{"podcast":{"title":"The Stacking Benjamins Show","slug":"the-stacking-benjamins-show-745268","podcast_index_feed_id":745268,"rss_url":"https://rss.art19.com/stacking-benjamins","website_url":"https://art19.com/shows/stacking-benjamins","image_url":"https://content.production.cdn.art19.com/images/87/54/4a/99/87544a99-93b0-43d7-ab5a-85740bd3c717/71bf0e7a9549bbb1bd6387061e4babe7de5f5f69871c51df6cacfb170f26c893bd355e9bb2fdd3aa95cab86caf5780843b407fb86f6bfd21137c7217811f3de5.jpeg","author":"Joe Saul-Sehy and Josh ‘OG’ Bannerman, CFP","episode_count":1501,"summary":"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","last_synced_at":"2026-07-20T16:21:40.778249+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-stacking-benjamins-show-745268"},"episode":{"title":"When Borrowing Against Your House Is Smart (And When It Quietly Wrecks Your Plan) SB1861","slug":"when-borrowing-against-your-house-is-smart-and-when-it-quietly-wrecks-your-plan-sb1861","published_at":"2026-06-29T08:01:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-stacking-benjamins-show-745268/when-borrowing-against-your-house-is-smart-and-when-it-quietly-wrecks-your-plan-sb1861","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-stacking-benjamins-show-745268","url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/345/rss.art19.com/episodes/f558ac41-1247-44e9-8ef1-0aa21342139a.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","audio_url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/345/rss.art19.com/episodes/f558ac41-1247-44e9-8ef1-0aa21342139a.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","summary":"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…","meta_description":"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-l…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3706,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-stacking-benjamins-show-745268/episodes/when-borrowing-against-your-house-is-smart-and-when-it-quietly-wrecks-your-plan-sb1861/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-stacking-benjamins-show-745268/when-borrowing-against-your-house-is-smart-and-when-it-quietly-wrecks-your-plan-sb1861.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}