2 Steps to Get Out of Debt Fast
Issue #2195
- WEALTHY: Adversity in the real estate market means more cash in your pocket (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: Guard your heart with something you normally throw away (Kelley Herring)
- WISE: Bill Balance on love and debt
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Use credits cards? Watch TV? Read this… (Michael Masterson)
- When it comes to fishing, what’s more important than bait? (Suzanne Richardson)
- It’s Good to Know… about finding aliens and curing AIDS
- Add "importunate" to your vocabulary
Announcing Your Complimentary Invitation to ETR’s 2008 Bootcamp
ETR’s Info-Marketing Bootcamp has without question become the premiere event in the industry. Now, you can attend this bootcamp, held in beautiful Delray Beach, Florida without paying the fee!
Come join us in 2008 and you’ll be brought up to date on all the latest and most powerful business-building secrets that are working in the marketplace that minute. It’s also an extraordinary chance to network with dozens of industry leaders, not to mention hundreds of your fellow high-achieving Early to Risers.
Lists of previous years’ speakers read like a who’s who of business-building and Internet marketing geniuses, including Jay Abraham, Joe Vitale, Robert Ringer, Brian Tracy, Jeff Paul, Michael Masterson, Bob Bly, Rich Schefren, Jeff Walker, Alex Mandossian and many, many more.
Martha Celestino of Santa Ana, CA said about our 2007 Bootcamp, “This event was fabulous. This is my second ETR event, and I’m always just blown away by the ideas and the concepts. The people presenting are leaders in their fields.”
Now, when you become a Charter Member of ETR’s new Internet Money Club, you’ll receive complimentary admission to next year’s Early to Rise 2008 Info-Marketing Bootcamp.
This event WILL sell out next fall. But as an Internet Money Club member, you’re automatically guaranteed a complimentary, locked-in seat for next year’s event.
And that’s just the beginning of your benefits as a Charter Member of the Internet Money Club… read on to see everything else you get.
A House of Cards
Lots of people have been panicking about the housing industry recently. Fortunately, what spells bad news for some real estate investors can mean big opportunities for your portfolio.
The current real estate market is as bad as I have seen in my 40 years on this earth. Foreclosures set record highs in September and August and, given the number of adjustable-rate, balloon, and teaser-rate mortgages that are going to "reset" higher in the next few months, it looks like this trend will continue.
Because of this mortgage crisis, home sales and home prices are falling sharply. But I don’t think we’ve seen the worst of it yet. You see, it takes 90 days for a bank to start foreclosure proceedings. If foreclosures are hitting highs now, wait until a record number of those mortgages adjust in the next few months.
There are several ways to profit from this situation. For openers, you can buy long-term puts on the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index (IYR). Or, if you prefer to invest in stocks or exchange-traded funds, there is a new ETF that is a leveraged inverse fund of the IYR: the ProShares UltraShort Real Estate Fund (SRS). This fund increases in value as the IYR falls - and by being leveraged, it is designed to go up twice as much as the IYR goes down.
Another way to benefit from the real estate downturn is to attend ETR’s Emergency Real Estate Wealth Builder’s Summit.
The event, being held in Miami November 16-18, features real estate millionaires, including Alan Cowgill, Bill Twyford, Marko Rubel, Thomas Phelan, Dwan Bent-Twyford. They’ll reveal how they are profiting from such opportunities as short sales, apartment complexes, and commercial real estate.
Ed. Note: Rick Pendergraft, a two-time winner of the "Top Trader" award at Schaeffer’s Investment Research, is a contributor to ETR’s free investment e-zine Investor’s Daily Edge. Learn how to protect your portfolio and multiply your money - in any market - by clicking here.]
"When a man is in love or in debt, someone else has the advantage."
Bill Balance
2 Steps You Can Take Today to Get Out of Debt Fast
Do you spend more than you make? I used to.
When I started working as an editor at a Washington, D.C.-based newsletter publishing company, my salary was $14,000. My wife was earning less than that. Our two salaries barely covered our basic living expenses. On top of that, I was attending graduate school and we were paying off student loans. Then our first son was born. For the first six months of his life, he slept in an open drawer in our bedroom.
Meanwhile, I was spending money I didn’t have on things I couldn’t afford. Struggling to pay for my education and brand-new family, I overspent because it seemed to provide some happiness, some relief.
But the thrill of buying stuff soon waned. Each new object brought less relief. Eventually, I realized that I was getting 80 percent of my pleasure from experiences that didn’t cost much money. But recognizing that you don’t need junk food and kicking the habit are two distinct things.
Here’s how I got myself out of debt:
First, I got rid of all my credit cards. I figured that what I couldn’t buy with cash was either worthless or worth saving for. Although the fear of going without credit was great, I never experienced any anxiety after I trashed the cards. It seemed like a drastic decision before I made it, but after half an hour I never gave it another thought.
The second thing I did to get out of debt was to start saving. I had made myself a promise that I would save a percentage of my take-home pay, but I never did it. The breakthrough came when I was talking to a friend about how the IRS manages to collect a big chunk of our income through the evil genius of withholding. I recognized I had to do the same thing to myself. The only way I was going to save money was through force.
The solution was available in a new-at-the-time savings-bank program, one that withdrew a set amount of money from my primary account every month and put it in another one. That program allowed me to gradually increase my saving from 10 percent of my income to 25 percent and pay down my debt in a few years.
If you are spending more than you are making, get rid of your credit cards. And to get used to spending less, remind yourself repeatedly that most of the junk you buy (a) becomes unused after a few months and (b) doesn’t provide you with much value anyway. Remember that the best things in life - the picnics you have with your family, the walks you take by yourself, the time you spend with your friends - are free, or nearly so.
Create a separate bank account that you’ll use to pay down your debt, or have your debts automatically deducted from the one account you have. You might even consider a debt consolidator. (But watch out. Most of them are crooked.)
Increase the amount of your take-home that goes into debt payments every month. You might start, for example, with 10 percent and then increase that by 5 percent a month. Six months from now, you could be living on half of what you spend now - and I’ll bet you will be feeling a lot better about yourself. You’ll have less stress, more energy, more confidence, and the beginnings of a lifelong habit of wealth building.
There are so many ways to save money. You can spend less on just about anything without giving up either the pleasure you take in buying or the quality you get from your purchases.
Instead of buying new clothes that will be out of style in a year, buy vintage clothing that looks great and distinguishes you.
Instead of signing a lease for an expensive car, buy something old but still good that has a personality.
Instead of going out to lunch every day, eat some fish or other protein at your desk. This is one of the things I did. By eating a can of tuna every day instead of going to lunch with my co-workers, I saved almost $2,500 in a single year. Plus, I went from staff editor to publisher by applying that extra lunch-hour time to improving the business.
Instead of plodding along in your same old job, make the decision to earn more money. I did that by making myself a more valuable employee. Until then, I was doing my job and leaving when my job was done. To prepare for my raise, I started working extra hours - even though I didn’t have many. I used those extra hours to help my fellow workers do their jobs (which they appreciated) and launch a few new products. I didn’t know anything about marketing at that time, but those two activities turned me into the go-to guy at the office.
Several months later, I walked into my boss’s office and told him everything that was wrong with the business. "You are not telling me something I don’t know," he said. "If you let me run this business I will fix all these problems," I promised. He liked my moxie - and he had no one else to turn to - so he let me take over. With my added responsibilities, he gave me a raise. Every six months, I asked for more money, and I got it. In three years, I had nearly doubled my salary.
In addition to working extra hard at my primary job, I earned a second income by teaching a class of undergraduates early in the morning. It wasn’t a ton of money, but it helped pay off those debts.
I was working 14 hours a day, spending two hours with my family, and getting it done. It wasn’t easy but it was a lot of fun. What I discovered was that working hard when you are motivated is a lot more fun than hardly working when you don’t like your job. That was a lesson that made a big difference in my life. If you are in debt and have too little income, it’s a lesson you should teach yourself.
Work more. Save more. Spend less. Waste less. You’ll be out of debt and on your way to building real wealth in no time.
If you want to read more about wealth building, I recommend Automatic Wealth (because it’s my book). For investing, read The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham and Value Investing by Martin J. Whitman. For real estate investing, read Donald Trump’s book The Art of the Deal and Frank McKinney’s Make It Big: 49 Secrets for Building a Life of Extreme Success.
The Real Estate Bubble Missed Something in Your Backyard… and Now It Can Make You Millions!
Real estate multimillionaires have a dirty little secret they don’t want you to know about: the sub-prime mortgage meltdown hasn’t touched one of the most lucrative investments in today’s market… or any market!
While home prices face bubble-like inflation in many markets, this profit-pumping investment is gaining value… and allowing many savvy investors to retire on just one deal!
Click here to learn how you can own a lucrative investment that most people mistakenly believe they can’t have…
ETR Insider Report: The Marketer’s Most Important Consideration
When it comes to starting your own business, you can easily get overwhelmed by all the actions you should take. Which one is most important? As you know from reading ETR, buying business cards, computers, and even office space shouldn’t even enter your mind. But when it comes to marketing, one action should be your top priority.
At this year’s Info Marketing Bootcamp, copywriting master James Sheridan started his presentation with a pop quiz about fishing.
"Let’s say you are a fisherman and you must catch a fish or you’ll starve," said James. "You should consider four things before you go fishing: what fishing equipment you should use… what bait you should use… finding a location for your fishing hole … and how to handle the fish once it’s caught.
"Now, which of these four things is most important?"
You might think that "bait" is the obvious right answer. But it’s not. In fact, finding a location for your fishing hole should be your top priority.
Now, we’re not really talking about fishing here. We’re talking about marketing. And the location of your "fishing hole" should be your foremost concern when you’re marketing your product or service. That means finding a marketplace of targeted, qualified potential customers - people who already have an interest in the kind of thing you have to offer.
If you’re selling baby monitors, for instance, you shouldn’t be running your ads on a website for mountain climbers. The readers of those ads probably aren’t interested in your product. Instead, you should be running ads in newsletters about raising babies or on parenting websites.
Your "bait" - your offer, your USP (unique selling proposition), your angle (all stated in your sales copy) - is your second most important consideration.
You may be wondering, "Wait! Isn’t copy supposed to be king?" Of course, your copy is crucial to the success of your marketing efforts. It’s just not as important as the list of customers you’re selling to. As the old marketing maxim goes, "Mediocre copy to a great list will always perform better than great copy to a mediocre list."
Third most important is your "equipment," which James likened to your actual product or service. And your last consideration should be how you handle the fish, or how you fulfill the orders you get.
"Most people worry about fulfillment and the product," James told Bootcamp attendees. "But your priority should lie in the marketplace. Marketing is about identifying, anticipating, and satisfying the customer’s needs. But all bets are off if you’re not fishing where the fish are."
[Ed. Note: James Sheridan is an expert copywriter and a best-selling author. His new book, The Pandora Prescription hit bookstores last month.]
Put the Squeeze on Heart Disease
Researchers may have found a safe, natural, and "a-peeling" alternative to cholesterol-lowering drugs.
A class of compounds found in citrus fruit peels called polymethoxylated flavones (PMFs) has the potential to lower cholesterol more effectively than some prescription drugs. And without side effects.
This study, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, examined the effects of PMFs on animals with diet-induced high cholesterol. When these animals were given the same diet plus one percent PMFs, their blood levels of total cholesterol and LDL (bad cholesterol) were reduced by 19 to 27 percent and 32 to 40 percent, respectively.
To get the benefits of this cholesterol-lowering compound, grate the peel from a well-scrubbed organic orange or lemon. You can add a tablespoon or so to your favorite tea, salad dressing, yogurt, and many recipes. You’ll do your heart (and taste buds!) a favor.
[Ed. Note: Kelley Herring is the founder and CEO of Healing Gourmet (www.healinggourmet.com) and editor-in-chief of the Healing Gourmet book series, including Eat to Lower Cholesterol. Learn more about how simple lifestyle choices can improve your health by reading ETR’s free natural health e-letter.]
It’s Good to Know: Finding Aliens and Curing AIDS
You may have heard about (or even be part of) the SETI@Home network. It is a "distributed computing network" - a large number of home computers connected by the Internet and used to perform tasks that usually require a supercomputer. In the case of SETI, the computing power of 160,000 desktop computers around the world is being used to search for extraterrestrial life. However, there are several other distributed computing networks. Here is a sampling…
* Developing new AIDS treatments: FightAIDS@Home (fightaidsathome.scripps.edu), 313,000 users
* Improving climate models: ClimatePrediction.net, 50,000 users
* Testing Einstein’s prediction of gravitational waves: Einstein@Home (Einstein.phys.uwm.edu), 172,000 users
* Finding a record-breaking 10-million-digit prime number: The Great Mersenne Prime Search (mersenne.org), 25,000 users
(Source: Wired)
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- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Importunate
"Importunate" (im-POR-chuh-nit) means overly persistent; unreasonably solicitous. The word is derived from the Latin for "unsuitable; troublesome."
Example (as used by Ben Brantley in The New York Times): "The play is a cacophony of importunate ringing doorbells and telephones, of pleas both professional and romantic from an exasperating assortment of colleagues and admirers."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others … just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007