Live Debt Free

Pay off debt. Save. Give. Live your mission.

  • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Credit Scores
  • Spending
  • Investing
  • Earn Money

Reasons To Budget Your Money

06.27.2011 by Mike Young //

You’ve heard all the hype. In fact, you may even be tired of all the hype. “You need to do a budget!” How many times have you heard that? With every (well, almost every) financial expert on the planet saying you should do a budget, why are so many still not? Maybe you’ve just never been given a persuasive argument. Allow me to attempt to convince you.

1) It acts as a blueprint.

Imagine the situation. You and your spouse decide that it’s time to build a house. You don’t really worry how much it’s going to cost and your builder tells you he sort of has an idea in his head what it will look like. Can you imagine the disaster this is going to turn into? What if the house ends up costing $700,000 and you can only afford a $200,000 house? What if the builder puts things in the wrong location and you end up hating everything about it? Not to mention how much time and money will be wasted by not having a plan. No one in their right mind would do that. The problem is most people do this with the monthly budget. Just think, if you make the household average income of around $45,000 per year, you will have 1.8 million dollars pass through your hands from age 25-65. That’s right: 1.8 million dollars! Having a budget will help you get the most out of all of that money. It’s like having a blueprint for your money. Often, not having that blueprint can turn into a financial disaster!

2) It forces communication in your marriage.

When you do a budget, it forces husbands and wives to spend time talking to each other. The only way for a budget to truly work long term is for both spouses to be on the same page. This means that they must share their hopes, dreams, and goals with each other. For example, your wife may say that she wants to put aside money in savings because she wants to take the kids to Disney World in two years. Your husband may say that it is really important to him to put a certain percentage into retirement because he would love to retire at age 55. It’s amazing what you can learn about your spouse simply by doing a budget.

3) Reduces stress.

Stress and worry are often born from the unknown. When you really don’t know if you have enough money to buy something you need, it causes stress. If you don’t really know where all of the money you make seems to disappear to, it causes stress. If you really don’t know how you are going to make it if your spouse loses their job, it causes stress. High levels of stress in marriage is a recipe for disaster. Money fights are often cited as the number one cause of divorce. If couples can get this part of their marriage straight, it will provide a huge step towards a long, happy marriage. The most important ingredient for a couple to reduce stress in finances is to get on a budget. A budget will tell you if you have enough money to buy something. It will take you from wondering where your money is going to you being in control of where it is spent (or saved).

I would love to hear your feedback. There are, perhaps, hundreds of good reasons to do a budget. Let us know what your thoughts are. Also, maybe there are good reasons not to do a budget, I would love to hear those as well.

Categories // Money Management Tags // money, Money Management, relationships, stress

Blogging Your Passion – Make Money Blogging

04.29.2011 by Matt Jabs //

There are so many people that hate their jobs and truly loathe getting up and going to work every day.  I used to be one of them.

So why do so many people continue doing something that makes them so unhappy?  Debt usually plays a huge roll.  A simple question to ask yourself is, “If you didn’t have any debt, and thus only needed a fraction of your current monthly income, would you still get up and go work at your current job every day?” The answer is usually a resounding NO!

Besides being passionate about eliminating debt, I am also hugely passionate about figuring out how to earn money doing creative work I love… and helping others do the same.  If you hate your job and need a change, then why not create that change?  No one is going to do it for you!

At the end of February 2011 I left the working world to become a full-time entrepreneur.  It is a risk, but I had a plan.  I have been blogging since January of 2009 and have been able to build up several sites with a decent amount of traffic.  Now my job is to consistently build those sites and to turn them into revenue producing assets that help people and provide for my family.  My goals include helping others, being able to work from anywhere with an Internet connection, earn money at all hours of the day rather than trading time for money, and to create something I’m passionate about.

Who do I learn from?  Well, a lot of it has been trial and error over the years, but because I recently went full-time, I’ve been receiving coaching from guys who have already become very successful at what I’m trying to do.  Enter Bob Lotich of christianpf.com and Jonathan Milligan of cpacareercoach.com.

Blogging Your Passion

Bob and Jonathan have created a website called BloggingYourPassion.com and – with the help of Andy Traub of andytraub.com – are about to release a comprehensive webinar product to help you and I create, build, maintain, and earn money by blogging about things we are passionate about.  I’m telling you about this product today because I’m sick and tired of seeing people stuck in debt and stuck in jobs they hate.  YOU DON’T HAVE TO keep doing it!  Break out and start building something you’re proud of.

Bob and Jonathan have kindly offered a $50 discount to the first 50 people who sign up, and the webinar is only available to 100 people.  So if you’re looking to make a change and have been looking for an excuse to get started… make this your excuse.

Check out the life changing 5 part Blogging Your Passion webinar and use coupon code “DFA” (without the quotes) for a shot at the $50 discount if you’re one of the first 50 to sign up.

Here is a video of me talking about the course and the idea behind it.

Check out the life changing 5 part Blogging Your Passion webinar and use coupon code “DFA” (without the quotes) for a shot at the $50 discount if you’re one of the first 50 to sign up.

Here is a summary of the 5 part webinar Bob sent me:

Week 1

  • What to do in the first 24 working hours of your blog
  • The Behind-the-Scenes Checklist (Domains, Hosting, WordPress, etc)
  • The Blog Design Checklist (Proper SEO, Must Have Plugins, Themes, Analytics, Logo Headers, etc)
  • The Social Media Checklist (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.)
  • The Content Creation Checklist (Your first few posts)
  • The Monetization Checklist (Simple Income Ideas)

Week 2

  • 20 Different Types of Posts You Can Use
  • How to Target Keyword Phrases for the Search Engines
  • How to Do Fast Article Research
  • Fast Content Creation Strategies
  • Article Topic Ideas Spreadsheet Explained

Week 3

  • Understanding the Difference Between Time Management and Self Management
  • Learning How the Pareto Principle Applies to Blogging
  • What The Parkinson’s Law States
  • Education vs. Experience
  • Action vs. Activity
  • Part-time Blogger Time Management Tips
  • Full-time Blogger Time Management Tips

Week 4

  • Developing Social Media Traffic Systems (Get Your Content Viral)
  • Developing Search Engine Traffic Systems (Rank on 1st Page of Google)
  • Developing Internal Traffic Systems (RSS Readers, Mailing Lists)

Week 5

  • Multiple Streams of Blogging Income (Over 20+ Income Streams Explained)
  • Introduction to the “Profit Ladder”
  • Setting Up a Sales Funnel for Your Blog
  • Earning a Passive Income from Your Mailing List
  • Low Maintenance Income Ideas
  • Passive Income Ideas
  • Personal Involvement High Income Ideas

Check out the life changing 5 part Blogging Your Passion webinar and use coupon code “DFA” (without the quotes) for a shot at the $50 discount if you’re one of the first 50 to sign up.

Have you been thinking about starting a blog to help others and earn money?  Let us know by leaving a comment.

Categories // Earn Money Tags // blogging, money, passion

Tips on Saving Money on Entertainment

04.01.2011 by Matt Jabs //

We save quite a bit of money every month by using Netflix in place of other more expensive entertainment options.

Netflix instead of going to the movies

Before we began our Debt Free Adventure back in January of 2009 we used to go out to eat 3-5 times each week and would go to the movie theater about 3 times per month.  If you do the math the numbers add up quickly.  Just the theater visits alone were costing us roughly $78/month!

What did we do?  We quit eating out and going to the theater.

Whenever you remove one thing you need to replace it with an alternative.  To replace eating out all the time we began cooking more.  I love cooking so it’s a natural fit… and we eat much healthier now.  Would you believe I haven’t eaten fast food in about 2 1/2 years?  It’s true!

When we were frequenting movie theaters Netflix wasn’t worth it because we didn’t watch many movies at home.  Now that we only visit the theater on special occasions Netflix delivers incredible value.  We are on the $14.99 plan which allows us 2 DVDs out at a time, along with unlimited streaming using our Xbox 360.  Because we stream most of our movies we may go down to the 1 DVD $9.99 plan.  There is also an unlimited streaming (no DVD) option for $7.99 available.

Want to save money? Do what we did… stop going to the theater so much and sign up for a one month free-trial with Netflix and save!  You can cancel at any time so you have nothing to lose.

Gamefly instead of buying video games

Gamefly offers pretty much the same scenario for people who play a lot of video games.

Rather than buying games that you play for a few weeks, proceed to solve, and never play again – use Gamefly to rent them.  You can keep the games until you solve them, then return them after you lose interest.  Even if you only rent 2 games per month you’re still only spending $22.95 rather than buying them for $80-$120.

If you rent the games from your local video rental store you can only keep them for a few days, maybe a week tops.  And as we’re all painfully aware… late fees add up fast!

Want to save money?  Sign up for a 10 day Gamefly free-trial.  Their other pricing options are:

  • 1 game out at at time for $15.95 ($7.95 for the first month)
  • 2 games out at a time for $22.95 ($11.95 for the first month)

Categories // Money Management Tags // entertainment, money, Money Management, save

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 7
  • Next Page »

Popular Posts

  • Understanding & Improving your Cash Flow
  • Credit Card Debt Reduction Handbook
  • Our Monthly Debt Reduction and Savings Statements
  • Pay off Credit Cards VS Build Emergency Fund Savings - Me VS Suze Orman
  • Credit Cards - Close 'em Shred 'em & Forget 'em!
  • More Reasons to Pay Off Credit Card Debt
  • Wise Use of Paid off Credit Cards? You Decide.
  • The Whole Armor of Personal Finance
  • One World Currency - New World Order
  • Debt Testimonials - Encouraging Success Stories!

Disclaimer

Content on Debt Free Adventure is for entertainment purposes only. Rates & offers from advertisers shown on this website may change without notice: please visit referenced sites for current information. Per FTC guidelines, this website may be compensated by companies mentioned through advertising, affiliate programs or otherwise. We respect your privacy. Privacy policy.

Popular Posts

  • Lending Club - My Review of Social Lending
  • Understanding & Improving your Cash Flow
  • Credit Card Debt Reduction Handbook
  • Our Monthly Debt Reduction and Savings Statements
  • Pay off Credit Cards VS Build Emergency Fund Savings - Me VS Suze Orman
  • Credit Cards - Close 'em Shred 'em & Forget 'em!
  • More Reasons to Pay Off Credit Card Debt
  • Wise Use of Paid off Credit Cards? You Decide.
  • The Whole Armor of Personal Finance
  • One World Currency - New World Order
  • Debt Testimonials - Encouraging Success Stories!

Disclaimer

Content on Debt Free Adventure is for entertainment purposes only. Rates & offers from advertisers shown on this website may change without notice: please visit referenced sites for current information. Per FTC guidelines, this website may be compensated by companies mentioned through advertising, affiliate programs or otherwise. We respect your privacy. Privacy policy.

Copyright © 2023 · Modern Studio Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in