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Budgeting

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Trying to manage your personal finances without a budget is like taking a road trip without a fuel gauge, road signs, or a map. You will soon run out of gas and be stranded since you cannot tell how much you have in the tank, how much farther you have to travel, or how to know when you reach a destination. The good news is that creating a budget is easy. All you need to know is two things. You need to know how much money you have to spend. You need to know what expenses you need to pay. But most people never track their spending, according to a recent survey from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. More than half claimed to have a budget, but all they really had was checking account and credit card statements, plus piles of receipts. That’s better than nothing at all, but what you really want is a system to precisely track your spending. To simplify the process, you can use an online tool or app. There are many, but one of the most reputable and popular
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Gaining a Financially Fit Mindset

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From an early age we are trained to be habitual consumers and spenders, not to budget and save. Every television or magazine ad reinforces the idea that you need to go out and buy, even if you already have everything you and your family need. Many people are satisfied and content in their lives and with their lifestyle. But there is also a huge, powerful apparatus that was created for the sole purpose of convincing them that they aren’t happy and they need to live beyond their means. After all, this is business and capitalism and everybody needs to figure out how to make a buck, here in the Land of Opportunity. If consumers stop consuming, the whole machine grinds to a halt. But ours is also a culture where people take pride in thinking for themselves, which we all need to do to avoid financial pitfalls. Society often pressures us to believe that financial success is about status symbols and keeping up with the Joneses. With that kind of mindset, and the right kind of persua
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It Started with $5

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I’ve written previously of my many financial failures and my attempts to improve the financial health of myself and my family. I suppose this begs the question, “So, what was it that caused this shift in thinking?” (And make no mistake, this journey to financial fitness has been a COMPLETE change of mindset.) Honestly, it’s a bit hard to remember exactly what it was that caused me to change my way of thinking and to get my family on this new path…but I do remember very specifically one day back in 2016 seeing a link posted by a good friend of mine on Facebook to an investment platform called Stash . The stock market has always been a bit of a mystery to me, and I never considered myself an investor. After all, that’s what rich people do…but not us common folk. Still, the idea of being able to put my money into an investment and seeing it grow appealed to me. I pastor a small rural church, so I certainly won’t be topping any of Forbes’ “wealthiest” lists anytime soon. (An
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Changing Our Attitude

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Posted on July 24, 2018 by chriscanuel I’ve written previously about how important it is on our journey to becoming financially fit to stop placing the blame on everyone and everything other than ourselves. The fact of the matter is we are the problem and something has to happen if we are ever going to change course and get on the right track. WE have to change, and the change must start with our attitude about money. Once we get our attitudes straight, then we can begin to change our habits. Obviously, I approach this subject from a spiritual perspective. I see all of life, including my finances through the lens of a Christian. I believe money and how we manage money is absolutely a spiritual issue. This is why the Bible has so much to say about the subject of money. Jesus says in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mone
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The Journey Begins

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Posted on July 18, 2018 by chriscanuel Let’s be real. When it comes to our finances, many of us feel just like the person in the picture above. We are drowning in our debt and barely hanging on for our lives. This was certainly the case for me until about 2 years ago when I finally decided that I’d had enough. While my wife and I certainly don’t make a lot of money, we make too much money to feel so poor. Every month it was (and oftentimes still is) a struggle to stay afloat. We have 7 kids (yep, you read that right) so we buy lots of food and diapers, but they don’t eat and poop THAT much. What was the deal? Why does this happen EVERY month? Finally, we decided to take a closer look at our finances… What we discovered was that our biggest problem wasn’t that our kids ate too much. Our biggest problem wasn’t that things were too expensive. Our biggest problem wasn’t that we didn’t make enough money. SOOO…what was our biggest problem?!? Ourselves… We were la
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