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Change Your Thinking and Your Actions To Stop The Debt Habit Forever

You can learn to permanently stop the debt habit no matter how much or how little money you currently earn. It is easier than you think. The first step is to change how you think about money, and to learn what you may unconsciously be doing to draw debt to you. Once you learn how to properly understand how money works, and to stop creating debt magnets in your life you will automatically start to reduce your debt.

The first step is to step back and take a look at what money really is. Learning to redefine what money is will help you see new options for dealing with it and for reducing debt.

Money is a symbol of our life’s energy. Humans agree on the symbol of money, because it is easier than trying to haul all of our worldly goods around on our back in order to trade with each other. Ask yourself honestly, how easy would life really be without money? Suppose that you are a house builder or an artist, how do you go about the daily transactions of life without money? What if your Doctor does not want or need a new house right now? Or suppose your Landlord is not interested in arts and crafts. How do you secure goods and services? Most of the time directly bartering for what we need just won’t work. That is where money comes in. No matter what you do for a living, goods and services represent time, expertise, physical resources or effort- in other words they represent ENERGY. It is a symbol of the energy that we put in to earn it, and it is a tool that allows us to get energy out of it through purchasing the goods and services we need.

Learning to think of money as energy can show us new ways to stop creating new debt, and to get rid of our old debt. This works because seeing money as energy allows us to: fully experience that what happens to our energy happens to our money. This is not as ungrounded an idea as it may initially seem. While most of us do not think that the energy we spend on things like bad relationships, or dealing with clutter, it does. Just ask anyone who has ever been divorced or who purchased an item it turns out they already had, but could not find! The truth is any energy drain is eventually a money drain. This is vitally important to understand because it allows us to take our first big practical step to permanently getting out of debt: cleaning up our personal “debt magnets.”

Energy Drains Create “Debt Magnets.” Debt magnets are habits and situations that literally draw us into more and more debt. They are the patterns of energy that can cause us to pay off one debt (or even group of debts) only to find ourselves back in a financial hole six months or a year later.

The key to seeing and getting rid of “debt magnets” is to simply ask yourself: Where is my energy going? If it is going in a direction that is unrewarding or draining, then you have a debt magnet. When this happens it keeps us from earning more money whether we are aware of it or not. It will also eventually cause to fall into additional spending that does not move us forward. For example if every time you listen to an annoying coworker complain, you treat yourself to a snack from the vending machine then you have a very simple debt magnet. You are potentially earning less because your energy is going toward the co-worker instead of toward making your job more financially rewarding and you are spending more on a quick fix to make yourself feel better. You have unconsciously reduced your earning power and increased your debt.

The Debt Magnet Challenge:

How much energy is getting stuck for you in these areas? Remember these are big categoreis and it takes time to fully understand how each area might contain energy drains for you personally. For now just go with your gut understanding and your gut instinct.

Rate yourself 1-10 with 1 being it NEVER happens that you spend time, energy, money, or worry on an area and 10 being you DAILY spend time, money, energy, or worry in that area.

1) Unorganized paperwork/bills

2) Undervalued charity / showcase work

3) Spending time on things you do not want to do, but feel emotionally blackmailed to do

4) Self-blame about money past

5) Excessive money worry and fear

6) Not knowing your numbers, or not being specific about income and expenses.

7) Habitual over commitment.

Unfinished tasks and business.

9) Outdated or insufficient tools and possessions.

10) Suppressed or unacknowledged emotion.

Once you are done add up your numbers and write down your total number. The higher your number the more likely it is that you are unconsciously drawing debt to you.

Challenge: Would you like to make $70 extra this month? Would you like to test this theory out and see if it really works? Challenge yourself to take simple steps to drop your debt magnet number by 7 points. The really interesting thing is if you do, you will more than likely find money coming into your life. This “new money may come in many ways. It may be in the form of unexpected earning, discounts on items you need, avoiding things like late fees, taking advantage of refunds or rebates you would have otherwise missed, collecting on money that other people owe you or some other method. Many people actually even physically find money (cash and checks) as they are cleaning up clutter and paperwork. Keep a close eye out for a two week period after reducing your debt magnet number and see what happens for you.

Mari Geasair has been there! She has been an entrepreneur for over 18 years and has owned five successful businesses of her own. In addition, as a coach and facilitator, she has worked as a hands-on partner with hundreds of small business owners and self-employed individuals. A former underearner herself, she is now a high earner. She currently specializes in helping entreprenuers and creative people find more success by radically chanigng their relationship to moeny. Check out her site at http://www.mycreativeprosperity.com and be sure to find out about how YOU can change your financial life by joining a Creative Prospeity 2007 teleclass.

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Owing a debt does not automatically subject you to harrassing, threatening and other inappropriate collection agency behavior. Some collection agencies go too far with what I call “renegade collectors” they will repeatedly call you at your home and/or business, threaten to send a marshall over to serve you with lawsuit papers or send intimidating letters, appearing to come from an attorney or law firm, stating that you will lose your car, wages and other property if you do not pay your debt! It does not matter that you failed to pay a debt or that you can not afford to pay your debt at this time no one should intimidate, threaten or harrass you or coerce you to give out personal or financial information. Inappropriate collection procedures can intimidate you into paying for costs that may not even be your responsibility.You are protected by the law from innapropriate collection procedures.

The Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the New York City Consumer Protection Law Regulation 10 and New York State Statute, General Business Law, Article 29-H, (the “State Statute”) all prohibit threatening, harrassing and intimidating collection procedures. For instance, the State Statute prohibits a collection agent from (a) threatening to communicate with your employer prior to that agent obtaining a judgement against you, (b) communicating with your family or household at such frequency or at such unusual hours as can reasonably be expected to be abusive or harrassing, or (c) simulating any legal or judicial process or appearing to be authorized, issued or approved by the government or an attorney to collect a debt.

Also, if the collection agent sends you a letter demanding you pay without the reuired notice under the federal law regarding your confidentiality, your rights to dispute the debt an dgiving you the appropriate 30 days to respond, then the debt collector is automatically liable to you for any damages plus three times the amount of your damages. Each violation of the State Statute is a seperate misdemeanor offense. You can file charges with the State Attorney General or your County District Attorney and also request a restraining action against the collection company to stop it from continuing abuse and harrassment.

If you feel abused or harrassed by a collection agency, call that agency and get the name and address of the owner/president. Send your written complaint, by certified mail, return receipt, to the owner/president and include in your letter that you “believe that agency is violating the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and other state and local laws and that you will (a) file complaints with the Attorney General or the District Attorney’s office (subjecting the collection company to misdemeanor charges) and (b) request a restraining action against the collection agency.” If the collection company continues to abuse and harrass you, then go ahead and file your charges and complaints .

This article is certainly not all inclusive and is intended only as a brief explanation of the legal issue presented. Not all cases are alike and it is strongly recommended that you consult an attorney if you have any questions with respect to any legal matters.

Any questions and/or comments with respect to this topic or any other topic, contact:

Law Offices of Susan Chana Lask

853 Broadway, Suite 1516

New York, NY 10003

(212) 358-5762
Susan Chana Lask, Esq. c 2004

About The Author

Susan Chana Lask is named in the media as New York’s “high powered attorney”. She practices sucessfully all civil, criminal & appeals cases in State & Federal courts nationwide. http://www.appellate-brief.com

scl@appellate-brief.com

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An Interview with Jon Hanson Author of “Good Debt, Bad Debt”

by Christine Katz, Writers on the Rise, E-zine

WOTR: When did it first occur to you to write a book about good and bad debt?

JON HANSON: It was in 1992. I began the book many times. My original title was A Matter of Life and Debt. In fact, I drug out the 28 pages I wrote in 1992 in 2002 and gave them to a waitress who asked to read them. She then passed them all around to her family to read. It made me thinkperhaps I had something with commercial value.

I wanted a guideline to leave for my family to follow should I prematurely assume room temperature. I also wrote it to cause me discomfort when I stray from its wisdom. Not only is the book a disclosure of many of my mistakes in hopes of others avoiding them, it is the very best of my intensive research regarding debt. I read through about 10,000 pages of Victorian Era books, too. Authors like, Ben Franklin, Samuel Smiles, and Orison Swett Marden influenced me greatly. The human condition hasn’t changed that much in 400 years. With technology it moves quicker, but humans living beyond their means is hardly a new story.

WOTR: How did you go about preparing to write your proposal?

JON HANSON: First, I read every book available on proposal writing and book marketing. I read Jeff Herman, Michael Larsen, and everything available on the Internet. Most of them I have listed on a test site I use: http://www.gdbd.com/proposal/ While reading Jennifer Bayse Sander’s Idiots Guide to Getting Published, she mentioned Mark Victor Hansen’s Mega Book University, a three-day event to be held in Los Angeles, I was too late to go to the event, but bought the CD’s, listened, and studied them, and resolved to go the next year. This one single event (getting advice from people selling millions of books) probably did more for me than any other to make my proposal as good as it was. The acquisition editor at Penguin said, “This is the best ‘non-agented’ proposal we have ever seen. We are impressed with all of the research and work you have put into it.”

WOTR: What were the key things you learned throughout the actual proposal writing process?

JON HANSON: Only sales can make a best seller! Everything else is hot air. If you have romantic notions about the book business, you are heading for a big let down. It is true publishers say they want beautiful writing, but what they really want is another, Purpose Driven Life (30 million) or Rich Dad Poor Dad (3.5 million) or Good to Great (3 million) or Da Vinci Code (3 million? Maybe more).

WOTR: Why is marketing just as important as content when selling a book?

JON HANSON: With no sales or very low sales, the publisher doesn’t make money, your editor gets fired, your name is mud, and you can’t sell the next book. Remember, you are ultimately paid by the end consumer not the publisher. Don’t forget that. I imagine writers and artsy-types won’t like that. We all want to be paid for the beauty of the arrangement of the words we peck into our computers. I do think part of the deal with Penguin that sold them was I wrote a very good book. But the reality of it is they have placed a $60,000 bet on my ability to promote and sell it. We are both betting on the subject matter. I don’t know all of Penguin’s soft costs, but I have read it takes $30,000 to $40,000 to bring a 50,000 first printing hardcover book to a national release. They gave me $20,000 upfront. My royalties will be about $3 a book so the first 6,500 will go back to the house.

WOTR: Why did you decide to send your proposal straight to publishers instead of pursuing an agent?

JON HANSON: I got tired of chapping my lips on the wrong butts. It seemed to me it involved climbing two great mountains when I barely had enough strength for one. I had an agent in New York tell me he could get me a deal if I had a syndicated column or a TV show! Amazing. It was his way of saying my platform was not broad enough. I beefed up my section on platform and after about four serious swings at good agents, I decided to go direct. Michael Larsen was looking at it, but I had to withdraw it from him when I sold to Penguin. So, technically, he never turned me down.

Once I decided to go directly to publishers, it took me four proposals to get a deal. I became convinced that a small publisher would be best. I carefully selected and researched the “right one.” In about three weeks I had the rejection letter. I was crushed for about 23 minutes (that is all I allow for crushing defeat). I then decided to send to another small publisher (Career Press) and a regional (Adams Media) and a big six publisher. I found the emails for everyone at http://www.publishersmarketplace.com

I got a response to my query in twenty minutes from the President of my imprint. It only said, “Sure send the proposal. Be glad to look.” Career called and said they might be interested but wanted me to get a CPA, PhD or CFP to go on the cover with me (presumably to bolster my credentials). My contact at Adams was on vacation. Penguin called me about 5 or 6 days after I sent the proposal. A week later, they called and wanted me to come up with examples of good and bad debt for the marketing department. I worked for hours on that one page of marketing material. I assumed they wouldn’t be asking for marketing ideas if they weren’t going to make me an offer. The following Monday they called and said we’d like to make you an offer. We had three days of negotiation (gut wrenching for me) and made a deal September 23, 2003.

I immediately called and emailed the other publishers to thank them and withdraw. Publishing is a small world, it’s wise to be kind to everyone.

Jon Hanson is the author of “Good Debt, Bad Debt” forthcoming from Penguin Portfolio in January 2005. Download a free audio “The 12 Daze of Debtmas” Here: http://gooddebt.com/audio_player.htm Are you letting Christmas Become Debtmas? This ninety second audio is hilarious, free to pass on to your friends in mp3 format. Listen on line or download.

For more information visit http://www.gooddebt.com/ A 23-page excerpt is available at http://www.gooddebt.com/gdbd_excerpt.pdf

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ABOUT JON HANSON
A 24-year veteran and student of the real estate business and now a full-time author and speaker on topics of personal finance, Jon Hanson talks from the heart literally; he barely survived his own “near-debt experience” a few years ago and used the lessons he learned to mine a deeper joy out of the dysfunctional monetary habits and attitudes that nearly cost him his life. Stressed, demoralized, nearly $100,000 in debt to the IRS, and suffering severe chest pains, Hanson imagined his own obituary while hooked to a heart monitor at his local emergency room.
Fortunately, there’s been no need for the obit. Jon has lived on to write Good Debt, Bad Debt which he hopes will spare others from the trauma he experienced while suffering from extreme “Debtabetes.

Prior to devoting himself to writing and speaking on the dangers of Debtabetes and other scourges of the land, Jon’s full-time business was real estate. Jon has worked almost exclusively with distressed property situations since 1981. In the second half of his real estate career, most of Jon’s effort was concentrated on more than 120 foreclosure work-outs, judicial foreclosure of liens, judgments, and disposition of bankruptcy claims. jon [at]gooddebt.com

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