September 25, 2023 • 42 mins
- This week Shanna Briggs, Regional Manager for the Alzheimer's Association, talks about the upcoming Walk to End Alzheimer's. The Walk is Saturday, October 7th at the Event Centre. Also on the show Cindi LaChance with First Financial Bank discusses options to help you cut down on your credit card debt.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hey, everybody, it's your board. Gary Lavox of Rascal Flats Beaumont.
I made a lot of friends thereon the road. And what are my
friends that you need to meet,especially if you're selling your home. Is
Dana Simmons of Dana Simmons Realty.Her team is the real deal, top
shelf, next level, and shemakes it so easy, and I like
easy, and remember, sell youa home now, God hesitated Simmons Realistate.
(00:30):
Well, hello, Southeast Texas.We're so glad you joined us today.
We have an exciting show and wecan't wait to share it with you.
We have Shannah Briggs who is goingto talk about the Walk for Alzheimer's
and ways that you can get involvedin that, and that's coming up on
October seventh. We also have Cindyla Chance with First Financial Bank, and
she's going to talk a little bitabout how can we help with some of
(00:53):
that credit card debt. You know, with inflation happening right now and interest
rates going up a bit, it'simpacting the interest rate that you're paying on
credit cards. I've been talking toclients and to friends who are struggling with
that. So one of the thingswe wanted to do today would be to
give you some solution, some options, some ways that maybe we can help
(01:15):
you minimize that monthly payment and getthat debt paid off sooner rather than later.
So we're going to talk about allof that in our next couple of
segments, but before we get startedwith that, I wanted to give you
a snapshot of what's going on inthe market. So we've seen a little
bit of a slowdown over the lasttwelve months since interest rates started inching up
(01:36):
a bit. You know, we'vetalked about on this show for many,
many months now that the time wehad the interest rates at about three percent
was historically low. It had notbeen that low in years and years,
and actually over the last thirty years, if you average the interest rate,
(01:57):
your average would be verse seven percent. It was about seven point seven seven
percent, So we're in that rangebetween seven and eight percent. So our
average interest rate is where we areright now. We're at about seven percent.
So while some people are thinking,man, that's high, well,
it is average. It's higher thanwhere we've been, but it's not as
(02:20):
high as where we've been in thepast, in the eighties. So we're
thankful that we've not gone beyond wherewe are, but of course we always
appreciate the little bit of a lowerinterest rate. When we talk about how
that impacts the market, I'll tellyou homes in the first time home buyer
price point are still selling pretty quickly. We've talked about on here that the
(02:43):
interest rate you're paying on a propertyif you're renting is really one hundred percent
because nothing is going towards your equity. You're paying someone else's equity. So
if you are in a rental,if you're in a rental home or an
apartment and you'd like to visit withsomebody about what you could get for a
home in your price point, we'dlove to visit with you. Our office
(03:06):
is open right now four zero nineeight six six eight three two six,
and Paula is ready to answer yourcall and be able to assist you and
set up an appointment to talk youthrough that process. You know it may
not be the right time for you, there may be some things you have
to work through, but we wantto help to guide you through that process
and see what it is that youneed. While we talk about interest rates
(03:29):
going up, we talk about thefact that it also increases the rate on
those credit cards. So if youare experiencing challenges in that segment of your
life, we'd love to be ableto assist you and work with you in
options that you can do to helpto get some of that paid off or
(03:50):
just consolidated. So we want youto listen here. In the next few
segments, we're going to talk throughhow you can do that. But first
let's go ahead and talk to ShannonBriggs and let her tell you just a
little bit about herself. Now,Shannah, we were talking beforehand. You're
wearing purple, and we've talked aboutyou've worn purple most of your life,
(04:11):
so talk a little bit about that. Well. First, I want to
thank you so much for having meon the show today. I really appreciate
your invitation and look forward to theexperience. But yes, purple is a
big part of my life. Igrew up in Port Nature's, Texas home
with the reservation and the Indians,and so purple was really big growing up.
(04:34):
And then of course then I wentoff to college, went to SFA.
I'm a lumberjack. I'm a lumberjackacts some jacks, and so adorned
purple there. And then now Iwork for the Alzheimer's Association, and our
colors are purple and white. Yeah, so I just can't get away from
it. You should see my closet. I have a very healthy section of
(04:56):
purple and lavender. So it's yourcolor. So it looks great, don
you. So I'm glad that's that'spart of your your wardrobe. Now,
tell me a little bit about yourfamily. Yeah, you guys have lived
here and raised your your family hereas well. Yeah. So again,
I grew up in Port HS.My husband did as well. We both
graduated from P and G. I'ma class of ninety three and he's a
(05:18):
class of ninety and you know,we were you know, I had a
really good childhood, you know,great opportunities given to us. And went
to college and you know, Ilived in Houston for probably seven years out
of college and worked in the gasand chemical industries. And then I met
(05:38):
my husband, and so we didn'treally know each other growing up, but
then after after high school, aftercollege is when we met. And so
funny you went to high school togetherand didn't really know it. We well,
he was a little bit older thanme, and really his dad was
my high school principal and his motherwas my journalism teacher. So I say
that I fell in love with himfirst, and then you know, we
(06:01):
dated while I was in Houston,he was here, and I moved back
and we've been married for it'll betwenty years in March, and congratulation,
thank you, thank you. Sowe've lived in Beaumont for twenty years and
we have two beautiful daughters, oneseventeen and one it's fifteen, and we
(06:21):
got one's a senior. One's yearfor you, Big year, Big year.
We're about, you know, tolet one go, but we're excited
about what's ahead of her. Andwe love this this community, you know,
Southeast Texas is where we grew upand we love it and it's just
a great place for us raising ourkids. Well, I absolutely love when
(06:45):
I hear on this show people whoare lifelong residents, some of them just
like you, moved away for ashort time and then came back. But
what I love more is the givingback and the heart to not only just
work here, but to make adifference here. And the job in the
career you have now makes a hugedifference. And we're going to talk a
little bit about what that difference ishere in our next segment. But I
(07:10):
love the way our people here giveback and decide to give back into the
community to help those that are aroundus. It's not just taking, it's
being a part of something bigger thanyourself. It's a lot of a lot
of big hearts here and I absolutelylove, love, love that. Well,
we're going to talk more with Shannahhere in just a little bit,
but before we do that, Iwant to hear from Cindy la Chance,
(07:32):
who's with First Financial Bank. AndCindy again, you've lived here a very
long time. I have. I'velived here a long time. Birthday yesterday,
I mean yeah yesterday, had abirthday yesterday, Thank you, thank
you. I raised my three childrenhere. They all graduated from LCM,
which I did too many years ago, but so I grew up Green and
(07:55):
Gold and but have lived here along time. Have actually at First Financial
for thirty eight years or the bankproceeding that, and we became First Financial.
And as we were talking about earlier, I could not have asked for
a better place to work. Wewere talking about the people that work there
(08:15):
and how wonderful they are at hiringbecause it's just been a pleasure to go
there for thirty eight years. Yeah, and obviously if you've been there thirty
eight years or something there that keepsyou there. And so yeah, and
your grandkids are here, which isanother great blessing for you get to hang
out with them. Yes, Ihave six grandkids and my oldest is actually
(08:39):
living at A and M right nowcollege station. He should be graduating this
year, but then he'll be headinginto nursing school. And I have one
that is went to Sam Houston,but he has decided to move back to
Orange and he's working. And thenthe rest of them are all in high
(09:01):
school or elementary, so I'll havethem all ages. That's so fun.
Well, you know me, ifwe're hanging out with other grandparents, I'm
talking about my grands So it's theit's the greatest gift in life. I'll
tell you that. Well, whenwe come back, we're going to talk
to Shannah about what is going onwith the Alzheimer's Association and what are some
(09:22):
ways that you can also get involvedwith that. So you're not gonna want
to go away. Stay with this. This is Dana Simmons with the Dana
Simmons Show. Would you need tosell your home. No one makes it
easier than Dana Simmons of Danas SimmonsReally sell your home on God hesitated to
Simmons Realestate. Welcome back. Thisis Dana Simmons and I am joined today
(09:48):
by Shannon Briggs, who is goingto talk to us about the Walk to
End Alzheimer's and we're going to talkabout the other opportunities that people can have
to be able to contribute to afundraiser that you guys are having. But
before we want to do that,Shannah, you just recently, not too
long ago, worked with our team. We did, we did. We
(10:09):
had a great experience, sold ahouse, sold our house, and Katie
Martin was our agent, and wehad a really really good experience from start
to finish, from taking pictures tostaging it to having a few showings,
and I mean sold it quickly,sold it quickly, like in two weeks.
Yeah. So well, I'm soglad. We appreciate the opportunity to
(10:31):
work with you, and it wassomething I wanted to just say thank you
to you as well for allowing usto do that. But let's talk a
little bit about your position, talkabout what it is that you do for
the Alzhemer's Association here in Beaumont.Well, I am the regional manager of
this area, so I am apart of the Houston Chapter. We service
(10:56):
from College Station to Galveston, EastTexas and down here in Southeast Texas.
So for me, I have aheart for Alzheimer's as well. My grandmother.
When I was young, I wasthe oldest of five children, and
my mom, who I believe isa saint for all that she did,
(11:18):
had my grandmother and my grandfather livedwith us. My grandmother had Alzheimer's and
Parkinson's and my grandfather had Leu Garrig'sdisease. So we had a little,
small, three bedroom, two bathhouse, and my dad added on a
bedroom and a bath and a littlesitting area for them, and they moved
in with us. I was aboutthirteen or fourteen, and my youngest sister
(11:41):
was probably really I think she wouldhave been like five or six. So
five kids plus my grandparents, andI watched my mom care for my grandmother.
There were challenges that came up thatwere heartbreaking. I remember one night
my mom went to go get wecalled her Mama went to go get Mema.
(12:05):
She was very French and bring herto get ready for bed. And
so mom said, okay, mamma, let's go get ready and she said,
oh man, no, shat,Harold's still here. And my mom
was like, well, yeah,Harold's still here. He's going to go
to bed too. Oh no,he has to go home. And so
(12:28):
in her mind they were still datingor they were not married. So my
papa had to get up, andat first he was chuckling as he walked
out of the room, and thenof course it became you know, just
sad that she but at least sherecognized him, because then there were moments
that she wouldn't recognize us. Andso it is such a painful disease to
(12:52):
watch someone go through. And thereis a lot of support and things that
you guys can offer for assistance.For I know, my mom didn't have
any idea about So for me,I love being able to have you on
today to talk about what it isthat you guys do and how you service
(13:13):
families who were actually going through thisand you actually have a personal experience that
kind of led you to this aswell, right, right, So we
talked about me moving back to Beaumontand after I was married found out that
my mother was diagnosed at the ageof fifty six with a very rare form
(13:33):
of dementia called cortico basil gangliotic degeneration, which have the same symptoms of Alzheimer's
and Parkinson's at the same time,and we just talked about that might be
actually what my grandmother had and wejust didn't know it. They called it
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, so I'm probablythat it's probably the same thing. Yeah,
(13:54):
So, you know, I wasjust starting off. Actually, my
parents didn't even tell us for twoyears of her diagnosis because I was having
my kids and my brother he livedin Katie with his wife and they were
just starting their family and they justdidn't want to burden us. And you
know, I think a lot ofparents do that. They want to protect
their children and not you know,interfere with what they're going on. But
(14:18):
you know, my dad was awonderful caregiver. He cared for her for
seven years. You know, mostof them were at home until I could
see that the stress level was sohigh on him and they needed more help
and it becomes dangerous to arry,you know. And that was what we
(14:39):
saw, is that it came toa point that it was a danger to
my grandmother, right right. Imean it's hard on caregivers. They are
it's twenty four seven job, there'sno breaks. You really need to take
care of yourself or you're something that'sgoing to happen. So we recognized that
(15:00):
and actually put my mother in ascillaving facility for the last year and a
half of her life. And whatI wanted to talk about is that we
do have a caregiver support group herein Beaumont that meets the second Thursday of
each month at Saint Anne Church fromsix to seven in the evening, and
it's just a great opportunity for thosewho are in the thick of everything that
(15:28):
they can come for an hour andjust kind of vent and talk with others
who are going through the same thing. We have a train facilitator that manages
the meetings and gives a lot ofhelp information. Yeah, and that is
such a need too, because whenyou're the one doing all of that,
sometimes you just need to talk someof it through, just like any challenge
(15:50):
that you're going through. So,so what you guys are doing with the
walk and also we're going to talkabout the fundraiser tonight, tell me what
you're raising these funds to accomplish.Right, So, our Walk to in
Alzheimer's is Saturday, October seventh atthe Event Center. Our walk event starts
(16:10):
at eight o'clock. Then we havea very moving what we call Promise Garden
ceremony that starts around eight forty fiveand then our walk is starts at nine.
And it's just a great way thateverybody who's affected by this disease can
show up and be apart and knowthat everyone there is supporting you. And
(16:33):
we have, you know, volunteeropportunities for kids at Lamar, the high
schools, churches, they can comeout and help us set up and tear
down. We have these beautiful penwellflowers that everybody carries at the walk,
and each color represents a different groupof people. So if you're carrying a
purple flower, you have lost somebodyto Alzheimer's or dementia. If you're carrying
(16:57):
a yellow flower, you are acaregiver. If you're carrying an orange flower,
you're supporting the cause. And thena blue flowers if you have Alzheimer's
or dementia. And everybody holds theseflowers, these pinvill flowers up in the
air as they walk and it's reallya beautiful sight to see, so wonderful.
(17:17):
Well, you do have that comingup, and if someone wanted to
register, talk a little bit abouthow they could do that. Okay,
So registration is very easy. Weask you go online to a website called
act dot ALZ dot O r gslash Beaumont and you just follow the steps
(17:41):
and it's free to register a team. If you raise one hundred dollars,
you will receive a walk t shirtin the mail. And of course there's
different incentives along the way as youfundraise, but we ask, you know,
we want everybody to do what youcan to help us raise funds.
All this money is going toward oureducational programs that we have in our community,
(18:06):
our care and support group, andof course research. We want to
find a cure and you know we'removing in the right direction right now.
There's two treatment plans that are availablefor people if they're in the early stages,
so we encourage people to go getdiagnosed. Right Well, now that
brings up a question, how dopeople go get diagnosed? What is that
(18:27):
process they need to see? They'reeither the primary care physician or a neurologist,
and you know, just bring upyour concerns. You know. I
always tell people to have a journaland write things down that they might be
seen with a loved one that's justsomething just isn't right, you know,
(18:48):
someone that might be a little bitmore agitated, you know, or they're
not sleeping, or you know they'reof course forgetting things or repeating themselves.
You know, write that down andtake it with you when you go to
the doctor. Yeah. Well,and one of the other things that you
guys have going on is actually tonight, So if someone wanted to come out
to the log On tonight, youguys also have another fundraiser going on.
(19:12):
Talk a little bit about that,right So it's called our Live Music Benefit,
and it's Saturday tonight at seven pmat log On Cafe. They are
located at thirty eight oh five CalderAvenue, and we have three special bands
that will be performing live. Ithink their names are very unique. We've
(19:33):
got Squirrels in the Attic, theJack Wagons, and the Hey Dudes.
So they these bands are just comingtogether to help us bring awareness to our
community and also raise some money forsome teams, so our chairs for our
walk, our angel San Juan andChristina Crawford and Christina came up with this
(19:55):
idea. Her husband is in theband Squirrels in the Attic and they want
to do something to raise money forher team. So this is what we're
doing tonight. I love it sucha fun way. So if you don't
have any plans tonight and you wantto help give back, you can head
on over to the log On atseven o'clock. Now, if you don't
know where the log on and it'sright there by Ellis Pottery between that and
(20:18):
the twenty third Street, which iswhere CBS is, so right between there
you can head on over there andhave yourself a little snack and enjoy some
terrific music. So we're gonna comeback here in just a bit, but
before we do, I want togive you the telephone number four here at
KOBI eight nine six five five eightfour. If you have any questions or
(20:41):
want to just visit about anything anythingthat Shanna said, give us a call.
We're happy to answer those again eightnine six five five eight four,
and we'll visit some more about whatthe Alzheimer's Association is doing here locally in
the Beaumont chapter. So don't goaway. This is Dana Simmons with the
Dana Simmons Show. Would you needto sell your home? No one makes
(21:03):
it easier than Dana Simmons of DanasSimmons Really Sell your Home. God Hesitated,
Dan Simmons Realist, Welcome back.This is Dana Simmons and I am
joined today by Shannon Brigg. Sheis the is IT Executive director of the
(21:25):
Alzheimers Association here locally in the Beaumontarea, and we've been talking about some
of the ways that if you wantedto participate and give back and help work
on getting some real changes and medicalI'm losing my words, just to make
(21:47):
sure that Alzheimer's isn't something that peoplehave to face anymore to try to be
able to make changes to what wehow we can care for them. And
so I know that they've made greatstrides in that, but there's still a
lot of work to do. Thereis, there is, and that's why
we are talking about it in thecommunity, just to bring more awareness to
(22:07):
everyone so that they know that thereare resources out here and they're not alone.
And one thing is we do havea care and support line that is
available twenty four seven on holidays,on the weekends, you can call them
and get information the numbers eight hundredtwo seven two three nine zero zero.
(22:33):
You can get information for a lovedone that lives out of state, you
know, like you need to knowif there is an assistant living facility and
where your parents live, and youneed to know the names and numbers,
and they can get that information foryou and you'll talk to a live person.
They offer it in different languages,so that's a really good resource.
(22:56):
And of course our website alz dotorg has a lot of information on various
topics that they can look up.So if you want to support, help
support this organization. We've been talkingabout the walk that's going to happen October
seventh, and that's going to bedown at the event center and registration starts
(23:17):
at eight. And then you saidthat the eight forty five talk about that
again. It's our promised garden ceremony. So we go through a really moving
ceremony. Will we have a representativeof the colors of our flowers up on
stage and just given in like acouple of sentences of why they are involved
and how it's touched their lives andAngel San Juan's our MC. He does
(23:40):
a really good job of getting thecrowd involved, and we'll warm up the
crowd. And actually there's two routesfor the walk. One is a one
mile and one's a three mile,so you get to choose how far you
want to go. And we area stroller friendly, dog friendly walk,
so we want your dogs to comeout. We'll have branded little bandanas for
(24:00):
them to wear, and hopefully wecan have a really nice sunshiny day.
Yeah, that would be awesome.So again, that's October seventh at the
event center. And then tonight youtalked about the fundraiser at the log On
Cafe beginning at seven o'clock. There'llbe some bands there you can go enjoy
the evening and some great music.And then we also have a something a
(24:26):
luncheon in the spring. Talk alittle bit about that. It's called our
Family Portrait Luncheon. This is ourtwelfth year and it is a great,
you know, way to come outfor an hour and here a good speaker
this year. Our speaker, hername is Sarah Allison. She's from Houston.
(24:47):
Her mother actually just sadly passed awayabout a month ago from early onset
Alzheimer's, and Sarah wrote a children'sbook about how to explain it to your
kids about losing a grandparent, andit's called The Memory Makers. And so
we'll have the book available for everyonewho attends and if they if anybody wants
(25:07):
to purchase a table, or sponsorshipor individual ticket, they can call our
office which is four O nine eighteight three three one six one three,
and we will also we'll be honoringdoctor Jimie Taylor and his wife Stacy,
so they have a personal connection withthe cause and have been really good supporters
(25:30):
of the Alzheimer's Association. So that'sgoing to be March twenty first, And
is there a location for that lunch. It will be at Ella Gante Hotel
okay in the ballroom, okay.And if someone wants to buy a table,
buy a ticket, become a sponsor, they can call you guys at
eight three three one six one three. Right. Well, it has been
(25:52):
such a pleasure, Shannah to haveyou here and to talk about exactly what
it is that the Alzhemers Association doeshere and to share your personal connection as
well, because I know it ispainful and it's hard, but when you
go through something like that, touse it for good and to help others
make such an impact. So thankyou for doing that. Thank you for
being willing to give back to thosewho are struggling with the same thing.
(26:15):
When we come back, we're goingto visit with Cindy La Chance and we're
going to talk about another challenge thatsome people face, and that's credit card
debt. You know, both dealingwith a family member with alzhemmers and credit
card debt can both impact you personally, and so we want to talk about
how can we help you in managingthat as well. So don't go away.
This is Dana Simmons with the DanaSimmons Show. Would you need to
(26:38):
sell your home? No one makesit easier than Dana Simmons of Dana Simmons,
Really sell your home. God hesitatedSimmons, cust welcome back. This
is Dana Simmons and we have beenvisiting with Shannah Briggs with the Alzheimer's Association,
(26:59):
and you was sharing with us aboutsome of the upcoming fundraisers they have
their walk to in Alzheimer's October seventhat the Event Center at eight o'clock.
They also have a fundraiser tonight atthe log On Cafe at seven o'clock,
so if you want to hear somegood music and have a nice evening,
you could head out there. Andthen coming up March twenty first, they
have their family Portrait luncheon in thespring at the Ellegante, So if you're
(27:23):
interested in participating in any of those, you can give them a call at
eight three three one six one three, or you can reach out to my
office and we'll get that information overto you. Joining me now is Cindy
La Chance with First Financial Bank,and so, Cindy, I had called
you and said, hey, youknow, I've seen some friends posting on
(27:45):
Facebook. I've heard some conversations aboutpeople who are really struggling right now with
this inflation. They've seen their pricesof everything go up, but with the
interest rate rising, it's also impactingtheir credit card debt and there are a
lot of people who are having ahard time paying that monthly note with higher
(28:11):
credit card interest rate. So talka little bit about what you're seeing on
your end with some of those whoyou've worked with and what they've been paying
on credit card debt absolutely, Danta. It's a crisis within itself that affects
the financial situation of a family,which then affects the health of the family.
(28:33):
Basically in the dynamics. I havequestions all the time from customers that
say, you know, it's it'sjust becoming a burden to pay everything.
Is there anything we can do toreduce our monthly debt. I'm so glad
someone's asking you the question because somany people don't know. They don't they
(28:56):
just don't know that there are options. And their credit cards are at nineteen
twenty twenty one percent interest, andthat is pushing them to a point of
a crisis, just like you said, So talk to me about how you're
able to kind of walk them throughoptions. Sure, and that is true,
and a lot of them, youknow, some of their debt is
(29:18):
fixed, like their mortgage or theiryou know, their auto, and it's
just been a shock that even thoughmaybe they didn't even charge anything additional on
the credit card, that the paymentsincreased because the rate has gone up.
So in visiting with them, wehave some options that we can help them
with. One is if they haveequity in the home that they own and
(29:45):
have paid on it for a while, we can actually offer them a home
equity loan, and there's options withinthat. You know, when they can
do is they can take their theirmortgage and the credit card cards they have,
And I was looking at one wherethe value of the home was about
three hundred and fifty thousand. TheTexas home equity laws allow you to take
(30:11):
to borrow eighty percent of that valueif you're taking some sort of cash out
to pay something off home improvements.So looking at that, it the eighty
percent they could have leans up totwo hundred and eighty thousand. Well currently
it was one hundred and seventy thousanddollars leaned out there for their mortgage,
(30:32):
but they had all these additional debtwith credit card. It was like three
credit cards, and putting those paymentstogether was you know, close to twenty
nine thousand dollars with a payment ofcombined of seven hundred and thirty So it
was difficult for them to pay themortgage. Plus that, you know,
(30:52):
we could put that together and spreadit out over a term which actually is
going to pay off those credit cardsand a lot less time than they would
ever pay them off just individually.And that is something I don't know if
people grasp, is that if you'remaking that minimum payment on the credit card,
(31:14):
it's going to take thirty years topay that debt off. And at
nineteen and twenty and sometimes I've evenseen twenty five percent interest. So that
is a give an example of whatis that? How does that payment change
for them monthly? Do you havethose numbers? I do in this situation,
they were going to be able tosave five hundred and twenty three dollars
(31:37):
a month. Yeah, And thebig thing is just one of those credit
cards, the payoff it didn't evengive you an actual term. It just
said greater than thirty years. Thatwas one of the cards. But the
average of those cards or two hundredand seventy three months, Yeah, to
pay off this would be paid offin two forty so if I mean,
(31:57):
I'm sorry, it would be paidoff in one hundred and eighty months.
So if you if you look atthat, you're cutting the term down on
those You may be increasing the termon your mortgage, but you're just your
total debt is going to be paidoff much quicker, and the total I
mean interest paid is going to befar less. Yes, and in most
(32:20):
cases that would be true. Ifyou do have a higher loan amount on
the mortgage, the total interest throughthe life maybe a little more. But
if you're in that situation where you'vegot to get that monthly payment down,
sometimes that's not as important. However, if you do have a low interest
rate and you do not want toinclude that mortgage because you got it during
(32:44):
the time period when the rates werelow, we can actually do a second
line and you could borrow you know, just what you needed to pay off
any debt, not just the creditcards, but installment debt if it would
help you consolidate that in this situation. Uh, you know, we could
save this person three or four hundreddollars just off of their credit card debt,
(33:07):
but they would pay it off inten years or you know where they're
looking at not ever paying it off. It's just it's going to be out
there forever when you pay that minimumpayment. And you know, one of
the things that I think is superhelpful is you guys are willing to sit
down and put the numbers together ifthey just bring you everything and so here's
(33:30):
where we are. What can youdo? Yes, because we actually have
a program we can enter all yourdebt in it. We can enter your
credit card debt, your installment debt, and give you options. You know,
what's what's your reasoning for wanting todo this? Is it to cut
your monthly payment down? Is itto cut your term down on what you
(33:52):
pay? We can go through varioussituations with you so you can determine what's
best for you. But the bigthing we're seeing right now is what do
we do about these high credit cardpayments we have? Yeah, and so
for me, I think the benefitis that it gives them options. So
(34:13):
they come in. You're not tryingto sell them anything. You're just saying,
let's look and see and if it'shelpful for you and we can do
this, Here's how much it's goingto save you. Here's the time period.
I mean, just give them allthe data right there. If you
keep paying what you're paying on yourcredit card, this is how long it's
going to take you to pay itoff. Right if you cansolidate this debt
and this amount, this is whatyou're going to pay monthly, and this
(34:36):
is how long it's going to takeyou to pay it off. And if
it makes sense, then do itand I just don't know that people understand
that they can do that, thatthere is that option to be able to
get that debt paid down. Right, I don't either, because I don't
think people really understand credit cards fromthe very beginning, right as we talked
about earlier. You send your childoff to college, what's the first thing
(35:00):
their mailbox is full of credit card? Application? Get a free T shirt,
apply for this credit card. Yes, they show up at colleges to
offer that, and they don't know. It's not something that's taught at home.
It's not taught in the school.You know, there are some parents
that are savvy enough that they domaybe lead their children in the right direction.
(35:23):
But for the most part, Ihave seen through the years and doing
mortgage loans, people come in andthey say, well, all that debt
came from when I was in college. I didn't realize it was going to
affect me this much later in life. And it does, and it just
follows you around. It absolutely does. But it doesn't have to stay there.
(35:45):
You know, we do have optionsof helping you get some of that
paid off, whether it's you know, including your mortgage with that or leaving
your mortgage alone. At the lowerrate and just taking the credit cards then
combining those. Yeah, so that'swhat I really love is that there are
lots of different options. And I'llbe honest. One of the options,
(36:07):
if someone says, you know,really I want out of debt, one
of the options is if you haveenough equity in your house to have enough
to put a down payment on anotherhouse and then pay for your credit card
debt, maybe you do have todownsize, Maybe you can't live in that
house that you've been living in,Maybe you need to move to a smaller
(36:29):
property. You know, there areoptions to look at, whether it's selling
is the right option for you toget you out of that debt, or
if just consolidating is the right optionfor you. And so for me,
the challenge came when I kept hearingthese things from people, and it's heart
breaking. Whenever you're looking at someonewho they're not sleeping, they are in
(36:52):
huge distress. They don't know howthey're going to make it, and they
don't know that there are options tohelp them that can get them to a
lower monthly note and a lower interestrate. The benefit to this is that
it does help you to get itdone. The challenges you can't go back
into the credit card debt. Absolutely, that's the key. And so I
(37:14):
think that's the key is while thiscan be a help, it's breaking that
that chain of always wanting to usethat plastic. It's it's the society we're
in that we want to have whatwe want when we want it, and
we want it now, yes,and so we'll get it now and then
we'll pay later. And you know, credit cards are good for some things,
you know, it just like anythingin this world. It can be
(37:37):
used for good, but then itcan also get you in a heap of
trouble. Yes, it can.They're not designed to live off months months,
yeah, you know. And sometimesthe more credit card debt you get,
that's what happens. You end upliving off credit cards. Yeah,
and then it just continues to grow. So the way that you guys have
(38:00):
it, how would someone reach outto you to say, Okay, I
just want to sit down and talkto someone about my options. How would
they begin that process? I knowthat First Financial Bank has banks all across
Southeast Texas, So where would theybegin? They could call us at the
bank. They can call four Onine eight eight three three five six three,
(38:22):
which is going to put them intoa call center. They can let
them know what area they're in andthey can lead them to the right person
here locally. They can call fourO nine to two one six one four
three. That's going to bring themright into my office. Yeah, and
(38:42):
some of those home equity loans Iwould handle, and some we would do
through our in house department, whichwe have a wonderful in house lender,
Lonnie White, and she works withthis program all the time in putting the
debt, determining what's best for thecustomer. And so it's an awesome opportunity
to do that well. And we'vetalked earlier about the fact that you've been
(39:07):
with First Financial Bank for thirty eightyears and that one of the reasons is
because of the quality of the peoplethere. And one of the things that
I know personally because I've worked andwith almost all of them, is that
they do have a heart that caresand they want to be able to give
them options on what's going to betheir best course of action. And never
(39:30):
are they going to rush or sayno, this isn't a fit for you.
What I love about when I've workedwith First Financial is they may say
well, we can't do this,but let's work to do something else and
give you options on what you cando in order to be able to give
you what you need to accomplish thegoals that you have. And every single
(39:51):
one of the local banks has someonethere who can assist. It's a matter
of getting you to the right personat that bank. And Lonnie White is
in the Orange office and then Melvanais in the Beaumont and the Beaumont location
and so those are just two.Yeah, we also have Josie Nimmits Mid
County, Upon County. Yeah,so if that's something that you know you
(40:13):
want, you can pop into theOrange office or call and make an appointment
to sit down and visit with Lonnieor in Mid County Josie or in Beaumont
Melvana. You're also welcome to callmy office at four O nine eight six
six eight three two six and ouroffice can assist you and guide you in
the right direction. We have allthose numbers as well. So anything else
(40:35):
that you have, Cindy, thatyou wanted to make sure that you shared
on this topic of trying to helppeople get out of that credit card debt,
I think mainly Dana is just thatwe understand it. We know how
it happened, and most of ushave been there, yes, and most
have to be embarrassed about. Andwe're not going to tell you what you
have to do. You know,that's that's not how we work. We
(41:00):
want to give you every option andlet you select, Yeah, what best
fits you know, your lifestyle,your family, whether it's a lower payment
or you know, whatever you're lookingfor. We want to give you those
options. And I think that youwill find anyone that you work with is
that's what they're going to look for. Well, I really appreciate you being
(41:22):
here and going through some of thosenumbers with us. And that's the thing
that I want people to understand isthey can sit down and go through all
of those numbers with you. Specifically, they can go and take every piece
of your debt and give you allof the options. So if that's something
you're interested in, don't hesitate toreach out to them. Thank you Sindy
so much for being here today andbeing able to talk through that so that
(41:44):
those who don't know that there areoptions can understand that there is something that
can help them and they don't haveto live with that murden and trying to
deal with it themselves. Also wantedto thank Shannah Briggs for being here to
talk about the Alzheimer's Association and theirwalk that is going to happen October seventh
at the Event Center. Also tonight, don't forget you can head on over
(42:06):
to the log On Cafe. They'reright by Ellis Pottery and they're going to
have a fundraiser where there's going tobe several bands playing and I think Andy
Hemmings is one of those that's goingto be playing there, so you're not
gonna want to miss that. Andthen there's spring Luncheon the Family Portrait on
March twenty one at the La Lagante, So if you're interested in any of
(42:27):
those, don't hesitate to give usa call. I'm Dana Simmons. I
appreciate you listening today. Have agreat Saturday. US Talk five sixty KLVI
full Mont. Listen on your freeiHeart Radio app for all your music radio app podcasts
Hey, everybody, it's your board. Gary Lavox of Rascal Flats Beaumont.
I made a lot of friends thereon the road. And what are my
friends that you need to meet,especially if you're selling your home. Is
Dana Simmons of Dana Simmons Realty.Her team is the real deal, top
shelf, next level, and shemakes it so easy, and I like
easy, and remember, sell youa home now, God hesitated Simmons Realistate.
(00:30):
Well, hello, Southeast Texas.We're so glad you joined us today.
We have an exciting show and wecan't wait to share it with you.
We have Shannah Briggs who is goingto talk about the Walk for Alzheimer's
and ways that you can get involvedin that, and that's coming up on
October seventh. We also have Cindyla Chance with First Financial Bank, and
she's going to talk a little bitabout how can we help with some of
(00:53):
that credit card debt. You know, with inflation happening right now and interest
rates going up a bit, it'simpacting the interest rate that you're paying on
credit cards. I've been talking toclients and to friends who are struggling with
that. So one of the thingswe wanted to do today would be to
give you some solution, some options, some ways that maybe we can help
(01:15):
you minimize that monthly payment and getthat debt paid off sooner rather than later.
So we're going to talk about allof that in our next couple of
segments, but before we get startedwith that, I wanted to give you
a snapshot of what's going on inthe market. So we've seen a little
bit of a slowdown over the lasttwelve months since interest rates started inching up
(01:36):
a bit. You know, we'vetalked about on this show for many,
many months now that the time wehad the interest rates at about three percent
was historically low. It had notbeen that low in years and years,
and actually over the last thirty years, if you average the interest rate,
(01:57):
your average would be verse seven percent. It was about seven point seven seven
percent, So we're in that rangebetween seven and eight percent. So our
average interest rate is where we areright now. We're at about seven percent.
So while some people are thinking,man, that's high, well,
it is average. It's higher thanwhere we've been, but it's not as
(02:20):
high as where we've been in thepast, in the eighties. So we're
thankful that we've not gone beyond wherewe are, but of course we always
appreciate the little bit of a lowerinterest rate. When we talk about how
that impacts the market, I'll tellyou homes in the first time home buyer
price point are still selling pretty quickly. We've talked about on here that the
(02:43):
interest rate you're paying on a propertyif you're renting is really one hundred percent
because nothing is going towards your equity. You're paying someone else's equity. So
if you are in a rental,if you're in a rental home or an
apartment and you'd like to visit withsomebody about what you could get for a
home in your price point, we'dlove to visit with you. Our office
(03:06):
is open right now four zero nineeight six six eight three two six,
and Paula is ready to answer yourcall and be able to assist you and
set up an appointment to talk youthrough that process. You know it may
not be the right time for you, there may be some things you have
to work through, but we wantto help to guide you through that process
and see what it is that youneed. While we talk about interest rates
(03:29):
going up, we talk about thefact that it also increases the rate on
those credit cards. So if youare experiencing challenges in that segment of your
life, we'd love to be ableto assist you and work with you in
options that you can do to helpto get some of that paid off or
(03:50):
just consolidated. So we want youto listen here. In the next few
segments, we're going to talk throughhow you can do that. But first
let's go ahead and talk to ShannonBriggs and let her tell you just a
little bit about herself. Now,Shannah, we were talking beforehand. You're
wearing purple, and we've talked aboutyou've worn purple most of your life,
(04:11):
so talk a little bit about that. Well. First, I want to
thank you so much for having meon the show today. I really appreciate
your invitation and look forward to theexperience. But yes, purple is a
big part of my life. Igrew up in Port Nature's, Texas home
with the reservation and the Indians,and so purple was really big growing up.
(04:34):
And then of course then I wentoff to college, went to SFA.
I'm a lumberjack. I'm a lumberjackacts some jacks, and so adorned
purple there. And then now Iwork for the Alzheimer's Association, and our
colors are purple and white. Yeah, so I just can't get away from
it. You should see my closet. I have a very healthy section of
(04:56):
purple and lavender. So it's yourcolor. So it looks great, don
you. So I'm glad that's that'spart of your your wardrobe. Now,
tell me a little bit about yourfamily. Yeah, you guys have lived
here and raised your your family hereas well. Yeah. So again,
I grew up in Port HS.My husband did as well. We both
graduated from P and G. I'ma class of ninety three and he's a
(05:18):
class of ninety and you know,we were you know, I had a
really good childhood, you know,great opportunities given to us. And went
to college and you know, Ilived in Houston for probably seven years out
of college and worked in the gasand chemical industries. And then I met
(05:38):
my husband, and so we didn'treally know each other growing up, but
then after after high school, aftercollege is when we met. And so
funny you went to high school togetherand didn't really know it. We well,
he was a little bit older thanme, and really his dad was
my high school principal and his motherwas my journalism teacher. So I say
that I fell in love with himfirst, and then you know, we
(06:01):
dated while I was in Houston,he was here, and I moved back
and we've been married for it'll betwenty years in March, and congratulation,
thank you, thank you. Sowe've lived in Beaumont for twenty years and
we have two beautiful daughters, oneseventeen and one it's fifteen, and we
(06:21):
got one's a senior. One's yearfor you, Big year, Big year.
We're about, you know, tolet one go, but we're excited
about what's ahead of her. Andwe love this this community, you know,
Southeast Texas is where we grew upand we love it and it's just
a great place for us raising ourkids. Well, I absolutely love when
(06:45):
I hear on this show people whoare lifelong residents, some of them just
like you, moved away for ashort time and then came back. But
what I love more is the givingback and the heart to not only just
work here, but to make adifference here. And the job in the
career you have now makes a hugedifference. And we're going to talk a
little bit about what that difference ishere in our next segment. But I
(07:10):
love the way our people here giveback and decide to give back into the
community to help those that are aroundus. It's not just taking, it's
being a part of something bigger thanyourself. It's a lot of a lot
of big hearts here and I absolutelylove, love, love that. Well,
we're going to talk more with Shannahhere in just a little bit,
but before we do that, Iwant to hear from Cindy la Chance,
(07:32):
who's with First Financial Bank. AndCindy again, you've lived here a very
long time. I have. I'velived here a long time. Birthday yesterday,
I mean yeah yesterday, had abirthday yesterday, Thank you, thank
you. I raised my three childrenhere. They all graduated from LCM,
which I did too many years ago, but so I grew up Green and
(07:55):
Gold and but have lived here along time. Have actually at First Financial
for thirty eight years or the bankproceeding that, and we became First Financial.
And as we were talking about earlier, I could not have asked for
a better place to work. Wewere talking about the people that work there
(08:15):
and how wonderful they are at hiringbecause it's just been a pleasure to go
there for thirty eight years. Yeah, and obviously if you've been there thirty
eight years or something there that keepsyou there. And so yeah, and
your grandkids are here, which isanother great blessing for you get to hang
out with them. Yes, Ihave six grandkids and my oldest is actually
(08:39):
living at A and M right nowcollege station. He should be graduating this
year, but then he'll be headinginto nursing school. And I have one
that is went to Sam Houston,but he has decided to move back to
Orange and he's working. And thenthe rest of them are all in high
(09:01):
school or elementary, so I'll havethem all ages. That's so fun.
Well, you know me, ifwe're hanging out with other grandparents, I'm
talking about my grands So it's theit's the greatest gift in life. I'll
tell you that. Well, whenwe come back, we're going to talk
to Shannah about what is going onwith the Alzheimer's Association and what are some
(09:22):
ways that you can also get involvedwith that. So you're not gonna want
to go away. Stay with this. This is Dana Simmons with the Dana
Simmons Show. Would you need tosell your home. No one makes it
easier than Dana Simmons of Danas SimmonsReally sell your home on God hesitated to
Simmons Realestate. Welcome back. Thisis Dana Simmons and I am joined today
(09:48):
by Shannon Briggs, who is goingto talk to us about the Walk to
End Alzheimer's and we're going to talkabout the other opportunities that people can have
to be able to contribute to afundraiser that you guys are having. But
before we want to do that,Shannah, you just recently, not too
long ago, worked with our team. We did, we did. We
(10:09):
had a great experience, sold ahouse, sold our house, and Katie
Martin was our agent, and wehad a really really good experience from start
to finish, from taking pictures tostaging it to having a few showings,
and I mean sold it quickly,sold it quickly, like in two weeks.
Yeah. So well, I'm soglad. We appreciate the opportunity to
(10:31):
work with you, and it wassomething I wanted to just say thank you
to you as well for allowing usto do that. But let's talk a
little bit about your position, talkabout what it is that you do for
the Alzhemer's Association here in Beaumont.Well, I am the regional manager of
this area, so I am apart of the Houston Chapter. We service
(10:56):
from College Station to Galveston, EastTexas and down here in Southeast Texas.
So for me, I have aheart for Alzheimer's as well. My grandmother.
When I was young, I wasthe oldest of five children, and
my mom, who I believe isa saint for all that she did,
(11:18):
had my grandmother and my grandfather livedwith us. My grandmother had Alzheimer's and
Parkinson's and my grandfather had Leu Garrig'sdisease. So we had a little,
small, three bedroom, two bathhouse, and my dad added on a
bedroom and a bath and a littlesitting area for them, and they moved
in with us. I was aboutthirteen or fourteen, and my youngest sister
(11:41):
was probably really I think she wouldhave been like five or six. So
five kids plus my grandparents, andI watched my mom care for my grandmother.
There were challenges that came up thatwere heartbreaking. I remember one night
my mom went to go get wecalled her Mama went to go get Mema.
(12:05):
She was very French and bring herto get ready for bed. And
so mom said, okay, mamma, let's go get ready and she said,
oh man, no, shat,Harold's still here. And my mom
was like, well, yeah,Harold's still here. He's going to go
to bed too. Oh no,he has to go home. And so
(12:28):
in her mind they were still datingor they were not married. So my
papa had to get up, andat first he was chuckling as he walked
out of the room, and thenof course it became you know, just
sad that she but at least sherecognized him, because then there were moments
that she wouldn't recognize us. Andso it is such a painful disease to
(12:52):
watch someone go through. And thereis a lot of support and things that
you guys can offer for assistance.For I know, my mom didn't have
any idea about So for me,I love being able to have you on
today to talk about what it isthat you guys do and how you service
(13:13):
families who were actually going through thisand you actually have a personal experience that
kind of led you to this aswell, right, right, So we
talked about me moving back to Beaumontand after I was married found out that
my mother was diagnosed at the ageof fifty six with a very rare form
(13:33):
of dementia called cortico basil gangliotic degeneration, which have the same symptoms of Alzheimer's
and Parkinson's at the same time,and we just talked about that might be
actually what my grandmother had and wejust didn't know it. They called it
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, so I'm probablythat it's probably the same thing. Yeah,
(13:54):
So, you know, I wasjust starting off. Actually, my
parents didn't even tell us for twoyears of her diagnosis because I was having
my kids and my brother he livedin Katie with his wife and they were
just starting their family and they justdidn't want to burden us. And you
know, I think a lot ofparents do that. They want to protect
their children and not you know,interfere with what they're going on. But
(14:18):
you know, my dad was awonderful caregiver. He cared for her for
seven years. You know, mostof them were at home until I could
see that the stress level was sohigh on him and they needed more help
and it becomes dangerous to arry,you know. And that was what we
(14:39):
saw, is that it came toa point that it was a danger to
my grandmother, right right. Imean it's hard on caregivers. They are
it's twenty four seven job, there'sno breaks. You really need to take
care of yourself or you're something that'sgoing to happen. So we recognized that
(15:00):
and actually put my mother in ascillaving facility for the last year and a
half of her life. And whatI wanted to talk about is that we
do have a caregiver support group herein Beaumont that meets the second Thursday of
each month at Saint Anne Church fromsix to seven in the evening, and
it's just a great opportunity for thosewho are in the thick of everything that
(15:28):
they can come for an hour andjust kind of vent and talk with others
who are going through the same thing. We have a train facilitator that manages
the meetings and gives a lot ofhelp information. Yeah, and that is
such a need too, because whenyou're the one doing all of that,
sometimes you just need to talk someof it through, just like any challenge
(15:50):
that you're going through. So,so what you guys are doing with the
walk and also we're going to talkabout the fundraiser tonight, tell me what
you're raising these funds to accomplish.Right, So, our Walk to in
Alzheimer's is Saturday, October seventh atthe Event Center. Our walk event starts
(16:10):
at eight o'clock. Then we havea very moving what we call Promise Garden
ceremony that starts around eight forty fiveand then our walk is starts at nine.
And it's just a great way thateverybody who's affected by this disease can
show up and be apart and knowthat everyone there is supporting you. And
(16:33):
we have, you know, volunteeropportunities for kids at Lamar, the high
schools, churches, they can comeout and help us set up and tear
down. We have these beautiful penwellflowers that everybody carries at the walk,
and each color represents a different groupof people. So if you're carrying a
purple flower, you have lost somebodyto Alzheimer's or dementia. If you're carrying
(16:57):
a yellow flower, you are acaregiver. If you're carrying an orange flower,
you're supporting the cause. And thena blue flowers if you have Alzheimer's
or dementia. And everybody holds theseflowers, these pinvill flowers up in the
air as they walk and it's reallya beautiful sight to see, so wonderful.
(17:17):
Well, you do have that comingup, and if someone wanted to
register, talk a little bit abouthow they could do that. Okay,
So registration is very easy. Weask you go online to a website called
act dot ALZ dot O r gslash Beaumont and you just follow the steps
(17:41):
and it's free to register a team. If you raise one hundred dollars,
you will receive a walk t shirtin the mail. And of course there's
different incentives along the way as youfundraise, but we ask, you know,
we want everybody to do what youcan to help us raise funds.
All this money is going toward oureducational programs that we have in our community,
(18:06):
our care and support group, andof course research. We want to
find a cure and you know we'removing in the right direction right now.
There's two treatment plans that are availablefor people if they're in the early stages,
so we encourage people to go getdiagnosed. Right Well, now that
brings up a question, how dopeople go get diagnosed? What is that
(18:27):
process they need to see? They'reeither the primary care physician or a neurologist,
and you know, just bring upyour concerns. You know. I
always tell people to have a journaland write things down that they might be
seen with a loved one that's justsomething just isn't right, you know,
(18:48):
someone that might be a little bitmore agitated, you know, or they're
not sleeping, or you know they'reof course forgetting things or repeating themselves.
You know, write that down andtake it with you when you go to
the doctor. Yeah. Well,and one of the other things that you
guys have going on is actually tonight, So if someone wanted to come out
to the log On tonight, youguys also have another fundraiser going on.
(19:12):
Talk a little bit about that,right So it's called our Live Music Benefit,
and it's Saturday tonight at seven pmat log On Cafe. They are
located at thirty eight oh five CalderAvenue, and we have three special bands
that will be performing live. Ithink their names are very unique. We've
(19:33):
got Squirrels in the Attic, theJack Wagons, and the Hey Dudes.
So they these bands are just comingtogether to help us bring awareness to our
community and also raise some money forsome teams, so our chairs for our
walk, our angel San Juan andChristina Crawford and Christina came up with this
(19:55):
idea. Her husband is in theband Squirrels in the Attic and they want
to do something to raise money forher team. So this is what we're
doing tonight. I love it sucha fun way. So if you don't
have any plans tonight and you wantto help give back, you can head
on over to the log On atseven o'clock. Now, if you don't
know where the log on and it'sright there by Ellis Pottery between that and
(20:18):
the twenty third Street, which iswhere CBS is, so right between there
you can head on over there andhave yourself a little snack and enjoy some
terrific music. So we're gonna comeback here in just a bit, but
before we do, I want togive you the telephone number four here at
KOBI eight nine six five five eightfour. If you have any questions or
(20:41):
want to just visit about anything anythingthat Shanna said, give us a call.
We're happy to answer those again eightnine six five five eight four,
and we'll visit some more about whatthe Alzheimer's Association is doing here locally in
the Beaumont chapter. So don't goaway. This is Dana Simmons with the
Dana Simmons Show. Would you needto sell your home? No one makes
(21:03):
it easier than Dana Simmons of DanasSimmons Really Sell your Home. God Hesitated,
Dan Simmons Realist, Welcome back.This is Dana Simmons and I am
joined today by Shannon Brigg. Sheis the is IT Executive director of the
(21:25):
Alzheimers Association here locally in the Beaumontarea, and we've been talking about some
of the ways that if you wantedto participate and give back and help work
on getting some real changes and medicalI'm losing my words, just to make
(21:47):
sure that Alzheimer's isn't something that peoplehave to face anymore to try to be
able to make changes to what wehow we can care for them. And
so I know that they've made greatstrides in that, but there's still a
lot of work to do. Thereis, there is, and that's why
we are talking about it in thecommunity, just to bring more awareness to
(22:07):
everyone so that they know that thereare resources out here and they're not alone.
And one thing is we do havea care and support line that is
available twenty four seven on holidays,on the weekends, you can call them
and get information the numbers eight hundredtwo seven two three nine zero zero.
(22:33):
You can get information for a lovedone that lives out of state, you
know, like you need to knowif there is an assistant living facility and
where your parents live, and youneed to know the names and numbers,
and they can get that information foryou and you'll talk to a live person.
They offer it in different languages,so that's a really good resource.
(22:56):
And of course our website alz dotorg has a lot of information on various
topics that they can look up.So if you want to support, help
support this organization. We've been talkingabout the walk that's going to happen October
seventh, and that's going to bedown at the event center and registration starts
(23:17):
at eight. And then you saidthat the eight forty five talk about that
again. It's our promised garden ceremony. So we go through a really moving
ceremony. Will we have a representativeof the colors of our flowers up on
stage and just given in like acouple of sentences of why they are involved
and how it's touched their lives andAngel San Juan's our MC. He does
(23:40):
a really good job of getting thecrowd involved, and we'll warm up the
crowd. And actually there's two routesfor the walk. One is a one
mile and one's a three mile,so you get to choose how far you
want to go. And we area stroller friendly, dog friendly walk,
so we want your dogs to comeout. We'll have branded little bandanas for
(24:00):
them to wear, and hopefully wecan have a really nice sunshiny day.
Yeah, that would be awesome.So again, that's October seventh at the
event center. And then tonight youtalked about the fundraiser at the log On
Cafe beginning at seven o'clock. There'llbe some bands there you can go enjoy
the evening and some great music.And then we also have a something a
(24:26):
luncheon in the spring. Talk alittle bit about that. It's called our
Family Portrait Luncheon. This is ourtwelfth year and it is a great,
you know, way to come outfor an hour and here a good speaker
this year. Our speaker, hername is Sarah Allison. She's from Houston.
(24:47):
Her mother actually just sadly passed awayabout a month ago from early onset
Alzheimer's, and Sarah wrote a children'sbook about how to explain it to your
kids about losing a grandparent, andit's called The Memory Makers. And so
we'll have the book available for everyonewho attends and if they if anybody wants
(25:07):
to purchase a table, or sponsorshipor individual ticket, they can call our
office which is four O nine eighteight three three one six one three,
and we will also we'll be honoringdoctor Jimie Taylor and his wife Stacy,
so they have a personal connection withthe cause and have been really good supporters
(25:30):
of the Alzheimer's Association. So that'sgoing to be March twenty first, And
is there a location for that lunch. It will be at Ella Gante Hotel
okay in the ballroom, okay.And if someone wants to buy a table,
buy a ticket, become a sponsor, they can call you guys at
eight three three one six one three. Right. Well, it has been
(25:52):
such a pleasure, Shannah to haveyou here and to talk about exactly what
it is that the Alzhemers Association doeshere and to share your personal connection as
well, because I know it ispainful and it's hard, but when you
go through something like that, touse it for good and to help others
make such an impact. So thankyou for doing that. Thank you for
being willing to give back to thosewho are struggling with the same thing.
(26:15):
When we come back, we're goingto visit with Cindy La Chance and we're
going to talk about another challenge thatsome people face, and that's credit card
debt. You know, both dealingwith a family member with alzhemmers and credit
card debt can both impact you personally, and so we want to talk about
how can we help you in managingthat as well. So don't go away.
This is Dana Simmons with the DanaSimmons Show. Would you need to
(26:38):
sell your home? No one makesit easier than Dana Simmons of Dana Simmons,
Really sell your home. God hesitatedSimmons, cust welcome back. This
is Dana Simmons and we have beenvisiting with Shannah Briggs with the Alzheimer's Association,
(26:59):
and you was sharing with us aboutsome of the upcoming fundraisers they have
their walk to in Alzheimer's October seventhat the Event Center at eight o'clock.
They also have a fundraiser tonight atthe log On Cafe at seven o'clock,
so if you want to hear somegood music and have a nice evening,
you could head out there. Andthen coming up March twenty first, they
have their family Portrait luncheon in thespring at the Ellegante, So if you're
(27:23):
interested in participating in any of those, you can give them a call at
eight three three one six one three, or you can reach out to my
office and we'll get that information overto you. Joining me now is Cindy
La Chance with First Financial Bank,and so, Cindy, I had called
you and said, hey, youknow, I've seen some friends posting on
(27:45):
Facebook. I've heard some conversations aboutpeople who are really struggling right now with
this inflation. They've seen their pricesof everything go up, but with the
interest rate rising, it's also impactingtheir credit card debt and there are a
lot of people who are having ahard time paying that monthly note with higher
(28:11):
credit card interest rate. So talka little bit about what you're seeing on
your end with some of those whoyou've worked with and what they've been paying
on credit card debt absolutely, Danta. It's a crisis within itself that affects
the financial situation of a family,which then affects the health of the family.
(28:33):
Basically in the dynamics. I havequestions all the time from customers that
say, you know, it's it'sjust becoming a burden to pay everything.
Is there anything we can do toreduce our monthly debt. I'm so glad
someone's asking you the question because somany people don't know. They don't they
(28:56):
just don't know that there are options. And their credit cards are at nineteen
twenty twenty one percent interest, andthat is pushing them to a point of
a crisis, just like you said, So talk to me about how you're
able to kind of walk them throughoptions. Sure, and that is true,
and a lot of them, youknow, some of their debt is
(29:18):
fixed, like their mortgage or theiryou know, their auto, and it's
just been a shock that even thoughmaybe they didn't even charge anything additional on
the credit card, that the paymentsincreased because the rate has gone up.
So in visiting with them, wehave some options that we can help them
with. One is if they haveequity in the home that they own and
(29:45):
have paid on it for a while, we can actually offer them a home
equity loan, and there's options withinthat. You know, when they can
do is they can take their theirmortgage and the credit card cards they have,
And I was looking at one wherethe value of the home was about
three hundred and fifty thousand. TheTexas home equity laws allow you to take
(30:11):
to borrow eighty percent of that valueif you're taking some sort of cash out
to pay something off home improvements.So looking at that, it the eighty
percent they could have leans up totwo hundred and eighty thousand. Well currently
it was one hundred and seventy thousanddollars leaned out there for their mortgage,
(30:32):
but they had all these additional debtwith credit card. It was like three
credit cards, and putting those paymentstogether was you know, close to twenty
nine thousand dollars with a payment ofcombined of seven hundred and thirty So it
was difficult for them to pay themortgage. Plus that, you know,
(30:52):
we could put that together and spreadit out over a term which actually is
going to pay off those credit cardsand a lot less time than they would
ever pay them off just individually.And that is something I don't know if
people grasp, is that if you'remaking that minimum payment on the credit card,
(31:14):
it's going to take thirty years topay that debt off. And at
nineteen and twenty and sometimes I've evenseen twenty five percent interest. So that
is a give an example of whatis that? How does that payment change
for them monthly? Do you havethose numbers? I do in this situation,
they were going to be able tosave five hundred and twenty three dollars
(31:37):
a month. Yeah, And thebig thing is just one of those credit
cards, the payoff it didn't evengive you an actual term. It just
said greater than thirty years. Thatwas one of the cards. But the
average of those cards or two hundredand seventy three months, Yeah, to
pay off this would be paid offin two forty so if I mean,
(31:57):
I'm sorry, it would be paidoff in one hundred and eighty months.
So if you if you look atthat, you're cutting the term down on
those You may be increasing the termon your mortgage, but you're just your
total debt is going to be paidoff much quicker, and the total I
mean interest paid is going to befar less. Yes, and in most
(32:20):
cases that would be true. Ifyou do have a higher loan amount on
the mortgage, the total interest throughthe life maybe a little more. But
if you're in that situation where you'vegot to get that monthly payment down,
sometimes that's not as important. However, if you do have a low interest
rate and you do not want toinclude that mortgage because you got it during
(32:44):
the time period when the rates werelow, we can actually do a second
line and you could borrow you know, just what you needed to pay off
any debt, not just the creditcards, but installment debt if it would
help you consolidate that in this situation. Uh, you know, we could
save this person three or four hundreddollars just off of their credit card debt,
(33:07):
but they would pay it off inten years or you know where they're
looking at not ever paying it off. It's just it's going to be out
there forever when you pay that minimumpayment. And you know, one of
the things that I think is superhelpful is you guys are willing to sit
down and put the numbers together ifthey just bring you everything and so here's
(33:30):
where we are. What can youdo? Yes, because we actually have
a program we can enter all yourdebt in it. We can enter your
credit card debt, your installment debt, and give you options. You know,
what's what's your reasoning for wanting todo this? Is it to cut
your monthly payment down? Is itto cut your term down on what you
(33:52):
pay? We can go through varioussituations with you so you can determine what's
best for you. But the bigthing we're seeing right now is what do
we do about these high credit cardpayments we have? Yeah, and so
for me, I think the benefitis that it gives them options. So
(34:13):
they come in. You're not tryingto sell them anything. You're just saying,
let's look and see and if it'shelpful for you and we can do
this, Here's how much it's goingto save you. Here's the time period.
I mean, just give them allthe data right there. If you
keep paying what you're paying on yourcredit card, this is how long it's
going to take you to pay itoff. Right if you cansolidate this debt
and this amount, this is whatyou're going to pay monthly, and this
(34:36):
is how long it's going to takeyou to pay it off. And if
it makes sense, then do itand I just don't know that people understand
that they can do that, thatthere is that option to be able to
get that debt paid down. Right, I don't either, because I don't
think people really understand credit cards fromthe very beginning, right as we talked
about earlier. You send your childoff to college, what's the first thing
(35:00):
their mailbox is full of credit card? Application? Get a free T shirt,
apply for this credit card. Yes, they show up at colleges to
offer that, and they don't know. It's not something that's taught at home.
It's not taught in the school.You know, there are some parents
that are savvy enough that they domaybe lead their children in the right direction.
(35:23):
But for the most part, Ihave seen through the years and doing
mortgage loans, people come in andthey say, well, all that debt
came from when I was in college. I didn't realize it was going to
affect me this much later in life. And it does, and it just
follows you around. It absolutely does. But it doesn't have to stay there.
(35:45):
You know, we do have optionsof helping you get some of that
paid off, whether it's you know, including your mortgage with that or leaving
your mortgage alone. At the lowerrate and just taking the credit cards then
combining those. Yeah, so that'swhat I really love is that there are
lots of different options. And I'llbe honest. One of the options,
(36:07):
if someone says, you know,really I want out of debt, one
of the options is if you haveenough equity in your house to have enough
to put a down payment on anotherhouse and then pay for your credit card
debt, maybe you do have todownsize, Maybe you can't live in that
house that you've been living in,Maybe you need to move to a smaller
(36:29):
property. You know, there areoptions to look at, whether it's selling
is the right option for you toget you out of that debt, or
if just consolidating is the right optionfor you. And so for me,
the challenge came when I kept hearingthese things from people, and it's heart
breaking. Whenever you're looking at someonewho they're not sleeping, they are in
(36:52):
huge distress. They don't know howthey're going to make it, and they
don't know that there are options tohelp them that can get them to a
lower monthly note and a lower interestrate. The benefit to this is that
it does help you to get itdone. The challenges you can't go back
into the credit card debt. Absolutely, that's the key. And so I
(37:14):
think that's the key is while thiscan be a help, it's breaking that
that chain of always wanting to usethat plastic. It's it's the society we're
in that we want to have whatwe want when we want it, and
we want it now, yes,and so we'll get it now and then
we'll pay later. And you know, credit cards are good for some things,
you know, it just like anythingin this world. It can be
(37:37):
used for good, but then itcan also get you in a heap of
trouble. Yes, it can.They're not designed to live off months months,
yeah, you know. And sometimesthe more credit card debt you get,
that's what happens. You end upliving off credit cards. Yeah,
and then it just continues to grow. So the way that you guys have
(38:00):
it, how would someone reach outto you to say, Okay, I
just want to sit down and talkto someone about my options. How would
they begin that process? I knowthat First Financial Bank has banks all across
Southeast Texas, So where would theybegin? They could call us at the
bank. They can call four Onine eight eight three three five six three,
(38:22):
which is going to put them intoa call center. They can let
them know what area they're in andthey can lead them to the right person
here locally. They can call fourO nine to two one six one four
three. That's going to bring themright into my office. Yeah, and
(38:42):
some of those home equity loans Iwould handle, and some we would do
through our in house department, whichwe have a wonderful in house lender,
Lonnie White, and she works withthis program all the time in putting the
debt, determining what's best for thecustomer. And so it's an awesome opportunity
to do that well. And we'vetalked earlier about the fact that you've been
(39:07):
with First Financial Bank for thirty eightyears and that one of the reasons is
because of the quality of the peoplethere. And one of the things that
I know personally because I've worked andwith almost all of them, is that
they do have a heart that caresand they want to be able to give
them options on what's going to betheir best course of action. And never
(39:30):
are they going to rush or sayno, this isn't a fit for you.
What I love about when I've workedwith First Financial is they may say
well, we can't do this,but let's work to do something else and
give you options on what you cando in order to be able to give
you what you need to accomplish thegoals that you have. And every single
(39:51):
one of the local banks has someonethere who can assist. It's a matter
of getting you to the right personat that bank. And Lonnie White is
in the Orange office and then Melvanais in the Beaumont and the Beaumont location
and so those are just two.Yeah, we also have Josie Nimmits Mid
County, Upon County. Yeah,so if that's something that you know you
(40:13):
want, you can pop into theOrange office or call and make an appointment
to sit down and visit with Lonnieor in Mid County Josie or in Beaumont
Melvana. You're also welcome to callmy office at four O nine eight six
six eight three two six and ouroffice can assist you and guide you in
the right direction. We have allthose numbers as well. So anything else
(40:35):
that you have, Cindy, thatyou wanted to make sure that you shared
on this topic of trying to helppeople get out of that credit card debt,
I think mainly Dana is just thatwe understand it. We know how
it happened, and most of ushave been there, yes, and most
have to be embarrassed about. Andwe're not going to tell you what you
have to do. You know,that's that's not how we work. We
(41:00):
want to give you every option andlet you select, Yeah, what best
fits you know, your lifestyle,your family, whether it's a lower payment
or you know, whatever you're lookingfor. We want to give you those
options. And I think that youwill find anyone that you work with is
that's what they're going to look for. Well, I really appreciate you being
(41:22):
here and going through some of thosenumbers with us. And that's the thing
that I want people to understand isthey can sit down and go through all
of those numbers with you. Specifically, they can go and take every piece
of your debt and give you allof the options. So if that's something
you're interested in, don't hesitate toreach out to them. Thank you Sindy
so much for being here today andbeing able to talk through that so that
(41:44):
those who don't know that there areoptions can understand that there is something that
can help them and they don't haveto live with that murden and trying to
deal with it themselves. Also wantedto thank Shannah Briggs for being here to
talk about the Alzheimer's Association and theirwalk that is going to happen October seventh
at the Event Center. Also tonight, don't forget you can head on over
(42:06):
to the log On Cafe. They'reright by Ellis Pottery and they're going to
have a fundraiser where there's going tobe several bands playing and I think Andy
Hemmings is one of those that's goingto be playing there, so you're not
gonna want to miss that. Andthen there's spring Luncheon the Family Portrait on
March twenty one at the La Lagante, So if you're interested in any of
(42:27):
those, don't hesitate to give usa call. I'm Dana Simmons. I
appreciate you listening today. Have agreat Saturday. US Talk five sixty KLVI
full Mont. Listen on your freeiHeart Radio app for all your music radio app podcasts
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