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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 discu

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 secur

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 pa

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

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

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? Woul

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 podc

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 ou

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 th

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 t

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

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 thes

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.   Would you mind providing a review for this s

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

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

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.

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 c

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 ge

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 wi