“I’m a budgeter, my husband is not,”says Shamika with a playful smile.Shamika and her husband, Aaron, live in an apartment with their five children, Samuel (17),Darius (16), Zephenia (14) Olyvya (9), and Sebastian(6). They were making ends meet until her husband lost his job. While receiving temporary assistance through Multi-Service Center’s rental assistance program, Shamika learned that MSC also provided financial coaching.
Shamika always had a desire to invest her money for the future, but wasn’t really sure the best way to go about it. She was excited for her first meeting with Greg Hollmann, MSC’s Financial Coach, “He told me something that I hadn’t thought about before. You always think you need to pay your bills first, but really you should be setting aside a percentage to pay yourself before you pay others. It doesn’t matter the amount; any amount, if you do it consistently, will grow.”
Saving and budgeting is a work in progress for Shamika and her family. Recently, they had an unexpected expense when one of the children got sick. This time, they had money in savings that helped them with the extra costs. After getting over the hump, they started right back into their savings plan.
“You don’t have to stay in the same situation. The more skills and knowledge you gain, the better you’ll be, especially with money,” says Shamika.
Now that Shamika and her family have a budget in place, Shamika is looking forward to continuing her meetings with Greg to learn how to best invest their savings for the most growth in the future. Eventually, Shamika wants to get to a place where she and her family can give back to MSC.
“MSC’s financial literacy program empowers people to have control over their own destiny and to have more freedom because they know where their money is,” says Financial Coach Greg. “MSC’s program is different, we’re not trying to sell you any financial products, just trying to help you find financial success.”
