May 2, 2025 • 30 mins
It is always important to take a look at our personal finance, budgets, our financial future, retirement planning. These days it is more important than ever. Manny Munoz gets some advice from financial guru Jean Chatzky, CEO of HerMoney.com and host of the podcast HerMoney with Jean Chatzky.
AND, Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders have been increasingly top of mind in our country. Munoz speaks with Kristyn Roth, Chief Marketing Officer at the Autism Society of America
AND, Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders have been increasingly top of mind in our country. Munoz speaks with Kristyn Roth, Chief Marketing Officer at the Autism Society of America
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on
the biggest issues in facting you this week. Here's many
Munyos and welcome to another edition of Iheartradios Communities. As
you heard, I am Manny Muno's. It's always important for
each and every one of us to take a look
(00:21):
at our own personal finances. Our budgets are financial future
retirement planning really on a regular basis, and these days
seems like it's more important than ever. So let's discuss
it with financial guru Gen Chatsky, CEO of her money
dot com and host of the podcast Her Money with
Gene Chatsky. Gene, always a good time to speak with you.
(00:43):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Oh nice to speak with you as well.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Let me start off with that, what is the best
way to begin creating a personal budget?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I think that the best way to start budgeting is backward.
I don't really think it's possible or very successful to
budget in a vacuum, to try to take a list
of categories and squeeze some numbers into it. I think
instead you have to look at your life, and so
(01:12):
the best way to do that is to track your
spending for a month, what's coming in, what's going out,
where is it going And once you have that category
by category breakdown, then you have the ability to maneuver.
You can decide that you're going to spend a little
bit less here and a little bit more there and
(01:35):
eventually work your way toward a budget that works. The
goal of any budget is to make room for saving,
and so if it helps save, first get the money
that you need to save off of the table out
of your spending your checking account into four one ks
(02:01):
emergency savings accounts, and then work with what's left.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I want to get into iras for one case. All
of that in a second. How do you determine that
what you should be saving? Is there a percentage on
a monthly basis? Is it one hundred dollars? Is it
one thousand dollars? Obviously different for everybody.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
It really depends on your life. And I'll give you
a number, but let me just say, if you're not
hitting this number, the reaction should not be to do nothing.
The reaction should be to try to nudge up your
saving by a little bit every few months until you
get there. So if we can get to the point
(02:39):
where we're saving fifteen percent of whatever we make. That's
a pretty good number. That's a number that in general
will get us to be able to replace with Social
Security about eighty to eighty five percent of our income
in retirement. But you've got to do it consistently through
(03:00):
out a career. And if you start late or if
you've been undersaving, you're gonna have to shoot a little
bit higher if you want to, if you want to
reach those goals.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
In terms of budgeting, how do you balance you know,
wanting to live and enjoy life? And I guess is
budgeting all about your separating your needs and your wants
and sometimes really knowing the difference between the two.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Sort of, I think it's separating one want from another, right.
I mean the things I often will hear financial experts saying, well,
you have to skip the latte. You have to skip
the takeout. If the lacke is the thing that makes
you happy every day, If the latte is you know,
if you go and you meet a good friend for
(03:47):
a cup of coffee, and this is this is an
important thirty five minutes out of your day by all means,
have the latte. Yeah, but understand that you can't have
that and everything else. Budgeting is a matter of realizing
that money is a limited resource and we all have
(04:08):
to prioritize what is important to us. Some of those
things maybe needs, some of those things maybe wants. But
something that is a need to me could be a
want to you, and vice versa.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, one of the most common pitfalls you find that
people encounter when creating a household budget.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I think the biggest pitfall is not paying attention, is
just going through life unconsciously. It's very, very easy to
spend money these days. You sit at your computer, you
could spend your whole paycheck in ten minutes. Yeah, you know,
(04:53):
we go into a store, we just wipe a credit
card or tap a credit card or dip a cra
We don't touch money.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
It's not like the old days, right, you'd have to
actually take a dollar bill out of your wallet. You'd
be missing it. Now it doesn't even exist.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It's just in the air, and that makes it a
lot harder to manage. So paying attention, although gedious, is
really the only way to get the job done.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
You talk about that fifteen percent is a good number
to shoot for of your income of every paycheck at
a time when so many of us are living paycheck
to paycheck that you know that fifteen percent might be
something to aspire to, but not that many people could do.
So what do you do in that situation? If you're
just barely scraping by, you don't have any emergency savings,
(05:48):
how can you begin there?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yes, you start where you are right. You can't start
anywhere except for where you are. I run a budgeting
course called Finance Fix. We spell it with two x's.
If any of your listeners are interested in checking it
out online, it's finance fix dot com. It's a It's
a six week course on Zoom led by professional coaches,
(06:16):
trained accredited financial coaches, and we go through a process
with people who sometimes have a lot of debt, sometimes
are saving nothing, sometimes have no emergency cushion of looking
at their resources in a really granular way and then
(06:36):
making some choices about a few things we are not
going to spend money on over the next week, and
that money that is not spent, we automatically move that
into savings or into debt repayment, because if it sits
at the bottom of your checking account, you're going to
spend it. Right If you see a show up on
(06:57):
the ATM receiter or on your app when you sign
onto the bank, it's just saying I'm here to be spent,
and we wanted to be giving you a very different message.
But what we're seeing is that these people who have
been budget challenged in the past, over the six week
course are saving fifteen hundred dollars and they're doing it
(07:22):
because they're paying attention for the first time in a
long time. Many of us have subscriptions that we forgot,
we sign up for months ago, years ago, we get
rid of those things. Food tends to be a really
(07:42):
wasteful category for a lot of people, and not just takeout,
but forty percent of the food that we buy at
the grocery store gets thrown away. We have freezers and
pantries that if we needed to, we could shop out
of for a couple of weeks and probably, you know,
with the exception of perishables, feed ourselves and our families.
(08:07):
All of those things are opportunities, and you just have
to make a commitment that you're going to pay attention
and that you're gonna deal with it.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
That's you. If you feel you are budget challenged. Great
term the website is financefix dot com Finance Fix with
two x's fi xx. Couple more minutes here with Gene Chatsky,
the financial guru, CEO of her money dot com and
host of the podcast Her Money with Gene Chatsky. Let
me back up a little bit talking about teaching kids
(08:40):
financial literacy. How do we go about that? What's a
good age? I've always felt, as as a dad of
two young kids, that I want to teach them by example.
It doesn't seem many people are good at that with
their finances.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I think many people feel like they're not great examples,
and so as a result, they don't even try to
teach their kids, and that's that's a shame. Allowance can
be a really great teaching tool. You can start your
kids as young as you know, five or six when
they go to school, and the way to do it
(09:17):
is to come up with, when you first begin, a
short list of items that you know that your kids
want that you decide you're not going to buy anymore,
that if they want them, they have to buy them
with their own money. So, when my kids were younger,
this might have been Pokemon cards, right. My son had
a thing for Pokemon cards when he was younger, it
(09:40):
might be it might be candy in the in the
checkout aisle at the grocery store, or wherever your kids
ask you for these things. You give them a sum
of money once a week that is enough to buy
not an unlimited quantity of these things, but a little
bit of these things, so that they then have to
(10:01):
look at their money as a limited resource and decide
what they're going to choose to use their limited resource bonds.
And as they go forward, the number of dollars per
week that they get should grow. The number of things
(10:21):
that you are no longer going to pay for should grow.
And the goal is that as you, as your children
get older and are about to leave the nest, they
they are able to handle a semester sort of money, right,
(10:42):
a month's work of money without calling and saying I
blew it in the first couple of days. Right.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Smart to open a bank account with maybe one of
these you know, these debit cards, and you control the
amount that's in there for them.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yep. Absolutely, you can give them their allowance. That way,
they can start to use plastic that way. That's I
did that with my with my own kids.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
It's a smart.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
It's a very smart way to go. I think your
kids should work. I think they should work not for you,
but for for somebody outside of the family who is
willing to pay them, whether it's babysitting or yard work
or a job in a store where they get an
actual paycheck. Because in my experience, only when kids work
(11:31):
do they start to learn that their time has values,
and then they become really, really conscious of that time.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
We talked about budgeting really on a familial basis, on
a daily basis, saving money, the importance of that. What
about retirement planning you mentioned CD. There's so many different options,
right see these iras for a one K and I
imagine there's no one answer for every person.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
There is no one answer for every person. But you
want to maximize your matching dollars first. So if you
have a work based retirement plan that offers you matching dollars,
that's where you should be putting your money to start
in a four oh one K, four three B four
fifty seven. If you don't have a plan with a
(12:22):
match then you want to look for the best tax advantages.
So that's when we get into iras roth iras, health
savings accounts and and other uh there there are some
some retirement accounts for the self employed as well.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
CDs Is that something that somebody should ever look into?
Is that a good investment generally?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Well, look, CDs fall into the category of very very
safe investments. Right when you're when you're looking at a CD,
you know you are not going to lose money on
on uh on that you may there is an opportunity
cost if you were to put your money in a
CD instead of putting your money in the stock market.
(13:10):
The money in the stock market has the potential to
do better, but it's a riskier play. So in general, CDs,
high yield savings accounts, shorter term treasuries are for money
that you need in a shorter period of time. Therefore
there for money that you need to be safer.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
How much of budgeting and saving and investing has to
do with a mental state. You have to be disciplined
and decide this is what you want to do, when
you're going to do it?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, I think one hundred percent it is have it.
Which is why automation is our best friend or a
one case work, because the money comes out of your
paycheck automatically and it goes into the account. You get
to make a good decision one time, and then bank
on that decison for a really long time. The goal
(14:05):
needs to be to automate in other parts of your life.
If you're trying to build an emergency savings account, then
you want to automate transfers out of checking it into
savings every single time you get paid. If you're looking
to put money into an IRA where there is no
(14:26):
employer to pull money from your paycheck, you want to
do it automatically yourself. Because humans are creatures of impulse,
and if you give yourself the opportunity to spend money,
you're very likely going to spend it. So you want
to put put gargrails up to get yourself into a
position where you know that it's going to do the
(14:49):
work that you needed to do.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, and as you mentioned earlier, it's never been easier
to spend money. Last thing for you constantly see stories
about how so few Americans are saving for retire are
those that are aren't saving nearly as much? The idea
that it's never too late to begin, How how important
is that to get through to people so important?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
The best time to begin of courseless years ago. The
second best time to begin is today, Gene.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Chatsky, CEO of her money dot com. And if you
are budget challenged, as Gene mentioned earlier, you could check
out the website financefix dot com. That's finance fixx dot com. Gene,
always appreciated for your time. Thanks so much for the
advice and the conversation.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Autism autism spectrum disorders have been increasingly top of mind
in our country. Let's discuss how far we've come with
the diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of these disorders. So we're
joined by Kristin Roth, chief marketing officer at the Autism
Society of America. Christin, I appreciate you sharing some time.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yes, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Let's get right into it. One in thirty one kids
in our country are diagnosed with autism somewhere on the
spectrum by the time they're eight years old, according to
the CDC's latest figures.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Yeah, so we've seen that increase from the twenty twenty
feet which was one in thirty six, and now we're
seeing that number of one in thirty one eight year
old's diagnose. A lot of this can be attributed to
increase in understanding of autismsm better screening and diagnosis, access
(16:26):
to that type of care, as well as a broadening
of the definition of autism and the criteria that is
used to diagnose someone.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, so just awareness really is a big deal in
these numbers, increasing right that and and expanding what is
considered to be on the autism spectrum. Is it not?
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah? Absolutely, and the report itself cites that that is
likely a significant contributing factor. However, it is important to
note that we need more research to better understand autism
because it is a combination of genetic, biological, and environmental factor.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Let's back up a little bit. What exactly is autism?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
So, autism is a lifelong developmental disability that typically impacts
someone's social skills, communication relationships, and self regulation. However, it
is incredibly diverse and truly affects everybody differently. That's why
the spectrum is so large. So some individuals may need
(17:35):
complex life long twenty four to seven care to really
live fully in a supported environment, while others may achieve
significant independence with fewer supports.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And it goes from that extreme of being completely nonverbal
and needing constant care to somebody that you would interact
with and have no clue that they're even on the spectrum.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, and I think it's important how we speak about
people's experiences, and we always encourage everyone to presume confidence.
So just because someone's non speaking does not mean that
they do not have significant strength and skill sets. Then
they may have IQs and others who have good communication
(18:19):
skills may have an intellectual disability. So it's really hard
to end and uninformed for people to generalize an entire
community that has brought.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
As this one, right, I think a lot of people
for the first time, and it's been thirty seven, thirty
eight years, however long it's been since the movie Rainman
came out, and for many people in our country, I
think that's the first time they'd ever heard of autism.
And although that may be one example of someone on
the autism spectrum, as you mentioned, everybody who is diagnosed
(18:54):
is different and every case is different.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Yeah. Absolutely, And I do think that media has really
made significant progress in terms of authentically representing more experiences
and more individuals and their journeys across the spectrum. However,
there still is a lot of room for improvement in
(19:17):
terms of showing individuals with higher support needs, as well
as acknowledging some of those more challenging and hard moments,
and also celebrating the progress and wins that people have
overcome with barriers set by systemics, barriers in society.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Well, to that point, what do you think of the
biggest misconceptions about autism.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
I think it goes back to what we've been talking
about so far, is that I think it's easy to
generalize an entire community, and we have to be really
careful with the rhetoric and narrative that is being discussed
at a higher level in our current society, and we
(20:08):
have to acknowledge that everyone's experience is different and valid.
So some people are feeling isolated and like their journey
is not being acknowledged or supported, or something that they
see represented on TV or media. That does not make
it any less valid or real. And I think that
(20:31):
at the root of it all, what we're all seeking
is more services and quality supports to live a more
full life for our loved ones, for ourselves, and for
the greater community.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Well, I want to get into that a little bit more.
In just a second, you mentioned genetics. We don't really
know exactly what causes autism?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Do we So we understand a little bit, but we
don't know. There's no known singular cause for autism. We
do know it is a combination of those three factors,
with genetics playing a significant role. However, it is incredibly
important that we have more targeted funding to really understand
(21:16):
in a science based way what those contributing factors and
underlying contributors are.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Additional attention that's being brought to the subject recently might
not necessarily be a bad thing. And more research even
there's been previous research in one area to find out
if this could be a contributing factor. If this is
an issue, I imagine everybody in the community supports looking
into it and more study.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I think that the disability and autism community in general
agrees that, of course we need more funding to better
understand autism as a complex disability. However, it needs to
be rooted in science facts and not perpetuating stigmas.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Absolutely. A couple more minutes here with Kristin Roth, chief
marketing officer at the Autism Society of America. Let me
ask you about you. What is your story, what brought
you to the Autism Society of America.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
So I've always been involved in the autism community. I
grew up as a part of it. I have a
loved one who is autistic and we are very close.
He has really approached life with so much joy and perseverance,
(22:43):
and I think it's incredibly important to acknowledge that everyone's journey,
whether you're neurotypical or neurodiverse, has its ups and downs,
and it has its challenges and happy moments and strengths
and weaknesses. And I think as a society, we see
(23:06):
so much pressure for autistic individuals to conform and fit
into a world that wasn't designed for them. And so
my drive is really to help society in the greater
communities meet autistic individuals and people with disabilities. Halfway. We
have to be more inclusive, we have to acknowledge that
(23:27):
people need different and individualized support needs, and we have
to approach things in an equitable manner. So that's what
really drives my work and passion every single day.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
I imagine, like so many things involving our health, early
detection is a key with autism as well, because the
sooner it's able to be diagnosed and treatment can begin right.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Absolutely, So what we do know is that when you
receive an earlier diagnosis, you are significantly more likely to
have long term outcomes when you begin support therapies and
interventions before the age of four. Now, the challenge that
(24:14):
we have in the US is that the average age
of diagnosis is hovering right around forty seven months, and
there are significant weightless lack of access to screening and
diagnosis in quality care settings, so that diagnostic timeline still
(24:36):
has a long way to go to significantly shrink. In
terms of the process itself. We encourage people to begin
interventions and therapies when they may notice that something is
offer there's been a regression or developmental delay. However, that's
also incredibly challenging because you typically need a diagnosis in
(25:00):
order to begin treatment or interventions with insurance coverage.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
And then there's the other thing. And I didn't even
hadn't even thought about this, but I was speaking with
a friend and they pointed out to me that there
are parents who might think that their children are somewhere
on the spectrum and refuse to get them tested for
fear of the stigma surrounding autism and being on the spectrum.
And I guess that is still a big issue today,
(25:27):
is it not.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Well.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I think we're seeing that stigma and stereotype narrative being
perpetuated right now, and that's incredibly harmful not only to
an individual self worth, but also how society views them.
And when misinformation is being disseminated at a national standpoint,
(25:54):
it creates further divide among the community. It creates fear
that people can't be their authentic and true self. And
like I said earlier, at the root of this all
everyone is just seeking the acknowledgement and the recognition that
they are going through their own personal journey and need
(26:15):
individualized support and services to live fully.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
We've clearly come a long way in our country and
I don't know the last twenty years and making sure
that we have the tools to help parents, loved ones
work with someone who's on the spectrum as a child.
Have we come as far in helping those people on
the spectrum when they become adults.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
That's a wonderful question. I'm glad you asked it. So
I think right now we're hearing a lot of rhetoric
that this is a childhood disease. First of all, it's
not a disease it's a developmental disability, and because it
is lifelong, these kids grow up into teams and adults.
And one of the most common issues that we hear
(27:04):
for calls coming into our national helpline is around adult services.
They are few and far between. It is not something
that is easily accessible for quality care, and there's significantly
long wait lists, especially based on where you're located and living,
and we still have a really long way to go.
(27:29):
So I think that it's important to acknowledge that while
it's wonderful we're having a more space, we're also seeing
services and supports being cut with policy changes that are
occurring right now. So that's directly impacting the lives of
so many people in our community at this very moment.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
And there's one thing that a listener who might not
know anybody with autism or not even really familiar with
spectrum disorders could take away from our conversation that would
have them have different view of it. For you, what
would it be.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
For me? I think it's incredibly important that we lead
discussions with empathy and facts, and I strongly encourage everybody
to visit Autismsociety dot org to better educate themselves to
learn how to advocate, or get involved or give because
(28:27):
it's really important to recognize that when federal systems are
fractured or funding comes under attack, a lot of nonprofits
in the private sector has to pick up the slack
and to support our growing communities, we need to have
the resources to do that.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
How does the Autism Society of America help those on
the spectrum, whether they be children, the parents of those children,
or when they become adults.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
There are so many ways that the Autism Society support
people through their lifelong journey with autism because we are
there from the point of diagnosis through a person's lifespan.
We are really invested at every aspect at someone's lives.
So the Autism Society primarily supports autistic individuals through advocacy, education,
(29:22):
direct resources, and support, as well as community programming through
our national network of seventy affiliates.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Kristin Roth, chief Marketing Officer at the Autism Society of America.
The website is Autismsociety dot org. Autismsociety dot org. Kristin,
thank you for what you're doing. Best of luck. I
appreciate the time. Thank you, and that'll do it for
another edition of iheartradios, communities. I'm Manny Muno's until next time.
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on
the biggest issues in facting you this week. Here's many
Munyos and welcome to another edition of Iheartradios Communities. As
you heard, I am Manny Muno's. It's always important for
each and every one of us to take a look
(00:21):
at our own personal finances. Our budgets are financial future
retirement planning really on a regular basis, and these days
seems like it's more important than ever. So let's discuss
it with financial guru Gen Chatsky, CEO of her money
dot com and host of the podcast Her Money with
Gene Chatsky. Gene, always a good time to speak with you.
(00:43):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Oh nice to speak with you as well.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Let me start off with that, what is the best
way to begin creating a personal budget?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I think that the best way to start budgeting is backward.
I don't really think it's possible or very successful to
budget in a vacuum, to try to take a list
of categories and squeeze some numbers into it. I think
instead you have to look at your life, and so
(01:12):
the best way to do that is to track your
spending for a month, what's coming in, what's going out,
where is it going And once you have that category
by category breakdown, then you have the ability to maneuver.
You can decide that you're going to spend a little
bit less here and a little bit more there and
(01:35):
eventually work your way toward a budget that works. The
goal of any budget is to make room for saving,
and so if it helps save, first get the money
that you need to save off of the table out
of your spending your checking account into four one ks
(02:01):
emergency savings accounts, and then work with what's left.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I want to get into iras for one case. All
of that in a second. How do you determine that
what you should be saving? Is there a percentage on
a monthly basis? Is it one hundred dollars? Is it
one thousand dollars? Obviously different for everybody.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
It really depends on your life. And I'll give you
a number, but let me just say, if you're not
hitting this number, the reaction should not be to do nothing.
The reaction should be to try to nudge up your
saving by a little bit every few months until you
get there. So if we can get to the point
(02:39):
where we're saving fifteen percent of whatever we make. That's
a pretty good number. That's a number that in general
will get us to be able to replace with Social
Security about eighty to eighty five percent of our income
in retirement. But you've got to do it consistently through
(03:00):
out a career. And if you start late or if
you've been undersaving, you're gonna have to shoot a little
bit higher if you want to, if you want to
reach those goals.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
In terms of budgeting, how do you balance you know,
wanting to live and enjoy life? And I guess is
budgeting all about your separating your needs and your wants
and sometimes really knowing the difference between the two.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Sort of, I think it's separating one want from another, right.
I mean the things I often will hear financial experts saying, well,
you have to skip the latte. You have to skip
the takeout. If the lacke is the thing that makes
you happy every day, If the latte is you know,
if you go and you meet a good friend for
(03:47):
a cup of coffee, and this is this is an
important thirty five minutes out of your day by all means,
have the latte. Yeah, but understand that you can't have
that and everything else. Budgeting is a matter of realizing
that money is a limited resource and we all have
(04:08):
to prioritize what is important to us. Some of those
things maybe needs, some of those things maybe wants. But
something that is a need to me could be a
want to you, and vice versa.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, one of the most common pitfalls you find that
people encounter when creating a household budget.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I think the biggest pitfall is not paying attention, is
just going through life unconsciously. It's very, very easy to
spend money these days. You sit at your computer, you
could spend your whole paycheck in ten minutes. Yeah, you know,
(04:53):
we go into a store, we just wipe a credit
card or tap a credit card or dip a cra
We don't touch money.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
It's not like the old days, right, you'd have to
actually take a dollar bill out of your wallet. You'd
be missing it. Now it doesn't even exist.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It's just in the air, and that makes it a
lot harder to manage. So paying attention, although gedious, is
really the only way to get the job done.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
You talk about that fifteen percent is a good number
to shoot for of your income of every paycheck at
a time when so many of us are living paycheck
to paycheck that you know that fifteen percent might be
something to aspire to, but not that many people could do.
So what do you do in that situation? If you're
just barely scraping by, you don't have any emergency savings,
(05:48):
how can you begin there?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yes, you start where you are right. You can't start
anywhere except for where you are. I run a budgeting
course called Finance Fix. We spell it with two x's.
If any of your listeners are interested in checking it
out online, it's finance fix dot com. It's a It's
a six week course on Zoom led by professional coaches,
(06:16):
trained accredited financial coaches, and we go through a process
with people who sometimes have a lot of debt, sometimes
are saving nothing, sometimes have no emergency cushion of looking
at their resources in a really granular way and then
(06:36):
making some choices about a few things we are not
going to spend money on over the next week, and
that money that is not spent, we automatically move that
into savings or into debt repayment, because if it sits
at the bottom of your checking account, you're going to
spend it. Right If you see a show up on
(06:57):
the ATM receiter or on your app when you sign
onto the bank, it's just saying I'm here to be spent,
and we wanted to be giving you a very different message.
But what we're seeing is that these people who have
been budget challenged in the past, over the six week
course are saving fifteen hundred dollars and they're doing it
(07:22):
because they're paying attention for the first time in a
long time. Many of us have subscriptions that we forgot,
we sign up for months ago, years ago, we get
rid of those things. Food tends to be a really
(07:42):
wasteful category for a lot of people, and not just takeout,
but forty percent of the food that we buy at
the grocery store gets thrown away. We have freezers and
pantries that if we needed to, we could shop out
of for a couple of weeks and probably, you know,
with the exception of perishables, feed ourselves and our families.
(08:07):
All of those things are opportunities, and you just have
to make a commitment that you're going to pay attention
and that you're gonna deal with it.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
That's you. If you feel you are budget challenged. Great
term the website is financefix dot com Finance Fix with
two x's fi xx. Couple more minutes here with Gene Chatsky,
the financial guru, CEO of her money dot com and
host of the podcast Her Money with Gene Chatsky. Let
me back up a little bit talking about teaching kids
(08:40):
financial literacy. How do we go about that? What's a
good age? I've always felt, as as a dad of
two young kids, that I want to teach them by example.
It doesn't seem many people are good at that with
their finances.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I think many people feel like they're not great examples,
and so as a result, they don't even try to
teach their kids, and that's that's a shame. Allowance can
be a really great teaching tool. You can start your
kids as young as you know, five or six when
they go to school, and the way to do it
(09:17):
is to come up with, when you first begin, a
short list of items that you know that your kids
want that you decide you're not going to buy anymore,
that if they want them, they have to buy them
with their own money. So, when my kids were younger,
this might have been Pokemon cards, right. My son had
a thing for Pokemon cards when he was younger, it
(09:40):
might be it might be candy in the in the
checkout aisle at the grocery store, or wherever your kids
ask you for these things. You give them a sum
of money once a week that is enough to buy
not an unlimited quantity of these things, but a little
bit of these things, so that they then have to
(10:01):
look at their money as a limited resource and decide
what they're going to choose to use their limited resource bonds.
And as they go forward, the number of dollars per
week that they get should grow. The number of things
(10:21):
that you are no longer going to pay for should grow.
And the goal is that as you, as your children
get older and are about to leave the nest, they
they are able to handle a semester sort of money, right,
(10:42):
a month's work of money without calling and saying I
blew it in the first couple of days. Right.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Smart to open a bank account with maybe one of
these you know, these debit cards, and you control the
amount that's in there for them.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yep. Absolutely, you can give them their allowance. That way,
they can start to use plastic that way. That's I
did that with my with my own kids.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
It's a smart.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
It's a very smart way to go. I think your
kids should work. I think they should work not for you,
but for for somebody outside of the family who is
willing to pay them, whether it's babysitting or yard work
or a job in a store where they get an
actual paycheck. Because in my experience, only when kids work
(11:31):
do they start to learn that their time has values,
and then they become really, really conscious of that time.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
We talked about budgeting really on a familial basis, on
a daily basis, saving money, the importance of that. What
about retirement planning you mentioned CD. There's so many different options,
right see these iras for a one K and I
imagine there's no one answer for every person.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
There is no one answer for every person. But you
want to maximize your matching dollars first. So if you
have a work based retirement plan that offers you matching dollars,
that's where you should be putting your money to start
in a four oh one K, four three B four
fifty seven. If you don't have a plan with a
(12:22):
match then you want to look for the best tax advantages.
So that's when we get into iras roth iras, health
savings accounts and and other uh there there are some
some retirement accounts for the self employed as well.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
CDs Is that something that somebody should ever look into?
Is that a good investment generally?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Well, look, CDs fall into the category of very very
safe investments. Right when you're when you're looking at a CD,
you know you are not going to lose money on
on uh on that you may there is an opportunity
cost if you were to put your money in a
CD instead of putting your money in the stock market.
(13:10):
The money in the stock market has the potential to
do better, but it's a riskier play. So in general, CDs,
high yield savings accounts, shorter term treasuries are for money
that you need in a shorter period of time. Therefore
there for money that you need to be safer.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
How much of budgeting and saving and investing has to
do with a mental state. You have to be disciplined
and decide this is what you want to do, when
you're going to do it?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, I think one hundred percent it is have it.
Which is why automation is our best friend or a
one case work, because the money comes out of your
paycheck automatically and it goes into the account. You get
to make a good decision one time, and then bank
on that decison for a really long time. The goal
(14:05):
needs to be to automate in other parts of your life.
If you're trying to build an emergency savings account, then
you want to automate transfers out of checking it into
savings every single time you get paid. If you're looking
to put money into an IRA where there is no
(14:26):
employer to pull money from your paycheck, you want to
do it automatically yourself. Because humans are creatures of impulse,
and if you give yourself the opportunity to spend money,
you're very likely going to spend it. So you want
to put put gargrails up to get yourself into a
position where you know that it's going to do the
(14:49):
work that you needed to do.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, and as you mentioned earlier, it's never been easier
to spend money. Last thing for you constantly see stories
about how so few Americans are saving for retire are
those that are aren't saving nearly as much? The idea
that it's never too late to begin, How how important
is that to get through to people so important?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
The best time to begin of courseless years ago. The
second best time to begin is today, Gene.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Chatsky, CEO of her money dot com. And if you
are budget challenged, as Gene mentioned earlier, you could check
out the website financefix dot com. That's finance fixx dot com. Gene,
always appreciated for your time. Thanks so much for the
advice and the conversation.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Autism autism spectrum disorders have been increasingly top of mind
in our country. Let's discuss how far we've come with
the diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of these disorders. So we're
joined by Kristin Roth, chief marketing officer at the Autism
Society of America. Christin, I appreciate you sharing some time.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yes, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Let's get right into it. One in thirty one kids
in our country are diagnosed with autism somewhere on the
spectrum by the time they're eight years old, according to
the CDC's latest figures.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Yeah, so we've seen that increase from the twenty twenty
feet which was one in thirty six, and now we're
seeing that number of one in thirty one eight year
old's diagnose. A lot of this can be attributed to
increase in understanding of autismsm better screening and diagnosis, access
(16:26):
to that type of care, as well as a broadening
of the definition of autism and the criteria that is
used to diagnose someone.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, so just awareness really is a big deal in
these numbers, increasing right that and and expanding what is
considered to be on the autism spectrum. Is it not?
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah? Absolutely, and the report itself cites that that is
likely a significant contributing factor. However, it is important to
note that we need more research to better understand autism
because it is a combination of genetic, biological, and environmental factor.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Let's back up a little bit. What exactly is autism?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
So, autism is a lifelong developmental disability that typically impacts
someone's social skills, communication relationships, and self regulation. However, it
is incredibly diverse and truly affects everybody differently. That's why
the spectrum is so large. So some individuals may need
(17:35):
complex life long twenty four to seven care to really
live fully in a supported environment, while others may achieve
significant independence with fewer supports.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And it goes from that extreme of being completely nonverbal
and needing constant care to somebody that you would interact
with and have no clue that they're even on the spectrum.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, and I think it's important how we speak about
people's experiences, and we always encourage everyone to presume confidence.
So just because someone's non speaking does not mean that
they do not have significant strength and skill sets. Then
they may have IQs and others who have good communication
(18:19):
skills may have an intellectual disability. So it's really hard
to end and uninformed for people to generalize an entire
community that has brought.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
As this one, right, I think a lot of people
for the first time, and it's been thirty seven, thirty
eight years, however long it's been since the movie Rainman
came out, and for many people in our country, I
think that's the first time they'd ever heard of autism.
And although that may be one example of someone on
the autism spectrum, as you mentioned, everybody who is diagnosed
(18:54):
is different and every case is different.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Yeah. Absolutely, And I do think that media has really
made significant progress in terms of authentically representing more experiences
and more individuals and their journeys across the spectrum. However,
there still is a lot of room for improvement in
(19:17):
terms of showing individuals with higher support needs, as well
as acknowledging some of those more challenging and hard moments,
and also celebrating the progress and wins that people have
overcome with barriers set by systemics, barriers in society.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Well, to that point, what do you think of the
biggest misconceptions about autism.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
I think it goes back to what we've been talking
about so far, is that I think it's easy to
generalize an entire community, and we have to be really
careful with the rhetoric and narrative that is being discussed
at a higher level in our current society, and we
(20:08):
have to acknowledge that everyone's experience is different and valid.
So some people are feeling isolated and like their journey
is not being acknowledged or supported, or something that they
see represented on TV or media. That does not make
it any less valid or real. And I think that
(20:31):
at the root of it all, what we're all seeking
is more services and quality supports to live a more
full life for our loved ones, for ourselves, and for
the greater community.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Well, I want to get into that a little bit more.
In just a second, you mentioned genetics. We don't really
know exactly what causes autism?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Do we So we understand a little bit, but we
don't know. There's no known singular cause for autism. We
do know it is a combination of those three factors,
with genetics playing a significant role. However, it is incredibly
important that we have more targeted funding to really understand
(21:16):
in a science based way what those contributing factors and
underlying contributors are.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Additional attention that's being brought to the subject recently might
not necessarily be a bad thing. And more research even
there's been previous research in one area to find out
if this could be a contributing factor. If this is
an issue, I imagine everybody in the community supports looking
into it and more study.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I think that the disability and autism community in general
agrees that, of course we need more funding to better
understand autism as a complex disability. However, it needs to
be rooted in science facts and not perpetuating stigmas.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Absolutely. A couple more minutes here with Kristin Roth, chief
marketing officer at the Autism Society of America. Let me
ask you about you. What is your story, what brought
you to the Autism Society of America.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
So I've always been involved in the autism community. I
grew up as a part of it. I have a
loved one who is autistic and we are very close.
He has really approached life with so much joy and perseverance,
(22:43):
and I think it's incredibly important to acknowledge that everyone's journey,
whether you're neurotypical or neurodiverse, has its ups and downs,
and it has its challenges and happy moments and strengths
and weaknesses. And I think as a society, we see
(23:06):
so much pressure for autistic individuals to conform and fit
into a world that wasn't designed for them. And so
my drive is really to help society in the greater
communities meet autistic individuals and people with disabilities. Halfway. We
have to be more inclusive, we have to acknowledge that
(23:27):
people need different and individualized support needs, and we have
to approach things in an equitable manner. So that's what
really drives my work and passion every single day.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
I imagine, like so many things involving our health, early
detection is a key with autism as well, because the
sooner it's able to be diagnosed and treatment can begin right.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Absolutely, So what we do know is that when you
receive an earlier diagnosis, you are significantly more likely to
have long term outcomes when you begin support therapies and
interventions before the age of four. Now, the challenge that
(24:14):
we have in the US is that the average age
of diagnosis is hovering right around forty seven months, and
there are significant weightless lack of access to screening and
diagnosis in quality care settings, so that diagnostic timeline still
(24:36):
has a long way to go to significantly shrink. In
terms of the process itself. We encourage people to begin
interventions and therapies when they may notice that something is
offer there's been a regression or developmental delay. However, that's
also incredibly challenging because you typically need a diagnosis in
(25:00):
order to begin treatment or interventions with insurance coverage.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
And then there's the other thing. And I didn't even
hadn't even thought about this, but I was speaking with
a friend and they pointed out to me that there
are parents who might think that their children are somewhere
on the spectrum and refuse to get them tested for
fear of the stigma surrounding autism and being on the spectrum.
And I guess that is still a big issue today,
(25:27):
is it not.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Well.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I think we're seeing that stigma and stereotype narrative being
perpetuated right now, and that's incredibly harmful not only to
an individual self worth, but also how society views them.
And when misinformation is being disseminated at a national standpoint,
(25:54):
it creates further divide among the community. It creates fear
that people can't be their authentic and true self. And
like I said earlier, at the root of this all
everyone is just seeking the acknowledgement and the recognition that
they are going through their own personal journey and need
(26:15):
individualized support and services to live fully.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
We've clearly come a long way in our country and
I don't know the last twenty years and making sure
that we have the tools to help parents, loved ones
work with someone who's on the spectrum as a child.
Have we come as far in helping those people on
the spectrum when they become adults.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
That's a wonderful question. I'm glad you asked it. So
I think right now we're hearing a lot of rhetoric
that this is a childhood disease. First of all, it's
not a disease it's a developmental disability, and because it
is lifelong, these kids grow up into teams and adults.
And one of the most common issues that we hear
(27:04):
for calls coming into our national helpline is around adult services.
They are few and far between. It is not something
that is easily accessible for quality care, and there's significantly
long wait lists, especially based on where you're located and living,
and we still have a really long way to go.
(27:29):
So I think that it's important to acknowledge that while
it's wonderful we're having a more space, we're also seeing
services and supports being cut with policy changes that are
occurring right now. So that's directly impacting the lives of
so many people in our community at this very moment.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
And there's one thing that a listener who might not
know anybody with autism or not even really familiar with
spectrum disorders could take away from our conversation that would
have them have different view of it. For you, what
would it be.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
For me? I think it's incredibly important that we lead
discussions with empathy and facts, and I strongly encourage everybody
to visit Autismsociety dot org to better educate themselves to
learn how to advocate, or get involved or give because
(28:27):
it's really important to recognize that when federal systems are
fractured or funding comes under attack, a lot of nonprofits
in the private sector has to pick up the slack
and to support our growing communities, we need to have
the resources to do that.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
How does the Autism Society of America help those on
the spectrum, whether they be children, the parents of those children,
or when they become adults.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
There are so many ways that the Autism Society support
people through their lifelong journey with autism because we are
there from the point of diagnosis through a person's lifespan.
We are really invested at every aspect at someone's lives.
So the Autism Society primarily supports autistic individuals through advocacy, education,
(29:22):
direct resources, and support, as well as community programming through
our national network of seventy affiliates.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Kristin Roth, chief Marketing Officer at the Autism Society of America.
The website is Autismsociety dot org. Autismsociety dot org. Kristin,
thank you for what you're doing. Best of luck. I
appreciate the time. Thank you, and that'll do it for
another edition of iheartradios, communities. I'm Manny Muno's until next time.
Host
Manny Munoz
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