Learn How to Manage Your Finances with Counseling from AHF
Having good credit is essential to buying your own home – it’s how your lender can be confident you will be able to pay back your loan in the future.
For many people, becoming a homeowner begins with repairing poor credit history and learning to follow a spending plan and manage their debts and savings.
We can help you through this process with expert coaching/counseling services. We help you:
- Become informed and educated about credit requirements
- Analyze your financial and credit situation
- Locate and fix problems that may have led you to you current financial situation
- Set Goals for your financial future, pay off debts, save for a home, open a savings account, open an investment account
- Identify barriers to homeownership and create a plan to remove them
Why It Matters: Financial literacy is crucial to help clients save enough to provide adequate income in retirement, while avoiding high levels of debt that might result in bankruptcy, defaults & foreclosures. A few years ago, a study from financial services company showed that those with high financial literacy plan for retirement &, in essence, have double the wealth of people who do not plan for retirement. Conversely, those with low financial literacy borrow more; have less wealth & end up paying unnecessary fees for financial products. In other words, those with lower financial literacy tend to buy on credit, & are unable to pay their full balance each month & end up spending more in interest. This group also does not invest, has trouble with debt & a poor understanding of the terms of their mortgages or loans. Even more worrisome, many clients believe that they are far more financially literate than they really are.
