Jennifer Wallis is a certified consumer credit counselor and the Vice President of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Central Oklahoma.  To learn more about Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Central Oklahoma, visit www.cccsok.org or contact Jennifer Wallis at (405) 789-2227.

According to the Fair Isaac Corporation, 58 percent of Americans have credit scores above 700, which is considered a really good score. If you are among the other 42 percent, it may feel like you will always be stuck with a lower score. Fortunately, credit scores are just a snapshot of your credit at one point in time and can change frequently. In just a few short months, you could notice a big increase in your credit score if you work to improve it. Bad credit is not a life sentence.

Poor credit and the resulting low credit score may mean that you can’t borrow money from traditional lenders like banks and credit unions. If you are able to borrow money at all, you may have to pay increased interest rates and higher overall prices.  Because of this, studies have shown that people with poor credit can pay $250,000 more over their lifetime more than people with good credit. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone manages money almost every day.  Often we wonder how to better manage our money when it seems there is never enough.  CareerBuilder surveyed 3,900 American workers and found that more than six-in-ten workers – 61 percent – live paycheck to paycheck.  Many families have no way to cover day-to-day expenses if their income drops or disappears.  Unemployment, medical crisis, or car repairs can put a family into debt – or deeper into debt if they already owe large sums.  Such families are “asset poor.”  Michael Sherraden, director of the Center for Social Development at Washington University and author of Assets and the Poor: A New American Welfare Policy, points out that assets affect us financially, socially and psychologically in a way that income alone does not.

Asset-building is beginning to gain traction as an anti-poverty strategy.  Assets for Independence (AFI), a federal grant program that enables nonprofits and government agencies to incorporate assets-based principles into their programming, recently launched the ASSET Initiative.  The ASSET Initiative hopes to expand the reach of the asset-building message and encourage more collaboration across government agencies who do anti-poverty work.  Another such initiative that is picking up steam locally is Oklahoma Assets, an organization whose mission is to advocate policies and programs that can help create a more inclusive economy – one in which financial success, economic stability, and opportunity is available, not just for some, but for all. Read the rest of this entry »

OK Policy is an active member of Oklahoma Assets, a statewide coalition that aims to identify and strengthen programs and policies that help Oklahoma residents achieve economic security.  Oklahoma Assets has been making big strides in recent months, officially incorporating as a 501(c)(3) organization.  Steering committee members met in Oklahoma City in May to approve bylaws and vote in a board of directors.  The coalition has also been busy hosting three webinars on asset-building strategies: the importance of savings, financial education in public schools, and Individual Development Accounts (IDAs).

In 2009, we blogged about a series of regional meetings hosted throughout the state by Oklahoma Assets (formerly OkABC) on asset-building strategies for increasing the financial security of Oklahomans.  Click here for a recap of the Oklahoma Assets day-long meeting in April 2009 on “Economic Security for Oklahomans: Asset Building Approaches for Assisting Families with Low Incomes,” where results of the regional meetings were shared and discussed. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the 2010 Assets Learning Conference that brought together over 1,000 participants for three days of plenaries, workshops and sessions exploring approaches to building an economy in which all Americans, including those of limited means, are provided opportunities to achieve household financial security through savings, investment, and entrepreneurship.

As I noted in my blog post reporting on the opening plenary, a major theme of the conference was the notion of “scale” – the need and opportunity to take policies, programs, and products that have been introduced and tested in modest ways up to now and expand them to serve a much greater number and range of individuals and families. In session after session, I learned about innovative practices that are already working at the local level or in pilot programs and that community organizations, government agencies, and financial institutions are gearing up to expand.  Here are just four of the policies, programs and products from the asset building field that seem poised for a larger impact:

• The Bank On Initiative: According to a 2008 FDIC survey,  one in four U.S. households is unbanked or underbanked, which means they do not have a checking or savings account, or rely on high-cost alternative financial services. In 2006, the city of San Francisco, in partnership with banks, credit unions and non-profit organizations,  launched the Bank on San Francisco project to make it easier for the unbanked to get into mainstream banking by providing consumers with  starter accounts and financial education. Building on the success of the San Francisco program and with the active involvement of the National League of Cities, the program has spread to over a dozen cities. The Administration has now proposed $50 million for a national Bank on USA initiative “to promote access to affordable and appropriate financial services and basic consumer credit products for households lacking such access.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Oklahoma Asset Building Coalition is hosting a series of regional meetings on asset building strategies for increasing the financial security of families and communities throughout Oklahoma. Anyone working in the private sector, public sector or a non-profit with an interest in how building assets can expand and strengthen economic security is invited to attend these meetings that will be held from 10:00 AM to 2:00 pm, with lunch provided, on the following days:

• Broken Arrow, August 31st;
• Durant, Sept. 14th;
• Oklahoma City, Sept. 28th;
• Lawton, Sept. 29th;
• Woodward, Sept. 30th Read the rest of this entry »

As the economic downturn continues to take its toll in Oklahoma and across the nation, how financially prepared are families to deal with extended periods of unemployment and underemployment. Newly-released data (PDF) from CFED that focuses on “asset poverty” confirms that many Oklahomans have little or no financial cushion on which to fall back.

Asset poverty is a measure that establishes a minimum threshold of wealth needed for household security:

A household is asset poor if it has insufficient net worth to support itself at the federal poverty for three months in the absence of income. Asset poor households would not have enough savings or wealth to provide for basic needs during a sudden job loss or a medical emergency. Read the rest of this entry »