Children are very resilient and observant. They understand more than we give them credit for. Financial education, education in general, should start in the home. If you are experiencing financial trouble, the kids see the changes that are going on around them. They are aware of your stress and your moods. Explain what some of the challenges are without burdening them. Talk to them about life. Demonstrate how best to handle tough situations by handling the situations appropriately yourself.

Encourage your children to participate in the family’s financial well being by helping to trim expenses. Create a poster that lists helpful things the family can do to save money and hang it in a prominent place. Make it together, using colorful markers, stickers, cut-outs from magazines, and other crafty items. Here are some ideas to list on the poster. Invite your children to contribute more ideas.

1. Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
2. Don’t waste food. Pack a lunch to take to school and work.
3. Drink more water, which is better for us than sugary sodas and juices.
4. Stay focused in school. Parents are less stressed when they see their children doing their best.
5. Fill the dishwasher completely before washing the dishes.

Talk with your kids about savings. One of the hardest things I have had to do is help my kids understand that saving is real. The future is real. One day taking care of yourself will become a reality, so prepare now and always remember that credit is good but credit cards are not.

As previously stated, kids know more than we think. My son will tell you, don’t spend all your money at once, pay cash, and spend wisely. Getting him to abide by those rules are another story; but, then again, sometimes I have a hard time following my own advice. Don’t we all? Practice makes perfect.

Many business owners ask themselves why they should invest their time and money to build business credit. The answer most receive is so they can quickly access cash and vendor credit without affecting their personal credit. This answer is right and wrong, but for many business owners, it creates the WRONG motivation for building business credit. When a business owner builds business credit, they are creating a Business Credit Asset™ that has short, medium, and long-term benefits to their business. When a business owner examines the full benefits of business credit, it makes the decision for investing in building a Business Credit Asset A NO BRAINER!

Short-term Benefits

Business owners achieve a new level credibility for their business by understanding and achieving the foundational compliance that credit agencies and financial institutions require. This credibility foundation is important not just for financial partners but for all stakeholders of the business including client, prospects, and partners. If you business is going to grow it needs to be based on a credible foundation.

• Business Credit Knowledge: You are given not only a process to build business credit, you are also empowered with the knowledge of how to leverage business credit to insure your business has the financial tools to survive and thrive.
• Establishing and monitoring your Credit File: The system enables you to easily set-up your credit files with all credit agencies and to monitor the progress of your credit file and score.
• Accessing Vendor Credit that improves your cash flow.

Medium Term

• Leveraging your Business Credit Asset to access a range of new cash, lease and credit opportunities for your business.
• Leveraging our Financial Advisors to choose vendor opportunities to accelerate the development of your business credit score.

Long-Term

You’re Business Credit Asset: Most business owners dream of a date in the future when they can sell or transfer their business for cash to support their family and retirement. One of the major barriers for most business owner in converting their business to cash is DEBT. If a business owner has some or all of the debt and credit in the business tied to them personally, this debt is a liability and it must be paid off before a business can be transferred or purchased. This liability prevents most businesses from being sold. However, if you build a Business Credit Asset, and the debt and credit of the business is tied to the business not the business owner, then the debt and credit is an ASSET, that can be transferred to the new business owner. What this does is increase the value of your business by potentially 100’s of thousands of dollars or more.

So you now can see that building business credit is so much more then getting short-term cash and credit, it is a process to increase the value of your business by 100’s of thousands of dollars and making your company more attractive when and if you choose to sell or transfer the business.

If you want to speak with one of our business financing experts, click here for a free phone consultation.

Living below your means has nothing to do with buying things you don’t need, but it has everything to do with buying only what you can afford. The country is in a major crisis because we, as a nation, have a history of overspending. I’ll start with credit. What is the purpose of credit cards? Do we really know? Is there a reason to use a credit card? If everyone decided not to use credit, what would happen? What if we just used debit cards? Think about it.

What the credit experts tell us is that in order to get debt you have to have debt. Does that make sense to you? Within our current society it does. However, what if we changed the way we think? What if we said, in order to have a happy life, in order to have a good life, I can’t have debt?

Good credit requires positive credit on your credit report. If that’s the case, let’s only use the credit cards when we have the money in the bank to pay the entire bill when it comes. The only reason to use a credit card is to help establish good credit.

Some of you might ask, “What about emergencies?” Well, I have a question for you: What did people do for emergencies before there were credit cards? They worked the situation out. They made payment arrangements. They told the truth. They purchased items on layaway—remember that? “I don’t have the money.” How foreign does that sound?

Credit cards are loans. Living below your means is basically deciding that you will spend according to the amount of money you have today. Then renew that commitment each day. If we took this position, our entire lives would change for the better.

It’s time to change the way we think about home ownership.

When making a decision to buy a home, the monthly payments should be determined by what you can afford. Our country is out of control because we allow others to make that determination. We buy homes we cannot afford, make purchases we cannot afford and have credit card debt we cannot afford. It becomes a cycle that never ends. We owe it to ourselves, our families, and the country as a whole, to take the reins of our financial welfare.

Making major changes in our lives is not an easy thing to do. The first step is to sit down and put the details on paper. If you’re married, sit down with your spouse, discuss the necessary changes, and put them in writing.

Don’t leave out your children. They are a very important part of the decision making process. They may not have the final say, but our decisions affect them, as well. What better way to educate our children for the future than by sharing with them real life situations. They already know more than you think they know.

What is the most important thing in your life? Is it having a home, buying a car, shopping, or being able to impress someone with what you have?

Maybe these things have been priorities in the past, but that has to change. In order for us to begin making changes, we must first understand that God, family, friends, happiness and debt freedom are the most important things in this life. Make a commitment now to change your life.