Does your jar look like this -- or is it empty?

Does your jar look like this — or is it empty?

It’s a dismal state of affairs.

Rainmaker, I hope you’re the exception.

I just read about a survey conducted by Bankrate, on basic personal finances.

The scenario: you’re hit with a sudden and unexpected $1,000 expense.

The question: How do you pay for it?

Only 37% of the Americans surveyed — down from 38% last year — said they would cover it out of savings.

23% would defer spending on other things to cover the expense.

15% would use a credit card…  And 15% would have to borrow from family and friends.

It’s no surprise that higher income people tend to be more willing or able to cover the expense out of savings.  54% of respondents earning $75,000 or more said they would cover the expense with cash.

Lower income folks, as you could probably expect, either don’t have or aren’t ready to part with that savings.  23% of people with incomes below $30,000 would use savings.  And 9% of folks at that income level said they didn’t know how they’d pay.

$1,000 isn’t that much money, but there’s a lot of people who don’t have it…

Bill gates has, according to a quick Google search (sorry Bill, didn’t use Bing)…  $79.2 billion.  If you were to break that up into $1,000s, that’s $1,000 each, for a little more than half the households in the United States.

That is, Bill Gates could give $1,000 to every other house on your street — and every street in America — and if he only gave $1,000 to every other house he still wouldn’t run out of money.

There’s a lot of money floating around out there in the world.  Far more than any of us ever will really need.

But through whatever reason, 30% of Americans would have to go in debt to cover an unexpected $1,000 expense…  And for 53%, it would represent a material change in their lifestyle (debt or reducing other spending).

I talk a lot about how to make money, specifically how to make money with better marketing…

But I feel a need to also talk about how to keep it, and how to grow it.

I’m contemplating something, and want to share with you here.

Breakthrough Marketing Secrets has served me well since April 2014.  I’ve continuously written daily essays since then — with very few days missed (and never an unplanned miss).

I’ve grown my readership tremendously, both in quantity and quality.  Even I’m in awe when I look at who regularly reads these essays.

And, I’ve specifically been told that the value you get by reading these free regular essays is on par with what other so-called gurus charge $99 per month for.

This is all well and good, but I think I’ve been under-serving you, to a degree.

By tying my content so closely to “marketing” as a topic, I’m limiting the impact I can have on your life.

After all, in that survey above, still a full 46% of people earning $75,000 or more per year would have to go somewhere other than savings to cover a $1,000 expense.

It doesn’t matter how successful you are at marketing or business.  If you don’t know how to keep your money, grow your money, you’ll be forced to work yourself into the grave.

Right now, this is a mere reflection.  But it may become reality soon.

I may be on the cusp of a re-brand, likely putting it simply under my name.

With a new broader focus being not just on marketing, selling, and business-building — but on what to do with the money you make so you can enjoy true freedom.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes here, and learned a lot of solid lessons that have set me on the right path.  And I’m definitely in the camp where an expense of $1,000 or $10,000 or more would be painful…  But it would be covered quickly, with cash if I choose, and would have no material impact on my life or plans for my future.  (And this is after spending cash for things like a new vehicle, a new roof, etc.)

Sure, savings is part of this — but wealth-building is about so much more.

Is that something you’re interested in?

Yours for bigger breakthroughs,

Roy Furr

Editor, Breakthrough Marketing Secrets