Getting Started With a Budget
Using a budget is one of the smartest money management moves you could make. For guidance on using a paper & pencil system, read the Budget Quick Start Guide and make use of the Cash Flow Plan, Cash Flow Tracker, and Recommended Spending Guidelines, all found in the Resources section. For help using the online tool Mint.com, watch my tutorials here, here, and here. And for help with the Envelope system, read this article.
Remember, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” – Proverbs 21:5
It’s easy to make managing money more complicated than it needs to be. That’s because money isn’t just an objective “means of exchange” as the dictionary defines it. Money is wrapped up in our emotions – our hopes, dreams, and fears. And our use of it is strongly influenced by the many messages of our […]
If a tool existed that would give you a strong sense of control over your finances and help keep your financial stress low, wouldn’t you use it? If this tool served as a financial road map, showing you clearly how you could live within your means, generously support the causes you care about, and save […]
Weekly roundup of some of the best personal finance articles from around the web. Only 1 in 4 Americans have made this essential retirement planning move (Fox Business). It’s free, relatively easy, and it will probably motivate you to save more. Here’s one of the easiest tools for the job. Half of America doesn’t check […]
Weekly roundup of some of the best personal finance articles from around the web. Investors have been making the same mistake for 300 years (The Atlantic). Sir Isaac Newton was quite a scientist, but he made a legendary investment mistake that’s still all too common today. Leaving a legacy: why everyone needs an estate plan […]
An endless number of studies have documented people’s general lack of financial preparedness for their later years. As just one example, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) says that among workers age 55 and older, 49% have less than $250,000 saved for retirement (30% have less than $50,000). No amount of finger-wagging lectures seems to […]
Reading the CNN.com headline, it felt like déjà vu all over again. It read, “New threat to the economy: Americans are saving like it’s the 1980s.” It took me back to an article I read in the midst of the last recession. An economist was quoted as saying the thing that worried him the most […]
“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” – Isaiah 40:7 With so much stock market turmoil and economic uncertainty swirling about, now more than ever we need the reassurance and guidance of God’s eternal Word. In order to cope with these challenging times, consider the counsel and […]
I’m fascinated with the process of life change. So many of us would like to make some changes — in our health, our relationships, our finances. And yet change seems hard. We might make progress for a while, but then we slip back into old familiar patterns. What does it take to make changes that […]
In a recent post, The Starting Point for Building Effective Money Management Habits, I talked about the importance of understanding our biblical financial identity. We’re not consumers, as our culture suggests. We were designed to be wise builders who manage money in a way that enables us to build a thriving relationship with God, loving […]
Goal setting is all the rage this time of year. Unfortunately, so is bashing the practice. Some have become tired of the whole New Year’s resolutions routine. It seems trite to them, unproductive. It’s cool to be anti-goal. I’m okay with being uncool. I love the start of a new year. It always feels like […]
