The following guest post was written by CPF reader Amy Sullivan.

We live in a country resounding “Instant Gratification!” as its lifestyle cadence call. But despite the fact debt has become a badge of the American dream, some folks are going back to saving money and paying for big-ticket items with cash. With this new concept, there is no debt, there is no minimum payment due…but there is a lingering question – is it worth it?

Put debt into perspective

My husband and I decided to sell our home and severely live below our means to save 75% of our six-figure household income. In less than 10 years, we hope to pay for our next house with cash. Why?

First, the Bible is clear on debt — “The borrower is slave to the lender,” Pro. 22:7. We did not want to live outside of God’s Word.

Second, much of America is obligated to work at least 30 years (the most popular term for a mortgage loan) to pay off their home – often the biggest debt they incur. So they punch in their 9-5 continuously while life passes them by. We did not want our life decisions (where we live, vacation time, sick time, etc.) to become dictated by jobs.

Is it worth it?

Americans are caught up in appearances. Ask any person what they think a millionaire looks like and they’ll likely explain a person with posh appeal and expensive possessions. I passed a woman at a mall who I overheard saying “Well, she doesn’t look rich.” My husband was talking to a co-worker who said “I saw so-and-so driving a such-and-such. He must being doing good!”

Because we plan to pay cash for our house, my husband and I worked to “get over ourselves.” We had to:

• Be OK with renting an apartment
• Be content driving our outdated, rusty-but-trusty Toyota
• Be creative with our wardrobe
• Find free ways to bide our time
• Stop shopping retail, start shopping discount
• Start eating simple at home…a lot

To not bend your beliefs or lifestyle to satisfy other peoples’ view frees you to focus on your goal.

You have the freedom to say no

Part of saving money is knowing when and how to spend it. Outside of our expenses (which included rent, utilities and groceries), my husband and I had additional money we could either put in savings or spend. To decide, we ask ourselves three questions:

1. Is it a “thing” or an “experience”? Experiences are worth more than an item you will eventually lose interest in and sell online for half the price.
2. Is it necessary? Decide if you can live without this item or experience or if it is absolutely essential (ex: flying home for a sibling’s wedding).
3. Can it be bought for cheaper? If the price tag is hefty, try to bargain with friends, put an ad online or check out discount sites.

Especially with requests from family and friends, these questions help make saying yes or no easier and less emotional because there is logic to back it up.

You don’t have to waste time counting pennies

Aside from the obvious “stop using your credit card” and “pay off your balances,” you have to allocate your money. Many families devise budgets – little pools of money they can pull from to pay for certain items. They may even put “savings” into their plan. However, what do you think is the first to suffer when they overspend in another category or have an unseen emergency? What category do you think is the last to increase in “pool size”?

Instead of categorizing savings, know how much you will be able to save each month and automatically transfer the amount into your savings. Making savings automatic doesn’t even give you a chance to waver on saving your desired amount. Then you just live on the rest. It’s a lot easier than punching budget numbers every month.

You reap lots of rewards in the process

Our goal is to save enough money to buy a house with cash within 10 years. But that doesn’t mean we have to wait 10 years to feel any reward from living this lifestyle.

Turning from debt pours blessings on you and your family:

1. You are pleasing God by not being slave to the lender.
2. You feel less pressure to get a higher paying job to support your lifestyle. There is more flexibility if your wife wants to stay at home to raise your children or if you want to switch careers.
3. You have less stress when it comes time to pay bills.
4. You get enjoyment from seeing your savings account balance rise every month.
5. You enjoy the company of others instead of worrying what they think of you.
6. You come to realize what possessions you truly do and do not need.

You can get away from discouragement

Discouragement can derail your goals. But before you take out a loan, consider two things:

1. The feeling you will have once you have the debt
2. The feeling you will have if you save the money and pay for your big-ticket item with cash. Usually one of these feelings will prevent you from acting.

Your ROI will be great

Remember instant gratification, while the popular cry of Americans today, often leaves you chained to your desk, unhappy, dissatisfied. Delayed gratification, however, is a little investment with a big return. What a novel idea.

Job loss.  A lay off.  Fraud. Getting fired. Robbery.  Legal Issues. Credit card debt.  In a moment, any of these instantaneous events can shatter your financial plan.  At times these events do not come alone, but they come in groups – event after event.  Unfortunately, life is filled with disappointment, frustration, and surprise.  So what do you do when you get the pink slip?  How do you wade through a series of financial failures?

“10% is what happens and 90% is how you react.”

Remember this quote during a family financial melt down.  Nerves wear thin and perspective is tainted. If couples do not proceed with caution, there might be even more losses (in addition to financial losses) on the way.

12 Action Items For Couples During A Financial Crisis

1. Talk openly, communicate, and set goals

   Financial difficulty brings a slew of questions: What are we going to do now?  How will we pay the bills?  Should we consider bankruptcy? What if “x” happens? While all these questions are buzzing around, talk with your spouse and communicate.  Decide on a direction you both support and start looking forward.  Commit to moving through the process together, not alone.

2. Prioritize together by asking “What is most important to you?”

   What things do you value the most?  What people do you need around you?  If I lost “x”, things would be even worse.  Write the items in a list. For example, food, household, transport …  Take your very first dollar and apply it to #1 on your list.  Go in order no matter how loudly someone else says they need to get paid.  If you are not budgeting you need to start.  Here are some free budget worksheets to help.  In case you find it helpful, here is a sneak peak into how my family budgets.

3. Switch to survival mode

   Bring in the spending tsar who reduces spending to absolute necessities.  I suggest you write your needs list and then cut out half the stuff.  This is the time to get the most mileage out of every single dollar. While your life might feel completely out of control this is still one area you can control.  Spend carefully and intentionally. This might be a good time to sell your stuff on ebay.

4. Acknowledge emotions

   You will experience a bunch of emotions from bitterness to guilt to frustration.  The emotions will impact your relationship with your spouse, your children, your extended family, your friends, and your faith.  Did I miss anything?  You may be tempted to lash out to find a place to release your frustration.  When you talk about your emotions, use phrases like, “I feel …” This makes others less defensive.

5. Avoid blame

   At this point, once things are damaged, it is not the time to figure out who is to blame.  This will only serve to push your spouse away. Your frayed nerves will do more damage than good if you let them run rampant. There will be a time for reflection and debriefing, but in the midst of the chaos you will do more harm than good if you start to play the blame game.

6. Accept help

   Accepting help is difficult because of one reason – pride.  Perhaps you will have a new favorite Bible verse “It is better to give than receive.”  God may once again put you in the position of the giver, but for now this might just be your time to receive.  Standing together is a function of community, and in this case standing alone is a sign of selfishness.

7. Minimize pressure

   If you allow it financial concern can completely consume you.  Schedule time in your day to focus your energy on other chores or tasks. Removing yourself from the worry and strain will help remove the burden.

8. Turn to your faith

   When the world seems to be falling apart you will need a Rock upon which to stand.  Continue or begin a habit of daily devotionals and seek the will and presence of God. (Check out these encouraging bible verses)

9. Count your blessings

   Yes, count your blessings.  Things may be bad, or awful, or even horrible.  But are there probably still many blessings in your life?  Focusing solely on the problems and your lack of stuff will only cause depression.  Remember that around every corner there is a blessing, if you are looking for it.

10. Don’t be afraid to dream

    If you have just lost a job, this is a great chance to dream. What am I passionate about doing? What have I always wanted to try?  This crisis might simply be a hidden opportunity.  Look ahead and have some direction.  The time may be right for turning a hobby into a business or even trying a new way to make money.  Just be sure to ask the right questions to reduce risk.

11. Journal

    These circumstances might just be the greatest blessing in your life (in a few years).  Journaling helps learn all the important lessons that the school of life is trying to teach.  If hindsight is 20/20, don’t you want to have a chronicle that details exactly what was going on and exactly how the problem was resolved?

12. Stay in control

    You may be tempted to throw up your hands and say “I don’t care anymore.”  Creditors want to drive you to this state where you just give them what they want to get you off their back.  Remember, you don’t need to answer the phone. Whatever you do make sure you break the debt cycle by refusing to take on more debt.  Digging deeper is not your solution.  Don’t be a good person who make bad money choices.

While a series of financial tragedies can be extremely difficult, your responses during this time will determine a large portion of the situation’s solution.

Photo by Valeriana Solaris.

What would/have you done in the midst of financial devastation?

Craig is a missionary who has spent over ten years working in various forms of Christian ministry. Currently, Craig lives with his family in Papua New Guinea. Relying on his ministry experience and background in Biblical Studies he writes daily personal finance articles from a Christian perspective. You can visit his site at www.MoneyHelpForChristians.com, on Twitter, or you can sign up to receive free daily email updates for his site.

I have always had a feeling that contentment was a critical component of having joy in life. As I have been learning this lesson on a deeper level, I have written about it (here and here). But lately I have been seeing a new angle on a few verses in Philippians 4.

¹¹Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

¹²I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

Philippians 4:11-12 (NASB)

I added a little emphasis to the parts of verses above that I have been pondering. What exactly was Paul talking about when he said he knew how to get along with humble means and prosperity?

I am sure that for him it was a bit of a challenging process to be content living in humble means. He was basically on the fast-track to become a super-Pharisee -  from what I understand they were a very materialistic bunch. Then Jesus steps in and his life is forever changed. And a few years later we see him in prison writing that we should “rejoice in the Lord always” and be content in every circumstance.

Breaking the attachment to things

The first way I look at the “know how” that Paul was referring to is more of an internal lesson that needs to be learned. It’s that things are just things. They come, they go. They don’t determine your value or worth and you can’t take them with you when you die. Paul had some of the most tremendous ups and downs. One minute he was shackled hand and foot in prison and the next he was staying in the King’s palace. He seemed to live the full spectrum of having a lot and having a little.

But, his outlook proves that he had broken his attachment to things. He didn’t consider his life a failure and quit when he frequently found himself in prison. And on the other hand, he didn’t allow more prosperous times to be his pinnacle achievement that he would hang his hat on. He had a goal to fulfill what God had called him to and the things were just peripheral, so as they came and went he learned not to care too much. He was successfully living Matthew 6:33.

Practically living with a little or a lot

In addition to the internal lesson, I am starting to suspect that there is a practical element to what he is saying as well. Could it be that Paul is also referring to the resourcefulness required when times are tight? On a practical level managing money is a lot different when you have a lot of it, than when you have a little. If Warren Buffett spent 2 hours of his work-day cutting grocery coupons to save $10 at the grocery store, it would be a pretty foolish use of his time. Those same 2 hours could probably be used to do what he does so well and make many thousands of dollars. On the other hand, if you are only making $100 a week, it might be worth spending 2 hours cutting coupons to save $10.

My wife and I both had the painful experience of living well (and spending more money than we had) and then having to be honest with ourselves by cutting our standard of living to what it really should be. It is not fun at all, but trying to live like you are “in prosperity” when you are in a season of “humble means” is a path for destruction. What I have been getting out of Phil 4:12 is that if I continue to try to live like I am rich, when I am not, then I am only deceiving myself. For me, moving from having an abundance back down to humble means was a test from God. I think he wanted to see if I would still love Him if I didn’t have a lot of stuff. So I had to make many cuts to my lifestyle. I had to go without things I had previously taken for granted. And I had to start praying and trusting God for things that were previously commonplace.

Like I said, it was a painful process. But all along I knew that it was just a season and that God had more for me. And as a result of those lessons we have gone from debt-ridden over spenders to a couple who consistently spends less than they earn, has no consumer debt, and who was able to save a down payment for their new house.

One last thing

Just to clarify, I don’t believe that contentment means settling for mediocrity. But rather it is being satisfied at whatever place in life God has us at, while trusting that He does have our interest at heart and that he does want to bless us and see us succeed. So, I am trying to learn these lessons that Paul did and be content in my present circumstances, while trusting that God is taking me from Glory to Glory.

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, doing things the "long" way, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and has been having a blast ever since. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

This article is a guest post from Nicole Canfora. Nicole is a freelance writer and editor in the publishing industry with a keen interest in helping others navigate the world of personal finance. Find out more about her at her blog Rainy-Day Saver.

Four ways to pay off your mortgage faster – and save money

Buying a home is a major expense – and a major debt. It’s said it’s the biggest purchase you’ll make in your life. A traditional mortgage loan is repaid over the course of 30 years, but today, some terms call for up to 40 years of repayment. To some, three or four decades seem like an interminable amount of time to take to pay off a debt.

For those who aren’t looking to change the terms of their mortgage loan, such as refinancing to a lower interest rate or converting a 30-year loan to a 15-year loan, there are a few ways you can put a dent in the principal and lowers the amount of interest paid in the following months and years.

While some folks claim that paying down the principal reduces the mortgage interest available to deduct on your federal tax return if you itemize, in the long run, you’ll still come out ahead. Take into consideration that your tax liability will likely increase incrementally if you’re already in the middle of paying off your mortgage.

Another argument against is that the extra money could be put into investments – but you’d have to make at least the same percentage return as your interest just to break even. Right now, that means playing the stock market or putting money into less-risky savings vehicles, such as CDs, which are barely paying 2% in some places. But don’t forget, these investments are taxable. Your mortgage interest can be used to reduce your tax burden.

If paying off your mortgage early is your aim, always ask if your lender allows prepayments, without penalty. You don’t want to pay toward the principal and get penalized for it. Also be sure your extra money is being put toward the principal, rather next month’s mortgage payment. That won’t reduce your interest payments.

Starting to pay off principal at any point during the term of the mortgage loan will help save you money, but start early on to make the most difference – the first half of the payments go toward interest. After the halfway point, the majority of your monthly payment goes to the principal.

Strategies for paying down the principal:

1. Add principal payments monthly.

Just tacking on an extra $25, $50 or $100 each month can shave years off your mortgage.

Example: For simplicity’s sake, say you’ve just purchased a home for $250,000, and put 20%, or $50,000, down. That leaves you with $200,000 to finance, which you do through a 30-year conventional mortgage at 6% interest. Plug those numbers into Bankrate.com’s mortgage calculator, and the monthly payment is $1,200. The mortgage would be paid in 360 monthly installments over the course of 30 years.

You don’t have to add a ton of money to your monthly payment to make a difference. Making an extra principal payment of $50 monthly, from the very beginning of your loan period, shaves three years off the length of your mortgage. Instead of paying $231,676 in interest (that’s more than the original loan of $200,000!), it will be $203,797 – a savings of $27,879 over the life of the loan. Similar savings can be realized if you start prepayments at any point of the loan.

2. Make yearly principal payments.

Pay a larger chunk of money toward the mortgage once a year. This is even easier if you plan it around your tax refund or annual work bonus, if you get either.

Example: A payment of $1,000 made once a year reduces the term of that same 30-year mortgage by 56 months – almost five years – and saves you a whopping $42,760 in interest.

3. Move to bi-weekly payments.

This has become a popular, simple option. Available through lenders, bi-weekly mortgage payments occur every two weeks, resulting in 26 payments over a year, rather than the traditional monthly payment. It equals a full extra payment each year, but it’s spread out.

Example: Using the same $200,000 loan at 6%, biweekly payments take six full years off your 30-year mortgage, and save you $51,284 in interest.

4. Make lump-sum payments when you can.

Even if you don’t follow a set schedule of making prepayments, throw money at the loan when convenient. If you inherit money or get a tax refund, think about putting it toward your mortgage. Every little bit helps!

Find the mortgage prepayment plan that works best for you, and you can pay off your mortgage sooner rather than later, leaving you sitting pretty and freeing up funds for other things, such as travel, kids’ college tuition, savings, and retirement.

I was just listening the morning radio show that I normally wake up to and they pulled me out of my slumber a little quicker than usual when they started talking about credit cards. Apparently since all the new rules for credit card companies go into effect in a few months, many of them are starting to try some new ways to squeeze out some more profits.

The DJ’s on the radio were very offended by some of these new fees – I guess I am not that surprised, but they do create a good case for getting rid of your credit cards.

1. Annual fees for customers who have never had a late payment

This is pretty funny. Some credit card companies are punishing you by charging a $29-$99 annual fee if you do NOT have a late payment in a 12-month period.

2. Fee for never carrying a balance

If you open an account just to get a t-shirt, gift card, etc this one might bite you. Some of the companies are now charging you a fee if you never use the card.

3. Fee for not spending enough each year

Taking the previous one a step further – some Citi cards are going to start charging fees if you don’t spend $2400 in a 12 month period. The first thing that comes to mind is Balance Transfer!

What about your Credit Score?

Most people know that keeping credit cards open that you have a long history with is good for your credit score. With all these inactivity fees increasing, it becomes a little bit of a Catch-22. If you close them you will slightly ding your credit score, and if you keep them open without using them you will have to pay. Needless to say, there are going to be a lot of upset customers.

That sounds like reason enough to be done with credit cards. So if you want to break out of the credit card cycle, I suggest negotiating with the credit card companies to reduce your interest rates.

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, doing things the "long" way, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and has been having a blast ever since. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

As some of you all know my car had to be put to sleep a few months ago. I am not really sure why I am just writing about it now – maybe because the grieving period lasted this long?

But anyway, it’s passing marked a significant point in my financial life: It was the first time that my life didn’t come to a screeching halt when my car broke down.

Preventing your financial plan from derailing

In an effort to pay off debt, I realized that we had to break out of the normal cycle. Normally, for most people, they start making financial progress and paying off debt, and then a catastrophe happens and they are back where they started. Some resilient people will keep fighting and some throw in the towel.  Either way, it isn’t fun when you are trying so hard to get out of debt, but everything is going against you.

After seeing this happen a few times, it dawned on me that many of these catastrophes (for me anyway) involved the car. If there was some way I could eliminate the chance of having one for a couple years, it might buy me enough time to get a lot of debt paid off and allow me to get on solid financial ground. At that point, I would hopefully be better positioned to handle a catastrophe.

So about 2 years ago, we had our relatively new Honda Fit and my 2000 Ford Focus. Linda and I were both working about 15 miles from home in opposite directions.We were in a situation where surviving with one car really wasn’t possible (or at least would be terribly inconvenient). I had little concern with the Honda, but my Focus was getting older and had about 140,000 miles on it’s little engine. We were making nice progress towards paying off our debts, but I knew that if there was a major problem with the Focus it could derail our financial plan.

Opportunity knocked.

It was about this time that  my little sister was buying a car and she was getting ready to trade in her 98 Taurus for about $1000 to the dealer. Knowing a lot about the car and how it had been maintained I started thinking that it might be a good idea to buy it from her. We had enough in savings that we could buy it with cash. And it could serve as a “financial plan derailment insurance” – if you will.

I knew that the Taurus was a car that I trusted and was in good working order that I could get for about $1000. I figured that if the Focus died one day I would have to immediately get a replacement and it would be very difficult to find a car selling for $1000 that I knew was in as good of shape as the Taurus was. To add to that, I was pretty confident that I could sell it to a private party for what I paid for it.

So, I bought it.  Over the next 2 years I must say it felt very comforting knowing that if my car broke down, it wouldn’t be a big deal and it wouldn’t derail our financial plan. If it was a small issue, I would repair it, if it were large (like the engine or transmission) I would just get rid of it.

There have been some additional expenses having the 3rd car, but they have been minimal. Insurance was cheap, and personal property tax was pretty cheap as well. Thankfully over the last 2 years there were only smaller repairs needed on both the Focus and Taurus – until a couple months ago. The Focus had some major engine problems and at that point, I gracefully wished her well to the tune of about $200 to the mechanic at the Ford dealership. The car was only worth about $1000 when it was running, so getting $200 with a blown head gasket seemed like a good deal to me!

Now that I am a blogger who gets to work from home the Taurus is our second car and really is still a convenience car. While I enjoy having two cars, it is pretty safe to say that we could get by with just one car.

So that is the story of our 3rd car and how it helped us. What have you done to prevent your financial plan from derailing?

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, doing things the "long" way, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and has been having a blast ever since. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

I regularly get emails from people asking for advice on whether they should do a debt consolidation. While I have written a little bit about bankruptcy, I haven’t written much about Debt Consolidation programs.

What is a debt consolidation?

Basically as the name implies, it is combining a bunch of smaller debts into one larger debt. Often times, in order to fetch the borrower a better interest rate, the unsecured debts (i.e. credit cards) will become collateralized in order to get a better interest rate. To explain this further – credit card interest rates are normally higher because they have no colatteral if the borrower doesn’t pay. Conversely, a bank has your house as colatteral for a mortgage loan, therefore they can offer a lower interest rate.

Wikipedia’s debt consolidation page goes on to explain even more…

“Debt consolidation entails taking out one loan to pay off many others. This is often done to secure a lower interest rate, secure a fixed interest rate or for the convenience of servicing only one loan.

Debt consolidation can simply be from a number of unsecured loans into another unsecured loan, but more often it involves a secured loan against an asset that serves as collateral, most commonly a house. In this case, a mortgage is secured against the house. The collateralization of the loan allows a lower interest rate than without it, because by collateralizing, the asset owner agrees to allow the forced sale (foreclosure) of the asset to pay back the loan. The risk to the lender is reduced so the interest rate offered is lower.”

So is it a good idea?

Generally, my answer is no, it isn’t a good idea. The vast majority of people in debt are not in irreversible dire straights financially. They can dig themselves out of debt with a lot of determination, hard work, and of course, Gazelle Intensity.

But most people don’t really want to work at getting out of debt, they just want a quick fix – and they think a debt consolidation will be the answer. These are the people who absolutely should NOT do a debt consolidation.

As Larry Burkett says, “the debt is not the problem; it is the symptom.” For most people considering a debt consolidation, excessive spending is the problem and the excessive debt is their symptom. Therefore, the spending problem is what needs to be fixed – not the debt. And as the spending problem gets resolved it will slowly, but surely, take care of the debt problem.

Enabling the spenders

The danger of a debt consolidation for people who still have a spending problem, is that it enables them to spend a lot more. Once the debt is consolidated, it provides “breathing room” which is great if they are going to take that extra amount and use it to pay off their debts faster, but the sad reality is that most people don’t. In fact, according to an insider, “78% of the time, after someone consolidates his credit card debt, the debt grows back.”

It works for some

Having said that, I have seen close friends who were greatly helped by a debt consolidation. Like I said before, the difference with them and the others who used a debt consolidation to their benefit, was that they didn’t have a problem with spending. They got their payments lowered via the consolidation and used every extra dollar each month to pay down the debt faster.

Personal responsibility

Bottom line, it comes down to personal responsibility. We are all accountable for our actions. We are all stewards of what we have been given, whether we like it or not. We need to be honest with ourselves and “make no provision for our flesh” (Romans 13:14).

Final thoughts

So, to sum up my thoughts about it, If I were in debt up to my eyeballs right now I would follow the 7 steps to getting out of debt (which I did). If for some reason things were so terrible that after following those steps I still could not make progress I would consider a debt consolidation with Consumer Credit Counseling. They are a not-for-profit group that I have heard good things about.

What about you? Have you done a debt consolidation? Did it help you?

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, doing things the "long" way, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and has been having a blast ever since. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

Over the last month or so I have been running a little bit of an experiment. Basically, after hearing from some others that there is money to be made with Hubpages, I decided to give it a go.

What is Hubpages?

Before I start getting into detail, I should explain the basics. Hubpages is a website that basically allows you to publish an article on their site. I use the term “article” loosely because it can be as short as an article or more like a single page website. It is completely up to the user. A hub (their lingo for article) can be about any topic you could possibly want to write about. You could create a hub explaining 10 things you wished people knew about you, how to play guitar with your toes, or facts about albino grizzly bears.

You do not need to be a great writer and honestly, I have seen some people who are terrible writers do quite well. All you need is the ability to say a little bit about something.

So how do you make money with Hubpages?

There are actually a variety of ways, but the simplest and most effective way I have found so far has been by using Adsense. After you finish your first hub you can install your Adsense ID and you will begin sharing the revenue with Hubpages for your hubs.

If you pick good keywords (which I will get to in a minute) you will likely begin getting traffic from the search engines within 24 hours of publishing it. If these visitors click on the ads you will get a cut of that revenue (I think it is 60%).

My results during July

I spent most of July trying to create a hub every day or so and I am now up to 23 hubs. I didn’t do the best job with keyword research and did very little if any work after creating the hubs and yet I still made $47.14 in July.

This breaks down to $2.05 per hub/month. Two dollars doesn’t sound too exciting, but if you consider that is probably completely passive income it is pretty exciting. In theory, that $2 per hub should continue paying that each month – and to be honest most pages do better in the search engines after they have been around a few months or more. So it very well could increase over time as well.

I am going to continue to create some more hubs during the month of August and see what the results are. I will try to keep this post updated with the new results each month.

Steps to get started

If you are interested in giving this a shot, these are the steps to get started.

1. Sign up at Hubpages
2. Create your first hub. Once you get to the design page, it is pretty self-explanatory.
3. Sign up for an Adsense account (if you don’t have one). This might take a couple days to get approval.
4. Add your Adsense ID to Hubpages. When you are logged into Hubpages, you click the “My Account” button, and then the “Affiliate Settings” link. This is where you will install your Adsense ID.
5. That’s it. Once it is installed, you will begin making money when someone clicks on the ads. Warning: do not click the ads yourself or tell others to click them. Google will catch you and will ban you from the program.

Keys to succeeding

Keyword research

This is probably the most important part. The title of your hub needs to be based on your keyword research. A good place to look is Google’s Keyword Research tool – drop in some keywords that your article might be about and see what comes back at you. I believe this is more of an art than a science, so just find a keyword phrase that is being searched for and give it a shot.

But I do suggest looking for longer phrases, i.e. Don’t title your page “ipods” but something like “how to put music on your ipod” would likely work a lot better. But either way, you just have to test to see what works. Sometimes your research will work just like planned and other times it won’t. But the good news is that even if you don’t do any research, you still have a chance of picking up some visitors on Hubpages. But, the more you plan out your keywords the better you will do.

Get Links

Like I mentioned above, I didn’t really get many links to my hubs, but if you can link to it from your blogs and get other links it will definitely be helpful. Submitting it to social bookmarking sites might be helpful as well. Linking your hubs to each other is a good idea too.

Content

Generally speaking the more content you put on your hub the better. I would say 400 words should be a minimum. Shooting for 600-1000 would probably be best. And add as many of the widgets as you can. You can add a news widget, a poll to ask your readers a question, etc. You don’t necessarily NEED to add a bunch of widgets, but it will probably help.

Learn and adapt

Not all hubs will work. In fact, for me of the 23 I have created thus far 5 of them are generating about 90% of the traffic.

Referral Program

Per a reader’s request to discuss the referral program, I will touch on that. The links to hubpages in this article are referral links. I haven’t referred any users in the past and honestly don’t really know how or how much can be made from the referrals – but if anyone signs up via the links, I will add that to the update next month.

Looking to find out more?

These are a few articles that go into a whole lot more detail than I did here on how to make money with Hubpages.

• How to make money writing hubs
• How to improve your hubs’ earnings
• Maximizing Adsense revenue with hubpages
• Create a search-engine friendly hubpage

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, doing things the "long" way, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and has been having a blast ever since. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

Over the last few months I have gotten to know Patrick Gessleman from the ChristianPF Message Boards. He is a moderator and always has something interesting to say! Patrick has been only been on the journey to clean up his finances less than 2 years, but because of his tremendous progress he was recently interviewed by Chuck Bentley of Crown.Org.

Patrick’s story

Patrick did the hard and difficult things that he needed to do – it is easy to read all about how to manage money, but actually taking the steps to do it is another story.

He and his wife Heather were digging themselves into deep debt with credit cards and decided to roll all their debt into a home equity loan. Just like many others, after they consolidated their debt, things got worse. They had put a Band Aid on the symptom (the debt), but didn’t properly address the root of the problem (their spending habits). As a result they just dug themselves into deeper debt by racking up another $25,000 in credit card debt.

• At this point they knew they needed help, but didn’t know where to start.
• He started immersing himself in the subject he was trying to learn.
• He talked to his wife and they tackled the problem in unity.
• They locked up their credit cards and made it very difficult to use them. They stopped carrying them in their wallets.
• They used a virtual envelope budgeting system similar to my ING budgeting method.
• They sold their house and began renting which allowed them to pay off their credit card debt a lot quicker.

They fought for it!

What I love about his story is that Patrick and his wife didn’t just want to get out of debt, they took action. And to that action they applied Gazelle Intensity!! They sold their house and started renting – how much more intense does it get? But from all the people I talk to about getting out of debt, or really reaching any challenging goal, I see that it doesn’t happen by accident. People who pay off $20,000 of debt or lose 50 pounds do it because they want it SO bad and they make big sacrifices to get it.

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, doing things the "long" way, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and has been having a blast ever since. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

As Dave Ramsey frequently mentions, you need Gazelle Intensity to successfully change poor money habits. Basically, Dave explains that in order to get out of debt, you have have to want it as if your life depends on it! He uses the following bible verse as an example…

“Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler” Proverbs 6:5

He explains that when you see a gazelle running from a cheetah, it isn’t just casually walking away. It is running with every ounce of energy it has in order to survive. I completely agree that this kind of intensity and determination is needed to get out of debt, but I also think that it is needed in many other areas of life as well.

Getting Biblical Results

Lately, I have been studying a lot of stories in the Bible where people got results. Reading through the gospels it becomes very clear that those who were passionate to get answers got Jesus’ attention.

You can look at Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52) who heard Jesus was passing by and began shouting for Him. People were telling him to shut up, but he just kept yelling for Jesus. Jesus stopped in his tracks because of Bartimaeus’ determination to be healed.

Or the Syrophoenician woman (Matt 15:22-28) who “immediately came and fell at His feet” to get answers. Even when not getting the initial response she probably wanted from Jesus, she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Her tenacious faith moved Jesus to act.

Or, Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10), who couldn’t see Jesus in the crowds because he was too short. He ran ahead and climbed a tree just to have a glimpse of Jesus. This kind of obstacle-overcoming tenacity got the Lord’s attention and was greatly rewarded by getting to have dinner with the savior of the world! Do you think Jesus would have had dinner with him if he hadn’t climbed the tree?

Turning up the temperature!

See the thing is God doesn’t want us to be lukewarm – He wants us to be deliberate in our actions. “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.” Rev 3:15.

I try to take this into my own life by being as deliberate as possible with everything I do. If I am trying to reach a particular goal, I am going to do everything in my power to reach that goal. I know full well that my power is limited and that true success in life can’t be achieved without the hand of God. But I refuse to be the steward who buried his talent. I strive to pray as if everything depends on God and work as if everything depends on me.

We all have our lazy moments where we are anything but gazelle intense. But it is becoming more clear to me that results and answers often come to those who do everything possible to get them.

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, doing things the "long" way, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and has been having a blast ever since. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.