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About a year ago, my colleague Natalia invited me to join her in a new volunteer opportunity with the Ministry of Housing in Colombia. The Ministry had created a new program called Mi Casa Ya – which means in English “My Own Home Now,” to help people in Colombia own their first homes. Excited and eager to lend a hand, Natalia and I introduced ourselves to Alejandro, the Director of the National Housing Fund at the Ministry of Housing. Alejandro told us how an unexpected roadblock threatened to derail the program. He had created Mi Casa Ya so that even the poorest people in the country could get a government subsidy to purchase a home. To get the subsidy, they just needed to qualify for a mortgage from a local bank. But that was the problem. In order to get the bank loan, applicants needed a strong credit history. Yet most of the people looking to take advantage of the subsidy through Mi Casa Ya, he explained, were considered “credit invisible.” That is, they had no viable credit history, thin or un-scoreable credit files, or they simply had bad credit. So banks had no choice but to reject them. Natalia and I heard the frustration in Alejandro’s voice, and we knew just how we could help. We told Alejandro that if the Ministry could determine which individuals were being rejected by the banks, we could come in and build credit scores for them using Experian’s data. You see, building credit histories is the sort of thing we do every day at Experian. Over the years, Experian has innovated with analyzing traditional and alternative data sources, such as public records and magazine subscriptions, to create the most accurate and realistic picture of someone’s credit. And by unlocking the power of this data, we are able to identify the data sets that can help lenders make better decisions when making loans, especially for people with thin credit files. Working with Natalia and Alejandro for Mi Casa Ya over the past year has been incredibly rewarding – and our work here isn’t done! Since I work in the legal department at Experian, I am now involved in reaching an agreement with the Ministry of Housing to help advance this project. The details are tricky and the process is tedious, but when I think about the people whose lives we have the ability to transform, I just get excited. Because of our work, many more families in Colombia will be able to fulfill their dream of owning their own homes – that’s huge.

Growing up my dream home included a white picket fence, black shutters, a red door and an amazing backyard. Admittedly, my dream house was an exact replica of the house in the “Father of the Bride” movie. Parked in its long driveway was that brand new car. Fast forward 20 years later, I’m now a young adult uncovering the realities of adulthood and the financial behaviors it takes to attain those dreams. The question that comes to my mind frequently in the midst of financial decisions, is why am I just learning about all of this now? "We take the responsibility of educating people very seriously to help them feel confident in their decision-making. The only way to accomplish that is to ensure that effective financial education is provided throughout a person's life." – Rod Griffin, Experian director of public education Unfortunately, courses in personal finance were not part of our curriculum in school. In fact, I’m not the only one who second guesses money matters. Multiple studies have shown that consumers lack the confidence in their personal finance knowledge they need to make effective, fiscally wise decisions. A study from Mintel finds that just 19 percent of respondents give themselves an “A” grade on financial knowledge. According to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling’s 2016 Consumer Financial Literacy Survey, 45 percent of adults gave themselves grades C, D or F in rating their personal finance knowledge. Those statistics are exactly why Experian celebrates Financial Literacy Month #FLM2017 each year and why we are so heavily invested in enriching financial education in America — all year round. We want financial literacy, but more importantly, we want people to reach financial capability. It's the reason we have a dedicated public education team to educate consumers and empower clients to provide proper credit education to their customers. It’s also the reason why we financially support nonprofits that share our mission of strengthening financial education and helping individuals make better financial decisions. Our products and services can give consumers confidence in their financial decisions to get access to financial services so they too can purchase their dream house or car. Every week Experian discusses financial behavior topics on Twitter and Periscope Join the @Experian_US #CreditChat every Wednesday at 3 pm Eastern time Learning how to become financially literate takes time and something I've faced as larger life moments enter my view. I encourage others to take the time to talk about their own money matters and to take advantage of resources to improve your own financial literacy and well-being too. To learn more, see all of our activities for Financial Literacy Month.

By volunteering through Experian’s Sohos Reais – Real Dreams – project, I taught a mother of five about understanding basic business concepts so she could expand her sewing business and keep pursuing her dream. I grew up with parents who loved helping others, which fostered my love for volunteerism. Now that I work at Experian, this passion has blossomed as I’ve volunteered in many different capacities, from dressing as a clown to cheer up people in hospitals, to helping teach financial literacy to small-business owners in São Paulo, Brazil. Experian’s Sohos Reais – Real Dreams – program is designed to help connect entrepreneurs and small-business owners with experts who can advise them on how to help their business succeed. My volunteer partner, Diana, and I went through the training together, and a few months later were contacted by Aliança Empreendedora – Experian’s project partner – to help support a local entrepreneur. We were sent information about a woman named Adriana who was looking for advice for her sewing business. When we first met at Adriana’s house, she welcomed us into her home, fed us toast and black coffee, and introduced us to her five children. Adriana is a single mom whose husband left her after becoming a drug dealer. She told us how he had stopped supporting her and the children financially, and how Adriana now relied on her sewing business to support herself and the children – two of whom had serious health issues. Creating this business had been her dream since she was 12, when she had made her first dress for a school party. Now, she sewed colorful shopping bags and purses every day that she sold for R$1.25 a piece – a tiny price compared with the amount of work it took her to produce them. While she loved her job, Adriana told us that the money she made from her sales barely allowed her to cover basic living expenses, like water and electricity. She was on the brink of giving up her dream. The more we talked with Adriana, the more Diana and I realized that what she needed most was someone to help her understand basic business concepts, like cost and revenue. I thought that if we could help her control the money going out, we could solve a lot of her problems. Adriana was eager to learn, so right then and there, I showed her how, by keeping track of costs and profits, she could pay her bills and start to save money for her family. After our first meeting, a group of us from Experian were so inspired by her story that we raised R$1,415 for Adriana to buy fabric for her bags, and gave her a book to help her track her finances. Now every time we meet, Adriana brings the book with her, full of notes – she says it helps her work out her profit from the bags she sells so she knows how much more fabric she can buy. I never imagined that just sharing my financial knowledge with someone could help change their life. By volunteering with Real Dreams, Diana and I helped Adriana get back on her feet and continue pursuing her dream as a small-business owner and provider for her family.