The Money Marathon: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom

In The Money Marathon: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom, author and marathoner Ed Douglas uses his decades of financial expertise and love of running to compare the steps toward financial success to the steps involved in training, preparing, and running a marathon. Whether you've ever run a race or not, this book reveals how to complete your race to financial freedom. Once a person has money working for him, he has finished the race for financial freedom and he can likewise reflect on the accomplishment, relax, and enjoy himself. This doesn t necessarily mean a future of nothing but fun and games, although that could be financially possible. Rather, it can mean a person is in a position of financial freedom to pursue whatever he chooses, to fulfill his own life goals and to find ways to be productive and ultimately to help others.

The Money Marathon is a must-read for anyone 18 and older who wants to know the simple and easy-to-follow basic steps to financial success. A number of important financial steps are covered in The Money Marathon:
Raising your income and lowering your expenses
Increasing Savings: Tips and Proven Techniques
Investment Essentials: Who to Trust and Selecting the Right Mutual Funds
The Magic of Compound Interest: Learning and Understanding the Importance of Saving and Investing
Protecting Assets: Types of Insurance, Estate Planning, and other must-have documents
Getting and staying out of debt
And, finally, how to make money work for you!

Learn these important concepts and others from the author, an expert in personal finance, a former bank chairman and Chief Executive Officer, a Certified Financial Planner, a past trust officer, and author of Making a Million with Only $2,000: Every Young Person Can Do It and 25 Truths: Winning Wisdom for a Better Life.

From the Author:
Running the race to financial freedom and running a marathon starts with commitment. One of my hobbies is running marathons. I have run a marathon in each of the last four decades, and I am a member of the 50 States Marathon Club, having run fourteen marathons in thirteen different states. (A person has to document running a marathon in ten different states or more to qualify for membership.) Running a marathon is much like running the race toward financial freedom, and comparisons will be made throughout the book. The most important comparison is that a person has to commit they are going to do it. Without commitment, nothing else matters. A person doesn t awaken one morning and say to himself, I am going to run a marathon today. It takes six months to a year of preparation, training, and planning to be ready to run the race. None of this happens without commitment. Running the race to financial freedom also starts with commitment...

Our purpose in life is to love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds and to love others. I believe God has made each of us special with unique talents, abilities, passions, and interests. I believe he wants us to enjoy our lives by using our talents to help others and thereby make a positive difference in the world. Money is a tool we use in our lives to help us fulfill our purpose. Money is not an end; it is a means to an end. Money will never make a person happy; however, a lack of money can go a long way in making one unhappy.

The 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom:
STEP 1: Logging Miles: Increasing a Person's Abilities
STEP 2: The Training Log: Prioritizing Limited Resources
STEP 3: One Step at a Time
STEP 4: The Long Run and the Magic of Compounding Interest
STEP 5: Debt: Running the Race with a Heavy Weight
STEP 6: Good Quality Shoes: Protecting a Person s Assets
STEP 7: Crossing the Finish Line: Making Money Work for You
The Medal for Finishing the Race

Ed Douglas, CFP™ retired at the beginning of 2006 from Citizens Bancshares Bank, headquartered in Chillicothe, Missouri, after nearly thirty-two years with the company. He spent his last twenty years as president and, later, chairman and CEO. Under his leadership, the company grew its capital and increased assets over tenfold to a 1,000,000,000 dollar bank holding company with locations in twenty-five towns. His current title is Chairman Emeritus and Board Member of Citizens Bancshares. He is a Certified Financial Planner and currently operates Ed Douglas Certified Financial Planning/Consulting. Ed is the author of the book Making a Million with Only $2000: Every Young Person Can Do It, currently in its second printing, as well as The Money Marathon: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom. He regularly gives financial seminars to adults and speaks to student groups on important financial topics. In 2010, Ed published his third book entitled, 25 Truths: Winning Wisdom for a Better Life. Ed has been appointed by three different governors in Missouri to statewide positions, including Commissioner of the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission and President of the Northwest Missouri State University Board of Regents. He currently serves on the William Jewell College Board and serves as president of the Chillicothe Education Foundation and is a member of the Cornerstone Church. He has coached the high school tennis team for the last 13 years, and is a member of the 50 States Marathon Club, having run 15 marathons in 14 states. He and his wife Marla reside in Chillicothe; and they have three children, Jared, Aaron, and Kaylee, as well as a daughter-in-law, Micah.