151: Saving with Steve with Steve Sexton - Episode 151

151: Saving with Steve with Steve Sexton - Episode 151

What are the common struggles and victories in addiction recovery? Swap “booze budget” for actual budgeting and this conversation still hits home. This time, it’s all about money stress, holiday pressures and how those two can tangle up your emotional wellbeing. Host Steve Sexton sits down with money wellness expert Siobhan Roman, founder of Heal Plan Invest, to talk through year-end financial planning in a way that goes far beyond spreadsheets.

Siobhan explains why she left a traditional finance career focused on wealthy families to support everyday women and families, saying she wanted “to focus on money, but also people’s hearts and their minds.” You’ll hear her step-by-step approach to a year-end money check-up: start with reflection instead of blame, ask what went well, what didn’t, and how you actually felt when the fridge broke or the kids headed to college.

From there, she and Steve move into practical stuff like holiday budgets, prepaid cards, separate “Christmas” accounts and setting clear spending limits so you’re not nursing a debt hangover in January. Siobhan keeps tying money choices back to emotional wellness, encouraging people to ask loved ones, “Did you feel safe? Were you happy this year?” and even to book therapy sessions before and after difficult family gatherings.

She also stresses basics many people put off: checking beneficiaries, sorting wills and advanced directives, and using the last quarter of the year to adjust savings, taxes and first-quarter plans. There’s even a light-hearted moment where Steve admits he used AI to pick a gift and got told it was “probably the best gift ever.” Siobhan’s verdict? Use the tools, but have a plan, and “give yourself permission to correct” if last year’s choices weren’t ideal.

If money and emotions tend to collide for you around the holidays, could this be the year you write a different story?