Your First 90 Days Home: A Money Plan

What You Will Learn

• List the identification documents you need and how to replace them
• Plan how to open a bank account, including second-chance options
• Describe in general terms how to apply for benefits you may qualify for
• Build a bridge budget for the weeks before your first paycheck

Lesson Notes

Why the First 90 Days Matter

The first weeks home are full: supervision appointments, job searching, family, housing, and paperwork. Money decisions come fast, often before the first paycheck. A written plan keeps you from deciding everything in a rush.

Proverbs 24:27 describes the order: prepare the field first, then build the house. Documents, a safe place for money, and a short-term spending plan are the field work.

Identification Documents

Almost everything (a job, a bank account, an apartment, benefits) starts with ID. Plan to gather:

• Birth certificate: ordered from the vital records office in the state where you were born. Fees vary by state.
• Social Security card: a replacement is requested from the Social Security Administration. There is no fee for a replacement card.
• State ID or driver's license: from your state's motor vehicle agency. Fees and required papers vary by state, and some re-entry programs help cover them.

Ask your case manager what can be started before release. Keep originals in one folder at home, and carry copies only when needed.

Getting a Bank Account

BTO 103 covered why banking beats check cashers. Here is the plan for getting in the door. Bring your ID, Social Security number, and proof of address (a letter from a shelter or program may be accepted; ask first).

If a bank says no because of past account problems, ask about second-chance accounts, which many banks and credit unions offer for people rebuilding their banking history. They may have a small monthly fee or limits at first and can later become a regular account. You can also request a copy of your own banking-history report and dispute errors.

Until an account is open, keep cash in a safe place, write down every dollar, and avoid carrying everything you own.

Benefits and the Bridge Budget

You may qualify for help such as food assistance, health coverage, or phone discounts. Rules vary by state and depend on your income, household, and situation, so ask your case manager or the local benefits office rather than relying on what you have heard. Applying for help you qualify for is not shameful; it is part of a plan.

A bridge budget covers the weeks before your first full paycheck. List the money you will have, then give every dollar a job.

Example: Keisha comes home with $310: $160 left in her account and $150 from her aunt. (Keisha is a composite example.) Her four-week plan: state ID $30 and birth certificate $20 (example fees; yours may differ), bus fare $60, prepaid phone $35, hygiene and basics $40, grocery help to her aunt $80, thrift-store work clothes $30, giving $10, cushion $5. Total: 30 + 20 + 60 + 35 + 40 + 80 + 30 + 10 + 5 = $310.

Key Terms

In-Class Activities

Document Road Map

For each document (birth certificate, Social Security card, state ID), write: where you get it, what you must bring, who can help, and your target week after release. Use “ask my case manager” where you are not sure.

Bridge Budget Practice

Trina comes home with $260. (Trina is a composite example.) She needs: state ID $25, bus fare $55, prepaid phone $30, hygiene $35, groceries she will contribute $70, work shoes $25. How much is left? Give the rest a job and explain your choice.

Assignment: My First-90-Days Money Plan (Draft)

Draft a plan for your first 90 days home. Use sample numbers if you prefer to keep your situation private.

• A list of documents to obtain, in order, with target weeks.
• Where you will try to open an account and a backup plan if you are turned down.
• Benefits or help you will ask about (written generally; you do not need to know the rules yet).
• A four-week bridge budget that adds up exactly.

You will revise this plan for the Final Project.

Graded with the Module Assignment Rubric.

Reflection Journal

Proverbs 24:27 says to prepare the field before building the house. What field work do you need to do before you can build the life you want? What feels most overwhelming, and what is one small piece you can prepare now?

Prayer focus: Ask God to order your first days home and to give you peace, patience, and favor with every office and person you meet.

Field Work Before the House

The first days home can feel like a flood: appointments, forms, family, and the pressure to make up for lost time. It is easy to spend the little money you have on whatever feels most urgent in the moment.

Proverbs 24:27 gives a wise order: prepare the field, then build the house. Your field work is simple and important. Get your documents. Find a safe place for your money. Ask about the help you may qualify for. Write a bridge budget for the weeks before your first paycheck.

When Keisha came home, she had $310 and a long list. (Keisha is a composite example.) She sat with her aunt at the kitchen table and gave every dollar a job before she spent any of it. When her cousin asked to borrow money in the second week, she could say kindly, “That money already has a job.”

You do not have to have everything figured out on day one. You only need the next right step and the peace of knowing God goes before you.

Think About It

1. Which document will you need first, and who can help you get it? ______________________
2. What pressures to spend do you expect in your first week home? ______________________
3. What would a written plan protect you from? ______________________

Daily Devotions for Week 1

A New Thing

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.— Isaiah 43:19 (KJV)

Coming home can feel like a wilderness. God specializes in making roads where there are none.

Reflect: Where do you need God to make a way?

Pray: Lord, make a way for me where I cannot see one.

Do: Write the first three things you will do in your first week home.

New Every Morning

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.— Lamentations 3:22–23 (KJV)

Every day home is a fresh start, even after a hard one. His mercy meets you each morning.

Reflect: What do you need fresh mercy for today?

Pray: Lord, thank You that Your mercies are new every morning.

Do: Start tomorrow with one minute of thanks before anything else.

Prepare the Field

Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.— Proverbs 24:27 (KJV)

Order matters. Preparation now makes building possible later.

Reflect: What field work can you do this week?

Pray: Lord, help me prepare well and wait for Your timing.

Do: Start your Document Road Map.

One Day at a Time

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.— Matthew 6:34 (KJV)

Plan for tomorrow, but do not carry tomorrow's worry today. Each day has enough.

Reflect: Which worry can you hand to God today?

Pray: Lord, help me live today and trust You with tomorrow.

Do: Write one worry down, pray over it, and set it aside.

Be Careful for Nothing

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.— Philippians 4:6 (KJV)

“Careful” here means anxious. Prayer with thanksgiving is the answer to anxiety, including money anxiety.

Reflect: What request do you need to bring to God?

Pray: Lord, I bring You my needs with thanksgiving.

Do: Pray specifically over your bridge budget.