Kelli Green: 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Live Better Tips podcast, where we're here to guide you through the holiday season and beyond with advice that truly makes a difference, whether it's staying safe while shopping, keeping your budget in check or finding moments of joy and connection with loved ones. We've got you covered. Today, we're joined by our entire Centric Marketing team, where we'll explore how to spot holiday scams, share practical tips for smarter spending and dive into ways to keep your mental health a top priority during this bustling time of year. Plus, we'll take a moment to reflect on this year's achievements and what's in store for the future. Thanks so much for listening, all right.

Kelli Green: 0:39

Well, this is a little different, guys, for our podcast that we're doing this month and kind of wrapping up 2024. Normally you're joined by me, our host, kelly Green, but today we've got multiple people here in the room, not just a single guest, but three additional guests who are not really new to Centric or new to our marketing department, but they may be new to the podcast. So, just for our listeners, if y'all want to, whomever wants to go first maybe tell us who you are and what do you do here at the Great Union.

Kelli Gilliam: 1:10

I'm Kelly Gilliam. I'm the Centric Live Better Manager. We host free financial wellness shops for employers. I've been here for about 18 years.

Haleigh Murphy: 1:20

And my name's Haleigh Murphy.

Haleigh Murphy: 1:21

I am also in the Live Better Department. I'm the Live Better Ambassador. I work alongside Kelli. Like she said, we teach financial education and I've been here about seven years.

Joy Bowie: 1:31

And I'm Joy Bowie. I'm the digital media coordinator for Centric. I've been here a couple of months, but I've been in banking since '08, so I'm no stranger to banking, but I handle all things digital for Centric.

Kelli Green: 1:44

I love it.

Kelli Green: 1:45

Joy and I kind of have an interesting story. She and I have worked together in our previous role at another financial institution, back when community banking is very similar to the credit union world, but that was when we were kind of, I would say, earning our stripes there back in the day at a local financial institution but doing all things some levels of marketing, but more so from a digital standpoint, and just overall member experience. That was kind of our kind of our forte back then. So, as we were talking about, you know, this time of year can be a lot and it can be really high, high, high, highs, or low, low, low, lows, sickness, the whole nine yards.

Kelli Green: 2:25

A lot of us are kind of under the weather today, but I'm just grateful that we're all here and able to join each other. But some of the things I want to kind of take us through is talking about scams, and so I know maybe some of us have probably been privy, or really were privy, to a lot of things by working here at the credit union as far as different scams and so forth that happened to our members, that might even happen to you guys. Is something like that ever happened? And, if it, if so, like? How did you work through that?

Kelli Gilliam: 2:50

Oh yeah, just recently I purchased from an online vendor and I got a text from UPS saying they needed to verify my information for tracking. And I was like this isn't. Ups never sends this text, so you know, I just went ahead and deleted it because I knew that it was spam. But I know a lot of people were not used to those kind of texts and they may put in all that information. So you have to be careful, you have to know you know what's real, what's not.

Haleigh Murphy: 3:15

So I just recently had something very strange happen that was a scam.

Haleigh Murphy: 3:18

Um, I received a ring in the mail, like in a box with like the paperwork the whole nine, and it said it was a moissanite ring. And I called my husband. I was like I think I opened a Christmas present I wasn't supposed to open , and he's like that's not from me. And so I called my dad and I called my mom and nobody had sent it. So I was like, well, let me just Google it. And I looked at the paper and I Googled whatever, and it popped up immediately that it was a scam. And, sure enough, like the as I read about it, it said that it would have come with a QR code and when you scan that QR code it would have taken you somewhere and put a virus on your phone, basically, I guess, and so thankfully I didn't scan the QR code, but it was on that yep and uh, it was in a pretty red box. I was like, oh my goodness.

Kelli Green: 4:00

So sent me a ring yeah, it's like that, like another sweetheart scam, whatever you know, and you think about that Well, does it?

Haleigh Murphy: 4:06

make sense, because you're like trying to figure out who sent it to you. You're gonna like do whatever you can to figure it out.

Joy Bowie: 4:13

Right, you know, not recently, because I kind of learned from this experience, but the last time I moved I just, you know it's hectic, it's crazy so I just went, changed my address, so I thought it was at the US Postal Service website and I did the little verification, I did my little dollar thing, and then a couple of days later I started getting fraud alerts from my bank at that time and they were telling me hey, somebody's charging this, did you do this? Did you do that? And thank goodness you know they have that service Centric does too. That says, hey, was this you? Because it was a fake website that I'd gone to and I've been in banking a while and I fell for it. Like I didn't look and see, was I really at the postal services website or did I just click on some Google link that popped up?

Kelli Green: 5:01

Especially thinking of things like that. You know, and knowing that we are in the financial industry and we see and hear a lot of things, so we may be a little bit more aware and more cautious than most folks, right? I mean, we probably wouldn't be attuned to checking, you know, our transactions on online banking or paying any attention to text messages if we were not aware of the threats that do exist. And you know, something that we want to think about, too, is that we're doing a lot more online shopping this time of year, so anything you may see on social media you know we're not putting this on Facebook or Instagram or anything of that nature, but sometimes you know those. If it looks like it's too good to be true, nine times out of 10, it really is. And when you click on those URLs, it just takes you down a journey and they're capturing your computer information and whatever clicks you put in there. You know and you say yes to their terms of agreement. You know you never know what you're signing your life away for.

Kelli Green: 5:52

So, really, just the overall tips for that. If you're not expecting it, it's likely not true. Okay, the government's not giving away money. No, free money, no rings, nothing like that. No free money, no rings, nothing like that. And so just be cautious whenever you're, you know if you're receiving anything from a text message to a phone call, to a gift in the mail especially thinking of emails and so forth that you might receive. Just be very cautious of that. If you have any questions, or if somebody especially is reaching out to you, then they say they're from your financial institution. Call your financial institution directly. My recommendation is just to hang up and call them directly. No-transcript as a blessing as we go throughout this holiday season and throughout next year, so kind of thinking about avoiding the scams, you know, also knowing that when we're spending this extra money throughout the holidays, have you guys maybe taken on a different opinion of how are you budgeting, or so far?

Kelli Gilliam: 7:10

I set a rule this year. I was like my kids are getting four gifts and a stocking. I normally blow my goal. I normally think I need to do more, but actually I have stuck to that. They have four gifts under the tree. They're a little shocked. They're like I only have four gifts. Yes, you have four gifts and you'll have a stocking, but it's just kind of like putting it on paper and setting a goal in a dollar amount. Right Is what I've done so far. I think I'm going to stick to it.

Kelli Green: 7:39

I love it, though it's not necessarily about what's under the tree. I mean, we reflect as a kid. What were the things that you can really remember, like is it a toy you got, or was it an experience you know and there may be to be, like this one toy or this gift or what have you that you receive that you will remember because maybe it has sentimental value or it's really special because of the individual that gifted that to you. But more so, a lot of times, people and just us in general and thinking about our kids when we talk with them about it what was the most special experience or what is so special to them during the holiday season? And nine times out of 10, it's not the junk under the tree.

Haleigh Murphy: 8:21

You're right, you know 100%. So we actually um last year we decided that we would open a Christmas saver with Centric and we just sat, my husband and I sat down and we decided everybody that we were going to buy for and we wrote them down, like Kelly said, pen to paper and put a number by their name of how much we wanted to spend on that person and added that up and then divided that total over 12 months, and so we just had it set up to where that amount of money was transferred out of our check into our CineSaver. And so this Christmas will be the first Christmas that I've got all of my money that I need to be able to not overspend. Say this is what we're spending for each person.

Kelli Green: 8:56

And that's just being intentional. It's so intentional and tell us a little bit about how did you set up that account?

Haleigh Murphy: 9:01

So it was super easy. So I actually did it online with our app. So when you go on the app, you can just select that you're willing to open another account. It takes you directly to our website and so I opened it and they had it open for me and I signed everything through DocuSign within the same day. And then same thing with setting up our automatic deposit and just there's a form. With your direct deposit, you can fill out how much you want to transfer over into your account and you can fill it all out on the app. Sign everything through DocuSign Super, super easy. I love it.

Kelli Green: 9:31

That's fantastic. Joy, any budgeting tips you think that you want to share with us that you're maybe considering this year?

Joy Bowie: 9:37

As a mom of four, I always had to be very intentional about what I spend and I'm like Kelli, I tend to think it's not enough, you know. But I honestly and and I'm sure my kids have some favorites and I have a couple of favorites from growing up but I think, as far as the holidays go, what I really look back on myself and what I want them to look back on is experiences like you know, the time we spent together, the time we spent doing things for others and then just you know, like I really enjoyed I remember the holidays with my grandparents and who are no longer here, and and that sort of thing. So I really it's really, you know, the reason for the season is much more important to me. So I kind of have to take a step back and say, okay, let's scale this back, let's be realistic, because you know they have birthdays, they have other things.

Kelli Green: 10:26

So we're just gonna, you know I love it and it's the getting together and the time you spend with your kiddos. You know that's always say I try to save my PTO throughout the year and really just our time off to be with them, because you know you think 18 years, maybe, you know while they have their full attention, really, because you know we hold the paycheck right now. It's really wild I'm just kidding Sometimes it's true, but but really you know you think about what is it that you want your kids to remember? And a lot of it, too, is kind of reflection on what meant the most to us whenever we were coming up, and so I value that time that I have with my girls. Yes, of course I've tried to purchase and make a way for the things that they've asked for, but it's not without ensuring that we're intentional and understand the true reason of Christmas and also not that they're receiving. But what are they giving to others? And it doesn't have to be a gift. I mean it could be the gift of time, words. This is. Y'all may think this is cheesy, but I'm going to share this with y'all.

Kelli Green: 11:26

So a friend of mine who's like she's a grandmother really, but you know I'm an old soul, so my friends tend to be, you match me with their gray hair. Yeah, for those of you who are not watching, you don't know necessarily what we look like, but you're just listening. But one of the things that she was sharing with me, so she her husband, has passed on and she's been a widow for about 10 years, but here recently she's been dating a gentleman and something that she said you know she's like Kelly, you're never going to guess it. She's like. I went on chat, gpt, no joke. And she said I got it to write me 12 days of Christmas. So a poem for each 12 days of Christmas, for gifts that I'm gifting him for the 12 days of Christmas. And I was like, well, I don't have time to go and buy my husband gifts. So I'm like, what could I potentially do? So my husband's love language is words of affirmation. So potentially do so. My husband's love language is words of affirmation. So before I go to bed each night, I have.

Kelli Green: 12:18

I'm now going to be on my third Well and the the timeframe, you know that we're we're, you know producing this video right now, but, um, this podcast. But I'm on our third day of um of Christmas of writing him a note, and so he's been seeing them on his nightstand each night and he's like what I got another one I said I told you it's the 12 days of Christmas, like this is, you know, and so he's not a big gift person. Like I just got him to give me a couple of gifts, you know, sending me some links for gifts, like this weekend, and anyway, I just knew, with knowing you know those kind of things, so it's like all right and that really meant a lot to him. He's like, oh my gosh, this is really kind, it's really nice. You know, for those that may think that's a little cheesy, but nonetheless, my guy, my sweet little, she's 70 year old. For him, you know that she's like that's what I'm, you know, doing for him and of course he lives in in, you know, a few hours away from her, so she's sending those gifts to him. But it's like how intentional and kind. So thanks, nana, that's what we call.

Kelli Green: 13:16

Her is Nana, so if she's listening, I'll send appreciation her way, but nonetheless, so you know, it's not always about the gifts, but just like the things we do to be intentional, you know, for folks, and one of the things I love too that we do here at the credit union is understanding you know what are the things that we enjoy as individuals, you know, and knowing what are ways that we like to be celebrated or recognized for achievements or what are our favorite things, and so really recognizing people with those special things. I feel like that's more intentional than just like here's a gift card, appreciate the joy, but it's like from PJ's, which is her favorite coffee place. You know she might really love that. You know you don't gift anything to Kelly. You know Kelly's not your gift person, but Haley loves all the things. You know she's like you're pleased with whatever. So I love that and that's how you have a good mix of a great team.

Kelli Green: 14:06

And so kind of like the more softer or more sensitive side of things you know that we're talking about in the holiday season, because we've got the high highs and we may have some really low lows and those things are okay and I think just making folks aware and allowing us to give grace in order for us to receive, that too is really talking about mental health during the holidays and I don't want this to necessarily be something that we just talk about this time of year, but really every, you know anytime, something that we just talk about this time of year, but really every you know any time, because life in general has a way of just being stressful and so, while we know that the holidays are a joyful time, you know we really want to think about what are some maybe some hurts or some circumstances that might come to pass that cause folks to have some challenges throughout.

Kelli Green: 14:51

You know this time, so just anybody want some challenges throughout. You know this time, so just anybody want to share. Maybe you know some common stressors that people are facing, maybe during the season.

Kelli Gilliam: 15:01

I think a lot of people you know your schedule gets so full. You have work parties, you have friend parties, you have family parties, you have your own family, you know, at Christmas, and then, to top it off, it feels like everybody's getting sick at this time of year and so then it kind of, you know, pushes parties off, and I think, just everybody. I think you've got to manage your time and you've got to see what's important. You've got to manage your time and you've got to see what's important. You may not be able to go to this party or that party and you've just got to figure out how to make it work best for your family. So I feel like there's a lot of pressure at this time of year. Also, you know a lot of sports are in full swing. You've got basketball in full swing, you've got soccer. I think it's just a lot at one time, right a lot at one time.

Kelli Green: 15:48

Right In prioritizing rest. I think we have to have margin in our life and knowing when to rest. Right Are we being led to do something nice for someone? Are we being driven because, oh well, so-and-so is going to be there? Oh, we really need to do this because X, y, z. What's our intention?

Joy Bowie: 16:02

You know Right, and just knowing it's okay to say no, you know, I need to prioritize my rest right now and it's okay to say you don't have to do all of the things you know. So many people I know right now. You know, the unfortunate thing that comes with the middle age is that we have aging parents and grandparents and some of us are losing our parents and grandparents. So many people I know that have lost parents this year, so maybe they're experiencing their first Christmas or Thanksgiving without their parents. So really just being able to take the time to grieve and to just enjoy the little pieces of the holidays that they can to bring them joy is really important. I love it.

Kelli Green: 16:44

It's so true because you and we never know really and truly what people are going through. You know people paint the prettiest smile on their face. You know you never know what that may be, that may be hiding behind. And so if you see somebody and you love their outfit or you think something's really nice about them, say it. You know, if you've got a friend that maybe you haven't talked to in a while, shoot them a text, write a note, hammer it.

Kelli Green: 17:07

Notes are some of the things that I have loved my entire life to receive, and it's something that it would take just a second for us just to check in on somebody. You don't have to add a gift to your list, but maybe the greatest gift of all would just be of acknowledgement. Hey, I haven't talked to you in a while, just checking in on you. Hey, I'm praying for you. You know, I know the season might be a little challenging for you. Maybe they've recently lost his spouse, or they're going through a divorce, or maybe they have illness in their family. You just don't know.

Kelli Green: 17:39

And just being sensitive to those things I think is really important. And Joy, you made a comment too. And Kelly, talking about the stress and making time, you know, just to be to say no to things. But you know, it's really important, I think, for us to set boundaries and to truly prioritize self-care during this busy time, and I don't mean that's like isolation from everybody, right, there are some times where that's okay, like some people are fueled by that when you take a minute by yourself but don't stay in that forever.

Kelli Green: 18:10

You know, and again, you know, I want to make sure that that we say this, that we are not medical or mental health professionals.

Kelli Green: 18:17

We are just speaking, as you know, full-time working parents that have experienced life and some of the things you know, that that we know, maybe we have been, we've experienced ourselves and just things to safeguard. But I would just definitely say those that you know when you're getting ready to set boundaries, like saying the no to all these different things that you've been asked to do, and feeling safe in that those that don't necessarily agree with you saying no, you maybe need to understand where they're coming from and that's okay that they don't understand, because you know who you are, you know what it is that you need and just really be true, you know to yourself in that. So also, one of the things is just kind of we're wrapping up today, just talking about reflecting on 2024. I can't even believe we're saying that right now, but what are some things that you feel like you know that you really achieve in 2024 and you're excited for? Just want to celebrate.

Kelli Gilliam: 19:13

I believe, in the Live Better Department, we have had a very exciting year. You know, I'm trying to also. You know, as we're closing 2024, I'm looking at 2025 and I'm like I don't know how 2025 is going to be able to compare to 2024. We were actually able to add over 16 new partners this year, so that's a really large number. Um, so I'm just, I'm just hoping that, you know, we have that same excitement in 2025. Keep the momentum going. We were able to, uh, host 159 workshops and that is is free for employees, for their partners. It's so cool. It's going to be.

Kelli Gilliam: 19:53

I just hope that next year we're able to make the same positive impact as we had this year. We're always looking forward to adding new partners. You know we're looking forward to just adding that positive, free benefit to these employers as we're kind of looking at 2025, you know, in wrapping up 2024, you know, just kind of look at where you've been in 2024. You know, we all the saying is you live and learn. So you know, what was your mistakes financially in 2024? How can you do better in 2025? And that's what we're here for. We're here to help, you know, set a plan, make a budget. You know, host a free financial wellness check for your employees. You know, doing that is this. You can set up steps for them. You can actually help them. Do you want to add?

Haleigh Murphy: 20:38

anything, yeah, so that's one of the my most favorite things that Centric offers is the free financial wellness check.

Haleigh Murphy: 20:43

I feel like it's so good and I feel like people don't even recognize like what it is that we're offering.

Haleigh Murphy: 20:49

So we will provide a full budget and credit report review for you, and you don't necessarily have to be a member, you don't have to be a community partner.

Haleigh Murphy: 20:59

This is something that Centric provides just because we see the benefit of you knowing what you've got shaken down and so, and what's so unique about this is you know, we can give you all of the information and tell you how to increase your credit, right, but until you look at it and you say, okay, well, here's my credit report, this is where I've been, these are the things that I have, this is maybe charged off, what do I need to do? And so having that and being like and having a, an expert to tell you, okay, well, let's just not, let's not mess with this one, let's focus here, what are your goals? And having all of that knowledge, and then we can provide you here's you three action steps. You do these three action steps and we'll help you reach whatever goal. That is, and that is completely free Right, and so I think that is just really my favorite thing that we offer, and that's what Kelly's kind of talking about. We've been able to provide that to all of these employers.

Kelli Gilliam: 21:51

And sometimes it may be a short-term goal. It may be a long-term goal you may be looking at hey, I'd like to save up a certain amount of money in this many months. Or hey, our family would like to buy a home in the next year.

Joy Bowie: 22:11

Well, we can actually, you know get with our mortgage department and set you up an appointment and they can set you steps to be able to buy that home right um, and you'll be prepared. I love it. It's really priceless because so many people don't know like they. They ignore it because they don't. They don't know enough about it, they don't know the steps to take, they don't know that like and it's scary, right like you don't know the right steps to take.

Joy Bowie: 22:28

It's like well, you know right, turn the blind eye to kind of thing comes to sit down with an expert in a non-judgmental way that's gonna say, I'm going to help you, like, this is how I can help you and these are the steps you take to be able to reach that goal. It's just, I mean, it's phenomenal. I know I'm blown away by that whole Program.

Kelli Gilliam: 22:47

I mean We've. You know, everybody's going to tell you that sits down. Everybody's been in your shoes.

Joy Bowie: 22:52

Right.

Kelli Gilliam: 22:52

We all started somewhere, we've all been somewhere, we're all going to end somewhere. So, like you know, you know, bring in a stronger financial future for you and your family.

Kelli Green: 23:05

That's what it's all about, genuinely Well, as we're wrapping up the 2024 year, we've got a lot of fun things that are going to be popping off in 2025, lots of change, and so, really looking forward to that, we have what we're referring to as our journey to better, which is providing a brand new banking experience for our members, and we're very excited about that. It's going to be really neat, something unlike our members have probably ever seen and really experienced before, so we're really looking forward to it. Well, thank you all so much for joining us for the Live Better podcast. As always, we hope that you will like, subscribe and share our information with those that you know. As always, keep us in mind as your financial provider for all things living better. Please make sure that you like and subscribe and follow us on social media, mycentric and also CentricFCU. Keep in mind that Centric is federally insured by the NCUA.