Defend Every Dollar When You’re Over 50 Before It Disappears

Josefina Bonilla Velez: Let's talk about your best friend, the one who knows all your secrets, the one who's seen you at your worst and didn't leave and was there to celebrate your successes too. I would protect those friends with everything, love, loyalty, and sometimes money. They check you when you think you're a badass and show up when you need their help. Now let's talk about your money because whether you treat it this way or not It holds an important place in your life. The mere fact of having it gives you freedom, changes how you feel and express yourself. It is brilliant in its own right. When things go wrong, man, is it great to have it on your side. Most of us though, treat it badly. We ignore it, we avoid it, and we just take it for granted. The name of this episode came from my nephew Ramon We were talking about planning a trip to my beloved Catalina del Mar in Puerto Rico, and he told me, I have to defend every dollar so it doesn't go astray. And I thought, what a great name for an episode, and how true that it is for of us. Now, Let's not take money for granted and give it the position it deserves. Your money needs to be managed like something important in your life. Let's defend every dollar so it can feel our love and in that bubble, produce others who work for us too. For years, I thought being good with money meant paying my bills on time If nothing bounced, if no one called, I figured I was fine. But fine is not the same as building something. I was letting money leave every single month without asking where it went or whether it was doing anything for me before it disappeared. treated money like a guess who comes and goes. I should have been treating it like someone who lives here. someone who earns a seat at the table, and when I finally looked at what I've been doing for years, I realized that I was absent from my own financial life. I've seen women who earned six figures still feeling financially fragile. We know we can make the money, but when it comes to defending it, we are a amiss Our relationship with the money is the problem. and needs to be fixed. Every dollar that leaves our account without a purpose is the money that will never come back to help you. Money is a and if we're not using it intentionally, someone else is using it for us. The subscription service, the auto pay systems, the convenience fees. Those are hidden costs attacking and taking your money. Don't let them. If you're out of debt, great. But are you keeping money in your pants? Look, I like you find it convenient to have all those subscriptions. And how many do I really need? It's easy to let them pile up. A streaming service here, a delivery pass there, a wellness app you opened once. None of them feel like much on their own, but together they are a slow leak and you don't even feel that drip. The 2024 New York Life Wealth Watch survey found that only 57 % of women feel confident they will meet their financial goals compared to 75 % of men. That is a huge gap and it's a confidence gap and it is costing us. Because when you don't feel confident, you don't look. When you don't look, you don't act. And when you don't act, the money just keeps leaving. And here's something that should make you mad. It made me mad. You know what happens when you leave your money sitting in a regular savings account? The bank pays you less than half a percent. The FDIC says national average is 0.39%, less than a penny on the dollar. But you know what the bank does with your money? They lend it out, personal loans 12%, credit cards at 20 to 24%. They are making money off your money and giving you almost nothing back. You are letting your money be used. So here's the shift. Stop thinking of money as something that comes and goes. start thinking of it as something that stays and grows if you let it. You wouldn't ignore your best friend for six months and then call asking for a favor. Don't do that with your money either. Make it a routine to go through your subscriptions every couple of months and if you haven't used it, get rid of it. My sons will attest that I would order uber eats two to three times a week. Can you imagine how much money I spent? And I wasn't even thinking about it. It was just easy, tap, order done. I never once sat down and added it up. And that's the trap. CNR research found in 2024 that the average American spends $219 a month on subscriptions. Most people have no idea the number is that high because they never looked. The first time I did, I found $187 in charges I had completely forgotten about. A fitness app from the pandemic, an audio book subscription I use for once a month, a cloud backup for a laptop I don't even own anymore. I wasn't being irresponsible. I was just being unconscious. And unconscious spending is the most expensive kind. You do the audit. You cancel what you don't need and then here's the temptation you have to be on top of. You'll want to spend what you just freed up. You'll think I saved $150. I can finally get that thing I've been wanting. Don't. Move it somewhere it works for you. That is what it means to defend every dollar. look, dead dollar walking. If you don't wake up and take control of your money, go through your numbers, create a budget, hit me up if you want a copy of what I use. You don't have to cancel anything today. Girl, you have to see the number because you can't defend money you don't know you're losing. Your money is not just paper and numbers. It is how many more choices you have with it in your corner. It is the difference between asking for help at 70 and offering it. Every dollar you defend today is a dollar that works for you tomorrow. I'm Josefina Bonilla-Velez and this is Money and Motion. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. We can't go back, but we can move forward together.