Welcome to Get Ready Newsletter, a weekly newsletter with recommendations and one simple action item for people who are passionate about changing the way we think about money
This newsletter is 1,809 words, a 7 1/2 minute read.
✅ Week #3 Action Item: Plan for Life Stages
🌎 The big picture: Our financial needs change as we go through the stages of life. Your life stage will impact your financial journey.
🤔 Why it matters: Understanding how our financial needs change throughout our lives allows us to stay on track and meet our goals.
💡 Here’s what works: Review your life stage and what focus areas need attention. Here are the four main life stages:
- Starting out.
- Accumulation.
- Financial independence.
- Golden years.
😎 Bottom line: As you go through life, review all areas to make sure you stay on track to meet your goals.
💭 Habit of the week: Review how your current life stage impacts your financial life.
🤔 Question of the week: Are you adapting your money to your current life stage?
💁♂️ Advisor/Coach Corner: Consider whether you have any clients entering a new life stage.
📝 Resources:
Get Ready Money Club Members:
- The Get Ready Discussion Guide. Discuss new life stages with your family and support team.
Get Ready Library and Toolkit members can access your resources for this week's action item (#3) from your Get Ready Library dashboard (located in Monthly Focus Area 1: Habits and Planning):
- The Get Ready Blueprint week 3 worksheet where you’ll review your current life stage in further detail and what focus areas need attention.
Access Your Get Ready Resources here
🗓️ Financial Calendar Reminders:
- January 31st: Tax forms: Form W-2’s (for employees), Form 1099-NEC’s (for self-employed - formerly reported on Form 1099-Misc) and Form 1099-Misc) and Form 1098-T (loan interest) should start to arrive in the mail. These are required to be sent out by January 31st; so they should also be available online, if the payer offers that option. Occasionally, you may receive a corrected form, which replaces any prior form.
- Jan. 31: Individuals Who Must Make Estimated Tax Payments Tax-Filing Due (January): "If you didn't pay your last installment of estimated tax by January 17, you may choose (but aren't required) to file your income tax return (Form 1040 or Form 1040-SR) for 2022 by January 31. Filing your return and paying all tax due by January 31 prevents any penalty for late payment of the last installment.
💡 Live Your Most Meaningful Life Now!
🙌 On this episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with George Kinder, author and the Father of Life Planning about changing the way we think about money and why your life is yours.
🧐 In this episode we discussed:
🔹 Live the life that means the most to you.
🔹 Your life is yours.
🔹 Each moment is yours.
🔹 Think about money in terms of your passions.
🔹 Listen to who your clients really want to be.
🔹 Even if you’re in a tough place, you can always find things to celebrate.
🎙️Watch or listen to the podcast (here).
The Get Ready Money Podcast is also available on YouTube and your favorite podcast app.
💡 Maximize Joy with SMART Financial Choices!
🙌 On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Cara Macksoud, CEO of Money Habitudes about changing the way we think about money and financial behavior.
In this episode we discussed:
🔹 Maximizing your joy with you what you to have.
🔹 Money decisions under pressure can be more expensive.
🔹 Take the time to commit to learning something about money.
🔹 Have money conversations openly and non-judgmentally.
🎙️Watch or listen to the podcast (here).
The Get Ready Money Podcast is also available on YouTube and your favorite podcast app.
💡 Is there a Massive opportunity in the Life Insurance market?
🧐 In this episode, Adam Holt & Derek Notman invited me into the Rethink Tank to talk about all things life insurance and how it might just be the next blue ocean opportunity. I shared my perspective on life insurance as both an advisor, insurance expert, and fee-based consultant.
🔹 The shift in financial advice.
🔹 The error of neglecting life insurance.
🔹 The complexity of insurance products.
🔹 Regulatory & Market issues.
🔹 The Consumer Disconnect.
🔹 Advice for improving our Industry.
🔹 Recommendations for Financial Planners and AUM RIAs.
😎 Check out the conversation (here).
The Get Ready Library:
The Get Ready Library expands on each week’s action item and provides worksheets to help you complete each week’s action item, create a to-do list, track your habits and organize your financial life. It also includes access to all of my books (The Get Ready Bookshelf).
- The Get Ready Bookshelf: The Get Ready Blueprint, Get Ready!, Questions and Answers on Life Insurance, The Questions on Answers Life Insurance Workbook, The Questions and Answers on Disability Insurance Workbook, Insurance Made Easy and The Questions and Answers on Insurance Planner (pdf editions)
- The Get Ready Toolkit: 150+ worksheets to complete each week’s action items step by step, add your weekly goals, use the positive habit maker, create your weekly money to-do’s and organize your financial life (fillable PDF worksheets from The Get Ready Blueprint (52 worksheets) and fillable PDF’s & Excel from Get Ready! (100+ worksheets)).
Become a Get Ready Library Member
🤩 Tony Steuer Recommends
🎙️ Retire Like a Boss: 4 Secrets to Comfort and Joy with Preston Cherry on the Life Money Balance Podcast. The significance of redefining retirement not just as an end but as a transition into a phase of freedom and opportunity. Know Your Freedom Number. Implement a Spending Plan. Emotional Intelligence Preparation. Prioritize Health. Watch it on (YouTube).
📖 Defying Gravity and Defying Ageism “Living Longer & Working Longer” by Keena Pettijohn for the Sassy Septuagenarian. Encouraging employees to work longer in the context of increased longevity and potentially insufficient retirement funds involves addressing the financial, professional, and personal motivations of a very diverse group of “Seasoned Citizens”©. Read it on (LinkedIn).
🎙️ Emotional Intelligence in Finance with Mitch Anthony and Matt Reiner on the Bridging The Gap podcast. They explore how adopting a client-centered approach can transform the financial advisory experience. Mitch critiques the industry’s reliance on complex jargon, urging advisors to communicate clearly through analogies and metaphors. This shift makes financial concepts more accessible, fostering deeper client engagement and understanding. Check it out (here).
📖 On Bubble Watch with Howard Marks from Oaktree. As I said at the start of this memo, I’m not an equity investor, and I’m certainly no expert on technology. Thus, I can’t speak authoritatively about whether we’re in a bubble. I just want to lay out the facts as I see them and suggest how you might think about them . . . just as I did 25 years ago. Read it (here).
📖 Outlook 2025 - Animal Spirits from Ryan Detrick and Sonu Varghese at Carson. Everything you need to know for 2025. Get a deep dive into the fundamentals of the markets and what to expect in the new year. Read it (here).
📖 The Retirement Project by Sheryl O’Connor. So, if organizations that use a project management discipline have a much higher success rate than companies that don’t, why isn’t this same approach used in our industry for financial planning, especially retirement income planning where clients’ most pressing concern is running out of money before they die and they are looking to their advisor for assurance they won’t? Read it on (LinkedIn).
📓 The State of Retirement Income: 2024 by Amy Arnott, Christine Benz, Jason Kephart and Tau Goa for Morningstar. To maximize in-retirement income, consider a combination of flexible portfolio withdrawals and delayed Social Security filing. In-retirement spending strategies typically balance two competing priorities: maximizing the retiree's own consumption or leaving a bequest for loved ones or charity. In this year's research, we introduce a new metric—spending/ending ratio—to help retirees assess how various retirement spending strategies balance those competing priorities. Flexible portfolio-spending strategies, delaying Social Security, and purchasing annuities can all help lift lifetime income while shrinking the amount available as a bequest. Check it out (here).
📖 5 Ways Financial Planners Can Exceed Client Expectations in 2025 by Sheryl Rowling on Morningstar. Amid uncertainty, here are five ways to to thrive including level up your knowledge. Read it (here).
🔥 Wildfires.
The California wildfires have been devastating. The fires have killed dozens, forced tens of thousand from their homes and destroyed countless structures. Here is the latest information and resources.
🙏 How to help those affected by the California wildfires by Gabriela Angueira for the Associated Press. How to help those affected by the California wildfires. A list of organizations accepting support for those impacted (here).
🙌 Book give-away. I’m giving away digital copies of Get Ready! A Step-By-Step Planner for Maintaining Your Financial First Aid to anyone impacted by the fires. Get Ready will help you organize your financial life including a home inventory. Being organized will help you expedite insurance claims and recovering. Please reply with your email address.
🙏 United Policyholders is a non-profit that helps people recover from natural disasters has update their Insurance Claim and Recovery Help page to include resources for the January 2025 Palisades Fire, Eaton Fire, and Hurst Fire in Los Angeles County. United Policyholder also has two physical on-site locations. Learn more (here).
🙏 Los Angeles County has a webpage of resources that includes a map for the two major fires showing structure by structure status. Once on the main page you can select either the Palisades or Eaton fire and a map will appear. You can zoom into the street level and for homes that have been inspected already actually see pictures. Visit the site (here).
📲 Watch Duty App. Stay Safe From Wildfires When Seconds Count. Watch Duty, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, alerts you of nearby wildfires and firefighting efforts in real-time. Learn more and download (here).
📖 How Higher Property Insurance Premiums Mirror Climate Risk by Shankar Parameshwaran for Wharton. Homeowner’s insurance premiums have risen by a third between 2020 and 2023 as insurers passed on higher reinsurance costs. Read the (article).
📖 The Crisis in Homeowner’s Insurance by Paul Carroll for InsuranceThoughtLeadership. In theory, increasing insurance premiums signals rising risk and spurs action that mitigates disasters like California's fires. In practice, climate is changing too fast, and government is being too slow. Read the article (here).
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Let’s Change The Way We Think About Money!
Tony
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