Metro Credit Union

Personal Finance

The Basics of Personal Finance

From managing daily expenses to investing for retirement, this session helps participants set personal finance goals, learn the basics of smart money management and build a solid financial foundation for the future.

Are You Financially Healthy?

True financial health is based on four key components: Spend, Save, Borrow and Plan. You’ll also get a chance to confidentially determine your own Financial Health Score and learn the steps you can take to improve that score.

Psychology of Spending

We all have a “money personality” and it has a major impact on our attitudes, relationship with money, and spending habits. By understanding this, individuals can monitor and adjust their behaviors to make smart money decisions. This session will teach strategies and tactics to decode personality types to gain control over finances.

Ten Steps to Financial Success

Everyone measures financial success differently, but all paths to get there require discipline and goals. This session teaches participants ways to financial control—including developing a spending plan, creating objectives, weighing insurance needs, and other tolls that will help get on the road to personal financial success.

Build a Basic Budget

This session hits all the basics and gives you a five step spending plan to assist you in achieving financial goals.

Saving With Purpose

Saving money is much easier with a goal in mind. This workshop shows you how to choose the right goals for you, and overcome barriers to achieving them.

Understanding Student Lending and the Financial Aid Process

Student lending presentation that takes students and parents on the journey from the FAFSA application through the lending process, including Federal loans and Private education loans, and includes insight into options for Refinance and student loan repayment.

Credit

Understanding Credit

Credit: Many want it but how do you get it? This session covers all aspects of becoming an educated credit consumer, including how lenders evaluate for credit approval, factors that impact credit qualification, how credit scoring works, and ways money management today impacts credit standing tomorrow.

Using Credit Wisely

A credit card can be a valuable financial tool. However, before racking up big charges on multiple cards, participants can learn smart ways to handle their credit cards and take a disciplined approach.

Solving the Mystery of Credit Reports

Credit reports and credit scores are increasingly important to our lives. They affect the cost of credit we receive, where we live, insurance rates we pay – even the jobs we can get. By understanding the reporting and scoring process, your consumer rights and responsibilities, how to recover from inaccuracies, and how to guard against identity theft, you can establish, maintain, and protect a strong credit history and good credit score.

Debt Management

Despite all the advantages and conveniences credit cards can provide, there are pitfalls associated with credit use. Don’t worry – take action. We will walk you through the five steps you can take to repay what you owe and get back on track.

Family Finances

Planning for Money Milestones

There are many important financial milestones for consumers in their 20’s and 30’s. To help prepare today’s younger generation for a positive financial future—without sacrificing fun—we take a realistic approach to managing finances. We’ll cover SMART goals, getting financially organized, building a budget, controlling expenses, wiping out debt, and much more!

Women and Money

Whether it’s having children, career advancement, divorcing, or becoming a widow, these pivotal times in women’s lives can have an impact on your finances. This session addresses special considerations for budgeting, credit, and insurance.

Finances for New Families

Getting married. Having kids. These are natural progressions in life for many, but also present new financial situations and decisions to make immediately, and for the long term. This session will help you discover, prioritize, and design a workable plan for your family’s goals and lifestyle.

Teens and Money

Young adults are primed to soak in new information. It’s a great time to guide them to money management techniques that can last a lifetime. Attendees will learn managing money effectively, preparing for common upcoming bills, opening checking and savings accounts, establishing credit (and using it wisely), and looking at investing options.

The Sandwich Generation

The Sandwich Generation is positioned in the middle. They care for aging parents while supporting their own children. In this workshop, participants will learn how to manage their parents’ medical, legal and financial needs, while ensuring they stay financially prepared for their kids’ future.

30 Ways to Trim Your Budget

Stretching your budget is a necessary step to achieving your financial goals. Learn smart ways to save on the things that impact your finances most, such as food, health care, insurance and more.

Home Ownership

First Time Homebuyer Must Know / Purchase Timeline

Buying a house requires plenty of planning. And none of it is much fun. Learn about creating a home-buying timeline before you start looking at homes so that you’ll increase your odds of buying a place that truly fits your needs, wants, and financial situation.

Factors Considered to Qualify for a Mortgage

A variety of factors, such as credit score, income, assets, debts and employment history are taken into consideration when underwriting your mortgage loan application. We’ll prepare you to make a smooth process flow.

Identity Theft & Fraud

Identity Theft Solutions

Identity theft is becoming more common and sophisticated than ever. Session participants will learn the methods that identity thieves use to access confidential information, tools for preventing ID theft, and steps to take should identity theft occur.

Safeguarding Kids’ Identity and Online Privacy

Today’s youth generation is tech-savvy and connected online. However, parents still play an important role in helping them avoid online hazards such as identity theft, privacy and cyber-bullying. This workshop covers important issues including online privacy tips, managing computer settings, smartphone apps, and positive online behavior.

After Identity Theft

As a victim of identity theft, you may feel upset and overwhelmed knowing that someone has access to your private information. Remember that recovering from identity theft is possible. By breaking the process down into eight steps and using the right resources, you’ll protect yourself and move towards a life after identity theft.

Investing

To learn more about investing seminar dates click here

The Three Transitions to Retirement

During this session, you’ll learn how to confidently address the financial, lifestyle and emotional transitions to retirement, how to guard against risks and manage those that are inevitable, and whether you are ready for retirement.

Social Security and Your Retirement

Learn more about your Social Security benefits and discuss the role they play when setting a clear direction for your financial future. You’ll learn the answers to your Social Security questions, including what are the rules for starting your Social Security benefits, how do spouses coordinate their benefits, are there different routes to take that could potentially increase your benefits, and how do you decide where Social Security fits within your retirement plans.

Income for Life

You’ll find out more about how to use annuities to help create a guaranteed income for life, including social security and your 401(k). You’ll learn the answers to your income for life questions, including what sources of retirement income to rely on, do you face as you begin drawing on your savings, and which income strategies you should consider.

How to Weather a Bear Market

Learn answers to important questions, including what is a bear market, how does behavioral finance affect decision-making, how do overreaction and bad decisions compromise long-term financial goals, and how to weather a bear market.

Rollover Planning

Often when people change jobs or prepare for retirement, they need to make decisions on their retirement plans and pensions. In this virtual seminar, you’ll learn some of the rules we need to follow and the options available. Learn the pros and cons to leaving your money in the company plan, possible taxes or penalties you may face when moving retirement money, options for moving it your new company plan, and rolling over to a personal IRA.

All About IRAs

Headed in the right direction with your IRA? As you plan for retirement, you’re faced with many choices. Sometimes you take the right road. Sometimes you don’t. Here’s an opportunity to take the right road and steer toward your personal retirement goals using IRAs.

Rethinking Diversification

In today’s volatile market, retirement savers face new challenges. Traditional portfolio diversification may no longer be the answer to growing your savings without the risk of losing it all. Luckily, there are new ways to manage investment risk. You’ll find out more how retirement savers are facing new challenges, and the new ways to manage investment risk.

The Return of Conservative Investing

Market volatility. Low interest rates. Retirement risks. All of these headwinds are making it tougher than ever to know where to invest your retirement savings. In this seminar, you’ll learn how conservative investments like certificates of deposit (CDs) and annuities can help get your financial plan back on track. You’ll find out more about where to invest your retirement savings and learn about conservative investments.

Transitions to Retirement

Are you ready to retire? You might be prepared for the financial transition, but you’ll experience lifestyle and emotional transitions as well. We can help you understand these upcoming changes and provide the information you need to better prepare for this exciting season of your life.

Understanding Medicare

Planning for retirement is never easy, and maneuvering through Medicare rules and regulations is one more step in an already confusing process. During this seminar, you’ll find out more about the basics of Medicare and how financial education can help you in retirement income planning.

Women and Investing

There’s no denying the facts: Women tend to earn less than men and live longer than men. If you’re a woman who would like to retire one day, you may need to save more and invest more than men. Do you want to become a successful lifelong investor? This seminar will focus on the importance of taking control of your own future through investing.

Other Topics

Breezing Through the Holidays

It may be called “the most wonderful time of the year” but December can also be filled with unwanted debt due to holiday spending. Learn budgeting strategies and tactics to avoid that year-end credit card crunch and sidestep debt traps in the future.

Drive Away Happy

Getting a car can be overwhelming and stressful with all the decisions to make: new or used; buy or lease; zero percent financing or rebate (not to mention what color to pick). Participants will learn tips and tricks to have the best car shopping experience possible, while also making wise financing decisions.