After Understanding Proportionality, The Debt Destruction Engine Springs Into Existence

I have always had the knack, the gift really, of being able to take the circumstances that I find myself in and somehow find a way to gain some advantage therein. I can sometimes take a problem and turn it inside out and find an advantage hiding in there somewhere.

I have previously described the moment in the wee hours of a winter morning in 1979 when I looked at our bills and discovered the principle of proportionality. I then began to experiment a little further to see if there might be a way to find an advantage residing in the disadvantage of just barely having enough money to pay bills.

I reasoned, "We have to live on $75 a week, which is tough. If we can live on just $75 a week, could we not then also live on just $70 a week? What if I take a measly $5 a week and add it to the smallest bill until this bill is paid off?

Then take the $20 a month ($5 a week) and add it and the money that was being paid on the smallest bill to the 2nd smallest bill?

After this 2nd smallest bill is paid off, I take the previous total amount that was being paid on the 2nd smallest bill (the original $20 + the money that was paid on the smallest bill + the money that was paid on the 2nd smallest bill) and add it to what I pay on the 3rd smallest bill."

I projected this forward and found that this approach would pay off all the bills including the mortgage in LESS THAN 5 YEARS! (Our mortgage began years earlier with just a $14,500 balance. Remember, this was 1979.) It was 4 years and some number of months. As I look back now through the foggy mists of eons of time, I cannot remember if it was 4 years and 7 months, or 9 months, or 10 months, or whatever, but it was definitely less than 5 years.

Now, please note that, at the time, I knew nothing about the Weenie Tax or LEX Cash or Fluff or Temporary Extreme Measures or Inherent Momentum, all the things I talk about in my books and articles. I did not figure out these strategies until several years later. We would have to do this with old fashion discipline and sacrifice. We had to pay $175 a week on bills anyway, every week, without fail, no matter how difficult that would be. So in the beginning it became a hunt for $5 a week.

If we could just do what we had to do every week anyway and scrape up a measly $5 to add to our bill paying each week, we could be debt free in less than 60 months. Please note that it would only take $20 a month because our income was low and hence our debt was also relatively low so that $20 was a lot of extra fuel.

By the way, today there are at least 20 other individuals and organizations in America teaching essentially the same strategy. (One of these is http://www.FaithLifeNow.com which is a Christian financial ministry website. I am not an affiliate marketer for these guys and I mention them only because I believe they could help you understand your debt relief possibilities. They state that 90% of families can be out of debt, including the mortgage, in 5 to 7 years.)

Please do not just dismiss this. It works. It is hard, but it does work over time. You might get this strategy going and it may very well collapse because anything you do can and sometimes does fail. Just crank it up again and go after debt relief freedom with this approach until you achieve success. Even if it took you 2 or 3 shots at this to pull it off, it would be well worth it to make this transition.

Several years after that winter morning in 1979, I came to call this strategy the Extra Fuel Version of the Debt Destruction Engine. The debt-destroying process moves like an old time steam driven locomotive, ponderously slow at first, then eventually building great momentum. The extra money applied to debt destruction is like additional fuel, extra wood or coal, thrown into the burner to stoke the boiler.

There are 2 other versions of the Debt Destruction Engine called (1) Inherent Momentum and (2) Inherent Momentum with Extra Fuel. These other versions destroy debt even faster than the Extra Fuel Version. All 3 forms of the Debt Destruction Engine are explained in "Your Wealth is Hidden in the Fragments of your Life" and in "The Debt Destruction Engine", available at the Debt Free Relief website shown below.

Request a free copy of one or both of these books on debt destruction. I will not put you on a mailing list nor will I call. You will just get the book(s) sent to you attached to an email and you will never hear from me again unless you specifically ask me to contact you.

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Debt Free Relief Starts by Understanding Proportionality

I started thinking about how to achieve debt free relief over 30 years ago. One Sunday morning at 2:30 AM in the winter of 1979, I was looking at our bills trying to figure out how to find a way to gain some control over a disorganized mess. We had been practicing the financial discipline of Congress and the stick-to-it-ness of a salted leech. Our take home pay was only $1,000 a month with both of us working. Our bills came to about $700 a month. We were both paid weekly, but most of our bills were due in the 3rd and 4th weeks.

We were sailing along spending most of our money in the first and second weeks and then did not have the money to pay all the bills. I know this sounds stupid, but it is a problem that a lot of couples have when they first start out. Since our bills were $700 and we had only $1,000 coming in, I realized that we had to live on $75 every week.

$1,000 (Take home pay) - $700 (Monthly bills) = $300 (To live on for a month)

$300 divided by 4 = $75 (To live on for the week)

We were a real high-income power couple, obviously. Seriously, even such a low-income situation can serve to illustrate some basic concepts.

This meant that we had to pay $175 a week ($700 in monthly bills divided by 4 = $175) on bills as regular as clockwork. There was no choice in the matter. If we paid less than $175 in a particular week, we would fall behind.

If we paid just $100 in the first week, for example, we would have $600 of bills left to pay in the 3 remaining weeks. We would then have to pay $200 a week in the last 3 weeks of the month.

$250 (weekly take home pay) - $200 (bills paid per week) = $50 (a week to live on)

It was hard to live on $75 a week even as far back as 1979. But it was really tough to live on $50 a week.

Since 1/4 of our take home pay came in every week, we had to pay at least 1/4 of our monthly bills every week. This had to be done without exception. This is proportionality.

Suppose there is a couple and both work. One of them is paid once a week and the other is paid every 2 weeks. Their income is just enough to pay the monthly bills with very little left over.

The first week 18% of the monthly take home pay comes in.
The second week 32% of the monthly take home pay comes in.
The third week 18% of the monthly take home pay comes in.
The fourth week 32% of the monthly take home pay comes in.

Since their income is just enough to pay bills with very little left, this couple would have to pay:

18% of the monthly bills in the first week,
32% of the monthly bills in the second week,
18% of the monthly bills in the third week,
32% of the monthly bills in the fourth week.

This is proportionality and this is not even a strategy to get ahead or attack debt in any way. The bills must be paid in this ratio or this couple will fall behind. There is no choice in the matter. It is important, especially for lower income folks, to understand proportionality.

After understanding proportionality, it is possible to move on to bigger and better things, such as true debt free relief by destroying all debt, as you will see in an upcoming post.

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