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Introduction
Sixty minutes a week can completely revolutionize your finances.
One hour a week. That is sixty minutes out of 10,080; 1/168th of your time.
Whether you make $15,000, $50,000, or $500,000 per year, there’s one thing all of us have in common: each of us has sixty minutes per hour.
Time.
It’s the great equalizer. The president’s proportion equals the paparazzi’s.
The plumber and the philanthropist.
The mom and the maniac.
The student and the senior citizen.
To some, the minutes fly by. To others, they drag.
For some, time is money. For others, money is time.
Nonetheless, time is the great equalizer, and all of us have the same amount. How is it that some people can milk the most out of every moment while others inanely waste eons of instants? It’s what you do with time that makes it count.
The difference in how you use the resource of time lies in how purposeful you are with your hours each week. If money matters are cited as the number-one problem in most families, then it seems that they should get at least an hour of our time each week.
Give your finances sixty minutes a week and see how all things money-related will change:
• You’ll get out of debt and be able to save for your kids’ college tuition.
• You’ll have more meaningful and debt-free vacations.
• You’ll be able to figure out how to pay cash for your cars.
• You’ll make a life-and-death difference around the world in the way you give money to others.
• You’ll find peace with your mate.
• You’ll discover contentment with your current circumstances.
• You’ll latch on to hope for your financial future.
• Your money life will be completely revolutionized.
Do these promises sound like glib guarantees made from a woman with an overactive imagination and too much caffeine? Don’t be fooled. These are the assurances from a woman who has been able to deliver on every single principle while financially supporting seven children on an average family income of $55,000 a year. This book doesn’t promise empty theories that are written from a glass penthouse with a fine city view. No, this book was birthed among the grit and grime of having too much month at the end of the money.
My husband and I discovered early in our marriage, when we carried the heavy burden of $40,000 in debt and no hope in sight, that one hour a week could change our financial lives forever. We started these weekly money workouts, and within two and a half years—on a military man’s salary—we were completely out of consumer debt, we began to pay cash for our cars, we took great vacations, we started a retirement fund, we put away money for the kids’ college, and we began to support orphans in third-world countries. Well into our second decade of marriage, we began to make more money—but the one-hour workouts continued because we wanted to keep progressing in a purposeful approach to how we managed money.
Something to keep in mind during these workouts will be that you must first know your money personality so you can understand how it impacts the way you view, interact, spend, and handle money. Thus the money personality profile in chapter 2 will be a critical aspect of how each workout will function for you throughout the rest of the book. Each chapter begins with a fun preworkout test that will ask specific questions to help you prepare to get the most out of the chapter. The workout plans are straightforward and fairly simple. They get more complicated when you bring baggage to the table. So this book will show you how to check your gear at the door.
The chapters also have very specific guidelines with notes on how to target each workout and get the most out of your hour every week. What you don’t cover in one workout, you table for the next one, and yet you will experience significant progress with each workout. Preparation is part of the key to success in these workouts, so I have included a list of what you will need before you begin (simple items such as a timer, paper, key resources for each subject, etc.). Each workout is tailored to a specific goal or topic.
At the end of each chapter you will find a tip sheet to use during the workout hour. This tip sheet serves as an overview to the more detailed concepts addressed in the chapter and is designed to facilitate the workout. It will keep the action moving and alleviate any anxiety you may feel, such as, How do I remember what I’m supposed to cover?
Every money workout you do will make you financially stronger, smarter, and sweeter. You’ll become stronger, because knowledge is power and you are practically working out that knowledge into a purposeful plan for your life. You’ll be smarter, because any man or woman of wealth or influence will tell you that it’s smart to follow the money trail—especially your own. Finally, you will be sweeter, because by following the guidelines for these workouts, you are forced to bind the jerk within and release your gentleperson. The result is someone who can talk about money calmly, rationally, and purposefully so that you can have a completely revolutionized money life after only one hour a week.
Chapter 1: 60 Minutes to Financial Freedom
Thirty years.
That’s how long it took to achieve the dream.
When I was at the ripe old age of ten, my parents won a trip to Germany because my dad bought a certain number of air conditioners for his part-time building business. They promised to bring me back “something special.” I imagined a Bavarian costume, a crown that belonged to a real princess, or maybe even a china teacup. Instead, they brought me a book and a rock. The rock came from the lake where King Ludwig allegedly killed himself, and the book was a compilation of his castles and treasures. They were a little odd, but those gifts ended up serving me well.
At school, I used the book to write a report on King Ludwig that earned an A+. And the rock inspired a dream to one day see Neuschwanstein, also known as “the Disneyland Castle.”
Three decades later I was able to fulfill those travel dreams, thanks to my international work with military families. As I walked through the castle’s gilded hall, my imagination wandered to what life must have been like for people such as King Ludwig, who had only known a life of wealth and privilege, then to have that life cut short through suicide or murder. I decided that my life as a mother of seven wasn’t that bad after all. I may not have been at the pinnacle of wealth and privilege, but I was fulfilling my dream, which also happened to be squarely in the path of another of my dreams: helping military families achieve their financial dreams.
Along the road to a dream fulfilled, there was hope deferred, justice denied, and paradise lost. But one thing remained true: there was a plan and purpose for the ten-year-old version of me, and my dreams—some material, some personal, and some spiritual—were worth keeping.
What were some of your childhood dreams?
Do you still dream, or did you stop dreaming a long time ago?
Would I trade my dream trip to see Neuschwanstein for anything else? Of course I would! There are boatloads of things in life that carry far greater value than a trip: my husband, kids, friends, health, and an entire host of far more meaningful things than the material ones. But the point is that if we are purposeful, principled, and proactive about money matters, then we can still hang on to those longtime dreams and watch them come to pass.
Maybe your dream is to stop fighting about money with your mate.
Maybe you want to buy a home or go to Paris.
You might dream of putting your babies through college without a mountain of student-loan debt.
Or you might want to be able to sponsor a third-world child and give her a life she couldn’t have without your help.
While many people know they need to be proactive about money matters, few know the secret to putting feet to fiscal concepts. Knowledge alone is not enough to make a difference in a person’s financial picture. This knowledge has to be put into action regularly in order to reach your goals.
So move over money “makeovers,” it’s time for the money workout.
Makeovers fall short of truly revitalizing your financial picture. While they address the problem and suggest solutions, implementing those concepts on a day-to-day basis can feel like driving a Honda when you were dreaming of a roadster. Another challenge of a makeover is that you don’t know how to do it on your own after the experts leave.
But my money workout method will teach you how to have self-sufficiency once this book is closed.
Maybe you’ve tried to work on money issues but instead ended up fighting with your spouse. It might be that the thought of sitting down with all your bills is so overwhelming that it falls into the realm of impossible. Maybe you’re convinced that you will never get out of debt, live in financial harmony, or own a home. It’s not about how much ti...
