Yesterday, on a Sunday afternoon from 2-3pm, two other men took time away from their families and friends to help me with my finances. In the 12 Step Program of Debtors Anonymous, one of the important tools that gets used is a “PRG”, or Pressure Relief Group.
Normally two other people are asked to serve on a PRG for a newcomer. The two people normally have more time in the program and are there to share some experience, strength, and hope with this struggling newcomer.
I was asked to prepare two to three of my greatest pressures and bring them to the group for some discussion. My main one was around a spending plan. I have never been able to stick to projecting what I am going to spend against what actually gets spent. It changes so much and I always end up beating myself up instead of loving on myself.
I learned to start the meeting out by the three of us joining in with the Serenity Prayer. I had set this meeting up through GoToMeeting so that I could share my screen and go over my numbers. That really helped alot. My Action Partner said he normally just does his over the telephone, but it seems harder to me than just showing them the numbers.
I learned to break the PRG Dashboard into four plans. They are the Income Plan, Spending Plan, Debt Repayment Plan, and the Savings Plan. Amazingly enough, these coincided with the 12 Steps. They shared how the Income Plan needs to have “HP” out beside its title because we are turning this over to our Higher Power. We listed all of our current ways to make income and I was told to leave one line blank for something to take place that we don’t even know of yet. Leave that one for HP to show us a way to make more income.
Income Plan – “HP” Steps 1,2,3,
Spending Plan – “Selfcare” Steps 4,5,6,
Debt Repayment Plan – “Amends” Steps 7,8,9,
Savings Plan – “Hope” Steps 10,11,12, (This was my Schedule A&B already listed on my PFS)
They then went on to say I needed 12 columns, one for each month. Then make a 13th column to show the averages for the months. You will see trends at 3, 6, 9 month averages. Lastly, create a 14th column for “Ideal.” This is where you list your ideal salary, your ideal spending plans, your ideal debt repayment goals, and your ideal savings plans.
One number he was led to say was that he sees my Ideal Income number to be $200,000. The Ideal Debt Repayment number will be $0. And the Ideal Savings numbers will be all of those goals that we have already placed on my “Action Plan” tab with things like “Maddie’s College Fund – goal $100,000” and “Pay off house”. All of those ideals are basically goals and that creates Hope.
