Beware of your habits

Beware of your Habits If you live in the C.S.R.A, and watch the news, you may have heard that Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's will be opening stores up in Augusta, GA.  Now I enjoy the outdoors some and learned a lot about how to spend more than I made at theses places with their catalogs in the past! When I heard the news about the physical locations coming to Augusta, I thought wow that will be better if I ever need to buy anything from them I can just go by and pick it up.  It made me ask the question do I spend more when I buy online or when I am at a store.  Also, do I spend more when I use a debit card or cash?  How about you, which one of these situations cause you to spend more?  I tend to spend more when I shop online and use a debit card.  Think about it, there is no feeling of "loss of money" when you use a debit card, or a credit card if you use one,  and buy online.  The merchandise comes days later when you shop online and no cash is missing from you instantly.  Oh and I remember the thrill I would get when there was a package at the front door when I got home from work!! We can also get addicted to that feeling and this will cause us to spend more too. When we spend cash they say your brain registers it as pain when we hand our cash over.  I believe this is true because it hurts when you break a 100 dollar bill!  Also, statistics show that we spend 18% more when we use a debit card or credit card.  I have told this lie to myself before, I will pay off the credit card when the bill comes in.  Most people never pay them off when the bill comes in, and credit card companies knows this.   Marketers and creditors are sharp!  Retail stores make it as easy as possible for us to pay them.  In some places all you have to do is wave your card  or your cell phone to pay.  These things make us think we dont spend as much as when using a card.     If I go to a store with a certain amount to spend I will look and shop till I get my price, then I spend that amount, and I am done.  If I am shopping online I tell myself, I cannot just order one thing and pay all that shipping for one item, why not buy this other thing to make it worth the time.  We need to ask ourselves these questions; what causes me to spend more?  What do I need to do to stick to my budgeted amounts? If people can make monthly payments they can make payments to their savings accounts and pay cash for things.  Remember children do what feels good and adults devise a plan(budget) and follow it.   Another thing that will help you is to not use a credit card and use a debit card instead.  You are forced to keep up with your balance verses a credit card.  So get your plan ready for back to school shopping and the other things for the last half of the year. Remember to check your habits.  Quotes for thought: Give yourself to prayer, to reading and meditation on divine truths: strive to penetrate to the bottom of them and never be content with a superficial knowledge. David Brainerd America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation. ~ Dr. Laurence J. Peter The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money." Alexis de Tocqueville, (1805-1859) There is not a lot you can do about the national economy but there's a lot you can do about your personal economy. - Zig Ziglar

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Challenge to change

Challenge to Change
    We have all heard the saying, if you want a different result you need to do something different to get it.  That is very true, but it is not comfortable.  If you want to lose weight, you have to change your eating and exercise habits.  I can give you a few pointers on those things but I will just stick with your personal finance. If you are tired of the same pattern your life is in, try a couple of quick changes and stick to them.  If they are not working change them.  I will issue you a budget challenge, a debt challenge and a saving challenge.  Pick an area that you want to work on and dive in.  Here they go-
1. Budget Challenge- If you dont live on a written budget every month this may be for you.  First list all of your expenses, debts, bills, hobbies etc.  List them in order of importance. (Hint-Food, clothing, shelter, Transportation and utilities most important.)  Set the amounts you need to spend and make sure you stick to them.  Remember this concept that the government cannot, you cannot spend more money than you make.  When you have spent every dollar you made, on paper, you  are finished.  If you come up short you have to either make more money or cut some categories. Download a budget here if you like.

2. Debt Challenge- Maybe you are on a budget and you have been on cruse control for the summer and have not attacked your debts the way you like.  List all of your debts smallest to largest, squeeze all of the money you can out of the budget and attack the smallest debt like ants at a picnic!!  To give yourself a little motivation add up all of your non- mortgage monthly debt payments and see how much you could be keeping yourself instead of sending it to others.  Once you are good and mad throw everything you can at the smallest debt and start knocking it out.  Remember debt robs you of the ability to build wealth.  Visa has a plan for your money make your plan better than theirs. 

3. Saving- With school coming up in less than a month, and the holidays around the corner, you will need to buy things.  The best purchase plan is to pay for it and be done.  You cannot wait until you make more money to save because you will always spend it before it gets in the savings account.  Put your savings in your budget first and pay yourself first.  Determine what you will need to have for what ever you are saving for and sacrifice to get there.  The holidays are much more fun when they are paid for!!

Let me know if you have any questions.  Also let me know how you do, it helps to here the successes of others who have the same struggles.  It is encouraging!!

Tim West
706-840-0992

Quotes to think about:

"You can't build a reputation on what you're GOING to do."  Henry Ford

  

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor people perfected without trials.

  

We cannot start over, but we can begin now, and make a new beginning"  Zig Ziglar 

  

When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane. Stephen Wright

Its Time To Act

Its time to act I recently read a blog from Kevin Miller titled You'll get what you expect.  Everything I read I try to understand what they are saying and see how can I apply it to my life.  I often hope for these things but dont necessarily expect them. When we do this we usually take no action and get what we expect, nothing.  Lets apply this to our finances.  We live in the most prosperous country in history.  God has richly blessed us with His material possessions and we do not manage them the best that we could.  As in the blog from Kevin Miller   we get pretty much what we expect. We expect to have a lot of things because we see others around us have a lot of things.  Therefore we manage our finances in a way that gets us a lot of things but leaves us running on the edge with our money.  My pastor, Brian Fields told us in a sermon that 1/3 of the people that made at least six figures, said they could agree with the statement, I make enough to meet my needs.  If you dont make six figures you may be thinking that's impossible you can have anything you want with that kind of money!  We do it everyday with what ever amount of money we make.  If you dont have a plan for your money the credit card companies do and that is why we run short meeting our needs.  The average income for a family in America is 40,000.00 per year.  Over a 30 year working span that is 1.2 million going through your hands. Tell it where to go before you get it each pay check.  By the way if you make 100,000.00 that would be 3 million you would get.  Notice neither one of these figures got a raise over the 30 years!  So how do we act to get what we expect?  Determine why you want to get your finances in order and then learn what to do. You must expect to reach your goals because that will determine what you do.  If you expect you cannot get out of debt and save money, guess what you will stay in debt buying stuff to make you "happy" and not  be able to save.  You have to make it a point to spend less than you make and pay yourself, or save.  So in short act like you should to get the expectations you want. Create a budget, start saving, pay off your debt, and live on less than what you make.  We must do these things over our life time. You cannot do them for a few months and go back to your old way. You must make a decision to do it and stay with the plan.  Let me know if I can help you. Go to my resources page and down load a free budget to get you started. Something to think on this week: Money is the lowest form of prosperity.  We must learn to turn money into wealth. Wade Trimmer Good Quotes:   "Life is like a ten-speed bicycle....Most of us have gears that we never use."  Charlie Brown in Peanuts   "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." - Henry Ford   "Growth demands a temporary surrender of security."  -- Gail Sheehy - Passages Religion gives you advice on how to make amends with God.  The gospel is news that God has done something to make us right with Him.  Kenny Thacker

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