Your Balance is Zero

It's time to increase your standard of living! Yes, by avoiding credit and interest with a passion you can improve your living standards. Cut up your credit cards. Pay cash when ever possible. Your wallet will be fatter if you remove your credit cards. People owe more money now than ever. In Readers Digest, August 1998, it states "Over the past ten years, total household debt, including mortgages, has soared from eighty-eight percent of annual disposable income to ninety-five percent". I wonder what it is now, two years later.

Are you in debt? How much are you in debt? I ask people that question all the time. Would you believe many people don't consider their auto loans and home mortgages as debt? Debt is debt whether it is secured or unsecured.

I looked up the word "debt" in the dictionary, just for fun. It says, "Something that is owed or that one is bound to pay to or perform for another; a liability or obligation to pay or render something; a sin, trespass."

Debt is a depressing subject. It is a vicious cycle. It is the major cause of divorces, and it causes more stress than all other stress-factors combined. It causes people to live from paycheck to paycheck, close to bankruptcy, foreclosure or both. Financial stress is the number on cause of divorce.

If you want to be financially independent and you have debt, here's some steps you should consider taking:

1. Stop charging and buying on credit. Stop! Stop! Stop! Cut up your credit cards and close your accounts.
2. Now pay off your debts. Eliminate them one by one. If you need help, email me. (My email is at the end of the article.). There are many programs available from credit counseling agencies to debt elimination programs. And when we say pay off your debts, we mean all debts (Car and Mortgage included!) Actually, for a FREE ANALYSIS OF YOUR SITUATION - go to http://www.NetWorthSys.com/00wc and fill out the FREE ANALYSIS offer from me.
3. Find out where your money is going. Log every purchase and document every cent that you spend. It can be time consuming but it is a KEY step. Knowing where your money is going is half the battle.
4. Focus on creating wealth and preserving it. Having more money will not necessarily solve debt problems. Learn to manage the money you have now and make it work for you.

In closing, I'm going to quote a few words from the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. This is one of the most fabulous books I have ever read even though it can rattle your comfort zone. :)

"Rich dad rocked back and laughed heartily. Finally, after his laughing stopped, he said, 'you'd best change your point of view. Stop blaming me, thinking I'm the problem. If you think I'm the problem, then you have to change me. If you realize that you're the problem, then you can change yourself, learn something and grow wiser. Most people want everyone else in the world to change but themselves. Let me tell you, it's easier to change yourself than everyone else.'" ...

"Money only accentuates the cash-flow pattern running in your head. If your pattern is to spend everything you get, more money would probably just result in an increase in spending. What's more important than knowing how to make money is learning how to spend it?" [end quote]

I challenge you to spend some time thinking about your money. What can you do to keep people from taking it from you? What can you do to keep it longer and how can you spend it so that it will work for you?

And by the way, if Your Balance Is Zero, you are ahead of the game!!!