Halal Money Matters

Halal Money Matters Podcast

Episode 35 - New Job? First Day Paperwork 101

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Monem Salam:
Welcome to Halal Money Matters, sponsored by Saturna Capital. I'm Monem Salam. There's a lot of people who come to me and they're very, very confused about what to fill out on all the different applications and forms and those things on their first day of work. So whether you're either starting off with your first job or you're transferring jobs or moving somewhere to another company, these forms can get a little bit confusing. So today we have Kerry Read, who is Saturna's Human Resource Manager, member of SHRM, which is the Society for Human Resource Managers. And she also has her PHR certification. So I'm really excited about having her on the podcast, talking about how to fill out and what to fill out in the forms that you're going to get on your first day on the job.

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Monem Salam:
So thank you Kerry for coming on the show. It's really an honor to have you and I wanted to start off and maybe just a little background, about yourself. More from the professional level of like, on HR, what you've done in the past.

Kerry Read:
Sure. It's nice to be here. Thank you for the invitation. I've been the human resources manager at Saturna for two and a half years now. But prior to that, I've been in human resources for about 20 years. I've worked in different industries, from health care to public government to nonprofit sector. And I'm really enjoying being part of the financial services industry.

Monem Salam:
Great. What was your favorite industry if you had to pick one?

Kerry Read:
Well, I'm going to go ahead and say financial services because that's what I'm doing now. (laughs) And I enjoy it. It's a constant learning environment.

Monem Salam:
That's good. As a person who comes brand new into the workforce, you know, the first day on the job can be very, very overwhelming. And not only are you getting into a new environment and you aren't familiar with it, but you're also, as I remember from my kids, you're inundated with information that you have no idea what you're filling out. And so maybe we can just kind of start there and just break down exactly what is it that they're filling out, and then from there and talk about what's maybe some helpful hints or tools we can use to be able to do it.

Kerry Read:
Absolutely. The process looks a little different for each employer. If you have applied for a job and done your interviews and have already accepted a position, then you know that your employer likes you. Obviously they've invited you to join them, but Human Resources doesn't stop there. We want to get you in on your first day and make sure that all of the paperwork that we have you fill out gets you set for success. So some primary paperwork that's very consistent or and many employers may have it electronic. It just sort of depends on their platform. But you're going to need to provide some proof that you're authorized to work in the United States. That is an I-9 form. And the required documents are pretty consistent. You just need to show some proof of photo identification. And either a passport, Social Security card, US birth certificate, or if you go on the Department of Homeland Security's website, you can see the other qualified documents that you can bring on your first day to prove that you are authorized to work in the US. Probably the simplest one is passport, but employers are not allowed to tell you what you can bring.
So if you educate yourself and are informed about what options you have for identification, that would be a good idea.

Monem Salam:
They won't tell you bring X, Y, and Z. They'll just say, I just need proof that you're a citizen.

Kerry Read:
They may tell you specific document, but according to ICE or Department of Homeland Security, employers are not permitted to dictate which documents an employee brings outside of the list of acceptable documents. So you may bring a voter registration card or any kind of an off the wall thing if you don't have a passport. So I would say educate yourself on what those documents are just by going on the I-9 website and looking, you can simply Google I-9 documents and it will bring up a list of what acceptable documents you can bring. The other thing you'll probably be asked to set up is a direct deposit form. So you'll want to bring your banking information you need, your routing number and account number. And many employers will ask for some type of proof that your name is attached to that account. So you can either bring in a voided check or a direct deposit authorization form or many times we just accept a screenshot from your banking institution with your name, routing number, and account number on it.

Monem Salam:
You know, younger people may might not even have a bank account, right? So then what happens is they're going to give you in the form of a check, or you actually do have to go to your parents to say, hey, can you please help me set up an account?

Kerry Read:
Some employers may require they, for example, Saturna is a mandatory direct deposit business. So some employers may require that you have a bank account set up. There are alternatives. You can open up what I believe is like a Visa account for those types of things. But I think having a, you know, a savings account or even if you want to go through a credit union, you don't need to go through a traditional bank to have some sort of set up. Makes life a lot easier, I think, for paying bills and doing some of the things we need to do. So having a bank account or a credit union account open is not a bad suggestion.

Monem Salam:
I think I took a class in high school where they actually physically showed me how to write a check. (laughs)

Kerry Read:
I don't know that they do that anymore. Everybody has debit cards now, but yes, I remember doing that as well and learning how to balance your checkbook and write a check. And then the other thing that you'll need to fill out is your federal income tax withholdings, which is the W-4 form. Again, that may be either be electronic or on paper. I will say the human resources professionals and usually payroll people are not licensed tax professionals. So we're not really permitted to give you advice on how to fill out that form. There is an IRS tax withholdings estimator online that you can fill that out. If you have a complex situation. For example, you and your spouse are both working. Right now we're addressing sort of the entry level younger individual who may not have any complications at all. And in that case, it should be fairly easy for you to fill out your W-4. You just put your name and sign at the bottom. In the end, you don't have any deductions.

Monem Salam:
But there is, I think, a form part on them that says, “Can somebody claim you as a dependent?”

Kerry Read:
Yes, there is. So typically your parents may still claim you as a dependent if you're attending university or you've just been working part time, I would suggest to individuals that if you're no longer living under your parent's roof and you now have a full time job, that that's your time to claim yourself as your dependent and get off of someone else's tax return.

Monem Salam:
Is there a better one way or another, or is it just a preference?

Kerry Read:
It's really individual, but it's to your advantage as a young person to start learning how to file your taxes and not have someone claim you as a dependent, while you're young and things are simple, the older you get and the more you know., once you buy a house or you get married, things become more complicated and for filing your taxes.

Monem Salam:
My son, who had his first job, he came home and was like, oh my God, I can't believe how much was taken out for taxes. (laughs) And so, you know, I think that's where this form comes in, right? Where when you put zero dependents, that means the most amount of tax will be taken out.

Kerry Read:
That is correct.

Monem Salam:
And but the one thing to keep in mind also is that it's almost like a forced saving sometimes, because it might be very possible that at the end of the year, when you file your taxes, you might get some money back from the IRS.

Kerry Read:
Absolutely. My son, who is 20, just filed his taxes and got back $700, so he was quite pleased that money's going to go towards tuition.

Monem Salam:
That's great. Generally speaking, more dependents you have…?

Kerry Read:
…the less federal income tax they will withhold and you may end up owing at the end of the year. So I really suggest doing the tax estimator worksheet, if you have a more complex situation. I mean, ideally I think you would like to have a break even so that you're not putting in too much money and not withholding not enough money because there can be penalties that go along with not having the proper amount of federal income tax withheld.

Monem Salam:
Can you opt for not taking any withholding?

Kerry Read:
You can. There is an exempt status that you can claim, but that's typically reserved for people who are full time students. The criteria is pretty narrow, so I would look that up before claiming exempt.

Monem Salam:
Okay. And then the other part of it is some states obviously have state income tax.

Kerry Read:
Correct.

Monem Salam:
Now is that something where there will also be a form or was that totally up to you to figure out what's happening?

Kerry Read:
Your employer should provide you with a state income tax form if you are in a state that has state income tax. We're fortunate enough in Washington not to have state income tax, but there are many other states that do so you should get a state income tax withholding form from your employer as well. If not, and you know that there is state tax, please ask.

Monem Salam:
That's true. So digging a little bit deeper into these kind of withholdings. I know there's a lot of times when you look at your pay stub or it comes in the mail, there's multiple different categories that are there. You have one of them which is the FICA. Right. What does that stand for?

Kerry Read:
Stands for Federal Insurance Contributions Act. And it is deducted from each paycheck.

Monem Salam:
Okay. And then you have basically like a Medicare or Medicaid? But I don't have any Medicare. As a youngster, you're not on it and so why would you be taxed on it?

Kerry Read:
You're paying into a benefit that you will use eventually. So everyone, once they turn 65 should register for Medicare, whether they intend to use it or not. It's sort of a type of federal insurance that you're paying into so that when you turn 65, you can get Medicare, which is subsidized health care benefits. And most health care organizations have some sort of Medicare contract. So they do accept Medicare. And that is the US government's form of public health care for those who are no longer in the workforce and don't have access to employer provided health benefits.

Monem Salam:
So similarly would be Social Security. That's another withholding that happens, right?

Kerry Read:
Correct. And that is a form of retirement income. We pay into it now and then with the hopes that when you turn 65 or 67 or 62, dependent upon, you know, where you are in that progression, then those funds are available to you to use towards your retirement.

Monem Salam:
Now we know exactly a little bit more about the paycheck itself. And there might be other things that you're asked to sign up for. And I think a couple of ones that I think that most people have a confusion on, especially when they're first starting off. The first one would be health care, right? So you're going to be asked to be able to not only pick a health care, but you were given a huge amount of documentation, you know, and the tendency for a lot of people to say, hey, I'm healthy, I don't need health insurance. And so maybe they might not, not, not get it. So so do you have any kind of advice on how to navigate through the different health plans?

Kerry Read:
Absolutely. I can say that in my experience, a lot of times younger people choose to stay on their parent's insurance. I don't think it's a bad idea. I think…

Monem Salam:
It's a bad idea for the parents because they're paying for it. (laughs)

Kerry Read:
Yeah. You know, parents may want to keep their children on their as long as possible so you can stay on your parent's health insurance until you're age 26. And then on that 26th birthday, you get dropped off. So I would say if you're offered a very generous health insurance package, you may want to look at that because it may be better than what you have with your folks. It's really a good topic for conversation for you to have with your parents. They might have some advice for you, but I would say if you're given a couple of options between different plans to choose from, you really want to look at your own personal health, and then you want to look at what the plan is going to cover. So if you know that you're someone who likes to go to the chiropractor a lot, you'll want to make sure that the plan you select has chiropractic visits covered.

Monem Salam:
So just to back up a little bit. So you can be on your parents, but can your parents be on yours?

Kerry Read:
No. Unfortunately no. Because your parents aren't considered your dependents. There may be situations in which you are taking care of an elder and that may qualify them, but that's very rare. So no, you may choose to stay on your parent's insurance. You may choose to enroll in your own insurance. You may even choose to have both. But there are some things that don't intermingle nicely. For example, if you're on an HSA plan and your parents are on an HSA plan, you can't both keep that health savings money and have that as a tax shelter. It has to be one or the other. So there are some complications that arise.

Monem Salam:
First you have to decide, do I want to stay on my parents or do I want on my own? Which obviously there's a conversation that happened with the parents as well. And the second one would be then you have basically PPO, HMO, blah, blah, blah, HSA, you know, all of those things as well. All the different alphabet soups are there just for the health care plan itself. You made a really good point, and is that there's a difference between somebody filling these things out and they're healthy, and, or they might have a medical condition, or they might not be on one particular drug, and they want to make sure that that drug is covered by whatever plan that they're choosing. So it is individualized. I can get that.
But generally speaking, what would be the advice?

Kerry Read:
Generally speaking, I would say if your employer offers both high deductible health care plan that is linked with an HSA, which is a health savings account and a PPO plan, you're leaving money on the table if you don't select the HSA plan because you're essentially paying the insurance company instead of paying yourself. And the reason I say that is because typically, many employers who have a high deductible plan and have health savings account also make a contribution on behalf of the employee. So at Saturna, for example, we get an employer contribution toward our health savings account that essentially covers our deductible. And then we're allowed to also put in our own money pretax towards the health savings account. So it's a tax shelter. You can put your money in, not get federal income tax taken out for that money that you put in, and then that money in your health savings account grows tax free. And you can use it for any medical expenses at any time and still never pay any taxes on it or any penalties for using it for any covered medical expenses.

Monem Salam:
Basically, what that means is if you're making 100,000 and you put in 3,500, you're basically end up paying income tax on 96,500. So you're basically getting deducted, which is which is a great benefit. You know, if you're young, healthy, you know, and if you're offered a high deductible policy, definitely go for that. And high deductible basically means that the amount that you're paying upfront for the medical coverage is a little bit higher.

Kerry Read:
For services that you receive. Yes. Typically the premium is low to nothing that you're getting seen taken out of your paycheck. But then the first year deductible can be a barrier for some people. So that just may be something you want to consider and put a little money aside to cover any medical expenses that come up your first year. But if you're able to save some money out of your paycheck and put it in your health savings account, that health savings account is yours forever. It follows you wherever you go. It's totally portable. So once you put that money in there, it's protected until you use it.

Monem Salam:
What is the major difference between a PPO and an HMO?

Kerry Read:
It depends on the plan. I will say there are a lot of nuances to it, but the major difference is just the deductible. So with a PPO plan, typically your deductible is lower and you have what's called a co-pay. So rather than paying a percentage, you would pay a flat $20 fee every time you go to a doctor's visit, for example. Or you would pay a flat fee to get a prescription filled, because either you or your employer is paying more for that insurance coverage upfront. And so some of those things are covered right off the bat.

Monem Salam:
Yeah, I think that's really important to keep in mind is that the less your deductible is, meaning that when you go into the doctor's office, the less you pay. That means the more you pay on a monthly basis.

Kerry Read:
Correct.

Monem Salam:
Sometimes the employer will not only have like an HMO or a PPO, but they might have different subcategories within them as well. And it's like, well, if you pay this much, then you'll pay this much. If you do this much co-pay, then you'll have this much in premium. It can get overwhelming. I remember just about 2 or 3 years ago, I tried to do this for my wife and it was like, wow, this is, you know, it's all matrix of like 25 different numbers that I was looking at. And it is complicated to work on.

Kerry Read:
It can be a little intimidating. But I would ask that people not get too intimidated by the complexity of it, because once you're enrolled, it's really not that complicated once you're participating in it. But I think that is one of the barriers that people experience is they think, I don't want to have to deal with all of this reimbursements and, and whatnot. So they may choose this more expensive plan, but it's not necessarily the better plan.

Monem Salam:
But financially speaking, again, the better thing is, is that on a monthly basis, pay less probably on the plans. It's the least where you have to pay are the high deductible ones. And then for that one you can pay yourself also, which is to put it into an HSA and those are supplemental because if you did it, you know, you know, God forbid have some kind of kind of catastrophe happen, you have some savings left in your HSA to be able to take out and use it for that medical expenditure that you had.

Kerry Read:
Yes. Depending on how many plans you have, you always have an out-of-pocket maximum that's listed, so you would never have to pay more than that amount out of your own pocket if you have this health care coverage. So we're talking usually for individuals it's around $4,000. And for families it's around eight. Really depends on the plan again. And where you are in the nation.

Monem Salam:
So we move to the next one, which is a very, very popular one that everybody or mostly all employers offer, which is a retirement plan. What's your advice there?

Kerry Read:
My advice there is if your employer matches at all, you should put in your 401(k) contributions to get your employer match at minimum. You know, I've worked for employers who match as little as a quarter of a percent for every percent you put in up to three, which I think ends up getting you about a half of a percent, all the way up to very generous matches. But at minimum, I would say you should contribute the amount that you need to contribute to get the employer match, because that's free money. That's as free as money ever gets. That money that your employer puts into your 401(k) for you, it starts earning. And then many times there's a vesting period where you would need to stay at your employer for X amount of years to take all of that money with you, but all the money you contribute to your 401(k, it's always yours.

Monem Salam:
Yeah. So let's talk about the vesting because that's an important point you mentioned. So maybe that's standard, let's say something that vests over four years. And it would be basically saying that 25% of that becomes yours every single year. And then by the fourth year, all of that money that employer put in there is your money to be able to keep.

Kerry Read:
Correct. And each organization has a different vesting period, but I've typically seen them anywhere between 2 and 6 years.

Monem Salam:
Okay, okay. And that shouldn't be a negative. That should still be a way of saying, hey, if you stay long enough somewhere, you're going to be end up doing it. So it's still free money.

Kerry Read:
Absolutely, absolutely.

Monem Salam:
If you leave before that period is done and then the employer keeps that money.

Kerry Read:
The employer will keep a percentage of the money depending on how long you've been there. So yes, like you were saying, the example that you gave the 25% for each year that you're there, you would get to retain 25% of what the employer put in for you after the first year. It's just an example. Each contract has different language.

Monem Salam:
But your contribution is always yours.

Kerry Read:
Correct? The money you put in, you withhold from your taxes and put into your 401(k) account is always yours.

Monem Salam:
And then the other part of it, and we're not we're not talking about this from a financial advice perspective, it's more a matter of just encouraging people to do it. You know, but one thing to keep in mind is that, you know, you obviously you want to make sure your money's halal, but having a brokerage option in your 401(k) is always good. So you can, you know, purchase halal option in your 401(k). If you don't have one, can you go to your employer and ask them about, hey, what are my choices to make it halal?

Kerry Read:
I would encourage you to. Yes.

Monem Salam:
Okay. And there's nothing negative by asking your employer?

Kerry Read:
No, no absolutely not. I mean, you may need to be educating them a little a bit about what that is and what all is entailed. But, from an inclusivity and participant standpoint, employers will want to know that information or what are the barriers are keeping people from investing in their 401(k).

Monem Salam:
Okay. So now we've talked about the withholdings that happen. We talked about health insurance. Now we talked about the retirement aspect of it. I think the only one that I that I can think of was life insurance. Right. There's sometimes the life insurance is involved as well.

Kerry Read:
Yes. Many employers will have their own custom life insurance, offer you a one-year annual salary. If something were to happen to you, you name a beneficiary, and it's just part of your employment package. That typically doesn't cost the employee anything, and it's just an employer benefit. And then there can be other options, such as supplemental coverage that your employer offers you to purchase in addition to the other benefits that they provide. And it could be life insurance and life insurance on yourself, your spouse, and your children. Typically, when you're a new hire, organizations that have a supplemental benefit, there's a thing called a guaranteed issue when you're a brand new employee, meaning they will not ask you any health care questions or make you fill out any forms. You are just guaranteed life insurance amount up to a certain amount. For example, the company that I worked with most recently was $150,000, so you could get up to $150,000 in life insurance without any questions asked about your health situation or any lifestyle questions or anything like that. So it's really noninvasive and the premium tends to be pretty low. So I would suggest that if people are offered supplemental life insurance when they start a new job, take advantage of it. Then, because if you wait, you may not be qualified for it.

Monem Salam:
You know, definitely from an Islamic perspective, term, is good, and life and variable, those things wouldn't be halal. So I wanted to highlight this. There is a difference in the Muslim community about whether life insurance is allowed or not, in the first place. When the employer offers you the plan, is it something you can choose out of or do you have to participate?

Kerry Read:
No, it's completely optional. It's called a supplemental policy. Meaning even if you did sign up for it, you cancel in the middle of the year. It's not one of those required protected types of coverage that falls under the ACA, so, no, there is no penalty for waiving that benefit and hopefully it will come around annually. Usually those types of insurance and health insurance, each employer will have an open enrollment period where you can make changes. So if you do make a bad choice and you feel like you're locked in, it's not forever. It's just until the next open enrollment.

Monem Salam:
You know, for a brand new employee or a very, very young employee. Am I missing anything that we should highlight that's important?

Kerry Read:
Going in and asking lots of questions in your first few weeks is always good. Because things may get overlooked and it's your job and your first opportunity to make a good impression. So asking lots of questions is always good.

Monem Salam:
So now let's move on. But let's supposing now you're a bit older, you've left your company that you've first started off with. So you're familiar with, you know, all the paperwork. But it's been a few years and you come back and say, oh my God, I can't believe I have to fill all this out again. And a lot of it will be the same. But what should be some things, that a person who's in their second or third job, or in the middle years of their life, should be thinking about when they're filling out these forms that they probably didn't think about when they were younger. And I'll start. One thing we talked about earlier was if you're above the age of 26, you can no longer be on your parent's health insurance. And so that is something you have to consider thinking about, what is it you're going to be doing whenever you get that new job?

Kerry Read:
That's right. For the people who are in the middle of their career or they've already had some career experience, I would say this starts before you actually start your new job, but my recommendation is always negotiate your paid time off before you accept a new position. I think it's something that people don't do enough of, and they're worried about the compensation and the benefits, and they're not thinking about the paid time off. And many times they'll start and not realize that they didn't negotiate any time off their first year. So I would encourage everyone to do that.

Monem Salam:
And I know some people might be shy because they may be like, wait a minute, I haven't even started my job and I'm already talking about vacation days?

Kerry Read:
There are things that are going to come up in a person's life and I would say negotiate at least a week of vacation and many times states have a minimum sick leave requirement, but I would say negotiate for at least a week of sick time.

Monem Salam:
What else should we be thinking about?

Kerry Read:
I would say once you're in the door and you're filling out your paperwork, you know you're going to be coming from most likely having previous insurance. So knowing how you utilize that and being able to apply that knowledge will be much easier. But if you don't know, a lot of times employers can provide you a more detailed summary or an entire plan booklet of all of the details of the information, so that you can really dig in and see the experiences that you've had over the years, you know, your previous years of what you've actually used for insurance, and making sure that the plan that you select meets those needs. So you can really drill down by asking for some more information. We try not to give you too much on your first day, so we may not dump all of the whole plan documentation on you. But if that's, you know, really what you need to make a good, informed decision. I would say ask for the plan documents.

Monem Salam:
And you do have time, right? You don't have to decide the first day you are given, I think 30 days or something like that to do it.

Kerry Read:
Right. You you have 30 days from the day that you're eligible to pick your health care plan. It may even be up to 60 days, depending upon your organization in the state that you're located in. But you do have time to select a plan, and many times if you are late in selecting it, it's still retroactive from the date that you're covered. So it would go dated back to the first of the month from your coverage date.

Monem Salam:
And then one thing to also keep in mind is now that you're in a different stage of your life, be thinking about obviously, you know, if you're married or you have children, but at the same time it might be a different circumstance where your parents are living with you or are depending upon you. So now you could claim them as your dependance on health insurance, correct?

Kerry Read:
On health insurance, it would have to be a very specific situation where they didn't qualify for other types of support, but it is possible. So if they became your legal dependent in some way, but typically it's your domestic partner, your spouse, and any children under the age of 26 that would be eligible for coverage.

Monem Salam:
And then the other one that I wanted to mention was the retirement balance. Obviously, you have the option of being able to roll that over. Generally my advice is you don't roll over into a 401(k) because you're going from limited options to limited options. You do what's called a rollover IRA. So you open up that separate from your employer. You have one place where you're storing all of your previous employers'  money that you have, but also now it's something people don't do, but I kind of recommend is that maybe even negotiate what type of funds are available or options are available within your 401(k)? Because if there's no halal option available and the more people try to negotiate and say, I want a halal option or something, maybe the employer will begin to think about, hey, how do I change the plan to cater to my Muslim employees?

Kerry Read:
Absolutely. And each employer should have some type of 401(k) committee where you can make suggestions. They may not be changed overnight. They may need to, you know, typically those things are a little bit slower, but absolutely make that suggestion and make that request.

Monem Salam:
All right. And then so the last part of this is going to be obviously when you're now beginning to enter the stage of retirement. And we might have to get a little bit more in-depth because it's not the same thing as, you know, you're not entering the workforce. You're actually now beginning to leave it. So what are the things you should be thinking about as you're, as you're now closer to your last day of work and you're about to retire?

Kerry Read:
There's a lot of things to consider. But I would say one of the first things is to make sure that you enrolled in Medicare when you turn to 65, to keep that as an open option for you. Obviously, most financial advisors would tell you to put your money in less risky forms of investments because you're nearing the age of actually starting to collect on some of those.

Monem Salam:
So the pensions are another portion. And sometimes what happens is, is that, you know, if you're only picking it for yourself, a pension or annuity, then you might get a higher payout. If you do it for you and your spouse, and it's a lifetime thing, you might get a lower payout. And the idea being basically that, you know, that the longer they have to pay, the less money you're going to get every single month. And then sometimes the option would be to, to basically say, I don't want the pension, but do a cash out. And they basically take that money and you put it into a rollover. Now, from an Islamic perspective, your option, the best option is going to be put in the rollover, because again, you'll be able to control the money that you have and you'll be able to control the withdrawals. It might be that you get a consultancy job or something in retirement. You don't need as much money as you the pension might be giving you, and so you might be able to control the amount of distributions you have and or save for the longer later on in your retirement. So definitely the IRA rollover is probably a good idea to do that. So we talked about the Social Security. We talked about Medicare. Can you get medical insurance from your employer when you retire?

Kerry Read:
Typically they can't keep you on their insurance plan, but you are offered what's called COBRA coverage so you can pay out of your own pocket for the same coverage for a period of time. They lengthened it during COVID, but right now, I believe it's only 18 months from the time that you retire until they'll continue your coverage for you. And it's essentially the same plan. You're staying on the same plan. It can be very expensive. Yes. You're taking on what your employer used to pay for you, and you're you're taking on 100% of the premium. So that can be anywhere like $500 to $700 a person a month.

Monem Salam:
You know, surprisingly, people underestimate how much health insurance they have to pay. And so usually when they do that, they end up getting sticker shock. Because health insurance is a lot. You just don't pay that much when you're working because your employer is covering majority of that, so.

Kerry Read:
That's right. Your employer is likely paying, you know, a million or more dollars a year for your entire employee group to be covered under insurance.

Monem Salam:
I mean, I think we've cover a lot of areas, right? And I think the biggest thing that I would say is, yes, it is sometimes overwhelming, but your HR is there to help you kind of navigate through. They're not going to give you any tax or investment advice, but they can kind of help you navigate. But then you always have your parents and you have your colleagues who probably have maybe your mentors who've been through it before. Do take your time in doing it because although it's not permanent, sometimes those decisions have long term effects you're sometimes not aware of. I really appreciate your time and speaking with me today. And hopefully we'll have you back on another show.

Kerry Read:
Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.

[music]

Monem Salam:
Thank you for listening to Halal Money Matters. If you like what you hear, please do rate us on the app stores and also leave us a review. It helps other people find us a lot easier.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on Halal Money Matters do not necessarily reflect the views of Saturna Capital, Amana Mutual Funds, or their affiliates. This podcast is prepared based on information Saturna Capital deems reliable; however, Saturna Capital does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the information. We do not provide tax, accounting, or legal advice to our clients, and all investors are advised to consult with their tax, accounting, or legal advisers regarding any potential investment. Investors should not assume that investments in the securities and/or sectors described were or will be profitable. Investors should consult with a financial adviser prior to making an investment decision. The views and information discussed in this commentary are at a specific point in time, are subject to change, and may not reflect the views of the firm as a whole. All material presented in this publication, unless specifically indicated otherwise, is under copyright to Saturna. No part of this publication may be altered in any way, copied, or distributed without the prior express written permission of Saturna Capital.