Your Money, Your Goals Toolkit (Part 4 of 4) Presenter: Scott Bennett, ICF Speaker: Heather Brown April 23, 2019 2:00 pm ET Coordinator: Good afternoon and thank you all for standing by. I'd like to inform all participants that your lines have been placed on a listen-only mode until the question-and-answer session of today's call. Today's call is also being recorded. If anyone has any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Miss Heather Brown. Thank you, ma'am. You may begin. Heather Brown: Thank you, Operator. Welcome everybody for our final session of the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit training. We had three great sessions. For those of you that haven't been able to make every session, feel free to visit our webpage -- and I'll show you where in just a moment -- and watch the previous presentation and listen to the recording. And there's also a transcript there. I will send out slides to everyone. I've just decided to send everyone all the slides from, you know, the entire series for anybody that attended at least one of them. So I'm going to do it all at once after this session. And let's see, let's move on here. I'm going to do a quick introduction so I can give (Scott) all the time he needs. (Scott Bennett) is back with us once again for his final session for this series. Hopefully we'll get him back again because I think he's done a wonderful job. First I need to go through our standard disclaimer. This presentation is being made by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau representative, that's me, on behalf of the Bureau. It does not constitute legal interpretation, guidance or advice of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Any opinions or views stated by the presenter or myself are the views of our own and may not necessarily reflect the Bureau's views. Now we - about the Bureau. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulates the offering and provision of consumer financial products and services under federal consumer financial laws and educates and empowers consumers to make better informed financial decisions. This is a slide that we use to represent our FinEx program. We have over 5000 members and we provide regional convenings, regional meetings throughout the country. We like to come and host a meeting or provide some training at your site. If that's something you're interested in, please reach out to us. As you know, we have monthly Webinars and we also have an annual conference. I think I mentioned it was going to be in September. We actually pushed it back a little bit to October so you'll be getting some information on that shortly, if you're a FinEx member. And if you're not a FinEx member, by the way, let me go back so you can see the email, if you're not a FinEx member, in other words if you didn't get an email announcing these programs and if you're not getting a monthly newsletter, you would want to send your at least your email. We like to have a little bit more information than that, pretty much everything on a business card. But we only require you to provide your email to the email address the cfpb_finex@cfpb.gov, at the bottom of this slide, and we will add you to our list and you will become a member and you will get first notification of all events, research and tools, as well as the annual conference in October. This is the link at the bottom of this page and it shows a picture of the Financial Education for Adults page, and that is the focus of the FinEx program. Our goal is to provide training, resources, tools and networking opportunities for financial educators, and we do this by having the programs that we mentioned and oftentimes we will also reach out to FinEx members to test new products that come out and be a part of focus groups. So there's lots of opportunities to engage and meet other people in the field. If you are on our list you'll be getting those notifications. Oh, you can also go to that page to sign in, if you don't want to send it to the box. You basically will enter your email address in the bottom right corner of that screen where it - and then click the sign up button and that will come to me and then I'll add you to our email list. Also, you can't see the full picture of it but under that it says connect with others and that page you can also link to our LinkedIn exchange. And you are welcome to post any announcements you have. Some people have posted calls for papers, announced conferences. The only thing we ask that you not - you don't use it to market for-profit events but if you're providing anything that financial educators would be interested in and there's no cost to it, then feel free to post it on our website. So no - I forgot to take this off. There's no next Webinar. From this point on for the Your Money, Your Goals series you'll visit the webpage but we look forward to having you check in on that as well. And our actual next Webinar that's coming up will be on wire fraud. It'll be on May 16 from 2:00 to 3:00, so you can look forward to getting an announcement on that shortly. Okay. With that I'm going to hand it over to (Scott). (Scott), are you ready? (Scott Bennett): Great. Thanks a lot, Heather. All right. Well again, thank you everybody for joining us again today for part four. This is just a fantastic section. I love these booklets. That's what we're going to be covering today so, again, thank you everyone for joining. I hope this is something that is really helpful to you. If you haven't seen the booklets before or just looking for a little refresher on what's going on with the booklets, it's a nice condensed topic-based, you know, yes it's a booklet around Your Money, Your Goals topics. So again, just like Heather had presented here, I also have my own disclaimer. This is basically the same thing. It just means, yes, if I start mentioning any of my own views and opinions that is obviously only my opinion and not representative of the CFPB's views. So I'll try to keep that under wraps. Of course today, like I said, we're going to go through the booklets. We've got the three booklets. We've got Behind on Bills?, Debt Getting in Your Way? and Want Credit to Work for You?, the new one that just came out the beginning of this year. So obviously we're very, very excited about that being released and I think it's a nice - rounds out better the booklet collection, so just a great three different topics that work really well. We're also going to go through, again, I'm just going to show you some of the tools and then, as I go through, just try to give you some ideas about how you can be using these tools. So what we went over the last three sections here, we had the first two were dedicated to the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit. I hope you have - if you haven't had a chance to see that, if you didn't join us for the first two parts, go to that website that Heather mentioned, take a look at them. We've got the recordings on there. I - the toolkit's great, especially some of the updates they did in the recent version. And then of course the third part here, that was last week, we went through the companion guides, focused on Native communities, focused on people with disabilities and the focus on reentry. So today what we're going to be hitting is Behind on Bills booklet, the Debt Getting in Your Way booklet and the Want Credit to Work for You booklet. And one real quick note is that so you can go to the CFPB's website. You can download electronic versions of all of these tools and resources and you can also order physical copies for free. So it's an amazing option you've got there. Something obviously I'm not going to be training in today, I do not speak Spanish, but there is the Behind on Bills booklet that is available in Spanish, so if you work with Spanish-speaking clients that is a great way to, again, just make this as easy for your clients as possible to get the information and use those tools that they can benefit from. So they are potentially working on getting the other booklets translated into Spanish. They're just not available at this time. So I hope you have a chance to have a copy - get a copy of one of these booklets in hand. That's - the hardest thing for me to show you is how they're really set up physically, the tool structure. So they're, you know, we're going to start off with Behind on Bills to start off with here but that'll be the first one I get into but the tool structure is very unique on these booklets. So that size is half a sheet of paper and they have if you can imagine the tool description is on the front cover on this particular - so this one tool. You'll have the front cover, the tool description will be on the front cover and then there's the step further will be on the back cover, the back side of the tool. And then you would open up that tool and you'd see the worksheet, and you can see how once you open it up it's a half sheet of paper. You open it up and now you've got a worksheet that the size of a sheet of paper. And it's also, if you notice, there's color. It's all really nice and bright and descriptive there for the tool description. And the worksheet in the middle, intentionally so, is in black and white so it's really nice and easy for you to photocopy a copy of that worksheet. So this could be something that is, as a service provider, you could be using the booklet. You carry the booklet around with you and then, you know, maybe you make photocopies of those worksheets to actually work through it with your clients. That can make a nice easy way for you to get that functionality but not have to have a whole bunch of copies of these toolkits - these booklets sitting around, you know. So again, that's how it functions. So again, you start off by showing the tool description on the front, describe what it's going to help them do, what it takes to set up for using this tool and then even a question. It starts off with a question, like what is it - you know, what's the something that I can use to kind of frame the conversation before I get into this worksheet. Then you open it up. You go through the worksheet. You use whatever's going on inside there to, you know, again, illustrate whatever the concern is or help you think through a particular solution to a problem. And then once you're done with that worksheet, you'd close that and you'd look on the back cover and then you've got the step further. That step further helps you say now that I've filled in this workshop - this worksheet, where do I go next, what's that next step? Where am I going to take it to from there? What can do I with this information that I just put into that worksheet? So, you know, as I mentioned, first we're going to start off with Behind on Bills. Then we'll go into the debt booklet and then the credit booklet. So the way these booklets, again, are set up here besides obviously I just mentioned the physical composition of them, is that they're set up - there's sets of eight tools all around the topic and around a question. So you've got the Behind on Bills, well are you behind on bills? If so, these are a collection of eight tools that can help you address this concern and hopefully help you get to the point where you're able to pay your bills on time. So they're color coded so if you see - and this - with each of the three booklets you're going to see the same thing where you have the blue-green tools, they're across the top. They're going to help you build a picture, a clear picture, of what's going on with their situation, help you get a better picture, in this case, around your income and spending. Then you get your yellow tools there in the middle. Those are going to help you think about the goals and identify ways to increase your income and other resources, cutting expenses. What am I going to do now that I have this information? And then red, those are those big concerns, you know, what are those big issues that are facing me. You know, am I in trouble? Do I need some immediate assistance? Here are those tools that can help us respond to those immediate challenges that need. So I'm only going to be going through highlighting a couple of those tools. So actually, I'm going to back up just so you can see what's all in there. So there's an income tracker. There's a spending tracker. There's a bill calendar. There's a goal-setting tool. Short-term strategy. So again, it looks at, you know, what are some ways that I can increase my sources of income, decrease my spending, you know, just so I can hopefully come up with some ideas and brainstorm some ideas that will make things work out? Then we get into prioritizing bills. So if I only have enough money for seven of my ten bills, which are the most important ones to pay first, not just pay the squeaky wheel. Then we get into the dealing with debt collectors. So if I'm receiving calls from debt collectors, I want to make sure I'm responding the most effective way so I don't get myself into more trouble, you know, make sure that I'm working - doing that effectively. And then if I need additional help, help beyond this that I really - just to get everything under control, what are some additional resources, and that's where those resource cards come in handy. So again, those are all the tools. I'm going to highlight a couple of my favorites and hopefully you can see some of the great value of these tools from the booklets. In all three of the booklets you're going to see there's going to be assessment tool of some kind. This is probably one of my favorite assessment tools. It is fantastic. Some of the problem with assessment tools. So when we're trying to get an idea of where our clients are at when we're working with them, sometimes it's hard to get them to open up because sometimes, you know, you start asking enough questions. You know, we don't really like to talk about our own financial situation with people. Think about how often we talk with our family about our financial concerns, right? So when it comes to the My Money picture, this is a great way to just start, you know, let them - just kind of get them to open up in a really non-threatening way. It's so straightforward. So the way this tool works, and this is inside the back cover of the Behind on Bills booklets, so it's a little hidden, a little secret tip for you. This assessment tool can be a great way to start the conversation with clients. So how this works is you take a pen or a highlighter, all you're doing is you're looking at this board here and you mark a check on anything you feel good about and you circle anything you feel concerned about. And you've got a couple other spots in there too. So if there's something else that you feel, you know, actually either really good about, a nice thing to feel positive about stuff, but also if there's anything you feel concerned about, you could write that in. But you notice how there's very little language on there, so it helps if you have people maybe English isn't there primary language, but also it's just - it's not asking why you feel concerned about it. That's the follow up. That's where you go from there. But it's a great way to get the conversation started. So that's why I love this assessment tool, just say like what is it that keeps you up at night. That's what this is going to help them do. And so because it is so basic and so non-threatening this is a way that you can start the conversation even if you haven't already built up a really strong rapport with the client before. This can get them to start letting them know how you can provide assistance for them around financial topics. So now I'm going to highlight a couple of the tools inside there. So spending tracker, of course I think this is just a perfect tool. It's just it's really, really helpful. This is something we all fall into. Just we don’t often know really where we spend our money. We often nickel and dime ourselves out of our budgets and we don't realize that there's some things that might be small each time but they add up to a lot when you're looking things over a week's time, a month's time or even especially a year's time. So, again, as I mentioned here, this - there's the tool description here. You've got the ostrich with the head in the purse. You know, again, trying to get a nice - I love the imagery of a lot of these animals here, like you feel like that sometimes, like I feel like at the end of my month I'm, like, into my wallet, like, where did all my money go? I have no idea what happened to it all, you know. So sometimes we feel like that ostrich trying to figure out where our money went to. So this spending tracker is going to help us track our monthly spending, analyze our spending and especially I really like this part, identifying areas where we can cut back on. So this is - we're leaving it to the clients to determine. So once we have all this information detailed accurately, then the client, it's on them to decide all right, well where am I going to cut back on? It's not saying, here's what you need to do. It's saying, like, okay what would you like to do? Here's your options. You need to, you know, we obviously need to make some changes so what would you like to do? And you'll leave it in their - the ball in their court. So here's the spending tracker. This is not a complicated document. It's really straightforward but I think it's really powerful in that way. It's just really straightforward, simple. We just have, you know, here's some ideas, some categories here and then of course there's the other spot there. And you notice on the left side there's - you've got the week one through five. So we also add that level of detail around not just what I spend my money on but when do I spend it. So this can be a great way to get an idea, especially when you get those category totals, a great way to see how much am I actually spending? We're talking about over a month's time. How much am I actually spending in these categories? It's so surprising. It's really when you see it down on paper, it's, you know, it really paints a - it really helps us see, like, what big changes could I make by making what small adjustments I have. So, again, I love this tool. I think it's really, really effective. But once you have this filled out really effectively or I mean with a high level of detail, then I go from there and you look on the back cover. And like I said, on the back cover of everyone one of these tools we've got a step further. So in this case it's the let's have a conversation about needs and wants. And then at the bottom of that you see what is one thing - one want that I'm going to cut back on for next week? Let's keep it simple. So that at least just identifies for the client what's one thing that I'm going to cut back on, and you'll leave that to them to make that decision and then maybe follow up with them if you have that opportunity. Another tool I love from here, actually this is - so if you were here for when I was getting into the goals section for the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit, I love goal-setting. I think this is such an important conversation to have with people because we don't often sit down and really think of what is it that I want to accomplish and really find something that matters to me. And so that's where I think this tool's helpful is because, you know, again, there's the description here. So this tool's going to help us identify the things that really matter to you. We're going to work towards the future that includes those things. We're going to use this to even track our progress and, as a result of doing this, using this tool, we're going to take pride in making life better for ourselves. So that's what we're getting through. And then you see there at the bottom, I'm going to start that one question: How do you help someone else reach a goal? I love that question because if you've ever helped somebody else reach a goal and you've been there for somebody else and helped encourage them and do that, well maybe you didn’t even think about reaching back out to them to provide - you know, return the favor. Maybe they can help you reach a goal now. So, you know, again, you were there for them, now they can be there for you. And so that's why I really like it. If we have some accountability around a goal then we're going to be much more likely to reach it. So again, we've got the front cover here. Now we open it up and here's the worksheet. And this right here is why I like it so much is because you see on the left question here, so you can use any one of these columns here to answer - to start getting us thinking about our goals, but that first column to at least get us thinking about it is what is one thing I'm proud of. And I love this positivity. When we have somebody who's - this is, again, the Behind on Bills booklet, so you can have somebody who's having trouble paying their bills on time and so when we - they're probably in maybe a negative space right now. Let's help them start off the process by thinking about from a positive standpoint where are, you know, what's one thing that they can leverage, what's one thing they're really proud of as we work forward and start working towards some of the goals that really matter to us. But then once we've filled that out, we can go through maybe what's one promise to our self, what's one thing I'd like to change, and just one dream that I have for myself. And then you have the bottom right corner there: what's the date to complete it? We add a timeframe because that's what's going to keep us really working towards something, not just putting it off and putting it off and putting it off. And the step further for here is how am I going to make that a reality? What are my - what are three steps that I can take, some resources necessary and what's the timeframe I want to add to it around making this goal happen? So I love this. Again, that's my motivation. The goal is a motivation for taking all these other steps into consideration, to actually go through all these different steps. I love the goal-setting tool. So now we're going to get into prioritizing bills. So this is, again, one of my favorites because -- they all are, that's why I selected them for this presentation today -- but the prioritizing bills part is because I've worked with a lot of clients who sometimes they're getting calls from debt collectors and so - and they're getting so many calls where they just feel like their - just, like, want to shut them up and so they pay those bills first, even if they're not the most important bills for their personal situation here. We want to make sure that they're paying the most important ones first. So this prioritizing bills tool can help them at least get an idea of, like, which are the most important ones to pay first. Then as I have more, you know, maybe then work by contacting those other creditors, create a payment plan that can help them, you know, just keep that under control so they're not getting themselves in more trouble because, again, this is a temporary solution here. But we want to make sure that they're paying the ones that are most important, that they're not going to get into more trouble as a result. So, again, what's the consequences of not paying back - paying off these particular bills on time? So in here you can see we're identifying what are those things that I need to keep or get a job, because obviously that's important. If I lose my job as a result of not paying my bills, how am I going to pay any other - the rest of my bills? So obviously that's a huge concern. What are the things I need to do to keep housed or to keep my utilities connected because you think things are bad right now, well you now have to consider if you're now homeless, well, all these things are going to start compounding so, again, trying to make sure that I'm paying the most important ones first before I pay, you know, just the squeaky wheel. So then on the right side, once I've filled in some of this information here, I prioritize my bills on the right side and I pay the highest priorities first and then just work down the line. And I feel, again, the next step here is really important to consider because we don't want to just encourage our clients to just, oh, okay, we'll just pay the most important ones first and then just ignore the rest of them. That's obviously not what we're trying to suggest here. We're trying to make sure that they're protecting themselves the most but then - by paying those important bills but then look at the rest of the bills and see what other things, you know, what other actions, let's be proactive. So that's what it talks about here. It's, like, if you have to miss a payment try calling your creditors to tell them why and then maybe there's some sort of a payment plan we can do to help prepare - to get everything worked through. Okay. So those are some of my favorites from Behind on Bills. You saw from that sheet of eight tools there at the beginning what we're looking at in there, how they're formatted, but now let's jump into Debt Getting in Your Way booklet. So of course this works just like the Are You Behind on Bills? Well, is Debt Getting in Your Way? How is it getting - what is it getting in the way of and let's help you get there. So here's the table of contents for this particular tool, or this booklet. So we've got of course what is the first step here? We're talking about debt. We need to have a debt log. We need to make sure just we understand what's all out there, what all do I owe. So we've got our debt log. If we need help filling that out, let's pull the credit report. So there's quick and easy tool around pulling our credit report so that way you can help fill in our debt log and know really what's all out there in terms of our debt. If student loans is part of the concern, maybe I've got student loans that are, you know, causing me trouble, we have a student loan checklist. It helps us identify and deal with our student loan situation. But now once we've filled out our debt log, we're going to actually take - start taking steps here. So we've got our debt action plan. So I'm going to start paying down the debt and, like, how am going to do that? What's my strategy around that? Maybe also thinking about from a seasonal snapshot, this tool is fantastic. This a unique tool that helps us look at what are some things that got me into debt last year as a result of me just not being prepared for things that come around seasonally, not preparing for those things that I know that are maybe big but only come up like once or twice a year that I can prepare for. So that tool's great that we have in there. Then you're going to see some similar tools for that last three but they're all around with - they're different. They're modified ones from Behind on Bills because they're now with a debt slant. And so let me prioritize my debt payments. Let me - dealing with debt collectors again and then resource cards around managing my debt. So, again, the debt log, I think the reason why I like this one is because, again, it is so straightforward, it is so simple but it's so key to this picture. We need to understand what we all owe. So this tool is going to help us really look at what all's going out in terms of debt payments every month and then look at the big picture here so we can figure out when we're going to pay off debts with our current repayment plan, also helping us identify when are those payments due so it's not just, okay, I've got another bill. All right, let's pay it. I've got another bill. Pay it. Oh I don't have enough money for this bill. Hopefully I can work a couple extra hours, maybe make that happen. So this way I can be proactive about it. Really put it all in one place and be prepared for those bills as they come up. So here's the debt log. Again, this is not some crazy unique tool here but it's just so effective in simplicity here. We need to understand, we need to put down all on paper because maybe the biggest stressor around our debt is that we haven't actually taken inventory of it and really have an idea of what's all out there. So we put it down on paper and after that initial impact, like, whoa, I might have a little bit more debt, you know, I have a lot debt but now I can take steps. Like, oh, well, actually now that I look at it, maybe I can pay - I can manage my monthly debt payments and maybe squeak out a little extra to start cranking down some of the debt, so identify which one I want to crank down first. So what are my debts? I just list them out. What's the payment amount every month? What's the due date for it? Is it up to date? Am I behind on those payments? And then some other additional information that can help me identify which ones do I want to pay off first and be more aggressive about because, you know, maybe there's the high interest rate or maybe I’m almost done with a particular debt so I can start paying that one down first, you know, so get from like maybe seven debts down to six, down to five pretty quickly. So lots of different little things but the first step is understanding and identifying what all is out there. A step further with this one is just helping us understand where to find all the information as I'm filling it out. So do I need to pull my credit report? Do I pull my credit card statements? Any other documents, like a loan or a mortgage agreement, any court orders, billing statements, all of these things that can come up that I could then use to find out all my payments. So now that I've taken all inventory of it, let's take action on it. So let's figure out what am I going to do to pay it all down, and this debt action plan is going to be that action step. So I'm going to set a goal to work towards this future that where I've paid off this debt and I'm going to be able to reach that thing that debt is getting in the way of. So I'm going to help - it's going to help me take those steps to get a handle on the debt, achieve those goals and even identify those resources that are going to help me get there. So this - the reason why I really like this tool is because the CFPB did a really good job when they created these tools by, again, not just having the simple conversation but we're going to take that simple conversation and we're going to add a couple extra pieces to further that conversation, get you thinking another step down the line, and that's where I think this is so effective is not just saying, all right, what's my debt action plan? What debts am I going to pay in order, you know? What are my strategies? What's the resources I'm going to use to help me get there? But it's actually right there in big bold in that bold box there at the top, what is it that I want to achieve? Because even just for my detail on the left side, what goal is your debt keeping you from reaching? So it's right there in the, okay, I know I need to do these steps and I need to do them by these particular dates I'm setting for myself, and then what's my motivation? It gets back to kind of like how in the Behind on Bills booklet had the goal-setting tool. If I have something that I really want to achieve, maybe it's something I want to buy a house. We've been renting forever and we just keep bouncing around and I want to give my kids roots so I'm going to buy a house. But right now I've got too much debt that I can't qualify for a home loan so I need to get through that debt so I can achieve owning that house and so I can give that to my family. So I put that right there in big bold: I want, you know, just buying a home for my family. So if I have that there at the top, it's every time I look at this sheet it's not just, oh, I need to pay more money towards my debt, it's if I keep doing this, I'm going to be able to get to that house, and that’s something that motivates me. So that's why I love bringing this all together. We want to make sure that it's not just working down the route but also keeping motivated and keeping down - keeping on that task of paying down our debt. The step further with this one is just helping identify what is the strategy I'm going to use. We talk about the snowball method. So they start off small there on the left side, or the highest interest rate method of prioritization of our debt payments. So of course we pay the minimum payments on all of them but we put that extra payment towards one of them that we select and then we roll those payments into the next one and then the next one down the list and that's using these strategies so, again, how do I decide which ones first, which ones second, third, et cetera, and these are two different strategies, both of which are very effective strategies. The one on the left can be a little bit more motivating. The one on the right saves a little more money. So again, whatever keeps our clients motivated, that's what's really most important. And now the seasonal snapshot. I hinted about this one when we were looking at the tool list there when I first showed this one, but this is a unique tool. This is not in the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit but it is an amazing tool because sometimes we just don't think about the implications of these things that come up every year. And you'd think that we'd learn but we never seem to. There's a reason why we teach lots of financial education classes in January and February around helping people pay off debt that maybe they got into as a result of financial decisions and lack of preparedness around the holiday season. This comes up all the time because do this all the time. So this tool I think can help us get there, and it's more than just, okay, well, you know, do I want to prepare, you know, maybe save a little bit every single month so that way I have money for gift giving at the end of the year, okay? That's only just one thing that can get us into trouble. Do you have kids that, you know, maybe they've got to back-to-school season so we always spend a little extra there? Or, you know, different - maybe there's - maybe I work seasonally and so there's going to be a part where I work less hours during certain periods of time. So that's what's going to help us do this. What are those things that led us into debt last year and what things can we now do, what actions can we take to help prepare it so we don't get into debt this time? We can save up for purchases instead of having to rely on maybe putting it on a credit card or any alternative lending sources to pay for those bills that I just was not prepared for. So here's the tool. I love it. I think it's fantastic. Again, we just give some examples here. So what are some holiday gifts? You know, are there changes around energy? You know, so if you get - if you live in some of the colder states here, once it gets down to the winter time, you need to make sure we have a little extra in the kitty for the heating or, you know, if you're in the warmer states or just any of the states that gets really good and hot during the summer, we need to make sure we've got enough saved for that change in our electricity bill for our air conditioning. So what are these things that got us into that debt that we just not have been prepared for so we can take steps? So you see right there it says first think about last year. What happened? And then now we think about next year? What am I going to do? What changes am I going to do to prepare for these costs? So this is same thing that, like, any time I hit, you know, teach some classes there in the beginning of the year, I'll say, like, well, if you were to put away 20 bucks a month right now, by the time you hit December, you've got $240, okay? If you need more than that for the gifts because maybe you just love buying gifts for people, okay, great. Let's save a little bit more. Or maybe you have - every time you hit August and your kid's going back to school, you always have - you always go into debt, well, what happens if I save a couple extra bucks every month starting in January? Now by the time I hit August, now I've got that money that I need so I don't go into debt. Or, you know, maybe you pay your car insurance twice a year. Maybe you do the six months chunk. Okay, well, let's actually save up for that so we're ready to go, ready with that payment when you need it. So, again, that's why I love this tool. I think it's a great way for us to think about what things got us into debt and let's prepare for them. The step further with this one is, again, just some strategies. Again, how do I make these things - keep these expenses from becoming debt? So if I pay cash instead of putting it on my credit card that can help me. Maybe saving on utility costs. So during the winter, maybe you put on an extra sweater. Put on a hat when you're even there at your house, okay? That maybe means you can drop the temperature down a little bit lower before the heating turns on. So that might save you some bucks and that can be very helpful. Or just turning off the lights every time you leave the room. I cannot tell you how many times this has happened in my household where you just leave the lights on and you just don't think about it and then that's just going to add up. So anything we can do to reduce those utilities. So again, just some ideas that we can do to help us not get into debt next time. So that's the debt booklet. Again, I love that, again, if you have some clients that are having debt getting in the way of accomplishing something, whatever that is for them, that booklet's going to help them get there. And it's that collection of tools to help them address those debt concerns, get on top of their debt payments, be proactive, be in front of it and start paying off debts. Because eventually those debt payments -- if you really are aggressive about this -- can then turn into maybe savings amounts, amounts you put into a savings account and get an emergency savings account built up so that we now don't get into debt when those seasonal things pop up and we have, like, a nice little savings amount when some of those things that just we can't even prepare for, that's our preparation so we're going to stay out of debt and be able to stay now working towards those things that we want to accomplish. So, again, I love those booklets there. Now we're going to get into that new booklets, all about wanting credit to work for you because you can think about how many times your credit - if your credit's bad, there's lots of different ways that it can be working against you. So is this making it so you can't get into better housing? So if your credit's bad enough, maybe you need to come up with enough of a deposit where you just don't have the money there. So that's becoming a barrier to housing. Or maybe your credit's bad enough and the jobs you're looking at are pulling your credit report, well, that's a barrier. That's a barrier to better employment. So there's so many different ways that credit could be working against you, but if we get that to a positive state, now it can be working for you. So that booklet's going to help you get there. So the tools in here we've got first how do I pull my credit report? That's obviously step one. I'm going to pull it, make sure it's accurate. Then I'm going to check it to make sure it's - we're going to walk through the tool. There's a checklist to make sure it's actually accurate, look for any errors and then dispute those errors, and that's what that next tool's going to help us do. Let's dispute any errors that we see so it's absolutely 100% correct. It might not be pretty. That's the next part. But we need to at least start off at a point where it's accurate. And then the next part here, so what are some steps I can do to build good credit? What can I do to improve my credit scores? And then also a unique tool there about choosing credit. So it helps us think a little twice because it's kind of - I think it's kind of a little messed up that because credit is how it is, we can make such big financial decisions and get immediate response. Like I can walk in right now and go buy a car because my credit's good. I could get into a huge financial situation without even having to wait a day to think it through. Now obviously I try to do, you know, internal mental games here to make sure that I don't do that, you know, say, okay, I need to have at least a 24-hour waiting period before I do these things, but this tool's going to help us think about that. Should I actually use credit to buy this? Could I save up for this item? You know, you think about just how easy it is to get credit, you know, obviously if you're credit's not terrible here, can I get a credit card? And then at that point, can I get myself even into more debt? Or even just thinking back to that debt booklet we just went through, what are some things that I did that got me into credit - got me into debt? And that's what that tool is going to help us do. Should, you know, let's make us think twice about whether or not we should use credit to get into debt, to buy that item. And then the next tools here, the bottom ones there, you know, what do I do if I've been a victim of identity theft? So if I'm looking through my credit reports and I start identifying that, hey, you know, I'm actually - I think this is identity theft. There's some irregularities on my credit report that I cannot chalk up to just maybe a typo or a bookkeeping error. This is actual identity theft so I need to get help. So through that tool, we're going to get that help. We're going to get that assistance. First, how do I identify identity theft but then what do I do once I, if it is actually identity theft, what do I do to get it all cleared up? And then of course, just like the other ones here, if I need additional assistance, who can I turn to? That's where we got the resource cards. And these are all going to be credit-related resources. So, again, here's the first tool. How do I know what's even in my credit report if I don't pull it? And a lot of people, a lot of our clients, have never pulled their credit report. A lot of us don’t even pull our credit report, you know? So think about your situation. What is the last time you pulled your credit report? Now obviously I hope that everybody on this call today pulls their credit report on at least a yearly basis. That's wonderful. But if you haven't, maybe take this an opportunity to even see if this tool really works, if it has the language in there that helps you, and so that way you can work from a point of experience. Like I've used this tool to pull my own credit report and so I know it'll work with my clients. So give it a try. So this tool is going to help us identify how do I get my free copies of my credit reports and then also how do I decide when to request it, because you get your free credit report from one per year from each of the three credit bureaus: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. So are you going to get them all at once? Are you going to spread them out? These are different ideas and it's completely up to you. So that's what this tool is going to let us do here. That tool we can either pull our credit report online, by mail or by phone and now we're going to put in the strategy as well, like, when am I going to pull my credit report. Maybe this is the first time you've pulled them and so I'm going to pull all three at the same time to make sure they're all completely accurate. And then, going forward, I'm going to rotate them out. I'm going to pull them one every four months so I can almost be monitoring my own credit. So another little strategy. So that's what's going to help us create that plan for pulling our credit reports. And then maybe one we've created our plan, we put little reminders into our cell phones, put little calendar invites - calendar reminders so that way, boom, that day comes around, today's the day I need to pull my credit report. So you go and pull it, make sure it's still everything's right and then obviously, you know, once you've pulled it, you want to - if you printed it out, you want to definitely shred that or destroy it in some way because you definitely want to be careful with a credit report. So, again, the next steps here. If I need to get additional free credit reports, there's resources for that. You know, again, what's the information, what are my rights around these things if, you know, if I'm asked for - what questions am I going to be asked when I actually have to pull my credit report? What are some reasonable questions so I can be prepared for those? So, again, just trying to help our clients understand what they're going to need and things that they can do around pulling their credit report. But if we pull it what's the next step? Well clearly we need to make sure that it's all correct. That's the big step here. We want to always make sure that's it's accurate. Our actions. So around do we pay our bills on time and, you know, how much are we using our credit. That's all the things that we're really going to be maximizing how good our scores can be. But first, the things that are, you know, we're going to immediately fix are any errors around inaccuracies. And so that's a big part. There's a checklist. It's going to help us make sure that everything that's on that credit report is absolutely 100% correct. Is our name correct, our previous addresses, any employment history, any public records, collection accounts, any credit accounts? So, you know, maybe if I know I've been paying my credit card every month on time without fail and I pull my credit report and it looks like back in August of last year it says that I didn't make a payment time. So it shows 30 days late. Well that's clearly an error because I know I paid it on time so I'm going to contact my creditor and say, you know, again, my credit card company and figure out what's going on. And this is going to be that, okay, if I see errors I need to go and fix them and, again, just going in, find out what's going on. Any questions here, we've got the stuff on the right side here, we can start jotting in notes. What do I need to fix? And then where do I go from there? So this - the additional information here on this one, the step further is giving us information around how credit works because that's a big piece and sometimes we think - I've had a lot of clients who think that well as soon as I pay off my collection account, it should disappear. So it's still showing - staying on there. Well that must be an error. I'm going to dispute it. Well there's some information on there about how long does negative information stay on your report because we know, like, if you just pay off a collection account, it doesn't just disappear. It stays on there now for the next seven years but it shows as paid, so that's great that it shows as paid. It's better than showing unpaid but let's say you paid it off and it shows as unpaid. Now that's an error and we need to dispute that. But just that it exists, that's not obviously an error. So helping our clients understand how this all works can be also another big piece of the puzzle. So again, that's the next part is so I've pulled my credit report, I made sure it's absolutely correct and, oh, I found a couple of errors so let's dispute them. And this is a new tool. I love this one. Again, we're trying to - because it's not a straightforward process. It can be in certain ways if you're pretty good about this stuff to be able to find your way around how to create a dispute, but if you're not, and that's what's we're trying to do. We're trying to educate our clients and make sure they have the knowledge and the tools to do these things so let's dispute those errors. Let's try to make it as simple as possible so here's what we've got. There's also information on the CFPB's website, some additional information, which there's a link right there on this tool that can remind us how to access that but there's a dispute letter on the website but you can also use this. So first we're going to explain the error. We're going to request a change, so what is it that we're trying to get them to do? And then we need to gather the proof. What proof do we have that can back up our claim that this is an error? And so that's what we're trying to get them to bring everything to the table so that way we can dispute the error, get it fixed so that way at least, moving forward, again our credit report might not be pretty but it's accurate, and that's important. The step further here is going to give us some more information about what happens in the dispute process, so when am I going to hear back from the company, what's going to happen next, what if I don't have any proof? If I'm having any problems with the credit reporting agency with this particular issue, so maybe I have the proof and I've actually reached out to the creditor and I'm saying, hey, here's this error and I'm not getting any response from them. They don't respond. They're not, you know, giving me any feedback. Like, what's going on? Why aren't you making this change? I've got the information. I gave you the information. Nothing's moving. Well maybe I need to submit a complaint to the CFPB so they can get involved and they can get a resolution. It's not obviously promising any particular resolution because we - they don't know what's going on but they at least are going to help you get this from, okay, we're in a standstill to a resolution. So that's what the CFPB can help us with and there's a reminder on this page to get there. So another neat tool here is the how can I improve my credit score. So once I've made sure it's absolutely correct, well maybe I need to start taking some steps to improve my credit report and scores. So this is what we're looking at. Here are some of the tools that are going to help us get the recommendations, the ideas, suggestions that can help us improve our credit reports and scores. So here's what's behind it and that can give us a habit, give us an idea of what habit to create in order to get those scores to where I want them to be. So, you know, obviously we see things around am I paying my payments on time, how much am I using of my available credit when it comes to my credit cards, do I have a lot of different types of credit, do I have a home loan, do I have a car loan, do I have a couple credit cards, things like that. That gives us a little bit more of a variety, and credit companies like that. And also just how long have I had these accounts open for? That gives me my length of credit history. So lots of these things that come in to building that score. Then we can use that information to help us build a habit. So that section right down the middle is going to be really, really helpful to us. So am I paying my bills on time, am I keeping my balances low, my available credit is it below 30% of my limit? Again, maybe I need to hold on to accounts longer and not just maybe I've been in this strategy of opening up cards all the time and closing cards and maybe I need to create a strategy where I have some longer trade lines. So some great ideas for our clients, basic straightforward stuff. Now obviously we're not trying to get into the realm of being the credit counselor by using this tool, but these are some basic strategies that we all should be aware of and understand how credit works, at least at the introductory level, so we can take steps to just getting to the point where we have a very functional score that's, again, not working against us, it's working for us. So the step further here is getting around, you know, some ideas like where do I find my scores. And this is a big piece there is that there is no one score, one credit score. This is a big misconception that a lot of our clients aren't aware of because they just hear the term "my credit score." That's all they hear. They don't have a - there's no - much more explanation. That might be something you provide as a financial educator or, you know, in your one-on-one meetings with clients. But this is something we want to make sure they understand is that if they get a credit score from some, you know, maybe their bank or a credit union or credit card company or some website, that might be a different score than what they get from their - when they're applying for a car loan or a home loan, and we need to make sure that they understand that so they're not surprised when there's a little bit of a difference. So. Again, it's some nice educational resources for our clients to understand more around how credit works, at least at the introductory level. We're not trying to get into that really high level of detail like, well, how many credit cards should I have exactly and, you know, should I open this account, should I close this account, all those kind of things. We're not getting into that level of detail. We want to make sure that they have at least, you know, a good introductory level understanding around credit so they can take some steps around, like, you know, maybe just being in the habit of paying my bills on time. Maybe I've been using more of a credit card available credit than I should be. Maybe if I find different strategies on paying my bills, I'm now going to put myself in a better credit score. So, again, some ideas around that. The last two I wanted to highlight here is the identity theft, so what do I do if I've been a victim of identity theft because this is, again, a new tool here. I really like this one. There is a tool like this one now in the Your Money, Your Goals toolkit as well, but it helps us look at just what happened? Have I actually been a victim of identity theft? If so, how do I recover from this one? What do I need to get myself out of this situation, because this can be a huge mess for people? This can be much more than just, oh, okay, well let me just go tell the FTC that I am a victim of identity theft and then, boom, it all magically disappears. It doesn't work like that. It might be a rough process so we need to start the process as quickly as possible and especially if we can give our clients some information to start working through this, we can be in a better situation. All right. So here's some of the steps. First, call the companies where the fraud occurred. So getting through those steps, like the information I'm going to need, what steps do I need to do to help get the ball rolling? Then do I need to report the theft to the FTC? So what information am I going to need to for that? What steps do I need to do by visiting identitytheft.gov? And then, you know, maybe do I need to pull all my credit reports that they're all accurate? You know, again, maybe see how far this identity theft has gone? And then placing a fraud alert on our credit report. Again, we're going to walk through all these steps to make sure our clients understand really what things do I need to do to get myself out of this situation, because anything that we can do, the quicker we can respond to this, the less damage this can cause. A step further with this one is, you know, maybe do I need to contact the police? You know, if I choose to file a police report what information am I going to need to take? Do I need to place a credit freeze on my accounts, things like this. And then what other steps do I need to do to protect my identity going forward, what things can I do to minimize my threat going forward as well? So I think that's a big piece too. All right, so, again, those were the three booklets. I went through the Behind on Bills booklet, the Debt Getting in Your Way booklet, the new Want Credit to Work for You booklet. I hope you got a good feel for what's all in these booklets because obviously there's eight tools in each one. They each have their assessment tools as well. And so I hope you have a chance to, you know, grab one of these booklets. Order one of the CFPB's website, if you haven't grabbed on yet. Get one and start playing around with it so you can see the format of it and see how it's shaped and how it can be used. I personally I think these are so - I think they're so effective with clients. They respond very, very well to the. So give it a try. See how it works. So now at this point I'm going to open it up to questions. Let me know, is there anything you wonder about when it comes to these booklets and, yes, I'll take your questions now. Coordinator: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by 1. Please ensure that your phone is unmuted and record your name clearly when prompted. Again, that is star followed by 1 to ask a question. To withdraw your question, press star 2. One moment please while we wait for questions to come in. Heather Brown: While we're waiting for the questions to come in, I want to thank (Scott) once again for these four great sessions and appreciate all the insights and energy and enthusiasm you've shared. I think the tools are wonderful and I think you gave some really neat ideas on ways to use them. And just anybody who has feedback about ways that they use it as a result hopefully of the training but either way, just that you're using it, feel free to post your thoughts, comments and experiences on our LinkedIn page to share your ideas with others. I did not get any questions in the chat and I know, (Scott), sometimes you get some directly to you. If you have any, feel free to read them while we're waiting for the operator. (Scott Bennett): I haven't received any either. I hope that means everything was very clear cut, everyone got a good feel for what's all in there. Again, thank you everyone for the feedback there as well but thank you very much for everyone joining on here. Yes, if there's any other questions at all, like, you know, or even comments, feel free to toss in there are you using the tools right now, how do you like them. Coordinator: At this time I'm showing no questions in the queue. Heather Brown: Okay. Well it looks like, again, you hit the nail on the head and given everybody what they want or we have a really shy group. But either way, it looks like there's no additional questions so thank you again for, you know, helping us out with these Webinars and I hope to have you back in the future. And, everyone, we're going to conclude the Webinar now. Operator, you can give your concluding instructions. Coordinator: Thank you. At this time this does conclude today's conference. Thank you for joining. You may disconnect at this time. END NWX-CFPB HQ (US) Moderator: Heather Brown 04-23-19/1:00 pm CT Confirmation # 8933377 Page 1