Financial Readiness Program

The Financial Readiness Program's mission is to provide financial literacy training and education, personal financial counseling, and Information and Referral services to assist service members and families in developing skills and strategies to fulfill their financial obligations, meet their financial goals, and maintain their financial and mission readiness.

During a personalized session, our Financial Readiness Program (FRP) counselors will review your relevant documents, provide you with an individualized assessment, and work with you to develop a personalized spending plan based on SMART goals.

Who We Serve

We primarily serve Service Members, retired military personnel, DoD civilians, and their dependents. We also proudly serve Gold Star families and survivors. We serve DoD contractors on a space available basis.

Group Training Topics

Per HQDA 140-21, Common Military Trainings (CMT) provide soldiers and families with the common knowledge, skills, and behavior standards to enable them to manage their financial affairs in a manner that supports mission readiness. 

Are you a Company, Battalion, or Brigade Commander, Command Sergeant Major, or First Sergeant? Utilize the Financial Readiness Tracker to see and address all your Soldier’s financial readiness milestone requirements. Senior Leaders can find additional information here.

How to Request a Group Training

Please click here to download the ‘Group Training Request’ form. Following completion of the document, please submit to lindsay.m.wilson12.civ@army.mil

Questions about group trainings? Contact the FRP/AER office line at 337-531-1957/1958.

How to Register as an Individual

Click the link to the corresponding training below, and an email will generate to our Financial Readiness Team. Please refer to our calendar, include the training name and date, your first and last name, and a phone number in the registration request.

Common Military Trainings

Financial milestone training- certificates are issued upon completion. Mandatory for required Soldiers. Available for family members, retirees and DoD civilians. DoD contractors may attend on a space available basis.

• Continuation Pay: This course will help Service Members in the Blended Retirement System with 8-11 years of service understand what Continuation Pay is, how to apply for it and how best to use it.
• Disabling Condition: This course will help Service Members understand and manage the financial implications of dealing with a disabling sickness or condition.
• Divorce: This course is designed to help Service Members considering divorce make smart, informed financial moves so they can emerge from their divorce with greater financial confidence.
• First Child: This course is designed to help Service Members organize their finances efficiently and prepare them for the changes that come with a growing family.
• Marriage: This course will help Service Members organize their finances, adjust to life as a married person and get on the same financial page as their partner in order to improve communication and minimize stress.
• PCS: This course is designed to help Service Members better understand and prepare for a Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move.
• Post-Deployment: This course will help Service Members think about their attitudes toward money and consider how their finances may be affected after returning from a deployment.
• Pre-Deployment: This course is designed to will help Service Members navigate finances before, during, and after deployment and learn more about some of the benefits and potential financial pitfalls of deployment.
• Promotion: This course will help prepare Service Members for the financial aspects of a promotion and teach them how to take advantage of certain opportunities to improve their situation.
• Vesting In the TSP: This course is designed to help Service Members better understand Vesting in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP).

Ancillary Trainings

Topic-based trainings- certificates are not issued upon completion. Available to Service Members, retired military personnel, DoD civilians and their family members. DoD contractors may attend on a space available basis.

• Credit Management: Provides learners with the knowledge to build and protect their credit health and reduce the cost of credit. FRP will provide the information resources and strategies necessary to make informed decisions about obtaining credit and establish good habits for using credit wisely.
• Emergency Financial Preparedness: Provides learners with knowledge that can help them identify the information and resources they need to be physically and financially ready for an emergency or natural disaster.
• Home Buying: Designed to increase the knowledge of first-time home buyers on the home buying process and financial considerations when deciding to buy a home.
• Planning for Your Financial Future: Provides information resources and strategies necessary to develop personal financial goals and adjust personal spending to attain those goals
• Saving and Investing: Introduces learners to saving and investing terminology, types of saving and investing accounts in terms of risk, liquidity, rate of return and types of retirement accounts in terms of contribution limits, taxes, and withdrawals. Provides all necessary information to distinguish between Roth IRA and Traditional IRA options.
• Tax Considerations: Covers the terminology associated with federal income taxes, where the information needed to prepare IRS Form 1040 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return comes from and where figures are entered on the form.
• Car Buying: Designed to develop knowledge and skills that will enable learners to conduct adequate research on a new car purchase, to determine how much they can afford to spend on a car and to negotiate effectively when purchasing an automobile.
• Exploring Digital Assets: Provides service members with the information and resources needed to make informed decisions about owning Digital and Crypto assets, understand high-level tax implications of Digital and Crypto assets, increase their knowledge regarding Digital and Crypto asset-related fraud and scams, and understand how to submit consumer complaints regarding digital asset-related fraud.

Financial Counseling Topics

Financial and Money Management:

•     Banking, Credit, and Debt Management Strategies

•     Budgeting

•     Consumer Decisions

•     Evaluating Financial Planning Services

•     Financing Education Goals

•     Insurance Needs

•     Investing

•     Financial Record Keeping

•     Major Purchases

•     Preparing for Transition

•     Retirement planning (BRS, lump sum, TSP, and SBP)

•     Savings (emergencies, periodic expenses, and long-term goals)

•     Tax Considerations

Information and Referral (I&R)

Common I&R Topics

•     Estate Planning

•     Powers of Attorney, Wills, and Trusts

•     Predatory lending and practices prohibited to the Service members Civil Relief Act and the Military Lending Act

•     Contract execution and dispute resolution (sales, credit, and housing)

Army Emergency Relief

The Financial Readiness Program also provides support through Army Emergency Relief (AER).

As a non-profit organization, Army Emergency Relief provides emergency financial assistance to active or retired Army Soldiers & their dependents as interest free loans or grants based on financial need; assistance to widow(er)s or orphans of deceased Soldiers in the form of grants. AER can assist with:

• Food
• Rent/Utilities
• Emergency transportation & vehicle repair
• Funeral expenses
• Medical/dental expenses
• Other emergency financial needs

AER partners with other military aid societies to enable local assistance for service members from the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. AER also provides scholarships toward education. AER gives spouses and dependent children of service members great opportunities for scholarships for their first undergraduate degree.

Additional Resources

We want to remind our community that you can get a FREE credit report once a year from each credit agency at: www.annualcreditreport.com. We can assist with understanding your credit report, implementing debt management plans, and repairing your credit.

We provide free access to the myFICO® credit score and analysis tool through FINRA Investor Education Foundation to active-duty service members and their spouses, particularly those who are at risk or have security clearance concerns.

Maximize your contributions now for a greater payoff in retirement! We stand ready to provide you with information on investment options, fund selection, fund management, and projected fund value. Visit www.tsp.gov for more information.

Financial Readiness Links

· Financial Frontline: The Deputy Chief of Staff, G-9’s Financial Education Program provides programs, policy, education, advocacy and program oversight required for Soldiers and Families to achieve personal financial readiness in support of mission readiness.

·         Money Matters: A mobile-optimized resource with calculators for savings, debt reduction and other reference material in one location.

·         Housing Resources for Military Members: The National Military Family Association has compiled a great list of resources to help Military Families who are struggling with the pitfalls of the housing crisis.

·         Army OneSource: Network of the services and delivery of support to Soldiers and their Families.

·         Military OneSource: A Department of Defense-funded program that provides comprehensive information on every aspect of military life at no cost to active duty, National Guard, reserve members, and their Families.

·         Office of Servicemember Affairs: A component of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau helps to educate and empower military members, veterans, and their Families in the consumer financial marketplace.

· U.S. Savings Bonds: A shorter-term savings option with competitive interest rates and backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.

·         Saveandinvest.org: A project of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, a free, unbiased resource dedicated to your financial health. Helps you make informed decisions through easy-to-use tools and resources, and arms you with the information you need to protect yourself from investment fraud.

·         Better Business Bureau Military Line: Provides specialized education and support services, which meet the needs of active and retired military personnel and their Families. 

Due to limited staffing, ACS can only conduct appointments for the items below. 

Provides Service Members, Retirees, and Families with Hands On Training resolve financial situations that would normally be resolved during a One-on One appointment.

This ACS Program also has Financial Wellness classes such as Basics of Investing, Home Buying, Consumer Scams and more.  Click the HERE to find out what they have to offer.

Service Members can go to https://olms.armyfamilywebportal.com/    to conduct the training and receive their Certificates of Completion that they must upload on their DPTMS training portal.  For Transition also contact SFL-TAP Assistance at (915)568-7996 / 3870 / 4472.

During Reintegration (Post-Deployment) trainings ACS Financial Readiness will highlight items from the DoD Touchpoints / DoA Milestones and encourage people to complete the mandatory training.

Department of Defense TouchPoints / Milestones.  

Most of these classes are available online at:  
https://olms.armyfamilywebportal.com/

Online classes are 3) TSP Vesting, 4) Promotion 5) PCS 6 ) Marriage 7) Birth and Adoption 8) Life Challenges (Divorce or Disabling Conditions)  and 10) Deployment (Pre and Post).  These online classes provide the DPTMS required Certificate upon completion.  They also have the DoD and DoA Handouts for each topic.

We must teach the 9) CCFSPCC (Leaders Training) 11) Continuation Pay and 12) Transition in person because as of now they are not available online.  ACS Financial Readiness will provide the Certificates of Completion for these classes.

• Consumer Complaint Resolution - Have your consumer rights been violated? If so, you can file a DA Form 5184-R Consumer Complaint and submit it to one of our Financial Readiness Specialists. When filing a complaint please attach all relevant and supporting documentation, i.e. warranties, bill of sale, correspondence with merchant, etc.
• Form can be found HERE