The Issue:

Who: Joanie Davis, Community Initiatives Director at United Way of Henry County and Martinsville.

What: The United Way of Henry County and Martinsville is part of the HOPE (Helping Others Progress Economically) Coalition. The asset building coalition includes financial institutions, government agencies, and civic and nonprofit organizations working to improve the economic self-sufficiency of low-income and low-wealth families and individuals. Rather than just financial assistance, participants take charge of their money and their lives through free personal financial management classes and financial coaching. Volunteers serve as money management mentors. The United Way also trains VITA volunteers to provide free tax preparation for low-income individuals and families to claim benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

How:

• The United Way’s money mentors work one-on-one with people seeking financial assistance.
• Many of those who volunteer to be a financial coach come from related professions. This includes social workers, financial planners, etc. Many of the money mentors are able to use their financial coaching training in their regular jobs.
• Money mentors attend a train-the-trainer style class once a week for 6 weeks. Each financial coaching class is 2 hours.
• The financial coaching class mirrors the IDA (Individual Development Accounts) curriculum that the United Way offers. This includes modules on:
  • income versus expenses
  • banking basics
  • living on your own (for young adults)
  • managing income and expense over the long-term, with goal setting
  • debt reduction
  • investing  and your financial future
  • getting a loan
  • credit reports and scores
  • understanding yourself and your relationship with money (including Money Habitudes and True Colors)
• Each money coach is also trained to use Money Habitudes. It is used as a money personality assessment and a money conversation starter. Money mentors receive a guide and decks of cards to use with clients.
• As a learning tool, doing the Money Habitudes activity helps a money coach understand his or her own money personality. As the money mentors better understand how they see money themselves, it helps them work better with clients by:
  • Being less judgmental.
  • Being more sympathetic and understanding.
  • Tailoring advice so it is best suited to someone with a different view of money.
• A money coach can also choose to use Money Habitudes as an ice breaker or assessment tool when working with clients.
• The financial coaching program helps transition some of the United Way’s clients from free tax preparation services to more holistic and individualized financial help. Beyond tax prep and the money coach program, the United Way offers:
  • free consumer credit counseling and debt management plans.
  • community financial education classes taught by certified financial social workers. (Dinner and childcare are provided during the financial education classes.)
  • high school and community college personal finance classes.

Why:

• “It’s been a good fit for us. It seems like people are more receptive to our other financial education materials after we do Money Habitudes. It’s been very positive for us.”
• “I saw the cards at a conference and it clicked with me. I thought, ‘We can talk about the relationship with money and assess their personality – their habits, attitudes and behaviors about money – and that’s how we can get them to change.’ At first, I was thinking we’d just focus on numbers like their income and expenses. I thought there had to be something else. And Money Habitudes was that tool.”
• “It’s a good ice breaker activity that can get people thinking about money and open up their minds, to say, ‘Ok, maybe I do need to do a budget. Maybe I am spending too spontaneously.’ For me, it was a real eye-opener.”

The post Money Mentors Learn About Financial Behaviors to Relate Better To Clients appeared first on Money Habitudes.

The Issue:

Who: Joanie Davis, Community Initiatives Director at United Way of Henry County and Martinsville.

What: The United Way of Henry County and Martinsville is part of the HOPE (Helping Others Progress Economically) Coalition. The asset building coalition includes financial institutions, government agencies, and civic and nonprofit organizations working to improve the economic self-sufficiency of low-income and low-wealth families and individuals. The United Way used Money Habitudes to do professional development workshops for its credit union partner. The United Way trained the credit union’s employees to better understand how habits, attitudes, values and emotions play into financial decision-making – and how to better relate to and serve clients.

How:

• The United Way facilitated “lunch and learn” workshops for the credit union’s employees at all of its branches. The credit union training was mandatory for employees.
• Hour-long classes were based on doing and discussing the Money Habitudes activity to determine each employee’s own money personality type.
• The credit union wanted to provide training that was new and out of the box. Most credit union training revolves around understanding technical concepts and numbers. However, this session was about understanding people. Being able to introduce emotions, behaviors, attitudes and money personality was new.
• The goal of the workshops was to get the credit union employees to better understand how they see and relate to money in order to understand and relate better to the credit union’s customers. Ultimately, the workshops were designed to help the credit union employees improve member relationships.
• “Financial professionals can dismiss clients because they’re different from you and you don’t understand them. Beyond just doing the cards and saying, ‘These are my Habitudes and you’re different from me,’ it’s a step further. It’s asking, ‘How does this affect my job? How do people respond to me? Do they think I’m judgmental? Is that why they don’t want to do business with me?’” says Davis.
• Discussion raised questions such as: If you are a teller and have a dominant Planning Habitude and you’re dealing with a customer with a dominant Spontaneous Habitude, do you feel defensive? Does it lead to talking differently or interacting differently? How would you recommend financial products or services that would be a fit for that customer? “Learning about yourself as a financial professional and how you see money, you can get rid of the disconnect with the person you’re working with and open up the lines of communication and become more effective,” says Davis.
• Davis made a chart of all the credit union employees’ dominant Habitudes. As so many of the employees had similar money personalities, it opened up discussions about how employees often saw and reacted to money one way while their customers would make financial decisions differently.
• Feedback from the training was very good said Davis. A comment typical of the realizations people gained: “I realize now why I feel defensive when people come in with their iPhone and their brand new shoes and they’ve overdrawn their bank account three times at Burger King for $1.50. And I realize I need to check myself and be more understanding.”

Why:

• “We’re trying to get everyone speaking the same language in our community with financial capability. Money Habitudes is one of many we use, but it’s the one that’s more emotional and touchy-feely – but without being too fluffy and forming a circle or doing a group hug or singing Kumbaya,” says Davis.

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Tips about how to talk about money

One of the big challenges is that people rarely talk about money until they have to talk about money! So, for example, a couple may be married for 10 years and don’t talk about money – but then when someone loses a job, the sudden change in income requires talking about money. Or imagine the couple that will not talk about money day-to-day but then gets into an argument when the credit card bill comes. Or, consider a couple that’s getting married and their first real talk about money is when one wants a small, frugal wedding and the other wants a lavish affair. In such cases, talking about money isn’t easy and enjoyable. Instead, people make the association that it is frustrating, embarrassing or threatening to talk about money. As a result, people often come to this conclusion: If talking about money feels bad, then I’m best to not talk about money.

Therefore, when thinking about how to talk about money, a secret is to start off with easy, non-threatening, small conversations about money. By contrast, here are some big money conversations:

• How will we ever save enough for retirement?
• How should I structure my will?
• How will we combine our finances when we’re married?
• Can I pay for my child’s education?
• Why won’t my spouse keep to his/her money promises?

It’s not that you should avoid these money conversations. But if you aren’t in the habit of having good conversations about money, it can be jolting to start with such big money questions. Similarly, dating or re-marriage articles will often suggest that you talk about money early in a new relationship. While that may indeed be good advice, it can feel weird, uncomfortable and accusatory to have someone demand to see your credit report or ask how much you have in the bank or how much you make. Even when presented in a very careful manner, these money questions can seem threatening. When people feel threatened, they tend to have fight or flight reactions. That’s not good for conversation.

Another hallmark of these big money questions is that they often quickly become conversations about numbers. Of course, when you talk about money, it’s hard to not talk about numbers. However, the figures can usually wait a bit. Also, many people lack the financial expertise required to address the numbers correctly; and lack of confidence, competence or knowledge is a good recipe for a money conversation that goes off the tracks and isn’t enjoyable. In general, build the interpersonal relationship, rapport and trust before doing the spreadsheet.

In addition, many of these questions have answers that are right or wrong – or there is an implied right and wrong. If you start by focusing on the fact that you need to save $1000 a month, it can seem overwhelming and frustrating. Or, if you think your husband or wife (or child or business partner, etc.) is spending foolishly, leading with that probably won’t lead to a productive money conversation. Would you want to talk about money with someone who begins by saying, “You’re really stupid and irresponsible with money”?

Instead, try starting a money conversation with sharing formative experiences. But, first, make sure you’re giving yourself environmental advantages to have a good money talk.

How to talk about money: setting the scene

This seems self-evident, but try to talk about money when you’re not already feeling down. Those cases are sometimes grouped together by the abbreviation HALT. In other words, you shouldn’t talk about money (or other serious topics) and expect great results when you are:

• Hungry. Even when we’re no longer toddlers, we get cranky when we need food. Imagine you’ve been running around and haven’t eaten all day and then walk in the door and your spouse confronts you about a charge you made on the credit card; even innocuous money questions can turn into conflagrations on an empty stomach.
• Angry. Consider that you got assigned an impossible deadline right before leaving work, then sat in traffic for an hour before arriving home. Then you’re asked whether you’ve paid the mortgage. Probably not the best moment to talk about money. Unfortunately, if you have a history of unsuccessful money talks, there can be built in anger or resentment that’s triggered when money comes up.
• Lonely. In this case, one feels bad or drained because of a lack of attention, companionship, etc.
• Tired. Again, even adults are subject to feeling bad and making poor decisions when operating with a lack of sleep.

Is there a perfect environment or a perfect time to talk about money? No. However, if you avoid these HALT times, you give yourself an advantage. Some tips about picking a good time and place to talk about money:

• Plan ahead. It’s easier to say, “Let’s have this conversation on Thursday night” than “We need to talk about money right now!!!” Surprises are usually bad when it comes to talking about money.
• Talk over food. A better conversation may happen over a nice meal, or coffee or a glass of wine. Some couples plan a regular financial check-in date night every 3-6 months and incentivize themselves with a nice dinner or dessert.
• Be comfortable. Research shows that financial planners have better conversations about money when they simply have more comfortable chairs in their office.
• Finally, start by acknowledging that talking about money can feel awkward. However it builds trust and lays a stronger foundation for your relationship.

How to talk about money: what to talk about

When thinking about “how to talk about money” realize that you have to crawl before you can walk before you can run. The first conversations will seem very basic. However, they are meant to be non-threatening. They are meant to build trust. It helps if you can first prove that you can talk about money and that conversation can be ok. This is true for a couple talking about money at home or a financial planner meeting with clients or a therapist meeting with clients. While it may be practical to start immediately with “Let’s fill out this form with all of your assets and income,” better results come when people feel they relate to each other on a personal level and have a real conversation as opposed to just talking numbers.

Here are a few money conversation starters to try:

• Remember the first time you bought something with your own money? What did you buy? How did you get the money?
• What was your first job and what did you do with your money?
• What did you learn from your religion about money?
• Growing up, how was money talked about in your home? Who paid the bills? How were big financial decisions made?
• How would you know when your parents disagreed about money?

The goal here is largely to have a money conversation that goes well, feels calm, and leaves a good taste in your mouth. Secondly, you should come away with a deeper understanding of the other person with whom you’re talking about money. This may be a spouse, a financial planning client or a counseling client. You’re giving the other person a chance to open up and talk about money where there is no right or wrong. One of the main reasons people don’t like to talk about money is because those conversations often feel so judgmental: “I’m bad with money.” “You’re irresponsible.” “I’m right. You’re wrong.” The conversation starters above are meant to get people away from right/wrong answers and start a dialogue. If you see that someone never had much money growing up and always felt it was important to hold on to money, it can change the nature of the conversation from “You’re so cheap and tightfisted,” to “I understand why you don’t want to spend that money.”

How to talk about money: using Money Habitudes

Of course a great way to talk about money is to use a tool specifically designed to generate money conversations. Money Habitudes is one part financial personality test and one part money conversation starter. Still, using the tool feels like playing a card game. It’s designed to be non-threatening and easy-to-understand.

Again, if you’re going to use the cards in addition to or in place of the conversation starter questions above, remember to give yourself the advantage of a good environment. Don’t start using the game when you’re Hungry-Angry-Lonely-Tired and do it in a space that’s comfortable. That’s true if you’re using the cards at home or using them in an office environment (or classroom) with clients.

What people like about the cards over just spoken money conversation prompts is:

• They provide a framework or an excuse to talk about money. It can often be easier to say, “Let’s try out this game” versus “Let’s talk about money.” That’s a simple but important distinction.
• The cards are hands-on and tactile. Many money conversations can quickly take on an interrogation tone where one person is asking questions and the other person is answering them. (That’s especially true of financial professionals and therapists.) Using the cards is more participatory. Therapists note that it gives some of the power to the client to do something versus sit and answer questions.
• The hands-on format also gets people to relax. It feels like a social card game and not a test or an interview.
• Between the 54 statement cards in each deck, one’s money personality results and interpretation cards, there are many, many conversation starters. Conversation usually flows naturally from people’s curiosity to understand themselves and their results, as well a the results of the person or people with whom they’re doing the activity.
• Because of the nature of the statements and the interpretation process, much of the conversation starter questions above come up, but more subtlety. Instead of asking how someone’s parents used money, the person doing the Money Habitudes activity may see his or her results and volunteer a comment like, “Wow, I’d never thought how much my mother’s saving nature affected the way I’d relate to money as an adult.”
• The cards often prompt storytelling and sharing – real conversation – versus simple question-and-answer.

Couples who use Money Habitudes cards have remarked that it’s sparked the best conversation about money they’ve ever had. That’s true for couples who are still dating, engaged or newly married – as well as those who’ve been married for decades. Professionals who use the cards find that they start a different kind of conversation that quickly builds trust, rapport and understanding. It’s a far different process than just sitting behind a desk and asking money questions or asking someone to fill in intake forms with lots of numbers.

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What influences the psychology of money?

Although it’s a big topic, Money Habitudes makes the psychology of money easy to understand – for professionals (therapists, financial planners) and for laypeople. Money Habitudes feels like a fun card game. However it is actually a structured conversation starter and a money personality test in one. The assessment cards explain the psychology of money in terms of one’s money personality. It is a practical, applied use of the psychology of money.

Money Habitudes helps people see what influences the way they see money. Typical money psychology influences include:

• Culture (including religion)
• Parents and influential people; family of origin
• Media
• Personal experiences

People rarely think about their own money psychology. Therefore, it can be a breakthrough to understand why they see money the way they do. While this is true for individuals and couples, it’s especially true for people whose work touches on the psychology of money: therapists and mental health providers, financial planners, financial educators, life planners, and money coaches.

Implications of money psychology

Understanding the psychology of money is not only about understanding formative factors, but also how this affects one’s life today. The Money Habitudes money personality test clarifies one’s:

• money habits
• money attitudes
• money values
• financial behaviors

This is important because so many of the issues around money deal with behavior change: How to save more money? How to spend less money? How to not fight about money?

When one understands money psychology, it opens the door to positive behavior change.

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A money personality test

While you may have a sense for how your money personality is different than someone else’s, it’s easier to understand yourself by doing a personality test or personality profile. Perhaps the most well known personality test is the Myers-Briggs. As is typical of personality tests like Myers-Briggs, 16PF, DISC, etc., the user answers a number of questions. The answers then produce a score. That score can be interpreted as one’s personality profile. Some personality tests are very broad; others are specific to a certain topic like relationships, leadership, etc. Money Habitudes functions as a money personality test.

Why does money personality matter?

How we see and use money affects us in a variety of ways:

• relationships; money is often cited as the number one cause of couples fights
• personal finance; how much money we have and if we’re prepared for the future
• career; what we choose to do, whether we invest in ourselves, etc.

Understanding your money personality helps you more clearly understand these facets of your life.

Using a money personality test

Like the Myers-Briggs personality test, Money Habitudes uses a standard set of questions. People sort these questions according to whether each is:

• like you
• sort of like you; sometimes like you
• not like you

For example, an actual Money Habitudes statement is: “Even if I can afford things that will make my life easier, I will not buy them.” As is true with most personality tests, there is no “right” or “wrong” answer. Where Money Habitudes is different from other personality tests is how it’s used. It is more active an engaging and feels less like a test.

• Instead of pages of questions, it feels like a fun, hands-on card game.
• Instead of filling in bubbles on a score sheet, users physically sort cards into different piles.

Based on how you answer the questions, you get a money personality profile. Each of the statements is coded to one of six different money personality types. A personality assessment and evaluation step helps users interpret how they see and use money. A simple personality scale, people can have different combinations of the six different money personality types. Each type has a strength of 0 to 9.

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Who: Deborah Gunn is the program manager for First Things First’s federally funded Healthy Marriage Demonstration Grant. First Things First is an award-winning not-for-profit dedicated to strengthening families in Hamilton County, Tennessee through relationship education, collaboration and mobilization.

What: Through its HHS-ACF grant, First Things First collaborates with community organizations and businesses to implement workshops that encourage and support healthy relationships. These relationship classes are for married couples, teens, non-married expectant parents, engaged couples, and singles, as well as married couples in distress.

How:

• First Things First offers a variety of marriage and relationship education programs. Classes are different lengths for different audiences. When including a module on budgeting or personal finance, they use Money Habitudes cards.
• The Money Habitudes activity generally lasts an hour. Participants understand their own money personality an learn to talk about money.
• In “Passionately Married,” an 8-hour course for married couples, there are four modules of two hours. Money Habitudes is used during the two-hour section on personal finance and financial literacy. Couples also do a joint budget.
• Classes and teaching methodologies are drawn from a number of relationship curricula, including the Dibble Institute’s Connections: Dating and Emotions, PREP, Couple Communication, and Family Wellness. First Things First customizes much of its relationship education content from these programs. Money Habitudes is added to these marriage and relationship programs as a relationship-and-finances module.

Why:

• “When I went through evaluations from our independent evaluator and looked at the progress of learning in the area of budgeting and finances, the teen classes were always about double the knowledge level of the adults. So I wondered what the difference was – and the difference was that the teens were using the Money Habitudes cards! From that, I made the decision that Money Habitudes would become the standard budgeting and finance piece we’d use in every class,” says Gunn. (The Ochs Research Center surveyed 3,000 high school student participants over a six-month time period. The teen program combined Money Habitudes and Dibble’s Connections. The study found that 89.6% of participants gained budgeting and financing skills and 95.0% said they gained communications skills.)
• First Things First’s educators are not “financial gurus” says Gunn, and need a way to introduce finances in a fun, non-threatening way before helping couples with the actual numbers and budgeting process. “What I like about Money Habitudes is that even though we are teaching about budgeting and finances, it’s more about your attitude than just making a budget,” she says.

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Who: Tarin L. Washington is Program Associate at The Collaborative, a private, nonprofit serving North Carolina. It is the lead agency for North Carolina Saves and works to implement and promote strategies to build family economic security and individual financial capability.

What: “Learn To Earn: The Youth Financial Empowerment Initiative” is an innovative financial literacy program. It brings together parents and kids to develop financial skills over the course of a school year.

How:

• The program includes youth, 14-18, with their parents in regular financial literacy classes. Classes meet 6-8pm in a public library. Dinner is provided during the first half-hour; this is both an incentive to attend and a way to build rapport and community within the class.
• As opposed to beginning with a budget lesson (or a similar concrete financial skill), the program starts with two classes on financial attitudes. The Money Habitudes activity occupies most of the second class. This helps participants relax and better understand how and why they spend and save. This financial self-awareness prepares participants for later lessons.
• Washington planned to have the parents sit together and, separately, have all the kids sit together when doing the Money Habitudes activity. However, she ended up running the activity with parents sitting next to their children. This created more discussion between parents and kids. “They were looking at each other’s cards and if someone didn’t understand, they would ask their parents. I liked that interaction. They were engaged with each other,” says Washington.
• Parents used the Adult version of Money Habitudes cards and kids used the Teen version. They sorted their own decks at the same time and got their money personality results at the same time too.
• Washington asked the younger participants to share some of their results and then asked the parents what they thought of their child’s money personality results. Parents then shared about their results and the teens were asked to comment. “We want this to become a normal conversation in households,” says Washington.
• Although the next class went on to other financial skills, Washington says the cards (and the financial habits and attitudes insights from them) continue to be brought up in successive classes.
• Other classes and topics include: budgeting, credit reports and credit scores, savings and bank accounts, identity theft, careers, car-buying and predatory lending. These lessons are drawn from a variety of financial curricula and guest speaker presentations. Participants also set financial goals throughout the program.
• A key outcome is for the youth to open a savings account early on in the program and add to it with incentive money for attendance and homework completion. Washington says, “Research shows that youth with bank accounts in their own name are more likely to attend college. We want them to be successful in all areas of their lives and to develop early savings habits and positive money management skills and behaviors.”
• Youth and their parents are also encouraged to become North Carolina Savers by signing up at www.northcarolinasaves.org.

Why:

• “I thought it was important to take the fear out of the whole topic. People hear ‘budgeting’ and they shut down. So instead I wanted parents and kids to start with how we’re influenced around money. I wanted them to understand how they think about money – without getting into the numbers.”
• “There used to be a lot of class discussion around, ‘I do this because it’s what my friends do’ or ‘I want to have what my friends have’ and I don’t hear so much of that anymore. It’s more like ‘This is what I’m thinking about’ or ‘This is what makes sense for me as opposed to what’s cool or what someone else has.’ I think Money Habitudes helps with that.”

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Who: Sally Massey Wiebe is a Financial Counsellor with Community Financial Counselling Services. CFCS is a United Way-supported non-profit based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

What: CFCS often works with vulnerable, high-risk populations. It partners with other interrelated organizations around workforce readiness, free tax preparation or gambling. It provides services for:

• financial counseling
• debt management
• gambling addiction
• employment and income assistance issues
• financial literacy (consumer education/information)

How:

• While much of CFCS’s work is done in individual or couples counseling, the organization raises awareness for its services (credit counseling, debt management, etc.) by doing financial literacy seminars. This may be for community groups, other organizations, or the public.
• These financial literacy seminars often address behavioral economics and behavioral finance. The goal is to get people to see that values, behaviors, habits, attitudes and emotions play a significant role in financial decision-making. CFCS’s financial seminars stress that fixing one’s finances is not just about math.
• Massey Wiebe notes that addressing financial habits and attitudes as opposed to just doing a budget, is also a friendlier, more human introduction to what can be a difficult, scary topic.
• In financial seminars, Massey Wiebe talks about the Money Habitudes methodology, mentioning the different money personality types and the way these affect people’s financial decision-making process. She also tells participants about the Money Habitudes cards and offers to let people use them when they return for financial counseling. Participants discuss the basic Money Habitudes types, but do not actually use the cards in the awareness seminar. “Even without having gone through the exercise in great detail, there’s an awareness of the significant differences between the Money Habitudes types that allows people to say, ‘Oh, I can see where that might be an issue for me.’ I encourage them to explore the concepts further by coming in to meet with us and do the Money Habitudes exercise.”
• For Canada’s annual Financial Literacy Month, CFCS put on a seminar called, “Is It Just About Money?” which made people aware of the behavioral components of personal finance, rather than just focusing on tallying accounts, doing a budget or filling out a spreadsheet. “That message resonated with people. We had 30 people in our class. From the feedback we got, it certainly seemed that this approach made sense where a ‘how to do a budget’ session probably wouldn’t have gotten people to attend,” said Massey Wiebe.
• When people come in for individual or couples counseling, they are offered the opportunity to use the Money Habitudes cards. Some also specifically request the activity after hearing about the cards in the larger financial seminar.
• A first financial counseling session usually lasts one and a half hours. It not only involves assessing the client’s situation but also laying a foundation for a strong, trusting relationship. Couples may sometimes choose to do the Money Habitudes activity separately with a counselor instead of sorting their cards at the same time.
• CFCS tends to develop long-term relationships and works to address financial issues holistically, rather than just servicing debt or providing credit counseling and ignoring other issues.

Why:

• “Money Habitudes helps them put all the pieces of their financial puzzle on the table and see if they’re achieving what they want to achieve, where there are obstacles they create for themselves, and where there are solutions that can be facilitated with a new understanding and new perspective of why they do what they do with their money.”
• “There’s often a sense of ‘I’ve tried to do a budget so many times and blown it every single time, so why would I want to put myself through that again? Instead, it’s important to understand why we get ourselves into the financial predicaments we do by seeing it from a different perspective.”
• “Money Habitudes can be a way to help people discover what they do or have been doing, what are advantages of changing that, or understand how they relate to their partner in a real, hands-on way that can, in some cases, encapsulate several sessions of discussion just by looking at the result from the That’s me pile. We can dissect it further, but it really gives us a good place to start.”
• “We’re trying to get people to realize that it’s not that you’re stupid or lame or unable. It’s because there’s this information that runs behind the scenes – you’re not even thinking about what you do – so let’s go to that place and translate it to how it affects the decisions you make about your budget or your credit.”
• “It’s really crucial that it’s not just about, ‘Let’s do the math!’ It’s about, ‘Let’s understand what you have to deal with already. And Money Habitudes is an engaging, non-threatening way to help people recognize patterns and perspectives on money.”

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The Issue:

Who: Meghann Shutt, program manager for financial security at Baltimore CASH Campaign. The organization received a grant to participate in Maryland’s Ready by 21 program for foster kids.

What: Geared for foster youth ageing out of the foster care system, Ready by 21 teaches life skills for independent living. Each year, the two-week program teaches five groups of 20 foster kids. Most are 17-19 years old. The effort involves the Governor’s Office for Children, Department of Human Resources, Department of Juvenile Services, Department of Education and the Workforce Investment Board. A program goal is for all youth to be financially literate. Financial education classes dovetail with students’ choice of: pursuing an associate’s and bachelor’s degree; enrolling in job training programs; or direct job placement. Students receive a stipend as part of the life skills program.

How:

• The financial education component of Ready by 21 is three 90-minute classes: Pump Up Your Piggybank, You Can Bank On It, and Rock Your Credit Score.
• The first financial class starts with an introduction and a pre-test on financial knowledge. It then moves to a financial habits and values module.
  • Students do a word association exercise using money, wealth, debt, etc.
  • They then do the Money Habitudes card sorting activity. This leads to a group discussion about where money personalities come from and how one’s Money Habitudes mix might help or hurt one’s financial future. There is also discussion about why knowing your own unique money personality type matters.
  • Students then talk about SMART goal setting.
  • The class concludes by talking about building wealth, doing a budget and setting goals.
  • Homework is to track spending for 30 days and relate it to the budget, money personality and goals.
• Each student has his or her own deck of Money Habitudes cards. Rather than enforcing silence, students can talk and laugh.
• Shutt allows about 30 minutes to sort the cards – a bit longer than other groups that might be faster readers. Students then read the interpretation cards to get a sense of their money personality. They learn how their spending and saving tendencies affect their lives.
  • So what do you think?
  • Is anyone comfortable sharing the cards you got?
  • Do you think the cards describe you?
  • Did any of the statements really sound like you?
  • Do you see how your different Money Habitudes tendencies work together or work against each other?
• It may take a moment for people to open up. “I don’t jump in to fill the silence after asking for people to share. A mistake a lot of facilitators make is they want to fill the silence too quickly,” Shutt says. “It’s so surprising how much people really love to share.”
• Students keep their Money Habitudes results in mind when tackling issues like budgets and banking and credit in the next classes.
• Other activities used in the context of doing Money Habitudes may be:
  • A discussion about sharing “your first money memory.”
  • Two teams each get big pieces of paper to brainstorm. One group generates ideas to increase their income; the other group brainstorms ideas to save money. “If the ideas are coming from the people themselves, they’re going to be ideas that make a lot more sense than if they’re ideas coming from me,” says Shutt.

 Why:

• “The cards send a signal that this isn’t your regular high school class. It’s going to be fun, they’re going to participate and learn about themselves,” says Shutt.
• “Because we don’t have a way to talk about money and think about money because it’s so taboo, that’s where the cards really come in. The cards really help people along the path of becoming the expert in their own lives. They’re saying, ‘Maybe I don’t really know how I am with money because no one’s ever asked me. Or I’ve never talked about it with anybody. Or I just don’t have a structure for thinking about it.’ The cards are a really nice jumping off point because they’re a way people can have more information about who they are and how they act with money. Then, when they’re hearing that information for the next three workshops, they have a way of saying, for example, ‘Oh, maybe a savings bond would be good for me because I know I’m more of a spontaneous spender.’”
• “Kids have so little choice over what’s going on in their lives. It’s fun to say, ‘You’re the expert on you. So we’re going to honor that and you can sort these cards however it makes sense for you. And you can have more information about yourself so when we give you this information, you’re going to know which of these choices is going to be best for you.’ Nobody likes to be told what to do. The cards make people more open and receptive.”
• “I have them do the card sort and they get excited about it. The cards are so fun and everybody loves hearing about themselves. One girl said, ‘Oh, do these cards know who I am?!’ People will also ask if they can keep them. I think it just immediately warms them to what’s coming next.”
• “I use the cards as a way to encourage the students to think critically about which option will work for them, acknowledging that not every strategy is right for everybody. We use the cards as a way to open the window so people can see better who they are and how they act with money so that when they’re choosing strategies and tools for reaching whatever their financial goals are, they’re doing it with a mindset of, ‘Well, let me be real with myself about what’s going to work for me and what won’t.’”
• “Education alone doesn’t get people to change their behaviors. Education plus the behavioral piece and engaging people around their behaviors and how they incorporate this new information into changes, that’s really where I think there’s a possibility for change.”

The post Financial Capability in a Life Skills Program: Foster Kids Transitioning out of Foster Care appeared first on Money Habitudes.

1. Frame it differently. Attending financial education programs can be seen as “being in trouble.” Because no one wants to be “in trouble,” people are not likely to come to a financial literacy class. So you need to frame it differently. Create a positive vision in your marketing. It’s not about “fixing” attendees. So don’t advertise it as “get out of debt” or “stop wasting money” that translate to “you are stupid.” Instead, try something positive as if you are offering something new that will make them look smarter without having to say they need help like: Ten tricks to pay off loans in half the time! Three steps to save thousands of dollars.
2. Offer financial literacy programs where people already are. Whether it is at work, church, college dorms, or a social group, people prefer to be in comfortable, non-threatening surroundings. They want to feel safe. They’ll feel better attending in a place they already know.
3. Join with another event. If possible, combine your financial literacy programs with something that is already happening. This could be a community fair, parent-teacher night, or other events with more appeal than “financial literacy programs.” Asset building organizations have found success adding financial literacy programs to free tax preparation events and EITC seminars. Or, it may mean offering personal financial literacy in conjunction with benefits events that revolve around SNAP or WIC.
4. Get a personal endorsement. Who has influence in your community. This might be a religious leader, sports figure, or business leader. If you get to work with businesses, ask for the supervisors to recommend coming to your financial literacy programs with their employees. Make it cool to attend.
5. Offer incentives to get people in the door. A community college did six drawings throughout their financial literacy workshop for $150 scholarships — but people had to stay to receive the money. Other financial literacy programs have used sponsors to give significant amounts of cash or gift cards to get them in the door. Even dividing up $20 so every attendee gets a single dollar can add a sense of “winning” and excitement to financial literacy classes.
6. Learn from the pros. Look at the words and strategies the commercial folks are using. They’ve done tons of research and people pay lots of money to attend for the same information you are offering for free or at a minimal cost! Forget being academic, serious and setting goals/outcomes — be catchy, fun and promise them something. Create a vision. Tell a story. Put a face to the story of how MJ, a 26-year-old veteran, got out of debt and now owns a successful business. Focus on positive stories rather than a scary story like how RM is living in poverty after her husband died.
7. Make it memorable. You want people will tell others to attend financial literacy programs you offer. Lecturing and endless PowerPoint presentations aren’t very inspiring or memorable! Get them involved. Extension educators have fabulous (and usually free) strategies, games and interactive ideas. Hands-on activities work well because they get people engaged. Of course, Money Habitudes cards are a fun, interactive, financial education game that gets attendees talking and involved while giving them important insights.
8. Talk is good. Make sure you include opportunities to talk in a non-threatening way in your financial literacy programs. Let people share times that they were successful. Let them share times when they knew better but still made a bad choice. People can learn more from each other than from the talking head in the front of the room.
9. Make it great. If you are using PowerPoint slides, make them great! Minimal words; lots of pictures/graphics; just a few bullets at most. Throw some funny things in: cartoons, sayings, silly pictures. If you can get them laughing, you can get their attention.
10. Remove obstacles. Think about why people do not attend financial literacy classes. Can you provide child care? Can you provide food? Can you provide transportation? people may want to get financial education, but it may be other logistical factors that keep them from attending.

The post How to increase attendance in financial literacy programs: 10 ways appeared first on Money Habitudes.

The Issue:

Who: Gary Strickland, chief of the Airman and Family Readiness Center (AFRC) at Mountain Home Air Force Base.

What: Mountain Home Air Force Base revolves around the 366th Fighter Wing of the Air Combat Command. Its Airman and Family Readiness Center provides individuals, families and leadership with policy, programs and services that strengthen communities and promote self-sufficiency, mission readiness and adaptation to the Air Force way of life. Although the Airman and Family Readiness Center serves a wide range of servicemembers and their families, many of its students and clients are young airmen who are 18-22.

How:

• At Mountain Home AFB, Money Habitudes cards are used in three ways:
  • One-hour finance class. Strickland calls this “a teaser.” It has a fun, non-threatening appeal so airmen want to attend. Having had a good experience and taken a financial education class, it opens participants’ eyes to related issues they want more help on: communication, saving, handling credit, TSP, etc. “Once you have them in one class, you want to give enough information about our other classes – not so much that they feel like they have to take the class, but to spark interest to get them to sign up,” says Strickland.
  • A multi-hour block during the base’s all-day finance class. Before diving into other topics like budgeting, students learn about their underlying money mindset. After each individual does the money personality sorting exercise, it transitions to a class conversation about the various Money Habitudes categories. “It leads into a really good discussion,” says Strickland.
  • As a one-hour module in MHAFB’s all-day marriage class, based on the PREP (Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program) curriculum. The cards are used to complement PREP’s own brief section on money as well as the role of different personalities in marriage.
• Many individuals get one-on-one counseling before going to a finance or relationship class. This makes people feel more comfortable in a group environment and decreases any stigma of seeking help from the Airman and Family Readiness Center. “We handle almost every single negative with a personal, individual visit or a series of individual appointments. So by the time the person is put into a class, it’s not seen as a negative,” says Strickland.
• Finance classes typically have 20 people and are often full. The financial class usually has 80 percent individual airmen; 20 percent are airmen and their spouses. The marriage class is attended by 7-10 couples.

Why:

• Strickland says that the biggest financial issue he sees is the availability of credit. “Military folks gets credit real easy. It’s easy for them to get themselves into debt,” he notes. It’s important to keep airman in good financial shape – and prepare them for the future.
• Using Money Habitudes makes the classes seem non-threatening and fun – which is important if attendees are going to return for other classes. “Word of mouth is our biggest marketing tool,” says Strickland.
• Strickland advocates for programs that are active and engaging. In addition to the hands-on Money Habitudes activity, the AFRC’s programs draw on role playing, peer coaching, video clips, projects and group discussion. As a case in point, while the PREP marriage program comes with some 300 PowerPoint slides, the base only utilizes about 25 to underscore main points. “My belief is that the more senses a person engages, the better off they are in gaining and retaining the information,” he says.
• “One of the classes we do uses the PREP model. PREP includes brief sections on personalities and why couples fight. We looked at those two sections and thought that the different personalities in handling money is so important, so we need more than 5 minutes on those and that’s why we bring in Money Habitudes. And Money Habitudes is catchy and people are going to sign up for that class. It doesn’t take away from PREP but it adds and builds.”

The post Financial Education and Relationship Classes that are Fun and Engaging appeared first on Money Habitudes.

Who: Ben Vos, LPC, is a therapist in Brentwood, TN. He works with individuals, couples and families. Vos has developed a specialty in substance abuse and addiction issues. Much of his couples counseling is with couples who are remarried or are contemplating remarriage. In addition, he works with an organization that offers free counseling services to veterans, active duty military and their families.

Combining financial counseling and couples counseling

“Money is an influencing factor in everything,” says Vos, who notes that studies show that money is the most common cause of couples’ fights and, ultimately, divorce.

As of late, Vos believes that the economy causes couples more financial stress. This might be from unemployment or from a lack of savings. “Couples are coming in right now with a lot of shattered dreams,” says Vos. In addition, couples with addiction issues often have financial issues: the cost of addiction, missed wages, and resultant hoarding or keeping money secrets.

Dealing with financial issues in marriage counseling: money values

Vos usually starts couples counseling by doing a genogram to better understand clients’ backgrounds. This discussion touches on the socioeconomic status of their family of origin. While Vos also finds it helpful to do a budget in couples counseling, it has its limits.

“The traditional way I’d have the money conversation is just by pulling out the budget and going line by line and item by item. But then it turns into an accounting exercise. Really the issue is not so much about the numbers or the math. The math can work itself out. The issue where the conflict is taking place is about the values,” says Vos of blending financial counseling.

Often the challenge in couples counseling is to help one person see the other’s point of view. “They’re going to focus on who’s right and who’s wrong and when that happens, it’s really toxic for a relationship. It’s no longer focused on solving problems and much more about winning arguments.”

“I found it’s really helpful to get couples to start having a different kind of conversation about money that’s much more about understanding their values, what’s important to them – and that doesn’t have one right answer,” says Vos.

Money Habitudes in couples counseling and financial counseling

Vos uses a variety of methods in couples counseling “so they’re not just sitting on a couch talking.” This includes getting couples to move around the room, role-playing and drawing. The hands-on Money Habitudes cards not only make couples counseling sessions more engaging, but they also change the dynamic of the money conversation.

“I use Money Habitudes cards to help couples begin that important money conversation, whether they’re just beginning a relationship and are learning about their values as a couple, or whether they been married for thirty years and they’re just trying to figure out how to communicate about these things in a way that’s going to be productive,” says Vos.

Vos sees the cards as helping with the following with respect to financial counseling:

• Getting away from right versus wrong: “Couples often think that their issue is a money issue, like, ‘If only we had more of it’ or ‘If only we managed it better.’ When in reality, it’s much more about the feelings underneath. Money Habitudes really helps couples to understand each other and those feelings rather than getting into a ‘who’s right and who’s wrong’ conversation. It’s really nice when you watch couples start to understand and appreciate how they balance one another, rather than getting upset because they don’t see things the same way.”
• Augmenting traditional financial fixes: “There are lots of good things out there if couples are just looking to do things like eliminate debt or try to apply for a better job or whatever. But what I think Money Habitudes does is give couples a way to have conversations that are going to help them be ok, no matter what the circumstances are because they have a deeper understanding of their relationship and what’s important.”

“Money Habitudes is just such an enriching experience because it takes some of the pressure off that couples feel talking about these sensitive issues,” says Vos.

The post Couples counseling meets financial counseling appeared first on Money Habitudes.

Who: Robin McKinney, MSW, is the director and co-founder of the Maryland CASH Campaign. A veteran of the asset building field, McKinney was previously the program assistant for Family Economic Success at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. She was also the assistant director at the East Harbor Community Development Corporation’s MoneyWise Café, a one-stop shop for free and low-cost tax preparation, financial coaching and education and access to affordable financial services. She served on the Steering Committee for the National Community Tax Coalition (NCTC) and the board of the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, Civil Justice Network and the Rural Maryland Foundation.

What: The Maryland CASH (Creating Assets, Savings, and Hope) Campaign is a statewide network of organizations that promote financial stability for working families. The organization coordinates financial education practitioners, while focusing on three main initiatives: capacity building and training, financial education and research and advocacy. The organization uses Money Habitudes as a standard training component for its own financial educators and coaches, as well as in financial education training it does for other organizations.

How:

• McKinney builds Money Habitudes into all of her organization’s practitioner trainings. Facilitators are expected to understand not just the numbers and budgeting side of financial education and coaching, but also the behavioral aspects of how and why people spend and save.
• As a part of Maryland CASH’s standard financial education training, McKinney focuses on the emotional and behavioral sides of money; each trainee discovers his or her own Money Habitudes money personality.
• Following the Money Habitudes financial self-assessment, she has practitioners do a version of the budgeting bean game, a tool that  helps participants understand how personality and money values affect actual financial decision-making. “Throughout the day of training for facilitators, at some point, 99 percent of people in the audience have a realization that their own money habits, attitudes and values have been getting in the way of what they’re trying to do with their clients,” says McKinney.
• Practitioners (social workers, financial educators, etc.) not only learn how to work with the cards to better understand how they relate to money, but also so they can do the activity with end-user clients. This may be as a class activity or in one-on-one coaching. The cards are included as a tool for Maryland CASH partners and their staff.
• The cards are also used as a mid-conversation energizer in financial coaching and counseling. “If you’re stuck or someone is just shutting down, pick out a card and use it as a discussion point that’s outside the current situation,” says McKinney.
• In addition to training financial educators and coaches, Maryland CASH conducts standalone workshops on topics such as savings and spending plans. In these financial workshops, the organization uses the cards in a classroom setting with end-users.

Why:

Making it easy to talk about money

• The playing cards and format are non-threatening. “What’s really nice about having people answer those statements is you’re basically asking them their opinion on something that’s separate from themselves. You’re getting a lot of information about how they personally think and feel about things without asking them personal financial questions. You’re not asking them, ‘How much money do you have in credit card debt?’ or ‘Why do you think you got in so much credit card debt?’ With the Money Habitudes statements, you get towards the same answer, but people don’t have to feel interrogated.”

Broadly applicable and easy to use

• “It’s a tool that works equally well with practitioners and clients and I like to train practitioners with tools that they can turn around and use with their clients.”
• They’re flexible and can be used effectively in almost any situation. “I can pick up that deck of cards and get into a good money conversation with anyone,” says McKinney. “I carry them with me. I seriously have a deck in my purse at all times because I use them so frequently. It’s a go-to, no matter what I do.”
• They’re easy to use. “You could literally pick this deck of cards up with no training, with no investment in staff time except for the deck of cards and figure out how to do it – and do something meaningful with it. People are always looking for tools that are plug-and-play. And the cards are just ‘play’ – there’s nothing to ‘plug.’ It’s that fast. To have something that’s a quick pick-up tool, but is this effective is very rare. It’s a minimum investment for a maximum return.”

Integrating financial behaviors and emotions into financial education

• “The emotional and behavioral side of money is new. And it’s the harder part and it’s really connected to self-efficacy. A lot of our human service workforce, because they’ve never really been trained in how to talk to people about their finances, instead perform tasks with clients such as doing a budget. Talking about your underlying beliefs about money is a hard conversation,” says McKinney.
• The exercise helps financial educators and coaches better understand themselves, better relate to their clients and better understand the behaviors behind saving and spending habits. “I always felt a missing component of financial education was being able to discuss the emotional side of money and what’s underneath someone’s habits and behaviors. And this is the first thing I start with. I feel like everyone needs to get rooted in this to even understand how we frame how to work with people around their money.”
• “Basic financial management is about math. It’s about the black and white numbers of what’s coming in and what’s going out. But when it comes to financial decision-making, setting goals and being able to achieve your goals and do what you want to do, that’s where emotion comes in. And as we all know, emotions have a huge role to play in financial decision-making. There are lots of tools and calculators and spreadsheets to help us manage the black and white, math part of finances. But we really don’t have a way to even start the conversation about how to deal with the emotional side and the Money Habitudes activity is one way to start that conversation,” says McKinney.
• “I don’t think people are intentionally not including this behavioral component; I just think people don’t understand until they see it how important and vital it is to what they’re doing. Instead, people are teaching stock, off-the-shelf financial education and then wondering why they’re not getting the outcomes they want to see.”

Making financial conversations more meaningful

• “I use the Money Habitudes cards in all of our practitioner trainings which are about preparing the human workforce to deliver financial stability services. It’s part of our standard training. For us, it’s a basic tenet that anyone that is doing this work and working with us should know and understand and be articulate about.”
• “The cards get you that Aha! moment. You see the wheels turning and people really thinking, ‘Oh, I hadn’t thought about that!’ It’s something new. You can teach things like credit scores and it’ll be new information and people will say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know they collect that,’ but it’s different with the cards where someone says, ‘I didn’t realize that about myself!’”

The post Integrating the Emotional and Behavioral Aspects of Personal Finance into Financial Education appeared first on Money Habitudes.

The Issue:

Who: Robert Cain is an investment advisor in Scottsdale, AZ with Arque Capital Ltd.

What: Cain has used Money Habitudes cards in financial planning seminars and individual client meetings.

How:

• Cain runs a two-part financial planning seminar for prospective clients. Each of the financial planning classes is two hours. Class size is about a dozen. The fee for the class only covers per-person expenses.
• Cain begins his financial planning classes by putting retirement in a life planning context. “When we think about retirement planning, we often think about saving money but the non-financial aspects are often overlooked,” he says.
• In lieu of examining finances right off, participants evaluate their satisfaction and effort across 12 lifestyle dimensions. These include community/charity, family/relatives, spirituality/religion, spouse/romance, etc. Participants look for a gap that shows someone wants to do something but isn’t doing it.
• Following the lifestyle evaluation exercise, Cain used to devote time to telling attendees about various opportunities available to them (such as which community organizations to seek out for volunteering, etc.). However, he replaced this section of his financial planning seminar – about 20 PowerPoint slides – with the Money Habitudes conversation starter. “I said in lieu of that, we’re going to play a card game,” he says. He still made the other information available to attendees to look at on their own.
• Attendees had time to sort their own deck of the financial conversation starter cards and then go through the money personality self-assessment process. Cain allowed about 30 minutes for the ice breaker activity. “I explained to them that this kind of thing can help them understand why they behave the way they do with their money and it also helps me understand where their heads are when they meet with me. I get an idea of what kind of thinker they are. I thought it was definitely meaningful for them,” he says. He watched the instructional DVD to prepare for this portion of his financial planning classes.
• Where attendees had no cards, Cain had them pay attention to the advantages of adding in benefits of that money personality category. As a financial planner, Cain knows part of his job is helping clients feel comfortable with their finances. This might mean showing them that they can take that trip or buy that new car.
• Attendees got to take home their own deck of cards after the financial workshop to revisit the money personality profile. “They kept the cards so they could use them later on their own and maybe pull them out and do them with their kids or grandkids.”

Why:

• Using Money Habitudes cards provides an energizing, interactive break from lecture-and-PowerPoint presentations typical of financial planning classes.
• The financial conversation starter makes it easier and more natural to get to know a client. “It’s a good way to open up a conversation as opposed to just doing the interrogation, the fact-finding. It opens up a different category of thinking versus just ‘stocks and bonds,’” says Cain.
• As a money ice breaker, the cards are non-threatening. “It’s like you’re not making a judgment. You’re letting the cards speak for them.”

The post Making Financial Planning Classes Relevant and Engaging appeared first on Money Habitudes.

Why? Because people who need housing assistance typically need more than just housing assistance. With an asset building approach, transitional housing programs also teach clients how to make smarter financial choices.

The goal isn’t just to provide housing but to help people improve their lives. That means improving their finances and helping them establish healthy financial habits and attitudes.

“Typical” financial literacy classes in supportive housing and transitional housing programs

Typical financial literacy classes or curricula deal with basic financial skills and issues. The following topics are common in financial education and asset building classes:

• Creating a budget or spending plan; spending habits
• Getting out of debt
• Identity theft
• Insurance
• Fixing and improving credit and understanding credit scores
• Getting banked and savings accounts

In addition, transitional housing and supportive housing classes may add:

• The homebuying process
• Benefits eligibility – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), WIC, CHIP, etc.
• Understanding mortgages and loans
• The road to asset building (including IDA and matched saving programs)

Why include financial behaviors and values in financial literacy classes?

Because so much of personal finance is about behavior and habits, many personal finance classes now include a class on financial behaviors. These classes help participants better understand why they do what they do with money. These values classes also tend to be more fun and engaging. They don’t go over numbers and budgets – which can be scary and boring – and make finances personally relevant.

Money Habitudes financial literacy classes for supportive housing and transitional housing programs

When Money Habitudes cards are used in transitional housing and supportive housing classes, it is typically:

• As a financial ice breaker or conversation starter in an existing class.
• As the first class in a series of financial literacy classes.

The Money Habitudes cards are used because they are:

• Fun; participants often laugh and smile; rare for a financial literacy class!
• Tactile and hands on; better experience than PowerPoint, lectures and worksheets.
• Easy to learn and easy to teach. No complicated training program or certification.
• A simple but effective tool to explore money personality, financial behavior, financial attitudes and values.
• Used across the education spectrum because they are worded simply.
• A great money conversation starter.
• Durable; can be reused over and over in programs.
• Flexible; can be used in a variety of classes – as well as one-on-one financial counseling and couples counseling

Read how Virginia Supportive Housing uses Money Habitudes in financial literacy classes for supportive housing and transitional housing programs …

The post Financial literacy classes: transitional housing & supportive housing appeared first on Money Habitudes.

FINRA grants for financial literacy classes at libraries

FINRA is the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

FINRA’s Investor Education Foundation and the American Library Association (ALA) are providing $1.2 million in grants to 16 recipients this year. The FINRA grants are part of the Smart investing@your library^® initiative.

Smart investing@your library^® is administered jointly by the Reference and User Services Association—a division of ALA—and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. The program funds library efforts to provide patrons with effective, unbiased educational resources about personal finance and investing. Now in its fifth year, the program has awarded a total of nearly $6 million to public libraries and library networks nationwide. Many grants fund financial literacy classes.

The grants target a diverse group of library patrons:

• Youth
• Seniors
• English-language learners
• college students
• rural residents
• low-income families

Money Habitudes in FINRA’s Smart investing@your library financial literacy classes and counseling

Participating libraries will use a variety of technologies and outreach strategies to connect library users to the best financial education and information available. These strategies include:

• online learning
• seminars, financial literacy classes
• one-on-one clinics
• storytelling
• performances
• staff training

While an online Money Habitudes application is forthcoming, today the versatile financial money personality assessment and money management game is used in financial literacy classes and one-on-one clinics. In the sense that it is a money conversation starter, it gets people to share their money stories with others in a fun, engaging, non-threatening way.

Money Habitudes cards are often used in staff training to help financial educators, financial planners, VITA income tax volunteers, money coaches and the like. The training cards help financial professionals better understand their own money mindset. This allows them to see how and why they give they advice they do and relate to clients in the way they do; often they realize they’ve come across as judgmental and biased when they haven’t meant to. Using the cards also helps financial advisors more clearly understand their clients’ spending habits, financial attitudes and behaviors.

Jackson District Library: FINRA Smart investing@your library grant award

Jackson District Library is partnering with United Way and other community agencies to deliver financial education resources in the county and improve communications about finances among low- and moderate-income households. Participants will develop a financial plan, increase their knowledge about money management and investing, and gain better access to learning resources with support from a personal finance help desk service and financial literacy classes based on the FDIC Money Smart curriculum. Grant amount: $99,187

The actual Money Habitudes financial literacy class posting at the library looks like this:

Money & Marriage Luncheon: Money Habitudes

Money Habitudes

Hungry for advice to help keep your financial health in balance?  Pack your lunch, or order it from us.  Whether you attend by yourself or as a couple, you will learn ideas to help your relationship  — and we will provide dessert.

Location: United Way conference room A/B

For more information and to register, visit http://marriagemattersjackson.com/events?eventId=473906&EventViewMode=EventDetails or call 517-796-5116.  First 20 people registered will be entered into a drawing for a free lunch!

Read this blog post for some commonalities of financial literacy classes that use Money Habitudes cards. And, for other ideas about how to use the financial cards in financial education and financial literacy classes, check out the Money Habitudes case studies.

Other free community financial classes offered by the Jackson District Library include:

• Money Smart Workshop: Pay Yourself First

Pay Yourself First

Why you should save, save, save!

Join us for workshops that will help to instill a new attitude of honesty and financial communication.  Refreshments and babysitting available. Registration is required and enters you into a grand prize drawing.  Please contact us at 517-788-4087, ext. 1339.

• Identity Theft Workshop with John Miller from Harvard Risk Management Corp.

• Money Smart Workshop: Bank On It

Bank On It

An introduction to bank services.

Join us for workshops that will help to instill a new attitude of honesty and financial communication.  Refreshments and babysitting available. Registration is required and enters you into a grand prize drawing.

The post Financial literacy classes: FINRA Smart investing@your library appeared first on Money Habitudes.

What is the real issue when…

• Responsible individuals go into debt?
• A friend or relative is always borrowing money?
• Someone never lets others pay the bill?
• Couples argue about finances?
• Individuals know there’s a need to save or invest for the future, but don’t do it?
• People keep debts, gifts, spending, investments a secret from their spouse.
• Someone ignores their financial reality to live a more expensive lifestyle?

Is Money the Problem?

No!

It’s Money Habitudes—habits, and attitudes related to money.

Where:

Bloomington United Methodist

Basement

225 Congress St., Bloomington, WI
When:

November 2, 2011

6:30—8:30 p.m.

Money Habitudes!

Join us for a fun interactive way to talk about the difficult topic of money in a fun, nonjudgmental and constructive way. Discover
how our habits and attitudes about money support or sabotage our lives, relationships, careers and financial goals.

Presenter
Bev Doll
Family Living Agent
UW Extension Grant County

The post Extension workshop based on Money Habitudes appeared first on Money Habitudes.

Identifying Your Client’s Relationship with Money

Title: Money Habitudes: Identifying Your Client’s Relationship with Money

When: Oct. 14. 2011 09:00 AM – 04:00 PM

Where: Northeastern University – Curry Room 333 – Boston

Category: Professional Development Seminar

Description

The post Identifying Your Client’s Relationship with Money: How It Affects Career & Relationships appeared first on Money Habitudes.

Talking about money in a marriage education program

This class shares some similarities with other marriage and relationship classes that use Money Habitudes cards. For therapists and marriage and relationship educators, some of the Money Habitudes case studies will prove helpful when developing programs around money and relationships.

Money Habitudes

This evening program is designed to assist couples to explore their habits and attitudes money management, and the values that underpin this.

This is a one night program in addition to a Marriage Education Program. It is for all couples, those preparing for marriage or those already married.

With the use of Money Habitudes Cards couples will be able to:

• develop an awareness about their habits and attitudes about money
• highlight their strengths and challenges regarding managing money in the relationship
• discuss money in a supportive and fun setting
• explore the possibility of changing a ‘habitude’.

A spouse is more than a friend and more than a roommate. A spouse is, among other things, a financial partner.

Attitudes can best be described as automatic thoughts and feelings that we have as soon as we see or hear something. Attitudes are usually connected to our values system.

Habits are automatic behaviours that we have in response to an attitude.

So the result is – “Habitudes” – the automatic feeling and response to money.

Couples individually play the card game and have a series of questions to discuss. There are several opportunities to stop and write questions to take home for further discussion.

At times it may be challenging. Couples often share their similarities and differences which is a lot of fun!

Conflicts about money are inevitable; what matters is how the two of you handle those conflicts.

Here are a couple of questions for you to discuss with your partner:

• What do the words ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ mean to you?
• What messages about money did you receive growing up?

Program Cost
$40 per session.
Free to participants who have completed a Partnerships and/or FOCCUS program

Program dates 2012

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For financial educators, there are a number of case studies that highlight how Money Habitudes is being used in a variety of ways; this one shows how one finance professor uses his Money Habitudes cards with students, university employees in benefit classes and with financial planning clients. Also, this post points out come of the commonalities found in financial education workshops.

Money Habitudes in employee benefits sessions:

• The money personality assessment is a fun, hands-on activity.
• It makes talking about money fun.
• It helps people better understand their wants and needs and their spending habits in the context of their employee benefits and retirement options.
• It breaks up often dry, boring PowerPoint presentations that are heavy on numbers.
• It gets couples to relate better to each other when discussing finances.

Faculty, staff urged to pre-register for EmployeeFest before March 31 for free gift

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Discover Your Money Habitudes: Habits and Attitudes Affect How You Use Money

April 25, 2012 (1:00 PM )

First State Bank of Bloomington
204 North Prospect Rd
Bloomington, IL 61701 (McLean County)

This session is part of McLean County Money Smart Week and is taught by Kathy Sweedler, U of I Extension Consumer Educator.

No registration is necessary. This workshop is free to the public.

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Money Habitudes Financial Literacy Curriculum: Overview

Our financial literacy curriculum for teens is Money Habitudes: How to be Rich in Life and Love. It is a collaboration with The Dibble Institute. The financial curriculum introduces teens to the human, emotional side of money. With a behavioral economics approach, the teen financial literacy curriculum is an important precursor to financial literacy courses.

The engaging financial literacy lesson plans help teens:

• identify their personal finance patterns.
• understand how these financial patterns affect their goals and relationships.
• see how to use this financial self-assessment to be more successful.

The high school personal finance curriculum includes 5 one-hour lessons. It can be used on its own or as supplemental lesson plans alongside other personal finance and economics curricula. This includes FDIC’s Money Smart and other financial capability curricula developed by NEFE, FEFE, etc. How To Be Rich in Life & Love integrates with state and national standards for personal finance education.

Money Habitudes Financial Literacy Curriculum: Contents

A key focus of the financial literacy lesson plans is understanding the different ways people behave around money. Guided discussions reveal how different financial behaviors reflect the influence of family, media, culture, and life events. The non-judgmental personal finance curriculum helps teens manage their financial concerns in productive ways. Finally, teens learn to use SMART Goals for goal setting.

The ready-to-teach course includes:

• Teacher Guide with 5 lesson plans
• PowerPoints for each lesson (CD)
• Student workbook / journal – 72 pgs, illustrated
• Decks of Money Habitudes for Teens
• 2 full-color posters

Excellence in Financial Literacy Education Award Criteria

The Institute for Financial Literacy created the Excellence In Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Awards. The financial literacy awards promote the effective delivery of consumer financial products, services and education by acknowledging the accomplishments of those that advance financial literacy education.

• Nominations are open to the general public.
• Financial literacy award categories include Financial Educator, Organization, Financial Book, Financial Education Program, Published Research and Financial Literacy Instructional Game.

The Money Habitudes financial literacy curriculum won in the category of Children’s Education Program of the Year: Financial Responsibility and Decision Making.

Past EIFLE winners include Thrivent Financial, Feed The Pig, Pioneer Services, InCharge Education Foundation, Moonjar, Financial Finesse, Susan Beacham and Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, NEFE High School Financial Planning Program, D2D Fund, and Awesome Island.

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This is an example of a Financial Lifestyle Planning Workshop in Tampa, FL. The  financial planning seminar, Financial Lifestyle Planning Workshop: Will I Be OK?, will be conduced by Holly P. Thomas. Thomas is a Certified Financial Planner in Tampa who provides fee-only financial analysis, planning and education.

Drawing on the fun and insightful Money Habitudes money personality assessment, the financial planning workshop in Tampa will focus on mapping what kind of lifestyle you want for the next chapter in your life (whether that chapter is retirement or pre-retirement):

• Discover what is and isn’t reasonable to expect from your money
• Understand how emotions may have entered into past money decisions you made
• Be prepared to make simpler, better decisions about spending, saving, sharing, and investing
• Be equipped to interview and hire financial professionals, knowing which ones are the best fit for your best interests
• Actually enjoy talking about money and your future
• Record your thoughts, concerns, and wishes in a workbook to form a blueprint for your decisions.

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The issue:

Who: Donna Stallings, Case Manager and VIDA Coordinator at Virginia Supportive Housing.

What:Virginia Supportive Housing is a non-profit housing agency. It provides permanent supportive housing to homeless single adults (SRO) and families, including those graduating from homeless shelters and transitional housing. VSH provides integrated support services, notably a financial education curriculum for homebuyers and homelessness transition. VSH also teaches financial literacy workshops and provides financial counseling. Funding has come from private foundations, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program, Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, HUD and SAMSHA among others.

Who: Virginia Supportive Housing operates in and around the cities of Richmond, Petersburg, Charlottesville, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Norfolk. The non-profit focuses on homeless individuals and families. Clients are low-to-moderate income (LMI); many have incomes below 30 percent of median income. Other challenges include substance abuse, mental illness and physical disabilities.

How:

• Supportive housing and transitional housing clients are offered a series of financial education classes. VSH uses its own financial literacy curriculum, which includes Money Habitudes. Classes are optional for VSH residents. Although students get a supermarket gift card for attending all the classes, the financial literacy classes must still be enjoyable and appeal to them.
• The financial literacy curriculum is a series of four 2-hour classes. The financial classes are: (1) Core Values and Beliefs About Money, featuring Money Habitudes (2) Budgeting and Money Management (3) Understanding Credit, Reading Credit Scores and Credit Reports; Credit Repair (4) Banking and Saving, including opening a bank account for those who are unbanked.
• VSH also offers standalone financial literacy workshops and financial counseling for individuals and couples. VSH teaches classes for a women’s shelter, a Salvation Army men’s shelter, a homelessness transitional shelter for veterans, and foster kids.
• Typical classes are 10-20 students.
• The entire Core Beliefs class is based on the Money Habitudes exercise. After an introduction, each student sorts a deck of cards. Because of low literacy levels, Stallings allows 30-45 minutes for students to do the solitaire sorting process. She sometimes reads cards to those who can’t read.
• About an hour of the class is devoted to the money personality self-interpretation and group discussion. “There’s always somebody who will volunteer and share. And they’ll say, ‘This was really me! And I didn’t even realize it!’” says Stallings.

Why:

• It’s fun and active – versus boring, static lectures or PowerPoint presentations. “Even for me, personally, if I take a class and all the teacher does is stand up and lecture, they’re going to lose me in about 15 minutes. Classroom environments need to be interactive and engaging. Just sitting there is difficult,” says Stallings.
• The activity makes for a better environment for a teacher. “If I’m coming to them, just off the street, talking about budgeting, they’re like, ‘Who is this woman and why should I talk to her?’ Money Habitudes is a different approach that’s fun and meaningful,” says Stallings.
• It’s engaging but also empowering. “Money Habitudes is a much friendlier, non-judgmental way for people to get at their core issues. That’s why it’s more successful than what we did before having the Money Habitudes cards. Now they’re sorting the cards themselves; they’re saying this about themselves. It’s not me sitting there and pointing a finger saying, ‘You do this! And you do this! You need to do this! And you need to do this!’ It’s not like that. It’s ‘this is just how you are and here are some things you can do if you want to be more successful in managing your money.’ It’s the cards that are telling them, based on how they responded to the statements,” says Stallings.
• It builds trust. “The Money Habitudes exercise doesn’t just get the students to trust me, but it does something with the camaraderie in the room because everybody’s wall comes down. You’d be surprised how much they tell about themselves. And I don’t encourage them; this is what they do on their own. It’s because they’ve become comfortable and relaxed on their own because the game is done in a lighthearted, fun way.”
• It helps people like the idea of budgeting. “When you do the cards, it lets people see what their money personality is and why they’ve done things the way that they have. And they realize that the way they’ve been managing their money hasn’t been working for them. So they’re then open and excited to seeing how a budget can help them do better. They come into the second session on budgeting with a different attitude versus if we had started with that class. Because they’ve found out what their personality type is, now they want to see how they can fit that into a budget to make their financial picture better,” says Stallings.

Results

• 90 percent of VSH’s residents do not return to homelessness.
• VSH claims that the local community bears $9,500 to $13,500 per person to provide temporary housing; the organization provides housing for approximately $4,500, saving the public up to $9,000 per individual.

Observations and Comments:

• “Money Habitudes is not punitive, whereas some people see budgets as punitive, negative and restrictive, like, ‘This is going to keep me from doing what I want to do!’ So they don’t want to do it. But the cards give you a different way to present financial challenges,” says Stallings.
• “By doing the cards, it hits at the issues, but it does it in a fun way so now they don’t dread this person coming and talking to them about money because, first, ‘she made it fun’ and, second, ‘she helped me deal with some stuff,’ and third, ‘now I can trust her.’ The trust lead-in is definitely so important. If you just walk into a group that doesn’t know you and trust you and try to talk about money and budgeting, you’ll get a stonewall.”
• “If people know why they do what they do, it makes it easier to change – or to at least not get frustrated when certain things keep happening over and over again because they know why they’re doing it.”

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The Issue:

Who: Rebecca Phipps, LPC, professional counselor and coordinator of the Between Us program at Catholic Charities Oregon. It operates under the national Healthy Marriage Initiative.

What: Phipps teaches life skills and financial literacy mainly to single teen mothers as well as some single teen fathers. She also teaches engaged and married couples and parents of teens in addition to some private counseling. Phipps teaches at public high schools, maternity homes and early college high schools. The teen program focuses on:

• Maturity Issues, What I Value
• Infatuation and Attraction
• Communication Between You and Me
• What’s Love?
• Peer Pressure: More Subtle than You Think
• Safe Relationships/Cycle of Abuse
• Basic Banking

How:

• Phipps uses Money Habitudes cards with teens, adults and young mothers when she covers communication, messaging, values and money.
• She starts by introducing students to general messages they get from the media – largely by showing magazine advertisements – and discussing what they mean and how we internalize them.
• After this introductory exercise, she next has each participant sort his or her own deck of Money Habitudes cards. After having everyone go through the money personality self-analysis step, she includes some group discussion about the results.
• She devotes about 20 minutes of the life skills class to doing the financial card sorting activity. Classes are 1-2 hours, depending on the venue.
• Phipps uses her own handout for the exercise. It asks participants how many cards they identified with in each Money Habitudes category and asks additional questions such as, “What Money Habitudes types show up when you’re feeling anxiety?”
• This leads to a discussion about what money messages we received growing up and what money messages we will give our children – consciously or unconsciously. “It’s really good because it gets them to ask, ‘What am I actually teaching my child? What are my Money Habitudes and what are the messages I’m sending to my child about handling money? And what do I need to look at for myself?’” says Phipps.
• Later in the class, she uses large sheets of paper to gather ideas from the group on wants-versus-needs and myths and facts about credit. “Wants and needs is really huge for a new parent. And the class really makes them think about it, and they start to share about it,” says Phipps.
• With longer classes, the section on values and money messages transitions to budgeting. Phipps uses a special budget worksheet geared for teen mothers. For example, it includes income categories for TANF, SNAP food stamps, etc. The budget also highlights expenses that teens may not be aware of because they have not yet lived on their own. These may include costs like doing laundry.
• To continue the money values discussion, Phipps also uses an activity she calls Vbay, a values auction. Students get to bid on items like higher education while sacrificing other items like manicures with limited dollars.

Why:

• To get teens and adults involved and interested in the class. “Me, personally, I like activities so I always introduce them into whatever I’m doing. I’ve seen it done and because they engage people, they remember,” says Phipps.
• As a way to make the discussion about financial wants and needs more personally relevant. “What happens is that they may already know they’re Spontaneous and they start thinking, ‘I need to make changes! I can’t just get a manicure!’ But if you only have a hundred dollars, you see how you need to buy diapers and something else, you can’t buy everything you want. In that session, they realize that life’s different now,” says Phipps.
• Unlike other financial education exercises, Money Habitudes is nonjudgmental. “I like the classification of the Money Habitudes cards. I think it helps people see the positives and the challenges, to think, ‘I’m not bad and I’m not good; I just have to think about it.’ It gets them involved because they’re looking at themselves as they’re doing the cards; they’re  doing some good self-examination. It’s like a mirror that shows someone what they’re like and they say, “I am really like that. Yeah, I am,’” says Phipps.

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• an acquired behavior pattern
• that is followed regularly
• so that it is almost involuntary

Examples of spending habits

Spending habits are often contextual. You spend the same way with the same set of conditions. Because it’s a habit, it may be so natural and involuntary that you don’t even realize it.

• You always spend a lot of money right after you get paid. That might mean taking your family out to dinner every payday.
• You always give to charity at the end of the year.
• You have a habit of spending on souvenir T-shirts on vacation.
• You always wait until the last-minute to buy a plane ticket.

How do spending habits form?

Where do our spending habits come from? It varies, but we are largely influenced by what’s around us. This includes:

• Observing and following the spending habits of our parents or other significant people around us. If your mother always brought flowers when visiting a relative, you may do that too. However, you may not even realize it’s not what everyone does.
• Our culture and society. Different cultural norms dictate what spending habits are normal. One culture may always spend lavishly on a wedding while another culture may not spend much at all. An Asian culture may see spending in different ways than a Latino culture. Someone raised in great wealth may have spending habits that are very different from someone raised poor.
• One’s religion and spiritual beliefs. As a facet of culture, religion can have a strong shaping force on spending habits. For example, to tithe and give money to one’s church becomes a natural spending habit. Many religions reinforce giving alms or donating to charity.
• Our own unique personalities and experiences also play a role. Two siblings raised in the same environment may have very different spending habits. One might be a hoarding saver while the other may be a free spirited spender. This includes other forces such as gender and the gender roles one sees and perceives.
• The media also has a role in how we spend and save. Think about the spending habits of the characters you saw on TV as you were growing up – and today. Did those characters eat out often? Did they often go shopping? Did they forgo what they wanted in order to save for retirement?

Why is it hard to break spending habits?

Imagine the path a river wears into the earth. Every day the river follows the same path. It takes a dramatic or catastrophic event to change the course of the river. In much the same way, we habituate ourselves to how we spend and save. Over time, it becomes more and more difficult to change a habit because that habit has become more and more natural. The challenge of changing your spending habits is creating a “new normal.” That involves behavior change. People often try to change their behavior. One of the most common behavior changes people seek is dieting. If you’ve spent years and years eating the same way, it is very difficult to change that pattern. That’s true even if you want to change, know you should, and even if you understand what the new pattern would be.

Better understand your spending habits with Money Habitudes

An important part of the behavior change process is not just understanding what you spend; it’s also important to understand why you spend the way you do. It means not just doing a budget and recording your spending. It also means examining all the factors above to put your spending habits in context. You can’t change what you don’t understand. Money Habitudes helps people understand their money habits and attitudes because:

• It makes it fun and easy to understand how we spend, save, invest, go into debt, give to others, etc.
• Is hands-on. Whether it’s financial education for adults or teens, no one likes to just sit at a desk and listen to a lecture. Same thing goes for worksheets and PowerPoints. People find many typical learning and assessment activities to be boring. Money Habitudes isn’t.
• Is nonjudgmental. One thing that makes people so hesitant to think about their spending and to talk about the way they spend and save is that it often feels judgmental. With Money Habitudes, there is no right or wrong answer. Instead, the goal is for people to feel comfortable discussing and explaining how and why they spend the way they do.
• It helps people see spending patterns and the motivations behind them. Often people discover that they spend with restraint when out with one friend but spend with reckless abandon when out with another friend.
• The versatile financial activity can be used on one’s own, with a spouse or partner, or as part of a financial education group, class or workshop.

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College Financial Education Week

Red to Black is an outreach initiative of Texas Tech’s Personal Financial Planning group. This year Red to Black is celebrating its 7^th annual Financial Education Week. The financial literacy week raises awareness about personal finance issues and offers fun, education opportunities for college students to partake in money management. The financial literacy outreach activities that are planned include:

Colleges with student financial education clubs and peer financial counseling

The following are colleges and universities that have peer financial counseling and financial education programs similar to Red to Black.

• BYU’s Financial Path to Graduation
• Iowa State University Financial Counseling Clinic
• Ohio State – Financial Wellness
• University of Arizona (UA) Credit-Wise Cats (CWC)
• UGA Georgia Peer Financial Counseling Program
• Iowa Student Credit & Money Management Services
• UMN Managing College Life: Your Money, Your Housing, Your Future
• Missouri Office for Financial Success
• Wisconsin FOCUS Peer Financial Counseling and Money Talks Seminars

A Personal Finance Game

Money Habitudes is often used as a personal finance game. At least it’s often introduced or presented as a personal finance game or savings game. Why? Because people – including college students – don’t want to be bored.

It’s much more interesting and approachable to participate in a game versus just listening to a lecture. However, it’s more than a personal finance game. The interactive deck of cards is also a financial conversation starter, and helps people talk about money. Because it’s a money personality assessment, it helps people understand their saving and spending habits. This self-awareness then leads to other money management topics, such as handling student loans or budgeting.

Money Habitudes in College and Community College Financial Education Programs

• College and Community College Personal Financial Education – Case Study
• Community college financial education for Money Smart Week
• Community college and university personal financial literacy classes
• Money Habitudes for Teachers and Youth Leaders

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That’s me (statements that describe my money personality type)

• Targeted Goals 9
• Selfless 4
• Security 2
• Status 1
• Free Spirit 0
• Spontaneous 0

sub-total 16

That’s not me (statements that do not describe my money personality type)

• Free Spirit 8
• Spontaneous 7
• Security 6
• Status 5
• Selfless 2
• Targeted Goals 0

sub-total 28

That’s sometimes me or That’s partially true

• Selfless 3
• Status 3
• Spontaneous 2
• Security 1
• Free Spirit 1
• Targeted Goals 0

sub-total 10

 Total 54

 Interpreting Money Habitudes money personality type assessment results: That’s me

1. While it’s certainly important to understand how to interpret the Money Habitudes cards, bear two things in mind. First, the more times that one uses the cards in classes or counseling (which could be couples counseling, financial planning, financial literacy, career coaching, etc.), the more comfortable and familiar one will become with the patterns that emerge from different money personality type card sorts. (Also the Guide for Professionals has a lot more information on interpreting what the cards mean in terms of money personality type versus the basic eight yellow cards included in each Money Habitudes deck of cards.) Second, much of the strength of the cards is that they are a financial conversation starter. As an ice breaker, they allow people to explain how and why they think the cards are a fit and describe them, their life and financial patterns. Simply asking a student or client to explain how the cards fit with his or her life can be very helpful; as you’re listening to them, it actually keeps them more involved than you just talking at them.
2. A first thing to notice is that the card sort came out with 16 “That’s me” cards. That’s about what we’d like to work with; usually we look for about 10-15 cards in that pile. If there are very few cards in that pile, we ask people to move the strongest “Sometimes” cards over to “That’s me.” If there are lots of cards – 20 or 30 or more – we’d often have people take out the weakest cards in their “That’s me” pile and move them to “Sometimes.”
3. While it’s not exceptional for someone to say “Yes, that’s me” to all 9 cards in a category, it doesn’t happen all the time. Such a result indicates that this category is very, very strong in one’s money personality type. That’s the case here with Targeted Goals (or “Planning” in the Young Adult and Teen versions).
4. We’d typically say that having 4 or more cards in one of the Habitudes categories signifies a very important or “dominant” Habitude money type. In this case, Targeted Goals is very, very dominant and Selfless (or “Giving” in the other versions) is a strong second-place money personality type.
5. Looking at this person, the advantages and challenges (on the yellow interpretation card) for Targeted Goals will probably resonate quite strongly. If someone had 4 or 5 cards in that category, the highs and lows probably wouldn’t be as high or low. Just as someone may have a great strength in planning and setting goals, that person may also have a hard time adapting to a changed situation, listening to others, making a quick decision without doing a lot of research, etc.
6. It’s good to think of how one Money Habitudes category moderates another. In this case, think about the difference between someone who has 9 Targeted Goals cards and 4 Selfless cards versus someone who has the opposite: 9 Selfless cards and 4 Targeted Goals cards. While this is all dependent on the person and subjective – as we all see money in different ways – we might summarize the difference as follows: The first person will generally plan what to do with his money and will often prioritize using his money to help others in some significant way; that might be giving to a charity, helping one’s family, etc. On the other hand, we could say that the second person might be very giving, but would do that giving in a planned, premeditated way. To carry it further, think about a third person who has 9 Selfless cards and no Targeted Goals cards. If someone walked up to the first person on the street and asked for money, he might say “No” and add, “I make a budget every year and I devote all of my charity to the XYZ Soup Kitchen.” The second person might give the person some money, but will stay within what he knows is a planned boundary, e.g., “I know I can afford to give this person $5.” The third person may very well empty his pockets to the other person, thinking little of his own financial welfare.
7. Bear in mind that while there are many healthy, positive financial personality traits associated with Targeted Goals, the planning predilection doesn’t necessarily say they are the right goals – or what you as a facilitator, therapist or teacher believe are the right goals. For example, someone may decide at the age of 18 that he is going to own a Ferrari at 25. Is that a good goal? Of course, it depends and you’re best to listen to this person and understand his thought process. However, we can probably agree that if one cashes in a college trust fund, forgoes two out of three daily meals for years and lives cheaply in a very unsafe neighborhood, and never takes a vacation from a job where one is working overtime all to afford a 6-figure car, it’s probably not a good financial balance. The question for someone with such Targeted Goals strength is whether one’s goals are the right goals.
8. Although one frequently sees Targeted Goals and Security cards working in tandem, they’re not the same money personality tendencies. Having a lot of Targeted Goals cards doesn’t necessarily mean you’re saving. Having a lot of Security cards means you probably save a lot (or at least don’t spend a lot), but it may be more reflexive versus planned. For example, if you see that your car needs new tires, someone with a lot of Security cards might not replace those tires until one blows out and must be fixed; that’s not-spending to the exclusion of planning. In this case, the 9 Targeted Goals cards certainly predominate over the 2 Security cards. Is this good? Is it bad? It depends. This person may look at the advantages and disadvantages on the yellow interpretation cards and think it is the right balance in his life. If not, then one would look on the back of the yellow cards for some suggested next steps to readjust one’s balance.
9. What does having 1 Status card mean? Well, generally we want people to pay close attention to the extremes: categories where they have a lot of cards (8 or 9) or very few (0 or 1). That might mean that someone is over- or underusing strengths in that category. Let’s take the example of buying clothes. Someone with all 9 Status cards might very well spend lots and lots of money on looking good and presenting a positive impression – to the point where one can’t actually afford to spend that money. Here, there’s often an element of acceptance-seeking, of wanting to fit in or be seen by others as successful, etc. On the other hand, someone with no Status cards, may care very little for how he dresses. He might be wearing the same clothes he’s had for 20 years, thinking honestly to himself, “Why do I need new clothes? I don’t need to impress anyone!” But let’s then say that the person with 0 Status cards goes on a job interview wearing a suit from 20 years ago. He may not care what he looks like and may believe that others shouldn’t care what he looks like (not judging a book by its cover, so to speak). However, the person conducting the interview might say, “Wow, this guy looks like he walked out of a time portal. If he’s dressed like that, I doubt he’s current with what’s going on in the field. And I couldn’t imagine going to meet a client with this guy because he looks so out-of-date and shabby.” And then that person doesn’t get the job. So what may come from a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of the Status cards is whether this person has been negatively affected by not presenting a positive impression? If someone says, “Wow, I keep going to job interviews and not getting the job and that might be why!” then that’s a very valuable financial epiphany. In this case, springing for a new suit might be a great investment – even if this person believes hiring managers should care what’s in his brain and not on his shoulders.
10. Along with the point above about Targeted Goals vs. Security, let’s consider the two empty money personality types: Free Spirit (“Carefree” in the other Money Habitudes versions) and Spontaneous. Beyond not having any of these cards in the “That’s me” pile, this person has said that they really don’t describe him; almost all of them are in the “Not me” pile: 8 Free Spirit and 7 Spontaneous. Again, when looking at the yellow cards for these two Habitudes, one would be missing the advantages of them (such as making a quick decision on financial matters, etc.) but also wouldn’t have the disadvantages (the possibility of going into debt over impulsive spending, etc.). This might be the right balance for this person at this time in his life. However, generally the question we ask when someone has an empty category is, “Would your life be better off if you had some of the positive traits of the missing category?” In this case, a concern might be that this person could be too serious with money and isn’t enjoying life or taking advantage of financial opportunities that present themselves. For example, this might be going on vacation – or changing plans to go on an awesome once-in-a-lifetime excursion when on vacation, even if that side trip wasn’t on the original planned itinerary. Often financial experts put budgeting in the context of deprivation by saying, in essence, “Make a budget so you know what not to spend on.” However, for someone with so many Targeted Goals and a lack of Free Spirit and Spontaneous cards, he might want to “budget for fun.” That might mean saying, “Every month, I have $100 to spend to enjoy myself; it might be a nice dinner or going to the theater or going camping.

Interpreting Money Habitudes money personality type assessment results: Sometimes me

1. Looking at the “Sometimes me” pile, we’d ask questions like, “Why is that sometimes true?” “When is that true?” “Who are you with when that’s true?” This pile gets to situational and contextual tendencies.
2. In this example, there are 3 Status cards that our client has said are “sometimes” true. By re-reading the Status statements in that pile, he may see one that says, for example, “I always want to pay the whole check when I eat out with other people.” Asking the “who, what, where, why, when” questions, it may be that he’s likely to feel like paying for everyone in only certain cases. It may be when he’s with his wife’s family. It may be that he came from humble beginnings whereas his in-laws are very wealthy and he wants to prove to them that he belongs, is successful, is like them, and can provide for his family. Or it may be as simple as, “Right after payday, I feel much freer to share my money with those who happen to be around me – even if it’s a bunch of strangers at a bar that I buy drinks for.” In either case, it helps people see and talk about money issues and recognize larger saving and spending habits in their lives.
3. In many cases, someone keys in on the situation and is able to make a quick positive behavior change. It may be a card that talks about spending freely when shopping and the person may realize, “Wow, whenever I go out shopping with Mary, I buy things I don’t need and can’t afford, but she’s so fun and we have such a good time at the mall. That doesn’t happen when I’m by myself or out with my other friends.” Here, one might be able to change behavior by simply putting a cap on how much one spends when shopping with Mary or realizing that it would be just as much fun to spend time with Mary even if that means walking around the park or getting coffee.

1. Finally, as mentioned above, with the “Not me” pile, the question we’d generally ask is, “If you look at the advantages of the cards there that don’t describe your financial tendencies, would you like to have more of those in your life?” What’s important about the Money Habitudes tool is that while it is a money personality type assessment, it’s also very much a financial conversation starter. This methodology and format gives a facilitator, teacher, therapist, financial planner, etc., an opening to understand what’s going on in someone’s life. They can then offer advice or suggestions that are not just sound financial practice, but also mesh with the real person in front of them.
2. We hear about people, for example, who’ve just been laid off and now find it harder to spend money spontaneously because they’re so bent on conserving their funds. They may, therefore, have a lot of Spontaneous cards in the “Not me” pile. To think more about spending habits and to dial back on spending is a natural reaction to losing a job. To add some financial spontaneity to their life, should you encourage them to go out on a spending spree? Probably not. But there may be a side-effect of losing a job where one also really dials back on the socializing that one used to do. Or one might be a lot less prone to spend money when a good opportunity comes up. When it comes to getting a new job, that might very well require that one sees a networking event that costs $50 and will cost $200 to travel to and prepare for – but it may very well be worth it and it might make sense for that person to make that decision on the spot to spend that money. Or it might mean taking a new job in anew city or enrolling in a training class – which might draw on some of the real strengths of the Spontaneous personality.

They key is to start the money conversation with the Money Habitudes cards and then let it lead where it may. Talk about money and then transition to: making a budget, creating a spending plan, meeting with a financial planner, arranging to see a therapist, taking a vacation, signing up to volunteer somewhere, looking at other career options, or the like. In the end, the assessment component is important, but the conversations it starts are often more valuable.

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Harper’s Money Smart Week presents: Money Habitudes for Students

When:Tuesday, April 24, 2012

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Cost: FREE

Money Habitudes is a fun and easy way to discover the role money plays in people’s lives, how their Money Habitudes formed and what they can do about it if they want to make changes to reach their financial and life goals.

Learn about your Money Habitudes and how they affect how you spend, save and earn money!

This event is part of Harper’s Money Smart Week, sponsored by Student Activities.

See: http://www.moneyhabitudes.com/

Contact: Office of Student Activities 847.925.6242

This is, of course, just one of the many ways and places where Money Habitudes cards are used.

Examples of financial education classes and relationship workshops that use Money Habitudes:

Why do community colleges use Money Habitudes in personal finance classes?

• Fun like playing a card game. The hands-on cards aren’t boring like a lecture, PowerPoint or worksheet.
• Work with diverse audiences in financial education classes. This is especially true at a community college or junior college with a range of different students.
• As a money personality assessment, help people really understand their saving and spending habits.
• Easily transition to other financial literacy curricula and classes. This may include debt elimination, budgeting, credit repair, student loans, financial aid, buying a home, etc.
• As a financial conversation starter and ice breaker, make it fun and easy for college students to talk about money.
• Easy to teach and easy to use as a teacher. Also easy to teach in a train-the-trainer environment.
• A good, non-threatening introduction to financial literacy. Popular with community financial education awareness events like Money Smart Week.

Common traits of community college financial education seminars:

• Financial education workshops at universities and community colleges are often free or have a nominal fee. That’s the case with this one which uses Money Habitudes cards.
• They are often standalone classes and are short in duration. This college seminar is only an hour.
• As they compete against lots of other student activities, they must appeal to college students. The financial education class must seem fun, interesting, relevant or important.
• Often part of a series. This might include other financial education workshops, life skills classes, career seminars or relationship classes.

Case study: community college financial education class with Money Habitudes cards … 

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Why does personal financial literacy matter for university and community college students?

• According to the 2008 Jump$tart Coalition personal financial literacy survey, funded by Merrill Lynch Foundation, high school seniors correctly answered only 48.3 percent of the questions. This is a decrease from the 52.4 percent in 2006.
• The 2008 personal finance survey results indicated higher financial literacy scores for college students versus high school students. College students answered 62 percent of the questions correctly. College freshman averaged 59 percent correct; college seniors correctly answered 65 percent. That’s still not a passing grade.
• “The purpose of a college education is to help students learn how to solve problems,” said Kristy Vienne who directs Sam Houston State’s Student Money Management Center, which helps students help themselves, “and we see a lot of students who are in need of solutions. The first step is to become financially literate.”
• The average student has roughly $23,000 in student loans, $4,000 in credit card debt and 4 credit cards.
• It takes as few as 10 hours to change financial illiteracy into financial literacy.

Examples and test results: High School, College, Community College and University Personal Financial Literacy Quiz

• Jump$tart – Personal Financial Literacy of Young American Adults
• 2008 High School Financial Literacy Survey, with responses
• 2008 College Financial Literacy Survey, with responses
• UMASS Five College Federal Credit Union (FCU) Financial Literacy Quiz
• Iowa State University, Office of Student Financial Aid Financial Literacy Quiz

Where do financial literacy classes and financial counseling occur on college and community college campuses?

• Financial education classes are often offered by college financial aid or student aid offices. This may be part of regular financial aid services (e.g., FAFSA, Pell Grants, etc.) or it can be associated with emergency financial aid. TRIO colleges must, for example, offer financial education as part of grant requirements.
• Student counseling services offices. There is a big overlap between financial issues and other life and academic issues.
• Residence life programs on life skills and financial education that take place in dorms.
• Career centers and career counselors and coaches. Part of getting a job is understanding how to effectively manage one’s personal finances and plan for the future.
• Financial classes. This may be in business schools that teach accounting and financial planning. Or it may be in family and consumer science (FACS) classes teaching financial education concepts.
• Peer financial counseling. This is offered on a select number of college campuses. In Addition to SamHoustonState, a good example of this is seen in Texas Tech’s Red to Black student financial counseling program. (Red to Black uses Money Habitudes cards.)

Why and how Money Habitudes is used in college and university financial literacy programs:

1. Money Habitudes is a fun, hands-on teaching tool. Because it feels like playing cards, it seems like a familiar game. The tactile feel gets college students more involved than just listening to lectures, doing worksheets or watching a PowerPoint presentation.
2. We know that busy college students don’t want to go to a boring financial class, even if they need it.
3. The cards get beyond making a budget to begin important conversations about the interaction between lifestyle, values and finances, leading to behavior change breakthroughs in saving and spending habits.
4. Much like a personal finance game, Money Habitudes is easy for facilitators, coaches and counselors to learn and easy to teach.
5. The Money Habitudes cards can be used by individual financial counseling or in financial education classes.
6. It gets college students to talk about money – and do it in a fun, effective, nonjudgmental way. The Money Habitudes money management game can be easily integrated with other personal finance or student financial aid materials.
7. It’s a flexible tool. It can be used as a money personality assessment or as more of a financial conversation starter. It can be used just as a quick money ice breaker or as a full class that serves as an introduction to money management. Using the cards can take a few minutes or can last for an hour or two.
8. As a money personality test, it addresses financial behavior, habits, attitudes and money values. Allows for financial classes to address financial behavior and relationship issues; transitions well to financial skills-based classes and curricula.
9. The financial conversation starter cards get students to talk about money. Money is an important topic that produces real conversations. A college – or especially a community college – with a large number of commuter students may find that the cards spark conversations which build camaraderie.
10. The cards use simple language and statements. Questions like, “When I’m stressed I go shopping?” key on lifestyle issues. They do not require an understanding of financial concepts and don’t require a participant to do math. The Money Habitudes II cards in financial education classes for college and community college groups.

Types of personal finance classes and financial counseling that use Money Habitudes in colleges, community colleges and universities:

• Budgeting
• Student loans
• Money management
• Buying a home, foreclosure prevention
• Buying a car
• Debt elimination, debt consolidation
• Love and money; finances and relationships
• Employee benefits
• Bankruptcy
• Post-graduation expenses
• Family and premarital finances
• Building credit
• Investing and retirement

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Why prisoner reentry programs include personal financial education:

• With most offender reentry programs, an ultimate goal is to reduce the recidivism rate. (The SVORI Initiative reports that, “In the US, over 600,000 individuals are released from prisons and jails each year. It is estimated that approximately two-thirds are re-incarcerated within three years.”)
• Many offenders have not previously learned about personal finance. Many offenders have not seen healthy money habits and attitudes modeled for them as they were growing up. Also, many in prisoner reentry programs never had personal finance classes in school.
• Having stable finances contributes to a more stable life and lifestyle. This can be illusive for ex-offenders. Being financially stable can also be a big element in self-worth.
• Financial literacy and financial capability are central issues for those in prisoner reentry programs. Money becomes important:
  • because it is difficult for ex-offenders to find jobs.
  • to pay rent or get a place to live.
  • to eat.
  • to clothe one’s self, especially in light of finding a job.
  • to find a car or pay for other forms of transportation.
  • to provide for a family.
  • to repay debts (such as credit card debt, child support payments, alimony, even old parking tickets, etc.)
• The top source of arguments between couples is money. When couples fight about money, it makes other parts of the relationship more difficult. With so many other relationship stresses, learning to manage and talk about money is especially important for offender reentry.

Of course, aside from prisoner reentry, many other programs include financial education for similar reasons. Many fatherhood programs (some of which already serve prisoner reentry participants) and asset-building programs for low-to-moderate income (LMI) groups have similar reasons for including personal financial education classes.

Why prisoner reentry programs use Money Habitudes in financial education classes:

• Money Habitudes is a fun, hands-on teaching tool. Formatted like playing cards, it feels like a familiar game. Because it’s tactile, it gets inmates more involved than just listening to lectures, doing worksheets or watching a PowerPoint presentation.
• It’s a flexible tool. It can be used as a money personality assessment or as more of a financial conversation starter.
• Much like a personal finance game, Money Habitudes is easy for facilitators to learn and easy to teach.
• The Money Habitudes cards can be used by individual offenders, couples, or groups. They can be used in personal finance classes, marriage and relationship classes. They can be used in financial coaching and relationship or marriage counseling sessions. They can also be employed in ex-offender support groups.
• It gets inmates and ex-offenders to talk about money – and do it in a fun, effective, nonjudgmental way. As a result, the Money Habitudes money management game can be easily integrated with other materials. These might include prison reentry modules, life skill classes, personal finance curricula (including budgeting), communication and conflict resolution courses, etc. Examples include PREP, Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages, Dave Ramsey/Financial Peace University, Couple Checkup, etc.
• It can be used just as a quick money ice breaker or as a full class that serves as an introduction to money management. Using the cards can take a few minutes or can last for an hour or two.
• Works with men and women; especially good feedback from guys who are not as open to sharing their feelings and talking about money.
• As a money personality test, it addresses financial behavior, habits, attitudes and money values. It transitions well to skills-based money management classes and curricula as well as budgets. Also works with employment and career counseling.
• Used in concert with other prisoner reentry modules, including those specifically addressed by the Second Chance Act, including: employment assistance, substance abuse treatment, housing, family programming.
• Allows for financial classes to address behavior and relationship issues around money. Allows communication and relationship classes and lessons to be applied to the big issue of money and personal finances.
• The cards use simple language and statements. Questions like, “When I’m stressed I go shopping?” key on lifestyle issues. They do not require an understanding of financial concepts and don’t require a participant to do math. The Money Habitudes II cards are often used in offender programs, regardless of students’ ages.

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What: As part of the college’s Student Support Services grant through the US Department of Education’s TRIO program, the program must offer a variety of seminars to all recipients. One of these requirements is personal economic literacy.

Who: Located on the outskirts of Appalachia, Northwest-Shoals Community College’s students are a mixture of returning adult students and students of traditional age who aren’t going directly to a four-year institution. Some 70-80% of the community college’s students qualify for federal assistance (i.e., Pell Grants) and many are the first in their families to go to college. As a result, much of the student body is considered “at risk” for not finishing their degree. The mandate of the school’s Student Support Services Program is to assist students with course selection, academic tutoring, academic advising, financial aid and personal economic literacy education to ensure they get through school.

How:

• Money management classes are generally comprised of one or two dozen students at desks or tables.
• Total class time is approximately one hour.
• The money management classes start with an introduction to personal finance and then students identify a spending vice – such as buying a coffee every day – and then multiply the cost per week, month, year to understand the effect of small changes in spending.
• About 15 minutes into the class, students use the Money Habitudes cards. This serves to invigorate the audience because of the fun, hands-on nature of the exercise. The cards dovetail with the introductory spending exercise by helping students understand their own financial habits and attitudes and letting them talk about money. The class uses the Money Habitudes II cards, commonly used in universities and community colleges.
• Depending on the degree of conversation, the class usually includes about 30 minutes for the Money Habitudes exercise. An introduction of the cards is followed by the solitaire sorting process then the money personality self-interpretation step. Following the financial conversation starter, there is then 15-30 minutes of group discussion.

Why:

Although offering the personal finance class is a grant requirement, the Money Habitudes cards are used for three ends:

• Make the SSS staff and its offerings approachable and non-threatening. “People don’t want to feel judged. So you want a very non-intimating, easy way to talk about money,” says Tomlinson. It’s important that students feel comfortable in their interactions with the staff because the goal is to continue to help students in a variety of ways. In addition to financial aid and personal economic education, they want students to seek them out for academic support, scheduling, advising and curriculum planning.
• Make financial education personally relevant and interesting. To this end, a discussion of one’s money personality and habits and attitudes can put spending and savings decisions in context. This might be whether to buy a new or used car – and what one really needs versus what one wants. “We want them to think before they spend their Pell Grant award and take out the maximum allowed on their student loans,” says Tomlinson.
• Foster a bond between students; an ice breaker and conversation starter that goes beyond finances. “Because we are a commuter college, we want students to connect with each other and sometimes it’s very difficult to do that; they come in, they go to class, they leave. And so we like for them to talk with each other and get to know each other and make a bond.”

Observations and Comments:

• We loved them! Because it’s engaging. It’s active learning. It’s participatory. It’s not just us talking to them or at them – it actually engages them in the process. And it’s fun.
• We like to get the students to talk and we’ve found that these cards will promote discussion.
• It’s really hard to find interactive things that are financial in scope but which aren’t  scary. Other activities make it seem like, “You’re doing everything wrong!” We always try to accentuate the positive with our students, and encourage them to make positive choices when it comes to their education and their money.  Playing solitaire with the Money Habitudes cards allows us to do just that.

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1. Yahoo! Finance Financially Fit Survey from Yahoo! and Fitness Magazine (November 2011)
2. YourTango.com Survey

Both reassert what we already know: often couples fight about money. Further, it’s difficult for couples to talk about money. Granted, the two surveys arrive at slightly different conclusions about why couples fight and the role money plays in those fights.

Survey results: why couples fight

The Yahoo! survey reinforces the traditional ranking of money as the biggest cause of couples’ arguments:

1. Men and women agree: money is the number-1  issue couples fight about (26 percent). Other causes of couples’ fights include:
2. chores (13%)
3. kids (8%)
4. sex (8%)
5. in-laws (8%)

On the other hand, the financial habits and attitudes survey from YourTango.com finds what it calls a surprising result: money fights were not at the top of the list of what couples argue about. It finds that couples “fight, split and seek counseling” because of:

1. Communication problems. (“72% of therapists listed ‘communication problems’ as the #1 reason couples seek therapy.”)
2. Lack of emotional intimacy.
3. Fighting about money.
4. Sex.

The survey found that, once in therapy for such marriage arguments, the top cause for failure is a lack of effort.

Much of the discrepancy between the “money fight” surveys may result from who was surveyed:

• The Yahoo! survey polled 2,000 Americans. They were ages 18 to 64. They were representative of the U.S. online population. It was an online quantitative survey.
• The other survey was pulled form YourTango Experts. Although the actual sample size is not given, the press release notes that the entire expert population is 1100. This includes psychotherapists, counselors, coaches and other helping professionals.

In one case, it’s a question of what couples think their issues are. In the other, it shows what therapists and counselors think their clients’ issues are. Fighting about money is a clearer cause for clients but seen differently by professionals.

Interestingly, the Yahoo! Survey also notes a significant difference in who controls family finances:

• 49% of adults say they share control of finances with their significant others.
• 41% claim they have sole control.

A money fight necessitates talking about money

However, both surveys show that couples still fight about money – and do so a lot. And both still point to the value of having a tool to help couples talk about money. Without addressing money fights (or these other top issues), a couple may be in for a rocky road, perhaps leading to divorce. Both explain why Money Habitudes cards are used as a financial conversation starter by couples on their own as well as by professionals (couples counselors, marriage therapists, financial planners, etc.).

Even if money is only the fourth-most-important reason why couples fight (while it is habitually first in other polls), it is still a crucial issue for couples. Also, although Money Habitudes focuses on financial habits and attitudes, it is very much a tool to help couples communicate. Ask anyone who’s had couples make a budget and you’ll hear that money fights aren’t so much about the actual dollars and cents. Instead, couples fight about money because of:

• differing beliefs, values, habits, attitudes, behaviors.
• a lack of understanding and communication about these issues.

For this reason, Money Habitudes cards are:

• Used in financial education, financial literacy and financial capability programs on one hand.
• Also used in marriage and relationship classes and counseling.
• One of the few tools that crosses the gap between financial skills and couples communication skills.

Communicating about money and avoiding money fights

Indeed, what the YourTango survey may reveal is what we hear all the time from marriage therapists: when couples fight about money, they’re not really fighting about money. A money fight is typically is a proxy for other issues such as:

• Love
• Generosity
• Freedom
• Respect
• Acceptance
• Responsibility
• Status
• Independence
• Security
• Contentment
• Self-worth

It’s no surprise that money fights are really about other issues. And, of course, when couples can’t communicate about money – or those other, bigger, scarier topics – it’s bound to lead to difficulty or even divorce.

To this end, Money Habitudes, helps couples communicate about money. (That’s true for couples that are dating, engaged or newlywed, as well as those married a long time.) It helps them better understand and respect each other. It helps them see the other’s perspective. It helps couples avoid fighting about money. And much of what couples learn about themselves is applicable to other parts of their relationship.

Starting a conversation with the hands-on card game format makes the discussion fun and engaging. Couples often end up laughing and smiling about their differences rather than fighting about them – which is why therapists like using Money Habitudes as a conversation starter in counseling sessions.

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As people come in all varieties, shapes, and sizes, so do their choices of personal expressions of love. But more often than not, the giver and the receiver express love in two different ways. This can lead to misunderstanding, quarrels, and even divorce.

The five basic Love Languages are:

1. Quality time
2. Words of affirmation
3. Gifts
4. Acts of service
5. Physical touch

Chapman’s Love Languages methodology is partly a personality test. The Love Languages self-assessment process determines which of the Love Languages resonate with you. From the questionnaire, you may discover that you prefer to show love with gifts while you like to be shown you’re loved through acts of service. On the other hand, your spouse or partner may be different. The personality quiz may reveal that he or she shows love through physical touch but wants to be shown love through words of affirmation.

Why is Love Languages so popular?

1. It’s easy to understand. There are only five Love Languages. And each personality category is, itself, easy to understand.
2. The self-assessment is a key to understanding one’s self. Many people never think about how they express love or how they want to be shown they are loved. It’s easy to think that “love is love” and there’s only one flavor.
3. The personality test also helps one better understand one’s spouse, partner or fiancé. By understanding yourself and your partner, it is easier to respect and sympathize with him or her.
4. The methodology and assessment questions are non-threatening and non-judgmental. There is no right or wrong. It shows that differences are natural and ok.
5. It serves as a great conversation starter for a few reasons. First, because most people never consider their “love personality type” it gives people new perspective on themselves, their partner, and how they interact. Second, the nonjudgmental approach makes it easier to discuss difficult topics. Third, it helps put hard feelings and misunderstandings in context so they’re seen more objectively.
6. The Love Languages methodology is broadly applicable. While there are slightly different versions of the assessment, the basic process and interpretation remains the same. It works for all couples: dating, engaged, newlywed and even those married a long time. It also applies to different ages, to heterosexual and homosexual couples and to people of different cultural backgrounds.

Money Habitudes is very similar to Love Languages – and the two programs are often used together in marriage and relationship classes and couples counseling. You can think of Money Habitudes as “The Six Languages of Money.”

Money Habitudes and Love Languages similarities: Conversation Starters & Personality Tests

As above, both share the following:

1. Easy to understand. Although we’ve done all-day trainings on the cards, there’s a 100+ page Guide for Professionals, dozens of variations on how to use the cards and they’re used by PhD therapists in a professional setting, the Money Habitudes cards were designed to be very simple. They can be done by a couple at home, on their own. One can understand the basic operation and interpretation in a few minutes and then run a successful counseling session or workshop using the cards. The cards make it easy to talk about money.
2. Better understand yourself. With spending and saving, people often see the money come in and go out, but rarely if ever think about why they see and handle money the way they do. Understanding that one spends money to feel secure and in control versus spending money to look good and be accepted allows people to understand bigger patterns in their financial lives and, where necessary, make change. It also lets them talk about money in an easier way.
3. Better understand your partner. This could be dating, engaged, newlywed or long-time married. (With money, it could also be a family member or business partner.) Often we misinterpret how the people around us act and why they do what they do. It’s not uncommon for a couple to use the Money Habitudes cards and to find clarity, sympathy, respect and even love as a result of better understanding how the other person sees money and spends and saves. Also, where couples differ in their money personality, they frequently see how they complement each other in positive ways. This is an important step when it comes to communication skills for couples. The lack of understanding and respect is what can lead to arguments or divorce.
4. Like the Love Languages personality quiz, Money Habitudes cards are non-threatening. The tactile, hands-on card game format feels like a game and not a test. It’s active, engaging and entertaining. The statements themselves are simple lifestyle questions (“I go shopping when I’m stressed,” etc.) versus computing compound interest or the like. And there is no right or wrong answer to the statements. Like Love Languages, Money Habitudes shows couples that people have natural money personality differences and one person isn’t right while the other is wrong.
5. Money Habitudes is a great conversation starter. This is true for couples doing the activity at home, but it’s also trusted by professionals such as marriage therapists, career counselors and financial planners. The ice breaker appeal comes from the fact that each statement card (there are 54) serves as its own conversation starter. The full card sort and interpretation serves as a larger, more in-depth financial conversation starter.
6. As with the 5 Love Languages, Money Habitudes is used across a wide spectrum. It’s used with dating and engaged couples, newlyweds and with married couples. It’s used with couples of varying sexual orientation. And it’s used with different ages (although there are different versions by age). It’s used as a standalone lesson or a financial ice breaker in financial or relationship classes and counseling.

How are Money Habitudes and Love Languages different?

1. On a very simple level, there are six Money Habitudes categories (or “money languages” so to speak) versus five Love languages. The similar number of personality types helps people understand that there is more than just one or two types of people. (People can’t be classified by just the “spender vs. saver” rubric.) Neither system uses so many types and subtypes so as to result in a confusing information overload.
2. While one will usually have a dominant money type with Money Habitudes, our system allows people to see what other Habitudes play into their complete money personality.
3. With Love Languages, there is a greater stress on changing your behavior for your partner than with Money Habitudes. The interaction with Money Habitudes is based more on a person asking, “Do I have the right balance in my life?” relative to his or her money personality type. In many cases, this inspires people to change or to better recognize how to interact or manage money with a partner.
4. Obviously, the way one uses Money Habitudes is quite different from Love Languages. Money Habitudes is a hands-on card game format versus a book, worksheet or online assessment (although look for a fun, tactile online version soon). The card game format reaches different learning styles and feels like a social game.

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What: Marriages are subject to a variety of stresses. Few are greater than having one spouse incarcerated. It is in this prison environment that People of Principle works to strengthen marriages. Operating under a federal grant for Healthy Marriage Promotion and Responsible Fatherhood from the Administration for Children and Families, People of Principle provides relationship skills training for inmates through its Fathers Are Forever (FAF) Project. The project covers 13 prisons in Texas and New Mexico, along with 36 town parole boards. FAF teaches parenting skills, promotes two-parent families, and seeks to eliminate family violence.

Who: The ACF grant covers working with married or unmarried incarcerated men who have children. Inmates attend the relationship classes with a wife or partner. Brewer notes that many of the inmates have very limited educations; the program assumes a 4^th-grade reading level.

How:

• Brewer says that the People of Principle reentry program is based on doing “power seminars” where a year of relationship education is typically done in 8-12 hours over two days.
• The healthy marriage program is built around the Within Our Reach curriculum, designed by PREP, Inc. and based on the Speaker-Listener Technique.
• Classes are generally taught to groups of 6-12 couples.
• The relationship classes include anger management, preventing family violence, using  negotiated agreements to govern family life, skills-based parenting, and positive parent practices.
• Additional marriage and fatherhood modules include one on Transactional Analysis, one using Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages and two that Brewer developed called Words of the Heart and The Institutionalized Mind. The program also includes a Money Habitudes module for personal finance.
• “We felt like one of the weaknesses of our program was the lack of financial counseling,” says Brewer. Using the hands-on Money Habitudes program as a short lesson helps inmates understand their spending and saving patterns but also helps them better understand and interact with a spouse or partner when it comes to money.
• Traditionally the number one cause of arguments for couples, money is an especially important topic for prisoner reentry into society. The Money Habitudes-based financial module has proven successful because it is simple, understandable, fun and non-threatening.
• Although the Money Habitudes cards are written at a basic reading level, facilitators may still read the lifestyle statements to participants with low literacy levels. The brief card format is easier and more engaging to use than a worksheet or book.
• Recognizing that they have very little time to work with prisoners, People of Principle sees the FAF program as a way to open dialogue and spur participants to seek out more information and understanding on their own for all topics – which they do, says Brewer.

Why and Outcomes:

• The reentry program’s goal has two interdependent parts: to reduce recidivism rates and to preserve and strengthen inmates’ relationships.
• Brewer says they look at four elements that will keep a marriage together: education, faith, family, and having a job. FAF addresses these issues but does not do job placement; it does, however, address the economic component of stable marriages by including financial education.
• Because so much of the FAF program deals with understanding one’s partner, Money Habitudes is a natural fit. Used more in the context of relationships and conflict resolution (versus traditional financial literacy), it helps individuals better understand themselves when it comes to how and why they spend and save – and what their attitudes and values are around money. But it also helps them better understand and respect how their partner sees money, thereby promoting healthier discussions. Brewer recalls that participants would say, “This is exactly the problem we were having. It’s crazy that we have to go to prison to learn how to deal with it!”
• “What’s great about Money Habitudes is the tactile manipulation. That’s very important with people who are incarcerated. We try to use as little of the lecturer-fill-in-the-blank stuff as we can. We have learned that, especially in the prison population, participatory education is far superior to lecture style.”
•  “We had nothing but positive results. In fact, we never had a complaint and inmates are notorious for complaining when they don’t like something. Even the guards would eat up the Money Habitudes exercise. They’d ask question after question whenever we had a break so it was clear they were interested even though they weren’t actually participating!” says Brewer.
• After working with 300 couples, the program had only seen six divorces.

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• make a budget.”
• enroll in a debt management course.”
• take the following steps to work on your family’s credit.”
• talk with a financial planner.”
• buy a house.”
• realign your investments appropriately.”
• check out these tips for retirement planning.”

How do you talk about money with a spouse, partner or fiance?

The problem is that the first step is much easier said than done: talk about money. If people can’t discuss money, they won’t make it to later steps with their personal finances: budgeting, cut back on spending, find ways to save more, visit a financial planner, etc.

Generally, couples don’t understand the basics of how to talk about money. Money is the number one source of couples’ arguments. Many people will say that they’d find it easier to talk about sex versus money!

Many premarital classes (i.e. marriage prep) include a module on finances in marriage. Many classes have engaged couples fill out a budget form. That sheet will include budget categories like:

• how much debt they have
• their salaries and investment income (i.e., how much money they make)
• what expenses they have (transportation, house, rent, food, entertainment, charitable gifts, medical, etc.)

Despite this premarital class structure, engaged couples will still often paint an inaccurate or incomplete picture of their joint finances. That can be on purpose or by ignorance.

When it is by ignorance, it is because one isn’t even aware of how much he or she is spending. This is typically referred to as “budget leaks” or “spending leaks.”  The classic example is the forgotten daily cup of coffee that adds up to hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a year.

On the other hand, when couples sit down to make a budget, they may knowingly hide debt, assets or income. There are many stories of couples getting married without sharing how much debt they have. It’s understandable because:

• Talking about money is difficult and stressful.
• Admitting the secret that one is in debt can be shameful and embarrassing.
• If this money secret isn’t shared upfront, it can become progressively harder to admit as the weeks, months and years go by.
• There is a legitimate fear that someone may break up with you or call off a wedding if, all of a sudden, you seem to be in financial trouble, have bankruptcy in your past, etc.

These same issues come up later in a marriage too. Of course, here money is a very big trust issue and, as such, a relationship concern. There can be a real desire to ignore debt for fear of it causing discord.

In cases where couples don’t go through a formal premarital program and do their own marriage prep, it can be very difficult to talk about money. That’s true for newlyweds. It’s also true for married couples who have never or rarely talked about money and now need to because it’s time to plan for retirement, etc.

Regardless, it’s easier to tell someone to sit down and talk about money with your partner versus actually having that conversation.

4 Tips to Talk about Money and Family Finances; Financial Conversation Starters

We recommend that married, engaged or dating couples (or family members or business partners), use Money Habitudes cards. The tool is a proven, fun way to start the conversation about money. However, even without using the cards, here are a few tips about how to talk about money. They help couples (a) actually broach the difficult subject, (b) share financial information honestly, (c) understand and respect each other better.

1. Admit the awkwardness. Start by acknowledging to your spouse or partner that talking about money can feel awkward, but it builds trust and lays a stronger foundation for your relationship.
2. Pick the right time and place. When getting started, give yourself the advantage of a time and place where you can relax. Planning a quiet evening over a relaxing dinner or coffee and dessert is a good start. It certainly beats trying to talk about your spending right after fighting about the credit card bill. Many couples who are successful with their finances set a regular “money date” that may be once a month, once a quarter or a few times a year. Try to avoid, “We need to talk about our money right now!”
3. Reminisce. An easy way to begin is to just share your memories and have a fun, open conversation. Try these conversation starters:
   1. Remember the first time you bought something with your own money? What did you buy? How did you get the money?
   2. What was your first job and what did you do with your money?
   3. How did you get money as a child and a teen?
   4. What did you learn from your religion about money?
   5. Growing up, how was money talked about in your home? Who paid the bills? How were big financial decisions made?
   6. If there were arguments about money when you were growing up, what caused them and how were you involved?
   7. How would you know when your parents disagreed about money?
   8. When you were a kid, did you think you were richer or poorer than your friends or relatives
   9. A simple conversation like this proves that you can talk about money in a constructive way. Then you can move on to more concrete topics later on: What expenses do we cut out this month? How much money will we need to retire? How can we fix our credit?
4. Clarify expectations. How do you both define what it would take for you to feel financially secure? How do you both feel about giving to your church, charities or to help friends and family? How much debt are each of you comfortable having month-to-month? What lifestyle do both of you project having in five years?

The post For couples: How to talk about money appeared first on Money Habitudes.

That’s not to say that teaching money management cannot have some component of lecture, PowerPoint or worksheet. However, relying solely on these teaching methods often leads to classes where students don’t seem invested or interested and don’t seem to make important connections between what happens in the classroom and what happens in real life. Also, while reading PowerPoint slides to a class may be easy, it usually does not make for a good teaching or learning experience in the way that learning games do.

It’s for these reasons, that students and teachers have enjoyed using Money Habitudes as part of money management and personal finance classes. Like other personal finance games, Money Habitudes offers a few advantages:

1. As a hands-on money management game, Money Habitudes is a welcome break from other teaching formats where students are more passive and less involved. This is true on a physical and emotional level. It’s very different to just sit quiet and still in your seat and listen to someone talk about personal finance versus being active, talking, and physically involved in learning how to spend or save money.
2. Personal financial games make spending, saving, investing and giving more personally relevant. It’s very different to fill out a form about what a mortgage is or how to compute APR versus actually buying a house or car – or at least doing so in a simulation. Money Habitudes helps people make the connection between how they see and use money in their own unique way and how that affects their bank balance.
3. Financial games are fun. Educational games are active. In many cases they involve some dimension of competition. And it’s different to just learn by listening versus learning by doing.

One of the really fun testimonials we hear all the time is that people who use Money Habitudes often want to do the personal finance game with their friends and family after taking a class. That’s a very different reaction compared to most personal finance classes where few people ever run home to make a budget. However, because Money Habitudes serves to break the ice when it comes to thinking and talking about personal finances, it often serves as a gateway to other money management steps: doing a budget, getting one’s credit report, seeing a financial planner, etc. Money management games should be fun enough that people want to use them — and share them.

Use Money Habitudes as an introductory lesson to other skills-based lessons or personal finance curricula (such as Money Smart). Beyond using only the cards in your classroom, check out the Dibble Institute’s Money Habitudes: How To Be Rich in Life & Love, a curriculum about money and relationships. The instructional game-based program is geared for high school teens and also used in after-school programs, foster care programs and faith-based money and relationship classes for teens.

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Here’s the actual posting:

The Money Habitudes Workshop

 Join Norene Gonsiewski, LCSW and Tim Higdon, LPC in this fun and eye opening 1 day workshop. The Money Habitudes workshop is designed to help you to engage in productive conversations about money and understand the habits and attitudes that influence your actions and decisions regarding money. This workshop is the winner of several national awards for excellence in marriage education.

When: Saturday January 28th  9-5

Cost: $79.99 per couple, $49.00 individual

This workshop is for you if:

• You argue about money
• You struggle with setting and sticking to your financial goals
• You are sometimes dishonest about your spending
• You spend more than you earn
• You and your partner think and feel differently about money

1 Comment(s)

1. I’m so excited that you are offering this workshop. I’ve posted it on my blog, and plan to attend with Toni. I’m strongly encouraging my clients to attend!

Luna Jaffe, CFP

Spots in the class sold out and another session will be offered in later in the year.

How is this class like other relationship classes that use Money Habitudes?

1. Fun: Talking about money, meeting with a therapist or going to marriage counseling is not usually something people think of as “fun.” Using a fun, hands-on tool makes the relationship seminar more engaging and approachable.
2. Talk about money: The workshop addresses the biggest source of couples’ arguments: fighting about money.
3. A series of relationship classes: The class about talking about money is offered among other relationship classes which include: Getting the Love you Want, Keeping The Love you Find, Advanced Couples Workshop. Other classes are part of a series that includes more skills-based financial classes like budgeting (e.g. Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University or Suze Orman), getting out of debt, foreclosure, buying a house, bankruptcy, etc. Other classes might include communication skills, conflict resolution, life skills, etc.
4. Singles and Couples Class: The class format allows individuals or couples to participate. Some facilitators format classes so that couples interact more directly, while others encourage more group discussion.
5. Cost: Many financial classes that use Money Habitudes are offered free or at a nominal cost; in this case $80 for a couple for an all-day class. This is much less expensive than an hour of private couples counseling. Many classes are offered by community agencies, marriage therapists, a variety of non-profits and churches. Often classes and are sponsored by grants such as the Healthy Marriage Initiative or Responsible Fatherhood.
6. Materials: In this class, each participant will use a deck of Money Habitudes cards for Adults as well as the companion My Money Habitudes workbook. Some classes give materials to participants to take home; others reuse materials.
7. Time: Although it is common for marriage classes and marriage retreats to last all-day or be an entire weekend (such as Catholic marriage prep Pre Cana classes), many Money Habitudes classes are shorter. Many are 1-2 hours. (Shorter classes employ it as a quick conversation starter or money personality assessment.) This all-day couples class format allows individuals and couples to explore their money personalities in great depth and integrate other activities and discussion.

Special training is available to teach Money Habitudes (including train-the-trainer sessions) and there is also the Guide for Professionals which has more tips, tricks and information. However, there is no license fee to use the materials with a class. Of course, many classes are offered by diverse professionals with significant experience in their field, be it financial education, financial planning and investing, couples therapy, etc.

The post Financial Marriage and Relationship Class: Talking About Money appeared first on Money Habitudes.

 What’s your Money Habitude?

As a child I liked to play cards. Go Fish, Gin Rummy, Crazy Eights, Slapjack, even a little bit of poker …

I never imagined that my work as a career counselor would overlap with my childhood love of cards. Then I discovered Money Habitudes, a card game that helps people discover their underlying feelings and assumptions about money. As a career counselor, I’ve seen firsthand how our attitudes about money impact the choices we make, both personal and professional.

I’ve found Money Habitudes® to be useful on a personal level as well. I get to enjoy a game of cards AND find out something new about myself. I played Money Habitudes® today and learned about my current dominant Habitudes with regard to money.  …

Want to play some cards? … Money Habitudes workshop on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 from 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM. For more information and to register click here.

Career Workshop

The previous post talked about how and why Money Habitudes cards are used in financial education classes. (Additional info can be found elsewhere within the site for teachers of financial education courses.) This JVS event is a career example and the reasons are similar, but here are some similarities between this career course and other job classes that use Money Habitudes:

1. Fun classroom activity: Many agencies and organizations use Money Habitudes because it feels like a game and because it’s hands-on, interactive and used like a fun classroom game. They also use it to mix up some of the “old reliable” classes they usually offer. And because it’s novel and non-threatening, it can be a good way to get new clients or students in the door – and have them come back for another class or coaching because they had a good experience.
2. Time: This class is 1.5 hours, which is maybe a little longer than many career seminars of an hour or so. However, having 90 minutes really lets a facilitator introduce and explain the activity. It lets one put it in context (in this case, “how our attitudes about money impact the choices we make, both personal and professional”). It provides enough time to do the sorting exercise without being rushed. And then it allows ample time for group discussion, questions and other activities. With less time, the cards are used more like an ice breaker or money attitudes conversation starter as opposed to a personality test teaching tool.
3. Complements other career classes: As a self-awareness class using a money personality test, the course dovetails well with the organization’s other offerings: Resume Clinic, Mock Interview Clinic, Find Your Next Job on Twitter (networking, social media), Salary Negotiation, Branding 2.0 (personal branding). Even without these other classes, talking about one’s money type in the context of a job or career often brings up issues around how you relate to others, how others see you, how you present yourself to an employer, etc. Salary negotiation issues are particularly interesting when talking about money attitudes and values. As a result, a class that uses Money Habitudes cards will often be part of a series of classes or be at least nominally connected to other classroom or counseling offerings. The JVS theme for its integrated series of classes is “Rejuvenate your Job Search.”
4. Low-cost or free classes: Many organizations that use Money Habitudes provide classes at no-cost or low-cost. The classes that JVS is providing are $15.
5. Diverse audience: Some career counseling organizations have a specific target audience, but others do not. One of the benefits of Money Habitudes is that it works well with a diverse audience. In this case, it may be a class that’s composed of highly educated former executives as well as low-to-moderate income (LMI) students. Used like a game, it’s something everyone can enjoy and get value from. Also, organizations that focus mostly on financial education, asset building, marriage and relationships, or life skills use Money Habitudes as a way to offer a fun career workshop.
6. Staff training and personal development: As the posting notes, career counselors can use the tool to work with clients, but they can also get personal understanding and self-awareness from it themselves. That makes it a fun class activity for the students and the teacher. However, being aware of how you relate to money and how your clients relate to money – which may be very different – helps you as a coach better relate to a client and understand him or her. That can make for a better interaction, especially in one-on-one counseling, in terms of how you give advice and how you listen and react to a client.

As a training tool, organizations typically purchase a set of durable Money Habitudes cards and use them over and over. The tool is frequently used in a number of programs or classes within the same organization. There is no license fee to use the tool in a workshop. Additional information for coaches, counselors and facilitators can be found in The Guide for Professionals.

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Improve Your Relationship with Money

Women, Work and Community will offer a free workshop, “Improve Your Relationship with Money,” on Saturday, January 21 from 11 – 1:30 at the Belfast Free Library. The class is open to adults of all ages and backgrounds.

Managing your money is more than just numbers. Becoming comfortable with your money management skills includes your habits and attitudes–your “Money Habitudes.” Some of those Habitudes work well for you and others perhaps interfere with a positive relationship with money.

We’ll use the “Money Habitudes” cards as a starting point for thinking about our money and how we can become more comfortable with managing it.

 Registration by January 19 is encouraged as this class is filling up.

 On Saturday, January 28 from 11:00 to 1:30, the workshop, “Finding Your Money Power Payment” will be offered. This workshop will focus on tips for finding more money in your budget to save for your goals and reduce debt.

Additional information at the Women, Work and Community notes:

Resolutions are frequently not enough to help us improve our money management behaviors. Sometimes, our money habits and attitudes — our “Habitudes” — get in the way. During this fun and enlightening workshop we will use Money Habitudes cards developed by Syble Solomon to help you understand your money behaviors and develop some new ways of thinking and managing your money. We will create a safe and non-threatening workshop environment.

This workshop is supported in part by a grant from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation [Smart investing@your library grants, Financial Education in Your Community grants], through a partnership with United Way Worldwide.

How is this workshop emblematic of other community financial education classes that use Money Habitudes cards?

1. Importance of relationships. As the announcement notes, “Managing your money is more than just numbers. Becoming comfortable with your money management skills includes your habits and attitudes … We’ll use the “Money Habitudes” cards as a starting point for thinking about our money and how we can become more comfortable with managing it.” This is a in line with a wider recognition within the financial education world that explains the popularity of behavioral economics and integration of money psychology: when working with one’s finances, there is a strong emotional component and as with any behavior change, it greatly helps people to understand why they do what they do with money  in addition to just inputting receipts and doing a budget for example. Money Habitudes is often used as a crossover tool between financial literacy programs and those dealing with relationships and careers; this includes many marriage prep courses, for example.
2. Non-threatening activity, ice breaker. A hallmark of Money Habitudes classes and counseling sessions is that they are non-threatening and non-judgmental. As a result, Money Habitudes is often used as a financial ice breaker activity at the beginning of a class to put people at ease, or a standalone class with the cards is the first in a series of classes that build on understanding one’s money personality. Later classes in a series might be on budgeting, buying a house, couples communication skills, etc. The announcement declares the class to be fun, non-threatening and safe; all typical words and goals for teachers using Money Habitudes, be it with adults, young adults or teens.
3. Part of a series. Here, the “Improve Your Relationship with Money” class does not appear to be explicitly part of a series of other classes (like a four-week series with one class a week). However, there is a pitch at the end that notes that there is a financial course the following  week on “Finding Your Money Power Payment” that will focus on “tips for finding more money in your budget to save for your goals and reduce debt.” The center also lists a number of other upcoming entrepreneurship, leadership and financial education classes on its web site. Because it’s fun and non-threatening, Money Habitudes can make a longer series of personal finance or relationship classes more approachable, getting people in the door in a way that offering a “budgeting class” does not. However, many participants will then seek out other classes afterwards, because they found the material interesting and helpful and because it showed them areas where they would benefit from help such as budgeting, investing, foreclosure prevention, creating a savings plan, going from unbanked or underbanked to banked, etc. To this end, Money Habitudes is often used as a fun self-awareness introduction to budgeting classes and credit repair classes; this includes Dave Ramsey’s budgeting classes (Financial Peace University).
4. Used in classes that span age, income, education. The listing says it is “open to adults of all ages and backgrounds.” While this may be more like legalese in this context, the reality is that many community programs serve a diverse population. As a financial personality test and conversations tarter about money, Money Habitudes has broad appeal and is used across the age, income and education spectrum (although note that there are different versions for different ages: adult, young adult, teen and a Spanish version too). This financial education bankruptcy class case study is a good example of how a diverse audience can use the teaching tool and find value in it – while also making for a more enjoyable class to teach.
5. Class time. This foundational financial education class in Maine is 2.5 hours. This is a bit longer than the majority of financial courses using Money Habitudes cards, but certainly within a normal time frame. Most financial literacy classes are probably 1-2 hours and use of the cards typically varies between 5 minutes and 2 hours. (It takes about 15 minutes as a minimum to do the basic Money Habitudes Solitaire card sort activity.) On the very short side of just having a few minutes, the cards can be used like values flash cards; each statement card provides a starting point point for people to talk about their money attitudes and habits. Classes with more time allow students to dive more into their money personality results and understand and apply the money type messages they reveal about themselves. It also affords more time for group work, group discussion and individual goal setting and the like. (The Guide for Professionals provides more suggestions and information for those teaching and facilitating classes using Money Habitudes cards; facilitators may also glean ideas from the financial education case studies we’ve posted. And if you have a good example to share with others in financial education, therapy, marriage counseling, financial planning, career counseling, etc., let us know.)
6. Community agency. Although the Money Habitudes cards are used in many ways by many different organizations and professionals, a great preponderance of our innovative financial education tools are used by non-profit community agencies. Many of these are asset building organizations, even if they don’t brand themselves as an “asset building” agency.
• In this case, the community organization is the Maine Centers for Women, Work and Community. Its mission is very similar to many other financial education organizations that use Money Habitudes: We help Maine women succeed in their workplace, business and community. We are committed to improving the economic lives of Maine women and their families. We meet women “where they are” and provide them with support, guidance, and the tools they need to take the next steps toward a more promising future. We support women in their efforts to secure a more promising future through access to education, jobs that pay a living wage, self-employment, money management, and civic leadership.
• Like many other nonprofits that use Money Habitudes as a teaching tool, the Maine Centers for Women, Work and Community provides both classes and one-on-one counseling. Money Habitudes is used in both settings, as well as at home with individuals and couples, as a support group activity, as a staff training or team building activity, and as a giveaway to start dialogue.
• Also like other asset building or financial education organizations, the Maine Centers for Women, Work and Community has a multi-faceted offering. This includes individual assistance and classes in: Building Careers, Starting Businesses, Managing Money, Becoming Leaders. While the center may not be actively using Money Habitudes in all of those areas, the cards are indeed used in classes and counseling for jobs and careers; entrepreneurship, microfinance and microlending; managing money, budgeting, credit counseling, homebuying, investing, etc.; leadership training, life skills and life coaching and personal development.
• The center has a focus on women. One of the strengths of Money Habitudes is that it is really well received by men and women (the hands-on nature and card game format is especially well received by men who are often not as willing to share their feelings). While the cards are used by both genders, they are employed in a number of women’s programs and in domestic abuse and violence shelters. Syble Solomon, the creator of Money Habitudes produces the Inspired Savings series of motivational money messages, specifically for women and she has spoken for a number of women’s groups.
• The center offers a Family Development Account program. Many organizations that use Money Habitudes offer similar programs, as part of the asset building ladder. Many of these are matched savings Individual Development Account (IDA) programs. Some are local, independent microloans or micro-enterprise grants. Many asset building organizations (such as the Maryland CASH Campaign) use Money Habitudes in concert with free EITC tax preparation programs and cash coaching. Other agencies work to both improve clients’ finances with classes and counseling while also checking for benefits like TANF, SSI, SNAP, WIC, etc.
• The Maine Centers for Women, Work and Community is part of the University of Maine at Augusta. Many community users of Money Habitudes are associated with universities, especially those with Cooperative Extension partnerships.
• Here, the class and the use of the cards is supported in part by a grant from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, through a partnership with United Way Worldwide. Many organizations write in Money Habitudes to grants for modules on money management and financial education, knowing that they can reuse the durable money cards over and over – and use them in a variety of different programs and classes. Also, many grants restrict training dollars, so the easy-to-learn and easy-to-teach activity is well suited to such grants. Outside of straight financial education, many organizations have purchased Money Habitudes through the national Healthy Marriage grant program as well as the Responsible Fatherhood initiative, both offered through the Administration for Children and Families. Outside of this grant, local United Way offices use the Money Habitudes materials in money coaching settings, classes and for staff development, especially with sensitivity training and financial self-awareness trainings for staff and volunteers, notably community VITA volunteers.

Note that there is not a license fee to use Money Habitudes or to offer classes using Money Habitudes. The tool is meant to be used like a game and unlike other inventories doesn’t require special permission or training to use it in classes. However, additional in-depth training is available if you’re interested, especially as a train-the-trainer session.

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