HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?

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 give you 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 slate.) 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 investment, NOT a debt.

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 you will 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 a guide in drafting 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 myself 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 is clear. I am aware that this is not the figure I had previously agreed to pay you, but I’m 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 kind cooperation.
Have a wonderful day!
Sincerely
John Doe
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 “pat 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 savings account.
3) You are paying yourself.
4) You have an 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 remainder of this book.
From 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 your 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 cylinders. 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 to your destination; and you will certainly be able to enjoy the scenery along the way!
If you find that the task of getting your financial world in 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 area of serious “financial planning.”
Therefore, you should seek out a competent financial counselor, in much the same manner as you would seek assistance, in matters 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.
I had the pleasure of being instrumental in the start-up of just such a company, in the city of Toronto, Canada in 1979 (the name of the company is The McCrary Group). Today the company has almost five thousand happy clients, who are well on their way to financial independence. The McCrary Group makes all of its clients very aware of an interesting financial fact, which I would like to share with you at this time.
This fact is, people fall into three distinct categories with respect to “finances”:
1. Deficit position (in debt),
2. Break-even position (just getting by, but debt-free),
3. 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 is 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 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 the new habit of living by that new plan.
The next chapter, “The Image Maker,” will help you to understand how and why you must begin to see yourself already earning that new figure. But for the time being, just bear in mind that as your income increases, the ten percent you are saving increases and the twenty percent that is going into your DCA increases, which means that you will be able to retire your debts faster. Furthermore, you will then be left with 90% of your income on which to live. (I can see you getting excited about this idea already!)