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The Stacking Benjamins Show

The Stacking Benjamins Show

Written by: Joe Saul-Sehy and Josh ‘OG’ Bannerman CFP
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Named Best Personal Finance Podcast by Bankrate.com and Kiplinger — and the only podcast the Plutus Awards retired from competition after winning twice — The Stacking Benjamins Show is personal finance that doesn’t put you to sleep.

Hosts Joe Saul-Sehy (former 16-year financial advisor, ex-WXYZ-TV “Money Man”) and Josh “OG” Bannerman, CFP (Certified Financial Planner, Bannerman Wealth) sit around the card table in Joe’s mom’s half-finished basement in Texarkana and talk money with the smartest guests in personal finance, investing, and behavioral economics. As Fast Company wrote, the show “strikes a great balance of fun and functional.”

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: expert guests, real headlines, listener questions, and Doug’s trivia. Topics include investing, retirement planning, budgeting, real estate, behavioral finance, taxes, and financial independence — for anyone who wants to be smarter about money without being talked down to.

Subscribe to The 201 — the free newsletter that goes deeper than the show — at stackingbenjamins.com/201

© SB Podcast LLC | Gamut Podcast Network Economics Personal Finance
Episodes
  • When Borrowing Against Your House Is Smart (And When It Quietly Wrecks Your Plan) SB1861

    When Borrowing Against Your House Is Smart (And When It Quietly Wrecks Your Plan) SB1861
    Jun 29 2026

    Americans are sitting on more home equity than ever -- and more of them are tapping it. Not because they're struggling, but because they locked in ultra-low mortgage rates and they're not giving those up. So instead of refinancing, they're turning to HELOCs and home equity loans. Joe and OG walk through the math, the psychology, the questions most people never think to ask, and the specific situations where borrowing against your home equity actually makes sense -- and the ones where it quietly destroys a plan that was working.

    What You'll Walk Away With

    • Why home equity borrowing is surging right now -- and why keeping a 3% mortgage while opening a HELOC at 7.5% might still be the smarter move
    • The Oreo problem: why having a HELOC open "just in case" is the financial equivalent of leaving a sleeve of Oreos on the counter and expecting not to eat them
    • OG's CEO versus CFO framework: how to separate the decision of whether to do the project from the decision of how to finance it
    • The rate math you should actually run before choosing between a HELOC, a home equity loan, and a full refinance -- including current Bankrate benchmarks
    • Home improvements, credit card consolidation, college costs, business startup, and investing: OG's honest take on each use case, including the ones that are just bad ideas
    • The questions nobody asks before getting a HELOC -- including when the rate adjusts (spoiler: faster in one direction), what happens to the draw period, and whether the bank can pull the line at any time
    • Why using home equity as a third-tier emergency fund sounds clever but has a fatal flaw
    • What happens if home prices fall and you've borrowed heavily against the equity -- and why Texas has the 80% rule
    • OG and Anna wrap up season two of the financial basics series -- including why financial planning is an ongoing activity, not a document, and what's coming in season three
    • The one open question OG wants Stackers to send him before season three begins

    Why This Matters Now

    Home prices are up. Mortgage rates are still elevated. The people most tempted to tap their equity are often the ones who built it most carefully -- and that's exactly when the guardrails matter most.

    From the Basement

    Joe and OG dig into the HELOC decision with specifics: math, psychology, use cases, and the questions banks don't volunteer. OG and Anna close out season two of the financial basics series with a reflection on why everything in a financial plan connects to everything else -- and a preview of what's coming in season three. Doug arrives with Bernie Madoff trivia. The guides get a Scout upgrade and the college planning guide gets a refresh just in time for back to school.

    Resources Mentioned

    • Stacking Benjamins Guides -- workplace benefits, tax planning, and college planning with Scout AI; stackingbenjamins.com/guides
    • Stacking Benjamins Field Kit -- stackingbenjamins.com/fieldkit
    • Stacking Benjamins Basics Guide -- season one and season two; stackingbenjamins.com/basicsguide
    • Stacking Benjamins voicemail -- stackingbenjamins.com/yelldownstairs; leave a question for the next Q&A episode with Anna
    • OG financial planning calendar -- stackingbenjamins.com/og
    • Stacking Benjamins Newsletter (The 201) -- stackingbenjamins.com/201
    • Stacking Benjamins Community -- stackingbenjamins.com/basement


    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 2 mins
  • What Would You Do With a $500,000 Inheritance -- And What Would You Leave Behind? SB1860

    What Would You Do With a $500,000 Inheritance -- And What Would You Leave Behind? SB1860
    Jun 26 2026

    Americans are in the middle of the largest wealth transfer in history. Trillions of dollars are moving between generations right now. But what do you actually do when half a million dollars lands in your account? And on the other side of that question: when it's your turn to give, do you leave it when you die or give it while you're alive? Do you split it equally or based on need? And what about the inheritance that has nothing to do with money at all? Joe asks Paula Pant, OG, and Doc G to answer all of it honestly.

    What You'll Walk Away With

    • What Paula, OG, and Doc G would each do before noon on the day they found out -- and why OG's first move is to make a list of questions while Paula immediately calls her accountant
    • Why Doc G, currently in the decumulation phase, would give some away and consider lending money to his son for a property before investing a dollar
    • OG's 40/20/40 framework for any unexpected windfall: 40% to investing, 20% to guilt-free spending, 40% to debt payoff or a medium-term goal -- and why it works for $1,000 checks and $500,000 checks alike
    • The grief factor: why Paula says the first thing she thinks of when she hears the word inheritance is grief -- and why emotional cloudiness is the most underestimated risk in how people handle inherited money
    • Would you tell anyone? All three guests have different answers -- and the reasons matter
    • Give it while you're alive or leave it when you die: what the King Lear scenario has to do with your estate plan, and why Paula's answer depends entirely on her end-of-life care risk
    • Pay for college or leave an inheritance: Doc G picks college, OG picks experiences, and the reasoning behind each choice reveals two completely different theories of compounding
    • Equal inheritance versus needs-based inheritance: why Doc G has already had the conversation with his kids and why he's not apologizing for unequal parenting
    • What people at the end of life actually want to leave behind -- Doc G's hospice experience in one of the most memorable moments of the episode
    • The non-financial legacy each panelist is trying to leave -- and Doug's surprisingly moving answer about where joy actually comes from

    Why This Matters Now

    The wealth transfer is already happening. Whether you're on the giving end or the receiving end, the decisions made in the first days after money changes hands tend to be the ones people regret most. This episode is the conversation to have beforehand.

    From the Basement

    Paula Pant, OG, and Doc G work through the full inheritance question -- tactics, emotions, purpose, and legacy -- in one of the more wide-ranging Friday conversations this show has produced. Paula tries to win the trivia competition for the first time in longer than anyone cares to admit, immediately hoping she gets to thank the Academy. Doug closes with something nobody saw coming.

    Resources Mentioned

    • Earn and Invest podcast -- Doc G (Jordan Grumet); upcoming episode with Dr. Jaspal Singh on the case for ambitious careers; wherever you listen to podcasts
    • Afford Anything podcast -- Paula Pant; recent episode with Dr. Julia Garcia on five habits of hope; wherever you listen to podcasts
    • Stacking Benjamins Newsletter (The 201) -- stackingbenjamins.com/201
    • OG financial planning calendar -- stackingbenjamins.com/og
    • Stacking Benjamins Community -- stackingbenjamins.com/basement


    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Dana Anspach on the Four Phases of Retirement (and why your go-go years are the most important) SB1859

    Dana Anspach on the Four Phases of Retirement (and why your go-go years are the most important) SB1859
    Jun 24 2026
    Most retirement planning focuses on accumulation -- how to save enough. Dana Anspach of Sensible Money has spent her career on the other side of that equation: what happens when it's time to actually spend the money. In her new book Living Off Your Acorns, she breaks retirement into four distinct phases -- pre-go, go-go, slow-go, and no-go -- and argues that the decade before you retire may be the most important planning window of all. CFP and MarketWatch columnist Beth Pinsker also stops by to flag an HSA inheritance problem that almost nobody sees coming.What You'll Walk Away WithDana's four-phase retirement framework -- pre-go, go-go, slow-go, and no-go -- and why the pre-go years (the 10 years before you stop working) are where the most valuable planning actually happensWhy most people wait until months before retirement to do serious planning -- and the specific things you can only fix if you start far enough outThe JP Morgan research showing 20% volatility in retirement spending year over year -- and why that makes flexibility a more important goal than optimizationWhy Dana recommends recalibrating your retirement plan every year rather than building a 30-year model that's guaranteed to be wrong by year fiveThe income ladder approach: how having bonds and CDs maturing each year means you never have to sell investments at a loss to cover spending -- and why it also helps behaviorallyThe fundedness concept: why the safe withdrawal rate was calculated assuming the Great Depression starts the day you retire, and why dynamic go-go spending gives you more room than the 4% rule suggestsThe retirement red zone -- the five years before and the first year after leaving work -- and why Dana starts shifting portfolios toward conservatism 10 years out, not fiveThe long-term care reality check: why only about 15% of people incur a catastrophic care cost, why home equity is Dana's preferred reserve asset, and what insurance actually covers versus what people hope it coversThe HSA tax problem Beth Pinsker uncovered: why a non-spouse beneficiary who inherits your HSA takes the entire balance as ordinary income in a single year -- and why you should spend it before your Roth, not afterWhy power of attorney paperwork at each individual financial institution matters more than most people realize -- and the specific authentication vulnerabilities that put retirees at fraud riskWhy This Matters NowThe decumulation phase requires a completely different strategy than accumulation -- and most people don't start thinking about it until they're months away from leaving work. Dana's case is simple: the earlier you start building flexibility into every decision, the more options you have when life doesn't go according to plan. And it almost never does.From the BasementDana Anspach joins Joe and OG for a deep dive into Living Off Your Acorns, covering everything from her grandpa feeding squirrels in retirement to the very specific paperwork every financial institution needs before they'll honor your power of attorney. Beth Pinsker makes a headline segment appearance to explain the HSA inheritance tax problem her MarketWatch piece uncovered. Doug arrives with World Cup trivia. The community shares reactions to the 59% unplanned retirement episode, including Shep's 30-year story of gradually bumping his savings rate and a 37-year-old Stacker leaving the workforce in two weeks for baby number four.Resources MentionedLiving Off Your Acorns: Your Guide to the Four Phases of Retirement by Dana Anspach -- available on Amazon; search "Living Off Your Acorns" or "Dana Anspach"Sensible Money -- Dana Anspach's financial planning firm; sensiblemoney.comMarketWatch -- "I'm 66 and have $85,000 in my HSA. When should I start spending it?" by Beth PinskerMy Mother's Money by Beth Pinsker -- previous Stacking Benjamins appearance linked at stackingbenjamins.comStacking Benjamins Basics Guide -- stackingbenjamins.com/basicsguideStacking Benjamins YouTube channel -- OG and Anna basics series; youtube.com/stackingbenjaminsStacking Benjamins Newsletter (The 201) -- stackingbenjamins.com/201Stacking Benjamins Community -- stackingbenjamins.com/basementSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 8 mins
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