Owing money will kill YOU!!!

It may not kill you in a moment like a gun can, it will kill you over time a slow an agonizing death. Because you’re worrying, because internally you’re behind the eight-ball and your insides are being systematically destroyed.

I’ve seen it for years and even experienced it 3 times in my own life. Owing money eats at you and it’s like being a drug addict. A good friend of mine, 20 years ago, was a recreational drug user. He would do drugs on weekends mostly but every now and then he would binge real bad.

No one would see him for several days. One day he binged so bad he ended up in the hospital a week later. He told me he’d be fine doing drugs occasionally but he just couldn’t stop himself…he’d just go nuts on drugs…

That’s what debt is like. We get offers in the mail from the Big Banks telling us how wonderful we are and because of our great credit we deserve the finer things in life so take this credit card and go have fun.

The problem is we get offer after offer and begin to think “we really do deserve it”. One credit card becomes two credit cards becomes three and on and on until all the credit cards are maxed out.

After we’ve maxed out the cards we discover we’ve got to pay off the cards and we don’t have enough money to pay them off. That’s when our health begins to suffer. We don’t realize it at first our brain goes into denial.

Then we work out small solutions to our problems moving balances here and there and maybe even eek out a little more money on the credit card line to help pay the minimum monthly payment. Once we’ve maxed out the cards we now are forced to pay them off…for many of us….one minimum payment at a time.

The minimum payments do not allow us much room for anything and now we’re really upset because we do not have any money left.

And the long hard road to recovery is what will wear you down and cause havoc with your health. For some of us it never ends. We never realize the problem in the first place because we started out as a recreational “credit card user” (a weekend drug user).

If you have any of the above problems you’re at the right place. Look at some previous posts to begin a new healthy life style today. You can recover before it’s too late. You can get back to debt free living. The benefits are huge because if you’ll live like no one else is willing to live today you’ll be able to live like no one else is able to live tomorrow.

David Dassow

Income vs. Net Worth

Building your financial fortress requires a completely different view-point then the common views out there. Far to many people look at income and focus on income when the reality is:

It’s about the net.

Here’s why. You can gross $100,000.00 a year and spend every dime and have no money and even owe money and be totally behind the eight-ball and think you’re doing well.

Or, you could make $50,000.00 a year and spend $45,000.00 of it and keep $5,000.00 dollars and be way ahead of your colleagues.

It’s not what you make, it’s what you keep. It isn’t how much money you run through the checking account…it’s how much you keep in the checking account.

Every time you borrow money you spend money you haven’t made yet. You are, in fact, spending money you’ll make next year to satisfy the money you’re spending today.

All you have to do is add up assets and subtract what you owe…this equals your net worth. If your net worth is a negative (-) than you are in the hole.

The way to get positive is to pay off all your debt then rework the calculation and you’ll discover you are in the positive.

David Dassow

The power of momentum

Momentum is going in a given direction picking up steam along the way. The more steam you pick up the faster you go and the more “momentum” you have to get you where you’re going.

In sports, coaches really pay attention to momentum. An interception in football can literally change the entire game. What’s amazing about momentum is the opposite reaction you can have to it.

If you’re in a football game and working the ball down the field getting closer and closer to a score you’re picking up momentum.

BUT, an interception comes along and all of a sudden “the momentum” is gone.

That’s what it’s like to pay off your bills, to pay them down at an accelerated pace. You get momentum going and you sort of get on a “roll” paying off one credit card, then another, then still another.

There’s something powerful about momentum.

Today’s lesson is to maintain that momentum no matter who comes a long to muck it up for you. Keep going because when you score NO DEBT you have an instant raise, instant peace of mind, and instant rewards because you’ll be able to do what your friends, family and co-workers can’t.

If you’ll do what no one else will do now, you’ll be able to do what no one else can do later. A saying, paraphrased by Dave Ramsey.

Now, go get the momentum.

David Dassow

A friend of mine made a discovery

While reviewing the status of his bill paying and where he’s currently at on his six month plan I gotta tell you he’s doing well, very well.

Here’s his discovery, “Dave, I’m about two weeks behind on my game-plan. But, I’ve made a decision. First, though here’s my discovery: I got a $1,000 dollar raise the other day. You might be wondering what I had to do to get a thousand dollars more each and every month? I’ll tell you. I’ve paid off a sufficient amount of my bills that worked out to $1,000.00 in minimum payments.

That equals one thousand dollars a month more I get to keep. In fact, it’s larger then $1000.00 because that’s the net number to my wallet. Of course, I’m not quite able to enjoy the money because I’m using those funds to finish paying off my bills.

You can have the same discovery if you’ll put your plan into action and pay off those bills. Use the strategies in this blog, they’re free, you’ve got no excuse not to do it and you’ve just heard a success story.

Now, go and do it.

David Dassow