What Do You Teach Your Children About Money.txt

Whether we realize it or not we teach our children about money every day. Sometimes we teach with words and sometimes with actions. I’m sure at one time or another the following scenario as happened to you or something close to it: “Mom, can we go buy some toys?” You say, “We don’t have the money for that right now.” Your children reply, “Just go to the ATM and get the money.” You then make a comment to the effect, “There has to be money in my account in order to get money from the ATM.” I still remember the first time I had that conversation and my children’s jaws dropped. It never occurred to them that you had to have money in order to get money out of the ATM machine. They just saw the ATM as the cash machine – Free money. Don’t we all wish that was true!

Let me share with you another conversation we had in my house. We were giving out allowances and we always give it to them in change, so they can take their offering to church. My son said, “Why, do we give money to church anyway?” My daughter quickly piped up, “Because, the Bible tells us to.” She is accurate that the Bible instructs us to give to church, but there is a better explanation. (For the record, I don’t like using because the Bible says so – we need to teach our children about the reasons God gives us instructions and his promises in the Bible.) We give money to church, because God owns everything anyway. All that we have has been given to us from Him and he owns it all. We are only giving a small portion back to thank Him for the bounty he has given us. So, we give the church a praise offering for what God has graciously given us.

Many people have different views about money. Some don’t want to tell their children anything about how much they make and how they pay bills. They don’t want their children to know that and see that as private. Some people give their children way too much information and then children worry if things are tight. I think there is a middle ground. How are children going to learn to spend money wisely if we don’t show them? I think it is important for you to share with children how things were in the lean years of your family. That maybe right now. Many children today, when they become adults, want to start out where their parents ended up. They don’t see all the difficult times that led up to where their parents are now. Share with your children in age appropriate ways how to spend and save money. Teach your children how to compare prices and shop for a bargain. I have seen many teenagers over the years and I’m amazed at when they start spending their own money for clothing all the sudden Wal-Mart doesn’t look so bad anymore, instead of the high priced stores they want parents to spend their money.

In conclusion, what and how are you teaching your children about money? Do they know that God is in control? Do they see you giving to church? Do they even know how bills are paid? Maybe you are saying, “I have been a poor manager of money, who am I to teach them?” We are all learning and God is gracious to help us when we make mistakes. He can help you know what to say and how to teach your children about money. Ask God to help you manage your money wisely and set a good example for your children.

ฉ 2005 Kimberly Chastain

Kimberly Chastain, MS, LMFT is the Christian Working Mom Coach and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She was recently featured in the book the Myth of the Perfect Mother. She is the author of “Help My Preteen/Teenager is Driving Me Nuts!!!” To purchase a copy of this e-book please visit http://www.kimberlychastain.com/parenting To schedule a free, initial coaching session send an email to free@kimberlychastain.com or visit http://www.christianworkingmom.com Feel free to make comments on this article at the Christian Working Mom Blog, http://kimberlychastain.com/my-journal

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[tags]parenting,parenting tips,child rearing,raising children,child expectations,ethics,financial responsi[/tags]

Wealth Building in Four Steps.txt

First, a definition of wealth. I'm not talking about a wealth of friends, or interests, or experiences. Those kinds of wealth are wonderful, definitely. But right now, I'm talking about money - lots of money.

Exactly what "lots of money" means is subjective, but let's say that when your annual income becomes your monthly income, you're playing in the wealth ballgame.

Wealth building, for the most part, involves four financial aspects:

* Growing a cash machine

* Allocating assets

* Spending planning

* Managing/eliminating Debt

*Growing a Cash Machine*

This is the most important aspect of the wealth building foursome. In fact, it is the foundation for the other three areas, whose sequence depends on the nature of your particular cash machine.

Your cash machine is an incorporated business, which is ideally based on leverage of your existing skill set. For example, say you are an automobile mechanic. That's a service. How can you leverage your skills so that you have a business that makes money while you sleep? (The definition of a cash machine).

Here's a scenario: People buying used cars come to your shop for inspection before they buy, and you realize that many of the things you check during your inspection, the consumer could easily check for themselves. You teach a class at the community college and you package the hand-outs you've created for the class. Make them into an ebook, hire a marketer, and voila' you have a cash machine.

That's simplified, but you get the idea. Wealth builders are generally entrepreneurs. Think of something similar you could do with your skill set, and grow a cash machine.

*Allocating Assets*

With the income from your cash machine, plus all your other assets, create a comprehensive plan for your assets to work for you. You've heard the saying, "Stop working for money and get money working for you."

If you haven't already put a team together to grow your cash machine, with asset allocation a team becomes critical. You'll need advisors to set up an incorporated business for your tax strategy as well as asset protection. And, you'll want a financial advisor to help create your overall plan.

One of your most important assets to allocate is time. Millionaires "hire" time. Invest in building yourself a team of experts and support personnel. In addition to expert advisors, hire bookkeepers, housekeepers, assistants, etc.

*Spending Planning*

When the cash starts rolling in, a common mistake is to allow spending to keep pace with the increased income. This makes for a cushy lifestyle, but isn't part of a good wealth building plan.

When you create your spending plan, it should reflect your personal priorities. It doesn't need to be restrictive (like a budget). Think of it more like a framework for financial decision-making that serves your long-term interests at the same time providing resources for you to enjoy the present.

*Managing/Eliminating Debt*

Once you've got your cash machine going, turn your attention to arriving at zero consumer debt: credit cards, mortgage, etc.

However, not all debt is bad. Sometimes, you want to leverage someone else's money. Buying income real estate is an example of such a time. But for the most part, a focus on minimizing or eliminating debt is a sensible part of any wealth building plan.

The ultimate goal of wealth building is financial freedom - when your passive income supports your lifestyle, and you work because you choose to, rather than because you have to. Use the wealth building foursome to lay the foundation of your financial freedom.

Lila Norden is a business and financial consultant. Lila offers valuable information to help you make decisions about your business growth and financial development. Visit Lila's web site FCI Money.
Additional articles by Lila are also at Yes Investing and F-Com Finances

[tags]wealth,finances,money,income,business,financial,success,wealth building,debt,financial freedom,asset[/tags]

Using A Saving Plan To Enhance Your Financial Future.txt

The first step in beginning financial security is creating a personal budget. In order to plan a personal budget you have to know how much you possess and how much you owe. On the asset side of your life how much money do you have in your wallet? How much savings do you have in the bank? Do you own your own home or do you rent or do you have a mortgage on it? Do you own your car or do you have a loan on it?

These are all the initial items for consideration for building a personal budget. On the liability side you need to list the monthly car payment, the monthly rent or mortgage payment, utilities, charge accounts or credit card payments and other maintenance and upkeep expenses. You finished your basic homework now let's create a monthly personal budget.

A personal monthly budget is used to estimate what you earn and what you pay. It gives you an alert if you can plan in advance what each month you will earn in salary, dividend earnings and it will allow you to determine how much you will owe.

This is how I would set one up.

At the top of the list place the following categories on the left side of the sheet, projected monthly income, actual monthly income and on the right side place the categories, projected balance, actual balance, and difference, these will be handled after you total your debts. Under projected monthly income list the following subcategories, income1, extra income, and total monthly income.

Under the major category of actual monthly income list the following subcategories income1, extra income, and total monthly income. Beneath this header place the following categories, housing, transportation, insurance, food, entertainment, loans, taxes, savings or investments, gifts and donations and legal. Each of these categories will have projected cost, actual cost and difference columns added to each row within these major expense divisions. Each beginning of the month you must predict the next month's expenses, during the month as you pay those expenses enter that amount into the actual cost column. The end of the month you should enter the difference between the projected and actual cost into the difference column.

You remember those categories on the right side, projected balance, actual monthly income and difference? They are calculated by subtracting the total expenses from each balance. The difference is obtained from subtracting the actual from the projected. At the bottom the totals of the projected costs, actual costs and difference of the two are given. The maintenance of the personal budget as well as the decipherment of the spending trends should provide you with an invaluable tool to speed you towards financial success.

A personal budget set up in this manner can simplify the process of setting a certain amount of ones' salary or profits into a savings plan which is composed of simple interest savings, mutual fund investments for your retirement and a long range acquisition plan for real estate investment.

Joe Kenny writes for FinanceFool.co.uk, which offers information on bank accounts. FinanceFool.co.uk also provide links to the best mortgages in the UK.

Visit today: http://www.financefool.co.uk/

[tags]savings, plan, future, financial, expectations, earn, grow, income[/tags]

Use Your Dream Abode As A Protection Shield Against Financial Adversities.txt

If you are a homeowner, then you should really feel proud of the fact that you have the most prized possession. Besides giving you shelter and mental peace, your very own home can act as a protection shield during financial crisis. All have been made possible because of the availability of secured homeowner loans.

Secured homeowner loans are offered against your own home. Your home acts as a security against the loan amount. Therefore, anyone who possesses a home can procure secured homeowner loans. Involvement of security reduces the risk of the lender and because of that the borrower gets a longer repayment, a hefty loan amount and flexibility in terms and conditions. Though these offers really look tempting from the borrower’s point of view, but the house, which acts as a collateral remains with the lender till the full repayment of the loan amount. Therefore, there is a risk of losing this security, if the borrower fails to repay the loan amount in the allocated period by the lender.

The loan amount in secured homeowner loans varies as per the equity value of your home. Thus, the borrower can get a loan amount from ฃ5000 to ฃ75,000. Moreover, this amount can be extended further to ฃ100,000 depending upon your need. The repayment terms can be between three to thirty years. So, it’s obvious that the monthly instalments would be smaller.

Bad credit does not act as deterrence in the procurement of secured homeowner loans. Because, the lenders get the assurance in the form of the collateral, hence they can easily provide secured homeowner loans without any apprehensions. However, such borrowers have to pay a bit higher rate of interest than the borrowers with a good credit history.

Secured homeowner loans can be used for a wide array of purposes. Thus, the borrower can use the loan amount for home renovation, to buy another property, for debt consolidation, for wedding expenses, to pay off medical bills, to start a new business etc.

After making up your mind to go for secured homeowner loans, you should do the must-needed homework. Borrowers should collect enough information about various loan plans and lenders to get the desired secured homeowner loans as per their requirements.

The author is a business writer specializing in finance and credit products and has written authoritative articles on the finance industry. He has done his masters in Business Administration and is currently assisting Shakespearefinance as a finance specialist.
For more information please visit: http://www.shakespearefinance.co.uk

[tags]article submission, articles, writers, writing, publishing, ezine, email marketing, email newsletter, email[/tags]

Two Don'ts for Financial Planners Seeking Free Publicity.txt

Many of my clients have had the misguided perception that they won't be able to get media coverage from a publication that their larger competitors advertise in. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Most respectable publications erect a wall separating advertising and editorial (news/feature) coverage. Reporters and editors are specifically instructed to not give preferential treatment to advertisers. It's one of the first things you learn in Journalism 101. Many larger publications are so cautious about this; they end up actually being less likely to write articles about or containing quotes from advertisers.

This leads to two very important "don'ts":

1. Don't give up hope of getting quoted in or writing an article for a publication just because you don't advertise in it.
2. Don't ever suggest to a media person that they should use your story because you are an advertiser. This will irreparably damage your reputation with the media.

There is a small minority of publications that do give advertisers favorable editorial coverage. I argue that these are publications to stay away from.

Remember, the point of media coverage isn't to get your name in print, but to influence potential customers. If you saw a favorable article about a vendor next to a full-page ad for the same vendor, how likely would you be to trust the article?

The wall between advertising and editorial is a time-honored journalism tradition. Crashing into a wall usually hurts, so don’t try it!

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.

[tags]financial planners publicity, financial planners marketing, marketing, publicity, pr[/tags]

Turn Your Job Loss Into the Opportunity of a Lifetime.txt

There are few things in life that are more stressful than the loss of a job. You may think that the loss of your steady paycheck puts financial freedom that much further off, but nothing can be further from the truth.

Being laid of from your regular job can provide you with a golden opportunity to explore how passive income can mean you will never need or want another job. Instead of putting your considerable time, effort and talent into being just another wage slave, use your savvy and skill to put yourself on the road to financial freedom through the awesome power of passive income.

With passive income, you will not have to rely on your boss to tell you how much you will earn. Your passive income earning potential is only limited by the expertise and knowledge of you and your marketing team. The right marketing plan will make all the difference in the world. Harnessing the power of proven marketing strategies, and duplicating those proven strategies in your own business, can turn that trickle of passive income into a virtual flood.

If you are ready to take the bull by the horns and use your time and energy to gain this knowledge, financial freedom may be closer than you ever imagined. Unlike the income you generate as a cog in some giant machine, passive income can be generated 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Instead of your boss and your company telling you what you are worth, passive income allows you to have unlimited earning potential.

Financial freedom means many things to many people. To some, financial freedom means having the time and money to do what you want to do instead of what you want to do. To others, financial freedom means you will be able to use your assets to help those you care about. When you have financial freedom, you can help those you love and give back to the world. The financial freedom you generate through passive income will help you gain the quality of life you have always wanted.

Stefanus Wahyudi has started his financial freedom journey since his college years. Now, he is encouraging many to do the same: start early! For more information about his business, you can access his system at: http://www.RetireYounger.com

[tags]financial freedom, passive income, passive income opportunities, passive income generator, job loss[/tags]

Tips To Lower The Cost Of Homeschooling Your Kids.txt

Many parents who are homeschooling their kids are pleasantly surprised that they do not need much money in order to be effective and successful homeschoolers. One of the first thing families considering to homeschool their kids is that they have to calculate the cost since there are several recurring family expenditures that require attention. There are not only financial costs, but physical and emotional factors to consider as well.

Teaching and learning materials have to be bought. Most likely your local school will lend you textbooks; if not, your local library is a great place to start. You can borrow books, have it copied and bring it home.

Homeschooling can cost as much or as less as you want to. However there are some guidelines to help you on what to spend on your homeschooling budget:

1. Research and shop around. Spend time to research available teaching and learning materials before purchasing. Explore your local stores, web sites, and your local library for resource supplies and books.

2. Narrow down the field. List everything that you need down and focus on the really important ones. Books that you need to buy, others you can borrow from the library.

3. Set a budget. How much will you be able to afford? Buying materials on a monthly basis and only when the need arises may be the best option for you, than buying everything in bulk, to find out that you don't really need some of them.

4. Stick to your list. Never purchase any homeschool material that you have not listed, you don't need them, so don't get carried away.

To lower your expenses of homeschooling your kids, here are some tips you can use:

1. Check if the homeschooling program you intend to use is flexible

In order to lower or lessen your expenses in case you want to homeschool your child, it is best that you verify if it's program is flexible. This means that it will allow you to make some changes in case you find some items that may not work for your children.

2. Do the sums

Compute and compare prices of books and other materials needed in teaching your children. Indeed, getting the best materials for your children to ensure that your children can match the level of education that typical students acquire in school can be a good point. However, it does not mean that you have to go all the way in piling up your expenses just because you want the best for your child.

3. Focus on your children's important needs first and foremost

There are many things to consider, but to lower your expenses, it is best to focus more on your children's needs. The accessories may be bought later.

Indeed, homeschool is a really great alternative to pubic schools but it does not mean it is free. Explore with the idea and shop around the materials. You can find ways to lower your expenses in order to have less financial problems with homeschooling.

Joshua Poyoh is the creator of http://homeschoolingreport.com Visit the website for more information on the Search For Best Homeschooling Curriculum

[tags]Cost Of Homeschooling, lower, tips, financial, teaching materials[/tags]

Three Publicity Tips for Marketing-Minded Financial Planners.txt

Financial planners, the first thing to know about reporters is this: they are busy.

Often, they are too busy to read a press release, too busy to wait for you to call back, too busy to find the "best" resource. This leads to three tips for marketing-minded financial planners.

When a reporter calls – move quickly

A reporter calls you. Great! Now what? Just remember this tip: media people rate you as a resource on strange criteria, such as … how fast you call them back. If you don’t call swiftly enough, they’ll quote someone else. Media time is not like regular time: for them, three hours is not a quick callback. It’s an eternity. And probably for you, it’s a missed opportunity.

As you’re following the media, ask yourself new questions

Examples of questions to ponder regularly: Why did they quote that expert? Look on their web site to see if they have any publicity materials you can review. Which reporters seem to cover my topics? Start a list of reporters and media that cover your topic regularly. You’re going to become friends with them before long.

Don’t build your publicity campaign solely around press releases

Don’t rely on press releases to build your PR campaign. Reporters get 30 of ‘em a day – and toss most. (Repeat after me: “Most press releases get tossed.”) Instead, build relationships and send useful information in other forms.

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.

[tags]financial planners publicity, financial planners marketing, marketing, publicity, pr[/tags]

The Six Financial Benefits to Brand Identity.txt

For at least the past decade, the topic of “branding” has dominated marketing discussions to the point that the concept has numerous definitions and explanations. This proliferation has not necessarily increased the credibility of branding as a marketing function, but instead seems to have created confusion regarding the actual value that branding provides—if the value can even be measured. The majority of business people would likely agree that branding is important, and developing a “brand identity” for their organization should be part of their long-range planning. However, organizations operating in today’s economy are under tremendous pressure from stakeholders to focus on current financial results.

Because of this, the challenge has been to measure branding’s financial benefits to an organization from both short- and long-term perspectives. How does branding contribute to the financial health of an organization? And, if it does not contribute, does branding hold any value at all or is it just a good topic for the latest marketing guru book?

This article will provide you with insight into six financial benefits that a strong brand identity contributes to an organization. This article will also explain how brand differentiation and brand relevance can be valuable tools for increasing an organization’s operating margin.

What is brand identity anyway?

Before addressing its financial benefits, we offer this brief definition of brand identity. An organization’s brand identity represents how the company wants to be perceived in the market, what the company stands for, and most importantly, implies a promise to the company’s customers.

The value of a strong brand

Based on the research presented in his book, Building Strong Brands, Dr. David Aaker cites a number of financial and non-financial benefits to building a strong brand. AVS sifted through these benefits and discovered that six of them have direct impact on an organization’s financial performance. Each of these benefits can be measured and they are interdependent, meaning that if the first benefit can be achieved, it will assist the organization in achieving the remaining five.

Our research also showed that achieving the six benefits is a linear process. Achieving Benefit 1 will assist the organization in reaching Benefit 2, and so forth. In addition (and probably the most powerful benefit of all), when an organization has achieved all six financial benefits, it loops back to the first benefit and repeats the process like a continuum. This is a powerful process, because as an organization repeats its journey through the continuum, the brand gets stronger and stronger. Each pass through the continuum produces more financial benefit to the organization. AVS calls this process the Brand Continuum.

Here are the six financial benefits to a strong brand identity:

Benefit 1: A strong brand identity commands a price-premium. Why is someone willing to pay thousands of dollars more for a Lexus than for a Toyota? They are virtually the same product with the exception of some additional options and accessories. “You can also buy exotic cars from Jaguar, Volvo, and Range Rover. And every one of them is made by Ford—and you shouldn’t be surprised to discover that they even share parts.”

The value proposition is wrapped around the brand. The Lexus, Jaguar, Volvo, and Range Rover brands are worth more in the minds of consumers regardless of whether the product actually functions better.

Benefit 2: A price premium creates the perception of quality. This follows the age-old axiom of “you get what you pay for.” If a Lexus costs more than a comparable product, it must be because the Lexus provides better quality. Right? Not necessarily. There are plenty of lower-cost, high-quality vehicles available, yet people still pay more for what they perceive to be a better or higher-quality brand. So the axiom lives on.

Benefit 3: Perceived quality has been shown to positively affect customer usage. Consumers tend to select brands they perceive to be quality brands. This also connects to repeat buying or brand loyalty. Consumers tend to continue buying brands that reward them with a good experience versus repeating the evaluation process time after time.

Benefit 4: According to Dr. Aaker’s research, perceived quality is the single most-important contributor to a company’s return on investment (ROI), having more impact than market share, R&D, or marketing expenditures. Perceived quality contributes to profitability in part by enhancing prices and market share. Improve perceived quality and the organization’s ROI will improve.

Benefit 5: Customers relate value with quality. This is closely connected to Benefit 2. If one brand is perceived to be of higher quality than another brand, customers tend to perceive that the higher-quality brand is a better value.

Benefit 6: Perceived quality can be a point of differentiation. Smart companies are continually looking for ways to differentiate their brand from competing offers. Perceived quality can be used to differentiate, and in doing so, enable the company to loop back to Benefit 1 and charge a price premium for their strong brand.

Brand differentiation and brand relevance

Brand differentiation and brand relevance are both important on their individual merits. However, a strong brand identity is only formed when an organization blends its differentiation with relevance. McKinsey & Company defines brand differentiation as “…the ability for a brand to stand apart from its competitors. A brand should be as unique as possible. Brand health is built and maintained by offering a set of differentiating promises to consumers and delivering those promises to leverage value. Relevance is the actual and perceived importance of the brand to a large market segment. This gauges the personal appropriateness of a brand to consumers and is strongly tied to market penetration.”

Uncovering your brand’s differentiation and relevance through an unbiased brand differentiation analysis is important to distinguish your brand from competitors’ brands. Within the analysis, it is important to uncover the brand features that consumers would categorize as antes, drivers, neutrals, and fool’s gold.

Antes are features that are highly relevant to consumers but also provided by competitors. Drivers are both highly relevant to consumers and also unique from competitors. Combining both antes and drivers together forms the foundation of a strong brand identity. According to the Young & Rubicam Brand Asset Valuator, companies that increase their brand’s differentiation over competing brands have about a 50 percent higher operating margin on average versus companies that allow their brand differentiation to decrease.

In summary, investing toward building a strong brand identity is a continuous process. Today’s economy requires organizations to maximize their financial effectiveness. Working through the Brand Continuum helps ensure that a brand delivers the financial value necessary to keep an organization ahead of the competition.

The AVS Group is a marketing, training, and communications company. AVS is in La Crosse, Wisconsin. AVS helps clients communicate and market effectively. AVS can be found online at http://www.avsgroup.com.

[tags]brand identity, brand, building brand, brand identity benefits, financial brand identity benefits[/tags]

The Fastest and Most Powerful Affirmation.txt

"There is nothing that you cannot be or do or have."

-- from the teachings of Abraham-Hicks*

This fully empowering declaration can manifest through you in infinite ways. It can put food on your table, love in your home, wisdom in your words, a car in your garage, and can bring you anything else your heart desires. It all comes down to a matter of alignment. Your desires and your beliefs must match up. Once they do, you become virtually unstoppable.

One powerful tool for manifestation is the use of affirmation. Since we understand this manifestation process as a product of our alignment, it's valuable to look at the practice of repeating affirmations through the lens of alignment. Then we can see clearly why affirmations work sometimes and not others.

If your affirmations are not working, consider this:

====> Saying words that you do not believe, even though you want them to be true, perpetuates a misalignment.

=> Example: You Affirm a higher income than you believe is possible and then feel inner conflict or inadequacy during your affirmation practice.

====> Saying words you do believe, but you don't want them to be true, offers a different flavor of misalignment.

=> Example: You reach for some manifestation and fail. Then, feeling defeated, you claim that you don't want it anymore when really you do.

In both cases, your manifestation will lag way behind your desire because of the misalignment between your words and your actual belief (as in the first example) or your words and your true desire (as in the second example).

You can speed up this process and make your manifestations even more satisfying by using a well-chosen affirmation.

The simplest and most powerful affirmation begins with the two sacred words, "I am."

To find out the most powerful word(s) to place after "I am," follow these four super-simple steps:

====> Look at what is bothering you the most.

====> Find its polar opposite.

====> Now find the word or phase that sums up its opposite quality in a general way.

====> Test the word in the phrase, "I am…" Make sure it feels good to you when you contemplate it. If it doesn't, if you feel any discomfort whatsoever with the phrase, keep searching until you find a word or phrase that completes the affirmation in a way that makes you smile.

Here’s an example. If you are struggling financially, you may be feeling “poor.” When you look to it’s opposite, you find “rich.”

You may say, "I am rich." If that works for you, great. You’re done. That’s your affirmation. But if the word "rich" bothers you on any level, it is not a good word for you in your personal affirmation. You may want to try, "I am well paid for what I do," or " I am comfortable and secure regarding money." Find words that soothe you when you hold them as your truth.

You can apply this to any aspect of your life from the most material to the most spiritual.

Once you have your affirmation, you can use it in two simple ways:

====> Repeat it like a mantra. Let this statement set your tone rather than the default thinking that is usually running through your mind

====> Set aside times for deep contemplation on your statement. Elaborate on it. Look for what it means to you. Meditate on the words.

This simple "I am..." affirmation practice can change your life. I wish you everything your heart desires.

* For more information about the teachings of Abraham, visit http://www.abraham-hicks.com

Copyright 2006 Rebbie Straubing

Find out more about the power of affirmations at the Affirmative Contemplation website at http://www.AffirmativeContemplation.com

You can receive Dr. Rebbie Straubing's Free e-Course, 7 Secrets for Manifesting Your Heart's Desire, at http://www.yofa.net/7secret.html Dr. Rebbie Straubing is a workshop leader, Abraham Coach, and inspirational writer.

[tags]affirmation,abraham-hicks,manifestation,money,rich,financial,abundance,spiritual, enlightenment[/tags]