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Managing Gods Money Review

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Thanks, Matt. Your book is in the mail today.

I wanted to send you a few more details on the book review and giveaway.

If you need some inspiration, here are some basic questions to get you started on your review:

  • What did you like about Managing God’s Money and why?
  • What did you learn?
  • What was most impactful to you?
  • How do you think the book would be helpful to your readers?

We would like to ask that you post your review on your blog within one month after receiving the book in the mail.  Please send me an email as soon as you know when your blog post will be up. If I haven’t heard from you within a month after sending the book, I will follow up to see when you plan to post the review.

To comply with new regulations introduced by the Federal Trade Commission, please include this information at the bottom of your review: Eternal Perspective Ministries provided me with a complimentary copy of this book to review.

I’ve attached an image of the book to include with your post, along with this paragraph:

Managing God’s Money is available from your local Christian bookstore and from online retailers, as well as from Eternal Perspective Ministries (www.epm.org), a nonprofit ministry founded by author Randy Alcorn.

I’ve also attached a Q&A with Randy on the book. You are welcome to include any or all of it with your post if you like.

You may have your own way of conducting a giveaway on your blog, and that is fine. But here is some sample wording as a guideline:

Eternal Perspective Ministries is also giving away copies of Managing God’s Money to three readers! To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post by (date one week after the post goes up). Please only enter once and leave a valid email address and do not enter for family and friends. The winners will be randomly selected on (date the day after the giveaway closes) and notified by the email left in the comments. Winners must respond within 48 hours of notification or we will select another winner.

EPM would ask that you handle the details of randomly selecting and contacting the winners by email for their mailing addresses. For giveaways on our own site, I use a random number generator (www.random.org/integers/) to generate three random numbers and select the winners. Once you’ve contacted the winners and have their mailing addresses, you can then pass on the names and addresses to me, and we will ship the books out.

Finally, we would ask that you also post your review on Christianbook.com and Amazon. With your review, include the line: Eternal Perspective Ministries provided me with a complimentary copy of this book to review. We will also be posting your review on our website, www.epm.org.

Please do let me know if you have any questions at all. Thank you again for your partnership!

With blessing,

Stephanie Anderson  l  Promotions Director

5 Essential Business Principles from the Bible

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5 Essential Business Principles From The BibleThe Bible is full of advice on how to handle money. Every business owner can (and should) build their business on these essential principles straight from the Word of God. As you read through these Bible verses and associated principles, ask yourself where you see room for improvement in your own business dealings.

1. Conduct your business with humility.

Be realistic about your human nature. Everyone makes mistakes, and I’d venture to guess you’ve made a few. Humility causes us to listen to our customers, to hear their concerns, and to address their problems. Having a large ego won’t get you anywhere and can cause your business to stumble.

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. – Proverbs 16:18 NIV

Does someone not like your product? Give them a refund. Show your customers that you want to make sure they’re getting value for their dollars. In several of my eBooks, I suggest that if the buyer dislikes the book that they send me an email requesting a refund. I want my work to be worth the cost. Don’t you?

2. Be diligent and avoid laziness.

If your job is draining you of your energy, and you can’t seem to work as you should, it might be time to change jobs. Find work that you can be passionate about. But in whatever you’re doing, be diligent. Laziness won’t bring in the money – customers pay for results.

Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. – Proverbs 10:4 NIV

Some practical ways to boost your energy include getting adequate rest to avoid exhaustion, exercising regularly, and eating foods as close to their natural, God-intended state as possible.

3. Be fair and don’t cheat in your business dealings.

Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light. – Deuteronomy 25:13 NIV

Standardized weights and measures were used in Biblical times to conduct business transactions. The Bible here is speaking out against cheating others in business dealings. Both parties – the buyer and the seller – should “be on the same page” regarding a transaction, each understanding exactly what they are to receive as a result of the deal. Selling a product or service? Thoroughly describe what it is that you’re selling. It’s also a good idea to “test” your description by having potential customers ask questions about the product or service before selling it to them. The less questions they have, the better job you’ve done at describing what it is you’re selling.

4. Gather little by little.

Television likes to tell the stories of people who encounter windfalls of cash: business ventures that are overnight successes, lottery tickets that bring in millions, and attic-retrieved antiques worth a decade’s worth of wages. These sudden windfalls probably won’t happen to you – the odds are very much against you. Instead, the Bible teaches to gather money little by little.

Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow. – Proverbs 13:11 NIV

There are honest circumstances under which one might earn a windfall, but the Bible tells us that our focus should be on earning money little by little.

5. Don’t be timid.

Be humble and bold at the same time. The Holy Spirit can give you power to run your business and self-discipline to manage your time.

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. – 2nd Timothy 1:7 NIV

What is it that you’d love to do? In what areas of your business do you need more boldness? If you’re looking to improve your business and your life, make sure you stay rooted in the Word of God. The Bible has much more to say to those looking for help. Take these verses to heart, and seek the Lord. And if you only remember one piece of advice from this article, remember this:

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. – Matthew 7:12 NIV

What are some other Biblical business principles that you think should be practiced?

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Bob is the founder of Christian Personal Finance, a website helping people make more, save more, and give more away.

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How To Pay Off Debt With a Lump Sum

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How To Pay Off Debt With A Lump SumThe question:

DFA reader Denise asked:

My husband will be getting a lump sum next week of about 110 k. This is a settlement from a workers comp case. It’ll change a lot of things for us. For one. We will be able to pay off almost all debt (mostly medical bills) and another is our monthly income will be reduced by $860 a month. Yikes! We also have a car loan with about 15k left and my student loan which is in collections and is being garnished from my paycheck each week. not much I can do about that. Another 30k plus to go!

My question is basically what is the best way to go about paying off the car loan which is financed at over 20%, to make the most positive impact on our credit report? Ideally we would love to do it within six months.The answer:

Thanks for your question Denise.

As I see it you have several options:

  1. pay off the car in one lump sum
  2. bank the money and continue making regular payments until the car is paid off
  3. start paying your student loans.

Let’s take a closer look to see what works best for your situation.

Lump sum aka windfall

Today the term windfall refers to a piece of unexpected good fortune, typically one that involves receiving a large amount of money, but originates from an apple or other fruit being blown down from a tree or bush by the wind.

Windfall’s can be – and should be used as – great kickstarts for getting out of debt!

Your credit score

You mentioned your credit score which shows you are concerned about how to make it higher.

I have my own opinion about credit scores, but we’ll set that aside for now to best answer your question. (Use this credit score resource to help find or improve your score.)

The best way to improve your credit score will be to get your student loans current and out of collections. Use the combined resource of your monetary lump sum and the flexibility of repayment offered by your student loan guarantor. (Use this student loan resource to find your best solution.)

Your auto loan

Since you’re paying around 20% interest on your auto loan you want to get that paid of as soon as possible.

To give you a better idea of how much this loan is costing you let’s take a look at an example amount being financed at 20%.

According to BankRate.com’s auto loan calculator, a 4-year $15,000 loan at 20% means a $450/month car payment with $250 of that going toward interest. At the end of this loan you will have paid nearly $7,000 in interest!

That is unacceptable, so pay it off as soon as possible.

Conclusion

If it were me I would use the lump sum in this order:

  1. pay off the medical bills
  2. get the student loans current
  3. use the rest to pay off (or down) the auto loan.

Once you have the auto loan paid down (or paid off) you can set up automatic payments to your student loan guarantor so you no longer have to worry about late payments, collections, and wage garnishment.

Note: although it may not apply to this situation, others reading will also want to consider investing some of the lump sum. I usually recommend passive investing strategies.

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photo by Steenbergs