Frugal, not cheap, but frugal is an important trait in those who are working toward becoming debt free and living in financial freedom to build wealth. I promote frugality to my clients. It is important to price shop, use coupons, by generic, etc.

There is a time however, when being frugal turns into being cheap and it starts to cost you money. Like the old saying goes, “the bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.” With that said, it is important to know where that line in the sand is between frugal and cheap.

For example, I have a friend who will drive 25 miles out of her way to save three cents per gallon of gas, now when you think about it, that extra 50 mile round trip to save .51 cents on a 17 gallon tank of gas. The trip most likely used up and extra 3 to 3.5 gallons of gas assuming she gets 12 to 15 miles to the gallon. So that savings of .51 cents for the cheaper gas cost an extra $9.80 if gas is $2.80 per gallon. That is an example of frugal turning cheap and costing you money.

Another thing to take into consideration when being frugal is the value of your time. Many times referred to as soft dollars. Sadly, many people do not actually put a value on their time. But your time is valuable and must be used wisely just as money must be spent wisely.

How do you put a value on your time? One way is to take your gross (before taxes) annual income and divide that by 2080 (number of working hours in a year based on a 40 hour work week) this will give you your hourly rate of pay from your job, so that hourly rate is a good starting point for a value on an hour of your time. What if you are a stay at home mom? Well, it is near impossible to put a value on stay at home moms because your service to the home and family is really invaluable, but non-the-less, your time is of value and must be used wisely to not take away from the kids, and other duties around the home, so you must determine what it would cost if you had a sitter watch the kids for an hour as well as the hourly rate of someone cleaning the house, add those two amounts up and that is a good starting place of your personal hourly value (of course you are worth much more because you do so much more.)

Using this thought process will help you to insure you are actually being frugal and wise with both money and time, verses being cheap and just looking at the dollars involved in spending rather than the whole savings picture.

Whenever I am in the car I like to listen to talk radio.  Today I was listening to the Dave Ramsey show and he had an interesting call come in.

It was a man who was 30 years old, married with two small children.  The man said he made $45 thousand a year and had $90 thousand in credit card debt.  The man admitted he had a compulsive spending problem.  Dave asked him if he had a obsessive compulsive disorder or if he was just immature and unable to say no to himself.  The man admitted he was just immature and wanted what he wanted when he wanted it regardless of cost.

Here comes the topic of this post.

The man then went on to say that since he couldn’t control his spending, he has handed all of his money and finances over to his MOTHER for her to handle.  Yes, that’s right, a 30 year old man, who is married with two children is still having his mommy take care of him.

Dave Ramsey went on to tell this man that by allowing his mother handle his finances it would hurt his marriage and not help his finances.  The man totally agreed and stated it was already hurting his marriage.

The call reminded me that there are too many men who, after marriage, are not able or unwilling to emotionally leave the comfort of their mother.   They look at their wives and start to compare their wife to their mother.  When “life” happens, I have noticed that a man who is a “momma’s boy” will think to themselves, “my mom wouldn’t have done that” or “my mom kept the house better” or “my mom made “x” for dinner” etc.

You Didn’t Marry Your Mother

Men (if you are reading) you didn’t marry your mother, so stop comparing your wife to her.  The purpose of your mother was to nurture and raise you to be a man.  Sadly too many mothers had bad relationships with their husbands so they put their son in a supportive/companion position.  This is not healthy, not for the boy nor for the grown man.

No men, you married a women to be your wife, lover, and mother of your children…not your MOTHER, so don’t compare your wife to your mommy…..other than both being women, there are no other similarities and the two women in your life and the two women play two TOTALLY different rolls.

Men Leave Your Mother…

God knew there would be a problem with men being able to leave their mom’s, so much so the Bible says

the LORD made a woman out of the rib.   The LORD God brought her to the man, and the man exclaimed,  “Here is someone like me!  She is part of my body,  my own flesh and bones.   She came from me, a man.    So I will name her Woman!” That’s why a man will leave his own father and mother. He marries a woman, and the two of them become like one person. Genesis 2:22-24CEV

and

Jesus answered, “Don’t you know that in the beginning the Creator made a man and a woman? That’s why a man leaves his father and mother and gets married. He becomes like one person with his wife. Then they are no longer two people, but one. And no one should separate a couple that God has joined together.” Matthew 19:4-6 CEV

Dave Ramsey closed the call by setting this man up to attend Financial Peace University, a 13 week course in money management and also told him that a women wants a MAN who can take care of himself and his family.  This is not to say that it isn’t important for an adult man to take care of his elderly mother, but taking care of a mother out of responsibility vs being emotionally attached to a mother instead of your wife are too totally different things.

An adult man having his mother handle his finances,  iron his shirts, do his laundry, etc. rather than at home, etc.  is very unattractive to a women, especially a wife.  Short of an affair, a mother can come between a husband and a wife unless the boy grows up and becomes the MAN the women married.

Be A  Man

So men, grow up and be a MAN.  Tell your mother you love her but your first responsibility and priority is your wife.  Men, don’t allow your mother to talk poorly about your wife, understand that a mother wants you to be her #1 priority and will manipulate you in order for you to put your wife second.  Mothers have a great way of making a man feel guilty, time to tell your mom NO.

You are married, GROW UP, BE A MAN,  put your wife comes first…ALWAYS!

Have you ever considered the meaning of the word “loyalty?”  Dictionary.com defines loyalty in part as faithfulness to commitments or obligations.

Most of you reading this have at least one good friend.  Someone who is loyal to you.  Many of you have a spouse whom you consider to be loyal.  There are some who consider their family the most loyal.  There are others of you who do not have one person in your life whom they consider to be loyal.

Many counselors and psychologists say each of us should have at least five individuals in our life that we are in close relationship with.  People who are loyal to us and that we are loyal to.  Be it a friends, family, spouse.  The professionals say five because at any given time in your life, if you find that you are in need of help and/or support, chances are one out of the five would be available to assist you.

As much as five seems to be a good magic number for a network of loyal friends, it also seems that most of you reading this may only have one or two people in your support network.  Why is that?

This world is full of people, full of ways to connect with others.  Cell phones, social networking, and the like but not many of you reading this have five individuals who you could reach out to in a time of need.

We all have a lot of acquaintances in our life but not many loyal friends we can count on.  This could because you have been hurt so much you figure it is easier to go it alone, that the only person you can count on is yourself.  Others have lost their special someone’s due to death.

This week ask yourself who you are loyal too.  So many times you may focus on who is loyal to you , who your friends are.  This week I want you to ask yourself, who are you friends with.  Who in your life would consider you to be loyal to them?

Are you a loyal friend?  Can you be trusted?  Are you faithful to your commitments?

This last week a friend of mine worked all day Sunday in addition to working a full 5-day week.  His company requested he perform this work on Sunday because it needed to be performed during “non-production” hours.   Sure my friend could have said “no” but it may have been at the cost of any future promotions, how he is looked at as a “team player” or maybe even his employment at the company.  Basically he was scared to say “no”.

His situation reminded me of the 1974 song “Cat’s In The Cradle” by Harry Chapin.  As a kid I always liked the song, it had a good tune.  As an adult I actually listened to the words and took a good grasp of the meaning.

The song is about a father who is too busy working to spend time with his son or family.  His son continually asks his dad to join him in some activities but the dad always responds with a vague promise of spending time with him soon.  Even though the son isn’t getting the attention he desires he still looks up to his dad.

Time passes and the son grows into a man and has a family of his own as well as a job.  The dad now continually asks the son for some quality time together and now it is the son telling the dad he is too busy but they will get together soon.

The cost of both father and son putting their careers first resulted in neither of them having a relationship with each other.  Plus, the cycle continued onto the son as now the son doesn’t  give quality time to his family or kids.

Have you ever put your job ahead of family or friends?  I know many people who put their job first because they are afraid of any form on intimate relationship so the hide behind their job.  Others are so in debt they feel they must put the job first in order to take care of the family financially.

Look at the overall cost of both scenarios.  The family and children suffer.  Divorce rates are higher because spouses are not spending enough quality time with each other.  Children are getting in to trouble with the law as minors and many times that pattern continues into adulthood until they end up in jail.  All because work or other distractions like watching sports, playing video games, etc are being put ahead of the family unit.

Consider if you were not in debt, would you feel to compelled to sacrifice your family for a work obligation on the weekend?  Would you take time away from your family?  Consider taking the risk of opening yourself up to your spouse and kids, building some intimacy instead of hiding behind your job, you will find they are much more fulfilling and rewarding than a company that would be willing to replace you at the drop of a hat.

The family unit is falling apart because we no longer set the necessary boundaries we need to set.  We are not balancing out our lives the way we need to.  I am currently reading the book The One Life Solution – Reclaim Your Personal Life While Achieving Greater Professional Success by Henry Cloud.   I encourage each of you to purchase and read this book.  It is an awesome read, and touches how much you and I have lost the proper balance and boundaries between work and personal life.

Ready to take control of your work life?

Most of you know how important marriage is to me, and how important it is to be all you can be and strive to continually improve who you are.  To be a person of character, build your relationship with Christ and be loyal to those who you love and those you love.  What you may not know is I am just as passionate with other areas of life specifically areas related to your financial health.

I am so blessed to have so many people visit and read this blog and I want to thank each and every one of you for your support.   I have read your emails and know by the search statistics that those visiting here come to read about how to fireproof your marriage, stand for marriage restoration, find people of character, how to improve who you are, ways to do life better, and other related issues.  I also see that you are coming to read about ways to get out of debt or deal with general financial issues.

You may not know this but in addition to this blog, I also operate and write a daily blog on LifeandFinances.com.  The LnF blog is focused on the areas of life that touches your money.  Your probably thinking, “well money touches just about everything in my life.”  You are absolutely correct.

So with that in mind I want to invite you to visit my sister site LifeandFinances.com, listen to the podcast of how Life & Finances was started, read the articles and subscribe to the newsletter (oh, as a side note, and a sneak peak of the inside workings of KimStaudenraus.com, keep watch here for a new newsletter option in the next couple of weeks that you will want to subscribe to.)

As I am sure you have read on my About page, in 2006 I attended training with Dave Ramsey and the Lampo group and became a Certified Money Management Coach.  In my coaching I found that being in debt is really just a symptom of so many more serious issues that occur in ones life.  The Life & Finances blog is a resource of support, ideas and encouragement for all the areas in life that money touches.

Please visit LifeandFinances.com, subscribe to the newsletter, listen to the podcast, read the articles and of course leave a comment or two.  I pray it will provide you encouragement and hope for your financial life as a supplement to the support you are receiving here on KimStaudenraus.com.

Again, thank you for your support and your emails, please keep them coming and keep.

God Bless.

A recurring theme that I continue to see in the lives of couples is secrecy about spending money as well as about how much money is being made and or saved.  Sadly, I have also found that if someone is being secretive about money, chances are they are being secretive about other things as well.

Relationships are built on trust.  Without trust it is near impossible to have a true intimate relationship.  This holds true with any relationship but especially between husband and wife.  If one person in the relationship is continually being secretive, about anything, the other person starts to lose trust.  Trust is built on openness and honesty, once it is violated, and many times continually violated it is near impossible to rebuild trust to the level that it was prior to the violation.

Now let me be clear here, I am not talking about secrets like a surprise party or surprise vacation somewhere, I am talking about a consistent behavior of intentional secrecy and that is the bases of this post.

Some people are secretive because they have had their trust violated at some point in their past, we all know that we carry some sort of baggage into relationships.  The key is to take that baggage and open it all up to your spouse so old hurts and trust violations don’t infect your current relationship.  Yes, there is a risk you will be hurt and trust may be violated again by doing so, but by not doing so, they hurt will fester anyway.

Secrecy in couples about money is rampant.  Many times one spouse who handles the bills and the other has no idea what is going on with the money.  In most cases, not all, but most, one spouse knows the other spouse is doing something “funny” with the money but out of fear they do not ask questions or get involved because they are afraid they may lose what they have….this is no way to live in a relationship if you can even call it a relationship.

Let me preface that this isn’t about a healthy couple where one spouse is handling the bills because they are good at it and they do keep the other spouse in the loop of the financial situation of the household, this is about a spouse who intentionally handles the bills to keep the other spouse in the dark of the financial situation.

Secrecy occurs because one spouse is doing something they KNOW is wrong.  Let me repeat, secrecy occurs because one spouse is doing something they know is wrong, they know their partner would not approve.  It may be a bit on the illegal side either in mans law, God’s law…or both.  Secrecy is lying by omission.  Actually secrecy is already against God’s law because it is a form of deception, check out Leviticus 19:11.

There is no good that can come out of secrecy especially when it comes to money (there is no good from any secret behavior in a relationship baring the above disclaimer about a surprise party of something of that sort) but especially when it comes to money.  The person keeping the financial secrets will be found out, sooner or later, and it will hurt the person who has been in the dark.

There was a couple who came to me for money management coaching.  The husband had no clue about the concept of money much less how to manage it.  He took charge of all the bills and for good reason he was keeping his wife in the dark about what was going on.  The way she found out there was a problem was when a sheriff knocked on their door and presented her with a summons to appear in court.  She was being sued by a credit card company for not paying the bill.  A bill that she knew nothing about, a credit card she did NOT open.  Her husband opened a credit card under her name.  He sat across from me and said with a  straight face that he did nothing wrong.  That they were married, and as a married couple they shared everything, he shared her good credit and now she shared his bad credit due to his secret of opening a credit card under his wife’s name.

Folks, regardless of marital status, he broke the law.  He committed fraud by forging her name and her signature to obtain the credit card in her name without her knowledge or permission.  It is called identity theft even if you are stealing it from your one flesh spouse.  Actually most common instances of identity theft is with someone you know or are related to.  Regardless of reasons for doing so, it was a dishonest act, as well as secretive.  His wife found out in the long run from the Sheriff.   In this case she did not file criminal charges nor did the credit card company because the wife agreed to pay the bill.  Sadly, not more than a year later the same thing happened again, the second time she did file charges…a relationship failed in divorce due to secrecy and deceit.

Yes, deceit goes hand in hand with secrecy.  Some think they are not lying if they don’t actually speak the lie, however, there is such a thing as lying by omission.  Secrecy is a form of deception and we all know deception is lying.  It goes back to, if you  are not doing anything wrong, what would be the purpose in being secretive to your spouse?

The reason I am sharing this is to encourage you to be open and honest about your finances to your spouse.   If you can’t, take a good hard look at why you can’t be open and honest.  Why are you being secretive?  Yes, I have heard all the excuses like “well my spouse wouldn’t understand” or “I don’t want to be nagged about my spending habits” or “I make the money, there is no reason for my spouse to know what I am doing with it as long as the bills are being paid.”  The list of excuses I hear goes on and on but you get the jest.  Bottom line ladies and gentlemen if you want your marriage to be successful your must be open and honest with each other.  Yes, there will be times when you will make a mistake.  There will be times when your spouse may get onto you or “nag” you about the financial situation, but the pain of that moment is far less severe  than when the secret comes out in the open and potentially causes a divorce and believe me, the secret ALWAYS comes out sooner or later.

Secrecy destroys trust, when trust is broken, the relationship will struggle from there on out and that environment isn’t good for either party.  Re-exam your life and your actions.  Look at your character, do you represent Christ to your spouse?  If you are ashamed of your actions, which you must be if you are being secretive, why not turn over a new leaf and open yourself up with honesty toward your spouse?  You will be amazed how much smoother your life will flow, as well as how much calmer and more at peace you will feel.

There are some who are secretive because you don’t know how to communicate with your spouse.  Communication and listening take practice to get some help with communication I highly recommend the book  Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires; The Respect He Desperately Needs

by Dr. Emerson Eggrichs.  This book will help both husband and wife better understand each other.  If you understand each other you can then better share and communicate what you are doing, there will be no need to keeping a secret because you will know how the other person will respond.  It will help teach you how to live in a relationship the way Christ intended.  It is not focused on money, but it is focused on doing what is right in a marriage with your spouse.

Another fantastic resources is an eBook that has sold over 61,000 copies.  The title is “Save Your Christian Marriage” but that is not to say this book is only for those who are on the path to divorce.  The lessons taught will strengthen marriage regardless of the current state it is in.  It is more than just an eBook, it is a lesson plan on how to be married.  Face it nobody knows how, that is evident by the secrecy in marriages today as well as the divorce rate, this book shares and teaches you how to be a better for yourself so you can be better for your spouse.  If you don’t do anything else that I have mentioned here today, please do this one thing, get this eBook, it will change your marriage, it will eliminate the secrecy and build up trust again.  It will save your marriage, from what you learn in this book you can apply these principles how to live better financially, why?  Because the two of you will now be on the same page together, openly and honestly.

If you want your life to continue on as it is, do nothing else, actually if that is the case chances are you haven’t even read down this far.  But, if you are ready to improve who you are, improve your marriage, save your marriage even if you are not the one being secretive, get the “Save Your Christian Marriage” book today by click here now.  You won’t regret it one bit.  Then after you are done reading the book, and putting some of the lessons into practice, which will be very easy I might add, come back here and comment on this post, share with others how your marriage has improved with openness and honesty.

Your in debt right?  You want to get out of debt right?  Of course you do, who wants to live a life in debt.

If you are tired of dealing with the stress of living paycheck to paycheck, tired of dealing with creditors, and/or sick and tired of feeling like your debt situation is hopeless then  I have good news!

I am going to share with you a book written by Scott Stephen.  In it he shares almost everything I coach, teach and mentor when I provide one-on-one coaching.

So why would I direct you to an ebook that someone else wrote as opposed trying to sell my own coaching services?  Simple, I know not everyone is willing or able to invest in my services and yet so many people need some form of help digging out of debt.  This ebook costs less than a personal one-hour call with me and is filled with as much information that I provided in a full three month coaching engagement.

As you will read on his site, Ultimate Debt Guide, you will see that this,  proven to work course, has been featured in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and more.

This isn’t just another ebook that contains a bunch of worthless information.  It is a get out of debt course, with proven principles.  The information is priceless, and works!

Please read all the details and testimonies from those who have worked the course with success.  Don’t let the “sales pitch” style scare you off, this is legit.  You can find out all you need to by clicking this link Ultimate Debt Guide by Scott  Stephen.  You have nothing to loose, there is a 100% money back guarantee, if you don’t think this course can help you get out of debt, return it and get your money back.   So if you don’t order it, it is like saying you want to stay in debt.  Do you?

“I’m Broke….But my kids are happy.”

This is what the lady in front on me at Kmart said yesterday when we were inline as she was unloading a cart full of toys.  She went on to say she had two kids and their birthday’s were coming up. Her posture confirmed her words, she seemed defeated….broke. She seemed guilty knowing she couldn’t afford all that she was buying by the way she was “justifying” her actions by telling complete strangers “but my kids are happy.”

The toys were for kids in the age range of three to five, and I have to admit I felt sad for her as she paid with a credit card. It was as if she was using her last bit of credit limit to portray to her kids “all is okay” and here is more stuff to prove it.

So much ran through my mind, as I watched her, I wanted to reach out and offer advice on how to not be broke, how to stop the cycle of paying with money she didn’t have. I wanted so badly to show her there was a way out from under all that stress, but of course the situation and timing was just not right…she was through the line and on her way.

How many times have you had that same thought process of “I’m broke” but feel like you have to keep paying out money you don’t have to keep someone happy?

I once knew a man who was broke, he was divorced and had a son. He gave his son anything and everything. Video games, two new cars, all kinds of “stuff” which kept the father broke and the son lacking in what he really needed….quality time with his Dad.

So often I talk to people who are in debt, who justify staying in debt because they “have” to buy more “stuff” for someone. Not realizing, that many times the one thing our loved ones want and need, it quality time with us. Quality time that is free to give, but many times the hardest to give.

Why is quality time so hard to freely give to our loved ones? Why is it so much easier to go to the store, buy some stuff,  hand it over with a smile and be on our way while our loved one plays with their new stuff?

Personally, I think it is because we have been to pre-occupied with ourselves. We, as a society, seem to have become desensitized to emotional intimacy with family and loved ones. We have become focused on anything that we can that takes us away from talking to one another, to learning about each other. We have become afraid of listening if that listening involves anything but “happy thoughts.” So what do we do? We focus on stuff. Many times that stuff keeps us further and further away from building deep bonds with people. Video games, TV’s, internet, movie tickets, toys and the like.

All this stuff, keeps us in debt as well as keeps us from knowing those around us. We feel guilt for buying (because we can’t afford it) and we feel guilt from not buying, because we don’t really want to give what is needed that is personal time with others.

Getting out of debt has more benefits than just not owing someone else money, it provides you the ability to give of yourself buy not buying stuff. It opens up the possibility of becoming more creative of how to give of yourself, rather than spending money.

Giving of yourself is far more difficult than spending money, it is also far more rewarding, both in the short term and the long term.

Think about it…take the risk – give a part of you to someone rather than buying something.

Re-posted from March 2008

Much of  spending  done on credit cards with the “promise” of zero interest for so many months, or a low interest rate as long as you make your payments on time. But is it really that simple? No it is not.

Credit card companies trick you, well they actually just play dirty.  They use a great interest rate promotion that they wrap tiny small print around so it ends up costing you thousands of dollars in late fees, over-limit fees, transfer fees, more fees, fees on fees and so on.  Let’s keep in mind it is the interest rates and fees that makes the credit card companies money, YOUR money, because they are in the business to make money, not save you money on interest rates….right?  Well, “theme” of zero interest may be much very ugly to say the least and you may not even be aware of what this tiny print really says.

First and foremost, the best way to avoid “loosing in the game” they plan is to not use credit cards.  Pay cash.  However, I know most people don’t live that way so the next best step is education about what you are getting yoruself into with these “gimmicks”

Beware of the “The Default Clause”, also know as a Universal Default Clause.

We all know if we are late with a payment on a credit card that has given us a zero or low interest rate for a period of time that we will be charge a late fee, and possibly lose that zero or low interest rate.  But did you know that that same credit card can raise your interest rate even if you are on time with that company?  Yes, they can if they are using a universal default clause.  They can legally raise your rate if you are late on any other credit card you have, regardless of what company issued you the card.

Ok, so you say, that’s just a risk I will take.  Or is it?  Then can raise your interest rate to 25 percent or possibly more if you make a late payment on a car loan, mortgage, or even your phone bill.  No joke.

A universal default clause generally states that a creditor reserves the right to penalize you with an increased interest rate if you’re late (in default) of your re-payment terms — of a payment to any other creditor not just that of the issuing company. They justify this because, in theory, if are late with one creditor, you are a greater credit risk and are more likely to pay other debts, including the issuing card late.

Creditors also have the right to routinely monitor your credit file. So a creditor with a universal default clause will be watching, waiting, time is on their side. Remember, credit card companies are not your friend, there are in business to make money….Your money!

The top three default triggers that cause your interest rates to spike are a decline in credit score, paying your mortgage late, and paying your car loan late.

But there is even more to worry about.

Under the universal default clause, your interest rates can be increased for many other reasons, including exceeding your credit limit, bouncing a check, having too much debt, having too much credit, getting a new credit card, applying for a car loan, and applying for a mortgage loan. Once you signed up for a credit card with a universal default clause, you gave the credit card company card blanche’ over you, and your money. (see why I say stay away from credit cards?)

This effects your financial future in a bad way. Let’s look at this example. You’re an average American household, with $8,000 of credit card debt. Assuming you make no additional purchases on your card, you have a 9 percent interest rate, and you make the minimum monthly payment, it will take you 218 months (18 years) to pay off your debt and you’ll end up paying $3,334 in interest. Who wins here? (credit card company…you loose)

Now let’s assume that for whatever reason you were late one month with your car payment. They gotchya, the late payment triggers the universal default clause with your credit card issuer, and now your penalty rate gets increased to 26 percent. It will now take you 679 months (56 years) to pay off your credit card debt, and get this — you’ll pay $30,813 in interest. Talk about a monkey on your back, that is discouraging.

What if you had three cards with a universal default clause..interest rates go up on all of them due to one late payment on your car.

So how do you avoid this little clause?

Well if you have been reading my blog for any period of time you know what I am going to say about beating the universal default clause….”Don’t use credit cards!”

However, since most of you probably already have credit cards, and some have the clause so here is some ideas to protect yourself.

1.  Many cards have stopped using the universal default clause.

Read your fine print, you may be lucky to have a card that is not using this clause or has discontinued the clause (keep in mind they may have just discontinued on new purchases and your old purchases may still be under the clause, tricky aren’t they?)

2. If you know you have a card that has the clause.

Move your balance to a card that you know does not have the clause.  Better yet, pay it off in full.  Get a small loan to pay it off, just get the balance of that card and then close that account for good.

If you’re unsure if the card has the clause, cause who can understand that fine print anyway, call the credit card company and ask what specific circumstances will affect your interest rate.

Use local credit union cards over national cards.  They are easier to work with, and although they will still be tricky, they aren’t as bad.

3. Run your credit report.

Not only do you need to know exactly what your current interest rates are, you also need to know exactly what’s on your credit report. Visit AnnualCreditReport.com to order your credit report and credit score today. You should make a practice of this every quarter with a different reporting bureau, this way you can make sure what is being reported is accurate.

4. Always pay your bills on time.

If you can’t pay on time, chances are you are over extended and are not properly managing your money. Read Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover.  Make a budget on paper so you can see exactly where your money is going, chances are you are you have plenty of money, you are just not managing it properly.

Avoid the universal default clause by not using credit cards.  If you do, be careful to stay on top of your credit card agreements they can change at any time. Better yet, I think I am repeating myself, make a plan to become debt free and pay cash pay yourself not the credit card companies.

Becoming wealthy is not about the amount of money you make.

Stop laughing, it is true, as soon as you stop thinking you are going to gain wealth by making more then the quicker you will gain wealth.

You get rich from educating yourself. You must learn how to manage your money, discipline yourself with money, learn how to invest your money.

Education is the key in becoming wealthy. Now I can guarantee if you have a loser type thought process you just tuned out and probably left this page. That is why 90% of America is poor and/or living paycheck to paycheck….most people are lazy and don’t want to learn.

Face it, we all want that pie in the sky idea of the “get rich quick” solution. One tenth of one percent of people stumble onto that quick solution. Of those that do “get rich quick” say the lottery winner, historically loose all there winnings within 5 to 10 years if not sooner because they were not educated in how to handle the money.

If you can’t manage $20,000 a year, how can you expect to know how to manage a win-fall of $500,000 a year? You just can’t. Also, if you “think” you know everything there is to know about money, you are lying to yourself. Nobody knows everything about any one topic. Sure, some of us are smarter about certain topics than others, but we all have room to learn regardless of the topic. As soon as you get arrogant about your knowledge on any one topic, that is a good sign that you are really ignorant and getting lazy.

So, if you are still reading then I owe it to you to give you some of my recommendations of ways to gain education about how to handle money and become wealthy. Now this is just a select few, and as I blog through the days and weeks ahead I will continually add more, it is a never ending list.

Of course, being a Dave Ramsey Certified Financial Counselor I am going to recommend Dave’s book The Total Money Makeover – great book for the beginner who is in debt and needs an idea of where to start to learn how to get out of debt

Another great read is Larry Winget’s Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life I love this book, it is an in your face reality check. If the book makes you mad, great, that means you are reading it, and it is touching a nerve. It is all about some good old tough love, and I believe in tough love. You have to focuses on handling yourself, after all, you have to be able to handle yourself before you can begin to handle money.

Learn about money with the whole family by playing Cash Flow 101 by Robert Kiyosaki, he is the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad another great book on how to educate yourself on what money is. You have to learn how to think, if you say to yourself “I can’t afford it” you have just turned off your brain..it is a defeatist thought. Instead, focus on “how can I afford it” this get your mind’s creative juices flowing and opens your eyes to money making possibilities.
Education is worthless if you don’t put what you learn into practice. It is easy to become a lifetime student, reading and learning for years, but it won’t help you unless you get past the fear, get off the couch and put what you learn into practice. Make mistakes, learn from your mistakes and move forward