Stacking Benjamins: Your Gateway to Financial Independence

If the FIRE movement is so inspirational, why is it constantly under attack? More heat was lobbed at the early retirement movement last week by a couple of industry insiders on Twitter. To help us, we welcome the FIRE-y woman behind the Fiery Millennials blog, Gwen Merz, Len Penzo from Len Penzo dot com, and the wonderful Doc G from the What's Up Next podcast! These intelligent, retirement-focused people will be discussing the tweet that started quite the firestorm. If you or anyone you know has student loans, you'll want to listen to our Friday FinTech guest, Michael Block. He's the CEO and Founder of Pillar which is an app to help you pay back your student loans and save money. Early users have reported some huge wins, so we had to get the details from Michael about how it works. And finally, during our MagnifyMoney call in segment we will answer a question from an anonymous woman on how she will be affected by inheriting a ROTH IRA. As always, we'll quiz our contributors with an epic game show question about National Beer Can Appreciation Day from our neighbor, Doug. We'll have all that and more on today's show! We hope you can join the fun!

Let's get back to the basics. Everyone talks about retirement tools, projections, timelines, and tax strategies...what about answering, "How do I begin?" If that's you, we've got you covered on today's show because we're talking to CPA Michele Cagan about Retirement 101. We'll start off with how you fare against other savers (or non-savers), and then discuss how you should frame retirement. Is it one long process? Should you begin with picking investments? We'll cover all of that and more on today's show. Student loan borrowers everywhere cheered recently when a Navy vet had his loans discharged in court (something people said couldn't be done). In our headline segment we'll talk to attorney Leslie Tayne about how that happened, and maybe spill a little bad news (spoiler) about you and your student loans. But don't worry--all hope isn't lost. Leslie will also share some good advice for student loan borrowers. Of course, that's not all. We'll also throw out the Haven Life line to a lucky listener AND save time for some of Doug's cat vs. dog trivia. It's another fun day down in the basement. Hope you can join us!

Is debt crushing your dreams? Are your relationships affected by students loans or credit card problems? You NEED to hear today's guest, Reshawn Lee, talk about her situation. Reshawn and her husband Rob had horrible credit card debt, student loans, and couldn't ever seem to begin saving...until they took some drastic actions and everything turned out (spoiler!) not just great, but with a trip around the world! Today we'll talk about the work they do on their Learn Hustle Grow blog and YouTube channel, and learn about how they overcame their issues and began their path to financial independence. Are you hearing (like we are) the buzzword "AI" all over the financial arena lately? We'll discuss one headline about how much of the artificial intelligence out there is more artificial than intelligent. Later we'll throw out the Haven Life Line to Christina, who can no longer contribute to an employee sponsored retirement plan after a job change. How should she continue saving for retirement? Of course we'll also share some of Doug's trivia AND much, much more.

Happy Birthday to our namesake Benjamin Franklin!! Today we'll celebrate by talking about one of our favorite topics, leaving your 9-5 job early. To help us, we welcome the woman behind the new EconoMe Conference, Diania Merriam, Len Penzo from Len Penzo dot com, and the wonderful OG from our very own podcast! This piece, written by Jessica Garbarino for her Every Single Dollar blog, is titled Why I Walked Away from a Six-Figure Job , and goes over some very good reasons to leave a "good" job AND many of the strategies she used to ensure she wouldn't have to return. (Big thanks to Mindy Jensen from BiggerPockets Money for reading it today as well!) Frustrated with your money management skills? Don't feel like you have enough of a handle on your monthly expenses? At the halfway mark of today's episode, we'll hear from Belinda Rosenblum and Joe, as they unveil the exciting new course offered by the Stacking Benjamins team, Making Money Easy. We'll walk through all of the details today. It's been a long time since we've had a Stacking Benjamins course, so we're thrilled to tell you about it today. And finally, during our MagnifyMoney segment we will answer a question from Reddit.com on whether or not a man is in the wrong for not wanting "free" childcare from his mother-in-law. Where do you stand? Is he on the right side of this argument? As always, of course we'll quiz our contributors with an epic gameshow question about Ben Franklin from our neighbor, Doug. We'll have all that and more on today's show! Hope you can join the fun!

Your retirement options just became more robust. A new law called The SECURE Act passed late last year and today we're sharing ALL of the information you need to know to change your plan to take advantage of this new, exciting legislation. If this is new to you, don't worry, we've got you covered. We'll begin the show with Joe & OG bringing you up to speed on the details. But if you're wondering how to use it well, we have something even better. Joining us on today's show we'll have Aimee Kwain from Fidelity Investments, Dan Keady from TIAA, and the Retirement Answer Man himself, Roger Whitney to walk us through their thoughts about the new law. Our goal today is to help you to understand how the SECURE Act impacts you, and we're excited about all you're about to learn. Of course, this is a Stacking Benjamins episode, so that isn't all....later we'll throw out the Haven Life Line to Leo, who is wondering what he should do with his money while he's saving up for a downpayment on a house. Should he invest, or keep the money safe in a high-yield savings account? Hoping for more? We've gotcha covererd. We'll also save some time for Doug's amazing weight loss trivia.