Sports Night and Money

Okay, stay with me on this one...it will be a hard one to follow but I think in the end we will all learn something. This weekend has been filled with reruns of Sports Night, a great sports show from the 90's, and you may wonder what does this have to do with money. Well, Season 1, Episode 9 deals with one. A character in the show has extra cash flow and is wondering what charity will receive his check. So it got me wondering after the debts are paid off and income is coming from two sources, what will my future husband and myself do with our extra cash. How will we use this money to the best of our abilities for the best of society? I know this blog is about getting out of debt but today we are thinking about the future and what we will do when we get out of debt. What charitable organization do you have slated to receive the fruits of your labor? I like to give to the Christian radio station in town and causes for cancer. My future husband likes to give to causes for mental health mainly ADHD treatment. So I know our 10% however big or small will go to these causes. There is a line in the show above where someone says "Two guys have ascended five miles into the sky, they walked up a wall of ice and are preparing to knock on the door of heaven itself. There's really no end to what we can do. You know what the trick is?" "Get in the game." No matter what you can give, $1 or $5 or $1 million, our job, what God put us here to do is to help others so I challenge you to Get in the game and give a little even as you are crawling out of debt...give a little time, give a smile, give a $1 to the cause you believe in and care about. It makes the crawl out of debt a little easier as you ease someone else's burden too.

God Bless.

Relational Spending

As I keep researching and reading about the trends and the economy, I started to fall into a depressed state of mind. What is this all about? Why am I trying so hard to keep my head above water and pay for my way in this world? Today it hit me, well actually it started yesterday afternoon, we were in a late afternoon meeting talking about the trading up/trading down trend (where we see people still going out to dinner (trade up) but going to Don Pablos instead of Cheesecake Factory (trading down)) and we started to talk about how people are spending their monies right now on relational items. So I started to think about how I'm spending my money and I realized this is true, I spend on getting family and friends together to enjoy the relationship and love we have built. This morning my devotional was Mark 12: 29 -31 ~ Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” So as we start to think about how we are spending and saving our monies, we should do so with love in our hearts for the relationships we are building here on earth. It's starting to all make a little more sense to me now...what is this all about? Building relationships. Why do we keep our heads above water and pay our way in this world? To respect those we are building relationships with and to respect the Lord who gave us the means to keep our head above water. It's not about how much, it's about the how.

Stock Market

I will never understand the stock market. I really thought that with the president elect and the gas prices coming down that people would start spending, albeit a little more wisely, but that the population as a whole would begin to spend a little again. Although I have been shocked and dismayed by the news articles I've been reading as of late. Today was the worst article yet, it was about the housing debacle and how a man who goes to work every day and brings home a salary of $30,000 is living in a $500,000 home in California. His house payment is affordable now but he is on an interest only payment plan. In 2010 when the ARM expires, Mr. $30,000 will be paying a monthly mortgage payment of $12,000/month. I don't even know what to say about this, I guess in my naivety, I thought the banks would lend like this and didn't truly understand what was going on. Overextending is one thing but truly ruining someones life is entirely a different story. So it brought me back to reality and understanding about how to live our lives. In the bible, it says that we should save 10%, tithe 10% and live off 80% of our salaries. So if you look at this model and the "experts" advise, your home should cost you 30% of that 80% of your salary. So let's take $100,000 salary - you should save $10,000, tithe $10,000 and live on 80,000. Your house payment should be $24,000/year or $2,000 or less. If I take the example above with the man making $30,000, he should save $3,000, tithe $3,000 and live off $24,000. His house payment should be 7,200/year or $600/month. With this type of math, there isn't anyway that he could afford a $500,000 home. So do the math with your own payment and see where you end up. Hopefully along this journey, we can adjust to ensure we are spending 30% or less on our housing from here on out.

God Bless.

Fun Times on a Dime

During tight times I like to feel like I'm changing things and keeping things fresh but alas there is no money for such things. So what do I do when times are tight, very little excess money to throw around? I think about a show I used to watch on HGTV (back when I had cable); it was called Design on A Dime. The show was taking one room and redesigning it for under $500, well since I don't have $500. My show is called design on $50. We rearranged the dining room into a great office space for my fiance to work giving him a room with a view, files and file cabinets, space to pace and maybe even a whiteboard to work with. Our largest expense was the lamp which added up to $30. The room looks great and next week after payday, it gets a fresh coat of paint to top off the deal. So a whole day of fun looking around the house for things that will help to keep him organized and give him the space he needs to create! Fun times on a dime...so while you are enjoying time in your home, think of things that will make you happy. Maybe it's finally cleaning out that closet that you have been dreading going into. Maybe it's cleaning all the ceiling fans or sweeping the basement or cleaning the attic. There are things that could be trash to treasure items lurking all over your home and can make a new look for a room. You feel like you've spent money but really we just rearranged the old look. Hope you find something to update with your trash to treasure items during this tight financial time.

God Bless.

Proverbs 13:11

So I've been thinking about the economy, spending, saving, loans, mortgages, Fanny Mae, Freddie Mac...it's been quite the ride these past six months. It was confusing at first, who did what to whom. Why did everything fall apart? Who is to blame? Then I realized, there is no one to blame but ourselves. We buried our heads in the sand, thought we could get anything we wanted or "deserved", thought everything is going to be okay and we can pay off our debts. I know I was one of these people, thinking that paying off my debt would come to me. Well, it has taken some time but we are halfway to debt freedom and now I realize the only person to blame is myself for getting us there. I looked up some bible verses to go along with my thoughts here and the one that resonates with me is Proverbs 13:11 Dishonest money dwindles away but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow. I think of the dishonest money as debt, that which we bought thinking we could pay for it later. It has sent our economy into a tailspin and we are reeling from it's effects. Then I think about gathering money little by little as paying off this debt. So we realized our sins and now some of society is slowly but surely paying off their debt and it will grow from there. This is what we are trying to do, slowly, slowly pay off this debt that we have and get back into being good stewards of all that God has given us!!!

I hope your day is fruitful and fulfilling ~
God Bless.

Election Day

The election day is here. Our new president will have his hands full with this crazy economy and whether to raise taxes or not. My take on this is that no matter who gets elected, taxes will be raised. That stimulus payment back in the Spring has to get paid for in some way. This new $700 billion bailout plan must be paid for by someone. As the old adage goes, money doesn't just grow on trees. So what to do. Some analysts say increase 401K payments, some analysts say start a 529 college fund, some analysts say insurance funds...what if you are quietly living, making a decent income but really don't have the funds to put someplace. Well I like the story of the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the race. So here's my plan, add a savings account in a small denomination $50/paycheck that will be used to pay any additional taxes this next year. If it is easily accessible in a regular 3% savings account, then if it is needed in an emergency prior to tax time, we can get at it. Hopefully this won't change our plan too much and we will be able to adjust our spending levels by this much. If by May this is going strong, my intention is to add this %age to my 401K deductions to gain the tax benefits of less income. My philosophy is to firs test to adjust the spending then make the permanent change. Just remember going directly into the 401K means you can't get at that money without penalty until you are 59 1/2 years old...so make certain before making the adjustment.

Happy Savings on this election Tuesday.

God Bless.

Spending Monday

So, I'm writing about financial and debt management and you may wonder why in the world is this titles Spending Monday? Well, even as you go through your financial budgeting process and your debt management cycles, one must always have a spending account. My fiance and I are working through this process. We are living off one salary and trying to make ends meet, pay off the last of our debt, save for retirement and still have fun...oh yeah, also plan a wedding. So today I'm going to tell you about our spending plan. So I get paid bi weekly and that paycheck must last us through two weekends. What usually happens is the first weekend we have fun, and the second weekend, we hang at home. It seems to be a vicious cycle in that by payday, we are ready to get out because we have been shored up at home for a long seven days. This week we started a process where I got paid on Friday and we each got $100 to spend however we want with the balance at the end of the week going into a "fun" pot for vacations and future long term purchases. It was pretty amazing that since we had the money in our pockets we didn't spend it. Something had to be truly justified for us to purchase it because once that money is gone, we can't replenish it. So even through our savings and budgeting, we are still spending however we are spending much more wisely these days. I wonder if God is thinking we got a little greedy here on earth and now we need to show Him that we are truly good stewards of the money He has given us.

Well, happy spending on this glorious Monday. May your days be filled with health, wealth and laughter!

God Bless,
K.

Getting Started

So, I'm just a normal everyday person who has seen her 401K diminish, her company stock purchase all but fall through the floor and savings dwindle with this economic crisis happening. The one thing that hasn't changed is that my bills keep coming in (some higher than before) and my debt hasn't miraculously been paid off. So my emotions on perseption is that I should be panicing, however upon further review, I realized a few things...
1) my savings went down mainly to pay for my wedding and this can be built back up.
2) my income level hasn't gone down, I'm just a little more scared about keeping my job.
3) there is one more person in the house living off the same income as before.
4) my 401K and stocks are for the future so right now who cares what they are doing.
So, I'm back to the basics in living and that's what this blog will be about. Living with a plan that is basic, pays the bills, saves for the future and hopefully along the way we get to have some fun! So I hope you join me on this journey and we can all make some money in the process.

God Bless.
K.