Stimulus Checks

Stimulus checks are coming out or have come out for some people. It's hard to say what to do with them. The wise financial moves would be to pay down debt and invest for retirement however those are the best long term choices and might not help you in the short term. In order here is what I would do with the money:

1. Tithe: Not only is tithing the right thing to do but when your money isn't going as far the church isn't getting as much and what they have isn't going as far.
2. Pay Off Debt: If you have a loan which is less than or equal to your stimulus check amount rid your self of that debt. It's always good to reduce the number of debts you have so if you can eliminate one do that then put the payment towards one of your other loans. A married couple who gets a $1200 dollar check could and has six months left on there car loan can break free of that debt.
3. Pay Down Debt: If you don't happen to have debt equal or less than your stimulus check pay down your highest interest debt. If you have a 5 year car loan and drop an extra $1200 on it you will save a few hundred dollars in interest and pay the debt off a few months early. Once you get it paid off early start paying down your other debt, saving it for a future purchase (a new car, house, college, retirement).
4. Buy Groceries: Kroger is giving a 10% bonus on stimulus checks. You could turn $300 into $330. That's a pretty good short term deal for any family. I like to see a savings above 25% on the receipt when I go grocery shopping, this 10% should easily bump me into the 35% category. I wouldn't get a gift card above the $300 threshold but it sounds like a good deal. Sears, Radio Shack and a few others have similar deals but groceries are a better bet.
5. Save: Stocks are down so now is a good time to invest. Put it into your retirement account (Roth IRA, IRA, etc) your kids college fund (529).
6. Build and Emergency Fund: Build up your rainy day fund so if you need a new car you don't have to go into debt to buy one.
7. Green up your house: Buy an energy efficient water heater, an energy efficient heater, CFLs, a new AC, more insulation, whatever it takes to green up your house and save you few dollars off your monthly bill.

The first 7 items saved you money in one way or another. Either by paying less interest, earning more interest, or paying less on bills. The next few items have no monetary return.

1. Stimulate the Economy: If have no debt and have your 401k set to max out your company match, you are going to max out your Roth IRA contributions and have an emergency fund why not have a little fun. If you are going to have fun remember to negotiate as i mentioned companies (including hotels) are giving away incentives for spending your check with them. If you want to go someplace that doesn't already have an incentive set up ask for one.
2. Give it all away: If you have done everything above or just don't need to spend money on yourself donate it to charity. I like local food banks and Lutheran World Relief (they have low overhead so 93% (corrected see comment) of your money goes to good causes not the office).

The Things We Do

A key part of a successful men's ministry is fun and excitement. The Men at my church do three things that cause a few ripples. We run most of the events on our own as a group of men not a men's ministry from the church.

1) Halo 3 Game Night- Halo 3 is a first person shooter for the Xbox 360. The first time we held a game night we had a crowd of around 50 people. We played Halo, Euchre, Poker, Wii, and ate pizza. Most of the men that came weren't regularly involved in the men's ministry and we saw a great number of new faces all because we brought guys in to do what they enjoy doing only on bigger screens. This is the one event we announce on Sunday mornings.

2) Knob Creek day trip - We make a stop by the Patton Museum then head over to the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot. $30 gets you 3 rounds on a M203 grenade launcher. Any even that involves an RPD (pictured) is bound to bring up a great deal of questions. A day at the gun shoot is the equalizer among men, it brings them back to their Boy Scout days and shows them that Christian men still have fun.

3) It's Not About Brew - This is our Men's Bible Study, cook out, outreach and beer tasting. It all started with a He'brew and a Ale Mary and a Holy Grail Ale soon I discovered other beers and decided to hold a themed bible study. Over 80% of men drink, including most of the men at church. We combine scripture and beer into one fun evening that shows Christian men aren't stuffy and rigid.

Most likely we've offended some people, we've caused some angry letters to the pastor but we've drawn men into the church. We plan these activities to bring men in and grow men in faith. Going in we know there will be problems with what others think. We don't want to not care that we offend others but we also know guns, games and beer aren't banished when we become Christians.
The normal reason for offense is "because Christians shouldn't [play 1st person shooters, shoot guns, drink beer]." Their beliefs comes from what they believe Christians believe. In other words they think Christianity teaches people not to [play 1st person shooters, shoot guns, drink beer] so to be a good Christian they react. To be fair I need to say some people have legitimate reasons to avoid any of these activities, I wouldn't want a recovering alcoholic at it's not about brew, the tea version which works with Petra's Coloring Song or Salvation Bracelets.

If you are ever in town stop by for an Augustiner Bräu so we can have a reason to talk about Augustine.

Money Plan

I don't like budgets; they don't work, or at least don't work right. Instead of budgets I prefer money plans or spending plans. A budget breaks expenditures down by category while a money plan tracks expenditures in order of necessity. For instance a budget will lump lawn care into the housing category and the money plan will put housing at the top of the chart and lawn care in the important but not necessary category or even the somewhat important category. This makes it easier to track and cut spending as your cost of living and life stage change. A Money plan tells you where your money is going not where it can go, this gives you a more realistic view of your financial health.
Take a Look at the sample money plan so it will be easier to understand my explanations and see how a money plan works. After the explanations I'll swing back through and explain some of the items.


First let's take a look at the columns:

• Items - This Column tells you what money is being spent on. These items are the same that appear in a standard budget.
  
• Obligated Consistent Bills - The first type of expenditure is the obligated consistent bill. These bills are the same dollar amount every month and are bond by a contract or obligation. For example you can't stop paying your mortgage without defaulting on your loan and you can't end your cellphone contract without paying an early termination fee.
  
• Obligated Changing Bills - Like the first type of bills these carry an obligation but they don't have a consistent cost associated with them. The three big ones are Water (including sewer), electricity and gas. Unlike a cellphone these don't have contracts but you can't cancel the service or just stop paying for it when you don't want it.
  
• Other Bills - These are voluntary bills that have no contract or obligation, they can be ended or emended easily. There aren't many other bills. Some internet service is obligation free, it can be canceled with a phone call. No contract cellphone plans fall into the other bill category.
  
• Non-Bills - Everything that isn't a bill belongs in this column, these items generally don't have a consistent price and almost never have a contract or obligation.
  
• Extra Expense - Many people have extra expenses when they have the money. These expenses can be frivolous (an extra book) or wise (extra mortgage payments). Frivolous and wise extra expenses can be illuminated just like non-bills but they are frequently attached to bills. Rarely will an item reside only in the extra expense category it is usually accompanied by a bill or a non-bill.
  
• Explanation of Extra Expense - You have to track why you are tossing on extra $50.00 into the grocery category.

Some items can appear in different columns depending on how you handle the expense. If you have a standard 2 year cellphone plan it is an obligated consistent expense; at the end of two years when your contract expires your cellphone expense can move to the other bills category because you can cancel at anytime without paying a fee.
For those of you keeping score at home you realized I skipped the first column; categories. The Categories are the top down framework that holds the items and determines their value.

• Necessary - These category is for items that are 100% necessary. If you were forced to give up these items your life would be negatively affected. This is a fairly static list; you need a place to live so you will have rent or a mortgage, like wise you need to have insurance, electricity and water; you can't escape those expenses. You need to eat so food goes up here so does health insurance and car expenses (most people need a car to make a living). The necessary category is the last category you would cut if you ran into financial trouble.
  
• Very Important - These items aren't 100% necessary but it would be hard to maintain my lifestyle without them. Under extreme circumstances you could cut these expenses.
  
• Important - Things that are good to have but aren't the important. I could go several years before a new shirt become necessary but it's nice to get a new shirt on occasion. A shirt is more than a luxury because you need to be dressed to go to work.
  
• Luxury - Luxuries are items you don't need but you like to have. When hard times hit they are the first to get cut.
  
• Targeted Savings - This category is a type of savings specifically targeted to replacing necessary items. This category is used to track money used to replace major purchases after their life cycle. A $500 dishwasher should last 10 years (120 months) when you buy your first dishwasher start putting an extra $4.17 into a savings account each month so when your dishwasher needs replaced in 10 years you already have the money set aside.
  ING is a great place to go for a high yield, no fee savings account that allows set up sub accounts to easily track targeted savings.
  
• Investments - It's always a good idea to save for retirement, have life insurance and disability insurance. This category is used to track any money that goes into investments.
  

Here is what is nice about the money plan. I can quickly look at it and tell you where you can trim expenses. I don't have to wade through and figure out what portion of my grocery bill I can cut. In this example we can easily and quickly eliminate $430 of monthly spending, that's over $5,000 for the year. The preplanned ability reduces the amount of turmoil when hard times do hit.
The money plan also shows you what your minimum income must be in order to make ends meet. It also encourages saving and wise money habits.

Changes

I graduated college three years ago where it was my job to think, a job that I loved. I had the freedom to debate, read, and learn all day long, life in college was exactly what I made of it. A few months after college I was making decisions and completing tasks as part of a Fortune 500 company. Less than a year after that I was working on the financial side of the same company where every action I took had a direct impact on my companies (and other companies) financial records. It was a far cry from studying Christology under Dr. Bonds, Hebrews under Dr Schenck and Worship under Keith Drury.

This winter the project I was working on came to an end so I was laid off and was hired as an  Administrator / Bookkeeper at MorningStar Restoration. (Shameless plug: If your roof has storm damage or if you need a new roof and are in the Indianapolis, Indiana, Atlanta, Georgia, or Springfield Missouri areas give us a call.)
I'm sharing all of this because as I've reread through my posts these past few weeks I've realized I still usually write for the ministerial audience. While I think my outsiders perspective gives me some unique and useful views, much of my writing is now outside my daily scoop of work and thought. I'm going to give in and write more about what I know, this doesn't mean I'm going to stop writing about the church it means I'm going to be writing more about the practical business and life of a Christian. This will involve writing about finance, Christian business, and I'll be sharing my thoughts about men's ministry as I work closely with that ministry at church.

I hope to write for the audience I encounter in during my day at work and time at church. I hope to write practically for the church going audience. I'll still write some to the pastoral audience but my main focus is going to be the people who make up the life of the church.

 

Prayer Request Policy

To whom it may concern:

 

Effective 4/2/2008 I will no longer be accepting 3rd party prayer requests. In order for me to receive a prayer request the request must be presented by the effected party in person. This new rule is being put in place to reduce the spread of gossip through prayer requests I receive.

 

Thank you for you help in this matter,

 

-Kurt