Financial Peace for You

Sunday morning January 17, 2016 at 9:00 am at Autumn Ridge Church starts our next Financial Peace University class.

It is taught by Dave Ramsey via DVD. Topics include...

Ten Reasons Your Church Should Be Debt Free

We often talk about personal and farming financial matters on our blog.

Here is a topic for your church to consider for 2016.

If your pastors and elders aren't encouraging agressive debt reduction. Please talk to them about searching scripture on this and pray about becoming debt free.

The list below will give you 10 reasons to be debt free.

Financial Peace University, September 19th

Financial Peace University, September 19th

Dear Farmers Market Friends,

Lisa and I will be coordinating a class called Financial Peace University taught by Dave Ramsey via video. It will start Saturday evening September 19th at 7:00 pm at Autumn Ridge Church in Rochester and be held at this time every week for 9 weeks. The class consists of a very entertaining lesson by Dave Ramsey followed by a small group working session where class members can ask questions and process the information. You can register by going to Daveramsey.com.

This will be our 11th class. We have had 450 people attend and have had $950,000 in debt paid off just in the 9 weeks of the class with many families now reporting they are debt free.

Who should come to the class? People who are struggling with debt and other financial issues. People who are doing OK but want to learn more about how to manage their finances. People who have high school students heading for college and don't quite know how to help them pay for it all (that is me). People who are doing great financially but want to have a financial check-up to make sure everything is the best it can be.

Here are the topics of the lessons...

The $10,000 Summer

I asked Andrea to write this article for our website. She was a little reluctant to do so because "we aren't supposed to talk about money, right". 

I told her that her ideas on how to fund her college education could be very helpful to other students. 

Her approach is very entrepreneurial and unique. 

Andread started her own business. 

She developed a whole series of curriculum for a broad age-range of students her first summer out of college, and she has been implementing this vision for teaching young people about music and music theory. God has been blessing her vision academically, financially, and spiritually as she serves her students and their parents through these classes.

Andrea is a double major in Music Composition and Vocal Music Education at The University of Northwestern in St. Paul. She has a 2-inch thick binder full of very positive evaluations from her students and recommendations from her student's parents, from these summer classes she has been teaching, and she hasn't even started her student teaching yet.

As you can tell she is a very talented teacher and a very hard worker both in the classroom and on the farm.

--- Brian, Andrea's father

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Some things just don’t seem possible.

Like graduating from college without debt. Right? With the price of universities all across the country skyrocketing, there is no way to go to a university for 4 years without at least a LITTLE debt, is there?

What would your world look like if you could make $10,000 in one summer?

But is THAT possible? (Probably only if you are a senior in engineering or maybe if you worked construction and a lot of overtime.)

I am here to tell you that it is; here's how I did it:

How to Be Rich

Andy Stanley has written a book with the title "How to be Rich" based on 1 Timothy 6:17 where it says, "Command those who are rich in this present world..."

I hadn't read the book yet but I got to thinking that compared to many people we are rich in this present world.

Did you know that if you make $48,000 a year, you are in the top 1% of the wage earners in the world.  The average income in Olmstead county is $62,000 per year. I'll bet you didn't even know that most of you are a "one percenter".

What difference does this make. Here are three reasons this is important...

The Top One Percent

There is a lot of discussion about the inequity of wealth between the top one percent of the wealth holders and the rest of us. The top one percent have wealth so vast as to boggle the mind.

So why is this such a hot topic.

Contentment

Contentment is one of the most powerful finanical principles in our lives. If we have learned to be content, it will be easier to understand and accept our position as the manager of what we have been given. This doesn't mean we need to be hands off on money issues. Contentment helps us focus on our goals for money and to resist temptation to overspend or borrow.

Here are four signs of discontentment...

The Purpose of Generosity

From Abel to Malachi in the Old Testament and from Matthew to Revelation in the New Testament Scripture talks about generosity.

When the pastor preaches about giving or the church offers a class like Financial Peace University, the assumption is often that God is after your hard-earned cash. But scripture teaches the exact opposite of this. In reality, God owns it all and it is a bit presumptuous to assume that he needs our money at all. 

If the purpose of generosity isn't because God needs our money. Why does God ask us to be generous?

What is it?

The next time someone points as baby zuchini, arugula, chipotle peppers or tomatillos as says, "What is it? I'm gonna tell them it is manna.

Remember in the Old Testament clear back in Exodus...

Provision - Elisha and the Widow's Oil - Lesson 1

I have been doing some study on one of my favorite topics generosity and the provision of a loving God. I was reminded of the story back in 2 Kings 4:1-7. The story is about Elisha and the widow's oil.

It says...

Fianancial Peace University, January 18th

Dear Farmers Market Friends,

Lisa and I will be coordinating a class called Financial Peace University taught by Dave Ramsey via video. It will start Sunday morning January 18 at 9:00 at Autumn Ridge Church in Rochester and be held at this time every week for 9 weeks. The class consists of a very entertaining lesson by Dave Ramsey followed by a small group working session where class members can ask questions and process the information. You can register by going to Daveramsey.com.

This will be our 10th class. We have had nearly 400 people attend and have had $850,000 in debt paid off just in the 9 weeks of the class with many families now reporting they are debt free.

Who should come to the class? People who are struggling with debt and other financial issues. People who are doing OK but want to learn more about how to manage their finances. People who have high school students heading for college and don't quite know how to help them pay for it all (that is me). People who are doing great financially but want to have a financial check-up to make sure everything is the best it can be.

Here are the topics of the lessons...

Financial Peace Univeristy

Lisa and I are hosting a class on personal finances called Financial Peace University. The teaching is done by Dave Ramsey via DVD. We have had over 350 people from the church and community go through this class and the results have been amazing. Just during the 9 week class our class members have report a reduction in debt of over $800,000. Some of our class have reported later that they have paid off their homes or are completely out of debt. We cover topics like budgeting, saving, investing, insurance and giving.

If you are interested, you can register and get materials at the Dave Ramsey web site.

The class is starting Saturday night September 13, 2014 (yes tonight). It goes for 9 weeks.

It will be held at Autumn Ridge Church, in Rochester, Minnesota, from 7-9:00 pm.

We have a Saturday evening contemporary worship service from 5:30-6:30. The class is after that.

If you can't make it this week but would still like to come. Just come next week.

Hope to see you there!