How Much Is Enough (Chapter V)

Debt Clearance Account

Whatever money you earn Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, should go directly into your Debt Clearance Account. This represents twenty percent of your income. You should also sit down and draft a letter which will you send to all of your creditors, advising them of your plan.

However before you mail the letter, you should first draw up a list of your creditors to determine what proportion of this twenty percent each of them would receive. It could conceivably be more money than they are presently receiving, or it could be less; but whichever way it works out, that will be the sum of money they will each receive. Nevertheless, whatever sum they do receive, they will receive it regularly, on the stipulated dates.
The following is a sample letter you could use as guide in drifting your own letter :

Dear Whomever:
As you know, I am in debt to you for $_____, and I intend to pay you in full, plus interest. In order to achieve this goal, I have been devising a plan during the past few days to put my self in a stable financial position. To this end, I have opened a Debt Clearance Account (DCA), and twenty percent of my income is going directly into that account. That will enable me to have sufficient resources to live on, without worry or stress, and it will prevent me from falling further into debt.
Each week (or month) you will receive a check for $_____ from my DCA, until my account with you will clear. I am aware that this is not the figure I had previously agreed to pay you, but I am sure you will be understanding, and appreciate what I am doing.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. I am quite excited about my new plans and if you would like to have me review them with you so that you might help others who are in your debt, I would be pleased to do so.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Have a wonderful day!
Sincerely

ABCDE

Understand that your letter to your creditor is a statement of fact and not a request-it is you who is in charge of your finances, not your creditors!

Be sure to have your letters neatly typed and enclose your first new payment with your covering letter. Realize there is an outside chance that some unreasonable person will not want to cooperate with you. They might even go so far as to phone you and attempt to intimidate you with threats of taking you to court, etc. But please hold your ground, because there is no court in the country that would not congratulate you, when you explained your entire plan for Financial Independence. Moreover, you will find that 95% of the people, to whom you write, will be most cooperative.

Now give yourself a good path on the back, because as of this moment, you are well on your way to starting a completely new way of life!
Let's briefly review what you have accomplished thus far :

1. You have an instant estate if anything should happen to you
   
2. You have a saving account
   
3. You are paying yourself
4. You have orderly debt repayment program
5. You have 70% of your income to live on; to run the house and for entertainment
6. Your mind is clear to carry on with the big ideas coming your way in the reminder of this article

For this moment on, never think debt again. Remember, that has all been taken care of -so just focus on your savings account, and watch it grow. Repeat-I am wealthy; Money is good; I use money and I love people.

Metaphorically speaking, getting your present finances in order is very similar to having you automobile tuned up for a journey which you are about to take. Realize that as of this moment, you are tuned up for your journey. And, Although you might only be earning "x" number of dollars per year presently, you must see yourself, on the screen of your mind, already earning the new annual income which you have calculated you need, to buy the things you want, in order to live the way you choose to live.

If you are seriously interested in becoming financially independent and you have not yet acted on the preceding ideas, I would strongly recommend you do so now. For to continue on to the next chapter, without having done so, would be comparable to leaving on your journey with your car firing on only half its cylinder. You can be almost certain that your automobile will break down, preventing you from reaching your desired destination. But by making certain that everything is properly tuned up, you can relax and adopt a calm, serene attitude, knowing that you will get your destination; and you will certain be able to enjoy the scenery along the way!

If you find that the task of getting your financial world on good order for this exciting journey is something which you are not able to do alone, I would strongly suggest you seek out professional assistance. (This is something that almost all wealthy people do.) That is to say, wealthy individuals follow the advice of financial experts. It is similar in principle to the idea that if a person's body were sick, he or she would likely seek out a skilled physician for advice. Moreover, you should also keep in mind that even healthy people, if they are wise, periodically go to a doctor for a checkup. In other words, you do not always need to get sick in order to get better. It has already been brought to your attention that very few people ever develop real expertise in the are of serious financial planning.

Therefore, you should seek out a competent financial counselor, in much the same manner as you would seek assistance, in matter of a legal nature. There are companies that provide this type of financial service in every city. In some places they are not too easy to find; but they are there, if you will only look for them.

Fact is people fall into three distinct categories with respect to finances: Deficit position (in debt), Break-even position ( just getting by, but debt free), Surplus position. It would be very easy to trick oneself into believing, that if one were in category one or two, all one must do is earn more money, and then one would automatically graduate into the third category. But of course, this is not necessarily true. For if a person in a deficit financial position, it means they are in the habit of spending more money than they earn. Similarly, if they are in a break-even position, they are in the habit of spending everything they earn. Since we are all creatures of habit, it follows that earning more money would not necessarily change our overall financial position. It is very vitally important, that when you decide how much is enough, you also design a new financial plan or have one designed for you which will force you to discipline yourself -at least for a month or two- until you form a new habit of living by that new plan.

How Much Is Enough (Chapter IV)

"Most people think they want more money than they really do, and they settle for a lot less than they could get" (Earl Nightingale)

For you to get this prosperity concept into high gear, you must be specific -exactly how much money do you want? Remember, you are working with your subconscious mind and the subconscious does not think. It merely accepts images and then moves them into form. So for you to say, I want "lotsa money" isn't good enough, because no one, least of all the subconscious mind, know how much "lotsa" is.

I strongly recommended that you get very serious about this chapter, because the idea it contains could literally change your life. But understand that thinking, by itself, is not enough -you must move into action. There are certain things you must do and the first one is to decide how much money you want. For you to answer this question, it would probably be a good idea for you to decide what you want the money for. But to simply say, "I want the money to live on," is not good enough. You should realize that our society structured in such a way that the government will keep you. In fact, in the most places, they will even mail a check to you -you can sit at home and still receive a living wage.

At this point you are probably saying to yourself, "Oh yes, I know that, but I want to live better than that." Well, let's get specific how much better? Bearing in mind that this kind of an exercise is going to required some serious planning on your part, get out a sheet of paper and draw up a list of all the things or activities, that you plan to spend money on over the course of the next year. To assist you in getting started with your list, I have outlined several sample categories below:
Food, Rent/Mortgage, Clothes, Automobile, Utilities, Education, Vacations, Recreations, Insurance, Savings.
Understandably, these are just a few of the many possibilities; so keep working on your own list until it is complete. And remember, you do not fill in the amounts you are now spending. Rather, you take each item on the list, visualize how you want to live and then fill in the amount of money it will cost you to do so. For example, you might only go out to a nice restaurant to dine on a very special occasions, but you might visualize yourself spending a very enjoyable evening out dinner once a week, where the service is excellent, the food is even better, and the environment is fit for royalty. How much would that cost? That is the figure you're looking for.

You should be driving a car that is getting old and is showing signs of rust, but you must visualize yourself driving a brand new car of your choice, that you trade every year or two. How much would that cost? Remember, you do not have a contract to live forever, nor is this a practice run -this is your life and you should enjoy it to the fullest extent humanly possible! Therefore, you should have the amount of money you need, to provide the things you want, to live the way you choose to live.

Let me caution you -it would not be unusual for your mind to be playing tricks on you at this point. You could be thinking, "This is really crazy. I'm never going to have the money to live the way this article suggests." I want to remind you, however, that there are many people who do have enough money to live the way this article suggest -and they weren't born with it- and no one left it to them. They were Born to Rich in the sense of having the God giving potential to succeed (everyone is), but like most people, they were at one time short of money. Understand that you too can succeed, and you will, if you will only do as this article suggests.

As I am writing this article, I feel compelled to digress for a few lines, to remind you that you have a great resources of talent and ability locked up, within you, just waiting to be expressed. In this vein, I can vividly recall listening to a tape a number of years ago, that Earl Nightingale made on Attitude. I must have listened to the tape literally hundreds of times and there was a part on it where he said, "Now, right here we come to a rather strange fact. We tend to minimize the things we can do, the goals we can reach, and yet, for some equally strange reason, we think others can do things that we cannot." Earl went on to say, "I want you to know that that is not true. You do have deep reservoirs of talent and ability within you, and you can have the things you want."

I wouldn't even want to speculate on how many times I heard that section, without really understanding what he meant; and then one day I heard it, and every cell in my brain seemed to resonated with the truth of what he said. I suddenly realize what he was driving at and I knew deep down inside of me, if they can do it, so can I, if I am willing to pay the price. Please understand you too can do it, because what Earl had to say is as true of you as it was of me. But part of the price for you, is to figure out .....


How Much Is Enough?
Don't just pull a figure out of the sky. Do it right -because when you're finished you will be glad you did. Moreover, this exercise will also help you to develop a more discipline mind. At this point you might be thinking this section doesn't even concern you, because you are already too deeply in debt to start accumulating a size able amount of money. But you will be happy to know, we have a great idea which will help you deal with that problem as well. Furthermore, you will be delighted to know that in many situations-and yours may be one of them- a person can become wealthy, even if he or she never earns any more money than they are earning currently. That thought alone should give you the encouragement you need to continue reading.

By now you should have completed your list and arrived at a figure; so take pen to a paper and write that number down in big bold figures. Now, clear your mind of that idea and move on with me to another very important idea. Realize that although this idea might no apply specially to you -at least at the present time- it certainly will apply to many readers. Moreover, even if it does not apply to your particular situation, it is worth thinking through anyway, because you certainly have many friends and associates it does apply and you will be able to share it with them.
I am going to explain this idea to you as if you were a married person with a family to support and you are either the sole breadwinner or an important contributor.

Now one of the principal reasons for wanting the amount of money you desire is to provide for your family, and not just in an adequate manner. After all, you want them to live life to its fullest. Realize, therefore, that as long as you live and are able to follow the plan outlined in this article, you will be able to do as you want with respect to your family. However, if you really stop and think about it, you will very likely agree that you would want your family to live the good life, even if you were suddenly removed from the picture-wouldn't you? Jokingly you might say, "No, who cares if I'm gone." But this is not a joking matter. This is a very serious matter. Of course you care-I know it and so do you!

Now, if you're alive and healthy, you will create this wealth for your estate. But what if you die or are permanently disabled? Well, our society has taken care of that situation as well; we have Life Insurance and we have Disability Insurance.

But, let's get back to your thinking again-you might be saying to yourself, Life Insurance, what a rip-off. This guy Bob Proctor really doesn't know where he is coming from. Therefore, I can assure you that when I say approximately 95% of the people whom you talk to are almost completely ignorant when it comes to the subject of insurance, I am not talking through my hat. Granted, many of these people hold important positions in business and industry, in government, or in the profession, and because of their positions, it would be very easy to just assume they know of whence they speak. But the sad fact of the matter is, many of them are either badly misinformed or completely uninformed when it comes to the important subject of life insurance.

Understand this - there is no way to replace your income and create a certain and instant estate other than life insurance; and statistic indicated that although most people are insured, the vast majority of people (at least 90%) are dangerously under-insured. That is to say, when they die, most people leave behind only enough money to cover their family's living expanses for one year! The unfortunate part is, that is for relatively small sum of money, these people could have had their financial affairs set up in such a way that if something did happen to them, their financial goals would be reached by their families automatically.


Bloom Were You Are Planted-Start Now
When do you start to live this good life? Is that the question you are beginning to ask yourself? You start now.
Start by answering the following question:

• How often do you pay your phone bill?
• How often do you pay your rent or mortgage?
  
• How often do you pay your grocery store?
• How often do you pay for gas for your car?
• How often do you pay your doctor?
• How often do you pay yourself?

That last question seem like a strange one, doesn't it? But do you realize that less than 5 people in every 100 ever pay themselves. And, if you were to ask the other 95 why they don't, they would probably tell you that by the time they pay everyone else, there is nothing left for themselves! Clearly, those 4 or 5 people in every 100 who do "pay themselves," have found a way around this problem. Although the idea which they are employing has been around for centuries, hardly everyone today is aware of it. What is that idea, you ask? Simply put it is this: "They Pay Themselves First!"


A Part of All You Earn Is Yours To Keep
If you think about it, you must admit this law, or principle, makes a lot of good sense. Therefore, let me repeat it "A part of all you earn is your to keep!" More specially, what you earn Monday morning is yours to keep, so it should go directly into a special account that you do not have easy access to.


Your Financial Independence Account
What you earn on Monday morning probably represents ten percent of you income. Therefore, you should pay yourself at least that ten percent, right off the top (i.e, not after everyone else has been paid).
From your Financial Independence Account, you first pay your insurance premium, because that instrument creates your Instant Estate. The remainder of the money then goes into savings, until such time as you have accumulated enough capital to make a wise investment. Remember, you do not touch this account or the interest it will yield. Therefore, within a very short period of time, you will witness sufficient progress to gain the motivation and inspiration which you need to continue. Moreover, the knowledge that you have an Instant Estate, if anything should happen to you, will you give additional serenity of mind.


Orderly Debt Repayment Program
You could already have debts that seem to be eating up your entire paycheck, leaving nothing for yourself. But understand this-these debts can be retired. (Although the amount of debt you have incurred will, of course, determine the length of time it will take you to clear the state.) And , for the purposes of the following discussion, you must consider your mortgage or house payment (probably one of your largest monthly payments), as an invest, NOT a debt.