As mentioned Free Stuff Friday changed to a monthly giveaway (on the first of each month) but due to the chaotic nature of my November, I am just getting around to it now. I am also a fairly recent Mac convert, so it might seem odd that I am giving away an upgrade to Windows 7, but I am well aware that many people still use (and some even love) Windows, so therefore I thought it’d be nice to give away the new upgrade.

Details about the giveaway

• In order for the Windows 7 upgrade to work for your machine you need to be running either Windows XP or Vista.
• To see if your machine is powerful enough to run Windows 7 check out the upgrade advisor.
• The giveaway is for the Home Premium version of Windows 7.
• Winners will be picked using Random.org on Friday November 27th, 2009.

How to win the giveaway

There are 3 simple ways to enter in the giveaway (and yes you can do all three).

1. Add ChristianPF.com to your blogroll on your blog or website.

If you do this or already have, just leave a comment below with the url of the page where the link is.

2. Mention this giveaway on Twitter.

Be sure to include @ChristianPF so I can track the entries. And make sure you follow CPF so I can contact you if you win! Feel free to use this sample tweet…

@ChristianPF is giving away a Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade! RT to enter to win… http://su.pr/24b1lH

3. Leave a comment in the Christian Financial Forums.

Just join in on any of the conversations or start a new one.

Blog Carnivals

And here are a few Blog Carnivals CPF has been featured in the last couple weeks…Debt Reduction, Personal Finance, Best of Money, Money Stories, 20 somethings

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, doing things the "long" way, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and has been having a blast ever since. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

Always ask for a discount – Just ask “Can you do any better than that?” or “Is that the best you can do?” This simple question could potentially save you a lot of money.

Be prepared for the unexpected.  You never know when the heater might break or the car transmission might go out. An emergency fund with 3-6 months of your living expenses ought to be adequate.

Curb (or cancel) credit card spending.  Since people spend more money with credit cards, you need to decide if you are in a position to be able to afford the convenience charge.

Determine to become debt-free. Take practical steps to reduce your debt load.  Make sure you know the reason why you went into debt in the first place.

Eat at home.  Restaurants can be expensive. If you don’t have room in your budget, you can save a bunch of money by making your own meals.

Financial focus.  Don’t try to do too many things at once.  Focus on becoming debt free, saving an emergency fund, or saving for retirement, but don’t do all at once.

Get going.  The best time to start investing is today.  With compound interest on your side, the sooner you invest the better.

Home ownership is only a blessing when your payments are a reasonable part of your income.  Try to limit all your house related expenses (mortgage, utilities, maintenance) to 25-30% of your income.

Ignorance today does not necessitate ignorance tomorrow.  Perhaps you know little about mutual funds.  That’s alright, but make an effort to learn about them so that you can maximize your financial resources.

Jobs are essential for financial success.  Do your best at every project and strive to exceed expectations.

Kill your bad habits.  People make bad money choices for different reasons.  Discover and kill those habits.  People go into debt for different reasons.  Identify your debt motives and drive a stake in them.

Leave your investments alone.  Don’t try to time the market – it is extremely hard.  Invest the same amount on a regular basis – regardless of what the market is doing.

Money can give satisfaction, but it cannot buy happiness.  Know and respect the limitations of money.

Never do something with your money if you don’t understand it (Dave Ramsey).  Scams and fraudulent activities result from people doing what someone in the know said.  Even if someone, or an organization is Christian, proceed with caution.

Offer a service.  If you want to make a few extra dollars by turning a hobby into an extra income, you need to be sure your idea serves people.  If your product serves people and is reasonably priced, it will be successful.

Pay yourself first.  When you get a paycheck set some aside for taxes, some for giving, and some for your future.  If you are last on the payment list, you will never get paid.

Quit trying to impress others.  Do what you can afford and let everyone else try to keep up with the Joneses.

Remember that relationships are more important than money.

Surf the web for some great resources.  Some of my favorite (among many) PF blogs include Christianpf, Frugal Dad, Free Money Finance, and Get Rich Slowly.

Tithe. Remember that you are a steward of the resources God entrusted to you.  Take a portion of your income (proportionate to your income) and use it in service to the kingdom of God.

Understand who influences you financially.  What makes you spend?  What did your parents teach you about money.  An unknown enemy is harder to defeat than a known one.

Value your items.  When shopping, always ask if something is worth its value.  Seek also to find out if you can get the same value for a lower price.

Will. A will is a loving act, so be sure you have a completed will.  Be sure you also have life insurance.

eXamine your investments once a year to be sure they represent your goals, values, and risks.

Yearly financial review.  Are you on track to meet your retirement goals?  Are there any financial adjustments that need to be made?  How are your investments performing?

Zealous. Your financial results depend on your intensity level as much as they depend on your financial knowledge.  As you learn new financial lessons, apply them to your life with zeal.

Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography.

Which of these 26 money lessons do you think are the most important?  What else would you suggest as an elementary teaching for improving your finances?

Craig is a missionary who has spent over ten years working in various forms of Christian ministry. Currently, Craig lives with his family in Papua New Guinea. Relying on his ministry experience and background in Biblical Studies he writes daily personal finance articles from a Christian perspective. You can visit his site at www.MoneyHelpForChristians.com, on Twitter, or you can sign up to receive free daily email updates for his site.

I recently received an email from a reader that I thought would be perfect for discussion, because my hunch is that there are others who are dealing with or have dealt with a situation like this. I promised that I would try to get some opinions from the CPF audience, so if you have any thoughts or opinions, please share them in the comments.

Here are the important parts from the email I received…

I have a question that I’m wrestling with, which I’m hoping you can help me with. Recently my siblings have been talking to my mother and I about taking a life insurance out for her, in the case that she passes, a sum of money could be left for her kids and grandkids. The idea would be that we would all co-fund this insurance with her and them.

I’m struggling with this on two levels.

• Financially: I’m not sure it is a smart financial decision. My mother is in her early sixties and in relatively good health. The prospect of paying life insurance for the next 25 years or so is not very appealing.
• Morally: I feel like I’m making a bet on her death… a self-serving action. My mother is low income and I would rather put money away in the event that she could not care for her self (healthcare, long term living assistance, etc.).

I emailed you because your website seems to strike the balance between financial and moral wisdom. Please advise me, this topic is likely to come up over the holidays.

My thoughts

You know how sometimes you immediately have a strong opinion about something, and other times you really have to work at it to decide what you think about something? Well, I have been thinking about this for a while and am having a hard time deciding what I think – so I guess I should just start writing and see what comes out…

I think a few important questions to ask are…

What does the mother think about all this? Is she in full support of it because she wants to leave some cash to her heirs, or is she being bullied into it?

If she is fully behind the plan, it could be viewed as similar to her taking the policy out herself, except that she needs the help of the children to pay for it – which is fair, since they will be the ones who will benefit from it anyway.

What I don’t like about it is the “gambling on her death” aspect. If the children are really motivated to take out the policy solely for their own monetary gain, it seems like it could create a little bit of a conflict of interest between wanting your parents to live a long healthy life and wanting to get a fat check.

Is it a wise financial decision?

To me it seems that there is just about an inverse relationship between it being a wise financial decision and it being morally acceptable. If she was in poor health (but was still able to be insured) it would probably be a much better financial decision because your ROI would likely be a lot greater, but I would feel pretty shady if I took a policy out in those circumstances.

On the other hand, if her health is great, and you would have to pay into the policy for 25 years (likely with a very high premium) it seems that it wouldn’t be nearly as good of an investment.

Saving it for her instead

Personally, I like the idea that was mentioned of saving it up for her instead. With her not being very well-off financially it seems that saving up for medical expenses, long-term care, etc. would be a beneficial plan. It would benefit her if she got to a point where expenses got out of hand, but it could also benefit the children by minimizing the possibility that they would have to provide financial assistance. Then, if the money saved was never used, it could be divided back up among the children.

All in all, I think I would prefer to use life insurance to provide for family who can’t adequately cover themselves. Assuming the children are all on their own two feet financially, it would be something I would probably pass on.

We want to hear your thoughts – have you taken out a policy on your parents? Would you?

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, doing things the "long" way, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and has been having a blast ever since. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

The following guest post was written by CPF reader Amy Sullivan.

We live in a country resounding “Instant Gratification!” as its lifestyle cadence call. But despite the fact debt has become a badge of the American dream, some folks are going back to saving money and paying for big-ticket items with cash. With this new concept, there is no debt, there is no minimum payment due…but there is a lingering question – is it worth it?

Put debt into perspective

My husband and I decided to sell our home and severely live below our means to save 75% of our six-figure household income. In less than 10 years, we hope to pay for our next house with cash. Why?

First, the Bible is clear on debt — “The borrower is slave to the lender,” Pro. 22:7. We did not want to live outside of God’s Word.

Second, much of America is obligated to work at least 30 years (the most popular term for a mortgage loan) to pay off their home – often the biggest debt they incur. So they punch in their 9-5 continuously while life passes them by. We did not want our life decisions (where we live, vacation time, sick time, etc.) to become dictated by jobs.

Is it worth it?

Americans are caught up in appearances. Ask any person what they think a millionaire looks like and they’ll likely explain a person with posh appeal and expensive possessions. I passed a woman at a mall who I overheard saying “Well, she doesn’t look rich.” My husband was talking to a co-worker who said “I saw so-and-so driving a such-and-such. He must being doing good!”

Because we plan to pay cash for our house, my husband and I worked to “get over ourselves.” We had to:

• Be OK with renting an apartment
• Be content driving our outdated, rusty-but-trusty Toyota
• Be creative with our wardrobe
• Find free ways to bide our time
• Stop shopping retail, start shopping discount
• Start eating simple at home…a lot

To not bend your beliefs or lifestyle to satisfy other peoples’ view frees you to focus on your goal.

You have the freedom to say no

Part of saving money is knowing when and how to spend it. Outside of our expenses (which included rent, utilities and groceries), my husband and I had additional money we could either put in savings or spend. To decide, we ask ourselves three questions:

1. Is it a “thing” or an “experience”? Experiences are worth more than an item you will eventually lose interest in and sell online for half the price.
2. Is it necessary? Decide if you can live without this item or experience or if it is absolutely essential (ex: flying home for a sibling’s wedding).
3. Can it be bought for cheaper? If the price tag is hefty, try to bargain with friends, put an ad online or check out discount sites.

Especially with requests from family and friends, these questions help make saying yes or no easier and less emotional because there is logic to back it up.

You don’t have to waste time counting pennies

Aside from the obvious “stop using your credit card” and “pay off your balances,” you have to allocate your money. Many families devise budgets – little pools of money they can pull from to pay for certain items. They may even put “savings” into their plan. However, what do you think is the first to suffer when they overspend in another category or have an unseen emergency? What category do you think is the last to increase in “pool size”?

Instead of categorizing savings, know how much you will be able to save each month and automatically transfer the amount into your savings. Making savings automatic doesn’t even give you a chance to waver on saving your desired amount. Then you just live on the rest. It’s a lot easier than punching budget numbers every month.

You reap lots of rewards in the process

Our goal is to save enough money to buy a house with cash within 10 years. But that doesn’t mean we have to wait 10 years to feel any reward from living this lifestyle.

Turning from debt pours blessings on you and your family:

1. You are pleasing God by not being slave to the lender.
2. You feel less pressure to get a higher paying job to support your lifestyle. There is more flexibility if your wife wants to stay at home to raise your children or if you want to switch careers.
3. You have less stress when it comes time to pay bills.
4. You get enjoyment from seeing your savings account balance rise every month.
5. You enjoy the company of others instead of worrying what they think of you.
6. You come to realize what possessions you truly do and do not need.

You can get away from discouragement

Discouragement can derail your goals. But before you take out a loan, consider two things:

1. The feeling you will have once you have the debt
2. The feeling you will have if you save the money and pay for your big-ticket item with cash. Usually one of these feelings will prevent you from acting.

Your ROI will be great

Remember instant gratification, while the popular cry of Americans today, often leaves you chained to your desk, unhappy, dissatisfied. Delayed gratification, however, is a little investment with a big return. What a novel idea.

I once heard someone say, “challenges are just wonderfully disguised opportunities for growth.” I really do believe it to be true. Just like a strong physical body requires exercises that push it beyond what is comfortable, so a strong character requires challenges that aren’t comfortable. My newest challenge is that an advertiser owes me a lot of money.

The first time someone owed me money

I remember as a teen selling my guitar to an acquaintance from church and after months of reminders and little to no payments I realized that I wasn’t likely to ever receive full payment for the guitar. As a fairly young Christian, I learned 2 lessons. First, that Christians are people just like everyone else who make mistakes and don’t always do what they should. Secondly, that I could “fight for my right” in the flesh or I could let God vindicate me.

At that point in my life the $400 that was owed to me was a huge sum of money and it was honestly very difficult to cast that care on the Lord. I prayed about it for weeks and it became clear that the best course of action was to deliberately SOW the guitar into his life. I realized that I could either have a victim mentality, thinking that something was stolen from me, or I could choose not to have been stolen from and GIVE it, knowing that the Lord sees my heart and would reward that.

Looking back on this lesson, as difficult as it was it was so good for my character development. It helped me take a great step forward in breaking any love of money that was present in my life and ultimately helped me to better learn put my trust in God rather than trying to make things happen myself.

“Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.” -Luke 6:30

Today’s challenge

Fast forward to a today, and I have a new opportunity for growth. As a result of being a full-time blogger, I receive payments from quite a few different advertisers and ad networks. Up until a few months ago, I was making the mistake of not thoroughly keeping track of my payments. I just assumed that if they owed me money, they would just pay me. As a result of my naivety, one particular advertiser went months without paying and now owes me many times more than what I was owed for the guitar. At first I just contacted them to let them know, assuming it was just a mistake and that they would just pay off the remaining balance. Instead the last couple months have been a lot of me calling and emailing and getting little to no response and even less in payments from them.

As if the large chunk of change that they owe me wasn’t enough, this is money that I pay my bills with. It seems that the stakes are quite a bit higher than they were with the guitar in high school.

At the peak of my frustration I stumbled upon this verse…

“Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.” -Philippians 4:5

And just guess what the definition of “forbearing” is. Webster’s defines it as, “a refraining from the enforcement of something (as a debt, right, or obligation) that is due.”

I think God was trying to make a point to me, and as thick as it was laid on, I got it. To add to that, I felt like I was supposed to apologize to the advertiser for being too overbearing. After arguing and coming up with about 100 reasons that they should be apologizing me, rather than me apologizing to them, I obeyed and sent an email apologizing for my behavior.

The next verse in Philippians 4 says…

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

While all this was going on, we were saving up every dime we could find so we could come up with the required down payment. I have to admit it was difficult not being anxious knowing that if they would just send what they owed, we would comfortably have our down payment covered. I guess that was part of the test.

So after all that I was convinced that I was going to cast this care on the Lord and allow Him to work on the situation. Right before I left for Florida two weeks ago, I called them to kindly get a update on the payment status and it appears they have gone out of business. It’s all a test.

There have been some good practical business lessons that I have learned from all this that will serve me well in the future, but much more valuable are the lessons that God is teaching me about my character and how to do things His way. I don’t know if I will ever be repaid from the advertiser, but I am confident that obeying God’s Word will always yield the best result – even if I don’t see it right away.

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, doing things the "long" way, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and has been having a blast ever since. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

The following is a guest post written by Benjamin Clark who writes for ModernGraham.com.

What is a Charitable Gift Annuity?

A charitable gift annuity is an excellent tool for charitable giving. Most charities and religious organizations offer gift annuities. Here I will outline some aspects of the gift annuity and I encourage anyone who is interested in pursuing this financial opportunity to contact their local charity.

The basic premise of the charitable gift annuity is the donor gives a gift to the charity and the charity agrees to pay an annual annuity to the beneficiary for the remainder of the beneficiary’s life. Upon the beneficiary’s death, the agreement terminates and the charity is under no further obligation.

Taxes and the Charitable Deduction

The donor is entitled to a charitable deduction in the year of the original gift. This deduction is calculated by determining the present value of the annuity payments and subtracting that value from the gift amount. During the beneficiary’s IRS-determined life expectancy, the beneficiary receives some of the annuity as tax-free income and the rest is ordinary income.

Types of Assets Used for Gift

The most common asset used to fund gift annuities is cash, but other assets are sometimes used. Typically, the asset most used other than cash is equities. Here is where one of the great benefits of the gift annuity comes into play. When a gift annuity is made, all of the capital gains from the stocks are spread over the life of the beneficiary (some limits apply). Other assets may be used, such as real estate, but often complicate the process of the gift enough that most charities try to stick to cash or stock gifts.

Interest Rates

The interest rate given by the charity is a fixed rate, and is often determined by the recommendations of the American Council on Gift Annuities. The council reviews the recommended rates at least once a year and occasionally makes changes based on economic conditions. Individual charities have the option of differing from the recommended rates, but most have policies against it.

All charitable gift annuity interest rates are based on the age of the beneficiary to the annuity. The older the beneficiary, the higher the rate.

Beneficiary(s)

A charitable gift annuity can be a one-life or a two-life annuity. Interest rates for two-life annuities are generally lower than for a one-life annuity due to the expectation of a longer joint-life expectancy. Beneficiaries cannot be changed after making the gift.

Deferred Annuities

Many charities also offer deferred annuities, where the donor gives money today but elects to receive payments at least 1 year down the road. This can be a great tool for retirement planning as the interest rate is based on the age at which payments begin (thus the rate on a deferred annuity is higher than the rate on an immediate annuity).

Additionally, a charitable gift annuity can have a flexible payment date. In a flexible deferred annuity, the payout rate changes depending on what year the annuitant eventually decides to draw on the annuity (similar to social security).

Example: One-life Immediate Annuity

Smith, born on June 1, 1950, gives charity a $10,000 gift of cash for a gift annuity on October 31, 2009. Smith decides to receive quarterly payments beginning on December 31, 2009. Smith is entitled to a $2,418.60 charitable deduction today, and receives an interest rate of 5%. The charity puts the $10,000 into their gift annuity reserve fund (standard practice). For the rest of Smith’s life, he receives a quarterly payment of $125. When Smith dies, approximately $5,000 of the original gift is remaining for the charity to use.

Charitable Gift Annuities are an excellent way for charitable individuals to give and still ensure their own financial security. For more information, contact your preferred charity.

The following is a guest post from John Schroeder who regularly writes for his blog PassiveFamilyIncome.com.

Are you looking for ways to make your life simpler? If you are like most people, then getting your personal finances under control would go a long way to improving your life. Paying for monthly expenses, managing your career, and saving for retirement are just a few of the financial issues that ordinary people face every single day.

So what are some ways that you can fix your personal finances to make life easier? Get a second job? Cut your expenses? Downsize your home? These are all ways to help out with your finances, but are only short term solutions that require personal sacrifice.

There is another option however that does not require as many personal sacrifices and is often referred to as passive income. While the term passive income means many different things to different people, there is one common theme that is agreed upon. Once a passive income stream is created and begins earning money, there is little to no ongoing effort on your part.

If you are interested in learning how creating passive income can help you simplify your life, please take a look at some reasons listed below.

1. Automate your Personal Finances Using Passive Income

Building recurring income streams can help you automate your personal finances. Since a passive income stream does not require a lot of your time once created, it is a natural way to start automating your finances. If you have a passive income source that brings in money each month, think about ways you can use that income to automatically pay one of your expenses. This is a perfect opportunity to pay off monthly expenses like car payments, cable and phone bills, just to name a few.

Think about how much time savings and satisfaction you will get if you can automate just a few of your monthly expenses? This will make your life so much simpler!

2. Healthy Living

One of the best ways to simplify your life is to live a healthy lifestyle. Getting the appropriate amount of sleep, reducing stress, eating healthy, and frequent exercise are all activities that will make you healthier. As a result of living healthier, you can lower medical costs and avoid unnecessary doctor’s office visits which have a positive impact on your life. In addition, the healthier your are the more productive and efficient you will be.

The direct results of building passive income is one way that you can live a healthier life. The time savings (once an income stream is setup) benefit of focusing on recurring income streams make them well worth the effort. Having additional time in your day will allow you to exercise more often, eat healthier (as you have more time to cook), reduce stress (from the daily grind), and much more!

All of these health benefits as a result of creating passive income will make your life simpler.

3. Pay off Debt

Do you carry a lot of debt? Maybe you have that lingering car payment that you would like to get rid of but just can’t come up with the extra money to pay it off? Creating passive income streams is one way to pay off those recurring expenses every month without any worries. The first step is to identify monthly bills that you would like to automatically eliminate from your budget.

Once you have identified a monthly expense you would like to pay off, go out and build a passive income stream that brings in a monthly amount that can cover your expense. Don’t think this is possible? I can tell you first hand that this is how my family pays for our monthly car payment. A portion of our recurring monthly passive income covers our vehicle expenses every month!

4. Build Your Savings

Having adequate savings is important for any family. Establishing multiple income streams provides an opportunity to build your family nest egg. In the event of a family emergency, job loss, or other unexpected expense – a solid savings can really ease the pain of your hardship.

So how can you build your family savings? You guessed it – by creating passive income streams! Think of how much easier your everyday life would be if you had an automated process to consistently build your savings over time without worrying about it.

5. Start Donating Money

Many times in life I have found that giving can be much more rewarding than receiving. Are there local charities that you want to donate to but just can’t scrounge the extra money? Using passive income to donate money is a great way to give back to others who may be less fortunate or down on their luck.

Donating to others is a very rewarding activity. When you see others struggling to eat or find shelter everyday, it can really put a new perspective on your life. If you are looking to step back from the daily hustle and bustle, then donating to others can help you to simplify your life!

It takes time and work

Creating passive income is no get rich quick scheme. While it can really help you simplify your life by helping your personal finances, it still takes time and work to establish solid income streams.  If managed properly, the income generated from these types of sources are well worth the effort.

Note from Bob: The hardest thing about building a passive income stream is getting started. For me I have found that writing for Hubpages and other similar sites is one of the easiest ways to get the ball rolling. Lots of people like to rent out real estate (for a positive cashflow) or receive royalty payments from writing books, songs, or selling photography.

What have you done to start creating passive income?

Time is running short. You need to prepare now.  I know it seems like Christmas is a long way away.  But, it will not be long until Father Christmas is saddling up his reindeer.  Today is the day to decide to make 2009 a  debt free Christmas.  Bob even has 6 tips for a debt free Christmas.  In fact, you are more likely to get through Christmas without any new consumer debt if you set your Christmas budget now.

Step By Step Guide for Making Your Christmas Budget

1. Make a long list of everyone to whom you want to give a Christmas gift.

Be sure to include the following groups of people:

• Family – aunts, uncles, children, spouse, cousins, siblings, grandparents, and even the stray dog your brother-in-law adopted.  Include everyone you WANT to give a gift to.
• Co-workers – partners, bosses, co-workers, support staff
• Church friends – Bible school teachers, church staff, grandparent figures
• Community friends – neighbors, fellow volunteers, clerk at the grocery store
• Those who provide services – paperboy, mail man, pizza delivery boy, yard worker, pool cleaner, teachers
• Anyone else – feeling jovial?  Put them on the list.

2. Determine how much you can afford to spend on Christmas.

This calculation can be relatively simple.  How much money can you save between now and December 25th? How many of those dollars are you willing to dedicate towards Christmas gifts?

Christmas Spending Rule:

How much you can afford to spend must be an amount you save in CASH.  This is not an ‘if-I-were-rich-I-would-budget-this’ list. This is how much you actually have to give for Christmas.  If the number is low, that is fine.  Christmas is not about financially crippling yourself so someone can have a pair of socks that will go in the trash before January. Christmas is about expressing love and appreciation.  Both of which can be done without money.  Christmas can be enjoyed without money.  Be sure that your budget is reasonable in relationship to your income.  This can be done by making sure your total amount fits within recommended budget percentages.

3. Prioritize your list from step #1.  Make it a short list.

If married, before prioritizing the list, pray that God will give you the patience to work together – not against each other.

You might want to cut out your Great Aunt Sally, but your wife has given her a gift every year for two decades.  She might want to remove a business partner who doesn’t deserve anything, but you want to grease that relationship.  This process could be painful, so prayerfully get on the same page before you start.

At this stage you are just going to separate each name into three groups – paid gift, made gift, no gift. Since you know how much you can afford to give you will have a better sense of how many people can be on your paid gift list.  Knowing your time, available you can limit your made gift list. The others – no gift, but perhaps a Christmas card.

4. Assign and complete necessary preparations.

Paid Gift List:

Beside each name on the paid gift list, assign a budgeted amount.  For example, dad might get $50 and cousin Steve $25.  Be sure that total does not exceed the amount in Step #2.  The only rule here is you cannot overspend that amount on that person.  Here are 8 tips to save money on your Christmas shopping.

Made Gift List:

What will you make?  Cookies and other Christmas treats are a great idea for close friends, neighbors, and colleagues.  For family, a customized card with a picture of the kids will suffice.  Need some guidance?  Here is a list of 50 Personalized Christmas Gift Ideas.

No Gift:

If they made it on your first list you might just send them a personalized card.

Merry Christmas Uncle Joe.  We just wanted to let you know that you are a special part of our family.  Thanks for all the time and attention you give to our kids.  We’re blessed to have an uncle like you.

5. Make the budget work.

Don’t spend more than you budgeted.

If your budget is tight, you will need to capitalize on a free valuable resource – CREATIVITY.  Creativity must be combined with another necessary ingredient – TIME.

Time + Creativity = Awesome Valuable Christmas Presents for a Lower Price

How do you set your Christmas budget?  How soon do you start saving money for Christmas?

Photo by wOOkie.

Craig is a missionary who has spent over ten years working in various forms of Christian ministry. Currently, Craig lives with his family in Papua New Guinea. Relying on his ministry experience and background in Biblical Studies he writes daily personal finance articles from a Christian perspective. You can visit his site at www.MoneyHelpForChristians.com, on Twitter, or you can sign up to receive free daily email updates for his site.

A few months ago I wrote an article about what you should do with your old cell phone. It talked about a service that Amazon offered where they would buy your old cell phone off of you. I gave it a go and pulled out a 3 year old cell-phone that was collecting dust in my closet and they sent a check for $20.

I found a few more places online that will not only buy your old cell phones, but a lot of other electronic junk you may have laying around the house. And yes, some of them buy your broken electronic toys as well. I haven’t checked but my hunch is that selling these items yourself on Ebay would yield a higher return. But if you just want to quickly and easily unload a few old electronic items in exchange for cash, one of these sites are probably the way to go.

BuyMyTronics.com

They offer free shipping and purchase old Game consoles, Cell Phones, PDA’s, iPods, and iPhones.

Gazelle.com

Gazelle seems to have the process down pretty well. It is a very easy-to-use site that also offers free shipping for your items. They buy Cell Phones, Digital Cameras, Laptops, MP3 Players, PDAs, Video Games, Gaming Consoles, GPS Devices, Camcorders, Satellite Radios, Desktop Computers, LCD Monitors, External Drives, Movies, Calculators, Camera Lenses, Projectors, Blu-Ray Players, and Home Audio equipment.

MyBoneyard.com

This is a very simple site and they buy Desktop computers,Cell Phones, Smart Phones, Laptops, Flat-Panel monitors, Digital music players, Camcorders, Game systems, GPS, and Cameras.

Do you know of any other places to sell your old electronics?

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, helping people succeed, learning, anything God created, playing guitar, doing things the "long" way, Philippians, excellence, Chick-Fil-A, and making his wife smile. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and has been having a blast ever since. Find him on Facebook & Twitter.

This is an article is written by Ralph E. Plaskett. Ralph is known as the Peculiar Marketing Expert for peculiar people, the go-to resource for action-oriented information where readers can take the words right off the page and put them to work immediately! His effective strategies develop, grow, and expand businesses for Christians. Find out more at PushingKingdomBusiness.com.

Time is Currency for the True Entrepreneur

You’ve heard it before, time is money. This is absolutely true for entrepreneurs. The typical employee gets paid regardless of what happens or what they do (or don’t do). I often joke with my friends that being a meteorologist is the only job in the world where they could be wrong 98% of the time and still keep a job. True entrepreneurs understand that the time they put into a task or project is essential to its success, and ultimately their success. As such, successful entrepreneurs are cautious of the time that they offer.

It is a glorious thing to know that God isn’t respective of a person. What He will do for one, He will do for another. This is most evident with the time that He has given each of us. We all have the same 24 hours a day to accomplish our goals, aspirations, and dreams. Whether you are rich, poor, successful, unsuccessful, black, white, multilingual, or can only speak one language, God has given each of us access to the same amount of time per day. So how do we best utilize the time given to us with the millions of things we have going on each day? You may be inclined to think time management and you are right, but true entrepreneurs must use aggressive strategies of time management to accomplish more.

Here are a few strategies for aggressive time management for entrepreneurs:

Time Blocks

Time management in and of itself is and under-used discipline. I truly believe that many people have more fear of success than they do of failure (or maybe failure once they succeed). Scheduling time blocks throughout your day is an effective way of managing the time that God has given you. When properly followed, time blocks provide an ease to accomplish goals or tasks, meet with customers/clients/patients, study the Word of God, spend time with family and friends, and even drive from meetings to the office, to home all within your allotted time. Not only would you be managing your time well, but you will also get more done. It may seem radical and even a little insane to schedule time with the family, but as entrepreneurs (and most likely the breadwinners) there are more things to get done than there is time. Successful time management will allow you to get more done and spend more time with the family.

One Productive Thing a Day

Regardless of what goes on during the day, make a commitment to do at least one productive thing each and every single day (yes, even on the weekends). The term ‘productive’ in this case means an action that will result in income immediately or in the future. This could be an email to your list of prospective clients to join a teleseminar, responding to a workshop request, or writing your next article. So, before you call it a night, make a commitment to do at least one productive thing.

Disconnect

It is difficult to break away in a world that has become so interconnected because of technology. There are PDAs, iPhones, netbooks, eateries with free Internet, email, social
networking updates and everything in between that keeps most people constantly connected to everything. How can anyone get anything accomplished with these constant distractions? The only solution is to disconnect from it all. Turn it off, don’t login, or unplug it from the wall. Do what you must to remove the distractions. This may include locking the door and not answering the phone during periods where you have allotted your time to something else. Remember, time is currency; it’s the type of currency that you can’t get back once it’s gone.

Anti-Multi-Tasking

There are many people who pride themselves on being able to “focus” on many things at the same time; working on 10 different things simultaneously. The reality is they may not be focusing on anything. To focus is to actually give your full attention to something and in doing so you are able to provide a complete response to that thing. Multi-tasking has the ability to spread someone so thin that they cannot provide attention (or enough of it) to a single task. When you focus on a single task, you can put your full brain power to completing it. The result is a well thought-out, defined product or solution completed in a faster time than if you did while multi-tasking. Let the computers do the multi-tasking. If you are a true entrepreneur, focus on a single task or project at a time.

Don’t be a “Yes” Man/Woman

When it comes to time management, there are things called “time vampires”. These are people that will suck up all your time with unscheduled, useless, unproductive chatter.
You have to be cautious of these things. Saying “yes” to every meeting, every lunch request, or every phone call can cause these time vampires to suck up your entire day. It is ok to say “no”. In fact, when you say no and instruct them as to how they can schedule a meeting with you (with an agenda) in your office (don’t have to waste time if they are late) then they tend to respect you and your time.

Use that extra hour

Lastly, we just gained an extra hour of time during the Fall. How will you use it? Will you sleep in or just wake up your normal time to get in an extra hour of productivity?