Becoming Mortgage Free

Arriving At Healthy Financial Habits

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Today I wanted to share with you the final email students receive in my successful online coaching program, Overcoming Unhealthy Financial Habits.

To achieve this in your financial life, start by getting your hands on the free gift below.

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EMAIL SUBJECT: Arriving at Healthy Financial Habits

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Congratulations! You have arrived at the next milestone of your journey.

"What?!" I hear you scream. "I thought this was finished?"

No, I'm sorry my friends, while we part company here, this is just a milestone.

If you have chosen to adopt the principles I have shared with you throughout this coaching process then you are most certainly much closer to your destination.

You will be sharing personal and family financial values with your loved ones, which will be creating a real sense of "team" in the household. I believe you will experience less stress as you discuss money with your spouse. And, your kids will understand more about your family finances and, as a result, stop begging you for money so often.

You may already be experiencing some of these benefits.

By now you have discovered the power of financial goals. Boy, when I first realized how powerful goals were and how they helped me to accelerate towards my dreams - I was so excited.

If you have caught this principle and are applying it as I shared with you, there will be no end to what you can achieve. I have personally seen my family create all sorts of cool memories because of the goals we have set, aimed for, and achieved.

You can have more of this for your family, too, as you apply the principle of goal setting to your financial habits.

And I also expect that you will be enjoying the freedom that a family budget will give you.

"Freedom?" I hear you ask mockingly.

Yes, my friends, freedom. You see, as you begin to live within the plan that you have created for your family you will see how easily it allows you to live the life you have designed.

No longer will you feel constrained by your bills, strangled by your debt, and frustrated by your income limitations.

The Overcoming Your Unhealthy Financial Habits coaching has liberated you from these feelings. Your plan for your money has given you direct control over where you go and what you do.

This is true financial freedom.

And you are working towards it.

That's why I say this stage, right here, is just a milestone. Please choose to continue the journey. This is not a "been there, done that, got the t-shirt" kind of program. You don't get a card for your wallet either.

This is something we all need to keep focused on so that we maintain our financial health - and continue to enjoy our life today and the future we desire to share with others.

Please carry on this journey by agreeing to commit to further investment in your family. How? You can do this by taking advantage of the many free resources and special offers I have given you.

Why not send your friends this email as an example of what they could also achieve. Send them to the start of the process, the same place you started 12 weeks ago. Send them this link:

http://philstrong.com/freegift/

Congratulations. You are becoming money wise and financially healthy. Keep up the good work!

Until next time...

All the best for your fantastic, healthy financial future.

Phil Strong

P.S. Watch out for the Special Unique Offer in 2 days time.....

I promised you "double the value" and "more free downloads"

and that's what I'm sending you. Watch out for it.

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What can you do to avoid a conversation with your Financial Doctor?

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:34:00 +0000

Have you ever been in a hospital room, either as a visitor or a patient? I find hospitals kind of freaky; the hard beds with clean, starched sheets; the colourless, sterile environment that doesn’t speak of life and vitality; the quietness about hospitals that I think adds to the mystique; and flowers, loads of flowers.

Hospitals are always busy. Nurses move about swiftly, reminding me of busy bees collecting pollen. The silence is dissected by the monitors beeping three rooms down the hallway. The person in the next bed is trying to read their magazine while listening to your conversation. The hallways are full of all sorts of people, most of them wandering around in a daze trying not to get in the way.

And then there’s the conversation you have with the Doctor…

Delivering news as a Doctor must be tough, especially when there is no message of hope. As a Financial Coach I am happy that, no matter how bad the news, my news is never fatal.

But there is a responsibility of a Doctor that I share as a financial coach and that is this: highlighting behaviours that cause the illness or injury so that future pain can be avoided.

That’s why I help people to overcome unhealthy financial habits. It’s those little habits that most people are not even aware of that cause the most long term damage. What are some of those habits and how can you make sure they don’t lead to an unwanted conversation with your financial doctor?

Perhaps some of these unhealthy habits sound familiar:

Not having a clue where the money goes, but being very aware that there is none left!
Constantly arguing about money with family, stressing that others waste it and not being able to work together on future goals.
Always being bombarded by bills, never knowing where the next one is coming from or how it’s going to be paid.
Knowing that you are role modeling bad behaviours to your kids, but not having any idea what to do to change this.

Let’s not spend all our time together focusing on the negative, rather let’s keep our eyes on the life we want to live and the future we dream of living.

What can I do to help people who may have one or two unhealthy financial habits?

When I teach people about money I teach them strategies that my wife and I used to take control of our money, simple things we did to overcome all the unhealthy financial habits you read about above. These principles are not rocket science, but easy to apply if you do them in the right order.

Here are some positive examples of what your financial life can look like ensuring you do not have to have that conversation with you financial doctor:

Understand and apply powerful money mindsets that give you the control over your money.
Put simple and proven strategies in place that give you the ability to achieve more with the money you have.
Start having positive money discussions with your spouse that do not lead to arguments.
Resolve differences so that all family members are happy with financial decisions.
Accelerate progress towards financial success, building a legacy that will outlive you.
Pass on constructive financial disciplines to future generations so they do not make the same mistakes you did.

You can learn the financial habits required to achieve this kind of lifestyle. And when you do, imagine the hugely positive overflow that you will experience in other areas of your life.

How do you get your hands on the information that will give you this? Today, I am offering this to you at absolutely no cost. I have a free gift for you that I know will help you, in the same way it helped my family and thousands of others who now use the principles I teach.

Get your free gift here via this post: http://www.philstrong.com/blog/is-“fiscal-idiot”-too-harsh/

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Three Examples of the Financial Life You Don’t Want

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:28:00 +0000

My passion is Teaching People About Money, it's something I love doing and it's something people tell me I'm really good at.

In my experience many people have developed what I call unhealthy financial habits which limit what they can achieve with their money. Here are three examples of what these unhealthy habits can cause.

Are you tired of that feeling of 'missing out' because your lack of finances is limiting your lifestyle?

This is the not so nice part of having unhealthy financial habits. Are you tired of that feeling when your friends invite you out somewhere and you can’t go because you can’t afford it? Or there’s something worse than that: going out anyway and feeling guilty all night because you know you are funding your lifestyle by going into debt.

A lack of finances is caused by a lack of control. I teach people how to achieve freedom by using a family spending plan. You will be amazed by the freedom you can also enjoy.

Are you frustrated about how much interest you pay and scared you won't be able to repay your debt?

Debt can strangle your lifestyle if you let it. These days money is too easy to get access to via credit cards, personal loans and mortgages. But while this easy money may seem like a great short term solution, it often becomes a long term pain in the butt. You may end up suffering under the pressure of this debt long after the fun memories have disappeared! And the cost of the interest will rob you of what you really deserve.

Do you worry what your kids are NOT learning about money?

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me why they don’t teach financial literacy at schools, I would be a very rich man. Most schools don’t teach money, and young adults are suffering because they have no idea what to do when they finally start earning. Where do they learn their financial habits? From their parents! And that may not be such a good thing.

Today I want to gift you a FREE recording of a 48 minute tele-seminar where I teach people how to overcome these unhealthy financial habits by equipping them with powerful money mindsets that support them to take control of their finances and build a better financial future for their families.

This seminar is worth $77 - but as my gift to you today you will pay nothing, zero, no cost!

In addition, you will download the PDF workbook that goes with this seminar so you can follow the models I teach and make notes for future reference. This workbook includes powerful worksheets and my simplified budgeting template that I have developed over the years to assist families to take control of their finances.

You can become the master of your money.

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Phil Strong is an international author and speaker on money. His passion is helping people to overcome the negative, unhealthy financial habits that limit their life so that they can enjoy a more fulfilling life with their family.

Is “Fiscal Idiot” Too Harsh?

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:23:00 +0000

When I was younger I was a complete fiscal idiot. I wasted my money and squandered everything I had seeking the good times that only lasted a short time. I had no idea how to control my spending frenzies and never had enough for my bills. So, as I say, I was a complete fiscal idiot.

Most people are not like this, and you are probably nowhere near as bad as I was. But I find that while people will not class themselves as fiscal idiots they do have some unhealthy financial habits that are limiting what they could be achieving with their money. Do you think you could achieve more with the money you have?

Before that, allow me to tell you the happy end to the story that brought me here.

I knew there had to be a better way to handle my money; I desperately wanted to break out of the negative downward cycle I was in. So I studied people who were successful with money. For years I became a student of very wise people as I learnt what I had to do to get back to survival. From there, I developed powerful money mindsets that allowed me and my family to achieve some pretty cool things. And then I started teaching those principles to others. First, in small discussions around a cup of coffee, then in seminar halls all over the country, and now through my books and seminars which are all over the world.

So while you may feel that the title “fiscal idiot” may be a little harsh, you may be in the category most people are in: doing okay with money, but not doing as well as you could.

If you are in this category then my gift for you today will help you to break through this into new levels of financial success. You will be happier with the financial decisions you make, you will see more goals achieved which will give you many more happy memories, and you will learn how to smash your debts so that they no longer strangle your lifestyle.
I recently ran a tele-seminar where people came to learn what the strategies are that I used, and how they can apply the same strategies to their lives. These strategies are not rocket science, if you apply them in the right order you can be sure of a more enjoyable life as you live in control of your money.

If you are interested in learning what these strategies are then please visit me here so I can give you immediate access to this tele-seminar… for free! Is there a catch? Sure there is. But you will be pretty happy when you discover all you have to do is ask me three questions to get your hands on the free seminar.

Visit me here to get access to the video and register for my gift to you.
http://www.philstrong.com/blog/is-“fiscal-idiot”-too-harsh/

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noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:53:00 +0000

This Video focuses on the concept of a 2nd Mortgage and Phil challenges the way you might think about this. Remember, Phil's goal is to help you to be mortgage free so listen to what he has to say.

Watch, enjoy, and please comment.

KEY POINTS:

1. What is a 2nd Mortgage?

2. Why get a 2nd mortgage?

3. Phil's views (!!!)

4. Phil's advice is to pay off your 2nd mortgage as a priority

5. Use strategies to accelerate your mortgage reduction (Phil can help)

Bonus: Remember your goal is EQUITY!

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Over many years of coaching families to get out of debt, Phil has discovered two things:
a) Many families are on track to end up with a 50 year mortgage.
b) There are simple reasons why this happens.

Make sure this is not you! Learn what it takes to pay your mortgage off and enjoy using your money for more fulfilling purposes.

Get Access To Your FREE VIDEO Immediately!

Discover The Number One Secret Most Families Will Never Know
That Will Have Them Chained To Their Mortgage For The Rest Of Their Lives

http://www.howtosmashyourmortgage.com

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Video Blog - Bad Credit Mortgages

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:51:00 +0000

In this short video I want to share five thoughts that will help to get you on the right track if you have a history that has led to Bad Credit. Many people have probably got to this point and worried that it's the end of th line, and there is good reason for that. Hear what I have to share as I challenge your thinking and encourage you to get back on track with Bad Credit Mortgage.

Please read, enjoy, and comment.

Here are today’s five points for discussion:

1. Just 'cos you got Bad Credit doesn't mean it's the end

2. What is Step 1?

3. What is Step 2?

4. Warning - the proverb of the dog returning to it's vomit

5. Race off to get your free financial literacy resources

Link for free financial education resources: http://wisemoney.philstrong.com

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Over many years of coaching families to get out of debt, Phil has discovered two things:
a) Many families are on track to end up with a 50 year mortgage.
b) There are simple reasons why this happens.

Make sure this is not you! Learn what it takes to become mortgage free and enjoy using your money for more fulfilling purposes.

Get Your FREE DVD Today!

How To Make Sure You Don’t End Up With A 50 Year Mortgage

http://www.howtosmashyourmortgage.com

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Video Blog - Mortgage Amortization Calculator

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:47:00 +0000

This Video focuses on the tool called a Mortgage Amortization Calculator and challenges you to think about HOW you might use this as a tool to reduce your mortgage faster. Watch, enjoy, and please comment.

KEY POINTS:

1. A Mortgage Amortization Calculator is a pre-determined route for you

2. I think this is slow, slow, slow

3. What does "loss of control" mean for you?

4. Learn how to beat mortgage amortization so you win

5. Link to a free resource that I use

Additional Link as promised in the video: http://www.loanamortizationtable.net

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Over many years of coaching families to get out of debt, Phil has discovered two things:
a) Many families are on track to end up with a 50 year mortgage.
b) There are simple reasons why this happens.

Make sure this is not you! Learn what it takes to pay your mortgage off and enjoy using your money for more fulfilling purposes.

Get Access To Your FREE VIDEO Immediately!

Discover The Number One Secret Most Families Will Never Know
That Will Have Them Chained To Their Mortgage For The Rest Of Their Lives

http://www.howtosmashyourmortgage.com

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Video Blog - Investment Property Mortgage

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:44:00 +0000

This Video focuses on the concept of Investment Property Mortgage and challenges you to think about HOW you might use this as a tool to reduce your mortgage faster. Watch, enjoy, and please comment.

KEY POINTS:

1. Investment Property is a great vehicle for mortgage reduction

2. How?

3. Don't pay off your Investment Property Mortgage as a priority

4. Channel your investment income to reduce your interest

5. Remember what the ultimate goal is!

Additional Link as promised in the video: VIDEO BLOG - Home Equity Loans

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Over many years of coaching families to get out of debt, Phil has discovered two things:
a) Many families are on track to end up with a 50 year mortgage.
b) There are simple reasons why this happens.

Make sure this is not you! Learn what it takes to pay your mortgage off and enjoy using your money for more fulfilling purposes.

Get Access To Your FREE VIDEO Immediately!

Discover The Number One Secret Most Families Will Never Know
That Will Have Them Chained To Their Mortgage For The Rest Of Their Lives

http://www.howtosmashyourmortgage.com

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Video Blog - Mortgage Payoff

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:39:00 +0000

This Video focuses on the concept of Mortgage Payoff and challenges you to think about WHY you would do this… what Phil has to say may not be what you expect to hear! Watch, enjoy, and please comment.

KEY POINTS:

1. Let’s use our family as an example

2. What are the Financial Benefits of Mortage Payoff?

3. and what about the Emotional Benefits?

4. Think about the Generational Benefits of Mortgage Payoff

5. What are things you would do?

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Over many years of coaching families to get out of debt, Phil has discovered two things:
a) Many families are on track to end up with a 50 year mortgage.
b) There are simple reasons why this happens.

Make sure this is not you! Learn what it takes to pay your mortgage off and enjoy using your money for more fulfilling purposes.

Get Access To Your FREE VIDEO Immediately!

Discover The Number One Secret Most Families Will Never Know
That Will Have Them Chained To Their Mortgage For The Rest Of Their Lives

http://www.howtosmashyourmortgage.com

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Video Blog - Bi Weekly Mortgage

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:37:00 +0000

This Video focuses on the concept of a Bi Weekly Mortgage and challenges you to think about WHY you would do this and why you wouldn’t. Watch, enjoy, and please comment.

KEY POINTS:

1. What is a bi weekly mortgage?

2. The negative principle of living hand to mouth.

3. The advantages of a bi weekly mortgage …

4. … and the disadvantages

5. Keys to accelerating your mortgage reduction.

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Over many years of coaching families to get out of debt, Phil has discovered two things:
a) Many families are on track to end up with a 50 year mortgage.
b) There are simple reasons why this happens.

Make sure this is not you! Learn what it takes to pay your mortgage off and enjoy using your money for more fulfilling purposes.

Get Your FREE DVD Today!

How To Make Sure You Don’t End Up With A 50 Year Mortgage

http://www.howtosmashyourmortgage.com

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Can’t Spell Amortization? Don’t Worry – You Can Still Beat It. Three Strategies You Can Use Immediately.

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:19:00 +0000

Your house is your castle. It may be a large castle, or it may be a small castle. When you experience the pride of owning your own home you experience what the Lords and Kings of old experienced – they were the landowners of their time. The rest of the population paid rent and taxes for the privilege of working the land. These days not many homeowners can afford to pay cash for their house, so they borrow money to pay for their house. And this loan is usually referred to as a mortgage.

A mortgage is designed to be paid off over a long period of time, typically 25-30 years. Although I have heard stories recently of people electing to take their mortgage out over 40 years. In my experience as a financial coach I have helped people who were on track to have their mortgage for 40-50 years. Imagine that – taking out your mortgage when you are 30 years old and not being able to pay it off until you were 80! Ouch.

Let me get to the point of this article, dealing with the principle of Amortization.

Amortization occurs when a loan is paid down over the term of the loan. The schedule the loan payment follows means that you typically pay back more than three times the amount you borrowed as you pay the interest to the lender, this is the cost of borrowing the money.

When you follow the normal amortization schedule you pay the maximum amount of interest and his is why your loan takes the full term to be repaid. Here are three Strategies you can use to pay down your loan faster and be mortgage free sooner.

Strategy One: Make extra deposits to reduce the capital balance.

Have you ever been in the position where you have received a small bonus, a surprise check in the mail, or an inheritance from a relative? Usually these financial surprises get lost up in the excitement of the moment and are spent before anyone thinks about it. This takes away the potential financial gains that can be made by applying the money to reducing the mortgage. By reducing the balance of the loan you are reducing the interest and shortening the amortization schedule.

But let’s face it, who is going to be excited and motivated to put their hard earned bonus from the boss down on the mortgage, never to see it again? That’s why this is not a very popular method, and certainly not one many choose to use.

Strategy Two: Increase your regular payments to decrease the loan term.

If you were careful with your money and used some good old fashioned frugality principles do you think it would be possible to find an extra $20 a week in your budget? I think you could. (Remember frugality is defined as “living cheap”.)

If you then chose to permanently increase your mortgage payment by the same $20 per week you would see a reduction in your mortgage, forcing you to be mortgage free sooner. This increased payment has the effect of shortening the amortization schedule by utilizing a regular increased payment. In this example you may see a 30 year mortgage reduce by 4-6 years, depending on the interest rate and how far though the term you are.

This is more achievable for many, especially considering not all of us receive regular lump sum surprises as described in Strategy One above. However, in my experience people are not motivated by a 4 year mortgage reduction and many families therefore struggle to find an additional $20 per week… even if it is achievable. This means they settle for allowing the amortization schedule to beat them, rather than the other way around!

Strategy Three: Utilize a home Equity Line of Credit to compound your interest savings.

This is a strategy that has a wide range of opinions – people are polarized from loving it to hating it. Why is that? Well, for those who use the principles to their maximum potential they see a significant gain in their mortgage reduction, often paying their house off in less than 10 years. But others do not learn the behaviors required to make this work, often live with lack of financial discipline, and therefore end up in more debt than when they started.

The principle here is to allow your regular income to be used to reduce the average daily balance of you loan so that you pay less interest each month. This interest saving compounds each month, meaning that you save more and more interest as every month passes, allowing you to pay more towards reducing the principal balance.

This is, in my professional opinion, the most effective way to pay your mortgage down as fast as you can. If you apply the disciplines required you can beat the amortization schedule and be debt free sooner.

In conclusion, it is my recommendation for you to apply as many of these strategies as you can. If you can only manage one of them then please do it as soon as you can. But if you are able to apply all three strategies, you will beat your amortization schedule (even if you can’t spell it!)

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Do not fall trap to the standard mortgage amortization – you can beat it by applying some simple strategies and disciplines that the financially intelligent use.

Gain wealth by reducing your debt. Learn how to pay off your mortgage faster.

Learn why many families are on track to have a 40-50 year mortgage, and make sure this isn’t you.

View a free video at:

http://www.howtosmashyourmortgage.com

Phil Strong is an international author and speaker on the subject of personal finance. He teaches people how to achieve more with the money they have today, while building income streams to grow future wealth.

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Beat the Amortization “Monster” To Earn Your Financial Freedom

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:16:00 +0000

In a previous article I have explained how an Amortization schedule outlines the slow process that is typically followed to repay a mortgage. To me this makes it a “monster” as it steals time, money, and freedom from home owners. But I don’t write this article so you can take the SLOW WAY to pay off your mortgage – I don’t want you to have a mortgage for a long time, I want you to be able to pay it off much, much quicker than you think.

One of my goals is helping people to identify what financial freedom looks like and how to get there. For me one of the key priorities in financial freedom is releasing the shackles of debt; that is, breaking out of the mind-set of a “debt culture” and working towards building wealth. One of the quickest ways you can build wealth is to pay off debt.

Unfortunately for many home owners with debt, their mortgage is designed to work against them due to the standard mortgage being constrained by this “monster” called Amortization, hindering the progress they may like to make towards being mortgage free.

If this is you I would like to encourage you by sharing the key to progress, and that is to increase your understanding of how your mortgage works. It’s a simple concept, but when you know the rules of the game you can make sure you take advantage of every opportunity to succeed.

A typical mortgage follows an amortization schedule which is a pre-determined path of repayment over the duration of the loan. This schedule of payments forces a home owner to pay the maximum interest as they are also forced to make the minimum principal reductions to their mortgage debt.

There’s a fantastic tool you can use to help identify how this works for your situation and you can access the tool here, http://www.loanamortizationtable.net.

Let me give you an example from some calculations I did for the purpose of writing this article.

A mortgage of $285,000 at an interest rate of 7.5% over a 30 year term has a monthly payment of $1,992.76. That’s $23,913.12 per year.

In the first year you pay $23,913.12, and here’s the split: $21,285.89 paid in interest and $2,627.23 goes towards reducing the principal balance.

In the second year you pay $23,913.12, and here’s the split: $21,081.95 paid in interest and $2,831.19 goes towards reducing the principal balance.

In the third year you pay $23,913.12, and here’s the split: $20,862.16 paid in interest and $3.050.98 goes towards reducing the principal balance.

So over the first three years you pay a total of $71,739.41 in mortgage payments and your loan balance reduces by $8,246.34.

Does that sound like the slow way to pay off your mortgage? I think so.

In fact, when I first found this out I had smoke coming out of my ears – I was so mad – as I thought about all the money I had wasted in helping someone else get rich while my family made literally no progress towards paying off our mortgage.

The challenge you have is the same one I faced, getting to grips with how this works so that you can make sure they you do not suffer for longer than you need to! I worked my tail off to find and implement strategies to help us get rid of our mortgage. And 6 years later we were mortgage free. When you begin to understand how the Mortgage Amortization schedule is not designed for your benefit you will begin to seek out new solutions, like I did.

Here are three quick ideas for you to explore so that you can begin to beat the “monster” that is the amortization schedule for your mortgage:

1. See the immediate benefit from additional mortgage payments, interest savings will sky-rocket as the benefits compound over time.

2. Find additional ways to apply funds to your mortgage, permanently or temporarily, to reduce the amount of interest you pay.

3. Identify new ideas and strategies you can use to accelerate your debt repayment beyond the SLOW WAY of doing things.

These three ideas are just the start for you to achieve the goal we set out to achieve. If you begin to understand how the Amortization “monster” works – you can beat it!

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Beat the monster called Amortization. Get mortgage free sooner!

Discover the number one secret why many families are on track to end up
with a 50 year mortgage. Make sure this isn’t you!

Get access to this FREE VIDEO here.

http://www.howtosmashyourmortgage.com

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Does Amortization Have Anything To Do With Financial Death?

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:14:00 +0000

The word Amortization is a financial term relating to loan payments, but to be sure of our accuracy let’s check the source of all answers – Wikipedia.

“Amortization or amortization is the process of increasing, or accounting for, an amount over a period of time. The word comes from Middle English amortisen; to kill, alienate in.”

So then I checked Amortization Schedule to give us further clarity.

“An amortization schedule is a table detailing each periodic payment on an amortizing loan.”

These phrases are most typically linked to a mortgage on a property, the most common of amortizing loans. When I was a student of finance I learned that the word mortgage comes from the Latin words “mort” meaning” death and “gage” meaning grip.

Have you ever viewed your mortgage as a “death-grip”? Does that make you feel great about the debt on your house? I should hope not!

So it seems that we can draw a line to connect the phrase amortization to the mortgage on your house, and I’ll explain that in more detail in later articles. And we can most certainly continue the connection between the word mortgage and its meaning death-grip. So, to me, there is definitely a link between the concept of amortization and death, but more specifically, financial death.

My intention in this article is not to be morbid or melodramatic, but it’s my experience that almost all home owners with a mortgage fall into the trap of making their mortgage a permanent family member! How do they do this? They allow the Amortization Schedule to dictate the rate at which they pay off their mortgage – and this is the VERY SLOW way to be mortgage free.

How does Amortization lead to financial death? Let me explain a small portion of how the amortization of your loan is killing you financially.

Here’s a further explanation from Wikipedia which I’ll explain further in a minute.

While a portion of every payment is applied towards both the interest and the principal balance of the loan, the exact amount applied to principal each time varies (with the remainder going to interest). An amortization schedule reveals the specific monetary amount put towards interest, as well as the specific put towards the Principal balance, with each payment. Initially, a large portion of each payment is devoted to interest. As the loan matures, larger portions go towards paying down the principal.

But what does this mean to you, specifically?

When you take out a mortgage (loan) to purchase your property you agree to pay this loan back over a specific term, say 30 years, and this determines the level of regular payments you are required to make each month. Out of each monthly payment, the lender deducts the interest payment due to them, and applies the remainder to the principal balance which reduces the amount you owe them.

At the beginning of your loan approximately 90% of your monthly payment goes to pay the interest on your mortgage and the remaining 10% of your payment is applied to the balance of the loan.

Did you read that? Ouch! 90% of your monthly payment gets swallowed up in interest, which is the cost of borrowing the money. No wonder it costs you more than three times what you borrow to pay off your mortgage! (Check this out some time, count the number of payments and work out just how much you will pay over the term of your mortgage!)

What compounds this is the fact that the loan balance reduces slowly over time, meaning you continue to pay a high proportion of your monthly payment in interest to the bank. In fact, it takes you over 250 payments to get to the stage where the portion of your payment reducing the principal is greater than the interest cost. What that means is more than two thirds of your loan term is spent making significant contributions to the profits of the lender, while you struggle to make progress in becoming mortgage free. And it is this that causes me to believe that Amortization leads to financial death.

There’s a great tool I used to make these calculations which you can also use. Check it out at http://www.loanamortizationtable.net and make your own assessments regarding your mortgage situation.

In all of this I implore you to take some time and understand how Amortization impacts your financial future, because if you do not, there is a very high chance that you will end up having a mortgage much, much longer than you anticipated, perhaps even long after you stop working.

The most important point I need to impress upon you is this; Your Mortgage Amortization Schedule is not your friend!

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Do not suffer Financial Death at the hands of your amortizing loan.

If you have a mortgage but don’t want to keep it forever, try taking Phil’s advice.

Discover the number one reason why many families are on track to end up with a 50 year mortgage.

(Make sure this isn’t you.)

Get access to the FREE VIDEO here where Phil reveals this secret.

http://www.howtosmashyourmortgage.com

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Mortgage free? Not in this life time!

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:20:00 +0000

I had a conversation with my neighbor recently. And if I could paint you a picture for a minute, it’s really funny.

As usual, when people talk to me they usually talk about how to get mortgage free, because that’s what I’m famous for teaching people. But that’s not what was funny, it’s the picture I’m about to paint you.

Can you picture a cartoon or classic old movie where two neighbors are leaning on the fence between two paddocks, chewing on some dry grass, watching the cows doing the same while they discuss important world issues? Well, that is exactly what we were doing! Talk about funny! But I digress.

The location of the conversation wasn’t the point of this article, rather the content of the conversation.

My neighbor made a comment during this conversation that opened up eyes to the main reason why most people never, ever get to be mortgage free. Here’s what he said: “Well, you may as well always have a mortgage while you are working.”

I just grunted, chewed a bit more on my grass while I thought about the severity of what he had just said. And I don’t make this next comment as a judgment, but an observation that I hope and pray speaks loudly into your psyche.

“How stupid is the notion that you should never enjoy being mortgage free?”

My neighbor has completely missed an opportunity to take further advantage of the best years of his life. As a household with two incomes and no dependants he has the opportunity to make some real progress in investing into his future and the future of the generations that follow him. But he’s not going to because he is paying interest to the bank to satisfy his short term desires.

There’s a power of life changing principles we can unpack from that statement. Here are just three that I thought of:

1. Satisfying your short term desires will cost you more than you realize.

2. Paying interest to the bank limits your ability to serve your long term ambitions.

3. Failure to look beyond your current thinking means you rob yourself of a more fulfilling future.

Please hear me when I say that I do not write these thoughts to judge anyone, for I do not have that right. But I write these thoughts firmly with the intention to challenge you on a mindset I find all too common with people who are not mortgage free.

If you still have a mortgage I have a question for you:

Do you believe that you will always have a mortgage?

If you answered this question in the positive then I urge you to begin the process of changing your mindset. And I want to help you to do this.

I bought my first house at age 24. But I never, ever considered the possibility of having a mortgage for the rest of my working life. I focused on how I could get mortgage free as soon as possible. And I discovered five strategies that worked, so I used all five to smash my mortgage. I'm privileged to say that I had my house paid off by age 30, it took me less than 6 years.

So now I teach people what I did and they do it too!

Rush to get your hands on my FREE DVD that will help you to radically re-write the path of your financial future. I will reveal to you the secrets I discovered why most families are on track to have a mortgage for the rest of their lives. I want you to see this so that you are not one of them.

You can be mortgage free. You deserve to be mortgage free. Help yourself.

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Do not be like Phil’s neighbor and remain “tricked” into the notion that you should always have a mortgage. You can learn to apply the same five strategies Phil used to be mortgage free by age 30.

Get Your FREE DVD Today!

How To Make Sure You Don’t End Up With A 50 Year Mortgage

http://www.howtosmashyourmortgage.com

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Mortgage Free – Why Would You Want To Be?

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:17:00 +0000

Do you know someone that suffers from diabetes? I do. That’s nice you say, but what does that have to do with being mortgage free?

Motivation. That’s my point, and here’s why.

When my father was diagnosed as having diabetes late in life he discovered a different outlook to his health. Suddenly he was motivated to watch the type of food he ate, (and the quantities!), he was motivated to exercise regularly, and he was totally engrossed in learning as much as he could about this new condition.

When it comes to paying off your mortgage so you are mortgage free as early as possible, you need to find your motivation. It’s the same as losing weight – if you don’t have the motivation to do it you will never achieve your goal. If you don’t have the motivation, the right reasons for you, you will never even attempt to even set a goal! Is it like this for you with your mortgage? Do you even know why you should make it a goal to be mortgage free? Find your personal motivation, please!

To help you with this today I am going to give you the most powerful question that will help you with finding your motivation. I have found over the last ten years of coaching people to totally smash their mortgage that this question is the kick-start for all of them – every single one.

Question: What would you do with your money if you no longer had to pay it to the bank every month?

If you approach this question with no brain filters, no thinking limitations, and no preconceived negative mindsets you will be able to discover why you would want to be mortgage free.

When you start to think what it would be like to suddenly be released of the financial burden of a mortgage you will be able to dream about those “what if” thoughts you had put to the back of your mind. For some of you it will mean picking up dreams you thought you would never see become a reality.

Let me help you by sharing some of those answers for our family.

For us we made some choices around our family and our kids. We decided that family was very important to us so we worked hard to become mortgage free so we could invest time, travel and money to spend time with our parents, our siblings, and their kids. Our kids were also a major factor in us committing to work hard to be mortgage free. When we no longer had to pay our money to the bank we were able to redirect it into our kids’ development; their education and life experiences. Oh yeah, and we could also have some fun travelling and buying toys!

What would motivate you to become mortgage free?

Today I challenge you to sit down and attempt to answer that question. Make sure you take time to think about it and seek out those reasons that are deep inside of you. I find the deeper I search for answers the more real those answers are for me.

And when you truly seek the truth for you, you will uncover the power you need to be motivated and committed to becoming totally and permanently mortgage free.

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Do you want to find out how to get rid of your mortgage forever and be mortgage free?

Get Your FREE DVD Today.

How to Make Sure You Don’t End Up With A 50 Year Mortgage

http://www.howtosmashyourmortgage.com

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Is Becoming Mortgage Free A Realistic Goal?

noreply@blogger.com (Becoming Mortgage Free) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:57:00 +0000

Do you know the feeling, the excitement of moving into your new home? If you own a house you know what I mean.

We have upgraded our home a few times. For me there’s a real euphoric feeling the first day we move into our new house. Words like joyful, elated, excited, exhilarated, even ecstatic come to mind. Are you with me on this?

I can guarantee that on that first day the mortgage is not anywhere near the front of your mind. And I suppose it shouldn’t be. After all, this is an exciting day that does not need to be spoiled by the reality of your financial future.

But how long should it stay that way?

If you continue to ignore the reality of your mortgage then it is likely your mortgage will become a permanent member of your household. (Permanent; meaning similar to a child that never leaves home, but remains a teenager at home forever!)

So, is becoming mortgage free realistic? Absolutley!

How do you make becoming mortgage free a realistic goal?

The first priority is to make a serious commitment to find the best way for you to pay your home mortgage off as fast as you can. You can be mortgage free if you set your mind to it.

For us having a mortgage forever was not an option, after all, where’s the sense in paying all our hard earned money to the bank every month for the next 40 plus years? We were certain there were achievable ways for us to be mortgage free much quicker.

And do you know what? We found the answers.

We worked hard over a period of six years and discovered FIVE STRATEGIES that worked. We diligently applied these to our circumstances and were able to become mortgage free in under 6 years.

Before you dismiss this as not an option for you, and put up your circumstances as a defense (or excuse), let me state something. At the time we worked hard on being mortgage free we were a young married couple with two pre-school kids, and I earned an average wage. Kathy, my wife, did not work as she wanted to stay at home with the kids. So you can’t say we were rolling in it.

If we did it, you can too. No matter what your circumstances are, this can be a realistic goal for you.

What was the next issue we had to deal with to make it realistic?

The next obstacle that we had to overcome was our thinking. As a financial coach I have spent thousands of hours helping families to get in control of their finances and teaching them how to smash their debt. And in every single situation I can promise you the very first obstacle we have to overcome is their headspace.

I wish I had more time to tell you about this. The short answer is that often the barrier to something being a realistic goal is belief. And this belief starts with the way you choose to think.

To help further with this issue of managing your headspace you can get your hands on a FREE DVD where I reveal the key reasons why families end up with a 50 year mortgage. Make sure this is not you.

Get the DVD. Watch it and learn. Work on your headspace. Get your head around the fact that you can be mortgage free, as long as you work hard at it.

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Please do not be one of the families who end up with a mortgage for the rest of your life!

FREE DVD - How To Make Sure you Don’t End Up With A 50 Year Mortgage

Get yours now. Phil will teach you how to overcome your head-space and become mortgage free!

http://www.howtosmashyourmortgage.com

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