Ilyce Glink, Author at Best Money Moves

Money and Health Are Tied Together. Here’s What We Know

by Ilyce Glink | Apr 5, 2018 | Blog

The Connection Between Financial Stress and Poor Health Outcomes

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about the connection between money and health – specifically how the financial stress you feel translates directly into poor health outcomes.

In short, when you’re stressed about money you are much more likely to get sick, maybe even really sick.

This past week, I gave a talk about the connection between financial stress and health at the Health Benefits Leadership Conference, at the Aria hotel in Las Vegas. In doing the research for this speech, I looked at several studies that have proven this connection – something you probably knew inside your head and heart, but are probably glad there’s some hard data to back it up.

In 2014, researchers published a review of 33 peer-reviewed studies demonstrating serious health effects related to indebtedness. Individuals who couldn’t make their monthly loan payments thought about suicide and suffered from depression more than those without debt.

If you can’t pay your bills, you’re also likely to have poorer subjective health and health-related behavior. Like Cardio Vascular Disease. Turns out, financial stress may increase the risks of incident CVD and all-cause mortality, particularly among men.

The risks are greater in men living in single households and in women who don’t have cash in the bank at the end of the month. (Living with a partner seems to protect men, but not women, from getting sick because of ill-health associated with financial stress due to a lack of extra cash on hand.)

Of course, According to L Casey Chosewood, director of the Office for Total Worker Health, a the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, work influences critical choices around tobacco use, physical activity and other health behaviors. Workplace stress affects these choices. But when you feel like you don’t earn enough, you’re much more likely to smoke more, workout less, take worse care of yourself, use drugs and eat less healthily.

All of this factors into poor health outcomes. And, much of it can be reduced, if not avoided, over time. But it take times to implement new programs that will lower workplace stress, and help employees take back control over their financial lives, lowering financial stress.

Millennials Turn To Employers For Financial Wellness

by Ilyce Glink | Nov 16, 2017 | Blog

Who cares most about money? Millennials do. And in a twist, they’re turning to their employers for financial wellness information and tools they can trust.

According to new findings from Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s 2017 Workplace Benefits Report Millennial Supplement, Millennials spend more time at work worrying about their personal financial wellness than their older counterparts, and they are actively looking to their employers for tools, education, support and guidance.

Around 40 percent of employees say they would like their employer to provide additional help with financial matters, but an even higher proportion of Millennials are asking for help.

According to the 2017 Workplace Benefits Report, a significant number of Millennials say they feel unprepared to manage their finances and need help with topics across the financial wellness spectrum, including saving for retirement (43 percent), general savings help (40 percent), paying down or managing debt (34 percent), saving for major expenses (36 percent) and budgeting (31 percent).

The report also found that:

More than 40 percent of Millennials say that they left high school and college unprepared for the real world
43 percent want more help with investing
40 percent wanting more information on how to do their taxes
21 percent of Millennials say they want more help with saving for a home
18 percent want help with their student loans

Nearly half of Millennials want their employer to provide access to a variety of financial wellness tools, including a financial professional who can help create a personalized financial strategy. Forty-six percent of Millennials want their employer to bring in financial experts to provide additional training and education about financial matters. And, 45 percent want their employer to provide education and tailored training that is tailored to specific age groups or that is customized to financial issues they’re currently facing.

Financial stress is a huge issue for employers and employees. Mercer recently released a study that concluded that $250 billion is lost to financial stress each year, with employees spending an average of 12 work hours each month focused on their financial issues. PwC’s 2017 Employee Financial Wellness Survey found that 53 percent of employees are stressed about their finances.

Millennials, who are burdened with the weight of student loans, are more financially stressed than any other generation, so it’s not surprising they spend more work hours than average focused on their personal financial issues.

One of the surprising findings of the Bank of America Merrill Lynch report is that the lack of confidence in financial matters affects Millennials’ workplace behavior. On average, employees spend 3 work hours each week (12 hours per month) dealing with financial stressors. However, more than 60 percent of Millennials are spending an average of four work hours each week on personal financial matters, the study found.

Changing the Financial Wellness Paradigm at Work

Thirty years ago, employees would have never dreamed of asking their employer for help in reducing financial stress and solving big financial problems. And, employers wouldn’t have thought to offer.

Today, more employers have made the connection between financial stress and lower levels of productivity and retention, higher absenteeism and health care costs, and their related outcomes. They’re listening to their employees who are asking for a best-in-class solution that identifies the underlying causes of financial stress and proffers personalized solutions to dial it down.

But providing reading material doesn’t help employees reduce financial stress. Measuring financial stress and then creating personalized action plans based on deeply specific, personal insights is what Best Money Moves does best.

Best Money Moves is an award-winning, cloud-based, mobile-first platform+coaching program that provides unique insights about money and financial stress to employees and employers, and uses machine learning to drive personalized information and solutions.

Find out how we can help you reduce financial stress for your employees, customers, faculty and students. Visit BestMoneyMoves.com for details or email info@bestmoneymoves.com.

Ilyce Glink is the Founder/CEO of Best Money Moves, an award-winning financial journalist, radio talk show host and the author of 14 books on personal finance and real estate topics.

Could Cloud Computing Help Improve Your Productivity?

by Ilyce Glink | Nov 8, 2017 | Blog

In this week’s Best Money Moves roundup, we take a look at news stories and new research studies that may impact employee benefits and HR issues. We hope you find this news roundup helpful, and we’d love your feedback.

Will cloud computing improve employee productivity?

More businesses are finding that by moving key processes to the cloud, they’re able to operate more efficiently – especially since the option to work remotely has become increasingly popular among employees. By moving documents to a central location online, and automating certain aspects of a team’s workflow, employees are able to complete assignments wherever they are.

Many cloud-based platforms allow groups of people to contribute to the same project at different times, and some of the latest platforms even measure how productive each team and each individual on the team are.

Since online solutions take less time to learn, according to e-commerce company Meylah, companies that switch to the cloud can reach a higher level of productivity sooner. Here are some other ways cloud computing could help your people work smarter.

A lot of things have changed since 1996. In its 2016 Employee Benefits Research Report, the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) looked back at some of the changes in employee benefits and the companies that help facilitate these benefits since the organization started issuing these reports. See what‘s new.

Updating your employee benefits could help you keep your best employees. Whether you go for more traditional perks, such as a 401(k) match, or think outside the box with options such as free intern housing, your team will thank you for it. Learn what innovative employee benefits these 10 top companies are providing.

Your employees are leaving and it’s costing you money. Retention is a growing problem for employers as the economy heats up and unemployment drops. The latest Gallup report found that a record 47 percent of the workforce says now is a good time to find a quality job and more than half of employees are searching for new jobs or watching for openings. Why are your employees seeking greener pastures?

Is your HR department performing at its best? In order to support a company’s business model and goals, HR professionals need to focus on efficiency and delivering real value where it counts. Start with these five essential practices.

Your employees probably aren’t engaged at work. According to Gallup’s most recent State of the Global Workplace report, 51 percent of workers said they weren’t engaged and 17 percent said they were actively disengaged on the job. Here’s what you can do to fix it.

Many young adult workers are ignoring or rejecting their health insurance options. We’re in the heart of open enrollment season and millennials are 82 percent less likely to have health insurance. Unfortunately, 25 percent of millennials are more likely to have past-due medical debt. Here’s how to engage millennials and use open enrollment season to your advantage.

Should you be offering more ambitious perks? In today’s tight labor market, many companies are using unique benefits to attract and retain top talent. Learn from these six examples.

Does your startup offer the right benefits? While young companies might not want to spend big bucks on extravagant employee perks like weekly breakfasts or a ping-pong table, businesses are still finding plenty of inexpensive ways to make their teams feel valued. Check out these ideas.

How can HR leverage HCM technology? They have to do what they do best: blend the characteristics of their business and their workforce. Here are three things that could help make up the ideal HCM tech framework.

Have something to add? Email info@bestmoneymoves.com.

Financial Stress and the Workforce: Your Employees Are Worrying About Money Troubles

by Ilyce Glink | Sep 28, 2017 | Blog

Your employees are worrying about money. And, they’re spending a lot of their working hours each month distracted by financial stress.

It’s widely accepted that financial stress has permeated the workforce. Human Resources professionals discuss the effects of financial stress, including everything from lower levels of productivity and retention to higher costs of healthcare, higher levels of workplace accidents, and more unexplained absences.

Mercer, a global consulting company, recently published a new study, Inside Employees’ Minds: Financial Wellness. After surveying more than 3,000 employees, Mercer concluded that employees spent an average 13 working hours each month thinking about their financial troubles, while 16 percent spent more than 20 working hours a month worrying about their personal financial stress.

That means they’re not thinking about the company or focusing on their job. The study concludes that these lost 13 hours per month is “enough of an incentive for employers to help employees address financial concerns.”

The company has created a Mercer Financial Wellness Index to measure and assess an employee’s overall financial wellness. Those with lower levels were preoccupied with paying their monthly bills and those with higher levels were preoccupied with retirement, the study found.

The study also found that some of those employees who are the most stressed earn a significant amount of money. “As measured by the Mercer Financial Wellness Index, 14 percent of those in the two lowest financial wellness groups have household incomes of more than US $100,000.”

The study concluded that traditional means of financial education, often referred to as financial literacy, isn’t enough on its own. Using a program that focuses solely on education won’t help employees reduce financial stress. Successful programs must have the ability to personalize to an employee’s needs and individual financial stressors.

Mercer concluded that finding programs that create “financial courage” will help employees engage in issues at a deeper and more meaningful level, and they have created the Mercer Financial Courage Index to try to help employers engage in financial wellness.

Read Inside Employees’ Minds: Financial Wellness.

Ilyce Glink is the Founder/CEO of Best Money Moves.

Open Enrollment and Financial Stress: What Employees Need to Know

by Ilyce Glink | Nov 2, 2016 | Blog

One of the biggest sources of financial stress Americans face is healthcare: both finding the coverage they need and the cost of obtaining it.

Open enrollment season for the US Health Insurance Marketplace is here and it’s time for those employees without adequate coverage (an estimated 13.8 million) to choose their plans and prepare for the associated costs. Unfortunately, this period can cause confusion and financial stress, especially if your workers don’t have a clear understanding of what they need to do and how much it will cost.

Here are some of the biggest issues that come up during enrollment season and what you can do to guide your employees through this process.

1. Deciding between old and new healthcare coverage

Open enrollment is the time of year when your employees are able to choose a new healthcare plan that covers their medical needs and, if the employer will pay for it, those of their family. Unfortunately, the easiest option is to not make any changes at all, and simply proceed with the same plan from last year. For many employees, this could mean overpaying or paying for coverage they don’t need. Your workers will then stress their budgets and leave themselves vulnerable in the event they need care for which they don’t have coverage.

The best way to conquer this hurdle is to ensure your employees are aware of their options and their responsibility to choose a plan. If you don’t provide this benefit, encourage your employees to compare new plan options to their current coverage by sending them to Healthcare.gov. That way, they can get started with the right resources and see if there’s a better plan option for them.

2. Figuring out what’s affordable and adequate

Once your workers know where to start, they’ll need to find the best coverage for their health needs. This should start with them reviewing their prior plan, seeing which coverage they still need and determining if there’s any coverage they no longer want or something new they need. Health Insurance Marketplace plans all cover things like pre-existing conditions and preventive care, so your workers don’t need to concern themselves with missing out on these offerings.

Your employees do need to worry about whether they can afford the coverage they want. Often – unless there’s an ongoing medical issue for which an employee needs specific coverage or they require a plan for their dependents or they want to keep the same doctors or providers – the most common issue is choosing between plans with higher deductibles or higher premiums.

A higher deductible means their budget is less stressed now, but costs may have to be covered out of pocket when they receive care, whereas a higher premium adds to their monthly bill now but often means lower out-of-pocket costs for future care. Finding the right balance can help lower their level of financial stress.

3. Understanding the deadlines and penalties

In addition to understanding their coverage, your employees must be aware of the deadlines for choosing a plan and the penalty for going without.

The current enrollment season runs from November 1, 2016 through January 31, 2017, though employees must choose a plan by December 15th in order for it to be effective starting January 1.

Your workers must meet these deadlines or they’ll risk having to pay a penalty of at least $695 on their federal tax returns for not having healthcare coverage. That fee could be even higher as it can also be calculated as a percentage of their income (2.5 percent in 2016).

This is a substantial bill, especially when you consider how little most Americans save. If you want your workers to avoid this additional financial stressor, take the time now to help them find the right health care coverage.

For more information about Best Money Moves, email info@bestmoneymoves.com.