What’s in the name, The Pledgettes?

In 2019, I had some white space to think about how I wanted to spend my time, money, and energy. I had some big “why not me” energy and I was working on some Big Financial Goals alone. I wanted to learn from mentors, celebrate with friends, and build a team who could provide their experience and knowledge to help me achieve my goals. 

Yeah, what I needed and wanted was a financial community. I couldn’t find it; so I built one!

As we were developing our financial community, the original idea was that we would get a group of women together to talk about wealth, money, and finances. 

I imagined we would talk about which roboadvisor is the best or the first steps to becoming a real estate investor. 

And I always knew we would have a focus on financial action, which is why we end all our events with, “Discussion is powerful but action is what builds wealth. What is the action you want to take based on this event?”

Thinking about this focus on action as we were getting closer to launch, I read that one of the biggest factors in the widening gender wealth gap is that men take action while women tend to do more research before acting (these are statistics, not absolutes).

This resonated with me. Three years ago, my husband and I had an HSA. We both made the contributions to our HSA account but it took me almost a year before I invested that money into the stock market. When my partner and I have our money dates, we look at where all the money is. He invested his HSA balance right away and has $1000 more in earnings in his account than I have. I kept thinking I would have more time to research and buy the perfect funds and stocks. But I just needed to start. 

I only saw growth in my financial picture when I took action! I saw my wealth (or net worth) grow when I started renting out the second bedroom in my condo, when I invested the cash sitting in my 401(k), when I advocated for a raise based on the quantitative and qualitative value I was bringing to my job. It was the action that made a difference in my financial journey. And when you hear others share their financial journey, they focus on the action that they took.

We know that action, and taking some inherent risk, builds wealth. So, we planned that each member of our group would pledge a 1% of their income to build wealth. And that would look different for each member. 

Some could increase their contributions to their IRAs, others might  save up for a down payment on a business or investment property, or others could  invest in a career coach or continuing education. 

Each pledge would look different for each member. And our community would be the space for commitments, accountability, and celebration.

And so The Pledgettes was born! Our name came from the commitment to pledge and the addition of -ette, meaning both small and feminine.

And here we are today. Our community is 200+ strong, our conversations are daily in the app and weekly on Zoom. Women have built businesses, bought investment properties, paid off $20K+ in debt. We are doing BIG THINGS. 

And we get it. As a group – we clearly understand that action builds wealth.

So what pledge do you want to commit to today?. We need to focus our energy, time and (YES!) money to taking action. 

What would it look like if you spent an additional 1% of your income on actions? What would you do? Hire a coach. Take a class. Pay a cleaning service so you have more time to spend on your business. 

There is no wrong answer – only action. Add your commitment to the thread in The Pledgettes Financial Community.

And for fun, here’s a video I recorded in 2019 about The Pledge!