 Thank you so much for coming and utilising your Sunday afternoon on this session, May Allah we will then bless each one of you for your time and your efforts. I wanted to introduce myself, my name is Simon Zia, I have a bachelor's in business and finance, I'm also a domestic violence advocate, I've been volunteering with Narika who are here, I've set up a table, there are domestic violence organisation, primarily working with the South Asian community and they work, they have helpline and case management and they also have a phenomenal programme called SEED which sounds for self efficiency economic development. So within this programme it's basically an empowerment, women's empowerment programme for DV, primarily for DV survivors and I've been hosting the financial literacy sessions, they also have career building, resume, computer literacy skills, so that's kind of where I started my journey and so by working with women over the last few years I've just realised that there's such a dire need of learning this among our community so I've just started to roll this out to the community at large and shall I hope it benefits. So yeah feel free to, we're going to take a break in about an hour's time so feel free to check out Narika's resources and find out about the organisation, what they did and also just how you can get involved, they are looking for volunteers so as well as a resource it's a great place to volunteer, it's been life-changing for me personally so inshallah we can start. So the topics for today primarily I'm going to cover about six different topics, we're going to do an introduction to what financial literacy is, we're going to set some financial goals, we're going to talk about budgeting, we're going to be looking at savings and the different types of bank accounts, we'll discuss loans, credit so that will include credit cards, credit score and credit reports and briefly if we have time we'll discuss investments. So why take this class? So inshallah the objectives for today is each one of us has an obligation to seek and arm ourselves with knowledge, right? We want to, you know they say knowledge is power so we have an obligation to seek that knowledge. Also to help you become effective in managing your money and to help you secure your financial future so it's considered a life skill and most importantly to help provide economic empowerment. And so I just want to take a quick poll, how many sisters are working here? So I think the misconception is you know a lot of the sisters who are not working who are relying on financially dependent on their spouses they think they don't need to be active in managing their finances at home and that this is why financial literacy is so critical to learn. So what is financial literacy? And I will share the presentation with you so don't feel obliged to take photos of each screen. So in simplistic terms financial literacy it's the possession of skills that allow people to make smart decisions about their money. So it's as simple as that, it just helps you make better decisions about your money so that can entail whether you're trying to save money, whether you're you know how to spend your money more wisely. So who should learn about financial literacy? Any ideas? Who should learn? Yeah exactly everybody regardless of who you are even the president right so we all should be financial literate. So there's two key components. First is that financial literacy is where you're actually learning the concepts of finance and then the second component is financial management. So this is where you're actually doing the managing of the finances and one tool that is used for the financial management is budgeting and we'll discuss that. So with anything in life we need to set goals for ourselves whether personal goals, professional goals, academic goals. Similarly with finance we need to set financial goals. What is a goal? A goal is an effort, it's an aim, it's a desired result. What are your goals financially? It could be you're trying to you know pay off some debt, you're trying to save up for a car, you're trying to save up for a house. Why should you have financial goals? To help you make better decisions, better financial decisions. Whether it's you're trying to save some money, you're trying to spend your money more efficiently and it just gives you that sense of achievement. So with financial goals we specifically use a criteria called smart. Anyone heard of smart goals? So they're kind of mostly used in the professional context but they can be applied everywhere and I find them particularly useful when you're setting financial goals for yourself. So what is smart? S is for specific. This is where you will state exactly what needs to be done with your money. M is for measurable. What evidence do you have to show for this? A is for attainable. You have to create a step-by-step guide on how to achieve this goal by keeping a record. R is for relevant. How realistic is your goal? So for the finance goals you will need to look at your income and your expenditure. T, time bounds. What is the time frame involved in terms of when the goal will be achieved? So an example of a financial goal. So a general goal will be I want to pay off my loan. That's a general goal but when you use your smart criteria what does your smart financial goal look like? So I'm just using an example here. So specific. I want to pay your $5,000 of my loan in 24 months. M for measurable. How will you go about measuring this? I will set up a budget so I can save $200 a month to help me pay it off. A, attainable. How will I achieve this? I will cut my expenses on clothes and food so I'm able to save $200 by making a budget. So this is the plan I've set up to help me achieve that goal. R for relevant. How realistic is this goal? So I've looked at my current expenses and I've looked at my income and I think I can achieve it. T, time bound. 24 months is enough time for me to save up. So this is one example of a financial goal using the smart criteria. So once you've identified your goal using the smart criteria, the next step is to categorize your goal in either a short term, a medium term, or a long term goal. Short term goals are goals that you will achieve within the next three months. So an example could be I want to save up for a iPad within the next two months. So that will be my short goal because it's within zero to three months. Medium term goals are goals typically that are achieved within three months to 12 months. So perhaps it could be you're trying to save up for a laptop by the end of the year that will be considered a medium term goal. Long term goal is something that can be achieved a year beyond. So these are typically for longer term, you know, kind of bigger purchases and bigger investments. So maybe a down payment for a house or you're saving up for a car. Those are examples of long term goals. Okay, so I just wanted to kind of do a quick group. I don't want to keep this interactive and not bore you with just me talking. So keep this a bit interactive. So can any of you give me an example of a smart financial goal? And then once you've thought of a smart financial goal, if you can help categorize that in either a short term, a medium term, or a long term goal. So I'll give you a couple of minutes to think of one and then we can discuss inshallah. So using the smart criteria, how will you use your smart criteria for that goal? That's a very good goal. You want to pay off your student loan. So then how would you use in the smart criteria? How would you go about, you know, having that goal? So you have to be specific. So it doesn't have to be accurate figures. You could even make them up, right? So, you know, whatever the student loan is, so do you want to think of an amount? And we can do this together. So, okay, let's pick 7000. So, okay, so specifically we're going to use the amount. So specifically I want to pay off $7000 of my student loan. And then do you have a time frame in mind? Oh yeah, okay. So that's how you're going to start off. I will pay off $7000 of my student loan in a year, right? That's your S-part. Next is measurable. So how will you go about measuring that? Right. Yeah, yeah. So whatever that monthly amount is, you will set that money aside and save whatever that amount is on a monthly basis. So that's how you're going to measure it. And then how will you attain that? So how will you? Okay, so you'll work part-time. So also under attainable, you need to have a plan, right? So working is one definitely. So, you know, you have to create a, like a step-by-step plan. So working is one. So you're going to increase your income. And then in order to pay off this loan, perhaps you may need to cut up some expenses, right? So you're able to save that monthly amount to pay off that loan. So that will be how you're going to attain it. You're going to achieve it. So working and then you're going to cut off your expenses. And then do you think it's realistic? So one tool that, when we talk about relevant, one tool that we use to check if your goal is relevant is working on a budget. And that's going to be our next topic. So, you know, in your goal, the relevant, the realistic part will be, I'm going to prepare a budget and see that, you know, if I can achieve it. And then the timeframe you already given is one year. So that's, so this is, this is the whole point of this exercise because we all set very generalized goals, but specifically finance related goals, you have to be very specific. You have to have a plan in place. And, you know, just keep it very, very narrowed. So yeah, great example, just a clock in and for anyone else. So is that what would you put that under a short term, medium term or a long term goal? Yeah, if it's going to be within a year, then it's considered a medium for excellent martial arts. And anyone else would like to share a smart financial goal? Anyone or if anyone can give me an example of a short term goal? Okay, is that something that you want to do within the next few months? Because remember a short term, sorry, for some, okay, so that will more likely be a medium term goal. So short term is literally with zero to three months. So, you know, between now and April, right? That's, that's a short term goal. So that will come under a medium term goal. What about anyone else who, an example of a long term goal? Yeah, sister, go ahead. Okay, for the down payment. Oh, I see, okay, okay, perfect. Oh, I see, okay. So, so, so typically, yeah, once we kind of dive into the budgeting, this will be a bit more easier to process because a budget does play a big part in setting financial goals. So yeah, but Alhamdulillah. And so that does lead to budgeting. Does any, has anyone heard of a budget? Okay, a few sisters have. How often the sisters who raise their hands, how often do you budget? No, no one budgets here. You've just heard of it. You budget? Monthly? Okay, okay. So I find this shocking. I really do, because pretty much every cohort I've taught, this is the same response. We've heard of it, or actually the last one I did, they hadn't even heard of budgeting. But it's, it's like, if there's one thing you sisters can take away from this session is budgeting, how to make a budget. So yeah, very, very key, key aspect. I wanted to quickly share a video with you about the importance of budgeting. Okay, so from the video, we see that a budget is basically a tool that will help you make critical spending decisions and helps you to achieve your financial goals. It helps you ensure you don't spend money that you don't have. It helps you know how much money you've earned, how much money you've spent, and how much money you are planning to or have to save. It helps you identify spending leaks and budget busters. So the budget comprises of two key components. You have the income and then you have the expenses. Can anyone tell me what an expenses, right? So, so expense or expenditure is things that you have to pay or the cost of an item. And so when we, when we speak about expenses, it's really important to identify the distinction between what a need is and what a want is. So a need, as the name suggests, is something that we have to have in order to survive. A want is something that is not essential, but it makes our life easier. Can anyone give me an example of a need? Shelter, food, water, right? Those are things that we have to have for our survival. What about a want? Vacation, home decor, yeah. Any other examples? Netflix, yeah. Yeah, that's a very kind of nitty gritty one. So I, my example is, you know, a need is a glass of water, right? We need water to survive. And then a want will be, you know, occasionally it's nice to have a sparkling glass of water, right? So it's not critical, but it's, it's nice to, to give that enjoyment. So this distinction is extremely important because, you know, there is a correlation between our emotions and spending. You know, most of us have heard of retail therapy and impulse buying, right? You go into a retail store, you go in for two things, you come out with 10 others, right? So before you spend, it's, it's important to ask yourself some key questions. Firstly, you know, did I compare, so when you, you know, you go into a store and you find something, you know, did I compare the prices? You know, sometimes you can find that same item online cheaper or in another store cheaper. But because of your impulse, you just quickly purchase it. Then you need to find out, is this a need or is this a want, right? A lot of us have been in that situation where, you know, we go in, we find a nice pair of shoes and then we come home and we're just adding those shoes to our collection, right? It's not really a need, it's more a want. It's, it's good to have a different color or different style. So before you spend, ask yourself, do I really need this or do I want this? And then particularly for larger purchases, is this going to cause a delay in reaching my goals? If you have to borrow money, so if you're having to use your credit card for these large purchases, it's obviously going to take you longer to reach your goals. So I've just put together some things that we can do without having to break the bank, you know, like I said, kind of our emotions are linked with spending, you know, some of us go and share ourselves up by going shopping. So there are ways to, you know, you know, share yourself up without having to financially spend big amounts of money. So some examples of treating yourself, you know, I'm a big advocate of self care. So you can give yourself a manicure, right? You can enjoy a favorite dessert at home. You could read a good book. You could spend some time with a, with a good friend. You could take a nice walk or a hike. You could invite your friends over for potluck and share the cost of the food. With your children, we know without, especially when they're a lot younger and you take them shopping, they're, you know, they've always, I know my kids, when they were younger, they would go and touch, we want this, we want that. And we just satisfy their needs. So the, you know, other ways to treat your children without breaking the bank, you can cook or bake together. You could read them a story. You could spend some time at the library. You could play a favorite game with them. You could invite their friend for a sleepover. So these are just, you know, just some examples I've put together to just get you guys thinking that you don't have to go spending to, you know, enjoy yourself. So the one component of the, of the budget and we'll go through a sample budget together is income. So typically income is, is what? When we hear the word income, what does, what does that mean? Any ideas? Yeah. Yeah. So typically it's your earnings, your wages, your salaries. So it's, it's, as the name suggests, I usually remember is income. So it's money coming in. Right. And so I've just put together some resources. Benefits.org is a place where you can find federal benefits information if you are eligible for any public assistance. There's cash assistance, child support, food stamps, free or reduced lunch, Medicare, your need proof of identity, income and asset proof. If you are staying in any shelter, you can get priority processing. And then there's another government program to help needy families. And that's temporary assistance for needy families. So this is an example of a, of a sample budget. And we'll actually do one together so that you can work through this. So when you prepare a budget, there's, can you guys see me for, let me just see if I can leave this. Okay. So when you start off with the budget, there's three steps involved. That's the best way of remembering. I'm going to keep it very simple so that you understand the concept. So the first step is you have to identify your income. Right. And so we've just discussed that income is money that's coming in. So some examples. Can, can you guys help me out here? I want to make this interactive. Some examples of income. Salary. Okay. So salary. What else? Yeah. If you're renting your house, I'm going to put rent, rent out of house. Any other examples of income? Okay. So monthly income inheritance. Okay. Any other examples? Child support. Yeah. That's an example of income. Any others? Dividend. Yep. Excellent. Mashallah. Dividend. What else? We can put a monthly, I don't know if, you know, if you're, you could get spousal support. I'm just going to put this under one category, spousal support or allowance, right? Your partner may be giving you an allowance on a monthly basis that will be considered your income. Right. So those are some examples of income. And I'm just, just to kind of make it easy. I'm going to use some figures because, you know, we're making a budget. So for salary, I'm going to put salary or wages. Right. And this budget I'm going to work on is going to be on a monthly basis. So the frequency of a budget is the bare minimum should be monthly, right? The bare minimum. If you can do one weekly, fantastic. If you can do one bi-weekly, even better. But the bare minimum is to do it monthly. And my suggestion is that you should do this at the beginning of the month so that it will help you forecast your, you know, expenditure for that month. So do it at the beginning of the month and then you've got this plan to help you with your financing for that month. So minimum is monthly. So I'm just going to make some, you know, fictitious figures up here. So wages, I'm going to put 500, rent 300. I'm just keeping the figures basic so that we can get our maths. Okay. So that is your first step, right? You're going to identify all your income on a monthly basis. Number two, the step is now you will look at your expenses, right? And so expenses, like we said, is money that is going out, you're spending that money, right? So under expenses, these usually come under two main categories. You have fixed expenses. Any ideas on what fixed expenses are? Sorry, rent. So fixed expenses, like the name suggests, are those expenses that are fixed every month. You have to pay, it's the same amount every month. So an example of a fixed expense is rent. Okay. Any other examples of a fixed expense? So Alexa, utilities, I wouldn't put under phone possible, even phone, I wouldn't put under fixed expense because it depends on your usage, right? So rent or, so I'm going to put rent or mortgage as an example of a fixer because that won't change on a monthly basis. What else? Any other examples of a fixed expense? Insurance, yeah, insurance. What else? Put those, they wouldn't be for you, you won't be spending the same amount, right, on a monthly basis on growth. So they will actually go in my next category, which is variable, right? Variable or flexible. So this, when you wait, so when we look in our expenses, it's really important to have this distinction, right? Identify what are your fixed expenses and what are your variable expenses. So going back to the fix, we have rent, mortgage, insurance, anything else? Yeah. Yeah. So any loan payments, you may have a car loan, right? That would be considered, if it's fixed every month, that's considered a fixed expense. Any others? Yes, absolutely. Yeah, those are going to be, I'm just going to put a monthly subscription that will be fixed. So Marshala, you understand the concept is that it's those amounts that do not change on a month-to-month basis. So once you've identified your fixed expenses, your next expense is your variable or flexible expenses, right? So can I get examples of variable expenses? Those expenses that are going to change on a month-to-month basis. So yeah, these ones are more easier, right? So obviously food, right? That's the big one. Food or groceries, I'll put as one. Okay, utilities. So under utilities, gas, electricity, I'll put phone here. Someone had mentioned phone. What else as credit card bills? Yep, credit card. Yeah, any others? So you understand the concept, right? It's basically those amounts that are going to change on a month-to-month basis. So I'm going to put some figures up here. So rent mortgage. Again, I'm just trying to keep the math basic. Let's do 600 rent. Actually, I'll change this, not 600, 300. I'm just keeping it basic for our math. So okay. So we've identified our income. We've identified our expenses, right? So then your fixed expenses and your variable expenses, you're going to add those up. So 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. So my fixed expenses are 700. I'm going to add my income up 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. So 1250, right? My income is 1250. And my expenses are 700. Okay. And then the third step, which is the final step of a budget is you're going to, I'm going to label this as A, right? A is your income. Expenses is B. Step three is you are going to subtract A from B. So you're going to subtract your income from your expenses. And that amount will tell you a lot of things. So 1250 minus 700. How much? Okay. So we have a surplus of $550, right, for this month. So when you do this calculation, the expenses, the income minus the expenses, you either get a positive, so in our case, obviously it's a positive number, right? So this is considered a budget surplus, or you will get a negative number. So a positive number, I'm just going to put this over here. So a positive number at the end is a budget surplus, right? And if you get a negative number, that is considered to be a budget deficit. So when you get a positive, so what is the aim in the budget? Would you like to see a positive number or a negative number? Yeah, ideally, ideally you would like to see a positive. Realistically, it is not very frequent that we get a positive surplus, but ideally we would, that's the aim to get a positive number. So when we get a positive number, what does that mean? What does that surplus tell us? Yes, excellent. A lot of people get excited. I've got this extra money, I can go spending, right? But the key of doing this is that it helps you realize that you need to put some money aside for that rainy day. And then if you have a negative, so for example, in our case, if this was a negative, a deficit of 550, what does that mean? Exactly, exactly. You are spending more, so you are spending more than what you are getting in, right? And that should be a red flag. So what if this was a negative, then you have to look at your expenses firstly and see where are my spending leaks? What is it in my expenses I can do to change to, you know, to reduce my expenses? So it could be under food, for example, perhaps you're spending money on, you know, restaurants and eating out. So that is considered a spending leak, right? And it's considered a budget buster. You can, perhaps your utilities, you can, you know, cut down on your usage of whatever gas electricity. So that negative number, you have to review your expenses first and foremost. Once you've looked at your expenses and you've seen that there's nothing you can change, right? You've done that overview. At that point, then you will have to look at your income, right? If your expenses like whatever you have, you can't reduce them any further, then you will have a look at your income and you have to find ways of increasing that income so you're able to meet your expenses. So there's any questions on the budget? No? Everyone gets the concept. I think kind of mentally we've, you know, we just think it's an extremely difficult concept to, you know, to handle, but it's really pretty straightforward. Once you've grasped that there's literally these three steps involved, you're identifying your income, identifying your expenses, and then you're just subtracting one from the other. And like I said, you know, the bare minimum is to do this monthly. And so the, you know, some ways of preparing a budget. A lot of my clients I work with, they keep it very simple. They prepare one in a notebook on a monthly basis, you know, just like a record they keep. If you do have great tech skills, then you can do an Excel spreadsheet. You can prepare one on that. And it's, you know, you've got an online version. There are some apps available too that you can use for a budget. And those are one very good one is called Mint. Mint. Anyone used Mint? You've used Mint? Have you found it very useful? Okay, so Mint is a good one. And then there's another one AARP monthly map app. And like I said, my advice is if you can, please prepare this at the beginning of the month, because it's a great forecast for that month. Okay, so moving on. So once you've established your budget, another very important concept is an asset. Anyone heard of an asset? You've heard, okay. So what is an asset? In very simplistic terms, asset is something you own. So it's property that is owned by a person or company. And it can be used to meet your debt and other commitments. And it's important, particularly for us women, to take stock of our assets. We should make a list of our assets individually. We should have a list of our assets that are jointly owned with our spouses. And we should also have a list or at least try to get a list of assets that your spouse owns. So examples of assets is a house, a car, any collections, this can include jewelry, insurance, cash, bank accounts, investments, right? These are all considered as assets. And the opposite to this is a liabilities. What is a liability? A liability in simplistic terms is what you own. So it's a legally binding obligation that is payable to another person or company. And again, similarly with assets, we should take stock of our liabilities, keep a list of those that we have individually, those that are jointly owned, and liabilities that are owned by your partner. Examples of liabilities, credit cards, payment plans, and loans. So someone mentioned, yes, sister, go ahead. Yes. Where does it fall as an asset? Yes, yes. It's still considered an asset. You mean like if you have a mortgage? Yeah, it's still considered an asset. So I think someone mentioned saving. So saving, ideally there should be two categories of saving. We should have an emergency savings and long term savings. So long term savings as the name suggests are savings that are typically for over a year. How many sisters here have individual saving accounts? How many sisters have joint accounts? I, going back to the group reflection. So personally, I do recommend we should each have our own saving account. It's good to have obviously a joint account, but you don't know about the rainy day. And the field that I'm in, it's just really unfortunate to hear and see the situations people are in because they didn't have their own saving accounts. So I think for our own, particularly our own financial empowerment, we should start having one. And so the emergency savings fund is, as the name suggests, is savings that you set aside for emergencies. And with life being so unpredictable, right, there could be a loss of income at home, your car can break down, there could be sickness, a death of a loved one, right? So we really need to save some funds for this emergency for that rainy day. And this savings fund provides a safety net and a cushion in the event of an unexpected or tragic event. So it's best to be prepared. So generally the rule of thumb of emergency fund is you should have between three to six months of your living expenses in that fund. So this includes whether it's your rent payment, your mortgage payment, utilities, it should cover your food bill. So around three to six months as a ballpark figure for your emergency fund. But keep your emergency fund gold realistic. If you think the three to six months is too much, then the bare minimum at least have one month's housing costs covered. So if your mortgages or your rent is just say $3,000 a month, the bare minimum in your emergency savings fund, you should aim at having that amount so that you're able to cover one month of your housing fees. And once you've met that goal, then you can obviously add to it. And so the other important point to make here is we have to be consistent. I think a lot of us fall in this trap where we put some money aside for saving, but it's not consistent, so it's good to start small. It's good to save $10 a week, but every week rather than I'm going to save up $50 and put that money away. So it's advisable to have a small goal for putting that money away, but just be consistent. And you can do this by automatic transfer or direct deposit. An example is if you're saving $10 a month and it's getting 2% interest, in five years this would go up to $612. So they are huge, even if you're saving that small amount there's huge advantages. So with the bank accounts, there's three main, three categories of bank accounts. There's more, but these are the three very popular ones. The most common ones are the interest earning savings accounts. I'm sure most of you have heard of these. These are the common ones. So these are deposit accounts that earn you interest. They are safe. They are for storage and they're not really for daily use. You've just put this money away. I think I've missed a slide. So you've put this money away. So it's not for daily use. If you are looking for account for daily use, then you can utilize a checking account. So with the checking account, you'll get a checkbook, you'll get an ATM, a debit card, and so that you can use on a day-to-day basis, but that doesn't have interest accrued on that account. The other group of accounts are called MMA's, money market accounts. So this is also a type of saving account, but this pays interest on interest rates that occur in money markets. So banks trade with each other. They have their own interest rates. So these interest rates on the MMA's are based on the rates that are used between the banks. These accounts typically do pay higher rates of interest than traditional savings account, but they have some kind of stricter conditions. They require higher minimum balance and they are limits on the number transactions that are allowed per month. And the third common safety saving option is CDs, also known as certificates of deposit, or agreements. They're also referred to as maturity bonds. So this is a good option if you don't need immediate access with your funds. And you usually get these as fixed terms. They could be as short as three months. You can get a six month term, a year term, and it goes up to about six years. So the only thing with this is if you want to make early withdrawals from CDs, they will penalize you. So you have to make sure that if you want to consider CDs that you don't need access to your funds. They're kind of more for longer-term investments, but they do offer a better rate of interest than your regular savings accounts. So the best advice when you are looking at a saving account is basically just shop around. Moneyrates.com is a really good resource to give you that comparison. Not only do they provide saving accounts, comparisons per bank because every bank charges their own competitive rates. They also give you credit cards, options, loan options on this website. So you can do a comparison between each bank and see which rates are working better for you. The other resource is this website rates.savingsaccounts.com that also shows you the comparison. So do your research, read the fine print, make sure you don't feel pressurized. Like if you need immediate access to your funds, don't look at long-term savings. Then you would consider regular saving accounts. You want to make sure that you get your money without worrying about longer-term commitments. Trime. I've heard, I've not used this personally, but I've heard Trime is a good account to use to open up a savings account. There's no minimum balance. We look at fees as well, but there's no minimum balance or minimum fees involved in this. So that's a suggestion for a bank account. Some banking tips. So typically, to open a bank account, you need your personal information, your name, date of birth, your residence, an ID number. So typically your SSN number, tax identification number if you're working, your employer ID. Once you have, how many people have a debit card here? Yeah. Okay. So you're familiar with, obviously you have a PIN and how to access an ATM machine. So yeah, just remember to keep your PIN. I know this for some of you, it's self, common sense, self-explanatory, but a lot of sisters do not know this. So it's just, I'm just giving an overall reminder to everyone, keep your PIN safe. Do not share it with anyone. Be aware of all banking fees and we'll discuss fees in detail. And then when you use your ATM, typically, it's advisable to use the ATM that is owned by your bank. If you decide to use an ATM, belonging to another bank, you will get charged. So you need to make sure that the ATM is within the network. So types of banking, internet banking, so how many people can tell me if internet banking and online banking, what the difference is? Anyone know the difference between internet banking and online banking? Okay, they're basically the same. Internet and online banking is, but there is a misconception that there is a difference. So that's why internet banking and online banking is the same. So it's basically the financial transactions are conducted over the internet through a bank's website, secure website. So with the online internet banking, the bank may have physical branch locations. And additionally, it will give you an online option. So for example, Bank of America, we know that they have physical branches, right? But then there is also an option to bank with them online. Online banking also covers banks that do not have a physical branch. They're just solely online. So there's two types of banks with that. So usually with the internet banking and online banking, you must register with that bank. You have to make a creator an account. You'll get a user ID and you'll get a password. And that's how you'll be able to access your online banking. So the advantage for online banking mostly for banks, it saves them a lot of money, right? Because particularly ones that are just solely doing this online, they don't need to worry about the cost of, you know, having a location, their staff, everything is being done online. For the customers, people like, you know, it's just convenience, right, that you're just doing this on your desktop. And particularly, you know, with the banks, there's opening times and closing times. So you can do this. It's accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So that's the other advantage of an online banking. What are the features of online banking? Customers can pay bills online. You could transfer money from one account to another. You can view your account balances at any time of the day. You can view or print statements from the comfort of your home. You can view images of checks. And you can even apply for loans or credit cards online. Anyone here has an online account? Anyone? Okay, quite a few. So, yeah. So, Mashela, you know that there's huge, huge benefits, huge advantages of this doing it at the comfort of our home. So the other banking aspect is mobile banking. What is the difference between a mobile banking and online banking? There's one specific key difference. Sorry, yeah. So basically mobile banking, as the name suggests, it's done through your phone, right? So you download an app from that bank. So going back to the Bank of America example, you download their app and then you're able to do everything that, you know, from all these features you have, you can do this from your phone. You know, mobile banking is only done on your smartphone or tablet, not on your desktop. And then you've got the, you know, additional feature of text messages and SMS. Any questions on the different types of banking? So you obviously, you have your in-person, you have your online, your internet banking, and then you have the mobile banking. Okay. So I touched upon fees. So when you're, when you're choosing bank accounts, please, please look for and ask for the fee schedule, right? Because every bank account has fees imposed. So I've just put together three or four kind of main, there's a lot more. These are the kind of common ones. Overdraw fees. These are fees mostly for checking accounts. So what do we mean by overdraw fees? So if you don't have enough money in your bank account and you're trying to cover a transaction, right, the banks will charge you an overdraw fee. And typically on average, it's about $35 per transaction. So, you know, please, before you open up an account, just make sure you know what your overdraw limit is, and then if there are any overdraw fees, because if you have insufficient funds in your account and a transaction is made, the fee will be charged. So just, just be vigilant and careful on your overdraw fees. And like I said, this is mostly for your checking accounts. The other common fee is a minimum balance fee. So this is a fee that is when you, when you open an account, these are fees that they charge to maintain a minimum balance for your account. If you can't maintain this balance, for example, the account may entail $500, right, that you have to have $500 for this, you know, on a monthly basis. If you can't maintain this balance, you will be charged a minimum balance fee. Another type of fee is a maintenance fee, right? So this is, this is like a monthly fee. And it's basically to service and maintain the account. Some banks allow you to avoid this fee if you set up direct deposit, right? So if there's regular activity in your account, you can try to avoid this fee. So please check with your bank. ATM fee. So I spoke about using your debit card, you know, for, for the ATMs that are within network of your bank. So, you know, to avoid this fees, please only use the ATMs that are within, within network. Other fees, there's also wire fees. If you are transferring money abroad, making other wire transactions, some banks do charge for that. So it's just really crucial and advisable to obtain a fee schedule so that you know exactly what charges are being made and what the fees are. Okay. How are we doing for time? Okay. I think we can take like a two, three minute break. And then we can dive into our next topic. You can stretch and grab some water and inshallah. We'll resume around 3.40, inshallah. Okay. So our next topic is credit. So within credit, we will look at credit score, credit reports and credit cards. So why is credit important? Any ideas? Why do you think it's important to have credit? Sorry? Yeah, absolutely. So it basically, it gives you financial power, right? This financial power can help you take up, take out loans, purchase a car, purchase, get a credit card, right? So it just, it basically, to sum it up, it just gives you that, that financial power. So the first element of when we, when we look at credit is, the first component is to look at the credit score. So a credit score is basically, it's a number. It's a numerical value that's given and it depicts your credit worthiness, right? And so it, it's assigned to a person that indicates to lenders your capacity to repay a loan. So it depends on your credit cards, any, you know, payments you have, any loans you have. Employers may look at your credit score. If you are trying to lease an apartment, your rental agents will look at your credit score. If you're applying for loans, your, your loan, the banks, financial institutions will look at your credit score. Yeah. Yeah. So if you check it, it doesn't lower it. And we'll go into this. But if other parties look at it, it does get lowered. Yeah, it's absurd. And it, and it, it, it's quite a big, like, I think it's about five points. So it's quite a drastic, you know, a drastic value. But I think you, you can avoid with certain parties checking your credit score, for example, you know, with rental agents, you can provide a copy of your credit score and credit report to them. So that's one way of kind of bypassing it. Rather than them having to look, you can just say, here's my credit score. Here's my credit report. And then it won't impact your, your credit score. But you're right. Absolutely. It does affect it. Yeah. So where do we learn? So yeah, I'll tell you, I'll tell you this. Yeah. So what is a good score? So a good score is there's a credit scoring model. And usually the credit scores, anything from 580 to 669 is considered a fair score. Anything from 670 to 739 is considered a good score. Anything from 740 to 799 is considered a very good score. And anything above 800 is excellent. So in a nutshell, the higher the score, the better it is, right? Your aim is to have a higher score. Why is your score important? So this is one example. I've just put it in a graphical form. You have a 30-year fixed rate mortgage or a loan for $300,000. At the bottom, we have the credit score. So if your credit score is within the 500 to 559 range, your monthly payment is 3,317. As we move left, right, as your credit score is getting bigger, right, as we're moving towards the 72850 mark, you can see that the repayment amount shrinks drastically, right? So this shows that the better your credit score, your monthly repayments of any loan, whether it's a mortgage, any loan, any payment plan you have, it will reduce. So the aim is to overall have a good credit score. What affects your credit score? So there's four, five key components that make up the credit score. Your payment history is the biggest chunk. It's 35% of that factor that will impact the credit score. Amounts old is 30%. Length of credit, how long you have had your credit for, that is 15%. New credit is 10%. And number of inquiries. So since the system mentioned a good point, you know, the more inquiries you have on your credit score that will impact your credit score. So the important factors of a credit score is just simply remember to make your payments on time, right? It's better to make a small, a minimum payment rather than missing it and making a late payment. So, you know, on-time payments will include credit card repayments, loans, finance, company accounts, mortgages, auto loans, any negative public records you have. So if you've had a bankruptcy claim or, you know, you've been in foreclosure, that's going to drastically have a negative impact on your credit score. And then we want to avoid deliquent accounts and amounts. You know, sometimes we get those red bills that eventually go into collections. Ideally, you want to avoid that situation. So the system mentioned, where can you find your credit score? So the most reliable and trustworthy site is creditcommer.com. So you go online, you enter your Social Security number, your date of birth, and this website will be able to give you your credit score. And there's just some important facts to remember. Don't close unused cards as a short-term strategy. Some people use this that I'm going to close my accounts and my credit score will go up. It doesn't work like that. The other important point to remember is, if you have cards that have very minimum balance or zero balance and you haven't used them for a few months, please have some activity. It's better to keep those cards active in a small way rather than just keeping them open. So use cards with zero balance or activity at least once every six months so they don't get closed by the users, by the issuers when you don't close them. Don't open any new cards. You don't need to increase your credit. This is also a strategy that is misconceived that I'm just going to open up some extra lines of credit and it's going to boost up my credit score. Keep your balances low. That's the key to a good credit score. Just keep your balances low. And then there's a credit rule. It's called the 30% credit rule. I'm going to use an example. So if you have a $1,000 credit card limit, your 30% credit rule is that you should not have a balance over 300 outstanding for long on that account because that's going to affect your credit score. So this 30% credit rule is really crucial for your credit card statements in particular. Any closed account you have will show up on your credit report. If you have late fees, missed payments, this will impact your credit score. So like I said, it's important to make that minimum payment rather than missing payments and doing late payments. I had a client a few months ago who was, she couldn't make, she got the reminders for her credit card statements and there was a minimum payment. I think in her case was about $25. And she said, I'm going to wait until I'm ready to pay the full bill off. And she missed the minimum payment that due date. So that automatically had a negative impact on her credit score. She was waiting to pay off the whole amount and it got late. But the key is that at least make that minimum payment because that is far better than missing a payment altogether or having a late payment. So like I said, making those timely payments are absolutely critical in impacting and increasing your credit score. So the next important component of credit is a credit report. Anyone here firstly, does anyone here have a credit score? Do they know their credit score anyone? Do you know? No, you had this beautiful smile. So oh, you did. Okay. No one has a credit score. You do. Okay. Okay. You know, it's free. There's no, you know, it's, you just go to credit karma.com. And so two things I advise. Go to credit karma.com, retrieve your credit score and number two, download your credit report. These are very crucial, you know, no, no. So I'm going to tell you. So, so I am also going to, because this does happen a lot. So that's why I, it's really important to, to download your credit report because it also helps you identify those errors. Right. And the other advantage of downloading your credit report is it can help identify if there's any identity theft going on. So very, very critical to, you know, to have your credit score and your credit report. Because I've been working with domestic violence victims, I get this question asked very regularly too that, you know, we don't have any credit cards. We don't have any loans. So we're, you know, we're not likely to get a credit score or a credit report. There is one way around that and I'll discuss this, but going back to chime, chime.com, you know, because for a first time user, it's hard to get a credit card, right? Particularly if you're not working because that's one of the things they look at your annual income. So chime is a good account to have because they don't have any fees. They're kind of more lenient on first time, you know, first time credit card users. So that's, you know, one resource to utilize. But I know with this group, I think pretty much everyone has a credit, sorry? Chime, yeah. It's a CHIME. You can have a look online. So if you don't have a credit card, they are a bit more lenient as opposed to some of these other companies who look at your income and your credit score before they can issue you one. So the other option, if you do not have a credit card and you're a first time user, is you can also approach, because banks are a bit more stringent and strict with their rules, credit unions are another place. They're kind of an alternative of banks. And so they're more kind of more lenient too in terms of credit unions, yeah. No, no credit unions, you can actually find them. So yeah, yeah, it's a financial institution. So you can find them in, you know, in your neighborhoods, you know, the physical branches, you can go into, they provide the same functions as a bank. But previously, they worked, you know, you had to be part of a, like a union, but they've changed that now, right? Like, like for example, you're employed, you had to be working and be part of a union, but you can register with a credit union and apply for a credit card. And going back to your question, sister. So one option to build up your credit is if your spouse is a primary user, right, he has a bank account, he has a credit card with that bank account, so he's considered the primary user. You can be added as an authorized user. So he can get you a credit card in your name, and you'll be considered an authorized user. Once you are an authorized user, you can start using that credit card. And that does, it will affect your credit score, right? So you'll be able to get a credit score, you'll be able to, you know, have downloaded a credit report. But if your spouse is, the downside is, if your spouse is not making regular payments, he's missing them, he's making them late, then that's directly going to affect your credit card. So you, I mean, you know your situation, just be conscious that if your spouse is, is, you know, making those monthly payments, he's consistent, then you're good, right? That registered, sorry, the authorized user will work. So, you know, a lot of sisters are in that setup where they're the authorized users, but you just have to be careful that, you know, if he's not paying them on time, it's going to directly affect your, your score and your report. So, so I hope that answers your question, sister, because I get, I get that asked, asked a lot. So, so it tells you a credit report basically tells you the financial background and history if you have been repaying all your debts on time. And this information is, it tells the banks, and this is particularly useful if you want to get a loan out or, you know, a mortgage. It tells the credit card companies and even the government. And the report is a summary of your credit history. So once you, you need to start using your credit cards to be able to get a credit score and a credit report. Loans will have an impact on your, on your score and your report, any borrowed money. So all of that will, will be shown on your, on your credit report. So lenders will check your credit report to make decisions about whether or not to grant you credit and about the rates and terms that you qualify for. So that's my next slide. So you're obtaining your credit report. So you can request your credit report from a central website and please sisters just use this one annualcreditreport.com. They are, you know, when you, when you Google, you know, download credit reports, a thousand websites come up and most of them are misled and not secure. The only trusted site recommended is annualcreditreport.com. It's a free resource, right? So you can either call them up or you can just go online and yourcreditreport.com and download your report. So once you, once you come to this website, there are three reporting, crediting agencies or bureaus and you can get your credit report free. It used to be available once a year and now with the COVID you can get it as, as frequently as once a week. So once a week you can obtain it free. And so these are the three bureaus that, that provide these reports, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. So when you go on to the annualcreditreport.com these three will be able to provide you with your credit report and typically you, you need your SSN number and your date of birth as a way to, to get in. Sorry. Credit score or is it one for so these, they can't, so your credit score will not be on your credit report. Your credit score is provided on the credit karma. These guys will provide their own credit reports, but you won't find your credit score on your credit report. Same thing. Yeah, 50 score. So if you see FICO score and credit score it's the same thing. Yes, yes credit karma. It gives you credit score. This one is annualcreditreport gives you your credit report. So you can download it online. So there's two ways of doing this. You can call them up. You can get it mailed. The quicker and safer way is just download it. Yeah. Just, you can just go onto their website and you know, provide them with the credit card, sorry, your self security number and your date of birth and then they'll be able to retrieve it and get that to you. So the annualcreditreport.com, the only way you can retrieve your credit report is your self security number. For those of you who do not have a self security number, you can ring up those agencies separately. So experience the Equifax TransUnion. You can ring them up individually and then you can give them your tax ID number and then they will do like this identity verification by mail. You can only do this by mail if you do not have your self security number. So understanding your credit report. So your credit report is because it's your financial history, it's very comprehensive, very detailed. So no one here has one, right? Is that correct? No one has a credit. So it's going to contain your personal information, your name, your birth date, your address, your SSN number, your employment details. It will have a whole section of your credit history, your payment history, your balance information up to your current status. So where you are right until now. It will also list any public records. So if you have any bankruptcy filings, unfortunately, those last up to 10 years on your credit reports. So you want to avoid bankruptcies and foreclosures. It also shows any inquiries, a list of creditors or authorized parties that have requested a credit report in the last two years. So that will come up as well. That's why it's good to download it, right? Because it will tell you, you know, which people have accessed or wanted to gain access of your credit history. Some credit facts. So when you check or you pull your own credit score or credit report, it does not hurt your credit score. So going back to your question, sister, it does not if you pull your own credit report, right? You can pull, I mean, now you can download it as frequently as once a week. So you don't need to worry that it's going to impact your credit score. Credit inquiries made by companies that are checking your credit report to send you pre-approved offers. Those do not impact your credit score either. You know, a lot of, I'm assuming, many of you get pre-approved offers, right? For credit cards, you get through email, you get these. So if those pre-approved offers are not impacting your credit scores, it's only when you have registered with a credit card that's going to directly affect your credit score and your credit report. So if you accept an offer and the credit card company or the lender pulls your credit report, then that will affect your credit score. And like I mentioned before, it can lower your score by about five points. So the best way to go about this is just provide a copy to your lender, your employer, your rental agent. It is best to do it that way. And then like I said, reviewing your credit reports helps you catch signs of identity theft early. So if you come across some transactions that, you know, don't seem right, ambiguous, you've queried them, it could be some fraudulent activity going on. So that's another big advantage of looking at your credit history. If the fraud is, if it's been investigated, it shouldn't. It shouldn't, yeah. So another very important point to make here is please contact your, so if you are having difficulty making your payments, whether it's your credit card payments, whether it's any payment you have with the creditor, please contact them. It's better to contact your creditors than ignoring them and then the red letters are coming and then those amounts are being delinquent and then they're going into collections. So please, and I think the biggest, personally I find that the biggest creditor is our medical bills, right? Like our insurance only covers certain amount of medical bills, but we can, you know, when we get a medical bill, there's always a number that's given behind any bill that if you have problem or difficulty making this payment, please contact us. So this is absolutely critical that please sisters, if you're having difficulty making any sort of payment, please contact your creditors because you can negotiate and come to some sort of agreement and make a plan rather than just neglecting that payment and then it's going into collections and it's ruining your credit. So fundamental advice. Okay. Okay, has it started? Oh, I said it started. So we can break here for, for our sister, sister says it started. Sorry, I do apologize. Okay, Bismillah. Okay, so we stopped at credit reports. So, you know, one advantage of downloading your credit report is to help you identify any errors and there is a process involved if you do, you know, identify any errors or even to correct them. So you must collect and collect all evidence to dispute these errors and you can do this either online or by mail. You need to report it to the agencies 30 days to verify and they'll temporarily exclude that discrepancy from your score. If the reporting agency is unable to verify the entry, then they must remove the error. If the error is removed, you can ask for a corrected version of the report and then get it sent to everyone who's received it in the last six months. So this is the post. That's why it's very critical that when you, when you download your credit report, please go through it extremely, but I can find detail very thoroughly because it is prone to errors. And then when you have identify an error and you want to correct it, this is the procedure involved. I think most, most of you have, anyone here who doesn't have a credit card? There you go. Okay. So minimum age is 18. There's usually a credit card application. They will look at your credit score, your payment history, the length of time that you have had a credit, that you've had credit and income. They, legally they're not supposed to take it into account your race, gender, religion, when you apply for a credit card. Has anyone had any difficulties in applying for a credit card? Everyone. How long have you guys had your credit cards? It's been a while. And has it been through that, through the spouse or your own, mostly through the spouses? Okay. I've heard for you who doesn't have one. Discover, I've heard great things about that, just an FYI that if you want to consider a credit card, discover is a good one. Usually when I didn't have credit cards for you, I got one of those. Oh, I see. All right. Okay. It is compared to kind of these other credit card companies, that was actually going to be my next slide. So if you have a bank account, right, if you have a savings account and you've been responsible with it, right, on a, you know, consistent basis you've been using it, it's better and far easier than getting a first time credit card through a bank that you've already established a good relationship, rather than, you know, getting a credit card from another company, right? So if you are with a good bank, you've developed a good relationship with them, they will pre-offer and possibly pre-approve you of a credit card and you can get one that way. So that's one, that's one route. And it's better, I mean, you can apply for credit cards online as well, but my suggestion is particularly if it's going to be your first time credit card to do it in person. So, you know, to do it at a branch because I think the, you know, the representative will have more authority to get your application approved rather than use to submit in something online. So particularly if it's your first one, I strongly suggest that it's in person. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, if you're, if that, because you already got it, this is, yeah, yeah, this is for this sister who doesn't have one. So if you already got your spouses, you're an authorized user then you don't need to do that. But you just need to like I said before just make sure that your spouse is making the payments on time because if he's not it's going to jeopardize your credit situation. And so that's what this was. Okay I want to do very briefly touch upon loans. Does anyone have a loan here? You do? Okay anyone thinking of obtaining a loan? Okay so I wanted to there's there's two types true categories of loans. One is they come under secured loans and the other category is unsecured loans. So secured loans are those loans that are backed by collateral. Right and so as the the name suggests secured there's security for the lender. Right so an example would be a home loan or a mortgage. Right because you're pledging an asset against that loan. So with the with the with the home loan or mortgage you're pledging your house. Right your house is considered the collateral for that for that loan. So that's why this is considered a secured loan for the lender because you're pledging an asset against that loan. Auto loan is another example. Again your car is the the car is the asset and that will be the collateral for for that loan. So typically because there's assets involved that you're pledging the interest rates are typically going to be lower for these type of loans as opposed to unsecured loans. Right so these home loans or mortgages auto loans they come under secured loans. And the opposite to this is unsecured loans. So these are loans that come without any collateral you're not pledging any asset. So typically your personal loans or signature loans come under this. So because there is no asset being pledged they will look at your credits these loans in particular they will look at your credit score more closely in terms of you need a higher score for these type of loans as opposed to the secured loans. Right so because there's no collateral or pledging with the assets they are more could they're considered as more riskier for the lender so that your interest rates are likely to be higher than your secured loans. And examples of of unsecured loans are your credit card loans any personal loans student loans right that comes under under unsecured loan. And also I've put IOU how many people have heard IOU agreements. Okay so so IOU agreements are agreements that you typically make between family and friends where you know you're borrowing money. So I I've you know because I work with DV clients I've you know come across a lot of situations where unfortunately these IOUs there's nothing in writing right and it just jeopardizes the relationship. So with the IOUs please have a signed agreement whatever you know whoever you've made this financial transaction with please make a signed agreement of that. I'm not aware of any I mean you can check you can have a look I'm not aware of any I don't know if there's a template possibly but I strongly I strongly recommend that that one is is is used like you know a writing template. Oh yeah we can possibly Google it and check I'm not aware of any that are readily available yeah. Notarized will be even better so if you can get it if you can get it notarized even better but the minimum yeah it doesn't have to be but I think that it just gives you that legal protection so yeah excellent point I think notarizing that document will give it more more legal status but at least the bare minimum is at least have it signed because a lot of these IOU agreements are all verbal like I owe you 50 bucks I'll give you I'm just giving you a small example I'll give you next week and then you forget about it and then it never happens but particularly where regardless of the amount because anything we give to someone it's an amana right but unfortunately they are I mean even within families within siblings you hear these horrific stories where brothers and sisters they've given loans to each other just because they're family and they never returned right they don't even acknowledge that this payment was ever made so you know we're accountable to Allah and so we have to the bare minimum is to have a signed agreement notarizing will be would be even better yeah I'm still signed is the minimum I think even email I mean that that doesn't hold much bearing the bare minimum it should be signed notarized will be even better but these verbal agreements they don't they don't stand they have no bearing within family we've we've heard everyone must have heard so many stories like that where unfortunately within your own you know your parents your siblings that money is gone right so that's why I've put this in there that at least please have it signed because you know it's it's an amana and talking about signing this leads me on to so before sisters before you sign anything and this again is goes back to my my line of work before you sign anything please read all the terms all the conditions all the fine print because you know a lot of the times things crop up later and because you already signed you've already become into this legally binding contract and it's too late to to pull out once you've signed you can't pull out right so before you sign anything please read everything in detail and particularly with loans there's something called prepayment penalties right so prepayment penalties sometimes with the loans you may decide to pay them off earlier than originally agreed right for example a home loan it might be a 30-year loan you may be ready to pay it off in 15 years right some of them have the condition or have this caveat of a prepayment penalty so this is a penalty that is imposed if you decide to pay your loan off early banks will impose this so before you sign your paperwork check please that you know check read the clauses read the fine print read about the prepayment penalty before you agree on on the loan and the conditions and also before you sign you are able to negotiate right up to the point before you sign you can negotiate your terms and conditions so please do use that opportunity like once you get something from the bank or anywhere right in writing before you sign up to the point of when you sign you have that opportunity to negotiate so please use your negotiation and you know and get that done because like I said once you've signed it's the final deal and you've entered a legally binding contract so that's a very important point and then the other point I wanted to make is something called predatory lending so this is like the predators right where if you feel that any financial institution that or you know any company that you're trying to get alone with and you're feeling pressurized you should never feel pressurized in you know by any sort of financial institution or if you feel that there's some sort of unfair practice so there's it's an abuse you know some form of abuse going on with this organization or the institution you know as as a tactic in lending you that money or you've been forced to you know take on this loan or this payment that is wrong right this card this falls under predatory lending and there's a website here www.usa.gov.consumer and that gives you very specific consumer protection information because it's illegal to use these tactics to try to lure you to you know get forcefully accepting some of these conditions of the loans so if you feel you've been a victim of predatory lending or you want to reach a potential lender then please go to this USA.gov information site and and they'll be able to help you okay another very important aspect I wanted to cover is our documents right so how many people here have access to their documents so any document at home any document you have full access everyone has full access to document so documents will cover so I'm going to break these up so ideally there's five categories of of of documents that we should have access to and it's good to organize them in in in these categories for ourselves because it just helps you with you know future planning financial records right we should have access to financial records this includes our bank statements credit card agreements any money order receipts loan documents right any documentation with regards to your finance you should have full access to number two legal documents right birth certificate marriage license if you're divorced a divorce decree social security cards immigration paperwork if you are in an abusive relationship a restraining protective order right we must all individually have access to this it does that we shouldn't rely on our spouses that they're the men of the house and you know they they should be in we should at least the bare minimum at least a know where they are if we cannot access the originals the minimum is to have copies of them I strongly advise that if you cannot have original documents of these have at least the minimum copies of these and once you have copies of these documents then you have to organize them and and and these are the five key buckets that how you should organize you should have a separate bucket or folder for your financial record a separate folder for your legal documents a separate folder for your property documents so this will include if you're renting your rental lease if you if you own a house your title your deed your vehicle registration your insurance policies if you have valuables ladies if you have jewelry gold please make sure you have at least pictures of it right we have to you know we have to have the safety plan in place in case of god forbid anything happens and then we're faffing around trying to figure out you know where to find find everything so property documents health records right our medical dental vision health any life insurance policies we have disability insurance medical expense receipts list of doctors if you have a will all of these should be kept under your your health records and then your expense documents your household bills it's just like i said at least the bare minimum should be to keep if you don't have physical access to at least have copies because i've i've come across so many sisters in our community separation divorced widowed and then you know tragedy strikes and they're completely clueless they don't know where to begin because they don't know like where to find you know these documents so at least know if you don't know where they are try to find them try to make copies of them and just keep them safe right if you feel for whatever reason you cannot keep them safe in your house you can keep them in a bank safe deposit box you can keep them in a trustworthy friend family's but at least you should have your own access to them and your own records you know like i said in my line of work i've come across so many sisters who were completely oblivious because they were fully dependable on their spouses who ran the show and then you know something happened and they didn't know where to where to start so so this is very very critical critical advice and so this leads me into i just want to very briefly touch upon financial abuse as anyone heard what financial abuse is okay so quite a few okay mashallah so financial abuse it is a form of domestic violence there are many forms of domestic violence and unfortunately financial abuse is is one of them physical abuse technological abuse spiritual abuse emotional abuse right there's there's many there's many forms unfortunately there's this misconception that you just have to be covered in bruises and scars to be for that to come under domestic abuse but it there's many forms and so financial abuse is one of them so this particular abuse like the others it begins very subtly right and then it progresses over time it's a pattern of abusive behavior it's used to gain and maintain power and control within the relationship and often this traps the survivor in in the relationship so here are some tactics that are used in financial abuse right so if you recognize them then unfortunately this is a a sign of financial abuse stealing money from you or your family so if your spouse is doing this this is a form of financial abuse forbidding you from working or getting an education forcing you to work and or hand over any income any assets or any benefits so if you are working and your spouse is forcing you to provide your earnings to him then there is a form of abuse if you're doing this voluntarily you want to spend on your spouse your children your house that's separate but if you are being forced to to you know provide the earnings to the spouse that is a form of financial abuse controlling how money is spent making all the financial decisions withholding financial information forcing you to sign or file fraudulent legal documents or benefits right so these are some further tactics that come under financial abuse preventing you from obtaining or using credit cards or bank cards threatening to report you for cheating on your benefits so if you are claiming benefits and your spouse is threatening you that they will report you to the to the benefits agency that is a tactic of financial abuse because it's a form of power and control overusing credit cards or refusing to pay your bills so that's why I keep reiterating sister your point that if you are an authorized user right under your spouse's name then you know just make sure that he's paying the payments on time because if he's overusing his card and he's not making the monthly it's going to directly impact your credit score so yeah yes yes that but I think um I have to double check but I am the the the disadvantage is also your spouse can just take you off because he's the primary account holder so he doesn't even have to get your permission he he can just have you removed anytime and you won't even know about it unless unless you use the card exactly because I had a client this same situation happened to she didn't he didn't notify her she went to use the card and it was rejected she rang the bank and he had changed he had changed the the mailing address so because the spouse is the primary account holder he could do or she could do what he wants or they want she wants I'm using he because mostly it's there it's the husband who does it but it could be it could be women as well it could be the wives yeah so so usually so that is very very common that is but kind of if she's going through the the the divorce the court will look at this right because they they do this audit trail where you know they'll check that the joint accounts have been emptied so I mean this is a very common tactic that the husbands use that they'll empty out and move around their assets and even move their funds abroad but there is there is an audit trail and and you know that the courts can retrieve you know bank statements so but yeah that that happens very commonly yeah I'm not too sure about I mean this is a kind of a family attorney question I don't know realistically if those funds can be retrieved but I know that the courts do you want to chime in on this so so what happens if because this happens a lot right a lot of the sisters they're not working they're fully financially dependent on their spouse and then you know they're going through a divorce they get divorced and then the joint accounts have been emptied so do they have access then to that to the to the joint money or that money is so if she hasn't contributed how does that work then um that's for the yeah yeah so yeah this is you know this question sister this is such an important quote because it just goes back to my previous slide why we need to have our documents right we each what regardless of our situation alhamdulillah you know we're good right now but we don't know about tomorrow so uh it's it's absolutely critical that we must have these documents absolutely I can't emphasize this enough well I mean if you if you can't access you know your husband's documents then at least just have yours organized yeah I mean that comes under financial abuse right it's it's because it's all about control so you know that the transparency has to be there so I did and we're going to cover this we've we've done some tactics and then I will share with you so so this slide kind of I think answers your question so what does a healthy financial relationship look like right so unfortunately 99% of domestic violence survivors all have experienced some form of financial there's a very close correlation between domestic violence survivors and financial abuse right and so um at least we need to be aware of what is it what is it what is a healthy financial relationship so a healthy financial relationship is where both partners right so the emphasis here is on is on both both partners have access to financial statements to information despite the fact that one you know that one of the partner is working right so your spouse your husband may be working he's managing the finances but a healthy relationship is where both the husband and wife have access to your financial statements and information secondly couples feel safe to identify and voice when they have different values about money and negotiate financial goals so again it should be a joint decision-making process I had a client a few months ago who told me that her husband bought a Tesla and didn't tell her just randomly came one day parked it in the driveway and you know Teslas are not cheap it's a big investment it's a big purchase and he just he just randomly you know parked it and he just said hey I've I've bought a new car right and and that's wrong so so the the the funny part was so the Tesla he so so the husband it was it was his car right so he didn't think it was necessary to tell the wife because he's driving it but I mean just think of the the the large amount that's been spent right and he didn't think it's important enough to tell the wife because the mindset is well I'm working so it's my money I can do what I want right so this is this is wrong and the other thing is slammically that I think a lot of our sisters I had this conversation in my last session is you know for for those of us who are working our money that we earn Alhamdulillah I mean Mashallah Islam is is a beautiful really our money is our money we don't have any legal or you know Islamic obligation to spend that on our family on our house on our children on our spouse we don't have that that is the husband's husband's duty is he's the guardian of the house he has to provide so what we whatever we earn Islamically that belongs to us we can choose to spend it right through voluntarily we can choose to spend it on the children on the spouse on the husband we can choose that but him demanding that whatever you're earning and that's coming to me that's wrong so we it's really important because I know Mashallah most of us know this but I've done so many sessions where sisters are like wow we didn't know this now we're just giving our earnings to our husband so you know I mean especially living in the Bay Area you need your incomes right but typically you do need both parties to work to be able to sustain a certain standard of living but you know don't feel pressurized obliged that I have to financially do this for the voluntarily yes by all means but you there's no fundamental responsibility to do that is the spouse the husband so both recognize and respect that decision-making is equal regardless of who earns more income each partner can have access to their money on their own so that's the other thing you know some of the sisters they have a joint a joint account but then they're not allowed access to it it's really bizarre like you know I've had stories where you know sisters are like you know we've got a joint account but you know my husband's taken my pin number so I can't access the funds I'm like well that's wrong like a joint account bare minimum you should have access to that so even with the joint account you there are some accounts that require both partner both parties to be present for to make a transaction or withdraw so you have to see you know there's either there's a or like so it could be for example myself you know Simon Zia or my spouse right just say Vic Zia right Simon Zia or Vic Zia so if it's an or account then either one of us can go and use that account independent we don't need to get each other's permission but there are some joint accounts that are and so then both parties have to be present or you need at least the signature of the other party to make a withdrawal or you know a transaction so with your joint accounts just be vigilant on be wary on kind of what are the what are the conditions on how that joint account works because you know some you have to have both people present so the the or is better where you know you have you have access independently yeah your bank accounts yeah and so both are knowledgeable about how money is spent right so i've just given you the Tesla example so you have to be you know you need to know so this this is a kind of a framework of what a healthy financial relationship should look like realistically we know that it's very difficult to achieve this right to to have this in a in a marriage but i think as you know to empower ourselves the the minimum is to at least understand that you know this is this is a healthy financial relationship and you know if if these things are not being done then that's wrong right but then you know you can try to communicate with your spouse and tell him that look you know this is a healthy financial relationship should be where both of us are involved but you know it's you all you all you know you know your situation is better than anyone right if you think that that conversation or that this issue is going to cause friction right then you know i i wouldn't i mean what can you do but i think my point is that at the bare minimum just understand that you know this is a healthy financial relationship these things that we spoke about and it's it's both parties are involved both parties are involved in the financial decision making process they're involved in the um uh you know the access and they know exactly what the you know the the the finances are what what their situation is and so i want to very briefly touch upon investments so investments and taxation and retirement that's a very specialized um area uh narica actually do um workshops for this but i just very very briefly wanted to touch upon this so financial instruments uh investments are financial instruments you buy with the hope that your money will grow in the future right that's what an investment is why should i invest to build wealth for retirement for education right if you're trying to save up money for your children's education investment is is one way of doing that to buy a house for your children for recreation and then i've just listed there's a lot more but these are some uh advanced investment vehicles that uh are commonly used stocks so shares is a common one where you know you um the stocks represent proportional shares of ownership in the company that you are interested in investing they work on a on a stock exchange and i've just put an example here if you buy 10 000 shares of a stock in a company so say for example BP right the oil company you buy 10 000 shares of that stock and 100 uh it has 100 000 shares issued so that you're owning 10 percent of that of that company so stocks are traded on public uh on stock exchange and you know buyers and sellers come together the other uh very commonly used investment vehicle is corporate bonds so with with any of these i if you are considering investments i strongly advise you speak to a financial advisor so if you know you do get an eye if you you know want any recommendations you can come and speak to me um after this session i i do have a couple of uh reputable advisors who provide a free consultation so you can get some you know further advice on kind of what are the the better um investment opportunities for you so corporate bonds is another real estate right that's considered an investment some people want to invest in purchasing properties right as a as a form of investment a gold silver right that's considered an investment to purchase that and and to retain that do also be careful with investment fraud do not be afraid to invest but always be aware they are unfortunately a lot of investment fraud so just be wary there's you know a lot of scammers around there's a one particular fraud very common one guaranteed profit from penny stocks right it's a it's a tactic that's that's used but it's it's it's mostly by scammers fraud learn business opportunities email scams right so um so you could avoid fraud just being informed find mentors so like i said you know really speak to financial planners and seek advice so if you are seriously considering any form of investment um you know please at least speak to a financial planner and seek their advice if an investment opportunity seems too good to be true then run right then that is risky if you feel that oh my god this is great it's going to make me a lot of money i'm going to you know get rich um gain a lot of profit there's something dodgy in that so um you know if it seems too good um run do not make any irrational decisions right without without doing your your research and i've just put together some websites that um you can so as resources if you need to find some additional information on investment click to empower investor.gov investopedia beginners invest about and google.com finance this last one the google.com so um you know reading the headlines like if you're for example considering um purchasing some stocks this one google.com.finance will give you some headlines about what is happening with the companies right so so for example if someone's recommended you know buy some shares with twitter right and we know what's been happening with with twitter so it's it's really important to know what's happening about that company um by reading the headlines so those are some um some resources um so that's it what i had on um the the main presentation i had a um a pop quiz so i don't know if uh it's 10 past five i i'm just a bit mindful of every one's time we can go through this very if you want very quickly together um let me um so just bear with me we'll we'll close on this and i'll take some q and a as well inshallah okay okay so we've covered quite a lot of terminology today so i'm gonna kind of do a quick quiz um debt how would you define a debt anyone sorry money you are exactly so yeah just give me you can just give me one um you know one worded answers on this that's fine um a budget yes i would say a tool to manage your money yeah excellent withdrawal yes taking out money online banking yes exactly that's how i remember it internet banking online banking it's the same and you do it online exactly mobile banking on your phone exactly an account what is an account so i would define it more as a you know like a like a yeah i mean that that is right something like a transactions right transactions form form an account a balance yes money that's that's assets or you owe exactly a transaction yes exactly credit score yes excellent martiala credit worthiness yes uh expense so is it's expense is a cost right something that you're having to spend money on so um a cost uh income earnings yep so income is any any form of money coming in um a check yeah it can yes it can be a written statement yeah um investment to make your money grow yeah mortgage loan on a house excellent loan something that you borrow yeah fees additional charges penalties consequences yeah consequences attacks something we all have to pay on everything right on an income tax sales tax everything has tax down payment yeah when you put a payment down on on a house excellent martiala so that's that's uh that's all i had for the for the presentation um any questions yes i can um i have to speak to um someone from mcc who i think have you all registered did you register for the so if you registered i think you've obviously um we've got your email addresses so i will uh i will get uh sister anjuman to um share this presentation with you yeah so you have yes because then we have if you if if if there were any walkings i think if there if there are any sisters who who just came in then um i can take your email address and then i can share this with you but those who are registered you should inshallah i i will get this email to you so you have your own notes any other questions feedback anything that can be added improved um this particular session it's more for um sisters just to give them an overview but it's also um like a beginner's workshop right like like there's there's far marked you know finances is very widespread so there is you know like investments is a is a workshop in its own right taxation is a workshop in its own uh retirement plans 401ks right that's that's you know there's far more to learn but this is just um like i said a beginner's like it's a stepping stone and i and i think as sisters because i'm a big advocate on on women's empowerment so this you know is so crucial for this financial empowerment we really need to you know empower ourselves financially because i've unfortunately come across so many sisters in our community and it's it's so sad to see them in this condition because they were completely clueless right so this is i've actually started to roll this out among um even my my daughter's here among uh young the young girls teenagers our daughters need to learn this i i came across um someone a couple of months ago who uh newly married couple uh never discussed financial planning financial management work situation it wasn't even and i'm sure you know when we got married we didn't i didn't i mean i would talk first and foremost about myself i didn't discuss have this conversation with my husband about what will happen with the finances who will be in charge who's gonna work it didn't even come up so anyway this couple recently got married and the the guy had a uh a large debt and so he got married and then he expected his wife to help pay off this huge debt and she's like well you didn't address this or you didn't you know discuss this before the marriage how am i supposed to you know um why are you kind of imposing this on me now so it's very very important like for our children particularly our daughters to empower them with this right just at least the bare minimum kind of give them this skill of financial literacy so that you know when they go into a marriage they know how to make a budget they know how to set financial goals they know some of this terminology they know about the banking system they know they should be putting money aside for a rainy day they should have their own savings account right all of this we must educate ourselves and then our children because you know um you know it's upon a lot of knowledge is power and um you know it it will just i think just having this awareness will also inshallah kind of some of the problems we're having in our community it will prevent those right so um i i want to you know thank each one of you to take this time out to i hope inshallah even if i've just benefited one sister that i've achieved my goal because um i i learned this myself and i i just want to as my sadh kajaria conveyed this knowledge to others so that you know they can benefit and then hopefully they can pass it along to you know friends family so inshallah i'll share this presentation so you have access to the slides um and then yeah you can reach out to me separately too um i don't but i can find out yeah i know i mean narika because they're a dv organization so they do these workshops but they're only for their clients who are domestic violence survivors but um i can find out i i do know a couple of financial advisors so i can ask if they if you you know if there is a demand in the community to do something on investments do something on taxation do something on retirements 401ks then you know if the demand is there i i can definitely um address that and ask for that but so far kind of my experience has been that even this which is considered it's basic stuff we've heard about it but you know a lot of us are still not you know familiarized with with these basic concepts so um yeah okay okay okay okay okay inshallah that's a good idea okay inshallah i know we had a lot more sisters registered who didn't show up so um uh you know inshallah i this is being recorded but i'm hoping to um you know come back here i'm i'm doing this at different massages so to kind of you know cater for for more women but inshallah i just think from my experiences with particularly working with these dv survivors it just made me realize that particularly among the immigrant community south asian immigrant community unfortunately sisters are completely oblivious they're just blindingly they just rely on their spouses and then when something happens you don't know right it doesn't have to be separation do even death right if your spouse passes away you don't know where to begin so very important yeah yeah i can give you my my email address so yeah you can contact me by my email yeah if it's more so you know we we we touched upon financial abuse so if it if you if you feel it's a question regarding that then i would go through narika you can you know the the the people who were here i would go through narika and um you know they can reach out because i i i i i volunteer through them and so um we can do it that way so um but if it's a generalized question uh i'm you know i'm happy to to answer that but if it's if it's you know abuse related then uh it's best to go through narika and so yeah but um yeah thank you so much for your time i really appreciate you coming out on a on a sunday afternoon and um you know if you want my contact details i can inshallah i can share those with you i'm actually just going to put it up on the on the board