This is part 2 of my original post on how to beat the gas prices.  If you missed that post, just go to Fight Gas Prices.

Now, I mentioned that most Americans are seeing an immediate hit on their budget of about $400 extra bucks a month.  So, if you bring home $3200 per month, you just lost 12.5% of your income due to the compound effect of the rising gas prices.  I also said there were two things you could do to beat this thing:

1) Decrease your monthly expenses.  (Again, if you missed this, go back to my previous post on May 13th)  Many people can find $300+ in savings per month.  Many cannot.  I remember when we couldn't hardly give up $25 because we were so budgetly challenged.  But, dig deep.  Make some cuts.  It may only be temporary.

Here's the reality though - No one likes to cut or decrease their standard of living.  I understand.  It's okay to do so a little bit, but sweeping cuts are mentally and emotionally tough.  So, that leads to the second part:

2) Increase your monthly income.  Easier said than done… at least that is what you're probably thinking.  Now, I am not talking anything about MLM or Network Marketing.  Many of my readers participate in MLM, and that is great, but I don't want to go down that road here.

Here is what I am talking about… listen to me carefully here… I am talking about implementing one or two of the ideas below and busting your butt so hard that within a few months (tops) you have generated a secondary stream of income that is equivelant to what the gas prices are now taking away.  And, if you do so, you can reverse those cuts you made in step 1, and return your life back to normal.

What I am basically saying here is to take control of the situation.  Don't blame OPEC, Bush, Congress, Big Oil, or anyone.  Learn something new and bust your butt like never before.  I am going to give you a short list that you can choose from, or could spark your creative juices to do something completely different.  Here's the main thing… don't be intimidate to go out and go after something new.  Consider this as an opportunity, not a problem.

So, here we go:

1) Website development and Search Engine Marketing.  I am a self taught programmer.  I bought a book at Barnes and Noble called, "Learn HTML in 24 Hours"  I taught myself.  But even today, you don't even need to know all the fancy code.  You can use a program (which is what many of us use) called Dreamweaver.  It does it all for you.  What you really need to learn is the "marketing" part.  That is where the money is made.  If you are going to do that, then I highly, highly recommend the blue book you see on your right.  You can download it right away - Brad Callen's The SEO Mindset.  It is as good as it gets in learning how to market your site and begin earning income.

There are many subcategories to this - affiliate marketing, Clickbank, Adsense, blogging, etc.  Brad can help clarify all that.

2) Google Adsense - Along the same lines as number 1 above, this is a practical way to put that marketing into practice.  I have been doing Adsense for a few years now, and I can easily say Google covers my gas price crunch by itself.  Let Google pay for your Gas crunch.  The number one person you can learn from is Joel Comm.  His new ebook, Adsense Secrets 4, is the top source on learning Adsense, and it will cost you only $10.  I highly recommend this too.

3) Ebay - This is always a good standby.  In fact, about 5-6 years ago, ebay kept us from losing it all.  I began to bring in an extra $500/week, first selling some of my stuff, and then hitting garage sales, selling other people's stuff for them, and finding products hower I could get them.  You don't need some fancy course or late night TV course on solving ebay.  Just browse through ebay and see what others are doing. Find what you like and emulate it.  It's pretty easy to do, and $100 per week is really pretty reasonable.

4) Mow lawns - not everything has to be high tech.  I have a friend who comes home from work, and 3 days a week he goes out and cuts lawns.  He has about 12 customers, doing 6 per week.  He receives about $25 - $50 per lawn.  Even after gas for the mower, he still makes a nice profit.  The tough part is marketing for your customers.  A sign on your truck and word of mouth are your two best bets.

5) Go to Barnes and Noble - Go look in the business section and look for one of those Business Opportunity magazines.  They usually list 100 ideas for starting a business on a shoestring budget.

6) Services - there are ton of things you can do, such as organize closets and garages, design cakes, baskets, walk dogs, scoop poop, etc.  All you're looking for is another $100 per week.

7) Medical Transcription - my wife does this.  She started doing this when we barely had two dimes to rub together.  She built it up to about $1800 per month, and then cut back and began working with me and developing content for my websites.  But, it is still something she does because she likes her doctors.  It is also enough to cover our gas crunch.

One more…

8 ) Be an Author - That's right.  Go to some place like elance.com or some other free lance type site.  There are ALWAYS people looking to hire authors with a good command of Engish and can crank out 500-1000 word articles.  Sometimes much more than that.  You won't make a fortune as a "ghost writer" and you are also competing with international authors (most with sub-par English).  So, don't overcharge, but I know a few people who write 2 - 3 articles per day, a few days a week, and make about $10 per article.  Much more on bigger projects.  It's really quite easy.  Go do a Google search for freelance writers, go to elance, search for info on Ghost Writers, etc.  There simply won't be a shortage of work if you can turn out a good product in a reasonable time, and do it for a good price.

So, yes, you may need to make a few cuts.  Quit whining and just do it.  But, cutting too much is the last thing anyone really wants to do.  So, I really believe beating the high has prices is a one-two punch - Decrease and Increase. 

I'm really sick of all the stuff with gas prices.  There's no reason for it except for the fact that both the oil companies and the OPEC nations can do it to us… because they know we'll pay.  Also, I'm sick of the comparisons saying "Gas in America is cheap compared to England."  Who cares.  That's not even a fair comparison because of the use of public transportation and how few miles (or kilometers) an Englishman actually drives per year.

Anyway… it is my estimation that the average person is being hit with about an extra $300-$500 per month because of the rise in the cost of gas.  For me personally, I'm paying about $50 extra per month at the pump, and another $400 per month in increased expenses at the grocery store, postage, my utilities, and just about every cost is going up to accomodate increased fuel expenses.

Most people can't absorb that.  So what are you gonna do?

Let me give you two options: 1) decrease your monthly expenses by about $400, or 2) increase your monthly income by about $400.

First, here are some ideas (real ideas) that you can do to DECREASE your monthly expenses… without giving up safety or riding your bike to work.  These could be permanent, or temporary.  These will add up to about $400 in savings per month.

1) Step down one level with your Cable or Satellite TV provider.  Decrease the number of channels you are subscribed to and/or cut out the premium movie channels.  That could easily save you about $30-$40 per month.

2) Step down one level on your cell phone plan.  That may be from 2000 minutes to 1300 minutes.  For some families… that would be tight… but get real, everyone needs to sacrifice a little here.  That could easily save you about $30-$40 per month.

3) Are you still getting the newspaper.  Stop!!  Read the news for free on the internet.  This will save you $25 per month.

4) Cut out going out to eat one time per month.   For my family of five, going to a place like Chili's, that would save me about $45 per month… just cutting out one restaurant per month.

5) Audit your monthly subscriptions.  One of the things that can really get you is all the stuff companies do to get you to take a monthly subscription of something.  It could be from Freecreditreport.com (which isn't really "free" by the way) for $10/month, Netflix, all those lame credit card protection fees, an unused gym membership, or whatever.  I personally cut out 3 monthly memberships totalling $100.  You can easily find $30-$40 worth of stuff to eliminate.

6) Go flourescent.  You don't have to go nutso here.  But, add some flourescent light bulbs in places like bathrooms, hallways, closets, kid's bedrooms, and other places where lights tend to get left on.  We did this 2 years ago and began saving about $20 per month.

7) Go to the library instead of buying the book.  I buy several books a month along with magazines.  Probably $100 month easily.  My taxes are paying for the library, and I found that my library carries about 75% of the books and magazines I read, and they are willing to get the other 25%.  For some people, this could save another $30 per month… me much more than that.

8 ) You don't have to buy all the new DVD releases.  Some people have dozens and dozens, even hundreds of hundreds of DVD's.  How many times did you watch those?  Here's what you do.  Go to the library and rent them for FREE, or go to your neighbor or friend who buys them all, and borrow from them.  Bake your friend some hot chocolate chip cookies every 6 weeks and he'll loan you anything you want.  This can save you $30-$60 per month.

9) This is a good time to diet!  The last thing you need to do is start eating crappy food.  That's how you get fat… all those high-carb, high-fat cheap foods you find for a fraction of the price at Walmart.   Instead, keep buying the same high quality food, but maybe cut back on an extra item here and there.  It could add up to maybe a couple hundred calories less per day… adding up to several thousand less calories per month.  I'm not dietician, but stay away from the junky, crappy, cheapo food and just buy a little less of what you already do.  Your whole family will live with one less pack of Oreos per month and eating more reasonable meals.

10) Stay away from the malls!  This is a habit that you will have to cut back on or something.  People go walk the malls and browse through stores and mysteriously end up with $50-$100 in stuff.  Plan your shopping trips, but at least cut back one of those "I'm bored - let's go to the mall" trips per month.

So that's it.  Cut back.  Decrease spending.  Not horribly painful… unless you have teenage daughters who are a threat to max out your cell phone minutes.  It could be worse…. doing less wise things like raising deductibles on insurance, dropping insurance, driving underinsured, cancelling your burglar alarm, dropping out of school, turning off the A/C in July, etc.

Don't panic.  Be smart.  And, certainly don't wait on the government to fix it.  They're in bed with the oil companies anyway (see who the top contributors are to EVERY congressman, presidential canidate, etc. - The oil companies sleep with both the democrats and republicans - they don't play favorites.)  And, if you're waiting on Obama or Clinton to be your gas price savior… you better think again. 

Personal responsibility is the answer here.  You have everything within your reach to solve this thing on your own.

I'll be back in a few days to finish this post on the second half… increasing income (an "no" I'm not talking about MLM either).

I've just posted the conclusion to this.  Go read it here: Fight Gas Prices

To continue with the theme from the previous post, you HAVE to get yourself involved in personal development and training.  I picked up a copy of Robert Kiyosaki's "Increase Your Financial IQ"  I've always like the whole Rich Dad series of books.  I've been waiting for the next release, and so far, about half way through the book, I've got to say, this is a must read.  Go out and spend the $15 or so dollars for this book.   This book is simply about this:

We all face problems and challenges in our lives and businesses.  Some people avoid the problem or let the problem beat them.  However, working through the problem and solving it increases your knowledge and intelligence.  The wealthy and financially free are simply people who have learned to solve more problems.  It's not that they are problem free.  They just have figured out and put solutions in place to overcome problems. 

Problems can be anything - taxes, medical bills, pay cuts, not enough pay, gas price increases. kids growing up, etc.  These are pretty much all problems that everyone faces to one degree or another.  There are solutions to those problems.

Kiyosaki goes on to give 5 areas that we need to increase our Financial IQ:

1. Making More Money
2. Protecting Your Money
3. Budgeting Your Money
4. Leveraging Your Money
5. Improving Your Financial Information

Anyway, this is another great chance to educate yourself and invest in your personal development.  I imagine for most people, if they spent $500 this year on personal developement (whether books, DVDs, seminars, etc.), it would be $500 more than they have spent the last 10 years on themselves.

Now, it's not just about money.  It's just this blog post is about money.

If you think about it, every job, from flipping burgers at McDonalds to performing open heart surgery requires training.  Some more than others… but you must learn and train. 

Take for example you have a job at Lowes.  You first work as an associate in a particular department.  You learn customer service skills, stocking shelves in the right place and with the right safety issues.  Then, one day your boss wants to train you on a fork lift to get some of the heavier items.  More safety training and other issues.  Then you get training on unloading trucks.  Then you get training on certain management skills, then… etc., etc.

If you want to progress in your home business, you must commit to training.  When you stop training, you stop growing.  It's like the Lowes employee who only wants to drive the fork lift, but never wants to move to management.  Here's the deal - if you want to have success in your home business, then you must be proactive in pursuing training.  It all goes back to basic principles of thinking and being a business owner, not an employee.

For example, we get many people who buy leads for their MLM business.  They want to either do email marketing or they want to get some phone leads.  It seems obvious that all you need to do is pick up the phone and call, talk, and enroll.  If that's your attitude, you aren't going to last long.  Here's what I recommend you need training for:

1. Using MLM Leads - find a good trainer.  I highly recommend using Dani Johnson.  She's the best and I can't see how you'd go wrong.
2. Running a Home Business - what about all the tax benefits, setting up a corporation, reporting, etc.  I recommend Home Business Tax Savings
3. Specific Company Training - get involved in the training programs of your company.
4. Thinking like an Entrepreneur - Go spend $200 and get Rich Dad's Cash Flow 101 board game.

Of course there's other types of training (i.e. Search engine marketing - become a dominant player in the search engines - I recommend Brad Callen's ebook on SEO, or attending public speaking classes).  But, you need to find out what is going to make you successful, and get off your butt and go do it.

My personal opinion is to lose your pride and misguided attitude that you have it all figured out, and that this type of training is for the simple and weak.  Lead by example and continue to seek out higher and higher levels of training.

Two posts in a row here about the Dallas Stars and the Stanley Cup playoffs… but I was at game 6 to watch the Stars beat the Ducks last night, eliminating the Ducks and moving on to round 2.  You talk about exciting!  I don't think I've ever been in an arena that was more intense, electric, loud, and fun.  The place was hoppin!

When Robida scored in the 3rd period, followed up 52 seconds later by Barnes scoring, I thought the place was coming down.  And then, to win it in front of your home crowd… the place was nuts.

I bought tickets last night for two reasons… and hestitant to buy them for one reason.  You hate to see your team lose.  When they're all laying it on the line, I didn't want to see that.  But, I wanted to buy them because if they won… then I'd get to experience what I did experience.  And, the second reason is for one of the greatest moments in all of sports - after each team has just hit each other and competed so fiercly game after game, when it is all done, to get in a line and shake hands, congratulating the other team.  There's nothing else like it.

I'm still blown away as to why more people aren't into hockey.  It sure beats basketball and baseball.  I enjoy watching those sports, but when you watch a baseball player tweak his knee and sit out for 4 weeks, you realize how soft they are.  On the other hand, Stephane Robida catches a puck in the nose, breaks his nose, bleeding, banged up face, and he misses a few minutes, and comes back the next game and gets 2 points.

I'm boycotting baseball anyway… so that's beside the point.

Anyway, got my tickets for round 2 in Dallas.  Stars vs. ??? (don't know who yet).

I am all about hockey.  I've had a blast this past season as a partial season ticket holder to the Dallas Stars.  Last night was the first playoff game I've been to, and it just made me realize that there is no other playoff series like Stanley Cup hockey.  Football, baseball, soccer, basketball… none come even close to the intensity, speed, tenacity, skill, determination, and perseverance that it takes to make it round by round to win the Stanley Cup.  None come close.

Last night, I don't think I've ever been in a louder, more rowdy environment.  My oldest daughter and I had a BLAST!  The Stars beat the Ducks 3-1. 

It's hard to name any one thing that made the whole experience great.  But, I will say this.  What got it started great was walking into the arena, and there was The Stanley Cup on display.  We got in line to get our picture taken.  I don't have to worry about the superstition about touching or seeing the Cup… since I'm a bit past my hockey prime.

Of any trophy in sports… when you touch the Cup, you are touching such a history of greatness. 

I already have tickets for round 2, round 3, and round 4.

Go Stars!

You may or may not have heard of Google Adsense.  I'm sure it some way you have.  Those are the ads that you see on some of my sites that Google places for me.  They are contextually relevant ads.  So, what's the big deal?

Well, I have been using Google Adsense since February of 2005.  Needless to say, since April 2005, I haven't had to worry about my car payment(s) or anything at all related to my car payments.  Google pays for all that.  I get a deposit each month from Google and I use that to pay for everything related to my auto expenses.

However, over the last 2-3 months, I have been working at stepping all of that up to a much higher level.  My Adsense income has since doubled, and I am looking to double that again within the next 4 - 8 weeks.  And then double that again.  And then again.  And then at least one more time

Is it hard?  No.  It's probably the easiest money I make, by a long shot.  It takes some work, but the work has become easy.  My goal by year's end is to close in on 5-figures per month with Adsense… just for placing ads on my websites. 

People ask me all the time if they can do what I do.  I am not a part of any MLM or Network Marketing company, so I am not trying to recruit people.  But the easiest thing to tell people about what they can do is to turn them to Google Adsense.  There will be things you need to learn, but, it is a great source of income.

Imagine this (for those of you who understand MLM) - you spend lots of time, energy and money recruiting new people into your downline.  You earn a certain percentage off of the products they purchase, but it's all about recruiting.  It can be tough… but what if you could "manufacture" your own downline.  No more recruiting.  You just manufacture your downline yourself.

That's what its kind of like with Google Adsense.  Every time I create a new website, or write a new article for one of my sites, or publish a new web page, it's like I am creating these downline members who are out there, earning money for me 24 hours a day.  Some websites, web pages, and articles earn more than others, just like a MLM business.

Anyway, I say all this to say this - many people ask me about how they can do something, or generate a new stream of income.  Let me tell you where I started.  Joel Comm.

Joel has created an ebook that you need to get.  It is only $9.95 for a 200+ page ebook that is going to teach you everything you need to know.  You can see the banner to the right.  Just click on that picture of Joel, and it will take you to his site.  Listen, for less than $10, it is everything you're gonna need to learn Adsense.  Not much to lose, and a whole lot to gain.

I really believe you can't go wrong here. Go check out Joel's Google Adsense Secrets 4. You can also click on the image here.

Finally, let me say this.  I enjoy the whole network marketing industry.  My wife is okay with it.  She likes the products, but she doesn't like the hype.  But, she loves Adsense.  She types articles for my websites every week.  She's as much a reason that I receive a nice fat Adsense deposit at the end of every month.  It's something that many people in your family can do.  It's not just a geek thing of building websites.  Dont' let that part hold you back.  Joel teaches about that too.

About 12 years ago when I came home from Africa, I was up to my eyes in credit card debt.  It wasn't that I was living high on the hog, it was just simply debt we had accumulated while living, and then some rather large expenses associated with the circumstances of our coming home. 

Eight years later, we were completely debt free… that is of credit card debt.  We still had a car loan and a mortgage.  Things got tight again and although we said we wouldn't go there, we found ourselves back in debt by about $18,000. 

Now, the one thing to keep in mind is that the vast majority of people who are in debt are not in debt because they are buying luxuries or taking vacations to Cancun.  Most people are paying utility bills, buying groceries, paying for gas… just trying to survive.  Life happens sometimes, and it's not because you are living beyond your means.  Typically, circumstances change and you find yourself paying for an emergency medical expense with a credit card because your income got cut, lost a job, or whatever.

Well, this year, I committed myself to being 100% debt free again by year's end.  I have paid off 2 cards so far, this  month in April I will pay off one more, and by the end of May I hope to have another paid off.  After that, I have two larger debts to take care.

Here's what I did.  I bought Kevin Trudeau's book, "Debt Cures."  It has really helped.  One of the ways to get those credit cards paid off sooner is to get interest rates lowered, and all those fivilous fees removed.  It's amazing how quickly you can pay down your debt when the credit card company isn't adding back to your balance with interest and fees.  I highly recommend you check out his book.  Go to:  www.debtcures.com

Another friend of mine here in the Dallas area also recommended USCA Online.  He found their information very helpful and is using their recommendations to pay off his debt.  You can check out the USCA Online website by going to:  Eliminate Your Debt

If you watch the news or read any magazine, they're all talking about recession and a tough economy.  While I believe it is very smart to build a new stream of income or to do something to increase your monthly cash flow, I believe it is equally wise to take all or part of that increased income to pay down your debt.  Go check out Debt Cures and USCA Online.  While my goal of being 100% debt free in one year is somewhat agressive, I think many people could pay down a debt my size within a few years.