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    Paycheck to Paycheck, Crisis to Crisis: Plan Your Way to Freedom: Thinking About Investing, #1
    Paycheck to Paycheck, Crisis to Crisis: Plan Your Way to Freedom: Thinking About Investing, #1
    Paycheck to Paycheck, Crisis to Crisis: Plan Your Way to Freedom: Thinking About Investing, #1
    Ebook93 pages1 hour

    Paycheck to Paycheck, Crisis to Crisis: Plan Your Way to Freedom: Thinking About Investing, #1

    By Mel Clark

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    About this ebook

    Using the principles, concepts, tools and methods explained in "Paycheck to Paycheck, Crisis to Crisis" you can "Plan Your Way to Freedom". 

    The practical methods and real life examples will show you how to turn your financial life around from living paycheck to paycheck and crisis to crisis to first having a cushion and finally enjoying freedom from financial stress. 

    Borrowing from many perspectives of financial planning, Mel Clark tweaked them and developed his own unique views as he reinvented his financial life following divorce and bankruptcy.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherClear Thinking LLC
    Release dateFeb 8, 2016
    ISBN9781524265113
    Paycheck to Paycheck, Crisis to Crisis: Plan Your Way to Freedom: Thinking About Investing, #1
    Author

    Mel Clark

    Mel Clark writes about personal finance, retirement planning, and martial arts. His blue-collar union family parents raised him and his two sisters in a wonderful environment for children. However, the family was always in debt, always making payments, and never saving. As a result, Mel feels called to share hard-won money lessons with working folks. He wants them to understand they can benefit from saving and investing. They don’t have to be rich to achieve financial independence. He and his lovely wife Linda live near Virginia’s Blue Ridge Parkway. They enjoy ballroom dancing, the occasional camping trip and a silly game called Bananagrams. Mel is graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

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      Book preview

      Paycheck to Paycheck, Crisis to Crisis - Mel Clark

      SECTION 1: Introduction

      Living paycheck to paycheck, more like crisis to crisis, is very stressful. Where will the money come from to buy that new set of tires? To pay this doctor's bill?

      It's depressing. It's destructive to your self-esteem. You feel inadequate. You're ashamed that you can't take better care of your family.

      You don't even want to think about retirement.

      There's Social Security, right? But will it be there for you? Will it be enough? Will you end up another bag lady or working until you fall into the grave?

      You know you need to get control of your finances - your money. Right now, it's in control of you. But how to do it? It's hard.

      Save for retirement? Don't make me laugh. With what money? Everything you make goes to pay bills.

      I know how it feels. I really do. I've been there and done that - I've got the Tee shirt.

      SECTION 2: Why Should You Listen to Me?

      I'm a pretty smart guy with a couple of degrees. But that doesn't matter. A bunch of PhD’s, some with Nobel Prizes on a shelf in their den, caused the 2008 Global Financial meltdown and the 1998 meltdown as well.

      And remember Timothy Geithner? Our former Freaking Secretary of the Treasury who testified before Congress that he failed to pay his income taxes because he couldn't figure out the Turbo Tax software package?

      Not to worry though. It doesn't take a degree to get control of your money. The fact is, a degree doesn't even help very much.

      Everything that's worth knowing about managing your money is pure common sense.

      Definition: Common sense is a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things, which is shared by nearly all people, and can be reasonably expected of nearly all people without any need for debate even if they can’t explain why.

      What is required is a little thought, and a lot of self-discipline.

      And here's the rub. Common sense isn't all that common (especially among the PhD crowd) and self-discipline is rare indeed.

      I'm not a Certified Financial Planner. I'm not a Certified Public Accountant. And, most assuredly I'm not licensed to sell you insurance, stocks, or mutual funds.

      I'm a guy who's made most of the personal financial mistakes one can make and lived to tell about it.

      I'm also a guy who's learned from my mistakes and who has educated himself about how money works by reading lots of books.

      And, I've tested what I've read using controlled experiments with my own money. Some of what I’ve read I feel sure will work for other people, but it didn't work for me. Some of what I’ve read and tried worked really well for me.

      I don't claim to have tried everything, nor do I know everything about money. I doubt I could get a job with the Federal Reserve.

      On the other hand, I find that I actually know quite a lot that is both practical and usable by common, down to earth people who are trying to improve their lives.

      Are the things that work easy and simple? Well, they're simple enough to learn and easy enough to do if you can exercise that bit of self-discipline required.

      Want to know why I'm doing this?

      I'm a little proud that I found the self-discipline and the knowledge to turn around my own financial life. And that feels pretty good.

      I've also helped a small business owner who was deeply in debt turn around her business and get out of debt. And that feels pretty good too.

      I believe I have something useful to share, and if I can help someone else turn around their life; why, I think that would feel pretty good.

      Along the way, I'd like to sell some books. I think that would feel pretty good too.

      So, how could I not write this book and hope that you'll buy it and turn around your financial life because of it?

      SECTION 3: How Does it Look and Feel to Have Your Financial Life Turned Around?

      Turning your financial life around doesn't mean life's a dream. I still have problems, believe me. Just ask my wife.

      Sometimes she and I argue. I hate that.

      Sometimes I don't like what I have to do in my job.

      Often I have to put off buying something I'd really like to have because it's just not in the budget.

      Occasionally, I have to completely dismiss the idea of buying something I want because, realistically, it's never going to be in the budget.

      If I lose my job there's a limit on how much time I have to get another.

      Sometimes our cars break down and sometimes the house needs a repair.

      But ...

      I can pay my bills without worrying that the check might bounce.

      I don't have to choose which bills to pay and which to let go until next month.

      I don't have to keep charging things on my credit card carrying increasingly higher balances from one month to the next.

      I don't have to worry about maxing out my credit card limit.

      I don't have to decide not to go to the doctor because there is no money for the insurance copay.

      I'm no longer concerned that I

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