All right, welcome everybody. Thanks for joining us on another issue of checking in. A podcast where we talk about the psychology of money, the good feelings that are associated with money and sometimes the stressful, not so good feelings that come along with budgeting and being disciplined and creating a a healthy balance between income and expenses. I have the pleasure today of being with Jessica Akizi. She is a graduate student at the UNT Student Money Management Center. Powered by Datcu. Um, selfish, selfless plug there. But we are definitely honored to have you today to just talk about all of those fun things with money and and also a little bit about your role. It's kind of a unique role there on campus, kind of helping UNT students discover the world of finance. It's a personal finance and budgeting and all that stuff. So, to kick us off, we always like to start with income. Let's talk about the good feelings about money. Nobody likes to talk about the bad feelings, right? Yeah, yeah. So, let's talk about the good stuff. So, um, I'm going to guess you probably remember your first paycheck. I do. Yeah, yeah. What was that like? What kind of feelings there, memories does that bring back? Honestly, for me it was the anticipation for that first paycheck to hit. The excitement in knowing that I had worked and earned money. Knowing that I could go and spend money without asking my mom for $20 to go to the movies. I was just so excited for all the different things I could buy. I was so buy focused. I was so ready to start spending it. Nice. Nice. Has that pattern continued? Are you still a spender or do you like to save a little bit? I would say I'm a happy medium. I definitely do believe in I work so I can enjoy the levities of life, but I am also future-focused. So, I definitely do believe in having a savings account for any life emergencies or even just any unexpected things that might come and then even for planning and just knowing that I can afford more if I save it up now. Nice. So, you're you're kind of initially drawn to that independence and autonomy that that first paycheck brought, but you've learned since then that that helps you buy a little margin in life. Mhm. Yeah. I hate to say it, but I'm I'm a spender. You can ask both my wife and she'll say I'm a spender and my boss. So, hopefully my boss isn't watching this but I think she knows I'm a spender already. Marketing budget is let's say healthy. How about that? Okay. Okay. And so, that's awesome. Well, well, talk to me a little bit about kind of your career path. So, we were talking just briefly before we got started about your degree, right? You have a undergrad in public health. Yes. Right? And you have you're working on your graduate degree in health data health industry data analytics. So close. Oh, wow. Healthcare data Healthcare. Ah. Dang it. I missed the care word. Ah, you were so close. I was. So, so that that seems like a a little bit of a stretch from your graduate assistantship in the Student Money Management Center. Talk to me a little bit about how you think those two things relate. Maybe the data analytics portion with the coaching and all of that stuff. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, I am the kind of person that truly believes in life experiences being the best teacher. Um, so with that I definitely feel like everything that I've done up until this point is still serving a purpose. It serves a purpose in my ultimate goal to one day be um, in the industry that I would like to be in. And even in my position as a coach, as a student assistant, I feel like I learned so many skills that are transferable. I get to look at students and not only just see them for their financial situations, but also see them as a whole, which is something that I have to do in healthcare data analytics when I'm looking at patient records. Um and so skills like that I feel like are transferable in a a lot of different ways. Um I'm also the kind of person where I believe that life has a way of not always being straight and narrow. And so even with that, I'm always looking for a way to build up my resume, build up my skills, even if it doesn't directly apply to the field that I may be interested in. I definitely think that it still works for the greater good of building up my professionalism and just even my knowledge. I'm the kind of person where I believe life is going to continuously keep teaching us. And so I am a student first and foremost most of my life. And so um I just love learning and absorbing knowledge and being able to share that with other people, whether it's financial or patient outcomes. I definitely see that teaching, no matter what is teaching. It's hard, it can be difficult at times, but you also have to know that when you are teaching you're talking to a person. And so being able to take information and get that to um resonate with another human being, that in itself is a skill that I feel like financial literacy has taught me that I'm able to put into play even when I'm looking at the numbers. I can take the numbers I'm looking at, whether it's with student numbers or with patient numbers, and it works perfectly across the board. Got you. Yeah. I like to call that being a professional student. Yeah. in school for a long time, so um I've been labeled a professional student. So keep learning, keep learning. Yeah, yeah. Um and and use all the the data at hand to to teach you those lessons and stuff. So will, yeah. So being a professional student, um what do you think helped teach you about money the most? Was it a movie? Was it a book? Was it family experience? Was it personal experience? I was I'm seeing a smile here. Um again, life has a way of teaching us so very very kindly. Um for me, I learned a couple of different ways. Number one, life was my first biggest teacher. Um as I said, when I first got paid and then just being in a mindset of I didn't really have any financial responsibility, so I just had income. And income with no responsibilities leads to a lot of just careless spending at times. Um and so I think for me, I kind of built that habit not knowing that I was building a habit. I thought it was, you know, harmless. Like, of course, I didn't have to worry about rent. I didn't have to worry about uh utilities, bills. It wasn't my problem. My parents were handling that for me. So I was able to really just enjoy the fullness of my paychecks without having to think about how else do I need to balance this? What else could I be using this for? How could I be investing towards my future self? Those were things that didn't really bother my subconscious at the time. Um and so as I grew and as I took on more responsibilities, everybody wants to be an adult so badly, but with adultness comes more and more responsibilities. Um and so as my responsibilities grew, my relationship with money grew. Um it changed. It looked different. It became more about how do I make my paycheck last longer? How do I um pay for my needs before my wants? How do I prioritize what my needs and wants are? Um And so that was something where life taught me that. Now, as far as how did I become better at it? I feel like I started looking into podcast, into books. There's this book, it's called How to Adult. It is a wonderful wonderful book. It is so good. I think everybody should have this in their arsenal of knowledge. It just teaches you some basic things that people don't know. Financial literacy is so underrated. I feel like people don't really talk about um how much autonomy comes in really understanding how to use your finances. And honestly, financial freedom is found when you know what the boundaries of your finances are. So, um books were able to support that skill for me as well as podcast as we are doing one right now. I really enjoy sitting down and hearing other people share their experiences and what they gained from that. Yeah. Nice. Um how to adult? I should probably check that out. Yeah, yeah. I still haven't figured that out yet. I'm getting up in age, but uh certainly not in maturity. Uh again, you can ask both my wife and my boss on that and they'll say the same thing. So, So, how to adult? Um that that was kind of one of your cornerstones or your keystones in your financial literacy education. Yeah. Um how have you helped kind of translate some of those principles or those principles that life has taught you about money? How have you transferred that to the next generation of say undergrad students or people who visit you at the Student Money Management Center? Um honestly, just being real. Understanding where they are in life as I have um said multiple times at this point, life is a great teacher. Life will teach you if you let life teach you the outcomes of your um decisions, it will. It definitely will and sometimes you can't undo the things you've already done. So, all you need to do now is how do I react to that? How do I correctly position myself for the next thing rather than oh going back and trying to undo the things I've already done. You've already made those decisions. You may not be able to go back and change them, but we can control what you do moving forward. And so, even with teaching the next generation, I believe having empathy and understanding for once upon a time I was in the exact same position. I get it. I understand. Um especially as a college student, there's so many things you're being um introduced to for the first time, whether that is more money coming into your pockets, whether that's a refund or even just having a job and having that first feeling of oh, I have my first paycheck. I have money do do do. Um understanding that once upon a time I was in that same position and it feels nice until you realize there's other things that call for your attention. Um and so, really just kind of being a support for them, Uh allowing them to kind of move through the motions as well and almost even form their own identity with money. I never want to in person or impersonate and give like my own experiences to somebody else as what they should take as a fact or um, you should do it how I did it. I'm the kind of person where I believe everybody does things a little bit differently. We're all different. We all have different circumstances, different upbringings, different understandings of things. And so taking that and understanding that here is the fact of what the matter is, how does this apply to you? How can you best take this information and make it work for you? Everything to some degree needs to be adaptable. We have what is truths and what is myths. And so for me as an educator when it comes to students, I'm just there to go ahead and make sure that you have the foundational point of what is the truth, how does this mean, what does it mean to take out a loan, what does that look like for your future you? Um, and honestly from there on, I really let the students kind of just move through it in a way that they would decide because again, this is your life. You're going to live it how you want to. I can only sit here and give you the best possible chance at um, understanding what you're agreeing to do.

Wow. Uh, I feel like we just hit like a a fountain of wisdom right there. Definitely feeling a little outclassed. I I need to learn some of these lessons from you, Jessica. Um, I I do want to hit I really like the way you said like it's not magic. No. Right. It's not a trick. Mhm. Uh, it's just kind of a way of life and you adapt it to your personality, your circumstances, your environment. You can provide yourself as like a a a I don't want to say metaphor, but as like a an allegory Yeah. Yeah. a story to follow or to tell to glean Yeah. your wisdom out of it. But at the end of the day, it's fairly simple, right? Uh, you got to balance your your income with your expenses. Yeah. And and move forward. And if you have that discipline and that ability to kind of make that a recurring habit, Mhm. you're going to be in good shape, right? Life's going to take care of you. So, um let me let me kind of needle down a little bit on the You said there are some myths. Okay. What are some of the common myths that you see coming through the doors of the Student Money Management Center? That all loans are bad. Um y'all, I see so many students who come in and they're in a position where they are so close to being done with their student balance, but they're just not there yet. And then they'll ask for financial assistance or we need more money. And then I'll go look at their account and they have loans that are offered to them and I'm like, "Okay, so why didn't you take out your loan?" Oh, because my high school counselor told me that I should never ever touch a loan. Loans are super duper bad. Debt is bad. And then I sit there and I'm like, "Okay, we got to take that with a grain of salt. Yes, being in debt is not a position that we want to be in, but understanding what does debt mean? What does that look like? When you decide to sign up for an apartment lease, you're automatically in debt. People don't understand that debt is anything that you were using before you pay for. So, even when you take out a credit card and you start spending with your credit card, you're in debt. You have to pay that back. You're using money that you have yet to um pull from. So, really just breaking down the foundation of people's understandings, breaking down that wall of all things are bad. I feel like everything in moderation is good. If you were in a position where you need to take out a student loan, I'm going to specify and say student loan. Private loans are a little scary. I'm not going to lie. The interest rate it gets wonky over there. Um but if you have to take out a student loan to be able to afford that last semester of college or be able to even just that last 1,000, take out the student loan. Um yes, being in debt is not good and if you don't need the loan, don't take it out. Of course, don't take it out. But if you're in a position where you're asking me for a little bit more to make it there, but you have the the resources you need in your pocket, now I need to understand why aren't you utilizing the resources you have? What is stopping you or preventing you from that? And often times it's the myth of loans are bad and I have to then explain that loans unchecked are bad. Taking out more than you need is bad. Um, leaving a loan un you know, un unwatched is bad. Um, in the sense of if you take out a student loan today and you graduate and it's been a few years after graduation and you haven't even begun repayment, now I'm wondering you might be in collections because they're going to reach out and tell you, "Hey, we got to start repayment." But understanding that you can't worry about tomorrow you's problem if you're still struggling with today is a big thing that I have to kind of bring students into the perception of and just helping them to realize that yes, we need to do these things in moderation and if you don't need this, then yeah, you don't need to take it out. But if you're in a position where this could help you get to tomorrow, let's get to tomorrow before we worry about its problems. Yeah. Um, well, first I'm like I feel obligated I need to ask you like, do you just want to host? Like you're you're doing a phenomenal job and got tons of great stuff coming out. Uh, this is this is really, really good. I'm glad you're here today. Thank you. Um, second of all, I really like what you said about debt. Like if you do an apartment lease, is that Yeah. right? You're committing to something before you pay for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Considered debt. I really like that. One of the things I learned by taking this role um, through our lending department and we've got really good um, LOs and and lending off- loan officers and our VP of lending is a great guy. I was talking to him about credit scores. Yeah. And a lot of people don't understand that uh, if you use about a a of your available debt, Mhm. that actually helps your credit score. Yeah. Cuz it tells people that you're credible, right? That that you can pay that off. Yes. Yes. You've got room in case there's an emergency to continue to borrow, but you're smart enough to kind of have some sort of debt that you pay off. Yeah. So that actually improves your credit score, and I think that's counter to what most people think about debt, right? It's just all bad. You're like, "No, you you might need a little bit." Yeah. Um in moderation, like I said. Absolutely in moderation. So um I would say my life might be a little bit of a cautionary tale. Like I did grad school uh and and took out quite a bit. It took me a while to pay it off. But I got it done. Yeah. Uh it's not impossible. It's not. Um but was there a smarter way to do it? Maybe. Possibly. But But but it got me to tomorrow. Yeah, exactly. Yes. Yes. I've got those degrees, and nobody can take that from me. Exactly. I eventually paid for them, so. And that's what I tell students. It's like, you're here to get your education. Let's focus on getting your education. Finances should not be what stops you from pursuing higher education, especially when you think about the turnaround. You're going to have a bachelor's. You're going to have your degree, and nobody can ever take that away from you, and you're going to get a job that you may like, whether it's in the field of your degree or not. You're in a position now where you have education to back your standing. And you can afford to pay back those loans you took. Even what you said um credit cards, that's another big one where a lot of students don't have a credit card, and they're just like, "Yeah, no, my parents said credit is bad. Credit is bad." And I'm like, "Well, if you go to buy a house one day or buy a car, they're going to look at you and be like, 'Babes, you don't have credit. We can't we can't even begin to start a process with you because we don't have any way to know that you're trustworthy.'" And I tell people to think of a credit score as your trustworthiness. That literally is what it communicates to the um to the companies is how much can I truly trust you with my money. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, the same goes from from a credit union side, right? When we look at the risk of loans, we look and go, "Oh, they've already had loans or they have a relationship with us through this credit card or you know, through the savings account, checking account, so we we trust them. You know, here's the loan, right? So, uh very much so trustworthiness scale. I think that's I think that's really smart to think of it that way. That's great. Um so, gosh, we covered a lot. Covered a lot of ground in that that short time frame. Uh let's talk a little bit more about our personal experiences with money. Um and this is always a fun question to ask. Um What what's what's something you don't mind paying for? We're kind of in that expense side. We talked about income. Now we're at expenses. What's What's one thing where you're like, "Oh, I know this is costly, but I just don't care. I got to have it."

Y'all, I'm not the proudest to talk about it, but Sephora, Sephora, Sephora, Ulta. I am a big advocate in romanticizing your life. Um I live my life right now as if it's my dream life, even though yes, I have my goals and aspirations I want to get to one day. I'm going to romanticize every single day, which means I'm going to need those products. Um and so, Sephora and Ulta have seen me way too many times. Um but one thing I don't mind spending money on is perfume. I believe in quality over quantity. I will spend $150 to get that bottle. Like, I most definitely will spend money on quality items every time, especially perfume. Like, signature smell, yes. Oh, that's awesome. Mhm. Yeah, I think most people can tell I'm I'm not concerned with those things. The gray hair might give it away a little bit. Um but no, for me I think it's uh along those same lines as running shoes. Yeah. So, I love to work out and I love to go run. So, uh I'm not going to go skimp out on those shoes and and suffer the consequences, right? Yes. Um so, you might as well, right? Go spend. Go big or go home, right? Hey, I like that. Yeah. Nice. Well, let's uh what about those things you don't want to spend money on? Like, what is something that you're like, "Oh, gosh, I just have to pay for this." Get it over with. Rip the band-aid off and move on. Rent. Rent? Rent. Remember I said I like to romanticize my life? That is Yeah, everything. Um so even with rent, that's something that I've actually had to learn is live within your means cuz when it came to my apartment, I was looking for the shiniest, newest appliances. Um I I'm not going to lie, my parents might have spoiled me a bit growing up. So I've always been accustomed to This is mine. Um Nobody else has this. Nobody has a thing like this. It's one-of-a-kind. Um and so even with my apartment, that was one thing I was looking for was I wanted an apartment that was big, shiny, silver appliances, marble countertop, um the nice floors, amazing bathtub. Yes, it definitely reflected in my rent statement. Um so that's something that I don't necessarily love paying for and with time I've kind of realized, do I need all of this? No. Um but sometimes you have to know what are some of the things that you {quote} {unquote} need in the sense of uh for my mental stability, I do enjoy having nicer things around me. So I am willing to go ahead and just take it. Take the rent. Go ahead. Bam. Yeah. Um so that's one thing I don't enjoy paying for, but I can pay for. Well, I mean some of that plays in with your mental health, right? Yeah. Um you got to feel good about where you're staying and all of that stuff. Yeah, I struggle with that, too. Like I I like cars. Ooh. I like I like nice cars. Uh again, please don't talk to my wife about this. Um she's got some stories. Mhm. But over time, I've just had to learn like, hey, is it really worth it? Yeah. Is this a want or a need? Yes. Right? Um do you really need the most expensive car to get you from home to work? You know, and that's it. Or is it just something that's functional? So Right. Right. Um so yeah, I'd like to think I'm leaning towards functional, but like I said, don't don't talk to my wife. She might She might say otherwise, so Well, let's talk a little bit about that though. You talked about stuff you don't mind spending money on. We talked about stuff we do mind spending money on. How do you balance those things? How do you balance those wants and needs and know or prioritize your decision-making when it comes to making a purchase? Um honestly, I think the first step is knowing yourself, knowing what your needs and wants are. I feel like for me there's certain things that I prioritize in my life to upkeep my lifestyle that other people might see as I don't need that. That's not for me. Um and so I feel like the first step is knowing yourself. You need to know what are things that you need for your overall wellness and then once we know it, Jessica likes or Jessica {quote} needs, I'm able to then actually prioritize it into my needs and wants. I'm able to say, do I have a shelter over my head? Do I have like a roof over my head? Okay, check. Um do I have food in my fridge? Check. Do I have gas to get me to and fro? That's one thing that I don't feel like people really think of until it's like, "Ooh, I need to get gas." And then you're looking at the prices and you're like, "Oh dang, I probably should have, you know, allocated some funds towards that before I went to Sephora, went to Ulta." Um and so for me, I'm the kind of person where I like to automate my finances in a way that all of my bills are set on auto pay, so just take it when you need to. Um so by the time I go and actually look at my finances, I'm able to say, "Okay, this is how much I'm putting towards my savings and here's how much I actually have left to like live off of." And then even then, I still don't hit the max in that range either just because I like to have cushion. I like to have safety ground to know that I'm not just living paycheck to paycheck. I'm getting a new paycheck to add onto my savings or to invest in myself or to put towards my bills and my needs um before I get to my wants. And then the second thing with that is there are some wants that I want that aren't needed by any any standard. Like even like for the overall wellness, it's like if I didn't have this bottle of perfume, I would be just fine. I'd be dandy. I probably wouldn't even realize I didn't have this bottle. Um and so sometimes I play the 48-hour rule with myself where I might want it in that moment, but I give myself at least 48 hours to A think it over and B just kind of live my life because if it's still not in the conscious of my brain, that means I don't need that and I can go about my life without ever purchasing that. Yeah, absolutely. Um for the record, I I need golf equipment. So, I I just want to make sure Right. that's out in the world that I that I need Yes. That's that's important. equipment. Absolutely, 100%. Yeah. Uh but I do like the way you kind of put the like if you haven't thought about it in a while, Yeah. really need it? It's one of those um I can't even forget the the what is it? The joy of being tidy, the art of tidy. Like if if this shirt if you haven't worn this shirt in you know, 3 months and it doesn't bring you joy, you know, get rid of it. That's that's my wife's approach. She's a Mhm. She's a organized Yes. Yes. Yes. I I don't want to I don't want to say that the neat freak word. We're pretty close to that. Um So, yeah. How do you then talking about those wants and needs? If you find yourself in a place where you're like a want is drifting into the need category and you're like convincing yourself, no, I really need this. I really need this. How do you back yourself off that kind of ledge? Or do you? Do you just give in and say, nope, I'm getting it. It's so hard. Um if the 48-hour rule doesn't work and I still need it desperately, I look at my budget. Um I look at my budget and you know, every once in a while you're like right there to where I could I could fit it in, but I shouldn't. And I might just fit it in. I feel like it's okay to live life and make a couple mistakes, to trip up. We are only human. Um and so there are times where I will trip up and I'll I'll give in and maybe that next go around with my budget I might be looking and be like, "Ah, Jessica, you did not need those shoes or my second guilty pleasure." You did not need those new pair of New Balances. Y'all, I bought some New Balances. I was so happy with myself. Did I need those? No. Did I want them desperately? Yes. They're amazing. I love them. Um but I feel like sometimes there's a give and take. You got to choose your battles. There's some um ones that you desperately desperately want that you just have to say, "No, I can't do that." You have to be accountable and really just self-control. That's a really big thing when it comes to finances. I was literally just talking about earlier today how self-control is not something we're born with. That is something that you are taught and that you eventually put into practice and the more times you're able to say no to yourself, the easier it becomes to say yes. Um I feel like there's a guilt that comes when you say yes way too many times. Now you feel bad. Now you're like, "Dang, I can't manage my money correctly. I can't save up because I keep saying yes." But when you are able to say no, it actually makes it to where when you're saying yes, you don't feel bad. I don't feel guilty when I say yes to myself because I say no so many times that I'm able to Okay, you know what? I'll go ahead and get the shoes. It's okay. I'll be just fine. I've been saying no these last couple of months to X, Y, and Z. So now I can say yes and not feel guilty and I can go to sleep with a clear conscience. Yeah. Yeah. And we're back to the It's really not magic. Yeah, it's not magic. takes a little bit of uh of self-discipline and the ability to say, "I don't need that right now." Right. And I might come back around to it. I like your filters there. The the 48 hours and then budget, right? So, sleep on it. You know, think about it, considering it, and then go back to your budget and be like, "You know what? I have saved some money. I think I can splurge right now, right?" Or "Nope, I can't splurge right now. I need gas. You know, I got to pay that rent, right?" Yeah. Um so, I'll wait a little bit on those shoes. Um but you kind of have that that little uh wish list there waiting just in case. got a wish list. Y'all, I keep a little save tab on my Instagram and my TikTok. Yes, the carts are full. Yeah. Uh yeah, the wish list is is dangerous. Uh my kids have filled up my Amazon wish list, yeah, with all of the stuff that they apparently need. Yeah, the endless needs. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Well, let's talk um like I said, we've covered a lot of ground. Let's talk a little bit about is there Was there ever a moment or was there an expense that you regretted that you were like, "Dang it, I shouldn't have pulled the trigger on that. I'm I'm I enjoy it. I like it. I'm glad I have it, but at the end of the day it would have been smarter to do this with my money." Or something like that. Can you think of anything like that? It was a season. It was a phase of life. That season. Y'all. That makes So, um I had a friend and this particular friend and I loved to hang out. Like we loved to go out, um and our favorite places to go were always in the Dallas um arts Bishop area. Um the Bishop arts area. Said that backwards. Um and so, we loved going to all these super nice restaurants, Michelin star, things that are way way way outside of any price I should be paying for any meal at this current phase of life that I'm currently in. Um but in my head it was like, "Ah, it's once in a while. It's once in a while. Once in a while." Turned into twice a week. Twice a week turned into almost every other day. And so, um at that point in time, I definitely It only went on for like 3 weeks. Let me Let me preface this. It wasn't It wasn't too too long before I realized, "Hey, I can't upkeep with this." Um but I loved going to eat out with her. I loved going to these restaurants, trying new things. It almost felt like I was a food critic of sort. Like I was in this whole this whole world of fantasy. Um but it felt good in the moment. It definitely felt great until an unexpected bill popped up and I just didn't have the space to budge. And I realized very quickly that, "Hey, I've been spending pretty carelessly these last few weeks. I've um been spending way more than I would ever spend on any of my uh food grocery shoppings just in one sitting." And I was like, "That's not okay." And so, I think that's actually how I learned how to say no to myself was "I want to go hang out with my friends. I want to have fun with them, but I have to set up boundaries and know that I can't afford to do that right now." Um and so, that turned into a conversation that I had with her and I kind of just had to say, "Hey, I love our, you know, get-togethers where we go and eat. It's so much fun, but I can only really afford to do this once a month where we go somewhere really, really nice. Like, we can get together. We can hang out, but we can't keep spending like this." Um and so, honestly, it really was just being realistic with myself and having to take a moment to reflect. Um I think for me, I wish I had reflected sooner. Um I hate that by the time I reflected, it was because a situation had arise that needed my attention right then and there because I wasn't able to um to pivot the way I needed to because I wasn't aware of what I was doing. And so, for me, I feel like that really just taught me the art of reflecting sooner. Um I think that to some degree, naturally, we all have a moment of reflection, whether it's after something big just happened or because we just so happen to Oh, I like checking my accounts every 2 weeks or something. Um And so, that was something I looked back on and said, "Yeah, I need to probably learn how to reflect a little bit sooner before a situation that calls for my attention arises because now I'm kind of sitting here between a rock and a hard spot where it's I've already spent the money. I've already ate the meals. Like, they were great. The pictures were cute, but that's not going to come save me right now. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. No, that's that's a great life lesson, for sure. Um Just because Just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you should, right? That's good. Yeah. Yeah, I I I love to cook. Love to love to eat, really. So, my wife and I I mean, every time we go out we worry about the bill and we look at it and we make sure, "Hey, we're not getting an appetizer. We're not doing this." Whatever. But, once a year, you know, usually around our anniversary, it's like we're not even going to look. Like just enjoy yourself. Yes. And because we we pay attention to the bill 11 months out of the year Yeah. we can afford to that that one time go out and and enjoy you know, an anniversary dinner or something like that without really worrying about the the consequences too much. So, so yeah, it's a it's a tough life lesson to learn. Mhm. So. Well, um what We we talked a little bit about the myths that you see. What do you think is your biggest piece of advice? One that you go to like almost every day or frequently with students that come into the the student money management center. Powered by Datyod. Um

do your research. Do your research is a big one for me. Um no matter what financial decision you're trying to make, no matter what you're trying to think of, even if that's you creating a budget, choosing um a credit union you would like to partner with, um deciding you want to take a trip and figuring out where you should go, where can you afford to go. Do your research. Um I feel like a lot of times students, even myself, fall guilty of setting a goal, but you don't really have a clear destination in mind for that goal. So, it's like, "Oh, I want to I want to go travel." Okay, where are you traveling to? How much is that going to cost? How much is plane tickets? Have you thought of where you're going to stay when you get there? Are you going to need a rental car? Do you have your passport? Um and so, really doing your research in-depthitude, um even if that is me deciding what next step I'm taking in my education. Okay, I want to get my master's degree. How does that look for me? Realistically, am I going to have to move into a new city? Okay, if I'm starting a new life in a new city, am I buying furniture? Am I having to get gas on my own? How far am I from home? Am I able to visit on the weekends? How much does that cost? Cuz going home on the weekends is not cheap. Um And so really just like asking students to kind of take a second to take a step back from their goals and really identify what all that calls for, what all is needed to achieve that goal. Cuz it's It sounds so easy to say, "I'm going to go on a trip." Until you start thinking of what all goes into planning that trip. Then you're able to say, "Okay, I need to save up $300 or $3,500 for my trip to Europe. I am taking a trip to Europe 2028. Um Yeah. We're calling that into the future. And that is how much Manifest it. Right. And that is how much it's looking like. And so this has just been an ongoing thing of, "Okay, now I'm doing my research on flight tickets. How much is that costing?" I already have my passport, so that's great. I want to buy new clothes. I'm sorry, I don't know about anybody else, but when I go on a new trip, I'm buying a new outfit. So I'm already allocating a fund for how much I want to spend on the clothes I'm going to buy for that. And so that's kind of what I advise students to do as well as advice that I take on a daily basis on any decision I take is do I know what I'm actually stepping into? Do I know what I'm agreeing to do? Even with my groceries, I'm already planning out what I want to buy before I go to the store. I already have done my research for the week. I know that I'm living on a meal prep. I'm in a calorie deficit. So I know exactly how many calories I should be eating in every meal. That might be a little too like picky, but um I know exactly how many calories I'm hitting. I know exactly what I'm going to eat for the week. And so when I go to the store, I have me a nice little list and that's not on my list. I can continue forward. Or I could say, "Oh, that's not on my list, but um okay, I guess I can afford to woo woo." But yeah, Yeah. No, I think that's great advice, research. Um to be fair though, we really don't need to research much about credit unions. I mean, there's there's pretty much one, right? Right. Right. That's That's the one and only. Yeah. There we go. BECU. the day. Got to get that plug in. first sure. Uh well, awesome. Well, we yeah, we've covered a lot of ground on the income and expenses. We do like to kind of end the end the podcast with kind of the what I call the no-brainer question and or section. Uh and that's really just questions that you don't know about. Uh some pop culture references, etc. Um I feel pretty out of place um knowing uh you uh spend the majority of your time on a college campus and probably have way more pop culture references than I do. So, I will keep it simple and just say, "What's uh what's what's going on in campus? What's the all the rage in terms of music, books, TV, all that stuff?"

Am I putting you on the spot?

So, um I actually feel super duper old when I'm on campus. I'm only 22, so I'm actually not that old. But, I feel so old cuz the students come in with new things. Uh this week is actually flight week, so we have a whole bunch of freshmen on campus. And they're intimidating. Y'all, I'm like so scared. I'm like, "Guys." Um let's see. What's all the rage? Clothes, fashion, everybody wants to be a fashion icon, everybody wants to be an influencer. TikTok is super popular, super duper popular. Um beauty trends are going up. Music, I'm out of tune with. I only listen to gospel music, but I think it's popping. Yeah. Yeah. That works. Um TV shows, I don't watch TV. So, I I did watch the new Spider-Man movie. Oh, yeah? Yeah, it was so good. It was good? Yeah, I haven't seen it yet. I haven't seen it yet. Okay. Um yeah, I noticed when I was teaching that I found it really weird that like every year I got older, Yeah. but the students stayed the same age. I I could never figure that out. Why that happened. I know. It making me feel very old. Mhm. Didn't help that like age 25, 6-ish I started going gray. And so, my students would be like, man, you're old. I'm like, I'm like 3 or 4 years older than you. Come on, deal with it. So. Well, that's awesome. Well, um certainly appreciate you taking some time to talk with us today. Excuse me. Talk with us today and kind of walk through what you do with students and all of the great advice you give. Um loved hearing a lot about just your personal experience with money and how you've grown and um developed and formed your wisdom around finances. So, definitely think you got a great head on your shoulders. Um really excited to see what you do in the future. And um yeah, really interested in your health care data analytics uh degree and what you do with that. So, when you're when you're going to be done? Do you know? December 2026. Oh, soon. You got one more semester. Nice. You got plans for the next steps, yeah? Um I'm in the transitional phase right now where I'm thinking I might move out of state. Other states tax, they have state tax, so that's the thing I'm looking at. Um so, I'm thinking about possibly like where do I want to go and start my career? Like, do I want to stay in Texas? I love Texas. So, I'm like, I might stay in Texas, but I am definitely in a um transition of life right now where I'm excited for what's to come. Nice. Yeah. It's an adventure, right? Are you a Texas girl? Are you from Texas? Yeah. Kind of. Ish. Yeah, I was raised in Texas. There you go. Yeah. Well, that means you're a Texan. Yeah. That'll work. Yeah. Well, we're certainly excited for you. Excited to see what that next step is and we are grateful for your time. Um grateful for you stopping by and checking us out on Checking In. And uh yeah, best of luck to you. Thank you. All righty. Thanks.