RSS FEEDS  Subscribe to Blog Search Blog: Recent Posts Got Milk? Class Update 59.9% Will your next car be… Consumer debt is not your friend Archives Select Month July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 March 2010 February 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 DF3's Twitter Feed "Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand And like a bird from the hand of the fowler." http://read.ly/Prov6.5.NASB 2010-03-02 The CARD Act Aftermath: What's Next: http://bit.ly/bmpm1d via @addthis 2010-03-01 Ooooh…Aaaah… http://shar.es/maPOV via @sharethis 2010-02-21 @ Disney for daughters birthday. Got my envelope of $100. We'll see how far it takes us. We might end the day a little hungry:) 2010-02-18 More updates... What others are saying View All

Pages: 1 2 3 ► Got Milk? Posted July 22nd, 2010 by Amanda No Comments |  A GLASS OF MILK� � One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. � Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water! . She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it so slowly, and then asked, How much do I owe you?” You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness.” He said … “Then I thank you from my heart.” � As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit. Many year’s later that same young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctor’s gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. � He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to her case. After a long struggle, the battle was won. � Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge, and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She read these words …  “Paid in full with one glass of milk”  (Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly. � Tears of joy flooded her eyes as her happy heart prayed: “Thank You, God, that Your love has spread broad through human hearts and hands.” � There’s a saying which goes something like this: Bread cast on the water comes back to you. The good deed you do today may benefit you or someone you love at the least expected time. If you never see the deed again at least you will have made the world a better place – And, after all, isn’t that what life is all about? Tweet This Post |  Subscribe to Blog |  Email a Friend Class Update Posted July 20th, 2010 by Amanda No Comments |  Crossroads FPU May 2010 class update: So far the class has: Saved $43,366.00 Paid off $73,842.45 Debt Avoided $80,200.00 Whoot Whoot! Great job! Tweet This Post |  Subscribe to Blog |  Email a Friend 59.9% Posted July 13th, 2010 by Amanda No Comments |  Crossroads is hosting its second Financial Peace University. Part of the process you anonymously share the debt you’ve avoided… Someone brought in a credit card offer with a percentage rate of 59.9%.   My stomach dropped. Checked the page three times! I couldn’t believe it but, then I had to back to my old life…did I ever look at the fine print. Nope! Thankfully, they are in FPU and changing their family tree forever! Tweet This Post |  Subscribe to Blog |  Email a Friend Will your next car be… Posted June 1st, 2010 by Amanda No Comments |  Will your next car be: New or Used? or used?  Tweet This Post |  Subscribe to Blog |  Email a Friend Consumer debt is not your friend Posted May 5th, 2010 by Amanda No Comments |  Seth Godin’s blog today Consumer debt is not your friend Here’s a simple MBA lesson: borrow money to buy things that go up in value. Borrow money if it improves your productivity and makes you more money. Leverage multiplies the power of your business because with leverage, every dollar you make in profit is multiplied. That’s very different from the consumer version of this lesson: borrow money to buy things that go down in value. This is wrongheaded, short-term and irrational. A few decades ago, mass marketers had a problem: American consumers had bought all they could buy. It was hard to grow because dispensable income was spoken for. The only way to grow was to steal market share, and that’s difficult. Enter consumer debt. Why fight for a bigger piece of pie when you can make the whole pie bigger, the marketers think. Charge it, they say. Put it on your card. Pay now, why not, it’s like it’s free, because you don’t have to repay it until later. Why buy a Honda for cash when you can buy a Lexus with credit? One argument is income shifting: you’re going to make a lot of money later, so borrow now so you can have a nicer car, etc. Then, when money is worth less to you, you can pay it back. This idea is actually reasonably new–fifty years or so–and it’s not borne out by what actually happens. Debt creates stress, stress creates behaviors that don’t lead to happiness… The other argument is that it’s been around so long, it’s like a trusted friend. Debt seems like fun for a long time, until it’s not. And everyone does it. We’ve been sold very hard on acquisition = happiness, and consumer debt is the engine that permits this. Until it doesn’t. The thing is, debt has become a marketed product in and of itself. It’s not a free service or a convenience, it’s a massive industry. And that industry works with all the other players in the system to grow, because (at least for now) when they grow, other marketers benefit as well. As soon as you get into serious consumer debt, you work for them, not for you. It’s simple: when the utility of what you want (however you measure it) is less than the cost of the debt, don’t buy it. Go read Dave Ramsey’s post: The truth about debt. Dave has spent his career teaching people a lesson that many marketers are afraid of: debt is expensive, it compounds, it punishes you. Stuff now is rarely better than stuff later, because stuff now costs you forever if you go into debt to purchase it. He’s persistent and persuasive. It takes discipline to forego pleasure now to avoid a lifetime of pain and fees. Many people, especially when confronted with a blizzard of debt marketing, can’t resist. Resist. Smart people work at keeping their monthly consumer debt burden to zero. Borrow only for things that go up in value. Easy to say, hard to do. Worth it. Tweet This Post |  Subscribe to Blog |  Email a Friend 9 week FPU Check in results: Posted March 22nd, 2010 by Amanda No Comments |  Total class: Saved: $509,309.84 Paid Off: $252,912.87 Debt Avoided: $718,532.00 Tweet This Post |  Subscribe to Blog |  Email a Friend Priorities…. Posted March 18th, 2010 by Amanda No Comments |  Dave talks about paying the most important bills first – A man didn’t pay for health insurance because he couldn’t afford it – He stopped taking his blood pressure medication because he couldn’t afford it – He stopped paying his life insurance premiums because he couldn’t afford it – That man, a coworker’s lifelong friend, slumped over at his desk and died a week ago leaving his wife and three kids devastated and with NOTHING financially Tweet This Post |  Subscribe to Blog |  Email a Friend That’s Not Good Enough! Posted March 12th, 2010 by Amanda 1 Comment |  Lindsey Barnes is a vibrant young bride to be she was sharing with me about how she was saving and sacrificing to purchase the wedding dress of her dreams.  I asked her how much was the dress? $2300 was her reply…it seemed almost impossible.  Financial Peace class 8 “That’s Not Good Enough” kicked in.  My husband and I have applied this into our lives and saved $100’s if not $1000’s!  I told her she was NOT going to be paying retail for her dress. We could work together to find it cheaper. Not a knock off but, THE dress!  Encouraged we started the hunt! After a lot of research and a ton of phone calls Lindsey came up to me last Sunday and told me the news. She found THE dress for $1700 that included tax and shipping.  The dress of her dreams for $600.00 less than retail. Tweet This Post |  Subscribe to Blog |  Email a Friend Financial Peace 6 week update: Posted March 1st, 2010 by Amanda No Comments |  Financial Peace @ Crossroads Church 6 week update So far the class has: Saved $447,648.00 Paid Off $139,578.00 Avoided $559,737.00 in debt! Tweet This Post |  Subscribe to Blog |  Email a Friend Retirement Posted February 26th, 2010 by Amanda No Comments |  Out of 100 people age 65, 97 of them can’t write a check for $600. Bankruptcies among those 65 & older have gone up 164% since 2002. – USA TODAY (Importance of saving for retirement & having a plan) Tweet This Post |  Subscribe to Blog |  Email a Friend Pages: 1 2 3 ►