photo credit: Matt McGee

Thanksgiving and Death; the “Giving Season” and Greed – they just aren’t supposed to go together . . .

Try telling that to the employees of the  Valley Stream  Walmart in New York state — or worse to the family of the man who was trampled to death by the out of control frenzied crowd of bargain hunting shoppers.

I remember as a small child going to sales in the garment district with my mother and aunts and being pushed and shoved as women would try to dig through huge piles of sale clothing. It was scary at best, and to this day I stay away from deep discount sales if at all possible.  But this scene was like something out of a Hollywood movie, a story line that is supposed to be fictional.  A scene for effect in a movie, not real life.

How can civilized human beings get so worked up that they would run over someone, and then get upset when asked to leave the store because of the man’s death?  How callous have we become…

What amazes me is that there appeared to be NO COMPASSION, NO REGRET, NO REMORSE by any of the individuals involved in the tragedy.  Have we become so de-synthesized to Violence that we are not even phased by this type of behavior?

I would like to think that the people involved in this Walmart tragedy were pushed to this type of behavior because they were starving and needed food for their families; or perhaps they were extremely sick and needed to get to the medicines in the pharmacy department of the store.  But unfortunately, no, they were trying to push and shove their way to grab the discounted flat screen TV’s and other deeply discounted items — none of which were necessities.

And now, there are accusations against Walmart, suggesting that they are to blame for this man’s death. That just takes “ridiculous” to a new level.

If you are in debt and desire to reduce or eliminate that debt, then your first stop should be our “Debt Elimination Steps”. Either Click here or click on the Navigation Tab at the top of this page to take you to the steps to get rid of your debt.

Maybe you arrived here because you know that you need to educate yourself on how to best manage your personal finances. Our section, fondly called “Money 101″, has topics which explore the basics of personal finance. This section covers setting up a budget, beginning to plan for retirement, … Chose the Navigation Tab at the top of this page labeled, “Money 101″ to get to this area of our site or you can just click here.

We have a section that is dedicated to breaking financial news, and our commentary on current financial happenings. To read those posts go to the Tab that says, “Financial News”; or again you can click here.

You will notice from our by-line, “presenting simple, effective solutions for getting out of debt and building wealth from a Christian perspective” — that we base our views and understanding on our inherent belief that the God of the Bible is in control of our life and our finances. We incorporate that wisdom in everything we write, but occasionally we will publish a post that is more “pointedly biblical”. Those posts are found in our section entitled, “God and Money”. Go there with the Navigation Tab or click here.

We also have an area we are just beginning to offer on web design, blogging and ways to make money online. This is a new category area, so make sure you check back soon.

If you watch the money channels and listen to the ‘talking heads’ reporting on our country’s financial situation, it would be easy to throw up your hands in surrender and abandon all good sense and wisdom regarding your money.  The picture is indeed bleak.

But Stop!  Before you make rash decisions motivated by your fear and uncertainty, take time to do nothing but pray, think and evaluate your situation.

Within the financial sector, most investors do the opposite of what they should.  Especially when it comes to the stock market, money markets and mutual fund accounts.  Many investors sell when they should buy and buy when they should sell.  What do I mean by that?

Notoriously, when the economy is good and stocks are valued highly, people tend to buy.  Because a company is doing well and prospering, a person will by into it, often times they are actually buying when the stocks are costly because they are doing so well.  When it comes time for them to recoup their investment their profit margin is low or non-existent because they have bought the stock when it cost them a premium.

Also when the economy is bad and the stocks have tanked, investors tend to get scared and they sell off their stocks at very low prices; usually way below what they paid for the stock initially, taking  a loss and loosing money.  This is not the way to get a Capital Gains Deduction!

So what is the wise course of action?  Whatever you do, unless you are in desperate need of cash, do not sell off your holdings.  Almost without exception stocks are priced at historic lows.  If you sell out now, you will most assuredly take a financial beating.  Instead, grit your teeth, quit looking at the financial pages of your paper and hold on for the ride.

If you have available cash to invest, this is an excellent time to do so.  Look for mutual funds that also have larger cash holdings.  Funds with available cash will be taking advantage of the market’s lows and will be looking for solid companies selling at a premium to put their money into.  If you wish to buy on your own, look for companies not tied into the credit markets; companies that deal in products not as affected by this downturn in our economy.  Look for companies who are leaders in their respective industries — ie, Coca Cola, Proctor and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, Abbot Labs, General Mills, to just name a few. Some of these are selling at great prices!

This is a time that doing nothing (not usually good advice) is better than acting rashly. Don’t buy into the panic, study your choices and act wisely!

The Motley Fool gave us a nice sum up of just the events of this past month, which of course were capped off on Friday by the $700 Billion Dollar Bail Out.

Here are some of the events taken from the Motley fool’s article:

• Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG were bailed out by the US government.  Perhaps as a result of drawing straws (their logic does seem to be questionable at times), they took a hands off approach to Lehman Brothers, allowing it to spiral into oblivion.
• The largest bank failure in US history occurred when Washington Mutual had to be seized by the government and subsequently handed over to JPMorgan.
• Wachovia, a very large, but distressed bank,  was experiencing silent runs on some of its funds and was loosing ground quickly when the FDIC stepped in and demanded a sale. A buyout deal was agreed upon with Citigroup, with only a measly $1 per share going to shareholders because FDIC was involved.  Friday, Wells Fargo came swooping in like a knight in shining armor.  On Friday it was announced that they wish to purchase Wacovia without FDIC involvement with will result in the stockholders getting more money, perhaps around $7 per share.

  Breaking news today - Sunday Oct 5_ it appears that Wells Fargo may not be allowed to buyout Wachovia after all. A New York State Judge is blocking the Wachovia-Wells Fargo deal, ordering a hearing to allow Citigroup to press for its previous agreement to buy Wachovia.

• The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped more than 800 points last week.  The Volatility Index (VIX) hit its highest level ever. We are in the worse conditions we have had since the depression.

Of course on top of all this, The Bail Out …

Without the Bail Out we are in real danger of seeing serious depression like conditions, with credit markets freezing up, businesses crunched and consumers pinched.

Now we have government intervention, which no one likes, but the government must now be our source of liquidity.  We are paying the dues for a debt-ridden, debt-loving, debt-based society.

So what do you do?

Hang on, don’t operate in fear.

If you are a systematic investor, stay your course.  This overall decline in the market is good for buying stocks. In fact we may well be near the bottom, meaning most of what you buy now will likely go up in value.

If you are in debt, continue to get yourself out of debt.  There is always the chance that credit card companies could arbitrarily raise the interest rate fees drastically, really putting a pinch on your pocketbook if you owe them money.

If the markets recover as they have historically, loses should be recouped within 12 to 18 months. It is key to not make any rash decisions at this time and especially to not act motivated by fear.

You are tired of getting paid one day and having NO MONEY seemingly the next day!  Or maybe your situation is not quite that bad, but you do have trouble getting through the pay period - there just always seems to be “more month and the end of the money”.

Maybe your excuse has been, “I am just having a cash-flow issue”.

Okay, enough is enough.  It is time to take a hard look at where exactly your money is going.

One of the most shocking ways to do this is to make a list of everything you have spent money on from your checkbook register, or debit card statement. If you are still using your credit cards make sure that you include items from that statement as well. Don’t forget to include the relatively small purchases you make each day with the cash in your pocket–these call really add up!

photo credit: uhtofuOnce you have that list, you can categorize it and see what areas really eat up your money. For instance you may be really shocked to see how much money you are spending at the grocery store.  Take a closer look at that and you may see that you are spending (wasting ) money in areas like sodas and snacks. Or maybe all the money is going to the vending machines at work, the Starbucks stop on the way to work, perhaps the fast food stop on the way home.

But before you can really get a handle on your cash flow situation, you must know realistically where all your money goes. Too often we take our income and subtract our expenses, ie, the house payment, car payment, electric bill, etc and the resulting amount looks quite large on paper. Don’t be deceived! That amount does not account for all the “miscellaneous” things we spend our money on. Most people find that they easily “nickle and dime” away a good one third of their available take home pay!

So begin to tackle this today! Stick a sheet of paper in your pocket and record EVERYTHING you spend — the amount and what you spent that money on. Do this for awhile– a good period of time is two weeks. Combine the amounts you recorded on your paper and the amounts from your check book ledger, debit statements, etc and begin to categorize your expenses.

You will be shocked (but enlightened) at where your money goes!

Safe Hexadecimal Color Codes

enjoy!

There exists everything from sects that take vows of poverty, to large denominations and mega-churches who embrace the Prosperity Gospel, ie., God’s job is to make you RICH. Both ends of this spectrum and everything in between can be found in today’s Church.  So how does a well meaning Christ follower know how to view their money?

As in all things, if you seek the Lord with an  honest and open heart, He will reveal to you the correct path for you and your family.  And if you are on the wrong path or have the wrong mindset, He is more that able and willing AND FAITHFUL to correct you!

The foundation for this discussion should begin at Ecclesiastes 7:18 . . .

The man who fears God will avoid all extremes.

If you find that your mindset is a radical, extreme one towards money (or any other issue) chances are you have fallen out of balance.  A warning is needed here; remember that when God starts speaking correction to you, your inner self may find it to be radical and extreme.  If you have been embracing an out of balance view, the correction may feel very radical, so as to get you back to that middle ground. That is not the danger. The danger is when we, on our own, adopt a radical or extreme, out of balance view toward an issue or pattern of living.  The fear of the Lord, wanting to please Him with the totality of our lives, will keep us balanced, avoiding all extremes.

So, about Jesus and Money …

Jesus gives us quite a bit of teaching concerning money especially in the Parables.  At the tail end of one of His most controversial and hard to understand parables — the Shrewd Manager (Luke 16:1-15) — he gives us several good tidbits, to help us interpret everything else that He said about money.

In Luke 16:10-11 Jesus says,

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.  So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches.”

Show your faithfulness and trustworthiness with little and you will be given more. God wants to give you more wealth to handle for Him and His kingdom.  The training ground for us to be given the true riches of God’s kingdom appears to be how we handle the wealth of this world, be it a small amount or a little.

Further on in this passage, Jesus says,

“No servant can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and Money.”

The key here is looking at the two words - serve and master.

A master is someone who has chief authority in our lives.  By definition we can only have one master. The master is the one who is in control, the one to whom we submit ourselves. Obviously, if we try to serve two masters, there will be conflict and stress (sound like your finances?).  We must pick one master.  A true Christian will pick God to be his master — by definition!

Serve is best understood in light of today’s service professions, such as being a waiter or waitress.  A server.  The server is at the beck and call of the one they are serving.  A server provides everything that the master needs and does whatever is asked of them.

So back to the verse.  We serve one master.  By definition, a Christ follower will do whatever God asks of them, and will provide the resources that God needs and wants to use in His Kingdom’s implementation.  Money is important, but money is to be used by us, as we serve God and submit to the Master’s ruler-ship in our lives.  We follow God’s directions and principals in the use of our money.

Step 7 –Use Cash, No More Impulse Buying, Save and Invest

Although we refer to this as a step, it is really an ongoing way of life.  You should have transitioned over by now into using CASH for all of your purchase.  Don’t slide back into old habits and ways of life.  You have worked hard to become debt free, stay on that path of true financial freedom!

Once you are debt free, take that money you were using to pay off all your debt and beginning accumulating savings. Build up this savings until you are content with the amount.  This will initially be your source of emergency funds. The amount of this fund is dependent to a large degree on how easy it is for you to find work or extra sources of money you may have available.  If you work for instance in the health field, and extra work is easy to come by, then you might only want an emergency fund equivalent to 2-3 months income.  If you are in a very competitive field you may want to store up a 6 month salary to give you a bigger buffer.

Of course, the above is dependent upon you having a short term disability policy or coverage at your job.  Remember if you have a serious illness, there will be no “picking up” that second job, or new job to get you through a crisis.

Once your emergency money is taken care of and you have that in a good money market account, begin religiously accumulating money in an investment account. If there is a 401K plan where you work, you want to max that out first, especially if your employer matches your contributions.

The next step would be to accumulate money for non-retirement account investments.  The key in all savings plans is consistency.

Do not fall back into the debt trap you were once in!  USE CASH for all purchases!  Forgo all impulse spending and save a consistent amount each pay period.

Watch the power of compounding interest now work for you instead of against you!

INCOME TAX

INHERITANCE TAX

NEW TAXES PROPOSED BY OBAMA

Begin by listing the details of all your debt obligations. For instance, list:

the company, total debt owed, minimum monthly payment, % interest rate, payoff time

(The payoff time would be total debt divided by monthly payment.)

example: GM AUTO LOAN, $ 9,289, $236.41, 6.25%, 39.3 months (this would be payoff assuming you paid only principal, not including finance charges)

Pick one debt to be aggressive with. Typically credit cards and payday loans have larger finance charges, so we recommend one of them. It is emotionally rewarding to see the debt become ZERO, so starting with the card or debt you can pay off the fastest (the one with the lowest payoff time) is the best way to do this.

Pay the minimum required on this debt PLUS any amount from those “wasted areas” you identified in step 4, PLUS the “fixed dollar amount” you decided on in Step 5. The total of these three should give you a nice chunk of change to pay off that debt with.  Pay this amount each month on this debt until it is ZERO!

Continue paying the minimum, on time, on all other debt. This is important! Do not let your credit rating suffer any further!

When you have that first card or loan paid off completely, take the money you have been paying to that debt and apply that money to the next credit card or debt with the lowest payoff time. Don’t forget to add in the minimum due on this debt to the large amount you were paying on the first loan.  Pay this amount on this card until ZERO, and just continue this plan until all your debt is eliminated.

Do this methodically, one debt eliminated at a time, and before you know it, it will seem that they are vanishing before your eyes!