Team BDO has a $50 minimum donation amount to run with one of the BDO shirts.  Below is a short list of other organizations and their minimums to run for their charity.

Eric did however create a goal of $2620 to help support BDO place more educational advertisements to warn people against overspending and going into more debt.  He was able to raise $139.

Getting ready to run the MCM

The race went very well for Eric as he finished the race around 4 hours.  The weather was brisk and the route was mostly flat for the final 16 miles.  He was challenged in the beginning because he joined the 4:30 group at the start of the marathon.  This meant that there were many people ahead of him, increasing the congestion among the 35,000 people that ran that day.  Not until mile 7 was Eric able to start swerving between people and make up some time.  Additionally, the lines for the restrooms were extremely long in the beginning, so by Eric stopping at mile 4 caused a 15 minute delay in his run time as well.  After mile 7, Eric seemed to have a boost of energy because he stepped up the pace and was able to quickly make up time without hitting his “wall” or sustaining injuries.  The Lord blessed in all aspects of this marathon, from great training to a motivating, injury free run.  Overall, it was a great time to get out in the nation’s capital and run for BeatingDebt.org.

Just finished the MCM

If you would like to make a final donation, please click the link below.

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Volunteer or Donate to Help Convince More People To Stay Away From Debt.

Show others how much you’ve beaten debt
for the price of one latte a year. – – Beating Debt Charts

DebtFreeChristmas.org

Let us rise up and be an alternate voice to the corporations marketing to us to buy, buy, buy this Christmas season.

It was a tough run for both of us.  Jason is a fast runner but he had to work all night and then run 4 miles.  So he was tired and slower than usual.  I was trying to keep up with Jason, so I was struggling to keep up and to go over all the hills on the course.  But overall it was a great time!

Hopefully, our T-Shirts helped raise the level of conversation about overspending and debt.

If you would like to sponsor this race or the marathon coming up, please click here.

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Volunteer or Donate to Help Convince More People To Stay Away From Debt.

Show others how much you’ve beaten debt
for the price of one latte a year. – – Beating Debt Charts

BeatingDebt.org is raising money for its Educational Ads Project. This money will create more public service announcements to help teach people to stay away from debt and overspending.

You can help by:

Posting your Debt-Free Independence Day Date online.

Donating a minimum of $5 a month.

Participate in a Independence Day Protest.

Participate in a Independence Day Walk/Run

Learn more here: http://www.beatingdebt.org/IndependenceDay09.php

~~~~~~~~

Volunteer or Donate to Help Convince More People To Stay Away From Debt.

Show others how much you’ve beaten debt
for the price of one latte a year. – – Beating Debt Charts

The National Day of Prayer will be May 7th, 2009.  Join us as we pray for America.

BDO’s prayer is that America learns to stay away from debt and that we can experience the joy and freedom that comes being away from debt.

Will you join us in this prayer?

~~~~~~~~

GoodSearch for BeatingDebt.org
http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=877125
and other opportunities.
Volunteer or Donate to Help Convince People To Stay Away From Debt.

]]> http://blog.beatingdebt.org/2009/04/23/national-day-of-prayer-7-may/feed/ 0 BDO ndp09_logo BeatingDebt.org Logo http://blog.beatingdebt.org/2009/04/16/tax-day-debt-protest-2009-report/ http://blog.beatingdebt.org/2009/04/16/tax-day-debt-protest-2009-report/#comments Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:23:46 +0000 BDO http://blog.beatingdebt.org/?p=821 ]]>  

BDO was organizing a tax day debt protest since our December interview with the Jacksonville Daily News reporter.  The idea was to help educate consumers about:

1. the dangers of taking out refund loans to get their refunds faster,
2. overspending their refund,
3. and then culminating in a Debt Protest on April 15th.

In late February, the tea party organizers started developing their idea for a Raleigh demonstration.  Since one of the ideas of the tea party is to protest debt, I thought it would be a good match to also come out, bringing my usual sign, to help educate the demonstrators about the necessity for personal budget management.

My family and I came out to the Raleigh, NC Tea Party on April 15th.  There were about 700 – 800 people when we showed up.  We stayed about an hour and walked around with our sign and stood on the sidewalks for the many cars passing by to see the demonstration.  I was also able to pass out a couple of our BDO business cards.

However, I think our message of debt education and reduction was overshadowed by the many people unhappy about the direction of this country.    It was a good crowd, but they were too focused on their emotions against certain national policies to hear the message that we need to slow our own consumption of debt, before we start hating on the government for their lack of fiscal discipline.

As one blogger put it on one of the Tea Party websites:

BDO,
You have some good thoughts, but my personal budget is my own business. If I rack up my credit card balances that is my own problem. It is wrong for me, or anyone else to think that you, or Rich, should come to my aid. There is nothing wrong with spending money like a drunkin sailer as that mate is spending his own money. Congress, all of them including the past two presidents, have borrowed against our income, our children and grand children. If steal your wallet, and give it to someone I deem as needy it is still a crime, no matter how worthy. The Constitution clearly states that it is a crime for the elected officials to do it also.  — Adam

The problem with this rebuttal is that the reason our economy is in its economic mess is because consumers have taken on too much debt, not that the government has taken on too much debt.  The housing crisis was because too many consumers took on loans they couldn’t afford which caused economic failure.  People are not spending money, because they are realizing that they have too much debt and need to get some breathing room from it, just in case they lose their job.  This whole downward economic cycle is because of consumer debt and the mishandling of personal budgets.

Our focus at BDO is not to delve into national politics for the purpose of changing any current policies.  However, we do understand that as we promote the idea for people to beat debt, it will have a national effect on the economy, because more people will not be spending outrageously.  We also understand the concept that if consumers, as a whole, started paying off all their debts that that would create mass havoc on the economy as visualized from this video.

Even still, we believe the greater good of becoming free from debt is worth the temporary pain of economic challenges.  That is why BDO believes that we CAN NOT expect our representatives to balance the budget, if we can not balance our personal budgets.  We have a $14 trillion consumer debt load, which is more than the national deficit.  If we are not able to balance our budget, save for the future, or stop overspending as consumers, how can we expect our representatives to do any different.  If they did, would they be representing us?  So, when we, as a nation, start balancing our personal budgets, I am sure we will start electing representatives that will do the same for the national budget.

So, we will continue to help promote the idea of beating consumer debt.  The Consumer Debt Clock has been going down for the past two quarters.  Our hope is that through our Educational Ads, Debt Evangelism, and constant promotion of debt reduction we will continue to see the Consumer Debt Clock go down.  Thereby helping people to stay away from debt and experience the freedom that is earned away from debt.

Learn more here.

~~~~~~~~

GoodSearch for BeatingDebt.org
http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=877125
and other opportunities.
Volunteer or Donate to Help Convince People To Stay Away From Debt.

VALENTINE’S DAY DEBT PROTEST

7 Feb 2009

Debt Evangelism

Join us as we meet in our communities to tell others not to overspend and go into debt this Valentine’s Day.

We do not have to buy a gift to give a gift!
Debt does not lead to happiness!

BeatingDebt.org is asking volunteers to do three things.

1. Organize with your friends and family at anytime on the 7th of Feb. Be sure to protest your personal message against debt on public sidewalks. Make sure to get authorization from your local government.
2. Post your message of protest on a sheet of paper and place them on street polls and community events boards on Feb 7th.  You can get an example here.
3. Prepare a blog that provides for your readers with some answers as to how to stay away from debt and ways to give without having to go into debt this Valentine’s Day.

Tell us how what you are doing on Feb 7th in your community by RSVPing.

The “Debt Protest” should educate consumers on their pre-Valentine’s Day shopping to stay away from consumer debt.

Let us rise up and be an alternate voice to the corporations marketing to us to buy, buy, buy on Valentine’s Day.

 ~~~~~

GoodSearch for BeatingDebt.org
http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=877125

Planning for the future is very important in being successful on your financial marathon.  Failing to plan can cause havoc on your goal to beat debt.  “Don’t let Christmas (or any other holiday) sneak up on you.” 

Plan today what you want to spend for Christmas 2009 and start saving today for that goal!

BeatingDebt.org will be selling this Gift Spending Plan for $0.99 on our Resources page.  Please consider purchasing a copy of this Excel file that will automatically calculate the required money needed per month.

May this year be filled with blessing and less debt for you, your community, and this nation in 2009.

For more information on how you can make an impact in these areas, click here.

If you are committed to beating debt for 2009, leave a comment of your New Year’s Resolution.