What's In Your Financial "Go Bag"? SB1650

Summary

The Stacking Benjamins Show: What's In Your Financial "Go Bag"? (SB1650)
Release Date: February 28, 2025
Hosts: Joe Saul-Sehy and OG
Guest: Paula Pant from Afford Anything

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Introduction to Financial Go Bags

The episode kicks off with Joe Saul-Sehy and OG diving into the concept of a financial "go bag"—a kit containing essential financial documents and items to prepare for emergencies. Joe introduces the topic enthusiastically, although both hosts admit to initially lacking detailed preparation. This candid start sets a relatable tone for listeners.

Guest Insights: Paula Pant on Financial Preparedness

Paula Pant, a seasoned personal finance expert from the Afford Anything podcast, joins the discussion to share her insights on financial go bags. Paula emphasizes the importance of having a go bag even if it remains unused, aligning with the fundamental purpose of insurance and emergency funds.

Paula Pant [03:20]: "I once literally did have a go bag. Never needed to use it, but it's nice to know you've got a little thing."

Essential Components of a Financial Go Bag

The hosts and Paula enumerate and debate the crucial items to include:

1. Cash and Credit Cards
   OG underscores the necessity of having cash on hand during emergencies when electronic payments may fail.

   OG [08:26]: "I want to take my cash. I got credit cards. I'm not taking them all. Just what I got my wallet. That'll be good enough."

   Jesse Kramer adds that an emergency fund should cover at least three to four days' worth of expenses.

   Jesse Kramer [09:08]: "Three or four days' worth, enough to get me to the other side when I can tap back into my bank accounts."

2. Identification Documents
   Jesse highlights the importance of carrying copies of essential IDs such as passports, driver's licenses, and Social Security cards.

   Jesse Kramer [13:55]: "Passport, driver's license, Social Security card, or copies of all those things. Identification would be probably something at the top of my list."

3. Master Password and Two-Factor Authentication Devices
   Paula insists on including master passwords or access to password managers to secure digital accounts.

   Paula Pant [12:38]: "The most important thing is to make sure that you have your master password... and have the device that you use for two-factor authentication."

4. Health Information
   OG suggests including health insurance information and essential health records to ensure access to medical care during crises.

   OG [17:24]: "Take your health insurance information... any health records that you can have electronically."

5. Additional Essentials
   Items like solar chargers, spare keys, and basic survival tools were also discussed, highlighting the practical aspects of financial and physical preparedness.

   OG [23:02]: "Some sort of energy battery power of some kind I think will be helpful."

Password Managers and Digital Security

The conversation transitions to the role of password managers in a financial go bag. Paula advocates for using robust password managers like Bitwarden and 1Password over native options like Google or Apple Password Managers due to security concerns.

Paula Pant [38:07]: "I switched off of [LastPass], went to 1Password... from my experience as a user, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other."

Joe and OG share their preferred password management strategies, emphasizing the balance between security and accessibility.

Joe Saul-Sehy [37:52]: "I use Dashlane... The functionality is pretty good."

Estate Planning and Access Control

A critical segment of the episode explores estate planning essentials, particularly who would have access to financial accounts and digital assets in case of an emergency. Paula suggests entrusting this responsibility to a trusted attorney, while Jesse points to financial planners or trusted advisors.

Paula Pant [44:45]: "If I had an attorney that I was regularly working with... that's the person I would give it to."

Interactive Trivia Competition

Midway through the episode, the hosts engage listeners with a trivia competition, posing the question:

Doug [28:39]: "In what year did Harvard open the first college co-op store?"

The trio offers various guesses, culminating in OG correctly answering 1882.

Doug [37:03]: "Harvard opened the first ever college co-op store on their campus in 1882, making OG our winner."

Practical Tips and Common Mistakes

The hosts share additional practical tips on assembling a financial go bag, warning against overcomplicating preparations or neglecting basic necessities. Jesse humorously cautions against extreme scenarios, reinforcing the importance of balanced preparedness.

Jesse Kramer [48:57]: "Most be oftenly I would suppose it's just that people are underprepared."

Paula reiterates focusing on low-probability, high-magnitude events to ensure comprehensive readiness without unnecessary excess.

Paula Pant [49:11]: "It's always the low probability high magnitude events that you want to keep."

Final Thoughts and Community Engagement

Concluding the episode, Joe and OG encourage listeners to implement the discussed strategies, emphasizing that even minimal preparation can make significant differences during emergencies. They also highlight upcoming content from Paula and Jesse, fostering a sense of community and ongoing learning.

Joe Saul-Sehy [50:37]: "Come say hello... Thanks also to Paula Pant for hanging out with us today."

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Notable Quotes

• Paula Pant [12:38]: "The most important thing is to make sure that you have your master password... and have the device that you use for two-factor authentication."
• OG [08:26]: "I want to take my cash. I got credit cards. I'm not taking them all. Just what I got my wallet. That'll be good enough."
• Jesse Kramer [09:08]: "Three or four days' worth, enough to get me to the other side when I can tap back into my bank accounts."

Conclusion

This episode of The Stacking Benjamins Show offers a comprehensive guide to building a financial go bag, blending expert insights with practical advice. By addressing both digital and physical preparedness, the hosts provide listeners with actionable steps to secure their financial well-being in the face of emergencies.

For more information and resources mentioned in this episode, visit stackingbenjamins.com.

Transcript

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

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[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Ignition sequence start. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. All engine running. Liftoff.

[Doug]

Live from the basement of the YouTube headquarters, it's the Stacking Benjamin Show. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor Doug. And between forest fires and hurricanes and Joe's mom nagging about taking the garbage out, it feels like there's an emergency every minute. So here's the question. What should be in your financial go bag? We'll ask our roundtable on today's show. But wait, there's more. At the halfway point, we'll all revel in the brilliance of my trivia question for this week's edition. Edition of our year long trivia competition. And now, a guy who loves long walks on the beach and low interest rates on his mortgage, it's Joe Sal Si.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Who doesn't love both of those things? Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Stacky Benjamin show. I am Joe Salsihai. Thanks a ton, Doug. We've got a brilliant team ready to talk about this brilliant topic today. You know why I know it's brilliant? OG you want to know why it's brilliant?

[OG]

I just, I don't even know what topic it is, so I'm sure it's great.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Of course, I haven't done any. My homework, don't know what it is.

[OG]

I'm doing it right now as we speak.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

It is brilliant because a brilliant person picked it, that's why. Ah, financial go bag today. Speaking of brilliant, Paula Pant from Afford Anything is here. How are you?

[Paula Pant]

Ah, well, thank you, Joe. I'm, I'm doing great. And I love the topic. I once literally did have a go bag. Never needed to use it, but it's nice to know you've got, you got a little thing.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Well, and I'm glad you brought that up, that you didn't have to use it, because I don't know anybody sitting around. People would always say this when we talk about long term care insurance. So gee, you probably had this before too. Or disability coverage. They're like, so how much is long term care insurance? And of course you tell them what the basic premiums kind of run and they go, oh, but what if I never use it? I'm like, wait a minute, are you sitting around? Man, I hope I get to go into a nursing home someday. Like, you know, it would be awesome if I have a catastrophic illness. This would be great. So thank goodness you didn't have to use your financial go bag because that means bad things happen in Paul Pants life, right?

[Jesse Kramer]

Yeah.

[Paula Pant]

You know, that's the thing about in any type of insurance is insurance is the thing that you buy that you hope you never have to use. Right?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I hope I flush my cash down the toilet.

[OG]

Yeah.

[Paula Pant]

I mean, and that's health insurance, homeowners insurance, car insurance. You hope to never have to use any of it.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Absolutely. And a guy who has a podcast with a brand new name. Jesse Kramer's back. How are you, my friend?

[Jesse Kramer]

What's that Western like the man with no Name. Isn't that a thing? Isn't that like a famous western, some cowboy movie about the guy with no name? I've got the podcast with a new name.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yes. And the new name is Drumroll again. For people that missed it last week.

[Jesse Kramer]

The blog is still called the Best Interest. And the podcast, though, is now called Personal Finance for Long Term Investors.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Personal finance. Rolling all that SEO wrapped up in one name.

[Jesse Kramer]

Oh my gosh, so much SEO.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

It's incredible. Have you seen the Big Bump? The Big Bump?

[Jesse Kramer]

Not yet. Not yet. Maybe someday. I don't know. I don't know how quick Google's turnaround time is. But that's okay.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Do you have a financial go bag, Jesse?

[Jesse Kramer]

Not quite. Actually reading or doing some of the prep for today's conversation was useful. My, my wife and I, are we on the same page when it comes to our financial go bag? Oh, probably not. I would say that ours needs some work.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

That's good. If you're in a relationship, there's another layer, maybe another meeting with pancakes or wine where you talk about your financial. What could be more romantic though, Jesse, than pancakes or wine and your financial go bag? Well, we got Paula here, we got Jesse here, we got Og here, and we are diving into what should be in your little emergency go bag. But before we get to that, we have got a couple of sponsors to make sure this is free so we can keep on keeping on and you don't have to pay for any of this goodness. Every Friday and Monday, Wednesday. So let's hear from them. And then financial go bag time. 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. Focus 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. Stay Farm is there.

[Doug]

How high is the interest rate for the new Laurel Road high yield savings account?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

This high. The air is really, really thin up here.

[Doug]

The Laurel Road Very high yield savings account.

[OG]

Variable annual percentage yield APY is subject to change at any time. No minimum balance required. Fees may reduce earnings on the account. For full terms and conditions, see laurelroad.com savings. Laurel Road is a brand of KeyBank Member FDIC.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

The inspiration for today's piece comes to us. Well, the inspiration for this, this today's episode comes from this piece. If only I knew the English language better, I would have said that correctly.

[OG]

Making lemons out of lemonade again, Joe?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I did say that on Wednesday, Paula. We're making lemons out of lemonade. Like what? What? Huh. Not sure how that works.

[Paula Pant]

Making melons out of melon aid.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Andrea Requier writes us at USA Today. What's a financial go bag? Everything you need for your money when disaster rights. You know what, we'll fill in Andrea's picks later on. But oh gee, let's start with you. The very first thing that Goes in this financial man, we're having an emergency. What goes in the bag first? If you're in the OG family, just.

[OG]

For clarification purposes, do we mean a literal financial go bag? Like, are we taking it in the context of there's literally an emergency, like the folks in la, my house is going to burn down in an hour. I need to go right now and this is the money stuff that I have to deal with.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I'm glad that you said that. Og, let's define that. Not just for you before, for all of our stackers, because maybe they've got the same question. She begins by saying the wildfires devastating parts of Southern California, those were a grim reminder. You should have a go bag at ready with everything you need to survive a few days outside your home.

[OG]

Okay, so in context with the go bag, it's the. What part of that kit is money related, is your question?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

That's right.

[OG]

We keep a fair amount of cash at home. So I would say cash. I mean, I've kind of got two right away that I want.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Well, let's just do one. We'll come back to you.

[OG]

I want to do two. I've got a whole bunch, actually. But yeah, the easy one is cash, you know, monetary, something I want, I want, you know, my wallet. I got to take my cash. I got credit cards. I'm not taking them all. I just got what I got my wallet. That'll be good enough.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Well, in assuming, Jesse, that you agree with og, but how much cash do you think is the amount to keep ready? Because, you know, all that cash sitting there earning absolutely nothing until that emergency hits, just sitting there.

[Jesse Kramer]

Well, the way you frame that question, Joe, I think most of our stackers should probably accept that there's always going to be some sort of cash that is sitting there, not optimized. I mean, that the whole purpose of having an emergency fund, that cash is not going to be optimally invested for the long run. The odds are you're never going to really touch that emergency fund or really tap into it. You're going to be losing ground. In hindsight, you're going to have recognized that you lost ground. But it goes back to what Paula said earlier, which is like a lot of these things, we pay all these insurance premiums hoping that it's wasted money. That's the point. This cash that's sitting there in or go bag is going to be the same exact way.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

But.

[Jesse Kramer]

Okay, so how much cash would I assume there in the go bag? I don't know, three or Four days worth, a week's worth, because enough to get me to the other side when I can tap back into my bank accounts to when I make sure that I have a credit card that can cover my expenses. Something like that.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Jesse's like, what's a big can of Colt 45 cost?

[Jesse Kramer]

About that much. What's that, about 350?

[OG]

Couple tall boys and a Dr. Pepper.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

What if the liquor store is not accepting my credit card? I got to make sure I get that right for you and the baby, right?

[Jesse Kramer]

Stackers Anonymous.

[OG]

Honestly, when it comes to something like that, I mean, if there's some sort of major catastrophe that you're getting out of the way, right. You're getting out of town, there's some. What was that movie, 2012 or something where there was like the big earthquake and John Cusacks driving the limo and trying to scare.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Oh, I forgot about that movie.

[OG]

Yeah, that was so great. I mean, it was critically acclaimed. How could you not? How could you not? How could that not be Top of mind.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I remember seeing that movie OG and just thinking, that was the biggest waste of two hours.

[OG]

Wow, that was a waste of two hours. Yeah. You know, it's Armageddon. There's an asteroid. I'm thinking, like, you're going. You're not hanging around the next town over going, I wonder what's going to happen? This is. I'm going, you just got to get far enough out of the. Out of the blast radius right before your credit cards start working again. So you need cash to fill up the car, you need cash to buy food, even if you have to round up, right? I can't get in the cash register. I can't. It's like, cool, here's a hundred. Like, is that. Are we good with. You know, I'm going to fill up the car and I'm going to take some snacks and I'm going to give you a hundred dollar bill and off we go. You know, the great thing about our country is you just need to drive a half a day and you're still in the same economy, right? You're still. Same money, same system, same language, all that stuff. So it doesn't have to be a ton, but I remember watching a YouTube video of a guy said, anywhere in the world, $100 US will get you just about anything you need in the US $200 US will get you just about anything you need. Like if you could slide somebody a hundred bucks and you're in wherever in the world and you need something $100 US might get it done. And inside of the US you're trying to get a guy to take you somewhere. The Uber's. You're like, look here, I got a couple hundred bucks. Can you get me to the other side of town? Like, you know, like I need to get out of here.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

But let's talk about, you know, because there's some people, you know, doomsday hits. Right. We've had guest on. Oh, gee, you said this before, that gold not really a part of your portfolio. But we've also said over and over that gold is a store of value. If something happens where the currency is going. Bye, bye. Paula, do you keep any. Would you keep any gold in your or precious metals in your financial go bag?

[Paula Pant]

Absolutely not. No way.

[OG]

Heavy.

[Paula Pant]

Honestly, the most important thing, because we live in such a digital age, I think the most important thing is to make sure that you have your master password, the one that unlocks your password manager. Make sure that you have that either in your brain or on some secure piece of paper and have the device that you use for two factor authentication.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

What if something's happened to the grid?

[Paula Pant]

Yeah, that's what the cash is for. If something's happened to the grid, then you've got, you need cash and frankly, you need some form of physical protection, because those are the two things that are going to. Yeah, exactly.

[OG]

You take me anywhere you need.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Paula, people not watching the video have no idea that Og just gave us the guns. So that's all he needs.

[Paula Pant]

Meaning the biceps.

[OG]

Come and get them.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Meaning the biceps. Yeah.

[Jesse Kramer]

Yeah.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

They might even know what guns we're talking about.

[OG]

Oh, that's true.

[Paula Pant]

Yeah. So you need some form of physical protection and then you need some cash. And so if the digital or electronic system is down, those are the two things that will get you through to the next day. Beyond that, you need two factor authentication so you can get into all of your accounts digitally.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

So we've got Paula's answer. We've got. Oh, geez. Answer for two of the first things. Jesse, what goes into your go bag immediately?

[Jesse Kramer]

Passport, driver's license, Social Security card, or copies of all those things. Identification would be probably something at the top of my list for a go bag. And just in general, hearing Paula's and OG's answers or just hearing the framing of your question? Joe? I don't know. I think there are some emergencies. Like, okay, if there's an emergency where the electrical grid is down and my credit cards don't work again and. Right. And two factor doesn't matter. Because I can't log into anything that's a particular type of emergency where, boy, it's pretty hard to fathom how bad that is. Does that make sense?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Sure.

[Jesse Kramer]

As opposed to say, yes, the wildfires were terrible. People who lost houses were terrible. But, like, there is a future for them. And also, it was like a localized scenario. It's a scenario they had to physically remove themselves from. But I'm just saying, like, if. If we're talking about. Og's talking about blast radii. If we're talking about escaping from the asteroid and then the entire electrical grid is down. Okay.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Or the zombies. The zombies. Don't forget the zombies.

[OG]

Right.

[Jesse Kramer]

Like, we're in a little bit of a worse place, I think.

[OG]

War of the Worlds. Another great movie. Brad Pitt, right?

[Jesse Kramer]

Brad Pitt's knocking on my door, telling me I need to take the antivirus. Is a pistol gonna save me?

[OG]

Should you take an antivirus? If Brad Pitt's the one telling you to do it at your door?

[Jesse Kramer]

I think there's some worse celebrity endorsers of vaccines in this world. Og, just say it.

[OG]

I mean, like, he's literally at your door. I'd be like, oh, boy, where are we? Yeah.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

True story. Paula's number two thing in her go bag behind the password manager was Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt. And your financial go bag, right, Paula?

[Paula Pant]

Absolutely. In fact, a little. I carry a Brad Pitt bobblehead with me at all times wherever you go. Also one for Bradley Kuhn just to give you affirmation.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah. Either in a pinch, you know, if you get tired of Cooper, then just go with pit. Right. It's funny, Jesse, because I'd never thought about all those photocopies, but Andrea has this in her list on USA Today as well. For things you usually keep in your wallet, like a driver's license, make a photocopy for your go bag. Is there a situation, by the way, that if you lose your credit card that any of these institutions would take a photocopy of a credit card? I don't think so. You'd have to have the actual card, wouldn't you?

[OG]

I mean, Apple Pay.

[Jesse Kramer]

I can buy stuff on Amazon without having my actual card with me. I don't know.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Good point. That is a good point.

[Jesse Kramer]

If I go to the grocery store right now and I just plug in my credit card number and the cvv, and I think they would accept it. I don't know. Not sure, though.

[OG]

If you know it all, can you rattle off all 19 of those digits?

[Paula Pant]

But you don't need a Photocopy, you just need a password manager. I mean, what is a photocopy? It is a piece of paper with information on it.

[Jesse Kramer]

No, no, I understand.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

You mean I could do that online.

[Jesse Kramer]

Yeah, a password manager. I mean, some of these scenarios though, it's like, are you going to log into your password manager with the grid down and electricity not working, but the.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Copy of your driver's license, which is an official document, or your passport? Like, we always, when we travel internationally, we always have a copy of our passport.

[Paula Pant]

Yeah, well, that makes sense because if the grid is down, then credit card processing would also be down. So if the grid is down and you can't access a password manager, then you also wouldn't be able to use a credit card. So that part I don't quite get. But yeah, in terms of having id, that's just what you need in order to like get through borders.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Oh, gee. What else would be in your financial go bag?

[OG]

Yeah, I think a little less catastrophic, kind of off the zombies and back to Maybe we just, you know, whatever. I want to take our health insurance information. Maybe that's a card or maybe it's, you know, stored electronically or whatever. And any health records that you can have electronically. Again, you're not going to take your whole big file folder with you back to Paula's thing, but have access to that. I think a lot of people don't know that you can have all these records. Right. Your doctor has all these notes on you and all this other sort of stuff and just kind of broadness of health stuff. But your prescriptions and your things that you need, especially if it's life or death type of things. I want to have official documentation so that when I show up in the next town, I can go to the hospital or whatever and go here. I don't have to go through the whole. All the process of like, do you really need this high blood pressure medicine? Like, yeah, dude. Also, I just escaped. So now I definitely need it because it's even higher, you know, my blood.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Pressure'S even higher now.

[OG]

Yeah, I mean, it's just one less thing to have to start over from. If you're literally starting over somewhere else and all your stuff's gone. Just a digital copy of that sort of stuff.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

And if you keep asking me, my blood pressure is going to get even higher. Yes, Paula, what's another one that you need?

[Paula Pant]

Honestly, my go bag is going to be pretty simple. It's cash. It's two factor authentication, which is phone. I'd have my laptop with Me and all of the various chargers. Although if there is no electricity, that presents a problem. I would have. In the event that there is no potable drinking water, I would have one of those UV sticks that can clear giardia and other types of bacteria out of water so that you can take stream water and make it drinkable. But that's not a financial go bag. That's just a.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

That's just part of your overall go bag.

[Paula Pant]

Yeah, that's an overall go bag thing. Same with grapefruit seed extract. You can put some of that in water and that makes it a little bit more drinkable when you suspect that you're drinking contaminated water. I mean, those would be the main things.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

We took what looks like just a regular water bottle, but it's called a gravis, where it will filter your drinking water, just like Paula, what you're talking about. But so I can use it just as a regular water bottle, or I can pull out the filter system, pour water in the bottom, and then slowly squeeze it through the filter. And it was amazing even trying this out. We went hiking up near Hot Springs just a couple hours from our house, and I'm putting this thing in this stream in Hot Springs that even when I'm in the middle of the United States, I was still really creeped out. I was like, oh, my God, I'm going to drink this. And then, you know, I let the requisite time, like 10 minutes go by and I take my first drink. And it was. It was awesome. And then we used it in Nepal when we were hiking and use it.

[Paula Pant]

Ah, nice.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Use it fairly often when we just go, you know, to a place and we want to carry water. I can now get water from wherever I want. That. That was well worth the price.

[Paula Pant]

Yeah.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Jesse, what else is in your bag?

[Jesse Kramer]

Well, I guess I'll answer your question first and then I'll go back to expound on some other ideas. How about estate planning documents? I don't know. Is that really a financial go bag? Is that an emergency thing? I'm not exactly sure, but you know, will, power of attorney, healthcare proxy, or having copies of those could be potentially useful in some sort of go bag type scenario where someone, either me or someone in my family might, you know, kick the bucket, as it were. You might want to have some estate planning documents. But again, all these answers, I think, beg an important question that all of us need to answer for ourselves out there, which is like, which threshold of emergency? Are we just going to shrug our shoulders and be like, you know, What? I had a good run. I couldn't prepare for everything. And this one, we all got to die somehow, you know what I mean? Like, as an example, thinking back to all the answers today that have to do with, like, digital reclamation of files or like a backup credit card or two factor authentication, or I'm going to take my cell phone with. If we reach a scenario where the electrical grid is just down forever, which, by the way, if you're unfamiliar with some of the coronal mass ejections that our sun gives off, it's like just Google listeners. It's the. The Barrington event, the Warrington event. I'll come back with it if you.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Need something to worry about.

[Jesse Kramer]

Correct.

[Bluehost Customer]

Correct.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I know.

[Jesse Kramer]

All I'm saying, you know, if you.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Need, which I'm sure we all need. I wake up every day, Jesse, and I go, you know what? I don't have enough to worry.

[OG]

There's an asteroid coming this day after my birthday in 2031 or something.

[Jesse Kramer]

I. I know, I know.

[OG]

I get it.

[Jesse Kramer]

I'm the bear of bad news here. But all I'm saying is that there are some events out there. There are many events out there that I am simply not prepared for. And if those events happen, I'm going to be screwed.

[OG]

Jesse's like, I've had a good run.

[Jesse Kramer]

Do I have a bunker in my backyard that's 40ft deep with a year's worth of food just in case my family and I need to, you know, wait it out? No, I'm not prepared for that. And that's going to be one of those events that just gets me. And I think it is actually worth thinking about if you're putting your go back together, figuring out which kind of events you're just going to shrug your shoulders at and say, whatever.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Or does it end?

[OG]

Let go and let God?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah, I had one of those incidents a couple weeks ago. A mile and a half from my house is Andy's ice cream. And it was unexpectedly closed. And I'm like, well, it was a good run. It was. I guess I'm done. I didn't have that in my repertoire. What to do if Andy's closes Andy's. If you want to sponsor the show. I'd be so happy if Andy sponsored the show, and I would. I would have so many problems with my sugar levels. It would be just absolutely rotten. Anybody have any other ones that you're thinking of that go in the go bag? Paula? Seems like it's pretty clean. Jesse's. Jesse's decided that he's Going to be the first person to die in this movie.

[Jesse Kramer]

Exactly.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Oh, gee. Anything else going in yours?

[OG]

I mean, somebody had this on the live chat, but this is one of the ones that I was going to go with too, is a solar charger. Like, there's battery chargers now. I just bought two of them because I do the stuff for the kids baseball video and whatever. And it dawned on me that most of the games are mostly at night. So I don't know that the solar charger thing was really worth it. But it's just a regular rechargeable battery pack that I can plug the camera into and the whole top of it is solar regenerated, I guess, but I don't have any idea how fast or slowly it works. But it's gotta be better than me creating my own energy source, however the hell I would get around doing that. So some sort of energy battery power of some kind I think will be helpful. And back to what Jesse said at the end of the day, like, there's some of these catastrophes like asteroids and zombies and whatever, where it's just like either a, it's been a good run or all the stuff you really need is likely to be guns and bullets and seeds and the knowledge to butcher a wild animal. You know, like that's going to be base, a knife, fire, shelter, you know, those sorts of things. It's like it's not going to matter if you have a AMEX black card with an unlimited, like. But this gets me into the Centurion Lounge. Great. But do you have a rabbit with you? Because we, you know, or whatever, it's like, like we can't give you any gasoline for your travel, sir. But I don't know. I don't know how much of it's, I think more broad based around, like the stuff that the folks in LA went through is awful in the sense of their experience. We had a house fire when I was a kid and it was not like those guys had a lot of time to think about it, but they had a little bit more than we would have. But we were talking about it at home and it's like, what if, if there was a dam break and the rivers, you know, like, you can't grab the baby pictures fast enough. You know what I mean? Like, that's the stuff that we care most about is those things. And to your point, Paula, so much of this stuff is electronic these days. It's like, you know, I don't really care if, if I lose my phone, I'll just go to the Apple store and get a new one. And as long as iCloud still works, all my stuff's on iCloud.

[Paula Pant]

Mm.

[G]

Yeah.

[OG]

Carrying a bunch of that stuff with you is pretty, pretty unimportant, I think, unless it's the zombie apocalypse and, you know, whatever. Otherwise you can pretty much get to.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Everything and then just hide behind Jesse and you're good.

[OG]

Yeah, I don't have to be the fastest. I just have to run faster than Jesse.

[Jesse Kramer]

Exactly right.

[OG]

Outrun the bear. I just have to outrun Jesse.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

In the second half of this, I want to dive into a couple of your answers more and talk about what things you use for these. I also want to talk about a few of the ones Andrea mentioned that you guys didn't touch on. So we'll do that in just a moment. But at the halfway point of each Friday, Stacky Benjamin's podcast, we have this year long trivia competition that we do between our three contributors, Paula, Jesse, and OG well, guys, the score is really not as important as the fact of will Jesse get on the board this year? Will that happen this year? And Paula is just amazed that somebody might be doing worse at trivia than she is. And February, this is our last February episode and Paula's almost March, bro.

[Paula Pant]

Well, the year is young.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

The year is young and we started late. So the score right now is OG has three, Paula has one. Jesse trying to crack the scoreboard. Will Jesse make it a tie for second Kampala challenge? OG that would be interesting at the end of this week. Well, all of these, except for, of course, OG pulling further ahead, which would. We'd need to find some way to manufacture excitement like they did. What was that fight? That was the Tyson fight.

[Paula Pant]

You know, they're trying the Jake, Paul, Mike Tyson.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Jake, Paul, Mike Tyson. Like, let's manufacture. Talk about the grid going down.

[Paula Pant]

Yeah, Netflix was buffering. What was up with that?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I know my buddy had a go bag. It was called a phone with a signal that we could hook up to my TV to make it work. It was amazing. My cable didn't work and yet the. Well, not cable, but my, you know, my streaming service didn't work, but my buddy's phone streamed it for us, which was great. All right, enough of that. Let's dive into Doug. What is our trivia question today?

[Doug]

Hey there, stackers. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug, and on today's mission to help you prepare, you might be thinking, I need to spend a little money getting all of this together, but don't worry, your pal Doug is here to rescue you yet again. I don't know what the last time was, but I'm sure I've probably saved your bacon in the past.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Right?

[Doug]

Let's get right down to it. When you're hoping to save some money, there's nothing like a co op. That's where institutions get together and share, creating a kind of best of both worlds. Everyone can focus on what they're best at and customers get a good price. Companies like REI have even taken the co op to big commercial heights. The first college co op store opened at some little college named Harvard in. You thought I was going to tell you what year they opened it? No, I'm not gonna because that's today's trivia question. In what year did Harvard open the first college co op store? On today's date. I'll be back right after I see if Joe's mom wants to co op on the laundry.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

All right. Oh, gee.

[Bluehost Customer]

Harvard.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Some school somewhere in the northeast, I think. Not sure what year did they open their first co op store?

[OG]

So it's like an rei, is that what you're saying?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

No, it's like a student union kind of store. You know, where you get all the student stuff. I think most college campuses, Michigan State.

[OG]

Had a co ops and computers and.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah, you can get your book, you can get your sweatshirts, you can get your.

[OG]

Ah, okay.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yes, yeah, the school store.

[OG]

The school store, like the spirit store.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Run by. Run like usually in most campuses it's run by a co op between a local business and the school.

[OG]

Uh huh. Interesting. You know, there's a lot of stories about Grand Canyon University and the president, the guy who runs that now has turned a lot of that stuff into similar things. Right. He got a chick fil a franchise, did a bunch of real estate investing and like involved all the students in the rehab and the running and all that sort of stuff. So they get all this entrepreneurial experience. Maybe a similar thing is what you're talking about. Let's see here. So Harvard was started in like 1905. Easily the oldest college around. No, Paula didn't like that one. 1634, I believe it. Take them a while. I don't have any.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I wasn't even going to mention that faint right there until you called yourself out. I was like, wow.

[OG]

Wow. Yeah. That's gamesmanship. I have not the foggiest idea. 1880, I don't know, I'm just picking a number. Beats me.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

1880, Paula, what are you gonna do with that?

[Paula Pant]

Oh, I am so unused to guessing second. It's. I mean, because strategically, it's completely different. Normally I've got two guesses, and then I just. Chelsea Brennan. One of the answers.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Duh. Simple.

[Paula Pant]

As if now he's anchored with 1880. So.

[OG]

But the school started in the 1600s, and it's presently 2025.

[Paula Pant]

I think the school started in the 1700s.

[OG]

Okay.

[Paula Pant]

Either way, I don't think the co op is anywhere near that old. I was actually thinking probably somewhere around the 1900s.

[OG]

If it's 1905, I'm going to flip a lid. Since I said that already. Since I said that number, there's a.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Big part of me that's just hoping Jesse Kramer's looking it up.

[OG]

He's like, November 9, 1741. I don't know. Just a wild guess.

[Paula Pant]

So there are a couple of directions I could go with it. So part of me is thinking that it might be mid-1900s, like, you know, after the Great Depression. Maybe somewhere after the Great Depression, before World War II. Like that feels like a good time to open up a school spirit store, doesn't it?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

First time there's been a school spirit store.

[OG]

Rah rah rahee.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah.

[OG]

Waving the penance.

[Paula Pant]

Well, maybe a little before, because, you know, the roaring twins. I mean, maybe that. You know what? I'm gonna go with 1911.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

1911. All right, Jesse, you got 1880 and 1911. What are you thinking, my friend?

[Jesse Kramer]

Both good guesses. And if I had a blank slate, I was thinking early 1900s. But this is where just like, I don't know, strategy and game theory come into play. And I think I have to take the under and just hope that the date is somewhere in that wide range of dates. So was. Oh, geez. Was 1880. I think I'll go 1879.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

1879. To take the fact that Harvard's been around a good long time. Yeah, well, all three of those guesses make sense to me. Well, oh, geez. Doesn't because he, I think, just threw a dart. But I certainly know where apologess that you guys are coming from. We will see. We'll be right back to see who wins this thing.

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[OG]

I feel like I should have said 1801 just to give myself a little bit more room. I knew somebody was gonna just do one under.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Well, yeah, I mean, seeing the way that this game usually goes. But do you feel good with 1880?

[OG]

I don't have the foggiest idea.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Paul in 1911. You're up there by yourself now because Jesse had to choose.

[Paula Pant]

Yeah. You know, I feel good about the fact that I've taken so much of the board. I have a, you know, I've captured the bulk of the upside.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Well, and Jesse, you've got a lot of the other side. So I have.

[Jesse Kramer]

I've actually been in this store as well, which I don't know if the rest of our panel's been in the store before.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Right.

[Jesse Kramer]

I'm trying to picture, you know, what they chiseled into that block of marble outside. I can't remember not to Brag, But.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I have been in the Harvard store.

[Jesse Kramer]

Before as a tourist, just to be clear. Not even as a prospective student.

[OG]

Like, my grandpa used to have a coffee mug that says, I played at the US Open.

[Jesse Kramer]

Yeah.

[OG]

And in the. In the middle and really small writing, it said a harmonica. So Jesse's got a coffee mug that says, I went to Harvard. Store.

[Jesse Kramer]

Bookstore.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Bookstore, Right. Yeah. That's like the CrossFit joke, isn't it? How do you know if somebody went to Harvard? They'll tell you. Right? How do you know if somebody's been to the Harvard bookstore? They'll tell you. Sure. I played pebble beach golf course before OG by the way.

[OG]

On Xbox.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

On my Xbox. Yeah. All right, here we go, Doug. Who's going to win this thing?

[Doug]

Hey there, stacker. I'm the guy who's always cooperative and also the guy who likes to share laundry duty. Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug. In a gesture of friendship that's sure to last about seven minutes here in the basement, Joe's mom has agreed to split laundry duty. It's great. She says if I take it down and load it, she'll check it as it's going to make sure everything's still running okay. Hey, I didn't say it's perfect, but it's a start. Let's put an end to today's co op trivia question, shall we? Harvard opened the first ever college co op store on their campus in 1882, making OG our winner.

[Paula Pant]

How? Just. Just how?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Just painful.

[Paula Pant]

Just how.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Oh, Jesse, when you said, you know what gamesmanship. I'm like, come on, 1881. Come on, 1881. Squeeze right in there.

[OG]

Oh, that's fantastic.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

82. Yeah. Nice job with the randomness. Well, let's get back to something that. Where you guys have more expertise. We're going to lean on that. I want to start off with Paula with something that you said. Talking about your password manager. Can we talk about password managers? Do you guys all use password managers? I know Paula, you do. Jesse use one.

[Jesse Kramer]

I do LastPass and OG do you.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Use a password manager?

[OG]

Yeah, I have a notebook right here. Write them all in there.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Perfect.

[OG]

It says top secret passwords on the front. Do not copy.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

No, I Go password, then. Password 1, 2. Password 1, 2, exclamation point. Password 1, 2, exportation point, exclamation point.

[OG]

How did you. How did you guess mine?

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Paula, which one do you use?

[Paula Pant]

I've used a few. I used to use LastPass. I switched off of that, went to 1Password. We also have a company account with Bitwarden.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Well, let's talk about the ones that you use, Jesse. LastPass. Why'd you decide to use LastPass and how do you like it?

[Jesse Kramer]

Our company uses LastPass and so everybody gets an account and we can use that account for personal use as well. So that was the reason why I chose to use it, to be honest with you. It was just because it was free through work.

[OG]

Yeah, same.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

But LastPass has free and paid accounts, so I'm assuming they have a paid account like your. Your company's not going, hey, everybody gets this for free, so we're going to call it a perk. We should do that at stacking. Benjamin's og. Everybody gets the free.

[Jesse Kramer]

I assume that our company is paying for a premium version. Yes, but then as employees, I don't pay for my own seat as an employee of the company.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Right. Paula, why did you leave LastPass?

[Paula Pant]

They had a data breach in 2022. LastPass had a big security breach and that inspired me to get off of LastPass. No offense, Jesse.

[Jesse Kramer]

None taken.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

It turned out they found out what year Harvard had their first college spirit store.

[Paula Pant]

Yeah, so they had a security breach. And so then I went to. That was the year I was in grad school and I went to a lecture on cybersecurity. And I went up to the lecturer afterwards and I said, hey, have you heard about the LastPass breach? And he was like, yeah, of course. And I was like, what do you recommend? And so he just gave me a list of like various other password managers. And so I asked Suni to pick one for the team, and so she picked Bitwarden and that became our company.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

1.

[Paula Pant]

And then I needed one for myself, so I went with one password just because I wanted to use something different so that we had a variety.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

What's the difference then between Bitwarden and the other one you use?

[Paula Pant]

Not much. I mean, I'm sure in the technical specs there's probably some difference, but from my experience as a user, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. Just different user interface.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah, there's no interface difference that you like one word versus the other better?

[Paula Pant]

I mean, not notably.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah, I use.

[Paula Pant]

It doesn't impact my quality of life.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah, I use Dashlane, which I pay for as well, and I like it a lot. I also like the move they made. It used to be app based and now even if my app is not working, I can. It's web based, so I can now just go to a website on any computer, you know, preferably one that's open where everybody can see my password. Joking. But it's much more flexible now, so I don't know what that means data wise, but it certainly, it's becoming easier to use all the time. Really. The functionality is pretty good.

[Paula Pant]

There's also Google Password Manager, which I have some redundancy in terms of like some stuff saved in a password manager, some stuff saved in Google Password Manager. And I'm actually trying to wean off of that because if somebody gets access to my email account, that would be horrible enough and I don't want them to also have access to my passwords. So that is actually one thing that I'm trying to break away from is I'm slowly over time deleting passwords out of Google Password Manager.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I've noticed that through Apple and with Google, the password managers. And I try not to, not to do those too. I just, I, yeah, for all the reasons that you stated, I try not to use those because I'm sure there's gotta be people out there going, oh, I just use the Google Password Manager. I use Apple's Password Manager. I'm like, I don't, I don't know.

[Paula Pant]

Yeah, yeah, don't get me wrong.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

For stuff that I don't care about. I will give it to Apple. So I just put my thumb on the thing. I'm like, really? If somebody, if somebody steals my online board game registration.

[Paula Pant]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you want my wordle account, sure. You know, like, oh my God, I'm.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Losing at wordle every day. This horrible Russian hack is killing my score. It's rotten. Og, have you played with different password managers?

[OG]

I think that we did some years ago before we settled on the one that we use, which is also LastPass, by the way. I don't know how we picked it or why we picked it or why we stay with it. Somebody somewhere said, it's fine and that's good enough for me.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Some dude in Russia said, this is great.

[OG]

Yeah. He was like, before we go any further, you know, your, your poor name is the street you grew up on and your mother's maiden name. Really? It's a weird name. Wow. But anyways, with the simplicity of it, and I too am frustrated with the fact that everything is like double like on your phone when you try to do it. Like the native Apple version of it always wants to be the forefront even though, you know, you're like, no, seriously, LastPass.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

And then, yeah, every single time I'm.

[OG]

Just, I'm just to the point where I just recognize that that's just part of the process. Part of the process has to be. It's going to be a little slower on the non Google native thing or the non Apple native thing because they want it to have some friction so that I go, screw it, let's just use Apple. But for work stuff, it's just so much easier to share passwords with the password manager. And you don't have to share the password. You share access to the password. So then you can change it or remove the access whenever you need.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

The second thing I want to talk about that she mentioned in the go bag is actually stuff like spare sets of keys so that if you end up leaving a house where it's on fire and keys melt or things happen that you've got spare sets of keys to different properties that you own. I thought that was a good thing to have in your go bag. But the third thing is a big thing that when we had estate planning experts on our show, which is it's not in your go bag per se, but as part of your emergency, somebody else that can get into your online stuff besides you. And you know what's funny? I heard that a long time ago. I still don't have that person Cheryl knows and I know, but if something happens to both of us, everything's stored on my phone and nobody knows my access code to my phone outside the two of us. Have you guys, have you guys dealt with that thought about that at all before?

[OG]

Paul, isn't yours just password? 1, 2, exclamation, exclamation.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

No, it's. Well, it's a number sequence on my phone. Right. So it's just 11:11. But who's going to guess that? Exactly right. But I thought that that's really important to do and I would, I would think though. And Paul, I'm going to go back to you like as you think about this. Who, how would you think through who that would be and how would you, if you didn't want to tell them the access to your phone, but you want them to know how to get the access to your phone later, how would you set that up?

[Paula Pant]

If I had an attorney that I was regularly working with, like if I had an estate planning attorney or if I had, if there was any attorney that I was regularly working with and I had a, a recurring relationship with that person, that's the person I would give it to.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah. Jesse, have you thought about that? Or in your, the firm you work.

[Jesse Kramer]

In Definitely thought about it. Do I have it set up in my own life? No, I do not, but. Right. It would probably be someone who's like the executor. You know, that's who I would think of is someone like the executor of your state. Your trusted attorney. Or for some people, it's either a trusted accountant. Or like a financial planner. Like whoever that trusted outside advisor is in your life. Could probably be a good candidate for that.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Yeah. Oh, gee, have you. I'm sure with clients dealing with this all the time. If anybody of our team's thought about this or is doing it, it might be you.

[OG]

Well, this is one of the things that I think is really overlooked. In an estate planning process overall. Which is how do other people get access to the two factor authentication thing? Like, Paula, you were talking about. If you get hit by a bus. How are you going to get your phone to open. When your face is buried six feet under the dirt? I mean, for real, Right?

[Paula Pant]

I thought you were going to say under the tires.

[OG]

It's got a tire track over it and it doesn't recognize. The other thing I can think of is to literally have somebody else's face ID work for your phone. And that just assumes that that device is also still good. Right. If you're in an accident and the device is destroyed or something like that, then what now you have to go get a new device. But how are you going to log? You know, there's a lot of layers to that. I think generally speaking, the two factor authentication stuff you can bypass. Not easily, but you can call Schwab and say, I don't have that device anymore. Grandpa died. What can we do to, like, access this and kind of proceed with the estate plan type of thing? They have protocols for it. But to your point, Paul, about the master password. Like that needs to be somewhere so that somebody you know. Whether it's with your attorney. Written in code in your estate plan. Like, every 15th letter of my trust is my master password. I don't know. It's not.

[Paula Pant]

But that would be cool.

[OG]

Yeah. It's a puzzle.

[Paula Pant]

Yeah, exactly. To have a cipher.

[OG]

That's how Joe's gonna do it. Like a game. It's like a limerick. It's a riddle you have to solve to get the password.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

We were talking about smoking jackets on Wednesday's show. OG I'll be in a smoking jacket, in a study with a pipe. And if you're watching this VHS tape. A, you found a VHS player. And B, I'm dead.

[OG]

Exactly.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

So here's the right. I like what Aaron said and for people on YouTube. I just posted it for just a second. Aaron says hanging out with us live. Joe, you trust all of us stackers. Why not post your phone password here in YouTube so we can all be there for you when you need us. Aaron's a giver. So nice our stacker community just willing to help anything. That's a mistake that you see people oftenly have Often oftenly be oftenly most be oftenly most be oftenly have in their go bag. Like is there some mistake Jesse, you think playing them for just about anything. It sounds like it's a mistake.

[Jesse Kramer]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I mean he wishes he prepared for a blizzard.

[Jesse Kramer]

A shovel should have a shovel in my financial to go back. No, I mean most be oftenly I would suppose it's just that people are underprepared. I mean, you know what I mean? Like all you need to do is see the grocery store shelves at the slightest hint. Like you know, could all you stackers you can hear, you can think of like what happened in Covid, like what the grocery stores looked like in Covid. Now for us here in Rochester, somebody.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Jesse was going to poop a lot.

[OG]

During COVID That was the funniest New York Times cartoon. I think it was the New York Times where it was like post apocalyptic Covid and aliens were coming down and I think we've talked about this, but the aliens were like surveying all the dead Covid bodies and they're like we don't get it. Their asses are immaculate. They're all dead, but their asses are immaculate.

[Jesse Kramer]

On that note, I mean related to. No, no. Most be oftenly I would say people are just under prepared. So if someone takes what we talked about today and they kind of go to the other end of the spectrum and kind of dial it up too much. I don't know. I think there are worse things you could be doing with your time.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I think that might be the point here Paula, is that just talking about this like a fire drill ahead of time is probably the worth the squeeze.

[Paula Pant]

Yeah, it's always the low probability high magnitude events that you want to keep.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

On the radar, spend just a few moments on. And OG I know you call this a fire drill in your practice. Right. Isn't it a fire drill or you call it something like that?

[OG]

Well, lifeboat drills, it's more about the market going down like boats. But I was thinking about it like a fire drill. It just popped in my head that I bet the vast majority of people listening haven't actually done a fire drill in their home. And what I mean by that is put your kids in their bed, blindfold them and tell them to crawl out of the house. The house is on fire. You have to get out and just watch how it goes because that's what it would be like. And something simple we're talking about, oh my gosh, what if the zombies come? But if your house is on fire, where's the family meet? Where is the meeting spot? And how are we going to know that everybody's out? You know what I mean? Something much more likely to happen, albeit still rare, but much more likely to happen. You know, something like that or some sort of weather event, a tornado at the school. Like what's the process for you to know that your kids are good or for your kids to know that you're good? Like just some sort of communication protocol with the, with obviously different ages. But you get the idea.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I love this idea. The Go bag. We'll link to it on our show. Notes stack benjamin.com and I think that's gonna, that's gonna wrap up this exciting Friday. Let's find out what all of you are doing. Well here last week of February, where you work, Paula, what's happening at the Afford Anything show?

[Paula Pant]

On the Afford Anything show, of course, every Tuesday you join us, Jo, for some great discussion, for some answering questions. We also have an episode, an interview with Scott Yamamura in which we, we. This one is dedicated to beginners. So if you are an absolute beginner and you want the basics, that episode airs at the end of February. We also did an interview with Sahil Bloom. He writes about the five types of wealth. He's got a million readers to his newsletter and that's not hyperbole. Yeah, yeah. He has literally 1 million subscribers to his newsletter. So he's a very, very well known writer, worked in private equity, made a lot of money at a very young age and then walked away from it all so that he could be closer to his parents and spend more time with his two year old son. So he writes about an expanded definition of wealth and so he joins us to talk about that.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

That's all on the Afford Anything podcast, where finer podcasts are finer podcasts like Jesse Kramer's new podcast which is personal finance for long term investors.

[Jesse Kramer]

That's right. That's right.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I got it right. That's incredible.

[Jesse Kramer]

That's a first, Joe. That's a first.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Jesse, what's happening at pfflt?

[Jesse Kramer]

Exactly, exactly we'll work on the acronym. That's okay. We'll figure something out. What's going on? We recently had Chad Carson on the show to talk about, you know, being the small but mighty real estate investor, residential real estate investing. Something I don't spend a ton of time talking about. So it was good to to hear from Chad. I know Paul has been on the podcast before to talk about that topic. So always good to get a voice in there. And then the next episode coming out soon. Ooh, is going to be a deep dive on national debt. I feel like national debt is something that everybody understands to be this kind of sort of looming problem. But then we keep on going further into debt and we invest in debt through US Bonds. So anyway, it was really interesting to put this episode together. Still not quite done yet, but by the time people are listening to this, we'll be, it'll be coming out soon.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

And OG last day of February. How are you celebrating heading into March?

[OG]

70 and sunny this week in the DFW area. So the bike tires are getting pumped up. We're gonna go to a nice long bike ride this weekend. Couple long zone 2 rides. Get that cardio going. Gotta get that beach body ready.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

I thought you're gonna say you're sending the kids on a long bike.

[OG]

No, I said me on a long bike ride.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

70 sunny.

[OG]

I'm sending the kids Titans beach body, baby.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

That's good.

[OG]

Speedo don't wear itself.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Like we said earlier in the week, pitchers and catchers already reported and we didn't get the call. I can't believe they didn't. They didn't call for us. So little disappointing. Anyway, thanks everybody for hanging out with us on YouTube. If you want to hang out with us on YouTube, join our Facebook group, the Basement Stacking Benjamins.com Basement. Get you the link and we will tell you like on a day like today, we'll tell you maybe 45 minutes before we go live. We we barely gave anybody any warning and yet. Thank you. We had Dividend, Gypsy, we had Aaron, we had Rocky hanging out with us and a few others. Thanks so much for hanging out and making the show with us and being a part of it. That's going to do it for today. Doug, you've got it from here, man. What should we have learned today?

[Doug]

Well, Joe, here's what stacked up on our to do list for today. First, take some advice from Paula. Remember when she was saying all that incredible stuff, it was like super smart. She used all those really big words with, with all the syllables that we had to look up while she was talking. And then we couldn't really hear and understand what she was saying because we were too busy looking up all the big $12 words she's using. Yeah, Paula, we missed it. Can you say it again?

[Paula Pant]

You can make melons out of melon aid.

[Doug]

Oh, oh. And then Jesse. Man, did Jesse just knock it out of the park today. Jesse hit another home run for us. Man.

[Jesse Kramer]

We all gotta go somehow, so why don't you just run toward the zombies?

[Doug]

But the big lesson, Joe's mom is such a giver in this cooperative laundry thing. She told me she'll even let me dry the clothes for both of us. And she's going to check on them later just to make sure, like, the machine's not smoking. But don't worry, when that's done, I still get to fold them and hang them up again. Not perfect, but it's a start. Thanks to Jesse Kramer for joining us today. You'll find Jesse's fine work at Personal finance for people who listen to podcasts about money or something like that. I don't know, whatever the name of his show is now, I can't keep up with it. We're also going to include links in our show notes@stacking benjamin's.com. don't worry. Thanks also to Paula Pant for hanging out with us today. You'll find her fabulous and succinctly named podcast Afford Anything. Wherever you listen to succinctly name podcasts. Jesse, take some notes. Thanks also to OG for joining us today. Looking for some really, really good financial planning help? Head to stackingbenjamins.comog for his calendar. This show is the property of SB Podcasts, LLC, Copyright 2025 and is created by Josal Sehive. Joe gets help from a few of our neighborhood friends. You'll find out about our awesome [e-mail] along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. Come say hello.

[Joe Saul-Sehy]

Oh, yeah.

[Doug]

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 decision 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.