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After a four-month hiatus, it's time to get back to business with new content and a new perspective!

We're talking about how to raise your credit score during a pandemic, and it's not as difficult as you may think.

It's human nature to settle in times of desperation. This applies to many different things, including our choice of vocation.    We are living in uncertain times, and both the economy and job markets don't hold the same sense of security for us as they did just several months ago. Folks are losing their jobs or are taking jobs that they are overqualified for because certain situations have made this necessary.   Don't sell yourself short. If you have certain qualifications, specialties, and talents, you want to make sure that you are aligning yourself correctly to make sure that you get paid what you're worth. Don't allow fear and uncertainty to prevent you from doing exactly what you were meant to be doing. God bless.

It's time for a monthly check-in to discuss what I've been up to as it relates to getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.   I think that it's a good idea for us to touch base once a month to see where things are at on my personal journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity, and hopefully it inspires you to continue forging ahead with your goals as well. God bless.

Here's an alternative to paying down debt that might actually help you to pay things off even faster. I'd like to introduce you to something that I like to call The Savings Game. I would say that it's more of a strategy than a game, but it's more fun to refer to this as a game, right?   Ideally, you'll want to check with your bank or credit union to see if the savings account can be set up to not directly tie in with your checking account. In other words, your savings account has a built-in way to stay protected from taking cash out of this account at the ATM or spending from the account via your debit card.    If you can save money above and beyond your starter emergency fund in your savings account to an amount that you can use to pay off one or more of your credit cards and loans, you can knock them out in one high-octane blow. What's great about this is that you'll also boost your credit score at the same time by making a larger-than-normal payment and quickly reducing the amount borrowed and increasing the amount of credit available to you.   I hope that this alternative method allows for some folks to be able to pay off their debts faster by taking the anxiety and fear out of the equation. God bless!

What do you plan to do with your stimulus check? This is going to vary based on individual situations, of course.   Some folks are now unemployed due to this pandemic or have a reduction in hours, and some folks are blessed to continue earning income as they were before.   With this in mind, the stimulus needs to immediately go towards living expenses for some. For others, it may not be necessary to use the stimulus for living expenses at all, and in essence, it's simply extra and unexpected money.   Wherever you may fall in that spectrum, the last thing that you want to do is to screw this up. Chances are, there won't be further stimulus opportunities to use as a do-over if you don't get this one right.   You have one chance to utilize this as an opportunity to improve your situation and to allow this stimulus to lessen your anxiety as a savings security blanket in the interim while you wait to make a decision. The bottom line is to be smart, be patient, and do what's best for your current situation. God bless.

Will the new economy change the way that we work, shop, and define our wants versus our needs? I think so.   While working from home has become more prevalent, it's not a new idea. However, this among other changes are becoming more generally accepted, and I think that this may carry over past the current pandemic that we're facing to become a new norm.   We're also learning how to live with less. We are adapting to getting better at defining our wants versus our needs, and we are doing without because we have to right now in these current circumstances.   With that being said, this will also likely become the new normal for us, which means that we'll be able to prevent unnecessary purchases from holding us back from getting out of debt once this is all said and done. There truly is a sliver lining as long as we're willing to look for it, so please keep that in mind. God bless.

It's time for a monthly check-in to discuss what I've been up to as it relates to getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.   I think that it's a good idea for us to touch base once a month to see where things are at on my personal journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity, and hopefully it inspires you to continue forging ahead with your goals as well. God bless.

This has been called an unprecedented event; a true pandemic that has shut down the majority of what we know to be normal. Businesses are closed or will close, churches are moving to video or audio broadcasts rather than a physical gathering, folks are no longer able to go to work, and kids can't go to school.   How does the uncertainty of this whole situation play into what we had already planned before when it comes to our personal finances? Let's talk about that today, and let's not forget that throughout this and every other situation, God is with you. He walks with you. He holds your hand in the dark. Remember this as you navigate through this world and remind your family and friends of this as well. God bless.

You've heard it before. Someone walks into an automobile dealership and proclaims that they are a cash buyer. When you hear about these folks, they seem to be these mysterious creatures who have defied the natural laws of purchasing vehicles.   The simple truth is, they're not mysterious, and paying cash for a vehicle is more common than you might think. With this being said, there's a proper way to purchase a vehicle without going into debt. If you avoid the common mistakes that are made when purchasing a vehicle with 100% down, you'll save even more money in the end. God bless.

I've been thinking about notching things up a little and taking more drastic measures to accelerate debt payoff. One of the things that I've discovered is that it's very common for many folks who are making extra payments or increasing their monthly payments towards their debt focus to never ask if they're doing all that they can as fast as they can.   Let me explain. It's completely normal to feel a little scared when you step out of your comfort zone. Don't let that fear stop you, though. The fear that you might feel with increasing the rate at which you're paying down and paying off debt will soon turn into feelings of excitement. You'll begin to see that acceleration isn't your enemy; procrastination, hesitation, and fear are the true enemies when you're fighting your personal war on debt. God bless.

One of the best ways to know how well we're doing is to have a metric in place. This apples to being able to tell how well we are doing with our goals of getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.   How much cash we have available to us, either in the form of a wad of cash in our wallet or purse or what's available for us to use on our debit card, is a good way for us to tell where we're at on our journey. If you are just getting started on your journey, you might notice that it's difficult sometimes to even be able to carry a twenty dollar bill on your person. However, as you continue to pay down and pay off your credit cards, loans, etc., you'll have more cash resources available to you.   The bonus is that the more cash that you use for budgeted purchases, the more you will train yourself to rely less and less on credit cards. This will help you to avoid unnecessarily using credit cards as a purchasing source and going backwards with your goals by adding back on to the balance that you've worked so hard to pay down.   Use cash as a metric. It's a good way for us to see where we stand and will keep us motivated to move forward. God bless.

Have you ever wondered how you can start a successful business with little or no money? It's not easy, but it's also not as difficult as you might think.   Many folks believe that they need to invest their own money or borrow capital in order to start a business. This simply isn't always the case. Rather than starting a product-based business, instead you'll want to focus on starting a service-based business.   The easiest way to get started is to think of something that you do really well that people will pay money for in order to utilize your particular service. Because this business is service-based and shouldn't require anything more than your time, you will have minimal expenses to start things out. This is truly the best way to generate revenue with your new business in the fastest timeframe possible.   Once you've gained your first clients, the next step is to gather those all-important positive testimonials. Get folks to talk positively about your business to friends and family, then simply rinse and repeat. You'll gain more customers at a faster rate than you could even imagine, and before you know it, you'll be paying yourself a nice paycheck as your own boss in order to pay down debt that much faster. You can do this! God bless.

Planning is one thing, but action is a whole different beast. If you have yet to take that all-important first step, it's time to do that today. Don't wait until tomorrow; you won't see your goals met until you actually take the steps necessary to get out of the starting gate.   While paying off debt can be a little scary, the good news is that as you continue to reduce those balances, you will become more and more motivated to continue. You'll find yourself almost addicted to the process, especially once you realize your first several wins during the process. God bless.

It's easy to get lost in the blame game. As an almost unspoken rule of human nature, we tend to blame others for our own shortcomings, or we place blame on certain individual circumstances.   The problem is that once we deflect blame, we no longer take responsibility for the root cause of the issue. Once we don't have the weight of responsibility on our shoulders, we find it much easier to simply walk away and ignore the problem rather than tackling it head-on.   If you are one of those folks who deflect blame on to someone else or some other circumstance, you are robbing yourself of the opportunity for growth. As initially painful as it might be, taking the blame provides us with an opportunity to make things better for ourselves. In the long run, we will come out on top, and that makes this exercise completely worth it. God bless.

It's time to break free from the chains that have been keeping you bound for way too long. When an elephant is used for purposes that are different from its natural habitat, such as training to be in a circus, the young elephant is bound to a post using chains.   The young elephant is unable to escape from its post because it's simply not strong enough to break the chain that is keeping it bound to this post. It grows older assuming that it is only able to go so far. When the elephant becomes an adult, it maintains this limiting belief, and a thin rope is all that is needed to keep it from wandering from its post. The adult elephant is strong enough to break free, but it simply doesn't realize that this is the case and stays bound to the post.   This same scenario can be applied to many of us. We have our own limiting beliefs that act as chains that have trained us to only go so far. Even when the chains are gone and we're only held in place by a thin rope, we still believe that we can only reach a certain point.   It's time to break free from what's holding you back. Break free, and become who you were meant to be. God bless.

It's time for a monthly check-in to discuss what I've been up to as it relates to getting out of debt and getting into prosperity.   I think that it's a good idea for us to touch base once a month to see where things are at on my personal journey to get out of debt and get into prosperity, and hopefully it inspires you to continue forging ahead with your goals as well. God bless.

Knowing your endgame can help to get you through this journey of getting out of debt, especially if you can envision what life will be like once you're out of debt and getting into prosperity.   Perhaps you want to give more generously and help those less fortunate. You may want to own rental properties and realize your dream to become a real estate investor. Maybe you'd like to pay for your children to attend college, or maybe your kids and your grandchildren!    The sky is the limit once we break the chains that shackle us. Freedom is powerful, and all of us have a true purpose to claim once we are out of debt and on our way towards getting into prosperity. The question is, what is your endgame? God bless.

I may be a bit biased, but I love this show. It's not what you think, though. The reason that I love this show is the community. Tune in as we see first-hand how our community of like-minded folks can overcome obstacles and thrust forward towards accomplishing each and every one of the goals that we set. God bless.

We already know that saving money is one of the ways that will help us to reach our goal of getting out of debt. I have complied a list of the more common ways that we can save money this year and going forward.   Some of the methods mentioned are for smaller purchases while others are for some larger purchases that we may need to make in the near future. With this being said, we can easily adjust many of these topics mentioned in this particular episode to match other purchases that we may need to make as well.   As we continue to head into the new year, let's continue to think of other ways that we can save money in 2020 and beyond. God bless.