Our meetup was a success!  Special thanks to three new members who showed up with art supplies in hand ready to share with the rest of the group.  Everyone brought in their magazines, posterboards, markers and glue and got to work on their vision boards.

This was the agenda for the afternoon:

Introductions

· Tell us about yourself

o Name, age, financial challenges and goals

SMART Goals Overview

Specific

• Start off by being specific in your goal. Clearly define what you are going to do. Include the what, why and how.

Measurable

· You must be able to measure your goal in order to manage it. I will lose 5 pounds by January 31st is much better than I will lose weight.

Attainable

· You must know that your goal is attainable, although it should stretch you to reach the goal. You can’t possibly lose 20 pounds in one week but you can lose 1 pound each week for 20 weeks.

Realistic

· A realistic goal is one that will stretch you but is not impossible. Completely cutting out all carbs in order to lose weight probably isn’t realistic. Planning to substitute a piece of fruit for a bowl of ice cream is realistic.

Timely

· A timely goal will give you a clear target to work towards. You may choose a week, a month, a year, just make sure that the time is realistic.

Importance of Writing Down Goals

· The act of writing the words on the paper triggers your brain that these are the goals you will work towards.

· Goals should only be written in the positive. Never write a goal in the negative, such as “I will not smoke.” Your subconscious cannot distinguish between positive and negative. Setting a goal in the negative will get you more of the same.

· Review your goals on a regular basis. Read your goals each morning as soon as you awake and at night before you sleep. Envision reaching those goals.

o This gets your conscious and subconscious minds ready to work on attaining the goals throughout the day. Your mind needs to be primed with these goals.

o Read your goals again at night, envisioning the attainment of those goals. This puts your subconscious to work. During the day, as you make decisions, ask yourself if the decision will bring you closer to your goals. Be mindful of how your daily actions affect the attainment of your goals.

· Take actions every day toward your goals. Just having a goal will not guarantee its successful achievement. Systematic and well-planned action is the key to attainment.

Goals Discussion

· Volunteers

o What are your 2009 goals?

o Why are they important to you?

o What gets in the way?

o How will you go about accomplishing them differently in 2009?

Create Your Goal/Vision Boards!

The top concerns were:

• Controlling spending habits
• Paying down debt
• Re-establishing credit after a bankruptcy
• Stepping out on your own and starting a new business
• Saving for retirement

We had many candid conversations about our struggles and also made a plan on how we plan to move through them this year.  How?  By doing something you haven’t done before.  Some members had self imposed shopping restrictions through June, some are working to engage other family members to start saving for the long term, while others are learning grace under fire when faced with losing a job vs. taking a demotion and a salary cut.

One thing I took away from this Meetup is that we have women who are incredibly resilient and continue to move towards their goals in cases where some would have quit and handed in the towel.  Failing financially isn’t an option when everyone depends on you or when you can only depend on yourself.  I admire their strnegth and resolve to keep pushing through.  These stories continue to inspire me to keep writing this blog and hold our meetups.  I thank them for sharing their lives with me in this manner, for that I am truuly grateful.

Here are some pictures from the event, click to enlarge:

The DC Chapter of Girls Just Wanna Have Funds is having their first meetup of 2009!  Check it out:

2009 is upon us and we’ve talked about goal setting being an integral part of achieving financial success. Specifically SMART goals:

Specific

WHAT are you going to do? Use action words such as direct, organize, coordinate, lead, develop, plan, build etc.

Measurable

Choose a goal with measurable progress, so you can see the change occur. How will you see when you reach your goal? Be specific! “I want to read 3 chapter books of 100 pages on my own before my birthday” shows the specific target to be measure. “I want to be a good reader” is not as measurable.

Attainable

A goal needs to stretch you slightly so you feel you can do it and it will need a real commitment from you. For instance, if you aim to lose 20lbs in one week, we all know that isn’t achievable. But setting a goal to loose 1lb and when you’ve achieved that, aiming to lose a further 1lb, will keep it achievable for you.

Realistic

For instance, it may be more realistic to set a goal of eating a piece of fruit each day instead of one sweet item. You can then choose to work towards reducing the amount of sweet products gradually as and when this feels realistic for you.

Be sure to set goals that you can attain with some effort! Too difficult and you set the stage for failure, but too low sends the message that you aren’t very capable. Set the bar high enough for a satisfying achievement!

Timely

Set a time frame for the goal: for next week, in three months, by fifth grade. Putting an end point on your goal gives you a clear target to work towards.

If you don’t set a time, the commitment is too vague. It tends not to happen because you feel you can start at any time. Without a time limit, there’s no urgency to start taking action now.

Time must be measurable, attainable and realistic.

Now it’s time to set those goals into action and the first step is to create a visual board with your top 5 financial goals for the year. Write down 5 financial and career goals you want to achieve this year. We will then discuss our goals and give each other advice and encouragement on how to achieve them.

We will make this meetup QUARTERLY (January, April, August, December) to assess progress towards our individual goals. So please commit to coming to future meetups under this topic to update us on your progress. In 2009 we’re all about accountability!

You can bring your own poster board, tapes, magazines.. I will have sheets available and glue, magazines.. However, please feel free to bring your own and if you have something to share.

If you’d like to join us, please check out our Meetup site here:  http://www.meetup.com/GirlsJustWannaHaveFunds/