The Slowik family adjusts goals as pandemic slows progress but moves to back-on-track to financial well-being in 2021.
“Paradigm Health is committed to the health and well-being of their staff and that includes our financial health, too.”
In January 2020 Paradigm Health began offering access to the Smart Dollar program. The program helps folks assess their financial health and creates a path to goal setting. Most often we think of a state of physical well-being when they talk about their health. As a Central Indiana industry leader in hospice and palliative care, Paradigm Health is as committed to the health and well-being of its staff as well as its patients. CEO Jeff Jarecki is firm in his belief that by being the employer of choice, they will become the provider of choice. Paradigm’s culture believes that its care and sense of value for its staff directly translates to their above-and-beyond care of patients out in the field.
Paradigm Health Clinical Liaison and Patient Care Navigator Miranda Slowik has allowed us to follow along in her family’s journey to financial health and well-being. In this fourth installment, Slowik shares that the pandemic has impacted their progress a bit and they utilized some of their savings — increasing their savings was a part of Goal #2 for Slowik and her family — in order to continue to pay down their debt. They are back on track to pay off a large medical bill and have paid back $2,000 of the $5,000 balance and continue to now re-pay their savings account.
Goal #3
“We have now set a goal to have our medical bill completely paid off by March of 2021,” shares Slowik. “We have pushed back buying our home an additional year due to the pandemic because we had not been paying as much toward our debt as we had planned.”
Slowik admits that they have veered off the set path just a bit over the past year and says that she hears from many people that they have also encountered changes in how they approached their finances during 2020. Her husband was laid off for a month during the pandemic and shares that being able to be flexible is crucial.
“Smart Dollar works amazing if you can remain disciplined and stick to it,” says Slowik. “Our main goal for 2021 is to get back on track and stay on track with the program. If we could continue to make payments and be debt-free by the end of 2021 we will be in great shape.”
Admittedly, that will require very strict financial behavior from Slowik and her husband and after a year of global uncertainty, they understand that being nimble and adjusting to a changing financial landscape is crucial to their financial and their physical and mental well-being.
“I’ve never worked at a place that invests in and values their employees as much as Paradigm does,” says Slowik. “I’m grateful to work with such amazing people and I appreciate the access to tools that help me succeed not only professionally but in my personal life too.”
Goal Review
Goal #1: Create a budget and put $1,000 in a savings account (Completed)
Goal #2: Begin paying off debit in order of smallest to larges. (In progress)
We started following Paradigm Health Clinical Liaison Miranda Slowik and her husband in early 2020 as they embarked on a financial well-being journey with the help of the Smart Dollar program. Paradigm Health CEO Jeff Jarecki is committed to offering support for his valued employees and knows that it goes beyond physical and mental health and wellness and offered the program to his employees as support for their financial health as well.
