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Military Saves Week continues at Grand Forks AFB

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Luis Loza Gutierrez
  • 319th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  The 319th Air Base Wing kicked off Military Saves Week on Feb. 21 in the Airman and Family Readiness Center on Grand Forks Air Force Base.

According to the militarysaves.org website, "Military Saves is ... designed to persuade, motivate, and encourage military families to save money every month, and to convince leaders and organizations to be aggressive in promoting automatic savings."

Thomas R. Slaughter, Military Saves Week campaign coordinator and AFRC community readiness consultant at Grand Forks AFB, said the goal is to make the experts available to help "military members and their loved ones build personal savings arsenals to provide for their immediate and long-term financial needs." While the campaign runs all year, the Department of Defense allows the AFRCs to select one week in February to host the public event, he explained.

More than 20 organizations participated during the first day, including non-profit agencies from off-base such as The Village Family Service Center. The center's mission is creating a culture of financial responsibility by helping individuals and families organize, develop and implement financial solutions through comprehensive counseling and education.

"From small things like teaching your children good financial habits with allowances to eliminating bad credit or buying a home; we are here to help," said Marybeth Vigeland, financial counseling supervisor for the Village center.

The base legal office and the 319th Comptroller Squadron were two of the on-base agencies that took part in the event. The four-member comptroller team provided information on money-saving options such as the Thrift Savings Plan and the purchasing of U.S. savings bonds.

Tech. Sgt. Keelan Rasmusson, flight chief of financial analysis at the 319th CPTS, presented lessons on reading and understanding a leave and earnings statement, the pay statement commonly called an LES that is issued to both military and federal civilian employees.

"You should know everything that is going to happen to your paycheck," Rasmusson said during the financial lesson. "Learning to read and understand an LES is vital to managing our finances as federal employees."

Guests were quick to find value in the sergeant's financial insight.

"I've only been on here for about two months now and I'm a first-term airman, so I didn't have a lot of experience with an LES," said Airman 1st Class Michael V. Thomas, a supply manager with the 319th Civil Engineer Squadron. "Overall I think this (event) was very informative, but going to the briefing definitely made feel more confident about managing my pay."

Military Saves Week also generated praise from civilian guests.

"I am a foreign-born spouse and I really have a difficult time understanding a lot of the things (because of the language barrier and military jargon) - especially my husband's military pay, but I think it was good for me to come here today because I got many questions answered," said Makiko David, wife of Tech. Sgt. Steven David a aircraft maintainer on base.

"This event provides spouses (the) opportunity to feel more independent," Mrs. David said. "Now that I understand more I don't have to nag my husband in explaining some things."

Slaughter called the financial advice being handed out during the week a sort of "preventative medicine."

"I think it is a very unfortunate that the Air Force and other military services can have a sharp troop who's excellent as his job, does well in his or her fitness test and is active when it comes to their volunteerism and pursuit of higher education, however, that same sharp troop can't be promoted or is forced to separate (from military service) because of financial irresponsibility," said Slaughter. "We are trying to keep situations like that from happening."

Guests will have more chances to have their financial prescriptions filled and their wallets vaccinated and better protected from the irritation and illnesses brought on by financial irresponsibility as the base continues this campaign, to include:

* Feb. 23, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Kids invited to watch video presentations on smart money and to decorate a free personal piggy bank at Liberty Square

* Feb. 24, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.: Budget assistance and free popcorn.

Guests will be provided their respective FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) score for free during each of the events. The FICO score is a type of credit score that makes up a substantial portion of the credit report that lenders use to assess an applicant's credit risk and whether to extend a loan.

Call (701)-747-3241 for more information.