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What is your status symbol?
2007-10-11 21:22:31
According to Wikipedia, a status symbol will differ between countries, based on the states of their economic and technological development, and common status symbols will change over time. For example, before the invention of the printing press, having a  large collection of books would be considered a status symbol. After the advent of the printing press, having books was more common among the average citizen, and the possession of books was less of a status symbol. The condition of one’s body can be a status symbol. In times past, when workers did physical labor outdoors under the sun and often had little food, being pale and fat was a status symbol, indicating wealth and prosperity… Imagine that, all the pale and fat guys sitting around with their trophy wives and piles of cash while the buff and tan guys couldn’t get a date!    The whole idea of a status symbol is fairly juvenile. I remember crying for hours because my parents couldn’t a


Chuck Feeney: Secretly giving away billions
2007-10-09 22:22:23
Oh, this is the kind of guy I like… I found this story about this billionaire named Chuck Feeney, who from what I have read about him was a great example of someone who understands that money is NOT the root of all evil. Below I have listed a few excerpts from the story I read. He wears a $15 watch, flies economy class and does not own a house or car. For years few guessed that Chuck Feeney was one of the world’s biggest philanthropists, secretly giving away his billionaire fortune. Witty, self-deprecating, frugal and astute, Feeney was listed by Forbes Magazine in 1988 as the 23rd richest American alive and worth $1.3 billion, richer than Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump. He wasn’t. Four years earlier, Feeney had placed most of his money in charitable foundations. “I had one idea that never changed in my mind that you should use your wealth to help people. I try to live a normal life, the way I grew up,” Feeney said. “I set out to work hard, not to


My Best and worst financial decisions
2007-10-07 13:35:19
As promised, the rest of the M-Network and I are posting our best and worst financial decisions. I suspect that we all have more to say about our failures, than our successes. I guess that is why we are interested in helping others avoid some of the challenges that we have faced.  My worst financial decision I decided that I was going to narrow this down to the single worst decision. If I was to make a list, there would be quite a few, and I am sure I will touch on them over time. But, for now my worst decision or group of decisions was: The way I paid for college At the time I had just about no concept of money or debt. I would have cared no more about having $80,000 or $10,000 of student loan debt. They were merely meaningless numbers to me that I didn’t face up to, because I figured I would take care of it later, when I was making the “big bucks” as a 22 year old college grad. Well, 22 came and my first “job” actually paid “small bucks” (a


The best and the worst coming up…
2007-10-05 11:01:33
Just FYI, on October 8th we, in the M-Network, are going to be sharing our best and worst financial decisions. This will be a good chance to learn from our mistakes and hopefully avoid some of them. Be sure to check it out… Related PostsMy Best and worst financial decisionsComing soon…Find the cheapest gas in townSocial Bookmarking


Do I need an Emergency Fund?
2007-10-02 22:17:26
I previously wrote about how to make more money from your emergency fund, but I decided to take a step back and explain the purpose for an emergency fund. I used to think of an emergency fund as robbing myself. It was essentially the same as paying taxes in my mind. All I knew was that money was coming out of my pocket going somewhere else. Obviously, this was completely untrue, but it was how I felt at the time. Thankfully, I learned how beneficial an emergency fund is to my long-term financial well being. If you had a $500 unexpected expense come up right now, how would you pay for it? If you could come up with the money and NOT have to use a credit card, you are doing much better than most Americans. Life happens, and unexpected expenses are to be EXPECTED. If you prepare for them you will be able to better avoid a financial crisis, if not, that is what they call “learning the hard way.” Lets say (for sake of discussion) that emergencies happen, on average, once every ye
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Is God bad at Math?
2007-09-30 22:22:06
I was just reading the comments from Forbes 400 Richest Americans and Jason Dean brought up a good point about giving: Warren Buffett gave very little (relatively speaking, of course) to charity until his recent huge gift to the Gates Foundation. His rationale was that he could grow his money more effectively if he held on to it, thus making for a larger (eventual) gift. He was right. So in a way, it could be argued that Bill Gates is making a mistake by giving so much to charity at this stage in his life. Perhaps his wealth could be better served creating more jobs and more wealth through investment, compounding his massive wealth, for an eventual mammoth gift at an older age, like Buffett. Mathematically, I agree completely - If you have $10,000 now, you could give it or you could invest it for 30 years (at 11%) and have over $250,000 to give. I read that Benjamin Franklin did something similar by creating trusts that kept his money invested for decades after he died to keep growing.


What stays the same?
2007-09-28 16:04:16
I found this video today - it drives home the point that lifelong learning is a must for all of us and that change really is the only thing that stays the same. It is about 6 minutes long - I think it would be a good use of 6 minutes… Related PostsMoney in the BibleSocial Bookmarking


What to do with a raise
2007-09-26 21:58:22
Well, I think everyone KNOWS what to do with a raise , but the challenge is DOING it (My definition of personal finance is DOING what you KNOW you should DO). Personal finance is 80% doing and 20% knowing. Just incase you don’t know what to do with a raise, here are a few ideas… Don’t spend your raise… until you get it. I can’t even count how many times I have received the news of getting a raise and started spending the extra money before I saw it on a paycheck. Inevitably I would spend more than I actually was getting and when it showed up on my paycheck I would be upset because I spent more than the raise was. By waiting until I actually saw the money in my paycheck, I could enjoy the raise, rather than just watching it go out the door to cover my purchases I made the 2 prior weeks. Expenses rise to meet income, and naturally we find a way fill the gap between expenses and income. This is why you need to make a plan i


We have a winner!
2007-09-24 18:07:32
Doughroller was the winner of the MONEY magazine subscription contest. He will receive a one year subscription to MONEY magazine. Thanks to everyone who entered and better luck next time. :)   Related PostsNo related postsSocial Bookmarking


Forbes 400 Richest Americans
2007-09-23 22:05:44
Bill Gates is still America’s richest man Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans was just recently released, and was topped by Bill Gates. Second was none other than my favorite billionaire Warren Buffett.  This is the first year that you need over a billion to get on the list. In fact, the lowest on the “400 totem pole” had a net worth of $1.3 billion, up $300 million from last year. I was pleased to hear a few months back that Warren Buffett had announced that he would be giving away the vast majority of his wealth to Bill Gates charity. From what I have read Bill Gates is very generous as well. It is so good to see that the two richest Americans are actively trying to make the world a better place by giving. This just goes to show that money is NOT the root of all evil. It is the LOVE of money that is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10) and people who are motivated by a calling or by a cause often aren’t concerned with money. We make


Should A Christian Have A Credit Card?
2007-10-16 00:09:13
This is a guest post from Linda Bustos and I think it ties in a bit with what I have been talking about recently with status symbols… Credit cards may be a more recent phenomenon, but the concept of borrowing from others goes back a long time. The Bible mentions borrowing and lending many times, but credit cards are never explicitly covered because, well, they didn’t exist. We know the Bible teaches it’s wise to avoiddebt whenever possible, but it doesn’t call borrowing money a sin. Certainly for the poor (whom God loves) there were times when they had to borrow from others, and there may be situations when we do need to whip out the plastic and borrow from the bank. But it’s so easy to misuse credit cards and fall into a debt trap. Because that piece of plastic looks the same whether it has $50 or $15,000 owing – we can forget how much we’ve spent in a given month, or we could just flat out go crazy on a spending binge figuring it can just be paid off later. Rea
Read more: Christian , Credit Card

My other status symbol
2007-10-14 16:23:32
I just was reminded of another status symbol I had when I was about 12 years old. This is bad. I was in a materialistic phase of my life and I would only wear Polo brand shirts when I went out with my friends. The problem was I only had two Polo shirts and about no money to purchase more. So, I literally rotated those two shirts every weekend when I went out with my friends, and before long I started to get made fun of for wearing the same clothes over and over. Lucky for me, I didn’t have access to more money to feed this obsession. Many people are not so lucky. Related PostsWhat is your status symbol?Open a high yielding savings accountShould A Christian Have A Credit Card?


Does swearing in the workplace benefit morale?
2007-10-20 11:52:10
Recently there was a survey completed by the Norwich Business School that suggests that, “Allowing staff to swear at work can benefit them and their employers,” and that, “regular use of profanity… (would) reinforce solidarity among staff, enabling them to express their feelings, such as frustration, and develop social relationships.” I used to take pride in my extensive knowledge and creative use of swear words. I have since cleaned up my mouth because I believe God is pleased by it. After all, The bible says that we have to give an account for every idle word that we speak on the day of judgement (Matt 12:36). However, from my early day of swearing I can understand what the study is referring to when it mentions “solidarity.” I used to feel bonded to others who swore a lot. It was, at the time, a means of determining whether or not I wanted to hang out with the person. People who didn’t swear seeme


Buying a wedding ring from Amazon.com
2007-10-17 17:37:21
I bought my wife’s engagement ring from Amazon .com and I learned a few things in the process… Pros of buying a wedding ring from Amazon.com When I began shopping for my wife’s engagement ring, I started browsing “traditional” jewelry stores to get a ballpark figure of what the ring I wanted was going to cost me. Like most other purchases I make, I did my homework and learned about the four C’s (color, cut, clarity, carat) so that I could make an educated buying decision. All of the “traditional” stores seemed to be within a few hundred dollars of each other for similar diamonds. And this ballpark figure was tending to be higher than I was looking to spend. Coincidentally, I stumbled upon the Amazon.com Jewelry Store when I happened to be in the market. I explored the site and studied the return policy. Once I felt comfortable that I would have no problem returning the ring if I wasn’t satisfied, I began actually looking at the ring
Read more: Buying

Budgeting is like baking cookies
2007-10-24 21:23:08
For some reason the word “budget” has an interesting effect on most people causing them to cringe in pain more than the thought of going to the dentist. It really shouldn’t be as painful as people make it seem. If done correctly, it should give you MORE freedom to get what you want. If you think of a budget as a plan “that takes away all the fun” or eliminates your ability to get things you want, then you are doing it wrong. A budget is no more than “measured spending.” I think it is a lot like baking cookies. Just like cookies, to make the perfect batch you have to follow a recipe and measure each ingredient. Of course you can improvise a little bit, but each slight variation changes the outcome of the cookies and can take a great recipe and make it mediocre, or a decent recipe and make it great. Budgeting is not like cookies without sugar Most people seem to think of budgeting as baking cookies without sugar or chocolate chips. To me chocola


The Best of Everything in 2007
2007-10-22 23:04:56
Kiplinger’s just came out with their best list of 2007. In it they cover a wide range of services and products they have ranked. Here are a few that stood out to me… Best Checking account -ING Direct No surprise to me. If you have been a reader for any length of time, you will probably know how I budget with ING and how I am a strong supporter of their products. Kiplinger’s mentions the 3.5% rate that ING pays on their checking, the free bill pay service they offer, the no minimum balance, the no fees, and how ING will send e-checks for you free of charge. They have a great thing going - if decide to open an account they will pay you $25 if you contact me first, so I can send you an invitation. Best All-Around Retirement Account - Roth IRA I understand why they think this. The ROTH IRA has become the default retirement account for most people. After contributing enough to get the full match from your 401k or 403b, this is generally the next step to building your reti
Read more: Everything

Can a Camel fit through a Needle?
2007-10-28 21:36:59
I just read a post on FreeMoneyFinance this morning (he posts about a Money in the Bible every Sunday) about the famous Matthew 19 verse where Jesus says it is,”easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” This is a verse that is so frequently taken out of context, especially by people who have never opened a Bible. FMF lays out a great explanation of the verse by providing the whole passage and looking at it in context. And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Then he said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS; HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER; and YOU
Read more: Camel , Needle

How to save time on your PC - Part Two
2007-11-01 23:28:27
This is the second entry of a series I am doing about How to save time on your PC. These are a few of the ways that I try to shave off minutes or even hours of wasted time on my computer each month. The purpose of the following is to make sure the most frequently used items take the least amount of time to open, and the least frequently used items take the most. It is a simple concept, but I have seen very few people take advantage of the tools that will help accomplish this. Save time with The Quick Launch Bar Being on my computer as much as I am, I try to speed up as many processes as I can. The quick launch bar is normally directly to the right of the START button. I use the quick launch for all of my most frequently used bookmarks and programs. The thing I love about the quick launch bar is that it requires no additional mouse clicks to reach what I am looking for. The programs listed in it are never more than one click away. I only put very frequently used program
Read more: Part Two

How to save time on your PC - Part One
2007-10-30 22:16:20
This is the first entry of a new series I am doing about How to save time on your PC. These are a few of the ways that I try to shave off minutes or even hours of wasted time on my computer each month. Everyone loves to say, “Time is money,” but time is NOT money. Everyone has the same amount of time, but (if you haven’t noticed) not the same amount of money. It is what you do with your time that determines the amount of money that you have. With any given hour we have the choice of watching TV, exercising, learning about something new, developing a skill, or anything else we can think of. I enjoy finding ways to minimize wasted time, so I can have more time for the things I love. Quick Keyboard Shortcuts to save time You can use the Windows key +D to minimize all the open windows and quickly return to the Windows desktop. Pressing Windows +D again will restore all windows to their previous location. For many PC products (I use this for Excel, Wo


6 Tips for a Debt Free Christmas
2007-11-07 21:28:04
Start Saving Early Duh. That is SO common-sense. Well, it is. But for some reason, I used to be surprised year after year at how hard Christmas hit my wallet. We know its coming. It is the same day every year. We can’t run from it, so you might as well save up for it. Sometimes these simple things take a while to sink in to my skull, but I finally figured out that by saving up for it, I was a lot more likely to stay out of debt. Often times it is the simple things that have the biggest positive impacts on our finances. It is mid-November. Let’s start saving. Create a budget for how much you will spend Why after every Christmas are most people looking at huge credit card bills wondering, “Where did all that money go?” It is no different than any other area of our lives, if we don’t have a leash on it - it will be out of our control. Think of your money like your neighbor’s dog - Oh yeah, your neighbor thinks he has his dog un


How to save time on your PC - Part Four
2007-11-05 22:54:56
This is the fourth and final entry of a series I am doing about How to save time on your PC. These are a few of the ways that I try to shave off minutes or even hours of wasted time on my computer each month. Google toolbar The main reason I use Google Toolbar is for the bookmarks. It has a few other features that make it useful, but I think the best part is that my bookmarks are right at my fingertips at all times. The Google toolbar also allows you to TAG your bookmarks, rather than putting them in folders like most browsers. Tags are more versatile, because you can add multiple tags to any bookmark. Del.icio.us is another great bookmarking tool as well. Firefox Quick Search If you are a Firefox user you will have a quick search box in the top right corner. You can add all kinds of searchable websites to the list. You can search within Google, Yahoo, Ebay, Amazon, Various dictionaries, Flickr, Wikipedia and many others. Rather than going to the individual sites themselves, you can s


How to save time on your PC - Part Three
2007-11-04 09:02:57
This is the third entry of a series I am doing about How to save time on your PC. These are a few of the ways that I try to shave off minutes or even hours of wasted time on my computer each month. Manage Multiple Email addresses Lucky for you, I am going to save you the countless hours I spent trying to find a way to manage my multiple email addresses. Lets say you have a Yahoo email account and a Gmail account that you use both for different reasons. How much time could you save if you could view your email from both accounts in one place?Maybe a little, maybe a lot. But, if you have about 5 active email addresses like me you know that it is a huge time waster to have to go to 5 different accounts to view my email. Well, I tried Outlook, I tried Entourage, and I also tried Thunderbird to manage my email. Each has their own pros and cons, but what I was looking for was a way to view my email from any computer and have it all stored in one centralized location. Enter GMAIL. This may s
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Failure
2007-11-11 08:33:46
“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”-Henry Ford “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”-Sir Winston Churchill It is okay to fail. I have to tell this to myself quite often actually. I don’t like failing and I prefer to have everything “under control.” The thing is that in order to have much success, you have to have corresponding failures. I have heard it said by a Fortune 500 CEO that he can tell how likely a person is going to be successful by how the person responds to failure. The key is in the response. What happened when you fell off your bike for the first time? Did you ever try again? Or did you give it away? What about when you asked that girl out on a date and she said no? Was that it, single for life? Or did you fight past the fear of failure and get the first date with your wife? We don’t get to choose what happens to us, but we do get to choose how w


Save money on car depreciation
2007-11-15 07:25:02
Cars are terrible investments. In their most basic form, they are merely a tool to get us from A to B. In their most elaborate form they can be a “shiny” tool that gets us from A to B, but with more luxuries. But either way, they are not likely to be much of a financial benefit.  Everyone has heard that a brand new car goes down hundreds or even thousands of dollars the minute you drive it off the dealer’s lot. This is just the beginning. Over the first year some cars depreciate as much as 35%. KBB.com says that the average car loses 65% of its value in the first 5 years. Add on maintenance, repairs, interest on the loan, and insurance and you can quickly see that automobiles can have quite a large negative effect on our finances. We dump all this money into our cars and what do we have to show for it? An asset that just continues to go down in value and still becomes LESS reliable. So, if we are not likely to benefit financially from our cars, ho


10 Ways to Conserve and save Money
2007-11-13 08:08:17
In October Kiplinger’s released what they called their “Green Issue” in which they basically dedicated the entire issue to “Green” living. A buddy of mine recently asked me for a copy of an article in the issue called, “29 Ways to Conserve and Save.” So, I figured I would share it with the CPF readers as well. I picked out my 10 favorite from the article. Use compact florescent light bulbs (CFLs) instead of traditional bulbs. Kiplinger’s mentions that, “if every U.S. household replaced just one incandescent bulb with a CFL, the emissions savings would be comparable to taking three million cars off the road for a year.” Supposedly the bulbs pay for themselves (from the energy savings) over the course of a year or so. Add extra insulation to your water heater. If you have a water heater built before 2004, you can wrap it with an insulating jacket and save about $30 a year on your water heating bill. Have your furnace tuned ev
Read more: Money

The Two Safest Ways to Invest in Real Estate
2007-11-22 08:37:06
The following is a guest post written by Terry Sprouse, author of ?Fix em Up, Rent em Out: How to Start Your Own House Fix-up and Rental Business in Your Spare Time? - Find out more at Fixemup.org In my opinion, the two safest ways to get started in real estate, are: 1) buy a home, rent it, then do it again, and/or 2) buy a home, live in it 2 years, then sell it without paying any federal taxes using the “homeowner’s tax break.” Over the past six years, my wife and I have used both techniques. We have several properties that we keep as rental properties and provide us with cash flow. In addition, we also buy houses in need of repair with the intention of selling them and utilizing the “homeowners tax break” to pay no federal taxes. Turn Your Residence into a Rental Instead of Selling It A system that I like to use is to refinance my residence six months to a year before I plan to buy a new residence. This gives me enough money for a down payment on the n
Read more: Estate , Real Estate

Would Jesus have an emergency fund
2007-11-20 06:48:41
I talk a lot about the importance of having an emergency fund and how it is a necessary ingredient to a sound financial plan. But, I thought we should step back and ask the necessary question, “Would Jesus have an emergency fund?” In trying to answer this question, the first verse that came to mind was Proverbs 27:12 (NLT) ”A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.“ The whole purpose of having an emergency fund is to be prepared for when the inevitable “trials of life” hit. Christians are not exempt these trials and struggles that seem to pop up unexpectedly. This reminds me of the parable of the foolish virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. From what I can tell, the foolish virgins brought enough oil for their lamps had the bridegroom showed up on time. Well the bridegroom was probably playing football with some friends and showed up a little l


Best of - Personal finance posts
2007-11-17 22:57:57
Here are some of the best articles I have found from around the PF blogs over the last few months.   Snowflaking - An explanation of Dave Ramsey’s method of debt reduction by PaidTwice How to get a $1600 hotel for $10 - by MakeLoveNotDebt Things I’ve learned about money by not having a lot of it - by BeingFrugal Making the financial sacrifice to get what you want - by Mytwodollars Things you can do to save money and the planet - by Moolanomy Atheists should Tithe - by PlonkeeMoney The ABCDE’s of planning for debt reduction - by NoCreditNeeded I want to be rich like you - Lessons for a youngster - by singleguymoney 4 reasons to buy Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett ain’t one of them - by DoughRoller A guideline budget - How do you compare? - by GatherLittleByLittle Use the rule of 72 to understand compound interest - by GenXFinance Credit Cards for emergencies? No! - by DebtFreeRevolution 7 Things you can do to start chasing your dreams - by TheSimpleDol
Read more: Personal , finance , posts

I just saved $330 by switching to Geico
2007-11-27 23:00:05
Yep, it is true, I just switched over to Geico and saved $330 per year on my car insurance. From what I have seen of Geico so far, they appear to be very promising. But, I don’t think the truth really comes out with insurance companies until you actually have a claim. I will let you know when/if that day comes. I was with AAA before and I was deliberately paying more than the average for the sake of convenience. I knew my agent well enough that I could email her or call her directly, rather than talking to a random agent, like I will likely have to do with Geico. I try to shop around once a year for insurance rates, and for whatever reason the price gap increased since last time I checked. For the same amount of coverage $330 was a bit too much to pay for my convenience. To add to that I haven’t had good experiences with AAA anyway, so I figured it was time to make the move.  If you haven’t shopped around in a while, you may be surprised&nbs


Would Peter Lynch invest in Crocs?
2007-11-26 06:41:49
He probably wouldn’t now, but he may have 18 months ago… One up on Wall Street A few years back I read Peter Lynch ’s classic One up on Wall Street, which is a great book for any beginning invest or (as I was) to read. Lynch is arguably one of the top ten investors of all time and his success was largely based on his ability NOT to follow the crowd and looking for opportunities where others missed them. One of the points that Peter mentions in the book is that often times the biggest winners pop up around us (in the shopping mall, grocery store, etc.) and the smaller investor stumbles upon them before Wall Street ever takes notice. If the smaller investor buys into the winning stock before the Wall Street investors do - they are going to benefit greatly from being in early. As he mentions, Wall Street generally has a herd mentality so once a stock is discovered by one Wall Street firm as a good buy, it is likely that many more big firms will be buying it as well. It i
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