Your money routine, your rules

ALEX ROCA: Hello, and thank you for joining Women Talk Money. My name is Alex Roca, and I will be your host for today's conversation. We hope everyone had a fabulous end to 2025 and that you feel ready and excited to tackle 2026. Today we'll be talking all about routines, what we can do consistently time and time again. How can we set up a financial health routine to help set us up for success? Today with me, I have two phenomenal leaders at Fidelity. I have Felisa Rodriguez. She's a vice president, branch leader, in Texas, and Roberta King, vice president, branch leader in Maryland. OK, let's get started. Roberta, when you hear financial wellness, what does that mean to you, and what can that look like in an actual practice day to day? 

 

ROBERTA KING: Thanks for asking that question. And I think about financial wellness as really about having options and choices. And creating that space with options and choices, I think, to exist in your life is incredibly powerful. In fact, one of my core—I used to call it core business belief, but I would actually say it's a core life belief, that what creates joy in our lives are really based on the choices and where we choose to spend our resources. So how I choose to spend my time, how do I choose to spend my money or other resources of mine really impacts the joy I experience in my life. I also think financial wellness—and I'll venture to say, really, wellness in general, it comes from our mindset. And you can approach life with one way of thinking, as an example, things happen to you. And there's another school of thought, another way of thinking, that you are influencing things to happen. And the latter, I think, is what gives us and allows us to be free and knowing that we have choice and being able to choose things that give us joy. So wellness and financial wellness, I think it feels like calm. It feels confident when you're making those financial decisions. I think feeling secure in your overall situation also speaks to, are you financially well. And knowing where to navigate—so when you think about all of our financial responsibilities, we all have so many. And are you able to navigate those with that calm, with that confidence and feeling secure while also enjoying your life? So the enjoyment, I think is a huge component of wellness. So I'll also say, a lot of times when we're talking about financial wellness and finances, we're often thinking about restrictions, budgeting. But you can choose to splurge on things, too, from time to time without worrying or feeling guilty. I think that's also a component of wellness in my house. We jokingly refer to this idea called "no apologies," which means that we're knowingly splurging on something, but it's an intentional and a measured choice. And so again, we're going back to that idea of having choice and having influence over our choices. I'll also say, before I talk about what it looks like day to day, having an emergency fund in place helps you know that you're going to be OK if something were to happen. We know things happen. And so just knowing that you've given yourself some cushion helps give you that sense of security. So from a day to day perspective, to the second part of your question, it's really about how you show up. It's really easy to put your head in the sand. Avoidance exists, really, to save ourselves from our own discomfort. And so it's so easy to avoid these things because it can cause us discomfort. And it's really these little micro-choices that propel us in a direction that we want to move. It really helps us combat that avoidance, and it helps us build momentum. And if we do it consistently, we can add more things over time. So to be clear, none of this happens overnight. Similar to that childhood story we all know, the tortoise and the hare, it takes time. But these small movements toward the direction we want to move has really big impact over time. And so if you can set realistic expectations for yourself, you can really see success over the long term. I think about it often. I feel like I'm often resetting some kind of physical health goal for myself. And I think, maybe one day I want to become a elite athlete. Well, I've got to start with a 30-minute walk around the park, perhaps, before signing up for that marathon. And so it's, choosing things that are realistic that you're actually going to be able to accomplish is better than setting this really huge target that is insurmountable and really doesn't fit into our daily life or schedule. I'll also talk a little bit about, going back to what I said at the very beginning, about a mind shift or mindset shifts. How we talk to ourselves matters so much. If we're thinking about the exact same idea or concept, how we approach it really changes whether we feel really positive toward it or potentially negative. For example, if I'm saying to myself, I need to spend less money, that feels negative. It puts unnecessary stress, potentially, on myself. Versus, I could also tell the story to myself that I'm trying to save money, and that definitely feels more empowering. So it's the same message, potentially, but how can I speak to myself in a way that motivates me and I want to invite it more into my life? So when it comes down to it, all of our routines, all those micro-decisions, micro-thoughts we have regarding our wealth and our health are really about self-care. And self-care should be in support of who we want to become, who we're becoming, and in service to that direction and that momentum that will see us to where we're looking to head in the future. 

 

ALEX ROCA: That's excellent, Roberta. As you spoke, the words that really jumped out at me were "calm and confident." The feeling of being calm and confident when it comes to our finances, to me, that sounds like a real goal because as women, there are so many pressures that we feel not only to do it all, but to do it all perfectly from the start. Now, Felisa, coming to you, knowing that everybody's situation can be a little different, whether it's financially, professionally or personally, how can someone build a routine that works for them? 

 

FELISA RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. Alex, you're so right. Everyone's situation is different, and there is no "one size fits all" approach. But that's OK. Whenever I talk with clients, one of the first things we have them do is really outline, what are your values, what are your goals. This helps us identify what is important to you and then set up some actionable steps to help you get there. And just like Roberta said, this kind of change does not happen overnight. So once we identify what's important to you, those priorities, and then we know the steps we're going to take to get there, we need to break them down. She talked about little, bit-sized steps. And so we need to break those action items down into monthly, quarterly, and yearly to-dos. This breaking it down, it can really help us with accountability, which is really important when you're talking about finances. The goal is not to create a routine that feels overwhelming, it's to build habits that are sustainable and easy to stick with. When we create routines that feel manageable, they feel less like chores. They're small enough to start but then powerful enough to create some momentum. That's the big thing about taking baby steps or breaking it down, is you're creating momentum, and you can see real change over time. Speaking of time, we want to take into account time. Time is so valuable to all of us. Our lives are crazy, and everyone is busy, busy, busy. And that's the importance of planning. Planning ahead, scheduling time can help keep us on track. So think of it this way. Just like you commit to a dinner reservation or you tell a friend, hey, count me there, I'm going to be at your party, you set the date, you put it on your calendar or in your phone, and you show up. Now apply that same principle to your finances. Schedule a money date with yourself and honor it, just as you would any other commitment. It is that important. This is one thing you can do right after this show, is schedule your first money date for 2026, or even better, schedule out the whole year. 

 

ALEX ROCA: I love that you just called it a money date. I want to dig into that just a little more. Can you elaborate on what you mean by that? What is a money date? 

 

FELISA RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. A money date, pretty simple, just like what it says. It's a date between you and your money. And this can be anything from a five-minute glance weekly, looking at balances, recent transactions, knowing where your money went this week, to a big annual meeting with a financial professional where you're looking at a lot of different things. And just as when you're on a real date or dinner with a friend where your focus is fully on that person that you're with, a money date is about giving your money and your finances your full focus and attention. And I do love that we call it a date. So we call it a date for a reason. Make it enjoyable. Make it something you look forward to. And I often think about things that I've got to do, how do I make that enjoyable. For me, it might be brewing up a cup of coffee, making sure I have my favorite pen, making sure everything's comfortable. And for you, it might be the same thing, brewing up your favorite cup of tea, pouring a glass of something you absolutely love, maybe putting on your favorite outfit, whatever makes you feel good. Because the key is to create an environment that empowers you, boosts your confidence, and this becomes something you actually look forward to every month, every quarter, or once a year. Having these money dates consistently is what's going to help you stay informed, knowing where your money is going, knowing what your money is doing for you, aware of your situation. And then it holds yourself accountable. 

 

ALEX ROCA: A money date sounds a lot like self-care, which we were hearing about from Roberta earlier. And we're all about self-care here. So, Roberta, I'm bringing it back to you. How often should we be checking in, and how do we look at the same things each time, or how do we break up what we cover in each money date? How should we think about that? 

 

ROBERTA KING: I agree completely with Felisa and what you said earlier about breaking these up into smaller to-dos. So monthly, quarterly, and yearly buckets is really a great way to look at it. Bringing it up like this allows us to have quicker dates, too. It's not like we need to tackle everything all at once, because, going back again, time is a big factor for all of us. And really, if it feels insurmountable, it can be really easy to pass that to the back burner. It also means we can cover less in one session. We can say, hey, you know what? We really want to need to focus on this or want to focus on this on this date. And so it feels less overwhelming. We don't have to tackle everything all at once. And it allows us, through doing that, to bring more consistency to our money date process. 

 

ALEX ROCA: And can we go ahead and break those timelines down even further so that we know how to plan our money dates for 2026? I'm going to bring it right back to you, Roberta. What would our monthly money dates look like? 

 

ROBERTA KING: So let's start with the monthly money date. And so we get to think small and simple tasks that can have a really big impact here. And I think, back to that idea of micro-choices and thoughts, setting aside just 15 minutes and tackle simple, easy, quote unquote "quick tasks" can help us gain momentum. So if you look at all of your accounts, scan them, log in online, know where your passwords are, know what they are, save them, however you keep yourself organized, be organized so you where things are. And then log in and check your balances. Take a look at recent transactions, especially those reoccurring ones, the credit card, the medical bills. Perhaps you have your house or car, subscriptions, even. And then you want to flag anything that pops out as not normal. I don't recognize that, That number seems higher than it was last time, things that you might need to take a moment and get underneath and figure out, is this accurate. Also want to take time to look at your budgeting and your spending. And I know that the word "budget" is a dirty word sometimes. It doesn't feel good. But really, if you think about it in the context of staying aware of where your money's going and staying within those limits, that's really all it means. The word budget can make us feel constrained, and so I like to think about it as cash flow, really. It's, money's coming in. Money's coming out. Do I know where it's going? Am I within the limits of what I was looking to accomplish? And there may not be an action item when you're looking at some of these things, and that's OK. Candidly, that's great if you've got a good sense of where everything's going. What's really nice about it is, it's all about awareness. That's the goal here. Be aware of what's moving in and out. And perhaps it's a chance to make a little adjustment. So if you're finding that, you know what, I have more than I expected coming in and out, well, maybe that's an opportunity to add to your savings. Or I spent a little bit more than usual. The holidays just passed. I was feeling very generous. Maybe I need to make adjustments to the following month. But the whole idea is, you get to make a choice and be proactive about it if you're aware. And then I would say the last component of that is to make a plan each month. So when you've taken that assessment, and depending on what you noticed, did you feel good about it or did it feel tight, when you're thinking about how things felt that month? And depending on your answer, you can follow up with, OK, whether it felt good or tight, what small change could I make for the following month to either further enhance that good feeling or eliminate any concerns that might have come up. And going back to subscriptions, those are a really good place to take a look. I'm like, are those subscriptions bringing me joy? You might find that you've got something hanging out that's charging you $20 a month. You're not really using it. Well, maybe that's an opportunity to stop that subscription. Hold on to that $240 a year now, and do something else with it. You could even do something as small as, you know what, this month I'll stick to only sale items at the grocery store. You can put little games in it for yourself to help you achieve some of the goals you have in mind. You might also have bigger plans for the month ahead. And knowing that those are coming—maybe you have a trip coming up—and acknowledging that. And you can make a mental plan to help you stay on track before that month comes ahead. So it's all about making sure that you're doing it. So it's about pace. It's about doing it every month, doing it consistently over it being perfect. It's that adage that consistency beats intensity. I think it's also worth noting that the monthly interval allows you to create space to be tactical to make those financial adjustments. Again, as I said, in the shorter and quicker intervals, it's really about being able to make space for yourself when you're thinking about your wellness, to make choices that further move you in the direction you're seeking to move. And by doing it monthly, at least you're able to do these little things a bit more quickly. 

 

ALEX ROCA: I love the line that you said, "consistency beats intensity." Recently, I heard somebody say, hey, if you can't go to the gym and give it 100%, go to the gym and give it 20%, but at least make it to the gym. And it really stuck with me. Because sometimes, again, back to that line, if it's not perfect, then we're not doing it. Yes, you are. That 20% counts just as much. And it's funny to think about it as a money date because I've had clients who do this. I just had never thought about it in that way. I used to have a customer that did it every month on the first of the month because she liked the consistency. But then I had another client that checked in every Sunday morning over coffee in her PJs before the rest of the family woke up. So I want you guys to remember that. Call it whatever you want. Remember, it's about what your preferences are. It's about finding what works the best for you. Now, Felisa, what do you aim for in the quarterly money, dates, and what are some of the additional areas that we should focus on then? 

 

FELISA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, absolutely. So quarterly, think about your quarterly money date as just an addition to what you're doing monthly. It's an add-on to the previous one. So it's not a one-and-done and it's completely different. You're still looking at those things that you look at monthly. So you're still looking at your accounts. You're still looking at your payments, but you may want to be looking at a few things that go just a little bit deeper. So some of those things might be, number one, your overall net worth. And overall net worth is simply all of your total assets subtracted by your total liabilities. That's your net worth. Fidelity has a really great tool that does this for you and does a couple of other things, too. It's called Full View. And simply, all you do is you're inputting your accounts, you're inputting your debts in there, and it calculates it for you. You want to update it as needed. But then quarterly, you can just log into your Fidelity account and see what your net worth is. Like, is it growing? Am I adding more debt, which is lowering my net worth? Again, it's all about knowing your finances. The other thing you can look at quarterly is your credit score. It's important to look at that occasionally. You want to make sure you know what's on your credit report. Is there anything that you need to dispute? Are there any errors, things on there that you weren't even aware about? Unfortunately, we live in that day and age where there is fraud and those kinds of things, and something might show up that you weren't even aware of. And then we want to try and keep our utilization of our credit under about 30%. So that's something to look at as well. Lastly—big one for me because of what I do here—quarterly, you want to look at your investments. Review those monthly trends of your investment accounts and make necessary adjustments as needed. Quarterly is also a good time to look at some of those habits around your saving or your investing. Like Roberta was just talking about, if you find you're spending less and you have extra, can you up your contributions to your retirement? Can you save more to that emergency fund and build that up even more? The other thing is, how can you optimize or maybe even automate your investing? Another good thing that you can do quarterly is go back and reflect on your values and your goals. So step one is just knowing what those values and goals are, but step two is reassessing. Am I actually on track towards those goals? Are my actions, especially when it comes to my money, do they align with those values that I set at the beginning of the year? So is it still accurate? This last quarter, did it reflect well against those goals or values? Do I need to make adjustments? And again, that's OK. It's OK to adjust your goals. It's OK. But just knowing and reflecting is going to help you. That's, again, those steps we need to move forward. 

 

ALEX ROCA: It's about building that momentum. And I am so glad that you brought up Full View. I can see here on the chat we've gotten a few questions about tools that help us budget. That tool that she just brought up is called Full View, and it actually has a budgeting tab. So for those of you that are looking for something actionable where you can go into a tool and plug-in what those monthly expenses look like, please feel free to check out that Full View, because you'll be able to take advantage of that budgeting tab as well. And this brings us to our last category of the money dates, the yearly check-in. So Roberta, what do we need to do about our once-a-year, big money date? 

 

ROBERTA KING: Yeah, thank you, Alex. So this is the fun one, perhaps the most fun, because it's all about the big picture. It's about getting yourself aligned. When you think about, if you know what you want, you know where you're going, you can really set your intentions along with your actions. And so the good news is, while it is big, it can feel very daunting, you can work with people. You can work with a financial advisor. We've talked about how much we do that. We've had some stories that Alex shared of clients that we've worked with over the years—so that you don't have to tackle this big task on your own. And candidly, we think it's quite fun here. And what we're able to do, whether you decide to do it on your own or with a financial advisor, it's really about walking through your plan to make any adjustments and to help you reach your goals. So it's taking a step back. Am I still aligned with what was going on last year or the year before, five years ago, 10 years ago? So here are the things you want to start thinking about. And again, your financial professional can help you with these conversations as well. They'll proactively ask you these questions. So you're reflecting back, just like as Felisa mentioned in the quarterly, do my goals, does my current values, are they aligned with how I'm spending my money? Do they still serve me? Is there a need to make an adjustment? Have my priorities changed? Life events, they happen to us all the time. What changes happened? Did you buy a house? Did you sell a house? Did you have a baby? Did you adopt a baby? Did one of your babies grow up and go to college? Have you changed jobs? There's so much happening in our lives all of the time, and so taking stock of how that impacts our plan and how we're going to take action going forward is really important. It's also really nice to create a personal financial plan for the entire year, and so that includes looking and rebalancing your budget, taking a look at your overall retirement savings plan and investing plan. Tax planning. What is your retirement withdrawal strategy? There's so much to consider when you're looking at your overall goals and where you are in life, when you're looking from that annual view. What's nice about asking yourself all of these questions is at the end of the day, you're looking to identify opportunities that can help both protect your assets and then grow them. And an advisor that also understands your long-term goals will be well positioned to help you identify those strategies and techniques that can help you grow and protect your wealth over the long term. And what I'd like to say is having an advisor or someone else that you're working with, it's really nice to bounce questions that come up over the course of any of these money dates. So you might have questions that pop up in your monthly, quarterly dates. Jot them down and come with those questions so that you can have another perspective, someone with experience, or a point of view to help field and fill in some of the blanks that you might have, allowing you to move forward and make decisions with more confidence. 

 

ALEX ROCA: Thank you for that. Now I just want to quickly clarify something, Roberta. We've talked a lot about what we can cover, but who should we be covering it with? Meaning, if you have a partner in your life, should they be included in these money dates? Or is this a solo thing? 

 

ROBERTA KING: I'm really glad you asked that question, because as I was responding to some of your questions, I was saying "we," and I was using shared language. And so I guess the short answer is yes. If you have a partner that shares other aspects of your life with you, you should include them. Your financial life shouldn't be any different. Well, think about it this way. If you wouldn't make a big purchase or make a really big life decision without this person, then you should consider including them in all of your money dates. Now, Fidelity did a study back in 2024, and it was called Fidelity's Couples and Money Study. And what was found—that nearly one in four couples say that money is their greatest relationship challenge. So if we know that now, we can intentionally say, let's not let that happen in 2026. We can take steps to change that. So yes, the answer is, include partners. But I'll also say it's personal preference. I do know couples that choose to keep their finances completely separate from each other, and that works for them. And that's OK, too. So ideally, partners should have knowledge and visibility of the household's finances, budgets, insurances, future wishes when you think about estate planning. All of that should be discussed. But at the same time, you've got to do what's comfortable for you, be honest with yourself, and find ways to include people where it makes sense for you. 

 

ALEX ROCA: Thank you for that. And I actually want to address something that you had said earlier, Roberta. We've said it already a few times today, so I want to revisit a fan-favorite topic, budgeting. So, Felisa, we know that the word "budgeting" can sometimes have a negative connotation. I think, Roberta, you said it's not everybody's favorite topic, and I have to agree with that. So are there any suggestions on how—can someone make budgeting feel like an empowering tool for financial freedom instead of a restriction or a burden? 

 

FELISA RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. I love I got this question because there's nothing I love more than a good budget. And when sitting with clients, every time I bring up the word "budget," sometimes it was a good thing. Sometimes it wasn't a good thing. Sometimes it's like, I've never done one. And Alex, you said it. Pretty much everything was in the question you just said. Budgeting is all about mindset. It's about the way we speak to ourselves internally. If you talk about budget as this thing that you dread or you don't want to do or it feels constricting, then that's what it's going to be. So you have to think about it differently. You have to talk about it differently. Budgeting is not a form of punishment. It really is a form of self-care. Just take that in. Budgeting is a form of self-care. It can be very empowering if you just embrace it. When we stay within our limits financially, it can reduce your stress. Having a clear outline budget can help enable you to get where you want to go financially. It's a must-have. It's something you've got to have to get there. Fidelity has a really great starting guideline. We call it Plan Your Pay. And for those of our Women Talk Money regulars, this may look a little bit different. We changed it up this year to our prior guidelines. So you'll see it here on the screen. It starts with first understanding your paycheck, knowing what's on that paycheck, what are your employer retirement benefits. Then what you first want to do is set aside retirement savings of up to 15% of your gross pay, including any employer match. Then we want to break down our take-home pay, and the guidelines state 60% of that going to essentials. Those are our must-haves. Think housing, food, childcare, your debt payments. The next 30% of that take home pay going to discretionary items. Those are the nice-to-haves. Those are our subscriptions. Those are going out to eat, buying clothing. And then that last 10% of your take-home going to short-term goals and building up your emergency funds. So budgeting, just so you know, it's not about knowing where every single little penny goes. I think a lot of people think that's what budgeting is. It's more about feeling in control of where your money's going, confident about those financial choices because you know you've made them consciously. Just know these percentages. They're just a starting point. They're not hard rules. Everyone's situation is different. You might have higher debt than someone else. It may look totally different. You may have kids or maybe not have kids. So everyone's budget is very different. And if you're not here yet, it's OK. These guidelines can serve as this target, something you can work towards gradually. And we've been saying it consistently right through this whole—the message is, small, consistent steps can help you get where you want to go over time. 

 

ALEX ROCA: It's about building that momentum we've been talking about, absolutely. Roberta, is there anything actionable that we can do to help us stay on track within our budget and help make sure that it's working for our situation? 

 

ROBERTA KING: Oh, absolutely. I love this question, and thank you, Felisa, for sharing that breakdown. Because once you run the numbers, you can look at roughly what amount potentially you now have for each of those three buckets. And that's one thing you can do right now. If you're listening, pull out your calculator. You can figure that out in just a few moments. And Felisa also mentioned this in the quarterly money date section when she was talking about the quarterly. But she said something—if you were paying attention, she said automation. And that is really powerful. So think about if you have an employer-based retirement plan—you're very familiar with this already—that money is taken automatically from your paycheck before you even see it, and it's put into an account on your behalf. You're not used to seeing that money from your paycheck, so you're fine with it. There's no temptation to spend that money. So you can automate that in other parts of your life. So other savings and investing contributions you can also include, such as your emergency fund. You can have that sweep out of your check without you ever touching it as well. Same with any supplemental retirement savings you might want to have, such as an IRA or an HSA. You can even do that to a brokerage account for short-term planning goals you might have. A lot of folks already do this. You can set up, of course, autopay for your bills so that you never miss a payment. If you're trying to keep those in your head, and let's say you went on a trip, and you might have missed a payment, well, now you've got a late payment charge in addition to potentially other fees. Now you're spending extra money where you didn't need to. So if you automate those, you're ensuring that your account stays in good standing at all times. You can also see if your employer retirement plan has an auto-increase program. And what that means is each year, you go around, pass Go, if you're playing Monopoly. You can have it increase by a small amount each year so that over time, you're just increasing and saving more, or you can do it at the times when you're finding promotions. That's another great time to increase. So it's just one simple thing. We're talking about automation. It reduces our temptation to spend. It can help reduce any emotional reactions we could have or hesitations that could happen in the market. Markets go up. Markets go down. That can impact how comfortable we feel going into our investments. All in, it can help us stay on track for our savings and investing goals so that at the end of the day, we can continue to live our life. And it's just one less thing we have to think about. 

 

FELISA RODRIGUEZ: Roberta, I'm such a big fan of automation. And as you were going through all those different ways that we can automate things financially, I was thinking about, you can also automate your investments, and you can do this through a managed account. This takes the guesswork out of investing. It helps to ensure that your money is continuing to work for you. Now, investment management is very different than what we're focusing on today. Everything we've talked about today—budgeting, your money date—that all falls under financial planning. But investment management is that next step. And we have webinars that go deeper into this, some Women Talk Money webinars as well. But investment management, it has costs that vary based on the types of investments, the relationship, or even the type of account you choose. It can be time-consuming. And then, of course, it requires both some skill, knowing about investing and what to invest in, and then just the will to want to do it. Not everybody wants to do it. So automating it, some people find it much easier to just automate that, meaning having someone do it for you. And there's a couple of different ways you can do that. It can be done through a robo-advisor at Fidelity. This is called Fidelity Go. Or you can work with a financial professional to get some help. But I love automation. 

 

ALEX ROCA: Yeah, and I actually want to emphasize something that both of you have made reference to. Time is value. And we're all busy, so automation can help us stay on track with our goals while not giving up so much of our time. Now, aside from being crunched for time, there may be some other things that are holding us back and maybe making us feel hesitant about finances in general. So Felisa, we've said this a few times today, but we know that every situation is different. So how can someone evaluate their current money habits and identify some of the things that may be both helping them towards their goals but also some of the things that may be holding them back? 

 

FELISA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I want to first start by just diving into something. When we ask someone to evaluate their money habits, sometimes the first reaction is judgment and maybe even guilt. But this isn't about judgment. It's about taking the right steps to move forward. We all feel guilt or regret about a purchase or how we've handled our money. And it's OK. We're human. The real question is, how can we stay positive, and how can we keep moving forward? And part of that process is understanding, what are your habits. So allow yourself to be vulnerable. It's OK. Take a step back. Applaud yourself for what you accomplished last year. And most importantly, applaud yourself for today. Many of you, this is the second week of this year, and you're already here today, willing to learn, listen, and invest in yourself. So let's go over some exercises that can help you evaluate your money habits. First you want to find ways to assess value in your spending. For example, similar to how we write a pros and cons list when we're evaluating something, you can take a moment to write down what excites you, what adds value to your life about your finances. It could be some short-term goals. It could be a trip. It could be retirement. And then write down what gives you pause and maybe start to think about, what can we do about it, or what can I do about that. Another exercise you might want to do—this one's fun, you can do it on a quarterly basis—is just as you're looking through, pull three months of your statements and just go through and put a star next to those things, next to those line items that add value to your life, things that bring you joy, things that move you towards your goals. And then flag any friction points, so again, where did you maybe see an impulse buy or an emotional buy or late fees And then you can think through, OK, hey, how can I change that moving forward. The second thing you can do is look for ways to upgrade your habits, and there's some simple ways of doing that. Many of us probably already do some of these things, like planning out meals for the week so when you go to the grocery store, you don't have all these additional things you're putting in your cart that you don't necessarily need. That's something I'm guilty of. I love to go up and down the aisles and just see what's there. Another big one is consider removing cards from your devices or those shopping apps and whatnot. It's a lot easier to just hit Buy Now than actually having to pull out your card and putting in the number and thinking twice about, do I really need to make this expense or buy this thing. Lastly, I would say even when you're looking at a purchase, evaluate the cost per use or per wear. So is this an item I'm only going to use once or maybe wear once a year, so is the cost worth the value? And so stuff like that will help you start to assess your habits. And again, no judgment. It's all about you starting to make steps to move forward. 

 

ALEX ROCA: That's so helpful. And I hear you when you talk about going up and down those aisles. Those BOGOs, they really get you at the supermarket. I think it's important to say there is no "one size fits all" approach. We all learn differently. We all work differently. And that's a beautiful thing. You're just going to want to find what works for you. And it may not happen overnight, but that's OK. Just keep going. And just for the sake of time, we are going to go to our last question. Felisa, I'm going to keep it with you. As this is our first event of 2026, if we were to make our own to-do list that we can implement and/or maybe schedule for the rest of the year, what could that look like? 

 

FELISA RODRIGUEZ: Sure. As I think of a to-do list for 2026, I think the first step in the plan for me, especially after what we've just talked about today, is setting up those money dates for the year. Physically add them to your calendar. And then quarterly, you might want to extend it a little bit longer. And then for your yearly check-in, get on your financial professional's calendar. Or if you don't have one, now would be an opportunity to find someone you can work with for your first session. Either way, just get it on the calendar, commit to it, and show up. Second, I think about budget. Consider using Fidelity's Plan Your Pay methodology to build a budget. And then from there, there's a couple other things you can be doing. Ensure you have that emergency savings. We can't predict the future. So many things come up in life, and we need to be prepared for it. Create a debt management plan if you've got outstanding debts. Automate, automate, automate, automate. Automate what you can, your retirement savings, your investments, your bills. Enlist help when you need it. At Fidelity, we're here. We're here to help you. Lastly, maybe also consider scheduling some time with an estate planner if you don't have your estate planning done, and then, of course, your tax specialist. That's coming around the corner, for sure. 

 

ALEX ROCA: Thank you for that. Felisa, Roberta, this was wonderful. Thank you so much for chatting with us today and for all the great information that you shared. We have a slide that we're going to pull up in just a moment so that you can access all of our upcoming events, and to remind you on how you can get help. To second what Felisa just said, we are here to help. If you have any questions or if you're wondering what that next best step is, remember that you can always give us a call. To all of you watching today, thank you for joining. Thank you for being a part of our community. And we'll hopefully see you again next month. Have a great day.