Jessica Quindlen: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Sound Cents Podcast. I'm Jessica Quindlen. Happy Halloween! We're doing a little bit of a shift this week. We're going to do a little spooky theme for our financial education this week in honor of today. I do love me some Halloween. I'm excited to trick or treat this evening with my daughter being The Little Mermaid.
I hope all of you out there have fun, exciting Halloween plans, and I hope the weather behaves. It's been beautiful here in Colorado, but you never know on Halloween night, sometimes it shifts and all of a sudden, we have a blizzard. It's very fun for us parents.
Anyway, back to the more important part. I have two great spooky guests with me today. Bree Shellito, our Senior Manager of Community Impact. Hello Bree.
Bree Shellito: Hey, Jess.
Jessica Quindlen: And Katie Griffin, our Community Education Supervisor. Hello Katie.
Katie Griffin: Hello. Happy Halloween.
Jessica Quindlen: Let's dive right in with some spooky challenges. Bree, can you start us off with the ghostly spare change?
Bree Shellito: Absolutely. So, with this one, any of those ghostly spare change, if you're a cash [00:01:00] user that would just otherwise collect it in pockets and on top of tables, find a spare change jar or container to set those in.
If you're someone that's actually not using cash or coming across change, you can do it electronically to have a goal to transfer anything extra or anything in addition to what you spent. Let's say you spent $10.50, just move that 50 cents right over. And there are some programs that help you do that, but the idea of thinking about what those things are and getting them moved over into a savings or even an investment account, just what those kind of unnecessary expenses are.
Especially if you encounter kind of a spooky financial temptation instead of buying something that may have been unnecessary, thinking in terms of how you can move those around and just kind of challenge yourself to save a little more on what would have been an unnecessary purchase.
Jessica Quindlen: I love that. That's fantastic. All right, Katie, let's go through our cursed subscription challenge.
Katie Griffin: Yes. So, subscriptions are [00:02:00] everywhere. Everywhere. So many, everywhere we look so many, it's so spooky.
Bree Shellito: It feels like we're signed on for life too.
Jessica Quindlen: Agreed. Yes.
Katie Griffin: Forever. And it can be truly frightening how quickly the cost of all of that can add up over time.
So, got a couple tips to try to help with managing all of these subscriptions. So, first thing I recommend is to make a list of all of the subscriptions that you have and when that reoccurring charge takes place. And if you need to set a reminder on your calendar of when that reoccurring charge is going to happen, then you can take that time to reevaluate if it's something you actually still use and want to continue paying for it.
So, it's super easy just to forget all these different reoccurring charges when they're coming up. So, just making that list, getting organized with it, can help. And especially with those annual subscriptions, that a one time a year, that [00:03:00] charge is going to come through. Those can really sneak up on us.
So again, setting those reminders ahead of time when it's going to be coming up so you can reevaluate, see if it's something that you actually want to keep paying for. And then also if you are trying to kind of cut back a little bit more, either to improve cashflow, decrease some expenses, only pay for what you're actually using especially when it comes to streaming subscriptions.
So a piece of advice I like to share is if you're watching a particular show on one streaming service, just pay for that one and cancel the others and then finish that show. Then maybe cancel that, sign up for another one.
Bree Shellito: Some of them even have the pause option now within the apps that they have.
Jessica Quindlen: Yeah. I didn't know that. That's great.
Katie Griffin: Yeah. And that can be a little tedious maybe, but if it's something that's important to you, if it is an area that you want to try to save some money then, then it's worth it. Of course.
Bree Shellito: As you're about to sign up for something new, and even for the ones that you have, take a moment to do the math. [00:04:00] Because sometimes, just human nature, we think, “Oh, what's $5.99 a month?” But how quickly that can add up, so just taking a moment to look at what that would cost overall. And as difficult as it can be, and I understand sometimes it just feels more bite size to just pay it monthly, but adding it up and finding out if there is a cost savings for the annual is definitely worth it because some of them offer quite a discount if you pay it all at once. And I understand that can be difficult for folks to do, but just truly doing the math, looking at it, seeing how much it's going to cost you for a year.
And like I said, it does feel like we're signed onto some of them for a long time. Like I don't know how I'm going to get rid of Amazon prime.
Jessica Quindlen: Amen. I'm not, yeah, I've just decided I'm not, and that's okay.
Katie Griffin: And if it is more cost effective to pay the annual instead of every single month, then whatever the annual cost is, break it up into 12 months and whatever that amount is set aside every month. So, when the annual charge comes up, you already have that money ready to pay it. It's already worked into your budget.
Jessica Quindlen: Oh, that's great. I love that. All right, Bree, let's move on to the [00:05:00] curse of not saving for retirement.
Bree Shellito: Jess, this might be the scariest of them all. Not to get real serious, but I think that one of the scariest things sometimes is time. And time is against you when you're not saving, specifically for those long-term goals like retirement.
And when we're talking about things like compound interest, and some of those difficult things that can be hard to understand, the more time that you give an investment to grow, the better off it's going to be. The earlier you start, the better it'll be. And what's not scary about that situation is that today is the best day.
Get started today. Take a moment to evaluate. Given some tips here already, but take a moment to evaluate. See if there's something that you can be doing. See how much you're putting aside to those, especially those of you who are in employee sponsored retirement plans. If your company offers any sort of match, please at least ensure you're working towards getting to that number.
Because otherwise, you're leaving money on the table that [00:06:00] will be valuable dollars and will continue to grow over time. There's plenty of other options. We have other podcast episodes specific to the retirement topic, so would definitely recommend a listen there. But just making sure you're maximizing what you can to save for those goals later.
Jessica Quindlen: That's fantastic. All right, Katie, how about tricky temptations? Avoiding impulse spending?
Katie Griffin: Yes. Impulse spending gets us all. I know what to look for and I still catch myself doing it. You almost feel like you've been put under a spell and you know, as you're being drawn to make this purchase, you weren't even planning on doing it.
So, a couple of things that we can consider. First is just knowing yourself. Knowing what stores you are more tempted to impulse buy in. So, for myself, I know there are certain stores that I can walk around all day long and I'll never spend a penny.
And others - I'm really into outdoorsy stuff and camping and snowboarding and stuff - so if I go [00:07:00] into that type of store or shop I have to have a plan. Going into it, I have to have a list. So, if you're going shopping in one of those establishments where you are more tempted to impulse buy, make a list ahead of time and do your very best just to stick to that list.
If it's online shopping that really gets you, then you can try just putting something in your cart and letting it sit there for 24 hours. And I have a friend that puts things in her cart for a month, so you don't have to quite go to that extreme but even just taking 24 hours, put it in the cart, leave it there. And then 24 hours later, if it's something you still really, truly want, then you can look at making that purchase.
Bree Shellito: I got so tempted about two weeks ago. We went into a furniture store. They had one of those anti-gravity massage chairs. I was so ready to buy this thing, but Katie's right. I slept on it for 24 hours. The next morning, I was like, “Where am I going to put this? That is quite a bit of money.” Just taking a moment and getting outside of the [00:08:00] emotional piece of like “That massage was great.” Yes. But is it worth the money over time? So yeah, 24 hours. That's great, Katie.
Katie Griffin: Yeah. And then lastly, just take some time to review your last couple months of spending and try to identify which of those purchases were the impulses and see if you can find the why, like, the why we're making those impulse purchases.
Is it purely a habit? Or does it seem to be kind of this repeat? The same thing that we're always considering an impulse buy? And is it important to us? If it's something that we're always impulse buying, but it's actually important, then you can reevaluate and assess your budget and make it part of things. So it doesn't always become something that, we're spending money when we didn't plan on in the first place.
Bree Shellito: On some of the social channels, have you guys heard this phenomenon [00:09:00] of “girl math” has been a thing coming up lately? Girl math.
I am an impulse shopper for sure. I've been working on it for years. But I got to own it. And so, one of the things that helped me a lot was removing myself from some of the emails for sales. That one's a big one for me, especially for some of those stores I really love because in my mind and in the vein of girl math, I didn't want to lose money on this by not spending on those things.
So just knowing yourself, knowing what those triggers are, knowing what some of those pieces are going to make you want to spend. Removing myself from the email list was probably one of the better things I could do.
Katie Griffin: I think they have a reel now. It's like dog math now, too, but I can't remember.
Jessica Quindlen: Dog math? Oh my goodness. All right, so Bree, let's move on to automating your savings spells. Can we talk about this?
Bree Shellito: This is where the real good witchcraft and wizardry can come into play. There are some fantastic methods that you can use, and especially [00:10:00] when it comes to automating right through your online banking, there are some tools that you can set up.
Putting things in savings right away. Even better are ones that you never get to see at all. So, if you can set up with your payroll, that's even better. If before it even hits the account, it can be going into savings. So, like Katie talked about earlier, evaluating your spending, seeing what is there, seeing what you're already doing.
I know some people like to be hands on with their money, which is great. But if you have a knowledgeable pattern and you're somebody that gets paid on a common cadence. If you can already determine some amount that can go into savings, that's great because then you don't even have to think about it.
Use those tools to your advantage and just set those up right through online banking. If you do want to have more control over it, you can cancel them at any time. You can either set those up automatic or put something on your calendar just to remind yourself every payday to take a look, see what you can transfer right away and kind of come up with a plan for what those dollars are going to look like over the next couple of weeks.[00:11:00]
Jessica Quindlen: That's great. I love that. Anything else to add for Halloween?
Katie Griffin: Have fun.
Jessica Quindlen: Yes. Have so much fun. Enjoy. Eat all the candy. Wait. Actually, no. I do have a question. Are we…what's our candy? What's our go to candies? Are we gummy? Are we chocolate? Do we have, me, it's Milky Way. 100%. I will eat all of my daughter's Milky Ways. She will eat all of the gummies. It's grand old time.
Katie Griffin: I gotta go Twix and Skittles.
Jessica Quindlen: Oh, nice. Okay.
Bree Shellito: For me, it's those Twizzlers you can only get around Halloween. It's a totally different flavor than any other Twizzler, but it's the thicker ones in the weird package. You can't find that outside of the holiday. That's the one for me.
Jessica Quindlen: Do you stock up on them this time of year, so you have them around?
Bree Shellito: I try not to. No. But when they're around and there's a random candy bowl and I see that Twizzler, that's definitely for me.
Jessica Quindlen: Yeah. No, I feel that. Swedish fish are another one that like…
Bree Shellito: Nope. I got a five-pound bag of those many years ago, ate a lot of them all at once. Those are a no-go for me. Too many at once.
Jessica Quindlen: Fair enough. So, you know, unpopular opinion. I [00:12:00] don't like Reese’s. I know I'm one of those people who don't like Reese’s. So if you like Reese’s, you can have all of mine.
Katie Griffin: We're going to have to wrap this up.
Jessica Quindlen: That brings us to the end of our show. Katie, Bree, thank you so much for being here.
Bree Shellito: Thanks, Jess.
Katie Griffin: Thank you.
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 Quindlen. I will see you next week. Same time, same place.
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