TURNERS FALLS — With the economy still feeling the ill effects of the pandemic, money matters now more than ever for some folks looking to stay afloat. Community Action Pioneer Valley and The Brick House Community Resource Center eased stress on Thursday, bestowing financial advice to a small group of locals in a coffee shop-like setting.
“I’m a big believer that we all have knowledge … so I’m hoping this will be a conversation where we all bring our knowledge and expertise to the table,” said Sarah Lambert, a specialist with Community Action’s Money Matters program that provides free financial planning advice to eligible low-income residents.
Participants in Thursday’s collaborative information session, all armed with pens and paper, were honest about their reasons for attending.
“I feel like I just spend and spend and I don’t know where it goes,” said Vanessa Dautruche, a Greenfield resident. “I just want to save.”
“Just like reading and writing matters, so does money,” said Kerlie Gedeon, a Turners Falls resident. “Very much so. So I want to get educated.”
As participants snacked on fruit and pastries and sipped on coffee and tea, Lambert explained that the Money Matters program touches on three “key pillars” of personal finance: credit, budgeting and financial products/debt.
An early topic of discussion involved tax credits. Lambert presented a graphic showing maximum credit amounts for different demographics. As of tax year 2020, those between ages 25 and 65 with no children have a maximum of $560. People of any age have a maximum of $3,733 with one child, $6,164 with two children and $6,935 with three or more children. Gedeon identified a gap in the data where those under 25 and living alone are ineligible, opining that it “blows her mind” that younger people who are just getting their footing would be ignored.
“The answer to that is, ‘That’s just the way it is,’” Lambert said. “I’m sure someone somewhere in some office put a lot of thought into why it is the way it is, but for us, it looks kind of arbitrary.”
Later, the group transitioned to talking about credit.
“That’s your portal to money and to do what you want to do,” Gedeon said after Lambert prompted the group to share what they already know about credit.
“Once it’s down,” Dautruche said regarding a credit rating, “it’s hard to bring it back up.”
Lambert’s presentation described credit as “the ability to buy now, pay later.” It outlined common types of credit, such as credit cards, auto loans, student loans and mortgages. These offer “flexibility in spending,” and the history “can be used by banks, utility companies and landlords to determine your trustworthiness,” the slideshow continued. One key note communicated by Lambert is that Massachusetts employers cannot legally run a credit check that was not disclosed during the hiring process, nor use this credit check as rationale to reject a job application.
Toward the end of the session, Lambert encouraged attendees to take some of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau informational books provided. On the table were books on debt, bills, budgeting and credit.
“Whatever feels most relevant for you, whatever goals you want to work on, I would encourage you to take a book and sort of look through it to see what looks helpful, and identify some next steps after today’s workshop,” Lambert told the group.
More information about Community Action’s Money Matters program is available at communityaction.us/money.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.