Milwaukee woman uses emergency saving to
Moving from Spending to Saving
Patricia Torres has a good job at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and “excellent credit.” As a result, however, she also “had the ability to spend, and I took advantage of it,” she said. “There was no discipline. I always thought of spending, not saving.”
Two things happened about a year ago to change that. The University’s Center for Urban Initiatives and Research, where she is an assistant director, became involved in planning for a Milwaukee Saves campaign. That got her thinking about saving.
Separately, she met with a financial advisor, who walked her through a review of her financial situation. What quickly became apparent, she said, was that she “was just throwing away money.” “I charged up a lot,” she explained. “You make minimum payments and you don’t think about how much debt you have.”
When Milwaukee Saves began enrolling Savers as part of its pilot project, Ms. Torres signed up. Relying on advice from her financial adviser, she had begun paying off all her credit cards by dividing her debt into twelve equal payments. She had also started keeping track of exactly how she was spending her money by developing a spread sheet that allowed her to track her spending from month to month. “It really helped me out a lot to see it visually,” she said.
It also helped her to identify some areas where she could cut back. That is a message she has been sharing with her 10-year-old son. In one lesson any math teacher would approve of, she had him calculate how much he had spent on Pokemon and other collectible cards. In addition to teaching him, it was a good reminder for her, she said, that, “Yes, it’s good to buy your kids things. But do they really need over 100 of these cards?”
For her Saves goal, Ms. Torres decided to establish an emergency fund, which she did by having money deposited directly from her paycheck each month. As a result, when her refrigerator quit working recently, she was able to pay for it without taking on new debt. And, while it hurt to see her savings depleted, she also took satisfaction that “I don’t have a credit card from this furniture store at 18 percent.” Now, she’s rebuilding her emergency fund and saving to pay for a foreign vacation with her kids.
Getting her spending in check “took some time,” she said. “It is one thing to track your spending, it is a whole other thing ... to live within your means.” With each new temptation, “you constantly have to remind yourself that you are on a budget.”
The Saves campaign has helped keep her on track, she said. “You have professional people coming in talking about saving.” That made her realize that this was an issue for all income groups. It also helped to feed off the energy of the other participants, she said. “Fifty people in a room talking about ways to save ... it’s fun and motivational.”
“You constantly have to remind yourself that you are on a budget.” --Patricia Torres