Wednesday, May 4, 2016

HNG: F.A.C.T. – Financial Answers in Career Transition

Hello Everyone,
The agenda for this Friday's Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) meeting will be featured by a speaker, Tom Alessi. The facilitator for this week will be Gil Krispien. We will devote the first hour to the following agenda: Welcome, Landings, Announcements, New Member Intros, and Needs & Leads. Important Note: Please make a serious, concerted effort to arrive before 10:00 AM. We are going to start the meeting on time at 10:00 AM. In the second hour, Tom will talk about "F.A.C.T. – Financial Answers in Career Transition."

F.A.C.T. – Financial Answers in Career Transition

* Budget and Cash Flow Strategies – “The biggest fight is always about the money”
* Learn how to take control during a career transition
* The more prepared you are now the better off you will be later
* It’s not about your budget, it’s about where you spend your money.
* Financial Planning – “Don’t walk away…Just Run”
* Why doing a financial plan now probably isn’t in your best interest

Tom Alessi

Tom Alessi is President of Westwood Wealth Advisors a firm that is dedicated to working with our clients to help bring clarity and purpose to their financial decisions. Born and raised in Needham, MA, Tom now resides in Westwood, MA, with his wife and 2 daughters. Prior to Westwood Wealth Advisors Mr. Alessi worked at Citizen’s Bank, AXA Advisors, and has been working as an Advisor in Financial Services for more than 17 years.

Mr. Alessi works within four main areas of focus; Financial Planning, Retirement & Distribution Strategies, Education Funding, and with Small Business Owners. The economics-based approach that Tom takes with his clients helps them to understand that every decision they make is not a decision unto itself, but rather how that decision could be coordinated, integrated and organized around their specific and personal financial goals.

Tom has been a Volunteer of the Year for the Chamber of Commerce. He is currently coaching Softball and Basketball in Westwood Youth Sports. Tom’s pastimes include golf, keeping his kids amused, making his wife’s life a little easier, and occasionally watching a really bad movie.

Recap of HNG Meeting of April 15, 2016

Our 166th meeting had 33 people, this is 25 less than the previous meeting; 6 signed the New Member list. Bill Wilson was our facilitator. There were 6 introduction speeches.

One landing:
Kate Davie Wood - Neglected to capture all her relevant information.

We had a speaker, Robert Gaughan, who talked about "If you have to pay for your own Health Insurance – maybe I can help……"

He is a Licensed Insurance Agent and Broker in Massachusetts, and represents all of the Health Insurance companies in Massachusetts and gets compensated by them –
so his help costs you nothing. He can assist in the enrollment process and answer questions related to the ins and outs of health insurance.
If you have lost coverage –
* had Mass Health – but recently disqualified,
* laid-off, on COBRA, or contemplating COBRA
* turning 26,
* recently moved into Massachusetts,
* divorced, widowed, etc.
Or – self-employed/small business trying to get coverage for yourself and/or employees.
Or never had Health Insurance in Massachusetts – and totally confused about how to go about it.
Also Medicare questions/concerns.
He discussed the following-
1.) Who can enroll and when
2.) How Health Insurance plans are structured
3.) How to decide which plan is best for you
4.) What we need to do to enroll.

Schedule for HNG Meetings:

1st and 3rd Friday's

General Information

The networking group meets in Hopkinton, at St. John the Evangelist Church parish hall. The meeting occurs, from 10 to 12 noon, and will meet the first and third Friday of the month. The parish hall has a capacity for 250 people and there is plenty of parking spaces in the parking lot and on the street. Around the perimeter of the parish hall are rooms to allow us to have focused network groups or for any other purpose we need. We chose the first and third Friday to allow everyone to attend the Acton Networking Group or any other networking group, if they wanted, on the Friday we do not meet.

We will maintain our close affiliation with Acton Networkers by using the same list-server to share information between the groups. Any e-mails specific to the Hopkinton Networking Group (HNG) will be indicated in the subject line either by "Hopkinton Networking Group" or "HNG"; this way anyone attending these meetings will know the e-mail is intended for them.

We will follow the following agenda items:
* Welcome
* Landings (with doughnuts)
* Announcements
* New member introductions
* Needs and Leads
* Speaker(s), Workshop, or Focus Group
* Cleanup

For those new members who give their introductions, this is what we would like to know:
* Name
* Skills and Value Statement
* Where have you been?
* Where are you going?
* Your title
* Your target companies
* Geography of search
* Name and e-mail address

If anyone wants to join our team, please let one of us know; we could always use the extra help and input for ideas.

Directions:
Take Rt. 495 North/South and get off Exit 21A. Go through three traffic lights. CVS is on the right at the third traffic light. The first street after the third traffic light is Church Street, take a right turn. The church is on the right. Go around to the left of the parking lot and go into the side entrance of the parish hall.

Depending upon where you live, perhaps you may want to use Mapquest for a more direct route. The address of the church is:
St. John the Evangelist
20 Church Street
Hopkinton, MA 01748

Regards,
Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) Coordinators:
Emilia Gordon emiliagne@gmail.com
Gil Krispien g.krispien@verizon.net
Ronaldo Lu ronaldo.lu@comcast.net
Vincent Rocheleau vrocheleau@hotmail.com
Bill Wilson bill@williamjwilson.com