The Stacking Benjamins Show Podcast By StackingBenjamins.com | Money Podcast | Cumulus Podcast Network cover art

The Stacking Benjamins Show

The Stacking Benjamins Show

By: StackingBenjamins.com | Money Podcast | Cumulus Podcast Network
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Named the Best Personal Finance Podcast by Bankrate.com and Kiplinger, The Stacking Benjamins Show features a light and friendly tone. Hosts Joe Saul-Sehy and OG aim to make financial literacy fun for all as they sit around the card table in Joe's Mom's half-finished basement and talk with experts about personal finance, saving, investing, and important money trends. As Fast Company once wrote, the Stacking Benjamins podcast "strikes a great balance of fun and functional." So join Joe and OG every Monday, Wednesday and Friday as they read your letters, discuss major headlines, and throw in some trivia and laughs for free.2023 SB Podcast LLC | Cumulus Podcast Network Economics Personal Development Personal Finance Personal Success
Episodes
  • Even the Pros Are Wrong Half the Time. Here's What They Do Differently SB1820

    Even the Pros Are Wrong Half the Time. Here's What They Do Differently SB1820
    Mar 25 2026
    The best investors in the world are wrong -- a lot. Researchers Claire Flynn Levy and Lee Freeman-Shor spent over a decade studying elite money managers and found that being right about stock picks isn't actually what separates the winners. What separates them is what happens after the pick. The discipline, the rules, the willingness to act when the data changes -- and the ability to remove emotion from decisions most people make entirely on feeling. What You'll Walk Away With Why top investors can be wrong more than half the time and still dramatically outperform -- and what that means for how you evaluate your own strategy The critical shift from obsessing over what to buy to building a repeatable process around what you do next Three behavioral tribes investors fall into when a position moves against them -- and which one quietly destroys long-term returns Two distinct ways investors handle winning positions -- and why the more comfortable approach tends to leave serious money on the table How elite investors use predefined rules to decide when to sell, trim, or hold -- and why removing emotion from that decision is the whole game A real-world example of a rules-based system built around earnings surprises and data-driven holding periods -- one you can actually learn from Why planting tiny "seed" positions can preserve massive upside while keeping risk almost invisible on the downside The hidden cost of a pattern so common it barely registers -- holding losers too long while cutting winners too early What makes China's market behave unlike anywhere else -- and how one maestro built an entire strategy around it The AI cautionary tale hiding inside this episode -- a real advisor, a real client presentation, and math that was off by a factor of 12 Why This Matters Now For investors in their 40s, the goal quietly shifts. Finding the next big winner starts to matter less than building something that actually holds up over time. Markets feel noisier, AI tools feel more powerful, and the promise of faster answers has never been louder. But long-term results still come down to behavior, discipline, and repeatable systems -- the same unglamorous edge the pros have been using all along. Knowing that changes how you listen to the noise. From the Basement Joe and OG press Claire and Lee on what a decade of studying elite investors actually reveals -- and the answers are more behavioral than most people expect. The crew then turns to AI in financial advice, and OG shares a story that should give every advisor and DIY investor pause before they hit send on anything they haven't personally verified. Doug arrives with a trivia question that somehow connects Michael Jackson's moonwalk to one giant leap for your bragging rights. Whether the basement scoreboard sticks the landing is best discovered with your earbuds in. FULL SHOW NOTES: https://stackingbenjamins.com/diving-deep-into-stock-market-research-1820 Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201 Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • The Real Return on Your Emergency Fund Has Nothing to Do With Interest Rates SB1819

    The Real Return on Your Emergency Fund Has Nothing to Do With Interest Rates SB1819
    Mar 23 2026
    If your emergency fund feels like it's just sitting there doing nothing, you might be measuring the wrong thing. The real return on cash isn't the yield -- it's what that cash helps you avoid. Panic selling during a downturn. High-interest debt after an unexpected bill. Tapping your 401(k) at exactly the wrong moment. Joe and OG reframe emergency savings not as a financial placeholder, but as a strategic asset quietly holding your entire plan together. What You'll Walk Away With Why your emergency fund may be one of the highest-impact moves in your financial life -- even when the yield looks embarrassingly boring How cash on hand protects your long-term investments by keeping emotional, costly decisions off the table during market swings The overlooked way a strong emergency fund can actually lower your overall costs -- starting with how you think about insurance deductibles A side-by-side look at where to keep your cash -- high-yield savings, CDs, money markets, Treasuries -- and what actually matters when choosing How to weigh liquidity, safety, taxes, and yield without falling into the trap of endlessly optimizing something that should stay simple Why chasing marginally better rates or bank bonuses often creates more friction than financial value A practical way to use AI tools to pressure-test your cash strategy without turning it into a part-time job How CD laddering and Treasury options like SGOV can fit into a modern emergency fund without overcomplicating the approach The "good enough" mindset that quietly outperforms the constant optimization trap -- and why it's harder to embrace than it sounds A five-column cash flow framework that cuts through the noise and reveals the one number driving your entire financial picture Why This Matters Now In your 40s, financial decisions don't happen in isolation -- they stack. You're managing growth, protection, and flexibility at the same time, often with less margin for error than you'd like. Cash can feel like a drag when markets are moving and rates look modest. But the right emergency fund creates options, absorbs shocks, and quietly makes every other part of your plan more resilient. It's not idle. It's infrastructure. From the Basement Joe and OG dig into what your emergency fund is actually doing -- and it turns out the math goes well beyond the interest rate on the tin. OG and Anna close out the show with the second installment of the new financial planning basics series, walking through a five-column cash flow system simple enough to sketch on a napkin but powerful enough to anchor your entire plan. Doug arrives with elevator trivia that's smoother than the ride up. Whether the scoreboard moves is a conversation best had with your earbuds in. FULL SHOW NOTES: https://stackingbenjamins.com/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-emergency-fund-1819 Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201 Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • How to Build a Financial Plan That Holds Up When Life Doesn't SB1818

    How to Build a Financial Plan That Holds Up When Life Doesn't SB1818
    Mar 20 2026
    Your financial plan is only as good as what happens to it under pressure. A market drop. A job loss. An inflation spike that turns "fine" into "wait, what?" Most portfolios are quietly optimized for the good times, and that's exactly why they crack when things get uncomfortable. This week, Joe, Paula, Jesse, and special guest Paul Merriman aren't chasing the highest returns. They're building for something harder: a system that doesn't force bad decisions when everything around it is going sideways. Because the real test of your plan was never the bull market. It's right now. Paula Pant — Afford Anything host and career-flexibility advocate. Jesse Cramer — Host of Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors and someone who clearly plays the long game in more ways than one. Paul Merriman — Longtime investor, educator, and the person in the room who's seen enough market cycles to stop being impressed by any single one of them. On building a portfolio that doesn't quit: Why the "sports car" portfolio feels exciting and quietly raises the odds you'll blow up your plan at the exact wrong moment The real definition of all-weather investing: built for resilience, not bragging rights How diversification feels like it's failing right before it does exactly what it's supposed to do Why index funds have a built-in self-cleaning mechanism most investors never think about The behavioral trap of performance-chasing and how it causes permanent damage, not just temporary losses On the parts of your plan that aren't your portfolio: Why your investment strategy alone isn't a financial plan and how cash reserves, insurance, and income stability complete the system The often-skipped roles of disability and umbrella insurance in protecting everything you've built How to think about job-loss risk in a world reshaped by AI and shifting careers Why negotiation skills and career flexibility might matter more to your long-term security than picking the "right" fund On measuring success differently: A better scorecard for your financial plan: not just returns, but whether it survives the next storm without forcing a bad call If you're in your 40s, the math has changed. You've built real momentum, which means a major mistake costs more than it used to, and there's less runway to recover. Markets are unpredictable, job security looks different than it did a decade ago, and the financial media is a constant nudge toward reacting to something. An all-weather approach doesn't try to predict what's coming. It prepares for it. The goal shifts from winning every season to still being in the game when the weather turns, and that shift makes all the difference when things actually get hard. OG's chair is empty this week, but Paul Merriman is a more than worthy substitute, joining Joe, Paula, and Jesse to trade ideas on portfolios built to take a punch. Doug holds down the trivia desk, and let's just say the leaderboard gets an interesting update. Somewhere between market wisdom and basement bragging rights, the point lands: you don't need to win every season. You just need a plan that doesn't fall apart when the weather does. New to the basement? Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and leave a review if this one helped you stop optimizing for the wrong thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 10 mins

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All stars
Most relevant
I like how the show discusses meaningful topics in a humorous way. It leaves me with things to think about and ways to improve my life.

Interesting and helpful

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This is not a personal finance show. It's a talk show with people who may or may not know anything about personal finance having a good time.

Get ready to not learn anything. But leave with a chuckle or two.

Fun lighthearted shoe

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If you live in the world of personal finance you know that information can get repetitive. This podcast breaks up the monotony with humor and current events. Joe and OG are cutting edge. Well worth the time to listen.

Awesome Podcast

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I'm leaving my original review because i want people to understand where I started vs where I am now. This podcast is one of my go to podcasts 3 days per week. I couldn't understand before that this podcast is an attempt to bring people that are not finance nerds into the fold. They bring small nuggets of finance to people that find it normally boring. This is a great introduction to finances with a humorous side. I find myself always siding with OG. He is cut and dry one sided, but Joe is willing to look at it with a real world view. Doug is an awesome addition to the group that makes me laugh every time.


I had high hopes for this podcast, but they run their mouths about nothing important for the majority of the shows. This is a financial show that 4 minutes are finance related content. I hope the book this guy wrote is better than his podcast and not full of all the extra garbage. Drop the BS and stick to finance or change the name to "the random useless info show"

Take the time to listen

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I found this podcast after seeing multiple good reviews on Reddit. I picked an episode at random to listen to on my commute. The first 25 minutes were ads, a discussion about Adam West as Batman, a long talk about fire safety, a trivia question about Dave Thomas of Wendy's, and more ads. All of this before the guest and topic of the episode are mentioned at all. It was a complete waste of time.

Waste of time

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