Beyond the Basics: Understanding and Managing Financial Products - Episode 53
We're thrilled to have Tony Steuer join us in today's episode, to revolutionize the way we think about money. Tony shares invaluable insights from his blueprint for financial success, emphasizing the importance of a healthy money mindset. We delve into the complexities of financial products, demystifying the jargon and empowering you with the knowledge to make informed choices. Whether it's insurance, investments, or savings, this episode is a must-listen for anyone eager to take control of their financial journey and build a solid foundation for wealth.
About our guest:
Tony Steuer is a renowned financial preparedness advocate, podcaster, and award-winning author, internationally recognized for his expertise in financial wellness. He authored several acclaimed books, including "The Get Ready! Blueprint," which introduces his Get Ready Method to revolutionize financial thinking and integrate financial products and advice. Serving as an Advisor for Insurance Nerds, Paperwork, and Dingo Technologies, Steuer also contributes his expertise as a Judge for the 2023 Finder Innovation Awards and is a member of ThinkAdvisor’s LUMINARIES Class of 2022. A founding member of the Financial Literacy Advocates for Good group and a former member of The California Department of Insurance Curriculum Board, he is a prominent thought leader in financial wellness, contributing to ForbesAdvisor, Nerdwallet, and appearing on various media outlets like ABC, CNBC, and Fox Business News.
More about Tony Steuer: https://www.tonysteuer.com/
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TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] Naseema McElroy: What's up my financially intentional people. Super honored to have Tony Stewart joining us to help us reframe the way we think about money, because that is super important. A lot of us weren't. Brought up talking about money in our households. And a lot of the money conversations happen later in life for us.
So we're going to have Tony help us just reframe the way that we think about it. And he also has, a blueprint that'll help us look at money differently. So hopefully we can achieve whatever financial goals we want. Wherever we're starting from in life. So Tony, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.
How are you?
[00:00:45] Tony Steuer: I'm great, Naseema. Thanks for having me here today. Excited to
[00:00:48] Naseema McElroy: Yeah, I'm excited too. I'm excited too And I know you wrote a book that serves as a blueprint for people to reframe their money mindset Can you walk us through like some of the basic concepts of that book?
[00:01:04] Tony Steuer: Yeah, so the basic concept is, It's designed to help people figure out all the different pieces of their financial life so they can start to see how everything fits together, but also how to review them because so often we get a financial service product and you don't go back and look at it again.
And you don't see how it interacts with other pieces. So that's part of the book. The other part of the book is I want to help people change their mindset. And the adage that I followed is that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. But if you teach a man how to fish, you feed him for life. And I think that's the big mindset shift that people can have is to be empowered.
With their own money and take control for themselves.
[00:01:50] Naseema McElroy: Yeah, I totally see that and the thing that I had to learn about how I approach money is that it's not a one and done thing. It's something that I have to look at and assess regularly. And I know you mentioned financial products. Can you go back and explain like what financial products are, what kind of financial products People can consume and then we can talk about like how you go in and do check ins with those products.
[00:02:19] Tony Steuer: So I think you can group them. You have your insurance products, which is when you protect against your risk. You have your legacy products, which is, maybe saving for your kids, like with a 529 plan. You have your debt, which is anywhere from credit cards. To student loans to your home mortgage you have your savings products bank accounts, CDs, treasuries, and then you have your investments, which are, how you're preparing for your financial independence and what you actually.
Deal with your money because hopefully you're earning some money and then you have to figure out what to do with it.
[00:03:00] Naseema McElroy: Right. And the reason why I just wanted you to mention that, I think if you like regularly have money conversations, you automatically understand that what those things are. However, like most people don't have those conversations. So there, I don't want people to be lost.
What are you talking about? Like financial products, it's just everything that your money can do for you basically. And how those things are grouped.
[00:03:22] Tony Steuer: And that's what I was trying to get in the book is to take people through each little discrete parts. They could go, Oh yeah, I have a bank account. I haven't even thought about how my bank account works. I haven't reviewed that. I opened up my bank account 20 years ago.
And is it still the right bank account for me? What do I need to think about? So that's what I want to do is because you're exactly right. People don't even think about those things because why would you?
[00:03:47] Naseema McElroy: Right. And checking in with your finances is something that you should be doing very, very often. There's big things that you can do, like quarterly there's some certain things that you should do at least annually, but a lot of things that do with your money, you should be checking in, especially once you're like, really starting to hone in.
On your finances. I found that I had to check in daily, especially when it came to like spending And that's where like the intentionality came And for my podcast is that like I really had to get intentional with my money because so much of it Like I had put on autopilot But not in a way that served me Autopilot in the sense that I just wasn't thinking about it And I was wondering why I wasn't meeting certain financial goals of where I was supposed to be right.
And it's just because I never put those things in place and just spend it and did the things that I thought I was supposed to do. Without making sure that I had the insurances, the investments, and all of those things that were actually going to help me build my wealth, it was just like making sure I got the car, making sure I bought the house and these things that people tell you, Oh yeah, you go to school, you buy a house, you go to school, you get a good job, then you buy a house, you buy a car, but.
All the other stuff, the foundational stuff to really secure yourself financially. I just never knew anything about,
[00:05:19] Tony Steuer: Yeah, 100%. It's not taught anywhere, as you go through college, you start taking on college debt, you're not really taught much about it, is there a better way to take on college debt? Do you need to take on college debt? Should you go to a college with, a lower tuition, should you get a government grant? Should you get a Pell grant? Should you get a private loan? The choices are just like incredible. So it's you need something to walk you through all those different things. So you can start to see okay, would these are the right questions to ask?
Because, that's the thing to back up is that, I'm suggesting to people that they be a little more curious about their money. So before they do something, find out what questions you even need to ask. So before you take out a student loan, for example, it's okay, what is an interest rate?
Not what is the interest rate, but what is an interest rate? How is it going to work on your college loan? Because that's super important. Is it deferred until you graduate from college, or do you start having to pay interest immediately? Or is it deferred five years from now, like those, that's the right question to ask instead of going, Oh, boy, I'm going to pay half a point lower on this college loan than the other one.
But, the terms may be much more unfavorable. So it's asking that question is super important. But knowing what question to ask is even harder. Transcription
[00:06:42] Naseema McElroy: but that's the whole thing. Like, how do you know? So that really triggered me to go back into my 18 year old self that was going to the university of Southern California, which was $40,000 a year in 1999 when I went to college. And First of all, I couldn't even grasp like that amount of money. Like when I saw that on paper as like something that I was supposed to have to pay, I couldn't even wrap my mind around that number because it was so big for me.
And then I was like asking my dad about it and he didn't really know. And so I'm just like, how would I know? What questions to ask at that age, unless there was somebody in my family or somebody even my advisor they're usually like just go to school by any means necessary, sign whatever loan documents you have.
And so that's all I was taught. There were people around me or and things, it wasn't like social media or things that were easily accessible where I could just research without going to the library and pulling down hundreds of books. Like, how do I figure this out? And for me, it was just about making sure my whole life I was taught, just make sure you get into that school.
So then you can get a really good job trying to get into the best school possible. But those kind of things, of asking those questions sound super fundamentally, like what you're supposed to do. However, if nobody around you is asking those same questions, how do you know to ask? Like, how did you know to build this framework and this blueprint for people?
What's your money background?
[00:08:25] Tony Steuer: So I've been in money pretty much forever is because when I went to college, I had no idea what I wanted to major in, like most people. So I decided to be a finance major and minor, with an emphasis on investments because I figured hopefully I'm going to get a job and I'll make some money at the end.
So that was my whole plan, so I go, I might as well learn about money, do something practical when I'm in college rather than doing, English or whatever, with nothing wrong with being an English major, for me, I was like, okay, what's something practical that I can learn?
Because that's just the way I am. My journey was, I was an insurance agent, then I quickly became a fee based insurance consultant and spent pretty much the next 30 years consulting for financial planners, attorneys, litigation attorneys trust officers, whole gamut of different advisors.
And I started seeing that across the spectrum, not only the clients didn't understand the financial services and products, but most of the people. In the process, didn't have a much more firm grasp except maybe, one or two products or services and, I did some work with the California Department of Insurance and I saw that the regulators, they didn't really understand the products that were regulating, and that they didn't always have the experience because it's so complex and the companies are creating these products and services that they don't understand. That kind of became a mission to me is to like, okay, how can we break this down for people? Because it needs to happen across the spectrum.
Everybody needs to. Start talking and communicating about what they're doing and starting to say, Hey what are we doing? What are we trying to accomplish here? So that kind of became my mission is to change the way we think about money.
[00:10:11] Naseema McElroy: And that is so interesting to me. First of all, I've never heard that. So I'm just like
[00:10:16] Tony Steuer: there, there's only like 40 of us in the state of California,
[00:10:19] Naseema McElroy: oh, wow. Okay.
[00:10:20] Tony Steuer: Should be more. But essentially what would happen is a financial planner would say, Hey, I have a client who has these life insurance policies. Help me figure out if they're any good, if any changes need to be made, match up with what the client's actually trying to accomplish.
I would evaluate each policy. I'd say, okay. This policy is good, not good. This policy needs adjustments, this one. May need some tweaking. So that was essentially what I did. So I spent a lot of time being able to look at different products as well as to see how different advisors understood the products as well as to interface with the insurance companies and try to get answers out of them about the products.
And oftentimes. Their employees would say I don't know if we can provide that. I don't know what that is, or they just keep sending you things that were wrong. And I don't know, you're in health, the health field. Insurance companies don't always get everything right.
I can see that.
[00:11:15] Naseema McElroy: about it,
[00:11:16] Tony Steuer: That resonates.
[00:11:18] Naseema McElroy: definitely, definitely, but I think what you were saying is super important, but also scary because if your advisor is not fully understanding the product, if the insurance commission isn't really fully understanding the products, how are we as consumers supposed to really understand these products?
It's so hard it's so overwhelming. It's on top of all the things that you're supposed to do you're supposed to have these things in place. How do you know what product is right for you? And let's just talk about insurance because that's like a big contentious thing with people because.
For better or for worse, I feel like a lot of times people are sold into insurance products that aren't necessarily the best fit for them. I think sometimes it's a little predatory, especially to in communities of color and there products that are really expensive not really beneficial.
But not really understanding, but they're just sold into this thing because they're told that's what rich people do. So help me understand, as consumers, when we're looking at things like insurance products, life insurance, for example, like how do we do our due diligence to make sure that we understand the product, especially if like you're saying that the agents don't always understand the products.
Mm
[00:12:43] Tony Steuer: think the first thing is you have to check in with yourself and say, Okay what do I actually want to accomplish? Because So often the question starts with should I buy this product or not? And so then you spend all your time, evaluating the product rather than thinking about, okay here's my goal.
This is what I want to accomplish. Let's say you walk into a department store, if there's still a department store near you. And, you go to the TV department and they say, Hey, you need to buy this TV. And. If you do that, you know whether or not you need a TV because you can say, I have three TVs at home.
I don't need another TV. What your goal is pretty quickly is your goal is like, Hey, I need the TV or I don't need the TV and financial services is we don't ask that question is okay, do I actually need this product? Because that's where we should really be starting is do I need this product and then figuring it out from there, like how long do I need this product?
What features do I need on this product? So that's taking the power to yourself is saying, Hey, I know what I want, which is easier said than done. But at least getting to that point where you start to think, okay, I'm going to control this process. I'm going to tell them what I want.
[00:14:05] Naseema McElroy: The thing is, is that people get confused, right? Because, like I said, those things are confusing, but everybody knows in the back of their head they need some kind of insurance, they need life insurance. But it's often sold to them, like I said, as this huge investment and something that they can pull money from later.
And so people get caught in Trying to like not get too caught in the weeds of trying to break down what the product is but thinking that they just did something by purchasing the product and most of the times I think people think that that's enough and then Like again, not really understanding like it's pretty black and white that you have three tvs and you don't need another one but if you know that you need life insurance and Then you're just like, okay there's all these different kind of life insurance and the life insurance that I hear on tick tock or my friend or my cousin is telling me to buy is this life insurance then I guess I should buy this life insurance.
And again, most people just don't take the time to do the research. So how do people like, go from? Okay, I need life insurance. Let's break down like how I should actually look at how do I ask the right questions around it?
[00:15:25] Tony Steuer: With the life insurance, for example, the question, then the next question is like, how long do I need the life insurance for? Because that's going to help you figure out the product. If you say, okay I have a child and I want to have life insurance long enough to protect that child.
Even if it's a one year old, that might be 20 years. So you're looking at a 20 year term policy that automatically throws out. All the equity index, universal life policies, be your own banker, permanent life insurance, whole life insurance, universal life, because it's not the product that's going to serve your goal. Because, my goal is to provide protection for your child. And your goal as a consumer is always to save as much money and to pay as little money. As possible as you can for something, that's the way that people get ahead is by managing their expenses and being good stewards with their money.
But if you're thinking goal first 20 years, then you've automatically thrown out like 90 percent of the insurance policies out there. So you're concentrating on a goal. And again, to get back to the TV example is, let's say you have we have a little cubby for our TV. And if I got a TV that's too big For our cubby, where, it's going to sit on the floor, and that's like with that big whole life policy, it's going to sit on the floor of your financial life and not have anything to do.
It's not going to be helpful for you. So that's changing that mindset and taking that control and saying, Hey, I know what I want. And give me what I want. Don't tell me what I need.
[00:17:01] Naseema McElroy: Yeah, that's the whole thing though, I feel like that comes with being able to be surrounded by people that you can have those kind of conversations with and normalize. Thinking like that, normalize learning how to answer the right questions to make sure things are serving you the way that they're supposed to.
And so that's why I love what you're doing, but it sounds like before you start, before you like wrote this book long before you're pretty like B2B, like you're in the back end, you aren't really consumer facing. How did you shift your focus to really start helping just individuals get on the right track financially?
Mm hmm.
[00:17:46] Tony Steuer: I'm still, my goal with the get ready system, the get ready method is for advisors to also use it in their practice. As a way to extend the value that they're providing to client, but also change your relationship with their clients to become better at serving.
And helping their clients. But at the same time, most consumers are never going to work with a professional advisor. Like for example, take certified financial planners, there's 36, 000 certified financial planners in the world. 90 percent of them are in the U S but most people are never going to talk to a CFP or they're gonna have one conversation with the CFP in their lifetime.
So it's okay, how do we help people? Take control so they can go out there and know when they need tasks for an advisor, know when they're getting in over their head. Okay, when I talk to an insurance agent, I know the questions that I want to ask that insurance agent. And that's, people, if it's okay.
Put in a plug for my newsletter. If you subscribe to my newsletter, I have a weekly action item that matches a get ready blueprint. It's always going to be free and you can start to see the things you'll need to think about with each financial service or product. And once you start to do that, that will give you ideas for other financial services and products.
And you can start to say, Hey, I'm in control. And that's the biggest thing is most people feel helpless. In terms of the financial services world, or they feel shamed, they don't want to admit like you said, at the very beginning, people don't want to back up and say, okay, what is an insurance premium?
I don't understand that. What is a claim? I Don't know if you don't know how to make a claim on your insurance policy. It's pretty much worthless. But a claim is when you, have something happens, an event, and you get money back from the insurance company. But if you don't even know what a claim is, but you're like, I don't want to ask my insurance agent because I don't want to seem like, I should know this, that there's so much money shaming and you talk about the cultural things is, I've talked to people from many different.
Socioeconomic strata on my podcast and had the privilege of being on other people's podcasts that, a lot of cultures don't talk about money or they don't talk about certain things, it's a taboo or, maybe caring dead is a taboo or, whatever. It's like getting a mindset and thinking about okay, what is right for me?
What is my right choice?
[00:20:12] Naseema McElroy: Mm hmm.
[00:20:13] Tony Steuer: And initiating those conversations for yourself. Okay.
[00:20:17] Naseema McElroy: Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head talking about like the money shame and how people let that paralyze them so that they don't start making better financial decisions or start reevaluating where they're at financially. It's like the sunk cost fallacy. They just keep on going oh I did this and, I guess I'll keep on doing that because maybe I just don't know how to figure it out Or maybe i'm ashamed of my mistakes. Maybe i'm ashamed that i've gotten into this debt or maybe i'm ashamed I paid all this money for this insurance and I don't even know how it works Instead of taking that and being like, I don't know what I don't know.
I forgive myself for my past mistakes and just move forward and know that You can learn all of these things. And I like that you mentioned in your newsletter, you give those actionable items because sometimes people just need that one thing that they can do to shift their mindset and start thinking about things differently.
And I often talk about the thing, the biggest thing that's going to impact. The way that you think about money is your community and the people that you surround yourself with. And I think like your newsletter is a great resource for a sense of community so that that helps you reframe like how you think, because you're like, okay, now I can ask the right questions based off of what was provided in this newsletter.
Now I can start to understand. And I think. People underestimate like how fast they can change if they just start taking very small incremental actions or the aggregation of marginal gains, right? Like it's not like you don't have to fix your finances. overnight. It's really about those small things that you do every day and those things that you do repeatedly that are going to make the biggest impact.
And so I like, those just like you said, those small. Actionable, like takeaways that you can do and you say it for free, which a lot of people think, Oh, I have to spend all this money to do these things. There are a lot of things that you can do that don't cost money in the front end, but in the back end will save you so much money or help you gain so much money.
And thank you for sharing that because I think that's what people need. They need to change their circle of influence in the circle and that can be through. So whatever social media accounts, whatever emails that you receive the newsletters that you're a part of, what you read, what you consume is part of your circle of influence.
And by just making that shift and actually taking action off of the things, like even listening to a podcast, but not just listening passively, like listening and committing to just do one thing from that podcast. If you do that continuously the impact that you can make on your finances and your life is so Big and so I just think that a lot of people take that for granted just because they think that I have to have this quick fix like everything should be fixed, but you didn't get into that hole Or wherever you are financially like overnight It was an accumulation of decisions that you and actions that decisions that you made and actions that you took that got you there.
So thank you for sharing that. I think that that's super important but I I think that just You bringing up that money shame is Something that A lot of people have, but it's not really talked about and so I want to just applaud you for just bringing that out to the forefront because like, when I share my story and my story is pretty clickbaity of paying off the million dollars in debt.
But a lot of people tell me I could never, I could never admit to something like that. I could never put that out there. And yeah, I get the pushback. People are like you're stupid. How did you get it? A million dollars of debt and all these kinds of things. And I'm just like, just like anybody else, but, I think yeah, there's all these like social stigmas.
There's all these cultural things that, Money is taboo and it's not really talked about. So my goal is to normalize those conversations. And that just, it's just a bad feeling. Right. And it just, like I said, it paralyzes people to not take action.
So thank you for sharing about that.
[00:24:41] Tony Steuer: Yeah no, I appreciate it. And it's a good message for people to think about is because as you point out with your dad, it's you did the best you could with the information you had at the time. And there's nothing wrong with that. We all do things that we say, Oh, maybe, if I knew everything back then I would have made a different decision.
But you know what, you make the decisions based on where you are. But the thing that you can do with your financial life is make better decisions going forward. You can take control going forward and change things, and that's what's important is to give yourself some grace and say hey, it's all right, and so here's a perfect example, and you might identify with this as a nurse is my son has type one diabetes, and the first thing we're taught is there's no good numbers, there's no bad numbers, there's only what his number is right now for his blood sugar, and the adjustments that you make going forward, it doesn't matter if he had, like a, a milkshake and forgot to take his insulin.
It doesn't matter. It's about what he does going forward and the actions that he takes to correct that. And I think that's what people need to remember is Hey, if your credit score is low, so what, go out there and change it, take control instead of sitting there and being, like saying I can't do anything about this.
Yeah, there are some things you you're going to do. You're not going to go from a poor credit score to an excellent credit score in a week, but you can do it over five years.
[00:26:09] Naseema McElroy: Definitely.
[00:26:10] Tony Steuer: if you work away like a little bit like everything, like how long did it take you to go to school to be a nurse?
[00:26:17] Naseema McElroy: I did it backwards. So it took me a really long time because I went to undergrad, then I went to grad school and got a master's in healthcare administration and hated it. Then went to school to be a nurse in a year, but that's because I had all that education. But that's two master's degrees.
Okay. That I have and a lot of debt.
[00:26:38] Tony Steuer: That's, yeah, but that's okay. But the thing I think, for people that they can apply to their financial life from that is that it wasn't something that you did overnight. You didn't say, okay I'm going to be a nurse and next month you were a nurse, even though maybe being a nurse wasn't your plan initially, even to get your master's in, administration that still took you six years, that's on instant thing.
And we tend to forget about that, with our money, we keep thinking, like, how can I do this quickly? How can, how can I make a fortune quickly? How can I pay off my debt tomorrow? It's like everything. Takes time and takes a plan. Like you had to figure out if you had taken geology classes every semester, you never would have gotten your master's.
You had a plan. And I think people need to remember that with their money is, and it gets back to picking the right product or service is you can hear people talking about all these products and services, get Bitcoin, get this, do that, get NFTs, we know how NFTs worked out for people, instead of saying okay here's my goal.
I want to get a master's and so in order to get my master's, I need to take classes in my major instead of just whatever class I feel like taking. Now you can still take whatever class you want and you can still do that in your financial life, but you have to understand that that's going to have an impact.
But if you stay focused on your goal and get the right things, you can do it, but it's going to take time. So I think that's a good takeaway.
[00:28:05] Naseema McElroy: And I think it all comes back to what your money mindset is and why it's super important to establish that for yourself because these things like are so catchy and they're the things that are on the news and they're the things that you see people like becoming mega millionaires like overnight without having to do much work.
And it's just so those are the things that people want to reach for. So those are like the times when people reach out to me should I invest in this? And I'm just like, backup. Did you, uh, just fund your 401k this year? Did you make sure that you have an IRA? It's just okay, yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll get to that.
But I just want to know, because I have this 10, 000. It's just it drives me crazy. And I think that, like I said, it goes back into this thing. Like people want that instant gratification. They want to fix things over they want that Get rich quick become rich overnight thing, even though they they don't they wouldn't necessarily say that But that's the way that they're operating instead of operating from a place of what are the actionable small actionable things I can do every day over a consistent period of time that are going to get me to that goal.
Walk us through like how your get ready system actually helps people shift their mindset so they can make sure that they are on that path.
[00:29:33] Tony Steuer: So it starts with building healthy habits. So we've talked a lot about, thinking goals first rather than product, but it takes you through, eight different habits, spells, get ready, use for educate learn the rules of the game. It's if you're going to play any game, you'd know the rules.
You wouldn't just play chess willy nilly. You wouldn't expect to do well because I need to learn how each piece moves. And money is like that too, is, take the time before you buy a financial service or product or even talk to somebody about it saying, okay, what can I learn about this?
And as you start learning, gathering information, then you'll get more questions and you'll start be able to write down your own questions. T is for thinking, about your mindset. And we've talked a lot about that. R is for reviewing things. And is it relevant to you?
We talked about is. Equity index, universal life, be your own banker. Is that relevant to you? It's not relevant to you if you're just trying to protect your child, he is for like expenses and details, it's start looking at the details of what you're doing. Like what, what are the other things involved here?
It's okay, if this loan is 1 percent lower than all the other loans, I've looked at 20 different lenders and this loan is two points lower than every other lender. Then you have to ask the question, why, why is it cheaper? Because there's usually an offset somewhere and cause there's nothing for free.
It's if you went shopping and there were two loaves of bread and one is 10 and there's 10, 10 different types of bread. They're all 10 a loaf, which is not real, but I will just, go away from that for a second. And there's one loaf of bread. That's a dollar a loaf. Would you buy the dollar loaf?
Probably not. Or at least you'd want to know okay why is this one 10 percent the price of all the others? That's it. And then you have to go back and review everything, you have to go back every so often and take a look at it because anything, things wear out, things change is, let's say your cable subscriptions.
You may not need ESPN in a year. And you would go back and say we don't check our TV subscriptions, but that's a great way to save money is, if you do, you might say we haven't watched ESPN in a year, so I'm going to cancel ESPN and save a little bit of money.
That's the principle and to your larger financial products, you're going to save more money when you go back and review them from year to year. So that's the system.
[00:32:02] Naseema McElroy: Yeah, I often find, like, when you review financial products, even if it's just like your car insurance once a year if you do a check in and say do I need this much insurance? Do I even still have that car? That's on my insurance. Like, all of that stuff you can find money there.
But I just. Really want to emphasize the fact that a lot of times people find it so overwhelming that they just don't get started. For people that are just like, this is too overwhelming for me. I'd rather just pay somebody to do it. I don't really want to think about it or I just, it's too overwhelming for me.
I just need I don't know, like, how to implement these things. It's too much. I don't know how to read policies. I don't know what I'm paying for. What do you tell people like that? That are just like in trapped in like this kind of analysis paralysis cycle.
[00:32:55] Tony Steuer: Don't panic. And that's exactly what, so the second part of the book, it's a 52 week blueprint to change the way you think about money. So each week it goes through a simple, not a simple, some of them are not simple, but a clear action item that you can do and just focus on one thing that week. Maybe you think about your debt, maybe you think about just your bank accounts.
Like when was the last time you thought about like your bank accounts and are you paying a 4 ATM charge? Because your bank closed its local branch and, you're going to the convenient ATM or you're going to the ATM in your work. I try to take people to that, but, it's, it's a system that repeats every year.
So if you miss something let's say you go on vacation for a week and you don't do your weekly action. Who cares? Cause you're going to review it next year and that's the way it should be. Is we shouldn't feel stress. It's if we're on a diet, but it's, we go to a party and there's a dessert.
We really want to have, let me say, okay I'm going to have that dessert one time. That's okay. You go back to your diet after you're done. And I think that's how we need to look at our money. It's so you have a hiccup. Who cares? You'll come back to it again. You just keep repeating.
So it's, it's getting that system in place and having the right habits and that's putting you in control. And I think that's the biggest thing that people can do is say, Hey, I can take control, I can be confident with my money. I got this.
[00:34:19] Naseema McElroy: I love that. I love the 52 week plan and it's the book like, is it, do you have to do a step wise or could you just turn to week 14 and be like, I'll take that action, but just commit to doing something every week.
[00:34:36] Tony Steuer: Oh, yeah, you can you can do it whatever week you want. If you're doing the newsletter, give you the action item for that week because, want to kind of people to stay focused and have a path. But if you buy the book, or, I haven't have a level. I haven't quite changed yet.
It's gonna be 25 a year where people can get access to fillable PDFs that accompany the book and everything. I want to do it as inexpensively as possible because I want to make it accessible to more people. But Yeah, I need to charge something. So people, yeah, exactly. But you get, you get a bunch of worksheets and you can go to any week you want anytime you want, because that's the whole idea behind the system is I'm going to guide you.
Or if you want to guide yourself and do whatever, that's totally cool because let's say we. 22 is charitable giving and you want to give a charitable gift this, this year, maybe that's not the best example, but let's say employee benefits. Your health insurance, open enrollment is up.
And, I have that let's say week 45 is, if you're in week 22, because you started a new job, you don't want to wait 6 months to talk about health insurance. So you can turn to the health insurance section and do it then when it will serve you. And that's the idea is that you're taking control and saying, okay, this is what I want to do.
And that's, that's the biggest thing is I want people to say, because I don't solve a lot of the problems with financial predators. If people are more confident, because it's easy to get taken advantage of by people when you lack confidence. That's what predators look for is they look for people who are not confident.
iF you want to arm yourself against predators, first thing you can do, gain a little bit of confidence.
[00:36:17] Naseema McElroy: Yes. I love that. I love that. And I just it, I, I love that you decrease that barrier to entry. So that is accessible for people because that's the thing. I feel like either, 1st of all working with financial advisors can be really expensive used to be like, you have to have a certain level of income to be able to work with financial advisors, or to even think that you can, you can access a lot of financial services. It could, it was expensive and or they just weren't available to you and that accessibility is super important. And that's why I have my platform because, I feel like a lot of people were gate kept from information, but it sounds like you created this low ticket plan that's accessible for everyone, but is something that can really change a person's financial trajectory if they just do the small actionable things weekly. Let people know where they can access the book or the newsletter the worksheets sound incredible as well.
[00:37:22] Tony Steuer: So you can find the book at any online book retailer, I always give a shout out to bookshop. org, which supports local bookstores. So if you buy from bookshop. org, it may not be always as cheap as Amazon. But they send a percentage back to local bookstores. So if you like local bookstores, bookshop.
org is your place. You can sign up for the newsletter at my website, Tony Stewart. com. If you're not sure how to spell my last name, you can find me on LinkedIn. Or just Google the Get Ready Blueprint. Silence.
[00:38:09] Naseema McElroy: them because I I Even with what I do, and I talk about finances every day, I still have to do regular check ins.
I look at my money daily. I meet with my financial advisor at least a couple times a year. But there's still some things that I can do to improve. I set reminders to upgrade my car insurance and all of those kinds of things, but you just don't know what you don't know and to have that blueprint to be able to check in on.
So for whatever level you're at, I feel like it's super helpful. So thank you so much for providing that. It seems like a incredible tool and I hope that people will find value in it because I, I think it's a super valuable thing and something that somebody that people can implement into their daily actions.
And so I appreciate that you took the time to actually sit down and do that. And like I said, accessibility is everything to me. And And also people need to understand that things are rapidly changing, especially in the personal finance space. And you really have this imperative that you go back through and check through your products that you have your financial products that you have especially right now, especially if you haven't done it just even in the last 2 years, it's super important.
Thank you for providing a toolkit. So people can do that.
[00:39:28] Tony Steuer: Oh, you're welcome to SEMA and thanks for allowing me to come on and share so I appreciate it.
[00:39:33] Naseema McElroy: Of course is this great, good information. And I'm super honored to have you on the podcast. So thank you.
[00:39:40] Tony Steuer: I'm honored to be here. I love nurses. So I want to give a shout out to nurses.
[00:39:44] Naseema McElroy: Oh,
[00:39:45] Tony Steuer: Nurses make the healthcare system work.
[00:39:48] Naseema McElroy: Thank you. Thank you. And also thanks for putting that plug on bookshop. org. I never heard of them and I love local bookstores. That's my thing. So that's where I'll be buying my
[00:39:58] Tony Steuer: Me too.
[00:39:59] Naseema McElroy: now on. Okay. Thanks.
Hey there I’m Naseema
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