Tamanique's Story: Building Stability for Her Family

Meet Tamanique: Not long ago, Tamanique was a social worker at a clinic where her pay was contingent on her clients showing up. Some weeks, she earned enough to make ends meet. Some weeks, she didn’t. She was often forced to spend down her savings to cover her expenses, and had to take on additional debt on top of her student loans.

Tamanique, of Hartford, Connecticut, recently found a new job at a family resource center, where she works with children. It was during her transition to her new, salaried job that Tamanique heard about SaverLife from the United Way. A financial coach encouraged her to sign up to give her savings a jumpstart. With her new, more stable income, she knew she wanted to save up to buy a house with her mother.

With SaverLife, Tamanique is building the foundation of a secure future for herself and her family. She says SaverLife has been “really helpful” in motivating her to put money aside and not touch it. Tamanique especially enjoys SaverLife’s new instant-win game Scratch and Save, a scratcher card that comes to her email inbox every week that she saves at least $5. Scratch and Save “makes [her] want to put money in [her] savings account.”

In addition to joining SaverLife, Tamanique took a class at Urban League for first-time homeowners to work on her credit and learn about budgeting.

Further down the road, she’s looking to pay off her student loans; she’s going back to school this fall to get her doctorate degree, and is planning to continue working on top of her studies. As she watches her savings grow, Tamanique “can see a better future and help my family out at the same time.”