Give Yourself a Raise?

From MSU Extension


Most people would give themselves a raise if they could. Yet, some Montanans are missing the opportunity to do just that. More than 60 percent of American workers have access to an employer-based retirement plan, but those who don’t take advantage of it are leaving money on the table, according to Joel Schumacher, associate specialist with Montana State University Extension.
Schumacher said there are several ways workers can increase their income by participating. Many plans are defined contribution plans which typically have a formula that determines the matching contribution an employee is entitled to receive from his or her employer. For example, a company may contribute $1 for every $2 the employee contributes. The formula may limit the matching contribution to a percentage of the employee’s salary, such as the first six percent. In this case, a person who contributed six percent of his or her salary receives an additional three percent for the same work. For someone making $35,000 per year, this is worth more than $1,000.
Contributing to a retirement plan also lets the employee take advantage of tax benefits. Contributions to defined contribution plans are a pretax deduction. According to Schumacher, an employee earning $3,000 per month who does not contribute to the retirement plan will take home approximately $2,290 (total deductions vary depending on tax withholding status, tax brackets and other factors.) If this same employee contributed $150 (five percent) to the defined contribution retirement plan, the take home pay would be reduced by $115. The payroll tax savings would be $35. If the employer also matched 50 percent of the contribution, the employee would receive $225 in the retirement plan, at a personal cost of $115. This amounts to an additional $1,320 annually.
Schumacher recommends that employees who are not certain of the benefit package offered by their employer should first talk to the employer’s payroll or human resources office for guidance. Understanding and maximizing employer benefit packages may be the easiest way to get a raise, he said.
MSU Extension offers consumer economics education throughout the year.

Solid Finances

When I was growing up, my mom used to say, “It’s just as easy to love a rich man as a poor one.”   I don’t really know whether or not that is true.   While it may be just as easy to love a rich man, in the dating years of my life it wasn’t just as easy to find one.  My husband was told growing up that you can “Marry more money in twenty minutes than you can make in a lifetime.” Apparently there wasn’t a line of wealthy women waiting to date him. Rest assured, we both married for love. 

I suppose those oft repeated quotes are well-meaning.  Parents advising their children often equate wealth with security.  As well, money is one of the top reasons for discord in a marriage.  Any time a resource is limited, it can be a source of conflict.  Rather than marrying money, it might be better if we advised young people how to equip themselves with the skills to earn and manage their own money.

I’ve read that if you want to improve your skills in any area, you have to study or practice daily.  A financial advisor coached that you should read, learn or do something about money each day. I’ve heard it said, “Where your attention goes, your energy flows.”  If you are interested in improving your skills in the area of finances, MSU Extension and Extension partners in South Dakota and Idaho have devised a way for you to learn about finances from the comfort of your computer.

The Solid Finances series, taught by webinar, starts October 7.  The series covers Managing Your Money with topics on plugging spending leaks, emergency savings, home buying and organizing records; Retirement Planning with the top ten need-to-know items, getting started late, and a retirement question and answer session;  Investor Protection and Student Loans with topics from predatory lenders, identity theft, applying for federal student aid and student loan consolidation; and Montana-specific classes including estate planning and your rights over your remains.   You can listen and interact with these sessions live or listen to recorded sessions.

The Solid Finances webinar information can be found at www.msuextension.org/solidfinances. The website contains information on how to register for the free classes.  Be sure to check out past recordings and resources from previous years of Solid Finances classes as another free resource to become educated about money. 

There could be better advice given than to marry for money.  We could start using this adage instead, “Make your own money and manage it well.”  Besides, I’ve heard that people who marry for money earn every penny!

Planting Science Seeds for a Future Harvest!

The 4-H BioScience program 2015-16, a science experience for students grades 8-11, started August 3-7 on the MSU Bozeman campus and continues until February through experiments and video conferencing with MSU professors.  Eight Teton County youth, Berit Bedord, Jacob Boetticher, Lila Bradley, Jill Donaldson, Bryce Gramm, Oliver Jorden, Ashley Pearson and Sam Stutz have formed two BioScience teams in Teton County this year.  They are coached by Lisa Bedord, Brenda Boetticher and Jane Wolery. 

While on the MSU campus, students participated in three modules – neuroscience, metabolomics and infectious disease.  The 4-H members work with MSU professors and graduate student mentors.  The teens from Teton County were able to use their own blood to separate red and white blood cells.  The blood was then tested for a variety of nutrients, but the students concentrated on the omega-6 and omega-3 scores and the ratio.  One of the students had an excellent ratio of nearly 1:1 and credited his diet of home-raised, grass-fed beef.  The typical American diet is more askew with ratios of nearly 20 to 1 omega-6 to omega-3.  Diets high in omega-6 and low in omega-3 may make a person prone to poor brain function and health conditions such as headaches, ADHD, depression as well as cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases.  4-H members worked with Dr. Edward Dratz and his team of students drawing the blood samples and analyzing results.  They will continue throughout the year with metabolomics by completing some dietary analysis.  The 4-H members may also get to test an app being developed by an MSU grad student that will simplify dietary input and allow users to choose a nutrient of focus, such as sodium or vitamin D.  Students also did a simple zinc test and learned more about zinc’s important role in the body.

The neuroscience module is a little mind boggling.  4-H students puzzled over optical illusions and sensory input as they learned how the human brain connects to the rest of the body.  One of the more electrifying experiences was using a spiker box to see if impulses from one person’s ulnar nerve, found along the outside of the arm, could be sent to another person and control their movements.  It was a little unnerving, to say the least, to have finger movements controlled by another person.  As part of the unit, students will explore hand sensitivity and see if they can use the elasticity of the brain to change how their hands feel stimuli.  They will be creating a 3-D hand homunculus as well as studying about auditory and taste sensory inputs.

The teams participated in an infectious disease unit and were able to test their own nose and throat cultures and explore their own microbiota, guided by Dr. Jovanka Voyich.  They also used samples of a “patient” from a case study.  Students learned to use agar plates, do Gram staining and catalase tests.  One team had a patient in her early 20s present with non-bloody diarrhea following a visit to a relative’s dairy farm.  At first she thought she was just exhausted, but the students determined through a variety of tests that she had an e-coli infection.  As part of the continued work the teams will choose an infectious disease experiment to explore further using skills they learned in the lab at MSU.

While on the MSU campus, students were able to tour the Schutter Diagnostics Lab, where plant and insect diseases are identified and monitored and learn how the lab’s efforts affect agriculture producers as well as urban consumers.  Students also got a tour of Cooley Lab with a graduate students studying the herpes virus.  Cooley lab is a hub for biomedical research.  Students received a tour of the Renne Library and learned about services available on campus.  They were also able to spend time at the Museum of the Rockies, enjoy the features at the planetarium, use the fitness center on campus and stretch out with climbing at the Spire climbing center just a few blocks from campus.  

Of the eight members involved in the SEPA (Science Education Partnership Award) funded BioScience program, five are new to 4-H since April.  A few who joined specifically to take part in BioScience Montana now plan to take other projects and participate in leadership trainings.  Extension Agent Jane Wolery says one of the best parts of the BioScience program is how students start to see other opportunities and gain confidence in their ability to maneuver on a college campus, interact with professors and gain exposure to different areas of study and careers.  

Summer Time!

Teton County 4-H members, Jayelyn Ruckman, Ali Willekes, Claire Ruckman, Kylee Ruckman, Maria Murnane and Watson Snyder, all competed at the Montana State 4-H Congress July 7-10 on the Montana State University campus in Bozeman.  The 4-Hers competed in livestock evaluation, horse evaluation and demonstrations contest.  Jayelyn Ruckman, competing for her last time at Congress, placed second overall in livestock evaluation.  Ruckman plans to attend Casper College on the livestock judging team, putting her well-developed skills to use.  Ruckman also received the Anton and Helga Sunsted Pioneer scholarship to use for her college expenses.

Ali Willekes, Claire Ruckman and Kylee Ruckman formed a livestock judging team with Cascade County 4-H member, Natalie Gerard.  (Because Jayelyn Ruckman had previously competed at Western National, she was unable to participate on the team.)  The team placed second in the contest, aided by individual scores from Claire Ruckman placing sixth overall, Kylee Ruckman placing ninth and Ali Willekes, competing for her first time, placing nineteenth and soundly in the top half of individuals. 

Maria Murnane was an individual competitor in the horse judging and placed sixth.  She is in her second year competing in that category.

Watson Snyder, the only first-time competitor in the delegation, placed fifth with his demonstration titled, Second Fiddle to None.  Snyder taught about the parts of the violin and foot positions of the violin while sharing about the power of the violin to give hope and inspiration.  Snyder was called back for the finals round and has earned a spot on the Montana delegation to National 4-H Congress this fall in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Sarah Hodgskiss and her family joined Teton County for the final banquet at Congress where she received the W. Doyle Stocks scholarship.  Hodgskiss will attend MSU Bozeman this fall. 

Besides competitive events at Congress, delegates participate in team-building activities, educational workshops and leadership training.  The Teton County group attended classes on animal science taught by Dr. Rachel Endecott and Phil Merta, Lead with Resilience taught by Mandie Reed, Rangelands taught by Dan Lucas and Youth Leadership Institute taught by Campbell Barrett. 

The group, chaperoned by Jane Wolery, enjoyed two excellent presentations during general sessions.  Ben Glenn, the Chalk Guy, spoke about overcoming adversity and how to take struggles and turn them into triumphs.  To emphasize his point, he creates an artwork with chalk on a giant board in front of the audience.  His “performance art” is set to music and drives home the point about creating beauty in one’s own life, using all life experiences to create a masterpiece. 

The delegation agreed that one of the highlights of the conference was listening to Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld, a holocaust survivor born in Czechoslovakia.  At 89 years, Dr. Schoenfeld stood for nearly 90 minutes recounting his story and holding the audience in rapt attention.  Schoenfeld’s message was one of compassion and humanity.  Even as he answered questions from the audience, his answers were more than factual, they were lessons in how to forgive, heal, and treat others. He said he felt our jobs on earth were to learn how to treat each other more humanely.  Schoenfeld survived concentration camps in Auschwitz, Warsaw, Dachau and Muhldorf.  Many of his family members did not survive the atrocities. 

The theme of 4-H Congress was “The Amazing Race” and lessons abounded at Congress in how to be part of the most amazing race, the human race.  

Chemical -- Reaction!  Seventy-one people took part recently in the education explosion at the Teton County 4-H Mad Lab July 14-16 at Camp Rotary.  Ten 4-H camp counselors have been working to plan camp since February.  Camp counselors learn leadership, communication and team skills while preparing the lessons, activities, recreation, camp fires and classes at 4-H camp.

With the science theme, campers learned everything from baking science to rocket launching.  Classes ranged from thought-provoking, with Honore Holmquist sharing about cerebral palsy and letting campers sample some of the challenges she faces with muscle control to inspiring, with Caroline Roeder teaching cryptology.  As a result, many coded messages where found throughout 4-H Camp.  There were active classes involving sport science with Zane Somerfeld investigating pressure in balls to movement science with dance classes by Watson Snyder and Hanna Konen.  Maria Murnane, Austin Rogers and Katelyn Antonsen helped 4-H members experiment with emulsion, bubbles, acid-base reactions, lava lamps, and bouncy balls.  Annie Townsend and Javy Somerfeld provide art science classes with glass etching and clay fossil creations.  Watson Snyder organized two classes on rocketry and was assisted by  the other counselors.  Caroline Roeder and Katelyn Antonsen assisted with a cupcake experiment with Caroline Rogers and Jane Wolery.  Members rotated through stations learning about gluten, leavening, measurements and a decorating station where they made a campfire cupcake.  Caroline Roeder and Katelyn Antonsen also played mind games with campers sharing some of what they learned about neuroscience through their participation in the eight-month 4-H BioScience program last year. 

4-H Camp provides an opportunity for youth to develop leadership and team-building skills, independence and belonging, and to learn new skills.  Campers enjoy games, camp fires, singing, dances and outdoor recreation in addition to the classes at camp.  The Teton County 4-H program welcomes both 4-H members and non-members to attend and participate in their yearly youth camp activities.