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When I was growing up, my mother ended each day at our kitchen table with her checkbook open, pen in hand, and a small stack of receipts beside her. She balanced that checkbook religiously. When I opened my first checking account, she taught me to keep a running balance in one column and track every expense in the other — the goal was simple: never let that balance hit zero. Each morning, you knew exactly where you stood. I’m 52 now, and while the 1980s don’t feel that long ago, they might as well be a different world. Back then, credit cards were reserved for special purchases, and you only used a gas card if you needed to fill up and didn’t have enough cash on hand. Today, I have a seven-year-old son who will likely never know what a checkbook is. I think I lost mine sometime in my mid-30s, around the same time I stopped getting paper bank statements. When my son wants a toy, he doesn’t ask if we can get it — he asks when it will arrive. “You just press that orange button on your phone, Mommy,” he says. That says it all. Technology has fundamentally reshaped not just how we live, but how we spend, save, and think about money. In 1988, Americans held about $190 billion in credit card debt. Today, that number has surpassed $1.2 trillion — a sixfold increase, while incomes have grown only about 2.5 times in the same period. Back then, credit cards accounted for just 3–5% of consumer purchases; today, they represent over 35%. It’s easier than ever to buy anything — tap a phone, click a button, and it’s yours. So why do we still think people can get financially healthy simply by “changing behavior”? By saving more, spending less, and “trying harder”? That’s not how it works anymore. Expecting people to swim against a digital current this strong is unrealistic. We’ll never return to the days of slow money or kitchen-table budgeting. Instead, we must build tools that move as fast as money does today — technology that is personalized, relevant, and responsive to how people actually live. That’s exactly what we’re doing at Financial Wellness Labs, through our platforms Questis and Finley. We don’t believe lasting financial change comes from reading a PDF, watching a video, or using a budgeting calculator that assumes you already know what you’re doing. And while coaching is critical, it isn’t enough if life — and spending — keeps changing between sessions. We’re using the same technology that accelerated this “fast money” world to help people take back control within it. Always-on, conversational, adaptive tools — a constant coach that knows you, learns from you, and guides you in real time. Because real financial wellness doesn’t come from asking people to change their behavior. It comes from changing the tools we give them. #financialwellness Questis Financial Wellness Labs Jaafar Mothafer Adam Harper Gardner Horan Andrew Kramer David Marcus Eric LeGoff Carrie Frasure Rob Rickey, CFP®

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