I’m always telling my community to set financial goals for themselves and to work to achieve them, but many find it hard to do alone. In 2021, a few of my followers expressed that they would like me to keep them accountable to the financial goals that they set for themselves, so I said bet! Let’s start a financial accountability group. In 2022, one hundred people (I’m still shocked) entrusted me and joined my first-ever accountability group! You can read more about it here. In 2023, one hundred people joined again!
Here’s how it went:
Each member pays a membership fee for the group, fills out a registration form, and is let into the Facebook community. Once inside, they introduce themselves to the group. In their introduction they tell us about themselves, their financial goal for the year and how they were going to achieve that goal.
Each member was assigned a moderator (thank you to my amazing mods Karissa, Lerri & Shaneal!) who checked in on them biweekly or monthly, depending on their pay schedule. Members are required to post a screenshot showing that they deposited the money into their savings account and/or investing account and/or outstanding debt on a biweekly basis. Here is an example:
This year, we had monthly themes. June was estate planning, March was investing, February was credit just to name a few.
Four days a week there were discussion posts, polls, videos, informative articles, and more posted by the moderators to teach members about these topics.
We had live ask me anything sessions, a session with the CRA on managing business taxes, financial therapy sessions, monthly giveaways.
On a monthly basis, the group goal was announced so that we could motivate members to keep going. As of December 14, 2023 we are at $862,210🤯🤯🤯🤯. While some members had to drop out of the challenge because life is lifing, it is clear that we still accomplished a lot and I’m very proud of all the members of #ReniReturnsChallenge2023.
Here are some of the amazing testimonies we received from members:
“Reni, thanks to your accountability group and the moderators, I learned discipline. My goal was to save and invest $20,000. It is not even the end of the year yet and I have exceeded my goal by 6%! I also loved all the monthly knowledge sharing. My favorites were the Financial Therapy and Retirement Planning themes. I gained a lot more value than the membership fee, Reni. Thank you!”
“I was able to reach my savings goal this year and now have a fully funded emergency fund and saved for 2 vacations. I attempted to save on my own last year but I fell off pretty quickly. The support and encouragement from Reni, the moderators and the group are unmatched. I have gained an extra degree of freedom knowing if anything goes wrong, I’ll be able to take care of myself financially. I can’t explain how amazing that feels!!”
“Thank you for this group, Reni. When I first joined, I was a bit hesitant to have a savings goal of 20k because I wasn’t sure that I could actually save that much. It was a lofty goal for me and I knew I would have to stretch myself. I ended up saving over 22k this year and I’m so happy I was able to achieve this. This group became even more beneficial as I got engaged this year and I’m planning a wedding. Based on the amount I’ve been able to save this year I don’t feel so overwhelmed with the wedding expenses as I would have if I hadn’t saved this much. Thank you so much for using your gift to be a blessing to others.”
“I’m on the way to achieving my savings goal for the year and it’s amazing! Breaking the payments down to bi-weekly payments makes saving large sums achievable. I’m already looking forward to saving a larger amount next year ! I also learnt about the hidden costs of home ownership and wouldn’t be rushing to get one yet.”
I’m smiling ear to ear as I read these because who would’ve thought that this would come from the accountability group? In 2024, we go again. We will be keeping it small again with just 150 spots so it is first come, first serve. If you sign up for this mailing list you’ll be notified when we go live.
Here’s what you can expect from the group in 2024:
- Daily posts from moderators sharing various resources about budgeting, investing, banking, real estate, career development and more
- One-on-one planning sessions with Reni
- Financial therapy sessions
- A vision board party for members only
- Monthly giveaways (starting in February)
- A suggested reading list to increase your financial literacy
- Monthly office hours with Reni
- Guest speaker live sessions on topics such as home ownership, insurance, wills and estates, and more.
- A dedicated moderator to keep you accountable to your goals
- A community of like-minded folks all looking to achieve the same goal
If this sounds like something you’re interested in, sign up for the mailing list! We open for registration on Dec 16th, 2023. Spots are very limited and once we close registration, no more people will be allowed in the group. The savings plans can be found here.
The group is hosted on Facebook so if you’re not comfortable using the platform, please don’t sign up.
Can’t wait to help you all achieve your goals in 2024!
xo,
Reni
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