Kevin Sutton shares financial wellness tips

[00:00:00] >> Hey there, Hokies! My name's Kevin Sutton. I'm the assistant director of financial wellness on the Hokie Wellness team and I'm here today to share a couple tips on managing your finances during covid-19. The most important thing I want to stress is that you want to check in with yourself and self reflect. [00:00:16] "Why am I spending money the way that I am?" You might realize you're spending money for reasons beyond the actual product itself. For example, you might be ordering more delivery now because you do not feel safe going to the grocery store or you don't want to take the time to go to the grocery store and cook your food. [00:00:32] So thinking through, "Am I spending money on this delivery because I really like the food from that restaurant or is this meeting a different need for me?" That is vital in understanding, taking more ownership of your finances. What you can do then is track your expenses for a one week period of time. [00:00:47] This can help you get a hold on where your money is currently going and then the next step is to make a budget moving forward. This would be identifying your income or whatever resources you currently have so what is that emergency fund you've had before or how much you have access to now. [00:01:02] Listing out all those different expenses and then you can see how long you can maintain that ideal lifestyle, the ideal of those expenses that you've listed, the lifestyle that you want to live. You can look in the future and say, "Wow, I can live for 5 months if I spend money in this way" or if you can say, "Wow, I can live for one month spending money this way." That informs what you need to do moving forward. [00:01:27] Your personal finances are personal. What works for you might not work for other people and what's worked for other people may not work for you. It's really important that you self reflect and make the decision that is best for you.