LEXINGTON, Mass., Aug. 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — A new independent survey of more than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students at nearly 60 institutions conducted by the Office of Planning and Evaluation at the University of Maryland School of Public Health (UMDSPH) reveals that 84% of students who received services say Christie Campus Health’s services helped them remain enrolled in school. The survey also demonstrates consistently high approval of the 24/7 Clinical Support Line, with an almost 90% satisfaction rate of the service. 

The survey, which was conducted in the spring of 2023, was commissioned by Christie Campus Health as part of its ongoing effort to measure the impact of and satisfaction with the mental health and well-being services it provides to colleges and universities. More than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students at 59 institutions were surveyed, representing large and small public, private, research, HBCU, religious-affiliated, and military-affiliated institutions.

“It is crucial for companies that provide student mental health services to assess student perspectives on their offerings,” says Dr. Amelia Arria, Senior Advisor to Christie Campus Health and the Director of the Center on Young Adult Health and Development in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health.

“We are proud to continuously receive strong satisfaction ratings. It is important to us that students confirm that our services are helpful to them and can play a role in improving their mental health and well-being,” says Kaitlin Gallo, Ph.D., Christie Campus Health’s Chief Clinical Officer. 

Additional findings from the survey include:

• 96% of students report satisfaction with the psychiatric prescribing services provided through Christie’s virtual psychiatric prescribing clinics. Many students say that Christie’s psychiatric prescribing clinic offers access to medication and support that they would not have otherwise been able to access.
• Mindfulness and Meditation tools, offered through an exclusive partnership with Headspace, continue to have high adoption rates and a very strong satisfaction rate of 97% among students. Students say they were sleeping better, feeling calmer, and more focused because of the app.
• 90% find the Navigator program (remote care coordinators) helpful in seeking and accessing needed mental health services and other social support such as housing, food, or other academic support services.
• 92% of students report they were satisfied with the mental health provider from Christie’s counseling network who supported them.

Christie Campus Health’s complete continuum of care meets students wherever they are on their mental health journey, whether they are interested in self-assessments and self-guided apps or speaking to a clinician immediately. The services appeal to students who may be reluctant to access existing on-campus counseling services due to concerns about stigma, or who are seeking additional counselor diversity. Christie Campus Health’s offerings are free to all students, increasing access for underserved or lower income students, a critical benefit given growing concerns about income and health inequities.

About Christie Campus Health

Christie Campus Health is dedicated to improving the mental health and well-being of college students by helping colleges and universities expand the way they reach and support students. Christie’s services include a 24/7 Clinical Support Line, face-to-face and virtual counseling visits, clinically validated self-care resources, and student care Navigators. Partnering with colleges to deliver innovative, equitable and high-quality mental health services to students, Christie currently offers our comprehensive mental health platform to over 100 colleges and universities, supporting over 750,000 students nationally and internationally.

Contact: Teresa Verity at [email protected]

SOURCE Christie Campus Health

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More than a third of Vermont high school students and one-fifth of middle school students have reported recently experiencing poor mental health, according to a recent survey. LGBTQ+, students of color, and female students were even more likely to be depressed or anxious compared to their heterosexual, cisgender, and male counterparts.

The 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted by the Vermont Department of Health, surveyed more than 17,000 students. The survey highlighted trends surrounding mental health challenges, substance use, and disparities among specific student populations.

Heather Bouchey, deputy secretary of the Agency of Education, acknowledges the state’s lack of preparation when initially evaluating the impact the pandemic would have on students.

“We did not anticipate the extent of the mental health crisis and associated challenges our youth would face,” Bouchey said.

The pandemic-induced measures, such as remote learning and forced isolation, disrupting especially older students’ support systems, Bouchey said.

“We were aware that the inability to spend time with friends would likely impact their isolation, especially for older children and teens. However, we underestimated the magnitude of the mental health crisis,” said Bouchey.

LBGTQ+ and female students report higher rates of poor mental health.

Girls and LGBTQ+ students report significantly higher rates of poor mental health than boys and heterosexual students.

“Girls and young women have often had higher rates of depression and anxiety, more internalizing mental health challenges than boys going back decades and decades,” Bouchey said. “We already have these gaps between girls and boys. And also, we’ve long known that students who identify as LGBTQ+ have a harder go of it in school.”

The director of the Child, Adolescent, and Family Unit at Vermont Department of Mental Health, Laurel Omland, said there might be a few reasons behind these disparities, “Females tend to internalize more,” Omland said. “Girls might actually self-report some things more than males.”

According to the survey data, 49% of girls and 59% of LGBTQ+ students reported experiencing poor mental health “most of the time” or “always,” compared to an overall response rate of 35%.

The survey findings align with national trends, where female students experience higher rates of violence, mental health challenges, suicidal thoughts, and substance use than their male peers. Similarly, LGBTQ+ students face more violence, mental distress, and bullying than their heterosexual counterparts.

Another difference is the access to resources between rural and urban areas, making it harder for rural populations, adults and children, and adolescents to access mental health services.

Rural areas in Vermont face particular difficulties in accessing mental health services. Omland and Bouchey recognize that efforts are needed to address the gap in access to services for rural youth compared to non-rural children.

“If there is indeed a gap, which wouldn’t be surprising, we need to develop a statewide strategy to address it,” Bouchey said. Statewide strategies are being developed to tackle this challenge and ensure that mental health services are available to all students, regardless of their geographic location.

Social media offers refuge and risk

Approximately 30% of high school students and 57% of middle school students in Vermont spend three or more hours on technology daily, unrelated to school activities. One-third of these students identify as LGBTQ+.

Omland says social media is important in creating affirming spaces for students and implementing programs to support their mental health.

“I love seeing the creative ways in which youth come together, expressing themselves and connecting with others. These spaces and youth-led initiatives can be incredibly beneficial,” Omland said.

Omland also said that while social media can provide a platform for connection and support, it can also exacerbate depression and anxiety.

The Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health reports that adolescents who spend more than three hours per day on social media face double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, body dissatisfaction, disordered eating behaviors, social comparison, and low self-esteem.

What are Vermont schools doing?

Omland again emphasized the importance of creating affirming spaces and implementing programs to support students’ mental health.

Bouchey said the state has allocated funds to support mental health initiatives in schools and districts. One of these programs provides grant funding to local education agencies, allowing them to choose improvements that meet schools’ specific needs.

Other funds, the Esser funds, went into paying for a curriculum program called “Equity.” The program provides lessons for pre-K to 12 teachers and really engaging materials again that can be used in everyday activities.

Workforce shortages pose a challenge in providing mental health support to students. Omland said schools are working on recruiting and retaining mental health professionals, including school-based clinicians, behavioral interventionists, and related staff.

More:A grant will pay psychology grad students to work as counselors in K-12 schools in Vermont

The Success Beyond Six program in Vermont allows schools to use Medicaid dollars more flexibly to fund the services that are needed in schools.

“We know that getting a school-based clinician into every school, at least one, is really, really one of the most powerful ways actually to address students’ mental health and wellness. It’s just that sometimes, as I said, the workforce isn’t there. And in some smaller places, this has been a really great opportunity for students who qualify for Medicaid to leverage their resources through Medicaid actually to get them the mental health services they need,” Bouchey said.

In extreme cases, Mental Health Crisis Lines and Suicide Prevention Lifelines are one option. Vermont’s Crisis Text Line™ program offers free, 24/7 support by texting “VT” to 741-741, with trained crisis counselors responding within 5 minutes. Since its launch in November 2016, the program has seen 53% of texters identifying as LGBTQ+ and 55% falling between the ages of 14 and 24.

Contact Free Press staff writer Isabella Infante at iinfante@gannett.com

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Source: Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay, altered with Photomania

This post concerns the second of what I’ve coined as the “core four” brief but potent meditation tactics. In contrast to the more incremental development in mindful self-awareness that a longer-form meditation practice can cultivate, these “mighty mini mindfulness moves” bubbled out of collaborative work on a new book project (Mindfulness in Medicine) about implementing the goodness of mindfulness through the whole of today’s leviathan healthcare system.

These mighty minis are meant to be quickly taught by health-care and educational professionals and easily entrained in our patients, our students, and ourselves. With reinforcement, these “moves” can hopefully become reflexive, second-nature stress busters, applied in preparation for and/or during stressful moments, whether in a medical setting or elsewhere.

Today we explore mighty mini Number 2: “scanning” meditation. This practice involves a brief, systematic survey of aspects of a whole experience, or subset thereof. That can involve:

• A sequential scanning or surveying of the physical body, part by part, head to toe or toe to head. This is likely the most familiar scanning exercise, and it’s included prominently in Jon Kabat-Zinn’s MBSR curriculum. We bring awareness to different physical sensations and areas of tension or relaxation, as well as any other stuff (emotions, thoughts) that may arise during the surveying. Body scanning meditation can be more “granular” and extensive (hello, left pinky toe!) but as a mighty mini, the benefit here is in entraining a briefer sweep, bringing a sense of the body mindfully “online” in a few minutes, or even a few breaths.
• A “hybrid” tactic is the well-known “PMR,” or progressive muscle relaxation, wherein one surveys groupings of musculature (hand to forearm to upper arm to shoulder, then the other limb, etc.) by first tensing/flexing/tightening that area briefly, then releasing. We “find” the area in attention by the flex, and can loosen and relax it in the release.
• A subset or variation on this theme is a sequential survey of externally-attended-to sense inputs—vision, sound, smell, touch, perhaps even taste. This can obviously be of benefit in nature settings, but a quicker survey of “what I’m immersed in, right now” can be grounding in unfamiliar, stressful settings.
• A broader but still brief variation on the body scan, which could be called a “self” scan, involves sequential targets of awareness beyond physical phenomena to a full attending to body, emotions, thoughts and then a full opening to self-in-the-moment. As I explore in more detail in Practical Mindfulness, our momentary “landscape” of conscious experience can be split out in variety of ways, including body; heart; head; space; and “watcher” (the sense of being aware itself). The sequence involves a breath or more (inhaling to noting the breath, then exhaling to these targets) on bodily sensations; then moving to emotional tone (often located in the chest or heart area); then to observing prominent thoughts in the moment; then a final breath or more pulling attention out to the self in whole —body, heart, and head—in this moment. This broader, systematic practice of attending sequentially through not just somatic experience, but the associated emotional, thought/ruminative, and then a “full self” experiential view is especially effective as a rescue tactic for those in acute emotional distress, such as panic events, intense anger/dysphoria, craving, and urges toward craving self-harm or suicidal ideation.

That breathing recipe above leads me to offer one other tip that I think can make any of the surveys more effective. It’s borrowed from a lovely historical Buddhist meditative practice, known as tonglen (translated as “taking and sending”). One uses some imaginal sense of “breathing in” awareness (classically, of the suffering of another) on the in-breath, and then “breathing out” compassionate awareness. In long form, it’s a potent and positive exercise in bonding meditatively with others in our shared human experience. (A “cosmic air filter,” I once spouted off. The other retreatants were not as amused.)

That tactical aspect, though—utilizing mighty mini Number 1, breathing, to guide Number 2, scanning—charges a cycle of “gathering,” then “directing” awareness to the next body section, or emotional state, or head full of thoughts. And then another gathering in of attention, staying on track for a brief tuning-in routine.

You can find some resources here to help spread the use and benefit of this mighty, mini, mindful move. It has wide applicability in a variety of medical settings and other situations. Whether of the physical “territory” or of a fuller survey of all inner experience, scanning practices can be valuable in acute suffering and in grounding individuals in better momentary self-awareness and a sense of control.

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Courtesy graphic

Courtesy graphic

Courtesy graphic

HOUGHTON — The results of the Hope Survey, conducted in the Copper Country earlier this year, were released on Wednesday. The results were presented in the form of two infographics.

The survey, which was closed on April 15, 2023, was discussed during the public talk on mental health and wellness conducted in May, at the Portage Lake District Library. Michelle Morgan, a retired psychiatrist and member of Keweenaw Support 4 Healthy Minds, talked about the survey at that event.

“We all put this survey together,” Morgan said, “because we want to ask the community what their experience is, what their beliefs and opinions, are about mental health and substance use issues.”

Morgan said that close to 900 people responded to the survey, across a broad spectrum of the community.

The survey was created by a coalition of local agencies collectively called Building a Resilient Copper Country (BARCC). It includes Dial Help, the Western Upper Peninsula Health Dept., U.P. Kids, the Copper Country Intermediate School District, and Keweenaw Support 4 Healthy Minds.

Courtesy graphic

The goal was to compile the answers and share the collective information with the residents of the five western counties (Baraga, Gogebic, Houghton, Keweenaw and Ontonagon) of the western U.P.

“The respondents, we think, represent the five-county region very well,” said Morgan. “It’s spread equally among all age groups, from 12 year to 80 plus; also, pretty much categories of education level.”

Morgan said the survey addressed a broad spectrum of topics, including childhood trauma, positive childhood experiences that might protect the person from consequences later on in life; it also addressed substance use, both drug and alcohol and mental health issues, including attempts to seek treatment or beliefs about stigma.

“All of those issues that combine together to make people in the Copper Country, and across the country, at increased risk for suicide,” said Morgan. Suicide questions were on the survey, also.

On Wed. Morgan said that the infographic does not include all of the data gathered from the survey, but does include a lot.

“The full report is something we will be working on for a few months,” Morgan said earlier this month, “which is not uncommon for surveys.”

Among the survey’s findings was nearly 2 of every 5 respondents have struggled with their own use of alcohol or drugs, and 94% said they believe people struggling with alcohol or drug use have a chronic disorder and require help to recover. An anonymous community member commented on the survey, saying:

“I feel like a lot of our community members turn a blind eye and/or shame other members who use drugs — no one, not ever, wishes to be in place like that in their lives and should not be viewed/judged by another person. It can happen to any one of us.”

On the topic of mental health, 7 out 10 of the respondents reported having experienced a mental health condition. In response to the question of what resources people feel is missing in the community, the following were among those listed:

• Support groups

• Treatment centers

• Providers and compassion

• Community centers.

One survey taker commented: “We need to change the stigma associated with mental health so people are willing to reach out for help.”

Another respondent commented that everyone deals with mental issues, either personally or with a peer or family member.

“If we could work as hard together to bring that to light rather than work that hard to appear okay,” the commenter wrote, “society could grow together.”

Nearly a quarter (22%) said they had experienced physical abuse as a child while nearly a third (30%) said they felt they were not cared about in the family. Nearly 50% (49.2%) reported not feeling able to talk with family about their feelings.

Almost 50% said they grew up living with someone who struggled with alcohol or drugs.

• 66% felt they had experienced a mental health condition, diagnosed or undiagnosed

• 46% responded that they had thought about suicide

• 68% said they knew someone who had died by suicide.

Of the 892 respondents, the survey shows that:

88% are white; 6% are Native American or Alaskan Native; 77% are female, 20% male, and 3% were transgender or a variant.

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Survey shows mental health challenges faced by LGBTQ+ youth

Updated: 5:58 PM EDT Jun 23, 2023

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TO HELP TURN THAT STATISTIC AROUND. I CAN’T IMAGINE ANY MORE BEING THAT KID WHERE YOU’RE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHETHER YOU’RE LGBTQ OR ONE OF OUR LETTERS OR SOMETHING ELSE, AND HAVING SOMEONE AND THEN HAVING NO ONE TO TALK TO BECAUSE YOU’RE FEARFUL. IN A RECENT SURVEY OF 28,000 MEMBERS OF THE LGBT COMMUNITY BETWEEN THE AGES OF 13 AND 24, THE TREVOR PROJECT FOUND 67% HAVE EXPERIENCED RECENT SYMPTOMS OF ANXIETY, 54% EXPERIENCED RECENT BOUTS OF DEPRESSION, AND 41% SERIOUSLY CONSIDERED ATTEMPTING SUICIDE. IN THE PAST YEAR. I OFTEN DON’T LIKE TO FOCUS JUST ON SUICIDE RISK BECAUSE THINK IT IT UNDERMINES HOW MUCH JOY THERE IS IN THE QUEER COMMUNITY AND THINK SOMETIMES WE TALK ABOUT IT A LITTLE BIT TOO MUCH AND IT GIVES THE WRONG IDEA, BUT WE DO KNOW THAT HAVING ONE SAFE, SUPPORTIVE ADULT DECREASES SUICIDE RISK BY 40%. HERSHEY. HERSHEY AND JESSICA GOFF ARE TWO OF THE THREE LEADERS WHO OVERSEE SEACOAST OUTRIGHT. THE GROUP RUNS A VARIETY OF PROGRAMS THROUGHOUT THE STATE TO PROVIDE RESOURCES AND SUPPORT TO LGBTQ PLUS YOUTH. THOSE PROGRAMS INCLUDE YOUTH GROUPS. PARENTS SUPPORT GROUPS, THE ANNUAL PORTSMOUTH PRIDE EVENT AND EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH TRAINING 101 FOR FOLKS TO LEARN HOW TO WORK WITH LGBT YOUTH. LEARN HOW TO ASK FOR PRONOUNS AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GENDER AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION. WE’VE GOTTEN CALLS FROM LIKE SCHOOL COUNSELORS WHO JUST DON’T FEEL IT’S NOT LIKE THEY’RE THEY DON’T SOUND LIKE THEY’RE HOMOPHOBIC OR TRANS PHOBIC. IT’S JUST THEY’RE NOT COMPETENT IN THIS AND FEEL WAY OUT OF THEIR LEAGUE. AND YOU CAN SEE HOW SPECIALIZED IT BECOMES. AND GETTING EVERYBODY THAT EXPERTISE IS. IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT. ACCORDING TO THE TREVOR PROJECT, A MAJOR OBSTACLE SPOTTED IN THEIR SURVEY IS ACCESS TO MENTAL HEALTH CARE. OF THE 81% WHO EXPRESSED A DESIRE FOR MENTAL HEALTH CARE, ONLY 44% WERE ABLE TO RECEIVE IT. SOME OF THE TOP REASONS INCLUDED A FEAR OF TALKING ABOUT THEIR CONCERNS WITH SOMEONE ELSE NOT WANTING TO GET PARENT PERMISSION, AN AFFORDABILITY AND A FEAR OF BEING OUTED. THERE IS PRETTY MUCH A HARD AND FAST RULE AMONG AN AGREEMENT, AMONG OUR COMMUNITY THAT WE DO NOT OUT PEOPLE. THAT IS JUST THE WAY IT IS. YOU DO NOT ADD PEOPLE IS A DEEPLY PERSONAL DECISION ABOUT WHO YOU COME OUT TO AND WHEN AND HOW. LOCAL ADVOCATES SAY THE DECISION OF WHEN TO COME OUT HAS BEEN UNDER THREAT IN RECENT YEARS DUE TO THE STATE’S PROPOSAL OF A SO-CALLED PARENTAL BILL OF RIGHTS. SUPPORTERS SAY IT GIVES PARENTS MORE OVERSIGHT OF THEIR CHILD’S INTERACTIONS IN SCHOOL. BUT OPPONENTS SAY IT WOULD BASICALLY MEAN THAT SCHOOLS WOULD BE OUTING GAY LESBIAN AND TRANSGENDER STUDENTS TO THEIR PARENTS. A GROUP LED BY A STATEWIDE LEGISLATURE ORGANIZATION CALLED 603 EQUALITY WORKS TO EDUCATE LAWMAKERS ON THESE CONCERNS. ULTIMATELY, THE BILL WAS TABLED FOR THE 2023 STATE LEGISLATIVE SESSION. THINK THAT WAS AN EYE OPENER FOR SOME OF THEM. THINK SOME OF THEM JUST YOU KNOW, ON ITS FACE IT SOUNDS SO REASONABLE THAT PARENTS NEED TO KNOW EVERY SINGLE THING THAT’S GOING ON WITH THEIR KIDS. IT’S TIME TO EMBRACE EACH OTHER, UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER’S DIFFERENCES AND, YOU KNOW, AND THAT’LL SAY NONE OF U

Survey shows mental health challenges faced by LGBTQ+ youth

Updated: 5:58 PM EDT Jun 23, 2023

In a recent survey of 28,000 members of the LGBTQ+ community between the ages of 13 and 24, the Trevor Project found that 67% have experienced recent symptoms of anxiety, 54% experienced recent bouts of depression and 41% seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.

In a recent survey of 28,000 members of the LGBTQ+ community between the ages of 13 and 24, the Trevor Project found that 67% have experienced recent symptoms of anxiety, 54% experienced recent bouts of depression and 41% seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.

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57% of Americans said they don’t have enough money to save for retirement, according to Clever Real Estate. (iStock)

As Americans cope with high inflation, many said their stress levels were at an all-time high, according to a recent survey by Clever Real Estate. 

In fact, 61% of respondents said they have never been more stressed and 80% reported they were stressed about the cost of living, the survey said. 

“Although stress comes from many sources, the data shows financial struggles have the most significant impact on Americans’ negative mental state,” Clever said in its report. 

Clever reported the most common sources of financial stress were:

• Not having enough emergency savings (69%)
• Spending more money than they earn (58%)
• Lacking enough money to afford necessities (57%)
• Not having enough saved for retirement (57%)

For many, financial stress has extended beyond their wallets. In fact, 61% of Americans said financial stress has caused them to experience physical symptoms including headaches and lack of sleep, Clever found. 

In addition, 27% of Americans said they’ve skipped meals, and 22% have avoided medical appointments or treatments to save money, according to a survey by Real Estate Witch. 

If you’re struggling with your personal finances, you could consider lowering your monthly payments by paying off high-interest debt with a personal loan at a lower interest rate. Visit Credible to get your personalized rate in minutes. 

RECESSION FEARS RISE: MORE THAN HALF OF AMERICANS SAY THEY’D LOSE EVERYTHING

Inflation is still a top stressor 

Although inflation has cooled in recent months, it has continued to be a major stressor for many Americans, according to several studies. Inflation increased 5% year-over-year in March – down from 6% in February –, signaling the smallest 12-month increase since the end of May 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). 

Seventy-four percent of workers around the world said inflation has been the top stressor in their lives, a Fidelity Investments analysis reported. Plus, inflation has increased anxiety by 89% among Americans, based on a five-point rating scale published in the latest Impact of Inflation report by AnalyticsIQ.

“The end of 2022 was the first positive sign that inflation, which began rising in April 2021 approximately a year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, was cooling off,” AnalyticsIQ said in its report. “After a year and a half of steady price increases, US consumers are continuing to adjust their finances, lifestyles, and future plans due to elevated interest rates and significant hikes in gas prices and consumer goods of all kinds.”

But while inflation has slowed, the interest rate environment has remained uncertain. To cool inflation, the Federal Reserve increased interest rates several times last year and into 2023. At its latest meeting, the Fed increased interest rates by 25 basis points. That drove the federal funds rate to a targeted range of 4.75% to 5%, the highest level in 15 years. 

If you’re struggling with high-interest debt, you could consider paying it down with a personal loan at a lower interest rate. Visit Credible to compare options from different lenders at once, without affecting your credit score. 

HALF OF AMERICANS SAY THEY’RE FINANCIALLY WORSE THAN LAST YEAR: SURVEY

Americans are stressed about their retirement savings 

Amid financial stressors like the rising costs of goods and economic uncertainty, many Americans have pulled back on retirement savings, a Fidelity analysis found. Americas’ Retirement Score dropped to 78 from its all-time high of 83 in 2020, according to the 2023 Retirement Savings Assessment.

“American savers continue to navigate through uncertainty, and as a result, may consider pulling back on saving for the future,” Rita Assaf, vice president of retirement at Fidelity Investments, said in a March press release. “When it comes to long-term investing, staying focused on your individual goals is critical. Having a plan in place is one solid way to help weather any storm, as we’ve seen the last few years and weeks with the pandemic, inflation and market volatility.”

To meet their retirement needs, people should aim to contribute 15% of their income into a well-diversified portfolio within a tax-advantaged retirement account, Fidelity recommended. That may not be possible for all, but increasing contribution rates by 1% each year could help, Fidelity said.

Most private industry workers (69%) had access to employer-provided retirement plans as of March 2022, according to the BLS. But workers can still invest in their retirement while enjoying tax breaks, even if their employer doesn’t offer retirement benefits. 

Virtually anyone can open a traditional individual retirement account (IRA) through a bank or investment management firm. It works similarly to a traditional 401(k). Contributions may be tax-deductible and investment earnings grow tax-free. Additionally, investors have until the April 18 tax deadline to make tax-deductible contributions for the previous year, according to the IRS website. For instance, taxpayers can make 2022 IRA contributions until April 18, 2023.

If you’re looking for ways to save more for retirement, you could consider paying down high-interest debt with a personal loan at a lower interest rate. Visit Credible to speak with a personal loan expert and get your questions answered.

HALF OF AMERICANS SAY THEY’RE FINANCIALLY WORSE THAN LAST YEAR: SURVEY

Have a finance-related question, but don’t know who to ask? Email The Credible Money Expert at moneyexpert@credible.com and your question might be answered by Credible in our Money Expert column.

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