Gather Little by Little

Matthew 6:19-21 – Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Matthew 6:24 – No one 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.

While driving around the beltway yesterday, a green Lexus LS430 passed me in the far left hand lane. This isn’t unusual as people in general drive pretty fast and Lexus’ are pretty common these days. As a car-o-holic, I did notice it though as I do most cars I see on the interstate, and it wasn’t even the strange yet familiar color of green the car was painted that caught my attention. It was the license plate: COLROFMNY that got my attention.

At first I thought to myself That explains the strange green color, pretty creative. Then my next thought was Wow, I wonder what his priority is?

Now, is it fair to judge someones priorities over the color of their car and the tag on it? Of course not, but it does bring up a really good question: How do people perceive you?

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(Yes, that’s me in the picture…I was 12) 

*Whew*, it’s been one heck of a busy week for me so far. I was on vacation Wed – Friday of last week and coming back to my J-O-B has been a bit hectic. If you didn’t catch the J-O-B reference, check out Dan Miller’s 48days.com website and listen to Dan’s weekly podcast. But more on that later…

I’ve been working very hard to have at least 1-2 good posts everyday, well today I am going to fall short.

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Luke 16:10 – If you cheat even a little, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities

David over at MoneyNing posted an article Say What You Do and Do What You Say. Seems David made a commitment to both stop wasting food by fixing too much at home and by bringing too much food home. David offers some good advice when he says:

When there is something we cannot seem to get ourselves to do, we should make the commitment to write it down (or tell the world like I did :)). It keeps us honest and helps us complete the task. Also, donÂ’t forget to trust ourselves that we can do it because we certainly can!

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This is one of those obvious sorts of things that for some reason or another still seems to bite me.

We went shopping at our local “low priced” grocery store the other day to pick up a few items. As we walked into the store, there was a special display set up with 50-count foam plates priced 10 for $10.00. We decided this was a great deal and bought 10 packs (500 plates). I mean, 50 foam plates for $1 each, great deal right? Well, sort of…

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Update: The PriceProtectr website now has a shiny new user-interface, and a new mascot. They also added a retailers page which shows all of the retailers they support, along with information on the retailers policy and other important information

This is the first in an on-going series of posts I’ll be doing on money saving tips called Money Saving Monday Tips.

If you have any tips you would like to share, send them my way and I’ll consider adding them (and of course credit you).

Tip #1 – Use Price Protectr

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Proverbs 13:16 – Wise people think before they act.

Having a simple and clear written financial plan is one of the key steps to Getting Your Finances Under Control. The plan will serve as a baseline for your understanding of where you currently are, where you want to be, and when you want to be there. It will also serve in helping you make future decisions.

Your personal financial plan should contain the following:

1. Summary of your current finances
2. Current Risk Management Programs
3. Goals and Objectives
4. Detailed Plan

Summary Of Your Current Finances

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Not sure where or how I got this list, but was scanning through some older saved
files and came across this list of emergency numbers.

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Given our new perspective on money, my wife and I have been looking for opportunities where we can involve our children and begin teaching them about money.

Here are 10 ideas to help you teach kids to save money and about overall money management:

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1. Create a savings account for them. Preferably use one of the new online high-interest bearing banks, such as ING Direct’s Orange Savings.
2. Start a matched savings program matching their savings dollar for dollar. This is a great way to teach them both about savings and 401k programs.

Once you have recognized that your finances are out of control and walked away from the mirror, determined and focused to make a change, the next step to How to Get Your Finances Under Control is to set your financial goals. Goals are like destinations, they define where you are going and where you want to end up. How often do you leave home and not know where you are going? If you are like most people, you have one or more destinations in mind before you even walk out the front door. You know where you are going, and most likely have determined the most efficient route to your destinations in order to not waste time and gas.

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One of the many magazines I enjoy reading is Smart Money, from The Wall Street Journal. For other magazines I read, see My Magazine Reading List.

In the July issue, Smart Money highlighted 7 Money Mistakes. I thought it was a really good article, and wanted to summarize it for you.

#1 Saving with the right hand and spending with the left

This mistake addresses the issue of how people save money, but spend unwisely. Some examples include:

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• Keeping a savings account that pays 5% interest while paying Visa 15%