Matilyn Mortensen:
Welcome to Making Utah, the official podcast of the University of Utah. Here, we share stories of discovery, creativity and connection that shape campus and our state for the future.

I'm Matilyn Mortensen and you're listening to U For You, the student-facing podcast where we explore stories, tips and resources to help you make the most of your college experience.

Hello, Gabrielle McAllaster. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm really excited to talk more about the Financial Wellness Center on campus. Will you just start out by introducing yourself and your role?

Gabrielle McAllaster:
Yes. Hi, Mattie. Thank you so much for having me. I'm the director of the Financial Wellness Center. So we're located within Student Affairs, within the Health and Wellness line. We were one of the very first centers of financial wellness in higher education. We were actually started from a student initiative. They saw the need for students to have access to financial counseling, financial education on campus. So we started in 2011 and now we've really expanded. We meet with students one-on-one for financial counseling. All of our full-time staff are accredited financial counselors. We help students with anything from budgeting, student loans, learning more about credit. We also have peer wellbeing ambassadors, so students can meet with their peers to also engage in financial education, connect you to various resources on campus.

Matilyn Mortensen:
That is so cool. It's awesome all the different things your office has done and the way it's grown in the almost 15 years that it's been a part of campus. I think something that can happen for people with money questions, especially if you are a young adult who is starting to learn how to operate in the world, is this feeling of, "I need help and I do not know where to start." And so I'm curious, for students that want to access your resources, how do you recommend they start and begin navigating the Financial Wellness Center?

Gabrielle McAllaster:
One of my favorite things about our center is that we provide a space where students can ask those questions because often in society or with different family members, with friends, you may not be comfortable opening up and asking questions about your finances. Even something such as interest on credit cards, I've met with students and they did not know how to navigate their credit cards. So that's one of my very favorite things about our center is meeting with students and having that space where they can ask questions.

The best way for students to make an appointment with us is on our website. You can directly make an appointment either with a peer wellbeing ambassador or a accredited financial counselor. We do virtual and in-person sessions with students. Of course, you can always email us, call us. We're also on Instagram, @uofu_financialwellness, so you can check out the various events and things that we have there. But if you're interested in an appointment, check out our website.

Matilyn Mortensen:
Something that I think can happen with money conversations is shame or fear can prevent people from starting to have those conversations. And so maybe when they go to the appointment, that might be a good start, but actually setting up the appointment might be where they're finding the barrier. I wonder if in your experience, if in your studies, if you've seen anything that can be maybe a tool or a mindset someone could use to get over that first hurdle of actually making the appointment to learn more and get support.

Gabrielle McAllaster:
Something that we really encourage within Student Affairs is help-seeking behaviors. We really work with students to utilize the resources that are available to you. And even if your voice is shaking, if you're crying, if you're not sure exactly where to go, we need you to communicate that with a staff member so that we can point you to the right resource and we can provide that support to you. There's a lot of resources at the U and all of our staff here on campus are very knowledgeable about the different resources. So the first step is to gain the courage to talk to a staff member about your situation and then we can help you navigate from there.

And I will share, I was a low-income student who had a lot of trouble navigating a university campus and I know how terrifying it can be to open up in that way. But as I mentioned before, I really pride our center on creating a welcoming space where students can open up and ask those questions. That way, we can support you in the best way possible.

Matilyn Mortensen:
So my understanding is that financial counselors have really specialized training that makes them a really good person to talk about when you're trying to learn about money. Can you tell me a little bit about their specific role and their specific background?

Gabrielle McAllaster:
An accredited financial counselor is someone who really starts with you from the beginning, learning about your finances. We take a values approach, so we really get to know you as an individual, as a student, to get to know where you value spending your money, what are any context in your individual situation, such as family obligations, different relationship obligations, things that you value and prioritize with your money. So it's really getting to know you as a student and building a relationship. And that way, we're helping you to support you with your goals and working alongside you in that way.

The difference with a financial planner, which you might use later in life, is they really take a look at all of your finances, help you with retirement planning, tax planning. We can help you with getting to know those different financial fundamentals, but later down the line after graduation, you may work with a financial planner.

Matilyn Mortensen:
Thank you so much for explaining that. It sounds like a financial counselor can be a really helpful person at the beginning of an individual's financial journey. And I'm thinking traditional college students that are coming here after high school might really want support with things like budgeting. Maybe a non-traditional student who's looking at funding or paying for childcare might come in with some different questions. Everyone probably has student loan questions. And I'm curious if there's different resources that you see at the Financial Wellness Center offering that kind of support students at the different phases of their college experience. I imagine a first-year student's asking different questions than a junior who's starting to think about going into the job market.

Gabrielle McAllaster:
Yes. A lot of students come in to navigate paying for school, of course, navigating different FAFSA, different forms. For different student populations, there's different ways to pay for school and there's also different funding opportunities. So if we think of loans, job opportunities, work study, so we really help students navigate that and provide them education on those various ways to pay for school. And of course, first-year students and I would say all different students need support with budgeting. So we really sit down with you and we'll help you create goals and create a budget and you can even automate your budget so you don't have to open up a Excel spreadsheet every day. Then when students are getting into their junior and senior years, we're helping them learn more about investing, navigating 401(k)s and preparing for their journey after graduation.

At our center, we do help students two years past their graduation because there's always ongoing questions of how to navigate benefits and your salary, everything like that. So we do support you two years after graduation.

We also meet with graduate students and medical students. So with that, there's a lot of implications on, of course, student loans, taxes and navigating your finances as a graduate student and a medical student.

It's a very wide range of situations that students are navigating and students are really unique in that they all have different situations and different things that they value. So that's why one-on-one financial counseling is so important because we get the time to sit with you, learn more about you and then provide you guidance on your finances.

Matilyn Mortensen:
And then does your center offer any information or support with students who want to learn a little bit more about salary negotiation as they're going out into the job market?

Gabrielle McAllaster:
We have worked closely with U Career to host some workshops on salary negotiations and they have an amazing workshop where they really take the time to help you navigate a negotiation. We would more sit down with you and consider your options and walk you through different financial scenarios if you're comparing two jobs, what the benefits and the salaries look like. We would be able to help you with that, but we do work closely with U Career for salary negotiation.

Matilyn Mortensen:
That is so cool and that's so helpful. As I've been in the job market and looked at different things, it's been really interesting to think about, okay, if this base salary is higher, am I losing benefits I currently have and what do I care about more?

Gabrielle McAllaster:
Right.

Matilyn Mortensen:
So I'm just curious, from your perspective, is there a resource in the center that is maybe a favorite or maybe that you think is unexpected that you'd want to share with people?

Gabrielle McAllaster:
A great tip that we give to students is to open a high-yield savings account. Have you heard of a high-yield saving account?

Matilyn Mortensen:
Yes, I have one.

Gabrielle McAllaster:
Yay. Okay.

Matilyn Mortensen:
And I feel like it is just very nice and makes my life a little easier.

Gabrielle McAllaster:
Yes. Yeah. So a traditional savings accounts through big banks, they offer you a savings rate of .01%, which is not very much. And anytime you have a bank account with a bank, they are making money off of you as a customer. So that's with big banks, but there's now high-yield savings accounts which exist online. And because those accounts exist online, they can give you a higher percentage. Right now it's about 4%, so that's money that they are paying you just to save. And it's completely safe. The high-yield savings accounts that we recommend are FDIC insured. But if students are putting some money away for tuition, if they get some extra funding that they're saving for books and things like that, they can put it in their high-yield savings account and then they're able to earn some money off of those accounts by saving.

Matilyn Mortensen:
And those accounts are so nice because they're completely liquid, so you can use the money at any time unlike a CD. And I have noticed that because they're savings focused, that they often will let you do buckets and they'll let you divide deposits. And I have found that so visually helpful to know this money is for this thing. And so if you're saving for tuition, it's nice to be like, "This money is tuition and this money is this."

Gabrielle McAllaster:
Yes, exactly. Yeah. I love the buckets because instead of seeing like account 00529, you'll see this account is specifically for tuition. Or if you're saving for an upcoming trip, I know a lot of students save for their skiing pass, so you can label your account as skiing pass. And then you can also automate it so you can tell your bank account what percentage of your paycheck you want to go into each bucket. And that helps you just automate all of your savings. That way, you can categorize your money. So that's a really big, helpful tip for sure.

Matilyn Mortensen:
Thank you so much for sharing that. As we wrap up, I'm curious, is there anything you feel like we've missed or anything you want to make sure that we cover in this conversation?

Gabrielle McAllaster:
I will also share, we have credit counseling. So we work with credit.com and they will sit with you and review your credit score. A lot of our students have zero credit, so they haven't established credit before and that's a really useful tool that you can do while you're in school. That way, when you get a job and a new amazing apartment, your credit score is ready to go. So they will sit down with you and review your credit. And sometimes for students, they may need credit repair, so they can assist you with that as well. And again, you can make an appointment for credit counseling on our website.

It was so nice to talk with you today, Mattie and thank you for letting me share more about the Financial Wellness Center.

Matilyn Mortensen:
I'm so grateful for your time, Gabby and I will put these resources in the show notes so it's easy for students who want to access them to find them.

Gabrielle McAllaster:
Thank you.

Matilyn Mortensen:
Have a great day.

Gabrielle McAllaster:
You, too.

Matilyn Mortensen:
Thanks for listening to Making Utah. Subscribe wherever you get your podcast and stay connected with us on attheu.utah.edu.