Five Tips For Financial Freedom

1. Establish and Control Cash Flow
The building blocks of any financial plan are liquidity (or like my wife calls it “fluidity”) and expense management. People who spend more than their income will never achieve financial independence. Your best friend is your family budget, without it you will be spending blindly which will lead you into constant shortfalls and borrowing from your savings or credit cards to cover the “unexpected shortfall”.
2. Manage and Eliminate Debt
As part of the post-recession era, families should have as their primary goal to eliminate debt. As long as our families continue enslaved by debt, we are selling our children's future to the money changers.
3. Establish an Emergency Fund
Families should have at least a three month reserve of cash for emergencies. Once you have established your 3 months of reserve, you should work towards 6 to 9 months of reserves. Emergencies come in different ways from layoffs to natural disasters to illness or death of a family member. Having this emergency fund is critical to sustain those rocky moments. For this type of funds you should avoid Mutual funds, Money market accounts and CDs. Instead go for a savings account or even cash in a safe at home, remember the key is liquidity for this fund.
4. Protect Your Assets
Another aspect we fall short in the United States is inadequate protection for our assets should a wage earner die or become disabled. Tax  planning and using retirement and savings products that offer tax protection are key. Life insurance, retirement and saving vehicles should be carefully evaluated to financial hardship should a disability or death occur.  A family trust can save thousands of dollars in probate in the event of a death as well.
5. Grow Your Wealth
Even in a down market sound investments will still produce returns that grow and protect principle. Take advantage of investment plans from reputable companies with a history of success and expertise. Avoid uncertain and extremely speculative offers. As money grows, the potential for earnings increases exponentially.

Financial freedom does not come free, it requires strong management, planning and foresight. However, with proper planning and using these basic guidelines, your journey will be more enjoyable and will yield a brighter financial future tomorrow.

Debt Slavery

Debt Slavery is nothing new. Many historical books, including the bible, will talk about debt slavery or debt bondage. Debt slavery is defined as a situation when a person provides a loan to another and uses his or her labor or services to repay the debt. The problem with debt slavery is when the value of the work, as reasonably assessed, is not applied towards the liquidation of the debt, the situation becomes one of debt bondage.

According to the Anti-Slavery Society:

Pawnage or pawn slavery is a form of servitude akin to bonded labor under which the debtor provides another human being as security or collateral for the debt. Until the debt (including interest on it) is paid off, the creditor has the use of the labor of the pawn.

The United Nations has defined debt bondage as a “modern day slavery”. The focus of the UN and other governments is towards the abuses and atrocities committed against families in under and developing countries. However, today in the United States we have debt bondage. Many people do not agree with me, but the truth is that we do. In simple terms, debt is bad because it restricts your freedom. Debt is bad even if you’re borrowing to put yourself in a better position long term, because you’re still restricted by having that debt load hanging over you and your life. One of the most frequent exhortations from Scripture is the warning against debt can be found in Proverbs, the reader is warned that the "borrower is servant to the lender." And in Paul's letter to the church at Rome, he tells them flatly: "Owe no man anything." (Romans 13:8).

We can make an argument that leveraging the acquisition of a piece of land or real estate is a good use of debt. It is possibly true, if the repayment of that loan does not enslave you into the servitutde to the financial institutions for the rest of your lives.

Many families sell their souls to companies for a job which they, in reality detest, do perform just for the pay so they can stay afloat. This is the typical debt bondage we have in our society today even in most developed countries. Therefore, we become slaves to those who pay us to perform a specific task and most times against our values. Being in control of your spending and finances liberates you, in a nutshell, it is financial freedom.


What is financial freedom?
Many families work so hard and give so much of their lives to provide a better life to their families. They want financial freedom. However, what is financial freedom? It can simply be defined as “the freedom to make choices in your life without having to worry about the day to day financial implications”. You have the freedom to chose the place where to work, regardless of the pay. When you find a career that you’re passionate about, you’ll truly enjoy what you’re doing and the money will follow.

What can be done now?
The best thing that all families of WBN can do is to develop financial plans to liberate themselves from debt. Transform their focus to own and invest. Focus on a financial plan address your debt balance and focus on debt reduction and then towards financial freedom. Trust me that you will breath better after you become financially free.

What mistakes should you avoid in credit card consolidation?

You may go for credit card consolidation when you’re facing problems to manage your multiple bills and paying them off. To consolidate your credit card bills/debts, you can enroll in a consolidation program or take out a loan for the purpose. You can also opt for balance transfer method wherein you transfer your high interest debts into a low interest card. However, whatever option you choose, you should try to avoid the mistakes often committed by people while getting credit card consolidation help. Go through this article to know about 5 common mistakes and how you can avoid them.

1. Not consolidating all your high interest debts – When consolidating your credit card bills/debts, make sure you consolidate all your high interest bills. If you cannot take out an amount with which you can replace all your credit accounts, then make sure you consolidate all your high interest debts into one loan for which you need to make single monthly payments.

2. Closing all your credit cards at once – Closing all your credit cards may reduce your credit score to some extent. This is because one of the main components of your credit score is credit utilization ratio. So, when you close your credit accounts, the available credit limit drops thus increasing your credit utilization ratio and in turn, your score may get reduced by several points. So, when going for credit card consolidation, do not make the mistake of closing your credit accounts, once you repay them. Keep them open but don’t use them till you’re out of debt completely.

3. Not choosing the right consolidation company – Often people make a mistake by enrolling with a non-reliable consolidation company. To get professional help from a reliable debt/credit card consolidation company, always check BBB (Better Business Bureau) records to find out whether or not the customers are satisfied with the services provided by the company. Moreover, it is better if you get help from a company which has got high ratings from BBB.

4. Taking out new credit before repaying the existing ones – You will make a mistake if you take out new credit without paying off the existing ones. You should know that a consolidation program doesn’t cover any new debt. So, if you’ve enrolled in a consolidation program, do not take out new credit before you repay the existing ones. It holds true for consolidation loan and balance transfer method as well. Do not take out new loans before you pay off the existing ones.

5. Not checking how long the low interest rate is valid – If you opt for balance transfer method for credit card consolidation, you should always enquire how long the introductory zero or low interest rate period if valid for. This is for you to know that the interest rate usually gets much higher when the low introductory period ends. So, you’d have to make payments on much higher interest rate if you’re not able to pay back the loan within the low introductory rate period.

While getting help of credit card consolidation, you should address the real problem. Just getting help of consolidation will not help you solve your problems if you don’t learn to manage your money properly. You need to plan a suitable budget and follow it along with changing your lifestyle if required. Moreover, do not take out a number of cards as otherwise, it will become difficult for you to manage them properly.

Contributed by Kenneth Parkar

Debt Community Member

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Is Debt Problems Taking Over Your Life-Time To Find Out About Different Things You Could Do To Change Things

There are many different and amazing, as well as quite simple little things that anyone of you could do to try and change your current debt condition and flip it to something more positive, which will in turn make your life much more productive. Just wait and see, as soon as you start sticking to the program and finding different things that you can do to help your situation, you will begin seeing that life is not that difficult, saving money does not have to feel impossible and gaining knowledge about your finances is something very valuable and helpful throughout your entire life.

Debt problems can strike anyone out there, nobody is too good for failed financial security, it does happen to all different types of people and that is definitely a fact people! The internet is a fantastic place for you to locate all types of helpful information regarding your finances and how to keep them all in check. Taking the time out to actually study over some of those helpful steps is something very important because you should all know that there is just no way possible that anything like this is going to happen, without your determination and researching so that you will have the kind of knowledge that it is going to take for you to be financially successful in the future.

Finding books on finances and debt can really make a huge difference whenever it comes to the way that you have previously thought about money and it will change your entire outlook on your financial future as well. Nothing but positive things will come from you taking time out of your daily activities to further investigate what all it is that is definitely going to help guide you and get you on the appropriate path, where you can gain the financial freedom that you have always longed for throughout the difficult years growing up, turning into an adult.

Decide to start spending less and less money every chance that you think about it or every opportunity that arises, it will for sure save you quite a bit of money, and probably more so than you would have ever imagined possible. Little things add up to a whole lot of money, so even if it is just saving yourself a few dollars here and there, at the end of the month it is all going to add up, that is for sure and once you start seeing it happen you are going to be more than thrilled by the results!

Pinching pennies each month will really be quite helpful to you and your family and will help to alleviate many of your debt problems that you have been going through each and every month that passes. This does not at all mean that you can not have any kind of fun at all, you just need to be much more conservative and thoughtful, whenever it does come to how much money you are spending each and everyday, no matter what comes up. Even if you could open up a small savings account at your local bank, that would be very beneficial to you as well, allowing you the opportunity to save back a little bit of money any chance that you do get.

Debt is a problem that too many people are having to deal with each and everyday and if this all sounds like the headache of a problem existing in your home, then perhaps it is time for you to consider making some changes too, just as so many people have chosen to do, in which it was most helpful to them over a period of time. Your future and happiness depends on it, so why are you still sitting there all upset over your debt problems, get up off that couch and do something about it today, before it gets too deep and there is no time for help at all!

Alleviating your debt as early as possible during your life will be the most helpful to you in the future and by doing this you will be giving yourself the opportunity to have much less stress on you each day that you step out of bed, as well as bringing much joy to your life, allowing you many opportunities that would never have came along had you not had your finances in more order.

Your debt condition can and will improve, but only if you take the appropriate steps that it is going to take to get you in that wonderful position. You are the one that should be in control over your life and your finances and if you are not then maybe you should sit back and try to figure out just where things might be going wrong, causing you the debt problems that have been occurring with you.

If you need help improving your credit score, I recommend How To Improve Your Credit Score One Step at a Time