OK turn it up by 100 and you’ll have the deafening yell of my wife as I explained to her my brilliant plan and epiphany.

Yeh, THAT LOUD.

You’d think after my long hours of research dedication and moments of inspiration she’d be quite happy to get on board with everything, but no, not the likely.

In fact I was reminded of how many brilliant plans I had before, how I’ve been inspired before and about the graveyard of plans and million dollar schemes that lay dead somewhere on my laptop.

I could feel my heart sink and for a moment all types of emotions ran through my mind.

I was angry!

I was confused!

I was saddened!

And I felt broken!

Deep down inside I knew she was right for feeling this way, but I also felt that this time would be different.

It kinda felt like when you ran to your parents when you were little, showing them the shiny new bike Johnny Taylor got for his birthday and that you wanted one. Only to have your mom yell “Hell No! Didn’t you just break the new toy we gave you? No No No!”

I guess that only happened to me, but still… I felt broken inside.

And for the first time I felt like I had no partner, no wing woman. This time I was to go this trip alone.

Who could blame her though, there were tons of pipe dreams, tons of stories, tons of moments where we thought this was the moment.

I went back to my office with my tail curled between my legs, reached under my desk for a bottle of scotch and poured myself strong one.

Without support of my wife, what was I now to do?

Was it time to give up dreaming?

- Will

Image by Tim PopUp

But don’t worry, I’m not going to go from miserable and broke to pitching you the latest and greatest in wealth building.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich like I mentioned was the book I bought and spent hours and hours tearing to shreds, trying to drain every ounce of life saving and money saving tip possible.

I mean, our “situation” had me extremely desperate and this seemed to be the answer to my nightmares. Well it was at least a first step in that direction. And a step by step guide is what I needed at the time to get me started.

Imagine sitting in the middle of the night, propping up your eyes with matchsticks, with an IV filled with Red Bull strapped to your arm, just so you could get through every chapter.

Yes that was me, but the book made it an easy task, because it was so interesting to read. I actually got so much out of it from the beginning straight through ’til the end that I was so excited to get started. This sounded so doable and even better, for a lazy person like myself, it didn’t take a ton of work.

I practically did the majority of the work the book suggested by digging into all my account details to find out where we stood as a family with our debt and expenses.

What a relief though, because I felt as if there was no hope, but maybe, maybe if I did a few of these little things, we could get beyond this mountain of debt.

The fantastic thing about I Will Teach You to Be Rich was that it didn’t come up with the same old message of, save save save. Don’t eat that 1o cent cookie or you will live a life destined as a 90 year old greeter at Walmart. What Ramit (Yes we’re great friends now after one read) did was, create some dead simple steps for you to follow to cut things out of your life you don’t really care about, set your life on automatic and even gave you blueprints to as he said “Negotiate like an Indian.”

I read all that I could, flipped every page, made extensive notes, glanced at a few infomercials playing in the background and got through to the end of the book while the sun rose and the birds started to chirp.

It felt like a whole new life and a whole new day was ahead of me.

I couldn’t wait to tell my wife about this fantastic book that was going to change our lives.

The minute she woke up I yelled “Babe I’ve got a plan that’s going to make everything better.”

You wouldn’t believe the response she gave me when I told her this. I was shocked!

- Will

Image by AMagill

A friend sent me this video about America’s Cheapest Family and surviving the current economic meltdown.

It all sounds very interesting to me right now, especially with all my debt.

Sounds like it takes a lot of discipline doesn’t it?

Watch and enjoy!

On their blog, they have a couple more tips on surviving the current financial crisis.

- Will

From the outside looking in you’d think that life was all great. A nice house, private school for the kids, nice clothes, foreign SUV and loads of empty containers from the fanciest of restaurants.

Yes, faking the American Dream and living the American Nightmare.

Something had to be done though, but what?

The day after we faced our finances was a Sunday and despite all the different distractions, I couldn’t help but think about the 300 thousand pound elephant in the room. Everytime I blinked it was there drooling, getting ready to devour me like a bag of honey roasted peanuts.

I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to run off to my place of peace and serenity, Borders! I grabbed my laptop and dashed out the house without a word to anymore. I just had to figure this all out.

However, on the way to Borders I was tormented every step of the way.

Would you like the Sunday Paper sir?

Mmmmmm, Starbucks!

Buy Me, Buy Me, Buy Me!

I felt like there were money gremlins all over trying to eat away at the little crumbs of money I had left.

Help!!!

Finally, I made it in safe and sound, wallet and cards still intact. It seems just the other day I would have given in to all those treats, but today was different. I was so afraid to even spend an extra cent.

But wouldn’t you feel the same if your life was bleeding cash from all possible seems and crevices?

I plopped down and fired up the old laptop to see if I could find anything that could help me take on this financial challenge. Even though we got into debt all on our own, we had to find someone or some information to help us get out. We definitely couldn’t ask friends and family, that’s just too embarrassing. It’s a great thing they have this internet thing, because that’s where I turned to.

I scoured as many sites and blogs as I could, and then I went over to Amazon to see what other books they recommended in relation to the book that had created this financial hysteria in the first place.

What’s this?

I Will Teach You to Be Rich?

Sounded kinda scammy to me, but it was at least worth a quick look. And I’m glad I decided not to brush off the title, because the next 2 hours were two of the best eye opening hours of my life. Other than that time, at that place, with those ladies. A different kind of eye opening.

It so happened that the author Ramit Sethi had a related blog for the book in question and it had some very great information on how to go about getting your finances under control and getting out of debt. Without all the guilt I might add.

This was fantastic information, you mean you could spend thousands on eating out and partying and still be rich? How come everyone doesn’t know this?

I devoured as much of the blog as I could, acting like starved lunatic unleashed at an all you can eat buffet. Yes a massacre.

BUT… time was running short and my wife was blowing up my phone wondering if I ran away, never to come back. I mean I thought about it, but that would have been a bit cowardly wouldn’t it?

So for the first time that day I reached into my pocket and decided I had to get this book from Ramit. I mean he had a bunch of testimonials on his site and tons of blog comments and if they could get value from his book, then I could too. The title of the book did sound very suspect, but one read of his blog had me sold. Real valuable information that I had to get my hands on.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

I purchased the book and ran home and once everyone got in bed, I spent hours upon hours ’til the wee hours of the morning reading every sing page of this book.

I just couldn’t put it down!

- Will

Image by twid

I figured I’d better get started before I lost my fire and energy.

You’ve probably been there before yourself. Get a little inspiration then decide to put it off ’til tomorrow and then as you know, tomorrow never comes.

Then you get busy with watching Family Guy, then you have to mow the lawn and then of course there’s the game to go to. I mean priorities people, priorities.

So I decided to go the other route and focus on the right things this time. However what I found out was frightening, at that point I wished I was watching Stewie trying to off his mother on Family Guy.

How the hell did this happen?

We’re how much in debt?

I started my journey, pulling up all my credit card statements, WOW, then the mortgage, WOW, then the car payment WOW, then school loans, then and then and then… it all piled up to one load of , ummm, crap!

$311,209, how did this happen? WTF?

You may be wondering how come I didn’t have a clue what was going on with my own finance.

You see I figured that my wife should handle the finances. I would go make the money and she would take care of all the bills. Yes, yes I hear you screaming!

BIG MISTAKE!

A few missed payments here, a few overdraft fees there and total financial chaos. No wonder it felt like a Money Hitler was about to invade our home and rip our life to shreds.

It was so depressing I wanted to just coil up on my bed in the dark and suck my thumb. It didn’t come as a total surprise though, because I felt it couldn’t have been all well, with all the calls from the credit card companies and loan officers etc. Like many Americans I was afraid to face my finances head on.

I just didn’t know it would have been this bad. To some of you this may not seem like a lot of debt, but to me it felt like I was going to have a heart attack.

If I didn’t face this now, that bullet train to bankruptcy would probably blow our not so happy home to bits and there’s no way I could make that happen.

What were we to do? Run? Hide? Go to Vegas and put the last of our money on red and pray for money to come flying from the ceiling? That’s what they do in the movies right?

Well this wasn’t the movies and even though my wife was sobbing through the credits, I knew it was going to take a lot to make this horror flick end on a happier note.

But what were we going to do?

- Will

Image by sturatpilbrow

Here’s my 7 best money songs ever. A wide range, but enjoy!

- Will

P.S. Feel free to leave titles to your favorites in the comments.

Money Money Money by ABBA

For The Love of Money by The O’ Jays

I Wanna Be Rich by Calloway

Money by Pink Floyd

What Do You Do for Money Honey by AC/DC

You Never Give Me Your Money by The Beatles

I Get Money by 50 Cent

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Image by purpleslog

Well sorry to disappoint all the bible lovers out there, but it wasn’t a Psalm that got me all fired up. But I will get into the book in a minute.

First I’d like to thank you for spending a few moments out of your day to follow my journey. I know there are definitely more interesting things to do with your time like, watching Judge Judy, refreshing your facebook profile to stalk your friends and their constant mood swings, and of course you could always sit and watch the paint dry.

So I know how important your time is to you, so thanks for the little attention. Not that I’m an attention whore or anything, but you get the point.

So thanks.

Anyway… The miracle book.

So I was enjoying one of my favorite pastimes, walking the aisles of Borders trying to look all intellectual in the personal finance section. When wait, what’s this?

A glow of light beamed from the coffee stained shelves and struck me at the right place, at the right time.

Why was this so important?

Well a couple months before I had the life altering experience of turning 30. All you thirty-somethings should know what I mean. You started to reflect and wonder where your life is headed, you start (or I started) to feel like a complete loser. I was suppose to be a millionaire already, I was supposed to feel more fulfilled, travel the world, have some wing of a prominent school named after me and hit the cover of Inc magazine.

I was so far away from that whole dream of accomplishing so much and why the hell is there pudding and slobber all over my CDs. Can a money warrior get some respect around here?

So yes, right time, right place.

But this book title sounded kinda gimmicky… A Million Bucks by 30?

What the hell, I bought it anyway. Cause I just love buying books, that’s probably where a ton of my money goes. Some people drink lattes, buy porn or waste their money eating out. But I’m a thrill seeker, I buy books! Woohoo!

Anyway…

The book stayed on my bookshelf for a while along with bunch of other related books like, Automatic Millionaire, One Minute Millionaire, Mentored by a Millionaire. I guess you could say I love books with Million in the title.

Then one day I was reading some personal finance blog where they said you need to check out this book by Alan Corey, it’s a great read. Where do I know that name from? Alan Corey? A Million Bucks by 30?

Wait, I have that book!

The next 6 hours I read it from cover to cover, drinking some tea (yes I drink tea too), rubbing my eyes, making notes, chuckling here and there.

Damn if this moron (Sorry Alan) could do this in less that 5 years, I must be able to dig myself from under this mound of debt. It’s not like I want to make a million bucks ( I don’t have that self confidence yet I guess), I just want to be able to pick up the phone and not feel like I’m in the witness protection program.

Do you know that feeling? Looking out the blinds to make sure your car is still there, taking money out the ATM without it laughing at you and who doesn’t like getting tons of notices in the mail?

So I figured it was time to do something about this messed up excuse of a life, but how much do I owe? How far behind are we?

Damn! What I found out next was beyond overwhelming!

- Will

By the way Will isn’t my real name and no that’s not me above, but when I saw the pics it reminded me of how I felt at times, like I wanted to shed loads of tears and dive in a bucket of Edy’s Ice Cream.

Not too macho I know, but when you’re in debt up to your eyeballs, answering your phone disguised as an old lady because of creditors and contemplating breaking into your kid’s piggy bank it gets a bit overwhelming.

I know, I know… sounds a bit crazy, but that’s my life. At least for right now.

How did I even get into this position you ask?

It’s not like it happened in one blink of an eye, but it sure does feel that way.

It was a beautiful day on campus and I saw my very first white t-shirt attached to a smile and credit card from the devil. How could I even resist? A free t-shirt? Just for writing down all my necessary information?

Sign me up!

Sounds familiar?

To most of you it should, yes the very first credit card on campus with $150 limit, a stifling APR and of course a nice large t-shirt that shrunk to chipmunk size after the very first wash.

Anyway… 1 card, 2 cards, 3 cards, 4, A wife, 2 kids, cars, a mortgage, then woke up poor.

Damn where did this $300k in debt come from? This can’t be mine?

Yes all mine and my wife’s, she’s to blame too, it’s not like I wear all those high heel shoes. Well maybe on halloween, but I don’t make it a habit.

We wanted the American dream, the picket fences and all and we sped through the stop signs on the way into fancy neighborhood. We always found a way to afford a little more, we could always move things around to make it work, at least that’s what the lady writing up the home loan told us.

Bring on that ARM and line of credit for the new home and yes we’d like a car to match.

To make a long story short, we’re in over our heads and this will be my place to share our story with you and how you could avoid ending up the same way as we did. If you don’t, you could get some satisfaction yelling at your computer… “What an Idiot!”

Before we lose our home and the lights remain on, I figured I’d put pen to paper and come up with a plan to dig from under this debt.

For now that’s a short bit of the story and the very next post I will share with you the book that changed my whole mindset and help me figure out if this dummy could do it, then so could you and I!

See you next post!

- Will

Image by StuartPilbrow