Why and What

What and why

     In dealing with people and their finances I not only teach them what to do with their money, but we have to understand why they got to this place financially. Everyone usually starts out thinking that they are broke because they don’t make enough or that one certain circumstance caused them to get behind and stay there.  Some times this is true, but not always.  If a person can add and subtract they have the head knowledge to know when to stop spending.  If financial problems were just a math issue we would never spend more than we have.  Personal finance is more behavior than head knowledge.  There is usually a behavioral reason as to why we spend more than we make other than just not paying attention or bad luck. Although paying attention is part of it, we also may be trying to cover up an inward problem or a possible addiction.  We try to treat the problem with spending money to make us feel good.   Financial problems show up, a lot of the times, just a symptom of the real problem. Our financial problems can point to the real issue when we unpack everything.  Bankruptcy attorneys tell us that filing bankruptcy will solve our problems.  Bankruptcy just treats the symptoms and never changes the spending habits we have developed that cause the problems.     Once you determine why you are having financial problems, and why you want to get out, you can determine what to do to fix the problem.  Money, or the lack of it, can get your emotions in high gear.  We are created to use our mind as well as our emotions to get our finances under control.  It takes head knowledge and emotional passion to change your life to go in the direction you want it to go.  Can you imagine your life being debt free and having 3-6 months of living expenses in an emergency savings account?  If this sounds good to you, start to change your life by finding out- why you are where you are at financially,- and why you need to change.  These answers will tell you what you need to do. Let me know if I can help you with your plan! 

     Let me know if I can help!

Tim West

Go West Coaching 6-30-13

Building a life or building a prison.

Building a life or building a prison

    I have always heard if you want total security, food, clothing, and shelter that prison is the best place to find these things. You will never have to worry missing out on these things in prison.  You will get them daily.   Our default mode in life is usually “play it safe” for ourselves and our families. In football they call it the prevent defense. It usually keeps teams from winning.   We always have that dream of what we want and we compare it with the reality of where we are at in our lives.  When reality does not measure up with our dreams we get discouraged at where we are at in life.  We may be comfortable but it is not quiet our dream so we get settled where we are at and determine to keep that status. The longer we stay the same in life and put off our dreams and desires, the more valuable settling where we are at gets.    We listen to ourselves and others and in the name of responsible and reasonable and we determine that chasing a dream is foolish.   Once this thought settles in, we protect what we do have and say this is great and we build the walls around that to keep us in and set up a prison we were not intended for.  We will choose to do things that keep the status quo whether we realize it or not. We do this all to keep everything the same and strengthen the walls of our custom built prison.   If this is not your dream then begin to act on where God is moving you. He is usually moving you to help people in His name and He gives us dreams and desires for direction.  Remember we are here to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.  It hard to have true joy in prison, I would think.  Watch out who you associate with also because a lot of people don’t want you to succeed and be happy.   If you hang out with people who limp you will eventually develop a limp yourself.  You may ask “what if I fail?” You will, but don’t make failure permanent.  Failure is life’s way of adjusting your path and getting you back on track.  And remember it will not happen as quickly as you like.  It’s all part of the adventure.  So begin to act and open the cell door also feel free to mess up, because you will. If you don’t mess up you are not doing something right!  So dream, enjoy, and remember to build a life not a prison.

     Let me know if I can help!

Tim West

Go West Coaching 6-20-13

Saving just start somewhere

Saving – just start somewhere

 We don’t save like we use to for many different reasons. Here are a few statistics to help show where we are as a nation: 38% of American adults have an emergency fund. 41% save something regularly, $ 35,000 is the average amount saved for retirement in America. Out of people who do save for retirement only 18% feel they have enough saved when they do retire.  Now I can try to make you feel bad and list all of the other countries that do better at savings than us, or tell you how the generations past always saved better than we save.  Or I can fill you with fear, doom and gloom to scare you into saving more, but you can watch the news or go online and get that.  I don’t want to beat people up, it never works, I just want you to start somewhere so you don’t have to depend on someone else when you need money. We will all have financial emergencies in our life; saving helps us have a plan for them.  I have had one for the last three months and figured out I need to save more! (I am not perfect; I hope I don’t try to sound like I am.)  Let’s identify what keeps us in America from saving more besides being taxed more.  The more we make the more we spend. The first thing we think when we make more money in America is what can I buy next?  We are endlessly advertised to by T.V., radio, internet, magazines, billboards, mail, cars wrapped with ads, clothes, and everything else.  All of the advertisements tend to make us feel like we are lacking something and their product will fill that void and we spend our hard earned money on the product.  Once we have it we will find out that that thing is not the thing to fix our lives and make us happy forever and we look for something else to buy to fill that void. We can stay in this cycle for decades and spend what we could have saved and retire or enjoy life more. Basically we turn these things into idols, and an idol is something we look to, to bring us joy and satisfaction. We make it an ultimate thing. Be careful that we do not make an idol with money also. Money is a tool, not a god.  Enjoy your stuff don’t look for it you make you eternally happy.  Another problem is that we are in a microwave society, we want it and we want it now.  We are used to getting what we want instantly from, cooking to information.  If there is something we don’t know we Google it with our phones.  How many of you remember waiting for an hour or two while one of your brothers or sisters was on the phone!?  I was the younger one and had the joy of bothering my sister while she was on the phone.  A whole generation will miss out because everyone has a phone now! So, don’t panic they make more than one of the things you want and you will have time to buy it!  The next reason we spend and don’t save is because we want to keep up with everyone else buying stuff.  We are always trying to impress people we may never see again, or don’t even like.   Also, it is easier to spend more when we do not use cash.  I myself can keep hitting the “add” to cart button while online shopping and not realize how full the cart is when checking out on Amazon! Use cash when possible and set an amount in your budget when you are shopping.  Lastly don’t get to the point where you think you are too far gone that you say, what is the use of keeping up with what you spend, there is no hope, just enjoy life. Usually there is a lot more life left when we think this way and guess what, it requires money!  Don’t give up hope.  There is always hope because you can start doing things differently with a plan for your money.  Not everyone can save 10-20% with their each pay check.  Don’t panic, start somewhere whether it is $5 a week or a $100 a week.  Get in the habit of paying yourself first before paying others and budget some blow money so you can buy some stuff for fun! 

     Let me know if I can help!

Tim West

Go West Coaching 6-9-13

How far would you be now?

How far would you be now?

Do you remember when you were a kid and someone told you to go do something and you got half way to your destination and they called you back and asked you; I wonder how far you would be now if you didn’t turn around? Do you notice how we often do the same thing to ourselves by not doing what we set out to do originally?  We usually have an idea of where we want to go, or where we would like to be at certain stages of our life.  Things in life happen that “call us back” and ask us where we would be now if we continued on.  I remembered when I turned 41 and woke up that morning and realized my house would have been paid for if I had got a 15 year mortgage!  But we cannot stay in those places mentally because we will never get to a destination worth going to if we live in regret. I heard one time that if we are depressed we are living in the past, and if we are anxious we are living in the future.  When we do either one of these we sacrifice the life we have now and it drains our energy for the future.  How about I issue us a challenge this Memorial day?  A lot of our fellow Americans gave it all so we could go where we planned without regret and help our country and glorify God with the blessings He gave us to subdue the earth.  Determine what you want to do, weather it is lose weight, get out of debt, get in shape, run a marathon or start a new career or business.  If you stay in the thinking about it or the planning mode without executing you will ask years from now where would I be if I followed through with that idea?  If you are afraid of failure embrace it, the bigger you fail it usually means the bigger the payoff will be.  I would rather fail at an endeavor than to never try and wonder where I would be if I had tried. I am glad our veterans didn’t quit because there is no telling where or who we would be now. Let’s not listen to that voice that calls us back because it is just going to ask; how far would you be now?

     Let me know if I can help!

Tim West

Go West Coaching 5-27-13

Tithing, offering and giving part 2-what is the right amount?

Tithing, offering and giving part 2

Last week we learned the difference between tithing, offering and giving.  Tithing is the giving of 10% of your income to your local church that you are a member of.  Offering was that which is presented in divine service; an animal or a portion of bread or corn, or of gold and silver, or other valuable articles, presented to God as an atonement for sin, or as a return of thanks for his favors, or for other religious purpose; a sacrifice.  Giving is the bestowing of money, time or something of value to you to someone else in need.  I will try to answer, in this blog, how much we should give to God.  As Christians we want to be obedient to God and honor Him.  We humans love to have rules, because we feel like we are doing what is good and acceptable to God when we follow them. We also set up an unwritten rule that God likes you more when you follow all of the rules.  This is our default mode, to follow the rules better than others and make God smile at me more than you.  There is probably not an area in our lives that we do not do this, but I will talk about the money part.  First the idea that we give God money is insane. It’s His money, which he gave us the intelligence, ability and resources to acquire and manage it for Him.  God needs nothing, He is self-sustaining. God needs nothing from us, but He lets us give, because He is a giver and made us in His image. When we are giving it gives us a break from thinking about ourselves.    Also as far as the rules are concerned Jesus fixed that issue for us, He followed all of them, perfectly, and we got the credit as if we done it ourselves and He got the punishment that we should have.

 When it comes to managing Gods money for Him, it starts with the tithe.  Our tithe should be giving 10% of our income to our local church where you are a member.  Yes I heard the next question, on the gross or on the net.  I would ask you the question, what’s in your heart to give? Tim Keller states in his book Counterfeit Gods- ‘I’ll tell you why you don’t see the tithing requirement laid out clearly in the New Testament. Think. Have we received more of God’s revelation, truth, and grace than the Old Testament believers, or less?’ Usually there is uncomfortable silence. ‘Are we more ‘debtors to grace’ than they were, or less? Did Jesus ‘tithe’ his life and blood to save us or did he give it all?’ Tithing is a minimum standard for Christian believers. We certainly wouldn’t want to be in a position of giving away less of our income than those who had so much less of an understanding of what God did to save them.

  So where do we go from there?  The tithe should be a starting point or the minimum standard as Tim Keller states. He gave it to you to manage and gives you a clue of what to do with the first 10 percent.  If a Christian is sold out for the purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they will give up every endeavor and pour all of their effort into it, worshiping Him. They would also manage their resources that He gives us to manage into where He directs us.  Don’t get to upset none of us starts totally sold out for Jesus.    Heck Peter, the rock which the church was built upon denied Him three times.   When we are afraid of giving because we might need the money, we obey what our bank account says. When we make money an idol we make it an ultimate thing. When we put money in this position it becomes everything to us such as security, joy, peace and comfort.  We can fear because we base our security on what we see in our bank account (idol.)  As Dudley Hall stated, the best way to fight poverty is with generosity.  Once you give a lot and see your security, well-being, joy peace and comfort is not in your money you can give and not worry.  If you have a clinched fist with your money, none can get out, but none can get in either.  Remember, if you have not met the mark in your giving, Jesus met it and you get the credit for it.  This doesn’t mean that we do what we want with His money and resources. If God has done a work of grace in your life and your relationship is growing with Him you will want to give not because you have to because you get to give.   We get to give something acceptable to God because Christ death burial and resurrection made it acceptable to the Father. So never let your lack of giving make you think God is not going to bless you because you are not following the rules.  I don’t care how much money you get none of us will ever receive anything close to what Jesus gave us. With that said I think God has fulfilled Malachi 3:10. As far as the most famous question in tithing, do you give off of the gross or the net, the answer is give it all for the gospel! Although this takes time for us to let loose and live our lives this way, we are always a work in progress.  The deeper our relationship with Christ the more he opens our eyes to see more of what He has for us.  My eyes need opening more, and He loves us too much to let us stay the same.    So start where you are, give and enjoy your life because all of your debt to God is paid in full.  He saved us from Him to Him.  We can now live without fear and enjoy participating in subduing the earth.  Let’s give all we can and keep seeking Him and learn to enjoy what He has done, and what He is going to do.

     Let me know if I can help!

Tim West

Go West Coaching