8/8/98 VS Chicago Meeting Notes

Sharon, JR, Carole, Mary, Joel, Mike and Linda, welcomed Phyllis to her first meeting.

The meeting began with a celebration! In recognition of Joel recently achieving Financial Independence (FI) and JR completing his last debt payment, the group congratulated them and their milestones with balloons, coffee, cake, cards and gifts. Since JR will not have any more credit card bills to pay, he was presented with a coin counter to make saving "all that extra change" a simple thing to do. And now that Joel is FI and has "all that extra time on his hands", the group presented him with a timer/clock to keep track of that "extra time". Joel and JR were taken quite by surprise, and expressed thanks and gratitude. The group in turn thanked them for being such inspiring examples, showing us that yes, this stuff does work. (Note: Thanks too to the "organizers" of the celebration!)

We then did a brief round of introductions to acquaint Phyllis with the group and our recent activities. Phyllis connected with our group through the Simple Living Quarterly magazine, via our phone contact, Joel. Welcome Phyllis!!

Joel talked about how he has been spending his time since achieving FI. He recently completed a three week trip back home (Texas) -- first time he as able to spend that much time with his family in a long time. Joel has also been volunteering with a halfway house for homeless-a transition location for those who are just coming out of the hospital and aren't yet well enough to return to the street. Joel talked about reading to a group of halfway house members from a book called, "Tuesdays with Morrie", by Mitch Alborn. The reading was well received, and Joel later read pages 123...128 for us. Powerful stuff-

"Tuesdays..." is about conversations with a man who is dying from ALS, and Joel's reading was Morrie's reaction to hearing about the "importance" of "buying more stuff". Nothing like one's proximity to disaster to clearly bring to light what truly is important.

We then moved on to Session 6 (Making Life Energy Visible) of the Your Money Or Your Life (YMOYL) Study Guide for Groups. Mike facilitated, beginning with observations of the importance of making Life Energy visible -- JR making his recent debt elimination visible via a simple graph => shows where he began, where he was at along the way, and a nice steady decline in debt that inspired him to continue and find additional ways/methods to compete the payback sooner (JR finished several months sooner than he thought was possible). Joel also was inspired by his wall chart to find ways/methods of getting to "Crossover". Linda noted the visibility created by moving their chart from behind a bedroom door to the refrigerator, seemed to generate "immediate" results => lowered spending and more income from additional quilting commissions and a promotion for Mike. With their chart on the refrigerator, it constantly reminds her of where they are at, where they are going, and how can they get there sooner.

The group continued with discussions on: "Where were some of your Up Arrows on your month-end-tabulation form? Down Arrows? Any Surprises"; "What was your experience of asking the questions at the time of making purchases?; "How would you feel about hanging your wall chart in your bedroom-living room?".

The group concluded the session with a exercise-"Making a Commitment -- what changes do you want to make in how you handle your money?" Joel committed to learning how to better cook, Carole to eliminating several boxes of clutter, Mike to overcoming the fear of crossing over the Cross Over Point, Mary to donating a used bike to Merryville, and Linda to complete a "profile" for a realtor as part of a potential resettlement to Michigan.

Looking ahead to YMOYL Study Guide Session #7, Joel will facilitate us through the final segment of the Guide. Assignments included... (1) finish reading Chapters 1- 5 (2) get 18" by 22" or 24" by 36" graph paper and make you wall chart. (3) continue your inventory [Step 1] (4) continue tracking expenses [Remember: no shame, no blame] (5) Do the monthly tabulation and ask the question at the end of your second month.

We concluded the meeting at 12:10, and will meet again on 9/12/98 (Simplicity Discussion from 09:00 to 10:00, YMOYL Study Guide Session #7 -- Looking at Your Progress, 10:00 to 12:00).