Gather Little by Little

I was reading over on CNN Money this weekend that a health care market research company is seeing a growing trend in consumer use of credit cards to pay for medical bills. Due to high unemployment and ever increasing health care costs, consumers are reaching out to credit in order to continue receiving health care. Now, here’s the scariest part: CNN also reported that health care industry watchers see a multi-billion dollar opportunity to offer specialized “medical” credit cards!

If you haven’t figured this out already, let me explain this simply: “Consumers” (That’s you folks) visit the doctor one day, and potentially pay for that doctor’s visit for the next 1-5 years.

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After weeks of waiting, we’ve finally been able to enjoy the fruits of our labor from our home vegetable garden we planted back in May. As you can see in the picture above it’s very  different from the barren look it had in May. So far we’ve enjoyed a number of fresh spinach salads and more recently my second favorite garden vegetable: Squash. Unfortunately, it’s getting a little to hot for the spinach and it’s yellowing up quickly.  We’ve considered planting something in it’s place, any suggestions? Here’s a shot of our first two yellow squash:

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Neither I, nor my wife are all that excited about her taking a full-time job this fall, but she is going to do it anyway. There are a thousand reasons for her to take the job that she has been offered – and a thousand reason for her not to take the job.

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For

• The job will increase our household income by almost forty percent.
• The job will allow us to maximize our 401K employer match.
• The job will provide free private school education for our children.
• If she does not take the job, we would have to homeschool.

I’m pretty confident most if not all of you know that we’re currently in a recession or as the more politically correct like to call it: “An economic downturn”. When I say everyone, I mean everyone…even the crooks and scammers. During these lean times, con artists are out in masses looking for opportunities to scam people by offering what seems like legitamate solutions. These scammers aren’t just taking money from people, but from our economy as well.

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I spend a great deal of time with college students. Over the past decade, I have observed a phenomenon – very few students work their way through school anymore. I know that there are exceptions, but I remember when the college student stereotype was a guy who drove an old beater (if he had a car at all), worked all night, wore old clothes and was always  hungry. Today’s college student drives a current year SUV, brand name clothes, does not have a summer job and goes out to eat in order to avoid cafeteria food.

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When we purchased our current home, we knew it would require some work and a few upgrades. Namely some new paint, repairs to some of the work the owners did (but didn’t do correctly) and yard work. The big item we knew we would have to address was the upstairs. When the original owners built the house, they left the upstairs unfinished. The middle area of the upstairs was finished off as an office later, but it’s very obvious the work was done by the homeowner, and unfortunately not done well at all. Then, when the owners decided to sell, their real estate agent recommended the remainder be finished off as well. They finished it, but did even a worse job than before and cut corners. For example, the middle office area has drywall ceilings. The two outer rooms have cheap suspended ceilings.

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Okay, a little shorter post today with the holiday weekend and all. I do not want to make anyone think too hard but I was reminded recently that “frugal” does not always mean “cheaper”. My wife and I sometimes review some of the purchases that we have made over our lives where we spent little money, but wish we had spent a little more.

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The contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone that entered.

Can you believe Gather Little by Little has been online for 2 years now? Me neither, but it has.

Since July 2nd of 2007, I’ve published 700 articles (this is article #700), had more than 690,000 unique visitors, 1.1 million page views, and more than 3,000 people have subscribed!! Wow. God has really blessed.

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A long time reader named Bobbi sent me an email recently. The email contained a list of 45 lessons that life taught Regina Brett, a 90 years old resident of Cleveland, Ohio. The list inspired me to share my own list of lessons, but from a personal finance perspective.

Of course I’ve learned far more than 40 lessons, and the list grows daily, but here’s the top 40 I’ve learned so far. Hope you enjoy and if you think it will help others, feel free to share.

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1. Mange your money, don’t let it manage you.

Last week, I wrote about my belief that when it comes to giving and tithing, the Bible does not prescribe an exact percentage of giving for the New Testament believer. The idea that the ten percent tithe is a hard and fast command to the church goes against the spirit of the New Testament, and it is nowhere expressly stated by any New Testament writer.

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