If you had only a few moments to evacuate your home and could not return for several days or even weeks, would you have access to cash, banking services and the personal identification you need to conduct your day-to-day financial life?

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) offers these tips to make sure you’re financially prepared if disaster strikes:

• Periodically review your insurance coverage to make sure you know what is or isn’t covered.
• Keep copies of your ATM/debit cards in an emergency kit in case you can’t access your actual cards.
• Keep your bank account numbers in a safe place that you can access.
• Consider keeping some cash on hand in your emergency kit.
• Have easy access to phone numbers for financial institutions.

To get more tips on how to make sure you’re financial prepared if there’s a disaster, download and order your free copies of Protecting Your Finances if a Disaster Strikes: Are You Prepared?

These educational comic strips from Kids.gov illustrate ways everyone in the family can pitch in to save money.

Previously known as Financial Literacy Month, April is now National Financial Capability Month. The month lets you know about the resources and tools available to help you make sound financial decisions year round.

There are numerous free financial resources available to help you better manage and understand your money.

MyMoney.gov is dedicated to teaching basic financial education through resources and tools from across the federal government. You can use the helpful budgeting calculators to help plan for big life events like buying a house or having a child.

You can also visit ConsumerFinance.gov whose mission is to make consumer financial products and services work for all Americans. You can use the Ask CFPB tool to decode confusing financial jargon and learn about your financial rights.

Find more financial resources offered by the Financial Literacy and Education Commission.

By Maggie Anderson from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

It can be hard to understand the language of financial products and services. Just what exactly is a grace period? What about an ARM? A balloon payment? And while the Internet can serve up an answer, how can you be sure it’s the right one?

Ask CFPB, a new interactive online tool from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), can help.

Say you’re thinking about buying a home. You could type in a question to Ask CFPB’s search box, or you could browse the list of questions in the Mortgage category. Once you’ve done a search, you can also filter by topic, like “fees” or “closing,” or by populations, like servicemembers, students, and older Americans.

Ask CFPB contains three general categories of questions and answers:

1. Definitions: Financial products and terms are often described in industry jargon. Ask CFPB translates the jargon into clear definitions. You can get answers to questions like, “What is a credit report?” or “What is a reverse mortgage?”
2. Explanations: Financial products can include many complicated terms and features, and it can be difficult for you to understand how they work. Ask CFPB provides you with general information and explanations on terms and features of financial products
3. Situations : Ask CFPB arms you with information and tips to help you navigate various situations. For example, you can use to the tool to ask, “What if my lender quoted me one rate at application but raised it at closing?”

Ask CFPB also lets you provide feedback. You can rate an answer “Helpful,” “Too long,” “Confusing,” or “Incorrect.” And if you don’t find the answer you’re looking for, you can submit a question for consideration.

Our Ask CFPB database currently contains more than 350 questions and answers, primarily focused on credit cards and mortgages. In the coming months, the CFPB will continue to build the database to answer questions about a range of financial products and services, including student loans, auto loans, checking and savings accounts, and prepaid cards.

So visit ConsumerFinance.gov/askcfpb, take a look, and let us know what you think!

Here is a detailed guide for getting your household records in order and keeping them that way.