I Reflect on the Week: Wins, Tough Stuff, and 3 Numbers to Keep

I thought I would just step into the studio for a little bit.

And this is something I'm going to start doing every week.

It's what I call my reflections episode.

I want to tell you what this week was all about.

After the show, I want to tell you about what stuck, what was hard, and what numbers that were actually set on the show.

Now, if you missed the show last week, our entire purpose last week was know your numbers week.

We did five shows.

We ended up with a great guest on Friday who ended up teaching me the teacher.

Here's my promise.

For the next 10 minutes or so, I want to share with you the best moments of the week.

I want to share with you the hardest moments of the week.

And I want to give you three numbers worth carrying into next week.

So let's get right to it.

Here's the best of the week.

And this, honestly was the best show of the week.

We had a guest on Friday.

His name is Mark Lawley, and he taught us about his just in case file.

And that's a just in case folder.

If something ever happens to him, it's a place where everybody can understand all the things they need to know.

His phone, phone, his tablet, his computer, passwords.

And he shared with us very frankly, said, listen, my daughters have this.

They know how to get to it, and they'll be able to handle all the things that they need to handle when I'm going.

And I thought about it for a second.

I said, you know what?

That's a really brilliant idea.

And the reason that it landed so hard that our whole theme last week was that one habit.

Knowing your numbers and what Mark has created.

And I think it's a very important thing to do.

His family is never going to have to guess about what to do next.

And then Mark shared with us a story about his dad.

And I'll never forget what he said.

He said, my dad sat us down one time and he says, listen, you don't have to make a decision.

Mark's dad gave him all the tools he needed so that his job was just to make sure those.

Those wishes got carried out.

Now, Friday's close was all about wins of the week.

And my win, and I mean this with all sincerity, is when you win, we listen to Renee and Mark and we listen to that person who cut their subscriptions.

And when I hear people that are actually making getting ahead, that's what feeds me now.

We did have some hard times this week as well.

Friday was a tough one.

It wasn't a normal guess for us.

Mark's mother had just passed away.

She was 93 years old.

She had been a nurse for 55 years.

And he came onto the show with real questions, real questions about inheritance and IRAs.

And the most important part of that was he was still in that cycle of grief and trying to figure out, him and his sister trying to figure out, what are we going to do next?

Now, that segment ran about 30 minutes because it needed to.

That's what I'm doing on the show.

That's why I want to bring people just like you onto the show.

Tell me what's going on.

Tell me about the struggles you're going through, because I can help you.

And that's the whole point of this show.

If you want to join the show, go to becoming financiallyconfident.com stuck again.

That's becoming financiallyconfident.com stuck.

And when you get there, you're going to find a Google form.

And that Google form is to ask you where you're stuck.

I'm going to read every single one of those.

My goal is to help you.

I'd love for you to come on this show and I can do some financial counseling right with you on the show.

Now, here's another part of the show that was really great.

On Wednesday, we talked about my youngest son.

He got that fake text from the fraud department.

He thought his credit union account had been taken in over and he was about to call him with that number, but I stopped him.

He had enough sense to reach out to me and the stat that stuck with me and this was absolutely amazing to me.

In 2025, that type of what they call impersonation losses was three and a half billion dollars.

And if that's not bad enough, the average cam costs people just like you almost $2,000, 19, $60.

So if you ever get a text, don't call that number.

Go get your credit card, Go get your debit card, flip it over and use the number that's on the back of that card.

Or even better than that, program the number for your bank or your credit union right into your phone.

And I shared on the show, Listen, I just shared this a couple weeks ago.

I shared it again this Thursday.

I didn't start planning truly actually putting money aside until I was 47 years old.

Now I'm 54.

Now you do the math.

I haven't been doing it for that long, but the whole point of it is it's never too late to start.

But hear me on this.

It's never too late to Start, you can start today.

If you're struggling right now with something, with your finances, you're struggling with retirement money or just even putting aside five or ten dollars a week, you can start that today.

Now I want to share some numbers that are worth retelling.

Now on Tuesday we talked about 401k fees, but just to remind you, we talked about that 1% fee and a lot of people thought, well, 1%, that's no big deal.

Except for the stat I gave you, 28% is what that adds up to.

Over a 35 year career, that's $155,000 over a working life for a median two earner family on that same day.

And listen, when I did the research, I was shocked.

Forgotten retirement accounts, the ones that people didn't, they just don't remember.

31.9 Million of them worth over $2.13 trillion.

The average $66,691, that's somebody's retirement money.

It's sitting in an old job plan right now and the people don't even know about it.

So I'm going to encourage you, go back and listen to that show.

I give you some great things, some great ways to go find that money.

Because that's your money.

And if you've ever left a job and you Forgot about that 401k, it's time to do it.

Now Thursday we talked about mortgage payments, we talked about bi weekly payments and I did some math right on the show where if you make 26 half payments on a $300,000 loan at 7.4% which is the current rate right now, it's not a great rate, but that's where we are.

It ends up shaving that 30 year loan down to 23.4 years and ready for this one.

It saves you $117,000 in interest over the life of the loan.

Now Wednesday we talked about house insurance premiums being up 45% in 10 years.

But listen, if you're a cornhusker from Nebraska, it's up 79%.

Also on Wednesday we talked about that hundred thousand dollar side hustle and I got deep into that self employment tax.

That's at 15 point.

So if you're doing the math, $100,000 with the side income means $15,300 in self employment tax before you even get the federal and state taxes.

Now let's get behind the curtain a little bit.

One of the things I want to do as I share this weekly thing is tell you what happens behind the scenes as you can see today I don't have my.

My normal dress shirt on.

I've just got my Ducks Unlimited hat and a T shirt on because that's what I do around the farm on Saturdays.

But this week, I also called some audibles.

I had every intention on Friday of talking about what you do when you leave your business or you leave your job and you go and Forget about your 401k plan.

But as I looked at my watch, I said, we don't have time to cover this.

So I called an audible.

I said, time out on the field.

We're going to cover that this Tuesday because it deserved its own show.

So I want to make sure I give it the time so that you know what to do when you change jobs.

On Thursday, I did the same kind of thing Juliette had this term say I'll never forget it.

She said, kid Dalting.

And I was like, what is Kid Dalting?

We talked about that because those are the things that make life worth living.

And then on what it cost me, I talked about my wife's buying a new car, a Honda Passport journey.

She picked up that car last night.

And my wife is just super pleased with her new car.

Now, Friday, I had every intention of taking about 10 or 15 minutes to talk to Mark.

But what he was talking about was so important for so many people that I said, you know what?

We're going to focus almost a whole entire episode.

We didn't even talk about the money move for this week.

Now I want to talk about that for a second.

For the month, this month, for the 30 days we're talking about.

The money move isn't some weekly thing.

It's to really start thinking about how do I find $250 to set aside for the future.

And we started this week with finding that $25.

Just that $25 starting point.

Now, next week, we're going to talk about how to find $7 a day.

The other thing I loved about Friday is we had some great listener messages.

A lady called in and said she'd found that way to cut some subscriptions.

And Renee joined the show.

Now, Renee is somebody that joins the show just about daily.

And she shared with us some really heartfelt message about her State Farm refund and how she's now got $500 in cash set aside for the holidays.

Now, also, don't forget Monday, we launched something very cool.

That's our Christmas bonus.

So make sure you're signing up for the Christmas bonus, because the more people that sign up, the higher the winnings go.

Go to becoming financiallyconfident.com giveaway and you can enter every single day and tell everybody you know about it.

And also, don't forget, if you're a business owner or you're an individual and you want me to look over your books, right Now, I'm offering $199 year end.

Let's take a look at what's going on in your books or let's go and look at what's going on with your pay stub.

So go and book that on our website.

Becoming financially confident.com yearend.

Now let's look ahead to next week.

As I said, we're still on this journey to find that $250.

This week we're going to be looking for the money leaks, those money leaks that just seem like, you know, $2 here, $5 there.

But my goal for this week is to help you find $7 a day.

And if you do the math, that can get you close to $50 for the week.

So Monday, we're going to start with the leaks that people can find.

That very night.

We're going to talk about the family with the typical $8,000 credit card.

And then I'm going to share with you some $35 overdraft fees and also phone lines that nobody uses.

Mark proved it on the show.

He said him and Krista, his wife, called the phone company for their cell phone service and ended up saving $50 a month.

On Tuesday, like I said, we're going to talk about the 401k things.

We're going to talk about all those things.

Next week, we're going to have your mailbag questions.

So here's the thing.

I would love to hear from you on this show.

This show, as Mark proved it, is fueled by people just like you asking the questions that are on your mind.

And I want to work with you live on air.

And here's the best part, like I said earlier, go to becoming financiallyconfident.com stuck.

I know it sounds silly because my goal is to help you get unstuck.

But if you're stuck right now, if you're trying to figure out, Ralph, how do I even start?

What's the first step?

Go to becoming financiallyconfident.com stuck.

You'll find a Google form there.

Fill in that information.

I'm going to read every single one of these and I'm going to help you on air for free.

Hear me on this.

This is your opportunity to come on the show and I will work with you one on one to help you through this financial situation, because here's the truth.

My goal on the show every single day is to help to break that cycle of financial shame.

And I see so many people who are dealing with that.

And we're going to do it one conversation at a time.

So thank you for indulging me this Reflections episode, and I'll see you again on Monday.

I hope you have a great weekend.