Hey, all. Marty here. And today I have something special for us. Today we have a special guest, Chris Peterson from Penny Forward. Hey, Chris, how are you? Good. How are you, Marty? I'm doing good. So we're here and we're talking about Penny forward today. So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and Penny forward?
Yeah. So, Penny Forward is a nonprofit organization founded and led by blind people who wanted to bring accessible financial education and counseling. Counseling to the blind community. Many of us are struggling with very low incomes, tight budgets, and good management of our money isn't always going to help 100% of the time, but a lot of times it does. And what's more, it can help us to feel empowered to make bigger decisions that come along once in a while, too. And so we felt this was a really important cause that we wanted to work on. And I felt it was so important personally that I left my software development career of 20 years and became an accredited financial counselor. And I've been working for penny forward full time since January.
That's amazing. So there is a section of penny forward. That's a membership section. And what is involved in the membership section?
Well, first of all, membership normally costs either 999 a month or $99 a year. We really wanted to make it something that almost anyone on any budget could afford. When you join as a member, you get access to our library of accessible online financial education courses on budgeting, credit, debt, taxes, Social Security. And our latest course is called employment essentials. It's all about career exploration and job searching. And we aren't stopping there. We're continuing to add new courses. We're trying to get to a pace of doing it two to three times per year or maybe even up to four times per year. And so our next course that's under construction right now is called introduction to investing. Or at least that's the working title.
Oh, that's going to be great. Learn how to make your money. Make money. Yeah. And there is also a free version as well. So what could someone expect from the free version of Penny Forward or the open to the public version, not behind the paywall?
Yeah. So the free version gives you early access to the Penny Forward podcast, which comes out every two weeks. You get it a full week earlier than everybody who's got a subscription via Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever the case may be. You'll also get our weekly email newsletter. We have a lot of free articles in there and also some promotional stuff about what's going on in the paid membership world. And finally, you get access to at least some of our financial education courses. We know that accessibility is a big concern in our community, and we wanted to be able to give people a chance to see what taking a course would be like before they actually paid for it, so that they can see how accessible, accessible it is.
That is great. I love that. Education in the community is always a great thing. So right now, there's something really special going on in penny forward. So what is that?
Well, we've got a membership drive going. We're calling it a contest. I'm not really sure if that's the right name, but we couldn't think of anything that was more accurate. But basically how it works is this. If you sign up during the month of July, you'll be entered into the contest. And at the end of July, it's actually into August. Now, we're on August 2. So on August 5, we have our monthly member meetup, which is open to everybody, whether they're a free or a paid member. Okay, so we're going to announce the winners of the drawing for the contest on August 5. And we've extended the deadline of the contest until the end of the day on Sunday, August 4 so that people can still participate. So signing up is one way to get your name into the drawing. The other way to get your name into the drawing is by going to the pennyforward.com contest page and filling out a form to refer your friends. And when you refer your friends, we'll drop them an email saying you're inviting them to join the penny forward community. And if they sign up, then they will also get entered into the drawing, and you will get a second entry into the drawing. So the more people you refer, the more chances you have to win. And when you win, you could get a number of great prizes from sponsors, such as elite Island Resorts and two blind brothers, blind girl designs, guide lights and gadgets, Numa solutions, havel one. Oh, and there's also unmute.
Yep, that sounds great. So, Chris, if people want to find out more, where would they go? What would they do? How could they find out all the information they need to participate, as well as any other penny forward information? It's really simple. Just go to pennyforward.com contest, and it's all right there in one easy package.
Awesome. Well, everyone go check that out. It's going to be super fun. And Chris, thanks so much for coming and filling us in on all of what's going on, and we'll look forward to having you back for more of a deep dive in the future. And thanks so much. Sounds great. Thanks, Marty. Have a great weekend. Yep, you, too. And thanks, everyone, and we'll see you next time.