Meet Brook: A College Junior Looking to Build Her Emergency Fund
Brook didn’t join SaverLife for the cash incentives. A full-time employee of a large retailer in Lincoln, NE, she signed up for SaverLife to maintain her strong savings habits and prepare for college expenses. “In the past two years, knowing I wanted to go back to school, I needed to really save money. So when my employer sent an email about signing up for something to help you save money, I was like, ‘Yeah, that seems like something I should do.’”
Brook has always tracked her spending and budgeting closely, using financial apps like Cleo to regularly transfer money into her savings account. So when her employer, in partnership with SaverLife, offered its employees a savings challenge to improve their financial health, she saw it as another opportunity to monitor her spending. “[SaverLife] was more of a reminder,” she describes. “Every time I got paid, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I should save.’ It has helped me save more [by] just reminding me.”
Brook and her coworkers were encouraged to grow their savings by $150 in 12 weeks with the chance to win grand prizes. Little did Brook know: she would take home $5,000 at the end of the challenge! “Being a winner of this is just crazy,” she explains, “I guess I still can’t believe [it].” With her winnings, Brook aims to create an emergency fund that she can use for unplanned expenses. “Going into college, I know I’m not going to be able to work as much, so I’m going to have to have something to fall back on.” To prepare for emergency costs, she plans to use SaverLife’s content library and challenges to keep her budgeting on track.
Brook would also like to donate a portion of her savings to charity. As a Classics of Religion major with the goal of becoming a pastor, she spends much of her time reading and analyzing the Bible. Winning the savings challenge has reminded Brook of the importance of giving back to others. She concludes, “One of the [passages] that, when I learned that I won, I started to believe [is]: ‘Give what you can, and it will be returned to you tenfold.’”
Congratulations on your big win, Brook!