Anita Coppola is a Head of Cloud Experience and Regional US Lead for GTIS Cloud Platforms, based in our Whippany campus.

We asked her to share her story on financial wellbeing and how Barclays is helping her secure her family's financial future.

At Barclays, we're committed to giving you the tools and support to help you be your best - however you define it, it's about understanding your own wellbeing and doing what works for you. One of our key wellbeing pillars is financial wellbeing, which is all about us providing colleagues with the understanding of how to practically manage their finances and prepare for the future. Alongside core benefits such as pension schemes and saving plans, there's also webinars and learning resources on budgeting, saving and financial guidance.

"I’ve been with Barclays for 6 years now and since Day 1, I remember feeling as a new joiner what a robust benefits package we are offered as colleagues and how easy it was to make the decisions that were right for me and my family.

Year on year, I’ve taken full advantage of the benefit colleagues are offered to enroll in the Barclays Global Sharepurchase Plan, which Barclays provides a matching contribution. What’s really nice about this offering is that you’ve given the flexibility to decide if you want to make the contribution as one lump sum or over a series of payments which are deducted from your paycheck. Barclays makes it easy to invest in my family’s future.

I also continue to make sure that my retirement plan is working hard for me and that I take advantage of the generous employer match provided by Barclays. In the US, we have two options and based on my circumstances and future goals, I’m currently enrolled in both 401k pre-tax and Roth 401(k) post-tax options. What I really enjoy about the Roth option is that I pay tax on my contributions now, so the money grows tax-free and is payable to me tax-free in retirement. With my previous employer, I only had the pre-tax option, so I never had a choice. Barclays has always made it easy for me to enroll in diversified options which are a key success factor to my family’s financial wellbeing.

One of my personal goals is to ensure that we can fully fund our emergency cash reserve for the times when life gets tough.

Additionally, I’ve opened a Barclays Saving Account when I first joined in 2017 to get the added benefit of the high CD and Savings interest rates. We use it for our Emergency Savings as well as Vacation and Christmas fund accounts. I especially like that I can route a specific amount each payment to pay-myself first before I pay anyone else. This approach helps my family to ensure that we can fully fund our emergency cash reserve for the times when life gets tough and equally spend money wisely on making memories that will last a lifetime. I’ve even set a personal financial goal on my Vision Board and with the support of Barclays financial tools, I’m on track to achieve my goal by December 2024.

I've received such great support from the BeWell portal at Barclays which provides me with resources and tools needed for financial wellbeing. At Barclays, you can do more than dream about your financial goals, you can develop a plan to truly achieve them."