TULSA, Okla. — Figuring out where the money you earn goes can be tricky, but one Tulsa woman is learning it is the rewards of figuring out how to make more of it go toward your financial goals.
Along with helping people do their taxes, the Tulsa Responds office on Sheridan is home to the Financial Empowerment Center, a place to get help with personal finances.
"We provide free one-on-one counseling to folks who are looking to find financial stability," the center's Kennedy Dixon said.
Whether it is learning how to pay down debt or setting up a budget to reach personal financial goals, the center offers ongoing guidance.
"Our counselors provide not just financial advice, but some support along the way," Dixon said.
Alpha Perez walked into the Tulsa Responds office almost a year ago, looking for help. Perez wanted to save money for her retirement, but she needed help creating and sticking to a budget.
"When I first came here I had a little bit of debt, but I, I also wanted to like really budget and organize my money better. And also something very important for me was understanding credit score because I'm not from the US, so this is very American, and I didn't really understand how it worked, um, and that was one of the things that I worked with my coach on, most of it was budgeting," Perez said.
Perez told 2 News Oklahoma she realized she was spending more money than she thought on certain things.
"I was spending a lot in taking food takeout, a lot of DoorDash, things like that, gifts, surprisingly, I was like doing a lot of gifts for people, um, eating out, those are the three main ones that I can remember and that I knew I could cut down, uh, other things you cannot like I can really not do much about rent or gas, but I can definitely reorganize how I spend money in food, for example," Perez said.
To change her habits, Perez took immediate action on her phone and in her kitchen.
"I deleted DoorDash. I deleted the whole app on my phone. I don't have it anymore, so I don't have the temptation of doing that, um, and I prep and meal prep, so I try to just cook. I don't like cooking. I hate it, so I try to cook as little as I possibly can, or I try to ask for help with cooking in order not to spend a lot of money on just eating out, things like that," Perez said.
Perez said she is eating 100% better now and does not have to think as much about what she will eat because her meals are ready for work.
But it's not her only change of habit to make sure she fulfills her goal of putting more into her retirement savings.
"So if I don't need it, I think twice if I'm actually going to spend money on that, knowing that I want to save more money," Perez said.
With a little guidance, Perez said she can achieve her financial goals. She now has an emergency fund and is actively saving for retirement. She advises others to not spend more money than they earn and to set specific targets.
"Number one is to have a real goal, like to have a goal. Like if you're saving money just to save, it's easy just to spend the money. You don't have a goal, but now that I do have a goal and that I know that I want my retirement is my biggest goal I have like oh this can go towards my retirement," Perez said.
And if she ever finds herself in a financial pinch —
"I do have an emergency fund now, that I didn't have before," Perez said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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