WELCOME

Welcome to my dfree® blog. I hope these thoughts will help someone think new thoughts and take new actions toward their financial freedom. The proverb says that "the borrower is slave to the lender." (Proverbs 22:7) I have dedicated the rest of my life to helping people obtain spiritual and economic freedom.

Day 13

by Black Star - ET

A member of my team shared with me her recent experience with subscriptions.  She had to update all her different subscriptions with her new credit card information.  A couple of weeks later, a service provider called to remind her to update her card information or lose her subscription.  She was confused because she was sure she had already updated her information on that account.

On following up with them, she discovered that she had set up a second account with this service provider by mistake, and that she was paying for two accounts when she only really used (and needed) one!  How long had this gone on?  She couldn’t even remember when she had set it up.

That is why it is important that you review and clean up your subscriptions regularly.  It could be a case similar to this story, or something as simple as no longer needing a certain number of channels on your cable.

Cleaning up subscriptions ensures you reduce the volume of junk mail you receive, thereby reducing the temptation to make purchases from enticing marketing materials. You also get to review not just services, but events and programing that you have signed up for and re-assess whether you still need them.

Most importantly, clean up your subscriptions so that you can make room for what is necessary for your personal, social, psychological, and financial growth.

Visit www.dfree.com/shows to get a preview of the personal and financial growth content we have developed for you in the all new dfree® Podcast Network series.

Day 12

by Black Star - ET

A basic method you can use to start paying off debt is called the debt snowball method which is as follows: 

  1. List all debts in ascending order, from the smallest balance to the largest. This is the method’s most distinctive feature: the order is determined by the amount owed, not the rate of interest charged. However, if two debts are very close in the amount owed, then the debt with the higher interest rate is moved toward the top of the list. 
  2. Commit to pay the minimum amount on every debt except the smallest. 
  3. Determine how much extra money can be applied toward the balance of the smallest debt.
  4. Pay the smallest debt’s minimum payment plus the extra money until the smallest debt is paid off. Note that some lenders (i.e., mortgage lenders, car companies) will apply extra amounts toward the next payment; in order for this payoff method to work, the lenders need to be contacted and told that the extra payments are to go directly toward principal reduction. Credit card companies usually apply the whole payment to the current cycle. 
  5. Once a debt is paid in full, add the old minimum payment (plus any extra amount available) from the first debt to the minimum payment on the second-smallest debt, and apply the new sum toward repaying the second-smallest debt. 
  6. Repeat until all debts are paid in-full. 

You can get further support on how to start and continue applying the debt snowball method through our 12 Steps to Financial Freedom course available for free at www.mydfree.org.

Day 11

by Black Star - ET

Everyone possesses something that can be exchanged for something of value. Whether it is a skill to be sold to an employer or a service that can be pitched to a business; everyone has something that someone is willing to pay them for.

For Rahab, her compensation required that she quickly learned how to charge a fee for services that were not her usual core business.

For us, it may involve taking a careful look at ourselves, thinking outside of the box, and figuring  out what we know how to do, and who will pay us to do it. If we do half as well as Rahab, we will do quite well for ourselves and our families.

At the Dfree Global Foundation’s Homecoming Conference in October 2018, one of the highlighted mainstage panel discussions was titled, The Seller’s Perspective. You can watch the recording here to learn how others have found smart ways to sell off items they did not need in order to generate surprisingly good income.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel @mydfree, to get full access to our archive of resources and receive notifications for new uploads.

Culled from Meditations for Financial Freedom Vol. 3. 

Day 10

by Black Star - ET

The earlier in life you can start saving, the more time you’ll have to take advantage of the power of compounding interest.  

The following chart illustrates monetary accumulation for two types of savers who want to retire by age 65.  

RED started saving $1,200.00 per year into a tax-deferred account (no taxes paid on interest) that paid 12% per year (compounded yearly) at the age of 18 for only 10 years.  

BLUE started saving $1,200.00 per year into a tax-deferred account that paid 12% per year (compounded yearly) but started at the age of 28 for 37 years (until he reached 65). 

RED contributed a total of $12,000. BLUE contributed a total of $45,600

RED accumulated $830,314.48 more than BLUE! 

The earlier you can start saving, the more time you’ll have to take advantage of the power of compounding interest. Even though BLUE put away almost four times more money than RED, RED had the advantage of time. 

Go to www.billiondollarpaydown.com to set your savings goal for the year and start tracking your savings immediately.  

Join the free Billion Dollar Challenge today where we are paying down 1 billion dollars in collective consumer debt.  You can also invite your family and friends to join you to do this together as a group. Ask us how.  Email info@mydfree.org or call 844-693-3733. 

Day 09

by Black Star - ET

When I graduated from high school, my family bought me a used car that I planned to take to college. At first, I would drive all week after having bought only one dollar worth of gas! Then, I received a gas credit card in the mail, and I started filling my tank every time I went to the gas station. 

My income had not increased. In fact, I had no income. But the card gave me more buying power. After one month, my gas credit card bill was $200. I made the minimum payment of $10 and that began a fifteen-year struggle with overspending, credit cards and debt. 

My story is similar to many Americans’ who are dealing with financial stress daily. The presence of overwhelming debt exists and is growing in every sector of American life. Not only is our nation drowning in debt, but American citizens have also become addicted to the use of credit cards, high interest loans and borrowing as a lifestyle.  

This is now a national problem that seems to have no boundaries. We will never own businesses, be prepared for emergencies, or leave a legacy for the future, if we are drowning in debt today. Getting out of debt is the first step toward financial freedom. 

We must check our spending habits to get control of all aspects of our finances.  This starts with developing a spending plan (Day 6) to live by, based on your income (Day 3) and your expenses (4). 

Enroll in the free Dfree 12 Steps to Financial Freedom course for guidance, relevant tools, and resources to help you check your financial habits.

Day 08

by Black Star - ET

There exist unlimited resources that offer advice and instruction on strategies for success. Once you have read a few of them, it becomes clear that there are certain themes central to all the strategies. One of those themes is the importance of creating and maintaining written goals.

It has been well researched and documented that those who have written goals are more likely to be successful than those who do not have written goals.

The warning that should always accompany this advice is that written goals should emerge from our innermost dreams and should be flexible enough to edit and amend when necessary. The biggest mistake one can make is to set a goal based on the expectations of others. Too many people live and die pursuing dreams that others have for them. 

The second big mistake one can make is to become a slave to a written plan. I am sure Joshua’s written plans did not specifically state he should walk around the locked gates of Jericho once a day for an entire week, and then walk around the wall seven times on the seventh day. Even though it was not what he had planned, it was the strategy God gave him. And Joshua’s willingness to do something that was not in his plan caused him to lead his people to victory.

Joshua had been preparing to fight in order to enter the city of Jericho. God gave him an alternative plan of action, though. It required neither bloodshed nor casualty, and it ultimately led them to victory! We should imitate Joshua and let God overrule our plans with better plans.

Culled from Meditations for Financial Freedom Vol. 2.

Day 07

by Black Star - ET

Anyone who takes their work seriously selects the right tools to enhance their performance no matter how major or menial the task.  This also applies to our finances.  For everything you aim to accomplish in relation to your money, you need to identify and choose the tools best suited for the goal. 

There now exists many types of electronic devices, apps, and gadgets you can employ for this purpose.  To complement these, dfree® Movement also provides free access to several tools, resources and partner organizations to help you plan your financial lifestyle.  

Other Resources 

Small Business Development Centers: Offer one-on-one counseling from people with long experience in aiding small business owners. These centers are a joint effort funded by both the U.S. Small Business Administration and individual states. They are often located in the Business Department at state colleges or universities.

SCORE: Matches entrepreneurs with executives who are expert in the field or related industry and have access to the resources the entrepreneur needs. 

United States Small Business Administration: Supports a network of assistance centers for specific small-business audiences, including women, veterans, exporters, and government contractors.

Local Government Business Centers: Each state has a small business support system. 

Trade associations and business groups: Nurture business development with a mix of online material and meetings, seminars, and mixers both on the national and local level.

An extensive list of free tools and resources is also available in the Dfree Lifestyle: 12 Steps to Financial Freedom Workbook. 

Day 06

by Black Star - ET

Did you know that 40% of American households spend more than they earn (Federal Reserve Bank), 61% of American households live paycheck to paycheck (CareerBuilder), and 57% of American households do not have a budget (Harris Interactive).

A budget is simply a plan for how you spend your money.  Many of us think we cannot afford to cut anything from our regular expenses.  Yet upon close analysis, we discover that we have expenses that zap money from our budgets without us noticing or without adding value to our lives. These are often incidental items that seem small at the moment, but can add up over time.

It is important to develop a spending plan to get control of your money and spending habits (Day 9).  Your spending plan must: 

  1. Reflect your needs vs. wants (Day 5) 
  2. Support your financial goals (Day 8).

Visit www.dfree.com today and go to Resources to get a free budgeting and other tools

Day 05

by Black Star - ET

There is a story about a young man who demanded his inheritance before his father died.  There are three things that are important to know about this young man:  

  1. He was impatient and could not wait until his father died to get his inheritance.
  2. When he got his inheritance, he took all his money with him to a distant location.
  3. When he got to his destination, he spent all his money on extravagant living.

 

When he found himself having to get a menial job, his life was miserable. After he hit rock bottom, he decided to go back to his father to ask for help. Fortunately, his father welcomed him home with open arms. This story has a wonderful ending that shows a parent’s unconditional love for his child.  However, this story also teaches us a lesson about our finances. The son’s problem was that he mismanaged all the money that he had been in such a hurry to get.   

I used to live just like this young man. I did not inherit a lot of money, but I did spend all the money I earned as soon as I got paid. I used to tell my dad, “I don’t know where my money goes.” It was as if my money left my house after I went to sleep at night!  I thought the solution was to make more money but having more money would have simply meant that I would be spending even more. I had to change my attitude about money and how I spent it. Once I did that, I began living completely differently to have a productive life. My recovery started with determining the difference between things that I wanted and things that I needed. 

Today’s exercise is to list and differentiate between what we need and what we want using the downloadable table below as a guide:

Downloadable Needs vs. Wants Table