{"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":"What It Costs Me: I Didn't Save for Retirement Until I Was 47","slug":"what-it-costs-me-i-didn-t-save-for-retirement-until-i-was-47","published_at":"2026-09-03T22:15:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/financially-confident-christian-773313/what-it-costs-me-i-didn-t-save-for-retirement-until-i-was-47","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/financially-confident-christian-773313","url":"https://www.becomingfinanciallyconfident.com/save-for-retirement","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/cd1f0f9a-e7ec-4cd4-8d15-8b39d60638c2.mp3","summary":"I didn't save a single dollar for retirement until I was 47, and today I'm walking you through what that decision actually cost me. Plus, SNAP benefits are about to change for millions of families, and ground beef just hit $6.89 a pound. https://www.becomingfinanciallyconfident.com This is Becoming Financially Confident , live weekdays from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM Eastern. I'm Ralph Estep Jr., a licensed public accountant with 30 years of experience, and I'm joined by my cohost Juliet. On Today's Episode: What It Costs Me: I didn't save a dollar for retirement until I was 47, and I show you the real math on what that decision cost me SNAP's family-of-four benefit rises to $1,023 on October 1, but the work requirement now stretches to age 64, and I walk through what that actually means for households affected Ground beef hit $6.89 a pound because cattle herds are at their lowest level in years, and Juliet and I talk through some practical swaps Medicare's open enrollment window opens October 15, and I break down why premiums are projected to climb even after the Social Security cost-of-living bump A car dealership scam making the rounds right now, including the one thing you should always verify before sending a deposit Watch or listen live at https://www.becomingfinanciallyconfident.com/live . Got a money question for me? Send it my way at https://www.becomingfinanciallyconfident.com/question and I'll answer it on the show. Links mentioned in the show: Stamps.com: https://www.becomingfinanciallyconfident.com/stamps WalletHub: https://www.becomingfinanciallyconfident.com/wallet EZ Will & Trust: https://www.becomingfinanciallyconfident.com/ezwill Companies mentioned in this episode: Fidelity WalletHub EasyWill SNAP Medicare Stamps.com","meta_description":"I didn't save a single dollar for retirement until I was 47, and today I'm walking you through what that decision actually cost me. Plus, SNAP benefits ar…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3341,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/financially-confident-christian-773313/episodes/what-it-costs-me-i-didn-t-save-for-retirement-until-i-was-47/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/what-it-costs-me-i-didn-t-save-for-retirement-until-i-was-47.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}