Working for a company that has been serving our local community since 1958 instilled a desire in me to strengthen my ties within the community. As someone who grew up in a small town and was extremely involved, I knew I would have to find ways to become involved here to make the Grand Strand feel like my home. 

At the start of 2022, I started researching different organizations I could get involved in that shared a mission I supported. Between networking, leadership, non-profit, and small business organizations, I have certainly found ways to fill up my plate. Below are some different ways I've rooted myself in our community and how I took the leap to get involved.

Scams are a constant concern in the world we live in today. With methods of consumer spending and financial management ever-changing, scammers have created more ways than imaginable to try to scam innocent people. In this two-part blog series, we'll go over a few of the most common scams that you should avoid. Click here to visit our fraud prevention resources page, where you can get additional information on how to protect yourself from scammers. 

Scams are a constant concern in the world we live in today. With methods of consumer spending and financial management ever-changing, scammers have created more ways than imaginable to try to scam innocent people. In this two-part blog series, we'll go over a few of the most common scams that you should avoid. Click here to visit our fraud prevention resources page, where you can get additional information on how to protect yourself from scammers. 

Did you make any new year's resolutions for 2023? Have you done a good job of sticking to them thus far? If you haven't set any goals for the new year or are struggling to live out the action steps to achieve the goals you set, I encourage you to make a vision board and write your goals down.

The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to set goals and resolutions for change. Two common goals that folks have each year are saving money and eating healthier. With the cost of food and other goods rising at the grocery store, it can make these two resolutions a bit contradictory.

If you've been looking to make positive changes in your life or just looking for a fresh start, there's no better time than the beginning of a new year. Starting now, you have 365 days to make changes in your life and work towards new goals. I encourage you to reflect this week about areas of your life that you want to improve and set attainable goals to make positive changes.

If you're looking to improve your physical or financial health in 2023, check out the Financial Friday Community Panel segment below, where I was joined by special guests Dr. Kevin M. Satelle MD, Physician at Rapid Weight Loss and Esthetics Center and Christina Naylor, Chief Operation Officer at Carolina Trust Federal Credit Union to talk about creating healthy lifestyle habits for the upcoming year.

Can you believe it's almost Christmas? I feel like there are still so many things left to do. Luckily, I was able to cross baking cookies for Santa off of my to-do list last night. Growing up, we'd make a big batch of Christmas cookies a day or two before Christmas to take to different Christmas gatherings, and we would always save a few to set out for Santa. Santa wasn't the only one who got a treat; we always made sure to leave carrots for the reindeer too! We may have even left carrots for Santa instead of cookies a few years because my mom insisted that Santa was dieting.

This year, I took home a few recipes from the Carolina Trust Employee Cookie Exchange, so that Santa could have a new variety. I'm not going to lie this close to Christmas, I may have snuck a few cookies, but they were specifically for taste testing purposing. I wouldn't want to give Santa a nasty cookie. He would put me on the naughty list for sure!

As we kick off the month of December, the feeling of Christmas is starting to SHINE all around us. Everyone seems to have an extra GLOW about them; they're practically BEAMING. The excitement from the holiday season always gets to me each year; it's like I hardly know how to CONDUCT myself. There's just so much to do and see, and the idea of missing a single opportunity to celebrate HERTZ my heart.

You may have caught on to all my light puns by this point. With so many fantastic holiday light shows in our area, I figured a round-up blog post would be a BRIGHT idea.

With the holidays right around the corner, you may do more shopping than usual. In the blog post below, you'll learn some of the most costly mistakes shoppers make and how to avoid them so that you don't fall into a trap while doing your holiday shopping.

Holiday décor and music are filling department stores, Starbucks and Dunkin have released their holiday drink menus, and some people have already started putting up their trees. Although I'm not quite in the holly jolly spirit yet, I have begun financially planning for the holidays so that my debt doesn't outweigh my cheer. Below are the tips I'm using to keep myself in check as I kick-start my holiday spending.