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.