YOU CAN'T WISH AWAY YOUR DEBT! YOU MUST HAVE A WRITTEN PLAN!

Many of my clients sit with me during their first session and say they just CAN'T cut their spending in certain areas, but we all know it comes down to wanting to get out of debt bad enough to make some serious changes.  Sitting down and filling out a basic budget is the first place to start. If you continually chose not to look closely at what is coming IN versus what is going OUT you can't possibly know what or where to cut.  It not just about cutting spending, its about DIRECTING your money.  If your goal is to get out of debt you must direct dollars TO the debt in order to crush it and make it go away.

       You can't wish it away.

       You can't dream it away.

And while you may think you can 'earn your way' out of debt, I find many people get raises and still can't tell me where that money went this year. For many of us, the more we make, the more we spend.

It takes a PLAN. A WRITTEN PLAN.

This is where a financial coach comes in. My job is to sit down and help people establish and learn how to plan, decipher and WIN WITH THEIR MONEY.  It takes a few sessions for us to get your money plan in order but once it's written you can start implementing and working your plan.  The accountability helps for sure. The guidance as well.  Take the first step towards winning with money and hire a coach!

Check out my coaching 101 package at Sick of the Hustle Coaching Services

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. 

THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE....

Very few of us have had real guidance in terms of how to have a healthy financial lifestyle. We may have picked up some good AND bad habits from our parents and grandparents. I always remember my grandmother saying 'You MUST save for a rainy day" yet while that was one of my early memories of money by the time I was 16 and had my first job I immediately wanted STUFF!!!  I realized money was a way to freedom. Freedom from the constraints of NO. If I wanted those jeans I didn't have to ask for the funds, I just bought them. If I wanted a certain shampoo or hairspray that my mom didn't want (or couldn't splurge for) I bought it.  The freedom was something new and I LOVED IT!! I loved the independence it allowed me and it was that feeling that led me for many years. It made me want to work. That was a great thing because in order to have the things I wanted I had to work for them.   The reality was however, that while my mom taught me to balance a checkbook by the age of ten (was one of MY chores!) I really didn't want to 'structure' how I handled money. I just wanted to 'use it'.  

I think this is true for many of us.  We start to 'earn' our way and 'buy' the things we want and because someone else is taking care of many of the things we need we get off on the wrong footing. We shoot from the hip so to speak and don't have a real plan about how to handle our finances. We get to our full time job, we enroll in benefits that we don't understand, we start to save for retirement because we are told we will get 3% matched and we roll forward. Many of us however look like the photo above, the cart is leading us, not us leading the cart!  

What is wrong with this picture? The cart doesn't move!  

Many of the couples and singles I meet with have money in their retirement accounts yet are carrying credit card debit of $10-15,000 at a 14.54% interest rate. They are socking away money into retirement and carrying such a heavy consumer debt load that can't be attacked because they have it backwards.  The steps I teach are pretty simple. You do them IN ORDER. They work! Millions of Americans have implemented these steps and reached a new financial freedom that they never imagined possible.  You do them in this order:

• Step 1: Save $1000 ($500 if you are earning under $25k year) into a small emergency fund
• Step 2: Pay off ALL non mortgage debt smallest to largest (this is called the Debt Snowball)
• Step 3: Now fund a fully funded Emergency Fund saving 3-6 months of your monthly expenses
• Step 4: NOW start to put aside 15% of your household income into tax favored retirement funds
• Step 5: NOW start to put aside 15% for college planning for your children
• Step 6: PAY OFF your mortgage early!Step 7: Build your wealth and Live & Give like no one else!!!!!

Designing & mapping out a plan helps us reach our goals quicker. When you lead the cart and know where it's going we can actually get there!  What are you doing to work your way towards financial freedom? Do you have a real plan?