It's called a money merge account. From what I have heard, the program does cost about $3k to start, but I think it can be paid over time. I have a few friends that are doing it, and it is working for them.

I think with either the money merge or the snowball methods, it still takes self control to make them work. If you overspend in your HELOC, and can't pay it off every month, then you can't pay extra on your mortgage, so it doesn't work. The snowball method, if you spend your "extra" money instead of putting it toward debt, you are no further than you were the month before. At least with the snowball method, it doesn't cost you $3k to start...but it may not be as fast.


Blake

I have used his ideas about money managing and reducing debt. I have not bought the program being dicussed here though. The stuff I bought was 20 years ago when he started out. Alot of the ideas are like Dave Ramsey's. Just alot of common sense.

I just heard a radio ad for a free tape. I called.

It's a scam, there is no free anything. The woman began asking me all about my situation and tried the hard sell. I said I only wanted the free tape as they advertised.

She then began berating me for wasting her time, I told her I was only responding to her questions, not wasting time.

When she realized I wasn't going to sign up for anything till I knew more about it, she got extremely rude, told me I was a loser and had no hope for the future and then she hung up on me.

Sheesh! Don't waste your time with these people, it's just a pressure sales scam!

Wow. I ordered the program, but didn't get treated like that. I returned the program, and received an email saying that they got it back. Instead of the $9.95, I got charged $109.96. I called them, and they promptly returned the extra money, which was the "first installment" if I were to keep the system.

Nothing in the system that you can't figure out on your own with a little common sense. Worth $9.95, but not $600.

Glad you got your money back. Sometimes these money merge systems sell for $3500.

The system is good I think it will work honestly I would have never found this site if I had not purchased it one day while I was sitting in traffic. After talking to the lady on the phone I was told I have 30 days to return it all so I got the full package.

-Transforming debt into wealth
-The Credit Solution
-The Power of Perpetual Income
-Wealth Masters

I listened to the full TDIW as well listened to some of the Credit Solution its good stuff like others said it is a good smack in the face in how much I am paying in interest and how I am digging a deeper and deeper hole.

Were it went bad was when I called the toll-free # for a “free quick start session”.. It was basically some guys asking me where I am at with all my debt then spiting out my debt to income ratio saying that I am in really bad shape but he thinks there might be some hope.. After and hour and 20 min he schedules me to talk to a financial specialist to see if I would be a good candidate to go into a program where they will "for a small fee" enroll me to work with a financial coach and wealth building expert. I set the appointment for the next day. Sure enough he called me and talked about an hour and a half, but then we got to near the end after he had me saying yes to every question that he asked me and then laid down the cost.

Told me to work with a Financial coach and wealth building expert for one year 30 min a week they wanted $12,925.00 to work with just a Financial coach for 1 year $9735.00 and for 6 months $8055.00 I was going to choke... Here I am trying to get out of debt and got all these disks that would cost me over $600 (if I did not return them) and this guy is just standing there ready to lower my coffin into the grave!! I told him that I can't make a financial decision on something this big right now that I would have to take a few days to consider... I could hear it in his voice "Why what is the hesitation? If you are not confident like you said why would you hesitate?" I told him “I am not going to do this with out thinking about it first” he said " Well sorry but I don't see the dedication and to even be invited into this program you have to have the dedication, if you even wanted to now I don't feel you have the dedication to this that the invite would not be extended if got off the phone" I was like “well then I guess I am not worth of such a program and that I am sorry that I wasted our time" He said " Well this has been your problem since day one that you cant fix your problem and you will continue down that path and will not only amount to anything but will be in the hole for the rest of you life" I told him “his hard sell sucks and he needed to revise it or people are going to keep doing this"..... Then I just hung up the phone.

I was going to keep the system but now after that whole thing I am returning it and getting all my money back.

My plan is to use the snowball method and put lots of time and effort into doing research as how to get out of my situation, in the fastest way and be smart about it.

Well that is my experience and the one good thing that came of this is that it helped me figure out that I was in real trouble and also there is lots of free support that I can look into.

Squirrel~

Based on all the user comments, you can get the same thing as this several hundred dollar program by picking up a copy of Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover from the library and tuning into his radio show. Same concept, no cost. Put the money spent in the program toward your debt.

Have not read the book but will pick it up. I hav 10 more days to return it so I plan on getting all my money back. It did however motivate me to make many changes and brought me to this forum.

I got spammed like crazy by John Commuta and also bombarded by the air waves, and that's why I checked out this forum to see what all the fuss is about. Here's my preaching on the subject:

Once again, the "secret" is a majour let-down because its exactly what I've been doing for the past two years. Prioritizing debt and paying it down. I'll pay off my house in 7 years for sure. Just hope its still worth what I paid!

Only problem is, the wife is starting to complain about our spartan lifestyle, especially when her friends are traipsing around in new coats and gliding about in this year's Acuras after the Bahamas vacation.

But we're young, living in an expensive region, earning below-average wages, and raising two kids. On top of the killer mortgage.

Currently, mortgage is 50% of our income BY CHOICE, because its not even the third year and its all interest. Front loaded! Now's the time to pay in extra, even if it hurts like crazy. We've cut out a lot to make the payments $1000 more per month, and I doubt we'll keep it up for much longer. But while we're doing it, the mortgage is dropping down pretty fast.

Its true that paying into the mortgage means there's no liquidity. But honestly, how much liquidity does a homeowner require? Do they need cash at the ready to pump into the next bond movement or hot stock? Are they gonna pull it out with a 12% return? Not likely.

I recently picked up a small municipal bond rather than putting that $5,000 into the mortgage. Its for diversity. It will kick back $200 annually for the next 30 years. And we have scraped together enough to hold us over a year if ALL income ends. So, I think its good to have some liquidity and diversity even when tackling debt.

But it all comes down to biting the bullet and foregoing those restaurants, weekend getaways, plasma tvs, and new cars.

Nothing magical about it. Its just common sense struggling to overcome the "I gotta have it now" mentality that most Americans have thanks to advertisments.

J

Hello,
I am curious about your program. Are the audios something I can download? or are they mailed to you?
Thanks.
Pam

Sorry about that, pamela - he was just spamming the forums. Anyone who is offering loads of free stuff to help people out of debt is either a saint or else has an upsell strategy up their sleeve, and I very much doubt smiles63 was the former.

It really works. I am proof. But know that simply doing the cascading debt is not the whole thing that works. It is listening to every one of his tapes. Being in debt is a mental attitude. I paid off debts for over 20 years! This was never the problem. The problem is you keep going into debt. John's tapes is a mindset and an attitude to which everything we are taught watching TV, sale ads and watching our parents watch TV and sales ads. Once you decide that you are committed to own your own life and never be slave to the lender again, thats the true magic of John Commuta's system. You cannot cascade debt without the mindset that he teaches you. It is true, it is money you already have. You just placed it elsewhere where it was not doing a better job. It was the best $300 I ever spent. The money I saved makes $300 look like 30 cents! Go for it!

I'm listening to him now, got the audio from someone.
so far, it's a lot of common sense. But I can see how some people would not have the right thought process about spending, assests and liabilities. There are a couple helpful hints about insurance options and views on a consumer society. He has the same views on assets vs liabilities as Kiyosaki.

Has anyone noticed that Cummuta sounds like Casey Kasem?

I have used John Commuta's previous program, Debt Free and Prospurous Living and found it to work well assuming you work it. The principles are simple and as with anything worthwhile, require commitment and discipline. The transforming debt to wealth program seems to have a better concept for investment and for the average investor, this is a good way to go. However, assuming you are willing to do the work and increase your personal financial education you can earn more with other investments. Understand that not all debt is bad. Leverage of a performing asset is good in my opinion. Your personal residence is not an asset by definition because it takes money out of your pocket. An investment property on the other hand providing an income is an asset and can be leveraged to provide for improvement or additional assets. Hope this helps.

Mike, I would disagree that "Your personal residence is not an asset by definition because it takes money out of your pocket."

Now, I'll agree that your personal residence is not an INVESTMENT, but it is indeed an asset. The reason your personal residence is not an investment is because you purchase it not for its intrinsic value but for its emotional value. Live there because you want to live there, not because the price is right.

A business that owns the building it is housed in classifies the property as an asset on its balance sheet. If it has a loan on it, then the debt is listed as a liability. Just because a property as a liability attached to it does not make it less of an asset.

The object is to acquire/develop assets and reduce/eliminate liabilities. And a personal residence does NOT "take money out of your pocket" as you say. In fact, with the right mortgage structure, your personal residence provides not only tax benefits, but fixed payments decrease over time due to inflation. And since, generally, real estate tends to rise in value, you have an asset with a steady or increasing value with a liability that gets more cost effective over time. These are just two of the reasons why mortgages are considered good debt.

Any program that helps you make better decisions through commitment and discipline is worthwhile. It's all about developing good habits and eliminating bad ones. However, be concerned when something sounds too good to be true, because it probably is.