Finance
Introducing Fort Detrick’s Personal Financial Counselor
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?
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:
• 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.
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?
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/
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.
• 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
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as special as so many of us do and decides to stay as long as she can.
Welcome to the Ft. Detrick team.
Banks have had a stellar first quarter. The major U.S. banks raked in nearly $50 billion in profits in the first three months of the year, The Guardian reported.
That was largely due to Wall Street bank traders, who profited from a volatile stock exchange, Reuters showed.
But even without the extra bump from stock trading, banks are doing well when it comes to interest, the same Reuters article found. And some banks could stand to benefit even more from this one potential rule change.
Morgan Stanley thinks it could have a major impact on Citi in particular.
Upcoming changes for banks
To understand why Morgan Stanley thinks things are going to change at Citi, you need to understand some recent bank rule changes.
Banks make money by lending out money, which usually comes from depositors. But people need access to their money and the right to withdraw whenever they want.
So, banks keep a percentage of all money deposited to make sure they can cover what the average person needs.
But what happens if there is a major demand for withdrawals, as we saw during the financial crisis of 2008?
That’s where capital requirements come in. After the financial crisis, major banks like Citi were required by law to hold a higher percentage of money in order to avoid major bank failures.
For years, banks had to put aside billions of dollars. Money that couldn’t be lent out or even returned to shareholders.
Now, that’s all about to change.
Capital change requirements for major banks
Banks that are considered globally systemically important banking organizations (G-SIBs) have a higher capital buffer than community banks as they usually engage in banking activity that is far more complicated than your average market loan.
The list depends on the size of the bank and its underlying activity, according to the Federal Reserve.
Current global systemically important banks
A proposal from U.S. federal banking regulators could drastically reduce the amount that these large banks have to hold in reserve.
Changes would result in the largest U.S. banks holding an average 4.8% less. While that might seem like a small percentage number, for banks of this size, it equates to billions of dollars, according to a Federal Reserve memo.
The proposed changes were a long time coming, Robert Sarama, a financial services leader at PwC, told TheStreet.
“It’s a bit of a recognition that perhaps the pendulum swung a little too far in the higher capital requirement following the financial crisis, making it harder for banks to participate in some markets,” he said.
Natasha Luscri and Luke Miller consider themselves among the lucky ones. The couple recently bought their first home in the northwest suburbs of Melbourne.
It wasn’t something they necessarily expected to be able to do, but some good fortune with an investment in silver bullion and making use of government schemes meant “the stars aligned” to get into the market. Luke used the federal government’s super saver scheme to help build a deposit, and the couple then jumped on the 5 per cent deposit scheme, which they say made all the difference.
“We only started looking because of the government deposit scheme. Basically, we didn’t really think it was possible that we could buy something,” Natasha told Yahoo Finance.
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Last month they settled on their two bedroom unit, which the pair were able to purchase in an off-market sale – something that is becoming increasingly common in the market at the moment.
Rather perfectly, they got it for about $20-30,000 below market rate, Natasha estimated, which meant they were under the $600,000 limit to avoid paying stamp duty under Victoria’s suite of support measures for first home buyers.
“They wanted to sell it quickly. They had no other offers. So we got it for less than what it would have gone for if it had been on market,” Natasha said.
“We didn’t have a lot of cash sitting in an account … I think we just got lucky and made some smart investment decisions which helped.”
It’s a far cry from when the couple couldn’t find a home due to the rental crisis when they were previously living in Adelaide and had to turn to sub-standard options.
“We’ve managed to go from living in a caravan because we were living in Adelaide and we couldn’t find a rental with our dogs … So we’ve gone from living in a caravan, being kind of tertiary homeless essentially because we couldn’t get a rental, to now having been able to purchase our first home,” Natasha explained.
Rate rises beginning to bite for new homeowners
Natasha, 34, and Luke, 45, are among more than 300,000 Australians who have used the 5 per cent deposit scheme to get into the housing market with a much smaller than usual deposit, according to data from Housing Australia at the end of March. However that’s dating back to 2020 when the program first launched, before it was rebranded and significantly expanded in October last year to scrap income or placement caps, along with allowing for higher property price caps.
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