Are your rewards really rewarding or are you just in a vicious cycle of spending?

You hit the stores in search of that something special that you’ve always had to have or you just can’t live without, you search high and low for that most important possession. You spot it on a shelf tucked way inside behind other merchandise. You grab it and you can hardly believe your eyes; it’s in pristine condition what a bargain.

You’re so excited you can hardly contain yourself you rush to the checkout lane and whip out your old faithful wallet. Nothing to choose from except the old plastic credit card or some tattered cash tucked behind the flap. You decide on the plastic it’s smooth, colorful, and thrifty; it show class, grace and social affluence.

Your turn is up you make the purchase you’re so amazingly excited as you whisk away from the store with your new trinket in hand. You have just the place to put it right next to your other trinket you bought last week when you did that cool little thing at the office. You know just like the other items you had to have just because you wanted them.

You arrive at home and stare with curiosity and wonder as you place your nifty new purchase on the shelf with the others. It adds such new charm, and beauty to your collection. The way it reflects of the glass lit shelving is almost hypnotizing to look at and watch. Your content and feel as if you performed the greatest deed for mankind by making that purchase.

Your bills come in the mail as they always do and the first thing that you open is that credit card bill, your eyes almost pop out of your head as the astronomical interest rates seems to have eaten up all of your last payment and the reduction in principle was reversed due to other charges, taxes, and late penalties. You notice that you’re over the limit and your latest purchases aren’t even on that statement.

You begin to panic and feel a bit stressed that you overdrew the account. You’re not so happy with the purchase you made; you might even resent the purchase a little bit. You know this passes with time yet the debt continues to grow. Soon it consumes your entire life until you feel so overwhelmed that you can hardly even think about it without feeling like an anxiety attack is coming over you. You feel all knotted up and fearful of what might happen next.

The only people that call you are bill collectors and your debt providers to remind you that you are late on your obligations. You feel as if there is no way out a dark cloud is coming over you. Your reward purchase seems like a bad habit that you can’t break. You’re starting to realize that you have a spending problem.

You look for ways to stop the cycle but your relentlessness weakens with every failed attempt. Not to worry though, millions of people are walking the same path every day. Stuck in a cycle of social acceptance of “it is how it is”. People are being misled into this type of behavior; it’s easy to have an instant gratification mentality with the advancement of our instant access society.

People want it all and the want it now, you need to realize the problems and head it straight on face to face. Money spending can be very much a disease that ruins your life, health and wealth with no second thought; in a blink of an eye everything changes.

Don’t become a victim know the warning signs and seek out assistance if you can’t make the corrections on your own. First take a close look at your house are you cluttered or over stocked with items of clothing, collectables, shoes, tools or other items? Secondly take a look at your financial statements (profit and loss statement, balance sheet, expense report) to see what your financial net worth looks like.

With no second guessing you’ll soon be able to have a clear view of your entire situation. You’ll know if your rewards are reward to you or just rewarding to your creditor’s benefit. All of the frequent flier miles, rewards from Visa, Master Card, Discover Card and American Express are all designed to get you spending.

Rewarding yourself is for good behavior, once a month after achieving all of your contributions toward your future plans, current expenses all paid, unnecessary spending cut from your budget, as well as new profitable investments researched and purchased. Then and only then will you have the ability to consciously accept a reward for great or exceptional behavior. Until then it’s not rewarding to make purchases just for the sake of spending. It’s downright unrewarding and unsettling to our core when we do things of this nature.

We are just conditioned to think its normal everyday activities to be like this. No one has to live in debt over load or seek shelter from the weight of their financial burden. Seek knowledge and a plan to uncover your full financial potential. Stop the blatant disruption of the course of evolution by aligning yourself with the correct actions you are achieving for. Stop living for the moment if your not prepared to stay ahead of the curve and prepare for tomorrow. You’ll wind up six feet under a stack of bills waiting for every last breath to be sucked out of your life. Instead run the race, win the championship and earn the rewarding, respectfulness you deserve by taking control of your money habits today.

• What to do after you become wealthy SO you've made it, that "pie in the sky, pipe dream" your friends always said would never amount to anything. You know when you went out to talk with your associates, close friends and family for input or advice. All of your hard knocks, bloody knuckles, sweat and tears combined......
• How to obtain credit in a down market Yes you can obtain credit in a down market with the proper mindset, motivation, and knowledge. Where do you start especially if you need to acquire it fast and you don't have many resources. This is a quick guide to preparing for the individual or the corporate credit seeker. If......
• E-Waste Plus Wall Street, Times The Mortgage Market Equate To A Toxic Mess E Waste, mortgages, Wall Street, credit derivatives, rising credit deficit and the bet against America. I was watching 60 Minutes last night, it was very disturbing to learn exactly what has been going on both in the technology sector as well as the financial markets. Both topics showed me......
• Recovering from bankruptcy isn't as difficult as you may think I hear this cry from many people worried about their financial circumstances after they have decided that bankruptcy is their only alternative when it comes to recovering from financial hardship. I'm not an attorney yet I work very closely with them in my real estate business. On many occasions bankruptcy......
• Skype Users Beware Hackers and malware programmers are nothing new to the Internet scene, in fact as the Internet evolves and grows into a living, artificial intelligence of it's own these threats become more and more frequent as well as evasive to those who fall victim of such threats. Now your favorite......

• Depreciating assets as works of art Some items depreciate really quickly after they're bought. The "class life" of an item gives an estimate of how long things should last. It's what the IRS uses to guide taxpayers in calculating depreciation, the amount of the purchase price that the owner can deduct per year for durable goods......
• all about rewards credit cards (guest post) Are rewards cards really that great? Should you shell out an annual fee to carry one in your wallet? Will they give your credit score super powers? Here’s an overview of all things rewards-card related, so you can decide their true worth for yourself. Rewards cards rack up perks, but…......
• Smart Shopping During the Holidays When the holiday season rolls around, many of us naturally turn to our credit cards and treat them as a viable way to plump up our budgets for gift giving. Sure, credit cards can be a real life saver when cash is tight, but the secret to using our credit......
• I Am Not Against Using Credit Cards To My Advantage. In the last month or so, I have gotten a few emails asking why I talk about using credit cards on this site. I took the time to answer the people directly, but I wanted to mention it here just in case there was anyone else wondering. I am not,......
• Credit Cards Just Loans Wrapped In Pretty Plastic Last weekend my daughter and I had a talk about credit cards after she saw me use my debit card at the store.  Here's a sample of our exchange: Her: "Dad, I thought you weren't supposed to buy stuff with credit cards." Me: "That's true, but that was a debit......