And welcome Aaron McCullum is here from Marine Credit Union. We have a whole bunch of
topics to discuss. And it's going to be about money. I don't want to get into press because
we're here to help you. I'm not here to depress you today. And it's a bad money. And
people, some people know how to save and take care of their lives. Some people don't. They go
overboard sometimes. So we're going to talk about that. But Aaron is in charge of the
community projects at Marine Credit Union, which is just on Green Bay to south of 11, right?
Green Bay internet. Yeah. It's the good old Cudoba. Rise about to say where they have lunch
every day. Cudoba. Yeah. And it gets a cell phone fixed in Verizon right next door. You got
the whole shopping center set. Okay. So we're here to talk about some of the community projects
from Marine Credit Union. And after you are, you have a community lead.
Yeah. I serve as the community lead here in Racine. And it's just a blessing to serve our community.
In addition to leading, I hope to collaborate with other community leaders and awesome
organizations right here in our backyard. So let's talk about some of them.
Yeah. Absolutely. So in case you may not know, this week is National Digital Inclusion Week.
Now who came up with that? Actually, that was the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.
Okay. Racine is actually revolutionary in this area where we're seeking to bridge the digital
divide. There's a lot of great organizations that collaborate and work to actually help those
who don't have the resources or maybe the knowledge and understanding to thrive in today's
digital world. You know, and my mother was, she's since passed, but she was 92 years old,
and she lived on her phone. She was on Twitter. She was on Facebook. She was on stuff like
Instagram. I don't even have Instagram. And she was all over this stuff. And she was on her,
her tablet doing everything. And she had the latest. I used to go to her sometimes. How did you
get on that site? How would you do? She was 92 years old and I'm asking her for advice. So she
was very good on us. Some people are good at it. Some people live in the digital world. My mother
was one of them. Mrs. Rosen's quite the influence. Oh, she used to fight with everybody on Facebook
and Twitter. And she said, look what they said. I said, Ma, you're crazy. Stay off it. What are
you arguing with these people for? I mean, it's probably some big obese guy with the sandwich
next to him with a ice cream and he's typing on this thing, fighting with a 90-year-old woman.
Stop it. But she loved doing it. Yeah. Well, this week we're actually celebrating
digital inclusion week at the Racine Literacy Council. On Wednesday, there's going to be a free
community resource event with a lot of great resources and organizations, workshops,
front prizes, and some refreshments. That's from 430 to 630. Now, where is it? At the Racine
Literacy Council right here in Racine, the address is 734 Lake Avenue in Racine, Wisconsin.
Oh, yeah. Now, if people forget that, they're driving in their cars right now. They can't
write it down. Is this on a website or something? Yeah, you can check out on the city of Racine
on their Facebook and on their website. It's also on our marinecu.com. And you can say,
included in the fun activities here, they have a great resource and team that helps
thrive and promote not just financial empowerment, but digital empowerment. And that's what we're here
to do. You know, and it's not going away for people that are afraid of digital, it's not going
anywhere. Yeah. It's going to get bigger. So an AI right now is almost freaking me out because I
was looking at something two nights ago with my wife and she said, AI, I said, no, no, no,
it's real. It's a crocodile coming up on this little kid. She goes, no, it's not. It turns out
it was AI. I couldn't tell the difference. So we're getting to the point now where I don't know
what to believe when I see it anymore. Yeah, I mean, they're called deep fakes, right? And
yeah, kind of correlating. So this is digital inclusion week. This is actually also cyber security
awareness month. Yes. And this week is also mental health awareness month. And so when you talk
about AI and scams and just the stuff that are out there, that can lead to mental health issues,
mental illness and just a lot of different things, negative effects that come from, you know, being
attacked or just fooled in various areas. Elderly people always getting scammed. It's not just
elderly, but a lot of them getting scammed. They hear these scams and they say, oh, that sounds good
before they know what they're saving just wiped out. Yeah, I tend not to fall for that stuff, but
the scammers get creative. And unfortunately, they're used their powers for evil sometimes. And
it's not there's a stigma. It's a certain demographic or a certain age group of people. But really,
it could affect CEOs just as much as a custodian or kids, you know, it's crazy. I know. That's the
importance of being aware and staying empowered through the changes and the things that are going
on around us. And so I invite you all to come on out, say hi to us on Wednesday from 430 to 630.
And find out how not to get scammed. Yes. To find ways to be empowered and into
keep track of your cyber security awareness. And you can lock yourself in your bedroom,
shut the door, not turn on anything. And people could still scam you without you know,
I watch these YouTube videos all the time, but people getting fake checks, going to the bank,
wiping out people's. And luckily, the people, the banks and so forth, they catch them. They know
it's it. This has done sound right because they know the person. Yeah, you know, they, you know,
a lot of banks and credit unions, you know, the people who come in and you recognize them and
this person ate that person. So, and so they catch them. But people always try to scam.
Yeah, I want to shout out my recentee and I see them all the time doing that, catching,
catching fraudsters and fraudsters. Yeah. Yeah. We like to joke that we're like cheers. When you come
into marine and our offices, we call them financial empowerment centers. When you come into our
financial empowerment centers, everyone knows your name. You're greeted with the smile and
there's always a place for you. And so yeah, shout out to them because they catch those criminals.
We have an awesome fraud team that really is diligent in making our members and community safe.
Let's talk about some of the works you have with the Racine Public Library. Oh, that's some of
my favorite things to talk about. In addition to that fun free community event at the Racine
Literacy Council on Wednesday, if you want to stop by before at the Racine Library, October 8th
from 1 to 3 p.m. I'll be leading a workshop about building financial strength as a family. So just
finding ways to have healthy discourse and strategies and really getting the full family involved
in financial wellness and financial empowerment. In addition to that on October 21st, we're going to
be discussing road map to generational wealth and that's from 3 to 5 p.m. So it was also
love to shout out the amazing Racine Library. They're a great resource to our community and
definitely promote digital inclusion, but just also financial empowerment as a whole. And I've
been blessed to do workshops twice a month since this whole year. So there's also some coming up
in November and December. So a lot of exciting topics and some of which we're going to be talking
about today, you know, navigating the holiday season and how to best be prepared. And don't wait
until you're 60 years old to say, well, you know, it's time to get ready for retirement. Let's see
what we can do. No, 60s late. You got to start doing a lot earlier than that. And I was very fortunate
where I worked for companies like this one back in the 90s that had 401ks that had profit sharing.
So I was able to actually start my retirement when I was like 30 years old. And you know,
my wife and I put it together early on in their lives. And now, but you can't wait until you're
60 years old. It doesn't work like that. You got to start when you're younger than that,
unless you plan on hitting the lottery, but don't plan on that because it never works out.
Hey, we talked about that last time. Hopefully you stayed off the scratch offs. They're done.
We're talking to Aaron McCollum, Aaron's from Racine, excuse me, Marine Credit Union. He is
the Racine community, Lee community lead. You know, everything's radio people can pronounce
every word. There were two words I can't pronounce in all my career Saturday and community.
I could say it slowly, but if it's in a sentence, I can't say it. People say, well,
it now just can say anything. I can't say community and I can't say Saturday. And God help me if both
words are in the same sentence. We have a community event on Saturday. Whoa, put them in the same
sentence there. So Aaron's with me. Are we talking about a whole bunch of community events,
but here's something I want to hit upon. We're coming up to the holiday season. And people just,
they want to be good to their spouses. They want to be good to their friends. They want to be
good to their children, buying whatever they want. Just load up that credit card debt. And when
come January, they get a shocker. They said, did we really spend that kind of money?
Yes. And if you don't pay it off, the interest, I don't what are they charging interest today?
18% 20% of the if you're lucky on average as of early 2025, the average credit card interest rate
was 27.81%. Al Capone went to prison for charging that kind of rate.
27%. I can't imagine that. Okay. How do you do this? How do you bike presence for all your
loved ones and not go into credit card debt? Right. And I'm a firm believer of making memories
and not making debt, right? The holidays are supposed to be about spending time with loved ones
and enjoying family and the things that matter most to you, right? And unfortunately,
a recent study by nerd wallet shared that Americans on average spend $17 billion a year
as a whole on gifts and then 46 billion on travel. And that's a lot, right? And over 27% don't
actually have a stricter holiday budget. So I think there's talking about building financial
strength as a family, finding ways to make the holidays matter most, you know, meaningful gifts,
making experiences. I tell you right now when I was in college, my favorite gift to this day that
I've received on Christmas was the fact that my grandfather bought or paid one month of my car
payment. And that was mattered so much to me. I was a broke college kid and he paid a car payment
for me. So it doesn't have to be crazy, right? Like things that are practical, things that are
going to be useful and impactful to you. And instead of, you know, random t-shirts or video games
or whatever that thing is, maybe, you know, offer to pay your kid's utility bill or get some groceries,
right? Those small, meaningful things can build the conversation and do things together.
You know, back on a father's day, back when I was in kindergarten, I'm going to tell you the
year, but it was a long time ago. We had to make father's day gifts. And the teachers had
bring in an old juice can and I shall handle the rest. So brought in juice cans since
game has failed, but like a felt and we covered it and felt. And then we did cut out a little
felt figures on there and I gave it to my father. I'll tell you the year was 1960, gave it to him
in 1960. And when he retired in the late 70s, he was still sitting on his desk at work.
Then he brought it home. And until 2000, something, it was still sitting on his shelf at home.
Now it's sitting on my shelf. And I once asked him, I said, what did you save it? He goes, because
you made it for me back in 1960. When you were six years old, you made it for me. All the gifts
that bought my father have come and gone. That one meant more to him than anything else.
And I still have to sit on my shelf. What's that? I said, you're going to need me cry.
It's sitting on my shelf at home. I will never get rid of it. And I told my daughter,
when you're the house, when I'm gone, I want you to take that. That's amazing. And the funny
thing is I lifted up the felt and I don't recognize the juice company. They're long gone.
But that lives on. And he used it to hear my father was an executive at a big company.
And it sat on his desk, this big desk he had. And here's that little velvet thing.
It didn't match anything on the desk. And it was his pencil where he kept his pencils and pens.
Talk about making memories and not that, right? That didn't cost anything. You're reusing,
you're recycling. That 10 cent can is now a family heirloom, right? And the conversations and the
memories, your grandkids are going to hear that story. And it's just so powerful. I remember
when I was a kid, I was in first grade. And I made a little rug, you know, with the hands,
you paint your hands and the feet for my grandparents. And that was on. I was in first grade. And my
grandmother had that up until she passed. And it's still in the family. And those small little
things matter so much because we made it. It's heartfelt, right? Or hey, let me just take you out
to dinner and just have a great conversation as opposed to get you this thing. Let me not just
give you a gift card to this restaurant, but let me just have an experience with you or let's go
on a family road trip or whatever that thing is. You know what, my wife last year or the year before,
with a holiday, she got me a set of wooden hangers. And at first, they said, this is it.
Give me like 12 hangers. You know what? I'm glad she did. I used them every day. Exactly. And
they're in my closet. And I was using these old wire hangers. I'm glad she spent the money on
these beautiful wooden hangers. And my clothes hang better in the closet. Who would have
fucked it? As we get older, it's the little things in life, right? Everyone were young. We're
very materialistic. And as we get older, as I say that I'm only 31, but you know, it's the little
things. It's that small painting. It's that handcrafted thing by your kiddos. And you know,
9% of Americans prioritize gift buying overpaying their bills like a utility bill or a car paint.
And if you have the money, you can go out and spend it. I mean, if you have the money for
that PlayStation, you want to get your kid. No, wait, if you got it, but don't go with the dead
over it. That's the thing. Yeah. If you got it, you know, if you're safe, you just want to ask
you this. I know it's Christmas clubs. Do they have those anymore? Yeah. Yeah. And whether it's a
Christmas club savings account or a separate savings account, right? Start early, start off
and not just for retirement, but for for Christmas shopping or holiday shopping. The way it used
to be, I remember when I was a kid, used to pay 11 payments. And the last payment, the financial
institution made, that was your, that's how they did it. You make 11, we make the 12th. Wow.
That's it. And now they just give you interest on it. But that was the way it was done. So if you
paid like $10, they, wherever you put in, they matched the 12th payment. I was kind of neat.
And then you took it out in November and you spent it. It wasn't a lot, but at least it was
something. Something. But they say they still have them, huh? Yeah. There's a lot of great
opportunities to come up with savings and really put a plan to place. And I think that's what
it really comes down to is, is having that's not a budget, but really goal for what you want to
spend in the holiday season. So everything we talked about is that where now? Because I want
people just tuning in. Is that, is it at marinescu.com? Yes. We have an awesome of financial
education hub, learning hub. So marinescu.com. To everything we talked about. I wanted people
to know, I just caught the tail end of that. Yeah. You can come also to our, we're seeing
library workshops. I'll be talking about preparing for the holiday season on November 11th from
five to seven. So I remember 11th is coming up. Mark your calendar. It's going to be here
before we know it. We're going to be seeing. It's just 81 degrees yesterday.
Oh my goodness. Thanks for coming in. Yeah. Thank you for having me. Coming next month again,
huh? Can't wait. It's coming. All right. Aaron McCullum from receipt from receipt credit.
From he's the recene community lead at marine credit union. What's tough being an announcer, huh?
Yeah. Can I give one more plug? Sure. Go ahead. Oh, we're very passionate about community. And
I know it's hard to think about winter time already since it was just 80. But we have our third
annual warm up with marine. And this is a great opportunity as we're preparing for the winter season
and cleaning out our closets to donate some new or used winter items from hats and coats and
scarves or boots. Anything that you don't have a need for, we're actually collecting at our
financial empowerment centers, not just in recene but throughout our whole field of membership.
And partnership and support of Salvation Army. So feel free to stop on in our office.
And we'll be happy to put those to good use warm up with Marina. We have to have coach
the children here. People need this stuff. Not every week and afford a new coat. They're very
expensive. They are. You'll see the schmata. I'm walking around with over here. I should get a new
coat. I keep it hanging in the back to know when you can see it. Come on in. Try some on. Thank
you Aaron. I appreciate it. Thanks for coming. You're a good guy and marine credit union is good
work for the community. I like that a lot.
