The Buena Vida Podcast
Welcome to the Buena Vida Podcast!
Formerly known as the ERS Walk & Talk Podcast, the Buena Vida Podcast is brought to you by the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS). This podcast is designed to support state employees and employees of higher education institutions who receive benefits through our program.
In each episode, we explore topics that promote well-being, health, and balance, featuring expert guests, insightful discussions, and practical tips for living a healthier, happier life. From mindfulness and stress management to fitness, nutrition, and overall wellness, we’ve got you covered!
Our podcast library also includes all previous episodes from the ERS Walk & Talk Podcast (dating back to 2021), so you can catch up on all the great content while enjoying the fresh direction of Buena Vida — the good life.
Subscribe today and start taking steps toward living your best life!
The Buena Vida Podcast
Passing the Torch: Lacy's final episode & intro to Money Talks
In her final episode as host, Lacy Wolff shares insights on financial wellness through the ERS Buena Vida program and discusses how financial stress affects overall health and wellbeing.
Subscribe to ERS Money Talks Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts or through this link.
• Buena Vida ("the good life") is a comprehensive wellness program offering resources for physical, mental, and financial health
• 40% of health assessment respondents report financial stress affecting their health, job, or relationships
• The app serves as a "social media for wellness" with incentives for completing health actions
• Members can earn up to $99 in Buena Vida bucks annually through simple actions like health assessments and preventive exams
• Free mental health resources including MD Live and Doctor on Demand are available through the platform with no copay
• Texas Saver offers retirement planning, budgeting tools, and financial counselors at no cost
• Creating a realistic budget should include items that bring joy to make it sustainable
• The upcoming "Trek Through Texas" challenge encourages 7,000 daily steps (the optimal number for heart health)
• Financial stress impacts physical health through increased blood pressure, heart rate, and disrupted sleep
Thank you for the privilege of serving as your host. Since April 2021, we've recorded 81 episodes with over 28,000 downloads. The Buena Vida podcast will return with a new host after September 5th.
Hi everyone and welcome to this special episode of the Buena Vida podcast. I'm your host, lacey Wolf. This episode today is going to be a little bit different because it is my last as your host. My final day at ERS will be September 5th, so I wanted to leave you with something a little bit different. Today, instead of me interviewing a guest, I'm sharing an episode of our sister podcast here at ERS Money Talks. In this episode, I sat down with Angelica, dani and Suzanne from our communications division to talk about managing financial stress and our brand new Buena Vida program. This was a fun conversation and I got to sit on the other side of the table this time as an interviewee. I encourage you to subscribe to the Money Talks podcast, our dedicated financial wellness podcast, because it's full of helpful insights and great conversations. And I also want to say don't worry, because the Plenipedia podcast isn't going anywhere. We'll be back when my replacement is hired and gets settled in.
Speaker 1:Before we dive into the episode, I want to take a moment just to say thank you. Serving in this role at ERS and getting to host this podcast has been one of the greatest privileges of my career. Since April 20th of 2021, I have recorded, edited and published 81 episodes and together we've had more than 28,000 downloads. Along the way, I've learned so much from our guests and, more importantly, from you, our listeners. I also want to thank our leadership at ERS for believing in me and taking a chance on this project. They allowed us to explore an innovative communication style in state government, which isn't always the norm, and I'm so proud of the space that we've created.
Speaker 1:From the launch of ERS Walk Talk during COVID to where we are today. It's been an incredible journey. I have loved hearing your stories, your feedback and your engagement. It has really meant the world to me. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, thank you. Now, please enjoy this episode of Money Talks. Here we go. What we know is everything's connected right. That stress that we can experience from the financial side can increase our blood pressure. It can increase our heart rate. It can affect how well we're sleeping. If we don't have that in order, it's going to be really hard to go out and live a good, solid, healthy life.
Speaker 2:ERS's own well-being expert, lacey Wolfe, joins today's episode of Money Talks to share what she sees as trending among member attitudes towards their finances, their financial stressors and helpful ERS resources.
Speaker 3:Hi everyone, Welcome to Money Talks. This is Dani Lovefree. I'm an editor here on Money Matters, the newsletter that distributes Money Talks.
Speaker 2:I'm Suzanne Krauss, also one of the editors of Money Matters and Money Talks. I'm Angelica Rivera. We're really happy to welcome Lacey Wolfe to our podcast. She's the ERS coordinator of statewide well-being initiatives and in this role she's helped share many resources about well-being with our members, and that includes financial well-being. Welcome, Lacey, Thank you. We wanted to have Lacey on to talk about the trend she's seeing and member attitudes to their finances, what their stressors are, and share some of the resources ERS has to help members with their financial well-being.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much for having me. It's really an honor to be here and to share some of the things that we're learning through the wellness side of things here at ERS.
Speaker 3:Thanks, lacey. I want to also mention that you know Lacey is such an advocate. She hosts an award-winning podcast, currently Buena Vida podcast, formerly known as the ERS Walk and Talk podcast. Many of you may have heard it and we also encourage you to listen to it because it shares another side of this holistic wellness initiative that we're doing here at ERS, holistic wellness initiative that we're doing here at ERAS. Most recently, lacey led an initiative for the Buena Vida Wellbeing Platform. Lacey, some people may not be aware of what Buena Vida is. Can you give us a brief overview of Buena Vida?
Speaker 1:I would love to. It's one of my favorite things to talk about. So, first of all, I will just say that we took a lot of time and put a lot into the branding. So Buena Vida means the good life, and we really wanted to have a program that would help people find their good life, whatever that is and we know that a good life is different for every one of us, depending on what we want from our lives, our situation, our family, where we live all of these factors play a big role, and so Buena Vida is not just a platform or an app, it's a program, and it really is all inclusive for all the things that come, you know, we think of with health and well-being.
Speaker 1:But the platform specifically I'll talk a little bit about and share some of the benefits and the resources that people might want to know about is through WebMD. So WebMD has the contract currently to supply this platform. We have a mobile application and through that you can start out, you can create a profile, just like I think about it as social media for wellness, right, so you can go in and create a profile. Just like I think about it as social media for wellness, right, so you can go in and create your profile and then you can take a health assessment online, take about 10 minutes and just through that right away you get $25 this year it's going to change next year but you earn money that you can spend in a store and that will help to customize you in the platform kind of living your good life, finding the things that are going to support you most, based off of how you answer those questions. It has actions that people can take.
Speaker 1:We at ERS really wanted to be able to incentivize things that we think are important, like doing your annual preventive exam, so you can do things like that and earn money for doing that. And we have challenges, community groups to support each other and a lot of other resources that can help drive people toward healthy behaviors. And every quarter I work with Blue Cross, our administrator of our health plan, and our internal team and agencies to have campaigns to support well-being. So we have quarterly kind of campaigns and then we have monthly themes within those campaigns. So, for instance, this August we are in the mental health quarter, but we're focusing on the financial aspect of mental health because we know that finances can deeply impact our mental health and our well-being.
Speaker 4:One of the things I really like about the app Lacey is it gives you all of your wellness things, access to Hello Heart, Learn to Live, all the things that maybe folks don't know that are offered through the health plan in one spot, and so, rather than having to go out to the website and look all these different places for different things, you just go to your app and then you have access to all that information in one spot. So that's one of the things I really enjoy about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's exactly what we were wanting to build out was kind of a one-stop shop for all the things. So you may say, you know, like, for instance, if I had a musculoskeletal issue, a report that I'm dealing with, chronic pain, I should see in my take action section Hinge Health pop up there right. Or if I have a heart condition or hypertension, I should see Hello Heart, our heart health program, pop up as a resource. So, yeah, thank you for mentioning that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I think you know it ties directly into financial wellness, in that these are things maybe you wouldn't know are available to you at no cost, and so you know, just having access to that and those resources, I think not only is obviously part of your physical health, but can directly impact your financial wellness as well too.
Speaker 1:For sure, and if you think about managing a chronic condition is stressful and it's costly, and a lot of people are trying to do a lot of things on their own, may not realize that we have these amazing benefits out there. And sometimes I don't know. I've seen research of marketing. You need to see something seven times before it really resonates with you, and so it's kind of like we're just beating that drum through all the different ways that we communicate and this is, I think it's just another great way to get information out to our population that may help support folks.
Speaker 2:And Lacey, you had mentioned that people have the health assessment and one of the components is to answer some questions about their financial well-being. Can you tell us a little more about the stats you're seeing in that?
Speaker 1:Yes, that's one of the great things about this app for us at ERS is that when you take that health assessment, we can run reports on an aggregate level. I can't look at what anybody says individually, but we can see kind of the trends in our population and we can figure out how do we need to focus our efforts to support people more effectively. So, for instance, 40% of respondents said that financial stress is affecting their health, their job or their relationships, and we have. I think over 12,000 people have taken that health assessment at this point, and so that's a stat that means something to us. And again, thinking about all that y'all are doing by putting together this great financial podcast and the newsletter to support that's how we're responding. You know we're using this data and actually being able to put some stuff out there to support folks.
Speaker 3:Well, we had some feedback that said you know what from from a question what benefits or tools do you feel would help you reduce financial stress? In 24.6 said retirement planning, so of course we're always talking about Texas Saver, the 401k 457 program, and then investment planning was 22.2%, and then help managing cash and debt issues happen to be an 18.2%. So we're constantly looking at how to budget. Circling back to some communications, even even you know you mentioned the bring something up seven times. You started with the Carrie Carver, now Carrie.
Speaker 1:Winkley story and we pulled that and we're constantly pushing that information Absolutely. And the Carrie story is so powerful I hope we can link to that again in the show notes of this episode. But Carrie's story was inspirational because she was able to pay off $40,000. Was it $40,000? I think in debt in a pretty short period of time as a single mom and I think when we look at finances a lot of times people feel super overwhelmed. Last week I had a really great speaker deliver a webinar on this topic. He said it's less about what we make, more about what we do with what we make and really forming those good financial habits. And it and that's that's what we're trying to do is help with the education, because obviously we're not the employer here at ERS but we do care deeply about people's financial health, mental health, physical health and especially as state employees.
Speaker 4:Right, that's what's so great about Carrie's story is she's a state employee and she has access to the same resources and benefits that state employees have access to, so it's always great to hear the success stories from other state employees.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think it was interesting just last week hearing the story from the speaker. His name is Nick Daughtry he. He talked about just one of the biggest things that we do in America is we get into these huge car payments. Right, like, yeah, he said 18 percent of people in America was 18 percent of people in America have a car payment over a thousand dollars and in Texas it's we are like the worst because of our big trucks.
Speaker 4:And we love our cars, we love our cars.
Speaker 3:$1,000 a month. A month, yeah, it's pretty standard.
Speaker 1:Now what? Yeah, some people have a car payments over $1,500 a month. You were saying now on these long-term payments, it's so crazy. Yeah, it's like you know house payment. So, or what a house payment used to be.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that's why this episode is relatable, because everybody has some sort of moment in their life and maybe they've overcome it but um, where financial stress was a big part or defining, even if it was, you know like. Personally, I've had, um, you know, big vet bills that I wasn't prepared for. That prompted me to get pet insurance, which was a really good financial move. And just preparing, you know, some of it is inexperience and others is just really getting good with your finances and making a budget. So hopefully, with the resources, you can learn to be more confident and take some of that stress out, because the budget should really guide you and not stress you out. I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and I like how Nick talks about you have to put things into the budget that will help you stick to a budget. So, for instance, if you know that you like shopping for clothes, create a budget for it. Put $100 in your monthly budget that allows you some flexibility so that you can go shopping for something that's going to give you joy, because if you make it miserable, it's going to be hard to stick to a budget. So, yeah, I think these things all definitely we can all relate and everybody's had their financial challenges. But it's really coming back to those daily habits and, you know, figuring out what's going to work. Everybody's different.
Speaker 3:Me personally, holding to a hundred dollar shopping clothing budget would be a difficult challenge, but, you know, I think having a community of people to help you, like my friends, will definitely be able to help me do that. I could say, hey, you know, we can window shop, but I'm not going to take my credit card or my card inside of there. I think that, um, you know, challenges are so, so helpful for us all and I think that's part of the reason why I also like Buena Vida, and you kind of brought up the assessment earlier. So I went ahead and took it and I was shocked and disappointed because I thought I was going to score higher, but I did get some Buena Vida bucks. So I'm okay with that. But it did connect me with some things for the community to help me in the elements that I very much need help in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm so happy you said that, dani, because, yeah, just signing up for their program isn't going to get you that 25 Buena Vida bucks, but you have to go in and do that health assessment. It should take about 10 minutes and it really does help guide your experience in the app. So it's yeah, it's a really great entry point and if you haven't been in the app or on the, you can use the web-based platform on your computer as well. It's going to prompt you to do that until you do it as well it's going to prompt you to do that until you do it.
Speaker 2:And, Lacey, you have a particular insight into how finances impact people's, you know life more broadly.
Speaker 1:Can you tell us a little more about what you know about that? Yeah, so my formal educational background is in exercise physiology, and so I spent a lot of time kind of learning just about human physiology, how the body works, and what we know is everything's connected, right, and so the brain is connected to the body, and how you think impacts your hormones, and every emotion you experience will create a shift in your heart, your digestive system and so on. And I think about, like going back to Psychology 101, the Maslow's hierarchy of needs right, we all had that class probably at some point or you've seen that hierarchy and security is really at the bottom of the pyramid. And when we are financially stressed, right.
Speaker 1:So if you're experiencing some sort of financial burden or major issue or having a hard time kind of making ends meet, that's going to impact being able to put food on the table, it could impact your shelter, your ability to buy your children clothing for school, which is going to impact their experience, and so all of those things that stress that we can experience from the financial side can increase our blood pressure, it can increase our heart rate, it can affect how well we're sleeping, and all of these things contribute to these chronic conditions that we're seeing so prevalent in our society.
Speaker 1:Also, when we don't have a budget in place, we're more likely to like just swing through and buy fast food from a, from a window right, and because it's easy and it's cheap and that's going to impact our health. But having that food budget and really kind of thinking about how am I going to live my life week by week, meal prepping and things like that can make a huge difference. So to me it's all interconnected and the financial piece is really kind of down there at the base of the pyramid. If we don't have that in order, it's going to be really hard to go out and live a good, solid, healthy life for our families.
Speaker 3:I fully agree. I think that right now is an excellent time for us to maybe challenge ourselves and others with the start of the new state fiscal year to really develop a new budget. There are lots of new things coming at us new schedules, new elements inside of our careers that it might be a good challenge for us internally within ERS and then also, you know, our subscribers to create a new budget, and I think that we'll be able to really help them out in this edition too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. I think creating the budget is the first step. Really, even before creating a budget is figuring out. Over the past month, how did I spend my money, like where's it going, if you don't have a budget already? For me and my husband, when we started budgeting, I realized that we were spending way too much money on restaurants, like just way too much money, because I love to eat out, like I love to not have to do the dishes. But that was a wake up call and if I'm just you know spending, have no idea then. Yeah, so the awareness.
Speaker 4:And I like how you said you know if you're spending, put it in your budget, right, because I think that was my thing for a long time. I was like, well, I just won't buy a new outfit this month, you know I'm going to and I won't put in my budget. But what did I do? I went and bought a new outfit anyway and so it's just like budget for it. Put it in there. And, to your point, the awareness is probably one of the key factors.
Speaker 1:And then you feel guilty because you bought the new outfit and you can't enjoy it.
Speaker 3:So yeah, it's a cycle a whole lot on convenience spending. Like I'm driving and my commute's kind of long, I'll drive and grab my food and have that convenience eating while I'm driving. Of course it's one handed, I quickly shove it down my throat Right. But then I come into the office, I'm working and I buy some food here too, and I have to. To admit, my my budget's ripped. So I challenged myself and I laugh all you want, laugh all you want. But I challenged myself one week and I saved 60 dollars, not doing that convenient spending just for lunch. Just for lunch. I'm still doing my breakfast and dinner. But yeah, yes, yes, I enjoy food and I'm going to make sure that I'm going to eat something healthy, and sometimes healthy foods are a little bit expensive, right, they're worth it.
Speaker 3:They are worth it. But you know what else is worth it Making those healthy foods at the house where I know that I can spend my money in places that maybe it's best suited for me in the long term places that maybe it's best suited for me in the long term. And something that really creates a routine for me because I think that's one thing that's really helpful is having that routine to avoid having to come back to my budget weekly or month by month to try to adjust and maneuver in a safe way for my mental health and my finances right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great, I mean, and it is really. I think the thing is as well. You can make adjustments month by month. You aren't stuck Like if you realize, oh I need, I'm going to need a little more money in this area because that's not working for me. We've got to figure out how to make adjustments, but we only make what we make. You know, unless you want to pick up an extra job and, you know, drive Uber or something like that, there's always side gigs that can help.
Speaker 3:But even then, you're spending money on gas, right?
Speaker 2:You're going to be adding to that wear and tear and it's pretty stressful to add a second or third job and not have that time as downtime. And hopefully, if you get your budget in order, I think you can, kind of you don't have to monitor it all the time forever. Once you get good with it, I think it can. It takes some practice but hopefully a good budget can keep you from having to keep your eye on it like every single purchase.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. Whenever I took my health assessment through Buena Vida, I got a score for some of the things that are impacting my life, and one of them was stress. So it did push me information for stress, and one of them was the Learn to Live application and just other community elements for it. Right, yeah, learn to.
Speaker 1:Live. You know, for anybody who's managing our health plan participants. It's digital and I've been going through the resiliency course, so I think this is a good one. Even if you aren't managing a condition, or maybe you don't have full-blown anxiety or depression or substance use issues, we can all learn some skills to be more resilient so that when stuff does happen, as it inevitably will in our lives, we're all going to deal with stress. Then we got some tools and some resources to really be able to address that.
Speaker 4:So, going back to one of the stats you mentioned earlier, lacey, we said that 40% of the respondents that took the health risk assessment within the Buena Vida app stated that financial stress was impacting their health, job or relationships. And so we talk a lot about, like sure, establish a budget and all these kinds of things, but the app can help with maybe, like you said, meeting people where they are right. Maybe you just got to get the stress under control before you can even think about a budget or what's next with my budget. So maybe we talk a little bit about the resources that are available.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's such a great point. 40% of people are trying to manage financial stress, but maybe the thing that you need is to talk to a therapist, right? Maybe you need to really seek professional help, because maybe there's some underlying stuff there that is affecting you and that is so overwhelming that you know you got to figure that out before you can deal with this budget. And so we have a couple of programs you know, like MD Live and Doctor on Demand. We have virtual mental health visits at no cost to plan participants.
Speaker 1:A lot of people don't know that we have a huge network of mental health support that you can see someone in person for a traditional co-pay as well, which you know. I think there's a lot, just a lot of resources out there.
Speaker 4:And the doctor on demand and MD live are at. No, they don't have a co-pay, no co-pay.
Speaker 1:If you're using the app.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 4:And you think about how expensive mental health can be, you know, when you don't have employer insurance. But the access to that you know online is amazing.
Speaker 1:I just got off the phone with a very close friend of mine that works for the state that is seeing a therapist online and it has been a game changer for her.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean just talking through what's going on in your head, right, and we think about To be able to verbalize it, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah. With an objective person that's going to look at it in a different way. And I know so many people that you know they just go out to their car and they're on their therapy visit and you know they just do that and come back and it's at no cost and it's really cool thing.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and you can get to that through Buena Vida, to your point, you can get right to those resources.
Speaker 3:That's me. You know. I'm just a go go go person and I think that, like, it's definitely a mental thing. So for me, I see my therapist and I am actually pretty stressed about my finances, right. So I have a decent salary, I have an excellent credit score, low debt, but it's really just the mindset that I grew up with that makes me so concerned about my finances. You know, like, growing up we didn't, we did a month to month kind of thing, and it's concerning, right, so, having that individual be able to like help me plan things out. Even even though I have my budget, I stick to it and it's not like I don't plan that $60 lunch in there. It's, it's associated with food, but maybe I'm spending excessively on food, right, but I think that it's definitely something that's really important to me and I wish more individuals did. I see my therapist weekly. If I'm having to be in the office, I'll go take my lunch hour and I'll go talk to my therapist in my car. So maybe Angelica is talking about me whenever she's talking about people.
Speaker 4:I know so many people that do that. I used to do it too. But yeah, I know I tell a lot of people like, hey, let's go have lunch. And they're like, oh right, after my therapy session I'm like cool, we'll work that in too. So I think it's I mean, it's a cool thing to have access'm looking at these stats. I love these stats. I think I've told you that before. They just are so telling.
Speaker 4:And the other thing that a lot of people are interested in is you know financial planning resources and you know retirement planning, and I think a lot of these respondents are probably more tenured in their state career. But I talk to a lot of people when I travel to that you know they're younger and they're thinking about financial planning now and retirement planning, and I think that that's. You know. One of the things that we try to push all the time I think Danny mentioned it earlier is the availability of the Texas Saver RPAs and whether you're contributing or not. You know, I think a lot of people don't even know they're contributing, you're contributing or not, you know, I think a lot of people don't even know they're contributing and it just you know it's so.
Speaker 4:It's so, um, it's kind of a cool thing, Cause it's like, oh, I've been putting this money aside and you're like, wow, I didn't even know that was there. But you know, knowledge is power. And so just talking to someone, um, about what your situation is and what your long-term goals are, Um, I mean, that's a resource that we have available at no cost, Right, and I think we probably have a card for Texas Saver.
Speaker 1:We do. Yeah, you can get right to Texas Saver from the Buena Vida portal as well we have links to and the Texas Saver the website has come so far. I mean it's really. They've got some phenomenal tools on that website so you can project for the future and really have your stuff in order. And I mean there's great education there. You don't even have to talk to somebody. But if you wanted to, they'd make those counselors available at no cost. Like you said, they have a budgeting tool too.
Speaker 2:When you're logged into your account and see your dashboard, you can do savings planner. You can bring in your whole financial picture and do budgeting, rainy day fund and I think we see that in some of the survey respondents that people want help. They don't really know how to plan for an emergency fund or you know how much that should be and when they should use it. Even though Danny has written an article for money matters, if anybody wants to go back and look at that, oh, all of these things are going to be in the show notes, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's going to be a long list of show notes, All the plugs oh yes, yes, I love it yeah.
Speaker 4:All of these programs we're talking about can be found in the Buena Vida app. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:And some of them are triggered by the way everyone will see all the time. And then there are things that only if you have a condition. But the other really great thing about this program is that if you go in and you say I have diabetes, we can reach out to you through email, through the program, and say here's all the resources that we have to support you and we have wonder health, we have real appeal Weal, we have Omada for Diabetes.
Speaker 1:Maybe there's some more that I'm leaving out but there's all these programs that we have available so we can also email that to you directly and so that's just another way that we can get those resources to our plan participants. And again, I mean we have to say this stuff so many times sometimes because, like Dani said, I might not be ready to change my life right now, like I might have too much going on to focus on changing my nutrition because I'm taking care of a sick parent right Like there are times in our life where we just need to get by like, just live every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then when we're ready, it's there.
Speaker 4:I like the idea that you know the whole holistic wellness aspect of Buena Vida is so amazing, and I think August is sort of the month where we talk a lot about financial wellness and you have some content that you put out this month in addition to your podcast. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 1:Sure, so we had a webinar I talked a little bit about earlier with Nick Daughtry and we had, I think, over 500 people attended that webinar live. I have it recorded and we can also put a link to that webinar in the show notes. It was very well received, really great content. He's always really inspirational. And then on the 28th of August we are going to be doing a webinar on healthy eating on a budget which I'm overwhelmed with the response we're getting on this. We have over 1000 people registered for that webinar, so that tells me that's something that people really want help with is how to eat well on a budget.
Speaker 4:It can be expensive.
Speaker 1:Oh so, yeah, it's so expensive. And so Holly Cuso, who is our dedicated sorry, who is our dedicated program manager at WebMD, she's going to be coming in and delivering that content, and so we're excited to push that out as well. And then I have been promoting what y'all do.
Speaker 4:So cool. And all of that is prerecorded too, right, lacey? So they can find that. Hopefully, like you said, we'll put in the show notes, but also online, absolutely Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Great. Also in the Buena Vida app, when you complete your incentives and get your Buena Vida bucks, there is a whole little store there to spend your Buena Vida bucks. Yeah, there are many, many cool items, but specifically on topic to this episode, some of the items include a subscription to Good Budget, a budgeting app. Also the Calm app, the Headspace app and a book called the Psychology of Money and some other things specifically to reducing anxiety and financial stress.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's cool. I didn't realize we had books and stuff on there and it was pretty easy to get those Buena Vida books. It's so easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've made it so easy this year. We wanted to make it super simple Three actions. You can earn your full 100 Buena Vida bucks, which is $99 in value that you can spend in a store. And, if anyone's wondering, we have to stay under $100. That's why it's capped at $99, because of tax implications, because we're not the employer.
Speaker 4:We don't want to tax anyone.
Speaker 1:We don't want to tax anybody and we don't have to send out tax forms to everyone. That creates a whole other layer of challenge. But we have $99 that we can work with, and this year is $25 or 25 points for doing the health risk assessment. We keep talking about 25 for downloading the app I mean that's the easiest $25 you'll ever make and then $50 for doing your annual preventive exam, because we're really trying to get folks to engage with preventive health care, and that's a really great first step. If you have a PCP, which most people in our health plan do, you can go see your PCP. It costs you nothing to do that visit. You'll get your blood work. If you don't go to your PCP regularly, you can do this virtually from home through a catapult kit. All of that is available in the app, all that information. So, yeah, next year we're going to change this a little bit though, so just keep an eye out.
Speaker 1:You want to earn your points this year and spend them. When do they have? Until? We are encouraging people to get their annual exam before November 15th, because it can take four to six weeks for that claim to process. You don't have to do anything either. The claim will go through Blue Cross be sent to WebMD, you don't have to do anything either. The claim will go through. Blue Cross be sent to WebMD. So you don't have to do anything to get your $50. It should just pop up in your app and then you can spend it. But before November 15th you'll be safe. If you do it. After that you may not get the points and time to spend them, because they have to be spent before the end of this tax year, december 31st, real quickly see like, in addition to the things that Suzanne just mentioned.
Speaker 4:I mean there's Nike hats on here, there's the viral Stanley cups that everyone goes crazy for, there's Yetis, there's Oakley sunglasses.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, it's all mostly health related things. It was interesting too. We went back to Well on Target the program that we had before through Blue Cross and looked at what people were spending their. It was blue points before. What are people spending their blue points on? And I don't know if anyone else finds this interesting, but the number one item people redeem points for was the Gun and Garden magazine, so we added that to our store. Interesting Because Texas Because Texas?
Speaker 4:Because Texas.
Speaker 3:I love it so much I was going to guess the toothbrushes. You know, I have to admit end of the year. Right, it's the end of the year. So, in the event that you maybe are budgeting, maybe you want to get somebody a gift, a healthy gift with your. Buena Vida bucks, there are toothbrushes and, of course, the viral Stanley Cup that Angelica mentioned. So, lacey, you're talking about the future of Buena Vida. Can you tell us what's in store for the upcoming year? Yes, so.
Speaker 1:I'm super excited to announce our upcoming challenge. It's called Trek Through Texas. This is a state park-themed challenge that we've been working collaboratively with Texas Parks and Wildlife, WebMD and ERS together and it's a six-week challenge and the goal is to get 50,000 steps in a week, which is about 7,000 steps a day. 7,000 is what we know is really helpful for heart health. 10,000 has kind of been debunked. I don't know if you all knew that, but 10,000 is it's kind of been debunked.
Speaker 4:I don't know if y'all knew that, but 10,000 is no longer Interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean 10,000 is great, but 7,000 is really where we see the most benefit. After that it's not quite as much benefit.
Speaker 4:But if you want to do 10,000. Well, that's good news. Yeah, it's good news.
Speaker 1:So, that's our goal is to get 50,000 steps a week, and then you get entered into a drawing for a state parks pass donated by Texas Parks and Wildlife, and so that's, that's our big challenge. That starts on September 15. And registration will open on September 1. And I also just want to share I guess this is a good time to share what's happening in the next year. Personally, I am actually leaving my role here at ERS, and so this is a little bittersweet to announce, but I think this is a good forum to kind of push that out, because, yeah, I just want to make sure everybody knows we'll miss you, we will miss
Speaker 3:you. You'll be so missed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I'm gonna miss you all. It certainly is, like I said, bittersweet is the emotion for leaving this amazing place. I have really loved, loved the opportunities that I've had here and I absolutely love the people that I've had the opportunity to work with and support across the state. But I'm excited for the next adventure. I'm vested, you know I've been with the state close to 12 years and so I'm just going to leave my money here and smart move, yeah, and maybe come back and finish out with state government and get a yeah, lots of people do that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's a good move.
Speaker 3:So you did your research and you spoke to the most knowledgeable individuals that you're aware of with an ers to make sure that you're making the best decision for your finances moving forward. Of course, you're aware of what you're doing with your upcoming role, but you wanted to be sure that you're aware of what you're doing with your upcoming role, but you wanted to be sure that you were aware of what you're doing with your pension and your 401k 457, everything you're doing with Texas Saver prior to leaving, so that that's really amazing.
Speaker 2:And the program will continue. We'll rehire for the role and people will still get an. Evita and the.
Speaker 4:You know she set it up for success before she, before she leaves us, and I know you know you've done amazing work with that, lacey, so congratulations and a lot of connections throughout the state with our benefits coordinators and those at the various agencies we serve.
Speaker 3:So thank you so much. You did the great thing the National Park things. You left it better than you visited it.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you, I love that. I love that. I guess the state parks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, state parks, any parks, right? Yes, nature, you're leaving us better than when you saw us and you visited.
Speaker 4:Thank you, Well, thanks for joining us, Lacey. We really appreciate it For everyone listening. Go download the Buena Vida app. You'll have access to a ton of resources, lots of things that you didn't know existed in terms of offerings for your health plan and well-being initiatives.
Speaker 2:Thanks, lacey, again for being on today's episode. We're going to miss you, but you've left us with lots of wonderful resources and, as always, with our listeners, we love to get your feedback on any of the things we've been discussing or what you'd like to hear in future episodes. So please send us your ideas at story underscore, ideas at erstexasgov, because we'd love to hear your thoughts On Money Talks. This material is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide investment, legal or tax recommendations or advice.