Why Listening Matters?
Hi,
Welcome to this week’s Get Ready Newsletter—ideas, conversations, questions, and resources to help you prepare before life happens.
When working as a first responder, how you talk to a patient is critical. You want to be in control of your emotions, be confident and reassuring. You want to calm the patient if they are anxious. How you talk to a patient impacts how things will proceed. You start by bringing them into the conversation so that they retain agency. While you do your assessment and gather objective data, you’re also gathering subjective data from the patient as to what they’re feeling and how it’s impacting them. Be curious about the patient so they can be part of the plan and so that they buy into the plan.
As AI becomes part of our lives, the question is what its role will be in our lives. AI could become the most useful tool ever created by humans. AI may be able to do a patient assessment, evaluate data and help create a plan. Humans will still have the subjective conversation and help the patient understand the plan.
The future will most likely belong to people who know how to use AI well while becoming even better at the human parts of guidance.
The big idea: AI can improve access to information, but human value still comes from listening, judgment, empathy, context, and trust.
Question To Ask Before Life Happens:
Am I listening for what someone is really saying, or am I only waiting to respond?
Why it matters: Listening helps people feel seen, understood, and included in the conversation rather than just talked at.
What Still Makes You Valuable in an AI-Driven World
Nikki Barua joined me on the Get Ready Before Life Happens podcast to talk about how AI is transforming how we work, earn, and create value. Nikki shares how individuals and advisors can stay relevant by reinventing themselves, developing AI fluency and focusing on the skills that remain distinctly human.
🔹 Empathy, judgment, coaching, and accountability become more valuable as technology advances.
🔹 Advisors evolve from experts to guides and accountability partners.
🔹 Investing in yourself creates long-term advantage.
Tony’s Take: AI amplifies human potential. You are your biggest asset. The opportunity is to use AI for what it does well while strengthening the judgment, empathy, curiosity, and relationships that only you can bring.
🎙️Watch or listen to the podcast (here)
Exploring AI, Advice and Human Judgment:
OpenAI Just Moved One Step Closer to Financial Planning. Advisors Should Pay Attention. The shift is that AI is becoming a more personalized and context-aware financial coach. The opportunity now is for advisors to decide what kind of value only they can provide, and where AI should be used to make that value more personal, timely, and scalable. Chris Heye for LinkedIn (read)
AI Can Give Women Financial Information. It Cannot Give Them Financial Confidence. A great advisor provides context, judgment, empathy and trust. And those are the qualities that turn financial knowledge into financial power. Cary Carbonaro for Financial Advisor (read)
Can AI Replace Financial Planners? AI can help educate you. It shouldn’t be a substitute for judgment, a financial plan, or a human advisor who actually knows your life. By Jill Schlesinger for Jill on Money (read)
Tony’s Take: AI will change the roles of advisors, educators and guides. The opportunity is to decide where technology can improve access, speed, and personalization, and where human judgment, empathy, accountability, and trust still matter most. The time to clarify that value is now.
Stat of the Week: What’s Your Guess?
What percentage of Americans are comfortable allowing AI to make important financial decisions independently?
- 52%
- 35%
- 18%
- 62%
Answer: 18%.
Why this matters: Consumers appear open to AI improving speed and convenience, but they still want human oversight for important financial decisions
Source: TD AI Insights Report 2026 (here)
One Step Before Life Happens
Have a conversation with your partner or a client and encourage them to tell you how they feel about something while you gather objective data.
Example:
- What information do we need to understand this decision?
- How are you feeling about the decision right now?
Why it matters: Good guidance combines objective information with subjective context. The facts help clarify the options. Listening helps people feel included, respected, and ready to act.
The Financial Readiness Plan guides you through conversations to help you create an effective in case of emergency plan.
👉 Start Your Free Financial Readiness Plan: A free, practical plan that helps you create your in-case-of-emergency Financial First Aid Kit, organize what matters, and prepare before life happens.
Also This Week: Why Do You Feel Behind Even With a Good Income?
Sandra Park joined me on the Get Ready Before Life Happens podcast to explore how earning more creates opportunity, though it doesn’t always create confidence. Sandra shares how to advocate for your value, strengthen your negotiation skills, and use your income intentionally to build flexibility, confidence, and long-term freedom.
Tony’s Take: A strong income creates opportunity. Financial readiness comes from knowing your value, communicating it, and aligning your money with what matters most. When those pieces come together, your income becomes a tool for freedom, not just a number.
🎙️Watch or listen to the podcast (here)
Five Worth Your Time:
This week’s five picks all connect to the human side of money: meaning, confidence, stewardship, humor, and the stories that shape our decisions.
Stop Hijacking Your Real Wealth. Align your “internal tech stack” with the life you actually want to live. Julie Murphy and Michael Hunter on the Uncommon Leadership Podcast (watch or listen)
Creating Your Wealth Map. Developing the skills and judgment needed to become a better steward of wealth. Juliana Uto and Christine Luken on the Money is Emotional Podcast (listen)
The Neuroplasticity of Money and Meaning. The intersection of neuroscience, generational patterns, and personal finance, focusing on how our subconscious beliefs dictate our relationship with wealth, success, and self-worth. Michelle Masters and Jordan Grumet on the Earn and Invest Podcast. (Apple Podcasts).
Even More Than Money: Five Ways To Design Your Financial Life. Through five powerful frameworks: Living, Changing, Dreaming, Giving, and Enduring, the transformative stories from 20 financial advisors in this book guide you beyond traditional planning into a richer understanding of money's true purpose. By Justin Castelli, Shanna Due, Taylor Schulte and more. (Amazon)
Using humour in financial education: some kind of joke? The use of humour in financial education is a severely underused strategy for engaging employees in topics like pensions and share incentive schemes. From 2mins (read)
Before You Act
Before relying on an AI-generated financial answer, ask: What personal context might this tool be missing?
AI can help organize information, explain concepts, and suggest questions. However, important financial decisions still need context: your goals, family situation, cash flow, health, taxes, risk tolerance, values, and what could go wrong.
Why it matters: A useful answer is not the same as a sound decision.
Final Thought
First responders learn to gather information, listen carefully, and help people stay part of the plan.
That lesson matters in an AI-driven world too.
Technology can help us process information faster. Human value comes from listening, asking better questions, understanding context, and helping people make decisions they can trust.
Because when life happens, the way you think about money matters.
Tony
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