Presented by Larry Garcia 2011 Raise Texas Summit Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Nov 1, 2011, Dallas, TX Building a Savings Culture in TEXAS: Dreams Can Come True El Paso Affordable Housing CUSO, 6801 Viscount Blvd, El Paso, TX phone fax

SURVEY Chose Questions that would: Determine Savings Behaviors before the Financial Education Workshop Determine if Financial Education Workshop addresses Savings Behaviors Determine after 6 months if Savings Behaviors were positively affected by the Financial Education Workshop Conducted in workshops held from April 1, 2011 through Sept. 30, 2011—received approximately 400 surveys for this analysis.

Lack of knowledge regarding the mechanisms and techniques for healthy saving Perception that resources are insufficient for savings to be plausible Fear of/distrust for financial institutions Results of the pre-survey represent a spectrum of savings behavior among participants: while some report healthy practices and attitudes with respect to saving, others are skeptical or uninformed of the process. Of those who do not save and/or do not use formal financial institutions, there seems to predominate a:

These observations are demonstrated in the following…

Percentage of participants that put money aside as savings:

For those that don’t put money aside, what are the major reasons they do not?

For those that do put money aside, how do they decide the amount to save?

Frequency with which participants save money for a certain reason, but end up using it for something else:

Months in the past year that participants had an unexpected expense over $200:

Which of the following were factors in this situation?

Which places did participants most use to save money during the last year?

Prevalence of checking accounts:

For those that don’t have checking accounts, why don’t they?

To Review Three principle barriers to saving, as indicated in the pre-survey, are: 1.A lack of knowledge regarding the mechanisms and techniques for healthy saving 2.The perception that resources are insufficient for savings to be plausible 3.A fear of/distrust for financial institutions

A lack of knowledge regarding the mechanisms and techniques for healthy saving Five Step Financial Plan 1.Establish Goals 2.Analyze Information 3.Create a Plan 4.Implement Plan 5.Follow the Plan and Modify Appropriately

The perception that resources are insufficient for savings to be plausible Needs VS. Wants Establish Goals

A fear of/distrust for financial institutions Selecting a Financial Institution Previous negative experience with financial institution No experience by parents with financial institutions Feel “out of place” in financial institution

At present, there have not been sufficient post- surveys completed to determine the effectiveness of the Financial Education and Home Ownership Clinic. This said, we predict with confidence that the Clinic will result successful in addressing the barriers to saving that have been discussed in this presentation.

Demographics: Approximately 400 surveys

Size of household:

Language most spoken at home:

Gender of participant:

Average age of participant: 38.2

Is participant Hispanic or Latino