Can I confess something? This week got away from me, and I’m giving myself some grace with my newsletter.

Coincidentally, the last time I did this was a year ago this week. During that week, I attended two funerals in four days: The first, my father-in-law; the second, the founder of my company, LendingTree. It was all too much, honestly, so I just focused my attention elsewhere rather than on the newsletter.

This week, thankfully, is nothing at all like that one. This week is primarily about the chaos of everyday life — work, family, pets and so on. Still, it has been a little nutty, including a trip to NYC.

That doesn’t mean I’m not delivering you money tips that can make a real difference to your finances this week. It just means that this edition is a little shorter than some others.

Here’s my first tip for you…

Wall Street Journal: The simple request that could lower your mortgage rate

Is that an Ask, Save, Earn headline right there or what?

In her LinkedIn post, WSJ’s Veronica Dagher characterized the request this way:

Lenders can now pull your credit using VantageScore 4.0 alongside classic FICO scores, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac allow them to use whichever score gives you the best rate.

Ask your lender if they pull VantageScore 4.0. If they don’t, you can shop around for one who does.

In other words, you don’t have to settle for a lender using your FICO score to determine your creditworthiness for a mortgage. You can ask that they check your score from VantageScore — FICO’s primary and ascending rival in the credit scoring space — as well.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that there will be much difference between FICO’s scores and VantageScore’s scores, but you’d kind of be silly to not at least.ask. After all, houses are the biggest purchases most of us will ever make, so even a fraction of percentage point difference in rate can add up to tens of thousands of dollars in savings.

(And by the way, if you’ve never heard of VantageScore, it is OK. As I mentioned, they’re a credit scoring company like FICO, and they’ve been steadily growing in prominence for many years. However, the scenario described in the WSJ story is a really, really big thing for them. It is a major step forward for them in their competition with FICO, which has long been the gold standard for credit scoring.)

Speaking of high interest rates…

LendingTree: Credit card interest rates hit highest level since December

I’m nerdy about credit card data. Every month for more than a decade, spanning a couple of different companies, I go through nearly 200 credit cards’ terms and conditions to see if their interest rates have changed.

Don’t act like you’re not jealous.

Honestly, rates don’t move that often. Generally, credit card rates stay pretty static unless the Federal Reserve raises or lowers their benchmark rate. When the Fed moves, credit card rates tend to move in the same direction by about the same amount. That movement applies to your current balances, too, and usually starts to appear on your monthly statement a couple of billing cycles after the Fed makes its move.

The Fed also influences the rates people are offered when they get a new credit card. That often happens in a matter of days or weeks rather than over many months, and we saw this play out this week.

The Fed announced on September 16 that they’d raise rates by a quarter-point, in an effort to knock down inflation. (I talked about it here.) This week, my monthly review of card rates found that most of the biggest of the big credit card issuers have already bumped up the APRs they’re offering new applicants by that quarter-point. As a result, the national average APR on a new credit card offer climbed to its highest level since last year: 23.96%.

Because not all card issuers have bumped up their rates yet, that national average is very, very likely to keep rising for at least the next month or so. That means that if you’re thinking of getting a new credit card, expect rates to be higher than the last time you looked.

It also makes it all the more important that you pay your balance off every single month. Of course, we know that’s not always possible. Life is incredibly expensive in 2026, but paying it off in full each month should absolutely be the goal.

In other news… Another happy success story

Got a note over the weekend from DJ, a longtime supporter of my book and my Substack. A passionate advocate of personal finance programs in schools in his home state of North Carolina, DJ was generous enough to provide my book to a group of PF teachers in that state when the book first came out in 2024.

One of those teachers, named Rex, told DJ he was hit with a small bank fee. The teacher said the fee was his fault, the result of a mistake he admittedly made. Still, he wasn’t eager to pay, so he called and asked to have the fee waived.

DJ told me, “He said he pulled out your book and followed the script to the letter, and it worked!”

It was only a $10 charge, but as expensive as life is today, every dollar matters. Plus, his success in getting that $10 fee waived will hopefully inspire him to make more of these calls in the future. Then the savings will really start to pile up.

If you’re in New York Friday, come say hello!

I’m in the city for a few days this week, and I’m so excited to be part of the 2026 Personal Finance Summit put on by the Society For Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW). It’s an all-day event featuring some of the biggest names in the personal finance space, including the great Jean Chatzky, who will be talking about her important new book, The Forever Paycheck.

As for me, I’ll be on a panel with amazing journalists from Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and NBC News talking about the state of personal finance journalism.

Can’t wait. Click on the image below for details about the event.

Until next time!
Matt

When it comes to buying a home, “So many people assume that whatever has been presented to them — a price, a repair response, a commission, a closing date, a financing structure — is the only available path. It often isn’t.”

That bit of wisdom comes from my friend Lauren Bowling, an Atlanta-based Realtor who spent a decade running an award-winning personal-finance blog before diving fully into real estate. I interviewed Lauren for my book and quoted her in it multiple times. More recently, I reached out to Lauren to get her advice on how people can negotiate and advocate for themselves in today’s housing market. I wasn’t disappointed.

As I’ve said many times, here at Ask, Save, Earn, we’re all about helping people pay less, earn more and keep more of their hard-earned money by asking the right questions in various everyday situations. However, the truth is that those questions are rarely more important than when you’re buying or selling a home. That’s because a home is the most expensive purchase most Americans will ever make. Even relatively small concessions negotiated on the price, interest rate and other terms of the deal can lead to thousands, sometimes even tens of thousands, of dollars in savings over the life of the loan.

How do you go about doing it, though? What works and what doesn’t? After years in the trenches of the housing market, Lauren had a lot to share on those topics and more. Scroll down to read through the edited transcript of our email conversation.

Matt Schulz: First, tell us a little about yourself and what you do.

Lauren Bowling: I’m an Atlanta Realtor specializing in the city’s in-town neighborhoods, and a big part of my business is helping people relocate to Atlanta from out of state. Before real estate, I spent more than a decade writing about personal finance, including running an award-winning personal finance blog, so my career has really always centered around helping people make smart, confident decisions with their money. Now I just do it in a context where the numbers are bigger and the decisions are often much more emotional.

MS: My newsletter is about helping people pay less, earn more and keep more of their hard-earned money by asking the right questions in various everyday situations. There are few times when asking questions and advocating for yourself is more important than when you buy or sell a home, but it can be hard to know when to speak up. If you had to give one “ask” that applies to almost every real estate transaction, what would it be? And what’s one thing (or more if you have them) that buyers or sellers rarely ask that they should?

LB: The single best question is: “What options do I have here?”

So many people assume that whatever has been presented to them — a price, a repair response, a commission, a closing date, a financing structure — is the only available path. It often isn’t.

You may not ultimately get everything you ask for, but you should understand what can be changed, what can be negotiated and what tradeoffs come with each option. In real estate, there is almost always a workaround or a way for things to come together that makes sense for everyone.

MS: Is there a particular negotiating tactic you’ve seen, or that you’ve used yourself, that always seems to backfire?

LB: I think nickel-and-diming tends to backfire, especially once both parties have already made meaningful concessions. Negotiating every single small item can create resentment and distract from the issues and “wins” that actually matter. I always want my clients to understand the difference between something being negotiable and something being worth negotiating.

MS: How does someone choose between what’s negotiable and what’s actually worth negotiating? I’m assuming there’s some personal choice involved, but do you have any guidelines or a rule of thumb for what people should consider in that situation?

LB: Something is usually worth negotiating if it affects your ability or willingness to complete the transaction, like a major repair or worry about near-term expense.

‘If the seller says no, do you still want it?’

If the answer is an immediate yes, that doesn’t necessarily mean we shouldn’t ask, but it helps us decide how hard we should push. I also tell clients it may be worth negotiating if you think you might be resentful at closing if we don’t ask.

MS: What’s the biggest negotiating win you’ve been a part of, either as a buyer, seller or agent? What did you learn from it? And is there a big mistake that you still kick yourself about?

LB: I don’t know if I’ve had anything that stands out yet as a big negotiating win or mistake, but I do remember very clearly I had a client (a buyer) who was trying to buy a condo unit and the air was broken. It needed a new HVAC unit, which is expensive, and the seller did not want to cover it.

They were both getting pretty frustrated with one another, and my client wanted me to threaten that they’d cancel the deal if we couldn’t get the air conditioning. I told them once they do that, they have to follow through. We threatened to terminate the deal, and the seller wouldn’t budge, so we terminated — but my client started panicking.

This was in a span of like four hours, mind you.

We submitted the termination paperwork and then immediately after, my client was trying to get me to get the deal back. I told him, ‘Just go to bed. Let’s all sleep on this, and in the morning we can figure it out.’

In the morning, the seller’s agent contacted me and said the seller had a change of heart and would replace the HVAC if we would come back to the table. It felt good to know my advice had won the day for my client.

My biggest lesson: Earlier in my career, I sometimes felt that I needed to push on everything in order to prove I was advocating for my client. I’ve learned that good representation is much more strategic than that. You build credibility by being reasonable about the small things, so that when you say something is important, the other side understands that you mean it.

Three more negotiating lessons from Lauren

• “I want to be so dang lovely that people feel bad telling me no.” — Most negotiating advice tells you to bring an edge. Lauren brings a different approach. She’s not soft, and she gets results for her clients in a market where every dollar matters, but she’s found that warmth closes more gaps than pressure does. “Negotiating well does not mean being aggressive, adversarial or difficult,” she said. “Some of the best negotiators I know are warm, calm and deeply curious. It’s how I strive to be for my clients.” Remember that the next time you assume you have to get tough to get anywhere.

• “The best way to approach [negotiating real estate commissions] is with curiosity rather than treating it like a demand for an automatic discount.” — That's good advice well beyond real estate. Rather than saying, “Will you lower your fee?” start by asking what the fee includes and whether there are different service or compensation structures available. Questions like those open the door to a real discussion.

• “Don’t get so focused on ‘winning’ that you lose sight of what you actually want.” — Paying the lowest price or getting the biggest credit is not a win if you end up losing the house you wanted over an amount you won’t remember five years from now, she says. Likewise, getting the highest possible offer is not a win if the terms make the transaction far more likely to fall apart. Know what success looks like for you before the negotiation begins.

In case you missed it…

Ask, Save, Earn is growing like crazy. We now have about 50% more subscribers than when the year began, and we’re not showing any signs of slowing down.

With that in mind, I wanted to share a post from 2025 that holds a special place in my heart, in case you missed it or just hadn’t joined our community yet.

It is all about one of those teachable moments that we parents cherish so much and try our best to take advantage of. This one involved Pokemon cards.

I must confess, I don’t really miss those days when he was tiny — the great kid turned into an amazing 20-year-old, somehow — but that doesn’t mean the memories from that time don’t still make me smile.

I hope you enjoy the post.

Until next time!
Matt

We love a good success story here at Ask, Save, Earn. You might’ve seen these stories in the past month…

However, we also aren’t afraid to share our failures. And my goodness, there have been plenty of those, including one this week that forced my family to change some travel plans.

Why share when things don’t go our way? Because that’s when the learning happens. (Yeah, it is a cliché spewed by parents, teachers and coaches everywhere, but it is 100% true.)

The question I should have asked

My latest failure came at the hands of an Airbnb owner.

My mother is turning 80 later this year, and we’re planning a family trip to Virginia to celebrate her big day with friends and family. For any number of reasons, it didn’t make sense to do this as a surprise party, so my sister and I have been working with my mom on logistics. Lately, our primary focus has been figuring out where to stay.

The three of us agreed pretty quickly that a rental home, not a hotel, felt like the best fit for the trip. We then scoured various websites looking for the right place — reasonably close to the city, at least three bedrooms, at least two bathrooms, at least one bedroom on ground level, with personality but not too much personality. After several days of texts and a few emails, we landed on a choice that we would all be happy with.

Or so we thought, until my wife asked me this.

“Have you checked the cancellation policy?”

The October problem

My wife and I don’t mess around when it comes to cancellation policies. As our family and friends age, life is simply too unpredictable and chaotic. (Heck, we even have a 16-year-old diabetic dog to take care of. My wife will skip my mom’s trip to watch over him.) That’s why we tend to assume any plans we make are written in pencil. This trip would be no exception.

Still, I didn’t anticipate any issues. I’ve traveled enough over the years to know that while cancellation policies can certainly vary, there was no reason to expect this charming little house on the river in Virginia would have an egregiously ridiculous cancellation policy.

I was wrong.

Full refund before October 11. No refund at all after October 11.

Mind you, we’re not traveling until mid-December.

It was a complete outlier from other properties we were looking at, all of which had policies similar to this:

Full refund until November 10. Partial refund until November 26. No refund after November 26.

So what did I do next? Mr. Ask, Save, Earn asked.

Worth a shot

Following my own advice, I messaged the owner.

I mentioned that we’d be traveling for my mom’s 80th birthday. I mentioned that other rentals in the area allowed for later cancellations. I mentioned that we’d likely book the house in short order if they could be flexible with the policy. Then I hit Send.

The next day, I got my answer.

“[The rental] stays very busy and we have the cancellation policy in place so that others have time to book in case of a cancellation. Thank you for understanding.”

Shot down. Attempt failed.

The good news, however, was that we didn’t need to go fully back to the drawing board. My mom, sister and I did a little more searching, exchanged a few more texts and emails and settled on a new option — with a perfectly acceptable cancellation policy that we hope we never have to think about again.

The message I’d send again

Even though my request didn’t work, it wasn’t because of anything I did. If I ran into the same issue tomorrow, I’d send basically the same message.

Here’s roughly what I sent, in case you find yourself in a similar situation:

Good morning! I’m very interested in renting your place. [If a special occasion, mention it in a sentence or two here.] However, I’m reluctant to make the reservation because of your cancellation policy.

We’re considering a few other places and they all have similar policies, allowing a partial refund closer to the booking date. Would you consider amending your policy to be something similar? If so, we’d likely book today or tomorrow. I appreciate your consideration.

Thank you!

There’s no guarantee it will work for you either — the rental owners don’t have to budge — but asking politely gives you a chance to find out.

My ask flopped. But my wife's question, the one I didn't think to ask, might have saved us a much bigger headache in December. So before you book the flight, sign the contract, buy the car, reserve the house or agree to the deal, ask yourself this:

What’s the question I haven’t thought to ask yet?

Until next time!

Matt

Hi there, my friend.

The Federal Reserve announced yesterday that it was raising interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point.

The Fed made the move to slow inflation. The theory behind it all is basically this:

• If you increase interest rates, people are less likely to borrow.

• If people borrow less, they’re less likely to spend on goods and services.

• If people spend less on goods and services, there’s less demand for those goods and services.

• If there’s less demand for goods and services, businesses are less likely to raise prices on those goods and services, or at least they won’t raise them as much.

Oh, if things were only that simple…

Economics rarely is. There’s the ongoing war with Iran. There’s a labor market with low unemployment yet it takes forever for many people to find work. There’s a president who wants rates lower, not higher. A million X factors like these mean there’s no guarantee this hike actually tames inflation, but make no mistake: Inflation control is the whole point.

“The plain fact,” said Fed chairman Kevin Warsh in his press conference yesterday, “is that inflation is too high and has been for too long.”

Amen to that!

Anyway, the Fed hasn’t raised rates since July 2023, and it is a big deal.​ (And they may do it one more time later this year.)

It is also both good and not-so-great news for consumers.

Let’s start with the good because, honestly, we sure could use it.

Why a Fed rate hike is a good thing

When the Fed raises interest rates, it generally leads to greater returns for savers. Interest rates on savings accounts, money-market accounts, CDs and other savings vehicles typically rise soon after the Fed makes its move.

Rates on these products are already high by historical standards, though not quite at the record levels seen a few years ago, but the Fed’s move yesterday means they’ll likely go higher in the near future. Just don’t expect your high-yield savings account to bump its rate up by a quarter-point overnight. When it comes to savings returns, banks don’t tend to be in as big a rush to raise yields as they are to lower them.

Why a Fed rate hike is not such a good thing

While rate hikes can be awesome for savers, they can absolutely suck for borrowers.

That’s especially true for those with credit card debt. Most credit cards in the US are so-called variable-rate cards. When the Fed raises or lowers rates, variable-rate credit cards’ APRs tend to move, too, typically by roughly the same amount and in the same direction as the Fed’s move. It takes some time, however. Expect your interest rates to rise sometime in the next couple of months.

Even worse, these higher rates apply to current credit card balances, not just future purchases. However, that’s not typically the case with installment loans such as personal loans and auto loans. Rates offered on new loans of those types are likely to rise, but the rate paid by those currently holding those loans should not.

When it comes to mortgages, the impact of a Fed rate hike isn’t as clear. Mortgage rates aren’t tied as closely to the Fed’s movements as credit card rates are, so there’s no guarantee that mortgage rates will rise just because the Fed raised rates. Still, if you’re in the market for a home or plan to be in the near future, it would be wise to plan to pay higher rates. Better to prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised than to find yourself unprepared.

Two things to do now that the Fed has raised rates

I’ve said it many times, and I’ll keep saying it: You have way more power over your money than you think. You can take steps that can have a far greater impact on your personal finances than any Fed rate move ever would.

Here are two of the most important things you can do right now, in the wake of the Fed’s rate increase:

1. Take steps to lower the interest rates on your debt.

You don’t have to take these rate hikes lying down. Refinancing and/or consolidating your debts with a 0% balance transfer credit card can be one of the most powerful moves you can make if you’re carrying credit card debt and can qualify for one. These cards can let you avoid accruing interest on the transferred balance for an average of 12 to 15 months and sometimes up to 21 months or more. You’ll likely need good credit (680 or higher) to get one, and there’s usually a one-time fee of 3% to 5% of the transferred balance, along with other fine print details you’ll need to understand, but they can be a powerful weapon in the battle against credit card debt. Just make sure you have a plan to pay that debt down during the 0% period and don’t see the new card as an excuse to spend. Otherwise, you’ve defeated the purpose of the whole thing.

Balance transfer cards aren’t the only options, though. If you can’t qualify for a 0% card, a low-interest personal loan can be a good choice, too. You can also call your lenders and negotiate your rates. LendingTree found that 84% of people who asked their card issuer for a lower interest rate on a card in the past year got one, and the average reduction was more than six percentage points. That’s way bigger than any move you’re ever likely to see from the Fed.

(Note: New subscribers to Ask, Save, Earn get a free guide called “3 scripts to lower your bills today” and one of the three scripts is for asking for a lower credit card APR. Check out the link below for a preview. And if you’re already a subscriber, pass it along to someone you love who might find it useful.)

You can also consider reaching out to an accredited nonprofit credit counselor, such as the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC). Along with helping negotiate with creditors, a good credit counselor can help you with budgeting and other steps to get your feet more firmly under you financially.

You’ve got plenty of options, but none of them will come knocking on your door. You’ve got to make the move. Chances are you’ll be glad you did.

2. Get yourself a high-yield savings account!

As I said earlier, rate hikes stink for borrowers but can be great for savers.

Many high-yield savings accounts (HYSAs) offer a 4% or higher annual percentage yield, far higher than the national average and leaps and bounds beyond what you’ll likely get with a traditional savings account at a megabank. Now, thanks to the Fed’s rate increase, those yields will likely rise, making 4% yields even more common.

You don’t have to wait for yields to rise before you jump in. HYSA rates aren’t fixed like a mortgage or auto loan. They typically move up and down with the Fed, and not just for new signups but also for current accounts. Banks don’t necessarily pass the increase along to savers immediately or in full, but if you’re still parking cash in an old-school savings account at a megabank, you’re leaving money on the table.

In other news… A better credit score can be worth tens of thousands of dollars!

Very little in life is more expensive than crummy credit. It can cost you tens of thousands of dollars over the years in higher interest rates, bigger fees and other costs.

This LendingTree report quantifies just how big the impact can be.

Borrowers juggling credit card, personal loan, auto loan and mortgage debt could cut their total interest payments by $42,950 over the life of their debt by raising their credit score from fair (580 to 669) to very good (740 to 799).

That’s massive savings!

To be fair, moving your credit score from fair to very good — passing through the “good” range along the way — is no small task and isn’t something that happens overnight. However, the report found that even more modest improvement can still bring big savings.

The big takeaway: Working to improve your credit is absolutely worth the effort. It may not be easy, and it may take longer than you’d like, but once you’re able to reap the benefits of that improved score, you’ll be glad you put in the work.

Until next time!

Matt

Lots to talk about this week. The format is a little different from most weeks, but what hasn’t changed (and won’t ever change) is the promise behind Ask, Save, Earn: Every edition of this newsletter will have some takeaway that you can use and apply to your own financial life.

Let’s get started…

“The highest gas prices ever for this time of year”

That was the word from AAA last week. The organization, which tracks gas prices on a daily basis, said that the national average for a gallon of gas has never been above $4 per gallon on Labor Day until this year. On Labor Day Monday, the average stood at $4.15 per gallon, a record for the holiday.

Unfortunately, the news isn’t getting better. On Thursday, September 10, the average stood at $4.28, up 13 cents since Monday and more than a dollar higher than a year ago. And given that, on Wednesday, the price of oil passed $100 for the first time since July, there’s little reason to think a dramatic improvement is coming.

So what can you do? Well, if you have a magic wand that you can wave to end the war in Iran and open up the Strait of Hormuz, go for it, please. (Follow-up question: What the heck have you been waiting for?) Seriously though, as with so many topics here at Ask, Save, Earn, it is about asking the right questions and controlling what you can control.

In this case, it is primarily about the questions you ask yourself. Here’s what I wrote in a previous post about gas prices …

• “Am I paying more for gas just out of habit or convenience?” We’re all creatures of habit. We tend to fill up our tank at the same place every time, much in the same way we buy our groceries in the same place or take our dry cleaning to the same place. There’s comfort in the sameness. However, it can also come with a cost. If higher gas prices are putting a squeeze on you, consider using GasBuddy, Waze or other tools to seek out better deals near you. Doesn’t mean you need to drive across town to save 3 cents a gallon, but opening yourself up to more possibilities can be helpful.

• “Could I just use my vehicle less?” For many of us, the answer is almost certainly yes. Carpooling, with family, friends or coworkers, can be a low-cost alternative. Public transportation could be useful as well, though, of course, it is a far better option in some places than others. Even riding a bike could be worth considering, if you live relatively close to work.

• “Do I need to adjust my budget?” Unfortunately, for many Americans, the answer is likely yes. If you’ve got a lot of breathing room in your budget on a regular basis, maybe adjustments aren’t really necessary. However, if money is usually super-tight, it probably makes sense to review your budget to see where you shift your spending to allow for some extra spending on gas. Sure, it is possible that the conflict with Iran will end soon and that gas prices will plunge shortly thereafter. Still, when it comes to a budget, I’m always a fan of planning for the worst while hoping for the best.

In that post, I also warn of the dangers of gas credit cards. In many ways, they’re like any credit cards. Used wisely, they can be incredibly useful, even saving you very real money via rewards. Used thoughtlessly, they can be trouble.

That’s especially true given that store credit cards’ interest rates are sky-high, even by credit card standards. When I looked at them for LendingTree in November of 2025, the average interest rate was over 30%. Rates may have moved since then, but there’s no reason to believe they’ve changed dramatically.

“How to become a disgustingly good conversationalist”

On a lighter note, I love this post from about how to talk to anyone. We talk about connection and conversation all the time here at Ask, Save, Earn, but it is usually in the context of money and looking for better deals or more money. In this post, Moser is looking more broadly at conversation, helping people feel more comfortable in many different social situations.

Still, I wanted to share it because if you feel more confident in conversation in general, you’re probably going to feel more confident when it is time to negotiate with someone or ask them for a break.

It has some thoughtful insights that I’m definitely going to keep in mind in future conversations.

On Taste

How to Become a Disgustingly Good Conversationalist

DISCLAIMER: No AI was used in the writing of this article…

Read more

7 months ago · 18522 likes · 245 comments · Grace Moser

Happy 80th, Dad! We’re still fighting the fight for you…

Speaking of amazing conversationalists, my late father — to whom I dedicated my book — would’ve turned 80 today. He passed in 2020 after bravely fighting multiple forms of cancer. His birthday is always one of the hardest days of the year.

In his memory, I wanted to share one of my favorite posts…

Also, I’d be honored if you’d consider donating to my fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. I started it in 2021, have raised about $7,000 for cancer research since and am nowhere near finished.

I know life’s expensive today and money is tight, but every dollar counts in the fight against cancer. Even just $8 given in honor of his 80th birthday.

If you donate, remember your employer might match your gift. Many companies, including LendingTree, have donation match programs, and the unfortunate truth is that many employees have no idea they exist. That’s why, as I wrote for CBS MoneyWatch, billions of dollars in these programs go unused across the country, which is an absolute shame. There are so many charities out there that could do so much good work with all that money. Let’s make sure more of it gets to them.

If your employer doesn’t have a matching program, ask them to create one. The programs are great for employee recruitment and morale, and companies like DoubleTheDonation minimize the effort needed to offer a program. (Plus, doing good is its own reward.)

Thank you so much for considering giving. And F cancer.

Live from Substack… It’s Wednesday evening!

I did my first-ever Substack Live on Wednesday — talking about how to lower your credit card’s interest rate — and it was a lot of fun. Here’s a snippet of the show to get a feel for what I talked about. Long-time subscribers may just recognize what the “gigantic number” in question is…

I really enjoyed the free-form nature of it and would like to do another one, but I’d love to get your take on these sorts of live events. Let me know what you think…

Until next time!

Matt

Hi there, my friend. On a Sunday evening a couple of weeks ago, Genna Contino, a reporter at MarketWatch with whom I’ve spoken many times in recent years, sent me an email that started like this …

Hope you’re having a good weekend! I just had an experience that shows how easy it is to ask for a lower price, so I had to share.

In case you weren’t aware, notes like these are among my favorite things in the world. If you have a success story to share, you can always reply to one of my weekly emails, send me a note at mattschulzwrites@gmail.com or just tell us about it in the comments.

Anyway, back to Genna’s story…

How one question turned a $899 suit into a $500 suit

Genna writes MarketWatch’s super-helpful and informative “Don’t Short Yourself” weekly newsletter. (Sign up for it here.) Like so many people in their 20s and 30s, knows she’s going to attend a lot of weddings in the next few years. It is just that time of life. It can be joyous, wonderful and fun, but it can also be incredibly expensive — especially when you have your own wedding to plan and pay for, too. Add in living in the New York City area, and it just makes it even harder.

With that in mind, she and her fiancé made a fitting appointment with a men’s formalwear store in Manhattan. “We have three [weddings] to attend over the next year,” she told me in a follow-up email, “so he was looking for a versatile suit he could rewear and style for different dress codes.”

Here’s what happened when they arrived…

The sales associate chose a suit with an $899 price tag -- over my ideal budget.

While my fiancé was trying it on, I asked if we could look at some sale options. The employee looked around for a while, came back, and said they didn't have anything on sale in the same color, but he could offer the same suit my fiancé was trying on for $500 instead.

Yep. The sales associate knocked $399 off the price of the suit, just because Genna asked to see “some sales options.” She wasn’t pushy. She didn’t threaten to walk out. She didn’t ask for a specific cost reduction. All she did was ask to see some other options.

The suit wasn’t some strange color or fit, either. “Nothing about the suit is super unique; its most unique feature is the color,” she said in an email. “We chose a charcoal gray so it could be dressed up for a winter black-tie-optional wedding and dressed down for a less formal springtime wedding.”

The biggest takeaway from her experience

This is further proof that sometimes just asking one simple question can make a huge difference.

People hate negotiation and confrontation. They hate it, in part, because they fear getting sucked into some prolonged discussion. However, the truth is that most negotiations are super-short, literally just one question and a thank you. I heard this over and over again in interviews for my book, and I continue to hear it today.

The biggest takeaway from this story is this: While success is never guaranteed, most negotiations are way shorter than you’d expect.

A few other things to keep in mind from her story:

• The closer to power when negotiating, the greater the chance of success. Even the greatest negotiator on Earth won’t succeed if the person they’re negotiating with has no power to change the price. That’s why you may be more likely to successfully haggle in locally-owned, independent stores — the person you’re talking to might be the owner or someone close to them who can do whatever they want with the price.

• There’s often more room to negotiate on higher-priced items. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, but it's important to keep that basic idea in mind because the savings can be very real. Whether you’re talking about a home, a car, a washing machine or a $900 suit, you need never be afraid to ask if lower prices might be available.

• You don’t always have to give a number first. Genna was genuinely stunned that the sales associate knocked $399 — more than 40% — off the price. “I never would’ve asked for that much of a discount myself,” she said. Turns out that she didn’t have to ask for a specific amount off. All she had to do was start the conversation with a simple question and see where it went.

As I always say with these stories, asking doesn’t always work. In fact, you may even end up coming up empty-handed more often than not. However, these requests are still so worthwhile. They’re easy. They don’t take any time at all. They help you get more comfortable with negotiation (and with rejection). And when they do come through, it can make a real difference.

In other news: The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, NBC News … and me!

I have been invited to take part in a discussion of the state of personal-finance journalism at a conference in New York next month. It’ll be part of the Personal Finance Summit put on by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW).

I’m so honored to share the stage with leaders from Bloomberg, NBC News and the Wall Street Journal to talk about a topic that is so near and dear to my heart. I’ll make sure to tell y’all about it when it is done.

Click on the image below to learn more.

Until next time!

Matt

I’m in New York again, making the rounds on another media tour. On Tuesday, I was all over Manhattan, but I spent most of Wednesday in or around Bryant Park. I had a 9 am coffee meeting in the park, a 10 am meeting at a coffee place about a block from the park (with my friends Lindsey and Alicia from The Purse), and then an 11 am interview with the local ABC station in the park.

After a lunch meeting uptown and a brief stop at my hotel, I headed back to the park, found a table and settled in to get some work done. It was a perfect 80-degree day here, so I would have been crazy not to work outside since I had the choice. I mean, look at the view from my table in the park…

I ended up working there for a couple of hours answering emails, prepping for an interview I have today and doing a few other tasks — all while enjoying the fact that it wasn’t 100-plus degrees like it is back home.

It was a good, good day.

$200 saved with a three-minute check-in

When I come to New York, I pretty much always stay in or around Midtown Manhattan. (Bryant Park and Times Square are usually never far away.) However, New York hotel prices can be CRAZY and can vary pretty widely, so my hotel often does, too. For some reason, though, prices were remarkably low on this trip, at least by New York standards. The hotel I’m staying in often goes for twice the rate I initially booked it for or more.

However, I was able to make a good deal even better by taking one quick, three-minute step that literally anyone could do.

Here’s what I did…

Last Thursday, in the last day or so in which I could cancel my room without penalty, I went back to the site where I originally bought the ticket and shopped for a room again. Same days, same locations, same loyalty preferences. Same everything. I just wanted to see if — maybe, just maybe — I might be able to find a better deal at the last minute.

It worked! Exact same hotel, exact same type of room, and exact same dates, all for about $200 less over four nights than I had originally agreed to pay.

I got it simply because I checked to see if the price had changed and acted when it had. Took about three minutes. Hard to beat that hourly rate.

To be clear, this is unusual. I do this before most every trip I take, and it works very rarely. If there are savings, it might only be $10 or $20 over the course of a trip. That’s not nothing, of course, but it may not be enough to spur you to rebook.

Regardless, it is still worth checking every time you travel. It only takes a few minutes, and you never know when those elusive savings will finally appear.

Three things to remember when rebooking

Finding a deal can be an adrenaline rush, right? However, the euphoric feeling that comes with it can lead to carelessness and sloppiness, and those two things can cost you. When you’re talking about travel, those costs can be high.

Here are a few things to keep in mind whether you’re searching for a better deal or you’ve already found one …

• Don’t forget to cancel the original booking. Duh! Sounds completely obvious, right? Still, it can be easy to get caught up in the moment, forget to cancel, and end up having to pay for two rooms when you only need one. Honestly, it is something I could see myself doing, so I made 100% certain that I canceled the old booking right after I made the new one.

• Understand any fees or extra costs you’ll incur. This won’t always be an issue, but it was in my case. The third-party site that my company uses for travel booking charges a nominal fee for each booking that typically doesn’t get refunded when you cancel. That meant that my savings (ultimately my company’s savings) were about $180 instead of about $200. The move was absolutely still worth making, but if I hadn’t known about that fee ahead of time, it would have been a mildly unpleasant surprise.

• Let technology help you. I found my savings the old-school way, but there are tools out there that will help you track hotel prices both before and after you book. I haven’t used one myself, but after looking into them for this post, I almost certainly will in the future. Here’s a review from ThePointsGuy.com on a tool called HotelSlash, which helps with pre- and post-booking price searches. And here’s a pretty extensive look at nine different hotel price trackers from a price-tracking site called RateRanger. If you have used one of these or any other hotel-price tracker, share in the comments below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

UPDATE: Live on NBC News Now twice in an afternoon

One of the best things about my New York visits is the chance to do in-studio appearances with big networks, all of which have a presence in the city.

On Thursday, I got a rare daily double: I was on NBC News Now twice in an afternoon talking about buy now, pay later loans.

The first was with Vicky Nguyen and Sam Brock. Vicky wrote the foreword for my book — which was such an honor for me — so I’ll always be grateful to her for that. (She also has a book of her own, called Boat Baby, a memoir that I can’t recommend highly enough.) You can watch the segment here…

The second, a couple of hours later, was with Kate Snow. Still about BNPL, but a little different conversation. Here it is…

There’s so much news happening these days that I fully assume that something is going to happen to bump me from their schedule, especially if I’m supposed to be on twice. Didn’t happen on Thursday, though. It was one of the most fun days on the job I’ve had in a long time.

And they even both showed the cover of my book in introducing me. What more could I have asked for?

Until next time!

Matt

Hello there, my friend.

I’ve spent years telling anyone who’ll listen that 80%+ of people who ask for a lower interest rate on their credit card get one, but far too few people ask. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said this on a podcast or some other interview and gotten the same stunned reaction:

WHAT? Why doesn’t anybody know this?

Knowing is only a part of the problem, though. Maybe the most frustrating part of all of this is when people know they can ask but they still don’t.

The question that explains a lot

While I was researching my book, I asked financial therapist Amanda Clayman about this, and she answered with a question of her own: “Are you from an asker culture or a guesser culture?”

In a guesser culture, Clayman said, you’re taught that putting someone in a position where they might have to say no is rude. So instead of asking directly for what you need, you hint. You say, “Gosh, I’m starving,” and wait for someone to offer you food, rather than just asking for a sandwich. The whole point is protecting the other person from an awkward moment, even if it means you don’t get what you want.

In an asker culture, none of that applies, Clayman said. You just say what you need. If the answer is no, fine. You asked, you move on. Nobody’s feelings are hanging in the balance.

Clayman is from the Midwest, which she described as a classic guesser culture. She married a New Yorker, and living with him rewired how she saw her own family.

“I constantly felt like, ‘Oh, my God, he’s saying all the quiet parts out loud,’” Clayman told me. Now he’s the one who calls customer service in their house because he can push through a phone tree and negotiate without the discomfort that would send her, in her words, “to bed like a Victorian woman.”

Companies know we’re guessers, and they like it that way

Most of us are guessers, Clayman said. However, while many of us don’t recognize it, many businesses do, and they use it to their advantage.

“It’s not an accident that people don’t do it,” she said. “That’s a feature, not a bug.”

Companies do not build systems that make it easy for you to ask for a better rate, a fee waiver or a discount, Clayman said. She said they build systems designed for askers, because askers are rare and expensive to accommodate, and guessers just quietly keep paying full price. The awkwardness you feel before you call your cable company isn’t a personal failing, she said. It’s working exactly as designed.

So what should guessers do?

If you’re a guesser, Clayman said you don’t have to rewire your whole personality. You just need to be able to act like an asker for five minutes at a time a few times a year.

Pick your battles wisely. You don’t have to negotiate everything. Pick three or four items to focus on — your credit card APR, cellphone bill, gym membership and a medical bill, for example — and then spread them out over the course of the year. They don’t all have to be big wins, either. Getting a small, easy victory to start with can be incredibly motivating, and that really matters.

Write down exactly what you want to say, and read it out loud before you call. Most of us stink without a script. That’s why every request I address in my book comes with a word-for-word script to help you know what to say. It makes a real difference. (And why I offer all new subscribers three free scripts when they sign up.) You don’t have to write a novel, nor do you have to anticipate every possible twist in the conversation, but just starting with a scripted sentence or two can really help. And once you’ve written it down, read it out loud. Sometimes what looks good on a page doesn’t sound as good when spoken.

If you have no idea what to say, start here:

“I reviewed my account and noticed I’m paying more than I expected. Who on your team can I speak with to see if there’s a way to lower my bill?”

It won’t apply to every negotiation, but it works in many cases. Plus, with a few small tweaks, it could work in plenty more.

Give yourself permission to feel weird about it. Your hands may get clammy, and your heart might race. These aren’t signs that something’s wrong. It’s just your body reacting to something unfamiliar. It happens whether the call goes well or badly. Feeling it isn’t the problem. Letting it stop you is.

Your homework for this week

Try it on one bill this week. Maybe it is the one that has bugged you the longest. Maybe it is the one that you think will be easiest to ask for. Maybe it is the biggest bill. It doesn’t matter.

Make the call. Let your hands be clammy the whole time if they need to be.

Then, once you’ve done it, come back and tell us about it in the comments.

Next week… I’m off to NYC

I love my New York media tours, and I’m back at it next week. Going to be a very busy one, but it’ll be a lot of fun. I’ll share pictures here soon.

Also, if you have any good restaurant recommendations for me, let me know. Ideally, they’d be places that aren’t so expensive that I get in trouble when I file my expense report.

Until next time!
Matt

Hi, my friend.

My friends Alison and Scott were staying at a resort in the Maldives, in one of those overwater huts like the one in the above picture. They hadn’t paid a dime for the room. They’d cobbled together every point they had between two credit cards just to cover it.

Early in their visit, they ended up making small talk with the property manager a few times. There was nothing strategic about it. Alison and Scott are just both social people, and they genuinely liked the guy, so they told him so.

Later in the trip, the manager showed up at their door and said he had bad news.

“He said, ‘I have bad news, I have to move you.’ And we’re like, ‘Oh, but we love this room.’ He goes, ‘Just trust me,’” Alison told me. “He said, ‘I double booked. We’re short on the type of rooms you have. These other people are giving me a really hard time. They’re being assholes, and you and your husband are really nice. So go enjoy three nights in the presidential suite on us. Thanks for being cool.’”

That’s the whole story.

The presidential suite. Four bedrooms. On the water. The kind of room that normally runs somewhere north of $10,000 a night. They didn’t ask for an upgrade. They didn’t complain their way into it. They just weren’t a pain to deal with, and when the hotel needed someone to offer its best inventory to, that mattered more than what they’d paid to be there.

Alison told me this in an interview I did with her for my book, back when I was gathering stories about the everyday power of just asking. While much of what we cover here is relatively small stuff — a $30 waived late fee here, a $45 food voucher there —this one is anything but.

It is also proof that sometimes you don’t even have to ask directly to get a break. Sometimes it is just about not being a jerk.

The pattern held in London too

It wasn’t a one-off either. A few months later she was in London with her mom for a milestone birthday, checking into a hotel that runs well north of a thousand dollars a night for its basic rooms. They’d booked the cheapest room available.

When they arrived, they mentioned at check-in that they were there celebrating her mom’s big day. The person at the desk told them their room wasn’t ready yet. When it was ready, they got a very big surprise.

“I just said, ‘We’re here for my mother’s 70th birthday, and she’s never been to London,’” she said. “We were sure to mention it was a special occasion, and when they came back to get us for the room, they upgraded us to a suite.”

This type of success isn’t super-common. Hotels aren’t just handing out suite upgrades to everyone who says they’re celebrating a birthday. However, the bigger lesson here is clear… It is almost always worth mentioning these sorts of things when you check in to a hotel or go to a restaurant.

You may just get a congratulations or a happy birthday greeting. Other times, however, you might get a free slice of cheesecake or $10 off an entree. Or one time you might even get a free upgrade to a $1,000 suite.

Either way, you won’t know if you don’t say anything.

The playbook

Obviously, these are two very high-end examples, but the truth is that your approach should be largely the same whether you’re staying at a five-star luxury resort or at a run-of-the-mill chain hotel off the interstate.

Here’s what Alison and Scott actually do every time they travel:

• They dress as if they belong there. You don’t have to dress like you’re off to the Met Gala, but you probably shouldn’t look like you just rolled out of bed either.

• If there’s an occasion, they mention it. They don’t mention it as a bid for a freebie, just as a fact. Whether you’re celebrating an anniversary, a birthday, a first trip somewhere or something else special, people who work in hospitality generally like being part of that moment. Plus, hotels know that if they treat you really well in an important moment, you’re a whole lot more likely to return.

• When they want more than what they booked, they ask for it the easy way. They ask something like, “Any upgrades or extra perks available?” They’re not being pushy or obnoxious. They’re not acting entitled or haughty. They’re just asking nicely and politely to see what happens. And if they’re told no, they let go. There will be other days.

“They’re not gonna upgrade the jerk“

Niceness can unlock doors.

It sounds ridiculously simple. It may even sound a little outdated in a time when so many people are focused more on being an “alpha” than on being kind. However, it is true.

This certainly doesn’t mean niceness is a foolproof cheat code for getting free suite upgrades. Nor does it mean that there isn’t a time to be tough and stand up for yourself. Rather, it means that when a hotel does have something extra to give away, and they often do, they’re going to give it to the guest who was easy to deal with over the guest who made their day harder.

Alison said it best:

“If they’re gonna upgrade someone, they’re not gonna upgrade the jerk. They’re gonna upgrade the nice person 9 times out of 10.”

That’s worth remembering the next time you’re standing at a check-in desk deciding how much attitude to bring with you.

Ever gotten a great upgrade?

I love this story my friend Christine Burke shared about using her late father’s technique for getting upgrades. It’s such a simple and kinda goofy thing, but it certainly has worked for her, and it can probably do the same for you.

Got a great upgrade story? Share it in the comments below!

In other news… We’ve got a Dynamite weekend ahead!

This weekend, we’re taking my almost-80-year-old mom to see BTS — her favorite musical artist — for the first time. She’s going to absolutely go crazy.

It’ll be my first time seeing them as well. In fact, among my wife, son, sister and mom, I’m the only one who has never been to any K-Pop show before. I’m fascinated to see what it’ll be like.

But honestly, this is about my mom finally being able to see in person the group that has meant so much to her and helped her move forward after my dad passed away six years ago.

I wrote about it in the story below. If you’ve been an Ask, Save, Earn subscriber for a while, you might’ve read the story, but I always love sharing it.

Until next time!
Matt

I generally don’t consider myself old-fashioned, and I don’t think those who know me well would describe me that way either.

However, there is at least one thing that I believe in strongly that is decidedly old-school.

It is one of the most powerful financial tools you have access to, and most people don’t use it nearly enough.

I’m talking about a phone call.

We love our phones, but hate making calls

Yeah, I know. You probably rolled your eyes or let out a heavy sigh reading that last sentence.

Ooooookkkkkaaaayyyy, grandpa. Thanks for that.

We’re perpetually attached to our phones, but we hate making phone calls, and I totally get it. Assuming that you can even find a number to call, which can seem impossible today and is likely to only get harder in the future, it feels like you’re as likely to find yourself in a never-ending loop of a phone tree as you are to actually get a living, breathing person on the other end of the line. Then, if you do get to speak with someone, it can be hard to know what to say, especially when you’re exasperated after sitting on hold for the better part of an hour. It can all just add up to a real mess that people don’t want to deal with.

Plus, chatbots, social-media-based support, apps and other tools can be incredibly efficient and effective in solving problems. There are absolutely times during which you’d be foolish not to use them today.

Still, in many cases, a phone call can give you an advantage that none of these can: a real, person-to-person connection that few other communication tools can match.

That matters, especially when money is at stake.

“There’s nothing quite like hearing someone’s voice”

To be clear, I’m not saying that people can’t make meaningful connections with text, chat and other tools where you don’t hear someone’s voice or see their face in real-time. I’m a writer. Believe me, I get the power of the written word. I’m also the father of a college-aged kid, so I know that text communications can be amazing and meaningful, too.

But there’s nothing quite like hearing someone’s voice.

I wrote about it in the prologue of “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life”:

It seems downright old-fashioned, but this book preaches the power of phone calls. Hearing another voice can bind people together in ways that text-based communication can’t. Your voice makes you more real. It humanizes you, which means that it can make it harder for someone to tell you, “No.” It’s one thing to type that word onto a screen but something else entirely to say it to someone whose voice is trembling with nerves, with kids playing and a dog barking in the background. Social media proves this truth every day. Millions of people around the world post cruel, hurtful comments about others that never in a million years would they say over the phone.

But phone calls don’t always feel easy. It can seem almost impossible to get to a real person on the other end of the line. Once a human is listening, the conversation can involve a greater level of vulnerability than a text message or online chat does. That’s why most people tend to shy away from them. But again, nerves are normal. You can work through them, and once you do, you can use the power of phone calls to your advantage.

Put a face with that voice and the connection can deepen. Of course, I’m not saying you need to FaceTime with your credit card issuer’s customer service representative. However, in certain situations, such as negotiating down a rent increase or trying to get your gym to waive an initiation fee, making your case face-to-smiling-face might make it more likely to get your way.

As always, there are no guarantees that this will help, but if you think it will make you less likely to hear a “no,” what do you have to lose?

Making the call a little easier

Negotiating with someone can be challenging regardless of the medium. Here are a few tips that might make it a little easier for you:

Write out a script. Most of us aren’t the best at thinking on the fly, especially when there’s money on the line, so taking the time to think through what you want to say is crucial. Don’t stress too much. You’re not going to think of everything, but even just putting some thoughts down on paper to get started can matter. I’m a firm believer in the power of the script. That’s why there are word-for-word scripts included with every chapter of my book, and why I offer three ready-to-use scripts to new subscribers to Ask, Save, Earn.

Subscribe now

Practice before you call. As silly as it may seem, having a friend or relative role-play the conversation can be really helpful. I’d suggest running through it three times or more — one that goes perfectly smoothly, another where your partner pushes back a bit, and a third where they really let you have it. Chances are the real conversation won’t go quite like any of your dry runs. Plus, you’ll likely end up wanting to rewrite your script afterwards, but just having the experience will probably make you feel more at ease.

Skip the phone. Talk in person instead. Sure, this isn’t always going to be possible, but if it is, and you are someone who feels more comfortable chatting in person than over the phone, consider that option. I’m thinking about a medical provider, a bank with a brick-and-mortar option near you, a gym or a contractor, for example.

Breathe. We have to give ourselves permission to suck at things in order to improve. I’m not saying that you’ll be terrible the first time you try to negotiate over the phone, but I am saying that it is totally OK if you are. Everyone you can think of who is amazing at something wasn’t when they started.

Until next time!
Matt

Hello there, my friend.

I can’t even tell you how much I love it when readers reach out to tell me how they saved themselves money or made some money just by asking.

That happens more often these days, and I hope it only becomes more frequent as the Ask, Save, Earn community grows.

The latest example came from Christine, a coordinator at a large entertainment company in Los Angeles. Longtime Ask, Save, Earn readers might recognize her from this story from September 2025.

Saving that much money just by asking a few questions makes Christine nothing short of a superstar around these parts, so I was excited when she reached out again to share her latest success.

Here’s what she sent me…

“I had to pop in for some quick dental work, and when I received the original quote, I asked if the office had any promotions, specials, potential discounts I could be considered for, and they responded by knocking my out-of-pocket cost down by over 50%! A 5-minute email chain saved a few hundred dollars!”

When I read that, I reached back out in a hurry to ask if she’d be willing to share the email she sent so people could learn from it. She was nice enough to say yes.

Note: To protect Christine’s privacy, I removed names and other details that weren’t really pertinent to this discussion. They’re replaced by “xxxx” in the text below.

The email

Thanks so much, xxxx! I really appreciate you sending this over.

One thing - I recall the office offering some specials/discounts earlier this year. Might there be any current promotions, discounts, or other options available that could help lower my out-of-pocket cost?

Thank you again for all of your help!

Best,
xxxx

Simple, right?

She expresses gratitude, gets to the point quickly but without being pushy, and then thanks the person again.

The dentist office’s response

Hi xxxx!

Great question! Since your insurance will pay our usual and customary rate, I can pass any savings on to your out-of-pocket cost.

I can offer an additional discount for the xxxx if you decide to move forward with all of Dr. xxxx’s recommendations, bringing your out-of-pocket cost down to $180 for the xxxx. That, in addition to the xxxx for $100, would bring your total to $280.

Let me know if this works well for your budget!

Smiles,

xxxx

That’s it! There was one string attached — she had to move forward with all of the doctor’s recommendations — but Christine agreed to do so. As a result, she knocked the original quoted out-of-pocket cost of $570 down to just $280. That’s a savings of $290 or slightly more than half of the original bill.

I’d say that was worth her time.

More success stories

Christine is a rock star when it comes to these requests, no question, but much of her success comes from simply being willing to ask. Nothing she did at the dentist office — or when she saved $3,500 as described in the previous post — was anything that most anyone else could not do. But you have to do them.

Of course, there’s never any guarantee that you’ll even save a penny when you ask these questions, but you’ll never know if you don’t try. Plus, even if you strike out most of the time, you still come out ahead. And who couldn’t benefit from that right now?

Here are a couple more posts about reader success stories …

Here’s one of my own. Like Christine’s story, a simple email made a major difference for me …

And there are plenty more to be found in my book, “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life,” which includes word-for-word scripts for how to make these requests.

Share your success story!

I’d love nothing more than to add your success story to the list above. If you have one — or know someone who does — and would like to share, just reply to this email or leave me a message in the comments.

In other news… The Fed did nothing, and it was something!

I have a weird job sometimes, like yesterday.

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve — which affects, to varying degrees, the interest rates people pay for everything from mortgages and auto loans to credit cards and personal loans — announced that they weren’t going to raise or lower interest rates.

When most entities do nothing, it generally isn’t news, especially if you know with a high degree of certainty that it is going to do nothing. However, the Fed is not most entities. Whether it raises rates, lowers them or just leaves them alone, as they did yesterday, it makes major headlines.

That means I had to talk about what all this nothing meant.

The truth, however, is that all this nothing really does mean something. It is great news for savers because CDs and high-yield savings accounts will continue to offer really strong returns. However, it is a total bummer for people struggling with credit card debt or who are in the market for an auto loan or personal loan. (It impacts mortgage rates, too, but less directly than some other loans.)

I spoke about all of this with the New York Times, CNBC, Marketwatch and others. Click on any of these links to learn more about why it all matters so much.

Until next time!
Matt

Hi there, my friend.

I’m taking the day off from work today, but not to do anything fun, unfortunately.

Nope, I’m going to spend the day taking an online defensive driving course.

Don’t act like you’re not jealous.

Yeah, I was driving home after moving my son out of his college dorm room and got pulled over for going a little faster than I should have. Nothing crazy or outrageous, but just fast enough to catch the police’s attention on an open stretch of Texas highway.

Now I get to spend six hours online taking a course to learn how to be a safer driver. I’m definitely not looking forward to it, but it beats the heck out of having my car insurance increase. My family’s premiums are already steep enough, given that we have a college-aged driver. The last thing we need is something else to push them higher.

Cars are a hot topic these days

I’ve been talking a lot about cars lately, and not just because of defensive driving. LendingTree recently released a report revealing that 10% of Americans with an auto loan have a $1,000 monthly payment on one of those loans.

One thousand dollars a month for a car payment!!

Per LendingTree, that $1,000 equals 14% of Americans’ median monthly household incomes. And that’s just for the loan payment. That doesn’t include insurance, gas (which has been a little pricey lately, as you might have noticed), regular maintenance or any other costs associated with owning a car.

In my home state of Texas, where people love their big ol’ trucks, cars and SUVs, 15% of all auto loans have monthly payments of $1,000 or more.

I get that everyone has their thing that they love to spend money on and that vehicles are that thing for many, many Americans. I also hate to yuck other people’s yum, but, man, locking yourself into a $1,000 monthly payment on a vehicle for years just feels like a recipe for disaster.

My wife and I tend to pay cash for our vehicles. We’re able to do that, in large part, because we’ve never owned a car for less than a decade since we graduated from college, we tend to buy less car than we can afford and we consistently put savings into a car fund so when we do end up needing (or just wanting) a new car, we have substantial savings built up to pay for it.

Of course, with most financial questions, there’s no one-size-fits-all perfect answer, and this is certainly one of those cases. For some people, that giant monthly payment is perfectly manageable. If you have a high income, save consistently for retirement, have a substantial emergency fund, are not carrying high-interest debt, and are genuinely passionate about cars, that payment may fit just fine into your financial life. Also, if you’re a realtor or a salesperson or work in some other role where a really nice car can enhance your brand or your business prospects, it can make sense, too.

The problem is when that payment starts crowding out the things that matter more.

The question to ask yourself about your monthly car payment

If writing that check every month means you’re putting off retirement savings, carrying a credit card balance, skipping your emergency fund, or constantly feeling like you’re one unexpected expense away from trouble, the issue isn’t really the car payment. It’s the tradeoffs the payment is forcing you to make.

That’s why I think focusing on the dollar amount alone misses the point. A $1,000 payment can be perfectly reasonable for one household and a financial disaster for another. The more useful question isn’t, “How much is the payment?” It is instead “What will I have to give up to make it?”

If the answer is “not much,” you’re probably fine. If the answer is “my financial flexibility, my savings goals, and my peace of mind,” it’s a sign that the vehicle just isn’t right for you, no matter how sexy it may look in the driveway.

In case you missed them…

I’m not a car guy, but they’re one of the biggest purchases we ever make, so we talk about them from time to time here at Ask, Save, Earn.

Here’s a post with some wisdom from the savviest car expert I know…

And here are a couple about managing high gas prices…

I wish I could be confident that the affordability crisis around cars and gas would end soon, but the truth is there’s very little reason to believe it will, at least in the short term. That’s why it is important not only to be a smart, informed shopper when you’re looking for a vehicle to buy but also a diligent owner once you’ve taken the vehicle home. Taking good care of the car, including keeping up with your regular recommended maintenance, can make it last longer and allow you to keep it well after it is already paid for.

That should really be the goal. After all, the longer you can go without having to make a car payment, the better.

By the way, it is the same thing with defensive driving. The longer you can avoid having to take it, the better. Trust me on this one.

Until next time!

Matt

Putting my book out into the world has taught me a lot, but perhaps my favorite part has been hearing what readers actually do with it. After all, advice can sound smart in print, but it is something else entirely once someone is on the phone trying it out, when the stakes are real.

I recently talked with one reader named Sara about how she has put what she learned to use, and I wanted to share some of what she told me because it seemed so relatable.

Yes, asking works a lot of the time, maybe even more than you’d expect. However, it doesn’t work every time. Sara’s experience wasn’t a straight line of wins. It was hesitation, trial and error, a couple of real successes, and one case where she did everything right and her attempt at negotiation still fell frustratingly short.

Changing her perspective

Sara works in a role where negotiating on behalf of others is part of the job. She’s comfortable advocating in her job when it is expected and clearly defined. When it comes to advocating for herself, though, it hasn’t always been that simple.

She described herself as a bit of a people pleaser, the kind of person who might hold back rather than risk being seen as “the squeaky wheel.” That instinct is common — I know I can certainly relate to it — and it’s one of the biggest reasons people don’t take advantage of opportunities to save money.

It’s not usually a knowledge problem. It’s a willingness-to-ask problem.

After reading my book, that started to shift. She began to see asking differently. Instead of viewing it as a confrontation, she reframed it as a curiosity. It became more about exploring what was going on and, in some cases, correcting something that might not actually be right.

That change in perspective led to a bigger epiphany:

“I realized how fallible and subjective many different things that I took as objective can be, including price.”

Before that, she approached bills the way most of us do. You get a number, assume someone has a good reason for charging that price, and move on. Afterward, that assumption started to break down.

Putting the new mindset into practice

Once that mindset shifts, the next step is trying it out. That can be a little messy, as Sara discovered.

One of the first times she put it into practice, she was dealing with a set of car repairs. When the shop called with the estimate, she asked if there was any flexibility in the pricing. The answer was a quick no. She didn’t follow up, and that was the end of it.

Looking back, she realized the issue was how she asked. Her approach had been too open-ended.

She said, “I just posed the question, ‘Can we do any better?’ and they were like, ‘No.’”

If she were to do it again, she said she’d get more specific with her request. She’d come prepared with a clearer sense of what the parts should cost and where there might be room to adjust.

That distinction matters. Asking if something can be done often leads to a yes-or-no answer. Suggesting what should be done creates space for a conversation.

Not long after that, she ran into a situation where things played out very differently.

She needed an MRI, and when she arrived for the appointment, the price didn’t look right. In the past, that might have been enough to sign and move on. This time, she paused and asked questions, then called her insurance company on the spot and put them on the phone with the receptionist.

“I actually just called my insurance right then and put them on the phone with the receptionist,” she said. “Having them liaise together did bring down the cost.”

Her decision to get the two sides to talk directly led to a correction and savings of about $300. That’s a big deal.

It all happened because she didn’t assume the number on that bill was final.

Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way.

It is about trusting the process, not about perfection

She also shared a medical billing reimbursement issue where she had done everything right. She had records of whom she spoke to, when the conversations happened, and what she had been told about her insurance’s reimbursement policies. She made a decision based on the information she had been given. Unfortunately, however, what she had been told was inaccurate.

As a result, she got a higher bill than she expected, prompting her to make a series of calls in hopes of reducing what she owed. Ultimately, she was only partly successful. She got a slightly higher reimbursement, but well below what she was aiming for.

That’s frustrating, but it’s part of the process. You’re not going to win every time. It’s about avoiding the default outcome of never asking and always paying what’s presented.

What changed most over time wasn’t just the outcomes, but the approach.

It started with building the habit of asking, getting comfortable raising the question even when it felt a little awkward. From there, she became more precise, doing more homework in advance and making clearer, more targeted requests.

She also started keeping better records, noting names, dates and what was said. That kind of documentation can be surprisingly useful, especially when you need to follow up or push back later.

And she became more intentional in how she approached conversations. Instead of treating them like a confrontation, she focused on creating a sense that she and the other person were working toward the same goal. That shift tends to make interactions more productive and a lot less stressful.

None of this required a personality overhaul. She didn’t have to become more aggressive or more confrontational. She simply started questioning assumptions, asking more often, and refining her approach over time.

That’s where the real advantage comes from.

A few things to keep in mind

• Treat prices as starting points, not fixed outcomes. If there’s a number attached to something, there’s often room to question it. Doesn’t mean you’ll always get your way, but it usually can’t hurt to ask.

• Don’t worry about getting it perfect right away. Building the habit of asking matters more than how polished the first attempt is. Get your reps in, including role-playing. It may seem kind of goofy, but it can help. Eventually, you’ll get to feel more comfortable and confident.

• Be specific when you can. A clear, informed request tends to go further than a vague one. Doing some legwork in advance can make a real difference in helping you frame the conversation. For example, if you can find an offer from a competitor, you can start the conversation there.

• Keep track of your conversations. Names, dates, and notes can give you leverage if you need it later. You don’t need to write down every single word everyone says, but keeping some notes of some key details can help immensely.

Until next time!

Matt

I’m taking a little bit of a different approach this week. Most weeks, I tend to focus Ask, Save, Earn on one major topic, but this week is much more of a grab bag.

However, what hasn’t changed (and won’t change) is the promise behind Ask, Save, Earn: Every edition of this newsletter will have some takeaway that you can use and apply to your own financial life.

Let’s get started.

I got a shoutout from The Purse

My friends, and , run The Purse, one of the smartest, best money sites on the planet. A week ago today, they posted a mid-year financial check-in roundup, and I was honored to be included.

Mine was about culling subscriptions, something I’ve written about here before after I found $432 in charges I’d forgotten I was even paying for.

There are nine other smart suggestions, too. One of my favorites came from Heather Boneparth, author of The Joint Account newsletter…

“Make sure your autopays are processing correctly; credit cards linked to recurring bills haven’t expired; your logins for all important accounts are still active (many have switched to 2FA); and your beneficiaries and trusted contacts are up to date. All of this will probably take you less than an hour, and it’s one of the easiest ways to prevent headaches down the road.”

Important stuff, but stuff that can be pretty easy to let fall through the cracks.

It’s also a good reminder of something that we talk a lot about here at Ask, Save, Earn: You can often do an awful lot of good in a very short time if you’re willing to put in the work.

I appeared on The Today Show!

Late last month, I did an interview with NBC News’ Emilie Ikeda that aired on The Today Show. I talked about “funflation,” or the fact that the cost of summer fun — think concerts, amusement parks, vacations, and pretty much everything else — keeps climbing faster and faster.

Here’s the segment, which includes some helpful tips for how to manage these higher prices:

I’m only in it briefly, and I’ve been on the show before, but it is always a big deal to me whenever it happens. (And maybe one day I’ll get to do an actual live segment in-studio. I can dream, right?)

Car payments just hit a record high

Holy moley! According to Experian data cited by LendingTree, the average new car payment in the first quarter of 2026 was a record $770 a month, up from $748 in Q1 2025. For used vehicles, the average is $531 a month. That’s a whole lot better than what new-car buyers face, but it is still a huge amount of money.

Before you go shopping for a new or used vehicle, I urge you to crunch the numbers to make sure you understand what you can really afford. I know that it is so easy to fall in love with that new car, truck or SUV and tell yourself, “I’m going to treat myself! I can afford it.” The person at the dealership's financing desk will probably tell you that you can afford it, too. However, unless you take the time to look at the numbers with an affordability calculator like this one from LendingTree, you just don’t know.

Buying a car is one of the most expensive things we do. It is important not to be done lightly or carelessly. If you do, you may end up regretting it for years.

Want to be the first to see some new features?

I’ve been building a couple of new features behind the scenes. I’m not going to say much about them yet because I’m just not quite ready.

However, what I will say is I need real people to test them, break them, and tell me what’s confusing or what’s missing. I’d love for you to be part of this — and maybe other tests in the future.

If you want in, reply to this email. Once the tools are ready to be looked at in the next few weeks, I’ll make sure to get you access before anyone else sees it.

Until next time!
Matt

I wanted to start this week with a sincere thank you for being part of the Ask, Save, Earn community. Whether this is the first post you’ve ever read here or you’ve been with me for years, I’m honored that you’re here.

And the community is growing! The list of free subscribers has grown 34% so far in 2026 and has more than doubled since June 1, 2025. That means the world to me, and I promise to keep bringing you meaningful content that can have a real impact on your financial life.

If you’re reading this and haven’t yet subscribed, enter your email below to do so. If you subscribe, you’ll get our free guide, “3 scripts to lower your bills today,” just for signing up.

Or if you are a subscriber and know anyone who could benefit from being part of the community, click the Share button below to share this post with them. The more, the merrier!

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Collecting incredible stories

Part of the beauty of a growing community is having more and more people’s wisdom to learn from. That includes you!

Little in my work inspires me more than talking to interesting people about cool things they did and then sharing what others can learn from their experience.

With that in mind, I’m working on a long-term project to collect stories from people who have learned something worth sharing.

I’m interested in the lessons people learned about money, work, risk, happiness, reinvention, relationships, resilience, and everything in between.

If you know someone whose story deserves to be told, I’d love an introduction.

And of course, if you have a story to share yourself, please reach out via this email, the Substack app or even in the comments below.

We all have far more wisdom than we realize. Help me share some of yours with others!

One of the most important pieces of wisdom from my book

My book, “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life,” touches on everything from mortgages and credit cards to garage sales and wedding parties. It is about helping people pay less, earn more and keep more of their hard-earned money by asking the right questions in various everyday situations.

Nowhere is that more important than at the doctor’s office, and that’s the subject of one of my very favorite quotes from the book.

“Never, ever think that it’s not OK to negotiate a medical bill in the United States.”

Those are the wise words of the great Virgie Ellington, MD, the author of “What Your Doctor Wants You To Know To Crush Medical Debt.”

Read it again. Commit it to memory. Tell your friends about it, too.

It is that important.

Medical debt can be enormous, pervasive and can, in no uncertain terms, wreck people’s financial lives.

And here’s one more quote from Dr. Ellington:

“We assume that whatever bill we get is accurate, and nothing could be further from the truth.”

Don’t believe it? Consider this stat…

An estimated 80% of medical bills have errors. That’s a staggering number. It is absolute proof that you should never pay your first medical bill.

Mistakes aren’t always obvious

I did more than 110 interviews for my book, including plenty about medical billing. I heard multiple success stories about people negotiating their bills and saving significant money.

One of my favorite stories in the book came from my friend Kathryn Tuggle...

Tuggle, an award-winning journalist and cofounder and chief content officer of HerMoney Media, has danced for most of her life, resulting in chronic plantar fasciitis, which can cause excruciating pain. In 2019, she carefully selected a podiatrist in-network with her health insurance, meaning that the visit shouldn’t have cost more than a small co-pay. But she received a bill for $1,680. “So of course, I freak out,” she says, “thinking that maybe I got it wrong” She reviewed the bill, which indicated an out-of-network visit but no other specifics. She called the doctor’s office to request an itemized bill. “Everything the doctor had done was accurate on the itemized bill, so I’m sitting there thinking, Maybe I am going to have to pay this.*

Then she spotted the problem. The very bottom of the bill listed a different doctor than the one Tuggle had seen. Some podiatrists in that group accepted Tuggle’s insurance, but others didn’t, making them out-of-network — a common and often costly problem in hospitals and medical practices. She quickly contacted the practice to inform them of the clerical error, and after about two weeks of pushback the practice finally corrected the bill, leaving her owing nothing.

Tuggle understands why people sometimes hesitate to push back when they suspect billing mistakes. Correcting them can take a lot of time and prove frustrating. Ultimately, however, it’s well worth your time. “I probably spent four hours dealing with this problem to save close to $1,700. That’s a darn good hourly rate.”

I would say so.

What she did right

Tuggle did a lot of smart things in that situation, but the best thing she did was simply to not give up. Medical providers know full well that many people who try to lower their medical bills or to correct inaccurate bills will throw in the towel before the battle is won.

It is taking forever. It isn’t going to work. This is a waste of my time.

Medical providers are betting on you feeling that way. They’re playing the long game, doing everything they can to drag stuff out so you get so frustrated that you eventually give up.

Don’t do it.

“[People] throw their hands up because they assume there's nothing they can do, and the system seems so complicated. It seems like such a battle between David and Goliath, and they just don't realize that David can win."

The late journalist Marshall Allen, author of “Never Pay The First Bill (And Other Ways To Fight The Healthcare System And Win),” told me that in interviews for my book. Tuggle is further proof that he’s right.

Another of the most important things Tuggle did right was to ask for an itemized bill. Oftentimes, the first bill you receive will lack important details. It is crucial — whether you’re trying to negotiate a lower cost or just ensure that you’re getting charged for what you actually had done — to ask for an itemized bill with CPT codes.

CPT codes are standardized numeric or alphanumeric codes used by the healthcare industry to document and bill for medical, surgical, and diagnostic services. The first bill you get may not include them. If it doesn’t, you should ask.

When you get the bill, find the codes for the services you had done, then Google them to make sure you were billed for what you had done. If you were, then you can start thinking about negotiating that bill down. If you weren’t, contact the provider’s billing department to get it corrected, especially if you were billed for a more expensive service than you actually got.

For Tuggle, the issue was even simpler than that, though. They listed the wrong doctor on her bill, and that changed everything. But even then, with an obvious, provable mistake, it still took time to actually get it fixed. Tuggle was persistent, however, because she knew that it was worth her time.

She was right, and her efforts paid off in a big way. The next time you question a medical bill, something similar could happen to you, but only if you’re willing to put in the work.

More on medical debt

I’ll never stop talking about this topic because it's just that important.

Here’s more on Allen and his mission…

And here’s a previous story I wrote about managing medical debt…

There’s so much money involved, and people have so much more power than they realize. I’m on a mission to help them wield it, and I’m happy to have you along with me.

Until next time!
Matt

Hi there, my friend.

More than a third of Americans say they don’t plan to travel for leisure this summer, according to a new LendingTree survey.

The biggest reason?

It is just too expensive.

Unfortunately, that’s not likely to change anytime soon. Sure, gas prices have fallen significantly in the past month, but increased demand around the July 4th holiday could send them higher, as could a re-escalation of the war in Iran. However, Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian told Fox Business that gas prices aren’t even the biggest driver of higher prices.

“People ask me all the time – what’s happening with prices?” Bastian told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. “Prices will come down when we can fly more, when there’s more supply, it’s a supply and demand. Right now we’re kind of logjammed.”

“There’s not a lot of supply we can bring in because the air traffic control system is congested. As you open up the skies, and you bring more flow, that’s going to help bring pricing down and enable us to bring more people to more places,” he said.

That’s not great news. The shortage of air traffic controllers is not a new problem, has caused issues at major airports in the U.S. in recent weeks, and probably isn’t getting resolved anytime soon.

So what is a traveler supposed to do?

My best advice for managing travel costs

As I always say, you have more power over your money than you think you do, and the travel space is no exception. No, you can’t open up the Strait of Hormuz or immediately hire, train and put to work thousands of new air traffic controllers, but there are plenty of things that you can control.

My best advice is really simple: Be flexible.

Generally speaking, the more fixed your plans are, the more you’ll often pay. Flexibility gives you options, and options often save money.

Of course, you can’t always be flexible. For example, you’re probably not taking your school-age kids out of school for a week in October to take advantage of those amazing airfares for a family European vacation. Nor are you going to be super eager to have your elderly parents change planes multiple times with long layovers in between just to get a cheaper airfare.

The good news, however, is that there are plenty of ways that you can be flexible to potentially help reduce your travel costs:

• Fly a day or two earlier or later. Moving your trip by even 24 hours can sometimes save hundreds of dollars.

• Be flexible on airports. Flying into or out of a nearby airport can dramatically cut airfare. That doesn’t mean you need to drive for hours to save a few bucks, but if you’re open to looking at multiple airport options, you can sometimes find real savings.

• Travel at off-peak times. Early-morning flights and off-season trips are often cheaper and less crowded. That 4 am wakeup may not be fun, but it can help you save.

• Choose the destination after finding the deal. Instead of deciding where to go first, see where the bargains are and build from there.

• Take the route with a layover. If you’re willing to put up with it, a longer travel day can sometimes mean a much lower fare.

• Mix and match airlines. Booking separate outbound and return flights can sometimes be cheaper than a traditional round-trip ticket.

• Use public transit when practical. A train or bus from the airport can be far cheaper, and sometimes even faster, than a taxi, rental car or rideshare.

• Be willing to walk or ride a bit. Staying outside the main tourist area often costs less without being overly inconvenient, especially in a city with great public transit.

• Consider a vacation rental home or apartment. Having a kitchen can save a surprising amount on meals. My family has done this many, many times. A quick trip to the grocery store at the start of the trip can really keep costs down.

• Leave some room in the itinerary. Overplanning can lead to expensive bookings and missed opportunities. A little flexibility lets you take advantage of better deals and unexpected discoveries.

• Pack light. Traveling with only a carry-on gives you more flight options and helps you avoid baggage fees.

• Rent the car from somewhere other than the airport. Taking a short shuttle, train, or rideshare ride can help you avoid hefty airport surcharges. In my book, I mention a Nerdwallet report that says you can save about 25 percent by renting away from the airport.

That’s a lot, right? And it is far from an exhaustive list.

Perhaps above all, remember this: You don’t have to treat your original plan as sacred. Weather changes, attractions close, flights get delayed, and new opportunities pop up. Travelers who adapt tend to spend less time frustrated and more time enjoying themselves. Those changes might even lead to savings, and who couldn’t use more of those these days?

Ask yourself these questions

Every traveler is different. One person’s no-brainer compromise is another person’s line they’d never cross.

So how do you decide what you’re willing to do for lower travel costs? Ask yourself some of these questions…

• What parts of this trip do I care about most, and where am I willing to compromise? A travel budget and itinerary should be a reflection of what matters most to you. If you ruthlessly prioritize what matters and slash spending on stuff you don’t care much about, it can open up a lot of possibilities. Just make sure to communicate your thoughts with the other people you’re traveling with. Otherwise, feelings can get hurt and tensions can rise.

• How much uncertainty am I comfortable with? Some travelers love booking things at the last minute. Others sleep better with everything locked in months ahead.

• Would I rather spend more money or more time? This question comes up constantly with flights, transportation, accommodations, and activities. There’s no wrong answer to this question, but it is important to consider.

Again, this is far from an exhaustive list, but it can at least help you start a conversation with yourself and those you’re traveling with. That communication is crucial, especially when you’re traveling with a group. It may not be easy, but talking through what people want and expect from a trip well before you ever leave can help avoid headaches once you arrive at your destination.

Got any travel tips to share?

Let us know in the comments below.

Until next time!
Matt

Hi there, my friend.

One year ago tomorrow, I posted this…

Spoiler alert: The big news was that Ask, Save, Earn was becoming a weekly publication. A year later, it is still going strong, despite life lifing so hard several times during that period.

The first weekly piece I did, posted the same day as the announcement, was this Q&A with author about procrastination.

If you missed it or are newer to Ask, Save, Earn, give it a read. The piece is full of practical advice and thoughtful insights, including this:

“The best way to beat the procrastination monkey is to be crystal clear and honest with yourself about your goals but also your demons, so that you know where resistance is coming from. Once you have full clarity, accountability is only between you and the person in the mirror.”

In retrospect, I love that this was the first weekly post because it touches on a fundamental theme that Ask, Save, Earn keeps coming back to:

Asking can be really hard and really scary, even if you know it works, but you can do it, and we’re here to help you.

Getting past the fear

A couple months later, I posted one of my favorite pieces of the year…

First of all, it is one of my favorite headlines of the year. But more importantly, provided real practical advice on how to get over the hump when it comes to speaking up. Not only is her book required reading at Stanford Business School — I hear that place is pretty good — but she has actually done these things herself, including getting a refund for something that she forgot to cancel.

One of my favorite quotes from Abby:

“The decision is just step one. Taking action is what actually moves the needle. My best tip? Treat yourself to some ice cream with the money you saved. That way, the victory is extra sweet (literally).”

Bribing yourself with a sweet treat? That’s something I can get behind.

You’re not alone in struggling with this

I talk to people for a living. I’ve done literally thousands of interviews with the biggest media outlets on the planet.

I still get nervous when I need to speak up. I’m still often really uncomfortable with raising my hand in a roomful of people. I shared my struggles here…

But I’m far from the only public figure who struggles with speaking up. I spoke with Chris Browning, whose Popcorn Finance podcast has been downloaded more than 2 million times, about his battles to overcome his fear of negotiating…

His primary advice:

“You have to do whatever you can to try to ground the situation and make it something less scary than your mind sometimes wants to make it be.”

That can be easier said than done, of course. However, in our Q&A, Browning lays out four tips that helped him and just might help you, too.

I won’t stop talking about this

My mission is to show everyone that they have more power over their money than they realize — and to help them wield it.

That last part is so important. Even if people know that they’ll probably get their way, they still need help knowing how to make the request.

That’s why I’m going to keep posting stories like the ones mentioned above. And I need your help to help the most people.

I always want to hear about what keeps you from taking action and what you’ve done to overcome those fears. We’re a community here at Ask, Save, Earn, and communities help each other.

I’ve said it many times…

Helping others succeed can feel every bit as good as succeeding yourself.

Here’s to another year of helping people succeed, and thank you for being a part of it.

Until next time!

Matt

Hi there, my friend.

My favorite report for LendingTree, which I put out every year, came out last week, and it has some much-needed good news for people struggling with high prices.

84% of credit cardholders who asked for a lower interest rate on one of their credit cards in the past year got one, and the average reduction was 6.3 percentage points.

That’s the highest success rate in the six years in which we’ve asked, which is saying something, given that the success rate has been lower than 76% just once — in 2022, when it was a still-sky-high 70%. It is further proof that it isn’t just people with 800 credit scores, long track records and a friend who works at the bank who get their way. Regular people who really need the help do, too.

It isn’t just interest rates that are getting lowered. Banks are waiving or reducing balance transfer fees, late fees and foreign transaction fees more often, too.

A pleasant surprise, though not all the news is good

I must confess that every year we do the survey, I get a little nervous that the success rate is going to fall off a cliff. This year was certainly no different.

Oh, man, is this the year that this stops working? There’s so much uncertainty around, well, most everything. Maybe banks will be a little less giving this year.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Banks are becoming even more willing to give a break to those who reach out, according to our data. Unfortunately, however, slightly fewer people are taking that step. Just 23% of cardholders asked, down from 25% last year.

To be clear, we’ll never have 100% of cardholders ask. About half of cardholders never carry a balance, so their interest rate doesn’t matter. (Typically, only those who carry a balance from month to month are ever charged interest, though there are some exceptions.) Many who do carry a balance don’t carry a big enough one to make it worth sweating over a few points on an interest rate. Still others don’t know they can make the call, don’t think they’ll be successful or just don’t want to try.

All that said, however, there is no question that there’s room to improve those numbers. Part of my mission is to ensure that happens.

Why this is such a big deal

My central message is that you have more power over your money than you realize, and that you can pay less, earn more and keep more of your hard-earned money by asking the right questions in various everyday situations. It is what Ask, Save, Earn is all about. It is what my book, “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life” is all about. It is what my mission is all about.

There are few stronger examples of that power than asking for a lower interest rate on a credit card. That’s because the success rate is crazy-high, and the impact can be really significant.

Here’s what I wrote in the LendingTree post:

If you’re successful, it can save you $1,000 or more, depending on how much you owe.

Here’s how:

• The average APR reduction was 6.3 points. That’s like moving from 25.00% to less than 19.00%.

• If you have $7,000 in credit card debt, an APR of 25.00% and you pay $250 a month, you’ll pay $3,615 in interest and take 42 months to pay it off, according to LendingTree’s credit card interest calculator.

• Reduce that APR by 6.3 points to 18.7% while keeping everything else the same, and you’ll pay $2,269 in interest and take 37 months to pay it off.

That’s a savings of $1,346 from a single request — all from simply asking.

That’s a whole lot of money for a phone call. If $1,300 isn’t enough to get you to make a phone call, you’re living in a way-different tax bracket than I am.

How to do it

Not all requests you make of your credit card issuer are created equal. For example, if you want a late fee waived — and our survey showed that a record percentage of those requests were granted last year, too — chances are that all you need to do is call an 800 number and ask nicely. Sometimes it is even easier than that.

Getting an interest rate lowered may take a little bit of extra legwork, however. My book goes into great detail about what to say, including word-for-word scripts. (You can get a sample of those scripts in the free guide, “3 scripts to lower your bills today,” which goes out to all new Ask, Save, Earn subscribers.)

I also went into more detail about how to ask in the post I wrote about last year’s edition of this survey.

• It’s all about information. Got a credit card offer with a good interest rate in your email or snail mail lately? Remember it. Noticed when you look at your card issuer’s website that you aren’t getting the best rate that they’re offering? Make a note. (Here’s an example of a page where a giant bank lists all of their cards and the possible interest rates associated with those cards. Other banks and credit unions typically have something similar.) Know that your credit score has gone up recently but you haven’t told the bank? Change that. All of these things can help you frame the conversation.

  • “Hi, I have a card with a 25% interest rate, but I saw on your website that some people are being offered a rate as low as 18%. Who on your team can I talk to about getting my rate lowered?”

• Script it out. My book includes word-for-word scripts on how to ask for so many breaks from your credit card issuer, as well as other financial moves. However, if you haven’t gotten your copy yet, you can still write down what you’d like to say. Don’t worry about anticipating every single thing that could possibly happen, though. Thinking through how you’ll start the conversation, what personal details to add and how you might handle a few possible questions from the rep can go a long way to helping your confidence. You can even consider role-playing with a trusted friend to take that practice to the next level.

• Don’t be a jerk. People want to help people they like. It often really is as simple as that, so be nice. That doesn’t mean that you should be a pushover, but it does mean that you’re probably better off skipping the alpha-male BS bluster.

• Don’t be afraid to try again. The first answer isn’t always final. Sometimes you catch someone on a bad day, for example. Maybe you forgot to mention an important detail. Perhaps you didn’t think to ask to speak to the manager. Calling back and trying another time or two when you’re rejected probably won’t hurt. (After the third or fourth rejection, however, it may be time to take the hint.)

It won’t always work, but it likely can’t hurt to ask.

Even if you don’t need a lower interest rate, you could pay the knowledge forward by sharing it with a loved one who might be able to benefit from it. As good as helping yourself can feel, helping those closest to you save money can feel just as good or better.

Share your success stories

If you’ve ever done this successfully, I’d love to hear. How did you do it? What did you say? Were you scared? Was it easier, harder or about the same as you expected? Tell us in the comments below.

In other news… Happy World Cup kickoff day!

My family has been into soccer since my son started playing when he was little, so we’re all super-excited that the World Cup is here in the U.S.

We’re even going to go to a match in Dallas in a couple of weeks. We were fortunate enough to have matches that were just a short drive from Austin and to get tickets at face value early on, without having to use the secondary market.

Still, even with that, it ain’t cheap. We did a study at LendingTree that broke down the cost of going to an opening-round match in person in various parts of the country. (Spoiler alert: It is crazy high.)

Do you care about the World Cup? If so, share your predictions and hopes below.

Until next time!
Matt

Hi there, my friend.

Many people dread buying a car. It takes forever. It can be confusing. It can be intimidating. For a lot of people, especially women, it feels even worse than that.

Scotty Reiss, a longtime automotive journalist and car-buying expert who founded A Girls Guide To Cars, put it plainly when I interviewed her for my book.

“The reason a woman takes a man with her to a car dealership is not because she thinks he’s more knowledgeable about the car or haggling,” Reiss told me. “It’s because she feels like she won’t be victimized. It’s kind of like walking down a dark street at night. If you have a 6-foot-tall man with you, you’re less likely to be mugged.”

That’s a striking way to put it, but she’s right. And the thing is, the fear isn’t irrational.

Dealerships are designed to move you through a process quickly, keep you off-balance, and extract as much money as possible before you leave. The average dealership visit runs close to three hours, and most of that time isn’t even spent shopping for the car. It’s spent on paperwork, financing, and being pitched add-ons you almost certainly don’t need.

The buyers who come out ahead aren’t necessarily tougher or more aggressive than everyone else. They just show up with better information and better questions.

The single biggest mistake car buyers make

Most people wait too long to start shopping for their next vehicle. They know for months, sometimes a year or more, that they’re going to need a new car, but they put off the research until they’re desperate. Then they walk into a dealership and wonder why they feel unprepared.

“Dealerships know when you walk in the door and you’re under pressure,” Reiss told me, “so they find those points where they can provide a solution that often is really the worst solution for that buyer.”

When you’re desperate, you lose leverage, and you lose the mental space to ask good questions and actually sit with the answers. If a salesperson quotes you a monthly payment that feels high, do you have time to ask how the loan is structured and what the total cost looks like over its lifetime? If you’re walking in with a lease expiring in two weeks, probably not. Starting your research early, even when you don’t technically need a car yet, buys you the most valuable thing you can have in a negotiation: the ability to slow down and ask.

The inventory trick most buyers don’t know

Before you go to a dealership, check their website to see how many of the cars you want they actually have on their lot. A dealer sitting on 10 of the same model has a problem, Reiss said. Those unsold cars are costing them money every day, which means they’re motivated to deal. A dealer with one or two of a popular model? Not so much.

“If the dealer has ten Blazers on the lot, those Blazers are costing him money because they’re not sold,” she explained, “and so he’s going to be more negotiable.”

Use that knowledge. It tells you, before you ever walk in the door, how much room you have to work with, and it gives you a concrete reason to ask for a discount rather than just hoping one will materialize.

“I noticed you have quite a few of these on the lot. Is there any flexibility on price?” is a completely reasonable question. Walking in knowing the inventory means you already know the answer before they give it to you.

Yes, you can use competing prices as leverage

Knowledge is absolutely power when it comes to shopping for a new vehicle. Reiss told me she knew someone who was buying a Mazda at a dealership in Austin, Texas, and discovered another dealer in San Marcos, Texas – just 30 minutes south of Austin – had a better price. He simply told his salesman what the other dealer was offering and asked if they’d match it.

They did. That’s it. That’s the whole move.

This works more often than people expect, and you don’t even have to physically visit another dealership to pull it off. Sites like Kelley Blue Book, Edmunds and JD Power will show you what fair market value looks like in your region. Walk in knowing that number, and don’t be shy about referencing it.

“I’ve seen this car priced at X at two other dealerships. Can you do better?” is a completely reasonable question, and asking it shifts the dynamic immediately. You’re no longer a buyer at the mercy of one dealer. You’re a buyer with options, and dealers respond to that differently.

On the extras: just say no

When it comes to extended warranties, theft protection, undercoating, paint protection packages and other such extras, Reiss’ advice was simple: Don’t buy any of it.

“You only pay for the things you have to pay for, and don’t pay anything else,” Reiss said. The non-negotiables are the car’s price, the destination fee, taxes, and usually a small documentation fee. Everything else is profit margin dressed up as protection, she said.

When the finance manager starts walking you through add-ons, the most useful question you can ask is also the simplest: “Is this required?” If the answer is no, and it almost always will be, you can decline.

Six things to do before you buy your next car:

1. Start early. It isn’t always possible, of course, but give yourself at least six months before you actually need the car. If you do your research when you’re not under pressure, you’ll have the time and headspace to ask good questions and actually think through the answers.

2. Check dealer inventory before you visit. Go to the dealership’s website and see how many of your target car they have in stock. A full lot is your friend. Walk in and ask, “I noticed you have quite a few of these. Is there any flexibility on the price?”

3. Know the market price before you walk in. Use Kelley Blue Book, Edmunds, or JD Power to find fair market value, then ask to see the invoice price at the dealership. That’s your real baseline for negotiation, and most dealers will show it to you if you simply ask.

4. Shop around and say so. If another dealer has a better price, tell your salesperson. Ask “Can you match this?” It costs you nothing and works more often than you’d think.

5. Question every add-on. When the finance manager presents extras, ask “Is this required?” for each one. Extended warranties, protection packages, and similar products are almost always optional and almost always overpriced.

6. End every negotiation with this question. Before you sign anything, ask, “Is this the best you can do?” It’s a simple question that a surprising number of people never ask, and dealers will sometimes find more room when they think you’re about to walk out the door. It absolutely cannot hurt to ask.

Got a car shopping success story or horror story? Let us know

Not all car-buying experiences are awful, or so I hear. Tell us about your best or worst — or maybe just your most recent — experiences buying a new vehicle.

We’re all about paying it forward here, so please share in the comments below. Your experience may be able to help someone else.

So, how are you doing? Really, you can tell us…

Last week, I asked you to share your biggest financial worry right now.

Longtime Ask, Save, Earn follower Julie said this…

“I’m not even sure how to voice my biggest financial worry at the moment - because it feels like EVERYTHING…”

Can you relate? I’m sure a bunch of my readers can. If you can, share what you’re thinking in the comments below. You can also ask any questions you might have. I’m always happy to help.

Until next time,

Matt

Hi there, my friend.

As I’ve said many times here at Ask, Save, Earn, you have way more power over your money than you think you do.

Often when I talk about that power, I’m talking about the power to pay less and keep more of your hard-earned money. However, your power isn’t just about saving money. It is also about making more.

In this week’s Ask, Save, Earn, we focus on a key moment in your financial life when you have more leverage than you realize. Unfortunately, though, it’s also the moment when you’re most likely to stay quiet.

It’s when you get a job offer.

The most expensive “yes” you’ll ever say

I’ve spent years talking about how powerful it can be to ask the right questions, whether you’re negotiating a lower credit card interest rate, reducing a medical bill or doing countless other tasks.

Job offers are different, though. The stakes feel higher, and the risk feels bigger. For a lot of people, that fear leads them to do something costly: They accept the first offer.

In one of the interviews I did for my book, I spoke with Laura Adams, a financial expert, the host of the “Money Girl” podcast and the author of several books. She is someone who has worked in HR and seen the hiring process from the inside, and what she told me is something I wish everyone understood before they ever accepted a job offer.

“In a lot of cases,” Adams said, “the company would have paid higher salaries than what they were offering, but people would just immediately accept.”

The leverage you don’t realize you have

That’s the part most people never see. The number you’re given isn’t always the number they’re locked into. It’s often just the starting point.

“By the time they’ve made an offer, they’ve really chosen you,” Adams said. “That’s when you have the most leverage.”

Read that again.

They’ve really chosen you.

They’ve reviewed countless resumes, done bunches of interviews, compared you to other candidates, and they ultimately picked you to make an offer to.

That doesn’t mean you can demand anything you want, of course. It does mean that, at that point, the balance of power is tilted more in your direction than at any other point in the process. The problem is that most people feel the exact opposite in that moment.

Why people stay quiet anyway

Instead of feeling empowered, they feel scared. They worry that if they ask for more, the offer might disappear. They worry about seeming difficult or ungrateful. They worry about losing the opportunity altogether.

They worry too much, Adams said.

“In no case have I ever seen a company say, ‘You asked for more, never mind, we’re rescinding the offer’.”

Of course, it is possible to overplay your hand. If they offer $50,000 and you counter with $150,000, for example, it could leave a bad impression. In most cases, however, that fear that keeps people from asking just isn’t grounded in reality.

It is easy to give in to that fear, though. Believe me, I’ve been there more times than I’d like to admit. I absolutely, positively know that I’ve left money on the table over the years because I didn’t push. I also know, as a former manager, that the first offer is rarely final.

What is real is the money people leave on the table by staying silent. A few thousand dollars here or there might not feel life-changing in the moment, but over time, it compounds in a big way. Ideally, every new salary determines the floor for future salary negotiations. The higher you can make that floor, the better.

The “We’ll revisit this later” trap

There’s another trap that people fall into, too.

Sometimes companies will say something like, “We’ll revisit your salary in six months.” It sounds reassuring, but as Adams pointed out, that doesn’t always play out the way people expect.

“They’ll say, ‘We’ll have a review in six months,’ and then six months comes and goes, and it doesn’t happen,” she said.

Priorities change, budgets shift, managers move on. Suddenly, that future raise you were counting on vanishes, too.

“The only way to shortcut that,” Adams said, “is to ask for it upfront.”

What to do instead

The negotiations don’t need to be aggressive or turn into a big confrontation, but they do need to happen.

You’re not being difficult or needy. Instead, you’re stepping into a moment where you have more leverage than you think, and using it.

Here are a few simple ways to approach it:

1. Always counter politely and specifically. Even if the offer seems fair, it’s almost always worth asking if there’s flexibility. Something as simple as “Is there any room to move on the base salary?” can open the door.

2. Focus on your worth, not your feelings. Tie your request to your experience, skills, or market data rather than just what you want. This keeps the conversation professional and makes it easier for them to say yes. Plus, it has never been easier to find this information. Sites like GlassDoor can be incredibly helpful, but also, people are more willing than ever to share their salary information with their peers. That can be really useful in understanding what to ask for.

3. Don’t rely on future promises. If something matters to you, whether it is salary, title, remote flexibility, whatever, lock it in now. As Adams said, “We’ll revisit this later” is not a guarantee.

4. Focus on what you can gain rather than what you’re scared to lose. Again, in most cases, you’re not risking the offer by asking. However, you are risking leaving money on the table if you don’t.

What’s on your mind?

It’s a crazy time. What’s your biggest financial worry or goal right now? I’d love to hear what it is, what you’re doing about it and if I might be able to help. Share in the comments below or send me a message in the app. I’m always happy to listen and help.

Until next time!
Matt