Debt Busting - Save $6,000 This Year!

Debt Busting - Save $6,000 This Year!

Photo:  Jeff Stutz, former VP of Wellness Development assisting Beth Schomp burn her mortgage at [Our Manufacturers] 2008 Convention.

David Bach, author of The Automatic Millionaire, popularized a term called the “Latte Factor.” Often before lunchtime many people have already spent nearly five dollars on a latte, coffee, muffin, juice, or something.  Maybe it’s a daily ritual of buying a magazine, smoking, drinks, fries, chips, cookies or whatever.  The point is most people are spending at least $5 per day on average for non-essential items.  How much do these small, habitual items cost us?  

Let’s do the math:

$5 per day x 30 days/month = $150.  Over a period you would have saved:

1 year                      =                $1,800

5 years                   =                $9,000

10 years                =                $18,000

This principle can be applied to several aspects of our lives.  Too often every day expenses become so routine we think we need all these things just to survive.  As we evaluate personal expenses and track spending we find that in most cases there are lots of “Latte Factors” throughout the month, some adding up to be quite significant.  Taking an inventory of our spending can be a healthy exercise.  You can actually eliminate a lot of things from your life that really don’t make much difference to the quality of your life at all. The challenge however is finding a deeper “why” within you that will motivate a change of priorities.

At every Convention, we witness dozens of families burning their mortgages from stage.  The feelings expressed from those achieving Total Financial Freedom is really contagious.  Here are some of what some past Award Recipients express:

“It’s such a great feeling when you don’t have any debt and you can go out and spend some extra money. Of course, money can go out of your hands really quickly when you don’t have a mortgage, so you always need to have a plan. But financial freedom is so exciting.”    –Stacy and Gary Bodnar

“We really want to encourage other people to get out of debt. It’s so much fun when you can control your own destiny without financial stress. All of our years working for a non-profit organization, we’d always had to ask for money. Now, instead of asking for money, we’re able to write checks to support orphanages and charities around the world.”     –Dan and Renae Peters

“We’re no different than anyone else when it comes to saving and paying off our mortgage; we just made different choices. People say to me, ‘I wish I could do that,’ and I tell them, ‘You can; you just have to make the choice.’ I knew that financial freedom wasn’t about being flashy; it was about being down-to-earth and having a lifestyle that brings freedom.

When I was teaching [This Company's] Financial Freedom University from 2003-2008, I would ask participants to do the “$500 Exercise”.   This exercise help you find up to $500 or more of monthly waste.  It is an exercise of evaluating “needs” vs. “wants”.

Look at some of these suggestions and add you own to discover  hundreds of dollars in wasted spending and possible cut-backs from your budget.  Calculate how much you spend every month on that item and add it all up until you have over $500.

The daily Juice/coffee & snack               $150

Lawn Care Service                                   $160

Yard Fertilizing Service                            $60

Housekeeper                                             $200

Gas Station Drinks & Snacks                   $25

Vending Machine Drinks &Snacks           $40

Nails & Pedicures                                      $40

Satellite/Cable TV                                     $70

Pay-Off Car Early                                      $300

Dining Out                                                 $250

Excessive Entertainment                          $300

Excessive Gifting                                       $150

Shopping Spree’s (Clothes/Hobbies)      $200

Cigarettes & Alcohol                                  $400

Whatever our small indulgences are for ourselves, most can find some areas to cut back.  When you make the commitment to change your life, there is greater financial success and freedom that can be yours in just a few short years. 

“Five years after we started our home-based business we paid off the mortgage on our first home and all of the tuition bills for our children. Then we worked on some of our other debts, and on January 23, 2008, we became totally debt free.”      –Nancy and Al Studer

“You have to be willing to do without; you have to be willing to not have what the neighbors have.

You have to delay instant gratification, because 10 years from now that will make a huge difference in your life. It has made a huge difference to us, and we never thought of it as a sacrifice. It was a lifestyle we chose in order to accomplish what we knew we’d accomplish in the future, and the future is here.”     –Trixie and Rod Overcashier

Take the $500 Challenge this year and put $6,000 back in your pocket to start paying off that debt.  The add your [new] Income to it and you will begin your journey towards Total Financial Freedom sooner than you think!

Ryan & Aubrey Harris

Ryan Harris went from an admirable career in the engineering industry to working Build Plan B.

Before Ryan joined with Build Plan B, he worked several years in the field of structural engineering, where he was a design consultant and business developer. His wife Aubrey was a stay at home mother and with the stress of a poor economy; money was tight for their family “every month” Harris says. And he was unable to spend very much time with his family.

When his neighbor and friend Jeff Stutz introduced him the business he was starting to build, he became interested and decided to give it a shot.

Working part time on building his business, Harris was able to see the great benefits that this company brings to its partners. And he was able to worry less for the financial stability of his home.

Then, in February 2010, Harris attended a training meeting in Teton Valley, Idaho, which completely changed his vision about the company. He remembered what Executive Director III Paulette Magaw had told him soon after he enrolled with this 

company

“She said, ‘Really, what you need to be successful in the business is three things: have heart, be coachable, and have a why,’” Harris recalls. “I didn’t really understand that until after that training meeting, when I finally decided to push my business forward, be coachable, ask questions, listen to all conference calls and trainings, and attend all the meetings. I made that decision, and it totally changed my business.”

The next week, Harris decided to cut his hours with his traditional job and devote a full-time effort to his new business. In June, he triple-advanced to Senior Director. Then, at Convention 2010, he made a commitment to attend Convention the next year as an Executive Director.

Harris’ consistency and hard work, along with the support of his team, Build Plan B, made that goal a reality. Last June, he advanced from Senior Director VI to Executive Director. “There’s no way I could have advanced to Executive Director without the 

fantastic team I have,” he says.

Today, Ryan Harris keeps working hard to build his business to last a lifetime.

“[this] income has changed everything,” Harris says. “It has given us the opportunity to dream again, to have something to look forward to. Most importantly, it’s helped us create a plan for getting ourselves out of debt and creating financial freedom.”

“My reason for building a business is very simple:

I was to be able to provide for my family but more importantly, watch my family grow up,” he says, And hand in hand with that ‘why’ is to see other people accomplish the same financial and time freedom I have in my life.”

It’s amazing what can be done. And with a little effort and the help of the Build Plan B team, you can get there too. 

Todd & Trina Forbush

(Todd and Trina Forbush and their family)

Todd and Trina Forbush are Senior Direct VI level employees with BuildPlanB and it’s manufacturing group. Being examples to the great success people can find with this company, they discuss their past and how Build Plan B has changed their life.

Before BuildPlanB, Todd and his wife, Trina, had successful businesses that were shattered by the effects of the economic recession. “I owned a construction company. Smaller remodel jobs and stuff, roofing and siding,” Todd said, “I had up to 8 crews going at a time until the economy hit us; My wife ran a ladies’ fitness gym that we owned, the economy hit that and we had to close that too.”

Todd and Trina feared for their family’s future. “We were kind of scared,” Todd said, “we didn’t know what was going to happen to us.” But then a decision made by Todd and Trina to support their son in his own endeavors, created a greater opportunity than they first saw. “My boy came to me, he was going to school at the time and said ‘I want to talk to you’; we sat down and he just sprung it on us. And when he said he was doing [this company] I thought he was crazy. After he got done explaining everything, we said ‘yeah, we’ll help you out, we’ll be your customers,’ and we just enrolled as customers…after we started using all of the products, we realized that ‘Wow these really are better than everything else that we use and they’re more cost effective’, so we shared them.”

Just after a few months with the company Todd and Trina decided to focus all of their energy on it and now, just a few years later, use this as their sole income. “It’s changed our lives,” Todd said, “I get to spend more time with my kids than ever before, it’s been such a blessing in my life… I can actually see a future for my family.”

Todd and Trina Forbush’s experience is not abnormal, where they are in their lives is a totally reachable objective for anyone that is interested in making BuildPlanB a career. They have made it, so can you.

Seeing Other People Succeed

(Jeff Stutz and his beautiful family)

While at a crossroad in his life, Jeff Stutz decided to leave his job at [this company's] corporate office to build his own business.

“I was turning 41, and I evaluated where I wanted to be in my career and financially over the next 10 years,” says Jeff. “I wanted to have more financial freedom and time freedom to be with my family. I knew I couldn’t achieve those goals while I was working for someone else.”

After working at the corporate office for more than five years, Jeff knew Melaleuca’s business model very well; as long as he put in the necessary hard work Jeff knew he could build a rewarding business.

“All successful businesses in [this company] have thrived due to constant hard work and commitment,” Jeff says. “It didn’t feel like a risk at all. It was just a matter of how long it would take to create the lifestyle I wanted for my family.”

During his first year, Jeff devoted almost 80 hours per week to building his business. His hard work and determination paid off, earning him a total of $261,159 in just his first year. Right from the beginning, Jeff focused on developing leaders, not just Directors, a strategy he knew would lead to long-term business success.

“If you look at my business, I don’t have a lot of personal Directors,” Jeff says. “But I have almost 200 Directors in my organization. The reason is that my team and I focus on helping business builders advance their businesses well beyond the early Director ranks.”

With every new business team member, regardless of what category they circle at the presentation, Jeff sets Senior Director as that business builder’s “step one.”

“The only difference between a category 2 or 3 business builder is how much time they have to build,” Jeff says. “Yes, we work together to get to Director and 20/20, but those are just checkmarks on the way to Senior Director. So step one is Senior Director, step two is Executive Director and step three is Corporate Director.”

Already, there are three Executive Directors and nine Senior Directors alongside the hundreds of Directors in Jeff’s organization, something Jeff finds profoundly satisfying.

“Our favorite thing about Melaleuca is seeing other people succeed and advance, and knowing we have helped to change hundreds of lives,” says Jeff. “We only advance because so many of our personal enrollees advance, and we have some phenomenal leaders on our team, including Senior Director IV Scott Horan and his personally enrolled leaders Director VIII Travis Poole and Director VI Danny Klassen. Our efforts are being duplicated and others are helping change lives as well.”

Where he used to spend at least 40 hours a week at his job in the home office, Jeff now works 30–40 hours each week, and now, he chooses when to spend those hours.

“I love the flexibility I have,” Jeff says. “My kids love that I am around more, and we spend a lot of time together as a family. Our residual income is more than $8,000 a month right now. That feeling of security is great, but I want to keep building until I reach step three.”





(by News on April 16, 2012)
(Thank you to Leadership In Action magazine for this story)