When people think about preparing for retirement, they tend to focus on investments and savings. They’re aiming for magic-number dollar amounts and tinkering with their holdings to get themselves in the best position to reach their goals.

However, after talking with a retirement expert who’s spent years studying how Gen X approaches this phase of life, it’s clear that the risks go well beyond asset allocation or market returns.

What you don’t know, and the questions you don’t ask early enough, matter enormously, too.

Most people are guessing more than they realize

Ask someone how much they’ll need in retirement, and you’ll often get a confident answer.

Ask them how much they’re actually spending right now, and things get a lot less clear.

Janna Herron, co-author of “Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide To Securing Your Financial Future,” said, “I think it’s really hard for people to figure out how much they’re going to spend in retirement. I think there are a lot of people who actually have no idea how much money is going out the door.”

That’s a big problem.

A lot of retirement planning is built on rules of thumb. One of the most common is that you’ll need around 80% of your current spending in retirement. However, that only works if you know what your current spending actually is.

“If the rule of thumb is you’re going to spend about 80% of what you spend now,” Herron said, “you need to know what that 100% is.”

For many people – especially those in their 40s and 50s, often at peak earning years – that number is surprisingly fuzzy. Without a clear baseline, everything built on top of it becomes an estimate stacked on another estimate.

The biggest retirement expense isn’t what most people plan for

When people underestimate retirement costs, healthcare is often where the gap shows up, Herron said.

That’s not just because it’s expensive, but because it’s unpredictable, and because the most important decisions affecting those costs happen years before retirement actually begins.

“In your 40s and your 50s is the last time that you can make a change to your health where it will make a difference in your 60s, 70s and 80s,” Herron said.

That’s a narrow window with long-term consequences.

That viewpoint reframes midlife decisions in a way most financial advice doesn’t. The habits you build, the conditions you manage, and the level of engagement you have with your own care can directly influence what you’ll spend later.

In other words, your mental and physical health today plays a massive role in your financial health tomorrow.

The problem is that this is an area where people often get very passive. That’s a missed opportunity, Herron said.

“If you can be a little bit more involved in your own health, it can really make a big difference in retirement,” Herron says

It can be as simple as asking some basic questions of your doctor. For example, making sure you understand why you’re taking a specific medication. It is OK, Herron said, to ask about generics or other less expensive options.

Never be afraid to ask questions regarding your health

If the upside is so clear, why don’t more people do this?

They don’t, in part, because these situations feel high-stakes and unfamiliar. Talking to a doctor or specialist doesn’t feel the same as calling a cable company to dispute a bill. We often just don’t think we know enough to ask the right questions, and that can make us not want to do it.

Herron suggested a useful way to rethink that dynamic.

“You’re probably an expert in something,” Herron said. “If someone asks you questions, do you ever think, ‘Oh, this person’s so stupid?’ No. No question’s too dumb. That’s the exact same thing when you’re talking to your mechanic or your doctor. That’s what they’re there for.”

If they do push back, consider that a giant, waving red flag

“If they do think you’re dumb or make you feel like you’re dumb,” she said, “then you should take your business elsewhere.”

That principle applies broadly, but it’s especially important in areas that directly affect your long-term financial security.

More simple questions to impact your healthcare costs

This isn’t about becoming a medical expert overnight. It’s about getting a little more intentional with the questions you ask in moments that most people just move through on autopilot.

Those moments add up. They can mean the difference between manageable healthcare costs in retirement and something far more overwhelming.

So if you’re looking for a practical way to start, here are a few additional questions worth having in your back pocket the next time you’re dealing with a doctor, a specialist, a pharmacist or your insurance company:

• “Is this test or procedure actually necessary right now, or can we monitor and revisit later?” Not everything needs to happen immediately. In some cases, a watch-and-wait approach can be just as effective and far less expensive.

• “What happens if I don’t do this?” This helps you understand the real stakes. Sometimes the downside is significant, but it isn’t always. Knowing the difference matters.

• “Can I get an estimate of the total cost before we move forward?” Healthcare pricing isn’t always transparent, but asking upfront can help you avoid surprises and compare options.

• “Are there lifestyle changes that could reduce or eliminate the need for this over time?” Doctors sometimes default to medication, but it may not always be necessary. This brings the conversation back to what you can control and where you might be able to reduce long-term costs.

• “What’s the cash price on this prescription?” It seems counterintuitive, but sometimes it is cheaper to not use insurance when getting prescription medications. It certainly isn’t always the case, but it is certainly worth asking. Your pharmacist should be happy to tell you. If they’re not, it is probably time to look for a new place to fill your prescriptions.

None of these questions is complicated. None of them requires a medical degree, but they do require you to speak up.

I’ve said it a million times here, but I’m going to keep saying it. You have way more power over your money than you think you do. Control what you can control by asking the right questions in everyday situations, including when you’re visiting the doctor, and it can make a real difference in your financial life.

I’m featured at Travelling Lens Insider!

Super-excited to share this Q&A that I did with the amazing Janice Kho from Travelling Lens Insider. In the piece, I share some of my best travel recommendations and money hacks to help you travel more without breaking the bank.

Check it out below…

Travelling Lens Insider

TravelMates: Matt Schulz

This is part of my TravelMates guest interview series of some of my favourite travel writers and explorers here on Substack, where they share their travel tips, recommendations and mistakes to avoid…

Read more

6 days ago · 7 likes · Janice | Travel & Photography and Matt Schulz

If you’ve followed Ask, Save, Earn for a while, Janice’s name may seem familiar. I showcased her travel tips here last fall. She’s super savvy and has a lot to teach us about travel.

Come for the travel tips. Stay for her amazing travel pics!

Until next time!
Matt

I saw two newsletter posts this week that I knew I just had to share with you.

Both described everyday situations that turned sketchy through seemingly no fault of the victims.

In one post, someone was overcharged by a restaurant. In the other, someone was bumped involuntarily by an airline.

Let’s get it into it…

The case of the mysterious restaurant overcharge

My friend Bobbi, a certified financial planner, author of multiple books and creator of the “Financial Wellness by Bobbi Rebell” Substack, went to dinner with her husband and another couple the other night.

Lovely night. Good food. Good company. The kind of evening where you are absolutely not thinking about… math.

That’s where the problem came in. The two couples each handed over a credit card and asked the server to split the check evenly.

She did just that. However, as Bobbi says in the post, when the server handed each couple their bill, “the math was not mathing.” The two bills were for the same amount, but that amount on each bill was $20 more than it should have been.

I’ll let you click the link below to read the full post and see how the story ends, but as the link says, she was warned not to mention the restaurant by name in her post to avoid being sued…

Financial Wellness by Bobbi Rebell

I was warned not to use the restaurant's name because we could get sued

Dear Friends…

Read more

14 days ago · 25 likes · 5 comments · Bobbi Rebell

The big takeaways:

1. Trust, but verify. This story is just further proof of the importance of checking your bill before you pay it and asking questions about it if something doesn’t look right. Regardless of whether the overcharge was accidental or intentional, the last thing anyone needs to do these days is pay $20 more than necessary for anything.

2. Never be afraid to ask a question about a bill that doesn’t look quite right. You should always ask politely and nicely first — accidents do happen, after all — because you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as the saying goes. If that doesn’t work, some additional firmness and persistence may be required, but it rarely goes beyond that. Just being willing to push back on their initial response to your question often gets you where you need to go. That was true for Bobbi and her friends, but she never would’ve gotten there if she hadn’t taken the time to check the bill in the first place.

The case of the not-so-voluntary bumping

The other post I read was far more concerning. It was written by Christopher Elliott, an author, consumer advocate and journalist with whom I’ve spoken many times over the years, and I first saw it promoted on LinkedIn with the headline: “American Airlines claimed I voluntarily gave up my seat, but that’s a lie.”

In the post, Elliott tells the story of Charles Shearer, a man attempting to fly with his wife and son to his mother-in-law’s funeral in Japan. However, before they could board the first leg of their journey from Cleveland to New York, he and his family were pulled out of line and told there was only one seat available for the three of them.

Things got really messy from there, with much of the discussion centering around whether Shearer had been bumped from his flight involuntarily or not. Shearer was adamant that he was. American Airlines, Elliott reports, saw it differently.

As Elliott wrote…

Welcome to the Orwellian world of airline bumping, where “involuntary” can magically transform into “voluntary” with a few keystrokes in an airline’s computer system. It’s a neat trick that saves airlines thousands of dollars per incident. And as Shearer discovered, it’s nearly impossible to prove otherwise after the fact.

I can’t recommend reading his post highly enough. After his wife took the last seat on the original flight, Shearer and his son did ultimately make it to Japan, though on a different flight that got them there seven hours after they had intended. However, the real journey happened after they got home: a months-long adventure in pursuit of the compensation they were owed for being bumped. (Spoiler alert: It is a lot more than they were originally offered.)

Elliott does a thorough job of laying out what happened, what rights people have and what people can do if they find themselves in a similar situation. It’s an important read because what happened to Shearer and his family could happen to anyone. Flights are regularly oversold, and people get bumped all the time, whether voluntarily or not, so knowing how to protect yourself if it happens to you is crucial.

The big takeaway: Document, document, document. Elliott lays out several important, practical tips in his report, but one stood out most to me.

Document everything immediately. Send yourself emails. Text family members describing what happened. Take video, if possible. The contemporaneous nature of these communications makes them powerful evidence later.

This is good advice most any time you’re negotiating. In my book, “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life,” I mention this many times. Good notes — who you spoke with, when you spoke with them, what they said and any other relevant details of a conversation — are protection. Whether intentionally or not, customer service reps can sometimes get their wires crossed, leading to you being told different things by different people on different days. Documenting your conversations can help you avoid that situation turning into a he-said/she-said debate that, honestly, you’re not very likely to win.

You don’t need to record audio or write down every word of every conversation. However, making note of key points is a very good idea. It can be hard to remember to do so in the heat of the moment, and few moments feel more heated than when you’re bumped from a flight against your will, but if you can keep your head as chaos unfolds around you, you’ll be glad you did.

Austin friends, see you on Saturday!

If you’ll be in the Austin area on Saturday, May 16, I’d love to see you at the Greater Austin Book Festival at the Central Library from 10 am to 5 pm.

I’m on a panel at 11 am, talking with several other authors about our publishing journeys. For the rest of the event, I’ll be signing books, telling people about Ask, Save, Earn, and generally spreading the word that you have far more power over your money than you think you do. Hope to see you there.

Until next time!

Matt

I’m keeping it quick this week because I’m in New York for another media tour, and it is a lot.

Here’s a picture from one of my interviews. This one was with ABC 7 New York. We talked about everything from balance transfer credit cards to mortgage rates to, of course, gas prices.

High gas prices have been a major theme throughout this trip, and it is easy to understand why. On Wednesday, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas was $4.53, according to AAA. That’s up 31 cents in just a week, 42 cents in a month and a wild $1.38 in a year. It’s all still well below the record of $5.02 set in June 2022, but it is rapidly closing the gap.

Around the country, some prices are downright obscene.

• California: $6.16 a gallon

• Washington state: $5.75

• Nevada: $5.23

Prices have even topped $4 in oil-rich Texas ($4.04). Those prices are enough to cause real hardship for consumers and businesses alike. So what should you do?

Control what you can control.

• Shop around. This doesn’t mean you need to drive across town to save a nickel on a gallon of gas. However, if you can find cheaper-priced gas just by going a little bit out of your way, it can make sense. Apps like GasBuddy and Waze can help.

• Adjust your work schedule. OK, in truth, you may not have that much control over this, but it may be worth asking about. Even coming into the office one fewer day each week can lead to real savings on gas. It could even help to adjust the time you begin and end your day. Driving in stop-and-start traffic can burn a lot more gas than a smooth, traffic-free trip can.

• Try carpooling. Sure, it may not be much fun to ride into work with Joe from Accounting, but sharing the commute with people who live near you and work similar schedules to you can definitely help save you money on gas. And who knows? Maybe you’ll find that you and Joe have more in common than you thought.

• Leverage credit card rewards. The right credit card, used wisely, can help you extend your budget. A simple cash-back rewards card that gives you 2% on everything you buy can be great if you’re looking for maximum returns with minimal effort. However, you can also find credit cards that give extra cash back for gas purchases and even knock a few cents per gallon off of the price at the pump. Just be cautious. Gas-station-branded credit cards can have sky-high interest rates even by credit card standards. For that reason, if you think you’re going to carry a balance, gas-station credit cards probably aren’t for you.

• Keep your tires properly inflated. Something as simple as underinflated tires can have a real impact on your car’s fuel efficiency.

And while it won’t reduce how much you spend on gas, updating your budget is a wise move right now, too. That extra cash to pay for those higher gas prices has to come from somewhere. A well-put-together budget makes it easier to find. That doesn’t mean that the choices will be easy — no one likes to have to slash their spending — but it will make it easier for you to make an informed decision. That matters a lot.

Hang in there. These gas prices won’t stay this high forever.

Hopefully.

Right?

Come see me at GAB Fest!

If you’ll be in Austin on Saturday, May 16, join me at GAB Fest, the Greater Austin Book Festival. I’m part of a panel with three other amazing writers, and we’ll be talking about our own book publishing journeys and what we learned in the process.

Our panel is at 11 am, but I’ll also spend the rest of the day at the festival — held at the beautiful Austin Central Library downtown — signing books, meeting people, signing folks up for my newsletter and more. It’ll be a lot of fun, and I’d be honored to see you there.

Want to improve your credit? This book is a must for you

While in New York, I found my LendingTree colleague Carol Pope’s incredible new book at the flagship Barnes and Noble on Fifth Street in Manhattan. It is called Credit 101, and it is exactly as it sounds. If you’re struggling with your credit or know someone who is, I can’t recommend it highly enough. (It could be a really great graduation gift, too.)

Until next time!

Matt

You’ve probably heard this advice before: Just ask. Negotiate everything. The worst that can happen is they say no.

Ask, Save, Earn readers know that I’ve said versions of that myself over the years. To be clear, I still believe that asking questions and advocating for yourself is one of the most powerful ways to pay less, earn more, and keep more of your hard-earned money.

However, the unfortunate truth is that “the worst that can happen is that they say no” isn’t always true. We don’t talk about that enough, and that needs to change.

In writing my book, I spoke about this with Stefanie O’Connell, author of “The Ambition Penalty: How Corporate Culture Tells Women To Step Up And Then Pushes Them Down.” (Preorder it now here!) She has spent years studying how people actually experience negotiation, especially when it comes to jobs, raises, and promotions, and one thing she told me really stuck:

“Everything people hear is that the worst they can say is no… but what I kept seeing was that there actually is downside risk.”

That’s a pretty big shift from the conventional wisdom, but it is incredibly important to recognize.

Understanding the risk

In real life, asking for more doesn’t always just get you a polite “no.” Sometimes, it gets you less. As O’Connell told me, people get labeled as difficult. They’re seen as too aggressive or pushy. In some cases, they miss out on opportunities they might have gotten if they’d stayed quiet.

That’s uncomfortable to hear. It runs counter to a lot of what we’ve been taught about negotiation. However, ignoring that reality doesn’t help anyone. We have to understand it to deal with it.

What makes this even more important is what happens next. O’Connell said that when people have one of these experiences, they don’t usually chalk it up to a flawed system or a bad environment. They internalize it.

“People think it is something wrong with them,” O’Connell said. “and that sticks with them for the rest of their careers.”

That’s the real cost. It is not just the missed raise or the lost opportunity. It is the hesitation that shows up the next time they should speak up and don’t.

So does that mean you should stop negotiating?

Of course not.

You should absolutely ask for more. You should question charges, negotiate bills, and advocate for yourself in your career. That never changes.

What should change, however, is how you think about risk, O’Connell said.

The people who benefit the most from asking aren’t just the ones who ask the most. They’re the ones who can afford the answer.

That’s a big distinction, and it leads to a smarter way of thinking about negotiation.

3 things to remember before you negotiate

First, lower the stakes before you ask. When everything is riding on a single outcome, every conversation feels high-pressure and high-risk. One job offer. One promotion. One client. If that’s your situation, even a small downside can hit hard.

When you have options, the entire dynamic shifts.

“If you have multiple opportunities… it lowers the stakes when things go awry,” O’Connell said.

This is why it pays to keep your LinkedIn updated, to have conversations even when you’re not desperate, and to stay open to new opportunities. It is not because you’re looking to jump ship tomorrow, but because having alternatives gives you leverage. It lets you ask without feeling like everything is on the line.

Second, pick your battles. Not every negotiation deserves the same level of effort or intensity, O’Connell said. Sometimes it makes perfect sense to push. Other times, it doesn’t.

If you’re dealing with a credit card company, a bank, or your cable provider, go ahead and ask. Those are the kinds of places where a simple question can save you real money.

“A big telecom company doesn’t need more of my money,” she said.

But if you’re dealing with a small business owner or someone providing a service where margins are tight, you might make a different choice. That’s not about being soft. It’s about being intentional. It’s about understanding when negotiating serves you and when it’s just about winning for the sake of winning.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, know the environment you’re in. Not every company, manager, or situation responds the same way to negotiation. Some places reward it, some tolerate it, and some quietly punish it.

You won’t always know which is which upfront, but there are clues if you’re paying attention, O’Connell said. Who gets promoted? Who’s in leadership? Do people like you advance there? Those signals can tell you a lot about how your ask is likely to be received.

Risk doesn’t mean that the ask isn’t worth it

At the end of the day, this article isn’t meant to scare you away from asking for more. It’s meant to help you do it more effectively.

You should absolutely ask questions. You should push for better deals and better opportunities. That’s how you save money and earn more over time.

Just don’t rely on the idea that there’s no downside. The unfortunate truth is that sometimes there is.

The goal isn’t just to ask. It is to ask in a way that protects you. You do that by building options, lowering your risk and picking your spots.

Now go out there and get what you deserve.

Until next time!
Matt

Hi there, my friend.

Ever heard the metaphor of the boiling frog?

The idea is this: If you place a frog in boiling water, it will immediately jump out, for obvious reasons. However, if you set the frog in lukewarm water and very slowly raise the temperature to boiling, the frog won’t recognize the danger until it is too late and will end up cooked.

Turns out that it isn’t really true, and that frogs really are smart enough to realize that they need to get the heck out of that water when it gets too hot. Still, it remains a useful metaphor for something that happens all the time in the business world.

And yep, you guessed it. We’re all the frogs.

One of the best examples of this is streaming services. This FoxBusiness.com piece brings up the “boiled frog” metaphor when talking about rising streaming prices, and for good reason.

According to data from CableTV.com, the price of a standard Netflix subscription has gone up from $7.99 per month in 2011 to $19.99 per month in 2026. That means we’re paying $12 a month more than we did 15 years ago, an average increase of less than $1 per month each year.

No biggie, right? We frogs definitely aren’t jumping out of the water for that, are we?

Probably not for just that one subscription. However, when you consider that the average person has 4 to 5 subscription services — and some, like me, have many more than that — the math changes.

You’re not just paying an extra $144 per year for Netflix ($12 increase X 12 months = $144). You’re also dealing with similar increases from other services, and those add up in a hurry. Increases of $144 per year on five subscription services add up to $720 a year in extra costs.

Suddenly, things get a little toasty for us frogs.

(Note: When adjusted for inflation, that $7.99 price from 2011 becomes $11.98, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator. That’s a significant difference, but it still means that Netflix subscription prices have risen far faster than inflation in the last 15 years.)

And of course, we know that we’re not just getting boiled by streaming services.

“I called, and they didn’t have a reason.”

My book, “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life,” is filled with success stories from people who paid less, earned more and kept more of their hard-earned money by asking the right questions in various everyday situations.

In this story, author Marcus Garrett talks about price creep with insurance and a perhaps surprising truth behind it:

Just like phone bills, insurance bills tend to creep steadily upward.

Marcus Garrett, author of Debt Free or Die Trying, spotted that his monthly insurance bill had increased by $6. It wasn’t a hardship, but he wanted to know why he had to pay more. After six months, he decided to act. “I called, and they didn’t have a reason” for the increase. “They were like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re right. “ They credited the $36 back to his account and, going forward, reduced the bill by $6.

For many folks, $6 a month might not be worth their time, but there’s always value in asking why a bill increased without an obvious reason. “A lot of times, people assume they raised it for a reason, Garrett says. “I might not understand the reason, but there’s a reason behind it. That’s optimistic because the reason may just be that they can.” Also, remember that small increases add up. That one call saved Garrett $72 that year. For a tight budget, that’s a meaningful chunk of money. You probably have at least five to ten monthly bills:. house, electricity, car or transit, insurance, phone, Internet, gym, and more. Now we’re talking serious money for anyone. If a couple of three-minute phone calls can stop increases on just a couple of those bills, that’s definitely worth your time.

In truth, that business really did have a reason for increasing your bill, but the customer service rep just didn’t want to come out and say it: Sometimes businesses just raise prices because they can.

Sure, when inflation is high, businesses’ costs rise, too, and sometimes price increases are necessary. That’s fine. However, there are also times when a business just decides to reach for a little bit of extra profit, knowing that many of its customers won’t even notice. If they do notice, many won’t care.

It’s just an extra dollar or two. Meh.

You don’t have to take it, though.

What you can do about it

When businesses raise prices, they understand that a certain percentage of their customers will be upset. That’s true even if they only raise the price by a few bucks. It may not be a big portion of their customer base, but some of those upset customers are going to make themselves known, via email, social media, phone or elsewhere.

Here’s something you might not realize, though… At least some of those upset customers will get their old prices restored.

Or, to use another classic metaphor, some of those squeaky wheels will get greased. As Garrett found in the story above, often it doesn’t take much more than a phone call. They’re often happy to waive that extra $6 a month because they’ll ultimately make way more money on you in the long run if you stick around.

And talking to customer service doesn’t have to sound confrontational. If your bill went up recently, consider starting your conversation like this:

“I’ve been a happy customer for a long time, and I’d really like to stay that way. Is there anything you can do on the price?”

That’s it. No threats, no ultimatums, and it works more often than you’d think.

If you’re really nervous about making the call, consider role-playing the conversation with a trusted relative or friend a few times. The first time, have everything go as smoothly as possible. The second time, have your partner push back a little bit. Then, the third time, tell your partner to really let you have it.

It may sound goofy, but it can really help. I’ve heard countless coaches talk about wanting to make practice harder than the game, and the same concept applies here. Chances are very, very low that you’ll end up in some heated confrontation with a customer service rep. Most likely, you’ll end up thinking, Wow, that wasn’t hard at all. What was I so nervous about?

As I always try to be clear about, this newsletter is about you.

It is about helping you understand that you have more power over your money than you realize. I’m committed to showing you how to pay less, earn more and keep more of your hard-earned money by asking the right questions in various everyday situations. Every edition of this newsletter, every Thursday, will include some takeaway that you can use to better your financial life — and this one is no different.

However, sometimes in providing that information, I like to take you behind the scenes of my job.

I did that with my most recent media tour…

I did that when an announcement from the president threw a wrench into my Friday night…

I even did it a little less than a year ago when Jimmy Kimmel quoted (albeit inaccurately) a report I did in his late-night monologue…

That last one was particularly unique. I’ve been quoted and cited — or had something I wrote quoted or cited — by most any news and personal finance media outlet that you can name over the years. However, having a late-night talk-show host talk about something you write was something new for me.

To make something like that happen, you have to create content that gets people talking. Another report I wrote last week has certainly done that, too.

The number that got people talking

I recently wrote an article for LendingTree that stated that it would cost an average of more than $300,000 to raise a child over 18 years. That’s more than $17,000 per year.

Yeah, you read that right.

It’s an eye-opening report, with data put together by LendingTree’s brilliant research team, and it is absolutely worth a read. It also breaks down the costs for just the first five years, when daycare costs are brutal, as well as how costs vary by state. (For example, it can cost $400,000 to raise a kid for 18 years in Hawaii, but just slightly more than $200,000 in New Hampshire and a few Southern states. A massive difference, though also proof that parenting isn’t cheap anywhere in this country.)

The report has generated a massive amount of talk, including coverage from CBS News, Fortune, NewsNation, local TV and radio stations all over the country, and even Fox News’ morning show “Fox and Friends.”

They didn’t interview me or anyone else from LT for the segment, but that Fox & Friends conversation spurred even more coverage, including Huff Post and even TV Insider, which is not an outlet that typically picks up what I’m writing. Even IMDB (the Internet Movie Database) posted about it, linking back to TV Insider. Again, not my usual territory, but it is great to see people talking about what we wrote.

The biggest main reason why it is so great that this is being talked about is that this is a MASSIVE problem in our country.

Conversation raises awareness. Awareness, ideally, breeds action.

The takeaways from this report

As usual, I’m going to tell you that you have more power than you think you do. That doesn’t mean that everything’s going to be perfect or that managing these costs will be easy, but there are steps that you can take to help yourself.

Here’s my first recommendation from the LendingTree report…

“Start saving as soon as possible. Like today. If you’re thinking that you want to have a child in the next few years, it isn’t too early to start a fund devoted to the cost of raising a child. Put a few dollars from each paycheck into a high-yield savings account and let compounding interest work its magic. By the time your little one arrives, you’ll be glad you did.”

I know this is easier said than done, but it is absolutely essential. I always think about the old saying about the best time to plant a tree: “The best time was 20 years ago, but the next best time is today.” That is certainly the case with savings and investments, because no financial asset we have is more powerful than time. As silly as it may sound, if you know for certain that you want to have a family someday — even if it might not be for 5 or 10 years or more — start putting a little bit of money away for it. Call it your “Family Fund” and know that when your little one arrives, you’ll be thrilled that money is there.

And don’t worry that you’re not doing enough. Just get started. Start small, be consistent, and just let that money grow.

Here’s another recommendation from the report…

Take advantage of government and/or workplace benefits. Once you know your child is on the way, reach out to your company’s HR department to go over what benefits are offered for parents. If you don’t take the time to do that, you could leave money on the table, and that’s the last thing any parent should do. Also, use a dependent care flexible spending account (FSA) to pay for at least a portion of your child care costs with pretax dollars. Finally, make sure that when tax season arrives, you’re claiming all the credits you qualify for.

This stuff matters a lot. With costs as high as they are, parents need all the help they can get, so make sure to seek out as much of it as you can.

There are more recommendations in the report, as well as much more information on just what that $300,000 number includes. I highly recommend giving it a look.

Look what I found

So after finding the IMDb reference to our report, I had an idea.

I’m going to look up my name at IMDb.com.

There’s really no reason for me to be in there. I’ve never been involved in making a movie. I’ve never really been involved in making a TV show, outside of countless appearances on news shows.

Even knowing that, I looked myself up and, as it turns out, I do have an IMDb page…

At some point, someone created that page for me, with the only credit being an appearance I made on NBC Nightly News back in 2021. I have no idea who made it or why, but I think it is fun to know that I have one.

And it turns out I have Huff Post and Fox & Friends to thank for that knowledge. Who would’ve guessed?

Until next time!
Matt

Hi there, my friend.

This just in… Life’s expensive in 2026, and it isn’t likely to get much better anytime soon.

Thanks to the war with Iran, much of the talk has been about the crazy-high cost of gas — AAA says $4.16 a gallon, nationally, as I write this — but high gas prices don’t just hit us at the pump. They ripple across the entire global economy, raising the prices of most anything we buy. Pile those increases on top of the already stubbornly high prices Americans were facing for groceries, vehicles and, well, most anything else, and it just makes an already challenging situation that much worse.

It is easy to feel powerless amidst all of the chaos. However, if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times, and I’ll continue to say it…

You have more power over your money than you realize. It is often just about asking the right questions.

I’m not going to BS you and tell you that you can haggle down the price of a gallon of a gas or a loaf of bread. That’s likely not going to happen.

However, there are many, many other purchases that you can pay less for — potentially much less for — just by knowing what to ask.

Two simple, powerful questions

My book, “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life,” includes a section devoted to getting deals on shopping with retailers. I spoke with many of the most knowledgeable shopping experts in the business as I wrote it, and I heard the same thing over and over again in many of those conversations.

They all spoke about the power of two simple questions:

• Do you match your competitors’ prices?

• Are there any sales or discounts on this item right now or coming soon?

That’s it? Really? Price matching and sales?

Yes, really.

We often think negotiations over price are going to be terrifying, drawn-out and painful, but so many times, they’re just not. Often, you just need to be willing to ask.

To be clear, asking doesn’t always work. Nothing always works. However, it is usually worth trying.

By the way, the last part of the second question is key. The truth is that sometimes if an item is about to go on sale, a retailer will be willing to give you the future sales price anyway. Don’t expect them to do it if the sale is still a month away, but if you’re shopping on a Wednesday night and the sale starts on Friday, a retailer might be willing to work with you to keep you from walking out of that store.

Worst-case scenario: You still get a deal, but you have to wait a bit for it.

“Thanks for letting me know. I’ll be sure to come back on Friday when the sale starts.”

And the best news of all is that this works best on big-ticket items. Things like appliances and furniture. Things where you’re not just saving a buck or two, but potentially money that could have a real impact on your weekly budget.

Pro tip: Knowing who to talk to

As with any negotiation, it isn’t just about what or how you ask. It is also about who. For example, someone in a locally owned store may have more wiggle room on price than someone in a big corporate retailer.

Still, even in that small store, it matters who you choose. My friend, shopping expert and fellow Substacker Trae Bodge from TrueTrae.com, said it perfectly in my book:

“Read the room. If you see someone rushing, that’s not the person to ask. You want to ask the one moving slowly, stocking shelves, maybe dusting, someone who seems calm — especially if you’re shy. If someone’s dashing by, don’t expect them to stop and look in their computer for an extra sale.”

I’d love to hear your success stories. Share them in the comments below.

Until next time!
Matt

If this newsletter is about anything, it is about the power of asking.

Just ask. The worst thing that can happen is that they say no, but the chances that they say yes are likely better than you think.

It is such simple advice, yet it can be so hard to take. Believe me, I know. I’ve written about my struggles with following the example of my father, who could talk to anybody about anything at any time. I’m still wrestling with that.

There are as many reasons for not asking as there are sands on the beach, but one big one is simply that people don’t believe that it works.

“The chances that they say yes are likely better than you think? Suuuuure they are.”

I get the skepticism. It doesn’t always work. Anyone who tells you otherwise is ignorant, lying or trying to get you to sign up for their paid course. Still, I firmly believe that the underlying truth remains: You’re probably more likely to get a yes than you think you are

Of course, your chance of success can vary wildly, based on any number of reasons. However, there are some requests where the odds are so heavily in your favor that you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t try.

The fee that you should always try to get waived

89% of credit cardholders who asked to have a late fee waived in the past year were successful, according to a June 2025 LendingTree report.

Read that again.

Crazy, right?

And those aren’t just one-time numbers. The success rate for late fee waivers has been above 80% for at least five years, probably longer, and there’s little reason to think that will change anytime soon.

That’s why you should never pay a late fee on your credit card without first asking to have it waived.

And I know it works, from more first-hand experience than I’d like to admit. The last time I did it, I didn’t even have to speak to a real person to make it happen. I talked about it in this post…

Why you’re so likely to be successful

Here’s a secret that most credit card issuers won’t tell you: It is often their policy, written or otherwise, to waive your first late fee if you bother to ask. Often, you don’t need to do much more than ask politely.

Why on Earth would they do that?

Two big reasons:

1. The amount of money is so small that it doesn’t really matter to them. Your first late fee is typically about $30, potentially rising to $41 for subsequent late payments. That doesn’t even amount to a rounding error for giant card issuers.

2. Waiving the fee creates a ton of goodwill, and they know that happy customers spend more in the long run. Banks view customers in terms of lifetime value — the longer you stick around, the more money they make off of you. If they know that waiving a $30 late fee today will ensure that you’ll be a loyal customer for years to come, they’ll waive that fee 89 times out of 100.

So, just like in Vegas, the house pretty much always wins, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t walk away with a little bit of cash in your pocket from time to time.

It isn’t just about late fees

Credit card late fees are one of the most extreme examples of the odds being in your favor, but they’re hardly the only ones.

For example, 88% of buy now, pay later (BNPL) loan users who have asked to have a late fee waived on one of these loans got it either waived or reduced, according to a March 2026 LendingTree report. These fees usually aren’t as high as credit card late fees — usually not more than about $10 — but that doesn’t mean you should just pay them.

The same LendingTree report that talked about waiving late fees also said that 83% of those who asked for a lower interest rate on their credit card got one, and the average reduction was more than 6 percentage points. That’s a really big deal and can lead to far more savings than you’d get from a waived late fee. (In fact, that same stat a few years earlier inspired me to write the book that would later inspire me to start Ask, Save, Earn.)

How do you do it? I lay that out in my book, but also in my free guide called “3 scripts to lower your bills today,” which you can get for subscribing for free to Ask, Save, Earn. It includes scripts for asking for a lower APR as well as other requests that can save you real money.

If you subscribed before I offered the guide, reply to this email or drop me a note in the comments below and I’ll be sure to get you one.

If you’ve already seen the guide, consider telling a loved one about Ask, Save, Earn by clicking the button below.

If you’re not yet a subscriber, drop your email in the box below, and we’ll send you a copy.

Saturday evening with CNN

Part of my job as Chief Consumer Finance Analyst at LendingTree (AKA Personal Finance Expert Guy) is that I sometimes have to work funky hours. Early mornings, late nights, weekends, holidays, vacations — you never know when news will break or when a big media outlet will want to have you on.

CNN reached out to me last Thursday, asking if I was available to talk about reports that LendingTree had done on rising grocery prices and gas prices on “CNN Newsroom Primetime” live on either Saturday or Sunday evening.

Turns out, I was.

Honestly, there’s been so much news happening that I went through the day Saturday assuming that something would happen that would lead to my interview being bumped. I didn’t even tell my mom and sister about the interview because I figured it was a coin flip that it would actually happen.

Well, it did happen. I’m proud of how it went. Click here or on the image below to check it out.

I’ve been on all of the major cable news networks before, but the opportunity doesn’t come around all that often, so it is fun when it does. It’s another chance to spread my message that you have way more power over your money than you think you do.

They even gave my book some love, which always means the world to me.

Until next time!
Matt

Hi there, my friend.

AAA says that the average price of a gallon of regular gas, as I write this, is $3.98 nationally. That’s 14 cents higher than a week ago and a dollar higher than a month ago.

Sure, we’re still miles from the record high of $5.02 seen in the summer of 2022, but the huge spike in prices has definitely caught Americans’ attention.

I wrote a report for LendingTree this week saying that 31% of Americans have changed their typical spending or savings habits as a result of rising gas prices, and another 35% said they would do it if prices remain high. We also found that 51% of people with gas vehicles said they had filled up their tank before they needed to in order to get ahead of rising gas costs.

Update: A guy in Florida rode his horse through the drive-thru at Chick-fil-a because he couldn’t afford the gas prices anymore — and the story about that included a mention of the report I wrote.

I applaud people for taking action, even something as silly as riding a horse through a drive-thru. As I’ve said a million times here…

You have more power over your money than you realize. In challenging times, control what you can control.

That’s clearly what people are doing here, and that’s awesome. However, not all actions are created equal. In fact, there’s one step that may seem like a complete no-brainer when it comes to combatting high gas prices but can backfire in a big way if you’re not careful.

What not to do

I’m pretty sure you’ve seen them, those signs at the pump that advertise big savings per gallon if you sign up for the gas station’s branded credit card. Pretty tempting, right? Especially when gas prices are as high as they are today.

To be fair, these cards can be a great deal when used wisely. Just like with that credit card you’re offered at the checkout counter of your favorite retailers, the discounts are very real. However, also just like other retail credit cards, they have one massive problem that should never be overlooked: Their interest rates are often sky-high, even by typical credit card standards. (The average interest rate on a new store credit card in November was over 30%, while the average for all new credit cards today is about 24%.)

Because of that, my stance on these cards is clear…

No matter how big the discount or alluring the perks, you should never get a gas-station branded credit card if you expect to regularly carry a balance.

This isn’t just about gas-station cards. It applies to any retail credit card. I go into more here…

If you carry a balance, the math simply doesn’t work in your favor. When it comes to store credit cards, I’ve long said that you don’t need to be an accountant to know that paying 30% to save 15% on a purchase doesn’t make much sense. With gas-station cards, paying 30% to save 10 cents a gallon doesn’t make a whole lot of sense either.

There are plenty of credit cards out there that offer extra rewards on gas purchases but aren’t branded with a specific gas-station-chain’s logos. Those tend to come with lower APRs than gas-station-branded cards do and can be worth considering. However, if you carry a balance, any interest charges are still likely to outweigh any discounts or rewards you might receive.

So what should you do?

We’re all about asking the right questions here at Ask, Save, Earn, but sometimes the most important questions are the ones you ask yourself. That’s absolutely true when it comes to managing rising gas prices. Here are a few to consider…

• “Will I pay my balance off every single month?” This is the key question we raised earlier. If your answer is an unequivocal, 1000%, no-doubt yes, then using a credit card to save on gas could be helpful. If it is anything other than that, it probably isn’t the best choice for you.

• “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 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 your 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.

Helping others pay less, earn more and keep more of their hard-earned money

The epilogue of “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life,” is about paying it forward.

In it, I wrote the following…

It’s amazing to save more or earn more for yourself, but it can prove even more rewarding to help your loved ones do the same.

That’s 1000% true. I’ve taken my own advice to save money and earn more, but few things match knowing that I was able to help others. These posts are examples of that…

Now I want to help more and more people — and I need your help to do it.

If you don’t already subscribe for free, I’d love for you to take the leap. If you do, you’ll get my free guide, “3 scripts to lower your bills today.” It’s a perfect introduction to my mission here at Ask, Save, Earn — and the scripts really work.

Here’s a sneak preview of it, if you haven’t seen it already…

Just enter your email in the box below and you’re on your way.

However, I have one more request: I’d love it if you’d consider telling your loved ones about Ask, Save, Earn. It is as easy as clicking the button below and following the prompts.

Refer a friend

If I get one single subscriber from your referral, I’ll be incredibly grateful. However, if you bring other sign-ups, there could be more tangible rewards heading your way. Check out the Leaderboard page for more details.

Thank you so much for considering this, and please let me know if you have any questions about all of it. I’m always happy to help.

Until next time!

Matt

Hi there, my friend.

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day in my world. I was quoted in the New York Times, USA Today, CNN and CNBC! Of course, I feel fortunate to say that I’ve been quoted in all of those media outlets many, many times over the years in my role as personal finance expert with LendingTree, but it isn’t often that it happens all in one day. It is always special when it does.

So why all the attention? It was all about the Federal Reserve, which announced at the end of its regular meeting yesterday that it chose not to make any changes to interest rates during this meeting, as most everyone expected.

Wait. They did nothing, which everyone already knew they would, and it was still a big deal? Whaaa?

Yeah, it is true. Even no news can be big news when it comes to the Fed. That’s because it has such a massive impact on Americans’ finances.

Why you should care that the Fed did nothing

If you want a full explanation of what the Fed does and why it matters so much, check out this more-or-less plain-English video from the Atlanta Fed. For this post, however, the most important thing to know is this…

The Fed has a huge influence on the interest rates people pay on credit cards, auto loans, mortgages and other types of loans, as well as the interest rates that people earn on savings accounts, CDs and other financial tools.

When the Fed raises or lowers rates, the interest rates people pay and earn tend to go up or down as well. For some types of loans, such as credit cards, it has a direct influence, pushing rates up or down quickly and relatively predictably. For other loans, such as mortgages, the influence is less direct and often less immediate, though rates tend to move in the same general direction as the Fed’s rates.

When rates go down, which happened several times late last year, it is good for borrowers (lower interest rates mean it is cheaper to borrow), but it isn’t so great for savers (lower rates mean smaller returns on savings). When they rise, which last happened in 2023, the reverse is generally true.

So what about days like yesterday, when nothing happens?

Again, it depends on whether you’re thinking as a borrower or a saver. Borrowers may not like the Fed standing pat, as it makes rates less likely to fall in the near future. However, savers might love it for the same reason.

For this post, I’m focusing primarily on savers. If you are one — or aspire to be one — there’s one move that you really need to make, and that move looks even smarter today than it did yesterday.

The move I can’t recommend highly enough, if you haven’t already done it

If you don’t already have one, it is time for you to look into an online high-yield savings account (HYSA). These accounts typically give significantly higher returns than you’ll find with traditional savings accounts from the big mega-banks — sometimes 4% or higher vs. just a fraction of a single percentage point — and they’re typically easy to set up.

These HYSAs had better returns a year or two ago, before the Fed started cutting rates, but they’re still leaps and bounds better than what you often find at traditional banks. They can absolutely turbocharge your emergency fund or savings for other goals. Consider this:

• If you deposit $5,000 in a HYSA and leave it alone for 5 years at a rate of 3.75% — a good rate, but hardly the best available — you’ll earn $1,010.50 in interest.

• Deposit that same $5,000 in a traditional savings account and leave it alone for 5 years at a rate of 0.5% — about the national average for a savings account, per DepositAccounts.com — you’ll take home just $126.26. (Note: These numbers were crunched using DepositAccounts.com’s simple savings calculator.)

That’s nearly an extra $900. Kind of a big deal.

I have a HYSA with Bask Bank and have been really pleased with my returns. However, they’re one of many, many HYSAs out there, and I strongly, strongly recommend you shop around for one if you haven’t already — or even if it has just been years since you last did. You can find rates and more information on countless savings accounts at DepositAccounts.com.

(Full disclosure: 1: I’m not getting paid by Bask Bank or anyone else to talk about them. I’m just honestly sharing the name of a company that I really do business with. 2: DepositAccounts.com is owned by LendingTree, the company I work for. )

In fact, getting a HYSA looks like a smarter move today than it was even a few days ago. That’s because the Fed is unlikely to reduce rates anytime soon, which means that HYSA rates are unlikely to fall much below today’s rates in the near future. That means better returns for longer, and who couldn’t benefit from that?

In case you missed them…

I’ve gotten wonderful feedback about the last two posts I’ve done, so I wanted to reshare them here, just in case you might’ve missed them.

The topics couldn’t be more different — the impact of war vs. cheesy lines to get hotel upgrades — but I think they both have something to offer.

Let me know what you think of them.

Lastly, happy birthday … to my book!

“Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life” turns two years old today!

I’ll never forget the day that it came out. I was in New York doing a media tour and going around to various bookstores in the city, signing copies of my book and just taking it all in. Here I am at the flagship Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue in New York…

To say that the book changed my life is a massive understatement. I’m so incredibly proud of it and the fact that the message it contains — you have way more power over your money than you realize — has had a very real impact on people. That message is perhaps even more important today than it was two years ago.

Whenever I’m traveling, I look for bookstores in the area and sign copies of my book if they have it in stock. Honestly, it never gets old. I can’t count how many times I’ve been to the B&Ns in New York, for example, and it is an adrenaline rush every time.

Thank you for your support. It means the world to me, and it motivates me to keep spreading the message that you really can pay less, earn more and keep more of your hard-earned money by asking the right questions in various everyday situations. I’m never going to stop talking about it.

Until next time!
Matt

Hi there, my friend.

In writing “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life,” I did more than 100 interviews, and it was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.

A huge part of what made these interviews so enjoyable was hearing people share stories of the successes they and their loved ones had in life. Some were big, some were small, but they all mattered.

One of my favorite stories in the book came courtesy of my friend, digital content strategist Christine Burke. (By the way, this is a different Christine than the one who told me how she saved $3,500 in this post.) It’s about a fun, sweet line that her late father would use to try to get upgrades at hotels and that Christine now uses herself.

[Christine] always asks for upgrades when staying at a hotel. She starts the conversation with a line from her father, Arthur McDevitt.

“He’d say, ‘Do you want to be a hero today? He used to say something like, ‘You can be a hero today if you help me, and then you can spend the rest of the day telling people you’re a hero.” She estimates that the line worked for her dad “about 50 percent of the time.” Now she uses it herself.

If that sounds too cheesy for you, that’s OK. Yes, it’s a little over-the-top, but it’s also a friendly, fun icebreaker. Say it to a hotel clerk with a genuine smile, and you may get an eye roll from time to time, but it can kickstart a conversation. Most importantly, it playfully makes your request not all about you. People are more likely to go out of their way to help if they stand to gain something.

With this tongue-in-cheek line, you’re giving people something positive, which they weren’t expecting, in return for helping you. It won’t work every time, but even if it doesn’t, you’ve given the person behind the desk something to smile about during a long shift.

This week, Christine told me that she recently used the line to get a discount at the rental car counter in Phoenix this past January:

In a direct message, she said, “We reserved a car with Budget, and the line was legit 2 hours long. I left [my husband] in line, dashed over to Alamo, and used ‘the line.’ Not only did she have a car for me, it was $200 cheaper. We were on the road in 20 minutes.”

“The woman at the counter was named Ariana… she chose heroism that day.”

I love this approach for so many reasons, not the least of which is that it works. I love that it is so simple. I love that it has a little fun with the idea of making a negotiation a win-win — people are more likely to help you if they get something out of it themselves, right? I also love that it could genuinely bring a smile to the face of the person behind the counter who has probably been yelled at a time or two that day.

But I think the reason why I like it most is that it reminds me of my dad. He was a huge inspiration for my book and for Ask, Save, Earn, and I’ve written about him a lot here, including this post:

I don’t think my dad ever did exactly what Christine’s dad did, but he TOTALLY would have. As I wrote in the post above, my dad never met a stranger. He could talk to anyone and loved to make people laugh. He was also an amazing negotiator, having spent three decades doing it for a living at State Farm Insurance.

This was about as up his alley as it could be. I wish I’d gotten the chance to share the story with him.

Would you ever try something like this? Or maybe you have your own approach? I’d love to hear about. Tell us in the comments.

More travel tips

I devoted a whole section of my book to travel, and it is a frequent topic here at Ask, Save, Earn as well. Here are a few travel-related posts from the past year or two:

And finally… The Not-So-New-Anymore-Year Challenge

I started the new year at Ask, Save, Earn by issuing you and my other subscribers a simple challenge:

“Sometime in January, contact a business you work with and ask them to change something.”

That’s it!

I called it The Ask Questions 2026 Challenge. You can learn more about it here…

Did you do it? If not, would you consider doing it now? It doesn’t take much time and can save you real money.

If you did do it, tell me how it went. There’s not much I love more than hearing people’s success stories of paying less, earning more or keeping more of their hard-earned money by asking the right questions.

Until next time!

Matt

Hi there, my friend.

Here at Ask, Save, Earn, there are two sayings I repeat over and over again. They’re also part of most everything I talk about in my book or in my role as Chief Consumer Finance Analyst (AKA Personal Finance Expert Guy) at LendingTree.

They were at the heart of what I wrote last spring when the implementation of tariffs sparked widespread fear of a recession.

Now, once again, they are at the core of my financial advice to those concerned about what this conflict with Iran may mean for their money.

Control what you can control.

and

You have more power over your money than you realize.

And, yes, of course, the potential ramifications of what’s happening in the Middle East obviously go way beyond just money. For this post, however, I’m focusing on your money and what you can do today to be better prepared financially for whatever economic impacts might come.

Possible steps to take today

So what does “controlling what you can control” look like in this context? How can I wield my power? Here are a few ideas:

• Budget for higher gas costs: No one knows how long this conflict will last. However, we’ve already seen gas prices rise sharply. According to AAA, the average price of gas on Wednesday was $3.20. That’s up 9 cents from the day before and 22 cents from a week before. That’s well below the peak from a few years ago, but it’s still a big jump in a short period of time. If you spend a lot of money on gas, it makes sense to adjust your budget to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.

• Leave your 401(k) alone: At one point on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen more than 1,200 points. By the time the market closed on Wednesday, it had climbed back up to nearly the levels we saw before that drop. That’s a perfect example of why panic selling can be so devastating. Markets rise and fall constantly. If you always sell on the way down, you’ll miss out on the gains on the way back up. For most of us, the best move is to simply ride the waves, knowing that history shows that our patience will likely be rewarded with higher returns.

• Strengthen your cybersecurity: Cyberattacks are a powerful weapon of war today. While there’s so much that is unknown and out of our control, taking some steps to upgrade your digital security in the wake of recent events makes all the sense in the world. Those might include:

  • Strengthening your passwords

  • Implementing multi-factor authentication

  • Freezing your credit

  • Backing up important data

• Consider travel insurance if you’re traveling soon: The Middle East is an awful long way from American shores, but anyone who travels knows that disruption anywhere in the world can mean headaches for travelers everywhere. Consider contacting your credit card issuer to ask about travel insurance coverage you might have with your card or consider getting a new card that offers better coverage. If you’re looking for more complete coverage, consider purchasing travel insurance from a third party.

• Lower the interest that you’re paying: Interest paid to credit card companies and other lenders is money that can’t go toward building a financially stable foundation to help yourself and your family manage uncertainty more confidently. But the good news is that you have more control over your interest rates than you might think, especially if you have good credit. A 0% balance transfer card can be a game-changer. A low-interest personal loan isn’t quite as great as a 0% card, but it can save you money, too. And, of course, you can call your card issuer and ask them for a lower interest rate. It works way more often than you’d think, and I’m never going to stop talking about it.

• Stop doomscrolling and put the phone down: It is a scary time, y’all. There’s no way around that. However, mindlessly scrolling social media or sitting in front of the television and marinating in your outrage doesn’t help anything. It is vital to your own health to step away from it all sometimes. Read a novel. Take a hike or go for a run. Watch a ballgame. Listen to some music. Call up an old friend. Have a date night with your significant other or do something goofy with your kids. Whatever helps you decompress, do it.

Now, don’t misunderstand that last point. I’m not at all saying to entirely disconnect from what’s happening. That’s the last thing I’d suggest. There are too many important things right now that demand action and could benefit from your involvement. Just make sure that you’re considering your own health in the process.

Until next time!

Matt

Hi there, my friend.

As of February 13, the average tax return is up 14% compared to roughly the same period last year. IRS filing data shows that the average refund so far in 2026 is $2,476, up from $2,169 last year.

Great news, right?

Maybe.

What do you mean, ‘maybe’? How is getting more than $300 more back this year not an amazing thing?

I understand that response, but it is important to remember this about tax refunds: That was always your money. A tax refund just means that you lent that money, interest-free, to the government for a while. A bigger tax refund means that you let the government hold even more of your money than you did a year ago. That’s money that could have been working for you already.

I do get the psychology behind wanting a refund, however. Motivation matters. If you feel you’re more likely to put that money to good use when it comes once a year as a refund than when it comes in small doses every paycheck, that’s fine. There may be some opportunity cost there, but knowing yourself, what you’re comfortable with and what keeps you moving forward is one of the keys to successfully managing your money. You do you.

Still, if you’re looking to get the biggest bang for your buck, keeping that refund near $0 is the move.

Note: This information is for general educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal or tax advice. For assistance with your own specific tax situation, consider consulting a tax professional.

How do I work toward a smaller refund next year? And then what?

Simple. You can decrease your likelihood of getting a refund by reducing how much money is regularly withheld from your paycheck for taxes.

After all, a tax refund is just the government returning money that you overpaid. Reducing your withholdings can help fix that.

When you withhold less for taxes, it means a few extra dollars in each paycheck that can help you, slowly but surely, work toward financial goals such as building an emergency fund, paying down high-interest debt or saving for retirement. Or maybe it just helps make it a little easier to make ends meet. (A 2025 LendingTree survey found that 42% of tax filers rely on getting a refund.) Put those extra funds in a high-yield savings account, and they’ll grow even more quickly.

It can be confusing, for sure. It may take a few tries to get that tax refund down to around $0. (It’s even possible that you might overcorrect and end up owing the government a bit one year.) However, if you can work at it, you can reduce that refund and keep more of your money.

Here’s what I wrote in a previous post about tax refunds…

For many, all that will be required is contacting your employer’s HR department and adjusting the withholdings on your W4 form. (You can use this withholding estimator from the IRS to get a better feel for what to do.) For others, it may make sense to contact a tax professional to make sure you’re taking all of the deductions you should take and to ask any questions you might have.

The ideal goal? Getting your refund down to $0. You don’t want to overpay, give the government an interest-free loan and then get a big check, but you also don’t want to underpay and end up writing the government a big check either. However, the truth is that getting to $0 isn’t easy. The more realistic goal is to bring that refund number down as much as you can to keep more money in your pocket, but not so much that you end up owing.

Once you’ve adjusted the withholdings, you can plan how to use those extra funds. That will, of course, depend on just how much more money you’ll be getting in each paycheck and what your biggest financial priorities are, but figuring out what to do with extra cash from every paycheck is a pretty good problem to have.

At a minimum, consider opening a high-yield savings account and having the extra funds from each paycheck automatically deposited into that account. It may not seem like much, but done consistently throughout the year, those savings can add up.

What should I do with this year’s refund?

Well, as I laid out in that tax post a year ago, it depends...

As with most anything related to money, there’s no one-size-fits-all right answer about what to do in this case. It depends on how much and what types of debt you have, how much you have in your emergency savings, how secure you feel in your job, what your main financial goals for the short, medium and long-term are as well as countless other factors.

That said, here’s what I’d suggest for most people…

• Most of the refund goes to paying down high-interest debt

• The next biggest chunk goes to building an emergency fund

• If possible, another portion can go to your biggest long-term financial goal

• And a small part of it goes to treating yourself.

That last part may be surprising, but I feel strongly about it. Sometimes you just have to give yourself a break and do something nice for yourself, even if that money could be better used for other purposes. For some people, that might look like a family dinner at Olive Garden, while for others, it might be a vacation or some other splurge. As long as the treat isn’t done too extravagantly or too often, there’s nothing wrong with it. After all, when your life is consumed with paying down debt, even just a moment away can help boost your energy to continue the battle.

My views haven’t changed here. It’s totally OK to treat yourself just a little. Just make sure you’ve handled your business first by putting a substantial amount toward your credit card debt, emergency fund and another financial goal.

And yes, you absolutely should still be saving while you pay down your high-interest debt. A substantial emergency fund is one of the keys to breaking the cycle of debt. Too often, when someone pays off their card debt, the next unexpected expense just goes right back on the card. Having savings means that you don’t have to do that, and even a small amount of savings can make a big difference.

If I were to add a fifth bullet to the above list, it would be this: Giving some of your windfall to a charity that you’re passionate about. If you give, check with your employer to see if they match employee charitable contributions. It is more common than you might think. I wrote about my experience with these services here…

Billions — yes, billions with a b — of matching funds go unclaimed every year, and that’s an absolute tragedy, given how starved for funding most charities are and how much need is out there.

What do you think?

Coming soon…

Had a fascinating call today with a very, very smart person about an enormously important topic: medical billing. I spoke with this person for my book a couple of years back, but I approached her again a few days ago with a few questions around some of my own recent medical bills. I’m going to write up what we spoke about and share what you can learn from it in the next few weeks.

Until next time!
Matt

Hi there, my friend.

Talking about money with your aging parents is not fun. Even when it goes perfectly, it is hard on so many levels. It often just feels like an unnatural turn, like you’re parenting your parents. Weird, right?

Here’s the thing, though…

It may be difficult.

It may be emotional.

It may be complicated.

It may be downright terrifying.

But it is important.

Whether your parents are swimming in cash or drowning in bills, it is vital for you to have at least a basic understanding of their financial situation. The unfortunate reality is that you can’t make a meaningful plan for your own future without taking your parents’ finances into account, at least to some degree. That’s because data shows that about half of Americans financially support their parents or expect to do so someday.

My friend Beth Pinsker — columnist at Marketwatch and author of “My Mother’s Money: A Guide To Financial Caregiving” — talked about this in a post here a few months ago. The post is a must-read, as is her book, for anyone who thinks they’ll end up as a financial caregiver.

My wife and I began the awkward process of talking to our parents about money many years ago, and it has proven to be one of the best things we’ve done. We’ve lost three of our four parents in the last five-plus years, and having an understanding of their financial situation didn’t just make their final years easier — it made managing their finances far easier after they passed.

How do you start?

As Beth did, I could talk for hours and write volumes about the process of managing my parents’ money. In my book, “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life,” I devote an entire chapter just to starting the conversation with them. The chapter even includes tips on how to speak to your siblings about the need for this chat long before you ever talk to Mom or Dad, as well as what to say if your parents tell you that their finances are none of your business. (It happens, believe me.)

In the post, I wanted to share some indirect ways to get a conversation started about money with your parents. Much like that first conversation with a romantic partner, that first conversation shouldn’t be about swapping passwords, disclosing balances and building spreadsheets. It is primarily about getting a sense, even just broadly, of their views about their finances.

Keep it relaxed. Keep it conversational. You might even be able to make it a little fun.

For example, you could start with some party game questions:

• “What’s your idea of a perfect retirement?”

• “If you could live anywhere, where would you choose?”

• “What’s the best or worst piece of money advice that you’ve ever gotten?”

• “If you could do one job for the rest of your life, what would it be?”

These types of questions can lead to some entertaining conversations that can also be quite revealing without the speaker realizing it. They can give you some insight into what your parents are thinking about their golden years without asking them directly. From there, you can try to ask some follow-up questions that further clarify things without coming off as an interrogation or you can either store that knowledge away for a bigger conversation on another day.

You could also take a more serious, though still indirect, approach. For example:

• You could leverage your own experience: “An article I read said that most people don’t have enough money saved for retirement, which is scary. I’m nervous about that for myself. How are you feeling about your own savings?”

• You could also leverage someone else’s experience: “A coworker told me that her parents had to sell their home because they burned through their retirement so quickly. How do you feel about your savings?”

No matter your approach, remember that your initial conversation doesn’t have to result in anything or lead anywhere. It is just a tiny but important first step in what will — eventually, hopefully — be an ongoing conversation about money that will ultimately make everyone’s life easier.

Ever talked to your parents about their money?

It isn’t easy, but it is necessary. Vote in the poll below and then share your own personal experience in the comments below.

Until next time!

Matt

Hi there, my friend.

Below are a few of my favorite paragraphs from my book, “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life.”

The book — like this Substack — is all about helping you pay less, earn more and keep more of your hard-earned money by asking the right questions in various everyday situations.

So what makes a question “the right question”? There are so many factors that go into that, but this post is about an aspect of negotiations that you might not have thought of.

Read the excerpt below to learn more…

Open-ended questions make it harder to say no

A simple “no” can stop any negotiation dead in its tracks. Those two powerful little letters can make people cower, and even the possibility of hearing them keeps a lot of folks from asking for a better deal. You can ensure that you hear it less often, however, and one of the best ways is to use open-ended questions.

Open-ended questions can’t be answered by a simple yes or no. Used skillfully, these can help you avoid someone shutting down a negotiation before it starts. The scripts in this book feature lots of open-ended questions. Look at these examples of closed and open questions.

• Splitting the bill at a group gathering:

  • Closed: “Can we split the bill evenly?”

  • Open: “How can we split the bill so that we all pay our fair share?

• Negotiating vehicle repair:

  • Closed: “Can I get a lower price on this repair?”

  • Open: “What can we do to lower the price for this repair?”

• Escalating a conversation to a manager:

  • Closed: “May I speak with someone else on your team?”

  • Open: “Who else on your team can I ask about this?”

In the examples above, the open-ended questions avoid a conversational dead end. They don’t guarantee a positive response — because the other side still can respond that they can’t do anything about it — but open questions make it virtually impossible to kill the request with a “no.” That’s a big deal because, if you never hear “no,” you might keep pressing forward with your request. If you do, you never know what could happen.

That’s it. Thoughtful phrasing can go a long way. Not only does it make it harder for someone to say no, but it can also make you sound less combative. You’re not coming in hot in full-attack mode. You’re asking to work with the customer service representative to find a deal that works for both parties.

That stuff matters. Remember: People generally want to help, but they’re more likely to want to help if you’re not being a jerk.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you have to be a pushover. It just means that, as the old saying goes, you get more flies with honey than with vinegar.

(By the way, in the 110-plus interviews I did for my book, I can’t even tell you how many times that phrase — or something close to it — came up. That must mean there’s something to it, right?)

I haven’t forgotten…

A few weeks ago, I teased that a giveaway would likely be coming in the next week or two.

Well, sometimes life happens.

I promise that the giveaway is coming soon. I just need a little extra time.

Until next time!

Matt

Remember this story from about a month ago?

In case you missed it, the post is about how I downloaded my 2025 transaction histories from my credit cards and checking accounts and discovered two things that I immediately knew I wanted to do away with. Those two subscriptions amounted to more than $400 in yearly costs.

(Note: It was really easy to do. I laid out my process in the above post.)

So, fast forward a few weeks. After those two easy wins, I decided to spend a little more time in those spreadsheets to see if other possible wins were hiding in those hundreds of lines of transactions.

Hoo boy, yes, there were. We found:

• Online storage services that we didn’t need. Cutting them will save us more than $100 per year.

• A language app subscription that we didn’t use anymore and had forgotten about. $90 per year.

• Business-related service subscriptions that were useful a couple years back but aren’t necessary anymore. $500-plus per year.

• A subscription to a sports media website that should’ve been rolled into another account long ago. It was so old that their customer service representative couldn’t find any record of it, though because of some of the details I provided him, he acknowledged the charge’s likely legitimacy. He advised me to dispute the charge with my credit card issuer. $140 per year.

Those are just a few examples. All in all, we found what will add up to more than $1,000 in potential expenses dodged — and all for subscriptions and services that we will not miss at all. We only found them because we took the time to dive into a spreadsheet.

Honestly, I’m a little embarrassed by how much we found. Rather than dwelling on that or pretending it wasn’t there, however, we chose to fix it instead.

An alternative to canceling

Remember that whenever you cancel a subscription or membership of most any kind, there’s a pretty good chance that the business will make you an offer to get you to stay.

For example, I got this offer immediately after canceling an online storage service.

I didn’t take it because I didn’t need the service anymore, but I would’ve considered it otherwise.

Discounts weren’t the only counteroffers I received, though. As part of their cancellation process, multiple companies asked me if I wanted to just put my membership on hold for three months and then come back. I’ve always known that was something that businesses might be willing to do, but it was the first time I’d ever seen that built into the online cancellation process.

While it didn’t fit my needs, freezing a subscription/membership (or putting it on hold) for a few months can be a great option during a short-term financial rough patch. Often, it doesn’t require anything more than a quick phone call to accomplish, but it can make a real financial difference for you or your family in a time of need.

I’m incredibly excited to announce…

I’m going to be part of the Austin Public Library’s Greater Austin Book Festival on May 16 at Austin’s Central Library, which is one of my favorite places on Earth.

I mean, look at this place…

We used to visit every two weeks as a family when my son was little, and it will always have a place in my heart. I’m proud that my book is on the shelves there. To be part of a festival in that space is going to be very special indeed.

More to come…

Hang it in the Louvre!

I’m not really someone who dives into social media trends, but I made an exception for one recently. I saw people posting caricatures of themselves that were generated by AI after a prompt something like this: “Create a cute caricature of me and my job based on what you know about me.”

I’ve been tinkering a lot with Chat GPT and other AI tools, so I thought I’d give it a run.

What do you think? It’s not exactly high art, but I thought it was fun.

Until next time!

Matt

Hi there, my friend.

There’s little I love more than hearing a success story about how someone saved or earned extra money just by asking.

I love it even more when they save or earn $1,000 or more.

It is even better since the person has been a friend of yours since you were a teenager.

That’s exactly what happened to me earlier this month when my friend Jaime Aron (pictured above in bobblehead form) sent me an email with a subject line of “Another $1k for your tally.”

I’ve been lucky to know Jaime since the first semester of my freshman year at the University of Texas, when we first worked together in the sports department of the student newspaper, The Daily Texan. We haven’t seen a lot of each other in person in recent years, but we’ve kept in touch via social media and email, so I was excited when he reached out.

I was definitely intrigued by the subject line, so I opened the email right away. When I read his email, I knew I wanted to share his story with you, so I asked him if he’d write something up for me. He was nice enough to agree, so I’ve included his story below.

And by the way, he’s quite a writer. He been a senior writer for the American Heart Association for 15 years. He also spent 20 years writing, mostly about sports, for The Associated Press, and has written seven books. But perhaps the best thing he ever wrote is this: an amazing two-part story (Part 1 | Part 2) he wrote about his sons’ premature births. It is an incredible piece of writing and, far more importantly, an inspiring story with a happy ending for his “miracle babies.” (Seriously. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Once you’re done reading about his rent savings, be sure to come back and read these. It is worth your time.)

Here’s the story he sent me, which includes the exact email he wrote to his landlord that led to him getting $1,000 knocked off his rent …

By Jaime Aron

Last summer, one of Matt’s posts provided the perfect words at the perfect time. It was exactly what my sons needed to hear — and, as all parents can understand, they needed to hear it from someone other than me.

First, though, I had to laugh. Because my kids were 27, 23 and 23 — all older now than Matt and I were when we met.

After forwarding Matt’s email, I signed up for his newsletter. Better late than never!

The Oct. 30 edition was all about negotiating for a better apartment lease.

Well, we had an apartment lease that was up for renewal on March 15. So I put the following reminder on my calendar for Jan. 15:

Time to look into extending lease at (apartment complex). See negotiation tips in Matt Schulz email from 10-30-25 in (apartment) email folder.

This was typical for me. My calendar is filled with reminders of when certain subscriptions are close to renewing. When they pop up, I’ll call and use the threat of cancelling to get a better rate; or I’ll make sure we’re ready for, say, more cereal before letting the auto subscription renew. I also change power companies every year, scooping up whoever has the lowest price. This was recommended by a friend who was then CFO of an oil company; as he noted, everyone in Texas gets power from Oncor, so all you’re actually getting from a provider is their pass-through services. (Not sure how this works in other states.)

Now fast forward to Jan. 7.

The complex management sent an email encouraging us to renew right away. They included a spreadsheet that offered different prices depending on how soon we renewed and for how long. I obviously scanned for the cheapest option. Even if we signed the soonest, and for the longest, the best they would offer was keeping our rate flat.

Uh, no. That won’t do.

I went online to see their inventory of apartments like ours and their promotions for new customers. Let’s call this Leverage No. 1.

Leverage No. 2 was the fact that we’ve always paid our rent in full and on time. This was part of us being what I would consider low-maintenance renters. The one exception was complaining about the fact that the elevator was out for more than two months, which was quite a pain considering we’re on the fourth floor and we had a sick dog who needed to be carried in/out multiple times a day. The fact that we were never adequately compensated for that inconvenience served as Leverage No. 3.

Armed with all this, the email practically wrote itself.

Thanks for your note. We are considering renewing our lease for 12 months and we’re willing to do so by Jan. 25. However, we would like to discuss reducing our rent.

Your website shows three properties like ours (2C) available for substantially less than [our current price], including one in our building. You’re also offering new tenants up to 8 weeks free rent. While I realize newcomers often get better deals than existing customers, I also believe you should want to retain low-maintenance tenants who always pay in full each month. (It’s also worth noting that we’re still a bit peeved by how long it took to get the elevator fixed in our building, with little more than lip service about the inconvenience along the way; we were offered use of a carport, but that meant little to use because we routinely use the garage.)

Feel free to continue this conversation via email or by calling me at xxx.

Their reply, which arrived the next day, included a lot of saber-rattling about how “rates and concessions fluctuate throughout the year” and the fact that they’re “unable to reduce your current rate due to company policy.” It also said this:

I’m happy to share that we are keeping you at the same rate, which is fantastic. Additionally, based on your feedback, I was able to request a special one-time concession for you. Our pricing analyst just approved $1,000 off if you decide to renew with us!

We agreed to the deal on Jan. 13. Two days later, I got the calendar reminder about using Matt’s script. Ha!

I emailed Matt to share this tale, in part because of the funny timing twist, but mostly for him to add my $1,000 to his tote board tallying up all the money he’s helped people save. Sticklers may note that I didn’t actually use his script, but if you parse what I wrote, you’ll see it aligns with his advice. Clearly, his words of wisdom landed and stuck with me.

And, I hope, with you.

The big takeaway, obviously, is that it really is as easy as asking. Worst they can say is no.

Or offer you an unneeded carport.

Jaime Aron writes for the American Heart Association. Previously, he was Texas Sports Editor for The Associated Press. His books include co-authoring Rod Carew’s memoir One Tough Out and Breakthrough ‘Boys, the wild story behind the Dallas Cowboys’ first Super Bowl championship season. More at jaimearon.com and jakeandjosh.net.

What to take away from Jaime’s story

He’s absolutely right that sometimes it is as easy as just asking. But there are a few other important things to take from his story:

• Your calendar is a powerful ally. We’re all human. We get busy and forget things. However, you can avoid that by simply adding reminders to your online calendar. This can help you in most any aspect of life, but it is certainly true when it comes to your finances. You can remind yourself to pay your bill on time, negotiate with some company, cancel a free-trial subscription and so on.

• Information is power. In his story, Jaime calls it leverage — a truly apt name. However, it is ultimately about information. He did his homework to understand the rental market. He also reminded his landlord of a few crucial facts that helped Jaime make his case. That stuff matters. It is far more impactful to say “I’d like you to do this, and here are a few well-thought-out reasons why” than to simply say “I’d like you to do this for me.” This is true whether you’re talking about rent or most any other negotiation.

• Be prepared for counteroffers. Negotiations are rarely a yes or no thing. They’re about discussion, compromise and agreement. “Well, I can’t do this for you, but how about this instead?” Jaime didn’t get a lower rate, but he did get $1,000 knocked off of one month’s rent, which is a big deal. That’s real money, and a pretty easy choice. However, the right choice isn’t always obvious when a counteroffer comes, so taking a few moments before the negotiation starts to think about what possible counteroffers could come — and whether you’d accept them — can help you feel far more confident when decision time comes.

Share your big wins, too

I want to hear them! Reply to this email or leave your comments below.

Until next time!
Matt

One of my favorite pieces of advice that I’ve shared in my book and here at “Ask, Save, Earn” is this: Take a little time regularly to write down your accomplishments. That way, you’re more likely to remember them when it comes time to build your resume or ask for a promotion.

I wrote about my friend Andy Hill’s approach — he calls it “building his cheerleader folder” — in this post..

(By the way, Andy has an amazing new book out, called “Own Your Time: 10 Financial Steps To Put Your Family First and Escape The Corporate Grind,” and I highly recommend it.)

I’ve talked about this countless times over the years because I believe it is so important. However, in the past few weeks, I got a quick reminder that I hadn’t actually been taking my own advice.

When it came time to list out what I’d accomplished for my annual review at LendingTree, I ended up having to scramble to remind myself of what I had done.

I knew I had done a lot. I just didn’t remember exactly what it all was.

It kinda made me crazy, so I decided to do something about it.

One simple step

I put a meeting in my work calendar.

Here are the details:

• Starts at 9 am

• Lasts 15 minutes

• Happens on on the first weekday of the month

• Recurring until “forever”

That’s it. Nothing fancy. Just a simple reminder to myself to take time to write down some of the cool things I did in my job recently.

The first meeting is set for February 2, and I’m looking forward to it. (BTW, the fact that I created a meeting that recurs forever and starts on Groundhog Day is not lost on me. But I digress…)

Of course, you can arrange your “accomplishment time” to happen whenever, however often and for as long as you’d like. When I told my wife about my meeting plan, she actually suggested I do it every week rather than monthly. I think I prefer doing it monthly, but if you prefer weekly, biweekly or something else, that’s great, too. The point isn’t the frequency. The point is to get in the habit.

What to track

Once “accomplishment time” is on your calendar, how do you decide what to write down when the time comes?

In my book, Michela Allocca — a financial analyst, founder of Break Your Budget and the “Beyond Your Budget” Substack and author of “Own Your Money: Practical Strategies To Budget Better, Earn More and Reach Your 6-Figure Savings Goals” — suggested organizing your accomplishments lists as follows:

• Priorities and other regular responsibilities: Include meetings that you lead, reports that you generate, content that you create, “tasks to keep the lights on,” she says.

• Additional work outside your typical duties: “Somebody asking me for a favor, a new project, a last-minute request. ‘Hey, can you run this quick analysis for me, or could you jump in this meeting?’ Everything asked of me outside my normal role, I would write down and track for examples of how I’m going above and beyond,” Allocca says.

• Accomplishments on a weekly basis: “They could be small, they could be large. It could be leading a meeting, presenting to an executive, wrapping a project, onboarding an intern, or whatever. Anything that’s bringing value to your team and moving the needle forward in the company, whether quantifiable or not.”

It is one of my favorite pieces of advice in the book because it is simple, clear and can be really impactful.

It may seem like a lot of extra work on a regular basis, but it shouldn’t be. In fact, if you get into the habit of doing this regularly, you should be able to do it pretty quickly each month because it should all be relatively fresh in your mind.

Beyond that, however, the truth is that the short time you spend each month will feel more than worth it when you’re preparing for your next review and wading through a list of all of your great accomplishments for the year instead of racking your brain to remember what you did back in January and February.

In other news, watch this space!

Can’t say much about it just yet, but I’ve got a giveaway coming soon. I’ll likely announce it in an extra email beyond the normal Thursday morning edition, so keep an eye out. Should be coming in the next week or two.

Until next time!
Matt

Hi there, my friend.

In my job as Personal Finance Expert Guy, I don’t often get an email at 9 pm on a Friday asking me to comment on breaking news while I’m having a nice, leisurely evening watching TV with my wife. However, that’s exactly what happened last week.

The email came from an online journalist with whom I’ve worked for many years, and the subject line was as follows...

“Quick comment on Trump capping APRs”

The first line of the email…

“We are writing up a quick story on President Trump saying he’s going to cap credit card APRs at 10% for the next year.”

Umm, he’s doing what now?

Once I saw that, I knew I was done watching TV for the evening. I apologized to my wife and headed upstairs to my office to see what was going on.

The announcement and the immediate fallout

Here’s what happened:

• On Friday night, President Trump announced in a post on Truth Social that he was “calling for a one-year cap on credit card interest rates of 10%,” which would be effective on January 20.

  • Some context: That cap would be a massive change. Currently, there is no national maximum interest rate that can be charged on credit cards. The average interest on a new credit card today is nearly 24% — about 2.5 times that of the proposed cap rate — and rates for store credit cards average above 30%. If you owe $7,000 on a card and pay $250 per month, reducing your interest rate from 24% to 10% would save you more than $2,300 in interest over the life of that balance.)

• On Sunday, he doubled down while on Air Force One, reportedly saying that banks would be “in violation of the law” if they didn’t lower rates to 10% for a year by January 20.

• On Monday morning, stock prices for several major credit card issuers fell, with many observers saying the declines were a reaction to the president’s call for a rate cap on credit cards.

• Meanwhile, banks and other financial services companies quickly issued statements opposing the cap and outlining the dire consequences they claimed would result from implementing a cap. Those include credit card issuers no longer lending to people with imperfect credit and a dramatic reduction in credit card rewards across the board.

• As all of this was going on, I was doing interviews with so, so many media outlets, trying to add some context to what was happening.

Is a rate cap coming?

Don’t hold your breath.

Despite cardholders overwhelmingly supporting a cap (even when they know it could lead to reduced access to credit and diminished rewards), even a temporary rate cap like the one the president proposed is still a long shot.

First of all, it is unclear under what authority the president would be able to impose the rate cap. That would likely require Congressional legislation, which is highly unlikely to pass. Credit card rate cap proposals have been made several times in recent years — by those on both sides of the aisle — but none has ever gotten any real traction in Congress. There’s no reason to think this go-round will be any different in the House and Senate.

Even if a rate cap did become reality, it likely wouldn’t be at 10%. It is possible that the 10% number might simply be a starting point for a negotiation and the final cap number would end up far higher — say 18% or 20%. (Note: Currently, credit cards issued by federal credit unions can’t have an APR higher than 18%.)

That’s not to say that some card issuers won’t go ahead and run with the idea of a 10% rate cap for a year anyway. To my knowledge, Bilt Rewards became the first credit card to do just that, announcing on Wednesday that they’d be capping rates on their new credit cards at 10% for a year. There’s a good chance that at least some others will follow suit.

If an actual cap did come, what would really happen?

There’s no question that there would be big changes. Just how big would depend on the final details of the cap.

If a 10% cap happened, the changes would be seismic, especially if it were made permanent instead of just lasting a year like the president’s proposed cap. Banks would become far less likely to lend to those with imperfect credit, and credit card rewards would be dramatically reduced.

If a higher cap came into play, such as the 18% cap we see with federal credit union credit cards, it would still be a really big deal. However, I think we would still see credit card rewards being offered and banks would still lend to those with imperfect credit. After all, we’ve seen with credit unions that rate caps and credit card rewards can coexist. They may not be as lucrative as what you see with today’s high-end bank credit cards, but they’d still be available and significant.

One important thing to understand in all of this: Banks have many levers to pull and buttons to push when it comes to raising revenue. If they were limited in their ability to raise interest rates, we would likely see them lean on other options to mitigate losses. For example, we might see banks increase fees in a big way and also be less likely to waive fees for those who ask.

So what should I do?

The cavalry probably isn’t coming, so you need to take action yourself.

A 0% balance transfer credit card can be a great option. It’s important to understand the fine print associated with these cards — especially the fees and the length of the 0% period — but they can be about the best weapon you can have against credit card debt. You’ll likely need good credit (660 to 680 or higher credit score) in order to get one, though. If you don’t have that, a low-interest personal loan can help lower your rates, too.

Of course, you can also ask for a lower interest rate on your credit card. As I’ve detailed many times here at “Ask, Save, Earn” and in my book “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More,” you’re far more likely than you think to get your request granted. The latest survey from LendingTree showed that 83% of those who asked for a lower APR on a credit card in the past year got their way, and the average reduction was 6 to 7 points.

That’s a big, big deal. In my book, I lay out word-for-word scripts on how to ask for this. I also wrote about it in detail here…

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — You have way more power over your money than you realize. You don’t have to wait for the president, the Federal Reserve or anyone else to come to the rescue. You just need to be willing to ask.

Until next time!
Matt

Hi there, my friend.

The average American spends $924 per year on subscription services. What about you?

I don’t know exactly, but I would guess that I spend more than that. However, because of one simple move I made over the holiday break, that number should be a little smaller going forward.

Here’s what I did…

• I logged into my various checking accounts and credit card accounts.

• For each account, I downloaded a spreadsheet with all of my transactions on that account for 2025. (Most any bank or credit card issuer will have something similar available.)

• When I opened the spreadsheet, I sorted it by the column that described the transaction. In most cases, the column was called “Description,” but different financial institutions may have them labeled differently in these downloads.

• Once sorted, I scanned through the document to find any recurring transactions. For example, for a monthly subscription, you’d likely have 12 transactions with similar descriptions and dollar amounts. With the file sorted by description, those subscriptions should easily stand out, even in a list of dozens or even hundreds of transactions.

• In most cases, when I came across a recurring subscription, I glanced at the transactions and moved on. Most of my subscriptions are valuable to me, so there’s nothing to be done. However, two specific cases that I found gave me pause, so I made a note to review them after I finished looking through my transaction lists.

Ultimately, I chose to cancel both of the subscriptions — one for a fitness app membership at $7.99 a month and one for a digital-news subscription at $27.99 per month — and the decisions were pretty easy. The first, I didn’t realize I hadn’t canceled. The second, I didn’t realize just how much I was actually paying.

That’s a savings of about $36 per month or $432 per year, just for downloading, sorting and spending a couple of minutes with a spreadsheet. And it is something that anyone can do.

You don’t need to download some app to find all of these subscriptions. Those tools can be really useful, for sure, but you also likely to have to allow them access to some of your personal accounts in order for them to do their thing. My method requires a little more legwork (though really not much), but it is also far more private.

If you don’t want to cancel, this can still save you money

I had to cancel the digital-news membership over the phone, which was irritating. However, when I called to cancel, the customer service representative told me that if I chose not to cancel, they could lower my monthly subscription. I believe they said they could lower it to $19.99 per month.

If I had had any interest in keeping the subscription, that very well might have swayed me. That’s about $8 a month or nearly $100 a year — not life-changing money, for sure, but not nothing either — but I simply had no interest in keeping the subscription at any price, so it didn’t matter.

What does matter, though, is that it provided me further proof of what I’ve said a million times at “Ask, Save, Earn” or in my book or in interviews: These types of deals are out there to be had, and often you just have to ask.

Until next time!
Matt