STOP SHOVELING YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY OUT THE DOOR AND START BUILDINGWEALTH!

Getting yourself debt-free, you will be able to free up your most powerful wealth building tool, YOUR INCOME.  Building wealth takes dollars. Building wealth takes less expenses and more income. When you stop shoveling your paychecks out the door to credit card companies, car payments, personal loans, student loans, past due medical bills, you will have money to do things like saving for emergencies, remodeling the house, taking vacations that won’t follow you home and investing for retirement --or better yet: actually retiring!

Think about it. If you are currently carrying a $10,000 credit card balance at an annual interest rate of 24% you are literally flushing $2400 a year away for NOTHING. That’s $200 a month! It’s just money that the credit card is taking from you. If you are able to pay that card off, those dollars can be reallocated and spent where and when you want.  Most Americans today think that $10,000 of credit card debt and two car payments in the household are ‘normal’.  This ‘normal’ is making the credit card companies rich. Last year it added up to them earning $18.5 BILLION dollars in interest charges. American’s habits of charging things like gas, groceries, clothing, mani’s/pedi’s, tools, car repairs, etc added up to a whopping Trillion Dollars last year. It’s time for a shift in mindset, behavior AND habits.

I teach my clients to use the debt snowball technique once we establish their monthly budget. 

How does the debt snowball work?  Its simple. You list your debts (other than your mortgage) smallest to largest by amount owed.  Don’t worry about the interest rates, just list them! ANY and all extra money goes to the smallest debt on the list each month until it’s paid off. Why do I not suggest you pay off the highest interest card first?  I agree that mathematically it’s correct that you would pay off the highest interest card/loan first BUT this is not about math.  It's about behavior.  If it were simply a mathematical issue you would have already done the simple math and realized that there wasn't enough coming in to pay off what was charged or bought.  Using the snowball and paying off the smallest debt first gives you instant success and you can see and feel the results of ridding yourself of a debt. Once you do that with one, you will want to continue until it’s ALL gone!  There are plenty of tools that can to show the efforts of this technique. For more information on how a financial wellness coach can help you gain back control of your finances visit my website at www.sickofthehustle.com

WANT TO RAISE FINANCIALLY HEALTHY KIDS? GIVE UP IGNORANCE AND KEEPING UP WITH THE JONES'S...

• Living in a bigger house
• Driving more expensive cars
• Wearing designer clothing 
• Birthday party for Billy and his 15 friends 

All of these are great to have but I'm an advocate for having what you need before having what you want. I teach my clients the tools of building and protecting the '4 walls' (food - shelter- transportation- clothing) and building a solid foundation BEFORE you put the roof on.

Many families today "feel" (yes emotion drives 80% of our money handling) as though their children will suffer if they don't have the newest bat, the UGG boots, and the party for 15 at Chucky Cheese. I truly believe this started with our 80's generation because I don't remember my parents being focused on making sure I had $100 pairs of NIKE's, and a birthday party that cost as much as a monthly car payment. They knew better.  Sure, they had there set of 'keeping up with the Jones's too' but the credit frenzy was just beginning when I was a teenager. We had the Sears and JCPenney cards (didn't everyone?) but I didn't watch my parents charge the washer/dryer on 90 days same as cash. They didn't finance our childhood pet. They did what most American's did before credit became a 'normal way of life" they paid CASH and only when they could afford it. 

So how is this new credit action affecting our children? Really think about the long term effects our buying decisions and behaviors have on our kids. If you are using credit cards to get your nails done, take the family vacation, and stopping at Panera, Papa Gino's, and Outback for dinner this week, these are the behavior patterns our kids see AND become accustomed to.  They don't SEE cash leave your hands. They don't SEE half of the weekly paycheck going out the door for the family cell phone plan with unlimited minutes, texts, and data. They don't SEE the cable bill came in $70 higher because it snowed for three days and school was canceled, and the added cost of 'hitting the rent movie button' actually takes away from the normal budget.  Unless you are talking to them about what it takes to run a household and modeling the things you know will create healthy adults down the road, you are missing out on an opportunity to teach your children what Mastercard & Discover will teach them if you don't. Start using an 'envelope system". I'm a huge fan of what this one tool provided in terms of my kids SEEING a change in my behavior. When we stopped for a bite to eat at a drive thru for example I had my son pull out the envelope and the unfamilar cash to pay for the order. Same at the grocery store, if they are with me, they open up the envelope and can see the $$ leaving .. they also are quick to count what's left and tell me 'that's it? we better be careful!"  I'm proud of this because I know there is a huge difference in their awareness (not just mine) that has benefited them with my changing my pattern from ignorance to understanding. 

TO ORDER DAVE RAMSEY'S DELUXE ENVELOPE SYSTEM CLICK HERE: 

DON'T LET A "TREAT" SCREW UP YOUR PLAN TO CRUSH YOUR DEBT!

Sometimes, when you're working your plan to pay off debt and get to your debt free dream, you feel the need to treat yourself to something!  I came across a really neat budget tool to help decipher the 'cost' of opting to buy yourself a 'treat' while you are working your plan to pay off debt.

For those of you who know my personality or work with me one on one, I'm a FACT based decision-maker.

I ask my clients to look at both the pros and cons  of decisions BEFORE making them. It's easier to 'own' your final decisions knowing the impact it has on your goals/plan.  It's so important to look at the 'treat' and know HOW it will affect your debt pay down plan.

For example,  if you currently are on task to pay off all of your debt within the next 46 month, a 'treat decision' can actually delay you by many additional months, maybe even a year. For example if you are currently paying down $22,000 of debt at an interest rate of 12.99%, making normal monthly payments, a $4800 Disney Vacation 'treat' would actually become a $6119 vacation!

Click the link and try it yourself…

http://www.whatsthecost.com/treats.aspx


Treating yourself occasionally can be a good way of keeping motivated or rewarding yourself while dealing with debt. This calculator isn't designed to convince you not to treat yourself, simply to give you an idea of the real cost!

REFLECTION LEADS TO CHANGE…

One of the most useful things we can do on our journey towards financial wellness is REFLECT. We all get in 'over our heads' for different reasons. For some of us, its childhood 'lack' and adult 'gain' that lead to our overspending. For some of us, its an emotional rise to spend money on things that make us feel better and forget about whats happening in our lives. For some of us, it's a gaining of 'status' that causes us to overspend.  For others its unexpected medical bills, loss of a job/income, a divorce. Whatever the reason, in order to change ANY situation and plan your way out, you must first reflect.

Start by creating a 'money journal'. A simple notebook will do OR get fancy and decorate a fun journal/notebook knowing your going to take this journey seriously.  Spend some time over the next few days thinking about and answering one or more of these reflection questions in your 'money journal':

• Name three things do you truly love to do.  Do any of these cost money?
• Name three things that you do regularly that you truly hate to do? Why do you do them? Are these in any way worth the reward you get for doing them?
• What things are preventing you from doing more of the things you love and less of the things you hate? How can you remove the things that stop you from doing more of the things you love?
• When was the last time DIDN'T feel badly about a purchase you made? Why did you feel good about it?   When was the last time you felt horrible about money you spent? Why did you feel badly about it?

Jot down your answers and do some 'reflecting' on them over the next week and share your thoughts with your partner, close friend, or with me on our Facebook discussion group:  Budgeting Group Sick of the Hustle https://www.facebook.com/groups/358488774329894/ 

CURRENT STUDENT LOAN DEBT IN THE U.S. IS $1.3 TRILLION (and counting)

How can this be?

The student loan debt in the USA has creeped up to over a TRILLION DOLLARS and now we are starting to pay attention?!  Many people sign up for college, knowing that to advance in careers education is key. What they don't always do is 'weigh' out the reality of what these future loan payments will look like when 'life after college' begins.

I'm all about helping clients PLAN. Planning is how we succeed with money.

Here's a great tool to help you understand your student loan repayments in relation to your possible starting salary https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/tools-calculators

Don't make decisions about your future without preparation and knowing the facts!

Americans paid a sickening $32 BILLION in overdraft fees to US banks last year!!!

Banks make their money on MONEY or LACK THERE OF...  

Unlike a retail store who makes its profits on a product, banks profit on the 'transaction' of money.  Think about when you open a savings account at your local bank. You basically deposit (loan them) your money at a very low interest rate.  Once you're in the door their marketing machine begins… sign into your online banking and you can see for yourself there are 10 offers on each page trying to capture your attention.  Open your mailbox and there are offers for their credit card. Open your bank statement and you find a slick insert with their most recent program rates! 

They are working very hard to lend your money back to you in the form of mortgages, home equity lines, credit card offers, personal loans, car loans, all of which range with interest rates of 2.75% to well over 20%-- WELL OVER your .035 that you are earning on your savings. 

After raking in money on savings accounts, Banks turn their attention to checking accounts. Banks make most of their money by charging the following fees:

• Overdraft fees: which represent approximately 60% of the fees charged by banks. The average overdraft fee today is $29 per transaction! Only 10% of the population pays 75% of the fees, and they tend to be the most economically vulnerable, including our troops. Can you believe that last year overdrafts fees paid to US banks exceeded $32 Billion!?!? Yes $32 BILLION!!  In 2007 that number was only $17.5 billion so we have gotten twice as bad with handling our money as we were 7 years ago. 
• ATM fees: which can add up quickly. If you go out of network, you pay ATM fees to two banks: your bank, and the bank that owes the ATM- this accounts for over $11 Billion in fees.
• Monthly fees: which most people get waived. A direct deposit or minimum balance usually takes care of this fee but the average American is paying $6.00 month just to have an account at their local bank.  

HOW did we get to this point where we are financing 60% of the bank growth by our STUPIDITY?? For some of us we just stopped using basic sixth grade math and keeping track of what we have in our accounts. It's craziness really.  Some of us haven't balanced a checkbook since online banking became the 'norm'- we just check our balances 1-2 times A DAY!!! It's laziness really. Living paycheck to paycheck has become the norm because many Americans have tried to 'out earn' their stupidity. It doesn't work and this is the price we pay… FEES! Late fees, monthly fees, higher interest rates. 

I'm here to tell you there IS ANOTHER WAY!  

Let me help teach you how to implement a healthy financial budget that will have you taking control and putting money back in your pockets NOT the banks! 

If you would like to learn more, visit my website.