Great Days ahead
I want to send a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to the recent graduates of Financial Peace University! You guys rocked it out, I am so excited about your determination to win with your money. Some things you will want to be sure to do during the holidays:
- Share your story with someone else, hook them up with our blog so they can find out ways to help themselves.
- Stay rabid about avoiding new debt! You can do Christmas without creating new debt. Remember nobody expects a gift from you if you can’t afford to give them one, and you can’t afford to give them a gift if you are buying it with your credit card.
- Continue to follow your budget, the next two months are really going to stretch you but YOU CAN DO THIS.
Valerie and I had a great time in South Carolina this weekend. Valerie had a chance to catch up with her former roommate from Southeastern and I had an incredible experience at the Financial Counseling Experience with Joe Sangl. I will share more about that this week.
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Teaching Kids about money
CNBC posted a really good article about teaching kids about money. Go check it out here, http://www.cnbc.com/id/27307361.
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This Really Gets me Steamed!!!!
U.S. debt overpowers National Debt Clock
NEW YORK (AP) – The National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of digits to record the growing figure.
As a short-term fix, the digital dollar sign on the billboard-style clock near Times Square has been switched to a figure — the “1″ in $10 trillion.
It’s marking the federal government’s current debt at about $10.2 trillion.
The Durst Organization says it plans to update the sign next year by adding two digits.
That will make it capable of tracking debt up to a quadrillion dollars.
The late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst put the sign up in 1989 to call attention to what was then a $2.7 trillion debt.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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FREE WEBINAR
Hey guys,
I wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine, his name is Casey Graham. Casey heads up an organization called ReThink Money. They are doing some really cool things not only in churches, but also in the corporate world. In the upcoming weeks Casey will be having a free webinar on his site. I would recommend that you check it out and register to take part. I promise, you will not be disappointed. Here is the link to Casey’s site: FREE WEBINAR.
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1. What should I keep doing?
Believe it or not many people are doing many things right when it comes to their finances. Don’t minimize the things you are doing well, use those things you are doing well as a foundation to build upon. So many times I talk with people who immediately tell me all the things they are doing wrong, but they fail to recognize the things they are doing well.
2. What should I stop doing?
If you are using debt instruments, such as credit cards STOP IT! Do whatever it takes to prevent you from using them: cut them into a billion pieces, freeze them in a bucket of water, cement them in a bucket of concrete, you have creative license here. Stop the bad habits that got you into financial crisis.
3. What should I start doing?
Many people just fail to live by a budget, and choose to “just wing it”; this is a bad idea. I “just winged it” for many years, and one day it eventually caught up with me and it will you also if you don’t have a plan. START using a monthly cash spending plan, and live by it. I had a professor in seminary that called their spending plan “The Boss,” and they would post it monthly on the refrigerator; anytime his kids asked him for money he would tell them to go see “The Boss.” Some of you need to stop being the boss and start answering to a Boss.
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ZERO BASED BUDGET
Budget. The word alone scares many people. Here are some thoughts people have when they think of budgets.
Budgets are restricting
Why budget, I Am Broke
A budget is too controlling
Budgets are not fun
Budget, that ain’t happening!
many of you have tried budgets … and failed! For some of your it was a bad experience, and some of you may have even made a lifelong goal to NEVER budget again.
I DARE you, to give it another shot. My challenge to you is that you will begin to prepare now your budget for the month of October.
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The biggest trick to living on a budget is this: LEARN TO LIVE ON LESS THAN YOU MAKE. If you can conquer this, you will be on the right track to win with money. Money says quite a bit about us; it says a lot about our discipline, our priorities, even our spiritual focus. I challenge you take your last bank statement, look at it and see how your money is spent. Then take a few moments and honestly evaluate your spending, as if you were evaluating someone else (not yourself). Do not make the mistake of rationalizing your spending, just do an honest evaluation. Once you have written down some of those evaluations, ask yourself some honest questions about your spending. The biggest question should be; does your spending reflect a frivolous spender or a focused spender.
Recently I have been thinking about living on limited funds and ways to stretch every dollar. Below are some ideas for making every dollar count. They may not all be cool or easy, but nothing worth having is easy.
· Clip Coupons. Massive amounts of coupons can be found in the Sunday paper. Prepare before you go to the store. This takes some effort and planning on your part, you must set aside a time for shopping (not just when you have a craving). Coupons are nothing more than free money, if we opened the paper and there were dollar bills attached to the ads, rather than coupons we would never miss a day that we didn’t look for coupons. Coupons are free money.
· Stop Eating Out So Much. Begin cooking more meals at home. I promise you your meals will be healthier. Not only will you have healthier food, but you will save a ton of money. Before taking my lunch I averaged about $7 – $10 per meal when I eating out. Now that I bring my lunch I save about $35 a week ($1820 a year). We eat out occasionally, but don’t make it a habit.
· Shop For Clothing. Here’s the thing I know about clothing. You can buy the same item for many different prices.
| Top Brand Khaki’s | High end Men’s Store | $110.00 |
| Top Brand Khaki’s | Steinmart (discount retailer) | $60.00 |
| Quality Brand Khaki’s |
Dillard’s |
$35.00 |
| Quality Khaki’s |
Wal-Mart |
$15.00 |
Watch the clothing sales and catch great deals in the off season. Many times, saving money or getting a great deal is about being patient.
· Dump the Debt. This is one of the best definitions of debt I have ever found: Debt is giving someone else the right to tell you where to send your money. Adding additional debt is the last thing you need to do if you’re struggling with money. I know at times you may feel trapped and see no light at the end of the tunnel (I have been in that position.) When we make financial decisions out of fear, we usually make the wrong decisions; and too many times we incur debt because we borrow to get through a rough patch. Rough patches happen, be creative and learn to work through them, rather than always taking the easy solution.
· Be Patient and Plan. Most financial decisions, whether they are good or bad revolve around patience and planning. Most bad financial decisions are rooted in impatience and lack of planning. However, most positive financial successes are rooted in patience and planning.
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Learning to Save!
One thing that I was never taught growing up was the importance of saving money. My family like many others lived above their means by floating debt. About 4 years ago my wife and I started on a new journey that has taught us some really basic financial principals that we love to share with others. One of the first things we learned is that living with our credit cards always there to bail us out of our self made financial blunders was killing us. We focused on paying them off the credit cards, but we also learned the discipline of saving for purchases, rather than free spending. Here are a few principles that make saving easy for us:
- Pay yourself first
- Save and plan for big purchases
- Loose the temptation to create more debt
- Don’t let credit cards become your fall back plan
My good friend Lee McBride once share this profound thought with me and it has become one of my life quotes: “Start where you are, use what you’ve got and do what you can.” That is so true, especially when it comes to learning to save money.
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Coming Soon!
in the coming months you will begin to learn more about ReBound Financial Solutions and what we stand for and what our vision is for the people we serve. Get ready this thing is going to rock your world!
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