Total Money Makeover

Matthew 25:20-21

The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

I can not tell you the number of times I have heard about the parable of the master who entrusts his servants with coins before going on a journey. Upon his return the servant he has given 5 coins has earned 5 more. The one with 2 coins has earned 2 more. The one with 1 coin had hidden it and only had the initial coin to give back to the master. The master is well pleased with the first two servants and throws out the last one from his household. This is used as an example of using wisely what God has blessed us with.

I have been extremely blessed. I went to an excellent university that despite all the bad press is still well regarded for it's academics, I graduated with just over $15,000 in student loans (cheap in this day and age) thanks to my parents commitment to give their children good educations. God  blessed me with an amazing job during our "great depression". I was able to live at home for a year after college allowing me to put 20% into my 401k during the 6 month period I lived at home and worked at Tyco Electronics.

Upon moving out of my childhood home God has blessed me with great apartments and experiences. I have come to fully rely on him for everything that I need. Once I learned to trust him to provide for me, now it was time to learn how to manage it. Unfortunately it has taken me a year to realize this was the lesson I was suppose to be learning.

Even through all of the amazing blessings I have had I absolutely STINK at managing money. I start saving and that would work until my brakes needed to be replaced. Or a windshield. Or pay for CPA prep classes and Exams. Often I would think that I had plenty of money in my checking account and decide to treat myself to one thing or another not realizing that the student loan or the car insurance would be automatically deducted from my account in the next couple of days. Frequently in the last couple of days before the new paycheck would come I would have to transfer money from my savings back into my checkings. And that is if I caught it. If I didn't catch that I was low, PNC automatically pulls money from my savings to my checkings for a nice tidy fee of $10. I can say that PNC has made a lot of money off of me the past year and a half or so.

I just wasn't getting the message. Even the months that I was traveling for work and I didn't have to buy gas or food I would overspend on Souvenirs or Tours in a new place rationalizing that I didn't have to pay to get there or stay there. If I was to do it again it would be more expensive so I better spend the money on it now. God decided it was time to throw the book at me...

Literally

For the past couple of years I have heard my mom talk about Dave Ramsey. Since she has moved to NC she has mentioned him more often. I would have to say that she has a financial crush on him. :) She recently has read his book The Total Money Makeover and has suggested I read it. I didn't really want to. I mean yeah I was getting a ton of fees from PNC and my money moved from account to account faster than laundered money from the mob but I wasn't struggling. I was paying all my bills and investing in my 401k and Employee Stock Plan. Although I was bit high on the balance for my credit card but definitely no where near the credit debt that many students have coming out of college. I had Mint.com to categorize my expenses for me. If I was curious about where my money had gone I could just log in and check. I didn't need money advice.

My Mom's financial crush

For my birthday my Mema had given me a giftcard to Barnes and Noble (that place is like my crack and she is just enabling me). I couldn't find any books that I was interested in, which was rare. I normally walk in saying "one book... just one book" and walk out with 3... or 5. So on impulse I buy Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. Honestly I expected some get rich quick ideas and investment advice that was hard to follow. That is not what I read at all. What he said was simple but he said it was going to be hard.

First thing to do - make a budget. Sure - been there done that. But this time I did it differently. I started by planning out what I was going to spend monthly, but also setting up another tab to track what I was going to have to spend my money on for that pay period. This way I could know when I was going to be hit and how much I did have left over after all the "regulars".

Next is to put $1,000 in a savings account (preferably a money market fund) to have ONLY for emergencies. Ok I had some already in a savings account. I switched $1000 to a money market fund.

I couldn't see what was going to be so hard about this total money makeover (I was reading the next step only when I completed the step I was on)

Then comes the hard part. For my age he suggests stop contributing to my 401k (except for the % that my company would match). WHAT?!?! He said to use that money and any extra cash flow to pay off my student debt and credit cards. He despises credit because it is essentially going into debt each month even if you pay it off. I couldn't believe it. That went against everything I had been taught. I was always told to contribute to a 401K cause even 5 exta years of just a little bit would add up in the end. Not to mention that credit cards are so easy to use! But then he quoted Proverbs 22:7

"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender."

That stuck a chord. About 3 years ago I tried to pay over my minimum amount to my student loan company but they just took it as a "prepayment" on future bills and did not apply it to the principal. THAT IS THE STUPIDEST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD! I fought with them for maybe 3 months to be able to permanently have that removed so I could pay against the principal. Never worked. Now they hate me and I hate them but I still have to deal with them every month for the next 10 years. Oh and they get around $60 of my money each month in interest. Great I am paying them to basically be jerks.

I am on track to pay off my credit cards in 2 months and my student loans hopefully within a year. Then I can start saving for a down payment on a house as well as a fairly new used car. There is more to his baby steps to a financial makeover but I will let you buy a copy (or borrow my own) to decide if it is something for you.

I am just glad that I am finally taking steps to control my money instead of the other way around.

Land of the Brave has become Land of the Pretty

Any person living in America is under pressure to look a certain way. Men are expected to be tall, buff, and absurdly good looking. Women are suppose to have large breasts, perfect hair/skin/makeup, and skinny. The list of things that our society considers "ugly" is growing faster than what we consider to be beautiful and now we have crossed into the ridiculous. The other week on TV I saw a commercial aimed at women that demonstrated how their new cream would reduce the appearance of UNDERARM DARK SPOTS!! Normally most beauty items make some sense to me. Dark circles under the eye, dark body hair on women, graying hair, etc etc but this one blew me away about how unnecessary it was.

Under no circumstances do I consider the dark spots in my underarms to be ugly. I don't think they are beautiful either. They are just a part of me. I will be the first to admit that I, like many people in America, try to achieve the ideal perfect body. I just started Turbofire by beachbody to help me live healthier and lose weight. I dye my hair. I wear makeup. Heck, I even wear painfully high heels. But I draw the line at what I consider to be absolutely trivial. If someone is looking so closely at my underarms and what spots might be on it, then honestly they can look away and come to whatever conclusion they want. I am not going to give them any further thought after this blog post.

I once heard that a dying society focuses on Beauty of the people within it. I don't know if I believe that but when I see Kim Kardashian getting more attention because she is considered beautiful (when in fact she has a fabulous makeup artist) than those who are actually making a difference like Teachers or Scientists or Humanitarians that is when I start to understand where that person coming from. When we focus of the impermanence of beauty that will fade without the skill of a surgeon instead of lauding those who toil to make contributions that will last longer than their time on earth, how can we be considered the greatest nation on the earth? And the big question to myself, how can I start valuing the real things in life instead of what society tells me to?

"We've got serious problems, and we need serious people"*

I hate the presidential elections. More than that, I hate politics. The idea of politics, I don’t mind so much. It’s the people that are involved in them that I do not like. I like it even less in the months leading up to the Presidential Election. I am inundated with ads, commercials, billboards, flyers, and party lines. I see commercials telling me what hasn’t been done without telling me what the person running plans to do. I see YouTube ads where the person is opposed to a certain resolution, only to find out later that the resolution was something that was supported in the past. The candidates change from who they were (and what supposedly got them into the running for office) into what the party wants them to be. The president eventually becomes the president of the republicans or the president of the democrats. I want a president of the people. I guess I am just a firm believer of the best leaders are those who do not seek a position of power but have it thrust upon them. (Dave is still one of my favorite movies)

Seriously if you haven't seen this you need to

The second thing that I do not like, and probably dislike greater than what I mentioned above, is the amount of people who want to “discuss” politics. The sad thing is that I probably can be attributed to making dumb remarks about an issue without thorough research so we can throw me into this category as well (hey you dislike in others what you see in yourself). People on two opposing side of an argument A) Don’t want to listen to what the other side has to say or B) isn’t well informed on the issue C) derides the other persons view based on a differing opinion.

The last bit has made me very angry and Facebook doesn’t help. This became even more evident as Obamacare has become a focal point for the upcoming election and the US Supreme court ruling that it was constitutionally sound (except for the fee which is now a tax). Posts on Facebook were flying around (including some of my own, which I deleted because I felt I posted in haste) some saying that America was improving or America was doomed.

The thing is, I can see both sides of the argument (not clearly but well enough). And I don’t think it is as clear cut as people want it to be. I wish it was. That would make it easier. But it isn’t. And this refusal to accept the complexity of the issue has only fueled idiotic posts such as “If Obamacare isn’t reversed I am moving to Canada” (news alert: Canada has socialized healthcare or whatever people are calling it now a days) or “Because I am not a Redneck I am not voting for Romney” (some of the smartest people I know are planning to vote for Romney and I am 100% sure even the poster wouldn’t have called them a redneck). Such statements only give me a desire not to be associated with people who deride other points of view simply because they do not agree.

Most of the time, these are made by people who get information from one source and that one source has a definite bias. Sometimes these statements are made by people (on both sides of an issue) that I once respected to be well informed and used to be willing to discuss issues in a rational manner. But when they cease to approach things with the possibility of a different opinion that could be just as valid as their own, I don’t want to talk about the issue anymore. There just isn’t any point.

I think that my generation is doing a great job of being involved in politics but I also know a lot of people who have become apathetic to it, and I am sad to say that I am becoming one of those people. I want to care and I want my voice to be heard but if I can’t count on people to respect my opinion and not deride my intelligence because of it then I won’t speak up. If I can’t be heard, then why would I care?

The issues that face our world today deserve to be discussed. Not on Facebook as a post ranting against the other side, not as a link to a website that doesn’t present information that shows not only the good but also the bad, not even as a post on blogspot, but in face to face interactions where people can see not only your passion for the issue at hand but the intelligence behind it. Maybe you will sway this person to your point of view, maybe you won’t.

I will strive to be as well informed on BOTH sides of an issue as I can and discuss my thoughts with those who are willing to do so with an open mind. In the end we probably won’t agree, we may not vote for the same presidential candidate, but hopefully we will have learned a little bit about that person and why they are voting the way that they are. Hopefully, in the end, recognizing the motives and well thought out decision behind it.

*Disclaimer: I am very much aware that the title quote comes from American President and not Dave but all the Dave quotes didn't seem to fit

"He gave me a Virginia Ham!"