This amazing revolutionary concept not only lines up with the Bible ( see Prov 21:20) but ALSO is the most profound system known to mankind for getting out of the hole financially. I leave this video with you as our swan song to our LO$T series. Thanks for being a part of the fun!
http://consumerist.com/consumer/clips/snl-skit-dont-buy-stuff-you-cant-afford-252491.php
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Dave Ramsey
Check this guy out. He's great. Simple and brilliant. Aim at nothing and you'll hit it every time!
Rollover Debt Plan
Here's a MUCH better explaination of the debt rollover plan that I was able to give last Sunday...
Monday, March 2, 2009
A Sneak Preview
Here's a sneak preview of a video I plan to show at some time in the series. This guy put this ad together to sell his Dodge Aries. I laughed out loud. Take a look.
I love this because it gently mocks most car ads that subtly suggest that what you drive reflects how cool you are. I think that more people would be wise to consider paying cash for a depreciating item such as a car.
Here's a simple plan how: Call the guy in the video and give him $200 for the Aries. Meanwhile, save the equivalent of new car payments and pretty soon ($500 a month = 1 year) you can buy a 5 year old Civic for $6k. Sell the Aries for $200 and pay cash for the Civic and keep saving those "new car payments" and in 4 years you can drop the cash ($24k) for a brand new Accord!
I'm not saying that $24k wrapped up in a new car is a good idea. I'd rather stay with the Civic and pocket the 18 grand but that's just me. The point is that you stop the crippling car payments after 5 years and you actually own your own wheels.
I love this because it gently mocks most car ads that subtly suggest that what you drive reflects how cool you are. I think that more people would be wise to consider paying cash for a depreciating item such as a car.
Here's a simple plan how: Call the guy in the video and give him $200 for the Aries. Meanwhile, save the equivalent of new car payments and pretty soon ($500 a month = 1 year) you can buy a 5 year old Civic for $6k. Sell the Aries for $200 and pay cash for the Civic and keep saving those "new car payments" and in 4 years you can drop the cash ($24k) for a brand new Accord!
I'm not saying that $24k wrapped up in a new car is a good idea. I'd rather stay with the Civic and pocket the 18 grand but that's just me. The point is that you stop the crippling car payments after 5 years and you actually own your own wheels.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Ants, Badgers, Locusts and Lizards
I was reading in Proverbs this week and I came across Chapter 30 verse 24 where it says, There are four things on earth that are small but unusually wise: Ants—they aren’t strong, but they store up food for the winter. Rock badgers—they aren’t powerful, but they make their homes among the rocky cliffs. Locusts—they have no king, but they march like an army in ranks. Lizards—they are easy to catch, but they are found even in kings’ palaces. Proverbs 30:24
It seems that God gave these animals some really good instincts for survival and we would be wise to learn from them.
This month we are going to follow a 5-step process for getting out of the woods financially. Here they are:
Week #1: Move from Fear to Faith. That’s what we talked about this morning. Fear immobilizes people and our entire world these days is paralyzed by fear. These days, even President Obama has abandoned his “audacity of hope message” and warns we are slipping into a financial nightmare. According to the Daily Telegraph in London England, the Baby Boomers are now “Baby Gloomers”.
The lizard, on the other hand, is fearless and bold. These little guys are willing to go into places that others would not dare. They thrive in all kinds of environments because they do not allow their fear to keep them from doing what they need to do.
But as followers of Christ we don’t have to be in a state of panic. We can take a page from the lizard by learning how to move beyond panic mode and into a place of peace where we can make good financial decisions with a clear head.
Week #2: Get on the Same Page. The locusts are great cooperators. They have no king… no leaders at all. Yet they move together like an army in ranks. They don’t fight one another but instead they keep their eye on the task and work together for the mutual benefit of everyone.
Next week we want to talk about the importance of getting your financial partners on the same page as you so you can move forward. Husbands and wives, we need to stop fighting one another and take a page from the locusts’ playbook. Don’t get all rank-and-file on one another. Keep your eye on the task of getting out of the woods financially. Get on the same page money-wise. Parents train and partner with your kids. If you are in business, get on the same page as your partners in business. Stop complaining and start cooperating.
Week #3: Determine Your Priorities. We will be talking about why you need to prayerfully identify what your priorities will be. What kinds of vacations are important to you? Is private education for your kids important? Where does that fit in terms of importance? You can’t do everything you want so you need to prioritize.
Week #4: Make a Budget. The ant is a saver. It doesn’t just consume everything it gets. It doesn’t just eat everything it can get its hands on. The ant doesn’t live paycheck to paycheck. It saves up food for the winter.
Everybody needs to have a plan if you want to be like the ant. You need to know where your money is going and bring your lifestyle into alignment with that plan. Like the ant, you need to have discipline to put some money away for your future. We want to give you some excellent resources for making this possible.
Week #5: Keep Track Regularly. The badger is persistent. He doesn’t give up easily. In fact, we even use the term, “badgering” to speak of somebody who doesn’t stop. Up there on a rocky cliff, the badger survives and thrives in even the most difficult living conditions. Why? Because he’s not a quitter.
Likewise, we can’t give up. We need to do the hard ongoing work of reconciling your accounts on a regular basis as you evaluate where you are at in your plan. Are you meeting your goals? Are you sticking to your budget? Are you persistent like the badger even when temptation comes your way and you want to give up?
That’s our five-week LO$T series in a nutshell as we talk about how to find our way in an economic recession.
It seems that God gave these animals some really good instincts for survival and we would be wise to learn from them.
This month we are going to follow a 5-step process for getting out of the woods financially. Here they are:
Week #1: Move from Fear to Faith. That’s what we talked about this morning. Fear immobilizes people and our entire world these days is paralyzed by fear. These days, even President Obama has abandoned his “audacity of hope message” and warns we are slipping into a financial nightmare. According to the Daily Telegraph in London England, the Baby Boomers are now “Baby Gloomers”.
The lizard, on the other hand, is fearless and bold. These little guys are willing to go into places that others would not dare. They thrive in all kinds of environments because they do not allow their fear to keep them from doing what they need to do.
But as followers of Christ we don’t have to be in a state of panic. We can take a page from the lizard by learning how to move beyond panic mode and into a place of peace where we can make good financial decisions with a clear head.
Week #2: Get on the Same Page. The locusts are great cooperators. They have no king… no leaders at all. Yet they move together like an army in ranks. They don’t fight one another but instead they keep their eye on the task and work together for the mutual benefit of everyone.
Next week we want to talk about the importance of getting your financial partners on the same page as you so you can move forward. Husbands and wives, we need to stop fighting one another and take a page from the locusts’ playbook. Don’t get all rank-and-file on one another. Keep your eye on the task of getting out of the woods financially. Get on the same page money-wise. Parents train and partner with your kids. If you are in business, get on the same page as your partners in business. Stop complaining and start cooperating.
Week #3: Determine Your Priorities. We will be talking about why you need to prayerfully identify what your priorities will be. What kinds of vacations are important to you? Is private education for your kids important? Where does that fit in terms of importance? You can’t do everything you want so you need to prioritize.
Week #4: Make a Budget. The ant is a saver. It doesn’t just consume everything it gets. It doesn’t just eat everything it can get its hands on. The ant doesn’t live paycheck to paycheck. It saves up food for the winter.
Everybody needs to have a plan if you want to be like the ant. You need to know where your money is going and bring your lifestyle into alignment with that plan. Like the ant, you need to have discipline to put some money away for your future. We want to give you some excellent resources for making this possible.
Week #5: Keep Track Regularly. The badger is persistent. He doesn’t give up easily. In fact, we even use the term, “badgering” to speak of somebody who doesn’t stop. Up there on a rocky cliff, the badger survives and thrives in even the most difficult living conditions. Why? Because he’s not a quitter.
Likewise, we can’t give up. We need to do the hard ongoing work of reconciling your accounts on a regular basis as you evaluate where you are at in your plan. Are you meeting your goals? Are you sticking to your budget? Are you persistent like the badger even when temptation comes your way and you want to give up?
That’s our five-week LO$T series in a nutshell as we talk about how to find our way in an economic recession.
Tools for Getting Out of the Woods
Here’s the websites and resources I mentioned this morning…
Crown Life Financial: http://www.crown.org/
This is the website of Crown Life Financial. The name to me sounds suspiciously like a Christian investment firm but – trust me – it’s a nonprofit ministry that has no investments to sell you except great advice and sound biblical principles. Some of the tools have a minimum fee but tons of their stuff is gratis. I encourage you to click around in this site as much as you can. They have documents that are fairly low-tech but helpful for people who like to print off forms and work with pencils and paper.
I especially recommend the following pages:
For a MUCH better explanation of the “Debt Rollover Plan” than I gave this morning, go to http://www.crown.org/LIBRARY/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=765 and read the article or for those who prefer video go to http://www.moneylife.org/videos/ and scroll down the list till you get to the right video.
The Accelerated Debt Payoff Calculator is simple, brilliant and bordering on the miraculous. Everybody with multiple Credit Cards should give this a whirl: http://www.crown.org/Tools/Calculators/Debt_AcceleratedPayoff.asp
These free documents are great – especially the “Percentage Guides” where you get a good ballpark for what your budget lines should be for food, housing, transportation, etc… http://www.crown.org/Library/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=263
The “30 Day Diary” on the page immediately above is something I should have handed out to everybody this morning because it’s a simple ledger than enables you to keep track of your $ for the next month. Remember your homework from this morning?
Google Documents: http://docs.google.com/
Recently I spent a bunch of time on Excel making some spreadsheets. It was good to force myself to learn the program. And yet didn’t I feel a twinge of disappointment when I saw that Google Documents has all the stuff you need at the click of an index finger. A little tip is that you’ll need to disable your popup blocker for the spreadsheets to work. The beauty of this is that you can share a document with another person and work from multiple computers. This is wonderful for families like mine where I have my laptop and Christa has her desktop computer. It can even be accessed from any computer in the world with a password so it’s secure but just a click away.
The Family Budget Planner spreadsheet is brilliant. Go to “New” and then click on “From Template.”
CNN Money: http://money.cnn.com/
You think you’re having a bad year? Join the (very exclusive) club. Apparently Warren Buffet had his worst year ever. Now he’s only worth $60 Billion? Somehow I think he’ll survive.
But CNN is good for more than just news… there’s tools you can use. These 23 lessons are a great place to go deeper: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/money101/
The Complete Cheapskate by Mary Hunt
This is a great book I was given and her simple plan is the one Christa and I are using right now. It’s not complicated but it gets the job done.
Crown Life Financial: http://www.crown.org/
This is the website of Crown Life Financial. The name to me sounds suspiciously like a Christian investment firm but – trust me – it’s a nonprofit ministry that has no investments to sell you except great advice and sound biblical principles. Some of the tools have a minimum fee but tons of their stuff is gratis. I encourage you to click around in this site as much as you can. They have documents that are fairly low-tech but helpful for people who like to print off forms and work with pencils and paper.
I especially recommend the following pages:
For a MUCH better explanation of the “Debt Rollover Plan” than I gave this morning, go to http://www.crown.org/LIBRARY/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=765 and read the article or for those who prefer video go to http://www.moneylife.org/videos/ and scroll down the list till you get to the right video.
The Accelerated Debt Payoff Calculator is simple, brilliant and bordering on the miraculous. Everybody with multiple Credit Cards should give this a whirl: http://www.crown.org/Tools/Calculators/Debt_AcceleratedPayoff.asp
These free documents are great – especially the “Percentage Guides” where you get a good ballpark for what your budget lines should be for food, housing, transportation, etc… http://www.crown.org/Library/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=263
The “30 Day Diary” on the page immediately above is something I should have handed out to everybody this morning because it’s a simple ledger than enables you to keep track of your $ for the next month. Remember your homework from this morning?
Google Documents: http://docs.google.com/
Recently I spent a bunch of time on Excel making some spreadsheets. It was good to force myself to learn the program. And yet didn’t I feel a twinge of disappointment when I saw that Google Documents has all the stuff you need at the click of an index finger. A little tip is that you’ll need to disable your popup blocker for the spreadsheets to work. The beauty of this is that you can share a document with another person and work from multiple computers. This is wonderful for families like mine where I have my laptop and Christa has her desktop computer. It can even be accessed from any computer in the world with a password so it’s secure but just a click away.
The Family Budget Planner spreadsheet is brilliant. Go to “New” and then click on “From Template.”
CNN Money: http://money.cnn.com/
You think you’re having a bad year? Join the (very exclusive) club. Apparently Warren Buffet had his worst year ever. Now he’s only worth $60 Billion? Somehow I think he’ll survive.
But CNN is good for more than just news… there’s tools you can use. These 23 lessons are a great place to go deeper: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/money101/
The Complete Cheapskate by Mary Hunt
This is a great book I was given and her simple plan is the one Christa and I are using right now. It’s not complicated but it gets the job done.
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