Three "Simple" New Years Financial Resolutions

2008 is almost here. Most people will make at least on New Years Resolution and like most people the resolution will not be kept very long. I want to suggest a few Financial Resolutions that will be easy to keep and will bring you closer to Financial Freedom by this time next year.

1. Save something each paycheck. You have to make savings a priority and do it consistently. The hardest thing about saving money is getting into the habit. This year, try saving just $10 or $20 from each paycheck in a high yield savings account. I use Amtrust Direct. It's currently paying 5.11% To make this easier, have the money automatically deducted from your paycheck so you never see it. Most people can easily come up with a small amount to save each pay period just by sacrificing one lunch or dinner out.
   
   
2. Learn something about finance. It doesn’t matter what you choose to learn, but take the time to learn one new thing about personal finance. One of the best ways to learn is to take Financial Peace University. (This Sunday is the last day to sign up for Jan 15th class at NewPointe.) If you can't take the FPU class right now, you can get books from the library, read personal finance or business magazines and newspapers, or read finance articles on the web. (Yahoo finance)
   
   
3. Attack one debt. Just one. Whether it’s a student loan, a credit card, or a car loan, vow to pay off just one debt this year (and then don’t replace it with another debt). The satisfaction you’ll get from paying off that one thing will probably push you to pay off more. But even if it doesn’t, you’ve still kept your resolution because you paid off one debt. That’s one more debt you won’t be carrying next year.
   

All three of these Resolutions are easy to do and I hope you will do them all. Happy New Year and heres to your Financial Freedom!

Get Ready for Next Christmas

Merry Christmas to you. I hope your's was memorable and you spent a little bit of time reflecting on God's goodness.

As i sit here typing the day after Christmas with the rest of my family still sleeping, my thoughts turn to the new year that's just around the corner and Christmas 2008. I must admit, this Christmas was pretty stress free and I want next Christmas to be the same.

One of the best ways to make Christmas stress free is to have cash set back to pay for all those gifts you are going to buy. One of the biggest stress causers at Christmas time is anticipating January's credit card bill. (You know what I'm talking about.)

Here's a great plan for next Christmas.

1. Sit down and figure out how much you spent on this Christmas. Let's say it was $800
2. Add 15% to this number. $120 ($800+$120 = $920)
3. Take this number and divide it by the number of paychecks you get in 2008 less 2. I get paid every other week (26) less (2) is 24. $920/24 = $38.34 per pay.
4. Open up a separate savings account an put this amount in it every pay. At the end of November, you'll have the $920 to do you Christmas shopping.
   

One other great plan is do steps 1 & 2. Then take this amount from your tax refund and put it in savings. Not only will you have the $920 right away, you'll be receiving interest on it all year long.

Merry Chrismas

Credit Card compaines were sued and lost? $$ for you.

If you did any foreign traveling between 1996 and 2006 and used a credit card while on that trip, you have some money coming from your credit card company.

The U.S. District Court reached a $336 million dollar settlement with Visa, MasterCard and Diners Club for foreign based transaction fees charged to credit card users.

You have three refund options and the majority of those claiming a refund will select option #1 which is worth $25. The simplest way to claim the refund is to go to www.ccfsettlement.com or dial 1-800-945-9890.

Be watching your mailbox for a letter from the U.S. District Court. It's worth at least $25 to you.

There here.

Yesterday, UPS brought me my first Christmas present. Well it wasn't really a Christmas present but I was as excited as a 8 year old kid at Christmas.

The new Financial Peace University Kits arrived.


In looking through the information, FPU has changed some things up a little bit and I'm excited about it.

Why do I get so "jacked" about FPU? Because I believe until your finances are in order and your are doing finances God's way, you will never reach your full God given potential. (No ifs, ands, or buts)


I can't wait to get started with this round of classes. We kick off January 15th. You still have time to sign-up. Leave me a comment if you are ready to get on the road to financial freedom

One Pig. . . .

Christmas time is in the air at our house. We have had a fire burning all day long and Cindy is busy baking Christmas cookies. We have the Musacchia (my mom's side of the family) family Christmas party tomorrow in my home town. I've played Burl Ives's "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" CD three times today.

With the snow and now rain falling outside, I took the opportunity for some good old "Griswald" (Christmas Vacation) family fun. My family sat down in the kitchen for a few games of UNO (One) and Pig (a dice like game where you role two pigs to score points) "Get the post title now? "One Pig"? I thought it was funny.

It was great just sitting around with the entire family spending some on TV time together. We laughed, poked fun of each other and smiled a lot. Most of all we enjoyed each other. Sure sounds like the Christmas spirit to me.

Merry Christmas.

Office Christmas gift or not?

Well do you or don't you? Why does the topic of office Christmas gifts cause stress? We all want to show appreciation for those we work with as we spend more time with our co-workers then some family members. But who do you buy for and where do you cut it off?

A general rule of thumb is you don't need to buy for your boss. If you feel compelled to do so, make it a small gift from the entire department or staff. That usually works best.

It's ok to purchase a gift for your assistant or someone who reports to you. But be careful, you don't want to give anything that's too personal. Anything that touches the person's skin is a "no no". (Lotions, jewelry, etc)

If you are going to purchase a gift for a co-worker, do it when no one else is around. This will prevent hurt feelings for those who you didn't get a gift.


Finally, just in case you are wondering, no need to get me anything.

Are you ready?

Yesterday was the first day to sign up for our next round of Financial Peace University (FPU) classes here at NewPointe. I'm very excited to get started as Dave Ramsey has redone / updated the FPU kits.

If you are thinking about taking FPU, don't wait to sign up. You have two more weekends to do so. Class begins Jan15th @ 7 pm and runs for 13 weeks.

I get so pumped being part of life change. Obtaining financial freedom opens the door to fulling following Christ. FPU gives your the tools and skills to become financially free. So, are you ready? I know I am.

Credit Card Interest . . . . Well Duh

As I was getting ready to leave the house today for work, I caught out of the corner of my eye some lady on the news testifying about her interest rate on her credit card. I didn't pay much attention to it and went out into the snow.

I looked at the business section of our local paper online and the lead story's title is Card rate changes catch many unaware. The story goes on to tell how this same lady from the news thinks it's unfair that her credit card company raised her rate from 18% to 24.4%.

I'm not going to get into is this fair or why she has a balance on her credit card. My thoughts in all of this is as Dave Ramsey says, Credit Cards Reek. You will never experience financial freedom using credit cards as your emergency fund. 18% or 24.4% it doesn't matter. You have to come up with a financial game plan that excludes the use of credit cards.

By the way, here at NewPointe, we start sign-ups this weekend for Financial Peace University. The next round of classes start Jan. 15th. This class is life changing. I can't wait to get started.

Is it just me or is food costing more?

Over the last month or two, I've noticed in doing our cash flow plan that the amount of money Cindy and I allocate for groceries isn't going as far as it once did. I had heard that food prices were rising and the story I read in Kiplingers Personal Finance magazine confirmed it.

1. Food and beverage prices are rising at a 4.4% annual rate
2. Dairy prices are up 13% overall and up 26% for a gallon of milk. (That really hurts as my family goes through 3 gallons a week.)
3. Meat prices are up 6%
4. Bakery products are up 4.6%
   

Other than confirming the reason our food budget isn't affording us what it use to I'm sharing this to point out how important it is to have financial margin in your life. I know there's great financial pressure on people today and when costs rise on necessities it either cuts into your margin or it stress you out.

For me, having no debt except for my mortgage means rising food costs reduces my margin a little bit. The key is to eliminate your consumer debt ASAP!

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Outstanding

Yesterdays service was outstanding. The Christmas spirit was flowing here at NewPointe. In addition to the dozen first time families that were here this weekend, NewPointers adopted 50+ in need families to support this Christmas. Way cool! (Outstanding.)

In my last post, I gave you a preview of the stage. Thanks to Paul Rothel, our wonderful volunteer photographer, I can share this picture taken yesterday. Paul does great work and consistently captures feeling with his pictures.


Two cool facts about the stage. The tallest tree is 20ft high. the two stockings are 9ft tall.

Sneak Peak

This Sunday is the first service of our new series titled, "All I want for Christmas." It's going to be very cool. A lot of volunteers have been working really hard to get our building looking the part for Christmas. Word has it that some were here until 2 a.m. last night. Unbelievable.

I think everyone will be amazed at how good the stage looks. Your going to get your sneak peak here from me. I snuck into the auditorium and snapped this picture while the team was working on the lights. You'll want to come Sunday to get the "true" feeling of the room. I got kicked out before I could get a better picture.

What's your financial Plan?

With only one month left in 2007, I've started gathering financial information from the year to do some planning for next year.

The week between Christmas and New Years, I sit down with my wife and we set some financial goals for the coming year. I believe very strongly that you have to have a financial plan and financial goals.

We look at the following areas in our financial goals:

1. In addition to tithing to NewPointe, how much are we going to give and to who are we going to give. God gave everything for and two us. He owns it all. By giving I'm showing God is first in our lives.
2. What are we saving for and how much.
   *Retirement plans at work
   *Roth IRA
   *Vacation fund
   *Christmas 2008
   *New to us (Used) car fund
3. Do we have any major appliance or home improvement projects in 2008?
4. Is it time to get our 15 year old his own checking account? (More on this topic later.)
5. We recently reviewed and I changed my life insurance so this is already checked off the list.

What other things should we include in our financial goal setting? Have any suggestions? Please share them with me.

Thanks

Speech, Speech,

Last month, I was asked to give a speech on financial stress to the employees of Union Hospital. Without hesitation I agreed. Why, because I love the topic of personal finance and this time of year financial stress it at the personal financial list.

In the first part of my talk, I'm going to share 7 practical ways to lesson financial anxiety during the Christmas season. Here are those tips.

1. Make a list of everyone you will be buying for this Christmas and put a dollar amount beside their name. Total the list. Is the total within your budget? If not, you must adjust the amount down.
2. Consider a gift exchange and remember to set a dollar limit.
3. Be creative. Make up certificates that say "This certificate is good for . . . ." Giving the gift of your time is worth way more than something purchased.
4. When you go shopping, go alone. A tired spouse or child may encourage you to impulsively buy so you can get home sooner.
5. Don't wait until the last minute to do all your shopping. This puts stain on your wallet. Spread your shopping out over weeks if not months.
6. Don't use a credit card. You'll be paying for Christmas for months to come and doing so could mean that gift ends up costing you 2 to 3 times as much as the original purchase price.
7. Jan 1, start planning/saving for next Christmas. If you spent $1,5oo this year then you need to save $136 a month from Jan thru Nov in 2008.

If you have read this post down to here, please say a pray for me for todays speech. I'm hoping that a door will be open and a life will be touched by what I share today.

Ever eat a Pomegranate?

If you ask my wife about my eating habits, she'd say I'm a health nut. I wouldn't go that far but I do prefer a banana over candy and I'm always on the look out for the fruit or vegetable of the season.

With Cindy's last grocery store run, She grocery shops once a week with a list and having a list will save you money, she purchased a Pomegranate. Pomegranate's even have their own web site. Www.Pomegranates.org. Who would have thought.

The fruit is really cool looking. It's bright red, has a great smell and the one I have is about the size of a softball. My son Chaz just walked by as I'm typing this and saw the Pomegranate and said "What the heck is that thing?" I told him and he still didn't know what it is.

Ok, confession time for me on this..... I had to go to the above linked web site to figure our how to get to the fruit. I must say it was very easy and I'll be purchasing Pomegranates on a regular basis from now on. Try one yourself and let me know what you think.

Always on the lookout. . . .

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and gave thanks for all the blessing in your life. I did.

I like to take some time over this long weekend to do some financial planning for the upcoming year. In doing that, I came across a good web site sponsored by the state of Ohio to help with personal finance. You should take note whenever the government gets involved in trying to educate people.

The web site is www.yourmoneynowonline.org. It is an educational financial site for all ages. Financial education is one of the main ways to help overcome financial stress that a lot of people are facing this time of year.

How about you. Do you have financial goals? If so please share one with me here. Here's one of mine for 2008. I want to save $50 per pay for / into our vacation fund.

Down Time

Every once in a while in my "Down Times", I like to play puzzles. I came across a great one thats called Kakuro.

Kakuro puzzles resemble cross-words with numbers; you have 'across' and 'down' clues, but instead of filling in letters, you must use the numbers 1-9

The aim of the game is to fill each blank square with a number from 1 to 9 to sum up to the clue associated with it. However, no number can be duplicated in an entry. For example a clue of 8 (over 2 squares) could be 1&7, 3&5, but not 4&4.

Give it a try next time you have "Down Time" the game is a lot of fun.

Off we go . . . .

It's 36 degrees outside and the white stuff is falling. What a great day to load up the bikes (5 of them) and hit the road. Myself, Bill G, Bud K, Scott W and Kevin B are heading down to Holly Springs NC to ride bicycle with our buddy Scott.

I'm really looking forward to getting away for a few days and riding hard. Last time we went down to ride with Scott, it was the beginning of the bike season in Ohio and I had to work hard to keep up with those NC bikers who had been riding for months. Now that I have 2,100 miles on my bike this year, I'm ready to ride up front with the "big dogs".

So, have a great weekend. I sure will.

Another FPU class in the Books

Last night was our last FPU class for 2007. These classes always go by fast. On one hand, it's sad when they end because members of the class form bonds through relationships of growing and sharing together and now we no longer meet on Tuesday nights. On the other hand, its exciting the life change that has taken place and the future these members have with financial tools at their disposal.

Here are some way cool results of this round of FPU.

1. Total debt paid off - $20,571
2. Total put into savings - $8,301
3. # of "Cash" envelopes being used - 103
4. # of financial success stories shared - dozens

A very big thanks to Larry & Mike for their time and leadership in co-leading this round of classes. You guys are great!

If you want to take control of your financial life, our next round of FPU classes will begin Jan 15th. Contact me via a comment if you are interested.

How much longer will we need "Cash"?

Looks cool, but is it going to replace your visa card?

Visa recently began promoting the Visa Micro Tag, a new key fob payment device embedded with Visa payWave, the company’s contactless technology feature. The Visa Micro Tag is designed to easily attach to a key ring, and allows cardholders to pay by simply waving their Visa Micro Tag in front of a contactless payment terminal.

Those with Visa payWave cards have the option of not having to sign for payments under $25. Just "wave and go".

There are two issues that may stop this form of payment before it even gets off the ground.

1. The RFID platform has been hacked a number of times already, proving that your key chain might be easier to access (wirelessly) than your back pocket.

2. The use of a PIN number is also not needed for smaller purchases, meaning that your keys may now become an easy target for thieves to score some quick cash.

Is technology going to far with something like this? What do you think?

Is it time for Holiday shopping?

This past weekend while watching college football, I saw my first Christmas commercial. It was advertising garmin gps systems. I remember the days when Holiday shopping didn't start until the day after Thanksgiving. Those days are long gone.

Today, nearly 40% of Holiday shoppers buy online. I do 99% of my shopping online. For those of you who still love "Black Friday", that's the day after Thanksgiving, I found a way to get a leg up on the crowds.

There is a web site called Black-Friday.net. It alerts you in advance to the ads printed in Thanksgiving Day newspaper circulars plus you'll find links to the products online so you don't have to wait outside a store in the dark.

Freeze those ID Theives

Almost 10 million people have their identity stolen and that wreaks havoc with their finances. We as consumers now have a new tool to block access to our credit report and score. This prevents anyone from granting credit to a identity thieves. What's that new tool? It's a credit freeze. A credit freeze gives consumers the choice to “freeze” or lock access to their credit file against anyone trying to open up a new account or to get new credit in their name.

When a credit freeze is in place at all three major credit bureaus, an identity thief cannot open a new account because the potential creditor or seller of services will not be able to check the credit file. When the consumer is applying for credit, he or she can lift the freeze temporarily using a PIN so legitimate applications for credit or services can be processed.

For more information on how to "freeze your credit" click on this link. www.consumberunion.org/securityfreeze.htm

Are Mutual Funds a bad buy?

This is a good question. Jason, left me a comment and asked me my opinion regarding an article he recently read on Bankrate.com from Phil Town and mutual funds.

The short version of the article is Phil Town doesn't like mutual funds. Keep in mind, Phil makes his living by selling books and "advising" people on how to make money in the stock market. One area I agree with Phil on is in most cases, you are much better off investing in an index fund than in a managed mutual fund.

Index funds beat 80% of managed funds each year. My investments, all mutual funds, include a number of index funds as they provide great diversification. (Diversification - to spread around)

In my opinion, Mutual Funds are the best investment vehicle for 99% of the people who invest.

IRS Web Scam

Be on the lookout for an email from the IRS. . . .

If you receive an email in your inbox saying the IRS has calculated your "fiscal activity" and that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of a certain amount, delete this email.

If you click on the link, you or type in the web address, you are sent to a website named "Get Your Tax Refund!" This site mimics the appearance of the genuine "Where's My Refund!"

Like the real site, taxpayers are asked to enter their Social Security Number and filing status. However, the phony site then asks for you credit card account number instead of the amount of the refund as shown on your tax return.

Always remember, the IRS doesn't contact taxpayers via email to advise them of refunds or to request financial Informaiton

All in good fun

This past Saturday, our family went to my cousins annual Halloween party. It's always lots of fun. Lots of family, laughs and good food. (Thanks Jackie & Tim)

Here's a picture of what Cindy and I went dressed as. What do you think?

Publish Post

Thinking about 2008 yet?

Have you given any thought to 2008 yet? The IRS has and they have made more than three dozen changes that will effect most all taxpayers.

For 2008, personal exemptions and standard deductions will rise, tax brackets will widen and workers will be able to save more for retirement, thanks to inflation adjustments announced last week by the IRS.

Here are a few changes worth noting.

• The value of each personal and dependency exemption, available to most taxpayers, is $3,500, up $100 from 2007.

• The new standard deduction is $10,900 for married couples filing a joint return (up $200), $5,450 for singles and married individuals filing separately (up $100) and $8,000 for heads of household (up $150). Nearly two out of three taxpayers take the standard deduction, rather than itemizing deductions, such as mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.
  
  
• The maximum Hope credit, available for the first two years of post-secondary education, is $1,800, up from $1,650 in 2007.

Take advantage of the changes to make adjustments to your withholding on your paycheck. Remember when you get a refund from your tax return, you have given the government a interest free loan for 15 - 18 months.

Financial Stress

I've been invited to speak to a local group next month on Financial Stress. My talk will focus a lot on the holiday season and it's effect on our financial lives.

There are lots of ways I could go with this talk. I've got 20 minutes to convey a message and give some tips and tools that will help ease this stress.

I'm interested in your thoughts, tips and suggestions on this topic. I'm asking for your help in what with my presentation.

Please comment with your suggestions.

Thanks

Goal Reached! - 2,000 miles!

If you live near me, you know the weather was unbelievable this past weekend. Sunday was sunny and in the upper 70's. I took full advantage of this.

I'm very excited to report that I've exceeded 2,000 miles on my bicycle this year. This is a mile stone for me as this farther than I've ever ridden by bike in a single season.

One of the important lessons I've learned in reaching this goal is. You have to set your goals a little out of reach. I really never thought I'd hit 2,000 miles. By setting your goals a little out of reach and then telling someone what your goal is, you work harder to achieve it.

The most important thing about goal setting is not actually reaching the goal but it is who you are becoming as you work toward reaching your goal.

29 More!

Another Tuesday night, another Financial Peace class here at NewPointe. I know I blog a lot on FPU. That's because this is where and how God is using me in the ministries of NewPointe. That gets me pumped.

I get very excited when members of our class come forward and give up their credit cards to be cutup and destroyed. As such, last night was a great night. Between two couples they turned over 29 credit cards. Check out this picture. That's a stack of cards.


If you come to NewPointe for worship over the next few weeks, you'll get to hear first hand stories of life change from some of the people who have taken FPU here. I can't wait for others to hear what I already know. You have to get your financial house in order before you can truly
worship God.

Who's helping you grow?

On the way into work this morning I was thinking about the guys I meet with or talk with on a regular basis that help me learn and grow. Each guy that came to mind influence me in a different area of my life.

Because we have spent time together, trust has grown, stories have been shared and in turn we have helped each other grow. Here are the areas I'm growing in because of them.

1. Spiritually
   
2. Accountability
   
3. Professionally
4. Relationally
5. Leadership
6. Husband
7. Father
8. Employee
9. Boss
10. Volunteer
    

I hope you have a few people in your life that you can look to for growth. I believe as you grow you are doing life the way it should be done.

Bill, Bill, and more Bills

I'm sitting at the bar in my kitchen as I've just finished paying my bills for the the next two weeks. Why the next two weeks? Thats a great question. I get payed every two weeks. Tomorrow is pay day.

I always sit down the night before I get paid and "spend" every dollar of my paycheck on paper. Some pays it goes better than others if you know what I mean. But hey, that's life.

I use an excel spreadsheet to do the number crunching. This makes it easier to go back and revise my allocations as i work through the bills. Believe it or not, I enjoy this process. Once your entire paycheck is spent on paper, it takes away managing your finances by crisis or impulse.

Here's a snapshot of the spreadsheet that I use.

1. I enter in my net pay and my wife's net pay along with any check book balance carryover and any miscellaneous deposits. This adds up to what is available to spend in the next two weeks.

2. Next, we start "spending" the money by entering amounts in column C. As I do this, the remaining dollars available to spend in column D get smaller and smaller. When I get to the bottom of the sheet, column D must equal zero.

3. As I spend money throughout this pay period, I enter these amounts in columns E - H and column I shows me how much I have left to spend in each category.

How about you? What method do you use to pay your bills?

Steps for Life

The staffers at NewPointe just completed an 11 week walking challenge. The goal for each participant was 10,000 steps a day.

The results are in and I'm quite happy with how things ended up. I came to find out that as a staff, we are a competitive bunch and each team (there were 3 teams of 7 people each)wanted to win. The winning team gets their car's washed by the loosing two team.

It was very close. Here are the total number of steps by team:

1st Place 7,229,860
2nd Place 7,150,349
3rd Place 7,079,567

On a personal note, I was very happy with how I did. Yes, I walked the most steps out of everyone.

I walked 1,667,772 steps in ll week or approximately 790 miles. That's way cool. On a side note, I only have 15 more miles to go pedaling my bicycle to reach my goal of 2,000 miles for the year.

bankrate.com and going green.

I love bankrate.com's web site. It's full of great financial information. The site focuses mostly on news, tips and advice to compare mortgage rates, home equity loans, CDs, car loans, credit cards and money market accounts.

Recently, They ran an article on living green. In fact, they list 153 ways to go green. You can link to the article here. I've been investigating how to go green around our house of late. Much to the chagrin of my wife, I'm replacing all of incandescent bulbs with Compact fluorescent bulbs.

Compact fluorescent bulbs use 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. They're more expensive than traditional light bulbs, but it only takes about 3 months to make up for the higher sticker price in energy savings.

You will save $85 over the life of the bulb for each 60-watt light bulb you replace with a 15-watt CFL. You'll also save 543 kWh of electricity and reduce your CO2 emissions by 833 pounds.

This is a simple and cool way to go green and save some green $$.

Fasting

I'm sharing something very personal here today. I'm doing so because after just finishing a fast, I believe it's something all Christ followers should do.

For some time now, I have sensed God wanting to deal with me regarding certain areas of my life. (God's good like that.) I knew this would be painful and I wanted to be "all in" and to be focused like a laser on God during this process.

In cooperating with God on this, I did a three day fast. The fast, along with many quiet times in prayer and reflection was life changing. I really focused on God and He did a work in my heart. I'm in awe at how I'm feeling right now. I wish I could stay here.

If you want to experience a breakthrough and let God do a work in your heart, consider fasting. It will rock your world.

IRS & Lesson Learned

Last week, here at work, I received a letter from the IRS. If you are anything like me, just seeing the envelope with "IRS Notice" gets your heart pumping a little faster.

Deep down, I had a feeling I knew what this notice was about. See during our reorganization time, I was late in filing our payroll deposit. I knew the IRS would come a knocking on this and rightfully so.

I opened the letter to see that NPCC was being assessed $381.30 in a penalty. Ouch. In reading through the letter and getting past the "warning" of additional penalties and interest if not paid by 9/17/2007, there's this section at the bottom of the letter stating "Removal of Penalties."

The IRS say's if you have reasonable cause the IRS would consider reducing or removing the penalties. That was my open door.

I wrote the IRS a letter laying out the reasons for my late filing and that I've never filed late in the past and I've taken steps to insure this doesn't happen again in the future.

I'm very pleased to say in the mail today was a letter from the IRS waving the $381.30 penalty.
If you've stayed with this post this long, thanks. The point of all this is to be proactive in all that you do. When you are wrong admit it. Don't try and hide it or make excuses. Take responsibility for your actions and learn.

Thanks IRS for the waived penalty and lessons learned.

RetailNeNot

I'm always looking for great ways to save money. Recently, I came across a web site called Retail MeNot. On this web site you enter a product you are looking at purchasing and if there's coupons or discounts on this product, RetailMeNot will provide you with printable coupons for it.

RetailMeNot provides a database of over 35,000 coupon codes, each of which is tagged according to its category, and rated by users according to its utility. The site offers discussion forums where members can swap shopping tips. You can also download a Firefox extension, a Mac Dashboard widget, or a quick-access bookmarklet to make finding coupon codes even simpler.

This weekend, I'll be using this site for a Papa John's pizza for a buy one get one for $0.99.

It keeps getting better

Last night was another great Financial Peace class. We began the night by cutting up 10 credit cards. That's 18 total for this class. Way cool!

After the credit card party, we started the DVD and learned all about investments. Here are a few key points when considering investing.

1. Savings would be defined as a period of 0 - 5 years.
2. Investing is anything over 5 years.
3. Playing individual stocks will on average get you a return of only 7%
4. Diversification (to spread around) is the most important part of your investment plan.
5. Pay off your consumer debt before you start investing.
6. The Roth IRA is a great investment choice.
   

Great Weather & Cool Pictures

This weekend was the best weather weekend of the year in my book. Low 80's no humidity and lots to sunshine. As such, I got to ride my bicycle both Saturday and Sunday. I rode a total of 68 miles. (By the way, I'm now over 1,800 miles ridden for the year. 2,000 miles is within reach.)

During my ride on Saturday, I came to find out that the Ohio Plein (Outdoor painting) Society was all over Tuscarawas county painting landscapes. So, After my ride, My wife and I borrowed my mother-in-law's convertible and headed out to take in the beauty of Tuscarawas county in the fall.

Here are a few pictures that I took. Enjoy.

One of the Ohio Plein Artists allowed me to take this picture.





One of the roads I ride down


I love Barns & there are lots of them in Tusc County

Minimum Payments. What is it costing you?

Let's face it. The interest you pay on your credit card debt is like throwing money away. This is a blanket statement but what is credit card debt really costing you?

If you are making the minimum payment on your credit card each month their's a free tool that shows you just how much this is costing you. Check-out this credit card calculator over at bankrate.com.

Here's an example: If you carry a balance on your credit card of $5,000 @ 12% interest and make the minimum payment each month of 2.5% $125. It will take you 219 months (just over 18 years) and cost you $3,180 in interest to pay off the $5,000. Ouch!

If you could bump up your payments to $200 per month, you would pay this same $5,000 off in 29 months (2 1/2 years) and pay only $782 in interest.

Two points in all of this. One, Stop using credit cards. Two do whatever you can to be able to pay more than the minimum monthly payment each month.

Nana Nana Na, Nana Nana Na, 8 Credit Cards Goodbye

I so excited. Last night during our Financial Peace dumping debt lesson, we cut up 8 credit cards. Way Cool!

I believe that the families who were bold enough to come up in front of our class and say no more to their credit cards are feeling a tremendous sense of freedom today.

Truth be told, I have no idea if these families have credit card debt but the fact they are saying goodbye Credit Cards is a step toward financial freedom.

I'm so very proud and blessed to be part of life change here at NewPointe.

Thank You!

Yesterday after services were over, the "paid" facilities staff transformed Studio 56, our 5th and 6th grade space, into a banquette hall. We thanked our "unpaid" facilities team with a lunch.

There were more than 75 people in attendance and many more who were unable to attend. The lunch was a thank you for the work that they do around NewPointe.

Truth be known, the weekend services wouldn't go off the way they do without the dedication of those on the facilities team. This group of dedicated individuals give countless hours each week and they are the ones that make this building shine.

Thanks guys for all you are doing and may God bless you richly for serving in this way!

How do you measure up?

The list of 12 items from my last on a Healthy Financial Plan included retirement funding. (That was item #5)

In doing some reading today, I came across this very interesting chart. Based on your age and retirement Savings Value, what percentage do you fall into?

To be truthful, it doesn't really matter. The important thing is that you are saving for retirement and that you are doing it consistently.

Retirement Savings

Reported total savings and investments not including value of defined-benefit plans or primary residence, active workers by age group, 2007

	Age group
	25-34	35-44	45-54	55+
Less than $10,000	50%	36%	24%	26%
$10,000-$24,999	18	16	10	5
$25,000-$49,999	9	10	11	9
$50,000-$99,999	10	14	15	11
$100,000-$149,999	7	7	9	11
$150,000-$249,999	1	9	10	9
$250,000-$499,999	1	4	12	11
$500,000 or more	4	4	9	17
Note: Survey of 1,001 active workers.
Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute

Healthy Financial Plan

How do you know if you have a healthy financial plan? There is more to it than saving for retirement and your kids college.

Here a list of items you should have in place or be working on as part of your overall financial plan.

1. A per pay cash flow plan. (Tell each dollar where it's going before you get paid.)
2. A Will (This is a must have!)
3. A debt reduction plan.
4. An Emergency Fund
5. Retirement Funding
6. Life Insurance
7. Health Insurance
8. Disability Insurance (Most people ignore this one. Don't you ignore it.)
9. Adequate Auto & Home owners insurance. (When did you last review these?)
10. Charitable Giving
11. Teaching your children how to handle money.
12. College funding for your kids.

If you are addressing these 12 items you have a health financial plan. If you are missing some of these 12 things then set an action date right now and get it done.

18 wonderful years

Yesterday was my 18th wedding anniversary. I am very blessed to be married to a wonderful woman. Among many important milestones in our marriage, Cindy played a big role in me having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. For that, I am eternally grateful.

I must say our 18th anniversary day will be a memorable one. We spent 7 hours together in our own private room. . . . at Union Hospital. A blood test, chest x-ray, and 3 bags of I.V. solution we headed for home. Cindy started getting sick Friday night and continued to get worse. So Sunday it was off to the emergency room.

I just got off the phone with her and she's feeling a little better today. Say a get well prayer for her.

Thanks

1400 chairs in two minutes flat

Each week, teams of dedicated NPCCers come in on Saturday nights to transform our auditorium from sports space to worship space.

Thanks guys for your dedication and attention to detail. Take three minutes and enjoy their efforts.

Top 5 signs you may be in financail trouble

Getting into financial trouble can happen to anyone. There are some signs that are obvious but there are many more than are not. Spotting the signs that allude to underlying troubles can often be difficult. While we all know that we should get out of debt and spend less than we make there are plenty of more subtle clues out there that could signal pending financial problems in the future.

Here are 5 warning signs to look out for.

1. You have little or no savings. At a minimum, you should have $1,000 set aside for emergencies. (Ideally, you should have 3 - 6 months of living expenses in a savings account.)
2. No Budget. You have to have a game plan and tell your money where to go each pay.
3. Financing a vehicle for more than 5 years. (It is possible to pay cash for a vehicle.)
4. Money fights with your spouse. This is the number one reason for divorce.
   
5. Using Credit Cards to pay for necessities because you don't have the cash.

There's lots of help out there in getting your finances under control. One of the best resources I know of is Dave Ramsey and his Financial Peace University. I've got his best selling book, The Total Money makeover available here on my blog. (See below.) This book will change your life, if you apply it.

Mega Millions, Just another Tax

One of the articles on the front page of our local paper today was "Mega jackpot: Area residents lining up for chance to win". The jackpot is up to $330 million. That's a lot of money and people line up to buy tickets for a chance to be a millionaire.

Did you know that your odds of having the winning ticket is One in 175,711,536. Did you know a person who plays the lottery on a regular basis spends on average $30 per week. Let's see, $30 per week x 52 weeks a year = $1,560 with little if any winnings. (Looks a lot like a tax to me. . . )

How about this instead of purchasing tickets. $30 per week invested in a Roth IRA earning 10% from age 20 to age 65 (45 years) equals $1,233,641 TAX FREE every time.

This sure beats odds of 1 in 175million. So this weekend, skip the Mega Millions ticket line and open up a Roth IRA.

Do you have a Cash Flow Plan?

Well? What's your plan? One of the most valuable things I've learned in leading Financial Peace University is this: If you don't tell your money where to go, it will leave all by itself. Hang with me and I'll explain.

Before I had a paycheck by paycheck cash flow plan when I had money in my checkbook a day or two before I got paid, that money left. I found something to spend it on. I said, "Hey, I get paid tomorrow so what can I buy? This money's not doing any good just sitting in my checkbook." Have you been there?

Now with my cash flow plan, every dollar is "spent" on paper before I actually get paid. I even have a "blow" category in my cash flow plan. We all blow money and that's ok. Just plan for it.

So why do a cash flow plan before each paycheck?

1. You avoid managing finances by crisis.
2. Managed money goes farther. ( I don't know why but it does.)
3. It reduces money fights in your relationships.

Three great reasons to me. Try it. If it doesn't work, you can always go back to the way your doing it now.

History and a Bike Ride on a Sunday Afternoon

Today was a great day. Worship was wonderful as always. NewPointe is a great place to worship God. Cindy and I hade some old friends check out services today. It was nice to see Greg and Sandy. Worship is always a little extra special when you personally know people are here for the first time.

Sunday afternoons this time of year for me include bike rides. That bicycle rides. I'm now pushing close to 1,600 miles for the year. Today our route started from Gnadenhutten. Gnadenhutten was the settled in the late 1700's Ninty-six christian Indians were massicured there in 1782.

We left from Gnadenthutten and headed out on hill after hill until we reached Peoli. Peoli is where baseballs greatest player of all time is burried. Cy Young. It was cool to ride by his grave. I'm sure most people didn't know that he is burried right here in Tuscarawas County. Now you do.

To Rollover or To Role Into?

My mom has come to me for some financial advice. She currently works at a local bank and do to an acquisition, her bank is now a different bank.

With the ownership change of the bank, comes stacks and stacks of paperwork and choices for her and her fellow employees. One critical choice is what to do with her 401k from the now non-existing bank. Of course the acquiring bank wants all the employees to roll their 401k dollars into the new banks plan. I told my mom that's a bad idea. Here's my opinion why.

Anytime you have the opportunity to roll retirement dollars out of an old employers retirement plan into your own self directed "rollover" IRA you need to do it. The biggest reason why is fund choices. Instead of being stuck selecting from a limited number of mutual funds the new employer is offering, with your own "rollover" IRA you have access to every fund, stock, and then some in the market.

In my mom's case, I'll be helping her open a "rollover" IRA this weekend with Vanguard. I'll place 100% of her money into their Target Retirement 2015 fund. There are a couple of reasons I picked this fund family and this fund for her.

1. Vanguard has very low fees
2. Vanguard has been around a long time
3. Their target retirement funds are simple and somewhat conservative. (That's real good for my parents.)
4. This fund is diversified and it changes it's allocation of holding (Stocks /Bonds/Cash) over time.
   

I'll talk more about Target Retirement Funds if anyone has a desire for me to do so. Just post a comment.

Where to put your 401K money?

I get asked all the time, "What funds should I pick for my 401K?". Before I give my answer, I ask a few questions.

1. Are you at least putting into/having withheld from your paycheck an amount that gets you 100% of the company match? If not you should be.
   
2. Do you have consumer debt? If you do, don't contribute more than what your company will match. You must get out of debt.
   
3. When was the last time you reviewed your retirement plan beneficiaries?
   

With answers to these 3 questions, I don't give "financial advise" I can only tell you what I do and my what your hearing from me is free. So here it is.

Diversification - To spread around. As the saying goes, money is like manure, spread it around and it helps things grow. Leave it in one pile and it stinks.

Most people will do well to pick / spread their retirement fund choices between 4 - 5 classes of mutual funds. I currently have 5 classes.

• Large Cap
• Small Cap
• Foreign
• S&P 500 index
• Growth & Income
  

I came across a free asset allocator calculator from cnn money that may help you pick your categories. The answers I gave returned this asset allocation. Not that far off my my current mix.



The most important thing is to get started and stick with it over a long period of time.

Who's in control

In my conversations and readings here of late, the topic of email has been coming up over and over again. The more I engage in conversations about email, I keep recalling my high school science class when we talked about Pavlov's dogs. (Pavlov was the Russian scientist who conditioned dogs to salivate when a bell rang.)

I get the feeling that's what most people do when they are working on their computer and that "dig" sounds letting them know a new email has just arrived. Most people then can't resist. They stop what they are doing and read the email. (Email is in control.)

I no longer "Pavlov" to the ding. I've turned it off. I'm going one step farther and am about to set-up an auto email response letting people know that I'll only be checking my email twice a day. 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. (I'm back in control)

Here's what my auto response is going to say:

Thanks for emailing me today. I have scheduled the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to review and respond to my email. If you need to reach me before those times, please call me at 330-365-xxxx.

Thanks.

What do you think? Good idea or bad?

Goal Reached!

I've reached, surpassed another goal. I'm very excited about reaching this goal so soon in the year. Ok, here it is, and it's a big one for me.

I've exceeded my 1,500 miles goal for 2007. (That is miles pedaled)

See, the bottom number on my bike computer is showing 1,504.4 miles as of today. (Don't tell my wife that the 43.7 number was my max speed on Kinsey Valley's downhill. She doesn't like when I got that fast on my bike. Maybe it has something to do with my bike tires being less than one inch wide.) This is a story for another time.

I've set a new goal of 2,000 miles before the year is over. Will I get it? Who knows but the important thing is I've got goals.


I love the line by Zig Zigler, "If you aim at nothing you'll hit it every time." His statement has motivates me. I've come to realize that reaching the goal you set is never as important as who you are becoming as you move toward the goal. When you set a goal you have to push yourself to reach it. If your not pushing then your goal wasn't "stretching" enough for you. If you really want to reach a goal, tell a few friends what it is and ask them to hold you accountable.

Setting goals for me also helps me to stay focused on what I value. It allows me to say no to some good things and some not so good things without feeling guilty when say no.

If you're looking for a simple goal to get started, here's a good one, read a non-fiction book in the next 30 days. Go visit the library. There's lots of books to choose from and it won't cost you a dine. I just checked out "The Power Years" by Ken Dychtwald.

Is winter here yet?

Ok, I'm not wishing for or wanting winter to come but it will be here sooner than I'd like. With this thought in mind, I started searching for a good rate on natural gas. This is how we and most people heat their homes.

Now is a great time to shop and lock-in natural gas prices for the upcoming winter. If your living in Ohio, here's the best place to start doing your research. The PUCO of Ohio has an "Apples to Apples" comparison of gas suppliers.

I took this directly from the web site.

The PUCO produces the Apples to Apples charts to provide consumers with a snapshot comparison of current natural gas and electric supplier price options and contract terms. The PUCO updates the Apples to Apples charts on a regular basis and verifies each supplier offer to ensure accuracy. The charts list only the certified suppliers that are actively enrolling new customers. As with all contracts, consumers should carefully read and understand all terms and conditions before signing any forms or agreeing to enroll with a supplier for natural gas service.

After I did my research, I signed up with Lakeshore Energy Services. They had and have the lowest rate per mcf @ $9.117

How best to pay down your debt?

There's more than one way to attack your debt. The first step in this is stop borrowing money.

When your ready to get serious about becoming debt free, you need some tools to help you get there. I'm a big fan of Dave Ransey's debt snowball concept. It's the system I used to become debt free.

Just the other day, I came across a new online service, www.debtlogistics.com. This site analyzes your debt and suggests ways to pay it off most efficiently. There's lots of good stuff here for free. You can get a personalized plan for $30. My suggestion is check out the free stuff then head over to Dave Ramsey's site.

One of the happiest days of your life will be the day your can proudly say, "I'm debt Free"

Free Financial Advise - Complements of Kiplingers

As I've stated in the past, I'm a fan of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine. Here's another reason why. On August 17th and again on the 3oth, Kiplinger's along with the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) will answer your finance and retirement questions for free. Hey, these fee only advisers normally charge clients $100 to $250 an hour.

On the 17th and 30th you won't pay a dime. So, get your financial and or retirement questions ready and call 888-919-2345 and a NAPFA adviser will respond to your question. You can also email them a question @ jumpstart@kiplinger.com

Everyone has at least one retirement question you've been dieing to ask. Why not ask and expert for free?

Here's a link to Kiplinger's Jumpstart article.

I'm off to phase my question.

In the lead. . .

As you may recall, our staff here at NewPointe are participating in a wellness program. We are currently tracking our walking with pedometers. Today at all staff, we received certificates for the miles we have walked through the first three weeks.

I'm very proud to say that I'm in the lead. I've walked 238 miles so far. Way cool.

How about you? What do you do to keep your body in shape? I truly believe that there is a spiritual side of exercise and eating right. So get yourself an accountability partner for fitness. It can lead to all sorts of good stuff. For example, yesterday during my 35 mile bike ride, a new rider asked me, "So, what's your testimony?" I spent the next 5 miles talking with him about my relationship with Jesus Christ. Way cool.

As we finished the ride, I told him on our next ride, I wanted to hear his story. (That will be Tuesday.)

Purchase price X 2

While doing some work tonight, I had the national news on tv. I stopped working when the news anchor was doing some shopping and comparing shopping with credit cards vrs. shopping with cash. (I didn't catch all the details of their test.)

I did catch the results. Here's what NBC news found, people were willing to pay twice as much for the same item when they paid for it via credit card vrs cash. That's unbelievable to me.

This may the best reason not to use credit cards for those who tell me "I always pay mine off when the bill comes." That may be so but NBC's news test says you're willing to spend twice as much.

Wesabe - led to online discounts

I just signed up for my free Wesabe account. (See my last post to see what Wesabe is.) Right after is signed up it took me to an Account page and there was a tip from another user that we all can use.

Checkout currentcodes.com when shopping online to get that checkout discount. Here's what Debbie P inside of Wesabe said.

During checkout, most online stores have a "Discount code" or "Promotional code" box. Before you complete your purchase, check www.currentcodes.com to see if you can save some money by filling in that box. The site maintains a database of active codes to save at online stores and lets you search by store name. They have lots of biggies like Amazon.com, gap.com, car rental sites, etc. It's pretty hit or miss... some of the deals are on really specific items, but you sometimes find a flat "15% off" or "free shipping" code that saves you $ and makes you feel in the know.

Here are a few more sites to check out.

www.slickdeals.net

www.fatwallet.com

www.dealcatcher.com

Have fun with them, I'm going back to my Wesabe set-up.

Financial Tips / Advise . . . . WESABE

Today was the first day to sign-up for our next Financial Peace University class. I was very pleased with the response today. I'm looking forward to next Sunday's final day of sign-ups. After that, I'll order material.

With FPU just around the corner, I'll be doing lots of personal financial posts over the next quarter. Hopefully you'll learn something new and even more importantly, put something new into practice.

In reading my Kiplinger's magazine today, I came across a small article entitled "Budgets made Simple". In the article it talked about several softwares that help you track your spending. Kiplinger's picked Wesabe as their favorite "FREE" site.

According to Kiplinger's, the site provides excellent security and it doesn't ask you for your account passwords. (This is a must for me!). Once your up and running, Wesabe lets you tap into the insights of more than 30,000 users..

I'm off to set-up my own Wesabe account. I'll report back soon.

Money Slang. . .

I've always wondered where the different terms for money come from. So the other night I started doing some Google searching. Here's what I came up with.

Bacon - In the middle ages, among the British, having this food in the house was considered a sign of prosperity. 'Bringing home the bacon' was the new slang when games of catching a greased pig at county fairs took effect.

Buck(s) - This became popular in the mid 1850's. It was an abbreviation for buckskin, a unit of exchange in the west.

Bread / Dough - A main staple in numerous peoples lives and has been equated with cash for centuries.

Moolah - mill, from le moulin - This word may be the origin of the English slang meaning of "moolah" as "money", as mills are even today equated with income in the Northwest.

Cash on the Barrel - The barrels used as informal counters in old-time general stores or to merchants refusing to hand over a barrel containing goods until it had been paid for.

Greenback - A nickname originally applied in the 19th century because of the color of paper money.

Smackers - This referred to the sound the clamshells made on the string. It was also heard in the 1920's and referred to the sound when coins weresmacked down on a counter.

Do you know of any other slang words for money? If so, I'd like to know.

Employer to Fine Unhealthy Workers

I've talk with lots of business owners on a consistent basis. One of the recurring issues for them and for us here at the church is the rising cost of health insurance. More and more businesses are looking at creative ways to get their employees healthy in hopes their yearly insurance premiums increases will drop below double digits.

My good friend Dr. Kindra Browning sent me an article from Workforce Management. The article covered a company in Indianapolis that's going to start fining employees with unhealthy habits.

Here's the deal. The following numbers carry a $5 per pay fine that is deducted automatically from an employees paycheck.

1. Body mass index over 29.9
2. Blood pressure over 140/90
3. Blood glucose over 120
4. LDL (Bad) cholesterol over 130

I'm very interested to see how this plays out over time. Will more companies follow suite? Will employees not work for this company? Will this really effect their health insurance premiums? Would you work for a company that has policy like this?

It's time. . . . . . Sign ups for Financial Peace begin Sunday

It's that time again. Time to sign up for this fall's Financial Peace University class here at NewPointe. I'm very excited as lives are changed and marriages saved with each class offered here.

Here's the scoop on this round of classes.

1. For the first time, we are limiting the class size to 30 people. (So don't delay in signing up.)
2. Classes begin Tuesday August 21st @ 7 p.m. here at the church.
3. Sign-up's start this Sunday at the church. Look for the FPU sign in the main Atrium.

To get a great feel for what the class is all about, watch this short FPU video. I get goose bumps every time I watch it.

Without a doubt, this is one of the best investments you could ever make.

Sweet Corn Chalenge

What is the Sweet Corn Challenge? It's a bicycle ride that starts in Richfield Ohio and weaves in and out of the Cleveland Metroparks. This is the 4th time I did this ride and it was the hardest. My Buddy's Bill G., Kevin B., and Bud K., and I tackled the 55 miles of hill after hill. (We missed you Scott)

There were more than 2,000 riders in total.

Here are a few pictures I took and our new van in all it's glory. My wife Cindy wasn't crazy about all the bikes on the van. I thought it was way cool.


Arrival at Sweet Corn. Kevin's helping to get the bikes ready.



Bud, looking for the port-a-pots before we take off. (Bud's on the left of the picture walking away from the camera.)


Our fist pit of the day. 20+ miles into the ride. Two optional hills under our belts. (Pain!!) Kevin, (White & Black) and Bill (Sleeveless jersey) are enjoying the shade and the rest.


The Ride's over (3hrs 20 min of ride time). We've finished off our lunch, picked up our bags of sweet corn and are ready for the drive home. Don't ask how we got out of our bike cloths into street cloths. (It not a pretty site.)

No pictures of me. I was the camera man.

Blogger Tag

Tag, I'm it. There is a game going around the blogging world right now and it's my turn to play. Thanks Double D.

The Rules:

1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
3. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.
   

8 Random (cool) Facts about me:

1. When I'm deep in thought, I take one shoe off as I work. If I'm alone the sock comes off as well.)
2. I love live musicals / operas. (I've seen Phantom of the Opera 3 times)
3. I sat for the CPA exam while still in college.
4. I've had 13 broken bones (1 in a youth fist fight)
5. I worked in a coal mine 3 out of my 4 college summers. (The other summer I worked in a slaughter house. . . . Don't ask what I did, it involved animal guts.)
6. I taught 3 semesters of accounting at Kent State University - Tuscarawas
7. I love public radio. . . Any Prairie Home Companion fans out there?
8. I have a relative who is a Secret Service agent on President Bush's detail. I'm looking at Mike's (the Secret Service agent's) business card right now. He was home this weekend for my grandmothers 90th birthday party.

Ok, now it's my turn to tag 8 people. Here we go.

1. Joe Sangl
2. Jennifer Bartlett
3. Dr. Scott Matthews
4. Dave Mast
5. Tony Morgan
6. Tom Troyer
7. Tina Lawver
8. Rita Hershberber
   

Credit Report take 2

As a follow-up to my post yesterday, I received a great email from my good friend K. (Yes, here fist name is the letter"K",) Here's what she had to say.

Hi Todd,

Be sure people use the www.annualcreditreport.com to get the free report ( you can buy the credit score form them for about $7.00) do not use the www.freecreditreport.com scam site . One woman wrote Dave Ramsey that she paid almost $300.00 in stupid tax before she got free of the scam site. They advertise on TV all the time but I see now that they print a very small disclaimer at the bottom of the screen. Consumer Reports is also running warnings about the site in their magazine.

Have a great day,
K

Thanks for the great info.

Credit Reports

I was cleaning out our some files this weekend and came across my Equifax credit report from June of 2006. That made me realize I hadn't pulled a credit report on myself in some time.

Did you know that each credit reporting agency is now required by law to give you one free credit report per year? If you work it right, that allows you to look at your credit report 3 times a year for free. Let me explain.

I'll run an Equifax credit report on myself tonight. It will be free since the last time I did this was over a year ago. In November, I'll run a credit report from Experian. Then in March, I'll run one from Transunion. Then I'll start all over again.

Each reporting agency reports the information a little bit differently. None of them will give you your "famous" credit score for free. All three agencies charge for this. I'd consider paying for this once a year.

This goes without saying but I will say it.

1. Keep your credit reports in a safe and locked location.
   
2. Take action on anything in your report that looks funny.
   
3. Close those old dormant credit card and department store accounts.
4. Don't add more debt you your life. (I listed this one for good measure.)
   

Goal accomplished!

I'm posting this to encourage and to let others know it can be done. In no way am I sharing this to boast or brag.

My wife and I are the proud owners of a 2004 Honda Odyssey. Here's the best part, we paid cash for it. That's the accomplished goal. When we started our savings plan years ago, I really didn't think paying cash for a vehicle was possible. I'm happy to say it is possible with steady plodding.

So what's the alternative to paying cash? Debt. According to the latest figures I could find on the internet, the average car payment is $378 per month over 63 months. (Just over 5 years) Car dealers are now offering loans over 72 months (6 years).

If you do borrow for you next vehicle, and I'm living proof that it's possible to pay cash for it, remember to take all the costs of ownership into account and your car debt & insurance shouldn't be more than 12% - 15% of your monthly take home pay.

PS - The car we sold as part of this cash transaction was a 1998 Honda Accord. In 7 years of ownership of this car, we put 112,000 mile on it.

What is your TV costing you?

It seems I'm constantly on one of my kids, I won't tell you which one, to turn off the TV and get outside. That conversation usually gets me thinking about how much time I spend in front of the TV. It's not a lot but probably more than I realize.

Consider this,the average adult watches 31.5 hours of TV each week. Let's put a value of minimum wage of $5.85 an hour to this. That equates to nearly $800 a month ($9,600 a year) to watch TV. If you value your time more than minimum wage, then this figure goes way up.

I'm not suggesting everyone give up all their TV time. What I would suggest is you consider reducing the time spent watching TV and do something you believe is more valuable with your time, like blogging. . .

How many steps does it take to . . .

This past Sunday, we kicked off our staff wellness program here at NewPointe. Over the next 11 weeks, 78 days, our staff is keeping track with pedometers of how many steps they take each day. I mentioned this in a prior post.

We are posting daily steps taken in our staff break room. I'm very proud to say that I walked the most steps on the first day of the competition.

36,269 steps taken by me Sunday.

I checked out some web sites on walking and it's around 2,000 steps equal one mile. So I walked an equivalent of 18 miles Sunday. Way cool.

Just so you know this is not a fluke, yesterday I walked over 22,000 steps. My wife says I never stop moving until I lay down in bed for the night. I think she's right.

It's official . . . I'm addicted & rated "G"

I was over at John's blog reading up on his great post. Recently he's had a lot of quizzes on his blog posts. I came across one I couldn't resist.

Are you addicted to coffee? Take the test yourself. I'm very please with my high score.

I am 92% Addicted to Coffee

Also thanks to John, I found out my blog was rated G. So everyone is welcome. . . read on.

The Power of Cash continues to work. . . .

Opening my email this a.m., there was one from my buddy Tom Toyer. Tom attends NewPointe and has recently joined the blogging world.

He shared with me his furniture purchase from last night and how he used cash to get a good deal (Stewardship). I've copied his blog post here. It's worth the read....

This evening we made a purchase ... with cash and got a good deal. We have been shopping for living room furniture for the house we are buying. We have two chairs so we decided that would buy a sofa or a sectional. Last week we found a sectional at one of the furniture stores in New Philadelphia, it had a small hole in the back and was marked down considerably. We liked it and had decided that we would get cash and go down again this week and offer them less and use the cash as a bargaining chip. Well, tonight we went with our cash & our game plan to get the sectional, they were closed. Ugh now what, Elsie says: "do you want to stop at this other place just up the road". "Sure" I said: "why not". So we stopped and guess what, God literally closed & locked a door and opened another. Make a long story short ... we ended up buying a couch - no damage, more features & much nicer.

Here is the deal: $999 regular price, on sale for $759, we got it for $700 cash delivered & tax included. We paid about 63% of the original price or saved $131 off the sale price. I'm pumped. Todd it works. The guy jumped all over that offer I think he may have come down even more.

Check that thing out, isn't it sweet!

Stewardship is personal responsibility for taking care of another person's property or financial affairs.

- In our case this money is God's and we are trying to be good stewards of it