💡 This week: financial fluency around the world • retirement planning gaps • protecting parents from scams
👋 Thanks for being part of The Get Ready Movement—helping you face life’s “what ifs” with confidence.
🧠 Thought of the Week
Your money mindset shapes every financial conversation you’ll ever have and every financial decision you will make.
10 Things I Think (About Money, Life & What’s Next)
1️⃣ 💭 How Your Mindset Shapes Money Conversations
Why it matters: Money mindset is rooted in our feelings and emotional experiences around money and impacts all of our financial journey.
The What If: An advisor’s money mindset can impact how they serve their clients.
Your Move: Be fully present, focusing 100% on the other person is the key to meaningful conversations about money or life.
The Win: Live your life with contentment, purpose and intentionality/
💭 Tony’s Take: People tend to buy with emotion, then justify with logic.
🎙How Money Mindset Shapes Financial Conversations with Dave Won and Tony Steuer on The Get Ready Money Podcast. Watch or listen (here).
2️⃣ 💸 The High-Earner’s Paradox: Why Six Figures Don’t Equal Freedom
Why it matters: High income doesn’t automatically translate into financial security or self-trust.
The What If: The “High-Earner’s Paradox” can keep women stuck in scarcity thinking even after they’ve “made it”.
Your Move: Values-based money decisions can transform your financial confidence.
The Win: Move past survival, shame, and self-doubt into a financial strategy that actually feels aligned with your values—and your success.
💭 Tony’s Take: Freedom and success come from aligning with your values.
🎙 Linda Grizzly and Shannah Game on the Everyone’s Talkin’ Money Podcast. (Apple Podcasts)
3️⃣ 👨👩👧 Why Financial Planners Should Facilitate Multigenerational Conversations
Why it matters: The transfer of wealth happening today is substantial, and by creating relationships with the adult children of your elderly clients, you can reduce the likelihood of those assets walking out the door after your clients pass away.
The What If: Building intergenerational conversations into your planning is beneficial for your clients and your business.
Your Move: By proactively integrating intergenerational wealth discussions into your practice, you not only elevate the financial well-being of your clients across generations but also strengthen your firm's longevity and impact
The Win: You become more than a financial advisor; you become a vital facilitator of family harmony and a trusted guide through life's most significant transitions.
💭 Tony’s Take: Conversations with aging parents, adult children and advisors are what will drive successful legacy planning.
📖 By Arlene Moss for XY Planning Network. Read it (here).
4️⃣ Are You Overpaying for Insurance?
Why it matters: Most people buy coverage, toss the policy in a drawer, and forget about it. That’s where overspending sneaks in.
In my conversation with Bernadette Joy for Bankrate, I shared two costly mistakes I frequently see:
- Buying coverage without first reviewing your goals → ending up with the wrong policy
- Paying monthly or quarterly premiums → hidden surcharges that can add up to 8% or more a year
💭 Tony’s Take: Insurance isn’t the villain—it’s a tool. Like any tool, it only works when used correctly. Align coverage with your goals, and it becomes protection—not a problem.
📖 Are you overpaying for insurance? How to spot it and what to do about it. Read the article (here).
📚 Recommended Read
Insurance Made Easy helps you optimize your insurance policies and spot opportunities to reduce your premiums.
Why it matters: Insurance can be confusing and expensive—but it’s also essential protection. This guide breaks it down in plain language, showing you how to calculate your ideal coverage, avoid fraud, and optimize premiums across auto, health, disability, life, LTC, and more.
💭 Tony’s Take: Think of insurance like a football team—each policy plays a position to protect you. Don’t overpay for the wrong coverage. Draft the right players, and your money goes further.
📘 Pick up your copy on (Amazon) or with The Tony Steuer Bookshelf—a digital collection of all of my books.
5️⃣ Spotting the Sharks: 5 Red Flags in Advisors
Why it matters: It’s important to have the tools to to tell the difference between a trusted partner and a wolf in a well-tailored suit.
💭 Tony’s Take: Being financially fluent and observant will help you spot red flags and potential issues.
🎙 Joe Saul-Sehy and OG on the Stacking Benjamins Podcast. Listen on (Apple Podcasts).
6️⃣ Helping Your Clients Navigate Money and Emotions During Divorce
Why it matters: Ignoring emotional responses is impossible, and even unhelpful. Help clients (or yourself) cut through the chaos of divorce to protect financial stability when the dust settles 💭 Tony’s Take: Emotions impact our decision making. However, we need to put our emotions aside so that we can move to productive resolutions.
📖 By Christine Luken for the Financial Planning Association. Read (here).
7️⃣ Here’s you can build financial confidence as a young adult
Why it matters: Students and young adults often face financial challenges as they are starting on their financial journey.
We need to help them build healthy money habits and be aware of challenges like credit card traps.
💭 Tony’s Take: You don’t have to be perfect—just start and stay curious.
🎙 Building Financial Confidence in Your 20’s with Nick Batchelder and Tony Steuer on The Get Ready Money Podcast. Watch or listen (here).
8️⃣ Gen X High Achievers & Redefining Retirement
Why it matters: Research and coaching insights on navigating the identity shifts, social transitions, and planning gaps that often go unaddressed in traditional financial prep.
💭 Tony’s Take: Reframe retirement as an encore—a purposeful, fulfilling new chapter.
🎙Joy Levin and Melissa Joy on the Women’s Money Wisdom Podcast. Listen on (Apple Podcasts).
9️⃣ Building the Investor’s Edge
Why it matters: Building the Investor's Edge delivers a disciplined, repeatable framework for building financial independence—grounded in practical examples and exercises—not abstract theory.
💭 Tony’s Take: Using real life scenarios and frameworks helps sets us for long term success with our money.
📘 Building the Investor's Edge: How Money Really Works—and How to Make It Work for You (at Any Age) by Joseph Pach (Amazon)
10) Loose Ends
🎙 Healing Your Financial Trauma with Rahkim Sabree on Dollars & Sense with Frugal Freddy Podcast. Watch on (YouTube).
📖 Running your own race. Your benchmark is yourself, not the S&P 500 by Callie Cox for OptimiCallie. Read (here).
📖 Fixed Vs. Growth Mindset in Money and Life by Derek Hagen for Meaningful Money. Read (here).
📖 The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Financial Intelligence by Y Lakshmi. Download the white paper (here).
📖 New Money, New Targets: How Smart People Get Scammed by CJ Follini for Noyack. Read (here).
📬 Weekly Action Prompt: Maximize Your Passive Income
The more of your income that comes from passive streams, the less dependent you will be on your paycheck.
The What If: Passive income provides more financial flexibility.
Your Move: Calculate your passive income ratio—add up rental, investment, royalty, and side-hustle income, then divide by total income.
The Win: The higher your ratio, the more secure and flexible your future.
💭 Tony’s Take: Passive income helps you reach financial independence.
🛠️ Get Ready Member Resources
Access your resources for this week's action item (#37) are in your dashboard (located in Monthly Focus Area 9: Financial Independence):
- The Get Ready Blueprint week 37 worksheet where you’ll review types of passive income, your current passive income and create your passive income ratio.
- Review the relevant worksheets where you’ve entered enter details for your passive income streams including:
- Cash flow analysis (Focus Area 4, week 16)
- Investment Income (Focus Area 4, week 14)
- Online income (Focus Area 4, week 14)
- Other Earned Income (Focus Area 4, week 14)
- Retirement Income (Focus Area 4, week 14)
- Royalties Income (Focus Area 4, week 14)
- Total Compensation Statement (Focus Area 4, week 14)
- Ask Tony AI: Try this prompt “How do I calculate my passive income ratio?”
Access Your Get Ready Resources here
🧠 Final Thought - The Big What IF
What if financial independence wasn’t about earning more? What if it was about making your money and your protection work for you?
✅ Stay ready.
💬 Start a conversation.
💡 Share what sparked something—with a friend or client.
Together, we’re reshaping financial fluency—one “what if” at a time.
– Tony
Coming Next Week: How to check if you’re on track for financial independence.
➡️Support The Get Ready Movement (here). Help me keep these resources free.
