I remember being taught to give as a child. I was taught in two ways. One way was each time that I earned a little bit of money, I was taught that I should give 10% of it away. POWERFUL STUFF! The other way was when I saw my parents give money away. EVEN MORE POWERFUL!

Giving allows you to put wind in the sails of your dreams. It allows you to invest in those things that you care the most about. It enables you to understand that your resources are able to accomplish far more than you alone could do. You could fund a homeless shelter so that they can feed the down and out. You can give to the Red Cross to help others in the most desperate times of life. You can give to your local church where one can learn about the hope of the world. You can give to individuals who are down on their luck. You can give to friends who are struggling financially. You can give to friends who are serving as missionaries to the most hopeless parts of the world.

You can’t give, however, if all of your money is being sent to Capital One. You can’t give to the things that matter most if you are in debt up to your eyeballs. If you can’t get your budget to balance and every single dollar is spent on your debt, you can’t support the things that you are most passionate about.

When you have financial freedom, you are able to give more than you ever thought possible. WOW! This pumps me up! Paying bills doesn’t pump me up! Helping others accomplish far more than they ever thought possible is what pumps me up!!!

Who are you giving to? I challenge you to give to someone today!

Who should you listen to?

If you are broke, should you listen to a broke person’s advice on how to handle money?

If you are overweight, should you listen to an overweight person’s advice on how to lose weight?

If you are out of shape, should you listen to an out of shape person’s advice on how to become physically fit?

If you do not know how to read … How are you reading this?
Who are you listening to for financial advice?

I am listening to Dave Ramsey.

I also listen to David Chilton.

Robert Kiyosaki is great to listen to.

Most of all, I listen to my wife, Jenn.

News and Notes

• This is my 100th blog post!!!
• Melea now has enough in her college fund to pay for a year of college!
• The fully-funded car fund may be spent soon.
• Debt is dumb. Figure it out!
• I almost have a “ZERO” on my FICO (”I love debt”) score. One open credit account - our home mortgage. I can’t wait to make it go BYE-BYE-BYE. My goal is to have a ZERO for this score. Why do you need a great FICO score? TO GET MORE DEBT!!!

You have friends that need financial help! You have family members that need financial help! You have co-workers that need financial help! You may need financial help!

The financial help I am speaking of is not the act of giving away money. It is the act of teaching them key personal finance skills. It is teaching them how to put together a monthly zero-based budget. It is teaching them to use an envelope system, putting their cash into envelopes for key expense items and spending only what is in the envelope. There is no trip to the ATM when the envelope runs out of cash, there are creative meals from the cupboards. It is teaching them the lost art of saving so they can pay cash for their purchases. It is teaching them to say “NO!” to debt. It is teaching them the 8th wonder of the world - compound interest. It is teaching them to have a will. It is teaching them to have insurance - health, term-life, auto … It is teaching them to demand a better deal. It is teaching them to have control of their spending habits.

It does not happen overnight. They will screw it up. They will struggle with some items that were easy for you to deal with. They will breeze through other items that were hard for you. They may grow weary of the process, but in the end it will be worth it all. You will have helped to equip them to do exactly what they were put on this earth to do! You will have helped their marriage. You will have changed their children’s entire future!

Who could you help out financially this week? Go spend three hours with someone who needs help. This week!

When I meet with financially distressed people, they are invariably downhearted.

Why?

I remember the days of frivolous spending. I remember it like it was yesterday. We were spending money that we did not have. We were generally unable to tell ourselves “NO!” to anything that we wanted. It was OK, we told ourselves. We had good jobs. We were college educated. We deserved it. I mean, we lived through our four year (5) vacation … uhhh, I mean college, where a twenty dollar bill made you RICH!

Well, with that thinking we managed to live from paycheck to paycheck for six years. We even had the joy of running up our credit card bills three separate times! WOW! The joy of spending our entire tax refund on paying off credit card bills for items we … well, we could not remember what we had bought with those credit card charges.

Flash forward to today. We have been debt-free except for our house since February 2004, but I have recently had a flashback that had all-too-real feelings associated with it.

Let me explain …

We live in a sandy soil area. If you do not water your grass thoroughly at least once every two days, your grass will wither away, and you will be left with a nice dirt patch. We have heard that dirt patches reduce your home’s value, and it certainly reduces your home’s appearance. It reduces your home’s appearance even further when Mr. Lawn Boy himself lives next door with THE PERFECT MANICURED LAWN. He literally mows the grass every 15 minutes. It is ridiculous how wonderful his lawn looks.

I explained to Jenny that having a dirt patch is a very good thing because we make Mr. Lawn Boy’s yard look that much better. Crickets …

Bottom Line: We decided to install an irrigation system for our lawn this year. We had not saved money specifically for the irrigation system, but we could tap into our new used car fund to pay for it. We reasoned that we could repay the new used car fund over the next few months.

So we did it. We installed the irrigation system. With money we borrowed from our own new used car fund. We BORROWED money FROM OURSELVES! I thought that this would feel OK. I was wrong! It is bad enough to be in debt to someone else. TRY BEING IN DEBT TO YOUR “NEW USED CAR FUND”!

We truly felt like we were in debt. We have recently repaid our “New Used Car Fund” back. WOW! I am glad I am not in debt to ourselves anymore. The feelings were scary!

I got to thinking about this … How far we have come! When we actually feel “in debt” to our “new used car fund”. In old days, we would have taken the money out of a savings fund, but would never repay. Now, it was repaid right on time.

It was a good decision for us to get the irrigation system, but I realized yet again just how bad it feels to be in debt.

How far we’ve come. How far we’ve come.

I have seen financial situations that have left me reeling. I have left counseling sessions feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders. What unbelievable messes we humans create for ourselves!

For some reason, many of us have been convinced that because the banks will loan us money, we must be in good financial condition. Because we can get a credit card, we matter. Do not believe this lie!

I have seen over $100,000 on credit cards. I have seen houses financed to over 125% of the highest potential selling price. I have seen budgets that include $300 in bounced check fees. I have seen budgets where the expenses are twice the income. I have seen debt loads that are seemingly insurmountable. I have seen families spend more money feeding goats than feeding themselves while driving themselves into utter poverty. I have seen families lose all of their possessions to repossessors and foreclosure - ALL of their possessions.

Still, I do not give up hope!!! I believe that most of these situations are recoverable! If the family could just say “NO!” to themselves! If the family could see the damage being wrought on their relationships by living in such financial conditions, they would RUN 180 degrees away from the direction they have been headed in.

I choose HOPE for these families that I meet with. I believe that Dave Ramsey is exactly correct when he says that finances are 80% emotional and 20% head knowledge.

Do NOT give up HOPE.

OFFICIAL CONCLUSION: RUMMAGE SALES REEK!
Special Note: If you are going to attempt to have a rummage sale and you live in the countryside, forget about it! You might as well donate all of your items to Goodwill or put them into a consignment shop. If the items are small and easily shipped, you might use Ebay.

For the amount of effort put forth into preparing, presenting, and cleaning up the rummage sale, the reward was quite limited.

We are in the middle of the first day of a three day garage sale. WOW! I did not know how much work it was to prepare for one of these things.

I have eagerly told people to “have a rummage sale” in order to free up some quick cash and pay off some smaller bills. This will many times help people gain the traction they need to get to a balanced budget.

I will still tell people eagerly to sell stuff and have a rummage sale, but I will do it with a more deeper understanding of what that truly means. It takes effort.

That’s OK. It takes effort to get out of debt!

Updates on the garage sale will appear over the next few days.

Any tips for making a garage sale more of a success?

Do you know what it is like to experience financial stress?

Financial stress impacts family relationships - marriages, parents with children, children with parents, siblings. Financial stress impacts friendships and business partnerships. It can forever destroy your relationship with your spouse.

Why is this?

The way you manage your finances tells a story. It tells a story about what you value, about what is important to you, and about who is important to you. It can also tell a story about what you do not value, about what is unimportant to you, and about who is unimportant to you.

If you spend a majority of your money paying bills for debts (car, house, TV, credit cards, student loans, furniture, boat, lawn mower, etc.) you have signed up for, then it tells a story that having stuff might be more important than saving for retirement.

If you spend everything you make and live from paycheck to paycheck, it could indicate that you do not value security more than you value not having to take time developing a spending plan.

If you give away a pile of money to worthy causes, have taken the time to develop a spending plan that works, are saving for retirement, college, and other notable expenses, and are regularly reviewing your spending habits ON PURPOSE to understand opportunities for better management of your money … it tells me that you are weird and value others and your future more than you value stuff.

Go look at your spending. Does it line up with your values?

By the way, “you” can insert “me” or “I” everywhere “I” have listed “you” and “your” in this diatribe.