Follow Me Out Of Debt | Get Out Of Debt And Get Into Prosperity!

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 object

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

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.   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 A

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 relation

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 audiob

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 w

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

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 alw

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 you

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 opportu

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.  

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 incom

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 j

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

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 brain

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 fear

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 s

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

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 manag

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