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Hello, and welcome to The Bright Side, the show where we shed light on the people, places
and stories that make Michigan great. I'm Nick Metzger, the host for today's show. The
theme of this episode is financial empowerment, or how to make, save, and use money to gain
financial wealth. We will see how people and organizations in Michigan are financially
empowering others by helping them to start college savings for their kids, purchase a
home for the first time, get free tax preparation, learn how to run their own business, or even
use coupons to save money.
Stay tuned as we start The Bright Side with Show Me The Money day, an annual event across
cities in Michigan where people can go and sign up for free tax assistance, meet with
representatives from local banks and colleges and attend free money workshops.
Well my wife seen a flyer yesterday and said, "We should go here, we need to get the information"
because they help not only with just showing homes, but with credit reports and there are
vendors here for financing and basically it's an all-encompassing place for us to be at
to get everything that we need to move forward if we want to proceed with homeownership,
which is our goal for the year.
Today is our second annual Show Me the Money event, and this is an opportunity for us as
a way of kicking off tax season, also kicking off the opportunity for folks to buy rehabbed
houses in the city of Flint.
Guess what? We have face-to-face free tax help if you make less than $49,000... $50,000
a year. The thing that I really want to emphasize is free. Free. It is free. You can do your
taxes for free.
The first thing is we want to help people do their taxes so they can get their refunds,
and then maybe with a part of their refunds they can use some of that to consider either
becoming a first time homebuyer or to buy a rehabbed house and then possibly also to
consider opening up a savings instrument with one of our banks or credit unions so they
can improve their lot in life.
My favorite part about helping prepare taxes -- I'd say I have two favorites. First of
all, there's the wonderful volunteers that I get an opportunity to train in taxes. And
second of all, I get to help people who really need that help and who really need the Earned
Income Credit so that they can do some other things. They may need to save it for their
children's education. They may need to buy a car so that they can get back and forth
to work. That... you know, and I think just the volunteer part of it, it really feels
good to help others who need your help.
I'm with Central Michigan 2-1-1. Today specifically we are signing people up for free tax appointments
in the capital area. There's some great programs here. Food services from Northwest Initiative,
another great agency downtown.
Show me the money day. Alright.
Show Me the Money Day is an annual event intended to provide free and sound financial guidance
through workshops and presentations.
We have vendors, 23 different vendors. We have everything from home maintenance to financial
institutions to the colleges are here. So there's a lot of different information on
financial matters, education, home repair, that type of thing.
It was interesting, had a lot of good topics that I wanted to hear about.
We've already had people ask if we're going to do it again.
Next we head to Battle Creek, where more than 200 students will present their businesses
at the Generation E Institute student business showcase.
We start out teaching young people how to dream, and asking them what would they love
to do, what do they like to do, where do they feel they have a talent, where do they feel
they have an ability.
We're L and N's Hair Accessories.
We came up with the idea because we live in a small community and there's not really big
fashion stores around it, so we decided to start selling hair accessories. And we make
all of them by ourselves.
We YouTubed and Googled how to make different types of bows, like cheer bows and stuff.
This is our 7th annual Generation E student business showcase. There are 170 businesses
here today. There's 235, I believe, students because some of them are sole-proprietor and
some are partnership businesses.
The name of my business is called Thirsty's. It's a business that we created for our marketing
class. My business is a partnership. We basically sell our lemonade at sporting events at Berrian
Springs High School. It's something really cool because there's not many concession stands
in Berrien Springs. There's some, but they're not always open and on hot days, when it's
really hot, people usually take some nice lemonade.
My teacher taught me. She went through the steps with me about the business plan, about
how to develop my business and find something that I really care about. And it'll really
help me develop more in my learning as well as different money management and stuff like
that. So Generation E is such a great program to go through if it's offered.
And a Generation E program is either in a school or it's a community organization. Any
program where there's a certified educator or facilitator who uses the Generation E curriculum.
They write that business plan. They do all their market research and they end up with
an operational business.
We are basically a matching service for humans and animals. We make... we find your animal
friend for life. Well, my dad is a veterinarian, so I figured that might as well follow something
in the family business, if you will.
We have one in Battle Creek who's been in business for seven years and employs thirteen
other people.
Last year or the year before, I can't remember, we had an organic goat's milk business come
and they brought the goat, so we had the goat here. And the young man sold shares of his
goat. And he's turned around and bought more goats, and it's now become a family business.
I think it just brings happiness to everyone, having a cupcake. But I really enjoy baking,
too. It's one of my favorite things to do.
My grandmother actually taught me how to make these. They've been made in my family for
multiple generations, so.
We went to three sporting events so far and out of the three sporting events, we sold
out one time, which was really good. We sold everything out and we made a pretty decent
amount of money.
I've done pretty good on the caramel corn. I've sold out.
It's something fun that we enjoy, and we can make money off of it, so.
So when they get all done, whether they want to be that entrepreneur right away or they
want to be an intrepreneur, an employee, we feel that we are contributing and helping
them be that better employee, more employable.
Financial Opportunity Centers offer financial education, employment services, and public
benefit access all in one location. Rather than traveling across the city to individual
organizations for individual services, financial opportunity centers are helping people meet
their goals by having the services in one place.
In the next segment, we will hear more about these centers and visit the LINC Opportunity
Center in Grand Rapids.
A financial opportunity center is an opportunity to bundle services to help families move on
the trajectory out of poverty. And so those bundle services include workforce development
assistance, financial coaching, and benefits access in one single location.
I think one of the benefits of this model is that individuals can go to one place to
get all three of these services, as opposed to having to go across the city or across
their community to access each piece of this.
Under the Michigan network, we have sites in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and Battle Creek.
We are looking to expand the model into Flint.
I mean, we've got a ton of successes that we... we have a young lady that -- her name
is Phyllis -- that came to us. She was homeless, no job, and now she has an apartment through
us. She has a job, and is moving toward correcting her credit so she can move forward.
Financial Opportunity Center means that we work with families to help improve their financial
position. We really work with families to meet them from wherever they're started to
help them achieve their definition of success.
The core to the center is the financial coaching, so it's meeting with this one-on-one coach
that we call them a financial coach, but they're really almost a life coach. They're really
there to listen to people, help them determine what their next step is in their path and
the journey that they're taking.
What takes place on your first visit is that we call that a get to know session. We're
not asking you to fill out any paperwork. We want to know what you want to do. So I
would ask you questions on how is your family, what's your family life like, are you satisfied
with your career. What're the things that you want to see for your family?
We're also going to ask questions about your health and wellness, what would you like to
see in your community. So we're going to cover all of these bases on what we call an assessment.
Your second visit when you come in with us after you come and sit down and kind of go
over in detail that assessment that you've got, we're going to then create what's called
a success plan. And in that success plan you actually get -- it's a book that you actually
get -- that has all of your goals already written out for you and the steps that you
need to take to get to those goals. You'll get a copy of that and you'll also get a checklist
for each of those sections that we put in.
Whatever that goal is that you put in that success plan, the coach is going to help you
to meet that goal. We're going to sit down with you and create those steps that you need
to do to get that plan.
One of the families that went through, she actually came to the organization first looking
for an apartment. And she was unemployed, and so she applied for one of our housing
units and didn't qualify. But rather than saying no, she got referred to the Financial
Opportunity Center, so she was able to meet with a coach and really heard about what her
plans are. And what her dream and her goal is to be able to open a catering company,
but before she could do that she needed to make ends meet for the meantime.
She's working with a coach to start the budget for school so she can go back to get a degree
in culinary arts to prep her for that goal of eventually being able to open her own business.
In 2011, 3,000 families were able to find employment through the Financial Opportunity
Centers model.
Now we will stop by the University of Michigan, where Olivia Courant will talk with Assistant
Professor Trina Shanks about a strategy called asset building and how it can help people
be more financial self-sufficient.
My name is Trina Shanks.
And Trina, what do you do here at U of M?
Well, I'm an Associate Professor, so during the school term I teach classes and then I
also have research projects. So most of my research projects are helping low-income families
save, particularly children saving for college. And so those are the kind of research projects
I do, and also some youth employment things in the City of Detroit.
So what is asset building for someone who's never heard of it before?
Well asset building is strategies for helping people to accumulate assets and build wealth
over time. So for example, if someone has no income -- or low income -- and no wealth,
and they don't have much money in a savings account, asset building will help them first
of all start to save and eventually perhaps purchase a home or start a business or have
retirement savings that they didn't have before.
Tell me some of the basic strategies behind asset building to get people to save more
and build wealth.
Well oftentimes it starts with financial education classes to help people learn how to budget
their current resources better, but then once people realize that they can save and they
don't have to spend everything that they have, oftentimes there are incentives for people
to save more for particular purposes. So oftentimes whatever people are able to save, it's matched
two to one or three to one or one to one. For every dollar, they make an extra dollar
or two dollars to help them reach their savings goal more quickly.
What is an IDA?
Well, an IDA is an Individual Development Account. So Individual Development Accounts
are short term, usually three to four to five years depending on the program, saying that
we will match whatever money you save two to one, three to one, sometimes high as five
to one. But usually a two to one match is the typical one. So for every dollar you save,
you get two dollars. And as you save money over time, usually there's a limit of maybe
$2,000 or $3,000, but once you save that, we'll match everything you do and that will
help you reach your asset building goals more quickly.
The most popular use is homeownership. So you quickly have a down payment for your home.
If you save $3,000, you have a $3,000 match. That's $6,000, which for most people they
aren't as likely, particularly low-income, to save on their own.
How do I get an IDA? I can't just walk in to a bank and ask for one, right?
Well usually they aren't offered directly by banks. IDA accounts are usually offered
by community based organizations. Oftentimes Community Action Agencies have IDA accounts.
But I think the most interesting thing now is it went from a kind of theoretical idea
to a test pilot in certain places in the US between 1998 and 2003, but then the US Government,
the Department of Health and Human Services, actually has said, "We want to make this a
federal policy."
So now if someone at a local level wants to offer IDA accounts for their community, they
can apply to the Assets for Independence program and get a grant to provide IDA accounts in
their communities. So if someone was interested in who in their community received these grants,
they can look up at the HHS ACF website under Assets for Independence and see if there's
any programs in their local area.
Trina, you specialize in asset building for youth and children. What does your work in
that area involve?
Well, my work has been in two different areas. So one has been doing empirical research using
national representative data to see if households that have wealth and assets, if their children
do better. And so the research has showed particularly on test scores and on the likelihood
of graduating high school and going on to college, families that have more assets, their
children do better academically.
So if you look at a low-income, a middle-income, and a high-income household, their vocabulary
scores... So for low-income it might be right here, about 300. For middle-income it might
be right here, about 700 words. And for higher income it's like 900 words. And so, early
as two or three, children start to get behind even before they're in school. And even though
we know that specific research for income, it's even worse when you take in wealth inequalities
and so in my opinion, if you can start building assets early, and if you can help families
and children to one, have economic security, but two, to have the expectation to go to
college, it will help our country do better over time.
So not only are people less likely to live paycheck to paycheck and have an emergency
throw their economic situation asunder, what you can do is now that you have more economic
security, you have children with more stable lives over time, which makes it more likely
for them to do well in school and to go on to college and to be productive citizens.
Coming up next, find out what the Earned Income Tax Credit is, how it works, how families
can use it, and how they can claim it on their income taxes.
The Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, reduces the tax burden of working families. The EITC
is a refundable tax credit, so if the credit that you qualify for is more than what you
owe in taxes, you get the additional amount back in your tax refund.
To get the EITC when you file your taxes, you have to meet some requirements. The two
most important requirements are:
1) You must have earned income from a job. 2) You can't make more than a certain amount
of money.
This ensures that the EITC helps only the people who need it most: working individuals
and families, especially those with children.
Here's how it works:
Meet John.
John is a single parent who works full time at a local business, where he makes $30,000
a year. He works hard to support his daughter Natasha, and he pays federal and state taxes.
After paying for groceries, the rent on his apartment, gasoline to drive to and from work,
and daycare for Natasha, there is little money left over -- let alone money for emergencies,
Natasha's college savings, or future homeownership.
This is where the EITC helps John and his daughter Natasha.
John finds out about the EITC and goes to the IRS website to see if he is eligible.
He makes $30,000 a year, so he qualifies for the EITC as a single parent with one child.
When John files his taxes he makes sure to claim the EITC. In his situation, the EITC
credit is more than what he owes in taxes. He gets the extra amount back in a tax refund.
The extra boost from the tax refund helps John support himself and his family.
The majority of people spend their EITC refund on groceries, transportation costs, utility
bills, and paying down debt. The EITC also strengthens communities. When people spend
their refund, it helps local merchants and spurs the economy.
You can find out if you qualify for the EITC at irs.gov/eitc. Make sure you get the full
amount of federal and state refunds you worked hard for by having your taxes prepared for
free at a VITA site. Visit michiganeic.org to find a VITA site near you.
If you want to save money right now, have you ever thought about using grocery coupons?
Coming up are practical tips on how to get started, what to do with your coupons, and
what to avoid so you don't waste money.
Hi, I'm Amber Paxton. I work for the Asset Independence Coalition, which does free income
tax preparation and financial education in Eaton, Clinton, and Ingham counties.
We are at the Rite Aid in Frandor to talk about extreme couponing. Extreme couponing
is something that's very easy to learn how to do and it can be something you just spend
a couple hours a week on or many hours a week, and you can save as much as 40% or more on
your expenses on your home by shopping using extreme couponing.
I have some top tips for you. And one of those is my favorite tip, which is if you are doing
a buy one get one free, then you can actually use two coupons. The store considers you to
be buying two products and so this week at Rite Aid there are a ton of buy one get one
frees. What that means is if you can find a pintable coupon, for instance online, you
can print two of them as long as there's not a limit of one and you can use both of those
to get both items for less price.
Stacking coupons is the best way to get the best deal, and the way that you stack coupons
is to know that you can use one manufacturer coupon, one store coupon and a sales price
all at the same time, and we call that the perfect storm. So you can use a coupon that's
in either your store's website or their paper ad, combined with a manufacturer's coupon,
combined with a sale.
So for an example, if Kellogg cereals were on sale at Meijer for $2.50 a box and you
had a manufacturer's coupon that was $1.00 off three boxes and there was a store coupon
for buy two get one free Kellogg Cereals, you could use all three of those at the same
time, and that's the way to maximize your savings.
When you can find really good deals the key is to buy as many as possible as you can get
at that deal. Now often it's limit four or something of that nature and you need to check,
but what I do is stock up, especially on paper products. So I have a shelving unit in my
garage that contains paper products, cleaning products, anything nonperishable that I've
stockpiled. And what that does is that makes it so about every fourth shopping trip I do,
I spend about half as much because I'm relying on my stockpile.
Okay, let's talk about what not to do. What you shouldn't do is buy things just because
you have a coupon, because frequently the generic brand of a particular item will still
be cheaper than the price of a name brand with a coupon, and you need to be careful
of that. The second thing is don't buy something that you would not normally buy. In other
words, something you're not going to use, unless it's free. Then buy it anyway and give
it away.
And you must be watching the register as things are rung up, and if a certain coupon doesn't
work and you wouldn't have wanted that item at that price, then ask them to return it.
It's really not an issue for the store to be willing to do that, and we don't want you
to end up spending money and feeling regretful on the way out of the store.
So some of you may be wondering why we're talking about grocery store coupons but we're
standing in front of Rite Aid, and the answer is that you can actually make money here using
extreme couponing. The reason is they have a Rite Aid Plus Up rewards card here and if
you don't already have one you should go into the store and get one. If you go to crazycouponlady.com,
she has an extreme couponing at Rite Aid section every week. It's generally posted on Saturday
night and it's for the following week and that one will show you how to get about $20
in product every week for about $5. But what Plus Up rewards do is they give you cash back
on your next order, so you can use those Plus Up rewards to use that to be the $5 you spend
to get $20 in product and actually walk home with $20 in free product in a given week.
So those are my extreme couponing tips. If you'd like more information or would like
to know more about Asset Independence Coalition's other financial ed classes or to attend an
extreme couponing class, just give us a call at 517-256-1466 or email me at aic.midmichigan@gmail.com.
Financial empowerment and asset building in Michigan are helping people increase their
financial wealth. From youth starting their own local businesses to Financial Opportunity
Centers, people are finding a way for a brighter future.
Thank you for joining me, Nick Metzger, on The Bright Side. If you would like more information
on today's show or to suggest an upcoming episode, or even watch today's episode again,
please visit brightsidetv.com.
In 2011, 6,300 families were able to establish budgets to help them... plan for their future.
Cut! [laughs]
I know. Yup.
Alright, so, first thing...
Don't worry!
Have you ever thought?...
I have, actually! I have thought.
Okay!
Give me some of your top tips.
Oh my gosh, I didn't look at that slide. Hold on.
Can't you move any faster? Geez!