At No More Mortgage, we get to speak with a lot of people that are battling debt and ask them about their financial planning.

Guess what? That's right. A very low percentage of people we speak with have a real plan in place. They are calling us because they have debt that they are not getting ahead of and need help.

So very few of the people we speak with have a real financial plan in place, and they have a lot of debt that they are not getting ahead of. Anybody else seeing a correlation here?

Financial planning is not a topic people want to talk about. I think a big part of that is because there is work involved in financial planning, and it takes time out of your life to work your plan.

I'm talking about a financial plan that is something on paper you can pick up and hold in your hand. Most people have a financial plan in their head, not in their hand. They think to themselves things like

• I need to spend less.
• I need to pay more on my bills, not just the minimum payment.
• I really need to pay more into my retirement account.
• I should look at my statements and see how much I owe now.

What you really need to do is get your plan on paper. You don't have to get formal to start with if you're dreading the process. Make it easy. Just list your goals on paper in writing with your own hand. It has been shown many times that writing your goals down will help cause more of them to happen over time. It helps register your goals in your mind and you will subconsciously make more decisions that will move you towards your financial planning goals.

You really need to have a plan in place and some short term goals to go after. Once you do that it gets easier to focus on more goals and you'll want to get into more detail on your plan. If you're carrying a large amount of debt, you can also get a free analysis from us that will show you how much you really owe and how long it will take to pay it off. You'll also get to see how much you could save and when you could be completely debt free in our program where we do the work for you long term.

If you don't have a financial plan in place today, start off with an easy to work with plan and get moving. Then you can work your way up to more detail and more aggressive goals. If you keep running along without a plan in place, you're going to pay for it in the long run when you need a retirement income that will allow you to actually retire and not work.

Your friends at No More Mortgage

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