Follow Me Out of Debt | Get out of debt and get into prosperity!

Earn 'til it hurts! It sounds like an exercise program, doesn't it? Perhaps it could be considered an exercise program that can help you to get out of debt and get into prosperity faster. Like exercise, it can be hard work, and you might even sweat a little. The result though, as with many exercise programs, is a better life for you. You'll be out of debt and getting into prosperity faster than you would be if you didn't earn 'til it hurts!

Playing the lottery or relying on any other shortcuts isn't the way to do this, either. You have to be ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work, and you have to realize that you may experience a little pain in the process. The sacrifices that you'll make will be well worth it in the end, so don't be tempted to give up - even when the pain is apparent.

I understand. The last thing that you want to do when you're already working hard at a full-time job is to put in more work. Working a part-time job or working overtime can seem like a daunting task when you already feel like you really don't have time to spare. However, you have to realize that this is a temporary sacrifice for a greater purpose. Look into work-from-home opportunities. Yes, there are legitimate work-from-home opportunities; you have to simply do your due diligence before you apply to ensure that you're signing up for the right one.

Once you get the ball rolling and earn more income, it will help you to accelerate your debt payoff and decrease the time that it takes to become debt-free. We've all made mistakes. That's how we got into a bad financial situation in the first place. However, the short-term sacrifice that we make will teach us a valuable lesson in that it's hard work to get ourselves out of the financial mess that we have made. Knowing this, we'll never want to make that same mistake again.

If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Friday! What are your weekend plans?

If you're planning on some downtime, you'll want to make sure that you have already budgeted for this fun escape before you set foot outside of the door. It's not fun to go out to have a good time only to come back home and suffer the consequences of overspending because you failed to plan accordingly.

Some of us spend our weekends working, and some of us are even voluntarily putting in some overtime hours or working a part-time job in order to get ahead and pay down debt faster. If that's you, then perhaps you have other days of the week that you may use for downtime rather than the typical Saturday or Sunday.

Regardless of which days of the week you plan your fun, you need to make sure that the budget is tended to first. This will be the best way to ensure that you are on top of things, no matter which days of the week your personal weekend falls upon.

If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.

Did you know that the average American household debt is a staggering $140,000.00? Now, that does include a mortgage, but even with that in mind, this is still quite a significant figure. Whether you are above or below that number, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast unless you had the same goal in mind: to get yourself out of debt and get into prosperity.

Many of us get lulled into complacency and get used to relying on credit cards, especially if we aren't getting large enough raises (or getting raises at all). We try to bridge the gap by utilizing credit cards to continue spending the same way that we have been with less resources. This isn't a good move.

You have to think of ways to change your own life. You can't simply rely on your nine-to-five to do it for you. You've got to think and do differently from what you've been doing before. That's the only thing that's going to work, and before you know it, you're going to win.

If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.

The story of Ray Kroc and the founding of McDonald's as a national and international chain of restaurants holds plenty of gold nuggets of useful information. This isn't exactly a rags-to-riches story, however, this is a story of someone who maintained an incredible level of persistence while he worked towards fulfilling his vision of a nationwide (and again, now international) fast food burger chain.

Several times, I've read the book titled: McDonald's Behind the Arches by John F. Love. I've also watched the movie: The Founder. This was more recent when I found the movie on Netflix. If you're reading this after it has been removed from the Netflix streaming movie queue, I'm sure you will be able to find it at your local video store. If you're interested in reading the book, go and check out the availability of it at your local library. That's initially where I found the book, and I've checked it out several times until I eventually bought a copy on Amazon.com.

Aside from Mr. Kroc's persistence, he also kept moving forward towards his goals by continually selling and closing. We sell more than we realize. It's not just about selling physical products; we also sell our ideas and concepts to others. Think about a married couple where one spouse is not entirely on board with a plan to get out of debt and get into prosperity. The spouse who does want to get out of debt and get into prosperity will, in reality, attempt to sell the concept. Selling does not necessarily pertain to physical products only.

Mr. Kroc was a stickler for dressing professionally and putting his best face forward. It wasn't out of vain; it was to achieve success by dressing for success, even before success actually comes. Most importantly, Mr. Kroc was also excited about his vision. He let it become an all-consuming entity in his life. He kept his goals related to his vision in the back of his mind at all times, and this allowed him to continuously work towards achieving his goals each and every day. He wasn't afraid to ask for what he wanted or to ask questions related to anything that he was attempting to accomplish at the time.

All of these habits amounted to a level of success unparalleled by most folks. However, if we take the time to dig out the gold nuggets of wisdom related to the way that Ray Kroc reached his personal level of success, we'll definitely benefit.

If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.

Someone else is happy with less than you have. I read that quote today, and it inspired me to do an entire episode on this subject.

We take a lot of things for granted and fail to look around with appreciation or gratitude for what we already have. I'm guilty of this, and I've even said things a couple of times on this show along those lines. Sometimes it happens out of frustration, but I also know that our gratitude or thoughts of gratitude sometimes gets buried underneath a lot of negative thoughts.

We should take a few minutes to think about the good things. Allow ourselves to realign in a spirit of gratitude, no matter how dire our situation may seem at the moment. It can truly change our entire perspective.

If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.

I have a pretty consistent method when it comes to tipping. I firmly believe that we should tip well for great service. It's our way of showing appreciation for the folks who work hard to earn as much as they can while they are primarily relying on tips received.

I do not advocate tipping for bad service. However, I advocate tipping well for those who are working hard to earn their tips. Hear more about some of the personal experiences that I've had and seen with folks who are working in the service industry and receiving tips.

If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.

These are the five simple steps that I incorporate daily to help me to consistently think outside of the box. I didn't exactly put these together as five simple steps originally, but when I stopped to think about what habits I've developed over the past year or so, I realized that I could put some of my daily habits together as a task list that will definitely be a benefit to you if you choose to do the same.

The best part about this list is the simplicity of it all. I purposely try to remove the complexity from the things that I do because it helps me to form good habits. If you make something too challenging, you're more likely to not be consistent with staying on top of things. A lack of consistency will never equate to successfully forming a habit over time.

I'll go into more detail for each of these five simple steps, but the high-level overview is as follows. First, ask yourself each and every day: how can I earn more money? This will allow you to think outside of the box when it comes to ways that you can increase your overall earnings.

Second, visualize where you will be in one year, two years, five years, and ten years from now. You will take your focus off of the day-to-day present and instead think outside of the box concerning what you need to do in order to accomplish these goals. You are essentially visualizing the potential future for yourself.

Third, you'll want to mindfully and purposely not do the same things every single day. Introduce small changes that will add up to larger modifications in your life over time. Going along with this, number four on the list is to do a new thing periodically. It's unrealistic to say that you can do a new thing every single day, but it is reasonable to expect to do something new every once in a while. Typically, these new things that you try will be based off of the smaller changes that you make by not doing the same thing day in and day out.

Finally, call, text, or e-mail someone who may be able to help you. Think about your circle of friends, business associates, and family members. Who would you like to be able to reach out to and trade ideas with? This will help you to think outside of the box by opening your mind to new suggestions from others. It's a powerful strategy that will equate to something that will be mutually beneficial to all involved.

If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Facebook, like my page by going to http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt. Send a message while you're there; I'd love to hear from you.

Are you making hundreds of dollars a week or thousands of dollars a month but still feel broke? Here's how to stop feeling broke.

First, you have to take the emotion out of the equation. We feel fear, hopelessness, anger, frustration, and other emotions when we consider the fact that while we seem to make a decent amount of money, we're still feeling broke most of the time. Feeling broke and being broke are two different things. You need to inject reality into the equation in order to replace the emotion. You need to break out the budget and take a long, hard look at the numbers.

Look at both sides of your budget and see where improvements can be made. The numbers in the budget do not respond to emotion. Regardless of how strongly your level of frustration may be, the math will always be the same. The only way to change the numbers in your budget is to either add income on the one side or remove expenses on the other. Taking real action of some kind in order to improve your budget's numbers is the only way for you to change your budget for the better and to finally stop feeling broke.

If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.

This is the one question that you need to ask yourself before you whip out the plastic. This question is essential in order to stop yourself from continuing to use credit cards while you're in the process of getting out of debt. Obviously, adding more debt to the total debt payoff is the last thing that you want to do when you're trying to be wise and responsible. Being unwise and irresponsible is how most of us got into trouble with debt in the first place!

Here it is. The question to ask yourself each and every time you are tempted to use plastic to make a purchase is simply, why? Why are you doing what you are about to do? Asking this one simple question gives you some pause. It gives you pause in order to reflect on your action before taking said action, so you are not merely acting on a whim.

You force yourself to make a more conscious decision. This is a much better plan than haphazardly using your credit card whenever the urge comes, and it helps you to understand the surface psychology behind why you continue to use credit cards as well as allowing you to drill down deeper to get more solid and concrete answers about the actions that you take, both past and present. It's a learning process, and it will always be a benefit to you to learn more about yourself.

If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.

Are you currently in debt crisis mode? Perhaps your utilities are falling behind, and you're afraid that the lights will be shut off. Perhaps your vehicle is behind in payments and in danger of being repossessed. Your home may be in danger of foreclosure because you've neglected your mortgage payments.

There is a myriad of situations out there, and most of us in a debt crisis fall somewhere along a spectrum, but the good news is that there is general information that can help you to get out of crisis mode and start to downgrade the situation to something other than a full-blown crisis.

First off, you have to have hope. Hopelessness is not going to help you here. You must realize that no matter how dire the situation may be, you have to continue to have hope that it will get better someday. You'll need to take a look inside to admit your own mistakes that you've been making and realize the true situation that you're currently experiencing. Next, it's time to take action. This is where it gets tricky, because once you decide to take action, everything gets much more real. It's easy for any of us to say that we're going to do something someday. Once someday gets here by taking action to make things happen, you know at that point that it's serious.

You do have the means necessary to make changes to change your situation and put you in power and control. It's just a matter of realizing the steps that you need to take and do it!

If you know someone who may benefit from this show, please feel free to share it by sending them to http://followmeoutofdebt.com. If you're on Twitter, follow me at @fmoodpodcast for all of the latest tips, updates, and strategies to get out of debt and get into prosperity. I'm also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/followmeoutofdebt.