How much is too much house?

Earlier this week I mentioned that one of the most often ways people get themselves into a struggling financial situation is they allow their car payments or house payments to be larger than what they can afford.

If you did not read the post on Car Payments you can check it out here.

The stage of life that I am currently in (early to mid 20's) is extremely foundational. I find that a lot of financial (mis)behavior habits go into effect around this time in a person's life. Usually after graduation you will find yourself with more cash than you ever have had before. For the first year or two you are allowed much freedom and seem to spend money on whatever you want, whenever you want it.

However, this might work out for the first year or two but this develops a habit that is not easily broken. As you get into later years you begin to commit to more financial obligations, which leaves you strapped and in a tight situation. This is the turning point and usually people will resort to using unsecured debt as an option which puts them in bondage that they cannot break free of for many many years.

More times than not, this "financial obligation" that leaves you in a tight situation is usually caused by the house. Because your house payment might end up being too much for your take home pay, it leaves you extremely tight in all other areas of life. And if this is combined with a lack of adamant budget and preparation its seems like there is no other choice but to turn to debt.

Now on the flip side I want to offer a guardrail to guide your house buying decision that may come up in the near future. This is not scriptural this is just what I believe to be wise after listening to many financial "guru's" over the years.

House Rule #1: Do not have a house payment that is more than 25% of your household take home pay.

When I get opposition to this from people my age it is always because they want to have a standard of living that is comparable to what their parents have. The only problem with that is it took their parents 20+ years to obtain that, which should not be obtained within the first few years of working.

I want to provide an easy to understand grid that might help put some skin on this rule. The assumptions to this grid is 100% financing (which I do not recommend but will talk about later) and an interest rate at 6.5%.

30 Year Fixed Loan

Annual Income	Monthly Income After Taxes	Monthly Payment	House Value
$30,000	$1,875	$468.75	$74,161.32
$35,000	$2,188	$546.88	$86,521.54
$40,000	$2,500	$625.00	$98,881.76
$45,000	$2,813	$703.13	$111,241.98
$50,000	$3,125	$781.25	$123,602.20
$55,000	$3,438	$859.38	$135,962.42
$60,000	$3,750	$937.50	$148,322.64
$65,000	$4,063	$1,015.63	$160,682.86
$70,000	$4,375	$1,093.75	$173,043.08
$75,000	$4,688	$1,171.88	$185,403.30
$80,000	$5,000	$1,250.00	$197,763.52
$85,000	$5,313	$1,328.13	$210,123.74
$90,000	$5,625	$1,406.25	$222,483.96
$95,000	$5,938	$1,484.38	$234,844.19
$100,000	$6,250	$1,562.50	$247,204.41

15 Year Fixed Loan

Annual Income	Monthly Income After Taxes	Monthly Payment	House Value
$30,000	$1,875	$468.75	$53,810.82
$35,000	$2,188	$546.88	$62,779.29
$40,000	$2,500	$625.00	$71,747.76
$45,000	$2,813	$703.13	$80,716.23
$50,000	$3,125	$781.25	$89,684.70
$55,000	$3,438	$859.38	$98,653.17
$60,000	$3,750	$937.50	$107,621.64
$65,000	$4,063	$1,015.63	$116,590.11
$70,000	$4,375	$1,093.75	$125,558.58
$75,000	$4,688	$1,171.88	$134,527.05
$80,000	$5,000	$1,250.00	$143,495.51
$85,000	$5,313	$1,328.13	$152,463.98
$90,000	$5,625	$1,406.25	$161,432.45
$95,000	$5,938	$1,484.38	$170,400.92
$100,000	$6,250	$1,562.50	$179,369.39

Use this grid as a guideline when deciding how much house too buy. I do not care how good of a deal you get on a $200,000 house. If you cannot afford it, it will end up put you into a financial mess. When this is the case you cannot even enjoy living in the awesome house because things are so tight financially.

The Planning Process

Having a plan is the most basic core principle that I try to teach. If you strip back all the practical application, all of the "theology of money," all stories or illustrations, I am basically saying to have a plan.

Tell your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.

Hopefully if you hear anything, you will hear this. Now, I am about to expand on logistical planning. Most people who know me will be surprised to hear me say this next statement but it is the truth and I don't really say it that often.

You can only plan so much.

I am serious.

There are 3 basic stages in personal finance planning:

1.) Short Term Planning
2.) Mid Range Planning
3.) Long Term

Long term planning is roughly anything over a year away. There are many things that we should be planning for that are a year away or over. An example of Long Term Planning is retirement. I think you should be planning from this and early on in fact. Another example is a new (to you) car. This will come up at some point, you might as well be prepared for it.

I also think there are things that come up within a year that you should plan for in advance; these are mid range planning items. Christmas, Birthdays, Vacations, Real Estate Taxes, etc. all fall under this. We know these things come up, we need to plan for them.

Next is short term planning. I do not want you to plan for monthly expenditures in advance. Each month is new. Each month things will change. For example my gas expense has now changed because it is football season and I go to all the Clemson games. This has increased my monthly gas expenditures a great deal, which effects my planning in other areas. Another example is you might know you need to get an oil change this next month, that changes your car maintenance category, which might change something else.

Let's say you had a friend who was about to play a game of chess. And let's say you are a chess expert and he came to you and ask for help. You would not give him step by step instructions on moves he should make. This is not a wise thing to do when playing chess because things change rapidly. The same is true with finances. You can have a basic goal/intent to take the queen or put the king in checkmate, but how you get there is a changing process.

It is a good thing to make goals and plans, but the details will be changing. It is important that we understand this so that we will not be frustrated with a process where change is inevitable.

Never Have a Car Payment

If you have a car payment, you need to get rid of it. As a philosophy of mine I try to avoid anything that requires a recurring monthly payment. I understand some things are inevitable but I want to stress that a car payment is not one of them.

From talking to financial counselors many times when people are struggling and broken in their financial life, it is often because they find themselves in a lousy car situation or buying too much house. I will talk about buying too much house later this week, but for now let me stick to the car.

What I mean by a lousy car situation is they bought a new car and have been paying huge payments on it rather than paying cash, and now that they are in trouble financially because there was no buffer for life to happen they find that their car is worth LESS than what they still owe on it.

This happens far too often.

My advice and philosophy on this is pretty simple. I have 2 basic "car rules."

Car Rule #1: Don't buy new. My suggestion and personal philosophy is to get a 2 year old car. The reason for this is strictly numerical. As soon as you drive a new car off the lot it is taking a huge chunk of value off. In fact a large percentage of the value gets taken off in the first 2 years. By buying a car after 2 years you have avoided taking a huge depreciation hit.

Car Rule #2: Make payments to yourself.

Right now I am driving a 99 Honda Accord that does not have payments. Yet I am paying a $350 car payment to myself. There is a reason for this. It is smart. I can either make payments later and have a lot of that going to interest and be making someone else money, or I can make payments to myself now in my money market account that earns 5.05% and have interest coming in. Then when it is time to buy my 2 year old car I will have the money to pay cash for it. Side note: If you have cash you can get a major deal on a car, especially when looking to buy from individuals. When you show them you have cash and can give it to them as soon as they agree that is extremely enticing.

If you are thinking: "But I need to buy a car now but have no money saved up. What do I do?"

I will answer your question by giving you 2 scenarios and you can decide for yourself which is better.

Normally we buy:

$18,000 car; 7 years at 10%; payments of $300; value after 7 years, $800

Or we could buy instead:

$6,000 car; 7 years at 10%; payments of $100; value after 7 years, $400.
The other $200 per month is saved at 10% (mutual fund) for 7 years = $24,190

Now who may the right choice:

At Year Seven
The car is fully depreciated, in either plan, but in the 2nd plan:

Savings $24,190
One year old car for cash <$16,000>
Left in savings $ 8,190

No Car Payments!

Another Seven Years
Saving $300 per month from year 7 to year 14
plus interest on $8,190 (10% return) the car is fully depreciated again.

Savings $52,245
One year old car for cash <$25,000>
Left in savings $27,245

No Car Payments!

Which scenario do you choose?

After 14 years you are in a position where you are set up to never have to make another car payment just because of a decision you made 14 years ago.

It is a shift of thinking from, "I will always have a car payment" to "I never want a car payment."

Use the compound interest factor for your advantage and not against you. It is powerful either way.

Signs your financial System are Working

I wanted to offer up some encouragement to all who I have not had the pleasure of speaking with in person or through e-mail. I have heard really AWESOME things about people making commitments to handle their money wiser.

This allows them to be better stewards, better givers, better providers, and have actual freedom to do what God calls them to rather than be stuck in a position where they HAVE to earn a paycheck from a job they are not passionate about.

I wanted to list some signs that your financial system is working so that you may encouraged and continue what you are working towards:

1.) Paying car insurance quarterly or biannually without a hitch

2.) Giving e an offering to your local church not longer HURTS to write that check.

3.) Presents are a joy to buy for people.

4.) Getting to see monthly interest incurred from your 4.3%+ Interest Rate saving account. (If you do not have one of these, please sign up with ING Direct immediately.)

5.) No longer have stress when bills come in.

6.) You know that you have a plan financially if "life" happens.

7.) You are actually choosing to be at your job, rather than stuck at it.

And so many more! Having freedom with your finances is exactly what it sounds like. Freedom. It allows us to live life differently; I know too many people that are in bondage in their financial life which causes them to not be able to devote their lives to the calling they are called to because our money and hearts really are connected.

The Unexpected

In everything in life we must account for the unexpected. I would call it foolish to not do this. Most times when we have an emergency it is a major life changing event. However, when we have not set ourselves up for success financially to get through these types of events not only do we have a major LIFE crisis, but we also have a MONEY crisis.

This adds tons of unnecessary stress that could have been avoided. The reason why I seem to be harping on the need of an Emergency Fund a lot is for a couple reasons:

1.) It is the 1st step the I advise people to do. So if you wanted to ask me what your first step to financial freedom is I would advise to save up $1,000 (basic) emergency fund or $500 if your income is under $20,000.

2.) The other reason is because I see scripture advising us in this direction. Proverbs 21:20 "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has."

It is literally foolish to devour all you have. So if you are living paycheck to paycheck and all your money comes in, then all your money goes out, scripture calls this foolish. This is why my first step is to break the chain and develop an emergency fund.

Technical Difficulties

I apologize for the inconvenience but www.chriskakaras.com will be down this week due to a domain transfer. I have been meaning to do this for some time and unfortunately this wait time was inevitable. www.chriskakaras.com will be up and running (hopefully) no later than Monday, October 1.

For the immediate time being you can check daily blog updates at storingtreasures.blogspot.com. Thanks!

Sincerely,

Chris Kakaras

Budget Time

It is getting to be that time of month. About a week before the month is over I put my financial outlook together and start budgeting for next month. A basic process of what is do is:

1.) Update all transactions in Microsoft Money to date and look at a snapshot in a summary of my accounts.

2.) I plan out a detailed projection of expenses (for the next 7 or so days) and put them in as transactions. The date I use is the last day of the month and as the actual expense comes, I delete that "projected" transaction. The reason I do this projection is because it is my goal to always keep $1,000 in my main checking account. I do not want to keep more and do not want to keep less in there. Anything left above $1,000 goes to a different account (savings, money market, investment, etc.) but I usually will end up right at $1,000 anyway because that is what I plan for.

3.) Now I am ready to put a plan for next month down on paper. The first thing I do is put the amount of income coming in. This goes at the top of the page and I want to "spend" all that money on paper. And when I mean spend I do not mean buy stuff, I mean give all your money a name. A certain amount goes to food, a certain amount goes to investments, giving, college fund, etc.

4.) After you put the income on the top of the page you start putting down necessary expenses. (i.e. Food, Shelter, Car, Utilities, Clothing in this order)

5.) I then think of upcoming expenses that could possibly be a budget buster in the coming months. I think of my car, Christmas, girlfriend's birthday, etc. And I choose a target amount for it then divide it by the number of months between now and then. This is now included in my budget and I make a separate account for it for money to be transferred to.

5.) Now lastly I roll over my previous months budget for all other accounts. I make my tweaks and then move on.

This whole process might be time consuming your first couple months but after a while you will be able to knock this out in less than 15 minutes. The important thing is to get the ball rolling. If you have yet to make a budget, I encourage you to start with next month (October).

Associated Content

If you have never heard of this site it might be something worth checking out. www.associatedcontent.com is a online publication that buys articles that you write. I have submitted 4 and all have gotten me between $3 and $4, and they really did pay out.

Click Here if you want to be a content producer. If you have some spare time or have knowledge on a particular topic in might be worth it to check it out.

Link to Join

The Breakthrough Cont'd

If you did not read yesterdays post from Jim Collins' book "Good To Great" please check it out before you continue with this one.

In that illustration (known as the flywheel concept) you are using a ton of force and only moving it a little at a time however at some point the wheel begins to turn on its own and even goes faster with you doing little to no effort.

I think we all want to be there in our finances. I have stated as a goal of mine, I want my alternative income streams to be greater than my expenses. This to me is true financial freedom. How do I do this? First I MUST understand this concept because it changes strategy on what our plan is.

What would happen if you were pushing that flywheel and you got tired and took a break for just a second (or a month when it comes to personal finance). The momentum would be lost and we would be discouraged to have to start over. Not only that, we would not have as much energy as before. If that happens perpetually we would never get to be to the breakthrough point.

This "stopping factor" can come in many different shapes when it comes to personal finances. It could be that emergency that comes up that we didn't have an emergency fund in place to counteract so we could keep building momentum. It could be the realization that it is hard right now and we want it to be easier immediately, instead of looking to the breakthrough point. Or it might be that you are just focused on results right now and give up because you are not seeing any.

Just like with the flywheel when we start we will put in the most effort and get the least amount of results. But getting to the breakthrough point is worth it and in anything you do and this needs to kept in mind.

Practically for any goal you have with your finances this applies. If you are budgeting for the first time it will take the most effort and you will probably make the most mistakes or be the most frustrated than you ever will. It gets easier, I promise. After a little over a full year of actually living on a budget, I am able to accurately, efficiently, and effectively budget my money in a matter of minutes for the upcoming month.

All it takes is getting through the initial max effort min results stages and looking to the breakthrough point.

The Breakthrough

This illustration comes from Jim Collins' book Good to Great. I will connect this illustration to where I am going with it tomorrow.

Picture a huge, heavy flywheel – a massive metal disk mounted horizontally on an axle, about 30 feet in diameter, 2 feet thick, and weighing about 5,000 pounds. Now imagine that your task is to get the flywheel rotating on the axle as fast and long as possible.

Pushing with great effort, you get the flywheel to inch forward, moving almost imperceptibly at first. You keep pushing and, after two or three hours of persistent effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn.

You keep pushing, and the flywheel begins to move a bit faster, and with continued great effort, you move it around a second rotation. You keep pushing in a consistent direction. Three turns…four…five…six…the flywheel builds up speed… seven…eight…you keep pushing…nine…ten…it builds momentum…eleven…twelve… moving faster with each turn…twenty…thirty…fifty…a hundred.

Then at some point – breakthrough! The momentum of the thing kicks in your favor, hurling the flywheel forward, turn after turn…whoosh!…its own heavy weight working for you. You’re pushing no harder than during the first rotation, but the flywheel goes faster and faster. Each turn of the flywheel builds upon work done earlier, compounding your investment of effort. A thousand times faster, then ten thousand, then a hundred thousand. The huge heavy disk flies forward, with almost unstoppable momentum.

Now suppose someone came along and asked, “What was the one big push that caused this thing to go so fast?”

You wouldn’t be able to answer; it’s just a nonsensical question. Was it the first push? The second? The fifth? The hundredth? No! It was all of them added together in an overall accumulation of effort applied in a consistent direction. Some pushes may have been bigger than others, but any single heave – no matter how large – reflects a small fraction of the entire cumulative effect upon the flywheel.

Deals!!! College Student Edition

I know this might be a little late, but just in case there is someone reading that this might help out I wanted to post it anyway. I ran across some great deals on Hustler Money Blog.

• Gateway Notebook Intel Celeron M-Processor 520 at Best Buy for $350
  
• Ultimate Office 2007 for $60, valid only for students with .edu email address.
• Compaq Presario C508US 15.4″ Widescreen Notebook for $320 at Circuit City

If you have needed to get a computer; you can't find them much cheaper than this. And I am a strong advocate of Microsoft Office programming so when I find a good deal I want to share.

Ways to Cut Down Your Entertainment Budget

Entertainment can be very expensive if we are not careful. I wanted to offer some great ways to spend less on this category while still having fun.

Not so much Traveling
This one hurts me because I love driving and more than that, I love driving to Braves games. I am a huge fan and I try to find good deals on eBay for tickets. While I figure I am saving money on tickets that most people would spend, I am killing a ton of money on gas to get there and back. Traveling really is a sneaky way to creep up your expenses and then when you look at your bank account balance you wonder where your money went.

Find Alternative Sources of Entertainment
I know quite a few people who have joined an ultimate frisbee league which is a great way to be entertained while not spending a lot of money. I also have friends who have a basketball night where they all get together on a certain night of the week or on Saturday morning and play. When you find things to do with friends and loved ones like these options you will feel no need to go out and spend a large amount of money on ways to entertain yourself.

Cancel some Memberships
Lots of people have gym memberships or other types of revolving expenses that they hardly ever use. This is sucking a good amount of money up. Most of the time you have signed up for a lot of little monthly fee type things which add up when put all together. If you go to a gym, health club, country club, or other service only once a week, chances are you are not getting your money's worth out of it.

Lower your Cable Package
I know this is crazy talk but I am serious. Most cable companies will have a low end basic cable package that usually cost a significant amount less. I know we are living in a world of HD, DVR, and premium packages and everything has to be HD but it is worth a thought. I am not saying you are irresponsible if you have a big cable package; I am just throwing out an idea for it in case it sticks somewhere.

Newspaper/Magazine Subscriptions
I am guy that LOVES sports. And I love reading/watching/talking about sports all the time. Therefore, I used to have a subscription to Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, and ESPN the magazine. The problem is that I never really read them. I looked through them, read some blurbs here and there but I realized that I needed to cancel. This took a good shot to the pride because I am a man and men read Sports, but I am glad I am saving that $10-$15 a month now.

Use the Library
The library is freakin awesome. I love books (more like books on tape), I love movies, and I love free. Did you know the library has all 3? I suggest to use this amazing service that we are given by the state.

Anyway, there are tons of ways to keep our entertainment seeking hearts occupied without spending a ton of money. The key is to just make a little effort and it will go a long way. If you end up cutting down on movies and dining out you will more than likely save a LOT of money.

Yes, its all free!

Wanted to share with everyone some goodies. I love free money and free stuff, if you do too than some of these links might be of interest to you. I found these on Hustler Money Blog.

If you are looking to change banks or open up a new account, you might want to check out one of these promotions.

1. Bank of America $100 bonus: Open online with $100 minimum deposit using offer code AOU2609 and receive $100 bonus for Bank of America’s cardholders. Expires on Nov. 30th
2. Citibank $200 bonus: Call 1-866-810-9043 and mention offer code MGWE. Deposit $1500 to get first $100 bonus, then setup direct deposit to receive the second $100 bonus. Expires Dec. 30th
3. Wachovia $75 Academy Gift Card: Open a free Checking account with $100 in new funds and setup direct deposit within 90 days to receive a $75 gift card bonus from Wachovia.
4. HSBC $75 Bonus: Open a free Checking account and receive $75. Offer expires Sept. 30th

If you want some free stuff, check these out!

1. Free Stone Cold Ice Cream on your birthday
2. Get a Free $5 Obopay Prepaid MasterCard for Sign Up!
3. $10 Ebates bonus for first timer
4. Free Night at the Theatre
5. Walmart Free Samples

College Student Spotlight

Something came to my head today that saved me hundreds of dollars while I was in college. So, if you are a college student if you do what I am about to say you will literally save hundreds of dollars.

Most of you just bought textbooks for the upcoming semester. If you went to the on campus bookstore you ended up paying a pretty penny. However, I have a solution that will almost cut that bill in half. And the answer isn't just skipping out on buying half your books. My solution is to use www.half.com.

On there you can click on the textbooks link and type in your ISBN number. You will have to travel down to the bookstore and scout out what books you need and then write down the ISBN # (it literally takes 5 minutes).

Then just click and buy your textbooks through half.com which are normally half the price (you are buying them from other people in a secondary market). Normally shipping will take like 7-10 days so account for that when you order it (do not by it the night before you need it).

Once you get the books, if you bought the most recent version you can still sell it back to the bookstore at the end of the semester and usually the net cost is very small. Another thing that I started doing is I would by the previous version of the textbook than the current version. My senior year I literally spent like $40-$50 on my textbooks and they were the EXACT same thing as the current version. New versions might have minor changes but it was not worth spending $400-500 more on current versions of the book, I just cared about learning the material anyway.

I know school has already started so this post might be a little late, but keep this in mind for next semester.

Cash Can Cause...

CONFLICT

I was in wal-mart the other day and saw a kid melt down because he wanted to get something but his mom would not let him. At first I thought how embarrassing that looks and then how thankful I was that I never did that as a kid (...right).

I realized that this was a conflict that was caused by money. It causes conflicts across the board: teenagers and parents, married couples, little kids in toy stores...it is messing stuff up all over the place.

CONFUSION

Money also causes confusion. I think that 2 groups that have a major role in people's confusion is the local church and the educational system.

It is strange that a senior can graduate from high school and can dissect a frog, knows the Pythagorean theorem, and can tell you the symbol for Sodium but cannot balance a checkbook or recognize a good interest rate.

It is so funny that major outlets of teaching will ignore the most practical thing people need to know. And when I mean ignore it, I mean never bring it up period. Then when someone is faced with financial decisions they are hit flat in the face without any experience. Maybe that is the reason why more people will declare bankruptcy than graduate from college this year. It is because we’re confused.

Money is dangerous stuff, you better know how to handle it. Jesus talks a lot about money, but most of the time he is warning us from it. Put yourself in a position to win with money. It really does matter. Are you controlling your money or is your money controlling you?

Free Money!!!

If you like free money and have some time you can fill out surveys from these places. I usually do not do these surveys just because I don't have the time but I saw these on Hustler Money Blog and wanted to share.

Most of these places are pretty legit, I know the first one pays out a lot. Anyway, worth a shot if you find yourself with some free time and want a little spending cash.

Copy and Paste the link:

1. https://fun.mysurvey.com/join.cfm?r=2786801
2. http://www.acop.com/information.aspx
3. https://www.surveysavvy.com/ss/ss_index.php?action=join
4. http://www.greenfieldonline.com/TrafficUI/MSCUI/Page.aspx?pgtid=12&rsid=CD7265&amp;amp;amp;amp;rcid=2844&ptid=4&utcoffset=5
5. http://us.lightspeedpanel.com/index.html

Giving God Control Part 3

This is my last post on Giving God Control by following what He says through scripture. There are so many other verses we can talk about but I have narrowed down a few as they are fresh bread to me

Matthew 10:16 "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."

This sounds very un-Jesus like, but we can take it very practically and I believe it to be wisdom that we can take in our daily lives. The context of this passage is Jesus sending His disciples out to preach the Gospel. His advice was not to go where the wind takes you and THEN you will be provided for; he's saying "I have already provided with you what you need, don't get ripped of."

Practically speaking this means that we are called to read the fine print. It is wisdom to not put yourself in a position that you will be taken advantage of. I'm laughing right now because recently I did this and it was so obvious that it was my fault because I put myself in a position to be taken advantage of. Another practical example is debt: HAVE YOU READ THOSE CREDIT CARD CONTRACTS!! If you did you would see things like "We reserve the right to change the account terms for any reason" In other words, "Dear Customer - You have NO rights!"

Bottom line, Jesus says make every effort to not be taken advantage of, be shrewd as snakes. However, the verse also says be "innocent as doves." I was about to leave that last part out but I do not want anyone to misunderstand this passage of scripture. While we are making sure we are not taken advantage of, we are also called to NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OTHERS. I know this is a no-brainer but it needs to be said because I know first hand of people who got the first part of that passage down but trample over people in the meantime.

Matthew 25:14-30 Parable of the Talents

Man I am not saying it is wrong to try to make money. In fact I say the opposite. What I really harp on is what you do with that money once you get it. Like my example yesterday, when you get stuff be missional with it. Our lives are 100% Jesus, not 98% Jesus and 2% HDTV.

I am an advocate of investments and in Matthew 25 the Parable of the Talents shows that Jesus is too. A talent in this example I believe is a days wages, maybe more. God gave us "talents," it is wisdom to turn them into more talents. It is simple. Do not bury them, this is what is known as hoarding. Live with an open hand. Yes it allows money to go out of your hands, but with an open hand it is also easier for money to go into your hands. When you are tight fisted neither is possible.

Along with that parable, the guy who sits on what God gave him is punished, the guy who multiplied his talents(money) is told he did good. And I honestly believe this is not supposed to be because we can have more "stuff" because after all you cannot take a u-haul with your hearse. But I believe that it WILL advance the Kingdom by doing so. Its as simple as living on mission in every area of your life and that includes your money.

Giving God Control Part 2

To compliment us talking about the heart yesterday, I wanted to point out a few things that scripture speaks on that is on the practical side.

Proverbs 21:20 "In the house of the wise there are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has."

Scripture actually says saving for a rainy day is cool; and rainy days are coming. Let me also clarify; most of us are suffering from a disease in which we need more and more stuff for ourselves. That is not what scripture is saying is okay, in fact let me just clear it up, that is wrong. An example of this is when Joe gets a big screen tv. The issue isn't that he spent money on the big screen tv, the issue is why did he get the big screen tv.

Let me use a friend of mine as an example...they bought a big ole 55 inch HD TV. The reason why he got that is so that he would have a reason to invite people (ie co-workers, college students, and everyone else) to come over and watch a big football game or basketball game and use it as a ministry tool. God has been glorified through his TV and that is cool.

Another friend of mine has a sweet boat; the reason why he has that boat is for ministry. It is the heart behind this stuff that matters, it is not just an excuse to get more stuff. That is the difference. It is not a numbers issue, it is most definitely a heart issue.

More coming tomorrow on giving God control by practical application of Scripture.

Giving God Control

Giving God control of your money doesn't necessarily mean to give away all your money. It is very clear through scripture that the way we handle our money is an indicator of our hearts flat out.

If we are not giving to the poor but giving to Clemson football, we can fight it all we want but it is an indicator that you care more about Clemson football than you do homeless people. It's not me saying it so please do not be mad at me, but money is just an indicator.

Jesus wasn't lying when he said in Matthew 6, where your treasure there your heart is. Our hearts are connected to our money. When you invest in a stock and you see those 3 little ticker symbols go across the screen your heart jumps up and down with them. With giving your finances to God we are biblically mandated to give some away (in old testament after the harvests and tithing it comes to about 27.33%). But, usually a tithe in scripture is referred to as a minimum 10% of all your increase.

We are also biblically mandated to provide for your family (we won't really argue against that, it is what most people use to argue hoarding). But scripture doesn't stop there, it says lots of practical things about how we handle our money.

Tomorrow we will talk about basic practical steps that scripture teaches us about money. But I wanted to talk first about how our heart is connected to our money. And if we have an attitude of "I will do what I want cause its mine" this is the same rebellious heart that spawns other sin issues.