PHOENIX — Michael Prior recently got the opportunity to offer some guidance to Phoenix residents calling into a local television station with questions on pressing financial matters.
Prior is president/CEO of Credit Union Financial Network, a CUSO providing investment and trust services to credit unions in Arizona. NBC Affiliate Channel 12 in Phoenix was putting together to a special session on financial planning and reached out to the Financial Planning Association for experts to volunteer their time to answer viewer questions.
Prior was one of eight experts who manned the phones for two hours on the evening of Feb. 11. The calls ran the gamut: from couples with extra cash wanting to know if they should pay down their mortgage to a husband whose wife left him with a pile of debt "but half the income." An elderly woman wanted to know how a reverse mortgage worked.
By far, Prior said the most heartbreaking story came from a married couple in their 70s. Together, they both spend $1,500 each month on medication. "She was wondering if she should stop taking her medicine so that she could pay her bills," Prior said.
The owner of a once successful landscaping company called in saying many of his employees have returned to Mexico to find work as a result of the housing downturn in Arizona. The owner is now working part-time at Wal-Mart.
Calls like these inspired Prior to encourage all 19 of CUFN's financial advisors to join FPA.
"I left [the station] feeling like 'I hoped it helped someone,'" Prior said. "This wasn't about marketing or getting your name out there. It was about helping people."
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