April marks Monetary Literacy Month, however we on the Division of Client and Employee Safety (DCWP) additionally prefer to name it Monetary Empowerment Month. Whereas monetary literacy – realizing easy methods to save, spend, and price range – is essential, being empowered to make your funds be just right for you is simply as essential for main a financially wholesome life. It’s estimated that these avoidable errors on account of an absence of economic training value People a mean of greater than $1,500 every year, and as the price of residing continues to extend, increasingly more households throughout the nation and in our metropolis are struggling to make ends meet. However New Yorkers should not have to face this problem alone.
NYC Monetary Empowerment Facilities – situated throughout the 5 boroughs – provide FREE {and professional} one-on-one monetary counseling to assist New Yorkers attain their targets and benefit from their cash. Since 2008, our Monetary Empowerment Facilities have helped tens of hundreds of New Yorkers scale back their debt by greater than $114 million and improve their financial savings by greater than $13 million.
As a shopper myself, I can personally attest to how lifechanging receiving monetary empowerment providers could be for a household. My counselor guided me via my household’s revenue and bills, and helped us create a price range and spending plan that labored for us. She additionally helped me submit my utility for Public Service Mortgage Forgiveness, which lifted hundreds of {dollars} of debt off my shoulders. Whereas my scholar loans might have been forgiven, I’ll all the time owe my monetary counselor a debt of gratitude for serving to me get my monetary well being on observe. Eliminating that debt and straightening out my household’s funds has given me extra space to give attention to instructing my very own kids about easy methods to develop into being financially wholesome adults.
My daughter began highschool this 12 months, which made me notice how essential it’s to have sincere and direct conversations about cash with our kids now, whereas they’re nonetheless younger sufficient to be taught from us and keep away from the monetary errors we made in our youth. So, our crew started working. As introduced in Mayor Eric Adams’ fourth State of the Metropolis tackle, working along with NYC Public Faculties, we are going to launch an bold strategy to offer kids the instruments and sources they should be taught the ins and outs of funds. From multi-generational workshops to an In-College Baking pilot program, we are going to lay the inspiration for a lifetime of fine monetary well being for all public faculty college students.
Our crew at DCWP works exhausting day-after-day to make this metropolis extra reasonably priced and guarantee working-class New Yorkers will not be solely supported however empowered. Make the most of these important, free sources – they will change your life. Name 311 or go to nyc.gov/TalkMoney to make an appointment at a NYC Monetary Empowerment Heart at present.
Vilda Vera Mayuga is the Commissioner for the NYC Division of Client and Employee Safety (DCWP). Study extra concerning the metropolis’s monetary empowerment providers at nyc.gov/TalkMoney.
