stores that if you feel something, they go wrong, you can kind of take it back and say, this isn't up to the quality that I expect.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Oh, that's good. So know the return policy.

[Bridget Carey]

I think this is also a year where I'm studying return policies more. I feel like with everything going on right now, there's just a little more tension that I'm worried about. Like, I used to be able to just return anything. At any store, there's a little more sensitivity to how long you can return something or if you have that receipt. So, yes, do be holding onto your receipts for everything. I think more than ever this year. But, yeah, refurbished works great, especially if it's not not something you need for a performance reason. Like, it's hard to explain, but when it comes to kid tech, I'm always getting refurbished. If I have the option to Save a lot on it, especially if it's, you know, not something that is that old. See, there's a fine line where I'm getting that you can get refurbished. But how old is that tech are we talking? It's five years old. All right, now I'm going to start to take back a little bit of that advice. I'm going to go, okay, like, there's a balance of the age of the product. Is it last year's model? How far are we going back? Two years old. And then there's the refurbished. So if it's brand new, refurbished, I feel a little better about being able to get more life out of that product than if it's many years old and refurbished. Now we're stacking, we're stacking, we're stacking. Problems that could happen.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

It's like a half step below. It could be the text a half step below. But the refurbished is so five years down here and refurbished.

[Bridget Carey]

Yeah, because battery life's also an issue too, that you want to make sure you're getting the most out of it.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Yeah. We have almost lost Android people. Hang in there. You're next. The Androids are going, what about us, Bridget? What about us? I don't use any of those Apple products. I know that you don't cover it as part of your regular beat, but certainly you're looking at the competition across the aisle going, what's Google bringing?

[Bridget Carey]

Well, Android always has a lot of more budget options than Apple ever does. That's the thing. That's why Android users know that they're smarter than all of us, because they're always getting better deals and they have more freedom. People who are, like, locked into the Apple ecosystem are always like, bridget, is there a sale on phones? And I'm like, no, there's never a sale on phones. Let it go. But Android folks can always get like $150, 200 phone. So I think the sales when it comes to, like, you know, different deals there, usually the carriers kind of have some Black Friday deals that they kind of like to bundle things together. In general, though, kind of going off of Apple a little bit too. It's another big time for Amazon, not Android, but another a. Amazon obviously has all of its own brands. There's so many brands now. There's the Ring, the Echo, the Fire tv, the Kindle. There's also Blink if you need to accessorize your home, add another smart thing to another room, add a little security system to an ecosystem you already set up. That's when you go for it because Amazon has really good deals for this. I think some people are a little hesitant when they already have certain kind of brand ecosystems in their home, but they're starting to play together better now. There's something called matter. It's kind of techie, but it's basically a language where all these smart products are talking to each other better. It used to be you needed all Samsung, you need it all Amazon, you need it all Google. But now in my house, I'm noticing I can have a couple different devices. I can play my Apple music on my Echo smart speaker. And so it makes me go, there's a little bit of more wiggle room to experiment if you want to try something new without feeling like you have to throw out your old stuff.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

I just got an amp for my Sonos, so all my. The house we moved into has wired speakers and I was able to hook those all up to my Sonos using this cool amp product. Not cheap, but made it so that all the existing tech that was in the house worked with what I was already using. You know, my existing system, which was pretty cool. Two more things I was hoping to cover. One is a big one that I saw on a Reddit thread recently. They're all talking about this. Bridget. I think it was Ring. Was it ring that for some of their older doorbell systems and security stuff. They just discontinued it. Your doorbell that you bought, that's three, four or five generations old. I don't remember. I don't know which one just now doesn't work anymore. They just don't support it.

[Bridget Carey]

I had a issue with this. This year. Great thing happened. I bought my first home. No more renting. That's great. And then I get into a home that has a Google Nest, has a thermostat in it. I'm like, great, I get to have my first smart thermostat. Hold on a second alert. It was discontinued in October. It's basically becoming dumb. So dumb that I can't even use my phone to change the temperature. I have to manually do it. And it's also now that it happened. It's now a dumb thermostat. They go, hey, don't worry about it. We'll give you a discount to buy a brand new one. A discount. It still cost me $150 to buy a new one. I am absolutely outraged over this because you have a right to be able to just. Just use it. Basically. Like you shouldn't have to have something that is an essential part of your house suddenly go we changed our mind. We're not working anymore. How hard was it to just be able to take my phone and to be able to see what my temperature is? This is stuff I can do with toys at home. Why is a thermostat from Google suddenly going, guess you got to buy a new one, folks. Thanks for playing? And so I think a lot of consumers are getting really angry now. All this AI, all the, all these smarts and these products, the fact that you could digitally download something and the next day it not be in your library. There is a consumer rage and distrust now over. Are you just going to let these companies change the rules mid game when you already own the physical product? So, yeah, I'm a little, I'm a little upset about that. I have to go install the new one now.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Yeah, but do we have an option? I mean, either a, I get angry and I accept it and I just go buy the new one for 150 bucks or I just don't play the game. Is there a third option?

[Bridget Carey]

I really think I've been going more into the dumb category, so I don't play the game. I'm getting a little mad about it too. Honestly, I'm a little weird. I still now am buying cars that are used, that have a key and are less screen and less computer. More car, please. Because you hear it too. Oh, you can't operate your car unless you have a system, a software update. So the fact that we as consumers are losing control, it's something to look into when you're making a big investment into something. And I think that a lot of people who like invested in Google and the Nest, it's such a mess. They might be looking to what we're rumored to hear about Apple getting into this space. There's a lot of buzz right now that Apple's getting into the smart home space. So even though they're really late in the game, anyone who's really angry about problems with their doorbells not working and problems with their thermostats suddenly, like changing the temperature on them and going down, they're going to be looking to Apple. So sometimes it benefits Apple to be late in the game. They just come in and go, hey, here we go.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

All right, let's go. I saved the best for last, I think, which is there's three kids in the Carrie household, the two real kids, and then Bridget a little bit slightly. With three kids in the household, what's cool in the toy aisle that people might see under their tree or under the Hanukkah Bush this year.

[Bridget Carey]

Okay, so for anyone who's new, I have been covering the toy industry as, like, a side beat for a long time, especially tech toys. And I'm seeing fewer cool tech toys, dare I say. Because I think a lot of companies, with everything going on with the tariffs and the pressures of the economy, they're just having fewer product choices, right? Everything's going back to the classics. It's going back to your basic Magna Doodles and Light Brites and let's go back in nostalgia. Tried and true. Fewer options. But I have seen a few tech toys that do make me smile and are great gift ideas for any age. We talked about Nintendo in the beginning. Have you heard about the Nintendo Alarm clock? Because this thing is so much fun and it's so silly. But it's called Alarmo. Like, everything has an o at the end. Mario Alarmo. They have updated this. Nintendo has updated this silly little alarm clock for the past year. Keeps adding music and games that you can wake up to an enemy shouting at you from your favorite video game. And you have to move. You have to move to get out of bed. And of course, if you have a spouse, they're like, what the heck is this? Please make it stop. But if you want to have a little fun and your kids want to have something that motivates them to get up, I love this thing. I've been recommending it. I think it's hard with tech toys because sometimes you hit this price point where you're like, why do I want to pay so much money for a toy? I think toys have gotten really expensive now. I've seen some tech toys like, you hear about the Tony, where, like, it's this box. You put a little figurine on top and it's able to play books and audiobooks and music. So it's screen free. But then every one of those little figurines adds up. It's like 20 bucks or so for every figurine. So it's hard for me to recommend that to parents when I'm like, you just want to get longevity out of a toy. But there is one tech toy that I think is the king of the tech toys this year. And talking about nostalgia, we're going back to Furby. Hasbro has made a crazy Furby. It's Long Furby. That's not the official name. I'm calling it that because you can imagine it in your head. Imagine a very long snake like Furby. It's rainbow colored. And it's so silly. It's so fun and delightful. It even has like meditation and yoga and goofy rhymes and touch games that my kids can't stop playing with this thing more than me when Furby first came out. And I loved Furby. So I feel like Hasbro has got the formula right somehow on this weird creature that we've heard in our pop culture essence for decades now. It is expensive. It's between 60 and $70. If you can find a sale. Black Friday, go for it. But you will at least know in that case, you are going to get a good amount of playtime out of that one. Yeah, it is hard with tech toys. People are just looking for a good deal and sometimes just go with the basics. I mean, go with Skip It. I saw Skip it's back. That's like a toy from the 90s.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

That's incredible.

[Bridget Carey]

You have to have a lot of tech. You can have fun.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

The last thing I thought you'd say on this podcast today was skip it. Like, wait, what?

[Bridget Carey]

Just skip it. Like, what is she talking about? Don't skip it. She's telling us to skip something. No, no, it's the thing you swung around your foot and it had a whole little song. I don't think kids know jingles anymore. They don't watch commercials. Everything is streaming. But there was a whole, like, we used to get hooked on toys just from the jingles.

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

Right?

[Bridget Carey]

But yeah, it's a hopping type of jump rope, but with your feet. Yeah, there you go. And maybe we should just get them for all of our white elephant gifts so we're all healthier too. We're all moving our bodies.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

That is good. Move less screens more move. So just start skipping. What I like about things like the Nintendo clock is what you said about them continuing to support it and adding new stuff and new games. I think that's really cool when you buy something and the company just keeps updating it. I know our doorbell system keeps downloading other fun doorbell rings for every holiday. Every year they have a couple new ones. Our Hue lighting system, which was expensive to put in, but they're consistently giving me these cool new lighting features that I can just go and, oh, look, we're in Rio de Janeiro or wherever we want to be.

[Bridget Carey]

Give us value. Exactly. When you're. Especially when you're investing so much in these products, you start to have distrust if you can't get life out of it. So it's great to see that. That's why I'm recommending it because, yeah, I'm like, okay, if Nintendo's still updating this crazy thing called an alarm clock. Go for it. Because then I know it's going to have some fun longevity. And my kids, though, they keep sending alarms at really odd times throughout the day. So that is a downside.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Oh, that's not good. That is not good. Yes. That's fabulous. If only you enjoyed your job, Bridget. I wish you enjoyed yourself. You come here and never bring any energy, and it makes me feel bad.

[Bridget Carey]

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm doing my best. I'm doing my best.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

If there was only a show where people could get this energy all the time. If only there was a show.

[Bridget Carey]

Bridget, I might be able to help you here.

[Anna Allum]

Wow, really?

[Bridget Carey]

Yes. There's a show I do called One More Thing every Friday on CNET's YouTube channel. Check it out. Always talking about something crazy.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Awesome. And we'll link to that in the show notes. And following Bridget on socials, I'll link to Bridget's social channels because it's always a blast. Bridget, thank you so much for mentoring us on Tech in 2025. I told Regina, who's here every Monday this week. It's always the Regina and Bridget show that. I feel like every time I write you, it feels like I just hung up with you. So we'll see you in 11 months, aka tomorrow.

[Bridget Carey]

Oh, yeah. It's always wild and tech. And ask Regina about toys that, like, are no longer maybe coming with batteries this year. I feel like everyone should be looking for batteries this Black Friday because these companies are kind of cutting corners in interesting ways. And I picked up a few that don't have batteries included. Batteries not included is the theme of this year.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

I think that's crap. Well, especially if it's going in a gift, the recipient can't play it.

[Bridget Carey]

Oh, yeah. Everyone needs to look at their accessories now if they're given things.

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

Hey there, stackers. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug, and wow, that is a lot of cool new tech. Joe's mom thinks I'm a techie just because I still know how to change the batteries in her Discman player. Who knew that artifact would last this long? No, no, no, Ma, I'm not calling you an artifact. Just talking about the Discman. That woman's got some ears for an artifact. Hitting, hitting. Before I get into more trouble, here's today's question. What piece of tech does the average person in the world replace every three and a half years, but Americans replace every two and a half years? I'll be back right after I go see if there's a way to get Joe's mom's record player to automatically play the next Barry Manilow album.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Man, that'd be genius.

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[McDonald's Announcer]

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[Joe Saul Sehy]

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

Hey there, stackers. I'm vinyl lover and guy who just found out record players could play multiple albums even back in the 70s. Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. Well, apparently technology has moved faster than me. Who knew you could load multiple vinyls onto a stereo record player. Genius. Of course, as I always said, if the Atari ain't broke, don't fix it. For you kids who don't know what an Atari is. Uncle Doug will cover that in a future episode. Here was today's trivia. What piece of tech does the average person in the world replace every three and a half years, but the average American replaces it every two and a half years? Because of course we do. That would be your cell phone. And now two people who clearly aren't phoning in this this episode, Joe and Anna.

[Bridget Carey]

Hello, fellow stackers. I'm Michelle from Enid, Oklahoma. When I'm not taming lions as a veterinary technician at an all cat clinic, I'm stacking Benjamins.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Big thanks to Bridget Carey for spending time with us. Every year, a whole new list of fun toys. Doug. I think that was a race to see just how many pieces of obsolete tech we could mention in one trivia segment. And are you familiar with the record player automatically bringing down the next album?

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

No, there's no way you are.

[Anna Allum]

Wait, what do you. I don't understand the question. I'm sorry.

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

She's gonna get it.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

See, she doesn't even know what the question is.

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

Finals made a huge comeback, right? I think it's now like the second biggest selling medium for music.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

But still the idea of the automatic right mind now doesn't have the automatic thing like it had in the 70s.

[Anna Allum]

What is automatic versus not automatic?

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

So you know, in the middle of a record player, the little silver nub that you know, that centers your album when you put it on the record player. Back in the 70s, they would have really tall ones of those. They, I don't know, maybe let's say 4 to 6 inches tall. And you could put, you put your first record all the way down to the bottom. Put the needle on you play. But you could stack a several other albums on top. And this little device at the top of that silver spindle would keep them.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Up there and just played one after another and just.

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

And then when the needle got to the very end of that first record that was playing, it would retract, drop the next album and then the arm would go back over and start Playing the first track of the next album. So your records would just sort of sequentially drop on top of one another. And it was like, yeah, it was magic.

[Anna Allum]

That makes so much sense. We actually had a record player for a while, and I was like, this is. Is kind of annoying because you gotta go back every 45 minutes and put something new on. Like, if you have people over, you're now tending to the record player.

[Bridget Carey]

Oh, my God. There's no shuffle.

[Anna Allum]

Yeah. And the food in the oven, like, it's just too much to deal with at one time. So that would be nice to have.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

How about the Atari? Are you familiar with the Atari?

[Anna Allum]

I am not. We might need to go over that in a future episode.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

What about the Discman?

[Anna Allum]

Is that like a Walkman?

[Joe Saul Sehy]

It was, but it's where they had the big honking CD for CD inside. And you would walk with your CD and it would skip about once every seven steps.

[Anna Allum]

I kind of remember that. I actually think we had some of those in our house growing up that were not used pretty soon after skewing.

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

To a younger demo. Sucks. Like, this is so painful to have her on. I think we should abandon all of our efforts to get a younger audience because Anna's just crushing me.

[Anna Allum]

Sorry, Doug.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Bridget's about to come back downstairs and slap us like, what are you doing.

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

Child for a co host.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

All this tech. She tries to tell us about the new stuff, and we're stuck in the 70s and 80s. Hey, guys, let's do a headline.

[Bridget Carey]

Hello, darlings.

[Anna Allum]

And now it's time for your favorite.

[Bridget Carey]

Part of the show.

[Anna Allum]

Our stacking Benjamin headlines.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Our headline today comes to us from the Motley Fool. This is written by Lawrence Naga. Lawrence writes, oh, my Robin Hood. I just threw up in my mouth. I said the word Robin Hood is quietly building a fintech ecosystem for the next generation. Oh, that's. Isn't that nice? Robin Hood, the company that takes from the poor and gives to their wallet. Isn't that what Robin Hood's all about?

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

By the way, how did they not foresee the play on that name when they were thinking of their new company name?

[Joe Saul Sehy]

I think they did. I think it is. So the jokes on you. If you use Robin Hood and you don't get that Robin Hood. Nasdaq H o O D for their ticker symbol is Hood.

[Anna Allum]

I didn't know that.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

They tell you so many ways that they're ripping you off. And I know Doug was like, we're gonna see Joe's head. Expl. I had no idea. Doug you were going here, but holy. Oh, Robin Hood. Okay, I'm going to get it together. Has long been known for changing how people trade stocks. That's what Lawrence wrote with a straight face. Long been known for changing how people trade stocks. But the company's next act might prove more meaningful and less visible. After years of being labeled a meme stock platform, Robin Hood is quietly building the foundation of a broader fintech ecosystem. The funny thing is they got all those mean stock people mad at them too. And I'm sure you're a big Robin Hood user.

[Anna Allum]

No, shockingly, I'm not a big Robin Hood user. And so I kind of, you know, knew we were going to be talking about this day. I had to reach out to some people even younger than me, shockingly, to.

[Bridget Carey]

Kind of get, get.

[Anna Allum]

I talked to my brother in law about this because he's in, you know, he, he likes to get into finance and into trading. And I was like, I think you probably use this and tried to just pick his brain like why do you like this? And what do you, what are you doing?

[Joe Saul Sehy]

So does he use Robin Hood?

[Anna Allum]

He does use Robin Hood.

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

Feel like you were about to say, what's the matter with you? Why are you using this?

[Joe Saul Sehy]

I was. That big pause. Was Anna looking at the look on my face like, who are you related to?

[Anna Allum]

Well, I think a lot of the younger generation uses it and for people who are not looking to, they're not really saving for the long term right now. Like they're focused on doing this for fun. Like this is just kind of getting them into the trading environment and just getting them exposed to that. That's what's fun about Robinhood. But for someone who's looking to do this for like long term savings, diversification, like getting away from the gamification of trading, it's not really for you.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

But this is what frustrates me, Anna, is that it's not all that stuff. Is what Robin Hood has taught people to like to say, hey, this is the fun platform, the spread, the difference between the buy and the ask. So let's walk through what both of those are. So when you go on any platform and you go to buy a stock and immediately if you pay attention, no matter which platform you buy it on, you automatically have lost money. Because the way that everybody between you and the trade makes money is not just the fee that people used to pay, which no longer is there any fee. On most of the main platforms they make money based on the difference between those two numbers. So if you're buying a stock and it's $37. It might be 37 and 8 on the other side of that trade. And that eighth is the money that everybody makes between the. Let's say it's the NASDAQ exchange. Let's say it's the broker, it's all the intermediaries. All those people, they have a bigger spread at Robinhood than any other platform. They are taking money from you while they're telling you it's more fun. You can do the same trade at Vanguard, you could do the same trade at Fidelity, you can do the same trade at Schwab. It's equally as fun, except they're not ripping you off. That's number one. The second thing that drives me crazy is, is that Robin Hood has had. How many times over the last 10 years, Doug, have we gone over the SEC fines that Robin Hood has had to pay? I mean, I'm thinking eight. Eight times maybe.

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

Yeah.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

And I'm not exaggerating, but this company is always in trouble for lying to their customers. And so either one or two things are happening. And I don't like either one of them either. On one hand, they're incompetent, which I don't want to work with a company that's incompetent. Or they're lying to you and they have the fees built in because they know they're lying. And so they're just accepting the fact that the SEC is going to come down on them. At one point they even said that they're. You were protected in their money market, their sweep account, because you had SIPC insurance. Robin Hood knew damn well that SIPC insurance has nothing to do with your money market and it doesn't protect you in that way. And yet Robin Hood decided to do that. It so frustrates me, Anna, when I hear people go, well, I use it because it's fun, because I'm just trying to. You can have fun in so many different places.

[Anna Allum]

Yeah, I think Robinhood, though, and I understand exactly what you're saying with all the things that they've done regulatory wise and where they've increased fees and all of that. But then on the other side of it, like, it is really positioned to market very well to my generation and the generation below me, 100%. And that's where you might be paying this extra fee and you might be okay with it because you are getting a different experience than if you were to be on the Schwab mobile app or if you were on Fidelity mobile app. It looks Differently. I was on their website yesterday. It made me want to open up a credit card. Like, I was getting sucked into it because it looks so nice. Like, it is a different experience than downloading your Schwab app, for sure.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

And this is why you know, when you see things that work on you, like gamification, Robinhood's fantastic at gamification. But if gamification works on you, we already know it does. Every behavioral scientist says this. Gamifying Anna, like setting up an emergency fund, turning that into a game, or like, let's eat all the food in the freezer challenge before we go grocery shopping again. Turning this stuff into a game the way that Robin Hood does. You could do this same gamification and make your whole life, which seems onerous financially. Sometimes people like, oh, my God, you talk finance. Really? It's so boring. It doesn't have to be boring.

[Anna Allum]

Yeah. And the gamification can go in two different directions. And Robinhood kind of does that. Like, it's getting you involved in trading and understanding the markets and especially with their futures trading now that they have. But then there's like, the opposite side of things where they were starting to get into trouble because when you would do trades, they would have, like, confetti. Yeah, confetti. And like, all that kind of stuff. And it's just sucking you into it a little bit and making it a little bit more gambling.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

They paid a fine for that as well. Everybody. Because they were encouraging you to day trade.

[Anna Allum]

Yeah. Because it's gamifying it in a bad way. Whereas there's like, the gamification, where. I don't know if Robinhood does this, but other apps do this where you're, like, rounding up or you're doing ways to, like you said, increase your emergency fund, doing different things to better your financial picture. They kind of have both things, and they probably need to figure that out.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Well, apparently they figured it all out because they found ways to get money out of our wallet and into their app. The headline this year tells one story. Lawrence writes, Robinhood's profitable. The stocks rallied as part of the S P500. Now, that's how big Robinhood's gotten. But the more important story lies beneath the surface. The business model itself is evolving. In the second quarter, Robinhood's revenue. Listen to this. Rose 45% year over year, powered by growth across the board in transaction, interest and other revenues, equity option, crypto, and interest income, all by high double digigit percentages. The company's diversification over the years Means it now has nine businesses generating 100 million or more in annualized revenue. Nine different businesses that generate 100 million or more in annualized revenue. And yet it's fun. It's funny. The fines don't matter. The fees don't matter. Anna. It doesn't matter. Hey, this thing's fun. And now they're encouraging you to do even more good stuff, this futures trading. You want to talk about the. They're allowing you to bet on what comes next.

[Anna Allum]

Yeah, I kind of look at this new. So futures trading, where you can basically bet on things that are happening within politics or things that are happening within the economy. And I think they also have a sports aspect to that, too.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Yeah. Almost going head to head with DraftKings.

[Anna Allum]

Yeah, I kind of look at it as almost an elevated DraftKings or FanDuel. Like, it's for people who, if you aren't necessarily into sports, or maybe you are, but you just are. You already are signed up with Robinhood, and you're already within that platform, and so it's just easy to go in there and start doing it. It's kind of like an elevated version of that. You feel different than if you were on your DraftKings app, which I don't know entirely because I don't do sports betting. But when I look at it, three to one odd.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

She'd say she didn't do sports betting. I had three to one. I think I cleaned up on that. Anyway. Sorry.

[Anna Allum]

Oh, you guys actually had a bet against that?

[Joe Saul Sehy]

We did. Oh, yeah, we totally did.

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

There's several more. I've already won two that you don't know about. Just since you've started talking.

[Anna Allum]

I don't like this anymore.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

It's all a joke, Ed.

[Bridget Carey]

We don't have any.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

We've no bets.

[Anna Allum]

Okay.

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

Actually, that you know of.

[Anna Allum]

Now I'm. Yeah, now I'm on my guard.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

No, no, that was just more, more, more. Anyway, bad humor.

[Anna Allum]

Okay. I don't use betting apps, but this feels like because of what I know about Robinhood, I don't think I would go in and create an account and do this, but I can see how this would be very attractive to people.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Well, think about this, Anna. I mean, it's attractive because the whole gambling thing, for people that aren't into gambling, which, by the way, used to be me not into gambling at all. And then when I went to Vegas, like, the first hour I was there, I was like, this is stupid. And then I won. And when you win for the first time, I realized I got to get the hell out of here because this is way too fun and it's way too dangerous. And I think that if I've got my long term money in the same app that is my betting app, which Robin Hood allows you to do. I mean, imagine how addictive this is. I could go, you know what if the Fed lowers interest rates next quarter? I'm going to make a bunch of money. That thing's a layup. I'm going to take some of my money, my exchange traded funds, just move it over here for this one bet and then I'll quote, put it right back. Right. I start borrowing to do even more gambling, which, I mean, I don't know any successful investors who. That's the cornerstone of their financial plan.

[Anna Allum]

Yeah, I think where this app could come into your financial picture is like, like not with your long term money. It is 97% of your net worth is somewhere else is with these traditional custodians. And this is a fun little game. And that's the other thing with Robinhood is I feel like they were trying to get away from this like gamification and they were trying to get away from this stereotype of being this and now they're almost doubling down on it a little bit. Yeah, they're owning it, which is fine. But it also can't be marketed as what you're using to save for the long term or like having your IRA in there. That's not a good thing. It should be two separate accounts so that like you said, you're not going to look at your IRA and be like, oh, you know what, I could pull this money out. It's okay if I have my penalties on it and I can use it over here or even a brokerage account like some money, but not everything.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

They are really working, man. They are working with some financial planners now. They have a wealth management division. They are totally trying to make it your one stop shop for everything. It is concerning what also concerns me at the bottom of this piece, which I'll link to on our Show Notes page at Stacking Benjamin's, it says, what does this mean for investors? Robinhood's transformation is still in motion. Regulation and competition will continue to shape its path. Well, clearly regulation hasn't shaped its path because they've been heavily regulated, they've been heavily fined and they still continue to do a bunch of the same stuff over and over and over again. It's amazing. But it says for investors who think in years, not quarters, this is a growth story worth Watching it has been fascinating to see how Robin Hood continues to. To be the app that people go toward. And yet how many. We're not the only podcast telling people. And listen, Schwab's not your buddy. Fidelity's not your buddy. They're just not actively doing some of the crazy things that are going on on at Robin Hood.

[Anna Allum]

Yeah, I do wonder if, like, in a couple years, we'll get a Robin Hood docu series or documentary of some sort.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Almost like the We Work series.

[Anna Allum]

Yeah, I wonder if that's on the horizon.

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

The Enron, smartest guys in the room. It seems like what they've really figured out is how to market a product and a vertical that's very intimidating to the average person and younger people and made it feel like this is an easy way to get into finances and managing my finances and my investing, despite all of the darkness behind it, they've just made it more palatable. And the Schwab's and the, you know, pick one T. Rowe Prices and everybody else who's offering the same kinds of things still probably. This is. I'm guessing, maybe. Anna, you can. You can answer this. But I think they still probably feel like the old guard just kind of stayed. Kind of stayed and musty and. And complicated, and I got to hire somebody to do this stuff for me. And in Robin Hood, it's an app, and I can have it on my phone, and I can do it. The other guys offer the same things, but they just have this stigma, this stank that's all over them that Robin Hood doesn't.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Well, it's funny that you say that, Doug, because A, it goes back, Anna, to what you said, how much this fomo, right, among who they're marketing to, it does become a little bit of fomo. Everybody else that I know uses Robin Hood. Why would I not use Robin Hood? And even if I pay a little more, who cares? But the second thing is in this piece, they talk about this. Robin Hood is actually fighting the opposite battle. They're trying now to get this. Get people who are much more state investors to accept them as a true competitor. And Robinhood, you'll do that, in my view, when you start acting like one.

[Anna Allum]

Of the true competitors. They just need to double down on the market that they have right now, which is hard because there's a limit. Today's day, there's a limit to that. Like, those people aren't gonna have a ton of money until they start inheriting or until they start working more, getting older. It's Kind of limited at that point. And I think people in different generations older are not. The more they double down on this, like we keep saying, the gamification of it, the less those people, the older generations are going to want to come to this app. They feel better. And I feel better with using Schwab and fidelity. Like we've talked about some of the more boring custodians than Robinhood. It sounds like a fun thing, but not for a majority of my assets.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Yeah, I love the gamification of the things that I'm trying to do with my money. I don't love gamifying where I'm managing my money. I'll link to this in the show Notes page@stacking benjamins.com we're gonna transfer over to the back porch, Doug and some good news. We just got a letter. We just got a letter. We just got a letter. Wonder who it's from?

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

Yeah, sure thing, Joe. But can we play the full version, like the three minute version of We Just Got a Letter from Blue's Clues? Because that's the best song. Like, did you see Anna as soon as, as soon as it was playing, she was kind of dancing a little bit.

[Anna Allum]

Like it comes back to a better time.

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

Yeah, it just makes you happy, that's all. But here's what the letter says. Joe enjoyed episode 1751 about money problems are not. They're not reading problems.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

They not be reading problem B problem.

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

This is tough. This job is so much harder than people realize.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

That was our episode with Carl Richards, New York Times longtime columnist, the sketch guy at the New York Times. And we had a wonderful discussion about early money memories and early money experiences and how much that that shapes you. It was a fascinating discussion in episode 1751.

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

Yeah, it's great. Joe, can we get back to our listener's letter? Are you going to go down memory lane a little later?

[Joe Saul Sehy]

I just wanted to tell everybody what the hell he's going to be talking about.

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

Okay, fine, I'll start over. Enjoyed episode SB 1751 about money problems are not math problems, they are people problems. Loved your first money memory being your bike as it really hit home and I thought I'd share. I still have my 1974 rally grand prix, which I have rebuilt four times. It's the first time I had to pay for a bike instead of getting one as a gift. I had to sell my mini bike.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Oh God.

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

I loved mini bikes and still took out a loan from my parents to purchase it. Hold on. He sold a mini bike and still couldn't afford the Rally Grand Prix. Had to take out a loan. Did a BNPL with his parents. Strong positive money experience at age 13. And that bike has never let me down. Still enjoy riding it. Signed Hell's Angel. Chris apparently has this little rally bike gang around his neighborhood.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

You think. You think Chris has a Rally Grand Prix stamp? Cruising the neighborhood with his. With his baseball cards in the spokes.

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

Rally Grand Prix. There's people super into bikes, man. There's a whole submarket for buying and selling parts for those bikes, and they can get really valuable.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

When I finished this last marathon in January, I'm going to the bike. I just. I just love bicycling. It's fun. And you spend much time on a bicycle?

[Anna Allum]

Not as much anymore, but we were really into bikes. We did a little mountain biking, too.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

We just got these mountain bike trails in the park down maybe two miles from my house. They are hard, man. I mean, you spend your entire time looking for the next route that's gonna, you know, make you flip over the handlebars.

[Anna Allum]

Yep. You end up, like, in the creek a little bit and, and sometimes walking. But it's fun.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

It is fun. I. I actually am excited about doing that more. Thank you, Chris, for the kind note and the trip down memory lane. Doug, what else we got on the back porch?

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

We could talk about those losers, Joel and Matt, and this whole Voices for Good charity event that we've completely crushed. Like, nobody has owned Joel and Matt. Like we have.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

And we're hoping so because we recorded this ahead of time. And if we're not owning Joel and Matt, our bad. Well, but I hope we are.

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

Even if somehow they miraculously got their parents to donate like a hundred thousand dollars to beat us, we still own them. Like from a podcasting perspective, dude crush.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

I mean, in the stacker community, just in general, far more giving than those how to money people. Are you familiar at all, Anna, with the how to money community?

[Anna Allum]

No way. I would never set foot over there.

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

Why doesn't she know about them? Because they suck.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Well, let's describe Anna why they suck. They suck because Joel and Matt are just too damn nice. You ever know those people that are just too nice? Yeah, I don't like them nice guys. I mean, gross. Who wants any of that? And. And their. Their tips on their show, like, so practical. It just unbelievable. Yeah, we can do a great job here. Okay, so we already said we're going to have a behind the scenes party if we hit 10,000. And guys, we blew 10,000 away. On day number one. So thanks to you we've also had at the time that we record this more pledges by you than any of the other seven podcasts. There's eight podcasts in this competition, some of them which are celebrity podcast you stackers have been have been more giving than every other podcast and for that we thank you. And so does Karen Holland who runs the non profit that we're raising money for Gifting Sense teaching children great money habits with the does it make sense Gore and you can actually go to giftingsense.org and you can take the does it make sense score. And by the way, when you're looking at all the tech that Bridget talked about today, if you're excited about it, go to giftingsense.org and take the does it make sense score. It's always free. This is a hundred percent non profit that Cara makes $0 on the does it make sense score. And it's so intuitive and so, so great to use not just with kids, but heck with with you. Friday's board game episode I might have to do the does it make sense score. Doug. Every single after everything that our guest Kylie says on Friday because might want a board game.

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

Talking about like the instructions for the games that are more complicated than college 400 level courses. Is that what you mean by doesn't make sense?

[Joe Saul Sehy]

If, if by complicated you mean the good games then yes. So stacking benjamins.com stacking hope, which is what our basement Facebook group wanted to call our giving campaign. And let's put this away. If we do, if we win this thing, which it looks like we might first quarter of next year, we're going to help you set up your financial dashboard. We're going to do a financial dashboard webinar for everybody helping you figure out how to use apps, how to have better money conversations, how to how to build your roadmap so that when you are going fast in 2026, you're able to navigate your money really well. It's really important to have a good roadmap and if we win, that's our stretch goal, guys. So let's bring it home these last few days of November. Anna, thank you so much for playing with us today.

[Anna Allum]

Thanks for having me, Joe.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

It was super fun. Where do people find you? People want help from the amazing Anna alum. How do we find you?

[Anna Allum]

If you want to find me, go to stackingbenjamins.com OG and just when you are scheduling a meeting, just ask for me. There's some questions you can fill out within there.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

This was 100 dug an upgrade today. Working with Anna.

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

Yeah, again, the bar is low, but really enjoyed it. I just didn't love how old Anna.

[Anna Allum]

Got it, how it made you feel. Doug.

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

Yeah, that part wasn't as fun as I expected.

[Anna Allum]

Doug, sometimes it's important to check in with reality. So that's kind of what I provided today for you.

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

Super.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Doug, Bring it home, man. What should we have learned on today's episode?

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

Well, Joe, first, take some advice from Bridget Carey. Not all tech is created equal. Just because it says AI enhanced doesn't mean it's worth your money. Second, Robin Hood. Yup. Padding their wallet sounds about right. But the big lesson, I can't wait to see the look on Joe's mom's face when she sees the slick new tech I bought her. There's these, like magic seeds in a high tech bag and you put it in a microwave and it turns into popcorn in minutes. What do they think of next?

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Anna, you want to tell him?

[Anna Allum]

I think you should tell him.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

I ain't telling him.

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

Thanks to Bridget Carey for joining us today. You'll find all the hot tech [e-mail] and we'll share how to follow Bridget on social media on our show [e-mail] thanks to Anna Allum for joining us. Looking for good financial planning help? You'll find Anna's calendar for a meeting at stacking be stinkingbenjamins.com OG and just request Anna. This show is the property of SB Podcasts, LLC, Copyright 2025 and is created by Joe Saul Sehive. Joe gets help from a few of our neighborhood friends. You'll find out about our awesome [e-mail] along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. Come say hello.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Oh, yeah.

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

And before I go, not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don't take advice from people you don't know. This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any financial decisions, speak with a real financial advisor. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. And we'll see you next time back here at the Stacking Benjamin show.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Happy Thanksgiving, Stackers. Happy Thanksgiving, Anna.

[Anna Allum]

Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving to you.

[Joe Saul Sehy]

Happy Thanksgiving, Doug.

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

You know what I'm thankful for? Almost being done with this episode.