FORT DETRICK, Md.- Current times have many struggling with achieving personal financial goals, but fortunately Fort Detrick has a new personal financial counselor who is eager to help anyone interested on learning how to meet those goals. Meet in Rebecca Carlson, Rebecca has over 15 years in the finance field, and this is her first installation.
We sat down with Rebecca for a brief question-and-answer session to get a feel of what she hopes to do here and how she can help.
Q: What is your position here at Fort Detrick?
A: I am the new Personal Financial Counselor here at Fort Detrick. If you know Madeline Green, I am taking over for her. (Everyone remembers Mrs. Madeline Green. You saw her everywhere and she continued to entertain us all so many times with her dollar bill necklaces and sunglasses. Last year she retired)
Q: Are there specific educational requirements for this position?
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A: I have a master’s degree in personal finances, and I hold the Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC) certification through the Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Education.
Q: What does that position require of you?
A: My focus is to assist Service Members and their families in achieving their financial goals. We can discuss debt, building/repairing credit, TSP, spending plans, large purchases, preparing financially to PCS, divorce, new babies, and anything in between.
An Army Personal Financial Counselor (PFC) provides essential financial support and education to service members and their families.
Their responsibilities include:
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• Financial Counseling: They assist service members in evaluating their financial circumstances and setting financial goals.
• Education and Tools: PFCs offer tools and education to help individuals and families achieve their financial objectives and overcome challenges.
• Support Services: They provide face-to-face appointments, group presentations, and referrals to military and community resources for budgeting, credit management, and navigating benefits.
• Professional Guidance: PFCs are trained professionals who help service members address their financial concerns and provide referrals to appropriate services.
This role is crucial for enhancing the financial wellbeing of service members and their families.
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Q: Any goals or what you hope to do while here?
A: My goal is to integrate myself into the units to ensure their financial success. As a fiduciary, I work in the best interest of the service member. I am not an advisor but am an educator.
Q: Can you assist anyone, contractors, active duty, DoD civilians, spouses?
A: I am a free and confidential service provided to Service members, and their immediate families.
Q: Will you host any training events or informational sessions?
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A: I host multiple finance classes that change monthly, along with teaching whole unit classes. You can find information through the Fort Detrick Weeklies and the My Army Post App. Financial literacy training provides the pathway for sustaining financial wellbeing and resiliency with benchmarks of meeting all financial responsibilities, building wealth, and obtaining a sound financial future and a secure retirement. PFCs are beneficial in providing service members with training and resources to help avoid debt and create practical solutions for financial goals.
Q: Where are you located?
A: I am in Army Community Services located in building 1520, room 125.
Q: Any tips you can provide readers or resources you recommend?
A: Along with myself, below are a few of many great websites to gain information and guide service members. Military OneSource https://www.militaryonesource.mil/ Office of Financial Readiness https://finred.usalearning.gov/
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Personal Finance Counselor prohibited services.
While PFCs provide valuable services through a wide range of financial readiness capabilities, there are several services that are prohibited.
Personal Finance Counselors cannot:
• Act as an agent for a military aid society in providing emergency financial assistance.
• Provide financial investment advice in specific investment funds/ opportunities.
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• Make financial or financially related decisions on behalf of a client to include, but not limited to, TSP asset allocations, designation of beneficiaries for assets, etc.
•Perform inherently governmental functions such as certification training and responding to media queries on behalf of the government.
Personal Financial Counselors stay in their position for a minimum of 12 months, and then they can choose to stay in place or move to a new open position. We certainly hope Mrs. Carlson finds Fort Detrick
Rebecca Carlson is the new Personal Financial Counselor at Fort Detrick. She is available to provide free and confidential financial counseling to Service members, and their immediate families (Photo Credit: Rebecca Carlson)
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as special as so many of us do and decides to stay as long as she can.
Reader question: My spouse has little interest in our financial position. As we age, this concerns me. I try to share some basic information (income, spending, account balances, debt, and so on) each month but rarely get a response. I think graphs or charts might be of more interest to her than a bunch of numbers. What recommendations would you have for illustrating our financial position so that I am not the only person aware of how we are situated? Thanks!
Answer: Your situation is pretty common. Most couples I know develop a division of labor over time, where one person is in charge of financial matters and the other person is less involved. That’s definitely the case for my husband and me. He’s in charge of paying all the monthly bills and preparing our tax returns, but the financial planning and investment decisions are up to me. This type of arrangement might work well for a long time, but can become less sustainable with age, particularly if the “finance person” in the relationship dies or develops a major health issue.
Online tools and mind maps
Illustrating your financial situation with charts and graphs is a great idea that might help your spouse become a little more involved. Morningstar’s Portfolio X-Ray tool includes a variety of images that help illustrate your financial situation. Websites for most major brokerage firms also include some visual tools. Schwab, for example, offers a Portfolio Checkup and a bar graph illustrating your account’s monthly income from dividends and interest income. Vanguard has a Portfolio Watch tool and a variety of performance illustrations, tools, and calculators.
A mind map, which we used with clients when I worked for a financial advisory firm, can be another way to picture your entire financial situation on one page. There are various softwaretemplates for drawing a mind map, or you can simply sketch it out with a large sheet of paper and a pencil. Start with your names at the center of the page. Then draw spokes connecting to various categories, such as names of other family members; investment accounts; real estate and other assets, insurance policies, estate plans, key goals and values, and contact information for accountants, estate planners, and other professionals. It can be helpful to go through the mind map together and make any updates needed at least once a year.
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Other ways to communicate about money
A few other ideas—though not related to charts and graphs—might also be useful.
I like the idea of putting together a net worth statement that itemizes cash, taxable accounts, real estate, retirement accounts, and debt for each member of the couple as well as items owned jointly. It’s a good idea to update this document at least once a year and discuss it as a couple. If you set up the document as a spreadsheet, you can include columns with additional information such as account numbers, what each account is used for, which accounts are subject to required minimum distributions, or tax issues like potential capital gains.
Many couples also put together a binder (sometimes humorously called a “Doomsday Book”) that contains information about where to find important paperwork, insurance policies, how bills are paid, what each account is for, steps the surviving spouse will need to take, final wishes, and any other critical information.
A well-qualified financial adviser can bridge the information gap
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Finally, you could consider working with a good financial adviser, who can help involve your spouse in financial matters while you’re still living and step in to fully manage investments and personal finance decisions if you pass away before your spouse. Make sure the adviser holds the Certified Financial Planner designation and charges fees that are reasonable. Although a 1% fee is still the industry standard for accounts of $1 million or less, it’s possible to find advisers who charge significantly less, including a few who price their services based on hours worked instead of a percentage of assets under management.
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This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance.
Amy C. Arnott, CFA, is a portfolio strategist for Morningstar and co-host of The Long View podcast.
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If you have ever taken out a mortgage, you’ll know there are a lot of requirements to meet. You may need to put down a certain amount and have a debt-to-income ratio below a certain threshold. You may also run into limits on how much you can borrow or what sources of income the lender will count.
These rules do not apply to all mortgages — just to conforming mortgages, which is what the majority of borrowers take out. However, mortgage lenders are increasingly offering what are known as nonconforming loans, or mortgages that do not “comply with every one of the strict standards put in place after the housing crisis,” said The Wall Street Journal. While “still a small portion,” the “share of mortgages using alternative lending practices” has “doubled in size over the past three years.”
What are nonconforming loans?
A nonconforming mortgage is a “type of home loan that doesn’t meet some or all of the guidelines that make them eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” said Bankrate. These are the government-sponsored entities that “support much of the secondary mortgage market in the U.S.,” meaning they often purchase resold mortgages.
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have “federal rules that limit the purchase of loans deemed relatively risk-free,” said Investopedia. Loans that meet these guidelines are conforming loans; loans that do not are nonconforming. To be a conforming loan, a mortgage must fall under a certain loan amount, and the borrower must meet specific criteria when it comes to their credit score, debt-to-income ratio and loan-to-value ratio.
Effectively, any home loan that does not align with these stipulations is considered nonconforming. Examples include jumbo loans, government-backed loans, bridge loans and interest-only loans.
Why do people get them?
There are a wide range of reasons people may opt for a nonconforming mortgage. For one, “you may have no choice but to choose a nonconforming jumbo loan if you want to buy an expensive property,” said Rocket Mortgage. These loans can also provide more flexibility when it comes to the type of property you purchase, your credit score and your down payment amount.
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Nonconforming loans additionally “offer an opportunity for home buyers who might not otherwise qualify for traditional loans because they are self-employed or hold their wealth in assets such as real estate,” said the Journal.
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What are the drawbacks?
For starters, there are fewer lenders offering them “since they pose a higher risk to the bank or mortgage lender,” said Yahoo Finance. That said, availability can vary depending on the specific type, as “some nonconforming loans (like FHA mortgages) are common, while others (like USDA loans) can be harder to find.”
Nonconforming loans also “generally carry a higher interest rate for the borrower,” said the Journal, given the increased risk to the lender. Still, this can vary by loan type. For instance, “FHA, VA and USDA loans usually have lower interest rates,” while “less common nonconforming loans, such as bridge loans, often have higher interest rates,” said Yahoo Finance. There is also the possibility that a nonconforming loan “could have an unusual repayment schedule or other features that make it harder to repay,” said Bankrate.
