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Let’s quickly review the principles discussed in the first part of building wealth. We established that prosperity consciousness must first be developed mentally to acquire any real wealth. A person that constantly worries about money most likely is living in scarcity consciousness regardless of the size of his or her bank account. We talked about some methods and daily exercises that can be employed to start developing a stronger level of prosperity consciousness. The first exercise uses written affirmations, the second utilizes visualization, and finally we need to become more aware of how willing we are to give and receive prosperity on a daily basis. If we start using these methods, we’ll begin to see gradual changes in our lives that will become larger over time.

As a follow-up to improving the way we think about wealth and prosperity, there are some effective money management techniques that will further support our prosperity consciousness. Certainly if we use the exercises discussed earlier in Part 1, we’ll start to view money differently, but those principles should be fortified by our actions as well. What we want to accomplish with our money is to generate a steady cash flow into our lives that will elevate our feelings of prosperity over time. The first step toward achieving this end is to simply pay ourselves first. Every time we get paid, we should save a portion of what we’ve earned. It’s recommended that at least 10% of our pay be set aside for savings.

So if you already have a savings account, the big question is what is the purpose of this account? Is it for emergencies or a major purchase? Do you have more than one savings account? If we want to establish a consistent flow of prosperity, we must gradually build prosperity in our bank accounts while at the same time protecting ourselves against life’s financial emergencies and obligations. It’s very demoralizing to save a significant amount of money only to have to spend it on a costly emergency – the worst part is that often times, an event like this will knock us right off the prosperity track entirely. So we should strive to not only protect ourselves financially from these types of events, but more importantly, we must protect ourselves emotionally from these types of events.

The most effective way to handle our savings is to have more than one savings account with each having a different purpose. Although each of us will have different financial goals, it is recommended that everyone have a minimum of three different savings accounts with the following purposes:

1) Emergency Funds – This fund is set aside for those incidents that pop-up unexpectedly. Managing these events is critical to building wealth because they throw us off our budgets and demoralize us mentally. Unfortunately, emergencies are when many of us resort to credit cards, which makes this account even more critical. We MUST manage this aspect of our financial lives, otherwise life’s little emergencies will continue to rob our wealth if we let them.

2) Purchases – This fund is used to save for major purchases such as a piece of furniture or a new car. In addition, we can also use these funds for buying Christmas or birthday gifts. These types of purchases are also occasions where many of us are inclined to use credit. It’s not uncommon for Americans to be loaded with debt right after the Christmas holiday season. Just like the Emergency Fund account, the Purchases account is designed to keep us away from using credit.

3) Wealth Building – This last account is probably the most important if we manage it properly. There is only one rule for this account – the funds must never be spent. Never spent?!? Then what good is this account if it’s never spent, you ask? Two reasons. The first reason is that we want this account to reach a level where we can eventually spend or even live off the interest it earns. Secondly, this account will be our biggest builder of prosperity consciousness. As this account grows in value, we’ll become more and more comfortable with wealth coming into our lives. Have you ever noticed how money just seems to flow naturally to wealthy people? There’s a reason for that – it’s not coincidental, it’s their attitude that attracts the wealth. So as this account grows and grows, so does our comfort with money and our willingness to receive abundance.

These accounts need not be savings accounts with your bank. In fact, most of them shouldn’t be savings accounts. Obviously we want our funds earning as much interest as possible and we all know that savings accounts have probably the poorest yields of all. One approach is to place our more liquid accounts such as Emergency Funds into savings accounts, perhaps keep our Purchases account in short term CD’s since we can plan more easily for purchases, and then place our Wealth Building funds in a Mutual Fund. Again, the arrangement will be different for each of us – the important thing is to start setting them up.

The accounts mentioned here should be in addition to those that may be offered by your employer. Employer sponsored plans such as 401K’s are a great way to supplement wealth building, but we still need to manage our wealth on a daily basis to establish a prosperous mindset. Keep in mind that the accounts mentioned here are a minimum. There are countless ways to use this approach. For instance, we may choose to have a Purchases account and then another account for Gifts. Or we may want to add another account called Vacations. Many money management pundits advise setting back 3-6 months worth of living expenses in the event of emergency unemployment. Perhaps when our emergency account gets big enough, we can place these “Emergency Unemployment” funds into a separate interest bearing account. Again, there are countless variations to using this approach.

Finally, one last note about maintaining the accounts. We mentioned earlier that setting aside 10% of your pay is a good minimum and a great level on which to start. Some of us may be able to save more, others may have to save less – the main thing is that we get started. In addition, a portion of any unexpected windfall should also go into savings. As far as how much of that savings should go into each account is up to each person. The simple approach is to split it equally among all the accounts, but as situations arise, it may be practical to feed one account more than the others at times. This is fine as long as the rules for each account are strictly followed.

Remember – like it or not – our current finances are simply a reflection of our current level of prosperity consciousness. So if more wealth is desired, we must alter the way we’re presently thinking about prosperity. If these Wealth Building principles and techniques are followed and we’re persistent to this cause, it’s guaranteed that real wealth will find its way to our lives over time.

Chuck Cox is a Technical Writer and Industrial Scientist by professional with a background in statistics. He has used mathematical and statistical methods to invest and trade in the stock, futures, and options markets. Chuck has owned various businesses and presently operates several websites. To investigate a new business idea, visit his website, earncashathometoday.com/ earncashathometoday.com/

Been shopping for online loans lately? It can be a tangled confusing mess that nets a person nothing but spam and aggravation. Like any other business decision, it’s wise to shop around, ask questions and make informed decisions.

Taking out any kind of loan can be intimidating, but once one is educated on the various loans and what is expected, the intimidation factor is erased. An informed consumer ready to take out a loan and no longer helpless to the banks or online lenders, is much better than one at the mercy of them.

For example the term “payday loan,” can be an odd term for some people. Not understanding the terminology of “payday loans” or “cash advances” can make one wary of such loans when it might be exactly what they need.

There are two types of bad credit personal loans, secured and unsecured. A homeowner may qualify for the secured personal loan and non-homeowners may apply for the unsecured bad credit personal loan. Bad credit should not affect one’s ability to obtain a home mortgage loan. The interest rate for a home mortgage loan will depend upon that person’s credit rating. If the credit score is 600 or above, the borrower is usually required to pay a 5% down payment. Credit scores that fall below 580 necessitate down payments of 20% or more. However, reputable bad credit mortgage lenders do not require unreasonable down payments of 50%.

Debt consolidation loans are another option to consider if one has a history of bad debt. These loans consolidate debts into one loan, allowing a person to make one monthly payment they can afford. Unsecured debt consolidation loans are not tied to one’s assets, and can eliminate annoying calls and letters from creditors, as well as helping to avoid filing bankruptcy.

It’s not easy shopping for online loans but with due diligence one can find the information needed to meet one’s needs. It’s important to understand the different kinds of loans as the different loans have different terms and different interest rates. One should not get caught up in a relationship where only dependence on the lender is your only avenue. Education on loan terminology will go a long way for one’s financial needs and security.

Connie Barker is the owner of several financial websites including: onlineloanreviews.com Online Loan Company

What you are about to read may make you reassess your attitude to zero interest balance transfer offers. I will show how these balance transfer offers are pushing more and more people into serious financial difficulties and I will suggest a few ideas on how you can manage your debt better.

Credit card debt is rising at an alarming rate and many people are now getting into serious financial difficulties. One of the reasons is the promotion of no interest balance transfer offers and interest free initial periods.

Like most people, I’ve been tempted by the these offers to change my credit cards. I’ve taken them up on their offer and moved my credit card debt and, for a limited time, had no interest to pay. But “just in case of an emergency” I usually hang onto my old card.

Then something happens, an unexpected bill, or a wedding or birthday gift I’ve forgotten about. “Never mind” I tell myself “I can put it on the old card - there’s plenty of credit on there so it’s no problem.”

A few months and a few unexpected bills later the interest free period runs out I have to pay interest on both my new card and the old card. Now I’m worse off than when I started but that’s no problem as I can look for another card offering another interest free period and zero interest balance transfers.

It’s so easy and the banks and credit card companies are so eager to lend the money that it becomes routine, until that is, something goes wrong. You could fall ill and be off work, or, you could lose some overtime and your wages fall, or maybe that big deal you were relying on falls through.

It may just be that the credit card companies decide you have too much outstanding on credit cards and you would have difficulty paying the repayments, or simply they spot that you are a regular churner of the debt and they don’t want your business.

Whatever the reason the result is that you have all the interest to pay and you start to struggle with the minimum payments and miss one or two. Because you’ve missed payments it becomes even more difficult to find the next interest free balance transfer offer.

Now you have a real problem but it is one that can be avoided.

I could suggest that you don’t use credit cards but I suspect that would not be acceptable, and I am not going to suggest you ignore the 0% offers - that would mean you paying interest when it is not needed.

The simplest way to benefit from these balance transfer offers, but keep your card debt under control, is to cut up your old card when you switch to a new one.

That way you benefit from the 0% offer but minimize your exposure to higher debt.

Once you have cut your card up though, it is essential that you contact the card issuer and close the account. Until you close the account the card issuer will continue to tempt you with special offers to use your old card.

Another tip is to never pay just the minimum payment. Always pay the maximum monthly payment you can afford. Reducing your payments simply pushes back the time when you have to repay and in the long term increases your payments. Use the interest free period to reduce your debt to the minimum and if possible clear the balance.

Credit card companies don’t offer an interest free balance transfer because they are feeling generous. They do it because, in the vast majority of cases, they will be able to charge you more in the longer term. Use interest free credit to benefit you not the credit card companies.

John writes articles on a number of topics including debt management and finance. Go to card-debt.net Credit Card Management for more information on how to manage your credit card and other debts.