Money Talks: Milestones, moments and what's next

In this episode, we reflect on key money tips and insights from past Money Talks conversations. We revisit the lessons that stood the test of time, the moments that shaped the year, and how those takeaways continue to influence today’s financial decisions.

Hosted by Crystal Olvera, Angelica Rivera and Erika Perez, we also look ahead, exploring the themes, topics, segments and ideas that are shaping the future of Money Talks. From fresh conversations to unexpected insights, this episode bridges where we’ve been with where we’re headed next.

In this episode, we highlighted tips from the following episodes:

• Empower Hour with Texa$aver's Mike McLellan
• Get a glimpse of future you with a Texa$aver Retirement Plan Advisor
• Get scam savvy so you don't get swindled
• Get the real deal with the ERS Discount Purchase Program
• We talk about death so you don't have to: A conversation about ERS' Optional Term Life Insurance
• What's healthcare inflation? Understanding the value of your health insurance amid rising costs

Have a story idea or topic you want us to cover? Email us at storyideas@ers.texas.gov

Transcript

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Crystal Olvera: Welcome to season two of the ERS Money Talks Podcast, coming to you straight from the Capitol Complex here in Austin, Texas. Today we are going to talk about our favorite financial pearls of wisdom shared by some of our favorite guests of 2025.

Angelica Rivera: So exciting that we have 11 episodes under our belt from the last year. We had a lot of really great guests on, a lot of really, really helpful information that we've shared for our members with the State of Texas. We also have a new newcomer with the State of Texas. Her name is Erika Perez, and she's with us today. Hi, Erika.

Erika Perez: Hi, Angelica, Crystal. I am so happy to be here. As Angelica said, I am a newcomer. I've been here for a few months. Naturally, as a podcast listener, the moment I heard we had a podcast, I was like, “Okay, where is it? Where can I listen?” I just started playing it while sitting at my desk waiting for an assignment and I just loved it. I was very excited to hear about it. Most importantly, I was excited to learn how many resources are available to me as somebody who was hired on. I'm also here to share a little bit of stats that I've heard from y'all. Yes.

AR: Love stats. 

CO: Give us the numbers.

EP: Yes. So did you know that you're in the top 50% of podcasts?

AR: Amazing.

EP: I know. I think that's really exciting when you think about all the other industries and all the other hosts and just all the other work that goes into everybody's craft. Y'all are top 50. I'm sure that puts a lot of ideas of where this podcast can go in the future in 2026. We've been heard in 317 cities in the U.S. and there's no surprise the most popular is Austin. So I'm sure y'all went ahead and told everybody you knew. 

CO: Everyone I know. Everyone I know. 

EP: And we were also listened to in Pflugerville and Houston. So thank you all so much for listening to our voices.

AR: Sorry about the Texans.

EP: We've reached people all over the world. So it's not enough to say that we're being listened to in Texas, but we are also being listened to in 27 countries, including Germany and Singapore, which sounds surprising. Where are the theories on that one?

CO: So I do know a lot of our retirees will go live abroad or travel. So that might be a reason. We've might have some people in Singapore traveling and missing us.

AR: Yeah, let us know if you're one of our Germany or Singapore listeners. Reach out to us. We'll have you on the pod.

CO: So we are going to move on to some of our favorite pieces of advice from the experts that we learned over the course of our 11 episodes. We'll have those episodes listed in the show notes, and you can refer back to maybe listen to the entire episode to get a little more information about the topic we're discussing. 

Let's kick it off with a clip from Mike McLellan, who is with Texa$aver. He is going to really kind of explain why a 401(k) is necessary. A lot of people ask, “I have a pension. Why do I need a 401(k)?” He does the best job of explaining exactly why. So let's listen to him kind of shed some light on why a 401(k) can really benefit you.

Mike McLellan: There's something that we need to know about this pension, that these ERS annuities are not inflation adjusted. They're not inflation adjusted.

I think I saw a stat the other day that the average ERS retiree is 58 years of age and they get an ERS pension of somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,800 to $1,900 a month. So think about that for a second. You retire at 58; it's your first month of retirement. That $1,900 check comes in the mail and you're excited. Retire now and I've got this money coming in for the rest of my life. Well, guess what? That check is going to stay $1,900 when you're 58, and when you're 68, and when you're 78, and when you're 88, and when you're 138. It's going to stay exactly the same amount. But guess what else is going to go up? The price of your groceries. That's what's going to go up and up and up. 

You see, the biggest “threat,” the biggest concern for people in retirement--and I’m talking to everybody no matter what your age is here--is not “picking the right investment.” That's what the media I think wants you to hear. The biggest threat is inflation and the ERS pension is simply not inflation-protected. 

However, let's look at the other side of the coin. When you talk about being an investor in the Texa$aver plan, the Texa$aver plan is voluntary, No.1, so that means that you don't have to do it. Certainly, the value can fluctuate up and down. We see the stock markets up, the stock markets down, every single day and week and month and year. We know that. But think about it like this: as the consumer, I hate inflation. You hate inflation. I'm looking at my Apple iPhone right now. When I have to go buy a stupid new iPhone next year, it’s going to be at least 3% more expensive just because of inflation. But what if I have an Apple stock? What is inflation going to do to the value of that Apple stock? It's going to inflate it.

Same thing with my Starbucks cup of coffee. My coffee is going to be more expensive 10 years from now. But guess what else is going to be more valuable? The value of my Starbucks stock. 

Here's the rule that I think is important for everybody to realize: Consumers, like we all are, we hate inflation. Investors, long term, love inflation. Because investing into things that have prices like stock, that's a hedge against inflation because as inflation goes up, so should the value of your investments. 

When you put those two pieces of the puzzle together, when you have a source of income, and I'm talking about your ERS annuity, when you have that, that's stable and guaranteed, and the value is never going to change (but it does get eroded by inflation). You put that with an investment that is not necessarily stable (the value can fluctuate, but is a hedge against inflation), that's a powerful retirement income picture that everybody listening to you right now that's in line for both the ERS pension and the Texa$aver Plan is really, really going to benefit from if they'll take advantage of both sides.

AR: This is one of my favorite episodes. I think Mike does a really great job explaining things to folks that maybe aren't as investment savvy. I highly encourage anyone who hasn't scheduled a meeting with a retirement plan advisor to do so. I think that takes us, Crystal, to our next episode that we talk with another retirement plan advisor.

CO: That's right, Angelica. That is Nick Frye. He is also from Texa$aver. What I love about this is he's shedding some light on some resources that I wasn't even familiar with. He talks about all of the different levels of investing people might have. So, like for me, I know nothing about investing. But then there are maybe those people who do know a little more, some who are intermediate. He talks about the different tools that are available on the Texa$aver website. So let's listen to him.

Nick Frye: There's three services when it comes to investing. There's “Do it Myself”--and by the way, this is all on the website as well. Whenever you click on “my investments,” do it yourself is just like it sounds. It's for DIY investors that can either just choose to roll with one target day fund or they can utilize the core funds, etc. 

There's another service called “Help Me Do it.” “Help Me Do It” is a tool called “Online Advice” that will require you to input some information about yourself, when you're going to retire, how much you'll have in retirement, spending, etc. It will give you a point-in-time recommendation. So I use those words on purpose, “point in time,” because it's for that exact time, that exact moment. It's going to give you a recommendation on how you should be invested. You would be responsible for implementing that investment strategy and then rebalance it on a monthly basis as things get out of whack and the market does what it does. 

Then we have a third option called “Do it for Me.” I'm going to steal this from one of the advisors I work with: “It's for people that don't have the time, will, or skill to do the investing portion themselves.” When you start getting to a point where maybe you're a little bit overwhelmed, maybe you're looking at your account more than you should, or you're just second-guessing all your decisions in general, that's probably the time to engage a retirement plan advisor. Consider all your investing options as well as what the managed account service offers.

AR: I love that Nick really gets into the different levels of investment help. One of the things that he talks about too in this segment is how you don't need to have investment experience. Quoting him, if you're doing investing right, it's like watching paint dry. And I love that so much because so many people think you have to be investment-savvy to save. And that's really not true. He talks about target date funds, which not a lot of people know how they work. You really don't even have to know anything about investing to be able to save with a target date fund. You just have to know the date that you want to retire, the day you're eligible to retire. He can help a lot with that. Those adjust your allocations as you get closer to your retirement date, and it's based off a glide path. So tune into that episode if you're interested in learning more about target date funds or reach out to Nick yourself and schedule a one-on-one session.

EP: For me, it was really exciting that episode because I was able to learn just even that. Like the target date fun was really exciting for me because I was new. I didn't know where to start, what I was doing. Listen, I was an English major okay? The math was not mathing. It feels very overwhelming. Being able to listen to the voices of my fellow colleagues mixed in with a professional who is not only just a professional who knows his craft, who is an expert in his field, but who is also available to me almost at any time (obviously within you know professional reasonable hours). I just thought that was honestly really incredible and it was definitely an episode that I enjoyed.

CO: And that's what we're trying to do with Money Talks--bring experts and people who really know about the topic we're presenting to help you with your finances. 

This is probably my favorite episode that we did. It was the first episode I did with Money Talks. This is the episode titled “Get Scam Savvy So You Don't Get Swindled.” This is where we met one of our favorite guests that we've had so far: Ms. Treshayla Wilson. She's with the office of the consumer credit commissioner. All we did was talk about scams and how to avoid being duped. 

One of the most useful ones that I thought she presented was talking about protecting your information. That is what really scammers want. You might think they want their money, but they can't get your money until they get your information.

EP: Yeah, it's funny how we don't realize it's literally that simple. Like just hide your information. It's so easy to put your information out. Even as you're listening to my voice right now, you now have my voice. Don't get any ideas. But it's like your information is really out there. Having an expert talk about these--you don't think about it--very almost innate things that you can do to avoid getting swindled.

CO: Yeah, she mentioned something about Facebook Messenger and Facebook accounts, which I thought was terrifying because I have my whole family on there. 

EP: Like mom, 

CO: I don't even go on Facebook, but the only reason I do is because my family is on there and I would hate to have someone impersonate me and pretend to be me. It's a little bit scary.

EP: Absolutely. So we should listen to the clip.

CO: Yes.

Treshayla Wilson: So this is going to be an email or Facebook Messenger saying that someone tried to log into your account from a new device or that your account violated copyright laws. This actually happened to me the other day. I do not use Facebook often, but I was on Marketplace, as many people are. 

CO: Of course. 

Treshayla Wilson: And I got this message from Facebook Messenger saying that my account violated copyright laws, that I needed to click on a link to verify my account and enter my password. At that point, I was thinking, “Okay, this is definitely a scam.” But I went and I Googled it as well, and a lot of people said, “Don't click on this.” Facebook even has an official memo saying, “Don't click on this. We would never ask you for your password in that way.” When you do that, basically it takes you to a fake page that looks legitimate, and then cyber criminals can steal your credentials. Then they will use your account to scam other Facebook users, perhaps people that are your friends or people you follow on uh social media. Very sneaky. Very sneaky.

CO: That's like my biggest nightmare. Having someone pose as me on Facebook or social media. I don't know. It's just I don't know. It's so creepy.

Suzanne Krause: I hate even when I'll look in my spam folder and there's something that supposedly used my email address and I think they're just spoofing my email. They didn't really hack my email. But I'm like, no, I didn't send that to anybody. Like it's just the most ridiculous.

Treshayla Wilson: Do you guys watch “Catfish”? 

CO: Yes. I have.

Treshayla Wilson: The amount of people that create fake Facebooks and even have fake friends and fake posts on their wall is unbelievable. But again, you just have to know who you're dealing with. Don't trust anybody. If it's a friend and they're asking you for something suspicious, don't be afraid to question it and take your time replying and do some digging. We all have to be our own personal detectives when it comes to cyber criminals because they are smart and they are one step ahead of us.

EP: I love how she's like, “Don't trust anybody.” It reminds me of that meme that's like, “Don't trust anyone, not even yourself.”

CO: I know, right? I mean, now with AI and things like that, people can impersonate you on the phone.

EP: The amount of things my mom sends me on Messenger, coincidentally, of like, be careful, you know, it's like really scary, short--how reels can become so scary and daunting.

CO: I know.

AR: I know. These boomers on Facebook. I mean, my mom, too, with all the scary stuff on Facebook. I'm sort of glad that I don't use it. 

EP: No, literally. 

AR: Maybe they're more aware of these things than we actually think. So kudos to Facebook. 

EP: So I guess we should go on to the next one.

CO: Right. So one great benefit that the state does offer is this exclusive club that we're all a part of. It is that discount purchase program.

AR: Our employees love the Discount Purchase Program.

EP: I was going to say when I joined--as if it's not this beautiful land of benefits and Texas State Employment and resources and support--it was like, oh, by the way, the discount purchase program.

CO: That’s right! So if you are a state employee, you can get discounts on everything. My favorite thing about this episode with Tom Murphy, who is the senior vice president of Enterprise Solutions at Beneplace, which is the administrator of the Discount Purchase Program, is Tom talked a lot about how it's not just vacations and concert tickets and things like that--cruises. We all know that y'all are on there looking for those kinds of things, of course, because they're at a great price, right? But there are a lot of other things out there, a lot of household stuff that you might not know about that you can find discounts on.

AR: Speaking of tax season, I think they got tax prep out there. They have rental cars. I get that I guess that goes along the lines of travel, but lots of other things to your point. So 

CO: Yeah.

EP: Yeah. I mean, I even think I saw security systems. 

AR: Cavendar’s. 

CO: Cavendar’s.

CO: And I think in this episode, Suzanne even talked about appliances. I think she bought a washer or something. 

EP: Okay, be right back. I'm going to go shopping. 

CO: All right. So let's listen to the clip.

Tom Murphy: We've seen the shift in utilization and where people are pointing their dollars over the last two quarters. We've all heard the funny egg stories, but eggs are expensive. Every household has to stretch their dollar in a different way than maybe we had to do nine months ago, a year ago, two years ago. 

What we've actually done is--we found this fascinating and we found this important--we've done work with our data scientists here and we looked at, for an average American, what their credit card bills were over the course of a year. Some areas and some expenses, that's not our wheelhouse. Some people are actually paying their mortgage through their credit card now. That's not something that we supply. But what we did do is we looked at everything that's on our site against everything that is being spent on the average credit card bill. And what we found is that if you were to use the savings marketplace to the full capability, one would save over $5,000 a year just going there first, whether it be to get that washing machine when something goes out. So it's pretty amazing how you're 

CO: That's remarkable. Yeah, $5,000 is a lot of money. 

Tom Murphy: It is a lot of money. It is kind of eye-opening. The thing is, when we're thinking about these big ticket items to travel, one, they're very important. I think having fellowship with friends and family is important. But one could argue they're not necessary. These were the necessary bills that were on the credit card. This is not saving 20 to 40% on something that you may or may not need. This is you paying your cell phone bill. That's a necessity. This is a savings on that, on top of what you already have. So it's meaningful.

EP: Yeah, that episode was very, very, very exciting for me as a newcomer, like a shopper, a newcomer, as a human being who likes a deal. That was really, really fun for me. So let's go ahead and move on to the next tip. 

CO: Yeah, on to a more serious topic, but important topic. In the episode, “We talk about death, so you don't have to: A conversation about ERS's optional term life insurance.” We talk about the importance of designating those beneficiaries, and we encourage everyone to do it as soon as possible. 

So here's Lynn Gordon of Securian, which is the administrator of our Optional Term Life insurance plan. And she's going to tell you why it's so important to designate that beneficiary.

Lynn Gordon: It can be pretty frustrating for the loved ones or really sad if the deceased didn't finish their beneficiary designation or if they didn't update their beneficiaries. Families might have to wait a long time to get any type of payment. And especially if they didn't designate a beneficiary, and we have to follow that plan priority that I spoke of earlier, where it would go to a spouse. And if there's no spouse, children and so on. One of the biggest things we probably come across is when we get to parents or children of the deceased. And the family will tell us, well, that the deceased had no relationship and hadn't talked to the parent in years, decades. 

It sadly, if they have not designated a beneficiary and we have to follow priority, and it gets down to the parents, we have to pay that other parent, even though they had no relationship whatsoever with the deceased. A lot of times, too, in the situation of divorce, people forget to update their beneficiary, and we cannot pay out to ex-spouse unless the designation specifically states ex-spouse. So, say for example, you're married, you get divorced, and you never update your beneficiary, we cannot pay out to the person that's listed as spouse. We would then have to go to the line of descendancy in the plan. 

EP: Wow, when I first joined, something I kept hearing a lot was to make sure you designate those beneficiaries. That was something that was repeated over and over and over again. That was something emphasized by the organization and this episode definitely dove into why it’s important. 

So, with that said, maybe we should look at the next tip from episode “What's healthcare inflation? Understanding the value of your health insurance amid rising costs.”

CO: This episode really talked about how for the first time in several years, ERS did raise their health insurance premiums. We brought on an expert from ERS, Mr. Blaise Duran, who is the director of group benefits, to explain a little bit about why these premiums increase.

Blaise Duran: Yeah, so really, like when we talk about healthcare inflation here, we say healthcare cost trend. What this is talking about is the per capita increase in the cost of care that's going up every year. The things that are driving this are the increases in the cost of services, this inflationary impact. 

Also, broader inflation is affecting this because you know, hospitals have to employ people, so the salaries have to go up. When the job market's really tough, then they have to pay more people to get to hire new nurses and doctors. Then, ultimately that gets passed on to the consumers of healthcare. 

Also, there's new products and services, new drugs. You've heard a lot of things in the news about the new GLP1 drugs for treating diabetes and obesity. Very, very good drugs, but also really, really expensive with a price tag of around $1,000 a month. You've also got an aging population, right? So as people get older, they consume more health care. So this causes an increase in the utilization of healthcare services. That's also increasing our costs. 

Then, the last is the fact that because of the way our benefits are structured, we have limits on what members pay. They have fixed copays or coinsurance max and they have an out of total out-of-pocket max. Therefore, as the cost of care increases, that increase in cost is disproportionately borne by the plan. Therefore, that causes a relatively larger increase in the total cost of care paid by the plan. That's why we're at 90% now, is what the plan is paying for total cost of care. We were closer to 80% in 2011 when we last made a negative benefit change.

AR: It's really interesting to know as state employees, we kind of don't feel that healthcare inflation. We sometimes forget our health insurance is paid at 100% for us and 50% for our dependents, which is amazing. A lot of people do, coming from the private sector, they'll realize what a huge benefit that is. But as tenured employees, some people don't realize, they see, oh, my health, my health insurance is increasing. Wait, what? And that's really a natural thing for a lot of people in the private sector. They see that every year. It's sort of an expectation at this point. 

EP: Yes. 

AR: For us to not have to do that since I think it was 2019, is what Blaise said, is really an amazing thing.

CO: One thing I really enjoyed learning about was why they increase, and a lot of it has to do with cost of care. And, you know, just how medical breakthroughs and things like that all contribute to rising health costs. So there are reasons. Things are more expensive. We all have an aging population with more health problems. So there are many different reasons why that happens.

EP: Yeah, that episode was really insightful and it it does help to know why things happen the way that they happen. With with all these tips behind us and with reflection of 2025, yes, I'm you, yes, I'm here to stay. What do we think the future holds? Crystal, Angelica, how do we feel about money talks? Money matters, these financial resources for the state of Texas employees. Where are we at?

CO: Well, we definitely want to continue talking to experts and offering advice about your benefits, letting you know how to use them, how to help use them to help save you money. Definitely want to continue with that.

AR: Yeah, I'd like for us to do a segment on flexible spending accounts. I think that it's highly underutilized. And I think that there's so much opportunity for it to be used as a budgeting tool and not just pre-tax savings, right? Because we know the pre-text savings is great, but did you know it's a budgeting tool as well? And so I'd love for us to do that. I also think that, you know, with all this talk about AI, what does that look like from an investment horizon, right? What are people doing with AI and and what are our vendor partners doing with it? So maybe we'll have a vendor partner on to talk about AI in in the coming months.

CO: Another segment I really want to do again, or maybe introduce on each episode is our Reddit on Reddit episode. Yes. So many state employees go on there and ask questions about and they're ERS-centered questions, you know, about their benefits and their pension. I definitely would love to feature maybe a question or two each episode and try to just clear something up for someone who might be confused about what group they're in or their retirement or, you know, how what how their annuity works. So I definitely want to address that kind of stuff for, you know, people with questions that are maybe don't have the time to to call ERS.

AR: And that goes back to meeting people where they are, right? With their form of communication and which is a lot of the reason why we have a podcast and just the seamlessness of being able to tune in when it best fits your schedule and deliver that information that way. So yeah.

EP: I mean, so both of you kind of touched on it. It's kind of meeting where they are, you're saying Reddit on Reddit, and it's almost all we are looking at your feedback listeners. We are definitely listening, we are reading, we are receiving. And I think as we plan for the future, we're taking it all in. So don't forget to continue to talk to us, continue to message us, continue to reach out. If you haven't already and you're thinking, should I please do positive, negative, all feedback? We welcome it. We want to make this podcast something that you're listening to, that you're enjoying on your way to and from work. Um, something that you're able to talk to your kids about. I mean, the more financially savvy you are, like Angelica said, with that text flex, the moment I told her that I didn't know what that was as a newcomer, guys. She listen, Angelica's my colleague. She was not my colleague. All of a sudden, she was my disappointed mother. She is not okay. So I definitely excited for those topics that are coming in.
CO: And you're not alone. You're not alone. People get confused with Text Flex. I mean, it's definitely something that can be confusing to people who have never used it before.

AR: Yeah, it's one of my favorite programs to talk about. And I think, you know, as ERS employees and even as state employees, we're kind of like benefit geeks, right? We'll get in a room and just like, did you know about this benefit? And I did this with this.

CO: I totally relate. I get excited about Medicare.

AR: Yeah, I know. So, yep, definitely interested in all the questions that you have about benefits-related topics. And we definitely want to make this a podcast that answers your questions, that addresses the things that are important to you from a benefits perspective. So we are incorporating a lot of that for the new year and can't wait to hear more feedback.

CO: All right. So we welcome any ideas for topics, your thoughts, and you can send anything, any comments to storyideas at ers.texas.gov. So definitely we'd love to hear your thoughts on money talks. This information is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide investment, legal, or tax recommendations or advice.