MyBankruptlife...

Why MyBankruptlife.com?

Many of us in US struggle to keep up with the overwhelming debt and pressure from society to own as much as our credit cards can take.  The consumerism of all living in America has made many of us fall as the pray of money. Here I want to explore why is so hard for us to open our eyes and stop making excuses.  Financial freedom is possible but how? I hope the information herein will help us decipher such question.  Follow me and participate.

Why You Should Never Lease A Car When Money Is Tight!

 

Because when money is tight, car payments and car repairs are often the biggest culprit.
And that’s exactly why leasing a car is a bad option for people struggling to pay their bills. I know it’s tempting. And in the short term, it will probably help you out.
But when you lease a car, you usually need to put down a significant down payment to get the low monthly payments. And where will this money come from? If it comes from savings, then take the money and buy a car. Or use it to pay off your credit card debt.
If the money comes from a credit card, now we’re talking about a real big financial mistake!
And what happens at the end of the lease? You either need to lease another car. Or buy the car outright. Either way, you’ll have car payments for another 3-5 years. Or longer! Because when you lease, you never get the benefit of owning the car, and eventually NOT having to make payments.
And this is not helpful for someone with money problems and credit card debt.
So what should you do?
Buy a used car. You can get a car loan online from websites such as eloan.com and carloan.com. You don’t need to make a down payment, and you can usually get pretty good rates. Then you can shop around for a car you can afford. Most car dealerships will offer at least a short-term warranty to protect you from walking out the door and having the car fall apart.
And then you’ll have your reliable car – without making a down payment – without getting ripped off by the car dealership “loan department” – and you’ll be on your way to owning the car!

By: Kris D. Bickell

 

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Why You Should Never Lease A Car When Money Is Tight!

9 Steps To Financial Freedom Review

 

Step 1 - Seeing how your past holds the key to your financial future
In Orman's 1st step of her book she talks about how most people have some past memory that effects the way they perceive money and finances. In this chapter she helps you to realize that past memory and move on from it so that you can start new with your personal finances.
This steps to be a bit off and useless for most people. There are some people who have bad memories regarding money but in general most people are just to lazy and undisciplined. For most people it is an issue of motivation and not an issue of a bad experience. This step could be helpful to some people to get them started but it not broad enough to be applicable to a lot of people.
2 - Facing your fears and creating new truths
Here Orman makes a connection with the first step in the book. Orman has her readers look at their past memories and see how they cause them to act toward money in their current life. Orman suggests writing out a list of your money related fears and then realizing how to overcome these.
Again, I find this step to be more of a mental exercise for those that need it but not to be widely applicable to all people. The first two steps in her book seem to be more related to a traditional self-help type book and not a personal finances or financial planning book.
Step 3 - Being honest with yourself
In the third step of Suze's book she goes into detail about budgeting. Suze suggests getting all of your past records and realizing where you money has gone over the past 2 years. The plan is to use previous records to determine your budgeting plan for the future.
This step is extremely good and something we should all consider. Setting up a budget to track our income in the most basic and important step in starting on a quest for financial freedom. The only issue here is having 2 years of old records. If you do not have 2 years go with whatever you have to make estimates for the future.
Step 4 - Being responsible to those you love
In step 4 Suze talks about setting up your money so that it can help your loved ones if you were to pass away. The basic setup of this step tells you all about insurance, estate planning, trusts, and wills.
I find this step to be very important but it seems to be out of place. I think that before you can begin to plan for others once you are gone you need to get your own personal finances in order. If you do not get your own finances in order you won't have anything to leave to your heirs and it will be useless. Steps 4 & 5 should be switched.

Create a Richer Life in 24 Hours or Less

 

The overwhelming majority of people wish for more money. Unfortunately, it seems that the more money we accumulate, the richer we want to become. The way I see it, a wish for material wealth is one that is never really fulfilled.
Thank goodness there are two types of riches or wealth that define our lives: there's being financially rich and there's being life rich -- one doesn't necessarily exclude the other. You can be both at the same time, at different times, or at no time.
While there's nothing wrong with striving to have a larger bank account, it's important to remember that money really can't buy happiness. Just ask Chris Farley or Kurt Cobain about that.
That's why it's so important to strive for having a rich life as opposed to material wealth.
Here's how to make yourself richer in 24 hours or less.

1. Be thankful for life. Every single one of us takes for granted that when we go to sleep at night, we're going to wake up the next morning. I'm not trying to frighten you, but to make you understand how thankful you should be for every single morning you open your eyes because it's not a guarantee that it'll happen. I know you don't think about it because when you wake up, you've already got a ton of things on your mind.
   Well, stop. Lay in bed for a few seconds and just be thankful that you've got another day because they're so few in number.
2. Make a new friend. True, it's tougher for adults to make friends than it is for kids. When you were a kid you could easily walk up to whomever had a new toy at the playground and he was instantly your new best friend. However, for adults, friendship too often comes with more strings attached than a marionette show. We tend to see friends as people who can help us achieve something rather than another soul to be enjoyed.
   Well, life is nothing if it isn't about relationships, and friendships are the easiest to come by if you're willing to put forth the effort.
3. Count your blessings. Okay, I know it's a cliché, but if you truly want a richer life, then you have to be thankful for what you already have. And don't tell me that you have nothing because no one truly has nothing. You can be living on the street with only a garbage bag full of possessions, but as long as you still have breath in your lungs, you have opportunity. The world is filled with examples of people who appeared to have nothing left to live for only to rise up and show everyone what life is all about. Stephen Hawking, anyone?
4. Try living life instead of surviving it. How many of you feel like you just went 12 rounds with the champ at the end of each week? How many of you really need a weekend on the couch just to store up enough energy for Monday? If this sounds familiar then you're not living life, you're surviving it - and that's no way to live.
   You don't have to fill up your entire day with work to be worth something. I'll tell you right now, for nothing, that you could spend a week earning ten thousand dollars and it wouldn't be worth as much as spending an hour with your kid, your wife, as a Big Brother or Big Sister, or as a volunteer to a family in distress.

Leading a rich life has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of money and stuff you leave behind when you're gone - the universe really doesn't care about that. Rather, it's about the effect you had on those around you. That's what lasts and gets passed on forever.
What little things do you routinely do to make you feel great inside?

-David

Create a Richer Life in 24 Hours or Less

Killer Startups

 

          Whether you are an Internet entrepreneur or investor, determining the profitability of a website will be much easier with Bizak.com, a site that computes the valuation and profitability of Internet startups.

The data calculated for each startup includes revenues per visitor, costs per visitor, earnings (profit/loss), earnings per visitor, and valuation. Bizak is currently in Beta, and allowing startups to register for free in order to build up their database. Once enough data has been collected, they will establish ‘The Bizak Estimate’ to use as the comparative benchmarks against which all sites are judged.

Entrepreneurs can view data to see how their startup compares to others, and investors can use the data to judge which startups might be the best investment.

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Virtual Entrepreneur - Business Opportunities, Links And News For Small Businesses And Entrepreneurs

Parents Making Money Without Leaving Home

 

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Carin Walling is a working mom. Her day begins at 7:30 a.m. when she wakes up with her toddler twin daughters, Callie and Henley.

"We do breakfast together," says Walling. "Sometimes I go to the gym in the mornings and other times we play until nap time. When they lay down at nap time, that's work time for me."

Walling works from home as her own boss. She opened a children's store. But not the type of physical store you may be thinking of.

"I wanted to have a physical store and it didn't work out, he (her husband) said why don't you do this whole thing online," says Walling.

So she started the online children's boutique www.2sweetsisters.com. She says the started up was relatively easy. She paid another work at-home mom to design her website.

Plus, many of the manufacturers didn't require her to buy a supply of products up front. So there was very little start up cost.

Walling acts as the online middle man for companies that make children's goods.

When a customer makes an order on her website then she contacts the manufacturer of those products. "Most of the time the manufacturer packs it up and ships the items directly to the customer," says Walling.

And that means she doesn't have to fill her home with products to be shipped out.

9 Ways to Save on Gas This Summer (Ford, Honda Motor) at SmartMoney.com

 

WITH GAS PRICES edging ever closer to $4 a gallon, it's little surprise that many would-be vacationers plan to postpone their road trips this summer. 

"This is basically a price issue," says Mike Pina, a spokesman for AAA, which predicts that fewer drivers will take to the road throughout the summer months. "Consumers are stuck with high fuel prices, higher airfares — which are due to higher fuel prices — and a softening economy." 

For those who still plan on braving the highways, the usual tactics — shopping around for cheaper gas or using a gas rewards credit card — will prove much less effective than in years past. Instead, the only way drivers will see any substantial fuel savings is to stay on top of their car's maintenance and start driving more conscientiously. 

"You can't control prices at the pump, but you do have some control over how much fuel you use," says Rozanne Weissman, a spokeswoman for the Alliance to Save Energy. The nonprofit recently launched the Drive Smarter Challenge, a web site that helps consumers figure out how much they can save annually, just by changing their driving habits. "When you add these seemingly small things together, it adds up to hundreds of dollars in savings." 

A potential $733 from now until Labor Day, in fact, if you try everything on our list: 

(Note: Unless otherwise stated, our calculations for each example assume the car stays true to its advertised average mileage per gallon, will be driven 4,500 miles over the 16-week summer period — mileage amount is calculated based on Edmunds.com estimate that the average person drives roughly 15,000 miles per year — and that the price of gas is $3.80 a gallon. Estimates of fuel economy and savings come from research by the Federal Trade Commission, FuelEconomy.gov, the Alliance to Save Energy and Edmunds.com.) 

Prime Your Vehicle

Thanks to normal wear and tear, cars become less fuel-efficient over time. And while it's impossible to alter your car in a way that would increase its fuel economy beyond the manufacturer's estimated mileage per gallon — the Environmental Protection Agency has tested and dismissed hundreds of products that claim to do just that — you can get your car back in top-notch shape and maximize its fuel efficiency. Here's what you can do and how much you can save: 

Check your tires: $29
Under- or overinflated tires change the way a car handles, both adding drag and accelerating wear, says Weissman. That, in turn, reduces fuel efficiency by 3.3%, according to the Alliance to Save Energy. Look at your driver's side door panel or owner's manual to find out the proper inflation for your tires and make sure to check the pressure at least once a month. Over the course of 4,500 miles of summer driving, a 2008 Acura RL owner could save $29. 

Forgo premium fuel: $86
Unless you drive a Dodge Viper or other high-end sports car that lists premium fuel as a requirement in its owner's manual, you should use regular unleaded gas, says Phil Reed, consumer advice editor for Edmunds.com. "[Premium fuel] boosts engine performance, but not fuel economy," he says. "The savings in price would be far greater." Someone in California, for example, filling his 2008 Saab 9-3 weekly with $3.98-a-gallon unleaded (87 octane) instead of $4.31 premium (91 octane) would save $86 over the course of the summer. 

Get a tune-up: $129
"Maintaining your vehicle is one of the most important things you can do to aid fuel efficiency," says Shruti Vaidyanathan, principle vehicle analyst for the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. A faulty engine can reduce fuel economy by 4%, for example, while a clogged air filter knocks off about 10%, according to FuelEconomy.gov, a Department of Energy-sponsored site. Fixing up a 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan before driving 4,500 miles over the summer saves $129.

Improve your Chances of Success in Business with These 10 Simple Tips

Written on 5/19/2008 by Shilpan Patel of Success Soul.

I am an engineer turned entrepreneur. With that said, I've had my share of stumbles along the way but I've learned a lot. One of these lessons is that business means risk. While it is true that there are varying degrees of risk, you must also agree that there are varying degrees of rewards.
For those that argue it's insane to trade our time for the money, how about the notion of being your own boss? Is that an insane thought? With a plethora of research suggesting such a high failure rate among the small businesses, maybe it is.
Before you get swept in the euphoria of starting a business, it's prudent to prepare for a successful launch so that your dream won't come crashing on the ground to shatter your plans. While these tips cannot and will not guarantee success, they will certainly provide some food for thought as you make your way forward.

1. Win the battle in your own mind first: Launching a business is akin to shedding the life of comfort that we are accustomed to and starting afresh with a mindset filled with clear and visual goals. Surround yourself with family and friends who share similar vision and to avoid those who have negative attitude. Before you win the fierce battle with your competitors, make sure you've won battle with your own mind to persist no matter what it takes.
2. Risk is rewarding: Business involves extensive risk including preparedness to risk all you have to survive in the beginning. Be prepared to pay your employees by taking cash advances on your credit card when time gets tough. Challenges will shape your will and power to stay on the course and to sacrifice all you have to succeed. Success comes to those in business who possess intrepid minds to face the unknown along the way.
3. Have a plan, a solid plan: It's mind boggling that many businesses are being launched on a whim. While dreaming to achieve financial freedom is laudable, diving into an ocean without knowing how to swim equally abhors. Find what inspires you most without obsessing on the profit potential of the idea. Studying the competition and preparing detailed pro-forma cash flow analysis are key steps to understanding the risks involved.
4. Identify your Niche: If competition is fierce, you have to stand out with a unique service/product to gain a competitive advantage. A unique service becomes your trademark in the niche you serve. For example, in the hotels I own, I serve free breakfast that overwhelms the wildest expectations of the guest. Best breakfast guaranteed is our motto. We strive to outlive our motto.

   "Give everyone more in use value than you take from him in cash value. Then you are adding to the life of the world by every business transaction." -Wallace D. Wattles, Science of Getting Rich

Hitting Bottom

As we all know the economy is hitting many of us hard.  In fact , so hard that some of us are almost hitting unemployment, food stamps, and all social help there is out there to be able to handle this economic slump.  I have previously asked, what does it take to be successful in America? I wished someone could have an answer and a guide to follow.  I am one many of thousands of real estate agents who have lost just about everything these past several months with only the hope things will turn for the best sooner than later, but there is no sign of relief. I can not longer afford the rent, the car, the gas, the cable, the cell phone bill, the college loan bill, the credit cars, and the list goes on.  All it matters is to be able to feed my three children.  In the state of Florida, you have to be just about homeless before you could qualify for any public assistance.  This is happening in the land of opportunity  What are my hopes?. If such ordeal is happening to a person with a college education from a prestigious school, honorably discharged from the US Marines, and have always strive to make the right steps through life, I could only imagine what many others are going through.  Is there light a the end of the tunnel?  How high is the gas going to hit? what about the food, isn't this insane?  we are using our agricultural land and on top of that giving farmers subsidies for corn to produce fuel when there are thousands of people dying of hunger every day in Africa.  How about the billions of dollars we are spending every months to blow stuff in Iraq and kill people for oil?  We are surely proud to be in America, but what has happened with the American dream and what America stands for?  The illusion continues and we are in many levels ignorant to our surroundings not realizing how foolish we are sometimes to belief the media  and the politicians.Yes, spend stimulus checks rather than pay off debt or invest the money, how foolish is that?   Life continues and our children are our future.  Are we doing enough ?Tomorrow is another day, and I just hope and pray things will work out for many of us in the hole.

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Is it Smart to Trade Time for Money?

 

Towers Perrin, a large human resource consulting firm, just published survey results revealing that most workers have strong negative emotions towards their work. I belonged to this group until several years ago when I decided to transcend my fear and transform my career from a wage earning software engineer to an entrepreneur.
This alchemy of professions has taught me a great lesson: Trading time for money is dumb thinking.
Most people grudgingly work at a job that they hate and become victims of their self-prophecy that they have to work to make money. The truth is shocking but you can quit that job you hate today and liberate your life to achieve the freedom that always eludes you.
Consider these five powerful reasons to manifest thoughts of freeing the precious time that you have been trading for a not-so-rewarding job.

• It's a never-ending cycle: Need for money forces you to work-eat-sleep, an endless loop. It's the craving for more rather than enough that victimizes your mind. We work hard to make more money to spend more money. It's a viral disease that spreads fast. Engaging in work that you hate only to buy a bigger house, Mercedes, cruises, jewelry, designer clothes makes you trade more of your time to buy more of same that you do not need.
• It's an earned income: You are not making what you've seen on your contract. Uncle Sam takes half of your paycheck before a tangible dime falls in your hand. Why? You are paying the federal, the state and social security taxes out of every dollar earned. Rich people work for themselves to build passive income that grows tax-free.
• Your goals are not yours: Individual freedom stems from the thoughts of making a determination about what matters most to you and your family. With freedom, you can work hard on your goals and achieve your dreams. However, when you trade time for money, your boss decides what you should achieve for the paltry raise. Selling your dreams for a meager pay raise is dumb thinking.
• It's risky: It's astounding to find that most people trade time for money with the fallacy of the myth that their job is safe. With the global economy at play, you'll see a pink slip someday. No matter how savvy you are, how adroit you are with skills unmatched by your fellow workers, somewhere in the world, someone will bid for the work that you do for less. There is no insurance for your job.
• Your income relies on you: This fable speaks volumes. You can be a powerful lawyer, doctor or an actor but your income grows linearly with the amount of sweat you trade for it. If you ever get disabled, chances are that your income will be disabled as well. No skill that requires time trading can replace the income to support the life-style that you once lived.

Rebates: Spend, Invest or Pay Off Bills?

Rebates:-Spend,-Invest-or-Pay-Off-Bills

This economic stimulus check serves as a reminder that every day we make financial choices that have a trickle-down effect on our lives.

Decisions Involve Trade-Offs

For example, if you spend money you have today on a flat-screen TV, that money isn't available for future needs or desires. If you instead invest that money for tomorrow, it's not available for your present desire to watch "American Idol" on that beautiful plasma screen.

Lastly, if you spend money you don't have today by financing a TV purchase, you commit future earnings to this expenditure. Since interest is normally levied in this scenario, your purchase could end up costing a heck of a lot more than the original price of the TV, making this the least attractive of all options.

Yet we routinely choose that option. According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, Americans are heaping on more debt, with average credit card balances up 9.5 percent in the first quarter of 2008 over the year before. Home equity lines of credit are up 8.1 percent. Credit card balances rose even more precipitously in California, Florida and Nevada -- the states most affected by the housing crunch.

Mixed Messages

Bankrate regularly sounds the drumbeat about these consumer trade-offs in its Financial Literacy Guide, of which I am privileged to serve as editor. The "fin-lit" team attempts to make the tortuous journey of personal finance an easier one for consumers to navigate. And we learn a lot about consumer concerns, too. In February, our savings poll revealed that 80 percent of Americans would like to save more money, except that the cost of living gets in the way.

The problem is that our message -- and that of other worthwhile organizations -- is getting drowned out by louder, more insistent, marketing noise that urges consumers to spend, spend, spend.

So, are you planning to buy a big-screen TV in time for the HDTV conversion? Or have you traced the route to the Grand Canyon on a road map in anticipation of a cross-country trip? Or are you going to cave to that pretty gold bracelet?

Hey -- here's a chance to stash away some money. These rebate checks will range in value from $300 to $1,200, and couples with young children will get up to $1,800.

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The Best Way to Save on Health-Care Costs

The Best Way to Save on Health-Care Costs (Consumer Action: Personal Finance) at SmartMoney.com

LIKE IT OR NOT the cost of health care is still soaring as employers continue to shift more of the financial burden to their workers.

Unfortunately, other than trying to eat right, exercising and hoping that genetics are on your side, there isn't much you can do to lower your medical bills. But you can lower the after-tax cost of your out-of-pocket expenditures if you participate in an employer-sponsored Flexible Spending Account (FSA), also referred to as a Medical Spending Account. More than 94% of large employers offer such a plan, according to Hewitt Associates, a benefits consulting firm. An FSA allows you to use pretax dollars to pay for medical expenses that aren't reimbursed by your health-insurance plan, such as your deductible, copayments for medicine, and noncovered expenses like eyeglasses. For someone in the 25% federal tax bracket, that means saving about $33 on every $100 of medical costs because you also save on Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Not a bad deal at all. By taking advantage of this benefit, you can stretch the money available for medical expenses and reduce your federal taxes — and depending on where you live, your state and local income taxes as well. These accounts represent the only tax break available on medical expenses for many people these days. Very few taxpayers have medical costs that exceed 7.5% of their adjusted gross income, the level at which they can begin to itemize medical deductions on their income taxes.

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Make Money Uploading Youtube Videos

Another great post from Crystal:

Tips to Make Money Online: pictures and video

Youtube started a new program this month where you can make money when you upload your videos. The program, called the "partner program," will give you a share of the money from ads that are featured on your video.

The reason Youtube is doing this is because they're legally not allowed to put advertising on copyrighted-content. To put ads on a video they first have to get permission from the copyright holder. Therefore, by entering the partner program, you give them permission to put ads on your video and they will give you a share of the money that's made.

Here is an example of the ads that appear on partner videos (its the text at the bottom):

Since Youtube videos have the potential to reach millions of viewers this can be very lucrative for the big names on Youtube. It may also be a good reason to take out your camera and start using Youtube if you haven't already.

Here are the requirements for the program:

    * You must own the copyrights and distribution rights for all videos you upload.
    * You must regularly upload videos that are viewed by thousands of Youtube users.
    * You must live in the US or Canada.

If you meet these requirements, you can apply now and start making money off your videos. If you live outside of North America, keep your eyes open because they will probably be expanding the program in the near future.

Stimulus Checks Stimulate . . . Scammers

Anticipation about the incoming economic stimulus checks is spurring a number of e-mail and telephone scams by scammers pretending to be from the IRS -- so, citizens should beware.

One anonymous caller to The Telegraph said she recently received several e-mails containing a link, which she was instructed to click if she wanted her money. Upon clicking the link, the woman was prompted to enter a variety of personal and banking information. Luckily, she didn't.

Economy Has Consumers Feeling the Urge to Purge

This is an interesting article that clearly describes many people in this country:

CHICAGO -- The economic downturn is putting a new twist on spring cleaning.

Tamme Wisinski discovered how much unnecessary stuff she had amassed after losing her job in January. Looking to raise some money, the 36-year-old Chicagoan began going through her closets, discovering clothes and books and jewelry that she says she "went nuts purchasing" before she found out that her company was shutting down.

She is selling the goods online at Craigslist, marking her first foray into the secondhand marketplace. And the experience is making her rethink the way she shops.

"In the past, I'd go crazy," said Wisinski. "Instead of buying one top, I'd buy several in different colors. Or if it was on sale, I'd buy it whether I needed it or not. Now I've learned to be much more reasonable about what I need and don't need. Even after I do get a new job, I'm going to be a little more reserved in my spending than in the past."

Living The American Dream or not…

I am a foreigner or what they call a naturalized legal Alien.   I promised that I was born on Planet Earth. In reality, I am like many Americans in this country and willing to give my life for it. I arrived to New York City during the late 1980's, when the city was plagued by graffiti, crime, and drugs.  This was long before Giuliani took office and took care of many of the Big Apple's problems.  However, according to Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner with their great book "Freakonomics", all the glory should not have gone to Mr. Giuliani for several reasons.  You should read this amazing book for more on that.  My father brought me NY just a week after my high school graduation for the only purpose of allowing me to pursue the highly rated "American Dream".  As a young man in America, and just arriving from a still developing country, The Dominican Republic, I decided to work for a while. I thought, until I get use to my new life and learn the language a bit. I soon realized that I was making some money to buy me many, many stuff I could not possibly buy in my native land.   I was happy, like a child in a toy store.   I committed one of the biggest foolish mistakes many immigrants commit when they arrive to this country.  Many of us lend our entire lives to labor and low skill jobs forgoing the opportunity to get an education and become a solid integral part of this nation.  Many immigrants even have no choice sometimes because they must work to support their entire families back home.   I was lucky enough that was not my case.  However, I have liked the shopping malls so much that I had deviated myself from the main purpose my father brought me here in the first place.  My father, the son of a surgeon and a college graduate, soon gave an ultimatum: "You either go to college or become a professional, or I rather see you as a production worker back in the Dominican Republic.  I soon made the choice to enroll at Queens College in an ESL course to learn the language. I consider myself a fortunate human being. However, my path in USA has not being what we should call a successful American story.  I believe the true American dream is reserved for a few within our population and especially for those who learn how to manage their money early on in their lives.  For more on this you should read,  "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki.  This is a subject that is not taught in any conventional classroom in America.  You see, I saw myself on the right path to success due to the steps I have taken these past 19 years in this country.  By 1992, I have already joined the United States Marine Corps.  This was a phase in my life that game a tremendous need growth through discipline and accomplishment.  By 1996, I was on m way to my chosen Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University as a US Marines veteran honorably discharged with an impeccable record.  As a young man with many dreams, my biggest one was to become a pilot.  I soon realized it was only a dream and faced my first biggest financial hurtle.  I was not going to be able to afford the curriculum since it is the most expensive at this university.  Unfortunately, my father and mother, long divorced, were not being able to help me go through college with any money at all.  I was going to rely on loans, grants, and the joke called the GI Bill.  I still wanted to be in aviation, so I decided to change my career path and went for Business, Aviation Safety and technology.  I was a superb student, given the fact that most typical college student distractions were no present in me. By December 1999, I had graduated with honors from such prestigious Aviation university.  It was one of the happiest days in my life.  It should be.  It was the day I also realized that my 4 year degree has probably surpassed over $110,000 of which I owed $65,000 in student loans.  I did not care.  I was going to be successful I thought.  A degree from Embry-Riddle, a job I had secured before with General Electric and a beautiful girlfriend soon to be my wife and moving to the sun's capital, Miami.  My career in aviation was short lived. I decided to move on due to frustrations and the reality you do not learn while you are in college.  My startling yearly salary of $31,000, the cost of living, and the realization of the years I needed to climb up the ladder made me abandon my aviation dreams. Here I was, year 2000 with no job and $65,000 in debt to start with.   This post could turn into my life experience in America, the land of opportunity.  It will take many more key strokes to fill the pages I need, but is not my intension here.  I am still struggling to achieve my goals and the American Dream.  I wonder if this is me what is happening to so many people less fortunate that I am with no formal education or background to show. I continue to search for financial independence, happiness, and accomplishment.  Many things have happened since the year 2000.  I have grown as a human being, matured, and gained more experience in life.  Financially, it has been a roller coaster ride, ups and downs, rock bottom and short lived successes.  I wonder what it takes to become successful in life, here in the land of opportunity. What other paths should I had taken? Now I have three baby girls, lost my house due to the terrible economy and predatory lending practices, and my college loan debt is over $76,000.  Is this the American dream?