Create Bank Activity Alerts. It could save your @$$

Yesterday I received a text message on my phone at and an email about 2pm. It said my debit card transaction exceeded my alert limit of $30. I was thinking to myself this was strange as I've been at work all day and didn't use my debit card today.

I immediately logged into my online bank account and saw pending charges in the amount of $87.98 for The Collagen Store & $15.97 for NetFlix. I immediately though, Oh no, somehow my debit card number has been compromised.

What did I do next?

1. Didn't panic and called my bank to let them know I had unauthorized debit card transactions on my account. They closed my debit card and issued me another one. (It came in two days.)

2. I called NetFlix and they were very understanding and closed the newly opened account. (The one I didn't open.)From how the customer rep handled my call, I'm guessing this wasn't the first time they have seen something like this.

3. I did a Google search for "The Collagen Store" with no results. My bank did refund the money back to me and sent me an affidavit to sign.

The moral of the story. With text and email bank notification alerts on my checking account, I know within seconds where there is activity on my debit card.

Not having setup this notification system, I wouldn't have seen these charges until I reconciled my monthly bank statement. In the mean time, there would have been a total of $103.95 not in my checking account that I though was there. Can you say bounced checks? (Not good)

Financial Planning for the rest of us

Financial planning has always been important. In today's economy, it's more important than ever.

Now I know what you are already thinking. Your thinking 1 of three things.

1. Todd, I agree with you but a financial planner is so expensive.
2. Todd, I've tried those financial planners and all they want to do is sell me the products they represent.
3. Todd, I've got a some savings and retirement but what can a financial planner really do for me? Don't you have to have lots of money before I need something like this?

I'm happy to say, I've finally come across a financial planning solution that's worth checking out. It's called eFinPLAN. I've logged in, answered a list of detailed questions and was amazed by the 60+ financial plan that I received.

eFinPLAN the Only Web-Based Consumer Oriented Financial Planning Software makes financial planning easy, affordable, and understandable.

What exactly is PMI?

Over the weekend, I received a lot of question regarding PMI insurance. What exactly is PMI and why do people have to pay it?

When you purchase a home, if your down payment on a home is less than 20 percent of the appraised value or sale price, you must obtain private mortgage insurance, known as PMI, with your lender.

The amount of your PMI is about one-half of 1 percent of the loan, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. Mortgage insurance premiums are not tax deductible. PMI is added to your monthly mortgage payment.

So, now that you know the "why" and the "amount", what is it? It's foreclosure insurance that your lender makes you, the borrower pay. (ouch) You just purchase a new home and the lender is making you pay insurance so they recover there loan if you can't pay.

Here's a tip that will save you some money. Keep track of your payments on the principal of the mortgage. When you reach the point where the loan-to-value ratio hits 80 percent, notify the lender that it is time to discontinue the PMI premiums. The Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, which took effect in 1999, requires lenders to tell the buyer at closing how many years and months it will take for them to reach that 80 percent level and cancel PMI. Lenders must automatically cancel PMI when the balance hits 78 percent.

Is it time to refinance?

All over this mornings headlines in the news is that mortgage rates drop to a record low. The current national average for a 30 year fixed rate is now down to 5.13%. This rate was 6.12% one year ago. The 15 year fixed is down to 4.73% This according to Bankrate.com.

So the question is, should you refinance your mortgage? Must be as refinancing activity is up 3.7%

Here's some food for thought.

1. If you can lower your rate by 1% or more and you plan on staying in your home for more than 5 years, then refinance.
2. If you can go from your 30 year mortgage and refinance down to a 15 year mortgage and your monthly payments say about the same, then refinance.
3. I wouldn't refinance to take equity / cash out of your home. Bad idea.

If you are considering refinancing, first talk with your current mortgage company. Doing so could save some closing costs. Second, talk with your local small town bank. It's a big plus having your mortgage local.

If your interested in my bike ride, read on

I really enjoy bicycling for so many reasons. I was asked what one of my rides looks like. Here's tonight's ride. For what it's worth. This is from my Garmin Edge & Google Earth. Each box is a reading @ 6 second intervals.


The green line is elevation and the read is my heart rate.

Max elevation was 1,243 feet. Max heart rate was 167 beats per minute. Total calories burned 1,354

My March Cycling Summary

March is in the books and I'm quite happy with the miles and number of times I got out on my bicycle.

Here's my March Summary

Total miles 255

Ride Time 16hrs 3minutes

Total calories burnt 80,643

Total vertical feet climbed 10,575

Ok, bring on April. . . .

Save Now and earn an extra 3.25% on your savings

The state of Ohio has finally passed a savings incentive bill that been in the works for a number of years now.

The short version is this. When you take a qualified financial class, you become eligible for Ohio's Save Now savings rate at a participating bank. This savings rate is 3.25% above the banks normal interest rate. PNC bank, coming to Ohio soon in taking over National City Bank, is the first bank to participate in this program.

All the details are not out yet as the State has just passed this legislation. I'll post updates as I'm made aware of them. I'll be participating in this and will do everything in my power to make sure Financial Peace University qualifies for this program.

Want to be more effective? Here's one of the best ways.

Are you ready for the answer? Ok, here it is. All you have to do is take a nap. Yep, that it, just take a nap. Somewhere between 20 & 40 minutes is all you need to refresh and recharge.

NASA found that military pilots and astronauts who took a 40-minute nap improved alertness by 100 percent and performance by 34 percent, and recent Harvard University research also revealed that college students who napped between tasks performed better than those who stayed awake.

A couple of cautions, you should not nap within 4 hours of your normal bet time and you should not nap for more than 40 minutes. You don't want to enter deep sleep.

Why not give a nap a try sometime this week. If you get 30 minutes for lunch at work, take the first 20 for a nap and the last 10 to eat a light lunch. If you try it, leave me a comment and let me know how it went.

Town Hall for Hope

NewPointe just signed on to bring you live Dave Ramsey's Town Hall for Hope simulcast on April 23rd @ 8pm. I'm very excited and can't wait for this event.

Here's how the Town Hall of Hope web site describes this event.

Tired of hearing the fear, doom and gloom that’s filling the airwaves? Join Dave Ramsey for a nationwide town hall meeting and discover what’s happening with the economy, how we got here, and where we’re going. Plus, Dave will answer your questions live throughout the event!

Watch this short video and plan on attending on the 23rd of April. Oh yea, it's FREE

We the Savers. . .

ING Direct, one of the leading online banks has come up with a Declaration of Financial Independence. It's pretty cool. There are 10 "declarations" that you are making by signing it.

1. You will spend less than you earn.
2. You will build equity in your home.
3. You will take care of your money
4. You will defend your credit worthiness
5. You will ignore unsolicited credit card marketing
6. You will know the cost of your borrowing
7. You will invest for the long term
8. You will take care of the things you have
9. You will remember what matters
10. You will be heard

On the web site, the list above is explained. You can print it out. It's a cool reminder to have it in print.

As of this post, there have been 28,664 people who have signed the declaration. 28,665 with my signature.

A subscription to good to pass up. . .

I enjoy reading all I can on personal finance. Part of my reading includes a magazine or two.

Years ago, my magazine of choice was Money. I switched from Money to Kiplinger's for a number of reasons and Kiplinger's is the only magazine I pay for. Until now.

In my mail today, I opened a subscription offer from Money. They are offering me their "professional discount" on Money magazine and it includes the following:

1. Fortune Magazine
2. Annual Forecast Issue
3. The Money 100 - Best Mutual Funds
4. Annual Retirement Guide
5. Best Places to Live, Vacation, Retire
6. Investing for Colleger
7. Annual Real Estate and Home Improvement Guide
8. 401k & IRA Checkup

Cover Price for all this is $172.63. Professional discount of $162.63. My cost $10 a year for up to 3 years.

So, hello Money Magazine, Fortune magazine and all the sundry guides.

20 Free financial courses from various universities

How would you like to learn more about personal finance issues and economics?

Over at Generation X finance, they have complied a list of 20 fantastic finance courses offered by the likes of Yale, UC Irvine, Rutgers, and many others on such topics as;

1. Family Finance
2. Personal Finance
3. Borrowing
4. Investments
5. retirement
6. and 15 similar courses.

So, hop on over to Generation X finance and learn something new about finances for FREE.

Looking for a Coach?

Each weekday morning, I start my day off with some great motivation with a morning coach. Personal development is a key to growth and I came across a free tool via I-Tunes.

Morning Coach is a 15 minutes free podcast and web site that inspires and motivates. What does morning coach offer?

1. Daily motivational podcoast
2. A personal dream board where you can create a visual of your goals and dream
3. Online journal
4. To-do section
5. Values area

So, get motivated and check out Morning Coach it's 15 minutes well spent.

Contribution. . .

This word, Contribution can stir up lots of different thoughts in each one of us. The first thought that pops into my mind when I hear the word contribution is money. Now hold on, I'm not going to talk about contribution(s) as it relates to money today.

The second thought came into my mind is what I want to blog about today.What kind of contribution am I making in the lives of peoples that I touch? Are people better off each time I interact with them? Am I contributing to their success? I sure hope so but I know that is not always the case.

I need to constantly remind myself that I'm always influencing people either in a good way or a bad way. Am I a problem solver or a problem adder?

When I see every situation in this light, I focus less on me and more on others. This is the kind of contribution I want to have on the people in my life. How about you?

Layoffs even hitting Sesame Street

This is funny but it's not at the same time.

It did make me pause and say a prayer for all those I know who have been laid off.

Enjoy the clip.

Time to think about mowing my grass?

Ok, I am jumping ahead a few weeks weather wise but today it's going to be in the 50's and before I get out for a bike ride today, I thought I'd prep my lawn mower for the coming season.

Here are some tips I came across that should make my mowing season go a little smoother. At least make my mower run smoother.

1. Fresh Gas -- Fresh gas is critical to an engine's performance. I drain my tank after the last mowing of the year so for me, no worries about old gas.
   
2. Engine Oil -- Drain engine oil and replace it with clean SAE 30 engine oil after every 50 hours of operation. Check the lubrication section of your mower's owner's manual for specific oil recommendations. I'm well overdue on this one.
3. Spark Plug -- Replace the spark plug after every 100 hours of operation. (Every other year works good for me.)
4. Air Filter -- If the mower's air filter is dirty, the engine may not run properly and may be damaged. Service the air filter after every 25 hours of operation or every season, whichever comes first.
5. Blade Care -- For best results, lawn mower blades must be kept sharp. Lawn mower blades can be sharpened with a file or on a grinder wheel. Never attempt to sharpen the blade while it is on the mower. Special care should be taken to keep the blade balanced. An unbalanced blade will leave an uneven cut on the lawn and can eventually cause damage to the lawn mower or the engine.

So there you go, 5 tips to get your mower read for the season.

Ideas to survive this financial meltdown

What are some things you can do, can think about, should do during this financial meltdown? Here's what I'm doing.

1. Praying. Thanking God for what I have and that he is in control. This economy has not taken him by surprise.
2. Think long term with your goals and investing. It wasn't that long ago the the market / your retirement plan was doing great. This economy will turn around. You have to maintain perspective.
   
3. It is critical to spend less than you make.
4. Buildup then maintain an emergency fund. I'm not as comfortable with my current balance in this account as I was a year ago. It's time to increase this fund.
5. Sell some things in your home that you no longer use. Last week, I sold my 12 gauge.

What things would you add to the list?

GOAL. . . .

I'm very excited and happy. I hit my goal weight today. (Actually, 1 lb less than my goal weight)

Thank you Thin & Healthy Program. Especially Jess, Molly and Kelly. I'm very appreciative of the coaching, training, and encouragement you provided.

Thinking about what T&H did for me is a lot like ministry and leadership. We need someone to come along side us to provide coaching, training and encouragement. Do you have anyone in your life that's doing these kind of things for you? I hope so. If not, get involved and volunteer. You'll begin to experience life change and that's what makes life worth living.

Bike update

Quick blog post today. For all everyone who asked me about my bike, thanks. It's all back together. (Thanks Bill)

I took full advantage of the warmer weather last week. I logged in 72 miles. This season is off to a good start.

Car fund down to $0

I have one savings account with multiple categories. I use emigrantdirect.com. Why, because they consistently have one of the highest interest rates out there. Emigrant is currently paying a whopping 2%. (Just kidding on the whopping part.)

With my one savings account, I have a spreadsheet where I "breakdown" the total amount into different categories.

1. Emergency Fund
2. Christmas (it's in December each year)
3. Vacation
4. Car replacement & repair
5. Vet bills (new category)
6. Appliance / Carpet fund
7. Planned giving

This week category #4 (Car) went to zero. 4 new tires on the van $470 and getting the check engine light to go off in my son's car $250.

Unfortunately, I always get bummed when I take funds out of savings. I guess it's because it takes so long to get the balances to grow. Then I soon realize, it's not my money anyway. It's the money God has entrusted to me to provide for my family and I soon become humble and very thankful that the money is there to just fix the car. No credit card bill, no big drama, just pay the bill and start building up the category again.

When it comes to category #4, I keep reminding myself, I've got no car payment and that in itself is a wonderful blessing.

Financial things that drive me nuts

Do you have financial "things" that get under your skin and drive you nuts? If not nuts, at least makes you ask why. I've got a list and thought I'd share it.

1. People who pay for memberships, don't use it and then complain that they are see limited or no results.
   
2. Buying something you don't need or fully understand because it's the latest and greatest thing out there and you just have to have it.
   
3. Ring tones for your cell phone. Why spend $$ for this?
   
4. Buying bottled water. What's with that?
5. My favorite office supply. . . . "Air in a can". I've heard of Prince Albert in a can but that's a whole different story.

What would be on your list?

New Record!

I'm pumped. Last night we cut up another 9 credit cards in our Financial Peace Class. That brings the total to 90 credit cards destroyed in this class. A new NewPointe record.

Way to go guys! I'm very proud of all you have accomplished these past 7 weeks.

Life Insurance. . .

As of late, I've been getting lots of questions about life insurance. First things first. It's really death insurance. An insurance company is paying your loved ones upon your death not your life. I guess its a better marking tool to call it life insurance.

Anyway, the best rule of thumb is to purchase a 20 or 30 year level term life insurance policy and stay away from "permanent" (whole life or universal life) life insurance. The somewhat short answer is this. You should have 8 to 10 times your annual income in life insurance up until your kids are grown and your house is paid for. At that time, you can lower or in most cases, eliminate your life insurance.

The biggest problem I have with permanent life insurance is most people with kids and a mortgage can't afford the premiums to get the 8 to 10 times their earnings in coverage. (There are other reasons to stay away but that should be enough incentive.)

So, where are some good places to shop / search for term life insurance?

1. Zander as recommended by Dave Ramsey
2. Insure.com
3. Select Quote
4. Matrix Direct
   

So, take your pick and get a free quote.

So what does Obama's "Stimulas" package mean for me?

In a nutshell, the typical American 2 working household will get a tax rebate of $800. (Assuming your combined income is less than $150,000). $400 for singles with income less than $75,000

How do you exactly get the $800? Well that depends. You can collect the credit either by having the amount show up in your paychecks, or by claiming it as a lump sum on the 2009 tax return that you'll file in 2010.

Being on the employer side of this, I'm not exactly sure how you can get the money in each paycheck. What I'm reading is that the IRS is going to make changes to the tax withholding tables used to calculate federal withholding from your paycheck. If this happens, it would most likely be June before you'd see a change in your paycheck. Don't get to excited, you're looking at about $13 a week through the end of the year.

The really sick thing about all of this is that the federal government is borrowing money to do this and it will take 30 years to pay off this debt. I don't like this one bit.

Should you continue to invest in your retirement plan?

The very short answer without question is yes. Don't take my word for it. Click on this link, here what Dave Ramsey has to say about it and then you can download a free report from Davis Advisors titled "The Wisdom of Great Investors. Insights from Some of History's Greatest Investment Minds.

It's a great read. Stuff you will not hear about on the evening news. So, take a deep breath, download the report and become wise as it relates to your retirement savings. Enjoy.

81, a number that's hard to believe

I'm so excited and humbled at the same time. At last night's Financial Peace class, we kept on cutting up credit cards. This is the third class in a row that multiple people have
cut up multiple cards. 15 cards from one person alone.

So, where does the number 81 come into play? That's the total number of credit cards cut up by this class of 60 people. Incredible.

So much life change has taken place in this FPU class, I could type out page after page in sharing their stories. The very short story is this group of people are getting it and making significant changes in their financial lives. In doing so, my hope is that they become open to what God wants for their lives.

See, once you put your financial problems behind you, your now free to experience the life God has in store for you and that makes life worth living.

I think I'm going to be sick...

You know one of my passions in life is bicycle riding. I've got a sweet deal with a friend of mine. I do his taxes and he maintains and fixes my bike. (Who's getting the better deal here?)

I've had his taxes done for some time and he's had my bike since before Christmas. No real hurry on my end because the winters in Ohio really stink for bike riding.

I asked Bill for an update on my bike and this is what he sent me. . . . I didn't know my bike had so many part. Bill emailed me to let me know it's now back together but he had some "extra parts". I think I'm going to be sick. . .

Emergency Fundy part 2

I received a couple of great comments from my resent "What constitutes use of your emergency fund?" I wanted to address both Christy & Reliantk008's comments in this post.

First to Christy's comment. She suggested setting aside "planned" savings for pet expenses. This would be a fantastic savings goal. Pet's are a loved part of the family and medical care for them can be expensive and unpredictable in their timing. Great suggestion Christy.

RelinatK008 asked how much of an emergency fund a single person should have? He also added a twist as he's a full-time college student. For a starting emergency fund $1,000 is great. $500 if your income is less than $20,000 a year. I'm guessing as a college student his income is less than $20k. A fully funded emergency fund should be no less than three months of living expenses. So, Reliantk008, if I were in your shoes today, I'd like to have between $500 - $1,000 until I graduate from college.

Thanks guys for the great comments and being the inspiration for this post.

What constitutes use of your emergency fund?

You do have an emergency fund don't you? (No a credit card is not an emergency fund.) Assuming you do have an emergency fund, what constitutes using this fund?

I've experienced some unplanned financial expenses here of late. Today, my son's car is in the shop getting a once over. Earlier this week, I took one of our two dogs to the vet and the cost was just over $350. (Ouch)

Are either of these two things emergencies?

The car repair. . . NO.

The vet. . . Yes.

Here's why. First, I save money on a regular basis for car repairs. Cars will breakdown from time to time or need routine maintenance. (I'm pulling funds out of my car repair savings for this.) My dog needing surgery was an unplanned and unforeseen large expense. (i.e. an emergency.)

So, I use my emergency fund for unplanned unforeseen large (over $100 for me) expenses. Once I use emergency fund dollars priority #1 for me is to replace those dollars ASAP to get the fund back to "normal".

A great tool to track your . . . . health

I'm always on the lookout for a cool tool that's easy to use and track data. Earlier this week, I came across prevention magazines website and saw something here that really caught my eye.

It's their "My Health Tracker". I like tools that help you track your money so I though to myself, this health tracker thing may be cool. I'll check it out.

After using it for only one week, I'm hooked. This thing tracks the following all for free!

1. What you eat and all the related calories, fat, protein, ect related to that food.
2. Your exercise and the calories burnt by exercising
3. Your weight loss or gain
4. Your mood
5. Your body size (I've lost 19 inches this year. Thanks Thin & Health / Super Fitness)
   

It also have over 20 reports you can run off of this data. Here's my calories burnt versus calories eaten this week. Based on me burning more than I've eaten I should have lost weight this week and I did. I lost 2lbs. (PS, I'm very close to my preseason cycling goal weight)

So, set some goals for yourself this week and find the tools to help you meet them.

What are you hoping for?

I just started reading Discover the Power in the Prayers of Paul. It's been a great read thus far. I just finished reading about HOPE.

Hope is defined in the dictionary as "desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment". So, what do you have a desire to see fulfilled in your life? Before you answer, consider what roll you need God to play in this. . . .

Here's a list I came up with.

1. The hope of being used by God until the day I die. (Life doesn't get better than this.)
2. The hope of bringing family and friends to Christ
3. The hope of raising my two kids to honor and love God.
4. The hope of making a difference in my neighborhood
5. The hope of always honoring God with my life.
   

I made the top 20 list. . . Way cool

I'm happy and excited to be mentioned in the Christian Personal Finance blog, written by Bob Lotich let alone be considered one of his top 20 sites. Way Cool.

Looking at how Bob came up with his list, I'm quite honored to be one it. He writes some great stuff on personal finance from a Christian perspective. Please click on the link I provided above to see a listing and description of all 20 sites. It will be time well invested and who knows, it may even put some money in your pocket.

Keep checking out his blog because from time to time, He gives away stuff. I haven't won one of his giveaways yet but making his top 20 list is way cooler.

Thanks Bob and keep up the good work.

$8 a week

I can boil down the soon to be signed economic stimulus bill into two points.

1. You'll see about $8 more per week in your paycheck
2. It will take over 30 years to pay for this "stimulus"

If you ask me, borrowing money is what gets people / governments into financial trouble in the first place. I'm glad our government is trying something to help the economy. I'm not sure giving every working person $8 more dollars a week will do that.

Thoughts?

Bonds in my retirement account

But first, what exactly is a bond? Great question.

A Bond is just and IOU from the issuer to the Bond holder. In other words, I "loan" my retirement dollars to a company and they pay me interest until the bond matures at which time I get my loan back. (oversimplified explanation)

Most "experts" would say a good rule of thumb is to allocate the same percentage as your age to bonds. So, I'm 42 and based on that, I should have somewhere between 40-45% of my retirement funds in a bond mutual fund. (I'm currently below that allocation percentage.)

Fidelity has a fantastic page on their website that explains exactly how bonds work. (click here). It's well worth a quick read.

Here are three recommendations on bonds.

1. They should be part of your retirement plan allocation.
2. Always buy a bond mutual fund never individual bonds (the same applies to stocks)
3. I like a good global bond fund.
   

Jumping for Joy . . . 27 times

I'm very excited.

At this weeks Financial Peace class, we cut up 27 credit cards.



Life change is beginning for these families who cut up their credit cards. I'm so proud and humbled to be part of this. (Yea God!)

Income Tax Refund?

If you are like most, you'll be getting a tax refund this year. Mine is coming Feb 13th via direct deposit.

The real question here is what are you planning on doing with your refund? I've got some advise / opinion to share with you on this.

1. The most important thing you can do is write down on paper what you'll do once the refund hits your hands. If you don't write it down, you'll spend it 3 or 4 times over in your head. Heaven forbid you "spend it" before you even have it. 70-80% of people do this.
2. Put it back for an emergency. I know this is not the "fun" thing to do but, if you do not have a fully funded emergency fund, this is the smartest thing to do.
3. Pay down some debt. Knock out a bill or two. What a blessing to have less bills to pay.
4. Bless someone who's out of work. Take a portion of your refund dollars and give it to someone in need. Way cool!
5. If your consumer debt free, use your refund to "fund" your next family vacation. This one is our plan.

My final suggestion, especially if you have a large refund ($1,000 or more) fill out a new W-4 at work and pick MORE dependents than you have on your current W-4. By doing this, less will be taken our of each paycheck, giving you more money in your pocket now. Who wouldn't want more money now?

I paid cash for our newest car

Ok, technically, it is our family's "newest" car and yes I did pay cash for it. (The second car I've paid cash for by the way.) Being debt free is a wonderful thing.

The real story here is this car is a 2000 Toyota Camry with 186,000 miles on it. The car is for my soon to be 16 year old son. He is very, very excited as any 16 year old would be and Cindy and I are excited for him.

The real story here is I see this car as a blessing from God. The person who sold me the car called me and asked if I was looking for a car for my son. He just put tires on the car and it runs great but it was time for him to replace the car. Then he told me the price. I was almost embarrassed to buy it for so little. (But I did and I thanked God for blessing.)

See the blessing was not only the price of the car but the relationship I had with the seller and the cash I'd saved to "someday" help my son buy is first car.

How much was the car? Lets just say it will cost me more to insure it with liability coverage only in a year than what I paid for the car.

Sure Fire way to save some money

If you are like most people, saving money is hard. After all the bills are paid, there's not much if any money left to put into savings. May I suggest you're doing this money stuff backwards? See, savings should be the second thing you do with your money. (The first is giving back to God for what he's already given you.)

I've found the easiest way to save is to have an amount automatically withdrawn from my paycheck before I ever get it. If your employer offers direct deposit, they have the ability to direct your paycheck into more than one account. So you could have $x dollars from each pay go into a savings account and the balance go into your checking account.

If your employer does not direct deposit into multiple accounts, no worries, you can setup an recurring automatic transfer from your checking account to a savings account on your own. Set it up one time and it will occur automatically after that.

Try it for three pays or three months even if it's only $5 at a time. I'm betting you'll adjust with no problem and before you know it, you'll start to accumulate some savings and we can all use some of that in our lives.

Well, I did it. (Looked at my retirement account balances)

Each year, about this time after all my account statements have arrived in the mail, I pick a day to enter my various retirement account balances into a spreadsheet. I say various accounts because I have rollover accounts with 4 difference fund companies.

In this very hard economic time, I've talked with lots of folks who have told me that when their retirement fund papers come in the mail, they don't even open the envelope. They'd rather not know how bad it is. I can certainly understand where they are coming from although I do not agree with what they are doing.

After graphing my retirement account balances, I'm down 36% from a year ago. Ouch! But no need to panic. There was a need for me to "rebalance" how I'm allocating my current retirement withholding's. The only way I knew to do this was by looking at my statements.

I take comfort in this as I look at my declining retirement fund balances.

1. God is in control and I'm not.
2. I've got time on my side even at 42 years of age.
3. As I put money into the market now, I'm getting more shares for the same dollars.
4. The Bible tells us to save for the future and saving is a retirement fund is the best way I know how to do that.

Ice and Snow. . . Oh no

Today is one of the worst weather days in some time. So much so, we closed the office and sent everyone home today.

From my kitchen bar, I'm looking out our window and it's almost a white-out outside.

Hot cup of coffee in my hands, laptop with a 9 cell battery (it runs forever on it), a fire in our wood burner and Clark Howard and Dave Ramsey on Itunes. What a neat day.

It's kind of cool how God can slow you down and mix things up with a some snow.

Working on your taxes yet? Direct deposit

I started working on my taxes this weekend. (Along with taxes for by brother and a few friends.) When you're taxes are completed and you've check, double checked and checked one more time before you file them, you'll have one of two outcomes.

1. You owe the IRS
2. You are getting a refund

First, if you owe, don't panic, Start saving now and don't file your taxes until April 15. This will give you about 2 1/2 months to save for what you owe. (Use this same principal if you owe your state and or city) Even if you can't pay 100% of what you owe, please file your return. This will keep you for going to jail.

If your getting a refund, did you know you can have your refund direct deposited into as many as 3 different accounts? I think this is way cool. You could have a few buck deposited into your checking account, a few more into your savings account and even some into your IRA. All you have to do is include form 8888 as part of your tax return and the IRS will do the rest.

By the way, how big is your refund? I blog about why a large refund is a bad idea later on. Stay tuned.

Syncing my office and home computer

I'm a big fan of Firefox web browser. Now I have another reason to love this program. I recently came across a Firefox add-on called Foxmarks.

Foxmarks is a free add-on that syncs and backs up your bookmarks across multiple computers. (For me this is my office PC and my home PC). This is way cool in so many ways. I've often bookmarked a site on my home computer knowing full well I really need that information at work. I usually send myself and email with the web address linked into the body of the email.

Give Foxmarks a try its a very cool and useful tool.

Life Change began again last night

Last night was fantastic. We had 65 people in the room for Financial Peace University. There was lots of laughs during the DVD time and everyone seemed to be open to what Dave Ramsey was sharing.

We then broke out into small groups. I've got 13 people in my group. We had some great discussion and I even received an email already from one couple in the group. In a nutshell, I sensed some real hope in their lives by what they shared with me.

I wish I could covey how great it feels when you know God is using you to change peoples lives. I can't believe I get to do this.

I'm excited about. . .

Yes, I know today's the day we get a new president. That's cool and all but that's not what has me excited.

What I'm excited about is Financial Peace University starts tonight and we'll have over 50 people taking this round of classes. Why am I so excited? Because I know, life change happens in and through our FPU program here at NewPointe.

I have no doubt that people will begin to free themselves from the bondage of payments and debt. Can you sense the joy in me? I hope so.

I encourage you to take steps today to get in control of your finances and not let them control you.

One more reason I love Kiplinger's magazine. $100

I love personal finance. One of the resources I look forward to reading each month is Kiplinger's magazine. It's got some great down to earth financial advise, month in and month out.

A few months back, I took the magazine up on an offer and agreed to take part in their monthly online survey. The ask questions about the magazine. I'm sure there's a great marketing angle in the survey but I don't mind. The survey doesn't take very long and they always "goat' you into taking it by saying, "You'll be entered into a drawing for a $100 Amazon gift card."

Well, I'm here to tell you, the do give away those $100 Amazon gift cards. Today in my mailbox was a letter from Kiplingers. The first thing that came to my mind is "Why are they sending me something in an envelope. Where's the next issue?" To my great surprise, I opened up the envelope to a Congratulations card with a $100 Amazon gift card. Way cool!

See, It pays to read up on your personal finances. Off to Amazon.com

New Tax Deduction related to Real Estate Taxes

Up to this point, you had to have itemized, Schedule A on your 1040 tax return in order to be able to deduct Real Estate Taxes. The IRS has made a rule change that lets those who do not itemize deduct R/E taxes for 2008 and 2009

Real Estate Tax Deduction — There is an additional standard deduction for those who don’t itemize their deductions, but pay real estate taxes. The additional deduction amount is equal to the amount of real estate taxes paid up to $500 for single filers or up to $1,000 for joint filers. This deduction is available for the 2008 and 2009 tax years and increases your standard deduction.

Although most people who own a home pay more than $1,000 in R/E taxes, a $1,000 deduction is better than the zero you got last year. So don't miss this when doing your taxes this year.

Text message in your weekly offering

I'm always on the lookout for and am interested in technology that can help me and our church. I recently came across a new technology by "Ministry Kiosks" that allows you to make your charitable donations via text message.

My first thought when I saw this way, "No way, this is really cool". I watched a demo on the Ministry Kiosks' web site and I'm even more impressed with the technology.

Please give me your feedback on this. Would you consider giving this way? Why or why not?

Today's the Day . . . . Free Financial Advice

I blogged last week about Kiplinger's "Jump-Start Your Retirement Plan Days". Today from 9am to 6 pm est, you can call 888-919-8945 and a Professional Financial Adviser will answer your questions for Free.

Let me know if you called in today.

Secuity Allerts . . . Another weapon in my identitiy protection

I recently did a little digging into my account setup at Chase.com. I bank with Cash. In digging, I started playing around with their "account alerts". I've really come to love them.

I was able to set up alerts to email me and text me when certain things happen on my account. Here's the one's I've set up thus far.

• Transactions or ATM withdrawals exceed specified limits (text & emailed)
  
• My Online ID or Password is changed (text & emailed)
• My mailing address has been updated (text & emailed)
• When my direct deposits have posted (text & emailed)
• Daily account activity (emailed)

Does your bank have this powerful tool? Are you tanking advantage of it?

I like the IRS . . .

Well, I at least like their web site. Believe it or not, the IRS web site is full of great and useful information related to your tax life. This this time of year in particular I visit their 1040 Central page.

1040 Central is a plethora of great information that could save you money on your 2008 taxes and put more money in your wallet as you move through 2009. The sight covers new tax law changes, has online tools and links to FREE tax return sites.

So, as much as people don't like to think about or deal with their taxes, spending some time on the IRS web site may be time and money well spent.

Want some FREE financial advise from a licensed professional?

Checking up on your investments / savings at least once a year is a must. This is even more important these days with the economic turmoil we are in.

Here's your chance to talk with a licensed financial adviser for free. These advisers normally charge between $100 to $250 an hour.

Take your pick on either Jan 13th an again on Jan 30th, Kiplinger's is sponsoring their annual "Jump-Start Your Retirement Plan Days". From 9am to 6pm est you can call 888-919-2345 and a NAPFA (National Association of Personal Financial Advisors) will answer your financial questions for FREE.

To make the most out of your time on the phone with the, list out your questions before you call and it may be a good idea to have your 401k statements in hand as well.

I plan on calling and i look forward to this each year.

Is loosing weight part of your 2009 plan?

I'm on a mission to shed a few pounds to help improve my hill climbing for this coming cycling season. In cursing around the net today, I came across a great source for weight loss tips. Readers Digest has a great Dieting and Weight loss page.

Check it out by clicking here. If you do want to shed a few pounds in 2009, how much weight do you want to loose? My goal is 12lbs.

Happy New Year

Google Docs. . . . I like it!

I've had some time on my hands last week and the rest of this week as I'm on vacation. I really enjoy time off between Christmas and New Years. I get to spend lots of time with my kids as they are on break from school.

When Chaz & Katie (my kids) are off doing their own thing, I get to putter around the house. Last week, I stared playing around with Google Docs and I've come to really love it. For those who don't know what this is, Google Docs allows you to create Spreadsheets, Documents, Presentations, and Fill in Forms, store them online, share them if you wish and all for Free. You can even upload your existing Microsoft Office files to Google Docs.

I switched over my Zero Based Budget from Excel to Google Docs Spreadsheet and I love it. I can access my budget from any computer with internet access. This comes in very handy. I no longer have to load my file onto a flash drive or email it back and forth. The other spreadsheet application that I use it a check register template.

Give Google Docs a try. It's free. If you are already using it, what applications are you using it for?

Mileage Rates for 2009

Did you know the IRS adjusts these rates each year?

Did you know in addition to business miles you also get Medical and Charitable miles?

Here are the rates.

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2009, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:

• 55 cents per mile for business miles driven
• 24 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes
• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations

Tax credit for Bicyclers. . . . (No Joke $20 a month)

I have no idea how or why this ended up as part of the Federal Bailout but I'm glad it did.

Starting in January, workers who use their bicycles as their primary transportation mode to get to and from work will be eligible for a $20-a-month, tax-free reimbursement from their employers for bicycle-related expenses. In return, employers will be able to deduct the expense from their federal taxes.

$20 a month to ride my bike is more than I get paid now to ride my bike. This will also cover the cost of most of my yearly "replacement part" that I need at the end of each season.

So, if this looks like something you can take advantage of, talk to your employer. I'm sure they are not aware of this upcoming tax benefit.

I like "My Circle"

I've been doing a little bit of cell phone research these past few days. The reason why isn't that important so I'll skip that part. My family has Alltel as our cell provider of choice and I must say, I'm very happy with Alltel.

For me, one of the big advantages Alltel has is "My Circle". This lets my family call any number, land line or cell, outside of the Alltel network without using our shared minutes. Calls to any other Alltel phone are always free. The other cool thing about "My Circle" is when I log onto Alltel.com I can change the numbers listed in "My Circle". This comes in very handy with two teenagers in the house. The only downside of "My Circle" is it doesn't apply to text messages. My teans have unlimited texting and they pay for their own cell phones. That's pretty cool considering they are 13 & 15.

A great Christian based Financial Blog

I love personal finance. I'm always on the lookout for great sources of Christian based financial information.

Here's one of me favorite blogs that I follow. It's Christian Personal Finance.com Bob's always got great information and he also gives away great stuff. For Christmas, he's giving away 2 IPods.

Want a chance to win one of these IPods? Check out his blog. Click Here for the IPod link.

Quickbooks 2009 for FREE (No Joke) Dec 22 Only

I'm a big fan of QuickBooks. It's the most friendly and forgiving accounting software on the market. The forgiving part can also be it's biggest weakness but that's a story for another day.

According to the Practical QuickBooks blog, on Monday Dec 22 ONLY, you can get a copy of Quickbooks 2009 Pro at Staples for FREE.

The regular price at Staples is $199.99, you will get a $40 "instant savings", and then a $159.99 mail in rebate.

We are still on QB version 2006 at NewPointe but with this deal, it's time to upgrade. See you at Staples on Monday.

Unreal, Unbelievable, Outstanding

These are a few words that describe the opening of our Christmas Eve service. My buddy Dave Mast graciously pulled me away from some year end payroll process by asking me if I wanted to see what he's been working on.

Off we went to the auditorium. All I can give away / say is we rented some "sweet" effects equipment for Christmas Eve and you will love it. I sure did.

Hope you are planning on attending one of our three service times. 2:30, 4:30 or 6:30

SIMPLE IRA

Recently, I was asked what type of retirement plan if any I have available to me as an employee of NewPointe. I'm happy to say I have a SIMPLE IRA and I've been participating in it for years.

SIMPLE IRA stands for Savings Incentive Match Plans for Employees (SIMPLE) IRAs are fairly simple to administer, no-hassle IRA plans that offer a great benefit for employees in any "small business".

SIMPLE IRAs allow employees under age 55 to contribute up to $10,500 in 2008 of their annual income to the plan. Employers match this amount as part of the process. Employees are then vested and are eligible to receive this money upon reaching retirement age. Matching contributions by the business are tax deductible.

For the business owner, the only drawback of this type of retirement plan is that the employees doesn’t have to earn his or her vesting, but is vested once the account is opened. That means matching someone dollar for dollar up to 3% from the day they start participating in the plan. That's not that bad but it can hurt if the employee does not stick around very long.

So, now you know. NewPointe uses a SIMPLE IRA

Cool & Simple Year-End Tax Tip

Here's a simple tax tip that will save you money if you have a mortgage on your home.

I'm betting your next mortgage payment is due Jan 1st, 2009. That mortgage payment is made up of interest and principal. I just checked my mortgage statement and interest is approximately $275 of my next payment.

If I make my payment a few days before Jan 1st and the bank posts my payment on or before December 31st. I'll get to take the interest off as part of my 2008 taxes. So paying January's payment a few days early will save me approximately $70 in tax assuming a 25% tax bracket. That's about three weeks of free gas in my tank. I'll take that.

So, if you itemize on your tax return, consider making your January payment in December. It's an easy way to put some money back into your pocket.

It Starts this Sunday . . . .

I know everyone, including myself is thinking almost exclusively about Christmas. I'm very much looking forward to time with family and friends. But take a moment and think with me past Christmas into the new year. Not New Years but into the new year.

Christmas has come and gone, New Year's eve was safe and relatively uneventful and now it just winter. What could you possible do? How about getting your financial house in order. Yep, it's that time. The next round of Financial Peace University classes is about to begin.

As I've stated before, FPU is a life changing class that brings HOPE. Come see me in the main Atrium this Sunday at NewPointe. I'll be there to answer your questions and sign you up for this round of classes.

Those who do can't come to NewPointe for FPU can click HERE and type in your zip code to find a class in your area. If you can't find one close to you, start one in your church. That's what I did and 6 years later, I've got story after story after story of how I've gotten to be part of life change.

ID Theft Survey

The Ohio Treasurer of State's office is trying to get a feel for and if ID theft is effecting people. Richard Cordray, The State Treasurer has put out an 11 question survey to gather ANONYMOUS information regarding ID theft.

The survey took me less the 3 minutes to complete. Please click HERE and participate along with me in the survey.

In my opinion, the number one way to stop your own ID theft is to FREEZE your credit. I've done this already. What's keeping you from doing it? To learn more about freezing your credit report, you can go to annual credit report.com Do not go to free credit report.com. It's not free.

$150 in your pocket for opening up a checking account

Yep, you read the title correctly. National City Bank, soon to be PNC is offering a $150 VISA card if you open up a "free" checking account by 12/31/08.

There are two hoops you have to jump through to get the $150.

1. Withing 60 days of opening up the account, you have to have at least $250 from your paycheck direct deposited into your new National City account.
   
   
2. Within 60 days of opening up the account, you have to use your debit card 10 time.

Ok, these are the hoops, but are there any other benefits to the "free" checking account? Yes there are.

1. Free use of ATMs
2. Free unlimited personal checks
3. Free online banking and bill pay
   
4. No minimum balance

$150 is a lot of money and it's not often you get something for free. This is an offer worth considering.

Is the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit a good thing?

When I first heard about this tax credit, I thought to myself, "who'll qualify for this? No one I know. the window of opportunity is to narrow. You have to purchase your first house between April 9th and July 1st of 2008."

Low and behold, I got an email from my good friend and bicycle mechanic Bill G. today. Bill works on my bike and I do his taxes. (Who's getting the better deal here? I'm getting off track.) Anyway, Bill and his wife Amy did buy their first house between those two dates andthey qualifies for the credit. It's up to $7,500.

On the surface, this looks like a great deal for anyone who qualifies. You'll get this refundable tax credit when you file your 2008 taxes. So do them as soon as you can.

There is a catch. This is really an interest free loan from the government/IRS. You have to start paying back this credit/this loan in 2010 and over a 15 year period. So, assuming you get the maximum credit of $7,500, you'll be paying back $500 a year for 15 years. If you sell your home prior to paying off this loan, the government will get paid off from the proceeds of the sale.

So I ask, is this a good deal or not? An interest free loan is appealing but a loan is a loan no matter what and as the Bible clearly states, the borrower is slave to the lender. (Proverbs 22:7) Personally, I do not want to be in bondage to the government/IRS for 15 years. With that said, if you could / would use this credit to clean up some other debts then this could be a good deal for you. But I have learned that having debt is usually a symptom not the problem in and of itself.

Google Friends Connect

I just added Google Friends Connect to my blog. Friends Connect is an extremely simple way to make any website you have a bit more social.

Visitors to any site using Google Friend Connect will be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends, or, using secure authorization APIs, with existing friends from social sites on the web, including Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, orkut, Plaxo, and more.

Who'll be the next one to join as my Friend? Jon was the first. Thanks Jon!

E-Layaway

Do you remember the days when stores offered Layaway? I do. I always thought this was a great idea for consumers. It guaranteed the item you wanted would be there, allowed you to pay for it interest free over time, and even provided storage for the item until you had it paid in full.

Well, Layaway is making a comeback. Not only in stores but now online. Wa-la, E-Layaway. According to E-Layaway's web site, it lets you buy the products and services that you want by paying for them through manageable monthly payments that you set. You can pick between 3 to 13 months of layaway. E-Layaway will automatically deduct the payments from your bank account and will ship your order once it's paid in full. E-Layaway has over 1,000 merchants participating with them.

One of the best things about this service is no CREDIT CARDS. So, check out the web site and maybe give it a try.

Thinking about your Income Taxes yet?

I am. Here's why. I'll be receiving just 2 more paychecks in 2008. So, I've got 2 opportunities to make some changes to my withholding that could put some serious money in my pocket in December.

What am I talking about and how does this work? Great questions. I'm glad I asked them.

Here's what I did. I took my wife's and my last pay stub amounts and projected out the next two pays to see what our 2008 totals will be. Then I basically plugged this information into TuborTax's free tax calculator to see what my 2008 tax return could possible look like.

In doing this, if you find out you'll be expecting a large refund, you could adjust or even stop your federal income tax withholding for the next 2 pays and put that money in your pocket right now as apposed to waiting until you do your taxes and then get it back in a refund.

In doing this exercise I can put just over $300 in my pocket in December. I'd much rather have this $300 now than wait until March or April.

Things I'm Thankful for

Happy Thanksgiving to you. As I await the trip to my grandmothers house for Thanksgiving, I wanted to post some things that I am thankful for today.

1. My wife and 2 kids
2. My 2 dogs
3. Knowing I have eternal life
   
4. Sunshine on Thanksgiving day
5. NewPointe Community Church
6. Being on staff at NewPointe
7. Podcasts
8. Financial Peace
9. 80's music
10. Great home roasted coffee. I'm enjoying a cup right now
11. My bicycle - 3,000 miles on it this year
12. Friends
13. My small group
14. Having an emergency fund
15. Health
    

Saving your Excel spreadsheets as a PDF for "Free"

This is a more technical post from me than normal. But I'm so keyed about this I want to share it. I use Microsoft Excel everyday and I often share or "publish" my results with others. A lot of times all the end user needs to see is the summary spreadsheet or a graph that I have put together for them. They don't need or want all the rows and columns of data.

Today, I came across this tip. For the first time ever, Excel 2007 enables you to save your workbook files directly in a PDF format. All you have to do is download and install the "Excel Microsoft Save as PDF" Add-in program for the Microsoft Web site.

Once installed just click on the "Save as" option and pick pdf. Way cool and a great tool for those who use Excel a lot and want to share and protect their reports.

Your Credit Score for free

As most people know, you have been able to get your credit report from each of the three reporting agencies free once each year. I'm guessing you didn't know that you can now get your credit score free. A credit score is one of the most important components of a consumer's financial profile.

So how do you get this for free? Check out Credit Karma.com. It has recently been featured in the Wall Street Journal and USA today. There's no credit card required and no monthly or sneaky fees.

Here's what Credit Karma states on it's web site. Credit Karma is a completely free pro-consumer service dedicated to demystifying the credit landscape. With our credit simulators, free credit scores, credit advice, and credit score comparisons, our goal is to empower consumers to more actively manage their credit and their financial health.

So, know thy score and be empowered.

These stores are a closing. . . (Gift Cards take 2)

I penned / typed a post on 11/12 warning about giving gift cards this Christmas as a number of well known stores may not be around come the first of the year.

Today I received an email listing out a number of stores as reported by the Securities and Exchange Commission that will not be here next year. Take a look and don't purchase gift cards to these stores.

Ann Taylor closing 117 stores

Eddie Bauer closing 27 stores

Cache will close all stores

Talbots closing down all stores

J. Jill closing all stores

GAP closing 85 stores

Footlocker closing 140 stores

Levitz closing down remaining stores

Bombay closing remaining stores

Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January.

Whitehall closing all stores

Piercing Pagoda closing all stores

Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.

Macys to close 9 stores after January

Linens and Things closing all stores

Movie Galley Closing all stores

Pacific Sunware closing stores

Pep Boys Closing 33 stores

Sprint/ Nextel closing 133 stores

JC Penney closing a number of stores after January

Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.

Wilson Leather closing down all stores

Sharper Image closing down all stores

K B Toys closing 356 stores

Loews to close down some stores

Dillard's to close some stores

Is this to much work for 4.5% interest?

I love searching the net and my local newspaper to insure that I'm getting one of the highest rates available for my emergency fund and savings. I'm currently with Emigrant Direct paying 3% and Amtrust Direct paying 2.75%. Both banks are paying much higher rates than any local banks in my area.

So today, while cruising BankRate.com, I came across an ad stating 4.5% on my checking account. Now, I don't typically leave my "savings" in my checking account but at 4.5% I needed to check this out. Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union is the bank paying 4.5%.

There are some hoops you need to jump through each month to get this rate. Here's the hoops:

1. Must use your Debit card for a minimum of 12 purchases a month. (This is how they pay you 4.5% as the fees they are charging the merchants for your debit card transactions cover your interest payments.)
   
2. Set-up direct deposit or one monthly recurring debit.
3. Sign up for electronic statements. No paper.
   

So, is it worth the hassle? I'd say . . . . No for a number of reason.

1. Are you really going to keep track of how many debit card transaction you do each month?
2. The 12 debit card transactions, is this in a calendar month or is it something different like the 15th to the 15th?
3. You're checking account is one of the worst places to keep your savings / excess cash. It will leave and get spent on some impulse purchase.
4. If you're not keeping a large balance in your checking account and I'm saying you shouldn't, then 4.5% on let's say $150 is your average monthly balance, your only talking about $6.75 a year. Skip a few sodas and you'll save that in a month.

Anyway, these are my thoughts on high interest rate checking accounts. Do you agree or not?

Savings with a specific goal in mind. . . .

I'm always on the lookout for great savings rates and opportunities. With Christmas right around the corner, yes it's next month, I'm very thankful Cindy and I started saving for it back in January. I'm never really happy to see that savings allocation go down but hey, that's what we saved it for.

The other day while reading my favorite personal financial magazine, Kiplingers, I came across a short article titled "Christmas Club 2.0". It was touting a web site SmartyPig.com.

Smarty Pig is a free FDIC-insured saving account at Iowa's West Bank, earmarked for a specific goal like Christmas. Really you can use it for anything you want to save for. Why use Smarty Pig? Glad you asked there are some really cool features / benefits here.

1. They are currently paying 3.9%. This is an outstanding rate right now.
2. You can make your savings goal public and friends and family can chip in toward you goal.
3. Smarty Pig has partnered with 25 retailers like Amazon.com and others and if you use a gift card at one of these retailers the retailer kicks in "bonus" of up to 5%.

So pick a goal and get started. Save up and pay cash.

Tuscarawas County Ohio . . . . (Big Deer)

I love Tuscarawas County. This is where I live. I love it most of all for the challenging hills and roads that cut through these hills. But I'll save my biking stories for another day.

Today this short post is about my buddy John Carpenter. John attends NewPointe and he loves to bow hunt. I enjoy listening to his stories about "The big deer" that he didn't have a shot at.
We'll this year he got the "Bull of the woods" This deer is unbelievable. If you are into deer hunting, John's deer is going to be scored this weekend. I'm sure it will end up in the record books.

Congratulations John!

Long term care insurance

I bet you didn't know that November was Long-term care insurance month. If you or your parents are over 55, you'd better start working this coverage into your monthly budget.

In a nutshell, LT care insurance covers things like nursing home stays. The average daily cost right now in a nursing home is $140 a day. That's over $4,000 a month. Ouch!

Do you want to know more about LT care insurance for you or your parents? On November 13th and again on the 21st from 9 AM to 6 PM est the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI) will answer your questions FREE (one of my favorite words) of charge. Just call 877-547-8471 and ask away. I'll be calling.

Retirement has changed and long-term care insurance needs to be part of your plan.

Gift Cards for Christmas. . . . Bad Idea this year

Normally, I'm a big fan of gift cards. One, they are easy to buy and in my home town, if I purchase the gift card(s) at Giant Eagle, I get $0.10 off a gallon of gas for every $50 spent. Anyway, that's another story. Two, getting a gift card as a gift let's me purchase something I want or need. Then I follow-up with a letter letting the person know what I purchased with their gift card to me.

So with both sides of the gift card transaction being a good deal, why stay away from them this Christmas? Ah, great question. Thus my post.

As we are all well aware, our economy stinks right now and there's big projections that this Christmas shopping season will be a bust for retailers. If this ends up being so, a lot of retailers won't be in business next year.

If you happened to give or received a gift card from a retailer who's no longer in business, your gift card is worth Zero. Think this can't happen? Just last month a local restaurant that was in business for well over 15 years was open for business one day and was closed the next. So it does happen.

So, If you were thinking of getting me a gift card this Christmas, you can just give me cash. (Just kidding.) But stick to the largest of retailers like Amazon.

Mr. Excel. . . . What a resource

I just got off the phone with my buddy and "sounding board" Dave Moore. Among other things, we were talking budgets. (It's that time of year you know.) This lend into a conversation regarding the use of Microsoft Excel and multiple tabbed spreadsheets as part of the budget process. (I love this stuff.)

For me, Excel is right up there with sliced bread. It's a great thing that make my life better. One of the Excel resources I use and just turned Dave onto is Mr. Excel. Mr. Excel, Bill Jelen, is unbelievable in his knowledge of Excel. The tips and tricks I've learned from him has saved me hours and hours of time and that translates into big $$.

A great way to check out Mr. Excel is through Itunes. Bill has a FREE daily video podcast of 2 - 3 minutes in length. If you'd consider yourself an Excel intermediate or advanced user, you've got to check out the podcast. You'll be amazed at the new stuff you learn.

Red Pig Award

Ok, as an accountant some would say I'm not the most creative guy they know. Every once in a while I come up with some pretty creative ideas if I do say so myself. . . . Enter the Red Pig Award.

With the help of my right hand person here at NewPointe, Anita, we purchased a box full of Red piggy banks that I now keep in my office. I'm using these Red pigs to pass out to staff members when they creatively save the church money. (I get to define the word "creative".)

I having lots of fun with the piggy banks by doing two things with them before I hand them out. First, I write a thank you note to the receipieint right on the side of the pig. Thanking them for saving the church $$. Second and probably more fun for them, I put some coin in the bank for them to spend.

Here's a picture of me and Jean Vacha. Jean is our cafe and kitchen team member. She's incredible when it come to food. Jean got the first Red Pig Award becuase she spent a total of only $50 for deserts in the upcoming Married Life Live. That's incredible considering there will be over 300 people in attendnace.

So, what do you think? Is this a creative idea for an accountant or what?

It's budget season

It's one of my favorite times of year at NewPointe. It's budget season. I along with the rest of the staff are putting dollars to the ministry needs of 2009. Please don't get me wrong. Ministry is not about dollars but it does take dollars to do ministry.

One of the major areas of responsibility for me is our budget. Here are a some of the though process I go through in working on our budget.

1. What's our average attendance per month and the average giving per attandee?
   
2. How many Sundays are there per month.
3. Do I see average attendance and giving per attendee staying the same, going up or going down?
4. Where does each ministry stand in terms of our current year's budget and what was actually invested in that ministry year-to-date.
   
5. Do we need additional staff?
6. Do we need to make major repairs that need to be planned for? (resurfacing our parking lot in 2010 $40,000)
7. Each Ministry Director is asked to allocate there financial need on a month-by-month basis and put this information into a spreadsheet I've designed.
8. I combine all spreadsheets into one master budget.
9. The budget is entered into our accounting system. (QuickBooks)
10. I'm able to monitor actual verses budget during the year.

Big savings on a cell phone battery

Yesterday, I took my 13 year old daughter to the Alltel store to have her contacts transferred from her broken phone to her new used phone. We paid $20 for her new used phone. Thanks Anita!

While at the Alltel store, we discovered that her new phone needed a new battery. Alltel was happy to sell me one. The price $65.99. Ouch. I politely said thanks and we'd have to think about it.

I went home and logged into Ebay. It's a fantastic source for batteries. I purchased the same exact battery for $2.79 including free shipping. This is a 96% savings. I'm all for Alltel making a profit on replacement batteries but this big of a difference in price is a bit much.

The lesson learned, it's worth shopping around verses impulse buying even on small items like a cell phone batteries.

An easy way to same some money on your car

Quickly answer this. . . . How many miles between oil changes? I bet you said every 3,000 miles right? We'll you'd be wrong. Every 3,000 miles is what those quick lube places and dealerships put on that window sticker when you get your oil changed.

What you need to do is check your owners manual. I'll bet you'll find it recommends every 5,000 miles between oil changes. That's an extra 2,000 miles between changes. If you drive 15,000 miles a year, this means 2 less oil changes a year. This saves you time and money. At $30 per oil change, that's $60 in your pocket.

If you really want to save some green, do your own oil change. You can do it yourself for less than $20. I changed my own oil last weekend.

I've got a VW diesel my owners manual says to change the oil one a year or every 10,000 miles which ever comes first. So, every 3,000 would be a big waist of money and time for me.

Could you 401K be going away?

If House Education & Labor Committee Chairman George Miller D-California, and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, get their way, we can say good-bye to our 401k. These guys are looking at redirecting those tax breaks to a new system of "guaranteed retirement accounts" to which all workers would be obliged to contribute. I don't like the idea of the government controling my retirement account. This scares the pants off of me.

Under this plan, all workers would receive a annual inflation-adjusted subsidy from the U.S. government but would be required to invest 5 percent of their pay into a guaranteed retirement account administered by the Social Security Administration. The money in turn would be invested in special government bonds that would pay 3 percent a year, adjusted for inflation.

The current system of providing tax breaks on 401(k) contributions and earnings would be eliminated.

Here's a link to the full story as reported in Workforce Magazine.

Freeze - Is $10 worth some great peace of mind?

$10 is all it cost me, I should say is what I invested, to put Security Freezes on all three of the credit reporting agencies. The costs vary by state but here in Ohio here was the costs

1. TransUnion - Free
2. Experian $5
3. Equifax $5

The entire process took me less than 15 minutes.

Here's why it's money very well spent. According to a new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) study, 8.3 million U.S. adults become victims of ID theft each year. Consumers Union estimates that this amounts to more than 22,000 victims per day and 15 victims per minute.

A security freeze lets you stop identity thieves from opening new accounts in your name. So, even if thieves get a hold of your personal information, they can't do anything with it. This is huge! The freeze stops new potential creditors from seeing your consumer credit report and credit score. When you want to use your own credit record, you open your file with a PIN.

So, with your next paycheck, budget in the $10 and invest 15 minutes and FREEZE your Credit.

If you live in a state other than Ohio, click here to see what the fees are for your state.

A 30,000% return on an investment. (Wow!)

Yep, you read this right, a 30,000% return. This was a result of our FPU class last week. This session was one of my favorites as it's the lesson titled "Clause and Effect". This lesson educates class participants about all the different types of insurance.

In this lesson, Dave Ramsey does a fantastic job in explaining the difference between cash value life insurance and term insurance. I'm with Dave on this that term insurance is the only way to go for 98% of us. This lesson also is typically where participants save lots of money by switching from their old cash value policy to a good term policy.

This was the case with one couple in our class. They had been paying into a cash value policy for 15+ year. When they canceled their policy, the received the cash value. Are you ready for this? the check they received was for $30,000.

Had this couple not invested the $99 NewPointe charges to take FPU, they'd still be paying their monthly premium and the insurance company would have the $30,000.

With a good term life insurance policy in place and $30,000 in their pocket, this couple is well on their way to Financial Peace.

$30,000 on a $100 ($99 class cost) investment is a 30,000% return.

Here's what you missed. . . . (Motorcycles in service)

Ok, I made a short post on 10/9/08 regarding this past Sunday's service here at NewPointe. If you didn't make it here, check out this picture to see what you missed.

(We have a great volunteer photographer who captures the essence of Sunday mornings so well. Thanks Paul for using your talents to honor God!)


Part of Dwight's message was about God's power verses our own power. He used the motorcycles as a great visual. It was really cool to watch these bikes ride around the auditorium in the middle of service. I'm sure people will be talking about this for some time to come as it was very engaging. Way to go Dwight!

Ways to stand out at work

A few days ago, I had someone come up to me and thank me for the work I did for them. At the time, I didn't think much about it. Later I reflected on their comments and realized the simple things can make a big difference at work and at life.

Here are a few things I do that could help you stand out at work.

1. Respond quickly to someone's request. Even if all you can do at the time is let them know you'll get them the information by "x" date with every intention of gettting it to them sooner. So many times we request something of others via email or voicemail and with no response from them, we wonder if they even got our message.
2. On you're voice mail, as part of your message, ask people how you can help or serve them best when you call them back. I find by asking this, I get much better messages left for me and I'm able to have their answer when I return the call versed calling them back to ask what they wanted when the left me their voice mail.
   
3. If you can't give a person what they are requesting of you, give them alternatives. For example here at NewPointe, we get lots of requests to "borrow or rent" stuff. We tell them we are not able to do this and here are two sources we call when we want to rent this item. (People are turning to you because they want you to help them get solutions.)
4. Get on the solution side of a problem. Complaining is not a strategy. Look for and suggest answers that help move everyone forward.
5. Always end a conversation by asking a person is their anything else I can do for you? Most of the time the other person will say no but this is a great way to end.
   
   

Perspective. . . . on the market

I'm a facts based guy. So when I look at something or make decisions, I want to see the data. If you look at the stock market through a very narrow time frame, you'll be scared silly. Here's what you need to think about to get some perspective.

1. 100% of the 10 year periods in the history of the stock market has made money.
   
2. 97% of the 5 year periods in the history of the stock market has made money.
3. Since 1970, 38 years, the market has gone down 10% or more 10 time. 9 of those 10 times it completely recovered everything it lost within 2 years. And the first year it came back after it bottomed it averaged a 33% rate of return.
4. When the current market bottoms and you miss the upswing, you will be mad as . . . . if you panicked and sold out.
5. So relax, take a deep breath and count your blessings in life.
   

Don't miss this Sundays service

I don't usually blog about our Sunday service. There's lots of other NewPointe bloggers who do a great job with this topic. (Check out John Bunn's blog).

But this Sunday will include a visual that I'd venture to say has never been seen or done in any church before. Let's just say it's got me all revved up.

You need to be in the auditorium at either our 9 or 11 a.m. service to be part of this. Don't be late.

What financial crisis?

Ok, now that the title of this post got your attention, here's my thoughts / perspective on the current financial crisis. I, like everyone else who participates in some sort of retirement plan have seen my balance take a nose dive. I'm not happy about this but I'm also not fearful. Why no fear? I'm putting my trust in God not myself.

So, with that said, here are my thoughts.

1. God owns it all anyway.
   
2. Bear markets have come and gone before. This will pass.
   
3. With the market down this much, It's really the best time to buy as everything is on sale. Stick with mutual funds and stay away from individual stocks.
   
4. Keep investing into your retirement plan. Your buying more shares with the same dollars.
5. Stop looking at your investment value on a daily basis. This will drive you nuts.
6. Turn off the news. Their job is to evoke emotion and they are doing a good job of this right now.
   
7. I'm an even bigger fan now of life cycle funds. Most retirement plans now offer them. Consider putting some of your allocation into one of these types of funds.
8. Saving faithfully over time will always build wealth. It just takes a little while.
9. Start or continue to give. God will bless you for it. Stay faithful to him. It's easy to give when times are good. Giving in rough financial times points your heart toward Him.
10. Don't borrow any new money for anything.
    

So, in summary, keep everything in perspective, God owns it all. Make sure you have a plan and work that plan. 5-10 years from now, we won't be talking about this financial crisis.

The NewPointe Staff

I'm very proud and thankful to get to do ministry and life with the staff of NewPointe. I wanted to share this great picture of us with you.

It was taken just before we departed from our staff retreat to head back to the real world.

Can you find me in the picture?

4.35% 6 month CD

No joke and this is a great rate right now. I've used Amtrust Direct as one of my tow online savings accounts for years. They have lots of branches in the Cleveland Ohio area.

If you've got some savings laying around in low interest bearing accounts, you should consider this 6 month CD.

Another 2008 Goal met

I like setting goals. It drives me to grow. Today I've met another personal goal. I now weigh less thank 170lbs. Ok, 169.6 to be exact but it's under 170 none the less. I weighted 184 at the first of the year.

I set goals in every area of my life because it keeps me from drifting and just going through the motions.

As a result of some current reading that I'm doing, NewPointe's current series, One Month to Live, and our Staff retreat, I've come up with 10 daily goals. I carry these in my wallet and review them every day.

1. Pray
2. Value my family
3. Put people before things
4. Server someone
5. Encourage someone
6. Develop a thankful spirit
7. Smile (It's the key to health)
8. Exercise
9. Be open to new ideas
10. Treat everyone with respect