When life gives you lemons you better learn to make lemonade. Adaptability, flexibility, and a resolute mindset of ‘I can’, allowed my guest – Kim Savage, to keep her doors open during the height of the Economic Recession of 2007-2011. Many would argue, that recession is not truly over. She went about reinventing herself to stay relevant and earning an income in an industry that had supposedly collapsed.
While many felt the pinch of the recession, those who made a living in Real Estate probably noticed it the most. Kim, a licensed Virgina Realtor, immediately reviewed her resources, and reinvented herself to offer property preservation and rehab services to the growing foreclosure market. Kim figured out how to turn these life lemons into profitable lemonade.
No stranger to heavy duty construction equipment, Kim and a crew of women may not be the only women owned company in the property rehab business, but they certainly rank high among the few.
Don’t let her last name (Savage) fool you. Kim is all pink and feminine – but her resilience has allowed her to make a mark in a male dominated industry.
She wil share with us the whole business of reinventing yourself and your business to stay viable in difficult economic times, and how she is able to carve out a place in a heavily male dominated profession.
This was the content of Debt Free Wealth Radio, so listen in here:
The difference between ordinary and extraordinary success may be so tiny it is easy to miss, except for the results. It is the difference between #1 and #2 on the Olympic winner blocks, and it will also show up in profits in this very competitive marketplace.
Andrew McGreer is my special guest and he knows delivering extraordinary service and achieving extraordinary results.
After rescuing a failing division creating a turn-around of a 300% increase in sales in just 3 months, he brought this 13th placed division to the number 1 spot which they held for three years.
Then he took over the commercialization of a mature tech product that was averaging $180K per year, to bring revenues up to $10M in 2.5 years.
Now, running his own business, Andrew has grown from a crew of 1 to a crew of 55, servicing 5 states and doing $5 million in revenue in 2.5 years.
Andrew is also no stranger to radio, or to the lifestyle of debt free wealth. I am honored to have Andrew on as my guest. Please join us so you can tap into his wisdom and move your business from ordinary, to EXTRAORDINARY.
Listen in here as this was the content for Debt Free Wealth Radio
The average person thinks like I used to, that only rich people buy gold and silver, so if they did not perceive themselves to be at least financially comfortable, then buying gold and silver was not even something to have in a conversation, let alone in a vault somewhere.
Which takes me to myth #1. Broke people cant save. My family of 4 was on a road trip recently and we stopped at the drive thru to buy food and spent in excess of $30. Do you know that if we decided to bypass that trip and prepare properly and pack a more affordable and healthier lunch, that I could have used that $30 and bought a 1oz silver bullion piece. That is what you call strategy. What is your spending plan? I bet if you look through your expenditures there are many $30 spendings you could have done differently. Strategy. I know people on food stamps and cash assistance that can find $30 of spending they could have done differently and possibly bought a piece of silver instead. Do you realize that buying a silver piece means at the end of the month you have basically SAVED that money? I have personally found, and proved it to be true in many others of my peers who do the same, and I am talking quantitative proof that exceeds 50K of us, that have accumulated gold and silver and by extention, wealth that we may not otherwise have saved had we tried to hold the same money in cash.
There is a psychology that comes with purchasing the gold and silver that takes the cash out of the spending pool and deposits it in the wealth box. At the end of the month that $30 is still in hand and guess what, if you are truly in a crisis, that silver can be converted back to cash, but that extra step to do so means we are less tempted – and in my case, not at all tempted to reach for that option to fund whatever comes up. So the month ends and now there is an accumulation of wealth that was not happening before.
So, go through your financial records, aka – your spending plan, and see where you could have re-routed money toward your wealth. Did you really need another pair of shoes? Did you really need so many meals away from home? Even if you have not put together an official budget, you still have one by default. I know a lot of people hate the word budget, but organized or not – you have been operating on a spending plan and if I look through your checking record, credit card statement and receipts in your wallet, I could easily create your budget of spending for you. What would it show? Would you see that you are giving the bank $300/month extra in overdraft fees – yes, that is a nice item to have in your budget right? Or maybe, although you didn’t pay your electric bill, that you had a dining out expense of $250 with McDonalds and Olive Garden. Now, next week we are going to talk about how to use your spending plan to create wealth, but the point is, most people blow $30 or more dollars each month, and if you were operating on an effective spending plan, you could probably find $30 to put toward your wealth.
Now here is the other part that really makes this strategy unique – gold and silver tends to be the great protector of financial worth. What do I mean by that? Well, it might be best understood with this analogy. If you are a female and tried opening a tight jar, then handed it off to a male partner who in one twist, opened the jar for you – then you have just observed how strength leads to less energy output to do the same job – right? Same thing with money. Money value is best understood via price. So if today you pay $3 for gas, then tomorrow it is $3.25, everyone will talk about how price went up – rather than the strength of the money going down. When money gets weak, it is like the female who could not open the jar. When the dollar is weak, it takes MORE DOLLARS to achieve the same goal. Gold and silver, is like the strong male who in one twist opened the jar. Same jar, same moment – but it took less effort to open it because the male in this example was stronger than the female. So, if I used $30 and bought a piece of silver today, but next week I needed $35 dollars to buy the same silver – did silver go up? No. 1 oz of silver, is 1 oz of silver today, tomorrow, and next week. What changed was we needed more dollars to buy the silver. Guess what though, the silver you bought last week for $30 if you trade it in will get you the $35 cash today. So the silver tends to retain value while money does not. One gallon of gas today is one gallon of gas, and one gallon of gas next week is still one gallon of gas. If it takes me $3 to buy that gallon today, then I will earn $3.25 next week for the SAME ITEM. The value of gold and silver do not depreciate the same way a car does the moment you drive it off the showroom floor.
Myth #2. Broke people can’t build wealth. Now, if you choose to adopt the strategy of looking through your spending plan for spending that you could re-route to better use, and use some of that money on gold and silver –as an alternative saving strategy – since for most of us, saving in cash is not working, AND saving in cash is holding a deteriorating asset, then this strategy not only allows you to have money left over at the end of your month in the form of gold and silver, but with each passing month, even if all you bought was one piece of silver bullion, that is now $60, then $90, then $120 and so on.
Not only can broke people SAVE using this strategy, but who will deny the wealth feature of owning and holding gold and silver? Again, the public perception is, gold and silver is the playground of the rich. I tell you something too, hold a couple pieces of gold and silver in your hand and it wont take long before you feel rich. If you keep your gold and silver in the bank safety deposit box vault, then having a bank rep escort you into the vault is an experience you will notice also adds to that feeling of wealth. It costs about $55/year to have a small safety deposit box and it can hold thousands of dollars worth of gold and silver. When I had to upgrade to the bigger vault drawer, I knew I was on to something because prior to using this strategy, in an emergency, I had to dip into my savings which left me with zero savings, and worse, in many emergencies we had to resort to swiping that credit card which UPPED our debt.
What if you already have all you need to be fabulously prosperous? What if the only thing you need to tweak or change to have everything you possibly want – is your mindset? Would you be open to exploring that possibility?
Dan Harr, an online entrepreneur and Speaker asked this question and a bunch of us signed up for the social experiment. To say it was life changing is almost an understatement.
The Prosperity Game
Join as as we discuss the experience of THE PROSPERITY GAME, how it has impacted lives, and how you too can tap into the prosperity of the Abundant Universe.
The game is fun and easy to do. Once registered, you get an email daily for 14 days with a virtual check for an increasing amount. You declare where in your life or circumstances it came from and what you will do with it.
I hope you do join us. I made great new friends with forward thinking, going somewhere people. This game will expand your mind, and you will get a deeper understanding of your relationship with money.
Is money a goal, a tool, a destination? What does money mean to you? Will anything be different for you if you have no debt but have access to money? How would life as you know it change, if at all?
Prosperity may seem elusive right now, but during and after this game, you might find it is camping at your doorstep.
What do advanced academic degrees and food stamps have to do with each other? Apparently a lot according to a Feb 2, 2103 Natural News article. A highlight quote from this that I want to share is “more than 300,000 Americans with either Master’s degrees or Ph.D.s were receiving food stamps in 2010 — and many more are likely on some form of government assistance today as economic conditions since that time have only continued to worsen.” Also, “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly one in three college graduates works in a job the Labor Department says requires less than a bachelor’s degree”.
Food stamps and government assistance is great relief for the moment – but they are not meant to last forever. The phenomenon that I have noticed, is that once some people get a taste of that kind of help -they get hooked. Hooked on being home and money is coming in without effort. Hooked on having access to the best health care without a cent out of pocket, hooked on being able to be in total control of how their day goes knowing that the basics are covered at better than basic level. Some are even eating lobster on food stamp money – why ever change that? (Psst…this feeling could be achieved with residual income too. Wanna know more about that? Ask me!)
Some settle and live at this level; and some find their self-worth demands more than eating lobster while dodging the phone, the foreclosure mail, and those former friends they can’t repay.
Degrees and jobs
The sad thing is, ever since mid 2006 to now, many have returned to college rather than stay home twiddling their unemployed fingers. Hopeful that re-training, or adding a new level of expertise would turn things around; all that has happened is there are more college graduates competing for jobs that do not require college degrees. The available jobs also are not compensating for having a degree as they did in the past so, now graduated, the incomes earned are not allowing for good debt repayment.
Unfortunately, of all the debts to have – educational debt is among the worst. You cannot bankrupt yourself out of traditional or government backed student loans. The ease with which these loans are handed out – many people with horrible credit histories and habits access these loans and run them up into the hundreds of thousands, sometimes living lavish lifestyles on student loan money.
J-O-Bs are sweet golden handcuffs. They seem to solve problems because if you score one, you can go from zero to paycheck within a day, a week, a fortnight, or a month. However, finding the ideal job where you have opportunity for growth, are fairly compensated, flexibility, and benefits seem to be a thing of the past.
In fact, for many, jobs ARE the problem. There are not enough, they don’t pay enough, they ask too much for too little, the commute is horrid, the environment is hostile, there is no growth within the company or field, pay increases seem non-existent or insignificant, benefits are a thing of the past, full-time hours are a privilege, overtime is taxing, and the list goes on and one.
Now, I say all this because my next observation totally floored me. This very same group rejects the opportunity to have a business opportunity that is all their own. The brightest minds somehow became slaves to the J-O-B market and whatever way the market breeze blows. That totally blew my mind away!
If you have a job you love – no problem. Enjoy it! But if you don’t and you are complaining daily – why not be open to a side project you can develop as you go so you NEVER HAVE TO FEAR THE PINK SLIP AGAIN????
Well, if you not among those still waiting for their set of golden handcuffs to clasp firmly around your wrists, and you are ready to explore an additional income stream so that you have some income coming in that is not attached to the mood of your supervisor, then you are the person I want to speak with.
Degrees or Not, Opportunity Awaits
I believe there is a business opportunity out there that WILL match your talent, interest and passion, that you can earn an income from. It would be awesome if you were interested in the ones I am involved in, so together we can move to higher levels of success; but regardless, through my shows on Debt Free Wealth Radio, I have interviewed a number of successful entrepreneurs that share their opportunities and how you can become a part of that.
Young adults moving out into the world often do not have the credit required to lease their first apartment, finance their first car, or get college loans.
Loving parents are often co-signing debt for kids without a second thought. In this show, we will discuss the pros and cons of this, as well as explore healthy ways to help our kids become financially savvy and independent.
15 years ago, my grandmother, God rest her soul, had co-signed a furniture store debt for her Ex daughter-in-law. She refused to pay the debt when things heated up between her and her former husband, and my grandmother was hounded by the debt collectors. At first she was confounded by the calls because when she signed those papers, she did not read anything, she did not even understand what she was doing. She trusted this person and wanted to help and signed whatever was put in front of her. In the end, she negotiated a percentage of the debt and paid that back and only because she knew her own credit was at stake. That of course strained the already tense relationship between herself, her ex-daughter in law, and her son.
In fact many family relationships are enduring great strain over what started out as a loving gesture.
Here is a correspondence that came to me recently:
Dear Debt Free Wealth Money Coach: I co-signed some private student loans for one of my kids. She graduated two years ago with about $65,000 in student debt, including federal and private loans. Like many other recent graduates, she has had a difficult time finding a job in her area of study. She works two part-time gigs as a waitress and some babysitting. She had to move back in with me, and according to what she says, she is only making a gross of $10,000 annually. I also co-signed her apartment lease which she moved out of after losing a $10/hour full time job, and I also co-signed her car note, and she just turned back in the car, because they were getting ready to repossess it anyway. Things have gotten very tough around here, and because she’s back living with me now, we fight a lot too. To protect my credit, I have been helping her make the agreed reduced payments and she has gotten deferments and income-based repayment plans.
Because of this, I have not been able to contribute to my retirement fund at all, and may even have to dip into it, or worse, I am worried about whether these debts she has can wipe me out if the creditors keep this up. I am frustrated about this whole situation. Se is too young for a bankruptcy, but she contacted a lawyer anyway who dissuaded her from that option because the biggest portion of her debt is this student debt and most of it wont go away with the bankruptcy anyway. What can I do?
*******
Before I get into answering this, let me say, this person’s situation is not unique.
Many students are starting or heading back to college right now, and even as I record this, parents and grandparents are out there co-signing debt for the, and signing their life and retirement away all in the good intention of helping their young people get a start in the world. Some are not so young, and parents are still co-signing debts for mortgages and car notes. Co-signing debt your boyfriend or girlfriend’s debt is also popular as a gesture of further investing in the relationship.
My Recommendation…Avoid Co-Signing Debt
Here is what I have to say to all of the above. DON’T DO IT! And if you already have, even before it becomes a problem (and it is very likely to) begin to work on freeing yourself from that debt as soon as possible.
Debt Free Wealth Radio, and my life’s mission is hinged on the core Bible verse of Romans 13:8, and reading from the KJV it reads
Romans 13:8 (KJV)
8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Whether you are a Christian or not, or even see the Bible as nothing more than a good library book, very few would question the wisdom of those words I just read.
So let me convert those Bible verses to today’s vernacular:
Romans 13:8 Owe no man anything but love, translates to – Owe no one at all, and if you do owe, make sure it is only love that you owe.
Here are some other Bible verses I want to add to that in support:
Proverbs 22:27 (NIV)
27 if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you.
Translates to: You will be forced into foreclosure and your property will be repossessed, even the very bed you sleep on you will lose, if you can’t pay your debt.
Proverbs 6:1-5 (KJV)
6 My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
3 Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.
4 Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
5 Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
Translates to: If you have already co-signed a debt, or promised to pay on behalf of someone else, even for a friend; do not rest until you find a way to clear yourself of the responsibility and save yourself from the debt collector who will hunt you down.
So for those of you who claim Christianity and the infallibility of the Bible, I hope you read the warnings handed down to us. If you are in your devotion time and reading through the Word, you would have seen it and it stands as witness against you. So if you are among those crying because of this oversight, remember, ignorance of the law is no excuse. You had the warnings. I hope you heeded them or will heed them.
Now, I have two students in college today. My eldest had her college time interrupted with marriage and children, however she is back now continuing her degree. Beautiful girl that she was, she was Prom queen, very popular, and although she was smart, she was not consistent with her grades. She did not earn any scholarships, so she is financing school through the available federal grant, the Pell, private loans, and out of pocket expense. We have not co-signed anything for her. She will progress as she sees fit, but she knows not to use any of that loan money for living expenses, so she will limit her debt exposure as much as she can. As a family, we would rather chip in cash outright to help her pay for books etc, than co-sign anything. We know better, and with all my preaching on debt free wealth, my entire family has joined me in this Biblical position of owing no one if at all possible, and where debt is concerned, to neither seek a co-signer, nor to become one.
My second child is in his 3rd year at an ivy league university. He was consistent in his grades during school and received a full-ride academic scholarship to Stanford University as well as additional private scholarship that put money in his pocket. He recently was selected from a pool of applicants to be a Resident Assistant on his dorm, so in addition to not having any direct school expenses, he now earns enough money to buy him the trips and entertain the girls and so on.
If it were not for my exposure to this Biblical teaching early on, I can guarantee that I too would have joined all the other parents out there, co-signing debt via my signature to get my kids off to a start in life.
After all, fresh out of high school, or even early on in your college years, a student’s credit is zero or too low for lenders and the Lenders encourage those students to get their parents to sign. The Lenders are very aware of the risk of non-payment and want parents and grand parents co-signing debt so they bear the responsibility for the debt for students. Sometimes they bear the entire weight of the debt, because the loan and the amount available was decided solely on the credit worthiness of the co-signer, since the student has no credit.
So let me answer the person who wrote in about the student debt. I hope you remember the scenario about the $65K in student loan, car note, and apartment lease the mom all co-signed on.
Remember, I do not not give financial advice. I am not telling you what to do, I do not even know who is specifically reading this, and every circumstance and response is different. This is general money education. As always, please see your financial adviser who has direct access to your personal numbers and situation and will speak specifically to your situation.
All the problems mentioned in the correspondence could have been avoided with pre-planning. It is a pity she had not pre-planned college funds from the time her daughter was a child since she obviously did not mind paying for it in the long run. Also, students should, when possible, work and save toward college, keep their grades up to increase their chances of qualifying for scholarships etc. Also, if this mom had been listening to some of my former shows and protected her assets in strategic Trusts, she would be less exposed to personal loss because she would not appear to have very much to take if it was properly protected via Trusts. However, I am going to assume none of those things were in place because they are in the hot water that they are, so. Let’s take that note at face value and address the situation where they are now as generically as possible.
My Answer: These loans typically can’t be shed in Bankruptcy Court and there is no statute of limitations on how long collectors can pursue the debt. Even your Social Security benefits aren’t safe: In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the government’s ability to offset Social Security disability and retirement benefits when a borrower has defaulted on student loans. In fact, tax time is just around the corner and some people will not get what their accountant says should be their tax return because the government has been known to reach in and take that to apply to old, unpaid, student debt.
Let’s separate out federal and private loan options.
“Income-based repayment plans can provide some relief with the federal loans. This repayment option limits the required payment to 15% of the student’s discretionary income, and the balance can be forgiven after 25 years,” according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of the FinAid.org financial aid site. “If the student has no income, her required payment would fall to zero. Unlike deferment and forbearance plans, which have three-year limits, the income-based repayment allows zero payments indefinitely. She should investigate signing up for such plans for all her federal loans.”
The private loans you cosigned have far fewer repayment options. Some have forbearance and deferment options, while others do not. You may be able to negotiate a lower payment temporarily, or you may not. Because private student loans’ rates and terms aren’t regulated the same way federal loans’ are, they’re considered much riskier. Using them is kind of like paying for college with credit cards, except unlike with credit cards, the debt can’t be discharged.
It’s too late to tell this person he/she shouldn’t have been co-signing debts if you did not plan to, or are unable to take over the payments.
The other option is to try to negotiate an affordable repayment plan with the private lenders, which is no easy task. For more information, visit the Student Loan Borrower Assistance program at http://www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org.
In RARE cases, you may be able to negotiate for a Co-Signer Release, and if you have a responsible student, this is the way to go. A Cosigner release is the ability to remove the cosigner from a loan agreement at a future date. The reason why I say Co-Signer Releases are rare is because of the 3 requirements that have to be in place consistently for it to kick in:
Minimum number of on time principal and interest payments: The borrower must demonstrate solid repayment habits by making a specified number of full loan payments once they enter normal repayment mode after graduation.
Primary borrower has strong enough credit: Before a cosigner will be released from a loan application, generally the primary borrower must have strong enough credit to be “approved” first. This means the primary borrower would need to meet credit requirements to be approved for this loan without a cosigner. Primary borrower credit must be in good shape, and they must be earning a minimum income requirement.
Submit a written request for release: Once the borrower meets the minimum requirements, they need to submit the request to the loan provider before the review is initiated. Lenders do not remove cosigners until the request is submitted and all credit and repayment requirements are met, so make sure to follow up with this last requirement.
While student loans, car-notes, and apartment leases top the charts for parents co-signing debt; parents and grandparents, may find they are still co-signing for their family members even later into adulthood, later twenties, early thirties, parents The biggest one that adult children ask for help on is mortgages. Family becomes more emotionally inclined and willing to sign shortly after they have already footed the bill for an expensive wedding, or after the birth of their first grandchild. However, the slew of foreclosures in the economic earthquake as I like to call it of mid 2006 to early 2011, has had many of those well intentioned retirees to sob deeply as their retirement now looks grim.
Co-signing mortgage debt has recently been a bad debt deal for parents and grandparents recently. http://www.deadlinenews.com/2011/12/16/mortgage-co-signing-pros-cons/ If the homebuyer defaults on the loan for any reason, the lender can turn to the co-signer without investigating other options of collection.
Another place parents and grandparents lose their life savings is in prison bail money. Many of those wayward enough to get into trouble, tend to stay in trouble and while I can totally empathize with a parent wanting to spare their children the horrors of jail, the reason why there is a bail bonds business (and I know a few bail bondsmen that give me the inside scoop on their wealth) is because they know a high percentage of these people will default and for a token sum, bail bondsmen become the instant owner of your property. Your car, home, boat, whatever you put up as collateral for the person’s prison release.
Whatever you do, don’t use your property to secure another person’s loan. If someone borrows against your car and doesn’t repay, the lender will repossess your vehicle. The fact that you are just a cosigner and not the original borrower will make no difference to the collection agent or repo man. http://credit.org/blog/before-you-cosign-consider-the-consequences/
A Bankruptcy myth I want to kill right now too, is that a bankruptcy clears the person co-signing debt for another. If the person you co-signed for declares bankruptcy THEY are relieved of the debt not you. Let me repeat that. If the person you co-signed for declares bankruptcy THEY are relieved of the debt not you.
Bankruptcy doesn’t eliminate debt, it extinguishes personal liability for debt. Co-signing for debt is nothing more than attaching personal liability to a debt. A co-signor effectively says: “I will pay if they don’t.”
How to Avoid Being Asked About Co-Signing Debt by Young Adult Family Members
So, now I hope I have established that co-signing debt should be avoided; and if you have already done it, to work tirelessly toward clearing your name from responsibility of that debt. So, what are some healthy ways to help our kids become financially savvy and independent?
Honestly, the younger you start the better, and the BEST teaching strategy for our young children is personal demonstration of a commitment to being debt free.
Having a transparent integrity before your children, letting them know that you are living within a budget, and saying no to things if it means going over the budget, or asking them to wait till next month for example, is the best way to develop these same habits in them.
If you give an allowance (and I know that the whole topic of giving children an allowance can become a heated debate, so I wont go there) – so ASSUMING you do, regardless of whether that allowance is tied to chores or not, teach them to create a budget and spending goals with their allowance.
If they are already heading out to college or still young adults, pay attention to their work ethic. Irresponsibility and youthfulness goes hand in hand, so don’t have adult level standards for them on that, but in the same vein, do not blindly give them credit cards ignoring the irresponsibility factor in the equation.
Now I got trapped into a debt for my daughter quite sneakily I think, through no fault of her own.
When she was 17 and opened her first bank account, she got a debit card but that card did not have the visa or mastercard logo on it, as is customary with most debit cards. Now, I said DEBIT card not credit card. You all know that debit cards are limited to the funds in your account, maybe with limited overdraft protection, but limited for the most part to the funds in your account. So when she realized that she could not swipe her cards at her favorite department stores, or pay her cell phone bill online with that debit card, the bank told her that she could get the debit card with the logo if I signed some paperwork at the bank.
Since this was a checking account, and her debit card, I did so without hesitation. Well, my daughter was recently the victim of identity theft, however we realized it and as far as we can see, the damage was less than $2000 when we interrupted it. However, because her bank account was linked to the damage, and the bank claims they could not established the trail of the identity theft, she got saddled with the internet loan taken out at a remote location that the bank had somehow had monies withdrawn from her account sending it into overdraft of almost $1000. The creditors of course did their due diligence, realized my 22 year old does not have the ability to pay, has not paid, and they are calling me. Well, I can tell you, as much as I know as a fact this debt did not originate with her, the debt is also not mine, and while I will help her, I am working with her to step up to this unfortunate situation and clear the ding on both of our credit.
Because you KNOW this negative report is noted on the original borrower, and the person co-signing the debt
This reason alone is why I also recommend that married couples do not share credit debt. Bank accounts – yes! Debt -NO! They can be noted as an authorized user, but there is no point putting the same debt burden on both credit ratings. Share bank account and money, but not the debt. Put both names on the title of the newly purchased home, but not the mortgage note. Anyway, that is the content for another blog, at another time.
I helped my son has obtain a credit card in his own name when he headed off to college. The credit card only offered him a $300 limit and I did that for 3 reasons, 1 to help him begin to establish a credit history, have a strategy to teach him about developing healthy credit, and to observe how he would handle this responsibility. Now, there were many months I had to pay the card for him, but there is an open line of communication between us as to the state of his finances as he approaches due date. For the most part he pays more than the minimum and when possible the whole amount spent – he pays off and recycles that credit again and again. The thing is, while I did not tell him this, I was fully prepared to pay that card off if he messed up, but if I did, the caveat would be that on a 3-way call, he authorizes the closing of that account so once I pay it off, he cannot spend it again. So far, he has made me proud, and on his own, he qualified for his second credit card from his bank for almost $5000. Now, while I firmly believe we should owe no man any debt but love, the fact is, in the USA credit and a credit history is a vital financial matter. The day will come when he wants to buy his car, or a home, or start a business, and with a responsible approach to debt, he will need credit.
In fact, we attempted to live credit card free for a while only to discover the problem in renting cars and booking hotel rooms without a credit card. Did you know, car rental and hotels do not want to willingly take your visa logoed debit card? They insist on a credit card. So we do carry two cards in my family, but if we use them, we pay the balances off in full at the end of the month
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The content of this piece was featured on Debt Free Wealth Radio. Listen as you read:
My son and his classmates welcoming the freshmen to the Stanford University Florence Dorm.
Student loans are relatively easy to get regardless of your credit. With the poor job market, and the challenge to find jobs with flexible work hours, many students end up taking out more loans than is needed for their education, to use on living expenses.
Once graduated, the jobs that allow them to repay these debts are difficult to get, and the cycle of indebtedness grows as they continue to use debt to finance life.
The new professionals are so distracted by debt, they can hardly focus on personal growth and development of their newly earned degrees. So help us weigh in on the matter as we look at student loans. Are they a help, or a trojan horse?
The inspiration to do this piece came from a collegue seeking our help. He is a lawyer who just landed his first real law job fresh from passing the Florida Bar. As his story goes, while a student in college with the weird class hours and the even more hectic study schedule, it was difficult to get and maintain any meaningful work. He used credit cards and student debt to buy food, clothing, and other general expenses. He even used credit cards and student debt to pay for the apartment he took to live near campus to reduce commute time, but that meant paying premium for housing – but he felt that single decision helped him keep plugged in to study groups and the library. Without any scholarships to help, financial aid and credit cards paid his way through school. Once graduated, it took several attempts to pass the bar and during that time, without the bar under his belt, and the economy already having huge job challenges, he went almost two years with sporadic meaningless jobs that didn’t pay enough to live, let alone repay student loans. Deferred until just now that he finally landed a job in law, he now finds that although his pay check that should be quite fine for the average person, is still inadequate. He has a family, and after paying mortgage, car note, utilities, etc, and his student loans and credit cards, he is still in the negative causing an continued dependence on debt to finance his life. Sick of the burden of the debt, he approached Debt Free Wealth for help.
We are currently working with him to help him begin to create his own path to debt free wealth. However, it brought this issue of student debt back to my list of topics to cover on Debt Free Wealth Radio and on this blog, because I am sure there are other students or future students who may benefit.
The Government and Student Loans
This topic is also very relevant for this time as a CNN Politics article that appeared yesterday, reads http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/21/politics/obama-student-loans/index.html “With time running out for Congress to prevent a doubling of interest rates on federal student loans, the White House and Republican leaders exchanged accusations Thursday on who was to blame for the lack of an agreement. [ ] Leaders of both parties insist that they want to keep the federally backed rate at 3.4% for another year, but they sharply disagree over how to pay the $6 billion cost. [ ] If Congress fails to act by July 1, the rate jumps to 6.8%, with an average cost to students of $1,000 in increased loan debt, according to the White House.”
According to data from the US Bureau of Labor, overall, US unemployment now stands at 9.1%. Rather than sit around, many unemployed Americans have headed back to school.
Of course, returning to school after a sabbatical from work does make a lot of sense. Learning a new skill may open up new income opportunities. Getting out of the house, meeting and networking with others also beats becoming lazy, crazy, or bored. In addition to the many other benefits of returning to school, getting access to educational federally backed loans that have no bearing on a now depressed FICO score or bankruptcy history, is a ‘hush hush’ benefit that cannot be denied.
It certainly seems more honorable to go back to school than to sit on the sofa and create a permanent imprint of your ever-expanding rear. However, no matter how honorable, justifiable, and entertaining – going back to school also adds to the burden of DEBT!
When you consider that the average college tuition cost has increased by 900% since 1978 in the USA, and that the average student racks up about $25K in debt by graduation, plus the fact that within 3 years, 14% default on their student loan; student debt is on the horizon to becoming the next national financial headache.
Student Loan Debt Statistics
Using this data of the average student racking up $25K in debt by graduation for the typical 4 years of college, using a college loan calculator (again clickable links will be available for you at endmoneyproblemsnow.com) here is how that would break down.
Loan Balance:
$25,000.00
Adjusted Loan Balance:
$25,000.00
Loan Interest Rate:
6.80%
0.00%
Loan Term:
10 years
Total Years in College:
4 years
Average Debt per Year:
$6,250.00
Now assuming you did not
Defer this beyond graduationAnd you had a mind to payYour debt off without escalatingThe payments:
Monthly Loan Payment:
$287.70
Number of Payments:
120
Or 10 years
Cumulative Payments:
$34,524.14
Total Interest Paid:
$9,524.14
It is estimated that you will need an annual salary of at least $34,524.00 to be able to afford to repay this loan. This estimate assumes that 10% of your gross monthly income will be devoted to repaying your student loans.
My children knew during their middle and high school years that I had no intention of paying for their college. I told them that repeatedly during their lower years so they would know ahead of time not to expect that financing from me. I also encouraged and facilitated their academic achievements so that they would have scholarship and other options available to them. My two college age children have different experiences with their college financing. My oldest was so caught up with being beautiful and popular during high school, she did not have the grades for a scholarship, but she did qualify for the Pell grant and she very wisely, did not take one dollar more in loans than was required for her tuition and some of her books. She works while she is in school to pay for her additional needs. My other child had a 7.2 GPA in his IB high school program, and had backup options because he was also being courted by several ivy league schools offering a football scholarship, he also had the option of picking up scholarships for playing the bassoon if he wanted to continue in a school band. In the end, he earned a full academic scholarship to an ivy league school, picked up an additional small private scholarship, as well as the Pell grant etc. Except for a very small loan to have access to emergency money, he will be starting his third year and has taken out less than $2500 in loans to date. He was able to go through his first two years without even needing an on-campus job, but he will have one for his third year.
I know some parents are thinking it harsh that I opted not to finance my kids college. Any money I did give them to help with school is a gift – not a loan they owe me, but I figured that if they wanted to go to college, and THEY valued the education then they needed to pay for it. I decided that was how I would approach my children’s college while I was myself a student. In college during my time I observed, some students with the silver spook in their mouths did not always appreciate it and wasted their time and their parent’s money, I even witnessed the atrocity of students getting their classes paid for, then canceling it so they could get the refund due to their parents and cash it in. I also saw student deliberately extend their study time by going part-time so they could extend their access to a continued flow of student loans. While definitely not an absolute generalization, very often when someone gets something of value without any personal cost or investment, it is not treated with the respect due.
I also decided back then that I would not co-sign nor apply for loans on their behalf because I have seen too many parents left holding a debt for a delinquent child.
I would rather help my student repay a student debt AFTER they have demonstrated good stewardship during college and completed their program, than pay up front and hope they finish up and follow through.
There are many ways to finance college. Several have already been mentioned:
There are 3 major categories for educational loans: student loans (e.g., Stafford and Perkins loans), parent loans (e.g., PLUS loans) and private student loans (also called alternative student loans). Recently, peer-to-peer education loans have become available. Federal education loans exceed more than $100 billion and approximately $10 billion in private student loans originate each year.
Student financial aid can take the form of federal and state government offered loans, grants and scholarships, on-campus work study, ROTC, having the military pay for it, private and college funded scholarships based on specific qualifying criteria, private loans, parent financing, student employment, gifts and so on.
The Montgomery GI Bill, has been cited as a main reason many people enlist in the armed forces. Even then, the GI Bill benefits cover only about three-fifths of the average cost of a college education.
I have a link for you to 45 of the weirdest college scholarships you have probably never heard of. http://www.zencollegelife.com/45-of-the-weirdest-college-scholarships/
Who knew being taller than 6? 2? qualified a person for a scholarship? Would you even think to check? How about applying for a $3000 scholarship because you created a prom dress out of duct tape? Well, there is an app ( scholarship application ) for that too.
So, is student debt a help or a Trojan horse? Well, I think it can be both. Student debt options are simply tools in the hands of students. Some use debt wisely, taking only what they absolutely need to get through that education, and some take full advantage of the credit ignoring free flow of funds as long as you remain a student and finance their life on debt.
Here is the bad news folks: if your personal debt burden is overwhelming, I hate to tell you this but, typically, student loans cannot be discharged in a bankruptcy. Consult your legal counsel regarding your particular situation. If you were able to qualify for a consolidation loan and pay off your student loan, you may be able to stretch your payment over a longer period. Later, if you still cannot avoid bankruptcy, unlike most student debt, the bank and other privately financed loans usually can be discharged in a bankruptcy. Stafford Loan Forgiveness is a student loan forgiveness program for people who meet certain requirements. Circumstances for Federal Stafford Loan Forgiveness http://www.staffordloan.com/repayment/forgiveness.php
Under certain circumstances, the federal government will cancel all or part of an educational loan. This practice is called “loan forgiveness”. To qualify for Federal loan forgiveness, you must:
Teach or practice medicine in certain types of communities
Meet other criteria specified by the forgiveness program
Stafford Loan Forgiveness for Volunteer Work
These volunteer organizations offer federalStaffordloan forgiveness:
AmeriCorps : Serve for 12 months and receive up to $7,400 in stipends plus $4,725 to be used towards your loan. .
Peace Corps: Volunteers may apply for deferment ofStafford, Perkins and consolidation loans and partial cancellation of Perkins Loans (15% for each year of service).
Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA): Volunteer with private, non-profit groups that help eradicate hunger, homelessness, poverty and illiteracy. Provide 1700 hours of service and receive $4725.
Military Stafford Loan Forgiveness
Students who are in the Army National Guard may be eligible for their Student Loan Repayment Program, which offers up to $10,000. (Note, the military and veterans’ associations provide many scholarships and tuition assistance programs. See the section on Military Aid for details.) This practice is comparable for federalStaffordloan forgiveness.
Teaching Stafford Loan Forgiveness
Students who become full-time teachers in an elementary or secondary school that serves students from low-income families can have a portion of their Perkins Loan forgiven under The National Defense Education Act.
Students who majored in education and teach inMississippimay be eligible for the William Winter Teacher Scholar Loan. This program forgives one year of your loan in exchange for one year of service (it forgives two years of your loan if you teach in a shortage area).
StaffordLoan Forgiveness for Legal and Medical Studies
Many law schools forgive law school loans of students who serve in public interest or non-profit positions.
Similarly, groups like the National Health Service Corps offer medical school loan forgiveness programs to physicians who agree to practice for a set number of years in areas that lack adequate medical care (including remote and/or economically depressed regions).
Many hospitals and private healthcare facilities use loan forgiveness to recruit occupational and physical therapists.
Other Paths to Federal Loan Forgiveness
Students who receive the Michael Murphy Loan to study law enforcement, law, probation and parole, penology, or other related fields are eligible to work off one-fifth per year as a State Trooper (or related law enforcement official) inAlaska.
Maryland state and local government employees who earn less than $40,000 gross annually may be eligible for a loan assistance/repayment program to study law, nursing, physical and occupational therapy, social work and education.
Perkins loans can be cancelled for full-time service as a teacher in a designated elementary or secondary school serving students from low-income families, special education teacher (includes teaching children with disabilities in a public or other nonprofit elementary or secondary school), qualified professional provider of early intervention services for the disabled, teacher of math, science, foreign languages, bilingual education, or other fields designated as teacher shortage areas, employee of a public or non-profit child or family service agency providing services to high-risk children and their families from low-income communities, nurse or medical technician, law enforcement or corrections officer, staff member in the educational component of a Head Start Program, service as a Vista or Peace Corps Volunteer and service in the Armed Forces (up to 50% in areas of hostilities or imminent danger).
See also the US Department of Education’s pages on Cancellation/Deferment Options for Teachers and Cancellation for Childcare Providers at www.ed.gov.
Integration is the decompartmentalization of the entrepreneur’s life. It is the current buzz word representing the entrepreneur who is enjoying the enviable life.
The blur between where work ends and life begins is integration at the core. For the man or woman whose work is their passion, fun, joy, and work all seem to merge and work never feels like work. Women who work from home seem to have the biggest challenge, and the greatest opportunity when it comes to Integration.
In fact, the entrepreneur who has embraced integration has their lives so intertwined with their work that it may even be hard to tell when they are working and when they are not. A trip to the beach may be work, because with laptop in hand, the entrepreneur can work wherever they are, and usually do.
The entrepreneur living out their life’s mission, creates their lifestyle and in doing so, the merger of life, work, family, passion is integrated to create the life they want on their terms.
This is what the average person sees and envies, and even some entrepreneurs look on and wonder how these peers get it and they don’t.
Can the Entrepreneur Have it All?
Are you an entrepreneur who still wonders how you can have it all?
While there are some jobs out there that pay farily, and offer flexibility that allow a handful of employees to feel like they are living the dream life. Today I am specifically speaking to men and women today who have ventured into the entrepreneurial space. Now, this show is not to debate the pros and cons of being an entrepreneur. I am assuming you have already made this decision, you are already an entrepreneur, and you have already established an income stream from it.
The Entrepreneur Quadrant. Which box are you in?
Robert Kiosaki, famous for his Rich Dad, Poor Dad series made a financial quadrant very popular. In the top left space, is the employee – the person who works for someone else and works for money. In the bottom left space is the self employed person who works for themselves, but still works for money. This person is the business. A lot of doctors and lawyers are in this space. On the day they are sick or on the golf course, no income is being generated. Although they have a business they own, the self employed entrepreneur still exchanges their time for money. In the top right space is the business owner. The business owner is an entrepreneur who has a system in place where even if they are not present money is still being generated in their business. For example, a restaurant takes many staff to execute all the pieces of the puzzle and the business owner will have a chef, a person at the register, and maybe a waiter. That business owner can step away from the restaurant and the staff and system in place is still generating an income for them. So the business owner has more time freedom, but they are still working for their money. In the bottom right of the box is the investor. This person has their money in some investment vehicle and their money is working for them. This person does not have to do anything personally to generate that money, so this person has time and money freedom. Now it is possible to be an employee and have some of your money invested and working for you. It is possible to be self employed and have some of your money working for you. And it is absolutely possible to be a business owner and have some of your money invested and working for you. But there are some people who have built several businesses, hired all the leadership and stepped away, and have all the systems in place to have their money working for them.
The idea of this quadrant is to show you the possibility of how to create a life on your terms. So if you are an employee, could you start a business opportunity on the side that may eventually have you step over into the self employed space? Then as a self employed entrepreneur, could you look at ways to implement systems and strategies that frees you up from the daily details of your operation to expand it to where you can focus on building the business instead of running it? Then as a business owner, could you look at how the money you are earning could be used to work even harder for you so you could truly invest more in the things that bring you joy? Money is simply a tool that helps you access the things you need and want. Money should never be a goal or destination. Money does not of itself create joy.
Where are you on this journey? Where do you want to be? What will it take you – the entrepreneur, to get there?
Which Entrepreneur has the bigger challenge?
Now there are many people who think it is only women that have an issue with becoming successful as entrepreneurs, but I propose men have issues too, so bear with me.
We women do have some our concerns as we navigate the whole concept of generating an income as entrepreneurs. When I was 17, I worked at Air Jamaica airlines in Jamaica – now that was almost 30 years ago, and back then, I asked the male supervisor why there were few women who became supervisors with that airline. His sexist remark was, women never hang around there long enough to make it that far because we keep making babies, and that takes us out of the loop, and many of us never bother to return to the loop. Now, he was absolutely correct about his facts – however, the tone of his delivery, matched with his facial expression said way more. The biological urge to reproduce is instinctive and undeniable. There is such a thing as a biological clock and the longer we women ignore it, the louder it becomes and if we continue to ignore it, we will miss our best opportunity to procreate. Those who choose to wait, very often have to spend many thousands at the fertility clinic to scientifically generate an opportunity that was freely available in a certain window of our lives.
I propose this is NOT just a women’s issue. Men who venture into the entrepreneurial space have their issues too, and for many, their issues truly can be riskier. Think about it. As a single man, there is little to no risk to decide to become an entrepreneur and explore where this leads you, but the moment you have a family – the game changes. If you have a job earning something, then tell your family you are going to quit it to try your hand at the unproven, you may not get the support you need, and worse, a slow start up may put your family in danger. So we all have issues, our issues are just different. Everyone who ventures into the entrepreneurial space has to address the big issue of feast or famine resting squarely on your shoulders with regards to the results their business generates.
You need to define living as an expression of the quality of life that you consider to be a quality of life state for you. Now everyone may say they want to be wealthy, but this economy has proven that we can survive on way less, and some Americans have settled for less as a result. I am not talking about an existence of survival, because that does not actually take very much.
Entrepreneur – What will it take for you to have the life you want?
All the bills of my household are covered with a budget of $4000/month, but a $4000/month budget does not get us any fun extras. So to have the quality of life we want to enjoy at a minimum would only take another $500 per month, and the rest is for saving, and investment toward retirement. Now, could we splurge the extra and have an even more playful life? Yes – but we realized that we can only drive one car at a time, there are only 24 hours in a day, and people are living longer and outliving their money – which we have no intention of letting happen to us, so we are cautious and conservative, but we do enjoy a quality of life minimum that is very comfortable for us, because right now we have an aggressive wealth building strategy since my husband is within 13 years of the average retirement age, we have found a way to balance our work and life balance.
I used to stress over the fact that with only 13 years to my husband’s desired retirement age, that we were not where we wanted to be to allow him to stop actively pursuing an income in that time frame. That is still a reality for us, but the stress is gone. Stress will not bring us one more dollar, and it may even shorten our lifespan – so, I decided that stress had to go out the window for me.
What I want to share is a liberating thing that happened for me, that could happen for you if you consciously decide to make it happen for you.
I have young children and as an entrepreneur who works from home, many of you can relate to the challenges of getting work done with them around. I used to think that to succeed as an entrepreneur meant compromising my job of being a mom, or to succeed as a mom meant stalling the growth of my business. In many ways, I created this unhappy loop that I spun around in every day. Then one day it hit me…
Clearly, being an entrepreneur who works from home gave me the freedom to make many decision, including the decision to keep my child home. If I had a job there would be no option but to put him in daycare and this is the key nugget for today’s show. Being an entrepreneur gives you the freedom to design your ultimate life. What are you doing with this awesome benefit? Are you overlooking the fact that you get to design your life your way. Like the Burger King slogan, you CAN Have it your way. I realized that I was creating my life, and everything on my plate, I put it there, and I have the creative right to design my life however I want it to be. That is a very freeing and powerful place to be. As an entrepreneur, that is the gift I gave myself.
Faulty thinking handicaps your ability to move to the next level. It is not that you do not have the ability to move to the next level – your faulty thinking holds you back from even trying.
Susan Olson Fox, my facebook friend wrote a post that one day while out, her daughter noticed some horses and asked why they did not jump the fence and go free. To which she responded, when the horses were foals, jumping that fence was not possible, so that limitation stayed with them and while it would be simple for those horses now full grown, that limitation remains a barrier to them even consider trying. In many ways we are like that. We all have limiting thoughts, and those thoughts influence our actions, and even the people around us.
When you block out the limitation and give it 100%, the entrepreneur is capable of more than what we tend to deliver on a daily basis. This is where coaches have their priceless value. I say priceless value because life and business coaches will charge a fee – but if they help you pull past your self imposed limitations, then their influence will be priceless. Personal Trainers, sport coaches, teachers, leaders have the opportunity to help us move to our next level and enjoy the full benefit of being entrepreneurs.
You decide what goes on your plate, when, and for how long – if you are proactive about it. If you live your life on auto pilot, unless you have established some habits that serve you, things will just happen that may not serve you. This gift of entrepreneurship that allows the ultimate benefit of you having the freedom to design your life is why many of us became entrepreneurs in the first place. Many wanted the freedom to do what we wanted how we wanted without a boss telling us otherwise. Now that you have given yourself this gift, why overlook this key benefit. HOW are you designing your life? Are you building a life that does not serve you or your family? Are you recreating all the very things you said you hated? Are you in business doing something you hate or no longer love? Are you working so much your family never see you? Are you excluding them as if you they are a cancer that you do not want in your life? It really comes down to the limiting belief system that you have
Now in the area of Debt Free Wealth, this is my area of expertise. You have the ability to create debt free wealth in your life, however, old habits die hard, and having a money coach may well be the thing you need to help you pull yourself out of your current state and create the momentum you need to move as quickly as possible to the end zone of having debt free wealth. Connect with me if you need a Money Coach to empower you to achieve debt free wealth
Integration is happening in your life, but I am hoping to help you take it to the conscious realm. When you are happy, it shows on your face, you might be kinder to others and have a great attitude about everything. But on the day you feel miserable, you are snapping at others, have a nasty attitude about everything and may even go out of your way to be unkind, so someone else will feel as miserable as you do. Integration happens naturally people, but some of us have deliberately compartmentalized our lives as well. For example, if you have a top secret job or a job with tons of confidentiality issues, then you may need to separate your work life, from your personal life. There are some of you who hate your work and have successfully compartmentalized that aspect of your life so that as soon as you walk out the door of your job, you can turn your happy on and enjoy life with your friends and family.
So compartmentalization and integration are happening in the entrepreneurs life right now.
Integration is the deliberate decompartmentalization of your work life in such a way that it flows seamlessly with your family to create the life where everybody enjoys you and you enjoy them.
Being an entrepreneur allows you to be home on the days your kids are sick if you need to be. Being an entrepreneur allows you to hire your nephew and enrich his life with your mentorship and some extra money. Being an entrepreneur allows you to work on the yacht with your son in your lap.
The idea is, working toward creating the life you ultimately desire. Frankly, even if I were absolutely dripping with millions, I would still do what I do. I would probably operate a bit differently, but I would still do what I do. Why? Because I am not working for money. I am doing what I love to do, and I would do it even if it did not earn me one dollar. In fact, what I do, hardly feels like work at all.
Have you ever had the pleasure of observing a volunteer to a cause work so hard, you cannot imagine they did all they did knowing they were not going to be paid? I have seen that many times, in fact, I have done that many times. I can tell you, the biggest barrier to finding willing and active volunteers is because there are too many people that cannot imagine not exchanging their time for money. Even if they can believe in a cause, they cannot find it in themselves to give themselves to the cause because no one is handing them a check for what they are being asked to do.
Now, let me make that concept a bit more difficult to escape. If you child loved a sport you were good at, could you be the coach for their team free of cost and put in all it takes to develop a winning team? Yes? Why – because you love your child, and maybe even love the sport. When you can find that thing that you can jump into because you love it, money or no money – you can do it with energy and explore all that it has to offer because you are free from the limitation of money.
When you can find that thing that you can jump into with the same passion and energy, and as a side effect, REPEAT, as a side effect, you earn money for doing it – THEN you have found that thing that does not feel like work, that brings out the best in you, that creates joy in you, that also feeds you financially. This is the space I exist in, and that is why what I do does not feel like work. Doing the components of my Debt Free Wealth business feels like fun to me. I feel I am doing something of value and it lifts me and I feel bigger than my circumstances.
Entrepreneurs, it IS possible to design your life the way you want it so that you are doing what you love, it does not feel like work, you are adding value to the world, and earning and income from it. Now, as a family, we are working to create the same for my husband. He is still in that zone where he is exchanging his time for money, although we do have a portion of our money working for us. He does love what he does, but he is more limited in deciding what goes into his day, when, for how long, and where. Much of that is still dictated by others, but he does have enough flexibility and he enjoys what he is doing so it is not one of those things where he hates waking up and heading out.
Some of you though, even though you are entrepreneurs, you are doing what you are doing just for the money. There was a time in my life where I was part of a group where, although I was an independent representative creating my own schedule, making serious money, and loving what I did – that group had the power to limit me and they actually put a cease and desist on me and had me shut this show down for almost 7 months. During that period when I was off the air, I was making money but I started to hate it because I wanted to tell you about debt free wealth and how to achieve it, but as long as I was a part of their organization, they did not want me talking about money. Well, when they were about to place a contract before me that basically promised even more money but had a caveat that if I signed, I also had to guarantee that I would not be involved in any other active income stream, I quit right then and there. Guys, when you can free yourself from working for money – then you are truly free.
I might have been able to generate many millions with that organization as others before me have done, and I seemed on track to do there – but to give up my ultimate freedom to decide how my life should look –well, there is no amount of money that could make me do that, but some of you have not made the same decision and I can understand that dilemma.
Thankfully, I am not the head of my household and that burden to finance the family does not fall to me, so I once again have to thank my husband for giving me the freedom to make that decision, but for some of you who are single parents, or heads of households, I can totally understand how difficult it may be for you to stop whatever is generating money for you, to pursue what you love.
I just had a consultation with someone in this same area. She had invested in a business opportunity on the promise of the money it would deliver. As with any business, while you are building it, income is slow and maybe zero for a while. Because she ONLY did it for the money, she could not find the energy within herself to stay in that business long enough or the energy to do what it would take to build it to where it would generate money. Walking away from that investment though, also seemed like a difficult decision. Today, she feels bolder and more energized to build that same business. Why? What changed? Well, as we chatted, I had her explore what she did love doing, and it turns out, she loves helping people achieve their goal. She loves contributing to others and seeing them smile. Now we revisited her business and found that aspect about it that she could develop where she could use it to help people and contribute to them. Sometimes you need to reframe your problem. Ask the right questions. That is what I want you entrepreneurs to do.
In many ways, going into business for yourself is almost like getting married. During the courtship with your business idea, you were very excited and saw the potential for the future, then you signed the contract and made it official and just like a new marriage, you were hot hot hot about it, all excited in the start up. Now things have started to get familiar and you are maybe even bored and not at all enjoying this space as much as you thought. Before you hit the divorce button and ditch your business, remind yourself why you started it. What is it you love doing and how can that business help you deliver what you love? When you can find that place of passion, the next step is integration. When you do not love what you do, it is frankly better to keep things compartmentalized. If you do not love your work, then you need to find a way to separate your feelings about your work from your feelings for your family and friends because
A 2005 article on inc.com had an interesting expose’ that I think shows the difference between the entrepreneurs who are working to live, and those that are living to work “New Zealand company builders like the Burkes have trouble getting off their boat to rev up sales, and American entrepreneurs have trouble getting out of the office and onto a boat in the first place. It seems each culture could take some lessons from the other.” http://www.inc.com/magazine/20050701/business-culture.html
However, there is a happy medium and I encourage you to go find yours.
When it comes to your life, balance should not be an ACT, but a FACT. You may need to stop and take inventory of your life. What is working, why? What is not working. Why not? What makes you happy. Why? What makes you unhappy. Why? If you enjoy the work you do, then it may not even feel like work, and that is fine, but if work feels like work, then a whole different set of physiology is happening inside you. The feel good hormones like endorphins versus the stress inducing hormones are always ready to respond to what is happening within you. No matter how much you love your work though, there will come that day when you realize you may have been selfish, because there were some other things that were deserving of your attention, and it may be too late when you do realize it.
So, did we do it? Did we deliver value to you today? If so, we would appreciate you giving us some love in return in the form of clicking the LIKE button, and following our show. If you have a product, service, or opportunity, that helps others delete debt, build wealth and protect family assets, follow our show, then send us a request to be a guest on Debt Free Wealth Radio and we will discuss how to make that happen.
Oh heck, after 4323 words, my keyword count is still too low, so I need to write the word entrepreneur a bunch more times so I can get that count up. If you know anything about SEO, you will forgive this entrepreneur from writing the word entrepreneur a bunch more times so this article will be optimized and you, the entrepreneur will benefit when you find it on Google.
I am not at 4391 words and the feedback is that I am still too low on my keyword density for entrepreneur. How many more times can I say entrepreneur without feeling silly? This entrepreneur is going to try to find out. Let’s see how far this effort to say entrepreneur has gotten me now.
Dang! Still at only 0.92% density. Gotta keep saying the word entrepreneur guys, sorry, but when you are as goal focused as I am, and being an entrepreneur, that is what it will take, I just gotta do, what any entrepreneur would do. Let me say entrepreneur one more time for good measure and check again. Done!
Matthew 5:37 “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”
“Yes, But… [ fill in the blank]“
Have you ever presented an idea, a product, a service to someone and gotten the response, “Yes, but…“?
“Yes, but…”, is both frustrating and revealing all in the same moment. Generally, it is the ultimate EXCUSE, the attempt at justification for the why not. For the most part, this person is in agreement with you, but they are reluctant to commit. They need an out, and the BUT automatically negates everything they said before the BUT.
If you get a “YES, BUT…”, then they are almost persuaded. They may agree they want it, BUT they have justified why they not will commit now.
“Yes, I am ALMOST persuaded, BUT…”
If your business has the answer to the BUT, you can counter this objection and possibly close the sale; or make it plainly obvious that this person is on the run. By the way – don’t bother to chase.
I watched my father fly fish for years. If he got a fish on the line, without doubt, that fish rarely came willingly. Some fight harder than others. While he does land some, many will successfully unhook themselves. However, some of those that eventually get caught, or eventually get away, first put up a good fight. If you love fishing, you look forward to these experiences, yet business people struggle with the exact scenario applied to their world. Why?
These are the “Yes, BUT…” prospects. Well, in this case, my dad released his line, allowed the fish the idea that his fight was successful and allow the run, then he would hit the line again with another round of pull back. The pull back is the counter to the “BUT…”.
So if you were selling ice cream and the person said, “Yes, I want some ice cream now, BUT it makes me fat”, they will believe for the moment they have won that fight and start the away swim. You could do the pull back and counter to this objection with; “well our ice cream is fat free and sugar free and only 80 calories per serving”. Now that you have crushed the BUT, you may close the sale.
“Yes. I am all out of buts…BUT I am still resisting anyway.”
If that prospect comes back with, “Well your ice cream by be fat and sugar free, BUT I don’t have the money right now”, they start the run again. There are those sales people who will realize their fight is getting weaker and weaker with every “Yes, BUT…” and close the deal; while some may decide to let them run for a few days/weeks, then revisit the issue and close it later, and some who just cut the line and don’t bother to follow up with that prospect ever.
There are some undeniably strong closers that win most of their sales. The strong arm tactics they employ may cause some to feel bullied into the sale, or taken advantage of – and they simply see the buyer’s remorse and later frustration as simply a statistical reality of life.
Personally, I have never been an arm twister, and I never want a prospect feeling talked into anything that later they have buyer’s remorse and hate me – JUST so I could earn a dollar, but not every sales person feels this way. My style with countering the “Yes, But..” is to let the prospect see that I see they are simply avoiding the commitment. Hey – I can take a No. If they say “No”, then I will at least qualify if that “No” is really a not now, versus a “forget about it”. That will influence my follow up strategy. At the very least, I will ask for a referral. Now that they know the offer, they may just know someone else who may be open. Sometimes they will offer that name just to get you off their trail. Either way, an opportunity to present your offer is an awesome gift.
Show respect for people’s time, and thank them for allowing you some of it. From time to time, send them an update on how you are succeeding, thank them for their encouragement, and include a the schedule for your next business opportunity meeting, just in case…. Make sure there is an unsubscribe button somewhere, no point being a pain they want to be rid of with no easy exit.
By the way…, if you are looking for a SEXY business opportunity to make extra money without interfering with whatever is already earning you an income, check out www.goldandsilverbizopp.com or www.aSlimmerYouin90days.com If your curiosity is spiked, leave me your name and email and I will follow up with you. Maybe your answer will be a “Yes”, a “No”, a “Maybe”, or even a “Yes, BUT…”; bring it on!
So…, was this of any post of any value to you? I will take ANY answer, except “Yes, but…”. Click the LIKE and Share buttons, and help another friend who is dealing with this experience.
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