It’s been a bunch of short runs for the van so I haven’t had much time to torture broaden the horizons of my cast with the brilliants financial lessons from the podcasting blogosphere.

But as we headed through Indiana, Michigan and up into Canada this week, we found time to check out Stacking Benjamins. To be fair, I knew literally nothing about this podcast other than Joe is a pretty cool guy and I like a few of the articles on their blog.

While the other podcasts we’ve listened to so far tackled a single topic, Stacking Benjamins really appeal to the ADD side of me, and I’m not kidding at all, the variety of topics covered is pretty wide. The podcast also ends with entirely non-money related ramblings.

It was actually a big hit in the van.

Due to my podcasting app being a total dork, we couldn’t even get to the first episode, which is where I prefer to start, so I gave up the fight and pretty much accepted whatever my crazy iPhone would allow me to download.

The first episode we listened to was STK 101: Big Raises and Dumb Investor Mistakes. Turns out, Ebola is still an attention getter. Way to start the episode strong.

They also discussed the “right” way to approach asking for a raise. Honestly, I suck at that. The only place I’ve stayed long enough to request a raise was the cruise line I worked for and they turned me down the first two times I asked for one and only finally caved when I was like – “well, I’m done then. Nice working with you.” Then I got a pretty big raise since someone up the ladder realized it was sort of effed up I hadn’t gotten any yet at that point.

But I just silently sat there and took it for quite a while. I am not nearly assertive enough on my own behalf. I was surprised there was debate about presenting quantifiable results to your boss. Whenever I implement a strategy that saves them money, I try to make sure they know exactly what I’ve done.

The panel also discussed discount airlines, which is a favorite topic of mine. I love that there’s the option to sacrifice comfort and convenience to save money – not saying I always want to do that, I just love that the option is there. When I lived in England, it was boggling to me how often folks just jump on a plane to go somewhere over there. The same distance equivalent of NY to Florida over there would sell tickets for around $30, whereas I was used to considering distances like that a $200 investment. The planes were never comfortable and all you could bring was a small carry on to get that rate, but it made exploring Europe a lot more feasible than you’d think… assuming you manage to get there in the first place.

The second episode we listed to was STK RWD 013: More Stuff? No Thanks – with Marian Salzman. This podcast was a few years old but still had some relevant information that sparked some discussion in the van.

Stuff has been on our minds a lot – considering the majority of ours was stolen a few weeks ago. However, the idea of being a hoarder is something that most of us in the van didn’t relate to that much… as a band of nomads, our possessions are not as vast as people who actually settle in places. Other than my mattress, my belongings all still fit in my car.

And I’m fond of that lifestyle, I think it’s freeing. Which I guess goes hand in hand with Marian advocating for it. That being said, most of us thought she was kind of nuts.

Also, what is this Organic Walmart thing? We don’t have those on the east coast.

We rounded out our drive and crossed into Canada listening to Side Hustles, Getting Things Done and Creativity with Austin Kleon, which was a pretty awesome podcast for a van full of people who work in the arts.

Personally, I loved his advice to maximize use of the internet and not head right for the most expensive areas in America to live, if you’re trying to make a living doing something creative. Come on, folks, we can make Detroit the next creative enclave and give it about 15-20 years before we wind up priced out of there.

The cast seemed to enjoy Stacking Benjamins a little more than the others, since if they weren’t into a topic, there was a new topic five minutes later… and the few who suffer through all this financial stuff stoically were rewarded with movie reviews at the end.

I’ve got to say I really like the format of this podcast, the random movie reviews, not so much, but overall I find it easier to follow each topic and pay attention than I do with some of the longer podcasts that are about a single topic.

Looking for some other solid personal finance podcasts? Check out Listen, Money Matters! and the Money Mastermind Show.