COVER STORY
DOLLARS AND SENSE PRACTICAL PERSONAL FINANCE TIPS FROM FELLOW AFSA MEMBERS
Tech Sgt. Jessie Torres, Chapter 1657, Aviano AB, Italy: “One piece of
advice that I
have found helpful is to never settle for the fi rst bank when taking out a loan. Back in 2008, I purchased a brand-new car and was going to use a local credit union to fi nance the vehicle. Since it was my fi rst loan with the credit union, they were going to charge me 7.3 percent. To be honest I almost went with it, but the car salesman strongly recom- mended that I contact other banks. Believe it or not, the car salesmen wanted to help me save money! He advised me to contact my bank and this other credit union. He was very helpful: He actually assisted me and
sometimes made the calls for me. And letting the banks know what others were offering made them compete for my loan. In the end, the lowest rate I was offered was 3.2 percent. Not bad for my fi rst loan!”
SSgt. Nichole Brown,
Chapter 872 President, Scott AFB, Ill.: “Save! Save! It is never too early to start saving for your future.
Take advantage of what your Air- man and Family Readiness has to offer—everything from how to start a budget, to helping Airmen transition from the dorms to a house, to advis- ing on TSP or the Career Status Bonus Program.”
Juanita Weems,
AFSA Head- quarters Staff: “When paying off credit card debt, take
the bill with the least amount owed and focus on paying it off fi rst, but be sure to at least pay the minimum on the other credit cards. When that credit card is paid off, take the money you were paying on that bill and add it to the minimum payment of the next bill with the least amount owed. Yo u will have a feeling of accomplishment, and before you know, you will be out of debt.”
community have a fi nancial component to them. “It’s one of the major stressors for people,” Petraeus adds. (See the side- bar on opposite page for more on the connection between fi nancial troubles and service members.) T e goal of the CFPB is to help remove some of those
fi nancial stressors, and the agency has facilitated changes and made a big impact since its inception. “When we began, we heard a lot from service members
who were underwater on their homes,” says Petraeus. Like people across the country, military members fell victim to the subprime mortgage crisis and ensuing drop in home values. For many military members, military PCS orders during this time put them in a tough spot: T ey couldn’t sell their houses for what they owed; they couldn’t rent them for enough to make it work; and often they were losing a spouse’s income during the move. “Many were choosing to leave the family in the house
and the service members would go to the next duty station by themselves,” adds Petraeus. “Especially since so many of
[these families] were being separated by combat deployments, they shouldn’t have to be apart because of fi nances as well.”
A FINANCIAL ALLY Petraeus began to talk about the dilemma to agencies in
Washington, D.C. “T ere were foreclosure prevention pro- grams, but they were sort of one-size-fi ts-all,” she says. T e programs all assumed a homeowner would go delinquent in payments before seeking assistance. “I had to explain that going delinquent is not something military members want to do.” Her eff orts paid off : T e Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency took action and announced that if a military member who had a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loan had to sell his or her house for less than he or she owed because of a PCS, the diff erence between the amount owed and the selling price would be forgiven. “T at was one of the most exciting days since I began working here,” recalls Petraeus.
“We were able to explain the military to a federal agency that really didn’t understand the impact of the military mobile
AFSA Magazine • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014 19
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