Lessons

Lesson Info

The P.E.G (Personally Exciting Goal)

I know for a fact that people do better in achieving their financial goals when they have a personal goal that excites them. Not a personal goal that excites your parents. Not a personal goal that excites your peers or that sounds good to your peers, but a personal goal that excites you. So you're setting your P.E.G. I like to use something that I created called the SITA method. I know people like SMART goals. I created this. I wrote about it in my book The Money Manual. It's called the SITA method. It is being specific, setting the intention, the timeline, and determining accountability. And I think that accountability is critical when it comes to your goals. And I think that gets left out a lot. Because oftentimes, we will fail by ourselves. But we're afraid to fail in front of others. And when we have someone else who's holding us accountable, it really holds us accountable and binds us to that goal. So I'm gonna give you the opportunity to set a SITA goal. But I'm giving you an exa...

mple of one of mine. So I had a private student loan. As I said, I had a full scholarship. I decided to transfer to a college in Florida. And so I took out student loan debt as a result. And one of them was a private student loan. And so, my mother co-signed on this private student loan. And my mother, if you owe her money, you owe her money, you will not forget about it. And so, my intention was to reduce my debt load so I could spend my money on things that I care about and quieten my mother. Like those were my intentions. It was to reduce my debt load so that instead of paying the student loan payment, I was able to spend it on something else whether it's building my business, whether, you know, eliminating. And I'll share. But eliminating that debt allowed me to invest in a digital strategist for my business. It helped me grow my business, now that I didn't have this debt hovering over me. And then to quieten my mother. Because sometimes it really is just like getting people off your back. And I just did not want her to have that loan associated with her any more. My timeline was by June 2018. My accountability partner was my mother. Because she cared just as much about me reaching that goal as I did. But that was how I set this goal. So I want you to think about one of your daydream goals. Be specific. What is that goal that will help you get closer to experiencing your daydream as a reality? So for you, it might be the elimination of debt. For someone else, it might be ... For Sabrina, who she was living it, it might be, "How do I continue to experience this? "What do I need to do to continue to experience this?" For the beach property individual, it might be, "Okay, I'm going to find a tenant," or so forth. "I'm going to locate a property," or say, "for a down payment." So I want you to think about what is one goal that would help you contribute to making your daydream a reality. Once you've identified that goal, why? What is your reason? What is the intention behind that? So for me, I call it my whyspiration. You know, what is the intention? What is the reason this goal is important to you? I know, Precious, for you, you want to get on that private jet. You want to have a probably bicoastal, I guess Texas is kind of a third coast. Yeah. So it's bicoastal, but it's that intention because you want to live a highly mobile lifestyle and be respected in your profession. Like what are the intentions behind it? And then give yourself a timeline. So when would you like to accomplish this specific goal by so that you're closer to your reality. How would you recommend setting that timeline? For example, I mean in one of the examples, someone has been asking about they want to move their debt. So a similar situation to this. They don't say how much. Obviously, that's a variable. But how long do you think is a realistic, manageable, like if you look at a year or two years? Or would you kind of review it at every annual time? What I would do is ... I mean, chances are it's not just one debt. I mean, maybe it is a student loan debt amount. So maybe you set a parameter like, "I want to eliminate this amount by this specific time." So it's not like all of your student loan debt, but it's, "In the next two years, I want to eliminate "$15,000 worth or $30,000 worth of my student loan debt." Or you could just break it out. Say, "I want to pay off, you know, "my three consumer credit cards by this date." For me, it was I wanted to pay off my private student loan. So I would say break it down into something that's a little more tangible, if you feel like it's gonna take you more than two or three years. What can you achieve first? And then, accountability. Who is going to hold you accountable for this? Who are you going to employ to hold you accountable? I know when I started My Fab Finance, my goal was to improve my credit score by ... I didn't have a specific amount necessarily, but I wanted to break the 700 club, the 750 club when it came to my credit. I had terrible ... In college, I had made every bad decision there is possible and just ignored all of it. When I started my financial journey, my credit score, I think I was like at a 588. And so I started My Fab Finance. And the online community at My Fab Finance was my accountability partner. I was blogging regularly, checking in, telling people what was going on. And I set this bold goal and told the online community this is what I'm gonna do. A lot of times, we see people do that who have fitness declarations. And we kind of get to see their transformation. They say, "Well, I'm gonna drop 100 pounds by this point." And we start to see their transformation. So your accountability person does not necessarily have to be someone who's close to you that you can check in with. It can be your online community and people who are cheering for you online or a group that you join. So, I would love for people to share one of their goals. And I can kind of give you feedback. Maybe especially let's start online. Because, you know, it's a little easier. It's a little less vulnerable online to share your specific goal, why you're doing it, when you want to eliminate it by, and who's gonna hold you accountable. Share that. And that way I can give you feedback on maybe how you can tweak it and make that goal a little stronger. And then, does anybody here want to share their goal? We can kind of say are there any ways that we can tweak it and make it a little stronger. So you've got Nadia who says, "Move so I can lower my rent "and utilities by 30% to 50%." Okay. And the intention, "So I can start making payments "towards my student loans." And the timeline that she's working with is two months. And her accountability is her boyfriend. Oh, okay, perfect. I think that is pretty strong. What I would say is 30% to 50%, what is that? What is that amount? So when we're looking for a rental, a new place, or we're looking at a place, what is 30% to 50% less? Are we looking at going from paying $3,000 in rent to $1,500 or $1,800 or $2,000 in rent? What are we looking at? So the only thing I would say is that put a specific number on that. Because that will just help when you're qualifying places as well. Like to say, "I think this is 30% less." I don't know how good, Nadia, you are at math. But for me, I need to have a number associated with that so I know that I'm looking for places that fit this particular parameter. And then, that also helps you when you're talking to people. You can say, "I'm looking for an apartment "within this amount." Or a house, or looking for something within this amount of money. And that helps you, that makes it easier for you to find what aligns with your goals. So that's the only feedback I have on that one. But that's great. Do we have anyone in here? I have one. Generate an extra $1,000 per month by consulting. And the intention is to reduce financial strain when I take on new household expenses with getting my new place. Timeline is by October 2018. And accountability partner is my team. Okay, and so by consulting. So you have a plan. This is how you're gonna do. You're gonna bring in extra money by consulting. The only thing I would say, "by consulting who?" And maybe you have that sorted out. But I would say, "by consulting who." And then, maybe intention: "additional household expenses." Is your rent going to be the only additional household expense that you take on? Or are there going to be other household expenses? I would say get clear on that. Would you be taking on any type of like HOA fees? Would you be taking on any type of added utilities? Or sole ownership of the utilities? So that you know that for sure that this $ will cover that difference? That's the only thing I would say. And then, your team. Yes, your team. One thing I didn't add for this for accountability is maybe like setting how are we reviewing if I'm on track? And so, "I need you guys to check with me every month "on how many clients you've brought in "and what we need to adjust "in order to bring in more clients." Or "These tactics are working for us. "These tactics aren't working for us." So I would just say with your team, figure out how you're gonna review that. Like with my mother, it was her checking her credit report. Like, "Uh, it's still on there, Tonya." That was pretty easy. But how are you going to implement that accountability or like check in to make sure they're holding you accountable? 'Cause everybody's gung ho initially, right? Like, "Yeah, girl, I got you." And then like four months later, you're like, "Hey, you were supposed to check in on me. "You're not holding me accountable." So figure out what that looks like. Do we have anyone else? Yeah? So going back to the dog goal, I would like to save $2,500 to adopt a dog and have some leeway for whatever might come up in addition to like the monthly bills by December of 2018, the Year of the Dog. So this is like, I'm taking that literally. And my accountability partner is my boyfriend who we would want to have this as like a shared dog. And so, we're thinking about starting like a shared household expense or like credit card. And so like that is where the bucket would come from. And I also just started working with a financial coach. This is a goal that I plan on checking in on every month as well. I love that. I love. So one thing I would say, saving this $2,500, I'm not sure if you specified where it's going 'cause you said you're thinking about setting up that account. We have some action steps at the end of this that people can do. So I'm gonna hold that in my back pocket-ish thing. So hold that. But one of the things I did love about your goal is that it was connected to the Year of the Dog. I mean because I think that sometimes special events and special occurrences, we're like, "No, I need to get it done "by the end of the Year of the Dog." For me, it was like when I wrote my first book. It was like, "I have to finish this book "before the end of the year." And so I think that it's really good that ... You know, what's the next year? This is Year of the Dog. What's next year? Is it Year of the I don't know. I was born in Year of the Rat. So it's like, "I want to buy my dog in the Year of the Dog, "not the Year of the Rat." So, I think that that was really good. And then your boyfriend, he's sharing that responsibility with you. So, like I said, just making sure that you're checking in on each other. If you set up that account, how often are we checking this account? How frequently are we depositing money in? Are we waiting until we get windfalls? Are do doing monthly deposits in this account until we get to $2,500? So how frequently are we contributing to this and holding each other accountable? So that's pretty good. Do we have any more online? Yes, we do. I was just Googling. It's the Year of the Pig next year. Year of the Pig. Who want to buy a dog in the Year of the Pig? But I have to say that's responsible. Because I know when I adopted my cat, I just went on Craigslist and I was like, "Hey I want a cat. "I don't have any money; I just want it. "I'll give it a good home." And luckily, I've gotten my money together. And I'm a very responsible pet parent. And he has his veterinarian appointments and everything. But, an animal is a financial expense. And cats are a little less expensive than dogs. But, I'm happy that you're planning for that adoption. Trudy said her plan is to eliminate $6,000 of credit card debt. So the intention is to save and to move to a new apartment. And the timeline is August 2019. And the accountability is her brother, and also her online support and debt community. Perfect. Very specific: $6,000; we have a number. We know we want to do it by 2019. So that allows you to determine how much you need to be putting aside each month, or contributing to each month. You want to move into a place. So you know that you don't have that $6,000 eliminated. It's gonna be more challenging in your place. And then you have your brother and your online community. Just establish how you're gonna do it, how you're gonna check in with them. And I didn't put it on here. So I should have put that on there. But yeah, establishing how you'll communicate with your brother and your online community to make sure that they're holding you accountable. Okay, so I just wanted to share my SITA goal and action. So this was a tweet that I tweeted not long ago. I still had debt when I resigned from my nine to five. But I also had a plan to invest in my business to make it profitable. So I was investing in my business. But it was to make it profitable so that I could eventually shift to tackle the debt. And this was the last payment that I paid towards my student loan, my private student loan. Yeah, and so it felt really good. And it felt really good. And you know the thing, the interesting thing about shifting our money mindset and eliminating financial self sabotage really is getting more joy out of doing what you said you would do with your money than these other things that don't matter to you. So for you, if it is saving $2,500 for that dog, like getting that joy, knowing that I've put this money aside to do what I said I wanted to do. And for me, it was eliminating this debt. So while I thought of everything that I could buy with that. I was like, "Oh man, I could go on a all-expenses paid "vacation with this money." "I can buy a bag with this money." "I could hire this person with this money." Everything that I could have done, nothing gives me more satisfaction now because that was in that moment I wanted to do it. But now, nothing feels better than saying, "I do not have any private student loan debt." Like that is gone. Great thing about student loan debt is you don't necessarily rack it back up once it's done. So it's not like a credit card. So like that is done and gone. So I just wanted to share my recent accomplishment. And then, I would like to take any questions. Because we have about three more slides. So we're kind of coming to a close. So based on that goal setting portion that we did, I would love to find out if anybody had any questions online or in here. We make it sound easy, "Just set the goal and do it." But sometimes, there are questions related to it. So does anybody have any questions to me about that or anything we've covered so far? Yeah? And I'm gonna take a seat right here. So you're limited in your finances. So being able, I mean, like you said, you can get a side hustle. But is there any other suggestions on, you know, expanding that or helping to, you know, pay off that loan? What did you end up doing to bring in income? Absolutely. So yeah, when it comes to eliminating debt, I'd say there are a few things that you can do. It is reduce your overhead, increase your income. Like really, those are the two main things, the two things you have available to you when you're thinking about how I'm gonna tackle this debt. For me, it was both of those. It was auditing my expenses for my business, auditing my expenses for my lifestyle, auditing what I was spending my money on as well as bringing in more money from my business. So bringing in money so that I could, you know, send $1,700 to the bank and I didn't feel the blow. But it did take time to build up to that point. I won't say that each and every month I was sending $1,700. But I would send more in. Like if I could send $300 in, I was. For Christmas, I asked my parents. So this is something that I did. Because up until this point, my parents didn't have any grandchildren. Instead of them giving me Christmas gifts, I asked them each to give me money towards my student loan. So like asking for gift money from people like for my birthday and so forth. And so, like when friends say, "Hey, can I take you to dinner?" Be like, "You know what, just cash out me $ "so I can put it in my savings account "or so I can use it towards this debt." And so, it was finding ways to leverage gifts and income from other people, increasing my income at my job and with my business, and minimizing my expenses. So going through and figuring out what I was spending money on that were not necessary for my business. So I would say like with debt, there really is no silver bullet. I did create something called the Banish the Balance Challenge. You can find it at banishthebalance.com which is a debt elimination challenge that I created for people. And we were actively doing the challenge, when we were doing it together, our community of 5,000 people, we eliminated $250,000 worth of debt in 60 days. Our community did. And so I'm thinking about relaunching it again, because that was just really powerful. And one of the things I cover in that is there really is no silver bullet when it comes to debt. Reduce your expenses. Find ways to put more money towards the debt. So that means bringing in more money from your job or side hustles, or freeing up more money in your life so that you can allocate it to that. So if you feel like you're on a limited income, I think our opportunities are limitless. And there are different ways that we can bring in money, or we can always, hopefully we can cut back. But there are some points when people cut back as much as they can. And so the only thing for us to do is to figure out how to make more money. And you're a moneymaking machine whether you know it or not. And there's always ways for you to make more money. From online, I can only see. So I'm gonna use Nadia again as an example. But in terms of the comments and questions she's putting forward, you can kind of see a little bit of thought process going through. 'Cause her first comment and questions were, and she's saying, "I have hundreds of thousands of dollars "in student loan debt. "I want to pay it off, but spend 70% of my income "on rent living in California. "And so that's a big thing to overcome." But I also can see that just working through some of these questions and process, she's also I think giving credit to herself where for example, "I recently set up a simple IRA "for retirement." And says, "I can't believe I didn't do this years ago "when I started my career in fitness. "I secretly smile every time I think about it." And she also said, "Just because I have debt, "it doesn't mean I can't plan for my future." So it's just nice to see that, obviously, there's some of that process going on where you start off with this mammoth problem, what feels like a huge weight and problem, but also see that you are making steps to secure your financial future even if you're not giving yourself credit. Exactly, yeah, and you know, that boils down to what we were talking about, about behaviors and that financial self sabotage. Feeling like, "I have this debt ball and chain on me." So like, "Why does anything matter? "Why does anything else matter if I have debt?" And it still matters. Your life still goes on. There are different that things you can do. Like she's looking to minimize her overhead and reduce her rent expenses. But even for my husband and I, we realized that purchasing a multifamily unit was actually the best financial decision for us because it allows us to rent hack. So that we are essentially allowing our tenants to pay our rent. And so maybe our mortgage is $4,500 or $5,000. But if we have a multifamily unit and our rental income is $3,500 or $4,000, or hopefully $4,500 in rental income, we're essentially living rent free and we still own our building. So there's thinking about different ways that you can hack your life so that you're still meeting your needs, but you're also able to achieve your other goals. Because there are ways to do that. I know for me, it was traveling more. And I got more than I bargained for, this month in particular. But I was able to merge my profession with travel. And so now, I don't necessarily travel out of my pocket. But I am able to travel more and achieve that accomplishment without having to necessarily invest in it financially, but find other ways to do it. So I would say, look for other ways you can achieve your goals. So I'm happy she's looking through that too. So, now that we have that, I want you to move the P.E.G. So, does anybody remember this game? So growing up, my parents are military. I lived in Oklahoma City, and we would go to the Cracker Barrel. I loved that restaurant. But one of the things is like moving the pegs. So in order to start the game, you have to move the peg. So in order to start with your financial journey and start living the life that you want, and really working on ending your financial self sabotage, you have to make sure that you're taking that action and taking the first step. So, I want everyone to determine what action that they can do today that would move them closer to progress in achieving their goal. So, I know for you, Precious, it is bringing in an additional $1,000. So it's like sending a message out to your team and saying, "Hey I want to set this goal, "so and so and so and so. "Let's set up an accountability meeting "about how this can happen and like "how we're gonna make sure that we're on track." So it could be just sending that message and establishing a meeting with your team. For you, for your dog, you want to go ahead and save $2,500 towards purchasing a dog. You said you were thinking about setting up the account. Maybe it is to go home and set up that bank account. And say, "I'm gonna open up an online bank account. "Honey, we're gonna put our money into this "so that we can go ahead and get our dog "before the end of the Year of the Dog." For, we had a goal, someone $6,000. Setting up how often are you contributing to that. Do you want to call your bank and make automatic payments? Or do you want to write down in your calendar, "I'm gonna pay $200 this week, "and then $200 in two more weeks towards my goal?" And then, your accountability person. So I want everyone to think about, what is one action that they can take. And everybody in here is gonna have to tell me one action they're gonna take. And then I want people online to tell me what one action are you gonna take today that's going to set your pegs in motion so that you can get in the game in achieving your financial goals. In here, okay, so everybody has to give me at least one action they're gonna take today to set their plan in motion. So we'll start right here. Okay, sure. To find an accountability partner. Okay, to find your accountability partner. 'Cause I've never had that in the area of finance. In other areas, I have it. But to find an accountability partner. And where are we gonna start? With my family. Okay, you're gonna ask members of your family to be your accountability partner. You're gonna do that today? Yes, my sister. Okay, okay, you're gonna start with your sister. So you have a specific person. Perfect. What about you? Well you kind of already gave me a great idea, so this is a little bit of a cheat. But yeah, I'm gonna have like a little convo with my partner tonight and like do some research and set up that account. And then, I'm also meeting with my financial coach tomorrow. So I'll share this goal with her and the action plan. Perfect, perfect. And they can help you find an online account and set that up. What about you? So I need to complete my portfolio for my website which is another great way for me to make money to save more aggressively for retirement. Okay, so what is the first that we're gonna do for that portfolio. Complete, finish my editing. There's a few galleries I need to go through to be able to add it to my portfolio and then put that on my website. I have already started this goal. So I kind of cheated too. So you're gonna finish collecting those images for your website. Perfect. So I'm starting a new job next month. So I'm gonna create a budget based off my new job, my new apartment, and put aside money to pay off my debt. Okay, perfect. So you're starting that new job, okay. Okay. Sorry. This is how I look when I'm in the store, like talking to myself like, "Am I gonna buy this?" I'm just thinking, I just want to ... Let's make a calendar date. Let's give yourself a calendar date. Because sometimes, things can become really exciting or quick moving when you're starting a new job. So let's make sure that we set a calendar date for that, and then a date check in. Maybe set a reminder for yourself to check in after you receive your first pay stub, first paycheck to make sure that you're able to achieve and stay within that budget based on what things are, what deductions are taken out. So yeah, let's set calendar reminders for you. Goal update, I need $1,500 per month. (Tonya laughing) And in addition to texting my team, I need to probably go ahead and set up an account for that money to go towards those expenses. Absolutely so. Go ahead and separate it. It's so easy to set up an online account these days. It literally takes less than 10 minutes. So setting up that online account to put that additional money into so that you're not tapping into it. Perfect. And then, what about online? They're all coming in now. So, one says, "For my 5K goal, "direct deposit $600 biweekly "into a separate savings account." So a few actions needed there in terms of starting a new account, a new savings account. "And also, finding an accountability partner "from one of my family members." Somebody said getting a part-time job just to add a little bit of extra income with the time that they've got. That part-time job one, what kind of part-time job? Where are we looking for that part-time job? Do you need a resume for that part-time job? Let's break that particular goal down into like an action that we can do right now. So that it's whether it's updating your resume tonight, whether it's looking at the job boards and submitting a few applications tonight or tomorrow or each day. Let's make that a little more specific. So what do we need to do in order to be able to apply for these jobs? Another one from, here it says, "Open an additional account to save more "than in just one place." So a separate account. Nadia said, "to check my credit score "and to see what that's like." And Wendy said also, "to check the credit score." Chelsea's, "to rebuild my budget." And Sharon said, "I want to start. "I just want to save $25 per week," for a new saving project, for a new thing that she wants to work on. Okay, $25 a week. Okay, and yeah, where we're gonna put it at. I'm happy that so many people mentioned setting up a separate account. And that's one of the budgeting, one of the saving tips that I use. It's because it makes your money inconvenient. And a lot of times, if we put money aside connected to our primary checking account, we're gonna be tempted to spend it, you know. I was very guilty of that where I would put money aside into my primary banking institution savings account 'cause it's easy to transfer it over. But then, as soon as I was in the store and I was like, "Ooh, a sample sale." It's like oh, take my phone out, transfer my money over. And so by putting it in a separate savings account, you create that additional barrier so that you can begin to ask yourself these questions before that money transfers. Or you have that time to ask yourself, "Okay, why am I doing this? "Is it contributing to my goals?" And so forth, those questions that I asked you to answer. So thank you guys for sharing those. And this is just for you. The next time you spend money, ask yourself what is guiding this decision. Because in this class, we've spoken about our financial history when it comes to people in our lives and how they've impacted our spending. So, is it your grandmother guiding your spending? Is it your mom guiding, you know, that fear of spending money? Or and then, is it your money behavior that's guiding that? Is it because you've had a tendency to be an avoider going forth. And so you're making a purchase and with the plan of avoiding it. And then, how does that purchase align with your values? Because we spoke about values. So how does that purchase align with your values? And then asking yourself like how does that purchase align with what my personal exciting goal is. Does buying this, I'm not even gonna say latte. Lattes get such a bad rap, so I'm not even gonna say lattes. But, you know, is buying this park pass gonna take away from my plan to purchase a dog, or adopt a dog by the end of this year? Or is going on this vacation, Precious, is going on this vacation gonna impact my ability to save an additional $1,500, or bring an additional $1,500 in income? When instead of going on vacation, I might want to spend time building the business and so forth. So just thinking about, asking yourself this as you spend money. And we're going to start, I'm going to wrap up, but I'm still open for any questions online. And if you have any questions, I'll make sure I create space for you to answer your questions. But what we've covered today. We explored our family financial history and how that is affecting your decisions. Hopefully, and this is an ongoing process. So even if during this class, you didn't say, "Well, I mean, it was my uncle, duh." If that did not happen for you, it's okay. I want you to continue to ask yourself this because you'll begin to realize that small things come up over the course. And when you're more mindful with your money, you'll realize that things are going to start to appear. You'll be like, "Wow, this is from my grandfather." When I realize I'm kind of being a miser, I'm like, "This is from Grandpa." And so, asking yourself and exploring that. We got an understanding of your money personality. So we're kind of bipolar when it comes to our money personalities. You don't necessarily just fit into one box. But we have different personalities that we inhabit at different times that affect how we spend money. And if we feel like we're a spender, what can I do to move closer to becoming a saver, or someone who's more confident with their money? And then, identifying your values. I think this is probably one of the more powerful things that we did was really assessing what do I value. And is my spending in alignment with this value? And what does my spending say about me? And then, last one, what excited you in setting financial goals that are attainable and exciting? So, not just the financial goal that someone else said you should have, but the financial goal that you feel like you should have so that you can live the life that you want and experience that daydream as a reality. We all also have our P.E.G.s. So we kind of explored. We got into the nitty gritty of our financial history in this one. And so exploring your money mindset, resetting your money mindset is really going to go into those habits. We're gonna talk about your spending triggers, and then what habits you can implement in your life to help you counteract those spending triggers. 'Cause I think that if we understand what our obstacles are and we create a plan for addressing those obstacles, we're more successful in overcoming those. But then also, I want to help you establish healthy habits so you can start to develop positive self talk when it comes to money. Because one of the things that happens is our negative history. We start to develop these negative dialogues to ourself about money. Like I said for myself, it was that, "You're not good at managing money. "You won't ever be good at managing money" And because of that, I was like, "Why bother?" And I really had to reset my money mindset. So it's gonna help you. We've worked on financial sabotage. But now it is resetting that money mindset. So undoing some of the effects of your financial self sabotage so that you can become more confident and more empowered in managing your money. And have the tools that you need when you get in a rut when it comes to money to kind of prevail over them. Let's connect again. Guys, if you have any realizations from this class, or anything that you really took away that you're like, "Oh my gosh, I never thought about that "before I took the class." Please make sure you use the hashtag MasteringMoneyMindset and MasterMoneyMindset and make sure you tag me. I'm on social media uniformly branded as MyFabFinance. And you can reach out to me and my team at info@myfabfinance.com. Thank you guys so much. (audience applauding)