The next HPOU Financial Seminar is set for Tuesday, March 24 in the Breck Porter Building, once again setting the stage for HPOU members to hear answers to the often complex questions centered around financial planning.
Oh, and there’s also a free lunch and dessert provided!
Space is limited; therefore, you must contact Sgt. Rhonda Williams, the HPOU Board member in charge of this membership service. Email her at rwilliams@hpou.org for reservations.
Williams said the financial seminar lasts one hour, from noon until 1 p.m.
The Union offers this service to members about once a quarter. HPOU’s Public Safety Financial Group has “crafted” an easy-to-comprehend format designed for officers either in the early stages of his or her policing career or those who have been on the job a few years and need financial guidance.
The group’s Brian Craft leads the seminar, which addresses questions such as:
- Should I finance a home at a 15- or 30-year loan?
- Should I buy a new car or lease one?
- What insurance coverage do I need when I get married?
- What stocks – or bonds or mutual funds – should I acquire for my investment portfolio?
- What are some basic ways to save money for my kid’s college education?
Craft has been hosting a quarterly series of financial planning seminars. They have been a popular benefit to Union members.
“We discuss basic financial planning concepts,” Craft told the Badge & Gun. “It’s geared toward those starting their career. We meet individually with those considering retirement. Their situations are far more complex.”
But Craft stressed that all officers are welcome no matter their tenure at HPD.
“We’re trying to get more of the younger officers involved,” Craft explained. “A lot of people don’t think of financial planning until they have to.”
Craft illustrates his financial planning points by quoting a wide array of sources, including Leo Tolstoy, Charles Caleb Colton and, yes, comedian Chris Rock.
The latter once said, “Wealth is not about having a lot of money. It’s about having a lot of options.”
Craft rocks on with specifics. Wealth, he says, is measured in time, not dollars. Savings divided by cost per month equals time. This and other more elaborate equations lead to a well-crafted discussion about financial cushions.
Economist Adam Smith is quoted as saying, “Money, says the proverb, makes money. When you have got a little, it is often easy to get more. The great difficulty is to get that little.”
One of Craft’s basic financial planning messages is, quite simply, to start young.
This basic but often hard-to-commit-to adage marks the beginning of his seminar geared toward the financial success of all officers but especially those just starting their careers.
There are other wider slices of financial wisdom at the seminar. Please attend to pick them up and store them in the database between your ears.