{"podcast":{"title":"Becoming Financially Confident","slug":"financially-confident-christian-773313","podcast_index_feed_id":773313,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/ask-ralph-podcast/","website_url":"http://www.becomingfinanciallyconfident.com/","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/c17cbaaa-ac0e-40c1-abbe-52b5e2557b3f/BFC-Podcast-Cover-Final-v2.jpg","author":"Ralph V. Estep, Jr.","episode_count":1257,"summary":"Breaking Free from Financial Shame, one conversation at a time. Most money advice assumes you already know what you're doing. This show doesn't. Becoming Financially Confident is a live weekday show for people who want to get their financial life in order without being lectured, judged, or sold something. Host Ralph Estep Jr. is a Licensed Public Accountant with more than 30 years of experience sitting across the desk from real people and real businesses — the shoebox of receipts, the tax notice nobody wants to open, the budget that never quite balances. He has made his own expensive mistakes, and he talks about them openly. This is not a new voice. Ralph has published more than 1,200 episodes across eight seasons, earned national recognition for his work, and written nearly a thousand articles on money, taxes, technology, and small business. Becoming Financially Confident is the next chapter of that same show, in the same feed — sharper, live, and built around one idea: you are capable of figuring this out. Every show opens with Headlines: what happened in the money world, and why it matters to your money and not just somebody's portfolio. From there, the recurring segments inclu…","last_synced_at":"2026-09-16T10:17:43.701925+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/financially-confident-christian-773313"},"episode":{"title":"New 1099 Rules for Freelancers, Class Action Deadlines, and Who Pays a Parent's Debt","slug":"new-1099-rules-for-freelancers-class-action-deadlines-and-who-pays-a-parent-s-debt","published_at":"2026-09-07T21:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/financially-confident-christian-773313/new-1099-rules-for-freelancers-class-action-deadlines-and-who-pays-a-parent-s-debt","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/financially-confident-christian-773313","url":"https://www.becomingfinanciallyconfident.com/a-parents-debt","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/0ae2c972-6e61-46cd-9c63-83798aeef13c.mp3","summary":"I'm dealing with a head cold today, so forgive the voice, but we've got a full show for you. Mortgage rates just hit 6.71%, the highest in over a year, and I'll walk you through what that actually does to your buying power. We also dig into why your regular savings account might be handing the bank $573 a year that could've been yours, what an IRS CP2000 notice really means (spoiler: it's not an audit), and whether you're on the hook for a parent's credit card debt after they pass away. Plus a new 1099 rule that's going to confuse a lot of freelancers, three class action settlements closing out this month, and this week's money move to protect your phone number from getting hijacked. I'm Ralph Estep Jr., a licensed public accountant with 30 years in the business, and I'm joined by my cohost Juliet. We're live every Monday through Friday from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM Eastern on Becoming Financially Confident. Here's what we got into today: Three class action settlements with September deadlines, including one that pays out for a cookware brand without a receipt Mortgage rates climbed to 6.71%, and I explain why I don't think we're heading back into the 4 and 5 percent range anytime soon The 1099 threshold jumped from $600 to $2,000, which sounds like good news for business owners but could trip up a lot of gig workers come tax season Dana in Ohio has $15,000 parked at 0.4% interest. I broke down the math on high-yield savings versus CDs and showed her how to build a CD ladder Marcus in Pennsylvania got a CP2000 notice for $3,200. I walked through exactly what that letter is asking for and why it's not the audit he thought it was Yvonne in Michigan is getting collection calls over her late mother's credit card debt, even though she was only an authorized user, not a joint ac…","meta_description":"I'm dealing with a head cold today, so forgive the voice, but we've got a full show for you. Mortgage rates just hit 6.71%, the highest in over a year, an…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3622,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/financially-confident-christian-773313/episodes/new-1099-rules-for-freelancers-class-action-deadlines-and-who-pays-a-parent-s-debt/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/financially-confident-christian-773313/new-1099-rules-for-freelancers-class-action-deadlines-and-who-pays-a-parent-s-debt.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}