“My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.” – Errol Flynn

If you died tomorrow what would your family have to do to handle your financial affairs? Would they be totally in the dark? Would they even know where to start?

My mom was terminally ill in 2004 and she bought Suze Orman’s Protection Portfolio. This is a Will and Trust document creation tool in a box. Powerful, simple, don’t need to be a lawyer type easy.

If you don’t have a will, you need to get one. You owe it to yourself and more importantly you owe it to your family. Don’t leave your loved ones with a huge financial mess when you die.

Get your will taken care of and put it in a place where your spouse and close family member know where to find it. Have a simple piece of paper attached to it that says, “When I die, this is what you do….”

Your loved ones will know where your assets are, who to call to liquidate them, etc. By completing your will you are choosing an executor to your estate. That’s the person who will handle the dispersing of your assets.

You designate who gets what and how much etc. So, protect your tomorrows as Suze Orman encourages us to do. Get a will. Get one today. Don’t put it off.

You never know when your Big Bingo number in the sky is going to be called.

To Your Protected Tomorrows,
Greg Whitaker

Next time you get good service from a company tell friends. Next time you post on facebook tell everyone about someone you know who is exceptional in some way. Explain how they are exceptional.

The power of your facebook is, well, taken for granted. Look at some of your friends and how many friends they have on fb. When you share truly interesting information it has the potential to reach thousands of people and beyond.

So promote someone else for a change. This month I got great customer service from Yellow Lark International. Anne is the head honcho there and she’s helping me put some pep in my monthly newsletter. Social media is what she does. I get great service so I’m promoting her.

Tell the world when you get great service. You never know who it might help other than the person whose praises you’re singing. Lift others up. What comes around goes around.

To Your Financial Freedom,
Greg Whitaker

This is the email subscriber question of the month: Greg, got a job offer. How do I work without paying taxes?

My reply was as follows:
I’ve worked before without having to pay taxes. However, each week I saved 20% of my income and put it into a separate savings account. Year end I filed my tax return and if I owed taxes paid them. Fortunately for 3 yrs. I was able to write off expenses and legally not pay any income tax.

There are people known as independent contractors, or 1099 employees as we call them in realm of all things finance. It is possible to pay no taxes if you take all allowable deductions. My advice to our monthly newsletter subscriber was if the law says pay taxes, you should do exactly that.

Thank you to our ongoing coaching letter subscribers and their email questions. Keep them coming!

To Your Financial Freedom,
Greg Whitaker

We all have something about us that most people in our lives have always recognized as our unique gift or talent. What is your unique gift or talent?

How often do you bring it to the world? We all have a message. We all have a unique way of bringing our stuff to the planet. What’s yours?

Take some quiet time, get clear on your unique gift/talent/message, then take it out to the world. Deliver your message without regret. Do it unashamedly. Do it without apology. The world is waiting. That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

I know what my unique message is. You’re experiencing part of it right now.

My name is Greg and I teach financial wellness and promote financial literacy.
I showed you mine…..now show me yours.

To Your Financial Freedom,
Greg Whitaker

Every time you work for money and make payments on borrowed money, you’re paying business partners. So I’d like you to start thinking about limiting the number of business partners you have.

Less business partners means less money going out means more money staying in your pocket. There’s nothing wrong with borrowing money. You just don’t have to make interest payments the rest of your life.

When we borrow money and pay interest we are signing a contract and selling our future labor. That’s right. Borrowing money is contracting your future labor to someone. Doesn’t sound quite as nice as “no interest payments for 90 days” does it?

So get out of debt as quickly as possible and start keeping more of your hard earned money every month. Less business partners means more profit in your pocket!

To Your Financial Freedom,
Greg Whitaker

http://archive.aweber.com/debtshep1

I’m announcing the upcoming release of our new and improved monthly, ongoing coaching letter. Thursday 03/29 is the launch. Any and everyone who is on our email subscribers list will see the new and improved version hit their email inbox.

I’ve brought in outside help from a company that specializes in creating social media content. So what exactly does that mean to you? It means if you aren’t already a subscriber, you need to get signed up.

Once a month you’ll get tips, tricks, and tools for financial freedom right in your email in- box. How do you opt-in to our monthly, ongoing coaching letter?

Click the link at the top of this article. It’ll take you straight to our archive and you can opt in right there. If you’re reading this on Youtube, look to the right of the video and just below you’ll see “ongoing coaching letter.”

Or if you’re on our facebook fan page, http://www.facebook.com/gregawhitaker look to the left and click “coaching letter”.

Hope to see you on our opt-in list soon!
Greg Whitaker
Debt Shepherd

Debt Shepherd Ongoing Coaching Letter – Issue #24 – March 10th, 2012

Owning Your Home:
Just a few days ago my older brother told me he had just paid his house off! He’s 45 years old. That is a major milestone for anyone, let alone someone who’s not even 50 yet. Scratching your head and asking “How the hell did he do it?” Here’s a few inside tips on how you can do the same thing.

Buying At The Right Price:
I don’t know exactly what my brother paid for his house. I do know it’s out in the country a bit and he got a bargain. If you’re house shopping, start thinking outside the box a little when it comes to location. The bargains can sometimes be where you have to drive a little more than your house hunting peers.

Smaller Debt, Faster Payoff:
When you’re patient and look for that bargain price, it means you’ll borrow less money when you buy. Makes sense, right? The less you finance the faster you’ll pay it off and own it free and clear. I recommend having at LEAST 5% of your own funds as a down payment.

You want 5% equity the day you sign the papers. That’s 5% of the purchase price applied to a down payment. This 5% doesn’t go toward your closing costs, prepaids, etc. Whose gonna pay my closing costs & pre-paids? You’re going to pay cash or ask the seller to pay them (or a portion) for you.

Sweat Equity:
One type of bargain is a “fixer upper.” My brothers house, for example, needs some work on the floors. It could use some paint over those brown wood panels on the walls. It doesn’t have central heating and air, but uses a propane tank and space heaters. You can make these repairs over time, at your leisure. You sweat to do the work, you get the equity when the work is done. Equity is the difference between what is owed and what it’s worth. Equity is how much of the house you actually OWN.

Instant Gratification:
The bottom line is most people don’t want to take the time/effort to really search for a bargain. They want to look at a few houses with a real estate agent, nothing wrong with that, and close two weeks after they sign a contract. Americans have been trained to be impatient. I want it all and I want it now is the mantra. Personally, I think that is slowly changing. The higher price you pay for anything is usually because of convenience.

Prepaying Your Mortgage:
Here’s the meat and potatoes of the article. My brother is 45, he bought a bargain, he paid his house off early. How’d he really do it? I know he prepaid his mortgage to some extent. That means if you get a windfall of cash, a bonus at work for example, you write a check to the mortgage company and write “pre-paid principle” on the check. This is separate from your regular monthly payment. This pays down the balance faster and gets you to total ownership faster.

Summary:
You can own your home much faster than you think. The old saying in real estate is “You make your money when you buy, not when you sell.”

1) Look for a bargain and good things can happen faster later on.

2) Be willing to make some repairs, if necessary.

3) Prepay your mortgage if you have NO OTHER DEBT. Prepay while carrying other debt, and you’re not maximizing the power of it. When you get windfalls of cash is one way to prepay. Apply 10% of your net income each month is another.

Also find Debt Shepherd on:
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To Your Financial Freedom,
Greg Whitaker
greg@debtshepherd.com