We are a community of like minded, hard working, employees trying to improve our own bottom lines. While anyone is welcome to join The Club, the content here isn't global, it's primarily designed to support employees in the U.S. job market and taxpayer system. While some money concepts will be universal, many will be U.S. specific geared for those living in and participating in the U.S. workforce. 

​

I'm glad you're here wherever you are! Hello!

 

Now that you're here, I'll call you a Club Friend! Welcome, Club Friend! It's nice to meet you. I blog on the site with the byline "E.M.Powers." This represents both my personal calling (to empower you) and my given name (yes my initials and last name actually spell, 'empowers' which I think is pretty cool too. Taking it seriously and with a grin. 

 

You can always call me by my nickname, "El." I'm the founder of The Money Matters Club. I have one goal: Empower you and all who join The Club with knowledge so you can build wealth, by spending less on stuff and taxes, and learn how to protect the wealth and worth you're building.

​

I'm not an expert. I just care. I am not a CPA, not a CFP, not a lawyer, not even above average at math. I founded The Club around 2006, working for a big deal high-tech employer, and have been learning from this community ever since. Furthermore, few things bring me more fulfillment than helping hard working people do better with their hard-earned dollars and to help them avoid the mistakes I've made or learned of along the way.

 

We've grown from about a two-pizza club in 2006 to more than 5,500 active followers today (at work). But to stay joined before now, you had to stay at work with me, employed at our company where The Club was first born. To access The Club, you had to have a network account at work. I'm honored and humbled that the number one question I got at work was, "Can I keep coming to The Club once I leave the company/retire?" Until now, it sadly couldn't be so. But now? Here we go! Let's scale it for anyone, at any company.

​

And here we are on the Internet! It's an honor to be here. 

​

I'm very proud to bring you a version of a long-running Club I've built for thousands of co-workers for more than a decade and a half already, on a little slice of my former corporate intranet, until now, and I have been and am so very proud of all we've built and learned together. I'm retired now myself and will be scaling this 'lil second home for us up now on our own little corner of the Internet. I trust we will only get to reach and empower more Club Friends in good ways. Hope you'll join us! And let's make it awesome! 

​

Let's go!

​

See, your employer(s) can't lay out individual tax advice, guidance, or instructions for you about how to leverage their benefits package to help you not leave any money on the table. Today, most companies can barely resource knowledgeable go-to experts on all the benefits and perks they design and offer you in exchange for your time and talent--you're (for the most part) expected to figure out what you get and how it's taxed by yourself and for yourself. Employers do know what's best for you. They can nudge you in that general direction. They can publish the Plan documents. They can provide web-based trainings or benefits overviews. Or handbooks. But then all they can do is hope you read it all and act in your own best interest. No one, not your company, HR leader, your manager, or the CEO can make sure you actually benefit from the benefits they make available to you. They can't provide guidance or individualized advice. 

​

What happens is most workers get so entrenched worrying about their jobs and their company's bottom line, they backburner their own bottom lines. For. Far. Too. Long.

 

When the time comes to think about the kind of life you envision in retirement (hopefully early retirement), regrets often seep into workers' minds about not having focused on their spending, financial choices, goals, budget, or their own retirement readiness sooner. 

​

Many workers try to combat procrastination or lack of interest in personal finance topics by subbing out this part of adulting to others ("the pros") in hopes of keeping pace with their peers or even in hopes of catching up. You may think you don't have the time or know-how to do right by yourself and do your money best, but this would be incorrect. You can do it, at least a vast majority of it. Often, financial planners predict a common vulnerability among us hard working humans, and they will leverage your fatigue or self doubts about money to win your business. Many will insult their audience with statements like, 'you're too tired, too exhausted, or don't have access to the same strategies and tools we do,' or they'll say, 'the biggest mistake people make is not trusting us "professionals" sooner.'

​

I disagree. 

​

I've gone to enough free workshops or even the paid ones to know, the presenters learned just like we all can and most of the time all they're doing is reading you the Internet. All that's unique is their choice in clip art hand selected to break up the text on their PowerPoint slides. And have you noticed, the stock photos and clip art on retirement presentations tend to be kind of Elitist? Unrelatable? Stereotypical? Culturally myopic?

​

It doesn't have to be that way. 

​

While there's a time and a place to reach the need for a couple trusted, paid, 'expert' partner(s) in your financial planning, maybe sure could be, my soapbox pitch and plea is don't be so sure you can't do a ton for yourself all by yourself well before calling in these "pros" of any kind.

​

You got this! 

​

I'll do my very best to empower you to believe that you do got this. Because you do. And, I will never insult you. My role here is to keep empowering you. That's every Club member's aim too. No one hired to care, no matter what they tell you, will ever care about your money more than you will. And you can do all of your money planning yourself. I believe in you. The Club helps me too. The members here, my Club Friends, are so kind with their time and sharing. They love to empower others too. Many of them are very smart people, the best and the brightest minds on the planet, who I walked among at work. They are the figure stuff out kind. They are the love to read the fine print kind. They are the let's break it down and solve it kind. And they are kind of heart and mind.

 

We all share our knowledge, considerations, gotchas, learnings, tips, and whatever we can to help each other do better. There are Club Friends here at all levels of understanding money. Some are brand new to the U.S. financial system. Some have grown up in it and mastered it or are just now grabbing the reins to. Sometimes I bring in, or quote, experts who I trust are educators and money evangelists at heart, pure of heart, like me. None of us are going to invent new math, not much here will be novel. What we do can be summed up as loving to read the fine print, loving to break it down, loving to put it in actionable plain English, loving to help each other consider even more considerations and perspectives. 

 

No matter what, all of us Club members disclaim and qualify that our comments are our own opinions and thoughts, and are, unless otherwise qualified, non-expert. While you're hanging out at The Club, you should never consider comments, posts, and opinions as personalized advice for you individually to act on. The results you get may vary. Like a fingerprint, the financial house we each create and live within will be unique, not a one size fits all situation. 

​

Me? It's time for me to pay it forward. I retired in August of 2023, because I could cut ties with my employer and my regular paycheck and be financially secure, confident, and free to pursue new ventures with the time I have left on Earth. 

​

This Club wants that for all its members.

​

This is my wish for you: Get to a level of financial freedom that allows you to work only because you love to, choose to, you feel grateful for the opportunity to fulfill your purpose your way, and not because you have no other choice. I wish for you to do even better than I have. I wish for you to be able to give back and share all you learn here with others too. If we're going to combat a wealth gap - let's start with ourselves and let's also tell the others!

​

You in? I hope so! Join us at The Money Matters Club! 

​

Because money matters!

​

Yours,

el*

*Not an expert, just care (see detailed disclaimer below).

​

PS - You will find a lot of other 'Money' and 'Money Matters' entities, books, bloggers, groups, and helpers across various corners of the web. :) YAY! The more the merrier. This little club will be here among them. Though we formed around 2006, and have had thousands of members where we were first born, we've never braved the world wide web until now. Hope you will be able to find us, follow, and keep coming back to The Club. Your Club Friends are always here for you with open arms at www.TheMoneyMattersClub.com. Tell the others!

 

Disclaimer:

E.M.Powers ("el") is a regular person with no particular financial credentials or expertise who happens to be a money enthusiast and the founder of The Money Matters Club, a virtual watercooler for like-minded individuals with a thirst for building their own financial health. Since 2006, she's helped thousands of co-workers build their financial literacy and wealth by participating in The Money Matters Club, a community she built on her employer's internal network. Since 2023, she's been attempting to scale The Club's reach through its second home on the World Wide Web. Her opinions--as well as the opinions of all participants--are just that: opinions, which are subject to flawed logic, math, typos and correction. She keeps a growth mindset and is also always learning something new or bolstering her own understanding after discussions at The Club. All information shared is done so with the best intent to inspire and empower others to learn more about money considerations toward building their own financial muscles. Nothing shared is meant as individualized advice that anyone should act on without doing their own curious research and personal decision making. There are no dumb questions at The Money Matters Club. Your financial health and literacy are what this Club cares about. All investing involves risk. All results can and will vary.

 

Copyright: ©The Money Matters Club, all rights reserved (2023).