Prosper Newsletter: August 2007 > Financial
You understand that the following information is educational in nature and is not intended to be legal, accounting, or tax advice. You are responsible for your own financial decisions and should consult your own legal, accounting, and tax advisors before making your financial decisions.
Plan to Succeed
Many have heard the cliché, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Although this is true, there is not much you can do to remedy your situation if you do not know how to plan. Planning is the most important element to success, regardless of what the desired outcome is. To make a successful plan you must start with what you already know. It's like going on vacation. You do not come home from work and mindlessly pack our bags and then decide to go on vacation. Typically the process involves knowing where you are going on vacation; when you want to go, etc.
The same goes with our plan for success. You should start by writing down on paper what the desired outcome is. If you want to earn $100,000 per year, passive income than write, "I am earning $100,000 per year passive income." It is important that the objective be written in first person, present tense - as though it is happening already. Once you have the objective, make a list of things that you need to accomplish to take you from where you are to where you want to be. To earn $100,000 per year passive income, you probably need to be debt free. You also probably need to set some money aside for investments or to build a business, etc.
If you know what you want but do not know what you need to do to get there than your first step will be to research what you need to do. Once you know what to do, break it down once more into individual steps so that you have a plan that you can work on every day to take you closer to the overall objective. Last but not least, you need to review your plan regularly. If things have changed you need to update you plan. Even if they have not changed, you need to remind yourself of your objectives so you do not lose focus.
To write a successful plan you must not only know what you want but they also must know why you want it. Many students enter the coaching program with the common goal to be debt free; however, they have not given it much thought as to why; they simply know they do not want their debts anymore. Your plan will tell you what you will receive; however, you still need to know why you want it.
Prior to our learning of the TDIW program, my wife Carol and I were plodding along in the conventional American method and mentality of "earn it and spend it". We had an increasingly large credit card burden, and little or no savings to fall back on when large, unexpected expenses came along. Living paycheck to paycheck, we finally came to the stark realization that our financial situation was critical as it was becoming more and more difficult to meet our monthly bills. The thought of being able to retire someday was less and less of a reality. We needed to do something quickly, but we just didn't know what or how.
After listening to John Cummuta's system of debt elimination, we got excited about the possibility of living "Debt-free". The process is so simple and yet so elusive to most people in our society where we want instant gratification. We have been applying the TDIW system for 3 months now with the additional benefit of working with our Prosper Learning coach. His great personality and skills have fostered a motivational environment that has been a real asset to us by adding encouragement, accountability, personal direction and specific information tailored to our needs and goals. Last month we made 5 car payments (two times our accelerator margin), and we are looking at every avenue of saving money, as well as other options to increase our income through a "home-based business."
The TDIW system encourages you to leave all credit cards at home, but we have been carrying one around with us just to prove to ourselves that it is not necessary to use and can be controlled. We have gone from a life of total dependence on credit, to one of not using it at all. Other than scheduled monthly payments, we have not had any credit card activity since we started the TDIW program. Our "debt-free" date is July of 2012, and with God's help, and our determination, we will expedite this date as much as possible, and begin to save toward a comfortable retirement.
Doug and Carol F.
Take advantage of Prosper's Financial Coaching Blog. Every week you will find interesting and important information that will keep you up to date on issues that affect your life. Topics include money saving ideas, financial planning tips, and analysis of current events and conditions. Just go to http://blog.prosperlearning.com/financial or enter the blog through the link found in the Success Center E-Library. An added benefit to the blog format is that you can add your comments to the postings providing an opportunity for feedback to the author and dialogue with other readers.
