Spring 2010 Financial Goals

I really like my book club meetings.

It's always good to see my book club sistas and discuss our thoughts on the book selections.

Star likes to shock me with her t-shirts. This one here is not all that shocking.


Funny, but tame (for Star, that is).

The young lady posing with her is one of THE funniest people I've ever met. Simply cracks me up. I sat next to her at the book club meeting. Her Mom was a famous comedian and Broadway star (I'll let you figure out who that is, since they look more and more alike everytime we see her), so Tracey is testament that genes are passed on. Tracey picked up the "funny" gene.

Tracey loves to pose. She's not camera shy at all!




She was a journalling sister at one time, and she would always introduce herself with "My name is Tracey, and I dance down at the Pink Pony!", and she'd even bust a classic stripper move, lol. (The Pink Pony is a famous ATL strip club). I always believed her, until someone hipped me to this being her own personal joke.

No she doesn't work at the Pony. And I was so moved by this "Pink Pony Pride" of hers that, as a birthday gift, I wrote a short story about her quest to become a Pink Pony dancer, lol.

She was wearing some fly shoes at the meeting. I thought of the Super shoe queen Serenity, so I took a few pictures of them.

(Serenity, are these an example of peep toes you've been trying to help me understand??)



LOL. Just a little shoe delight for you. You don't get that over here in the House of LadyLee.

I tend to be a Nike girl.

Anyway, this post is not about shoes or books. Not at all.

Like I said, I sat next to Tracey at the book club meeting. And we were all congratualting her on a specific financial goal.

She had just completed a 21 day financial fast.

She talked of it periodically on Facebook. I was tripping, cuz if anybody knows her, she likes to SHOP! She likes to get her shop on like no other!

She has a PHAT decked out house. She drives a PHAT car!! She gives the PHATTEST baby showers! (I break my neck trying to get to her baby showers. She gives away gift cards as prizes!!! OH JOY! lol)

Yet she completed that financial goal. Hmmm. I imagined her shaking like a crackhead in the process. But she did it, and talked about it very calmly over on Facebook.

We talked about it. She followed the plan outlined in Michelle Singletary's The Power to Prosper: 21 days to Financial Freedom. The plan involves cutting out frivolous spending and an examination of personal financial behavior.

I told her I was gonna do it.

But I was moving the decimal point.

"Tracey, I'ma do a 2.1 day fast!"

This disturbed Erica (who was sitting nearby). She's a former FFF leader, and the first group member to go debt-free. She rolled her eyes.

"Come on now, Dr. Parker," Erica said.

My FFF prez, The Green Eyed Bandit, was giving me the side-eye too.

Tracey and I talked about it a little more.

I was still hollering about my "2.1 day fast".

"Write down your address. I'll send the book to you," she said. "That way, you can take a look at it, and see what you think."

"Alright, girl!" I said, as I wrote down my addy. "Send it to me!"

All the time continuing to holler about 2.1 days to freedom. LOL

I went home and forgot about it.

Lo and behold, the book came in the mail a few days later.

I've had it for a few weeks. I've thumbed through it, read a couple of chapters even. Tracey hightlighted some interesting parts. I read those, just to see what struck her fancy.

Looks interesting enough. And it's something I can do. I like to read a good mix of secular and spiritual financial material, and it is high time for a book on biblical economics.

So starting on the 15th, tax day, I'll get going. I think the last day will be around May 6th. I'm adding this to my other financial goals for the spring. Here they are:

1. Stay up on my Finance Journal. This is my budget notebook. For any given month, I have the budget on one page, and I have goals and to do lists on the adjacent page. I also keep FFF notes and ideas in there. The 21 day fast looks to require a bit of journalling, and I am set up for that. I spend about 15 minutes a week on this activity. I'm looking to double that.

2. Do some charting.. I want to examine the last 3 months (since the beginning of the year) of bank statements/online statements, and write out and add up how much I have spent (beyond mortgage, credit cards, and utilities). I want to figure out how much has been frivolous and what was necessary. I will come up with a spending plan from that.

3. Attend the Finance Conference at Church this week. I'm trying to make 2 out of 3 evenings. When I've attended in the past, I've gotten an idea or two for my own personal isshas that have stuck and worked really well.

4. Shore up my Automatic Bill pay. Throw as many bills as possible over onto automatic online pay. I've already started doing this. Works well for insurance, medical and phone bills. I also have my 2011 birthday cruise set up that way. I have about 7 more bills to figure out.

5. Save 1500 bucks. That's a TALL order indeed. But that's alright. I should be able to do that with the help of the 21 day financial fast plus our performance bonuses at work coming through soon.

6. Keep in touch with my Accountability Partners. I have two in FFF, and I need to send a simple email or something once per week. TGEB knows this is hard for me, but I will work around it. (I'm the only one that's not acting right. I hate bothering peeps!). But I plan on sendning weekly goals. It can be helpful, so I need to work it out!!

7. Do the 21 day fast. I plan on reading the book above, as it is set up to be read in 21 days. I hope to get an idea or two from it, in order to help me make a much needed correction or adjustment somewhere.

So those are my goals. I rarely list goals here, as they are private. But my goals technologist Ms. Not So Anonymous has taught me something important:

List the goals and strive to meet them.

If I fail, it's okay. Admit the failure, get back up, make the correction, and try again.

So that's what we's gonna do, mon!

At the base of all this, I am dealing with a couple of attitude problems that I wish to correct. I know that anytime I get to wailing about something or go into rock kicking mode in my prayer life, pathways start to open up. They lead to answers. Always.

It's just a matter of me having enough sense and fortitude to utilize the resources presented.

And I plan to do that.

Thanks for the book Miss Tracey. It looks like a great resource.

I'll let you know how it works out.