GreenPath Debt Solutions, a non-profit consumer credit counseling agency, has moved its  Monroe, Mich., office to a new location at 826 S. Monroe St. and will begin serving clients there on Thursday.

With more space and additional parking, GreenPath has added a second certified financial counselor to enable the company to assist more individuals and families seeking to solve financial problems.

The office had been located for many years at 25 S. Monroe St.

“We are thrilled about the move and increasing our capacity to serve many more Monroe area residents who can benefit from our help,” said Dianne Reichel, group manager for GreenPath Debt Solutions. “We are committed to providing every client with compassionate, high-quality counseling and customized financial solutions.”

GreenPath’s new office, a former location of Kelly Services, will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Services offered include pre-purchase housing counseling, foreclosure counseling, personalized budget assessments and debt management programs, through which GreenPath counselors negotiate with creditors to reduce rates, eliminate fees and execute reasonable payment plans.

For more information or to schedule a free counseling session, call (866) 648-8122 or log on to www.greenpath.com.

A note from your blogger: GreenPath representatives have been in attendance at, or featured speakers at, several Monroe community events during the past couple of years — including the foreclosure forums and unemployment resource expo.

The City of Gibraltar will host a Community Shred Day from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday Nov. 14 at the Municipal Building, 29450 Munro Ave., Gibraltar, Mich.

The event is for Gibraltar residents only and is not open to commercial businesses. There is a maximum of three boxes of materials and documents that may be brought. Newspapers, garbage bags and cardboard boxes will not be accepted for shredding.

Doug said in his piece that bankers are seeing an alarming trend “with a small number of borrowers” who can pay the bills, but see no reason to, given the attention that is going to economic bailouts.

He related this fictional, but representative, chatter from the “customer”:

“Why should people who are in distress be the only ones to benefit? Those of us who just want to maintain a certain lifestyle should receive consideration as well. What if I just pay you what I want for now? I might start making full payments later.”

Well, here’s a reality check for those who think the financially distressed are getting too good of a deal: Not every family in distress is benefiting from all those bailout deals in the first place. There are rules and restrictions in effect for those programs.

Almost every money-saving program, discount service and economic bailout that I have posted during the past three years has a qualification of some sort: be it an application deadline, age or residency requirement, a membership, paperwork requirement, first-come/first-served, date range or amount cap on benefits, show up on appointed date and time, etc.

So if you can afford to live comfortably without the time and effort that families on a budget have to invest in the pursuit of stretching their funds, well, then, enjoy your life.

But then, I don’t think people like that read blogs like mine in the first place.

(Update: I think I confused readers with how I introduced the quote, so I fixed it. That was how Doug wrote the conversation from the fictional customer.)

First: read the Nov. 5 Dear Abby column:

A snippet:

“Dear Friend, Family Member or Co-Worker: You came to me in a state of panic — unable to make your car payment, pay your lawyer’s fee, your taxes or the light bill. You asked for my help. I gave it to you because I respected and trusted you enough to go out on a limb for you. Please honor your promise to repay me without my having to ask you. …

This topic is not a new one. Many other columnists, financial experts and wise people have discussed it over the years. The bottom line is: If you can’t afford to make the requested money an outright gift to a family member or friend in financial need, do not lend it and do not co-sign for it.

I know you feel bad when someone you know and love is struggling financially. In today’s economy, many people are dealing with circumstances they’ve never seen before and have no idea what to do and where to turn.

There are lots of very practical steps you can take to help out a friend in financial need. They include:

• Research community resources such as emergency utility bill assistance, transportation and carpool services, community legal services, emergency home repair programs.
• Drive them to the resume workshops, financial literacy classes, job fairs, food pantries or the discount grocery store that they normally can’t get to.
• Offer to get photocopies made of key documents that they’ll need when applying for assistance from government and non-profit agencies.
• Help them organize, advertise and run a garage sale, Mom 2 Mom sale booth or online auction.
• Buy money-saving gadgets and grocery gift cards for birthdays and holidays. …

The most helpful thing to do is everything you can EXCEPT loaning your own money or accessing your own credit.

It can be very difficult for a friend or family member to determine whether a financial emergency is based more on bad circumstances or more on bad financial planning. But if the real problem is financial mismanagement, the fiscal damage needs to be limited to their household — and not involve yours.

Kiplinger has an online Military Family Money Guide with a lot of great links and resources. Topics include financial preparations for deployment, savings opportunities, and avoiding scams that target military personnel.

She’s been posting about her experiences and perspective on her blog:

This week our goal was to sit together and plan out our budget. It was stressful trying to find the time, but we did and have a goal. I wanted to say that there is an amazing feeling when you and your spouse are on the same page. When you spread out your bills and you see in front of you how much you are really paying for things. When we totaled up everything and looked at each other and said “I thought it was going to be worse. We can do this!”

There are other programs and classes that can help you get on top of your household finances. The one that I have personally used and have referred to from time to time on this blog is Crown Financial Ministries, which was co-founded by the late Larry Burkett. I was listening to Larry’s radio show in the early 1990s!

I’ve compiled a list of financial literacy programs in southeast Michigan so you can look up locations, dates and topics that work for you.

You can do it at annualcreditreport.com.

It won’t cost you anything to go through that web site if all you want to do is check the credit report for mistakes or inaccuracies. Each of the three participating credit bureaus allow you to request one free credit report a year.

Do be aware you will see links for additional credit services that can be requested at that time. If you are interested in those other services such as getting your credit score, fine. But keep in mind this service was intended to let customers discover any mistakes and get them fixed before applying for credit or a loan.

Seventeen persons learned the ins and outs of consumer credit during a “Get Smart About Credit” program Monday, the first of a series of financial literacy programs being offered through the Monroe County Learning Bank Network.

The network is an educational consortium that includes Monroe County Community College, Monroe Bank & Trust, the Southeast Michigan Community Alliance, Monroe County Opportunity Program and others.

Students on Monday learned to analyze credit reports, define what constitutes credit scores and were given tips and procedures for improving and disputing credit issues.

The program was sponsored locally by MBT and nationally by the American Bankers Association. State Sen. Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, and Debbie Cosby, MBT vice president, taught the course at the Arthur Lesow Community Center in Monroe.

Sen. Richardville and Ms. Cosby fielded questions from the students ranging from how to resolve credit problems to building a positive credit history. The curriculum was provided by MBT’s community financial education program, MBTeach.

“We’re grateful that Senator Richardville was in enthusiastic support of this program and was willing and able to lend his time to be a hands-on instructor,” said H. Douglas Chaffin, MBT chief executive officer.

“MBT is proud to be a vital part of the Monroe County Learning Bank Network and are especially proud of our outreach program, MBTeach. Our trained bankers actively work in the communities we serve to provide free financial literacy courses for organizations including non-profits and businesses utilizing the FDIC approved Money Smart curriculum and resources.”

The program is typical of the programs envisioned for what eventually will be a financial education center created at the former MBT branch in Orchard East. Bank officials and other network participants are awaiting word on a grant that would help convert the vacant structure into a neighborhood education and training center.

For more information about MBTeach, contact the MBTeach coordinator at (734) 384-8269. For information about the Monroe County Learning Bank Network, call Vuncia Council, executive director, at (734) 457-0091.

A snippet:

Like to blame their problems on outside forces:  People don’t like to see themselves as the source of their problems. While people certainly have problems that aren’t caused by something they’ve done, far too often they will also try to shift blame when they should be looking at themselves.  They blame their friends, family and the government.  They believe that “the little guy just can’t get ahead“.

Think about it .. my husband and I can’t help the fact that our home value is down because of the recession. That was a situation beyond our control, and there is little we can do on our own to rectify it.

We can, however, stretch our household income as much as possible. That is most certainly within our ability.