I love Labor Day weekend.  There is something about the extra day (YAY), cooler fall weather, and school beginning that feels like a fresh start.  I am writing this post today to encourage all women to invest in themselves on Labor Day (or all weekend) by doing something you love instead of doing work you think you have to do.  If you feel you need permission to do this, you’ve got it right here – tell your families it’s in writing .

For some of us, doing something we love may be seen as work by others. It may be that you want to finish a home project you haven’t had time for.  Finishing it will make you feel wonderful.  Invest in yourself by having the satisfaction of a goal accomplished.

For others, we may need to simply recharge. Do it by taking a walk, listening to your favorite music, or maybe a little shopping therapy  (be smart about shopping please).  Spend some quality time with your Creator, family, good friends.  Watch your favorite HGTV shows (that’s me).  Invest in yourself by slowing down the pace for awhile.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend, and if you are visiting our local county fair today, come visit me at the Money Smart Week booth between 3-5 pm and chat a bit.

Photo Credit – Jo Jakeman

All opinions voiced in this material are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific recommendations or advice for any individual.  To determine which investments may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.

To all women – wouldn’t it be great if money really grew on trees, or even better, how about on the side of our purses, where it would really be convenient? Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s happening for most of us, so we’ll just have to get money the old fashioned way – earn it, and then save it.

Why do we have such trouble saving our money? For the far majority of us, it’s not because we can’t, or don’t have enough money to save any of it.  We don’t save any money, or not enough of it, because . . .

It’s Not a Priority

Women know what our priorities are. Our priorities include our husband, children, home, job, church, volunteer work (you get the picture – it’s a long list). Not too much time left for a financial plan.  So saving gets put on the back burner.

Women will spend money on all kinds of stuff before saving, and it’s not necessarily on ourselves. It’s on things for everyone else, especially our children and our home.  And when there is no money left at the end of the month, we say we can’t save, because saving is the last in line.

The truth is, women need to pay ourselves first, right after we pay our tithe in gratitude for what we’ve been given. It’s the only way we can be sure it gets done.  We can save money – we just need to make it a big enough priority.

The Powerful Secret

If women want to get serious about saving, we need to attach some emotion to it. If you were told you would lose your home, unless you came up with $10,000 in 90 days, what would you do?

Admit it – you would become a savings machine.   You would do just about anything and everything to save that $10,000 in time.  You would sell stuff, take another part time job, cut out all the times you go out to eat, and stop all unnecessary spending,  just to get it done.

Women need to feel it is crucially important to our future to save. You know why – it’s very likely you will be alone at some time in your life.  You don’t want to be a bag lady – study after study shows this is a woman’s biggest fear.

Get some financial advice to set an appropriate savings goal. Here’s the big secret – use that fear of running out of money in a good way, by making sure you pay yourself first, right after your tithe.   It’s one less thing us moms will have to worry about.

Photo Credit – kodomut

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific recommendations or advice for any individual.   To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.

I declared war on negativity this week.  I am done with the roller coaster of emotions the media puts investors through every day with sensational headlines about the economy.   No more doom and gloom, and seeing the economy and life only from a negative view.   It’s no wonder consumers and investors are fearful if they believe everything they see and hear in the media.

I am not denying the difficult facts about unemployment, the financial markets, and businesses.   I am simply saying it’s our choice how we respond to the events in our lives.  I refuse to live a life that focuses on the negative, and ignores the positive. 

How can we be positive in any economy?  Let’s go back to basics, and revisit the classic book The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale.  I read this book at least once a year, and more if I find myself becoming too negative.

What I love about this book is Norman Vincent Peale combines spiritual principles with psychology, to help us get our minds in tune with our Creator and how He wants us to live.  It’s all very common sense, amazingly simple, but profound at the same time.  Although this book dates back to 1952, it remains as relevant today as it was then.

Here’s some practical tips from The Power of Positive Thinking on how to live a positive life:

Believe in Yourself

To live a positive life, we need to believe in ourselves, and have faith in our abilities.  One of my favorite Bible verses is Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  The secret is to fill your mind with thoughts of faith and confidence.  It’s very hard to be fearful and uncertain when your mind is filled with the opposite. 

Do not build up obstacles in your mind.  Don’t ignore obstacles, and inflate them with fear until they become mountains.  Study difficulties in a very practical way, then deal with them.   If you have no control over a situation, accept that you can’t change it.  If you need help with financial decisions, find a financial advisor you can trust, and make the important decisions you need to make.  

A Peaceful Mind

Fill your thoughts with peaceful experiences, words and ideas, and you will develop an reserve of places to go in your mind to feel peaceful and renew your spirit.  You can recall your thoughts anywhere you are at any time.  A peaceful mind is very powerful.

It also may help to surround yourself with things that make you feel peaceful.  I worked in a cubicle for a time, and it felt like I was in prison, even though it was large and new.  I dealt with my claustrophic feelings by hanging a beautiful picture of a tropical island, which reminded me of going on vacation.  Every time I looked at it, I remembered the happy experiences I have had on vacations.  It really worked.

Be Happy

Who decides whether you will be happy or unhappy?  You do, of course.  Every day, consciously or not, you make a decision that you will be happy or unhappy, based on your reactions to the events of your life.  Make it a habit to be happy every day. 

There is only one way to true happiness, and that is to live a God-centered life.  Get this experience and you will have the only real happiness this world offers, the power of a new life in Christ.  Then everything else becomes secondary, and you will be able to live a happy, positive life, no matter what the economy is doing.

For more practical ideas, listen to the Intelligent Investing radio show from this week, which is full of great advice on how to live a positive life.

Photo Credit – abraaten

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.  To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.

It’s really funny – I was just thinking this morning I need to go shopping for this !

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The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific advice or reommendations for any individual.  To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.

If we want to  manage our money the biblical way,  we need to give some serious thought as to how we will put our faith in action with our money.   How can we be a Christian witness with our money?   These principles are laid out in the book Faith-Based Family Finances, an excellent personal finance book by Ron Blue (President of Kingdom Advisors) and Jeremy White. 

Giving

The Bible is very clear we are to be proportionate givers, and we are to give a portion of everything we receive back to God first.   Proverbs 3:9-10 states we are to “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” 

If we really understand that everything we have been given is from God, and He owns it all, it becomes much easier for us to keep our hands open, ready to give as well as receive.

The standard for giving was set first in the Old Testament of the Bible with God’s requirement of the Israelites to tithe (give back to God the first ten percent of everything they were given).  The tithe was the first requirement, with their offerings being in addition to that.  In the New Testament, the bar is raised even more, with Jesus commending the widow at the temple for giving everything she had.  

If you want to put your faith in action with your money, start by being a generous giver.   I challenge you to write your first check after you are paid to your tithe.  The blessings you will receive in return will amaze you.  We don’t give to receive, and the blessing we receive in return may not be monetary.  The blessings will, however, be life-changing.

Debt

The Bible is also very clear we are to avoid debt.  It’s hard to be a generous giver when we are too busy paying for all of our debt.  Proverbs 22:7 affirms “the borrower is servant to the lender.”   We can put our faith into action with our money by being a discplined spender – by having a spending plan, and sticking to it.  

Staying away from debt has some big benefits.  You don’t have to worry about where the money is coming from to pay it off.   You will not have to live in fear of losing your job in a poor economy because of all your debt.  You also will be able to take advantage of opportunities to give generously when you have little debt.  What would you rather have – worry about debt, or the joy of giving?

Taxes

The Bible states we are to pay our taxes with integrity.  Romans 13:7 requires “If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”  How do we pay our taxes with integrity?  We do it by paying what is due, and by not trying to cheat the government out of taxes we legitimately owe. 

Now I am not saying we shouldn’t take advantage of every tax deduction we qualify for.  What I am saying is we should pay what we owe, so we can sleep at night with a clear conscience in regard to our taxes. 

Financial Goals

We need written financial goals, and we need to set them as a family, with everyone in agreement.  The Bible  asserts in Proverbs 19:20 “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”  What I mean by this is financial goals should be shared, discussed, and agreed upon with your spouse. 

The number one cause of marriages failing is problems with money.  Make sure you and your spouse are on the same page when it comes to your spending plan, and all of your financial goals.  Put the whole plan in writing, and review your financial plan on a monthly basis with a family meeting.   You may need to review it more frequently if you are having issues with your finances. 

Accountability

Who are we accountable to with our finances?  We are first accountable to God for everything we do with our money, since it’s all His, and we will be required to answer for everything we have done with everything we’ve been given. 

After God, we need to be accountable to our spouse and our family.  There is no point to having a financial plan if no one is going to follow it.  If we have agreed upon a plan, we need to be accountable to each other to do what it says, or to make changes if something needs to be revised.  This is the hardest thing to do for many couples, as our nature is to want it his way or her way, rather than our way.

Sometimes couples need to be accountable to someone outside their family to make it work.  Then find someone you can trust, a financial advisor or personal finance counselor, who can help keep you on track.  It will be well worth all the effort. 

Being a good steward of what God gives us can be one of the biggest blessings we will receive on this earth. 

Photo Credit – Pirate_J

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The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.  To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.

The picture above is actually gold-wrapped chocolate coins, and reminded me of a great church story. It happened one year just a few minutes before the start of our Christmas musical drama.   Some of our kids had found the stash of gold chocolate coins, which was to be the first of the Three King’s gifts to Jesus.

Well, the kids had gleefully eaten all the chocolate gold coins, so we had no gold treasure.  A bunch of people flew around the church looking for anything gold, as we had no time to purchase more chocolate coins.   Someone came up with a gold drapery cord (I didn’t even ask  what they ripped  it off of, just stuck it in the treasure chest! ).  

Of course it was hugely funny in retrospect, and the moral of this story is:  Take good care of your money, or you may lose it! (And yes, someday I will write a book about all the comedy I have experienced as a church organist/choir director!)

So how do you manage your money the biblical way?  Keep reading to find out – these principles are from the book Faith-Based Family Finances, by Ron Blue and Jeremy White (Ron is the President of Kingdom Advisors, of which I am a qualified member  -  you can look me up at www.kingdomadvisors.org).

God Owns It All

As the owner of all our resources, God has all the rights.  We have only responsibilities. This actually should give you less anxiety about money, since you don’t own it anyway, and God has promised to meet your needs.  

Every spending decision becomes a spiritual decision. If you really believe this, every financial decision becomes important, because you are handling God’s resources.   Generous giving also becomes much easier, since it’s all His anyway!

Wise stewardship is an indicator of spiritual health. If you want to know how you are doing in this area, take a look at your checkbook.  Everything about your life could be revealed in the spending decisions shown on your checking account bank statement.

Growth Process

Money and possessions are tools God uses to help you grow. God is trying to get our attention, and money is a great attention getter.   Ask God what He wants you to learn.

Money is also a test. God is watching to see how we handle the property He has entrusted to our care.   If we can’t manage a small amount of money well, why would He bless us with a lot of money, especially when it’s all His?

How Much

What we do with our money is also our testimony. Whether we are given a little or a lot, we need to keep our witness positive about what God is doing in our life.  We don’t know why some people have more, and others less.  We are only accountable for what He has given us.

We need to remember an open hand, both to receive, and to give.  Allow God to give more to us if He wants, or take more if He wants.   Remember, it’s all His.

Faith in Action

Think of the parable of the talents in the Bible (Matthew 25:14-30).   The one servant is afraid when his master gives him money to take care of, so he buries it in the ground. Many times we do nothing with our money, because we are so afraid of making a mistake.    So we do nothing, thinking we can feel good about that.

The media constantly bombards us, telling us it’s okay to buy and consume more and more, because of course life is all about us. The media wants us to believe we will feel more important, more beautiful, have less pain, and no challenges if we are purchasing the right things. 

Stay tuned for Manage Your Money the Biblical Way – Part 2, where I will detail specific things to put your faith in action with your money. 

Photo Credit:  Muffet

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How is your relationship with money going?  Watch this funny video to see some truths about what may have caused your relationship with money to have issues !

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The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.  To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.

If I asked every person in this crowd whether they would like to be a millionaire, I think every one of them would raise their hand. We seem to want to be millionaires – at least in theory, but are we willing to actually do what it takes?  Would it help you to know some of the characteristics of millionaires to answer that question ?

Check out the following characteristics of millionaires, from the book The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas Stanley and William Danko, and decide if you are willing to commit to being a millionaire.  Pay attention to what millionaires may not be as well:

Business Owners

Yes, that’s correct – most millionaires are business owners or entrepreneurs of some sort.  And they choose the right business or occupation. Who do you think of when you think of probable millionaires?  You most likely think of  large business owners, or people with high profile occupations like doctors or lawyers.

The truth is far from this. Many millionaires are small business owners, like your local cleaning service owner.  Or if they are employed, their occupation is most likely a teacher.  Thus the name The Millionaire Next Door – since you would be very surprised at who might be a millionaire in your middle class neighborhood.

Frugal

Millionaires get to be millionaires by taking care of their money, both to get money, and then to keep their money. Usually both spouses are frugal.  Notice I am not saying they are cheap.  Millionaires have a spending plan (budget), and know where their money is going, in specific categories such as food, clothing, and housing.

Millionaires play good offense (income), and stellar defense (spending) in the financial game. See the previous blog post if you haven’t already on Winning the Financial Game for more information on this.

Discipline

Millionaires are willing to work hard, be disciplined, and sacrifice to get to their goal of financial freedom. This is where most of us  will lose the commitment.

As much as we all want to be millionaires, most of us are not willing to pay the big price of what it takes to get there – lots and lots of work. You may have to give some stuff up.  We all want to have our cake and eat it too.  Unfortunately that doesn’t come until you are financially free.

Investing

Millionaires have sound investment habits.  They take the extra time required to educate themselves about the financial world. They make it a priority to pay attention to their investments, and spend more time managing their money than the rest of us are willing to do.   They are not afraid to seek out professional advice to help them get to their financial goals.

College

Good news – there is nothing in The Millionaire Next Door book that says millionaires are more likely to be good students, or have higher education.  It does say fully funded college tuition funds for their children and grandchildren are a priority for millionaires. So even if they may not have gone to college, they want to make sure their children and grandchildren have the opportunity to do so.

Mortgage

I know what you are thinking.  Millionaires must have whopping big mortgages.  Wrong again. Most millionaires have paid off their mortgages.  (It’s all part of the good offense – stellar defense concept.)  Millionaires know too much debt will stop them from their goal of financial freedom.

Goals

Millionaires have goals, and they are in writing.  They not only have short-term goals, but long-term goals as well, that include all aspects of their life, including the financial. And by that I mean a lot of goals -  daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and lifetime goals.

Net Worth

Millionaires don’t focus on their income, they focus on building their net worth.  What they care about is building their net worth to the point where they don’t ever have to work again if they choose not to. And then they build it some more, so they can give a bunch of it away.

John Maxwell says, “Successful people do the things that unsuccessful people are unwilling to do.”  Are you willing to do what it takes to be a millionaire?  Read The Millionaire Next Door, and Millionaire Women Next Door for more interesting information on characteristics and habits of millionaires.  You will be surprised at what you see.

Photo Credit – James Cridland

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The opinions voice in this material are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.  To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.

Disclaimer – this is not a post about how to play a better Monopoly game.  Although I couldn’t resist the games analogy forever, as we sport and game incessantly in our household (function of all the men, husband referee, etc).  Since all my children played soccer, of course the current craze is World Cup soccer, and the texts and phone calls fly back and forth with every game (saying mostly, did you see that – they got robbed!!!).

So how do you win the financial game – build wealth and become financially free?  It’s a common saying in sports that good defense wins championships.   The problem with most of us in our financial game is that we tend to play good offense, and not so good defense. 

Offense

Let’s start with offense, since we most of us play pretty decent offense.   In your financial game, your offense is your income, and most of us think this should be our focus. In other words, the more income we have the better.  We spend a lot of time trying to figure out how we can get more of it.   And we think if we just work more hours, we can get more income.

We also define ourselves by how much income we have, and look up to people we think have a lot of income. To many of us, having a lot of income defines success.  And our success is measured by how much stuff we possess.

The problem is, when we focus so much on our offense, we tend to ignore our defense.

Defense

There is a reason why good defense is needed to win championships. Without good defense, offense can be pointless (watch a few professional basketball games to get the point). In your financial game, your defense is how much you spend.

*****If you read nothing else in this post, read this – it doesn’t matter how much offense (income) you have, if you have no defense (control over what you spend).

If you not paying attention to how much you are spending, and where your money is going, the amount of your income doesn’t matter.  If you are spending all of your income, how can you save and invest, build wealth, and win the financial game?

Technical Skills

Good technical skills are essential in games.  You have to know how to play both good offense and defense. Building wealth requires financial technical skills, and a big part of it is budgeting (making a spending plan for your income), and then watching your expenses. Millionaires become millionaires doing exactly that, and they maintain their wealth the same way.

Another technical skill used by the wealthy is to minimize their tax burden. They do this by using ways to grow their money tax free – such as  investing in a company plan, IRAs, and educational savings plans for their children.

If your technical skills in offense and defense need a financial boot camp, please see a financial advisor to get started on a plan to win the financial game.

Photo credit – evelynishere

Securities offered by LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.  To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.

I did an Intelligent Investing Radio Show awhile back with answers to listener submitted questions.  This question was a really good one, and well worth repeating in a blog post.  This is for all of you who have ever watched your savings go down and down to nothing, whether it was because of a job loss, medical bills, debt, or whatever it may be. 

Here is the question: What is the quickest way to save money after facing hard financial times?

Emergency Mode

The first thing to realize is if you have no savings, and as a result no emergency fund, you should still be in emergency mode.  Now I don’t mean in panic mode, but you need to be very careful with your money.  The following are some ideas on how you can save money quickly and build your emergency savings back up.

Expenses

If you have not been paying close attention to where your money is going, you need to start immediately.  And I mean keeping track of where every penny is being spent.  Compare this your spending plan, and see if you have any money leaking, or if you can reduce any of your expenses. 

Unnecessary Spending

After you have looked at where your money is going, it’s time to be really honest and decide where you are spending unnecessarily.  Go through your spending habits, and evaluate every one to assess whether it can be eliminated.  You may need to make some hard choices here, but it has to be done. 

Debt Payments

If you have debt, you may need to make minimum payments on it for awhile.  You know I hate debt, but having no emergency savings will just create more debt in the long run.  Lower the payments in the short run to give you time to build the savings up.

Sell Stuff

We all have stuff we are not using.  This is the perfect time to go through all your stuff, and get rid of some of it.  Watch a few shows of Clean House to get the idea (love that show!).  Summer is the perfect time for a garage sale, or if you are into online selling, try Craigslist or Ebay.  You probably know someone that has done online selling and could help you if you don’t know how (ask your kids ). 

Investing

You know I hate to say this, but if money is really tight, you may need to consider suspending your investing for a short period of time, until your savings are replenished.   Talk to your financial advisor before making this decision. 

The piggy bank in the picture above is the Money Savvy Pig, a very cool product of Money Savvy Generation.  I love this bank – it’s a great tool to teach your children the four things they can do with their money – save, spend, donate, and invest.   Hint – it makes a great baby gift! 

Susan Beacham also has many other resources on Money Savvy Generation to teach elementary school-aged children money management basics.  Teach your children good money habits when they are young, and help create a money savvy generation!

Photo Credit  – Money Savvy Pig

Securities offered by LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only, and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.  To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.