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The Stacking Benjamins Show
The Case for International Investing & The True ROI of Emergency Funds (SB1690)
01:00:41
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- [00:00]
Joe Saul-Sehy
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- [00:34]
OG
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- [00:47]
Joe Saul-Sehy
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- [00:54]
OG
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- [00:57]
Joe Saul-Sehy
So your dollar goes a long way.
- [00:59]
OG
Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.
- [01:14]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Ah, we. We miss you Monday morning in Paris. Don't I sound like a native?
- [01:21]
OG
I heard you say we missed you.
- [01:25]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I. I did miss you all weekend.
- [01:27]
OG
We. We miss you. That's what I heard.
- [01:30]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It's International Week in the basement. That's why Doug's got the funny hat on. It is why Og's wearing his kilt. And man, is it an exciting, exciting day, mate.
- [01:45]
OG
That's just his Catholic schoolgirl miniskirt. Joe, it's not a kilt.
- [01:49]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh, just pulling that old thing out again at the beginning of every week. Whether it's International Investing Week, like it is here in the basement, this week or any other week, we always begin the week by saluting our troops. Our troops who are true Spartans. True warriors. Which, by the way, for people who don't see the video, I got my sparty, sparty mug, which I think is appropriate for this toast. On behalf of the men and women who make podcasts in Mom's basement, the men and women who serve our troops and their families and our veterans, the people in our military. Here's to you. Let's go stack some benchments now, shall we?
- [02:27]
OG
Thanks, everybody.
- [02:28]
Joe Saul-Sehy
How do you say let's go in French?
- [02:31]
Doug
Vaminos.
- [02:32]
OG
Yes.
- [02:32]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Close enough.
- [02:33]
OG
You beat me to it. Live from Joe's mom's basement, it's the Stacking Benjamin Show. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug, and if you're thinking more international stocks in your portfolio would look good, good. We're here to help you start Building on today's deep dive, we'll make the case for global investing. Help you find the right investments and put in just the right amount. And that's not all. One stacker in Cleveland named Jeff said, you know what? I'd better call Saul. See, I and OG Because I'm wondering about how to set deductibles on my insurances. Sure, Jeff.
- [03:13]
Doug
Insurances. Jeff said it wrong.
- [03:17]
OG
Can I do my job?
- [03:18]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Not well, apparently not if we gotta tell you how to pronounce the words.
- [03:25]
OG
Let's do that over again. One stacker in Cleveland named Jeff said, you know what? I'd better call Saul. See. Hi, an OG Because I'm wondering about how to set deductibles on my insurance is. Sure, Jeff. Nothing lights up these dorks more than insurance discussions. Of course, we'll also light up a great TikTok minute and I'll whip up some eye popping trivia. And now two guys who I can assure you are cuckoo for global investing and insurance talk. It's Joe. Oh and. Oh, Juja. Jaja G.
- [04:04]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Hey there, stackers. And Happy Monday. Welcome back to the Stacky Benjamin show. We're super happy you're here and we are all about international investing today. And the guy that we call the international man of mystery, it's Mr. Ochi. I need to say that without laughing.
- [04:24]
OG
Yeah, nobody says that.
- [04:26]
Doug
Yeah, not heard that anywhere ever.
- [04:28]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Never. You're not an international man of mystery. Do you have a good weekend, OG.
- [04:34]
Doug
Yeah, I mean it's summertime so you can not not have good weekends. There's only like 12 of them, so you better make do.
- [04:42]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Nothing better in Texas than sitting out and watching sweat drip off every part of your body all summer long.
- [04:49]
Doug
Doesn't bother me though. I like warm weather. So play golf. You hit the golf ball super far. You play in the morning, you do a little, you know, sit in the pool, have a little Margie.
- [05:01]
Joe Saul-Sehy
We had some fun after we recorded on Friday and that was. Guys, this was great news. You know, they're doing some work on the back of my house and got some great news from my builder. They discovered where the water main is that comes into my house on Friday and they did it the hard way.
- [05:17]
Doug
You know, there's a three digit number you can call that you're supposed to call before you do any sort of work outside.
- [05:25]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Welcome to Texarkana.
- [05:26]
Doug
I'm no expert in building code, however.
- [05:30]
Joe Saul-Sehy
We got a great show today. We are going to be talking international investing all week long. So if you're one of those people that I keep seeing online who are like, you know what, I got a little complacent and I didn't build international out in my portfolio. We're going to talk about why you should. We're going to talk about the risks involved, we're going to talk about the types of investments to use. And on Wednesday, Joy Yang From Market Vectors ETFs is going to join us and she's going to talk about how they look at international investments. So we got the pros coming in as well OG Super Fun week here in mom's basement. Before we get to that, we've got a couple sponsors who make sure that we can keep on keeping on. And you don't pay anything for any of this goodness. So we're going to hear from them. And then International investing in the spotlight on a Monday. I know personally the debt isn't just about money. It's about stress and sleepless nights and that constant weight on your shoulders. It can affect your relationships. It can shred your confidence. Truly. It can overshadow your whole life. So know that if you've ever felt any of that, you're not alone. There are millions of Americans struggling with debt, but there's a solution that can help. Beyond Finance was founded with a simple mission to help those struggling with overwhelming debt find a pathway to financial freedom. They can help you escape that endless cycle of making just minimum payments. Typical Beyond Finance clients see their payments on enrolled debt lowered by 40% or more than so you can expect immediate relief and the chance to start saving. The team prioritizes a hands on compassionate approach coupled with a focus on helping you get out of debt as soon as possible, save money and establish long term financial well being. They offer personalized 247 support and financial wellness sessions with accredited financial therapist and you know you're in good hands with a Trust pilot rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars. So if you're ready to take that first step or learn more about achieving financial wellness, visit Beyond Finance.com not available in all states. Fees vary by state. Results may vary. Small Business owners State Farm's there with small business insurance to fit your specific needs. Whether you're starting a new venture or growing an existing one, State Farm helps you choose the right coverage to protect what matters most. Working with a local State Farm agent helps you understand your coverage options. Offering local support to help you achieve your goals. Focused on turning your passion into a thriving business. Knowing your insurance can change as your business grows. Stay Farm here to help you succeed with your business like a good neighbor. State Farm is there. Let's begin our deep dive by making the case for international investing. And really, the state of international investing. I know that for the last 10 years, OG International has not been the place that you've wanted to be, frankly. However, when we look at longer periods of time, and I'll get back to this, it paints a much, much different story when it comes to investing internationally. And if we look just at the state of the world this year, we're recording this a little bit early because of my travel schedule, but a site called just ETF.com updates every day on what different economies are doing their ETFs. Number one ETF in the world as of our recording day. OG is. Want to guess?
- [09:03]
Doug
Nope.
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OG
Poland.
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Joe Saul-Sehy
Poland is up a third. Almost exactly a third, 33.32%. Greece is number two at 26.6.
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Doug
You say number one ETF, what you mean is number one country based.
- [09:17]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Number one country. Yeah. Right. The number one economy, their ETF, that tracks their economy. So if you had just invested all your money in Poland, you would have been up a third this year with all your Money. Greece up 26.6. Austria up 23.7. Spain 21.6. Italy, 19. The worst countries, by the way, Turkey down 16. Thailand down 12 and a half. Indonesia down 11. Pakistan down 8 and a half. Saudi Arabia down 8.3. World investing OG all over the map. But certainly, I mean, this, what we're seeing here, right, is just classic diversification where the US is somewhere in the middle.
- [10:00]
Doug
Yeah, I don't know what else to say about that. Correct.
- [10:04]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Let's. Well, I'll keep going with the statistics then, because I also found this interesting from Morningstar. This is a piece from John Recanthaler. And John broke down the the world into two different parts. He took 1900 to 1950, and then he took 1901 to 1949, and then he took 1950 to the present. And he says the cause for the division should be apparent first half of the century, the 1900s, two world wars and a global depression. More recently, no world wars. Also not such a steep economic downturn like we had then. So you would expect that the sharpest declines would have occurred during those first 50 years. So he looked at bonds and he looked at stocks and he took $1,000. And when he looked at the worst 10 year periods during each of those 50 year periods before 1950, your bonds OG in the US, your worst 10 year return would have taken you from $1,000, up $566. So to 1566, your international bonds would have only made $193 over a 10 year period. Just absolutely horrible. Stocks in their worst 10 year period, much better, up $670 for the US only up 341. So during a time of global turmoil, during the early periods of the 1900s, you had the globe doing worse than just investing in the U.S. but you turn that around and since 1950, the worst 10 years for bonds, up 577 in the U.S. up 815. Outside the U.S. the worst 10 years for stocks up $655. For U.S. stocks up 886. Clearly from 1950 till now, using 10 years as a time frame, in any time, 10 year timeframe, you had been better off investing internationally during the worst time since 1950. Take the worst 10 years, you were better off being international than you were being in the U.S. so just from a risk mitigation standpoint, OG where we think international is riskier, it turns out that at least for the last, what, 75 years, being international might have helped save your bacon like it is for a lot of investors right now in 2025. And again, because we're recording a little bit early as we record this, the US market just getting back to zero, the S P5 just closing in on zero almost halfway through the year. And we made it back.
- [12:43]
Doug
OG Made it back, made it back to even. Ultimately, if you believe that diversification helps and you believe that markets are efficient and you believe that you can't have any sort of guesstimation on what stocks are going to do well, what companies are going to do well? If all of that is true, why do you only believe that with companies that are in the United States? Why would you only believe that with tech companies if you only invest in the nasdaq, you know what I mean? Why wouldn't that also be true in other economies and also in other marketplaces and other periods of time? So it stands to reason that as you evaluate your asset allocation, that companies that are based in other parts of the world also have good times and not so good times. And also the economies in those other parts of the world have good times and not so good times. And sometimes those are synced up with other countries. You know, you think of maybe Europe or you think of the Pacific or you think of the Americas kind of moving lockstep. And that somewhat makes sense, right? I mean, if the US Is going down, it makes sense that you would also Argue maybe Canada and Mexico because we're such close proximity to one another. There might be some similar things going on. But by the same token, you know, you just can't guess on that. There's no alpha. Right. There's no benefit to trying to guess on it versus having some in everything. It just makes more sense. The question, of course, is how do you pick that number and how much international, what, what percentage should you have in your portfolio?
- [14:14]
Joe Saul-Sehy
And I'm thinking that is where this all leads ultimately. But one thing you, you talked about, you know, we began by talking about diversification. I mean, look at all these different markets that we talked about and having some in different places. But also, oh, gee, another thing you touched on that I really think we should go a little deeper on is correlation benefits. I mean, there is a benefit to, to having assets that aren't correlated. I mean, the fact that, you know, the Poland economy may be doing something different right now than is happening in the US economy, that is happening in Indonesia, like that's a huge benefit for people, especially people who think that the stock market is risky. You, I'm sure, hear this all the time. I hear it from people when I go around the country. The stock market is kind of risky. What do you do? Oh yeah, you have a financial podcast. I don't do the stock market. It's risky. Well, I think one of the best ways to mitigate that risk is by getting rid of correlating assets. Right?
- [15:14]
Doug
Yeah. And what you're talking about here is how likely is something, two things to do the same thing at the same time? For example, in the us if you look at small companies and medium sized companies, there's no benefit to the diversification of medium or small. They're highly correlated, which means that if one goes up, the other one's going to go up about the same. One goes down, the other one's going to go down about the same. Whereas big companies versus small companies aren't nearly as correlated. So there's no guarantee that if big companies go up, small companies are going to go up. They're going to have their own wavelength as you think about it. And the further away you get, you know, you think about Poland, in the US they're going to be much less correlated. So it does its thing, we do our thing. Sometimes we're going to ride the same wave and sometimes we're going to be completely opposite. Kind of like what you're seeing right now. And that's a benefit for investors two ways. Number one, from a savings Standpoint, you're automatically buying the lowest thing as you're investing. Right. You don't have to like, try to time that out because some of your money is going to the thing that's not as good as the other things. The other benefit is you always get all the return. It just comes in a random order. So you don't have to try to figure out when is Poland going to take off because you have it, you don't care. You're. It's just going to, you get it when it happens like everybody else should. And if you're already retired or you're not saving any more money, right. You have your portfolio now you're living on, provides an automatic diversification benefit because it's going to provide rebalancing opportunities where the US has been doing well. Cool. I can take some of that profit, reinvest it into the areas that haven't been doing as well. US does well, again, take some of that profit, reinvest it now. This whole time I'm buying more Poland using your example, at lower and lower prices. And then all of a sudden, one year, all that stuff that you bought at those cheap prices is up 30% in five bucks.
- [17:09]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I don't think we've had any stackers ask. I can almost safely bet there's nobody in our audience who's gone. I wonder when the Poland economy's taken off, sitting in their backyard going, come.
- [17:19]
Doug
On, Poland, let's go, Warsaw, let's do it.
- [17:24]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah. And there's also upside, right? Like, you can't predict when things are going to go up. But also just looking at the way that our economy is so global now. I mean, think about when you and I were young and the economy in India versus OG the economy in India now, or the economy in Africa versus some of the exciting things going on in banking and technology payments. The speed of money with banking in Africa is just absolutely amazing. I mean, I, I got a letter recently from an African prince who told me that he would. He just needed a little help.
- [18:04]
OG
You get a lot of those letters. You're connected, man.
- [18:07]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It's incredible.
- [18:08]
Doug
Well, and if you think, I think maybe big picture here, if you believe that part of the growth of the US's market has to do with the increased economic worth of the average person in America over the last 50 years. Let's say if you think that some of that is tied to that, and then you look at some of the developing countries, you look at India, you look at Pakistan, you look at Africa and you say, how many people in those countries don't even have cell phones yet are at the spot? From an economic perspective of the 1950s of the U.S. not everybody had a TV. Now we have three of them. Not everybody had a phone in their house. And now we have five telephones in our house. You know what I mean? It's like, if you think that that was part of the cause or, I don't know, result, I'm not sure. But if you believe that that was part of the growth trajectory of the United States and then you look at those other economies and you go, they also have to go through that whole thing. But they have three times the people, you know what I mean? India has what, a billion people. Pakistan has hundreds of millions, you know what I mean? Africa, the whole continent's bigger than the United States. So Americans are kind of a little sheltered, right? I feel like. And you go like, oh, that small place over there of Africa, it's like, no, that's the size of everything over here. Like America, Mexico, South America. It's a huge continent that's full of billions and billions of people. And a bunch of them still are lower, you know, like poor. That whole rising middle class hasn't happened there yet. So why wouldn't you want to? If you knew what happened in the US and you go, well, that's part of that, why wouldn't you want to invest in other areas that are about to do the same thing or potentially?
- [20:04]
Joe Saul-Sehy
And that growth, of course, is going to come in waves. It's not going to be even. Which brings up, I think, the next point. There's two different opportunities here. When people think international, they think one opportunity or they think a bajillion ones. Like we mentioned Poland and Turkey and, you know, the continent of Africa or all these different things. Truly you can break this down and experts do into two different opportunities, which are developed markets and emerging markets. And for people who are new to this investing game, og, can you talk about the different opportunities that that, that means that those two are. And how to differentiate one from the other?
- [20:42]
Doug
Well, in my mind, emerging market countries are countries that you would say are up and coming. Like one of those, like some of the things that we talked about, some countries in Africa or some countries in the Middle east or some countries in the Pacific, they actually, I think they.
- [20:55]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Even still call Poland an emerging market.
- [20:57]
Doug
Yeah, yeah.
- [20:58]
Joe Saul-Sehy
You know, I mentioned earlier that sometimes people think investing in international stocks is risky. So let's talk about the different risks. OG I mean, there's a few big Ones political risk. If we're going to invest in just one economy, you. You might have things happen politically in that country that are going to change the game. Which brings up another one.
- [21:16]
Doug
What's going on in Turkey right now.
- [21:18]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh, good point. Yeah. Yeah. Which brings up the second point. Regulatory differences, Right. They might go, yeah, international investors can't do X, so they can't do.
- [21:26]
Doug
Yeah, the reporting requirements are different. There's all manner of differences in the security of the information, the security of the securities, frankly, the hierarchy of the structure of who owns what and what happens if things don't go your way. Those are all parts of the risk factor associated with it.
- [21:46]
Joe Saul-Sehy
And then another risk is, of course, currency risk. I mean, I remember right after Operation Desert Storm, there were some investors that I knew in Detroit that were buying up Iraqi money, thinking it was coming back. Right. When this thing comes back, it's going to be great. They're going to have to bring it back. We're going to make a ton of money. I mean, that obviously is a huge risk. That risk didn't play out the way those people thought that it was going to play out, which is funny. I need to call those people and say, I told you so. Probably not, but I won't do it. I'll just do it on our podcast instead. Not only that, you also have fluctuation between the dollar and that local currency. Right. You've got whatever's happening there. And your dollar's worth more, your dollar's worth less, depending on what's going on with that. And I think this brings up a big point. This is why I think I don't want to invest in an individual stock that's just in Poland or just in Turkey or just in Israel. I want to invest in a much, much broader market. I think because of those challenges. And it's so hard to know sitting here in Texas what the hell's going on in Turkey. That, to me, seems to be very dangerous.
- [23:00]
Doug
Well, I mean, I would go even a step further and say I don't even know that you want to pick specific countries, because again, unless you're really paying attention, I just look at data. And you can look at the output of the US Economy in terms of how much of the global GDP does it produce. And maybe that's your starting point. From an investing standpoint, you'd say, okay, well, it does 55% of the world's GDP, so I want 55% of my money in the U.S. okay, it's a fine starting point. I can't argue with you. Well, how much money should we put in Canada, for example? Well, if you're using the same number, you'd say it's 3%. 3% of the world's GDP is from Canada. Let's say how much should be in China? You go, oh, China, oh geez, they're slaying it, right? No, 3%. But we think because of news and our personal biases and all that, like everything comes from China, right? Like we would think their economy is slaying it. So why wouldn't we have? You know what I mean? So it's really risky to try to put your own psyche into how much should go into Colombia versus Argentina. Right. Unless you're doing business there. Unless you're very familiar. There's plenty of people who have family and relationships and they're like, well, I was born and raised in Brazil, of course I know what's going on. It's like, okay, cool, well then use that to your advantage. But for the rest of us mere mortals, I think you can't go wrong with just a regular diversified international holding. In fact, if you wanted to get frisky with it, what you might choose to do is separate it by big companies and small companies. That's what you do in the US Right? So I got my big growth companies, I got my small growth companies. Get my big value companies, I got my small value companies. Why wouldn't you do that internationally? If the U.S. is about 50% of the world's GDP, could you not just say 50, 50 if you wanted to? 60, 40, 70, 30, like pick your number. Right. But inside the U.S. you're going to go big and small. Why wouldn't you go big and small outside of the U.S. are you to.
- [24:54]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Some degree though doing that if you go developed countries and emerging markets? Because emerging markets are going to also be smaller, up and coming stocks potentially.
- [25:06]
Doug
So yes, I would submit to you that. Back to your second point about correlation. I'm going to have emerging markets separate than developed market. The way that I think about it is developed market is big and small, emerging market, big and small, if you can get it. But probably emerging market is separate.
- [25:28]
OG
I would think there would be even a higher risk multiplier on a small company in an emerging market than there would be in a developing country or undeveloped country.
- [25:40]
Doug
Yeah, I mean, the factors of small versus big are true, irrespective of location or time.
- [25:47]
Joe Saul-Sehy
But I would think going back to some of those risks, OG I mean, to Doug's point, I think you probably have more political risk, more currency risk, regulatory risk with some of these developing countries.
- [25:56]
Doug
Yeah, I'm supporting what Doug's saying. I'm saying there is a higher risk premium risk adjusted return expectation. If you could specify emerging markets small, it would provide a greater return expectation than emerging market large. Yes, I would support that. But now you're talking about, like, percent. It's like, how much, like, do I want that to be 2% of my portfolio, and I've got a million dollars. So we're talking about a $20,000 fund, or do I have $100,000? We're talking about 2% of my portfolio. That's a $2,000 position. You know what I mean? You also need to consider that.
- [26:29]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Obviously, I want to address that question in a second. But there's a burning question that I know that a lot of our stackers have, which is, okay, if I'm not gonna buy the individual stock, I'm not gonna buy an individual country. Their market, like, you buy the s and P500. Right? How do we buy it? I mean, you've got all these different ways to buy things. You could do an adr. You could do exchange traded funds. You could buy mutual funds. You could do direct investments. You can go active managers because of the additional risk internationally, you know, have managers like, you know, Templeton historically is a company that was great at picking international investments. Active versus passive. Can we talk about adr, etf, mutual fund, direct investment? Like, how do we. What's the best way for a beginner to get into these things?
- [27:10]
Doug
I mean, any of those would be fine. What you're talking about is fundamentally, do we want to own an individual position or do we want to own a basket? The way my brain works is I just kind of think of it like a flowchart, you know, yes or no? Like, these are the break points. And then I get.
- [27:26]
OG
Should I get Taco Bell tonight or shouldn't I?
- [27:28]
Doug
Yeah, it's not even that. It's more like, should I get Taco Bell or should I have KFC? If KFC, do I go with the 20 piece or the 15?
- [27:38]
OG
What's your cholesterol level currently?
- [27:40]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Is this like a Venn diagram, though, where there's an intersection? Why not both?
- [27:43]
Doug
Why not both?
- [27:45]
OG
And now you can with Taco Bell's new nuggets.
- [27:47]
Doug
Yes, indeed. But Taco Bell's nuggets are breaded in tortillas.
- [27:52]
OG
Tortilla chips, which is Taco Bell.
- [27:54]
Joe Saul-Sehy
If you'd like to sponsor the show. Yeah, we're doing you sell?
- [27:57]
Doug
Not that I've had any.
- [27:58]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Rumor has it. Right.
- [28:00]
Doug
Anyway, so on your international side, you're going, do I want to own a basket of stuff or do I want to pick my stuff individually? I pick basket. To your point, I'm not going to figure out have the time, energy or expertise or interest, frankly, in trying to decide which tech company in Poland is the one.
- [28:15]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah. Which companies lighten it up in more.
- [28:16]
Doug
So, yeah, it's just not going to happen. All right, so number two then. All right, so we're going to go basketball. Now, do I want active or passive? Don't care. Doesn't matter. It's hard to have outperformance repeatedly. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen. It's hard to predict it in advance. By hard, I mean it's nonexistent. You can't do it. But I can't prove to you that it's not going to happen. So Joe likes Franklin Templeton because they historically have done well because they have active managers. There's a case for that. Right. There's somebody on the ground in this small country that goes, no, no, this is the one we want to buy. Trust me, I'm right next door. They're killing it. I watch the commercials on tv. Right. Passive investors say, I don't want to play that game. There's no wrong or right way to do this. So I pick passive. That's just what I pick. So I've got basket of things. I'm going to go passive. And then that really narrows it down to now. Do I just want to go individual countries or just lump it all together and say international. I'm going to pick international. I'm going to make the diversification decision. Back to what I talked about before on the things that I know have been proven to make a difference. Big versus small, growth versus value. That's what makes the difference in long term performance. So I want to have some consideration over that. I don't care about the consideration of which company in Argentina is going to beat which company in Poland. That's not a game I can play.
- [29:41]
Joe Saul-Sehy
And I'm with you. I know we mentioned Templeton as active managers. For me though, I. I definitely agree. In my portfolio, it's passive. I just don't want to play that game of who's going to have the hot hand tomorrow, regardless who had the hot hand yesterday. Not a game that I need to play either. Which gets to your question then. OG so how do we then. How do we then think about this? In terms of portfolio percentage, you know, do we. Do we do the 50, 50 thing like you're talking about over the last 10 years? We got smoked on 50, 50. Over the last 50 years, we're looking pretty good. Mostly because of the fact that during.
- [30:17]
Doug
Those early years, from 50 to 80, it was great.
- [30:20]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, International got a huge head start. Got just a monster head start so they, they could give some back. So longer term, I think you're good. But you know, if we look at the short term, that would have been a miserable place to be. How do we figure out what our allocation is to International Again, I can't.
- [30:37]
Doug
Say that there's a right or wrong way to do it. If you look at the expected return of the US versus the expected return of non US positions, I think those numbers vary. I think that the correlation of those things are different and it boils down to what is the return that you need in your portfolio to make it happen. If your financial plan says, I need 12% a year to make my financial goals work, you're not going to have any developed market. You're going all small US and emerging market. Those are the only things that fit.
- [31:12]
OG
Because that would be a super aggressive choice. Right? That's what you're saying.
- [31:15]
Doug
Because those are the only investments that historically have produced that level of return. If your portfolio says you need six and a half, then you're going to be okay with a little less return for a little bit more stability. That's the trade. I think a good starting point is 50, 50 because. Or maybe more 60, 40, and then I think you ratchet it up or down from there. I can say that we're probably more 75, 25 US because I recognize the home bias. Right?
- [31:49]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah.
- [31:49]
Doug
It's very difficult to lose week after week, month after month, year after year, for 10 years, and not want to make a radical change. And from a behavioral standpoint, I want to make sure that you're, from an investing perspective, in the ballpark so that you stay the course. If you're moving from Poland to US to Argentina to. If you're bouncing around trying to find it because you're not happy with what's happening or you don't think it's working in your plan, then you're going to be making a bunch of changes and those changes are going to end up probably costing you in the long run. I'd rather have something that's less likely to shoot the lights out, but still going to make the plan work. So I think it's fine to start, do the portfolio visualizer thing at 50, 50 and see what happens. See what happens at 60, 40. See what happens at 70, 30. See what happens at 80, 20. Us versus non us.
- [32:48]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Generally speaking, we talk about volatility. How does international develop market volatility compared to US volatility? Like if we talk standard deviation, should we expect a little more bumpiness in that ride or less or it's about the same. It's about the same.
- [33:01]
Doug
About the same. It's just, it has a lower historical return. So the waviness is different.
- [33:08]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Well, and that's the key, right, is that as long as those bounces, that volatility doesn't match up with us. That's part of the win. That's part of what we want, is to have things that will bounce up and bounce down at different times.
- [33:23]
Doug
I still think it's great though. I mean, the reality is it's almost always all green. You know what I mean? This is a little book that we have. It's called a matrix book. And it's hard to read this column here. I'm showing this to Joe on the screen. It shows a column, it goes from 1970 to present. And so every year it's tracking the return for the year and then the average return every year behind it. And so you could just. All you could see is just lots of.
- [33:48]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It's almost all green.
- [33:50]
Doug
Yeah, there's a little bit of red in the short run, right? Like little periods of time where a one year period or two year period or three year period would be red, but the vast majority of the time it's green. And you can look at this, you can look at the S and P, you look at big companies, small companies. The overarching thing with investments is once you pick it, freaking don't touch it. That's the key. You just have to be okay.
- [34:11]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It, it's.
- [34:12]
Doug
There is no wrong answer to this.
- [34:14]
Joe Saul-Sehy
That's why at the beginning of this year, you know, we did the roundtable, is it time to ditch your international investments? Because you and I both thought it was ridiculous to do that. Start of the year, definitely proving to have been ridiculous. If you bounced out of international at the beginning of this year, what a horrible time to have done that. At the very least, you know, when I use portfolio visualizer, I will, I will set a minimum. And this by the way, is an arbitrary number. And I'll, I'll admit that, but it's arbitrary. Based on 30 years of experience. 15% minimum international, 5% minimum emerging markets and then work up from there. But I peg those minimums in there to make sure that I get some exposure to international and then move up. And really, I like what you're saying. You know, starting at 50 50. Why not 5050 and ask that question and then work your way down to whatever works for your goal. And that volatility measure should be based on how close your goal is, I think OG right. I mean, you're going to look for more volatility, which means skew more toward emerging markets if your goal is further away and if your goal is closer, well, then I'm going to play it closer to the vest because I want to. The goal is to have the money available when, when you need it.
- [35:24]
OG
Joe, in the intro we said that we were going to tell our listeners how to put in just the right amount. So I don't know why we're not getting straight to this. It's $8,745. I mean, I don't know why it's taking you guys so long to get to that.
- [35:39]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I know, right? Why not? It's all it's the right amount is definitely based on that goal or 8742, whichever is greater. Well, that's our deep dive. We're going to go even deeper, guys. On Wednesday, Joy Yang from Market Vectors ETF is going to join us. She's going to dive even further into international investing. Can't wait to talk to somebody who is on top of this every day in the ETF markets. So tune in for that show. But also in our newsletter, the 201, we're going to dive even deeper. Kevin Bailey will take you on a ride through some of the best stuff on the Internet on this topic. So if you want to dive even deeper than we did today, we're going to take you there. Of course, we'll have links to the places that I talked about today. This morning star piece about volatility, the Just ETF.com piece about ETFs around the world and where they're at currently. We'll have those and more in our show notes@stacking benjamins.com so a lot of resources to get your investing game on the international front working. We got a question in the second half of today's show from Jeff in Cleveland. We want to answer that and our amazing Tick Tock minute. But before all that, of course, the highlight of the podcast, Me Doug's Trivia finally said it.
- [36:59]
OG
Hey there, stackers. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor. Doug. And all this talk of international investing makes me hungry. Hungry for some trivia. How about this one on today's date? Way back in 1886, Grover Cleveland married Miss Frances Folsom in the White House. Yes, Frances would go on to inspire the great Johnny Cash song. And Grover would go on to play a character in the Muppets. What do you mean none of that's true? Why else would they have made Grover blue?
- [37:27]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Jeez.
- [37:28]
OG
Cleveland was a spry 49 years old and only the second US president to wed while in office and was the only president to actually get married in the White House. Their first child was born a few years later and became a national sensation, ultimately inspiring the Curtis Candy Company to rename their candy cake bar after the young Cleveland. What was the name of the new candy bar? I'll be back right after I go clean out the kiddie pool. I think one of the neighbor kids, well, you know, they did what kids do in kiddie pools.
- [38:09]
Joe Saul-Sehy
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice. Progressive loves to help people make smart choices. That's why they offer a tool called Auto Quote Explorer that allows you to compare your Progressive car insurance quote with rates from other companies so you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you. Give it a try after this episode@progressive.com progressive casualties insurance company and affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy on WhatsApp. No one can see or hear your personal messages. Whether it's a voice call message or sending a password to WhatsApp, it's all just this. So whether you're sharing the streaming password in the family chat or trading those late night voice messages that could basically become a podcast, your personal messages stay between you, your friends and your family. No one else, not even us. WhatsApp message privately with everyone As a contractor, I don't pay for materials I don't use.
- [39:25]
OG
So why would I pay for stuff.
- [39:26]
Doug
I don't need in my mobile plan?
- [39:28]
Joe Saul-Sehy
That's why the new My Biz plan from Verizon business is so perfect. Now I can choose exactly what I want and I only pay for what I need right now with my biz plan.
- [39:38]
Doug
Get our best price as low as $25 a line. Visit verizon.com business to get started today. Price per month with five plus lines includes auto pay and paper free billing and special intro offer discounts, taxes, fees, economic adjustment charge and terms apply. Offers in June 10, 2025.
- [39:55]
OG
Hey there, stackers. I'm pool cleaner and guy who now needs a stage. Snickers. Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. This is quite a story. Grover Cleveland's daughter inspired a new candy bar. Interestingly, she shared a name with another person who was a huge star at the same time. A star who would have surely demanded compensation if this candy bar had been named after him. His name was Babe Ruth. But the Curtis Candy Company assured everyone that the fecally shaped bar was named after the daughter of Grover and Francis's new baby, Baby Ruth. Cleveland. That is so business savvy right there. And now back to the two sluggers running this podcast. Hey, little sluggers, it's Joe and Og.
- [40:45]
Joe Saul-Sehy
What do you think the chances are with Babe Ruth being the superstar that he was, that this was actually named after the baby Cleveland? Like, I think there's like almost zero percent.
- [40:56]
OG
Almost zero percent. The story I heard about this was that Babe Ruth did at least threaten to sue them or may have actually tried to sue them, and they were able to say no.
- [41:07]
Joe Saul-Sehy
It was no, no, no, you got it all wrong.
- [41:10]
OG
New baby in the. I mean, because who wouldn't want to buy a candy bar named after a baby?
- [41:16]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Duh.
- [41:17]
OG
Makes total sense.
- [41:19]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Of course, I don't know what a big star she. I mean, by all reports, she was a star, but nowhere near Babe Ruth.
- [41:24]
OG
Not. Not quite.
- [41:25]
Joe Saul-Sehy
No. Good times. What a piece of history there, by the way. Well, who is the first? Do you guys know who the first president was to get married in the White House? Grover Cleveland being the second.
- [41:36]
OG
Oh, that's a great question.
- [41:38]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Excuse me. Not married. The White House. Married in office.
- [41:40]
OG
Married in office, right?
- [41:41]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah. The only one married in the White House, like you said, Doug, was Grover Cleveland. But the first one to get married while in office.
- [41:49]
OG
It's got to be somebody like that, a president nobody thinks of. One of the biggest guys like Howard Taft or something like that. So close because, I mean, he had no poll. That dude had no game at all until he became president. And finally he's like, I got to become president just so I can get.
- [42:05]
Joe Saul-Sehy
A little action, and then I can become the president. Then I become the what? Commissioner of baseball? Long time. No, it was. It was, of course, everybody's favorite. John Tyler. Everybody.
- [42:18]
OG
You sure he was a president?
- [42:21]
Joe Saul-Sehy
When I think of president, he's the.
- [42:23]
OG
Lead singer for Aerosmith.
- [42:26]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Just Steven's brother John. His older brother John. Steven Tyler. Even when Aerosmith was hot back in the 80s, I thought he looked like he was 100 years old for sure. Yeah, sounds like it.
- [42:37]
OG
He and Keith Richards. I want to see the sales data for Baby Ruth candy bars. After the scene in Caddyshack came out, when they found the Baby Ruth at the bottom of the pool, everybody thought somebody pooped in the pool. Bill Murray's like, it's okay. It's no big deal. And he takes a bite out of it, sales just plummet.
- [42:58]
Joe Saul-Sehy
We had that happen twice at our community pool and when I lived near you, Doug, happened two times where somebody threw the Baby Ruth bar in the pool. And I'm fairly certain it was one of the lifeguards that just wanted a break.
- [43:11]
OG
How did you know that it was actually a Baby Ruth?
- [43:15]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Well done. Same way. Time for our TikTok minute. This is the part of the show where we shine a light on a TikTok creator who's either saying something brilliant or air quotes. Brilliant. Doug, we'll stick with you. What do you think? You think this is going to be brilliant or air quotes brilliant?
- [43:30]
OG
No, this is the real deal, I'm sure.
- [43:32]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, well. Oh, gee, you were talking about compounding interest earlier. This woman is going to talk about all the compounding interest you get when you put money into investments. Saving a quarter a day is $10,000 at the end of the year. Let that sink in. And then she sits there and goes.
- [43:54]
OG
Duh, Just let it sink in. I'll wait. I love the attitude. Influencers give.
- [44:01]
Joe Saul-Sehy
All you gotta do is save a quarter a day. OG and it's $10,000. That's. That's compounding.
- [44:07]
OG
So somehow $91.25 of cash, that compound interest turns that into 10 grand.
- [44:14]
Doug
Did you do that in your head? Is it really $91?
- [44:16]
OG
Well, if you. If you just multiply 365 times 0.25. Yeah. You get 91 and some change.
- [44:23]
Doug
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know if you had to use a calculator.
- [44:27]
Joe Saul-Sehy
No, we were just thinking, Doug. I mean, a lot of people could do that, but you, Doug, like, did you just actually do that?
- [44:33]
Doug
He doesn't get 100x return on their daily investments.
- [44:37]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Duh. By putting it in. What was the one Jesse talked about a few weeks ago? Fartcoin.
- [44:41]
Doug
Fart coin.
- [44:42]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Put it on Fartcoin. That's the way to go. Let's transition, and let's help a stacker in need. You know, stackers often say, you know what? I better call Saul. C. Hi. And OG Lots of times, stackers need help with their money and if you're one of those people, well, call us. Stacky benjamin.com voicemail. Leave us a short question and we are sure to answer it. Jeff from Cleveland, Ohio is on the line. Jesse, what's that?
- [45:10]
OG
Cleveland rocks.
- [45:11]
Joe Saul-Sehy
You can't say Cleveland. You got to say Cleveland rocks. Yeah, every time, every. In my head that happens. And is it that bridge? Is it the guardian bridge that rocks? That bridge is really cool.
- [45:23]
OG
What? Isn't it just like a standard like highway bridge with a little ornamentation on pillars?
- [45:29]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Big ornamentation. Those, those guardians on the. I mean they named a baseball team after those. It's, it's.
- [45:35]
OG
Don't get me started on that.
- [45:36]
Joe Saul-Sehy
All right, here we go. Jeff, what do you got for us, man? Hey guys.
- [45:42]
Doug
New to the show and love what I'm hearing so far.
- [45:44]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I've heard you talk a few times about how the return on your cash or emergency fund can be measured on what you save on insurance premiums. Can you expand on that and discuss how to set your deductibles based on emergency fund status? Thank you, Jeff. First of all, kudos for pronouncing that word correctly. Good on you. You missed the look at Doug's eye, which is half the fun of being at the card table with him.
- [46:13]
OG
Jeff is clearly new to the Stacking Benjamin show because not only did he enrage me on his first try, but he didn't give me my proper kudos.
- [46:23]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Which enrages, enrages Doug Moore.
- [46:25]
OG
It's an unwritten rule. People, if you're calling into the show, gotta give me a little something something.
- [46:31]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh gee. For other people that are new here, let's talk about this. The crappy return on your emergency fund is not that savings account interest rate. It's all the other benefits you get from having that money sitting in the bank.
- [46:44]
Doug
Well, and I mean you should be getting 4% on your savings account right now anyway. So that's not zero, but yeah, it's not stock market returns. Having an adequately funded cash reserve or emergency fund allows you to make other choices. It allows you to change your deductible on your car from 500 to 1000 or from 1000 to 2000 on your house. We went from 1% wind and hail to 2% wind and hail. A lot of reason for that was honestly the price was going up on 1%. Just was. It allows you on disability insurance to have a 180 day waiting period.
- [47:19]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, that's short term aflac duck insurance. You might be able to say, I don't think I need that.
- [47:24]
Doug
Yeah. I don't need short term, I don't need to pay for it. I've got six months of cash sitting there. It allows you to make other decisions, and there's not a right or wrong answer on deductibles. I think there's two things that happen in the insurance world, and the first is, is that you are underinsured for a lot of property stuff because you start with premium, right? It's like, how much can I afford? Therefore, this is how much I can have. And that's a really crappy way to have your house insured. I was talking to my neighbor the other day, and he was talking about how his insurance company wouldn't insure his house for more than a certain amount. You know, they have. We live in Texas. There's a lot of property casualty insurance issues going on here, like in other states. And the company that he's with said, we don't do anything above this. This amount. And I said, well, but your house is worth 40% more than that. He's like, yeah, but, you know, what's the worst that happens? Like, well, we live in Texas, man. So I don't know. An EF4 tornado levels, the thing that's probably pretty bad. I don't think we have to worry too much about a hurricane at this point. But, you know, you get hit by lightning, it can burn to the ground. Our neighbors down the street, their Tesla battery blew up in their garage and burned their entire house on the inside. So, yeah, there's lots of stuff that can go wrong. And so he's settling for a lower insured value, partially because his company won't insure him for more, and secondly, because the premium would be too much. And I get that that's like a rock and a hard place. But if you have a good cash reserve, you can help mitigate that maybe a little bit by saying, well, I'll cover the first 10,000 on the house. Therefore, I can keep the premium that's more affordable because I've got an emergency fund for your car. The default answer for everything is they plug in $500 deductible. Well, maybe you don't need 500. Maybe you can go to a thousand. You know, maybe you can go to 2000. What does that do to the. What does that do to the premium? Does it allow you to have a little bit more coverage in case something bad does happen because you've kept the premium in a more reasonable spot?
- [49:24]
Joe Saul-Sehy
You know, the people that I always see that want to raise their deductibles are people that have a tight budget. To your point, OG and that also is a huge mistake, frankly. When you start off, you need to cover those risks. And then as you have that emergency fund, you know, there's no such thing as a free lunch. I think a lot of people think, oh, okay, I'm gonna get rid of this insurance. Remember that you're taking on the risk if you get rid of that insurance. It doesn't mean just lower premiums. It means you are shouldering that risk. So realize that that's the case. So look at your driving record before.
- [50:00]
Doug
You look at, well, I'll add to the car insurance side of it, if you can make the deductible, let's say 2,000 instead of 500, because you're going to cover that zero to 2,000. That's the risk that you're talking about. And you're in a light fender bender where it's $800 to fix. You can pay this out of pocket. Your insurance company doesn't know that you had a fender bender, and your premiums don't go up. Next review cycle. You know, I mean, like, there's other secondary effects that even happen because of this, versus, you know, going like, oh, well, my deductible is 500. This is $1,000 bill. Of course I'm going to pay 500 and have them pay 500, not me. Pay the all thousand. Then finding out six months later that they. They dropped you, or finding out six months later that they went, oh, your premium was $2,000 a year. Now it's 4,000, you know, because you had a claim, you know, or whatever. So, yeah, the risk doesn't go away. The risk stays the same. It's just who's paying the risk.
- [50:51]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah. So I think, Jeff, to answer your question, really, the guardrails that we're talking about is if you're first starting out and you don't have much of an emergency fund, deductibles should probably remain low. It's when they get bigger. You then ask yourself that question, how much of this risk do I want to shoulder? And frankly, OG in a lot of cases, like, what's the bang for my buck? I know for some people, when we just got done doing our success sessions classes, going over my book that just ended a few weeks ago, all of our participants go and they check, if I change my deductible, what will the price difference be? And for some of our students, it was a big difference for other students because they live in a different area or they have maybe kids driving. Yeah, the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. Like, why would I not give that risk to the insurance company and pay the extra hundred dollars or two hundred dollars? The. The savings didn't make a lot of sense. Jeff, thanks a ton for the question. If you've got a question for us. Stacking benjamins.com voicemail one of my. Well, they're all favorites. I've had a lot of fun in Boston, but because I have family in Ohio, I, Jeff, come to Cleveland at least a couple times a year. We have meetups, so hopefully pretty soon. I know I'm going in July and we'll see if we can do a Cleveland meetup when I come in July. That kind of gets us out into the back porch territory where we have our community time. Talk about stackers doing some fun stuff. I want to say a big thank you to everybody in Boston who hung out with me. It was super fun. Love seeing stackers. Getting our stacker community together in Boston or wherever I travel. Thanks for hanging out with me. Boston. Great time. My daughter graduated, guys. She has her masters now. Congratulations to Autumn and also to my niece Saffron, who also just graduated from high school. Oh, gee, you've got one now that is graduated from high school. And my friend Troy's daughter. Lots of graduations.
- [52:48]
OG
I feel like I just graduated to a big kid bed.
- [52:50]
Doug
Good job doing the thing that everyone largely expected you to do.
- [52:54]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Right, Doug finally was able to get rid of the plastic mattress cover.
- [52:57]
OG
Yes. It's just, it's been a great spring all around.
- [53:03]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I don't pee the bed anymore.
- [53:04]
OG
The great thing is they make them less noisy now than they used to, so no one has to know.
- [53:10]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yes, Doug has finally been trained. It's great. What else we got on the back porch, Doug?
- [53:17]
OG
Well, we've had some great activity in the basement. Our Facebook group, you know, one of the things that I really like, you put a question out there in, you know, in the spirit or maybe it was timely. Maybe not in the spirit, but it was a timely question you put out, given all of the graduations that are happening, asking, hey, fellow stackers, what's your best money or career advice for graduates this year? And we got some really good contributions from people and, and a lot of people contributed. Andy said, after starting your retirement savings, always live beneath your means by as little as possible. Let other people be fashion victims. Well, I know Andy. He definitely lets other people be fashion victims.
- [53:56]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh, he totally deserved that shots fired Andy.
- [54:00]
OG
He says, don't buy a new car. I don't think Andy's bought a shirt since the Clinton administration anyway.
- [54:09]
Doug
Wow.
- [54:12]
OG
But we've got some other great stuff here.
- [54:14]
Joe Saul-Sehy
What'd he say? Don't buy a new car.
- [54:15]
OG
He did. He also said don't buy a new car. And how many times have you guys.
- [54:18]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Known somebody that graduated from college and immediately bought a new car?
- [54:21]
OG
This guy.
- [54:22]
Joe Saul-Sehy
You're one of them.
- [54:23]
OG
I am one. Well, not immediately, but pretty soon too soon. Yeah.
- [54:26]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I had one of my best friends from college. The day he got his first job and he got a big boy job, he immediately went and bought a Pontiac Grand Dam. That shows how old I am, by the way.
- [54:40]
OG
Wow. Yeah. Nick wrote in that if your situation allows it, nothing wrong with living at home for a few years. His parents let him.
- [54:48]
Doug
There's a lot wrong with that.
- [54:51]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Oh, geez. Kids listen to the show.
- [54:53]
OG
Dad, how come we didn't listen to the June 2 episode? We didn't have one. There wasn't one.
- [54:59]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I like that Len Penso talking about that with his kids. You know, it's so hard to get that down payment in Southern California, like depending on where you live.
- [55:06]
OG
And it sounds like Nick, I mean, Nick had a real job. He lived there for three years. He was making good money and he was disciplined about what he did with that money. And I think that's the challenge. A lot of kids who live at home probably aren't as disciplined with their money management because it's easy not to when you're, you know, eating in mom's house and.
- [55:26]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah, are you wasting time or do you know why you're there?
- [55:29]
OG
Right. So Nick. Nick stocked up on his emergency fund. He maxed out his retirement accounts, paid off student loans, kept a side hustle going. I mean, he was killing it.
- [55:39]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah. Cool.
- [55:39]
OG
And so some. Just some great suggestions there. So I hope parents. Oh gee. Read this post and got some good ideas. And a great, great friend of the show Karen happened to say, be willing to travel with your first job. You get to see really cool places on someone else's dime and hopefully get a per diem. Per diem's are not as common as they once used to be, Karen. But it's great advice because a lot of kids are all looking for stay at home, you know, or work remote jobs. But it's a pretty great time in your life to travel and see where all of the best best western hotels are.
- [56:15]
Joe Saul-Sehy
My daughter did that out of college. She was a road warrior working in electronic medical records, helping hospitals set those up around the country. So she'd help one set up and then she'd fly to another place. She actually got to go to Ireland as part of that deal.
- [56:27]
OG
Yeah, I remember that.
- [56:28]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah. What was really cool when she was in Belfast was that for American Thanksgiving, the hospital actually did a Thanksgiving dinner for her and a few of the other Americans. It was. It was really neat.
- [56:40]
OG
But it was all made out of potatoes, right? It was like mashed potatoes shaped into a turkey.
- [56:46]
Joe Saul-Sehy
That's exactly it. Yeah. A little home cooking in Ireland.
- [56:50]
OG
That is cool. Onto another post. I just needed to mention this is a guy who. He knows what the rules of the game are. He knows how to play it. James Bosbus said, as a lifelong diehard Red Sox fan, I have to admit neighbor Doug is right. That's it. That's the end of it.
- [57:06]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I just want to say what he's right about.
- [57:08]
OG
He just put that out there in the universe. Doug's right now. He said everybody should go to Fenway once. It is a museum, but you don't need to go twice. And boy did that.
- [57:17]
Joe Saul-Sehy
I don't know, man.
- [57:18]
OG
That stirred up some emotions on my.
- [57:20]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Seats the second time I went to Fenway just a couple of weeks ago. Way, way, way better then my seats the first. Like once I've been in this museum. I know which parts of the quote museum you shouldn't sit in, but you know, you got so many seats that don't face the field squarely. So many obstructive view seats. Seats like the ones I had the first time where water dripped on us.
- [57:43]
OG
Water in air quotes.
- [57:45]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Yeah. Who knows what was going on the upper deck that day. All right, big thanks to everybody for all those tips in our basement Facebook group for helping each other with better money habits. That's going to do it for today, Doug. You've got it from here, my friend. What are our three big takeaways from today's show?
- [58:03]
OG
Well, Joe, first, making your portfolio more international. We masseuse soyes aussi agracif que votre plan.
- [58:13]
Joe Saul-Sehy
Lexige.
- [58:15]
OG
Nailed it. Second, that horrible interest rate on your high yield savings account. That's not your roi. The freedom from worry, ability to be more aggressive with the remainder of your portfolio and your ability to self insure are the true return on your emergency fund. But the big lesson, Baby Ruth bars are actually pretty good. And here I thought they were just something you threw into the deep end of the neighborhood pool as a prank. Huh? This show is the property of SB Podcasts, LLC, Copyright 2025 and is created by Joe Saul Sehive. Joe gets help from a few of our neighborhood friends. You'll find out about our awesome team@stackingbenjamins.com along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. Come say hello. Oh, yeah. And before I go, not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don't take advice from people you don't know. This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any financial decisions, speak with a real financial advisor. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug, and we'll see you next time back here at the Stacking Benjamin Show.