“We do like to make sure our clients are really balancing the living for today while protecting their future selves as well.”

Your emergency fund should cover three to six months of expenses. But how should you adapt your financial strategy when your savings account balance keeps growing beyond that target? Our hosts, Natalie and Dan Slagle, tackle this surprisingly common problem that leaves many people psychologically stuck.

The Federal Reserve data reveals interesting contrasts: while the median savings account holds just $8,000, the average sits at $62,410. For couples with kids, those numbers jump to $12,500 and $73,980, respectively. Natalie's skeptical of the averages—how can households making $70,000 annually have that much saved? The outliers on both ends skew the data, but it highlights how many Americans might be holding excessive cash.

Dan and Natalie open up about their own challenges. Their target emergency fund is $35,000-40,000 based on $12,000 monthly expenses, yet they're sitting on over $50,000. Natalie admits she never wants to see that balance drop below $50,000 now—a perfect example of how psychological comfort can override financial logic. They acknowledge the trade-off: that excess cash could have grown more if invested in their brokerage account over the past few years.

Their solutions focus on intentionality. First, separate your emergency fund from other goals by opening dedicated savings accounts labeled for specific purposes—travel, home down payment, or that new car. Second, ensure you're maximizing returns with high-yield savings accounts offering 3.5% or more, not the 0.01% many banks still pay.

Most importantly, they advocate for creating a "flexibility bucket" in a brokerage account—invested money without a specific purpose that provides options when opportunities arise. One client used theirs to buy a second home they hadn't even considered when opening the account.

The key is balancing mathematical optimization with psychological comfort while ensuring your money serves your values.

Key Topics:

• The 3-6 Month Emergency Fund Framework (06:32)
• Federal Reserve Savings Statistics (12:16)
• When to Invest vs. Keep Cash (18:21)
• Dan & Natalie's Personal $50K Dilemma (22:12)
• High-Yield Savings and Account Separation (27:46)
• The "Flexibility Bucket" Concept (29:03)

Natalie Slagle, CFP® and Dan Slagle, CFP® are the founding partners and lead financial planners at Fyooz Financial Planning — an independent firm dedicated to helping high-earning couples in their 30s and 40s confidently navigate the complexities of managing money together.

At Fyooz, they specialize in turning financial stress into strategy, guiding couples through everything from cash flow and investing to aligning money with shared goals.

Disclaimer: For updated disclosures, please visit fyoozfinancial.com.

"If it feels like you're being kind of sleazy about something, then you're probably being sleazy about it."

Our hosts, Natalie and Dan Slagle, tackle one of the most uncomfortable topics in relationships: financial infidelity. When couples hide money matters from each other, they're essentially combining the top two causes of divorce into one explosive cocktail. But as they discover, the definition isn't as black and white as one might think.

Natalie did some research and found some Reddit confessions, including one from a woman who repeatedly lied about credit card debt to her "nicest man in the world" husband. It's the kind of story that makes you cringe and check your own relationship temperature. But the real jaw-dropper comes from Natalie's professional experience: discovering a client's secret bank account during a routine financial planning meeting, with the wife finding out in real time. Talk about a rough Tuesday afternoon!

Avoiding these landmines isn't about setting rigid rules. Instead, it's about having ongoing conversations. Dan and Natalie demonstrate this with a spontaneous game, revealing their different comfort levels for unannounced spending ($350 versus $200). Dan's recent $200 physical therapy bill becomes a perfect case study in how context matters.

Financial infidelity thrives in the absence of communication. Whether couples keep everything joint or maintain separate "fun money" accounts, the magic ingredient is transparency about the system itself. It's not about micromanaging every purchase; it's about agreeing on the framework and sticking to it.

Key Topics:

● Defining “Financial Infidelity” (03:51)

● Hidden Credit Card Debt: A Reddit Confession (05:48)

● The Secret Bank Account Discovery (08:58)

● Why People Commit Financial Infidelity (11:56)

● The Spending Limit Game ($350 vs $200) (18:06)

● Prevention Through Communication (23:58)

Natalie Slagle, CFP® and Dan Slagle, CFP® are the founding partners and lead financial planners at Fyooz Financial Planning — an independent firm dedicated to helping high-earning couples in their 30s and 40s confidently navigate the complexities of managing money together.

At Fyooz, they specialize in turning financial stress into strategy, guiding couples through everything from cash flow and investing to aligning money with shared goals.

Disclaimer: For updated disclosures, please visit fyoozfinancial.com.

"We can't break all almost 900 pages worth of everything, but we're going to break down the things that we think our audience would benefit from having a conversation about."

Our hosts, Dan and Natalie Slagle, tackle the massive tax legislation signed on July 4th. While Natalie spent her holiday evening digesting 890 pages of congressional prose (in lieu of watching Squid Game with the family), she emerged with insights that affect literally every American.

For starters, those Trump-era tax cuts everyone expected to sunset in 2026 are sticking around. This saves taxpayers from higher tax brackets but adds $5 trillion to the national debt. Natalie sees this as a wake-up call for Roth conversions, that today's historically low tax rates won't last forever.

The SALT deduction quadruples from $10,000 to $40,000, a game-changer for high-tax states like California and New York. Suddenly, itemizing deductions might make sense again, meaning you'll need to track things like charitable donations and mortgage interest.

Speaking of charity, there's both good and bad news. A new floor means you can only deduct charitable gifts above 0.5% of your income starting in 2026. But if you don't itemize, you can now deduct up to $2,000 in donations anyway. A win for nonprofits everywhere.

The child tax credit inches up to $2,200 (indexed for inflation), while 529 plans expand to cover tutoring and professional credentials. Controversially, the new "Trump account" offers $1,000 for kids born 2025-2027, but Natalie's not impressed with its convoluted rules.

Dan and Natalie believe that Congress missed opportunities to simplify existing accounts instead of creating new ones. Some changes feel more political than practical when they’re conveniently set to expire when Trump leaves office.

Key Topics:

● Tax Rates Staying the Same Through 2026 (05:05)

● SALT Deduction Increases to $40,000 (14:51)

● Charitable Deduction Changes and Floors (20:27)

● Car Loan Interest Deduction for US-Made Vehicles (24:29)

● Child Tax Credit Increases to $2,200 (29:00)

● 529 Plan Expansions for Tutoring and Credentials (31:14)

● The New Trump Account for Children (34:12)

Resources:

· How Does The One Big Beautiful Bill Impact Me? (blog post)

· Saving for our kids. (podcast episode)

Natalie Slagle, CFP® and Dan Slagle, CFP® are the founding partners and lead financial planners at Fyooz Financial Planning — an independent firm dedicated to helping high-earning couples in their 30s and 40s confidently navigate the complexities of managing money together.

At Fyooz, they specialize in turning financial stress into strategy, guiding couples through everything from cash flow and investing to aligning money with shared goals.

Disclaimer: For updated disclosures, please visit fyoozfinancial.com.