Today I’ll be reflecting on what our family has done over the last 12 years to help us enjoy stress free personal finances.

This is not a brag fest, but rather a step-by-step story of what has worked for us.

1. Start Working Young and Saving Young

When I was in grade 7 or 8, I got a job delivering newspapers. By the time I was in grade 9, I was working at a chicken hatchery. All through high school I worked Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. I probably averaged 10 hours a week during the school year and 30-40 during the summer.

There have been stages of my life when I thought working young was a mistake. Right now I earn a month’s worth of salary (when I was a kid) in an hour of work with my online business.

But the discipline, the work ethic, and the lessons of the value of money could not have been learned in any way other than by work.

Working young is one thing, but you also need to develop the habit of saving.

2. Develop a Debt Allergy

When I crunch numbers and see how much money I’d be paying in interest for a loan, I suffer from heart palpitations.

My gut tells me that it doesn’t make any sense.

I got my first loan when I was a senior in college. I’d paid for school up till that point, but I needed a $5,000 loan to make it through the rest of my college education.

Two years later, I got married, and my wife and I borrowed $5,000 to get a vehicle that had air conditioning. I’d owned (paid for with cash) a Honda CRX, but it didn’t have air conditioning. The vehicle did fine in Ontario, Canada and it wasn’t an issue in Nebraska, but since we were moving to Houston, it was time for a change.

About three to four months after getting the auto loan, I felt uneasy with it. I felt like it was a bad idea. It wasn’t a math thing, but a gut thing.

We had some funds in Canada, but the exchange rate was really low. We decided to take the exchange hit so that we could pay off the car. My first and only auto loan lasted for about four months.

Within two years of graduating college, we’d taken care of the student loan debts for both myself and my wife.

Six years ago, we borrowed money to buy a house. In a couple months, that debt will be repaid.

I don’t know how to use debt to my advantage. I’ve avoided debt because I don’t feel good having debt. I want a life that is free from worry and anxiety, and debt brings those things into my life.

3. Start Giving from the First Dollar You Earn

I’ll credit my parents with teaching me how to give.

I honestly don’t think I’ve ever made a decision to give 10% of my income. A habit developed, and I’ve kept that habit to this day.  We’ve also been blessed to be able to grow in the grace of giving.

I’m doing the same thing with my kids. Each day when they get paid (for the jobs we’ve given them), they take a portion (actually 33% for them) and give it to the church contribution.

4. Start Saving for Retirement With Your First Full-Time Job

Again, I’m introducing things I’ve done that I think are a blessing.

When I took my first job out of college (a youth ministry position in Houston), the church was going to provide some money per month for retirement. That forced me to learn about saving for retirement.

Ever since my wife and I have had full-time jobs, we’ve saved a portion for retirement (probably around 10%).

5. You Can Make it on Less Than You Think

I once got a comment on this blog that made me laugh. The guy was talking about how he’d never been a high income earner like me.

For the sake of credibility and transparency, I want to let you know that you can have health finances with a moderate income.

For the first two years out of college, we earned $48,000 per year (combined household income) plus we had a parsonage, so we didn’t pay for housing.

For the next three years, I was in graduate school and my wife worked at a private Christian school. Our combine household income was less than $35,000 per year.  On top of that we paid for a Masters Degree for myself and my wife.  We paid cash for those degrees.

I don’t feel like it’s appropriate to talk about my current income (because it is provided by a church), but my missionary position pays less than $50,000 per year, and my wife stays at home.

Of course, over the last three years I’ve had a small business. The first year of income we used for a family vacation to Brisbane, Australia. The second year of income was basically all given away. The third year of income is tucked away in my sock drawer to help provide a buffer when we transition out of full time ministry.

These are all simple but important elements of healthy finances.  The next time I post I’ll follow up with some additional suggestions.

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> Learning Personal Finance: A Guide to Successful Financial Health (Part I)

Other Great Articles:

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2. Using Financial Ratios To Gauge Your Financial Health
3. The Prophets and Personal Finance: Joel

It’s time once again for a series of posts.

Most blogs (including this one) are composed of a series of ‘thoughts of the day’. The disadvantage to you, the reader, is that you miss out on the opportunity to fully grasp the author’s full overview of money in a succinct and connected fashion.

That’s why I’ve focused on writing books. A newbie can read one of my books and get a better idea of what I think about money than a person who reads my blog for a month.

In order to help all of you get a solid idea of what MH4C teaches about money, I’m going to be publishing a series of articles over the next two weeks.

The Exhaustive Guide to the MH4C Approach to Personal Finance Series:

1. The Audience Matters: Introducing You to the Ideal MH4C Reader
2. Learning Personal Finance: A Guide to Successful Financial Health (With A Glance at How I Manage Money): Part I
3. Learning Personal Finance: A Guide to Successful Financial Health (With A Glance at How I Manage Money): Part II
4. Unlearning Personal Finance: A Guide to Successful Christian Finance
5. Christian Personal Finance Pyramid: Listening to Multiple Personal Finance Voices

The Audience Matters: Introducing You to the Ideal MH4C Reader

I spend a lot of my time teaching the Bible.

One might assume that the task would be quite simple for a guy who’s been doing it for a decade. The problem is that every audience is different.

In New Guinea, I spend a lot of my time teaching and focusing on elements that help construct and build up people’s faith. I use words that are easy to understand. I preach and teach from the Easy to Read Version of the Bible.

In the United States, I spend more of my time teaching and focusing on things people need to unlearn or relearn about faith. I’m more direct, hoping to break through some thick shells of status quo. I preach and teach from the NIV.

When I’m talking with individuals with a seminary education, I challenge their thinking and challenge their assumptions with a goal to help them address some inconsistencies of their faith.

If I forget my context and challenge the faith (in a manner that is beyond the maturity of their faith) of infant Christians, I do them a tragic disservice.

The MH4C Audience Issue

The problem here at MH4C is I don’t get to choose my audience. You come via Facebook or Google and then start to read. I know some of you through comments. Others I know by the email correspondence we’ve had. I’ve even had the pleasure of meeting or knowing many of you.

But, I’m still not sure who the audience is.

That can be very dangerous.

The reason it can be dangerous is because at this blog I like to challenge conventional financial wisdom.

What if you have never learned conventional financial wisdom? Or even worse, what if you’ve never practiced conventional financial wisdom?

That’s the main reason why I started Christian Debt Coach. So my readers who are in debt could have a forum where we can talk directly about issues related to Christians in debt.

Why?

The message to Christians in debt is different than the message to out-of-debt Christians.

As an example, last week I wrote a post called What Your Financial Advisor Won’t Tell You About How to Successfully Reduce Your Nest Egg.

The post had some positive feedback, and some folks were concerned.

Imagine how damaging that information could be in the hands of the wrong person.

True.

But, imagine how much a blessing it could be in the hands of the right person.

Unless called or compelled otherwise, Christians in debt should give a portion (I’m comfortable suggesting 10%) of their income and focus the majority of their efforts to pay off debt and getting a solid financial footing.

Also, I believe there are many people who should graduate beyond the ridged advice they’ve always followed.

Some people need to be prayerfully considering how to do more with what they have been entrusted with. There are also many people who need to be patiently enduring the stages of conventional financial advice so they can be in a better position to full participate in the joy of giving.

The ideal MH4C reader is debt free (or working to become debt free) and wants to be sure that they are honoring God through their blessings.

I’m at the point in my life where I’m asking myself – what should I do next as a Christian? Most of the articles on this blog address that struggle.

I think there is a void of solid teachings for Christians who are debt free.

Our knee jerk reaction is to continue to follow the advice that helped get us to a place of financial health.

In case you’ve never read it, my biggest criticism of Dave Rasmey’s Baby Steps is the seventh step – build wealth like crazy. I have some minor differences of opinion on the other steps, but in general, I agree with the Baby Steps. But, I’m still not convinced God ever intends for the majority of Christians to enter into a build wealth like crazy stage. (But, we’ll have more on that in the fifth part of this series.)

MH4C challenges those who could be in the build wealth like crazy stage to forego the stage and learn to systematically use their resources for the benefit of others.

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> The Audience Matters: Introducing You to the Ideal MH4C Reader (New Series)

Other Great Articles:

1. Introducing the Money Mavens Network
2. Bite Sized Personal Finance Series Roundup
3. Introducing “MH4C Special Report”

This last month included one of the most unproductive weeks in my entire life.

It was primarily the result of a massively infected boil on my back that resulted in 3 days in bed and another 4 really slow days of recovery.  Sorry if that’s too much information.  (I decided against including pictures.)  

I returned to a village called Lavora with my family, and by that evening, my fears were confirmed: I had a boil.  Since we were in the village, it was impossible for me to properly treat it.  From Monday to Thursday the monster grew.

I spent Thursday afternoon, Friday, and Saturday in bed.  I even tried doing some computer work on Saturday, but it was impossible to find a position where I could type that wasn’t too painful.

Thankfully, by early Sunday morning, the infection started to heal, and I was able to get to church.

The result of being very limited in my activities for a week was a sort of mini-depression.  I was able in a very small way to sympathize with those who have chronic illness.

The next week I started off my four days without Internet.

I’m finding it’s hard to run an online business when your Internet isn’t working.  It sort of impacts productivity .

Books I’ve read/am reading

The Pursuit of God.  Yes, I’m re-reading it.  I’m trying to slowly inch my way through a page or two a day so that I can reflect on Tozer’s powerfully challenging words.

If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland.  This book was recommended in another book I was reading, but it’s a little too ethereal and artsy for me.  But I’m still plugging away at the book.

Re-Entry: Making the Transition from Missions to Life at Home by Peter Jordan.  A very helpful book full of practical suggestions on how to smooth the re-entry process.  I definitely recommend it for missionaries preparing to transition back to their passport country.

God’s Story, Your Story: When His Becomes Yours by Max Lucado.  I’ve been reading this book as part of my morning devotionals.  His writing is very interesting, and I definitely feel ‘at peace’ when reading.

Independent Contractor, Sole Proprietor, and LLC Taxes Explained in 100 Pages or Less by Mike Piper.  I’ve been following Mike’s blog for a few years.  The book was on sale for $1 (on Amazon Kindle), and I thought I should be sure that I was up on the tax implications of my business.  I’m not sure I learned anything new, but I was glad I read it to be sure that I wasn’t overlooking any crucial part of the business taxes.

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds.  Trent Hamm from the Simple Dollar recommended this book for anyone making presentations.  I got it because someone suggested if I were to do Transforming Your Financial Diet Workshops, it should be ‘multimedia’.  The book is highly practical and will help make my future presentations with power point more focused.

The War Of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle by Steven Pressfield.  I confirmed it with this book.  The art part of my brain has malfunctioned.  Several people had recommended this book, but I really didn’t like it.  Again, the ideas were too abstract and too distant for me.  Perhaps one day I’ll appreciate good writing.

The Art of Coming Home by Craig Storti.  An excellent book for people transitioning back to their home culture.  I particularly enjoyed how Storti was able to explain why ‘homecoming’ is hard, and he helped me understand more about what it means to be ‘home’.

Smashwords Book Marketing Guide – How to Market any Book for Free by Mark Coker.  I read this book after I re-launched Transforming Your Financial Diet.  Perhaps I should have read it before …

The Flinch by Julien Smith.  If you fear change, novelty, or just fear, then you should get this free Kindle book.  I’m slowly starting to learn that we cannot grow and develop without facing our fears.

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David Burns.  Remember my mini-depression from being attached to my bed for a week?  Well, I thought it was time to dust off this book that was on my shelf and read it again.  The book has some insightful points about self talk that is useful for anyone with emotional struggles or who lives with or works with people who struggle with feeling good.

Articles Roundup

A sampler from Christian Debt Coach – Three Killer Attack Strategies to Help You Annihilate Your Debt and How to Love Each Other Life Romeo and Juliet (Even When You’re Going Through a Financial Crisis).

Over at Help Me Travel Cheap, I’ve been teaching folks how to get close to two years of free flights on Southwest (in less than 15 minutes).

Kingdom Living has a short, yet encouraging post called a Generous Gift.

ChristianPF discusses The Anomaly Investment: Treasures in Heaven.

Personal Finance by the Book introduces 9 Practical Ways to Love God More than Money.

Carnivals

Carnival of Personal Finance I, Carnival of Personal Finance II, Carnival of Personal Finance III.

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> Monthly Roundup : Activities, Books, and Articles

Other Great Articles:

1. Monthly Article Roundup | What I’m Reading
2. Best Money Articles: MH4C Weekly Roundup
3. Best Money Articles This Week

We don’t do it intentionally, but we do it.

We mislabel and falsely recognize acts of giving as generous.

I made a contribution to something recently, and the person responded back by saying thanks for the ‘generous gift’.

While I appreciate the effort to honor my gift, it made me realize that we misunderstand generosity.

Here’s how I think we typically define generous.

The larger the contribution = the more generous the gift.

Travel back in time to Mark 12:41-44 where Jesus is sticking his nose in other people’s business – watching people put money into the temple treasury.

Many rich people put in large amounts.

Was it at this point that Jesus stopped and took the opportunity to teach his disciples about generosity?

No.

Did Jesus point and say, “There. That’s what I’m talking about. That guy just dropped a whole mitt full of money.”

No.

A lady timidly slithers up to the container (as discreetly as possible) and drops in two coins.

At that moment, we recognize Jesus’ jubilance. Jesus has just witnessed generosity in its truest and purest form.

That woman, Jesus says, put in more than the rest. Generosity is not gauged by the number of zeros at the end.

The Generosity of Vegetables

Last week, my family and I traveled back to Lavora to say goodbye to the Christians there. When we left, they gave us the gift of a huge pile of sweet potatoes, bananas, pumpkins, and even a chicken.

What a tremendous act of generosity!

Those items could have been used to feed their family. They could have been used to sell in the market.

But they gave them as a warm gift.

Were Jesus there, I believe he would have commended those Christians for giving out of their poverty.

I left the experience challenged – challenged to grow in the grace of giving.

Has anyone ever given you a ‘small gift’ that you quickly recognized as the most generous gift you’ve received?

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> When a Pumpkin Is More Valuable than a $1,000

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3. Hey, God, Where’s My $1,000 Check?

The post title is a summary of a question I received.

It’s an extremely difficult question to answer.

The question goes on to ask about how one can purchase luxury items when there are people just down the street who are starving.

How Much of My Income is Mine to Spend on Me?

In an effort to address this reader question, I decided to highlight a few of the points I think are worthy of consideration.

1. Embrace the tension

Forbid it, Lord, that we should feel as though we’ve found a balance.

I find that the more content we are with our current situation, the more quickly we melt into the status quo. When that happens, we stop listening to God’s direction. We allow excuses and justifications to keep us from facing the awful truths of suffering and poverty that are all around us.

I live with this tension on a daily basis. Remember, the average annual income here is $775.

The tension is a sign of spiritual health.

2. Discover your Motivation

I’m finding that when you answer the ‘why’ question, you’ll make more progress than any other question.

Why did you buy the luxury item? Why didn’t you choose to give the money?  Are there unhealthy roots of greed? Unhealthy roots of guilt?

3. Acknowledge the Fallacy of Wealth Transference

If wealth transference was possible, I think this would be an easier situation to address.

Wealth transference assumes I could take my income and give it to a person in poverty and their life problems would be solved because they are now in possession of my resources.

Pragmatically, that is not the case.

The reason is because God intends for us to receive an income through work. Those who do not have the skills to manage money will not manage it well – no matter how much we give. You could give someone the money you’d use to buy a HDTV, and they might just go out and buy an HDTV.

It’s an unfair parallel to say I have so much and they have so little (if you are talking about money). A lack of money is not causing their problems. There is something more valuable you can give than money – time, mentoring, training …

3. Realize that buying luxury items is not inherently sinful

I found it interesting that the gentleman who asked the question says he has no trouble spending money on food, clothes, car, internet, and holidays – things he categorizes as needs.

In many places around the world, internet, cars, holidays, and even clothes are a luxury.

My point is simply: who gets to decide what is a luxury?

All of us live with a certain amount of luxury.

In the end, I think spending decisions are indeed very personal.

I do not believe I can judge a person’s generosity by what I see externally. God does that.

4. Recognize the dangers of guilt and the dangers of indulging

I think all of us find ourselves somewhere on one end of the above spectrum.

Some folks are paralyzed every time they spend money on anything. For such people, they need to be reminded that God, as our Father, gives us good gifts for our pleasure (1 Tim. 6:17).

Others spend as if they have no responsibility to the poor. The reason is that if they made it themselves, then they’re going to spend it on themselves. However, the Bible reminds us that a purpose of our work is to have something to share with others (Eph. 4:28).

Each probably needs to be challenged to move in the opposite direction.

5. Identify your giftedness and uniqueness

The reader asked:

How do other Christians deal with this… turning a blind eye (and buying yourself a new HD TV) doesn’t seem like a reasoned theological approach, but it’s what I fear most Christians do: That sometimes you just need to be selfish… Jesus didn’t teach that, did he?

Romans 12:6-8 indicates that giving is a gift. Furthermore, it seems like it is a gift that not all have.

If I’m giving and spending my mental energy as the purchase police for other Christians, then I believe God will relegate me to a tremendously bitter experience on this earth.

Worrying about what others are doing always does that. Instead, I think we focus on being sure that we’re honoring God with what we’ve been entrusted with. In Transforming Your Financial Diet, I call that Proportionate Stewardship.

Let me be clear that I’ve created a format and a venue where I do challenge Christians and their giving habits. The venue is my own, and people must click or subscribe to hear the MH4C message.

Still, I would not directly confront a personal friend or relative about an item they bought that I thought was too luxurious. I have neither the wisdom nor the judgment to do so.

If someone asks what I think, I respond. If they don’t, I don’t bring it up.

I find that when it comes to giving, I have enough logs in my own eye to worry about.

What advice would you give when determining how much to spend on yourself?

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> How Much of My Income is Mine to Spend On Me?

Other Great Articles:

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3. Credit Cards Vs. Cash: Do I Really Spend More With Credit?

The longer I maintain www.moneyhelpforchristians.com, the less money it seems like I’m going to have.

From the very first days of this blog, I was open about the fact that I wanted to learn  what the Bible had to say about money (as opposed to assuming that I already knew).

I used to have a simple and effective retirement strategy … and then I had to go reading the Bible.  The result?  I started rethinking retirement.

Question: What do you think is most people’s greatest fear about retirement savings?

Answer: That they won’t have enough.

Question: What does the New Testament propose should be the greatest concern about retirement savings?

Answer: That you’ll have too much.

Strange, eh?

There’s a Bible story (Luke 12:15-21) about a guy who kept building bigger barns to stockpile his savings. Obviously, a huge part of this man’s failing is that he did so without being rich towards God. Is the point of this passage that we should build bigger and bigger barns while being rich towards God, or is the point that if we are rich towards God we won’t build bigger and bigger barns?

The moral of the story of the Rich Fool is don’t be an idiot. Don’t do dumb things with money. It’s dumb to build up savings here on earth when you could be investing in treasure in heaven. Why put more in the insecure, temporary investment of this earth when you could use it for an eternal investment that will not spoil, perish, or fade?

It’s not a sin. It’s just plain foolish.

I’ve never had any financial advisor, counselor, or guru tell me to carefully analyze how much I’m saving to be sure it’s not too much.

Is there such a thing as saving too much for retirement?

In our society of bigger is better, why would anyone be worried that they might be saving too much?

By the way, I do realize how dangerous this information can be in the hands of the wrong person. I do hereby release myself of any responsibility of a foolish person who foolishly applies this information.

How We Managed to Reduce our Nest Egg

Step #1 – Say Goodbye to Saving 15% for retirement.

My wife and I did this a year or two ago.

I used Dave Ramsey’s very generous retirement formula and figured out that we were on track to have something in excess of a few million dollars in retirement.

What in the world am I ever going to do with that kind of money?

It was insane! It was too much.

Thus, my wife and I decided our fist baby step was going to be reducing our retirement to 10%. Hey, that’s not a huge leap of faith, but we felt like it was a needed change in the right direction.

What if a Big Mac costs $125 when I retire?

I trust that if one sacrifices savings for giving that God will provide some means for them. You see, I’m not talking about reducing retirement savings so you can take an extra cruise in 2012. I’m not suggesting that you stop saving for retirement so you can install a 397,892 inch Plasma TV. That’s foolish.

I’m suggesting some Christians may be in a place in life where they could/should consider reducing the amount they contribute to retirement so they have more to use for giving to the church, the poor, and missions.

Step #2 Say Goodbye to Saving 10% for Retirement

Here’s my biggest gripe with the percentage idea of saving for retirement.

It assumes you actually plan to have a lifestyle in line with your income.

Let’s imagine for a moment that you were to get a raise. If you save a percentage of your income, that means you now save even more for retirement.

Does getting a raise mean you need more money for retirement?

Only if you adjust your lifestyle upward in kind with your income. However, I think we have a higher call: to use our income (especially as it increases) to be a blessing to others – not just ourselves.

The point?

Don’t blindly trust advice when someone says you should be saving X, Y, or Z for retirement. Prayerfully consider the decision.

Be open to the possibility that God might not want you to save as much as you can.

In our case, we got an early start (I was 21 and my wife 20) when we started saving for retirement. While I know most people are going to have the problem of not having enough for retirement, some will have the issue of having too much.

I’ll follow up in about 40 years when I retire and let you know if I regret this post or not.

Do you think this message is valuable for Christians to consider, or do you think it’s dangerous advice that will do more damage than good?

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> What Your Financial Advisor Won’t Tell You About How to Successfully Reduce Your Nest Egg

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People who have a job talk about how they are blessed.

People who make a lot of money talk about how they are blessed.

People who can provide for the needs of their kids talk about how they are blessed.

As Christians we must always recognize the double edged sword when it comes to making money, having an income, and being blessed. 

All these things have the potential to be either a blessing and/or a burden.

A burden?  In this economy, is an income really a burden?

I mean burden in the sense that in many ways you have more responsibilities to carry when you prosper financially.  This is even more of a burden when others around us are suffering with job loss and other financial concerns.

God blesses us so that, in addition to meeting our family needs, we will help with the needs of others (1 Cor. 9:11).

Randy Alcorn writes,

When God provides more money we often think, This is a blessing.  Yes, but it would be just as scriptural to say, “This is a test.”

I agree.

As a teacher, I often wince when I read James reminding Christians that not many of them should be teachers (James 3:1).  I’ve always considered that passage to insinuate that God grades on a curve.

To a person with more knowledge, understanding, and experience, more will be expected.

In fact, isn’t that the point of the Parable of the Talents (Mt. 25:14-30)?

Whoever is responsible with little will be given more responsibilities.  Those responsibilities can be both a blessing and a burden.

I find it interesting that in the book of Job Satan is complaining to God because he assumes God blesses Job to bribe his obedience.  If he didn’t have all this stuff, he’d walk away, so says Satan.

Then there are stories like the Rich Fool (who kept building barns) and the Rich Ruler (who wouldn’t give it away to follow Jesus) where wealth was the tool that lead people away from God.

How can wealth be a tool to draw us near to God and a tool to draw us away from God?  This happens when we forget that it is both a blessing and a burden.

The Yard Sale Illustration

I had a yard sale this week.  A friend asked if I’d be willing to sell some of his things as well.

I agreed.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that he wanted me to price everything.

That was a tremendous burden.  How much should I sell this for?  What if it’s too high and I end up taking most of his stuff back?  What if I price it too low and he doesn’t make any money?

What about the burden of being a steward on behalf of God?

• What should I do with this income?
• How much should be used for my luxury spending?
• How much should I give?
• How much salary should I take out of God’s blessing to myself?

Romans 1:18 reminds us that sometimes God ‘gives us over’ or ‘hands us over’ to our cravings.  Not for a blessing, but to allow our selfishness and crudeness to give us enough pain that we might consider returning to him.

If you have an income and don’t associate any responsibility or burden to it, then I’d encourage you to prayerfully consider seeing blessings as both a blessing and a burden.

The next time you get paid, in addition to saying thank you to God, pray to ask God to help you see the tremendous responsibility you just assumed.

How do you remind yourself of the blessing and burden of wealth?

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> How Your Income is a Burden and Not Just a Blessing

Other Great Articles:

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How should Christians manage their money? How do we find a balance between giving, saving, and spending? What is God ultimately calling us to do with money?

I, like many of you, have been wrestling with these questions for a long time. These questions only intensified when I moved to Papua New Guinea, a developing nation in the South Pacific.

I was instantly forced to start answering those questions. What, I wondered, is my responsibility towards others?

How can we as Christians both enjoy the blessing of what we have while feeling the burden toward others?

Here’s what I share in the introduction of Transforming Your Financial Diet:

The world might suggest we invest in a larger house, put more toward retirement, and put our money to work for us by investing more and more. Unfortunately, this is often simply an empty pursuit – a mere exercise in chasing after a carrot. We build and we accumulate, but our distance from the carrot of wealth remains unchanged.

Ultimately, it is my assumption that Christians need solid biblical and financial advice to help them navigate through these questions. Romans 12:1-2 gives us two words on which to reflect – transform and conform. When we ask questions about our money, we cannot get our wisdom, our advice, or our financial cues from culture alone. That would be conforming to the world. Instead, we must submit our lives and wallets to Christ and allow him to transform how we use our finances. This involves a lot more than simply learning financial lessons and placing a ‘Christian’ rubber stamp over those principles.

Far too many of us, so the stats say, are making more and more money, but giving less and less. When we make more, we always manage to spend more. This exercise in futility is leading to empty lives.

That’s a pattern I challenge Christians to change.

I won’t say a lot more here about the book because on this page I describe the book’s content in a lot more details.

Last week I did a very soft re-launch of Transforming Your Financial Diet: 7 Steps to Generous Living and Simple Giving.

The book was initially available in Feb. 2011 for only 10 days. I never re-launched it again in 2011 because I wasn’t convinced it was the best it could be. I spent November and December 2011 doing a significant rewrite to the first section which is about the money foundation.

Then I knew it was time to re-launch the book.

I was struggling with the concept of Christian marketing and self promotion.

I knew I didn’t want to only make the book available for 10 days (despite the fact that it was one of my most profitable ways to launch a product) because people were asking me for the book, and I had to say no.

At the time it was re-launched, I decided I would try an experiment by dramatically reducing the price of the book (66% off) to see if I could help the book sell more (and thus have the opportunity to bless others more).

To be honest, the approach didn’t go as I had planned. Sales have been much slower than any of my other product launches.

I’ve read research to suggest that sometimes people buy a product when it costs more because they perceive it to be more valuable. I know of one person who doubled the price of his book and his sales increased.

Thus, I do think the best thing I can do to help get people to read this book is increase the price. (Counter intuitive, isn’t it?).

I plan to do that on Feb. 1st, 2012. Right now, you can get the Standard Version of Transforming Your Financial Diet (either PDF or Kindle) for $4.99.

As of Feb. 1st, I’ll increase the price to $9.99.

If you want to get the book at its discounted price, you’ll need to do that soon. If you head over to Amazon, you can get the first section of the book for free.

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> Transforming Your Financial Diet [Limited Time Low Pricing]

Other Great Articles:

1. The Secret to a Successful Budget 50% or Free [Limited Time]
2. Final Day to Purchase Transforming Your Financial Diet
3. Release the Beast – Transforming Your Financial Diet Available Now

At the start of 2011, I shared three big goals. They are as follows:

Goal #1: By Dec. 2011, I wanted to average as much income online as I did from my full-time job.

Less than two weeks later I followed up with a post that said this was a bad goal.

Why?

The priority should have been honoring God and helping people. If God allowed me to support my family from my online work, then it was for Him to decide. I needed to be sure I was serving Him first, not chasing dollars first.

I’m happy to report that God helped me accomplish all three of these revised goals.

Keep reading for more on how that news is impacting my future full-time plans.

Goal #2: Manage the Boss by accomplishing goal number #1 in less than 15 hours a week.

On the one hand, I succeeded with this goal and, on the other hand, I failed miserably.

Overall, I did manage the boss well. I definitely cut back on the time I spent blogging. I was able to get involved in some other activities and exercise more.

However, in 2011, I started having issues with sleeping all the way through the night. There’s probably been about a total of 30 nights where I was up at or around 4 a.m. or earlier. That’s a frustrating experience when you don’t know why you’re waking up so early (which makes it harder to go back to sleep).

My sleeplessness seems to go in streaks. When there’s more to be done, the harder I’ve found it to sleep.

Where I did succeed is that I did limit my blogging time to closer to 15-20 hours a week. I also was able to take a break for most of May, June, July, and August. Since I was on furlough, it was easier to blog for 15 hours and have a lot of left over time to spend with family.

I’m definitely in a 100% healthier place in life (physically, spiritually, emotionally) than I was in 2010. Now if I could just stop waking up early …

Goal #3: Complete and release another eBook.

Check.

Transforming Your Financial Diet was one of my most ‘successful’ book launches. It is also currently available for purchase at a limited time low price through January 31st, 2012.

2012 Plans

First of all, I’ve kissed goal setting goodbye for 2012 (and I may never go back).

I’m not really sure a person can set a goal for the most important things in life.

2012 is going to be a year with a lot of changes:

• We’re in the process of selling our house, truck, and everything we own – except for 5-7 suitcases worth of stuff.
• In April, we’ll be leaving our home of six years.
• In May and June, we’ll visit the following places: Gold Coast, Australia; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Phuket, Thailand; Beamsville, Canada (visiting my family); Budapest, Hungary (leaving the kids with my parents for 5 days while my wife and I celebrate 12 years of marriage); Bariloche, Argentina; Dallas and Houston, USA; and Cheyenne, Wyoming (our new home).
• I’ll be switching ministries. For the first time in my adult life I’ll be doing something similar to a para-church ministry instead of working directly with a church.
• Our daughter will transition from being home schooled to attending public school.
• Our son is going to start school.

How do you set goals in the midst of that?

I’m going to focus on the following things:

• Take advantage of every opportunity to grow closer to God.
• Enjoy every moment of all our adventures.
• Rest, relax, and reflect on six years of missionary work.
• Listen to my wife. Support her.
• Spend time talking and playing with my kids.

I feel like with all the transition in our life, as long as we make that transition in a healthy way, 2012 will be successful.

When I grow up, I’m going to be a missional entrepreneur.

As of May 2012, I’m going to be a self-supporting missional entrepreneur. (Yes, that is a term that I made up).

Our overseeing church had planned on financially supporting us for the six months after we leave the mission field to give us time to find other work. However, I was able to contact them at the end of 2011 and inform them that due to my online work we won’t need any funds after I leave the mission field.

What in the world is a missional entrepreneur?

Some one might call himself a full-time blogger, but I’ve found that blogging can, in fact, be very boring if it isn’t tied to a larger purpose. The idea of just being a blogger isn’t really all that appealing.

Instead, I want to use the blog as a vehicle that allows me to be involved in a variety of different ministry contexts. That’s what I’m calling a missional entrepreneur.

A missional entrepreneur doesn’t focus on building a bigger and bigger business. Instead, he uses more and more of his time (or her) time for work in the Kingdom of God.

I plan to do things such as:

• Doing Transforming Your Financial Diet workshops at churches.
• Staying actively involved in my local church.
• Taking trips once a year back to PNG.
• Visiting and encouraging missionaries we know on the field.

I’m not sure what God’s going to have me doing with most of my time, but I hope it’s something more than just being locked up in an office working on my computer.

Needless to say, 2012 is going to be a very exciting and adventurous year. This week I’ve been reading sections of Exodus because I feel like I need to learn the lessons of trust and dependence. Perhaps God may also put us in places that are uncomfortable so that we’ll learn to depend on him.

My prayer is simply that, if put to the dependence test, we will hope and trust in God.

Thanks for being a reader, and thanks for being an important person that God is using to allow my family and I to serve as missional entrepreneurs.

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> 2011 Goals Review, 2012 Plans, My New Ministry as a Missional Entrepreneur

Other Great Articles:

1. Embracing Missional Frugality
2. My 3 BIG 2011 Blog Goals: Manage the Boss, Full-time Blog Salary, and Another eBook
3. 2010 Financial Goals Year in Review

The following is a guest post by Jeri Ford (my lovely wife).

What I love about this post is that it openly discusses a struggle we all have – ignoring the blessings of God. Sometimes people write about practices in theory. However, I can vouch for the fact that every night before praying with Jeri she writes in her Blessings Journal.

Count your blessings.

Name them one by one.

Count your blessings.

See what God has done…

I grew up singing that song in church. I’ve been singing it for years, but haven’t necessarily always practiced what I sang.

A couple of years ago, I was going through a bit of a rough time. Not that I was having any crises. It’s just that discontentment was being bred in my heart by a few inconveniences in my life. I didn’t like what it was doing to me. I noticed I wasn’t smiling as much as I usually do. I complained a lot more, and over all, I just didn’t feel content.

One thing that is such a struggle for me here in PNG is grocery shopping. It was becoming a constant source of frustration to me when I would go to town for my weekly shopping and come back feeling defeated because I couldn’t find what I needed. I came back sweaty, tired, and without everything checked off my list. It was frustrating, and I would allow those two (dreadful) hours to dictate the rest of my day. In reality, I dreaded it for at least an hour beforehand, so that made the experience even longer!

I recognized that something needed to change. I couldn’t let such small things disrupt my joy in Christ.

At church services recently, after Craig preached about our blessings, he allowed people to share the good things God has done for them. I was amazed at the things the Papua New Guineans said. Actually, it was more of a slap in the face for me. For many of them, the only real blessings they could think of were their brothers and sisters in Christ and their relationship with God. That was solely what sustained them in their tough times. What an incredible testimony of God’s love and their faithfulness! Others mentioned blessings like family, but those mentions nearly always had a caveat of some kind. For example, one man thanked God for his wife, even though they were separated right now. Another woman thanked God that the last time her husband beat her when he was drunk, her arm didn’t actually break. It was just a little sore. (She’s been hospitalized from past beatings.)

When I think of my inconveniences, they pale in comparison to the sometimes horrific experiences others have. Surely, if these people can find something for which to thank God in the midst of pain, I have many blessings to count.

So, how do we go about counting our blessings? I think it has to be purposeful.

Two years ago, Craig gave me a calendar for Christmas. I realized that it had plenty of space for journaling every day, so I decided that I would start writing at least 3 blessings every night before I went to sleep. As I did this, I realized that I was focusing more on the good things in my life, rather than the small annoyances. I started recognizing the blessings in my life as gifts straight from God. Nowhere else could I find so much contentment. Those blessings started giving me energy to get rid of some of the bad attitudes I’d had.

Here are some of the things I’ve written in my Blessings Journal over the past couple of years:

• I have enough money to buy whatever I want when I grocery shop. (This was especially a significant realization, considering my shopping woes.)
• Finding a note from my daughter in my closet
• Laughing with Craig
• Making my daughter giggle
• Time to walk and pray alone this morning
• Beautiful weather
• Playing piano duets with my Mom
• Teaching the baby Bible class
• A refreshing shower after a hot day
• Getting an email from a good friend
• Hearing my 4-year-old say, “Maybe we can give some of our kool-aid or tea to the people in Japan because they might not have any.”

Craig’s book, Transforming Your Financial Diet, urges readers to take an inventory of their blessings. It’s been a challenge for me, but my Blessings Journal has helped me on that journey of counting my blessings. Once we realize just how blessed we are, we can allow ourselves the pleasure of giving to others and looking outside of our own “troubles”.

I’m doing my best to recognize even the small ways that God blesses me every day. I plan to continue my Blessings Journal in 2012. If you’ve never tried something like that, I encourage you to give it a try. It’s even a blessing to go back and re-read those entries as a reminder of God’s goodness.

Count your many blessings.

Name them one by one.

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

To leave a comment or easily share the article with your Facebook or Twitter friends click here -> The Blessing Journal | How to Be Thankful Even When You’re Not Feeling It

Other Great Articles:

1. How Your Income is a Burden and Not Just a Blessing
2. Wrestling With Blessings | Thoughts on Success, Luck, Confidence, and Blessing
3. How Financial Loss Can Be a Blessing