Money Management for Military Families

SAN DIEGO - April 9, 2014 - PRLog -- Support the Enlisted Project (STEP), a local Southern California nonprofit, is hosting a series of financial seminars this year in San Diego to help provide active duty military and veteran families with budgeting skills that can foster a lifestyle conducive to long-term financial success.

The seminars are designed to take what can be perceived as the overwhelming topic of money management and help attendees break the subject down to simplified terms and goals that can be easily implemented into their financial planning.

“Despite young military families and transitioning veterans’ best efforts, we witness unfortunate cases everyday where families can’t make their budget stretch to overcome an unexpected financial hardship. We felt it only right to partner with local corporations to provide these families with free workshops designed to build good financial habits and decision-making skills so that future unexpected financial hits are not as debilitating to the welfare of the family”, said STEP CEO, Tony Teravainen.

The workshops are led bi-monthly by LFE Institute’s Cathie Purdon, a Certified Financial Instructor. She has been supporting military financial training for many years and works hard to put topics like ‘Stretch Your Dollars’, ‘Be Debt Free…Forever!’, ‘Debt Traps’ and ‘Increase Your FICO Score’ into the context of a military lifestyle.

“I love how simple everything was!” commented one participant following an earlier workshop this year. Simplicity is key for military families being challenged on so many financial fronts. In 2013, a cost-of-living study by Kiplinger’s ranked San Diego as the ninth highest city in the United States mainly because of the high rent and home costs. Additionally, the economic reporting group found that groceries, health care and transportation in San Diego cost 10 percent more than the national average.

For this reason, STEP feels it is important for young military families to be given financial tools to help them survive and increase their ability to budget well while being assigned to the area and moving on throughout their military career.

“As long as there is a need, we will be here to support our military and veterans”, proudly states Teravainen.

Please visit www.stepsocal.org for more information about how you can either support or sign up with this great organization.