Free Real Estate Articles by Damian Lanfranchi and Done-For-You Deals

(Continuing from Part 1 How Much Did You Spend!?! Not Again…)

In Part I, you learned about how so many families, no matter how little or how much they make, constantly struggle with money problems.

With all the news of the mortgage and foreclosure crisis, it’s not just low income families who are in trouble. For the first time even tons of middle and upper class families are facing serious money problems.

So what’s the solution?

We discovered the ultimate cure to money problems and the way to stay clear of them for good is to start treating the family unit like a business unit.

It really is that simple.

And it means keeping track of how much money is coming in and how much money is going out (revenue/earnings and expenses if you want to be fancy).

Yes – we’re talking about that nasty “B” word – BUDGET.

Before you throw up your arms and riot – let’s dispel a couple myths about budgets.

A budget does NOT mean you have to buy the cheapest brand of everything and only if it’s on sale.

A budget does NOT mean you can only spend money on the most essential necessities in life and you have to give up every other luxury and pleasure.

And a budget does NOT mean you have to change your entire life around and be miserable.

Still here?

Good.

So what does a budget mean for you?

It means…

- Knowing how much you make
- Knowing how much you spend
- Deciding how to balance that equation
- And then sticking to the plan!

That’s all.

No torture. No abuse. And no misery.

It’s just all about understanding and managing this equation of earnings and expenses.

Because it doesn’t matter what else you do, if the equation doesn’t balance no matter how much money you make you will never be fre.e of money problems.

Convinced yet?

Are you sold on the idea that a budget is your friend and not a party pooper whose only job is to make your miserable?

Hopefully you are.

Because you’re about to discover a very simple way to get your own family budget.

STEP 1 – Save up all your bills, credit card statements, pay stubs, bank statements, etc. for one full month.

STEP 2 – Using these receipts, come up with two different numbers. How much you earn and how much you spend every month.

For earnings – be sure to take into account taxes.

For expenses – be sure to include everything including the mortgage, utilities, automobiles, insurance (car, home, health), food, clothes, interest expense (on loans or consumer debt) and of course fun and entertainment money.

Whatever your expenses are, it’d be wise to add on at least an extra 10% as a safety net since there are probably certain expenses like bills you only pay quarterly or birthday presents for Uncle Joe that don’t come up every month.

STEP 3 – Is your equation positive or negative?

Meaning, are you spending more than you are bringing in?

If not, that’s great! You’ll want to decide how much money every month you can put towards paying down your debts or saving for the future.

If so, here’s where you have to make some decisions.

What are the different ways you can get the equation to balance?

You can certainly work more, though this is NOT the healthiest or wisest choice.

Honestly, more money just means more money problems.

There are plenty folks in even the highest income brackets who still struggle financially. Because most money problems are spending problems, not earning problems.

So how are you going to change your spending to make the equation balance?

Again, this doesn’t mean you have to give up everything.

But you do have to decide whether your Starbucks coffee or your weekly trip to the movie theater is more important. You many not be able to do both.

Getting this equation to balance is your first big step to curing your money problems.

STEP 4 – Got the equation balanced?

Good. Now it’s time for action.

Doing it on paper is one thing, doing it in life is another.

One of the easiest ways to ensure you stick to your target is to set some limitations on the areas of spending where you most quickly lose track of money or tend to, you know, well go crazy and break the bank!

This might mean setting aside just $25 per week for fast food money and having the self-control to not spend any more.

Or it may mean putting aside $40 per week for family fun and entertainment. Then every week the family can decide how to spend it. If one week you do something that doesn’t cost any money, like renting movies from the library or going to the beach, next week you’ll have double to spend on something really fun!

Lastly – for goodness sakes kill those credit cards!

Money troubles almost always stem from spending problems. And credit cards are like gas on the fire. Out of control in a flash!

If you don’t like carrying cash, just about every bank nowadays offers debit cards. They work just like credit cards except they only allow you to charge as much as you have in your account.

This means no more spending money on stuff you can’t actually pay for!

Hey, maybe a family budget isn’t as fun as a trip to Disney Land, but the rewards are certainly great.

Your life will be far less stressful since you’ll no longer have to fear the unknown and whether or not you’ll have enough money to pay next month’s bills.

You’ll have less conflict in your family and marriage. Once everybody agrees on the new budget, there won’t have to be a big argument every time a new purchase comes up. If it’s in the budget, great! If not, it just doesn’t happen.

Finally, a lot of times, some of the biggest money problems come from your actual house expenses. Are you currently in a property where you’re falling behind the mortgage or the payments are just too big?

Or have you been stuck wasting your money on rent checks because you haven’t been able to build your credit score and buy your own home?

If so – we have a ton of creative homeowner solutions that really can change your life and your situation.

No matter what situation you’re facing, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to drop us a ring today.

And yes, we do our very best to work with every kind of budget, so be sure to bring yours )

Find a young couple in love.

Ask them, “Do you think you’ll ever fight or even break up over money?”

Reply, “No, never. Not us. We’re not like that!”

You might even have said the same thing yourself once upon a time.

Yet, sadly statistics show money is one of the all time leading causes of marital stress. Even worse, it’s one of the top reasons for divorce!

Why is it we have cures and treatments for every other long-time killer, like even some cancers, but money problems are continuing to destroy relationships, happiness and even annihilate marriages?

Something isn’t right.

In the US, we arguably have fewer families with not enough food, shelter and clothing – the basic necessities of life – than anywhere on the planet.

Yet with all this excess, why are we always fighting about money?

Let’s be honest – the overwhelming majority of US families who fight about money have more than enough food, shelter and clothing to survive. Right?

So here’s a controversial theory…

Maybe financial stress has little or nothing to do with how much you actually make.

Think about it – haven’t you met families who make more money than you and yet they still fight about not having enough money!

The divorce statistics are all the same. Richer or poorer, money problems still are a leading cause of divorce.

Why, Why, Why?!?

Let’s just stop and look around for a moment.

Take a critical look at the ads and commercials on your TV, radio, newspaper and now the Internet…

When it comes to “having” what you want in life – the message is all the same.

You work hard – you deserve it.

You work hard, you deserve the car of your dreams.

You work hard, you deserve the vacation of your dreams.

You work hard, you deserve a hot flame-broiled Whopper.

You work hard, you deserve (enter indulgence of your choice here).

Hey – while that may be true, you DO work hard and you DO deserve to enjoy life – this make it a sound way to spend all your money, does it?

Does it make sense to apply the same “you deserve” logic to everything from a juicy flame-broiled whopper to a brand new convertible Lexus?

Of course not.

Yet, this is how commercials tell us to live our lives. And we believe it!

In face, the harder things get, the tougher life becomes, the more entitled we feel to buy whatever the heck we want!

With all this poor advice from commercials, maybe schools are teaching some better financial wisdom.

Schools do teach a whole lot about the importance of working hard and making money, but unfortunately little or nothing on how to spend it!

With no idea or the wrong idea on how to use it, no wonder we’re always fighting about money!

It’s really not your fault!

What’s the solution you ask?

Before you go buy a book on personal finances (certainly not a bad idea), the first and most important step is to make a mental decision – a switch in your mind if you may – about what a family really is.

Think about this – colonial times.

Most families ran a farm or possibly a store.

The family and their means of survival were one.

The family was a business unit.

So whether it was a decision to take off work and go on vacation or buy a brand new bigger house, family decisions were business decisions and business decisions were family decisions.

But now most folks work for somebody else and just bring home a paycheck.

The idea of the family unit as a business unit is dead.

But just because the idea is dead, doesn’t mean it’s not the truth.

Stop and think. Isn’t your family just like a business?

Every week a paycheck or paycheck(s) come in (revenue).

There are weekly and monthly bills to pay (expense).

And hopefully there is some money left over (profit).

Plus, it’s not just about how much you make but whether or not your check clears fast enough so you have money to pay the bills on time (cash flow).

Like it or not, your family is a business.

Now this isn’t saying you should assign titles and ID badges to your family members and start thinking of your children as assets and liabilities – not at all.

But since the family unit really is a business unit, don’t you think it’s time you start managing it the same way?

And this is where I’m going to say a NASTY WORD…

A word everybody HATES…

But first…

Would you ever try to run a business or corporation without knowing how much you were making and spending every year, every month and every week?

How long would it be before you went bankrupt?

Not long, right.

In the same way, a family with no clue how much is going out and how much is coming in, is destined for financial difficulties and money problems.

Step 1 to breaking fre.e is to realize it’s time to start thinking of your family unit as a business unit.

And Step 2 –

Time for that nasty word…

Budget.

Remember, no matter what money situation you are facing, big or small, and how difficult it is, you really are not alone.

In Part II we’ll discuss how to make a simple budget that will save you from most your financial stress and eliminate the fear of running out of money and going broke!

(Stay Tuned for How Much Did You Spend!?! Not Again… – Part 2)

Want to hear a funny joke?

A poor family is arguing about money. Fed up, the wife shouts, “If we had more money, there wouldn’t be any money problems!”

At the same time a middle-class family is also arguing about finances. Disgusted, the husband yells, “If we had more money, there wouldn’t be any money problems!”

And at the very same time a rich family argues about the family fortune. Finally everyone shouts, “If we had more money, there wouldn’t be any money problems!”

Funny joke, right?

Not really.

Sadly, just like me, you’ve probably found yourself in the same situation – arguing or fighting about finances and thinking “more money” is the answer to your money problems.

WRONG!

This might sting a bit, but if you find yourself having money problems with a small amount of money, a large amount of money with just create bigger money problems!

You’ve probably heard all the expo’s on the news about former lottery ticket winners. They almost always all go from flat broke to filthy rich and back to flat broke in the drop of a hat. Lots of money doesn’t solve money problems.

Or in a more common case, how often do you hear about someone coming into a sum of unexpected money or getting a raise at work only to get themselves right back in the same financial trouble. Maybe this has even happened to you???

In our super-consumer culture, most folks live their whole lives in denial. They struggle and stress about money and keep fooling themselves into thinking their money problems will all magically go away if they just get a little more of it.

Reality is, if you don’t have a firm understanding of how much you earn, how much you spend, what your weekly and monthly cash flow is and most importantly the discipline to control your spending, your money problems will never go away.

There’s a saying that goes like this, “Wisdom is cheap, experience is expensive.” In other words, it’s a lot easier and will cost you a lot less to learn from others than to go through the pain yourself.

Look around and realize for yourself “more money” isn’t the answer to your money problems. It really is just a big, stinking lie (and one that causes a lot of folks an enormous amount of hardships).

So the next time you find yourself dealing with money troubles, whether big or small, don’t fall into the trap of just saying, “More money will make the problem go away.” Really sit back and take a good look at how much you’re earning and spending and if there’s a better and wiser way you can use the money you actually have.

It goes without saying we live in an extremely stressful and stressed out culture. There are a million and one reasons to be stressed out every day – from your nagging boss and family demands to the evening news and rising gas prices.

But I bet you can’t guess the NUMBER ONE biggest stressor of them all?

That’s right, there’s one thing more stressful than losing your job or the rising risk of heart attacks…

It’s the unknown.

Think about out – why else are children, and some adults, afraid of the dark? There’s nothing bad or dangerous about the dark. But not being able to see what’s going on or where a certain noise came from, it freaks us out! That’s the unknown!

Nothing stresses us out more than no clue what’s going to happen. Even really bad news, once we know the exact details, isn’t as bad as not knowing.

Since you can’t change human nature and our innate fear of the unknown, you got to find a way to overcome it.

So what’s the secret to permanently getting rid of that number one stressor in your life?

This might sound a little unusual, but rather than getting terrorized by the “unknown” – turn on the lights!

That’s right – shine the brightest light on your situation and ask yourself, “What’s really the worst thing that can happen to me?”

9 out of 10 times, you’ll quickly find that your worst-case scenario isn’t really as horrible as you imagined. In fact, you’ll probably even realize the consequences of your worst case scenario are reversible and will only last a short while.

All the worrying and sleepless nights aren’t necessary at all.

So why bother asking such a bold question – “What’s the worst that can happen?”

First off, you’ll live longer. Nothing kills more Americans than good ol’fashion stress.

Secondly, living in fear and making decisions when you’re scared almost never leads to good outcomes. So often folks who are facing difficulty with their house – whether they can’t find a buyer or they’re behind on payments – they find the clear and simple solution, but they just CAN’T do it!

I could offer a picture perfect solution and they’ll still stare hesitantly, unable to take action. There is NO logical reason. There is NO specific objection. They know they need to do it. They even say they want to do it! But they just can’t. It’s fear. Fear is prevent them; it’s makes so homeowners just like you trapped AND failing to take any action at all really does make the worst-case scenario come to reality!

That’s why we decided to make it as simple as possible to help homeowners like you by providing a simple Creative Homeowner Solution Request. With the click of a button you can discover how fast and simply we can make your problems go away. If you haven’t done so already, check out the link below to get yours.

So whatever the number one stressor is in your life – whether it’s that finicky boss, a problem child, trouble with the in-laws, or even house problems – don’t let fear of the unknown terrorize you any longer. Ask yourself, “What’s the worst case scenario really look like?” I think you’ll discover it’s really not so bad and you’ll be able to instead focus on a solution.