Manage credit cards to build momentum

There are so many popular finance-related terms that have a “nature” tie-in, especially related to debt. There’s the debt snowball, the debt snowflake, and more recently, the increasingly popular debt tsunami.  I’d imagine it’s not going to be too long before we see a debt avalanche.  It’s fun and extremely motivating to model a part of your financial approach after a powerful, growing force.

The reason these methods are successful is that they all revolve around one thing: momentum.

Momentum: Impetus of a nonphysical process, such as an idea or a course of events (what’s an impetus? a stimulus or beginning)

When an object or an idea builds momentum, it becomes more difficult to stop. It picks up speed and moves more and more quickly. Snowballs, avalanches and rock and mud slides can all be talked about in terms of momentum. These natural forces grow extremely quickly, and are extremely powerful.

Why is Momentum So Important?

It’s important to recognize momentum as it comes into play with your finances. It can either be a positive or negative force.

Negative Financial Momentum:

• Interest Rates – continually dragging you backwards as they add to the amount you owe every month
• Debt – adding new debts also slows your momentum
• Disorganization – not knowing what you are spending on, which bills are due, and not having a financial plan at all
• Fees and Charges – Add up very fast every month if you forget to pay things on time!

Positive Financial Momentum:

• Good Financial Habits
• Compounding Interest (from savings and investments)
• Saving Consistently (automatically)
• Removing Debt and Increasing Savings
• Paying Bills on Time
• Paying off credit card balances each month

Use Momentum to Your Advantage

Momentum can be a powerful ally in your fight for financial freedom. Building good financial habits and continuing with them will strengthen your “debt-crushing, bill-eating, money-saving” financial energy and help you to do even more and more with your money.

By removing instances of negative momentum as much as possible from your finances, you can reduce the heavy weight of the debt you’re carrying.

If you increase the opportunities for positive momentum to find a place in your financial life, you’ll be much more successful and reach your debt-free goals quicker.

Getting into good habits financially will improve your credit and allow you to have the freedom of the option of getting a big loan such as a mortgage in the future as a way to invest your money and grow your personal wealth. You may be surprised after getting a free credit report to see how poor planning and disorganization in the past affects your credit score today.

Momentum is important because with every payment you make and every loan you pay off, you’re strengthening not only your financial situation but you’re also increasing your ability and your resolve to keep moving towards a debt-free financially independent lifestyle.

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The first time I heard about being frugal……I was at a friends house and she had a newsletter called “The Tightwad Gazette”. I was fascinated that you could reuse items and make food from scratch. I read all of her copies and then discovered older ones were in a book. I then went to the library and read all that I could on frugal living. I took so many notes, years later I’m still taking notes!

Frugal living has touched my life…..in so many ways. When I was a single mom, I had no tools or previous knowledge of these things. I thought everything had to be bought retail. I had no idea how to cook. It wasn’t until years later that I learned these things, after I remarried. I could have stretched my dollars so much further.

I wasn’t raise to be frugal, ….My parents never taught us anything about money. Meals consisted of hot dogs, fish sticks and beef soup from a freeze dried mix. I’ll tell you that my kids shop second hand and use coupons.

The joy of frugality

My new husband hasn’t been frugal at all. We’ve spent 11 years fighting over money. He would spend and spend and go into debt. I tried to get him to use coupons and shop at thrift stores but he said why, we can afford it. Well, his job of 16 years closed this last December. The new job is at half the pay. Getting out of debt and staying out is now his new goal. Yay! We use coupons (got a great deal with a straight talk promo code recently), shop second hand when we can, eat out once a month, watch movies from the library and have more fun being together as a family.

I also shop for holidays months in advance. I buy gifts at half price or lower. The recipient doesn’t care how much I spent, just that they receive something that they wanted or needed! A “gift box” is something all frugal minded people need. I try to keep it stocked for any occasion and never have to run out and get that last minute gift. It’s also great at Christmas, at work when you receive a gift from someone you weren’t expecting to, you always have a small gift in your bag! he he

I subscribe to all the big coupon sites and visit them regularly too. These days (especially when you shop online like I do) you can find promotional codes and coupon deals for practically anything that you buy. Even if you are buying a new phone or changing to a new cell plan you can use a verizon promo code to spend a lot less money.

Frugal isn’t a dirty word! Embrace it, change your lifestyle accordingly and enjoy your financial freedom.

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When I was eight years old, my family and I took a summer vacation to the beautiful tropical paradise of Maui, one of the islands that makes up the state of Hawaii.  My parents, brother, grandmother, and I all piled onto the plane and were extremely excited for our trip, during which time we would be celebrating my mother’s birthday, my brother’s birthday, and my parents’ wedding anniversary.

Platinum Rings

Because I was quite young when we took that summer vacation together, I really don’t remember much.  What I do remember has been aided by pictures and the recounting of tales by my other family members.  I know we went to a luau and I learned how to dance the hula on stage in front of the entire audience, and I also remember the warm water that crashed against the shore every morning.  My brother and I used to run down to the water’s edge right at dawn, when it was still quiet and the rest of the city hadn’t woken up yet.  We would surf and play in the warm ocean until the sun came up, and then run back home, famished, where breakfast would be waiting.
One of the memories that sticks out most in my mind, though, is the night we went out as a family to celebrate my parents’ wedding anniversary.  They had already been together for a long time when I was that age, and we went out to dinner at what I thought was a very fancy restaurant, because it was so dimly lit.  You could barely even see your plate of food in front of you!
Oddly enough, on the night of their anniversary, my mom lost her wedding ring.  Somehow it slipped right off of her finger, and who knows where it went– we never did find it.  However my mom was not that devastated from losing her wedding ring because it meant she could get a newer, bigger, and better replacement.  She decided to go with stunning platinum rings to adorn her left ring finger, and she couldn’t have been more elated.  She told me she had always wanted a platinum wedding ring, but that they weren’t really available when she and my father had gotten married.  I guess they just hadn’t come into style yet.

Nice example of a tungsten wedding band

Even though my mother was happy to get a replacement ring, she did feel bad that she lost the original ring from her wedding.  To make my dad feel better about it, she decided to pay for him to get an upgrade too.  He picked something out from a collection of tungsten wedding bands.  Tungsten is a metal that is not only beautiful but totally durable, too.  In fact, tungsten is regarded as a heftier ring; the ideal metal for men because it has so much weight.  Between the quality of metals and the beauty of the rings, it goes without saying that neither one of my parents’ rings has fallen off in the many years since our Hawaiian vacation.

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With Christmas and my birthday coming up soon, many friends and family members have been asking me what is on my wish list.  Normally I feel silly coming up with things that I want.  It feels so materialistic; not to mention it is extremely hard for me to think of tangible things that other people could buy for me.  Most of the time all I want in the world is to be able to take a two-week vacation from work and travel, but that’s not really something you can turn into a stocking stuffer!

This year, however, I know the perfect gift not only for others to get me, but for me to get for other people.  Let me explain: I am usually not such a heavy coffee drinker, but in the thick of the winter I find myself drinking several cups a day.  I love the taste of coffee, of course, but lately I have been needing it to soothe my bones and warm me up.  It doesn’t matter what time of day or night it is (I mean there is always decaf!), coffee is the perfect thing to drink to help brave the coldest of the winter months. And in the summer, iced coffee is a delicious treat while relaxing in the sun, poolside.

That’s why this year I am asking for someone to buy me the latest and greatest in coffee makers: the Keurig coffee maker, with an assortment of cheap K cups to go along with it.  The Keurig is the perfect gift because it is affordable yet totally useful.  The lucky people to receive this present will literally use it every day– if not multiple times a day, depending on their addiction to caffeine!

 
You might be wondering why the Keurig is so great.  The easiest way to explain the magic that is a Keurig coffee maker is the fact that each cup of coffee is individualized for the person who makes it.  That means if you want an extra bold cup, your husband wants medium roast, and your kids want decaf, you can do it without having to wait twenty minutes– or throw the extra coffee down the drain because you accidentally made to much.  All you have to do is choose which of the many cheap K cups available you want to drink that day, pour in 8 ounces of water, and press the button.  Twenty to sixty seconds later you’ll have exactly one cup of exquisite hot coffee, just to your liking.  Then your husband and children can brew their own, right after you.

I can’t imagine spending one more year without having this magical coffee maker sitting on the counter in my kitchen, and I don’t want to have to.  I must own a Keurig! So if any of my friends or family members are reading this, please get me one for my upcoming celebrations– and then come over for a cup of coffee so I can show you what all the fuss is about.

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If you’re like me, you’re always looking for new and exciting ways to get in shape. And by get in shape, what I really mean to say is, get shredded. There are a ton of ways to do it – there’s no one method that is better than any others by leaps and bounds – but there are definitely some things that you should never do if you’re looking to pack on the pounds and look like that underwear model you see in the magazines.

Want to look this good?

The first tip is to lift heavy and short. Think about it this way: your muscles are used to you living your daily life. You might pick up a box here and there, but let’s be honest – in today’s society, there is really no challenge that a machine, tool, or other person who is more suited for the job can’t do already. Back in the days of the caveman, if you wanted to get over that mountain you had to climb it. If you wanted shelter, you had to build it. This constant exertion and use of muscle fibers caused them to adapt, as they are designed to do. Over time, anyone doing these kinds of activities over and over is going to have to compensate by growing more muscle mass and muscle fibers in all of their muscles. Lifting heavy is the best way to shock your system into thinking, “Wow, I need to adjust if he’s going to be doing THAT to me all the time now!” And when you lay down in bed that night, your body is already fast at work to improve your musculature – like clockwork.

The strong usually win

Of course, you’re not going to get as far as you normally would if you’re not eating correctly. The short summary is: high protein, medium fat, low carb. That’s going to get you where you need to go. It’s kind of tough to go high protein and medium fat these days without pounding down a whole chicken and a half every single day. Some of us just have to eat that much food to see any kind of result at all. So, you’ll need to grab some protein powder supplements and get going on that as soon as possible. Hydrowhey and Isoflex are a few solid examples of protein powders that have been on the market for quite a while now and have proven themselves to be worthy of all of the praise that they get.

The final step to explosive growth is going to be how you live the rest of your day when you’re NOT at the gym. Are you getting all of the sleep you need? What about your levels of stress, and all of the activity you could be doing outside of the gym for fun? Surfing, volleyball, skating…any of these is going to help your body get used to being more active on a daily basis and more ready for any challenge that you might throw at it.

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