|
The state of Texas does not want its citizens to declare bankruptcy. Filing for
bankruptcy protection once is enough, so any Texan who files must also attend a
bankruptcy class which teaches them how to avoid bankruptcy in the future.
Within the court district for the city of Waco, personal bankruptcy classes for
Chapter 13 are taught by Beverly Mercer who works for the court-appointed bankruptcy
trustee. Also known as "wage earner's plans," Chapter 13 cases are a financial
reorganization where debtors work out a debt repayment schedule. By comparison,
Chapter 11 mostly deals with business reorganization and Chapter 7 provides more
immediate debt relief in the form of liquidation.
Preparing for Success
Mercer estimates that there are now between 80 and 100 Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings
in Waco every month. To serve all of them, she teaches three to five classes per
month, each with 15-30 people who have filed for bankruptcy. As a cornerstone of
her regular classes, she uses Money Habitudes™ cards.
"It's only a two-and-a-half hour class. So I'm not solving all their problems!
But I'm trying to at least give them some ideas of where they have had problems
and how to work on them and here I've found the cards to be very beneficial,"
she says.
Of course, those attending Mercer's classes are a diverse group: young and old;
singles and couples; people with kids and those without; varying education and experience
managing finances. Among the thousands of people with whom Mercer has worked, there
are many different reasons why they ended up in her class. It may be anything from
uncontrolled spending to job loss to family crises to medical emergencies. Although
many bankruptcies result from hardship versus simple overspending, there are still
financial planning skills at play.
"In a lot of cases, they've never thought about, 'What if something happens?'
So they never set aside any money for, 'What if I lose my job?' Those are still
money management issues. Yes, they were doing fine until
they lost their job, but they didn't even have a dime saved for that possibility."
Building to the Budget
With such a wide cross-section and the small amount of time she has, her classes
must be efficient, effective and broadly applicable. Because she is working with
people during a very difficult time in their lives, she tries to make the experience
not only helpful but enjoyable too.
"People expect to come in and have somebody jump on them or chew them out.
But that's not what I do," says Mercer, who formerly worked for Consumer Credit
Counseling.
The class starts with a 20-minute video about the bankruptcy process. When the film
ends, Mercer then has a choice as to what to cover next.
"My students are already stressed and they expect that people are going to
be judgmental and come down on them, so budgeting is not a good way to start a class."
So instead of jumping right into having students dissect their own income and expenses,
Mercer moves into an hour-long section where they come to understand their philosophy,
habits and attitudes around money. She relates how these personality traits and
behaviors have shaped their lives and finances. Along with this understanding is
a discussion of setting and achieving financial goals.
"If I'm doing the class well, it's all flowing in an order for them to start
understanding where they are, how they view money, how they communicate, how they
have to balance things, and understanding that your financial circumstances are
different from your neighbor's," says Mercer.
She then concludes the class with a second hour that focuses on the practicalities
of managing money and budgeting – lessons that many students have never had.
This includes topics from regularly tracking expenses and planning for unexpected
or one-time outlays like car repairs or Christmas gifts. In addition to the video,
Mercer has used handouts and slides from the National Association of Bankruptcy
Trustees (NABT), but her curriculum is mostly self-created in collaboration with
a few other bankruptcy instructors. The only tool used in the class is Money Habitudes;
she uses a deck of the adult version of the cards with each student.
Making Money Relevant
"You've got to have a reason that you need to budget. A lot of people really
do not think it necessary so you have to work through these other things in order
for them to see how it impacts their whole life. And I just think the Money Habitudes
cards are a great way to help bring in a lot of these things and bring up a lot
of the issues that people deal with and help them see it in themselves and what
the impact is," says Mercer.
The cards replaced a worksheet exercise where students would answer a few generic
money-philosophy questions such as "I am a risk-taker." These bland statements
didn't engage students, who were already less than enthused to be compelled by law
to attend the class. In addition, the statements lacked the specificity to help
them see how their everyday habits and attitudes were symptomatic of their larger
money issues. As such, the cards help people understand the big financial patterns
in their lives by starting with small, nonjudgmental, easy-to-comprehend statements.
By comparison, Mercer notes that answering broad questions, like whether one is
a risk-taker, does not help people see the gap between how they perceive
themselves with money and how they actually are.
However, while the Money Habitudes cards are very specific in their statements,
those statements are broad enough so as to be applicable to her diverse classes
of students. And the cards make talking about money not just personal and relevant
but also, as a result, entertaining and effective.
"When they look at what they come up with on those cards,
they'll suddenly realize, 'This is why I'm in financial trouble all the time!'"
says Mercer. "It's more personal when they read the different cards and they're
deciding, 'That's me. And that's me!' or 'No, that's not me.' It's more meaningful
for them than for someone to stand in front of them and try to talk about money."
She sends students home with a page about the strengths and challenges of their
own Habitude type (included with the Money Habitudes Professional's Guide),
but her limited time restricts how much her students can work with the cards in
class. Still, on evaluations, students typically report that sorting the Money Habitudes
cards was one of the best, most helpful parts of the class. Part of that response
is due to the cards' ability to uncover and unlock people's money challenges –
as well as other, interrelated issues.
"I've had a couple come afterwards and tell me that they were thinking of divorcing,
but now they were going to rethink it, and I've had people leave notes for me, saying
how discouraged they were and now they had hope," says Mercer.
As a result, she has also used the cards when teaching budgeting and financial stewardship
classes at her church and when doing individual bankruptcy counseling and financial
education.
"There's a huge positive feedback on understanding how people see
money and how they deal with money that they get from the Habitudes cards.
So I have really loved having that as one of the exercises in my class."
|