The Mental Trick That Makes Saving Money Effortless SB1891

Companies have gotten frighteningly good at removing friction from spending. One click, stored payment info, a box on your porch before you've even had time to regret the purchase. Today's episode flips that same idea around: what if you engineered your own financial life the same way, making good decisions the path of least resistance and bad decisions just annoying enough to make you pause? Joe and OG close out Financial Action Month with a genuinely useful framework for building systems that work even on the days your willpower doesn't show up. What You'll Walk Away With Why discipline isn't a personality trait, it's a system you build once instead of a decision you make every dayA simple "make it easy or make it hard" test you can apply to any financial habit, from retirement savings to late-night online shoppingWhy automating your savings rate removes the single biggest source of decision fatigue in a financial planA smarter way to handle windfalls and bonuses, deciding your split between saving, debt, and fun once a year instead of every single timeWhy canceling a subscription is deliberately made difficult, and the workaround that neutralizes itA four-step "financial action ladder" for turning financial knowledge into permanent, lasting habitsWhy waiting a day before a big purchase, and other small friction points, can save you from regret without requiring any extra willpower Why This Matters Now Knowing what to do with your money has never really been the hard part. The hard part is doing it consistently, especially when life gets busy, stressful, or just plain boring. Building your environment so the smart choice is also the easy choice takes the daily grind of willpower out of the equation entirely. That's not a lack of discipline, it's actually the most disciplined move available: deciding once, automating it, and letting the system do the work every day after that. From the Basement A goofy but genuinely fun "make it easy or make it hard" game plays out across everything from emergency funds to concert tickets, and a National Trail Mix Day detour delivers exactly the kind of nonsense only this show could make delightful. Resources Mentioned Stacko Financial Action Month board https://stackingbenjamins.com/stacko — the interactive game with a money move for each squareStacking Benjamins Field Kit https://fieldkitfinance.com — the all-in-one financial organization and subscription-canceling toolProfit First by Mike Michalowicz https://www.mikemichalowicz.com/profit-first/ — the book referenced on flipping the save-then-spend default See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Network freedom and flexibility. That's what you want in a healthcare plan. With a Humana Medicare Advantage PPO plan, you can see any doctor in the country who accepts Medicare, including specialists. No referrals, no kidding. Learn more at gethumana.com. See any doctor who accepts Medicare and is willing to bill Humana. Humana PPOs may not be available in all areas. Benefits and costs share may vary. Humana is a Medicare Advantage PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  Stack 'em, stack 'em. Let's get some stacking going.

• 0:40Speaker 02

  Live from Joe's mom's basement, it's the Stacking Benjamin Show.

• 0:55Speaker 02

  I'm Joe's mom's neighbor Doug, and it's been Financial Action Month here in the basement. And on Graduation Day, let's top it off with the point. Let's help each other stop making horrible money moves. Today, we're talking not just dumb spending, but how can you creatively convince yourself to save more? But that's not all. As we put a point on Financial Action Month, let's pull one last tile from the Stack-O game board to help you win big by making some money moves while everyone else is already thinking about Labor Day weekend. And you know, that's not all. Of course, I'll regale you with some of my incredible trivia. This one, oh, you're gonna love it because it helps us celebrate today's big national holiday.

• 1:40Speaker 02

  It's National Trail Mix Day, of course. And now, two guys who are ready to lead you down the trail toward better money habits. It's Joe O and O J J J G.

• 1:55Speaker 03

  Well, hey there, stackers, and happy Monday. Can you believe not only is it the last, last Monday in August, it's also the unofficial last week of summer for a lot of families? And we celebrate that here in the basement with National Trail Mix Day. Usually, August 31st is part of Labor Day weekend. So we're not here. So you don't get to see Doug's Labor Day weekend extravaganza, which-

• 2:21Speaker 02

  Oh, it's a banger.

• 2:21Speaker 03

  Oh, my God, we got trail mix for everybody here. Doug is getting out the trail mix bush. Not sure what the trail mix bush is.

• 2:30Speaker 02

  I haven't shaved in two weeks, getting ready for this day.

• 2:32Speaker 03

  It's, it's a crazy day here. And of course, because it's a crazy day and the unofficial last week of summer and Graduation Day, all wrapped into one, we've got Mr. OG here to celebrate. It's like, you know how you get the president of the university who comes at the end in the robes and everything? That's why we have OG here. You ready to crown some graduates' financial successes today, OG?

• 2:57Speaker 01

  I mean, I don't hear the music, but that's okay. I'm just humming it in the background.

• 3:04Speaker 03

  And now that we've heard it, we can never get rid of it. It is, it is going to be in your head the rest of the day. I'm sorry, stackers.

• 3:12Speaker 01

  You're welcome, America.

• 3:14Speaker 03

  We've got a great day going through some money moves that you can make here. We've talked financial action all month. I found a piece in the Wall Street Journal that really is the cherry on top of this entire month. OG, Doug and I, we're going to help you think about how to trick yourself into making better money moves. We're going to do that after. We've got a couple of sponsors who help us keep on keeping on. We're going to hear from them. And then Doug, OG and I, we are helping you wrap up Financial Action Month with how to think about making better money moves. Coming up next. Well, you may know the chaos is the name of the game here in mom's basement. What with guests coming in and out, Cooper the cat getting in the way, Doug being, well, being Doug.

• 3:59Speaker 03

  The holidays make it even worse because it's all about food and big meals. And the problem is prepping for those takes forever. But what about those between meals, right? The meals between those huge, huge, huge bookends? Well, that's where Factor comes in. Factor is made with high-quality ingredients that you recognize and trust with over 175 banned ingredients. You always know you're eating something that's good for you, even when you don't have time. It's ready in two minutes. Whether it's lunch between meetings or dinner after holiday shopping, Factor requires zero prep cleanup or effort from you or mom so you can focus on everything else in your day.

• 4:43Speaker 03

  Factor even has heart smart options like the Green Goddess Baramundi with tomato, rice, peas, kale and green beans, or the enchilada-style chicken and sweet potatoes. Those are so good. They're crafted with lean proteins, fiber-packed fruit and veggies and healthy fats. Try those out. Your heart and your taste buds will thank you. For Cheryl and I, Factor has been a great way for us to stay busy and focus on family life and beating mom at card games. I use Factor and you should too. So let's eat real, stackers. Head to factormeals.com/sb50off. Use code SB50OFF. And you know what?

• 5:25Speaker 03

  You're going to get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last until December 31st, 2026. That is code SB50OFF at factormeals.com. SB50OFF at factormeals.com. See website for more details.

• 5:55Speaker 03

  Well, all month long, stackers, we've been talking about financial action. We created Stack-O. You've been checking boxes, more on that later. Moving money, checking insurance, looking at investments, doing all those little things we constantly tell ourselves that, you know what, I should probably get around to that today. Last day of Financial Action Month. So today, we're going to ask a different question. What happens tomorrow? Because we can teach financial literacy forever. That's why we created Financial Action Month because you can teach financial literacy, you can explain compound interest, you can explain credit scores, you can explain Roth IRAs. But what good is knowing any of that if you don't do anything about it? I was reading this lovely Wall Street Journal piece from Julia Carpenter called "The Simple Mental Tricks That Make Us Better With Money."

• 6:39Speaker 03

  And the idea that grabbed me was friction. Technology has become incredibly good at helping all of us remove friction from our spending. You know, one click, tap here, card already stored, buy now, pay later. Barely even have time to regret the purchase before it's on a truck headed toward your house. I mean, Doug, case in point, what purchase arrives at your house often enough that the UPS guy knows where mom keeps the spare key? There's gotta be something.

• 7:05Speaker 02

  But one I can tell you about is coffee.

• 7:10Speaker 02

  We've got coffee beans on subscription. And it's just like every time I open the front door, there's a box with coffee beans in it.

• 7:17Speaker 03

  I was there with you until two weeks ago when the doctor said, "Maybe, maybe you need to back down the caffeine, Joe." Which I tried to tell him, I'm not a quitter. He's like, "Oh, you'll be a quitter. You will be a quitter if you don't slow that down." But I love it. I get now, I had to back it down to twice a year that I get these coffee beans from Vermont. Where do they come from?

• 7:39Speaker 02

  Our coffee beans?

• 7:39Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 7:40Speaker 02

  Oh, they come from the Amazon rainforest, Joe.

• 7:45Speaker 02

  Direct from the, I mean, the box even says Amazon right on it. The Amazon rainforest is where our coffee beans come from.

• 7:51Speaker 03

  It is.

• 7:51Speaker 01

  Touche. Well done, Doug.

• 7:53Speaker 03

  It is incredible. So if companies like Amazon can engineer our environment to make spending effortless, why don't we engineer our own environment today to make good financial behavior effortless? So here's the question, OG. Why do we insist on building our lives around willpower? I'm going to remember to save, I'm going to remember to invest, I'm going to remember to check my subscriptions. Isn't that a terrible system?

• 8:19Speaker 01

  It's interesting. I was just putting together a clip for some training that I'm doing for this other group that I'm in. I found this great clip about discipline and success.

• 8:31Speaker 04

  These people who are influential right now, Goggins, Jaco, Rogan, everybody is fit and disciplined. Is there people who are not fit and not disciplined who are influential?

• 8:42Speaker 05

  Well, think about it this way. Do you think that the most successful people in the world became successful and then got disciplined? Or do you think that they became disciplined and then got successful?

• 8:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, obviously the latter, yeah.

• 8:52Speaker 05

  Correct.

• 8:52Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 8:53Speaker 03

  Okay, so you make a point for discipline, but my question was about willpower, that I'm going to willpower my way to financial success.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  I mean, I think they're somewhat related, right? It's like willpower is the opposite of discipline. Discipline is doing the thing all the time. Willpower is like, I don't have to eat the cookies even though they're sitting on the table. Discipline is not buying cookies.

• 9:16Speaker 03

  Right. How do I make the good decision earlier and make the bad decision slightly harder? I think is the key here, stackers. In this world of no friction, sometimes it's important to make friction and sometimes it's important to get rid of friction. So Doug, we're going to make this a game, this whole segment.

• 9:36Speaker 02

  Make friction. I like making friction.

• 9:39Speaker 03

  Doug's all about making friction.

• 9:40Speaker 01

  Sometimes fun to like eliminate friction also. I can see both sides of these.

• 9:46Speaker 02

  The yin and the yang to that.

• 9:47Speaker 01

  It's very top and bottom, very, it's the Mobius Loop of Dick. That's what we talked about earlier.

• 9:54Speaker 03

  I don't even want to tell you what the name of this game was. The name of this game is Make It Easy or Make It Hard? And I shouldn't have slapped it. I realize you're 11. I realize you're 11. Just get over it. So Doug, I'm going to give you financial behavior and you tell me whether we should make it easy, remove friction because we want it to happen, or make it hard, add friction because we want time to think before it happens. And then we're going to, in this game, we're not going to just walk through it like we normally do. We're going to have OG explain the system that we've got. All right, ready? Saving for retirement. Make it easy or make it hard?

• 10:31Speaker 02

  Make it easy.

• 10:32Speaker 03

  Make it easy. Correct. So OG, how do we make saving for retirement easy?

• 10:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, a couple of things. The first one obviously is automate it. So if you can have it come out of your paycheck automatically, maybe that's two things, honestly, that could be out of paycheck, one automate two, or.

• 10:49Speaker 03

  It could be three payroll, right? Just the fact that payroll is easier than even setting it up with your bank.

• 10:55Speaker 01

  Yep. I mean, those are probably the two biggest things. If it can come out of your paycheck and you know, number one and number two, if you can set it up automatically out of your bank account on a frequent basis, the same frequency that you get paid, life is good.

• 11:08Speaker 03

  I thought about a couple more too. Sign up if it's available for the automatic annual contribution increases where it will just automatically do that. Don't think about it. Set it up ahead of time that yep, it's going to automatically go up. Now that doesn't stop you OG from raising it more if you want in the future, but it sets you on this escalator to better results. And then the last one that I had is getting the employer match. Just you just press the.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, I thought about adding that too. Yep.

• 11:35Speaker 03

  So instead of deciding 26 times a year whether to save or not, you get to make that decision one time, one time. Round two, Doug, buying something random from the Amazon rainforest at 9:47 PM.

• 11:49Speaker 02

  I like when they make that easy. Yeah. Let's make it easier.

• 11:54Speaker 03

  But we want to make that difficult.

• 11:56Speaker 02

  We do.

• 11:57Speaker 03

  I'm gonna say the word difficult. We do want to make it difficult. OG, how do we make the midnight run to the Amazon monster more difficult?

• 12:05Speaker 01

  Brick your phone.

• 12:10Speaker 01

  No, no, I mean.

• 12:10Speaker 03

  Throw it into the solo fire pit of hell.

• 12:13Speaker 01

  No, no, I mean, I don't like literally brick it. I mean, there's things that you can get that like literally turn your phone off. You can set up restrictions on your phone of like, I can only be on social from this time to this time. And if you miss that window, tough patooties. You adding another layer of complexity. Same thing for, same thing for the Amazon.

• 12:33Speaker 02

  I've done that. Yeah, I've done that. I did it for some social and it's really nice. It comes up with like, okay, and it's just going to close that app or it's got ignore for 15 minutes or ignore for the rest of the day. Which one do you think I pick?

• 12:48Speaker 03

  Ignore for 15 minutes and then every 15 minutes you make the decision again to do the wrong thing.

• 12:53Speaker 02

  No, no, no. I ignore for the rest of the day immediately.

• 12:57Speaker 01

  I basically do that for your guys' texts. Like I'm like, I will allow texts from Doug and Joe sometime around eight to 8:02 AM. And after that, they go into this like. They go to this like little repository that I call the circular file.

• 13:13Speaker 03

  Doug, this is such great news. I thought we weren't loved at all, but we're loved for two minutes a day. It's so good.

• 13:18Speaker 02

  While he's still sleeping from eight to 8:02.

• 13:21Speaker 03

  So good.

• 13:22Speaker 01

  It's just so that when I wake up, I get all the good news all at one time.

• 13:25Speaker 03

  Yeah. Brick your phone, remove the shopping apps, get rid of your stored payment information that makes you put it in every time.

• 13:32Speaker 01

  Like that's annoying. I'm never doing that. But I get mad when they don't use Apple Pay because I like to swap cards because you know, depending on bonuses and stuff like that. And if it doesn't use Apple Pay as a payment option, I'm, I'm, I'm peed off because I want double click, go.

• 13:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, I find Cheryl's getting more, you don't have Apple Pay. Where, what are you? Like, what are you doing? Put items in the cart and wait. You guys ever do the wait till the next day thing?

• 13:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, I do. Especially not on Amazon, but on other places. Cause you'll likely get a code within 24 hours. It's like, hey, did you forget this? By the way, we'll give you a 15% off if you put this code in. Good for the next day.

• 14:12Speaker 03

  I do like the cooling off period for large purchases as well. Amazon wants you doing one click purchases in your financial plan. Remember stackers will appreciate 17 click purchasing. Round three, Doug, building an emergency fund. Make it easier, make it difficult.

• 14:31Speaker 02

  Let's make that slippery and easy.

• 14:36Speaker 03

  OG, how do we get that done?

• 14:38Speaker 01

  I mean, building an emergency fund, this is the same as the retirement savings, right? It's like, put it at a different bank. Although I know you said you like that. I actually find that to be relatively annoying. This is definitely know yourself type of category, right?

• 14:53Speaker 03

  I don't know. I think this is past, this is past me versus present me. Past me needed it in a different bank because if I did not put it at a bank across town, I would not have saved it. It would not have stayed safe because I tried.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  That's also because back in the 1800s, when you guys were saving money, you actually had to like go to the bank. Now you can just do all this stuff on an app.

• 15:13Speaker 03

  No, here's what I did even during the day that you could still do. I still got rid of the debit card at the time. Later on in the early 2000s, as having banking on the internet was more ubiquitous, I made sure I couldn't do online banking. At the time before online banking, they even had call in where you could just call and transfer money. I got rid of that. I built friction to make sure that it stayed around.

• 15:36Speaker 01

  Tell us you're old without telling us you're old.

• 15:38Speaker 03

  But my point is not the old guy story OG, it's that building friction. Even today with online banking, get rid of the ability to transfer that account. Get rid of that ability. I think there's a, I think there is a big point here, which is that the human brain has not changed since the 1940s, 1950s. Human brain is the same human brain. Next round, pulling money out of the emergency fund to buy concert tickets.

• 16:01Speaker 02

  Like what concert?

• 16:03Speaker 01

  Fair, fair question.

• 16:04Speaker 02

  I mean, I think that's an important piece of information. I need to answer this question.

• 16:08Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 16:09Speaker 02

  If it's Menudo, yeah, you've got to make that easy.

• 16:12Speaker 03

  To make that difficult.

• 16:13Speaker 02

  Backstreet Boys, Barbra Streisand, make it really hard.

• 16:15Speaker 03

  Well, and I think Doug, you bring up a great point because if this truly is a bucket list moment, that is what the emergency fund is for. Cause as you know, OG, I don't think you and I really love the term that that's become ubiquitous, emergency fund. I like it to be an opportunity fund as well. So if it's a, you know, concert for your favorite band, then do it. Do you like having a separate bucket for that than the quote, emergency fund? Like emergency fund and then opportunities are over here? Or is that more know yourself?

• 16:45Speaker 01

  I'm a simplifier. The bucket idea sounds really cool on paper in my mind where it's like, okay, I can say, hey, you know, my property taxes are due once a year. I know I gotta save $500 a month so that I can pay my property taxes. Some people like seeing those things filled up. To me, that's just another system that is going to break along the way. You know, it's like, it's, I don't know.

• 17:12Speaker 03

  Here's a little bit of a trick round. This will be fun, Doug. Canceling subscriptions.

• 17:17Speaker 02

  Should we make that easier or harder? Well, yeah, we should, but why is this a trick? It should be easy to cancel subscriptions.

• 17:26Speaker 03

  It should be. The reason it's a trick, right? This is the one area where the company puts a ton of friction. Like Leo said last Monday, Leo man, if you, if you miss Leo man and the contracts, like the dude who put the word certified mail on canceling your gym subscription, that dude got the world's biggest bonus when he thought of that. That was the best thing for gyms everywhere. Like, oh my God, certified mail. I was just reading through my gym subscription. It's gotta be in person or certified mail. Hadn't read it before, which was another point Leo made was that you should probably read that to get out of my subscription.

• 18:02Speaker 01

  Or just close your bank account and open a new bank account and then come at me, bro.

• 18:07Speaker 03

  Tap it. Well, in the, in the agreement, which I did read, they got several ways that they will come at you, bro. Legally, they will come at you whether they decide to do that or not, because people are constantly changing it. It's something different. Feelkit does that. For those of you that have Feelkit, just go in and make it really, just press the one button and it will take care of it for you. There's other apps that do it. Of course, Feelkits are all in one app, but plenty of ways to make that easy. Nice job, Doug. I think you got all those right, but one. So good work. Let's fix some defaults OG, because the world has been changing the game. The world's been making us have these defaults. Instead of income spending, what's ever left gets saved. I like this book by

• 18:50Speaker 03

  Michael Makowitz, which is for entrepreneurs, profit first, right? I think we should have a profit first mentality, which is let's get save first and then spend the rest. It's default number one.

• 19:01Speaker 01

  I like it. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot easier to save a bunch of money when you have a lot of money in your bank account on payday than it is to wait until the end of the month when you are the furthest away from payday and trying to, you know, save what's left. So if you, especially once you get past that kind of threshold of like, living expenses are covered. If you're kind of under 80 ish thousand of income, you probably are spending a lot of energy around budgeting and making sure that every dollar has a purpose, which is a really good idea. As you get past, you know, into those hundred thousand dollar incomes and $200,000 incomes, your life is expanding into whatever money you have. Just be honest with yourself. So build the plan about here's how much I need to save to reach

• 19:42Speaker 01

  my goals. Set that up on autopilot and then have fun and YOLO what's left. Still a lot of money.

• 19:48Speaker 03

  Default number two, setting up $100 a month is nice. That's a great thing. But 10 years from now, OG, 100 bucks is still 100 bucks. You still, and with purchasing power, that number went down. So let's improve that system by creating ways to automatically increase it whenever possible, or the very least to remind yourself to make the increase because 100 bucks is not going to be five years from now what it is today.

• 20:15Speaker 01

  Yes. I mean, obviously the, the 90% solution is saving the $100. The 10% is tomorrow saving $100 and $101 and the month after that, $102 and so on, so forth. If you can automate that, that's even better. But if you can't just do something every time you get a pay raise or a bonus.

• 20:33Speaker 03

  And the last point, which we spent a lot of time on today, so we won't spend a lot of time here, but put guardrails on your spending. Have alerts for unusual spending, waiting periods to think about it, removing the safe card. So she doesn't like that one. Separating the accounts for your goals, reviewing recurring charges and give yourself some intentional fun money. Point isn't to make spending painful. The point is to build your stack and then not let, not let the companies do all the movement when it comes to how your money gets spent out of your wallet.

• 21:06Speaker 01

  I think the biggest thing that we've ever done in our life in terms of having the permission to spend money is taking the extra money, which comes in, however it comes in. Sometimes it's a bonus. Sometimes it's a pay raise, it's whatever. And predetermining at the beginning of the year, how are we going to attack or how are we going to use those extra dollars? Cause the monthly salary that's accounted for, right? Like that's got the food and the, you know, house taxes and the kids in college fund and all that sort of stuff. But where people get squirrely is when they get a little extra money for whatever reason. And if you spend it without being intentional, you feel guilty about the spending. If you save it, you feel peed off because all you do is save money and never have any fun. You know, there's, there's like all these different emotions. So instead

• 21:49Speaker 01

  we've, we've established at the beginning of the year, here's how much we save, here's how much we use to pay down debt, and here's how much we save for fun or use for fun things. And that percentage is the same, whether it's a $500 bonus or a $5,000 bonus. And so we can very quickly apply that, that policy to here's that extra money. We know very clearly here's how much gets saved. Here's how much get invested. Here's how much we're using to pay down the house faster. And then the third bucket is like, sweet, we got 800 bucks to do whatever the hell we want without any issues. And our percentages are different other people's, but if you think about that in advance, take away the decision fatigue of like every single time trying to think about what you're going to do with that extra money. Do it one time at the beginning of the year, commit to it and tell me in a year from now, if you don't feel great about all the spending you did,

• 22:32Speaker 01

  because it's all guilt free, the saving that you did, which is extra beyond what you were originally going to do, and the debt pay down. Everybody loves it. Use it.

• 22:39Speaker 03

  And this is where the discipline comes in. The discipline doesn't come in and every single thing that comes along, the discipline is to create a system once and to stick to it.

• 22:51Speaker 01

  Percentage one time. Yep.

• 22:57Speaker 02

  Hey there, stackers. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor Doug. Today we're celebrating one of America's great culinary achievements, National Trail Mix Day. Ah, Trail Mix, the perfect snack for people who want to eat candy, but also want everyone around them to think they've got the All Trails app on their phone. You know, I actually keep a bag in my El Camino at all times. You never know when you're going to get stranded somewhere between the sizzler and home and you need 4,000 calories to survive until the St. Bernard shows up with one of those little barrels. Trail Mix used to be called GORP, which supposedly stood for good old raisins and peanuts, but that leaves out the best part of Trail Mix, the M&Ms. And honestly, without the M&Ms, Trail Mix is just the stuff your grandma

• 23:40Speaker 02

  put in little bowls when company came over. So on this very special holiday, stackers, riddle me this, what company makes that delicious goodness? The M&M. I'll be back right after I pick all the raisins out of this bag and return them to nature.

• 23:58Speaker 03

  Well, you may know that chaos is the name of the game here in Mom's Basement, what with guests coming in and out, Cooper the cat getting in the way, Doug being, well, being Doug. The holidays make it even worse because it's all about food and big meals. And the problem is prepping for those takes forever. But what about those between meals, right? The meals between those huge, huge, huge bookends. Well, that's where Factor comes in. Factor is made with high quality ingredients that you recognize and trust with over 175 banned ingredients. You always know you're eating something that's good for you, even when you don't have time. It's ready in two minutes, whether it's lunch

• 24:39Speaker 03

  between meetings or dinner after holiday shopping. Factor requires zero prep cleanup or effort from you or mom. So you can focus on everything else in your day. Factor even has heart smart options like the Green Goddess Baramundi with tomato, rice, peas, kale, and green beans, or the enchilada style chicken and sweet potatoes. Those are so good. They're crafted with lean proteins, fiber packed fruit and veggies and healthy fats. Try those out. Your heart and your taste buds will thank you. For Cheryl and I, Factor has been a great way for us to stay busy and focus on family life and beating mom at card games.

• 25:24Speaker 03

  I use Factor and you should too. So let's eat real stackers. Head to factormeals.com/sb50off. Use code SB50OFF. And you know what? You're going to get 50% off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last until December 31st, 2026. That is code SB50OFF at factormeals.com SB50OFF at factormeals.com. See website for more details.

• 25:54Speaker 03

  There is a financial conversation that's coming to millions of American families and there's a pretty good chance, nobody wants to be the person who starts it. Inheritance. And here's why that matters. An estimated $124 trillion to heirs and charity is expected to be transferred by Americans over the next 20 years. It's an extraordinary amount of money, but Kiplinger's research found that 51% of adults and their parents, get this, never talk about money. And there's a pretty big disconnect. 47% of parents expect to leave a meaningful inheritance, while only 24% of adult children expect to actually receive one. Nearly 30% of parents don't even have a will in place. Maybe it's time

• 26:39Speaker 03

  we talked. Kiplinger calls it the trillion dollar talk, a conversation about inheritance, estate planning, wills, and the questions families should be asking before those decisions become urgent. Because knowing what your family wants and having a plan for it can be one of the most important financial conversations you will ever have. Ready to start yours? Visit kiplinger.com to learn more about the trillion dollar talk and what this historic wealth transfer could mean for your family.

• 27:11Speaker 03

  It's incredible at a small company like Stacking Benjamins, how one, one hire makes all the difference in the world. If you're a small business, the right hire can be make or break. Hoping the right people see your job posting isn't the best growth strategy. When the pressure's on, you need the right hire. This is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed Sponsored Jobs is a boost whenever you need to find quality talent. When workplace chaos hits and you need the right hire, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Hiring indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post even seen at other sites. Get matched with and hire quality candidates who can drive the results you need. Reach candidates

• 27:52Speaker 03

  that meet your specific criteria like skills, certifications, or locations. Sponsored Jobs boost your job post on search results. So you can reach the people that can help your business thrive. Plus with Indeed Sponsored Jobs, you only pay for results. People are finding quality hires on Indeed right now. In the minute I've been talking to you, listen to this, companies like yours have made 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide. And sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs. So spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, that's a job for Indeed Sponsored

• 28:37Speaker 03

  Jobs. And guess what? Our stackers are going to get a $75 sponsored job credit. That's you to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com/podcast. Just go to indeed.com/podcast right now and support Stacking Benjamins by saying you heard about Indeed in Mom's Basement. Indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

• 29:09Speaker 06

  We're looking for the answer and correct spelling. Old McDonald had a what? Farm. E-I-E-I-O.

• 29:21Speaker 02

  Hey there, Stackers. I'm Platinum REI member and guy who considers the walk from the couch to the pantry moderate terrain, Joe's mom's neighbor Doug. Before the break, someone down here in the basement, and I won't name names, but absolutely good, had the gall to ask me what's so special about Trail Mix. What's so special? First, you got your raisins, which are perfect for flicking at squirrels while you're out hiking. Then you got your peanuts, which you can drop along the trail behind you so you can find your way home. And Hansel and Gretel figured this out hundreds of years ago, I assume. I mean, I didn't read the book. And once you've gotten rid of all that garbage, you look down and you realize you got yourself a whole bag of M&Ms. And more importantly, you earned it.

• 30:06Speaker 02

  Which brings us to today's trivia question. I asked you what company makes those delicious little pieces of chocolate. If you said Hershey, oh, they wish. The correct answer is Mars Incorporated. So congratulations if you got that one right. Celebrate responsibly tonight. I'm headed upstairs to help Joe's mom string raisins across the Trail Mix Day bush. Later, we'll exchange peanuts and gather around the campfire to tell stories about people who actually hike. See ya.

• 30:36Speaker 03

  I've never seen you more excited about a holiday. Every single year, the thing we hide here in Mom's basement is that Doug is just over the moon when it comes to national trail.

• 30:44Speaker 02

  You just feel so good about yourself when you're eating Trail Mix. It's health food.

• 30:48Speaker 03

  It is, especially the way you eat it where it's just M&Ms in a bag. Hey, we have the robes on. For those of you not on YouTube, welcome to-

• 30:58Speaker 02

  Can you close yours a little bit?

• 31:01Speaker 03

  Welcome to Stacko graduation. You don't like all the chest hair popping out? Both of my chest hairs.

• 31:09Speaker 03

  All month long, Stackers, you've been taking action. And I hope you've filled up your Stacko board. But here's what I don't want. OG Doug and I, we don't want you to finish the month, put the board away, and go right back to knowing a lot about money and doing absolutely nothing. So today, in honor of your graduation, we're going to turn some of those Stacko squares into permanent systems. We're going to do that. We're going to give you a financial action ladder. And then at the end of today's episode, you have graduated from Financial Action Month. Congratulations. So let's talk first, guys, about system one. I've created

• 31:49Speaker 03

  some systems. System one, know where you stand. How often, OG, do people avoid action simply because they don't know what's going on? Like, they don't even know which action to take. Like, I feel like that happens regularly.

• 32:05Speaker 01

  Well, inaction is just an action of doing nothing, in my opinion. Inertia is very powerful. Yeah. It's tough to overcome.

• 32:14Speaker 02

  Not making a decision is a decision.

• 32:16Speaker 03

  But I like how you handle this, OG, using the ability to look at everything. Like, okay, I've got my net worth statement. I've got my cash flow, my spending. I got my debt. I got my credit. I got my financial accounts. I've got this all in a dashboard in front of me. Now then I can look and see where my strengths and where my weaknesses are. I feel like that's gotta be, if you have not done that, Stackers, this month, that alone will help you figure out what the right moves are versus spinning your wheels on coupon clipping, as an example.

• 32:45Speaker 01

  I mean, ignoring where you are in the map is a critical component to trying to figure out how to get to where you want to go.

• 32:52Speaker 03

  Then number two, look at what your recurring problems are. Where are you having difficulties in your financial plan? I just don't, can't seem to be able to get any money saved. I feel like my asset allocation, because I've only got one fund, I got everything in one fund, or in a target date fund, or whatever that might be. I don't have any insurances. Figure out where your hotspots are with these recurring problems and focus on what's a system, not what's the one time, OG, but what's the system I can create to get rid of this recurring problem? I have trouble paying my bills on time. Auto pay. Set up auto pay, as an example.

• 33:28Speaker 01

  All I can think about right now is the fact that in the time that we've had this conversation, I've had four different Amazon delivery guys show up. It's not landing in the OG household.

• 33:39Speaker 03

  I wonder, Doug, what the recurring problem is.

• 33:42Speaker 01

  There's a recurring problem of, we order a lot of stuff from Amazon, apparently.

• 33:46Speaker 03

  And there's another recurring problem, which is their inefficiency of not being able to figure out how much you do and package it in one thing.

• 33:53Speaker 01

  These guys are super efficient, actually. I don't know why they send four guys here, but I suspect they've got a method to their madness. They've, they've, they've figured it out.

• 34:01Speaker 03

  I think the next system, and the last system that we'll put out here before we go to your ladder of like, how do I think? Think this first, this second, this third, is make the next action obvious. I feel like people don't know what the next move is. They know, like, I should understand my benefits. I should do something about retirement. I should think more about, my kid now is 12 and I haven't thought about college. Think about these major pieces of your life, and at least have a plan around those. When you start thinking about these major blocks, instead of, oh, my God, I got 50 things going on, here's what happens. Instead of, I need to figure out college, you go, you know what? I'm going to check the 529 balance. Or, I know I should have a 529. I'm not sure how

• 34:46Speaker 03

  they work. Let's look into that.

• 34:49Speaker 01

  Yeah. So what you're saying is, as opposed to thinking about the magnitude of all of the things that are maybe a little off kilter, like, just pick one and just-

• 34:58Speaker 03

  Amen.

• 34:58Speaker 01

  Spend Saturday, kind of thinking through that, make a decision, put it away, move on to the next thing next week, basically.

• 35:05Speaker 03

  What, what do I do next? What's the obvious thing? So Stackers, put those three systems in place. Get going on the one thing. Get organized and give those recurring problems. Look at the fact that you got four Amazon packages on your porch and figure out, okay, how do I-

• 35:25Speaker 01

  To be fair, I have five people in my house, so clearly one person didn't order anything yesterday, which is-

• 35:30Speaker 03

  That's the problem.

• 35:31Speaker 01

  A big win.

• 35:31Speaker 02

  They're off their game.

• 35:35Speaker 03

  I want to end this with our financial action ladder, because, OG, I think Financial Action Month comes down to four levels. Let's talk about these and tell me what you think. I think level one is know what to do. This is financial literacy, right? The reason we created Financial Action Month this month is because I think financial literacy is not enough. Like, you can listen to our show nonstop, but if you don't do anything, it drives me crazy. The number of professors you and I have met over the years that know everything to do and haven't applied any of it is just constantly astounds me. So action number two is actually do it. That's why we created the Stacko Board. We'll keep that around for a few weeks. StackYourBenjamins.com/Stacko, so you can see some easy moves to make to

• 36:14Speaker 03

  get you on the right path. Level three then is automate. So if level two is do, you can't do everything. So automate, figure out which of these actions I can just automate. And then step four is then review the flywheel to see, okay, is this really working the way that I intended? I think that's the whole game.

• 36:35Speaker 01

  The good news is, this isn't a full weekend commitment every single weekend for the rest of your life. Maybe you do one of these things for a few hours and then let it run for a while, then come back to it six months from now and say, what's, what's working? What's ahead? What's behind? What do I got to tweak? A lot of times, I'll give you a perfect example of this. People get stressed about getting their budget exactly right before they will, I don't even know, can I save $50 or $500 this month? I don't know. Well, guess what? Pick a number. Because if you're saving it, it's going in your savings account. And here's a great litmus test. If your credit card bill, if you get stressed out at the end of the month, you're like, oh, my gosh, my credit card bill is like $300 more than it normally is. I don't, I'm stressed. Well, guess where that money should

• 37:19Speaker 01

  be? Should be sitting in your checking or your savings account, because you've just been saving it. You don't need to have that be perfect. You can test it. You can test these things out. None of these are life sentences. You know, there's a few decisions in your life that are kind of life sentences, you know, picking your social security option, picking a pension, those you should spend a lot of time on. But like, how much did I put my four? Just pick it, just frigging save 5% and see what happens to your cash flow in the next week. If it's too much, knock it down to four. If you got a little extra, kick it up to six. Six works, kick it up to seven. You know, these are just, you're just moving the boat in the right direction.

• 37:52Speaker 02

  Spitballing here.

• 37:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, just move the boat in the right-

• 37:54Speaker 03

  Well, I like this idea of, you know, gamify it.

• 37:57Speaker 01

  My biggest thing when it comes to financial planning, and you said all of this, and I don't think we put enough energy on this, Joe, it's action. It's doing a thing. You can have all of the information that you want. You can have all the books and all of the resources and all of the podcast episodes and all of the downloads. We have every transcription of every show we've done. I'll send them to you. It's millions of words of content. None of this matters until you literally log in and go, click that button. You have to do that. Just doing a little thing and evaluating how it works. Do another little thing, evaluate how it works. This is how you make progress in your long-term financial goals. Nobody gets it right when they're 18. Nobody sets it up for the first time

• 38:41Speaker 01

  at 22 and goes, oh, thank God, that's done. I never have to think about that ever again. Because life changes. So you just make a little change here and there. Take action.

• 38:49Speaker 03

  It's fun, OG. One of the best sessions I had with a mentor, I sat with this guy over coffee, and I got to just quiz him. It was a guy that my dad knew. He said, the thing to remember is that I have failed more than the average person has tried. I've failed more often than the average person has even tried.

• 39:12Speaker 02

  I like that.

• 39:13Speaker 03

  Yep. Go ahead and fail. And he's like, because I just make decisions quicker.

• 39:17Speaker 01

  It's all learning.

• 39:18Speaker 03

  Good stuff. That is going to wrap up graduation today, Stackers. Congratulations on the Stacko Board and filling it out. If you're delinquent in your homework and you have not filled out your Stacko Board, I think now is the time to get that done. Thanks for spending time with us. If you know other people that need a financial action system, have them listen to this episode. Also, by the way, we've been making graphics on our social media pages, which correspond with the lessons from our Monday shows. Today's graphic will be that Financial Action Ladder. Can't wait for you to see it. So spread that to people who you know need to see the Financial Action Ladder as you go about your business today. As, as you hit the button going, ignore your social media moratorium for the rest

• 40:03Speaker 03

  of the evening, for the rest of the day. If you're going to ignore your system, at the very least, while you're ignoring it, pass along the gift of better financial habits. All right, that's going to do it. Doug, tell us, what should we have learned from today's episode?

• 40:21Speaker 02

  Well, Joe, first, take some advice from our main topic today. Saving is a mental game, and you can easily win when you begin gamifying your financial life. Try it this week and let us know how you did. Second, it isn't all mind games, though. You can also win by using that wonder of the universe, automation. Don't trust yourself to save money. Make it happen whether you decide to or not. Your bankroll will thank you. But the big lesson? Don't invite OG over for national trail mix festivities. That guy likes trail mix without the M and M's. I mean, his version of roughing it is playing a golf course without a beer cart. What a heathen.

• 41:04Speaker 02

  This show is the property of SP Podcast LLC copyright 2026 and is created by Joe Saul Sehi. You'll find out about our awesome team at stacking benjamins.com along with the show notes and how you can find us on YouTube and all the usual social media spots. Come say hello. And oh yeah, before I go, not only should you not take advice from these nerds, don't take advice from people you don't know. This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any financial decisions, speak with a real financial advisor. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor Doug, and we'll see you next time back here at the stacking Benjamin show.

• 41:51Speaker 03

  It's incredible at a small company like stacking Benjamins, how one, one hire makes all the difference in the world. If you're a small business, the right hire can be make or break. Hoping the right people see your job posting isn't the best growth strategy. When the pressure's on, you need the right hire. This is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed, sponsored jobs is a boost whenever you need to find quality talent. When workplace chaos hits and you need the right hire, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Hiring indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post even seen at other sites, get matched with and hire quality candidates who can drive the results you need. Reach candidates that meet your

• 42:33Speaker 03

  specific criteria like skills, certifications, or locations. Sponsored jobs boost your job post on search results. So you can reach the people that can help your business thrive. Plus with Indeed sponsored jobs, you only pay for results. People are finding quality hires on Indeed right now. In the minute I've been talking to you, listen to this. Companies like yours have made 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide and sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs. So spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes, less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to

• 43:15Speaker 03

  cut through the chaos, that's a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And guess what? Our stackers are going to get a $75 sponsored job credit. That's you to help get your job, the premium status it deserves at indeed.com/podcast. Just go to indeed.com/podcast right now and support stacking Benjamins by saying you heard about Indeed in mom's basement. Indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.

• 44:32Speaker 03

  Welcome to the after show. This is the part of the show that doesn't exist. OG had to catch a flight. He is not as addicted to movies and TV shows as Doug, you and I are. So let's do some reviews. Let's kind of do a back and forth, if you will.

• 44:47Speaker 02

  Oh, okay.

• 44:48Speaker 03

  Would you like to go first? Give us one either good, bad, or ugly?

• 44:54Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 44:55Speaker 03

  Well, don't, don't tell me good, bad, or ugly till the end of the review. Tell me first what the show is and then at the end, tell me if you're going to rate it good, bad, or ugly.

• 45:05Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 45:07Speaker 02

  Oh, that's different. That's a different approach than I would have thought.

• 45:10Speaker 03

  Show or movie? I don't care.

• 45:12Speaker 02

  The first one I will talk about is a movie called Pressure.

• 45:18Speaker 03

  Pressure?

• 45:20Speaker 02

  Yeah. Haven't heard about this, huh?

• 45:22Speaker 03

  Oh, I have. We talked about this art. This is the weather movie.

• 45:26Speaker 02

  We did talk about this?

• 45:27Speaker 03

  This is the World War II weather movie.

• 45:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is.

• 45:30Speaker 03

  Yes. Starring Brandon Fraser as, as the

• 45:36Speaker 02

  Ike Eisenhower.

• 45:38Speaker 03

  And they're getting ready to go across the channel.

• 45:42Speaker 02

  D-Day.

• 45:43Speaker 03

  And they're trying to figure out the weather and this wonderful, I don't know this guy's name, because I didn't know you were going to say this, but this wonderful Scotsman who plays the main dude. So good. He played Moriarty in the Benedict Cumberbatch versions of Sherlock Holmes. He's been in so many good things, but he's the protagonist who's this British weather person.

• 46:05Speaker 02

  Yeah. His name is Andrew Scott. He is very good.

• 46:08Speaker 03

  A couple of friends and I here have had vehement disagreements about this movie. So I can't wait.

• 46:13Speaker 02

  Andrew Scott is excellent. He, he should be a more like, as soon as you see him in this movie, or you'll be like, oh yeah, I know that guy.

• 46:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 46:22Speaker 02

  He's been in some good stuff, but he's just for whatever reason, not one of those names that's going to stick in your, in your mind. Yes. Brendan Fraser, I think was miscast as Eisenhower.

• 46:33Speaker 03

  A hundred percent.

• 46:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's a good actor, but he was very miscast. Who knows? Maybe he's got a great agent. Like, I don't know how he got this role, but it just wasn't the right role for him. Carrie Condon criminally underused in this movie. She is a remarkable actor and

• 46:51Speaker 03

  She plays his secretary.

• 46:53Speaker 02

  She pays, well, I think she's almost like Eisenhower's chief of staff.

• 46:57Speaker 03

  Oh, maybe. Yes.

• 46:57Speaker 02

  Or like her, his main admin assistant.

• 47:01Speaker 03

  I guess that's what I meant by secretary. She's like his right hand person who handles everything. She handles everything for him.

• 47:08Speaker 02

  But she's just way too good to waste on that role. And maybe, I mean, I know, like, this is a true story. And at the beginning, they talk about how there were like hundreds of people involved and they had to sort of create some fictional characters in order to, to, you know, make it screen worthy and easy to follow. So maybe that was a fictional role, but still she is so good that she needed heavier scenes that really could have, where she could have flexed her acting muscles. Chris Messina, the guy who was like the foil, he was the American who Eisenhower trusted. I guess he was good because you freaking hated him. He was a jerk.

• 47:46Speaker 03

  Yeah. The story here stackers is he's the British guy who's in charge. There's an American weather guy who's incredibly cocky. They're supposed to work together. They can't work together from the beginning. The British guy, kind of a jerk though, from the very beginning, a jerk, but you still hate the American guy. Did you like him at the beginning? I didn't. When he's just, he comes in and he just, he's not going to play by anybody's rules, but his, he wants it exactly his way. There's no teamwork at all. Like it is a horrible way to run a team.

• 48:16Speaker 02

  So we should briefly, and when I'm not giving anything away, we kind of screwed this whole thing up because we should have told you at least four sentences about what the movie is before we got into who the actors are. This is the decision about when to actually go the D-Day invasion. And it's heavily, heavily dependent on weather, which is kind of, it was a new science at the time. So there's a lot hinging. I mean, literally everything, life and death in every conceivable way is dependent on this weather forecast. And at the headquarters at the command center, which is at this old English estate that got turned

• 48:58Speaker 02

  into a command center for, for D-Day. I'm drawing a blank on which one it is. Not Sandringham, but it was a different one. Eisenhower has this whole, you know, military command staff as well as his weather forecaster, which he's been using for years with great success, the American. And they bring in a British guy, kind of last minute, at least the way the movie is portrayed, kind of last minute. And he just comes in and he is all business. And that's the part you didn't like, apparently.

• 49:29Speaker 03

  I just didn't like the fact that there was no camaraderie. I think he learned later on that he needed to use his team more. Cause he, cause he, cause he gets beat up. He gets beat up a lot by everybody about the fact that he's not a team player. He's my way or the highway. But Ike is also, Brandon Fraser is reticent to make the, he wants to make sure he makes the right decision because they really also show a decision he'd made earlier that cost a bunch of lives in a training exercise. We don't need to go into. So they try to put some stakes and there's already huge stakes, right? It's D-Day. There's huge stakes.

• 50:05Speaker 02

  Right. As if you needed more stakes. My wife loved this movie. I mean, loved this movie. I'm like, I had a given it like a seven, six and a half or a seven is probably where I'd give it. It felt a little light, ironically for a movie called Pressure. It felt a little light to me. It probably could have been, I could have felt the pressure a little more than I did, but it was a great angle on one of history, certainly modern history's most significant moments. It was a different angle on that than I was previously aware of. I knew the weather was a big deal. I knew that they canceled and put off D-Day by a day because

• 50:47Speaker 02

  of how bad the weather was, but I didn't realize that backstory, that battle that was going on between the two forecasters. So that was cool. It was news to me.

• 50:57Speaker 03

  You're going to give it kind of an ugly.

• 51:00Speaker 02

  If we're only doing that.

• 51:02Speaker 03

  Good, bad, or ugly.

• 51:03Speaker 02

  I mean, at six and a half, that's above of the five, five, below a five would be an ugly.

• 51:07Speaker 03

  It's a little ugly. I mean, you're giving it a little ugly.

• 51:11Speaker 03

  This was a disagreement I have with two friends here, Jason and Mike, who you know, Doug, our stackers don't know these guys. I thought it was very good. I'm with Jen. I agree with everything you said. I thought Brandon Fraser did a really good job because halfway through the movie, I was actually seeing Ike and hearing Ike versus Brandon Fraser.

• 51:33Speaker 02

  Say his name right.

• 51:35Speaker 03

  Brendan Fraser, Brendan.

• 51:36Speaker 02

  It's Brendan.

• 51:37Speaker 03

  Brendan Fraser, but I thought it was a horrible casting. I thought it was rotten. I'm like, but he doesn't look like him. He's way bigger. He's just a much bigger dude than Ike was.

• 51:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, Eisenhower was, was for this huge figure in history. Eisenhower was actually not a big guy at all.

• 51:51Speaker 03

  No, so I didn't like that. I like the fact that they took a little tiny piece of World War II instead of these big gigantic pieces. And they made it, they made it work. I thought it was good. Mike and Jason were like, it was stupid. It was just stupid. They thought it was so miscast and it was so light, to your point, that it took these serious events. And it was like, it was like a fricking cartoon of the events.

• 52:19Speaker 02

  See, that's going too far. There was no comedy in it. They, I mean, maybe once where there was like a snarky reply or something. But I wouldn't go so far as to say it was light cartoon, but we've all seen movies where you were just, you had anxiety attacks watching, you know, the movie. This could have been done that way and they didn't. And I thought they should have. Contrast that though, with, uh, which we watched the next night because I thought, well, if you liked that, now I'm kind of excited that she was interested in something relative to World War II.

• 52:50Speaker 03

  You went to Greyhound.

• 52:51Speaker 02

  Let's, oh no, Greyhound would have, actually that would have been a good one to go to because I think that was similarly.

• 52:57Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 52:58Speaker 02

  It had a similar feel to it, but.

• 53:00Speaker 03

  A small piece of World War II.

• 53:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, a small piece of World War II, a story you didn't know. Tom Hanks, everybody loves him. That probably is where we should have gone. But no, I took her to Darkest Hour, which was Gary Oldman doing one of the best pieces of acting you'll see out of the last 25 years. He played Winston Churchill and you 100% believe that he was Winston Churchill.

• 53:25Speaker 03

  This was an Academy Award movie.

• 53:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, Academy Award movie. And it's him, it's literally the first like month he was in office. It's May of 1940. And, uh, you know, right on during the Battle of Britain, the Air Battle of Britain, and he's got to rally the nation to get behind going to war. Instead of trying to get, sign a peace treaty with Germans.

• 53:48Speaker 03

  The Germans, yeah.

• 53:49Speaker 02

  And he knew as soon as we go to the negotiating table, we're done. It's over. And so he had to convince everybody, we gotta go to war. And that was pressure. And that was amazing acting would strongly recommend if, if you're into the true history side versus the entertainment side. Watch Darkest Hour. So, so good.

• 54:12Speaker 03

  Hundred percent agree. Darkest Hour, one of the finest World War II movies of all time. Period, full stop. And I don't think there's any disagreement about that among anybody.

• 54:24Speaker 02

  It's just science.

• 54:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, it is. It's just, it's just better. It is better. Yeah. I, by the way, thought Pressure was better than Greyhound. I like Pressure better than Greyhound.

• 54:35Speaker 02

  I'll have to go re-watch Greyhound. It's been a while.

• 54:38Speaker 03

  So my two, Cheryl dragged me to see the, uh, the new Spider-Man, Spider-Man V. And I'm over Marvel movies. I only went to see it because I love my spouse so much. And she picks part of the time and I pick part of the time. And there's times I've dragged her to movies and she got to drag me to one. I'm like, oh God, no. And so we go see that, I hate the multiverse. The multiverse got so bad that Wolverine and Deadpool, that Wolverine and Deadpool movie, which she also, well, actually other friends were going and we just went socially. So we went to the movie with them and out to dinner. So it was what it was. But Deadpool in that movie, Ryan Reynolds looks at the screen and goes, oh my goodness, Marvel's doing another multiverse. Isn't this great?

• 55:22Speaker 03

  So even Marvel knows how much we fricking hate the fact that there's these different iterations of the superhero. It's so dumb. Anyway, superhero movies just not for me.

• 55:35Speaker 02

  So ugly.

• 55:36Speaker 03

  This movie was great. This movie was really, really, really good. I love the fact that the villain had a motivation that I saw and it was a noble motivation. It was a really good motivation and I agree, I didn't agree with the way they were handling it, but, but I agreed with it. I also loved some of the twists in the movie. I didn't think that the violence, there's been so many Marvel movies where they start up the violent scenes, including Wolverine and Deadpool. Where I just go, oh God, set my alarm for five minutes. I'm going to go to sleep. And then all this senseless violence is over. Like, I don't mind violence, but I want it to mean something. And of course there's some violence in this movie, but it always has some stakes. It always means something.

• 56:20Speaker 03

  And I was in it. I was in it from beginning to end. Zendaya is great. Who can't like Tom Holland?

• 56:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, right?

• 56:28Speaker 03

  Like you can't not like this guy.

• 56:30Speaker 02

  I know.

• 56:30Speaker 03

  Tom Holland is great. The guy that plays the, all the people, the woman, uh, one of the, the, the kids from Stranger Things is one of the characters. Everybody's great. The whole movie, I was in it for two hours solid. Marvel, I'm still going to have to be dragged to the next one. But if you want to see a good movie this summer, I'd go see Spider-Man V. Can't believe I'm saying that. Or not Spider-Man V, Spider-Man, whatever the new one is.

• 56:56Speaker 02

  Twenty-two.

• 56:57Speaker 03

  Yes. Go see the new Spider-Man. Then, uh, you know, we've been hearing all this stuff about The Odyssey. So Cheryl, again, excited to see The Odyssey. I frankly didn't care. This movie's been reviewed so much and so many people with so many, just even without seeing it, some of the dumb opinions that I've seen, like this doesn't follow history. This is not a historical document, right?

• 57:20Speaker 02

  Did it ever?

• 57:21Speaker 03

  Yeah. You've been seeing those reviews, people up in arms going, this doesn't follow history.

• 57:26Speaker 02

  Tell me you're an idiot without telling me you're an idiot. I mean, it's.

• 57:29Speaker 03

  Oh, it's so stupid. Commentators on national TV have said this. So I'm like, whatever. And I'm not a huge Christopher Nolan fan, even, but even before that, I'm like, yeah, Christopher Nolan movies are okay. I thought Dunkirk was fine. I thought Tom Hardy in Dunkirk, was Tom Hardy in Dunkirk?

• 57:47Speaker 02

  Yes, yeah.

• 57:48Speaker 03

  Yes. Yeah. Tom Hardy in Dunkirk. I was just hoping I got the right movie. Tom Hardy was great. Um, the guy that plays the ship captain is great. Like some of the rules. I thought it was good. I thought Dunkirk was fine. Uh, some of the other, you know, I didn't love Oppenheimer. I know a lot of people call it his number one movie. Didn't, didn't really love it. Thought it was good. Not great.

• 58:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, me too.

• 58:09Speaker 03

  So let me give you the quick review of The Odyssey. Watching The Odyssey is an odyssey. It is an overwrought, overly emotional, overly long, should have been edited, pile of heaping.

• 58:25Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 58:27Speaker 03

  Just did not love it.

• 58:29Speaker 02

  Do do.

• 58:30Speaker 03

  I thought, by the way.

• 58:30Speaker 02

  Do do.

• 58:31Speaker 03

  Here's the funny thing. Tom Holland, Zendaya, and the guy that plays another one of the P, the, the main stars, and I haven't looked up his name, but almost the entire cast of, of Spider-Man is in this movie. And I would rather see them in Spider-Man than in this movie. But everybody acted great. Matt Damon is great. Tom Holland is great. Zendaya is great. Uh, she has a minor role. Anne Hathaway is great. Just the fight scene at the end, Doug, which is a major part of the movie and the sale of the movie.

• 59:07Speaker 03

  Somehow Christopher Nolan decides to play music under the fight scene and it just continually gets louder and louder and louder. Like this is so damn dramatic. Oh my God, this is dramatic. Man, three hours of this. Oh, so.

• 59:25Speaker 02

  Wow. Three hours, long time. I wonder, do you think it'll be any different if you saw it on the IMAX?

• 59:30Speaker 03

  It is so funny because friends of ours went on Thursday because it was the last day locally, you could see it on IMAX. And so they went to the IMAX. She thought it was overwrought. He liked it, but didn't love it. I don't know. I mean, it was already big and spectacular. I liked that we saw it on a big screen. But I don't think I would have loved it more because the problems I had with it were not the cinematics.

• 59:53Speaker 02

  No, but sometimes you can get fooled. When your senses get overwhelmed visually and auditorially, you know, you can get fooled a little bit. That the whole experience feels better, but yeah.

• 1:00:04Speaker 03

  I think it's, I, let's put it this way. I do think it's going to be worse if you stream it. It'll be even worse. The stuff that I dislike, I think you'll like even less if you stream it. So I don't know. Odyssey, bad.

• 1:00:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:00:18Speaker 03

  You want to put icing on this cake, Doug? Give us a fifth one.

• 1:00:21Speaker 02

  Oh, I guess we did four because we branched off talking about from Pressure into Darkest Hour.

• 1:00:27Speaker 03

  And then you just did. I thought you were going into a second one with Darkest Hour.

• 1:00:31Speaker 02

  We just, I just used it as a comparison to my main review, which was Pressure.

• 1:00:35Speaker 03

  Okay. Well, either give us number four or five. I'm not sure what our number is now.

• 1:00:39Speaker 02

  I'm going to do five and then a quick half. Maximum pleasure guaranteed, which I.

• 1:00:46Speaker 03

  Oh my God.

• 1:00:48Speaker 03

  That's the name of the movie?

• 1:00:50Speaker 02

  That's, it's a series. It's a series and it's totally clickbait. Like they named it that just to get you to go, oh, what's this about?

• 1:00:57Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:00:58Speaker 02

  How about a little, a little spicy time?

• 1:01:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:01:01Speaker 02

  I mean, not really. So I want to say this is on Apple. It's like a series that doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it a thriller or is it a little bit of a comedy?

• 1:01:11Speaker 03

  Wait, so what's it about?

• 1:01:12Speaker 02

  Which is a weird, uh, combination. So it's a woman kind of in the midst of a divorce or a custody battle. And she is a fact checker at a newspaper in New York. And she gets scammed by a little spicy online cam boy that she's got a thing going with. So that's where the maximum pleasure guaranteed thing comes. Like that's it. And there's actually very little of that. That guy scams her into thinking, if you don't give me $25,000, I'm going to die. And, uh, she then tries to track him down and it turns into a real life murder mystery thing.

• 1:01:58Speaker 02

  And it, the, the plot gets bigger and bigger. It's not just her. It becomes this big organization. And it gets more than just getting cash out of people. It gets into like some political type stuff.

• 1:02:10Speaker 03

  But the tone's all over the place, huh?

• 1:02:12Speaker 02

  The tone's all over the place. There are actually some funny lines, but you know, I remember thinking to myself, I probably would have laughed at that if this were more of a comedy. But it just didn't belong in this. It's like the music under the fight scene. You're like, what, what are we doing here? And so, uh, I don't know. It's clearly set up for a second season. My wife liked it. So we'll probably like, watch the second season. But to me, it was just like, I had my phone and I was scrolling while I was watching it. So that I'll tell you that. My half, uh, which I'm only going to bring up because I'm only five episodes in and I'm like the last person to the party on this show. Cause the rest of the English speaking world, I think, feel like watched this.

• 1:02:52Speaker 03

  Night Agent Season Two.

• 1:02:56Speaker 03

  Night Agent Season Two? No.

• 1:02:58Speaker 02

  No, not Night Agent Season Two.

• 1:03:02Speaker 03

  Broadchurch.

• 1:03:03Speaker 02

  I hadn't seen Broadchurch yet. I know it. I know. That, that like physical reaction you just had is what every listener is doing right now. Right? Cause Broadchurch is like, I think the biggest show in, maybe not in British history, but certainly in ITV, which is one of their big networks, uh, in England. It's fantastic. It's amazing. Uh, we're only five episodes in and I'm like, this is, I'm in, in the middle of episode one. I'm like, how did I, have I not seen this? This is incredible.

• 1:03:30Speaker 03

  My friend Jason, who disagreed with me vehemently on Pressure to begin this after show. He and I agree. This is some of the best TV you'll ever watch. You'll ever watch.

• 1:03:41Speaker 02

  And my wife is great at picking British crime procedurals. It's the only thing she picks well, including her choice of me.

• 1:03:53Speaker 02

  And, and she had, I don't know how we didn't stumble on this because we've watched a ton of these genre of shows. We'd never watched Broadchurch. So I'm super excited. Like literally every night, can't wait to have dinner and go watch a couple of episodes.

• 1:04:06Speaker 03

  Ah, it's so good. Yeah. The whole thing.

• 1:04:09Speaker 02

  Is this the longest after show we've ever done?

• 1:04:11Speaker 03

  I think it is, but it makes up for the fact that we had a very short show today because of graduation. So there you go, stackers.