FINANCIAL FREEDOM
A MOVING TARGET Who hasn’t dreamed of being rich? We all have. But what does “rich” even mean? How much money would you have to have to be rich? A six figure annual income? Half a million dollars in the bank? What about five million dollars?
$62,000 in debt, we didn’t own our home, and our car belonged to the bank,” says Corporate Director 8 Rafael Rojas. “I remember paying off $5,000 in credit card debt with one of our first Melaleuca checks. For years we’d made minimum payments, and the balance never seemed to get any smaller. The day we completely paid off that card, I felt like somebody had removed a chain from around my neck.” Two and a half years later, they paid off their mortgage and became financially free. “Now when I walk around my house or go out into the yard and watch my girls play, I think to myself, ‘Thanks to God and Melaleuca, all of this is mine and no bank can ever take it away from me,’” Rafael says. Executive Directors 9 and 2017 Marketing Executives of the Year Krista and Jordan Wineinger vividly remember the oppression they felt living paycheck to paycheck. “It was the same thing over and over,” Krista remembers. “We don’t have money. Don’t spend money until next week, the bills are coming out, and we don’t get paid until Friday. That lifestyle, the stress it puts on a relationship – it’s maddening.” They enrolled with Melaleuca, hoping to bring in a just a few hundred dollars extra a month to help them get a little bit ahead. In 2016, they paid off everything but their mortgage to the tune of $106,000. They are currently maxing out contributions to their retirement accounts and their two sons’ college savings accounts. Then they’ll wipe out their mortgage. “Melaleuca has changed my economic system,” Krista says. “I used to care so much about my credit score. But all that a credit score does is tell banks how good you are at borrowing money. Now we pay for things in cash and spend our money the right way. I never thought that way before Melaleuca.”
WELLNESS ANDWEALTH Paying down your debts and increasing cash flow are fundamentals of becoming debt-free. What would that entail for you? Clipping coupons and spending Saturday afternoons driving around to save a dollar? Picking up shift work at $9 an hour, using twice as much gas, paying for childcare or giving up your free time with your family? Paying off debt will take sacrifice, but there’s a smarter way. One that makes each hour of your work go further and lets you set your own schedule. Melaleuca is The Wellness Company. That includes financial wellness too. CEO Frank VanderSloot has always championed the principles of financial freedom. Melaleuca is a debt-free company and he encourages Marketing Executives and corporate employees to strive to become debt-free. Melaleuca’s unique business model allows anyone from any background to add an additional stream of income to their cash flow. And since Melaleuca income is residual, it can provide secure income for the rest of your life. The average monthly income for a Director 3 is about $750. A Senior Director can expect about $2,000 a month in residual income. Can you imagine how quickly you’d conquer your debts with reliable checks like those coming in month after month? “When Monica and I enrolled, we had
The golden rule of money management is this: spend less than you make. When you have more money coming in than going out, you have the ability to save, invest, and spend wisely. Ignoring this rule is how people with incredible incomes go bankrupt. Anyone – on any income – can prosper by spending less than they make.
SEVEN SIMPLE STEPS TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM
In 2013, the Union Bank of Switzerland asked investors with $1 to $5 million in investable assets if they considered themselves rich. 1 Seventy-two percent said no. According to a Wall Street Journal report, people tend to label those making twice as much money as they are as rich . Someone who makes $50,000 sees an income of $100,000 as rich. Someone with $5 million puts the threshold at $10 million. Johnny Depp, one of Hollywood’s high- est-paid stars, has made an estimated $650 million in his 17-year career. Who wouldn’t consider him rich? Since he’s $40 million in debt 2 and on the brink of financial ruin, no one who can do basic math would.
Somewhere along the line, happiness became entangled with money.
SAVE
SEEING THROUGH THE ILLUSION We live in a society that is obsessed with money. Specifically, it’s obsessed with the spending of money (this article would be very different if society were as eager to save money). More often than not, this rampant consumption is not paid in full at the time of purchase, but mortgaged against our future selves. Like a siren’s song, credit lures us away from our set course and into places we’d never willingly go. That isn’t wealth by any definition of the word. While what Depp earns and spends is exceptional, his financial woes come from a very average problem: living outside of one’s means. Depp’s multiple houses, his yacht, his chateau in France, his private island in the Bahamas, his Warhol paintings, his 45 luxury automobiles 3 appear to broadcast his supposed financial success. Now that the illusion has crumbled, we see these “assets” for what they truly are. There is no success in living beyond your means.
1. Start an Emergency Fund
2. Reduce Your Expenses
3. Increase Your Income
INVEST
4. Pay Down Debts Using the Snowball Method
5. Pay Off Your Mortgage Early
Being rich, it seems, is a moving target.
6. Save and Invest Monthly
If “rich” is so hard to define, what about “wealth?” The word wealth comes from the Old English root wela , forming related words like welfare, well-being, and wellness. Before taking on connotations of financial riches, wealth referred to one’s happiness!
7. Invest Wisely and Give 10%
SPEND WISELY
1. Brad Tuttle, “What It Means to Be ‘Wealthy’ in America Today.” Time , July 24, 2013. 2. Joanne Kavanaugh, “A Lot of Depp,” The Sun , September 21, 2017. 3. “Johnny Depp’s Ultra-Extravagant Spending Laid Bare in Court,” The Sunday Morning Herald , February 2, 2017.
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