by Elisabeth Donati | Sep 18, 2009 | Financial Literacy, Latest News, Uncategorized
I get questions from my database all of the time about what to do in this situation or that. Here’s a simple one from a person who has a relative in a bit of a bind…
EMAIL:
Hi Elisabeth –
Can you recommend a reputable debt counseling service? A family member has about double the credit card debt they can handle and is looking to cut the montlhly payments in half if possible…
Thank you!
MY ANSWER TO THE PERSON:
I have talked to several credit card and debt experts over the past couple of years. From what I have learned, it is actually better for whoever it is to go directly to the credit card company and tell them that they can not handle the payments or interest or both.
They generally send that person to a ‘special’ department (let’s call it the “Let’s Make a Deal” department) and that department’s job is to help negotiate a better payback situation for the customer.
If the relative hasn’t paid on the account in a bit, then it may be even better because after a few months in collections, they are willing to deal.
When you go through a debt consolidator, you end up paying even more for THEIR services. This is what I know…
And for a great book on credit cards and debt, look into You Can Profit From Your Credit Cards by Curtis Arnold. It’s available on Amazon and a very good read.
by Elisabeth Donati | Aug 24, 2009 | Latest News, Uncategorized
This weekend I had the extreme pleasure of spending time with my son, Andrew, now 25. He is fully 100% responsible for himself and I’m very proud to be him mom.
Several things were great about the visit and watching him be the man he was meant to be.
First, he was very happy to pay for things for both his grandma and me while he was here. It was great knowing that he was doing the right things with his money and seeing him in action as an adult. Men naturally love to provide for the ones they love and having him ‘take a little care of mom’ while he was here was very refreshing!
The other thing that was great was that during his childhood, both his dad and I were (and still are) very physically active. So while he was here we worked out together, swam laps in the beautiful Juniper Swim and Fitness Center in Bend, Oregon, took a 5 mile talk around and up Pilot Butte and finally spent some time hitting a couple of buckets of golf balls.
I hear parents complain about their adult children quite a lot and I wonder how it got to be that way. If you have children who haven’t left home, ask yourself what types of activities they like that you could learn so as to be able to do these activities with them when they come visit you later?
Just something to think about…
by Elisabeth Donati | Jul 16, 2009 | Latest News, Uncategorized
I often asked myself the following question: “What could I share with my wonderful readers to make their day more pleasant, more peaceful, more inspired?”
In order to answer the question, I ask myself what would make my own day more pleasant, more peaceful, more inspired. Here’s what I came up with:
1) Remember to smile at something simple. This helps remind us that it is ALL simple; it’s only our minds that make things complicated.
2) Remember to do something that pleases you each day. It’s the people that seem to truly enjoy their lives that we want to be around.
3) Remember to do a little today to plan for tomorrow; just in case you’re still around to enjoy it!
4) Remember that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Whatever your goal, focus on reaching it one step at time.
5) Remember to leave something or someone in better shape than you found it or them.
6) Remember that you have to power to choose your prospective each day. You can approach life as a firefighter who constantly puts out fires or as an architect who carefully designs the life he wants to experience.
7) Remember to stop each night, right before falling asleep, to count your blessings.
8) Remember to go to bed early and see how much easier it is to do the first 7 things on this list!
Enjoy…
by Elisabeth Donati | Jul 4, 2009 | Financial Literacy Principles, Latest News, Uncategorized
Written by Elisabeth Donati & Steve Gordon
If you’re like many people, you trudge from one task to the next; rarely considering that the life you crave so desperately is only a realization away. Most people are completely oblivious to the power that’s available.
The power to create the life you want is enormous! By simply flipping the right switch it’s possible to ignite the machinery that moves your life from your own personal level of desperation to a life filled with love, purpose, warm fuzzies, all while realizing the fulfillment of your life’s most passionate desires.
Wise people throughout history have learned how to break their own cycle of self-imposed slavery by mastering the following Five Degrees of Freedom.
1) Freedom of Environment
2) Freedom of Family and community
3) Freedom of Money
4) Freedom of Thought
5) Freedom from Meaning
Let’s explore the freedoms one at a time…
1) Freedom of Environment
The first degree of Freedom happens when we’re born in a country, state, city or neighborhood that has, as its basis for existence, support for basic human rights: freedom to say what we want, write what we think, sing what we feel, read what appeals to us, print what we can imagine, act upon our choices and be free to experience the natural effects of those choices.
This degree of Freedom includes our right to pursue happiness, have access to basics such as clean water, clean air, access to education, transportation, the ability to travel about and the security to move freely without threat.
2) Freedom of Family and Community
The second degree of Freedom comes when you’re born, or adopted, into a family that lives in a community of people that loves you, cares about your growth as an individual, empowers you to be your best and to step up and be a leader of your world.
This type of freedom includes the space and encouragement for you to grow into who you’re meant to be in this world.
3) Freedom of Money
The third degree of Freedom comes from being able to develop the financial resources that enable you to do anything and everything you wish as an adult. You have this freedom because you learned how to make, manage and multiply your money wisely.
This freedom includes knowing how to leverage your time, energy and money to make more money. You choose what you do and when you do it. You also recognize that this type of freedom manifests itself in a larger way when what you do includes helping others.
4) Freedom of Thought
The fourth degree of Freedom comes from developing a deep knowing that the first three degrees of FREEDOM are insignificant without freedom of thought. Freedom of thought means not only recognizing that you have complete control over choosing your thoughts but you also realizing that you have 100% responsibility for all of your thought.
Some people have been locked up in jail or in concentration camps for years at a time came to realize that as long as they were able to control their thoughts, they were free.
Many human beings never experience this freedom. They never realize they are making it all up; that THEY alone have the power to change what’s happening by simply changing the paradigm though which they SEE the world. Most people are slaves to the world they live in rather than becoming masters of their own universes.
5) Freedom from Meaning
The last, and ultimately the most powerful degree of Freedom comes in two parts.
The first part comes from understanding that nothing has meaning except the meaning you give it. In other words, you understand that your entire experience comes from the meaning you give things.
Human beings are meaning-making machines. The problem is that we often ascribe meaning to things, people, events and situations that cause us to have negative, unsupportive emotions. When you begin to realize that the chair you’re sitting in has no meaning and then the car you’re driving in has no meaning, and finally, everything else in the world ultimate has no meaning aside from the meaning you’re giving it, you begin to see how you can simply choose meaning that brings incredible the love, peace and warm fuzzies you desire.
The second part of this freedom comes when you have the ability to make this lack of meaning perfectly OK. This is when you finally begin to smile and wonder why everything is the way it is instead of knowing how things should be. This is when you finally decide that since you’re making it all up anyway, you might as well make it mean something wonderful.
When developing the last three degrees of freedom, you realize that rather than incessantly recycling old, out-dated thoughts, you have a ability to creatively choose new thoughts starting with I AM statements: I am healthy, I am well, I am so darn sexy I can hardly stand it.
Many people have not yet recognized that the drama that defines their lives begins in their minds each day. Each evening you go to bed, close your eyes and go to sleep to rest the skin you’re in. Each morning you have the power, the ability and the FREEDOM to choose which part in the grand play you’re going to assume and how you’re going to participate in that part, i.e., partially or fully.
Each day you have the FREEDOM to get up and choose to be happy, get up and make a difference, move about your world in awe of its beauty, slow down long enough to appreciate what you DO have instead of complain about what you do NOT have.
Each day you have the FREEDOM to breath, smile and touch someone’s life in a profound way. But you only have this FREEDOM if you realize it’s completely up to you.
A very wise person once said, “If I’d known that life was a do-it-yourself project, I’d started on it a long time ago!”
Let this day be more than just another Fourth of July, rather, let it become your INDEPENDENCE Day and celebrate all of YOUR freedoms.
Just something to think about!
by Elisabeth Donati | Jun 13, 2009 | Coaches Corner, Latest News, Uncategorized
You know how you find certain people who help you more than anyone else ever has? Call him or her a coach or a mentor or just a friend. Well, Harlan Kilstein is one of those people to me.
Harlan Kilstein is a coach and in a few short months, I’ve learned a ton about business and marketing from him. Harlan loves to watch people improve their lives, their businesses and make a bigger impact on the world in whatever they do.
Who is this person for you? Is there someone in your life that you call for advice before everyone else? Is there someone who’s advice you respect above all else? When you know who this person is, reach out and say ‘thanks’ to this person.
Part of being wealthy is having a wealth of friends, mentors and coaches who help you bring your dreams to fruition. When you have several of these people, it’s a very grateful sort of thing.
Who are you grateful for today?
