Speaker: Merime Kolic, English Teacher, Eagle Moutain-Saginaw ISD
Who are you, what is your occupation, how many years have you been doing it, and why did you get into your career? (60 seconds max)
Merime Kolic: Hi, my name is Merime Kolic I am an ELA teacher. I've been teaching ELA for the last 3 years. This year I'll be teaching 7th grade. I've also taught 8th grade and a little bit of 6th, but that didn't last very long. But I got into this career because I really enjoyed teaching and working with students. I started off as an RBT, which is a registered behavioral therapist, where I worked with kids with autism, and I slowly took that position and role into what I am now as a teacher and utilize that stuff in my classroom, and I just try to make sure everyone has a better understanding of English and not just reading but also understanding what they're reading and how to write what they want to express for themselves.
Before working with us, what did you know (or not know) about your pension, retirement, and insurance benefits? (60 seconds max)
Merime Kolic: Both my parents own a restaurant and they're probably going to be working for the rest of their lives, and I knew that's something I didn't want to do. Both my parents also didn't finish school. My dad finished his schooling around middle school and my mom in high school, so when I grew up I really didn't know much even like about college, so knowing anything about Pensions, retirement insurance benefits. I had no idea any of it, until I joined this company, I saw a recommendation when I joined my last school district at Northwest, the first time, not so great. I had some random person. I wasn't with this company, but, they kind of just threw me at one and then later down the road, someone told me that wasn't probably the best idea and that's how I fell into this company and I actually feel like I know a good amount, a good chunk. I'm not gonna say I'm an expert, but I will say I do know enough that I feel confident in the things I'm choosing and the things that are being recommended to me.
What changed since meeting with us, and how did we help you feel more confident about your financial future? (60 seconds max)
Merime Kolic: As I previously mentioned, I really didn't know much about anything when it came to retirement, so I guess the biggest change for me since meeting with Louis in this company is, I know what I'm kind of talking about, I'm like I said, I'm not going to be an expert, but I do feel very confident in the choices I'm making, knowing that I'll have my TRS, which is my foundation plans, and then everything that's building up my house from there with my 403B, it's either being a regular Roth and what both of them mean and also why I probably should get a little extra coverage with like life insurance and stuff like that. So I will say that's the biggest thing I feel confident with is that I'm slowly understanding not every single year I understand the most, but I am building from them.
If recommending your agent / advisor to - please explain why so that we can help others take control of their future! (60 seconds max)
Merime Kolic: I would say I recommend Louis for many reasons. He was very kind when I first met him a year ago and I don't even remember half the things we talked about last year, but then our recent call it's just like he remembers everything. He has all of our notes, he's looking at everything, and he's very understanding. Like if I can't put a crazy amount of money in my retirement right now, he's very understanding. He's always willing to work around it. And if I can make a little extra funds here and there, he's trying to find other ways I can also make more money doing that. And he kind of just shows me other shortcuts. Like, I didn't know for Social Security I would have to work so many years and so he was showing me how I could work part-time on the side to gain those years so I could possibly entered that Social Security. Plus when we were talking about maybe joining life insurance, he was very chill about like just talking about our mental problems and our health problems, and he was not like judgy NFL or anything like that. Like those things are weird to talk about and he was very open about it and I don't know, he's very chill.
