One hundred years ago...

it was nearly impossible for the average American to become a millionaire.

In 1900 the average worker in this country made .22 cents per hour and $200 to $400 dollars per year. Only 6% of the people graduated from high school and the life expectancy was 47 years old. Only 14% of the homes had a bath tub. There were 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads. The average family spent 80% of their income on the basic necessities of life: food, shelter and clothing.

10% of the families were in the upper or middle class and 90% would have been considered poor. There were two economic classes, the rich and the rest.

Now move forward 100 years.

The median income is $49,000. There are more cars in this country than people. Most families have at least two TVs and the life expectancy is 75 years old. People today have more disposable income, more leisure time and more career options than ever before.

That being said, most of the nation's 72 million families are living paycheck to paycheck. If you take away the family home, cars and furniture, the average family has zero assets. ZERO!

Income is up. Life style is up. But so is debt and hours spent working.

What is the problem?

The problem is we are plugged into the wrong system. We are letting the media and the advertisers tell us how to spend our money.

Some of the biggest drains on our incomes are interest and penalties that we pay on our debts. We simply pay too much for both.

There are ways of taking the debt that may take you 30 to 50 years to pay off at your current schedule and paying it off in 8 to 12 years or less. House, cars, credit cards, everything can be paid off in 8 to 12 years.

If you are paying any interest on any kind of consumer debt then you're paying too much.