20 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: JUNE 2017 D e p e n d i n g o n whose research you look at, the average Ameri- canhouseholdowes$90,000- $130,000 in debt, the largest being your mortgage, fol- lowed by student loans, auto loans, and credit cards. Most of us are living pay- check-to-paycheck and have no savings. Cops are no exception. Debt is your biggest emer- gency and likely the most prevalent source of stress in your life. Just a few years ago, I was in a divorce, which led to foreclosure on my house, and a judgment against me from a credit card company for over $20,000. Don’t be dumb about debt like I was, recognize this for the emer- gency that it is and commit to paying off your debts as financial priority You want to recover cash- flow as quickly as possible. Unnecessary spending HAS to go! Here’s a simple formula I got from one of my financial mentors, to decide which debt you should focus on first, and in what order to proceed: Total balance / Minimum payment = Debt efficiency ratio (DER). Write down the total balance and the minimum payment of all debts. Divide the total balance by the minimum payment for each one. This is your debt efficiency ratio (DER). The higher the number, the more efficient the debt. The lower the number, the less efficient the debt. Pay off the debt with the lowest DER first. Once that debt is paid, attack the next lowest DER, applying the snowball method, by pay- ing the minimum plus what Tactical finance you were paying on the last debt(s) you knocked out. Pay minimums on all the others except the debt you’re currently focusing on. In future columns, I’ll share more on raising your in- come, but that does no good without first developing the discipline of consistently at- tacking debt. Start where you are! According to recent article from Business Insider: “A Drug Enforcement Ad- ministration survey of more than 1,400 state and local law-enforcement agencies for the 2016 National Drug Threat Assessment found that less than 5 percent said they saw marijuana as their “greatest threat,” while only 5.4 percent said marijuana was the biggest driver of violent crime. “Most law enforcement would like to see some type of legalization or decrimi- nalization for marijuana,” Raeford Davis, a former North Charleston police officer, told Business Insider. “The only ones that oppose that are what I would call ‘dead-enders’ in policing. Legalization is coming and law enforcement officers welcome that.” “Our current enforcement, particularly the street-level enforcement, is just ineffec- tive,” Davis went on to say. “And it just really unnec- essarily criminalizes people and increases crime with the drug-related violence.” For a lot of people, it’s like the opioid epidemic doesn’t even exist – whether you own a lot of stock in pharma- ceutical companies or not. Been there and done that, it doesn’t work Speaking of the war on drugs, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been waging his own since assuming power. Officials estimate that more than 6000 people were assas- sinated by law enforcement, paramilitaries and vigilantes since July 2016. “Hitler massacred six million Jews. Now, there are three million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them,” the Filipino strongman has said. Duterte will report- edly be honored with a dinner at the White House in the near future. by Adam Doran Adam Doran (right) is a 15-year veteran police officer from the Kansas City area. You can connect with Adam through his website, copfinance.com, or email him directly at adam@copfinance.com. ly, Inc. Digital Video Cameras Video Technology First Responders Body Mounted Video Cameras Police Departm orcement Digital Ally Video Evidence My Way Digital Ally, Inc Capture Truth Cloud or Local Storage Right Tool for ar Video Systems Digital Evidence VuVault.com Capture Truth FirstVu HD One In-Car Video Body Worn Cameras e Agency Management Automatic Recording Technology Public Safety First Responders In-Car Video Syste vidence VuVault.com Capture Truth FirstVu HD One In-Car Video Body Worn Cameras Video Software Agency M tomatic Recording Technology Public Safety First Responders y Digital Ally, Inc. 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