Welcome to the Get Ready Money Club newsletter; a weekly newsletter with recommendations to help you succeed on your financial journey including one simple action item.
This newsletter is 1,770 words, a 7 minute read.
✅ Week 10 Action Item: Have a family transition meeting with your parents and siblings
🌎 The big picture: Parents with adult children need to talk.
🤔 Why it matters: A family transition meeting will help ensure that there is a plan that can be followed to avoid issues later on.
- Your health care directives and final wishes can be followed. If no one knows about them, they can’t be followed.
- Make sure that everyone knows how assets will be distributed.
💡 Here’s what works: Schedule the meeting.Review your final wishes with your family members. If you prefer not to review them, be sure to let them know the location of documents and instructions. Instructions and wishes can only be followed if they are known.
😎 Bottom line: Open and ongoing communication helps make sure there is a smooth transition.
💭 Habit of the week: Yearly review. Communicate with your parents and/or your siblings about a money topic.
🤔 Question(s) of the week: How do you feel about communicating with your parents and siblings?
💁♂️ Advisor/Coach Corner: Facilitate a meeting with your clients and their heirs.
📝 Resources:
Get Ready Money Club Members:
- The Get Ready Discussion Guide. Discuss how you can have a family transition committee and what you want to accomplish.
Get Ready Library and Toolkit members can access your resources for this week's action item (#10) from your Get Ready Library dashboard (located in Monthly Focus Area 3: Your Team):
- The Get Ready Blueprint week 10 worksheet where you’ll review detailed suggestions for your transition meeting.
Access Your Get Ready Resources here
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.
Get Access To The Get Ready Library
Related Podcast:
💭 Mom and Dad, What’s the Plan?
💡 It’s important for parents and their adult kids to talk.
Tony’s Take: It’s important to have these conversations as soon as possible. You can start by discussing your own plan.
🎙️ Source: The Get Ready Money Podcast with Cameron Huddleston, Pam Ostrowski and Ruschelle Khanna. Watch or listen to the podcast (here).
🗓️ Financial Calendar Reminders:
- March 15: Maximum extension deadline for Flexible Spending Account claims.
- Annual bonuses. If you receive an annual bonus from your employer, be intentional with how to use it. Consider using all or most of it to increase your rainy day fund, reduce higher cost debt or add to long term savings.
💡 Achieving Financial Dignity Featuring Christine Luken
🙌 On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Christine Luken, Founder of the Financial Dignity Movement and the Wealthy Woman Book Club about changing the way we think about money and financial dignity.
🧐 In this episode we discussed:
🔹 You are responsible for your own personal finances, not anyone else’s.
🔹 Money is about more than the numbers, it is emotional.
🔹 You should feel positive and peaceful with your money.
🔹 Financial professionals can help their clients gain financial dignity by asking questions to understand their why.
🔹 The power of compound interest - start saving early and often.
🎙️Watch or listen to the podcast (here).
The Get Ready Money Podcast is also available on YouTube and your favorite podcast app.
🎉 Featured:
💭 What to Look for When Reviewing Life Insurance Policies
💡 Reviewing in-force life insurance policiesis dritical: many life insurance policies are left unmanaged, leading to potential lapses or unmet expectations.
Tony’s Take: Advisors can add value by helping their clients obtain in-force illustrations to evaluate how a policy is currently performing and predict its future performance accurately.
🎙️ Source: Financial Advisors Want to Know Podcast. Thank you Catherine Tindall, CPA for the opportunity to share insights. Watch on (YouTube).
Mindset:
💭 The Money-Nervous System Connection.
💡 As a human, your nervous system is connected to all aspects of your life--and money is no different.
Tony’s Take: Understanding how our emotions impact our money and vice versa helps empower us to achieve financial success.
🎙️ Diana Yanez and Maureen Paley on the Financial Autonomy for Women Personal Finance Podcast. Listen on (Apple Podcasts).
Communication:
💭 Invest in Conversations Before Technology
💡 A conversation about our obsession with technology over humanity. Including how to differentiate ourselves through stories to what people (clients) actually want.
Tony’s Take; People connect with people Advisors who develop relationships and listen to their clients will continue to find success.
🎙️ Derrick Kinney, Adam Holt and Derek Notman on Rethink. The Financial Advisor Podcast. Listen to the podcast (here)
Planning:
💭 Divorce & Paying for College: What Every Parent Needs to Know.
💡 A look into the critical yet often overlooked subject during divorce proceedings: college planning
Tony’s Take: During any life event, it s important to consider all areas of one’s financial life, especially a major expense like college.
🎙️ Vicki Vollweiler and Leah Hadley on the International Divorce Insights Podcast. Listen (here).
💭 Essential Legal and Financial Planning for Aging
💡A discussion of critical legal and financial planning topics for aging individuals and their families.
Tony’s Take: As we age, it’s important to adjust our financial plan, update our legal documents and have family transition meetings with parents and their adult kids. Communication is a key part of a successful aging plan.
🎙️ The 62WhoKnew Podcast with Cathy Sikorski, Matt McCann, Jon Thomas and Michael Banner. Watch on (YouTube).
💭 Navigating Estate Planning for Remarriage in Retirement.
💡 Advice on navigating remarriage, blended families, and protecting your legacy. Learn strategies to ensure your loved ones are cared for while avoiding legal pitfalls.
Tony’s Take: When we have a life event, it’s important to update all areas of our financial lives including our estate plans. With each life event there are unique issues to consider especially when blending families.
🎙️ Source: The Simply Retirement Podcast with Amy June and Eric Blake. Watch on (YouTube).
Financial Independence:
💭 What Does Financial Independence Look Like? | Breaking Free of Society’s Expectations
💡 Why professional guidance should be a part of your financial strategy, how societal structures like the patriarchy play a role, and the importance of prioritizing your mental and physical health as you pursue financial freedom,
Tony’s Take: When we talk about financial wellness, we need to consider how money fits into our overall lives including its impact on our health. As with anything, the professional can empower you to take control of your money.
🎙️ Source: The Legal Lounge Podcast with Bernadette Joy and Theresa Viera. Watch on (YouTube).
Rainy Day Funds:
💭 High Earners, Are You Saving Enough? The Truth About Emergency Funds.
💡 Emergency funds are financial protection, not an investment. From how much to save to balancing cash reserves with investments, this conversation clears up common myths and offers practical advice for managing money wisely.
Tony’s Take: Change the way you think about rainy day funds. They function as an insurance policy to protect against the risk of surprise expenses.
🎙️ Source: Preston Cherry on the Life Money Balance Podcast. Watch on (YouTube).
Taxes:
💭 Tax Planning For Entrepreneurs.
💡 Tax planning for beginners (new business owners just starting out) as well as tax planning that should be considered no matter how long you have been in business.
Tony’s Take: If you’re going to be paying taxes, you should take the time to do some basic planning.
🎙️ Julia Carlson and Steve Jarvis on The Retirement Tax Services Podcast. Check it out (here).
💭 10 Common Tax Myths Debunked.
💡 Don’t let these misconceptions cost you money.
Tony’s Take: It’s important to understand how taxes work as they are a major component of our financial lives.
📖 Cameron Huddleston for AARP. Read the (article).
Credit Scores:
💭 How to Use Credit Confidently Without Obsessing Over Your Score
💡 Learn how to build, maintain, and use credit wisely without stressing over every little detail. How credit scores really work (and what actually makes a difference)
Tony’s Take: Understanding how credit works and what impacts your credit score can make a huge difference in what interest rates are offered for loans. Increasing your credit score can save you hundreds of dollars a month (or more) on car loans and home loans.
🎤 Credit 101 Workshop hosted by Prisca Benson. Register (here).
Financial Advice:
💭 Gen Z feels burned after taking financial advice from social media.
💡 43% of Americans actively seek financial advice or information online or through social media platforms, increasing to 77% of Gen Z and 61% of millennials. 37% of Gen Z and 25% of millennials have gotten into trouble (i.e. IRS audit) after taking financial advice from social media/online. A quarter (25%) of Gen Z and 23% of millennials say they’ve been scammed by a bad actor portraying to offer financial advice or guidance on social media/online.
Tony’s Take: We need to empower people to ask better questions so that they can sort through all of the financial information. The traditional financial services industry also needs to change how we communicate and ask why Americans, especially younger Americans are turning to alternative information sources.
📓 Credit Karma Study (2/18/2025) - go deeper (here).
Financial Literacy Awards:
💭 The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards (MAIAs)—recognizing the most impactful innovations in financial literacy and inclusion.
💡 It takes more than good intentions to drive change. It takes expertise, global experience, and a deep understanding of the financial challenges people face every day.
Tony’s Take: I’m honored to be a judge to help spotlight the best ideas shaping the future of financial literacy.
🏅Source: Learn more about the (MAIA’s).
InsureTech:
💭 Top 12 Insurtech Conferences to Attend in 2025
💡 Your 2025 InsurTech Conference Guide – The Must-Attend Events for Innovators, Investors, and Industry Leaders
Tony’s Take: InsureTech is changing quickly. This rounds up recommended events for networking, deal-making and learning from the best in the business.
🎤 InsureTechNY. Check out the list (here).
Thank you for being part of the Get Ready Money Club. Please hit reply to share your thoughts.
Let’s Change The Way We Think About Money!
Tony
Want more Get Ready?
💳 Library: Go deeper on each weekly action item and access all of my books (here)
📰 Share this newsletter with a friend or colleague so they can change the way they think about money (here)
🎙️ Subscribe to The Get Ready Money Podcast so you never miss an episode (Apple Podcasts) (YouTube)
🤔 Quiz: Take the Money Empowerment Quiz and see where you are on journey to financial empowerment (here)
🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for insights on changing the way we think about money (here)
💬 Join: If you’re passionate about changing the way we think about money, join The Get Ready Network on LinkedIn (here)
📚 Books: Increase your financial preparedness by picking up a copy of my books (Bookshop) (Amazon)
👏 Support: If you like what I’m doing, you can support The Get Ready Money Club by becoming a Get Ready Insider (here).
📣 Promote yourself by sponsoring the Get Ready Money Club, Podcast and Newsletter (hit reply to discuss).
