Strategies: Faith, doubt, effort go a long way

Article By Rhonda Abrams, USA TODAY

1. Great Faith: To build a business — or start anything new — you have to believe in yourself and your ideas. You can envision something that others cannot. You think up a new business, process, design or technology that hasn't existed before.
It is not only the quality of your ideas, but the strength of your faith in your ideas that will help you succeed. Moreover, it is your faith in yourself that attracts others to work with you, invest in your vision and support you as you pursue your dreams.
Great faith is exhilarating. But it is also exhausting. It's impossible to stay on an emotional high, even if things continually go well. And the reality is they will not always go well. When your business encounters the inevitable pitfalls, detours and slowdowns, you will be the one others will look to for reassurance.

The Jar System by T. Harv Ecker

T. Harv Ecker is a famous author, public speaker, and personal development leader. We attended his "Millionaire Mind" seminar, and learned a good deal of information. This one topic of the Jar System was repeated at a different seminar we put on, by Myron Golden, with different names and titles. Both speakers felt it one of the central principles for achieving financial freedom. We do as well, and have begun adopting it into our life.

The Jars

This is a system of jars - but it can be bank accounts, envelopes, or anything else that segregates one amount of money from another. We use different bank accounts, plus a single jar for our loose change, which goes into a bank account.

There are six jars altogether, five of 10% each, and one of 50% each. You can vary the percentages as you need to, but not the categories. All six should stay in place.

Jar 1: FFA - Financial Freedom Account

The most important jar.
10% of your after tax income.
Paid BEFORE anything else, including bills. This is the "pay yourself first" jar.
It is for passive income streams, such as laundromats, parking lots, positive cash flow managed real estate, stocks, and some types of internet businesses. Start out with mutual funds, then stocks, and when you have enough money, buy into passive businesses.
This money can NEVER be spent on anything else.
It must be transfered to the next generation when you die.

Jar 2: GIV - Charity

Amount varies from 5% to 10%, depending on your opinion of charitable giving.
If reduced to 5%, Necessities account increases to 55%.
This is intended for true charities, not Christmas and birthday gifts to friends and family.
Jar 3: EDU - Education

10% of your after tax income.
This is YOUR OWN personal development and career advancement education, not your children's college education. They should have their own account, and work to save for it. Use them to help you in your home based business, and pay them as a contractor for this purpose.

Jar 4: LTSS - Long Term Saving and Spending

10% of your after tax income.
Save for cars, college tuition, room additions, or expensive trips. Don't buy these luxuries on a credit card. Pay with cash that you've saved. You can put this in a money market account, CD's, or other interest-bearing vehicle while you're saving up.

Jar 5: FUN - Fun Account

10% of your after tax income.
This money MUST BE BLOWN COMPLETELY every month. If you have some great plan, you can save up and blow it in a second month, but the idea is to drain it regularly.
Come up with special events, spectacular things, that you'll enjoy and remember.

Jar 6: NEC - Necessity

50% to 55% (depending on your GIV account) of your after tax income.
This is the money you pay your bills with.
Pay your credit cards with checks from different check books, as you identify which items are fun, education, necessity, etc.
If you can't make ends meet with 55% of your after tax income, change your habits! Sell or get rid of whatever is draining you. Simplify. Cut back. Get so you can get by with your necessities paid out of no more than 55% of your after tax income.
Pay off your highest interest rate credit card completely before you pay more than the minimum payment on any other credit cards. Pay off credit cards before other liabilities.
As your income increases, your necessities can increase also, but only in proportion.
These money management principles can turn your life around, and whip them into shape.

I've added to them one more principle, which has to do with TIME.

The FFA (Financial Freedom Account) TIME Principle

"Pay yourself first" with 1/2 HOUR A DAY devoted to actually DOING the things that your IDEAL WORKING SELF would do. (In other words, I don't mean relax for 1/2 hour a day - I mean work at what you love.)
For example, if, in your "heart of hearts" you really want to be an inventor, but you earn a living doing something else, BE that inventor for 1/2 hour a day. DO what that inventor would do.
Also, this doesn't mean "prepare" for that eventuality, by going back to school or something significantly delayed. It means IMMERSING yourself IMMEDIATELY in the REALITY of BEING that eventual person. DO exactly what that person would do.

Financial Planning & Advice By Ameriprise

You may already have a financial plan, or you might be thinking about setting one up. In either case, the detailed guide, 6 Keys to Successful Financial Planning from Ameriprise Financial, can help. In it you'll learn financial planning elements that you need to consider so your plan keeps you on track to reach your financial dreams.

Marketing Method For Your Home-Based Business

Part of running a successful business is its growth. Home-based businesses are no exception. In fact, it can be even more important if you are just starting out or lack a potential client base. The key to growing a business is marketing.
Marketing is how you connect with individuals who may become customers or clients and includes methods such as affiliate programs, newsletters, trade shows, web sites, brochures, advertising, and more. The potential marketing methods available are almost limitless in scope and deciding on an approach may seem daunting, but a little preliminary effort can help you narrow down the field of options and help you make the best choices for your business.

–Determine Targeted Audience
–Set a Budget
–Evaluate Marketing Methods

5 Marketing Tools for Home-Based Businesses

Because a home-based business doesn’t have a storefront for passers-by to notice and no opportunity to generate walk-in business, home-based businesses need marketing other types of businesses, not less.
Not marketing your home-based business will almost certainly doom it to failure.


1. Direct mail. still a cost-effective way to advertise in many industries.

2. Voice mail. Even the outgoing message on your answering machine or voice mail system can help promote your business when utilized correctly.

3. Press releases. The only thing better than cheap publicity is free publicity, and well-timed, professional press releases can result in just that.

4. Referrals. Referrals are probably the single best way to find new customers. If you do something well, chances are people are going to talk about it.

5. Radio interviews. If you can speak knowledgeably about your product or service and tie it in well with current events, radio interviews are a great way to reach a wide audience and improve your customer base.

Direct Selling ­ An Option for Mini-Preneurs

According to the Direct Selling Association (www.dsa.org), more than 13.6 million people participated in direct selling in 2004 with an overwhelming 73 percent of them being women. Buying and selling in the comfort of a home still seems to be the heart of the direct selling industry, with 62 percent of all direct sales being made that way in 2003. About 16 percent of total sales that year were made by phone, followed by about 10 percent via the Internet. While the Internet doesn’t allow for face-to-face selling, it does give direct sellers a worldwide customer base.

Wealth is an Option for ALL of US

The purpose of this posting is to make wealthy living a reality in your life and to help increase your net worth.

Are you ready to enter into the mindset of abundance?

If you learn the secrets of the wealthy and really apply it to your life in your path to freedom, you can triple your income, net worth and time freedom in less then a year.

Wealth is the freedom to BE, DO, and HAVE anything you want without money being an issue.
What’s amazing is that the secrets of the wealthy are simply disciplines that are practiced by people who have learned to play the game of money very well.

The wealthy understand that you have control of over three things in life:
The thoughts you think; The images you visualize; And the actions you take.

Realize that almost everything you want in life has already been achieved by someone else. And their achievements have made it possible for you to realize that you want the same for yourself.

But no matter what you want….a person with $10 dollar thoughts will produce $10 dollar results…..and a person with two hundred thousand dollar thoughts will produce two hundred thousand dollar results and the same holds true with a person with million dollar thoughts will eventually get million dollar results and everything they want in life.

So you see, you have to develop the seven “path to freedom” characteristics of the wealthy:
The wealthy have a burning desire;
The wealthy believe they are worthy of receiving wealth,
They believe they can get wealth;
The wealthy are passionate about the service they provide for the wealth they receive;
The wealthy take action in the face of fear;
The wealthy learn quickly from their experiences;
And the wealthy are very persistent.

The wealthy understand that if you want to get from where you are to where you want to be, you have to take some calculated risks and invest wisely.

The wealthy invest in the following order of priorities:
They vest for cash flow; Income streams; They leverage their time, money, and expertise in the efforts of others.

The wealthy use the tax laws to their advantage to decrease their taxable income. The wealthy also use capital gains to buy low and sell high for profit.

Unlike to the average investors, the wealthy investor wants to invest his money in an asset, get his money back, keep control of the asset, invest his money on a new asset, get his money back again and repeats the process.

One of the main reasons people do not get what they want, is because they haven’t decided what they want. Decide what you want!

When you share your vision, certain wealthy people want to help you make it happen; they’ll introduce you to friends and resources to make it happen.

Every time you share your vision for wealth, you strengthen you own subconscious belief that you can achieve it.

Once you commit to becoming wealthy, your laser focus will not allow you to constantly worry about other people, what they think, because you’ll be too busy following your own burning desire.

Working hard is not the key to producing wealth. Wealthy people work a lot less than poor people do. If you’re only working for money, then you will soon discover that money is not enough of a reward. It’s a resentment of wealthy people that keep many people poor.

The secret to wealth is how to take charge of your mind; learning how to program your mind with affirmations and eliminating negative thoughts about money.

Wealth begins when you create a relationship with money that is simple, comfortable and free from stress. You have to reach a point of being in control of your money. This is the beginning of the personal development program to will prepare you to become the kind of wealthy person that you would like to meet and spend time with. You’re now beginning to take control of your future.

You should expose your mind to new ideas and view points about money and wealth regularly.

Ask lots of questions and consider the possibility that your past thinking could be wrong. Realize your current lifestyle is a result of your past thinking. If you’re working for someone else, the secret to increasing your income and preparing for future wealth is acting like you own the company. Getting wealthy starts at work!

Pay yourself first. Invest in your retirement account. You need to pay yourself at least 10% of your income. If you’re not paying yourself at least 10% of your income, then you’re clearly living above your means

If you pay yourself 15% of your income, you can become rich.
If you pay yourself 25% of your gross income, you can become wealthy.

You must believe that you deserve to make an extraordinary amount of money. How about five times your income? This will help you begin to become uncomfortable with your current level of income.

The reason so few people are wealthy is due to the limiting beliefs that were past down.
This is the best time to have ever been alive, we have knowledge at our fingertips and affluence in America is on the rise.

Abandon the conventional way of think and allow yourself to start believing you deserve an extraordinary income.

Your actions have to reflect your thoughts.
You will never be free, if you say you deserve wealth and abundance, then do the opposite and act as though you don’t deserve it.

True wealth can be at any income, because you are more than your money, more then your job, title, house or your car

True financial freedom first begins in your mind, in your conscious, in your thoughts and in your actions.

It takes very little money to make money, as long as your patient and discipline to do the following things:

You need to BE, DO and HAVE!
That means be wealthy in your own mind; Do the things that will bring you wealth.
And believe you should have the wealth you desire.

Your imagination, your thoughts and your dreams create your reality.

If you’re open to wealth, then opportunities to create and acquire wealth will descend upon you.

The universe is infinitely abundant to those who are open to receiving.

The universal law of attraction states that you will experience whatever you are thinking about long enough and deeply enough.

So the wealthy exhibit responsibility with their abundance of money.
They earn money, they invest their money, and they invest to increase their net worth

And then their philanthropy, you see philanthropic activities are similar to “paying your dues” for occupying the space in this life.

The only way to permanently change the temperature in the room, is to change the thermostat – in the same way, the only way to change your level of financial success is to reset your financial thermostat.

You will be pay in proportion to the value you deliver according to the market place.

You see money is neither good nor evil; money will only make you more of what you are.

The habit of managing your money is more important then the amount.

Wealthy people see every dollar as a seed that could be planted to earn a thousand more dollars, which can be planted to earn a million more dollars.

The only time you’re actually going toward wealth is when you’re uncomfortable with you income or net worth.

Wealth is a game of follow the wealthy leaders. Identify several wealthy mentors that you admire and follow their lead.

There are three fazes to wealth and the path to freedom.
You want to be wealthy; You choose to be wealthy; And you commit to be wealthy.

Wealthy people focus on opportunities.

Wealthy people only associate with positive and successful people. Wealthy people choose to get paid based on results. Wealthy people focus on their net worth and Wealthy people constantly learn and grow.

This information may be new to you, so it will take repetitive exposure before it becomes a natural part of your way of thinking.

I wish you a life of freedom.