The Fast-Paced World of Business

60 years ago, I’m pretty confident you’d find many households with a sole breadwinner. Today? Good luck. It seems the current economic climate has both the husband and the wife working. We could blame it on tuition, on lack of health benefits, and countless other conditions. But the simple truth remains, many households have no choice but to suck it up and have both partners work.

As a natural byproduct, household chores might not be getting done and more dinners are being served through the drive-thru. All of this adds to a greater degree of stress that can cause more issues.

But it’s not all gloom and doom.

Emergence of Time Management Systems

Families are being forced to find alternative arrangements, such as starting their own business or seeking a minimalistic lifestyle. The American dream is changing, but arguments can be made that it’s for the better.

In the 1990′s, David Allen pioneered a new way of working. He sought to free people from the rigidity of the daily to-do list and provide a more flexible system that could help the business people of today.

Yet, even with efficient productivity being promoted as something to be grasped, people were still too busy to make room for perhaps the most important aspect of their day: long-term planning.

What Happened to Planning?

If you’re happy working under a fluorescent light in a cubical all day long, be my guest. In fact, we need people doing just that. But honestly, it’s not for me. I rather have more flexibility with my time and the way I work.

Largely, I’d say I’ve arrived at this ideal. It doesn’t come without it’s difficulties and concerns, of course, but it’s a better way of working for me. How did I get here? Here is my formula:

Time + Planning + Resiliency = A Better Lifestyle and Work Situation

If you’re seeking a better lifestyle and work situation, you’re going to need the time to plan and the resiliency to bounce back from failures.

How to Use the Formula

Many people don’t have the time because they aren’t making time. They work a long shift, come home to have dinner, watch television, and go to bed. If this sounds like you, consider cutting back your hours at work so that you have more time.

Once you have the time, it’s time to plan! What is it that you want to change in your life? Do you need a new job? Use your extra time to chart the course of your life. Will your plan turn out exactly how you’ve written it? Of course not. And that’s where resiliency comes in.

The truth is that your plans will not always work. In fact, they probably won’t work the majority of the time. In order to cope with this, you’re going to need some resiliency. If you can make it through all of your mistakes and failures, you’re on the right track to a better lifestyle and work situation.

Should You Be Charting the Course of Your Life?

Yes. You should. But only do so while recognizing that God might have other plans for you. Seek out God’s plans for you. Sometimes, God will make it plain as day what you’re supposed to do. Other times, God will bring you through a process to reveal the plans. And still other times, God won’t reveal his will. And any of those scenarios is okay, because God is God – we aren’t. Pray for wisdom.

One last tip: Take some time each day to learn something new. Read books. Meet new people. You’ll be better off for it.

All who are prudent act with knowledge, but fools expose their folly. – Proverbs 13:16 NIV

What are your thoughts on planning? Leave a comment!

Breakfast: PB & J Pancakes

1 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons melted, unsalted butter

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup strawberry jam

Mix together dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mixed until just combined. Small lumps are normal so do not overmix. Add the peanut butter. Pour batter on a greased griddle or pan at medium-high heat. Flip when bubbles form. Keep pancakes warm while you heat the cup of strawberry jam over medium heat until it’s reduced to a sauce consistency. Pour over pancakes and enjoy! This recipe makes 10 small pancakes.

This recipe is especially great for kids. It shows them that PB&J isn’t just for lunch time. Feel free to try whatever jam or jelly as your syrup! Blackberry or raspberry jam would be especially delicious.

Lunch: Open-Faced Artichoke Sandwich

1 jar of marinated artichoke hearts

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

2 English muffins

Open, drain, rinse and dry the artichoke hearts. Run a knife through them on a cutting board and throw away any tough leaves. Mix together hearts, mayonnaise, parmesan cheese and mozzarella in a bowl. Spread on toasted English muffins and put under the broiler until the mozzarella is melted and slightly browned. Makes four open-faced sandwiches.

Make these open-faced sandwiches for cheese lovers, who will find this recipe toasty, creamy and savory.

Dinner: Chicken Nuggets

2 chicken breasts

2 tablespoons of Pankso

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

2 dashes pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon parsley

Preheat over to 425 degrees. Cut the chicken breasts into nugget-sized pieces. Pour 1/4 cup vegetable oil in a bowl. Combine breadcrumbs, Panko, garlic powder, parsley, salt and pepper in another bowl. Dip the pieces of chicken into the vegetable oil and then thoroughly coat the chicken in the breadcrumb mixture. Place coated nuggets on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 or until juices run clear. Enjoy with honey mustard, ranch, BBQ sauce or ketchup!

If you’re new to home-cooking, all these recipes are great places to start. Remember that it’s okay to make mistakes, and it’s okay if it doesn’t turn out and you shouldn’t get stressed out. Meal times give you the nourishment your body needs to get through the day, but it should be a time to enjoy the food and the people you love. We live a fast-paced life, but remember to sit down to enjoy a quality meal at the table at least three times a week.

What are some other easy, delicious and cheap recipes you can share? Leave a comment with your favorite creations!

If you’re a Christian, there might be. Jesus was very specific on this point.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. – Matthew 6:21 NIV

We know we should save money, but it’s also a matter of degree – if too much treasure goes into savings, it could be taking our hearts with it! Not good.

That will always be a source of tension for the believer, and I think it was meant to be that way.

The Good Side of Saving Money

We can find numerous verses in the Bible supporting the idea of saving money. The book of Proverbs is full of them, so we know that saving is both good and necessary. Consider what it can do for us as believers:

1. Helps us not be a burden to others.

By having a sufficient amount of money saved, we avoid being a burden to our loved ones and to the community around us.

2. We’ll have more money to give.

The more excess money (savings) that you have, the more generous you can afford to be in helping others. There’ll always be needs and the needy in the world (Matthew 26:11), and there will always need to be people who are in a position to help.

3. Minimizes worldly stressors.

Worry is a false idol that draws our attention away from God. Having some money saved can help to reduce sources of stress, keeping our minds and our lives free to focus on our faith.

Obviously there’s a lot of good that comes from having extra money, even for a believer.

The Dark Side of Saving Money

When it comes to savings, we have to ask the question, how much is enough? That’s a tough call, but it is possible for the perpetual pursuit of having ever more money to become a personal obsession.

1. Becoming your own favorite charity.

The popular phrase in the financial world is “pay yourself first” when it comes to saving money. The word “yourself” is the operative word in the directive, putting the entire emphasis on satisfying your needs first. After paying taxes and necessary expenses, each of us have a certain amount of disposable income that we can direct to various needs. If paying ourselves becomes the priority, what does that say about us? What does it say about our faith?

2. Believing that money equals security.

It is possible to convince ourselves that the purpose for having a lot of money saved is to give ourselves “a little security” in life – that sounds less like a quest for riches, doesn’t it? But how much security can money actually provide? Is there a point at which the pursuit monetary security competes with the journey toward eternal security? Probably, and that’s something we need to think about.

3. The world calls a heavy emphasis on saving “good.”

The way of the world is all about the accumulation of money. But we have to be very wary of pursuing the things the world calls good. When everyone around us is pursuing the same goal, we can easily become swept up in that effort and lose sight of the fact that we have a different purpose in the world.

4. Neglecting needs all around you.

None of us can address all of the needs around us. But at the same time, we can neglect more than we should if we get too caught up in the climb for a bigger pile of savings.

If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. – 1 John 3:17-18 NIV

It is precisely because building up wealth is so normal, so encouraged, that we need to step back and ask ourselves if our ways are too closely paralleling those of the secular world.

Why it’s Good to Give as Much as You Can

While recognizing the fact that we do need to save some money, it is also a sign of faith when we feel free to give money away, secure in the knowledge that God will provide for us.

1. It’s important to trust God rather than “pay yourself first.”

We probably don’t think about this often, but a strong emphasis on saving money could be masking a lack of faith in God. If we always need to have more money put away, it can be an indication we do not entirely trust God to provide for us. There is a dividing line here – Jesus told us that we “cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24 NIV)

2. It helps us be the hands and feet of God.

If God has blessed us with any degree of prosperity, there’s so much that we can do to be his hands and feet in the world. As Jesus said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48 NIV) Do we take that seriously, especially when it comes to money?

3. The world will know us by our deeds.

How great a witness will you be if you are a person of modest means, but one who gives generously? That combination is downright countercultural – when people see it they will have to ask why. They’ll know that there’s something different about you. If they know that you’re a Christian, your witness will be greater than any words that can come out of your mouth.

I don’t think that there’s any magic formula here, such as giving away one dollar for every dollar that you save for yourself. But is it possible to save too much, and to give too little – and all the while seeing no problem with that arrangement?

What are your thoughts on this important topic? Leave a comment!

What is Soylent?

According to the company, soylent is an “affordable nutrition drink with all the essential ingredients the healthy body needs.” They claim that everything in soylent is generally recognized as safe by the FDA. In fact, the founders (among many soylent converts) have been living almost entirely on soylent for months and have found evidence that a soylent diet is healthier than the typical diet. The ingredients can be found here.

John’s Thoughts on Soylent

For the last six months, I’ve been on a different kind of diet, focusing my efforts on eating whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and lean meat. I’ve cut out all desserts, and as a result of this diet, I’ve lost over 30 pounds and achieved a nearly perfect BMI (even without exercise, although I need to start).

Many might laugh at the idea of soylent, claiming that “processed” powder mixed with water probably isn’t that great for you. But if what the founders of this company are claiming is true, then soylent might be even healthier than what I’ve been doing for the past six months.

If one can scientifically determine what the body needs, and give it exactly that, why bother with eating food on a regular basis except for occasional enjoyment?

Yes, I know, I probably like the idea of soylent a little more than I should. I should be cautious, hesitant, and tread lightly. All of which I will do. But I’m intrigued enough to give it a whirl should it cross my path – or should I order a batch.

After all, if I can save money on food (which I would), save time (probably about three hours per day for preparing, eating, and cleaning), why not give it a whirl? It looks like these guys have done their research. But of course, if I do decide to try it, I’d only try it for a month or so – and then decide what to do from there.

Your Thoughts?

Are you becoming a fan of soylent? Are you going to try it out? Looks like you can get a month’s supply for $230 – which is substantially less than what I spend on eating out and groceries every month. How about you?

Do keep in mind that the founder of soylent has stated that he does not recommend people trying to make soylent at home because it is complex, and he doesn’t recommend an exclusive diet of soylent, although he has tried an almost exclusive diet before and seen improvement of his health.

Leave a comment and tell us your thoughts! Would you try soylent?

But I think that what troubles most of us is fear that we don’t know how to handle tough job interview questions. We can never be entirely certain as to what questions will be asked, but it’s almost a certainty that there will be a couple in there that we will have trouble handling.

What do you do about those?

Prepare Yourself for Tough Questions

You should go into the interview fully prepared for tough questions. That means expecting the unexpected. Though you can never know exactly what the questions will be, here are some tips to help you anticipate a few:

1. Think about tough questions you have faced in previous interviews, and be ready to handle them.
2. Look for any weak spots in your resume and be ready to address any potential issues with your qualifications – that’s usually where the toughest questions come into play.
3. Role play the interview with a knowledgeable partner – they might come up with some of those tough questions that you can’t think of.
4. Study the job requirements and see if there may be any questions regarding your ability to meet them.
5. Learn as much as you can about the employer, and see if there could be any issues unique to that organization that might generate difficult questions.

Understand that questions are not inherently tough – they only get that way when you are unprepared to answer them. By anticipating difficult questions beforehand, you will prepare yourself at least loosely to address nearly any question the employer asks.

Ask Questions to Buy Yourself Time

When you are actually on the job interview and a difficult question comes up – especially one which you do not have a ready answer for – you will need to have a strategy that will enable you to buy some time while you’re putting your answer together.

One of the best ways to do this is by asking follow-up questions. In doing so, not only are you giving yourself time to come up with an answer, but you’re also asking the interviewer to define the question more specifically. An answer to one of your follow-up questions may just trigger a satisfactory response in your mind.

Following the interviewer’s question with one or two of your own may also impress the interviewer. They might get a feel that you are a detailed person who is looking to give the proper answer to an important question. That can be a breath of fresh air for an interviewer, who has had more than a little experience with job candidates answering the wrong question, or worse, demonstrating complete incompetence with the answer.

Never Ramble

Most of us tend to ramble when we’re faced with a question we can’t answer. Don’t. Rambling usually confirms your lack of knowledge.

Silence can actually be a better response. It can indicate that you are organizing your thoughts – or giving the question very serious consideration – before giving your answer. If a very short period of silence does not enable you to come up with a good answer, you can always resort to asking questions as discussed above.

No more than once in an interview, you might be able to pull off a response like: “That’s a complicated question, and I want to give it my best answer, but I haven’t had time to provide the response it deserves – can I get back to you on that?”

No, that is not a response that you would want to give if you have a choice. But it will be better than rambling, or giving no answer at all. Use it only if you’re desperate, with the understanding that the interviewer may not buy it anyway.

Admit When You Don’t Know and Won’t Know

If you really don’t know the answer to a question, and there’s little chance that you will come up with a good one even if you have more time, it might be better to just admit that you don’t have an answer. The interviewer may even give you greater respect for admitting your ignorance rather than rattling off an obviously fabricated answer. And who knows, maybe no other candidate has been able to answer it either.

But there’s one other issue you may need to be concerned with. If the question refers to an aspect of the job that is critical, and you can’t address it, it may be an indication that you are not qualified for the job. This will be even more true if you face two or more questions that you don’t have answers for.

Now you may believe that your inability to answer one or more questions will automatically disqualify you from consideration, but not always. An employer may hire you regardless of your lack of knowledge because they are desperate to put someone in the position. It’s actually not an uncommon outcome.

Even if the company decides to hire you, you will need to think long and hard as to whether or not you want the job. It could well be one of those setting-you-up-to-fail situations that you should not want any part of.

Do you think these strategies will help you handle tough job interview questions? What are some more job interview strategies? Leave a comment!

No matter what our occupation we typically get out of it what we put into it. The longer we’re at our job the better we become and the more passionate we are the more time we’re willing to put in. Claude Monet didn’t spend fifteen minutes on Water Lilies and Harper Lee didn’t write How to Kill a Mockingbird in a week. Success isn’t accomplished without sweat, tears and a whole lot of invested time.

The American Dream

Christian or not, American society places an intense pressure on its citizens to work. The “American Dream” is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but the pursuit of happiness has become an impossible goal to reach. The unspoken, difficult standard includes a great job that can afford a picket fence and provide for two and a half kids, but where is the time to fix the broken fence or spend with those two and a half kids when you’re pulling a 10-hour shift at the office?

Balancing work and family time seems to be the number one stress for American families. Almost daily we hear about couples divorcing because he was a “slave to his job” or she “loved her career more than our family.” We must work for the wellbeing of our family. So what are we to do? As Christians we need the right attitude and perspective on work.

The Parable of the Bags of Gold

The Parable of the Bags of Gold is in Matthew 25. It’s a parable about getting into the kingdom of heaven. The story consists of a man and his three servants. The man gave five bags of gold to one, two to another and one to the last. The first servant doubled his gold to to 10 bags. The servant with two bags gained another. But the last servant hid his bag because he was afraid. The last servant was deemed worthless and thrown into the darkness. He did not use what God gave him!

Work is not just to provide for our family, but to spread the love of Christ. When you know the gospel and you’re not interacting with anyone, you’re not being a good Christian. Work can be stressful and difficult, but our co-workers should notice there’s something different about us by how we handle those situations.

A Time for Everything

Genesis 2:2 says, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” God made a beautiful universe in six days and set an example to rest. Pushing yourself too hard all the time burns you out. Remember to give yourself time for family and relaxation.

It often seems that their are two very distinct camps when it comes to gold. The first are the “gold bugs;” they’re the people who believe that gold is the best remedy for financial troubles of all kinds. The second group are the anti-gold crowd. They’re the type who feed on (and feed into) the slightest decline in the price of gold, and they seem to be especially prevalent in the financial media.

We’ve been treated to open warfare between the two camps in the last few weeks.

The Recent Gold Price Collapse

The gold bugs had their day in the sun – actually many of them – while the price of gold was steadily rising and setting new records for nearly a decade. But in mid-April 2013 the price of gold went into a sudden and spectacular fall. For the financial media and their attack dogs, this was their moment to shine!

What’s interesting is that if you follow the various explanations of the price collapse, you come away little more than confused. Cyprus was selling its gold. The economy is suddenly picking up, and investors are getting out of gold and into stocks. Interest rates might rise putting a damper on gold prices. A shadowy central bank or other financial institution is dumping gold on the market. The derivative trade is artificially suppressing the price.

Any of those explanations might have something to do with the collapse of gold, but there’s just as likely a chance that none of them had anything to do with it.

I don’t propose to explain why the price of gold fell so convincingly. But I do think that the event serves as a lesson for us all in regard to gold.

To say – as the anti-gold crowd does – that gold is “just another commodity” is a gross overstatement. Gold has been a monetary commodity all the way back to biblical times. Clearly there is something about gold that is special. But at the same time, to believe that everything is going to go to hell in a hand basket and only those who own gold will remain standing overstates the case in the other direction.

Gold is a Religion All by Itself

Once an investment becomes entrenched and successful (at least some of the time) it develops a following. Among the true “believers,” an investment can develop a group of followers who are so fanatical in their attachment to it that it borders on religion. This has certainly happened with gold, but the same can also be said of real estate and the stock market. As human beings, we are prone to fashion false idols.

But the collapse of the price of gold – in addition to the collapse of real estate prices and two stock market crashes since the turn-of-the-century – should rightfully leave us curious of any religious type infatuation that we will have with any investment.

Gold as Part of a Balanced Strategy

I don’t mean to bash the gold crowd – as mentioned in the last section, real estate and the stock market have their own cast of religious zealots. But the recent collapse should provide a solid reason to avoid putting too much faith in gold, or any other investment for that matter.

There’s no doubt that the economy of the U.S., and the rest of the world for that matter, looks more vulnerable than it has at any time at least since the 1930s. But the one thing none of us can afford to do is to load up on a single investment, and think that that will get us through the crisis that may be before us.

Personally, I’m sympathetic with the gold crowd. Gold has the advantage of being portable, barter-able, and ultimately less subject to government manipulation than paper assets. And its 5000+ year track record simply cannot be matched by any other investment. Fair enough.

But the world and its problems are far too complicated to be solved by holding enough of a certain investment. To load up on gold carries the unspoken assumption that you know how the future will play out. That’s either fortune-telling or a form of insanity! None of us know what will happen in the future, let alone the details along the way.

The only way to have a reasonable chance of being properly prepared is through balance. You can hold some gold – but you should also have some cash, silver, certain types of stocks and U.S. Treasury securities.

And while we’re at it, it’s equally important to consider your occupation going into the future, where you live, how much money you need to survive, and the amount of debt that you have. To be truly prepared, you have to look at all sides of your economic and financial survival.

Why We’re Unlikely to Go Back to a Gold Standard

There is one area where I completely part company with the gold crowd, and that’s the belief that we’re going to be going back to some sort of gold standard in the future.

While anything is possible, when you consider the size of the world’s population, and the obligations that major governments have taken on (and that the public demands), there simply isn’t enough gold in the world to accommodate that level of public spending and worldwide economic activity.

If a gold standard is ever resumed, my guess is that it will be for only a short time. But that’s just my opinion, and I certainly have no crystal ball.

The Only Real Security We Have

Ultimately, the reliance on gold and on other investments is about creating security. But while investments can help us to weather some of the storms of life, they cannot insulate us from the world’s troubles. The only way we can achieve true security is through faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. – Psalm 20:7 NIV

Prepare for a rainy day, certainly, but if the world’s financial system and economy get so bad that we’ll need lots of gold (and guns, ammunition, and canned food, or whatever), we’ll need our Savior more than any single commodity or collection of them.

What are your thoughts on gold and global instability? Leave a comment!

But let’s say that you want to retire 10 years from today – no matter what your age – is that even possible? It is, but you’ll have to rearrange your life in ways that most people are not willing to do.

1. Commit yourself completely to the task at hand.

In order for you to retire in 10 years you’ll have to build your entire financial plan – and even your entire life – around the goal. While other people are enjoying life, you’ll have to be fully committed to a decade of self-denial. If you are not, don’t even bother to take this effort on.

As an alternative, you can choose a longer timeframe to achieve your goal. But to do it in 10 years will require some serious sacrifice. You’ll need to be ready for that.

2. Don’t have a family, but if you do – plan to retire in 20 years.

If you are serious about retirement in 10 years, don’t even plan on having a family. That sounds cold I know, but with a family comes greater financial obligations. You’ll have to maintain a larger home, a larger car, more money for food and clothing, and funding for future college education – at a minimum. All of that will eat into your retirement goal.

If you have a family, or plan to have one within the 10-year timeframe, you’ll almost certainly need to extend your retirement goal to at least 20 years. Early retirement is a juggling act; with a family you’ll just have too many balls in the air to make it happen.

3. Get the best job (or business) you can, and keep moving forward.

If you want to retire in 10 years, having a job that will be comfortable may not do it for you. You’ll have to be in a job or business that will enable you to make the most money that you possibly can. That means you want one of those jobs or businesses where you will be working 80-100 hours per week. Unless you already have a substantial amount of money saved and invested, your primary job will be your main source of funding for your early retirement plan.

4. And then get a second job (or business).

If you can’t make enough money to fund your retirement goals with a single job or business, you’ll have to get another. That won’t mean getting a job pumping gas or flipping burgers, but a second job that pays something like a full-time hourly wage. Two incomes will get you there a lot faster than one will, if only because the second income will be entirely for savings.

5. Learn to live on next to nothing.

There are two purposes for the extreme frugality:

• Keeping spending bare-bones so that you’ll have more money to save for retirement, and
• learning to live at a minimal level so that you will have less need for income when you retire.

The basic rule is that the less you need to live on, the more you will have for savings and investments, and the quicker you’ll be able to retire. That might mean living in a rented room, commuting by public transportation, and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches three times a day.

6. Save 50% or more of your income.

Now we get to where the high income and the low living expenses meet for a common agenda. You are maximizing your income and minimizing your expenses so that you can save and invest the most money that you possibly can.

If you are serious about retirement in 10 years, you’ll need to save at least 50% of your after-tax income. What we’re talking about here is putting away a serious amount of money each and every year for the next 10 years.

7. Invest aggressively.

If you want to retire in a decade you will not have the luxury of investing your money conservatively. Your investment portfolio will have to be heavily skewed in favor of high risk/high reward investment vehicles. That will mean investing in stocks, and largely in the most aggressive ones at that.

How aggressively?

Let’s say that you are 25 years old and earning $75,000 from all sources. Your after-tax income is $60,000, of which you are saving 50%, or $30,000 per year.

You decide you need to have $500,000 by the time you’re 35 in order to retire early.

In order to reach your goal of retirement 10 years – at age 35 – you’ll need a rate of return on investment of roughly 12% per year. It will take some pretty aggressive investing to achieve that return over 10 years, and you better hope that there isn’t market crash along the way.

That will most likely see you investing your money in the highest risk stocks available, such as aggressive growth stocks and a very healthy mix of emerging markets stocks. Unfortunately, the time value of money isn’t nearly as strong over short periods of time as it is over nearly a lifetime.

8. Stay out of debt.

If you want to save, invest, and retire in 10 years, you absolutely positively must avoid debt at all costs. Not only will debt payments reduce the amount of money that you have to put toward savings and investments, but it can also leave you walking into retirement and still carrying some past obligations. And, make sure you get out of debt as soon as possible (perhaps try ReadyForZero).

So there you have it – you probably can early retire in 10 years, as long as you fully commit to the plan. That will mean becoming single-minded, and excluding nearly any other goal that you have for your life – at least until you finally retire.

Will be worth it? That’s a personal decision . . . .

Would you be willing to commit to this level of sacrifice if it meant that you would be able to retire is little as 10 years? Leave a comment and let us know!

With that in mind, you may be able to move your financial assets and even the proceeds of your life insurance policies into trust funds that will be available to help your children once they reach age of majority. This will help to provide for a college education as well as money to get started early in life. From a financial standpoint at least, it will be as if you’re still around to help them.

But let’s take a closer look at those Social Security benefits . . . .

How do you become eligible?

Your children – including natural, adopted or dependent step children – are eligible as long as you and/or your spouse either worked long enough in a job where he or she paid Social Security taxes (10 year minimum), or are already collecting benefits due to being disabled or retired.

In addition, per the Social Security Administration (SSA) website:

• The child also must be unmarried.
• The child must be younger than age 18.
• 18-19 years old and a full-time student but no higher than grade 12.
• 18 or older and disabled, and the disability must have started before age 22.

SSA will require certain documents when applying for benefits for your child(ren). Here is at least a partial list of the requirements:

• Your child’s birth certificate.
• Your and your spouse’s Social Security numbers.
• For survivors benefits, proof of the parents death.
• For disability benefits, medical evidence to prove the disability.
• Other documentation as required.

How long do benefits continue?

As a general rule, benefits stop when a child reaches the age of 18, but there are exceptions.

One such exception is when the child is a student, though this does not extend to college enrollment. Benefits will continue only as long as the child is a full-time student at either a high school or an elementary school. Upon turning 18, the child will have to complete a statement of attendance, certified by the school. The benefits will end either upon high school graduation, or upon reaching the age of 19 years and two months, whichever comes first.

Disability of the child is another exception, and if that is the case benefits will continue past age 18.

Benefits for Caring for a Child

If you are caring for a child who is receiving Social Security benefits, those benefits will end when the child turns 16 – unless the child is disabled. Benefits can continue past age 16 if you “exercise parental control and responsibility for a mentally disabled child or perform personal services where child was physically disabled.”

This disability status must be established before the child reaches 16. The Social Security Administration will notify you of the termination of benefits prior to the child turning 16, at which point you’ll have to begin picking application for continuation based upon disability.

The Amount of the Monthly Benefit

If you will be relying upon Social Security for at least part of the cost of care for your children, is important to know how much that monthly benefit will be.

A child may receive a benefit of up to one half of the parent’s retirement or disability benefit, or 75% of the deceased parents’ basic Social Security benefit. The Social Security Administration allows you to estimate your benefits on their website. You can calculate your benefit to help you to get at least a rough idea as to how much you can expect your own retirement benefit to be, as well as the benefit to your children in the event of your death.

The maximum benefit per family is limited to between 150% and 180% of the parents’ full benefit amount. Should the monthly benefit exceed this calculation for any reason, the amount of benefit paid for your children will be reduced proportionally to stay within limit. This may become an issue if there are more than two children who will be dependent upon Social Security benefits in the event of your death.

If you would like to learn more about Social Security benefits for your children upon your death, you can go to the Social Security website.

My Position on Credit Cards

Obviously, I don’t personally use them. If you do, I’ll still be your friend – I promise.

The main reason I don’t use credit cards is because of their intended purpose: to lure me into debt. Sure, I could probably “beat the system” and get some nice cash back rewards. But remember, credit card companies aren’t in the game to help you out, they’re in the game to take your money.

Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything morally wrong with using a credit card, or even issuing them to customers, but it’s just not for me. I have an alternative budgeting system set up that allows me to bypass the use of credit cards and still earn some pretty sweet rewards (thanks PerkStreet).

I should mention that if I was in a pinch, and didn’t have my emergency fund, I might turn to credit cards. But other than that, I stay away from them. You might even want to switch to a different credit card to get a better interest rate if you’re in debt, but certainly don’t put more debt on them.

How Rejecting Credit Cards Improved My Finances

Okay, so this is the cool part. Still with me? Good.

Remember that I rejected credit cards because of their intended purpose (to lure me into debt), but over the past few years, I’ve noticed a few unintended but welcome consequences of my credit card boycott:

1. My income shot up.

Yeah, weird, right? I attribute a lot of my income increase to not having a credit card to fall back on. The mere absence of credit cards causes me to continually realize that in order to stick to my plan and pay cash for everything, I’ll have to get my income up.

In other words, I’ll have to actually live beneath my means, something many of those with credit cards seem to have a hard time doing. And because we’re living on what I’d consider to be a tight budget, that only leaves one side of the equation to work on: my income.

2. I got out of debt.

Except for my mortgage, that is – but that’ll come later . . . .

Still, this is a nice little achievement, and again, gaining a distaste for credit helped me blast debt out of the water.

3. I built an emergency fund.

Not having lines of credit to depend on forced me to create an emergency fund. What if something happened and we needed money? Turning to credit cards would break our debt-free streak, so I built an emergency fund.

I should mention that all of these things I did together with my wife, who played an awesome and major role in reaching our goals. Without her, it wouldn’t have happened. Even though I wrote this article with “I’s,” it was the “We’s” that really won the day. (Thanks honey! We make a great team!)

What About You?

So, what about you? Are you using credit cards and feel the itch to get out of a cycle of debt?

Start by destroying your credit cards. Then, consider opening a PerkStreet account to get some cash back on your debit card purchases.

You can do it. If you’re a bit extreme, like I am, you have what it takes to live without credit. Try it out . . . you can always go back to the credit cards if you miss them.

Are you living without credit cards? If not, how do you use credit cards? Have you always been responsible with credit cards? Leave a comment!