How can I find financial harmony with my partner?

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Welcome to the Ask Ralph Podcast where listening to an experienced financial professional with over 30 years of experience can help you make sense of confusing questions, current headlines and industry trends about taxes, small business, financial decision making, investment strategies, and even the art of proper budgeting. Ask Ralph makes the complex simple by sharing his real world knowledge from a Christian perspective with all things financial.

Now here's your host, Ralph Estep Jr.

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[00:00:00] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Good evening and welcome to the show. On tonight's show, we've got some great questions to answer from our mailbag and we'll answer your questions as well. But let me start by first asking you a question. Are money fights destroying your marriage? Tonight I'm diving into a powerful story of transformation

[00:00:16] Ralph Estep, Jr.: that changed everything for one couple about to break. Plus, I'm going to talk about some crucial year-end tax moves you need to make before December 31st that could save you thousands of dollars. And listen, if you're thinking about turning that side hustle into a real business, I'll tell you exactly what you need to know about timing it right from charitable giving strategies to smart business deductions,

[00:00:37] Ralph Estep, Jr.: we're tackling your biggest money questions with biblical wisdom. You don't want to miss my 7-step blueprint for ending financial conflicts in your marriage once and for all. If you're facing similar financial dilemmas, remember you can submit your questions at justaskralph.com or post them right there in the chat.

[00:00:55] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Well, thank you for joining me. This is your weekly opportunity to get your questions answered. And like I said, feel free to ask your questions right in the chat. If you do ask a question, do me a favor and just put a Q and a colon so they'll jump out at me. Feel free to comment as well. And listen, tonight is the last night to do our survey. At midnight,

[00:01:12] Ralph Estep, Jr.: the survey closes. Now you might be saying, Ralph, why does it matter? Well, here's why it matters. I'm giving a $250 Amazon gift card to one lucky person who fills out the survey and listen; It'll take you no more than five minutes and we've already got a ton of responses, but if you want to do it, I would really appreciate it.

[00:01:29] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Like I said, you've got till midnight tonight. You go to askralphpodcast.com/survey. Again, that's askralphpodcast.com/survey, and stick around to the end of the show because some lucky listener is going to win a $100 Amazon gift card right there later in the show. Well, let's get started with our Bible verse today.

[00:01:51] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And our Bible verse comes to us from the book of Ecclesiastes, it’s from chapter 4, verses 9 and 10. And it tells us this. "Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up." Well, let's talk about our first question we got here from our mailbag.

[00:02:10] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And this one came to us from Kathy in Little Rock, Arkansas. And this is what she wrote. She said, "Dear Ralph, I'm at my wits end. My husband and I can't seem to have a single conversation about money without it turning into an argument. He's a saver, I'm more of a spender, we just can't find middle ground.

[00:02:28] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Last week, I bought some new clothes for the kids without telling him, and he saw the credit card statement. It led to another huge fight. I know we need to get on the same page financially, but how? We both love the Lord and want to honor Him in our marriage, but our different money personalities are tearing us apart.

[00:02:45] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Please help." Well, let me just tell you something right now. That is truly a great question. And it's very common for couples to have this situation. Let me start by sharing some statistics related to financial issues. These are the common stressors for couples. First one is debt. Things like student loans, credit card debt, mortgages.

[00:03:07] Ralph Estep, Jr.: These are all major stressors. In fact, the American Psychological Association, that's the APA, consistently finds that finances are a top stressor for Americans. And debt is a significant component to that. And listen to this. A 2022 survey by NerdWallet found that the average household credit card debt had grown to $5,221.

[00:03:30] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And here's the problem. High level of debt leads to arguments about spending habits and creates those feelings of being overwhelmed and trapped. Let's talk about those differing spending habits, those financial priorities. Truth is couples come from different financial backgrounds. Everybody is raised differently.

[00:03:48] Ralph Estep, Jr.: They got varying philosophies about money. Like I said, one partner might be a saver. The other might be a spender. And those differences can lead to major disagreements. Those disagreements could be things like, how do you allocate funds? How do you save for the future?

[00:04:04] Ralph Estep, Jr.: How do you manage those daily expenses? And listen to this. Research from the University of Kansas found that conflicts about finance early in marriage are a strong predictor of divorce. One of the leading causes of that is lack of communication. The national foundation for credit counseling has reported that many couples don't regularly communicate about their finances.

[00:04:28] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And then what happens? You have one of these unexpected expenses, like a job loss maybe. Maybe a medical emergency or that home repair. Those home repairs can strain even the most financially stable couples. Listen to this one. A survey by Bankrate found that only 40 percent of Americans, listen to this now, would be able to cover a $1,000 emergency expense with savings, a thousand bucks.

[00:04:53] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And of course, not to mention these things with income inequality or financial dependence. Maybe you've got one partner that earns significantly more than the other, or one partner is financially dependent on the other. And this can create a huge imbalance of power and lead to resentment. Not to mention the lack of a budget or financial plan.

[00:05:12] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And let's talk about divorce for a second. While not solely attributable to finances, financial problems are often cited as a contributing factor in divorce. In fact, some studies have suggested that financial problems are among the top reasons for divorce. It causes stress. The APA, again, we talked about them earlier, consistently ranks finances as a top stressor for Americans.

[00:05:37] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And the problem is this stress undoubtedly spills over into their relationships. Well, let me start with a story tonight about Mark and Lisa. Now these are clients of mine, but I don't use real names. And Mark and Lisa were constantly fighting about money. In this particular situation, Mark was the saver, but Lisa was the impulse spender.

[00:05:56] Ralph Estep, Jr.: One evening after another heated argument about a $200 grocery bill, they sat in my office, barely looking at each other. Man, let me tell you, the tension was palpable. Mark clutched his budget spreadsheet like a weapon while Lisa fought back tears of frustration. You could see these two were not happy.

[00:06:14] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And I was right in the middle of it. I was playing like the counselor. But here's what's changed everything. They learned to see their different money personalities as strengths rather than weaknesses. And they implemented seven strategies that I'm going to talk about right now that transform their financial relationships.

[00:06:33] Ralph Estep, Jr.: You might want to write these down. Number one thing. Plan money date nights, and it might sound silly, but they scheduled weekly money dates where they discuss finances over dinner. They made it a positive experience rather than a confrontation. Like you said in your call or your letter today. It's constantly devolves into this fight.

[00:06:54] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Well make it a positive experience. Do that money date night and turn that into a positive experience rather than a confrontation. So that's number one on my list. Money date nights. Number two, shared goals, separate responsibilities. So Mark and Lisa, they identified their common financial dreams. They had dreams that were in common.

[00:07:15] Ralph Estep, Jr.: They were married. There was something there and they divided those financial tasks based on their strengths. That is really the key. Use one party to build up the other. It's really a team approach. So that's number two, shared goals, separate responsibilities. Let's move on to number three. And that's what I call the three-account system.

[00:07:34] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Now a lot of people might hate me for this. And there's a lot of people that do financial counseling. They disagree with this, but this is where with Mark and Lisa, this is what I did, and I think it was the best way to handle it. So what they did was they maintained joint accounts for household expenses and savings.

[00:07:49] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Plus they had what we called individual freedom accounts for personal spending. And this really seems to work for some couples. So if you're constantly battling, you know, you're in that back and forth, like a boxing match, this three-account system could really work for you. So maintain that joint account

[00:08:04] Ralph Estep, Jr.: for those household expenses and the savings, and then have those individual freedom accounts for personal spending. So that's number three. That's my three-account system. Number four, this is a Christian show. Let's focus on regular prayer and biblical study. And these two, they committed to praying together about financial decisions and they study what scripture says about money management.

[00:08:26] Ralph Estep, Jr.: If you listen to my show, every day, I'm able to tie something about money into scripture. So what did they do? They sat down and they figured out ways to pray about it. They figured out ways to use the Bible to help them. So that's number four. That's my regular prayer and biblical study. Number five.

[00:08:44] Ralph Estep, Jr.: If you've listened to me for the last couple of weeks, I've been talking about this and I've been going back and forth between the 24-hour rule and the 48 hour rule. Now tonight I'm going to say it's a 24-hour rule because this is what Mark and Lisa did. So for any purchase over $100 bucks, they immediately waited 24 hours.

[00:08:59] Ralph Estep, Jr.: So they didn't just buy it. If it was more than a hundred bucks, they waited 24 hours, they discussed it and together they made a decision before deciding on it. And that broke down a lot of those battles because they waited. And what's the funny thing that happened was oftentimes they found that they didn't even need to think.

[00:09:16] Ralph Estep, Jr.: So they put that 24-hour rule into practice. Again, maybe for some people, 24 hours works. Some people 48 hours works, but again, that's that 24 hour rule. Number six, have monthly financial check-ins. So Mark and Lisa, they reviewed their progress, they celebrated their wins, and they adjusted their plans as needed.

[00:09:35] Ralph Estep, Jr.: It's not one of those set it and forget it things. This is really crucial. They reviewed their progress. They celebrated those wins, and they adjusted their plan as they needed. And last but not least, number seven, sometimes you just have to ask for professional guidance. And with Mark and Lisa, I was their monthly go to person.

[00:09:53] Ralph Estep, Jr.: I helped them stay on track. So you might be saying, Ralph, how did this all play out? Well, let me just tell you. Six months into this, Mark and Lisa returned to my office, but this time they were holding hands and smiling. That's what I wanted to see. And here's an amazing thing. They not only eliminated their credit card debt, but they also started saving for their dream house.

[00:10:17] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And here's something that I thought was amazing. They learned to appreciate each other's financial perspective. So I'm going to say, well done, Mark and Lisa. Let me see if we got any questions, salty waters. Thank you for the show. So let's take a look at the next question we have in our mailbag today. And this one is directly related to income tax this year.

[00:10:37] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And this one comes to us. This is the question. It says "I've had a significantly higher income year than expected because I had a bonus in stock options. Should I accelerate any planned 2025 charitable donations into December 2024 to offset this income, and what documentation do I need?" Now that's a great question.

[00:10:59] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And it's a great tax planning question. Right now in December, I'm meeting with clients. We're talking about these types of issues. So many people are facing this, especially people who have seen a pretty good increase in the market. If you've got stocks in the market, you've seen some pretty good things going on there.

[00:11:15] Ralph Estep, Jr.: So maybe you're sitting on these capital gains. So you ask a simple question. You're saying, Ralph, listen, could I do some charitable contributions this year to help offset some of those gains? And I think that's actually a great idea. Because as your income grows, there's this thing called the marginal tax rate.

[00:11:35] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Basically, what it means is that as your income goes up, more of your income is taxed at a higher rate. So we call that your marginal rate. So if you've had a good year income wise, you've got those bonuses, you've got those stock options. You sell that stock, you may find that your income is much higher.

[00:11:52] Ralph Estep, Jr.: So this is a great time to do those charitable donations. Again, I'm making some assumptions. That means I'm assuming that you're able to itemize. I assume that they're going to be substantial because then what you're going to do is those charitable contributions are worth more, what I call have more bang for the buck.

[00:12:08] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Now the next thing you asked about was for documentation. This thing, a lot of people get hung up on. So let me go over a couple of things. First thing. You need written acknowledgement from the charity for any single donation over $250 bucks. A lot of people don't know that. So if you're going to make a charitable contribution and it's going to be more than 250 bucks,

[00:12:27] Ralph Estep, Jr.: you've got to get a written acknowledgement from the charity. So you're going to need your proof that you did it and that written acknowledgement. Bank records or written communications for smaller donations are fine. So if they're less than 250, you've got a canceled check. You've got a copy of your bank statement. And listen, the IRS doesn't ask you for these things when you file your tax return.

[00:12:46] Ralph Estep, Jr.: It's one of those things that happens if you're the unlucky winner of the audit lottery. So I always tell clients, plan on having these things. I don't need to see them if I'm doing your taxes, but plan on them. Now, if you're donating stock, it's mighty important that you have an acquisition date and cost basis records, because you're going to be able to deduct what the carrying value of that stock is on your tax return.

[00:13:10] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Now, if you're doing non-cash donations, the Goodwill Salvation Army, there's a whole list of them, you're going to need to put a special form in your tax return. That's called a form 8283 and that's anything over $500. Now here's what a lot of people also don't know about. And this surprises some people.

[00:13:29] Ralph Estep, Jr.: If you're going to give non-cash donations and the total of those for the year is going to be more than $5,000 and listen to me very carefully. So let's say you go to the Goodwill in January, you go in February, March, you get the idea. And let's say you're doing a thousand dollars a month in stuff, but here's the problem.

[00:13:48] Ralph Estep, Jr.: If you continue that by the end of the year, you're going to have $12,000 in donations. But here's the deal. The IRS is saying, if it's going to be more than $5,000 overall, you need to have those things appraised. And I say to the people like, Ralph, what are you talking about? So these bags of stuff that I'm taking to the Goodwill or taken to the AMVETS, or they pick up at the door, they got to be appraised?

[00:14:10] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Yep. That's right. The IRS says that if you're going to donate non-cash things over $5,000 in a calendar year, you got to have those appraised. And here's the best part. The person that appraises them has to be a certified IRS appraiser. So laying ahead on this, if you're thinking about, hey, I'm going to give a lot of non-cash stuff.

[00:14:30] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Like I had a client a few years ago that donated a piano. And I think that piano was worth like 10 or $11,000. Thank God they called me ahead of time. And they said, Ralph, we're going to donate this expensive piano. What should we do? I said, well, here's what you got to do. Right now, go get a written appraisal of the value of that and keep themselves out of trouble.

[00:14:49] Ralph Estep, Jr.: So here's some things to consider. And a lot of people don't think about this one either. When you're given a donation, you got to make sure that that particular organization is a qualified (501(c)(3) with the IRS. And a lot of people say, Ralph, what does that mean? On the IRS website, they actually have a button you can click on to check to see if there are qualified IRS

[00:15:12] Ralph Estep, Jr.: approved charity. So a lot of people will bring in tax stuff and they'll say, well, I gave this to this one. I gave this to this one or go fund me is a great one. Go fund me is not necessarily tax deductible. So make sure that they're an IRS qualified charity. Next thing you want to do, if you're going to donate any stock, I talked about this a little while ago, make sure you have a record of the fair market value on the date that the stock is donated.

[00:15:37] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And that's not really complicated to do. You can go online. It's all kinds of market valuation things. You plug in the stock information and get that information. And last but not least, you talk about documentation, keep those records for at least three years after filing. And again, I can't give you the best answers today.

[00:15:55] Ralph Estep, Jr.: I'm going to tell you to consult with your tax advisor for specific advice. And be careful with those stock options because they can be complex. Well, let's look at our next question in the mailbag tonight. And this one is this, it says, "My small business has had strong profits this year." I say that's fantastic.

[00:16:12] Ralph Estep, Jr.: So now they're asking the question I'm getting all the time. They're asking us, they said, "What equipment purchases or retirement contributions, retirement plan contributions should I consider making before the December 31st to reduce my tax liability?" That is another great question. And if you looked at my calendar the last week and the next two weeks coming up, I am booked solid with people asking that very same question because they're taking a look at their year and they're going, man, I've had a pretty good year, which is fantastic.

[00:16:41] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And they're saying, Ralph, could I make some equipment purchases? Could I make a retirement plan contribution before the end of the year? So let's start talking first about equipment purchases. I don't want to lose you in the weeds, but there's this thing called a section 179 deduction. And basically what it does is it allows you to deduct up to $1.16 million in qualifying equipment purchases if you made those in 2024. What am I talking about there? Let's say you buy a machine for your production facility, or you buy some equipment for your production or for your business. You can deduct up to $1.16 million in that qualifying equipment. Basically it comes right off the top.

[00:17:22] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Again, there are little nuances and rules and regulations, but the key thing is it's got to be placed in service by December 31st. Now I was just meeting with a client a couple of hours ago and he was surprised to find out you don't actually have to pay for this stuff this year. Now you have to go in debt before you got to sign a loan.

[00:17:41] Ralph Estep, Jr.: You got to put it on a credit card or something like that, but it just needs to be placed in service by December 31st. So you can actually go spend a ton of money and not have any cash out of pocket and get those deductions. Now, these things include vehicles over 6,000 pounds, computers, machinery, furniture, all of those types of things.

[00:18:01] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And there's also this thing called bonus depreciation, which is available at 80 percent in 2024. So I think I've answered your question about equipment purchases, but let's talk about retirement contributions. This thing a lot of people don't think about at the end of the year. They think about how can I spend money?

[00:18:14] Ralph Estep, Jr.: But this is also a great opportunity to save money. And there's this thing called a SEP IRA. So if you're self-employed or you have a small business and you're not covered by a pension plan, listen to this. With a SEP IRA, you can make a contribution up to 25 percent of the compensation in 2024 with a cap of $69,000.

[00:18:35] Ralph Estep, Jr.: So a real simple example. Let's say your business shows a profit of $200,000. With $200,000, you can put 25 percent of that into that SEP IRA. It just needs to be funded by the time you file your taxes in 2025. And they give you that because you need to figure out what your taxable income is. But that is a fantastic way to set aside money for later.

[00:18:59] Ralph Estep, Jr.: If you're doing a solo 401k, it's another investment vehicle, you can do up to $69,000 there between employer employee contributions. And you might think about setting up a new qualified retirement plan by December 31st, because you've got until tax time to fund it. A lot of people don't understand that.

[00:19:17] Ralph Estep, Jr.: You just have to have it created before the 31st of December. And then you have till your tax filing deadline to actually put the money to, and I have a lot of clients that do that. But again, I'm going to tell you, consult with your tax advisor and analyze your specific situation. Ask a lot of questions, look at both your long-term and short-term goals, because it might be great.

[00:19:39] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Hey, Ralph. Yeah, that sounds great, dude. I'm going to put 69,000 into retirement. But maybe you've got credit card debt, or you've got some bills coming up, beginning of the year that you're going to need to pay, put the pay for your business, might not be the best idea to do that. So that's when you need to sit down with somebody like me or another tax advisor and come up with some ideas.

[00:19:58] Ralph Estep, Jr.: I'm going to throw a Bible verse in here. And this is Proverbs 21:5 says, "The plans of the diligent lead surely to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty." Boy, I messed that up. Let me say that again. "The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty." I got it right that time.

[00:20:18] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Well, let's move on to our last question tonight. If I got some questions in the chat, please feel free to type them in. Tell me what's going on, but this one came in our mailbag. So here's another question. It says this. " I started a side gig this year that's generating income. Here's the question. Should I form an LLC or S-corp before year end,

[00:20:37] Ralph Estep, Jr.: and what are the tax implications if I wait until January to make this decision?" Now, that is another great and practical question because it's all about business structure and timing. I can't provide specific advice on the online show here tonight because everyone's situation is different, but here's things I can tell you.

[00:20:58] Ralph Estep, Jr.: If you wait until January, you're going to report all this income on your personal income tax return. It's not a fantastic situation. It's going to go on a schedule C. Now here's the problem with that. That means that every dollar of net income, because you don't have an entity, you're going to pay self-employment tax on that full amount.

[00:21:16] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Maybe saying, Ralph, what in the world are you talking about? So when you work for yourself, you have to pay self-employment tax, which is basically social security and Medicare. When you work for somebody else, you pay half and your employer pays half. But when you work for yourself, you pay both halves.

[00:21:33] Ralph Estep, Jr.: You might be saying, Ralph, what does that equate to? You ready for this? It's 15.2% of that net income. So not only you're going to pay federal tax, if you live in a state that has state incomes, not only you're going to pay state income tax, but you're going to pay that self employment tax as well. So let's just use a simple example.

[00:21:52] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Let's say you're in the 24 percent federal tax bracket and you're in the 8 percent state tax bracket. Then you're going to have to add additional 15.2 percent of that. So that's why these entities are such a great thing. I'm setting up a ton of these right now as we approach the end of the year. Now, if you form that entity before the year end, you might need to file some partial year returns to divide the income up.

[00:22:17] Ralph Estep, Jr.: There might be additional filing costs. You know, these things don't create themselves for free, but you could start taking those tax advantages sooner, but you got to look at the cost of benefit to that. So I'm going to, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to encourage you to do this. Number one, calculate your projected annual income from this side gig. Just like I did right then.

[00:22:35] Ralph Estep, Jr.: That's a really big example. Let's say this. Let's say you're projecting that Ralph, I did this photography business and it was pretty successful this year and we grossed $50,000 and we had about $10,000 in expenses. So we're going to show a $40,000 profit. Well, you can take that $40,000 and say, okay, if I pay self-employment tax on that, that's $40,000 point times 15.2%. Well, maybe I could save some money if I did what old Ralph said to do. So that's what I'm going to tell you. Take a look. Now, if your income is less than 8 to $10,000, it's probably not going to be a huge benefit in the current year, because by the time you pay somebody to create the entity, you get the business license, you do all that stuff.

[00:23:18] Ralph Estep, Jr.: But if your income is and this is a general rule. If your income is going to be over $10,000, the thing kind of pays for itself with the self-employment tax savings, but this is when you meet with that tax professional that can review your specific situation. You can also go to my website, go to askralph.com you'll see a button at the top that says, book a call with Ralph, and I might be able to fit you in before the end of the year and get this entity created. And then take a look at your liability exposure and then also factor in some state specific requirements and fees. I'm just telling you at the end of the year, this is a great time to take a look at what your tax situation is going to be.

[00:23:56] Ralph Estep, Jr.: If you're doing things as a sole proprietor, there's a lot, I'm not an attorney, so I can't give you legal advice, but there are a lot of reasons to have that separate legal entity. I'm not going to get into them tonight, but just the tax ramifications for that self-employment tax is huge. And you might do an LLC, a two member LLC.

[00:24:14] Ralph Estep, Jr.: You might do a subchapter S corporation, but take a look at those things and decide what works best for you. All right. Well, let's get on to our next thing here. And so I'm going to look here in the chat. I don't see any chat questions. Does anybody have any questions they want to ask in the chat? I would love to answer them tonight.

[00:24:32] Ralph Estep, Jr.: I know sometimes you might not have thought of it when we first started, but so now you're thinking, Ralph, I do have a question with the end of the year, doing a few episodes that are coming out. They're going to talk about some tax planning and some resolutions for the future. So as I talk, feel free to drop those questions into the chat.

[00:24:52] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Now maybe after tonight, you're thinking, Ralph, I need to figure out a way to break free from this financial stress. Maybe you're feeling overwhelmed by your financial challenges. Maybe you're thinking about buying a home. Maybe you're running a small business or maybe you're like one of the many people that's living paycheck to paycheck.

[00:25:08] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Well, let me just tell you this. You don't have to walk this journey alone. Like many others, you may be watching your dream slip away. Maybe you're struggling with mounting debt, you're feeling stuck, you're feeling frustrated. Maybe you're that couple that can't seem to get on the same page financially.

[00:25:25] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Maybe you're trying to balance your business and personal finances. Well, let me just tell you, there is hope. And together, working with me, I can help you create a plan to find that financial freedom while honoring your Christian values. You might be saying, Ralph, how do you do that? Well, here's how I get there.

[00:25:41] Ralph Estep, Jr.: First thing I'm going to do, I'm going to assess your current situation. It's just the facts. It's the reality. It's not emotional. That's like, where are you now? Think about it like this. I said this on the show a week or two ago. Let's say you want to take a trip to New York city. Well, in order to get there, you've got to have a plan to get there.

[00:25:58] Ralph Estep, Jr.: You got to start by understanding where you are, whether you're going to use a map or Waze or some kind of mapping program, you got to assess where you are. I'm going to do the same thing with your finances. Once we get a picture of where you are, then we're going to take a look at your God given dreams or what I call your big hairy, audacious goals.

[00:26:17] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Those are the things that you just want to accomplish. Like I said, maybe it's buying a new home. Maybe it's getting a beach place or a second home. Maybe it's saving for your kid's college. Maybe it's buying a new car. Maybe it's a sports car you've always wanted. Maybe it's planning for retirement, but we're going to identify those things.

[00:26:35] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And then we're going to talk about how those things fit in with your faith, which is great. So we've identified your current situation. We identified your God given dreams. We aligned those with your goals, with your faith, but then we're going to build that roadmap. We're going to figure out how to get you from point A to point B.

[00:26:50] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Like I said, if you're going from where I'm located here in Middletown, Delaware to New York city, I'm going to give you a roadmap of how to get from point A to point B. And here's the best part of working with somebody like me, you're going to establish accountability. And that's the key to this. What gets measured gets done.

[00:27:07] Ralph Estep, Jr.: My grandfather used to say that all the time. What gets measured gets done. And if you have somebody that can walk alongside of you, that can help you along the process, establish that accountability and track your success, because that's the key. We may need to make some tweaks to it, may need to make some adjustments.

[00:27:23] Ralph Estep, Jr.: You know, let's think about that analogy. I said, you're on the way from Middletown, Delaware to New York city. And all of a sudden there's an accident on 295 in New Jersey. Well, the mapping software might say, hey, you need to make a detour. Or I might say the same thing to you for having that accountability.

[00:27:38] Ralph Estep, Jr.: We're going to track your success and listen, there's no cookie cutter solutions. You're not going to go watch some YouTube or some TikTok video or read some self-help book. I'm just going to give you some practical faith-based approaches that are tailored to your unique situation. Are you feeling it?

[00:27:57] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Do you want to break free from debt? Do you want to find that financial stability? Do you want to achieve long term success and at the same time grow spiritually while building wealth? Listen, don't let another day pass feeling stuck or overwhelmed. You can book your call with me by going to askralph.com and let's plan your plan. Let's plan your path to financial freedom and spiritual growth. Again, that's at askralph.com. Well, now let's get to what everybody's been waiting for. I don't see many questions coming in. Again, I'll give you an opportunity as I launched this drawing. So let's launch our drawing here.

[00:28:32] Ralph Estep, Jr.: We're going to give away a hundred dollars to a lucky listener. So let me get this started. And what you need to do is you need to go into the chat and you need to type in there pound A S K R A L P H. And as soon as you do that, the timer will start, and you can't enter the contest unless you put that in there.

[00:28:51] Ralph Estep, Jr.: So again, type in there, A S K R A L P H. So and I see some questions coming in. Let's get started with this, with this question. And this one comes to us from AI go to college, AI goes to college. Excuse me. So let me pull that over here and let's take a look at that. And don't forget, enter into the contest in the chat window, type in pound, Ask Ralph.

[00:29:15] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Okay, cool. And then we got it started. So here's AI goes to college ask this question. What's your opinion of financial apps that identify and help manage subscriptions like Rocket Money and Experian's app. They seem like they might be useful, but seem like a privacy nightmare. Well, here's the thing. It's funny

[00:29:31] Ralph Estep, Jr.: you mentioned this because the other day I did a show about this. People don't realize how many subscriptions they actually have. I laugh about it now, but I actually had a couple, and I think it was beginning of tax season this year. And we were going over their finances. They were kind of struggling financially.

[00:29:48] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And I said to them, I said, well, let's take a look at where your money's going. And when we did that, we noticed they both had Netflix subscriptions. So I think this is actually a great idea. Yeah there might be some privacy nightmares to this. I'm not exactly sure how it all plays out, but I honestly feel like these are great things to have.

[00:30:07] Ralph Estep, Jr.: I don't know specifically about Rocket Money or Experian's app, but there are a bunch of those out there. So I would definitely recommend that you pick one of those and use them because I really do think they're very useful. So thank you so much for that AI goes to college. That is an absolutely fantastic question. And it's a thing like you don't realize how many subscriptions you have till you start looking at that and going, man, I had no idea. I remember it's probably been 15 years ago. I actually had a client that was trying to start a business doing just that. He was going to what he called audit your finances and go through and see if he could cancel those or even negotiate those subscriptions.

[00:30:44] Ralph Estep, Jr.: So that is a great question. So I see we got a few people that have entered the contest. You don't want to miss that. We've got another three minutes and 17 seconds. You just go into the chat window and type in pound Ask Ralph. We only got two people entered so far, and there's a lot more people on the call or on the show tonight than that.

[00:31:01] Ralph Estep, Jr.: So make sure you don't miss out. And if you've got other questions while we're waiting on this contest to finish up, feel free to do that. So any other questions we got again, I see more people in the chat, but you need to enter pound Ask Ralph in order to get entered into the contest drawing.

[00:31:20] Ralph Estep, Jr.: So don't miss the opportunity. Just go right into the chat window, type in pound A S K R A L P H. And when you do that, you'll see your icon pop up right in the center of the screen. It looks like salty waters is now entered three times. Now you can only enter one time, but I think we're getting, we're seeing, okay, there we go.

[00:31:37] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Now we've got somebody else that entered. Thank you very much for doing that. That's one WFC. Welcome to the show. I've seen you here pop in before. Maybe you've got a question for me. Feel free to put that into the chat. If you've got a question, I'd be happy to answer it. I will tell you now we're not going to have a live show. Now we'll have one next week but then I'm going to take two weeks off for Christmas and New Year because the show would be on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve And everybody said to me Ralph,

[00:32:02] Ralph Estep, Jr.: there's nobody's going to be around. So we're just going to assume that we're not going to have a show on the 23rd, that is, excuse me, the 24th, which is Christmas Eve and the 30th, which is New Year’s Eve. So we got about two minutes left. If you want to enter the contest, go in there and just type in pound

[00:32:19] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Ask Ralph. We got three people that have entered so far. There's more people in the chat. So don't miss out on getting this amazon gift card. And I’m certainly happy to answer any questions as we're wrapping up tonight, but I hope you guys are getting ready for the Christmas holiday. If you haven't downloaded my how to get through the holidays

[00:32:37] Ralph Estep, Jr.: without going broke, you can do that also. That's at askralphpodcast.com/christmas. We've seen a lot of people get that. Hopefully they're sticking to that Christmas budget, and they won't have those crazy bills come January and February. And I guess it's another great time to start talking about putting your tax information in order on the daily show.

[00:32:58] Ralph Estep, Jr.: We'll be talking a lot about that between now and the end of the year. I'm going to talk about some tax resolutions that you can make to get yourself individually set up for a better tax year, or even to get ready for your tax planning for this year. If you're a business owner, I'm doing a show here in the next couple of days.

[00:33:14] Ralph Estep, Jr.: I'm going to talk about nine things that you can do to get your business ready for the new year. And here's a little teaser. Next Tuesday, I'm going to be releasing a show about signs that your computer might've gotten hacked. So that's another one that you might want to take a look at. And one more thing I want to ask you to do tonight.

[00:33:31] Ralph Estep, Jr.: If you know anybody that's interested in finances and this type of faith discussion, invite them. Tell them to go to askralphpodcast.com/live and they can join us on Tuesday nights at 7 PM. So we're counting down here. We've got about 23 seconds and then the magic computer. Is there somebody just joined at the last minute?

[00:33:50] Ralph Estep, Jr.: We're going to have about 15 seconds and then the magic computer is going to spin and we're going to see who's going to take away that Amazon gift card tonight. So hurry up. You got eight more seconds. Pound Ask Ralph. That's pound Ask Ralph. And then we're going to see who gets that hundred-dollar Amazon gift card tonight.

[00:34:08] Ralph Estep, Jr.: And it looks like time is up. So now we're going to do the old shuffle and we're going to pick a winner. So somebody is going to walk away tonight with a hundred-dollar Amazon gift card just in time for Christmas. Let's see who it's going to be.

[00:34:26] Ralph Estep, Jr.: Let's see who it's going to be. And tonight's winner is AI go to college. Thank you very much. AI goes to college is a big supporter of the show. So thank you so much for joining us and AI goes to college, you'll have a hundred-dollar Amazon gift card on the way. So I thank everybody who's entered tonight.

[00:34:43] Ralph Estep, Jr.: That is fantastic. I truly appreciate it. So now let's close out the show tonight. So I wanted to say this. I want to say thank you for joining me. And I appreciate you being here every Tuesday night. Again, we do this every Tuesday night at 7 pm eastern time. So like I've said invite your family, invite your friends. Tell them that there's a way that they can come and be involved in this show and remember this, and I truly mean this. My passion is to help you achieve financial success. I want to see you live out your dreams. I want to see you grow in your faith because I know together, we work together and like I told you can book a call with me by going to askralph.com click on that button. It's a book a call, but I know together, working together, we can master your finances from that Christian perspective. So thank you so much for participating in the program tonight. I appreciate the questions and I'm going to tell you this, as I always end the show, stay financially savvy out there and may God bless you abundantly.

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