In The Beginning
By glblguy
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. – 1 John 1:1-5
One of the many blogs I enjoy reading is Thoughts of Resurrection by Andrew Conard. A recent post of Andrew’s titled “The Word of God” asks the question, “What are you beginning today”?
The dictionary defines “The Beginning” as to proceed to perform the first or earliest part of some action. Everything starts somewhere and begins with the first step. What is something related to your personal finances that you have been meaning to start but haven’t?
Write down the list of things you have been wanting to do and then rank them by importance. Take the first item and figure out the next action you need to take to Begin heading in that direction.
Is that one thing…
- Establishing an emergency fund?
- Starting a budget?
- Getting out of debt?
- Cutting up your credit cards?
- Starting your 401k?
Establish an emergency fund
Do you have a savings account? If so, your next step should be to set-up an automatic draft from your checking account to that savings account. Start at $5 a week, start at $1 a week, just start. Maybe take a leap of faith and start at $10. You can always adjust it later. The important thing is to just Begin. Don’t hesitate, do it now. I’ll wait…
Starting a Budget
So you’ve always wanted to start a budget, but you just never have the time, don’t know how to start, keep saying you’ll do it tomorrow or next month. Read my article on setting up a budget and Begin the process now, not sometime today, not tomorrow. Your husband or wife won’t buy in or won’t follow it? Begin practicing some of these ideas to help.
Getting Out of Debt
Have you been feeling the daily stress of being debt, and want to stop being slave to the lender? Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck, feeling like all of your money goes to making other people/companies wealthly? Than Begin the process of Getting control of your finances and getting out of debt today.
Cutting Up Your Credit Cards
Have you been wanting to get rid of your credit cards but you’ve been to afraid to? Feel like you might need them if you do? Walk over to your wallet, call your family down to the shredder and have a Family Credit Card Shredding. You will be amazed at how much better you feel. You will feel confidence knowing that you’ve started down the process to no longer being slave to the lender.
Starting your 401k?
Are you out of debt and beginning to stress or worry about how you will pay for retirement? Wondering what you will do and how you will survive once you are out of the workplace. Begin funding your 401k or IRA today. Stop reading right now, and make that call to HR, or access the HR website and sign-up for your 401k program. Read up on all the funds later, just Begin now. Don’t have a 401k? Go down to your bank and ask about their IRA options, and create your IRA today.
What are you going to Begin today? What things have you been wanting to do but keep putting off? Decide what you want to Begin today and take the first action to start it. Take a few minutes and ask God to help you, ask God to give you the faith and will-power to take that first action. Ask yourself, what is holding you back? What are you afraid of? What is the worst thing that could possibly happen, and what are the chances it will?
If you have decided to begin something today, post a comment, share your beginning with other readers. Did you know that just writing down the 1 thing that you will begin today will significantly increase the chances that you will do it? Share your beginnings, what will you begin today?
“…Now begin the work, and the LORD be with you.” – 1 Chronicles 22:16
August 7th, 2007 at 10:43 am
When I first got hired on at a company in Texas they asked me if I wanted to participate in their 401(k) program. I declined because I was going to make it big on the stock market through options trading.
After losing a huge amount of money on options I realized that I was willfully losing a 100% increase in my money through company matching. If you read this comment and you don’t have your corporate match in place: please turn off your internet connection, turn off your phone, turn off your lights and walk to the HR department office and fill out the forms to at least get the corporate match. Of course if you can use a website or a telephone to get the 401(k) set up you could do that too, but do it now!
I missed out on what would have been thousands of dollars because I was silly – please learn from my mistake.
August 7th, 2007 at 11:15 am
> Cutting Up Your Credit Cards
Wow! I don’t think I am ready for that yet.
I know it would be a good thing to do, but I would need to keep one credit card for online purchases… at least that is the execuse I would use:-)
August 7th, 2007 at 11:41 am
@Randy – Thanks Randy, great, great advice. I don’t think people in general look at the 401k from that perspective. Where I work, I also get a 100% match, so 100% return on your investment, guaranteed.
@George – I use a debit card. Now before all of you jump on me about risk of getting my number stolen. I only do business with reputable companies (like Amazon). Another thing a friend of mine does (and I have been considering) is having a checking account and debit card just for online purchases. When he wants to but something he just transfers the money over.
George, I just decided that I’ve never really had a good experience with any credit card company and just don’t want to give them my money or business anymore. I just don’t want to use other people’s money to buy my stuff. That was really the key realization I had. If I can’t buy it using my money, than I don’t need it.
@Randy and George – Thanks for offer your insights and thoughts, I appreciate it!
August 7th, 2007 at 11:53 am
After I replied to Randy and George I remembered Pinyo over at Moolanomy had a great article on avoiding retirement savings mistakes. He has an example that backs up Randy’s response and shows the cost of waiting or starting late.