Last week I told you I paid off $93,900 in debt. A few of you asked the obvious question: what happens to all the cash that's now freed up?

Short answer: it's already spoken for. And the best part: I'm not the one deciding where it goes, so I’m not tempted to increase my lifestyle expenses.

When a debt gets close to zero, most people do one of two things. They celebrate and loosen up. Or they immediately spend the the freed up cash because “they worked so hard”.

Both are gut calls. I've replaced my gut with two rules.

Whether you have a system or not, make sure that you know exactly where that cash is going to go before you get anywhere near paying it off.

I'm not saying don't enjoy a brief celebration, but if you already have it spoken for, whether it's investments or savings, it is better to ensure that that money stays out of sight, out of mind, so it can be productive.

This eliminates the emotion.

For me, my system tells me exactly where my next $100 of freed-up cash is going.

Every line of credit I draw on runs with a forecast: the actual payment schedules of everything I own, my savings rate, and the interest accruing on the line. Then:

The system is deterministic and makes sure I never over-extend myself.

Because I've met my instinct. It's the same one that walked me into a business deal that left me over $200k in debt.

And I've tested what happens when ambition runs the show. When I modeled the "always go bigger" version of my own strategy, it looked incredible. It compounds faster, the numbers race ahead. Then one oversized loan's interest starts outrunning its payments. It never gets paid off. The investments behind it expire one by one, and the cashflow collapses to zero, with millions in debt still on the books.

Speed you can't sustain isn't speed.

The two rules exist to make that outcome impossible. Every launch has to prove that it can finish its own cycle. That's what gives me control and predictability, even with leverage in the mix.

These aren't sticky notes on my monitor, by the way. They're written into the projection engine inside Amplifica, the same simulations I run before every deployment.

We will make the projection part of the app available on our website soon. Stay tuned!

My line of credit will hit the trigger. My forecast is clear.

I'll share the exact numbers right here when it happens.

The freed-up cash doesn't get a vacation. It gets a job.

Engineer your future. Amplify your wealth. Live your way.

— Miguel

My life runs on a lot of rules, self-imposed, mostly. Aren’t all rules?

The financial rules are serving me well as they remove the emotion where it should not be. But sometimes, removing the emotion is the mistake.

I enjoy going to the gym and have made it a rule. Get up and go to the gym. I accidentally removed the emotion from something that was good.

Makes me think where else I accidentally remove emotion.