A direct cut from an e-mail sent to me ...

"Hey Joe, in your finance ministry, have you ever heard of God turning water into
Tide, milk, or gas?  I've read the story of Jesus turning water into wine at the
wedding... but never have I heard water into grocery items!  Let me explain:  we
went to a cash only system in our home the week of your Monday night class at NS
in December.  Since then there are a couple of items that seem to be multiplying
in their container!  Not only has our grocery bill been cut in half, but the
purchases see to last MUCH longer!"

I LOVE what I do, and I LOVE hearing success stories!  If you have a success story, send it to me HERE.

You may have recently embarked on a journey to obtain financial freedom.  Your journey may be starting from a place of paycheck-to-paycheck living, past due payments, and a pile of marital stress.  For others, your journey may be starting from a place of relative security, but you are wanting to take your finances to the next level.

Regardless of where you are starting, a look at Peyton Manning is worth a few minutes.

Here is a guy who did very well while a QB at the Unversity of Tennessee, but the team never won it all.  Yet, you never heard Peyton whine, grovel, or complain.

What did he do?  He resolved to work that much harder and that much smarter.  He was tireless at the study of game tape and working on his mechanics.

When he was drafted in 1998, people were somewhat surprised that the Indianapolis Colts selected Peyton Manning over Ryan Leaf.  Now, for Peyton, the good news was that he was drafted #1.  The bad news was that he was now on the Colts which had regularly stood for Count On Losing This Sunday.  Radio stations had blues songs every week that described how the Colts would manage to bumble through another loss during the upcoming weekend.

So what did Peyton do?  Did he give up? NO WAY!  He applied himself all the more!  Study of game tape.  Review of pictures of every defensive set after every series.  Tireless practice with Marvin Harrison.  All the time.  Always preparing.  Always improving.  Relentlessly focused.

As his career has progressed, Peyton has broken record after record which earned him a lot of accolades.  Did he stop practicing thinking that he had "made it"?  NO!  He continued to improve.  He continued to practice.  He continued to develop himself.

All of his accomplishments put him in the position of earning that title, "Greatest QB to never win the Super Bowl".  The unflappable Peyton stood strong and tall through all of the talk.  He focused on the game.  He never turned negative.  He never whined to the media about how tough he had it.  First class all the way.

So on February 4th, 2007, when it was all said and done, Peyton stood holding the Lombardi Trophy and the Super Bowl MVP awards.  Victory.  Success.

What do you think Peyton is going to do now?  My bet is that he will start studying game tape and practicing even more.  Why?  Because that is what winners do!

What lessons from Peyton can you take away to apply to your journey toward Financial Freedom?

CONGRATULATIONS TO PEYTON MANNING AND THE INDIANAPOLIS COLTS!  FIRST-CLASS ALL OF THE WAY! 

Over the holidays, I have had numerous individuals tell me that they paid cash for all of their Christmas presents this year!

WOW!  What a huge step toward achieving financial freedom!

By paying cash for all of their Christmas spending, they are now able to utilize their tax refunds to reduce other debt, build an emergency buffer of cash, or pay cash for other upcoming expenses.  They have eliminated the stress of carrying debt from Christmas into the new year.

Paying cash for items when they are purchased is a sign of a huge change!  To those who paid cash for all of your Christmas spending for the 1st time ever, I salute you!  To those who did not pay cash for all of your Christmas spending, you have a full 12 months to save up for the upcoming Christmas.  Remember, Christmas is in December EVERY SINGLE YEAR!

While you are at it, why not start saving up for the other non-monthly expenses like property taxes, quarterly insurance premiums, or health-club memberships?

You can do it!  Hearing the successes of others PUMPS ME UP and makes me know even more so that YOU can do this too!

Welcome to a year of becoming and staying debt-free!

You PUMP me up!!!  I am excited to see the huge improvements that you are making in the management of your finances!

I am in the midst of meeting with over 40 couples over the next few weeks.  It has been awesome to meet with each individual and couple, hear their story, and be able to help them produce their first-ever budget!  It has been awesome to conduct scenario-analysis to say, "What if you did this ... ?"  and "You would be 100% debt-free in 6 months if you just did this ..." and "You can RETIRE!"

I have seen people with NO HOPE leave with a spring in their step and saying, "I SEE HOPE!!!"  I have seen people who have NEVER worked together on their finances sit together in my office and WORK TOGETHER to put together their spending for the next month.  I have seen people who have significant financial mountains/monsters in their life with NO PLAN for how to deal with them leave with a REALISTIC PLAN for eliminating the mountains/monsters.

Most of all, I see couples working together to achieve the plans they have for their lives!  I see couples working together to teach their children.  I see people going and teaching others that there is indeed a better way!

Way to go!  I am inspired by you all!

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?