Why you haven't heard from me lately...

Photo courtesy of *Tiny Dancer*

It's been awful quiet around here lately right? Well I cant say that it's been by design, but I can certainly see that it's been for the better. And for those of you who REALLY stick by @Risk Living, we haven't really been gone at all...

Twitter and Facebook have had a serious impact on how frequently I delve deeper into a personal finance topic. See most of my posts start off as a simple thought or observation. Sometimes, only after I ponder on a thought for a while do I even recognize there might be a post inside my thinking. But with Twitter and Facebook, once I've put that thought or quote out in the open I rarely come back here and unpack that thought the way I used to.

As a blogger I'm learning that there are advantages and disadvantages to tweeting and being 'live' on FB. The advantage is that you get rapid-fire real-time insights into what I see, think, and feel. However, the disadvantage is that once you get accustomed to 'micro-blogging' your way through a day it feels strangely slow and cumbersome to sit down and put together a complete post. One is a hand-grenade: portable, serviceable, and leaves a relatively small mark, while the other is a H-bomb: heavy, broad, and not nearly appropriate for every occasion lol.

As a side-note, I've noticed some pretty impressive spikes of traffic to the site since I've spent more time tweeting and FB'ing. Currently on Twitter I have 1500+ people following the @Risk Living blog! NEVER did I think I would be reaching such a wide audience with the blog and it's focus: Getting OUT of Debt!

Now! Having said all of that, @Risk Living isnt going anywhere, in fact I have HUGE plans for where I'd like to see this site go next. You'll be hearing more on that soon.


Thanks for sticking with us, I hope and pray we are of some help to you!

@W




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@Risk Remix: A Look Back

Photo courtesy of ZaksterNT

*This is the second time I've turned to this image for a post, the first was "Full Circle: How our TMM Began...". I encourage you to read it as well. This picture represents perfectly how our financial situation felt before (Barren) and how it feels now in comparison (Overflowing)

Today I found myself looking back over a few posts from nearly a year ago, just to see how far we've come in that amount of time. I really must say that I'm pretty amazed by what I saw. The post in question is "1/3 way home" And it was about how excited we were to reach a minor milestone in our journey.

At the time we had just finished paying off the 10th bill out of the 30 that we started with, so we had just passed the 1/3 mark on our debt snowball list.

Fastforward to today and we are WELL into paying off the 32nd bill out of the 41 we now have on that same list. That means we are 3/4 of the way done with the 'list'!

At the same time we have officially passed the Half-way mark on our debt total as well. We've paid off $52,730.06 and have $$51,506 left to pay before we are DEBT FREE!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES!! So I guess in our case you could say that "Hindsight is 50/50!" We're halfway there!!! I can't wait to see where we are this time next year! We should be heading into the Home Strecth at that point!

It's never too late to start, if you have not already! We're here for you, so let's GO!

@W

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These "Baby Steps" AIN'T for Babies!

Photo coutesy of Bettina.Schwarz

In the last 2 posts I've kind of gone thru a sort of 'reset'. Maybe it's a second wind of sorts? I dont know. But I've felt the need to simplify the emotions and actions WE (my wife and I) faced when we first started out so that YOU can duplicate them as much as possible.

In the first post of this mini-series, I laid out exactly what we're doing and how it has helped us pay off $49,000 in debt in only 19 months! In the second post I continued to zoom in on the mindset and underlying philosophy of "Living Like No One Else".

Luckily we never felt overwhelmed with the process, and I think that is in part due to what I intend to share with you in this post. In his book The Total Money Makeover, Dave Ramsey calls them the Baby Steps. They are meant to be simple bullet points on your journey to debt freedom.

But please dont sleep! Just because these steps are simple, doesnt mean they're for 'simple' people. It takes vision, committment, and perseverance to see these steps through to completion!

I want to take a few moments to list them out below, but I'll delve deeper into each step in future posts.

Step One: Save $1000.00 CASH as quickly as you can to start "Emergency Fund"

Step Two: Pay off ALL debt in order from smallest to largest using "Debt Snowball".

Step Three: Save 3-6 months worth of expenses, to fully fund "Emergency Fund".

Step Four: Invest 15% of income into Roth IRA's and Pre-tax retirement.

Step Five: Begin funding your childrens' College Educations.

Step Six: Pay off your home early

Step Seven: Build Wealth & GIVE! (Mutual Funds, Real Estate, ect.)

Step "Zero": STOP using any forms of credit and accepting new forms of credit.

Pretty simple and straight forward right? Well yes, and no. Yes, because they set a framework for you to follow. No, because if you dont follow the framework that has been set... you'll only be making it harder for yourself. In addition, these steps can't tell you how aggressive to be in your Total Money Makeover. The intensity level must be left up to you.

The downfall to the simplicity of this plan is that so many "SMART" people in this world think they need to re-invent the wheel and make it more sophisticated. But as the saying goes "K-I-S-S" (Keep It Simple Stupid).

As I said before, I'll be breaking each step down and explaining why the order is so important. I'll also be sharing exactly why we REALLY chose to stick with this system. As you become more and more familiar with the steps, you will inevitably feel that something is "wrong" about them. This is natural! At first, I did too, until I realized how CONDITIONED i had become by the FICO scores and the credit card industry! They NEED you to NEED them, and they're NOT going to make it EASY for you to cut them loose!

We'll talk about that further in my next post where I'll address the 'objections' I've heard toward getting out of debt. The reason objections is in quotes is because the people objecting were spitting out all the BS that is fed to them daily by the media and credit card industry.

Next Episode: "Paying On It VS. Paying it Off"

You are worthy of the journey!

@W







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You Want Me To Do WHAT?!?!

Photo courtesy of ppc007

In my last post I left you with this thought:

"Live like no one else, so that one day you can LIVE like no one else."

Please try and get that into your spirit whether you choose to get out of debt with us or not! It's going to apply to whatever obstacle you need to face in order to reach that goal you fantasize about.

In our case though, that statements speaks to our financial situation in a very powerful way. My wife and I were blessed enough to start getting out of debt in 2007 which was way before the economy went south. The reason I call it a blessing is because it would have been 20 times tougher for us to go through some of the things we've faced, if we were just starting at during a time like this. But in no way am I saying it can't be done. I know of many people who started their jouney to debt freedom when things were at their worst, which to me is all the more commendable and impressive.

But let me get back to my point. "Living like no one else" means letting go of all the credit cards, charge cards, department store cards, gas cards, the loans ect. "Living like no one else" means living only off of the money you earn from your salary. And let me tell ya people, it takes serious guts to do this! This might be the equivalent of a life-long meat eater going Vegan "cold turkey" as they say. Or I guess more fittingly "cold to-furkey" lol.

But for me a far better and meaningful example is the commitment, determination and surrender a person undergoes when they give their life to Jesus Christ. This process can be nearly as liberating and transforming for your finances. "Living like no one else" means doing what others are afraid to do because it might cost them something trivial on the front end!

Let me make one thing clear real quick. Just because I'm not spending all of my money on watches and flat-screens NOW, doesnt mean it's ALWAYS going to be this way for me. In fact I have just over a year left to go before I can get back to truly ENJOYING my money again, and yes even BLOWING some money on material things. But that will be just fine because at that point I'll be able to AFFORD IT!! I made a decision to SACRIFICE for just 2-3 years of my life so that I wont have to sacrifice for the REST OF MY LIFE!

Unfortunately, too many people have been sold the idea that they simply cannont exist without credit. It's become unrealistic to many because all of their 'dreams' reside far outside of means!

"C'mon, who really pays CASH for a car nowadays? That's just not realistic! I'll never have a nice ride, if I go that route!"

"Can you even get a house without having a MORTGAGE, is that even possible?"

"And just forget about paying for your children's college education unless you refinance that mortgage! Raising enough cash to pay for it outright?!? Is that even possible?"

"Is that even possible?!" This might be the second most popular question I'm asked when it comes to our debt journey. And at least for us, I'd have to say "Yes, it's very possible."

"Living like no one else" requires a paradigm shift, or rather a change in your thinking. But take heart, you dont have to undergo that shift overnight! This is where the "Baby Steps" come in...

In the next episode: "These "Baby Steps" ain't for BABIES!"

Stay Tuned...

@W







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What the HECK are you DOING?!?!

Photo courtesy of Whysteriastar


The title says it all... it's the number one question I get from family and friends when they ask how we're doing with "the debt thing".

Four years ago, my financial routine was as follows: To spend nearly all of my money on multiple pairs of the same sneaker in the same color, a PlayStation game or two, and the latest DVD release from Best Buy for that week. Once those major priorities were taken care of I'd make sure I had enough money left to cover breakfast, lunch, and dinner from McDonald's, and enough gas money to get me back and forth to work. No savings, no 401k, no responsibility. I didn't even know HOW to budget, let alone consider following one! But me? Man, I was living THEE LIFE! ...Right?

My how life has changed! Before we started this journey to evict our debt, I was barely making a salary above $40 Grand... but flash forward to today and we've paid off $46.5k! (Stop it, you're making that face again.)

So what changed? In short, it's a simple phrase but in practice it's anything but simple:

"Live like no one else, so that one day you can LIVE like no one else."


Over the next few posts I'm going to introduce you to what that really looks like in my everyday life.

In the next episode: "You want me to do WHAT?!?"

@W



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Forgive Us Our Debts...

Photo courtesy of Doc Stampede

Welcome to @riskliving blog, season 2...

Though we're only 2 weeks into this year, I'm already seeing a pattern or theme for what this year might hold for the blog.

Yes, it will still be about debt, but in many more ways than the financial kind.

This process is turning into something LIFE changing for us instead of just changing our financial situation.

See, somewhere along the way in 2008 a different mission was handed to us (my wife and I) than the one we signed up for. We just wanted to be debt free. No collections agencies, no past due bills, no accounts in default, no more screening 'Unknown Callers'... we got fed up with it.

But we soon realized we had a calling to not just pull ourselves out of the pit, but to try to bring YOU along at the same time. Back in the mid 90's there was a song called "It Ain't No Fun If My Homies Can't Have None..." and though the message of that song is VASTLY off-topic, the point still applies.

We need you on this journey with us.

If you don't band together with us in this effort to eliminate debt it will make our life worse! No, really! Who will we go on cruises with, who will we sow and give with, who will we travel and vacation with if we're out of debt and you're still in? We won't really get to see you much, because you won't be able to do the things that we have been positioning ourselves to do!

We want you to be a part of this movement, this family.

Jesus once asked the question "Who is my Mother, and who are my brothers but they that do the will of my Father which is in heaven!" Matthew 12:48-50 (paraphrased)

And one aspect of our Father's will is for us to not be mired in debt. In fact Jesus even taught us to pray for the forgiveness of our debts in the 'Lord's Prayer'. Matthew 6:9-15

Now I know what you're saying: "@W, He wasn't talking about that type of debt."

But I beg to differ, He didn't specify what type of debt because He was talking about ALL forms of debt...

Well... all except for maybe one type of debt: The Debt of Gratitude.

I now know that even after all my bills are paid off and I don't owe another red cent of debt. I will still owe something.

I WILL NEVER BE DEBT FREE, because I will always be indebted to both those who have served as our mentors in this process and those who have looked to us as examples. If you are reading this, then you fall into one of those 2 categories.

That is the only debt I'm willing to live with!

@W






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