Private Equity for Regular People: Higher Returns or a Very Expensive Lesson? SB1813

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Stacking Benjamins Show

Episode: SB1813 - Private Equity for Regular People: Higher Returns or a Very Expensive Lesson?

Date: March 9, 2026
Hosts: Joe Saul-Sehy, OG, and Doug
Theme: Demystifying Private Equity and Alternative Investments for Everyday Investors

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Episode Overview

This episode tackles the risks, misconceptions, and allure of private equity and other alternative investments pitched as “invest like the 1%.” Joe and OG break down why these investments often promise higher returns, the hidden risks for regular investors, and how to properly vet opportunities so you don’t jeopardize your financial independence. The team also touches on recent headlines and fresh cases of investment scams, while sharing laughs and practical advice from the legendary Stacking Benjamins basement.

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Key Discussion Points

1. The Allure of “Investing Like the 1%”

• Main question: Should regular people follow the investment tactics of the ultra-wealthy?

• OG explains that the appeal of private equity, pre-IPO stock, and private credit often preys on people feeling "behind" and seeking aggressive ways to catch up.

• The 1% can afford to lose a small portion of their wealth on high-risk bets, unlike most people.

  Quote:

  “You can afford to take these risks, but you can't put 80% of your retirement or your kid's college [fund] in this super aggressive thing with a binary outcome and expect a win.”
  — OG, [18:22]

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2. Understanding the Real Risk-Reward Equation

• Investments are compared by their likelihood of total loss vs. their expected return:

  • US Treasuries (safe; ~4% return)
  • S&P 500 (stock market; historically ~10% return, very low chance of zero over 10 years)
  • Private businesses (high risk of total loss; needs much higher expected return to be worth it)

• Key math: Private deals should offer the possibility of much higher returns, but statistically, most will fail.

• Liquidity is a serious issue—money may be entirely locked up, even if the “paper” return looks good.

  Quote:

  “Everything was working great until it stopped…You are one legislation away from making your company go bankrupt.”
  — OG, [18:48]

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3. Why These Investments Can Work for the Rich (But Not for You)

• The 1% can diversify across many risky bets, so one home run pays for many failures. Most regular investors can't afford this approach.

• Example: You need to make 9 to 10 bets to hit one 10x winner, but you could lose most or all of the rest.

  Quote:

  “What do you really have to do? You have to do nine investments of $50k to get one to turn to $500k. Well, what did you do? You put $450k in to make $50k?”
  — OG, [20:45]

  Memorable Moment:

  • Joe and OG compare private equity strategies to buying lottery tickets and emphasize the high risks masked by aggressive marketing.

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4. Hidden Traps: Illiquidity and Fraud

• Many private investments are illiquid—you can’t access your money until a “liquidity event” that’s outside your control.

• Recent blowups in private real estate, private credit, and notorious schemes (like Tai Lopez's distressed brands venture) highlight risks.

• Just because a pitch sounds like Warren Buffett or leverages a familiar brand doesn’t mean it’s safe.

  Notable Case:

  • Tai Lopez’s acquisition of Radio Shack, Pier 1, and others that turned out to be a Ponzi scheme, as cited in the Wall Street Journal ([28:39]).

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5. The Psychology of Vulnerable Investors

• Many get sucked into these “catch up quick” schemes after seeing disappointing results from traditional investments (e.g., slow growth in a 529 college fund).

• Online forums and desperation often drive poor decision-making.

  Quote:

  “This is the target for these investment schemes... You're behind, look at what happens to the average guy…Why would you invest like that? That's crazy.”
  — Joe, [16:56]

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SEC’s 10-Step Guide to Evaluating Investments

Detailed walk-through and commentary on the Securities Exchange Commission’s "10 Things to Consider Before You Make Investing Decisions" ([47:32]):

1. Draw a Personal Financial Roadmap:

   • Decide on your real goals before considering an investment opportunity.
   • “Begin with the end in mind,” OG [47:51]

2. Evaluate Your Comfort Zone for Risk:

   • Gut check your willingness to accept possible total loss in exchange for potential return.

3. Consider an Appropriate Investment Mix:

   • Diversification is critical.

4. Be Wary of Heavy Investment in Any One Stock (incl. employer’s):

   • Avoid concentration risk.

5. Create and Maintain an Emergency Fund:

   • Don’t gamble with money you can’t afford to lose.

6. Pay Off High-Interest Credit Cards:

   • A guaranteed, high-return “investment” is paying off debt.

7. Take Advantage of “Free Money” from Employers:

   • Never leave a 401(k) match on the table.

8. Rebalance Portfolio Occasionally:

   • With illiquid investments, rebalancing is often impossible.

9. Stay Vigilant Against Fraud:

   • Anything offering “guaranteed” or unusually high returns deserves extra scrutiny.

10. Stick to Your Investment Policy Statement:

• Protect yourself from making rash, emotional decisions.

Quote:

“It can still be a good investment...it just doesn’t meet my goal.”
— Joe, [48:01]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Segment Highlights

• On Private Credit:

  “When I hear private credit, people go, ‘Ooh, private credit.’ Well, you know who needs private credit? People who aren’t credit worthy…”
  — OG, [22:11]

• On Liquidity Traps:

  “Even if you’re right, you’re still gonna be wrong. Because...you gotta be able to use the money in four years, and there’s a real chance they just go, ‘yeah, sorry, we can’t...’”
  — OG, [24:03]

• On Frauds Pretending to Be the 1%:
  Discussed Tai Lopez's use of flash and social media to draw investments, and how many similar “get rich like the 1%” schemes prey on FOMO ([28:39]–[31:59]).

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Community & Career Nuggets

[39:14]–[44:50] Career Segment:

• Interview with restaurateur Danny Meyer via a TikTok clip.
• Key insight: 51% of employee value is “emotional hospitality skills” (kindness, optimism, empathy); 49% is technical.
• Applicability: Whether investing or working, long-term success is more about how you treat people than technical skills alone.

Quote:

“Someone with a high HQ [hospitality quotient] is someone who is happier themselves when they make someone else feel better…The 49% are technical skills. We need both. You gotta have the whole package.”
— Danny Meyer via TikTok, [38:27]

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Actionable Takeaways for Listeners

• Don’t Be Seduced by “1%” Schemes: High returns come with hidden risks that the ultra-rich are uniquely equipped to weather.
• Vet Investments Thoroughly: Understand the return, the risk of total loss, the liquidity profile, and whether you can afford for it to go to zero.
• Follow the SEC’s due diligence checklist.
• Diversify and Rebalance: Avoid putting a large chunk of wealth in any illiquid, high-risk bet.
• Beware of Scams: If it sounds too good to be true—like guaranteed returns or minimum 20% annual return—run!
• Community Support: Leverage educational resources and financial communities this podcast and others offer, rather than chasing rumors or peer advice online.

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Important Timestamps & Segments

| Time | Segment/Topic | |-------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------| | 05:00-18:22 | Why people chase private equity; the 1% fallacy | | 18:22-24:03 | Binary outcomes, real risks for the wealthy vs. regular investors | | 24:03-28:39 | Liquidity pitfalls and the importance of exit strategy | | 28:39-31:59 | Tai Lopez case study: “Get rich” pitch gone very wrong | | 32:26-39:47 | Due diligence, SEC’s investment evaluation checklist | | 38:27-44:50 | Career & personal development: Emotional intelligence (Danny Meyer) |

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Final Thoughts

This episode serves as both a warning and a practical guide. The promise of “private equity for regular people” is often more marketing gimmick than investment reality, and the risk-to-reward ratio is rarely in your favor unless you’re already wealthy enough to absorb large losses. Stick to the basics, diversify, and trust—but verify—before handing your hard-earned money over to the next plausible “can’t miss” opportunity.

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Shareworthy Moment

If you know someone tempted by private placements, distressed brand turnarounds, or any “invest like the rich” pitch—send them this episode. It could save their financial future.

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(Stacking Benjamins: Bringing fun and wisdom to financial literacy, three times a week, from your mom’s half-finished basement.)

Transcript

[Joe]

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[Announcer]

So.

[Joe]

So your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-granger. Visit granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. It is Monday in the basement. You know what that means. The coffee's hot and the mics are hot.

[OG]

Coffee's cold.

[Joe]

Now your coffee's cold. How's your coffee cold?

[OG]

Because I made it 30 minutes ago.

[Joe]

But we hear about Doug chasing his truck. And by the way, I don't know if you know this Doug, when trucks are in park, they're stationary. So you chasing your truck is a hilarious.

[Doug]

One would think. One would think the laws of physics would dictate when the car's in park. You got these big wide truck tires planted to the ground, wouldn't move.

[OG]

This happens to old guys sometimes. They put it in neutral and can't get it.

[Joe]

It's welcome to Michigan, right? Winter in Michigan.

[Doug]

Do you want me to tell this story or we just want to. We'll do that another time.

[OG]

Yeah, I don't want to hear it again. It wasn't that great the first time. It will get better with age.

[Joe]

Oh, geez. Like, email me the rest of the story. We got stuff to do. Let's raise our mugs, gents, on behalf of the men and women who are making podcast in Mom's basement and all those stackers out there who had a fantastic weekend and a great week away from stacking Benjamins, listening to Grace hit shows and watching the news. You're all working overtime. So thanks to you.

[Doug]

Thanks everybody.

[OG]

Here's the song that we'd like to

[Joe]

do for all the younger set of

[OG]

people, the teenagers and what have you. This one's called Vacation Z. It's over. It's over.

[Doug]

Live from Joe's mom's basement, it's the stacking Benjamin show. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. And on today's episode, problems with some of the investments wealthy people use. Who's in trouble? How do you vet great investments so you don't run your own financial independence ship aground? We'll bring all of that and of course, I'll share some trivia that'll make you excited. You got up this morning and now two guys who both woke up on the let's make more money side of the bed. It's Joe and. Oh, jj. Juja G.

[Joe]

That's right, Doug. Not only did we wake up on the let's make more money side of the bed, we woke up on the let's not lose money to stupid schemes side of the bed because that's what we're talking about today. Welcome back to Stacky Benjamins. I'm so glad you found us. We are kicking off another eight weeks of live shows. And if you missed the greatest hits week last week, man, did we have some good stuff from Jen Drummond, from George Georgian, and we got to hear Greg McFarlane again. That was fun. But the guy we're hearing right now across the mic from me is the OG how are you, man?

[OG]

Happy to be here. Thanks for having me back.

[Joe]

We, we just. Doug and I took a vote and we decided he could stay around a couple more episodes. Love.

[Doug]

When I'm a guest on your show,

[OG]

I'm still on the island. Just so I get off this thing. How do I get voted off, for God's sake?

[Joe]

Speaking of that, I. I just saw a commercial for Survivor 50s. Does that mean Survivor is 50 seasons old?

[Doug]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joe]

They've had 50 seasons of survival.

[Doug]

But do they run like three a year or something?

[Joe]

They must.

[OG]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They didn't start Survivor when you guys were toddlers.

[Joe]

I was just thinking, man, how or

[OG]

Mark what's his name never ages.

[Doug]

That's what it was like growing up in the 70s. Our parents had no idea what we were doing. We were on our own island, surviving.

[Joe]

That was don't come in until dark those days. We got a great show. We're going to help people shine a light, as it were, on your investment philosophy. If you're not sure how to evaluate investments, today's all for you. Because the first half of the show we're going to talk about how the 1% invest o. You know, all those commercials for those, those, those people that always go, you want to invest like the one. This is not the 1% invest. Well, what could go wrong if you invest like the 1% invest?

[Doug]

Maybe something don't want you to know.

[Joe]

Be quiet.

[Doug]

We all talk about it at our meetings. Don't tell them this.

[Joe]

If you know how much the 1% did not care what you know, you don't know. It's great. And also speaking of great, finally the ferrets that spin the wheel here, Mom's basement. They've made their master product. We call it the Stacking Benjamin's vault. Stacking benjamin.com vault take care of those subscriptions, get your identity off the Internet. Watch for stuff that appears on the dark web and take action immediately. Stacking benjamins.com you have the vault already probably in seven different tools that you're never going to open because there's seven of them. Why not put it all in one place and just get it done? So stack benjamin.com vault all right, we're going to get into it here in just a minute, but we got a couple sponsors to help us keep on keeping on. We're going to hear from them and then og Doug and I, we're going to go down the private equity rabbit hole on what can go wrong when you invest like the 1%. In business, there is no room for guesswork. Every shipment matters, every deadline counts. And when you're trying to keep operations running smoothly, the last thing you need is uncertainty. That's why reliability is at the core of USPS Ground Advantage. From the moment your package is first scanned in, it moves through a secure nationwide network, aiding in a timely and accurate delivery. You get near real time tracking so you can keep up with your shipments and with affordable upfront pricing. So there are no hidden fees or surprise surcharges to throw off your cost sheets. It all adds up to predictable deliveries you can depend on. Because knowing your logistics are handled lets you focus on everything else. Your customers, your team and the future you're building. Visit USPS.com ground advantage to start shipping with confidence. USPS ground advantage we mean business. I had a breakfast mentoring meeting yesterday with a young woman who was just amazing. She is graduating from college with a degree in wealth management and she reached out hoping for some pointers. And listen, if somebody's in Texarkana and wants to go into this beautiful field of personal finance and helping people get their money together, that is incredible. But even more incredible is how she reached out, how she was trying to network and I was having a discussion that finding the right person and avoiding the wrong person for a role. That's what can make or break an organization and we just don't see that many qualified people. So how do you find them? Well, Indeed Sponsored Jobs is a boost whenever you need to find quality talent. If you're hiring, Indeed is all you need. You can stop struggling to get your job post even seen on other sites you'll match with quality candidates with Indeed. Sponsored Jobs. Get matched with and hire quality candidates who can drive the results you need. Reach candidates who meet your specific criteria like skills, certifications or location. Drives me crazy when I'm matched with all kinds of people who aren't a fit. I don't have that kind of time. People are finding quality hires on Indeed right now in the minute I've been talking to you. Companies like yours made 27 hires on Indeed. According to Indeed data worldwide, Sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed are 95% more likely to report a hire than non sponsored jobs. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all the boxes. Less stress, less time, more results when you need the right person to cut through the chaos. This is a job for Indeed. Sponsored Job and here's what's cool. Stackers. You're going to get $75 in sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com podcast. Just go to Indeed.com podcast or right now and support Stacking Benjamin by saying you heard about Indeed right here at stacking Benjamin. Indeed.com podcast terms and conditions apply. Hiring do it the Right way with Indeed.

[OG]

Hello darlings. And now it's time for your favorite part of the show, our Stacking Benjamin's Headlines.

[Joe]

Our headline today comes to us from the Wall Street Journal. Just about a week and a half ago, Telus Damos wrote this Tello starts off by saying the market might eventually talk itself down from some of the worst fears about artificial intelligence disruption of software companies. But investors shouldn't expect private asset managers to bounce right back to where they were as owners of and lenders to software companies through their funds. The largest private asset managers who've seen their shares shrink alongside swaths of the rest of the market in recent sessions. Perhaps surprisingly, though, the correction in many of these manager shares has actually been sharper, especially when viewed across a longer time horizon. Let's back into what these people are talking about OG because. Wait, what? So here's the deal. Let's start off with private equity, because these people OG part of the promise of private equity is you don't want to invest like the masses. You want to invest like the 1%. And the cool thing is we can make you more money, number one. And number two, OG is, you know the term hedge fund initially was around. You can also hedge the downside risk by not investing like the heathens in these index funds. Can you talk for a second about the lure of private asset managers and what they're selling?

[OG]

Well, if you think about it from the psyche of an investor, especially one who feels like he or she is a little behind the eight ball, because people who have been investing since they were in their 20s or 30s and have money built up and you've seen the progress and you've seen the compounding have a different feeling about this necessarily than people who are just getting started. Maybe what the allure of private equity investing is or just private investments. And this could be something as simple as ownership of a company that, you know, your buddy says, hey, this is a great idea, you should own this company with me. Or a more public, like big name private equity type of deal or something like that. It could be buying stock in companies that are pre ipo. So there's organizations out there that say, hey, do you want to get in on SpaceX? Like, here's how you can do it, you know. But I think it all stems from some of the similar things, which is this fear that we're a little bit behind and the only way to catch up is to be ultra aggressive in our investing. But the reality is if you just strip away all that stuff and just look at it from the facts standpoint, we know that U.S. treasuries, so if you lend money to the U.S. government, that's what we call our risk free rate. Because we are very confident, very, very, very, very 99.99999999 repeating very confident that the US is going to pay their bills. We call that the risk free rate. And that hovers right now about, let's say 4%. So you can get a guaranteed 4% by giving your money to the government. They're going to pay you back. We know that over long periods of time, the biggest companies in the United states average about 10. The proxy we use is the S&P 500. The way that I kind of think about this or the way that I coach people to think about this is what's the likelihood that over the next 10 years that your investment in U.S. treasuries goes to zero? I mean, it's really, really small. Right?

[Joe]

Not gonna happen. Yeah, yeah.

[OG]

You think about all the dominoes of Other things that would go wrong if you gave $10,000 to the government as a loan, as a Bond, and they 10 years from now go. Yeah, we just don't have it. Sorry. You know, like there's other chaos going on. Okay, what's the likelihood over 10 years of your stock portfolio, the S and P returning? 0. I mean, pretty low also, right? Like I'm not saying it can't because there's crazy, crazy, crazy things we can't even project. But in reality, over the last hundred years worth of recorded history, the worst that it's happened is broken even over 10 years.

[Joe]

We covered this a few weeks ago and I can link to it in the show notes. We went through these numbers. The longer you leave it alone, the better. Your chance of breaking even at the very least is in over 20 years. Historically, you've never had a loss.

[OG]

Yeah. So let's just say that 10 years, you put in $100,000, you're pretty sure you're getting at least 100,000 back in 10 years, probably you're getting 200,000 back. If history is a guide, what is the chance that your brother in law's ice cream shop, using that as a proxy for private Equity investing in 10 years from now returns zero? Well, it's higher than the biggest companies in the universe. It's some metric higher. So what kind of return do you need to get to offset the fact that you've got one bucket here that pretty much is. Well, you've three buckets, right? You got one bucket that guarantees you're going to get your money back from the US government and with interest you got another bucket that's you're pretty sure you're getting all your money back and pretty confident not only you're going to get it back, but it's probably going to double. That's the S and P. And then you got this other bucket which has two outcomes. 0. Ice cream shop fails or it's successful. What does successful have to be to offset the risk of zero? And I would submit to you that it's not 10% because you get 10 in the S&P. It's not 12. It's like it better double, it better triple, it better quadruple in a short period of time. Otherwise like what the heck are we doing? Because I'm going to double in the S and P in 10 years. I'll probably double in seven. Why would I go, hey, hey, if you give me a hundred thousand dollars, we can start this business, we're going to double in 10 years, be like, bro, I can do that. And. And use the smartest people in the universe to do it.

[Joe]

I want to talk about two things that you brought up, OG because I think they're important points. I was recently in another forum and while you were speaking, I brought it back up because I want to read who the target market is for this type of investment. Because you talk about.

[OG]

Let's see if I was right.

[Joe]

Well, no, you're 100% right. But let's just put a real face in on this because this is somebody about to make a mistake. Maybe not with private equity, but. But they're about to make a mistake. This is what the piece says. I recently read in a college parent planning group that people who invested in their 529 plans based on target age ended up with 4% growth over 18 years. That is crazy to me. This person then writes, we don't have a lot in there for our kids. Oh, right. You can see this coming. Because we couldn't contribute when they were babies. We got married a baby, bought a house all in one year when they were in their 20s and paid for child care as years. For years. We ended up having three kids. All the reasons that everybody had, all the reasons why we're behind. Yes.

[OG]

You just stamped it as a common American family.

[Joe]

But you can hear the panic setting in.

[OG]

Yeah.

[Joe]

Right now our 14 year old is $35,000. Our 11 year old has 11. This is, this is the sentence. I know our oldest is close to college. So While we're contributing $10,000 a year in his account, now I want to maximize the return. Oh, God. This is the target.

[OG]

Yeah.

[Joe]

For these investment schemes going. You're behind. Look at what happens to the average guy. Look at what? That you don't want to invest like that. Why would you invest like that? That's crazy. So here's what you should do instead. Hand it over to Doug, who has this phenomenal approach to making up time. And by the way, they made a second mistake, which is I'm asking the Internet, a bunch of people I don't know, to quote, help me. People have no idea what their situation is, what their risk tolerance is, anything about them. I'm going to jump on an online form and ask them. And the opinions.

[OG]

Yeah, you were reading an online form. I thought this was part of the article at first and now I know what you're saying. Yeah. You were kind of piecing this all together. And to be clear, I'm not suggesting for a second that brand new Companies, private equity, private credit, although we'll see. I'm not saying that that can't be successful because I think all of us here know people who have done that and been successful. I think a lot of our listeners would be able to say, well, no, this person I know got in on such and such a thing early and made a killing. And it's like all of that's true. The hard part is, is that because they're binary outcomes, you have to make a lot of bets to find the one that's the winner. And most people don't have the capital to do lots of bets to wait for one to pay off.

[Joe]

But that's why these investments can work for the 1% because they do have the capital. And this is what people miss when they're like invest like the one. The 1% does this. Well, yeah, but the 1%, it's a micro fraction of their net worth. Yeah, they can afford to take these risks, but you can't put 80% of your retirement or your kids college in this super aggressive thing with a binary outcome and expect a win.

[OG]

Yeah, I mean, it's like a lottery ticket. I was thinking about this the other day because I was talking to somebody about a private company investment and you know, it was all the reasons why it was going to work. And I said, well, all of that may be true and there might be the one reason you can't even predict as to why it won't. Like you're one legislation away from making your company go bankrupt, right? You say the black swan event. You can't even, sometimes you can't even predict what that looks like. Take Airbnbs, right? Here's a great example. Everybody said go buy Airbnbs, depreciate them, do the cost seg analysis because you know, it costs $5,000 to do, but you're going to save $100,000 on your taxes. Your W2 person, you know, build up all these Airbnbs is super awesome, super easy to do. You know, banks like to lend on it because you got positive cash flow, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then the city of Plano goes, yeah, we don't allow that anymore. And you go, well, no, no, no, you don't understand. This is my business. Like we don't care. Our community has decided that we don't do this. Now what? Now you have load of rental properties without tenants in them and now you're a landlord, not an Airbnb host. You know, now you're trying to offload it. You know, What? I mean, like, that wasn't. Everything was working great until it stopped. So it's hard to predict what those things are going to be. And to your point, Joe, when you do it with 50k and your net worth is 5 million, I'm not saying losing 50 grand is not a big deal, because it is, but it doesn't change the needle. I would also submit to you, by the way, that that person who puts 50k in with a $5 million net worth also probably isn't going to get but a 10x return. Like, that's a. That's a good number, right? So what's 10x on that 500k? What's an average return of a stock portfolio that has 5 million bucks in it? 500k? Like, what are we doing? It's 10x return.

[Joe]

I get.

[OG]

I know. Okay, cool.

[Joe]

Well, and that's what this piece points out is now you have that downside that naturally comes with it.

[OG]

And so what do you really have to do? You have to do nine investments of 50k to get one to turn to 500. Well, what did you do? You put 450 grand in to make 50 grand? Am I crazy?

[Joe]

Math? Not math.

[OG]

Just look at the historic numbers of venture capital firms. They're 99 to 1, 98. 1. One out of 100, two out of 100. And you're going to do it with one home run. But then the other piece about this, that I think. Let's set aside the expected return piece for a bit. The other thing that I think is really important for most investors to recognize is the liquidity issue. The problem with most private investments, whether it's real estate, because we talked about these before. You know, the real estate aggregation investment companies, some of which have blown up spectacularly. Called it what? Doug. Sorry, you guys don't want to pat me on the back, I'm gonna do it myself, man. You know, the latest thing to have quite literally blown up in people's laps is private credit, which, you know, this just sounds so funny. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I just, like, look at incongruencies. Like, I just see them in my life. I. Like I just happened. My brain is trained for it. So when I hear private credit, it's almost like there was a movie and I can't remember what movie this was. I feel like it was like Wedding Singer, an Adam Sandler movie or something. If you guys remember this long time ago.

[Announcer]

Yeah.

[OG]

And there was a scene in that movie. I think it was this movie where he's talking to this guy, and I think maybe his girlfriend's old ex. Girlfriend's boyfriend, fiance or something weird. Anyways, he goes, well, what kind of work are you in? And the woman in the movie goes, oh, he's in junk bonds. And then the boyfriend, husband, or whatever says, I don't say that you're in junk real estate. I prefer high yield. We're in high yield bonds. And that has really always stuck with me because it's the same thing, right? It's like, it's the same side of the. It's just like the same coin, but it's a different way to spin it. So when I hear private credit, people go, ooh, private credit. I would like to invest in private credit. Well, you know, who needs private credit? People who aren't credit worthy. Because if you didn't need private credit, you would go to the bank and just be like, hey, man, I need 2 million bucks. And they'd be like, all right, you're a super good qualified person. Here's 2 milli. At 5%. Go buy your machinery. The people who need private credit are the people like, listen, bruh. So it's like, look, you get 14% yield. You know why?

[Joe]

Because there's a really good chance that

[OG]

idiot's not paying back the loan, and you're going to own a tractor somewhere.

[Doug]

I like how he started all that by saying, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but.

[Joe]

But that's always my favorite line.

[Doug]

Every conspiracy theorist starts their opening statement like that. But it's. If you look at the shadows on the lunar lander, they don't line up with the shadows from the flag.

[Joe]

I don't think Bigfoot exists, but they

[Doug]

always start that way.

[Announcer]

Yes.

[Joe]

I don't believe in ghosts, but is this a line you should look into?

[OG]

The bond market. That's where the money is.

[Joe]

Lens and junk bonds, Jules.

[OG]

It's high yield bonds. When I tell people you're in junk waitressing. Junk waitressing, that's right. Yeah.

[Joe]

It's Drew Barrymore.

[OG]

If you just kind of peel away the layers of the onion, it's like, if you start with the premise that the government gives me 4% for doing absolutely nothing, and the biggest, most well capitalized, most well run companies in the Universe give me 10 on average. Why would you guys offer 14? What's the catch? And the catch is quality or liquidity? And sometimes both, honestly. And so even if you get into an investment that is good and. And actually, like, on paper, you're like, damn, I'm Killing it. You can't get your money out anyway because they go, well, we need it because we own all these apartment buildings and wherever. Or we own these, you know, this farmland and wherever. It's like, you can't use it until the liquidity event happens where they take all of it and then they sell it to another investor or something down the line. So I think there's two sides to this. One is the return expectation, which we beat to death. And then I think the other piece of it is, is just, even if you're right, you're still gonna be wrong. Because that person that you talked about in terms of, like, their college fund, you gotta have. You gotta be able to use the money in four years, and there's a real chance that you. They just go, yeah, sorry, we can't. Can't do that.

[Joe]

That's a question that doesn't get asked enough is how do I get out of these investments? And I remember early in my career. I don't know about you, og, but early in my career, when I was meeting with new potential clients, I saw this a lot where they came to see me because they were in an investment they did not know how to get out of. And that was the key to beginning our relationship, was just unraveling this mess.

[OG]

Can you fix this mess?

[Joe]

Yeah, yeah.

[OG]

It happens a lot less now, but it also happens, I think, in waves during periods of chaos. I mean, the biggest product that has the ebbs and flows of market movement. Chaos investing, if you will, as annuities, like, where things go a little squirrely. You see all the ads for, like, are you tired of seeing the stock market go down 10% and your retirement is evaporating? You know, it's like, yeah, did you lose $2 million in the market last year? And so it sounds really good to, like, lock that up. And it's like, okay, it's locked up. Yeah, it's locked up for like 15 frigging years, bro. You can't touch it. Or you can, but under. Under huge penalty.

[Joe]

And it's funny, the person I. I read to you earlier in that online forum who I think is the type of person that these firms market to or they feel they're behind. There's a whole different subgroup of people, OG, that are worried about, what if I lose? What if I. What if I lose money? And that every time the market starts to shake, we see a little volatility. People worry more, man. Those annuity companies, they're quick on the trigger. You know, one that got me and you and I have been doing this for a long time. And this didn't get me to the point that I put money in it, but I thought this dude had turned the corner. I thought that he was a guy that actually had what I thought myself OG was a pretty damn good idea. I didn't know if it was gonna work or not. I just thought it was finally a good idea out of this, this, this dude. Because over the years, a long time ago, when we started going after people that we thought were swindlers and were taking your money. Oh, gee. You and I went after this guy in the earlier years of the podcast named Tai Lopez. And Tai Lopez very famously made a ton of money telling people they could do stuff while he was standing in front of a Lamborghini and this beautiful mansion.

[OG]

And what this is and what.

[Joe]

Well, what we found out later, remember, this is the guy we found out later. He had rented the mansion and the Lamborghini for literally, like half an hour so that he could stand in front of it and imply that he had all this stuff that he didn't have. He ended up on the Tim Ferriss show. He ended up with the photo shoot

[OG]

that's like the inside of a cockpit of an airplane that's really just like in some industrial park.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Joe]

You know, they're leasing it out to influencers every 20 minutes. Yeah. And they're buying it so they look like a baller when they're really not. Well, this guy, Tai Lopez, it's funny that you don't remember this guy because you and I spent a lot of time warning people about these types of schemes where they're making themselves look good. But this is a Wall Street Journal article from a few weeks ago. He vowed to revive Radio shack and Pier 1. So I thought this was cool. Tano quote, Tai Lopez was living proof the American dream was still attainable for young men willing to bet on themselves. By the way, he was totally marketing to young dudes, to the bro culture. The entrepreneur hosted parties at a mansion in Beverly Hills and boasted about the black Lamborghini in his garage. All, by the way, he didn't own any of this stuff. The college dropout had made a name for himself on social media.

[OG]

Shots fired.

[Joe]

By offering get rich quick schemes and self help courses. He urged his followers to invest in a new company he'd started. And this is when I was like, oh, maybe Ty's actually on to something here. This new company scooped up distressed retailers on the cheap. They bought Radio Shack out of bankruptcy. They bought Pier 1 out of bankruptcy, Dress Barn models, sporting goods and linens and things. These are all brands you've heard of that have been around forever. So he puts together this company and he goes and he gets investors going. You know what? Radio Shack's no longer going to be stores. We're going to take them online. Like it's just going to be online. Radio Shack. And how many people Google Radio Shack still, in a given day, there's got to be a fair number of people.

[Doug]

I got a Radio Shack in my town. They're still thriving.

[Joe]

You do have one?

[Doug]

Absolutely. There's a few left. And I've got one.

[Joe]

I wonder how that works now that Tai owns the company. I. I have no idea. But this is the person we're talking about. OG Sean Murphy. Some dude saw Lopez's post on his Facebook and Instagram feeds and was drawn in by the brand names like I was. But this is the key. And a promise of 20% returns. He invested $175,000 in the company called Retail E Commerce Ventures and related Lopez Ventures. All told, Lopez raised more than $230 million.

[OG]

Nice.

[Joe]

From hundreds of mostly small investors. Murphy's an Illinois grandfather. He got a ten thousand dollar Pier 1 gift card, monthly checks of about a thousand dollars a month for two years, which, by the way, we find out later, guess where that thousand bucks came from?

[OG]

OG that dude that put in the 175.

[Joe]

The next dude in line. The payments abruptly stopped in late 2022, and the struggling retailers were taken over by some of the company's creditors last September. Shock to nobody in hindsight, the securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Lopez and his partners, accusing them of running a Ponzi scheme, misleading investors, and misappropriating $16.1 million investors,

[OG]

possibly you.

[Joe]

The FBI has also been contacting investors, though no charges have been filed yet. This is what happens when you think you want to invest like the 1%. And man, what a good story. OG who doesn't love radio shows?

[OG]

Okay, so. And I was gonna say, and so back to the storyline here of, of this particular investment. Even you said, hey, you know, this, this has some legs right now, notwithstanding the Ponzi scheme part of it. And what I guess they'll probably figure out with some fraud, the storyline of like, hey, we can buy these. I mean, that's what Warren Buffett does. He buys all the value companies. You know, it's like, maybe that is a good payoff. But you have to understand, like I said before, it's It's a binary outcome. You are going to get money or it's going to be zero. There is no yawn. And then I average 10% for the next 20 years and I retired like normal. You know what I mean? Like, that's not an option when you are investing in small. This is no different than if you start your own Laundromat or you start your own business. You'll be successful or you won't. Like, there's just. It's a huge risk and the payoffs are really good if you're successful.

[Joe]

A lot of our stackers, maybe even though you haven't run a business, you may have backed something on Kickstarter. This is no different than a Kickstarter campaign. Right. And people get angry.

[OG]

Private lending thing, what was the. What was that? Peer street or something like that where you could, like, lend, do micro loans. What did you have to do? You had to like, go, well, I want those 14 percenters because those are fun, but I got to balance that out with a bunch of 4 percenters because I know that 3 out of the 1014 percenters ain't gonna pay me anything back.

[Joe]

And then all of a sudden, you realize how a bond manager makes their money. Exactly.

[OG]

All of a sudden, all of a sudden, I'm a bank credit officer. But without the salary

[Joe]

and handing out money to people that don't repay and learning a valuable lesson, how do you evaluate these investments? We're going to talk about that in the second half of today's show. We've got some great guidance from the securities and Exchange Commission. We're going to walk through that with you and give you the primer on investigating these opportunities, what's good and what's not. But before we get there, Doug, it's a new eight weeks, which means brand new eight weeks of trivia.

[Doug]

I'm back, baby. Hey there, stackers. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug, and wow, it's a huge day in history because back in 1964, Ford began production of its newest car. One that cost $2,368 when it first went on the market and one that sold an industry record 417,000 units in its first year alone. What makes this whole thing ironic is the name of the car was also my nickname in high school.

[OG]

Ford had a car named Small.

[Doug]

What's the name of this iconic Ford automobile? I'll be back right after I go figure out which stock is a stallion this quarter. Is it chicken stock?

[Joe]

Tired of partisan noise. America's more divided than ever. But independent Americans is adding light to contrast all that heat. Independent Americans Daily news with army veteran Paul Reichoff. Pressing issues of the day with leaders who are shaping what America will be in the future. We're going to bring the righteous media five eyes. Independence, integrity, information, inspiration and impact. Join the movement Independent Americans from believe. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

[Doug]

Hey there, stackers. I'm car lover and guy who's living his glory years, Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. Oh, those high school days. I was a big fan of that orange drink Tang back in the day. So my crazy friends had this great nickname for me which shares the same name as an iconic Ford car which began production on Today's date in 1964 and set all kinds of sales records. The answer, yes, because I must have tang. Those crazy friends of mine called me Mustang, which also happens to be the name of that amazing vehicle. And now back to two guys who are driving you toward financial independence. Joe and OG how much tank did

[Joe]

you drink as a kid, Doug?

[Doug]

Almost none. That was too expensive for us.

[Joe]

I always thought it was going to be this really cool drink and I would come my mom into buying it and she would buy it and it wasn't that good.

[OG]

It just, you know, it always over delivered though.

[Doug]

Sunny D. See, that's the generational difference right there. No, because I don't think, I mean Sunny D wasn't a thing when we

[OG]

generational difference by like four years.

[Joe]

No, but what was the thing was kool aid with those little packets and then you take the entire bag of sugar.

[Doug]

Yeah, just slice the bottom of the paper bag of sugar and just let that dump right into the picture.

[OG]

You have the wood spoon.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[OG]

Be like your kool aid spoon.

[Joe]

No wonder the kool aid man was busting through walls. That dude was so sugared up.

[Doug]

Yep.

[Joe]

You could bust through anything and then you're taking a nap 15 minutes later.

[OG]

Make like ice cubes out of it, little popsicles of kool aid.

[Joe]

Well, guys, this is the swan song. It is the. Steve, can we get some taps? Yes, it's the swan song. People of our tick tock minute. We're retiring this segment because next week we're debuting. Well, I thought he was gonna be playing taps under me saying it actually.

[OG]

When you said you were retir was trying to hit this one.

[Joe]

You're so happy. We have a brand new segment coming up that should we tell people or should we just let them find out next Monday?

[OG]

No, it's I'm really excited about it. And we got this kind of a half idea. Should we give Doug even like a little credit?

[Joe]

Oh, God, I hate this part. This part's so painful.

[OG]

Okay, like, chew through some love for Doug, but Doug's kind of the voice of reason and said maybe we ought to have a little back to the basics and how we think about things and just kind of work through some planning things systematically. We kind of kicked that around. So we're going to have a new segment instead of this really awesome TikTok thing where Anna and I work together for five or six minutes every Monday to work through some financial planning topics. We don't have it named yet. We don't have anything cool background music or Doug intro yet. But we'll think of something. Maybe somebody else can name it for us. But we're kind of excited.

[Doug]

I thought we were doing this new thing just because we finally ran out of Internet. Do we use all of TikTok, the

[Joe]

Internet machine with all kinds of new stuff? Finally we reached the end. Like the pandemic when somebody said, I watched all of Netflix.

[OG]

Yes, I'm at the end.

[Joe]

Can you actually reach that? I'm super excited. It's a great idea. And that new Basics. SB Basics. Maybe we call it that. I don't know, like Amazon Basics. SB Basics debuts next Monday with OG and Anna. But for our last one, you know, last week we had a great video on our YouTube channel from the Amazing Bonnie Hammer talking about what makes a good employee, what makes a great career. Part of stacking Benjamin's obviously is being great at your job. I saw this from the CNBC TikTok channel. The amazing restaurateur Danny Meyer talking about what he thinks you should do to maybe be better at your career.

[Announcer]

We're looking for a 100% employee, just like anyone applying to work for us should be. Holding us accountable for being a 100% employer. How do you get to that 100%? 51% of it are your emotional hospitality skills. And those emotional skills. We've identified six that are always present in someone who's got what we call a high hq, high hospitality quotient. Someone with a high HQ is someone who is happier themselves when they make someone else feel better. Imagine if you had a car where the more you drove it, the more it filled itself up with gas. That's like someone with a high HQ. The 49% that gets us to 100 are somebody's technical skills. Are they a really good cook? Do they make the world's Best pasta, whatever it is, we need both. You gotta have the whole package.

[OG]

So can you teach a hospitality quotient

[Joe]

or is it just inherent?

[Announcer]

It's hard to teach emotional skills. Are you kind and optimistic? Are you a curious learner? Do you have an excellent work ethic? Do you have empathy? Do you care how someone else feels? Do you have self awareness? Do you know what your own personal weather report is on any given day? And finally, do you have integrity? Do you have the judgment to do the right thing even when it may not be in your own self interest? I don't know how to teach someone to be those things. I do know how to teach someone how to hire for those emotional skills and I also know how to celebrate those skills when you see them.

[Joe]

So then he talks about promoting people and making sure they stay with the organization. But I think this is important OG for one reason I wanted to end our TikTok minutes on this one because I feel like when we go into a career we lean about 75 to 80% on having those technical skills and in being great technically. But Danny Meyer saying 51% of it is the emotional side. Your ability to work in a team and be a great member of the team. You've been an employer for a long time, you've seen people come and go, oh gee, what do you think about what Danny said?

[OG]

It's interesting that this came up today because I was just talking to my daughter about, she's nine and so she had a little error in judgment as a nine year old. It was all about learning and trying to grow from it and all that sort of stuff. But the piece of it was around the fact that it's okay to have these errors, it's okay to make mistakes. It's just like how do you react to them? And when you think about service or the service industry, which I mean even if you're. I can't think of a job that wouldn't be service based at some level. Whether it's serving your employer or serving your teammates or serving customers or whatever, we think serving is a job, I'm a server. But in really just about any profession you're having some interaction with other people. But it seems to me that the people who respond best to things that come up, whether it's positive things, which are far more infrequent in work than negative things. Like it's always a good thing when you get an attaboy from a boss. But a lot of times you get like, eh, we did that wrong or a customer says you did this incorrectly or worse. Right. You cost your company money or you get fired because you made such a big mistake. Like how you react to that is so much a better indicator, I think, of how you are as a person versus just pure technical capabilities in whatever field you're in. Doug's got way more experience in this than.

[Joe]

Well, it's funny because that's actually, that's 100. Where I was going next was to Doug because this is kind of his field is helping teams work together. But what struck me, Doug, is I really like the part to jump on. Really. OG what, what you said. I love that Danny Meyer said that, you know, people that get that helping other people is really fun and being helpful is really fun. Yeah. I mean, he's in the service industry. Right. So of course he's looking for that. But I think that translates to any, any industry, Doug.

[Doug]

It does. It's just so hard when you're in a larger corporate structure to try to devote any mental cycles or just physical labor cycles to helping other people because you feel like you're handling all you can handle with the workload you've been given and with the critique and criticism you're frequently getting from your leadership. You're like, man, I don't have time to try to be the air beneath the win between what's happening beneath your wings. The air between wings or something like that.

[Joe]

He's a big Bette Midler fan.

[Doug]

You, you can't even think straight when you're that buried in large corporate America. But it doesn't take much. I think is where I'm trying to, to go is it really doesn't take a lot of time. It can be almost some quick offhanded comments you make as you're at lunch with somebody and over time you'll get that reputation of somebody who is building other people up and it'll start to pay dividends. It's just really hard to see that you don't have to like volunteer for every project and say, I'll help out even though I'm fully billable on all the rest of my time. Like, you don't, you don't have to go that far. Just be somebody who is having other people's best interests on your mind. And over the course of a year you're going to get to be a go to person.

[Joe]

It is funny because Bonnie Hammer in the video that I referenced from last week, which really was why I wanted to play this and I will link to this because everybody should watch it, you Know, she complains as the former vice chairperson for NBC Universal and the head of the Sci Fi Channel, and all the things that Bonnie did, complaining about Gen Z and work ethic. And what she's not complaining about, by the way, is a generation. She's complaining about young employees and what they don't get, which, by the way, people complain about Millennials. People complained about Gen X. People complain, like, every generation gets there. Oh, these kids coming up, right? But the thing that struck me from both of these conversations, guys, was just how much I really enjoy working with AI, even though AI is wrong a ton of the time. And I kind of think it might be a good idea to think of yourself a little bit the way AI works, because, you know, these people creating AI are making it addictive. They're making it so you want to use it more. And if I'm a great employee, I want people around me to be excited about working with me. And what does AI do? Oh, my goodness, Doug, that's a fantastic idea. Let me tell you how we do that. Great.

[OG]

You know what happened to me the other day?

[Joe]

And then it gives me. So hold on, just let me finish the thought, because I don't want to lose this thread, which is that if somebody came to me and if employee came to me and goes, oh, my goodness, Joe, I'm on board with this plan. Let's do this and let me help in any way I can, even if it's garbage. At least I know your head's in the right place, but. Oh, gee, I'm sorry.

[OG]

Well, no, no, I was just gonna say in terms of, like, sometimes you wonder, like, how this all works, and you just go, is there just. Maybe there's just, like, somebody on the other end of the keyboard that's just really smart, and they're just like, okay, yeah, like, oh, it's a great thing that you're talking about this. Whatever, you know, and they're, like, looking it up while they're typing, right? They're just really fast typer. Because I was in this thread with chat about something, and I can't remember what it was, but I was just like. I literally was, like, swearing at it. Like, eff it, you're fired. You're like the crappiest coach out there. I never want to talk to you again. Send, shut my computer. And when I came back to chat, whatever, the next day it popped up, and it's like, we would like to ask you about your recent experiences with chat. It's almost like I did the survey at the end of the call and then they called you. They're like, really? You gave us a one. Like, why? So. So somewhere in there they've got like, if OG cusses you out, like something went wrong. And it was like, what specifically went wrong with your chat? You know, it's like I just wrote, you suck. Next topic.

[Joe]

Even when it sucks. I found myself coming back to it though, and I think if as an

[OG]

employee I didn't mention I was firing it and moving to a competitor, maybe that had something. I'm going to Claude that was something to do with it too. Grok never gives me this kind of attitude.

[Joe]

We'll link to this, of course, in our show notes and goodbye. Tick tock minute. I thought that was a good one to end on before our brand new segment of Swinging to the Basics. Maybe we caught Swinging to the Basics next week.

[OG]

No, no, don't like it.

[Joe]

Not doing that. Doug's always thinking about different types of sweat.

[Doug]

Into the basics.

[Joe]

Sweating to the basics. But we don't want to sweat. We want it to be cool and calm and collected.

[Doug]

Can't be sweating work either.

[Joe]

Yeah, not going well. Let's dive into the second half of today's headline. You know, earlier in the show we discussed all of the problems of investing, like the 1%. Let's spend a few minutes here teaching you how to look at investments. And the securities Exchange Commission has a piece. OG I'd like to get your thoughts on these points. Financial navigating in the current economy. 10 things to consider before you make investing decisions. Number one, they start with not the investment at all. OG number one is draw a personal financial roadmap. Why is it important that you start there versus with what's this opportunity?

[OG]

Well, because it's the beginning with the end of mind, right? It's like, what are we trying to do? If you've got a clear understanding of where you want to go, then it's a lot easier to figure out what tools you need to get there versus just blindly going, I'm going in this direction. So Alice in Wonderland quote, yeah, a hundred percent.

[Joe]

You know exactly what tools are going to reach, which ones aren't. And then it can, it can still be a good investment. OG you can go, you know what, this sounds like a great opportunity. It just doesn't meet my goal.

[OG]

It doesn't fit right now.

[Joe]

And once we know whether it beats it or not, let's say it does, then number two is evaluate your comfort zone on taking the risk. So I like this is second because now that we know what the risk is that we need to take, then we do the gut check, then we go, okay, can I really stomach this? And I think that when you start to do that and you think about what you said earlier, OG about binary returns, can I stomach the fact that this money will all be gone? Yeah, potentially. You know, I want to think about it tripling, but if it's going to triple, there's a chance it could be gone. Number three, consider an appropriate mix of investments. And I think this is where we get away from the 1%. Can I put $50,000 into Doug's ice cream stand, Doug's Tang factory, and still be diversified?

[OG]

Is it Doug's ice cream stand and tank factory? Because then I'm definitely in.

[Joe]

It's both. It's like Disney with the dole whip. Right? The best thing ever ice cream and the Dole pineapple.

[OG]

So pretty much the same thing.

[Joe]

Number four, be careful of investing heavily in shares of employee stock or any individual stock. What's important about that?

[OG]

It's important to be careful.

[Doug]

Thank you.

[OG]

That's the important part. They literally said it in the headline. It was great. They did a good job. It was edited very well.

[Joe]

That's why we give him the color commentary spot on this. Well, you know, if he picks up a first down, you're not.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[OG]

If he runs at 10 yards, that'll be a first down, everybody.

[Doug]

Four more tries to do it again. That's why we have OG Number five.

[Joe]

Create and maintain an emergency fund.

[OG]

Oh, say it ain't so, Joe.

[Joe]

Why would you do that first? Why not just go for it? Buy the lottery ticket. Invest in Doug's Wu Tang Tang

[Doug]

cream.

[Joe]

That's a good name.

[Doug]

I like that.

[Joe]

Number six, pay off high interest credit card debt. Well, that's an easy one, OG because it's a guaranteed return.

[OG]

I mean, it really is. Like, you know, people don't think of it that way. It's amazing how much cash flow freed up you have when you don't owe anybody any money. I've told this story before. Maybe we'll do it again sometime. When we moved and we had. We didn't owe anybody anything for a period of time. It was really quite wild. Like how just not having to, you know, you're just on living expenses. And the reality is, is that most credit cards these days are 20, 22, 25, 30% interest. You're not gonna get a better return in the market than 30% a year. That's pretty awesome. So take that win Number eight, speaking

[Joe]

of free money, take advantage of free money from your employer before you do anything else. Number nine, consider rebalancing your portfolio occasionally

[OG]

because on the employer side, again, some people will say like, oh, my company only matches 3%. Is it really worth it? It's a hundred percent return on your money. You put in a hundred dollars, they give you a hundred dollars. That's a hundred percent roi. Like, you don't have to invest it like you just made a hundred percent return. Even if it's only 3%, it's still 100%.

[Joe]

And I'll buy three things of Tide at Target at one time to get the $25 gift card.

[OG]

Exactly. You know, you know, if you spend $78, we'll give you a 25 back. You're like, well, it's only going to spend 25. Yeah.

[Joe]

Number nine, consider rebalancing portfolio occasionally and

[OG]

it's once a year.

[Joe]

Well, and this is the other thing, Og in these private equity investments, you can't rebalance away from it. You might be able to put more money in, but you can't take money away, generally speaking, in little chunks. It's, it's very difficult to do the rebalancing. So if rebalancing matters to your portfolio, watch out for those. And then number 10, and here's the Tai Lopez warning. Avoid circumstances that can lead to fraud. Is there a chance this could be fraud? And with Tai Lopez I bought, it turns out might have been a fraud. We'll link to these in our show notes@stacking benjamin.com. just a great way to funnel down your investments, maybe get rid of a little. It's okay OG to be excited to hear about this stuff, but to act on it without doing your due diligence. Let's walk through these, these 10 things first. That brings us almost to the end of our first show of the eight weeks back. But before we go there, we'd like to talk about some of the cool stuff going on in our community. Doug, what's going on out there in stacker land, my friend?

[Doug]

One thing I just noticed, just, I don't know, maybe 10 days ago or so was a great post. I liked Jamie made a great post, was fairly lengthy. She's trying to help out a friend at work, if I remember correctly. And Jamie said, what's the best avenue for a young work friend who doesn't have a financially savvy parent or friend and can't afford the cost of a financial advisor? All kinds of people chimed in. We had Larry and Frank chimed in, but I really liked the comment from Jimmy, who just summed it all up and said, listen to og. Like, that's all you need to do. Just listen to og. Boom.

[Joe]

What else do you need?

[Doug]

Chakalaka. And then there was some guy named Joe who chimed in with the Simple Path to Wealth as a recommendation. And then this other book that has the brightest yellow cover ever in print in history were two great basic ways.

[Joe]

If only there was a way to look at the six steps of financial planning in one book that was made to be entertaining.

[Doug]

It needs to have pictures. Does it have pictures? I like pictures.

[OG]

It does.

[Joe]

It has fun pictures. Some good graphs. Yeah. You can see my stick people. It's. It's amazing. But the Simple Path to Wealth is a great place for somebody starting out because what that does is generally calms you down and goes, you know what? You can be okay investing in one thing. Don't get so freaked out.

[Doug]

The other thing that this Joe guy talked about was maybe getting involved with a financial community, like maybe a Benjamin's

[Joe]

After Dark group, which we've got a group in Boston that's starting up on Wednesday. So come join everybody on Wednesday at Hannah's Brewing at 6pm that's in Melrose. I'm so excited to see what Carol Ann James and Susan have brewing for all of our stackers. Be part of the. Be part of the new. The new crew and help create this new group in Boston. Benjamin's after the ground floor stacking benjamins.com meetup to tell them that you're coming and stacking benjamin.com bad to join groups there in the Twin Cities in Southern Minnesota, in Seattle, and we're working with Tucson right now and talking to people in the Bay Area, in Dallas and in Colorado about potential groups, among others. So more to come.

[Doug]

These are all places I would love to travel on the corporate dime. These are all places I would love to go.

[Joe]

They are great places. And you see these stackers getting together, it just, it's. It's so heartwarming to see people finding their. Finding their community.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Joe]

All right, that's gonna do it for today. Thank you for lending us your ear. Stackers. If you know somebody that needs to hear this, maybe they've fallen for something or they're considering an investment that's more of a private placement investment. Be sure and share the episode with them because, man, helping others, like Danny Meyer said, today is a great thing. You can help save somebody's financial independence by maybe making sure they don't make a misstep. All right, Doug, take it from here, man. What are the three things we should have learned on today's show?

[Doug]

Well, Joe, first, take some advice from our headline vetting individual investments. Everything matters. The manager, the fund approach, the. The history and the fees. So don't be wowed by a great sales pitch telling you to invest, quote, like the 1% second. That investment policy statement we've always been talking about. Maybe time to get one yourself so you stay out of investment traps like we discussed today. But the big lesson. I am so excited. Today's show reminded me of those old Mustang days. But this Tang drink, it just doesn't mix as well with rum as I expected. This show is the property of SB Podcast, LLC, Copyright 2026, and is created by Joe Salsihai. You'll find out about our awesome [e-mail] along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. Come say hello. 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]

Have you guys ever been to Nantucket? Huh?

[Doug]

Long time ago.

[OG]

I just know that there once was a man from Nantucket.

[Joe]

I've been to Martha's Vineyard next door, but never to Nantucket.

[Doug]

But one of the greatest sitcoms of all time was. Was about Nantucket.

[Joe]

Oh, is that Wings?

[Doug]

Wings.

[Joe]

Wings. Was. Was Nantucket, which. Which I'm sure made you excited about. One stacker was talking about watching Leanne, and you were probably excited about Leanne because you knew that he was going to be on the show. And then you were disappointed because it was just like a six on a scale of one to ten. Yeah, yeah. Tim. What's his name? Tim somebody.

[Doug]

Don't remember.

[Joe]

Main guy from Wings. And you've got no idea. I'm so disappointed. We thought you were a real.

[Doug]

Sorry. I thought you were. Yeah, I thought you were talking about the stacker. No. Yeah. Tim Daly was one of the leads on the show.

[Joe]

And on. Was the love interest on Wings or, excuse me, on Wings. On Leanne. This I found interesting. What the heck's going on in Nantucket? This is NBC 10 Boston

[OG]

new testing shows. Nantucket sewer water is filled with cocaine. According to The Inquirer and Mirror, the island's cocaine markers have routinely exceeded national and regional averages. Two spikes in October and December reached

[Doug]

nearly three times the national average.

[OG]

Nantucket's health director says the data will

[Joe]

help provide their behavioral health partners with actionable information. So spikes in October, taking the kids out. Trick or treating? A little sugar buzz of your own. Like, what the heck? And then we're getting the family together for the holidays. Just gotta try to tolerate those people.

[Doug]

That's wild.

[Joe]

By the way, testing the water for cocaine levels. I never thought you'd test the sewer for cocaine.

[Doug]

And why are they flushing it down the toilets?

[Joe]

Yeah.

[OG]

How much that stuff costs?

[Doug]

You're doing it wrong, Nantucket.