Creating More Value Than You Consume

As a citizen of these United States the goal is to create more value than you consume.

It is amazing how many people do not view their life from a contribution mind set. They have a consumption mentality. What can I get verses what can I give.

If you want to thrive in farming or any other occupation you need to produce value.

This Money Monday we are going to look two examples of value on the production side and on the input side.

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:

$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...

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.

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.

How to Buy a House for Cash

This Money Monday we are going to learn How to Buy a House For Cash.

Buying a house is part of the American dream. Many couples rush into this decision before they are ready, fueled by insistence  from family and friends. Home ownership can be a great blessing but only if you are ready to own a home and you don't get into the ill advised situation where the home owns you.

Let's ask the following questions to determine if you are ready to buy a home.

1. Do you have 3 to 6 months living expenses in an emergency fund.
2. Are you out of consumer debt? Student loans, cars, bank loans, and credit cards.
3. Have you saved for a significant down payment

If all of the above have been accomplished then you are ready to move ahead with home ownership.

The title of this article is "How to Buy a House for Cash". This is a special case where you have saved 100 percent for a down payment. 

Lets look at how this can be done.

Can We Borrow Ourselves Rich

An economist was evaluating the deficit spending that our government has been doing during the Bush and Obama administration. He made an interesting observation. He said that we have gone from an economy that creates capital and produces real value through manufacturing and commodities from farming and mining, to an economy where we just pay each other for services and we just move money around, while producing less and less value. He said we are trying to "borrow ourselves rich". Well I don't know if he is right or wrong about our economy. At least the farm economy is still producing real value.

But lets look at this from a personal stand point and ask ourselves if borrowing will help us prosper.

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...

The Year of Contentment

One of keys to the financial success of every family is contentment, which is one of the most powerful financial principles in our lives.

I Timothy 6:6-8 says, "Now godliness with contentment is great gain..."

Let's start off the New Year by considering five principles of contentment...

Should the Church Borrow

The topic of church borrowing comes up at strategic times of growth and change. The Bible is clear on what the path should be...don't borrow.

Below are links to Bible Studies on my website in support of this teaching.

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.

End of the Year Giving for Farm Families

Farm income, and many types of business income, is notoriously seasonal. We do our best to smooth it out by shifting sales to early in the season and doing some canning, drying, smoking and storing to provide some income during slower times of the year.

Because of this seasonality many farm families do the largest share of giving to their church and other charities at the end of the year.

Beside being scriptural. Generosity changes us as a person from a potentially tight fisted miser to an open handed happy person. You must open your hand to give, but it is also necessary to open your hand so that more blessings can come your way. 

Farm families also have the possibility of giving of the fruit of their labor. My father used to give and extra wagon full of corn at the end of the year. He would have them make the check out to the church.

We give left over produce to Channel One (the local food shelf) all summer long. We often bring extra with them in mind. Again in the fall we take a load of squash or pumpkins. Usually this is produce that God has blessed us with above and beyond our needs for the business. I could wholesale this abundance to a store or something but I like to give it. Kinda of a picture of what God is doing all the time through our paychecks and other income.

Here is my check list for end of the year giving:

Pickup Trucks and Business Success

I have come to believe that success and failure in farming may be tied to the pickup truck the farmer drives.

You mean if you choose Ford over Chevy you may fail? No I'm thinking more about buying an expensive truck versus a good used truck no matter what the brand. Especially in the early years of building your farming business.

Not saying I'm perfect, but here is what we have done over 35 years of farming. I offer this for your consideration.

Thou Shall Prosper

I read an excellent book by Daniel Lapin over the weekend. He says there are ten principles that tips the scales in our financial approach significantly toward prosperity.

Here is his list of 10...

Our Work Matters

We had a great sermon this weekend about work as an extension of our worship to God. Pastor Steer at Autumn Ridge Church reminded us that God commanded Adam to work in the Garden of Eden.

I especially like that fact that the initial concept of work was an agricultural endeavor. It was both plant and animal based.

One of the first tasks that Adam was given was to name all the animals. I do not think this was a shallow task like calling all the beagles Snoopy or the cats Garfield. I think this was a deep intellectual excercise of organizing the taxonomy of "all creatures great and small".

Here is why I say that...