I conduct financial counseling sessions regularly.  Many times, these meetings are the result of a major financial crisis!  Messy!

If you ever sit in a financial counseling session with me, you will be asked the question, “Sir, how do you feel about your current financial situation?” and “Ma’am, how do you feel about your current financial situation?”

I will require each one to answer on their own.  Why?  I need to know where each one is regarding the current situation.  It also forces them to hear their spouse express their feelings out loud to another person.  POWERFUL stuff!  It can also be MESSY!

Many times, spouses are not on the same page as it relates to their financial situation.  This can happen for a number of reasons, the most common one being a lack of working together and not communicating their real feelings.   MESSY!

As I sit with a couple in the middle of a major financial crisis, it is my desire to hear them recognize the items that got them into the mess in the first place.  NOTE: I am not too interested in hearing the blame-game here!  That will get us nowhere!

What really gets me, however, is the number of couples I sit down with that are in a HUGE financial crisis and refuse to change their behavior!  MESSY!

“We are upside-down $500 a month, but we have got to have cable TV!”

“We are upside-down $1,000 a month, but I have got to keep the car (and related car payment) that I paid 1 year’s salary for!

“We are two months behind on the car and one month behind on the house, but we really need to keep our horse in the stable that we pay $400 a month for.”

Statements are made like this and then they look expectantly at me like I am going to magically fix their problem!  NOT A CHANCE!  ALL I can do is teach someone HOW to manage their money well.  I can NOT make someone change.  In these cases, I look at the person and think, “What a mess!  If they are not willing to change, how can I help them?”

At the end of the day, the formula still holds true:

INCOME - OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO

If OUTGO is greater than INCOME, then you must either increase INCOME or decrease OUTGO or do both!  It is that simple!

I have HOPE that people can improve their financial situation, but if they are not willing to modify or eliminate the behavior that got them there in the first place, our meeting will not accomplish much!  I would much rather dive into the messy details with a couple who wants to win financially and is willing to modify the behavior that got them there!  It is messy, but the results of (1) restoring hope where there was no hope, (2) improving marriages, and (3) improving their finances is SO worth it!

Last Friday night, I had three different individuals come up to me and tell me how they have had their lives changed financially!  They told me about how much it had changed their marriages, their lives, and the level of HOPE that they now have.

Stories like that are what make me tick!  They are what gets me up out of bed every single day!  It is what fills me with passion every day!

People are being helped.  They are not being given a fish so that they can eat for a day.  They are being taught HOW to fish so they can eat forever.  We are not handing out a bunch of money, paying off people’s bills, and saying “Hope you do well now!”  Why?  Because without a behavior change, people will go right back to the way they were managing their money and get right back into a mess!

I know!  I paid off my credit cards three different times!  The first two times, I never changed my behavior.  As a result, I kept going right back into piles of debt!  When I changed my behavior and starting working together with Jenn, that is when we started having real financial success!

I love hearing about successes!
Are you building your success story?

Pardon me while I rant about this topic again!

I met with another person today who did not know about compound interest!

When I am able to show a person the POWER of compound interest and how it can help them (investing) or hurt them (paying interest on debt), I get pumped up! This is LIFE-CHANGING information!

I cannot believe that schools in America are not required to teach this to every single student! Math teachers should be required to teach it every single day! I mean, I have learned about derivatives and integrals and kernels and that knowledge does not help me every day, but compound interest DOES help me every single day!

I know that my investments are relatively small today, but, oh baby, when I see where they will be in 10 years, 20 years, and 40 years from now. WOW!!!!

$100/month at 12% return for 40 years is $48,000 invested but is worth $1,176,477!

Are you investing YET? RUN to the nearest investment office!

Have you taught your children about this? Do not depend on the school to do it! You need to teach them and model this for them. Kids get this stuff!

Ever done something embarrassing? Something that made your face flush? Something that makes your “flight” defense mechanism kick in?

Sorry to bring up old memories, but I just had this happen last evening.

In delivering a welcome at my church, I managed to completely forget the end of the welcome and (in keeping with my high enthusiasm) proceeded to enter complete discombobulation time. It was redonkeykongulous!

I am OK with everything I said, and I am confident that it came from the right fuel. However, it was not what was planned.

A new level of humility has been achieved in the life of Joseph Sangl!

Ever had anything happen humiliating with your finances?

Bankruptcy? Collections calls? Bounced checks?

You can recover! It will refine you.

BUT IT WILL NOT DEFINE WHO YOU WILL BECOME if you resolve to make it better!

I resolve to make the next welcome better!

$100/Month
If you invest $100/month for 40 years and receive a 12% return for those 40 years, you will have invested $48,000 but it will be worth $1,176,477!

Time Matters
If you are 25 years old, you have forty years to invest. If you do not start investing until you are 45 years old, you may have only twenty years to invest. To reach the same $1,176,477 in twenty years, you will need to invest $1,189.26/month!

15 Years
If you finance a home with a fixed rate $100,000 mortgage for 15 years instead of 30 years, you will pay $63,944 less in interest and own your home 15 years earlier!!!

Working Together
If you refuse to work with your spouse on financial decisions, you will miss out on one of the greatest way to unify and divorce-proof your marriage! Money fights are the number one cause of marital strife. By working together, you will have unity on this subject instead of conflict!

Negotiate Everything that costs over $300
Prices are negotiable. If you save 10% on every purchase over $300, you will be able to save a substantial amount of money every single year. Negotiate purchases on vehicles, insurance, appliances, houses, video cameras, computers, hotel rooms, vacations, … The list goes on. You do not have to be confrontational. Just ask, “Is that the best you can do?”

This is for those few people who feel like their days are out of control busy.

Most of my posts have been related to finances. Today, I want to focus on another item that continually impacts people’s lives - out of control schedules.

I believe that there are many similarities between out of control spending and out of control schedules.

Similarities

• Time AND Money are both finite. You know that there is a limited amount of money under your management. There are also 1,440 minutes/day under your management.
• Both get out of control by adding additional expenses/activities over time. Eventually, it spirals out of control. It creeps up slowly.
• Time and Money get out of control though good intentions. You agree to let your child participate in a second sport. The dinner invitation is accepted even though it was your one night home that week. In the act of doing good, people will tend to ignore or reduce their concerns of the impact on time and money.
• When Time OR Money is out of control, you will feel like your schedule and money are managing you instead of you managing them. This is backwards, and the feelings you have when this is the case are miserable!
• They can both be brought under control! INCOME - OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO works for time just as well as it does with money.

So what can you do? What should you do to bring your time under control?

Force it to fit the equation: INCOME - OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO

I have developed a time budget (i.e. - a weekly calendar). When my schedule has reached the out of control point, I utilize this form to regain control. Just as I do with our financial budget, I sit down with Jenn and prepare this together. When we use this form, we generally put it together one week ahead of time.

Remember INCOME - OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO. Spend your time wisely!