Your Money, Your Goals – Part two Moderator: Heather Brown April 9, 2019 2 pm ET Coordinator: Welcome and thank you for standing by. Today's call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. All participants are in a listen-only mode until the question-and-answer session of today's conference. At that time you may press Star 1 on your phone to ask a question. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dr. Heather Brown. You may begin. Heather Brown: Thank you, Operator. Welcome everybody. We're so glad to have you here today for our part two of Your Money, Your Goals. And (Scott Bennett) is back with us. He did a great presentation last week. If you missed it, I'll show you where you can have a look at it. That is - that recording is up now, as our all of our past recordings. So you can catch up on what you missed out or refresh what you hear today once that one gets loaded. So I'm going to do some preliminary stuff quickly and then we're going to hand it over to (Scott). This presentation's being made by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau representatives 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 myself or (Scott) are our own views and not necessarily the Bureau's views. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulates the offering and provision of consumer financial products and services under federal consumer laws and educates and empowers consumers to make better and informed financial decisions, and we do that through our FinEx program by educating other intermediaries that educate consumers. That way we expand our reach since we are a smaller agency. It helps us to reach more individuals by working through you all. So our goal is to provide you resources, research and support that you need and also connectedness in the field in order to get your job done better. So we do, in addition to our newsletter, these webinars. We're going to have an annual conference in September so stay tuned for more information on that. And we also have regional convenings. I'm planning one -- two now, actually -- and one of them is a Midwest target that we're still determining, so if someone has a strong interest or feels that they need something in their area and they're located in the Midwest, please let me know. You can do that by writing the box on the bottom of this slide, CFPB_FinEx@cfpb.gov, and that is also the box you write when you have other questions around the FinEx program or any questions related to providing financial literacy to a population. We're glad to help answer it. Sometimes I get requests that aren't related to me, they may be related to another part of our agency, and I'm happy to forward it. Okay. This page actually shows the link that you would get to if you want to see basically the slide that you see. And at the bottom of the slide that you can't see there's also a link to additional Webinars. And you can seek the link that says View Details and Enroll, you don't actually enroll through that but you can actually look at previous recordings there. And so all of those are updated. If you haven't checked back in a while, please do so if you'd like to see some of the past webinars that we've had. Okay. The - this our link that I just showed you to the adult ed page. The second is the box that I said you can send things to if you have questions. I am going to send a copy of all the slides to everybody on this - that's on this - that gave their email at the beginning when they logged in, and our LinkedIn page is getting very busy and we encourage everybody to post questions, events, things that are not marketing for profit to that site. Okay. And our next Webinar, part three of four, is going to be next Tuesday from 2 to 3 Eastern Time, April 16. Okay so that's everything that I wanted to cover. I'm going to hand it over to (Scott) now so he can jump into our presentation and switch - oops, I handed over to soon. I didn't switch the slides. Just a second. Well, (Scott), do you want to switch the slides by clicking that top? I did it actually. No, I did not. (Scott Bennett): You got it. Heather Brown: Okay. Great. Thanks. Sorry about that. I handed it over too soon. (Scott Bennett): No problem at all. All right. Well thank you very much for the introduction and thank you all for coming back and joining us for part two. I hope you're all excited to learn a little bit more about Your Money, Your Goals, the toolkit. So we're going to go through the other half of the toolkit today. We covered the first half in the last training. Next week we'll be covering the focus guides, focus on disabilities, focus on reentry, focus on people with - focus on Native communities, and then of course the fourth webinar we'll be going into the booklets. So I'm really excited about those as well. As Heather also included, it's time for my disclaimer. I'm not at employed at the CFPB. I'm a - I'm contracting for the CFPB to provide this information so if I get a little off of - off topic, it is not representative of their opinions but that is mine and mine alone. Okay. So the purpose of it. We're going to go through the tools. I'm going to show you - highlight a lot of the tools, the rest of the stuff that's in the toolkit that we didn't cover last week. And of course while I'm presenting this, I'll also talk about some different strategies for using the tools in different situations where it might make sense to use them. But of course that is completely up to you. However you use them, whatever you think is the most helpful for the people you're presenting this information to. Again, whether that's one on one or in workshop settings, classes, however you want to use them. That is completely up to you. I mentioned we're going to be finishing up the toolkit today and then we'll be getting into the rest of the resources over the next two webinars, so I hope you're able to join us for those as well. They're a great content to help you frame the conversation around how present Your Money, Your Goals to those specific populations, again Native communities, people with disabilities and the reentry population. Okay. So last week we went through the introduction section and then Modules 1 through 4. We also gave a little bit of background about the CFPB and then just resources that are out there. So now I'm really just going to get right into the content into the Modules 5 through 9. So, like I said, we're going to get started. Module 5. So, again, over the last couple weeks we went through the - so over the last week we went through the module on savings or setting goals in savings and then tracking income and tracking spending. And so Module 5 is about cash flow and that's about taking the information from your - taking your income and your spending and bringing it together in the cash flow and just state how does everything work out, you know, during that month. And that's the real big part about what is the difference between cash flow budget versus a regular monthly budget. We often use monthly budgets with the people we serve, with our clients because it's an easy way to see just over a month's time, does it work out. But the problem is that can kind of wallpaper over some cracks that might exist, whereas a cash flow budget, what you're adding to the equation here is the week-to-week breakdown. So it actually doesn't just look into how much over the month's time we bring in versus spend but brings in that week-to-week breakdown so we know week-to-week does it work out, because then in that case you might see some issues that might not be present when you have a monthly budget. So somebody maybe has a paycheck that comes in in the second week where they really needed in the first week, in a monthly budget it might look like everything's fine but in a cash flow budget you'd notice the problem, and that can help you identify some ways that we can - once you see that the issue exists then we can take some strategies for making it work out. So here is the tool itself. This is - the cash flow budget. So how it works is you've got your week one, your starting point where it says the 250 there at the starting point. Then you add your sources of income. Then you subtract your expenses for the week as well. Then you have your ending balance for that week. And then that balance carries over to week two and the process starts again. So, again, you go through and you create that for the full month and then you have an idea over the month's time, does it work out. So I have an example for you. So we're going to work through this little scenario here. So I'm going to also look for a little bit of interaction so if you get ready to do some typing into the chat box, I would definitely appreciate that. So here's the scenario. So you have a - Rafael is a single parent with two kids. He's often late with his rent and other bills because he does not have the money when he needs it. After tracking his spending, he developed a cash flow budget with an educator at a parenting class he takes through a cooperative extension in his community. So using the cash flow, which will be on the next page, we're going to make some recommendations to Rafael so he can make ends meet. And so using the scenario, I want you take a look real quick on this cash flow. So again you can see he starts off the beginning of the month with $257 cash on hand. And if you look at the bottom right corner, at the end of week four, say for the end of the month there, he has $361.78. So if you had created just a monthly budget where you have just for the month's time money coming in, money going out, then what you see is he actually has a positive, basically a positive $104, $104.78. So everything would look fine. But you can see from this cash flow budget, obviously there's some issues. So real quick let's see if we can get - if everyone's on the same page. When does he run out of money? So looking at his cash flow right here on the screen, when does he run out of money? You can go ahead and type it in the chat box. Let's see if we can - see how many people get the right answer on that. All right. Yep, we've got week three, week one and week three. Yes. Everyone's seeing that. So we see at the end of week one he has negative $361 and the end of week three he has negative $463.22. So perfect, yes. Thank you very much. So that was - you can see where on this cash flow - now on this cash flow you're going to see at the bottom, again at the bottom of week one, you have negative $361. So we've got the cash flow at the top. We've got $257 starts the week one. You have his sources of income, $220, his food stamps were $412, now all of his expenses for week one. And when you subtract those we have negative $361. And so you can see he runs out of money, doesn't have enough money to cover the expenses that he there in week one and so the same thing occurs in week three. As you see, across the top we've got all his sources of income and then all across the bottom there is his expenses, so you can get that breakdown here again week to week. So this is hopefully helping you see these problems that exist because now what we can do -- and this actually an activity I'd like to do when we're in - when you have a little bit more time -- but it's going through and looking at all the different strategies we can do to help Rafael make ends meet. And that usually involves three things. It's either discussing ways that he can increase his income, different ways that he could reduce his spending, and then also looking at different ways that he could move the timing, so adjust his expenses, you know, maybe talk with his creditors or talk with the, you know, the people he owes money to like his landlord, like what if I could move my rent from one week to a different week. So what we're seeing is all these different expenses and let them walk through. And I love doing this with the clients themselves because once they see this, like if this was Rafael's specific cash flow, we're sitting down with Rafael, once he sees this, you can give him some ideas, you can work through, brainstorm some ideas with him and then let him decide how we wants to make it work out. So, again, we're not telling them what to do. We're not deciding for them the actions they want to take, we're just, you know, maybe offer some ideas but let them brainstorm some ideas as well and let them come up with what are those solutions that they want to take. So again, this is just an example of the cash flow and how it can be very powerful, because like I said, we then, once we have that we can - we see what the problems are and then we can help them make sense of it by improving the cash flow, increasing his sources of income, decreasing spending or matching timing, one of those different options within those different routes. So there's actually a tool for this as well. So maybe you - they have the cash flow, they have it all filled out. They see that they're problems exist but you only have a moment with them and they're about to head out the door or you want - you actually do have some time and you want to walk through some strategies for making it work out, these - you can print out this tool, walk through it with them or even just hand it to them and let them look through what is it that's going to help me make it happen. So here's a whole bunch of strategies. Let that individual select and decide for themselves exactly how they're going to make it work. You know, whether they want to negotiate new due dates for their bills, split up monthly payments and spread it out, or maybe if they have change some large lump sum payments into smaller ones, maybe that would be more helpful, so just different strategies and then letting them decide for themselves. So that's cash flow. So again, a very powerful tool to help us really identify what problems exist around the timing of our income and our spending and making sure that works out. So now we get into debt. That's Module 6. So big part about Module 6 is explaining really what is debt and some of the nuances around how is it different from credit. So I'm sure everyone on the call here knows exactly the difference but a lot of our clients don't and it can be a little confusing, so how the two work out and helping with some definitions, some examples helps them really understand this section, so a great educational option for helping them understand more about debt and how to use it properly. So this - there's even information about, you know, student loans, medical debt, things like that. So helping us understand what would be a good debt or a bad debt, how - and different ways. So this is something when I see this list I think of different ways that debts can be both good or bad, depending on how you use it. If it's something that helps us meet an immediate need because we have no other options, so like getting into debt so maybe that's how we're actually paying our rent this month, that could be a very good way of using debt, and then of course following that up with a great budget conversation so we don't have to use debt for the future unexpected expenses that come up. But, you know, you think about things like a student loan or a loan from a friend or family member. I'm sure we can all think right off the top of our heads some ways that this could be positive, like, you know, the loan from a friend or a family member it may be it doesn't - maybe they're not going to charge us interest on that loan and that might have flexible loan terms. But on the other side of it, if used incorrectly, if they're having problems with that loan, like not paying it on time, you could negatively impact that relationship. So with all of these, they've got their upsides, they've got their downsides and the biggest part of this is trying to help our clients understand what is the most effective way for them, not for what we think is the best way for them, but for them to understand really how all these things work and know what - how to evaluate what is their best option in making sure they're doing it, again, in their best interest. So this gets into comments like - or conversations like co-signing, so understanding that maybe our clients are maybe not aware that because they co-sign on a loan they have the same obligation from the debt as that borrower that they're co-signing for, so to be careful about when we're co-signing for something and thinking about how that could potentially limit their options in the future because that would show up on their credit report and could impact their ability to get their own loan for something else that they need, so just making sure that they really understand the risks and if they still want to do that, that's fine and that's their choice but we want to make sure we've educated them about that. So the three main types that - of debt that this section is going to talk about that this section provides more additional information for you to understand some context, so this could be a great thing so if we - if you'd like to learn more about these topics, this section, there's that narrative section at the beginning of the module that can help us learn more about that topic. And so there's three sections, so student loan debt, medical debt and payday loans, so again to help us educate ourselves about this one, which in turn helps us educate our clients. But then there's the tools that are based around -- and that's what you really use with the people we serve -- the tools around managing debt, responding to debt collectors and shopping for an auto loan. So they can be very helpful in those avenues. So one handout, I mentioned the medical debt piece and because medical debt is actually a huge issue these days, it can be very confusing for the people we help is that there's a handout there that can help educate our clients to prepare for medical bills, so keeping good records, reviewing our bills, making sure it's careful, thinking proactively about trying to make sure that we understand really what's going to be covered by insurance versus what's going to have to be paid out of pocket. Then it also gets into disputing medical bills because if there's any issues around it, we do have a little bit of time before maybe a bill might go towards - might hit our credit report, you know, if it goes to collections, we have some time but that doesn't mean we can be slow about it. We need to be proactive and move quickly on it and resolve or dispute any medical bills that are in there and make sure they're actually correct. And then of course, well, if you have medical bills, you know, let's pay it down and see what strategy we can do. If you clients qualify for charity care, it's a bit - that can be a big help to them, maybe they can bill from nearly impossible to pay for or just unrealistic based on their income level to maybe actually reduce it down to a level that, while painful and not much fun, but it could actually get it down to something manageable, something they can pay off in a reasonable amount of time. So that's why just educating them to make sure that they understand their options before they take any steps. So the first - the other tool in here, so that handout was one of the tools in this module, one - the other tool is the debt log. And I always think about the debt log as basically step one. If you have somebody that's having issues managing their debt or they just feel overwhelmed by debt, the first thing to do is just take inventory of it: what all do they have going out, how much do they owe. And so this could be collecting, you know, pulling their credit report to see what's on there, getting all their paperwork together from loan documents or letters they're receiving and really get an idea of what all do they owe because sometimes it's just that level of unknown, not really having a good grasp on what all's out there, that could be the biggest problem. But the other part to it, all right maybe it is actually a bit problem, you know, lots of debt, hard to manage, but we really can't take action on it until we know it's all out there so that's why the debt log I think it's just a great step one. So it helps us identify who do I owe money to, how much do I owe them in total, what's the monthly payments and then, you know, maybe some other fees or interest rates or any other terms that are helpful for me to keep track of. And then once I have that, so once I have it - the inventory, I know it's all out there, obviously the next logical step is let's pay it down. Let's put together a plan for reducing that debt. And this tool, the debt action plan, can help us identify two strategies, the snowball method, or paying the small debt first versus the highest interest rate method, so these are just two ideas. You know, just suggesting those two to our clients to help them identify two different ways that they can pay down their debt, but really it's up to them. You know, maybe they want to use a combination of both, whatever, but this debt action plan is going to help them identify what are the debts I have and then what methodology do I want to use to pay down those debts as quickly as possible, because then once the debt's out the way then we're, you know, in a much better position. The other thing that our clients could be facing when they have this debt that's out there is maybe they're getting calls from debt collectors, and this can be very disruptive to, you know, while they're at work or even at home and, you know, maybe they're getting calls all the time. You know, they have rights and we want to make sure that our clients actually really understand their rights so they're responding appropriately when they get these calls and they're not putting themselves in more trouble, because maybe there's a debt that, you know, maybe it's not even their debt or maybe the debt is beyond the statute of limitations, so if we look in the scheme of things like we want to make sure that we pay the most important debts first before - if we choose to pay those debts that, you know, maybe are time barred but we're not at this point, you know, don't have to pay. So we want to make sure we respond in the most effective way possible. The first step is making sure we actually owe the debt and we put all the responsibility back on the debt collector to prove that they actually have the documentation, that they're talking to the right person, all of that first before we do anything. And so making sure our clients understand how to do this effectively is very important, and that's what this tool is all about. So there's also letters in there that have letters in the section for verifying the debt to make sure that we understand what's, you know, that - so they can just fill in. You can see what's on the screen there. You can just put in your name, today's date, you know, all this information and so that way you could just hit - or just paste it into an email or, you know, send it - print it out and then mail it into the person you're responding to, whatever it takes so that way they know that they have to produce the information necessary to prove that they have a claim on this debt. So that's why, again, very, very great from a sense of educational, make sure our clients understand how best to respond to them verbally, as well as in writing to make sure that they're protecting themselves. So, as I mentioned here, we got - they have rights, very important, and that way with these rights, you know, we want to make sure that our clients are aware of this stuff so that way they're not possibly being victims of things that really they should be, like repeated phone calls that are trying to harass them or annoy them, people using obscene language, threats of violence or harm, using false or deceptive practices. So this information is very important that our clients know this so that they can hold that strong line to make sure that they're, you know, doing everything properly. So that's Module 6, all about debt, you know, taking inventory of the situation, creating a plan for paying down the debt, as well as protecting ourselves from, you know, making sure we're doing everything correctly when we're responding to debt collectors. Now Module 7 we're going to get into the credit reports and scores. So this section right here I think is just fantastic. The reason is this is what - such a commonly misunderstood topic. A lot of people don't really learn a lot about it until they need to, like until they actually run into any issues, but it can be a huge barrier for, you know, for our clients. So this section is nice about educating them, what is credit, how does it work, because if you think about what's actually being sent out to them in terms of advertising or information, they're most likely just seeing bits and pieces of it through commercials or whatever. So unless - surprise, surprise, not a lot of people just go out of their way and spend like a nice Friday evening going to a credit seminar or a workshop so we don't learn a lot about this stuff until we have to. So this is a great way to educate them about this, you know. Many of you probably hold workshops on this information. So this way we help them understand that when they use credit, that creates a history, it compiles into these credit reports that we hear so much about, and using that information is how they compile, they use these algorithms based on this to calculate these credit scores. And this magical credit score is what we're being judged on when it's for, like, lending purposes or a host of different ways. So this is why I think it's so important is because it matters so much more than just can I get a credit card, can I get a home loan or a car loan. Those are obviously big things but it could also be that this is what helps me get a job. If I'm - you know, if the place I'm applying for checks credit reports and if I have a really messy credit report, it could be really ugly, maybe I don't even know it's even on there, this could be a barrier to employment. You know, maybe I'm trying to get into an apartment and because my credit's so bad, I have to come up with first month's rent, last month's rent as well as deposit before I can even get into the apartment. That's a huge barrier to housing. So obviously there's just tons of reasons why it's so important that we have a really good credit report and scores. And so obviously the first step is we need to get it cleaned up. We need to find out what's all on there and take steps to improve it. So, as with everything, we need to actually pull that credit report, and that's something that a lot of us just don't do, because on that credit report we've got all this information. First, just identification information: names, you know, our addresses, versions of our names, you know, if there's nicknames, things like that, possibly even like employment information is on there from time to time. But we're also going to see public records on there, collection accounts. Other accounts like credit cards, home loans, car loans, student loans, all these things are going to be on there. All those trade lines that help us, you know, help for when we're applying for things help them understand, “what is the likelihood we're going to pay back that debt?” So that's a big piece of it, so. Also on there we're going to see the inquiries as well. So that's kind of a nice confusing thing as well, like, what is the difference between a hard pull and a soft pull. Does it hurt my credit report if I check my credit report just to make sure it's accurate? All this type of misconceptions that people don't really understand because, you know, we're busy enough trying to just, you know, do our own jobs, so taking the time to learn about this can be sometimes difficult. So that's why I like this section a lot, a great way to educate people about it. Also make sure that they understand some of the negative information that could be on there and how that works. So if I have a collection account and I pay it off, well why didn't it just disappear. The debt is paid off, right? Well it doesn’t disappear just because it's paid off. It'll stay on there for seven years, past that last activity date. So once it's paid off, it at least shows it's paid but it doesn't mean it dropped off and that's something that sometimes your clients aren't aware of. So understanding this can be very important. So a big portion of this section is helping them understand, you know, the - there's the three credit bureaus, three primary credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, TransUnion. Using annualcreditreport.com to pull credit report because that is actually the nice portal that was created by the government to get in there so you know it's a good, legit way to actually pull your free credit report from each of the three bureaus once per year. You can spread it out however you wish or do them all at one time but this is something you have access to for free, which is great. And the important thing I think about pulling it through this website is that this is a consumer-friendly report, that these are made for you to be able to review your credit report to make sure it's accurate, so it's not just like "Oh, I pull my credit report and basically all it does is give me a summary and give me my credit score." It doesn’t work that way. We want to make - because that's not what's really at least a very important big step, which is making sure it's accurate. Well if we can't even see the information on the report, how do we correct anything that’s wrong? And so that's why going into this credit - this consumer-friendly report can be very helpful for us. But then also this section helps us to understand what is - what's a credit score, how does this work, because we have all that information on the credit reports and then being churned through these algorithms, these - to create this score. So most often is the FICO score and so this is kind of that breakdown. So I always try to at least understand that two-thirds of your score is your payment history and your amounts owed, so paying your bills on time and keeping your debt low can be two-thirds of your score. That's huge. So at least understanding the basics, but then if you've got time give them a little bit more detail, understand how these things can be done because that will help them guide some of their more advanced steps to building a better, more effective credit score to help them get into better loan products or whatever. So now here's the tools. This is the big part, and because they complement each other so perfectly. So of course what is the first step we want to do when it comes to credit reports and scores? We want to pull our credit report. We want to make sure it's actually accurate. So we have to take that first step to pull it. And so this is going to help us walk through the process of pulling it online. It also gives us details about how to do it by mail or by phone. So it also gives us a little bit of a choice, like do we - reminds us that we can choose do I want to pull them all now or spread them out over a year's time. So it's going to give those steps. I'm going to go to Annual Credit Report. I'm going to pull the credit pull credit and then, using that information, you know, go through and review it to make sure it's accurate. And the next tool clearly would be that next step. Let's review it to make sure it's accurate. So again, how I said these work together so perfectly. These are a great handout for if you're teaching someone about credit that you could give them these tools they could take home. They could pull their credit report. They could review it to make sure it's accurate. And so they're going to go through and make sure first is my name spelled correctly, is my social security number, my phone numbers, addresses, all the accounts I have on there, are they 100% correct? Because if so, that's what we want to, you know, we want them to be correct because that's what we're being judged on so much. But if they're not correct in any way, we want to dispute them. And of course where would we be without that next tool which is disputing errors on our credit report. They all just lead together so perfectly. So that's the next step. Let's dispute our - this is actually a new tool within this - with this newest version of the toolkit, how to dispute errors on our credit reports, because this is very important. We want to make sure it's absolutely accurate. You know, hopefully it's just a typo, okay? Maybe just like a little error or just somebody else's information accidentally got put on our credit report that we just have to get rid of it. We want to make sure it's absolutely correct because there's also the possibility it could be identity theft and that's why we want to make sure everything's absolutely correct because, you know, if there's any issues with identity theft, we want to jump on that as quickly as possible before it gets out of control. The next step, the last tool of the section here is getting and keeping your good credit history. So that's, you know, after we've pulled our credit report, we've reviewed it to make sure it's accurate, we've disputed any errors and now let's take those next steps to just maybe start building a better credit report and score. So this is going to be some basic information around, you know, around what I can do to build a good credit report and scores so I have a good credit history. You know, obviously if we want to do anything really tailored, really specific to that individual, that's when I'd refer on to a credit counselor, but if you want to give some great starting points to work off of, this is a great tool to get them started, very effective, good information, and so they can walk down that list. You can see it's right there on your screen. So they're going to look at different strategies for improving it. They can check off ones that they want to try out and then give them a try. Take those steps and then learn from how that's helped them. So that's Module 7. That's credit, all about credit reports and scores, helping us look at different ways that this information can really help us. I mean it is such a hugely important topic. It affects us in so much of what we do and yet it's so misunderstood. So that's why I think it's a really effective tool, a great topic for people to understand more about, and these tools reflect - just make it easier for us to understand some of those basic steps that we need to do around credit. Now Module 8. Module 8 is all about choosing financial products and services. So let's check out that chat box again. Let's see if everyone's fingers are working on your keyboard. So let's see, how many different places, so who provides financial service and products - or products? So who can you think of? We've got banks, credit unions, wonderful. Who else provides financial services and products? Department stores, perfect. Yes, nonprofits. Anybody else? Dealerships, yes. Yes, like, when was the last time you went into a store and they didn't try to get you to sign up for their credit card? They're everywhere these days. So the big part of that, that's kind of what part of my point is here, so here you think about all the different places that provide financial services. You go into the post office, they provide services. You go to the grocery store, they provide financial services. So how is it that our clients are supposed to know what the best option for them is? And you think about some of our lower income clients, when they're - what are they surrounded by? Do they have access to the best options for them or do they have limited options to maybe things that aren't quite as effective for them? So that's why I like this section. So the actual first tool, which I didn't highlight, which is actually the tool helps us identify what is my need. And I like that approach. What this toolkit is first going to approach it from when we're selecting a financial product or service, I want to know what my need is first. It’s not just going to pigeonhole me, put me right into one spot because well this is what everybody does. If I'm looking for that particular product, this is it. Well the nice thing is…what is your need and then here are some options and some products that could work for you. And so then you can go from there into comparing it, and that's what Tool 2 does, because this might give you some options that, you know, maybe it's something that you personally would not select or recommend to somebody, but we don’t want to take it off the table, we don’t want to pretend like it doesn't exist. So this way we help our clients compare them side by side and find out what is the best option for them so they make that decision. So we're giving them the tools, we're giving them the information to make the best choice for themselves so they can go down this list and decide, you know, okay what are the questions that are actually most important to me when I'm evaluating these different providers, so I can go through and select which one is it that actually meets my need. So maybe they like the idea of having - so if they're looking for a financial service provider, maybe they're looking for a checking or savings account and they love the idea of being able to walk in and talk to somebody in person, so having that physical location is important to them and having one close to them that's convenient is also important to them. Well if that's the case that might make a different decision than somebody else that has no intention of ever going into the physical banker credit union or whatever to get this product. So that changes the way we look at things so we're going to help us - help that individual find that specific need for them, you know, specific need and the best choice for them, maybe comparing the different rates, comparing the different options, how they even function. So again, we're looking for that best option for them. So that's Module 8. It's all about financial services and products. That section also has tools then too if they - maybe they decide they want to open a checking account, what is the documentation, what is the information, the research, all the things that they're going to need to bring in with them, identification, money to make sure they're going to actually be able to open up that account when they go in, because maybe it's been a while or maybe they've never opened an account before. We want to make sure they're as successful as possible when they go through that door. Or maybe, on the other hand, they're also, you know, might want to look into bank cards. There are a lot of - there are new tools in that module that can help us learn more about bank cards and - or prepaid cards and make sure that they're used correctly and understand our rights around those - that financial product. So again, if you take a look at those sections if you want to learn more about those tools, real easy. Just go to the CFPB's website Your Money, Your Goals website, and you can take a look at those tools. But I also recommend as service providers, you know, as educators or whatever your specific role is, you can learn more about these topics because this is, you know, maybe something you're not as experienced with, or maybe you know all about it and you just need the tools, great. They're both here for you. Module 9 now, last module of this section, all about consumer protection, protecting our money. So identity theft is a huge issue. This can take hours and hours and hours for somebody to clear up any issues with identity theft. It can cost them a lot of money. And so what we want to do is help people protect themselves from identity theft, identify when they could possibly have been a victim of identity theft and then what steps can they take to once they've - if they've identified that they are a victim of identity theft, what things should they do to fix, clean up the situation, stop the problem that exists and then educate them about this. Like, what's going on, how does this process work, what things can they do in the future to protect themselves from this. So that's what this - one of the tools in here is about identity theft. And so that's in here. So it's understanding our options, so all about security freezes or just putting an alert on our accounts, so understanding our rights around this. So great educational tool there, because identity theft can be a big issue, so the quicker we can get on top of it, the better. The other tool I want to talk about is the handout in this section is all about submitting a complaint. So for those of you that work with individuals that, you know, maybe you're working with somebody and they're trying to work with a financial service provider of some kind and they're running into issues, whether that provider is doing things that are illegal or maybe just, you know, inappropriate or they're having problems just getting any action taken, so maybe they're trying to pay off a debt but they can't get any information from the creditor to actually make this work out or they're trying to create a plan that works for both sides but they're not getting anywhere. They can submit a complaint to the CFPB to actually get some additional assistance. Now it's not saying that - it's not guaranteeing a particular result that, "Oh, just because I got the CFPB involved, I'm going to get taken care of, I'm going to be just perfect." Well, it's not guaranteeing anything but it just means the CFPB is going to step in to help you get a resolution to the situation. And so that can be done either through their website, so going to the consumerfinance.gov/complaint. Actually if you go to their website, on almost every single page in the top right corner is a little link that says Submit a Complaint, and you can just click on that and it gets the process started. But also there's the phone. You can call in, and then of course it gives you the hours there, but if it's after those hours you also just can put into a recording. But there's the phone number there. It's on the website as well. So if you have somebody that's more comfortable using a phone to do this, you can also do that as well. And they can take calls actively in English and Spanish, I believe, and - but they can handle up to 180-plus languages using a recording session. Then they get an interpreter involved and things like that. So they can do a lot to help our clients, regardless of what their primary language is. You can also submit a complaint by mail or by fax, and of course again that information is it's on our screen but it's also on the CFPB's website. If you were to click on that link, it's going to come up and bring that information to you. And that's also just a tool you can hand out if that individual wanted to fill it out themselves. Go on to the website, submit the complaint themselves, they can do that. You can also help them submit that complaint as well. So really whatever you think is the most helpful for that individual. So when we're submitting a complaint, it's going to walk us through this process. So this is what the website would look like. First we want to find out what is that complaint about. You identify it by a debt collection. Is it a student loan, is it a mortgage, is it money transfer? We want to make sure, you know, so it's going to help them understand a little bit more about the situation. What is the complaint about, what is the problem? And it's going to route them through a process, because maybe not everything is actually something that - not everything that you might complain about you think that is actually handled by the CFPB. So if that's the case, they're going to route it. They're going to route it to who should handle it. So maybe it's a Federal Trade Commission, you know, would handle this particular issue or somebody else, they're going to route it over to them to make sure it gets to the right place. But after that complaint is submitted, the CFPB reviews it and then routes it to the right place. And if it's internal, of course they're going to want to reach out to you. But then once that complaint is submitted, they - it's put together. The company now has time for a response and it's actually even published. So you can even, if you wanted to, you could go to the CFPB's website, you can go take a look at their whole database of all the complaints. You can even search in that database by zip code, you know. So lots of different ways you learn more about what's going on in your community around particular services, so really neat for both ways, you know, besides just helping that individual get that situation figured out, get a resolution, but - and also it's helping the CFPB know more about what's going on in the financial services sector, know what's going on out there because if all of a sudden they started seeing a whole bunch of problems from a particular entity, they can start investigating it. And that's where the enforcement aspect of the CFPB can come in. But then otherwise at the end, the consumer gets to review it, you know? Again, it's not guaranteeing that they're going to get a specific response that maybe they like but it is at least a resolution to their situation. So that’s why this a great resource. If our clients are having issues, let's get them some assistance. So. So that's Module 9. So now I'm going to open up for questions. You know, I tried to kind of move through it a decent pace so that way everyone had a chance to ask any questions about this. I think these are some really important topics. Cash flow, really helpful for helping people understand their budget. Debt, obviously this is a huge barrier to people, even just, you know, being able to reach some of their goals. That might be what keeps them out of buying the house that they've wanted to do, or whatever the issue is. Then credit reports and scores, understanding more about this complex topic and how I can really get on top of it and helping it make work for me instead of against them. But then obviously then those last two modules around understanding financial services, finding the best ones for me, as well in the last one is around consumer protection. So yes, at this point I'd love to open it up to everyone. Any questions you have for me, feel free to put it either in the chat box or I believe the operator will jump on to say how you can do this verbally. Coordinator: We will now begin our question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question over the phone lines, please press Star 1 and unmute your line, speaking your name clearly when prompted to be introduced for your question. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press Star 2. Again if you would like to ask a question over the phone lines, please press Star 1. One moment as we wait for any questions. Heather Brown: Thank you, (Scott), so much. That was a great presentation. You got a lot of information into a short period of time and I even found some of those resources will be helpful for me personally, so thank you very much. We did have one question that came in about the cash flow statement and it was a lot to go through quickly and they were concerned that their clients they, you know, they were having challenges just kind of understanding it in the moment and they're afraid their clients may not understand it as well. And I was wondering is that one of the tools that's automated so they would be able to kind of add their information and there'd be some sort of a spreadsheet to calculate it or… (Scott Bennett): Yes, and that's a great question. And I saw that popped up and I apologize for not addressing it at the time. So that example that we have up there is something that I like to use for when I'm training people on how to use this tool. But the new updated version of the cash flow budget is a lot cleaner. It's a little bit more simplified and it is one that is, if you go to the electronic version on the CFPB's website, it is something that you can fill. You can just type into the boxes and so you can make it look nice and neat by like just typing in the amounts, but it also auto-calculates. And so when you're looking on the tool, it'd be something where you could use this, like working with the client so they understand, you know, what, how these columns work and stuff. They look a little cleaner. So it won't look quite as busy as that sheet did on the screen. But that's going to help us understand, like, what money coming in week to week and so then we can make choices. And the nice thing is once you have it filled out, if you have the electronic version on there, you could even go in and as you work with that individual to identify strategies for making it work out, you can actually make the changes right there on the screen and the numbers will change so that way you know when everything finally at the end of all the changes that they want to make, you know whether or not it actually works out because then across the bottom, you're going to see all positive numbers and no negatives that indicate a negative cash flow. Heather Brown: Great. Thank you so much. That was a great answer. I also felt like that's good when you run into challenges around over - you know, overdrafts due to scheduled payments or, you know, say you go in and schedule something. If you add it to that cash flow then it doesn't surprise you, "Oh, I forgot I added that," you know? Next month it comes up, you're ready for it because it's all there and you'll know what's going to happen. So it may help some folks avoid overdraft fees as well. Okay. Operator, do we have any calls waiting? (Scott Bennett): I actually got… Coordinator: We have no questions in queue on the phone lines. (Scott Bennett): Great. Well I did a get a question that popped up. It looked like it came through directly. But the question was around the cash flow is, you know, is - does it work that way, does it look the same with - by paper? And to make sure I understand that question right, is the - obviously you can still use the paper version. You can still print it out and it still has those boxes that are nice and clean to be able to work through and actually fill all the information into. But, yes, obviously it would auto-calculate, you know, on the spreadsheet by paper but that's where if you just have, like, a calculator or something like that you can do the math yourself. But it is formatted in a way that's pretty clear cut, you know, so you can add in your income sources, all your expenses and then just follow it along and then do the totaling yourself. And it looks like we have another question here from (Camille) about are we allowed to co-brand these materials for use with our clients? The answer to that is no. So you can't co-brand. That was kind of - you remember those fun disclaimers that both Heather and myself put together? Well, there's a lot of clearance process that goes along the approval of CFPB resources. So if you want to use these documents and put your logo on them, as I've understood it, this is how it's been explained to me, is that you're welcome to do that. You're also welcome to even modify some of these tools if you'd like to. But the second you make any changes, and that includes putting your logo on the sheet, you have to take the CFPB logo off the sheet, and that's just a nuance. So again, you're welcome to put your brand on it, you just have to take the CFBP brand on it - the CFPB's logo off of it. And one thing I would say is, you know, the CFPB is actually very nice about not having to worry about giving credit for their resources. I like to still, even if the document's not - it doesn't have their logo on it, if you use their content to build it, I love to at least just let the clients know that that's where it was like based on information from the CFPB resources. I like to say that because they're doing a lot of work to try to put these resources in place to help our clients and so I like to give them a little bit of credit. But, yes, you're not allowed to co-brand stuff. Heather Brown: Operator, have any other questions come in queue? Coordinator: We have no additional questions in queue at this time. Heather Brown: Well once again, it sounds like you've hit the target and everybody's gotten what they needed, (Scott). So thank you so much for a really informative session. For everyone on the call, the next session is going to be next Tuesday the 16th and, as (Scott) mentioned earlier, it's going to be on the reentry guide for people that have a criminal record, it's going to be on - what were the two, (Scott)? It's escaping me now. (Scott Bennett): The next slide's the focus guide, focus on Native communities, focus on people with disabilities, focus on reentry, and then the booklets will be in part four and that's the behind on bills booklet, debt getting in your way booklet, and want credit to work for you booklet. Heather Brown: Great. Thank you so much. And don't forget to go back and check out some of the recordings on our website as well. So with that I think we can conclude if there's no additional calls, Operator - I mean, questions. (Scott Bennett): I did just get one real quick question that jumped in here real quick. The question was the chart for credit protection and requirements has a few boxes that are different from the one in the slides. Will the document be updated? The document on - so some of our slides we try to update them, keep them up to date. The biggest - the most important piece is that the toolkit tool is up to date and that's what we really try to focus on. So always go off of the information that the version in the toolkit itself. The - you know, and actually I'm going to make a real quick note to myself to take a look at that one to see what is incorrect, but I appreciate the heads up on that so I can update my slide. Heather Brown: Okay. Well, thank you again, (Scott), and we're looking forward to your next session. And thanks everyone for attending and we hope that you'll return and spread the word to your colleagues about this opportunity for training on our toolkit. Everyone have a great evening and I hope to see many of you back next week. Thanks. Operator, we are concluding. Coordinator: Thank you for your participation in today's conference. You may disconnect at this time. Speakers, stand by for post conference. END NWX-CFPB HQ (US) Moderator: Heather Brown 04-09-19/1:00 pm CT Confirmation # 8933371 Page 1