Better Financial Decisions Start With Listening

Hi,

Welcome to this week’s Financial Readiness Briefing: ideas, conversations, research, and practical steps to help you prepare before life happens.

In wilderness medicine, one of the first things you learn is to establish rapport. You introduce yourself, explain why you are there, and listen.

Listening helps you understand what happened and what matters to the person. That can lead to better information and better decisions.

Financial decisions work much the same way. Start with the person, listen, then consider what may help.

The big idea: Better financial decisions start with listening.

Question to consider: Who needs to feel heard before the next financial decision gets made?

From The Podcast: Making Financial Planning Work for Women

Women need financial planning that reflects real life.

Cary Carbonaro joined me on the Get Ready Before Life Happens podcast to talk about making financial planning work better for women. 

Financial planning starts with listening. Women’s financial lives often include caregiving, career interruptions, and major life transitions that traditional planning may miss.

Education can help build confidence. Active participation in financial decisions matters too.

Financial planning should fit the person rather than asking the person to fit the plan. Women need planning conversations that reflect their real lives, their questions, and their future choices.

🎙️ (watch or listen)

Also From The Podcast:

Why Human Connection Matters in the Age of AI

AI can create more time for human connection.

Derrick Kinney joined me on the Get Ready Before Life Happens Podcast to talk about using technology to create more time for clients and customers, and focusing that time on the problems they want help solving.

While the conversation centers on financial advisors, the lessons apply more broadly. AI can provide information and improve efficiency. 

The opportunity is for us to add context and understand people better. Human connection remains essential to building trust.

🎙️ (watch or listen)

How to Build the Retirement That’s Right for You 

A clear view of your finances can help you see what is possible.

Barry Cothran joined me to talk about why many people have a visibility problem rather than an income problem when thinking about retirement.

That idea stood out to me. A financial plan should help you see where you are today and what your future may require.

When you understand your goals and resources, you can make an informed decision without comparing it to others.

🎙️(watch or listen)

Research & Reports

Research & Reports highlights useful studies, surveys, white papers, and data that can help us better understand Financial Readiness. Have something worth sharing? Send it my way.

Millions may have retirement savings they have lost track of. Empower reports that 34% of U.S. adults say they may have retirement savings from a previous employer that they have lost track of. Another 41% are not confident they could locate all of their retirement savings today. Financial readiness starts with knowing what you have and where it is. Check out The Retirement Drift from Empower (here).

Financial vulnerability is increasing. The Financial Health Network reports that the financially vulnerable share of Americans rose from 15% to 17%. The financially healthy share remained at 31%. More people also reported unmanageable debt. Financial readiness includes having the resilience to handle financial stress. Source: Financial Health Pulse® 2026 U.S. Trends Report: Stressors Mount and Vulnerability Returns (here)

Financial abuse remains difficult to see. The Grameen Foundation notes that financial abuse is rarely recognized as a form of gender-based violence. There is also no standard way to measure it. Making the Invisible Visible: The role of financial service providers in mitigating the risk of financial abuse by Bobbi Gray (here).

What I’m Watching: 

Women investors see patience and discipline as strengths. Charles Schwab found that six in ten women investors are comfortable taking investment risk. Many women also identify patience and discipline as investing strengths - and this increases confidence. Blueprint for Success: Women Investors Strike a Disciplined Balance Between Patience and Risk (here). 

Stat Of The Week: What’s Your Guess? 

What percentage of Americans have been personally scammed at some point in their lives? 

A. 31%
B. 24%
C. 11%
D. 18%

Answer: About one in four Americans (24%) have been personally scammed at some point in their adult life, and one in 10 have been scammed more than once.

Protecting ourselves and our communities against scams is an essential part of financial readiness. 

Source: United States of Scams. The Financial and Emotional Fallout from the Stop Scams Alliance (here)

5 Things Worth Knowing

Talking about money is something that we need to become comfortable doing. The Conversations About Money Women Aren’t Raised to Have - and Why We Need to Start Having Them Now.  By Lacy Garcia for Her Money (read)

AI is adopting both positives and negatives in how our systems work. And, this is especially true with how it’s continuing a system that’s broken for women. Counting In: What AI could be fixing about women’s financial lives and why it isn’t from Angela Meyer (here)

One of the quieter skills of finance in the AI era may be knowing when speed is useful, when automation is reliable, and when the safest control in the system is still the person willing to look again. AI Pulse by Munia Ali (LinkedIn) 

Inflation-adjusted (real) retiree spending tends to decrease over time, challenging the common assumption that expenses rise in line with inflation throughout retirement. This can affect assumptions about retirement income needs. How Spending Evolves in Retirement: A Smile, a Smirk, or Something Else? by David Blanchett for the CFP Board (read)

Unclear pricing can weaken trust. Why does everything feel like a scam? When you don’t know what anything should cost, everything feels like a con. By Hanna Horvath for Your Brain on Money (read) 

Scam Fighter Tip:

This week’s tip: Verify before you take action through official channels. 

The FBI is warning about scammers who impersonate federal agents. Some use the names of real agents and spoof legitimate agency phone numbers. A familiar name is not enough to establish trust. A familiar number is not enough either.

Try this: End the call and find the agency’s official phone number yourself. Then call independently to verify the contact.

Never send money to someone claiming to be a federal law-enforcement agent.

Read the press release (here).

One Step Before Life Happens

This week’s action: Have one financial conversation where your first goal is to listen.

Ask: “What matters most to you about this decision?”

Then listen before offering an answer.

Why it matters: Understanding the person can change the decision that follows.

Closing Thought:

In wilderness medicine, connecting is part of the assessment. Listening helps you understand the person before deciding what comes next.

Money works much the same way. A plan can organize information, and technology can provide answers.

Understanding still starts with listening.

Sometimes the best first step is simply to hear what matters.

Because when life happens, the way you think about money matters.

Tony

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