Our Annual Magic 8 Ball Predictions for 2026 (SB1788)

Summary

The Stacking Benjamins Show

Episode: Our Annual Magic 8 Ball Predictions for 2026 (SB1788)
Date: January 9, 2026
Hosts: Joe Saul-Sehy & OG
Panelists: Mindy Jensen (BiggerPockets Money), Len Penzo (LenPenzo.com)
Tone: Light, humorous, conversational

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Episode Overview

In this annual tradition, Joe, OG, Mindy, and Len gather around the mythical “card table” in Joe's Mom’s half-finished basement to review last year’s (2025) Magic 8 Ball predictions and boldly forecast what’s in store for 2026 in the world of money, investing, and pop culture. The legendary Magic 8 Ball’s prowess, and the panel's own instincts, are put to the test as they revisit past predictions, laugh at the 8 Ball’s loveably shaky record, and toss out a new round of bold, silly, and serious forecasts for the year ahead.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. 2025 Prediction Recap: Magic 8 Ball’s Report Card

[06:05 – 43:27]

• Pop Culture Start: Kicked off by asking if "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" would finally be canceled. The show survived, but the Magic 8 Ball predicted wrongly that it wouldn’t.
• Retail Reality: Panel queried whether Macy's would declare bankruptcy. Macy’s survived (thanks in part to the Thanksgiving Day parade, per Joe), and again the 8 Ball missed.
• Market Moves:
  • Mortgage rates: OG predicted a drop below 6.5%; actual rates hovered near 6.1%, so a correct prediction by human panel, but Magic 8 Ball again guessed wrong.
  • Stock Market: Would the Dow close above 50,000? It got close (high of 48,254) but didn’t cross. 8 Ball missed again.
  • Silver Surge: Len asked if silver would hit $40; it shot past to $56, finally giving the 8 Ball a correct answer.
  • Bitcoin vs Gold: Gold outperformed Bitcoin in 2025.
  • Berkshire Hathaway’s Run: Mindy asked if a share would hit $950,000; high was just over $812,000.
• Insurance Woes: The panel discussed how extreme weather events and natural disasters significantly pushed up homeowners (and auto) insurance.
  • Quote [14:45]: "Of all the things that they're worried about price increases, it's not food, groceries, fuel, it's insurance. That's people's most item that has impacted them the most in 2025" – Len Penzo
• Wildcards:
  • Will drones over U.S. cities be explained? (Yes, just tech companies testing.)
  • Will Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce get engaged? (Yes – August 26, 2025. 8 Ball guessed right.)
  • Will the Detroit Lions win the Super Bowl? No, and much loving grief for Joe as a fan.

Memorable Running Gag: The Magic 8 Ball starts out “with the accuracy of the 2008 Detroit Lions” (i.e., abysmal), prompting much banter about lackluster prediction skills and repeated references to sports teams’ woes.

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2. Economic Trends and Market Perspectives

[07:54, 09:34, 10:05, 10:53, 29:30, 30:11]

• Stock Market All-Time Highs: Despite ongoing worries about tariffs and retail struggles, the market performed robustly.
  • Quote [09:54]:
    “When your portfolio's up, maybe you, you know, you feel better about spending.” – Len Penzo
  • Mindy points out the disconnect between sensational market news headlines and the reality of incremental gains.
• Indexing Advocated: Len reaffirms index funds as a sanity-preserving investment strategy.
• Precious Metals Insights:
  • Silver and gold both had exceptional years, reportedly up over 100% and 70% respectively.
  • Ongoing skepticism toward cryptocurrencies, particularly as “store of value,” with both Len and OG noting its volatility and lack of tangible utility.
  • Quote [29:30]:
    “It's a highly speculative asset, that's what it is. And it's masquerading as a monetary system safe haven.” – Len Penzo
• Inflation and Rate Cuts:
  • Lookback and bold prediction forward about potential rate cuts and how they could cause another wave of inflation.
  • OG skeptical; Mindy suspects political pressure could drive the Fed in 2026.

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3. Panelist Banter and Memorable Quotes

Sports, Nostalgia, and Playful Jabs
[17:39, 18:44, 25:24, 42:33, 56:41, 61:47]

• Nostalgic recollections about Dow milestones and economic history, including Dow “10,000” hats and wild ride of Bitcoin prices.
• Frequent, comical asides on football (good-natured ribbing about Lions, Bears, Chiefs, Cowboys, Rams, and Hoosiers).
  • Quote [12:34]:
    “Oh, and three. Just like the Chiefs started off this year.” – Mindy Jensen
  • Quote [32:28]:
    “Will OG lose 37 pounds in three days?” – Mindy, riffing on ChatGPT’s optimism.
• Drone delivery anecdotes, including OG’s local “ice cream drone drop” in suburban Texas.
  • Quote [24:58]:
    “What utopia do you live in?” – Mindy Jensen

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4. 2026 Magic 8 Ball Predictions: New Year, New Guesses

[44:54 – 73:45]

Each panelist submitted three finance-related and one fun prediction for the coming year, consulting the newly recalibrated Magic 8 Ball for each. The predictions and the 8 Ball’s answers included:

• Interest Rates: Will there be three Fed rate cuts before June 2026? (8 Ball: "It has been determined. So.") Panel skeptical.
• Chinese Tech IPO: Will Huawei announce an IPO in 2026? (8 Ball: “No, they will not.” Panel concurs, “80% likely.”)
• S&P 500: Will the S&P be up 15%+ for another year? (8 Ball: “Yes, I am sure.”)
• Electricity Prices: Will electricity rates increase by 50% (to at least 18.6 cents/kWh for OG) by year's end? (8 Ball: “You can rely on that.”)
• Elon Musk: Will he become a trillionaire this year? (8 Ball: “Yes, without question.”)
• Bitcoin: Will it see $50,000 before $200,000? (8 Ball: “It is a strong possibility.”)
• NFL Prediction: Will the Bears face the Broncos in the Super Bowl (and lose)? (8 Ball: “It is a certainty.”)
• Gold: Will it reach $6,000/oz by December 1? (8 Ball: “Yes, I am sure.”)
• AI Robo-Taxis: Will Tesla deliver 10,000 driverless cars by year-end? (8 Ball: “Highly doubtful.”)
• Big Mac Index: Will the average price be $6.50+? (8 Ball: “Definitely, yes.”)
• Inflation: Will US core CPI be over 3% YoY in September? (8 Ball: “Definitely, yes.”)
• College Football: Will Indiana win the College Football Playoff National Championship? (8 Ball: “I am confident it is no.”)

Thematic Wrap-Up: The 8 Ball’s answers inferred a story: rate cuts, surging market, inflation, ballooning Big Mac prices, and Musk’s net worth blasting off—tying the panel’s concerns about monetary policy, inequality, and the cost of living into a cohesive (if comedic) narrative.

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Notable Quotes and Moments

• [14:45] Len Penzo: “Of all the things that they're worried about price increases, it's not food, groceries, fuel, it's insurance. That's people's most item that has impacted them the most in 2025.”
• [29:30] Len Penzo: “It's a highly speculative asset, that's what it is. And it's masquerading as a monetary system safe haven.”
• [12:34] Mindy Jensen (on Chiefs’ season): “Oh, and three. Just like the Chiefs started off this year.”
• [39:32] Len Penzo (on retirement): “If he lives to 120. I guess you could call it early retirement.”
• [32:28] Mindy Jensen (on ChatGPT): “Will OG lose 37 pounds in three days? It is certain.”
• [68:43-68:57] Len Penzo: “I don't know if a lot of you do because they're so expensive, but... average price of a Big Mac....I want to know on December 1st of next year...will it be $6.50 or higher?”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Start | Highlights | |---|---|---| | Introductions & Annual Theme | 00:00 | The panel gathers, explains the Magic 8 Ball concept | | 2025 Prediction Recap | 06:05 | Reviewing previous year's predictions – hits and misses | | Macro/Microeconomic Trends | 09:34 | Stock market highs, consumer optimism, inflation | | Cryptocurrency Skepticism | 29:30 | Panel's take on Bitcoin/crypto’s viability | | Sports & Pop Culture | 42:26 | Lions, Bears, Taylor Swift NFL wedding watch | | New Predictions for 2026 | 44:54 | Each panelist launches their finance/fun predictions with Magic 8 Ball answers | | Electric/AI/Inflation themes | 52:00 | Discussion about impacts of AI, rising utility rates, and cost-of-living | | Final Wrap-Up | 73:31 | Thematic summary, thanks & panel’s weekend plans |

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Conclusion & Takeaways

Despite the Magic 8 Ball’s “Jim Cramer of predictive balls” performance in 2025 (scoring maybe 3/12), the panel keeps the mood fun and emphasizes the folly of forecasting, especially with market, tech, and pop culture trends.

Final Wisdom (from Doug) [77:55]:
"Don’t try and predict the future. If our Magic 8 Ball can't do it, your luck might not be so great... What are you doing trying to predict the future instead of making stuff happen?"

For Listeners:
Enjoy the ride, invest wisely (index funds recommended!), and don’t rely on Magic 8 Balls for your 2026 financial planning.

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Show Links:

• BiggerPockets Money Podcast
• LenPenzo.com
• Stacking Benjamins

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Hello there, Peabody here. And this is the wayback Machine.

[OG]

We're traveling through time.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman.

[Mindy Jensen]

Hello.

[Doug]

Good boy. Live from Joe's mom's basement, it's the Stacking Benjamin show. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. And what events are going to shape 2026? You know how to find out. You head to Walmart and you buy a Magic 8 ball. That's how. So how did our 8 ball fare last year? What's on our minds for 2026? We'll look back at the year in review and peek ahead with our roundtable panelists today. And now, a guy who's wearing his swami hat and ready to predict the future. It's Joe Sal.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Welcome to our first live recording of 2026. I am Joe Saul Sehi. Welcome. Let me be the first to welcome you to the first Friday episode of the new year. And if you're new here, the thing we do right up front before anything else is we look into the crystal ball and we say what's gonna happen in the following year. And last year, our Magic 8 ball had pretty decent year. We're gonna see if it can continue its great ways this year. Let's introduce you to the people. They're gonna help us out. First of all, you already said hello to neighbor Doug, but the guy across the card table from me is Mr. OG how are you, man?

[OG]

Ready to hit the ground running?

[Len Penzo]

Yes.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

You're ready to roll on the Fridays all stretched out. Got your predictions ready?

[OG]

I'm working on them, Waiting to have them manifest.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

And the person who's halfway across the country, Mindy Jensen from Bigger Pockets Money's here. How are you, Joe?

[Mindy Jensen]

I am fantastic. It's lovely to see you. I love your blue glasses.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, thank you. I love your pink microphone.

[Mindy Jensen]

Thanks.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

We got good stuff happening. So for the three people that don't know about Bigger Pockets Money, tell everybody what you and Scott do over there.

[Mindy Jensen]

Scott and I talk about money. We talk about.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Shut up.

[Mindy Jensen]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really. We talk about the journey to financial independence and what you do when you get on the other side.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Super fun show. And you guys, by the way, are like, I don't know, just the. Just the teamwork between the two of you. Fantastic. But knowing both of you independently as well. Mindy, you guys get along so well, and you could not be more different.

[Mindy Jensen]

We really couldn't. And that is kind of why we get along so well. I'm not trying to step on his toes with oh, but I Know that, too. And he's not trying to step on mine. We just get along really, really well because we have such different perspectives because we come from such different backgrounds.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It is a super partnership, and we'll link to bigger pockets. Money in the show notes and the guy who, you know, we don't have a crystal ball and we didn't have any other thing. This guy brings the magic to the first show every year. Mr. Le Penzo is here. How are you, brother?

[Len Penzo]

I'm doing well, thank you very much. New Year's. Good to see 2026 finally here. 2025, I thought was kind of a rough one, but nice to see 2026 come in.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, some good stuff happened. I mean, you had a full year retirement, Len.

[Len Penzo]

I did not. My first one. Not my first. My second full year.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

That's your second full year?

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, it's been. It was great.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

See, time flies. I thought it was like 18 months ago, but it's been longer than that.

[Len Penzo]

It's been a while. Yeah, it's been a while, but doing good. I'm looking forward to this. I think we're gonna have fun. And. And I really am anxious to see how the eight Ball did last year. So we'll see. Yeah.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

So let me ask you a couple questions. The Magic 8 Ball, feeling good. It's been fed and watered and ready to roll today. Ready to rock.

[Len Penzo]

I. I'll be honest, I haven't taken for a test run today. So we'll see. It's gonna. Do you want to give it a quick test question?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Mindy, do you have a test question, like, one that we already know the answer to?

[Len Penzo]

Oh, yes. That's good. Yeah, that's really. That's a good one. Something we know the answer to. So we'll know if it's ready to roll on. On the money.

[OG]

Is OG drinking red wine?

[Len Penzo]

That'll work.

[Mindy Jensen]

Yeah, that's a great one.

[Len Penzo]

Was OG drinking red wine?

[Magic 8 Ball]

It is a certainty.

[OG]

There we go.

[Len Penzo]

On the Money.

[OG]

She's tuned up.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

All right, so that is the truth. In just a moment, we're going to see how well the Magic 8 Ball did on Mindy's lens and OG's predictions last year. Then, in the second half of the show, we're going to make new predictions for 2026. What do we hope the future holds? You're about to find out. First, we have a couple sponsors help us keep on keeping on. We're going to hear from them, and then we'll see how the Magic 8 Ball did last year.

[OG]

The new year brings new health goals and wealth goals. Protecting your identity is an important step. Your info is in endless places that could expose you to identity theft leading to lost funds. LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Resolve to make identity, health and wealth part of your new year's goals. With LifeLock, save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com podcast Terms apply get ready for the Rush with Max Crosby.

[Len Penzo]

It's time.

[OG]

Don't miss the behind the scenes moments everyone's talking about, regardless of what they say.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

I'll take the fine. I don't care.

[OG]

All pro defensive end Max Crosby takes you beyond the field with exclusive insights.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

I could say this because I've played them.

[OG]

This is the Rush.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

You guys already know what time it is.

[OG]

It was fire.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

And we'll be right back on the pod. We'll be talking about it next week.

[OG]

The Rush with Max Crosby. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

All right, let's go back in the time machine and see where we started off. Last year, we actually started off with a fun one. Most of our questions are about money, but of course we couldn't start off 2025 about money. We had to start off with this.

[Mindy Jensen]

In Keeping up with Paula's asking about the Royals, I am going to go with American Royalty. Will Keeping up with the Kardashians finally be canceled?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

This is so important to our financial future. This is important to our financial future, Mindy. And I'm glad you asked it because what a way to start off 2025 was asking that important question.

[Mindy Jensen]

Yes. I don't actually know if they got canceled, though.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, here is the answer. The Kardashian Dash Jenner family came back with season seven starting in October 23rd of this year. So the answer is no, they did not get canceled. But that's not. You know, we don't really care if they got canceled. We care if the Magic 8 Ball thought that it get canceled or not. So let's see if the eight ball got that one right.

[Magic 8 Ball]

The answer is yes.

[Mindy Jensen]

Yes.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Oh, you're.

[OG]

Oh.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

So the Magic 8 ball starts off 0 for 1, but that means that we can put our rally caps on, right?

[Len Penzo]

Yeah. It can only get better from here, right?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It's going to be fantastic. All right, so where do we go from there? Well, we had a question, our first question about money.

[OG]

And.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

And it was this one magic eight ball.

[Len Penzo]

Will Macy's declare bankruptcy in 2025? Yes.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Now, what we were worried about, Len, we were worried, of course, at the time. I think you were worried about the fact that retail just having a difficult time and Macy's kind of not struggling at the end of last year.

[Len Penzo]

Yes, that's exactly right. But I think they're still around, right? I watched the parade. So they're still here.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

At least the parade is here. The good news, though, everybody, is that Macy's is still around. So that is good news. But the question is, did the eight ball think it was still around? And here's what the eight ball had to say. Yes, the answer is absolutely yes. I don't think that surprises you, Len, that the eight ball said yes.

[Len Penzo]

Well, I'm, I'm disappointed because I know we're already. That's going way out there. The eight ball's really, he's.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, the eight ball did go way out there, as you said last year.

[Len Penzo]

You know how baseball is the Mendoza Line and baseball where your batter's hitting.200 under 200, he's in the, I'm afraid here, the Mendoza Line for The, for the eight ball is, is 500. I mean, if he's, if he ends up batting under.500, you know, we, we're better off flipping a coin, right? So I, I'm a little, getting a little worried here. We're headed for the eight balls version of the Mendoza Line.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

We still got, we got 12 questions left. It's over two, but that doesn't mean that it's gonna end and poorly. You know what's funny, guys, is we predicted last year. Well, we didn't predict, but our discussion last year was around the fact that we thought that retail might continue to struggle, especially with the tariffs. And yet what we saw was not that at all. Retail numbers, we're recording this actually a little early during the holiday season. Retail numbers were expected to be higher. They were expected to grow at a more modest pace than they did last year. But generally, OG, retail has been okay. People are out there still spending money.

[OG]

OG Yeah, I don't have any facts on this, so I don't know if that's true or not, but it sure seems anecdotally that nobody's really concerned about anything.

[Len Penzo]

You know what I think it is? I think a lot of it has to do with the stock market. I mean, the stock market's. It's been doing very well this year. I think it's, you know, we're in mid December and it's another all time high.

[OG]

Len.

[Len Penzo]

I think The NASDAQ's at 20% for the year. I think the Dow and the S and P are over, you know, between 10 and 15%. And you know, when your portfolio's up, maybe you, you know, you feel better about spending.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Why does it always surprise people, Mindy, that the stock market's at all time highs when really that's kind of the way it's designed, that it's going to hit all time highs? You know, hopefully most years.

[Mindy Jensen]

Yeah, well, people are surprised because when the stock market is down, it's a huge news story. The Dow lost 15 points today. Well, what does 15 points mean? It's, it's really not that much. But if you don't know anything about the stock market, then you could think that that was a lot. So I think there's a lot of people who are listening to the headlines and not diving deep.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It's so frustrating that. I don't know. I remember when I first watched CNBC and I was just lost. I felt like they were speaking a different language. And it turns out the good news is, Len, we didn't even need to learn that language.

[Len Penzo]

Index funds solve everything. I mean, just all you need to know is index funds really.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

I know, I thought it was going to open up this who cool new world. And yet it did not. All right, what do we have next? The next question up came from OG and it was this one.

[OG]

Well, we were talking about mortgage rates before and I'm just going to steal this one from Mindy so she doesn't get it. So 30 year mortgage rates right now about seven and a quarter as we recorded today. My question is, will we find 30 year rates? So the normal 30 year mortgage rate, will it be below six and a half at the end of this year?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

30 year mortgage rate below 30 year.

[OG]

Mortgage rates down 75 bips, as the cool kids say.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

And it's funny, I'm going to stop it right there because it turns out that we did get lower interest rates. Oh gee.

[OG]

Four times. I think something like that.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It was, it was a wild year.

[OG]

But I don't know that the most recent one's been factored into the market yet.

[Mindy Jensen]

It's factored in before it even gets announced that it's being cut.

[OG]

Meaning to say that when you see it on the news, don't expect to see a radical change the next day.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

So they dropped a long way. Og, what was our final look? Did it reach six and a quarter?

[OG]

Seems to be right at the buzzer. Yep.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

On October 24th we had 6.1, 3. So. And frankly, at the time that we record this, it's a little above 6.25, but it's been hovering right around. So the answer is it did reach it, though, by December 1st. So the answer is yes.

[Mindy Jensen]

Right?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

What did the eight ball say?

[Magic 8 Ball]

The answer is no.

[Len Penzo]

Oh, my God.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well.

[Mindy Jensen]

Oh, and three. Just like the Chiefs started off this year.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

And. And sadly, Mindy, the Chiefs really, really didn't rebound either.

[Mindy Jensen]

Sadly, they did not rebound. If you are a Chiefs fan, this is not your favorite season.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

No, it is not. And that must. You're that spoken like a Chiefs fan. You, you a Chiefs fan?

[Mindy Jensen]

I watch football games. My husband roots for the Bears, so I like to watch a team where the quarterback actually throws to somebody who catches it on purpose. So I will watch the Chiefs. I will watch the Patriots.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

The Bears actually having a good year.

[OG]

This year, kicking everyone.

[Mindy Jensen]

I'm super excited that the Bears are having such a good year, but you wouldn't think that they're having such a good year to hear my husband screaming at the TV because they don't. They don't play like a good team. They just happen to win.

[Doug]

Because he knows they're going to lose in the first round of the playoffs.

[Mindy Jensen]

Well, he might not know that, but.

[Len Penzo]

He'S still hoping they get a first round. By Dougie.

[Mindy Jensen]

Everybody's hoping they get a first round.

[Doug]

Buy they'll lose in, which ensures that they're going to lose their first game in the playoffs even more.

[Mindy Jensen]

Yes, that's actually one of my predictions.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Let's go to the fourth one.

[Len Penzo]

Wait a minute, wait a minute. So just to be clear, is the eight ball over three now?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

The eight ball is now. Oh, and three.

[Len Penzo]

Okay, very good, Len.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

We're having a. Not a great year.

[Len Penzo]

No, so far.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

But there's nine to go.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

The only way is up, as they say. Let's see what's next. This last year, you know, some disturbing devastation from hurricanes, and Vincent asked a question that's unlike one that we've asked here before. He said the official hurricane season is considered over on December 1st. So in 2025. Lennox. Will the Atlantic basin produce 15 or more named storms and or strike the continental US with three or more named storms? That's what he wants to know. We definitely hope that answers no. What's funny is some people might be asking, what does it have to do with money? Well, you know, the last couple of years we've seen, especially in the Southeast, homeowners Prices go up. Of course there's areas by you, Mindy, where homeowners prices also have gone through the roof because of fires. Lend by you because of fires. And well, heck, you had a fire on the hill behind your house.

[Len Penzo]

You know what? And it's not just homeowners, it's auto insurance too. It's just crazy insurance. I just saw a survey. Most people, of all the things that they're worried about price increases, it's not food, groceries, fuel, it's insurance. That's people's most item that has impacted them the most in 2025 is rising insurance costs.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

And in 2026, healthcare.

[Len Penzo]

Yes.

[Mindy Jensen]

But congratulations to all the insurance companies on their record profit years this year.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It's a win for somebody. Yes, someone looking at the Southeast, remember this time last year, Asheville, North Carolina really on our minds, right? Because who would have thought that hurricane would have hit there? So the question was, would 15 named storms happen or three plus strike the United States? The Atlantic basin produced 13 name storms. So the answer was, thank goodness, no, that didn't happen. And for the first time in a decade, not one struck the US this season. As far as the US is concerned, it was a good year. Of course, Jamaica's feeling a little differently than the US mainland is right now, but we didn't have any hit. So the answer here is no. What did the eight ball say?

[Magic 8 Ball]

Definitely yes.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Oh, that's not good. Oh my God, this is embarrassing.

[Mindy Jensen]

That magic eight ball is following your 2008 Lions, Joe.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

The eight ball's been talking to James Franklin over at Penn State. For non sports fans, James Franklin got fired partway through this year because that team is supposed to be doing really well OG and could win nothing. So not the world's best year.

[OG]

All right, we gone from the Michigan State fan. That's fun.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Michigan State had a great year. We improved our football team. We fired our coach as well. But let's move on, shall we?

[Mindy Jensen]

Yes.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

All right, question number five.

[Mindy Jensen]

I don't want to do any more doom and gloom because that's not very fun. So let's talk about the stock market. Will the dow close above 50,000 by December 1, 2025?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Wow. Well, before you ask it, Len, let's talk about where the Dow Jones Industrial Average is today. Where are we at today, Mindy?

[Mindy Jensen]

I believe we are at 42,000 today. 42,528.36 at this very 42,000 and change, Mindy.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

And the stock market had a very good year.

[Mindy Jensen]

It had a very good Year. But I don't see. I don't see that we touched 50,000. I see we got super close. We didn't actually touch it.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Nope. We made it to 48,254. So from 42,000 and change, though, to 48,000. Not. Not a bad Euro G. Pretty good year for the stock market.

[OG]

I have no idea. I didn't have any idea what the DOW was at. When I heard Mindy say 50,000, I was like, what the hell is she on? And so I was looking it up when you were playing it, because I think about it, the S and P. But if you asked me to guess, I would have probably said we were in the 30,000 range or 25. But do you remember what's the lowest number you remember on the Dow as an adult?

[Mindy Jensen]

Probably in the 20s.

[OG]

Oh, my God.

[Doug]

Don't act like you're that young, mindy.

[OG]

No way.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

600.

[Doug]

Now, I was gonna say you don't remember 600. I was thinking like 1800.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

400. Ish.

[OG]

You don't remember four? That was in the 70s, bro.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Nine.

[Len Penzo]

400. It was 400 in the Great Depression.

[OG]

I started the Dow 1986.

[Mindy Jensen]

It was 1700.

[OG]

I know those numbers. I'm asking what you remember.

[Mindy Jensen]

I remember like 20,000. I was in high school in 1986.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

I remember a book called Dow 20,000.

[OG]

Yeah.

[Len Penzo]

I remember people wearing those Dow 10,000 hats.

[OG]

10,000.

[Len Penzo]

I remember the. The pictures of the people wearing the hats.

[OG]

The big 10,000. Yeah, I remember six. Like, I have a memory of six. Anyway, that's crazy.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

So we did not reach it. We did have a good year. We did not reach it wasn't the banner year when you said 50,000, Mindy, where did that come from? Were you hoping it was going to be just the doors blown off year because of AI or what were. What was going on your mind?

[Mindy Jensen]

Oh, one year ago, I was not thinking about AI at all. We had had such a big run. I mean, if you look at the historical returns of the Dow, it is like up and to the right at this angle. It's not flat. It's not just slightly. It's really, really angled sharply. What is that? A 45 degree angle? So I just assumed that it would go plus 50,000 is a nice round number. If I had known, I would have been like, it's going to be 48.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

But still, so, so, so close. It made it so. What a good year. Let's see if the eightball. The correct answer here was no, it did not reach 50. Even though it had a good year?

[Magic 8 Ball]

Yes. It is certain.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It's certain.

[Len Penzo]

This is pathetic.

[Mindy Jensen]

The eightball and the 2008 Lions, neck and neck, I guess. Down.

[Len Penzo]

So let's just be clear. We're 0 for 5 or 6.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

We are oh for 5.

[Len Penzo]

Okay. Holy cow. This is all turning into the Jim Kramer of predictive balls, isn't it?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Yeah, not good. All right, hopefully we rally here from 0 and 5. We. We could still finish.

[OG]

Win out to be 50. 50, huh?

[Len Penzo]

No, we can win out and be above right.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Still, we could be 7 and 5. So let's see what's on tap next.

[Len Penzo]

Of course, I've got to do a precious metals question, right? Let's shift over from gold. Let's go to silver this year. I want to know if silver, will it get to $40 by December 1st. $40?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Oh, that'd be a nice thing. I remember we had now a silver expert, David Moron. And David had this great quote at Loveland that said, that silver will frustrate you just a little longer than you'll have money. And I wasn't wrong there, Len. That silver will frustrate you. But if you were holding on to silver this year, Silver and gold, baby.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, you got it. Silver's up over a hundred percent this year, and gold's up like 70%. So, yeah, it's been a good year. Been a very good year.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

So the answer is yes. And these questions were all before December 1st. It hit 56.45. So way above, way, way, way above the 40 number that Len, you were looking for. So the answer is yes. What'd the eight ball say?

[Magic 8 Ball]

Without hesitation. Yes.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Oh, it's finally. Finally woke up. Hallelujah. After being asleep for the first 30 minutes of today's show, it decides. It decides yes. It actually is going to pretend that it has something good going on. I'm sure we're going to expect another one from you, Len, coming up. All right, og.

[OG]

I have a high school senior this year who has four months left in his high school career and a lot of questions about where he's going to go to college. Has a lot of different options, but I'm curious if he'll get into his number one school. So will my son. What? What's so funny?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Nothing. I'm just thinking a good financial question. It is a good financial question for you?

[OG]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Because you want to know how much you owe.

[OG]

How much do I owe?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Magic 8 ball? How screwed am I right?

[OG]

Will my son next year on December 1st be enrolled at the University of Michigan.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

All right, there's the question. No G. What's the answer to that question?

[OG]

A year later he's very happily enrolled at Texas A and M. At Texas.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

A and M he's an Aggie, not a Wolverine.

[Len Penzo]

Another good football school this year.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Good year for football for A and M. Also happier wallet. Og.

[OG]

Yeah, yeah, a little bit in state overall.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Good stuff. All right, so the answer is no, he was not at the University of Michigan. With the eight ball say.

[Magic 8 Ball]

It is a certainty.

[Len Penzo]

We're back on.

[OG]

I feel like we should just write these down and then just score it out and just be like hey guys. So the eight ball was one for 11.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

So there we go.

[OG]

Get. Let's just do our own now on.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Nice to know you. No predictions. I love to look back at the last year but the eight ball this year is incredibly painful. Hopefully. Hopefully it secures his dignity by running the table in it's dignity.

[Len Penzo]

My dignity too. You know. I tell you, this is like a child of mine, you know, I'm like looking at a kid up on stage on talent night not doing so hot.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

This is a blast from the past. Remember we were worried about this.

[OG]

Here's a better one. Will. We have identified what all the drones are flying over all these random cities by this time December 1st.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It's funny to look back a year ago I even forgot. Oh gee, that was a thing. Like I'm like oh drones. I totally forgot there was such a thing as drones.

[OG]

I don't know what's going on in Yalls world with this, but it's not exactly at our house. But our friend who lives about a mile or two north, they can do ice cream drone delivery at the house. It just gets it and you just wait. And it has a little tracker. Like we're just a little too far south of the station or whatever. And like you just see it on the map and just like. And then you hear it goes. Then it like lowers this basket right into your yard. You take your stuff off, you wave and they go and take off again.

[Mindy Jensen]

What utopia do you live in?

[OG]

It's so quick that it's. It's ice cream. Like it's like, you know, you'd say well ice cream, I mean it's got to melt or whatever. I mean it's in a freezer container, you know, so it's going to stay somewhat cold. But it's. I wouldn't trust doordash with ice cream. Right, right. Like you wouldn't get like a frosty From Wendy's on Doordash. Even though it's fast and whatever, it's a wave of the future. What say you about drones there, Lenny?

[Len Penzo]

Well, Joshi, the last job I had before I retired, I was, I was testing drone propellers and these were humongous propellers. I still don't know if I can say what company this is for, but everybody knows what the company is. They are planning on using drones to deliver some very, very big items in the future. And I don't think it's very far away. It's going to be. You're going to be shocked at what these companies are going to be delivering here.

[OG]

Deliver bombs to bad guys. Kaboom.

[Len Penzo]

It's going to be wild when you see this.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Are you saying, oh gee, we all know that it's Northrop Grumman. Just think we can deliver these, these fighter jets. Fantastic. All right, the answer, actually we have from ABC News. The answer is yes. Of course. We identified that all the, the drones, various things going on, but the answer was it was nothing nefarious. There were no aliens attacking.

[OG]

It was not.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Yep.

[Len Penzo]

What was it? Because I kind of forgot about the whole story. What, what was it?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It was a host of different things. There were tests going on, companies testing drones, especially in New Jersey. Along with that, as the news started coming out, enthusiasts just started putting drones in the air just to.

[Len Penzo]

Just with people, just to pile on mess even more.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

But it all did start with some companies testing drone ability in New Jersey. So the answer is, will we have identified what the drones were? Yes. Did the eight ball say yes?

[Magic 8 Ball]

Everything points to yes.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, Therehere we are, two in a row.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, but, but I want to point.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Out that two for three, the original.

[Len Penzo]

Question, if we would have stuck with Josh's original question, which was will you be above 50%? He would have been wrong. So.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

So you're saying the problem is ours, that we don't change our questions. That's exactly right.

[Len Penzo]

It's a question problem, actually. It's just the quiet that we're asking the wrong questions.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

That's right stuff. We should have asked other questions. Duh. Let's move on to the next round and we're going to go toward. We can't do this without crypto. Let's do then the next one from our friends in mom's basement. And I really like this one because, heck, this year we had gold up so much as we talked about and we also had bitcoin up a lot. This is a fantastic question from Aaron on that very point. Will Bitcoin outperform gold before December 1st of next year. So bitcoin began the year fairly well. Mindy, you follow bitcoin?

[Mindy Jensen]

Not at all.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

0Len.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, I track it.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Yeah. So bitcoin versus gold this year?

[Len Penzo]

Not even close. It's not even close. I mean it's just, it's. Gold's blown. It blew it out of the water. I think bitcoin is down here and we're mid December. It's down on the year bitcoin is.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Bitcoin started off strong and then really struggled, really, really struggled throughout 2025. So the answer then is no. Bitcoin would not outperform gold. And by the way, you guys minded recently did a story about crypto, didn't you? Did you guys just do a, do an episode on crypto?

[Mindy Jensen]

No, we did a crypto episode a while ago.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Maybe it was just Scott online talking about crypto and about how he just still doesn't get the fact there's not much use case yet. There should be more use case than there is and the fact that it feels to him more and more like a Ponzi scheme.

[Mindy Jensen]

Yeah. Well, that is one of the best performing videos that we have on our site.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, I watched it.

[Len Penzo]

I've been saying that and I'm biased, but I've been saying that for years that it's, it's a highly speculative asset, that's what it is. And it's masquerading as a monetary system safe haven as opposed. And what it's doing and what it has been doing for a long time, you'll notice it's mirroring a lot of. Most of the time it mirrors the NASDAQ. It acts like a tech stock. So if the NASDAQ's down, Bitcoin's down. If NASDAQ's up, Bitcoin goes up. They track each other fairly closely, especially in the last year or so. That's how I treat it. It's treated as a tech stock.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, and it's funny, OG I mean, you look at bitcoin and people talk about it as a quote, store of value. Not only is it not a store of value, the volatility is, I mean, can't even really think about it as a diversifier in your portfolio.

[OG]

It's under the same context, I would think, although Len would disagree with his precious metals as a store of value, it's wildly volatile. And so on a day to day basis, it's almost unusable. In that context, I think the jury's still out as to whether or not in 20 years from now it behaves like gold or silver in the sense that over that long time horizon, it does become a little bit more realistic to hold on to value as time goes on.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

This is the first year I've heard people ask since cryptos come out reputable. People saying, is crypto really going to be around 15 years from now? Like, is it going to even survive? Let's put on our magic eight ball hats. Len, do you think crypto is going to survive 15 years?

[Len Penzo]

I'm sure there'll be crypto coins around there. There might even be a, you know, like what they call the digital US Version of the US Dollar that the central bank might put out the fed.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

But I think that's something different. I think u. S. Digital currency is a different thing, different beast.

[Len Penzo]

Well, I, you know, it all depends. Like I said, people can create these, these things. Anybody, you and I could create our own cryptocurrency tomorrow if we wanted to. I wonder why we did just so many. I know. No kidding. Yeah, but I, I'm, there's just so many of them. So I, I, I'm loath to say that they'll never be around, but as I don't think bitcoin will be, you know, the phenomenon that it has been in the last 10 years, I think it's gonna, I think it's going the other direction. One of my, one of the people I love to follow, a macro analyst, Luke Roman, one of the best ones out there. He was pro bitcoin for a long, long time. And, and the two of us used to go back and forth on Twitter quite a bit debating it. And he's only now just come around in my view. I mean, he's even admitted that he now thinks he was wrong and he believes that bitcoin is not, not what it was all cracked up to be. So, and that was a big admission for him. So I think the attitudes are changing a little bit.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Mindy, do you think it'll survive 15 years?

[Mindy Jensen]

Do you remember flus?

[OG]

No.

[Mindy Jensen]

Whoopi Goldberg was, it was a way to pay online and Whoopi Goldberg was their spokesperson. I really like commercials, so I remember these commercials. I pay attention to commercials more than maybe other people do. But I looked up flus to talk about it. They went out of business in 2001. And then at the bottom it says, see also beans, Digital currency, Internet, cash.com, virtual currency vouchers, Bitcoin. I am not a fan of bitcoin. I don't understand it. I am definitely not asking anybody to explain it to me. I just. I think that it's fluff. I. And please email Joe.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Will it last 15 years, is the question not, is it going to. Is it anything? Do you think it's going to be?

[Mindy Jensen]

Well, it hasn't been anything for so long. When will it suddenly turn into something? I do think it'll still be around in 15 years, but I think it'll be even less relevant than it is right now.

[Len Penzo]

I wish I had invested 10 years ago, you know, bought 10 or 20 coins. Boy, that's the. That's just looking bad. What an idiot I was. But, you know, that's the way it goes.

[Mindy Jensen]

Oh, gee, asked. When did I first. What do I remember the Dow being. What was the first price? You heard of Bitcoin? I heard of it at like 6,000 back when Greece was having their financial meltdown and people using it.

[Len Penzo]

What, 10 bucks? I could, you know, I'm an idiot, but hindsight's 20, 20.

[Mindy Jensen]

I mean, for 10 bucks, maybe.

[OG]

The thing though, Len, is that it's fun to go back and look at that stuff because you could also do the same thing with Apple or Nvidia or Amazon or Google or any stock that's gone up really high. The reality is, is that you also have to have had gone into a coma for the last 10 years, because there's no way with a highly speculative thing like bitcoin is that you would have invested. Pick a number. Oh, I should have put 10,000 in, right? There's no way that you would have watched that go to 20, down to 2.

[Len Penzo]

Yes.

[OG]

That's up to 100 and gone. YOLO, baby. Let's go.

[Len Penzo]

Exactly.

[OG]

And then watch it go to 50 and then 500 and then back to 75 and then a million and not get out. Like, somewhere in there, you would have been like, oh, my God, I can't believe this thing's back to 500k.

[Len Penzo]

When it got to 6, I think it was 16,000. I don't know why that number sticks in my head. When it got to that, I was like, this is crazy. And even then, if you got in, then you'd have five times your money. You know, it's just. But it's hard.

[OG]

Kept it the whole time.

[Len Penzo]

Exactly.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Yeah.

[Len Penzo]

You have to have the stomach.

[OG]

I never did anything different and never panicked out. And I really wish my mom would have taken all my college money and dumped it in Apple stock also. Or, you know, I would have been smart enough to. I mean, do something as simple as put $166.67 a month in my Roth when it first came out in 1997. Because I didn't have that money. And I was like, I don't have it. So whatever, it'll be fine. It'll work out. I'd have more money doing that than any bitcoin scheme. So the answer to your question, Joe, is it will be around. I think just the limited supply of it makes it somewhat interesting. Although I did see a thing the other day about. It was on Fortune, Forbes. It wasn't a meme, but it was basically a cover of all of the covers that they've put on one of these magazines. And I think maybe it was Forbes. And it had like, who was the guy from FTX that Sam Altman, Freedman.

[Len Penzo]

Sam Friedman or Sam.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Sam Fried, Samuel Friedman, Bankman Friedman, Bankman.

[OG]

Fried, yeah, that's Sam Altman's the OpenAI guy. So not him.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

And we're getting sued.

[OG]

Well, whatever. Anyway, so the guy from FTX was on one, the gal that, like, had the blood thing that she scammed a bunch of people out of Theranos. She was on one. And there was another one that I thought was interesting. And then the last one that they showed was the guy from Michael Sailor, the guy from MicroStrategy. I couldn't have been more interesting in what they've done to their company. But anyways, all that to say, I suspect that it's still around and I suspect that it works a lot like any other limited resource investment at that point. That's what I think.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, so the answer is, will bitcoin outperform gold? The answer was no by a long shot. Let's see if. Well, it's got to run the table then at this point, to be 500.

[Magic 8 Ball]

Everything points to yes.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

So this is cool because in my notes I had that it got it wrong, but I didn't notice that I changed the question. Second time here led. We changed the question, we turned it around, and because of that, Mr. Predicto gets it right.

[Len Penzo]

You know, it works out because the previous question change worked against the eight ball, so this one worked for the eight ball. So it all evened out.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Yeah, that is fantastic. All right, we have just a couple more to go. Let's see what's up next. Mindy, let's get your last one.

[Mindy Jensen]

Okay, so way back when, a hundred Years ago in 1990, I was in college and I was taking a business class. This was back when you had to get the stock prices on the newspaper because the Internet either didn't exist or I didn't have it.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Yeah, I do those before my client meetings, by the way. I go in and find out the closing price of the day before and take out my calculator and figure it out for clients.

[Mindy Jensen]

Yeah, Remember, so in the business class, we were supposed to pick one stock at the beginning of the year and just follow it. People were, you know, they had their favorite or whatever and I just went like this. It stuck my finger out and I landed on Berkshire Hathaway and I was like, this is really expensive. Is that for one share of stock? And I want to say it was like $20,000, but maybe I'm way wrong because I don't remember what the price was. I remember that it was this.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mindy Jensen]

Everything else is like $12 and this is $20,000. Like it, it had this giant stuff space in the.

[Len Penzo]

Was 20,000 and 7/8, if you remember.

[Mindy Jensen]

Okay, so 20,000. I did remember that. Right. So if I would have bought a share back then, it would have taken all my money. I want to know if Berkshire Hathaway A shares, because they have said split into A and B shares, will A shares hit $950,000 a share by December 1?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

And for, for just again, for people that don't follow it, where's it trading at as we record this, Mindy?

[Mindy Jensen]

It is a high of $724,000 in November.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

All right, so that's a great question, Mindy, and I love the. Let's just track Berkshire Hathaway for a year, especially this year. When does it make you sad that Warren Buffett is retiring here that just retired?

[Mindy Jensen]

Honestly, I talk about financial independence and early retirement and Warren is like a little bit past the early retirement portion of my audience, so I'm glad he's going to be able to finally enjoy himself.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

You don't think it's a little early?

[Mindy Jensen]

No, I think he'll be okay if.

[Len Penzo]

He lives to 120. I guess you could call it early retirement. So it's possible.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

If OG retires at 90, he plans on living past 120. So that'd be a nice long 30 year retirement. Yeah, the question was, is it going to get to 9:50, $950,000? The answer is back on May 2nd, it actually hit 812,855. So that was the high that we reached in 2025.

[Len Penzo]

Isn't it down this year? Isn't it like a fluke year for that stock, isn't it down?

[Mindy Jensen]

I think so.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It's at just above 800,000 now. So it's. It is continued to have a little bit of a struggle. I wonder. People are worried about the changeover.

[Len Penzo]

I thought for a while there it was definitely down or it was, which is, you know, very strange for that stock.

[Mindy Jensen]

April 1st it was 800,000. April 4th it was 742,000. So that's a pretty big drop. It got all the way down to 694,000 in August.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, I remember. Had a six handle on it. Yes.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

And then roll back really has had a nice rebound, but still down. So if your dollar cost averaging in during that downturn.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Could have been a decent year for you, right? Yeah. So the answer is no, it didn't reach it. What did the eight ball say?

[Magic 8 Ball]

Yes, it is certain.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Ch. And there goes our 50. There goes our 500 year.

[Len Penzo]

We're out of the playoffs.

[Mindy Jensen]

Just like the Chiefs.

[OG]

Just like the Chiefs.

[Len Penzo]

We've just been eliminated.

[OG]

Or the Cowboys or the Raiders.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

All right, so we need a fun question. We got one right here. All right, Len, you are up to bat, my friend.

[Len Penzo]

I'm gonna go with a kind of a fun one, if you don't mind, Joe. Taylor Swift, still big news and all that. Still. Even though here turn of 2025, I want to know if Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey are going to get engaged by December 1st.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, and the other question is then if they do get engaged, do we. Do we stop getting every four minutes of my football game? Taylor Swift side? Yes, exactly. The answer is I haven't. I haven't seen. Because the Chiefs are not that great this year. We did not see a lot of Taylor Swift. At least I didn't on national TV as much. But the. The news, I don't know, Len. Is it good news or bad news for you that the answer is yes, they got engaged August 26th of this year.

[Len Penzo]

The only thing is going to determine whether it's good news or bad news is if. If my little baby here got the answer right or not. That's all I care about.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

That's all you. He's like, I don't really don't care. Please, please, please, protect your dignity, eight ball. Please, please, please. The answer is yes, they did. What did the eight ball say?

[Magic 8 Ball]

Ask later when the time is right.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, it's interesting because I said next year anyway, so I got to ask that again. Will Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift be engaged by December 1st of this year?

[Magic 8 Ball]

The answer you seek is yes.

[OG]

Oh, okay.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

We got close.

[Len Penzo]

We're approaching respectability. No, maybe not. Less than a coin toss, I guess, isn't respectable.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

But if we get the next one though, we're within spitting distance of a coin toss. We've got this last one that came from the stacker community. This one came from Glenn. He finished it off last year. And it was this. Glenn asked that I think the world wants to know and we'll know this by December 1st. And I hope the answer here is yes. Everybody but Glenn asked the question, will the Detroit Lions win the Super bowl in 2025? And I know all of America wants that to be yes, because it's America's team. And I know either we lost people or they're all all glued in.

[OG]

Who knows?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

But what's the answer? The answer, sadly, was they got knocked out by the Washington commanders.

[Mindy Jensen]

So much crying, sadly.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

I know, Mindy, you cried the whole time. Just unbelievable how that could happen this year as we record this run. I sure they're going to make the playoffs. So they could be going the way of those Chiefs you've been talking about, Mindy. Oh, gee. Will the Lions make the playoffs? Are the Cowboys going to make the playoffs?

[OG]

Cowboys are not. No, they're out now.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Lions you think? Probably going to be out too.

[OG]

They got a better shot. Would have been nice for them to win last week, but man, now Len.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Out there in Southern California. You Rams fan?

[Len Penzo]

Yes, yes, I am, Joe.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

And so you saw the Rams.

[Len Penzo]

Yes, I saw the Rams pummel the Detroit Lions.

[Doug]

Let's move on.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Let's just. Let's just focus on the eight ball, Len. Okay, the answer was no. They were not to try to come within one of 500. Please say no.

[Magic 8 Ball]

Yes.

[Mindy Jensen]

There it is.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

I think that's a great way to end the first half of today's show. And there it was not. That's brutal. Well, I think Len, before we ask a questions for the second half of the show, before we make predictions, here's what's going to happen. Stackers. Len's going to take the eight ball out back, give it a firm talking to maybe change out a few of the batteries or something. Lens so that when we ask you questions for next year here, it's much more ready to roll. Len's going to do that. You're going to hear from our sponsors who make sure we can keep on keeping on one more time. And then we're back with the questions. Don't you know why we're going to ask based on last year, but Two years ago it was good. Before that it was on a roll. Can it get back on a roll? We're going to find out here in the second half. American Skyjacker tells the story of DB Cooper copycat Martin McNally who hijacked a plane and jumped out with $500,000. But that's just the start of this epic true crime saga. Now American Skyjacker is an action packed documentary available on all major platforms. Go to American Skyjacker.com to subscribe to the podcast and watch the film. And look out for a new bonus episode of the podcast coming soon. American Skyjacker. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. All right, Mindy JENSEN, Joe Salsi, hi. 2026, you're going to be asking three questions that are money related. One question that's just a fun one. That's your brain. Do you want to start with a fun one or a money one?

[Mindy Jensen]

Let's start with the money one.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

All right, what do you got?

[Mindy Jensen]

I predict three rate cuts before June and then rate increases after those rate cuts spark more inflation. So, Magic 8 Ball, will there be three rate cuts before June before we ask that?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Len Three. Three more rate cuts. I mean, this ends up maybe becoming a time to get your debt refinance. If that happens.

[OG]

OG yeah, I mean, if that happens, that would be a good idea to take advantage of that. I'm not on Team Mindy here, unfortunately. I don't think that.

[Mindy Jensen]

I don't say I want this to happen. I say I think this will happen.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Yeah. You don't think it's going to happen though? OG no.

[OG]

There's no reason to do it.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

To cut rates three more times.

[OG]

Yeah. What's the purpose?

[Len Penzo]

The.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Exactly.

[Mindy Jensen]

The president has said he wants the rate to be cut. He's going to fire Jerome Powell and get somebody else in there that will reduce rates.

[OG]

It's not a political appointee.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

So we end up with, though, Fed chairman. Much more likely, you're thinking, Mindy, somebody who's much more likely to change rates to appease the administration.

[Mindy Jensen]

That is what I am saying.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

All right. Well, let's see, Len, is the, is this eight ball think we're gonna have three rate cuts by what day?

[Mindy Jensen]

June. June one.

[Magic 8 Ball]

It has been determined. So.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, normally I'd be pretty excited by that. I'd be very excited by that. But after what we just went through the first half of today's show, Len, I'm not sure if we can, if we.

[Len Penzo]

You know what, I'm not going to say anything anymore. But let's be fair. Last year I was saying that the eight ball was going way out on a limb, wasn't I?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

So you were. You kept saying, wow.

[Len Penzo]

So let's. We'll give the eight ball the benefit of doubt. But right now, I don't have a lot of faith in the poor guy.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

I do think, though, this is in the realm of possibilities. We could get three more. We could get some interesting economic data that comes out. Even between the time that we record this in mid December and the time this is released, we could get some economic data that changes it.

[Len Penzo]

So I think they're predicting 2, 2 by June of next year. Right now, I think that's what the, you know, they have those dot plots and the. And the. I think right now the prediction is they're leaning towards two by June, which.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Means a third isn't out of the. I mean, with new information, a third isn't out of the. But that doesn't speak well for the economy if we get that third one right. I think if we get the third one, the economic data, Mindy's bad enough that we're maybe hurting a little.

[Len Penzo]

There's also the risk, you know, if the economy's doing well and they're cutting rates, I mean, that's inflation. That's very inflationary. So we kind of don't want to do that. I sure.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Which is why, Mindy, you're talking about, you know, maybe the V. I think.

[Mindy Jensen]

That there will be three rate cuts to appease the administration, and those rate cuts will spark inflation because we don't need rate cuts right now. As much as I would love to have lower rates personally for the economy, it's not a good idea. So I'm not saying that this is a great idea that there's going to be three rate cuts. I'm just saying that there will be three rate cuts and they will have the adverse reaction that they are supposed to.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, let's see. I can't. This makes me excited about a year from now to see how this ends up going, good or bad. Len Penzo, let's have you go second, my friend. You're going to get three. Like Mindy, you'll get three money questions and a fun one. Which one? You want to start with a money or a fun one?

[Len Penzo]

I'll start with the money question, kind of, you know, Nvidia and their arch rival, the, you know, the Americas. Nvidia, China's. Their arch rival is. I think it's pronounced Hua. Huawei. Huawei. They're they're the other AI. They're their main competitor. What's interesting is you can invest in Nvidia, you can't invest in Huawei right now. It's privately held. I want to know if Huawei is going to announce an IPO in 2026. Wow.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

What would be the impetus to have that happen? Would that be to just infuse more money into AI?

[Len Penzo]

They need more cash, I would say, for invest, if that's what they're going to do it. I think they would just need more cash to invest and put it towards the development that they're working on. They're in a competitive, highly competitive race right now with Nvidia and, you know, money. You need money to compete. So maybe they have enough with their private investors right now, but maybe they don't. But it would be really cool if they do that ipo. That's a big opportunity for people who might have missed Nvidia.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, and I'm wondering, is it an opportunity, though, or not? Which was the question I was going to ask because so much media now on the quote bubble. In fact, as we record this today, Fidelity came out just yesterday saying they think that any bubble will still get a smooth line like you're not going to have this big crash that people have been predicting the last few weeks. Might be another question we ask. Who knows? But. So the question is, will Huawei be public by December 1st of 2026?

[Len Penzo]

Well, let's say just. All I'm saying is will they announce an ipo? They don't even have to put the IPO out.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Okay.

[Len Penzo]

Okay. Just announce it.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

No, they will not. I think that seems much more likely as well.

[Len Penzo]

I agree. I don't think they're going to do it.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

I think we got a chance at Mindy's being right. I think it's on the outside, I guess a. I mean, in my brain, maybe 40% chance, Len. I think there's probably an 80% chance it's right there. So who knows? We could be 2 for 2 this time next year, which would be a huge change from 2025. Who knows? Oh, gee, what's your first one for this year?

[OG]

Oh, I'm just going to go with a real simple one, you know, on a tear. And obviously if we're cutting rates and having all sorts of fun like that, it's going to be party like it's 1990. So is 2026 going to be another plus 15 in the S&P 500?

[Len Penzo]

Wow.

[OG]

Over 15%.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

If we get another plus 15.

[OG]

Sell it all like go, go. Super short. When you hear this episode at 26, the end of 26, or early 27, whenever it comes out, what a fantastic.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Year that would be.

[OG]

And how levered will OG be at the end of the year? No, I'm kidding. For a 15. So is the S&P up 15% in 2026?

[Magic 8 Ball]

The answer cannot be found at this moment.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Oh, but it has to be. Press it, Len.

[Magic 8 Ball]

Yes, I am sure.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Another great year. We could be three for three. It's not out on a limb yet, Len. I think that we could have a banner year.

[Len Penzo]

How he goes from I don't know to these. Yes, I am sure it's like chat.

[OG]

GPT, Right?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Oh, wait, what. What are we. But yeah, all right, that is round one. Round number two, Mindy.

[Mindy Jensen]

All right, Joe, I don't know if you've been paying attention, but there's this thing called AI.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Oh, I don't. I've never heard of it.

[Mindy Jensen]

It stands for artificial intelligence, Joe. Let me tell you all about it. It uses a ton of electricity. I predict that electricity rates are going to absolutely skyrocket this year thanks to just meteoric demand. We've got data center usage, we've got EV adoption. Climate change is real, so everybody's running their air conditioner longer. Even heat pumps are electric. So I predict that electricity rates will spike. And of course, people aren't going to be happy with it, but Magic 8 Ball will. Electricity rates 1 1/2 to 2x by December 1st.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, you got to give us a set number.

[Mindy Jensen]

Really?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Yeah.

[Mindy Jensen]

What they are right now, they're all over the place.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

One and a half X.

[OG]

Well, look at your electric bill. Use you as a proxy, that is.

[Mindy Jensen]

I have solar panels.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Is your electric bill zero, though?

[Mindy Jensen]

My electric bill is $20 because that's the hookup charge.

[OG]

I mean, if you use mine. Do you want to use mine? Hold up, I'll pull up mine.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Do you want to use OGS?

[Mindy Jensen]

Yeah, let's use OGS.

[OG]

My kilowatt hour usage is 12.3 cents per. Does that sound right?

[Len Penzo]

That's cheap. That's very good. But of course, I'm in California. We're way more expensive.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Okay, so you're looking at above 19 that if you want just over one.

[OG]

12.3 cents per kilowatt hour.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Yeah.

[OG]

Is my straight line bill 18.6?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

If you want 50%.

[Mindy Jensen]

All right, so because OG's bill is 12.3 cents, we're gonna go with 18.6 or higher. Will the electric rates next year be 18.6 or higher.

[Magic 8 Ball]

You can rely on that.

[Mindy Jensen]

There you go.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Is it going to be that much higher?

[Mindy Jensen]

Geez. So sorry.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

If you would have told me that healthcare costs were going to jump as much as they did this year, I would have been like, no, I don't think so.

[Mindy Jensen]

Yeah, that's not.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Is electric the next one? Man, I hope not.

[Len Penzo]

I think it's possible. Yeah, the AI is quite a draw, so it is, but we'll see.

[Mindy Jensen]

And X AI is talking about putting data centers up in space. That's not going to happen this year.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Just the widespread adoption of AI is a big, big, big story. Len, what's your second one?

[Len Penzo]

Okay. Elon Musk, I think he is still the richest man in the world. I saw a thing today that somebody was projecting that he'd be the world's first trillionaire next year because something to do with SpaceX, I believe, it's going to go public or something. And then they were saying if that happened, it would increase his wealth enough to make him the world's first trillionaire. So I think that's what I'd like to ask.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

I just looked that up. On the day that we record this, there has been a run up in Oracle stock and Larry Ellison just passed him as the richest person for now.

[Len Penzo]

Okay, so Ellison is not a trillionaire. Right.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

But not a trillionaire. So the question is, will Musk be the first trillionaire?

[Len Penzo]

Yes. Next year will he become the world's first trillionaire? Or maybe I shouldn't say first because maybe, let me just say, will Elon Musk become a trillionaire? 20, 26.

[Mindy Jensen]

Okay.

[Magic 8 Ball]

The outcome cannot be predicted.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, I know it can't, eightball, but we want you to predict anyway.

[OG]

Try harder.

[Magic 8 Ball]

Yes, without question.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

The cool thing about that, Len, is that makes the eightball Consistent. If OG if it's going to hit the 15% mark like OG said, then I think we also get a trillionaire. And it could be Elon Musk.

[Len Penzo]

We could. And I like the good vibes you're putting out, Joe. The positivity, it's bringing up the eight ball's self esteem trying to give it.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Atta boys. Attaboy.

[Len Penzo]

And mine too.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Come on, you can do it. Yes. All right, that means we're back to.

[OG]

OG mine's a two part question, but I think I can still get one answer out of Mr. Predicto. Predicto. And it evolves back to bitcoin, as a matter of fact. And so this year bitcoin's kind of not so much. And then maybe next year it'll go. Who knows? But my question is this. Will Bitcoin see 50,000 before 200,000? And I guess that's kind of weird because it's still not time bound. Right? I got to give it like.

[Len Penzo]

No, that's a yes or no. It's very possible, right, that it can see. Let's say it gets to 50 and it never time runs out before it gets to 200.

[OG]

It could be a tie break. One that makes it so that we don't have an even number, which is. Okay, I'm going to use this as my question. We'll just see how it goes.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It could hit neither of those.

[OG]

Exactly. So then the answer.

[Len Penzo]

Then the answer would be no. Right.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

So does it hit 50 before it hits 200?

[Len Penzo]

Yeah.

[OG]

And since we got to put a time on it before the end of 2026. So, you know, so by the end of.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

By December 1st, 2026.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah.

[OG]

So will Bitcoin see 50k before it sees 200k?

[Magic 8 Ball]

It is a strong possibility.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

I think that means yes. Right.

[OG]

So go. Go short bitcoin and long.

[Len Penzo]

It's saying go short bitcoin. Yep, that's what it's saying.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

All right.

[OG]

Levered 3X, baby.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

To be clear. What does that mean then? If it doesn't hit either one, it's.

[Len Penzo]

No, it didn't hit 50 before it hit 200,000. Right.

[OG]

It's okay. We'll figure it out. We'll figure we have a whole year to solve this problem. Post 365 odd days to to figure out how to answer this question. And there's some chance we don't have to. Maybe it does one of the other.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

But you're right, OG I mean, if it hasn't reached either one, maybe it's a nothing burger. And then that gives us, you know, so we don't have 12. We got 11. Yeah. All right. We are at the halfway point, which means, Mindy, we swing back to you. We've. You've got one money question and one fun one left.

[Mindy Jensen]

Okay. I predict that the Chicago Bears are going to make it to the Super Bowl.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Money question.

[Mindy Jensen]

Yes.

[Len Penzo]

She's got money on this.

[Mindy Jensen]

Do I have to do money next?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

No, you don't. I was just kidding.

[Mindy Jensen]

Okay. I predict that the Chicago Bears will go to the super bowl where they will face the Denver Broncos. Who are the ones that are going to actually win?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Which piece of that do you want to ask? Will the Chicago Bears make the Super Bowl? Will the Denver Broncos win the super bowl or the much harder one, which would be, will the Bears face the Broncos and lose?

[Mindy Jensen]

Ooh, let's do that last one. The hard one.

[Len Penzo]

Oh, you're brutal.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Will the Bears face the Broncos and lose in the 2026 Super bowl coming up in just over a month?

[Magic 8 Ball]

It is a certainty.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Oh, God, no.

[Mindy Jensen]

I will have you know, I successfully predicted who was going to the Super bowl in 2007 at the beginning of the season.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Did you really?

[Len Penzo]

You can mark that a loser right now. Yeah.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Of course I remember, Len. We can go back and play the tape the first time that Donald Trump won. And. And we were just in the primaries, and you said, will Donald Trump be president? And we're like, there's no way in hell that's gonna happen.

[Len Penzo]

Yep. And it was right. So you never know.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Maybe.

[Len Penzo]

Mindy, it's right.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Yeah. All right, Len, what is your penultimate question?

[Len Penzo]

Well, let's see. Okay, well, obviously, I've got to ask a gold question here. So gold right now in mid December here, it's about 4,300. Will gold get to $6,000 in 20? What, by December 1? By December 1.

[Magic 8 Ball]

Yes. I am sure.

[OG]

This is like chatgpt. You can ask Chad gbt anything. And it's like, what was the article that we read? It's like, it's like your mom. It's like your third grade T ball coach. It's like, of course you can do that.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Of course.

[OG]

Like, I want to be an astronaut of. You should aim for the stars, friend. Just always so supportive.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It can do whatever it wants to if it puts its mind to it.

[OG]

It's always so supportive of everything you want to do. You're like, I've got three days to lose £37 for my photo shoot on the beach. You can do it. Work really hard.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It could happen.

[Mindy Jensen]

Will OG lose 37 pounds in three days?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It is certain.

[Len Penzo]

That would be a 33% gain, basically. A little more than that is two.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

In a row where I went, oh, boy. Oh, gee.

[OG]

All right, I'm going back to football because. Because I like the football question. I disagree with both the Bears and the Broncos, but we'll see. But I. You know, the talk of the town right now is Kurt Signetti and the Indiana Hoosiers. And no, we're not talking about the basketball team, because they're not the talk anything right now. We're talking about the football team, which, by the way, speaking of Indiana basketball, do your kids a favor and show them some old school Bobby Knight videos. Of him, like, absolutely losing his mind because that stuff doesn't happen anymore. Like, there's very rarely do people crash out like that, especially on, like, public tv where he just totally glitches out and throws the chair. And then there's another time where he, like, goes out to, like, check on his player and he gets teed up for going out to check on his player and it just. All hell breaks loose. It is. It's awesome to watch.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Oh, and he complains to that reporter about how dumb the question was.

[OG]

Yeah, I mean, just. It's really, really quite good. So do yourself a favor and go watch some old Bobby Knight videos and then watch Hoosiers, because, you know, why not?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Gotta watch.

[OG]

So is the fine folks in Bloomington, I think, right. Bloomington, Indiana. Are they going to hoist the CFP natty in 2026?

[Magic 8 Ball]

I am confident it is. No.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Wow.

[OG]

I think the money's on Georgia.

[Len Penzo]

Was that cool? He had me at first. He said, I'm confident. I was like, oh, good call. And he said, no, that's.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Yeah, it's so hard to win a national championship. So I actually, while I, you know, like much of the nation, we're pulling for Indiana, I think. I think the eight ball might get that one right. Sadly.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah. The odds are with him.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Mindy, you were going to say.

[Mindy Jensen]

I was going to say. Oh, gee, if you want to see some temper tantrums more recently than Bobby Knight, Jon Gruden is a good one.

[OG]

Yeah, he had some pretty good stuff in football, of course, but boy, the old school basketball guys. Who was the guy? Gene Keating at Purdue. Yeah, like you know him. Judd Heathcote at Michigan State. Good night. Those guys would go crazy. I mean, I'm sure football was the same way.

[Len Penzo]

And in baseball, it'd be some great interviews on tape of Tommy Lasorda, sort of.

[OG]

I was going to say Tommy.

[Len Penzo]

And Earl Weaver as well.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Both.

[Len Penzo]

Both of Earl Weaver. Yeah, those two. You can get some classic videos of them ripping reporters and others umpires.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Who was the Yankee manager who kept getting fired and would come back and coach again?

[Mindy Jensen]

Yogi Berra.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

No, he was a coach for.

[Len Penzo]

Oh, Billy Martin.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Billy Martin, Yeah.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Billy Martin also would. Would go off the deep end.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

All right, enough old guy stories.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, that's really old.

[OG]

Here I was listening to my AM radio station Sunday afternoon. I heard this young man arguing with the officials. Boy, it was a sporty conversation.

[Len Penzo]

Where are we at?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Oh, gee, asked that one. So we're. We're down to the final round. Mindy, what you got.

[Mindy Jensen]

Oh, honestly, I don't really have much of anything else. There's a K shaped economy news story floating around where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. I think that's going to continue. I think next year we're going to have the people who are invested in the stock market that keeps going up, doing better and the people who are not invested in the stock market or are losing their jobs are having more. The inflation is going to affect them more. I think the K shaped economy continues.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

How do you monitor that? How do you ask the question?

[Mindy Jensen]

Well, Joe, it's been a year since I recorded this last time and I don't remember how to do this right.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

So I don't know how you do it either. I had no idea how you asked that question.

[Len Penzo]

It's a freebie for the eight ball.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Yeah.

[Mindy Jensen]

Okay, how about this? Tesla has started a robo taxi fleet, except in Austin, Texas, they just took their drivers out. They had safety drivers sitting in the passenger seat. They have said that they are going to start delivering cars, driverless cars, to people. They have delivered one, so technically they are correct. Will Tesla deliver 10,000 driverless cars by December 1, 2026?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

All of a sudden you're a ninja. All of a sudden you like know exactly how to ask the question.

[Len Penzo]

Can you ask it again? No, just kidding.

[Magic 8 Ball]

It cannot be determined at this time.

[Mindy Jensen]

Try again.

[Magic 8 Ball]

Highly doubtful.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Oh, wow. I could see that. I could see that one too.

[OG]

I don't know, Len, I saw a story. The robo taxis, driverless taxis. I don't remember the town. I believe it was Dallas. Could have been Fort Worth. It wasn't Austin, where all the Waymo cars are disregarding. Oh, maybe it was in Austin. They're disregarding school buses. And so school buses stop, you know, put the arm out, stop, flash. Kids cross and they just, just drive. They don't stop for the kids. They don't stop for the. They don't. They've got like thousands of videos of this and the answer that the Waymo people have. And I'm putting them out there because if you work there and this is your answer, shame on you. Their answer is, yeah, we're working really hard on the software. Yeah, we're just, you know, it's just, it's just a hard thing to get programmed. Incorrect. Could you imagine if I just zip past a couple of school buses and the officers like, what are you doing? You can't do that. Like, first of all, it's a gigantic ass ticket that they're going to hit you with at the least.

[Mindy Jensen]

As they should.

[OG]

Absolutely. As they should. And secondly, they would be like, what are you doing? And I go, oh yeah, you know, it's just really hard to learn those flashing signs, you know, just in random places. I, yeah, I'll work really hard on it next time. They'd be like, we don't give a. Here's your ticket, bro. And we'll see in court. Why are we not finding the living crap out of these people every time it's on? You know, they have the videos they have, you know, because they got the traffic cameras or whatever attached to these. Every single one of these should be the same freaking fine. Traffic fine to that company that you and I would have to pay. And frankly, it should be docked out of some idiot programmer's paycheck until they get this solved. Because this thing's going to run over some kid and they're gonna be like, oh God, that really sucks, man. We're sorry. It's computer. What are you gonna do? Try.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

That was my thought. OG why don't they just go hire the emergency PR firm right now that they're gonna need and start teaching the CEO to say I'm sorry.

[OG]

Well, and I kind of don't understand why the police, they did an interview about this and I think it was in Austin or some city around Austin. Well, they did the interview with the chief. Police are like, yeah, it's crazy. I mean, driverless cars are nuts. It's like, no, dude, start sending frigging tickets. Like, this is why the whole government exists. This particular reason to prevent major, major, major issues. Not necessarily out there to do a bunch of other crazy stuff. Literally. Yes, city prosecutors, like do a lawsuit. Anyways, Needless to say, I will not be buying a driverless friggin Tesla anytime soon. Or any other car for that matter that's driverless.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

I'm not sure how OG feels about.

[OG]

I like the ones where they like drive 50 miles an hour into the flooded road.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

There's like flying right into it.

[OG]

Or the traffic circles where they get caught in the traffic circles.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

I love that one.

[OG]

That one makes me laugh.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

I'm caught in a taxi and I can't get out.

[OG]

I can't get out because this thing's driving 40 miles an hour in a circle.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

What's your last one?

[Len Penzo]

Well, I'm going to change. We had, we've had a couple football questions. I'm going to go against. I was going to do something about the World Cup. I'm going to Go away from that. The average price of a Big Mac, they always talk about that for inflation. They'll say, well, let's look at the average. So I just went on to Google.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Not me, though, Len. I talk about the price of a school lunch. That's what I talk about for inflation, which is what we should be talking about.

[Len Penzo]

Yes. And actually we do that as kickoff for the sandwich survey as well. That's what I always use as my jumping off point. But I thought for this one, just for fun, because some people go to McDonald's still. I don't know if a lot of you do because they're so expensive, but on Google, I typed in average price of a Big Mac. And you know how the AI overview is the first thing that comes up now, according to the AI overview on Google, I guess we could use this as the authority for next year to determine what it is this year. It says it's 579. 579. So I want to know on December 1st of next year when you Google in average price of a Big Mac, will the AI overview say the average price of a Big Mac is $6.50 or higher?

[OG]

Big increase.

[Magic 8 Ball]

Definitely, yes.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Oh, boy.

[OG]

It's like a 20% increase in big Macs.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah, that's what it says.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

After all the inflation we've had at restaurants. I'm not sure that I don't know about that one.

[Len Penzo]

I don't know. A few years ago it wasn't. I don't think it was two or three bucks and it's already up to 579. So you never know, especially if the rates are going down, right. If they drop those interest rates and the economy's still roaring. You never know. You never know.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Just McDonald's decides to take advantage of it, grab every dollar. We shall see. And we're recording. So I'm hungry. I don't know why that question made me so hungry. I'm like, oh, Big Mac, that sounds really good right now. Oh, gee, you've got the final question for 2026.

[OG]

Well, I'm going to stick with the inflation theme there, Len, for just a quick second. You've got quite an inflation rate there assigned to Big Macs. It might be a McDonald's profitability inflation increase. I did see this thing the other day on Reddit where it was a. There was a McDonald's in a Aleutian island military base at one point in time. They just shut down the base, like literally kind of overnight. You know, they're like, hey, we don't need this thing anymore. You know, those Russians are never coming at us ever again. So we're good. We can close this thing down. It's like kind of a town that's kind of, pardon the expression, frozen in time. See what I did there? Anyways, I saw a picture of a display board from the McDonald's, the drive through. Like, here's how much everything was. It wasn't that far off. It was like the 90s and it was, you know, it was like three bucks for a Big Mac, like you said. I think there's some higher costs there being in the middle of nowhere in Alaska at the time. But. But I think most people look at that and go, yeah, you know, I don't know. Anyway, so back to my inflation thing. I'm just going to look at regular core, core inflation year over year. So I'm just looking at data as of September of 2025. So maybe that's as early or as, you know, recent as the data is, you know, because it gets adjusted and so on and so forth, which means what?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

To go September again?

[OG]

Which is fine. And we're at 3.1 was the estimate, and it rose to 3% in 2020. And I'm sorry, in September, year over year. So September 25th backward to September of 24 was right at 3%.

[Len Penzo]

This is the CPI, right?

[OG]

Yes, CPI. And so my question, is it going to be over 3% year over year when we look at this again in September 2026?

[Magic 8 Ball]

Definitely, yes.

[OG]

Okay, so the themes all.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Check the theme.

[OG]

Stock market goes crazy because of all the rate cuts and inflation skyrockets. Everybody goes, oh, crap, I got to put my money in gold.

[Len Penzo]

Which would make sense too. With inflation, the price, you would expect the gold price to go up to and inflate. I mean, the story that the eight ball is telling here, it. It's not contradictory.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Let's look at it this way, Len. It's either going to be really, really right or, or it's going to be.

[Len Penzo]

Like this time, like this year.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It is it. Because it definitely does. It's got a theme. Next year, stock market up. Good time to refinance your debt by June because Mindy will be right on the. On the rate cuts. And then watch out for the inflation and buy all your Big Macs the first half of the year.

[OG]

Double lever your stock portfolio and short bitcoin.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

There it is. And don't count on buying Chinese AI stocks because they won't be there to buy. Man, that was fun as always, guys. Thank you so much for helping us.

[Len Penzo]

The time just flew, Joe. It just flew.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It is crazy that we're doing this again. When I was even emailing you guys about this, I'm like, can you believe? I feel like we just made these predictions and apparently the eight ball wasn't ready for the answers because. Holy cow. But let's find out what you guys are doing. Og it is second weekend of January. What you got going on this weekend?

[OG]

Every year at this time, we bail to the Caribbean for a week. Fine dining.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Oh, that sounds horrible.

[OG]

What's called the Cayman Cookout. We're hanging out with some of the world's greatest chefs on the beach, eating caviar and drinking champagne.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It's a tough life, but, hey, that sounds horrible. And as we record this every year, you've got some spectacular. Do you know who the chefs are going to be yet?

[OG]

Yeah, they're largely all the same year over year. There's a couple people switch here and there, but largely the same guys in Galaxy.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

And Andre is. What's his name?

[OG]

Jose Andres. Jose Andres always has a big thing. It's hosted by Eric Repair from La Barnardine in New York and Blue in the Caymans or his restaurants. I think he probably has more than that.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

But I gotta tell you, watching the latest season of Chef's Table and watching the episode on Jose Andreas's career. Yeah, was pretty incredible. The amount of things that guy's done and giving he's done is just quite an amazing fellow.

[OG]

He's a guy for sure.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Speaking of amazing, thanks for hanging out with us. Mindy Jensen.

[Mindy Jensen]

Thanks for having me. Jo Sal Se.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Hi.

[Mindy Jensen]

I always have a lot of fun here.

[OG]

It was.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

It was super. But what's magical is when you listen to biggerpockets money. So what's going on over there with you and Scott?

[Mindy Jensen]

To kick off the year, we are talking about retirement. We're talking about people who are starting a little bit later in life. Last year, we did a fictitious plan for a woman named Barb, who's fake starting over from her Life at age 50. She has essentially $0 in net worth. Here's a plan to get her retired in 10 years. And then we are doing it now. She didn't have any debt. Now we're getting ready to talk to Nancy, who is also fake, who has some debt involved in her story and the different things she can do to get herself to early retirement or traditional retirement if she's starting at age 50. Because we do believe that you can still retire no matter when or where you're starting.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Cool thing is there's lots of Barbs and Nancy's out there.

[Mindy Jensen]

There are, yeah.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Good stuff. And that's it. The Bigger Pockets Money podcast, where finer podcasts are downloaded and streamed. Mr. Penzo, thanks for kicking off 2026 with us again, man. What's [e-mail] Lempenzo.com.

[Len Penzo]

That'S right. Where the ads are always plentiful. And it's very hard to read the actual articles in between the ads, which is intentional because I want you to accidentally click on those ads. Hint, hint. When you come to my blog, come on by and accidentally click on a few ads. That's what I like.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

But always good, entertaining stuff.

[Len Penzo]

Yeah. Hey, and if you get a chance, buy my book. It's on Amazon and at finer bookstores everywhere. Well, actually, I haven't found one in a bookstore yet, but maybe one of these days it might be somebody might have sold a used one or something at some bookstore.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

We got to work on that.

[OG]

We got to get.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Yeah, we got stores across America. Let's get that done. That's our 2026 goal right there.

[Mindy Jensen]

What's the name of the book, Len?

[Len Penzo]

It's called True Money Stories. True Money Stories. It's definitely on Amazon. You can find it there.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Fantastic. And 34 AI ripoff versions of. Has that happened yet? I don't know.

[Len Penzo]

Is that true?

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Well, they're doing it to all the books. I mean, people. Are you serious? They make AI ripoff versions? Yeah, well, it's like a guide to Len's book. Or really a guide to Mindy's podcast or. Yeah, it's horrible. Just.

[Len Penzo]

Oh, I didn't know that.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

People ripping stuff off and throwing it up on Amazon as fast as they can. You will find Len's book, Len's blog, Mindy's podcast, and all the questions we asked Magic 8 Ball this year on our show notes pages deck of benjamin.com Doug, man, you got it from here. What should we have learned on today's episode?

[Doug]

So, what's stacked up on our to do list for today? First, take some advice from our roundtable based on 2025's results. Don't try and predict the future. If our Magic 8 ball can't do it, your luck might be not so great. Second, surprises during 2026. It is certain. But the big lesson. What are you doing Trying to predict the future instead of making stuff happen. Let's get rolling on a great 2026, huh? Who's with me? Thanks to Mindy Jensen for joining us today to predict the future. You know what's in your future? Listening to biggerpocket's Money Podcast. That's what we'll also include links in our show [e-mail] thanks to the great swami Len Penzo for hanging out with us today. You'll find [e-mail] when he isn't scolding his Magic 8 ball for the horrible.

[Joe Saul Sehi]

Horrible year he had.

[Doug]

Thanks also to OG for joining us today. Looking for good financial planning help? Head to stackingbenjamins.comog for his calendar. This show is the property of SB Podcast, LLC, Copyright 2026 and is created by Josal Sehai. You'll find out about our awesome [e-mail] along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube, YouTube and all the usual social media spots. Come say hello and oh yeah, before I go, not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don't take advice from people you don't know. 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 Sehi]

Sam.