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Opening our hands to Financial Peace…. charitable giving.

>мебелиd I received our yearly financial statement from our church yesterday. I’m embarrassed to say that we didn’t even hit 5% for our charitable giving, even combined with the other contributions we made to organizations in memory of our daughter. Looking at the monthly breakdown, our giving dropped off after we started FPU. The only explanation I can think of was- thinking back- of all the hardships we faced with our air conditioners dying, cars breaking down… etc. I’ve never been one who needed to be convinced of the importance of giving. It’s a Biblical command. A tithe is 10%- everything else is just giving. Making the resolve to tithe is a difficult one. J and I have been talking about taking our tithe off the top- as Dave suggests, and living on the rest. The inevitable question of 10% of what? BT or AT? Before or After Taxes. Personally, I believe that the Bible shows that God wants our Firstfruits, which is before the Gubbment gets its hands on it, and for us, it makes little difference, because we aren’t even meeting our AT tithe.

Why is giving so important? It shows Faith in God. I’m reading the book of James this week. It’s a short book, but in chapter 2 it talks about faith and deeds. Faith without deeds is dead. Faith in Jesus is just the start. A true Faith should mature and produce. In the book of James, in chapter 4v7 it says to submit yourselves to God. I can’t think of a better way for us, at this very moment, to submit to God by trusting him with our finances. At this point, I’m reminded of one of the first posts I made when my BIL accused us of joining some kind of cult when he heard about Financial Peace. We’ve recently learned that he is now following Dave’s Total Money Makeover.

There are other reasons we’re called to give. It makes us cheerful, and joyful. Think of the stingiest person you know. Are they joyful? Absolutely not, and chances are… you’re uncomfortable while you’re in their home, or decline the opportunity to go to their home. This isn’t the time for a hospitality lesson, but I’ve been on the receiving end of some scolding for having had “wasted” food. Stingy is what my grandmother would have called it. Proverbs 28:22 says that “a stingy man is eager to get rich and is unaware that poverty awaits. ”

Dave illustrates the point with a clinched fist: it holds tightly to what it has, but is also closed to anything coming in. I believe that God is waiting to pour financial peace on us, yet, some part of me holds back. The difficult economic times makes the temptation to hold back greater. Our resolution has been to continue on our trek to financial peace, and as part of that… to do our charitable giving. We start FPU again at the end of this month. Hopefully, I’ll come up with some more topics to write about. I’ve enjoyed my time writing for Mona. I’m a thinker by writing, so it’s put a lot of things in perspective for me.

January 12, 2009 | Filed Under Just Whatever | Leave a Comment

Cheetah’s now offering return policy. FPU offers hope.

I’m convinced that what people see as the failing economy, is just our economy, after years of excess and very bad business design, returning to a common sense approach to finances. The bailouts will fail because they’re only getting us deeper and deeper into debt. The Cheetah’s are starting to sweat, they need new tactics to draw in their prey. Hyundai has developed an “Assurance” program. If you lose your job- or license due to medical reasons within one year of purchase of your new car- you can return it. I’m not sure of the other fine print, but I have some Assurance…. if you’re in jepardy of losing your job, I assure you, you don’t need a car payment. Don’t buy a major purchase with tunnel vision. Think long term- if it’s long term. Let’s also apply some common sense math to this. What happens if you lose your job 13 months after buying the new car? Most car loans are 5 years long. It’s ridiculous, and I’m anxious to see if it works. It very well could. We’re a nation used to “buying” things we can’t afford. This just perpetuates this societal “norm”. Don’t buy cars you can’t afford.

We’re fortunate that we found FPU when we did, no doubt we would be in dire straits right now. Both of our cars died. The engine blew in one, and the transmission in the other. So we- once again- drained our emergency fund and fixed the transmission in another. This time when we fund our emergency fund- we’re going to make it 2k instead of one. Every emergency has been 1750. We were left with absolutely no car, and we did what we didn’t want to do- and bought a truck. It was our truck- we’d sold it to my father-in-law. So, now we have a $250 car payment. It’s still much better than the nearly $1k we were making in car payments before. So, our budget is going to suffer and our snowball will no doubt slow. My student loans (before Dave) repayment will start soon. Our church is offering FPU again, so we’re going to take it again to get a fresh perspective and some new intensity- and hope. FPU does that- it offers hope in the darkest of financial times.

~Manda

January 7, 2009 | Filed Under Just Whatever | Leave a Comment

Budgeting Works!

To gain financial freedom you must take control of your money, plan for the future and Stop Borrowing Money!
Two families striving to gain financial freedom share their experiences.
Blog Author Mona Weathers (monawea)

Co-author, Manda C.
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Manda C. is our new contributing author. Welcome Manda!

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