Here’s an an excerpt from my book, The Common Sense Guide to Mastering Your Money, enjoy:

“I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go

crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.”

— Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

What would your success look like if you created a world with

very little procrastination and discomfort?

Well, in order to succeed, you’ve got to keep your daily life

daily. Breaking your spending down to the smallest time frame

possible will keep it under control. It is about “staying in the

moment” and managing the madness.

For example, let’s revisit the Vegas trip with friends. Maybe

some of your friends have the means to spend freely on a bachelor

or a bachelorette weekend, but you don’t. You are not sure what is

coming for the whole weekend and you are embarrassed to ask.

You throw down your credit card whenever asked, and you hit

up the ATM a few times in order to contribute to the festivities;

you know, throw caution to the wind and live it up.

On the trip home, you are sick to your stomach because

you have no idea what you spent, but you do know it was more

than you had in your budget … or did you even have a budget?

Maybe you simply said you’d worry about it tomorrow, and now

tomorrow is here.

Does this sound familiar?

Of course, some procrastination is very normal, as we all tend

to do the things we enjoy and put off the things that we don’t. We

also have to do what is urgent. We usually have an inner rating

system that determines the urgency factor, and completing those

urgent tasks can be pretty satisfying. What isn’t satisfying — and

can be downright harmful — is to routinely promise yourself that

you will complete tasks or put promised behaviors into motion

and then delay or disregard your own promises.

Here are a few tricks to “curbing your enthusiasm” for

procrastination:

● If the task is small enough, do it in the moment it happens.

For instance: The trash is full and it needs to go out. Go

take it out now! One little step. Each time you remove a

small nagging item from your list of nagging items, the

emotional reward is tangible. It is an emotional pat on

the back, an “I did it.” Yes, the trash will need taking out

again, but it will continue to be rewarding if you do it

when it should be done!

● If the task is a bit bigger — for example, folding the

clothes in your dryer — and you have put it off, set

your phone alarm for a reasonable moment in your day,

and when the alarm goes off, get up and do it. And no

snoozing!

● Even if you don’t write it down (come on, we can’t fix

everything immediately), review what you spent at the

end of each day. Make notes in your phone if need be,

but however you record it, take the time to review what

went on in your financial world that day … before you

turn out the lights and get comfy.

● Open your mail! Have you ever noticed that your mail

seems to become more intimidating the higher the stack?

Start sorting it right away, every day. Separate what is

real from the junk, and in order to feel really good about

this job, get a small shredder and shred the junk before

you review the rest of the mail.

Have a highlighter nearby to mark due dates and account

numbers or subject lines. This small step helps record the item in

your brain, making you less likely to forget. Have a small basket

or box nearby to keep the real mail safe, so you can take care of

each item when it is due and necessary.

Now that you are using your time to kick those small items

in the ass, you are starting to work through these irritating

emotional blocks and erasing some discomfort. So, so satisfying!

Why are so many people buying houses when prices are so high?

In this video I’ll explain exactly what is going on in the real estate market in America today.

Today I’m going to talk to you about the ifs, and buts about Contracting.

Today’s reality is different from anything we’ve ever experience in our lifetime, and the way we deal with our credit cards is no different.

In general, credit cards are the biggest boon to debt that the country has ever seen. Before credit cards, you had very limited access to your money…

You actually had to go to the bank in order to get your money out.

The way that we do credit cards now is a completely different paradigm.

In this video we are going to briefly tackle the credit report situation before, during, and after covid.

I’m sure that during this crisis people were hiding their head in the sand, it would not be unusual to feel that way, but I want to talk to you just for a few minutes about getting that credit report right in front of you and letting you know what it all means.

I also want to share with you why this system is one of the most rigged systems we have in our financial institution and what you can do to set yourself up for success.

Check out this video to learn what you want to do after a financial crisis.

Person 1 – The Jumper

This person will jump into anything with a great idea and with a lot of enthusiasm. This person is usually very bright, smart, and innovative but they have no plan. This person jumps into ideas and then they regret it once they have this commitment with time, energy, and money and they don’t know what to do from there. They have all the tools and resources in the world to make things happen but they don’t have the vision to make it happen. This person needs to be more of a planner instead of a jumper.

Person 2 – The Planner

This person is more of a planner. This person handles their enthusiasm in a controlling manner, they tend to step back and do their research about what are the next steps to make their idea work and if the idea is even worth moving forward with. This person understands the importance of stepping back and closing their eyes and seeing what vision they can create for themselves. This person knows what action steps to take.

Person 3 – The Scared Person

This is the person who never takes action. They are great planners and they have a great vision and they know the first 10 to 12 action steps. These types of people are bright people themselves. They have all the qualities that are needed to be successful. The one thing that sets them from taking any action is their fear. Their fear is keeping them from living the life that they want to live. Their fear is keeping them in a job that they hate, or in regret, and in general, they continue to live a life that they hate.

All of these people have the potential to be great at their dreams. They all bring great ideas to the table. You might see yourself in one of these people or possibly a mix of two or all three. Nevertheless, if you can identify which one you are, you now know how to assess yourself and how to take the steps to live the life of your dreams and achieve your goals.

As we all know, auto-debits just like credit can be a good or bad thing depending on how to use them in your financial life. Auto-debits can be a great thing in the sense that much of your finances are going to be automated without too much work. Also, auto-debits can be dangerous if you’re auto-debiting many services without proper recording or thinking.

The Good

The great thing that auto-debits are that you can auto-bill from your checking or savings accounts so you will never miss a deadline for a service or subscription without worrying about canceling your subscriptions. One service I always would say to auto-debit is insurance. If you miss a payment for your insurance, oftentimes it is hard to get them back. I encourage many of you to auto-debit your insurance policies. The benefits of auto-debiting your bills are that your bills are always going to be paid on time and as a result, you’ll have a great credit score and you’ll never have to worry about calls from creditors.

The Bad And Ugly

Much of the bad experiences can come from trial subscriptions. I recommend anyone reading this before you sign up for a trial subscription is to read the fine print and see what exactly you are signing up for and for how long. Once you are a paying customer for many trial subscriptions, some of them make it hard to unsubscribe to their service or might of forgot your login password to the service. Before you sign up for anything I want you to read the fine print to see what exactly you are signing up for and for how long and how much. Another part of the bad of auto-debits is paying the minimum on your credit card. Making on-time payments to your credit card is a great thing, it’s building up your credit and more. One thing you might be overlooking is the interest that is growing on your account overtime. You’ll be paying more over time if you don’t pay off your credit card all at once. Many credit companies want to see a gap between how much credit is issued to you and how much you are using. Paying the minimum on your credit card will get you out of late fees but not put you in that gap that these credit companies want to see.

I want to assist you in getting the peace of mind that you deserve. Auto-debits are just like credit cards, they are a tool in finances that can be a blessing or a curse depending on how you use them. The best benefit of auto-debits is to automate the process of handing your monthly cash flow but if you’re blindly automating your monthly cash flow without too much thought, you’re setting yourself up for a disaster.

As we all know, economic downturns are going to happen in our lifetime. There are many types of events that happen that can change your economic situations like a trade war, pandemic, a stock market crash just to name a few.

I’ve been through a couple of economic downturns in my lifetime and many of them were hard times that came to me by events that were out of my control. I have some actionable advice to take so when the next economic downturn happens you know what to do.

Figure out your monthly overhead

First, you have to make sure you’re stable and figure out your absolute necessities in life. Double-check your monthly overhead and see what you really need and cut anything for the time being. Don’t increase your purchases on things you don’t need. Keep your expenses low during this time of uncertainly. Overall, I want you to ride out this economic downturn. The economy will recover and you want to be in a great position when it does.

Keep your composure

Don’t panic when an economic downturn happens. It’s very easy to panic and give in to fear and purchase things you don’t need or buying too much of something due to the fear of scarcity. When you go to your local stores, you’re going to see people buying in big quantities. Don’t panic, our supply chain for our food and other needs are so great that the worst-case scenario is that a certain item is out of stock for about a week.

Be careful about where you get your new stories and information

Be careful where you get your news and your information. You want to make sure you get your news from reliable and credible sources. Do not give in into sound bites and headlines. When you live life only paying attention to sound bites and headlines, you never get the full story if any at all. In an economic downturn, there will be a lot of sound bites and headlines due to the situation.

Stay positive 

Always be in a positive environment. In a time of uncertainty, it is very easy to be negative or worry. Don’t feud with your family and friends over a sticky situation. The economic downturn will end at a certain point but once you lose out on friends and family often times they are gone for good. So, try to comfort one and another and be there for each other for moral support.

Cut back your expenses

Find out how much money it takes for you and your family to live daily. When you find that daily number of how much it costs you to live, you’ll find ways to cut back to meet your current financial condition.

Set new goals after the economic downturn. It may be hard to plan for the future when you are worried about you today. Trust me, the economy will recover and you want to reach your goals when it’s time to bounce back. Think about what you could do today to make your future make more sense.

Would you like to be able to get up one morning with your family and take a trip anywhere in the world or wake up in the morning and if you felt like buy some high ticket purchase you can do so without having to feel any remorse or second thoughts because it was your mad money?

You’re probably asking me “Robin, what is my mad money?” Your mad money is your discretionary income that does not interfere with your daily life.

Now, when you go to a bank or a lender they take your mad money and think that money is for paying debt and bills. I believe your mad money should be going towards your fun. Just like that trip you can go with your family or some other purchase for pleasure.

I have a story that relates to mad money.

I went to Disneyland with my granddaughter. We were having the time of our lives going on different rides and have an experience of a lifetime. So, we’re in line for one of the rides and there’s a group of young 20 something girls or they could have been in their late teens. I overheard their converse and one of the girls was freaking out about her money. She checked her checking account and she saw that the money for her car payment was going to bound. She used the money that was supposed to go to her car payment for this trip to Disneyland. This was not her mad money. This is the money she needed for her monthly bills. So, mad money is money that you can spend every month that will not affect your daily life. Mad money is money you can use at Disneyland without having any fear or regret. I don’t want anyone to be in the position that girl was in with money. Here she was trying to have a good time at Disneyland with her hard-earned money with her friends but that car payment is going to be in the back of her mind throughout the day and I don’t want anyone to be in that position in life. I thought to myself if this girl read my book, The Common Sense Guidebook To Mastering Your Money she would have found the value that would have corrected her money habits and she would have been able to go to Disneyland and still have her car payment paid. I guarantee that you’ll find some gap to fill with your money habits in this book so you don’t be the girl at Disneyland worried at Disneyland and you’ll be the person at Disneyland having a great time and has everything covered and having the mad money to have the daily happiness.

If you want mad money and want to have some fun with your life without the worry about money, it’s best to know what mad money is all about on page 86.