Do you have a poverty mentality?

The mass media perpetuates this notion a lot. But I’m wondering if you in fact do have a poverty mentality? What is a poverty mentality?

Poverty mentality is thinking in order to get ahead you must take from someone else. Many people believe the pie is only so big and there’s not much for me. The reality of the situation is the pie is gigantic and only getting bigger every day.

Our economy expands pretty much every year. If the pie did not expand we wouldn’t have an expanding economy, wages, homes, cars, and on and on.

The reason why the pie is ever expanding is because all of us together contribute to the ever increasing pie. Think back to when you were 18 and maybe you had a summer job or worked part time. You didn’t contribute much therefore you didn’t make much.

Fast forward to today. How much more do you make? How much more do you contribute?

Keep it in perspective. Zig Ziglar has a saying, “you can have anything you want in this world if you’ll help enough folks get what they want.”

Selling is like that. The more you sell the more you make. The real secret to success is to focus on doing more productive things while spending less money than you make.

That’s why debt is so bad. If you owe money you cannot afford to be generous. If you owe everyone you are in bondage to all of your creditors.

If you owe no money you can afford to be generous.

The more value you add, the more valuable you are, the more sales you make, the more money you make.

If you have the poverty mentality you can do something about it. As you change your thinking remember to focus on achieving your goals knowing you are contributing to the pie not taking from someone else.

You can do it, now go do it!

David…

Discipline involves getting mad

Recently I counseled with someone who was good and mad. He was mad about all the bills he had and no money to pay them.

For a short time he lived with relatives and used the money he saved to pay down his bills. This worked for a short time.

It worked until he found an electronic gizmo he just had to have. The electronic gizmo set him back $250.

Why did he buy the gizmo?

He told me he had wanted it for some time. He just had to have it. I reminded him of his goal of paying off all of his debt. He just told me everything was going according to plan.

Here comes the discipline part. If you’re fortunate enough to reduce your bills even for a short time you need massive amounts of DISCIPLINE to achieve your goal of Debt Free Living.

You’ve heard me rant about no pain no gain. Well, if it’s easy you won’t make the necessary changes to your behavior.

Getting mad about your bills is a good thing. The madder you are the more likely you are to do something about it. That’s why my friend is not helping his cause.

Call it discipline, call it getting mad. Maybe the anger creates the discipline, or maybe the discipline comes from the desire to make a change (the discipline)?

Why did he buy the gizmo? That is the question.

David…

What if I have a ZERO interest credit card?

This question has come up recently. What about a zero interest credit card? I’m not paying interest, isn’t that good?

First, I’ll concede the point I usually say that it’s expensive to have credit cards because of the interest you have to pay, but it isn’t the main reason. It’s just one of the many reasons I encourage everyone to Live Debt Free.

The main reason for Debt Free Living is DEBT. Debt is bad whether you’re paying interest or not. The reality is you have borrowed money that you don’t have and must repay it.

Repaying money that you don’t have now mortgages your future. The more you owe the less likely you can be generous. The more you owe the more stress you have in your life. The more you owe the more you’ll fight with your spouse over money.

The main reason to get rid of ALL your DEBT is to get rid of the chains that hold you down. There’s a real sense of freedom when you owe no one money. There’s no better feeling than to pay cash for everything.

One final note. A previous post of mine has a strategy on paying off your debt. I suggest you pay off your lowest card first then next to lowest all the way to the highest balance. If you wanted to tweak the strategy a little you could save the credit card with zero interest and pay it off last.

David….

You can do it!

I don’t know about you but I’ve about had it with folks constantly being negative. Maybe this has happened to you. You share your goal with a friend and or family and immediately tell you, “you can’t do it”.

Or, it will never work, you’re wasting your time.

Here’s today’s suggestion.

Stop it! Quit hanging out with negative people! I don’t care if they’re friends or family. Get new friends. Quit hanging out with relatives unless its a holiday.

If you want to DO IT—You can do it!

You can be debt free. And, anyone who tells you otherwise should be slapped or ignored. You can do it and the way you do it is to first:

1. Hang around upbeat people
2. Pay off all your debt

Those two items will make you happier, healthier, wealthier, and wiser.

Start today. Read some previous posts on the strategies to get you out of debt. In my kit, From Debt to Cash, you’ll find all the tools to put you in the driver’s seat.

Until next time, YOU CAN DO IT!

David…

The Tiffani's Scam

A friend of mine’s wife loves Tiffani’s. I asked him one time to explain how someone can love a store so much. “Well, he said, the jewelry has Tiffani’s stamped on it and it comes in a very unusual blue box.”

Here’s the scam. The jewelry is no different than any other jewelry (except the box). There’s an enormous mark-up on the jewelry because of the “Tiffani’s” name. The company has done an extraordinarily great job of marketing itself to average Americans (lower-middle-class).

You could go to an independent jeweler and have a stone and setting made for less. Of course it’s not the money. It’s the name. Name brand stuff always fetches more money.

The moral of the story is to understand ‘name brand’ does not mean anything at all. There are lots of alternatives to name brand. And, when you really think about it; what are you saying when you wear designer stuff?

I’m better than you? I have more status than you?

Did you know most folks that are really well to do generally don’t buy name brand stuff? They’re more likely to shop at Sam’s Club.

The point is to do without for a while until you’ve paid down all of your debt, than, with cash, purchase what you can afford. If you can pay cash you can afford it, if you have to use credit you can’t.

To debt free living!

David…