Back on December 16th, I wrote a long diatribe about the need to begin making the USA debt free, and that begins with making ourselves as individuals debt free. I’ve been researching this for the last 2 years, and have found some very usefull online resources that will help each and every one of us do just that – Barbara & I have already done it.
The very first thing you need to do is re-think your consumer debt. Basically, don’t use credit for anything. Why pay someone else 6% interest (or up to 24% on some credit cards) when the most you can earn in a savings account is 1.25%???? You automatically give yourself a net pay raise by just eliminating the drain of interest charges!
Next, make sure that you are “paying yourself first” every payday. That means that you are taking at least 5% of your GROSS pay (not net, or after-tax) and putting it aside for your future well-being. You don’t spend it for anything – this will be the money you use for your investments, once there is enough there to start investing. When you become debt free, increase this to at least 10% of your Gross income, and when your finances are better off, I’ve heard of people who pushed it up over 40%. It should be as much as you can comfortably afford to make it, but never less than 5% to start with. This isn’t the money put into Social Security for you by the government, either. This is money YOU set aside, YOU control, and YOU invest. This is about YOU being responsible for YOUR future.
Now, when you have money to invest, what do you do with it? Well, I have a few sources I’ve looked to over the past 3 years that have proven to be far more valuable than all the books, tapes, and self-help seminars put together. These sources are self-made multi-millionaires who made their money entirely by investing. I include contact info below so that you can check them out yourselves.
The first I would recommend is called “Early To Rise” – yes, it’s a daily, and it is edited by Michael Masterson.
To BECOME AN EARLY TO RISE MEMBER, please visit: http://www.earlytorise.com or email support@earlytorise.com
The next is called “Investment U” – and is edited by Dr. Steve Sjuggerud (the Dr. is because he has a doctorate in economics – not an M.D.)
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud is the editor of Steve Sjuggerud’s True Wealth and has been a member of the OC Investment Advisory Panel for more than six years. http://www.InvestmentU.com
If you would like more info about True Wealth: http://www.truewealth.com/
Good luck on making your dreams come true!
Vernon Pope 
I hear you, Jordan. Loud and Clear. The good news is that, for people my age and younger (that includes you) President Bush’s plan to reform SS will include letting us take some of the money in our accounts to become investors. Some, not all. It’s not a perfect solution, but there really isn’t one, since SS was insolvent from the beginning. It was already paying out benefits the first year it was implemented. They managed to keep it going because the “baby boomers” (of which my class was about officially the last) were the larger population, and therefore were paying in more than the government was paying out. However, by 2018, that is going to go belly up, and the government knows it. By 2040, at current population rates, it looks like retirees will out-number workers by nearly 3-2.
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