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Saving With Steve with Steve Sexton Weight-Loss Drug Safety, Compounded GLP-1 Risks and Legal Liability with Rusty Reynolds Steve Sexton talks with personal injury attorney Rusty Reynolds about the hidden risks of compounded and unapproved GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, who can be held responsible when patients are injured, and closes solo with a warning on Treasury yields and market concentration. Welcoming Rusty Reynolds And The GLP-1 Topic Steve Sexton opens the Saving with Steve Show by thanking his growing international audience before introducing the topic: the explosive growth of weight-loss injections and whether patients truly know what is inside the vials they use. He notes that federal regulators are confronting compounded drugs, illicit GLP-1 products and purported versions of experimental medications never approved for human use, and asks who could be responsible if a questionable product causes serious injury. He introduces personal injury attorney Rusty Reynolds, founder and partner of the Reynolds and Reynolds Law Firm, correcting himself after briefly calling the firm by the wrong name. Reynolds thanks him and says he is glad to be here. Sexton recalls hearing about people who painlessly lost their eyesight from these treatments, setting up a conversation about trust, regulation and the chain of responsibility behind compounded weight-loss drugs reaching consumers nationwide. Compound Pharmacies And The Question Of Trust Reynolds explains that patients rarely know what is truly in a vial until an injury forces a diagnosis, so the real issue is trust rather than certainty. He describes two kinds of compound pharmacies in the United States, the batch-style 503A pharmacies regulated by the FDA and the 503B pharmacies that customize medication per patient prescription. When demand for a brand-name drug outpaces supply, compounders are permitted to recreate the formula from raw ingredients without deviating from the recipe, a workaround around patent protections meant to let supply catch up with demand. Reynolds says many compounders rush to meet that need without the pharmaceutical-grade capacity of the brand names, raising risk. He advises patients to work through their primary care physician, who knows their history and medications, rather than through social media sellers or gyms that may not know or care about a patient's full medical picture before dispensing a compound. Unapproved Peptides Like Retatrutide Sexton asks about retatrutide, a drug not yet approved for human use that lawsuits allege is already being sold to consumers. Reynolds explains that many peptides and variations circulating online lack the testing and reliable scientific study that approved GLP-1 drugs have undergone. He says the supplement and peptide industry borrows the trust people place in doctors, hospitals and nurses, often the highest trust many carry, and transfers it to unproven products promising vague benefits like feeling or looking better. Sexton notes that price plays a role too, since GLP-1 drugs that once cost roughly a thousand dollars have fallen toward one or two hundred dollars, or even less, as competition grows. Reynolds warns that unusually cheap pricing should raise the same question as any too-good-to-be-true offer, since producing a pure compound that matches a brand-name recipe carries real costs, and shortcuts taken to hit a lower price point are exactly what can introduce contamination or toxicity. Eyesight Loss, Gastrointestinal Harm And Hidden Risk After a break, Sexton returns to the injuries patients report, starting with painless vision loss, which Reynolds calls the most prominent case his firm has forensically investigated by preserving and testing the actual vial used. He explains that GLP-1 drugs can worsen pre-existing conditions, describing how diabetics or pre-diabetics with hardened arteries can experience a sudden blood pressure or fluid shift that starves the optic nerve and causes blindness. He also details gastrointestinal harm, including malnutrition, slowed intestines leading to bowel obstruction, and aggravation of conditions like diverticulosis or ulcers that a patient may not even know they have. Sexton, a colon cancer survivor, shares his own experience with a chemotherapy drug interaction involving zinc, drawing the parallel that every supplement and condition needs to be disclosed to a qualified physician, since an undiagnosed predisposition combined with an unsupervised GLP-1 dose can turn a treatment into a serious, sometimes irreversible injury. Who Is Responsible When Something Goes Wrong Sexton asks who can be held responsible when a weight-loss injection seriously harms a patient, given how many hands a product passes through: online sellers, compounders, pharmacies, telehealth providers and prescribers. Reynolds says liability could rest with any or all of them, since his firm performs a root-cause analysis of the relationships between marketing companies, prescribers and compounding pharmacies, examining whether a corporation improperly influenced medical decision-making in violation of rules against corporations practicing medicine. He notes telehealth expanded access to care during COVID but can also be exploited by businesses built around marketing, a hired prescriber and a compounding deal rather than genuine medical judgment. He urges anyone injured to preserve every remaining vial and injectable, disclose every medication and supplement to treating doctors, and contact a healthcare liability attorney, explaining that his firm evaluates whether a provider failed to meet a reasonable standard of care and caused the harm. Closing Warning On Treasury Yields And Market Concentration After thanking Reynolds and directing listeners to rrlfirm.com, Sexton closes the hour alone with a solo lesson on the bond market. He explains that the 10-year Treasury yield, which sets the baseline for borrowing costs worldwide, has pushed above five point three percent, breaking through 2007 highs, even as stocks keep climbing on the strength of a small group of technology companies. He warns that nearly forty percent of individual S&P 500 companies have actually lost value, meaning popular index funds are far less diversified than investors assume, citing the Vanguard Information Technology fund, where ten massive stocks make up over sixty-three percent of holdings. Sexton urges listeners between forty-five and sixty-five, and those already retired, to review what they actually own, build guardrails, and ask whether their portfolio can absorb losses if that concentration unwinds, framing the moment as one for calm adjustment rather than panic.

Saving With Steve with Steve Sexton Crypto Pig Butchering Scams, Elder Fraud and Bond Market Warnings with Courtney Werning Steve Sexton talks with investor-rights attorney Courtney Werning of Meyer Wilson & Werning about pig butchering crypto scams, impersonation fraud and Ponzi schemes targeting seniors, before closing solo with a warning on rising bond yields. Welcoming Courtney Werning To Discuss Crypto Fraud Steve Sexton opens the show by thanking his growing audience before turning to a subject he calls scarier than Halloween: financial scams. He cites cyber crime losses reaching roughly twenty billion dollars in a year, a twenty percent increase, concentrated among people over sixty, and introduces Courtney Werning, a partner at Meyer Wilson and Werning, one of the country's leading investor-rights law firms. He calls her the driving force behind the firm's cryptocurrency litigation and says she has recovered millions from a single pig butchering scam. Werning gently corrects part of his introduction, noting she currently serves as vice president of the Public Investors Advocacy Bar Association and will become its president next year rather than holding the role now. She explains that after thirteen or fourteen years representing investors against financial institutions, her practice has shifted heavily toward digital assets over the last four or five years as defrauded seniors increasingly seek her help. Inside The Pig Butchering Scam Sexton shares a listener's story about a woman who met someone online, believed she was building a relationship, and drained her 401(k) repeatedly after being told she needed more money in an account before withdrawing. Werning says she hears versions of that call multiple times a day and calls the pattern a global health crisis for seniors, worsened by artificial intelligence making scams look more polished. She explains that about ninety-five percent of these scams begin with an unsolicited message on a dating app or social media platform, with trust built over weeks or months before an investment pitch appears, often alongside screenshots of fake profits. Sexton recalls a friend nearly sending a hundred thousand dollars to a supposed Wall Street cryptocurrency genius who turned out to be texting from Taiwan. Werning describes scammers sometimes releasing early profits to the victim, then inventing crises like fake SEC investigations once the money runs low, pulling in still more funds before the victim is cut off entirely. Tornado Wallets And The Duty To Protect Clients After a break, Sexton asks Werning to explain how stolen money disappears through what she called a tornado mixer. She says blockchain transactions are irreversible once funds leave American financial institutions, since law enforcement cannot easily reach wallets held in foreign jurisdictions. The real fight, she argues, is prevention at the brokerage and investment-advisor level, since roughly thirty-five trillion dollars in retirement assets sits with FINRA-registered broker-dealers and SEC-registered advisors rather than under mattresses or on exchanges. She says those firms carry a legal duty to spot red flags and escalate suspected fraud, yet sometimes fail to act even when an advisor privately suspects something is wrong. Sexton calls that admission shocking. Werning attributes the gap to inadequate training rather than malice, saying frontline employees often do not know how to raise concerns or involve a fraud department, leaving a disconnect between what firms are supposed to do and what actually happens when money is about to leave the door. Trusted Contacts, Safe Words And Family Protection Werning highlights FINRA's trusted contact rule, in place since 2018, which lets account holders name someone a firm can call if something seems wrong, without giving that person authority over the account. She says firms often fail to properly offer it, but fraud staff tell her that once a trusted contact gets involved, it is often enough to stop a scam. Sexton recalls his grandmother once receiving a call she believed was from his brother, which the family verified through a separate phone call before acting. Werning recommends families adopt a spoken safe word, so any request to move money without it is immediately suspect. She stresses that intelligent, successful people, including doctors, engineers and a former CIA agent among her clients, have fallen for these scams, and argues the narrative must shift from blaming victims for being fooled to asking how everyone can better prevent the manipulation from working in the first place. Impersonation Scams And Ponzi Schemes Persist Werning describes government impersonation scams as especially effective on seniors, recounting a ninety-three-year-old client who spent a month believing she was helping the FBI, moving one and a half million dollars through crypto ATMs before realizing she had been deceived. She warns that government agencies never call asking people to move money, and urges families to verify any such call independently. She also describes family-voice impersonation using short audio clips and social-engineering calls where scammers quote a victim's real account details, stolen from data breaches, to sound convincing before asking for a wallet transfer. Sexton shares a story about his wife nearly giving up a bank PIN to a caller posing as Wells Fargo. Werning separately explains Ponzi schemes, saying they always eventually collapse once new investor money dries up, and warns that any investment promising extraordinary, low-risk returns, often pitched by someone charismatic and trusted, like a son or church friend, deserves serious suspicion rather than belief. Recovery Steps And A Closing Look At Bond Yields Werning advises anyone scammed to file a police report and an IC3 report, preserve every message, email and wire receipt, and contact a securities attorney through a site like investorclaims.com to see whether an institution's negligence contributed to the loss. She notes a bipartisan bill could restore a theft-related tax deduction for fraud victims, after one of Sexton's listeners was later billed by the IRS for retirement funds a scammer had drained. After thanking Werning, Sexton closes solo on the bond market, noting Treasury Secretary Bessent's failed attempts to buy back ten- and thirty-year bonds to cap yields, and the ten-year rate pushing above five percent as it did in 2022. He warns that heavily indebted tech companies funding data centers face rising borrowing costs that can pressure portfolios, and urges listeners to ask their advisor three questions about handling uncertainty, performing in good times, and absorbing losses before making any portfolio adjustments.

Saving With Steve with Steve Sexton Year-End Money Moves, Savings Benchmarks and Life Insurance Basics with Peter Colis Steve Sexton talks with Peter Colis, CEO and co-founder of Ethos, about year-end holiday spending, savings benchmarks and how term and permanent life insurance differ, before closing with a solo segment on Social Security timing and bond risk for retirees. Welcoming Peter Colis For Year-End Planning Steve Sexton opens the episode by thanking his listeners and turning to the year-end planning season, which he says arrives quickly. He asks what families should be doing before the holidays to protect one another, and introduces his guest, Peter Colis, CEO and co-founder of Ethos, a life insurance technology company. Sexton describes Ethos as replacing the traditional week-long, medical-heavy application process with a faster online one, and notes that Colis is also a member of the Forbes Financial Council. Colis explains that his interest comes from a belief that family financial security depends on life insurance, which he calls a cornerstone of a family's plan. He says his team saw a chance to make buying coverage simpler and more approachable. Sexton recalls his own experience of a medical exam at his home, with blood work and a long list of questions, and says a simpler process would be welcome. Colis replies that the company has spent about ten years automating the process and says it has protected more than 800,000 families so far. Silent Costs Behind the Holiday Budget Colis tells Sexton that the holiday season tends to expose spending that people never planned for, and he urges listeners to set a strict total limit before the promotions begin. Spending often creeps up in December even when budgets were careful through October, so anchoring to a number early matters. He lists the silent costs that catch families off guard: hosting, peak-season flights, gas for road trips, airport parking, groceries for big dinners, party outfits, wrapping paper, greeting cards and postage, and year-end tipping for the people who help run daily life. Sexton adds that a holiday meal for ten or twelve people can reach several hundred dollars, and that hotels become necessary when relatives' homes are full. He recalls a viewer named Veronica in Texas, who said she never realized how much she spent. Colis also points to timing, noting that shopping now clusters in October and November around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and that waiting too long can mean missing inventory. Q4 Savings Checks and Debt Payoff Targets Colis suggests treating the fourth quarter as a checkpoint, a time to ask whether the family is saving according to its plan and whether expenses fit that plan, especially before New Year's resolutions take shape. He advises reviewing what a financial advisor recommended during the year and checking the hidden fees inside investments, such as high-fee, loaded mutual funds. On debt, he recommends listing every balance with its interest rate, considering a lower-cost promotional card or refinancing, and setting a fourth-quarter payoff target for the most expensive balances. He shares savings benchmarks he attributes to published Fidelity guidelines based on gross salary: one times by age 30 to 35, two times by 35 to 40, three times by 40, six times by 50, eight times by 60 and ten times by 67. He describes the order of priorities as an emergency fund of three to six months of spending in a liquid account, capturing the full employer 401(k) match, and then paying down debt with rates above about 7 percent before expanding discretionary savings. Employer Coverage and Choosing Term Life Open enrollment, Colis says, is a good moment to review whether the family's health plan still fits, including changes such as a new child or a new health need, and to look at dental and vision coverage. He turns to employer-provided life insurance, which he says typically covers less than one times salary, commonly $25,000 or $50,000. He urges people to ask what their family would face without their income, noting costs such as the mortgage or rent, college tuition and debt, and suggests a common guideline of about ten times annual income. Colis explains that employer policies usually end when someone leaves the job, and he separates individual coverage into two main categories. He describes term life as covering a fixed period, typically 10 to 30 years, which he says fits the years when children depend on a household income and debts remain. Permanent coverage such as whole or universal life lasts a lifetime, costs significantly more, and builds a cash component. He says term fits about 95 percent of people. Applying Online and Becoming an Agent Colis describes the buying process as an online application that asks about personal life and health, followed by an instant approved offer that can be checked out and put in force, taking about ten minutes on average. Sexton compares that with his own experience of a month of paperwork, exams and doctor records. Colis says most buyers complete the process on a phone without speaking to anyone, that term length should match the years of need, and that a 35-year-old might choose a 30-year term while a 50-year-old might choose a 10-year term. He also says the company offers products for people with pre-existing conditions or debt, and that it approves more than 90 percent of applicants for some coverage. Later, Colis turns to careers, explaining that becoming a life insurance agent requires a state license after roughly 15 to 20 hours of online study and a one-hour exam, with a licensing cost near $200. He says agents can be appointed and paid commissions quickly, and that 15,000 agents sold the company's products last year. Solo Segment on Retirees and Bond Risk After thanking Colis, Sexton turns to a solo segment for listeners over 65 and anyone helping an aging relative manage money. He points to Social Security payment dates that are staggered by birthday, with payments arriving on the 9th for birthdays from the 1st to the 10th and the 16th for birthdays from the 11th to the 20th, and he warns that automated bills timed after those deposits can create overdraft problems. He notes that the Social Security Administration has phased out paper checks, so bank details should be current. He describes grocery and household inflation as a pressure on fixed incomes, with some older adults leaning on credit cards for necessities, and suggests auditing subscriptions and food budgets before fall utility costs rise. He also points to early Medicare plan data, advising listeners to organize their medication list before using the official Medicare Plan Finder. He closes by describing the bond portion of a portfolio as an airbag and urging listeners to ask what happens if inflation stays at 4 percent.

Saving With Steve with Steve Sexton Holiday Budgets, Debt Consolidation, and Bankruptcy Basics with Ashley Morgan Steve Sexton talks with bankruptcy and tax-resolution attorney Ashley Morgan about building a realistic holiday budget, avoiding debt-consolidation and settlement traps, and knowing when Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy makes sense, before closing solo with a warning about rising global bond yields and inflation. Welcoming Ashley Morgan For Year-End Planning Steve Sexton opens the show by thanking his growing audience, noting the program now reaches well over a million listeners in the United States and more than 300,000 overseas, before turning to the topic of year-end planning ahead of the holidays. He introduces Ashley Morgan, founder of Ashley Morgan Law, a consumer bankruptcy and tax resolution firm serving the Washington, D.C. metro area, whose commentary on consumer debt has appeared in Fortune, Newsweek and MarketWatch. Morgan explains that she fell into bankruptcy work almost by accident, taking a job with a boss who ran a consumer bankruptcy and federal criminal defense practice fresh out of law school. She loved the work enough to keep doing it after he became a judge, building her own practice over nearly eight years. She tells Sexton the field rewards her because, unlike drafting a will, she gets to watch clients actually experience relief from crushing debt through payment plans or settlements. Building A Realistic Holiday Budget Sexton asks Morgan how listeners should build a holiday budget as September gives way to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Morgan tells him budgeting scares people because they assume it means restriction, but the real goal is intention: deciding what matters, such as flying home to family, and working backward to find the money, whether by cutting other expenses or picking up extra work. She stresses that most people underestimate their own everyday spending on rent, food and utilities, so building a holiday budget requires first knowing the baseline. Sexton shares a listener's story about discovering a daily six-dollar Coffee Bean habit, taken twice a day, added up to 320 dollars a month, more than her car payment. Morgan says there is nothing wrong with prioritizing coffee, so long as the spender is intentional and adjusts elsewhere, whether by cooking at home, carpooling to save on gas, or reviewing recurring subscriptions and insurance policies that quietly drain money every month. Sinking Funds And The Year-End Financial Checkup Morgan urges listeners to start budgeting for holiday spending as early as January, setting aside roughly 160 dollars a month toward a 2,000 dollar Christmas fund rather than relying on credit cards, and to buy gifts early while watching for sales and coupon codes instead of waiting for inflated December discounts. She recommends sinking funds for periodic expenses and suggests people paid biweekly bank an extra paycheck during the two months a year that produce three paychecks. Sexton recalls Jenny from Ohio, whose family saved 350 dollars a month simply by swapping which spouse drove the gas-guzzling truck. Turning to the broader year-end checkup, Morgan tells listeners now is the time to maximize 401k and IRA contributions, use remaining health savings account funds, and catch up on estimated tax payments before April. On debt payoff, she describes an internal six-month rule: if balances have not moved after six months of the snowball or avalanche method, the plan needs rethinking. Debt Consolidation, HELOCs And Settlement Risk Sexton asks Morgan to explain debt consolidation heading into the new year's debt hangover. Morgan distinguishes true consolidation, where credit card balances are rolled into one loan such as a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, from debt settlement programs, where a company collects payments into an escrow-like reserve and later negotiates with creditors. She warns that consolidation only works with discipline, since reopened credit cards can leave someone with both a new loan and fresh balances. On settlement, she cautions that creditors are never obligated to accept an offer, and a rejected settlement can lead to a lawsuit, wage garnishment, bank garnishment or a real estate lien lasting five to sixty years depending on the state. Sexton walks through an example of a 20,000 dollar balance settled for 10,000, which Morgan says triggers a 1099-C for forgiven debt that becomes taxable income unless the borrower can prove insolvency, a detail she says settlement companies rarely emphasize. Chapter 7 And Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Explained With the holidays over and cards maxed out, Sexton asks Morgan when bankruptcy or restructuring makes sense. Morgan explains Chapter 7 as a liquidation bankruptcy that still lets roughly 95 percent of filers keep their assets, since exemptions like Virginia's roughly 50,000-dollar homestead protect equity, though limits vary sharply by state. Chapter 13, by contrast, restructures debt into a three-to-five-year payment plan and can bring a missed mortgage current without the skipped payments of a forbearance. She distinguishes it from a modification or partial claim, noting unsecured debts like credit cards can be paid anywhere from zero to 100 percent depending on assets and disposable income, while student loans typically survive. On cost, Morgan says Chapter 13 fees are often rolled into the plan, while Chapter 7 typically runs 2,000 to 6,000 dollars and must be paid before filing. She urges anyone struggling to seek advice six months to a year before a crisis rather than waiting for a foreclosure notice. A Closing Warning On Bonds And Inflation Sexton thanks Morgan, who directs listeners to her firm's website and bankruptcy resource hub, before closing the show alone with his weekly economic outlook. He points to global bond yields hitting their highest levels since mid-2008 and Japan's 10-year Treasury yield touching 3 percent for the first time in a century, arguing Federal Reserve chair Waller will struggle to raise rates in September while Treasury official Bessent pursues long-bond buybacks starting September 10th. Sexton says the United States cannot afford a recession and may instead accept structurally higher inflation, a scenario he calls a Hail Mary that erodes purchasing power for retirees in the distribution phase of life. He advises keeping one to two years of living expenses in liquid accounts, favoring shorter-term bonds over long-term bond funds, and adjusting withdrawal rates based on portfolio performance rather than a fixed percentage, so market swings do not force a permanent cut to lifestyle or legacy goals.

Saving With Steve with Steve Sexton Year-End Money Checkups, Holiday Spending Plans, and Guilt-Free Boundaries with Chevonne Roman Steve Sexton talks with money wellness expert Chevonne Roman of Heal Plan Invest about conducting an emotional year-end money checkup, building a realistic holiday spending plan, and avoiding common money traps, before closing with his own warning about long-term bond risk as US debt nears $40 trillion. Welcoming Chevonne Roman For Year-End Planning Steve Sexton opens the show by thanking listeners for helping the program pass a million audience members in the United States and nearly 300,000 overseas, then turns to the topic of year-end financial planning before the holidays arrive. He introduces Chevonne Roman, money wellness expert and founder and chief money strategist of Heal Plan Invest, whose work has been featured by Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Nasdaq, CNN, CBS, Fox, Essence and Black Enterprise. Roman explains that after a decade as a financial advisor with a Fortune 100 investment firm, where her job was to make already wealthy families richer, she felt an unshakable pull to leave despite friends telling her she was insane to abandon a stable income. She recalls evenings and weekends spent quietly applying the same planning framework to families who were not wealthy, and describes sitting in advisory meetings where every question was directed at the husband, which convinced her to build a firm centered on women, hearts and money together. Conducting An Emotional Year-End Money Checkup Sexton asks Roman to unpack the year-end money checkup she recommends every listener start immediately. She tells him to begin without judgment, reflecting on what happened financially over the past year: which decisions felt strong, which created anxiety, and how the household responded when the refrigerator broke, the dishwasher failed, or a child left for college. Only after that emotional inventory, she says, should anyone move to the numbers, reviewing the budget, net worth and retirement accounts. Roman pushes Sexton to widen the lens beyond money entirely, asking whether every member of the family felt safe and experienced more joy than sadness over the year. She frames the checkup as a reflection of the whole family's life, with money representing just one piece, and insists that starting with feelings rather than spreadsheets is what makes the rest of the planning process actually stick going into the holidays. Building A Realistic Holiday Spending Plan After the break, Roman lays out how to build a realistic holiday spending plan that covers meals, travel and gift buying rather than gifts alone, insisting the plan be written down rather than kept in someone's head. She urges listeners to type their situation into ChatGPT or Claude for tailored ideas, and Sexton shares that he asked an AI for gift ideas with a fifty-dollar budget for a forty-two-year-old and got eight strong suggestions, one of which the recipient later called the best gift he had ever received. Roman insists the spending plan include the giver too, whether that means a year-end massage or a staycation. She then turns to the emotional weight of the season, telling Sexton that anyone anticipating difficult family dynamics should consider booking a therapist before the holidays begin. Sexton recalls a friend who scheduled a November therapy session specifically to prepare for a strained in-law relationship and came away far better equipped to handle it. Avoiding Holiday Money Traps And Setting Boundaries Roman's next tip is to fund the holidays ahead of time rather than swiping cards impulsively, suggesting a prepaid or secured card, dedicated gift cards, or a single savings account fed by a monthly transfer earmarked for holiday spending. Sexton adds that friends who keep a standing Christmas checking account, contributing roughly ten to twenty percent more each year than the last, arrive at November already funded and interest-free. Turning to guilt, Roman tells listeners to first confirm they have handled the essentials, updated life insurance and 401k beneficiaries, a current will, conversations with aging parents about long-term care, before spending freely on joy without shame. Sexton jokes about the infamous eight-hundred-dollar Christmas sweater bought on a card charging twenty-nine percent interest, and Roman offers a concrete boundary: delay any purchase over one hundred dollars for forty-eight hours, a cooling-off period she says reliably shrinks or eliminates impulsive regret. Resetting Finances In The Final Quarter Roman shifts to the last quarter of the year as a reset point rather than waiting for January, urging listeners to check what has gone into their 401k, look for room to max out an IRA or Roth IRA, and confirm their savings actually matches what they had planned. She flags free documents at freewill.com and distinguishes a will, which dictates what happens to belongings and any guardianship of minor children, from an advance directive, which governs medical decisions if someone cannot speak for themselves; she stresses that both need conversations with a spouse about wishes, not just paperwork. Sexton relays a listener question from Susan in Ohio, who wonders why she waits months every year for a tax refund instead of adjusting her withholding. Roman answers that September is the ideal moment, since the IRS and most states publish income-tax calculators that reveal instantly whether a paycheck is over- or under-withheld, giving four months to correct it before filing season. New Year Confidence And A Closing Bond Warning As the show closes, Roman tells Sexton that anyone entering January already regretting holiday debt or family friction should simply give themselves permission to correct course rather than carry guilt forward. She encourages listeners to ask AI tools plainly what an appropriate savings rate looks like for their age and retirement goal, calling it a free way to start planning a dream retirement one honest question at a time. Sexton shares that he is a twenty-year colon-cancer survivor and recalls how expensive both treatment and lost income became, reinforcing Roman's point that plans should survive life's shocks. Roman describes her firm, Heal Plan Invest, and its seventeen-person team building roadmaps for people who have handled money their own way for decades and want a second opinion. Sexton then turns solo, warning that with US debt approaching forty trillion dollars, long-term bonds many retirees treat as safe could lose value if yields keep climbing, and urges listeners to ladder short-term holdings and review portfolios calmly rather than panic.

Saving With Steve with Steve Sexton European Cycling Holidays, Shoulder-Season Savings, and Guided Versus Self-Guided Tours with Riccardo Sedola Steve Sexton talks with Riccardo Sedola of Life on Bike about planning a European cycling holiday during shoulder season, covering guided versus self-guided tours, e-bike rentals and money-saving tips, before closing with a warning about Treasury bond risk tied to Japan's yen intervention. Welcoming Riccardo Sedola For Shoulder Season Cycling Steve Sexton opens the show with a preview of shoulder-season travel, noting that cycling across Europe during September and October is considered one of the best times to go. He welcomes Riccardo Sedola, who works with Life on Bike, a platform that aggregates cycling tour operators across Europe, to walk listeners through planning a European bike trip. Sedola explains that his path into the industry began nearly twenty years ago, when he started guiding cycling trips for students before becoming a professional guide leading tours from capital to capital across the continent. What began as weekend outings grew into week-long and ten-day holidays, and eventually into scouting and designing full tours himself. That experience led him to build relationships with tour operators throughout Europe, which became the foundation for Life on Bike, a service that helps travelers compare cycling holidays and choose the right operator for their needs, interests and available time. Guided Versus Self-Guided Tours Explained Sexton asks Sedola to explain the biggest difference between guided and self-guided cycling tours, a question he says listeners raise constantly. Sedola says cycling groups suit travelers who want companionship and new friendships, but Europe's well-marked routes, frequent villages and hotels make getting lost nearly impossible, which makes self-guided touring an easy and freeing option. Both formats include the same core services, he explains: hotel accommodation, luggage transfer between stops, and clear directions to the next stage. The only real difference is whether a guide travels with the group to set the pace, keep everyone together and narrate the history along the way. Sexton adds that self-guided travelers move at their own rhythm but may pass centuries of history without the context a guide would provide. Sedola frames the choice as a trade-off between solitude and freedom versus companionship and guidance, noting that self-guided touring also tends to cost less money. Choosing The Right Bike For European Touring Sexton, who rides a hybrid bike, and mentions his son's touring bike, asks whether travelers should bring their own equipment or rent locally. Sedola advises against bringing a personal bike, explaining that most airlines will not transport e-bikes and that renting removes the burden of maintenance, since a rental company will simply swap out a damaged bike. He notes a practical advantage for point-to-point routes such as the Danube River: a rented bike can be picked up in one city and dropped off in another, while a personal bike would need to be carried back to its starting point. E-bikes, Sedola adds, have become especially popular for couples with mismatched fitness levels, letting a less experienced rider keep pace comfortably. For the road surfaces travelers typically encounter, he recommends a trekking or hybrid bike rather than a pure road bike, reserving road bikes for sportier tours through mountain passes like the Dolomites or the climbs of the Tour de France. A Typical Day On A Cycling Tour Sedola walks Sexton through a typical itinerary, starting with an arrival day that involves only checking into the hotel, where travelers receive either a guide or a welcome kit with maps, a routing app and a safety phone number. Cycling begins the next morning after breakfast, with stages usually covering twenty-five to thirty-five miles broken up by coffee breaks and stops to rest or sightsee, while a van carries luggage ahead to the next hotel. Sedola calls this slow tourism, arguing that cycling moves fast enough to cover real distance while staying slow enough to smell a tulip field or stop and talk with people along the way. Sexton compares it to riding roughly ten or twelve miles at a time between breaks. Sedola also describes bike-and-boat tours, popular in Holland and Croatia, where a boat serves as the moving hotel, sparing travelers from repacking each night and letting anyone who wants a rest day simply stay aboard. Saving Money And Avoiding Common Mistakes Sedola tells Sexton that shoulder season, along with March and April in destinations like Spain and Portugal, can save travelers fifteen to thirty percent compared with high season, which runs from late June through mid-September. He cites an eight-day Danube River tour priced at 784 euros in August that drops by almost forty-five percent for an October departure, though the exact October figure is garbled in the source transcript, and notes that restaurants and other local services are less crowded and more affordable outside peak months. Renting a standard bike, he says, typically runs between 90 and 150 euros per week, and booking well ahead of departure keeps prices lowest. Turning to common mistakes, Sedola warns travelers not to choose a tour without matching it to their fitness level and interests, and not to underestimate the weather, since rain is common, especially in northern Europe. He stresses that self-guided riders must be ready to fix a flat tire themselves, since no mechanic will simply appear on a rural route. Touring The Website And A Closing Economic Warning Before wrapping up with Sedola, Sexton pulls up the Life on Bike website live on screen, clicking through listings that include a Stockholm island-hopping route, a Belgium-Holland-Amsterdam barge tour, a Normandy ride from Rennes to Mont-Saint-Michel, and a Bordeaux-region vineyard break near Bergerac that he jokes his wife would love. He notes the site lists more than 220 routes across 20 countries, lets travelers compare tours by star rating, and shows what is included, cancellation terms and add-ons like wine tasting. Sexton thanks Sedola and promises to post a link on the show's website. After Sedola signs off, Sexton pivots to the economy, explaining that the US Treasury recently sold euros to prop up the Japanese yen, since Japan holds more than a trillion dollars in US Treasuries it may need to sell to pay down debt. He links this to a sharp rise in AI-related bond issuance and Federal Reserve balance-sheet moves, warning listeners with bond funds to review their portfolios calmly rather than panic.

Saving With Steve with Steve Sexton Shoulder-Season Travel Secrets and Back-to-School Gift Card Savings with Tara Busch Steve Sexton opens the show with travel expert Tara Busch, who shares strategies for booking shoulder-season and off-season trips at a discount, then talks with CardCookie's Antonia Bensoussan-Milli about stretching back-to-school budgets with discounted gift cards, before closing with a warning about Japan's Treasury holdings and bond risk. Two Guests And A Market Warning Ahead Steve Sexton opens the show by previewing a packed hour: travel expert Tara Busch on shoulder-season savings, CardCookie's Antonia Bensoussan-Milli on back-to-school deals, and a later segment on the US Treasury's recent move to prop up the Japanese yen. He introduces Busch as founder and CEO of Conscious Travel Collective, a Brooklyn-based boutique agency that builds direct relationships with family-run hotels and guides in Europe and Latin America. Sexton notes her work has appeared in Forbes, New York Magazine and Travel + Leisure, and that she speaks at NYU and volunteers with the RISE Travel Institute. Busch explains she left a career as a history and geography teacher after a cross-state move complicated her teaching license, choosing instead to try the travel industry. She says she never looked back, and jokes with Sexton about how often great tour guides turn out to be former history teachers, recalling his own guides in Rome and England. Defining Shoulder Season Around The World Busch explains that shoulder season has no fixed calendar date and shifts by destination. In the Italian Dolomites and other Alpine ski regions, it begins around early May, when snow has melted but summer crowds have not yet arrived. In Greece, the slower season can start as early as Easter, six to eight weeks earlier. She points to Florence, Italy, which peaks in spring and fall because of heat, humidity and an influx of visiting families of international students, then quiets in July and August. Busch warns that some destinations are not simply slow during their off months but effectively closed; she cites the Amalfi Coast, which shuts down from late October until nearly Christmas, and Blackpool in England, which Sexton recalls finding shuttered after October during his own overseas work. She stresses that travelers should research a specific destination rather than assume a season based on climate alone. Booking Direct For Better Rates And Perks Busch tells Sexton that travelers who find a good rate on Booking.com or Expedia should email the property directly and ask the owner to match it, since big platforms take a sizable commission from hotels. Writing ahead, she says, often brings a better rate, a free upgrade, or personal help with dinner reservations and transportation, because guests are then dealing with a real person rather than an automated system. She recommends asking hotels for a longer-stay discount, a non-refundable rate reduction, or airport transfer help, none of which are always advertised. Busch also compares flexible versus non-refundable room rates, noting flexible rooms typically cost 10 to 15 percent more, and suggests pairing a non-refundable booking with a separate travel-insurance policy that covers the whole trip, including flights, rather than paying extra per night. Sexton agrees the math favors insurance over the flexible-rate premium, especially on longer stays. Setting A Budget And Protecting Your Time Busch tells travelers that the biggest planning mistake is outsourcing decisions to top-ten lists instead of asking what they personally want from a trip, using Florence's Statue of David as an example of a popular sight that is not right for every visitor. She advises setting a firm budget with a cushion for surprises such as transit strikes, and warns against overspending in ways that create regret after returning home. Busch calls time and energy a traveler's most valuable resource, urging people to weigh a slightly smaller or plainer hotel against one further from where they plan to spend their days. She recommends checking regulated taxi rates before arrival and hiring a local guide on the first day partly to learn the public transit system. Sexton shares his own experience choosing centrally located rentals in Paris and Dublin, and Busch closes by advising travelers to start researching about a year ahead and book flights roughly eleven months out, before dynamic pricing raises hotel rates. Stacking Gift Card Discounts For Back To School After the break, Sexton welcomes Antonia Bensoussan-Milli, marketing manager for CardCookie, a discount gift-card marketplace operating since 2016. She cites National Retail Federation figures showing families spend roughly 800 dollars per child on back-to-school shopping and explains that CardCookie currently offers discounts such as 10 percent off Target and Best Buy gift cards, letting a family save around 80 dollars on that spending simply by paying with a discounted card instead of cash. Sexton describes a friend who stacked a store discount, a manufacturer rebate and a CardCookie gift card to buy a 2,000 dollar laptop for about 1,200 dollars. Bensoussan-Milli says repeat customers who build the habit save more than four times what a first-time user does, citing an average 2025 customer savings of 54 percent. She lists available retailers including Target, Home Depot, Lowe's, Apple, iTunes and Gap-family brands, and notes CardCookie verifies every code and backs purchases with a 100-day guarantee. A Closing Warning About Japan And Bonds With a few minutes left, Sexton turns to a topic he says most listeners have not heard about: the US Treasury recently sold euros to help prop up the Japanese yen, something it had not done since 2011 and before that 1998. He explains that Japan holds more than two trillion dollars in US Treasuries, and that if Japan were forced to liquidate those holdings to defend its currency, the resulting sell-off could push bond prices down and yields up, raising borrowing costs at a time when they are already elevated. Sexton warns that most listeners hold bond funds rather than individual bonds, so a similar shock to the one seen in 2022 could erode the value many count on as their portfolio's safety net, particularly those near or in retirement. He frames the warning as a call for calm review rather than panic, urging listeners to check that their portfolios have safeguards before recapping the day's guests and closing the show.

Ep298, Leah Hadley, Emotional And Financial Complexities Of Divorceeeting Divorce, Money, and the Next Chapter: Building Financial Clarity Through Life’s Biggest Transition Divorce as an Emotional and Financial Turning Point Steve Sexton introduces divorce as a major life event with both emotional and financial consequences and welcomes Leah Hadley to discuss how people can navigate the transition with greater clarity. Leah explains that her interest in this work is rooted in both her childhood experience with her parents' divorce and her own divorce later in life. Although she was already a financial professional, she says the experience showed her how overwhelming financial decisions can become when someone's personal life feels as though it is unraveling. She emphasizes that professional expertise does not eliminate grief, fear, anger, or uncertainty. That realization ultimately motivated her to focus on supporting families through the divorce process. Managing Communication, Children, and Family Relationships Leah explains that spouses often enter the divorce process on very different emotional timelines, especially when one person has been considering divorce for months or years while the other is just receiving the news. She encourages couples counseling even when reconciliation is not the goal, because stronger communication skills can help people move through the next stage more constructively. The conversation also addresses protecting children's relationships with both parents and avoiding unnecessary negative comments about the other parent. Leah recommends being honest with extended family while limiting the amount of personal detail shared. She warns that outside opinions can add noise, intensify conflict, and make it harder for people to make grounded decisions for themselves and their immediate families. Rebuilding the Financial Foundation After Divorce The discussion turns to the financial reality of supporting two households after a separation. Leah says people who were already spending beyond their means before divorce are likely to face the greatest difficulty, while households that lived below their means and maintained savings may have more flexibility. She describes divorce as potentially one of the largest financial transactions a person will experience and urges people to think beyond immediate discomfort when negotiating assets. Instead of trying to preserve every part of the old lifestyle, she recommends identifying what truly matters and building a new budget around the life a person wants to create. By putting fears and unanswered questions on paper, she says people can replace vague anxiety with specific financial questions that can be addressed through planning. Choosing Attorneys and Handling High-Conflict Situations Leah explains that divorce cases can involve collaborative divorce, cooperative approaches, mediation, or litigation, and that the right attorney depends on the type and complexity of the case. She recommends asking attorneys about their experience, how many cases go to trial, whether they support mediation, whether they are trained mediators, and how responsive they are to clients. She also stresses the value of referrals from professionals who have already worked with particular attorneys. In higher-conflict cases, including situations involving possible financial abuse or other forms of abuse, Leah says physical safety must come before financial planning. She notes that anger and grief can cause people to behave at their worst during divorce and says divorce coaches can be especially useful for keeping communication focused and limited to what is necessary. Financial Advisors, Neutral Analysis, and Post-Divorce Support When discussing whether someone should keep the same financial advisor after divorce, Leah recommends focusing first on the settlement rather than making an immediate advisor change. She says an independent Certified Divorce Financial Analyst can provide divorce-specific analysis as either an advocate for one party or a neutral working with both parties. In a neutral role, she explains that she first learns what matters to each person, then works with both parties on financial analysis aimed at producing a reasonable settlement while minimizing taxes and administrative costs. After divorce, she recommends choosing financial professionals whose experience matches the client's circumstances and whose communication style feels supportive. She also emphasizes financial literacy and confidence, explaining that some clients want to learn to manage their own money while others prefer a more hands-off advisory relationship. Intentional Money and Preparing for Financial Uncertainty Leah closes the interview by describing her Intentional Money Method, which she says is organized around six pillars: clarity, values, mindset, strategy, action, and support. She argues that financial strategy works best when people first understand what matters to them, examine limiting money stories, and take action that builds confidence over time. She also stresses that people do not need to manage every financial challenge alone and can seek support from family, professionals, or a community. After the interview, Steve shifts to portfolio construction and discusses comments he attributes to BlackRock and Goldman Sachs about selective investing, artificial-intelligence spending, real earnings, and risk management. He encourages listeners to consider whether their portfolios are built to handle uncertainty, capture opportunities, and absorb market shocks without resorting to panic. SEO Keywords / Key Phrases divorce financial planning, emotional impact of divorce, financial independence after divorce, certified divorce financial analyst, choosing a divorce attorney, divorce mediation, post-divorce budgeting, financial abuse and divorce, rebuilding financial confidence, portfolio risk management

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