In attendance: six smart women age 39 and up
Served: Pesto with chicken, couscous, green salad with homemade dressing, chickpea salad, zucchini casserole, lentils with sausage, and straight-forward potato salad
Intended Topics:
- Personal financial goals
- Group goals
- Credit Cards
Group parameters:
- Confidentiality
- Regular monthly attendance
- The topic is chosen by the woman hosting the meal
Our Personal Financial Goals:
- To retire without worrying.
- To retire reasonably comfortably.
- To be comfortable and understand financial jargon.
- To work 32 hours/week instead of 40 hours/week.
- To keep $10,000 in disposable savings for emergencies.
- To know what’s going on with my finances.
- To not piddle away money – get a grip on the big picture
- To be happy – find another job that can support me financially.
- To get out of credit card debt.
- To overcome emotional financial baggage.
My (Ultimate) Personal Financial Goals:
- To save $1,000/month for Bella’s college education
- To max out mine and Chad’s IRA ($1,000 each per month)
- To develop a budget and use it.
- To be connected to and aware of my financial situation.
In reality, I think I will take my monthly paycheck and split it four ways each month: Bella’s college, my IRA, Chad’s IRA, and other expenses. I’d like to try and live on Chad’s income as much as possible every month. My personal goal for next month is to input one month’s worth of receipts into Quicken. Also, I am going to put the wedding money my parents gave us into a 7-month CD at World Savings at 5.4 %.
Two things I do financially that are good: I pay my credit card bill in full every month and have $1,000 automatically deducted from my paycheck for retirement savings
Two things I do financially that are worrisome: I spend all the rest of the money in my checking account every month and I only have $2,000 set aside for Bella’s college so far (and it’s not invested).
Group Tasks for Next Meeting:
- Research at least two credit cards.
- Read Steps 1-3 of Suze Orman’s The Nine Steps to Financial Freedom.
Group Goals:
- To share financial information.
- To learn about financial stuff.
- To be motivated and supported in improving our personal financial situations.
Interesting financial things to check out:
- Maxed Out (a movie about national and personal debt)
- The Motley Fool at fool.com
- Pacific Marine Credit Union (new, in Yucca Valley)
Next Meeting: 26 July 2007
If you’re interested in joining us cybernetically, post your financial goal as a comment and get yourself a copy of the book!