So Robert and Helena have joined the ranks of those marching toward debt freedom!
Today, Robert and Helena brought me this picture of their credit cards.
They SHREDDED their credit cards to spell the words "NO NEW DEBT!!!"
And guess what? For over two months now, they have incurred NO NEW DEBT!
I guess they have had their IHHE Moment!
I am starting to invest in a mutual fund for my non-retirement dreams.
I thought I would share some of my non-retirement dreams.
What are some of your dreams?
I LOVED the quote that Moneymonk wrote a week ago.
MyMoneyBlog continues to deliver content that makes me read his blog every single day.
The Saving Freak has led me to deals that have gotten me a free bag of candy, free juice, free Polly Pockets, and free Dunkin Donut coffee samples!
Casey Graham is on the same crusade that I am on! He has a passion to help people win with money, and is DOING something about it!
Any other blogs I need to be reading?
I am excited to announce the following upcoming events!
SUNDAY DECEMBER 2, 2007 WILMINGTON, North Carolina
lifepoint church where Jeff Kapusta is the pastor
SUNDAY DECEMBER 9, 2007 Villa Rica, Georgia
Peachtree Community Church where David Reid is the pastor
FRIDAY & SATURDAY JANUARY 25 & 26 Anderson, SC
NewSpring Church where Perry Noble is the senior pastor (and I am the Pastor of Financial Planning & Counseling)
This is just a sampling of the events on the schedule! I can't wait to announce several more life-changing events that are on the way!
If you want to have Joe teach the Financial Learning Experience, a motivating, uplifting, and PRACTICAL "how-to-win-with-your-money" seminar at your church or business, please e-mail him HERE.
Note: This situation has occurred MULTIPLE times in multiple venues and does not reflect any one situation.
As a financial counselor and teacher, I have encountered many horrible financial situations.
There are times that I leave the conversation thinking, "I don't think they get it!"
I have had people approach me for advice. Their situation? They are three months behind on the house payment and cars have been/are in the process of being repossessed. Their car payments are 40% of their take-home pay. The amount owed on cars is equal to two year's salary! The list of horrible, depressing situations could go on ...
When I ask them how many hours they are working and how many jobs they have, the answer is forty hours and one job!
How is that possible?!!! If being three house payments behind does not motivate one to go get more hours and income, at what point does the fire alarm start ringing?
If I were even close to being behind on a house payment I would have five jobs by the end of the day! I would work eighty or ninety hours each week to get out of the situation!!!!!!
I feel like I am having to sell the concept of earning more money to pay the house payment.
I hear excuses like, "I'm not going to work at McDonald's. They only pay $7/hour."
I understand that they don't want to work at McDonald's, but desperate times call for desperate measures! By working 20 hours per week at McDonald's, they will bring home an extra $400 take-home pay to address the past due situation payments!
Don't get me wrong. I want them to earn as much per hour as possible, but when McDonald's is the option available - take it!
There are times when the world seems all wrong, the bills are stacking up, and life is just not fun. There are two choices available - stand around and watch it all be taken away OR take matters into one's own hands and generate enough income to recover!
You can AVOID falling behind on your payments by spending your money on paper BEFORE the month begins! Click HERE for free budgeting tools.
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This morning, I recognized that my blog had decided to modify itself (or I screwed it up somehow). Anyway, it is back up and running thanks to the POWERFUL and VERY CAPABLE MINDS at www.avclub.us! Thanks www.avclub.us!
If you need someone to design your blog, I highly recommend the team over at www.avclub.us
In fact, you might want to subscribe to the www.avclub.us feed!
I am the youngest of six boys in my family. There are no sisters.
You can imagine the state of chaos that our family was in most times. Six boys smashing, pounding, beating, trashing, yelling, and generally misbehaving at all times.
When times got particularly out of control, my mother would have an IHHE Moment. She would announce (to no one in particular) in a LOUD voice - "I Have Had Enough!!!" She had an IHHE Moment.
I can tell you this from experience - when mom had an IHHE Moment, things were changing! Life as we knew it was OVER!
I wonder today if you have had an IHHE Moment with your financial situation. Have you had enough? Are you sick and tired of never having enough money to pay all of the bills on time? Are you sick and tired of falling behind on the house payment? Maybe you are not able to invest money because of the amount of debt you have.
My IHHE moment was in December 2002. My first ever blog post relates some of the story.
Here are some characteristics of IHHE Moments:
If you have had your IHHE Moment - tell everyone about it by writing a comment or e-mailing it to me.
I love to hear stories of life change!
Another edition of the Weekly "I Was Broke. Now, I'm Not!" Podcast was released today! To subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, click HERE. If you do not have iTunes, you can download an mp3 by clicking HERE.
Subscribe to www.JosephSangl.comIntroduction
This couple has announced to their debt that they are breaking up with it. Their friendship with debt has waned and frankly, it's time for them to cut debt out of the picture.
It has now been three months since Couple #2 began their March Toward Debt Freedom! This PUMPS me up! Why? Because I know that the third monthly spending plan is when financial plans really begin to take off!
On to the update.
Here is their updated Debt Freedom Date calculation.
What went well this month ...
Great news!! We paid off two credit cards; Belk and Home Depot!!! This will free up $125 to put toward paying off the Providian. We are so excited!! We did not accumulate any new debt this month either. The cash envelopes have really helped us to “live within our means.” We never thought of ourselves as “living above our means” before, but that is exactly what we were doing over the last several months. Thank God for Joe and his plan to help us become debt free. We have a ways to go, but I feel like a different person…like I have more control over our future.
Challenges and struggles for this month ...
We had to practice saying NO this month. Both of our envelopes ran out of cash pretty fast, so we had to "just say no." In a way it was nice, but still tough. Sometimes we think we need to do everything just because we are asked, but now we have realized if it is not budgeted, we don't do it. Our family and friends were very understanding. I simply explained to them what we were doing and they were very respectful of our decisions. The cash envelopes take time to get used to, but in the long run we know if we say no today we can say yes in the future. Next month we are going to work on making the cash envelopes last longer.
One more thing…in the beginning, we estimated on how much we owe on our Student Loans and Vehicle One. However, we realized that we estimated a little high on Student Loan Two & Vehicle One and low on Student Loan One. We owe about $900 less on Student Loan 2, $500 less on Vehicle 1 and $400 more on Student Loan 1. Lesson learned…double check everything, even if you think you are correct. Luckily, we owe less than we thought, but it would not have been encouraging to learn we had more debt. This was irresponsible on our part, but I want to tell everyone just in case someone else out there did the same thing.
Sangl says ...
I am so PROUD of Couple #2! They have made it through the three most difficult months of developing good spending plans. They are well on their way to Debt Freedom! I think it is awesome to see that the Debt Freedom Date has moved up 1.6 months from last month!
Couple #2 - Make sure that you are preparing for Christmas in your spending plan. You want to make sure that you can pay cash for Christmas and continue your awesome progress!
I am so appreciative that you are willing to share your journey with thousands of others!
Readers ...
How has Couple #2 inspired you to take control of your finances? Would you leave a word of encouragement in the comments?
View past updates from Couple #2
Read recent posts on www.JosephSangl.com
Subscribe for FREE to www.JosephSangl.com
Introduction
Couple #1 has HAD IT with debt! They have been married for many years and have two children.
It has now been two full months since they embarked on their Debt Freedom March!
Here's the update for this month!
What went well this month ...
The budget is in effect and being cursed daily.
The debt is being taken out 1 by 1. Two Cards are ZERO and a 3rd will fall this month The emergency fund is funded.
Challenges and struggles for this month ...
It is hard because Christmas is coming ,and I have obviously not looked at a calendar. I am going to do the best I can to go without in other areas and cut back on total Chistmas spending. This time next year I will have Christmas already funded.
Here is what their updated Debt Freedom Date calculation looks like.
Jenn and I had the awesome opportunity to carry the crusade for financial freedom to Revolution Church in Canton, Georgia where Gary Lamb is the pastor.
It was a fantastic weekend!!! Here is why it was AWESOME!
Why did the Financial Learning Experience sell out? Because Revolution Church had the absolute best series on finances that I have ever followed with a FLE. Gary and Malcolm taught practical how-to type finance topics that were taught via take-home-and-do-this type teaching. You can hear the message series by clicking HERE. The message series is called Pirates - Reclaiming Your Lost Treasure.
Gary, Malcolm, Amy, and all of the awesome staff and volunteers of Revolution Church - you made this Financial Learning Experience AWESOME!!! Thank you!
Interested in having Joe teach the Financial Learning Experience at your church or business? Contact Joe HERE.
Overheard a statement while walking through Wal-Mart that sums up why I am on a crusade to help people win with money.
Let me set up the situation:
A young family stands looking at a radio controlled helicopter. It is a young man, his wife, and their young child. The young man clearly has a case of the "I wants" and is holding the box in a "I need this" manner.
The wife says to the husband, "Well, if you really want it that bad, go ahead and get it."
Ahhhh, that impulsive nature will drive you to purchase things you can't afford and are not included in the budget.
I wonder if they bought it?
Here is what has been taking place in the Sangl household from a financial standpoint.
What financial activities did you embark on over the past week?
Why is it that I have five different places to spend each dollar that I earn?
My wife and I put together monthly budgets (get yours FREE by clicking HERE) and that means I get my spending money once per month.
By the end of the month, it is extremely rare for me to have money left! Why? Because, I am the spender of the family. Take for an example this month. I had $3 left on Monday. It left me by Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, it was $0 expenditure days! It was impossible to overspend because we use cash envelopes! When the money is gone - it is GONE!
Some might say, "Joe, you are dad-blamed crazy! You have no debt except the mortgage and could easily increase your spending money. Why do you insist on living this way?!"
The reason? Jenn and I have some big huge dreams. Some of those dreams include paying cash for Melea's college, paying cash for her wedding, funding our retirement well, giving Melea a paid-for house to start life out with, and giving to some worthy causes that we really believe in!
Sure, I can bump up the spending money, but I will just be robbing myself of some of my future dreams!
I hate robbery and theft, and I REALLY HATE IT when I rob from myself!
So yesterday started a new month. I have money to spend again. Trust me, I am confident that I will spend 90% of it during this next week.
With all of that said, here is how I have planned to spend the money this month. By the way, I used the Mini-Budget to plan my Spending Money. You can get your FREE copy HERE.
I am so excited to be teaching the Financial Learning Experience in Canton, Georgia on Sunday! The first session has sold out, so I will be teaching the FLE twice! There are a few tickets remaining for the 1:00PM - 3:00PM session. You can obtain more information by clicking HERE.
Subscribe to www.JosephSangl.com
Every month there will be an update of Joe & Jenn's Home Pay-Off Spectacular! The second monthly update is TODAY!
I have had ENOUGH of the stupid house payments!
While I could pull money out of my investments and pay off the mortgage, the penalties are too great (vast majority of investments are in tax-advantaged retirement accounts).
So Jenn and I have shook hands and made an agreement that the house payments will be gone within four years. You guys will all get to watch the mortgage leave by watching the "Sangl Family Home Pay-Off Spectacular" turn green!
With that, here is the update!
Total Squares: 2,426
Paid-For Squares: 658 674
Squares Remaining: 1,768 1754
% of House Owned By The Sangl's: 27.8%
% of House Owned By Wells Fargo: 72.2%
Here is the fact that is making me hate the house mortgage this particular month. We sent in MORE than TWO monthly payments this month. That is a LOT of money!!! BUT, it only paid off 0.6% of the stupid mortgage. ARGH!!!! I HATE house payments! Maybe next month, I will send in 50 house payments ... Anybody want to donate to the Joe & Jenn Mortgage Early Pay-Off Charity?
By the way, 50 house payments would only pay off 15% of the stupid mortgage. Proverbs 22:7 sure rings true! I am so OVER house payments!
Get your own Debt Pay-Off Spectacular HERE.
Already debt-free? Get your own SAVINGS Spectaculars HERE.
