Follow Me Out Of Debt | Get Out Of Debt And Get 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 n

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

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 recor

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 jou

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'

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 sh

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 firs

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.   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!

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

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.   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

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 later

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.   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!

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

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.   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.  

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).   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!

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.   If you liked this show so far, please take a minute to subscribe to the show, rate it, and leave a review.

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

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!).   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!

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 zone

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 yo