OT: Allen's testimonial . . .

[BigAl07]

Thanks everyone for the great PM's. Just know I'm here if anyone is "slacking" on this... I'll be there to push if you need it *S*

[BigAl07]

I'm sure you've already DONE this but be sure to "modify" your monthly budget to reflect the increases in gas, food and EVERYTHING else. If you don't stay on top of it the Budget will fall flat on it's face. IT works for you like CRAZY if you'll let it!!

[vdituri]

Good point Al. Everything has been creeping up in price.
Thanks!

[BigAl07]

My pleasure Victor. Julie has re-done our budget and had to make a LOT of changes. Everything has gone up at least a little bit.. when you add all the "little bits" up you see a fairly significant increase. Thank goodness that I got a raise recently which more than covered the increase. LIFE IS GOOD!!

[Krez]

PM sent

[BigAl07]

PM returned! Thanks for taking the initiative to contact me. I am THRILLED you took the time for that. I'm here to help you (and anyone else who will listen) help yourself!!!

Life is GOOD!!

[Octoman]

Thought I would mention it in here, today was a GREAT day. I sold my truck and paid it off. That was a substantial part of my debt and this will free up money to pay off other debts...

[BigAl07]

Mark thank you so MUCH for posting that! WAY TO GO Buddy!!

I'm always here if you have any questions or need anything!!

[mothergoose]

Allen,
Thanks for all the info that came in the mail today. Going on vacation again so will be a bit before I can watch the dvd. Will catch up with you later.

[mothergoose]

Mark,
That is great news!!
keep up the hard work.

[BigAl07]

Nina have a good and SAFE vacation! When you get back we'll start "Kicking It" and get your Snowball rolling ASAP!

Best wishes and HAPPY Vacation

[BigAl07]

Thanks for the PM's about this. I think I have them ALL replied to now. If I missed anyone PLEASE PM me again and I'll get back to you. I'm THRILLED to have so MUCH interest in this! It makes me so happy to try and help others "Get on board" with this. So PM all you want! I'm here to help you!!!!

[Amphibious]

This sounds like the program I got involved with back in the early '90s although the author/promoter was someone other than Dave Ramses. I put the idea to work and it changed our life. While I can't say we're debt free, recently built a house in FL, and I can't say we don't use a CC (certain things require one), what I can say is, due to the program we used (I think it's the same), our FL home (valued at $600 K) has a mortgage of $135 K, our CC is paid in full monthly, our two vehicles and boat are free and clear. We still apply the principles learned way back then and expect our home to be paid off in 3 or 4 years. I advise anyone carrying debt of any kind to PM Al for this program.

In fact, I'm SO curious whether it is the same principles, I'm PMing Al for the info.

Dick

[BigAl07]

Dick is SOUNDS similar. I can't START to say how GRATEFUL I am you took the time to post here! Hearing about others "Getting Ahead" makes me smile from ear to ear.

I KNOW some people think I'm promoting a "gimmick" or "book" here... ALL I am doing is trying to provide a means for other get control of their OWN finances and not fall victim to the scams out there.

I make NOTHING on this except once in a while getting to hear comments like the one you posted Dick.. there are few things in life that feel as good as not owing money!!

WAY to go buddy! I'm STOKED just hearing from you! Thanks for taking the time and I'm headed to PM right now

[TanksNStuff]

I'd like to tell my lil story here if you all don't mind.

About 12 years ago, I got married to a woman I had been dating for about 2 years. We moved into an apartment together when we got engaged, and lived happily for almost a year or so. We were young, had crappy jobs, and not really getting anywhere because we started having money troubles. Paying rent was throwing money away, and making it a home cost a decent amount too. We ended up breaking apart for a few months due to the stress it was causing.

I moved in with my family, and she moved in with hers. Once things started calming down we began to see each other again. Shortly after, she became pregnant and we decided to try to make things work because everything was peachy again.

So we stayed with family for a few months to save up some money, and decided that this time we were going to do it right: buy a house and invest instead of give our money away. Well, it started out great, we were saving money while paying the mortgage. But then we slowly started to buy some things for the house on credit cards (furniture, small appliances for the kitchen, stuff for the baby's room, etc.) So we started digging a hole that was slowly getting deeper.

All of a sudden, the bottom fell out completely. During her pregnancy, she starts having health problems and was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. If you don't know what that is, it causes your intestines to become infected and causes pain when digested food passes through. Anyway, to make things worse, she also found out she had a ton of stones in her gall bladder, and she had to have the gall bladder removed while being 7 months pregnant! This was very risky to have an operation while being pregnant, but it had to be done.

The operation was successful, and we soon had a very healthy baby. However, to make a long story short... she continued to have issues with the Crohn's and ended up missing a lot of work because of it, to the point of actually losing her job completely.

So, in order to attempt to stay above water, we began borrowing money from one credit card to be able to make minimum payments on the others. It became a cycle of borrowing from one per month to make minimum payments on the others. We had 4 different cards, and quickly maxed them out. We kept hoping that her health would improve and she would find work again. But whenever she did get a job, it was temporary because she still was having complications and had to call out a lot. The problem was that stress was something that was a major cause in her outbreaks. The more stressed she was, the more things got worse.

Then, with the debt quickly building way out of control, the stress was building because of it, and to top it all, she was taking steroids to help control the infections. As you might know, steroids also tend to have a side affect of altering your personality and mood swings. Stress and her pains turned into depression, and we began argueing a lot. To help her "cope" with things, she began going shopping as a way to make her feel better. Mostly just new clothes and shoes, etc. That's all great except we had no money to pay for it. So the credit cards started to flare up even more. With everything going on, we began having arguements left and right. We thought it was in everyones best interest (including our baby's) if we sold the house and split up again.

So we did just that, and we pretty much broke even on the house sale with our mortgage so, so much for the investment plan. But, we now had close to $30,000 in credit card debt. This built up over about 2 years since we bought the house, furniture, her shopping sprees, and all the money borrowed to make the minimum payments. That was the key though, only being able to make the minimum payments (and doing that by borrowing more because my salary wasn't enough to pay the mortgage let alone food, etc during those times.) This meant that none of the debt was being paid because all the payments were going to interest only. I'm talking about paying $500 - $600 per month to credit cards... and not even making a dent. :smck:

I eventually got fed up and just stopped paying them. I moved and avoided the collection agencies for several years, but they always hunt you down. She did the same because we just couldn't afford to keep paying them when it really didn't do anything to help our situation anyway. I tried one of those "debt consolidation" companies, but they wanted to put me on a plan which still had me paying nearly $1,000 per month to credit cards. I simply couldn't do that, so continued to ignore the bills.

So, about 5 years later, we both filed bankruptcy and our slates were wiped clean. It ruined our credit, but I didn't care because I prefer not to have credit anyway and get in that kind of situation again. This is the whole point to this long post.

Credit Cards are evil! They make it too easy to buy things you can't afford, and when you do you start digging a hole that is really hard to get out of. Now granted, if she never got sick we could have probably recovered and gotten out of debt without bankruptcy. But that was the hand we were dealt and I feel that that was our best solution. The bad credit turned out to be a bonus IMO because it prohibited me from making the same mistakes again.

To this day, the only visa I have is a debit card. If the money isn't in my checking account, I can't buy it. Period. I have been living this way for roughly 5 years, and I can honestly say that it's not hard at all once you get used to it. You learn to budget yourself, spend only what you can, and try to save a little for a rainy day. I'm struggling with that last part sometimes because there is always something that comes up and that "rainy day" money gets spent. But, life isn't so stressful when you don't have to worry about owing money all the time.

Sorry if this was a bit off-topic. I don't know the first thing about the OP's plan or book or whatever. However, I do know what someone in debt is going through, and I survived it in my own way. What I can agree with though is that if you are getting into financial trouble... don't fall into the credit trap. Hold off on buying anything you "need" (unless it's an emergency) until you actually have the cash to pay for it. Believe it or not, you can survive a few weeks or months longer without it... heck, you have probably been surviving a few years without it already.

Thanks for reading my story. I hope it helps some of you stay out of trouble.