Financial planning for success
The A&FRC Personal Financial Readiness program offers information, education and counseling to enhance your abilities to manage money and invest in your future. Personal Financial Readiness services at the A&FRC will help you to plan for financial success.
1. Commit to spending less than you make and sign the pledge at:
www.militarysaves.org
2. Write down your financial goals.
3. Keep track of your spending and know your financial debts.
4. Use a credit card only if you can pay it off in one month.
5. Invest in the Thrift Savings Plan and or Roth IRA for long term retirement goals.
Where are you financially?
- Analyzing your spending habits will allow you to see where your money is going, enable you to institute changes, and prevent you from making a financial commitment before you are ready. No matter what your results are, financial counseling is FREE at the Airman and Family Readiness Center. Call us at 535-4138, or visit us at Building T-126, and we can assist you in finding solutions that will benefit you, your family, and your career.
To Schedule a Financial APPOintment, please fill out the following documents prior to your appointment:
c) Call the Lajes A&FRC at 535-4138 and send the above documents with your information.
CREDIT REPORTS AND UNDERSTANDING CREDIT
25% of credit reports have serious errors. These errors will impact your ability to take out a loan or significantly increase the interest rate you pay, restrict employment opportunities, affect your security clearance, determine how much security deposit is required for utilities, rent etc. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each of the three major consumer reporting companies, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months. You can access your free reports through the following website at Annual Credit Report (Recently accessible to Europe). If you prefer to mail in your request complete the Credit Report Request Form using these Credit Report Instructions and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281 To see how your credit report and credit score relate, plus how to interpret your score, read the Credit Report Guide. Once you receive your report, you can download the following Credit Report Code guide to understand what each codes means that is reflected on your report.
Debt Management
- How would you like to see exactly how much interest you are paying to your creditors and have get a plan to get out of debt? University of Utah developed PowerPay Take a minute to establish an account. If you have debts, you must write them all down on one spreadsheet with balances owed, Annual Percentage Rates on each loan, and minimum payments for each loan. We suggest using the “Air Force Spending Plan” as a means of knowing your debts in order to develop a plan to attack them. If you have debts, commit to the “Action Plan -To Get Out of Debt” and call for an appointment.
Personal Financial Readiness Resources
Home Buying Basics:
1. Make sure you have a solid spending plan and know all of your assets, debts and credit score.
2. Use the tools and website listed here: “Are You Ready to Buy a Home” to objectively determine if you are financially ready to buy a home.
3. Schedule an appointment with the A&FRC to discuss your financial readiness and how to improve it.
FINANCIAL PLANNING FOR RETIREMENT
1. Again, make sure that you have followed the financial basics by having specific financial goals, keeping track of your spending, and knowing your net worth.
2. Use the tools located in this document (Military Retirement Financial Planning Steps).
3. If you have 14 ½ years active military service and are facing the decision to accept the CSB/REDUX bonus, use the website: https://staynavytools.bol.navy.mil/RetCalc/Default.aspx and schedule an appointment with the A&FRC to discuss this option prior to making a decision.
4. Seek assistance and schedule an appointment with the A&FRC to help you to develop your own retirement plan by calling 535-4138.
INVESTING BASICS
1. Follow the financial basics to plan investing to reach your goals.
2. Use this basic website to learn about financial products: http://www.saveandinvest.org/Military/financialProducts/index.htm
3. Use the free library card access to Morningstar Investment Research Center: http://www.usafelibraries.org/dbcards.php?libcard=true Morningstar Investment Research Center - This resource has reports on nearly 7,000 stocks and 21,000 mutual funds. It can help you find undervalued stocks and narrow your mutual fund choices to a manageable few. The Investing Classroom offers 200 self-paced educational courses on stock and fund investing and portfolio building.
4. Use the Thrift Savings Plan for investing for your long term goal of retirement.
5. Schedule an appointment with the A&FRC to answer questions and ensure you are on the road to financial success.
Paying for college basics
1. Follow the Objective steps in paying for college.
2. Review and weigh your Options for funding a child’s college.
3. If you are in the Air Force or public service and already have student loans, check out this information to see if you are eligible for Student Loan Forgiveness for Public Service.
