If you don’t have a budget already, I would encourage you to start one right away. We featured an article recently on how to make a budget, so you can reference it to get a jumpstart. Maintaining a budget is a great thing, but it does have its limits. Knowing what a budget can and can’t do for you is important because it helps you to set reasonable expectations. So whether you’re just starting to budget or have been using... Read more
Here are a few great reads from around the web. Happy Thursday reading! 7 Ways To Save Money By Negotiating Rent @ Bible Money Matters What’s Your Frugal Trophy? @ Squirrelers 5 Numbers You Need To Know Before You Get Married @ Free Money Finance 15 Financial Sayings and Why You Should Heed Them @ Christian PF Carnivals We’re Featured In: Carnival of Road To Financial Independence My Wealth Builder Carnival of Wealth Read more
Have you read through Jesus’ sermon on the mount lately? It really is a great reminder of how we should live – and the beauty of it is that it’s short, sweet, and to the point. Jesus was pretty direct with most of his points, and I’m challenged each time I read through this passage. After reading it this last time, I was really struck by the last section: The Wise and Foolish Builders. You’ve probably heard the story about... Read more
You’ve probably heard this phrase before. Milton Friedman was known for making this phrase famous. The idea behind the phrase is simple: everything has a cost. There’s a cost to accepting an opportunity and a cost for rejecting one (opportunity cost). When we choose to accept opportunity A over opportunity B, we are missing out on the things we would gain from B. Make sense? So even though opportunity A may appear ‘free’ you’re actually giving up your time, energy,... Read more
Ever notice how finances can affect you emotionally? I’ve known people who hate the idea of spending their money altogether and some people who don’t know how to make a budget at all. What if there was a scale that you could use to classify your financial personality? Yes, I can see it now. Instead of making up a boring answer when your financial planner asks how things are going, you can simply select your personality from the chart and... Read more
The other day my friend was working on a project for school and texted me the following: What are 3 or 4 important things a person in their 20s should know about finances? Talk about a challenge! No, coming up with answers wasn’t the challenging part – it was trying to make them concise enough for a text. So here was my reply: 1. Roth IRA max is $5,000…make it a goal to use this to start ur retirement. 2.... Read more
There’s a weird thing about tipping that I’ve never really understood. Why do people tip at all? Yes, I still tip, but the way we tip doesn’t make sense. We tip after the service is done, almost as a reward. But one of the main economic principles behind a tip is leave an impression on the person serving you so that you have better service next time. The hourly wage is ‘reward’ for their work; the tip is extra. But... Read more
With Father’s Day around the corner, you don’t have much time to shop for Dad. If you’re looking for a few ideas, these might be worth looking into! Car Detailing You have two options here: pay for it to be detailed, or detail it yourself. If you don’t have $50 – $100 to pay for someone to detail his car, set aside a few hours and do it yourself! Buying the materials won’t cost too much (roughly $30) and the... Read more
Today’s post is from Darren at Gain Business Skills. Darren loves to help people learn business skills that they can apply to better their lives. Check out his blog at Gain Business Skills and get free updates via his RSS feed. (If you want to be featured as a guest writer, read more here.) Awhile back, Tim explained to us the definition of inflation. In a nutshell, it’s a real force that reduces your purchasing power. In other words, your... Read more
I’m always surprised at how many people I know who don’t use a budget. Some think that budgets are restricting, and others flat out say I don’t know how to make a budget! Personal finance isn’t rocket science, and it doesn’t have to feel restricting. In fact, once you know how to make a budget, I’d say you’d start to feel a little more freedom from the dreaded ‘paycheck to paycheck’ lifestyle that haunts millions of Americans. If you... Read more
Faith and Finance
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