Skip to main content

Art Rainer: 6 Signs You Need to Reevaluate How You Handle Your Finances

By

Art Rainer, like his father, turns out a lot practical material on his blog everyweek.  Here is one related to stewardship he recently posted and I wanted to share it here. The post should contain the links to his webpage if you click on the picture below. 

 -Enjoy
Pastor Garrett

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6 Signs You Need to Reevaluate How You Handle Your Finances

Avoiding Financial Disaster Starts Today

2539334956_87cef7e457_b
Over time, it becomes easy to get lulled into thinking your financial picture is fine and completely normal. You grow accustomed to the way things are and rarely question if there is a better way. But subtly, your financial situation is eroding. And if not addressed, you will come face-to-face with a financial disaster.
Before a financial disaster arrives, there are some warning signs. Here are six signs that you need to reevaluate how you handle your finances:
1. You are not able to give
The Bible tells us we are to be joyful givers. And the starting point of your giving should be your local church. There are many great reasons to give, but none more important than worship to God. If you feel that your current financial situation does not let you give joyfully, a red flag should go up.
2. You are not able to save
For long-term financial health, saving is essential. You should be setting aside a portion of each paycheck into a savings account and into a retirement account. Not setting aside savings is an indicator that you are living paycheck to paycheck. It is also a sign that any unforeseen financial cost could cause significant turmoil.
3. You play the credit card balance transfer game
Transferring a credit card balance from a card with a higher interest rate to a card with a lower interest rate is not something to celebrate. Though it is good that you have a lower rate, there is a clear, underlying issue that needs to be addressed. How did you get into this position to begin with? For many, credit card debt is simply the result of a lack of patience and financial discipline. Unless broken, the absence of this virtue and practice will lead to long-term consequences.
4. You hate the end of the month
You hate it because you have run out of money. And you are scrapping to get by until the next paycheck. It is a cycle that must be broken. Because often the decisions that created this cycle will cause you to hate more of the month, not less, in the future.
5. You frequently fight with your spouse over money issues
Financial stress causes marital conflict. It is a weight both husbands and wives feel. Married couples must be on the same page with their finances, moving in the same direction. This leads me to my final sign.
Married couples must be on the same page with their finances, moving in the same direction.
6. You don't have a plan
What are your financials goals? How are you going to reach them? Plans bring clarity to financial decision-making. It is easy to make poor financial decisions when you do not have any guidelines on how money is to be handled in your household. Set goals to give, save, and pay off debt. Then create a plan to help get you there. You will be surprised what a difference a few goals and a plan make.
What about you? What other signs indicate disarray in someone's personal finances? Please place your comments in the section below.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

John Stott on the "old man" and the "body ruled by sin" in Rom 6 v 6

By
  There are, in fact, two quite distinct ways in which the New Testament speaks of crucifixion in relation to holiness. The first is our death to sin through identification with Christ; the second is our death to self through imitation of Christ.  On the one hand, we have been crucified with Christ. But on the other we have crucified (decisively repudiated) our sinful nature with all its desires, so that every day we renew this attitude by taking up our cross and following Christ to crucifixion.  The first is a legal death, a death to the penalty of sin; the second is a moral death, a death to the power of sin.  The first belongs to the past, and is unique and unrepeatable; the second belongs to the present, and is repeatable, even continuous. I died to sin (in Christ) once; I die to self (like Christ) daily. It is with the first of these two deaths that Romans 6 is chiefly concerned, although the first is with a view to the second, and the second cannot take place w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Berkoff: "The law was not substituted for the promise; neither was faith supplanted by works. "

By
  The giving of the law did not effect a fundamental change in the religion of Israel, but merely introduced a change in its external form.  The law was not substituted for the promise; neither was faith supplanted by works.  Many of the Israelites, indeed, looked upon the law in a purely legalistic spirit and sought to base their claim to salvation on a scrupulous fulfillment of it as a body of external precepts.  But in the case of those who understood its real nature, who felt the inwardness and spirituality of the law, it served to deepen the sense of sin and to sharpen the conviction that salvation could be expected only from the grace of God . L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 498–499.
Post a Comment
Read more

F.F. Bruce: ...know their father's will...

By
The NT does not contain a detailed code of rules for the Christian. Codes of rules, as Paul explains elsewhere, are suited to the period of immaturity when the children of God are still under guardians; but children who have come to years of responsibility know their father’s will without having to be provided with a long list of “Do’s” and “Don’t’s.” What the NT does provide is those basic principles of Christian living which may be applied to varying situations of life as they arise. So, after answering the Corinthian Christians’ question about the eating of food that has been offered to idols, Paul sums up his advice in the words: “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). Phrases current in worship, like “to the glory of God” or (as here) “in the name of the Lord Jesus,” were given a practical relevance by being applied to the concerns of ordinary life. Bruce, F. F. (1984). The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the...
Post a Comment
Read more