Thursday, March 30, 2006

Bankruptcy

Personal bankruptcies soared 30 percent to a record high last year as financially strained people rushed to file before new restrictions took effect Oct. 17. Bankruptcy petitions filed in federal courts totaled 2,039,214 in 2005, up from 1,563,145 in 2004... A new law, which brought the most comprehensive revision of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in a quarter-century, made it more difficult to erase credit card and other debts in bankruptcy.

I believe the one of our church's responsibilities is to educate people on how to manage their finances. That's why we offer Financial Peace University and Crown Financial Ministries small groups. In leading many studies of each group, I've seen wonderful life change! This makes life worth living!

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Drugs. Are you kidding me. . .

I had my world rocked a little bit tonight. At the request of my 10 year old daughter, I went with her to a "program" she was having at her school tonight. It was cosponsored by all the elementary schools in the district. I was wondering what kind of program this was when the car that pulled in beside me what the police chief. Here it was a Drug interdiction program for parents and students. I really didn't know what to think at first but in the end I was glad I was there. The truly unfortunate this was there was less than 50 attendees.(parents and children) We live in a small town and I was sickened by the statistics the police chief shared with us about drugs in our area. Times sure have changed since I was her age. It doesn't seam that long ago. How do I cope with things like this? I rest in the fact the God has a plan for each of us and I pray for my kids daily. Spend time with you kids! Know them and Love them.

Alien Eyes

Do you ever stop and look at your life and the way you do things through alien eyes? Let me explain. See, I enjoy looking at how things are being done and evaluating whether there is a better more efficient way of doing things. It's important to take time and reflect. You see, the more you focus something the less able you are to see the unexpected or unanticipated happenings around you. If you take time to reflect, you can unload some of your mental baggage that keeps us from seeing things from a different perspective. (Alien Eyes)

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Americans Top Priority in Life

According to The Barna Group survey just released, here are American adults top priorities in life:
  1. Family
  2. Faith
  3. Health
  4. Lifestyle
  5. Vocation matters
  6. Money
  7. Achieving Success
  8. friendship
  9. Leisure Pursuits
  10. Having Influence

I'd sum this up in one word. . . Legacy!

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Emergency Fund

Do you have an Emergency Fund? Most financial people out there suggest 6 months of living expense in an emergency fund. For me, six months is a great goal and with a almost 13 year old and a 10 year old, we can never seam to get to six months. Don't get me wrong, we have an emergency fund but we're not at a 6 month reserve. I am please that our emergency fund is invested in Emigrant Direct's dream account. As of a few day ago, they are paying 4.5%. This is far and above anything I can get at a local bank. You see, I've never set foot in their bank. It's all done on line by linking my checking account to my Emigrant account. So were is your emergency fund in amount and location? If you are looking for home for it, check out www.emigrantdirect.com Let me know if you can find a higher rate than 4.5% with no restrictions on when you can access your money.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

HR.com

I came across a web site this week that I found very useful for a number of reasons. HR.com I registered as a guest which gave me limited access to the site. I was able to participate in a webinar with my guest membership. It was on Leadership. As John Maxwell says quite often, everything rises and falls on leadership and I agree with that.

One of the most interesting items discussed during this webinar was the concept of a leadership tent (Think of an old tent not the modern ones of today). The speaker showed there were five poles that hold up the tent.
  1. The center pole (the largest of the five) This represented character
  2. The left front pole - Focus on results
  3. The left rear pole - Personal capability
  4. The right rear pole - Leading change
  5. The right front pole - Interpersonal skills

I found this to be a concise and easy to remember framework for a good leadership model. I hope you will as well.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Tax Refund

It's that time of year again. I volunteer my time and knowledge and do many friends, family, and pastors tax returns at no charge. (I'll receive payment someday.) Of those getting large refunds, they thank me and of those owing tax, they wonder whey they are not getting big refunds. We all like to receive money but in this case, a tax refund is deceiving.

A big refund means we allowed the IRS to borrow money from us interest free for the entire year. Most of those getting refunds from the people group I listed above are in excess of $1,200. That should be an extra $100 a month in take home pay. Who wouldn't like an extra $100 per month?

May I suggest that if you are receiving a large refund, talk to your HR department at work and have them help you fill out a new W4 for both federal & state. Then have a written plan on how you are going to use / invest the extra monthly take home pay. I know of many places paying interest of greater than 4%. (More on that later.)

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Decision Making

How does your church make decisions? Who ultimately makes the call?

This Saturday a.m. as I wait for the temperature to reach 40 so I can get on my bicycle for the first time in over a month, I picked up January's issue of the Harvard Business Review. This issue is all about decision making (Better > Faster > Smarter). The best article, in my opinion was written by Paul Rogers & Marcia Blenko called "Who has the D?. How Clear decision Roles Enhance Organizational performance". My takeaway for this article, and I hope you find it useful is what that authors call RAPID. Good decisions depend on assigning clear and specific roles in the decision making process within your management team. Here is how RAPID is broken down.
  • Recommend - People resonsible for making a proposal, gathering input, and providing date to the rest of the team in a timely fashion.
  • Agree - This person has the veto power over the recommendation. This should lead to a mondified proposal.
  • Input - These people push back on the recommendations. Did we look at everything?
  • Decide - This is the formal decision maker. He or she is ultimately accountable for the decision.
  • Perform - Once the decision is made, this is the person who must implement a decision. Usually this is the same person who was the recommender.

When this process is slowed down its usually the result of one of three things.

  1. Lack of clarity on who Decides
  2. To may people have veto power. This can make live very hard for the recommending
  3. To may people giving input is a signal that some of it may not be meaningful.

I'm going to put this process into practice at our next management team meeting. I hope it will help us move the ball down the field quicker.

Friday, March 03, 2006

First Post

Today is my fist day as a blogger. We shall see if this becomes profitable for me and you as a reader of my blog. Next week, will are having two days of discover meetings on Fellowship One. This will be my first area of posts as we go through the implementation process.