Financial Literacy: Control Your Finances With These Tips

Financial literacy is as important as learning how to read and write. Being financially literate can be one of the  most powerful tools a person can possess. On Saturday December 5th I attended the #PUSHMoneyMatters Empowerment Series hosted by Rainbow PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund sponsored by Chevrolet; a free event to teach residents of the community about basic money management skills. The Saturday workshop was closure to a three city tour of Detroit, Atlanta, and ending here in Chicago.  The series is driven as a national empowerment campaign focused on helping to improve the quality of financial literacy in the community.

The event was from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. and  started with an opening forum from Rev Jesse Jackson and Jonathan Jackson.  The mood initiated a spark in your engine to want to learn more about financial literacy and the empowerment of knowing how to spend your money wisely.  After the opening forum I was ready to learn.  My goal for the day was to walk away with knowledge on how to improve my credit, learn how to invest, and get tips on improving my spending habits.

Mr. William “Bill” Cheeks and his perfect credit of score 850 began to speak and I was all ears. There was nothing more exciting than seeing a person with perfect credit willing to share his knowledge with a room filled with young people for FREE.  I hope you have your pen and paper because I am all about sharing, here is what Mr. Cheeks says will help lead you to a better credit score.

• Pay more than the minimum
• Pay in full every month
• Say “No” to cash advances
• Pay on time every time
• Stay well within your credit limit ( although it suggest staying at or below 30% Mr. Cheeks only uses about 8% of his credit limit)
• Review your monthly statements
• Monitor your interest rates
• Don’t close cards that have been on your account for a long time
• Monitor your credit report and have errors removed
• Never borrow more in student loan debt than your anticipated first year’s annual salary
• A divorce decree does not separate finances  (joint accounts-both parties are responsible)

His session left me wanting more knowledge, he even offered free credit counseling to 20 people in attendance. Financial literacy was something he focused on, specifically for improving your credit.

Financial Literacy = Financial Empowerment 

My next session proved to be just as empowering. Gail Perry- Mason took to the mic and offered tips on how to spend your money wisely and how to invest.  If you aren’t signed up for the following sites to save you money while shopping, do so now.

1. retailmenot.com (coupons/ discount codes) (love it)
2. ebates.com (money back for shopping online) (I have a Youtube video on this one
3. gofobo.com (free movie passes) (used it many times in the past)
4. restaurants.com
5. pennyhoarders.com (new for me and I will be checking it out)

Mrs. Gail-Mason was amazing. She spoke about how important it is to stop spending and living outside of your means. One of her best pieces of advice was to stop spending your money on products and start buying shares of the companies you love.

The event continued on with an empowerment session from the Senior Manager of Supplier Diversity  from General Motors, Mr. Reginald Humphrey. I’m not trying to keep up with nobody, If your fruit doesn’t bare that type of juice, squeeze it out and get back to your type of budget, he said. Meaning, if you can’t afford what others around you have, stop trying to keep up with them and get back to your level of affordability. Financial literacy isn’t something that is taught in schools it is something we have to seek and teach ourselves and our children.

I left the event with a plan to get my finances even more on track. I learned a few tips on purchasing stocks and negotiating for the purchase of a car. I hope you can find something to take away and help improve your financial life #FindNewRoads.

*This is a sponsored post. The views expressed in the post are my own.