Hope for your financial life and beyond

Does God Want Me To Attend College?

August 30, 2014 by 16 Comments

Hidden Nuggets Series #54 - “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” - Luke 2:52

College_StudentI’m wrapping up my series on college this week with a rather odd question, something that a high school junior or senior might be asking - Does God care if I go to college? Mom and dad sure have made it clear they think it’s important as they’ve been pounding the table for months to get those applications finished. What about God? Does He even have an opinion on college?

To those with no religious inclination this may seem silly. Why consult a higher power at all about a non-spiritual issue like whether to or where to attend college? I understand that line of thinking. However, for those like myself with a relationship with God it’s huge for several reasons.

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Filed Under: College, Hidden Nuggets Series Tagged With: , ,

20 Flexible Part Time Jobs For College Students

August 28, 2014 by 26 Comments
riding lawnmower cutting grass

Mowing yards can be great part time work.

I’m continuing my college theme week with a look today at flexible part-time jobs college students can do to help them earn some extra spending money.

As I pointed out in my last post, there are so many hidden costs of college for which students don’t prepare. More than likely they have figured out how to finance college tuition, fees, and room and board. However, those little incidental items they spend money on can certainly add up and cause a dent in the wallet. So, unless an endless stream of cash is flowing from mom and dad, students will need to secure some extra spending money.

The big question though is, what jobs can reasonably be done by college students? Yes, you could work a full-time job and attend classes but that’s not what most students are looking for (or really need). The average student just wants enough spending money to go to parties, put gas in the car and pay for their books (maybe in that order).

With that in mind, here is a list of 20 part-time jobs and activities that could earn a college student a little bit of extra spending money.

On Campus Jobs for the College Student

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Filed Under: College, Work Tagged With: ,

The Hidden Costs of College: How to Manage the Incidentals

August 26, 2014 by 24 Comments

stack of four college textbooksMy alma mater, Cedarville University in Ohio, has a favorite destination that attracts students each and every day while school is in session - Young’s Dairy in Yellow Springs. It’s definitely a hidden cost of college because I had no idea how much time I would spend there. It seemed like once a week someone in my dorm would yell, “Hey, we are making a Young’s run. Who’s coming?”

Boy, that was always tempting. Seemed like it always came at the right time too. You know…at 9 o’clock at night when your punching out that term paper and your stomach is rumbling. What college student could resist a grilled cheese, fries and milkshake in that moment?

Defining Hidden Costs

Those late night snack runs are what I call a hidden cost of college. They are hidden because we miss factoring them into the overall expense of college. Students and parents focus on the big college numbers that are causing so much trouble: tuition, fees, room and board and forget there are a bunch of little incidentals that, when taken cumulatively, add up to big dollars.

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Filed Under: College, Saving, Spending Tagged With: , ,

Emotions and Investing Do Not Mix

August 25, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Today I’m guest posting and commenting at the personal finance blog Frugal Rules. Click the link below to read about why emotions and investing don’t mix, including some boneheaded investing mistakes I’ve made through the years when my emotions got the best of me.

emotions and investingSome things fit perfectly together. Peanut butter and jelly. Batman and Robin. Yellow and blue. Separately they have value. When combined they create something extraordinary.

The same cannot be said for emotions and investing. Like oil and water, they simply don’t mix. There is no place for emotion in the investing world if you want to have success.

My Emotional History With Investing

I started investing in 1996, just after my wife and I were married. It was the height of the 1990s bull market run that saw computer, technology and Internet stocks in particular soar to record highs. A company could go public one day and be at $200 a share the next without ever making a single penny in profit. (That’s a slight exaggeration but accurately defines the lunacy of the time.)…

Click here to continue reading at Frugal Rules

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The Problem With Infomercials, Televangelists, Mechanics and Pretty Much All of Us

August 22, 2014 by 13 Comments

Hidden Nuggets Series #53 - “For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers…whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.” - Titus 1:10-11

man on Ab Roller doing situps

Uuuh…not an affiliate link.

“Just five minutes a day and you can have rock solid abs like this. All it takes is three easy payments of $29.99!” blared the infomercial, waking me from my late-night, post-baseball game dozing. I’ve seen this bit before and like a sucker fell for the Ab-Roller (excuse me…I meant the “Ab-make-every-hot-girl-hang-on-you-roller”) years ago.

Maybe it worked for you. It did nothing for me except hurt my back.

Being Taken by Others

We’ve all been taken or at least felt taken by someone. Like the mechanic who expertly claims the car repair will require a new Johnson rod. Or the televangelist who promises your $100 donation will go to feed orphan children in Romania (when in reality it pays his six-figure salary). And the aforementioned infomercial, promising instant results with so little effort. (Why do we fall for these ridiculous products? LOL)

In reality, we all have an agenda. That agenda, however altruistic it appears, does possess a level of selfishness. We want and do things that benefit ourselves in the long run. Our own self-existence is the foremost thought in our mind. “If others are blessed (or harmed) through what I do then so be it.” So often goes our logic.

Which then makes it really hard to build trust in others.

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Filed Under: Hidden Nuggets Series, Relationships Tagged With: ,

How to Pass the CPA Exam On the First Try

August 20, 2014 by 22 Comments

Enjoy this guest post by Kim Fourman, aka Mrs. Luke1428.

cpa examBack in the summer of 2012 I was studying for the CPA Exam. Every day — studying my butt off. I’m happy to say that I passed all four parts of the CPA exam on the first try and I now have my CPA license. Earlier this year, I wrote a post about how to tackle a huge looming project. Here’s the details of how I tackled what was probably the biggest task of my life.

Learn All You Can About the CPA Exam

I read a ton about the CPA Exam before I started and while I was in the middle of it (and not at all after I was done). You have got to learn everything you can about it. It’s important to learn from both the official source, but also from blogs and forums where people who are also taking the exam are chatting. You’ll find out great little tips but also you’ll get the motivation to carry on when you get tired. Some places I looked at included:

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Filed Under: Career, Goals, Planning Tagged With: , , ,

Why Travel Should Be A Must For Every Budget

August 18, 2014 by 53 Comments

Corsair Airbus plan landing on Maho BeachIt’s 1:00 pm in the afternoon and I’m doing something so commonplace in today’s world it hardly seems extraordinary anymore, except maybe through the eyes of a child. I’m at an airport watching planes take off and land. Boring, huh?

Except this is no ordinary airport.

I’m standing on Maho Beach…in St. Maarten…with dozens of tourists…and a fenced in Princess Juliana International Airport just a few yards behind me.

Out over the water a tiny speck appears on the horizon. “Ahh…right on schedule,” the person next to me says. As it moves nearer, the onlookers at the beach scramble into position, iPhones in hand recording the moment. Closer and closer it comes. “Ooh this is a big one,” someone exclaims.

I dig my feet into the sand to sturdy myself.

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Filed Under: Budgeting, Spending, Travel & Health Tagged With: , , ,

The Joys and Rewards of Whitewater Rafting

August 16, 2014 by 15 Comments

Hidden Nuggets Series #52 - “They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your pleasures; For with You is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” - Psalm 36:8-9

whitewater rafting As you read this today I’ll be floating…uh, white water rafting down the beautiful rivers of the Oconee in Tennessee. Depending on my luck, or more accurately the acumen of my raft mates, I’ll have hopefully not gone overboard yet. The last rafting trip on vacation this past summer - the first in probably five years - I deep-sixed on the first class three rapid we hit. Nailed it perfectly right on my side of the boat.

I love days like this, even if it’s only for a few hours. The chance to be on a river and let my senses drink in the sights and sounds of nature remains something I always look forward to. It brings me pleasure and peace even when bouncing out and into the drink - life preserver, oar and all.

We’ve been given so much that satisfies our desires to the fullest. This extraordinary world and all it contains can bring life to our soul as we enjoy and explore it. It’s rejuvenating, precious and thrilling all at once.

I believe there was purpose to that.

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Filed Under: Hidden Nuggets Series, Travel & Health Tagged With: , ,

4 Guiding Money Principles that Every Child (and Adult) Must Learn

August 14, 2014 by 18 Comments

Please welcome my good friend and Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) Shannon Ryan from The Heavy Purse as she guest posts today.

word learn engraved in stoneWhen I was 13 years old, my father began giving me “money lessons” while we ate dinner, and I had no idea how these simple lessons would change my life. He didn’t focus on how money worked, but instead he showed me how my emotions affected my spending habits and money beliefs. With his guidance, I changed how I viewed money – from lack and fear – to one of abundance. Most importantly, I learned how to make financially confident decisions that aligned how I used my money with my goals and values. It felt great.

It wasn’t until college that I realized what a special gift my father gave me. Many of my friends and classmates had not been taught how to handle money wisely. Money wasn’t discussed in their homes, so they learned by trial and mostly error. I wanted to help them and became a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®). For the past 22 years, it’s been my honor to help families and individuals reclaim their money happiness.

How Money Habits and Beliefs Are Formed

One trend I noticed repeatedly was that many of our money habits and beliefs formed when we were children, not adults. We observed how our parents handled money and mimicked them, inheriting their money hang-ups along the way. We then grew up to pass these same hang-ups to our children, continuing the vicious cycle.

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

Repairs and Maintenance Landlords Should Complete Between Tenants

August 13, 2014 by 31 Comments
plumber in toilet

Don’t go this far but do inspect the plumbing

As a landlord, I would love to keep tenants in my properties forever. While some stay a long time, most eventually leave - either by personal choice or through an eviction - to seek housing elsewhere. Whenever that time comes it’s the landlords responsibility to get the unit ready for the new tenant.

Turning a rental house around for the new tenants can be a time consuming and financially draining time. Hopefully, as a conscientious landlord, you’ve kept track of what is going on at the property and have a good idea of what to expect in terms of potential repairs and maintenance. There really shouldn’t be any surprises, but it seems like there always are.

Because even minor renovations will cost money and require time to complete, some landlords choose to skimp on or refuse to complete repairs. I disagree with this philosophy. As much as possible, I want the property to be in pristine condition for the new tenants so that our relationship begins on the right foot. They need to know that I’m a landlord who prides myself in the condition of the unit and wants to treat them well. Hopefully this pride will bleed into the tenant’s minds and they will in turn do their best to keep the property as clean and damage free as can be expected.

Repairs and Maintenance to Conduct Between Tenants

Some repairs and maintenance will obviously be required before the new tenant moves in. While all facets of the house need inspection, these five areas are a must for any landlord to address:

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Filed Under: Real Estate Tagged With: , , ,

It Is Not a Sin to Buy a New Car

August 11, 2014 by 44 Comments

Silver 2015 GMC Yukon SL DenaliIs it ever OK to buy a new car? You won’t find many people advocating that practice. Rather it’s viewed as the cardinal personal financial sin. Anyone considering buying a brand new car instead of a used one runs the risk of being called a foolish, image conscious over spender.

That’s a tough rap. I don’t want to be lumped into that crowd. But c’mon…is it really that big a deal to buy a new car?

I’ll answer my own question by saying “It depends.”

New Car Want vs. New Car Need

I don’t believe anyone can justifiably say they need a new car. There will always be a used alternative to satisfy any life scenario. Even a family of twelve can find a used passenger van on the market.

Clearly a new car is a want and I’m perfectly fine with that. People should not be condemned for wanting something new. My wife and I just purchased our first completely matching bedroom suite this past week after 18 years of marriage. We’ve wanted a new one for a really long time but kid priorities and other financial matters have always taken precedence.

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Filed Under: Spending, Vices Tagged With: , ,
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