Financial adaptability & resilience webinar

TAMRA C. CHAMPION: So once again, welcome, everybody to today's call. Our topic today is financial adaptability and resilience. And before I get into it too far, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Tamra. And I'm fortunate to be a goals coach with U.S. Bank. 
I have 25 years of experience in the financial services industry and much of it focused on serving employees and customers in the capacities of organizational change, management, and communications. And after I graduated with my professional coach certification from HIPEC in 2021, I later earned my accredited coach certification from the International Coaching Federation. And last year, I earned my health coaching certification through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and became a practitioner of neurolinguistic programming. 
The thing that I love most about my role is having the honor and privilege of serving individuals from all walks of life, regardless of their income level, their age, or their experience. And I'm continually evolving myself in terms of becoming more financially adaptable and resilient. But I think it's more of a journey than a destination. And I hope that you leave today's call with something that helps you in your own life. 
Now, because we're going to be focusing on financial adaptability and financial resistance, I wanted to just start by grounding us in the definitions of each. Now, adaptability is the ability to adjust to different conditions or circumstances. 
And Jessica Hagedorn, an American playwright writer and poet, once said, adaptability is the simple secret of survival. Resilience is the ability of a person to adjust to or recover readily from things like illness, adversity, major life changes, et cetera. And with regards to our financial lives, this describes how a person might bounce back from, say, a bankruptcy, a job loss, a divorce, or another type of devastating financial situation. Today, we're going to talk more in depth about adaptability and resilience and how you can apply this to your financial life now and in the future. 
But first, let's talk about why this topic is so important. There's some interesting research from the Financial Resilience Institute that shows that a household's financial resilience is based upon nine behavioral resilience and sentiment indicators. These include a liquid savings buffer, the level of financial stress over current and future financial obligations, social capital, confidence in the ability to meet short-term savings goals, a debt management composite indicator, a person's self-reported credit score, and other indicators outlined above. And these measurements indicate how financially resilient a person or household is. 
So let's look at the results from a June 2021 Canadian-based index. As you may have guessed, financial stress affects everyone a little bit differently depending on their unique situation. And this data that you see here from the Financial Resilience Institute shows us that almost half of the population surveyed regarded themselves as extremely vulnerable or financially vulnerable. 
You can make a six-figure income and still feel financially vulnerable. And while your financial resilience score can improve or deteriorate within even a few months, the good news is that as you adjust your behaviors, you can improve your resilience and your level of adaptability. And today, I'm going to share how so. 
First, let's review five steps that you can take to make yourself more financially adaptable. The first step is to activate your learning, set intentions, and develop positive learning habits. Change, uncertainty, and pressure can make learning difficult. And yet these challenging times are precisely when it is most important to adapt and grow. And the best ways to maximize our learning and our adaptability are to be intentional about what we want to learn and to develop positive and personal financial habits. 
And the second tip here is to strengthen your personal adaptability and resilience. Mindsets are the belief filters between you and reality. And they influence what you perceive, how you feel, and how you behave. And mindsets impact your ability to learn and, ultimately, the success and satisfaction that you'll experience. And as we develop an awareness of our mindsets and well-being, especially during challenging times, we increase our ability to make purposeful, more productive choices that help us thrive in difficult times and adapt to change. And your money and finances are no exception here. 
The third tip is to deepen your connection by paying attention to your routines and beliefs about money. Almost every client I have worked with as a goals coach has these beliefs and attitudes about money that connect to positive or negative experiences they've had, maybe since childhood. So become aware of your connection and work to strengthen your relationship with money by giving it more attention. How we interact with money every day matters to our financial well-being and helps us to make successful financial decisions. 
Tip number 4 here is to set smart goals, nurture a psychologically-safe environment to focus on what's important to you, and explore why it's important when you're setting financial goals be realistic, allowing yourself enough time to reach each goal, and ensuring that you have the resources to do so. And extend yourself grace if maybe you haven't achieved that goal in the past or another goal. And be aware that the past does not control the future when it comes to achieving your goals. 
And then the fifth tip here is to reinforce your goals with a clear purpose. Link your action steps or plans to your personal and financial purpose. Intrinsic motivation is one of the most powerful fuels on our life journey. And having a clear sense of personal and financial motivation helps us cut through the noise of the world and channel our energy towards what matters most, keeping this focused and grounded when things get challenging. 
Now, I want to talk about financial resilience. In May of 2020, Abigail McKnight and Mark Ritchie published results of their research, including households in 22 countries, focusing on household savings and debt relative to their income. And they described financial resilience as a term that relates to an individual's ability in coping with financial shock or recovering from financial difficulties. 
Now, individuals often face challenges in dealing with unexpected shocks, such as an illness, death of a family member, a job loss, or a natural disaster. And financial resilience is your ability to withstand those life events that may impact your income or assets. It's the longer-term approach to your relationship with money. 
If an unexpected expense were to arise, having the financial means to deal with it means you're financially resilient. One common example is losing a job and the steps that individuals might take to recover. Now, most people think of things like filing for unemployment, updating their resume, applying for new jobs, et cetera. And while asking for support can be difficult, for some people, every small positive step makes a difference. So to increase your personal capacity for resilience in that particular situation, you could use some strategies, such as building your connections, fostering wellness, finding purpose, maintaining a positive outlook, and asking for help. 
And now, let's talk about building financial resilience. The first step to building resilience is to have a financial plan. So to become financially resilient, you need to set goals to help you stay focused on what matters most. And to help you get started, you should answer questions like what do I want to achieve? And why is having a plan important to me? Why have I made previous financial decisions? What do I want to do differently in the future? 
These answers are the basis of your financial plan. And they help you to focus on that financial resiliency goal. And I highly recommend writing down your goals and the action steps that you're going to take to get you there. Also, ask for support and find an accountability partner. 
The second tip here is to build your emergency fund. If you don't have a financial buffer in place, you might not be able to manage surprise expenses. An emergency savings fund can help you recover from financial setbacks more quickly. 
And the standard advice is to have a financial shield of three months. If you were to lose your job unexpectedly or experience some other major impact, you should have enough money saved to cover three months of everyday expenses, such as rent or mortgage payments, food, insurance, and other necessary household bills, not to mention how much better you're going to sleep at night knowing that you're prepared for the unexpected. 
And then the third tip here is to understand where your money goes. Having this awareness is really key to taking control over your financial position. Now, some types of payments are fixed, like rent, food, and utilities. But other types of consumption can be regarded as extra or luxury expenses. And those are costs which you have a choice over. 
Now, I'm not saying you should never buy anything outside of these essential costs. In fact, I'm a big believer in joy-based spending. However, understanding where your money goes and knowing that you have the capability to change that is key to building financial resilience. And with many of my coaching clients, this step is where we start for them on the path to their financial goals. And in some cases, it's the first time that many of them have ever really examined their expenses. 
And then the fourth tip here is to reduce or eliminate your debt. Owning all of your assets outright provides you with more of a financial cushion and increases your security. So make a plan for which debts you want to pay off first. For example, you could start with the highest interest rate one first and then work backwards. And alternatively, you could start paying off the card with the lowest balance first so that you can quickly begin to see your progress. 
And step 5 here is to build up your knowledge. Personal finances can be daunting when you have little knowledge. And many of us aren't taught about emergency funds, investing, or even taxes in school, so navigating finance because finances can be unknown territory. Financial resilience requires a base of financial knowledge. And it's key to overall financial wellness. So build your confidence and challenge yourself to constantly learn about your own personal finances and ways that you can improve your financial knowledge. 
In summary here, resilience is key to financial well-being. Without resilience, we can easily fall back on unhealthy traits, like avoidance and helplessness. So resilience not only empowers us to accept, adapt, and move forward in difficult situations, but it's also that core strength that helps us see through our challenging financial situations. And you can improve your financial resilience little by little by taking advantage of some of the information that we're sharing today. 
Now, I want to quickly summarize seven of our most popular coaching tips for clients. Building your financial strength is necessary for your financial wellness journey. So start first with setting financial goals. Whether they are short-term or long-term, goals are a key building block to your financial future. 
Second, create a budget. A budget is a solid foundation to lean on when it comes to current and future spending. If you don't know what your expenses are and how they compare to your income, it's really difficult to make financial decisions. 
Third, and I'm sure you've heard this many times, pay yourself first. Be sure that you're investing some percentage of your income into savings and/or your future. We often recommend putting at least 20% towards savings and investments. 
And then our fourth tip is to grow your emergency fund. What amount of money for unexpected expenses gives you that sense of peace and security? The answer to that question is different for every person. But once you answer that question, you can start to make a plan for how and when you can put that savings away. And you can start small and build incrementally. 
Our fifth step is to invest early and often. See step number four. It's never too early or too late to plan for your future. And then our sixth tip is to eliminate debt. Debt can be a common stressor for most people. So to ensure that you can spend a portion of your income on the things that bring you joy, make a plan to get and/or stay debt free. 
And then my seventh tip is to track your credit score. Your credit score is a great indicator of your financial health. And a high score can help to ensure that you have your choice when it comes to lending and that you can get the best rates. So take good care of your credit. 
Now, U.S. Bank also offers some other resources to help you build your financial acumen. You can visit Financial IQ, which is a free resource available using the live link on this slide. So feel free to click on that link and save it to your computer. Financial IQ contains learning tracks on various topics from managing your money to savings and investing to budgeting to running a business. And the site will provide you with access to podcasts, articles, and interactive learning. 
And lastly, for some, the journey to financial strength may seem easy. But for others, you might want some additional help. And goals coaches are here to assist you along your journey. Let me share how. 
Whether your goals are personal, business, professional, or financial, our goals coaching is designed to help you approach your goals with clarity and confidence. And goals coaching is extended to you as a free benefit of U.S. Bank's partnership with your employer. We help to empower people to achieve what matters most to them through a combination of goal-setting, finding motivation, support, accountability, and a network of subject-matter experts that we can refer you to when and/or as needed. 
We do not sell products or services. So if you've had a goal for a while and you think that you could use some support, please go ahead and scan the QR code on screen or visit our website at www.usbank.com/coaching to book a session. You can book a 15-minute intro or a one-hour goals discovery session. 
Also, I want to let you know, in April, I'm going to be talking about couples and their finances-- the rule of three. This is a fun one. So I hope you can join me. And the link on the slide will take you to our events calendar if you'd like to attend. 
Now, for those of you who need to drop off the call, please do so at this time. And thank you again for joining me today. And now, I'm going to stop the recording. And I want to answer any questions that you have about our topic today or the goals coaching program. Give me just a moment to stop the recording here.