Savings You Can Do It

“Managing money well begins with hanging on to what you have. This means avoiding unnecessary expenditures and then finding a safe place to store whatever money is left over. Making that choice—the choice to save rather than to consume—is the foundation of money management.”- Savings Module Content Note
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©Microfinance Opportunities. 2014.

Online Orientation
This online Savings Overview guides users in the use of the Savings: You Can Do It! module of the Financial Education Core Curriculum (FECC).
It is recommended that you participate in the online Orientation prior to viewing this Overview so that you are familiar with the tools and background of the FECC.
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Navigating this Overview
In this Overview, you will access and open the training tools of the Savings module to explore the curriculum and its content.
The tools referenced in the presentation can be found to the right under “Workbook & Toolkit” and “Trainer’s Guide Components.”
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Objectives
By the end of this ovierview on the Savings Module, you will have:
•Explored the importance of savings
•Reviewed current and desired behaviors of consumers regarding savings
•Examined the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and self- efficacy consumers will acquire through participating in savings learning sessions
•Considered the unique perspective in your community and target population to most successfully deploy the module
•Reviewed important methodological considerations for delivery of the Savings Module
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Reflect
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Do you consider savings a “core” or fundamental money management topic? Why or why not?

Savings: You Can Do It! – Introduction

Savings: You Can Do It! – Introduction
Saving is a crucial aspect of the overall Financial Education Core Curriculum. It helps clients prepare for emergencies and avoid taking on debt. Prudent consumers also take advantage of appropriate financial services available to them to maximize their savings.
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Consumer Behavior & Behavior Change

Savings and Financial Education
MFO’s definition of financial education aims to change consumers’ behavior through addressing attitudes, knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy. In this section, you will use each tool from the Savings Module. This will allow you to see how each of these aspects is addressed during a participant’s learning journey.
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Behavior Change Model
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Reflect
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What are common financial behaviors in relation to savings that you see in the communities where you work?

Market Research and Consumer Behavior
The Savings Module is developed based on the market research findings conducted with low-income consumers in our seven partner countries.
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What differences or similarities do you see between these behaviors and the behaviors in your community that you identified?
Activity: Open the Savings TOT manual to page 40 to review market research findings on some common consumer behaviors around savings.

Savings: Changing Consumer Behavior
The Savings Module will help consumers move away from current savings behaviors that may not be working well for them to new behaviors that will help them save their money more effectively.
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What desired behaviors around savings would you like to see in your target community?

Attitudes
What must the participants’ thoughts, feelings, and opinions be to adopt the behavior?
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Attitudes
Attitudes about money are based on what we have seen, heard, and experienced in the past. We build our behaviors on them. However, some common beliefs about money are not accurate and they hold us back unnecessarily. For example, many of us believe that we cannot manage money well because we are not good at math.
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What underlying attitude towards savings do you think the mother and father had before talking to the family friend?
Activity: Each module of the FECC is accompanied by a video. The savings video was produced in the Philippines. It shows a real-life situation in which a family deals with a savings challenge.
Click here to watch.

Attitudes
They may think:
•they won’t qualify for a bank account
•they don’t have enough money to save
•they don’t have the necessary income to save
These attitudes may have prevented her from getting more information about savings accounts.
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What are some of your personal attitudes about saving?

Attitudes
Saving is hard for everyone. Low-income clients find it particularly difficult because they live on a restricted income. It can be helpful to stress that saving even just a little bit is a great place to start. Developing the habit is key. Participants can always save more as time goes on, but starting with a small amount can make it manageable and build confidence.
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Knowledge
What information does the participant require to adopt the behavior?
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Knowledge
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What knowledge would you expect a participant to acquire by participating in the Savings Module learning sessions?
Activity: What key ideas or knowledge do you think your participants will need related to savings? Jot down a few sentences.
Take a look at the Learning Sessions at a Glance document. Compare the session titles and purposes with the list you made.
Knowledge is the basic information participants need to know in order to effectively manage their money. In addition, they need the skills to be able to put that knowledge into practice, such as recording income and expenses in two columns to help track money, or keeping a marked envelope where they save money for a particular purpose. A more narrow definition of financial education focuses on just knowledge and skills, while MFO’s definition includes these but emphasizes the need for all four components to change behavior.

Skills
What must the participant be able to do to adopt the behavior?
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Skills
The Savings Module helps clients learn how to:
•Identify savings goals
•Identify how to overcome savings difficulties
•Distinguish between formal, semi-formal, and informal savings services
•Practice making a savings plan
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What would you expect your target population would be able to do after participating in these learning sessions?
What skills seem like the most difficult to acquire?
Activity: Look at the Learning Sessions at a Glance document and scan the session titles and purposes of the learning sessions contained in the Savings Module.

Self-Efficacy
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Self-efficacy “is the measure of the belief in one's own ability to complete tasks and reach goals.”*
*See Ormrod, J. E. (2006). Educational psychology: Developing learners (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.

Self-Efficacy
An important component of changing behavior is improving self-efficacy. The Savings Module simulates real-life situations in the classroom environment so that participants can practice the new skills they are learning. This gives them confidence in their ability to attempt using the skills and knowledge outside of the classroom environment.
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Activity: Look at the Learning Sessions at a Glance document again and identify 2-3 sessions that will provide the participants with the opportunity to practice new savings skills in a supported environment.

Delivery of the Savings Module

Methodology: ALPPs
Open up the Trainer’s Guide to the Table of Contents on page VII. Choose a session that interests you and read through it.
The curriculum was designed based on Adult Learning Principles and Practices (ALPPs). What ALPPs do you see integrated in the learning session you selected?
•Respect
•Affirmation
•Relevance
•Dialogue
•Engagement
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Methodology: Activities
The Core Curriculum was designed to be engaging and interactive. In the learning session you selected, what types of activities do you see?
•Paired activity
•Group discussion
•Game
•Story
•Presentation
•Role-play
•Skit
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How to Use the Video
Videos are a great way to spark a group discussion. Some questions you can ask participants related to the Savings Video are:
•What challenge is the family in this video facing?
•How did the family prioritize expenses in this video?
•What did the family do well?
•What would you advise them about budgeting?
More guidance about how to incorporate videos into learning sessions is available in the Orientation module.
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Objectives Revisited
Through the Savings Overview, you have:
Explored the importance of savings
Reviewed current and desired behaviors of consumers regarding savings
Examined the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy consumers will acquire through participating in savings learning sessions
Considered the unique perspective in your community and target population to most successfully deploy the module
Reviewed important methodological considerations for delivery of the Savings module
What other questions do you have about the content or use of the Savings Module?
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Wrap-Up
Now that you’re ready to use the training tools of the Savings Module, be sure to stay connected with our global network of providers. Let us know how you’re doing so we can add your program and numbers to our roster! Click on the impact reporting document to report back on how many clients you’re reaching.
We can be reached at info@mfopps.org.
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Microfinance Opportunities:
E: info@mfopps.org
T: 202-721-0050
F: 202-721-0010
W: microfinanceopportunities.org

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