During this third PRG, I made great progress internally with the idea of paying down the judgments and clearing those up. Amos and Hal, my PRG people, came together beautifully in sync and both suggested that I add my outstanding judgments and all the people, places and things that I owe to my Personal Finance Statement.
A few quotes that they said were:
“You are not your debts.”
“Your assets outweigh your debts.” – They made a point that they consider the Warren Solar failure to be the equivalent to a Masters or Ph.D. Now, you need to make payments on that asset. That asset allowed you to get the job that you have today. That asset allowed you to get sober and solvent today. It repaired marriage and restored the friendship I have today with my wife.
“You are not ‘throwing’ or ‘dumping’ anything into paying down the debt, you are going to start taking small steps towards reconciling and fixing the relationships from the past.”
There was a small talk about how the worst part about all of the credit cards and debt were the interest payments and the fines and fees. That is what kept racking up higher and higher. Hal explained how the inverse is true for the wealthy people who have interest income working in their favor.
“There is a difference in wealthy vs. rich, Hal explained. The rich people have a lot of money. The wealthy have interest income generating and are able to live off that interest instead of spending their cash.” Its the same idea as when I was having to pay off of my debtors interest each month, that is what I am going to strive for when I’m wealthy. I want to have investments where the interest income helps to sustain my family one day.
“If a credit card statement said that I have a credit limit of $6,500 and I had spent $5,800, then I thought I had $700.” Ha! So true. I had never heard that statement before, but when Hal said it during this meeting, it really resonated with me. Yes, that is exactly how I thought and the way that I did business when I was struggling for money. I would keep my credit cards in a plastic coffee can that had a lid. I had so many credit and debit cards that I sometimes had a thick rubber-band around them and acted like they were a status symbol of wealth. There were times that I remember writing on a piece of paper the available balances of each card, adding up those available balances and determining how much I had to spend that day.
“Our debting is a symptom, fear is the disease.”
“Remember, the Income Plan is God’s Plan.”
They challenged me to bring the same spirit I have with income plan and put it towards my debt repayment plan. I should have bring joy when I step into the action of clearing up and starting to pay on these debts from the past.
The quote came up form Madonna in the song “Material Girl”, ‘The only thing better than more, is all.’
“Its about moving from the me to the we mindset.”
“Think of it as you are helping them by paying on these debts because they helped you get the sobriety and solvency that you have today.”
This comment is one that I stared in a selfish way. Amos looked at me and said, “You are going to have more (business) ideas in the future, right?” I replied, “Oh, Yeah!” He went on, “Confidence to act on those ideas going forward will be directly impacted one way or the other by how you handle the clean up of your Warren Solar judgments.
Hal said, “Even after all of the many countless meetings that I have attended, I still haven’t gone to a 12 step meeting our of virtue.” Ha!
There is a little ‘ditty’ that Hal said toward the end which I loved, he said:
- Start where you are
- Step out in faith
- Do what you can gracefully
- Expect God to help