Set a goal, make a plan and save

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Eric Summers Jr.
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  "Set a Goal, Make a Plan and Save Automatically." This theme was introduced to members of Team Incirlik as they participated in Military Saves Week from Feb. 25 to March 2, at the Airman and Family Readiness Center here.

Military Saves Week is dedicated to help enlighten and encourage service members about various ways to save money and reduce debt. Members can go online to militarysaves.org and pledge to save and receive information about finances.

"Joint Chief of Staff Gen. Dempsey and his senior enlisted advisor Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Battaglia signed the pledge and endorse Military Saves Week for the Department of Defense," said Sharon Proctor, A&FRC community readiness consultant. "The program is designed to help influence, motivate and support military members and their families to save for key financial events like retirement, children's college education and emergency funds."

During the week, service members and their families attended classes such as the Roth TSP class, which provided information on one of the new options available for service members to save, and Powerpay Your Bills, which concentrated on relieving debt.

"Less than 50 percent of Americans have a savings plan with any specific goals such as retirement, and 54 percent of military families haven't set aside sufficient funds for emergencies," Proctor explained. "About 68 percent of military families have stress from their current financial situation, and 25 percent of service members are more than 10 grand in credit card debt."

"It's nothing worse than being broke and living from pay-day to pay-day," Proctor said, speaking from personal experience. "It's a crummy way to live - waiting for payday to come so you can order a pizza or go to Taco Bell."

Proctor explained that for most military members it's not big debts, such as buying a car, but small occurrences that add up. An example would be a person who buys coffee three times a day.

"Coffee is about $5, and if you bought coffee three times a day that's $15, and 15 times five is $75 a week just buying coffee," she said. "It's the little things like that that we don't think about."

Others classes included home-buying, setting up a personal spending plan you can live with, extreme couponing, saving for your dreams and bundles for babies. These classes focused on saving, paying off debt or planning for the future.

Proctor said the best way is to start small and just put a little bit away over time, and eventually you will have big rewards when you are ready to retire or other take care of key financial events like a child's college tuition.

Members can still pledge at militarysaves.org and receive information monthly on ways to save money. For more information on financial classes at the A&FRC or to speak to a financial consultant, call DSN 676-6755.