THE Cambridge Connection - Episode 2

On the debt settlement side, you’re going to deal with companies that are for-profit companies that are telling you not to pay your bills for 12, 18, 24 months where you’re going to deposit money into an account and then eventually settle. What that does to your credit two years down the road of not paying your bills is pretty much trash it, and there are high fees involved in that service as well. So we want to educate the consumer base on how that all works. Again, I’m here to start a conversation with you every week here on the Cambridge Connection. We’re going to answer your questions, hear true life stories, and meet the real experts that will provide suggestions and answers to empower your financial wellness path.

So don’t go away. I’ll be diving in with Arianne with consumer questions, and you’ll be hearing from Tina Marie and her Cambridge Credit Success Moment. And then my special guest this week is Kimberly Lee from the Mental Health Association. This is Gordon Oliver, and you’re listening to The Cambridge Connection right here on WHMP. If you’re having trouble paying down debt or dealing with high interest rates on your credit cards, you need to call Cambridge Credit Counseling.

Sponsor message and introducing Ariane

Cambridge Credit Counseling is a non-profit debt relief agency located right here in the Pioneer Valley. They’ve been helping consumers pay down debt safely for over 25 years, and have helped over 2 million people. com, A-plus with the Better Business Bureau, and they’ve won the Non-Profit of the Year Award. So if you’re struggling to pay down your credit card debt, call Cambridge. The call is free and confidential.

1-800-CAMBRIDGE. All right, welcome back. This is Gordon Oliver, host of The Cambridge Connection. And now it’s time to talk to Ariane, who works with Cambridge Credit Counseling and is the resident digital maven, education enthusiast, and Cambridge Credit hype woman. Ariane has been at Cambridge since 2016, and she’s quickly cemented herself as not only the digital brand specialist, but the financial education coordinator.

Consumer question segment with Ariane

And if you’re wondering if she’s qualified, she’s a licensed educator with her master’s in education from Boston University. Welcome Ariane. Hey, Gordy. I’m so glad we’re talking about mental health today, because a lot of people that reach out to us with questions and comments are coming from a place of confusion and stress. I don’t know anyone that’s thrilled to be in debt.

Can you imagine? My life is so much better with all these student loans, you know? So every week I’m going to be here, and we’re going to be doing real people, real problems where we bring your inquiries from our social media followers to light, and we’re going to talk about them here on the air. This is so important, because we need the consumers listening that will share this with family members and friends to know that there are situations that are very similar, and they need to know that they can get help. Sure.

I completely agree. So let’s dive in with a story that I think is really going to resonate with the theme of 9-11. So next up, we’ve got Serena T. from Washington State, and she feels like she’s going to lose her job over money stress. org, nudge nudge, to whom it may concern.

I think I’m going to lose my job. My husband, Jake, was a firefighter, and sadly he passed away when he was sent to the city near us to help with a big blaze. He died trying to save an elderly couple. It was all very sad and a very dark time for me. We never got to have kids.

My work life is suffering, and all I can think about is my husband and the life we could have had, the life we should have had, and the life I have now. I can’t keep up with the rent payments. I’m not eating. I sleep and work, and I’m starting to lose a lot of focus at work. It’s like I blink and I can see the credit card numbers going up.

If I lose my job, I lose everything. My coworkers keep checking in on me, and my boss is being nice and understanding about Jake, but they don’t know about the money issues. I’m fighting two big battles. How long is it going to be like this? I read about your program online, but what if I sink time into signing up, and I can’t even afford your payments?

Please be upfront and honest with me. Please. Well, here on this somber day of 9-11's 20th anniversary, we’re grateful to have Kimberly Lee from the Mental Health Association, because in this you can see how badly Serena is struggling. But what I’m seeing in the story is counseling is definitely appropriate here, because this is the perfect situation when someone is hanging on too long with all these potential problems without really having a game plan. So what happens if she loses her job?

What happens if credit cards are being used for expenses, and unfortunately there’s no money to pay that the next month? So the first thing that needs to be done is speaking to a counselor at Cambridge Credit Counseling. You’ll do a comprehensive budget, Serena, and then it starts from there on what solutions exist so you can put a game plan together. Serena, I really hope that helps you out. org.

And with your permission, your questions could be on the air. If you’d like, you could reach out to our Facebook page or our Twitter page. Just search for Cambridge Credit, and we’ll be there. So if you want to talk, we’re listening. Thanks for joining me, Ariane, as always.

Break and introducing Tina Marie

Thank you, Gordy, for having me. Coming up next, Tina Marie from Cambridge Credit Counseling will be joining us for the Cambridge Credit Success Moment. This is Gordon Oliver, and you’re listening to The Cambridge Connection right here on WHMP. Did you know financially distracted employees are less productive? Hi, I’m Christopher Vialli, president of Cambridge Credit Counseling.

As a Western Mass nonprofit, we can help your employees manage their debts safely and responsibly and the partnership is free. We already proudly partner with companies like AAA and the Mass Teachers Association. So call me, Christopher, at 1-800-CAMBRIDGE, and let’s talk about bringing financial peace of mind to your employees. Welcome back. This is The Cambridge Connection, and I’m your host, Gordon Oliver.

Cambridge credit success story

So in creating this weekly show, I thought it would be important to share the various success stories of consumers who have worked with Cambridge Credit Counseling, and who would be better to bring those stories to life is none other than Tina Marie, an NFCC-certified credit counselor at Cambridge Credit who, for more than 20 years, has helped thousands of people find their way out of debt and back on the road to financial wellness. Hello, Tina Marie. Hey, Gordon. How are you today? Doing great.

Good, good. I’m very excited to share the story, the Cambridge Credit Success Moment story of the week. Today I want to talk about Larry, who called in on behalf of his mother, his mom’s name’s Helen. Helen is 65 years old and found herself living in Georgia with her own mother while taking care of her because she was ill. When Helen’s mother passed away, she found herself without housing and had to move in with Larry, her son, in New York.

Helen now suffers from anxiety and depression, and she’s very stubborn in all of her ways, which prohibited her from finding a job after the move. So what I’m understanding in this story right away is this is a life moment where things have changed, and as a family they have to come together and deal with a crisis. Exactly, exactly. They, you know, we’re talking son, mother, and grandmother here. And because of the anxiety and the depression, Helen couldn’t work, therefore Larry took on a lot of her responsibilities financially.

This is not uncommon. It happens all the time. Not at all. She didn’t want to be a financial burden on Larry, so she started using her credit cards more without his knowledge. And then Larry recently found out mom owed $45,000 in credit cards.

And Larry told me she’s old school. She perceives herself as a worker bee. She feels she can get a job, pay off the debts. Larry’s a little concerned about the debt owed. $45,000 in credit cards, it’d take years to pay it off.

Okay, so in the counting process, the first thing that you do with Larry is what? Well, basically we went through a budget. Helen and I, and Larry, all together on the phone, talked about their income and their expenses. We went into great detail as to where Helen was spending her money. So if you’re just joining us, this is Gordon Oliver with the Cambridge Credit Success Moment with Tina Marie, and we’re talking about a family situation, and Tina’s going through the stories.

So Tina, in working with that budget and getting the information together, obviously Larry and Helen were not working together. And now in the counseling process, it sounds like they did. Well, exactly. They had no choice. They had to come together.

Helen was concerned she wouldn’t have the debt paid off within years. I mean, let’s face it, she was 65 years old. Unless she hit the lottery, it’s not going to be paid off in a reasonable timeframe. So they needed a plan together to gain control of the situation. So again, together we went through the analysis.

We determined that a debt management plan would be the most beneficial. With that, we were able to lower her monthly payments by over $400 a month. Wow. Exactly. rates as low as 6%.

We put her on a plan where she’d be debt free in four years, so before she even turns 70 years old. They were both so relieved to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Wow. So on this somber day that we’re dealing with, we’re talking about mental health, and you can see in this story how things shifted tremendously. And again, it’s important to understand that when I hear these stories, there are many people that don’t join that debt management program.

They get clear on what the solutions are, or the narrowed down options, and then they have a plan to walk away with so that they can stay working together on the solutions that the counselors provide. Exactly. Just like we spoke about previously, the action plan. Whether or not they enroll in the program or not, they walk away with an action plan. Wow.

This is going to be great every week talking about these stories, because this is exactly what the consumers need to hear, that there is success no matter where you are financially. If you’re trying to get financially well, there’s opportunities and answers out there to go after. So thank you for joining me. You are truly a rock star, always inspiring to hear about a financial wellness success story. Thank you.

Break and introducing Kimberly Lee

We’re going to take another short one-minute break, and we’ll be back with our special guest this week, Kimberly Lee from the Mental Health Association. This is Gordon Oliver, and you’re listening to The Cambridge Connection right here on WHMP. Hi, everyone. I’m Christopher Viale, President of Cambridge Credit Counseling. One of my agency’s local business partners is MHA, the Mental Health Association.

They provide access to therapies for emotional health and wellness, services for people trying to recover from substance abuse or deal with developmental disabilities. With the help of the dedicated staff at MHA, more people are living their best lives out in the communities we all call home. org. Welcome back. This is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection, here along with my special guest, Kimberly Lee.

Conversation on mental health partnership

Kimberly is the Vice President of Resource Development and Branding for the Mental Health Association, and thanks for joining us, Kimberly. Thank you, Gordon. Glad to be here. Glad you’re here. This is obviously an appropriate day to talk about mental health, as unfortunately it’s the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 tragedy.

And obviously, family members, friends, the victims, our thoughts and prayers go out to them. But I’m sure still to this day, there are some people that struggle with mental health as a result of it. I would absolutely agree with that, Gordon. You know, it’s at the same time that it is so important to continue with great reverence, to recognize this day, and to remember the impact that it had, not only in our country, but really across the world. It continues at times during the recognition, and when we pay tribute annually, it does bring back emotion for a lot of people.

So it can be a trigger for folks who could have lost loved ones, or perhaps were affected, extremely negative, by what they saw on TV. Or I remember, I was working at the Basketball Hall of Fame when the planes hit both Twin Towers, and I was in the auditorium at the Hall of Fame, which means I was seeing at 200 times what you would on a normal television screen. And it was horrific. It was horrific. And then, you know, the media coverage and social media coverage after really did have an impact on me emotionally.

And it was during that time that it was important that we sat down and we talked to our children about what had happened, that we were very open with the questions that they had. And from a mental health perspective, that is perhaps the most important thing one can do, and that’s to just start talking. You know, at times we have a real concern about talking openly about how we’re feeling emotionally. You know, Gordon, when we have a stomach ache or we have a bad back, we have no qualms about telling our coworkers about that. Sometimes we provide a little bit too much information about how we’re feeling with our biological functions or, you know, with how we’re feeling physically.

And we tend not to do that when it comes to our emotional health and wellness. So on days like September 11th, it’s very important for people to just recognize how they’re feeling and to talk about how they’re feeling. Absolutely. And, you know, mental health, you know, the partnership that you have with Cambridge Credit Counseling, this is a perfect segue into from that tragedy, there were many people that suffered mentally. There were many people that suffered financially.

And in today’s world, with a pandemic, people are dealing with all kinds of situations of mental health. So can you tell us about the Mental Health Association? Sure. And that’s very true, Gordon. And thank you for recognizing that.

You know, thank you for recognizing the correlation between somebody’s mental health and how they might be experiencing financial stress. In fact, I think you coined the phrase debt stress. Debt stress, yes. Debt stress. So the Mental Health Association is a large nonprofit based here in Western Massachusetts.

We have been in existence for 60 incredible years. We were actually founded by a group of individuals, just everyday citizens who had loved ones or who were caring for family members and friends who were born with an intellectual disability, or who might have had a mental health diagnosis. And if you think back 60 years, you, well, maybe your parents would remember, I don’t think you yet would remember, but... I’m getting there. But 60 years ago, Massachusetts began with advocacy from many of the individuals who founded the Mental Health Association, the state of mass began to look at what they called the deinstitutionalization movement.

Because 60 years ago, if you were born with an intellectual disability, a developmental disability, or perhaps had a severe mental health diagnosis, you were really shunned and put away from society. You were institutionalized, you were put away into a state school, you were put away into a state hospital. And we know that that’s just not appropriate levels of care and compassion. So MHA was founded on the premise of being able to reintegrate those individuals into their community, not our community, but their community. So that’s incredible.

It is. It’s a great organization. That’s a long time. It sure is. 60 years to do a lot of good.

Well, if you’re just joining us, this is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection sitting here with Kimberly Lee from the Mental Health Association. And obviously, again, talking about mental health on this anniversary, the 20th anniversary of 9-11, Cambridge Credit Counseling, who is a sponsor of this show, has a partnership with the Mental Health Association. Yes, we do. Can you talk about that partnership a little bit? I would love to talk about that, Gordon.

We are very, very happy and excited to have this relationship with Cambridge Credit Counseling, as we know that it has already done a tremendous amount of good, both within our organization as well as yours. We, as both, are nonprofits, which means we are mission driven. Now, certainly you can’t have mission without mantra. However, it’s important that we have the connection that we do. You’re serving individuals who could be very adversely affected by their financial situation.

And as we just alluded to a minute ago, that means or could mean a tremendous amount of debt stress. That then leads to heightened levels of anxiety and depression and worry. So while you’re seeing clients and helping them with their financial situation, you’re also recognizing that now through our partnership, MHA is able to also help those same clients with those emotional challenges that they may be experiencing. And at the same time, MHA having a very large staff and wanting to do everything we can to support the needs of our employees outside of their workday, recognize that Cambridge Credit Counseling offered a tremendous service to help them with their own finances. Yeah.

So a couple of things. You know, we have the Cambridge Credit Success Story every week, which is where we talk about a client situation with Tina Marie. And you can hear in the beginning, part of the counseling process is having some empathy and listening to the story of the consumer and how they got into the situation that they’re in. So you can hear that they are struggling and you know it is a mental piece that they’re dealing with at the same time as trying to keep organized with their financial situation. Very much, Gordon.

And I, you know, and as I had expressed a moment ago, giving people an opportunity to talk about how they’re feeling emotionally. So when you say the counselors at Cambridge Credit Counseling take time to listen to the individuals that you’re supporting, in a small way, that’s what you’re doing. You are giving them an opportunity to emotionally just release what they probably have not felt comfortable talking about. People don’t like to talk necessarily about their fiscal situation. You know, to some it may be embarrassing.

To some, it may be uncomfortable with them admitting that they need help with what they’re experiencing financially. And the same holds true for an individual who is concerned about how they’re feeling emotionally. They may not feel comfortable opening up. They may not know where to go to get support. So I think that’s the beauty of our relationship.

If you’re just joining us, this is Gordon Oliver with The Cambridge Connection here with Kimberly Lee from the Mental Health Association. You know, on the counseling process, when you hear these stories, the key part about the Cambridge experience when it is debt stress and you’re dealing with debt and financial problems is at the end of a counseling session, even if the solution is not something that Cambridge offers, as a counselor, you are sending the consumer away with an action plan. So at minimum on the debt stress mental health part, they feel like they have an answer or at least narrowed down direction on where they need to go and where they need to turn. And it’s a different, it’s very much the same, Gordon, in the sense of having received support or getting help for your emotional wellness or your mental health, because if you feel that you have an action plan, if you feel that you are now responsible for the actions you’re taking, you can feel much more in control of your situation. Do you find that the same on the mental health side?

We do very much. You know, Gordon, it’s, you know, we deal a lot with individuals. We have many, you know, customers, clients, if you will, who come to MHA for help with their substance use recovery and want to be on a sustained pathway to recovery. That’s not something that happens overnight. It takes time.

It takes commitment. It takes an investment, both physically and emotionally. And so setting people up on that pathway, just giving them direction, helping them with how and where they can finally sustain that recovery. Well, we always look for the positive in everything. And on a day like today that is so somber, it’s great to see two organizations that are working together to help people that have problems mentally because of various circumstances.

And I know at Cambridge, it is appreciated all that you do and all that you do in the partnership that we have to help employees, family members and friends. So I really want to thank you for joining us today because this has been a great conversation and we will never forget 9-11. Never. Thank you, Gordon. I appreciate it.

Closing remarks and sign off

So that’s a wrap for this week. Thank you to my special guest, Kimberly Lee from the Mental Health Association on this somber day. As always, Tina Marie for bringing it with the Cambridge Credit Success Moment to talk about real life stories and the digital maven, Ariane, for joining me each and every week. Thank you to everyone out there tuning in. I’ll be back next week right here on WKNO.

5 FM and 1400 AM at 930 AM in the morning. org. Follow me on Twitter at Gordon O’Kares, that’s G-O-R-D-O-N-O-C-A-R-E-S and at Facebook forward slash Gordon O’Kares. And if you’d like a free consultation with a counselor from Cambridge Credit Counseling, just call 1-800-CAMBRIDGE. Counselors are always standing by to answer your credit and debt questions and seriously people.

It’s a free call to 1-800-CAMBRIDGE. Make a living by making a difference. Join the MHA team, voted best non-profit and best place to work, four years running. MHA is hiring for all program divisions. Many positions require little to no experience and we are offering full-time, part-time and flexible per diem hours.

org careers. Join our winning team, make a living making a difference. Hey everyone, Gordon Oliver here and I’m the host of the brand new Saturday morning show The Cambridge Connection. m. we’ll spend 28 minutes together that will change your relationship with money for the better.

I’ve been a financial counselor for 20 years and I’m here to get you excited about being in financial control. Join me next Saturday right here on The Cambridge Connection. m. right here on WHMP.