Articles
Navigating Your Way Out of Debt - Continued
(A Series on Finances – Part IV)
We have seen the reality of debt and the detrimental impact it has on lives, and last month we started to look at practical ways to change behavior in order to get out of debt and to stay debt-free. Let’s continue to examine this. Here are six essential steps to making change happen:
1.Have a written plan – a budget. It’s important to know what your routine monthly expenses are and to plan for them.
2.Determine essentials for living. Differentiate between needs, wants, and desires. Be realistic! There are a lot of things we really CAN live without!
3. Think before buying. Impulse buying is dangerous! Not only ask yourself if the item you’re buying is the right thing to buy, but determine if are you making the purchase at the right time and at the right place. “Through wisdom a house is built, and by under- standing it is established.” Proverbs 24:3
4.Cut up the credit cards. “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” Proverbs 22:7
5.Avoid leverage (putting zero or minimum down). For example: You go to a furniture store or car dealer and they say nothing down, just sign and buy. You most likely cannot afford something that you have to “leverage” 100%!
6.Practice saving. Prepare for that “rainy day”. They do come. Also, realize that when you pay “up front”, you save yourself the additional expense of theinterest, and in some instances, not paying by credit will also net you a discount.
Balance:
There are many people who seemingly have little or no regard for material possessions. They accept poverty as a normal living condition, and their major concern is where they will sleep that night or what they will eat that day. In contrast are the affluent, who have the best our society has to offer at their disposal. Their houses, summer cottages, winter chalets, and automobiles are the envy of the community. Does either scenario bring contentment? No!
How Debt Has Become "The American Way"
When did Americans decide that debt was a normal part of life? And what has that thinking done to their personal finances? When you look back at American history you find the roots of this country in Puritan values and the Protestant work ethic, in self-discipline and self-denial. So I thought, “What's going on? Why is everyone OK with taking on such large amounts of debt?"
The premise that has been sold to us that debt is a “tool” and should be used to help create prosperity is not true. Wealthy people do not use debt nearly as much as we are led to believe.
Most normal people are just plain broke because they are in debt up to their eyeballs with no hope of help. If you're in debt, then you're a slave because you do not have the freedom to do whatever it is that you would like to do. The debt master controls what you can do or not do.
Navigating Your Way Out of Debt
(A Series on Finances – Part III)
We have taken the time to address the topic of debt in the last two issues. In this article I would like to give you a broad view of how you can be debt free. You should read this article after reading the previous two articles. If you haven’t read those, please do so.
Although self-discipline is the best way to control spending, too many people are caught in a cycle of impulsive spending that seems to have a life of its own. Impulsive buyers buy on a whim, making unplanned purchases, and usually lack self-control in buying situations. They lack clear priorities in spending, which results in overspending, unnecessary additional debt, unused articles, and family arguments. Most impulsive spenders sabotage their own prosperity with the “I-want-it-now” syndrome, which is characterized by spending beyond their resources. This in turn leads to persistent fear and unremitting debt, and it feeds into a downward cycle of instant gratification and deepening debt. “By what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.” (2 Peter 2:19b).
Shifting the Paradigm from "The Normal American Way"
(A Series on Finances – Part II)
Welcome to America, where your debt makes more sense! Immigrants to the USA never see such a sign, but our general culture suggests such sentiments would not be misplaced. From dawn to dusk, from billboards to television, citizens are educated to believe "I need this." Marketing gurus, operating as chefs, create insatiable hungers driving consumers to their smorgasbord of products and services. Within the restaurant “Consumer Is King”, the patron quickly learns what matters most are “my” whims and desires. Feeling in the mood for a particular type of TV program? Surf the delectable offerings on dozens, if not hundreds, of channels. Like any restaurant, as long as you keep paying the food keeps coming.
When such a highly developed consumer stumbles onto authentic Christianity, what will probably happen? His or her first question is likely to be, "What can Jesus do for me?" Starting with providing freedom from guilt and an eternal inheritance, answers come readily enough. Some such consumers will convert by scooping up a generous serving of Christ for their plate. After all, what could be better than both freedom from the past and insuring the future?