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The Whole Armor of Personal Finance

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Some of my favorite bible verses are those packed full of encouragement and power.  In the following passage, the Apostle Paul is speaking to the church at Ephesus regarding the battles to be fought, and the weapons with which they should fight.  This text is incredibly uplifting and full of timeless wisdom.

Paul reminds the reader that the Christian battle is not one of flesh and blood, but of principalities, powers, the rulers of this world, and wickedness in high places.

It reminds me of our battle against debt, advertising, commercialism, and the war we fight to gain control over our personal finances.

The Scripture

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;”  – Ephesians 6:10-18

The whole armor of God

  1. Loins girt about with Truth
  2. Breastplate of Righteousness
  3. Feet shod with the preparation of The Gospel of Peace
  4. Shield of Faith
  5. Helmet of Salvation
  6. Sword of the Bible

The whole armor of Personal Finance

  1. Loins girt about with Wise Money Management
  2. Breastplate of Frugality
  3. Feet shod with the preparation of Sound Financial Counsel & Education
  4. Shield of Contentment
  5. Helmet of A Proper Money Mindset
  6. Sword of Cutting Expenses

Loins girt about with Wise Money Management

  • Budget to gain control & focus on Spending less than you earn
  • Emergency fund savings – while many say to get at least $1,000 saved for emergencies, I advise to continually fund your emergency fund and other high interest savings accounts by using the percentage approach.  I currently designate 25% of my available funds to my savings even though I am still in debt reduction mode.
  • Debt reduction – where I focus the remaining 75% of my available funds.  It is of the utmost importance to rid yourself of all your high interest consumer debt like credit cards, department store cards, auto loans, etc.  Once you pay off your high interest debt, I advise shifting the majority of your available funds to savings & investments.
  • Invest & continue to save – once you have paid off your high interest consumer debt, continue building your EF and invest the rest in your investment of choice.  Index Funds (through Charles Schwab or Vanguard) are solid, low-cost, choices that will meet market returns.
  • Pay off your mortgage & student loans – once you have your savings funded according to the needs of your individual situation, paint a big bulls-eye on your low interest debt and slash that baby down as quickly as possible.  I may catch flack for saying this, but I am a HUGE proponent of paying off the mortgage and living DEBT FREE.

Breastplate of Frugality

  • Creative mindset – get your creative juices flowing & be resourceful.  Before we do anything now, my wife & I run all our financial decisions through our protective frugal filter.
  • Stop eating out – If you have been following our Debt Free Adventure then you may well know that Mrs. Jabs & me were spending between $5,000 – $6,000 a year eating out at restaurants.  Looking back now, this is absolutely atrocious to me but before equipping ourselves with the breastplate of frugality we just didn’t concern ourselves with the costs.  If you must eat out use my Frugal Guide to Eating Out.
  • Homemade gifts & products – making more things at home including:  food, cleaning products, gifts, home decor, etc. will save you money and bring many other benefits along with it.  We make products such as homemade laundry detergent, toothpaste, deodorant, all-purpose cleaner, homemade dishwasher detergent, etc.  We also stopped buying cards & gifts and choose to make our own now – the results are more personalized, unique, and special than their store-bought counterparts.
  • Use Coupons – When we do buy things we always shop around and seek out coupons.  This is especially useful when shopping on the Internet, before I make any purchase I simply go to Google and type in “Coupon *product I’m buying*”
  • Ask for discounts – I tell my wife all the time, you never know until you ask!  Just a few weeks ago, when putting in my paver patio I saved over $300 by simply asking for a discount due to the volume of my purchase.
  • Decrease use of heat & AC – we used to keep our house at 70 in the winter and 74 in the summer.  Now we keep it at 64 in the winter and have actually been able to keep our A/C off every day this summer except for two!

Feet shod with the preparation of Sound Financial Counsel & Education

  • Adopt a financial mentor – when I truly began to get a hold on my finances at the beginning of this year I found myself in need of some solid financial advice from those who were already standing where I wanted to be.  I decided to adopt a few financial mentors and they continue to be an ENORMOUS blessing in my life.
  • Read personal finance blogs – they’re free and chocked full of sound money advice.  A few great ones to get you started are Frugal Dad, Bible Money Matters, Get Rich Slowly, Five Cent Nickel, and The Simple Dollar
  • Read personal finance books– if you are like JD Roth and you like the smell of books, or you simply love the feeling of a good book in your hands then get started with a few goodies.  I recommend:

Shield of Contentment

  • Simplify your life – break free from the culture of temptation that marketers have been driving at us for decades, and choose instead to return to a simpler life.  Ride your bike more, walk more, read more, turn off the TV.  All of these things may seem like sacrifices at first but after being exercised by them Mrs. Jabs & me have realized the true blessings of a simplified life.
  • Determine your needs – what do you need at a most basic level?  Water, food, shelter, and love – everything else is a bonus.
  • Determine your wants – our wants can be endless so it is incredibly important that we realize this and quickly determine what we can do to keep them in check.  What kind of food should we buy?  How big of a house?  What clothes should we wear?  These questions, like many others in this post, will be answered differently based on your income, debt, age, and relationship status so be sure to answer them specific to your position.
  • Find a balance – now that you have separated you wants from your needs, focus on finding that balance where you have what you need, are living below your means, but still comfortable.

Helmet of A Proper Money Mindset

  • Sacrifice now to benefit later – this is actually my entire financial philosophy in a nutshell.  The concept is simple and revolves around my view that it is better to scrimp & save now than it will be when you’re in our 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, & 90’s!
  • Embrace compounding interest – to motivate yourself, calculate how much interest you are paying to big banks and do whatever necessary to reverse that cycle and start paying yourself first.
  • Spend less than you earn & avoid debt – this isn’t rocket science and does not require explanation.
  • Save/invest increasingly – Grow your savings every year, even if you are currently paying debt.  Always pay yourself at least 25% of your extra money each month.
  • Give generously – it truly is more blessed to give than to receive.  Since implementing an automated charitable giving plan earlier this year, my wife & me have never had a better grasp on our finances.

Sword of Cutting Expenses

  • Turn off your TV – I mentioned it earlier in the post and I am purposely mentioning it again.  It is hard to impress upon you the many benefits of canceling your TV service.  I am much more productive in my side hustles, I spend more time with my wife, I accomplish more around house… especially in the way of my “honey do list”.
  • Reduce grocery costs – grow a garden, make more homemade food, stop eating out, buy in bulk, eat locally, preserve the harvest by freezing it and by canning it.
  • Reduce your consumption – I’ll say it again… turn down/off your furnace and turn down/off your air conditioning.  At first we thought this was uncomfortable but found we adapted to the temperature quickly.  Now that we no longer use our A/C we are always very cold when we go into a building that has it in use.
  • Carefully check your monthly bills for errors – I was able to save $160 over the course of two months because my utility company was over charging me.  I am not sure whether this was done on purpose, but regardless, by checking the bill and looking it over carefully I was able to save a lot of money.

I hope you were encouraged by this article, and that it helps to equip you with the whole armor of personal finance so you can protect yourself from the wiles of debt, advertising and commercialism.  Let us fight the good fight of faith and strive to win the daily battle to gain control over our personal finances!

Cash For Trash

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You have all heard the saying “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.”  Well this holds true.  How many items are around your home that you don’t use?  Appliances, furniture, clothes and books are often left sitting unused because they no longer work right, no longer fit, don’t match the décor, etc.  Take a look around and make a list of everything you no longer use. Put everything unused on the list, don’t second guess yourself… just write it down, you’ll be amazed at what other people are willing to buy.

Organize your junk

After writing out your list look it over and organize it into categories such as appliances, furniture, metal, non-working parts, wood, clothes, etc.  This makes it easier to turn your junk into cash because different piles will need to be dealt with differently.  Name the categories anything you want, just don’t get carried away. Remember to K.I.S.S. (Google it.)

Sell your organized junk

Many people get stuck on this step because they’re way better at accumulating stuff than getting rid of it.  There are countless ways to do it and I could list them all here but instead I’ll point you to the best resource I know of to help you sell your crap and make some money.

Trade for things you need

You don’t necessarily have to get cash for your items, you can trade some of it for things you need.  Trading can save you from having to spend time and cash buying things new.  You can also profit from trading items if you practice up on your negotiating skills. Some shops will take your clothes and allow you to take something from their shop in return.  I once traded in five pairs of generic jeans that didn’t fit for two nice pairs of name brand jeans that fit great. Me sexy! Consignment shops are everywhere these days… when’s the last time you’ve been in one?

Some appliance stores will take your old appliances to repair and re-sell them.  Why not see if they will exchange your unneeded appliances for something you do need?  There are also internet sites like Craigslist that allow you to trade items you don’t want for things you do.

Sell, sell, sell

Junk removal businesses will come to your home, help you organize your junk, then take it to the appropriate scrap yards or stores and split the cash with you.  This takes a lot of the work out of your hands while still delivering a profit – nice.  Do your best to check the reputation of the businesses performing these services to be sure they’re reliable. Check their rates too; some charge more so compare costs and services offered and go with your gut.

Call your local scrap yards for current price lists of what they’re willing to take.  Try to get rid of as many items as possible at each place so you limit travel costs. Commonly accepted items include: old junk batteries, wire, aluminum, small engines, steel, cast iron, copper… the list goes on.  You’ll be surprised what they take and pay for.  Always check to see if they have free pick up, that will save a lot of work and money.

Websites like Craigslist and eBay allow you to open your junk yard to the world wide web.

Donate to the needy

If you’re going to give something away be sure the person or organization wants or needs it. Call around to your local homeless shelter, Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc. and ask for a list of items needed. Providing for the needy makes you feel good, it’s the right thing to do, and you can write it off on your taxes.

Go get started!

Like Matt said in point 4 of yesterday’s article, getting rid of stuff is hard at first… but it feels great when you’re done and it gets easier as you go.

What are you waiting for? Quit reading this and go give your unused stuff a new home – I promise it will make you feel good.

Charitable Giving [How and Why]

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There are tons of articles about saving money written by those of us who do financial posts.  We often write about paying off debt.  We definitely write about doing a budget.  We don’t often discuss what I believe is a crucial part of any financial plan: planned giving.  It may seem very backwards to give away some of your money in order to thrive financially.  You may even think I have just completely lost my mind.  I encourage you to bear with me and hear me out.

Why should we give?

The first question that needs to be addressed is why give money.

When my wife Mandy and I were first married we were giving to our church, but without any plan or structure.  We would throw in a dollar (or five) when the basket went by.  There was no thought about it or planning ahead of time.  It’s like we were surprised everytime the collection basket came by.

A year or so into our marriage, we were challenged by a guest mission at our church to start tithing.  It caused us to really take a look at ourselves and we knew we should give.  We also wanted to understand why we should give.  Through various sources, we came to learn what the Bible had to say about giving our treasure.

Let’s take a look at the following verses for the answer:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” – Genesis 1:27

Combining these verses shows us exactly why we’re called to give!  If we were made in God’s image, we’re made to be just like Him.  He is a giver.  He gave the life of His one and only Son for us.  Now, that is giving. Taking these concepts into consideration we can see how we are most happy and fulfilled when we are more like Him and we’re more like Him when we give.

How should we give?

The second question that needs to be addressed is how to give money.

What does the Bible have to say about how we’re to give?  First, it says to give “first fruits”.  What that means is right off the top.  Give first, then do the rest of your budget.  Mandy and I used to pay all of our bills, then see if we had enough to give.  We realized that we were totally looking at it backwards.  Now we place giving on the top line of our budget form, and I encourage my clients to do the same.

Many people give 10% of their income.  So, if you make $4,000 per month, your giving for the month would be $400.  I know for us it was pretty scary to think about giving a full 10% or our income – that’s alot of money – but we’ve been doing it for a long time now and have been so blessed because of it.

Matt’s note: Betsy and I have a strong testimony for our giving, please read it to draw additional encouragement to give consistently.

Mandy and I realize now that giving is a sign of trust that God will provide, regardless of your situation.  In the past we would often tell people that we trusted God, but putting it into practice was a much harder step of faith.  We have seen many blessings since we started tithing almost eight years ago.  The best blessing of all is that the practice of giving is constantly drawing us closer to God.  That makes us each a better spouse, parent, friend, and overall person.

I would love to hear your stories about giving, please share them below.

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