👋 Welcome to The Get Ready Movement Newsletter
Each week, I share what’s catching my attention in the world of financial literacy—from trends and tools to the people reshaping how we teach, talk about, and take action around money. Whether you're a financial educator, advisor, or someone who just wants to stay informed, here’s what I think matters this week.
10 Things I Think (About Money, Life & What’s Next)
1. Weekly Action Prompt: Review Your Debts
📌 Action: Inventory your debts and calculate your debt-to-income ratio (DTI).
💭 Tony’s Take: Lowering your DTI makes you a stronger borrower. You may be able to reduce interest rates, extend guarantees, or even pay off loans faster.
👥 Conversation Starter: “What’s one small change you can make this week to improve your debt situation?”
2. Strategy of the Week: Understand Your DTI
💡 Take the total of your monthly debt payments and divide by your gross monthly income to calculate your debt-to-income ratio.
📉 Keep it low—lenders look at this to evaluate risk.
💭 Tony’s Take: Knowing your DTI gives you power. It’s one of the simplest tools for improving financial health.
3. Big Question to Ask
❓ “How am I managing my debt?”
💭 Tony’s Take: Ask this out loud—with yourself, a partner or a client. Sometimes the simplest questions lead to the biggest insights.
4. Achieve Financial Independence While Living a Healthy Life!
🔑 3 Key takeaways:
🔹 Retirement is about prioritizing your peace of mind, not just the numbers.
🔹 Everyone deserves financial independence and the freedom it brings.
🔹 Wealth is meaningless if you’re not in good health.
💭 Tony’s Take: Financial wellness isn’t just about money—it’s about feeling good about your life.
🎙️ With Bernadette Joy on The Get Ready Money Podcast. Check it out (here)
5. 📊 Study: Clients Value Advice Over Products
🔍 90% of client reviews (of their advisor) focus on relationship quality, planning advice and emotional factors rather than investment returns (10%).
💭 Tony’s Take: Shift the conversation from products to purpose. That’s where trust is built.
📖 2025 Voice of the Client Study from Wealthtender (here)
6. Podcast: Unlock Your Financial Freedom
🔑 3 Key Takeaways:
🔹 Financial literacy is for everyone—it's a skill anyone can master.
🔹 Without clear goals, your financial dreams will remain just that—dreams.
🔹 Money can be a tool for good—think about the positive impact you can create with it
💭 Tony’s Take: Empowerment leads to control over our financial lives.
🎙️ With David Gatchell on The Get Ready Money Podcast. Check it out (here).
7. Mastering Grief Literacy: Why Widows Leave Their Advisors and How to Keep Them
🔑 3 Key Takeaways:
- Why 70% of widowed clients leave their advisors
- Create safety through structured communication.
- Avoid phrases that disenfranchise grief
💭 Tony’s Take: Your empathy can be just as powerful as your expertise.
🎙️ With Kathi Balasek and Ashley Quamme on the Planning and Beyond podcast. Listen (here).
8. The Truth About Life Insurance
🔑 3 Key Takeaways:
- How life insurance really works.
- Policy reviews are essential to ensure they actually fit your needs.
- The pitfalls of current marketing and social media advice.
💭 Tony’s Take: Understanding life insurance is a core part of financial literacy.
🎙️ Misty Lynch and Tony Steuer on the Demystifying Money Podcast (Apple Podcasts)
9. The Neuroscience Behind Effective Client Conversations
🔑 3 Key Takeaways:
- Create deeper connections with clients by understanding the brain science of trust and communication.
- Strategies for creating conversations that make clients feel safe, heard, and valued
- How this leads to stronger relationships.
💭 Tony’s Take: Trust and communication are the core of solid relationships.
🎙️ With Mary Schmid and Hillary Gale on the Finance Marketing Podcast. Listen (here)
10. 📈 Trend to Watch: Credit Card Delinquencies Hit 13-Year High
💡 Rising credit card delinquencies are rising around the world, reflecting broader global financial pressures.
🔍 Why it matters: Debt management is becoming more urgent.💭 Tony’s Take: Financial educators should address this as a teaching moment.
📖From the Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards, read it on (LinkedIn)
🚀 Bonus: 5 Quick Hits:
- What type of financial couple are you? Take the quiz from Marie Burns and Mind Money Motion (here)
- $54 Trillion Will Transfer to Widows Through 2048; More Than 95% Will Go to Women from Cerulli Associates (read here).
- Lessons from the 2025 Berkshire Meeting by Jon for the Novel Investor (here)
- Finding Your Purpose on LinkedIn with Tiffany Sattler and Hillary Gale on The Finance Marketing Podcast (here)
- Teach Your Kids to Be Future Millionaires with Rachel Rodgers and Naseema McElroy on the Financially Intentional Podcast (here).
📂 Member Resources
📝 Access your resources for this week's action item (#20) from your dashboard (Monthly Focus Area 5: Net Worth):
- The Get Ready Blueprint week 20 worksheet where you’ll walk through creating an inventory of all of your debts and your debt to income ratio.
- Relevant Debt worksheets.
- The Get Ready Discussion Guide. How are you managing your debt? Are you making any changes?
- Chat with Tony AI about this week’s action item.
Access Your Get Ready Resources here
Note: Available to all members of The Get Ready Movement.
Support The Get Ready Movement here.
Support the Get Ready Movement
📝 Final Thought
Take control of your debt portfolio so you can minimize your loan expenses.
Thanks for being part of the Get Ready Movement to make financial literacy more accessible, practical, and empowering.
If you found something valuable here, please share this with a friend or fellow advocate.
Let’s change the way we think about money and how we help others get ready.
– Tony
➡️ Support The Get Ready Movement (here)
🎙️ Subscribe to The Get Ready Money Podcast (Apple Podcasts) (YouTube)
📚 Books: Explore The Tony Steuer Bookshelf (digital editions of all of my books) or at (Bookshop) (Amazon)
📣 Promote yourself by sponsoring the Get Ready Podcast and Newsletter (hit reply to discuss).
