I Finally Built the Financial App You've Been Asking For | Networth & Chill — Transcript

I am going to put out a very big scary number. I have put over a million dollar into this venture. That is more money than I've spent on anything [music] in my entire life. Imagine squishing me super duper small and putting me in your little pocket. Ask Dolly allows you to ask real financial questions and get your answers on demand. I believe that everybody should be able to get personalized guidance without having to have half a million dollars for some person to manage. [music] >> [music] >> Besties, we have a problem. And by we, I actually do in fact mean we, not just me. I get thousands of DMs every single day from BFFs asking for real money guidance. And while I was getting back to as many as I could, as quickly as I could, I couldn't respond to everything.

Which means there were people that were hungry for financial knowledge that were not getting the answers that they needed. And there's a story that we've all been sold about financial advice that it has to come from a suit behind a desk, that you need a certain net worth just to be taken seriously, and that the right way to handle your money looks the same for everyone, regardless of who you are or what's actually happening in your life right now. And so many of us have felt behind because we don't have a financial adviser or we're too embarrassed to ask the basic questions or we've gotten five different answers to the same question and just gave up because googling it got too complicated.

But what if I told you the problem was never you? What if the whole system was built to leave people like us out? Leave the LGBTQ community out. Leave people of color out. Leave immigrants out. Leave people who grew up low income out. Well, that's about to change because Ask Dolly, my app, is officially live in the Apple App Store today. What even is Ask Dolly, you ask? Well, I'm about to tell you. Ask Dolly, short for dollar, is the financial companion that I built to finally treat personal finance like financial wellness. So, you know how you go to the doctor every single year for your annual physical and they have you do blood work and that's where they're going to tell you, here's what looks good, here's what needs improvement, and given your specific lifestyle or family history, here are the things that you're going to need to be mindful of in the coming months and the coming years.

Well, Ask Dolly now does that, but for your finances, for your money. Ask Dolly diagnoses your financial strengths and weaknesses, answers your toughest money questions, makes economic news headlines actually relatable, and tells you how it's going to impact your wallet, and connects you to real human certified financial planners so anyone can make the right financial move regardless of their bank balance. It's a one-stop shop for financial advice, investing, saving, tracking all of your money moves, and making big milestone purchases. This is the app I desperately wish I had had in my early 20s because seriously, I was in a rough spot. Let me tell you a really quick story. When I first moved to New York City, I was so excited. I thought I was going to be in the big apple. I had this big fancy Wall Street job. I was going to be rich, right? Wrong.

Immediately wrong. Because rent in New York City is extremely expensive. And even though I was working on Wall Street and I had this big brandame job with a lot of cache, I was only making 80 $85,000 a year my first year on the street. And with that money, I was spending half of it on rent and then the other half I was drinking away and partying and out and about downtown. And there was one specific weekend that I remember so vividly. I was at this bar in the West Village called Fiddlesticks.

Yes, I am not proud. If you are from New York, if you live in New York City, you know exactly what bar this is. It's like kind of a dirty dive bar area. I had to wait until 12:01 for my direct deposit from my paycheck to hit to be able to afford my bar tab. That is how thin I was running the margins on my bank account. I was about to hit that overdraft. And I remember because I wanted to leave the bar. I wanted to pay my tab. And I gave my card to the bartender and she actually came back and said, "Your card declined. This is declined." And I was so embarrassed. I could feel my face getting super hot.

And I looked at my bank account and I realized that I did not have enough money to pay for my drinks. So I had to wait and I waited until my, you know, paycheck got deposited and then I paid my bar tab. And I will never forget that feeling of, wow, I really wish I was somebody who had my finances together. I was somebody that, you know, could could get the right advice to do this. And that Monday, I went back to work and I thought, "Oh, like I could really use some help. Let me see what's possible, what's available to me." And nobody wanted to help me because I was 22 making $80,000 a year, which is a lot of money for 22, but you know, it wasn't a crazy amount of money. I didn't have a lot to my name. I didn't come from generational wealth. And no financial adviser wanted to take me seriously. And now at 32, I am a multi-millionaire. And every single private bank on the street is trying to get a meeting with me, is trying to whine and dine me, trying to

invite me to their 50th floor office to tell me exactly how they can help me, how they can make me richer, how everything that I want is within reach if I sign with them. Problem is, I really could have used this info at 22. Now at 32, I've got a much better picture, and frankly, I don't need that help as bad as I did back then. That is why AS Dolly is so important to me because I believe that everybody should be able to get personalized guidance without having to have half a million dollars for some person to manage. You should be able to get the advice that you need. And that is why I built Ask Dolly. Ask Dolly allows you to ask real financial questions 24/7 and get your answers on demand. Everything from what does APR actually mean on my credit card and can you explain it to me in a way that I'll actually get it to how do I buy a house? All the small stuff, all the big stuff in one place. This is the no stupid question center. And I really want you to know that this is going to

digest the information and share it with you in a way that you're used to from watching my content. So, please know that there's no jargon. On top of that, AS Dolly tracks your money, savings, and investing progress all in one place. You're able to connect your accounts securely via Plaid. So, if you're comfortable using things like Venmo, you should be comfortable using Ato Dolly. All of the information is encrypted, and you're going to be able to see what you're doing well, where you need work, and what you can improve in the future. We're also able to actually connect to your investment portfolio and show you what in your investment account might need to be changed based on your age, based on how close you are to your timeline goal. Maybe that's retirement.

Maybe that's saving for a kid's education. We're going to be able to showcase, hey, this is how you're currently invested and these are some money moves that you might want to make to be better invested for your time horizon, for your risk tolerance. So, we can actually perfect your investment portfolio. And the best part is because we are not actually active money managers, we are not charging you a fee for that. That is a perk included with an Asaly membership. We're able to use brief plain language to explain exactly what's going on with your money, why it matters, and what you can do to make the most of your situation. We're also going to be breaking down the economic and financial news that you are reading every single day in a way that's actually relevant to your life. Because when I read headlines, my big question is like, the hell does this have to do with me? That is going to be what we do for you in this app. We're going to break down all of the news that's happening and actually explain how it's going to impact you. This isn't going to be some sort of generic what could

happen. Based on your accounts, based on how much money you have, based on what you make, based on your living situation, based on your family, we will then be able to say this is exactly how tariffs will likely impact you or this is exactly how a Fed rate change is going to impact you based on if you already own a home, based on if you're trying to buy a home. We will know these things about you and then be able to provide you truly one-on-one guidance. And last but not least, Ask Dolly is going to include exclusive content from yours truly. This is going to be stuff that is only living in the app, and it is going to be the type of content that you already love and know, but really, really special for our app users. So, I built Ask Dolly because I felt like there was no solution for people who wanted to be mindful about their money, but didn't have a ton of it already. A big portion of my audience is what I like to call a Henry. they are high earning but not rich yet or they're someone who is in the beginning stages of their career or maybe they have a career that isn't paying them hundreds

of thousands of dollars but they really want to be smart with their money and transparently the financial services industry is a little bit rigged. Typically financial adviserss or money managers won't take you or won't take your call unless you already have hundreds of thousands of dollars for them to be investing. But what about the person who has $1,000 to invest? And then one day, by making smart financial decisions now, they're able to be richer and have more invested and take better care of their family and their community. That is what Dolly does. This is truly the personal finance companion that I wish I had had in my 20s. Imagine squishing me super duper small and putting me in your little pocket and then being able to essentially have somebody to help guide you through all of those quote unquote stupid questions that you have. But you shouldn't have to feel embarrassed because no one is looking at your data. It is entirely anonymized, fully encrypted. So, we're able to get you the information you need and there should be absolutely no shame.

This is what I truly wish every single person had when they are starting their financial journey, whether that's in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, or even 60s. You're probably wondering like why specifically did you build Ask Dolly like so many other finance creators or gurus have courses or masterminds or classes. And I'm going to be honest, I wasn't looking to build an app. But the BFFs reached out so much that I knew that I had to provide a solution. And what I wanted to make sure was that I didn't gatekeep this information.

courses classes masterminds in-person events oftentimes can cost high hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. And I don't feel like the people who need this product have the thousands of dollars to be spending on this. So, what I ended up doing was bootstrapping this myself with my own money, no outside investors, because one, I didn't want to answer to anybody except for my BFFs, my users. But I actually wanted to build something that was going to serve the BFFs and was accessible to my entire audience. Financial advice has always been designed to be individualistic, prescriptive, contextfree. There's no acknowledgement of who you are, what your family looks like, or what's actually happening in the world around you right now. And I found that to be kind of strange, right? Because if you have a family history of high blood pressure, your doctor is going to be monitoring for that in a way that if somebody else's family does not have that history, it may be a lower concern for them. We do not necessarily just go

outside. We check the weather report first. In every aspect of our life, we like to check for background information. We check for the context. We check for what's happening on the day-to-day. Like that's this whole point of why we read the news, right? like we want to know what the market's going to look like, what um you know, general consensus of attitudes and feelings is going to be when you leave your house. But for finance, it's always felt so cut and dry. It's always felt so boring. It's always felt so black and white versus actually having gray space of like these are my values. These are things that I want to prioritize. And so for me, Ask Dolly really takes a lot of that into account to make sure that your financial picture also aligns with your goals, that it also aligns with your ethics, the things that you want to support and the things that you don't.

And that I think is one a real differentiator, but two, being able to provide this service to people who have historically been left behind is so important to me. I jokingly and like adoringly call the BFFs sometimes the leftovers because for a really long time the old guys in suits and Patagonia vests on traditional financial TV programming, they've always had somebody to look up to. They've always had, you know, mentors. They've always had someone they could call. But the immigrant community, women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, people who grew up lowincome, may have had harder childhoods than the rest of us. They have never had someone that they could call for help. And this is going to serve them. This is going to serve all of us who have never seen ourselves represented as the rich person in the room or the person who was smart with money. I want you to feel like you can be your friend's rich BFF. On top of

that, traditional financial advice frames financial stress as like a personal moral failure while the advisory industry treats it as a qualification problem. So, you don't have enough assets for us or call us in 5 years when you get a promotion. Ask Dolly exists because neither of those things should be true. I am going to put out a very big scary number. I have put over a million dollars of my own money into this venture. That is more money than I spent on the down payment on my home. That is more money than I spent on my wedding. That is more money than I've spent on clothing and accessories and jewelry and shoes and handbags and anything in my entire life. There are no other investors. It's just me and my personal investment. This is my personal bet because I believe in this so much.

And it's so interesting because I see a lot of other creators announcing, "Oh, I raised $35 million from, you know, all the Kardashians and all of these like celebrities and D." I think it's actually really strange when they say that because that doesn't mean the company's worth $35 million. It means that they have $35 million of debt. And when you have debt, you are now beholdened to your investors. Your investors can come and ask you, "Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that?

Why aren't you optimizing for profit? Why aren't you trying to grow faster? Why aren't you doing X, Y, and Z to really squeeze out every single penny?" Because they're trying to get a return on their investment when it's just my money. Nobody can tell me what to do. Nobody can tell me that I need to grow faster or I need to take away features because they cost too much to make or I need to spend less on, you know, actually making the product better. And that is why it was really important for me to bootstrap this. I felt like if I funded this myself, one, it proved to all the BFFs that I actually one care, but two believed in it. And three, I think it really really gives me the opportunity to build it right and not just build it for right now. The goal is not to make back my money as quickly as possible. The goal is to build the best possible app that helps the most number of people and is actually something that people want to use. So, I'll get off my moral high horse and stop being a

crybaby about other influencers and celebs raising a bunch of money, but I truly believe that the way that I have built this and the way that I have designed this is to be sustainable. I want it to be affordable for everybody. I want it to be something that you feel like you are actually excited to be using. Now, I talked a little bit about the audiences that AS Dolly is likely going to speak to, but let's answer the question of like, who is AS Dolly actually for? Simply put, you. As long as you are over the age of 18 and currently located in the US. If you aren't and you're still interested in AS Dolly, leave us a comment. Let us know.

I absolutely am hoping to be able to expand in the future, but obviously I live in the US. The US market and the financial space in the US is something that I'm most familiar with, so we wanted to start here. This is going to serve everyone from the most novice beginner with no financial knowledge and truly needs a full road map put out for them to the high earning individuals who are looking to really maximize their money. What kind of um efficiencies they should be thinking about with their taxes? What kind of financial moves should they be taking now so that they can help prepare their parents for their retirement but also maybe prepare for their future family to buy a home?

Everything. There is no minimum balance to access this app. There is no minimum balance to access this advice. Unlike a financial adviser who might want you to have six figures in the stock market with them before even having a conversation, we will never ever put a minimum balance on what you personally need to have to actually be using this. And best part, because Ask Dolly does not currently manage money, we are not charging you a percentage of all of the assets you have. There's a free tier that is available to everybody. There is a medium tier where you can get all of your questions answered and access all of the different perks and all the different tools. And then there's a white glove tier where if you need a little bit more support from a CFP, you can access that as well. All of these tiers are affordable. They are something that the average person is able to access. You don't need to have hundreds of dollars every month. And this is something that I think everybody should be using. And the million-dollar question, why should I be using Ask

Dolly? Why should I be linking my accounts? Why should I use this app instead of just putting my financial information into some generic AI tool? Let me just say whether or not you're using Ask Dolly, I am going to beg you, do not put your sensitive financial information into some random generic AI tool. I would not personally feel safe uploading my sensitive documents into a tool that anybody could potentially Google what I've asked. I'm personally someone who takes a very measured approach to AI and I think it's powerful and I think it's a great tool but certainly not for everyone to just throw their data into some random LLM. Humans are a cornerstone of your financial picture and the important conversations still need to be held with a real person. Now let's get into some Q&A.

using Ask Dolly and I'm going to show you how it really works. These are real questions submitted by real BFFs and answered by Ask Dolly that I am about to share with you right now. The first question is, do you know of any lowcost estate planning options? Dolly says, "Estate planning doesn't have to cost a fortune and the good news is there are some genuinely solid lowcost options out there. Online platforms are the most accessible starting point. Services like Trust and Will and Legal Zoom let you create a will healthcare directive and power of attorney for a fraction of what a traditional attorney charges. Trust and Will in particular has been growing fast and even partnered with Fifth Third Bank to offer free wills to customers which save people over 12.6 million collectively. These platforms are attorney approved and legally binding in most states. A basic will is the non-negotiable foundation. Without a will or named beneficiaries, your family could end up in probate court, which is slow, expensive, and stressful. The great news is that for retirement accounts like your Roth IRA and 401k, you can name beneficiaries directly through the institution, which bypasses probate entirely and costs nothing.

Check your existing benefits before spending anything. Many employers also offer benefit packages, professional associations, and even some bank accounts include access to free or discounted legal services. It's worth a quick check before paying out of pocket. In terms of when a trust makes sense and when it doesn't, trust inquiries have actually grown significantly in recent years as more people realize the probate avoidance benefits. If you think you might need one, online platforms offer trust creation, too. Typically in the $300 to $600 range versus thousands with a traditional attorney. The bottom line is start with naming beneficiaries on your existing accounts free. Do it today. Then consider a basic online will through a platform like Trust and Will for a few hundred. That is exactly how I have answered this question in the past in real life on my book tour, on IG live, on YouTube live, on Tik Tok live.

So, I absolutely love that Ask Dolly is providing you a lot of cost-effective options, but also explaining to you the difference between a will and a trust and showcasing why you might need both. Okay, next question. When you don't qualify for a Roth IRA, what is the best other option? I also have a 529 separate for my kid. Okay, so this is what Dolly said. When you're over the Roth IRA income limits, you've still got some solid paths forward. The backdoor Roth IRA is usually the first move to consider for high earners who are just over the income limit. You make a non-deductible contribution to a traditional IRA. No income limit for contributions, just for deductibility, then convert it to a Roth IRA. The result is essentially the same tax-free growth you'd get from a direct Roth contribution. Just know that the converted amount is added to your ordinary income in the year of conversion, so timing matters. And this is definitely a strategy worth working through with a CPA or tax professional to avoid surprises. Your 401k is a powerhouse here and often the most overlooked option when Roth IRA access closes off. For 2026, you can contribute

up to $24,500 to a 401k. And if your employer offers a Roth 401k option, you can still get that tax-free growth without any income limits. Additionally, a taxable brokerage account rounds out the picture once you've maxed your tax advantaged options. You won't get the upfront tax break, but you'll have full flexibility, no contribution limits, and no penalty for early withdrawals. You'll owe capital gains taxes when you sell, but long-term capital gains rates are generally lower than ordinary income rates, which helps. As for the 529 that you already have for your kid, that's a great complement to everything above since it handles education savings with its own tax-free growth for qualified expenses. One newer perk worth knowing under Secure 2.0 know unused 529 funds can eventually be rolled into a Roth IRA for the beneficiary up to $35,000 as a lifetime cap with some conditions. So that money isn't necessarily trapped if your child doesn't end up using it all for education. I think that is exactly what I would say as well. I love that Ask Dolly shared the tidbit about the 529 that could then help for the

retirement of that kiddo. And I think this is something where 1,000% if you wanted more information on the backdoor Roth IRA, you could ask Dolly to help you with that and she'd be able to get you a great one 2 3 4 step by step on how to do so. Next question. My financial adviser recommended to me to get critical illness insurance to pay me a lump sum in case I fall ill. But there are a lot of conditions in this policy for me to be able to make a valid claim, leaving a possible bad scenario open of me getting sick and not being able to qualify for this lump sum. But I'm also afraid that if I don't have an insurance like that, I could get sick and really need this money. Would you get this insurance if you were in my shoes? Ooh, that's a great question. Aaliy says, "Critical illness insurance fills a real gap, but it's narrow by design. These policies typically pay out a lump sum, often $25 to $50,000 when you're diagnosed with a specific covered condition, things like cancer, heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure. The money is yours to use however you want, whether it be for lost income, mortgage

payments childcare travel for treatment, anything your health insurance won't touch. That flexibility is genuinely valuable. The catch you already identified is the biggest one. The policy only pays if your diagnosis matches the exact conditions listed at the severity level. The policy defines a cancer diagnosis might qualify but only if it's invasive, not in situ. A heart event might qualify, but only if it meets a specific clinical threshold. People do get denied, and the fine print is where that happens. This isn't a reason to automatically walk away, but it is a reason to read the policy very carefully before signing. The honest framework for deciding critical illness insurance tends to make the most sense when your emergency fund and existing health coverage have real gaps. If a serious illness hits you tomorrow and you have to stop working for 6 months, what would actually happen financially?

If the answer is, I'd be in serious trouble. That's the gap this insurance is designed to fill. If you have a strong emergency fund, six months of expenses or more, solid health insurance with a manageable out-of- pocket maximum, and some disability coverage already, the case for adding critical illness insurance gets weaker. I think this is an incredibly measured response. Gives you both sides of the argument. ASTI did a great job here. Um, and she is able to compare for you why you might want to get it and why you might not. So, I think that provides you really, really great jumping off points to actually start researching whether or not this policy makes sense for you.

Next question. I would like to have an idea of what are the best ways to claim my divorce settlement without having to put it in savings and also if I use and invest it that means I will lose a sum for taxes. It is still held in escrow. So if you were in that position what are the different ways to invest it or use it smartly and grow it. Ooh, that's a great question. And also, I am reading these questions word for word. And what I think is powerful to note that some of these are written really, really, you know, clearly and concise, and others of them are kind of like a little bit of a word vomit, exactly what a friend might say to me. And as Dolly is capable of answering both types. Um, so whether you're someone who really likes to collect your thoughts and clarify it or you're someone who just wants to word vomit, Ask Dolly is going to be able to answer those questions. So let's see what she says. Divorce settlements can actually be one of the more tax friendly windfalls you'll receive depending on how the settlement is structured. Let's break down what you're working with and how to think about deploying it smartly.

First, the tax picture is probably better than you think. Property division settlements in divorce are generally not taxable income to you. Meaning, if you're receiving cash or assets as part of an equitable distribution of marital property, the IRS typically doesn't treat that as a taxable event. Alimony is a different story. Under pre209 divorce agreements, it was taxable to the recipient. But for divorces finalized after December 31st, 2018, alimony is no longer taxable income. If your settlement includes retirement accounts transferred via a QDRO, qualified domestic relations order, those roll over without triggering taxes as long as you move them directly into your own retirement account. The key is making sure the transfer is structured correctly, which is where working with a tax professional or CPA is really important before you touch anything.

Once the funds clear escrow, here's how you can think about deploying them strategically rather than just parking everything in savings. One, max out your tax advantaged accounts first. to invest the bulk in taxable brokerage account using dollarcost averaging. This smooths out the risk of investing everything at a market peak. For actual investments, broad index funds tracking the S&P 500 are a time-t tested approach for long-term growth without having to pick individual stocks. All investments carry risk and past performance doesn't guarantee future results, but this approach gives you diversified market exposure. Next, if you have any highinterest debt, that's worth addressing before investing cuz eliminating a 15 to 20% interest rate debt is essentially a guaranteed return at that rate, which is hard to beat in the market. Next, real estate is another avenue worth considering if home ownership or an investment property aligns with your goals. I'd also recommend keeping a buffer liquid, even if you don't want to dump everything in savings. 3 to 6 months of living expenses in a high yield savings account gives you the safety net to let your investments ride without needing to sell at a bad time. What I actually love is

Ask Dolly has the word liquid underlined. So for vocab words that you may not necessarily know or jargon that you might not be familiar with, we are trying to one avoid as much jargon as possible. But if there is something that we need to use that you need to understand, you can actually click it and it'll define it for you. Kind of like those digital workbooks that you may have seen in schools for little kids. That way, you can keep reading and it'll actually allow you to understand what you're reading. She keeps going. The most important step before the escrow releases is sitting down with a CPA to confirm the tax treatment of your specific settlement structure since the details really matter here. A qualified divorce attorney should review your settlement structure to ensure proper tax treatment and QDRO compliance if retirement accounts are involved as improper structuring can result in unexpected tax liability and penalties.

This is great. This gives you such a great outline of things you should be thinking about, but I also do love that Ask Dolly knows when to actually say, "Hey, talk to a CPA, talk to a CFP, talk to a professional because that's going to help you ensure that when something is complicated, you are getting the best human advice as possible. And we're not just going to try and answer because it'll make us look smart or the app looks smart. We want to make sure that you are getting the best possible answer. And sometimes that means calling in for help." Ooh, next question. My parents are getting older and they don't have enough save for retirement. What are some strategies I can use to get them to a good place? Dolly says, "This is one of the most common financial challenges people face, and the fact that you're thinking about it proactively puts your family in a much better position than most." Start with a full financial picture before anything else. The most important first step is sitting down with your parents and getting a clear view of what they actually have. every account, any pension or retirement savings, their social security estimates, the deed to their home, any debt, and their monthly expenses. You can't build a plan without

knowing the starting point. Many families find this conversation uncomfortable, but it's genuinely one of the most loving things you can do. Social Security optimization is huge and often overlooked. If your parents haven't claimed yet, delaying Social Security can make a dramatic difference. For someone who claims at 62 instead of waiting until 70, the gap in 2026 is roughly $2,212 per month, every single month for the rest of their lives. That's the difference between a $2,969 monthly benefit at 62 versus a $5,181 benefit at 70 for a maximum earner. Even for average earners, the percentage difference is the same. If they can afford to wait even a few extra years of delay adds up significantly. Spousal benefit strategies also matter here, so this is worth a deeper look with a CFP.

Catchup contributions are also available if your parents are still working. Anyone 50 or older can contribute extra to retirement accounts beyond the standard limits. And there's even a special super catch-up window for those aged 60 to 63 that allows an even higher contribution to workplace retirement plans. If they have any earned income, maxing these out aggressively is one of the fastest legal ways to build retirement savings quickly. Up next, you can help them reduce expenses without cutting their quality of life. There are a lot of money-saving moves that younger people know about that generations older than us sometimes miss. Negotiating bills, switching to lowerc cost phone plans, researching state and county programs for seniors. Long-term care insurance is also worth exploring if they're still young enough to get it at a reasonable premium. It can cover nursing home or inhome care costs that would otherwise drain savings fast. The earlier they look into it, the lower the premiums tend to be. The fam I can't believe she's she's still going. These are all such great tips. The family opportunity mortgage is known is a lesserk known tool worth knowing about.

It allows you to purchase a home for an elderly parent with only a 5% down payment compared to the 20% typically required for a second home or investment property. A 2021 AP study found that 77% of adults 50 plus want to stay in their own homes. So, if keeping them in a home or moving them closer to you is part of the plan, this mortgage structure keeps more money in the family rather than going to a facility. Medicaid planning becomes relevant if their assets are limited and long-term care is a real possibility down the road. New York has a specific spendown rule and see see that because we are asking this based off of a dummy account planned in New York. It is giving New York specific guidance. If you are asking this from somewhere else, it'll give you guidance specific to your state. New York has specific spendown rules and planning tools like Medicaid asset protection trusts, maps, and irrevocable funeral trust that can help protect assets while preserving eligibility. The key thing to know, New York has no look back period

for inhome care through HCBS waiverss, but nursing home coverage has a standard 60-month look back period. This is genuinely complex territory, and an elder law attorney is worth every penny here. On the tax side, if you're covering significant medical or caregiving expenses for your parents, you may be eligible for tax deductions yourself. Consulting a CPA or tax professional can help you figure out what qualifies and how to structure your support most efficiently. This is such a comprehensive answer. And the best part is for any single one of those bullet points that Ask Dolly mentions, you're able to get more detail to then have us walk you through exactly what you should be doing to make some of these things happen. Okay, and last question for you.

What should I put in my prenup? Okay, I love this question. Ask Dolly says, "A prenup is such a smart move, and honestly, what goes into yours really depends on your specific situation and what matters most to both of you." Let me walk you through the big picture framework so you can think through what's right for your relationship. Start with what you're protecting. A prenup typically addresses how assets and debts are divided if the marriage ends. You'll want to think about what you brought into the relationship, savings investments property business interests versus what you'll accumulate together during the marriage. And this is specific to the account we're using.

Since you're 26 and self-employed, you might have business equity or future income streams that feel important to protect. Or you might want to keep things simple and equal. Both approaches are totally valid. Imagine now you are 35 and have a W2 job or 45 and have sold your company. Ask Dolly is going to give you specific guidance based on your situation. Now back to her answer. Business ownership is a common sticking point. If you own a business or plan to, many people structure prenups so the business owning spouse retains 100% ownership and control. The reasoning is usually that a business is built on personal effort, expertise, and relationships that can't really be transferred or split. But this is super personal. Some couples decide differently based on their values and how they view partnership. This is definitely something to discuss openly with your future spouse before you even draft anything. Income disparity matters as well. If one of you earns significantly more now or is likely to in the future, a prenup can acknowledge that and set expectations around how joint assets like a home down payment

are treated. For example, if one partner's higher income made it possible for the other to save and invest, some couples decide that's reflected in how they divide things. Again, this is about what feels equitable to both of you. Other things people often include how you'll handle debt, yours, theirs joint, whether inheritances stay separate or become marital property, what happens to retirement accounts, spousal support, aka alimony terms, and how you'll handle finances during the marriage, joint accounts, separate hybrid. Some couples also add a postnuptual agreement later if circumstances change. As Dolly is wrapping this up for us now, she goes, "Here's the real talk, though. A prenup only works if you both go into it with honesty and transparency. If either person feels pressured, blindsided, or like they're being hidden from, it creates resentment, and honestly, it might not even hold up legally. The best prenups come from couples who've had real conversations about money, values, and what partnership means to them.

Since prenups involve legal and tax implications that are specific to your situation, your state, and your relationship dynamics, I'd really recommend working with a family law attorney who can draft something tailored to you both. You want to make sure that you each have your own individual attorneys. And as Dolly closes with this question to then prompt you to answer some of these so that we can help even further. What matters most to you in a prenup? Protecting a business, keeping finances separate, or something else entirely? That is a great way to end this conversation. And as you can see, AS Dolly highly recommended you actually use a human service. And like we mentioned earlier, you could use an online service, but AS Dolly cannot draft you a prenup. We are not a legal service tool. As Dolly knows the limitations, and that is why we're able to give you such good advice. We can give you what actually makes sense, but then for the stuff that we can't handle, we guide you somewhere else. That was a really great Q&A. Thank you guys so so much for listening to me yap about Ask Dolly. As you can probably tell, I am

over the moon about this launch. I'm so proud of her and I'm so proud of what we've built and I know it's going to help so many people. You can download it now in the Apple App Store and we're going to be rolling out an Android version in the coming months. So, if you want to put your name on a wait list, you can head to askdy.com. I hope you guys love using it as much as I've loved building it for you. Plus, if you do love it, please do not forget to leave us a review in the Apple App Store. And if you have any questions, comments, or feature suggestions, leave them for us in the comments below. Our entire team is going to be scouring the comments to keep upgrading the app for you. I'm so excited for this. I know this is going to change so many people's financial futures. I love you guys, and I'll catch you next week. Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of Net and Chill, part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. If you like the episode, make sure to leave a rating and review and subscribe [music] so you never miss an episode. Got a burning financial question that you want covered in a future episode? Write to us via podcast atyourichb.com.

Follow net worth and chillpod on Instagram to stay uptodate on all podcastreated news. And you can follow me at yourrichb for even more financial knowhow. See you next week. Bye.