Ideas please

[Daniel_Shop]

Why would you go to all this trouble and work to help co-workers who don't know how to manage their money? Will you stand to gain anything financially by doing this?

I still would have issues with this the way it's currently structured vis a vis privacy issues. I would definitely not want to be required to reveal all my personal stuff to you without similar disclosure and sharing by you, or without having the choice to selectively reveal certain aspects of my financial picture as i saw fit.

moneymatters is smart enough to evaluate the donwside of the project. Why do you bother?

There are a lot of people working for Charity Projects or Non Proffit Asociations. What is the problem with her building a savings club?

I like the idea because it could later even become a source of contacts for building business.

PS: my grammar is not 100% correct. I'm foreigner

[lgslgs]

Why don't you just have brown bag lunches twice a week? Have people make small savings in the days between meetings. At the brown bag meeting, have everyone tally up what they saved and then have them write out and mail their own debt payment right then and there.

Instead of $10 per week dues, this would let anyone who's remotely serious about reducing debt get started on it. Someone cuts out the smokes for two days, off goes a $7 (or whatever) payment to Visa. Someone skips one $20 lunch and brings a $2 brown bag lunch for three days, off goes the $54 check to Mastercard.

Someone shows up to the meeting and hasn't made any improvements in their spending - they get to watch everyone else writing those debt payment checks.

Maybe not as "fun" as putting in $10 and maybe getting to be the "winner" of the pot that week, but much more likely to get them in the habit of making real, small, daily changes.

Lynda

[moneymatters]

Why don't you just have brown bag lunches twice a week? Have people make small savings in the days between meetings. At the brown bag meeting, have everyone tally up what they saved and then have them write out and mail their own debt payment right then and there.

Instead of $10 per week dues, this would let anyone who's remotely serious about reducing debt get started on it. Someone cuts out the smokes for two days, off goes a $7 (or whatever) payment to Visa. Someone skips one $20 lunch and brings a $2 brown bag lunch for three days, off goes the $54 check to Mastercard.

Someone shows up to the meeting and hasn't made any improvements in their spending - they get to watch everyone else writing those debt payment checks.

Maybe not as "fun" as putting in $10 and maybe getting to be the "winner" of the pot that week, but much more likely to get them in the habit of making real, small, daily changes.

Lynda

OK, Lynda. I'll discuss this approach with my co-worker and see what we can come up with. Thanks much for your input!

[buzz]

I greatly prefer the support-group idea over the money-redistribution scheme. Modifying wasteful spending habits would be a bigger help than just a handout.

On a personal note, I have been taking money that I save from quitting smoking, cancelling cable TV and cellphone, credit card cash-back, and coupon clipping, and putting it in a separate money market. It's working out to be about $125+ per month. I call it my "out-of-thin-air" fund.

[DebbieL]

I also think the support group is a better idea. I'm just not seeing how this redistribution of the money to certain people each week will really help. Couldn't everyone just save their own $10/weekly and send that in towards their own debts? I'm not seeing much of an advantage here. I think having other ideas like say Mondays and Wednesdays are brown bag it days, etc. would be neat. Good luck with whatever you wind up doing.

[minnie1928]

Why don't you just have brown bag lunches twice a week? Have people make small savings in the days between meetings. At the brown bag meeting, have everyone tally up what they saved and then have them write out and mail their own debt payment right then and there.

Instead of $10 per week dues, this would let anyone who's remotely serious about reducing debt get started on it. Someone cuts out the smokes for two days, off goes a $7 (or whatever) payment to Visa. Someone skips one $20 lunch and brings a $2 brown bag lunch for three days, off goes the $54 check to Mastercard.

Someone shows up to the meeting and hasn't made any improvements in their spending - they get to watch everyone else writing those debt payment checks.

Maybe not as "fun" as putting in $10 and maybe getting to be the "winner" of the pot that week, but much more likely to get them in the habit of making real, small, daily changes.

Lynda

I really like this idea...it makes it into a game. For those that are really competitive this could really be a winning idea for them! It also reinforces the concept that those pennies really do add up into dollars.