Newhall’s Elevate Church will be setting aside time for Santa Clarita Valley residents to receive financial guidance with Financial Peace University, beginning Aug. 12.
Lead pastor Mauricio Ruiz said he and his wife introduced the program over a decade ago after taking advantage of the program themselves.
“We not only saw it work in our life as to have financial freedom and shift our thinking from paycheck to paycheck and get a loan to buy furniture, even buy a vehicle with a bit of a loan,” he said.
Ruiz and his wife cut out small luxuries like entertainment, gifts and regular trips to Starbucks, and tried to not feel consumed with trying to survive financially. They “started to see where to carve away the fat and have the mindset of putting something away in savings,” he said.
One of the first takeaways of the program is to have a $1,000 emergency fund.
“Most people don’t even have a dollar in their savings account,” Ruiz said. “We started with that step. Next, it was the debt snowball and how to look at our loans and start paying them off at the lowest interest rate. It’s about having small steps of victory and feeling like it’s improving.”
Once attendees learn about the seven “baby steps” they need to take to remain afloat financially, they will learn what role insurance will play, how to plan for retirement and managing one’s mortgage.
The cost to attend the program is $99 and the nine-week program concludes Oct. 21. Each class begins at 6:30 p.m. The program is open to non-church-goers. Guests can belong to any denomination and do not need to be religious.
“This is solely helping people renew their minds when it comes to having financial freedom to take back control of their financial status,” Ruiz said.
To sign up or find out more, go to financialpeace.com/groups/1092935?c=ccf#.