The costly mistake almost everyone makes: moving fast and making promises I’ve watched windfalls, inheritances, business exits, even lucky option grants, go sideways the same way: people move fast, make promises, and lock in big lifestyle changes before they’ve even opened a spreadsheet. It’s not greed. It’s adrenaline. The texts pour in, your brain runs hot, and suddenly there’s a lake house, two SUVs, and a “quick” investment in your cousin’s crypto-mining coffee shop. Don’t do that. Start with one rule: no commitments for 60-90 days. No new house, no new car, no “loans” to friends, and definitely no “can’t-miss”…

The old playbook vs. 2025 reality If you grew up on the classic recession checklist, clip expenses, buy a bunch of bonds, sit tight, you’re not wrong. You’re just a few chapters behind. 2025 isn’t a rerun of 2009 or 2020. Policy rates are still elevated compared with the 2010s, cash actually pays you again, and inflation has cooled from the spike but hasn’t vanished. Job security? Patchy. I had three client calls this month where the topic wasn’t layoffs exactly, but hours cut, bonuses “deferred,” and hiring frozen. Close enough. So what’s different? Two big things. First, liquidity isn’t…

When planning turns chaos into control Picture two households entering a high-inflation recession in 2025. Same city, same incomes, same groceries in the cart. One has a written plan, the other wings it. The wing-it family feels every price jump like a pothole: ad‑hoc spending, variable‑rate cards creeping higher, no real cash buffer, and a monthly money conversation that sounds a lot like “we’ll figure it out.” The planned family? They’re not thrilled either, nobody enjoys paying more for eggs, but they’ve got rails: a priority-based budget, fixed‑rate where possible, funded emergency reserve, and a playbook for what gets cut…

From dusty shoeboxes to two-click claims I used to keep a literal shoebox of old 1099s and stale checks under my desk. You know the drill, paper statements, 40-minute phone queues, and a hope-and-pray routine that someone, somewhere, would mail you the money you were owed. That was the old way. In 2025, most of that pain is gone. We have centralized databases, e-signing, and ID checks that actually work on a Tuesday afternoon. Which matters, because there’s real cash just sitting out there, refunds, benefits, stray dividends, even forgotten HSA balances, parked in state treasuries and corporate accounts. Quick…