👋 Welcome to The Get Ready Movement Newsletter
Every week, I share one action to improve your financial life, updates from The Get Ready Money Podcast, media appearances, and curated recommendations to help you ask better questions, have stronger conversations, and take meaningful action with your money.
Let’s get ready.
🎯 This Week’s Action: Create a cash flow statement.
The Move: Know where your money is going by creating a cash flow statement.
Why It Matters: Understanding your cash flow will help you identify where changes can be made—and align your spending with your values.
Tony’s Take: Review your cash flow (and budget) at least once a year. Be judgment-free. If daily coffee runs bring you joy, great—just make sure your other choices balance it out. What matters is what you do moving forward.
📂 Member Resources
💬 Ask Tony AI: New for Get Ready Members
🤨 Got a question about reviewing your financial life or evaluating insurance?
🙌 Ask Tony AI for practical answers based on all of my content. It’s fast, it’s smart, and it’s now available to all Get Ready Movement members.
🔍 Available in your member dashboard now.
Available in your Get Ready Dashboard under Monthly Focus Area 4: Cash Flow (Week 16).
Here’s what’s included this week:
- 💸 The Get Ready Blueprint Week 16 Worksheet: review your cash flow and budget
- Cash Flow Analysis and Budget worksheet (Excel format)
- Relevant worksheets from prior weeks (as needed)
- Define Your Income (week 14)
- Review Your Expenses (Week 15)
- 💬 Get Ready Discussion Guide: What have you learned about your cash flow?
- Ask Tony AI - submit your questions
Access Your Get Ready Resources here
Note: These resources are now available to all members of The Get Ready Movement.
You can support The Get Ready Movement here. The Get Ready Movement and resources are all now supported by Get Ready Movement members.
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🎧 On the Get Ready Money Podcast This Week
1. Connecting Wealth and Great Health
💬 You can’t separate great health from wealth. It’s important to have productive conversations with your family on health related events. Our capacity to make good decisions declines with age.
🎙️Watch or listen to the podcast featuring Chris Heye (here).
2. Start Sharing Your Money Knowledge
💬 Your audience doesn’t know what you know—ask what they want to learn and start sharing. Money is a product of generosity and risk.
🎙️Watch or listen to the podcast featuring Nate Hoskin (here).
📰 Media Spotlight
Build Your Financial First Aid Kit
🧠 Tony’s Take: If a crisis hit tomorrow, would your finances be ready? In this episode, we unpack why we avoid financial organization—and how to overcome it. We also rethink life insurance and share the essential steps to protect yourself and your loved ones. No shame. No overwhelm. Just doable actions.
🎙️ Check out my conversation with Shannah Game on the Everyone’s Talking Money Podcast (here).
✅ Tony Recommends
Curated picks to change the way you think about money from trusted sources:
💸 Rethinking Cash Flow:
💡 Why High-Income Earners Need Spending Plans Instead of Budgets
A five-step approach: knowing your retirement number, automating finances, covering fixed costs, enjoying discretionary spending, and reviewing regularly.
💬 Tony’s Take: A reverse budget helps align your spending with your values—starting with your goals, not your guilt.
👉 Watch Preston Cherry on The Life Money Balance Podcast on YouTube (here)
🤔 Financial Literacy:
💡 30 Family Finance Tips For Financial Literacy Month.
💬 This list is full of practical tips for all ages.
👉 Read this article by Bill Dwight for FamZoo (here)
💡 Why Parents Are the Best Financial Teachers Kids Will Ever Have
💬 Tony’s Take: You don’t have to be perfect with your money to model good money habits—just willing to start the conversation.
👉 Watch this conversation with Clifton Corbin and Naseema McElroy on The Financially Intentional Podcast (YouTube)
💡 Generational Differences in Financial Well-Being: Understanding Financial Knowledge, Skill, and Behavior.
Financial behavior positively correlated with financial outcomes such as financial literacy, satisfaction, and FWB
💬 Tony’s Take: Financial knowledge and confidence evolve across generations—understanding these patterns helps us teach better.
👉 Read the article by Lu Fan and Robin Henager for the International Journal of Consumer Studies (here).
💡 Does Financial Literacy Decline with Age?
Declines in financial and health literacy leave older adults vulnerable to scams and wrong decisions, such as when to claim Social Security and which health insurance to choose. Women’s lower literacy levels and longer lifespans put them at greater risk of financial fragility and poor health-related decisions.
💬 Tony’s Take: This Wharton study is a wake-up call—help older adults stay informed to protect their money and health.
👉 Check out the study from Knowledge at Wharton (here)
🧓 What’s next in retirement?
💡 The Gap Between Financial Planning & Longevity Planning.
💬 Tony’s Take: Planning for longer lives needs to expand beyond financial planning to lifestyle planning which encompasses goals, dreams, self-sustainability with intention, and purposeful, driven values..
👉 Read this article by Keena Pettijohn for the Sassy Septuagenarian on LinkedIn (here).
💡 The Bucket Approach to Building a Retirement Portfolio
A diversified portfolio with various time frames can help you meet your income needs during retirement.
Tony’s Take: Matching your investments to your time horizons helps create income stability in retirement.
👉 Read the article by Christine Benz for Morningstar (here)
💡 Why Seniors Struggle to Retire Credit Card Debt When They Hit Their ‘Golden’ Years
According to LendingTree, 93% of retirement-age adults carry a credit card balance. That is in addition to the fact that they have a lot of other debt including auto loans, personal loans, and (gasp!) student loans.
💬 Tony’s Take: Debt can derail even well-funded retirements—it's never too late to pay it down.
👉 Read the article by Bobbi Rebell for Cardrates.com (here)
👵 Aging and Caregiving
💡 Solo Aging & Healthcare Decisions: How Patient Advocates Can Help
An overview of Patient Advocacy, how they can support you and how to navigating the costs and benefits. Exploring the unique challenges and opportunities of solo aging.
💬 Tony’s Take: Patient advocates are an underrated part of your financial support team—especially for solo agers.
👉 Check out this conversation with Nancy Ruffner and Eric Blake on The Simply Retirement Podcast (here)
💡 The Cost of In-Home Caregivers May Surprise You.
Joy Loverde cautions that once you find the perfect caregiver and hire them, even from a reputable agency, your role isn’t over. Hiring a worker from an in-home care agency does not guarantee quality of services provided by an employee. It’s important to continuously monitor the quality of services rendered by anyone you bring into your parent’s home.”
💬 Tony’s Take: Hiring a caregiver is just the beginning—you also need a plan to monitor quality and costs.
👉 Read the article by Geoff Williams for U.S. News & World Report (here)
🚀 Quick Hits (Bonus Picks)
💡 Money Explained: My Word Was My Bond
💬 Tony’s Take: A clear breakdown of bonds and what’s happening in the bond market and potential outcomes.
👉 Read this article by The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards on (LinkedIn)
💡 Breaking Money Silence
💬 Tony’s Take: A powerful conversation on unspoken money habits and how to break the cycle with money conversations.
👉 Listen to the conversation with Kathleen Burns Kingsbury and Brendan Frazier on The Human Side of Money Podcast (here).
💡 Resist The Urge to “Fix” Things by Derek Hagen for Meaningful Money
💬 Tony’s Take: Sometimes the best help is just listening.
👉 Read it (here).
💡 Trailblazers - Winking at Adversity
The Personal Attributes Needed for Success. Key Superpowers to Build a Business. New Opportunities in the Annuity Market.
💬 Tony’s Take: Sheryl Moore an industry leader will share her Annuity insights and career growth
👉 Learn more about this webinar with Sheryl Moore, Mark Butler and Sheryl O’Connor presented by Income Conductor on April 22, 2025 (11:30 ET and 4: 30 ET, virtual and free). View registration links (for 11:30 ET)(for 4:30 ET).
💡 Making Bank: Money Skills for Real Life
💬 Tony’s Take: A modern money guide for young readers that covers saving, spending, tracking, enjoying and growing money.
👉 Check it out this book from Shannon Lee Simmons (Bookshop)
🔚 Closing Thought
Understanding your cash flow is one of the most powerful steps toward financial clarity. It’s not about being perfect—it’s about being intentional.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, consider sharing it—or join the movement (here). You can support the Get Ready Money Podcast and my work by becoming a Get Ready Supporter (here).
Let’s change the way we think about money.
Cheers,
Tony
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