Episode 41: Financial Health with Shellye Carpenter, Part One

00;00;11;02 – 00;01;37;11
Kelly Parbs
According to a recent survey, 71% of Americans identify money as a significant cause of stress in their lives, and 54% of millennials say that financial anxiety is making them depressed. A study conducted by the American Psychological Association indicates that as many as eight out of ten Americans are stressed about money, and over half of them are feeling fatigued, irritable, and angry, and lie awake at night with worry. Nearly half of them report having headaches, upset stomach and increased muscle tension. I’m your host, Kelly Parbs. I’m a licensed clinical social worker and have dedicated my career to helping people with their mental health. It’s clear from the numbers that I cited that finances are very closely tied to mental health. My guest today is Shellye Carpenter. Shellye has over 20 years of experience in the credit union industry. It is her mission to help people achieve financial wellness and stability through education and financial counseling. Shellye’s message is that little changes can make a big difference over time, and if improving financial health can improve mental health, well that’s something I’d like to talk about. Please welcome Shellye Carpenter. Hello, Shellye and welcome.

00;01;37;14 – 00;01;40;02
Shellye Carpenter
Hi, Kelly. Thank you so much for having me today.

00;01;40;04 – 00;01;44;18
Kelly Parbs
Can you start us off by telling us a little bit about the work that you do?

00;01;44;20 – 00;02;18;23
Shellye Carpenter
Of course. So at Balance, we are a financial coaching and content agency and what that means is that we help our callers, our clients, achieve their financial goals through counseling, whether it’s budget counseling, housing counseling, identity theft prevention, etc. We can help with all those all those different topics that we’re going to talk about today in a little bit. And, my team and I, we work with the organizations that provide that counseling service to their, their clients.

00;02;18;25 – 00;02;35;08
Kelly Parbs
Excellent. Thank you. People are stressed out about a lot of different financial issues. And I’m wondering how much does age factor into that? Are there different generations focused on different issues?

00;02;35;11 – 00;03;58;15
Shellye Carpenter
Yes, different decades of life, we’re more focused on different things. So for example, 20 somethings are going to be thinking probably a little more about, any possible student debt they have to pay off, as well as trying to secure housing, as well as trying to get their foot in the door in their careers. And it can be very stressful trying to juggle all of those at once. When you’re a little bit older and you have you may have kids and a mortgage, you might have aging parents to also look after while you’re taking care of your own kids. So if you look at or think about it like a sandwich and people are in between the two slices of bread and on each side, the bread could either be they’re juggling work with school commitments, or work with caring for aging parents, or they’re juggling trying to find a job with paying off student loan debt, or trying to find a job and trying to secure housing at the same time, trying to find an affordable place to live. It’s very, very dependent upon, kind of where you are in life and what your current income potential is and your earning potential, that can have a lot to do with stress, how much stress you are suffering from. But think of it as we are like a sandwich in between two pieces of bread, and we’re trying to manage and balance those two slices.

00;03;58;17 – 00;04;27;27
Kelly Parbs
That’s a great way to think about it. Thank you. And I hope in our conversation today, we touch on different things that are helpful to all of the different age groups and generations of people who have financial stress. You mentioned budgeting as a common reason that people will seek some counseling or coaching, and that makes sense, right? It’s important for people to know how much money is coming in and going out. But how do you put structure to that? How can people get started with setting up a budget?

00;04;27;29 – 00;07;41;19
Shellye Carpenter
Okay, so, in preparing for this podcast, I did reach out to our counseling team and asked them, what are their, what are the top concerns that our callers are calling in with. And because they hear this every day from hundreds if not thousands of calls and, you know, in a month’s time or whatever, the top five, as you mentioned, budgeting is right up there, along with, some other topics that we’ll be talking about debt management, credit reports, checking accounts and so forth. But budgeting is your cornerstone of any good financial management, personal money management, system. The first thing you want to do is track how much you’re actually spending, because it’s hard to set up a budget – without going too deep in the weeds – but it’s hard to set up a budget of any kind if you don’t know where your money is going. And so what we recommend people do is to, if they can do it for 30 days, that this is great if you can only do it for a couple of weeks, that that’s also super helpful. They take all of your receipts, don’t don’t really think about too much about putting them in categories just yet. But every day if you buy something, whether it’s, whatever you’re buying – groceries, gas, fast food, a new set a tires – put the receipt into an envelope. If you purchase something from a vending machine at work, for example, or if you buy Girl Scout cookies because it’s Girl Scout cookie season, right now.

00;06;01;42 – 00;06;02;02
Kelly Parbs
That it is.

00;06;02;04 – 00;07;41;19
Shellye Carpenter
And we’re thinking about cookies. So if you’re buying cookies from your neighbor, write it down on a piece of paper. Put that paper in the envelope. Do that for two weeks minimum. If you can do it, like I said, for 30 days, even better. At the end of the month, pull out all your receipts and then you categorize and put them into, you know, auto repair, auto expenses, food, transportation, clothing, again, whatever you bought, put them into categories and that will show you, that will give you a baseline of how to start your budget. Because now you’ll know how much money you spent in a month’s time, and you should have all your information on your rent or your mortgage, car payments, credit card payments, add that to it. But you’ve got to start by tracking. So that’s, that’s step one in the budgeting process and that’s what our counselors would recommend too. Then the next step would be to find a tracking method that works for you. You know yourself. So if you are a spreadsheet person, if you like to get on Excel and enter categories and, and the amounts and so forth, and if that’s a way that will help you stay organized and keep up with it. Fantastic. Other people, they might be like, well, I just want to use my phone. So there are a lot of budgeting apps out there that are equally good that can help you, you know, keep track of your finances and your spending as you go. And those are two great ways to do it. But the most important thing is to find a tracking method that works for you, for your schedule, your lifestyle, your personality, because that is the way that you will stick to a budget is if you make it work for you, if you make the managing part of it works for you.

00;07;41;22 – 00;08;02;29
Kelly Parbs
Those are great tips, thank you for that, Shellye. As a counselor, I know that debt can be a huge problem in relationships, causing arguments and so forth, and we know that people with high levels of debt are also more likely to face mental health issues like depression and anxiety. So what can you tell us about managing debt?

00;08;03;01 – 00;11;13;04
Shellye Carpenter
It kind of goes back to the same idea of the budget. When you’re managing debt, your debt load, you need to find a way that works for you. But the most important thing again, is to know how much you owe. And look at that in a very objective way. Don’t look at it as finding fault with, with anybody. And, you know, if your in a relationship and you’re trying to get a handle on how much debt you’ve got, just take an objective look at how much is owed. Forget about who spent it, how we got there. Just look at how much you owe, and then you want to start, in making your plan to repay, you want to start by keeping an eye on all of your statements. Information is key, and it’s so easy right now for, hackers and identity thieves to get information. It’s vital that we stay on top of our statements, our bank statements, our credit card statements, so that we can identify any, recurring charges, any charges that don’t look familiar to us, any charges that are unauthorized. Get a handle on what you owe by taking a look at your statements. And sometimes those statements are really hard to look at, especially if “I know I owe so much on my credit card. I don’t, I don’t want to be confronted with it or I don’t want to have to deal with it,” It’s hard. It really is hard. But taking an honest look at how much you owe and who you owe it to is very necessary in getting a handle on it. Then the next thing you can do is negotiate your bills. Or think about negotiating your bills. Your service providers like internet, cable, cell phone those providers will all listen to you, and your desire to negotiate something down. They may not be able to go down as low as you would like, but your having a conversation with them will kind of, in a proactive way, if you’re taking a proactive stance to it, they will, they will be more likely to understand and work with you. We know people that, you know, they negotiate with their, their cable provider once every 2 or 3 months, and they threaten to go to another provider if the, if their current provider can’t do something for them, you know, lower their bill to some degree, and it may be a few dollars, it may be offering a different bundle of services that costs less money. There are options there, but just understand that you have options, and that if you take a proactive approach to your debt management by negotiating with your creditors, that can oftentimes lower your debt load by a significant amount. And so I would encourage anybody that is listening to, if they’re not happy with the amount of their, of a certain bill, cell phone bill, internet bill, whatever, that to go ahead and give them a call. And what’s the worst they can do? Say no. But at least you’ve tried. And if they say no, then go on to another provider or go on to the next bill and offer to negotiate there, that you might be surprised at how willing they are to offer discounts in order to keep your business, because you are their customer and they do want your money. So take a chance and have that conversation with them. Definitely

00;11;13;06 – 00;11;23;20
Kelly Parbs
Great, great advice. A couple things you said that really stood out to me. You know, with a couple, don’t focus on who spent the money, but decide together on a plan. Get-

00;11;23;20 – 00;11;25;01
Shellye Carpenter
Exactly.

00;11;25;01 – 00;11;30;00
Kelly Parbs
Get to the facts. I think that’s, that’s really great advice.

00;11;30;03 – 00;11;31;22
Shellye Carpenter
We tend to tie a lot of emotion around money.

00;11;31;41 – 00;11;32;05
Kelly Parbs
It’s very true.

00;11;32;06 – 00;11;51;26
Shellye Carpenter
It’s just human behavior. And that when you get into a bad spot, it really doesn’t do anybody any good to point fingers and lay blame, look at it objectively and just work together, like you said, to come up with a plan to dig your way out.

00;11;51;29 – 00;12;18;19
Kelly Parbs
And the other thing you said, you know, with the negotiating bills take control over that you, you do have some input as to what your bills might be. You can give the internet or cable companies a call and, and, you know, talk to them about different services or maybe switching over to another company. And like you said, what do you have to lose? Maybe they will offer you a discount, even if it’s a couple of dollars. That could make a difference over time.

00;12;18;21 – 00;14;08;06
Shellye Carpenter
Definitely. And one more point about that is, if you’re in like a maybe a car loan that you’re struggling to make your payments on your car loan or your mortgage payment or credit card payment, reach out to your financial institution. I always encourage this when I’m talking to people about paying bills and staying out of collections and so forth. Financial institutions – I come from financial world before I came to balance, so I know this from experience – Financial institutions want to work with you, especially if you’re with a good credit union that banks, they’re also willing to work as well. So if you reach out to them, proactively take control of the situation. Like you said, let them know what’s going on. If you’re facing a job loss, maybe a reduction in hours, maybe you’re overtime got cut, whatever the situation, and you think you might have some problems making those payments. They will work with you. They, they want to see you succeed and they want to help you, but they need to know what your situation is and what your plan is to overcome that. So if you know you’re facing some reduction in overtime, that maybe you are going to take on Uber, a side hustle, doing some Uber driving or DoorDashing or what have you, let them know about that so they can put it in their notes and the bank people, credit union people, they will work with you because they want you to be able to make those payments. They don’t want you to, just throw your hands up and walk away. So call them just like you would with, you know, with an internet or a cable provider. Call your, call your lenders as well if, if you think there’s going to be problems coming up ahead, they will very much appreciate it and they will value that relationship with you and do what they can to help you.

00;14;08;08 – 00;14;20;27
Kelly Parbs
That’s great to know. I love that they want you to succeed. So be brave, give them a call, communicate with them and and let them help you come up with a plan.

00;14;21;00 – 00;14;24;01
Shellye Carpenter
It’s all about communication. Definitely.

00;14;24;03 – 00;14;55;00
Kelly Parbs
You know, in addition to mental health concerns, poor financial health can lead to physical health problems like migraines, a weakened immune system, high blood pressure, sleep problems. I could go on and on, and all of that can lead you to spend more money to treat these issues right? Doctor bills, hospitalizations and so on. Which in turn then can lead to more financial stress. So can you talk specifically about how to navigate medical debt?

00;14;55;03 – 00;17;14;26
Shellye Carpenter
Yeah. So if you are carrying some medical debt right now, just know that you’re not alone. Currently there’s about 20 million people in the United States that owe some medical debt. And that medical debt, whether it’s, you know, from an ER visit or hospital stay or what have you, is often times negotiable. And again, this is where it’s important to know your power and know that you do have a say in this. And so if you, you know, had an expected hospitalization that led to some serious medical treatment, maybe a procedure or an operation or something, talk with the billing staff or the financial team at your provider. If it’s hospital, doctor’s office, whatever, and talk to them about, again your situation. Yeah. Especially if you had some sort of procedure, like you might be out of work for a short time while you’re recovering. They should know that. And that should be part of the discussion on, you know, how much do I need to repay? How much of this can be written off? Because a lot of times it can be, you know, charitable foundations and so forth that, that that’s very much dependent upon the provider. So you want to have that conversation with them, but see if you can negotiate some of that amount, whatever it is, and negotiate it down. And then come up with a reasonable payment plan, especially if you are looking at being out of work due to recovery time from your illness or accident, what have you. Also know that any medical debt under $500 is no longer, reporting on credit report, so you don’t have to worry as much about your credit score going down. If you can’t pay off certain, you know, these small amounts of medical debt because they don’t show up on your credit report. So, again, it’s communicate, communicate, communicate. And over communication is better than under communication. So if you are facing some medical debt or currently carrying, medical debt from maybe a something that happened a while back, go to your provider, go to their billing office, their billing staff, their financial staff, and talk to them about, you know, can we possibly negotiate some of this down? And you, again, might be surprised at how willing they are to help.

00;17;14;29 – 00;17;52;02
Kelly Parbs
And Shellye, the thing I would add to that as well is check your explanation of benefits from your insurance company regarding medical bills. And I say this out of a personal experience I’m in the middle of right now, just having a bill for $500 for diagnostic blood work, when really it was from a preventative visit, and that should have been fully covered by my insurance. So had I not looked carefully and scrutinized the, the bill and understood it completely, I’d be paying almost $500 that really my insurance company should be paying.

00;17;52;04 – 00;18;52;09
Shellye Carpenter
Yeah. Again, if you do have medical insurance, you want to you want to uncover all the stones there, leave no stone unturned, to find out. First of all, what you’re responsible for. And secondly, if the, if the hospital bill was paid for correctly, you know, like you were saying, oftentimes, insurance companies, people work, they’re people too, and there might be a mistake made where perhaps the whole amount wasn’t, wasn’t properly paid, or that you were held responsible for, for more than what your EOB, your explanation of benefits, says you were. So again, it’s looking at all of your resources, doing your own research and looking at, you know, what, again, what you’re responsible for, what the insurance companies responsible for and what the provider is responsible for because information is power. And that will, that will definitely help you in your negotiations with the provider.

00;18;52;12 – 00;18;58;10
Kelly Parbs
So you’re not alone. Communicate, communicate and be a good advocate for yourself. Understand your bills.

00;18;58;10 – 00;19;14;04
Shellye Carpenter
Self-Advocacy is so important. And I think somehow, we forget as adults, we can forget to do that. And it’s just so important to remember that no one’s going to speak up for you, better for yourself than yourself. And so definitely.

00;19;14;07 – 00;19;38;08
Kelly Parbs
And I can’t help myself. I always have to take an opportunity to talk about the importance of self-care in my job. I’m always teaching and talking about the importance of taking care of yourself. Remember that taking care of your health not only makes you healthier and happier, but it also can make you more financially secure because you will have less medical costs.

00;19;38;10 – 00;19;57;04
Shellye Carpenter
Exactly. Yeah, preventative care is, is way less expensive, we find, than, you know, treatment for something that, that’s already happened. So yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Take care of yourself. We have save, save lots of money in the process too, right.

00;19;57;06 – 00;21;07;28
Kelly Parbs
So maybe some of our listeners aren’t necessarily struggling with debt, but are looking for simple tips or behavior changes that might make a positive impact financially. And I’ll give you an example. Just this past weekend, I was ordering K-Cups for my coffee maker, and the company that I order from has a place on their website where they list the savings that their customers might have by using their gourmet K-Cups, rather than going to Starbucks. And the breakdown was that it would cost $131 a year to have their coffee per day, compared to $756 per year to go to Starbucks. So over a $600 savings. And then on the website, they go further to list what a person could buy after one year, ten years and 40 years of this savings. And they say that 40 years of saving money in this way would save $25,000. And then, and then they go on to list all the fun things you could do with $25,000. So I thought that was fun. And a kind of effective way for them to market their coffee.

00;21;08;01 – 00;23;32;02
Shellye Carpenter
That sounds like an amazing marketing plan. And yeah, kudos to whoever thought that up. But that’s that’s a great way to market a product. It really is. Yeah. There are, some of our more famous financial experts out there in the in the space, you know, you heard them on the radio, see them on TV, they will talk a lot about – or in the past they’ve talked a lot about – you know, skip that morning latte because if you’re not and if you’re not able to afford a home, you need to skip that, that daily breakfast treat or whatever, and that will help you get into your house that much sooner. And I guess that is true to a degree, but it’s such a huge jump that it makes it kind of, I want to say, it makes it somewhat uncredible advice. It just, it just is like, well, gosh, how is skipping my daily $5 morning coffee going to, you know, that’s not going to get me into a house any sooner. I understand what they’re trying to say, but basically what I think they’re trying to say is that changing small habits can can lead to bigger substantial savings. Exactly like with your coffee analogy, if, you know, by saying – it may not seem like a lot each day, you know, do I spend $2 on coffee or $4 on coffee? Well, gosh, $2. I mean, that’s that doesn’t seem like a lot of money. But over time, I mean, yes, it will grow. But I think the idea is to be, to develop habits that will have more of an impact where like right now, your your marketing campaign there with the coffee got you started to think about, gee, what could I you know, if I say $400 a month, that’s so much a year and that’s, you know, all the things I could do with the $25,000, that’s the kind of thinking that you want to get to you. But I think sometimes the the experts, they can be a little bit discouraging when they say, don’t have that morning coffee or don’t go to the movies twice a week or go with, you know, only watch movies at home because that’s the only way you’ll get to whatever your bigger financial goal is. And I think we need to understand that the habits are good to be thinking about that, but maybe not necessarily the item, but it’s a great analogy and it’s a great marketing campaign.

00;23;32;04 – 00;23;40;24
Kelly Parbs
So do you have any other simple tips or behavior changes that we might want to think about that might make big changes over time?

00;23;40;27 – 00;29;08;14
Shellye Carpenter
Sure, there are so many things out there that we can do that maybe we don’t even think about. So for example, you again, following on your coffee analogy, you can unsubscribe from temptation. By simply by unsubscribing for marketing emails and newsletters, from your favorite stores. Now, I’m going to qualify that by saying later on, talk about some tips to save money, there, there are going to be a couple of things that will that might involve you getting more emails in your inbox. But again, so look at look, consider the source and take it on a one by one basis. But if you are getting lots of emails from your favorite clothing stores, toy stores, Amazon, and you’re not really, you know, maybe you went there once, maybe you signed up because you could get a 10% off coupon, you know, sign up for our mailing list and get a 10 or 20% off coupon. Then if you don’t think you’re going to shop there very often, or if when you do stop there you tend to overspend, go ahead and unsubscribe from those emails because out of sight, out of mind. And how often do they really come back with more coupons in future emails. So I would go ahead and unsubscribe from any of those emails that are not serving your needs, and causing you to get into further, you know, to temptation to spend even more money that perhaps you don’t have or should be spending on something else. So that’s one thing. Go ahead and unsubscribe from those newsletters. The second thing is, for things that you do subscribe to, such as meal kits or clothing boxes, both of which I have done in the past, might you? So I’m preaching to myself as well here, review those subscriptions. I mean, are you really using them? The meal kit thing didn’t work so well for me because I’m a little bit of a picky eater, and as some of the ingredients that they and the menu ideas and the things they would send were things that I would never eat in a million years. And so that just went into the refrigerator, for a while, until it got so bad that you had to throw it out eventually. So that ended up being a huge waste of money for me. But if you are subscribing to things like the clothing boxes, which I loved for a while, and then realized I don’t need all these clothes, I think I’m getting too many and I don’t have enough time and places to wear everything that I’m getting anyway. So take a look at those subscriptions, do you really need them? And maybe cancel those, cancel ones that you really can live without. I love makeup boxes, too. I mean, I’ve done I think I’ve done a lot of them. I’ve tried them out, and then after a while, it’s just kind of like, you know, this is kind of a waste of money because those items just stay in my bathroom drawer and they’re not getting used. So take a look at them and, and sometimes we forget. That’s the other thing too. We forget about things like maybe, I don’t know, maybe a quarterly book club, book that you, you subscribed to that – I just canceled one of those recently so that made me think of it – that you’re not getting every month. So you subscribe to it, and then you forget about it because it’s not something that’s in your face every day. There are some services out there that can help you with that. And one of them is called Rocket Money, and I’ve heard some good reviews about it. I personally have not used it. So if you, any, any apps that that I talk about in here, make sure that you do your diligence and check their security features and so forth before you download anything. But Rocket Money: I’ve read some good reviews, heard some good things about it. It’s a good tool to use to audit any of your monthly subscriptions and help keep them top of mind. Excel and again, just old Excel is another way. If you are one who can go in and type in, you know, and keep track of them manually. And, you know, type in the name of the company and, and whether it’s a monthly thing and the date that you started your subscription, how much, etc., etc. that’s a really good way too. And then you can go back and review those and see if you’re really using them to their full capacity, or if it’s just something that sounded like a good idea at the time. Magazine subscriptions and those can add up over time as well. Streaming services are a very, very popular one. And a lot of times you can find bundles now where, instead of paying for 1 or 2 of this of the streaming services or three or more, individually, you can find bundles now where you can maybe save a little money. Either use an app, use a, use Excel, or use whatever method works for you to review those purchases and see if you really do need to hang on to them. One of the best ways to do it is when you get your, your monthly credit card or your bank statement. Because I have some of the subscriptions, do debit instead of credit. But if you will just take a look at your, your statement every month is eventually over time those subscriptions are going to come back up as showing that they’ve renewed. And so that’s another good way to stay on top of them. Just ask yourself, man, am I really using this? Do I really need five streaming services or can I live with three? And or do I really need the 2 or 3 clothing subscription and boxes and the meal kits? Or can I live with one? So again, just staying on top of them and auditing them regularly will help too.

00;29;08;17 – 00;29;26;22
Kelly Parbs
And you know, Shellye, I was thinking as you were talking, it also would be good to have a list of all of your subscriptions in one place in case you would lose your credit card. Because then you have that list of all of the places that you have to go to to say, hey, I lost this credit card, I’m going to have a new credit card number.

00;29;27;00 – 00;29;42;07
Shellye Carpenter
That’s a great idea. That’s a great idea. Yeah. Organization is key. It’s one of the most important things. And just staying on top of your finances is staying organized and figuring out whatever method works for you. Because we’re all different.

00;29;42;09 – 00;30;18;01
Kelly Parbs
You know, when I was preparing and thinking about doing this podcast, I came across an article where Warren Buffett lists, and this is his name of the list, 12 things that poor people squander money on and on that list – and I won’t go through all 12, but – two of them kind of jumped out. One was gym memberships that people squander money on, gym memberships that they just simply don’t use. And the other one surprised me and it was needless skin care products. I mean, that made the top 12. That was a surprise to me.

00;30;18;04 – 00;32;05;23
Shellye Carpenter
Yeah, well, gym memberships, you know, are one of the, gosh it’s so common at the beginning of the year. Everybody has great intentions. And so you go and you want to lose that 15-20 pounds, so you go join s gym. And they now have it so that, you know, it’s auto renew, they make it very easy for you etc.. And a couple of the gyms I’m, as I understand it now, will not take a credit card anymore. They use your debit card because in the past, one of the ways that people would get out of their gym membership is to cancel their credit card or oops, I lost my card and not tell the gym. And so the gym, you know, they would send in the monthly renewal and it would get rejected. And then they would have no way of finding or tracking down the person. Or maybe they call them and they, you know, person doesn’t answer the phone, whatever. But now a couple of them – and may, there may be more. I’m just aware of a couple of them – now that will only do, if you want to join and you know, they they have their monthly fee. They do it out of your debit card, off your debit card and not your credit card. So be aware of that when you’re if you’re out there looking for a new gym, you might want to ask them upfront before you get all excited and sign the agreement and all that good stuff. Ask them what card or how they how they collect their monthly fee, because it’s a lot harder to cancel your debit card and a lot more stressful and time consuming and painful when you don’t have access to your funds because you cancel your debit card than it is to do a credit card. And so I think the gyms have figured that out. So yeah, that’s really interesting. The skin care one. Yeah I can see that.

00;32;05;26 – 00;32;06;14
Kelly Parbs
Yeah. Me too.

00;32;06;16 – 00;36;47;02
Shellye Carpenter
Yeah buying, everybody wants to look 25, you know, we all want to look young again. And so we’ll, we’ll spend that $15 on a jar of cream – well I think it’s more than $15, but – on a jar of moisturizer or some, something that has the fountain of youth in it. So it’s funny, I mean, I would have never thought that would ever make a list, but, that’s super interesting. One other thing that people can do to just kind of maybe find some ways to save money. It’s check out your insurance policies. A lot of times when you call your agent, you know, they may not have all the, all that, your whole picture, your, your situation. So if you are perhaps a veteran or if you are a senior citizen, if you have a child, if you on your policy, that’s an excellent student. There are discounts for those types of drivers. If you work at home, like many of us do, and you let your agent know that now I’m not driving as much to work, because I commute from home, they might give you a little bit of a discount. My husband and I found that out when we started working at home that we saved a little bit of money on our monthly premium just because we don’t drive that morning commute anymore. So if you’re in that situation, call your agent and ask him if there is a discount available to you for that, because that can save you a little bit of money. It might be $10 a month, but again, that’s 120 bucks a year that you could do something else with. So, ask, ask your agent if there’s something there for you. Another area is energy efficiency. I recommend that everybody out there do an energy audit. That’s where you call your electric company, your provider. They come to your house and they’ll look around your windows to look at your furnace. They’ll look at your air conditioner, they’ll look at your appliances. And they will make suggestions on how to improve insulation or, maybe change out your light bulbs to LEDs to save a little bit of money or whatever, you know, especially if your house is older. If you have a newer home, I mean, you might not find as many things, but if you have an older home, there might be some areas that you could invest a little tiny bit, of money. But sometimes also the provider will give you, you know, they’ll do the weatherstripping for you. They’ll give you that. There’s no cost to it. Just ask them. But that’s the thing you have to ask. And so energy audits are a great way to, to find ways to save on your electric bill, especially as we’re moving into the summer months. It might be a really good time right now to get that, that audit done so that you can figure out how to save some money on your air conditioning. And, one other thing I’ll throw out there is look at your employer benefits. Make sure that you’re maximizing any employer and any benefits that your employer is offering. Retirement contributions, flexible spending accounts. If your employer offers it and you’re not taking advantage of it, you’re leaving money on the table. So talk to your HR department. They are a wealth of information when it comes to your employee benefits. The other thing I would suggest doing is take a look at your withholding on your W2. Now, I’m not a tax expert and I don’t provide tax advice, but I will advise you to look at that and think about, you know, should it be changed, maybe contact your tax advisor or, you know, accountant, especially if your company has an accountant on staff. Ask somebody with more training in accounting than than what I have. But check your withholding on your W2 because maybe you’re withholding too much. There are many people out there who like to withhold more than necessary so that they get that big tax refund at the beginning or the following year. And really, all that is doing is letting the government take more money and, and they’re using it for their purposes. And you’re not earning any interest on that money. I mean, that’s an interest free loan to them basically, because that you do get it back in the form of a refund the following year, but, but why do that when you could be taking those dollars every time you get paid every two weeks, every month, and using them for what you need to either make ends meet to pay extra on your bills, whatever the case, but make sure your withholding is accurate for whatever your, your income level is and whatever family situation you have or how many kids you have in the house, dependents, what have you, because that’s your money. You’ve earned that. And so you want to hang on to that.
00;36;47;03 – 00;36;47;29
Kelly Parbs
Sure.

00;36;47;36 – 00;36;50;01
Shellye Carpenter
Yeah, definitely check that too.

00;36;50;03 – 00;37;28;29
Kelly Parbs
Great tips Shellye. Thank you. And so be a good advocate for yourself. Know your resources and communicate clearly. It can only help. Stay tuned for part two of my conversation with Shellye Carpenter on the topic of financial wellness. To hear that episode and other episodes of On Topic with Empathia, visit our website Empathia.com. Follow us on social media @empathia and subscribe to On Topic with Empathia to hear new episodes as soon as they go live. I’m Kelly Parbs. Thanks for listening to On Topic with Empathia.