Mom Pays for College

What are SMART goals?  And why are smart goals or any other goals necessary?  S M A R T is an acronym for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Timely or Tangible

If you are a work from home mom and interested in making money in an online business opportunity you need goals. If you don’t have a target that you are shooting for then anything you hit will be right, which could be nothing. So why would you waste your time in a homebased business without goals?

A Specific goal to earn money in an online business opportunity would be to sponsor three new reps this month using the internet as a primary means of finding and converting prospects. In order to do this you would need some kind of internet network marketing system.

Measureable is straight forward. Did I sponsor three new people using my internet network marketing system, yes or no?

Is your goal to sponsor three new business reps in one month Attainable?  Achieving this goal is going to require action.  If your goal is huge then it will require massive action.  Understand that making goals is great but you have to put action in to get results out.  Are you personally capable right now to reach your goals?  Maybe you need to develop some new personal skills, get very creative in your approach or find a system to help you reach your potential.  Whatever your goals are this is the time to figure out how to get there. Never say no and you’ll find a way.

How do you know if your goal is Realistic? Do you have the skills, time and desire to attain them? How motivated are you to achieve your goals?  If you were just starting out in a new MLM business with no previous experience and said your goal was to sponsor twenty new people this month that just actually might be doable, given your enthusiasm is extremely high right now.  However, if you thought you’d get there by only talking to twenty people then that would be unrealistic.  A lot of people are not as excited as you are right now for a residual income business opportunity so you’ll have to sift through many people to find the ones that are ready.

Is your goal Timely or Tangible? Yes.  Sponsoring three people in one month is exact in terms of time and it is something that is tangible. It’s real and you can count on it.

To summarize, if you want to be making money in an online business opportunity you need to set SMART goals, goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and tangible.  With a plan and a online network marketing system and a great deal of motivation and determination,  a goal of sponsoring  three new business representatives in one month is very realistic.

If you’d like to learn at least six ways you can earn money for college or anything else get the free report and audio here:  http://www.howsinglemomscanpayforcollege.com/ 

If you’d like to see if you qualify to work directly with Lana Hawkins you can request an interview here: http://howsinglemomscanpayforcollege.com/20minuteconsult.htm

This is a book review and video commentary (below) about John Maxwell’s “The Difference Maker.”  In  John  Maxwell’s earlier teachings he taught “attitude is everything“.  He thought that if you had a great attitude, you could accomplish anything.  However, an older and wiser Maxwell has revised his thoughts about attitude and now teaches that attitude is the difference maker.

Why the shift?  John realized that there are certain restrictions individuals face that cannot be overcome by attitude.  If your short sister wanted to play for the NBA chances are extremely slim that she will get in because of her height and gender.  She could have the most powerful, determined attitude in the world but sometimes that isn’t enough.

However, if she is faced with getting a promotion and is up against other equally qualified candidates, chances are, if she has a strong positive attitude she will get the promotion over others with a less powerful attitude.

I wouldn’t want anyone to use this as a reason to fail.  Attitude isn’t everything but you can change your life, learn new things, and figure out how to do something you’ve never done before if you have the right attitude.  Never say “I can’t”, “it’s too hard” or “that’s impossible” because if you say it you are telling yourself just that. 

Tell yourself you can learn how to do something new or nontraditional if you set your mind to it. If you say you can, you’re right!

If you’re a single mom that needs to finance an education get the free MP3 audio and a detailed report covering many ideas on how single moms can earn money for college. Go to How Single Moms Can Pay for College or http://MomPays.com .

An education is important to any person. But for a single mom, a college education may be near to impossible. With the time constraints of raising a child, working a job, and running a household, it is almost impossible for a single mom to be able to take the time to get her education. Any online college education is one of the best ways for a mom to get an education and at the same time have time for her family. An online college education can save the mom not only time and effort, but also in these days of high gasoline prices, money.

Most online colleges are asynchronous. This means that the single mom can go to college or go to class any time of day or night. The single mom will be able to interact with the class on her own schedule by adding comments to those posted by the other students on the classroom chat board. The instructor will give out an assignment for the day or week and a mom can complete it at any time as long as she completes an assignment before deadline. If the baby is taking a nap, mom can jump on her computer and be able to type out her lessons or respond to other students or instructor without interruption.

Another benefit of online college classes for the single mom, is that your identity is anonymous. The people see your name in words, but they know nothing about you. You don’t have the social stigma of having a child or not going to class because your child is sick. You are equal in that classroom. Gender, race, or any physical appearance is a mute point within an online class. You are there to express yourself in words and those words are taken literally, because they cannot be judged by nonverbal interaction, your appearance or inclinations in your voice. What you say is what you say and you’re graded for what you say.

Not only time is saved when you take an online college course as a single mom, but money to saved too. Even though online courses are sometimes a little bit more expensive than traditional brick-and-mortar courses, the amount of time it takes you to drive to class, attend a class and drive back home, is also money that is being spent. Gas money and other expenses add up quickly. In the online college, a single mom may stay in her own home. If research needs to be done, it can be done on the University online library. There is no packing the kid up and taking them to daycare. Just find your seat and go to class. You can simply roll out of bed, get a cup of coffee, and sit in front of the computer and work toward getting an education.

Most online courses are offered in eight to ten week segments. This gives you a chance to go to school for eight to ten weeks and then take a week off. You will get the credits, you’ll earn your degree, and you’ll be on your way to setting up a better lifestyle, both financially and emotionally for both you and your child.

If you’re a single mom that needs to finance an education get the free MP3 audio and a detailed report covering many ideas on how single moms can earn money for college. Go to How Single Moms Can Pay for College or http://MomPays.com .

Omarra Byrd has a really good report available called The RoboForm Report that I just read.  He has discovered new uses for RoboForm over and beyond using it as a great time saving tool that remembers and fills passwords.  He shows you how to use RoboForm as a complicated form filling tool. Great for anyone who has repetitive online form filling tasks to do.  Think big when it comes to this topic.  If you have different users that you fill out information for, this could be a great asset.  His report opened my mind to the possibilities of using the RoboForm in brand new ways.

Click here to check out The RoboForm Report by Omarra Byrd.

Click here to see features of RoboForm. Oh, you can get one version for free and free trial the pro version for 30 days.

Looking for a way to pay for college or anything else? Take a listen to my free audio interview and read the report offered as a download. Click here: How Single Moms Can Pay For College.

Try using a password saver and form filler to save time looking for and remembering all your passwords. Search on your computer in help using the phrase “fill form” or try a copy of RoboForm as a free trial and see if you don’t become much more productive right away.

Looking for a way to pay for college or anything else? Take a listen to my free audio interview and read the report offered as a download. Click here: How Single Moms Can Pay For College.

Let’s define an employee. Employees expect to be paid a certain amount. Only then will they begin to work for that pay. People who work for a paycheck, bonus or profit sharing plans, perks etc. are promised some kind of financial reward then work hard to achieve it.  They wouldn’t consider doing a job for free.

Employees are most of the people we know, likely ourselves at some point. I know that was me when I was a student, then an engineer, then and engineer trying to get a promotion. I was always motivated by the paycheck or getting a bigger paycheck, degree, a bonus or promotion of some kind. 

It’s pretty normal but not necessarily good. Being overweight is normal these days but  that’s not to say it is good for your health.

So if you take away the incentive, the paycheck, the bonus, the granting of the degree, what is the motivation to press on? Nothing, because you don’t know any better. When you trade your precious time for money nearly every day of your life until you retire you are an employee.

I am not condemning this. The human race has been doing this kind of thing for a long time and we’ve improved our lifestyles and health. But when I look in the mirror, as I get older, and my kids get older and go off to college, I cannot allow my life to be run by using up 40 - 50 hours per week working for someone else’s glory.

Being an employee is a fairly easy way to live. We just know it. Just follow someone else’s plan and go home at the end of the day.  Granted you don’t have a say in when you work and sometimes you get to work overtime for free if you are salaried, but you can just show up, run on autopilot and collect the check at the end of the month. 

You can really get sucked into the whole job scene.  Often referred to as the golden hand cuffs, this is no kinky adult play.  I hear so many people who work at a job because of the benefits such as health insurance. You know, you can buy that as a stand alone person and you can probably find a group rate so the costs are not that high. I had the same reaction myself before I left my corporate job. As much as I liked going to work every day (not) I was brainwashed into thinking I couldn’t leave because of the benefits.

Some employees won’t work if the boss is gone, or if they feel like they aren’t getting paid enough. Gee, find another job if you don’t like this one.  On the other side of it there are bosses that only do the bare minimum to keep their employees happy and have no respect for them as people.

Maybe you love the work you do but maybe you don’t want to do that much of it. Maybe you want some more time for yourself. Maybe you want to be able to have more of a say in when and where you get the job done. Maybe you’re not into face time and sucking up to the boss. Maybe you are tired of working for money, trading your time for dollars. Or maybe it suits you just fine. If so, you’re very lucky.

Well can the employee achieve wealth? Probably not. The reason is that wealth is defined in terms of time freedom and financial freedom. How can a person who has to go to work to receive a paycheck be considered wealthy? It’s impossible. I don’t care if you have million dollar salary, if you can’t call your own time shots, or take time off (a year), then you are not wealthy.

Would you ever consider an alternative? Entrepreneurship requires more effort in the short term but in the long term the benefits can far surpass the effort.  I’ll write about that in my next article.

Looking for a way to pay for college or anything else? Take a listen to my free audio interview and read the report offered as a download. Click here: How Single Moms Can Pay For College.

I was talking to a friend of mine recently, a single mom. She was in the process of buying her first home. She was able to make the payments and had a down payment all set, but she had not enough credit history to secure the mortgage.

She told me that the mortgage guy said she should apply for two credit cards. Wow! Silly me. I thought everyone, except the credit card addicted, had a credit card or two.

I guess if you paid cash for everything you needed you’d be a very lucky and disciplined person, but for me, using a credit card makes life way easier and it improves my credit rating.

Why? Because I pay it off every month. Even if you don’t like the idea of having a credit card using one and paying it off every month establishes you as a good credit risk.

It takes a few months for the credit companies to find out how great a lendee you are though, so if you are contemplating needing a real loan for real estate or financing college, get a credit card or two, spend a little every month. Put it into your budget and don’t forget about it. Pay it off on time or early, and your credit score should go up.

You can use a department store credit card for this, or a gasoline card or a regular old Visa or MasterCard.

If you use Visa or MasterCard make sure to find one that doesn’t charge you a yearly fee, or has a high interest rate. Having some kind of bonus associated with it is a bonus. This could be frequent flyer miles, new car rebates, or cash back.

If you have a real problem with credit cards and run up the balance then have to pay high interest fees, this is probably not for you. Or maybe you could have a friend or a parent hold them for you so you can’t use them. Just maybe put some monthly recurring payment on it but keep the card away from you. Or not.

Tell me what your credit card strategy is.

If you are looking for new ways to earn money for college or anything else, give this information your full attention. It’s valued at $97 and can really get you mind going.  There are other ways to earn a living than doing your same old day job. How Single Mom Can Pay for College.

I just read a great book by Timothy Ferriss called The 4 Hour Work Week. It’s a must for any person who wants more say in their life. The ideas are different than usual.  Instead of dreaming up ways to cram so much more into your life Ferriss recommends eliminating a lot.  Read it for yourself. 

Looking for a way to pay for college or anything else? Take a listen to my free audio interview and read the report offered as a download. Click here: How Single Moms Can Pay For College.

Regarding work and life most people fit into one of these four categories:

(1)  No time, and no money.

If you are an employee, chances are this describes the way you feel. You can’t go shopping on a Tuesday afternoon or tell your boss to take a hike. How will you even be able to afford to send your kids to college, save for retirement or even think of having a life today with no time and no money?

(2)  No time, lots of money.

Some “successful” self-employed, professionals and small business owners are in this category. They are slightly better off than the employee because they earn more, but they have to work even harder than employees to keep up with the diminishing profit margins, competition and servicing their customers. As a single mother, do you want to spend much less time with your kids?

(3)  Lots of time, no money.

A lot of farmers, villagers, college dropouts or bums have lots of time but no money. Maybe ignorance is bliss, but without a stable source of income, how long can you last many days forward? If you’re a single mom, you know that your kids will need food, clothes plus medical care for that broken arm or leg. Not a great place to be in my opinion.

(4)  Lots of time, and lots of money.

It is the category that big business owners, landlords, investors are in. Imagine, not having to work for money, but having money to work for you by investing them and earning profits by using your money to make money. Also, you’re smart enough to hire the best people so you don’t even have to work. Just think about how many people you could help out in the no time, no money category A lot of people like it there.

Here are Two Questions for You

• Which one of the four categories best describes your current situation?

• Which one category would give you the most opportunity to be a great single mother?

If you answered with time and money you’re the kind of person that stands a chance of getting there. Because as Henry Ford put it “If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Yes you can do anything you want and with the internet and all the information and services readily available there is every reason a determined single mom could be in the time and money category rather quickly.

Lana Hawkins is the author of How Mom Pays for College Blog. If you’d like ideas about becoming a single mother with both Time and Money person get the Free Audio Interview with Lana covering many ideas on how single moms can earn money for college go to http://howsinglemomscanpayforcollege.com/ . Make sure to download the Free Report too.

This is fresh in my mind. My oldest daughter broke her leg a few day ago warming up for a soccer game. We are still waiting to get into the orthopedic surgeon for the next steps. We did make it to the emergency room for Xrays right away and her leg is in a splint. So I was thinking about just how fortunate our circumstances are and that probably many are not as fortunate.

The three things that seem important to me right now regarding my daughter’s situation are:

1. Excellent heath insurance. Right now she’s covered on her father’s plan. Lucky for us I picked a good guy to be divorced from. Her plan even covers prescriptions, paid in full. I know that some of you don’t have health coverage. I pay for my personal coverage. I am so grateful that I can buy the healthcare that I need. You need to take care of yourself these days. Never get in the position of relying on some one else or some government plan to cover you. The principles I teach about paying for your child’s college tuition apply in paying for your own health care too.

2. Time to take care of my daughter. Since I am my own boss, I don’t have to ask for time off from work. I don’t have to feel guilty about leaving early for work or taking the day off to spend with my injured kid because I work when I want to. I can be there in an emergency if required. How cool is that? I am so grateful for this. This could work for you too. I highly recommend finding a way to make that work. Time is so limited and it’s all you’ve got.

3. A child with a positive attitude. You could come up with a million reasons to be irritated about this situation, and my daughter could probably come up with more since it’s her leg. But she is so amazing! Of course she was extremely dissapoinetd about missing her chance to compete at Nationals in climbing this year (and who knows, maybe she still can) but she’s being very cheerful and just wants her leg to heal up properly. I am so grateful that I have raised a well balanced daughter who is keeping such a positive attitude through all of this. She’s decorated her crutches and is thinking about the color for her cast. Nice! I think I’d be a grouch if it happened to me.

Be thankful for what you have. And figure out how to get what you need. Life is too short to be suffering if you can avoid it.

If you are looking for new ways to earn money for your kid’s college education, listen to this audio interview with me and Rod Moore. Different ways to earn money you may not have considered are discussed. How Do Sinlge Moms Pay for their Kids College Education?