Author Topic: Work place financial training  (Read 5801 times)

exterous

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Work place financial training
« on: November 24, 2019, 06:43:26 PM »
So to start there were a lot of great but overall basic topics covered based on links and studies provided for those who wanted to learn more. However there was one section that surprised me. When talking about some behavioral habits that could help:
"You should look at your bank account balance at the start of every day..."
My thought: So you start the day feeling good about how much you've saved?
"... so you know how much money you can spend that day and not risk over draft fees"
Oh this is not a section for me...

AMandM

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2019, 01:51:41 PM »
That's the dumbest thing ever. It's like saying, "You should look in your fridge every morning so you'll know how much you can eat that day."
I mean, really? Even if you believe in spending every penny you take in, you have to plan for upcoming expenses between today and next payday, don't you?

robartsd

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #2 on: November 25, 2019, 02:05:11 PM »
There are also the recent transactions that may not have cleared. If you're operating under assumption that all of the available balance is spendable, you should be using a checkbook register rather than checking the balance in the account.

Seriously, the only real benefit checking the bank account every day might provide me is alerting me to any fraudulent transaction right away. I think a weekly or monthly review is sufficient.

The Guru

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2020, 12:15:21 PM »
Nothing wrong with warning against overdraft fees. Beyond that I'd simply call it poorly worded and/or- given  the financial acumen of the average American- unintentionally accurate.

GuitarStv

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #4 on: January 03, 2020, 12:23:29 PM »
The last company that I was at we had the HR person in charge of our company matched contributions give a presentation . . . so I asked her what the MER was for the index funds they offered.  She didn't know what a MER was . . . so I tried explaining that it's the total costs/fees associated with the fund each year.  She didn't believe that there were costs associated with funds, and didn't know why I was interested in the index funds (they're much worse because they don't have someone managing them).  So i gave up.

Eventually I got a prospectus for the funds and figured it out on my own.

:P

Chris Pascale

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2020, 12:15:27 AM »
The last company that I was at we had the HR person in charge of our company matched contributions give a presentation . . . so I asked her what the MER was for the index funds they offered.  She didn't know what a MER was . . . so I tried explaining that it's the total costs/fees associated with the fund each year.  She didn't believe that there were costs associated with funds, and didn't know why I was interested in the index funds (they're much worse because they don't have someone managing them).  So i gave up.

Eventually I got a prospectus for the funds and figured it out on my own.

:P

It sucks that HR people tend not to know about finance when they are tasked with this sort of stuff.

Any chance you could give the talk next time?

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2020, 12:23:20 AM »
The last company that I was at we had the HR person in charge of our company matched contributions give a presentation . . . so I asked her what the MER was for the index funds they offered.  She didn't know what a MER was . . . so I tried explaining that it's the total costs/fees associated with the fund each year.  She didn't believe that there were costs associated with funds, and didn't know why I was interested in the index funds (they're much worse because they don't have someone managing them).  So i gave up.

Eventually I got a prospectus for the funds and figured it out on my own.

:P

It sucks that HR people tend not to know about finance when they are tasked with this sort of stuff.

Any chance you could give the talk next time?

I don't think I've actually worked out what the skill set of HR folk really is.....

joleran

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #7 on: January 04, 2020, 12:20:33 PM »
I don't think I've actually worked out what the skill set of HR folk really is.....

It's the baseline skill set of any other white collar worker, but their specialization tends to just be knowledge of internal company policies  and benefits and being able to watch what they say really well.

clarkfan1979

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #8 on: January 04, 2020, 09:34:36 PM »
I've worked in higher education for the past 9 years. It has been a real struggle to work with HR when you are on a hiring committee. They can do so many things that can screw up a hiring search for a faculty member.

When I apply for jobs and I am the one being interviewed, it is worse. HR is in charge of scheduling interview times and doing paperwork for reimbursement. The HR people handling the first level of the interview process is interested in doing the least amount of work possible. From my personal experience, about 10% - 25% do a good job and are a pleasure to work with.

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #9 on: January 04, 2020, 10:14:24 PM »
I've worked in higher education for the past 9 years. It has been a real struggle to work with HR when you are on a hiring committee. They can do so many things that can screw up a hiring search for a faculty member.

When I apply for jobs and I am the one being interviewed, it is worse. HR is in charge of scheduling interview times and doing paperwork for reimbursement. The HR people handling the first level of the interview process is interested in doing the least amount of work possible. From my personal experience, about 10% - 25% do a good job and are a pleasure to work with.

This is more aligned with my experience of HR folk....

robartsd

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2020, 11:15:30 AM »
I don't think I've actually worked out what the skill set of HR folk really is.....

It's the baseline skill set of any other white collar worker, but their specialization tends to just be knowledge of internal company policies  and benefits and being able to watch what they say really well.
They should also be knowledgeable about employment law. At the executive level, HR should help management set policy that meets legal requirements while supporting the organizational goals. Day to day HR maintains records and ensures policy is followed.

TrMama

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #11 on: January 09, 2020, 04:23:39 PM »
The last company that I was at we had the HR person in charge of our company matched contributions give a presentation . . . so I asked her what the MER was for the index funds they offered.  She didn't know what a MER was . . . so I tried explaining that it's the total costs/fees associated with the fund each year.  She didn't believe that there were costs associated with funds, and didn't know why I was interested in the index funds (they're much worse because they don't have someone managing them).  So i gave up.

Eventually I got a prospectus for the funds and figured it out on my own.

:P

Huh, didn't realize we worked for the same company. I had the same conversation with our former HR person.

damyst

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #12 on: January 10, 2020, 01:04:17 AM »
The last company that I was at we had the HR person in charge of our company matched contributions give a presentation . . . so I asked her what the MER was for the index funds they offered.  She didn't know what a MER was . . . so I tried explaining that it's the total costs/fees associated with the fund each year.  She didn't believe that there were costs associated with funds, and didn't know why I was interested in the index funds (they're much worse because they don't have someone managing them).  So i gave up.

Eventually I got a prospectus for the funds and figured it out on my own.

:P

When my employer created a contribution matching program a few years ago, they brought in a representative from SunLife to talk about the nuts and bolts. At one point in his presentation, a slide was briefly shown containing a table of typical funds and associated MERs. Right away, out comes my phone and I snap a photo of the slide.
Later on when it was time for us to register for the plan, my photo was the ONLY place you could look up expense ratios.
The MER for the cheapest fund was 0.5%.

ms

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #13 on: January 10, 2020, 08:55:35 AM »
Our work offering of funds has the cheapest at a MER of 1.475%. But they do a 50% on the first 5k you contribute so free money. Only caveat is that it has to be as % off you pay cheque, not a voluntary contribution from outside.

My question during the presentation was whether we have the option to transfer out the $ to another provider (Vanguard) - yes with some special permission letter and you cannot transfer out the company portion. I haven't exercised that yet so cannot confirm that they will actually let you do it.

ixtap

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Re: Work place financial training
« Reply #14 on: January 10, 2020, 09:30:13 AM »
I've worked in higher education for the past 9 years. It has been a real struggle to work with HR when you are on a hiring committee. They can do so many things that can screw up a hiring search for a faculty member.

When I apply for jobs and I am the one being interviewed, it is worse. HR is in charge of scheduling interview times and doing paperwork for reimbursement. The HR people handling the first level of the interview process is interested in doing the least amount of work possible. From my personal experience, about 10% - 25% do a good job and are a pleasure to work with.

I am happy to say that out of over a dozen university and college interviews, this was never my experience!