In a word, no. Dan Hollister of Integrity Financial (www.IntegrityFinancial.com) really pushes hard for you to buy his CD (audio, not a DVD) that explains his way that "your debts can set you free". It is titled "Break the Chains" "Your Debts can set you free" and "Blessings in Disguise". He uses a very lengthy web page to convince you that what he is offering is the real deal and truly is a way to have your debts set you free.
I am not one to buy into Internet Marketing, but I was VERY curious how he could make the claim "the more debts you have, the better this works!" because, c'mon, that makes no sense. I never buy 'get rich quick' schemes, on the Internet or otherwise, but he was not making the claim to get rich.. he was making the claim that you can pay down your debts faster than you think, and still live the life style you have now. This got my attention, because while I had several debts, I was paying all of them with at least their minimum, and was having fun with the rest of my money (of a few hundred dollars per month). He does emphasize this will not work for anyone barely scraping together enough to put food on the table, implying you do need "some" loose money, if even if just $50 dollars per month, to get this going.
So I figured that for $47, if he gave me an idea how to manipulate my debts that would save me at least $47, then I lost nothing. So I ordered it. What I didn't realize is that the $47 was payment for a one hour phone conversation with a financial expert as well as the audio CD that explained this 'debts will set you free' plan. I figured the "phone call with the financial expert" part is where he will try to sell me some investment package, or otherwise. I was pleased to find out that when the financial expert called me, and I told him I understood the whole system and what to do (it's simple), he seemed to be glad to let me go saying "you got it figured out, so if I can be of any help, let me know". I even told him I have extra money to play with (which was sort of a lie) and he said "Great, use that on your debts, but you're not ready for other investments yet" and pretty much, I think HE was the one trying to get off the phone with ME. Basically, his job was to make sure I knew how to use the system, and that was it. He did not try to sell me anything, even when I was letting him know I was 'comfortable' financially, but with lots of debts.
Let me outline what situation you HAVE to be in for this to work for you, and truly save you a lot of money (and it's fun to do, at that!). The discipline he refers to over and over in his sales pitch is actually more ominous sounding than it actually is. The discipline is a simple thing to do, which is this: you have to take whatever money you gain from this process and keep applying it to your debts (instead of falling into temptation and spending it). The discipline in that is that you just have to maintain resisting that temptation for the amount of years until you have all your debts paid off.
*So, what you need is at least 5 or more debts. The more the better, really. And a large debt like a car or mortgage is great too. You might ask, why would this HELP you to have more debts? Well, because part of the fun is watching the debts disintegrate very very quickly relative to how they would have if you kept doing status quo. So after you do this process for a while, eventually, your large debts (car, house) you will see HUGE payments being made to them.... again, without you having to change how you spend your money now AS LONG AS you do not fall into the temptation to spend the extra money you are getting.
*You need to be currently paying on those debts with at least the minimum payment.
*You must have at least a few dollars left over that you can play with.
*And here is the key: You must have places in your monthly spending habits to "release" $50 or more dollars per month to start off with applying to your debts. $150 is much better, but whatever you can use as your 'seed' money.
*And, again, the discipline to NOT spend the extra money you start getting after this gets rolling.
So if you want to know the rest, you have to buy his CD *or* if I see enough views/comments here, I'll email it to you. But I do feel Dan has done a service with this CD, even though it is a VERY simple thing to do, and deserves the $47 for the idea and the kick in the pants I needed to get my debts paid down quickly.
6 comments:
Hi, have you checked into other programs that give claim to similar results before going with this one? Also, some of the ones I've looked into require a home equity line of credit - is this along the same lines? Any suggestions would be wonderful. Mandy
Interesting, any chance you could email the audio?
The system you described is the same as is offered by the LDS church for free at providentliving.org.
They use what they call a "debt elimination schedule." Same principle as this, only they also provide you a template for outlining your debt service.
The idea of applying extra money to your debts is quite sensible but old. Nothing new really. Dan also claimed in his sales letter that often if you make more than the minimum payments i.e. extra payments that that may keep you in debt longer. How is THAT supposed to work? That seems very strange to me.
I sincerely apologize for the lack of answers to the questions in the comments. I did not realize that I was not being notified of comments, and have only just begun to use this blog again with Google's SideWiki. Hopefully, the commenters will have notifications of this reply.
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