Latest / Silver FM 100.6 / There's still time to reach your 2026 money goals

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There's still time to reach your 2026 money goals · Silver FM 100.6

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• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I was thinking of the fourth quarter of the year,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: just sort of like fourth quarter of a company's business
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: year or the fourth quarter of a football game or,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: you know, they have quarters, right? Football?
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  Speaker 3: Very good question. Yes, they do. Thank you for asking that.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, it's Marielle Segarra. You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: And that was Jill Schlesinger. She's a CBS News business analyst,
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  Speaker 2: host of Jill on Money and the show Money Moves
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: on YouTube. What I was trying to tell Jill is
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: that I got the idea for this episode while thinking
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: back about the days I reported on corporate finance. I
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: was always looking at companies' quarterly reports, and they are technical,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: but they give a window into how a company is doing,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: what went right over the few months before, what went wrong,
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  Speaker 2: what challenges they're facing. Given that we're entering the fourth
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  Speaker 2: quarter of 2026, I wondered, what would it mean to
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  Speaker 2: do a quarterly review for our own finances?
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  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, it's basically looking at the same thing
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  Speaker 4: you would be looking at as an individual. What's coming in?
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  Speaker 4: What's going out? And remember, these quarterly reports, it's a
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  Speaker 4: little bit dated, right? They're talking about the quarter that
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  Speaker 4: just ended. So the three previous months. I think the
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  Speaker 4: more interesting part of quarterly reporting is not about what
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  Speaker 4: has happened. It is usually in the conference call that
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  Speaker 4: occurs after the The financials are released and the CEO
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  Speaker 4: or the CFO talk about what they think is going
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  Speaker 4: to happen. And this is probably where you get some
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  Speaker 4: of the surprises. They could be like, we thought our
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  Speaker 4: sales were going to be one thing. They're a little
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  Speaker 4: bit less or they're a little bit more and the
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  Speaker 4: stock price might react. But generally speaking, I think the
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  Speaker 4: biggest reactions come from when the CEO gets up there
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  Speaker 4: and she's like, You know that we thought we were
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  Speaker 4: going to make all this money for this whole year.
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  Speaker 4: We completely screwed up. There's no way we're going to
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  Speaker 4: make that much money. Those are the things that become
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  Speaker 4: really interesting when it comes to corporate reporting. But what
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  Speaker 4: could you take away as an individual is this practice
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  Speaker 4: of going through your numbers.
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  Speaker 2: On this episode of Life Kit, I talked to Jill
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  Speaker 2: about how we can do our own quarterly reviews this
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  Speaker 2: October and set ourselves up for the fourth quarter. and
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  Speaker 2: the new year.
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  Speaker 4: I think what's kind of cool is if you're looking
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  Speaker 4: at the fourth quarter, this is a time where you
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  Speaker 4: could do something different before the end of the year
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  Speaker 4: that might impact you. So what usually will happen is
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  Speaker 4: in the fourth quarter, a lot of decisions get made
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  Speaker 4: because you have open enrollment, for example, for benefits at work.
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  Speaker 4: Maybe this is the time where you're going to say,
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  Speaker 4: maybe I should go on a high deductible plan.
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  Speaker 3: And maybe that means.
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  Speaker 4: That I have to take some extra money aside that
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  Speaker 4: I thought I was going to spend on vacation, but
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  Speaker 4: use that for any expenses that come up because I
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  Speaker 4: have a higher deductible and I have to pay it
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  Speaker 4: out of pocket.
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  Speaker 3: Think about it this way.
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  Speaker 4: You have 90 days to take advantage of the calendar
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  Speaker 4: and there's going to be a lot of competing forces.
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  Speaker 4: And of course, it would be silly of me not
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  Speaker 4: to note that once Thanksgiving rolls around, you're kind of
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  Speaker 4: screwed because all of a sudden you get sucked into
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  Speaker 4: the entire holiday season and it's a lot harder to
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  Speaker 4: get yourself focused.
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  Speaker 2: I wonder if you were doing like a personal financial
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  Speaker 2: check-in at this moment ahead of the fourth quarter of
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  Speaker 2: the year, what numbers... might you highlight if you first
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  Speaker 2: wanted to get a sense of where you're at? Like
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  Speaker 2: I think about companies, they highlight their revenue, their expenses,
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  Speaker 2: cash flow, debt.
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  Speaker 4: Let's look at like the cash flow issue because now
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  Speaker 4: you have nine months of data, right? So here you're
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  Speaker 4: going to have by the end of September, right? You'll
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  Speaker 4: have nine months of looking at the money that has
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  Speaker 4: come in and the money that's gone out. You know,
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  Speaker 4: I always like to kind of look at the ongoing
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  Speaker 4: month-to-month expenses and then the little unique things like, oh,
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  Speaker 4: I had to go to a wedding and it was
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  Speaker 4: a destination wedding and I spent way more than I
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  Speaker 4: would have spent if I'd gone to a wedding down
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  Speaker 4: the street, right? You account for that and you look
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  Speaker 4: at it and you see where do I stand. And
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  Speaker 4: then you're also going to want to look at your
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  Speaker 4: balance sheet. What do you own and what do you owe?
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  Speaker 4: If you have debt, Maybe you've got student loans. Maybe
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  Speaker 4: you've got a car loan. Maybe you have a credit
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  Speaker 4: card debt.
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  Speaker 3: Maybe you have a mortgage.
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  Speaker 4: That is where you just want to make sure you
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  Speaker 4: check in and you understand, is anything different? Have I
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  Speaker 4: chipped away at this? It's also kind of a nice
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  Speaker 4: way to make yourself.
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  Speaker 3: Feel like there's progress.
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  Speaker 4: You know, I had $ 28, 000 in student loans three years ago.
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  Speaker 3: Hey, this is awesome.
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  Speaker 4: I'm at 22. Hopefully that's the right direction, right? Or
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  Speaker 4: maybe you're going to just take a look-see and say, hey,
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  Speaker 4: what's my cash look like? What's my cash on hand?
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  Speaker 4: What's in my emergency reserve fund? Maybe I got some
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  Speaker 4: gift out of the blue. Now all the money's piling up.
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  Speaker 4: What am I going to do with that excess? Should
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  Speaker 4: I put it in an investment account? Do I need
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  Speaker 4: to fund my Roth IRA right now before.
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  Speaker 3: The end of the year?
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  Speaker 4: Then I'll do it again right after the first of
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  Speaker 4: the year.
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  Speaker 2: Takeaway one. Start by looking at your cash flow. Money
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  Speaker 2: coming in minus money going out over the past three
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  Speaker 2: months and since the beginning of the year. What trends
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  Speaker 2: do you notice? Also, do your version of a balance sheet.
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  Speaker 2: What do you own, including how much money you have
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  Speaker 2: in savings and investments? And what do you owe? Another
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  Speaker 2: number that companies report is net income or loss. They
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  Speaker 2: also call this the bottom line. This is how much
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  Speaker 2: money they collected in sales minus all their costs. As
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  Speaker 2: an individual, this could be how much money you take
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  Speaker 2: home each month after taxes and deductions, or you could
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  Speaker 2: do a version of net income that also subtracts your expenses,
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  Speaker 2: like rent. The point is to see how much you
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  Speaker 2: have left over every month. That'll help you make choices
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  Speaker 2: about spending and saving and figure out if you need
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  Speaker 2: to do something to boost your income. We'll have more
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  Speaker 2: tips for your quarterly financial check-in after the break.
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  Speaker 2: Let's talk a bit more about cash flow. Why is
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  Speaker 2: it important that we know how much money is coming
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  Speaker 2: in and going out over time?
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  Speaker 4: I think what can be a little confounding is the
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  Speaker 4: greatest thing that has occurred in the last 20 years
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  Speaker 4: is that so much of our lives are automated. but
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  Speaker 4: it sort of puts you at a distance with a
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  Speaker 4: lot of these financial planning concepts. I make a joke
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  Speaker 4: about this because I used to say that my mother
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  Speaker 4: would manage the checkbook. She knew to the penny what
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  Speaker 4: was going on in the household.
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  Speaker 3: Forget about it.
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  Speaker 4: If my father happened to write a check and he
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  Speaker 4: didn't tell her about it, there was hell to pay.
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  Speaker 4: But you're in touch with that because you had to
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  Speaker 4: go to the account or go to a bank. So
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  Speaker 4: now think about this. You're pay is usually direct deposited,
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  Speaker 4: and so many bills have automated deductions. And that can
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  Speaker 4: be wonderful, but it does keep you like a tiny
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  Speaker 4: bit behind the flow. And the cash flow of what's
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  Speaker 4: coming in and what's going out is the way that
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  Speaker 4: you can kind of determine you hopefully have more coming
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  Speaker 4: in than what is going out. And then the decision
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  Speaker 4: point is, if that's the case, what am I doing
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  Speaker 4: with that extra?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting because let's say it's, October and I'm
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  Speaker 2: looking back and I look at the different months of
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  Speaker 2: the year at what my expenses were I add those
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  Speaker 2: all up and I also look at how much money
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  Speaker 2: I earned that can also tell me when I was
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  Speaker 2: in a tight spot or when I had to pull
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  Speaker 2: from my savings I feel like that's another good question
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  Speaker 2: to ask yourself in terms of cash flow you want
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  Speaker 2: to see what were the tightest spots in the year
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  Speaker 2: and can I plan ahead for those next year or
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  Speaker 2: were there purchases I needed to make?
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  Speaker 3: Think about this.
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  Speaker 4: Oftentimes people will say, well, you know, I'm self-employed, so
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  Speaker 4: tax time is stressful for me. I wrote a check
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  Speaker 4: for this much to pay my taxes over in April.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, fine. That's great.
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  Speaker 4: Maybe for the following year, you'll have to keep some
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  Speaker 4: extra money set aside, or maybe you should change your
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  Speaker 4: withholding or your tax estimates. So like fourth quarter and
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  Speaker 4: then after tax time to make certain adjustments can be
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  Speaker 4: really helpful. Maybe it's something that's out of the blue.
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  Speaker 4: And I have to tell you that most of those
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  Speaker 4: negative surprises, whether it's, you know, I got into a
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  Speaker 4: car accident, insurance covered this much, but not everything, or gosh,
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  Speaker 4: you know, I had to take time off from work
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  Speaker 4: because my kid got sick. I burned up all my
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: vacation time and then some. And so I think that
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  Speaker 4: for the planning purposes, the best thing you could do is, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: it's great if there's some seasonal pattern, but sometimes it's
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  Speaker 4: just saying, gosh, there is always something unexpected that comes up.
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  Speaker 4: I guess I should keep a little bit of extra
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  Speaker 4: money in my emergency reserve fund. And I would say
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  Speaker 4: that this is often something that new homeowners learn the
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  Speaker 4: hard way because you're a new homeowner.
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  Speaker 3: You're so psyched.
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  Speaker 4: I can afford my principal and my interest and my
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: homeowner's insurance and my property taxes. And then you have
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  Speaker 4: like that moment where someone walks into your house and
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  Speaker 4: they're like, oh, you need.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: A new boiler. And you're like, wait, what?
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  Speaker 2: Who's going to pay for that?
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  Speaker 5: What?
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  Speaker 3: Is that covered?
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  Speaker 2: Will you pay for that?
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  Speaker 3: Do you have some sort of plan for me?
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  Speaker 4: And a realtor gave me this really good advice a
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: long time ago because I had her on my show
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  Speaker 4: and we were talking about, you know, people who love
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: buying old fixer uppers, people who like buying brand new.
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  Speaker 4: And she's like, you know what? There's always something that
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  Speaker 4: goes wrong. And she goes, I like to tell potential
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: buyers that no matter what, look at the purchase price
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: of your house and just imagine that every year it
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  Speaker 4: will be One to 3% of that purchase price. So
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: you buy a half a million dollar house, five grand
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  Speaker 4: a year, you're going to have to spend on something.
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  Speaker 4: You don't know what it's going to be.
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  Speaker 3: Just know that. And if it's a really old house,
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  Speaker 3: it may be 10.
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  Speaker 4: Or 15 grand. So I think that one of the
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  Speaker 4: cool things about doing this check-in with yourself is that
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  Speaker 4: it prompts you to look back and also look forward.
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  Speaker 2: Takeaway two. When you're looking at your cash flow for 2026,
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  Speaker 2: take note of the tight spots when you had to
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  Speaker 2: pull money from your savings to pay for something or
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: when you couldn't pay your credit card bill for the month.
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  Speaker 2: What happened? Was it an expense you could plan for
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  Speaker 2: in the future? Did you make a purchase that you
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: didn't really need to? What changes might you make now,
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  Speaker 2: if any? Another number you could play around with is
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: profit margin. For a company, this is the percentage of
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: revenue they have left after expenses. And they track how
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  Speaker 2: their profit margins change from one year to the next.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Higher profit margins are generally considered better. Calculating your profit
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: margin could help you visualize how much of your income
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: you're spending during different periods of time and how your
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: spending has changed over time relative to your income. So
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: here's how to do it. Take your monthly income after
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  Speaker 2: taxes and deductions. Let's say that's $ 4, 000. Then add up
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: your spending. Debt payments, rent, utilities, gas, train fare, groceries,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: eating out, buying toilet paper and shampoo and clothes. Let's
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: say that's $ 2, 000. Then calculate 2,000 is what percentage of 4,000?
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  Speaker 2: It's half or 50%. So you have a 50% profit
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  Speaker 2: margin for the month. Do the same calculation for other
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  Speaker 2: months or at different points of the year and see
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: when your profit margin tends to fall. Once you've crunched
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: the numbers, You can use them to set money goals.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: And here are three that Jill recommends.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, these are very boring financial planning concepts, but
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: they really do work. Six to 12 months of your
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: living expenses in a safe, accessible account, like a high-yield
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: savings account. You want to try to maximize your retirement
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: account to the best of your ability, hopefully up to
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: the match and then some. And you want to pay
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: down outstanding debt. Those three things are kind of your
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: big three. And checking in right now and seeing where
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: you stand with all three of those is a great idea.
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: As much as you can make some of your goals concrete,
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: that makes you more likely to achieve them. I really
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: hate amorphous goals. You have to be concrete, right? So
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: a concrete goal is I have, you know, 40 grand
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: of student loan debt. I would like to pay that
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: down in six years. And then you're going to work
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: backwards and you're going to look at your cash flow
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: and say, well, right now the federal government has me
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: paying it down in 10 years. Do I have enough
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: money to pay it down in six years?
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: Maybe you do.
• 15:07
  Speaker 6: Maybe you do.
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: I would like to establish an emergency reserve fund with
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: six to 12 months of my living expenses of the
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: available cash flow.
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: Some has to go to student loans.
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: Some has to go to establishing that six to 12 month.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: Emergency reserve fund.
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: And I mean, I'm going to make it even harder
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: for you, which is I'm layering on top of that,
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: that if you work at a place that has a
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: retirement plan and there is a match, I'm asking you
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: to do three things at once, right? Emergency reserve fund,
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: pay down the debt, and also put in up to
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: your match at the very least.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: And if you can do more, great.
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: And every time you get a raise, maybe you can
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: actually accelerate those game plans and Maybe it's the end
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: of the year and you're working at a place and
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: they give you more than a cost of living adjustment.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: Maybe you got a bonus.
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: Now this is a great opportunity for you to say,
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: how do we put those goals into another phase?
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Did I have a kid?
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: Am I putting on yet another goal? Gosh, I'd like
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: to pay for education. Gosh, I'd like to do this.
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: But all of these things, I think it can be overwhelming.
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: And so what happens is you do flame out after
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: a few months. So that's why if you can make
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: it time bound and you can make it concrete, I
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: think you have a much better likelihood of achieving the goal.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Would you recommend that people think about 2027, like look
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: forward to 2027 and just kind of like give up
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: on the rest of this year?
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: No, no giving up. You have 90 days. You can
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: make a difference.
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: I think when you give up, you've probably taken on
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: more than you can, you know, just like emotionally. more
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: than anything else, which is like human beings, you want
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: to have fun. So I think if you have blown
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: through all of your quote unquote resolutions or goals of 26,
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: pick one and try to do it for 90 days.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: And it might be, oh, you know what, I have
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: 90 days, I'm going to just bump up my retirement
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: contribution from 5% to 6%. That's all I'm going to
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: do for the next 90 days. And then during that
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: 90 day period, monitor my cash flow and see if
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: I can Do something else and add to that in 27.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Takeaway three, think of the last quarter of the year
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: as an opportunity. Pick one of your financial goals and
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: stick with it for three months. Then come January, you'll
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: already be on a roll. You know, you mentioned earlier
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: that the most interesting part of an earnings report is
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: the earnings call where executives say, are a lot more
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: honest than you'd expect them to be. Definitely a lot
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: more honest than they would be in an interview, right?
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: They're saying things to explain it to investors. But I
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: think like a lot of quarterly earnings reports, it's about storytelling.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: And I wonder how much of that we can bring
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: into our lives. What role does sort of like figuring
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: out the narrative of your financial life play?
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: I do think it's nice to celebrate a success.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: I really do.
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: And It strikes me that a lot of people can
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: be very focused on the future and they kind of
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: don't give themselves a pat on the back for where
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: they are. It's very easy to compare yourself to someone else.
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: When I was a financial planner, I felt like it
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: was so interesting to hear people describe their own situation.
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: And often you would hear like, well, I don't have much.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: And I would say, but do you have enough for you?
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I got plenty for me. Okay, then what
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: are you saying that for?
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: Like I would love for.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: Us to be a little bit more proud of where
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: we are for whatever we've chosen. And so I think
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: it's kind of great to be able to say to
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: somebody like, hey, you for where you are, for what
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: the life you are living, you're in perfectly wonderful shape.
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: It doesn't have to be anyone else's life.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Jill, this has been really helpful. Thank you so much.
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: Thank you very much for having me and we'll do
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: it again.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: All right, y'all, time for a recap. Takeaway one, look
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: at your cash flow, money coming in minus money going
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: out over the past three months and since the beginning
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: of the year. Take note of any tight spots where
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: you had to pull money from savings or you couldn't
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: pay your credit card bill. Do your version of a
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: company balance sheet. What do you own, including how much
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: money you have in savings and investments, and what do
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: you owe? Also calculate your net income, how much money
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: you take home each month after taxes and deductions, Or
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: you could do a version of net income that subtracts
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: all your expenses, including things like rent. Takeaway two, consider
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: your profit margin. Take your monthly income after taxes and deductions.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Let's say that's $ 4, 000. Add up your spending. Say that's $ 2, 000.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: Then calculate. $ 2, 000 is what percentage of $ 4, 000? It's half, 50%.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: So you have a 50% profit margin for the month.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: Do the same calculation at different points of the year
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: and see when your profit margin fell. Takeaway three, you
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: can think of the last quarter of the year as
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: an opportunity. Pick one of your financial goals and stick
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: with it for three months. Okay, that's our show. If
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: Life Kit is part of your weekly ritual, why not
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: make it official on the NPR app? You'll hear about
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: every episode the moment it's ready. Just turn on notifications
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: and we'll handle the rest. See you there. Download the
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: NPR app today. This episode of Life Kit was produced
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: by Kayla Lattimore and Lennon Sherburn. Our digital editor is
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Malika Garib, and our visuals editor is CJ Riquelon. Megan
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Cain is our senior supervising editor, and Lauren Gonzalez is
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andy Tegel,
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Margaret Serino, and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from Peter Alina.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: I'm Mariel Segarra. Thanks for listening.
• 21:06
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• 21:09
  Speaker 2: This year, we're really seeing an El Nino for the
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• 21:12
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• 21:14
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  Speaker 3: What a supercharged El Nino means for you and how
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• 21:23
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• 21:29
  Speaker 9: This fall, there are a lot of movies and TV
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