It takes time...

If you work for (yourname) incorporated and you are handling all the money for that company the way you handle the money in your life, would you fire yourself?

It is not effortless to know where your money is going. Farmers are good managers. They have to be or they will lose a lot of what they work so hard to gain. I really like what Proverbs says:

Proverbs 27:23 "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds"

You have to do this or you your animals will run away without you even knowing. At some point farmers would even need to hire hands to help them with this. IT IS THAT IMPORTANT.

According to the Wall Street Journal nearly 70% of all consumers LIVE from paycheck to paycheck. This means that they would not be able to make a mortgage, utility, or credit card payment if they missed a paycheck.

According to the American Bankruptcy Institute filings for bankruptcy is at an all time high with a new record being set virtually every year. I think these statistics are connected to the life that we now have that is very contrary to the life on the farm.

It is simple, if you don't have an accurate picture of where your money goes, you are bound to make a decision that will hurt. Trust me, I have made too many bad decisions that I definitely paid for.

Please don't just look at the balance in your bank account. I know A LOT of friends who have made decisions because of their balance and then a few days later they realized their rent check that they wrote a week ago just cleared and now they are in a STRESSFUL situation. Please please at the very least you need to get some sort of program or service that you can type in your transactions and track where your money goes.

You can check out www.clearcheckbook.com it is free and online which is a great feature. I personally use Microsoft Money and I love it.

If any of you are competitive or enjoy games like me, handling money is a game. Think about it, you plan out your money (let's say you have $3,000 coming in a month. Plan where all that goes before the month. $1,000 savings, $1,000 to giving, $1,000 spending. As an example). Then you just track it...see how you did. You will keep getting better and better.

The best part of the game is, that if you just do it, YOU WIN! You will be in the minority of people in America handling your money correctly.

Did you know that the average Japanese family saves 18.8% of their income? According to the Department of Commerce after 2000 the personal savings rate in America fell to -2.2% (the lowest in 60 years).