$ $ $ D E B T F R E E S R T A T E G I E S E Z I N E $ $ $
July 2005

Tips and Strategies on reducing debt and accelerating income
growth, guiding the subscriber to true financial freedom.

Dr. John Scott Herrington, editor

"Our goal, with each issue, is to give you a strategy or tip
that will save/make you money immediately, allowing you to
accelerate your income, reduce debt, and spend more time with
those you love."

(By subscription only. Unsubscribe information at bottom.)

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For most people, the idea of calling a lawyer before signing a
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http://www.debteliminators.com
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>DFS C O N T E N T S

1) DFStrategies - "Keeping Up with the Smith Family"
2) Debtinators - 7 Strategies for Income Acceleration
3) Feature Article - "But I Don't Have Any Debt." (Wake UP!)
4) Time is Money - "Prioritizing Power"

>DFS S T R A T E G I E S

Keeping Up with the Smith Family
by Doris Dobkins

Have you heard the following quote? "No wonder it's so hard to
save money, the neighbors are always buying things we can't
afford."

That may sound like a joke, but for many of us it is sadly true.
To become truly financially independent, one of the first and
most important steps is understanding that DISPLAYING A HIGH
SOCIAL STATUS IS NOT IMPORTANT. Recognizing where you've
stumbled into pitfalls in your own financial situation is
crucial. As one of our readers mentioned last week, "If you
can't pay your bills off each month, you're living above your
means."

Before any of us can focus on a real and workable solution to
our financial woes, we must first identify our life's goals.
That may sound like an odd place to start, but half the work of
achieving anything is identifying a goal and then creating a
plan to get there. Everyone has different goals. For example,
do you want to spend all your money on the "good life" now or
do you want to think long-term and provide for a financially
secure future?

Here's a starting point to help you identify your goals! Answer
the following questions:

Why do you work? Why do you get up everyday, dress and do the
same commute to the same place? Do you enjoy working? Does
working make you happy? Is there something else you'd rather
be doing? It's important to like what you're doing. Did you
know that most financially successful and independent people
love working? Well, it's true. In most cases, they love their
work and their career. They're not working to support
out-of-control spending habits, but rather to achieve or
maintain their financial independence.

It's very easy to get caught up in the high-consumption
lifestyle. I know this first hand because I struggle with it on
a regular basis. If your goal is to be debt free, to retire
early, to travel, or just take it easy, copying the
high-consumption lifestyle of the Smith family will be a threat
to a simple and financially efficient lifestyle.

Here's how that works: The Smith's buy, buy, buy . . . and they
generally charge their toys. That means they're paying
month-by-month for the privilege of having their toys now, and
they're probably paying exorbitant amounts in interest on their
charges, which often multiplies the cost of those items by as
much as five times by the time they get them paid off. With all
that money going out in monthly payments and interest, they're
probably not saving any money --- jeopardizing their financial
security in the future. In essence, they're living a borrowed
lifestyle! Is that really what you want your life to become?

Let the Smith family have their expensive toys. Having too many
status symbols in your life can become a burden, and even an
obstruction to achieving your real goals -- goals which only
you can define.

Remember . . . SIMPLE IS GOOD!

(Doris Dobkins is the Money Saving Expert Author of "Financial
Freedom A-Z Home Study Course" and publisher of the free weekly
ezine $mart Money New$. )

>D E B T I N A T O R S -7 Strategies for Income Acceleration
(Saving your hard-earned money!)

1. HOME MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR.
Buy energy efficient light bulbs and appliances with high
Energy Efficiency Rations. After all, the less energy you use,
the more money you save. The savings won't be noticeable in a
day or a week, but over a lifetime the extra change in your
pocket will prove quite formidable. When it comes down to it,
there's no reason not to do it.

2. FOOD.
Hey, it's okay to use that half-price coupon. Just because you
present a coupon at the restaurant doesn't mean you're a
cheapskate and should be banished to a lifetime of "Happy
Meals" at McDonald;s. Skipping appetizers will save you a ton,
and cutting out colas and desserts from your orders will save a
family of four from 10 to 15 dollars.

3. CLOTHES.
Imperfection is good! Remember, irregular and imperfect
doesn't mean strange and harmful to the eyes. Oftentimes these
items, which are about half as expensive as their more regular
or perfect brethren, have only a stitch or two out of place.

4. AUTOMOBILE.
Don't Do It! When buying a used car, never accept a financing
package of longer than 36 months. Any longer and you'll always
owe more than the vehicle's worth. Like any other debt, you
should focus all your resources on payong off your car loan as
quickly as possible to avoid unnecessary interest payment.
(And if you stick to our debt freedom plan, you can pay cash
for the car!)

5. ENTERTAINMENT.
Think about it -- Library = FREE! The argument that they never
have the book you want can be forwarded only be the lazy. With
interlibrary loans you can get just about anything under th
sun. In addition to reading material, you can check out the
intstructional and education videos, movies, audio tapes, and
even CDs, an it probably won't cost you a dime.

6. YOUR HOME.
Don't buy that Beverly Hills mansion. Immaculate mansions don't
appreciate very much, simply because there's not much more that
can be done with them. It's better to buy a house which is
nice, but not extravagant, and work to give it your own
personality. And let more expensive homes around you pull your
house's value up, rather than the other way around.

7. FINANCIAL MATTERS
Bypass the middle man. Use direct deposit for payroll checks.
It'll aid you in resisting the urge to spend by keeping large
chunks of money out of your hands. Most investment companies
also offer the same service to their clients, making it easy
for an investor to devote a specific percentage of his or her
income consistently to specified investments.


> F E A T U R E A R T I C L E

"How We've Been Misled."
(An excerpt from The Debt-FREE & Prosperous Living® Basic Course
by John Cummuta

. . . The entire way our economy works is designed to make you
work yourself to exhaustion -- simply to accumulate wealth for
the companies you do business with -- NOT FOR YOU. The most
staggering example of this is a home mortgage. If you buy a home
with a 30-year conventional or adjustable rate mortgage, you
will pay for that loan about THREE TIMES. Just multiply your
monthly payment times 360 months and you'll see that the total
you'll pay the mortgage company or bank is about three times the
amount you borrowed from them.

That means that two-thirds of the total amount you'll pay your
mortgage lender is INTEREST. Interest is the profit the mortgage
company makes for lending you the money to buy the house, and
they obviously feel you should pay them 200 percent interest!

Let's put some real numbers to this.

If you buy a $250,000 home, with a $200,000 mortgage, you'll end
up paying about $600,000 over 30 years. THIS MEANS THAT YOU'LL
PAY NEARLY A HALF MILLION DOLLARS IN INTEREST!

That means you'll have to work . . . week after week . . . year
after year . . . to earn a HALF MILLION DOLLARS or more . . . so
you can net FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS after you pay income
taxes -- just so you can give it to the bank to make them rich!
Ask yourself -- do they deserve a half million dollars of your
hard-earned wealth more than you do? Are they doing you such a
tremendous favor that you should wear yourself out, over three
decades, to generate nearly a half million dollars to add to
their wealth?

That's YOUR MONEY. You work for it. You pay taxes on it. Yet
they end up with it. It's not fair, and I'm dedicated to helping
you turn the tide of your wealth-building power to YOUR benefit
instead of theirs . . . the power of retaining and investing the
money you waste on mortgage interest alone could change your
life completely.

Just think about that four hundred thousand dollars. If you had
it parked in mutual funds that averaged just 10 percent return
per year, you could enjoy a $40,000-a-year retirement income
WITHOUT EVER TOUCHING THE PRINCIPAL! You would never have to
work again, and the exciting thing is we're not even talking
about your having to make any extra money to make this happen
for you. This four hundred thousand (or whatever it works out to
for you) is money you're going to earn anyway. We're just giving
you control of who ends up with it: you or them.

>T I M E I S M O N E Y

Prioritizing Power

By Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

I recommend taking time each evening to do Daily Planning for the
next day. Prepare a list of all the things you "Have To" do, but,
more importantly, the things you "Want To" do. This begins the
process of taking control of the most precious resource at your
command, the next twenty-four hours.

If you were to review that list, it is likely you would find some
items
are "Crucial" while others are, well, "Not Crucial." The Crucial
items give you the best use of your time, but often we get caught
up in the Not Crucial items because they are typically quicker
and maybe a bit easier to complete than the Crucial items.
We need Prioritizing Power, a tool to help us to get over to the
Crucial side of our daily ledger.

I have that tool for you through our Prioritizing System:

A = Crucial
B = Important
C = Little Value
D = No Value
* = Quickie

"A" is for the Crucial items on your list and you are the only
one who can determine whether something is Crucial or not. Now
you will determine that in light of your commitments and
responsibilities to others but also in light of your long-term
goals and "Want To's". (It ought to be our goal each and every
day to work our "A's" off.)

"B" means Important. If you had a choice between an "A" and a "B",
obviously, you would want to work on the "A". (You may find you
have two "B's" or not two "B's"; that is the question.)

"C" means Little Value. Chances are you will not get to your "C's"
today but that is fine because everything else will have a
higher value.

"D" means No Value. What do you do if you find you have a "D" on
your list? Get rid of it because by definition it has no value. If
you have not been through this process before of writing
everything down that you "Have To" and "Want To" do, no doubt
you will find you have been carrying around some "D's" in your
head and it is a welcome relief to scratch them off your list.

Finally, the "*" is for a Quickie item. Any item that takes less
than a minute or two to complete ought to be identified as a
Quickie because in the time it would take to figure out its
priority, you could have it done. I typically have a handful of
Quickie items each day and I complete them first to give my day
a jump-start.

To further refine your focus, go back to each category of items
and sub-prioritize each using the numeric system. For example,
let's say I have five "A" items to accomplish on my To Do list. I
cannot do them all at the same time but I can do them one at a
time. I will look then at all five and ask, "If I could work on
only one "A" item today, which one would it be?" That item
becomes my "A-1". Then if I have time to work on an additional
item, which item would I do? That item becomes my "A-2".
Continue sub-prioritizing the "A's" and then apply the same
technique to the "B's" and the "C's" creating a prioritized action
list of all the things you "Have To" do and "Want To" do, listed
in the order of their importance helping to keep your focus on
the most important items in your day thereby increasing your
productivity.

What about the other blocks to our personal productivity? I
found five of them to avoid. Get your free copy now of our short
article, "The Blocks to Employees' Productivity". Email your
request now for "blocks" to: ctsem@...

Would you like to receive free Timely Time Management Tips on a
regular basis to increase your personal productivity and get
more out of every day? Sign up now for your free "TIMELY TIME
MANAGEMENT TIPS". Just go to:
http://www.topica.com/lists/timemanagement and select
"subscribe". We welcome you to our list!

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
60 Huntington St., P.O. Box 2126
Shelton, CT 06484
(800) 969-3773(203) 929-9902
Fax: (203) 929-8151
Email: ctsem@...
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com

==============================================================
For most people, the idea of calling a lawyer before signing a
contract or making an important decision just isn't an option --
either because we think we don't need one or because it would
simply cost too much. Well Not Any More!!
http://www.debteliminators.com
==============================================================