5 Apps That Will Earn You Money For Doing Almost Nothing

 I remember when I first realized I had a cash flow problem back in 2012. I was practicing law as an Assistant Attorney General making a nice sized salary, but somehow I was going further into debt. There always seemed to be "too much month at the end of the money." I was stressed and depressed and had to do something about it.

I did what a lot of people do and took the Dave Ramsey course, but I couldn't get past Step 1, which is "Save $1,000 for an Emergency Fund." I WAS ALREADY HAVING AN EMERGENCY! How could I possibly start saving extra when there was never any extra to save. Somehow, more money was going out than was coming in and I had to figure out how.

Everything came to a head one night after I went to dinner with some friends and opted to have water for dinner because my checking account was overdrawn and my credit cards were maxed. That same night I sat down at my desk, printed out several months of bank and credit card statements, and started looking at every dollar that left my account and that I had charged on my cards.

I started with the largest numbers, which were my law school student loan payments. Those payments were the worst. After totaling all my student loan payments I added them up to realize I was paying a minimum of $1,600 a month! I had no idea I was paying that much. Every month I would just login to each site, click to pay, and logout without thinking much of it. 

Payments of $1,600 was more than any of my friends' mortgage payments. I didn't have my own mortgage at the time because no bank would've loaned me money. It's probably good too because they would've foreclosed on me.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to know when the student loan payments would end. So I started totaling my balances. Before I even could add the last several up, I felt physically ill at the number I was already starting at: $176,000. Just typing that out is giving me some PTSD. I still had more to add to it and I hadn't even totaled up my four maxed out credit cards at that point. I had to walk away from my desk and I didn't go back in my office for about 24 hours. I needed a good cooling off period.

When I mustered up the strength to sit back down and total up all my debt the number was well over $200,000. That was all student loans and credit cards. I realized my cash flow was in the negative, meaning I had more money going out than I had coming in. That's called a "negative cash flow."

That was where my journey started. That was my starting point. Over the next several years I spent countless hours researching and learning about the concept of cash flow and how you can not only have a positive cash flow, but also grow it. I read book after book and watched webinar after webinar gaining all the knowledge I could about it.

Three and a half years later I found myself coaching over 20,000 people in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium on how I eliminated nearly $200,000 of debt including four maxed out credit cards, three student loans, and a personal bank loan using this system.

Now I take great pleasure in helping everyone I know get out of the financial holes they're in and increase their cash flow.