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JOANNEH NAGLER was once mired in debt. Unable to find a simple, work able solution in existing literature, she developed her own system-a five-minute-a-day approach that really works. She now coaches individuals and couples, using The Debt-Free Spending Plan to help them revolutionize their relationship with money.

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“JoAnneh Nagler has written an extraordinary book for extraordinarily challenging times.The Debt-Free Spending Plan will give you direct access to realizing a life in which you can truly experience peace, freedom, and sufficiency in your relationship with money. This is the right message at the right time — clear, practical, real, inspiring, and liberating!”

— Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money; Founder and President of The Soul of Money Institute

“If you look at your financial situation and find yourself confused, scared, and clueless as to what you should do, this book is for you. If dealing with numbers and creating a budget just isn’t your thing, this book is for you. If you want a simple plan to get debt-free and take control, this book is for you! Got it? This book is for you!”

— Larry Winget, five time New York Times/Wall Street Journal bestselling author, includingYou’re Broke Because You Want to Be

The bills keep coming. Every month seems to hit you with unexpected expenses. You’re in debt and it feels like there’s no way out.

If it seems like every time you come close to getting a handle on your finances, you just sink deeper into the quicksand, you’re not alone.The Debt-Free Spending Plan—personally devised by someone who’s been through it herself and gotten out—was created for those who hate math, rarely balance their checkbooks, and need help now. The plan keeps things simple. It doesn’t matter whether you make $14,000 per year or $14 million per year, this practical, straightforward system shows you how to:

Put together an easy-to-manage bill-paying plan, and allocate money as it comes in

• Realistically downsize your expenses without feeling deprived

• Improve your relationships and family life by living within your means

• Pay back your debts, and—believe it or not—begin to save

The Debt-Free Spending Plan reveals how you can comfortably work with the money you have, and learn to live debt-free. Requiring no special skills, no deep psychological soul-searching, or complicated computer programs, this book provides you with a step-by-step plan that takes five minutes a day and will have you back on your feet within the first 30 days of using it.

Filled with straightforward daily spending strategies, real-life examples, and effortless expense-tracking tools, this is the easy-to-follow system you need in order to get out of debt and start living.

JOANNEH NAGLER is a former fundraiser and grantwriter who, spiraling in debt herself, was unable to find a simple, workable solution. She developed her own system—a five-minute-a-day approach that really works. She now coaches individuals and couples, using The Debt-Free Spending Plan to help them revolutionize their relationship with money. She lives in Burlingame, California.

You can reach JoAnneh through her website at www.debtfreespendingplan.com.

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The Debt-Free Spending Plan

AMACOM

Contents

Preface............................................................................................................................XIIntroduction.......................................................................................................................XVCHAPTER 1 The Heart of Our Debting Issues..........................................................................................1CHAPTER 2 In with Structure, Out with Stringency: The Simple Tools of the Debt-Free Spending Plan..................................23CHAPTER 3 Make It Work Every Day: Your Personal Debt-Free Spending Plan in Action..................................................41CHAPTER 4 Deprivation Will Never Get You Debt-Free: A Plan for Everything We Need, Want, and Dream of..............................75CHAPTER 5 To Cut or Not to Cut: Taking a Reasonable Look at What You Can and Can't Afford..........................................91CHAPTER 6 Nailing Down the Octopus Arms: How to Pay Back Your Debts without Gouging Your Living Expenses...........................123CHAPTER 7 Our Aphrodisiac Spending Plan: A Loving Approach to Approaching the One You Love About Debt Problems.....................137CHAPTER 8 "Mom, Can I Borrow ?": How to Stop Asking for Money and Start Paying It Back............................................161CHAPTER 9 Creativity, Not Credit Cards: Learning from the Spending Plans of the Newly Debt-Free....................................169CHAPTER 10 Keeping on Track and Keeping It Real: Using the Tools That Help You Stay on the Plan....................................223CHAPTER 11 To File or Not to File: Bankruptcy and Our Future Financial Health......................................................243CHAPTER 12 Building a Life of Financial Integrity..................................................................................249Index..............................................................................................................................255

Chapter One

IN THE PAST two decades, a plethora of books on personal finance have hit our best-seller lists. Almost all of them tell us to get out of debt, to live on a budget, and to invest. They deliberate the reasons why debt is a "bad investment"—that is, we pay much more for products and services because of interest and inflation—but these books almost never tell us how, specifically, to get out of debt and how to stop going into debt. They tell us that having a budget is a necessity, but they don't tell us how to create and live by one—a realistic daily one. Some straight-talking authors give readers monthly bottom lines and even delineate spending categories, but nobody—I mean nobody!—gives a practical, daily strategy to help us stop our compulsiveness and live within our means.

Most finance books tell us to make investments. And that's all very nice and neat for those of us who believe we are responsible financially or who are motivated by money math. But for those of us who are already in debt or are in spending trouble, this kind of advice is disastrous.

Invest? Who are you kidding? We can barely make our rent and credit card bills each month. We owe the IRS two years of back taxes. Retirement? We shrink at the very word. Pay ourselves first? In what dream world? Budget? Come on! We can't bring ourselves to write down on paper what we already think we know—that we don't have enough to live on and we're carelessly overspending anyway.

So those of us who need financial coaching the most tune out, turn off, and close these books for good, almost as soon as we open them. And if we're in the cycle of debt—entitlement, addictive overspending, guilt, and regret—these financial admonitions most often make us feel more of what we already feel: that our finances are always a disaster, so it's best to put our heads in the sand and grind through this money experience as blindly as possible.

The Debt-Free Spending Plan Is Not a Budget

The Debt-Free Spending Plan is not a traditional budget. It's not a shortage-inducing tool. It's a simple plan to show you, first, how you are currently spending your money, and then—more importantly—asks you how you want to spend what you have.

This book asks you to write some things down. It asks you to use your calculator. It asks you to be realistic about paying your bills—like rent, mortgage, and health insurance—first. And then it helps you create a daily living expense plan that includes all of your needs, and even some of your wants. It helps you nail down the octopus arms of your unaddressed debts (Chapter 6), and begin paying them back, even if it's just $5 a month. It helps you address your living expenses first, so you can learn to live on your income without deprivation, without living for your creditors.

In doing these few simple tasks, you'll begin to get clarity. And with clarity comes more money. I've coached many people, helping them create their personal Debt-Free Spending Plans, and each has had some small or large "money miracle" as a result. It's almost as if life were saying, "Okay, Jo, you're taking good care of the money you've got now, so we're going to give you some more. We trust you to use it well." Do the Debt-Free Spending Plan and see for yourself. More responsibility with your money breeds a greater capacity to handle more of it.

The Debt-Free Spending Plan may require that you visit the bank a few more times in the first few months. It will require that you set aside time at the end of each month to add and subtract some numbers. And for the price of a little time and some jotted-down numbers, you'll begin to get free.

The promise of the Debt-Free Spending Plan is very simple: You'll get free of money stress, and you'll live more richly and more fully. You'll make choices about how you want to live and how you want to spend. You'll have a plan to address each of your debts. You'll relax. And, probably the biggest payoff I've seen in myself and my coaching clients is, you will no longer fight about money in your relationships.

You'll have a Spending Plan to address your Bills (monthly payments), your Daily Needs (groceries, cleaners, medical co-pays), your wants (entertainment, vacations, fun money)—and will actually have some reserves. Yes, you'll start saving, even if it's just $10 a month, for things you like, things you enjoy, things you want. And you'll do all of that in the first thirty days of using the Debt-Free Spending Plan.

Even if this sounds impossible to you—if your finances are in such a disastrous state that you can't imagine being at peace with your money—the Debt-Free Spending Plan will still work for you. The Spending Plan doesn't care if you're afraid, rebellious, skeptical, or angry. If you do the plan, it will work. Every time.

What This Book Will Do for You

The Debt-Free Spending Plan is not a book to teach you how to invest. It's not a book that will tell you the ins and outs of credit lines or credit ratings. It's not a book that's meant to educate you about the overall American financial situation or world financial picture. It's not a book to help convince you of the spirituality of money, or...