Hi,
Welcome to this week’s Get Ready Newsletter; ideas, conversations, resources, and practical steps to help you prepare before life happens.
How many times have you talked yourself into doing something outside your comfort zone?
When I was rafting, there were times I agreed to run a river that was running a little wilder than I preferred. Sometimes it turned into a great experience.
Once, I flipped the raft, lost it, and had to hike out. I later got the raft back. The rest is a story for another day.
While someone else can help persuade you, at the end of the day, only you can persuade yourself.
Money decisions can work the same way. Sometimes the pressure comes from another person. Other times, we convince ourselves to ignore that feeling that something is off, when our spidey senses are tingling.
The Big Idea: Persuasion is easier to recognize when we understand what is influencing our decision.
Question to Consider: What’s influencing me to make this decision?
Featured Conversation
Recognizing persuasion techniques helps you make more informed financial decisions.
Julia Chin, founder of JFourth Solutions, joined me to talk about how financial literacy, inclusion, and consumer protection work together. We also explored how recognizing persuasion and manipulation can help people identify potential financial exploitation.
The Bottom Line: Financial readiness includes recognizing pressure and asking better questions before making a financial decision.
🎙️ Watch or listen to How Persuasion Shapes Your Money Decisions
Also From The Podcast
Learning to recognize the difference between opportunity and hype helps kids and adults make better money decisions.
Will Rainey, author of Grandpa's Fortune Fables and Frankie Fortune: The Boy Who Believed the Internet, joined me to talk about how storytelling helps children recognize online money hype, question financial advice, and build healthy money habits.
The Bottom Line: Helping kids spot money hype starts with teaching them to question what they see online.
🎙️ Watch or listen to How Kids Can Spot Money Hype Online
Everyday money moments can become lessons kids remember.
Dr. Darla Bishop, founder of Piggy Bank Pathways and co-author of Madeline’s Money Adventures, joined me to talk about how everyday experiences and family conversations can help children develop healthy money habits.
The Bottom Line: Financial confidence grows when children have opportunities to practice making choices.
🎙️ Watch or listen to How Kids Can Learn Money Through Everyday Choices
Featured Resource
K-12 Teacher Resources from Rishi Vamdatt and Easy Peasy Finance
What it is: Free, standards-aligned financial literacy courses and teaching resources for K–12 educators.
What stood out: The ready-to-use resources can help teachers bring financial education into the classroom with less preparation.
Why I recommend it: The program makes practical financial education easier for schools and teachers to put into action. Rishi Vamdatt and Easy Peasy Finance have also received multiple financial literacy awards.
→ Check it out here.
🎙️ Watch my conversation with Rishi Vamdatt on the Get Ready Before Life Happens Podcast: Money Made Easy
Worth Your Attention
📖 A convincing, long accepted explanation can still be wrong. Meghaan Lurtz uses the story of Stonehenge to show why context matters before we accept an explanation, even if it seems right. For Less Lonely Money (read)
📖 How should we think about Social Security’s long-term obligations? Laurence Kotlikoff offers a much broader measure of the program’s future shortfall than the figure typically highlighted by the trustees. For Economics Matters (read).
📖 Year-end tax planning is easier when you start early. Elliott Appel shares seven planning ideas. For Kindness Financial Planning (read)
🎙️ Financial security increasingly includes digital security. Mike Piper, Christine Benz, and Amy Arnott discuss practical ways to protect accounts and personal information from increasingly sophisticated scams. On the Morningstar Long View Podcast (listen)
Related: Household Cybersecurity: A CPA’s Guide to Protecting Your Accounts and Personal Information by Mike Piper (Amazon)
🎙️ Our financial history can continue shaping present-day decisions. Rachel Duncan and Linda Grizely explore what financial trauma is and how it can affect behavior. On the Real Money, Real Life Podcast (YouTube).
Research Worth Knowing
Many families are not aware of next year’s income.
The Federal Reserve’s latest Survey of Consumer Finances found that 37% of families reported they did not have a good idea of their income for the coming year, the highest level recorded in the survey.
Why it matters: Financial readiness depends partly on understanding what resources may be available before making commitments and decisions.
📓 From the Federal Reserve Board (Full 66-page research report | Survey data and interactive resources).
Scam Fighter Tip
Authority and urgency are powerful persuasion tools.
A couple preparing for retirement lost $250,000 after scammers posing as federal agents used video calls, threats, and demands for immediate action.
Try this: End the communication and contact the agency independently using the phone number or website you find yourself.
🎙️ AARP's The Perfect Scam: Couple Held in Virtual House Arrest by FBI Impostor Scam
One Step Before Life Happens
This week’s action: Before one financial decision, ask yourself: “What is influencing me to act?”
Why it matters: Naming the source of the pressure can help you separate the decision from the persuasion.
Closing Thought
Running a river outside your comfort zone can turn into a great experience.
It can also teach you that the most important decision sometimes happens before you get on the water.
Financial decisions work much the same way.
Before acting, understand what is influencing you, ask the question that still needs answering, and make the decision for the right reason.
Because when life happens, the way you think about money matters.
Tony
👉 Check out The Get Ready Before Life Happens Podcast. Conversations with professionals, advocates, authors, researchers, and other informed voices who help people ask better questions, understand financial guidance, and make more informed decisions. (Apple Podcasts) (YouTube)