Steve Stewart

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Full notes at http://SteveStewart.me/186

The Road to Financial Wellness

Jason Vitug from Phroogal is leaving for a 30 day journey throughout the U.S. to promote financial wellness.

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7 Reasons To Balance Your Checking Account Monthly

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Debit cards, auto-pay, bill-pay, and checks: There are multiple ways money can come out of our accounts.

It’s more important than ever to balance our checking account every month.

I give 7 reasons to balance your account and 3 tips to make it easier.

Ponda from the Honda

There is no single “right way” to do something

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Strategic Steps to Building a Word-of-mouth Coaching Business Webinar

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The next premium webinar June 17th at 9pm Eastern – Strategic Steps to Building a Word-of-Mouth Coaching Business.

Only 9 seats available. $20 to register and get a link to the replay. Contact me for more: Steve@SteveStewart.me

Did you budget your summer vacation?

My Virtual Budget Course can help you prioritize spending and discover how much money you have left for your next financial goal.

One hour and $25 will teach you something about yourself and discover what is truly most important to you:

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Despite all the technology and steps we take to prevent our debit cards from being compromised, there is no way to prevent card fraud from happening.

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Recently, CreditCards.com conducted a survey of Americans who’ve had a credit or debit card transaction flagged because of suspected fraud. Roughly 7 out of 10 said at least one of those alerts was a false alarm when, in fact, more than half said the transactions were completely valid.

As a consumer, what can you do? Not much, but in this episode I cover:

• Protections we already have as card holders  (see below)
• Steps to reduce the chance of card fraud and ID theft
• Best practices for where and when to use your debit card like a credit card

Recent data breaches, like the one the media loves to focus on – TARGET in 2013 – may be making card issuers extra cautious.

Why? Because card issuers (i.e.: Banks) are on the hook when fraudulent charges do occur. It’s called the Zero Liability Protection

Visa’s Zero Liability policy
MasterCard Zero Liability Protection statement
American Express’s stated policy
Discover’s statement

I also share how I use my debit card

There are times I choose to use my debit card and PIN. I forego the Zero Liability protection to save the merchant from paying unnecessary processing fees.

Balancing the 3 Pillars of Personal Finance

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As a financial coach, I hear people make this statement, “If I could just make more money I could start saving for retirement.”

For the majority of Americans, producing a healthy income is only half the challenge.

There are two other factors that make up the other half: How you spend and how much you save. Finding the right balance between the three pillars of personal finance doesn’t take a college degree or incredible amount of willpower.

However, knowing the ratios of income versus spending versus the need to spend is paramount:

Earn big money + spend big money = need to save big money
Earn little money + spend little money = need to save some money
Earn big money + spend little money = need to save some money
Earn little money + spend big money = need to save big money

This segment was originally an article I wrote for LibertyInvestor.com

Ponda from the Honda: [27:42]>"]

Upcoming Webinars

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Identity theft is no joke – and it’s on the rise! Keith Bunn of CavusFinancialCoaching.com compared four companies to see if their services are worth the cost.

Also in this episode:

• Newly re-named ‘Ponda from the Honda: My mailbox is wasting a lot of energy
• Upcoming webinars and recent appearances
• Testimony from a listener who learned risk vs reward from an engineering book

Resources and events:

Stop unsolicited mail from reaching your mailbox: OptOutPrescreen.com

Get advice:

• Fee-only Financial Advisors
• Find A Coach from my group

Recent Appearances:

• Was recently the guest on #SoMoney podcast with Farnoosh Torabi
• Also, I was on Amy Robles’ Think Enriched podcast
• I led 7th grade students through The Flow Of Money webinar

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YNAB vs EveryDollar Budget Comparison

Dave Ramsey announced his new budgeting software – EveryDollar. It is awesome – and have many similar features to YNAB (You Need A Budget). Which premium budgeting software is best for you? Let’s compare the different features and methods to identify the right one for you.

Links mentioned in this segment:

• YNAB: Save 10% on YNAB http://moneyplansos.com/YNAB
• Get 2gb FREE in-the-cloud storage to sync YNAB with all your devices (among other things you can use DropBox for)
• EveryDollar: Sign up for a Plus account ($99 a year after 15-day free trial) or the free account

Holla from the…Honda?

I lucked out with a TREMENDOUS deal on a Honda Civic. The catch? I live in St. Louis and the car was listed in Dallas.

So many things can go wrong when buying a car long-distance. You must rely on the assistance of others or you’ll find yourself in a mess.

Teach Children To Save Day

April is Financial Literacy month and Friday April 14, 2015 is Teach Children To Save Day.

Upcoming conferences:

• National Coaches Conference in Des Moines June 9-12 (closed group)
• Podcast Movement July 31-Aug 2 in Ft. Worth, TX: PodcastMovement.com
• I’m speaking at FinCon15 Sept 17-20 in Charlotte, NC: Tickets: stevestewart.me/fincon

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Carl Richards was a ditch-digger, fell into a securities job, became a Certified Financial Planner, then became the Sketch Guy at the New York Times by drawing financial concepts on paper napkins.

He released his second book, the One Page Financial Plan, and shares some of his journey with us.

In this episode:

We talk to Carl Richards about his journey from digging ditches to…

• Becoming a Certified Financial Planner to…
• Buying a house he couldn’t afford to…
• Having an A-HA moment on a white board to…
• Creating clever drawings of financial concepts on cocktail napkins to…
• Writing for the New York Times to…
• Writing two books and receiving national attention

Quotes for Term Life Insurance

• Today I share details about the inexpensive price of Term Life Insurance and why a 20 year, $1m policy for a 35 year old is less expensive than a 15 year, $500k policy for a 48 year old.

Holla from the Impala

• What’s with all the Social Media Managers on Twitter following me?

For a more complete list of notes with pictures and links, go to SteveStewart.me/182

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Joseph Michael is an average guy who saw a need and is now making 6-figures helping writers solve a problem. They love to use Scrivener – an incredible writing and organization tool – but had a hard time figuring out how to use it efficiently.

Enter the Scrivener Coach. Joseph doesn’t work for Scrivener but came up with an easy-to-follow, step-by-step video course that takes a lot of the guesswork out of the process.

I’ve taken the course and am using Scrivener to create my Audacity Workshop (audio editing software I’ve been using for almost 15 years).

You can find more about Joseph and his course at *LearnScrivenerFast.com or follow him on Twitter @ScrivenerCoach

I hope you enjoy this April Fools Day episode.

Interview highlights:

• Favorite quote: You can not build a reputation on what you are going to do – Henry Ford
• Favorite book (of the day): Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

Interview Links

• Michael Hyatt’s post that gave Joseph his idea – 5 reasons I switched to Scrivener for all my writing
• Joseph’s course *Learn Scrivener Fast
• Joseph’s home base website
• Joseph on Twitter @ScrivenerCoach

*Resources and Affiliate links