Help Us Celebrate Financial Literacy Month!

Did you know that April is National Financial Literacy Month? Probably not, but that won't stop you from celebrating, will it? Definitely not. In order for you to get your financial literacy boogie on, the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Dallas (CCCS of Greater Dallas), a nonprofit provider of free financial education as well as free housing and credit counseling, is offering 100 FREE live webinars. This is a good chance to brush up on your training, and to get guidance on familiar client issues. We wanted to let you all know of the opportunity, and to give you some direction on which of these we think will be most useful in dealing with clients. 

The 100 webinars will focus on 39 different personal finance topics, ranging from credit scores and getting out of debt, to buying a home and preventing foreclosure. You can feel free to take a look at the entire list, but here are some of the sessions that align with our clients' concerns:

• Vision Quest: Goal-Setting

• Dumb Money Mistakes We Make with our Family

• Surviving Financial Crisis

• The Psychology of Debt

• Alternatives to Payday Loans

You can see all of April's schedule here. Open sessions will indicate so with a yellow "Sign Up" button; just click to register.

Sessions will be running day and night to give you plenty of opportunity to tune in. You can polish your goal-setting over a bowl of cereal, spend your lunch hour learning the psychology of debt, or snuggle up with your computer and drift asleep to the gentle tones of financial crises. These webinars have the chance to make you a more informed, effective coach, so take Financial  Literacy Month to sharpen your skills!

Please feel free to forward this information to others who may benefit from this opportunity.  For further questions regarding these webinars, please contact Mr. Todd Mark at tmark@cccs.net. We hope you make the most of this opportunity! Thanks!

Financial Fitness Greater Austin Contest

We wanted to take this month's blog to make you aware of a city-wide financial literacy effort going on right now. Financial Fitness Greater Austin is now accepting applications for its Financial Fitness Contest, which engages its contestants in the quest for financial literacy. Participants will be responsible for completing different activities—dealing with either budgeting or credit—meant to give them a stronger connection to their money. Cash prizes are offered to top winners, and participants will get the chance to be involved in the promotion of a city-wide financial literacy effort. To participate, your client needs only to:

·         Select one packet (credit or budget – available for pick up at the CFC)
·         Complete all the activities in the packet
·         Write a 1-2 page essay on how the activities have helped them; how they shared what they learned with friends, family or co-workers and how they've taken action with some of the lessons learned

The deadline is April 12^th, so if your client is interested, please encourage them to get started on the exercises. This is a great way to guide your discussions with the client and focus the conversation around these topics. It will also help to give them some concrete goals and activities that can open the door to greater understanding. And it will give them the chance to win up to $500. Aside from the individual impact of improved financial literacy, this is also a good chance for the FFGA to get a better picture of the types of problems that clients are bringing to the table, and how to better serve the community. Just ask your greeter for an application, and get your clients headed in the right direction!

To learn more about Financial Fitness Greater Austin, visit www.financialfitnessaustin.org.

Financial Coaching and the Affordable Care Act

With certain parts of the Affordable Care Act guaranteed to have an impact on our clients’ finances, we thought it would be a good idea to give you a picture of what this might look like for the state of Texas, the Financial Coaching program, and our clients.

What does the Affordable Care Act do? With the passing of the ACA come multiple provisions that will have a direct impact on all Texans. On January 1^st, 2014, there goes into effect an individual mandate, stating that all citizens must be covered by some sort of health insurance. This will happen nation-wide, as the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the individual mandate was constitutional, serving the same function as a tax. This obviously cues a large shift in the state's health-care environment, since, as of 2013, over a quarter of all Texas residents do not have health insurance, giving Texas the highest rate of uninsured in the nation. To find out where Texas ranks on this and other indicators of financial security, follow this link to see the CFED’s assets and opportunity scorecard.

An optional clause of the ACA would then allow our state legislature the decision to accept or reject a plan to expand Medicaid coverage. This expansion would raise the income limits for pregnant women, infants, the “medically needy,” and low-income adults under age 65. If the state decides to accept expansion, nearly a million currently uninsured Texans will now fall within the boundaries of Medicaid. If they refuse the expansion, the entirety of our 6.2 million uninsured will be forced to either purchase a plan or pay a fine. As of right now, it appears that Texas will opt out of the Medicaid expansion proposal.

How will it affect our clients? Unfortunately, the combination of the individual mandate without Medicaid expansion will force many low-income Texas residents to take on the added expense of health insurance. Follow this link to see who will and will not need to purchase insurance. As you might expect, this leaves out a healthy (pun intended (but not very funny)) portion of our clients, primarily those who earn too much to qualify for health insurance through public assistance, but who still don’t earn enough to take on another bill. For these clients, the long-term benefits of having insurance will butt heads with their need to provide for day-to-day expenses. With the added burden of finding an affordable plan, many of these low-income individuals will find themselves at odds with an unfamiliar and complex subject that has the potential to strain their budgets.

What will we be able to do for them? The Financial Coaching program will be finding ways to get involved with the health initiatives that are already in action at Foundation Communities. At our properties, we currently provide fitness and health programs for both children and adults, as well as screening residents for SNAP and Medicaid eligibility. We are hoping to reach beyond our properties and into the community through the Community Financial Center and the Financial Coaching program. We will do that in two ways:

1. As you may know from experience, our clients often come in with crippling medical debt. We intend to provide further training to volunteers in regard to the rights, assistance, and strategies that our clients have in dealing with that debt. 
2. We also intend to prevent such a problem's inception by helping clients navigate their options in the foreign territory of health insurance.  Foundation Communities will apply to be part of the Health Navigators program, which is part of the Affordable Care Act.  This means that Health Navigators will be available at the CFC and other locations to help clients access in-person assistance and information about the available types of coverage, the best value for their money, and enrolling in the appropriate program. 

By taking these steps, we can help dodge another obstacle on our clients' paths to financial stability. With your help, we hope to make this transition easy and informative for the people it hits the hardest!

Community Tax Center services

This month's featured resource is the Community Tax Center!  Today is officially the first day that the Community Tax Center is open for business.  Hours and locations can be found on our web site:  www.communitytaxcenters.org.  Below are some things to make sure to let your clients know as well as some things you should know about how your experience volunteering will be different during tax season.

Things to tell clients:

• The IRS will start accepting returns on January 22.  Before then, we will prepare a paper return and the client can come back on the 22nd to sign paperwork for e-filing.
• Call 2-1-1  or go to www.communitytaxcenters.org to get information or schedule an appointment.
• Clients who do not want to wait can use our drop-off service - when they arrive at a Tax Center location, they can tell the intake specialist that they want to drop off their return and Tax Center staff will contact them when the return is complete.
• Clients who need an ITIN should come in during our ITIN Acceptance Agent hours, Tuesdays 3-7 pm.
• We will prepare basic self employed and small business taxes. 
• We will help with prior year returns starting in March.
• Clients who buy at least $100 in savings bonds through their tax return can get a $25 HEB gift card.
• Clients who have questions about taxes we prepared for them can email taxes@foundcom.org or call (512) 610.7374
•  www.irs.gov has a wealth of information. Including “where’s my refund?”

Things you should know:

Office Space - We have very limited office space during tax season.  Please be sure to put future appointments in Appointment Plus before you and your client leave to make sure an office is available. If you don't have time, or if you don't have your login information, let a staff member know and we will put it in Appointment Plus for you.

Parking - If you do not have a physical handicap that makes it difficult for you to walk, please park off-site for the duration of tax season.  We have very limited partking available at the CFC and we need to save those spots for clients.  There are a couple options for parking:

• Park on Buffalo Pass, two streets east of the Community Financial Center.  Buffalo Pass is part of the Cherry Creek Duplexes neighborhood, a Foundation Communities property!  It is about a 5-7 minute walk at a leisurely pace, no crossing of streets involved.
• Park on Cherry Creek Drive, on the other side of West Gate (my favorite).  You’ll have to cross the street but there is a handy cross walk.  It’s about a 3-5 minute walk depending on how you hit the traffic light at the crosswalk. 
• Park on Stoutwood Circle east of the Community Financial Center on the south side of Stassney.  While this is an option, I don’t encourage it.  There is no pedestrian cross walk, so you have to be EXTRA careful when crossing Stassney.

Wherever you park, please take caution not to park in front of mailboxes, or in front of garbage/recycling bins on collection day.  We want to be good neighbors! 

Name Badges - We encourage you to wear your Financial Coaching name badge when you are here.  There will be lots of people at the Community Financial Center and we would like to be able to easily identify what everyone's role is.  We have name badges for most of you in the Financial Coaching office.  If you can't find yours, please let a staff member know.

Financial Coaching staff - During all Financial Coaching hours, you will see Erika Leos, Jasmine Kotlarz, Nick Banach or Clint McManus.  Whatever you need, let us know!

Financial Coaching holiday schedule

Financial Coaching will be closed for the holidays from Saturday, December 21, 2012 to Saturday, January 5, 2013.

We hope you enjoy this time with friends and family.  We look forward to another wonderful year in 2013.

Randolph Brooks Federal Credit Union

RBFCU not only offers a credit builder loan to help clients establish or improve credit, they also offer membership to Foundation Communities' staff and volunteers.  Check out www.rbfcu.org or pick up materials at the Community Financial Center for information about:

• The Credit Builder Loan for Financial Coaching clients:  The money borrowed is secured in a savings account for the term of the loan and dividends are paid on the money while clients are establishing credit.  Once successfully paid in full the money becomes available in their account.  Maintaining scheduled payments for a minimum of six months will allow the payment history to be reflected on their credit report.
• Credit Union membership for you, Foundation Communities' volunteers:  Free cash back checking, RBFCU credit card, online and mobile device services, auto and mortgage loans, and much more.  If you do not live or work in the RBFCU membership areas, you can still become a member because you are a volunteer with Foundation Communities.

Money Habitudes

In October, our Continuing Education gathering (which will be referred to as Featured Resource gathering from now on) focused on practicing coaching.  In conjunction, we debuted our newest resource:  Money Habitudes, a fun, non-threatening activity that helps us explore our habits and attitudes around money.  Money Habitudes cards are availble by request only, as we have a limited supply.  But if you wold like to try the activity yourself, or with clients, we will be happy to let you use them.  Please see the Money Habitudes story below.

How It Started

People unexpectedly began sharing their stories and secrets about money with Syble Solomon, creator of Money Habitudes, during coaching sessions and workshops on life transitions. They ranged from wealthy executives to single parents living on a shoestring. Many were very financially savvy and were saving and investing for the future, including some people living on minimal incomes. Unfortunately, more often seemingly rational, intelligent men and women would confide their irrational behavior related to money. Even though they knew better, they would continue to make poor money choices or never followed through when they had a plan.

Questions Raised

Why would people do this? And why would they suffer shame or guilt, get angry with themselves or accumulate unmanageable debt when they knew they had other options and could have made better choices? Intrigued, Syble decided to research the financial, psychological and behavioral economics literature to see if there were answers. In fact, the relatively new science of behavioral economics studies the patterns of thinking and decision making as it relates to irrational financial behavior. In their book, Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them, Dr. Thomas Gilovich of Cornell University and Gary Belsky state, “…in the main, we are blissfully ignorant of the causes of most of our monetary missteps and clueless as to how we might correct them.”

Themes

Examples of recurring themes related to problematic money behavior that surfaced in workshops and were repeated in the literature are:

• Having little or no communication about how money decisions are made. 
• Keeping debt, gifts, spending, earnings and investments a secret from a spouse. 
• Knowing there is a need to save and invest for the future but not doing it. 
• Ignoring their financial reality to live a more expensive lifestyle. 
• Living frugally but going into debt for a wedding. 
• Giving generously with no thought about the personal consequences. 
• Having no interest in managing their money and being totally clueless about their finances. 
• Making risky investments or totally avoiding all financial risk. 
• Taking the Challenge

Given the above, Syble became determined to find a way to help people break the taboo of not talking about money and to get them thinking openly and honestly about their relationship with money. Based on her background in education, she knew her solution needed to be interactive, quick and fun. It also had to be non-threatening, non-judgmental and, of course, effective.

Development

After extensive research, Money Habitudes cards were developed as a familiar game-like activity associated with a positive social experience: playing cards. The categories, statements and interpretations were based on the most common themes found in financial, psychological and behavioral economics research as well as popular publications. After being tested on multiple diverse focus groups, the revised cards were reviewed by professionals around the country including consumer educators, financial planners, accountants, psychologists, counselors, personal and professional coaches, military personnel, career counselors, human resource professionals and leaders of financial associations and community programs. They were introduced in 2003.