This is the second post on Money Clubs, by Tobi Elliott

See first post here.

…Or we could fess up, get accountable, tell someone that we don’t know what the heck we’re doing, and start a group to try and figure it out together. One group of Canadian women, calling themselves the Smart Cookies, did just that in 2007. They ended up being featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, were profiled in the NYTimes in 2008 and got a lot of media attention because they took some radical measures with their consumer debtload. And within a year the group of five women grew in friendship and accomplished their goals. You can read their story here to find more articles about them. (Check out how many money groups have started in the U.S. and Canada on their “See All Money Groups” page. There are quite a lot, who knows maybe there’s one already started near you!) Please note: I’m not advocating anyone joins this particular group, especially because they make you buy in to become a Premium member to be able to access the full range of their budgeting tools. I’m not sure it’s all that worth it. I mean, a budget is only going to be as good as the person who sticks to it, right?

Nor am I advocating you start or join some “money club” that’s little more than a pyramid scheme. No, steer clear of those. Stay FAAAAARRR away from any group that makes you pay money up front to get in or to find out that “extra special” information just for members. You know that most of that money is just going in the founder’s pockets.    But I don’t see anything wrong with taking a look at the general model of how these kinds of clubs work to see what might fit your style. Besides being really good at marketing Smart Cookies had some very good, very basic and sound ideas. You could try some of the things they advocate: create a group, share clothes, join an online forum, commit to cutting down expenses, talk a lot about strategy. Or try some of what TIGER 21 does: probably rather less sharing of clothes and more talk of investments and stock options.

Like book lovers who form book clubs, starting a community group about something you’re passionate about can exponentially multiply the benefits as you hang around similarly-minded people. Probably the number one thing to do is get people around you that you trust. Look for positive people who bent on finding solutions so you can inspire each other.

Ask your friends what their money-saving strategies are, then ask if they would want to get together on a regular basis to talk about it. Before you know it, you’ll be looking forward to talking about money and scary things like debtload and budgets. It won’t be such a daunting task, because you won’t feel alone anymore.

Just a note of caution here: If you’re going to join or create this kind of community group, you probably don’t want to start charging people to join. The purpose, ideally, would be sharing the research load, not capitalizing on the select information you know. Personally, I think that any group that makes you pay up to join is only going to look out for the interests of just a few, and the newbie probably isn’t one of them. I would suggest you let people decide when and how much they want to put in, and later on, you can decide whether it suits the group to pool your money and select investments to buy as a group.

For now, just getting together with like-minded people to share what you know about money would be a great start to the reality of financial freedom.