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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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The promise of making a lot of money has been heard by many, and many have found out that it just is not as easy as they had heard. They lost money - sometimes a lot of it. They then turned away from the stock market and ended up totally disillusioned about it. The truth is, they may have been somewhat confused about it in the first place. They may have thought it would come to them just like it did to others - without knowing the why’s or the how’s. Here are some strategies that you can use in order to help you to avoid the common mistakes that others have made.

Get A Realistic View

By looking at the market with your eyes open, you can come to understand not only the profit possibilities, but also the possibility of losses. The truth is that the higher the possible gain there is, that it is always associated with the increased likelihood of loss. The safer investments always bring a lower level of profit, and the safest investments have attached to them the lowest levels of profit.

Understand The Market

One of the greatest benefits that you can have to help you avoid a lot of potential pitfalls in your investments is to understand the principles of investing. In other words, read all you can about the process, how to judge a good stock, etc. The more you know about it yourself, the wiser you will be able to invest your funds - and hopefully see a profit. You will also be able to develop a worthwhile investment strategy - both for the short term and for the long term.

Diversify

It is smart investing to place your available investment funds into a minimum of 6 different kinds of shares. Some suggest that you go as many as 20 in order to diversify safely. Spread your investments into different kinds of stock (sectors) that are not related. This way if one type of market does not do well, then the other ones should. This enables you to still make money from some of your investment.

It is usually a good idea to diversify into more than just the stock market - at least until you really understand what you are doing. The smart investor will take a portion of their investment money and put a percentage of it into secure investments like trust funds which are solid investments, and possibly also bonds, which are the most secure, but do provide less interest.

Seek Counsel From Professionals

Unless you have money to just throw away, it would be a real good idea to seek help from someone who understands the market better than you do. There are professionals out there, financial advisors, brokers, etc., that are more than willing to help you build a solid portfolio for your investments. Their expertise can spare you a lot of unnecessary loss, and get you on to the right track to some solid profit.

Make Your Investments For The Long Term

While there is different thinking about the markets and how to invest, the general idea is to make your investments for the long term. Experienced stock market experts tend not to watch the market everyday, but only check on it once a month and many of them only quarterly. Watching it everyday leads to a lot of anxiety - since the market normally fluctuates a lot from day to day. Overall, though, it generally moves upward.

Joe Kenny writes for the UK Loans Store offering loans for UK residents and offer more information on secured loans UK and other loan topics available on site.
Visit Today: http://www.ukpersonalloanstore.co.uk

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It’s never too soon to teach your children about the value of and responsibility toward money. Here are some excellent activities to teach your children about finances, from your toddler who seems to want everything to your trendy teenager who won’t do anything unless it’s in style.

Just as bad habits are very hard to break, good habits that you teach children now will last a lifetime. If you have toddlers, now is the best time for Moms to teach them how to manage money. If you have older children don’t worryit’s not too late. Instilling positive money values now will create a wonderful foundation for your little future investors.

Follow the Leader

It’s a good idea to let your children accompany you to the bank and stores from the time they are infants so they can begin to understand the concept of money exchange. Explain to your toddlers, young children and teens exactly what you are doing and how much it costs. Allow them to see the exchange of money, checks, and credit cards between you and the merchants. Be careful to never make your children feel guilty about how much the bills cost, because that can cause damage to their self-esteem and self-worth. Try to explain each step from where you get the money, where you store it, and how you spend it so they’ll know that it’s a whole revolving process. Money management matters. Teach your children early so they can be wise about their finances.

Here Piggy, Piggy

At any given point during the day, you might see a new mother desperately prying coins from her 1-year-old’s mouth. What this Mom doesn’t realize is that maybe her child was eating the money because he had absolutely no idea what to do with it! We assume toddlers are just too young to understand money, but that’s not the case. Children love animals, so why not give your toddler a piggy of his own? And, when your toddler picks up loose change off of the floor, he will instead come straight to Mommy so he can have the treat of putting it in his bank. Once he breaks the stage of putting coins into his mouth, encourage your child to independently ‘feed’ his Piggy Bank every day so the piggy can grow and be healthy and strong. When the bank fills up, reward your smart toddler’s savings by taking it to the bank for dollar bills. Let your child buy a special treat that he’s been looking forward to with his own money. There are even toys that emulate this process with pigs that sing when kids drop plastic coins into their backs for Moms that don’t want their children to handle real money yet.

Treasure Hunt Time

This is a sure way to get children excited to learn about money matters. Save yourself time and stop breaking your back by constantly picking up coins from the floor, in the laundry room, beneath the sofa cushions, and everywhere else money disappears into. Instead of wearing yourself out, when the kids begin to look bored shout out, ‘IT’S TREASURE HUNT TIME!!’ If you feel up to it and have time, you can even come equipped with a bunch of scarves so they can dress up and pretend to be Pirates. Let your children know the safety rules of the Treasure Hunt (like, no crawling into the washing machine). Tell them they will be able to keep any money they find to save up for something special.

One Mom had a blast doing this with her 6- and 8-year-olds, and while they were busy, she had time to complete some of her own work online. However, when her daughter’s teacher called home the next day concerned that she had brought a $100 bill to school, Mom had to let the kids know that ‘finding change’ did not include going through Daddy’s pants pockets or Mommy’s purse! So, to avoid any confusion, set those rules clearly beforehand.

Now & Later

Now that your child has money, she will come up with great ways to spend it faster than she’s saving it. Let your child know that while it’s fun to spend, it can be smarter to save. One great way to teach your children about saving is by creating two containers, one for spending ‘Now’ and a separate savings container for ‘Later’. Each time your child collects money, earns money, or gets an allowance, encourage her to put money into each of the two jars - some for spending Now and some to save for Later. Once she accumulates enough in the Later jar, she’ll be able to purchase a larger, more expensive item she’s been wishing for. Assist your child in keeping a record of how much she has saved toward her goal to keep her motivated and help her stay on track. Because children need limits set for them, it may be a good idea to keep their Later savings ’safely’ placed in an unattainable spot so they won’t be tempted to spend it too soon. Allow them to keep their Now container in their room for accessibility.

For The More Mature Crowd

Your teenager probably wants it all, and it seems like they don’t care whether it breaks the Mom&Dad bank to get it. It’s not that they’re necessarily greedy and irresponsible, there’s a lot of peer pressure taking place not only at school, but also from turning on the television. Nowadays, if you don’t have the trendiest clothes or latest gadget you are simply not cool. There is a solution for Moms to help their teenagers become wiser about the way they use money while still remaining popular.

A great way to teach your teens about money is by using the good ol’ Dow Jones. When their next birthdays roll around, give the gift of allowing them to choose a stock to invest their own money in. Explain to them how the stock market works, what affects the economy indirectly and directly, and what that ticker on CNN means. Teach your children so they will understand the pros and cons of low risk vs. high risk investments. Help them make a sensible stock selection. They will feel invested and proud of their stock as the value rises and disappointed when it falls. When the newspaper arrives in the morning, you’ll be shocked at how your teens scramble for the Business section to check on their stock. Don’t be shocked if you hear your children making long-term plans from the money their stock will make. Their knowledge about the value of investing will spill over into how responsible they are with money. Their peers will be impressed with their level of maturity and you’ll be proud of their growth.

These are great ways to get your children invested in money matters. There will be many other opportunities for you to take advantage of in laying your child’s financial foundation. Remind your child that charity is important and that even a small financial contribution will help others. Let your junior accountants practice their math by re-counting your change after you leave the register, for accuracy. Create a cool personal budget sheet for your teens to use to keep track of their spending and savings. This will help them later in college. As a Mom, know that each interactive learning activity you create and encourage builds your children’s financial foundation so they can survive successfully in life.

Copyright 2006 Pat Brill

Pat Brill is co-founder of http://www.SilkBow.com which supports Busy Moms with free gift ideas and helpful tips to meet the challenges of motherhood. SilkBow is the perfect place for the perfect gift. You can contact her at pat@SilkBow.com.

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