How to Have More Gold for Your Golden Years

In this weeks Money Monday, I will show you how every young person can be millionaires by age 70. With time and a small amount of savings over 40 years, it is pretty simple, but not always easy.

The Biblical priciple of saving for our golden years comes with a caveate: we must avoid accumulating wealth just so we can increase our lifestyle.

We build wealth for the following reasons:

Brian's Gravy for Biscuits and Gravy

One of my favorite breakfasts is "Biscuits and Gravy". Most restaurants get their gravy off the truck, meaning they bought a premade gravy instead of making it from scratch.

When I am home I can make it from the ground up and it is amazing. Here is the recipe I used this morning.

$1,000,000 Money Monday

In this weeks Money Monday we are going to do a little celebrating.

Lisa and I teach a financial class called Financial Peace University. We recently taught our 12 th class and have had 520 attend our classes.

So where does the million dollars come from...

Dirt, Delays and Danger

Reed and I recently did a pilgrimage to North Dakota State University for a college visit. It is the time of the year to be making the final visits and decisions on colleges. We were very impressed with the program and what we learned.

Even though it was kinda the off season we still ran into the ubiquitous road construction.

Kinda reminded me of spring on the farm in the following ways...

Why Do We Write So Much About Debt

In this Money Monday we are answering the question, Why do we write so much about debt?  I wrote this article for Autumn Ridge Church financial blog. It is written for a church audience, but has many principle that would apply to farming as well.

William Shakespeare said, "Neither a borrower or lender be, for loan oft loses both itself and friend..." If this sounds familiar this quote was later "borrowed" by Benjamin Franklin in his poor Richards almanac. If we are going to consider whether Christians should borrow money, we don't typically consult Shakespeare for such insight. It is also probably not a good idea to get our advice from our "unchurched" neighbor or our "broke" finance professor.
So where do we go for wisdom on this topic?
When ever I want to know what a believer should do I turn to scripture. I
I spent most of a Sunday afternoon last week looking and I didn't find anything in scripture that instructs a believer to borrow money.
I thought, well, maybe they didn't have borrowing in Biblical times? Let's look at what I found to answer that question.
Proverbs 22:7 "The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender." This word slave is, well, slavery or bondage. The principle here is for the individual to avoid borrowing. I think we would agree that the church should not be in bondage to anyone except Christ, so the church should avoid borrowing too.
Romans 13:8 "Let no debt remain outstanding except the continued debt to love one another." My old King James says, "owe no man anything". I think that is pretty clear.
Deuteronomy 15:6 "For the Lord God will bless you as he as promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none." Yes this is addressed to the nation of Israel but so was the 10 commandments and the church takes those very seriously so we should too.
Proverbs 17:18 "A man lacking in judgment strikes hands in pledge and puts up security for a neighbor." A more modern version says "It is stupid to guarantee someone else's loan."
Proverbs 6:1-5 is a similar passage but more emphatic. "My son if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in a pledge for another. If you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, to free yourself since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands: Go and humble yourself; press your plea with your neighbor! Allow no sleep to your eyes no slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler." This says get out of debt with gazelle intensity. (We use this animal metaphor in FPU a lot.)
Numbers 30:2 God says vows are to be taken seriously.
I conclude debt is not God's way. He strongly discourages debt, from any scripture I could find on the topic.
Our incomes are the biggest tools that we have to give, save and support our families. Scripture instructs us to spend less than we make, creating margin for giving and saving. It is out of this margin that we can support the Lord's work and invest for the future. If we have committed all of our incomes to payments, we are doing what is known as living paycheck to paycheck.
According to a study recently completed by Bankrate.com 76% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and 27% have no savings at all and could not handle a $500 emergency.
Debt means we are spending more than he has provided for us. Debt means we haven't done the planning that he requires of us as managers of his money. It means we have given up the contentment and patience he desires for us. Debt short circuits his plan for us.
Debt is a trap that can side track our education, careers, calling and marriages. We often don't know we are getting into the trap until it is to late. That is why believers should get training like FPU, where we teach how to get out of the trap and stay out for good.
We talk about debt a lot because it is so pervasive in our culture and believers are not immune to the problems that debt causes.
Getting out of debt is part of The Journey to Financial Peace.
Brian and Lisa Petersen, lead the Financial Peace University course at Autumn Ridge Church. Concepts like the one discussed in this article are taught in FPU. Brian and Lisa welcome your questions on “Why Do We Teach So Much About Debt”. They can be reached at brian@vegetablefreak.com.

Chipotle - Vote with Your Fork Alert

It saddened me to learn that Chipotle was very likely the subject of industrial espionage in the recent food poisoning episode. That is right, there is a Federal investigation in process. One of the most compelling evidence is, one of the e-coli bacteria found was a rare strain only found in a lab.

So why would someone want to attack Chipotle?

Farming is Work That Matters

I was at the MOSES organic farming conference at the end of February. Several of the classes that I went to were out standing, real life changing stuff. I sent the teachers a note and told them they did a nice job and should be very proud of doing "Work that Matters".

Most organic farmers are doing "Work that Matters" too and here is why.

Would You Like to Pay Cash for College

This money Monday we are goin to consider How to Pay Cash for College.

We have been taking Reed, our high school senior, on college visits over the last several months.  This spring he will be making decisions on where to attend college. We have two students in college and a senior in high school. As a family, we are committed to not borrowing for college. I'll ask you to pull up a chair to our kitchen table and listen to what we have taught our students.

Petersen's Market Menu for March 5, 2016

2015-2016 Squash, Photo Credit Reed Petersen

Here is our market menu for this week.

The spaghetti squash are hanging in there. We have about 30 of the personal size left.

The carrots and parsnips are now safely in storage for the winter. November is the best time to pick the best carrots and parsnips of the year. Can you guess why? Frost! You need a few hard frosts to bring out the sweetness of those carrots. The children call our carrots "candy carrots" because of this crunchy sweetness. Here is a link to an article on our web site about why carrots are sweeter with frost?

We will have the following items at the Farmers Market for Saturday, March 5, 2016 (New items are in Bold Print)

Cabbage - Red

Garlic
Carrots
Parsnips
Walla Walla Sweet Onions
Red Onions
Shallots
Squash
Beets


Pickles: Spicy Dill, Sweet Sandwich, Okra, Dilly Bean, Corn Relish, Pepper Relish.
Salsa

Chipotle Smoked Peppers

Charcoal (home grown, home made). Made three fresh batches in the last week.

Stages of Learning in Farming - Building Your Legacy

Lots of things to think about, and it can be a little overwhelming at the beginning. Farming is running a very challenging small business and that can be complex. But when done well, farming can be a multi-generational business, who's skills can be translated to future generations. Farming involves passion to keep us going when the days are long.