What follows is not advice about how to get out of debt (check out Donald Payne’s Debt Comforter for that). Rather, I’m sharing this story as an example of how sometimes, what seems like a financial problem now may end up benefiting you down the road. Whether it’s credit card debt, a foreclosure, job loss, or whatever else… sometimes God may be giving you a blessing in disguise, but it will take you a while to figure that out.

How it started

Picture this… you’re barely 18 with limited income, but a catastrophic car accident leaves you with mounting medical bills that just keep piling higher. What do you do?

When this happened to me, I was between a rock and a hard place. My insurance did cover the vast majority of bills, but there were many where (a) they refused to pay what the doctor/hospital was asking, and/or (b) they used technicalities to weasel out of paying a dime (like the $1,680 bone scan I was recently stiffed on, because they said the hospital didn’t submit the claim to them fast enough).

So for example, if an operation cost $20,000 and insurance was only willing to pay $12,000 for it, then that left me $8,000 short. Neither of my options were attractive: skip the operation entirely and suffer for it – or – find a way to finance the operation by going into debt.

Now my accident was several years ago, so this was all before the financial meltdown happened. Back then, practically any 18-21 year-old could get approved for credit cards with credit limits in the tens of thousands of dollars. Yes, you probably know where this story is going…

Big debt, big stress

Without any other resources to turn to, what I ended up doing was using 0% balance transfers to float this medical debt. Let me be clear that I would strongly advise against you doing the same if you were to find yourself in my shoes, but foolish or not, that’s what I ended up doing.

As you can imagine, such a large sum of debt became a major focus of my life so in turn, I spent a great deal of time researching credit cards online. Some nights I would be on my computer ‘til 1 or 2 am, researching things like what is debt to credit ratio or checking my score on MyFICO. In short, I became an expert on credit cards.

How did my debt turn into a profit?

Being that I was spending so much time studying credit, I decided it would be fun to write about it. So what did I do? Create a message board and blog dedicated to the topic of credit cards.

Back then my webmaster experience was extremely limited and in hindsight, it was probably foolish to put up a website when I didn’t really know basic HTML. But miraculously, it eventually came together by using pre-built forum software (vBulletin) and blogging software (WordPress). It was still a huge struggle to get off the ground, but it worked out in the end.

Now what happens next is not a story of overnight riches. However, by putting literally all my free time into the building up the site, it steadily grew. During the first year I made a few thousand dollars by promoting a list of the 10 best credit cards (banks pay a fee for each customer referred). The amount earned wasn’t a ton considering I was putting 20-30 hours in per week on the site, but I was just thrilled with the fact that someone like me, who has no formal training, could make anything at all.

By year two, the recession was in full-swing and all the banks stopped marketing credit cards. That meant sites like mine couldn’t earn a dollar from advertising cards. But that didn’t discourage me too much… I knew that eventually things would improve, so I kept chugging away, building the site.

Year three was really the turning point. We were out of the darkest days of the recession and my site had grown steadily – yes substantially – during the past couple years. Not only was I getting a good amount of visitors, but now I could make money again because the banks were back in the credit card game. By the end of the year not only had I earned enough to pay off ALL of my medical debt, but also enough where I could run the site as a full-time gig (which worked out perfectly, because I had just got laid off from my job!).

Today’s troubles may help you tomorrow

If I didn’t have to use credit cards for medical debt, I probably wouldn’t have started my website. That would also mean that today, I probably wouldn’t be self-employed living my dreams. Instead, without having a college degree, I probably would have been slaving away at some trivial job right now (assuming I was lucky enough to even have a job).

When we face financial troubles, sometimes it might be for our own good in the long run. For example, if you are going through a foreclosure, it might be because God doesn’t want you tied down to your house – instead, he might have plans for you to have a new career someplace else. Seeing light at the end of the tunnel can be impossible, so we need to have faith. There’s no guarantee for us that the outcome will be what we want, but what we are promised is that the Lord will comfort us through good times and bad.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. – Jeremiah 29:11

This post was written by a guest author, Michael, who runs the site discussed above, Credit Card Forum.

Intimate footage from the “Financial Takeover – As a Man Thinks” event, Held in July of 2011. A private outreach setting, with Insight to my new book “No Longer Bound”

“Life is what you make it and opportunity means absolutely nothing unless you take advantage of it.”

Today I leave you with some great words of wisdom that I learned from Dr. Myles Munroe. That is to say that the seed that you carry inside of you should be allowed germinate and grow because the world wants “NEEDS” your fruit.

Intimate footage from the “Financial Takeover – As a Man Thinks” event, Held in July of 2011. A private outreach setting, with Insight to my new book “No Longer Bound”

Hopefully my theory in the last video concerning Mr., Hill’s book “Think and Grow Rich” was helpful. I believe with all of my heart that the key to success is in having a definite purpose and a definite desire.

Intimate footage from the “Financial Takeover – As a Man Thinks” event, Held in July of 2011. A private outreach setting, with Insight to my new book “No Longer Bound”

Everyone Has a Purpose

Most people go through life waiting on lady luck to shine down on them. I don’t believe in luck. But I do believe in Favor. I believe that Favor is always working in the background creating a better tomorrow for me and my family.

Today’s video is an example of what “Favor” is all about. I hope you enjoy it.

Remember, life is what you make it but with Favor working on your behalf it can be that much better.

There comes a time in life when reinvention is the only solution to moving beyond what could be considered as a stagnant lifestyle. People reinvent themselves for various reasons (Layoffs, divorce, or maybe a death of a loved one). No matter what the reason, understand that reinvention is part of the circle of life. Unfortunately, with reinvention comes jealousy. Yes, jealousy!

People whom the tenacity to move outside the box and search out new directions are considered to be rare birds. Very few are able to make the transition from one aspect of life to another. Those who are able to make transition will face persecution from those who refuse to move. These individuals should not be part of your circle of influence.

Those who refuse to look beyond the edge of their nose will always try to bring trendsetters down.

God has given us all the ability to have witty inventions and to be able to multi task our way through life. This should always be our first priority. Moving in new directions can open new doors and increase the ability to get more out of life. Never let anyone tell say that you can’t because you can. Let the naysayer talk let the negative vibes roll off your back. Success comes in the form of reinvention. Destiny awaits and it is your job to follow in the direction of your own dream.

I’m a Christian guy and I have no problem telling the world that I am. I am also a wise man and I understand that people will do strange things all in the name of Religion. I believe that there is huge difference between religion (AKA Traditionalism) and Christianity. In fact I wrote a book about it. If you would like to read it, click here. They’re Just People
My message today is not to push my products. I want to get your opinion on the subject with a few simple questions.

1) What type of behavior have you seen in the religious community that has caused you to abandon the gift that was place inside of you?
2) Do you hold the church accountable for the level of your success?

3) Do you have a true respect for religion?

There are no right or wrong answers, just opinions. Talk to me, I’m looking forward to hear what others have to say.

In my personal opinion companies have lulled people into a false sense of prosperity by giving them a job with benefits. Don’t get me wrong a good job with benefits is a wonderful thing but with a good job comes complacency. Having a good job is like being imprisoned.  Far too often people plan their future based on the time it will take them to retire. I hear it all the time. People tell me if they could only get to their 30-year anniversary date then they finally are able to leave the company.

To my knowledge there has never been a legitimate employer that has forced an employee stay. However, companies can make your stay very enticing by sweetening the pot every once and a while. They offer raises additional weeks of vacation. In my personal opinion, this is nothing more than prison with benefits. Why would I make such a profound statement? Maybe it is because I know that there is so much more out there. I know that living out one’s life sitting behind a cubicle or showing up everyday doing the same job is a slow road to nowhere.

But why would I call a job a prison with benefits? Look at it this way. People in prison earn a small wage they receive good time credits and if they are model prisoners they get to spend time in a halfway house. Which is still prison but with liberties. The whole time all the prisoner wants to do is bide his or her time so they can finally leave prison. The sole purpose of being imprisoned is to take away your freedom. Being lock into a 30-year job has the same effect.

Once again I am not saying that having a good job is a bad thing. I am just saying that true freedom is being able to make your own decisions. It is being able to earn a wage based on what you are worth, not based on what your company thinks you are worth. Live life, be free and learn to explore try to explore new possibilities or you can wait until your 30 years are over so you can finally be free. The choice is yours.