Those of you who have followed my previous blog for a while already know that my hubby and I have been working towards becoming better stewards of what GOD has given us. It's definitely one of our main goals for this year. I think so far we're making pretty good progress and I'm happy to see the fruits of our labor. Slowly but surely we're seeing GOD work in our lives. Today I was watching Joyce Meyer (as I do most mornings when I'm home) and she was talking about becoming debt free....it was great to hear her message because it served as sort of an extra nudge...or a reassurance that we are on the right track.
Some of the key verses for me through this process are:
Proverbs 22:7 "...and the borrower is servant to the lender"
Proverbs 22:9 "A generous man will himself be blessed for he shares his food with the poor"
Proverbs 21:21 "He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor"
Joyce had some great advice this morning...as to how to deligate your money
1)give
2)save
3)spend (wisely....if at all possible...live 30% below your means)
*know exactly what you owe and what you have...
*set financial goals....work towards paying off small debts first and then work your way to the larger debts...you'll feel like you've accomplished more.
*SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!!! Everyone should work towards having an emergency fund and a savings account for other things.
I believe Dave Ramsey said that you should give at least 10% (tithes, charities, etc.)10% savings and the other 80% is for everything else. Which I thought was a great place to start. There was also a lot of helpful information in a book I read recently called "Your Money Counts" by Howard Dayton.
We are by no means perfect, we're certainly still figuring it all out ourselves, but I thought I'd share some of the things I'm learning on our journey to becoming better stewards...I know I've spoken with some of you via blogs/email about this topic since several of you are in similar situations and the reality is most of us do live paycheck to paycheck...be it due to past mistakes or simply unfortunate circumstances....but I think we can all better our finances at least a littlle bit :O) Hope this is helpful...
Thanks! I love this post! I like the idea of 10, 10 and 80. I think I will feel more accomplished if I know where my money is going :)
ReplyDeleteStephanie
www.thegimlinfamily.blogspot.com
Thanks for sharing this Nadine. I have been thinking more lately about the saving part of it all. We haven't done a very good job of saving and I know we need to buckle down on that better. I used to love listening to Howard Dayton on his Money Matters show on the radio. Now it's someone different and I haven't gotten to listen as much, but I love all of the tips they share.
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