Sometimes I have random personal finance thoughts that are too short for a post. I type them into a document in my Blackberry and save them up until I have enough for an article. Maybe they will spark a thought or two in your mind -
A grocery store is almost always cheaper and healthier than a restaurant. The difference is simply laziness . . . at least for me. Pour your own water!
No matter how you lose your job, whether your plant closed, your business relocated to another country, or you were laid off, forced to resign or if you were fired directly, being unemployed is a nerve-racking place to be. Hopefully you have an emergency fund in place that can support your budget for at least a few months. It is interesting how the conventional wisdom on emergency funds has changed just in the past few years. In 2005-’06-’07, personal finance advisors often recommended a three month emergency fund. Then it was six months and now, it is prudent to look at having nine or ten month’s budget saved up for the event of job loss. People are taking longer and longer to find work.
On Monday and Wednesday, we discussed several characteristics of a church that is worthy of your money. Today, I thought I would share several passages of Scripture that deal with these issues. I am not going to spend a lot of time interpreting each passage because I think that most of them stand on their own. My comments may only serve to cloud the issue.
Here are some passages that mention aspects of church finance. I encourage you to read them and consider them in light of your congregation. If you think that one needs further clarification, feel free to drop me a note and I will make the subject of a future post.
In the comment section of the first post in this series, a reader named Randy Peterson, requested more Scripture passages in support of my list of ideas. I did not include Bible references in the first post (and this one), mainly to conserve space. The original article was well over 1500 words before I decided to divide it into two posts. Also, some of the ideas are implications of biblical principles that I have learned or experienced, but not necessarily dogmatic truth. My goal is to get you thinking and talking about this topic. Sometimes we find the subject of money to be uncomfortable and so we avoid it. As a result of avoiding the subject, we do not provide the accountability necessary for good church finance. On Friday, I plan to list a large number of biblical references on this topic without a great deal of commentary. I hope that you will take it from there!
Last fall, our family removed ourselves from membership in a church near our home and began to visit various churches in our area. Since December, we have been attending a church that we are very excited about and we plan to become members of that church in the near future. In the last week, we have also chosen to financially support that ministry.
Mrs. Stew and I recently opened new checking accounts in our area. As I shared in February, my wife and I have separate brick and mortar checking accounts for salary direct deposit and regular checking deposits. We then use online savings accounts for bill pay, emergency funds, long term savings, etc. Earlier in the month, we both acquired Chase bonus coupons for $125 and opened our new checking accounts.
Dave Ramsey has done well for himself as a financial advice guru. He was one of the first people to recognize that our culture is steeped in debt, dependent on debt and that debt was enslaving the American culture. Ramsey has not been successful in changing our cultural dependence on debt, however, there are many individuals and families who owe him a great deal when it came to turning their financial house around. One of Dave Ramsey’s more controversial pieces of advice deals with FICO scores, also known as a credit score. Ramsey has said things such as: your credit score is an “I love debt score” and, Americans today are “worshiping at the altar of the FICO score.” He downplays the importance of a credit score on a regular basis and emphasizes his strategy of paying cash for everything.
I think that on the whole, most Gather Little by Little readers are not major credit card users, so most of you will not notice any credit card changes. Last Monday, several new laws regulating credit cards went into effect. I listed the changes in a post here at GLBL a couple of months ago. This month, we start to see the effects of the new laws. Here is what I have noticed so far this year:
Recently, I read a report about prepaid debit cards and their use. I was surprised to learn that more than 60 million Americans are using this alternative to a bank checking account. And most surprisingly, prepaid debit cards are not only used by people with poor credit. In some cases, it is the best way to manage your money with the lowest fees.
In order to better understand them, I decided to list the pros and cons of using prepaid debit cards:
A while ago, Larry wrote a very interesting post about how to start an online store. He well defines the right way to start your online store. I also share his point of view on making more money in order to pay back debt faster. While reducing your expenses is always a good budgeting exercise, you still have to stay alive and hopefully enjoy life along the way. To me, this is where online income comes into the equation.
