Jessica Quindlen: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Sound Cents Podcast. I'm Jessica Quindlen. Today we are celebrating all things financial coaching. In the month of January, we here at Ent are doing a promotion. Anyone who comes in to see one of our free financial coaches will be entered to win one of five 100 Visa® gift cards¹. This promotion is through January 31st, 2024. Again, this is available to members and non-members. You can easily sign up at the link in our show notes or going to Ent.com and searching financial coaches. ¹Click here to learn more.
I have with us today two of our coaches to discuss this program. I have Michelle Sanchez. She is a Sr. Service Center Manager for us and a Financial Coach. Hello, Michelle.
Michelle Sanchez: Hello.
Jessica Quindlen: And Emma Protsik. You've heard her before. She is our Financial Coaching Supervisor and a coach herself. Hello, Emma.
Emma Protsik: Hi, Jess.
Jessica Quindlen: Hello. Happy New Year to you both. So, let's just dive right in. Could you briefly share your journey and background in finance?
Michelle Sanchez: Yeah. For me, it started 25 years ago [00:01:00] here with Ent Credit Union. I started on the teller line, learned to do new accounts, assist members with loans, became a Center Manager. And took on now recently financial coaching. I love to educate our members and help them grow financially.
Jessica Quindlen: I love that. That's a great goal. So, what inspired you to become a coach? With all your background and your knowledge, what made you decide to take that extra step?
Michelle Sanchez: I love to learn anything new. So if it could help myself financially and also to help members - to educate them as I'm talking with them in different situations, to guide them and get them in the right direction that will help them.
Jessica Quindlen: Fantastic. I love that. Now, Emma, we've had you on a few times, but I'm not even sure. What is your background in finance?
Emma Protsik: Yeah. So, I did start my career at Ent six years ago and like Michelle, I worked in the service centers. Michelle and I actually worked together for a little bit there. She was my manager.
And I was also going to school at the same time, so I was majoring in finance and I really thought that I wanted to be a financial advisor, wealth [00:02:00] management, that sort of thing. But working in our service centers, that's really where I did fall in love, like Michelle, with helping our members and everyone in every walk of their lives.
Jessica Quindlen: I love that. And so what inspired you, you know, you were working in the service centers and then I know you moved to a back office educational position. What inspired you to become a coach and to actually start this financial coaching program?
Emma Protsik: Yeah. So, I mean, it's Ent's mission statement. We improve our members financial quality of lives, and we were looking for a way to have a deeper meaning. That one-on-one guidance, while of course our service center staff can help answer those questions, was missing a little bit from the credit union. So just being able to have people available at no cost to talk through their financial situation, and get a plan in place to achieve all the different goals that they want.
Jessica Quindlen: I love that. So real quick, you had mentioned how you wanted to be a financial advisor. Can you talk to me about the difference between coaching and advising when it comes to finances?
Emma Protsik: Absolutely. So financial coaching is definitely more focused on that day to day. So how are you spending your [00:03:00] money? How are you saving your money? Managing the different debt that you might have?
Financial advising is kind of that next step. Think more talking about investments or retirement. Financial advisors can give you specific advice on how to manage those different things. But again, that financial coaching is a really good first step to kind of get an understanding of your budget, your savings and your spending.
Jessica Quindlen: Great. I love that. Are there specific areas of financial wellness that this coaching program focuses on?
Emma Protsik: Financial coaches can help you in a lot of different areas. We have three main categories as far as what our coaches can cover.
The first biggest portion I would say is definitely that budgeting piece that I mentioned. So, looking at your spending plan. Let's do a cashflow analysis. See if there's a way we can decrease our expenses or even possibly increase our income. Along with the budgeting comes that savings piece. So, whether you're saving for emergencies, saving for long-term goals or short-term goals, our coaches can help you get a plan in place to do so.
Michelle Sanchez: And then going along with that, we're looking at your overall debt and credit. [00:04:00] So, based off of what you have set up for budgeting, what income you have coming in, what you have going out towards your monthly bills. We also look at if you have extra money that you can maybe pay extra towards one of your loans.
And look at what does if you pay an extra $100 towards something (loan, credit card balance, etc.) and how fast that can be paid down at the current rate. We look at all of those different modules and give members different ideas to help them pay off their debt faster.
Jessica Quindlen: I love that. Do you have a sort of a favorite area that you enjoy coaching people on?
Michelle Sanchez: I like it all. Once you see what their full budget is, and then also diving in deeper and letting them know it's just not thinking about those long term things that could come up, i.e. your tags for your car. So let's put money aside each paycheck for that.
Jessica Quindlen: You literally just reminded me that my car registration is going to expire this month. Thank you. I'm like, oh wait, I'm going to need new tags soon. So, thank you.
Michelle Sanchez: …those small things. Or clothes for the kids. Put money aside each paycheck. It could be just $10, but when the time comes for you to need to buy those [00:05:00] tags or buy those clothes, you already have that money set aside versus, “Oh no, I don't have the money now I have to charge.” So we're trying to prevent you building up more debt.
Jessica Quindlen: I love that. I love that sort of long-term thinking. Because I think so often with long-term thinking, people think retirement and epics and you're like, no, sometimes it's literally just the $100 that you need or $200 for your car registration.
We do it every year and yet we forget, as I clearly just showed everybody. But it's important in that if you break that up over months, that doesn't seem as daunting if it's $20 a month, $10 a month, whatever that might be.
Michelle Sanchez: That and then also when we're looking at paying down that debt, we have a spreadsheet calculator out there and we play with numbers to see their expression.
If you can pay an extra $100 towards it (debt), how fast that can get paid down. And then if that extra money then goes to their next debt to see if they keep and are consistent on paying those bills, that way they could be debt free in a shorter amount of time.
Jessica Quindlen: I love that. Our financial coaching services…can we do this in person? Is it virtual? What are the options for members? [00:06:00] And as far as scheduling is concerned, I mean, I'm assuming no one's going to want it at 2 a.m., but what's the flexibility there?
Emma Protsik: We will not be open at 2 a.m., but there are plenty of ways that you can meet with a financial coach. We do offer both in person and virtual sessions, so you can meet with a financial coach like Michelle at a service center. Or we meet virtually via Microsoft teams if you're unable to make it into a center that has a financial coach. So Ent.com/coaching is where you can check out the service centers that we currently have a financial coach.
We're always training and adding centers to that list. So please keep checking back, and you can schedule an appointment right there.
Jessica Quindlen: I love that. That's fantastic. How long typically are financial coaching sessions?
Emma Protsik: About an hour is what you can definitely expect.
And for that first session too, when you get it all scheduled, your financial coach will reach out to you before then to let you know all the different things that you need to gather. So, taking a look at your expenses, trying to get some of those, you know, bills and statements together, so the session is as purposeful as possible.
Jessica Quindlen: I love that. I know this is free. Is it free consistently? Let's say I [00:07:00] have one session, can I see you once a week? Can I see you once a month? How does all of that work?
Emma Protsik: You can see me every day, Jess, if you'd like. But absolutely, it is an always free program. Again, it's just our mission statement. We really want to help improve the communities that we serve. So financial coaching is always free no matter how many sessions or how often you'd like to meet with us.
Jessica Quindlen: I love that. How does financial coaching help individuals overcome the obstacles of debt and savings and all of that kind of stuff?
Michelle Sanchez: We give them the tools to help them personally. Some things that they may not think about and sit down and, “okay, this is all the income I have coming in, this is everything I have going out, where do I really stand?”
Because once you have the income coming in, but unless you really put it down on paper and to look at everything, it kind of opens their eyes up. What do I need to change? Do I need to bring in extra income? Do I need to possibly change something in my routine to make things work?
Jessica Quindlen: Right. And I love that personalization. I think with coaching, I mean, I [00:08:00] think education is great. Go to webinars, read articles, all of that stuff, constantly educate yourself, but I think the real personalization of like “this is my exact income, this is my exact rent or mortgage,” and all of that, because there's only so far you can go with general content.
Emma Protsik: Absolutely. And to what Michelle was saying too, just that unbiased view on your finances. I mean, we've talked so many times on this podcast about how money is so emotional. It's embedded in everything that we do. So having somebody that has that unbiased opinion just to help you take a step back and assess really where you're at, look at those expenses.
You might feel different way about them talking with somebody as you're trying to figure out what that budget looks like for you.
Jessica Quindlen: That's fantastic. Anything else we'd like to add about financial coaching at Ent?
Emma Protsik: I would just like to add that financial coaching really is for everyone. We see a lot of individuals that are struggling, right? Something's happening with your finances, and we are here to help. But even if you have things like maybe some sort of money coming in and you're not sure how you want to tackle that, you know, do I need to pay down my debt first before looking into [00:09:00] investments?
We can help with those different conversations. So even if you're feeling pretty good with your finances, especially with the new year and the promotion we have going on for January, a really great time just to check in with yourself, reevaluate your budget. Do that with a professional.
Jessica Quindlen: I love that. Well, that brings us to the end of our show. Michelle, Emma, thanks so much for being here.
Emma Protsik: Thanks, Jess.
Michelle Sanchez: Thank you for having us.
Jessica Quindlen: Thank you for listening to Sound Cents from Ent Credit Union. Be sure to follow our podcast as well as rate and review us. I'm Jessica Quinlan. I will see you next week, same time, same place.
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