Money Moves That Matter: Financial Literacy Month with UW Credit Union

It is truth to power here on the award winning 101 7 the truth I am your host the truth

to power Kyle Wallace and we're coming to you live from the American family insurance

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live on the YouTube's shout out to DJ brother Z hooded down on the ones in the twos and shout out to

you truth nation now truth nation I am excited because April is financial literacy month and you know

I'm all about financial literacy you know I'm all about them Dallas know I'm all about investing

the right way and being knowledgeable and I am so excited for us to celebrate financial literacy

month courtesy of UW credit union and we're going to be bringing you to tools to help you build

real financial freedom and that's why I'm so excited to be joined by Lauren Burdo member service

operations and help desk manager at the UW credit union she's here to break down everything you

need to know about financial literacy Lauren what's happening welcome to truth to power happy to be

here thank you Kyle and hello truth nation absolutely absolutely here I'm just going to go you know

we we France here so I'm just going to put that a little bit closer because you know it sounds good

you knew here so Lauren when I was told that I had an opportunity to talk about financial literacy I

was so excited especially with UW credit union because you know I am a member of UW credit union

myself my home loan is from UW credit union so y'all get to go out of money from me a lot of

interest but it's all great because it was a great process with that and they sent me a holiday

card as well and so that is the thing that I love about customer service but for those who

currently don't aren't members and don't know as much about UW credit union can you tell them

what some of the biggest benefits are of becoming a member absolutely and thank you for asking

the question I myself am a member of UW credit union as well I joined when I was a student at the UW

Milwaukee campus so I was a member well before I was an employee there and I think that the

differentiator with us is that you are going to be treated like an individual you are not an

account number with us and that is the greatest benefit is that when you come in you are going to

get a dedicated team member that's going to stop listen to you listen to where you are at in your

financial journey and help you take that next best step for you and in addition to that we back

it up with really fantastic products so our newer words checking has early payday balance backup

that you choose and how you want to set up any backup options for overdrafts and we are

leading financial in terms of making sure that we have no fees on our accounts and five dollar

overdraft fee oh wait a minute so you mean if you overdraft because I know that happened to me one

time where the money didn't move in time and do you all pull the money and call if I have the

money and savings and then try to pull it from checking do you just charge me five dollars and pull

it for me well the best part about that is yes if you haven't set up any other you know preferences

or indications we want to make sure that that bill is getting paid because often the fees that are

going to come from an unpaid bill are going to be higher on that other end that it would be with us

if we if we move those funds and cover it for you but yes it is at five dollars yeah nation

average is significantly higher than that we're talking exactly yep yep you know so definitely

leading the path there with making sure that we're putting our money where the mouth is and helping

our communities remove those barriers to make sure that they're able to meet those goals see well

I'm a big fan of UW credit union is the fact that I remember when I mean my brother were doing

some business things and I remember we were looking in explore because you know I hadn't banked with

banks before right I've been a credit union person my whole life and I said well let me see what

you know banks are talking about and I remember when they talked about the fees and if my account

dropped you know below a certain amount I would be charged a certain amount I said whoa yeah I

said I might use that because UW credit union to join is it only five dollars yep so we are

owned by our members and so really that five dollars that you're referring to is called your

membership share so it is five dollars that gets placed into your savings account which is

required and that five dollars is placed and it shows as unavailable to you because it's locked

in place because that's what it takes to be a part owner of the credit union so five dollars is

technically the minimum balance to join us because that is the cost for your membership share to be

part owner that is lovely so low to get in but so many great benefits as well and listen I know

my first introduction to UW credit union was at UW Whitewater when I was a college student you just

talked about how you became a member when you're at UW Milwaukee as well can you just talk about why

is this so important for you all to be so connected to the universities in our state of Wisconsin

absolutely I mean our journeys start as young adults right and so the best part is that yeah we

do have a lot of minor services as well and we try to cater to individuals that all phases in

life but when we're talking about young adults taking their first independent steps in their

own financial journey we want to be present and we want to be that safe space for them to come

and join in in a safe environment right so again referring to our products they're set up in a

way to make sure that they are not predatory or risky for young individuals to learn how to use

their accounts to take those first steps on their journey and then to develop their relationship

with us to make sure that we're supporting them to meet whatever financial goals they have in life

absolutely love that again we're being joined by Lauren Bordeaux from UW Credit Union as we're

having a conversation about financial literacy month if you do have any questions with financial

literacy month 8332121117 that's the truth talking text line you can text in and I can definitely

get some of those answers questions answered today now since it is financial literacy month Lauren

let's start with some of the basics what is financial literacy and why is it so important to UW

Credit Union yeah financial literacy is really all about access to education and being able to

know where your tools are to make the next best decision for yourself wherever you are at on your

financial journey and so it's going to look really different depending on who you are and where

you're at in life but the whole point is that you have access to those tools to make a good decision

or absolutely now what are four key steps people can take to build a strong financial plan

or what they're just key steps I would say first and foremost an awareness of where you're at

in your journey right so making sure that you know what's coming in what's going out right an

awareness of what your spending habits are I think is key and that way once you know that

you know where the wiggle room is right so if you've got a goal setting a goal is a really key

step right what do you want to do is it do you want to save 250 bucks because you've got a quick

auto repair that you have to make or do you want to save for a grand vacation are you saving for a

home I mean people have different ways that they want to go and spend their money but it starts with

the goal right and so once you have that awareness and understanding of what you're doing what you're

spending what you have coming in then we budget right and we start talking about how do you take

steps to meet that goal oh yeah I think that another key step is finding that trusted financial

and someone that you can turn to when you need support on that journey so definitely finding a

place that makes you feel comfortable being honest about your finances walking in and sharing

about where you are at what has happened recently for you because they're going to be able to help

make sure that you are staying on course right and heading in the right direction towards that

goal now you just talked about budgeting are there any simple because that's a hard thing for a

lot of folks to do is to balance out that budget I know sometimes I'm looking like ooh what

happened this month right and so with budgeting are there any simple rules or strategies that

can make it easier to manage I think that you know if we take this to Dr. Google you're going to

find a hundred different yeah a hundred different here's the easiest budgeting tip I would say

that one that I hear a lot is the 50 30 20 rule okay what is that 50 30 20 50 percent of your

income going towards needs based purchases and needs based costs 30 percent going towards wants

and then that at last 20 percent going towards savings okay okay and now it's a nice way to break

it up and have this starting point right and I do recognize though that a lot of our truth

nation listeners they are maybe not in that position right and that's okay I think that's a great

goal to have that right so we talked about goals too and maybe the goal is to get to the point

where you have the 50 30 20 ratio in your life and it's okay if you're not at that point yet

let's say we're at 75 5 and whatever's remaining right we just work with what we have and we take

what we can and we put it aside for that rainy day fund do not sleep on the rainy day fund

life loves to throw curveballs right so anything that we can put away and tuck away for that rainy

day is definitely going to make sure that we don't end up underwater when when that curveball comes

our way yeah I'm a bit proponent of when you talk about knees and wants in that 50 30 20 rule

or more so telling people I know as I listen look at your budget look at last year look at what

your expenses are look at what you have go look what you have coming in and see how much it is

you can put aside per month whether it's a hundred dollars a month two hundred dollars a month three

hundred four whatever it is whatever you can actually see that you can do and just keep sending

it because what you'll find is is that if you just keep sending you forget about it it will allow

for that nest egg to build up and so I tell people if you if you have a ability to save two hundred

dollars per month that's twenty four hundred dollars in a year that you just have saved up and if

you continue that year after year lower willing we'll keep living and breathing that adds up absolutely

it does you know and I talked about that awareness of what's coming in what's going out we talk about

spring cleaning this time of year and I think a lot of us just immediately associate that to decluttering

the house getting the cobwebs out of the corners right well we can take that mentality and we can

apply it to our financial health as well and what I mean by that is taking a look at the last few

months of spending and categorizing them where are we really going with our money because I'll tell you

what I personally just realized that I go to the vending machine a couple times a day at work almost

every time I'm in office that's that's already a couple hundred bucks a month that I'm spending on

the vending machine thinking oh a dollar here a couple dollars there that's no big deal but at the end

of the day it adds up so what we can find are those silent budget killers when we really take the

time to go and look at our account histories oh I love that because I'm out of coffee drinkable I

remember when I first started working at UW Parkside and when I started working at UW Parkside I didn't

realize that coffee was an addiction people are coffee pot one working one day and people were

having a fit everybody was all mad and upset but there was also a Starbucks on campus and certain

people were going by Starbucks every day they're spending five to seven dollars every single day and

I was thinking about wow you can save so much money and so being able to weather it's you know for

me I try to pack my own lunch so I don't find myself spending eight to ten dollars a day here I

find myself spending all right let's spend twenty dollars a week for lunch at home prepare

everything that I need and save myself you know thirty dollars a week like that so just really

thinking about where you can make those sacrifices where you're still able to enjoy yourself but also

limit yourself absolutely what a great call out to right that preparedness up front can really save

you from those last minute purchases that just they end up adding up right yeah we are speaking

Lauren Burdo she is from UW Credit Union and Lauren I do want to move over to tax season here

because there's so much and she'll be joining me again on April 24th and we also have a special

interview that will be airing I believe in two weeks our spotlight talking about financial

literacy with UW Credit Union but I want to go into tax season because tax season is literally

next week is the deadline my my tax man just called me today say Kyle you need to do this I say yes

sir yes sir but with tax season being here what advice do you have for people for expecting for

their refund should they save it should they invest it or something else what a great question

because I think people are going to come at this with so many different mentalities from so many

different positions in life and so I wanted to attack this from maybe a couple different angles

so first and foremost we talked about that rainy day fund if you are in a position to be able to

put this towards just a savings account to make sure that you are prepared for any unexpected

expenses that come your way I mentioned a car repair but we also have unexpected medical expenses

that come up from time to time maybe the house appliance that needs replacing it's a great way to

just save this refund and use it for something incredibly useful that might have put us underwater

otherwise or caused us to go out and get one of those high interest personal loans or put it on

a credit card and speaking of those products I would say that if you have a balance out there

on a higher interest personal loan or credit card using your refund to pay down those balances to

make sure that we're reducing the amount that we're spending on interest is a great way to use

this refund in a really practical and useful way and then finally I'd say that if you find yourself

in either one of those positions and you're like I want to do something deeper in terms of investing

getting a free consultation is a great way to do that we do offer that at UW Credit Union

but additionally just making sure that you know your risk tolerance is really important going into

that conversation where are you at in life what context can we put around that to make sure that

the products that we're looking at make the most sense for you and where you're at

will be key when you look at actually investing into the market so what you're saying is when you

get that refund check of what you potentially overspend or are other things that give you

deductions to get you money you're saying that people should look at that as a way to pay down

some debt to give them some more financial freedom in the future what a great way to use it no

I know a lot of people say hey they're looking at that big purchase but I'll tell you what

that TV hanging on the wall is still going to hurt when you spend an interest on that high

interest personal loan and so if we can reduce that payment and start putting that aside you

could have that TV in another couple months with no loan yeah no that's what I tell people I

tell people to be smart I know my lady she's she's probably listening right now say yeah Kyle be

trying to put me put put tight with this budget don't want to spend too much but you know I think

it's important to have that financial freedom now you know seasonal financial things you know

there's so many different things this spring what should people be thinking about you know

how to protect their money and what things can come into spring where it comes to just you know

seasonal financial things yeah you know we talked about that spring cleaning which I think is

definitely something that we should apply to our finances so again that review of those most

recent transactions that you have is a great way to start I think another way when we're talking

about actual decluttering is that when we come across our sensitive documents disposing of them

in a really smart way is going to be critical to making sure that we're keeping our personal

information safe and an age where folks are looking for that easy way to get access to that

information uh let's make it a little harder than just throwing the whole thing in the garbage

for them and let's redact it or shred it yeah can we can we talk about that before we let you go

here Lauren I got two more questions for you than a wrap up is scams yeah scams scams on all time

high now I'm telling you this right now with the AI technology and all this you got to have a

pass where you got to have special words with people you know in your life what are some scams that

you all are all seeing at UW credit union that people are trying to maybe impersonate you all or

what are some scams that people need to be aware of yeah I think one that's on the top of my

mind that's coming up just because of the season that we're in so we talked about you know

spring coming up it's moving season um in Milwaukee we see a heightened amount of renters scams

coming up um and I would say that that looks like people posting real listings right so they'll

take them right off of Zillow or redfin whatever's out there they take a real picture of a house that's

up for sale or available for rent and then they make a private posting of it and they say hey this

is available come talk to me about it pay me directly for your application pay me directly

for a down pot down payment or a deposit and then what they do is a biggest red flag is that it's

never available for a walkthrough so make sure that if you are looking at a new place that you get to

do that walk through first it is really available it's on the market um because honestly those are

the some of the biggest red flags is when it's not available yeah and I've heard of people

potentially when they want to a walk through they say in order to come see it you have to put a

down payment down like you have to do you got to do it you have to complete an application first and

pay an application fee in order to see it that is one of the trickier things where it's like okay I

really want to see this nice place that is priced at a good price but they want this $35 or

$50 application fee and $35 to $25 may not seem like a lot but if you're scamming 100 people that's

a free $2500 and there's not a lot that can be done to get that money back absolutely it's

hard to contest that and one other thing that I'll add to is that they're going to try to create a

sense of urgency around it and this is what we see with almost all scams right is that there's a

hey if you don't pay this application fee now this isn't going to be available to you're going

to miss out on a great opportunity rent is so cheap in this spot I'm I'm I'm giving you a great

deal yeah uh so definitely not falling for that rush that people are going to try to place on you

in the and the the pressure that they're going to put on you absolutely absolutely Lord I got a

couple more just for you here is can you just you know can you just talk about you know if anybody

is interested in UW credit union can you tell them how to become a member absolutely and we have

made it so easy so I would say that um of course there's going to be your traditional method by

coming into one of our fantastic branch locations across Milwaukee we have 13 locations across

the Milwaukee market so should be hopefully very convenient to come in and see us in person

if that is not your preferred method maybe we're a little shy we also have a wonderful app

uh and public website so at uwcu.org up in the top right corner you can click to apply to become a

member um and it is as simple as that you can fund that account with a debit card or another

funding method from something that you already have that's an existence out there um or it'll

simply pause you so that that first deposit comes into the branch and Kyle is showing off the app

today it's getting a close soon Kyle I need to know that yeah um so super exciting things we work

on that app in house and it is such a fantastic tool but really you can apply for membership right

from your couch in your pajamas if you want to so I absolutely love that and lastly Lauren is there

any just final financial literacy tips you want to leave with anybody with tech season coming up

or just anything in general with UW credit union they should know I would say is my number one

tip is focus on what you can control right so if there's even that five dollars a paycheck that

you can control that you know that you can put away put that away right and don't focus on um

you know I heard uh it was decamp on Sherwin oh yeah she was a Sherwin yeah she was a big Sherwin

fan but Lauren came in she was like oh I listen to Sherwin's podcast let's say wait a minute now

I did a whole thing with you didn't tell me you listen to mom so we got to get a listen to truth

to power too she's a big Sherwin fan but we love decamp I'm broadening my horizons here I promise

and um what I heard them talking about was you know people come with the end game in mind and

then they want it now and that's just the culture that we're in right and so what I would say is

I want to echo the sentiment that it does take work to get our finances in order and it takes a lot

a great deal of focus and a great deal of dedication to making sure that you are seeking the right

resources and and taking that step to really own it um and I love that conversation that they

had because it was so true right like somebody can tell you exactly what to do you still have to go

out and do it and um definitely don't be shy to come in and talk to one of our great team members

they're there to help you we offer free credit consultations we can find some really great

opportunities to get you some savings um and yeah it's finances create a lot of emotion uh and

with that comes maybe some hesitation to be honest and vulnerable um and I would just encourage

people to get out there and start talking about it so that you know what to do and you can build that

thank you so much Lauren Brado from UW Credit Union she is a member service operations and help

desk manager at UW Credit Union thank you so much for joining us here today on truth to power

thank you so much for having me truth nation we come back we're going to continue all with great

conversation it was election day yesterday we got to run through the results and my biggest takeaway

is the winner of yesterday wasn't Chris Taylor it was somebody else I'll talk to you more about

that on the other side more of truth to power is next on one oh one seven the truth the truth app

and one oh one seven the truth dot com