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

I don’t know about you, but I will definitely not miss 2025. It was a year of immense personal loss — I went to three funerals between October 16 and November 6, including two in four days — and just a seemingly never-ending parade of crappy news involving my family, friends or colleagues.

Yes, I made some amazing memories, which I’ll touch on further down in the post, but seriously, 2025 can’t go the hell away soon enough.

Here’s hoping that 2026 is a year in which the joy, laughter, good health, gainful employment and love you experience far outweigh the bad stuff.

One way to start 2026 off on the right foot

This time last year, I proposed something I called The Ask Questions 2025 Challenge.

The Challenge was simple: “Sometime in January, contact a business you work with and ask them to change something.”

It was designed to be simple, achievable, relevant, quick and maybe even fun. No year-long, suffocating commitment. Just one single step that may or may not lead to something more.

Well, I still love this idea and I’m proposing it again… Welcome to the Ask Questions 2026 Challenge!

Here are a few possibilities:

• Ask your cellphone provider to lower your monthly bill

• Ask your credit card issuer to lower your interest rate, waive a fee or give you a bigger credit limit

• Ask your gym to lower your monthly rate

• Ask the furniture store or appliance store to waive a delivery fee

• Ask a hotel to upgrade your hotel room or a rental car company to upgrade your rental

• Ask your medical provider to reduce a recent bill

• Ask a mechanic for a lower price on a car repair

• Ask someone at the garage sale down the street for a lower price on something they’re selling

• Ask your boss for a raise or a promotion

• Ask your realtor for lower closing costs

• Ask the car salesman for a cheaper price

All I’m asking is for one request sometime between now and the end of January. That’s it.

If you get your request granted, amazing! Good for you!

If you don’t, it is still awesome that you gave it a try.

Either way, it might even inspire you to want to try again. And wouldn’t that be amazing, too?

If you do it, tell us in the comments below!

2025 wasn’t all bad, y’all

As much of a stinker as 2025 was, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t have some amazing parts, too. In tough times, it can be hard to admit that there’s good stuff sprinkled into (or to even recognize good stuff as it happens) but it is incredibly important.

I took my first trip to Yellowstone, where my wife, son and I got to see a buffalo up close (but not TOO up close).

It was also the year I discovered that I really enjoy rock-climbing gyms, though I’m kinda terrible at climbing.

I got to sign more copies of my book out in the wild — everywhere from Bozeman, Montana, to San Marcos, Texas, to Fifth Avenue in New York City (pictured below).

And, of course, I dived fully into “Ask, Save, Earn.” It really has been one of the bright lights of my year. Since I joined Substack in March, my subscriber base is up about 60% and my overall audience has more than doubled, up about 160%. A massive thank you to all who’ve come along with me through this nutty year.

This was my most-read post of the year..

This was my second-most read…

And this was one that I loved that might’ve flown under the radar a bit.

Some of my goals for 2026

In the nonstop insanity of the past year, some of the things I hoped to do ended up having to take a back seat, and that’s OK. Life is about prioritization, and sometimes life just takes your plans, crumples them up, tosses them away and laughs.

There are a few things I know I’d like to do in 2026, though, including:

• Another small book tour

• More collaboration with Substackers, friends and colleagues

• More meditation and reading

• Giving people more ways to access my content

• And so on.

Some of these things are already in the works. Some of them may be soon. For now, however, we’re just focusing on taking the next step forward into a year that will hopefully be better than the one that just passed.

To the promise of a new year!

Until next time,

Matt

I hope you’ve had a wonderful holiday season filled with love, laughter, joy and good health.

Honestly, it has been a challenging year for me and my family — pretty much from start to finish — but I’m hopeful that 2026 has better things in store.

A difficult holiday season

It has been a challenging year for many Americans as well, of course, and the holidays are proving to be no different. LendingTree’s latest survey found that holiday debt is up slightly this year to its highest level since 2022, though still well below that year’s record high of more than $1,500. A few more key points include:

• The average holiday debt this year, among those who ran up holiday debt, was $1,223.

• 37% of Americans took on holiday debt this year.

• Slightly more than half of those who took on holiday debt didn’t expect to.

That last number is particularly troubling. It is one thing to take on a little bit of debt when you can see it coming. It is something else entirely to be blindsided by it. It can absolutely rock your world, and that’s where so many Americans find themselves today.

Remember how powerful you are

When you are hit with unexpected debt, it can be easy to feel powerless and hopeless. There are so many things in life that are out of control. (For my family and friends, this year has been FULL of them.)

However, if you’ve subscribed to this newsletter for very long or if you’ve ever seen me in interviews or read quotes in news articles, you may be able to predict what I’m about to say. Still, I’m going to say it again because it is especially important this time of year.

Here it is…

You have way more power over your money than you realize.

Read it again — this time out loud.

It is my ongoing mission to make sure that people understand just how true that statement is, but I also want to help them understand how they can use it. There are a million ways to do that, but for now, I’m just going to focus on one — using it to ease your credit card debt burden.

Using your power to reduce your debt

If you have credit card debt from the holidays or for any other reason, it can be really scary. Trust me, I know. I had $10,000 in credit card debt in my 20s from bad decision after bad decision. However, in today’s world of stubborn inflation and high prices, you don’t have to make bad decisions to run up debt. Sometimes it can just be a result of living life.

Here are some things that can help…

Calling and asking for a lower interest rate. Again, if you’ve followed me for a while, you know this, but it will always bear repeating. I even wrote a post about it called “I’m never going to stop talking about this” because I never will.

I won’t stop talking about it because it works (more than 80% of the time, according to the latest LendingTree data). Simply calling and asking for a lower rate can lead to an average APR reduction of more than six points — which is like going from a 25% interest rate to 19% — and can mean very, very real savings.

How do you do it? I lay it out in the post linked above. Or I go into even more depth in my book, “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life.” It often doesn’t take more than a little big of legwork and a phone call. It can absolutely be worth your time.

Consolidating your loan. This means taking one loan (or sometimes multiple loans) and paying them off with another separate loan with a lower interest rate. Among your best options for this are a 0% balance transfer credit card or a low-interest personal loan. Both of these loans can help you pay less interest over the life of your loans. A 0% balance transfer credit card is perhaps the best option, though you’ll need good credit to get one. If your credit isn’t good enough, a personal loan can be a great second choice. Just make sure to shop around for the best rates, and to be sure that you understand any fees, limits and other fine print associated with these loans because what you don’t know can cost you.

Seeking credit counseling. If it is all too overwhelming and you just want some help, an accredited nonprofit credit counselor can be a tremendous asset. The National Foundation For Credit Counseling (NFCC) is perhaps the best place to start. (Note: This isn’t an ad. Just some actual heartfelt advice.) That organization has been helping people with creating budgets, negotiating with creditors and everything in between for many years, and they can be useful to you as well.

Ending on a sweet note

Because it all shouldn’t be so serious on Christmas, here’s one of my favorite pictures of my sweet dog, Theo, to send you on your way.

Happy holidays, my friend.

Until next time!

Matt

I freaking love my job.

Honestly, I really do — and I know how fortunate I am to be able to say that because it is decidedly not normal.

With that in mind, I wanted to take you behind the scenes on one of my favorite things I do in my job… a New York City media tour.

A few times a year, I make my way to the city to have meetings and do interviews as part of my job as Chief Consumer Finance Analyst (or Money Expert Guy) at LendingTree. I also did a media tour there when my book came out. That’s because while a whole lot has changed when it comes to people talking about money in the media, one thing has not: New York is still the absolute center of it.

I’m wrapping up my latest trip later today, and it has been one of the busiest I’ve ever had.

So what does that look like?

Here’s a walkthrough of my day on Tuesday…

After starting off the day with some free eggs and sausage at my hotel, I had to be at 30 Rockefeller Plaza to record an interview with NBC New York.

I had to walk past a line of people at this entrance that you might recognize…

Then, I checked in for my meeting in this room that people have to go through to visit people in NBC Studios. The walls are lined with images of NBC legends from over the years. (I’m guessing at least a few of them are familiar.)

Then, I got to check out the new studio setup at NBC New York. The producer was nice enough to take a picture of me, looking more than a little windblown, at the anchor desk.

Then, I did an interview about tips for managing holiday debt and another about a report that LendingTree did about the rise of theft at self-checkout lanes. The numbers are crazy on that one. You should seriously check it out.

After that, I made my way to the lower levels of 30 Rock to find a place where I could do a little bit of work before my next meeting, which was about 45 minutes later.

Honestly, I don’t remember the name of the place, but they sold bottles of water and had room for me to crank out a couple of emails, so it was all good.

Next up, I had coffee — OK, I had hot chocolate — with a journalist with Katie Couric Media whom I’ve known for many years. I didn’t end up taking any pictures, but we had a great conversation that ran the gamut from newsletters to her wedding planning to inflation to that self-checkout report to great food.

Once that was done, I had about 30 minutes before I had to be at a meeting at Reuters, which is in the heart of Times Square. On the way, I stopped to take a photo or two.

And yeah, it was cold. Texas Guy was all bundled up.

At Reuters, I spoke with one of the most respected journalists in the financial space about all things personal finance. That self-checkout theft report came up again, but we also talked about affordability issues in general, the state of the job market, what 2026 might hold and more.

After we spoke, she was nice enough to point out some of the amazing views from the Reuters office. For example, you can see the famous New Year’s Eve ball from the cafe in the Reuters office. Or rather, you would be able to if it were there right now. The long pole in the picture is where the ball-drop happens. They’ve just removed the ball for a while for some reason.

Clearly, that would be a million-dollar view on New Year’s Eve.

Once I was done there, I had about 30-45 minutes to get some lunch and get to my next meeting. I ended up going to a pizza place just south of Radio City Music Hall, off of 6th Avenue. Were they the best pizza slices in the city? No, they were not. Were they still really good and convenient and easy for someone without a whole lot of time? Darn right they were.

Side note: Jalapenos on pizza are magical.

All filled up, I headed over to The Wall Street Journal to chat with two of their amazing reporters. Again, we talked about self-checkout theft, but we also touched on most anything related to personal finance.

Once that was done, I headed to the cafe a few floors down in the same building to finish answering emails for about 30 minutes before my final meeting of the day.

I met with an author/financial journalist I’ve known for many years. You might recognize her, too. I did this Q&A with her about her new book a few weeks ago…

We talked about author stuff, AI and practically everything personal finance before she headed out to sign copies of her book I had seen at a bookstore near 30 Rock and I went to take some pictures of this tree you might’ve heard of.

It was complete pandemonium around the Rockefeller Center tree — which I’ve been fortunate to see many times over the years — but honestly, it never gets old. Taking it all in was a really fun way to unwind after a long day of nonstop meetings. The day eventually concluded with a few more emails and Slacks sent, an amazing bowl of pasta and a glass (or two) of wine, and a call home to tell my wife and son about the day.

I was worn out, but excited about another day of meetings (albeit fewer than what I had on Tuesday).

So that’s it! Thanks for coming along.

The big takeaway

I’ve promised to always provide some financial takeaway with every article. So what’s the big takeaway here?

It’s simple.

Relationships are everything.

The relationships that I have in the personal finance space are why I’m able to do what I do. Period.

One of the biggest reasons why they’ve grown is that I’ve made a concerted effort to meet people face-to-face, have coffee or lunch or a glass of wine, and talk to them — in real life. These things matter. In today’s crazy-challenging job market, these types of connections are maybe more important than ever.

This isn’t the first time I talked about the importance of creating connections here. I dove into it in this Q&A with marketer and social media creator Grace Lemire.

“The goal,” she said, “is to focus on genuine connection and let it lead to genuine opportunities because of a true mutual desire to work together. I find that when I detach from the outcome, I connect with people more, and oftentimes the outcome is better than what I anticipated.”

That’s how I approach my New York trips. When I meet with people, I’d love it if they’d quote me in a story they’re writing or producing, but if they don’t, it’s all good. I’ve made a connection or rekindled an old one.

Do all of the meetups go beautifully? Noooooo. I could tell some stories. Are they worth doing? Way more often than not, the answer is yes.

Go to meetups. Reach out to friends, former colleagues or relatives you haven’t spoken with in a while. See if a coworker wants to grab coffee one day. I know it can be scary and awkward and weird and hard and unnatural to do these things. Trust me, the people who know me best know that I’m anything but a natural in doing these sorts of things. But I continue to put myself out there because I’ve seen the value in these connections.

If you’re not a jerk, people want to help. People want to be friendly. People want to see people that they like succeed. But you have to put yourself out there.

And one last tip: Interested people are interesting. When you meet with someone new or for the first time in a while, ask them to tell you something cool they’ve done or seen or heard lately. Then, listen and then ask them more about it. It’s simple, but it is amazing how far a little bit of genuine interest can go in establishing connections.

Until next time!

Matt

Hi there, my friend.

I made a careless mistake earlier this month, and I’d bet you’ve done the same. Maybe even a few times.

I forgot to cancel a free trial membership before it ended.

They warned me when I signed up that I’d have to pay $75 if I didn’t cancel in time. They even sent me a very clear email two days before the end of the free trial to remind me that it was ending soon. I saw it. I made a mental note (which may be the single most worthless thing on Earth, BTW) to cancel in plenty of time. And then, of course, I forgot.

I was so mad at myself. It was definitely not the first time this had happened.

Have you ever done this before? Come on. Be honest. You’re among friends here.

Asking for a break

It would be one thing if the charge was only a few bucks. Maybe it wouldn’t be worth the hassle of sending the note. However, $75 is real money. Spending a few minutes to potentially save that amount of money is a no-brainer, I think.

Still, there was absolutely no guarantee that my ask would be approved. It was 100% my fault. Any refund would simply be them doing me a solid, and I wanted to make sure to acknowledge that in my note.

Here’s what I wrote, with a subject line of “Cancellation and refund request”…

“Hi there. I recently was charged $75 at the end of my free trial. However, I had intended to cancel prior to time running out.

I know you are under no obligation to grant my refund, but I’m asking you to consider it.

If you would grant it, I’d be happy to rate the app and give it a positive review in the App Store.

Thank you for your consideration.”

That’s it!

I sent it to their info email address and things moved quickly after that:

• Immediately got an auto-reply email confirming receipt and saying they’d aim to reply to my note within 72 hours.

• About 12 hours later, I got an email from a customer service representative saying they would honor my request and that the refund would take 5-10 business days to complete.

• About 15 minutes after that, I got another email with documentation further confirming that the refund would happen.

• Later that day, the refund appeared in my credit card transactions.

Could not have been easier. Within a few days, I left a strong review in the App Store, as I had promised.

This whole process might have taken me 15 minutes and it got me $75. That’s an hourly rate that anybody would love.

What makes this email effective

If — OK, when — you find yourself in a similar situation, please feel free to use my email as a template. That’s why it is there.

But before you do, it is important to understand what makes this email work:

• It is polite. People don’t want to help jerks.

• It doesn’t waste their time. Customer service reps are busy. Get to the point.

• It acknowledges fault. You’re not blaming the company or calling them evil. You messed up. You know it. You’re just asking them for leniency.

• It is a win-win. Good reviews are like gold, especially for smaller companies. Offering to help them out in this way could potentially make them look at your request more kindly.

Even if your email does all of these things, are you guaranteed to get your way? No, of course not. I firmly believe, however, that I did help myself by approaching the situation this way. It has worked for me in the past, and I believe it will work for me again in the future, so I wanted to pass it along.

Have you asked for this type of refund?

We want details — good, bad or ugly! Share them below.

Until next time!
Matt

Hi there, my friend.

I’d like to start this note by asking you two questions…

I’m super-curious to see how you answer these questions because I believe that most people would answer no to both of them. Even though Americans have a reputation around the world as being brash and boisterous — rightfully so, I’d say — the reality is that most of us simply don’t like confrontation. We get all sweaty-palmed at the idea of negotiating, and it is only getting worse.

But here’s the thing…

We do it all the time, and because of that, we’re probably way better at it than we think.

12 times you’ve negotiated without thinking about it

In the prologue of my book — “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life” — I lay out a series of beliefs, concepts and themes that make up the core of my book. One of them is that you have way more negotiating experience than you think.

Here are the dozen negotiations I lay out in that section that most of us have probably done but never really thought of as negotiation:

• The temperature of the thermostat

• The best time for a work meeting

• Which parent takes which kid to which activity

• What to buy at the grocery store for the week

• What to listen to while making dinner or driving somewhere

• Convincing your roommate, significant other or child to do the dishes or take out the trash

• What TV show or movie to watch with a friend or relative

• What time your kid needs to be home

• Where to have dinner with a friend or relative

• What dessert to split

• Where to go for your next family or group vacation

• Who brings what to the holiday meal.

That’s just to mention a few. There’s literally a potentially endless list of things we negotiate and manage on a daily basis. And, to quote myself,

“In many or most of those activities, you probably don’t feel like an inexperienced scaredy-cat, right?”

Right.

The truth is that, in many cases, the things listed above are actually way more stressful than negotiating with a bank or a cable company or a gym. That’s because they involve people you love, people that matter to you and whose feelings you probably don’t want to hurt. It’s one thing to look like a jerk in front of a faceless person on the phone; it’s something else entirely to look like one to your spouse, kid or Aunt Kathy.

However, we still don’t tend to see these interactions in that way. We downplay what we’ve done — Oh, I wasn’t negotiating; I was just talking — when in reality, we should instead see it as empowering.

Let your family and friends help you improve

If you are comfortable in having these conversations with your loved ones, consider enlisting their assistance the next time you have a negotiation that you’re nervous about.

Role-playing can be an amazing way to calm your nerves. Ask a trusted friend or relative to walk through a conversation with you where they pretend to be the bank’s customer service representative, for example, so you can practice what you’ll say. It may seem silly, but it works.

Ideally, you’d go through it a few times.

• First, let everything go as smoothly as possible.

• Second, have your loved one give you a little pushback. You should still get your way, but it should take a little longer and perhaps require a little more persistence.

• Finally, they should really let you have it. That doesn’t mean that they should curse you or do anything over the top, but have the conversation be a worst-case scenario of what could realistically happen. I compare it to the old coach’s concept of “making practice worse than the game.” Chances are nothing’s going to be as bad as how you were talked to in this role-play, so you may be able to relax a little more when the time comes for the actual conversation.

Share your success or horror story

If you’ve ever had one of these family or friend negotiations go really well — or really wrong — I’d love to hear it. Let us know in the comments below.

Until next time!
Matt

Happy Thanksgiving! I know the holidays can be hard — especially if you have recently lost a loved one — but I hope this is a day of joy and peace for you.

As I thought of what to write about for this week, a flood of possibilities came to mind.

I could write about the dangers of store credit cards, but I’d just done that recently.

I could write about travel savings, but I’d done that, too.

Or I could just take the easy route and reshare things that I’ve written in the past about Black Friday and holiday shopping and such…

By the way, that pumpkin-headed kid in the picture above is my son. He’s 19 and in college now, but that will forever be one of my favorite pictures ever. But I digress…

Rather than treading the usual Thanksgiving ground, I wanted to try something different and address one of the most important financial assets anyone can have. It can make or break your entire financial situation, but it isn’t always talked about in this context.

Perhaps the most expensive thing in life?

One of the things I say most in interviews — and I’ve said it on Substack countless times, too — is that few things in life are more expensive than crummy credit.

That is undeniably true.

One of those things, however, is poor health.

I’m not sure that anything in life is more expensive than bad health.

If you’re healthy, be thankful for it, and do whatever you can to preserve it.

If your loved ones have their health as well, be incredibly thankful for that, too.

The importance of our health is obviously not just about money, but the impact of it on our finances can be so massive that it simply can’t be overstated.

Medical debt by the numbers

It is staggering. According to government data,

• Americans owe at least $220 billion in medical debt.

• About 14 million have more than $1,000 in medical debt.

• About 3 million Americans have more than $10,000 in medical debt.

And that’s just debt. That doesn’t include other costs we face regularly, like the $800 billion — BILLION! — we spend on prescription drugs in 2024.

All of that is money that can’t go to emergency funds, high-interest debt payments, retirement or college fund savings and even fun things like trips to Hawaii or tickets to see your favorite musician. The financial impact of poor health can literally be limitless, and it is crushing millions of Americans today.

An investment in your future

When it comes to money, I’m a big believer in controlling what you can control. You don’t know if the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates, but you can reduce your own by shopping around for a mortgage rate or getting a 0% balance transfer credit card. You don’t how secure your job is, but you can put money away, grow your network and have your resume ready in case the worst happens.

I feel similarly when it comes to your health. Yes, many aspects of our health are simply beyond our power to change — as much as we might wish otherwise — but our decisions and actions have very real impacts on our physical and mental health, too.

Of course, I’m not a doctor or a medical expert, by any stretch. I’ll defer to others to give you that kind of advice. However, when it comes to treating your health as the invaluable financial asset it is, I can offer some guidance…

• Don’t be afraid to spend in moderation to improve your health. Of course, there are plenty of things that you can do for your health that don’t cost a cent, such as going for a hike, doing bodyweight exercises or meditating. However, I also believe that it is OK to spend in moderation to level up your health. Consider it an investment in your future. Gym memberships, exercise equipment, athletic apparel, higher-quality foods and other such items can help contribute to better health. As with any major expense, however, it can be worth creating a line item in your budget for it to ensure that it won’t push you into debt.

• Negotiate medical bills. Far more things than you realize are negotiable. Perhaps none are more important than medical bills, however. In writing my book, I spoke with many people who successfully negotiated medical bills, sometimes saving themselves thousands of dollars simply because they were willing to ask. One of those people was the late, great Marshall Allen, who spent his life crusading against high medical costs and teaching people that they should never pay their first medical bill. Here’s a piece I wrote about his message…

• Consider your mental health as well. Again, there are plenty of free things that you can do to help your mental health — meditating, praying, reading, exercising, talking with loved ones, listening to music, the list goes on — but it is OK to spend on that as well. Again, consider it an investment in your future. As I’ve mentioned before, the meditation app Headspace (not an advertisement, just a sincere recommendation) has helped me greatly in difficult times, and I’m also a firm believer in the power of therapy, but there are plenty of other options as well. Please seek out what works for you because your mental health can have a profound effect on your physical health and vice versa.

• Save for the future. As Mr. Shawn Carter once said, “In anticipation of precipitation, stack chips for a rainy day.”

  We don’t know when medical issues will arrive, but we can certainly try our best to be as ready for them when they do. Health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts can be a great tool. (Learn more about them here.) A simple high-yield savings account can be, too. Saving money can be easier said than done, especially when you’re on a tight budget. However, the truth is that even a small amount of savings can be impactful. It can be your umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh when that rainy day arrives.

• Say no to medical credit cards. Just like store credit cards from your favorite retailer, a medical credit card might be the first payment solution offered up by your medical provider. And just like store credit cards, they’re very likely not the best choice, so don’t feel pressured into saying yes. Instead, ask them if they offer a no-interest payment plan that you can take advantage of.

• Ask about the “cash price” instead. Insurance isn’t always the best option when it comes to paying for prescription medications. If you find yourself shocked at how much you’re being charged the next time you go to the pharmacist, ask them this: “What would tbe cash price be for this prescription?” They’ll be happy to tell you. To be clear, the cash price doesn’t mean that you have to use actual dollar bills to pay. It just means that you won’t be using your insurance. As strange as it may seem, that can sometimes be the cheapest alternative.

• “What if we wait?” When it comes to health, some things are urgent, but the truth is that not everything is. If you’re going through a financial rough patch, it is OK to ask the doctor if there would be any harm in delaying a procedure or service until a better time. You’re not going to hurt the doctor’s feelings — if you do, consider it a red flag and start shopping for a new doctor — and it can help you avoid potential debt in the future.

6 Black Friday book recommendations

If you’re looking for a good read or a great gift this holiday season, I have a few recommendations…

• “Mind Your Money” by Yanely Espinal. I have enormous respect for Yanely. If you follow her socials at @MissBeHelpful, you’ll see that she devotes enormous amounts of time to traveling the country to advocate for requiring personal finance curriculum in schools. It’s a real passion for her, and she’s had a major impact. Our nation’s kids are better off because of the work she does. She has also written an amazing personal finance book, which is described on Amazon like this: “[It] delivers all the personal finance basics through insightful stories with a splash of sass.” A perfect description. Go and get it. You’ll be glad you did.

• “Retirement Bites” by Kerry Hannon and Janna Herron. My friend Janna and her co-author Kerry — both personal finance experts with ties to Yahoo Finance among other outlets — have given us a really well-written guide to planning for retirement, specifically targeting Gen Xers like myself. It’s clever, funny and easy to understand. I liked it so much that I wrote a recommendation for its back cover.

• “My Mother’s Money” by Beth Pinsker. If this sounds familiar, it is because I featured Beth in my most recent post here. It is a wonderfully written, heartfelt look at the struggle of financial caregiving, but it is also an invaluable guidebook for those who are supporting their parents financially or think they will be someday. It is an enormously important topic, and Beth — a certified financial planner and a financial columnist at Marketwatch — covers it beautifully.

• “Unraveling Your Relationship with Money” by Shannah Game, and “Overcoming Financial Trauma” by Rahkim Sabree. Our relationships with money are challenging and complex. Shannah and Rahkim — two money experts with a focus on helping people deal with financial trauma — offer real insights and actionable steps to help people who are struggling with that relationship. This is important stuff, and these books can hugely impactful.

• “Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How To Take Control Of Your Financial Life” by me! I’m incredibly proud of my book, and it is especially relevant during these times of high inflation. You have more power over your money than you realize. My book can help you wield it. Often, all it takes is asking the right question.

Be good to yourself, my friend. I’m thankful for you, and I hope you’re thankful for all the good things that you have.

Have an amazing Thanksgiving day — and try not to go too crazy shopping this weekend.

Until next time!
Matt