As my 45th birthday nears, I find myself thinking more and more about past mistakes, great accomplishments and what the future has in store for me. Funny how things change from one year to the next, isn't it? Not too long ago, I knew exactly what my future was. I planned on retiring by the age of 60 with more than enough money to support my wife and I comfortably. We would travel and do all of the things we sacrificed doing so our children could enjoy their childhood and be able to go to college. With 25 years at the same job, I felt secure as I have ever felt in my life, and knew my paycheck was going to be there every week. And my wife, a working mom, shared in the bread winning. We were on top of the world...once upon a time.

Now I wonder if we did too much. Had we spent our money unwisely and not saved enough? Was it wise to buy a vacation home or should we have put that money away for a rainy day? All of the toys and things that weren't necessary, just because we could. Why, I ask myself, why? Because I could?  Oh my gosh, what have we done?

One year later and things are drastically different. The economy has taken it's toll on everyone, including me. Decisions had to be made at work and the once brilliant salary I took for granted was cut, ever so slightly, but just enough to hurt. At the same time, my wife's company was looking to make cuts to save as well. Furloughs they call them, but that's just a fancy word for "work less hours". The question at hand now isn't, "will I be able to retire?" The real question now is, "will we be able to survive this?"

I'd like to think I'm a smart man. I know what needs to be done in situations like this. You need to make cuts. You need to change your lifestyle so you balance with your income. If you don't, you will surely fall flat on your face and possibly lose everything. The biggest challenge was making the family understand. Your children don't want to hear they can't have something when they are so used to getting everything they want. And sometimes they don't accept "no" for an answer. I felt like such a failure for not being able to provide for them the way I had been for so many years. Like my father, I took pride in knowing my kids had everything they could ever need and more. It was my father who showed me the same kind of giving when I was growing up. Even though he was the only one who worked, he always provided my mom and my three siblings a life that many envied. I remember talking to a couple of my friends once about my home and the things I had and they all thought we were some rich family. That was because my father always made sure he put his kids first. That was who I wanted to be.

Constantly calculating and reviewing monthly bills, I began to stress over how we would be able to maintain our lifestyle. Bills were getting paid later and later and the money was getting thinner and thinner. I thought we could survive by using credit cards for things like groceries and gas and that would have helped. But it was evident that this was going to be a complete life change because just as we had decided to start using credit cards that we had not used in several years, we started getting notices that those accounts were being closed. One by one we received letters in the mail from our creditors that our account was being closed due to inactivity. And the ones that we had been using decided that our limits were too high so they were lowered, just above what we owed.

We had no money, no credit, no way of paying all of our bills. How...how did this happen? What are we going to do now?

 I'm happy to say that after many months of financial torture, we are doing better.  Things will never be the same as they were before and that may be a good thing.  I guess we can chalk this up to a learning experience but I'm not sure we did anything wrong.  We lived a comfortable life that, okay, may have been a little beyond our means once in a while.  But we always paid our bills on time, always gave to charities, always put money away for retirement and had a nice nest egg for our children to go to college.  We had planned for everything.  Or so we thought.  Who plans on losing income?  Nobody I know.  I mean, sure we had accounts we could cash in, which we did to survive, but now it's like we are starting over.  I'm almost 45 years old and now I don't know when I will retire.  I don't know when or if my wife will be able to quit working like we had originally planned.  Every aspect of our future is up in the air, just like when we were first married. 

The only good part about going through this at my age is that I'm much smarter now.  I know what not to do.  And even though it will likely take more time than expected, I am confident we will be able to retire some day.  New plans are in place, the family is all on the same page, and the goals are clear.  Survive to fight another day!  Don't live beyond your means.  Even a few dollars a day could throw off the budget.  Yes things will get better someday.  Until then, hang in there.  We are all in this together.

I've never been one to ask for help and today is not the day I'm going to start. I have always been the one who people come to when they have problems and I help them. So when this financial mess began, I didn't know where to turn. I wasn't going to ask anyone for money because I really didn't know when or if I would be able to pay it back. Where did I look? The Internet, of course.

I have dabbled in Internet marketing for about a year now, learning different ways to make money. The problem is that I realized that the majority of stuff being sold on the Internet were just garbage. I couldn't lie to people and tell them to buy something I didn't really believed would help them. And the products that were worth selling were being sold by so many other people that it was too costly to even try to compete with them. Well, I have made a little money in my short year online, something I'm very proud of. And I have found other ways to make money online that don't make me feel like I'm cheating other people. It feels good that I can actually tell people where to go and get some help. And this Hub would not be complete without mentioning the two businesses I know will allow me to retire.

I know this because as I am typing, my businesses are growing in leaps and bounds. And I know that as it continues to grow so will my income from them. These are not the typical work from home and make a million dollars in two months businesses. These are long term, sign up and work your business and in a few years you will see great results businesses. I tell you this because if you are like me, you have no place to turn if you lose your job or some of your income. And everyone needs a place to turn to find a way to make money on their own. I have that place. In fact, I have two. And if you take the time to set them up now, you too will see the results in a year or two and perhaps be able to retire early.

Notice I'm not talking about fancy cars or boats or houses. I just want to be able to retire and not worry about money anymore. That's what these businesses can give you. A way to not worry about money anymore. Please take a look at these simple opportunities and see if you don't share my enthusiasm, won't you?

The first one is called Global Domains International or GDI. It works on a very simple basis. You sign up, pay ten dollars a month for a domain name. Get others to sign up and pay ten dollars per month which earns you one dollar for each person. They get people to join and those people get people to join and so on through five levels. The income potential is limitless. I truly believe this to be the best business opportunity around. It's simple in its design and allows you to make money only by helping others do the same. In other words, you don't get paid unless others are getting paid as well.

The next opportunity is actually more simple than the first and is completely free. It's called The Bar and is simply a tool bar that you add to your Internet browser that helps you earn money. It works on the same principal as GDI as far as getting others to sign up which earns you more money. But with no monthly fees, the earnings are based on clicking on and reading advertisements every day. And instead of you earning through five levels of recruits you actually earn through seven levels. I would say this is a secondary type of Internet business that will eventually make you lots of money but even more so give you a great way to show others the possibilities available on the Internet to make extra income.

I am not a high pressure type of person.  If you want my advice, I give it.  If you don't, that's fine with me too.  At the same time, I'm not the type of person who really cares if someone doesn't agree with my beliefs.  Whether or not you think these businesses are real or legitimate, doesn't have any effect on how I view them.  I have already seen success with them.  I know first hand that they work.  I'm sure there are other ways to make money and I have done a couple of them.  The fact is, as far as I am concerned, and as far as this Hub is concerned, these are the easiest ways to set up a very comfortable monthly income using the Internet.

As I read my own writings back, I realize that this kind of turned into a promotion of my businesses and that was not my intention.  I really started out wanting to warn people of the dangers of being complacent in their lives and of being financially irresponsible.  We all understand that the worlds economy is in a delicate state right now.  But some of us feel like we survived the worst of it and it just isn't true.  There are more changes coming and with those changes will come more uncertainty.  Please make sure you are prepared for the worst.  I know I will be.

JB