Dollars and Sense!

I must confess that while I learned a lot of my financial know-how from my parents, I have learned most of it from my incredible wife. I'm so grateful that I wasn't the desperado who picked the queen of diamonds...the queen of hearts is always your best bet (thanks to the Eagles for that poetic wisdom). I just want to take the time to share what we have been experience in our the financial side of our lives. People don't talk about their personal money habits in public avenues very often. But money is a very important part of life. So much so that Jesus taught about money and its relationship with our hearts quite often. This Sunday, in fact, we will be continuing a series on the Sermon on the Mount by discussing how no one can serve both God and money. Check it out at northwake.com. I'm looking forward to it. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

So for some this may be nothing new. Maybe you have heard principles like these and are bored by the idea. But for others, maybe you are excited like me when you hear great stories of how to make your money (however much or little it is) work for you rather than the opposite.

Let me begin by saying that we are not yet 30 years old, we have three kids, two cars, and one house and are debt free (except for our mortgage). We own both cars (which are both fairly new with the oldest on being a 2003 model). Both vehicles both have less than 80,000 miles. The only outstanding debt we have at this point is our mortgage, and we are currently taking steps to beat that down as quickly as possible.

I say all this to introduce the fact that you would be surprised at how much money we don't make! BUT because we are very conscious of our spending and saving habits, we have found ourselves in a very safe position in the midst of economic hardship. And let me add that we also do not have a budget. Scarey? Maybe, but the bottom line is that we have habits in place that have enabled us to stretch every penny and make our money work for us rather than the other way around.

DEBT -

I already mentioned this above, but one of the things that everyone would do well to remember is that debt should be avoided if at all possible. Now, there are some times when it is necessary for large expenses, like homes, cars, or maybe even school. But there are other times when debt may be uneccessary, like for entertainment, needless shopping, or other conveniences. Our policy is this...we distinguish between the necessary and the convenient. If something is necessary, then we evaluate the costs and try to avoid debt if at all possible. If a purchase may add convenience, then we evaluate the need vs. want factor. We do not underestimate the value of elbow grease and hard work and the money we save by applying both.

For cars, we know these are always expenses and never investments because of the rapid deterioration of the value. So when we need to purchase a vehicle, we set a limit, shop around a lot, then work something out. We also are not afraid to push hard bargains with dealers. We pay cash, and because of that we are not strapped by financing. The only downfall to this is if you want a really new vehicle you have to save up quite a bit. BUT the key is to buy before it's too late to get a lot of money out of your current vehicle. For example, we bought a van for $5100 and sold a car for $5100. So there was no other expense other than taxes (gotta love em). In most cases, we start looking when we feel it is neccesary. But before we buy we evaluate how much we can get for one of our existing vehicles and add that to what we are willing to pay.

CREDIT CARDS -

We avoid them, but we do use them. We are definitely not anit-credit cards. The difference is we make them work for us and not the other way around. The ONLY time we will ever apply for a credit card is if they have a promotion that benefits us. Some examples include gas cards with rebates (I mean if you're going to pay for gas, at least get some money back) and cards with rewards programs. We signed up for a Citi Master Card some years ago and got an instant $100 value bonus in rewards. We ended up using that to purchase a new home entertainment system. Neat, huh!

COUPONS -

This is probably one of the newest and most rewarding areas of money that we have discovered. It takes time, but the return on that invested time is well worth it! Find coupons anywhere you can - online, newspapers, other papers or magazines. Then look for the sales that the stores are having around you. Use a coupon on a sale item and save BIG TIME! In some cases, we have gotten things not just for free, but we have actually gotten money back! Just recently Ashley purchases some Purell hand soap with a coupon, and the soap was on clearance, so Target paid her about 60 cents to purchase it. That's cool! It takes some time and organization, but it is well worth it.

ATTITUDE-

We just value every single penny. We think before we spend. We factor everything into the equation - even the amount of gas, wear, and tear on the vehicle to go shop for something. For example, if I find a good deal on Craigslist, but the person selling it is far away, I'll factor in the cost of driving a long distance. In some cases it's not a good deal just because after paying the gas to get to it, I may as well buy it from a retailer. Catch my drift? We just think before we spend. On anything! Believe me this is not always easy! Ashley can tell you how many times I complain because I didn't get a nicer razor or tool because there was a better deal on another one that works just fine. Attitude is the key. Even when it comes to eating out, which we have not done too often. When we do eat out, it's at a place where we can get the most for our buck. Dollar menus are awesome things! Our entire family can eat out for less than 10 dollars easily. But we just don't eat out much.

My brother Ben will probably have the opportunity to play in the NFL pretty soon. We were talking about what would making an NFL salary do to us? How would we handle that kind of money? I can honestly say that I don't believe it would change a thing. We would still push hard bargains. We would still keep our attitudes in check. Here's why...because having a ton of money is not our goal. Our goal is to make the most of what we've been given, be it $29 or $29 million! We make our money work for us and not the other way around.

MY GOAL -

My goal at this point is to be completely debt free, mortgage and all. If things work out as planned, we can have our entire mortgage paid off in 3 years. That would mean that by the time I am 30 I will own my home, my cars, and have absolutely no debt. At that point we will do one of two things...either invest the money we make (which at this point may see small returns, but returns none the less), or sell our home and use every last penny as a down payment on another home a little nicer and repeat the process until we own that one.

We shall see what happens. I get excited talking about all this. Our money serves us, not the other way around. We also let is serve the purposes of God as well. Even though things are tight for us, we still give to our church and to others. That's the whole point! An excellent resource on this that will blow you away on giving is Randy Alcorn's, The Treasure Principle. A must read.

Thanks for humoring me. I feel better now that I got all that money talk out of my system. I hope it helps! It sure made "cents" to me!