I Seriously Screwed Up!

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financial panic

Not long ago, I was reflecting back about the first time my wife Angie and I were scheduled to make announcements and greet visitors from the platform at our Sunday church service. I’m an introvert, so I was pretty nervous.  I wanted to make sure and do it right, make people feel welcome, and keep from screwing it up. So with Angie by my side we made it through the greeting and announcements just fine.  At that point I realized that no one had told me who to hand the mic off to next. I froze like a gallon of […] Read more »

Debt and Deeper Issues

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Have you been trying to gain control of your money issues but just never seem to get any traction?  I’ve talked to a ton of people over the years who have taken classes, written budgets, read books, and made every effort they could to get out of debt and try to make sense of their money.  But after a short period of time they’re back to the same old habits they’ve always had, ending up with more month than money and steadily adding to their pile of debt. Why does this happen so often?  Is it because I just didn’t […] Read more »

It’s Never Too Late to Take Control Of Your Life!

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I’ve been an inconsistent exerciser for my entire adult life. I’ll go through cycles of exercising religiously for months, but then go through a similar span of doing nothing. However, at the beginning of 2011 I looked in the mirror at an overweight, out of shape, middle aged man. My family has a history of some significant health problems, and I knew that if I didn’t make changes, I was sure to follow in their footsteps. Today marks two years of consistently working out 5-7 days a week. I ran my third marathon in October missing a personal best by […] Read more »

I Improved My Marriage by Talking About Money

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I was describing how I used to hide our debt from my wife this past Saturday in an interview with Gerri Detweiler on Talk Credit Radio, when I said the words: “I betrayed her trust, and it’s taken a long time to recover from that.  In fact, we’re still recovering from it.” I may have typed similar words before in a blog post or two, but I don’t recall ever ever having said the words out loud. I didn’t particularly like how they sounded, but they were true.  The magnitude of our debt had been a huge secret for many […] Read more »

The Power of Choice and How You Can Reclaim Your Life by Mastering It

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Do you feel like you lack the willpower to succeed in achieving your financial goals? You might be surprised to learn that your lack of willpower is not the problem. That’s right willpower is not your problem. The real problem is that you’re not taking the time to make the choices that will help you reach your goals. That sounds so simple but it”s true. Some people might disagree with that but let me explain. For years I have struggled with the consequences of my bad decisions — both in health and in finances. On my journey to health, I’ve […] Read more »

Ashamed of your debt? Me, too. Here’s why.

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A few days ago, fellow EOD writer Travis talked about being ashamed of his debt. I could totally relate to his post because when I was in debt, I felt exactly the same way. But as I read and reread Travis’s post, I started asking myself “why was I ashamed?” Although I couldn’t really come up with one good specific reason, I was able to come up with a few possibilities: Debt meant I couldn’t control myself. I am completely guilty of making impulse purchase after impulse purchase. I had a good friend who I used to hang out with […] Read more »

Do You Have the Mentality to be Wealthy?

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Winning the lottery

You may have heard that the Mega Millions Lottery has a HUGE Jackpot tonight! You did hear that right? It’s not really talked about all that much. If you are anywhere near the television, internet, radio, a store or people in general then you’ve heard. The internet is full of blog posts where people talk about all the things they would buy if they won. I wrote a post today too. I didn’t focus on what I would buy because I found out something about myself. I’m not mentally ready to be wealthy! I know it sounds weird to say […] Read more »

Goals Review

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Can you believe that we are almost through the first quarter of 2012?! Insane. I feel like it just got started. I wanted to go through the goals I set up for this year and see how I'm doing so far. Below are the goals I had laid out and then I will give my progress in red. Work Set up a designated work area. I've been working a lot more in the office. Work only in work area. FAIL! While I've been working in the office a lot I've been working on the couch a lot too. I need to limit this. I've noticed I get very annoyed with my family when I'm trying to work in the living space. It's not their fault. I just need to get up and go into the office. Read more »

Battle of the Sexes, Over Debt?

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In today’s world women are no longer “just staying home” to raise their children. I say “just staying home” as anyone that is a stay at home parent knows that raising children is one of the most difficult jobs you will ever have. Many women are both working full-time and raising their children out of necessity for their family. Whether you are married with kids, divorced with kids or widowed with kids it’s a tough dual role to play, for either parent. As a divorced single mom I know the challenges of going it alone and the debt that goes […] Read more »

Learning from Failure is a Stepping Stone to Success

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 When I started my site, Daily Money Shot, I was beyond nervous. I   wasn’t so much nervous in what I had to say versus being frightened of putting effort into a blog that no one would read. Although I knew that my need to write superseded my nerves, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I would never get more than 3 readers. Why? Because I had previously tried to blog and, for all intents and purposes, failed. I failed for a number of reasons. I wasn’t passionate enough about the subject matter of the blog. I didn’t network well […] Read more »

Being Debt Free is NOT the Goal

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I recently registered for the Twin Cities marathon, which will be held in October of this year. It will be my third marathon, so I’ve been through the training before. However, as a refresher, I dusted off a marathon training book I had purchased several years ago and began reading. The first chapter is quite inspirational. It reflects upon the time and effort it takes to train for a marathon. By the time race day arrives, months of work have been put in, and hundreds of miles have been logged in preparation of the big event. The thing that stands […] Read more »

New Year’s Annual Review

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I thought I'd take you through my annual reveiw and hopefully inspire you to do one too; and if you are really feeling inspired feel free to share yours with the group. The exercise starts with two questions. •What went well this year? •What did not go well this year? What went well this year? I started my site, Money Talks. I'm happy with the progress my blog has made. I've met a ton of amazing people and went to the Financial Bloggers Conference, which was a total blast. I exceeded my very modest income goal this year and we avoided any major financial set backs. This allowed us to pay down debt and save more than I had been planning on. Read more »

My Journey Out of Debt Has Brought Me Closer To God

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In November I had a series of posts published in the CareOne Community discussing positive things that have resulted from my journey out of debt. This post was meant to be the last in that series, but I held back writing it because quite honestly I wasn’t sure if I was comfortable revealing this previously undisclosed part of me to my online friends.  However, as the weeks have gone by, I have felt a growing desire to write this post. As is typical of many young children, I gave my parents a hard time about having to get up on […] Read more »

Are You Taking Advantage of Free Financial Information Online?

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Since you’re sitting there reading up on a financial blog I’ll assume you know a little bit about finding free information and advice on the web. But the amount of ostensibly clueless investors and financial irresponsible individuals in this world doesn’t seem to add up to the amount of awesome information that exists for free out there on the web. In addition, it certainly doesn’t make much sense how much money people spend on this very same knowledge through seminars, books, and one-on-one consultations. To put it bluntly, it’s ridiculous. If you ever want to become truly financially independent, you […] Read more »