Build a Secure Financial Future with Duke's Financial Fitness Week
Human Resources hosts live webinars with experts Sept. 16-19, offering guidance for staff and faculty
Get Financially Fit
Financial Fitness Week is Sept. 16-19 and features 15 free webinars on budgeting retirement savings, social security and more.
“I’m proud of how far I’ve come with my investments and my discipline in the last 22 years,” said Johnson, 59.
Building a stable financial footing, for both the present and the future, requires making strategic decisions in a range of areas. Among the building blocks are a sound budget, reducing debt and saving consistently for your retirement.
Duke staff and faculty can learn strategies behind these topics and more during Financial Fitness Week from September 16-19. The annual event, which is organized by Duke Human Resources, features 15 no-charge live webinars with experts from Fidelity, Lincoln Financial Group, the Duke Credit Union, Social Security Administration, and more. On-demand versions and presentation slides from this year’s webinars will be available for staff and faculty who register.
“There is such a variety of topics you can learn about,” said Fidelity Workplace Financial Consultant Alan Collins, who meets with staff and faculty during complimentary one-on-one meetings. “I think everybody can get something useful from this.”
A survey from the National Institute on Retirement Security earlier this year shows that 55% of Americans are concerned they cannot achieve financial security in retirement. And, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, American workers are saving an average of 3.4% of their disposable income, which is down from 4.8% from a year ago.
To help chart your future, check out expert insights on some key blocks for building a strong financial foundation and discover how Financial Fitness Week can help you realize your dreams.
Budget Your Money
For North Carolina Orthopedic Clinic Physical Therapist Valerie Boyle, the biggest takeaway from her meeting with a Fidelity advisor not long after she joined the Duke workforce a decade ago was the help she got setting up a budget.
The approach Collins often recommends, and Boyle and her family adopted, begins with documenting household expenses and then adjusting them so 50% of household income covers essentials such as housing costs, groceries and bills, 15% goes to retirement savings and 5% is designated for emergency savings.
“It’s so important to have a budget to identify how much you can realistically save for your goals, whether it’s retirement or something else,” said Fidelity’s Collins.
For Boyle, 43, the budget process helped her figure out how to pay for childcare for two while paying students loans and a mortgage. She has stuck to a budget through the years.
“It helped us prioritize what was most important to focus on,” Boyle said.
To learn more, register for Managing My Money: Budget, Emergency Savings, and Debt Basics from 9-10 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 16.
Eliminate High-Interest Debt
In the second quarter of 2024, the total debt held by U.S. households reached $17.8 trillion. A 2023 estimate showed that American households had an average debt of $104,2015.
Paying down household debt – which can be in the form of mortgages, car loans, student loans and credit card debt – can be a daunting task. It’s one that Collins said should be a priority, albeit one that can be attacked strategically.
Collins said to focus on any debt with an interest rate of 6% or higher. Paying that down should be a higher priority than increasing retirement savings contributions. Fidelity advisors can help figure out ways to control debt, look at options like consolidation or student debt resources and help weave debt payments into your budget.
“It has to be a priority to pay high interest debt down,” Collins said. “Do that while you’re balancing saving for other goals as well, but certainly don’t look to increase how much you’re saving in other categories if you have high-interest debt. It should be a priority to get that off your plate.”
Save for the Emergency
Unexpected expenses such as car or home repairs or medical concerns can throw household finances into disarray, making emergency savings essential. Collins said a good goal is to build enough emergency savings to cover at least three to six months of essential expenses.
While it may take time, devoting 5% of your paycheck toward building emergency savings is an easy way to gradually build the financial cushion that can protect you when unexpected expenses arise.
Collins points out that building emergency savings, like paying off high-interest debt, should take priority over increasing your retirement savings contributions.
“If you get it to where it needs to be, it should be something you don’t necessarily touch,” Collins said about emergency savings. “But you don’t necessarily need to keep padding it either. Once you get enough saved, you can push some of that money toward another goal.”
Provide Financial Protection for Loved Ones
Saundra Daniels, Duke Human Resources Benefits Plan Manager, said that when taking stock of your financial situation, it’s crucial to factor in insurance coverage.
The Financial Fitness Week session, Life Insurance at Various Stages of Your Life and Career, at 1 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16, will explore options available for individuals and loved ones and what makes sense for people at different points in their journey.
“You don’t always know what can happen in life, so it’s important to be prepared,” Daniels said.
Duke offers a supplemental life insurance program, which can be a vital tool for maintaining financial security in the event of a tragic loss.
Financial Fitness Week is a perfect opportunity to ensure beneficiaries are up to date for the $10,000 basic life insurance benefit paid for by Duke, as well as for supplemental life insurance, which is voluntary and employee-paid coverage. Beneficiaries need to be updated for both plans individually.
Are You on Track?
Fidelity recommends that individuals aim to save at least 15% of their pre-tax income each year for retirement, which includes any employer match.
When Kellie Johnson began saving for her retirement after joining the Duke staff in 2002, she contributed 4% of her paycheck to Duke’s Staff and Faculty Retirement (403(b) Plan. For the past few years, as retirement nears, her contributions have met or exceeded the recommended savings target.
“Once I got the opportunity at Duke, I realized I needed to just face the anxiety and go ahead and start making a plan,” Johnson said.
Johnson worked closely with her Fidelity advisors, who helped her figure out how much to contribute and assess investment risks.
Fidelity recommends meeting with a Fidelity advisor annually to figure how much is needed to meet goals in retirement and to make any necessary adjustments.
All staff and faculty at Duke can meet with a Fidelity representative at no charge over the phone or through video conference.
“Once we sit down and talk, we can really customize it to see how much you’ll need to save,” Collins said. “When we know what we’d like for that goal to be in terms of future savings, we can figure out what we need to do to get there and then work around that.”
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