Money Donuts® Episode 10: Interns Are Wise

Steve:
You can tell that the interns are all very nervous.

Beth:
I've never been on a podcast before, Steve.

Morgan:
I was born ready. So let's go.

Solo:
Beth really wants me to talk about my $600 Airwrap, Cooper.

Beth:
Yeah, guess how much she spent on a hair curler?

Morgan:
Did you buy the Dyson one?

Solo:
You got it too, Cooper?

Cooper:
I do. She brought mine after me, so I brought it in so she could touch it.

Solo:
But I gave you the idea.

James:
Was it worth it?

Solo:
So worth it.

Steve:
What makes it worth it?

Solo:
Look at how wonderful my hair looks today.

Cooper:
I curled mine with a regular curling iron. I'd say it's worth it for the drying part, but the curling part and I, we don't always get along.

Morgan:
Steve, aren't you glad you don't have any hair?

Steve:
What are you saying? Am I losing my hair that quickly? Morgan just came at me really hard for no reason at all. Wow. So welcome to this episode of Money Donuts. We have a really special episode for you guys today, and I'm really excited about half of our guests.

Cooper:
Well, today we have a very special episode, so we have a couple of marketing interns and a community engagement intern, and I get to work really closely with our community engagement interns. I'm going to tell you a little bit about what I know. Her name is Solo Nia, and she's really great. We've been really lucky to have her for the past 11 months. And we are going to ask her what her life has been like to be a community engagement intern. It's kind of a weird title, so should be fun to hear what she does. Solo, what do you do?

Solo:
Well, what I did for the past 11 months is apparently not what every other community engagement intern has gotten to do. I haven't been able to be at a lot of events, but I did get to do some golf outings over the summer. But mostly, I do a lot of writing up press releases. I do social media for our high school sites, and I work a lot with the kids club kids.

Steve:
On our side, the marketing side, we were blessed with two marketing interns this year. I'll introduce both of them because James, I'm pretty sure that he still doesn't remember their names. So, Beth and Morgan are our interns. Do you guys want to talk about what you have done over the last year and a half, two years?

Beth:
Yeah, so that's a loaded question. We started well, December of 2019. So we've been here for a while. We got to work with the team to lead two young adult campaigns. So it was a lot of fun. So that was super cool to start with all the ideas, bring them to the team, and see them come to life. And then some of the projects I do are helping Tony with some graphics. And then also a lot of social media work. Morgan, you wanna...

Morgan:
I work with a lot of the team on campaigns, scheduling ad buys, making graphics for campaigns. I work in a lot of spreadsheets. I just like to have fun with everybody.

Steve:
So let's talk about our group of interns here today. What have you guys thought about for a donut for this episode?

Solo:
I think we settled on sprinkles.

Steve:
Just wait. We let the interns pick which donut flavor to do for this Money Donuts podcast?

James:
We're throwing them to the wolves.

Beth:
I mean, no you didn't. We threw our ideas out there.

Steve:
Do you guys like sprinkled donuts?

Morgan:
I want to be the doughnut that is in the Money Donuts logo.

Beth:
I don't like sprinkles. I think there are irrelevant. I don't think they taste like anything.

Solo:
They don't.

Beth:
They're extra, just sugar for no reason.

Steve:
So Beth says that she doesn't like sprinkles and they're irrelevant.

Morgan:
Just like us, just like us, Beth.

Beth:
Just like interns.

Cooper:
But they add fun and spice and a little bit of uniqueness, just like interns.

Steve:
All right. First question. Biggest money mistakes that you guys have made through your last four years of college.

Solo:
Mine was just sophomore year. I would go grocery shopping without a list and I'd buy all these things that I don't need. And that definitely adds up. And now I'm a lot more diligent about like, "This is what I'm going to eat this week. And this is the produce I need." Because nothing is worse when you're like on a health kick and you go to Woodman's and you buy all the fruit and then that lasts a day and then you're going through the Culver's drive through while there are $5 raspberries rotting in the back of your fridge.

Beth:
Honestly, Solo kind of stole mine. I was just going to say stop spending money on food, grocery shop, meal prep because eating out, oh my goodness, you spend so much money. It adds up so fast.

Morgan:
And coffee don't even get me started on coffee. Yikes.

Beth:
Don't eat on campus, pack a lunch. I've spent so much money on food and I probably am going to continue to do that. But I would just say, save, save more than you spend.

Steve:
What is some good practices of how you've learned to save over the last four years?

Solo:
I automatically have a portion of my paycheck that goes into savings and I do not let myself touch it unless I actually need it. But if it's just like, "Oh, I want to go out with my friends." If it's not in my checking account, then I do not have that money.

James:
What's the best advice you could give an incoming college student, as it relates to money? Ask your parents for everything, take a grandmother, shopping with you, something like that?

Morgan:
I would tell people to get a part-time job. Part-time jobs make you manage your money and your time.

Solo:
The more you work, the less time you have to spend money. So yeah. Get a job.

James:
So if you're always at work, you're good.

Solo:
I mean, it's hard to juggle two jobs, but both Beth and I are interns at Royal, obviously. And then we both tutor and we tutor on campus and we don't do that often, only a couple hours a week, but then the money I get from tutoring, that's my fun spending money. That's what I use it for. Then my internship money. That's my money that goes towards rent and my savings and things like that.

Beth:
Same, literally the exact same. Because I don't work enough for tutoring to ever have it be enough for one month of rent, but it's always nice to have that little cush of, "Oh, that's where my funds go for being able to hang out with my friends and do all the fun stuff."

Steve:
How do you manage all of it? So you're not only going to school full-time but now you're interning. Plus you're picking up part-time jobs. Plus you're trying to have a social life. How do you manage that whole?

Beth:
No sleep.

Solo:
I don't. No, tutoring working on campus in general, especially tutoring. What Beth and I do is really nice because when we don't have appointments, we can do homework. And especially when I tutor on campus rather than remote, I'm a lot more motivated to do my homework. So it just really depends on it really matters to like find somewhere, especially Royal is really good about making sure we're putting school first. And so is tutoring since that's an on-campus place. So you really need to be mindful of your employers and make sure that they respect the fact that you're a student.

Beth:
I feel like my biggest piece of advice, time management, with internships, with jobs, with figuring out everything for college. That is the thing that saved me because I feel like especially kids our age are going in so many different directions and balancing your time, oh my goodness. It's a lifesaver.

Steve:
So is that a special tool that you use, a scheduling tool or how do you work on balancing your time?

Beth:
I use my outlook calendar a lot. Solo has her planner that she literally lives by that.

Solo:
I have my days planned in 15 minute increments. And if you're not scheduled and you're not scheduled in, we're not talking that day. I don't know what to tell you.

Beth:
So what happens if you mess up just a little bit on your time schedule?

Solo:
It doesn't happen.

Steve:
Does that transfer to how you treat money too? Does your personalities match that? You're checking every 15 minutes?

Solo:
Nope. Nope. Nope.

Morgan:
See, and I'm the opposite. I am constantly checking my bank account all the time.

Steve:
Interesting. James, what are your theories on that?

James:
I think Morgan is more of a spender and Solo is probably more of a saver. She talked about the savings plan. So that makes perfect sense because Morgan's like, "How much fun can I have this week?" And Solo's like, "I have it all planned out. I don't even need to look." I feel, Beth, in your case, your parents have influenced you a lot. Your dad and his spreadsheet to sit down and figure out what college expenses or whatever that process looked like was really intimidating. But you saw the value of that. And so you're looking for ways to apply that moving forward. And you just kind of go with the flow sometimes, but sometimes you have it planned out too.

Beth:
Yes. God bless my dad and his budget that he sent me. He emailed me a spreadsheet and was like, "You need to fill this out. It's due by this day." I don't think I ever really filled it out to be honest. Hopefully he doesn't listen to this.

Steve:
When you guys were looking for internships, what were the things that helped you out helped you find internships in the field that you're looking for?

Beth:
I would say really just utilize the resources that your campus provides or that your community provides those job fairs, career conferences, career services, all of those really helped me. I found Royal through career conference. I literally met my supervisor before I even applied, but I think if I wouldn't have ran into them at, it was called career conference right? Yep. I wouldn't be here today honestly.

Morgan:
I want to paddle backwards quick and just say that I have my real time alerts set up for the mobile app and I just got my real time alert for today. And that is one of the big reasons why I know what's in my bank account is those real-time alerts and you know what, it's higher than I thought. So it's a good day.

Steve:
Awesome. So you're more about working smarter and less harder, right?

Morgan:
Exactly.

Steve:
Yeah. Yeah. So real time alerts are perfect for that because you don't have to continue to check in. We come to you.

Morgan:
Really. I don't have to think about it.

Steve:
I like it.

Morgan:
Solo, how did you find this internship?

Steve:
I applied on Linkedin and then Beth and I went to the career conference together and I ran into the people I work with. I ran into Holly Hermanson, who I work with very closely. And I introduced myself. I was like, "I applied two days ago." And then Beth and I were sitting in one of our marketing classes together. And Beth was freaking out about internships. Beth was freaking out about internships.

Steve:
I'm sorry Beth was freaking out?

Solo:
Who would have thought? Beth has her spreadsheets of where she applied, who she heard back from. And I told her, I was like, "Beth, I'm telling you, we're going to intern at Royal together." And then we both did end up interning at Royal together. And so I just manifested it. I said it was going to happen. And it did.

Morgan:
Yeah. Beth and Solo knew each other before this internship. And I just pushed my way in into their friendship. So thanks guys.

Cooper:
I have advice, don't ever get a Roomba. What questions do I have for the interns? Okay. So he can't find his way home because I moved his bass around and now he's mad and he's yelling in an accent and I don't have it in English and I don't know how to change it back. And it's a very long story and he jumped off the stairs the other day. But my question that I have, before the bad guest is what do you want to tell me about money? What do you wish you knew about money? What do you wish you knew before you had to start using it and figuring out finances on your own?

Beth:
I wish when I first got to college or even just my first jobs that I ever got, first part-time jobs. I once got really good advice from my uncle and he always says, "It's not how much you make. It's how much you spend." So I feel like when I first started working, I always was like "$7.25 an hour!" Back then, minimum wage, I would freak out. I'd be like, "I'm not making anything!" But it really isn't how much you make, but it's how much you're spending because you're spending gets you everywhere.

Steve:
That's great advice.

Beth:
I literally think about it every day.

Morgan:
I think mine would be back to what Steve said about me, work smarter, not harder. There we go work smarter, not harder, get into stocks and learn how to actually use your money for good and not evil. Invest, not only in yourself, but in your future. And just don't be dumb with your purchases.

Steve:
But I want to use my money for evil. What's wrong with that?

James:
I think you guys had the perfect example earlier. It was that hair curler thing that dries in smooth and all that stuff and it costs hundreds of dollars, right?

Solo:
Yeah but I look good.

Solo:
But no, my dad is very good and smart with his money. And I think I learned my saving habits and how I spend from him. So like, I am very much into the treat yourself and my Dyson Airwrap. And I do probably treat myself a lot, but I do it in a way that I'm still very much so financially comfortable and I'm comfortable with where my savings are and my investments. I'm treating myself in things that I want to, and I save up for it and I work hard for it. It's not just silly things that I regret. When I treat myself, I make sure I actually want it. And then I don't end up regretting it.

James:
Yeah, that's fair.

Cooper:
I like that.

Morgan:
I'd like to say that I was going to get more wise with my money. And then I remember that Steve bought an inflatable hot tub and an inflatable couch. So I don't think the future is hopeful.

Beth:
I was waiting for the inflatable couch to come up on this podcast.

Solo:
Wait, what? I don't know this story.

Steve:
I've cut it out of so many episodes already.

Cooper:
Have you guys seen the Tik Tok that's like, "But now I have adult money!" And they buy just ridiculous things.

Solo:
Yeah.

Cooper:
Inflatable couches.

Morgan:
That's what I want to know from the grownups is once we get professional jobs and work full time after college, what would you advise us to do now that we actually have money?

Steve:
Well, I think I've already told you to start putting stuff into retirement right away. That was advice that I got when I was a young chap. Just put a little bit away in your 401k or in your Roth. Because you're not going to miss any.

Cooper:
The sooner you start, the less you have to save.

Steve:
There you go. The sooner you start, the less you have to save. I was going to ramble for five minutes, but Cooper just kind of...

Solo:
You can use that five minutes to tell me about your inflatable couch.

James:
The inflatable coach is the perfect purchase for a college student or for an adult.

Solo:
Steve you've got to give a background about the inflatable objects.

Steve:
Alright short story is we got rid of our couch downstairs. I didn't want to purchase a full-blown new couch.

James:
Full blown, ha-ha.

Solo:
I was going to say so not full-blown, but a blow up.

Steve:
Blow up couch. And it lasted six days before I had a hole in it.

Solo:
I didn't even know that they sold those.

Steve:
Look into it. It's awesome.

Morgan:
I could send you the link. I still have it.

Steve:
Just to put this to rest. I am going to patch it up and we're going to watch outdoor movies on an inflatable screen, sitting on an inflatable couch while we jump into an inflatable hot tub.

Morgan:
Wow.

Solo:
Will there be beach balls?

Steve:
And there'll be inflatable. This is a good topic. What kind of hacks, college hacks did you guys use?

Morgan:
To use your money? Stretch it as far as you can. I got a hack for you all it. This is my most used hack. So when you want to be a little socialite and you want to go have dinner with your friends or drinks with your friends, eat before you go so that you can order a small appetizer or nothing at all, that saves you so much money. So you eat your own food at home first and go to socialize without purchasing a meal.

Steve:
And that saved you throughout the years, you think?

Morgan:
Because then everybody else spends $15, $20 on a meal and you're sitting there happy and still social.

Steve:
Here's my side hack off of that hack. Do they sometimes not finish their food and you can eat their food?

Morgan:
You got it.

Steve:
Oh my goodness. Love it. I'm using that one.

James:
I was going to say you could just split an entree. You could just split a plate with them if you wanted to. But I mean then you still have to pay for half of it. So yeah.

Morgan:
Half is better than full.

Solo:
I came across this hack unintentionally, but I get really bad allergies in the spring. And one time I was going through the Culver's drive-thru and the lady thought I was crying. So she gave me free ice cream. So anytime you have allergies and it looks like you've been sobbing, just go through a drive through it has a 50% success rate. You'll get something for free because they think your life is falling apart.

Beth:
Solo that has happened to me before.

Solo:
See!

James:
But Beth, was yours allergies or were you actually having a meltdown?

Beth:
That's that's not the point, James. I was in a great mood, James.

Solo:
No, but I came up to the drive-through window and she was like, "Here, we accidentally made double of what we needed." She was like, "You look like you've been having a rough day." And I was like, "Oh, it's just allergies." She was like, "Just take it." I was like, "Okay."

James:
Did you also use the Dyson thing that day? Did that contribute to the overall success of that tactic?

Solo:
Yeah. I looked really cute. That's why. My hair was luxurious looking.

Steve:
You look like you've been crying, but your hair is on point. So here's some custard.

Solo:
Oh, you know what another good hack is, is if your parents want you to come visit home, just be like, "I can't, I don't have the gas money." And then your dad will transfer you gas money and then some.

Cooper:
That has legal and smart.

Beth:
Tears will get you everywhere.

Morgan:
Some of my best advice is go to college in the town your parents live in because if you're out of food, you can just raid their refrigerator. That's amazing.

Solo:
Go grocery shopping at your parents' house.

Morgan:
And they will supply toilet paper and paper towels as well. Because I do not spend money on toilet paper and paper towels. I think that's a waste because you need them.

Steve:
All right. Let's talk about student loans.

Morgan:
Yeah. I want to know if you guys are still paying your student loans because I'm horrified.

Steve:
I never had student loans.

Morgan:
How did you do that?

Beth:
Look at you.

Steve:
I went to a tech college and I saved up beforehand and my parents.

Cooper:
I have student loans and they cost a lot of money, but I only have about $30,000 in student loans, which is significantly cheaper than the average balance.

Solo:
Do you want to offer some solutions instead of just scaring us?

Cooper:
Don't take out student loans to pay for a spring break, vacation.

Solo:
Cooper.

James:
My college experience was atypical in that I worked pretty much nonstop throughout college. I graduated in three and a half years and so I had a very small amount of student loans, even considering the cost of attending the University of Wisconsin at Madison at the time. So I was able to pay that off.

Steve:
That really surprises me! Not. Three and a half years.

Cooper:
Overachiever Had absolutely no fun.

Morgan:
I wouldn't expect anything less.

Steve:
I wouldn't expect you to be like, "Oh, I actually made money. I sold my student loans off."

James:
No. And I'm not saying that that's good or bad. I feel like I potentially missed out on a lot of good experiences. I should have maybe taken a semester abroad or something, but.

Morgan:
I had three jobs for a long time in college and I really didn't have a social life. And I lived at home for two years. So I'm lucky that I only have $10,000 in debt, which was mostly from this past year. But I mean, I wouldn't trade it for the world because I've definitely had the most fun this year too.

Steve:
I mean, we don't have to talk about specific numbers, but do you guys worry about entering the workforce and graduating or just how you're going to navigate that financially?

Beth:
Every single day of my life. Yes. I don't know. I need to, that's kind of the plan right now. I definitely want to start figuring out my plan for paying off my student loans. I am moving back home for a little bit, going to find a job and then hopefully be paying those off and not be paying rent. Because that's a big goal of mine. I want to get those loans down. I worked all throughout college too. So I haven't taken out a ton of loans, but I did study abroad. That was when I first started taking out. I think my first loan was sophomore year because of studying abroad. And I mean, I wouldn't trade it. That was the best semester ever.

Steve:
Solo, what do you think?

Solo:
It is a little scary because it feels like you're starting off in the negatives. You're not even starting off on level ground. You have to dig yourself out of this hole before you can even start going up. But I agree with both Beth and Morgan, that there are just some experiences that are invaluable and you can't put a price tag on them. I am graduating next Saturday and I am moving home for the summer and not working. I am hopefully going to visit my grandparents in Ukraine for a month.

Solo:
And it's a little scary that I'm not going to be having an income coming in, but I know that if I don't go see my grandparents now, I don't know the next time that I would be able to. So I just think yes, money is important and you need to make sure you're in a good place financially. But if you are fortunate enough and have the money to have certain experience, you just need to go for it. Because I mean, we're all going to die one day and you're not going to take that money with you. Obviously, be financially secure. But if you can have those experiences, study abroad, don't work so much, be able to enjoy your last semester of college, things like that.

Steve:
I was going to play a segment with everybody.

Morgan:
Is it a game?

Steve:
It's not a game. Let's not call it a game. It's just basically ask us your questions. Ask James, Cooper, myself, all the questions that you might have. Intern interrogation. Boom, just came up with that.

Solo:
This is for all of you. What is your number one purchase that you regret the most in your life? Cooper if you say the Dyson Airwrap, I'm going to be so mad at you.

Cooper:
It's not the Airwrap. Mine is actually when I purchased my second vehicle and I rolled over some negative equity from the previous car loan. So essentially that means I owed more on the vehicle than what it was worth. So they wouldn't give me the amount of the loan. They only gave me what the vehicle's worth when trading it in. And that stuck with me for a couple of car loans. So it had to work pretty hard to pay that down. So I think that would be probably my biggest one.

James:
I think my biggest purchase regret is probably also related to vehicles. I briefly owned a BMW X three for a matter of months. And there were so many things that went wrong with it that I couldn't afford to keep it basically. So I lost a bunch of money on that deal for sure. But it was a learning experience. And

Steve:
I would say that inflatable couch is definitely up there.

Beth:
What is your guys' best advice for people who are newly graduated and are about to start their career? Whether it's interviewing or applying or just figuring out what their next step is. That's something I definitely need some help with.

Steve:
My advice is to take your time and don't rush into anything and realize that you'll have a whole lifetime of working. And so the idea of checking that box and finding that career is something that you're going to grow into. And it's not something that you have to do tomorrow. You've spent all this time in school where the whole deal was let's get to the next stage. Let's get to the next stage. At this point you're building your own stages. You're figuring out what you want to do. So don't rush into having to manifest something that needs to get done when it doesn't need to get done.

Beth:
That was good, mic drop.

Cooper:
I really like Steve's advice. I think that mine kind of goes off that, but don't be afraid to not like a job. It's okay. It happens, everyone's like "Don't drop out. Don't switch jobs for two years." Things like that. It's okay. You can do that. And it's probably going to take a little bit for you to figure out where you want to be especially starting out. And don't be afraid to ask for help, whether it's from your parents or friends, your boss just do it. Everyone needs some help and just try things, take the opportunities, say yes to the things you normally wouldn't. If they scare you a little bit, just jump in, just try it.

James:
Yeah. My advice follows Coopers, I guess. Think of all the changes that have occurred in that will be occurring in a very short period of time for new graduates looking for jobs. So some of the things that you enjoy, maybe you won't like to do anymore, once you have sort of moved on from that phase and in five years or 10 years, you're not going to necessarily remember how you spent all your time anyway, sad as that is, but you'll probably look back on it and be like, "Okay, I don't really remember eating spaghetti every night for six weeks while I saved up for this." Or whatever the case may be. So the change is okay.

Cooper:
And that's another episode of the Money Doughnuts podcast by Royal Credit Union. So like always please like, review, subscribe, whatever on your favorite platform. And we'll be back next time with not the interns. So something different.

Steve:
Maybe new interns next time. We'll see.

Solo:
Too soon, too soon,

Beth:
Too soon.

Steve:
Do you guys want to give us some Money Donuts on the way out?

Beth:
Money.

Solo:
Money.

Morgan:
Money.

James:
Money.

Solo:
Donuts.

Beth:
We crushed that.

Steve:
Cool.

Cooper:
Good job.

James:
Awesome.