Hello world, welcome to WFHR's rapid support, proudly brought to you by Cracket Sceptic for
this July 10th, 2025.
Have your host James here and we're talking to a new old friend, a new title I should
say, just the same old voice and fun personality.
Joining us right now for me, W Extent from Rukani, Ben Eberline, Ben, how you doing?
How's it been?
I'm doing wonderful.
It's great to be here.
I feel as if I haven't said your last name in a while, so I immediately, you can hear
it in me.
I caught myself.
I'm like, oh, am it?
I say that right?
Did I get it right?
Because I don't feel like I did.
I'm riding a bike.
You nailed it.
Thank you so much for being here.
Ben, Ben is the new human development and relationships educator over at UW Extension.
As Seth and I were talking about in the morning show this morning, they couldn't have found
a better fit, a better person, especially with those shoes to fill.
You're the right man for the job and you know, certainly familiar with our audience, joining
us for many years with you now, a long time with the United Way.
So a great fit from going from non to non-profit here, I think.
And they got not only the right man for the job, but Ben has hit that ground running.
Set me over some notes.
We got plenty to talk about before we dive too deep into that.
Ben, how is the transition going?
How are you doing things with UW?
It's been really fantastic.
Again, I'm so lucky to have been able to work with the United Way for a number of years
and develop and build relationships in the community because that has made the transition
really smooth.
I've been able to focus on, like you said, hit the ground running and getting programming
going and diving into learning a little bit more about extension and my gosh, there is
so much.
That's it.
You know, even working with extension in the past and kind of knowing a bit about what
things that they offer and what they do in the community, I knew just the tip of the
iceberg.
So it's been incredible.
You know, there's no, we like to face things around here.
We don't, you know, skate over stuff, of course.
This position meant a lot because of the person behind it in so many ways in Jackie and
what she meant to all of us in this community and certainly at extension.
I can only imagine when it comes to the work, though, just touching on that and the work
that she was doing and the topics that she would focus on at so many of those things,
one of the things I would talk about with her all the time about was, oh, wow, that's
one of those ones where there's a gray area that we, we do such a good job in society
and especially our nonprofits are covering this and this, but there's those gray areas,
those things that slip through the cracks that we don't always get a chance to talk about
and cover.
And here, Jackie would have those left and right and everything and you send over your
first notes for this.
And I have to say that I was brought back.
I was like, oh, we're doing it again.
Here we are again.
We're covering areas that need so desperately to be covered, but we don't always get a
chance to in society or we don't always think about it sometimes unless it's affecting
us.
And here we are where three of the main topics we're going to discuss today, I think,
are those areas and just picking that ball up and running with it, man, and it's really
cool to see.
And just as important as all of that, these topics, and I want to start with you, Ben,
if you don't mind, with rent smart.
What can you tell us about that for those especially that may not have heard of it before?
Yeah.
And rent smart is not, you know, a new program, so there's a lot of folks that probably
have heard about, but for folks who don't know or aren't aware of it, rent smart is a
research-based curriculum that is really meant to help people who maybe don't have a lot
of experience renting or maybe they have some, but just build essential skills, knowledge
for not only what to expect when you're renting, how to find a rental unit that meets
your needs that is going to work for your budget, learning what you can't afford because
we know that the cost of rent isn't just the number that you see advertised, right?
Like, how much other stuff is in there?
You move in and you realize, oh my gosh, I got to pay for this and this and this and the
laundry machine downstairs doesn't work.
So I now have to go to the Laudermat and that's $9 a load and, you know, so there's
so much involved in that, you know, from learning budgeting and spending and diving into
the credit reports and, you know, there's a whole financial aspect of how to improve your
credit because that's a huge impact on how you can, you know, what's available to your rent
and I could go on and on.
I was going to say, and you could probably spend hours and hours just on that ladder topic
right there about the credit score and some of that, it's something that our schools do an
amazing job. They also have a ton on their plate and there's only so much that they can cover
or do and when it comes to, again, these gray areas are these little things that we don't think
as much about sometimes, even just something simple as, oh, we're renting. That's pretty basic.
That's pretty simple or maybe you've seen a TV show or a movie where you've seen characters do
it so you feel like you understand it. I think a lot of us do and then there's the real
lifeness of it and all the things that you mentioned there and so many things that we wouldn't think
about if it wasn't for a program like this. I really would recommend almost any, any young person
that is getting ready to get out on their own or something like that, something like this.
I would also recommend it to landlords and to people that are thinking of renting out or even
people that are looking at B&B work or something. My grandfather was a landlord. He was an attorney
and he was a landlord on the side and I miss him and I love my grandfather a lot. I don't think
he was a great landlord. I don't think he was very good. I think he was kind of mean. I think
it's some ways that everything and I think that it be a great idea for them as well to learn more
about the other side of this and what it is to be a tenant and what's asked of tenants in this day
and age as much as people who want to rent and want to get out there, especially first-time people,
but there's so many things that you guys are going to be able to cover here that are not
thought about oftentimes, especially to people looking at renting for the first time. There's so
much on your plate and there's so many things and exciting things that take your attention.
Where am I going to put the couch? Where am I going to put the video game system or any of these
things? I'm so old. You're old. I'm about to say pivot. That's going to date me.
But man, security deposit. That's one of those things. My whole background was renting. My parents
rented up until we moved out here and they finally had the first home. But in my childhood and up
until I was out of the house even, we were renting. I had quite a bit of familiarity with renting
and still had no idea once I first rented my first apartment, a security deposit, and some of those
things. This program could really help people who set them up to succeed. Especially with the
supply housing these days. Over the last few years, the market has been a real challenge for
most people. I think the natural solution there is buying a house right now, not feasible.
So renting makes a lot of sense. But how many times have you done something or
man, I wish I would have known before. So I think that's where this class, it's really fantastic.
It covers so many of the bases of things that you wouldn't think of that you need when you're
renting, like I said, finding a place. What's your first instinct for where to find a place these
days? Good online, Facebook. Scams are insane these days. It's crazy. They're getting worse and
worse in terms of how realistic and believable. It's not just Grandma and Grandpa who click on the
wrong thing these days, literally anybody can very easily lose a lot of money because of housing
scam. Just to try and take some of the stigma away from that because it is so common.
That's just one thing that I think most people might not think of when you're thinking,
I just do a Google search or try to do it. I think too, to your point on that, it's not one of
those things that we always, when we think of, we got to worry about scams, it's not something that
we think about right away, scams with this industry. That's another great note about that.
If people are interested in taking the RentSmart class, is there a certain time frame that it's
existing in or anything like that? Thanks. First of all, it's free. Yeah, I got to mention that.
We are offering rent smart in person. If you'd want to knock it out and get that done in a one
afternoon, you can take a look at our, we have a schedule of this monthly through November that
will be offering that both in Wisconsin Rapids and in Marshfield at the Public Libraries. That's
happening at the last, so for Marshfield, it's the last Wednesday of the month and for Wisconsin
Rapids, it's the last Friday of the month. Like I said, the full schedule and you can register all
that's online at the Extension website. I did also want to just come back. I think it was super
insightful. The way you mentioned, this isn't just for renters, but landlords too.
There is a RentSmart for landlords that we offer as well, so I don't have any currently,
necessarily in the pipeline, but I just want to mention that. That's part of why I love talking to you.
It's a great program and it's only going to be stronger getting both sides of these kind of
things and being able to cover that, help both sides with this kind of information. I think that
the majority of people out there that are in that industry, whether renting and being landlords
and stuff, you got a lot of good ones out there. Sometimes it's just a matter of knowing some of
this information or having somebody that can even hear you out on something that you're not sure of.
So a program like that, a class like this is going to be very helpful for a lot of people.
Again, we'll give you the information of how you can find out more about it before we wrap up.
Planning ahead, I wanted to talk about this seven-session research-based program that you're involved
with Ben. Yeah, and this is something that I am still learning so much because planning ahead is
all about planning for and of life and making sure that you have your wishes for even after
you're gone and making sure things are, go the way that you want them to and the whole
everything involved in that. I don't know about you, but when I think of that kind of thing,
I'm like, God, I have a will. I'm good, right? Wrong. Oh my gosh, there's so much that's involved
with all the advanced directives. When you want things done a certain way after you're
gone, you can't just have that, like you mentioned in the movies and TV, you see somebody just
scratches something on a piece of paper and it's like, well, this is their last will and doesn't
it? Well, one, not how it works. No, no. But there's so much else that, like legally, it's all legal
processes that you have to follow in once you're gone. You can't tell people what you want, so.
And so much of this, one of the things that we encourage when it comes to making sure that you
have your will filled out, you have your estate planning and so many of these things done,
is so that you can do it and then it's done. And you don't have to worry about it anymore and you
can move on and you can get that uncomfortable topic out of the way and all those things.
But it only works if you do it right, if you get it done right and so many people, it's understandable
because again, because of TV movies and so many of these things. I'm not blaming them. It's a
pretty, you know, movie can only be so long, even nowadays with three hour movies. If you had them
as long, if you actually went through this process in a movie, it would take days. So you'd be
still be watching that movie probably. When it comes to real life, it's understandable that
not everybody knows all these things and especially we've spent so many decades, think about how
many decades we've been doing this thing called life and doing this here in America and the whole
time we've been uncomfortable with death. We're very uncomfortable talking about this. There are
certain topics that it's amazing to think of that we've talked about or had TV shows or movies about
or whatever and yet this one, we just don't really, we're not that comfortable with. We're just
now in recent years and maybe even in the recent last decade, getting to a more comfortable place
and we're still uncomfortable talking about it and it's understandable. I'm uncomfortable talking
about it. I'm not any different than anybody else out there, but I face it and I talk about it
because of the importance of it and in part because I'm spoiled, I get to talk with you people like,
you know, Penn and our people at UW and this topic has been brought up a lot in these conversations.
I know that for my mom and dad, the relief in their faces when they got all of this kind of,
all these checked off, all these boxes, I can't express to you and especially for my mom and dad,
who the majority of my life, I've seen them stressed intense and in retirement, I was really hoping
that they wouldn't experience as much of that stuff and they have from time to time. But with
this one, it was relief. There is a relief involved with knowing that these things are taken care of,
that your legacy is taken care of, that your children, the people you care about, maybe your
significant other are taken care of and I don't mean necessarily on what they're going to get from
the will or something like that. The peace of mind of knowing that they did right by you and you
did right by them. The idea that, okay, this is it for me. This is the last thing I'm going to really
be doing or involved with and the heaviness of that being done right and knowing that those boxes
are checked. To the point too, I think of back to my childhood and my grandfather's gone to now,
but I can't count the number of times where I heard him say something like, just put me in a
pine box and throw me out. The mindset is one, taboo, absolutely, but also you don't want to be
a burden and you don't want to have to, you know, but on the other hand, if you don't get this
stuff taken care of ahead of time, that you're creating more of a burden for your loved ones.
That is so much more a burden and is uncomfortable as it can be sometimes to talk about it. Much like,
I think, a dark alley, once you get in it, it's actually not as dark as it looked like from the
outside. Once you get talking about this topic, I think the ball starts rolling. You get through
things relatively, I wouldn't say fast or quick or anything. I don't want to say that, but I do
think you get through this a lot faster than you would think. And look, once you get done with this,
if you do this right, you don't have to talk about it every day. You know, you got this done,
you got these things taken care of. There are different things as far as like understanding grief
that do take much more time or something like that and that is also available with this,
wanted to make sure to mention. And it's a part of this. But when we're talking about filling out a
will or making sure that certain other things are done, this program is, this class is so helpful in
that. And it really gives you time with it. I like that it's seven class. I like that it's spread
out the way it is. And you really have an opportunity to really talk with these individuals,
work with them on it and answer questions because there's always, again, gray area. There's
always questions we don't see coming. They're like, hey, you know, and then it comes up.
Oh my gosh. The density of information is, I don't know if you could really do it in less than
seven, you know, sessions. So it's, it is really, there's so much. But I think also, you know,
just to point out, like, this isn't just something that is important for seniors or people who
are kind of approaching that second half of their life or, you know, that, I don't know if,
you know, we were talking earlier and say, it can be anybody's time at any time. And especially,
like I said with, you know, I've got a couple of kids and I've got a will and I thought I was okay
and it's like, there's so much other stuff that to consider and to make sure that all that the
eyes are dotted and the teeth are crossed. But anybody with kids, anybody that's an adult,
anybody who has a aging parent, like, you don't have to be approaching those, you know,
yeah, Twilight years, is that the word? Yeah. You can be like Ben and I in your early 20s and
no, I'm joking. It's radio. I thought I could fool them. No, no, no, seriously, it's such a great
point to bring up even people in our age ranges and everything. And we're talking anywhere from,
you know, your 30s to your 50s. What have you? I'm just thinking of that break where we don't
necessarily think about this. But that's a key, that's a great time to do that. And say,
you fill out a will in your 30s. It doesn't mean that you can't go back and edit and do different
things with the right people, the right, you know, obviously, the right attorneys and all that.
You can still go back. It's not etched in stone. It is something though that you want something
like that etched in stone in case you do not really be able to go back or anything.
You need something in place. And it's the best thing to do for your loved ones. This program
really gives you a chance. There's a great downloadable PDF with this so you even have this stuff
to look back on as you go along. It's a great idea to check out. And again, this program,
Ben, when is this available for people? So, and I didn't mention with RentSmart as well. So both
of these, we are, you know, extension doing our best to make sure that's accessible for anybody
in the state. And so if folks want our website, you're going to find a page where all of our virtual
courses are available. So we'll have some options where anybody in the state can attend virtually.
You know, when that's scheduled, so you can register for those online. I don't have any
planning head courses in the works immediately right now. But looking at hopefully this fall,
I should be able to get that up and running because like I said, there's a real density
information. And I don't want to, as much as I want to hit the ground running, I don't want to,
you know, start, you know, trying to teach something that I'm not personally fully comfortable
with the curriculum. So, so yeah, unfortunately going to wait a little bit for that one, but,
but let's head. Yeah. If there's people here in this and they really want to be a part of that
class, I encourage you to reach out to Ben and we'll give you that information later and he can
let you know when those classes start up. Yeah, please reach out or something. And just, I don't know
if we like walk through everything that's involved in planning ahead, but you know, just in case
it's unclear, there's in those seven modules. So financial changes, advanced, both medical and
legal, advanced directives, state planning, all the different choices that are involved in
end-of-life care, how to make sure that your final wishes are, you know, done the way that you
want them to. And you mentioned grief and we do dedicate whole module to understanding grief. I
mean, this is, you know, not only is it a bit of a type of topic, but it's heavy, you know,
and a lot of people who are going through planning ahead, you know, at the time that they choose to
do it a lot of times, you know, you don't think about taking some lessons until all of a sudden you're
struggling in the water. Yeah. You know, can be the same thing with this where maybe somebody just
lost a loved one and that's why they're thinking about, oh my gosh, this is really important. I
need to do this so it can be it can be really heavy. Well said, very well said. As we're wrapping up
and we wanted to touch on one other class that you're going to be involved with and that's the
financial wellness at work. Again, another one of those things that we don't, you know, talk about
or think about a whole lot in society, but it's a really important one and it's only getting more
and more important as we go forward here. Thank you so much for bringing that. I am so excited
about financial honestly work and how many times you might have to take off your shoes and socks
to start counting, but how many times have we talked about Alice? Oh yeah, you're so right. Yeah,
we all look quite a few. I don't know if I have enough digits. Yeah, exactly. So financial wellness
at work is it's just revolutionary in my eyes. It's just it makes so much sense when you think of,
you know, folks who are making ends meet, they're, you know, you have people who are working, but
maybe not doing the best that they can financially and, you know, how do you get resources and
support to those people in the best, most efficient way? And a lot of folks probably, especially if
you are working, you know, maybe multiple jobs or whatever it might be in that type of a situation.
The last thing you think you probably have time for is I'm going to meet with a financial planner
and that I can take time off to go do that and pay the premium to, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Financial wellness at work is designed to be a collaboration between, you know, community,
some sort of community support like in this case could be extension, could be something like
United Way, it could be, you know, some sort of connector piece that's able to provide some support
employers and ideally a lender. So I'll get to that piece in a little bit.
So financial wellness at work, the heart of it is bringing resources, information and support
into the workplace for workers to access that, you know, we have all sorts of, you know, just
in terms of basic resources, we have, grow your green workbook. So it's a hard copy of a,
it's a resource workbook that has information and different, you know, handouts and resources,
things that you can use to not only like, you know, like you're talking about some of the other
topics about budgeting and spending and credit and, you know, all that kind of stuff is in there.
But also, you know, we ideally want to get somebody in that workplace that's able to help people
one-on-one with financial coaching. You know, you're going to have a lot of employers might have
benefits or various other, you know, healthcare and retirement, all this kind of stuff that
you know, you get some education from the employer, but, you know, it doesn't mean you always fully
understand your options or other things that you need outside of that. Well, and I can say from
talking with a lot of people in that position, sometimes you're worried too, is that information
tainted? Is that information biased or anything? Getting information from a nonprofit, getting
information from UW, extension and everything, you're knowing you're just getting the information,
and there's nobody in the pocket of this, there's nobody trying to lean things one way or the other,
like we worry about with money and finances all the time. This is also, if you're worrying about,
you know, money, if you're trying to make more money or trying to be smart with your money,
having to pay a financial advisor seems like a, almost a bit of a bite near off your nose,
despite your face kind of thing. Whereas with this, this is a free program. This is something
that's available to everybody, and it's something that I feel like there's no downside to this,
not that there is with any of these programs, but with this one in particular where I feel like it
reaches such a wide range of people and ages and all that. You take in these classes, what you learn,
you learn, if you don't learn anything, at least now you know and you can check that box off,
you understand that, but I almost guarantee you're going to be able to pick up some notes or
things from this. It's going to be very helpful to you. And really this, I mean, this program is about
reducing barriers and meeting people where they're at, right? Because you don't have to find
transportation and childcare and all these, you know, to, in just the time in your day, to go
attend a class, if we can just put resources in your workplace, table tents in the lunch room so
that while you're eating, you can look at some info. We have money matters. We've probably heard
of from Jack in the past. It's self-paced online course. So in your free time, you can do that. But
this really we're looking for employers to partner with that are interesting because this is
this is the kind of stuff that it increases, you know, what reduces, it can help people reduce
their debt. It can help people feel more comfortable about their finances, which reduces stress,
which is reduces, or increases their productivity, increases retention so that employers aren't having
to constantly, you know, it's how many people have you talked to? Oh, man, we can't hire. It's
where we're trying to work. Well, you're going to have lower turnover and, you know, that's
better financially for the company too. I mean, it sounds kind of greasy to say, but, you know,
when you're talking about motivations, you know, in reality, you should be, yeah, this is a good
thing for our employer or employees. So we want to do that. But, you know, most businesses, especially
when we're talking rural communities like ours and everything, I do believe that a lot of them are
run by good caring people that care about their employees. Even with that consideration,
not even talking about big conglomerates or anything like that, that you're just a number to
them or something. I mean, even on the ground level of a mom and pop places, there's only so much
they can do. And they can't tell you what to do with your money, of course, or anything like that.
And that's quite honestly, it's not always their job to you. In the past, the way it was in
everything, the more and more we're going forward with this, the more that, you know, you not only
hear from people having a hard time finding employees because of pay, but also because of
added benefits or other things that the younger generations are just, they're not settling,
they're, they want this or they're not doing it. Here is an added benefit that you can offer.
You're a business, you're a part of this. You get to show the community, you get to show
the employees and future employees. I care about you more than just a number. I care about more
than just the product you give me or the product you make or the product you sell or what have you.
I care about you as a human being. And that is something that more and more people are looking for.
We saw this during the leave of the pandemic and during the pandemic of a lot of people going
from jobs to careers and taking maybe a couple bucks less to do it. And now this is evolved into
more of the added benefits that people get from a job. And I think a lot of employers out there
think that that means health insurance or dental insurance. And those things are very important.
But people are looking for, do you care at all? Do you see me as a human being? You don't have
to treat them special. You don't have to have kid gloves with them or anything, but they just want
to be seen as a person. And not just a number or a digit or anything like that. When you are a
part of something like this, if you're a business, you are showing people right away that I care about
you. Right away that you're more than that to me. So two businesses out there, I would be jumping on
this. And hey, yeah, put my name on this. Make me, I want to be a part of something like this.
I think we can certainly see from an employee perspective, especially for you and I where we come
from and all that stuff and everything. We're on the ground level here. We know what it's like to
be hustling and looking for a good job or something like that. When we're younger, those kind of
things, when when it comes to that, I think that it makes a lot of sense for anybody out there,
whether you're at a job for 10 years or you're just starting. But to businesses out there, I hope
they're seeing this. I hope they're seeing this from that angle of, whoa, here's a completely
awesome way for me to show future employees or my current employees. I give a dang, you know,
I'm here to, I care. And you're showing it with a program like this. So you have so skillfully
and masterfully cut to the core of this program because I haven't even mentioned my favorite part.
The most exciting thing. So this whole program, financial wellness at work, it wouldn't have really,
I don't think, been formed if it weren't for rhino foods in Vermont. And so exactly to the point
that you're making, they kind of a mid-sized company with a very similar to the kind of community
that we have. And when we think of the paper mill industry and just the community. And so they
had a couple hundred employees similar, a lot of workforce similar to what we see in our community,
where a lot of Alice individuals, very hardworking people. And what happened was they were having
and they were struggling with a little bit of things like turnover. And, you know, you'd have
people that are missing jobs, or missing work because, you know, a minor crisis, they don't have
emergency savings, car breaks down, whatever it is. And then they can't come to work and then
that snowballs. And so the owner of the company, exactly what you're talking about of, you know,
we're going to do right by their people. And you're going to make sure that you're taking care of
the people who are, you know, making your company run. And they said, how can we do this better?
And the answer was what has become part of the financial wellness at work program called
employer sponsored small dollar loans. So they said, okay, your car broke down. Why don't we
loan you a little bit of money? And then we'll just take a little bit out of your paycheck until
that's paid off. And so what that developed into this employer sponsored small dollar loans is
genius. So that's where the lender comes in. You know, we can find employers that want to
participate in this great. But if we have a lender that also wants to partner with that employer.
And then they can, if one of their workers has an issue like that, instead of, you know,
somebody that doesn't have emergency savings that might not have good credit, that may not have
the option to go to a bank to get a loan. They might have to go to a predatory lender or
something like that. So instead of driving those people into a bad solution through the employer
sponsored small dollar loan program, you know, the lender that we partner with is able to offer a
emergency loan that's capped at less than $2,000. So it's not like some major. It's really cool.
At a minimum of six months to pay it back. And how that works is essentially, and it's
low interest, right? Or, you know, the interest is, but essentially how that works is they said,
it was savings account for that person. Then it's automatic deduction from the paycheck goes into
that savings account. And that's used to pay off the loan. Now this is like, here's the mind blowing
part, because that sounds really simple, right? So if you go to a predatory lender and all that, you
know, your credit is probably going to go. Yeah. By doing this, this is one, it's going to help build
their credit. If they don't have any, it's going to help improve their credit. And then not only
that, that savings account and that paid deduction is going to continue unless they opt out. So that's
going to build build them a pot of emergency savings for the future. What a awesome program.
It's awesome mind blowingly like so simple, but so genius at the same time. And some of the,
I mean, I should, I should have brought some of the like testimonials because some of the stories
from, you know, when they first got this going in Vermont was, you know, you have people who,
they didn't have any credit, they'd never have a savings account. And within a couple of years,
like the one individual's like head tears minds, we're going to buy their first house. It's amazing.
How wild? I would love to, uh, the next time we get together, Ben, I'd love to hear some of those
testimonials, certainly talk more about these programs. And when it comes to these pro, these
classes that are available to people and they want to find out more about them or be a part of them
in any way, especially the latter part of what we're talking about this last one. How can people
reach you? How can people find out more? Feel free to, yeah, give me a shout on, uh, you know,
pick up the phone, uh, 715, 421, 80, 440. Uh, so that's just the number two extension. And, um,
so yeah, you can, you can call ask feel free to stop by the courthouse, um, you know, come on down for
lunch by the river or something and walk a couple blocks, tell it your food settle and come in and say hi.
We definitely will be saying hi to you again very soon, man. It's great to be talking with you again,
great to see, uh, say hi to everybody over at extension for us and we'll talk again real soon.
Thank you so much, James. Thank you. And thank you, audience. We appreciate you joining us for
another edition of WFHR's Rapid Support. Probably brought to you by Crockett Sceptic here at WFHR.com.
