2014 April

A Student Debate: Are There Absolute Truths About Money and Personal Finance?

April 30, 2014 by Brian 42 Comments

A philosophical debate in the existence of absolute truth sounds like a discussion for theology class. In fact, that’s what has been taking place in one of the Bible classes I teach at our private Christian school. The questions we have been exploring are polar opposites of one another:

“Is there an absolute truth that is valid for all people regardless of era, culture or circumstance?”

Or…

“Are all things relative? Does truth exist only in the person’s individual experience and based in their view of reality?”

Deep, I know.

I’ve been thinking about this for some time in relation to personal finances. To fully disclose, I do believe in absolutes and think they can be found in many areas of life, especially in mathematics and the sciences. Absolutes do not have to be limited to theological discussions.

So why can’t there be absolutes about money and the personal finance world - things that are universally true for all people no matter the culture or circumstance?

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Filed Under: Biblical Money Truths, Managing Money Tagged With: Absolutes, Costs, Love of Money, Money, Truth

5 Coping Strategies For When the Busyness of Life Causes the Dam to Break

April 28, 2014 by Brian 32 Comments

Water exploding through a dam

On Friday, I commented to my blogging friend Tonya at Budget and the Beach that I was not looking forward to the upcoming weekend. When I realized all the items that were on my to-do list, I sort of felt depressed. I could see there would be absolutely no down time.

After all, aren’t weekends supposed to be relaxing? Most of the time during the school year ours are not, especially during tax season (from Jan. - Apr.) when Mrs. Luke1428 works on Saturday. It feels like the weekends are jammed packed with everything that couldn’t get done Monday - Friday. They become more hectic for me than the actual workweek.

For some perspective, (and I’ll keep this brief) here is what happened in our house the last three days:

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Filed Under: Lifestyle, Vices Tagged With: Busy, Coping, Lifestyle, Pressure, Time

The Crew at Modest Money Is Teaching Us a Big Lesson

April 25, 2014 by Brian 29 Comments

Hidden Nuggets Series #38 - “…he who gives, with liberality…” - Romans 12:8

Jeremy Biberdorf of ModestMoney.com is killing it. I know Jeremy only by his reputation in the personal finance blogosphere, a few casual emails and comments and the fact that he shares my content via Twitter. I’m thankful for his site though because he’s really helping personal finance bloggers out.

In case you are unaware, Jeremy has put together a Top Finance Blog List on his site. If you run a personal finance blog, you can submit it there and get listed/ranked versus other blogs based on your site’s traffic, social media reach and SEO quality. As of today there are 183 listed.

So why would he do this? I mean there are other well established lists out there at Wisebread and MoneyCrashers that do the same thing. Do we really need another one?

Well the obvious answer is that it helps drive traffic to and enhance his site. OK…I can buy that.

I’ve got a sense though there is a deeper issue here. There is something very generous about what he’s doing, allowing us to create a link on his well-established site. It feels “beyond-the-call-of duty-ish” - something he didn’t have to do, but maybe wanted to in order to help others out.

Whatever his reasoning, I still draw a big lesson from it. In the bigger picture for me, it reinforces the need to give and do so liberally. In my mind and my heart I know this concept. I simply tend to forget it.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Hidden Nuggets Series Tagged With: Blogging, Giving, Helping, Success

Moving Back In With Your Parents at 50? It’s Happening A Bunch

April 23, 2014 by Brian 27 Comments

This past weekend the LA Times published an article detailing the number of Californians age 50-64 who are moving back in with their parents. You heard that right. Middle-age adults (and their kids) living back at their parent’s home, perhaps occupying the same bedrooms they had as teenagers.

The big details of the study are this:

“For seven years through 2012, the number of Californians aged 50 to 64 who live in their parents’ homes swelled 67.6% to about 194,000, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. That jump is almost exclusively the result of financial hardship caused by the recession rather than for other reasons, such as the need to care for aging parents…”

It’s not all that uncommon for adult children to live with aging parents. My aunt has been doing that for years with my now 100 yr. old grandfather, and it’s been a beautiful situation for the family. This arrangement most often happens because of a health issue or the desire for the elderly parent not to end up in a nursing home. So, parent and child come together again in a single home and the child serves as caregiver in their parent’s later years.

According to the study, these middle-age kids are moving back in with their parents because of hard economic times. They lost their jobs as the economy collapsed and are now finding it difficult convincing employers to hire them. They have exhausted their savings and simply have nowhere else to turn.

I have all sorts of thoughts and questions after reading this news:

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Filed Under: Current Events, Relationships, Retirement Tagged With: Aging, Children, Housing, Parents

10 Clues That Reveal It’s Time to Change Your Job

April 21, 2014 by Brian 40 Comments

Time to change written on piece of paper with gold switch

Are you ready to make the switch?

How many job changes will the average person have in their lifetime? I have to admit being somewhat amazed when I went looking for the answer.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics published a report in July of 2012 that tracked baby boomers born between 1957 and 1964. The report states that from the ages of 18 to 46, these individuals held an average of 11.3 jobs, a job being defined as an uninterrupted period of work with an employer. Men held slightly more jobs (11.4), while women held slightly less (10.7).

The news gets even more staggering for Millennials (those born between 1977-1997). A Forbes article published in 2012 states 91% of those surveyed expect to stay at a job for less than three years. That would put their job total between 15 and 20 during their adult working life.

I certainly don’t fit into either of these molds, having only worked three jobs in my post-college adult life: 1) one year as a construction worker; 2) one year as a sporting goods sales associate; and 3) 16 years in education as a teacher and principal. So my average job length is six years, but you can see that figure is a bit misleading when trying to determine what career has been most important in my life.

I’ve always been a creature of habit, so figuring out when to make changes has always been a challenge. I shudder to think about making the “should-I-take-a-new-job” decision 10+ times in my life. Because I don’t like change simply for change sake, something would really have to motivate me to look at a new job offer.

Reasons That Motivate People to Change Their Job

Here are 10 such circumstances that might drive an employee to move on.

1. When there would be a significant upward change in salary and benefits.

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Filed Under: Career, Work Tagged With: Career, Jobs, Work

God’s Giving Nature Shines Brightest On Easter

April 19, 2014 by Brian 2 Comments

Hidden Nuggets Series #37 - “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son; that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Do you love to give? Ever wonder where that desire comes from?

I’m quite sure it’s a character quality God possesses Himself and bestowed on mankind during the days of creation so many years ago. The book of Genesis describes how we are created in His image. It would seem a logical conclusion that God passed on His giving nature to humanity during that creative process.

How can I be so confident God is an extreme giver? It’s because of verses from the Bible, like the most famous one of all:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son; that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

We see in this verse that God gave. He didn’t receive or take anything from us. He gave something very valuable so that humanity would get the chance at a relationship with Him. It’s such a staggering concept - giving up your only Son to die for the sins of mankind - it hardly makes sense. Never could you or I have come up with this kind of plan to bridge the gap between God and man.

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Filed Under: Current Events, God's Provision, Hidden Nuggets Series Tagged With: Easter, Giving, God

This Debt Relief Practice Was No Scam

April 18, 2014 by Brian 10 Comments

Hidden Nuggets Series #36 - “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts. And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the Lord’s release.” Deuteronomy 15:1-2

How would the world be different if creditors were required to release the debt of individuals every seven years?

This actually happened in the Old Testament of the Bible as you can see from the verses above. God required the Hebrew people to release the debts of the poor every seven years. That’s right…if they still owed money at the seven-year interval, their debt was cancelled.

Sign me up for that program!

If this seems like an odd thing, consider God has always had a special place in his heart for the poor. There are many verses in the Bible related to the proper treatment of those less fortunate. I see this as God’s way of giving them a fresh start and squashing any potential exploitation of the poor at the hands of the wealthy to carry on indefinitely.

Whatever the reason it’s clear God did not want his people staying in a perpetual state of debt.

I’ve often wondered how this practice impacted their feelings about borrowing and lending.

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Filed Under: Debt, Hidden Nuggets Series Tagged With: Debt, Forgiveness, Loans

How Shopping for Shoes Changed My Financial Life

April 16, 2014 by Brian 39 Comments

It’s Financial Literacy Month and I’m pleased to be part of an awesome blog carnival today hosted by Shannon from The Heavy Purse. In case you are unaware, Shannon’s passion is all about helping parents raise financially confident and responsible children. Her perspectives on that issue are some of the best I’ve read. I highly encourage you to check out her site, especially today and see what all the other carnival participants are writing about.

The topic for her financial literacy blog carnival is our biggest money “A-ha” - that moment when you realized things had to change. Well, I’m in no competition with my fellow bloggers today, as I’m sure they will share great moments in time and lessons that spurred them to change. I’m pretty sure though none of them will be talking about this…

Shoes.

That’s right…my life really did change while shopping for shoes.

The Setup

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Filed Under: Budgeting, Spending Tagged With: Choices, Discipline, Shoes, Spending

Teaching Kids About Money: 4 Age Appropriate Lessons

April 14, 2014 by Brian 27 Comments

A major role of parenting should be teaching kids lessons about money. For many reasons, parents drop the ball in this area and raise children who carry an improper understanding of money into college and adulthood. This leads to challenges as the grown children seek employment, earn an income and determine how to manage their financial lives.

What children should learn about money varies depending on their age. A five year old needs to hear different messages from the parents than does a teenager. However, there are three fundamental money lessons that every child needs to learn no matter what the age:

1) to save money for future needs,

2) to spend money wisely and

3) to give generously.

These three principles serve as the foundation upon which other money lessons build.

There are differing opinions about when to start teaching children money values. Many say kids as young as three can start to learn the basics. In our home, we waited to get serious with money lessons until the age of five. We found that our children understood the concept of giving at an early age but struggled with saving and spending. By the age of five they were better able to grasp those last two concepts and understand their importance.

Aside from saving, spending and giving, what should children learn about money at various ages? Here are the four big lessons we are teaching (and plan to teach) in our home.

Ages 5-7

Money Lesson #1: Enjoy it

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Filed Under: Kids and Money, Managing Money Tagged With: Kids, Money, Parents, Teach

Cheer Up: Your Worst Day Wasn’t As Bad As This Kid’s…

April 10, 2014 by Brian 18 Comments

Some days are just simply brutal. You know the kind.

You wake up late because your alarm didn’t go off…and the car won’t start.

Hurried on the way to work, fighting crazy traffic…your mug leaks coffee onto your dress.

At work, you get chewed out by an angry client…even though you did nothing wrong. (They were just mad at the world and you were in the way.)

Because you were late to work, you have to stay late to make up the time…and are therefore late picking the kids up at daycare (thus paying an extra fee).

Tired and not wanting to cook dinner, you blow through the drive-thru…thus breaking your goal of not eating out (because you have really been working on that monthly food budget).

Finally, after all that and the kids are in bed the networks preempt your favorite TV show for the State of the Union address.

You go to bed praying that tomorrow will be better.

As bad and stressful and frustrating as that day may see, it pales in comparison to what happened with this kid…

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Filed Under: Random Fun Tagged With: Funny, Kids, Parenting

A Student Debate: Are There Absolute Truths About Money and Personal Finance?

5 Coping Strategies For When the Busyness of Life Causes the Dam to Break

The Crew at Modest Money Is Teaching Us a Big Lesson

Moving Back In With Your Parents at 50? It’s Happening A Bunch

10 Clues That Reveal It’s Time to Change Your Job

1. When there would be a significant upward change in salary and benefits.

God’s Giving Nature Shines Brightest On Easter

This Debt Relief Practice Was No Scam