Avoiding the Christmas spending High

Avoiding the Christmas spending High

12-7-13

Well its Christmas time again. Wow it got here fast as usual and if you did not save throughout the year you will be hopefully working it into your budget. Here are just a few tips to help you keep within your budget and not get carried away. It is easy to get into the mindset of its Christmas everyone is spending a lot, it won’t hurt if I do also. I have done it and come January I regretted it. You do not want to be paying for Christmas when it is time to go on vacation in the summer.

Remember these things when buying a gift: 1. If the only reason you buy someone a gift is because they bought you one that is not a good reason. I know you may think it will make them mad if you don’t, but if all they wanted was to manipulate you into giving them a gift they are not much of a friend anyway. 2. Make a gift list, of who you want to buy for and how much you can spend. 3. Don’t overspend that amount! If you have a hard time determining how much to spend look back at what you spent last year. 4. Get creative, make gifts, set a smaller amount that normal and challenge others to stick to it. Remember time spent with others is the most valuable of all. Give out daddy daughter date night cards etc. 5. If you do use a credit card pay it off ASAP! Don’t let it hang around like a stray cat.

Just remember we are able to celebrate Christmas because of Christ. God gave us the gift of reconciliation with Him through Christ. Give Him thanks and love on others, that is better than any stuff we can buy!

Have a Mary Christmas!

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Money and lies part 2http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Newsletter-from-Go-West-Coaching.html?soid=1114049867846&aid=qONZlrxyNnk

Money and Lies

Money and Lies There are a lot of lies we are told to get our money.  They try to make them sound like they are giving us a service we desperately need and they will be saving us money.  I have fallen for them and so have a lot of other people.  My job is to help us to not fall for the lie again.  Here go a few of the lies we tend to believe; 1. If I co-sign a loan for a friend or relative I will help them out. This lie has hurt a lot of relationships.  It may have helped a few by getting someone out of your life that made it better! For most it has required the cosigner to pay the loan and there was a lot of damage done to the relationship.  Remember the bank requires a cosigner because they do not think that person will pay it back.  Don't cosign! Prov. 17:18 2. If I cannot afford something I will rent to own/ do a payday advance/ or title pawn my car, to get the money for what I "NEED".  Most of the time what we think we "need" could be a want. These methods of borrowing are a terrible way to get money. They charge huge interest rates and you stay in bondage to them and pay back sometimes triple as much as you borrowed. These are greedy rip-offs. Avoid them at all costs. 3. Playing the lottery can make you rich, and I am helping students. Besides someone will win why not me.   I once helped a friend clean out a foreclosure house that had 5 years left on the mortgage, with three working adults living there.  Your guessed it, they got hooked on the lottery and lost their home!  I will agree with Dave Ramsey about the lottery.  It is a tax on the poor and people who are not good at math.  Even when people do win it most of them go broke a few years later because they have not developed the character to handle it. Poor people are sending rich and middle class kids to college with their lottery money. I will agree with the commercial that you are more likely to get attacked by a grizzly bear and a polar bear in the same day than winning the lottery. 4.You are always going to have a car payment!  If you buy a used car you are just taking over someones old problems.  This is usually just a reason to justify buying a new car.  We get all hyped up on the car lot. Just remember the new car is not nearly as impressive after about six payments!  Guess what there are good used cars out there. A new car looses 50-70% of its value in the first 4 years and most people owe another year on it.  Take your time and buy a good used car, that's what most millionaires do. The average car payment is around 400.00 a month. Pay it to yourself. In stead of the bank!  I will cover more of the money lies we have bought into in next week.  Its always better for us as consumers to save up and pay cash for things we want.  I know we have to wait longer sometimes but it builds the muscle of discipline and keeps us from wasting as much money than when we borrow. I am not saying dont by things and just come out of the house on triple coupon Thursday. Be wise and a good steward.   Think about this- we deposit 1000.00 in the bank in a savings account and earn less that 1% interest.  We get a credit card from the same bank with our $1000.00 in it and they loan it back to us in the form of a credit card at 14-20%.  Not bad, for them!  Thank you for reading and let me know if you have any questions I can help you with. Quotes to think about: A man in debt is so far a slave. Ralph Waldo Emerson The rich rules over the poor, and borrower is slave to the lender.  Proverbs 22:7 A church debt is the devil's salary. Henry Ward Beecher "It's only too late if you don't start now" -- Barbara Sher

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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
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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