Once you are sure you have enough to eat and a roof over your head you can start thinking about your other bills. The secured loans, like your car payment, should come before your

unsecured loans, like your credit cards.

The reason for this is simple. Creditors that have secured property will sue or repossess much quicker than credit card companies.

If you find yourself in this situation it is a sign that you need to do something drastic and fast. By not paying all of your bills each month they are going to add up quickly and

you are going to accumulate a lot of late fees.

The best place to start is to find out exactly where you stand and what is causing problem. This is as simple as listing your income on one side of a piece of paper and your bills on other. Total each and subtract your bills from your income.

Your next step is to develop a budget. You can find a free and simple budget by visiting The Complete Budget and Bill Organizer at http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/BBOonline.html

Whether you use my budget system or another it is very important that you start one as soon as possible. For those of you that believe a budget is to restrictive, just opposite is true. The only way you can get what you want and know you can afford it is to have a

budget in place.

It is important that you pay all of your bills on time each month. When you don't have money to pay everything it is vital to your survival that you pay most important bills first.

1) What are true investment requirements?

What are initial investment requirements? / How much money do you have to have to get started?

What if any recurring investment requirements are there? Do you need to continue to invest more money into this instrument in order for it to maintain level of passive income generation you need?

2) What is real net rate of return e.g. 1% a year, 10% a year, 1% a day, etc.?

How much passive income is this technique going to generate for you, each day / month / year, based on how much you invest in it?

Do these earnings compound upon themselves, and if so at what rate and frequency?

3) How accessible are earnings generated?

Can you really access money generated when you need it, e.g. to pay mortgage and monthly bills, etc. or do you have to wait and plan ahead to withdraw your earnings?

What do you have to do to access earnings generated, and how easy to do is this for you?

4) How truly passive is it?

Do you have to constantly "watch markets" and/or your investments to avoid losing money and/or your potential earnings in them?

Do these investments require some continuing level of effort to manage and/or maintain, e.g. real estate?

If so, then is this something you really want to do with your time in order to "guard" or maintain your investments?

5) How long will it take for this method to generate passive income you need to cover your expenses such that you may achieve true financial independence?

Will this generate enough for you to live on in a matter of months or years or not until you are retirement age? This makes a Big Difference, doesn't it! ;)

Will this method generate barely enough for you to get by or will it continue to grow and provide you with added financial security?

6) What are risks?

Could you lose your initial investment and/or your earnings if you aren't vigilant or careful?

Compare risks to potential rewards and decide if risks are outweighed by rewards and whether or not you are willing and able to take these risks.

Your answers to each of these questions relative to passive income generation methods which you consider for your own financial independence strategy and plan should help you chose those that are right for you and your current needs and situation at time, right?

Again, objective is just to chose those that are best for you right now, and get started generating a passive income, Today! Right?

The sooner you start generating a passive income and getting your money working for you, sooner and more likely you are to achieve true financial independence as soon as possible! :)

In Part 2 of this series of articles, we will explore various ways in which you may generate additional revenue with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products (and/or others' services) and how you may use revenue generated from these sales to further fuel and grow your passive income stream(s).

And then, in Part 3, of this series of articles, we will explore how you may use money you earn from working, e.g. your "day job" and/or business(es), to further fuel your investments in and accelerate returns on these investment from both Step 1 and Step 2 above

I hope that you have found this article helpful and beneficial to you!

Please feel free to pass it along to your friends and family who may also be interested in achieving their own financial independence and whom may benefit from it.

To Your Financial Independence,

- Michael S. DeVries