Financial Wellness

Financial Wellness is a state of well-being where an individual has achieved minimal financial stress, established a strong financial foundation, and created an ongoing plan to help reach future financial goals.

Seven out of 10 American workers say finances are their most common cause of stress. Financial pressures can impact productivity, engagement, absence rates, retention and even employee health. People often avoid managing financial wellness because it is fraught with personal taboos, takes time and effort, and people often lack confidence in their financial literacy.

Financial stress impacts work:
  • Twenty percent of employees report that issues with personal finances have been a distraction at work.
  • Seventy percent of HR professionals indicated that personal financial challenges have a large or some impact on their employees’ performance.

UC Davis Financial Resources:

  • UC provides free financial and retirement education to all employees. Fidelity Retirement Planner, Rand Erickson, is dedicated to UC Davis and is responsible for the financial and retirement education of staff and faculty. Rand provides classes on your retirement accounts, creating a budget and eliminating debt, investing basics, college savings, estate planning, and social security. View a list of available classes here. To schedule a class or series of classes for your group, contact Kim Becker at Kimberly.Becker@fmr.com. 
  • Retirement Planning Classes: provided by UC Davis Staff Development and Professional Services.
  • myucretirement.com: information on your benefits, news, education and access to your account.
  • Retirement Savings Program
  • Staff Assembly Staff Pin
  • UC Davis Employee Discounts
  • Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts: Student Academic Employees and Graduate Student Researchers are eligible.
  • VITA: free tax preparation and assistance for low income UC Davis affiliates.
  • ARAG Legal plan (UC Access code: 11700uc): sign-up during open enrollment for online legal resources, telephone advice, and in-office services.
  • UC Emergency Loan Program
  • Fee Assistance: all career staff employees, with a minimum of one year of service, who wish to take courses supporting their individual UC career plans may apply.
  • Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program: borrowers may qualify for forgiveness of the remaining balance of their Direct Loans after they have made 120 qualifying payments on those loans while employed full time by certain public service employers such as the University of California. Please refer to the UC Public Service Loan Forgiveness page as it applies to all UC campuses and is very comprehensive.
  • Child Care Financial Assistance: options in the community and within departments for aid, scholarships, and low-cost child care.

Financial Literacy Resources:

Actions for yourself: