Prosper Newsletter: November 2006 > 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.
Eye Opening Financial Info Guides Virginia Couple To Freedom!
What an eye opener! Good information is never too late, but we wish we had learned this information a long time ago. We were doing what most people our age were doing but we realized a long time ago that it wasn't working, but saw no solutions. We raised five children but had incurred a large mortgage and revolving debt along the way. All attempts to reduce the debt seemed to fail even before we got started.
We enrolled in this course and through the financial tools that were taught we got a clearer picture of our financial situation and how we could gain control. As we worked through the different sessions we realized that we could eliminate our debt but it would take a lot longer than we wanted before we could be debt free and be able to invest. We were living way beyond our means so decided to downsize. Fortunately 14 years ago we purchased a new home in a great market. Using the equity of our current home we can pay off all our revolving debt and mortgage and move into a new home with no mortgage or at least a very small mortgage that can be paid off within one or two years. What freedom this will bring! My wife can stop working a job she hates; we can fund our retirement and live on a cash basis. By using the knowledge gained from this training we can manage our finances and start a business to help us set and reach new goals, which are now endless due to financial freedom.
- John and Sharon A.
Sterling, VA
Take advantage of Prosper's new 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.
Millionaire Mindset
There are many aspects involved in a millionaire mindset. Many people have energy, ambition, and talent. These are strengths but they can actually cause problems as well. The problems come because there are often too many options available. Being talented in many areas creates a lack of focus that can cause you to try to take on too many endeavors rather than focus on one specific area.
The need to focus applies whether you are already involved in many different areas or are looking to begin a new endeavor. There are some steps you can take to help yourself focus in on the right endeavor and pick the best opportunity. These steps include:
- Pick the endeavor that has the most commercial value-pick something that the market sees value in, not just something that you like. The market may not always like what you are interested in.
- Pick something that you have the most experience in-you have been training a long time for something, and you already have life experiences. Don't get off the path and have to learn something new to secure your future.
- Pick the option that has the best potential to deliver the greatest value to the most people-go with something that will give you good market leverage and takes minimal work or effort for you and your team.
- Pick something that you can implement immediately and will generate the three C's; cash, credibility, and confidence in your consumers. This step will not happen until you have considered and implemented the first three steps.
If you seem unable to focus, it may be that you really want to make it big and overcome all obstacles. You need to learn to wait it out. Try surrounding yourself with others that will help keep you in focus. Use your energy and desire to set up short-term goals and remember to measure your successes along the way. Celebrate each victory and keep track of goals that are met. This will show you if you are progressing toward your ultimate goal.
Set goals and adopt a "whatever it takes" mentality. The most important goal must be yours. It can't be the media, ads or T.V. Nothing can define for you what you want. Your goals must be meaningful and include what you are willing to do to attain them. Your goals need to be obtainable, measurable, specific and able to be tracked. Goals also need to be flexible. You may need to alter the course of a goal to keep it obtainable or fit into the above categories.
If something is repetitive or uninspiring, you often quit reaching for the lofty goals that you want. Align your goals with your values and what is important to you. Any conflict with this will quickly give you an interesting view of reality. Make sure your goals are well balanced and realistic. Keep in mind that there are no unrealistic goals, but only unrealistic time frames.
A good source of motivation could be an excerpt from Nelson Mandela's inauguration speech. It reads:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves: Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking, so that others won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us: it's in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
You may want to print this out and reference it to make it part of your mantra to help meet your goals. Don't live with things that you don't have to. Look at what you are dealing with, and confront it immediately.
