Virginia Cooperative Extension-Prince William Unit Offering Finance Classes in June

The Virginia Cooperative Extension Prince William Unit, or VCE, is offering a series of free classes in June to guide people on how to get their finances in order. Classes will cover budgeting basics, borrowing basics, understanding credit and credit reports and protecting against fraud and scams.

Setting financial goals, understanding credit reports, learning about borrowing basics and money management are the classes meant to help people better control their money.

While each of the virtual classes, can stand alone, people can take all of them for a more complete understanding of their finances.

The Goal Setting class teaches how to set financial goals and distinguish between wants and needs and more.

The SMART Money Management class, a two-hour budget planning orientation, will discuss income, expenses, assets and liabilities to help people build money management skills. The class will help people examine their spending habits, explain net worth and cash flow and offer credit and debt management tools. “They learn that a goal needs to be SMART, or Specific, Measurable, Achievable, and Relevant. When clients set a SMART goal, it helps them be very specific and in turn gives the confidence they can attain what they set out to achieve,” said Marjorie Leon, VCE financial program manager.

Borrowing Basics will show people things they need to know before they borrow money. “That’s basically where you go in and learn about loans and you learn about annual percentage rates and all the borrowing basics you need to know,” Leon said.

The Understanding Credit Reports module will teach people how to understand credit reports. “It talks about what information the credit report has, what the score means and the percentages of the things that make up your scores,” Leon said of the class.

The extension will also offer its free, in-person Virginia Housing First-Time Homebuyer seminar on June 4 at 9 a.m. to help prospective homebuyers learn the ins-and-outs of buying a house. The six-hour session features a lender and a real estate expert who will explain how each step of the home-buying process works and answer questions. Space is limited. “Get in early because they do fill up,” Leon said. “We have a wait list policy where you can show up, by 9 a.m., if people who are registered don’t show up, the wait list folks that are there can take their place. We try to accommodate as many as we can.”

Email [email protected] or call 703-792-6287 to register for any of the classes. See more information and a class schedule at www.pwcgov.org/money.