1 $ Wiser Consumer Education, Inc.

1 $ Wiser Consumer Education, Inc. has been approved by The United States Department of Justice as a provider of personal financial management education and budget and credit counseling throughout the United States and it's Territories. All programs and personnel are fully vetted annually. While 1 $ Wiser has been in existence since 2010, its executive director and some members of the Board of Directors have been providing fully vetted financial literacy training since 2005. Some education is browser-based, some is in the form of workshops, and some is one-on-one. Since 2010, more than 40,000 individuals have completed one or more of our financial literacy programs.

Major Accomplishments:
1. Online learning programs completed by more than 13,000 individuals
2. Know Before You Owe - Student Loan live workshops and online program and curriculum accessed by more than 1,400 students, parents, academic personnel
3. Senior Financial Safety workshops and online program and curriculum presented to more than 3,000 seniors
4. High school financial literacy curriculum presented to more than 500 high school juniors and seniors
5. College level financial literacy curriculum presented to more than 1,500 enrolled college students
6. Budget counseling provided to several hundred families displaced by Hurricane Katrina
7. Disaster Survivor's Money Management Toolkit downloaded more than 800 times since Hurricanes Harvey
8. Presented Rapid Response debt management, identity theft, and financial literacy workshops to more than 5,000 individuals through numerous Workforce Boards and DOL skills training programs

Our Needs

After a lifetime of working hard, playing by the rules, saving for retirement, etc., increasing numbers of older Americans are filing for bankruptcy protection due to mounting medical debt, scams, and poor financial decisions. They are in tears because they have always paid their bills and they now feel intense self-induced shame when they no longer are able to pay all of their bills. While the majority have Medicare, many do not have any supplemental insurance or sufficient savings or cash flow to pay annual deductibles, co-pays, and other healthcare costs not covered by Medicare..

We are seeking $15,000 to update workshop and webinar offerings for seniors - especially widows, We also want to expand our Financial Literacy and Senior Financial Safety Train-the-Trainer programs with updated sections on understanding out-of-pocket healthcare costs under Medicare and ACA

Older adults from more than 50 senior centers in Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Tarrant, and Wise counties will be invited to become Trained Budget Educators. (Other counties will be invited to participate subject to funding.) This network of Trained Budget Educators (TBE) - all volunteers - will be able to provide local, on the spot assistance to their peers who need assistance with general budgeting skills, financial word/term definitions, wise use of credit, consumer protection laws, fraud and scam identification, and resource identification and navigation. (TBEs will not give legal, tax, investment, or medical advice. They will be able to direct individuals to those who can help with professional advice.) 1 $ Wiser will provide on-going education, up-to-date resource materials, and marketing collateral to the TBE's.