The Coast Capital THRIVE Podcast
The Coast Capital THRIVE podcast is a platform aimed at highlighting topics related to equity, diversity, and inclusion, specifically focused on employment for youth and young adults living with disabilities.
The Coast Capital THRIVE Podcast
Money Management: Elevate your understanding. Empower your financial life
In this episode, Coast Capital Savings' financial education manager, Brenda Mah teaches us how to be smart with our money and make good financial decisions.
With 25 years of experience on the frontline at a local credit union, Brenda has a deep understanding of financial principles and a strong foundation in community-focused financial services.
Throughout her career, she has had the privilege of leading teams and driving initiatives that make a tangible impact in the communities we serve.
Her passion for social innovation led her to earn a Social Innovation Certificate from Simon Fraser University.
Coast Capital Savings, a proud supporter of the Thrive program since 2020, is a member-owned financial cooperative with an 80-year-old legacy of unlocking financial opportunities that positively impact people and communities. Driven by their social purpose of building better futures together, they look at everything they do through the lens of how they can help their 600,000 members, employees, and communities. Ranked in the platinum category of the 2022 Corporate Knights Social Purpose Ranking and a proud, certified B Corporation Registered, they're part of a global movement building a more inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economic system. Each year they invest 10% of their bottom line into local communities, which over the past two decades totals 100 million. To learn more, visit them online at Coastcapitalsavings.com. Welcome to the Thrive Podcast, an open space to celebrate diversity, share our perspectives, and promote the abilities of youth with disabilities. Thrive is a program at the BC Center for Ability and is generously sponsored by Coast Capital Savings. This podcast is produced on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish peoples. I'm your host and producer, Anu Pala. How we manage our finances vary from person to person. A lot is based on culture, family history, and lived experience. In this season of the Thrive Podcast, we're exploring financial literacy because understanding our money gives us real control over our lives. When we learn how finances work, we make clear decisions, protect ourselves from stress, and create opportunities for the future. Financial literacy isn't about being perfect with money, it's about having the knowledge and confidence to build the life we envision. To help us break these topics down, we'll be joined by two of Coast Capital Savings Financial Experts. And today I have the privilege of welcoming Coast's financial education manager, Brenda Ma. With 25 years of experience on the front line at a local credit union, Brenda has a deep understanding of financial principles and a strong foundation in community-focused financial services. Throughout her career, she has had the privilege of leading teams and driving initiatives that make a tangible impact in the communities we serve. Welcome, Brenda. Thanks, Anun. So happy to have you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. So before we get into the meat of today's topic, can we talk about what financial wellness is?
Speaker:Absolutely. So financial wellness, essentially, as defined by annuity.org, is the state of financial well-being in which you can comfortably manage your bills and expenses, pay your debts, and weather unexpected financial emergencies and plan for long-term financial goals such as building an education and savings for retirement.
Speaker 1:So what I'm really excited about this season of the Coast Capital Thrive podcast is that we are going to be focusing all of our topics on how to build financial wellness. So that is super exciting to me because I think it's something that, you know, a lot of us don't really talk about.
Speaker:Yes, it is something that a lot of people are not comfortable dealing with, and um it's not as big as people seem to think. Sometimes it's just really about making small changes that really make an impact in your finances.
Speaker 1:Money in general feels or it used to feel overwhelming to me, like just money management in general. Over time, I've learned a lot about best practices in managing your money, so I make better choices now.
Speaker:Yes, um, we know that financial education has a huge impact on whether or not people are able to take back control of their finances and just you know create that kind of wellness and feeling like you're in control is half the battle, and which is why we suggest really always having a plan.
Speaker 1:That is actually a great segue into my first question. What is a money plan?
Speaker:Yeah, so a money plan really is just a visual document that helps you track kind of your money going in and your money coming out. What it does is it gives you a guide to help you see where your money is going and keeps you on track on your financial journey. It's not intended to be a tool that restricts or limits your possibilities. It's just something that is visual that helps you see where your money is going.
Speaker 1:So are there particular templates that are available online or on the Coast Capitals website, or is this really customized according to the person's individual needs?
Speaker:Yeah, um, so money plans are very customizable. It should be customized based on your need, and everyone is very different. There are tons of apps out there that can help you create a money plan. Almost all the financial uh institutions will have some sort of a tool on their website, and some people can even just do it on paper, or you can create an Excel spreadsheet on the computer. So it's really your comfort. Um, I prefer to put it on my phone. That way I can have a look at it, review it pretty much wherever I am. That is awesome. Why do we need a money plan? A money plan is important just visually so that you can see where your money is going and see, you know, at the end of the month, do you have any money left? And if you do, great, what do we do with that money? And if you don't, where do we need to make some adjustments? You know, people that need money plans are typically, well, almost everyone needs a money plan, but especially if you have, for example, um inconsistent pay. So then it helps you plan your year a little bit better. And then uh if you're not sure where your money is going, I think a lot of that's a lot of people nowadays is at the end of the month you don't really kind of know where your money's gone. Um if you're struggling to pay your bills or if you're really trying to pay off your debt. So that plan is gonna help you have a little bit more direction as you're paying your debt off.
Speaker 1:So having something tangible to look at. Yeah, for sure. I can see how that can be really beneficial. Yeah. So what happens if your financial situation fluctuates and you know how does that impact the financial plan?
Speaker:Yeah, so if your income fluctuates, you know, that could be a variety of different reasons. So you might have inconsistent hours, you might work on commission, or you might just have a lot of overtime, or your position is seasonal. It's really important to get, you know, possibly an average of a several months so that you can see a history of typically what you make. So it's that predictability. So if you actually even have a year's worth of kind of history as to like how you get paid or what amount you get paid at what time in the in the year, it'll help you get a better average so that you can use that average on your spending plan.
Speaker 1:And in your opinion, your professional expertise, what is the best way to track our income and expenses?
Speaker:So you can really track many different ways. I think the fact that you are tracking is probably the most important. If you are someone who prefers to kind of put things on your phone so that you can do things right away, there's tons of apps out there that you can download, such as the spending tracker. You can have a little booklet or a piece of paper to write it on. Really, everyone is different. It's whatever works for you. But the most important thing is to actually start tracking and save your receipts so that you can refer back if you need to. Even some credit cards out there have the ability to help organize your expenses so it recognizes what you spend and what kind of expenditure it is, and it'll bucket those expenses based on you know exactly what it is. And that way you can actually run a report to see, okay, so between this time and this time, this is how much I spent, for example, on gas, on food, on restaurant. And that'll help you track as well. That is so handy. See, I did not know this. Yeah. Not all will have it, but check and see whether or not, you know, your credit card uh or your financial institution offers that service.
Speaker 1:So what I'm hearing then is that there is some time investment that is required. It's not something you can just do on the fly. I think, I think there is like some level of intention here.
Speaker:Yes, absolutely. You want to make sure that you do track. Although it is intentional, the more you do it, the more second nature it becomes. And so um it's becomes less work and more just a habit than anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's one of those tasks that becomes part of your weekly or bi-weekly list of tasks that okay, let's let's take a you know, half an hour, an hour, and just review everything. And I think that that could really go a long way.
Speaker:Yeah, and that's part of the reason I say keep your receipts in one central spot. If you're someone that doesn't like to kind of do it on the fly and on the go, um, you can always come back at the end of the week to your pile of receipts and kind of sort through it and input it that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I am definitely one of those who keeps all my receipts. Um and yes, it could be a little overwhelming to go through them all, but it's super helpful for sure. And I know that there are some apps now as well where you can actually take a photo of your receipt and then upload it onto the app. So if you're a person who doesn't like to um keep paper, yes, then you could use one of those apps as well.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, especially if you're someone who's self-employed, you need to do this for your taxes anyways, and so this is just puts you kind of ahead of the game.
Speaker 1:Good tip. What happens if your income and expenses don't balance?
Speaker:Yeah, so often um, you know, we don't get it exactly right on the first try, and it does at times take a few tries. When you're first starting out, um, you're not always gonna know exactly how much you spend on groceries or how much you spend on gas. But as time goes, you can see a bit of a trend. You can adjust your numbers and it um makes it a little bit kind of more accurate as time goes. If your numbers don't balance, um so it's one of two things. Either you've got a shortfall, which means that you need to make some adjustments. So this is a time to kind of relook at all the expenses and see so where do you spend all your money? Where does all your money go? And maybe that means that you need to make some adjustments. And you know, if there is money left over, then you know what can you do with that money? There's a lot of different possibilities where you can put those extra funds. Ideally, you want your um number at the end to be zero, so you want it to balance to zero.
Speaker 1:So when you're talking about making adjustments, can you give us an example?
Speaker:Yeah, so for example, um, let's say you have a shortfall, then that might be a time for you to look at are you paying too much for a particular service? Um, you know, maybe you are paying, you know, for three different streaming services and you don't necessarily need three different streaming services. So it's an opportunity to look and see can you streamline and just have one or two. Um, other things you could do is look to see are you paying too much for a particular service provider? Cell phones is a really great one to always review because their plans are always changing, the offers are always changing. Just because you're paying, for example, $80 a month now doesn't mean you can't call them and say, hey, I need you to lower the price. And most of the time they will lower it for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that when you've been with a company for a long time, they do have a loyalty department, and so more often than not, they will refer you to that department and you can haggle with them because we've done that many times. Absolutely. Done some pretty good deals. And so you do have to be proactive, right? You do, um I'm not gonna come to you and say, Hey, let me let me um reduce your cell phone bill by twenty dollars, you know. We do have to get out there and ask. I always say, hey, if you don't ask, you don't get.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, um personally in uh my own case, so you know, I'm paying $40 for both my partner's and mine cell phone. Um and just recently I was talking to a family member and they were saying they're paying $80 for their one cell phone. And in this case, it was actually even the same provider. Um, and they were getting less data. So they were paying more with the same provider and getting less. And so it really prompted them to contact the provider and say, Hey, why am I paying so much? I should be paying less and you should be giving me more data. And in that case, they were able to make that adjustment for him. So it never hurts to ask. The worst they can say is no, or you can shop around. That's right, that's right. There are an abundance of companies out there. Yeah. Another really common, frequent one we see is the gym membership. Um, how many times we've seen people sign up for gym memberships and they've never they've never gone to the gym. It's been like months and they have it gone. And so, you know, maybe either put it on hold or cut that expense because really you aren't using it anyways.
Speaker 1:I can relate to this. Uh recently, I was looking at all the different things that I'm paying for on a monthly basis: Spotify, Dropbox, Amazon Prime, and you know, those things. Now that I'm more comfortable using OneDrive, um, it's part of my 365 package. I've transferred a lot of my files over to OneDrive because I'm already paying for the thing, anyways. I no longer now need to pay for that extra storage for Dropbox. Yeah. And then with Spotify, I was paying for a family plan. And the people that I shared the link with, they weren't even using it. So I'm like, okay, you guys, why why am I paying why am I doing this? Um, so then okay, out. So I was able to now uh what did I do? I basically then you know went to the the the other plan.
Speaker:Yeah, and so not only does that save you money, um, but it'll also streamline the amount of bills that you're paying, right? So that's less bills, less work, um, and less things to manage. Yes, absolutely. Um, so conversely on the opposite side, um, maybe you'll have extra funds left over after you have gone through your plan and there's some extra funds. Those we call them discretionary funds. And discretionary funds are great because it means that you've got money left over, and that uh is money that you can choose to use a few different ways. You can put it towards your savings. If you have debt, you can choose to pay down your debt a little bit faster, so some lump sums down on your loans, or you can use that money for a particular expense. You're also able to, you know, maybe build a bit of a cushion in your account. So there's no problems leaving it in your account as building a cushion.
Speaker 1:A lot of people will just say, Whoa, let's go shopping or let's book a vacation. But I like your tips. You just never know, right? They always say like it's always important to have a bit of a rainy day fun because you just never know. That's right, you never know. Okay. Um, so let's uh let's talk about some best practices around money management. What do you what do you have for me?
Speaker:Yeah, so this is this is my favorite part. Some things you know we suggest when you're building your money plan, keep it out, keep it somewhere you can see easily to keep it top of mind so that you can review it frequently. Sometimes I check mine and I revise it three times in one day.
Speaker 1:Oh wow.
Speaker:Um if if that's what you need, that's that's what you need. Sometimes you you know have expenses that you don't expect, and so you have to revise your plan. And sometimes that happens often. The other thing is um try and predict for seasonal variances. For example, if you are a waitress and you know that you know you make more, typically in the summer it's busier or around the holiday season, then try and put some money aside for the seasons that you know maybe you know are slower. So just try and plan some of your seasonal expenditures, even. So, like you know, around the holiday season, typically people have a lot more. Their credit card bills are a lot higher. Um, so you maybe you want to put some money aside for that. Covering your priority expenses first. Um, so always when you're um creating your money plan, always put the most important expenses on the top. Things like rent or mortgage, food and groceries should always sit on the top, and then you kind of work your way down in terms of importance. But it's also at the same time important to pay yourself. So have that little bit of savings account or that buffer so that uh you have something for a rainy day. And then also build in a plan for um some fun because everyone needs some fun. Um, it's unreasonable and um unrealistic to not have some fun. So build some some money in for fun in your plan.
Speaker 1:I like that one. I like the previous one too, pay yourself. Are there any best practices on what would a reasonable maybe percentage of your income be towards paying yourself? Because I think this is something that a lot of people have challenges with.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, we try to say, you know, have 50% for your necessities, 30% for savings, and maybe 20% for fun. But really at the end of the day, you know, we know that at times money is tight, and for a lot of people they're just surviving, right? And so if you can't, you know, get anything into savings, then you can't. But you know, the months that you can, try and do that. If you are a seasonal worker and there's months where you make more, bank that extra money for those times. We we know that at times people are paid or paycheck to paychecks, and if you can't put it in, that's okay. But if you can, try and put even a little bit.
Speaker 1:I was just gonna say it doesn't have to be a big, huge amount either. Sometimes it can even be five dollars or ten dollars, but it's it's really about creating that mindset. Anything is better than nothing.
Speaker:Yeah, and if you set up kind of an automatic payment into a savings, it's sometimes some something that you f forget about that it's going and you don't even remember that it's there. So that if an emergency does come up, it's a nice surprise that it's there.
Speaker 1:That's great. So as we're wrapping up today's episode, Brenda, any final thoughts? You've shared some really, really great tips and you've given our listeners a lot to think about. Um any final thoughts as we're wrapping up?
Speaker:Yeah, I think you know, just don't expect perfection, you know, especially if you're new to this journey. Um be patient with yourself. Don't give up. It's like a fitness or health plan. Um, if you fall off the wagon, just start again, and that's okay. Just give yourself some grace and um practice, practice, practice. As time goes, it'll get easier and it becomes uh a lot more second nature.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much again for sharing those tips, and we will see you in the next episode. Thank you, Anu. This brings us to the end of our episode. I want to give out a huge shout out to Coast Capital Savings for their ongoing support of the Thrive program. Thank you so much. I hope that today's topic resonated with you, and if it did, remember to share it far and wide with your networks. You never know who it might help. And while you're doing that, remember to like, follow, and leave a review. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.