JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
"Car Buying" was the focus this week as Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph kicks off Military Saves Month.
Other themes planned during the month are "Purchasing a Home," Monday through Thursday; "Funding for College," Feb. 17-21; and "Basic Finance," Feb. 24-28.
"Military Saves Month is a way for us to remind our military community about the important part saving plays in planning for the future," Criselda Smith, JBSA-Randolph community readiness consultant, said. "It's all about teaching our community how to be financially savvy."
Smith said JBSA-Randolph's Military Saves Month takes Military Saves Week, an annual opportunity for installations and organizations all over the world to promote good savings behavior, a step further.
"We decided to offer a month's worth of financial education classes to reach different populations," she said.
The first event of Military Saves Month featured a presentation on car buying by Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union representatives Tuesday at the JBSA-Randolph Military and Family Readiness Center. It was part of the Lunch-N-Learn Brown Bag Series.
Mike Bell, JBSA-Randolph MFRC community readiness consultant, presented a class on first-time car buying Thursday, also at the MFRC.
"Mike talked about all aspects of car buying," Smith said. "He considers things most of us don't even think about when we're buying a vehicle."
Bell, who teaches the class on a quarterly basis, said it's important that vehicle buyers prepare for their purchase.
"It's so easy for anyone to buy a car, but what's lost is that it's the second largest purchase a person makes," he said. "Most people throw themselves at the mercy of the salesperson. We're not trained to combat their tactics."
Bell said his most important advice for first-time car buyers - and all car buyers, for that matter - is to separate the different aspects of the purchase.
"Demand that you keep the vehicle purchase price, the trade-in value and financing as separate pieces," he said.
Smith said one of the salesperson's strategies is to determine the car buyer's maximum monthly payment.
"You disclose a lot when you give them that information," she said.
By giving salespeople that information, car buyers "may end up with a vehicle they didn't want to buy," Bell said.
The class also included a visit to the vehicle resale lot, where Bell told participants what to look for mechanically when they're shopping for used cars. He also talked about topics such as Kelly Blue Book car prices and values and Carfax vehicle history reports.
Other classes scheduled during Military Saves Month, all at the JBSA-Randolph MFRC, are "First-Time Home Buying," 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Tuesday; "Making Scholarship Money Work for You," 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Feb. 17; "Financially Sound Teens-Rock Star Accounts for Teens," Feb. 19; "How to Read Your Credit Report," 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Feb. 24; and "Investment Class 101," 1:30-3:30 p.m. Feb. 27. All 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. classes are part of the brown bag series.
Community readiness consultants will set up an information booth 1:30-3:30 p.m. Thursday and Feb. 20 at the JBSA-Randolph Exchange to provide financial education, Smith said. They will also visit the commissary Feb. 27, during Military Saves Week, to provide education and to assist military members, retirees and their family members; Department of Defense civilians; and DOD contractors in signing the Military Saves campaign' s Saver Pledge. People may also sign the Saver Pledge at http://www.militarysaves.org.
For more information, call 652-5321.