Joe Saul-Sehy - Stacked: Your Super-Serious Guide to Modern Money Management

For Cheryl.

Remember all of those times I messed up with money and told you itd someday pay off?

#micdrop

Emily:

Dammit! I was going to dedicate this to Cheryl, too.

All right, I guess this is for Jayme. Thanks for always laughing at my jokes. (Except the puns, of course.)

Introduction

In this time of health and financial uncertainty, there are two things I wish I'd known earlier:

1. Start with the basics.

   Back when I struggled with money, I was always searching for shortcuts, easy fixes, and ways to cover up mistakes I'd made along the wayand I've made more than my fair share. A better path (and the only one I know now that works, after too much stumbling around) is to focus on building your house one brick at a time, just like the pig in that timeless tale.

2. Laughter is more important than ever.

   If I hadn't had the ability to laugh through my mistakes, I wouldn't be here to roll out the red carpet for you now. If you're going to grow, mistakes are going to happen. Your goal should be to make those mistakes quickly and work past them. The ability to shake your head, stand back up, laugh a little, and keep moving will allow you to stay positive and focused on the prize.

   With these two universal truths in mind, it's become clear to me that there's a big need for a financial book that can make you laugh as you read. Sure, countless financial books already hit store shelves year after year. (My co-writer, Emily, the brains of this operation and a former bookseller, wants me to clarify that I understand that financial books, like all other books, are placed lovingly on store shelves by professional English majors who understand the importance of the printed word and they do not go about throwing them willy-nilly at shelves like they're flying salmon at Pike Place Fish Market. She also points out that the number of financial books released each year is, in fact, countable, and that my description of them as countless shows laziness in my math.)

   My point, already nearly derailed, is that there are lots of financial books out there. But in good times or bad, something important is missing from the genre. I know about this gap because nearly every author of the top titles each year asks to come talk about it on my podcast. In the course of creating and cohosting the Stacking Benjamins podcast, I construct three shows per week, forty-seven weeks of the year. With that many shows to record, I ask a number of experts to sidle on up to the microphone.

   The majority of the world's top personal finance guests have ducked their head and climbed down the stairs to my mom's basement to discuss their latest project (you'll hear from Mom later because she owns our podcasting headquarters and has plenty of wisdom to share). In our corner of the world, finance and investing are serious sports. The prevailing attitude among many in my cohort seems to be Money only works if you take it seriously. There are important retirement accounts to fill, and overly serious bank managers with somber mustaches and knowing gazes awaiting your next savings deposit. There's no room for giddiness in wealth building!

   Unfortunately, treating money as only slightly less fun than a colonoscopy limits the reach of our collective voices. We are pigeonholed with people promising wealth without work and riches beyond measureand often for a much stiffer (and hidden) price than a free podcast. Enter Stacked.

   The truth is, the sport of Benjamin stacking isn't played the way you may think. As it turns out, being a big shot and being wealthy are two totally different games. We're going to teach you the real game we had to stumble intoand happily for all of us, the real game is more unicorns and rainbows and less spreadsheets and deprivation.

   

   So if you've ever wondered, Could I stack some Benjamins? then you've come to the right book. Whether you're intimidated by money terms or can quote every line from The Big Short, you're sure to find something helpful in this handbook.

   But don't just take my word for it. Emily Guy Birken has helped countless readers build their own stacks into intimidating towers, and she's agreed to help. If you've listened to the podcast, you'll know that we promise to teach you nothing. But I don't want to tarnish Emily's reputation, so it's high time to do something useful for once and make this book a fresh start: something you can actually learn from.