You Matter

Yes. Money matters. You too matter. I want to welcome you again to The Money Matters Club. You joined here in March, or April, or May. Membership here has doubled since we launched in March. And I can't believe it.

Thank you! So glad you're here. It is all about you.

You belong here. There are no haters here. Not so far anyway. And we won't tolerate haters. The culture here is respectful, helpful, kind, constructive. Even loving. I'd say. Everyone here brings a growth mindset, is accepting, and has been such a support to each other and to me. I hope we all learn so much together here that we shrink poverty in just the act of telling the others what we're learning. That matters! Facilitating that loveliness by leading this forum is an honor. Getting to give back that way is a responsibility I love to assume.

I love this Club. Grateful you're here and a part of it.

What's next?

When I look at this site, and if you're new to The Money Matters Club, this site is the Club's second home, I realize we need more content and shared learning opportunities. Lots more. Similar to our first home. Where is all that content, El? It's coming. Soon! I promise! I suppose much like building a primary residence over years would be when finally being capable of owning and spending time in a second home, you may not see the second home furnished quite like your primary home right away, but slowly, overtime, it too, I imagine, would become just as cozy.

We're taking that approach with building our cozy lil Club's second home.

I now have permission from the lawyers at our first home to copy all the hundreds of Club sessions' content over here as we build up our second home. But, copying content from a corporate intranet site must be done with guardrails and safeguards. For one, I do not want to inadvertently copy any classified or confidential information, or even mentions of the mothership by name that I don't need out here on our second home, and I very much do not want to copy any Personal Data (like the Club's first home's members' personal names and their comments/contributions without their consent).

Several TMMC Friends who are far techier than me, are helping me now to run intelligent scripting on our decade and a half worth of content we've created together so we can copy it over here in a compliant posture and not put anything into our second home but what should be here and what makes sense for you, and nothing more.

But maybe you don't want to read years' worth of archived and edited content anyway?

You know? Don't worry. You won't have to read old content if you don't want to. There's going to be original and timely new content coming here too. We'll create it together. And no matter when you join, you can start your learning and sharing at your own pace, and catch up with our past discussions and content only as you like.

No matter how many times at work I have talked with our workforce about building wealth, protecting wealth, boosting our purchasing power, paying less for stuff and taxes, leveraging or hacking the employer handbook for all its/it's worth, learning to love the fine print, and so on, facilitating this level of learning about all these money matters over the years really never gets old for me. Someone new is learning it each time. I love reliving that moment when the lights went on for me. That moment when I realized no one will ever care about my money and my best financial life as much as I will myself. So creating space for ah-ha moments in others and witnessing when they learn to do smarter things with their own hard earned dollars is a gift. Seeing super smart Club Friends add, riff, contribute their own thinking on top of what we're covering, gifts me with broadened thinking and my own new ah-ha moments still too.

So, I feel I'm giving back. Right? But, in fact, I am the one getting so much in return. I am compelled to continue to pay that forward. Rinse. Repeat. Let's go!

Thanks for being here!

This Club gets you! If you are a hard working employee too, no matter which employer you committed to, you're relying on your income/paycheck from that employer, as well as your employer perks and benefits. You're trying to raise yourself up, be great at adulting, take care of your family, and be financially secure... This Club gets you and is for you. You matter here. It's geared to helping you make it to financial independence earlier than you thought possible. And if you've reached that milestone already, this Club lets you top up, validate your plans, and give back when you share with others your own best methods for successfully retiring from the workforce. You matter to us too! Rub off on us!

A recent example of rubbing off on each other that I would love to share....

On May 23, 2023, on the Club's first home site (again, an internal intranet site that requires employee credentials to gain access inside the rather large multi-national tech company which I've been contributing my time and talent to for the last 23 years), my friend Kim and I spent our lunch hour to talk with nearly 200 hard working employees ("Club Friends") via Teams Meeting (actually let's call them 'benefactors' in this case), about strategies for financing the great expense of a college degree. Kim, a college planning counselor from So Cal, who I've been besties with since we were eight years old, loves helping families plan for college and helped me facilitate this lunch and learn session just before National 529 Day (May 29). We covered more than just 529s! We covered Coverdells, scholarships, and financial aid too. And so much more. I loved it. So did the attendees who scored the hour with nearly 5 stars! Thank you, Club Friends.

So our audience that day, of about 200 benefactors, whether they were planning for their own kids, grandkids, lucky nieces or nephews, or even themselves, came and learned and shared some of the okayest ways to finance college expenses, the better ways, and the best of ways. That session was one hour long. We broke all the ways down, listed oodles of considerations to help listeners devise their own personal strategies, and helped empower the virtual room to go off and do wonderful things with their ambitions to finance college in the most efficient and cost effective ways possible.

The riffing was infectious. The Club Friends there added so much to the conversation. Extra links, resources, more considerations, especially strategic considerations, and extra thought provoking ideas that just make The Club so great were burst to the forefront of our minds during this one. It was complex, but felt so much easier breaking it down and learning it together while we lunched virtually. That content will be shared here very soon too. Promise. Kim and I had a blast facilitating that session for you (if you were there, I'd love you to comment below what you took from it to help you bolster your own plan).

The Club will keep offering these opportunities to makes sense of all these money matters, like that one, and so many more, as long as one new person is learning something good, that is what's going to keep me here with you and us here together. Soon these sessions will be out here for anyone to join from either our first home or our second home! Just stay tuned!

In sum, much more content and learning opportunities are coming to help you just be better, live better, do better. I want you to love your life. Especially your financial life. You matter to this club.

So, what would be the first topic you want to have offered here as a live Club learning session just for you? Your comments are welcome! See a comment you want to +1? Please just add your like, like a vote. Not comfortable leaving comments yet? Send me a note and allow me time to get back with you personally.

Because you matter.

Let's do this, Club Friends!

Because money matters,

el

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E.M.Powers ("el") is a regular person with no particular financial credentials or expertise who happens to be a money enthusiast and the founder of The Money Matters Club, a virtual watercooler for like minded individuals with a thirst for building their own financial health. Since 2006, she's helped thousands of co-workers build their financial literacy and wealth by participating in The Money Matters Club, a community she built on her employer's internal network. Since 2023, she's been attempting to scale The Club's reach through its second home on the World Wide Web. Her opinions--as well as the opinions of all participants--are just that: opinions, which are subject to flawed logic, math, typos and correction. She keeps a growth mindset and is also always learning something new or bolstering her own understanding after discussions at The Club. All information shared is done so with the best intent to inspire and empower others to learn more about money considerations toward building their own financial muscles. Nothing shared is meant as individualized advice that anyone should act on without doing their own curious research and personal decision making. There are no dumb questions at The Money Matters Club. Your financial health and literacy are what this Club cares about. All investing involves risk. All results can and will vary.