LERNR.COM

Pictured here is my newest invention*. It is the new Lernr 3000. With this device you simply plug in the universal USB into anything you want to learn and put on the goggles and you will automatically become an expert in the subject you want to learn. You will not only be an expert who has the knowledge to do something. You will also be able to DO the thing without delay or mistake.

As my first human trial (on myself of course) I plugged the Lernr 3000 into “Financial Guidebook Collection” by the Donald Kia Ramsey. Instantly, I knew passive income, debt snowball and real estate investing like the back of my hand. My life has since been completely stress free and I have everything I’ve ever wanted.

Then the alarm clock woke me from the best dream I’ve ever had. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted something like the Lernr 3000. I remember reading “Flowers For Algernon” at 11 completely missing the sad plot that was surrounding the great learning machine in that story. I’ve read so many books and blogs and heard so many radio shows and audio books and watched so many TV shows and instructional videos and learned the principles taught within, but lacked the ability and will power to live out what I had learned.

Managing my personal finances is no different. I’ve read a number of books (Trump, Kiosaki, Ramsey, Orman, Burkett and on and on) and still for years my finances were a mess of trying to figure out which was more important - gas to get to work or eating. Week to week was a roller coaster ride of feeling like a king to feeling like a peasant.

My Dear Wife and I finally reached our breaking point and we had to come up with a system that worked for us. There were a lot of good things we’d read about in those books. Some things were contradictory but most said things that sounded alike with different twist on the same subject. We decided to put our own twist on things to make them work for us, in our situation and circumstance.

Our list of guidelines are a simplified list that work for us, so they might work for others. A compilation of blogs and books, podcasts and movies. This is the beginning of seven part series that will cover our system and the tools we’ve used and are currently using.

One of the top cliches in finance is the line “pay yourself first”. I don’t think this should be true but too often is. I understand the ideas behind it, but I think it is too often the only main concern. There needs to be a bit more balance and structure to it. These are our 6 main personalities (or “selves”) in our family finances:

1) Paying my Self-less
2) Paying my Comfortable Self
3) Paying my Daily Self
4) Paying my Prepared Self
5) Paying my Bound Self
6) Paying my Future Self

Now, by writing this, we’re not intending to say that we have it all figured out. In fact, we still have a long way to go. If only studying the topic and coming up with a plan meant we also had the will power to see it through. There are many times we would rather buy a camera for a Christmas gift (without planning or budgeting for it) than get ahead in our debt. But little by little, we’re making progress.

Come back next time to find out what we mean by “Paying my Self-less”.

*The goggles pictured are Vuzix: VR920. And honestly, don’t ask me what they really are. I don’t know. But it’s fun to pretend