Setbacks happen in business and in life.  It’s just a part of life, and something everyone can relate to.  Everybody tries, everybody fails, and everybody has successes in their life. 

Business owners (especially in the startup phase) know this already – that feeling that we are connected with our businesses.  A new strong competitor in town, losing a key resource, or dealing with new or protracted legal issues can drain us emotionally.  We connect ourselves to strongly we feel it in our guts, and our failures can consume our thoughts and overpower us. 

Roller coaster is only the beginning. We go to sleep scared for our businesses, and ready to throw in the towel.  We wake up with more energy and ready to fight, or with some new creative idea that we can try and we’re ready for more fun

But it’s important to remember that there IS a separation between ourselves and our businesses.  Some things we may fail at, and some things we may succeed at.  But when it’s time to move on, don’t forget to lose the lesson.

• When life serves you lemons, make lemonade.  But don’t call it “Minute Maid” lemonade- the people at minute maid don’t like it when you do that.
• It’s not how many times you fall down, it’s how many times you stand back up.  But next time you’re about to stand back up, you might want to consider staying low and crawling over to a place where whatever keeps knocking you down can’t get to you.
• Fail early, and fail often.  It’s from failure that we learn.  But be careful – everyone has their own capacity to learn, and you don’t want to fail more than you can learn from.

Now with those quotations, they are a little tongue in cheek – meant to be funny.  But after I wrote them I am proud of them – there really is wisdom there.  The final word is that “we are not our failures.” Our business might fail;  Our investments might fail; and our health might fail.  But they are not a reflection on you.  They do not define you. 

Others may try to define you, but they only define their perception of you.  The only perception that matters is how YOU define you.  And your failures shouldn’t be anything more to you than a badge of courage – as long as you learn from them.

Motivation and education are not the same thing.  To get the most out of our educators, mentors, and financial gurus, we have to know what they are trying to teach us.  Are they trying to motivate us, or educate us?  Does the financial guru sell their information, or are they selling themselves?  Are they getting rich by teaching people how they got rich, or getting rich by selling the IDEA of being rich?

Sometimes a motivator sells themselves as a financial expert, or a real estate guru, but in the end all they really deliver is a motivational message – a feel-good “you can make money”.   Now, “You can make money” is a great message, but it doesn’t really help if you are wanting to find real information on “how to make money”.  To be sure, there are some great gurus out there.  Some of these financial experts can teach us exactly what to do.  However, sometimes a financial “guru” is only interested in selling very general information with no real value. And sometimes, they have no real intention of providing any real value at all, just selling some platitudes and ideas.

It can be hard to distinguish between somebody that is a real guru and somebody that is just trying to cash in on the big business of self help and financial advice.  So here’s some of the tricks they do to trick their customers into parting with their money, and some of the traits that the “no help gurus” have in common.  If these traits apply to the book or mentor you’ve been listening to, beware. You are likely listening to somebody that is selling you advice on motivation or sales, on concepts and ideals – and with little to no good advice – and in some cases a lot of really BAD advice. 

1)  They frequently describe their financial success.  They keep your attention on the lifestyle of “being rich” instead of keeping you realistic about the hard work and learning that needs to be done, and keeping you focused on the information and their advice. 

2) They put a lot of attention to “low down” to “nothing down” techniques.  When you’re trying to sell salvation and hope, there are a lot of people that are potential customers.  Then it’s just a two-part process – promise them that the hope and salvation comes for no money, and then charge them money for the information.

3) The book has no index in it.  Want a quick way to find out if it’s a good informational resource?  When you’re browsing the bookstore shelves, don’t just look for the book with the prettiest, most eye-catching illustrated cover.  Get to the index and find something that you want to know about.  Check out the pages it references and see if you can find useful information from the index.

4) They use testimonials that could never be confirmed.  With glowing recommendations from “Mark” and “Alice K.” they hope it’s hard to dispute their methods will help you achieve your goals and become financially independent.  While we all know better, this should serve as a reminder next time you see that “John” thinks a new real estate system is foolproof – there’s nothing honest about a testimonial that can’t be confirmed.

5) No recording allowed during free seminars.  If they are legitimate, and offering information and a proposal that is legal and valuable, there would be NO problem with you taking a video of their sales pitch and showing it to your friends to get them involved.  What they worry about is you showing it to your family and friend, your lawyer and accountant, and getting REAL advice.  This is different than not allowing recordings during training seminars that you pay for.  There, you receive the training in exchange for the money, and they have a right to not let you then take their material and redistribute it.

6) They keep reminding you that the price of the information is going up.  A high pressure sales technique that plays on your fear of loss.  Nobody wants to be left out of a good deal.  But remember – if it’s a good deal today, it’s a good deal next week, too. If they don’t want to let you out of the room without you signing something, it’s likely that they are not in it for the right reasons.

7) They denounce traditional education.  When you’re playing to a room of uneducated, it’s easier to pull the wool over their eyes.  The uneducated – typically – have less money, and more financial problems, and a greater “need” for the quick-fix.  They are the most likely to be in need, and they are the most likely to be willing to believe that an education is not required.  And there’s no better way to

Whether it’s pitching products with higher and constantly escalating price tags, using “bait and switch” tactics, false names, or promising deals that are “too good to be true”, the motivations of the charlatans do not lie with your best interest. 

You might be free to get rich, but getting rich isn’t free.  It takes time, work, and dedication.  It takes real mentors, and it takes real education.   Providing the mentorship and the education, and passing on everything we know without charging for the information that has always been free, is the founding philosophy of freetogetrich.com

Now that the banks are closing down credit cards whether they have been recently used or not, and whether or not they have been used responsibly – it’s important in this current economic environment that we first protect ourselves, and look out for our credit scores secondly.

In the event that you are laid off, or find yourself otherwise unable to work – you must have a way of paying your bills.  You will either need credit or cash available.  The problem with the “pay off my credit cards” strategy is that you can no longer count on having the credit available when you need it.  You may be surprised to find out that the bank is no longer interested in offering that debt availability to you.  They can reduce your credit limit, raise your interest rate, or even close out your credit card account altogether.

Since paying off credit card balances works as a safety cushion only when you can count on the credit being available when you need it, the old advice of “establish savings while paying off your credit card debt” must be sidelined until you have got enough set aside to live on if you have to.

So here’s a way to grow your safety account-

• Ensure that you have enough cash to live on for at least 3 months.
• Until you’ve got your emergency plan funded, switch to paying minimums on the credit cards, and get that emergency fund in place.
• Once you’re at 3 months of cushion in your emergency fund, split your efforts between paying off credit card balances and growing your emergency fund to cover 6 months of expenses.

When you’ve got an emergency fund that is able to support you during hard times, it’s safe to resume your strategy of “pay off my credit cards” by switching back to paying off your credit card balances as quickly as possible.

Here is a quicklist on how to stay motivated:

1. Motivate someone else
   When you give openly and freely you are letting the Universe know that you have in abundance what you are giving away.  The Universe responds in kind by providing you with more of what you give a away.  This theme of reciprocity is seen in religious, business, and self-help teaching repeatedly.  It works for all things – money, time, love, and – as applied here – motivation.  On Friday night, before leaving work for the weekend, talk to some of your coworkers about finances.  They may not want to talk about specifics, but bring up the topic of savings, paychecks, and secondary incomes.  Find out what they do to build their nest-egg, and how they budget time and money.  Tell them about the steps YOU take to balance time and money, to build for the future, and to encourage them to do all they can during their time off to increase their income.  You will immediately feel charged up yourself, and when the 5 o’clock bell rings, you’ll feel like you’re heading TO work instead of coming HOME FROM WORK.
   
2. Tell somebody else where you’re going to be in 36 months
   The power in this lies in the binding social contract.  No money is exchanged, no services.  The only thing at stake is your reputation – you don’t want to go against your word.  And even though you haven’t promised anything – the motivation is provided by knowing that they are watching to see how you do.  They may not know whether to believe you or not – but it is now up to you to do what you said you would.
3. Remember what you’re reasons for success are
   The idea here is to replace “how to stay motivated” with “why to stay motivated”. All of your goals need to be in line with your values.  What are your REAL motivations?  not what get’s you up in the morning, but what is the motivation that will propel you for years, and a lifetime.  Do you want to have a list of people that you’ve inspired?  Do you want to build an empire to pass on to your children?  A foundation which helps thousands? If you have not yet written down your values, or you haven’t REALLY taken the time to evaluate them, work with the 7 habits of highly effective people to get started.
4. Internally focus on your power to achieve your goals (Meditate, pray, and intone)
   Say a quick prayer – or meditate briefly – on harnessing the power to motivate.  Don’t so much “ask” for strength or motivation as “believe” that you are movement incarnate.  You are a firestorm of industry.  You are Lance Armstrong.  Internally focus and harness your own energy.  Feel yourself “inhale” motivation, let it compress into a ball of energy in your lungs, and then “exhale” – ready to push forward
5. Build a vision board
   Take some time this weekend to go window shopping in the Universe.  Cut out pictures from magazines, or print off pictures from the Internet – of luxurious landscapes, homes, cars, love interests, family outings, children, pets, happiness, money.  Everything you want.  Everything.  Be greedy.  Say what you want.  Give in to your heart.  Build it.  Once you have your pictures in front of you, make a collage on a posterboard.  Hang the vision board in your office and stare at it every day – to get the feeling of having those things you desire.  Thought precedes life.
6. Outline tasks with a Seven-Board
   Don’t let planning overtake execution.  Stay on top of tasks by not spending all day thinking about all you’ve got to do.  Use the seven-board technique to QUICKLY outline several tasks that need to be done, and knock some out.  If you want to know how to stay motivated, you need simple steps to accomplish that contribute to your goals.
7. Incur an expense that you have to work to pay for
   A trick from Donald Trump.  He suggests not just saying “this is something that I want to do someday” – but actually, as he put it “sign on the dotted line” – something that will hold your feet to the fire and force you to act.  This is the ultimate motivator.  Forcing action on your part to either sink or swim.  It removes you from procrastinating on actually getting started, and moves you into “action”.  What could be more motivating than that?

In no order of preference I present an audiobook roundup – a 7-list of required audiobooks.  If you have not heard these yet, you won’t be disappointed.  They are never far away in my MP3 or CD changer.  Each one you’re able to listen to over and again. If it seems silly to listen to the same audiobook over and over again, consider how many times in your life you’ve heard that song on the radio. Without further ado -

 1.  Richest Man in Babylon, By George Clason – This is one that my Dad bought for me (the paperback, not the audio) 30 years ago, and it was already a classic at that time.  I was just a kid then, and while I didn’t fully understand all of the teachings – you might think that the lessons would be lost on an 8 year old, it turned out to be a more life altering book than, say… my X-Men comics that I liked so much. You know, Wolverine is cool too – but he’s no Arkad. 

(see six more incredible audiobooks here)

2.  Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t, By Jim Collins – Jim Collins is incredible.  There are so many personalities for sale – Dave Ramsey, Steven Covey, Tony Robbins.  You find the people that inspire you and help kick your butt until you’ve set your goals, and made them.  Jim Collins and Good to Great is completely different.  Where the “personalities” appear to your emotional motivation, Jim Collins and his team of researchers poured their hearts into a 5 year project analyzing what makes a good company great.  Statistics. Logic. Analysis. I actually became sad half-way through the final disk because I knew it was almost over.  (It’s ok – I started it again!)

3.  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Steven Covey – Taking initiative and working WITH people. Setting your goals.  Aligning your goals with your personal values.  Setting up mission statements for yourself, your family, and your business.  He discusses delegation, leadership, and Dr Covey encourages personal growth and really helps to develop your professional skillset.

4.  Think BIG and Kick Ass in Business and Life, by Donald Trump – Donald Trump is the Gangsta Rap of Personal Development.  I say that because listening to him, it’s kind of like listening to a rap where the whole song is only about how amazing the rapper is – how much money, and fame, and women are constantly around and how much “bling” the rapper has and how everything he touches turns to gold.  That’s true for The Donald, much like it’s true for the rappers that sing it, and sing it, and sing it, until it becomes true.  Everyone loves a winner and in this book Donald tells it like it is – “Fake it until you make it”, and keep singing the song you want to come true.  Not bad advice, and he really opens your eyes to opportunities that you might have overlooked previously by having a too-limited view of possibilities. 

5.  How to Win Friends & Influence People, by Dale Carnegie – What an incredible listen.  Not only is the information still completely relevant – it is just awesome listening to the stories of a man that interviewed Roosevelt, studied Lincoln the way Jim Collins studies corporations and developed the body of work on Personal Development and Interpersonal Relationships in a way that up until then had just not been done.  This is a true masterpiece.  This title should replace a book in our high school curriculum.  It should be required reading. 

6.  Awaken The Giant Within, by Tony Robbins – Tony Robbins is larger than life.  The man is 6’7” and he has more energy than what can fit into that frame.  He is so fired up, and his energy is so contagious.  He challenges you to really dig deep – to get personal with yourself and to get very real.  What do you want out of your life – your relationships, your money, your work, and what do you decide to accept as your values.

7.  Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki – Rich Dad, Poor Dad was so influential in my life, I just HAVE to pass it on.  Influential in more ways than you might suspect.  While all of the things that Robert Kiyosaki teaches are GREAT insight into money, cash flow, what is an asset versus what is a liability – it taught me more than that.  Robert Kiyosaki is rich by selling information that he got from his “Rich Dad” – and if the information came from “Rich Dad” but Kiyosaki can get rich selling it, than I can cetainly take information I bought from Kiyosaki and teach others about the information for free.  It was from this realization that FreeToGetRich.com was born.  So a big thank you from all of us, Mr. Kiyosaki.

Ok!  Time to share – here’s how you can help:

Requests for Comments:  

• What are you listening to that is worth mentioning? 
• How many of these have you listened to? 
• Have any of these audiobooks been a benefit to you?

Twitter this roundup

• Tweet an invitation to Join the conversation
• Tweet that you’ve enjoyed reading this roundup

You need a place to get to – and to get THERE, you’ve got to leave the place you’re at now.

It’s hard to soar with the eagles when you’re surrounded by a bunch of turkeys. 
     – I have no idea where this came from

Don’t be afraid of your life and your path.  You never know what you’re going to find along the way, and there’s no way of knowing what (or whom) will be with you when you get to your destination.  This can be far-reaching.  The fear of loss can be a powerful motivating factor, and a powerfully de-motivating one, as well.

• Will working to become successful cause me to lose friends?
• Will I have time for my family?
• Won’t I lose time that I spend on my hobbies?

All of these represent fear of the unknown.  Do a “Find and Replace” in your thought processes, and instead focus on:

• You will gain MORE friends as you participate in the activities that contribute to your success
• Your family time will be HIGHER QUALITY.  The discussions you are able to share with your family – comparing notes with your spouse, passing education on to your children, and discussing economic and political issues with your siblings and parents all contribute GREAT things to your family life.
• Your new hobbies – Saving money, buying businesses, investing in real estate, developing intellectual property, working with people and providing value – will cost you no less time and they are contributing to something that lasts beyond your lifetime. 

One of the first hurdles we may be faced with is leaving the negative influences that keep us where we are now.  We can’t change our lives without changing ourselves. 

We are a composite of:

• What we do
• What we say
• What we think
• Our history

Of those, only our history can not be changed by us.  History, however is changed by the other three.  Where we are today depends somewhat on where we were yesterday.  But with actions, intentions, and thought we are able to plot a course and change directions, and taking action today will give you some of that “history” beginning as early as tomorrow!

Everything you have done in your life so far has brought you to where you are now.  All of the negative influences, all of the positives.  All of your thoughts, and actions – and here you are. 

On negative influences: 

• They are around you now
• They take your time, your thoughts, and subvert your motives
• They tell you “nobody in this town does international business”
• They keep you out drinking and smoking, endorsing poor health and bad choices

They believe you will never make it – because nobody has ever shown them it’s possible to do so, and if you try to believe something different – they will almost fight to defend their position.

Success and happiness can be so frightening to people, because if they were to find out that it’s possible to have these things by changing their mind, and the only difference between their happiness and despair, or their measure of success in life, is INTERNAL rather than EXTERNAL – well, it would mean they have wasted their time and energy, and that they have chosen for themselves to be unsuccessful and unhappy.  This is  a paradigm they can NOT accept.  -Michael Simmons

For those people that are stuck in life, all you can do is encourage them.  If they want to come with you, they will.  Many will not.  There does not have to be a “good bye party”, it just happens naturally.  As you fill your life with positive influences, the negative are pushed out. 

• Fill your head with your positive thoughts, and your negative thoughts suffocate.
• Fill your life with positive people, and the negative people will find other negative people to be around
• Fill your time taking positive actions, and the idle and the passive time goes away
• Fill your history with positive steps towards your goals, and you negative history becomes more distant

If you still have a lingering doubt that you’ll be giving up more than you get – all I can say is “lead by example”.  Bring along who you can – and those that don’t want to come to a better place or take more positive actions to better themselves and their community, may be inspired later as they see you actually achieving the things they thought were impossible.

If you liked this article, please Twitter that you’ve read it

The Secret(DVD)"

When you’re ready to grow, and ready to start embracing all that this world and this life has to offer, you need to start receiving Jim’s E-Zine.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.  – Buddhist Proverb

In February of 2008, Jim Rohn was diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis.  As a way to say “Thank You” and “God Bless” to a man that has had such a massive influence on so many, a video tribute to Jim Rohn has been setup. 

And as a special tribute to Jim Rohn, here’s our own tribute to him – a collection of embedded videos (including “Tribute” part 1 & 2):

Jim Rohn Tribute Part 1:

Jim Rohn Tribute Part 2:

Jim Rohn from “How to Have the Best Year Ever”, Part 1:

Jim Rohn from “How to Have the Best Year Ever”, Part 2:

Jim Rohn from “How to Have the Best Year Ever”, Part 3:

I got the idea from “The Rule of Seven“, which was adapted from a really great book The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (Which doesn’t contain any info about Speed Tasking or Seven-Boards – it’s just about marketing) and found that applying some “Speed Tasking” techniques to it quickly outlined tasks and projects which need to be done.

Consider this:
It’s Friday night.  You know you’ve got a lot to do (generally speaking), but you can’t think of anything specific that you have to do “now”, and you can’t think of what things have priority and need to be done quickly versus items which can wait.

You are in trouble.  Without some quick direction, you’re going to get a glass of wine, turn on the television, and shut off your brain for the rest of the night.  Bad idea.  If you don’t get some direction and some tasks to complete you risk losing your momentum for the night, and having a slow morning the next day while you figure out what to do.  Until you get your workload broken down into some manageable chunks, you will lose valuable time idling in frustration.

The Rule of Seven states:

People can not remember more than seven items in a list. -The Rule of Seven

Now, while it’s off-topic, I have to say that I’ve noticed a sub-rule of The Rule of Seven is that everybody, upon learning about this rule – is SURE that they can remember much more than 7 items in a list, and immediately makes an attempt to prove The Rule of Seven wrong. 

I can definitely remember way more than seven items in a list. – Everybody that hears “The Rule of Seven” for the first time.

I’ll prove it to you (or at least demonstrate how it works) – Here is my recent attempt to prove the rule wrong:

How many flavors of soda are there?

1. Cola
2. Dr. Pepper (and Mr. Pibb)
3. Lemon-Lime (7up, Sierra Mist, Sprite, Slice, etc.)
4. Root Beer
5. Grape
6. Orange
7. Strawberry

Well… For me it actually slowed down after 6.  Strawberry was a stretch.  Now, there are undoubtedly dozens more, and I could have Googled, or visited a grocery store to remember them all.  But the point is, my brain started slowing down at item #6.  It really did come to a stop at #7.  Now, maybe you can get to “8″ or only to “6″, maybe you’re able to think of one more or less.  But let’s not get off track (I suspect you’re feeling challenged, and I don’t blame you!  but stick with me – your ability to remember 1,000 items is not the point!) 

We are going to use The Rule of Seven to our advantage. We’re going to break through the “I need to get everything done and I can’t think of what I need to do now” mindset.  We’re going to do some “Speed Tasking” (the art of taskstorming) and generate a Seven-Board of projects and tasks that need to be accomplished:

• Open a new spreadsheet.
• In cell A1, write “Projects“, or if it helps “I need to…“
• Next, write out seven projects that you need to get done across the next seven columns on the first row
  These don’t have to be your seven most important projects. The idea here is to use the rule of seven to get ideas quickly without over-thinking to get to project numbers 8, 9, and beyond.  If you only get 6, don’t sweat it.  Get your 6 and move on.  Most likely, you will notice the brain stop naturally at seven projects
• Then, in the seven cells underneath each project, chunk out each project into 7 tasks. They do not have to be in order.  They do not have to be equal in scope.  They only have to come quickly.
• When you notice your brain slowing down at task #7, move onto the next project and chunk out the next 7 tasks.

Do’s and Don’ts

Do:

• Keep track of your projects and tasks in a spreadsheet so you can quickly reference them and modify them easily
• Move very quickly through your list of projects
• Write down every project you think of, sparing the analysis until later
• Write down every task you can think of, sparing the analysis until later
• Move on to the next project when you feel your brain slowing down.  “Speed Tasking” is the goal.
• Twitter this tip to help pass it on (passing it on helps cement it in your conscience and it’s good karma to help keep our friends and followers organized and motivated)

Don’t:

• Sweat the Small Stuff (and it’s all small stuff) – If you can’t think of a task, or you think of a better project to do tomorrow, that’s no problem at all.  Move your tasks and projects around to fit your needs and schedule.  This is just a way to get you some quick traction when you need it.
• give people a list of don’ts.  Focus on telling people what they need to do, not what they don’t need to do.

Once you’ve got your Seven-Board filled out, look it over. Prioritze the projects by importance (left-to-right) and prioritize the tasks (top-to-bottom), and use a couple minutes to get yourself planned.  Once you’re ready, you can grab the tasks (either individually or use the whole column including the Project heading and the tasklist) and drag and drop them your task list in Outlook, where it can be worked alongside your other tasks you’re working on.

Conclusion

The Rule of Seven states you can only remember 7 items in a list.  Use this to your advantage and use “Speed Tasking” (the art of taskstorming) to quickly develop a task list of 7 projects consisting of 7 tasks.

The thing that I love about this method and the reason I use it so much is because I frequently complete projects and tasks, only to find out that I am stuck trying to determing the next projects I need to work on tasks.  Without a way of quickly filling up my plate with projects and tasks, I tend to demotivate, relax, and take off too much time idling.  By using Speed-Tasking to create a Seven-Board I can create 49 new tasks in minutes and keep me moving forward.

I know that you’ll use this frequently.

This is the foundation of the "Richest Man in Babylon" by George S Clason. This has been such a success for me over the last 2 years, as I moved from being controlled by debt to getting out of debt (at least out of bad debt) and began saving. If you’ve heard that before you should save money, you should get out of debt I will challenge you to think otherwise. Get yourself out of debt WHILE you are saving money. Start today. I was working with a friend of mine that was telling me just exactly that – he was saving some money out of every paycheck. He related that when he first started thinking about saving, he found it difficult because he could not see the value in small deposits. But believe me, they add up.

So here is my advice to everybody that wants to become rich – The first thing you should do (and my money IS where my mouth is) is deposit 10% of every paycheck into a savings account. Stock markets are fine for some investing, but this is not your investment account (yet!) Before you get out of debt, start your savings account.

Already have a savings account? Nice! Make sure you’re using it. Make your deposits regularly, and you will begin the process of accumulating wealth.

Debt got you down? Don’t let that stop you. First things first – you have to show the world that you can get $100 together and keep it safe.  Strangely enough, the law of attraction can start working immediately, and $100 becomes $1000 before you know it.  You can pay off your debts AND start your savings account at the same time.  It’s a necessity.

We Americans now total 300,000,000 (roughly)

To make it more real – and to make it more easy to understand the gravity of all of this – I suggest we think about it in terms of how much money it costs us by using the “paycheck principal”.

The paycheck principal puts the U.S. Government on a paycheck-to-paycheck budget, but instead of their own paychecks, their living paycheck-to-paycheck OFF MINE! 

Here’s how it works:

• I have a family of 4 – me, my wife, and our 2 kids. Every Billion costs me $13.32. 
• Every time they spend $1B, I pay it out of my paycheck.
• Paychecks come every 2 weeks.  If the Government spends more in 1 paycheck then I make, I have to keep paying it off until it’s been fully paid. 
• Census Bureau provides the figures for Average Family Size (about 4) and Average Family Income (about $60,000)
• We’ll take some average incomes, some average family sizes, and put up those paychecks to see how well we can support the US Budget.

I wonder how much of this spending would go forward if the politicians signing up to pay for it even had to pay THEIR SHARE out of their paychecks.

For fun (isn’t this fun!?!?) I’m including some facts I got from the 2009 US Budget, which can be found here, btw… http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/browse.html

Dept of Agriculture: $90Billion = My family owes 90 x $13.32 out of my next paycheck I guess… ok – I think the department of agriculture helps to make sure that we don’t get poison or mad cow disease in our food, so I guess that’s a good cause. But wait – what about that Mad Cow disease? And the tainted pet food? and the… oh well… I guess my farmer brethren in the Midwest need help. I’ll just pay this out of my paycheck.

That can’t be right. My own personal family’s contribution to the Department of Agriculture is $1,198.80? I hope the department of Agriculture helps Americans grow whatever it is that’s in Macaroni and cheese, cause I think I’m going to be eating a lot of it this payday…

Dept of Commerce: $8Billion = Ok. This one is small. I can handle this one. Just 8 Billion for this. The Dept. of Commerce Spending seems to be mostly for the NOAA (presumably for research into global warming) – they get almost $4 Billion just for that.

Wait a second. My family is on the hook for $53.28 just to research global warming? I wouldn’t say anything at all if this was going to STOP global warming (though I do live in Alaska and a little global warming sounds pretty good) – but this is $50 just to – what? find out if it is getting warmer? What’s next? I’m going to have to pay an extra $13.32 just to have someone tell me it’s raining today?

Dept of Commerce is going to hit me and my family for $106.56. This paycheck is going to be very small indeed…

Department of Defense:

So I know we have to have a defense. Rule #1 in this day and age – if you’re #1, everybody wants to be you (I don’t really know if that’s rule #1, I just made it up right now – but I have got a swelling of American Pride, and I love our country) So I’m just going to shut up about it and pay my tab. I’m very thankful that I have this country to call my own, and I’m happy to pay my share to help defend her. And oil. I’m thankful and happy to pay my share to defend all that oil! I kid, I kid…

Department of Defense: $650B.

Yes. My family of four’s share of the defense budget this year is $8,658.  It is going to take more than 2 months of my family’s income – dedicated 100% – to pay for this bill.

The tally so far for my family of four:

Dept of Agriculture – $1,198.80
Dept of Commerce – $106.56
Dept of Defense – $8,658.00
National Intelligence – $572.00
———————————–
Sub-Total $10,535.36