Hi! I’m Ashley, Financial Education Specialist for Credit Union 1! Check out my blog every Friday for fun tips and tricks to help you manage your finances.

Happy New Year! To start 2013 I wanted to give a little plug to my personal favorite service that Credit Union 1 offers to our communities – Discover Financial Fitness!

Education is the first step to financial success, which is why we created the Discover Financial Fitness program! Credit Union 1 teaches DFF courses throughout our communities, tailored to adults or youth. DFF courses teach you how to save money, get a loan, work your way out of debt and more. Credit Union 1 would love to extend this free service to your organization as an opportunity to help educate individuals and offer guidance toward a healthy financial future.

As part of our “people helping people” philosophy, Discover Financial Fitness classes give participants a better understanding of money and will give them  positive building blocks for their future financial success.  Our classes are centered around general financial literacy and only take about an hour to complete!  The basic units offered are budgeting, a definition and understanding of how to use credit wisely, and what to do if you get in trouble with credit.

In 2012, we taught 47 classes to over 1,125 Alaskans and 2013 could be the year that you participate in a DFF course! Credit Union 1 is happy to teach classes to organizations and can even come to you! We also offer quarterly classes to the public and our next class is set for January 24 from 6-7:30pm in the community room of our Mountain View Branch, located at 115 N. Bragaw. If you’d like to schedule a class or register for our public class, please email me at oneforallalaska@cu1.org. Take charge of your finances in 2013 and get a head start on creating a bright financial future for yourself!

P.S. That's me teaching DFF to the folks in Nome!