Gather Little by Little

For our next two posts, I am going to explore the question: is debt reduction a greater financial priority than tithing? The intuitive answer from a “good money sense” point of view might be “yes”. After all, isn’t debt the worst possible financial ill on the planet? Shouldn’t we be employing every possible financial means to reduce our personal indebtedness? For many of us, ten percent of our income (the tithe) might seem like a good chunk of money that could be used for paying down our mortgage or car loan principal. Mathematically speaking, think of how quickly our debts might disappear if the tithe were applied to our credit card balance? Look at all of the things that good stewards of money practice in order to pay down debt: shop second-hand stores, reduce driving miles, down-size our homes, save energy, cook our own food, make stuff, stretch stuff, use coupons . . . is the tithe only obligatory for people who have been blessed with extra money?

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In recent years, I have begun to change great deal of my views on saving for retirement 401k’s, IRA’s and the like. The truth is that I am far less likely to spend a great deal of time and effort saving money for retirement than I used to be . . . but that is a topic for another day. Today, I am participating in the Roth IRA Movement which is an event where nearly 150 personal finance bloggers (who knew there were so many?) plan to write about and draw publicity to the Roth IRA this week.

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Every family’s budget is a reflection of that family’s priorities, habits and tastes. Here at Gather Little by Little, we do not try to dictate exactly how persons budget should look. Mainly because that is a fool’s errand. But there are some basic principles which govern the advice that appears on this blog. One of them is: the outflow should be less than your inflow. Most of us try to stay under budget by spending less whenever possible. We are a frugal bunch.

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Money blogs are usually a place for getting the most out of life for the least amount of money. They are place to seek ideas of how to gain financial security with the least amount of risk. But did you know that too much of this kind of thinking can be a bad thing? Did you know that  Christians can be too tight with their money? Today, I am going to suggest that following Christ might actually require you to not give, not save, but spend more money!

First consider these verses, you will see principles from these verses throughout the statements that follow.

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While filing my taxes a couple of weeks ago, I notices that the EIC or Earned Income Credit was a major factor in reducing the amount of tax that I owed and greatly increasing the amount of my refund. I have usually assumed that the EIC was simply a liberal-socialist attempt at wealth redistribution and even though I benefit from the policy, I generally voiced opposition to this particular idea because I thought it was a handout and undermined free market principles. However, I started to do a little research into the history of the EIC, I began to realize that this policy gets nearly universal support from both sides of the political spectrum.

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Nearly 50 percent of US tax filers will be due a refund this tax season and that number continues to grow.

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The Microsoft Office suite of programs is nearly universal when it comes to personal computers. Nearly everyone has a working knowledge of Word and is familiar with PowerPoint. Outlook, Microsoft’s email software, also has wide use and acceptance. However, my favorite MS program is Excel. When I worked as a soccer coach, I used Excel in almost every facet of my program, from budgets to planning practice to recruiting to filling out rosters. There was almost nothing that I did in the office without Excel.

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This is a guest post by Pastor Eric Johnston of the Christian Prayer Center, a site to post and receive prayer requests.

At the Christian Prayer Center, we often get prayer requests asking for miracle financial blessings that include new homes, luxury automobiles, fancy motorcycles and the like. Instead of people praying for wisdom in effectively managing their finances, many modern day Christians pray that they will win large sums of money in a lottery, or receive another type of large windfall such as an inheritance from a lost uncle. Although miraculous financial events do occasionally happen to faithful devotees of Christ, we can look to the Bible for common, sensible advice in how we should behave when it comes to our pocket books and financial goals.

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Our household taxes are always been fairly complicated. This is mostly due to the fact that Mrs. Stew and I have always had multiple streams of income. While God has blessed me with steady, full-time jobs over the course of our marriage, we have always had to supplement our income with part-time, self-employed and contract labor sources of income. So when I go to calculate our gross income every April, I always have to account for a pile of W-2 forms, 1099 forms and other miscellaneous income . . . and then come the deductions . . .  Add to that the complexity of the IRS tax code in this country, needless to say, I make a mistake once in a while. Usually the mistakes are pretty minor, although I did have to pay a penalty a couple of years ago when I mistakenly thought that we qualified for the Earned Income Credit.

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KMart and Sears Layaway commercials are some of the most unintentionally hilarious advertisements on television right now. They are always met with smirks and sarcasm by Mrs. Stew and I. Layaway? Seriously?

Sears and KMart are in the midst of conducting a full-court press on behalf of their layaway programs without seeming to realize that layaway is actually a worse deal than just buying an item with a credit card. Layaway might be Kmart Smart, but it sure is not frugal money smart.

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