You know you have financial freedom when …

• You forget when payday is.
• The car engine blows up, and you just go pay cash for another one.
• You are not afraid to tell your manager that he/she is wrong and that there is a better way.  (I have seen many people who are afraid to tell their manager this for fear of retribution or loss of their job.  That's too bad … I believe that most managers would love to have their employees tell them when they are wrong!)
• You lose your income and your savings allows you to live for months without incurring any debt.
• You lose the fear of negotiating a better deal.  (Seriously, if it costs more than $100, it is worth negotiating – including with services like doctors, dentists, chiropractors, massage therapists, house cleaning, cable, etc.
• Bill paying time takes a total of 30 minutes a month.
• You can go take the job you were put on earth to do … regardless of the income potential!
• You have enough.
  

What are some others?

Finish the sentence …  "You know you have financial freedom when …"

Looking for additional Personal Finance Resources?  You can obtain free tools by clicking HERE and purchase books/materials by clicking HERE.

My friend, Ricky, at Brady's Screenprinting, hooked me up with a new T-shirt.

What do you think?

News

There are still a couple of spots available for the upcoming "Teaching People About Personal Finances" roundtable that I am hosting on August 16th.  For more information, click HERE.  Right now, the farthest distance being traveled for this roundtable is from Dover, Ohio!

Looking for additional Personal Finance Resources?  You can obtain free tools by clicking HERE and purchase books/materials by clicking HERE.

As I help people come up with their INCOME – OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO budget (EZ Budget), I love watching the expressions and hearing the exclamations of those I am helping!

Here are some common expressions/exclamations:

• Utter SHOCK at how much they have been spending (especially on impulse items like "groceries", "food", and "cash withdrawals for who-knows-what"
• AMAZEMENT that it really is as simple as INCOME – OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO
• Expressions of pain when INCOME – OUTGO equals something far less than zero.  This typically means that they are going to have to pay a bill late.  They say things like, "I can't pay that bill late!!! or "I don't want to do that!"   Even though they have been paying them late for the past year!
• JOY!  Oh man!  I LOVE it when I see this!  It is deep-rooted.  It cannot be faked.  It is true JOY because they KNOW that they can do this!  They can win with their finances!
• HOPE.  HOPE is what sets the human soul on fire!  It allows one to do things we would not ordinarily do in order to reach a goal.  When I see HOPE returning, I know that my crusade is paying off.
• The "I'm COMPLETELY stunned" look.  Sometimes I get to typing too fast on the keyboard, and it can tend to baffle the one I am working with.  No comments on this, please!    Look.  I play the piano, and I just type and work on the computer really fast.  Sorry that it causes the screen to spin and cause epileptic seizures!

For those brave souls who have entered my office for help in taking your finances to the next level, I thank you!  Thank you for allowing me to live out my dream – helping you accomplish far more than what you ever thought possible with your personal finances!

Looking for additional Personal Finance Resources?  You can obtain free tools by clicking HERE and purchase books/materials by clicking HERE.

INCOME – OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO

Anyone who has met with me knows this formula.  It is THE formula that changed my financial future!

Today I focus on the OUTGO.  Specifically, spending into savings.

"Huh?", you might ask.

Yes.  Spend it into savings.

My goal is not to just help people pay their bills on time.  It is not to just pay off debt.  This whole thing is about getting folks to a point where they can accomplish far more than they ever thought possible with their personal finances!  I want people to be able to achieve their hopes and dreams!

I want you to be able to take that trip around the world.  I want you to be able to quit your job and start that business you have always dreamed of.  I want you to be able to become a stay-at-home mother when the children are born.  I want you to be able to have a nice, paid-for vehicle and home.  Ultimately, I want you to be able to do exactly what you were put on earth to do!!!

That is why I say SPEND IT INTO SAVINGS.  Pay yourself first.  Pay it to the future.  Invest for the future.  However and whatever you want to call it – just do it!

Life is WAY TOO SHORT for me to sit around and wonder how I am going to pay the electric bill on time!  I decided over five years ago that money was not going to be a problem in my life twenty years from then.  One key way that Jenn and I have been able to do this is to SPEND IT INTO SAVINGS.

How much money did you save this month?  Do you know?  How much did you save for retirement?  How much did you save to fund your dreams?

If the answer is ZERO, you are ROBBING YOURSELF yourself of your future dreams and hopes.

If you have saved zero, you should arrest yourself and charge yourself with financial mismanagement – a class "Z-minus" felony.  Fine yourself $500/month for ten years and have your savings account collect the fine.

Looking for additional Personal Finance Resources?  You can obtain free tools by clicking HERE and purchase books/materials by clicking HERE.

NEWS!

• www.JOESANGL.com is excited to announce that Joe will be teaching the Financial Learning Experience at Word Of Faith Christian Ministries in Dayton, Ohio on Saturday, August 25th.  You can click HERE for more information!  If you are in the Dayton, Ohio area, I would love to see you there!

In the personal finance classes that I teach, the very first thing I do is have people write out their hopes and dreams on paper.  It is so POWERFUL!!!  I think Oprah got it right when she says in her "Debt Diet" series that "people are walking through life unconsciously".  We dream huge as children.  We believe in our hopes.  Then …  We grow up and put all of that away.  Many times we lose our way and wake up ten, twenty, or forty years later to say "Oh my goodness!  I can't believe I have just wasted all of that time!"

I don't want that happen to you!  I want you to be able to accomplish EXACTLY what you were put on earth to do!  What is IT that you were put on earth do?  Life is so rewarding when you can do what God has put you here for!

When you write out your hopes and dreams on paper, it is amazing how many of them come true.

Let me tell you of a dream that is coming true for me …

I learned of a person named Dave Ramsey in December 2002.  Through his books and class (Financial Peace University), Dave spoke incredible truth into my life!  Because of this man, Jenn and I became debt-free in 14 months!  As a result of our debt freedom, we were FREED UP to go do exactly what God put us on earth to do!!!

Now, through some miracle, I have been provided the opportunity to meet with Dave in August.

I am living a dream …  To God be the glory!

Looking for additional Personal Finance Resources?  You can obtain free tools by clicking HERE and purchase books/materials by clicking HERE. 

I remember the days when Jenn and I had $4.13 in our emergency buffer fund.   Wow!  Talk about living life on the edge!

When you have $4.13 in the bank account and life throws a curveball your way, you have no room for it!

From experience, I know that $4.13 in the bank does not quite cover

• replacing a broken dryer
• fixing a broken car – power steering, brakes, tires, air-fuel mix thingy
• an emergency room trip for the child

In the Financial Freedom Class that I teach, we cover the need for an emergency buffer fund in great detail.

An example I use to prove the need for an emergency fund is the fact that police officers wear bulletproof vests.

I ask the redundant question, "Why do police officers wear a bulletproof vest?"

The class will dutifully respond, "Because in their line of work, it is possible that they might get shot at!"

To which I respond, "Then why don't they just wear the bulletproof vest on the day they are going to get shot?  I mean, that vest is uncomfortable and so hot on a southern summer day!"

The class stares at me like I am completely ignorant and most deserving of the "Stupid Person of the Year" award.  "Because they never know when they will be shot at!", they say.

Hummmmm.   They never know when they will be shot at … SO they wear it EVERY SINGLE DAY – JUST IN CASE!

That, my friends, is the EXACT same reason you need to have an emergency buffer fund of cash!  You never know when life is going to happen and require that money, but the fact is that you will need it someday.  If you do not have an emergency fund when life happens, you will be highly tempted to fall into the debt trap.  That, my friends, is no fun.

By the way, a church member who is a police officer was shot today.  He had on his bulletproof vest.  The following is a line from the news story …

… an officer was shot at least four times … Officer Fikes is being treated for two gunshot wounds to his arm … two other gunshots were stopped by the officer’s vest …  (Office Fikes) was alert, oriented and in good spirits …

JUST IN CASE.  Are you ready?

Looking for additional Personal Finance Resources?  You can obtain free tools by clicking HERE and purchase books/materials by clicking HERE.

I remember December 2002 plain as day.  It was when Jenn and I made THE DECISION to become and stay debt-free.  I thought that I would share the steps that we took to become debt free.

Joe and Jenn's steps to become debt-free

1.  Committed to each other that we would STOP signing up for more debt

2.  Attack all debt with all available money using the Debt Snowball method

3.  It is as simple as that!!!  In 14 months, we became debt-free except for the house!  We haved lived this way for the last five years, and we are NEVER going back!

Let me explain the process for using the debt snowball.

1.     List all debts from the smallest balance owed to the largest

2.     Pay the minimum payment on all debts except for the smallest one

3.     Pay as much as you can on the smallest debt!

4.     When the smallest debt is paid, take the monthly payment you were making on that debt and add it to the monthly payment you were making on the second smallest debt.

5.     Continue this process with a vengeance until you are debt free!

You can obtain the steps for putting together your own debt snowball along with an example by clicking HERE.

Looking for additional Personal Finance Resources?  You can obtain free tools by clicking HERE and purchase books/materials by clicking HERE.

I recently read that student loan debt is rising in America.  No big surprise since I am seeing the same thing in all of my financial counseling appointments!

There are two facts I want you to know about student loan debt.

1. It WILL come due some day
2. You can not bankrupt on student loan debt 

Yes, student loans will come due one day.  I financed my undergraduate degree.  I was able to pay some of it as I went along, but I still left Purdue University with nearly $20,000 in debt.  It took me 8.5 years to pay it back.  Do you want to pay payments on your education for 8.5 years or more?

You can not bankrupt on student loan debt.  There are two things that are non-bankruptable – taxes and student loans.  So if your plan was to go get a degree and then declare bankruptcy, you have a VERY BAD PLAN!

The median student loan debt of graduating bachelor degree recipients in 2004 was $19,300 according to the College Board.

Are your children going to have to finance their education as well?  If so, it will likely set back your child 5-10 years in achieving debt freedom.

I resolve to provide my daughter a paid-for college education and set her up to start out life with ZERO debt.  Life is just so much more fun when you are debt-free!

 
Looking for additional Personal Finance Resources?  You can obtain free tools by clicking HERE and purchase books/materials by clicking HERE.

Please welcome www.josephsangl.com into the early 2000's as you can now SUBSCRIBE to a feed!

If you don't know what that means, here is a short explanation.

By clicking on the SUBSCRIBE button, you can choose to have each blog post of www.josephsangl.com show up into your web-based news reader (My Yahoo!, Bloglines, My Aol, Google, etc.).  That means you won't have to check to see if the blog is updated everyday.  The latest posts will show up in your news reader – automatically!

ENJOY – Now, let's run up the subscriber base … 

Looking for additional Personal Finance Resources?  You can obtain free tools by clicking HERE and purchase books/materials by clicking HERE.

You are now able to SUBSCRIBE TO A FEED of this blog!  Enjoy!

With over 70% of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck, this situation happens more often than you might imagine!

You see, when you are living paycheck-to-paycheck, bills go past due THE INSTANT that you miss ONE paycheck.

So what should you do if you encounter this situation?   I have prepared a list of things that I would do IMMEDIATELY if I were living paycheck-to-paycheck and lost my job.

• PRAY!!!  It really does work!
• Call every single creditor you owe and inform them of your situation.  Humbly ask them to help you.  Ask them if they would please lower the interest rate to 0%, charge no fees, and give you three months of no payments.  Most of them will work with you!!!  Communication person-to-person works so well!!!
• File for unemployment.
• Immediately cut out all non-essential expenses.  Get rid of the cable, internet, home telephone (keep the cell phone), gym membership, etc.
• Go get a job that earns something to help bridge the gap between full-time positions.
• Apply for new jobs on monster.com, hotjobs.com, and the newspapers.
• Spend all of your money on paper BEFORE you actually receive the money.  In other words, start PLANNING your spending!  Free tools are available by clicking on "Tools" at the top of the page!

By the way, if you are living paycheck-to-paycheck, but still have a job – consider yourself warned!!!  TODAY it might happen to you.  What would your family have to do if you lost your job today?  Why not make today THE DAY that you change your family's entire financial future?

Looking for additional Personal Finance Resources?  You can obtain free tools by clicking HERE and purchase books/materials by clicking HERE.

You are now able to SUBSCRIBE TO A FEED of this blog!  Enjoy!