Now usually I will tell you not to use credit cards but instead pay cash or don’t get it. But I want to share a little tip on how you can utilize your credit card so that you can make more interest on your money.

If you are going to buy a large ticket item, still save up until you can pay for it in full. Instead of going to pay cash for it, put it on your credit card. But here’s the trick: charge it the day after your billing cycle ends. Why? Because this will give you at least 30 (and in some cases) up to 60 days before you have to pay for it.

During this time, your cash can be earning YOU more interest in a savings account, money market, or CD. And though it might not be millions, it’s better than nothing.

Take my case for example: the one credit card I use has a billing cycle which ends on the 17th of the month. Say I purchase an item on June 15th. I’ll receive my bill probably by the 24th with a due date of July 10th. Not bad.

But let’s say I wait until the 18th to purchase said item. Because it’s after the cycle date, I won’t have to pay for the item until August 10th. Thus 53 more days that I get to keep my money working for me (12 remaining days in June + all 31 days in July + 1st 10 days of August).

Use this strategy to your advantage and keep your money working for you!

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Brandon Wilkins is a financial expert and co-founder of Financial Freedom Builders LLC. He is available for coaching, workshops and seminars designed to help you take control of your finances.

Did you find this article useful? You can learn a lot more about creating your own personal finance strategy at: www.TheFinancialFreedomBuilders.com/richbook.html.

        

A major step in achieving financial freedom is cutting costs and managing expenses. It’s important to understand how an expense differs from debt.

I define debt as money you already owe someone else. An expense, on the other hand, is money that you will pay someone else in the future. This is a crucial distinction to understand. To give you an example, let’s take paying for your monthly electricity bill. When you receive your bill, it usually comes before the due date. That makes your electricity bill an EXPENSE (for now) because you will pay it by the due date (let’s say the 15th). Now, if the 16th of the month comes and you haven’t paid that bill, it becomes DEBT because you now owe it to the electric company.

A good way to think of it is this:

• Expenses get paid forward
• Debt gets paid backward

Because of this, I don’t classify expenses as good or bad. Instead, I like to think of expenses as necessary or unnecessary.

Necessary Expenses – this is money for things that are an absolute must. Without these things, you will find it hard to maintain your quality of life

Unnecessary Expenses – these are things that you could temporarily eliminate from your life in order to get your financial house in order. Now it’s important to point out that unnecessary expenses are not a bad thing, because we all want a little indulgence every now and then. But while it would be nice to have them, when and if the time comes for you to cut back or trim some things, this is where you’d start looking to reduce.

So what are some necessary vs. unnecessary expenses? Well, for everyone there are the basic necessities that translate into necessary expenses: food, shelter and transportation. This means that necessary expenses would be things like: groceries, rent/mortgage payment, utilities and car payment/bus fare. Personally, I also believe that Saving and Giving are necessary expenses.

Initially, one would assume that anything else not mentioned above would be an unnecessary expense, but that’s not necessarily so. The rest is going to depend on where you are financially. For example, for someone who’s struggling to make ends meet, eating out at restaurants is an unnecessary expense, while for someone who’s doing really well and maybe time doesn’t allow them to make dinner at home, this same activity may be necessary.

When you are planning on spending money, a great way to determine if an expense is necessary or not is to ask your self this question: “Is this absolutely positively vital to my survival and/or lifestyle?” If yes, then you know it’s a necessary expense for you, if no, then you know it’s unnecessary.

What you’ll find is that as your financial situation improves, you’ll notice that some expenses that used to be unnecessary may move over to become necessary. A great example is a trip to Disney World. I know of woman who wanted to take her children there and it just wasn’t feasible to do while she was working to clean up her finances. But once she eliminated her debt and got a grip on managing her expenses, that trip became necessary as a reward for the sacrifice and she began looking at it as a necessary expense and began putting money away and planning for it in order to have it paid for in full when the time came (so it never had the chance to become DEBT!)

So what are we striving for? Well, the ultimate goal is to curtail unnecessary expenses and to be in a position where you are thoroughly prepared for necessary expenses meaning you can pay them off in full when the time comes!

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Brandon Wilkins is a financial expert and co-founder of Financial Freedom Builders LLC. He is available for coaching, workshops and seminars designed to help you take control of your finances.

Did you find this article useful? You can learn a lot more about creating an expense management plan at: www.TheFinancialFreedomBuilders.com/richbook.html.

        

After several years of research, reading all types of money making books, investing in all types of business opportunities, my wife and I have finally realized a simple way that’s helped many people become financially free. I won’t pretend that I have the magic formula that will: make you $100,000 in 3 minutes while you sit on the couch, or allow you to retire next week without ever leaving the house!

Now, I’m not saying that the folks who sell those programs are lying because I haven’t done them all, but years ago, I tried a couple of them and let’s just say the only thing that happened while I sat on the couch was I made an imprint!

Let’s face it: If you truly want to get rich & achieve financial independence, it’s going to take some work! However, if I told you that you could become rich and increase your net worth (regardless of how much money you currently make) by using a tried and true formula that consists of 3 simple steps, would you believe me? Well you should, because it works!

How do I know? Because We Have Used This Formula to Increase Our Net Worth Over 300% over the past 7 years!

It could happen sooner or it might take a little longer for you depending on your situation. But, what I can guarantee is that if you follow these three simple steps, YOU WILL ACHIEVE FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE!

I’ve spent many years (AND DOLLARS) looking for ways to become rich and financially free. I can honestly tell you that of the many things I’ve tried, some worked and some didn’t. Instead of getting upset about the things that didn’t work, my wife and I had a conversation and we simply asked ourselves, “Of all the things we’ve tried that did work, what did they have in common?”

And that is how we were able to come up with the simple 3 step formula that we’ve been following for the past several years that has allowed us to walk the path towards wealth and financial independence.

Before I share the formula with you, let me just answer one question so that you can decide if I’m someone you want to listen to or not:

QUESTION: WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER FINANCIAL FREEDOM, INDEPENDENCE, OR BEING RICH?

I think if you were to ask ten different people this question, you’d get ten different answers. So, what I consider being rich might be totally different than what you consider being rich. However, financial freedom for me was the point where my wife and I did not have to have jobs in order to sustain our quality of life. I’m not saying that having a job is a bad thing. But the key is working somewhere because you want to, not because you have to! And being financially independent will make it much easier for you to decide if you want to have a job or not.

SO WHAT IS THIS FORMULA?

As I mentioned earlier, it is 3 simple actions. The greatest thing about the formula is that you don’t have to do the steps in any particular order. You can do them one at a time or work on all three simultaneously:

Step 1: Debt Reduction

In order to get rich, you have to reduce the amount of debt that you owe others. It is important to know that not all debt is bad. Good debt is that debt which helps you to become richer. As one famous author puts it, “Good debt is that which someone else pays for you”. Your goal should be to get rid of bad debt first and then work to eliminate good debt.

Step 2: Expense Management

In order to get rich, you must manage expenses. You need to identify where you are spending your money and then determine what is absolutely necessary and where you can trim. This doesn’t mean you have to change your way of life, but instead take better control by being prepared. Your goal should be to prepare for new expenses in advance while minimizing the risks of being caught off guard.

Step 3: Multiple Income Streams

In order to get rich, you must have more than one source of revenue. So often I hear people say, I could be rich if I just got a higher paying job. Believe me, there are financially free people who make less than $40,000 annually, and there are people making over $100,000 annually who are broke. It’s not about making more money from one source of revenue; it’s about making money from more sources. Think about it: if you make $50,000 from one income stream (e.g. job) and you lose that job, you are temporarily doomed. But if you make $5,000 from ten income streams (e.g. businesses, stocks, real estate, etc.) and you lose one (maybe the stocks tank), you still have $45,000 coming in. There are tons of books, seminars and courses you can take on building streams of income. Your goal should be to always have 4 or more income streams going.

So there you have it. An amazingly simple three step formula on how to attain financial freedom so that you never have to worry about money again!

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Brandon Wilkins is a financial expert and co-founder of Financial Freedom Builders LLC. He is available for coaching, workshops and seminars designed to help you take control of your finances.

Did you find this article useful? You can learn a lot more about applying wealth building strategies at: www.TheFinancialFreedomBuilders.com/richbook.html.

        

Too many people today are not focused when it comes to building wealth and getting their finances in order.  

When I ask prospects and clients early on, “What is it that you want to achieve”, or “What type of money goals do you have?”, it is not uncommon to hear responses like, “I just want to be rich”, “I don’t want to struggle or have problems”, or “I just want to be able to pay my bills”.

While it’s a start, I still need to direct you to be more specific instead of vague and generic.  Why? Because it allows you to create a detailed wealth building plan which will keep you “laser beam focused” towards your goals and targets.

When you know exactly what it is you want to achieve, where you’re going AND how you’re going to get there, you can disregard all the other things going on that might otherwise deter or get you off course.  Instead, it all becomes “white noise” which you can easily ignore.

Here are some examples of “laser beam focused” targets as it relates to the financial freedom builders formula:

• DEBT REDUCTION – “Pay off $3,000 in the next year and a half” vs. “I don’t want to have any past due bills
• EXPENSE MANAGEMENT – “To have $200 left over to invest each month after I pay my expenses” vs. “I don’t want to run out of money before the month is over”
• MULTIPLE INCOME STREAMS – “To generate $2,000 per month consistently from online operations within the next 12 months”* vs. “I want to make money online”

So remember: by being specific and detailed when it comes to your financial goals, it allows you to develop AND stick to your personal plan, continually tracking your progress along the way.

*FYI:  The multiple income stream target mentioned is one I have personally set

 

        

Everyone’s an expert at something.  Here’s a chance to share your expertise.  Put together by Peter Shankman, all I can say is “HARO rocks!”

Check it out yourself at:  www.helpareporter.com

        

In the financial classic, The Millionaire Next Door, it was shown that 80% of millionaire households are first generation.  This is encouraging because it proves that just about anyone can achieve true wealth.  But it is also a little disturbing because it shows that much of that wealth is NOT being passed down to future generations.

As you pursue (and ultimately achieve) financial freedom, you must start thinking about how you can leave a legacy (i.e. MONEY) for those coming after you.

Now, I know some of you may be thinking, "I don't want my kids to just inherit millions; I want them to work for it like I did" or "I don't want them to be spoiled rich kids thinking the world is owed to them".  It's understandable to feel this way.  But the stereotypical "rich brat" that we see on TV (e.g. Paris Hilton, Brandon Davis, etc.) is an exception, NOT the norm.

In fact, most inheritors of wealth work even harder to preserve the family name and build more wealth because after all, who wants to go down in history as "the one that squandered the family fortune"?

And if you're still concerned about how the wealth will affect your future generations, abide by the words of Warren Buffett: "leave your children enough money so they can do anything but not enough that they get to do nothing".

So build your wealth, get financially free, AND set it up to be able to pass more on.  As the bible tells us in Proverbs 13:22 - A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children...

        

They say a new car loses 70% of its value within the first 4 years. That should be excellent news for those of us who don't mind driving a used car. Why?

It means...<< MORE >>

What if you could hire an employee who never took breaks, never complained about the job, worked around the clock, liked being around people, and people really liked the employee. Wouldn't that be great? Take a listen to learn more about that employee!

Download | Duration: 00:57:59

        

Just a couple of press releases about us:

http://www.prlog.org/10172188.html
http://www.prlog.org/10172187.html

        

Newest podcast episode: 

Download | Duration: 00:23:08