Outline from Titus 2 Moms Talk on YOUR Family Budget 4.6.11

Here are the slides from my PowerPoint presentation at our Titus 2 Moms group last night.  Email or call me if you have any questions as this is such a broad outline and most of the information was from me speaking...

THE 3 BASICS

Tithe  (10% of GROSS, start with 5%, or $___ amt. and gradually work up to 10%); Give $$, services, products...

Save (10% of GROSS, start with 5%, or $___ amt. and gradually work up to 10%) 

Steward / Spend (80% of NET to be conservative)

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BILL PAYING AT OUR HOUSE

One day a week, Wednesday or Thursday, at our house, gather everything you need in one place; allow one hour to carefully work on this

Tithe to the Lord

Save i.e. pay yourself

Pay bills; Tonya’s “painless” accrual method of paying larger bills; index card system

When bills are due, pay online rather than mailing 

Use as many bank accounts are needed to keep things separate. We have 11 accts. at 2 banks (4 in our family, two of us have home businesses), checking and savings for specific people/uses, with NO BANK  FEES

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MINT.COM

       FREE online service
Passwords for all accounts needed 
Easy to do taxes
Graphs to show trends
Easy to monitor transactions and see where you are spending too much

       No input of data needed; it's done automaticallyOR buy Quicken / Intuit program and keep everything totally separate and off the internet

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STEWARDSHIP

TITHE and GIVE-- trust God to provide for your needs; it is not presuming on Him if you are managing your $$ wisely; give to Him and others generously

SAVE-- a % or $ amt. each week!  Christmas $$, special purchases, emergency fund, extra cash; envelopes

STEWARD-- you can have fun and not be extravagant; “where is the $$ to pay for this?” 

Avoid  temptation--Wal-Mart, Target, internet, “sales”

Use Coupons, shop on sale, buy in bulk

Another source of income?

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ACTION STEPS

Are you giving to the Lord’s work?

What needs to change in the way your family spends the $$ that God has provided to you?

Work on ONE new good $$ habit at a time and ask the Lord to help you.  Do you have a spending addiction?

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Parable of the Talents (it's not as little as you think)

Talent 

= 3,000 shekels

= 60 minas

= 34.3 kilograms 

= 75 U.S. pounds

Used as a measure of weight and money.  If in today’s money an ounce of gold = $1,200, (actually, it's closer to $1,400 an ounce) one talent is worth about $1,440,000 (each of us has at least that much money pass through our hands over our lifetime, even with low-moderate income)

http://www.biblestudy.org/beginner/bible-weights-and-measures.html

Sources:  Easton's Bible Dictionary, Wikipedia

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What we all want to hear from the Lord one day...

Matt. 25:21 

... ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. 

You were faithful with a few things, 

I will put you in charge of many things; 

enter into the joy of your master.’

Manage your $$ well over your lifetime. It's a journey with ups and downs but the Lord is there with you all the way.

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HELPFUL RESOURCES

Me (private help)

Crown Financial Ministries 

Mint.com

Dave Ramsey

Ellie Kay   (She's kind of like the Beth Moore of finances)

Family Budget Children's Expenses Teaching Responsibility

Teaching responsibility to your children is a continuing process, even into the adult years.  From the time our sons were old enough to hold coins we have tried to teach them that there are limits to the money that we have and that we are responsible for how it is used.  We teach saving, spending and giving as many families do.  I'm pleased to say that both "children" have substantial savings accounts and are pretty good at managing their money.  I see them both giving generously at church and when buying gifts for others for birthdays, special occasions and Christmas as well.    

We have a high school teenager and a 20-year-old college student.  Sometimes they both see other families buying everything that another student wants (not just what they need) and not have them pay for anything.  This has always been a subject of conversation for which we have stood our ground as to the fact that these are our "rules" and they are for training as well as out of necessity at times. We have our sons pay for certain things even though sometimes, we could pay for it ourselves.  In my opinion, parents are not properly training their children or preparing them for independence by covering all costs for everything especially into the adult years.  The shock of real life economics upon graduating from college can be overwhelming.  We have seen more than one college graduate sink into debt because he/she never learned how to manage their own money and bills.  We prefer to ease our sons into adulthood and  the full responsibilities of handling their own finances when they are living on their own and providing for themselves and  their own families.   I hope they appreciate it later when they are older. 

We gave our older son a lump sum when he turned 18 to be used for any college expenses that his scholarship did not cover. To my knowledge he has not had to use much of this and he is finishing up his 3rd year at college.  We have encouraged him to have a part-time job to help with expenses and to try to maintain his savings for when he graduates next year.  Our younger one will have the same benefit when he graduates from high school and hopefully will have a scholarship as well.  

This year our older son chose to live away from home, renting a house with 3 other young men.  The realization of how much things cost on your own has made itself apparent.   We cover some of the  incidental costs for him such as college parking stickers,  and continue to pay for clothing and shoes (I ask him to be reasonable when he shops), medical  and dental care, 1/2 of his part of the car insurance, most of his cel phone costs and a few other items as needed.   I typically send some food home with him for the freezer when he comes to visit as well.  Our younger son is allowed extra money for any church activities, school functions and some outings with friends.  We used to give allowances when they were younger but now we only pay for outside work such as cleaning the gutters, mowing the yard, edging, etc.  It is our younger son's main source of income since he's not old enough to have a part-time job anywhere.  

The balance is a tricky one and can be uncomfortable at times, but I encourage parents to determine your priorities, hold your ground and set your boundaries regarding finances with your children.  I strongly endorse teaching little by little, precept by precept to make the transition into the adult world as effortless as possible and to become the natural order of things. My heart goes out to "children" who are thrown into the world of finance with no background or training from home.  I pray that our children will always be comfortable coming to us for financial (and other) advice and that they will grow to be excellent stewards of the money and other resources that God provides them with.

Here are a couple of excellent articles from Crown Financial Ministries on teaching children about money:  Part 1 and Part 2.