Hi,
Communication and listening are your superpowers as a consumer and as an advisor.
This week:
💡 Knowing Yourself, Knowing Your Worth: Define Value on Your Own Terms
💡 How Couples Can Turn Money Conflicts into Connection
💡 The Anti-Scam Literacy Trinity
🧠 Thought of the Week
Good communication is an essential life skill for all areas of your life. When it comes to your money, communication helps everyone be understood and heard. Intentional listening will help you be an effective communicator.
💥 10,000 downloads. Listeners in 115 countries. And counting.
The Get Ready Money podcast has been an amazing journey that’s led to some incredible conversations and insights.
The Get Ready Podcast mission is to help people navigate life’s what’s ifs through financial fluency, preparedness and integrity, integrity and purpose.
Key to that mission is to feature diverse voices from around the world which has been successful with 29% of downloads coming from outside the United States.
Listener favorites include:
🔹 Dignity and Financial Literacy with Peter Asare Nyarko
🔹 An Insider’s Look at Money and Kids with Rishi Vamdatt
🔹 Making Competent, Objective Financial Advice Accessible with Sheryl Garrett
🔹 Rewrite Your Money Story Today! With Tokiso “TKay” Nthebe
🔹 Simplifying Your Investment Strategy with Christine Benz
Thank you to all of the listeners, guests and supporters of The Get Ready Money Podcast around the world. And a huge thank you to Nick Lamparelli for helping launch the podcast and to Megan Ratto for her incredible producer skills.
Stay tuned for an exciting 2026!
🎙️ Check out The Get Ready Money Podcast → [Apple] | [YouTube]
1️⃣ Knowing Yourself, Knowing Your Worth: Define Value on Your Own Terms
Why it matters: Self-awareness transforms our relationship with money.
Your Move: Start by understanding what value means to you and your advisor (or client). “Rational” is subjective—what makes sense to one person may not to another.
The Win: The better your advisor knows you, the better they can serve you. Financial professionals can better serve their clients by understanding what really drives their decisions.
💭 Tony’s Take: Our feelings about money influence many of our decisions—often more than logic.
🎙️ Marla Sofer and Tony Steuer on The Get Ready Money Podcast. Watch or listen (here).
2️⃣ 5 Ways To Be A Conscious Capitalist
Why it matters: “Conscious capitalism” is a way of doing business that’s about more than just profit. It’s about paying people well, choosing vendors with values, and using your financial power to uplift others (including Mother Earth).
Your Move: Imagine leading your firm with both confidence and compassion…and watching your influence grow.
The Win: Learn how generosity and ethical decision-making can actually fuel business growth. How to connect purpose with profit.
💭 Tony’s Take: We can use our money as a force for good by aligning it with our values and goals.
🎙 Christine Luken on the Money is Emotional Podcast. Listen (here)
3️⃣ The Dark Side of Financial Freedom No One Prepares You For
Why It Matters: Explore what happens on the other side of enough, when financial freedom collides with the deeper human questions of identity, belonging, and purpose.
Your Move: Understand the difference between financial independence and psychological independence
The Win: Create the space to explore meaning, creativity, and fulfillment.
Tony’s Take: When we’re doing our planning, we often focus too much on the dollars, rather than what we’d like to do with our money. We need to think about our purpose, our why and how that will lead to contentment.
🎙 Rick Foerster and Brendan Frazier on The Human Side of Money Podcast. Check it out (here).
4️⃣ How women in midlife can take control of their financial life.
Why it matters: We need to talk about financial fluency rather than financial literacy. There’s no shame or judgement in not knowing another language.
Your Move: Learn how to address common money challenges that women face in midlife.
The Win: How women who are balancing kids, aging parents and their own futures can find financial clarity.
💭 Tony’s Take: It’s not only okay, it’s essential, to be our own advocate when working with financial professionals.
🎙️Merridith Gonzalez and Tony Steuer on Hot Flashes & Cool Chats. Watch (here).
5️⃣ The Anti-Scam Literacy Trinity
Why it matters: Multiple reports have stated that over USD1trillion have been lost to scams in 2024.
We cannot be careless with any activity involving online interaction. Especially with financial inclusion, this set of three literacies are a necessity.
Learn: The three different kinds of “literacy” we need to push back on the scammers: financial, digital and scam literacies.
- Financial inclusion is incomplete without financial literacy.
- Financial literacy is imprudent without digital literacy.
- Digital literacy is irresponsible without scam literacy.
💭 Tony’s Take: We need to talk more about scam literacy. It's a vulnerability that we all need to address and AI will accelerate the need to be scam aware. Scammers are excellent at exploiting people's emotions, especially fear and greed.
📖 Frances Yong for The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards. Read on (LinkedIn)
6️⃣ How Couples Can Turn Money Conflicts into Connection
Why it matters: Money fights are rarely about dollars—they’re about values, expectations and beliefs.
Your Move: Changing your money narrative can change your future together.
The Win: Couples can transform money from a source of stress into a tool for connection, trust, and shared dreams.
💭 Tony’s Take: Alignment on the root values of family, dreams, respect, and open communication builds stronger foundations.
🎙️Prudence Zhu and Tony Steuer on The Get Ready Money Podcast. Watch or listen (here).
👉 Check out: Couple’s Guide to Money: Grow Closer, Dream Bigger, Thrive Together by Prudence Zhu (Amazon)
7️⃣ Money, Marriage & Fairness: Building an Unstoppable Financial Team
Why it matters: What happens when money dynamics shift inside a relationship—and how do couples find fairness when life, careers, and income change?
Your Move: Whether you’re managing finances solo or as part of a couple, this conversation reminds us that money isn’t just math—it’s meaning, emotion, and teamwork.
The Win: Whether you’re managing finances solo or as part of a couple, this conversation reminds us that money isn’t just math—it’s meaning, emotion, and teamwork.
💭 Tony’s Take: Having open communication with your spouse including intentional listening will lead to stronger relationships and better money decisions.
🎙 Heather Boneparth, Douglas Boneparth and Melissa Joy on the Women’s Money Wisdom Podcast. Listen on (Apple Podcasts)
8️⃣ How to talk about inheritance (without talking about money)
We are in the midst of the largest wealth transfer in history—but most families don’t prepare beneficiaries for what really matters.
After losing her mother at 14 and losing family relationships over inheritance trauma, this social worker discovered the secret to preventing inheritance trauma.
Learn how two simple conversations can transform your family's legacy and strengthen relationships.
💭 Tony’s Take: If we don’t tell our loved ones about our wishes, they won’t be able to fulfill them. Having money conversations provides context to your estate plan.
🎥 Emily Bouchard for TEDxSan Diego Studio. Watch on (YouTube).
9️⃣ ⚡ Quick Hits
🎙 Financial Harmony in Uncertain Times with Preston Cherry and Stoy Hall on the NoBS Wealth Podcast. Watch on (YouTube).
📖 Teens & Money: When Emotions Drive Spending by Julia Myers. Read (here).
📖 Can AI Agents Improve Financial Decisions? By Chris Heye for the Retirement Income Institute. Read (here).
📖 Redefining the Role of a Financial Institution: Longevity, Wellness and the Human-Centered Future of Financial Planning By Paul Haines for the Sassy Septuagenarian presented by Keena Pettijohn. Read on (LinkedIn).
🎥 How do Billionaires actually avoid paying taxes? Buy, Borrow, Bequeath. Jed Collins on the Money Vehicle Podcast. Watch on (YouTube).
📖 What Is The Worst Financial Advice You Ever Got? By Josh Katzowitz for the White Coat Investor
🔟 Week #44 Action Item → Review Your Credit Reports
🌎 The big picture: Credit reports are used to make decisions about extending credit, jobs, and insurance policies to you.
🤔 Why it matters: Ordering your credit reports will allow you to
review them for accuracy and to spot any unauthorized activity.
- Credit reports are compiled by credit reporting agencies, which collect information about where you live and work, how you pay your bills, and whether or not you have been sued, arrested, or have filed for bankruptcy.
- These companies sell your credit report to creditors, employers, insurers, and others, who will use these reports to make decisions about extending credit, jobs, and insurance policies to you.
💡 Your Move: Order a free copy of your credit report from each of the major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) at www.annualcreditreport.com. Be careful, this website is the only one that is government authorized to provide you with free copies of your credit report.
- Review your credit report. You are likely the only person who can verify the accuracy of these reports.
- Check the reports to ensure they are accurate and to spot any unauthorized activity.
- Make sure that all accounts and other information listed for you on these reports is accurate and complete.
💭 Tony’s Take: Reviewing your credit reports will help to ensure that information on your credit history is accurate and up to date.
📝 Access your resources for this week's action item (#44) from your dashboard (located in Monthly Focus Area 11: Monitor Your Personal Information):
- In the Get Ready Blueprint, week 44 PDF, you’ll be guided on how to order and review your credit reports with additional tips.
- Credit Report Monitoring Worksheet.
Note: You can also find the information on your most recent IRS federal tax return.
📅 Timely Reminders:
- November 1: Open enrollment starts for the Federal Health Care Insurance Exchange. State health care exchanges will also typically start their open enrollment as well. Learn more and find links to state exchanges at www.healthcare.gov.
- Employers may start open enrollment for employee benefits. Open enrollment usually starts in October and closes in November. Check with your employer to confirm the open enrollment start and end dates
🧠 Final Thought
When you are being an intentional listener, you’ll gain more information, than if you’re just ready to say what’s next on your mind.
✅ Stay ready.
💬 Start a conversation.
💡 Share what sparked something — with a friend, client, or in the comments.
— Tony
Coming Next Week: Beyond the Numbers: How Psychology Unlocks Better Financial Decisions with Derek Hagen
🎙️ Check out The Get Ready Money Podcast → [Apple] | [YouTube]
