There Is No Other Way

The Only Way to Become Financially Free in America Today Is to Start and Operate Your Own Business

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

I have become so sick and tired of online gurus offering scam products and opportunities that I must reveal the truth about what I have discovered. It is simply this:

In virtually every ad I have read and responded to online a sinister tactic has left me disappointed and dismayed. All of the solutions I had been promised left me unable to achieve any real success whatsoever.

And the sinister tactic being used? Let me simply call it the sin of omission in the solution being offered for my hard-earned money and time.

As strange as it might seem to a man, think about baking a cake that has 5 ingredients. What I have been getting from online gurus is generally 4 of the 5 ingredients, or 80% of the knowledge and application it takes to make the big bucks like the gurus.

Without the 5th and final ingredient the cake making process and the cake are a flop. Worse yet, the gurus know this and purposefully withhold the final ingredient, knowing that if you knew it, you would then join them in the success circle.

They nonetheless advertise and sell their information as if they are giving you all of the ingredients and the full story. In the process, I was being really cheated out of my investment in their products and opportunities.

They were literally lining their pockets at my expense while acting like successful online entrepreneurs willing to share their success information for a price.

The online business of selling information to unsuspecting prospects without giving the prospects all of the information and help they need to succeed has become a multi-million dollar industry.

These online gurus are worse than spin doctors in politics. They will literally steal you blind and act like they are doing you a real service; there is apparently no end to their righteousness and profits, not to mention their disingenuousness.

Enough is enough. I am sick and tired of all their lies and ad copy that drones on for 50-plus pages, spewing out their "exclusive" knowledge, how "easy" it is to succeed like they do, all the "evidence" of their newfound wealth, all the "testimonials" of the common folk and superstars who worship at their feet, all the "crap" you are going to get (minus the real information you need to succeed), how their information is "worth" thousands, how "you can buy it" for hundreds, and how you must "act immediately" to take advantage of their time-sensitive offer.

All of it crap. I have never had a single one of these gurus help me with sincerity at my point of need. They are only interested in selling me more of their personal and company products, books, tapes, seminar tickets, etc., all of which they make money at my expense.

Here is what I believe you need to know before you begin a journey toward becoming financially free:

1) Unless you are a famous rock star, professional athlete or chief executive officer of a major corporation, you have no chance of becoming financially free. You cannot be hired help as an average worker and become financially free in America.

You should have figured out by now that you are not going to get generous raises each year, get more time off, and get better medical, dental and associated benefits. You are an employee, not the owner of the company.

2) As long as you are hired help, you are going to pay too much of your earnings in taxes. Workers are taxed to death. You should know by now that even if your government taxed the rich three times as much, the combined middle class taxpayers still pay far more taxes.

Take the middle class out of paying taxes and the United States would collapse. There would not be enough money to pay all of bureaucrats who regulate our lives and our incomes.

3) Your government does not reward you for being financially responsible, your government punishes you. Your government taxes you on your savings. Your government restricts the amount of tax-free money you can contribute to your retirement accounts. Your government encourages you to go farther into debt by giving you a bigger mortgage interest deduction for a bigger house with a bigger mortgage payment.

4) Very few Americans can save enough for retirement because their incomes are too low, their taxes are too high, and by the time they pay their bills, too many live month-to-month, unable to save enough for retirement.

So what is the answer? Let me share with you not what I think, but what I know.

5) First, you need to go into business for yourself. Do not quit your job, simply start a part-time business on the side so you can begin to generate some income, and accumulate more legal tax deductions. The tax deductions will enable you to lower your taxable income. Then you can take the tax savings and invest in your retirement and/or expand your business.

6) Second, this is not rocket science. You do not need a college degree or special advice from your banker or financial expert, 95% of whom will lie, cheat and steal to take your money while trying to convince you that they are your best friend and helping you. If you doubt this, just start reading the real life articles I write in the Lessons in Life section of my Blog.

7) Understand that as hired help you have so few legal deductions you can count them on one hand. As a business owner, you have a minimum of 200 deductions and hundreds more if you are a major corporation. You simply cannot continue to pay the taxes you are paying as hired help and get ahead.

8) Do you know that as a business you can legally arrange your affairs so that virtually all of your business travel expenses are 100% deductible? This lowers your net taxable income, and reduces the net taxable income your business generates.

9) Do you know that if you have children ages 8 to 18 you can hire each of them to work in your business, and pay them approximately $5,000 a year? Do you know that this income for each of your children is tax free to them, and you can take the combined employment expense as a 100% business deduction?

10) Do you know you can start a legal business for a one-time investment of as little as $200, and maintain your business for as little as $20 a month? Yes you can. I have done it, and you can too.

May 19, 2007

What Two Sentences in a Book Led Me To Retire $269,000 and Become Debt Free?

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

When I first thought about becoming an Internet Marketer, I thought about becoming debt free.  I did not like the idea of paying hundreds of dollars a month in interest on my obligations.

I was reading one day and came across this quote from a British author that seemed to capture my feeling exactly: "Money is like a sixth sense without which we cannot make a complete use of the other five."  Nothing before or since has made more sense to me.

I realized I could not reach my full potential without becoming debt free and financially independent once and for all.

But how?  I was led by the myEcon business opportunity to buy a copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki's book about financial intelligence.

I read the book, then read the book a second time and was impressed by Kiyosaki's personal financial advice, but I got stuck on two of his thoughts:

1) The first thought was "making more money will not solve your personal financial problems if cash flow management is the problem."

I then understood that either I needed to get in control of my personal finances, or spending, increasing debt, and paying interest on debt would be in control of me.

2) The second thought was "you really need to become debt free BEFORE you start investing." 

I then understood that if I was paying 18% to 21% on my credit card debt, for example, and not earning squat on my investments, I was going backwards about a 1,000 miles an hour.

Both of these thoughts were upsetting to me because I knew he was right as right can be.

If I did what everyone else did, I would have what everyone else has, and for most people, what they have is years of hard work, unfair taxes and a lifetime of debt.  And let me tell you, I had some debt.

It is not unusual today for a middle class family to have $100,000, $200,000 or $300,000 in personal debt, if for no other reason than many middle class families are making payments to the bank while owning their home.

I then understood that I needed to change my thought process about what I was doing financially, and why I was doing it. 

I realized that if I lacked the will for change, there was no one who could show me the way.

So I became determined to get in control of my cash flow, and eventually retired $269,000 in debt to become a free man.  

I became very thankful that I was led to Robert Kiyosaki's book, and had started my Internet Articles Writing business. 

Getting rid of the interest I was paying on $269,000 in debt was an incredible blessing.   

I learned how to minimize my expenses, how to minimize my taxes, how I could eliminate my debt, and how I could invest my money in assets rather than paying taxes and debts.  I leaned I must be in business because being in business would allow me even more legal tax deductions.  By doing so I lowered my net taxable income.  This allowed me to keep more of my money to reduce my debt.  Unless you have done it, you cannot imagine how off-loading $269,000 in debt feels.  

I have been in opportunities where I sunk money in and got nothing out.  No one, or no company, ever really cared enough to help ensure my financial future while they were lining their pockets at my expense. 

I simply got sick and tired of subsidizing other opportunities while I got all of the motivation and training in the world, but no strategy to actually succeed.