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Your Values…Your Choices…Your Money:
A Faith and Values-Based Financial Education Curriculum to Help Low Wage Earners Make the Most of Their Finances
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has teamed with nationally noted financial curriculum writers, Inger Giuffrida and Rita Bowen, to offer a unique faith and values-based approach to help low-wage earning adults gain the knowledge and skills to change their financial situations.
Your Values, Your Choices, Your Money approaches money management with a focus on the values and goals of the participant. It helps students view all of their financial decisions through the lens of their values (those things that are most important to them) and with a focus on their goals (those things they want to achieve in life).
Rather than taking a prescriptive, one-size fits all approach to providing financial information, Your Values, Your Choices, Your Money challenges participants to approach their financial choices from a “Stewardship” perspective. Stewardship is understanding that everything we have – our selves, our families, our communities and our money – is a gift from God and we are responsible for taking care of those gifts.
The curriculum does not begin with participants examining their credit reports or making budgets. Instead, Your Values, Your Choices, Your Money begins by building the foundation for making meaningful choices about money management by focusing on a person’s values and goals and the application of stewardship to financial decision-making.
Finally, the impact of consumerism is woven throughout the curriculum. Your Values, Your Choices, Your Money recognizes that one of the biggest challenges to financial health is our spending-based consumer culture. The curriculum leads participants through multiple exercises that help them deal with consumer messages, stick to their budgets and stay out of debt.
The curriculum is comprised of 7 Training Modules (and 12 workbook chapters) including a Student Workbook and a Facilitator’s Guide. Teachers are free to pick and choose content that best fits their teaching goals and students’ needs. There is also an intensive 2-session curriculum focused on credit and entitled: Credit: Its Use and Care.
While the English-language curriculum was designed to support individuals participating in Individual Development Account (IDA) Programs, Your Values, Your Choice, Your Money can be used in any adult financial education program aimed to benefit low-wage earners.
Your Values, Your Choices, Your Money is offered free of charge and can be downloaded directly from the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans website: www.thrivent.com (Fraternal Programs/Church and Community Programs) |