← The Stacking Benjamins Show
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- [00:00]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Well, debt can really take a toll on you. Between minimum payments, interest rates, it's really stressful and at times it just feels like you're swimming upstream. You can't get ahead. Navy Federal Credit Union understands debt is a huge stressor and they're here to help. Navy Federal Credit Union has all the financial tools and resources you need to dominate debt. So here's what you do. You put your strategy together stackers, and then you start putting the tools in place. So one great option is to get your interest rates to zero. So. So you're socking more away. And right now Navy Federal Credit Union is offering a 0% intro APR on credit card balance transfers for 12 months. Plus you can get $250 when you spend 2500 on your first 90 days on a cash rewards or cash rewards plus credit card. Don't let debt drag you down. Visit Navy federal.org to start dominating debt today. Navy Federal Credit Union. Our members are the mission. Navy Federal's insured by NCUA. After the intro rate expires, variable APRs are 15.15% to based on credit worthiness, rates are subject to change. ATM fees for cash advances are up to $1. All non Navy Federal ATMs.
- [01:11]
Doug
This episode brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Shifting a little money here, a little there, hoping it all works out well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can get a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill too. You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance and they'll help find you options within your budget. Try it today@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.
- [01:47]
Joe Saul-Sehy
So you'll pick me up tonight at 7:45?
- [01:50]
OG
Well, no, I got a few things.
- [01:52]
Joe Saul-Sehy
To take care of first.
- [01:53]
OG
But why don't we make it quarter to eight?
- [01:57]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Stop it.
- [01:59]
OG
Okay, 7:45.
- [02:05]
Doug
Live from Joe's mom's basement, it's the Stacking Benjamin Show. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug and wow. This year has been packing in lessons on earnings, saving and spending better. But what about balance? Today we'll meet people who saved too much and we'll help you pump the brakes to find your own happy ending. In our TikTok minute, how much is all that energy conservation really helping? One comedian philosopher has thoughts. And of course we'll answer a call from a stacker who said, you know what? I better call Saul. See hi and Og and Don't you worry, because I'm sure to round out this power hour with some action packed trivia. And now, two guys who always tip their Uber driver with personal finance advice. It's Joe and.
- [03:09]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh, J.J. juja G. I ask you, Doug, which one's better? Maybe a few dollars today or me teaching you how to grow your dollars better so that dollars and dollars and dollars.
- [03:24]
Doug
Have you guys noticed that it's getting harder and harder to get Uber drivers to accept your ride requests? Have you spotted that trend since you've tipped in advice?
- [03:33]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It is. It is just specifically for us. Yeah. Why is my rating going down? I never knew I had a rating, by the way, until maybe six months ago and a friend of mine told me and some jerk gave me a four. Like, how do you give me? I'm a delight in your back seat.
- [03:48]
Doug
Well, Joe, maybe showering once in a while could help out.
- [03:52]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Personal hygiene podcast. I'm Joe Salai. It is Wednesday, which means OG is across the table from me sitting at the microphone. How are you, man?
- [04:04]
OG
Okay.
- [04:04]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, you are all fooled up, ready to go. Just gobbled down something. You were hoovering that.
- [04:11]
OG
I was hoovering it. It's Oikos Pro. Today's show sponsored by Oikos Pro. Get your 20 grams of protein with 0 grams of added sugar. Oikos Pro for the protein.
- [04:24]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Win Oikos. If you'd like to sponsor the show. Oh, geez. A big fan. What are you waiting for? Of course we tried to do that with Solo Stove and what did they do? They went ahead and went with. With that one guy. I mean, that guy nobody knows. Snoop Dogg, Doggy dog. Why would they? Why would they do that? Versus all the love.
- [04:41]
OG
I could put a little granola in it. I don't know. You guys put granola in your yogurt? A little honey.
- [04:45]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I'm not a big yogurt guy.
- [04:47]
Doug
Yeah, yogurt's a waste of time. It's three spoons max. Like, yogurt is just not much. Pisses me off more than, like, have a healthy snack.
- [04:58]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Welcome to the Insights on how Doug Eats podcast.
- [05:01]
Doug
All that does is enrage the beast.
- [05:03]
OG
You're right. It's not a half a pizza. It's not a Costco pizza. You're right. Apologies, sir.
- [05:09]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, you were talking about on Monday. You know, when you get a little fat.
- [05:14]
OG
To get a look at Doug's blood work would be quite amazing. Like, what's my blood work? When I. All I eat is jerky and costco pizzas.
- [05:23]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Right.
- [05:24]
OG
What do I get then? I mean, you get a good life, I guess. Yolo, right?
- [05:28]
Doug
Happiness is what you get.
- [05:29]
OG
Happiness. Yeah.
- [05:30]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Sir, we just ran your blood type. It appears you are meats and marinara. Most people A negative, a positive. Not Doug. He's marinara. Yeah. We got a great show today. We're going to talk about now that we set the stage so far this year, we're going to talk about, you know, how do you enjoy a little bit of this along the way? And really a cautionary tale here about some people who realize too late they might not have done the right thing. Which, you know, we talk about saving money on this show. It's what we're all about. But is there such thing as too far? These people will tell you that maybe there is. But before that, we have some sponsors who make this show go. No yogurt involved, sadly this week, as far as I know. But you know what, they do keep the show free. So we're going to hear from them. And then into today's headline. Well, debt can really take a toll on you. Between minimum payments and interest rates. It's really stressful and I've been there Stackers. And at times it feels like you just can't get ahead. Well, Navy Federal Credit Union understands debt's a huge stressor and they're here to help. Navy Federal Credit Union has all the financial tools and resources you need to dominate debt. Here's what you do. Put together your strategy. One piece of a strategy might be to lower those interest rates as much as possible so you can sock even more toward those principal payments. Right? And right now, Navy Federal Credit Union is offering a 0% intro APR on credit card balance transfers for up to 12 months. Plus you can get 250 when you spend 2500 dollars in your first 90 days on a cash rewards or cash rewards plus credit card. Don't let that drag you down. Visit Navy federal.org to start dominating debt today. Navy Federal Credit Union. Our members are the mission. Navy Federal is insured by NCUA after the intro rate expires. Variable APRs are 15.15 to 18 based on creditworthiness. Rates are subject to change. ATM fees for cash advances are up to $1 at non Navy Federal ATMs.
- [07:31]
Doug
How high is the interest rate for the new Laurel Road High Yield Savings account?
- [07:37]
Joe Saul-Sehy
This high.
- [07:40]
Doug
The air is really, really thin up here. The Laurel Road Very High Yield Savings.
- [07:46]
OG
Account Variable annual percentage yield APY is subject to change at any time. No minimum balance required fees may reduce earnings on the account. For full terms and conditions, see laurelroad.com savings. Laurel Road is a brand of KeyBank member FDIC. Hello, darlings. And now it's time for your favorite part of the show, our Stacking Benjamin's headlines.
- [08:09]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Today's headline comes to us from Business Insider. This is written by Noah Schiedlower. Noah writes, meet the Over Savers, older Americans who have plenty for retirement but wish they work less and vacation more. That's not a good headline. We don't like to read that. How do we work less and vacation more and still have enough to save? Well, let's dive into that topic to kick off today's Variety Show. Wednesday. Joshua Winston, Noah writes, Age 70, did a pretty good job preparing for retirement. He ran two successful veterinary clinics, made smart investments and lived frugally. But a week after he retired, May he was diagnosed with cancer. Now, Winston said he regrets working such long hours during his career, often missing out on trips and date nights. Winston is one of a few dozen respondents to an informal Business Insider survey who said they worked too hard during their careers or focused too much on saving for retirement, sacrificing family time, travel or other leisure activities when they were younger. All right, let's set this up. Let's frame this correctly, OG because on Monday, I talked about the fact that there can be such a thing as healthy fear, right? That maybe we haven't done enough. And that's a good fear to have. Also, maybe robots are coming for our job and I need to get more education. That can be a healthy fear to have. But you know these people, you know these people that wake up every day afraid they haven't done enough, only to look in the rearview mirror and realize that time, time was the one thing they didn't think enough about.
- [09:49]
OG
Yeah, I guess that's that one thing, right? Father Time comes for us all. Is that what they. Is that what they say?
- [09:54]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, I like that. I like what Alua Arthur said. She's like, I don't like to use the term terminal because we're all terminal. None of us get out of here alive.
- [10:02]
OG
Yeah, not yet anyway.
- [10:04]
Doug
Unless you eat yogurt.
- [10:05]
OG
Maybe with the neuro link, maybe we'll get that the little brain cryogenics where we freeze ourselves and come back later.
- [10:13]
Joe Saul-Sehy
You can see that on the 2025 tech list on Monday. That was disappointing.
- [10:18]
OG
Yeah. Oh, well, I don't know. I think it's good to have a healthy balance here. But I do talk to a lot of people that stress about the minutiae, but not the big picture. It's like the big picture says, I got a bunch of money, right? I've got X dollars and you can run it through 50,000 different calculations and whatever scenario you want to do and you're still good, right? And then it's like, man, should I buy the condo close to my kids or not? I don't know. It's going to be, you know, the payment's $1,500 a month and that seems like a lot of money. And it's like, hold on a second. We just did this whole big thing that showed there's no chance of blowing up your plan and you want to tweak this like one little teeny tiny thing and that's the thing that's holding you back. Go hang out with your kids, Go, go do the vacation, go. I don't know, tomorrow's not promised everybody.
- [11:12]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Is this where the numbers help? Og like seriously talked about, we just did this plan. I mean, it's not gonna help everybody. But for a lot of us is it just instead of using these rules of thumb, maybe we get our hands on some numbers that go, oh, I probably could take my foot off the gas pedal and I'm going to be okay. Like, I will have enough.
- [11:30]
OG
I think that the value of advisors is not necessarily in like, do this one thing to be successful. You know, we've obviously talked to thousands of people over the last 15, 16 years of us doing this and it's like, you know, there's plenty of people who are successful being entrepreneurs. There's plenty of people who are successful owning real estate. There's plenty of people who are successful that buy stock, that, you know, there's thousands of ways to be financially successful, whatever that means to you. But I think that our job is not necessarily to say, well, this is the only way, this is the only solution that works, but rather to make sure that you as the individual or you and your team or your spouse or whatever, you know, whatever your decision making group looks like, has the information so that you can confidently make a good decision that's good for you. And so many times it's like you see it on Instagram or TikTok or whatever, it's like, this is the only way to fund your kids, college, or this is the only way to be financially independent. And that's not true. But more to that, it's like if you have the confidence in the data and you have the confidence in that, you've seen what the Dominoes look like as they fall beyond the first one or two that are easy to see. You know, that gives you the confidence to make the decisions that are appropriate for what's going on in your life right then. And I think that's what we really try to strive to do is to say, like, there is no right solution here, but here's what the secondary effects of this information does or is. And then with that, you can make that should we move across the country and be close to our kids decision. Because you've seen the whole thing. You've seen the, the forecast of all the effects.
- [13:13]
Joe Saul-Sehy
You know, the value for me, OG isn't so much the calculation. While that I do think that's valuable, what really worked well for me and Cheryl was having it not be me and Cheryl telling us that when, when you have a third party who's telling you no, it's going to be okay. Somebody who's done this over and over. Obviously there's some great calculators out there. One of our most popular videos is the new retirement calculator, which is now the bolden calculator. And that's a wonderful calculator. So a lot of our smart stackers can go use the calculator and you'll use the, you'll do that. But man, just having somebody sit across. And I felt this, like this when I was a planner too. Just the fact that I was telling them, as an outsider who's not emotional, that, no, you're going to be all right. It's going to be fine. Like, that was the value for me. Yeah.
- [14:00]
OG
And ultimately the, you know, in this, in this guy's case here about like working too hard and stuff like that. I read this piece over the holiday. You know, one of the things he says later on is he regrets not having not spending the money to hire an assistant. So he didn't have to be on call the whole time because he felt obligated to be on call for his patients, for his clients. Which as an entrepreneur, as a small business owner, you have that sensation of like, these people rely on me, so I need to be around. But it's a little bit of a psychosis, I think, right. Of like, I'm so important that I can't go anywhere. Maybe. Is there a little bit of that? A little. No. I better be around here. I better, you know, I can't. I don't know that anybody else can do this as good as me. I should probably. I'm pretty important, you know, I'm a pretty Important guy. I don't know if you know that or not. So I'm going to demonstrate my importance by not going on vacation or not doing these things. I don't know what the word for that is, but it's a little self aggrandizing. Is that a good. Well, in some ways it's giving me the nod. Okay, all right.
- [15:00]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It is your ego. I mean, it's your ego and it's also your, your comfort level. Right. Feeling like your person of importance. I feel like they' a lot of internal stuff going on there, which is why I think tactically setting up at the beginning of the year, these are the big rock things. I'm going to do that. Well, before I even get to that, realizing that your career is a marathon, not a sprint. And I feel like sprint means burnout and we end up in these jobs that we might love. It isn't easy to find a job you love, but even with the job you love, after a while you just need a break. Like from anything. You need a break. And so taking that break, I remember we had Laura Vanderkam on who's studied all kinds of time management and she says it takes roughly seven to 10 days before you completely recharge that battery on a vacation. If you can do that once a year, if you're lucky enough to be able to do that once a year, that's phenomenal. But setting those big milestones about things that you want to do along the way every year to enjoy means you're not going to look back, I think with regret. You can still work the long hours, you know what I mean? On one hand, you can still work the long hours. On the other hand, go, but I still took the trip. I still, you know, took the kids to Cedar Point or your analogy, always Disney or whatever it might be.
- [16:20]
OG
How many people do you know that? I just, I just had this happen to me today. As a matter of fact, I sent an email to somebody and I got the bounce back email. Hey, I'm on holiday. I'm not coming back until the seventh or whatever day it was. You know, I won't be checking my email to the 8th. Okay, fine. And then I got a reply.
- [16:36]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, thanks for. Oh, no.
- [16:38]
OG
And I'm like, I wanted to like jump through my computer and like strangle the person. Like, what are you doing? You're, you're on the last day. And I get it. Like, I don't know how you guys feel about this, but there's a little separation anxiety that happens. Like the first couple days of, like, vacation or time off, you're like, that's awesome. And then, like, as time goes on, you're like, I wonder what's happening in my email? You know, and it takes, like, strong intestinal fortitude not to look at it. And then the day before you're coming back, you're like, well, I could probably get a head start, right? Yeah, you know, I can look. But let me tell you a little secret about messages. Nobody sends emails on Sunday afternoons that are good. You know, they all start with, I've been thinking, you know, there's nothing good that comes after I've been thinking for two straight days, you know, so all you do by checking your email on Sunday night before you go back to work to get ahead of the day is ruin your Sunday night just because you found the email that your boss sent late. You found the client email that they sent over the weekend, you found the product that's been unreliable for the last three days. And people are complaining about like, you're, you're basically setting up Sunday night for failure, which, by the way, you're probably not going to do anything about. You're going to look at and go, well, that sucks. Now, my whole Monday shot.
- [17:51]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yes.
- [17:51]
OG
Because I'm have to deal with this problem and all you're going to do is stew that for seven hours. Well, we said Anthony O'Neill on a.
- [17:57]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Monday, talking about sitting at the head of your table. Now, whose table are you sitting at the head of Monday morning? First thing you get to work, whoever that person is, you're. You're sitting on the. They're sitting at that of their table and you're working for them. Because I do like what Vanderkam said and I'll link to both of her appearances on the show, or maybe she was even on three times. But I love what she said about Sunday night. Doing the stuff, though. That is the stuff that moves your ball forward. Like, forget about the email. Don't do anything reactive. But getting your to do list down and putting yourself at the head of that table, like Anthony said, and doing the stuff that's going to advance the ball, because then you come in Monday morning and you're just roaring. But, man, if I'm coming in Monday and I'm putting out the fire I found out about Sunday night, not always Monday ruined. My whole week's ruined. That's it.
- [18:44]
Doug
Or if you come in Monday and all of those things that OG just described are waiting for you, at least you'll have the comfort of knowing I did some stuff that advances my own goals, not somebody else's. So, yeah, I'm just, you know, violently agreeing with both of you.
- [19:00]
OG
I just don't think that except for the very few of us, and not us us, because we don't have any of this stuff, but very few people have such important work that absolutely is critical that it gets done in the manner in which it gets done, in the time in which it gets done. Right. Like the guy who's in charge of like the nuclear launch codes or whatever, like, he got a pretty important job. You know, if he gets a phone call at 6am he should probably answer the call.
- [19:22]
Doug
Pretty sure he's a stacker.
- [19:24]
OG
Well, of course he is. But heart surgeon, that dude gets a call at 2 in the morning on a Saturday, on his day off, you're gonna go fix somebody's heart. Like that's, that's. He can't be like, well, three days until Monday. Email me the problem and I'll check it out on Monday morning when I get him. I drive in, you know, they got stuff to do. But for the vast majority of people, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers, you are subjecting yourself. I love that, Joe. You're subjecting yourself to other people's priorities when you're reacting to the chaos of other people's lives. You remember, what was it two episodes ago, you mentioned the One Minute Manager.
- [19:57]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Book, who Moved My Cheese? Which is part of that series, who Moved My Cheese.
- [20:01]
OG
Okay, yeah, same thing.
- [20:02]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Spencer Johnson.
- [20:03]
OG
Yeah. So do you remember the book the One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey? Do you remember that one?
- [20:08]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I love that book. That might have been my favorite book in the entire series.
- [20:10]
OG
Monkey Doug, do you remember the one?
- [20:12]
Doug
No, I don't know that one.
- [20:13]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I still refer to the monkey all the time.
- [20:15]
OG
The monkey, yes. It's like Herbie from the Goal is. Basically the concept is, is that people come into your office and go, hey, I've got this problem. And they take the monkey off of their back and they throw it to you, and then they run out and now you've got their monkey.
- [20:26]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Well, and it's even a little more than that. Oh, gee. Because in your example there, you're not taking responsibility as the manager, because what the person actually says is, they walk into the office and they go, we have a problem.
- [20:37]
OG
Yeah, we have a problem.
- [20:38]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Immediately strapping one arm of the monkey over you. The two of us have a problem. And the first thing they teach you in that book that a good manager does is says, no. No, no. You have a problem. Throws back the monkey on their back. But what most of us do as managers, and I've certainly done it a thousand times, is you go, okay, I'll take care of the problem. And then the person leaves. So the person comes and says, we have a problem. Then the manager goes, I'll take care of it. Got it. And the person walks out, mission accomplished. I don't have a problem anymore.
- [21:07]
OG
My manager problem anymore. Yeah. And so you're working on other people's priorities all the time instead of yours. Like what you said, there's.
- [21:13]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, yeah. This piece really dives into some people's quite a few people's stories, but I want to stick with this guy, Mr. Winston and his veterinary clinics because Dr.
- [21:23]
OG
Winston to you, sir.
- [21:25]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Something early. Well, I don't know if he owns them and manages them or if he's actually a doctor. It doesn't say in here anywhere that he's actually the doctor.
- [21:33]
OG
We'll call him Dr. Mr. Just to be safe.
- [21:35]
Joe Saul-Sehy
We will. Dr. Mr. Winston.
- [21:37]
OG
Mr. Doctor.
- [21:38]
Joe Saul-Sehy
What I want to point out here. Well, let me read the piece and then I'll point it out. Winston, who lives in Arizona, spent much of his career in veterinary work. Throughout his life he drove modest vehicles, lived in an upper middle class house, and was cautious about making larger purchases. He retired with about $3 million, but wished he'd spent some of that money on an assistant for his practice so he wouldn't need to work nights running an emergency vet helpline.
- [22:02]
OG
Yeah, what I was talking about, one.
- [22:03]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Of the only places I got push back about Haroi was somebody said that Alex Hormozi was talking about making money, but we need to talk about how we spend money too, which we did then later on with Jen and Jill. But Hermosi said something og really important during that interview, which is exactly what Winston's dealing with here. Remember how he said that part of knowing what your one thing is and what your true focus is is knowing exactly how to spend money as well. He didn't spend a ton of time there, but he did dig into a little bit. If you go back and listen, you need to know how to spend money. And you said, I remember during our discussion about that interview that that's an investment, right? It's an investment because it's going to pay you back. Winston in this case, had he been more open to spending money, man, that investment would have paid so many life dividends to just get an assistant.
- [22:58]
OG
Well, again, it sounds back to the value of your time. It sounds really silly to say that you have to try to get rid of all of the $10 tasks if you want to do $20 work, you know, or get rid of the $20 work if you're trying to do the $50 work. And that can be extreme. I've also seen really obnoxious pieces about people who say, like, oh, well, you know, going grocery shopping is, is a waste of my time because that's a $10 an hour task. And it's like, okay, so I see.
- [23:24]
Joe Saul-Sehy
We were there the year at Fincon where there was one of the YouTube influencers there walking around with an entourage of like eight assistants. Like, that was stupid.
- [23:34]
OG
It's like the person who's like, hold on a second, I can find the fund that's 0.02 instead of 0.03. Hahaha. I win. Like, okay, all right. Meanwhile, I'm not saving enough, but I saved a penny per thousand on costs. But. So you can kind of abuse that. But at some level, what Alex is talking about with Winston's talk about here too is I think about all the time and goodwill that he would have created with his own circle of people, whether that was his family or his other, you know, extended community or church family or whatever, if he would have said, well, I'm going to invest $20,000 or $50,000 a year into this employee who can triage 90% of this stuff along the way. Plus, you and I know this from our strategic coach work. The other piece that happens, and this is just really hard for people to believe before they do it, is that it frees up your mental capacity to solve bigger problems. If you're looking at your career and you're saying, I want to be in charge of bigger issues, I want to solve bigger problems. Because solving bigger problems generally means you're in charge of more stuff, which generally means you make more money, which kind of advances your career. Right? That's problem solvers. If you want to do that, you have to be in a creative space to be able to think about solutions. You just simply can't be doing the monkey manager thing like putting out fires every single day, and still have the mental bandwidth to tackle the big problems that are going on in your organization, your career, whatever it is. So there is some truth to saying, I need to invest in these people who are capable and able to solve these other problems so that I'm freed up to solve bigger problems. And it's really hard. Especially if you're an entrepreneur, it's hard to like sign off on that because sometimes we look at those numbers as expenses. Right? It's like every 50,000 I give to an employee is 50,000 that's not coming to me.
- [25:18]
Joe Saul-Sehy
And you know, that's exactly what he was thinking. But listen to your point. OG up to the life he was giving away. This is from Mr. Dr. Winston. He says that sucked up a lot of oxygen in my life. I could never watch a movie when I went out with my wife because I would get a dozen phone calls. Winston said though he acknowledged the helpline helped make his practice successful. What was his success also became his anchor because he didn't have people to help him with. Imagine being married to that person. I mean, trying to go to a movie with them or go out to dinner and they're constantly walking away from the table or walking out of the movie theater because they've got to take yet another call. And people you love not getting the piece of you that they, that they truly want. I will link to this in the show notes. I love the piece about having somebody else tell you that it's okay. Verifying the first of all, I like using a calculator versus the rule of thumb. That's number one. More granular you can get about your numbers, the easier it's going to be. Number two is if you still don't believe it, have somebody else tell you. Look at your stuff and tell you. Somebody that's been there knows what they're doing, that you know what, you can do this and it's still going to be okay. And then I like the idea of scheduling ahead of time. Those big rocks that are outside of work. What are the vacations I'm going to take this year? What are the thing. And then make those to your point. OG make them off limits. Don't, don't return emails during that vacation, which I know is hard. It's incredibly hard. Strategic. Coach had us take free days and free days are brutal like it is. It's often so hard. I'm not going to look at it. I'll just look at it. Just a little bit. Very difficult.
- [26:53]
OG
Yeah. It's taken me a long time to get to the point where I feel comfortable not having email on my phone.
- [26:59]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It's so, so, so hard.
- [27:01]
OG
But 20 years ago we didn't have email on our phone, so.
- [27:03]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I know, right?
- [27:04]
OG
Did okay, that funny.
- [27:05]
Joe Saul-Sehy
What did we do then? How do we make it through vacation without.
- [27:09]
OG
We had to go all the way back to the office to remember doing.
- [27:12]
Joe Saul-Sehy
That on your vacation. Oh, wait, that never happened.
- [27:14]
OG
Well, I was going to say, I do remember one time. I have a funny story about that. Maybe later.
- [27:20]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Time for our TikTok minute. This is the part of the show where we shine a light on a TikTok creator who's either doing something brilliant or air quotes. Brilliant. Doug, this one, do you think we're going to hear brilliance or air quotes? Brilliance.
- [27:32]
Doug
I know what this one is.
- [27:33]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh, I shouldn't have asked you.
- [27:34]
Doug
You gave this because I sent this in.
- [27:38]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Probably brilliant.
- [27:39]
Doug
Yeah. If I sent it.
- [27:41]
Joe Saul-Sehy
And this is not as, you know, a tick tock creator, if it was presented on one of the social media pages. But this is a clip from comedian neighbor Gazzi's recent Netflix special, which you saw the whole thing and said it.
- [27:52]
Doug
Was the whole thing.
- [27:53]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It was good. Not great.
- [27:54]
Doug
Yeah, I mean, look, above average by most comedian stand up comedians standards, but not his best standards stuff.
- [28:02]
Joe Saul-Sehy
This is pretty damn good though, the piece that you sent me. And I think a lot of our stacker community is going to feel maligned by this guy because listen to this heresy.
- [28:10]
Doug
Heresy.
- [28:11]
Joe Saul-Sehy
She's the cheaper one of us as well. Not in a bad way.
- [28:16]
OG
You know, she likes the lights being off.
- [28:18]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Turn lights off, little lights off.
- [28:20]
OG
It's a fun time being in that environment. Turn the light on, find your seat, get a stick, knock the light back.
- [28:26]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Off, sit in the dark and be sad. Just be sad all day. But you're saving nickels upon nickels, right?
- [28:41]
OG
When I get in bed, you turn that light off. I can't tell that's on.
- [28:44]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Well, get out of bed. Turn it off. 80 years.
- [28:48]
OG
We'll give our daughter to $37 from.
- [28:49]
Joe Saul-Sehy
All the nickels we saved. We'll give my daughter the 37 bucks we saved of 80 years of doing this. What inheritance that would be?
- [29:01]
OG
He's done a great job of leaning into his personality, I think.
- [29:06]
Doug
Yeah, it's 100% delivery for him. It's 92% delivery. But.
- [29:12]
Joe Saul-Sehy
But it's also a great commentary on the stuff we've been talking about. Leading with purpose. Is your purpose really the lights. Although I do have to say Cheryl must have been channeling his wife last night because she's like, oh, we still, by the way, our Christmas trees are coming down this week. They're coming down this week. But she's like, yeah, I see a light in the other room. Did you leave the Christmas tree on? You got to turn the Christmas tree off. Like, why do I. Number one, why do I have to turn the Christmas tree off? And she doesn't have to turn the Christmas tree off because I remember if we want to replay the tape. If. If we want to replay. And I. I throw the challenge flag, which I would never do, because I'm not going to win the challenge, whether I'm right or wrong. But if I did throw it, we rewound the tape. I didn't even plug in the tree. I had no business around that tree. So, of course, I go out in the other room. You know. You know what it was? We had a very strong moon last night, and you could see the moon coming in the window of the.
- [30:06]
Doug
It was your responsibility to go check on the moon.
- [30:08]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yes. To make sure that.
- [30:10]
Doug
Did you put the toilet seat down? Why are we the ones who have to put the toilet seat down?
- [30:14]
Joe Saul-Sehy
You don't see us going. Did you put the toilet seat up?
- [30:17]
Doug
Yes. Yes. Let's start that movement. We're starting that right here.
- [30:21]
OG
Let's get one of these. Joe, you're about that age.
- [30:28]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh. Coming up next, we're gonna take a call from a stacker who needs some help from us. Allison needs some help, guys. But before that, Doug, I think you've got today's amazing trivia question.
- [30:41]
Doug
Listen, I just want to sing that song, Allison.
- [30:46]
Joe Saul-Sehy
All right.
- [30:46]
Doug
Hey, there, stackers. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. And this week, back in 1974, the iconic show Happy Days was born, starring one Ron Howard, who later went on to direct some of the most iconic films of all time. You know what? Now that I think about it, Ron and I have a ton in common. That's right. He directed Apollo 13. And there was that time I told Joe's mom, houston, we have a problem. When I melt melted her crock pot trying to make Apollo brownies. Nailed it. And. And remember, Howard's a Beautiful Mind. Yeah, I got one of those. Just asked me about my strategy for finding the perfect parking spot at Walmart. It's brilliant. Speaking of brilliance, here's a brilliant question for today's trivia challenge. What iconic TV show featured a young fresh on the road to stacking lots of Benjamin's Ron Howard in a town called Mayberry? I'll be back right after I call NASA to see if they need a backup crock pot operator for their next Apollo mission. I think I got what it takes. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.
- [32:37]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Many of you may remember that metpro founder Angelo Poly is on our show a ton and the reason we have Angelo back is because he is such an expert on the science of diet and exercise. You may know or you may not know that a few years ago when I asked about metpro, they agreed to furnish me with a coach for a while named Jesse. And to this day I still work with Jesse because diet and exercise are such an important part of my regime and they should be frankly of years too in 2025 if you want to achieve big things, you need some big health to go with that fat wallet that we're trying to help you create. The team at metpro has just helped me. They've helped thousands of individuals help perform their bodies by hacking their metabolism. If you're looking for a high touch experience working with a metabolic expert or you want access to the tools their industry leading coaches use, visit MetPro Co SB. You'll get a complimentary assessment like I had and then speak to their team to learn which option is best for you. Here's what I like. Whenever I'm eating stuff that shouldn't go in my mouth, whenever I'm avoiding working out, which is something that I aspire to always do, I think of Jesse and I think about I don't want to let myself down and Jesse's going to hold me accountable. We all need accountability coaches in our corner. But even better, Jesse's not just holding me accountable, she's holding me accountable to a more scientific approach. And if you haven't heard Angela Poly on our show, not only should you sign up for the assessment with MetPro, but you should also go back and listen because you'll hear the science. One of my favorite Angela Poly lines Everything works until it doesn't. All those fad diets work until they don't. And when they don't, the boomerang effect is pretty horrible. So to take advantage of this opportunity to get a complimentary assessment from MetPro, go to MetPro co. It's not.com it's.co MetPro co SB and you're going to get a complimentary metabolic profiling assessment. A one on one consultation with a MetPro coach like my coach Jesse to help you achieve your goals this year, course results may vary. MetPro is not a medical organization. The service is not intended to treat any illness, disease, or adverse medical condition.
- [35:07]
OG
Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds.
- [35:08]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to.
- [35:12]
OG
Raise prices due to inflation.
- [35:14]
Joe Saul-Sehy
They said yes. And then when I asked if raising.
- [35:16]
OG
Prices technically violates those onerous two year contracts, they said, what the are you talking about?
- [35:21]
Joe Saul-Sehy
You insane Hollywood. So to recap, we're cutting the price.
- [35:25]
OG
Of mint unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try@mintmobile.com switch. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only.
- [35:35]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Taxes and fees.
- [35:35]
OG
Extra Speed slower above 40GB. Details.
- [35:42]
Doug
Hey there, Stackers. I'm Mayberry historian and amateur kitchen fire starter. John. John's mom. Who the hell's John?
- [35:52]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Could be John's mom too. We don't know.
- [35:55]
Doug
Maybe my neighbor on the other side. John's mom. Neighbor Doug. I can't stop amazing myself about how much director Ron Howard and I are alike.
- [36:05]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh, you're so alike.
- [36:06]
Doug
We are. I mean, take his film the Da Vinci Code. I once solved a movie mystery involving Joe's mom's secret stash of Oreos. Spoiler was hidden behind the hot water heater. Tom Hanks ain't got nothing on me. And how about Backdraft? Oh, I'm all over that. I single handedly saved Joe's mom's basement from a fiery disaster when I accidentally set the toaster on turbo mode. Smells like heroism and a little bit like burnt Pop Tarts. But hey, disaster averted. But today's question was this. What TV series launched Howard's career when he played a young boy in a fictional town called Mayberry? The answer? It was on the Andy Griffith show that we first met Ron Howard. Did you get it right? Go and whistle that Andy Griffith theme song while pretending your snowblower is a squad car. Bonus points. Nobody does does that. Bonus points if your neighbors join in mine never do, but never say never, Stackers. And now back to two guys, one of which I think just backdrafted Joe and OG oh boy.
- [37:21]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Gotta have the fart joke right at the end of that. It's amazing to see how many great movies Ron Howard has has written. But Mayberry, if you're not like 180 years old, I think a lot of people don't know what that is. But the second you start whistling that, Doug, I think even the youngest among us Go. Oh yeah.
- [37:37]
OG
Oh yeah.
- [37:38]
Doug
People are going to be swearing at me all day long now because that is stuck in your head.
- [37:42]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It's an annoying earworm, that theme. All right, enough of that.
- [37:49]
Doug
I'm gonna do that just quietly in the background.
- [37:51]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Do not do that. Please, God, do not do that just to distract Doug. It's time for us to answer a call from a stacker who said, you know what? We better call Saul. See? Hi. And oh gee, and if you've got a call, by the way, and you'd like help from, it's stuckybenjamins.com voicemail. Head to that link and it's very easy. You'll just press the recorder button and on whatever device you're on, your phone, your computer, just start talking and it will record your question for us. And somebody who demonstrated that today for all of our stackers is our new friend, Allison. Hey, Allison. Hi, Joe, Og and neighbor Doug. This is Allison from California. I'm a longtime listener, first time caller. I was listening to your show the other day and you made a comment about how the consumer price index doesn't account for inflation on food and other basic necessities. My question is, if we're planning our retirement based on an assumption of inflation.
- [38:52]
OG
Based on the cpi, how would I be able to comfortably retire with possibly.
- [38:58]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Experiencing 10 to 20% increases on basic necessities annually? Thanks for answering. See ya. By the way, I'm a women's schmedium. Thanks, Allison, for that. And you know what, I don't want to get back into the CPI stuff again, but inflation OG and what measure to use for inflation and to understand how inflation's going to impact you, I think is an important and fair question that all of our stackers need to know.
- [39:28]
OG
Yeah, it's a good question around inflation and there's a lot of different definitions of that. On the government website, BLS website, you can get inflation that is just for energy or just for food or excluding food and energy, which is what they call core inflation. Or you know, there's all these different variations of it. You've got to pick a number. I think it's fair to use the historical kind of 30 year number and maybe round up a little bit. But it's also probably a good idea from a planning standpoint to model out different scenarios of higher inflation. Like what if the last 30 years has been, let's say, 3%, what if it is 3.5% or 4% for the next 30 years and see what that does to your plan. I think financial planning is more about the activity of the thinking exercise of what do we do if? Than it is going. This is the only solution because the reality is that inflation may be 4% for the whole 30 years or it might be 2 1/2% for the next 30 years. Nobody really knows until it's been 30 years, right? But the exercise of thinking about what are we going to do were this to be the case? What are the decision points in terms of our guardrails or our glide path of retirement? When are we going to have to make a decision if our portfolio behaves in this manner? And it's the same thing you would do if you were looking at, hey, I think my portfolio is going to grow at 7% a year, but what if it does 6? I think my portfolio is going to grow at 8, what if it does 7? You put these different scenarios in there to stress test it, right? That's basically what you're doing, is stress testing it. So I think it's a good exercise to stress test all components of your plan. Not just an inflation number, but all pieces. I mean, what happens if Social Security is half as much as you forecast it to be? What if they change the retirement age to 70 instead of 67? I mean, these are all things that you can model out in your analysis and hopefully that you kind of come to a consensus of like, okay, I'm good under most of these circumstances, but if these four happen, then I know I'm gonna have to make a change, right? Like, where's the breaking point? And that's really how I think about stress testing, is when do I have to really be worried about this?
- [41:31]
Joe Saul-Sehy
We call these in the business, I like the phrase stress testing, but we often call them what if scenarios. What if this happens? What if? And I really like that way of thinking because you then get into the whole what if game, which I think going back to our headline today, OG Just imagine if Dr. Mr. Winston had done some of this. What if I hired the assistant and I paid out the X amount of money? Where would I end up then? Can I really afford to take that time off? And not only that, if he says, what if I hired the assistant as a entrepreneur or as, you know, a manager running these veterinary clinics, he then also says, well, if I do, then I'm also going to have to train them on almost like when you start opening your brain to these what ifs, then you begin to find a much stronger plan. But if Mr. Dr. Winston was able to. What if? Yeah, I Can hire the assistant? Yes, I, I can afford that. And if inflation goes up and I'm okay, well, then, you know, I can safely make it through the movie without taking five phone calls. I'm going to be okay.
- [42:38]
OG
Yeah. We look at these what if scenarios or these stress tests as like, all these different levers. And how many of them have to go against you before you have to do anything? Right. So you go, I think my plan is going to grow at 7%. Well, what if it was 6? Okay, we're still good. What if I does 5? Okay, we're still good.
- [42:53]
Joe Saul-Sehy
All right.
- [42:53]
OG
So that really isn't a stressor. What if Social Security gets cut in half? Okay, I'm still good. What if my portfolio grows at 6 and Social Security gets cut at half issue? So now, you know, like, okay, if both of those things happen, you know, you're going to have to kind of get back into the plan and start making some adjustments along the way. So I think it's good to do all of these things, including, to your point, Joe, what if I live to be 100 and what if I die at 72?
- [43:20]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Right? Yeah, I hadn't thought about that.
- [43:23]
Doug
But is there. I'm just going to challenge a little bit. I think I know the answer that you're going to say, but is there a simple answer for her? Is there a simple answer to say don't use the cpi, use this number, or do we have to have multiple what if scenarios?
- [43:39]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I don't think that's.
- [43:40]
Doug
I should have one default one.
- [43:41]
OG
Right?
- [43:42]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I don't think that that's the point. And the reason. I don't think so, Doug. And the reason I'll challenge your challenge. How about that? Is that. Is that the government? Well, the government number doesn't matter. What matters is what happened with you. OG and I both have talked about our love of Monarch money. I think that's, you know, I'm so happy that they sponsor the show because we both have been in love with that product for a long time. But no matter what you use, this is part of the upside of modeling what things have cost for you, because then you can. The true CPI doesn't matter as much as your personal inflation rate. What rate of inflation have I had in my life? And if I can look at what happened to me last year and then look at what happened to me this year now, I just saw Doug go, oh, that sounds hard, dude, you just.
- [44:27]
Doug
Put on a huge amount of work on my plate. I have spreadsheets for everything in my life. But I'm not measuring the inflation of my certain categories of spending.
- [44:35]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It truly isn't. It's super easy to see what inflation has been in your life. It might not be today. And if you're like, no it isn't, Joe. And the reason it isn't is because you haven't started tracking your expenses. So sure, you might not be able to do it this year, but doing it next year, not that hard. Not that hard at all. And I think that number is far more valuable than some government statistic about what it is for the person down the road and the person living in another city that I mean, the cost of living in in Texarkana versus the cost of living in New York City, two totally different things.
- [45:05]
OG
Texarkon is higher by far to your point, Doug. I almost think about this. Like what's the phrase from accounting class? What is it called when you look at it as a percentage of the overall total? Do you guys remember that from accounting? I don't remember. But anyways, your income is 100%. 100. And then your gross margin is this. And it's whatever. Anyway, there's a phrase for it. So you don't have to keep track of all your expenses, Doug, you could just say, here's how much money I made, here's how much money I paid in taxes. Here how much money I saved, here's how much money I spent. And the next year do that same calculation. Here's how much money I paid in taxes. That's easily findable. Here's how much money I put in my 401k, easily findable. Here's how much money I spent. Easily deduced by subtracting those other ones, right? And now you say, well, last year my percentage of my income was 46% that I did on expenses and now it's 47%. What's the delta between those two? And what's the rate of change? You can see, assuming that, you know, accounting for one off type things, right? You say, well, last year I went to Scotland. Okay, we'll take that out. Except for the fact that every year you're going to do something like that, you know what I mean? You may not go to Scotland every year, but I bet you have a fun experience with your kids. Or if you don't do it this year, you do it twice next year. You know what I mean? Like kind of all evens out so you don't have to track every expense, but you can take out the known knowns and solve for the rest that might be a way to do it.
- [46:29]
Doug
All right, I will allow that answer.
- [46:31]
OG
Okay, thank you. And the other piece of this, too.
- [46:33]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I think there's a bigger framework before you get to the other piece here. OG the bigger framework is this. I feel like when you use rules of thumb and use these big global numbers, the more you can get into what, what it is that you're doing and what you want, the more reliable your plan's going to be. And this is really, I think the heart of Allison's question is how to make my number reliable. Well, track you, stop tracking the government, stop tracking other people, track yourself. And it's going to be a much more reliable position.
- [47:02]
OG
OG well, I was just going to say this dovetails into why you absolutely need to continue investing in things that are going to rise and grow with the economy throughout your retirement. And this idea of being conservative when you get to retirement is so, so full of crap because we all recognize that expenses are going to go up, and in recent years, they've gone up a lot in periods of time. And so we feel this concept of inflation now where we hadn't before. But if you don't have your money in a place that's outpacing that, you're not going to be able to keep up with it. And the only thing that outpaces inflation is the ownership of the biggest companies in the world. Lending to them doesn't work. Putting your money in a savings account doesn't work. Although you need to have money in a savings account for emergencies, but you're losing purchasing power. And this is a very real example of how that can affect you in a short period of time. If you look at just your regular income, you know, I make $100,000 and inflation's higher this year. I feel squeezed, right? I just read an article the other day about federal employees got a 2% pay raise and their health insurance went up like 17%. So the average federal employee has a net lower paycheck this year than last because their healthcare costs went up more than their pay raise did. So they actually got a net. You know that. Imagine that happens every single year if you have a fixed income. If you have an income that's like, okay, I've got this, a hundred grand, and I've got this margin of safety right now. Every year that's going to get more and more compressed. You need to find a solution in your retirement, through your retirement earnings, that that income isn't going to be fixed. It's going to continue to grow with the economy. Because when you have inflation, that manifests itself in profitability to companies like you. You know, again, back to my thing from a week ago of like, everybody's in it for themselves. Do you think Coke goes? Well, sugar went up. I guess we take it on the chin. This quarter, guys, we're screwed. They go, coke's an extra quarter. Like, they just raised the price. Except for the guy from Arizona, Tea. He's like, whatever, I'm good.
- [49:00]
Joe Saul-Sehy
But we all accept it. Because for Coke, you go, well, it's logical. It's a smart thing for them to do.
- [49:06]
OG
Yeah. And so why wouldn't you want to be an owner of that? If you were an owner of a business and you made soda and all of a sudden your cost of aluminum and sugar went up and syrup and water, you'd be like, well, guys, we can't sell this thing for a dollar anymore. We got to sell it for A$10.
- [49:19]
Doug
Hold on. There's aluminum and Coke.
- [49:22]
OG
Yes, there's tons of. There's Coke and Coke.
- [49:26]
Joe Saul-Sehy
You know, I love that TikTok minute we did a while ago about the preacher who was standing in front of a bunch of people saying, all of you are wearing, you know, you're wearing Nike. You've got coach bags, you've got all this, you know, you're wearing these brands and these keep going up and up and up in price. Wouldn't it be better if you own those companies because they go up and up and up in price instead of you walking around thinking you're cool because you are sporting the logo instead, you are the person making cash out of all these people sporting the logo. Pretty badass.
- [49:54]
OG
I have a fun exercise that I'm working on right now. I just have to figure out the program because I'm not going to do it by hand. Several weeks ago, Doug and I were doing the how much did you spend on Amazon? Download last year? And we have our numbers. I'm going to figure out how to do this. I'm going to buy Amazon stock with every Amazon purchase I did over the last 20 years. Instead, just to see the impact of the latte factor, as it were, which I know is going to be mind melting in terms of dollar amounts nevertheless. Not like you could go without all those things, but I'm sure you could have gone.
- [50:23]
Doug
So hold on. So Amazon right Now is at 221. So every time you buy something on Amazon, are you buying a share?
- [50:30]
Joe Saul-Sehy
No, no, no.
- [50:30]
OG
I'm saying instead of spending the money on Amazon, if I would have said, I don't need that. And I spent $11.19 that day. What would that have bought me in Amazon stock that day?
- [50:40]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Buying the fractional shares.
- [50:41]
OG
Yeah. All the way from 2001 till present.
- [50:44]
Joe Saul-Sehy
That's going to be an ugly number.
- [50:45]
OG
I think it's going to be a real ugly number because I spent 100 grand in the last 20 years on Amazon. So I'm no expert of Amazon stock, but I'm thinking that it's gone up in the last 20 years and if I'd have put in 100 grand, but the most of my spending has been.
- [51:00]
Doug
Recent relative in the last five years it's gone up 134%.
- [51:04]
OG
Shut up, nerd.
- [51:05]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Jeff Bezos sees OG in public and just refers to him as profit margin. Hey, profit, how you doing?
- [51:11]
OG
What's up? PM all time.
- [51:12]
Doug
Which is, I mean, 1997, you said 20 years. So shave a little bit off of this all time. Amazon's gone up 255,000%.
- [51:23]
OG
Yeah, just owning the company, everybody knows this. It's going to be a pretty mind boggling miss on my part, but it's also going to be eye opening of like, you know, instead of doing this for the next 25 years, maybe, maybe, maybe change my ways, I'm going to change my ways a little bit.
- [51:42]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I think. Allison, this does one other thing too well and for all of the rest of our stacker family. And this OG improves your focus. We've talked a lot so far in 2025 about focus, but I think in two areas. Number one, on the news that you follow, there's so much incoming data and I know a lot of people. I remember me when I first got into the stock market, I'm like, yeah, CNBC is talking about all this data. What do I, geez, what do I care about? Well, once I know where my threats are, right, when I know exactly what my numbers are and which ones could potentially sink my ship, I'm going to pay more attention to those and I'm going to tune out stuff that I don't care about. Because you can't focus on everything. Closer you get to focusing on very few things and know what those drivers are. I think that's it. Number two, OG to your point, it also focuses investment opportunities that I hear about because I think too many of us spend time and I see this in our numbers, right when we've got a sexy title of a podcast episode, the numbers go up and the people listen to that. The number of people looking for the magic bullet increases. And instead if you go, yeah, you know what, that's an opportunity. But it doesn't fit the profile of what I need to get that goal. Because I know that I'm looking at X inflation number. I know that my what if scenarios, you know, these are the threats that I have. I think being able to just focus and be able to say, you know what, that's a great investment opportunity. It's just not for me. It's a wonderful place to be because I think Warren Buffett said it best. There's no such thing as a called strike in investing. A baseball analogy where, you know, the umpire can call you out if you don't swing the bat. You never have to swing the bat at the wrong pitch. When it comes to investments, you can certainly wait for the right thing.
- [53:18]
OG
Expanding my thinking on Amazon. What if every mortgage payment I make to Chase, I would have bought J.P. morgan stock?
- [53:25]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Now he's going to start thinking about it globally.
- [53:27]
OG
Yeah. Oh, oh.
- [53:28]
Joe Saul-Sehy
We're going to end this episode pretty soon before OG pisses himself completely off. Chris. He's head explode.
- [53:36]
OG
I would be a go zillionaire. And mama said we wouldn't have to worry about money no more.
- [53:41]
Joe Saul-Sehy
What am I doing in my life? Lots of years of therapy. This segment was brought to you by BetterHelp. Good stuff as always. We dive into all of these topics on our show Notes page@Stacky Benjamin.com and also in the 201, our newsletter that comes out weekly. It's always free. Stacking Benjamin.com 201 gets you to get you to the 201 newsletter. Doug, out to the back porch. Just briefly. Philli in the basement. Our Facebook group@st.Benjamin.com Basement gets you there. It's a long URL to get there. Philip says that car commercial, some of you, one of you guys was talking about the song Days Go By. Somebody's talking about the song Days Go By. I was referring to the song that was in a bunch of car commercials. Philip showed the YouTube video. This YouTube video is so uncomfortable. It's a 2003 Mitsubishi commercial and this woman's like in the passenger seat doing the robot dance. And it looks so stupid. It looks so. And Tracy in the basement says, my family would give me so much stuff if I tried doing the robot in the car while wearing a beret, which is what this woman's doing. I could imagine Doug on a road trip. Those road trips Doug we used to take to upstate New York, you've been doing the robot in the passenger seat. If I would have done the robot in the passenger seat, you would have like pulled over and I've been like what? You've been like, get that A lot of my car.
- [55:11]
Doug
And you were wearing a beret, so it would have worked.
- [55:14]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I always wear a beret. It's my signature look.
- [55:18]
Doug
20 years ago. God. Yeah. Somebody posted recently, I'm just going to leave this here. The year 2000 was now 25 years.
- [55:26]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Shut the front door.
- [55:28]
Doug
That is so. That's just unnecessary violence when you post stuff like that.
- [55:32]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Do not need to hear that from you at all. It's disgusting. Even bring it up. Great stuff. All right, I'm coming to Seattle. Stacky benjamin.com retirement if you want to join our book club, I'm going through this so fast. If you want to hang out with me and a few other stackers and do a deep dive into your financial plan over ten 90 minute sessions, we're gonna fire that up here in February. Stack benjamin.com book club for that. I believe that's the back porch. Doug.
- [56:03]
Doug
Let's get out of here.
- [56:04]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Slow it down for a second. Yeah. What things should be on our to do list from today's show?
- [56:09]
Doug
Well, Joe, I've got three. First, take some advice from our headline. Saving is great, but so is enjoying today. Schedule time for those things that light you up along the way, not just for more overtime. Second, that light that's on. Yeah, that might save you 37 cents, but come on, focus on the big things. Speaking of the big lesson, saving money is great until it means stumbling through the basement in the dark because OG turned off all the lights again. Turns out broken toes are not cheaper than electricity, man. This show is the property of SB Podcasts, LLC, Copyright 2020, and is created by Joe Saul Sehive. Joe gets help from a few of our neighborhood friends. You'll find out about our awesome team@stackingbenjamins.com along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. Come say hello.
- [57:11]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh yeah.
- [57:12]
Doug
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.
- [58:26]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh gee, I think my nephews are taking lessons from steak brother.
- [58:31]
OG
Oh yeah.
- [58:32]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Three of my nephews came down from Michigan and these are guys that, when I took them to a restaurant called Bubba's, which is new in Texarkana, it is a spin off of Texas Roadhouse, locally owned along with Texas Roadhouse right next door.
- [58:48]
Doug
It's a cool place, mid level, like, fast casual type.
- [58:51]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, it's like a fun sports bar. Have you been to one, Doug?
- [58:53]
Doug
Not Bubba's, but I know that I know the type.
- [58:56]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, no, it's exactly what it was. I ordered some onion rings, and my one nephew said, these onion rings are only slightly better than Applebee's. So that. That's the caliber restaurant my nephews like to eat at. However, one of my nephews just got out of the Navy, Colin. I was super excited. We were taking them to Fort Worth, which is, you know, oh, geez, just a badass town. Just such a cool place. And it's their first time in Texas. Take them to the stockyards. And while we're there, because it was Colin's birthday and to celebrate that he was leaving the Navy, I took them to a place called Lonesome Dove Restaurant, which has a phenomenal chef. And in TripAdvisor, my two favorite restaurants in Fort Worth, it says there's 2,000 restaurants in Fort Worth. They're rated number seven. Number eight, and this was number eight. So the other one I like is Riata, which I think, og, you and I have been to Riata, haven't we? No. Oh, we got to go to Riata. Yeah, good stuff, but fun western vibe, but also kind of a next tier place. Well, we go to the stockyards, and then we open up the door to Lonesome Dove, and it's immediately dark. There's candles on the table. And my nephew who made the comment about Applebee says, oh, romantic Uncle Joe, because it's so dark with the candles. And we sit down and I have to tell him right away, you don't sit with your elbows on the table. And he takes them off like he's really getting into it. We order differently than we ordered at Bubba's. We order for, you know, there's all kinds of menus. At the end, she said, I'm going to take the Chargers out of the way. In just a moment. Kids go, what are the Chargers? Well, these. These plates, they're going to take away. And again, that same nephew, really excited about it. One's in college, this is the one in high school, is asking all the questions. And my nephew coming out of the military is really having fun. He and I ordered a Manhattan called a Willie, which Doug, I was explaining to you what a Willie was before. It's named after Willie Nelson.
- [60:51]
Doug
Oh, it wasn't wet.
- [60:53]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It was not. Yeah, that's the other one. No, that was. That. That was not going.
- [60:58]
Doug
That was that special bath house you took them to before the steak.
- [61:02]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Not going to occur on this trip.
- [61:04]
OG
No, you mean an exorcism.
- [61:06]
Joe Saul-Sehy
That's right. But it's named after Willie Nelson. And, you know, they. It's. It's smoked, so they have the. They have it smoking inside with the lid on and open it up right in front of us. And my nephew and I really had fun. I'd had this drink before. They also at Lonesome Dove, highly recommend this restaurant, by the way. It's all. Not all, but a lot of it is wild game. Bison, elk.
- [61:30]
Doug
We had rabbits wandering around between the tables.
- [61:32]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, and then they shoot it in front of you. It's amazing. You stun it, you kill it, you chop it, eat what you kill. Restaurant. That'd be wild. Everybody's chasing chicken around.
- [61:43]
Doug
Sounds like Fort Worth. You said it was a badass town.
- [61:46]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It totally the wild west. The old wild west. Rattlesnake, rabbit, sausage. We had so a lot of good stuff. But we're looking at the menu, and the high schooler, Ethan, says, you know what? I think I'd like to get the elk ribeye. And he looked down at the bottom of the menu where it said $13.50. However, that is per ounce. It's hand cut, and there's a minimum of 10 ounces. But he doesn't see all that. I look up where it's a menu item, not hand cut, just made off the menu. It's 91 bucks. The next highest menu item is 65 dollars. And so I see that my nephew's going after the $91 thing, and I go, you know what? I'm not sure you're gonna really like the bison that much. I think you'd actually tried the rabbit stew. I think you would like the beef tenderloin. You know, I think you really would. And by the way, I wasn't being wrong. I think he would like it as much.
- [62:51]
Doug
You know, it's muskrat season.
- [62:57]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I said to him, though, I said, you're just like Nick, my son. It seems like every restaurant we went to, he would always pick just like steak. Brother og, he would pick the most expensive thing on the menu, right? Oh, yeah, totally. Going to go after the most. Every single place we went. Nick, my son, would always go, oh, yeah, I want this. What do you want that? What do you talk. Oh, I really. So the rule with Nick and I told my nephews this, I said, if you look at the rest of the menu and nothing else is going to make your day, and this is the only thing that will do it. Well, then order it. You know, I'm happy you guys are here. Then order it. But look at, look at the rest of the menu first. Because, man, there's. Look at this, look at this, look at this. It's great. So Colin, the oldest one, orders. He gets the ravioli. $38 for this elk ravioli. My nephew Ethan orders. He orders the 8 ounce beef tenderloin for 65 bucks or the 8 ounce. I order the 6 ounce for like 50 bucks. And then the middle one, Gavin goes, I'll have the elk ribeye. The $91 thing that I just got done telling them you probably don't need to get. And as he's ordering it with a straight face, the high schooler on the other side of him puts his arm out and starts patting me on the back and says, it's going to be okay, Uncle Joe, because I think you could see on my face, what the hell are you doing, man? What are you doing to me?
- [64:29]
Doug
You brought this on yourself, though, because you prefaced it by saying, if that's the thing that's going to make your day and make you go, wow.
- [64:37]
OG
The question that I have is, did he eat the elk ribeye?
- [64:39]
Joe Saul-Sehy
What's funny was he tasted Ethan, the youngest ones, beef tenderloin. You know what he said?
- [64:45]
OG
That's really good.
- [64:46]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I would have liked that better.
- [64:48]
Doug
Oh, my God.
- [64:50]
Joe Saul-Sehy
For two thirds the price, I would have liked that better.
- [64:53]
Doug
Twisting the knife.
- [64:55]
OG
Yeah. We went to this place for my birthday. Did we talk about this already?
- [64:59]
Doug
No, but we talked about the before. I want to hear the review after.
- [65:03]
OG
Oh, yeah. So we went to this place in Plano. It only has seven tables.
- [65:07]
Joe Saul-Sehy
That's right. We did talk the before.
- [65:09]
OG
You know, you walk in, the guy's like, hey, I'm the owner, chef the whole kitchen.
- [65:14]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Kitten, waiter, sommelier, dishwasher.
- [65:17]
OG
Yeah, I mean, he was all those things. One other person working behind the bar and the one other server. Everything's family style. And your choice is strip or ribeye and F1 or F2 wagyu. Those are your two choices. Like you just. And it comes out on this huge platter. It's a giant 20 ounce steak. It's all cut up and there is no. It's not cooked to your liking. It's Cooked to whatever he wants to cook it at. So he's like, our steaks are cooked to 134 degrees. So wow.
- [65:49]
Doug
Eat it, Deal with it.
- [65:50]
OG
Deal with it. Yeah, comes a couple sides. Bread pudding. You know, the wine was. He's like, do you want cab or are you a pinot person? I said, oh, do you have wine list? He goes, do you want cab or pinot? Like, they just pour it. There's no bottle. There's no long discussion about it. It's just like, this is the wine we have. It goes with this meat. We've picked it on purpose. You will love it. What?
- [66:14]
Joe Saul-Sehy
And the review.
- [66:16]
OG
Yeah, it was fantastic. I would 100 go back. I mean, I just love supporting, like, little businesses and also ones that are, like, ballsy enough to be like, this is what we do. You can have steak or steak. Would you like potatoes, you know, or green beans? You know what I mean? Like that. Those are your choices. And for red or red? Yeah, we have. Well, you could get white. There was an option for white, you know, but there weren't cocktails. I mean, maybe there were, but it was just like, here's your meal and get out of here. And it was the same price as going out to like a Del Frisco's or Three Forks or something like that. And it was a thousand times better. I. I loved it. It was really good.
- [66:52]
Doug
So what's the scene from Hell or High Water where the waitress says, you want. Yeah, what are the two options?
- [66:57]
OG
It's like that. What don't you want?
- [66:59]
Joe Saul-Sehy
What are the two options?
- [67:00]
OG
Oh, for Hell or High Water or for.
- [67:03]
Joe Saul-Sehy
For hell or High Water.
- [67:04]
OG
Well, she says, what don't you want? That's how the scene starts.
- [67:07]
Doug
Yeah, that's.
- [67:08]
OG
Yeah, she says, what don't you want? That is for those curious if you watch that scene, if you're curious, what my grandmother sounded like, looked like, acted like, and was exactly the same personality and facial and everything features. That was central casting of OG's grandma. We should find that clip in that. It was like seeing a flashback. It was crazy because that's how. That's how Grandma was. Howdy, ma'am.
- [67:50]
Joe Saul-Sehy
How you doing today? Hot. And I don't mean the good kind. So what don't you want? Pardon? What don't you want?
- [68:02]
Doug
Oh, well, I think I just, you.
- [68:06]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Know, I've been working here for 44 years. Ain't nobody ever ordered nothing but T bone steak and a baked potato. Except this one hole from New York tried to order trout back in 1987. We don't sell no damn trout T bone steaks. So either you don't want the corn on the cob or you don't want the green beans. So what don't you want?
- [68:38]
Doug
I don't want green beans. I don't want green beans either.
- [68:42]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Steaks cooked medium rare.
- [68:44]
Doug
Can I get my steak cooked at what?
- [68:46]
Joe Saul-Sehy
No question. All right. Iced tea for you boys?
- [68:52]
Doug
I still be great.
- [68:56]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Thank you, Ma'am. Huh? And there you have it.