ST. LOUIS – It is America saves week in the country, and the St. Louis City Treasurer’s office, Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE), is offering workshops and webinars to help locals have better financial literacy.

“Financial literacy is an important issue,” says Robbo Brilliant, a recording artist.  “Especially in the entertainment. It’s easy bringing it in, but maintaining it is a challenge.”

But at St. Louis City Hall in the rotunda, over the lunch hour Monday, people gathered to talk finances.

“It is kind of hard, especially in this economy, to try and save,” said Chrissy Fitzpatrick, director of the Office of Financial Empowerment. “We have partnered with America Saves Week out of the Consumer Financial Protection bureau. They have daily themes like saving for retirement, saving for education (and) saving at any age.”

Founded in 2014 by then St. Louis city treasurer Tishaura O. Jones, OFE has an office in St. Louis City Hall room 220 that provides financial education and credit counseling free of charge. 

All week long, for financial literacy month the Office of Financial Empowerment is holding webinars and workshops on establishing good spending habits, paying down debt and protecting yourself from fraud.

You can find more info on their website here.

 “Make sure you pay yourself first,” says Tracy Verner, Alltru Credit Union. “You want to pay yourself first and set up that automatic direct deposit into the savings account. It’s one thing to set a goal but it’s another thing to take that action and make sure that it happens every single time that you get paid.”