Follow Me out of Debt | Get out of debt and get into prosperity!: Recent Episodes
Tom Merlino | Tom is inviting you to follow him on his journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
The Follow Me out of Debt podcast is an easily-digestible show that's a unique peek into Tom's personal strategies that will show you what works (and what doesn't) to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
This isn't your typical get-out-of-debt show like others you may have heard before from other well-known authors and show hosts, including Dave Ramsey, Clark Howard, and others.
Instead, Tom is taking only the best and most recent and relevant information that's out there and distilling this into his own exclusive brand of successful and time-tested strategies that will help you to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Don't forget to stay tuned during this brief hiatus by going to followmeoutofdebt.com for links to the best deals, ideas for saving money, life insurance at the most affordable rates, and much more.
Getting laser-focused on paying off debt requires a comprehensive approach that combines clear goal-setting, strategic planning, disciplined budgeting, and unwavering commitment.
Just because you’re in the process of getting out of debt doesn’t mean that you need to wear the same tired outfits day in and day out.
If you’ve been looking into possible work from home opportunities as a means to provide supplemental income or replacing the typical job requiring a commute, there are several legitimate work-from-home jobs across various industries.
The other day I decided to do something that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. I wanted to take a larger look at my credit cards and list out the annual percentage rates, balances remaining, and a plan to reduce any higher interest rates on those cards.
Embarking on a journey to significantly reduce debt is always a commendable goal. Let’s do this using a holistic approach to kickstart your debt reduction plan for the new year.
We are going to be heading into a new year soon, and I thought it would be important to set everything in motion to make the most of it, right from the start.
Building an emergency fund on a tight budget can be challenging, but it's a crucial step toward financial stability.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but the answer is a resounding YES! Of course it’s important to be debt-free! Being debt-free is an important financial goal for several reasons.
Taking baby steps to pay off credit cards is a practical and manageable approach to reduce debt without feeling overwhelmed.
The relationship between credit scores and debt management is intricate and has a significant impact on a person's financial health.
Imagine waking up to a world where the relentless burden of debt no longer holds you captive.
Getting out of debt isn't just about money; it's a journey filled with emotions. It touches every aspect of life, from our daily routines to our self-esteem.
Misconceptions about debt often lead to financial decisions that may not be in one's best interest.
I understand how disheartening it can be when it feels like you're not making any headway in your journey to get out of debt. The weight of financial struggles can be overwhelming, and at times, it may seem like there's no end in sight.
Now, you’ve heard of the debt snowball method and the debt avalanche method, but have you heard of the debt snowflake method?
To begin to stop using credit cards, let’s first picture a new financial chapter marked by liberation from credit card dependency.
I understand how challenging it can be to stay focused while trying to get out of debt. It's not just about the numbers. It's about the emotional journey too.
Getting out of debt may not be easy, but remember my friends, the road to being debt-free might have a few twists and turns, but with these strategies in your toolkit, you're well on your way to victory!
In this best of FMOOD episode, we're revisiting the incredible interview that I had from episode 318 with Amberly Lago.
Mastering the art of negotiation is a highly valuable and sought-after skill that can positively impact various aspects of your life, both personally and professionally.
The Mint app, developed by Intuit Inc., is a highly acclaimed personal finance management tool that has garnered immense popularity for its user-friendly interface, robust features, and exceptional usefulness. Designed to cater to users' diverse financial needs, the app offers a wide range of benefits that make it an indispensable companion on the journey towards financial well-being. I mentioned this app several episodes ago and promised to follow up with an update after I had a chance to truly give it a go.
I want to inspire you today to be your own boss. Even if you don’t go all of the way and quit your job to become a full-time entrepreneur but simply start a business to earn additional income, you can still be your own boss on a part-time basis.
A growth mindset is the belief that one's abilities, intelligence, and talents can be developed through dedication, effort, and continuous learning. It is the understanding that skills and qualities are not fixed traits but can be cultivated and improved over time.
Living frugally can help you to save money, reduce expenses, and achieve your financial goals.
Money and relationships, especially within the context of marriage, can be a complex and sensitive topic.
Today we’re going to be going over 10 easy steps to help you to be laser-focused when working on a project, task, or goal. Here’s the bottom line: when you’re laser-focused, you will accomplish more and in less time.
I’ve been a business owner for many years, but I made it official back in 2007. With this in mind, I wanted to add a new component to this show and spend some time talking about tips to help out other small business owners out there.
Reducing or eliminating consumer debt can have numerous benefits for individuals and their overall financial well-being.
The key to budgeting for small groups is to take the boring aspect out of budgeting and make this a more entertaining event for all involved.
Meet Sarah, a young professional who started her journey with significant student loan debt and minimal savings. Determined to take control of her finances, she embarked on a journey of financial discipline and strategic planning.
The psychology of money refers to the study of how people's attitudes, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors are influenced by money and financial matters. It explores the complex relationship individuals have with money and how it impacts their decision-making, financial well-being, and overall satisfaction in life.
Mint is a popular budgeting app that helps you to track your spending, create a budget, and manage your finances.
Credit management refers to the process of managing your credit usage and payments in order to maintain a good credit score. Your credit score is a numerical representation of your creditworthiness and is used by lenders to determine whether or not to approve you for credit and at what interest rate. Your credit score is also used in other ways as well, and it's important for you to be aware of how else your credit score may be used so that you can always be in the driver's seat when it comes to personal finance.
Receiving a large raise in income can be an exciting and empowering experience. It can open up new opportunities for financial stability, security, and growth. However, it can also be overwhelming and even stressful, especially if you're not sure how to manage your newfound wealth.
Setting up automatic transfers from your checking account to your savings account can help you to save money without even thinking about it.
Remember, retirement is a time to enjoy the fruits of your labor, but it's important to be financially responsible to ensure that your retirement is comfortable and stress-free.
What’s unique about discussing personal finance as it relates to families is that you will be in a position to not only improve finances as a married couple, but you’ll also be able to teach your kids about money at the same time.
As a young professional, it's important to start thinking about your personal finances early on to set yourself up for a financially stable future.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be talking about personal finance as it relates to different stages. It will go in order of youngest to oldest ages, so on today’s episode, the focus is on personal finance for students. If you aren’t a student but know of a student or another young person who could benefit from this particular episode, please be sure to share it on social media, e-mail, text message, or any other medium to get this information over to them.
When it comes to budgeting and using a percentage structure for certain categories related to personal finance, it's important to have a clear understanding of your income and expenses.
Being completely debt-free can be a liberating and empowering feeling. It means that you no longer have any outstanding loans or payments to worry about, and you have complete control over your finances. Be sure to listen to this episode again and again.
Living frugally means being intentional about your spending and finding ways to reduce expenses without sacrificing your quality of life.
Paying off a credit card may seem like a daunting task, but there are simple and straightforward steps that you can take to pay off any credit card.
Getting out of debt can be a daunting task, but it is not impossible. With a plan and a bit of discipline, you can get on the path to financial freedom, with getting out of debt being your first step.
A personal checkpoint is a way for us to see how we’re doing with a particular goal. It’s important because if we don’t check in from time to time, we won’t really be able to measure our progress and discover what might be hindering our goals.
Use your imagination and see if you can figure out ways to earn your way out of the mess rather than borrowing your way out or robbing your own rainy day fund for something that you could have resolved in a completely different manner.
I decided not too long ago to see what would happen if I saved 10% of my income and stashed it away in my savings account. My goal was to simply save 10% of my earnings to see just how easy it could be if I was chose to be consistent with this new habit.
Grocery prices continue to go up. For whatever reason, we are seeing a steady increase in the total at the registers. For those of us who budget a set amount for groceries each month and need to keep adjusting that amount, this can be annoyingly frustrating. Here's what to do.
Typically, the first move when we are trying to fight this fire is to watch every dime that we’re spending.
When it comes time to purchase a vehicle, ideally you could pay the entire amount without borrowing a single penny in order to do so. However, that’s not always possible.
If you want to truly succeed with learning something, be sure to take action while you're learning at the same time.
I don’t know about you, but I am someone who tends to enjoy stretching my limits when it comes to goalsetting.
While we may have dug ourselves into these situations that we face, there are moments when you might feel like so much of this is just… nonsense!
Let me share something with you today that is somewhat easy to do, and at the same time, has a payoff that can be worth more than you might imagine. It’s an almost foolproof way to always keep your goal in front of you. It’s a method that is nearly guaranteed to keep you focused and on track towards achieving your goal.
When we are in the process of getting out of debt, we sometimes get to a certain debt that may take longer to pay down and pay off. When this happens, we find ourselves in this lull of sorts where we are continually attacking this debt balance that we owe, but it feels like it is taking an incredibly long time to complete the goal of paying it off.
You may or may not have reached your breaking point. If you have, you'll never forget that moment.
We've all been through some hard times. This is especially true when it comes to our finances.
Do you have monthly amounts charged to your credit card? It may be best to consider moving those automatic payments to your debit card instead.
The number one reason most people have a difficult time with staying on track with their goals is due to fear and the natural inclination to go back to what feels comfortable.
I have to say that an income planning spreadsheet is not only easy to create, but it helps tremendously when planning out your budget for any given month.
All of us can get overwhelmed, but what's the best way to prevent that when it comes to our personal finances?
Our lifestyle choices determine where we end up as far as our personal finances are concerned.
For some folks, they are likely in debt at least partially because they were trying to impress someone along the way.
Are we truly consistent with the things that affect us in life, whether that's physically, spiritually, or emotionally?
The ability to refocus can be simple, and it's incredibly necessary sometimes to get things back on track.
To succeed with paying down and paying off debt, first we need to interrupt the pattern of debt.
I called a credit card company to ask to have the APR lowered on one of my credit cards, and this one in particular wasn't budging on their stance to say no to my request.
Make sure that you don't skip this important money-saving step on your way out of debt.
While you are in the process of paying off debt, make sure you are keeping your eye on your credit score as well.
We are going to learn how to practice saving for expenses, growing an emergency fund, and paying down debt. These habits will help you down the road as well once it's time to get into prosperity.
Getting organized and staying organized should be your first step when it comes to accomplishing any goal.
In this series, we're going to focus on three core principles necessary to accomplish any goal. The third of these is to have intensity.
In this series, we're going to focus on three core principles necessary to accomplish any goal. The second of these is to have intention.
In this series, we're going to focus on three core principles necessary to accomplish any goal. The first of these is to define what to improve, by what time period, and how often to focus on this.
We've all had a bad month when it comes to our budgets and personal finance in general. The question is, how can we prevent this from happening?
Prices are going up everywhere, but in order to win and come out ahead, you can't have a victim mentality.
It is essential that we develop the mindset that we should always improve in any area of our lives.
Have you ever wondered why others around you are having more fun with expensive vehicles, larger homes, and several vacations each year?
What you don't want to do is continue to use the credit cards that you're trying to pay off. Let's talk about ways that we can put an end to using credit cards.
The last thing that you want to do is stop progress when you take on too big of a chunk (or bite off more than you can chew). Instead, you should just take smaller bites.
It's smart to plan ahead in most circumstances, and this is especially true if you are expecting a tax refund this year.
These methods will help you to kickstart your starter emergency fund savings goal and will help you to apply these same strategies towards debt payoff as well.
If you're paying off your debts smallest to largest, you will eventually come to a point where the smallest balance becomes a bit bigger than you were used to previously.
Will 2022 be your year to substantially pay down debt or perhaps even pay it off completely?
When it comes to paying off debt, when you're in the thick of it, you're in a unique position with its share of ups and downs.
Learn how to properly budget for Christmas gifts so that your end of the year spending doesn't spill over into the new year.
Does the thought of making a much larger payment on a credit card cause a little hesitation?
Sometimes folks may not react to your news of getting out of debt like you might expect. The key is to know that it's not you; it's simply that they may not cheer when you win.
After setting a goal, it may feel like you've accomplished something. However, your goals and tasks need to be nutured, and part of that includes following up and following through.
How can you harness the excitement of change, even if you're someone who usually resists it?
Let's talk about our attitudes when it comes to stress and how we can better manage stress through our own attitudes.
How would your life change if you accomplished five important and prioritized tasks every single day?
Whether your goal is getting out of debt or something entirely unrelated to personal finance, having a purpose is paramount.
Having an accountability partner when you're working towards a larger goal will boost your chances of success exponentially.
It's information. It's planning. It's goal-setting. It's excitement. It's time for real talk about annual budgeting.
Have you ever looked into why you stopped short of success? It could be because of that small voice of doubt, and if it was, it's time to take back the power and use it to accomplish our goals.
When we realize the weight of a certain problem, an anxious response is common. The key is to not be overwhelmed for longer than necessary by taking things little by little.
If you haven't done so already, eventually you will get to the point where the journey is no longer an uphill climb but instead a downhill decent. You'll pick up speed with paying down debt, and you'll experience the first taste of true financial freedom.
In Proverbs 27:17, we know that iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another (NIV). How does this relate to personal finance?
Does this sound familiar? A check is received in the mail, completely unsolicited, asking you to cash the check immediately to use however you wish. Beware and always read the fine print, and remember to destroy these checks if they don't line up with your personal finance plans.
When you travel to a new destination, you will likely use an app, GPS, or even an old-school map to get there. Planning to get out of debt isn't much different.
A healthy credit score is important to have. A credit score is not just for getting a loan. As a matter of fact, your credit score can be used to determine your premiums you pay on auto insurance (or even qualifying for insurance in the first place). It can also be used to determine if you’ll be hired when you’re looking for a job and also could be used to help a company decide on who is promotable within the organization.
John Maxwell has famously stated that a budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. Our budget needs to be truthful and honest. Overspending happens when we lie to ourselves and end up using credit cards to make up the difference.
We all make mistakes, right? Some of those mistakes are larger and more destructive than others, but the common thing about all mistakes, both large and small, is that we have an opportunity to learn from them.
How can we use the power of our similarities to work together to get out of debt faster than we could if we were just going at it alone?
A new group on Facebook has been created for our community of like-minded folks to ask questions, get into conversations, celebrate victories, and much more. Find out how you can join this free group today!
Doing a minimalist budget isn’t the same as frugality. Being frugal is always helpful when it comes to saving money, but a minimalist budget is less about frugality and more about reducing the number of things that we’re spending money on. It's more of an exercise in finding out what we truly value and discarding the rest.
Last week, I headed over to the credit union and wrote the check to officially pay off our second vehicle. Aside from the taste of freedom, there are also some great tips on what to do with the additional money that isn't going to a car payment every month.
Here are my top 5 tips on cheap living, and when you implement these tips, you will save money. I want you to feel comfortable about being cheap, because it's not really a bad thing, especially when it comes to personal finance.
The money that you are bringing in, either on your own or between you and your spouse, is meant to pay for certain expenses. When those expenses start to equal more than your available means, you have officially started to live above your means - the antithesis of where you want to be.
The Grocery Budget Makeover is hands down one of the most easy-to-follow, informational, motivational, and just downright simple programs out there to truly help you to save hundreds of dollars each month on grocery spending.
Getting paid what you're worth not only affects your current earnings but future earnings as well. Find out how to earn more, even if it's not through your current place of employment.
We're looking at a very good possibility of additional stimulus payments, but along with that, there's a level of unwarranted negativity towards folks who may be relying on this next stimulus for all of the right reasons.
Life was never promised to be easy, but when things are hard, we get to choose our hard.
After a four-month hiatus, it's time to get back to business with new content and a new perspective!
We're talking about how to raise your credit score during a pandemic, and it's not as difficult as you may think.
It's human nature to settle in times of desperation. This applies to many different things, including our choice of vocation.
We are living in uncertain times, and both the economy and job markets don't hold the same sense of security for us as they did just several months ago. Folks are losing their jobs or are taking jobs that they are overqualified for because certain situations have made this necessary.
Don't sell yourself short. If you have certain qualifications, specialties, and talents, you want to make sure that you are aligning yourself correctly to make sure that you get paid what you're worth. Don't allow fear and uncertainty to prevent you from doing exactly what you were meant to be doing. God bless.
It's time for a monthly check-in to discuss what I've been up to as it relates to getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
I think that it's a good idea for us to touch base once a month to see where things are at on my personal journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity, and hopefully it inspires you to continue forging ahead with your goals as well. God bless.
Here's an alternative to paying down debt that might actually help you to pay things off even faster. I'd like to introduce you to something that I like to call The Savings Game. I would say that it's more of a strategy than a game, but it's more fun to refer to this as a game, right?
Ideally, you'll want to check with your bank or credit union to see if the savings account can be set up to not directly tie in with your checking account. In other words, your savings account has a built-in way to stay protected from taking cash out of this account at the ATM or spending from the account via your debit card.
If you can save money above and beyond your starter emergency fund in your savings account to an amount that you can use to pay off one or more of your credit cards and loans, you can knock them out in one high-octane blow. What's great about this is that you'll also boost your credit score at the same time by making a larger-than-normal payment and quickly reducing the amount borrowed and increasing the amount of credit available to you.
I hope that this alternative method allows for some folks to be able to pay off their debts faster by taking the anxiety and fear out of the equation. God bless!
What do you plan to do with your stimulus check? This is going to vary based on individual situations, of course.
Some folks are now unemployed due to this pandemic or have a reduction in hours, and some folks are blessed to continue earning income as they were before.
With this in mind, the stimulus needs to immediately go towards living expenses for some. For others, it may not be necessary to use the stimulus for living expenses at all, and in essence, it's simply extra and unexpected money.
Wherever you may fall in that spectrum, the last thing that you want to do is to screw this up. Chances are, there won't be further stimulus opportunities to use as a do-over if you don't get this one right.
You have one chance to utilize this as an opportunity to improve your situation and to allow this stimulus to lessen your anxiety as a savings security blanket in the interim while you wait to make a decision. The bottom line is to be smart, be patient, and do what's best for your current situation. God bless.
Will the new economy change the way that we work, shop, and define our wants versus our needs? I think so.
While working from home has become more prevalent, it's not a new idea. However, this among other changes are becoming more generally accepted, and I think that this may carry over past the current pandemic that we're facing to become a new norm.
We're also learning how to live with less. We are adapting to getting better at defining our wants versus our needs, and we are doing without because we have to right now in these current circumstances.
With that being said, this will also likely become the new normal for us, which means that we'll be able to prevent unnecessary purchases from holding us back from getting out of debt once this is all said and done. There truly is a sliver lining as long as we're willing to look for it, so please keep that in mind. God bless.
It's time for a monthly check-in to discuss what I've been up to as it relates to getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
I think that it's a good idea for us to touch base once a month to see where things are at on my personal journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity, and hopefully it inspires you to continue forging ahead with your goals as well. God bless.
This has been called an unprecedented event; a true pandemic that has shut down the majority of what we know to be normal. Businesses are closed or will close, churches are moving to video or audio broadcasts rather than a physical gathering, folks are no longer able to go to work, and kids can't go to school.
How does the uncertainty of this whole situation play into what we had already planned before when it comes to our personal finances? Let's talk about that today, and let's not forget that throughout this and every other situation, God is with you. He walks with you. He holds your hand in the dark. Remember this as you navigate through this world and remind your family and friends of this as well. God bless.
You've heard it before. Someone walks into an automobile dealership and proclaims that they are a cash buyer. When you hear about these folks, they seem to be these mysterious creatures who have defied the natural laws of purchasing vehicles.
The simple truth is, they're not mysterious, and paying cash for a vehicle is more common than you might think. With this being said, there's a proper way to purchase a vehicle without going into debt. If you avoid the common mistakes that are made when purchasing a vehicle with 100% down, you'll save even more money in the end. God bless.
I've been thinking about notching things up a little and taking more drastic measures to accelerate debt payoff. One of the things that I've discovered is that it's very common for many folks who are making extra payments or increasing their monthly payments towards their debt focus to never ask if they're doing all that they can as fast as they can.
Let me explain. It's completely normal to feel a little scared when you step out of your comfort zone. Don't let that fear stop you, though. The fear that you might feel with increasing the rate at which you're paying down and paying off debt will soon turn into feelings of excitement. You'll begin to see that acceleration isn't your enemy; procrastination, hesitation, and fear are the true enemies when you're fighting your personal war on debt. God bless.
One of the best ways to know how well we're doing is to have a metric in place. This apples to being able to tell how well we are doing with our goals of getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
How much cash we have available to us, either in the form of a wad of cash in our wallet or purse or what's available for us to use on our debit card, is a good way for us to tell where we're at on our journey. If you are just getting started on your journey, you might notice that it's difficult sometimes to even be able to carry a twenty dollar bill on your person. However, as you continue to pay down and pay off your credit cards, loans, etc., you'll have more cash resources available to you.
The bonus is that the more cash that you use for budgeted purchases, the more you will train yourself to rely less and less on credit cards. This will help you to avoid unnecessarily using credit cards as a purchasing source and going backwards with your goals by adding back on to the balance that you've worked so hard to pay down.
Use cash as a metric. It's a good way for us to see where we stand and will keep us motivated to move forward. God bless.
Have you ever wondered how you can start a successful business with little or no money? It's not easy, but it's also not as difficult as you might think.
Many folks believe that they need to invest their own money or borrow capital in order to start a business. This simply isn't always the case. Rather than starting a product-based business, instead you'll want to focus on starting a service-based business.
The easiest way to get started is to think of something that you do really well that people will pay money for in order to utilize your particular service. Because this business is service-based and shouldn't require anything more than your time, you will have minimal expenses to start things out. This is truly the best way to generate revenue with your new business in the fastest timeframe possible.
Once you've gained your first clients, the next step is to gather those all-important positive testimonials. Get folks to talk positively about your business to friends and family, then simply rinse and repeat. You'll gain more customers at a faster rate than you could even imagine, and before you know it, you'll be paying yourself a nice paycheck as your own boss in order to pay down debt that much faster. You can do this! God bless.
Planning is one thing, but action is a whole different beast. If you have yet to take that all-important first step, it's time to do that today. Don't wait until tomorrow; you won't see your goals met until you actually take the steps necessary to get out of the starting gate.
While paying off debt can be a little scary, the good news is that as you continue to reduce those balances, you will become more and more motivated to continue. You'll find yourself almost addicted to the process, especially once you realize your first several wins during the process. God bless.
It's easy to get lost in the blame game. As an almost unspoken rule of human nature, we tend to blame others for our own shortcomings, or we place blame on certain individual circumstances.
The problem is that once we deflect blame, we no longer take responsibility for the root cause of the issue. Once we don't have the weight of responsibility on our shoulders, we find it much easier to simply walk away and ignore the problem rather than tackling it head-on.
If you are one of those folks who deflect blame on to someone else or some other circumstance, you are robbing yourself of the opportunity for growth. As initially painful as it might be, taking the blame provides us with an opportunity to make things better for ourselves. In the long run, we will come out on top, and that makes this exercise completely worth it. God bless.
It's time to break free from the chains that have been keeping you bound for way too long. When an elephant is used for purposes that are different from its natural habitat, such as training to be in a circus, the young elephant is bound to a post using chains.
The young elephant is unable to escape from its post because it's simply not strong enough to break the chain that is keeping it bound to this post. It grows older assuming that it is only able to go so far. When the elephant becomes an adult, it maintains this limiting belief, and a thin rope is all that is needed to keep it from wandering from its post. The adult elephant is strong enough to break free, but it simply doesn't realize that this is the case and stays bound to the post.
This same scenario can be applied to many of us. We have our own limiting beliefs that act as chains that have trained us to only go so far. Even when the chains are gone and we're only held in place by a thin rope, we still believe that we can only reach a certain point.
It's time to break free from what's holding you back. Break free, and become who you were meant to be. God bless.
It's time for a monthly check-in to discuss what I've been up to as it relates to getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
I think that it's a good idea for us to touch base once a month to see where things are at on my personal journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity, and hopefully it inspires you to continue forging ahead with your goals as well. God bless.
Knowing your endgame can help to get you through this journey of getting out of debt, especially if you can envision what life will be like once you're out of debt and getting into prosperity.
Perhaps you want to give more generously and help those less fortunate. You may want to own rental properties and realize your dream to become a real estate investor. Maybe you'd like to pay for your children to attend college, or maybe your kids and your grandchildren!
The sky is the limit once we break the chains that shackle us. Freedom is powerful, and all of us have a true purpose to claim once we are out of debt and on our way towards getting into prosperity. The question is, what is your endgame? God bless.
I may be a bit biased, but I love this show. It's not what you think, though. The reason that I love this show is the community. Tune in as we see first-hand how our community of like-minded folks can overcome obstacles and thrust forward towards accomplishing each and every one of the goals that we set. God bless.
We already know that saving money is one of the ways that will help us to reach our goal of getting out of debt. I have complied a list of the more common ways that we can save money this year and going forward.
Some of the methods mentioned are for smaller purchases while others are for some larger purchases that we may need to make in the near future. With this being said, we can easily adjust many of these topics mentioned in this particular episode to match other purchases that we may need to make as well.
As we continue to head into the new year, let's continue to think of other ways that we can save money in 2020 and beyond. God bless.
It's time for a monthly check-in to discuss what I've been up to as it relates to getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
I think that it's a good idea for us to touch base once a month to see where things are at on my personal journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity, and hopefully it inspires you to continue forging ahead with your goals as well. God bless.
Is your gym membership a great deal or a money steal? Right before the start of a new year through the first month of a new year, you will see various gyms around your area offering no money down promotions, first-month-free promotions, or significantly discounted monthly dues.
These offers may appear to be fantastic deals on the surface, but a discounted gym membership is only saving you money if you actually use it. If you pay for a gym membership but never walk through the doors, you're simply giving your money to your local gym without ever getting anything in return. That sounds like a poor investment and a complete waste of money.
Before you decide to sign on the dotted line to start your gym membership, please take some time to consider whether or not you will be able to commit to going to the gym at least two times each week (or however many times is appropriate for you or directed by your doctor). If you can't commit, then it might be better to simply work out in or around your home. Purchase a used treadmill. Go for a jog. Do some push-ups. Do some crunches. Whatever type of exercise that suits you and is recommended for you by a medical professional is important, but it's not a good thing from a financial standpoint if you pay for but don't ever actually use a gym membership. God bless.
It's time to get ready for the upcoming year. What do you have planned for 2020?
Even if you got stuck in a rut during this last year, it's time to get your ducks in a row and start the year off strong. As a matter of fact, why wait? You can get started today!
The biggest thing to keep in mind is that when it comes to goals, you'll want them to not only be realistic but also time-based. In other words, set a date for when you plan to see each of your goals accomplished. This is a much better approach and one of a few strategies that will be discussed during this particular episode.
The new year is getting near, and it's time to look towards progress and success! God bless!
Don't make things more complex than they need to be. Most of the things that get into our inboxes or our mailboxes are nothing more than distractions.
It's best to keep your eye on the prize and not get distracted by seemingly simple shortcuts. The only guaranteed way to accomplish most goals is hard work, smart work, and perseverance. God bless.
It's time for a monthly check-in to discuss what I've been up to as it relates to getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
I think that it's a good idea for us to touch base once a month to see where things are at on my personal journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity, and hopefully it inspires you to continue forging ahead with your goals as well. God bless.
Everyone makes mistakes. The key is to allow ourselves forgiveness for those mistakes. We might be able to forgive others easily, but sometimes we don't forgive ourselves as easily.
The key to moving forward is to move past the bad decisions that we've made in our past. Once we stop clinging to the past and look to the future, only then can we break the chains of debt. God bless.
Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
-- Bruce Lee
Why do we do the things that we do to get out of debt, and why is this such an important question to ask ourselves? If we can define our reason why we do what we do early on, we'll have a much greater chance of success.
Define your why, determine how you will execute your action plan, focus on one debt at a time, and use the reason that you started your journey to keep you motivated and to give you the fuel that you need to finish the race. God bless.
Have you received a letter in the mail asking if you want to participate in debt settlement? Many times, the letter or the commercial that you see on television or hear on the radio about this particular topic might also be referred to as debt relief.
In any case, this is rarely a good idea. I would never recommend that someone actually signs up for these types of programs because they usually do not end well.
Rather than going down this road, I would instead recommend getting to work. Think about ways that you can work harder or smarter to get yourself out of this mess. Fill out applications for part-time work if you can. Communicate with your creditors if you're in a tight situation at the moment. Your creditors don't want you to sign on with a debt relief or debt settlement agency, either. In most cases, they would be much more willing to work with you directly since that is still an advantage to them if they will eventually be paid the full amount owed to them. God bless.
It's time for a monthly check-in to discuss what I've been up to as it relates to getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
I think that it's a good idea for us to touch base once a month to see where things are at on my personal journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity, and hopefully it inspires you to continue forging ahead with your goals as well. God bless.
Discover today how credit card companies and other similar entities try to keep us in debt and why. There are many different ways that credit card companies will utilize different perks, fee discounts, rate discounts, and other schemes to make us not only feel that their credit card is part of our financial well-being but will also be something that we should get used to using on an ongoing basis.
The simple truth is that credit card companies and similar entities do studies on the purchasing habits of most people, and they target those people who fit their ideal profiles accordingly. It truly is a data game, and we have to realize that when we get an offer in the mail or in our inbox, it's not meant to be an invitation to be friends. It's almost always a targeted marketing strategy to rope us into being yet another source of revenue for them.
It's time to take back control from these credit card companies, personal loan companies, and similar entities. It's time to change the rules of the game in our favor from us paying interest from being in debt to earning interest by paying off debt and getting into prosperity. God bless.
Why should you focus on one debt at a time? The quick and easy answer to this question is that it is much easier to process smaller bites of something rather than taking everything on all at once. When we hone in on that one debt that we're tackling right now in particular and give it our focused attention, we'll find that we'll have an easier time directing our financial resources towards paying down and paying off this debt at a faster pace.
It's not a bad thing to look at the big picture occasionally to know where you're at in your walk with paying off debt, but it's not a good thing to make that your only focus. You have to process one piece of the puzzle at a time, and only then will you find yourself making headway towards accomplishing your bigger goals.
If you haven't done so already, please take a few minutes to head on over to iTunes to leave a rating, leave a review, and subscribe to this show. Doing so helps other folks easily find this show so that they can join us in our journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity. God bless.
It's time to go on a financial diet. Akin to realizing that you've put on a few extra pounds and want to go on a diet to lose some weight, we can come to the realization that we've taken on too much debt and now need to decrease the amount that we owe.
It's one thing to go on a diet, but it's a completely different thing to define the why before we begin. A lot of diets fail simply because they're restrictive by nature. The natural tendency is to go back to those foods that we're restricted from eating at some point in time. Diets are far more successful when we focus on the desired end result, or in other words, focusing on why we're doing what we're doing. For many of us, that result might be what we see in the mirror. For others, it's a matter of better health in general.
Whatever the case may be, the same is true from a financial health standpoint. When you're in over your head in debt, it can be quite scary. Along those same lines, we can put ourselves on a debt diet and define the why and visualize our own desired end result. We can keep the why in mind, and this will help us to continue to make forward progress. God bless.
It's time for a monthly check-in to discuss what I've been up to as it relates to getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
I think that it's a good idea for us to touch base once a month to see where things are at on my personal journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity, and hopefully it inspires you to continue forging ahead with your goals as well. God bless.
Your credit score is more than just a number that financial institutions use to offer lines of credit or loans. The credit score for most people is an important number because there are other entities that will use your credit score to help them to know a little more about you. Two good examples of this are insurance companies and prospective employers.
If your credit score is good, most insurance companies will allow you to pay lower premiums for auto and other types of insurance. Poor credit scores may require a higher premium for insurance. While that might not seem to be fair, this is common practice in most cases. Employers might also pull your credit and view your credit score in order to get an idea of whether or not you might be more prone to participating in risky behaviors, and that ding on your profile in their records might be enough to prevent you from being hired.
While you are in the process of getting out of debt, tune in today to find out how you can raise your credit score at the same time. Your credit score is still relevant, so don't be destructive when it comes to your FICO score.
We don't make the rules, but in the spirit of playing their game the correct way, you'll want to do what you can to always continue improving your credit score as you move forward, and this will help you to make positive changes in your overall financial picture. God bless.
Whatever you do, don't let debt define you. You are a completely separate entity from your debt. As a matter of fact, you are the one who will be putting that debt in its place, and this is going to happen sooner than you think with the right mindset.
Before we get into that, let's discuss what happens when we've been in debt for a long time. When we have been battling debt for a while, or maybe not battling it at all, we can start to identify with that debt. We allow credit cards, loans, and other debt instruments to simply be a part of our lives to the point where we feel that they are just supposed to be there. That's not the case at all, and as a matter of fact, the opposite is true. We were never called to be in debt, but rather, we were called to be free of debt completely.
I've got good news for you. You will find your way out of this debt mess, and you will soon find yourself in a position of power and control again. Envision yourself as a general marching your army into battle against an enemy, and that enemy has been identified as debt. This is a battle that you will win through power, strength, perseverance, and Jesus as your Lord and Savior. He's always on your side, because you are on the right side. God bless.
When forming our spending habits, using cash is an absolute necessity. It is usually difficult to truly change our spending habits if we've been accustomed to using credit cards for a while and try to transition to only using our debit cards.
Plastic is plastic is plastic, and until you get yourself accustomed to the feel of using paper money and coins on an almost consistent basis, it may be challenging to break the habit of defaulting to pulling plastic out of your purse or wallet, whether that's a debit card or a credit card. Another huge benefit of spending with cash instead of credit cards or debit cards is that we will usually spend less. We will keep our attention focused on our planned list of items that we've intended to buy, and we'll be better able to ignore the endcaps or the clearance racks that are positioned strategically to grab more of our hard-earned resources.
If you would like to listen (or re-listen) to other episodes pertaining to the importance of using cash, give a listen to episodes 305, 272, 157, 143, 135, and all of the way back to episode 5. These episodes will help you to keep on track with truly changing your spending habits and will get you moving closer towards accomplishing your larger goals of paying down the debt even faster, and that is partially thanks to using cash as often as possible. God bless.
How much should your starter emergency fund amount be? Many times, you will hear that your starter emergency fund should be $1,000. Is that really enough for you? Is that even something that you can realistically attain in order to get started?
As I've said many times on this show, there is no cookie-cutter approach to personal finance. This is yet another example as to why we can't apply the same template to every individual person's unique situation. It's absolutely necessary to take it up a notch and apply a ridiculously easy formula that will help you to determine how much you should have in your own starter emergency fund.
Your homework assignment after listening to this episode is to take a good look at your own starter emergency fund. If you're just getting started, see if you can apply this formula to get to where you need to be. If you've already had your starter emergency fund in place for a while, perhaps it's time to revisit it and see if you need to make some changes. In either case, you will be better prepared for any emergency situations that may arise during the time that you're working your own personal debt payoff strategy. God bless.
It's time for a monthly check-in to discuss what I've been up to as it relates to getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
I think that it's a good idea for us to touch base once a month to see where things are at on my personal journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity, and hopefully it inspires you to continue forging ahead with your goals as well. God bless.
The emotion of fear can be a source of panic, or it can be a good friend nudging you towards accomplishing your goals. The decision is completely up to you, and it almost completely depends upon the lens that you use to view fear to certain stimuli.
Whether you are on the instant knee-jerk reaction to fear side of the spectrum or on the more analytical side of processing a situation to its fullest, you can learn to use fear as a catalyst to accomplishing your specific goals. Those goals can be large or small, and of course, those goals can include getting out of debt and getting into prosperity. It is up to you how you choose to process this fear, and you have the opportunity to turn fear into a powerful ally, if you choose to do so. God bless.
If you can't afford to buy it twice, then you shouldn't buy it. If you follow this simple rule, it will make your purchase decisions better aligned with your overall goals to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
It's very easy for us to make a decision to buy something by thinking about whether or not we can afford it. Many times, we either consider the amount of cash that we have available to us or we consider how much available credit we have on a credit card. Rather than thinking about this on a single level, we should expand on this and apply some critical thinking concepts.
I'll go over some ways that I've learned to apply the golden spending rule to help make better spending decisions, and I'll also include a great tip on how to expand on this concept even further. Doing these things will help you to keep more of your hard-earned money in order to apply these resources toward debt, and this of course will help you to get out of debt and get into prosperity that much faster. God bless.
What is the best thing to do when you're having a bad day, week, month, or even a bad year? That first sentence sounds like the song from the TV show Friends, doesn't it?
The reality is that many of us aren't sipping coffee in a coffee shop with our friends as life simply happens. We're in the trenches, and we're dealing with the day-to-day battles that will eventually wear on us. We're not promised a perfect life, even as Christians, so that means that someday, we'll have a bad day.
When this bad day happens, it has the potential to creep into extending into several days before we realize that we're now experiencing a bad week. The problems may never be fully resolved and will have time to fester, so now we start creeping into a bad month. Before you know it, we might be fully immersed in a bad year, and it may continue even from that point.
The good news is that there is help available to end this cycle, and I want to guide you through the steps to discovering the four essential methods to turning around your negative situations that will happen in life in order to seek out the positive that is dwelling within these otherwise unwanted moments. God bless.
It's time for a monthly check-in to discuss what I've been up to as it relates to getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
I think that it's a good idea for us to touch base once a month to see where things are at on my personal journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity, and hopefully it inspires you to continue forging ahead with your goals as well. God bless.
When is it appropriate to repair a vehicle as opposed to purchasing another? If you haven't had to ask this question yet, you will likely need to eventually.
I recently had a situation where I discovered that while my vehicle is still drivable, I will eventually need to incur a somewhat costly repair in order to keep my vehicle roadworthy. Sometimes our situations with our vehicles might be a little different, though. Perhaps your vehicle may drive just fine but you find that your vehicle needs other repairs in order to pass a state inspection, for example. In any case, when we come to the point where we need to decide whether or not a vehicle repair is worth the expense as opposed to buying another one, there are certain things that we must do in order to maintain a level head throughout the process.
First and foremost, we need to be sure to not quickly react because of panic. It's all too easy to hear bad news about our current vehicle and head over to the dealership. This is especially problematical if we end up taking on car payments again when our previous vehicle has already been paid off. Instead of dealing with that potential setback, it's better to not panic and instead take the time to consider all available options. You can be pretty inventive with this, too. Write down all of the ways that you could respond to this problem, and from this list, choose your best course of action for your particular situation.
The bottom line is this. Vehicles are not assets, and they should not be treated as such. They are liabilities that depreciate over time and usually cost money to maintain as long as you own the vehicle. Our best way of handling the financial aspect of owning a vehicle and the potential of having mechanical problems at some point in time is to prepare ourselves for this event and be ready for when it happens. God bless.
Just as things start to get a little desparate, you'll notice the debt predators creeping out of the woodwork. You'll walk out to the mailbox or check your e-mail, and you'll see these various companies and other entities vying for your attention in order to explain to you how they can save you from your past financial mistakes.
I will admit, some of these organizations come up with some pretty creative offers. The marketing machine behind these offers is one that will have you thinking that your problems have been finally solved as long as you respond to the offer or call the toll-free number to talk to one of their highly-trained salespeople.
I highly advise you to put on the brakes immediately. You'll want to do your research first, and if you see even one bad review out there regarding one of these companies, be sure to proceed with caution. You may not see many reviews at all, and if that's the case, that may be worse since this entity may not have been able to show their true colors just yet.
When it comes to getting out of debt, the plan is simple but the work is hard. The journey is long but the rewards are great. You have to have a strong work ethic, and you have to be ready for the incredible challenge ahead. You have to be focused and ready to take on what might just be your greatest battle ever fought, but rest assured, your diligence and perseverance will pay off. God bless.
We've all been in a bad relationship at least once in our lives. We've all been in a situation where our best move was to end the relationship to benefit either ourselves or both people involved. Breaking up isn't easy to do, either. There are the memories, the leftover feelings, and the time invested in the relationship. None of these things are easy to simply chuck out the window.
With that said, this isn't a podcast about love and relationships. It's a podcast about personal finance. It's not romantic and it's not what tear-jerker movies are made out of, but it does share some of the same components.
When we get our first credit card, we have that initial excitement. It's new, it's shiny, and it's personalized with our name right on it. We take it wherever we go, and when we need it, it's right there waiting for us. If we have any trouble, there's even a phone number on the back that we can call to get help any time of the day or night. It allows us to buy things we wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. Sure, we have to pay it back, but we can do this in small payments, which is a heck of a lot easier than spending all of our money all at the same time. It makes decision-making easier, because instead of worrying about saving up for whatever it is that we've set our eyes upon, we can simply whip out this credit card and take care of everything right then and there. Ah, but the honeymoon phase only lasts so long. Before you know it, there are tons of others out there just like it, and we don't stick with the same one. We find ourselves getting newer cards with higher credit limits. We realize that we can take out a loan and buy a shiny, new automobile. We slowly but surely get in too deep in this relationship and realize that what we've really done is allowed ourselves to get in deep with debt, and this is one unhealthy mess of a relationship if there ever was one. It's time to break up with debt once and for all. Doing so will require your attention, planning, and effort to make forward momentum, but once this ball starts rolling, it will continue to pick up speed and power along the way. Before you know it, you will be celebrating a victory and never looking back on this bad relationship except to reflect on how big of a mistake that this was in your life from the very beginning. God bless.
Many of us feel the weight of our past mistakes for a long time, and this weight prevents us from moving forward. This is especially true if you're feeling like you have passed a certain age and look back to see people much younger than you making better financial decisions than you did. This makes you feel like you've missed out on an opportunity, and you end up kicking yourself instead of making your current situation better.
It's time to run through a few steps today in order to give yourself a mental clean slate so that you can move past your mistakes and become who you wish to be. Remember, you are the one who has the power to write the proper ending to your story, and you're going to love how it turns out because you now have the unique opportunity to take charge and come out as a winner! God bless.
Whether you acknowledge this statement or not, they control you. If you're wondering who I'm referring to, I'm referring to the credit card companies, loan companies, and any other entities that charge you money for borrowing their money.
If you are under the false impression that you're in control when it comes to these institutions, it's time to realize a few things. Especially when it comes to credit card companies, they have the final say as to whether or not you receive one of their cards or if you are able to successfully request a credit limit increase.
What's worse is that there's a concept which some credit card companies employ that amounts to essentially being a credit card limit decrease for customers. Yes, you heard me correctly. Credit card companies have the ability to take what you thought was your personal available line of credit and decrease it as they wish when they wish to do so, and sometimes this decrease will bring your available credit limit incredibly close to what you currently owe.
When this happens, this will hurt your credit score. You could try calling and asking the credit card company to reverse their decision on the credit limit decrease, but chances are, they won't willingly do this. That leaves you with a credit card (or several) that are now close to the max, even when this was never your intention to be in this particular situation. Credit card companies want to limit their risk, and they have the absolute right to do just that. Unfortunately, this ends up hurting you, the consumer.
If you end up in this or any other negative situation with a credit card company or other similar entity, it's time to get mad. The emotional reaction that you have leads to passion, and passion leads to action. It's time to take control back from these bully institutions, and the sooner the better. Once we realize this and begin to take the steps needed to accomplish this, we will win. God bless.
Discipline and behavior are closely linked with one another. As a matter of fact, they directly feed off of one another.
Our behavior is incredibly important, and a large portion of what structures our behavior is our level of discipline that allows us to continue good behaviors and prevents us from going back to bad behaviors.
As good behaviors prevail and you rewire the way that you normally do things for the better, your level of discipline will naturally increase. This cycle continues, and you will eventually find yourself truly winning with personal finance.
If you haven't done so already, please head on over to iTunes and leave a rating, leave a review, and while you're there, subscribe to the show. It's a great way to bring this show out in front of other listeners, and it expands the reach of folks who will join us in our journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity. God bless.
Have you ever asked yourself what if you didn't retire? In many places of the world, people view their lives as two completely separate entities: work life, retirement life. What if you blurred the lines a bit and made it all one in the same?
Imagine being 100+ years old and still working. It may not sound like a great idea to you, but what if your chosen vocation was something that inspired you with so much passion that you actually looked forward to waking up every morning just to continue doing it?
In order to make something like this a reality, we need to start by asking a few simple questions. First, what makes you happy? What brings you true joy? Second, what is it that you're good at? Third, what (and who) do you value? Finally, what motivates you to get up in the morning?
Think about these questions for a bit and see if you might also feel that retirement doesn't have to be a necessity, because perhaps there's some greater purpose in your life that you simply haven't uncovered yet. God bless.
At the end of the month, do you find yourself asking where your money has gone? Unfortunately, for many folks, this is an all-too-common occurrence.
The good news is that there is a way to stay focused and stay on track so that you'll find yourself in that sweet spot with personal finance success. If you'll keep this simple rhyme in mind and pay close attention to the tips given and the content of today's episode, you'll soon find yourself consistently within budget each and every month:
Point A to point B,
Getting debt-free,
Getting into prosperity.
If you haven't done so already, I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to leave a rating, leave a review, and while you're there, subscribe to the show. Your input helps to guide other listeners to tune in to the show, and I truly believe that there is great strength in numbers as we all move towards getting out of debt and getting into prosperity. God bless.
There is great responsibility that comes with being an expert. When you are an expert in your chosen field and have literally millions of folks tuning in to hear what you have to say on an almost daily basis, you have to be three times as careful with the content that you're putting out there.
I'm not saying that an expert needs to be perfect. However, I am going to say that some of the bigger names out there in the personal finance advice realm (Dave Ramsey, Clark Howard, etc.) have a certain level of responsibility with what they allow to be broadcast to an astronomical base of regular listeners and subscribers. How we respond to critics tells a lot about us, and sometimes not giving a critic their fifteen seconds of fame is the best response to keeping that individual's opinion at bay.
Don't get me wrong. I listen to both The Dave Ramsey Show and The Clark Howard Show almost every week. With that being said, there are just a couple of tweaks that I would offer to suggest in order to keep the negativity at bay and focus on bringing even more positivity for us folks on this little planet of ours. God bless.
We're wrapping up our book study with our final principle of success. This principle has to do with the power of partnership in the context of kings and priests, but we're going to dive in a little deeper and discuss other points of this principle as well.
Of course, with this being the conclusion of this particular book study, it's also a good time to review the twelve principles in their entirety. If you work to apply all of these principles in your life, you will absolutely have a greater chance for success.
It's not too late to pick up a copy of this book for your personal library if you'd like to do so. This is one of those books that you'll find yourself reading time and time again, especially since it is a short read and contains a literal wealth of information. Head on over to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/legend to pick up your own discounted copy of this book today while they're still available. God bless.
We're heading into the final stretch of our book study and visiting the next four principles of success. These four principles are organically connected to one another from a financial prosperity standpoint, but each one deserves to be looked at both separately and diligently.
At this point in the story, Antonio was approached by his brother-in-law, Venny. Venny wanted Antonio to provide him with a loan, but Antonio was naturally conflicted with this request. He needed to seek counsel from Alessio during their fifth meeting, and Alessio, as always, provided Antonio with wise counsel.
From this wise counsel, we derive four more principles of success. Once applied in our lives, these four principles of success will turbo boost our ability to get out of debt and get into prosperity. All of the principles thus far are equally important, but these four are especially noteworthy since they all tie in well with one another.
If you haven't done so already, I would suggest following along in this book study by picking up a copy of this book at your local library or purchasing it online. I've done some legwork and found several used copies of this book for just a few dollars if you'd like to own a copy for yourself or if you can't find it at your local library. Simply head on over to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/legend and pick up your copy today. God bless.
It's now time for the fourth meeting between Antonio and Alessio. Prior to this meeting, Antonio is asked to meet with the feared merchant pirate, Ahmad. He first has an opportunity to seek Alessio's advice prior to the meeting, and it's a good thing that he did.
Alessio provides Antonio with sound advice to help him with turning away from focusing on the rumors centered around Ahmad and instead turn his focus towards God. Antonio has no reason to fear Ahmad but instead should approach him with boldness and confidence.
Alessio explains to Antonio that it's only necessary to be meek when it comes to God; everyone else should be approached with boldness, confidence, and kindness. With this in mind, we're introduced to principle seven of the trusted principles of success: be meek before God but bold before men.
If you haven't done so already, I would suggest following along in this book study by picking up a copy of this book at your local library or purchasing it online. I've done some legwork and found several used copies of this book for just a few dollars if you'd like to own a copy for yourself or if you can't find it at your local library. Simply head on over to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/legend and pick up your copy today. God bless.
We’re currently reading about the third meeting between Antonio and Alessio, but prior to this, we learn about Antonio’s business partner, Milos. Milos also has a zest for life like Antonio, and the two made for great business partners.
Before the third meeting could take place, Antonio and Milos had witnessed their factory burn to the ground. Antonio thought for sure that this was the end of his business (and his wealth and success). He even went as far as questioning why God had put him in this particular circumstance.
While it might be natural for us to blame the devil or even God when we face trials in our lives, we need to remember that God sometimes allows trials so that He can sculpt us into what He already knows we have the potential to become. We shouldn't waste our time displacing blame one way or another, because some things that happen in life are simply cause and effect. We need to realize that the challenges that we face are stepping stones and not insurmountable obstacles.
If you haven't done so already, I would suggest following along in this book study by picking up a copy of this book at your local library or purchasing it online. I've done some legwork and found several used copies of this book for just a few dollars if you'd like to own a copy for yourself or if you can't find it at your local library. Simply head on over to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/legend and pick up your copy today. God bless.
Financial prosperity is connected to soul prosperity. With that being said, a man must do whatever he can to provide for his family.
At this point in the book, we find that Alessio has instructed his friend to meet him for midnight mass. As Antonio walked to the church, he was reminded of the words from his father talking about God and His greatness. When he looked up at the heavens, he remembered the passage from Jeremiah 29:11. Behold, the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.
Tune in to get caught up with the rest of the story. If you haven't done so already, I would suggest following along in this book study by picking up a copy of this book at your local library or purchasing it online. I've done some legwork and found several used copies of this book for just a few dollars if you'd like to own a copy for yourself or if you can't find it at your local library. Simply head on over to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/legend and pick up your copy today. God bless.
Work hard and God will prosper you. This is the first principle that we're discussing today from the book, The Legend of the Monk and the Merchant by Terry Felber.
Starting with a quick introduction of the characters in this book, you'll be quickly caught up to speed with what Julio is about to find out from his grandfather, Antonio. You'll feel like you're sitting right alongside Julio and sharing Antonio's greatest treasure that he's about to reveal: the principles for successful living.
I would suggest picking up a copy of this book at your local library or purchasing it online. I've done some legwork and found several used copies of this book at fantastic prices if you'd like to own a copy for yourself or if you can't find it at your local library. Simply head on over to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/legend and pick up your copy today. God bless.
Do you want to learn the principles of successful living? Over the next several weeks, we'll be diving deep into the principles outlined in the book, The Legend of the Monk and the Merchant by Terry Felber.
This is one of those books that I find myself going back to reading time and again and with good reason. The story is not only an entertaining read, but it also teaches some excellent principles for successful living.
I would suggest picking up a copy of this book at your local library or purchasing it online. I've done some legwork and found several used copies of this book at fantastic prices if you'd like to own a copy for yourself or if you can't find it at your local library. Simply head on over to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/legend and pick up your copy today. We'll be starting our study on this incredible book in the next episode. God bless.
If you don't play, you don't win. Or do you? As it was said by Joshua in WarGames: the only winning move is not to play. If you're not familiar with that movie, I'll digress for a moment by saying that you should definitely check it out sometime.
While I'm showing my geeky side here, that scene in the movie was the first thing that came to mind when I considered talking about the Powerball (or any other lottery) for today's episode. Lotteries are designed to have astronomical odds against being able to win, and those few who do win may not be as happy as you would think. There are plenty of stories floating around out there where the winners actually ended the story by wishing that they could turn back the clock so that they could avoid ever having played at all. That's powerful testimony as to why the lottery does not solve problems. As a matter of fact, they very well could make things worse.
If gambling has become a significant problem in your life, I want you to get help. I implore you to visit the Gamblers Anonymous website to get in touch with a location nearest you: http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/ga/hotlines
If you're not a compulsive gambler and just like to buy a lottery ticket every now and then, you probably aren't doing much harm. With that said, there probably are better ways to spend your money. I'd like you to resolve to get rich slowly through hard work, perseverance, knowledge, and the application of knowledge. This, my friends, is a sure thing. God bless.
It's sad but true. Not everyone wants you to succeed. The sooner that you realize this, the better that it will be for you.
You don't want to waste your time if you are continuously getting negative feedback from a particular individual. This person in your life could be a friend, a family member, or possibly neither of those. It really doesn't matter, because in the end, the negative feedback that you're receiving from this person is bringing you down. You might be incredibly excited and motivated to get out of debt, but as you make some critical headway in all of this, you find that there's this one individual who simply can't be happy for you.
In most cases, it's not a problem with you. It's almost always a problem with the individual who has decided that they don't want to see you succeed. They may ignore your accomplishments, or they may put down your accomplishments altogether. It pains them to see you succeed, and if this is someone who is close to you, it makes it all the more difficult for you when this type of ugliness rears its head.
Relax in knowing that it truly isn't about you; it's about them. They might be jealous. They might be going through something. They might just wish that they could have the same courage and perseverance that you have. Whatever the case may be, again, it's not about you and completely about them.
If you look at the situation from that lens, you may decide to pray for them. Even if you don't, you still don't want to give them the ability to knock the wind out of your sails. You worked hard for your accomplishments, and because of that, you should enjoy them to the fullest with those who are your cheerleaders in this world. Surround yourself with those people instead, and see how much easier it is to simply ignore the naysayers. God bless.
Have you ever stopped to realize how fortune truly favors the bold? The first time that I heard this saying was when I had watched The Founder, the movie about how Ray Kroc had founded McDonald's, or rather, how he built a worldwide empire by essentially rethinking what the McDonald brothers had started and transforming the concept into something completely different and revolutionary.
That aside, when we take bold action steps and stop behaving in a timid fashion, we'll soon realize that fortune almost seems to greet us at the doorstep. Does that mean to carelessly act bold without considering what's best for us? Of course not. However, approaching life with an overly cautious stance could very well keep us stuck in second gear.
Starting right now, resolve to be courageous, bold, confident, and someone who stands out from the rest. God bless.
It's one thing to have a goal to get out of debt, but how long will it actually take you to reach that goal? Believe it or not, the answer to this question is incredibly important to consider.
When we start a journey to get out of debt, we might start out of the gate strong but lose momentum as we continue along the path towards accomplishing the goals that we've set for ourselves. One of the important things to realize is that it's unlikely that we'll be able to accomplish any goal flawlessly from beginning to end. We'll eventually mess up, and that's okay. When we mess up and take ownership of any mistakes that we've made, we give ourselves the unique opportunity to learn from these mistakes and to do better next time.
The good news is that there are three easy steps that we can take to pick up the pace and reach our goal to get out of debt that much sooner. First, focus on your processes and gain a true understanding of what works and what doesn't work for you. Next, utilize the tools that you have at your disposal to help you to stay on track. Finally, do whatever you can to increase your monthly income in order to get out of debt even faster. Combining these three principles together at the same time will help you to pick up the pace to get out of debt, and one day, get into prosperity. God bless.
I've got some exciting news to share today! Tune in to find out this news, but more importantly, discover how you can also get to realize this same experience.
What's important to note is that once we've reached a particular goal, even when it's a part of a larger goal, we need to utilize the momentum that we've been able to generate appropriately. If we can shift our focus on to incrementally larger goals as we progress, we will soon find ourselves deep into our journey towards getting out of debt and getting into prosperity. God bless!
We all make mistakes. Here are some of the mistakes that I have made in the past, and I'm hoping that by hearing my account of previous errors, you'll learn a thing or two about what not to do. I'm also hoping that you'll realize that even if you have made mistakes in the past, it's never too late to start over and do things the right way.
Keep in mind that it's also common for many of us to start out strong but still let life's pressures win and go against our better judgment. When this happens, we have to treat it as a life lesson learned and move on from there. Remember, admitted past stupidity can actually help us to do things the correct way later on down the road. God bless.
What is something that you do well that others might pay you for to do for them? It's a serious question that, if answered correctly, could result in increased revenue that you can use to get out of debt that much faster.
We all know that getting out of debt is a process, and the more weapons that we have to use towards destroying our debt, the better. Decreasing expenses is usually a good first step, but increasing income is going to eventually become necessary in most cases. We could go down the familiar path of getting a part-time job, but by asking a fairly simple question, we might be able to capitalize on that which we do well and come up with a way to monetize that specialty either directly or indirectly.
It's time to get started and really give this question some serious thought. Not doing so could be akin to leaving money on the table, and we all know that's not something that we want to do while we're on this journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity. God bless.
It's incredibly important to stay positive even while we're in the negative. Let me tell you how to do just that.
Sometimes it's about attitude, but more often, it's about action. Many of us are starting our journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity from a negative net worth. The situations that we find ourselves in sometimes can be just downright scary, but the good news is that we have the choice to stay positive even in what may quite literally be a negative situation.
The positive actions that we take tend to compound into a much larger habit that will give us the ability to not only persevere but also completely accomplish our goals. Don't get me wrong, the right attitude is critical, but even more important is taking positive actions day in and day out while we're on this very long journey.
Do something different, be something more, and take the positive actions that you need to take even while you're in the negative. Doing this habitually will ensure in most cases that you will come out on top. God bless.
Beware of this new scam that may be hitting your mailbox soon (if it hasn't already). This scam targets folks who are getting desperate or folks who want to get on the fast track to reducing debt expenses in the form of reducing the interest rates on credit cards.
While this is definitely a scam, the notice being mailed out to folks does appear to make it seem official. Included in this notice is your name along with a personal case ID. You'll even receive a summary of what you owe on your credit cards along with an average interest rate. This scam notifies us that we've been selected to participate in an initiative that I have personally never heard of before, and that's because it simply doesn't exist.
The notice that you receive may be the same or similar to the content immediately following below:
We're assessing your situation. Supported resolution documentation requested.
You have been selected to participate in a Nationally Sanctioned Debt Reduction Initiative. This program allows select individuals to reduce their adjustable unsecured credit card rates to as low as 0% APR.
We now need you to provide information to support your claim summary. We encourage you to act fast as program guidelines only allow for a limited number of participants. This program is backed by every major credit card provider in the country and is specifically designed to keep your credit score in excellent standing.
Failure to respond may affect your program rights. It is important that you call toll-free WITHIN 5 DAYS OF RECEIPT of this letter.
The bottom line is this. The best way for us to pay off our debt and eventually get into prosperity once we've paid off our debt is to roll up our sleeves and get to work. There truly is no better way, and there are no shortcuts to cleaning up the messes that we have already made. Don't fall for these scams that will surely make your situation worse than before. God bless.
Close friends, relatives, and even some not-so-close individuals may offer us their opinions, and sometimes those opinions may come to us in the form of ridicule. It could be because the individual is envious, or they may not completely understand why you are doing what you are doing. Whatever the reason might be, the important thing is to not let this stop you from moving ahead with your goals.
Your mind is your own, and you have the opportunity to use your mind to your best advantage in every situation. While others may attempt to influence you, be sure to analyze what you're being told in order to toss aside any sources of influence that are coming from a spirit of envy or judgement. Focus on reaching your own decisions based on your own particular situation and your goals that you would like to accomplish for the future.
Above all else, keep in mind that the ill will that you may receive from others does not reflect poorly on you, but it does reflect poorly on them. Don't take it personally, and realize that this is not a reason to stop moving forward with what you are destined to accomplish. God bless.
It's time for a quick anatomy lesson. This lesson will be much different from what you might have been used to in high school or college courses. This particular lesson is focusing on the anatomy of a credit card.
What makes us desire to open a credit card to begin with? What draws us to trying and applying for credit cards, paying interest on the money that we borrow, and end up thanking the credit card companies for the opportunity? This is the mystery that I felt that I needed to solve, and I decided to do this by analyzing the anatomy of a credit card.
Of course, I'm not talking about the physical attributes of a credit card. Instead, I'm referring to the pull that credit cards seem to have on so many of us. I've overheard conversations where folks are actually bragging about a particular interest rate or a specific perk of a credit card that they own. Little do they know, in most cases, the credit cards own us - at least to some degree.
I want to make sure that while we're on this journey together that we're calling credit cards for what they truly are. We do have the ability to use credit cards in a responsible manner, but unfortunately, this type of behavior is not the norm.
This is exactly why we need to stay on top of things and not get ourselves into a mess. If we're already in a mess, then we need to realize why it's so incredibly crucial to get out of the mess as soon as possible. We will, and I know this to be true because we're going to do this together. God bless.
As a personal trainer, wife, and mother, Amberly Lago was living the California dream until it turned into a nightmare in May 2010. As she rode her Harley down Ventura Boulevard on that breezy, sunny day, Lago was hit by an SUV, throwing her thirty feet down a busy street and shattering her right leg.
After months in the hospital and thirty-four surgeries later, Amberly’s leg and severed femoral artery were spared, despite the initial recommendation to amputate. Amberly found the hope and faith needed to not only save her leg but also her career, her dreams, and her dignity.
Truly facing the greatest challenges that any of us could even begin to imagine, Amberly has found the ability to walk again while continuing to live with chronic pain after being diagnosed with CRPS. Her unwavering commitment to regain her active lifestyle of training clients transformed her tragedy into victory and motivates her audiences from all walks of life to find resilience in their own difficulties.
I consider myself to be blessed to have the honor to welcome Amberly on today's show, and you've got a front-row seat to this inspiring conversation. Learn how taking one day at a time in even the worst of circumstances has allowed Amberly to persevere and realize personal victories again and again. Discover the PACER technique and how you can use this very same technique to accomplish your goals, do more in your life than you ever thought possible, and significantly reduce stress and anxiety.
Hear Amberly discuss how she has reinvented herself against unimaginable odds and how she has truly come out on top (and continues to do so). Discover why community is so incredibly important and why all of us need to embrace community in order to truly succeed in whatever we set our sights upon.
Learn more about Amberly and her inspiring book, "True Grit and Grace," at amberlylago.com, follow her on Instagram at amberlylagomotivation, on Twitter at amberlylago, and on Facebook at amberlylagospeaker. God bless!
What do you do once you and your spouse have finally come together and are on the same page? You may not be there quite yet, but eventually, you will be. It's important to know the next steps that you'll need to take in order to move forward as one towards accomplishing your goals.
While many folks may have many different ways of working together as a team, the most important thing to do is to respect each other's opinions. You and your spouse come from different walks of life, and when the two of you got married, one of the challenges awaiting you was to be able to merge those two differing backgrounds into one. The wonderful thing to keep in mind is that once this has happened in the realm of personal finance, you will become a more powerful foe against debt, and you will win at personal finance together as one. God bless.
Let's take a moment to reflect back on the year and see what we've accomplished and what we need to do in order to keep moving forward.
It's important to end the year by celebrating some wins, coming up with different strategies for the losses, and making sure that we start the new year on the right foot overall. Forward momentum heading into a new year is always a good thing.
I do want to make mention that I don't put much value on new year's resolutions. The primary reason for this is that the vast majority of folks will eventually stop working on their resolutions within the first few months of the new year and will feel that they have to wait until the next year in order to begin again. If we allow ourselves to reset regardless of the date on the calendar, we'll make more progress throughout any given year - and that's a good thing.
If you haven't already done so, please join in on the conversation at https://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. A lot of things will be happening within this group, so you'll want to be a part of this. God bless!
It's about time for us to have a conversation. Let's get on the same page and close out 2018 with community and get on track to a prosperous and successful 2019!
If you haven't already done so, please join in on the conversation at https://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. God bless!
There is a specific moment in our lives that we can pinpoint when we've finally had enough. This is the moment that I like to refer to as the turning point. It's a point when we actually feel ourselves doing something so dramatic that we almost don't recognize the person looking back at us in the mirror!
When the spark of change comes, it's important for us to identify this opportunity. We all have pain points, and some of those pain points speak more loudly than others. When we identify what's truly bothering us in our lives, we have a unique chance to do something different in order to improve the situation. This is the specific turning point when we're introduced to somebody else in the mirror. We've now got a renewed sense of purpose. We now have something to fix that's broken, and we're finally up to the task.
Stop for a few minutes and think about your turning point, especially a turning point that has to do with your personal financial situation. When did you decide that you've had enough when it comes to debt? When did you realize that you wanted more in life aside from just getting by? Visualize that moment and allow it to boost you forward to do things differently and get out of debt as soon as possible! God bless.
Why is determination so important when we're trying to get out of debt (or trying to accomplish any other goal)? One reason is because determination in of itself is a natural motivator that keeps us going. This is incredibly important when it comes to accomplishing our goals.
Often times when we realize that there's a problem, this will cause the brain to go into problem-solving mode. We try to come up with a solution or an answer to the problem, and this resolution actually becomes the source of our motivation: our core determination.
Determination keeps us going for the long haul. Determination keeps us from getting lazy. We utilize determination to get us through the tough times because while we may not be able to see the end, we already know what our expected outcome is going to be.
Determination may not be the only thing that we need, but it certainly is the key that's needed to get things started. God bless.
You don't want to cut up those credit cards just yet, even if you are getting out of debt. The primary reason is because of the hit your credit score might take. You'll want to at least take this into consideration because a healthy credit score is still important.
Of course, if you're someone who may go back to bad habits once you have paid down or paid off your credit cards by charging more and getting yourself back into the same predicament, then by all means, close the accounts. It's more of a question of whether or not you trust yourself, and only you can truly answer that question. Even if your credit score does take a hit, the good news is that it likely will only be a temporary hit. You should eventually recover as you continue to move forward with your debt payoff strategy, but you'll want to keep an eye on things over the next several months once you begin closing credit card accounts.
For the others who have a good level of control over their spending habits and who have learned their lesson by being burned once already, I don't see any reason to close credit card accounts and take the credit score hit because of it. Credit scores aren't just about getting access to credit. Credit scores are also important in determining what you'll pay for insurance, refinancing your home, and in some situations, whether or not a prospective employer may hire you. They really are crucial, and anyone who tells you otherwise is not guiding you properly.
At the end of the day, it is up to you, your level of comfort, and your own unique financial situation. There's no cookie-cutter approach to personal finance, so take the time to determine what's best for you. The bottom line is that the common goal for all of us is to get out of debt and one day get into prosperity. God bless.
What do you do when the going gets good? If it's not going good for you just yet, trust me, it will. When it does, you'll want to be well-prepared for this exciting time in order to make the most of it.
Of course, we've all heard the saying about when the going gets tough, right? Well, here's the thing... we can look at things from the perspective of life being tough or we can look at things from the perspective of being thankful for what we do have going for us at the present moment. A positive attitude will beget more positivity in our lives. There is an answer to every problem, there is a way out of any mess, and the key is to be positive in order to realize these things and uncover these truths.
The bottom line is that many of us have gotten so used to having problems that we may not know what to do when we actually begin to win. While the ways to win differ for each and every one of us, the important thing to note here is to take it slow once winning does happen. Celebrate a little. Take some time to enjoy the ride just a bit. Then get yourself on track and move forward to focus on utilizing your newfound success in an analytical way. Whatever you do, be careful not to blow any opportunities once they do present themselves, and you'll soon find yourself on a carefully planned path of better days ahead. God bless.
Today I'm responding to two listener e-mails. Did I mention how much I love our community?
To-do lists help us to stay on track and stay organized, and this is why I love them. I have used to-do lists for many years, but it wasn't until recently that I had realized that there is a much better way of utilizing to-do lists than simply checking off some items on a piece of paper.
What I had realized is that while I was jotting down every little thing that I wanted to accomplish, I was actually diluting the overall sense of urgency of my entire to-do list. I had no idea what was a priority and what wasn't, and because of this, my actions were not focused or properly balanced when it came to accomplishing my bigger goals.
I've come to the conclusion that the best method to create to-do lists is to define the problem, think of a task that will fix or help fix the problem, then do a mind-map exercise that easily goes along with defining my task or goal that I want to complete. Doing so has helped me to drill down a bit before I actually build my to-do list. Overall, I'm left with a higher quality to-do list that results in a higher rate of completion because I get to know the true urgency of a given task by asking the right questions before I even put it down on paper as a to-do item.
Learn how to get your to-do list properly organized, properly analyzed, and sitting on one list. It will make your life so much easier, and you'll be more focused on completing what's truly important in no time at all. God bless.
It's that time of the year! When it comes to shopping for Christmas, including Black Friday specials, do you typically find that you spend to the point where you have no idea what had happened that ended up wrecking your finances come January? Most of the time when this happens, it's usually because of poor planning. This year, we're going to change that.
There are many ways that we can enjoy the giving spirit of Christmas while still staying on track with our finances and with our plans to pay off our debt. First, and most importantly, don't go into more debt to shop for Christmas gifts. Giving is terrific to do, and I would never tell folks to not give. There are plenty of ways to give without spending a fortune and putting yourself deeper in debt because of this.
If you're a particularly crafty person, have you considered making gifts for friends and family at Christmas? This could be a creative and fun way to stretch the holiday shopping dollars and bring true joy to others when they receive something that comes from the heart.
If you're not all that crafty and would prefer to go the retail store route, consider shopping at stores offering free layaway. It's a great way to start shopping early and giving yourself plenty of time to pay cash for your purchases while staying on track with your Christmas budget at the same time. If you haven't done so this year, you could also consider a Christmas savings program with your local financial institution to get a head start on next year. This helps you to save for Christmas shopping all year long.
There are many ways to help yourself to truly enjoy this time of the year and not use this time as an excuse to go off track and wreck the budget over the next several months. You'll be happy that you planned and executed those plans appropriately, and you'll thank yourself come January. God bless.
There are bargains to be had at the local thrift store. If you're wise about this, you could combine shopping for clothing and other items at the thrift store along with shopping at your local dollar store and limiting your grocery spending. This triple threat will equal more cash in your pocket and more financial resources to aim at paying off debt.
What we've learned about thrift store shopping is that you can't try it just once. You have to give it several attempts because the inventory changes almost daily, and you may not find what you're looking for the first time. You also have to have an open mind and search out the best quality items from what's available with almost every trip. Prices are sometimes negotiable but not always. The bottom line is that you'll end up saving so much money by shopping at the local thrift store that you won't really care much about negotiating prices, anyway.
If you've been listening for a while and would like to help support this show, it's really easy to do. Simply go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/support and select your level of monthly support. Your contribution helps to keep this show going, and even if you're not ready to support the show just yet, it'll still be published for you to listen for free each and every week. God bless!
You have to speak truth when it comes to your current debt situation. We have to be real and speak the truth as far as why we are on this journey of getting out of debt. All of us will come across at least one or two road blocks and other challenges along the way that may set us back and derail our progress.
When this happens, it's incredibly important to make the decision that giving up is simply not an option. A large part of how we do this is by remembering the why in all of this. When we speak the truth into the situations that we face, we are reminded of what first brought us to the moment when we decided that we were going to live a different life free from a large debt burden. It's never a good time to give up, and we must persevere, especially when times get tough.
If you've been listening for a while and would like to help support this show, it's really easy to do. Simply go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/support and select your level of monthly support. Your contribution helps to keep this show going, and even if you're not ready to support the show just yet, it'll still be published for you to listen for free each and every week. God bless!
Using a cash envelope for grocery spending is a great way to control how much you're spending in this budget category in any given month. There's something about driving to the bank or the ATM to fill an envelope with a pre-determined amount of cash that physically and psychologically sets a limit as to how much we're going to spend at the grocery store.
There's no doubt that the grocery line item in the budget is typically one of the larger line items for most of us. If we can be in better control of this particular line item and be able to prevent going over what we had previously budgeted, this will almost always put us at an advantage financially. What's more, if we do go over in the form of running out of cash and need to reach for our debit card to make up the difference, we can utilize this information to tweak our grocery budget for the following months. Over time, we will vastly improve our chances of correctly estimating how much we are going to be spending on groceries in any given month.
I've noticed that when we had decided to go back to using cash to pay for groceries rather than using our debit card, we found ourselves being more focused on our grocery spending overall. Personally, I've put back snacks or desserts that weren't really essential to have for the week because I didn't want to run the risk of overspending what was already determined by the amount of cash in our grocery spending envelope. My wife and I find ourselves coming up with shopping solutions to lessen our grocery bill, and it's all because we want to stay in bounds with the amount of money that is in our envelope each and every week.
If you're currently using a debit card to pay for groceries every week, take a few weeks and try spending from a cash envelope instead. You may be pleasantly surprised by how much you can save on groceries by just making this small adjustment. God bless.
Have you tried shopping at Dollar Tree yet? If not, you may be spending a lot more money on many of the same items that you could be picking up at Dollar Tree for just a buck.
Whether that's holiday decorations, snacks, cleaning supplies, office supplies, back-to-school items, party supplies, or more - you won't be able to beat the price of $1.00 per item. The money savings alone makes this store one that you do not want to ignore. Clipping coupons won't save you nearly as much if you do this to shop at other stores, and what's more, Dollar Tree accepts coupons on many items, so the deals are even more exceptional!
If you live near a Dollar Tree or another dollar store, give it a shot and see how much shopping at this particular type of store can save you. Frugality is truly important not only when you're getting out of debt but also when you're getting into prosperity. God bless.
Does it seem like your budget is failing you sometimes? When it comes to budgeting, it can be easy for some and more difficult for others. There is a wide spectrum as far as that is concerned, and we've all likely experienced a month or two when the numbers don't calculate the way that we would like.
It's true. We've all been frustrated with our budgets at one time or another. What's important to note here is that our budgets play a crucial role and have the power to force us to face what's truly wrong. We simply can't bury our heads in the sand because the math doesn't lie, and that's the beauty of the budget.
The budget allows us to see when we have failed, and this isn't a bad thing. It's actually an opportunity for us to be able to improve our budgets for the following month. We can see when we've spent more than we had originally planned. If we never change our behaviors to correct this, our budgets will always reflect these bad habits.
The question is, how do we correct these bad habits? For one, we need to analyze the situation to see what's really going on. Can we reduce the amounts of certain budget line items? Should we be considering a part-time job to increase the amount of money that we have coming in month to month? Once the appropriate solutions have been implemented, the corresponding result will be shown to us right there in the budget itself.
Essentially, the budget is always there to teach us important lessons along the way and make us aware of problems when it comes to our personal finances. The budget truly is the cornerstone of personal finance and should be treated as such. Befriend your budget and let it work for you. God bless.
Adopting these top ten frugal habits can save you up to $1,000.00 in any given month (sometimes more). Now, this list isn’t in any particular order of importance. I believe that they are all equally important, and the more that you are able to implement on this list, the more money you will save.
The first habit has to do with your morning routine. If you find yourself stopping by your local Starbucks on the way to work (or any other expensive coffee bistro, for that matter), simply stop. To be honest, even when I was a coffee drinker, I didn’t care much for Starbucks, anyway. I know a lot of Starbucks fans out there aren’t going to like hearing this, but I think that their coffee tastes way too strong. I recall ordering Starbucks coffee only on a handful of occasions, and I had determined that I simply don’t like the taste. For the purposes of this show, it’s less about taste preferences and more about the money that you’ll save from avoiding expensive orders of coffee altogether. Your approximate total saved in one month if you avoid spending the bucks at the ‘Bucks every day of the month would be around $120.00. Not too shabby, and really, quite eye-opening.
Number two on the list is magazine or newspaper subscriptions. More and more often, people’s first reaction when they want to learn something is to reach for their cell phone or log on to their computer and do a Google search. You really can find almost anything that you want to find on the Internet, and while that does require paying for Internet access, if you really wanted to earn some bonus points for extreme frugality, don’t bother paying for Internet access and do your research at your local library instead. Dumping subscriptions won’t save you a fortune every month, but generally speaking, you’d be looking at around $30.00 savings on average each month, assuming that you would be subscribing to both magazines and your local newspaper.
To hear the remaining top ten frugal habits that could save you up to $1,000.00 each and every month, click on the play button to listen to the rest of today's show. As a special bonus, if you shop online, you'll want to check out http://slashhalf.com. I use this website frequently and find some really great deals by starting my search right from this website. It's just one more money-saving tool for your frugality arsenal. Check it out when you get a chance, and God bless!
Today you'll learn how you can actually become a better saver while you are in the process of paying off debt. It's not as difficult as you may think, but with that said, it will still take some focus and a little determination on your part to get this thing off of the ground.
Most of the time, when many of us come across a month where we're short on financial resources, we'll reach for the credit card in order to make up for the difference. Of course, this isn't a good thing if we're trying to get out of debt. Doing this repeatedly can easily get us into a bad habit where we're constantly taking two steps forward and five steps back. Understandably, we simply don't want this.
Instead, I started thinking about ways that I could somehow prevent this from happening by using a type of sinking fund (for lack of a better term). I decided to save up enough money to provide wiggle room from month to month for added expenses that didn't qualify as an emergency but still needed addressed. The emergency fund is still there, but this is for emergencies only. A shortage of funds in any given month isn't typically considered to be an emergency, and this is one of the main reasons that I knew that a different type of sinking fund needed to be established.
A great benefit of this strategy is that it has forced me to become a better saver. I had to temporarily put off more aggressive debt payoff strategies for a little bit while I was saving up for this new sinking fund. I knew that it was necessary to shift gears in order to get this sinking fund off of the ground. This was a good thing; I've already had to use the sinking fund and was happy that it was available.
Go ahead and give this a try. I can't say that this will work for everyone, but it is worth considering if you think that it may be beneficial to have an extended comfort zone while you're getting out of debt. It truly is a backup plan that gives you a little peace of mind and prevents you from continuing to use credit cards when expenses inevitably increase in the ebb and flow of life. God bless.
A support system is incredibly important when you are in the process of getting out of debt. Getting out of debt is a lofty goal, and it's difficult to go at it alone. Having other like-minded folks on your side to have your back when times get tough or to celebrate the wins with you is paramount.
What's amazing is when you are not doing this alone and have a support system in place, you will actually see yourself accomplishing your goals more quickly. A support person or team will not only cheer you on but also hold you accountable. You'll receive feedback that will help you to correct course if you're on the wrong path.
If you do not have a support system in place, take a few minutes and think of some friends or family members who will truly help you with achieving your goals. You'll be amazed at the sheer power of collaboration. God bless.
There is true freedom to experience in minimalism. Minimalism isn't exactly a new topic, but it is one that I prefer to revisit from time to time on this show because I do feel that it is an important lifestyle to consider. This is especially true if you are in the process of fixing your current financial situation. Truth be told, minimalism and getting out of debt and getting into prosperity highly compliment one another and help to make either journey that much easier.
The less that we feel that we need to surround ourselves with, the easier it will be to target our debt with our available financial resources. What's more, once we put a few dents in our debt (or get rid of it entirely), we will no longer desire the things that likely helped to get us into that horrible spot in the first place. Your continuing journey of getting into prosperity once the debt is gone forever will be more of a downhill path when you're paving the road beneath you with wisdom and minimalism.
If you haven't considered minimalism until now, you may be wondering where to start. The first plan of attack and battlefront is typically in our closets. Most of us truly don't need a ton of shoes or thirty different outfits. Instead, we could completely make it on a few articles of clothing that easily go together to change around as needed. We only need a few pairs of footwear. We could even purchase higher quality items in much smaller quantities that will end up lasting us for a very long time. It really is quality over quantity when it comes to minimalism, and that's actually a good thing.
We also need to realize and address the mental clutter in our lives. Social media isn't a bad thing, but it does have the potential to take up a lot more of our time and attention than we may even realize. We are constantly comparing our lives to others in these virtual worlds, and when we want to appear as though we're on top of things, it usually means buying more things and bragging about it on various social media platforms. This is the polar opposite of minimalism. Don't be that guy (or girl).
Give minimalism a try, and see where it gets you. Experience the true freedom that you'll likely get from leading this type of lifestyle, even if it's just for a little while. I'm pretty sure that once you start to experience the various freedoms that naturally come with minimalism, you'll never want to go back to your old ways. God bless.
Out of all of the budget line items that exist in your standard budget, the grocery budget line item is typically the most frustrating at times. We start out the month with the best intentions of sticking to our grocery budget, but for one reason or another, this particular category in our budget seems to have a way of getting out of line. We find ourselves either changing our budgeted amount for this category mid-month or simply going over budget.
Why is this? In most situations where you have a family to feed and several schedules to balance, grocery shopping may lack essential planning from the start. Unless we're sticking to a list and not deviating from that list except in very few circumstances, we run the risk of going over our allotted budget. What's more, if we have busy schedules and find ourselves eating out more frequently because we lack the time to prepare meals, certain food items that we have purchased may spoil or rot and end up in the trash.
While I do spend some time today discussing some common ways of how we may become frustrated with our grocery budget and what we can do about it to decrease those frustrations, I want to open up the discussion to hear from you. I know that some listeners of this show have some phenomenal ideas, and I would like to give you an opportunity to share your story and your advice.
Simply go to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt and post your tips on how you keep your monthly grocery shopping budget in check. If your story is selected and featured on the show, you'll win a $25.00 Amazon gift card! God bless.
Have you ever caught yourself dreaming of becoming an author of a best-selling book or a director of an award-winning movie?
Maybe you have or maybe you haven’t, but in today’s episode, I’m going to be talking about how each and every one of us is able to write our own story.
We all come from different walks of life, and all of us have our own personal struggles. They’re not always financial struggles, either. Sometimes we have health, relationship, or other struggles that coincide with our financial difficulties. Some of us may even find that by looking more closely, we can trace many of our current troubles back to financial difficulties. This makes us beg the question: What can we do?
The answer to this question is definitely not to sit and let life pass us by. What we need is a solid script, or a plan, to guide us to where we need to be. We have this unique opportunity here to write our own story, and we get to play the leading role. While we may not have control of where the story goes, we do have the ability to take an active role in creating our story through our actions. We can become what we’ve always wanted to be, and it’s truly as simple as imagining ourselves as the author or director, while at the same time, playing the leading role. God bless.
I'm not a gambling man, but this is almost a sure thing. If we're in the process of getting out of debt and getting into prosperity, we're essentially betting against broke. Going down this road can be a bit scary at times, and we are likely going to come across road blocks, hurdles, and other problems. There's not much that we can do to avoid these things, but we can still persevere.
There are an almost unlimited amount of ways for us to go broke and very few ways for us to gain wealth. The odds are stacked against us in this journey of getting out of debt and getting into prosperity, but we have a unique weapon in all of this: our innate ability and desire to do what it takes to accomplish our goals. We're ready for the challenges. We're ready to meet and exceed our own expectations. We're ready to change our lives for the better from here on out.
This is why I say that this is a comfortable bet, even for someone like me who's not a gambling man. Betting against broke in a situation where we do have some control over the outcome puts us at a great advantage, even against incredible odds. God bless.
What are the things that are stopping you from earning more income? While the answers may vary for each of us, the majority of folks will find that they will come across some of the same roadblocks along the journey of getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
First, you'll likely hear advice from well-meaning friends or family members on the subject of personal finance. Some of the advice is good, but a majority of it is questionable at best. You truly have to filter the advice given, but at the same time, you don't necessarily want to be rude. Simply listen to what they have to say but discern whether or not you should act on the advice given.
I also believe that buying stuff instead of investing in yourself is a definite way to prevent yourself from earning more income. We tend to place great importance on consuming and very little importance on self-improvement. If this sounds like you, do what you can to change this behavior as soon as possible so that you are spending dollars on that which will earn you dollars down the road.
The other thing that I often hear is the following misquoted Bible verse: money is the root of all evil. This is not accurate and likely one of the most misquoted Bible verses out there. For the love of money is the root of all evil (Timothy 6:10). That's the accurate verse, and it paints a much different picture of evil when you are walking away from your faith in order to get rich. God has never said that money is the root of all evil, so if you hear someone tell you this, keep in mind that this is grossly misquoted and know the correct verse.
I would also recommend to have more than one stream of income. Multiple streams of income will not only help you to get out of debt more quickly, but it will also help you when you are on your way to getting into prosperity. Multiple sources of income will always be a benefit to you, and the more ways that you can build multiple streams of income, the better.
Another item that you must be cautious about is becoming too comfortable when things start to go right. You don't want to miss out on certain opportunities because you haven't been paying attention or have been taking a break because you're seeing that things are finally headed in the right direction. Keep plowing through and don't stop until you've fully reached and realized those long-term goals.
Finally, pay attention to your health. Don't sacrifice your health because you're pursuing wealth. Get plenty of sleep, watch your diet, and exercise regularly. Being in debt naturally causes stress, and exercise and proper diet can help to combat stress. Your health is extremely critical, and you want to do everything that you can to keep yourself well.
If you've enjoyed today's episode and would like to help support this show, you can do so starting at just $1.00 a month. Head on over to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/support to show your support today! God bless!
Saving money on groceries doesn't need to be difficult. As a matter of fact, you can learn how to save money on groceries right now. We're not talking about clipping coupons, either (although this could save you even more money when you combine clipping coupons with this advice). We're going to walk through some truly simple steps that will likely save you a hundred dollars or more each and every month.
Somewhere in the last month and a half or so, we stumbled on this method that allowed us to truly save some money on groceries. If you're like us, you'll find that the grocery budget line item is one of the largest in your monthly budget. Any savings that we can bring to reduce this line item in the budget will be helpful.
Briefly stated, we have started to plan our grocery shopping trips before heading out the door. We now have our grocery list with us when we go shopping rather than looking at the shelves to give us ideas of what to buy. By only browsing the shelves to figure out what to buy at the grocery store, we will almost always spend more than we need to in any given shopping trip. We have been using an app, but you could just as easily use pencil and paper. The bottom line is to have a plan, and the shopping list is your plan.
Along with the completed plan in the form of a shopping list, the key here is to go grocery shopping more than once a week. You are essentially splitting your list and purchasing only what you need for the next couple of days. You will become more focused on what you truly need and will buy less fillers. You will also end up having fewer items that need discarded due to being spoiled or expired. It's up to you how often you want to take a trip to the store, but I would recommend splitting the list and purchasing grocery items at least two times per week. As a general rule, if you won't use the grocery item in a day or two, don't buy it.
It's truly not difficult, and it doesn't need to be. That's the beauty of this advice. If we keep things simple, we are more likely to succeed. The same is true with this particular strategy. God bless.
Here are five ways that you can implement immediately to improve your life. While everyone is different, these five methods should work for most folks who are looking for more energy, less stress, and the ability to accomplish more tasks and goals.
First off, we need to make our health a priority. Proper sleep, diet, and exercise are incredibly important. You can't enjoy your wealth without your health, so keep this mantra in mind as you make your way through the course of paying off debt in order to get to the point where you are finally able to get into prosperity. Take care of yourself throughout the entire process. You'll be happy that you did.
Next, do a little something that is related to your goals each and every day. The point is to move forward with your goals just a little more every 24 hours. Taking these small steps and actions will actually compound over time and lead to massive results.
Third, keep a journal. It will help you to empty the contents of your mind into a more tangible black-and-white representation of your thoughts. This will provide you with clarity and the opportunity to easily recall what is truly important, any dreams you may have, and things that you are thankful for. By keeping a journal, you're giving your thoughts a pathway to escape and be useful instead of keeping them bottled up in your head.
The fourth way to improve your life is to keep learning marketable skills. This will help you in your current career, whether that's getting a promotion, getting a raise, or even working for someone else who will pay you more for the knowledge that you have acquired. Essentially, you'll want to focus on learning marketable skills that will equate to more dollars down the road.
Finally, don't take everything so seriously. While it's important to be focused and serious when the time is appropriate, it's not a good idea to never take a break. We need time to decompress and relax, and if we don't, it will actually harm our ability to effectively accomplish our goals. We weren't built to always be working. Make time for fun and relaxation, and as counterintuitive as this may seem, you will actually get further ahead with your goals by simply making this change to take a break every once in a while. God bless!
Are you looking to claim more time for yourself? Do you need to spend more time with your family and friends? It's time to change the way that you approach work in of itself and in all of its forms.
We've all heard this little saying that tells us to work smarter, not harder. It has appeared in books, magazine articles, and even other podcasts. I've said before that I prefer working smart and hard, and I truly do believe in this, but today I'm exploring this concept a little more thoroughly so that we can really gain some effective time management skills when it comes to how we earn our living and spend our time.
To start out with, we need to keep away from what I call decision fatigue. Simply put, we have too many choices that we have to make in our day-to-day lives, and we find ourselves spinning our wheels and spending more time making those choices than actually taking any real action. For example, many of us have a monstrous to-do list that includes tons of separate actions to take. In reality, we just need to be able to focus on what we need to do for the here and now.
I recently replaced a to-do list productivity app on my phone. I refused to blindly transfer everything that was on my old to-do list over to the new app. Instead, I only transferred what I felt was truly important and kept things simple for my own benefit. This equated to a much shorter to-do list and much more time to focus on that which I feel is truly helping to move me forward in the goals that I have set for myself. I highly suggest that you do the same.
Next, I recommend me time. Yes, the all-important me time. I'm not just referring to having time to do what you like to do; I'm also talking about being alone with your thoughts in complete quiet and solitude in order to escape the noise of the world. You will be surprised by how many more good ideas you will come up with by simply setting aside some time to do absolutely nothing at all.
I also want you to listen to your body. When you feel tired or exhausted, it's time to take a break. You don't have to stop working completely, but I think you should refocus your attention on the less important tasks when you feel a wave of tiredness coming on. Tidy up your house. Clean out your car. Mow the lawn. Do any other tasks that don't require a lot of mind power, so to speak.
Doing this will also prevent you from succumbing to laziness by heading for the couch to binge watch programs on Netflix or Hulu for hours on end. Doing the mindless tasks while you're sleepy will actually help you to perk up, keep you away from the trap of laziness, and once you're re-energized, you'll want to get back to your more critical work.
I also recommend getting up as early as you can. Getting an early start to your day will naturally help you to not only get a jump start before most other folks, but you'll also find yourself getting to bed a little earlier because you'll naturally become tired a little earlier in the evening. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially since you'll train your body to want to start the day as early as possible.
Even if you're not an early riser, you can train yourself by setting your alarm ten minutes earlier every other day until you are waking up bright and early. The important thing is to get up early but still make sure that you're getting enough sleep, as this is equally as important.
Now, while this may sound counterintuitive, the last thing that I want to mention is the importance of working for a certain amount of time, taking a break, then repeating the process. We've gone over this in great detail in episodes 176 and 186 when I talked about the Pomodoro technique. Give those two episodes a listen if you want to learn more about this or need a refresher.
I'll tell you that working with scheduled breaks will highly increase your focus, and you'll get much more done by having a plan of attack that includes planned breaks throughout. Trust me on this one. We weren't meant to burn the midnight oil or to work until we drop. We are built to instead focus and take strategic breaks in order to reenergize and recalibrate so that we can produce better results in whatever it is that we're doing.
Hopefully today's topic will help you to improve your work flow, give you more time with your family and friends, and allow you to truly work in a way that will benefit you in a multitude of ways. God bless!
Here's how you can get hired at DaDa at the highest pay possible.
I have received lots of questions on episode 290, where I discussed getting hired to teach English to kids online through a company called DaDa. To learn more about the company and to apply, give episode 290 a listen if you haven’t done so already or simply visit http://followmeoutofdebt.com/dada to go right to DaDa’s hiring page.
Many of the questions that I have received have been from listeners who wanted to know the step-by-step process to apply, get interviewed, and get hired at the highest pay possible at DaDa. I decided to do a separate episode to answer all of these questions as well as provide you guys with a roadmap to help you along the way if you are interested in applying for part-time work from home teaching Chinese kids English online at DaDa. Once again, the American English version of the website that contains all of the info that you need, including the link to apply, can be found at http://followmeoutofdebt.com/dada.
Let’s get started from the very beginning. I am going to show you guys how to not only apply and get the interview, but I’m also going to show you what you need to do to ace the DaDa interview process and the demo class in order to ensure that you are hired at the highest pay possible. We’re going to be starting with step one, and that’s reviewing your resume to tweak it for capturing the attention of DaDa’s HR staff.
While DaDa asks for two main requirements, that being a native English speaker and having a Bachelor’s degree, you do not necessarily need the degree. DaDa is looking for people who have any teaching experience with children, and we’re talking any experience. You could have taught Sunday school at your local church for a few years, and this would absolutely qualify you to work for DaDa. It really is that easy. The trick is getting this out in front on your resume that you will be submitting. Tailor your resume to highlight any and all teaching experience that you have, Bachelor’s Degree or not, because this is truly what DaDa is looking for when they are reviewing the thousands of applications and resumes that come in daily. Standing out from the crowd is as simple as highlighting your teaching background, any teaching background that you may have, when it comes to teaching children.
Once you’ve tailored and touched up your resume and prepared it for submission, you will also need to include a headshot photo of yourself. You’ll want to make sure that this photo is as professional as possible. They do prefer color photos over black and white, but a black and white photo will not disqualify you. If hired, they will likely request a recent color photo for your profile picture to be displayed for DaDa employees and parents. Just use the shortcut link to DaDa’s America English hiring webpage by going to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/dada. From there, you can click the apply button and upload your resume and headshot photo.
At this point, now you simply wait. DaDa instructs applicants to give them a few days to make a decision on the application, but at the rate that they’ve been hiring, you will likely hear back from them the very next day or the day after. If you don’t hear back right away, don’t despair. I know that they’ve been hiring at a rapid rate, but they will eventually get to a point where they may not need as many teachers, so the time between applying and being contacted to schedule an interview may be longer if that’s the case. At least you’ll know that you’re in queue for when they need to hire teachers in the future.
Step two is when DaDa contacts you, usually via e-mail, to schedule your interview. So, what can you expect? Well, you can expect a Skype interview with one of the HR coordinators who work for DaDa. They’ll want to know more about you, your teaching experience, and they want to get a general feel for how you look behind your webcam. Lighting at this point is critical, and they are also looking to see what internet speeds you’re getting. They want 10 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload minimum, and they will have you do a speed test to verify this. Once they are satisfied with your speed test and lighting for your webcam, they’ll ask you some questions and go through a process that seems a bit canned, but it’s likely done that way since they are interviewing tons of potential candidates every single day and need a streamlined process to be in place.
My biggest piece of advice for you is to make that all-important connection with your interviewer. Show that you have personality and that you like to have fun. Show them that you are professional but playful as well. And smile… a lot. They want to see happy and excited candidates, and your smile and willingness to make that all-important connection with your interviewer will take you far. Here’s your bonus piece of advice to help you to stand out from the crowd: wear a light blue polo shirt and purchase a USB headset before the interview. You’ll find out why once they make mention of it during the interview. It’ll be worth it when they see that you wore a light-blue polo shirt and already have a functional USB headset ready, and it may equate to a little bump in your per-hour pay offer once they are ready to hire you.
Once you have wowed the interviewer, they will then be contacting you to schedule the demo class. Throughout the entire process in step one and step two, DaDa has been steadily increasing what they plan to offer you per-hour. They start everyone that they’re interested in at the lowest rate, and as you continue to impress them and move forward in the process, your per-hour offer continues to rise. Do you see now why it’s so critical to put your best foot forward right from the get-go? Not only are you trying to get hired, but you are trying to get hired at the best pay possible, and each and every step that I’m talking about here is super-important.
We’re at step three now, and it’s time to schedule that demo class. I would schedule the demo class a couple of days out so you have some time to prepare. DaDa has plenty of training videos that you’ll need to watch before your demo class, and if you schedule your demo class too quickly, you may not have the proper time that is needed to watch the required training videos. These videos will definitely help you to prepare for your demo class, and I will tell you, you’ll want to make sure that you hit this one out of the park. Your demo class is the single most important determining factor of what they will be offering you if they want you to come on board.
You’ll be paired up with an actual student, so you’ll really want to shine and stand out. Again, preparation is definitely key, and you’ll want to make it obvious that you took the time to prepare. The coordinator or QA person will be able to tell pretty easily if you’ve been taking in the content of the training videos, and they’ll know if you took enough time to prepare for your demo class. I can’t tell you enough how critical this piece is to not only getting hired but also getting hired at the highest rate possible. This is your final opportunity to truly wow DaDa, so make this demo class count!
Many of the training videos will mention this, but I’ll just give you some of my own personal advice. Use lots of hand motions, smile, and utilize what DaDa refers to as Total Physical Response, or TPR. Be animated during your demo session, try to make your student feel comfortable and laugh, and show DaDa that you are truly able to keep your student’s attention and teach in the online one-on-one classroom environment. Above all else, make sure that your internet connection and speed is good to great and that your webcam and headset are fully functional before your demo class. While all of this may seem to be overwhelming at first, try not to feel under pressure. Just relax and complete the lesson the best that you can utilizing what you’ve learned from the training videos. It’s not rocket science, and as long as you are relaxed and having fun, you’ll likely be chosen to work for this fantastic company.
Now, if all of this sounds good and you want to work from home part-time earning between $13.00 to $22.00 per hour, don’t hesitate. Go right now to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/dada and apply as soon as you can. I can’t guarantee that when you hear this that they will still be hiring, but I can tell you that as of right now, they are hiring at an incredibly fast pace. I hope that this episode provides you with a perfect roadmap to follow to not only get hired at DaDa but also get hired at the highest pay possible. If you’re interested in this, what have you got to lose by applying?
Again, go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/dada to get started, and I hope to see you soon working for DaDa! God bless!
Get ready to learn about the best online part-time job! This truly is going to be a great opportunity for you if you are someone who loves to teach. The pay is realistically between $13 to $22 per hour, and you can work as little as four hours per week.
Does this sound too good to be true? It's not. This is tried, true, and tested by yours truly. I've researched tons of opportunities, and I will only discuss the opportunities on this show that benefit most of my listeners. What's unique about this particular job is that you don't need to be a certified teacher, but if you have some teaching experience, you can become an online English language teacher for students (ages 4 to 16).
The company's called DaDa, and it's based in Shanghai, China. You'll want to follow along while you listen to this particular episode by going to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/dada (this link will take you to the American English version of the company website).
Working for DaDa will not only provide you with an opportunity to potentially earn hundreds of dollars per month to use to attack your debt, but you'll have tons of fun in the process. You will truly love working for this company. I know that I have these past two weeks, and I would never steer you down the wrong path.
The only warning that I have is that I'm not sure how long this company will be hiring. I was lucky to get an interview and get hired right away, but I'm sure eventually this will become saturated with teachers. If you are interested in doing something like this part time, don't wait to apply at: http://followmeoutofdebt.com/dada
Simply put, if you like kids and you like to teach, this job is for you. It is truly the best online part-time job that I've seen, and I've seen them all. It's fulfilling, it's fun, and it's a great way to earn a decent part-time income. Head on over to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/dada to take a look and apply today!
Let's get a little nostalgic today. We're going to look back to the good ol' days before we had debt. Regardless of how long ago that may have been for you, I would like you to try to remember what it was like when you weren't bogged down with medical bills, credit card statements, auto loans, student loans, and other forms of debt. Think about how it felt to have zero debt. Remember how great that was?
I know that I do. It was a fantastic time. For my wife and I, we were out of debt once but got back into again. Yes, we made the same mistake twice. However, I remember what it was like when we had zero debt except for our mortgage. It was much less chaotic financially. It was a time when we felt that we were on the right track. And I'll tell you what, I really miss those days.
That's precisely why we are taking some time to think back to those good ol' days. We're going to let those memories help motivate us to make our way back to what we had before (or didn't have, if we're referring to consumer debt). As I have mentioned previously, it's very easy to get into debt but not so easy to get out of debt. We need as much motivation as we can get, and this is yet another way for us to get that motivation by remembering the days that we are likely longing for today.
I am also sharing an iTunes review from one of the show's supporters. Cindy has signed up to help financially support the show as a longtime listener, and her recent review has touched on her story of what her and her husband have accomplished with their retirement plans. It's amazing to hear their stories and what they've done to be able to retire in comfort on Social Security. Yes, you've read that correctly. If you would like to check out their story and what her and her husband are up to in their retirement years in paradise, head on over to their YouTube channel: https://goo.gl/L74WXC
If you've been listening to this show for a while and it has truly helped you or motivated you to get out of debt and get into prosperity, please consider supporting this show as a seasoned listener. Support subscriptions are processed safely and securely through PayPal and start at just $1.00 per month. Your financial support helps to keep this show going, and I truly appreciate it. Simply go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/support and choose your level of support today. Thank you, and God bless!
Are you looking for a way to no longer be overwhelmed when it comes to accomplishing your larger goals? Have you ever found yourself trying to take on too much at the same time? I certainly know that I have.
Sometimes when you learn something about yourself, it gives you the unique opportunity to be able to make a change that will benefit you in ways that you never thought imaginable. I noticed that one of the things that I used to do quite frequently was taking on too much all at once. I would get frustrated or give up on some tasks or goals simply because I was overwhelmed. I may have had great ideas and plans in mind, but I was simply preventing myself from accomplishing any goals associated with those plans because I was frozen in place. I couldn't figure out the best way to tackle what needed to be done, and this was detrimental to my overall accomplishments.
One day I realized my problem. I needed to do a brain dump, so to speak. I needed to jot everything down on a piece of paper, gather my thoughts, organize my tasks, prioritize, and then get to work. This method has helped me tremendously in many ways, and I'm hoping that what I'm sharing today will help you as well.
If you've been listening to this show for a while and it has truly helped you or motivated you to get out of debt and get into prosperity, please consider supporting this show as a seasoned listener. Support subscriptions are processed safely and securely through PayPal and start at just $1.00 per month. Your financial support helps to keep this show going, and I truly appreciate it. Simply go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/support and choose your level of support today. Thank you, and God bless!
Recently, there was a request that came through on the show's iTunes reviews to cover some items on the topic of saving and investing. While I'm not personally at this point yet as we're still in the process of paying off debt, I have begun researching this topic because I want to be ready to hit the ground running when the time is right. I highly recommend that you do the same so that you're ready to go once that last amount of consumer debt has been paid off completely.
I feel that it's important to note that we shouldn't attempt to try getting out of debt and begin to save and invest simultaneously. For many of us, the total amount of our monthly debt obligations makes it way too difficult to try to carve out some additional resources to start saving and investing. Instead, I think that we need to hit our debt hard with any financial resources that we can get our hands on. The sooner that we pay off our debt, the better. Once we've paid off our debt, then we can naturally move forward with the second part of the process, to get into prosperity, by executing our saving and investing plans.
If you've been listening to this show for a while and it has truly helped you or motivated you to get out of debt and get into prosperity, please consider supporting this show as a seasoned listener. Support subscriptions are processed safely and securely through PayPal and start at just $1.00 per month. Your financial support helps to keep this show going, and I truly appreciate it. Simply go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/support and choose your level of support today. Thank you, and God bless!
Outgo is just as important as income, and sometimes we may forget about that. It's easy for us to simply focus on what we have coming in and not pay as much attention to what's going out. Thankfully, there is a better way for us to manage our finances.
As many of us may already know, there are lean times that come upon us at some point in time. Knowing how to manage those leaner times by controlling the money going out of our budgets will help us to navigate those choppy waters without sinking the financial ship. This will typically require intense focus. It's natural for us to want to jump the gun and start thinking of ways to increase our income, but many times, we should be sharing that focus with our outgoing expenses and improving things on that side of the scale as well.
Consider this. What happens when we get a raise? When we get a raise in our paychecks, we're excited to have this newfound money coming in. That's a typical initial response to good fortune, right? Well, we can experience close to that same excitement if we take some time to be a little inventive and do a little digging in order to uncover ways for us to spend less. This will feel pretty close to or even identical to how we feel when we get that raise. Why not spend some time to decrease the outgo, and as a result, effectively give yourself a raise today?
If you've been listening to this show for a while and it has truly helped you or motivated you to get out of debt and get into prosperity, please consider supporting this show as a seasoned listener. Support subscriptions are processed safely and securely through PayPal and start at just $1.00 per month. Your financial support helps to keep this show going, and I truly appreciate it. Simply go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/support and choose your level of support today. Thank you, and God bless!
Today you'll learn how to channel anger into fuel for accomplishing your goals. It's possible to do this, but first you'll need to focus.
When we get angry, a lot of times we may try to stifle that anger or lessen it by getting into some bad habits. Some of us turn to alcohol, some of us turn to cigarettes, and some of us turn to lashing out at others because of our anger. None of these are healthy ways to deal with our problems.
Instead, what we need to do is realize that we are still in control to be able to change our lives. Even up against some incredible odds, there's always a way to accomplish something as long as we take the time necessary to come up with a plan. Anger is an emotion, and it's good to feel emotions. It benefits us by letting us know that something is wrong, and it helps us to realize that we are unhappy about that which is causing us to be angry in the first place.
When we channel those negative emotional responses to various situations into something positive, it will benefit us each and every time. If we're angry about debt, then we can visualize debt as our enemy. From that anger and visualization, we should be able to mindfully stop feeding the debt and helping it grow. We should be able to instead starve the debt by not using credit cards and doing what it takes to get those debts paid off as quickly as possible. It won't happen right away, but we will gain momentum by consistently channeling that anger into goal-planning, goal-setting, and yes, goal-accomplishing actions.
It's only until we realize that there are solid reasons to get mad and to do something about it that we will ever make any traction. When we do this in a healthy way, this is when we are able to finally use anger to our benefit. God bless.
Discover today my thoughts on whether or not you should talk about finances in front of your kids. I'll give you a hint: they probably already know.
Here's the deal. Many times, we don't give kids enough credit. We think that if we hide out in a particular area of the house with lower traffic that they won't know or find out what's going on. We hope that they don't discover the financial struggles or difficulties, and we become more and more confident that we're able to successfully hide financial situations from our children.
The truth is, kids are much more astute than we think. They may not know all of the details, but they most certainly have the ability from a young age to ascertain whether or not there is a situation that is less than desirable. They can sense the tension, and they are fully aware of the negativity that is commonly associated with hard times.
In my personal opinion, I think that it's perfectly fine and preferred to involve children in the discussions having to do with family finances. They are part of the family unit, and I think that age-appropriate conversations will not only allow for your kids to feel included and valued, but those same conversations will also help to provide details about particular situations to make it easier for everyone in the family to be on the same page.
The key here is keeping the conversations appropriate for a given age. Also, you are the parent, and only you know what is appropriate for your child as far as the conversational topics would go. Once you determine what makes sense for your family in particular, you'll find that including the kids in the conversations will help to keep everyone involved and working together on the same team, and that's the way that it should be. God bless.
Let's discuss how distractions get in the way of our goals. There is no doubt in my mind that even the smallest distractions can prove to be detrimental in our pursuit of certain goals that we have, and the only way that we can dissolve these distractions is to get better at identifying them to begin with.
Of course, this is not always an easy task. Much of the time, we aren't even aware that a distraction is taking place until it has already done its damage. Distractions come in many forms, and some of them are quite subtle. That's why we need to be mindful and aware of these distractions, and it helps when we learn from our mistakes with distractions that we've made in the past. In other words, if we have identified a distraction that has occurred, now we need to make sure that the same distraction doesn't poke its ugly head up again.
The bottom line is this. Unless we are able to stay focused and stay on track, it becomes exponentially more difficult for us to achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves. While we cannot rid ourselves of all distractions, staying alert and controlling our reactions to certain situations will help us to stay one step ahead most of the time. God bless.
I'd like to share some tips on how to replace worry with focus, and I'd also like to tell you why this is incredibly important. First and foremost, let me mention that worry will get us nowhere. Worry does not help to move goals any closer to the finish line, and worry does nothing to help us with any agendas that we may have in the works.
The best course of action is to replace worrying with focusing on solutions. Even if we're not absolutely certain what the appropriate solution may be for the troubles that we're having, shifting our minds from the woes of our problems to focusing on solutions instead will absolutely get us on the right track. Will worry creep back in every once in a while? Absolutely. We're wired to worry when times get tough; it's a natural part of our survival mechanisms. The key is to not let worry consume us and paralyze us from taking the actions necessary to resolve our issues at hand.
The bottom line is this. The longer we go without a solution to a given problem, the more intensified the worry becomes for that problem. It is imperative that we shift our mindset towards focusing on a solution. Whether we may not believe it at the time or not, there's an answer to every problem. We just need to take the time to apply the appropriate focus in order to find the answer. God bless.
Are you looking for a foolproof way to change your life for the better? It's simple. All you need to do is to implement some positive habits in your life, and these changes will help you to live life in a better way almost immediately.
Whether that's reading more non-fiction books, limiting time on a screen, eliminating gossip and complaining, or getting organized and sticking to a calendar, we all have the ability to make foundational changes upon which we may build many other good habits. It's simply a matter of getting started.
In the last episode (episode 280), I talked about how micro-habits help us to make changes one small step at a time. Today I want to focus on the actual habits that help us to become better humans and to become more intensely focused on accomplishing our goals. I'm sure that this list is just the beginning for many of us, and hopefully this episode will prove to be a positive jumpstart to getting the most out of the resources that we have available right in front of us, each and every day. God bless.
Let me introduce you to a real game-changer. This concept will allow you to easily make positive changes in your life. Because of these changes, you will eventually experience success with finances, health, faith, relationships, and other important areas of your life where right now you may need to drastically improve.
What I'm talking about are micro-habits. These small changes require minimal motivation and very little effort. However, the payoff is huge. Think of it like compound interest. Small changes that build one on top of another will eventually lead to a huge payoff.
I personally love micro-habits because they allow for me to make changes without having to go all-in or having to quit something cold turkey. Instead, I can take things one tiny chunk at a time until I get comfortable with the changes and get used to the changes over a period of time rather than all at once. It affords me the opportunity to not have to deal with guilt if I have a setback since a setback with a micro-habit just means that I get right back on track the following day.
I believe that this is a truly more natural way to pave the road to success for each and every one of us. I've experienced a myriad of positive changes thanks to micro-habits without having to feel overwhelmed in the process. I know that this will help you just as it has helped me. The important thing to keep in mind is that while micro-habits are easy to implement and continue with every day, we still have to start somewhere. Don't wait for tomorrow; start implementing those micro-habits in your life today. God bless.
Why is it important to stay on top of things and stay focused? It's critical for us to do this because goals don't accomplish themselves. It's up to us to do what needs to be done in order to get the job done. In most cases, this will require a laser-sharp focus; anything less than that will likely compromise the entire task at hand or larger goal that we set out to accomplish.
I'll talk about how we need to stay on top of things when it comes to our day-to-day budgets, but I'll also discuss some down-the-road goals and why we need to stay focused on these particular goals as well. The truth of the matter is that all of this is tied in together, and the glue that keeps everything from falling apart is our focus.
Make a promise to yourself today that you will be mindful of staying focused on whatever it is that you are trying to accomplish. You will find that the path to accomplishing a particular goal will be more clear, and you'll be less distracted by outside influences that will only throw your progress off track. Stay on track by staying on top of things. God bless.
Knowing when you should (and shouldn't) file a homeowner's insurance claim can save you from difficulties down the road. There are several scenarios and other considerations to keep in mind in order to avoid higher insurance rates, or in some extreme cases, getting dropped by your insurance provider altogether.
I think that most folks find that it's generally unfair that you have to take pause before you pick up the phone to call your insurance company when you have an accident in the home that should be covered. What we have to keep in mind is that insurance companies are in the business of doing business. In other words, they aren't going to take a loss when they can recover in some other way. Many times, recovering what an insurance company pays out equates to higher premiums for the insured.
I'm not an insurance agent. I don't have formal training on all of the intricacies of the insurance industry. However, I have thoroughly researched this subject, and I felt that it was necessary to share with you what I've learned. While there are some no-brainers as far as when it's appropriate to file a homeowner's insurance claim, such as extensive fire damage or other expensive damage, there are some questionable situations that may not be as straightforward.
It really comes down to two main things: the cost of the repair and the type of damage. You may need to bring in a professional for an estimate first before you call your insurance company to get a realistic idea of what the damage will cost to repair, but once you have this information, you will need to make a decision one way or the other right away. An insurance company may deny your claim if too much time has passed since the incident occurred that is being reported. Also, there are certain situations where you might want to be careful about what you are putting through as a claim using your homeowner's insurance. I go into this in more detail on this episode.
While I cover some general examples, I won't be able to cover each and every situation. You'll need to take some time to decide for yourself what is best for you, and you may need to dig a little deeper into the research topics that I provide here on this episode. The main point is to always consider the situation fully before making any decisions on whether or not to use your homeowner's insurance to recover from a loss other than a major loss when it comes to your home. God bless.
Life can be full of tough choices and hard decisions sometimes. The good news is that we can systematically cut down those tough choices and hard decisions, and at the same time, utilize them to provide us with more clarity in our lives. The key is to not get overwhelmed from the outset.
Instead, we need to be able to start with the solution or the end result. From there, we are able to work backwards and visualize each step that gets us to that final result. We can visualize whether or not the solution fits what we want for our lives. We are able to actually feel whether the end result makes us feel happy or unhappy, and we can even come up with alternate plans to take into consideration.
In the large scheme of things, we should welcome the tough choices and hard decisions in life. They allow for us to grow. With that said, we don't want to necessarily make things harder than they need to be.
From now on, let's start from a different angle. Rather than trying to barrel through the problem at hand from the beginning, let's start at the end and work our way backwards. Doing this will help us to really understand and better analyze the situation and will provide us with more clarity in the tough choices and the hard decisions that we will eventually need to face. God bless.
We were never meant to live scared. We were designed to be bold and unwavering when it comes to living right. The thing is, the trouble that we find ourselves in sometimes causes us to build up anxiety and fear over time that counters what we're meant to do and who we're meant to be.
I'm sure that you don't want to live scared; nobody desires a life filled with constant fear and worry. Instead, we need to overcome our fears and squash our anxiety with a solid plan. I've given this a lot of thought, and this high-level overview of how to get ourselves out of this mess can be narrowed down to three larger goals that we can set for ourselves. These goals won't be easy to accomplish, and they will likely take most of us a long time. With that said, once we achieve these three goals, we are almost certain to guarantee a life without fear and without anxiety when it comes to personal finance.
Knowing what to do and when to do it is precisely what gets us to where we desire to be in life. These three grand goals will help most of us since we have the same overall plan: a life of peace that comes from getting out of debt and getting into prosperity. God bless.
A shopping addiction is a real thing, just like any other addiction. Many folks go through life not even realizing that they have a shopping addiction until one day they find themselves in a huge credit card mess. If this describes what has happened to you, the good news is that you're not alone.
Whether you have a shopping addiction or are close to someone who does, this episode is for you. While I am directly answering an e-mail from one of my listeners on this subject throughout this episode, I will keep the solutions applicable to others who are also dealing with the same problem. Together, we will beat these shopping addictions, and when we do, we will make our lives better in more ways than one.
The first step is to identify that there is a problem. This is a significant part of the battle. Once the problem has been identified, through a system of support and accountability, it's time to face the identified problem and change the old habits to replace them with new habits. We'll also need to use tools that are at our disposal, including the budget, to replace the bad habits with good habits and guarantee success in beating this addiction.
I'll talk to both the married and single folks who are dealing with shopping addiction, but I will focus mostly on married folks. The reason is simply because I believe that the way that a shopping addiction is handled within a marriage will make or break the marriage. Problems with personal finances are typically the cause or a significant contributing factor of a failed marriage, but sometimes when the problems are addressed correctly within a marriage, they can end up being the key to strengthening or even saving a marriage.
The road to recovery from a shopping addiction is fully within your reach. You will just need to start the journey by deciding to travel that path, and when you do, I have complete confidence that you will kick this addiction to the curb once and for all. God bless.
It may not seem like it would be a big deal, but getting organized really does have a profound effect on our personal finances. If you haven't yet listened to episode 273 on the topic of minimalism, the concept of getting organized goes hand in hand with this process. As we begin to shrink things down in our lives and take things down to the lowest common denominator, we naturally bend towards getting more organized in many areas of our lives.
Organization is beneficial in many ways, and one of those ways is to be able to stay on track and on point with personal finance. Whether that's paying down debt, working on the monthly budget, or any other personal finance goal, being organized and staying organized allows us to function better with minimal confusion. We aren't as overwhelmed when we are working in a well-organized environment, and we'll find that we can accomplish much more than we would if we were sitting in a complete mess.
Taking some time to get grounded and get organized is highly encouraged, and I know that once you do this, you will be ready to tackle the many goals and tasks associated with getting out of debt and getting into prosperity. God bless.
We're picking back up with the habit of practicing minimalism, and it has been great. My wife and I started this a long time ago, but we didn't really stick with it the first time around and ended up getting off track. I think part of the reason was because we were trying to do too much at the same time and weren't as focused as we should have been. This time, we decided to do things a bit differently.
Rather than taking on the entire house and its contents all at the same time, we decided to start in a more focused way of doing things and concentrate on our closets first. By only focusing on this specific area, we were able to decrease the clutter quite a bit. I'd estimate that we ended up donating or discarding more clutter this time around than the first time that we had decided to do this. We noticed right away that taking a more granular approach to getting rid of what we no longer need didn't seem nearly as overwhelming and produced better results.
We ended up with several bags of clothing for donation and several bags of discarded items that went out to the trash. I also decided that it was time to sell an older gaming system that had been sitting around and collecting dust, so we got a chance to earn a little extra money for this month during this process. In my opinion, this makes it a little more fun when you can sell some things on Facebook or Craigslist and discard, declutter, and earn a little extra money all at the same time.
If you haven't already tried practicing minimalism, even on a smaller scale to start out with, I highly recommend doing so. It is amazing the freedom that you'll feel with the renewed space that you'll discover by discarding what you no longer need. You'll have more time and energy to focus on the things that truly matter, and you may even be able to make a few extra dollars to boot! God bless.
While we may not be crumpling up twenty dollar bills and pitching them in the trash can, we're finding other ways to throw away our hard-earned cash. Unfortunately, many of these ways that we throw away our money almost go unnoticed. We most likely don't even realize that we're doing it, and that's a dangerous thing.
I'll go into more detail throughout this episode, but in summary, here are the eight ways that we throw away our money. Number one on my list is paying credit card interest. We may not even be paying attention to how much interest we're paying on credit cards, and that's not a good thing. If you take a look at your statements and see how much you're actually paying every month to have these credit cards, it may make you sick and disgusted. Go with those feelings, and get these credit cards paid off as quickly as possible, especially the higher interest rate cards.
In my opinion, paying credit card interest every month is the worst out of the eight, but the other ways that we throw away our money are listed below.
Utilities: use less, pay less.
Gift cards: not using them is like throwing away the actual value of the card itself.
Gym memberships: if you're not using it at least once a week, you're simply donating your hard-earned cash to the gym.
Impulse shopping: stick to your shopping list, and don't deviate from the plan.
Keeping items that we don't need: hold on to your receipts, and return that which you do not use within a couple of weeks.
Throwing out leftovers: you bought the groceries, so you should consume them instead of feeding them to the garbage can.
Eating out too much: restaurants, even fast food restaurants, are simply too expensive.
Hopefully this list has helped you to realize just how much money you may be throwing away every month. Any way that you can find to save money, just do it. Stop throwing away your hard-earned cash, and you'll soon see that you have more available to you when you are mindful of how much you may be wasting.
Sometimes it's good to look back and reflect on some of the lessons that you've learned along the way, and that's what I'm doing today. Just like you, I've made plenty of mistakes in life. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing; I truly believe that mistakes are there to teach us lessons. We become better people, and it's in part because of some of the mistakes that we've made and learned from.
The key here is the last part of that last paragraph. You've got to learn from your mistakes in order to move forward and forge ahead. If you don't learn from your mistakes, you may end up repeating the same mistakes a second or even a third time around. I'm guilty of this. I've been in debt, out of debt, and back in debt again. It's not easy to admit to doing something as stupid as repeating the same mistake, but there's a silver lining here. While repeating mistakes isn't recommended, it is one way of not only causing pain in the present but allowing us to also remember the pain from the past. Sometimes that's all it takes to make that mistake rear its ugly head for the final time. We can finally realize the error of our ways once and for all, and likely never make the same mistake again.
It's time to blow a hole through what you owe! I have a way of picturing things in my head sometimes, and recently I was picturing taking action to extend our arsenal available to us in order to blow a hole through what we owe. When we blow enough holes into what we owe, the entire debt structure will fall; our enemy will finally be defeated!
I love that visualization, and what's great about this visualization is that it's something that truly links well with reality. We need weapons in our arsenal in order to be able to cause some serious damage to our debt enemy. How do we get these weapons? We build up our weaponry just like any other entity who has declared war. When we declare war on our debt, the weapon of choice is additional revenue. Taking a part-time job or taking other steps to increase our income is akin to putting together weapons that will cause serious damage to this debt enemy of ours.
The larger the amount of increased income, the larger the holes will be and the more damage we will be causing to our debt enemy. We may be starting with a smaller hole, but once we gain some traction, each and every time we blow another hole in what we owe, we weaken our enemy even more. Eventually, we'll become so strong of an adversary to our debt enemy that our victory is almost guaranteed.
Let's go to war against debt! Let's defeat this enemy with tenacious persistence that knows no bounds as far as what it takes to win this war and stand victorious! God bless.
When it comes to money and personal finances, will you use or be used? Whether we realize it or not, if we're in debt, we are in a constant state of being used. Every time we swipe that credit card or sign on the dotted line of the loan form, we are allowing ourselves to be used by the associated financial institutions. We're voluntarily entering into an agreement to force ourselves to make payments for a given period of time and pay even more money for this privilege (I hope you are able to sense my sarcasm). This is truly a form of modern-day slavery.
The bottom line is that nobody likes to be used. There's almost always a negative connotation that comes along with the concept of being used. If we take some time to realize what is truly happening when we use the plastic or sign up for an auto loan, we'll definitely change our minds about this concept. We are no longer going to allow the financial institutions of the world to use us and profit from us. Instead, we're going to turn the tables in our favor.
How do we do this? We do this by paying off our debts, swearing off debt entirely, and eventually get to the point where we start to use money for our benefit. We stop feeling comfortable about being in the red and instead shoot for staying in the black. We start investing. We start saving up and paying cash for our purchases. We budget as a way to keep our money in check. We switch from being used to becoming a savvy and smart user of money. Doesn't that sound better to you? God bless.
We all have let-downs in life, and here is what you need to do in order to get through them and come out on top. First, you will need to absorb the hits that all of us will inevitably experience in life. If you have ever taken the time to study a boxing match, you'll notice that many times a fighter will move with the hit from the opponent. This essentially helps the fighter to be able to absorb the hit if blocking the hit is not possible.
You may have heard this referred to as rolling with the punches. Whatever saying or analogy that you want to use, the point here is the same: we all need to be able to flow with whatever problems we may come across. Perhaps you have received a rejection letter when you thought you'd definitely get that job. Maybe you recently lost your job. Whatever the case may be, you need to almost force yourself to go with the flow and move on.
Along with absorbing the hits, we also need to focus on maintaining a positive attitude as much as humanly possible. Yes, we all have bad days. That's a given. However, we will get much further ahead with an attitude that is more positive than negative. It may be a trite expression, but it still holds true: attitude is everything. Your attitude in combination with rolling with the punches will predict with great accuracy whether or not you will be able to truly weather the storms that you will face in life. Keep this in mind, and you will be able to handle almost anything that comes your way. God bless.
Dealing with money stress in marriage just became a whole lot easier. The best news that you'll hear today is that you do not need an advanced degree in personal finance in order to succeed with this. Each and every one of us has the same opportunity to accomplish this task, and if you're married, the two of you working together will only increase those odds in your favor.
Of course, it's not always going to be rays of sunshine while you go through this journey. Times can get tough. Bills can start to get behind. You may realize that you're paying hundreds of dollars, maybe even thousands of dollars, on debt and other expenses every month. This can cause anxiety and stress, and if you're married, it could have a detrimental effect on your marriage.
The silver lining in all of this is that sometimes the best comes out of the bad. Both spouses in a marriage stressed by financial woes need to realize that they're both to blame. They need to look inward, be humble, and communicate with each other. When both spouses admit some level of fault in the problem and stop playing the blame game, that's when communication starts to happen.
Turn your spouse into your teammate. The two become one, and a powerful one at that. With this newfound power, you'll also discover on this episode the four actionable steps that you can take right now in order to turn personal finance from being an agent of stress to being a catalyst for a stronger union in your marriage. What a great way to look forward to your upcoming success to get out of debt and get into prosperity together as husband and wife! God bless.
It's official! The first debt has been paid in full, and we're celebrating! It has taken some time, but we're happy to report that the entire balance on this particular credit card has been paid in full.
We were motivated. We had a no interest/deferred interest credit card offer that we used last year. This month would have been the deadline to pay the balance in full before the deferred interest kicked in to the tune of about $260.00. Who doesn't get motivated to save $260.00?
What's interesting is that not only was this a happy event, but it came with a healthy dose of motivation for us to want to continue moving forward. Yes, we discovered that automatically built-in with paying off debts is the motivated desire to pay off even more debt. We can't wait to tackle the next debt on our list, and while we realize that it will likely take some time, we are completely focused on accomplishing this next goal. It's like a healthy addiction; you truly want to experience more of the same feelings of accomplishment, and that's a good thing.
If you're currently in the process of working on that first debt payoff, don't give up hope. Keep going until you accomplish this monumental first goal. When you finally get to see that zero balance, it truly is incredible. Embrace the sense of accomplishment, and do something to celebrate! Keep the momentum going, and you'll soon find yourself well on your way to getting out of debt and getting into prosperity. God bless.
I don't personally believe in New Year's resolutions, but that's mostly because I believe that we have the ability to implement positive changes at any time of the year. With that said, my break that I took in the month of December was mostly due to needing to implement some much-needed changes with this show. The biggest and most notable change is going to be the extended episodes. Short and sweet is nice, but after careful consideration, I determined that detailed and actionable is what's truly needed in order for all of us to get out of debt and get into prosperity as quickly as possible.
My biggest goal for all of us in the year ahead is to make considerable headway towards crushing debt in 2018. We may not be able to get completely out of debt in a year, but we should be able to accomplish many of our smaller goals to get us further ahead than we have in the past. Taking action steps and staying focused for the long haul will be what helps us to truly accomplish our goals, and this is especially true as our goals become more aggressive.
I have to forewarn you that this won't be all fun and games. What we need to do in the foreseeable future will require a large amount of sacrifice. We'll reward ourselves accordingly along the way so that we do have some level of fun in our lives, but we're still going to remain focused on the bigger prize: getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
Welcome to 2018. I'm excited to start this new year with you, and I look forward to hearing about the goals that you are able to meet in order to truly make this a debt-crushing year! God bless.
Money is a tool; it has no power over you. The power that seems to be associated with money is based upon emotional connections with money. Some folks love money. They truly put money over and above almost everyone and everything else. Some folks fear money (or a lack of money). They live in a constant state of fear of not having enough financial resources, or they fear a sudden loss of money, usually due to a job-loss event.
Both of these emotions are unhealthy. Money is an inanimate object and should not be looked at with emotions of love or fear. This is how we unintentionally give money power that it simply does not deserve.
A healthy way of looking at money is to realize that it is simply a useful tool for us to give to others, take care of our families, and save for our futures. If we are lacking enough money, we need to realize that we are in a position where we need to gather more of this particular tool in order to do the job or task at hand.
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It's easy to fall into the trap of constantly desiring to be entertained by your smartphone rather than setting aside time to read intentionally. With the plethora of apps and games that are out there to distract us from learning, it's no wonder that we spend a vast majority of our time on our smartphones rather than keeping our noses buried in books.
The unfortunate thing is that many folks don't realize that even once we're done with school, we should never stop learning. Setting aside time every day to read non-fiction books is a well-known piece of advice that comes from many successful people. The habit of learning is one that pays dividends that we won't even be able to imagine until those dividend payoffs have come to fruition. It's incredibly important to get into the habit of intentionally reading non-fiction books each and every day.
It's fine to use your smartphone. I use mine for both business and pleasure. However, I also know that the smartphone can be a source of distraction. With this in mind, I like to minimize the alerts that I receive. I also put my phone in silent mode when I do not want distractions, and this comes in handy when I am carving out a block of time in my day to devote to reading. You will be amazed at how simply getting into this one positive habit will change your life for the better in the months and years to come.
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Most of the habits that we have, whether they are good habits or bad habits, hit us in one of these three major categories: peace of mind, health, and financial security. We are where we are based on the habits that we've established. We need to replace any bad habits with good habits in order to improve our peace of mind, our health, and our financial security.
Any habit tends to form between 30 and 45 days of practice. This includes both good and bad habits. If you want to replace a bad habit with a good habit, it would be best to focus on this for at least a month to a month and a half in order to truly change and cement in your behaviors to make whatever change you are making permanent. You will establish a new pattern in your mind, and this is how you truly transform a simple change into an established habit.
Take some time today and think about some of the bad habits that you need to change in your life. Next, come up with a plan to stop these bad habits that are hurting your health, finances, or peace of mind. Finally, execute this plan and see if you can replace the bad habit that you have identified with a good habit in order to better your life overall.
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It's one of those you-don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover moments. I found out some amazing details on the life of someone who appears on the surface to be your standard groundskeeper.
What was completely unexpected was that this gentleman was not only the groundskeeper, but he was also the owner of the properties that he was maintaining. He was truly doing what he loved to do and was earning an income from it. He was leasing properties to businesses and maintaining those properties on his own.
This made me think about how we can truly do what we want to do once we're out of debt in order to get into prosperity. We don't need to impress others. We don't need to drive a Lexus, and we don't need to fit in with the crowd. In other words, we don't need a membership to the country club. Instead, we can utilize our resources to further God's kingdom by being a cheerful giver of our time and our financial resources.
While part of this story contains some fictional content, the majority of it has to do with a man who is truly doing what makes him happy. That's worth more than a 4,000 square foot home, a country club membership, and a Lexus, isn't it?
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It's always beneficial to take some time to be thankful and reflect on our blessings. If you're in the process of getting out of debt or working on any other goals, realize that being inline with God's Word is power in of itself. God will provide and will take care of us, so keep that in mind no matter how difficult the journey may become.
Even if you're not a Christian, take some time to reflect and realize what you already have, and be satisfied with that. Don't focus on what you don't have; be happy for what you do have. Once you've done this, work towards improving things. Achieve the goals that you've set for yourself knowing that your plans are good and right.
I'd also like to take a moment to let you know that I'm thankful for you. I'm happy that you tune in and participate in this very personal journey of mine to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I love sharing experiences and stories, and I equally love hearing from you. I love hearing your questions and hearing about your accomplishments. They are truly inspiring.
Happy Thanksgiving, and may God bless you and keep you. Be sure to spend valued time with loved ones with a spirit of thankfulness, and what will surely follow is true joy.
You can accomplish greater and greater goals and increase your own level of self-confidence by simply keeping the momentum going once you have completed a difficult task. What I'm talking about is that feeling that you get when you feel the pressure to succeed and then gather the inner strength needed to accomplish the goal that you had set out for yourself. When this occurs, the last thing that you want to do afterwards is go into relaxation mode.
Instead, you need to utilize the momentum that you now have working for you to move along towards completing another large goal or task. Throughout the process, you've likely uncovered a newfound strength that you never had or experienced before. Perhaps you surprised yourself and used more imagination and brainpower than you even knew existed. Take full advantage of the momentum swing that you've got going your way, and see just how far this wave will take you.
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We already know that debt crushes our finances, but it also crushes our spirit and motivation. This is especially true when we're buried under a mountain of debt and can no longer afford the minimum payments. Even the most spirited person will feel defeated every once in a while if the debt mountain is enormous enough.
We need to do what we can to get out of debt (or get it under control) so that we can move forward into prosperity. When we first got into debt, it likely snuck in just like any other bad habit. Perhaps we started with a department store card, moved on to your standard credit card, took out an automobile loan, decided to go to school and get some student loans, and it just went on and on from there.
It was convenient, and we were able to get comfortable with the concept of being in debt. Everyone else was doing it, so why shouldn't we? While I may be taking you down memory lane at the moment, the point that I'm trying to make is that the financial institutions behind the credit cards and loans have been playing this game for a lot longer than we have. They know how to set the traps, and they relish in witnessing us falling victim to these traps.
It's time to go to war. It's time to start winning some battles and allow the motivation to get into prosperity to replace the lack of motivation when we feel like we're trapped in debt. You can do this, even if you feel defeated at the moment. It's not easy to get out of debt, but once you decide that you're going to do it and do the work required to get it done, you will succeed.
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It's advice that you hear in various forums: pay yourself first. But when is this an appropriate strategy? What if you're just making ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck? How would you go about saving up some money by paying yourself first?
First of all, this is a decision that you have to make for yourself based on your particular circumstances. If you are barely able to get through a month without running out of money, now may not be the time to start saving money by paying yourself first. With that said, you should still keep this in the back of your mind as a someday goal, because I really do think that paying yourself first is a great idea.
Most resources that mention paying yourself first recommend 10% of your take-home pay. It's also recommended to set this amount to be placed into a savings account at a separate financial institution from where your checking account is located automatically, usually through direct deposit. If 10% is too much of a challenge, it may still be a good idea and a benefit for you to start smaller, perhaps saving 3% or 4% of your take-home pay.
What you're essentially doing is setting yourself up with a good habit that will take you far, especially when you get to the point where you are focusing your goals on getting into prosperity. You need to recognize that the end game in all of this is to have your money work for you and not the other way around.
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I'd like to let you in on a little background about how I started out, where I came from, and why I'm so completely focused on this journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I'm not a guru. I'm just like you. I have made mistakes, and I'm wanting to better my life by putting together plans to complete certain goals. Many of those goals center around getting out of debt. I see this as being a major important factor to financial health and happiness. Of course, this will also naturally lead to goals that focus on getting into prosperity. And I absolutely want you to come along on this journey with me.
It's a brand new week. Let's get things right. We're going to be talking about stuff in the coming days and weeks that will help to re-center our focus. Follow me out of debt, and let's get into prosperity!
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This mini-episode is an extension of episode 253. On that episode, I mentioned that I had presented an offer on my personal Facebook page for my friends to be able to get their computers repaired for just $25 bucks. I was only taking the first 25 people who responded, and the number of people who had expressed interest truly surprised me.
I started thinking that my audience would likely love the opportunity to get a discounted rate on computer repair as well. With my 20+ years of computer repair experience, I can definitely help fix your ailing computer.
What I will do is limit this to the first 25 people who respond to this offer. Simply go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com and click on the Contact button. Fill in your name, e-mail address, and include computer repair in the subject line. In the message area, briefly describe the problem that you are having with your computer (PC or Mac), enter in your phone number if you wish to be contacted by phone, then send the form. The first 25 e-mails that I receive from this will then receive a response from me to schedule a time to get that computer of yours working like new again.
You'll be helping me to earn a little additional income, and you'll be able to take advantage of professional and inexpensive computer repair; it's truly a win-win!
Did you know that 85% of wealthy folks read two or more self-improvement, career-related, or education-related books every month? This is an interesting statistic and one that we should be paying attention to if our eventual goal is to grow rich.
You don't necessarily need to read two books every month right off of the bat, but I would highly recommend setting a goal to read at least one book per month to start. If you think that you won't have time, try to integrate your reading time with other activities. If you've got kids (even teenagers), spend some time going to the library or sitting outside on a nice day and reading together. Read while you're at the gym. If you don't have time to sit with a good book, start a free trial with Audible to see if that might be a good alternative for you.
For most of us, education will only take us so far. The key to success is continuing education, and I have found that there is a plethora of relevant and good information to be found in books. This is a habit that will truly pay dividends if you can get yourself to get into this habit. Don't wait, start today!
If you're looking for a great way to support this show and get something absolutely free that will help you to pick up the phenomenal habit of reading, give Audible a try. The folks over at Audible will give you a free 30-day trial plus two free audiobooks that you get to keep. Head on over to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to start your trial today!
It's that time of the year again! Yes, Christmas is right around the corner. We're being bombarded with advertisements, which in reality probably started a couple of months ago. Stores know that we're gearing up to spend some of our hard-earned money, and they will aggressively try to capture our attention so that we're walking right in through their doors.
Did you know that this time of the year causes a large amount of stress for a lot of folks? Did you also know that credit card usage spikes dramatically at this time of the year? People are going into a brand-new year with more debt than they had before. People are willfully putting themselves into a hardship situation because they feel obligated to buy gifts that they simply cannot afford.
I believe that you have more ways to give than just with your finances. We give of our time, money, as well as other resources. For example, some of us know how to make crafts. Giving these as gifts will cost less as far as the amount of money needed for supplies for multiple gifts, and we're also giving of our time and resources (knowledge) to actually create these masterpieces.
We need to treat this time of the year like any typical month. Yes, the Christmas shopping season requires its own budget as your necessary and separate framework. Plug in the numbers and make sure that you're comfortable with the total amount to be spent and stick to the budget. This will help you to have a happy holiday season and will help you to keep yourself out of trouble financially. This will essentially make you a very cheerful giver, and that's exactly the way that it should be.
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What if the starter emergency fund runs out? What do you do if you're hit with another emergency? Sometimes you're hit with a double-whammy (or maybe even a triple-whammy), and when this happens, what do you do?
Well, you do have the option of using a credit card. If you decide to go this route, you'll want to have a plan in place to pay that amount back and get it back off of the credit card as quickly as possible. However, a better plan might be to earn some money quickly through a little ingenuity and imagination.
Find what it is that you're good at, and put it out there on social media to sell it as a product or a service. Be sure your price point is low enough to grab the attention and actions of others but still high enough to earn you a decent amount of money in the short-term. Remember, you need money now. That is your overall goal. Think outside of the box, and do what you need to do in order to get past the lack of an emergency fund or a shortage of available resources in your emergency fund and bounce back as quickly as you can.
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I was provided with a different perspective by one of my valued listeners about working for Rev.com, and I wanted to share that with you today. I have a feeling that the listener of the show who had e-mailed me is not the only one who has been frustrated with Rev.com, and in all fairness, I think that it's appropriate to discuss those frustrations on this show.
I have touted the benefits of working for Rev.com in order to earn a little additional income on several previous episodes. I have said several times that you won't get rich quick (or even slowly) using this as a revenue earning tool. Rev.com simply isn't paying out tons of money, and because everyone has different abilities, the individual experiences seem to vary quite a bit.
Tune in today to consider some of the cons on the pros and cons list of Rev.com. I personally don't mind Rev.com, and it has provided opportunities to earn some additional revenue when it has been needed, but as I had mentioned above, your mileage may vary.
It's easy to support this show. If you are looking for some great bargains and like to shop online, check out http://followmeoutofdebt.com/deals. When you purchase something using that link, even if it's a gift for someone else, you'll be helping to contribute a small amount to keep this show of ours going. Your help is truly appreciated; thank you.
When it comes to money, you don't want to hide things from your spouse. The two of you should be on the same team and on the same page, and the quickest way to destroy that unity is to hide things from your spouse.
Perhaps you want to avoid a money fight. Perhaps you want to protect your spouse from what you feel might be unnecessary worry. While that's a good reason on the surface, it's not going to help you in the long run. Your spouse needs to know as much (or close to as much) as you do about your family's financial situation. Simply put, they can't help you if they don't know.
Of course, there are more serious issues that may be at hand. This could be in the form of an addiction, such as a gambling addiction. It's never easy to admit to something like this, but you do need to start this process with your spouse. Hopefully, the two of you can do what's necessary to get help before a serious problem brings on serious consequences.
It's time to have that difficult conversation with your spouse. It's time to pray together. It's time to get on the same page. This is essential and will be well worth it, especially once you are celebrating getting out of debt and getting into prosperity - together.
It's easy to support this show. If you are looking for some great bargains and like to shop online, check out http://followmeoutofdebt.com/deals. When you purchase something using that link, even if it's a gift for someone else, you'll be helping to contribute a small amount to keep this show of ours going. Your help is truly appreciated; thank you.
What did you do this weekend? I decided to earn a little extra money on the Rev.com platform. I mentioned this opportunity on episodes 159 and 192. I was also busy cleaning up my budget and getting things ready for the upcoming month. I wanted to make sure that this upcoming month's budget is lined up as it should be, and I've made some corrections and improvements in the budget from previous months.
We've all had situations where we may have, simply put, screwed up the budget. Maybe we didn't want to look at the damage right away, but eventually you do have to poke your head up from being buried in the sand. Even though it may not be pleasant for us to have to realize to what extent we've trashed the budget, it is still considered to be an opportunity. It's an opportunity to learn from mistakes. It's also an opportunity to get better at this whole budgeting thing going into a brand-new month because, as you've heard before, practice makes (close to) perfect.
If you'd like to learn more about Rev.com, check out the following episodes:
http://followmeoutofdebt.com/episode159
http://followmeoutofdebt.com/episode192
It's easy to support this show. If you are looking for some great bargains and like to shop online, check out http://followmeoutofdebt.com/deals. When you purchase something using that link, even if it's a gift for someone else, you'll be helping to contribute a small amount to keep this show of ours going. Your help is truly appreciated; thank you.
If you've got plans this weekend, first you'll want to make sure that your budget is ready for those plans. Many times, the weekends can be a budget-killer. We tend to spend more carelessly on the weekends than any other time of the week, and because of this, we will typically end up trashing the budget in the process.
This particular episode is not only coming out on the day before a weekend, but it's also coming out on the last weekend of the month. With that in mind, you shouldn't just be focusing on having fun this weekend, but you should also be setting some time aside to do your budget for next month (if you haven't done so already).
If you're single, then doing your budget should be easy enough for you to take care of. Simply set some time aside and get busy. If you're married, there might be a challenge to this process if your spouse doesn't particularly like doing a budget. Perhaps it's you who doesn't like doing the budget. Whatever the case may be, there's nothing wrong with one spouse taking the majority role of handling the budget. With that said, the other spouse still needs to be involved. There has to be participation in this process on both sides in order for your budgeting strategies to be truly successful. Yes, this is Budgeting 101, but sometimes we all need a gentle reminder.
So have fun this weekend but also be responsible. Head into the weekend and the new month coming up with a renewed sense of accomplishment by getting that budget of yours under control and helping you to take charge of your available resources!
It's easy to support this show. If you are looking for some great bargains and like to shop online, check out http://followmeoutofdebt.com/deals. When you purchase something using that link, even if it's a gift for someone else, you'll be helping to contribute a small amount to keep this show of ours going. Your help is truly appreciated; thank you.
What do you do when you're going through lean times? Lean times fall upon all of us at one point or another. When you are in this type of particular situation, you've got to do things that may be outside of the norm or outside of your comfort zone. You're lacking resources, and you need to make up for the difference by whatever means necessary (that are legal, of course).
The obvious thing to do is to get a part-time job to bring in more income. Think about your strengths and use them to your advantage. If you're a natural salesperson, walk into your local car dealership and ask if they need help, perhaps even on a part-time basis. If selling cars isn't your thing, visit a retail store and apply to work evenings and weekends. As a bonus, see if they have any commission sales positions available to fully utilize your sales background.
Of course, going the route of a part-time job is not always a good option. Perhaps there aren't part-time opportunities right in front of you or perhaps scheduling might be a factor. This is when you need to get inventive and creative. Ask someone with a somewhat successful small business if you can help them to increase their sales by working on a commission-only basis. Are you a graphic designer? Ask small businesses if they need a new or updated logo. If you're a web designer, ask a small business owner if you can design their website for them at a reasonable cost. With websites like Fiverr.com, you can even do this on an almost global scale. If opportunities aren't right in front of you, sometimes you've got to make your own opportunities!
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This episode is all about PMI: Private Mortgage Insurance. Private Mortgage Insurance is money that you pay in addition to your monthly house payment to protect the lender in the event that you are unable or unwilling to continue making payments on your mortgage.
Typically, PMI is only necessary when you are unable to come up with at least a 20 percent down payment at the time of purchase. There are some creative lending products that may help you to avoid PMI, however, they are usually only beneficial to the lender. They are typically in the form of a second mortgage or other loan with a higher percentage rate than the primary mortgage loan. I don't personally recommend this. I would do what you can in order to come up with a 20 percent down payment before you consider purchasing a home.
I do understand that sometimes it's not possible to do this, so you may need to pay PMI (or perhaps you are already paying PMI). If that's the case, I would recommend to find out from your lender the date that the PMI will automatically fall off as well as the date that you will be able to request that PMI be removed. In most cases, PMI will drop off on its own when you owe 78 percent or less of the home's original appraisal amount. You may be able to request PMI to be removed once you have built at least 20 percent equity in your home, but you will need to confirm this with your particular bank or lender.
It's easy to support this show. If you are looking for some great bargains and like to shop online, check out http://followmeoutofdebt.com/deals. When you purchase something using that link, even if it's a gift for someone else, you'll be helping to contribute a small amount to keep this show of ours going. Your help is truly appreciated; thank you.
When it comes to conversations about money between you and your spouse, you have to find common ground first and foremost. In most situations, married couples aren't typically on the same page at the start of things. Both parties feel that they have certain needs that should be met, and until the two of you are able to both win, you won't have much success.
This is one of those situations where silence is a bad thing. If one or both of you are being silent about how you feel and what you think is right, communication will start to break down. Once it gets past a certain point, it will be difficult to recover from unless you hit the big red reset button and simply sit down to engage in a cool, calm, and collected conversation with your spouse.
What I recommend is to find common points or common ground by talking about some of the issues at hand that affect both of you. Start talking about retirement savings, college funds for the kids, or any other goals that you both want to have success with accomplishing. Also, talk about things in life that excite you. Perhaps one of you wants a newer vehicle. Come up with ways in which both of you can have what you want without the other one feeling as though they need to give in. Learn how to negotiate in a way that keeps the relationship in good spirits.
The point here is that you want both of you to win. This will help you to realize sooner than later that the two of you can work together and can talk about money successfully. You'll also want these conversations to eventually turn to budgeting together, because budgeting together when you're married is Budgeting 101. You'll naturally lessen the money fights through successful communication, and before you know it, you'll be on the same team - and a winning team at that.
It's easy to support this show. If you are looking for some great bargains and like to shop online, check out http://followmeoutofdebt.com/deals. When you purchase something using that link, even if it's a gift for someone else, you'll be helping to contribute a small amount to keep this show of ours going. Your help is truly appreciated; thank you.
It's not what you make, it's what you keep. Write this sentence on a small piece of paper and place it somewhere where you will see it every day. Post it on your mirror. Put it on the refrigerator. Realize that you need to be inspired by this tiny and powerful sentence constantly because it's that important.
Spending is not the way. Saving is the way. Of course, you'll need to spend some money at some point, but you need to get into the habit of saving much more. Behavior modifications to stop the endless cycle of spending and changing it into a cycle of saving may be difficult to come by, but we have to get there. We have to focus on changing our habits and changing our behaviors in order to truly get ahead.
The new car, the big house, and the flashy clothes won't help you to retire comfortably, send your kids to college, or purchase your first home. We live in a society which impresses upon us images of spending, even when we can't afford it. We are bombarded with advertisements to buy the newest objects, and if we don't, we won't fit in. Realize that now more than ever, you need to ignore all of that and focus on what truly matters - getting back to making saving money a priority.
It's easy to support this show. If you are looking for some great bargains and like to shop online, check out http://followmeoutofdebt.com/deals. When you purchase something using that link, even if it's a gift for someone else, you'll be helping to contribute a small amount to keep this show of ours going. Your help is truly appreciated; thank you.
There's some astonishing data out there that shows that nearly 7 in 10 Americans have less than $1,000 in savings. If you look just 50 years ago, Americans were saving double what they are saving today. We made less money, but we were able to save more of what we made. A lot of this has to do with the mentality back in those days to save first and spend second. The norm for us today is to spend first and save second, and this is not a good thing.
A recent survey of 5,000 people showed that 62% of those surveyed had less than $1,000 in savings. A second survey of just over 7,000 people showed that 69%, or nearly 7 out of 10 of those surveyed, had less than $1,000 in savings. A small 15% of those surveyed had more than $10,000 saved up for what I would consider to be a true emergency fund.
It's not a simple matter of income, either. While adults who earn a lower income typically have a more difficult time saving $1,000, astonishingly, 29% of adults earning more than $150,000 per year had less than $1,000 in savings. Some of us are earning over $150,000 a year and can't save $1,000 of it. Talk about an eye-opener of just how bad we have become with saving.
Unfortunately, we're not only living above our means, but we're also using credit cards, loans, and easy payment platforms when it comes to spending. We're paying interest rather than earning interest, and a large percentage of us will do little to change this.
If you don't have $1,000 saved up yet, you're obviously not alone. However, this is also not an excuse. You're listening to this show and trying to get out of debt and get into prosperity in order to succeed, and guess what? Successful people are the minority. With that in mind, we may as well get used to being different!
Do you like to read but don't always have time to do so? Get a free 30-day trial and two free audiobooks just for checking out Audible, an Amazon company. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
Storms will come, and that's a certainty. How you react to these storms truly makes all of the difference.
If you tend to react with knee-jerk reactions when faced with a storm, most of the time, you won't be making the right choices that are necessary to properly weather the storm. Remaining calm helps you to assess the situation at hand and make decisions that are based on logic and reason rather than fear and anxiety.
Married couples are more prone to storms because there's usually one spouse who may freak out a bit more over a given situation than the other. The spouse who remains calm will need to take on a leadership role to keep both partners on track. Calm is key. You have to remain calm before the storm as well as during the storm. Doing so will put you in a much better position to make decisions that will help you to survive the storm each and every time.
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There are plenty of long-term relationships out there. Some are successful because they are truly healthy relationships, and the people involved in the relationship know how to properly handle conflict when times get rough and how to care for one another all of the other times.
Other relationships that aren’t so great may still be lengthy but perhaps are unhealthy because the people involved are more or less sticking it out but not really focusing on improving the relationship. In these circumstances, the relationship itself becomes more of a stagnant fixture; it’s something that you know exists but don’t necessarily consider the benefits of improving things or even ending the relationship and moving on. As the song goes, breakin' up is hard to do.
I’m definitely not a relationship guru, so before you get too excited, this episode has nothing to do with your relationships with others. It’s primarily focused on what could be a particularly bad relationship, though. Of course, I’m referring to your relationship with debt.
Most of us fall somewhere on a spectrum when it comes to debt. Some of us are quite comfortable being in debt and don’t see the rush to get out of debt. Others are panicking right now and will do whatever it takes to get their debt obligations under control and even gone completely. Still others are somewhere in-between. They know that racking up high balances on credit cards or taking out several loans is irresponsible, but they tell themselves that someday they will pay the debts down. Someday they’ll get a better control on things.
The bottom line is this. If you’re okay with your debt causing you torment and pain, even periodically, then you’re in an unhealthy relationship. You need to get out yesterday. As with many relationships, even the unhealthy ones, breaking up can be hard to do. You’ve become used to having debt around. You met when you bought yourself some new clothes for your first real job. Debt was with you when you bought your first new car. It was with you on your family vacations. It helped you to buy your first home and the home you live in now. Yes, it has its flaws just like anything else, but it even helped you to attend college. How can you even consider living without debt when it has been with you for all of these years?
Just like any breakup, you need to first see debt for what it really is. It sneaks in ever so gently in the form of that first department store credit card. Next, it’s helping you to attend college. Before you know it, debt is entrenched in everything you have – your cars, your home, your family vacations – but without you even realizing it, debt has become a thief. It has stolen your time with family as you work endlessly to keep up with payments. It has stolen your peace of mind as you lie awake worrying about how to get out of the mess that you’re in. It has stolen your marriage as you and your spouse spiral downwards with the constant arguments about finances. Debt is not your friend. Debt is not a beloved family member. Debt isn’t even your drunk uncle that you have to tolerate at family reunions. Debt is your enemy, and the faster you realize this, the more quickly you can kick debt out for good.
It’s time to take action and break up with debt today. Debt may not go away as quickly as you would like it to, but telling debt to hit the curb is the first step. When you stop relying on debt, it will go away eventually over time. Show debt who’s really the boss in the relationship, and turn your back now that you know the truth. Let debt find someone else, because you two were never a good match to begin with.
Do you like to read but don't always have time to do so? Get a free 30-day trial and two free audiobooks just for checking out Audible, an Amazon company. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
This has nothing to do with the alphabet. When I refer to ABC yourself, I'm referring to always be challenging yourself. Complacency is the enemy. Don't get comfortable with your aspirations; get yourself to improve upon what you are accomplishing in life on a consistent basis.
When we do this, we come up with harder and more difficult challenges for us to attain. We meet tougher goals, which gives us a natural confidence spike. We come to find what it is that we're capable of, and what we may have thought to be impossible before is now a certainty. We'll be able to do more in many different aspects of our lives. We'll look back one day and be amazed at how far we've come by simply being mindful of keeping our goals progressively more challenging each time we set them.
Do you like to read but don't always have time to do so? Get a free 30-day trial and two free audiobooks just for checking out Audible, an Amazon company. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
Sometimes we get overwhelmed, financially speaking. When this happens, we need to remove ourselves from the situation, at least temporarily. Even if you are experiencing anxiety or fear, you need to be able to look at the situation from the outside as much as you possibly can. Again, this is only temporary.
This will allow you to see the situation from a different perspective and see the problem for what it is. Hopefully, this will also allow you to take some of the emotion out of it. Only then will you get to clearly see what your answer is. Of course, it's a bit more challenging to actually take action steps and implement your solution, but as they say, knowing is half the battle.
Now that you have an answer, your next step is to consider your options. If you're married, it's time to sit down and have a talk with your spouse. Discover together what you should do next so that the both of you can lessen the stress and feelings of being overwhelmed.
If you're single, it's time to do some thinking about what you will need to do next to take that which is overwhelming you out of the equation. Take the appropriate action steps to get yourself out of the situation and invoke a new level of calm in your life. This will help you to make better decisions financially, and it will help you to have a firmer grasp on the reality of it all.
Do you like to read but don't always have time to do so? Get a free 30-day trial and two free audiobooks just for checking out Audible, an Amazon company. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
Did you know that a large number of your otherwise important goals may be serving as a distraction? It's true. I wouldn't be saying this unless I read it from a very good source, and that source is none other than Mr. Warren Buffett.
Whenever I read an article that has to do with something that Warren Buffett has said, I tend to pay close attention. In this particular article, Warren Buffett discusses the best way for us to truly succeed with our goals. It comes down to a two-list strategy.
To come up with these two lists, first you'll want to write down your top 25 goals. Next, take a good look at this list and circle the top five most urgent, most critical items. These circled items will become your List A.
List B will be comprised of the remaining 20 items. You'll avoid this list at all costs until you have been successful with every single item of the five items on List A.
It sounds simple, but it can be difficult to simply let go of that which we may feel are important goals. However, these List B items are serving as a huge distraction from what really matters to us - what we have identified on List A.
Do you like to read but don't always have time to do so? Get a free 30-day trial and two free audiobooks just for checking out Audible, an Amazon company. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
Sometimes you just need to reevaluate your current situation, make some changes as needed, and get excited all over again. This is especially true if you've been fighting this war on debt for a while now and getting a little too used to the familiar processes that go along with it. You might not be feeling the same excitement that you did in the beginning, and it may take something as simple as refocusing and improving some of your methods in order to get that spark back again!
Aside from mentioning a foolproof way to take the fear out of making large payments on your debt (especially with credit cards with revolving lines of credit), I'll also be discussing how I renewed the excitement in working towards these get-out-of-debt goals. I plan on being more aggressive now than I have been to date since I started this thing, and because of this, I'll be hitting debt harder than ever. I want you to listen to this and get fired up as well, because we are truly in this together!
Do you like to read but don't always have time to do so? Get a free 30-day trial and two free audiobooks just for checking out Audible, an Amazon company. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
You have to establish your own belief system and not rely on those established by others. Here's why.
Over time, there have been financial principles that have been set up to affect how we spend our money. We've been led to feel guilty, ashamed, or out of the loop if we're not following these belief systems. We then spread the same false premises as a justification for why we are doing what we are doing.
For example, we've been told to spend three months of salary on an engagement ring. Who do you think came up with this plan? I'm pretty sure that it started with some jewelry store conglomerate as a catchy advertising campaign with a goal to increase revenue. I'm not saying that you can't spend that much on an engagement ring if you wanted to, but you shouldn't be putting yourself in the poorhouse based on this self-propagating belief as your justification.
We are also pressured by society to find the biggest home possible that is based on what we can get approval for from the bank. When it comes to your home, spend what makes sense with your own personal financial situation and not what the bank tells you that you are able to borrow. You can always move up in house someday when it's appropriate and once you are ready to do so.
When it comes to how we get from point A to point B, we're also looped into the belief system that we need to go out and buy a brand-new vehicle. The belief system justifications are usually that they are reliable and covered for repairs under warranty. If you can't afford to buy it, we're told that we should lease the vehicle instead because the payments will be lower.
Never mind the fact that we're essentially paying to borrow a vehicle that we must return in pristine shape, or we'll be required to pay even more money once we return it. Buy a newer used vehicle instead, preferably one that just came off of a lease.
The bottom line is this. Do your own thinking, buy based on your personal financial situation, and don't give in to the belief systems that try to keep us broke.
Do you like to read but don't always have time to do so? Get a free 30-day trial and two free audiobooks just for checking out Audible, an Amazon company. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
You've got to look for opportunities around you. Not only should you be on the lookout for opportunities, but you also have to take the appropriate action steps in order to take advantage of those opportunities if they will benefit you.
We sometimes let the days go by and become complacent, but that's not going to help us improve over time. Instead, we need to ask ourselves how we can do things better and what other things are out there for us to help us improve our lives.
There are plenty of ways to uncover various opportunities. For one, you can talk with with friends and family members to find out what they're doing to improve their lives. Read some good non-fiction books to get inspired and get some ideas that you may not have otherwise had if you didn't read these resources.
Frequently ask yourself if you are doing things in the best way possible and always be seeking more efficient or more lucrative possibilities that are out there. Consider your own personal values and make sure that any opportunity that comes along is put through your own personal filter to ensure that it's what you've been looking for and missing and can get excited about.
Do you like to read but don't always have time to do so? Get a free 30-day trial and two free audiobooks just for checking out Audible, an Amazon company. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
Our bodies were not meant to be sleep-deprived. We have likely heard and read this many times over, but for some reason, we still think that we can get away with depriving our bodies of the proper rest that we so desperately need. Doing so will only prove to be detrimental to our bodies and minds in the long run, and it will make those simple everyday tasks that we're used to doing with ease much more difficult.
I understand that there are times when we will need to put in some extra hours of work that may interfere with our sleep in the short term. There's nothing wrong with that. However, you have to be realistic if you have to put in extra hours over a longer period of time that will end up robbing you of your proper rest. Your body will eventually give in to the stress. You'll get sick more often. Your full-time job may suffer due to your lack of focus caused by sleep deprivation. A good night's rest is so incredibly important, even if we don't necessarily realize that to be the case most of the time.
It's not just work that keeps us awake, though. Many people lie in bed nearly every night wide awake because they are consumed with worry. Worry is a loud voice that paralyzes us with fear. It keeps us awake because we are desperately troubled by circumstances caused by our own actions, and we want those problems to go away. Worry can come from many sources, but most of the time it's due to money problems.
The good news is that there is an answer to every question, situation, or problem. Sometimes it's not easy to find, but the point is that the answer is out there. We need to take the time to seek out that resolution, and once we find it, we need to take the proper action steps in order to implement the solution.
Over time, we will prove to ourselves that we have a path to resolving our problems that are keeping us up at night. We will train our brains to realize that we're fighting the battle and not running away from it. It's amazing how seeking and implementing the proper solutions to our problems will finally allow for us to be able to drift off to dreamland and start sleeping well once again.
Do you like to read but don't always have time to do so? Get a free 30-day trial and two free audiobooks just for checking out Audible, an Amazon company. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
I am in the process of bridging the financial resources gap by listing a few things on eBay, and I'm excited to keep it going! The stuff that I had listed is doing nothing more than collecting dust, and it's refreshing to see this turn into additional resources for us.
I wanted to make sure that if I was planning to list on eBay that I was going to do it correctly from the get-go. I was careful to write my descriptions well, and I borrowed information as needed from the manufacturer to ensure that the buyer will know exactly what is being sold. I cleaned up the items and took great pictures, making sure that the lighting was good and without using a filter. I was going for a quality description as well as highlighting the condition of the products being sold, and my meticulous attention to detail seems to be paying off.
I am mostly excited because the item that I wanted to sell more than the others has interested watchers and bids with a few more days to go. I'm happy to bring in a little additional income, and I'll admit that this whole renewed eBay experience does make me want to look around the house for more things to sell now that I've had a taste. I want to actually incorporate this as a regular action item in order to purge stuff that we no longer need around the house and earn a little extra in the process.
If you haven't done so already, you've got to check out Audible. Get a free 30-day trial and two free audiobooks just for checking it out. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
There's a certain joy and happiness that comes when we check off a challenging task from our task list. This is especially true if we got into the habit of putting a new date on the same task over and over again because we simply didn't complete it. Chalk it up to laziness, but the point isn't why it happened or what caused it to happen; the point here is to set a realistic time and date of completion and stick to it.
The feeling that you get once you begin accomplishing things on your task list, especially the challenging ones, cannot be overstated. I recently completed a task that I've been putting off for a while, mainly because I knew the amount of work involved. I also knew that collaboration was necessary, so I didn't have the luxury of doing this whenever I wanted; I needed to collaborate with someone else in order to work on this together.
I decided to set my sights on this task and not let go until it was finished. While it wasn't truly enjoyable, the feeling that I had after I had finished the job was nothing short of true joy and happiness. I felt accomplished, and I went to bed for the night feeling like a huge and challenging task was finally off of my plate. It was spectacular.
Do you love to read but don't always have the time to do so? I know that this happens to me more frequently than I'd like to admit. That's why I signed up for Audible. Get your free 30-day trial and get two free audiobooks just for checking it out. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
Walmart has an online grocery pickup service that we tried for the first time this past weekend, and we loved it. It's a simple and straightforward process, and it not only saves time but it also saves money. Of course, these are two very important things to me - saving time and saving money.
You basically download the app or go to the Walmart website and select the grocery items that you need. You'll see a running total throughout the process, which helps you to stay within budget. You also aren't going to be tempted by the special deals that are advertised inside of the grocery store at the end of almost every aisle. You will instead simply get what you need and will know exactly what you will pay before you check out. This definitely helps to stay within budget.
After you have processed the sale, you will select a time to pick up your groceries. They will track your arrival using the GPS on your smartphone, or you can call them and give them a heads up that you're on your way. They ask for you to call at least ten minutes prior to your arrival. Once you arrive, you'll pull your vehicle into a designated parking spot for pickup. The Walmart employee will come out to you with all of your purchases and load them into your vehicle for you. This is all part of their free service; it doesn't cost you an additional dime to use it.
What's more, you can get $10.00 off of your first $50.00 order by getting your special promo code at http://followmeoutofdebt.com/walmart. It's that easy.
Sheep are everywhere if you take the time to look around. We're not only creatures of habit, but we also tend to naturally follow the crowd. Sometimes following the crowd can be a bad thing. It truly makes you a sheep, and you don't want to be a sheep.
There are multi-million dollar companies that are spending tons of money on advertising to keep you and those around you trapped in a vicious cycle of consumerism. They are banking (literally) on the fact that you care what vehicle your neighbor is driving, what clothes your friends are wearing, and who has the biggest house with the most amenities in the neighborhood.
If you are following the crowd, you can only go as far as the crowd. That's a scary limitation. Instead, stand out from the crowd and claim your own stake in life. Don't care about who's driving what and what clothes they're wearing. Know that a healthy retirement savings will always be better for you than a collection of things that only provide you with temporary happiness. We've been brainwashed by the advertising companies to forget the difference between what we truly need versus what we simply want. That confusion makes us buy more and more to fill a void that can never be filled. It makes us spend more and keeps us going further into debt.
Stop the debt propaganda cycle. Spread this message instead. Post a link to this episode so that your friends and family can listen (http://followmeoutofdebt.com/episode231). Post it on social media. Send it in an e-mail if you're not on social media. Get the word out however you can to slow down the consumerism machine as much as possible. A small impact still makes a difference.
In a marriage, you will have difficult conversations. It's going to happen, and sometimes, these conversations may involve financial issues. It's a well-known fact that many married couples list financial difficulties as being a primary cause of strife and conflict.
The key is to realize prior to sitting down and having this conversation together is that you don't want the conversation to take an angry or fearful tone. Instead, you want to approach the discussion about the difficulties with a calm mindset. Both you and your spouse need to simply take a deep breath before you start, and realize that the two of you are doing better than most by simply taking action steps towards sitting down together. It's the first step to becoming a truly unstoppable team.
I highly recommend that you don't start out the initial conversation with a bunch of spreadsheets, charts, graphs, diagrams, etc. It's time to discuss the emotional side of things and get that out of the way first. It's time to address the possible fears and issues that are causing anxiety and panic that may be settling in right now and to squash it before it gets out of control.
Once you've calmed things down on the emotional front, it's time to set realistic expectations. These expectations should allow for you to take action steps and experience some wins in order to gain confidence in the overall process. Keep the end game in mind while you are discussing the preliminary action steps that need to be taken. Your focus on the end game is crucial right now.
You'll come to eventually find that there is a very real possibility of resolution. You'll finally see some light in the murky darkness that is the overwhelming burden of debt. Both you and your spouse will finally be in agreement about things, and both of you will take on what needs to be done and do it while working together, for what may be the first time, as a team.
Do you love to read but don't always have the time to do so? I know that this happens to me more frequently than I'd like to admit. That's why I signed up for Audible. Get your free 30-day trial and get two free audiobooks just for checking it out. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
Mind clutter is a direct result of having too many balls in the air and having less focus, usually because of this. Human beings are built to focus on one thing at a time, so when we attempt to do too many things at once or worry about too many things at once, mind clutter becomes the result of this.
What does mind clutter actually feel like? In my experience, mind clutter seems to be what's happening when my thoughts are random and sporadic. I'm not focused on one thing; I'm thinking of multiple things, and thoughts are coming in at a fast and chaotic pace. I find it hard to focus on one thing because my focus is split all over the place.
We need to calm down our minds and allow the organic purging of our worries, thoughts, and other mind clutter that occurs by forcing ourselves to focus in on one thing at a time. This isn't limited to work, either. We also need to focus on who we're spending our time with. When we're with our spouse, friends, or children, we shouldn't be looking at our cell phones. We should be present and attentive to what's going on in the here and now.
Decreasing mind clutter and increasing focus will only help us to improve our work, our relationships, and pretty much anything else that would benefit from laser-focused attentiveness. It may be challenging at first to train our brains to do this, but we will get better at this over time. The outcome from this will be beneficial to us and those around us, but it will also allow us to experience a greater sense of peace and less stress. We could all use that, right?
Do you love to read but don't always have the time to do so? I know that this happens to me more frequently than I'd like to admit. That's why I signed up for Audible. Get your free 30-day trial and get two free audiobooks just for checking it out. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
We've all had disappointments in our lives. How we handle those disappointments is what determines whether we pass or fail the test. And believe me, we will be tested plenty of times throughout our lifetimes. What's important is that we consistently build a thick skin of sorts to be able to better handle certain disappointments by accepting the situations and moving on.
I understand that sometimes this can be easier said than done. Sometimes we are disappointed by someone who is very close to us. Sometimes we experience disappointment over something that comes out of left field. Regardless of the situation or the initial shock of the situation, we need to gauge the appropriate response based on the facts at hand. In some cases, if the disappointment is too much for us to handle on our own, we may need to seek external resources for resolution, such as counseling.
The bottom line is this. We need to make sure that we accept disappointments in our life first and foremost. The next step is to move past those disappointments and get ourselves back on track as quickly as possible. This is the best way for us to keep our lives moving forward, even when times get tough.
Do you love to read but don't always have the time to do so? I know that this happens to me more frequently than I'd like to admit. That's why I signed up for Audible. Get your free 30-day trial and get two free audiobooks just for checking it out. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. This is a quote that I heard recently, and it really hit home for me. I know that I keep a pretty strict budget, and I review my budget periodically and make changes as needed, especially if we overspend in a particular category.
Even with that in mind, I realized that we aren't getting as granular as we should be with this. There are plenty of times when we've probably purchased items in a given month that we didn't need to purchase. We also pay interest charges on credit cards, and it's easy to forget this because we aren't actively purchasing something. The interest charges that hit our credit card will still need to be paid back, so we really should be adding this into the equation of how we measure the outgo in any given month.
Knowing more specifics on how resources are being spent is incredibly crucial to how we manage our personal finances overall. If we ignore certain expenses, especially those that go unnoticed, it will hurt our ability to best manage our situation when it comes to our finances.
It's time to get granular. It's time to track every nickel, dime, quarter, and penny. It's time to know what's going on financially each and every month, including hidden charges, fees, and interest charges on our credit cards and loans. It will help us to effectively manage as we need to, and it will only help us to become better at this whole money management thing.
Do you love to read but don't always have the time to do so? I know that this happens to me more frequently than I'd like to admit. That's why I signed up for Audible. Get your free 30-day trial and get two free audiobooks just for checking it out. Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/audible to learn more and get your two free audiobooks today!
Earn 'til it hurts! It sounds like an exercise program, doesn't it? Perhaps it could be considered an exercise program that can help you to get out of debt and get into prosperity faster. Like exercise, it can be hard work, and you might even sweat a little. The result though, as with many exercise programs, is a better life for you. You'll be out of debt and getting into prosperity faster than you would be if you didn't earn 'til it hurts!
Playing the lottery or relying on any other shortcuts isn't the way to do this, either. You have to be ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work, and you have to realize that you may experience a little pain in the process. The sacrifices that you'll make will be well worth it in the end, so don't be tempted to give up - even when the pain is apparent.
I understand. The last thing that you want to do when you're already working hard at a full-time job is to put in more work. Working a part-time job or working overtime can seem like a daunting task when you already feel like you really don't have time to spare. However, you have to realize that this is a temporary sacrifice for a greater purpose. Look into work-from-home opportunities. Yes, there are legitimate work-from-home opportunities; you have to simply do your due diligence before you apply to ensure that you're signing up for the right one.
Once you get the ball rolling and earn more income, it will help you to accelerate your debt payoff and decrease the time that it takes to become debt-free. We've all made mistakes. That's how we got into a bad financial situation in the first place. However, the short-term sacrifice that we make will teach us a valuable lesson in that it's hard work to get ourselves out of the financial mess that we have made. Knowing this, we'll never want to make that same mistake again.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.
Happy Friday! What are your weekend plans?
If you're planning on some downtime, you'll want to make sure that you have already budgeted for this fun escape before you set foot outside of the door. It's not fun to go out to have a good time only to come back home and suffer the consequences of overspending because you failed to plan accordingly.
Some of us spend our weekends working, and some of us are even voluntarily putting in some overtime hours or working a part-time job in order to get ahead and pay down debt faster. If that's you, then perhaps you have other days of the week that you may use for downtime rather than the typical Saturday or Sunday.
Regardless of which days of the week you plan your fun, you need to make sure that the budget is tended to first. This will be the best way to ensure that you are on top of things, no matter which days of the week your personal weekend falls upon.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.
Did you know that the average American household debt is a staggering $140,000.00? Now, that does include a mortgage, but even with that in mind, this is still quite a significant figure. Whether you are above or below that number, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast unless you had the same goal in mind: to get yourself out of debt and get into prosperity.
Many of us get lulled into complacency and get used to relying on credit cards, especially if we aren't getting large enough raises (or getting raises at all). We try to bridge the gap by utilizing credit cards to continue spending the same way that we have been with less resources. This isn't a good move.
You have to think of ways to change your own life. You can't simply rely on your nine-to-five to do it for you. You've got to think and do differently from what you've been doing before. That's the only thing that's going to work, and before you know it, you're going to win.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.
The story of Ray Kroc and the founding of McDonald's as a national and international chain of restaurants holds plenty of gold nuggets of useful information. This isn't exactly a rags-to-riches story, however, this is a story of someone who maintained an incredible level of persistence while he worked towards fulfilling his vision of a nationwide (and again, now international) fast food burger chain.
Several times, I've read the book titled: McDonald's Behind the Arches by John F. Love. I've also watched the movie: The Founder. This was more recent when I found the movie on Netflix. If you're reading this after it has been removed from the Netflix streaming movie queue, I'm sure you will be able to find it at your local video store. If you're interested in reading the book, go and check out the availability of it at your local library. That's initially where I found the book, and I've checked it out several times until I eventually bought a copy on Amazon.com.
Aside from Mr. Kroc's persistence, he also kept moving forward towards his goals by continually selling and closing. We sell more than we realize. It's not just about selling physical products; we also sell our ideas and concepts to others. Think about a married couple where one spouse is not entirely on board with a plan to get out of debt and get into prosperity. The spouse who does want to get out of debt and get into prosperity will, in reality, attempt to sell the concept. Selling does not necessarily pertain to physical products only.
Mr. Kroc was a stickler for dressing professionally and putting his best face forward. It wasn't out of vain; it was to achieve success by dressing for success, even before success actually comes. Most importantly, Mr. Kroc was also excited about his vision. He let it become an all-consuming entity in his life. He kept his goals related to his vision in the back of his mind at all times, and this allowed him to continuously work towards achieving his goals each and every day. He wasn't afraid to ask for what he wanted or to ask questions related to anything that he was attempting to accomplish at the time.
All of these habits amounted to a level of success unparalleled by most folks. However, if we take the time to dig out the gold nuggets of wisdom related to the way that Ray Kroc reached his personal level of success, we'll definitely benefit.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.
Someone else is happy with less than you have. I read that quote today, and it inspired me to do an entire episode on this subject.
We take a lot of things for granted and fail to look around with appreciation or gratitude for what we already have. I'm guilty of this, and I've even said things a couple of times on this show along those lines. Sometimes it happens out of frustration, but I also know that our gratitude or thoughts of gratitude sometimes gets buried underneath a lot of negative thoughts.
We should take a few minutes to think about the good things. Allow ourselves to realign in a spirit of gratitude, no matter how dire our situation may seem at the moment. It can truly change our entire perspective.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.
I have a pretty consistent method when it comes to tipping. I firmly believe that we should tip well for great service. It's our way of showing appreciation for the folks who work hard to earn as much as they can while they are primarily relying on tips received.
I do not advocate tipping for bad service. However, I advocate tipping well for those who are working hard to earn their tips. Hear more about some of the personal experiences that I've had and seen with folks who are working in the service industry and receiving tips.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.
These are the five simple steps that I incorporate daily to help me to consistently think outside of the box. I didn't exactly put these together as five simple steps originally, but when I stopped to think about what habits I've developed over the past year or so, I realized that I could put some of my daily habits together as a task list that will definitely be a benefit to you if you choose to do the same.
The best part about this list is the simplicity of it all. I purposely try to remove the complexity from the things that I do because it helps me to form good habits. If you make something too challenging, you're more likely to not be consistent with staying on top of things. A lack of consistency will never equate to successfully forming a habit over time.
I'll go into more detail for each of these five simple steps, but the high-level overview is as follows. First, ask yourself each and every day: how can I earn more money? This will allow you to think outside of the box when it comes to ways that you can increase your overall earnings.
Second, visualize where you will be in one year, two years, five years, and ten years from now. You will take your focus off of the day-to-day present and instead think outside of the box concerning what you need to do in order to accomplish these goals. You are essentially visualizing the potential future for yourself.
Third, you'll want to mindfully and purposely not do the same things every single day. Introduce small changes that will add up to larger modifications in your life over time. Going along with this, number four on the list is to do a new thing periodically. It's unrealistic to say that you can do a new thing every single day, but it is reasonable to expect to do something new every once in a while. Typically, these new things that you try will be based off of the smaller changes that you make by not doing the same thing day in and day out.
Finally, call, text, or e-mail someone who may be able to help you. Think about your circle of friends, business associates, and family members. Who would you like to be able to reach out to and trade ideas with? This will help you to think outside of the box by opening your mind to new suggestions from others. It's a powerful strategy that will equate to something that will be mutually beneficial to all involved.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.
Are you making hundreds of dollars a week or thousands of dollars a month but still feel broke? Here's how to stop feeling broke.
First, you have to take the emotion out of the equation. We feel fear, hopelessness, anger, frustration, and other emotions when we consider the fact that while we seem to make a decent amount of money, we're still feeling broke most of the time. Feeling broke and being broke are two different things. You need to inject reality into the equation in order to replace the emotion. You need to break out the budget and take a long, hard look at the numbers.
Look at both sides of your budget and see where improvements can be made. The numbers in the budget do not respond to emotion. Regardless of how strongly your level of frustration may be, the math will always be the same. The only way to change the numbers in your budget is to either add income on the one side or remove expenses on the other. Taking real action of some kind in order to improve your budget's numbers is the only way for you to change your budget for the better and to finally stop feeling broke.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
This is the one question that you need to ask yourself before you whip out the plastic. This question is essential in order to stop yourself from continuing to use credit cards while you're in the process of getting out of debt. Obviously, adding more debt to the total debt payoff is the last thing that you want to do when you're trying to be wise and responsible. Being unwise and irresponsible is how most of us got into trouble with debt in the first place!
Here it is. The question to ask yourself each and every time you are tempted to use plastic to make a purchase is simply, why? Why are you doing what you are about to do? Asking this one simple question gives you some pause. It gives you pause in order to reflect on your action before taking said action, so you are not merely acting on a whim.
You force yourself to make a more conscious decision. This is a much better plan than haphazardly using your credit card whenever the urge comes, and it helps you to understand the surface psychology behind why you continue to use credit cards as well as allowing you to drill down deeper to get more solid and concrete answers about the actions that you take, both past and present. It's a learning process, and it will always be a benefit to you to learn more about yourself.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Are you currently in debt crisis mode? Perhaps your utilities are falling behind, and you're afraid that the lights will be shut off. Perhaps your vehicle is behind in payments and in danger of being repossessed. Your home may be in danger of foreclosure because you've neglected your mortgage payments.
There is a myriad of situations out there, and most of us in a debt crisis fall somewhere along a spectrum, but the good news is that there is general information that can help you to get out of crisis mode and start to downgrade the situation to something other than a full-blown crisis.
First off, you have to have hope. Hopelessness is not going to help you here. You must realize that no matter how dire the situation may be, you have to continue to have hope that it will get better someday. You'll need to take a look inside to admit your own mistakes that you've been making and realize the true situation that you're currently experiencing. Next, it's time to take action. This is where it gets tricky, because once you decide to take action, everything gets much more real. It's easy for any of us to say that we're going to do something someday. Once someday gets here by taking action to make things happen, you know at that point that it's serious.
You do have the means necessary to make changes to change your situation and put you in power and control. It's just a matter of realizing the steps that you need to take and do it!
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
What are your three biggest frustrations when it comes to personal finance? I would like you to take some time and think about this question. Get back to me this weekend by sending your answers to me in an e-mail sent to the address mentioned on this episode.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
If you're looking for cheap kitchen countertops that still look like granite, you'll want to check out the Giani Granite Countertop Kit. We bought this last week, and I completed the project in a little over a weekend. Admittedly, I was skeptical at first, but I was amazed at the results afterwards. Our kitchen countertops were an ugly pink color, and now they have the correct color scheme and really do look like granite countertops.
Do they look exactly like granite? Of course not. However, I don't think people are going to be asking questions once they see these countertops. Most folks are going to be paying more attention to the rich texture and look of the finished product rather than wondering whether or not it was from a kit.
I will say that out of the entire process, the most important thing is to go through the videos and read the instructions carefully. The process is straightforward, but it's still necessary to follow the instructions and take your time. The Giani Granite Countertop Kit comes with all of the necessary materials. You may need to buy a few things (I personally needed light sandpaper for part of the process), but for the most part, you've got everything that you need to get started as soon as the kit arrives.
After listening to this particular episode and finding out what our experience was like with the Giani Granite Countertop Kit, you can get more information, including the colors available in each kit, by simply going to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/giani (this is an affiliate link that helps to support this show at no extra cost to you). As of this writing, the kit costs less than $80.00 when you follow the link provided.
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You need to think outside of the job box. Many of us get used to collecting a paycheck or getting a direct deposit into our savings or checking from our full-time job (or a part-time job). Because we're so used to this, we find it increasingly difficult to imagine what it would be like to collect revenue from something other than a job. Our ability to uncover opportunities for ourselves continues to disappear over time as we stop utilizing our imaginations for our own benefit.
Think of ways that you can supplement the income that you're already getting so that you can maximize the time that you have to earn. Take those earnings and apply them towards your goals, including getting out of debt and getting into prosperity. Search online for topics that interest you, and take a look to see if there might be some e-mail lists that you can subscribe to that will provide you with ideas for new opportunities. Start thinking of ways to earn income outside of the norm. Better yet, see if starting your own business is right for you. Identify what you're good at, and turn it into a business. Think outside of the job box, and you may realize one day that your newfound interests that end up earning additional income for you may just take over your full-time job to replace your primary source of income completely.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Visualization is important while we're on the journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm a big believer in visualizing where you're at and where you want to be someday. It's too easy to get stuck within our own confines and limitations if we refuse to allow our imaginations to run free a bit for our own benefit.
Most of us think of ramen noodles and equate it as a significant part of a college student's diet. While it's on the lighter side to reflect back on those days, there are some who are actually buying ramen noodles now in order to have enough groceries to feed the family until the next paycheck. This isn't a fun or lighthearted scenario; it's actually a real source of pain and discouragement.
It's too easy to get demoralized by constantly focusing on the ramen days. We need to force ourselves to break away from this line of thinking by envisioning the Rolex days to come. Without sounding like a rah-rah session, I will say that while you may never actually purchase a Rolex watch someday (I probably won't only because I don't like to wear watches), you can still keep yourself in a prosperity mindset rather than constantly staying focused on being broke and in debt.
The problem that a lot of folks run into is that they are only focusing on one part of all of this: getting out of debt. While that is absolutely a huge part of the success equation, it's not the entire journey. The journey does not end when you get out of debt or get your debt under control. You still have an entire second half that may actually take longer than the first. Stay as motivated as you have been so that you don't stop short, and you will eventually realize the end game: getting yourself into prosperity.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
As many of you know, I enjoy reading books and listening to shows on the topic of personal finance. I weed out the garbage and leave behind only the best information out there and further distill it for you right here on this show. It's the whole reason that I started the podcast. With that said, the one thing that bothers me the most is that these gurus are richer than me!
I'm not jealous. Please don't take this the wrong way. I also want to get into prosperity someday, and I want you to do the same. The problem that I have is the apparent disconnect of some of the gurus out there with some of us more common folk. The riches that some of the gurus have acquired over the years has clouded their perception of how it is to be in the struggle. They may be able to give us the same advice over and over again, but they no longer seem to be able to look at individual situations and empathize with how it is to be in the trenches in this war that we're all in to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Several of the gurus have some great advice, and I still listen to advice coming from these folks, but at the same time, I still keep my mind open to alternatives. I think that it's counterproductive if we decide to blindly follow the advice of one or two individuals and refuse to do our own thinking. We need to continue to apply the great advice that's out there, but we also need to remember that there is no cookie-cutter approach to personal finance.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
There's a new technique that I've been using to help me with better utilizing additional income resources outside of my standard full-time income. I started to use this technique a while back, and most recently, I used it to help us afford our most recent vacation that we took. This technique helps me to stay focused and reminds me every single day why I'm doing what I'm doing for a particular goal.
I'll discuss the details of the technique itself as well as provide a real-world example of how I recently used this technique. The prerequisites are that you have sources of income coming in other than your full-time work and that you purchase a whiteboard and related materials. You'll use the whiteboard every single day, and on the whiteboard you'll be including your goal amount in dollars on the right side of the whiteboard and your progress on the left side of the whiteboard.
It's really not as important to reach your goal with this technique as it is to focus on the progress that you're making day to day. Once you pay close attention to what you're doing every day in order to earn additional income towards your specific goal, everything else naturally falls into place.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Help to build a healthy financial foundation with your children by showing them how they can earn their own money. From there, help them to connect the dots when it comes to the various uses of money. Kids are much more likely to be attentive to our teachings that we provide to them as parents, even from a very young age. We have a golden opportunity right now with our children to teach them and guide them in the way that they should go financially.
We can teach them how to save for something that they want. We can encourage them and praise them for turning down candy and gum in the spirit of saving up for what it is that they are currently focused on. By doing this, we'll reinforce the importance of perseverance and patience, and they'll also learn that they don't need to get something right away just because they want it now. They'll learn that they can take the time to save up cash for something that they want rather than defaulting to an immediate purchase through some form of debt (once they are older, of course).
Take advantage of the limited stage time that you have with your children as a receptive audience. Show them how to save, give, and spend appropriately, and they'll take these lessons and establish a foundation that will benefit them for years to come.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
If you're planning a vacation to Niagara Falls (on the Canadian side), you'll want to ask around to find out where you can find Golden Elvis. That's likely not his real name, stage name or otherwise, but that's what I dubbed him while I was there. He's a one-man ingenious marketing and money-making machine that you have to see to believe.
While most folks in the area that were watching him were focused on this guy's talent to throw necklaces of beads on to people's heads, I was amazed at something completely different. I was watching someone who knew how to not only get noticed but also how to work a crowd, both big and small. He controlled the size of his audience (and income) by his own actions, and it was impressive to watch this play out. We were in Niagara Falls for a few nights, and it was amazing to watch every single time.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Why do I have this particular podcast? I thought it would be a good idea today to get into why I do what I do. To me, this show seemed like a good fit in a world where financial gurus seem to all have one thing in common: a one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approach to personal finance. I couldn't disagree with this concept more.
There's a lot of room for improvement on several radio programs, books, and television programs out there meant to help us with personal finance. While they can serve as a source of inspiration, the advice given was nearly the same for each and every individual, regardless of the individual's particular situation. This simply doesn't make sense to me.
I felt that a show needed to be done to blend advice from multiple sources and empower folks by suggesting to do your own thinking. I don't think that you should follow one individual or concept; instead, I think we all need to dig deeper in order to determine what fits our individual situations before we implement a plan.
Never blindly follow, and always continue to think for yourself. You'll truly feel a sense of empowerment when you put the pieces together and realize that there are various resources that will help you. You just need someone to help you to put the puzzle pieces together properly, and that's the particular why behind what I do.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
While we are in the process of getting out of debt, we naturally make sacrifices here and there in order to focus more resources on our goals towards debt payoff. Some of us will take this a little further and stop buying new clothes, hair products, or will cut back on other personal maintenance items, such as haircuts.
While this will save money, it's not absolutely necessary to let ourselves go completely in the name of getting out of debt. As a matter of fact, this can have an opposite effect on our lives. When we hurt our own self confidence or fail to look presentable at our place of employment, we can actually do damage without even realizing it. Our employer may pass us up for a promotion if they feel that we're letting ourselves go downhill. We may look in the mirror and realize that we actually look the part of someone who is struggling. This will equate to taking our focus off of any other healthy visualizations that we may have had for ourselves once before. It's simply not worth it.
Instead, realize that there are ways to look good on a budget. This isn't a topic of vanity. This is a topic of self confidence and generally feeling good about yourself while you are in the process of working towards your personal finance goals.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Many folks consider home improvement projects to equate to big bucks, and rightfully so. Many of them are expensive. When you are in the process of getting out of debt, you may have to let home improvement projects to stay on hold for a while because of this reason. If you're itching to do something to your home even while you're getting out of debt, I came up with a great list of inexpensive home improvement ideas that won't break the bank.
Many of these projects were found by simply doing a few Google searches. I haven't completed all of these projects yet, but I did do a few of them and were happy with the results. It will require some resources in order to complete the projects, including time and money, but it is totally reasonable to be able to do these projects without having to spend a ton of money. It will help to keep your spirits up by being able to take care of your home even while you are currently focused on your personal finance goals.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
What do you do when times are plentiful versus when times are more lean? Many folks have to ask this question several times a year, especially those who have inconsistent income throughout any given year. Perhaps your situation is similar to mine where one spouse doesn't work the entire twelve months of the year, so there is a time when things are a bit tight for a while.
Regardless of the situation, your attitude and preparedness makes all of the difference. If you're willing to set money aside during times that are more plentiful, you'll have what you need to get by when times are more lean. It's similar to certain animals that pack away food for the winter months; they know when times are going to be more lean and prepare accordingly in order to survive. Obviously, we're smarter than those animals in many ways, so we should be doing what we need to do in order to survive as well.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Whether it's shaving in the shower or getting our clothes ready the evening before for the following day, we're always looking for ways to shave some time in our already busy lives. There are plenty of ways to save time, and sometimes it's a matter of simply being more organized. These time-saving methods will allow us to be mindful of saving time and also be mindful of not wasting time.
To-do lists are a personal favorite of mine. This, along with other methods mentioned in this episode, help me to stay on track with what I need to do any given day so that I'm using my time wisely. Many times, I'll take some time on my lunch hour to be more productive and keep up on things. Other times, I'll take the entire lunch hour for myself. This is yet another way that we can squeeze a few more minutes out of each day, and surprisingly, this alone helps us to keep the mindset of being a time saver.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
What are your ten things to aspire towards? This list can be quite significant and can serve as a useful blueprint to living out the life that you want to live. This isn't just about money; there's much more to life than that. Instead, this list of ten things to aspire towards is similar to the question that you may have been asked as a child. You know the question that I'm referring to. What do you want to be when you grow up? Yes, that's the question.
There are going to be several ideas that come to mind, especially if you haven't given a lot of thought to these types of scenarios. Making a list of things that you want to aspire towards can touch the physical, mental, spiritual, and financial aspects of your life. Once you have your list of aspirations, then you can align your goals and the tasks associated with those goals so that everything is properly in its place. You'll find that your chances of meeting or exceeding these aspirations someday will have increased tremendously simply by completing this very exercise. It's that important.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
How many multiple streams of income do you have coming in? There are ways to change your thinking so that you're on the lookout for opportunities rather than just letting your life go by. These opportunities can turn into resources of income, and no matter how small the stream seems to be, multiple streams of smaller amounts can eventually add up to quite a bit. Plus, you'll get better at doing this in general over time.
The obvious source of additional income for most folks would be a part-time job. This is a great way to earn some additional income and does count as a separate stream of income, but you may find that some of your likes and hobbies can also be turned into sources of income. It takes a bit of self-reflection, but you may find that you've let a lot of time pass you by without capitalizing on something that you are naturally good at and interested in doing. The only way to take advantage of this is to identify what you want to do, and get started today!
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
It's the new eBay (or Craigslist). It's the Facebook Marketplace. If you haven't checked it out yet, I definitely suggest doing so. I have sold on this platform, and what's great is that I usually talk to and sell to people I already know. That's a nice bonus when you have folks coming to your home to already know the individuals.
It's a surprisingly easy way to sell the stuff that you don't need. The time that it takes to sell items is usually pretty quick, assuming that your item is priced right. It's a way to earn a little on the side from the stuff sitting around your house that may not be of any use to you but possibly could be for someone else. The best part? It's completely free.
If you haven't had a chance to try this out yet, and you already have a Facebook account, I suggest searching for the buying and selling groups near you. I advise joining several of these groups so that you can cross-post your items for greater exposure. You may also find some great discounts on items that you need that you can purchase used instead of having to visit your local retail store and pay retail prices. Yuck.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
It's important to not only complete a monthly budget, but it's also important to maintain that budget on a weekly basis. Revisiting the budget weekly allows us the opportunity to make sure that everything is in line and where it's supposed to be, especially making sure that we're not forgetting any budget line items in a given month. This is something that can take us by surprise, but if we're setting aside one day a week to ask ourselves if we may have missed any expenses that are coming up, it helps us to stay on track.
It also allows us to be more flexible with deviations that almost all of us will experience at one time or another. Don't get me wrong; it's good to learn how to budget and stick with a budget, but it's also easier on us to be able to roll with the punches when the time comes. Weekly maintenance of the budget allows us to be more fluid as well as understanding what we tend to forget from time to time.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Should you keep a credit card for travel purposes? Some folks believe so, and I do agree with some of the valid points offered with doing so. First of all, the fraud protection and ease of disputing a charge is quite easy with a credit card. This is a big deal to me.
If you travel often for work and are reimbursed for expenses, using a credit card is an easy way to keep your expenses for work and for your home budget completely separated. Once you have been reimbursed for expenses, you can immediately pay the balance on the card. It will save you from having to enter a lot of otherwise unnecessary line items and details into your monthly budget for work-related expenses, and to me, that makes sense to keep the two completely separated.
Many hotels also require a credit card on file, even if you are paying with cash. From their perspective, they don't know who you are or if you are going to trash the room. They want to have recourse to recover charges or other damages, and they likely won't accept checks or even cash without a credit card being on file first.
Now, if you're someone who knows already that you won't be responsible with a credit card, you'll want to stay away. You're better off sticking to a debit card so that you're not tempted to overspend. When considering your choices, there is no right or wrong answer; each individual needs to do what's best based on their own perceived credit responsibility level.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Should you get a pet while you're in the process of getting out of debt? Some folks who are currently in the middle of working through their get-out-of-debt plan realize at some point that they long for companionship in the form of a pet. They may feel guilty about purchasing a pet because they know that the pet will be an ongoing expense that may go in the opposite direction of the goals that are currently being worked on.
In my personal opinion, I think that you can get a pet while you're getting out of debt. At the same time, I also believe that it's not necessary to purchase your pet from the overpriced pet store in the mall. There are likely several pet adoption entities in your area, and while you may not be able to get a baby animal such as a puppy, kitten, etc., you can still find companionship in a pet that needs a good, loving home.
The bottom line is this. Make your decision based on your personal considerations that you need to make. Look into all of your options first, and if you find the pet that you like and the expense is workable in your budget, by all means I say go ahead and get your pet. Be realistic and know that you will have ongoing and sometime unexpected expenses with your new family member, but there are also many positive reasons to pet ownership to consider that will likely outweigh the money side of things.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Just a quick personal update on me, the show, and more.
Do you have a question that you would like to have answered on the show or via e-mail? Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/contact to send your question today.
For faster response, feel free to message me directly on Facebook at: http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Do you remember that infomercial from back in the day where the lady yelled out tell everyone to stop the insanity? It was an infomercial on diet and exercise, but that's not the topic of this episode. Rather, I am talking about how we need to stop the insanity when it comes to all of the ideas and concepts floating around in the world of personal financial advice. It can get to be pretty overwhelming if you let it, and sometimes you need to step back and take a look at how the advice aligns with your particular situation.
I believe that it is truly best to pick and choose which concepts work best for yourself. You may need to do a little trial and error in order to find out what's best for you and your situation, but the reality here is that there is no cookie-cutter approach for everyone. It simply doesn't work that way. There is a right answer for you, and sometimes it's worth it to dig deeper and look for that correct answer a little more than what you find on the surface.
Just as the answers are different for different questions, the answers are different for each individual's particular situation. Keep that in mind while you are looking for advice, and thoughtfully analyze each and every bit of advice that you come across in order to ensure that it aligns well with your particular situation. That is the only way to truly stop the insanity.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Is it really necessary to eat rice and beans when getting out of debt? Absolutely not. Several gurus out there use the phrase of rice and beans when referring to grocery shopping, but this is to illustrate the point that you are no longer to be eating steak, lobster, and other expensive foods while you're getting out of debt. You aren't to be eating out at restaurants, either. The meaning behind the phrase is simply to spend less on groceries in order to get out of debt faster, and I completely agree with this.
What I don't agree with are the folks who are taking the phrase a little too literally. They are either purchasing rice and beans to extend the grocery budget, or they are buying low-quality, cheaper foods in order to fill their bellies without considering nutrition. This is where I have to draw the line.
There are other means to pay more on your credit cards or loans. Take on a part-time job. Shop at a different store if the one you normally shop at for groceries is costing too much money. The main point is this. Don't sacrifice nutrition, and in extension your health, in the name of getting out of debt more quickly.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
You ask the questions on social media about personal finance, and I answer them right here on the show.
Ashley and her husband are having issues in their marriage. They have tried paying off debt for the last four years but have little to show for it. Her husband is never home, and it's affecting their marriage. She wants him home more often so that he has more time with the kids. They are stressed and feel like they are truly at the end of their rope. They are considering debt consolidation, debt management programs, and even bankruptcy.
Kristin needs some help with how to handle her medical bills. She's got about $3,300.00 in medical debt, and several bills have already gone to collections or are at the final notice point. I'll share with her what the best strategy is to take care of this problem and pay off those bills once and for all and prevent them from going into further collection efforts.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
A friend in need is a friend, and you want them to stay that way. Letting them borrow money from you is a good way to almost guarantee that won't happen if your friend doesn't pay you back. Granted, if your friend borrows a smaller amount, you could just call it a gift and that's that. However, if your friend (or family member) borrows a substantial amount of money from you, what recourse do you have if they refuse to pay you back? Do you take them to court? That's just ugly, and nobody wants to go through that.
It's always best to simply say no. How you do this is as important as doing it. First, you need to schedule this conversation for a later date. The reason for this is to diffuse the situation naturally. You won't say no right away, but you will have a postponed and planned conversation later in order to get your ducks in a row.
Let your friend or family member know that you are concerned about their situation, and they may not like what you have to say. Let them know that you value their friendship or relationship, and that's your primary reason to not let them borrow the money. Keep the conversation focused and calm, and stick to all of the reasons why them borrowing money from you is a bad idea.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
On episode 159, I introduced the work from home opportunity known as Rev.com. The primary benefits of this program are paid training, consistent pay when you work, and a truly flexible schedule. If you have great grammar and typing skills, Rev.com may be a great fit for you.
The first segment of the Rev.com opportunity is transcription, but they also offer captioning as a second segment. I applied and tested for the captioning opportunity and had to wait a few weeks before I was approved. I found out upon approval that they only accept 10% of applicants. It's not easy to get accepted, but if you do, it's great to have the ability to literally determine exactly when you will work (as long as opportunities are available for you).
Personally, I enjoy the captioning program more than the transcription program. Neither program is a huge money-maker, but the benefits still make this an attractive work from home opportunity for the self-starter who's highly motivated. If you haven't done so already, I definitely recommend that you check this out today.
For more information and to apply, simply go to: https://rev.com
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Yes, you can actually choose to be happy. While we are affected by external influences, we do have a choice as to how we respond to those influences. If you're having a bad day, you have the choice of whether or not you should take out your feelings about your day when you get home on your spouse and children. If you let it get the best of you, you may be short with family members, when at most times, it's not the appropriate response that you should have to a bad day.
Perhaps you are having difficulties with your spouse. While you could respond in anger, you have the choice to change your response to one of kindness and understanding. Perhaps you can learn to listen to your spouse better. Perhaps you can make a grand gesture that will help the two of you to reconcile and get on the same page.
Negative emotions do not need to be acted upon. It takes an enormous amount of self-control to choose happiness, but in the end, you'll be happier, healthier and less stressed. It's worth the commitment.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Silly adult, gifts are for kids. Well, not all of the time, but in most cases.
Picture the holiday shopping season. How many times have you found yourself actually dreading that time of the year because you are anticipating the cost, stress, and gift returns? I don't get why people do this to themselves. The easy answer is to stop trading gifts with other adults in the family. Make the holidays and birthdays about the kids in the family and your spouse, and leave it at that.
It may be a tough sell, especially if there are blended family traditions that you are suggesting to break. However, once you discuss with your family and extended family the benefits of this plan and how it will directly affect them financially and emotionally, they may actually give your proposal some consideration. It may not happen right away, so you should expect a reasonable amount of resistance, at least at first. Many times, people will be more receptive if the subject matter at hand is about them directly. When they hear how they can save time, money, and headaches, they'll start to listen to your spiel more attentively.
I wouldn't go as far as starting a war within your family and extended family, but I would suggest that you at least bring this idea up to them if you think it makes sense. If you're married, of course, start with your spouse. If your spouse is on board, even better. Now, you can start this proposal as a united front. You talk to your side of the family and your spouse can address theirs. Hopefully, others will see the sound logic in this and end up making everyone's lives that much easier.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Have you ever had a temporary defeat? This is actually a good thing. Our temporary defeats and setbacks don't define whether we are winning or losing. Instead, these setbacks are helping to teach us a lesson, as long as we are willing to learn from the experience.
The next time you come across a roadblock or other temporary defeat, you should write down what went wrong, reflect on that, and figure out how you can ensure that the same problem will not happen again the future. It's also good when setting goals to give yourself a little more time to accomplish the goal in order to take into account any unforeseen circumstances. This will help you to plan well and naturally accept that we're all human and make mistakes, and that is completely okay.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Before you buy a beater vehicle to get out of your car payment, you may want to consider all of the possibilities. It's exciting to imagine getting out of car payments by driving a beater vehicle that was paid for with cash. However, how much will maintenance and repairs cost for said vehicle? What is the true cost of driving around in a beater vehicle?
Especially in situations where you have a longer commute, your chances of a break-down increase as the vehicle ages and the mileage on the vehicle rises. You'll want to plan well for failure in this situation and not assume that your beater vehicle will always be dependable. Sometimes you get lucky, and the vehicle lasts for longer than expected. Unfortunately, in many situations, the vehicle may end up costing you more in repairs than it's worth.
If you are considering a beater vehicle, I highly recommend finding a good mechanic first, if you don't have one already. Make sure your mechanic goes over the vehicle with a fine-tooth comb before you purchase it. Perhaps add a little more in your emergency fund to cover repair expenses that you're more likely to have with an older, higher mileage vehicle.
The bottom line is this: if you're making a decision on the vehicle that you're going to depend upon, don't rush the decision. Look at the big picture and make sure that your decision makes sense for you and won't end up being a new source of stress in your life.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Credit scores are still important. Many folks associate a credit score as a means to be able to get credit, but a credit score is used for much more than just approval of a credit line or loan. Certain employers may use your credit score as a determining factor of your employment. You'll need a healthy score for favorable interest rates on loans, including mortgages. Renting will be much easier and likely with a smaller deposit with a high credit score.
I have been doing a lot of research on the topic of credit scores, mostly because I've heard the repeated guidance from some sources to not be concerned about a credit score. After looking at things on my own, I am having a difficult time with the logic of purposely trashing your credit score. In this society, a credit score is important, and I think it's best to maintain or focus on raising your credit score, even if you aren't concerned about borrowing money.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
This is a follow-up to the Pomodoro Technique introduced on episode 176. You may want to listen to that episode first if you haven't already.
Find out how the Pomodoro Technique has been working for me.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Self-sabotage is a sad reason to fail. You simply cannot be your own worst enemy when it comes to your get-out-of-debt plans. If you continue to use credit cards or take out new loans, you are going directly against what you had set out to do to begin with: to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Nobody's perfect, and I get that. However, in the end, if you sabotage your own efforts, you have no one to blame but yourself. If you can't stay away from your credit cards and continue to make the same mistakes over and over again, you need to seek professional guidance. You have to do what it takes to get yourself out of debt by not only paying down your balances but also refraining from using credit again until you either have your debt paid off in full or at a point where it's being managed appropriately.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Is it a hard and fast rule to wait until you're out of debt before you invest? Intuitively, it does make sense to only focus our resources towards paying off our debt as quickly as possible. What happens if getting out of debt takes much longer than what we had originally anticipated? We may be passing on some investment opportunities because we are putting all of this off until we're out of debt completely.
The main issue that I have with this is my knowledge that the essential component of compound interest is time. When we pass up time, we can't get it back. I don't necessarily think that we have to be going all in with investing while we're in the process of getting out of debt, but I do believe that we may want to consider investing a little during our get-out-of-debt journey. We can invest more once we're closer to getting out of debt or once we're out of debt completely.
Another benefit is that we can take advantage of any company matches that we may be eligible for with regards to retirement plans. If we don't take advantage of this, we are passing up free money. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. We're also passing on the experience that we can get with investing while we're getting out of debt so that we're not starting from square one years down the road.
The bottom line is that this decision is up to us as individuals. We just need to review our options, and just like anything else, make the best decision based on our particular situation.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Is debt good or bad? It's a question that many of us ask ourselves while we are in the process of getting out of debt. Good debt is usually considered to be mortgages or other debt products that have to do with investments or assets. Bad debt it typically associated with consumerism, such as credit cards, car loans, and personal loans.
I think it goes beyond that, though. I think we need to base the question on who you are as an individual. Are you someone who goes shopping as soon as you get a credit card in your hand? If so, and you lack self-control, it may be best for you to pay off debt entirely, close your accounts, cut up your cards, and swear off debt forever. However, if you're someone who rarely uses credit cards, you could potentially pay off or pay down your debt and continue using credit cards and other debt products responsibly and without problems.
The reason to consider asking yourself this and delving deeper into your spending habits as an individual is because your credit score will likely be improved if you pay down your card balances and keep the accounts open afterwards. Credit scores have more to do with than just a means for obtaining credit. Credit scores are often used for determining insurance rates, whether or not you can rent, and even where you work if a potential employer uses a credit score and history as a determining factor of your employment.
So make a plan based on who you are as an individual. Don't feel that you need to follow a cookie-cutter approach to personal finance. Think outside of the box, determine the best plan for you, and execute on that individual plan and see how quickly you'll be successful with it. The reason why this will work is because it's your own.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Here's the question of the day. Is there anything in your life, knowing what you know now, that you would not do again today if you had the opportunity to do it all over again?
It's a question that allows us to reflect and realize the errors that we've made. It helps us to reinforce the reasons why we don't want to make the same mistakes again, even if we are currently in the middle of working through the situation that came up due to a bad decision.
We all make mistakes. Acknowledge your mistakes, forgive yourself, and learn the lesson from your mistake. The bad thing isn't the mistake itself, it's if you repeat the same mistake rather than learning the lesson from the mistake. Rise up, rise above, and realize that you can move forward and make good of previous poor decisions.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
What are your biggest concerns right now? What keeps you up at night? What is on your mind more than anything else during any given day?
You could have several concerns, but it's good to narrow it down to a few or even less than a few to keep things more focused on what's truly important. Once you've identified what's concerning you, you'll realize what the most critical issues are at the moment. The next step is to come up with a plan or have an idea for a plan so that you can feel that you have some sort of control over the situation. Granted, some problems are more difficult to resolve than others, but it's still good to at least come up with some ideas of what you can do about it.
If you're married, talk your concerns over with your spouse. You may be surprised to find that your spouse shares some of the same concerns as you do. You can work on things together as a team, a united front. This will help you to feel better almost immediately. Perhaps you and your spouse can address your concerns with a professional together. The point is, don't just wait around and hope that your concerns will go away. Do something about it today.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Do you have a fear of failure? Do you stay within your comfort zone, even when you are setting goals for yourself? If you never stretch yourself outside of your comfort zone, you'll never find out just how much you are capable of accomplishing.
You want to push yourself to go beyond the ceiling that you've created for yourself. When we were kids, we all had dreams and had at least an idea of what we wanted to be when we grew up. How many of us are actually following those dreams? Unfortunately, not too many of us. The reason is that somewhere along the way, we started to listen to people when they told us that our dreams were foolish. We started to fear what others might think or say, and from that was born the process of fearing failure.
It's time to break the cycle. It's time to set at least one goal for yourself that is outside of your comfort zone. It shouldn't be unrealistic, but it should be difficult and beyond your current comfort zone. Once you have accomplished that goal, you'll gain confidence, and with the new confidence, you can set the next goal that will also be outside of your comfort zone. This is a process that will allow you to accomplish so much more than you would be able to if you didn't break out of your self-imposed limits.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
What will your life look like ten years from now? An exceptional motivator is to envision your life in the future. Are you out of debt? Have you saved up enough money to be comfortable? Is your retirement savings on track?
While there are a lot of questions that you can ask yourself, the point of this exercise is to truly visualize where you are at financially speaking a decade from today, based on your current habits. You may be excited about the future, or you may be dreading the future. Regardless of your feelings at the moment, you have time to apply some logical strategies and reasoning with regards to your habits right now that will keep things on track if you're excited or change your future if you're a little scared of what's coming up in ten years.
Are your current financial habits in-line with where you want to be at ten years from now? If so, that's great. Use this visualization as a motivation tool. If not, then take this visualization as a warning that you need to make changes today so that you can comfortably look forward to life a decade from now.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I've got to earn some money in the next month or so, and I've identified just how I'll do it. That's half of the battle right there. It's pretty amazing what happens when you take a moment to not only identify a goal but to also identify the means whereby you'll be accomplishing said goal.
This whole process started (and I stumbled upon it) as I was updating my monthly budget. I decided to go into next month's budget ahead of schedule since it is summertime, and there are always upcoming expenses during this time of the year. I identified that I needed to earn additional income here in the next month or so, and instead of simply wishing that it may come true someday, I decided to write down specifically how I was going to do this.
The result of this a-ha moment was a list of ten ideas that were very realistic and could truly help me to earn additional money during the next month or so. I added the list to my whiteboard so that I'll see it every day, and the only thing left for me to do was to get to work using the ideas on this list (which I have already started to do).
If you have a goal that you want to accomplish, I highly suggest that you do the same process that I did today. Sit down for about a half hour or so and identify how you will be able to accomplish your goal. List the means whereby you'll move forward with your plans, then all that's left to do is to get to work!
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Do you care too much about what others are thinking? This can add a whole new level of complexity while you are trying to accomplish a goal, such as getting out of debt or any other goals that have to do with improving your personal financial situation.
This really comes down to human nature. We all want to be liked and accepted. When we come across resistance from others when we express our ideas or goals, we naturally want to give up and just go with the norm to stay in line with everyone else. The problem with this is that everyone else is likely having financial difficulties that they simply don't talk about. You are unaware of their situations, and it won't help them if you give up on your own goals.
Instead, it's better to stick to what you had decided to do in the first place. Be proud of what you are attempting to accomplish. Realize that someday those same friends or family members that are seemingly against your strategies and plans will see the results of your work. That will be what will stand out in the end, and it may be enough to convince them to be more like you without you needing to say a single word.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I've heard about the Pomodoro Technique before, but I have never actually looked into trying this until recently. I did several searches on Google, and I found a wealth of information on this topic. If there's one thing that I've learned over the last several years, it's that no matter how rich you are or how much wealth you have acquired, you can't purchase time. Time is not a commodity. It's not for sale. We all get the same amount of time in any given day, no matter how much you've got sitting in your bank account. That reason alone is why I am truly excited to try the Pomodoro Technique.
This technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. He used a pomodoro timer to break down work into 25-minute intervals. After you've completed the 25-minute work session, you are rewarded with a short break. After several 25-minute sessions, you have earned a longer break. You reset your pomodoro count and start all over again, possibly with a brand-new task.
I love to try anything that sounds like it will help me to be more efficient, and this technique seems to be something that will really prove to be worth implementing. I'm also looking forward to being able to see how many pomodoro sessions it will take for me to complete certain tasks. From this data and analysis, I should be able to better plan my day by getting better at estimating the actual time that it will take for me to complete my tasks and goals.
By the way, I started using the Pomodoro Technique just a short while ago working on the final editing and publication of this particular episode. So far, this technique rocks. I highly recommend that you try it for yourself. If you do, tweet me @fmoodpodcast and let me know what you think. I'll be following up on this topic on a future podcast episode after I've had some time to give this a good trial run myself.
Superheroes do not exist. Sorry, Superman fans, that's just reality. However, nobody is stopping you from being a superhero of personal finance. You can be a hero who stands proud and tall above all of the rest. All you need to do is take your goals seriously, and make sure that you are handling things in the same way a superhero would do it.
First, you need to own up to the problems that you see. Whether that problem is too much debt, not enough savings, not enough income, or all of the above, you have to be the one who owns this problem so you can take care of it. Once you own up to the problem and identify the situation, the next step is to take action. You don't see movies with superheroes where the superhero sees trouble and simply sits to see if the problem will go away on its own. Instead, the superhero is attacking the problem head-on and comes away to save the day.
Unfortunately, too many shows about superheroes do lead us to believe that a problem can be resolved quickly, shortly after the superhero arrives on the scene. That's usually not the case in real life, so you need to be the type of superhero that can be in it for the long haul. You may win some battles, but you have to have the perseverance to win the war. This is an important factor that sets superheroes apart from your everyday average Joe (or Jane). A superhero can stay in the fight as long as necessary because winning the battle in its entirety is a non-negotiable outcome.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
There's a lot to be said about morning routines. Setting your alarm a half-hour earlier or even an hour earlier will help you to set the entire tone for the day by getting yourself out of bed and completing your morning routine.
The morning routine in of itself can be pretty much anything that you want to do to get your engines running right off of the bat. For me personally, I enjoy meditating right after I get up for the day. Meditation helps to ground me, and even though it seems like this wouldn't help to feel more awake, for me it does. It's only five to ten minutes of meditation, but once I'm finished, I'm already off to a good start of the day with a clear mind and focus.
I'll retire to my prayer room after mediation to spend some time in prayer and read the Bible for about ten minutes or so. I leave feeling connected, thankful, and appreciative of the day ahead. I follow up with stretching and light exercise. Once I've finished with my light exercise regimen, I do some more stretching. This really gets the blood flowing, and at this point, I am usually fully wide awake after just ten short minutes of light exercise and stretching.
I eat a light breakfast and spend some time updating my journal and doing some reading. I finish all of this and feel much better than I do compared to the days when I blow off my morning routine. I don't always do all of these things in this order, and sometimes I may not get to everything on the list. The point is that it's not about what is done during the morning routine but having a morning routine to begin with. It's truly a great way to start your day and win the day.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
If you truly take a good look at yourself, are you being a little too risk averse? Are you leading a safe and careful life rather than taking some strategic risks? Not taking calculated risks in life can lead to a boring existence that may come with a large dose of regret down the road.
It's understandable that we want to be careful, especially when we're in the process of paying down our debt and trying to save every penny we can in order to apply towards our debt payoff goals. However, you don't want to pass up opportunities to start a business or doing something else that can actually boost your income in the short or long term.
I'm not saying that we should go into debt in order to start a business or join some other venture. What I am saying is that if opportunities come up, we need to do our due diligence, consider all of the facts, and make a decision as to whether or not to act on an opportunity or an idea based on a strategic risk assessment. Don't simply brush it off to the side just because you may be taking a risk. Risk isn't a bad thing as long as it makes sense for your particular situation.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Today I read a great article from Erin Cullum/Popsugar US. The article was an informational article about some things that we may not know about our local Aldi store. I can definitely say that while there were some items mentioned that I knew about already, there was also plenty that I learned for the first time.
If you haven't done so already, I highly recommend checking out your local Aldi store if you've got one in your area. We have an Aldi store nearby, but we didn't think to go there for years after we moved into the area. Now that we've started to go there, we shop there almost exclusively for all of our groceries. We save a ton of money on our grocery bills, but that's not all that Aldi grocery stores have to offer.
Aldi has in-house test kitchen chefs who periodically review the quality of their products before they hit the shelves. It's not just some of the products; they test every single Aldi product. I think it's great that they go out of their way to make sure that the products that they carry are as good as , if not better than, competing national brands.
Their return policy is phenomenal as well. They offer a double guarantee, meaning that they will exchange a product if you're not satisfied as well as give you your money back along with the exchange. They work with local community organizations to contribute items to food banks, and they encourage their employees to be active to volunteer within their communities. Their exclusive brand food products are void of MSG, artificial coloring, and partially hydrogenated oils.
With all of this in mind, why wouldn't you give your local Aldi store a quick look? I can say that in most cases, once you start shopping at Aldi, you likely won't go anywhere else for groceries ever again.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Sometimes you end up taking a few steps back on this journey out of debt, but that doesn't mean that you can't make up for it by taking several steps forward once again. When we fall behind on things or stop our progress towards our goals completely, we need to get ourselves back on track. Believe it or not, this happens more often than you realize and to tons of people, myself included.
I found several things that weren't exactly running smoothly with our household's personal financial situation. Communication is key in a marriage when it comes to money, and I have been feeling lately that the communication between my wife and me hasn't been on par. It's not that we're not working on the budget and trying to save money, it's just that the headlines aren't being brought out into the open and discussed as needed. I don't need to talk about every single detail with her, but I do need to get better at providing her with high-level overview headlines that she can easily refer to throughout the month to see where things are at.
It's okay to press the reset button sometimes. It's okay to revamp things a bit for the greater good of your own get-out-of-debt plans. If you identify an issue and don't address it, you'll end up causing more harm than good. It's best to realize that there's a problem, address it properly, and get back on track.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Have you ever added more layers to a decision than what was absolutely necessary? Do you overthink things or muddy the waters unnecessarily with too many details, and you end up not making a decision at all?
Rather than going through every possible scenario and making things more complicated, it's best to focus on getting the simplest answer and going from there. That way, you can take action as is appropriate. Even if you find later on that you're on the wrong path, you can always change course with lessons learned.
This concept isn't just related to paying off debt or making other decisions related to personal finance. You can also utilize this way of keeping things simple in almost every decision that you make. You'll get more accomplished because you will take action faster once you've made a choice on whatever question it is that you are pondering.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I've found myself doing this before. I get desperate for a few extra dollars in a particular budget month where I found myself in the red. The emergency fund is just sitting there, so I justify borrowing from the savings by telling myself that I'll just pay it back the following month. This isn't a good habit to get into, and it can turn into a very slippery slope once started.
When we do this, we train ourselves to use our designated emergency fund or sinking fund as a crutch. We allow ourselves to believe that our savings account is extra money that's just waiting around for us to tap into. We forget that we've already earmarked these resources for an emergency or for a sinking fund. We've already defined what the money is supposed to be there for, and we must stick to what we had designated in the beginning when the money was originally placed into the account, intentionally separate from our standard checking account balance.
Is borrowing from our savings from time to time better or worse than using a credit card? That's a good question. I would answer it like this. Whether we fall back on a credit card or on our savings account, we're effectively doing the same thing: we're using something else as a crutch rather than focusing on fixing our budget so that we don't need to use other resources other than what we are supposed to be using for our monthly expenses.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
You need to be intentional and have the right levels of focus and intensity towards accomplishing your goals. Are you lax with your debt payoff strategies? Are you letting 0% interest rate credit cards lie around without paying them off because it's still 0% for another year or so?
It's really easy to get into that mode where you tend to ease back on your debt payoff. You take your foot off of the gas pedal, and you lose the intensity that you once had. Nobody's saying that you shouldn't have fun, but you need to plan your fun as opposed to blowing off debt payment obligations that you've already planned just because you've got a vacation coming up.
You can take a break from debt payoff if there's a reason and an end game that has already been defined. Let's say you realize that your vehicle is getting by on borrowed time. You know that you'll have to replace the car someday, but you're not sure exactly when that will be. You want to save up for that replacement vehicle purchase in order to avoid car payments. This is a great strategy, of course. Go ahead and feel free to do this, but once that vehicle has been purchased, you have to get yourself back on track with debt payoff with as much intensity as you had before.
Again, you need intensity, you need focus, and you need to be intentional. If you have all three of these components working for you in your everyday push to become debt free, you will be successful.
If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I'm pleased to welcome Ericka Young from TailorMadeBudgets.com on the show today. If you're married, you'll definitely discover some great gold nuggets of value throughout our conversation that will help you with personal finance in your marriage, and if you're single, you'll learn a lot as well. There's a little something for everyone on the show today.
Pick up a copy of Ericka's book, "Naked and Unashamed: 10 Money Conversations Every Couple Must Have" by going to http://nakedandunashamedbook.com.
Learn more about Tailor-Made Budgets here: http://www.tailormadebudgets.com
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I'm tired of all of these pie-in-the-sky promises that are posted in various forums, social media groups, etc. Most of the headlines used for these posts are describing obviously unrealistic concepts, but somehow, they still get folks to click on the links. The headlines catch somebody's eye, and they'll end up clicking on the links out of curiosity.
Here's the bottom line. Regardless of your goals, accomplishing any of these goals doesn't work without work. You can't take work out of the equation when it comes to success. There are no shortcuts, there are no secret formulas, there are no hacks. You have to work in order to earn income, and you need to work more in order to increase your income. Your additional resources that you then earn are used to pay off debt faster. That's the only tried and true formula that actually works to get out of debt!
Don't get fooled by these get-rich-quick or pay-off-debt-quick schemes that are littering the interwebs. The only guaranteed way to get out of debt and get into prosperity is to work hard, work smart, focus on your goals, and never stop learning.
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We all know that budgeting money is important. However, how often do we think about budgeting time? Time is much more valuable than money, in my opinion. We can always earn more money, but we can't earn time. We're all given the same amount of hours each and every day, and how we spend those hours is completely up to us.
For me, clutter slows me down. When I have a desk that's messy or an e-mail inbox that's congested with low-priority items, I have a difficult time focusing. It slows me down, and the best way to resolve this is to clean things up and get organized.
I also like to line up my tasks for the following day before I hit the pillow. That way, I already know what I'm going to do the next day before the day begins. I organize my time into doing what's most important first, and I find that budgeting my time this way allows me to accomplish much more each and every day.
There are several other time management tips that I'll talk about, and if you can implement some of these changes in your life, you may find that you are able to get a lot more accomplished with a lot less distractions. Not all of these tips will apply to you, but it will at least get you thinking of ways to better manage your own time. Oh, and one more thing, work-life balance is a lie. I'll explain why.
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If you're in the process of getting out of debt, there are certain things that you shouldn't be paying for. You should be redirecting the monetary resources for these items towards getting out of debt instead.
I feel that you shouldn't be paying for someone to mow your lawn or any other services that are related to yardwork while you're still in the process of paying off debt. I do understand that it may be necessary to pay for larger projects that a contractor needs to be hired to do, but other than that exception, you should be doing all of your yardwork yourself.
I also don't believe in cell phone insurance or extended warranties. Both of these are a waste of money, in my opinion. I'd also stay away from banks that like to get fee-happy; you shouldn't have to pay for a place to park your money. I'll also talk about a few more things that rob us of our resources without us even realizing it, such as landline phones, cable/satellite television, newspapers, magazines, and even bottled water!
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If we're in debt, it's difficult to imagine an ideal budget. Many of us are budgeting for multiple credit cards, a couple of auto loans, and perhaps some personal loans. All of this debt makes it very challenging to realize what an ideal budget would actually look like.
While you may not be able to implement this budget right now, I think it's important to realize what an ideal budget looks like. It may help you to continue to stay motivated if you can plan to use this template for your own budget someday.
I'll explain these in more detail on today's episode, but here'a a high-level overview of how I define what would be an idea budget, based on percentages: housing (25% of your monthly take-home income), transportation (10% of your monthly take-home income), savings (10% of your monthly take-home income), food (10% of your monthly take-home income), utilities (5% of your monthly take-home income), insurance (10% of your monthly take-home income), recreation (5% of your monthly take-home income), clothing (5% of your monthly take-home income), personal care (5% of your monthly take-home income), giving (10% or more of your monthly take-home income), and finally, medical (5% of your monthly take-home income).
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There are plenty of ways to spend little or no money at all and have fun at the same time. While this list won't apply to everyone (we all have different personalities and preferences), it will at least get you thinking about ways that you can find things to do that won't cost much.
You may be someone who enjoys going for a hike, riding a bike, having a picnic, or even going swimming at the beach. If it's not the right weather for outdoor activities, stay inside and play some board games. We don't talk about board games as much in this day and age when technology is practically surrounding us. Unplug and have a family game night or invite some friends over for board games and refreshments.
There are tons of ideas here, but you may want to consider some ideas that best suit your personal preferences. The point is, there are usually plenty of options to choose from that will help you to spend some time without spending a dime.
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If you're loyal to certain brand names, you may want to rethink your shopping strategy. Companies spend tons of money to get their brands in front of your eyeballs, and understandably, they want a return on their investment. That return on investment typically comes to them in the form of higher prices.
What's interesting is, if you're willing to experiment here and there, you may find that you can purchase off-brand or generic products and have almost the same experience with a nice savings at the same time. This isn't limited to just grocery items, either. We purchased a chest freezer several years ago and saved $100.00 by purchasing an off-brand freezer, and guess what? It's still humming along in the garage and keeping our food frozen as expected.
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Today's a good day to take a look at your resume. See if it looks a bit outdated. Are you still using the tired Word template resume that was popular in the 90's? Do you need to spruce up your resume a bit and bring it more current and up-to-date? You'll want to take some time to do this, even if you're not currently on a job hunt.
There are certain qualities of a resume that Human Resources managers and other managers look for. You'll want your resume to stand out without being too flashy. You'll want to whet the appetite of the potential interviewer without going into too much detail to bloat your resume to the size of a small book. A one-page resume is best that simply highlights your accomplishments and prompts the reader to want to know more about you. That's how you get the interview.
Also, take some time to proofread your resume for grammatical or spelling errors. This will prevent your resume from hitting the bottom of the trash can immediately after receipt.
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I'm starting a new segment of the show that I'll be doing from time to time where I sign up and try out various work from home opportunities and let you know what I find out. Well, to be more specific, if the opportunity makes it as a subject of an entire show episode, it can be assumed that said opportunity is rated five out of five stars on my end.
I heard about and checked out Rev.com. They don't allow just anyone to join; you do need to have a good grasp on grammar and spelling. You are tested, and if you pass the test and end up getting approved, you can start accepting transcription opportunities right away.
You can preview the job before accepting it, and you can take on as many transcription jobs as you would like. You can work at any time, and you are not required to put in a set amount of hours. There are no requirements other than a computer, a reliable Internet connection, and (optional, but recommended) a set of headphones. The web interface used for transcription is not difficult to understand, and the training is available for you step-by-step right online.
If you're looking for a great opportunity to make a little extra money working from the comfort of your home, I recommend checking out Rev.com. They pay through PayPal every Monday for work completed the week before. While I wouldn't say that it's big money (at least not right away), the potential is there for this to become a decent extra income opportunity over time as you get better and improve your metrics overall.
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It's too easy to get lazy about staying focused on our target debt. The target debt is the current debt that has almost all of the focus and available resources towards it to eliminate it as quickly as possible. It sounds great on paper, but sometimes life happens and we may forget to do what we need to do in order to make this a priority.
The best thing for us to do is to set out at the start of the month when we prepare our budget to make our current target debt a high-priority item. Don't simply budget for the minimum payment due and hope that you might come in to some extra money during the month to pay more towards it. You have to set out and prioritize this line item in your budget to get a significant amount earmarked in order to get out of debt as quickly as possible.
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You've got a somewhat significant purchase coming up, and you might be wondering if you should take out a small loan or save up and pay cash. You might be tempted by a same-as-cash offer or introductory APR offer.
While you may be able to pay it off in time, you'll want to be aware of the fine print to find out what happens if you don't pay off the amount in time. In a lot of these scenarios, you'll usually have to pay interest going back to the first date of the loan.
While you always have the same-as-cash option, I think that saving up cash for the purchase is the way to go. Once it has been paid for, it's a done deal. You don't have the headaches associated with having to figure out how to pay it off, and you can truly enjoy your purchase immediately.
What's more, you'll likely appreciate what you're purchasing more since you'll have to work hard to save up the cash. You'll also naturally want to find ways to reduce the overall cost of the purchase, so you may end up not only saving interest but also reducing the purchase price itself.
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A common trap for folks who are in the process of improving their financial situation is to hold off on giving. The justification that is usually applied is to come to the conclusion that giving can be done once a certain milestone is reached. That milestone might be getting out of debt, saving a certain amount of money, or anything else that can be viewed as a positive personal financial accomplishment.
The problem with this is that we train ourselves to give only when it's comfortable. We stop working that generosity muscle that we're all born with, and we let it atrophy while we work on our own goals and accomplishments. This isn't a good thing.
The generosity muscle needs to be worked even while we're in the process of getting out of debt or any other goal that we're focused on. We need to develop that same muscle so that we become better givers when the time comes that we're in prosperity and have more resources to offer.
I understand that sometimes we find ourselves in desperate situations. Sometimes we end up being the ones who need someone to help us. Things can get desperate and dire. Understand that we don't necessarily have to give money when these situations arise. We can also give of our time. We can volunteer our time to a local soup kitchen or work with our local church. The point is, we can give of our time as we do with our financial resources. We're still working the generosity muscle either way.
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Dreaming is good for you. It gives you hope. It allows you to look forward to the future. It helps to motivate you.
Don't be ashamed of your dreams or assume that they aren't worth focusing on. Your dreams may seem to only be wishes, but once you apply work and action to accomplish goals and tasks related to your dreams, they will eventually come true. Does every dream come true? Of course not. However, the dreams that you have that are in the forefront of your mind will likely come to fruition someday.
Whatever your dreams may be, don't give up on them. Keep dreaming, and keep working towards accomplishing your dreams.
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If you ask most people, they won't see much of a difference between someone who is considered to be frugal and someone who is considered to be cheap. Unfortunately, for most of us in the process of trying to improve our lives financially, we may run into some harsh critics out there who may refer to us as being a cheapskate, a scrooge, etc.
The truth of the matter is that there is a definite difference between being frugal and being cheap. When someone is cheap, it's generally a personality trait that they've had for most of their lives. On the flip side, when someone is frugal, that person has typically learned to be frugal. It wasn't a quality that they were born with.
Chances are, the frugal person is working a plan to get out of debt or doing something else positive with regards to their personal finances. They may have been burned by a bad situation before, and they don't want to go back to what hurt them in the first place if what caused it was overspending. Being frugal is part of an overall plan for positive financial changes.
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Budgeting in of itself can be a challenge, but what happens when you have payments or other bills that have fallen behind? Adding this to trying to maintain a monthly budget can make things quite difficult. However, you do have to do something about it. You can't bury your head in the sand and hope that it will go away, because it simply won't.
The first step is to open the lines of communication with any entities that you are currently late on paying. Bringing yourself current has to be the focus, and you need to communicate with those you owe money to in order to let them know that you are aware of the situation. Sometimes, depending on the entity, they may help you to come up with a creative or alternative way of getting caught up. It's not guaranteed that they will help, but a phone call with a promise to pay is always better than not contacting them at all.
You do need to have a plan before you pick up the phone, though. If you make a payment arrangement, you need to stick with it. Be realistic when you are promising to pay, and once you make a payment arrangement, put it into your budget right away so you don't forget about it.
The second step is to utilize your budget as a tool to control your money (as you should be). Prioritize your home, whether you make house payments or pay rent. Where you rest is what you need to take care of first. Your home is your top priority when it comes to budgeting your resources. Along those same lines, your utilities to keep your home running are second in line. If you are behind on your utility bills, you need to make calls and come up with a plan to keep the lights on and the water running.
Everything else following these two major budget items are up to you as far as order of priority. You make the decisions on what items are next in line when it comes to your personal budget. The idea here is to make sure that you take action to get your late bills caught up while you are prioritizing your budget accordingly.
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The other day, I purchased a large whiteboard for the sole purpose of providing both my wife and me with a high-level overview of our budget. I highly recommend that you do the same, especially if one of you handles the budget for the most part while the other spouse is in more of an advisory role. It's a great way to keep the budget out in the open as well as having the overall debt information in front of your eyes and on the front burner at the same time.
You may set your board up any way that you choose, but for us, we started by adding our monthly income, expenses, and the difference between the two in the upper left-hand corner of the board. Below that we have the major budget item categories along with what we're spending in each category and what we've already spent so far for the month.
On the other side of the board, we listed our overall debt amount along with our current target debt (what we're focusing on paying off at the moment). Below that, we listed any upcoming expenses that have yet to be budgeted for future months. Below that, we also listed possible income streams other than the expected amounts that we receive from our places of employment. I personally think that this is a great way to keep you focusing and thinking outside of the box when it comes to additional income ideas.
As mentioned, we decided to purchase a larger board and use it on its side so that it's longer in length than width. You may not need as much whiteboard real estate and can get away with using a smaller board. Feel free to do whatever works best for you. I think the most important thing is that you do something to help you to see where things are headed with the budget for any given month as well as keeping an eye on where you're at in your get out of debt journey.
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What is the Worry Bully? I didn't personally make this up, but I overheard it in a conversation. You have to use your imagination, but picture this: a Worry Bully is inside of your mind and keeps you in a constant state of worry. Regardless of the reason, the Worry Bully keeps you worried and raises your level of anxiety. This leads to stress. Stress leads to more worry, and the cycle goes on and on.
The Worry Bully takes what is bothering you and increases it tenfold. Along with that, it prevents you from taking action. The Worry Bully keeps you in a constant state of worry without action, and this will prevent you from accomplishing any of your goals. The best way to deal with and rid yourself of the Worry Bully once and for all is to take action on your own.
Worried about losing your job? In reality, you're actually worried about a loss of income. The way to counter this is to either search for another job that pays more than the one you currently have, start a business of your own to supplement your income, or take on a part-time job to accelerate your debt payoff so that you aren't as threatened by a sudden loss of income. Any of these actions will lessen the worry that goes along with the threat of a sudden loss of income.
Worried about whether or not you'll have enough money to get by before you come to the end of the month? This is an opportunity to take action and allow your budget to keep you in control of your finances (and not the other way around). Figure out a way to make this work and make some changes to make it happen. The point here is to eliminate the worry in your life by doing something about it.
Regardless of what the problem is, by taking action, you take the power away from the Worry Bully. You'll be back in charge, and that's exactly where you want to be. You will finally defeat the Worry Bully once and for all.
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We took a little road trip to an outlet mall. We weren't going to do a ton of shopping necessarily; it was mostly just for the purpose of getting out of town for a few hours. However, I did want to see what kind of deals outlet malls really offer. What I found out was a bit surprising.
Outlet malls do not seem to have outstanding deals for the most part. There were a couple of notable deals that we found, but it was nothing that would be worth the drive and the cost of fuel to get there. I was actually looking for a couple of pairs of jeans, and I couldn't find any prices that were any less expensive than paying full retail at one of our local area stores. They also didn't have the particular cut that I was looking for, but that was irrelevant since I wasn't planning to spend $60.00 on one pair of jeans, anyway.
When we came back to our area, I ended up finding two pairs of jeans in a normal retail store in the cut that I prefer on sale and with a discount coupon. The total price for two pairs of jeans purchased locally was about half of the price of one pair of jeans at the outlet stores. That just goes to show how discount stores or outlet malls don't always equate to significant discounts. It's best to do a little research first to make sure that it makes sense to take a trip to the outlet mall before you drive the distance to go there.
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There are four main tenets of personal finance. If you keep these truths in mind, you will always succeed when it comes to your finances. These same tenets apply no matter where you are at in your walk with improving your financial situation.
The first tenet is the budget. The budget is key. I've said this before, and I'll say it continuously: the budget is the core of everything that you do financially. It doesn't matter if you are in debt, out of debt, buying a house, buying a car, saving for retirement, planning for college - regardless of what it is, it all starts with the budget.
The second tenet is debt management. You need to be managing your debt, whether your goal is to pay off debt entirely or simply reduce the amount of debt that you currently have. When you are making moves financially that have to do with debt, you need to consider the big picture of how the new debt will affect your finances.
The third tenet is future-focused goals. These goals would include future-looking scenarios, such as retirement, investments, college savings, and other future endeavors.
The fourth tenet is generosity and philanthropy. This isn't just Bill Gates that we're talking about. All of us should be generous and help others, especially if we have experienced financial issues in the past ourselves. We know how scary it can be and how desperate we may become when we are in financial trouble, and our generosity to help others will naturally reflect that empathy.
Keeping these four tenets in mind will help you to be successful with everything related to your personal finances. You will make better choices, and you will stay better focused on the big prize: getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
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Today's interview with Christina Eanes from QuitBleepingAround.com is truly informative and packed with valuable takeaways that will help you to become a superachiever. If you're not sure what a superachiever is, you'll learn today!
Learn more about Christina by visiting: https://quitbleepingaround.com
As mentioned on the show, I'm also including the link for the backwards bicycle experiment. You'll definitely want to check out this incredible video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0
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Sometimes when you are in the process of working on a goal that isn't popular with a lot of folks, you might feel that you are part of a small minority and your friends and even your family might just find you to be... weird. I recall times when my wife and I would spend more money than we wanted to when we were included in various plans with others simply because we felt that if we didn't, we would have to explain ourselves. Thankfully, we don't do that so much anymore.
The last thing that you want to do is to feel badly about yourself while you are working hard on the goals associated with getting out of debt and getting into prosperity. It's not fair to you, and it's not fair to anyone else. You want to be comfortable in the skin that you're in, and you want to be relaxed and be completely comfortable with yourself and the decisions that you are making for yourself or you and your family.
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All of us will experience income challenges at some point during our journey out of debt and into prosperity. What is the best way to prepare for these challenges and head them off at the pass?
For my wife and me, extra padding in the savings account really helps. We prepare for income challenges that we try to foresee by saving a little more than usual in order to offset those challenges. While we don't have a crystal ball and can't predict the future, we can assess our situations to try to best determine possibilities where we may need to have a solid backup plan in the form of a little extra in the savings.
If you find yourself in a position where you can't save more money because you are currently right in the middle of an income challenge (or crisis!), you have to take the appropriate action needed right now. Get a part-time job if need be. Look into work-at-home options if working for a traditional bricks and mortar establishment isn't for you. Just be sure to do your homework to make sure that the work-from-home opportunity is completely legitimate.
The bottom line is that you need to get to the point where you're no longer panicking as you get closer to the end of the month because you're running out of resources. Once you've taken the steps necessary to remove the immediate income challenges out of your life, your next step will be to further prepare for any other income challenges that may arise down the road. Doing this will help you to relax, sleep better at night, and have an improved attitude towards what you need to do in order to complete your goals.
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Are you having a difficult time with applying theories and strategies on how to get out of debt? Are you feeling frustrated because of all of the cookie-cutter advice that's being spewed out there from the gurus? Well, you're not alone.
The simple truth is that hearing or reading about what worked for someone else doesn't make it your own. You don't feel a sense of ownership when it comes to the solution because you haven't made it personal. It's time to change this by doing two important things that will help you to be more specific about what will help you to paint a clear picture to make your get-out-of-debt strategy your very own.
First, you need to ask yourself how you got into trouble. Think back and reflect upon what caused you to get into debt in the first place. How old were you when you first started to use credit cards? What caused you to decide that your only choice to own a vehicle was to take out a loan? What other debt-related steps have you taken up until this point in your life? Knowing how you got to where you're currently at is very important.
Once you have identified how you got yourself into debt, the next step to make your strategy your own is to answer why you want to get out of debt and get into prosperity. What is the ending to your story? In other words, what is your specific end game and why is it important to you? Are you getting out of debt in order to be a good influence for your children so that they don't make the same mistakes? Are you improving your personal financial situation in order to improve your marriage? Whatever your reason is, the important thing is that you clearly identify it. This is what helps you to bridge the gap between simplistic theories and real-world circumstances.
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You can save a ton of money at your local dollar store. If there's one in your area, and you haven't had an opportunity to check it out yet, I highly recommend that you do. We've actually made a list of items that we'll only buy at the dollar store when we need them because of the money that we'll consistently save on those items.
For example, we've saved money on greeting cards, home decorations, balloons, party supplies, cleaning supplies, school supplies, and more. Comparing prices at other well-known discount stores still proves that the dollar store is easier on the budget. The best part? The inventory does change, so each trip that you make to the dollar store may save you even more money if you find other things that they carry that you may have on your list to purchase elsewhere.
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Many of us have become used to using plastic for a large number of our purchases. When we choose to use plastic over paying with cash, the result is that we don't feel the transaction. Because of that, it's easier for us to spend more than we would if we were using cash. This applies if we use a debit card as well as a credit card.
The bottom line is this: using cash is not the same as using plastic. We actually feel the transaction when we hand over cash. We are mentally aware of the loss of cash as we are spending it. This is likely because most of us have made our first income and were paid with cash. We learned an established connection with cash from a relatively young age. When we are old enough to sign up for credit cards, that same connection doesn't translate over when using plastic versus using cash.
Start learning to use cash again. You can do this by selecting a line item in your budget and opting to use cash for the month instead of your debit card (or credit card). Be aware of how it feels to use cash, and be thankful that the pain is there. Cash hurts, and this is a good thing!
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Believe it or not, a credit card company actually did me a favor. I almost fell for the zero percent introductory APR trap. Thankfully, we were denied the credit card. The reason for the denial is irrelevant; the point is that we were seriously close to making a terrible mistake with our finances, and I am thankful that we were never approved and will not receive the card.
With our backs against the wall to pay off this high interest rate credit card that we had originally planned to transfer to a new credit card, we are now extremely focused to get this credit card paid off and the account closed yesterday. We can't wait to be done with this credit card, and we never want to make the same mistake again. Not being able to simply transfer our balance to another credit card is a blessing in disguise. We now feel the pain of the higher interest rate which in of itself establishes the needed sense of urgency to pay this off as quickly as possible.
If you are in a similar situation right now and are contemplating signing up for a credit card balance transfer, please think again. This isn't the way to pay off debt. There is no other route other than to simply pay off the debt. Transferring balances back and forth is not the same as paying off a debt. It gives us a false sense of accomplishment, when in reality, we haven't decreased the amount that we owe. What's worse, we may be tempted to wait longer to pay off debt or go into more debt in the meantime. Buckle down, pay off your debt, and make real moves towards the next step of getting into prosperity.
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Today's episode is based on a small snippet from the book, Cold Hard Truth On Men, Women, and Money by Kevin O'Leary. The ten items mentioned on this episode will help you to avoid paying interest as much as possible throughout your lifetime. This is a good thing; generally speaking, if you pay less interest, you have the opportunity to earn more interest through investing and other vehicles geared towards your goal of getting into prosperity.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
There is a lot to be said about giving our kids opportunities to earn money based upon age-appropriate jobs that they can do around the house. I think that kids should have standard chores that they are responsible for, but they can work above and beyond what's expected of them to earn their own money. It helps them to establish a healthy work ethic and provides a way for them to learn where money truly comes from.
With that said, this is also an opportunity for a teachable moment. We can help kids to learn the three main choices that they have to make with their newly-earned income: save the money, spend the money, or give the money to a charitable cause. They will eventually be able to make their own decisions with money, and they will understand the importance of being in control of their finances from a young age. What a great way to establish lifelong habits!
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Eating out is a common occurrence nowadays. We likely eat out more often than we realize for the simple convenience factor alone. At the time that we choose to dine out, the meal doesn't seem to cost much. However, if you add up the number of times we may choose to eat out in any given month, that amount can equal a lot more than we even realize.
This goes without saying, but the money used for eating out could be used in other areas of our budget. Eating out is expensive. If we eat out less, we'll likely have more money to apply towards our debt payoff strategy. I don't know about you, but I'd rather pay off debt faster as opposed to eating at a restaurant more often than I know that I should be.
Along with eating out being bad for our budget, it's also bad for our health. Eating out typically equates to more calories per meal. This is due to the enormous portions that restaurants are now providing to make it seem like you're getting a good deal with the increased prices of dining out nowadays. Also, the sodium content in most prepared foods is much more than what you'll find in a simple home-cooked meal.
Do yourself a favor. Try not to eat out as often. Check to see if it increases the amount available in your budget while shrinking your waistline at the same time. I'll bet it will on both counts.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Paying your credit card bills on time isn't enough. You need to scrutinize these bills and find out just how much your interest charges are costing you each and every month. You could have one credit card or several credit cards, but the process is the same. You need to take a good look at your latest statements and find out how much you are really paying for the credit cards that you own.
If you have higher interest rate credit cards, including department store credit cards, you could be paying hundreds of dollars a month or more in interest alone. This is a scary revelation, especially if it's something that you haven't really thought about or noticed before.
Don't worry. Once you research this information, it's actually a good way to get a reality check for yourself. If nothing else, this will motivate you to get out of debt as quickly as possible. I know personally I found out that one of my credit cards was costing me almost $100.00 per month in interest charges alone. That's just one of them! These credit cards need to be paid off and go away yesterday. The time can't come soon enough to have this goal completed, and I'm sure you'll feel the same way once you find out what's really going on with the interest charges that you are currently paying.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
If you've been at the same place of employment for a while, you're probably setting your sights on getting a promotion, and why shouldn't you? With added responsibility comes an increase in pay, which means more income that you can use to get out of debt and get into prosperity that much faster.
These top ten ways to get a promotion will help you to stand out from the crowd. Even if you don't get the promotion right now, these ten tips will still help you to stand out in your current position. This could mean better raises when it comes time for job performance reviews, even if it doesn't mean a promotion at this time. You'll still be considered a valuable employee, and your raises will reflect this truth.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
If you are married and in the process of getting out of debt, is your spouse enthusiastically supporting you? Imagine if all married folks, at the same time, enthusiastically supported one another. If this is true in your world, you can't lose. You'll always win with goals when the two of you are working together as enthusiastic teammates. If you're not there quite yet, don't worry. You will be someday; it's only a matter of time.
When you realize the moment that this actually happens between you and your spouse, hold on to that moment. Nurture that moment. Make sure that it doesn't go away without being properly addressed and acted upon. Your spouse may not approach you to tell you that you've been right this whole time, hanging their head down in shame, but that's okay. That wasn't the goal. The goal was for your spouse to come around by realizing that life is better without debt. Life is worth working hard to get out of debt. Life is all about freedom from debt and breaking the chains once and for all, and now you've got the teammate that you've always hoped for in your spouse, your champion.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Today is all about hosting your very own garage sale in order to earn some quick cash and get rid of stuff at the same time. Believe it or not, there is a process to planning a successful garage sale. I'm talking about this entire process today, and the tips included here should help you to best plan for your upcoming sale event. You'll earn the most money possible by strategically placing your merchandise a certain way as explained on today's episode as well as learning some other unique tips to really draw in a good crowd.
By the way, you'll have to expect people to touch your stuff. It happens, even with the breakable stuff. Expect people to haggle the price down. It's all a part of the psychology behind garage sales that I explain in detail on this episode. So once you've done the work to get your garage sale ready and organized, just sit back, relax, grab a cool beverage, be friendly, and sell some stuff this weekend!
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Are you feeling overwhelmed? Does most of your financial life seem to be spinning out of control? Do you find yourself burying your head in the sand and hoping that by some miracle everything will just go away?
You're not alone. However, keep in mind that it's critical for us to get a handle on things first and foremost. We have to realize the importance of this, and we have to attend to whatever is going on that is causing us to feel overwhelmed and out of control. Those circumstances won't change, regardless of whether we choose to bury our heads in the sand or not.
Getting a handle on things begins with the budget. This is the core and center of everything financial. You'll want to start by collecting all of the bills and organizing them into separate piles for each separate amount owed. If you have duplicates, keep them all together in the same stack. You're doing this to get a visual perspective on the job that you have ahead of you in order to get these bills into your budget to eventually be paid.
This may require that you make some phone calls. You need to make promises to pay these folks and stick to the deadlines that you set. Ideally, you'll want to do this before your bills go off to collections. If you've missed the mark and you now owe to collection agencies, you'll do the same thing and categorize those bills into their appropriate stack. Once agreements have been made, now it's time to put the plan of action into the budget and discard all of the duplicates, keeping only the one copy that is the most current. Put these current copies of your bills into a folder or on your desk in a neat stack. This is what you'll be focusing on paying off, and you'll immediately feel more organized without multiple copies of the same bills in front of you.
While getting out of debt is super-important, it's even more critical to get current first. You're making a plan to keep the debt collectors away as well as tending to anything else that may distract you from your focus to get out of debt.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Have you ever experienced a phenomenon known as getting out of debt fatigue? It's a real thing, and it happens to the best of us (myself included). When we're focused on a goal like getting out of debt, most of us are in for the long haul. This isn't a simple two or three month process. This will likely be something that will go on for a number of years, and it's going to require a lot from us.
I like to compare getting out of debt to running a marathon or even a half-marathon. I'm not a runner, and I don't plan to ever become a runner. With that said, I do understand that most runners will eventually experience fatigue at some point during the marathon. Do they stop entirely? No, of course not. They will slow down the pace for a bit, then they will pick back up again. The goal is to finish the race, and all of this is quite similar to getting out of debt. Not everyone finishes a marathon, and similarly, not everyone gets out of debt. Those that do have truly accomplished a phenomenal feat.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Money isn't good. Money isn't bad. It's simply money. It's a tool that we utilize, and it doesn't have the capacity to be good or evil. Many folks misquote a well-known Bible verse and will tell us that money is the root of all evil. However, the Bible doesn't say that. What it does say is that the love of money is the root of all evil; in other words, it's the action of putting money over and above everything else that is the root of all evil. I completely agree with the Bible verse, but I completely disagree with the misquoted version.
Only the actions of the individual who is utilizing money as a resource can be deemed as good or evil. If someone donates to charitable organizations, most of us will agree that the action taken was good. If someone gambles away their money or uses it to purchase drugs and alcohol that causes them to mess up their lives, we will agree that those actions are bad. However, the money stays neutral, regardless of how it is being used. It doesn't take on a good or an evil quality; only the actions taken by the individual using the money will be deemed as good or evil.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
You've got to put some fun money into the budget. Personally, I didn't do this for a long time. As a matter of fact, I didn't realize the importance of budgeting for fun money until just recently. When fun money was not budgeted, we would simply go over budget just to squeeze some fun into our lives. Most of the money spent was unplanned, so we likely spent more than we would have if we would have just budgeted to have fun on purpose to begin with.
The money that you budget in this new category is money that you set aside, thoughtfully, to spend as you wish. It allows you to insert a little fun into the budget, even if you find budgeting to be a task that is far from fun. It's also guilt-free money; you don't have to feel guilty spending the cash, because you put it there on purpose for the sole reason of having fun with it.
You don't need to be extravagant, either. You may not be able to imagine adding more money to your budget right now, especially if you are living paycheck to paycheck. However, you do not need to budget hundreds of dollars. Even a few dollars in a given month to let loose will help you to take the sting out of budgeting and make it feel a little less constricting while you're in the process of getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Will your interest in the purchases that you make on a credit card or by taking out a loan outlive the interest that you'll pay? In most cases, probably not. When I was younger and less financially savvy, I would see something that I liked, buy it, and eventually got bored with it. I put most of these purchases on credit cards to the tune of two almost maxed-out credit cards. I paid interest on these purchases for quite a while, and I'm sure that I lost interest in these items well before the time that it took for me to finally pay these purchases off in full.
Don't make the same mistakes that I did way back when. If you can't pay cash for a purchase, at least take some time to consider the purchase that you're going to make before you swipe the plastic or sign on the dotted line. Realize that interest paid on a purchase means that you will always pay more than the purchase price that you're considering. The only way that you get the deal promised to you is if you are paying with cash.
The question that you need to ask yourself is this: will your interest in the item that you're considering outlive the interest that you'll end up paying? If the answer is no or even if you're not sure, hold off on that purchase for now. Save up and pay cash for it. If you can't wait to save up cash, then be honest with yourself. Is the real price that you'll be paying, including interest on the purchase if you swipe the plastic or sign a piece of paper, be worth it? Don't just look at the price tag; consider the total purchase cost including any interest charges before you make a decision. You at least owe yourself that if you're not paying with cash.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Everyone else has credit card debt. Everyone else has car payments. Everyone else has a 30-year mortgage. Everyone else will not have enough saved up for retirement. Everyone else has student loan debt.
This is an excuse that is used by a lot of folks to justify past financial decisions and even present financial decisions. If everyone else is doing it this way, then it must be fine, right? Absolutely not. The masses can do things a certain way, but that doesn't mean that way is appropriate for you or you and your family. It doesn't mean that if you follow the crowd that you'll be okay. To be honest, if people are justifying that they won't have enough saved up for retirement, that should scare you. You should want to immediately go in the opposite direction when you hear about not having enough for retirement or hear about paying off a mortgage much later in life.
Be outspoken. Be different. Be unique. Stand out from the crowd and do your own thing that will lead to getting out of debt and into prosperity. Before you know it, everyone else will begin to follow you.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
It may seem like a strange question, but I have to ask you: what is your ceiling? In other words, what is the self-limitation that you have set for yourself as far as how much you can earn? Is it $50,000.00 per year? Is it $60,000.00 per year? Is it less? Is it more?
Regardless of the limitations that we may put on ourselves, we need to push through that ceiling. We need to realize that while we may not become millionaires, we should never sabotage our earning power by focusing on these completely fabricated limits that we've set. It's time to break through that ceiling once and for all and increase our earning power! The time-tested way to do that is simple to state but difficult to implement. It requires three things: hard work, perseverance, and determination. There are no secret systems to wealth; hard work, determination, and perseverance will always win the day.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Think about the last time that you were saddened or angered by some event. In most cases, the event wasn't serious enough for you to care about it in ten weeks from now. Perhaps you wouldn't care ten days from now. It might even be something that you forget about completely ten hours from now. So, why do we bother reacting to these events in the first place?
There are plenty of other self-sabotaging reactions that we have to various situations that steal our happiness. I go into detail on seven ways for us to be happier, including tips on staying out of argumentative situations and seeking wise counsel when the hard times come up. Hopefully, once you implement some or all of these seven solutions to allow for more happiness in your life, you'll feel better all of the way around and will be able to handle situations that come up without them causing unnecessary extended bouts of unhappiness.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
If you're in the process of looking for a new home, you may want to consider a smaller home. A smaller home has many benefits, including a smaller area to clean and maintain. Of course, a smaller home will likely equate to a smaller house payment as well as less that you'll owe for real estate taxes.
There was a time when bigger was better, but nowadays with the public hearing about tiny houses and similar fads, people are starting to understand why smaller may be the way to go. You'll save time, money, and you'll likely have more opportunities for bonding with your spouse and kids.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Have you ever felt like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole? In particular, I'm talking about conversations that you may find yourself in with people when what they say is the complete opposite of how you think about a particular subject.
I can't tell you how many times I've been asked to give my opinion on a new vehicle that was purchased for $35,000.00 or more, and while I know that I should nod, smile, and exclaim how nice the vehicle is, I can't help but to cringe inside at the price tag. I know the person showing me their new prize is excited, and I really don't want to be the one to burst their bubble.
What's the best course of action? Do you confront your friend or family member and express your disbelief in their poor decision making abilities? After some further thought, I guess the line that I draw in the sand is to give my opinions if the person asking for my advice has not yet signed on the dotted line. Once they've signed on the dotted line and purchased the expensive object of discussion, it's simply too late at that point. You're best to remain cordial and try to squeeze out a congratulatory remark, as difficult as that might be.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Are you considering a HELOC (home equity line of credit)? A HELOC is a borrowing instrument that allows you to use the equity in your home to borrow against. My wife and I talked about this and did some research, and this is the information that I found on the subject that I want to share with you today.
Personally, I think that the scariest thing about a HELOC is that your house is on the line. If you don't make the payments, your house is in serious jeopardy. Some folks ignore this risk and focus on the benefits of a HELOC, a couple of those benefits being lower interest rates than a straight personal loan as well as tax deductions at the end of the year. After looking into this, I feel that the benefits simply do not outweigh the risks when it comes to a HELOC.
Also, if you are using a HELOC to consolidate credit card debt, you are likely turning unsecured debt into secured debt. The credit card companies get their money, so they're happy. However, if you fail to pay the HELOC, you have your home securing the loan. You could actually lose your home over what used to be your credit card debt. That doesn't sound like a wise move.
A HELOC typically has a variable rate attached to it, so interest rates could rise and take your HELOC payment up with it. I personally do not like an unpredictable circumstance when it comes to managing money. Of course, you can pay more than your minimum payment due, but if you're doing that already, why not just use cash? Why put your house on the line in the first place?
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Simply stated, SMART goals give us an opportunity to put our goals through a filter that will help us to better define our individual goals and increase our odds of success by stating our goals the correct way the first time. Whenever we define a goal for ourselves, we want to follow the SMART goal format.
SMART is an acronym, and it stands for the following:
S - Specific: You want your goal to be specific. You want your goal to be specific by answering three questions when defining your goal. What? Why? How?
M - Measurable: You want your goal to be measurable. You want to define a date for your goal and make sure that you have a way to measure your progress along the way.
A - Achievable: Your goal needs to be achievable as well as able to be achieved by the date specified in the previous step. Goals should feel like a challenge without feeling like an impossible mission.
R - Realistic: Your goal is something that you are realistically able to do. You can see yourself already succeeding with this particular goal because it is realistic for you. Again, it's okay if it feels like a challenge... because it should.
T - Time-based: You are creating a sense of urgency. You know that the goal needs to be accomplished by a certain date. Without your goal being time-based, it becomes too easy to slip into something that drags on in perpetuity.
While this is useful for personal finance goals, you can use the SMART goal format for any goal that you are working to accomplish. It's a great way to give yourself a fantastic head start and better chance of success towards achieving your goals, whatever they might be.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
In general, it's good to be in the present. However, I also think that it's important for us to anticipate the future as well. If we only look at our finances one week or even one month at a time, we miss opportunities that will benefit us in the future. This includes investing, saving for retirement, and other ways that we will eventually get into prosperity.
Thinking big picture may not come easy for some folks. This is especially true if you are currently having financial difficulties in the present, such as the ability to pay bills or ever-increasing debt burdens. This kind of trouble makes it challenging to think about what will benefit us in the future when we're trying to just get by in the here and now. However, if you expand your horizons and temporarily remove yourself from the present and place yourself in the future for just a bit, you can gain the benefits of thinking big picture.
I recommend trying to write down a financial goal that you would like to accomplish one year from now. It doesn't have to be a fully-completed goal; for example, if you are in debt but don't think that it's realistic to be out of debt completely in one year, then ask yourself what percentage of debt would you be able to have paid off in a year from now? Do you have a different goal that you've got your sights set on for one year from now? Perhaps it's to have six months of expenses saved up in a fully-funded emergency fund. Whatever your goal may be, the important thing is to put pen to paper and write it down.
Once you've established your goal that you'll reach one year from now, it's time to work backwards and break it down into more manageable time chunks. Think of what you have to do for the next twelve months in order to get to the finish line that you've established. Once you've established that timeline, the next step is to break it down into weeks and even days. It may be difficult for some goals to get that granular, but the whole point of this exercise is to train your brain to think big picture. You don't have to be perfect; you're simply training yourself to see past a few feet in front of you when it comes to accomplishing important goals.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
If you're not in the mood to write a review right now, that's okay! All that I ask is that you simply share this show with three friends or family members today who may end up loving it as much as you do. Text, call, or post about it on social media - whatever works best for you.
Do you start your day by hitting snooze for a half hour before you actually crawl out of bed? Before you know it, you're rushing around like a crazy person trying to get out the door to get to work, get to school, drop the kids off at daycare, or get to wherever it is that you are headed. You've spent most of your initial energy just trying to make it on time to your destination. By the time you come home, you're exhausted. You may eat dinner, take care of a few small things, then you're off to bed for the night just to start the entire process all over again.
I am going to recommend a bit of a change in your schedule. All that I ask is that you try this new process that I'm describing on this episode for sixty days, and if it doesn't work out for you after two short months, feel free to go back to your usual routine. However, I would be willing to bet that you will be addicted to this new routine after you see what you can accomplish and which important items that you can get taken care of before you even start the majority of your day. It will set the pace for the rest of your work and tasks to be accomplished, and you'll end up being much more productive.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
If you're not in the mood to write a review right now, that's okay! All that I ask is that you simply share this show with three friends or family members today who may end up loving it as much as you do. Text, call, or post about it on social media - whatever works best for you.
When we are bold and courageous and know that we're going to succeed before we even start, that's when real progress is made. Knowing with absolute certainty that you will accomplish your goal before you even begin puts you at an incredible advantage over those who approach goals with timidity.
How do we become more bold? It's actually not a difficult process. What's more, it doesn't matter if you are introverted or extroverted. In either case, what you need to do first and foremost is gain knowledge on whatever goal that you have decided upon that you are willing to accomplish. Once you have gained some knowledge, then you need to get started immediately by taking action towards accomplishing your goal. Taking action will naturally lead to more confidence. More confidence allows for us to become more bold in general. This process continues on and on for as long as you are willing to repeat these steps, and over time, you will become a goal-accomplishing machine!
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
If you're not in the mood to write a review right now, that's okay! All that I ask is that you simply share this show with three friends or family members today who may end up loving it as much as you do. Text, call, or post about it on social media - whatever works best for you.
Habits are simply regular actions on autopilot. We have repeated the actions often enough that we no longer need to think about the actions in order for them to occur. Most of us have established both good habits and bad habits.
There are ways for us to transform some of our bad habits into good habits that will help us to improve ourselves physically, spiritually, emotionally, or mentally - depending on the habit that we are taking the time to change into a good habit. It's important for us to first identify the bad habits that need to change, otherwise we'll likely continue doing the same negative actions over and over again without ever replacing them with good habits.
This transformation takes time, effort, and patience, and you have to allow yourself enough room to fail a few times before you eventually succeed. Once you've worked at this for a while, you will reap the benefits of a new good habit and the added benefit of ridding yourself of a bad habit at the same time.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
If you're not in the mood to write a review right now, that's okay! All that I ask is that you simply share this show with three friends or family members today who may end up loving it as much as you do. Text, call, or post about it on social media - whatever works best for you.
Even the most driven and focused individuals can succumb to laziness. We don't even realize that it's happening to us when it happens, but when we were set to work on certain tasks but binge-watch Netflix instead, laziness has crept in and successfully defeated our plans.
So what do we do about this? The best way to defeat laziness is to plan ahead and manage time in the best way possible. Use a task list or calendar and strategically plan what you are setting out to accomplish. Many times, putting it in a schedule format seems to make it more official in our minds and less likely to be ignored.
Does this mean that we shouldn't have any downtime while we're in the process of accomplishing goals? Of course not. However, another useful tip that I have is to actually plan downtime as well. The difference between downtime and laziness is that we can actually schedule our downtime on purpose. Think about the best way to take a break and cool your jets. Perhaps it's reading a good book. Perhaps it's hanging out with friends and being social or spending time with your spouse (and perhaps leaving the smartphone off for a night). It could even be watching television if that's what you truly want to do, but the difference here is to not be hypnotized into watching three straight hours of Netflix or Hulu. Do something like this in moderation.
The point is that we can all do a better job at time management. Time management and being aware of how time is being spent is a surefire way to defeat laziness and rid it from your life for good.
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
If you're not in the mood to write a review right now, that's okay! All that I ask is that you simply share this show with three friends or family members today who may end up loving it as much as you do. Text, call, or post about it on social media - whatever works best for you. Because remember... sharing is caring!
Excuses set us back from accomplishing our goals. They extend the time necessary to accomplish a particular goal or a task related to a goal because the excuses are something that we use to justify our actions that go directly against what we had set out to accomplish in the first place.
It's almost too easy to come up with excuses as to why we are doing things to self-sabotage our efforts. We justify why we need to finance a newer vehicle. We justify why we need to direct our resources elsewhere rather than going towards paying off debt. We justify expensive vacations. We justify shopping for holidays and anniversaries and putting those expenses on a credit card. The cycle goes on and on year after year until we put our foot down and put a stop to it!
Have you enjoyed this podcast so far? Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple steps to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins with you leaving a review!
Between my wife and me, we've been receiving 0% introductory APR credit card offers at least three times a week lately. I started to wonder why there has been a sudden increase in aggressive marketing from the credit card companies. What I've come up with is that the credit card companies want to see who will transfer a balance or make a large purchase on one of these cards and forget about it until the time comes for the APR to kick in, usually 18 to 21 months later. By then, the standard APR kicks in, and the credit card company can now cash in on their gamble.
While I'm not completely against transferring a balance to a 0% introductory APR credit card, I don't think that it's a good idea to continue to do this in perpetuity. Not only will this hurt your credit score over time, but it will also keep you in debt for longer than you need to be. I think that it's fine to save some money by transferring a larger card balance with a higher APR credit card to a 0% introductory APR credit card to save money on the interest, but I also think that it's necessary to continue to aggressively pay off the transferred balance as quickly as possible. This is the only way that you will get yourself out of debt entirely.
Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple guide to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins today with you!
One of the best ways to learn more about yourself and your spending habits is to look at transactions over the last three to six months for several different categories. These categories can be entertainment, restaurants, and even your morning coffee. Even if you aren't one to keep good records, most banks and other financial institutions will allow for you to go back 90 days or more when you do your research online. Doing this will allow for you to look through your transactions to find out how much you've spent in these various categories over a longer period of time.
This larger number that you'll likely come up with can be quite eye-opening. You may realize that the money that you have spent on one or more categories could have went towards your debt as one or more larger payments. When I did this exercise, I found that we go out to eat a lot. That's our downfall. It didn't seem like much at the time; when I looked at $40.00 or $50.00 per dinner for a family of four, I didn't feel that this was much of a problem or a distraction from paying off debt. However, when I saw just how many of these dinners that we spent our money on over the last six months, I could easily see how that money could have been better used to attack our debt.
Now, does this mean that you will need to decide once you get your data that you shouldn't go out to the movies, dinner, or sporting events? Of course not. This exercise isn't meant to be a way to deprive yourself of fun activities. Instead, this exercise is meant to simply paint a picture for you to help you to better manage your resources. You can still go out to eat or enjoy a ball game, but perhaps you may find that it's best to scale it back a bit and only do these things every once in a while as a special treat, at least while you are in the process of getting out of debt. It will also help you to have something to look forward to once you have succeeded with your goals!
Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple guide to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins today with you!
Our brains are wired in such a way that we can imagine an event and actually react and feel emotions the same way as we would if we had actually experienced the real thing. Isn't that a bit fascinating? I think so.
With this concept of visualizing, we can actually imagine ourselves being out of debt. We can picture ourselves sitting at our kitchen table, desk, or wherever we pay the bills and imagine not having debt payments. Just picture that for a moment. How would it feel? We can honestly experience the excitement if we picture this in great detail in our minds, and that alone can be positive motivation and focus for us to keep going towards our goals.
On the flip side, when we worry about future events that may or may not happen, our bodies react the same way as if the event is actually being experienced. This may be a way for us to realize that it's time to take action so that we can actually take on the problems and address them the way that we should.
Whether positive or negative, we can use these visualization techniques to our advantage. We can either use them to be excited and stay positive and focused on our goals or take a cue from our anxiety or worry to take action to change our circumstances so that we don't have to worry about whatever negative event that we're visualizing anymore.
Would you mind providing a review for this show? It's super easy. Just go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/review and follow the simple guide to leave a review. It only takes a few minutes, and it helps others to find this show so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity. We'll start a movement, and it all begins today with you!
If you are the one who primarily takes care of the household budget, you may not realize that you are effectively in a leadership role. Does this mean that you get to boss your spouse around? No, of course not. However, you do need to picture yourself as a leader because you are essentially the one who has taken the primary role in managing your family's finances. With that said, a good leader looks for feedback from others. In this case, that means that you should be seeking feedback from your spouse to keep him or her involved.
Perhaps your spouse may not be on the same page yet as far as sitting down and doing a budget. Perhaps they want nothing more than a high-level overview of what's going on with your family financially. That's fine, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's up to you as a good leader to come up with inventive ways to involve your spouse without overwhelming them. I talk about an idea today that I had recently that may help you as well.
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Inviting friends or family members to weigh in on a personal financial problem may not work out as well as you had intended. This is especially true if you are married and the disagreement that you are having is with your spouse. If the two of you are unable to agree on a plan or a resolution to an issue, one of the worst things that can happen in that situation is for one or both spouses to go out on their own to seek the counsel of friends and family.
Don't get me wrong. Most people are well-meaning, especially when a friend or family member comes to them with a problem. They want to naturally comfort or support the person, but they also are giving advice or suggestions based on only one side of the equation. What naturally happens next is that the spouse comes back to the same disagreement with the other and parrots the opinions of someone external to the conversation. This usually ends up escalating the disagreement and making things worse. This isn't the way that you want to go about this, especially if the disagreement has to do with money.
Instead, it's important to seek wise and professional counsel when it is appropriate. That means seeking out the help of a financial advisor, licensed therapist, or counselor. This is the only time that I think married folks should seek an opinion outside of the marriage. The primary reason is that the professional opinion will be void of any particular emotional connection to either side and will be the source of the most factual and logical suggestions based on the given situation at hand.
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Do you have an issue that you're having trouble with that hasn't yet been addressed on this show? Perhaps you're just starting out and need a little boost to get started on your journey out of the debt. Whatever the case may be and whatever question that you may have, this is the resource for you.
I am opening up an Ask Me Anything, otherwise known as an AMA, to allow for you to ask any questions that you may have. It's simple to do, and I'll get back to you with an answer as quickly as possible.
There are three main ways to get in touch with me directly. On Twitter, simply follow and tweet (or send a message directly) to @fmoodpodcast. On Facebook, go to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. If your question is a little more detailed or you prefer this contact method, you can also send me an e-mail directly by going to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/contact. Fill out the short contact form, leave your question in the message area, and I will be in touch with you as soon as possible.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
Do you struggle to make your money last until the end of the month? Regardless if you are paid monthly, bi-weekly, or otherwise, I'll be explaining a couple of strategies that will help you to make your money stretch until the end of the month.
What I'll be covering today:
-How to change your due date with your lender's permission and some caveats
-How to stretch your grocery budget
-How to stretch any other frequently-changing budget category that you are struggling with (fuel, spending cash, etc.)
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I'm also on various social media outlets if you'd like to join me on:
Twitter: @fmoodpodcast
Facebook: http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fmoodpodcast
It's great to have goals and to be focused on those goals. I love to be driven and to keep going even when times are tough in order to complete a goal. It feels great, and sometimes I welcome challenges just so I have the opportunity to overcome them (within reason, of course). I love to-do lists and tend to schedule quite a bit on these lists. However, I don't recall the last time that I scheduled in some fun or some downtime in general. That got me thinking about how that's not exactly a good thing. I need to change that.
If we're always focused on our goals and always driven to complete those goals, that's not necessarily a bad thing. However, we also need to make sure that we don't forget about what truly matters. Time management is incredibly important, and we want to be able to clearly differentiate between work time and play time each and every day to ensure that we have a healthy balance of each. If we're consistently focused and working on goals without any downtime, we will eventually hit a wall. Aside from that we'll also miss important opportunities with our family and friends that we can never get back.
While it's incredibly important then to make time for what truly matters, we also have to learn to work smarter rather than working harder when we do work. We need to think outside of the box in order to do the things that we need to do as efficiently as possible. Many of us sacrifice time for money, and it's better to sacrifice the least amount of time as possible for the most amount of money. The reason for that is pretty straightforward; time is incredibly important, and none of us can buy more of it.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I'm also on various social media outlets if you'd like to join me on:
Twitter: @fmoodpodcast
Facebook: http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fmoodpodcast
I have to tell you about this hilarious Facebook ad that I saw this morning. Long story short, this guy did this ad to push his system on how to make money flipping real estate. He was standing next to a Lamborghini parked in front of a Chase building. I didn't actually listen to the audio portion of the video, but I did watch it and read the comments (which was mostly the hilarious part). People aren't easily fooled. The comments mentioned how he never got into or out of the car, and why did he decide to do the video in front of the Chase building? I can only assume that it was for brand recognition.
While this is all somewhat entertaining, the sad truth is that there are some folks who are getting desperate. People selling these products for their own financial benefit are taking advantage of people's pain points. I'm not saying that all people selling products through Facebook ads are snake oil salesmen. However, the majority of them are trying to get rich off of other people's desperate situations. Of course, if the material provides true value and results, then that's legitimate. However, in most circumstances, this is simply not the case.
Do your research prior to buying into any program that promises fast riches. Scrutinize and pay close attention to the negative reviews out there. Realize that you can also utilize plenty of free resources as well, such as free podcasts, library books, blogs, and other resources. You could also search for a mentor for what it is that you are interested in and the goals that you are trying to accomplish. While this may not be easy in of itself, this is typically the best method for accomplishing whatever goals that you are trying to reach with the appropriate assistance that you need.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I'm also on various social media outlets if you'd like to join me on:
Twitter: @fmoodpodcast
Facebook: http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fmoodpodcast
Resentment is a bad thing in a marriage. When you are working on what could sometimes be a stressful path towards getting out of debt, you may come across certain situations where you argue or fight with your spouse. You won't always see eye-to-eye, even in the best scenarios. If you get into a lot of these negative situations, there is the potential for resentment to become the unfortunate product of all of this.
Money is one of the largest catalysts of problems in a marriage. Sometimes it can even lead to divorce. While you could blame money problems for turbulent marriage situations, the real culprit is almost always how the married couple handles the issues. Seeing the good in your spouse, even if you are angry with him or her, will help you to squash resentment before it even has a chance to take root.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I'm also on various social media outlets if you'd like to join me on:
Twitter: @fmoodpodcast
Facebook: http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fmoodpodcast
Let me tell you how I really feel about credit cards. Credit cards can be dangerous. At the same time, there's nothing wrong with the responsible use of credit cards. The key is to know yourself and know whether or not you possess the ability to own a credit card for responsible use only.
Part of the problem and why there is a danger involved with credit cards is that there's the lack of an emotional connection with plastic. When we use cash, we feel the transaction. When we use plastic, we don't really notice it until after we receive the credit card statement. Because there is that disconnect at the time of purchase, we don't feel the amount that we're spending at the time that we're doing the spending. If you're someone who may continue to repeat this process until you are up to your eyeballs in credit card debt, then you should swear off credit cards forever.
Here's the deal. There are folks who own one credit card and pay off the balance regularly. There are others who can't get near a credit card without purchasing the world. You need to figure out where you fall on that spectrum and plan accordingly. The key to responsible credit card use can be narrowed down to one concept: have a plan of action before the transaction. If you don't have a plan or don't think that you'll be able to pay the balance off on your card anytime soon if you use the credit card, opt to use cash instead and save yourself the hassle.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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I had a job when I was younger that you may find hard to believe. I was a credit card pusher. Yes, I worked for a company that was hired by banks and other financial institutions to call potential customers to get them to sign up for a credit card. Hey, we all do things when we're younger that we're not proud of, and that was one for me.
The process in place required that I place calls to potential customers, read the script, and if the customer didn't accept the offer, we were also required to provide a rebuttal three times. Our supervisors would chime in on our headsets to make sure that we wouldn't forget. The potential customer couldn't hear the supervisor, but we could. Sometimes the individual on the other end of the phone would cave and accept the offer, but most times they wouldn't. Our commission and other benefits were based on the former, of course.
Eventually, the company was asked to push a credit card for a university. The hook was that the university logo was on the credit card itself. The students at the university were specifically targeted for this offer, and it couldn't have been easier to process accepted offers that day. I wasn't used to this, but the students were happily accepting the credit card offers left and right.
When I reflected back on this memory, I knew that I had to do a podcast episode on this topic. If you or someone you know is a college student (or even in that age range), you'll want to listen to this episode. I personally feel that it's best for someone to wait until they are already established at a full time job or career before making a financial decision as to whether or not a credit card is appropriate. However, I also see the side of the argument where building and establishing good credit could be beneficial when starting at a younger age. I'll go into more detail about how I think you should best handle this particular situation if you do decide to sign up for a credit card as a college student.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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Are you looking for a free budget spreadsheet that you can use for your monthly budget? I've got my personal monthly budget spreadsheet that I've used over the years now available for download. Simply go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/budget to download my budget spreadsheet.
I'm also including instructions on how to use the spreadsheet and talking a bit about how the automatic calculations will help you to easily keep tabs on your money throughout the month. This spreadsheet will work with Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or any other software or online application that allows you to open and modify spreadsheet files.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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Do you have a fear of making large payments towards your debt? I usually recommend saving up for a large payment and applying it towards the debt in huge chunks at a time. When you save up the money and put it aside to pay towards debt, it's an adrenaline rush. It also helps us to get into the habit of saving money for something. It's a good habit to train our brains to do this, especially when we've been used to simply putting purchases on a credit card rather than saving up cash.
It's understandable to be anxious about making a large payment, especially if you realize that this money is literally exiting your checking account forever. However, I think that you can get comfortable with this process as long as you keep in mind that your starter emergency fund should already be in place to use if you have a need for it. The key here is to only save up to the amount that is already in your starter emergency fund to use towards debt. In other words, if you have $1,000.00 saved for emergencies, then you can pay debt off in increments of up to $1,000.00. Once you realize that you can save up an additional amount of money on top of your starter emergency fund, you will get more and more comfortable with the process of saving money for a greater purpose. In this case, it's to get out of debt one large payment at a time.
Some folks feel comfort in knowing that they can pay down their credit cards and not be fearful or anxious because they can still use the available balance if need be. I don't recommend this way of thinking. You are actually telling yourself that it's still okay to go into debt. Instead of doing this, simply focus on your emergency fund for comfort while you make these large payments towards your debts. While I see nothing wrong with the responsible use of credit cards, if you are someone who is easily tempted to go back into debt irresponsibly, then I would highly recommend destroying the credit cards as quickly as possible.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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Rule number one when it comes to working with your spouse is to be kind to your spouse. Both of you must follow this rule, otherwise things will become turbulent, and there's a much higher possibility that the two of you will argue or fight. This is true whether you are working on your monthly budget together or something as simple as deciding on where to go out to dinner.
Realize that your spouse is going to think differently than you do, and that is completely normal. You need to have enough give and take in your marriage so that you are able to eventually mesh together and become one. Being rude or not respecting each other will only put the other person on the defensive. It will split the two of you apart, not bring you together.
Insults, put-downs, let-downs, or any other negativity will not help either one of you. While you may have your differences, your best course of action is to try to see each other's point of view. Empathy and kindness can go a long way towards bringing you closer to your spouse, and when your spouse sees that you are taking this stance rather than being on guard and ready for a fight, it's highly likely that your spouse will eventually do the same. It's when you are at this point that the both of you win.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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Are we chunking away at debt using an eating utensil or an ax? We've been in the process of saving for our first large debt payment to chunk away at our highest APR credit card that we want to get rid of first. I'm not going to lie; it has been challenging, and there's no doubt about that. If you are having trouble getting off of the launch pad, I want to let you know that you're not alone.
I'm looking forward to the adrenaline rush that will come with that first swing of the ax. I know that once we finish saving up for that first initial payment towards our debt and type in the amount online to actually make the payment, it's going to be a rush. I hope that we get addicted to that rush and gain the momentum and the excitement needed to do this over and over again until all of our debts are paid in full.
The first swing of the ax is the most difficult, but I know that once we start chipping away at the debt and see some traction, things will only get better from there. I can't wait to experience that feeling.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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When we are working towards accomplishing a huge goal like getting out of debt, it can be quite easy for us to convince ourselves that we need to be in a state of suffering while we work on this goal. We somehow end up telling ourselves that we should be generally unhappy while we are working on this goal. Why do we do this?
Well, for one thing, our environment usually dictates the level of stress that we have in our lives. If we're working a full-time job and a part-time job, we may be putting in too many hours. We may not be seeing loved ones as much as we want to, and it may lead to stress. We may feel stressed because we can't seem to make ends meet. Whatever the reasons may be, the stress will almost always bring on unhappiness and the feeling that we're suffering throughout this process of trying to reach our goal of debt freedom.
It doesn't have to be this way. While it sounds more simple than it is, we do need to make the decision to be happy. How do we do this? The first step is to center ourselves each and every day, right at the start of the day. For me, that means morning prayer and meditation. For you, that might be something different. Perhaps yoga or light exercise. Maybe it will be a combination of all of the above. However you want to do this, the important thing is that you do something that will ground you and center you so you're starting your day at that point.
You don't want to wake up in the morning and immediately think of or begin to work on all of your problems and tasks at hand right away. We need to take some quiet time in the morning to ground and center ourselves in the best way that we know how in order to help us to be truly ready for the day. Starting from this point will greatly reduce the stress that we feel in our lives each and every day. This will naturally lead us to more happiness, and it will allow you to experience this happiness well before you reach the point of freedom once you have completed the goal of getting out of debt.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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Back on episode number 8, I talked about how you can save your first $1,000.00 for your starter emergency fund, then you can repeat the process to be able to apply large chunks or cash towards your debt. The example given was that if you had $20,000.00 in consumer debt, you could have your debt paid in full by repeating this process about twenty times. In other words, you've already proven that you could do it once, so why not repeat the process as many times as possible in order to increase your focus to pay off debt?
Another benefit that wasn't mentioned was that you are effectively establishing a habit of saving while you are in the process of getting out of debt. You train yourself to be able to save money, and this will come in handy with goals that you will eventually set for yourself once your consumer debt has been paid off. You'll want to eventually save for an actual emergency fund of four to six months of expenses. This savings strategy of saving $1,000.00 at a time will make this much easier, especially once you have no other payments except perhaps a mortgage. You could also apply this strategy for larger expenses, whether that's a newer used vehicle, vacation, or new kitchen appliances. This savings strategy will come in handy many times over as you realize the increased focus that comes with saving for various expenses in certain dollar increments over time.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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Sometimes we need to learn to stop saying yes. We say yes to spending money in many ways that go against our goals of getting out of debt and getting into prosperity. We say yes to car payments. We say yes to using credit cards. We say yes to spending money that has not been previously budgeted.
I'm not saying that we need to say no to everything, either. However, I do think that we need to apply logic to the decisions that we make. Married folks, you need to both talk about financial decisions together in a calm and logical fashion. Aside from being logical and purposeful and sometimes saying no because of this, it's also a good idea to suggest an alternative.
Need a new car? Rather than getting back into the land of car payments, suggest a newer used car that is more reliable than the one that is being replaced and can be paid for with cash after the appropriate time is taken in order to save up for the purchase. Need to go on a vacation? Don't book the flight or the rental car or hotel rooms before you determine a destination that isn't going to suck your bank account dry and have you stressed out and worrying throughout your holiday.
There are many ways that we can say no along with proposing alternative suggestions at the same time and force ourselves to stop saying yes to everything that comes our way. In doing so, we are living with purpose and defining our own path to one day get into prosperity by making sound financial decisions right now.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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A waiting list is simply a list of upcoming expenses that you are keeping on the radar so that you don't forget about them. It's similar to a sinking fund but considerably different because you aren't saving money just yet.
Instead, you are making a list of upcoming expenses that may be categorized similar to how you categorize your budget. Perhaps you have an upcoming vehicle repair that doesn't have to be done right away, but you will have to take care of the repair in the near future. You don't have to put money aside just yet, but eventually you will need to save up for this upcoming expense. The waiting list is a simple way of keeping these items in mind as you continue to work with your budget until the time comes to actually move the noted expense from the waiting list to its appropriate line item in the budget.
Some other examples of items that you may consider putting on your waiting list might be an upcoming vacation, winter tires, or home improvements. All of these items are easy to estimate the cost even though they may not need to be put into the budget until later. You can prioritize your waiting list based on needs and wants, and order the items on the waiting list accordingly as to when they will make their way to your actual budget. Having a waiting list helps to keep things in mind and on track, and it helps you to stay on point with your budget as well.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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Asking the right questions can be half of the battle when you need to get to the correct answer. We should be asking questions that will help us to drill down a bit and think outside of the box, and when we do, we may find new ways to save money or pay off debt even faster with the answers to our questions.
Take some time to think about things and simply ask why. Ask how. Ask what you need to do in order to move further with your goals. Look into different groups that are available out there on social media and other forums. Talk with those who are in the trenches in all of this. To get you started, I welcome you to join my Facebook page at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt (I will personally answer any questions on this page).
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I'm also on various social media outlets if you'd like to join me on:
Twitter: @fmoodpodcast
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It's a question that has been asked over and over again, and will likely continue to be asked. That question is this: is it better to buy or lease a vehicle? I'll tell you exactly why I will never lease a vehicle. I never have, and I never will.
For starters, it's against my personality type. I don't like a company or any other entity for that matter to have control over me. Leases have too many restrictions. When you lease a vehicle, you have to be careful not to drive over your mileage allowance. If you do, you'll need to pay per mile over the limit. If the dealership determines that your leased vehicle is reflecting anything more than what they consider normal wear and tear, you will pay even more money at the end of your lease. You will also have your leased vehicle used as leverage to keep you in a leased vehicle with that same dealership over and over again, and they will continue to tell you the same lie. That lie is that a lease is less expensive than buying a car.
While it is true that the lease payment itself will almost always be less than what you'll pay when you purchase a vehicle and have to make payments (assuming no down payment), the truth in numbers does tell a more detailed story. When you lease a vehicle, you'll likely need to put a down payment on the lease. You'll pay for the lease at a certain fixed cost per month for a set amount of time, usually thirty-six months. Once your lease is finished, you drive the vehicle back to the dealership to return it. Even if we assume that you stayed in the realm of your mileage restriction and returned the vehicle clean and clear of anything outside of normal wear and tear, you still lose that vehicle. You never owned it in the first place.
On the other hand, if you purchase a vehicle, even by taking out a forty-eight month loan, at the end of the loan you own the vehicle. You can sell the vehicle outright or trade it in for another vehicle. If you total the amount that you've paid over the years for a lease (including the down payment) and average that number per year and per month, you'll have one number. If you total the amount that you've paid over the years for a purchased vehicle and average that number per year and per month, you'll have another number, and most likely that number may be higher.
Don't forget that you have a vehicle that you now own at the end of the loan if you purchased the vehicle instead of leased it. The value of that vehicle must be taken into account and deducted from the amount that you've spent over the years for the purchase since you now own the property. After deducting this amount and getting your average cost over time, it will almost always work out to show the math behind what I'm saying: a lease will cost you more money when compared with purchasing a vehicle, even if you have to take out a loan in order to do it.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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I'll say this right out of the gate. It's almost always a horrible idea to borrow money from relatives. What happens when you've already borrowed the money from a relative? What happens if you have taken a long time to pay down the loan (or even to begin paying down the loan)? The situation can get to be awkward, or worse yet, you may end up having the relationship severed completely over money.
It's not worth it. Your best bet is to establish or reestablish contact with the relative who loaned you the money. Let them know the situation and why you may not have been able to pay them back as quickly as you had originally intended. Hopefully, they will appreciate your honesty and willingness to take ownership of the problem in order to rectify it accordingly. Your goal is to fix the relationship first and pay back the money second. Reversing the situation isn't always easy, but it always begins with a one-on-one talk.
If money is particularly tight, sometimes you may be able to pay back your relative by doing some work for them in lieu of the money owed. If you have special talents that could be useful to your relative, perhaps you may be able to arrange an agreement to pay back the debt with work instead of cash, either in whole or in part of what's owed. The key here is to agree on an amicable arrangement and make paying back your relative a priority over everything else until they are paid back in full.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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Do you read or listen to information on topics related to a goal that you are trying to accomplish, talk about what you've learned with others, but you don't seem to have the behaviors in place that align with what you're learning about? This can apply to many different types of goals, but unless you change your behavior patterns to match your head knowledge, you won't get any further towards accomplishing your goals.
For example, if you are a cigarette smoker and wish to quit because you've heard that smoking is bad for your health, you will read up on ways to quit smoking or speak with your doctor for tips on how to quit. However, unless you actually take action to stop smoking, all of the preparation and head knowledge is for nothing, because nothing will change without the appropriate actions being taken. The same is true if you decide that you want to exercise more. You can read all of the health magazines and listen to podcasts related to diet and exercise, but none of it will matter unless you change your behaviors to reflect the knowledge that you have acquired. Of course, the same is true with succeeding with personal finance and getting out of debt. You need to make sure that your behaviors are changed accordingly in order to win.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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It is critical to keep good records, especially if you are transitioning from relying on credit to paying cash or using your debit card for purchases. This is especially important if you are new to budgeting and need to stay on track for the month so that you aren't tempted to go back to using credit cards due to a lack of resources stemming from poor record keeping.
Keeping good records isn't difficult. First, you'll initially want to know your balances for any checking or savings accounts that you will need to manage. You'll want to use either software or the tried and true pencil-and-paper method to match your records with what your bank statement is showing. Now, you rarely need to wait for your bank statement to be mailed to you these days to get started. Most banks will provide an online method to check your balance at any time. Once you've done this initial work, you will simply record any receipts to ensure that your records match up to the bank's records on at least a weekly basis. This is more important for your checking account since most folks utilize a savings account only for emergency funds or sinking funds. The checking account balances will change frequently whereas the savings account balances shouldn't change all that often.
I know that this is Personal Finance 101 stuff, but that doesn't mean that everyone is doing it (or doing it correctly). I'll be happy to help you with any questions that you may have. Simply go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com and click on the Contact button to send me an e-mail.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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Multiple streams of income isn't a concept that's limited to high-end investors like Warren Buffett. Perhaps you won't be running the next Berkshire Hathaway, but you will be able to increase what you're earning over time by learning how to implement multiple streams of income into a diverse earnings plan of your own.
It's important to build multiple streams of income. In doing so, you will set yourself up for being able to get out of debt faster as well as building more wealth over time as you shift your focus to getting into prosperity. You can start small; some folks make crafts on Etsy.com. People enjoy selling items on eBay.com and Amazon.com. Other folks provide services on Fiverr.com or drive people around town using Uber or Lyft. Once you become comfortable with the process of introducing multiple streams of income into your available resources, you can move on to larger streams of income, such as real estate investing.
The obvious benefit is that you no longer need to rely on just one method of income. You'll have more resources available to you and at your disposal to get out of of debt and get into prosperity.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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You are not your neighbor. You are not your friend. You are not your relative. In other words, stop trying to keep up with the Joneses.
You may be surprised to find that those who you perceive as doing well for themselves may have a considerable amount of debt. This isn't always the case, of course, but most folks who have wealth will usually not flaunt it. They tend to typically be more humble about wealth, and those who are trying to keep up appearances are more likely to go into debt in order to do it because overall appearance is high on their priority list.
Social media makes this phenomenon that much worse. How many times have you unfollowed someone on social media because you couldn't stand the constant bragging? Don't be that guy (or girl). Stay humble, even when you succeed with getting out of debt. Inspire folks instead. Tell them how you did it without tooting your own horn. Give credit where credit is due. It's amazing what happens when you take the spotlight off of yourself how much more you will inspire someone else, and that's the true definition of winning.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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Minimalism is a lot of work, or at least it can be. It's so worth it, though. I spent last weekend purging our basement and storage area of stuff that we just don't need anymore. We have stuff to sell, stuff ready to donate, and a ton of stuff to discard or recycle. It was a weekend project and then some; I'm actually not finished with this little project just yet.
While I've been busy with this, I have had the opportunity to take a trip down memory lane going through some things that I haven't seen in a long time. I've also been able to best organize what we've decided to keep so we now know where everything is located now. It's still a work in progress, but I know once I've finished with this, we'll have more space around us. Just the thought of that sparks an image of being able to breathe easier, doesn't it?
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
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Do you know of folks who seem to earn a higher income but are struggling just as much (if not more than) folks who are earning less? Why is that? The simple answer is that wealth is not exclusively dependent on how much we're bringing in. It depends mostly on behavior. It depends on what we decide to do with the income that we are earning, how we're spending it, and how we're prioritizing our spending.
While income does have something to do with wealth building, it is not the end-all-be-all determining factor as to whether or not wealth will eventually happen one day. What's more important is that you keep a focus on prosperity as your goal while you are in the process of getting out of debt. What's more, folks who earn more per year will likely be offered more to borrow. The amount of debt can easily be kept in-line with annual household income because banks and other financial institutions that make the loans will allow more to be borrowed as annual income increases. That means that folks who seem to be living a rich life may very well be in more debt than you realize. They need just as much as help as someone who may not be earning as much but is still struggling and living paycheck to paycheck.
Your best bet to get on the path to wealth is to correctly prioritize the resources that are available to you right now. Stand out by being the one who's different and spending your financial resources on reducing and eventually eliminating debt, then start your new goal of getting into prosperity once you are out of debt. If you do this, don't be surprised if one day you end up being the underdog who comes out on top on the road to wealth creation.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I'm also on various social media outlets if you'd like to join me on:
Twitter: @fmoodpodcast
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There is a certain freedom that comes along when we pay with cash. For one, we know right away that we don't have to pay later like we would if we were to use a credit card. We also know that we don't need to update our checkbook or budget line item like we would if we use a debt card. We know that once we exchange the cash for whatever product or service that we are purchasing, we are absolutely finished with the transaction; there are no further steps required.
There's no doubt that there is some sort of emotional trigger when we use cash. We may feel a sense of loss at first, mostly because we know that the amount of cash that we originally had has been diminished. However, shortly afterwards, we experience a sense of freedom. Most of us who decide to use cash will also take additional time to consider the decision to purchase; we may not do so if we are swiping plastic, whether that is using a credit card or a debit card. There is something in our psyche that feels the cash transaction which does not directly translate to using a credit card, debit card, or even our checkbook! This emotional trigger helps to keep us in line; we are less likely to spend more when we are only using cash when compared with any other form of payment. In most cases, that's a good thing.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I'm also on various social media outlets if you'd like to join me on:
Twitter: @fmoodpodcast
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When we are face-to-face with a particular problem, there are four simple steps to follow in order to solve that problem. I'll be talking about this in more detail today, but here is an outline of the four simple steps to successful problem solving:
Step one: Face the fact that there is, in fact, a problem to be solved. Write down your exact problem and define it the best that you can as you write it down.
Step two: Describe the problem in great detail. This will allow you to get more granular not only with the problem itself but also certain aspects of the situation at hand.
Step three: State a solution and take action immediately. Don't be passive about this. Get started right away to begin your solution to your individual problem.
Step four: Never think, discuss, or worry about the problem again. It's time to focus only on the solution to the problem and the work that needs to be done in order to implement that solution, and that is all.
Following these steps will help you to solve almost any problem that comes your way, including getting out of debt.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I'm also on various social media outlets if you'd like to join me on:
Twitter: @fmoodpodcast
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Your relationship with money should be one of complete control. If you aren't in control of your money, then that means that the opposite is true: your money is in control of you. The best way to control your money - to tell it what to do, to tell it where to go - is to have a budget in place. Your budget is what helps you to stay in control of your money.
Money is an inanimate object. It is not living or breathing, so it should not be in control of you. You must be the master of your money. You wouldn't get into your vehicle and press the gas pedal but refuse to steer the wheel. The result of this action would likely be a crash. Just as you need to be in control of your vehicle because it's an inanimate object, you also need to be in control of your money. You need to steer both a vehicle and your money in the direction where it needs to go. In the same, you also need to apply the brakes when necessary as well as press the accelerator when the time is appropriate to do so. This is how you will arrive at your desired destination, whether you are driving your vehicle or guiding your financial resources.
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I'm also on various social media outlets if you'd like to join me on:
Twitter: @fmoodpodcast
Facebook: http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fmoodpodcast
When we are in the process of getting out of debt, we naturally decide to cut or reduce expenses that we don't need. We also make decisions to not spend money on anything that is not written down or otherwise entered in the budget. These are good things, and we definitely don't want to change these good behaviors.
However, we do tend to develop a mentality where we can't (or won't) spend money due to a lack of resources. We're constantly reminding ourselves that we need to stay within a certain budget in order to have enough resources to use to attack debt. While this is a good way to think while we are in the process of getting out of debt, it's not the way that we'll need to be thinking eventually once we are out of debt and on our way to getting into prosperity. It's actually good for us to visualize that second half of our goal of getting into prosperity every once in a while.
How do we do this? The simplest way to do this is to do a quick exercise that will help you to visualize what your life will be like without debt payments. I'll explain how to do that again in this episode. Once you have visualized this, now you'll want to extend that visualization to include steps that you can take in order to get into prosperity. You'll remind yourself why you are doing this whole getting out of debt thing in the first place, which really is only the first half of our bigger goal. This show is about getting out of debt and getting into prosperity. There is an entire second half to work on once we have completed the first half of getting out of debt. The good thing, though, is that the second half is much more fun than the first!
The best compliment that I can receive from you for this show is for you to subscribe to the show, rate the show, and leave a kind review for the show on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. It really helps to get the show in front of others so that they too can get out of debt and get into prosperity.
I'm also on various social media outlets if you'd like to join me on:
Twitter: @fmoodpodcast
Facebook: http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fmoodpodcast
When you have reached a significant milestone in your journey, it's natural to want to take some time to celebrate. There's nothing wrong with this; as a matter of fact, I think that it's healthy to take some time to celebrate the smaller accomplishments along the way towards achieving a much larger goal. We can't work hard and stay laser-focused in perpetuity. Everyone needs a little downtime from time to time.
The key here is to not get comfortable. If you get comfortable with taking a break for too long, you will lose your momentum. While you may be able to once again regain your momentum, it's better not to get off track in the first place. The best way to do this is to put an end-time on your celebration period before you even begin to celebrate. Realize that you will be celebrating in a reasonable fashion for a fixed amount of time, and once you've finished celebrating, it's time to get back on track and on to the next goal and milestone. You will celebrate again once you've reached the next milestone, then you simply rinse and repeat.
I would love it if you could please share this show with your friends and family on social media or any other method that you have in your arsenal to get the word out! It would be greatly appreciated.
I'm also on various social media outlets if you'd like to join me on:
Twitter: @fmoodpodcast
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There are many reasons why married folks decide to go from a two-income household where both spouses are working to a one-income household where only one spouse works. The usual reason for this is to have one parent at home to raise a child or multiple children. Naturally, the decision to move to this way of doing things can be scary and will almost always cause some level of stress. Fear not, because this can be done!
What you do need to realize is that it's not always an issue of how much income is coming into the household but rather how much is going out. If you can better control and reduce expenses, sometimes that is all it takes to move to a one-income household. You will need to be the one to analyze your particular situation to find out if a one-income scenario is the best move for you and your family.
If you have decided that you and your spouse will change from a two-income to a one-income household, then the next step will be to clearly define roles and expectations before making this change. The spouse who will be the provider will have certain responsibilities and expectations as will the spouse who will be the stay-at-home parent. Both sets of responsibilities are equally important, and the sooner you and your spouse realize the true definitions of these individual roles, the better.
You may find that one of the greatest benefits to switching to a one-income household will be the sense of camaraderie and teamwork that will come about as you and your spouse work together to make this work. Because it can work, and you can do this if you truly want it!
I would love it if you could please share this show with your friends and family on social media or any other method that you have in your arsenal to get the word out! It would be greatly appreciated.
I'm also on various social media outlets if you'd like to join me on:
Twitter: @fmoodpodcast
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Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fmoodpodcast
Today I will be reviewing the Ibotta app for iOS and Android. I'll also tell you how you can earn $10.00 just for trying out the free app and will go into more detail about how you can save money on purchases that you are already making while earning money with the app at the same time. Simply go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/ibotta and sign up for an account to try the app. You'll instantly earn $10.00 right off of the bat, whether you use the app or not.
Keep in mind, you won't save hundreds of dollars a month on your grocery bill by using this app, but you will save hundreds of dollars over time. The app is completely free, and you can use this app along with couponing to save even more money.
Again, go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/ibotta to sign up to try the app and get $10.00 just for signing up. If you don't like it, it doesn't cost you anything, and you get a free $10.00 out of the deal.
To stay up-to-date on show updates and bonus content, follow me on Twitter @fmoodpodcast or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
It is typically depicted that in most marriages, there is a saver and a spender - the one who handles the budget and the one who spends all of the money. The reality is that it is not usually black and white. There is quite a bit of grey area, especially when two spouses have been working together for a while to improve the overall family finances. Typically what will happen is that one spouse will begin to see and agree with the other, and the two will naturally move closer together as far as their goals are concerned.
When we automatically label our spouses and ourselves, we take away the possibility to come together in order to find common ground and work towards eventually realizing the proper plan for getting out of debt. Chances are, if you have a spouse who is sort-of on board with your plans to get out of debt, they will likely never align perfectly with your plans. It's supposed to be that way, because we all come from different backgrounds. Some of us have been raised in an environment where spending and using credit cards was the norm. Others have been raised in an environment to save every penny. Meshing these two together can obviously be quite challenging.
We want to make sure not to alienate our spouse or attempt to get them on board to get out of debt by force. Instead, you should be cultivating your spouse's own interest and curiosity to be on board by practicing fair give-and-take strategies, patience, and understanding. When we do this, we lessen the money arguments and money fights in our marriages and move towards accomplishing a much more important goal of getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.
To stay up-to-date on show updates and bonus content, follow me on Twitter @fmoodpodcast or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
What makes you truly happy? It's a question that many of us have likely pondered at least several times. It's an important question to ask, though. It's even more important to find the answer to this question, because this particular question will start an inner dialogue that may help us to live a happy and balanced life. This is especially true if we are willing to drill down even further once we start to get an answer to that question.
While it's nearly impossible to experience joy all of the time, it is possible to minimize the negativity in our lives that contribute to sadness and feelings of defeat. If we reflect on what truly brings us joy, we can make those items a priority. Do you enjoy spending more time with your spouse? Do you enjoy spending time with your children? Do you have hobbies that you enjoy that you've been putting off due to lack of time? Do you enjoy time with friends? There are a plethora of circumstances that have the potential to bring more joy in our lives as long as we keep in mind to make time for these things.
To stay up-to-date on show updates and bonus content, follow me on Twitter @fmoodpodcast or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Today I discovered a new tactic that some companies are now using in order to trap us into debt. Personally, I've never seen this tactic used before, so it was brand-new to me. It came in the form of a check. I simply needed to endorse the back of the check, deposit it into my bank account, and the loan was effectively switched on.
I was amazed when I saw this. It's a whole new level of attempting to trap us into debt. What's more, the letter of congratulations that comes with the check spells out just how easy it is to take advantage of the offer. I can only imagine the temptation if someone is truly desperate for funds to grab the check, run to the bank to deposit it, and find themselves in a horrible debt trap. It's horrible because the back of the letter spells out the fine print to the tune of an APR of almost 30% interest. Yikes.
Don't fall for this trap. Warn your friends and family about this new tactic as soon as you can. Make sure to have your shredder nearby just in case you also get one of these in your mailbox.
To stay up-to-date on show updates and bonus content, follow me on Twitter @fmoodpodcast or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
When we are involved in a huge undertaking like getting out of debt, we may feel discouraged at times. This is especially true if we have been sacrificing the things that we truly enjoy in the name of paying off our debt faster. We may be tempted to give up and go back to our old ways in order to avoid the pain of sacrifice.
Keep in mind that these sacrifices aren't always a lifetime change; typically, we're only making short-term sacrifices for long-term gains towards accomplishing our bigger goals that we've set for ourselves. We can be more inventive with how we spend our time so that we're not spending as much money. We can also plan a small break from our sacrifices at certain milestones throughout our journey. These are ways that will help us to better tolerate our sacrifices while we are in the process of keeping our focus on long-term goals, such as paying off our debt entirely.
To stay up-to-date on show updates and bonus content, follow me on Twitter @fmoodpodcast or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Are you currently experiencing a true financial hardship yet have a significant amount of medical debt? You may be able to pick up the phone and pay a percentage of the debt and have it considered as paid in full. Please be advised that this is not a foolproof method; some medical providers simply won't participate. However, there are a large number of medical providers who will accept a percentage of the debt as payment in full when someone is experiencing financial hardship.
Before you make the call, you'll want to make sure to have your ducks in a row first. Know the percentage that you can afford to pay in full when you make the call, and be prepared for the medical provider to negotiate a higher percentage if your offer is too low. Also, you'll want to get the agreement in writing. This can be in the form of an e-mail along with an e-mail receipt if the debt is settled immediately, or it can be mailed out to you if the debt settlement is scheduled for a later date.
I will say this once again: this process should only be considered by you if you are truly having a financial hardship and cannot pay your medical debt. Hopefully, the medical provider will allow for this and will be willing to work with you in order to have this debt settled and considered as paid in full.
To stay up-to-date on show updates and bonus content, follow me on Twitter @fmoodpodcast or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
How much are you spending every month on daycare? Are you continuing to work and only seeing a few hundred dollars a month because the rest of your hard-earned money is going to a daycare facility? There's no shortage of daycare facilities, and there's no shortage of parents who need these services.
Be advised that there are alternatives to daycare. I realize that it's not always possible, especially in a situation where a single parent is the sole breadwinner. However, it is best to at least consider some alternatives before you make your final decision on whether or not to send your child to a daycare facility.
As an example, nowadays, the technology exists for many folks who work in an office to work remotely from home from their home computer. You would have to speak with your supervisor about this option. If your current place of employment does not have this in place, you may want to do a little research beforehand to present the option to your boss for consideration. Chances are, there are others who would benefit from being able to work from home as well, even if it's only temporary or on a case-by-case basis. On that note, you may be able to work part of the time from home and the rest of the time at the office. You could then hire a babysitter for the hours where you have to be at the office. Another possibility is to consider having one spouse work during the day and the other spouse work in the evening hours.
You could also consider a full-time babysitter. Chances are, this will be less expensive than a daycare facility. You will want to weigh your options as far as what your particular daycare facility offers; some are exceptional and offer a curriculum of learning, similar to a preschool environment. If there are greater benefits for you to choose a daycare facility rather than a full-time babysitter, then that is likely the direction you will want to go. At least you took the time to consider the alternatives to daycare first, and you could always revisit those alternatives in the future.
To stay up-to-date on show updates and bonus content, follow me on Twitter @fmoodpodcast or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Find out how you can complete some inexpensive home upgrades that won't break the bank. When we're in the process of getting out of debt, or working on any other personal financial goal for that matter, we can easily get bored of our surroundings. We put a cap on spending, and this limitation prevents us from doing any kind of upgrades in our home. Most of the time, this is because we consider upgrades to our home to equate to spending thousands of dollars.
Well, this simply doesn't have to be the case. You can easily plan some upgrades that should easily fit into your budget, even if you are currently laser-focused on getting out of debt. Most of the projects won't take longer than a weekend to complete, and they will give your surroundings a new look that will keep your spirits up as you continue on your journey to work towards your current financial goals.
To stay up-to-date on show updates and bonus content, follow me on Twitter @fmoodpodcast or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Together we will get out of debt and into prosperity!
It's time to celebrate! We have officially saved up our initial $1,000.00 for our starter emergency fund. Needless to say, I'm excited. We started this journey on December 18, 2016, so it has taken us a little over two months to save up our first $1,000.00. We had some setbacks along the way, including a huge setback that happened right before we started this journey to the tune of a $1,200.00 unexpected expense in November. Even with this setback as well as a couple of others, we have overcome them and are ready to begin tackling the debt!
I truly believe that the difficulties that we had experienced were supposed to happen that way. The entire process gave us a thicker skin when it comes to unexpected expenses. It gave us an opportunity to distinguish between what defines an emergency and what doesn't. We now begin the next phase of this journey to get started on the path towards getting out of debt, and I am stoked to finally get the ball rolling.
We have decided to pay off the credit card with the highest APR first. Afterwards, we will likely switch to paying off debt from smallest balance to largest balance. We're doing a bit of a hybrid plan, but it's a plan that works well for us. As I've mentioned several times before, there is no cookie-cutter approach to personal finance, and what works for some may not work for others. If you are joining me on the journey to get out of debt, feel free to do the plan that works best for you. Whichever direction and plan that you are going to be implementing isn't quite as important as keeping your eye on the prize: becoming completely debt free. I can't wait to meet you there.
To stay up-to-date on show updates and bonus content, follow me on Twitter @fmoodpodcast or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Together we will get out of debt and into prosperity!
We've all heard the saying that actions speak louder than words. The reason that you've heard the saying before is because it holds true throughout the ages. Gaining knowledge and planning are both important steps when we set out to accomplish a goal, but the result of whether or not our goals are achieved are based completely on the actions that we take.
When we're in the process of getting out of debt, we may be excited about our plans and will talk about them to close friends and family members. You may or may not inspire them to do the same by simply talking about it, however, once people start to see the results of your actions, that is when they are truly inspired. We will also gain much more confidence in ourselves when we take actions to achieve our goals and complete them accordingly.
For updates and more, follow me on Twitter @fmoodpodcast or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Wise (and rich) folks will tell you that everything is negotiable. Whether you are a buyer or a seller, you'll want to brush up on your negotiation skills. Knowledge is power when it comes to negotiating, so make sure that you do your homework before you start your negotiation process. You'll want to have as much organized information as possible before you come to the table, so it is important to plan ahead before you begin any type of negotiation. A general rule of thumb to follow is the larger the purchase, the longer it should take for you to properly plan beforehand.
Negotiations aren't meant to cheat the other party. On the contrary, the point of negotiating is to come to reasonable terms on both sides of the equation. This is true whether you are purchasing a vehicle, buying a home, or even talking to a potential employer about how much your salary will be. The more that you learn to find opportunities to negotiate, the more income you will earn, the less you will spend on purchases, and the more you will make on anything that you are selling.
For updates and more, follow me on Twitter @fmoodpodcast or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.
Nobody cares more about your money than you do. You are the only one to experience the pain of a poor financial decision or an unexpected expense. On the other end of the spectrum, you are the only one who will experience the excitement when you pay off that first debt (or all of your debt).
Personal finance is personal. It's as simple as that. It applies directly to you, and it affects you positively or negatively, depending on your particular situation. At the end of the day, you need to decide on how you should apply the advice and knowledge that you've gained from various resources. There is no cookie-cutter approach to personal finance. Your situation is unique, and you need to actively apply solutions to your problems in order to follow the correct strategies where it fits in and do what's best for you.
Let's clarify this a little bit. It's not that your friends and family don't care; I do realize that they do. I care about your personal financial situation because you are one of my valued listeners. However, the above point still holds true: nobody cares more about your money or your personal finances more than you do. Don't forget that.
Get updates and other fun extras by following the show on Twitter @fmoodpodcast or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt (you may also send me a message directly via either one of these mediums).
Is the roof over your head causing you a lot of stress? Is it preventing you from reaching your financial goals? If so, it may be time to consider whether or not you may have purchased too much house.
Generally speaking, you should have a house payment of no more than 25% of your take-home income. If it's in the 30% to 35% range, you're still okay (although this is not ideal). However, if you are in the 40% range and above, you are in the danger zone as far as house payments go, and it's likely that your house is too much of an expense to keep around.
Tune in to listen to some of your options and what you may want to consider depending on where you fall on the spectrum as far as what percentage of your income is going towards your home. Don't forget that aside from refinancing (if it financially makes sense to do so), you can consider becoming a renter. Even if it's only temporary until you get your financial house in order and save up for a huge down payment on a home purchase, it's generally a better solution than drowning in the danger zone of house payments that are taking 40% of your resources.
Follow me on Twitter @fmoodpodcast or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt - and thanks for listening!
Many of us have been there, but I will admit that this is the first experience that I've had with this. We recently found damage to our vehicle while it was sitting in a parking lot. The individual who damaged the vehicle didn't leave a note. When I contacted my insurance company, I was a bit surprised to find out that this is the norm. As a matter of fact, I was told that it is very rare for someone to leave a note if they do damage to another vehicle, especially when they don't see any witnesses around.
I'm sorry, but I don't see how this is an appropriate response when we wrong someone else. I feel that we should all own up to anything that we may do to one another that causes harm, whether or not it's intentional or unintentional. I do understand that none of us are perfect, but we should be striving for wanting to do the right thing in any given situation.
I forgive the individual who damaged our vehicle and cost us $500.00 in the process. I understand that perhaps they may have reacted out of fear of the unknown as opposed to looking at the situation from a morality standpoint. I get it. However, my message is still the same to both myself and to anyone listening today: do what's right, be honest with one another, and at the end of the day, we're all fighting our own private battles. Let's share this space that we have here in kindness, and always strive to do the right thing.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Don't waste time. Three little words that mean so much, but for whatever reason, it's easy to forget sometimes. We have jobs, relationships, etc. that tend to make it challenging to be mindful of how we're spending our time. We get tired. We want to crawl up on the sofa and sit in front of the television and binge-watch Netflix the moment we have a little free time.
When we do this, we're cheating ourselves. We're cheating those close to us. If we're in the process of getting out of debt or any other major goal that we're working on, we should be spending our time on moving forward with our goals. We have to eliminate the time-wasters. Eliminate television. Eliminate social media. Eliminate browsing on the Internet. At least schedule these mindless time-wasters accordingly and after your more important work is finished.
Make the best use of your time. When the day is finished and you get under the blankets to drift off to sleep, you'll know if your time was spent well for the day if you can relax knowing that you didn't waste the day. If you feel that you did waste time, then you need to make changes so that the next evening doesn't turn out this way.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
On today's episode, I'll be talking about budget-friendly vacation tips. We all need a break sometimes. We all need to spend some quality time with our families. We need to relax for a bit and pause our laser-focused intensity of getting out of debt to have a little fun for a while.
I'll talk about how you can accomplish this through hotel savings and discounts, car rental discounts, and how you can save a ton of money on food while you're on vacation (and use it towards other fun things). This is all coming right from the source; this is what we do when we take vacations that allow us to stay within budget and still create great memories, and hopefully this helps you to do the same.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Do you use vision boards? If you don't, have you at least heard of vision boards? On today's episode, I'll discuss how this show was a direct product of one of my vision boards from a long time ago. I'll also discuss how vision boards can help you with your financial goals as well as any other goals that you're currently working towards accomplishing.
Don't worry. Vision boards aren't some sort of magical hocus-pocus creation; rather, they are solid tools that allow you to visualize your future and help you to align yourself with the goals that you have set for yourself. Many successful folks use vision boards every single day. I'll be talking about how you may be able to utilize vision boards for your own purposes.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
More money isn't going to solve your problems. I'm afraid to break the news to you, but even if you were to get a huge raise tomorrow or won a small lottery prize, you'll still have the same exact problems that you've experienced financially. It boils down to this: behaviors matter. If we consistently make poor choices with our personal finances, throwing more money at the problem won't fix it.
We need to change our behaviors, and we need to change them yesterday. Our behaviors have a lot to do with whether or not we will be successful in our goal to get out of debt. Behaviors are a product of our actions, and if we've done things a certain way for a long time, it may be difficult to break those bad habits. However, unless we break those bad habits and change our behaviors, we'll continue making the same poor financial decisions over and over again.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Car payments are horrible. I used to not have a car payment, and I loved it. That's not the case right now, but I can't wait to go back to having paid-off vehicles. It was a good time, and I miss those days dearly.
Let's be serious for a moment. There's nothing good about having a car payment. In most cases, when we have a car payment, we are spending a significant amount of money every month that we could be using for other things (such as saving for retirement!).
If you've got one, two, or maybe even three car payments, tune in to this episode to listen in on why and how you need to get yourself out of the land of car payments forever. Yes, forever.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
It's time to take a week off... from spending! Mark the week off in your calendar, and plan your spending freeze. During this spending freeze, you won't be spending any money at all (with the exception of paying bills). It does take some preparation beforehand, because prior to your spending freeze, you'll want to make sure that you fill up the gas tanks and buy your groceries for the week as well as any other foreseeable expenses.
The week of your spending freeze will easily save you a significant amount of money. You'll be forced to think outside of the box to come up with things that don't cost any money to enjoy. You'll plan meals differently, because you'll be forced to use what you have in the house and won't be getting lazy and calling out for pizza. The money that you save during your spending freeze week can easily be applied towards paying off debt. Do this every month, and you'll put more towards your debt throughout the year than you would if you didn't incorporate spending freezes into your plans.
So, do you think that a week is too long for you? That's okay; start out a bit slower if necessary. Start with a weekend or even a single day, and work your way up to an entire week over time. Once you realize how much money you can save, you'll be excited to stretch this out for the full seven days.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward our organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”
This quote is from Andrew Carnegie, the person who led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. You're probably wondering what this has to do with inspiring teamwork in your marriage. I'll explain that and more on today's episode.
You'll be inspiring teamwork by scheduling a meeting with your spouse with the intention of scheduling subsequent meetings after the initial one. However, before you start planning your meeting, you'll want to have an agenda first. Next, you'll want to put a definite time allotment and respect your spouse's time once he or she agrees to the meeting. Be sure to leave enough time for back-and-forth discussion; this meeting isn't going to be one where you're spending time barking orders at your spouse. It's meant to inspire teamwork through focusing on common objectives and discussing in a non-confrontational way how the two of you can obtain those common objectives.
Would you like to support this show at no cost to you and save money at the same time? Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/deals to find the best prices on Amazon.com, and if you don't see what you're looking for, you can search and find whatever you need at savings of up to 70% off or more. Check it out today, and thanks for your support!
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Amazon.com is pretty amazing. It's a global retail leader, even in comparison with bricks and mortar stores, and there's a good reason for that. You can find some great deals and discounts on Amazon.com, and I personally visit the website quite frequently.
On this episode, I decided to provide not only information on great ways to save on Amazon.com, but I'm also providing an easy link that will take you to the Deals of the Day on Amazon.com as well as an easy search section to find whatever it is that you're looking for at a great discount. If you end up finding what you need and make your purchase using the link that I mention on this episode, Amazon.com will provide the show with a small commission at no additional cost to you. This will help to support the show now and in the future so I can continue to bring you the best content that I can for free every single day.
Simply go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/deals to search on Amazon.com for whatever it is that you're looking for, and if you find and purchase your item, you are helping to support this show. Your participation is greatly appreciated. Make it a habit to check the http://followmeoutofdebt.com/deals link every single day for the best deals available on Amazon.com!
Exercising your way out of debt may sound a little strange, but stick with me on this one for a moment. When we decide to do something to improve ourselves, we will generally ride the wave and take on other ways that we can improve ourselves at the same time. For example, when we decide that we want to start an exercise habit, we tend to tie in an improvement with our diet at the same time. The reason for this is logical. We don't want to take away from the hard work that we're putting in with exercise by eating poorly. Instead, we want to improve our diet in order to help us succeed with our exercise goals.
So, how does physical activity and exercise tie in with getting out of debt? Well, that answer is also logical. When we begin an exercise program, we generally reap the benefits of stress reduction and helping us to think more clearly. Both of these benefits help us with being able to stay on track with the tasks necessary to meet our goals to get out of debt. What's more, when you begin a new habit of improving yourself through diet and exercise, you'll likely eat out less. You'll likely make smarter decisions at the grocery store, skipping things like cola, candy, and other sugary snacks. You'll end up saving money, which will help you to put more resources towards your debt payoff. It's pretty amazing, but these two seemingly different topics really do have a lot in common when we put them together as new habits in our lives.
Would you like to support this show at no cost to you and save money at the same time? Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/deals to find the best prices on Amazon.com, and if you don't find what you're looking for, you can search and locate whatever you need at savings of up to 70% off or more. Check it out today, and thank you for your support.
Do you know that it's actually healthy to talk to your kids about money? Even at a younger age, it's a good habit to get into to show your children how money works and how money is affecting you or you and your spouse.
Kids are generally perceptive. Even if you attempt to hide your money problems, your kids will know more than you think by taking clues from your comments, actions, and perceived frustration level. Rather than attempting to hide things from them, let them in on it. Let them see the sacrifices that you make to better their lives. Based on age, you can decide on the best way to talk with your kids about money, and be honest. Allow your children to ask questions, and answer them truthfully, again, according to age and maturity level.
Your children will see not only your frustrations, but they will also get to participate in your successes when you begin to reshape your financial life and get out of debt. They will get a first-row seat to witness how to handle money and finances by watching you or you and your spouse, and they will take these lessons that you teach them well into their adult years.
Would you like to support this show at no cost to you and save money at the same time? Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/deals to find the best prices on Amazon.com, and if you don't see what you're looking for, you can search and find whatever you need at savings of up to 70% off or more. Check it out today, and thanks for your support!
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Have you ever heard of a grocery store called Aldi? If you have one nearby you, you'll want to check them out if you haven't done so already. While there are plenty of choices for most folks as far as grocery stores go, you won't save more money than you will at your local Aldi store.
My wife and I used to shop at three or more grocery stores to try to save some money. We tried clipping coupons. We even went as far as walking around and keeping records of the prices at each of the local grocery stores nearby just to try to save money on the items that we would purchase almost every week. We tried a club membership. Nothing really saved us as much money as we saved when we simply started shopping at Aldi.
What's great about Aldi is that the prices are generally consistent. They don't play games where they raise and lower prices on various items. They don't accept coupons. They don't sell brand names, but they sell the same high quality items packaged under their own brand.
On this episode, I talk about some reasons why you should try Aldi if you haven't done so already, and I also touch on some of the negatives that you may find if Aldi simply isn't for you. I would recommend for you to at least shop at Aldi for your groceries for just a month, just so you can experience how much you will really save. You don't have to clip coupons. You can get in and out since the square footage of a typical Aldi store is nowhere near the size of most supermarkets. You'll get healthy and high quality food items at a fraction of the price. Give it a try, and see what you think.
Would you like to support this show at no cost to you and save money at the same time? Go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/deals to find the best prices on Amazon.com, and if you don't see what you're looking for, you can search and find whatever you need at savings of up to 70% off or more. Check it out today, and thanks for your support!
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
If you're like me, you likely have a bunch of stuff sitting around your house that you haven't touched or even thought about in years. It's time to go through those things and get them sold! Nowadays, it's so incredibly easy to sell what we no longer use. When we do this, we can earn some extra cash that we can use towards saving up for our starter emergency fund or getting a boost on paying down our debt.
I prefer using Facebook groups. Usually, these groups are known as garage sale groups (or something similar). You can join these groups by simply doing a search in Facebook and asking to join. From there, you can list your items for sale in a huge marketplace that will be seen by thousands of people. There are other sites where you can sell your stuff (such as Craigslist), but I personally prefer the Facebook route. One of the huge benefits is that you gain the social media aspect of Facebook where people may share what you're selling if they know someone who may be interested.
If you've accumulated a pile of stuff to sell but haven't pulled the trigger yet, it's time to get moving! I'm going to start selling stuff this weekend, and I highly recommend that you get started as well. Let's sell some stuff and pay off some debt!
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
I'm inviting you to join me on a little side project that I'm doing for this show. I want to help you with whatever it is that you are struggling with right now with regards to your journey to get out of debt and into prosperity.
Over the next several weeks, I'll be collecting e-mails from anyone who wants to contact me directly with their current struggle, question, or problem. If you would like to send me an e-mail to participate in this project and get your specific questions answered and struggles addressed right on this show, simply follow these steps: go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com, click on the Contact button, fill out the form (including your name, e-mail address, subject, and your message), click on the Send button, and within seconds you will see a confirmation message to let you know that your message has been delivered to my inbox.
I'll collaborate all of the messages received and will have future podcast episodes addressing each and every e-mail that I receive. It's completely anonymous for you; I won't be mentioning any names. I'll only be mentioning the issues and what I've found to hopefully resolve those issues for you. I'll learn something new, you'll learn something new, and we'll all benefit by being able to get out of debt and into prosperity that much faster once this little side project is complete.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
From personal experiences as well as from the experiences of others, I have compiled a list of five simple steps to help you to get out of debt. These steps and actions can be applied to whatever strategy that you are currently implementing towards completing your goal.
First, I'll discuss why you shouldn't bury your head in the sand. I'll discuss how to ensure that you don't do this, because doing this is probably the worst thing that you can do when it comes to getting started with paying off debt. Next, I'll talk about how you can curb your spending and certain strategies that will help you to free up some financial resources that can be applied towards your debt payoff. Third in this list is the importance of not allowing the IRS to hold your money hostage for a year and what you can do to ensure that this doesn't happen in the future.
The last two on this list tend to go hand-in-hand. The first of these and number four on the list is to make paying off debt a priority. Wherever you are at in your plan, make sure that you apply the amount towards debt that you had originally planned. I'll discuss a brief tip that will help to ensure that you aren't tempted to use that money that was set aside for paying towards debt for something else. Finally on this list of five is to never, ever add to the pile. You don't want to continue using debt or accumulating more debt while you are trying to pay it off. This is a surefire way to hinder your plans and may even bring your plan to a complete standstill (or worse yet, you end up going backwards). Don't do this.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Money arguments and money fights between spouses can be debilitating and frustrating in a marriage. There's a reason why money fights are in the top five causes of married couples filing for divorce. It's a touchy subject, and both spouses likely have different views on the topic of money.
When these differences come to the surface, rather than agreeing to participate in an all-out battle with your husband or wife, it might be best for you to lovingly listen to your spouse instead. This doesn't just apply to money arguments; regardless of the cause of the fight, it always takes two to battle. If you decide that you are going to refuse to fight but instead will simply listen to your spouse and hear him or her out, you are implementing a certain calm that will help to move the conversation from a loud fight to a quiet discussion.
It may not happen right away. It may take several days before you see results. However, if you can keep your cool, you might come to find that the two of you may actually have similar goals. You may only be disagreeing with how to reach those goals. A calm and inviting conversation between spouses is the only way to truly diffuse any negative situation and work together towards resolution. The secret to ending or preventing marital money fights is love. Love truly does conquer all. You have to simply allow it to do so.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
When you are focused on an important goal, sometimes those who are closest to you tend to say negative things that have the potential to suck the enthusiasm right out of you. These naysayers will tell you precisely why you will fail at your goal, and they will commonly bring up how other people live in order to show you the foolishness of your plan simply because you are trying to be different.
You've got to have tougher skin in order to get around this. Don't take your eyes off of the prize when you come into this negativity. You know that when you started this plan to get out of debt that it would be difficult, but you cannot let others convince you that you are crazy to think that you actually can get by without credit cards or auto loans. Instead, live by example. Don't directly confront your naysayers; instead, use the negativity as a motivational tool. Realize that the naysayers simply don't know any better, and perhaps someday they will also want to get out of debt and into prosperity, especially once they see you succeed. People are naturally curious when something good happens to find out how they can do the same for themselves. Perhaps one day they will want to listen to this show, and perhaps one day they may want to join you on the journey to getting out of debt completely and into prosperity.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Completing your budget for the month feels good. It's a big check off of our to-do list, but our work is not finished quite yet.
Our budgets are usually done month to month, and each month we need to ensure that we don't overstep our bounds as far as the budget goes. How do we keep ourselves motivated to stay on track for an entire month so that we don't mess things up?
The key is to regularly revisit the budget. It doesn't have to be daily, but at a minimum, you should revisit your budget at least once a week. You pick the day of the week that works best for you, and on this day, you'll update the budget first so that it's current. Next, you'll want to check your budget against any bank records in order to ensure that everything recorded matches up appropriately. After confirming this part, you'll want to make changes to the budget that are necessary so that you are addressing any overspending that has happened as well as making any needed corrections for the remainder of the month in your various categories. There is more information that I include on this episode, but these are the three main things that you will want to focus on when you are regularly allocating time with your budget each week for any given month.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Do you currently have cable or satellite services? How much would you save per month if you didn't have this subscription? Is it time for you to seriously consider cutting the cord, so to speak?
On today's episode, I'll tell my brief story of when I decided to get rid of cable (we've been cable-free for nine years now, and we don't miss it a bit). We currently have nothing but our local channels, Netflix, and Hulu. It's plenty for us, and we really don't watch a lot of television, anyway. If you're currently wondering if you should be getting rid of cable or satellite, go ahead and listen to this episode to see if it helps to make your decision a little easier.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
If you're in the market for your next vehicle purchase, you'll want to listen to this episode first before you head off to the dealership. I've purchased several vehicles, and with these experiences in mind, I have been able to condense the entire vehicle purchasing process into a concise, easy-to-follow method that will save you money.
I'll step you through the entire vehicle-purchasing process from making your first vehicle choice all of the way through to signing on the dotted line. I have noted some pitfalls that you'll want to look out for as well as some important tips that will help to ensure that you get the best deal on the best vehicle. Does following this process extend the time necessary to purchase a vehicle? Absolutely. However, the amount of money that you will save will be well worth the time investment necessary to properly follow through with this.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
It's a question that will come up at some point along your journey towards getting out of debt: do you continue saving for retirement (or start saving for retirement) before you are completely out of debt?
There are several schools of thought on this. I'll discuss the main ones and will discuss how I personally feel about this topic. The final decision that you make on this will be based on several factors. The first thing is to be honest with yourself and consider your behavior, how focused you are when you are trying to accomplish a goal, and whether or not you will be a disciplined saver when the time comes to set your focus on your retirement.
I'll also discuss other factors that will help you to make an informed decision on this topic for yourself. There is no cookie-cutter approach when it comes to personal finance; however, you do want to make an educated choice when you stop to consider this and how it may factor in to your overall financial picture.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Today I'm going to be talking about some of the uncommon ways for us to save some money every month. These methods are mostly considered uncommon because they are typically overlooked. The smaller things that we may overlook could potentially add up to hundreds of dollars per month in savings.
Some of the uncommon ways that we can save money that are mentioned in detail on this episode include our utilities (and how we can decrease our utility bills), asking for discounts and receiving those discounts on almost anything that you may purchase, and reducing or replacing certain services. I'll even touch base on our dining habits. In most cases, you'll find that if a lot of what's mentioned in this episode applies to you, you could potentially save a couple of hundred dollars every month or more.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
What would happen if you set out to improve yourself in various areas of your life by one percent per day? It may not sound like much, but if you focus on this every single day consistently, you will find that you will earn more income, improve your marriage, and increase your spirituality. Yes, it's true; if you focus on improving yourself by one percent per day, you will pick up a habit that will be beneficial to you for a lifetime.
I'll explain more about this plan on today's episode. Once you give this a listen, do yourself a favor and start a brand-new habit that will be sure to bring you to new success levels. I do want you to do one thing, though. Please be sure to give this plan at least a month minimum before you decide to give up, because I think after a month goes by and you see the results, you won't want to give this up!
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, we tend to cheat ourselves sometimes. We do this by not questioning whether or not there may be better options and opportunities out there for us. We follow the same process day in and day out without questioning a thing, which makes us passive. It prevents us from taking a functional and active role in our worth, effectively cheating ourselves out of what could be.
We also tend to allow others to influence us in one way or another, and we are the ones giving them the permission to do so. I'll explain in this episode how and why we, sometimes unintentionally, allow others to take us off course from achieving our goals.
The bottom line is this. You need to stay on track and stay on target in order to accomplish your financial goals (as well as other goals if your life). Don't cheat yourself by doing any less than you should be or being influenced by others who might be trying to pull you down to their level, whether they are aware that they are doing this or not.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
What is the best way for us to save some money on what is typically an otherwise expensive line item in our budget? The answer is properly maintaining our vehicles. If you're currently making car payments, you already know that vehicles can be expensive. Even if your vehicle is paid in full (good for you!), you still want that vehicle to last as long as possible. The best way to do this is to schedule regular maintenance for your vehicle in order to avoid costly repairs in the future.
The first step is to find a good, honest mechanic. If you don't know of one, ping your contacts on Facebook and ask for recommendations. Chances are, someone you know likely knows of a great mechanic. The next step is to schedule routine oil changes. Along with this, allow the mechanic to check your air filter as well to ensure that it's not clogged. Your cooling system is also important to maintain as well as regularly checking your tire pressure. The best habit to get into is to check your tire pressure whenever you stop for fuel.
Doing these basic maintenance steps along with a couple of others mentioned on this episode will help to extend the life of your vehicle, and the longer you can drive the same reliable vehicle, the less you'll be spending overall on transportation costs. The less you spend on transportation, the more that you'll have to apply towards other budget line items every month, including paying off debt.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Medical bills and the associated entities that we owe money to are probably the most friendly of the folks that we'll have to deal with if we need to make payment arrangements, but there's a caveat. We have to address what we owe before the medical bill goes off to a collection agency. If we let it go that far, it's a new game at that point, and we most likely lose our ability to make a fair payment arrangement. Don't let this happen to you.
Instead, if you have a stack of medical bills sitting on your desk, don't simply ignore them. Address them today. Spread out your various medical bills. Note how much you owe on each bill. Next, budget to pay a certain amount each month towards the amount that you owe until it's paid in full.
Did you know that you can arrange to make payments for as little as $10.00 per month on some medical bills? It's true. However, you do have to be consistent and follow through on your promise to pay once you've communicated it. Have your strategy in place, be sure that it's recorded appropriately in your monthly budgets, then pick up the phone. Contact the medical entity, communicate your plan, and ask them to accept your promise to pay. Explain that you cannot afford to pay the entire amount owed at once, but you will promise to pay a certain amount per month. Nine times out of ten, they will accept your promise to pay on the first attempt. Sometimes, they may ask for more per month if they feel that the amount that you're offering isn't enough, but it is highly unlikely that they won't accept a payment plan at all and demand payment in full.
The best part? You're able to pay your medical expenses in monthly payments, interest-free, and it won't go to collections. The key here is to communicate well and communicate early. Don't wait until it gets to collections before you pick up the phone, because by that time, it's too late.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
How do you handle unexpected expenses? Do you allow them to shred your budget into pieces, or do you mindfully handle the situation to ensure that the impact to your budget is minimal?
The best course of action is to not immediately react to an unexpected expense by making the purchase without considering your budget. Instead, you should take some time to work this unexpected expense in with the other items that you have already budgeted for the month. Perhaps you could move some money around or take some money out of other categories to pay for this unexpected expense. In other words, you are taking an action that thoughtfully empowers you. Your behavior should show that you are in control of your money and not the other way around.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Have you ever heard of a mastermind group before? If not, you may want to listen to this episode to learn more, then consider forming your own mastermind group to help you to accomplish your goal of getting out of debt.
To start things out, consider some like-minded friends that you may have who are also trying to get out of debt, and ask them if they would like to join a mastermind group. Arrange a meeting with them to collaborate on ideas and get the creative juices flowing. If you're married, perhaps you may know of other couples who are on the same journey as you are. These are great examples of opportunities for you to begin a mastermind with a focus on getting out of debt.
The beauty behind a successful mastermind is how the best ideas and concepts seem to rise to the top, and everyone in the group helps to hold one another accountable in their journey towards getting out of debt. Some mastermind groups even involve learning resources so that the team can all learn from the same materials. Once you've succeeded with getting out of debt completely, you could consider continuing to utilize mastermind groups for other personal finance goals as well.
See if you might have some interested friends to begin a mastermind. Decide on the frequency and length of the meetings as well as a maximum number of members. Once you've got this in place, then it's time to officially start your own mastermind!
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Do you have a lot of stuff in your home that has slowly accumulated over the years? I'd like to take some time to tell you what my wife and I have been up to lately. We've been decluttering our home. It's not only a fun and nostalgic process, but it also gives us a new sense of freedom and a few extra dollars in our pockets.
We've only tackled one part of our basement, but we had so much garbage to throw out that it ended up filling our large garbage container to a point where it was almost overflowing, and we couldn't put the lid down. We also found a few things that we plan to sell as well. We've already been going through our clothes and donating what we don't wear or don't fit in anymore. Our plan is to gain some much-needed space in our home and refrain from collecting more stuff ever again. That will help us to stay out of debt as well as allow for our resources to go towards debt payoff instead of buying more... well, stuff.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
It's that time of the year again. It's tax time, and 75% of us can expect a tax refund from the government. On average, the typical tax refund is a little over $2,800.00. It seems like this is an exciting time of the year, doesn't it?
Well, let's take a step back and think about this for a moment. We're giving the government our money to borrow, interest-free, so that we can fill out lots of paperwork in order to get our money back from them. If banks and financial institutions don't lend their money out interest-free, then why are we doing this year after year? This is money that can be used to get out of debt (or not go into debt in the first place) or increase our contributions to our retirement savings. That sounds like a better use of our hard-earned money than handing it over to the government to borrow from us, again, interest-free.
And the best part of getting out of this habit? After you've made the changes necessary to adjust your withholding (after talking this over with a tax professional first, of course), you're going to feel like you just got a raise! Do the right thing with this additional money in your check, though. Stay focused on your goals, and use the additional resources to accelerate your debt payoff strategy to reach your goals even faster.
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Today I'm going to be talking about the sinking fund. I'll talk about what it is and how we can use it to better our budgeting processes. If a sinking fund sounds a little intimidating, you'll want to tune in to this episode to learn more. A sinking fund can help you with saving for Christmas, paying for your auto insurance, paying for taxes, and any other expected large amount that you'll need to pay in any given year. The sinking fund can even help you to better plan for your vacation without using a credit card! Paying cash for a vacation makes it a true vacation since you're not preoccupied the entire time with how you'll need to pay off the vacation when you get back.
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Sometimes the first $1,000 is the hardest part. If you're having difficulties saving that initial $1,000 for your starter emergency fund, you're in the right place. Today I'm going to be talking about some of the frustrations that we've felt when we want to get going with the debt payoff, but it's taking too long to get that starter emergency fund going.
You may try to get away with saving $500, but be warned that almost any significant emergency will completely wipe out your emergency fund if it's only $500. It really is best to save at least $1,000 for your starter emergency fund these days. Of course, if limited income prevents you from saving this much, that's understandable. With that said, there are plenty of options out there that will help you get to $1,000, so don't give up on the idea too quickly. Be sure you've exhausted all possibilities and opportunities that are out there before deciding to save less than $1,000 in your emergency fund.
So how can you get to $1,000? Here are the highlights of the tips that are discussed on this episode. First of all, relax. Clear your head, because it's time to get focused. Second, you'll want to realize that more work is necessary in order to earn additional income. Third, decide whether or not to take on a part-time job, start a business, or work from home for a legitimate entity to help with saving $1,000. Don't wait. Get creative and take action to do something towards succeeding with this goal of accumulating $1,000 in your emergency fund today.
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Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Have you heard about the envelope system? If not, this episode will explain the system in detail along with some tips on implementing the envelope system to use with your monthly budget.
The envelope system allows for us to separate our cash for the month into individual envelopes for each category in our budget. The envelope system is typically used with the grocery category, clothing category, the spending money category, and many other categories within our budget.
When we use cash, we get away from the habit of using plastic. We are also able to easily see what we're spending for the month throughout the month, and this process helps us to stay within our budget for any given category where using cash is appropriate.
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Remember the days when you could call your credit card company and negotiate a lower APR by suggesting that you would move the balance to a competing card if they didn't comply? I tried this recently and found out that this trick simply doesn't work. It took me by surprise.
Now, moving a balance from card to card isn't always the best idea. Especially if you think that you may keep the card open where you transferred the balance from and end up getting yourself into trouble with it all over again (in addition to the new card that you used for the balance transfer!). If you close out the other card, that's probably the best idea. Even if it dings your FICO score temporarily, it's worth it in the long run if you think that you might be tempted to run up another balance on the old card.
If you do decide to keep it to use for small purchases and pay them off faithfully, then that's your choice. The bottom line is this: moving a balance from one card to another does not qualify as paying off debt. It's a lateral move. It's neutral, not positive. Stick to the plan to continue to truly pay off debt, even if you use a balance transfer to save some money on interest along the way.
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While there are plenty of reasons to get out of debt, I've condensed them down into a top-five list that I'd like to share with you today. In addition to listing the reasons, I'll also be explaining how these reasons truly make a difference in your life: your health, your relationships, and your spirituality.
Debt is a burden. Debt traps us. Debt chains us up and restricts our freedom. We all know this, but sometimes we forget. Listen to this episode to realize the why behind this whole get-out-of-debt concept, and imagine a truly debt-free existence and how it will change your life completely.
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There are tons of work from home opportunities out there if you do a search using your favorite search engine. Be aware. Not all of them are legitimate, and you will need to do your due diligence to ensure that the opportunity that you are pursuing is not only right for you, but it's also one that is not a scam of one type or another.
Working from home has its benefits. The obvious one is being able to work from home, but in addition to this, you also have the benefits of not needing to purchase a work wardrobe or put miles on your car. If you are married and work from home, you'll want your spouse and the rest of your family to understand the opportunity and the rules so that everyone is on the same page. For example, if one of the rules of your employment is to have a quiet work area, you won't want people talking in the background or kids making noise while you're working. That's where your spouse can help out by taking the kids somewhere else or in another part of the house so that you are able to focus and contribute the way that your work from home employer expects.
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We don't always get it right the first time (myself included). If you tried at one time to get out of debt but failed at doing so, you're not alone. It's okay to give yourself permission to fail and permission to start all over again.
I'll tell my story about how I've also started, stopped, and started again on a journey to get out of debt. This is my third time around, and I don't feel that there's anything wrong with that. Sometimes we backslide a bit, but when we get back on track, we are ready to battle! When we learn our lesson, we bring with us a certain strength in knowledge and experience that we didn't have before. We know what we have to be aware of when it comes to the myriad of pitfalls that could cause us to get into a worse situation with debt, and that helps us to stay focused and increases the chances for success this time around.
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Yes, it may be a trite expression, but an attitude of gratitude is important. When we have this attitude, we find ourselves to be more thankful for what we have and what's going right in our lives. We also tend to do a better job at analyzing what is and what is not an important purchase. This, in turn, helps us to not accumulate as much junk that we don't need. When we stop accumulating junk, we have more financial resources available for what's really important: giving, experiences, and of course, paying off debt (or anything else related to improving our financial situation).
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Are you a multitasker? You might think that you are, but the truth of the matter is (at least in my opinion), we can only truly focus on one thing at a time. While we might believe that we are doing two or three things at once, the truth is that we are simply switching gears between tasks so quickly that we fool ourselves into thinking that we're multitasking.
We absolutely should avoid multitasking when it comes to paying off our debt and the process and strategy that we are using to accomplish this goal. Instead, we need to be focused on the task at hand, whether that task is saving cash towards an emergency fund, paying off our auto loan, or paying off the high interest rate credit card. The point is that we need to be laser-focused on the task at hand so that we can apply all of our resources towards accomplishing these individual smaller goals that will essentially lead to a debt-free lifestyle.
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Sometimes we just want to give up. It seems like we're going to be on this journey to get out of debt for a really long time. While that may be the reality of all of this, we do need to keep going. We can do this, and we need to have a great support system in place in order to remind us of this every once in a while!
If you're married, your spouse should be your support system (and vise-versa). If your spouse isn't quite ready yet to begin this journey, that's okay. Hopefully your spouse will join you at some point. If you're single, your friends and family members may be able to support you to help keep you motivated. You could also look into programs in your area to find like-minded folks who are on the same journey as you. Sometimes churches have programs like this to bring people together in a small group setting who want to get out of debt. This program may benefit you so that you start out with a great support system already in place. Married folks should absolutely look for these programs as well and join them together as a couple!
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It's time to do some housecleaning!
Do you have a gym membership but rarely make it to the gym? Do you pay for magazines that sit on the coffee table for a few weeks before making their way to the garbage can? Do you have a lot of junk sitting around the house that needs to make its way to a garage sale or on to eBay? When we take some time to look into wasteful spending and do some financially focused housecleaning, it's amazing how much money we are able to free up to utilize towards more beneficial projects (like paying off debt!).
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Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
While credit cards are not necessarily dangerous by themselves, we may find ourselves in what I call the credit card danger zones. We need to be aware of these dangers and take the appropriate actions in order to avoid these at all costs.
Some of the danger zones that I cover in this episode are: getting dangerously close to the credit limit on the card, not preparing for the 0% introductory APR expiration, and the combination of not preparing for the APR rate hike after the introductory period and having charged enough to be so close to the credit limit that the interest applied may just put you over the credit limit on the card.
The huge danger here is that some credit card companies charge an over-the-limit fee, and even worse, they may even hike up your APR for going over your credit limit. All credit cards are different, and while this may not apply to your cards in particular, you will want to read the fine print to make sure of this so you know precisely where you are in relation to the danger zones that are present with most credit cards.
If you do find yourself in one of these danger zones, my recommendation is to get yourself out first and foremost. Even if you had planned on doing a debt snowball plan or paying your cards off from highest APR to lowest APR, you need to get yourself out of the danger zone first. Put a solid cushion in-between what you have borrowed and the credit limit of the card, then stop using the card entirely and eventually pay it off with your debt payment plan of choice.
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Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Do you see playing the lottery and gambling at a casino as one in the same? If you don't, you may be fooling yourself. Gambling is gambling is gambling, including your state-sponsored lottery.
The cold, hard truth is that while there are a few people who do win, the vast majority of folks who gamble do not win. If they do win from time to time, then it's likely that the money that they had already spent on gambling prior to the win far exceeds the amount that they may have won. Gambling is a horrible return on investment, especially when you're trying to get yourself out of debt.
Gambling is a slippery slope. You may start out small, but over time, you may find yourself gambling more frequently or in larger amounts (and possibly both). You train your brain to believe in the possibility of an easy road, an easy win, a way that will provide you with enough money to get out of debt. Guess what? There isn't an easy solution. The only solution to earning more money is to increase the time and resources that you put into old-fashioned work. That strategy works each and every time.
Do you or someone you know have a gambling addiction? Get them help at the following resources listed below.
In the U.S.: http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/
In Canada: http://www.problemgambling.ca/
For other countries, use your favorite search engine and look for keywords: gamblers anonymous
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Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Wrapping up our series on starting a business for extra income, I'm going to go over some miscellaneous, yet very important, items and details that you'll want to keep in mind while you are starting your own business. I'll be talking about getting organized and how it relates to not only the business itself but also your own sanity. I'll also tell you how to analyze your competition. Regardless of the business that you are starting, you will more than likely have competitors. You want to stand out from them by any means necessary in order to succeed.
On the same topic of standing out from your competition, I'll also be discussing the importance of staying focused as well as being creative. Every single day, think about how you can better serve your customers. Be creative. Your business cannot run in idle mode; you need to stay focused and move the needle a little more each and every day in ways that your competition is not. Creativity will help to differentiate your business from your competition.
All businesses also require sacrifice, but they do not require a ton of money. I'll talk about the advantages of working from home as well as how to provide the greatest service possible to your client base at the same time.
Here's a bit of exciting news for you as well...
While I have attempted to fit in as much as I could throughout these last several episodes on the topic of starting a business, I still have a substantial amount of information to cover. With this in mind, I am offering my e-book on this topic at no cost to you. Simply head on over to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/contact to enter your name and e-mail address, note that you would like the free e-book resource in the subject line, type in a quick message, hit send, and the free e-book resource will be delivered right to your inbox to read at your leisure.
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Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Continuing with our small series on starting a business for extra income, today I'll be talking about choosing a name for your business as well as touching on some points having to do with forming an LLC and securing a proper domain name for your website. It may seem to be overwhelming at times, but trust me, if you take things one step at a time, you'll do just fine throughout this entire process.
As mentioned during this episode, I'll be happy to help answer any questions that you may have about this episode or any previous episodes. Simply go to http://followmeoutofdebt.com/contact and send me an e-mail. I will personally respond to each and every one.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
What do you do during downtime that occurs when owning a business? That's simple! You work on your business!
When you're first starting out, you have to maximize your time to grow your business. This is especially true during times when you aren't making sales or working with your customers. Fostering growth happens when we strategically plan for what we're doing next with our business during any downtime that we may have with the business itself.
Whether you decided on a service business or a product-based business, your focus should be on continued customer acquisition and retention. During downtime, you'll want to come up with a plan to figure out how to gain more customers as well as how to continue to grow your business. Getting testimonials and working with those folks who are giving you testimonials to help them spread the word about your business is a terrific way to utilize your downtime. Remember: the best advertising is word-of-mouth advertising. You want to stoke the flames of this process by working with your customer base to spur them along towards promoting you and your business (without being obnoxious, of course).
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On this next installment of our small series about starting a business for extra income, I'm going to be talking about taking action now to get this business of yours off of the ground. It's too easy to get stuck in the planning stages and never quite get going. Don't make this mistake.
By the end of this episode, you'll be ready to officially offer what it is that you're selling (whether that's products or services) to your potential client base. Yes, it will happen that quickly. There's no need for obnoxious marketing or spending tons of cash. You can get your name out there by simply contacting the people who you know already who can benefit from what it is that you're offering with your new business. Whether it's a business that you're starting from the ground up or an MLM (multi-level marketing) offering, it's time to show your potential customers that you're serious about your business and that you're ready to truly take care of them.
Once you've turned potential clients into paying customers, now it's time to grab some testimonials. You will parlay those accolades into sparking interest from new customers. Then rinse and repeat.
Take action right now. Don't wait. You'll have plenty of time to continue planning your business during downtime. Get started today.
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Continuing the small series of starting your own business for extra income, I'm going to discuss what we'll be doing with the list that you came up with in episode 20. If you haven't listened to episode 20 yet, I highly advise that you listen to that episode first.
We're going to work on filtering our list to come up with the best of the best that is also marketable as a business. I'm also going to be talking about other options when considering what type of business you'd like to get into. If you're someone who is risk-averse and not interested in starting your own business from the ground up, there are other avenues that you could also consider. I'll be talking in more detail about this as well in this episode.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
I'm starting a series on the topic of starting your own business to earn more income to apply towards your debt (or anything else that helps you out financially). Starting a business is great; I've got a successful company that I started several years ago that I absolutely enjoy owning.
First things first, though. Before you start a business, you will want to make sure that you aren't in panic mode because you need cash right now. It takes a while before you start to see revenue with almost every type of business. If you're desperate for cash, you'll want to get a part-time job or a different full-time job where you're earning more income instead. Wait on starting a business for now until things are stable and you're back on your feet again.
I'm not saying that you have to be out of debt completely before you start your business; I'm saying that you want to be current on your bills and not desperate for extra money. You'll need to have clarity when you're going through these steps that I'm outlining in these episodes to start your own business, and if you're in panic mode because you desperately need money, you will have a difficult time focusing and getting things off of the ground the right way.
If you're all set and ready to get started, I'm going to explain the list that you need to make before you begin. This list is critical and is the first step in the process of starting your very own business, and you'll see why once you listen to this episode.
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Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Personally, I don't believe in New Year's resolutions. With that said, I also don't think that there's anything wrong with making resolutions; it's just not for me. I like to think that I can set any goal at any time of the year without having to wait until January 1st to start towards my goal.
The primary danger with resolutions that I do caution folks on is the trap of feeling defeated or deflated when a setback or other failure point comes into play. It's best to anticipate failure points; it's best to realize right out of the gate that something will come up as a roadblock, and you have to be able to roll with the punches.
Again, you have to anticipate setbacks, and you have to realize that your goals have to have some flexibility built in. I don't want you to set a rigid goal for yourself financially and give up just because you get bumped back to square one. You have to have perseverance. You have to realize that even if you experience resistance or a setback, you have to get back up, brush yourself off, and get back on track towards earning the goal that you set out to do to begin with.
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Today I'd like to focus on the annual budget. Most of us do a month-to-month budget, and this is still important, however it is recommended to get a high-level overview of the year ahead. When we do this, we focus on things that we may not have considered otherwise or we may forget about.
It's best to analyze the year ahead and plan for what will be coming up: birthdays, anniversaries, traveling for work, vacations, property taxes, and many more things that will affect your budget for the year. You'll feel empowered, and that's a great way to kick off the year when it comes to your budget.
It doesn't have to be perfect. This is meant to be a foundation for the upcoming year. You will likely need to tweak your budget month-to-month, but having that initial high-level overview of your annual budget is simply a smart way to plan. You'll be more prepared doing this exercise than you would be if you didn't complete your annual budget, and that's the bottom line.
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Getting things down to the lowest common denominator and making life better in general sounds intriguing, doesn't it? Look no further. Have you heard about the movement known as minimalism? If you haven't yet, then you'll want to listen in on this episode. You may just feel the urge to make some significant life changes that can help you to find more peace, have more time, spend less money, and yes - it may even help you on your journey to get out of debt and stay out of debt.
Are you currently living the minimalistic lifestyle? If so, I'd love to interview you on this show to hear about your personal experience and how it changed your life. Reach out to me by going to the website, http://followmeoutofdebt.com, and click on the Contact button to send me an e-mail to get the process started.
Mentioned on this episode:
Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things (Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus)
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Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Do you sometimes feel as though you are swimming against the current? You're trying to make it to the shore, but the current is too strong and keeps pushing you back or is otherwise preventing you from reaching your goal.
What I'm talking about today is when we get excited about getting out of debt, but our spouse does not see eye-to-eye. Not every married couple goes through this, but for those of you who are struggling with this right now, you'll want to listen to the tips that I discuss to hopefully bring your spouse on board so that you go into this as a united front - together.
There is always the potential for reconciliation if you are having money fights or other fights with your spouse. Do you know other married couples who are also on their journey to get out of debt? If so, there is strength in numbers, and you may want to invite them over for snacks, drinks, and to discuss getting out of debt. Your spouse may see that you aren't the only one who wants to get out of debt, and he or she may be more willing to join you - especially once a larger support system is established with other married couples.
Don't give up on your spouse. They will come around someday. Don't put them down or make them feel that they're in the wrong. People simply need to come to their own decision to get out of debt, and it's time for you to practice perseverance and patience while you wait.
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Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
There is what sometimes can be a spirited debate with regards to whether one should get out of debt and swear it off completely or get out of debt and manage it well in the future. Which option is right for you?
The simple answer is that it really is up to you. Everyone is different, and everyone's situation is different. The folks on the side of getting out of debt and staying out of debt think that it's ridiculous to go back into debt once debt has been eliminated. Meanwhile, the folks who think that it's fine to manage debt don't understand what the problem is if you can get into debt, manage it well, and pay off the debt as required with minimal effort and a good plan.
Both sides share something in common: it's necessary to start out by reducing debt either completely or to an amount that is manageable - which means that paying off debt is the starting point. That's a good thing. What you decide to do after that is up to you, and there are pros and cons to either side of the debate. I'll be taking a look at both today.
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Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
When was the last time that you took a good look at your auto insurance? How about your home and property insurance? If you've been with the same insurance company for the last several years (or perhaps even as far back as when you first got your driver's license), then it's time to see if you can save some money.
Many insurance companies won't reduce the premiums that you pay if they feel that you aren't likely to switch to another provider. This gets us into a trap where we just get used to paying premiums to the same company without considering if there are better options and better savings available to us. That's a big mistake. We need to look at as many options as possible to see if we're not only with a company with a great rating, but we also need to make sure that we're paying what's fair for the coverage that we have.
Get your current policy out, and start comparing apples to apples to see if you can save some money! Nowadays, you can do this through a combination of visiting a few websites and making a few calls. You will likely spend two to three hours total on this exercise, but the money that you can save will be well worth your small time investment. It's also highly recommended to revisit this once a year to make sure you're still getting the best deal possible.
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Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Are you in debt denial? It happens when we are in so much trouble with debt that we put our blinders on and ignore how much trouble we're really in. We ignore consequences and pay the minimum payments every month and continue getting deeper into debt. You know deep down inside that this isn't a good plan, but when we don't want to deal with it, that's when debt denial happens.
This is a very real thing that can put us in a situation that will delay us in getting out of debt completely. We need to acknowledge what has happened and how it happened, and we need to turn things around to get into debt reality. We need to see the big picture and make up our minds that we're going to do something about our debt situation... today.
It may be overwhelming, but acknowledging and bringing the problem to the forefront is the first critical step to fixing the problem. Taking a stance is the best way to start feeling empowered and in control of your current debt situation.
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With the already challenging goal of getting out of debt, we need support from our spouses. Getting out of debt won't happen unless you do get that much-needed support from your spouse. It's as simple as that.
Some might say that this is easier said than done, and while this may be true, we have to try to work towards this goal regardless of the resistance that we may face. The first thing that we need to do is to see things from the other person's perspective. Trying to forcefully change others never works; instead, we need to take some quiet time, have a focused conversation, and minimize distractions during this conversation. Set the cell phones down and out of the way. Ask the neighbor to watch the kids for a little while. It's critical to have this conversation, and you need to show your spouse right off of the bat how important this conversation really is by preparing ahead of time for it.
The goal in this conversation with your spouse is to have an agreement between the two of you, and the keys to all of this is to listen without judgement, listen to each other, and address each other's concerns. Find common ground by discussing the positive side of reducing debt in your marriage. With enough time and energy, both of you should be able to get into agreement and be on the same page peacefully and amicably. The bonus here is that you'll hopefully have a teammate to tackle debt with as well as a strong support system for one another.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
Have you found yourself on more than one occasion using credit cards to pay for things that you used to pay for with cash? There's a harsh reality for a lot of folks out there who are making ends meet by relying on credit cards. This includes making purchases usually paid for with cash by using credit, such as groceries, clothing, and gas for vehicles. Sometimes we may even find ourselves paying some utility bills using credit!
It's obvious that credit cards are designed to feel like a convenience for us. The reason for this is so we get into the habit of using credit instead of cash, especially when credit is so readily accessible. We get into the mindset that we can simply use our credit cards now, and we'll pay them back later. (Right?)
The problem with this is that later gets pushed further and further away. We end up forming a dangerous habit of relying more on credit cards than we do with cash. The simple truth is, if we form a habit of consistently using credit cards, we'll always be in debt. That's not a good thing.
We need to break that habit and mindset and reverse our reliance on credit cards. We need to be mindful of our budget. Can we change things in the budget in order to make it easier for us to use cash and break the longstanding habit of using credit cards to make ends meet?
The answer is yes. Credit is not the same as cash, and the sooner that we realize this, the better off we will be.
If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review. Your positive and kind words are always appreciated.
Visit the http://followmeoutofdebt.com website to read my blog and get my latest status updates on my personal journey out of debt and into prosperity!
No, I'm not talking about the current colder temperatures. What I am talking about is the freeze that happens when we take a look at the big picture and finally realize just how much debt we're really in. It causes this strange phenomenon called the freeze factor. You freeze in your tracks. You get deflated. You immediately want to just give up and just stay in debt because the road ahead looks way too difficult.
Have you ever hit a wall where you feel like being a little selfish with income? You don't want to just hand over your hard-earned money to the credit card company or the bank. You want to keep it and use at least some of it for yourself!
When you're focused, it's amazing what you can accomplish. For many of us, saving that initial $1,000.00 as a starter emergency fund will show you that you can save $1,000.00 if it's necessary to do so. We can take this one step further. If you've already saved up $1,000.00 for your starter emergency fund, what's stopping you from repeating the same process to get a huge jump on debt payoff?
Being intentional is incredibly important, especially when you are working on smaller goals that are related to your much larger goal of getting out of debt. Whether you are just starting out by saving up for your starter emergency fund, or you're already ready to start paying off your considerably large auto loan, you have to be intentional about where your money is going and focus on these goals appropriately. That is the only way that you will come out on top and win.
We need to get angry. We can't be passive. We have to get emotional about paying off debt. While looking at spreadsheets and crunching numbers is great from a logical perspective, we do need to get emotionally charged up and fired up first!
It's almost strange when you see someone actually paying with cash. Not too long ago, the opposite was true. Everyone paid with cash, and when someone didn't pay with cash and pulled out a credit card - that was considered to be strange. There is still power tied in with using cash. This is especially true when we're in the process of paying off debt. The power is obvious; we are changing behaviors that will prove to be future actions that are even more powerful when we're finally debt-free.
There are two important things that we need to do before we start on this journey to get out of debt. The first thing is to bring all of our past due bills current and paid. The thing about some bills, especially medical bills, is that it's easy to simply set them aside and forget about them. They aren't screaming at us - so we don't feel that we need to tend to them right away. The truth of the matter is, it is money that we owe, and we do need to pay these first so that we're current. Of course, there is an equally important second step - the emergency fund.
I came across an interesting way to budget. It allows me to see not only what I'm spending, but it also allows me to allocate the resources needed for each major category. I explain this procedure in greater detail on this episode, so take a listen. I hope that this helps you out with your budgeting as well.
Today I'm talking about the emergency fund, or more specifically, the starter emergency fund. This is the amount that you should have set aside to serve as a cushion for any emergencies that come up that will allow you to pay cash rather than going into further debt when there is an emergency situation that arises.
When we're used to using credit cards or other types of borrowing (car loans, personal loans, etc.), it can be a real psychological challenge to stop the behavior. The truth of the matter is that if we don't buckle down and change our mindset, we are doomed to repeating the same bad habits over and over again.
Debt is a roadblock when it comes to success with finances. Many of us know that, but yet we continue to stay in debt even though we do have other options. Those other options do require a lot of hard work, so the natural course of action may be to stay in place. However, staying in place will never lead to prosperity.