You Don’t Need a CREDIT CARD...

Let's talk about money matters this week. Our focus is personal credit cards.

Credit Card is an old resident in our world. Born around 1890 in Europe, Credit Card came out of the need to reward loyal customers by some merchants and to pay for goods and services where cash or cheques were not readily available. Credit Card became popular in 1950 courtesy of Frank McNamara, founder of the Diners Club in the United States. The first Credit card was introduced in Canada in 1952 and the first all purpose Canada credit card came to market in 1968. Today, various businesses and retailers profit from the credit card business.

Unfortunately, the credit card story is not so sweet in the mouths of a great number of consumers. Credit card debt has shattered many lofty dreams of otherwise smart investors and submerged many promising families. There was an estimated 72 million credit cards in circulation in Canada in 2009. (Euromonitor International, January 2010) and a total outstanding credit card debt of $78 billion in September, up from 76 billion in September 2008, according to Equifax Canada. (Source Toronto Star, December 2009)

Do You Really Need A Credit Card?

Agreed, a credit card could be handy when you are far away from your local bank and you have to make a necessary purchase or when the product you want is far away and you have to order the product online or some other electronic means. Besides, there is a place for using other people’s money (OPM) for business projects that are beyond individual’s financial capability and many businesses run on return-after-sales financial plans.

However, the focus of this article is not business but personal financial management and the point I seek to make is that you don't have to spend what you have not earned. Or to put it another way, don’t spend it before you earn it. Credit Card gives you access to money you hope to earn in future. It is not free money; it is a loan and loans are meant to be paid back sooner or later. To use such money as one’s own money is a dysfunctional money management practice.

Isn't it sad that many of us have already spent what we hope to earn in the next 30 years and have no choice but to keep working for the next 30 years to pay back what we have already consumed? People who live perpetually on borrowed money cannot get out of debt. That statement may sound obvious but ironically a good number of people hope to be debt free someday but are not willing to stop living on loans. The old Jewish Proverbs is still true today: "A borrower is a servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7). With due respect, you are a slave to your lender if you live on credit cards. The only way to set yourself free from your slave master’s grip is to give yourself an asset card and start building on it now!

If you are one of those who signed up for credit cards just because you were told you need a good credit history, the reasonable question you should ask is why you need a credit history? Contrary to popular opinions, you don’t need a credit history (good or bad) for anything other than to qualify for more debt in future. People who live debt-free do not worry about history of debt payment. Instead of worrying about credit history management, why not start thinking of asset management strategies? Or would you allow anyone to fool you into thinking that you have to have millions in assets before you need asset management plans? If you cannot manage a dime you certainly cannot manage a million.

In case you are wondering what the bible says about debt, know that it is God’s will for believers to live debt-free. God tells us to owe nothing to anyone except to love them (Romans 13:8). Owe nothing means owe nothing. To live perpetually in debt even when we can avoid it is to disregard God’s instruction for successful living and shut out our divine supplies. If you are willing and obedient God will give you power, not only to live debt free, but to create wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18)


A Fresh Approach: Get Asset Card

One of the best decisions you will ever make about your money as a young person is to give yourself an Asset Card; a portfolio that includes your net worth after all your liabilities. While a Credit card gives you power to spend what you hope to earn in future, an Asset Card gives you power to enjoy what you have already earned. Unlike credit card, you don't need anyone's approval to get asset card. It is what you give to yourself as no financial institution will issue you one.With Asset Card you own all you enjoy and enjoy all you own but with credit cards you owe all you enjoy and cannot truly enjoy what you owe.

It is important to note that building yourself an asset card is not easy but it's worth the effort. Our difficulty with building asset cards lies in the fact that most of us are not taught money management skills at school. However, each of us is responsible for our own financial freedom. As Ken Keyes Jr. puts it, "We are not responsible for the programming we picked up as children but as adults we are 100% responsible for fixing them". Building your asset requires correcting the wrong things you learned about money while growing up.

Steps to Building Your Asset Card

Delay your enjoyment.

Many of us are familiar with the sales’ clichés: “buy now, pay later” or “Don’t Pay for 36 months” etc. The unspoken truth is sooner or later you will pay what you owe. It’s either you pay now and play later or you play now and pay later. Paying now to play later is better. Delaying enjoyment is a key to getting out of debt.

If you continue to purchase everything you ‘feel like having’ you will eventually find yourself at odd hours doing odd jobs that you don’t feel like doing. I like Stephen Wright's quote “you can't have everything where would you put it?” To want to own everything one sees and likes is to write one’s own debt warrant and live in a junk yard. Just because you like it and can afford it does not mean you should have it.

There are probably more wastes in the average home today than there are essential goods. Any household good that is not essential for existence is a luxury and many luxury goods fall into the class of wastes no matter how fanciful they may look. One of the most important things you as a purchaser will ever know about things on sale is that no business is established to make its customers rich unless of course the business its non-profit oriented. Just because something is on sale does not mean you need it. Refuse to buy anything on sale especially if you don't need it and you can't afford it.

2. Decrease your outgo.

Many people in debt think they need more income to be debt-free. Well, the first step toward financial freedom is not necessarily increasing your income but decreasing your outgo. When your income is less than your outgo you amass debt. When income is equal to your outgo you maintain status quo and live from pay cheque to pay cheque but when your income is greater than your outgo or your outgo is less than your income, you amass more wealth no matter how much you earn.

Did you know that you would be richer in six months than you are today even if you don’t earn a dime more than you currently earn just by consistently spending a dime less than you currently spend?

You can start spending a dime less today by paying a dime less on credit card loan interests. Interest on borrowed money is one of the major outgo outlets for most people in debt. If you ever wondered why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, this is it. While the rich continue to earn interests on their invested money, the poor continue to pay interest on their borrowed money. Refuse to buy on impulse, refuse to get more credit cards and start decreasing your outgo. If you take these steps, you would soon get out of debt and start building wealth for yourself, your family and your world. You will succeed!

You can reach me at everydaylifeblogging[at]gmail[dot]com

Before You Say "I Do"

This week, I write with two people in mind: those contemplating marriage and those contemplating divorce.

One day, I was driving on a major highway in Vancouver area when I missed my exit. Wanting to get back on track, I turned off at the next exit. I was wrong and this exit was long. After a good stretch, it merged onto a one-way that closed off at a construction site with an exit-only at the dead end. Ouch! Not a pleasant experience when time is of essence. Well, since I had only one choice, I took the exit-only and kept moving. When I stopped to re-calculate my route, I was farther away from my destination than I was when I turned off the 'wrong route' the first time. 

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Today, as I look back and relate that highway incidence to the journey of marriage, I wonder how many divorced people are in pain right now because they took the wrong exit. I wonder how many married people are traveling the wrong routes or turning off at the nearest exit. I sincerely wonder how many single persons are contemplating embarking on this important journey without stopping to think about what they are really doing.

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Marriage, from God's perspective, is intended to be a one-way drive to a beautiful destination. On this highway, there are fast lanes and rest points but there are no U-Turns and certainly no good exit points. In today's culture, however, it seems the number of Christians putting the destination aside and opting for the first available exit as soon as their marriage hit bumps is on the rise. If we are true believers, then we have no doubt that God knows the way better than we do. God sees marriage as a covenant between a man, woman and himself. The marriage covenant, like all other covenants, are binding and long term in nature. 
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Did you know that it is impossible for once-married adults to truly separate from one another? They may be physically apart but they will be emotionally tied together, forever. Once you enter a marriage relationship it is for life. So, before you set out, you should prepare yourself or you might have regrets. 
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Every time two people who once loved themselves decide to go separate ways, the pain of regret, setbacks and side effects on innocent loved ones  is just too high a price to pay for whatever reason. Yes, you may find a couple emergency exits on the marriage road but they usually wind up at dead ends. God forewarned us to avoid those exits when he told us in Malachi 2:16 that He hates divorce. 

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If you are contemplating marriage, please think before you say "I do"

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I am married. So, I am aware that when you meet someone who sweeps you off your feet and you fall head over heels in love with one another, the feeling can be ecstatic and before you know it, you are on a roller-coaster love ride to the alter. No, before you say "I do" you really need to think and sincerely ask God. Never let your judgement be clouded by the tantalizing feelings of beautiful dates, engagement promises and the fanfares of a wedding ceremony. 
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Please do not allow the joy of being selected, freedom from overbearing parents or thoughts of leaving the single lifestyle behind be so alluring that you fail to ask God. Marriage is beautiful but marriage can also be tough.. You will hit the bumps, you will come to crossroads and depending on your situation you may conclude that you are on the wrong track and want out. Before you get yourself into a loop of regrets, save yourself the stress by seeking counsel before you say I do.

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Steps you can take right now

·        Talk everything over with your partner and refuse to sweep anything under the carpet.  This is one mistake many young adults make. It’s easy to glide over unwanted behaviours and red flags when you are love drunk but don’t get drunk too quickly. Talk about everything. If you cannot resolve the issues at this point, its’ usually best to go separate ways. A failed engagement will always be better than a failed marriage. I know people who remain good family friends after a failed engagement but I don't know any couple that maintains great friendship with each other after they broke up. 

Hidden fears that rob us of peace and ruin our confidence

This week, we will focus on emotional and spiritual health. I will start with my sermon of July 17, 2011 as it relates to peace of mind and confidence. I am posting it as one piece. Enjoy!

What if I lose my job? What if the bank forecloses on my house? What if my neighbour is a criminal? What if I get scammed? What if I have a terminal disease? What if I don't get someone to marry me? What if my marriage fails? What if my in-laws don't accept me? What if they hurt me? What if my children don't make it? What if I don't get the job? What if I end up a failure in life? What if..? What if...? The list of people and things that scare us seems to be growing steadily. We seem to be losing peace of mind and confidence in everything and everyone everyday. How did many of us become so crippled by fear with little or no confidence left? The answer I found is BROKEN TRUST!

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Life is all about relationships and every relationship is built and sustained by TRUST. When trust is broken, it is not just the relationship that suffers but also the people involved and everything around them. This is what I mean:

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One day I watched a father teach his young son a lesson on trust. The father told his son to climb up a relatively high brick wall. When the young boy did, he instructed him to jump from the height; that he would catch him and not let him fall. Trusting his father, the boy jumped and as soon as he did, his dad moved away and let the little boy hit the ground. With tears in his eyes he cried: Dad Why did you do that to me? His dad said 'just to teach you a very important lesson: "TRUST NO ONE INCLUDING ME". Although it was only a scene in a movie years ago, each time I remember the scene I still shudder because I know it happens people all the time.
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Many of us have been directly or indirectly taught a lesson on TRUST like that little boy by people  close to us. Family members have taken advantage of us and best friends have betrayed us again and again. After many of such disappointments, deceptions and betrayals, we have become failure prone and rigidly resolved to never trust anyone, ANYONE, including God!
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Truth is, when we settle for a life of 'TRUST NO ONE', we do ourselves more harm than good. We start living in fear and losing peace of mind. The 'what if' questions rush in like a flood and we find ourselves always expecting things to go wrong and expecting people to disappoint us even when those people have great intentions. Usually, things turn out the way we expect.
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Allow me to share a very valuable lesson on TRUST with you. I believe it will help you rebuild your broken trust and regain your lost peace and confidence if you are affected. .
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Lack of trust is not a smart-self protection solution but a type of disorder called fear This disorder usually manifests itself as:
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Paralysis of the mind: Nothing paralyzes the mind like fear. Whether it is fear of disappointment, fear of failure, fear of deception, the effect is the same: paralyzed mind. Fear overworks your mind and kills your creativity. Fear makes fool of a genius and cripple a giant. I have seen intelligent people fail job interviews because they were too nervous. Unfortunately, we have coined fancy words to describe fear such as nervousness and scary. "I am so nervous right now" or "That scares me to death" Please do not accept this as a normal state of the mind. When God created us he did not give us the spirit of fear but of love and sound mind. If you are always nervous, scared or suspicious, you need to take steps to deal with the root of the problem: broken trust.

You Don't Have To EARN A Living

Thank you for taking time to read this article. This week, my focus is work and life. I trust you have enjoyed your work and life this beautiful week. If you haven't, there's no need to worry, God does restore lost times. As a follow up on my last article on Monday fevers, I want to share with you some insights on how to quit toiling to earn a living and start living on the resting side of life. My purpose is to address some common life's dysfunctions that stop us from receiving the best God has for us. 

One of life's commonest dysfunctions is hard-work mentality. People with this mentality believe they have to earn their living and work hard at doing so. To them you are lazy if you are not busy round the clock. As managers, people with hard-work mentality are more likely to be the controlling type of bosses who look over everybody’s shoulders in the workplace to see if they are busy or idle. By so doing, they put out the fire of creativity from the team, not knowing. People with hard-work mentality attempt to rationalize everything and dismiss anything that is not logical. They believe that the harder you work the more successful you will become; they function in circles of routine work and often get stock in the prison of tradition. As Christians, people with hard work mentality are likely to be focused more on laws and wrath of God than on grace and love of God. 

Are you working hard to earn a living? Are you working hard to earn God's favour? Are you studying hard to earn a degree and land a job? Do you find yourself attempting to rationalize everything and dismiss anything that reason cannot explain? If yes, you may already be caught in the web of toils and it is nothing but a futile chase after the winds. Set yourself free today. Start trusting God for your daily supplies. God, not hard work, your employer or government is your source. If you believe in the saving grace of Jesus Christ and you are about promoting his kingdom, you are a candidate for divine supplies. Jesus has finished all the work required to meet our needs; he has made us the very righteousness of God. No one can work hard enough to earn God’s love or earn a living but anybody can trust God and enjoy a good life. The Psalmist knew this so well when he wrote:  

  It is useless for you to work so hard

      from early morning until late at night,
  anxiously working for food to eat;
      for God gives rest to his loved ones. Psalm 126:2 (NLT)

The first step towards correcting the hard-work mentality is realizing that you do not have to earn a living. To do so will take a life time and you could still end up poor. A study of successful people shows that the hardest workers are not always the richest and many poor people are very hard working. Alternative way to earning a living is receiving divine supplies. It is better and much easier to receive your supplies than to earn them. This is one of the most liberating lessons I have learned in my walk with God. One idea from God can end a long-term struggle, instantly. It happened to a fisherman named Simon. 

One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God. He noticed two empty boats at the water’s edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish. “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear! A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking. Luke 5:1-7 (NLT)

Simon had toiled all night trying to catch fish but could not. As soon as Jesus showed up and gave him an idea, his all-night struggle ended in a moment. I am sure Simon was not a day-old fisherman. He must have known all the tricks of fishing business yet he did not make progress by working hard but by receiving an idea from Jesus. He trusted Jesus, acted on his word and got a big catch.

You don't have to earn a living. Why toil to earn what you can receive free of charge? For example, if you need a bike that costs $300.00, you would be making a mistake if you start to look for $300.00 because what you really need is not the $300.00 but the bike and it is possible for someone to bless you with a bike free of charge. So, I encourage you to quit toiling and start trusting God to meet your daily needs. Does this mean you have to quit your job and fold your hands? Of course not. It means you have to quit trusting your own knowledge, skill and ability to meet your needs and learn to trust God to bless the work of your hands. There is a difference between hard work and diligence. Hard work take so much effort from people and give them little or no results but diligent people have great results to show for their efforts. People with hard work mentality rely on their own abilities but diligent people trust God. Whether it is academics, family, finance, relationship or salvation, the rule is the same: don't toil, trust God. The blessing of God makes a person rich and he adds no sorrow with it. What’s more, “your heavenly father already knows that you need 'these things” and he promised to add all of them to you once you make his kingdom your priority (Matthew 6:25-34). We are not supposed to run after things; things are supposed to run after us because we run after the kingdom of God.

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