More Good $ense — November, 2007
The monthly e-publication of the Good $ense Ministry Movement
In This Issue:
Dick's Column | Transforming Truths | News You Can Use | Your Point of View
Spotlight | Market Indicators | Ministry Builders | Resources  Dear G$ Friends and Colleagues,
Since my last column I celebrated my 70th birthday. A number of folks have asked when I'm going to "retire," but I'm not sure what that means. I looked it up in the bible and there's no such word there so I don't think I'll do it!
But since "older" folks sometimes ramble, I'd like to just share some thoughts that are on my mind – some cathartic in nature but all stewardship related.
Subprime Loans: As we witness the fallout of the subprime debacle I ask the question, "Was there ever a more predictable outcome?" Mortgage lenders frantically promoted 100%, interest only, adjustable rate loans to borrowers without income verification. That artificially inflated property values and in some cases unethical appraisers helped inflate them even more. And now we seem surprised that many are unable to keep up their payments as the interest rates adjust and can't refinance because the homes are valued at less than their loans. Duh!
It's about that Good $ense principle of a responsible first mortgage collateralized by a healthy down payment. Maybe our counseling ministries can help some folks but for many there may not be an option to foreclosure. Sad.
Bottled water: If you haven't seen it, check out the lead article in the July/August issue of Fast Company magazine entitled "$15 Billion Down the Drain." That's how much we, with the purest drinking water in the world, spent on bottled water last year. Which also resulted in some 13 billion plastic bottles in landfill.
The article mentions a huge plant in Fiji that fills a million bottles a day to be shipped 1800 miles to this country. Unfortunately, since electricity is unreliable in Fiji, the plant is powered by three huge diesel generators which happen to be polluting the atmosphere of the island. Oh yes, 52% of the inhabitants of Fiji don't have potable water. What's wrong with that picture!??
I wonder how much debt could be eliminated, giving and savings increased, and environmental damage lessened if folks didn't buy bottled water?
Holidays: Thanksgiving is near. What better occasion to remember that we came into the world with nothing and will leave with nothing and everything we are entrusted with in the meantime is a gift for which to be thankful. Check out Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Declaration on the internet – it makes for good reading at the Thanksgiving table.
And here's a thought for Christmas. Instead of giving gifts the other person really doesn't need, take the money you normally spend and give a donation to a Christ-centered ministry in the person's name. You can give 25-30% more than you would have spent on the gift and break even due to the tax saving. That's good stewardship!
January is workshop time: Take advantage of the fact that some 40% of New Year resolutions have to do with money and offer a G$ workshop toward the end of January. A couple sermon messages leading up to it could really boost attendance. Maybe promoting it as a workshop on "Personal Money Management," "God-honoring Money Management" or "Getting It Right With Your Money" (something other than "Budget Course") would be helpful.
Sign up: Don't forget to encourage those you serve in your ministry to sign up for Matt's monthly newsletters at click here. They are great vehicles for keeping stewardship front and center in folks' minds between your ministry offerings.
Remember: The ultimate aim of stewardship is to use resources according to the Master's (owner's) desires. That means to earn diligently, give generously, save wisely, be cautious about debt and live a prudent lifestyle.
Model it and teach it… and be blessed in the process!
Happy and thankful Thanksgiving,
Dick Towner
Executive Director
Good $ense Stewardship Movement
[ top of page ] "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever." – Psalm 136:1
This month many of us will gather with family and friends for a traditional Thanksgiving meal of turkey and stuffing. In many homes it's a tradition to go around the table and have each person mention something for which they are thankful.
One of the best ideas for remembering all of the good things that occurred over the past year comes from a couple I know. I shared their idea in another eNewsletter click here recently, but for the sake of spreading it to as many people as possible, I'm going to share it here as well. Throughout the year, whenever they experience some unexpected blessing--whether large or small--they jot down what happened and put the note in what they call a "blessing box." On Thanksgiving Day they read the notes aloud while their family is gathered around the dinner table. It helps them remember and acknowledge God's goodness, and they hope it fosters hearts of gratitude in their children.
The blessing box may be the best money management idea I've heard all year. It's a great system for keeping track of many blessings we might otherwise forget. And it's a powerful antidote for the many marketing messages we receive that are designed to foster dissatisfaction.
However, the Bible teaches us to give thanks not just for the blessings we experience, but in all circumstances (1Thessalonians 5:13)—during good times as well as times of trial (James 1:2-3).
For me, the holiday season will always be somewhat bittersweet. My mother died a week and a half before Christmas in 2003, and my father died the day after Thanksgiving in 2004. At the time of my father's death, the worship team at our church frequently sang the song "Blessed Be Your Name." It's an upbeat song that includes the lyrics, "You give and take away." For months following my father's death I found it impossible to sing along. But with the passage of time, the pain of their loss has been eased by my gratitude for having parents that I deeply loved and respected.
As I was writing this I received an e-mail asking for prayer for the week-old baby of a couple from our church who is about to have heart surgery. Included in the note were the words from Ephesians 3:20: "Now all glory to God, who is able through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more that we might ask or think." (NLT) Words of praise to God in the midst of an unimaginable trial? How is that possible, but through the work of God, our Comforter?
This Thanksgiving may we all praise God for the many blessings we experienced over the past year, and yes, as impossible as it may seem, even in midst of our trials.
[ top of page ] Debts That Won't Go Away
Debts discharged through bankruptcy are coming back to haunt people. According to a Businessweek cover story, it doesn't seem to matter that bankruptcy law prohibits attempts at collecting on discharged debts. The article said such attempts are being made either by directly pressuring people who have been through bankruptcy to pay a cancelled debt or by "gaming the credit system" by not updating the credit report of a customer who has declared bankruptcy. The article profiled one person who, in the year after filing for bankruptcy, was contacted 140 times by a credit card company and two debt collection agencies. The collectors also contacted the person's mother and brother to pressure her to pay the discharged bills and threatened to garnish her wages.
Matt's View:
There appear to be few remedies for people who have filed for bankruptcy and are still being asked to repay. They may have to seek legal counsel. However, even that may not be enough. The article noted that when lawyers write to credit card companies asking them to update the credit reports of clients who have filed for bankruptcy the credit card companies often fail to act.
For information about a biblical perspective on bankruptcy, there's an excellent position paper available on the "Good $ense" web site, look under the Counselor Training Workshop section.
[ top of page ] A Bad Bet
Lotteries have become a lucrative source of state revenue. According to a report on CBSNews.com, lotteries now operate in 42 states and the District of Columbia, and they generated a combined $57 billion last year—up 33 percent since 2001. However, they're also being blamed, at least in part, for the fact that an estimated six to eight million Americans are now addicted to gambling. CBS News estimates that less than one-tenth of one percent of state lottery revenue is going toward prevention and treatment of gambling addiction.
Matt's View:
If you know someone with a gambling problem, one resource to recommend is "Gambler's Anonymous". For more information about the consequences of gambling, Focus on the Family has several helpful articles on its web site click here.
[ top of page ] Fraud Alert
The Federal Trade Commission has released its latest top ten list. However, unlike David Letterman's lists, this one is not very funny. The FTC keeps tabs on the top frauds. More than 30 million Americans were victims of some type of fraud in the most recent year studied. That's 13.5 percent of the population. The most common schemes were fraudulent weight-loss products (4.8 million victims), foreign lottery scams (3.2 million victims), and unauthorized billing from buying clubs (3.2 million victims). Print advertising (including direct mail and newspaper and magazine advertising) accounted for 27 percent of the incidents. The Internet (web sites and e-mail) accounted for 22 percent.
Matt's View:
One of the best protections from fraud is to stem the flood of marketing materials that enter our homes. If you haven't joined the Do Not Call Registry, you can do so click here. To cut down on the number of catalogs and other marketing-related mail click here. And you can remove your e-mail address from many marketing databases click here.
[ top of page ] Sign of the Times
Gift cards have become popular presents. Last year, shoppers spent some $25 billion on such cards during the end of year holiday shopping season. They're available for just about any type of purchase—from electronics to restaurant meals. Now they're also available for healthcare, click here according to a story in the Wall Street Journal. The healthcare gift cards, offered in denominations of $25 to $5,000, can be used at physician offices, pharmacies, health clubs, and more.
Matt's View:
As with most gift cards, this one may not be so good for your financial health. It costs $4.95 to order a card, and nine months after purchasing it, a $1.50 monthly fee kicks in. If you're going to give a gift card, why not save on the fees and just give cash? Besides, cash is a gift that's accepted everywhere and never expires.
[ top of page ] Extreme Makeover: Budget Edition
Can you think of any financial tool that is more universally disdained, at least by those who haven't given it a try, than a budget? Just mention the word and people conjure up images of a ball and chain. They talk about it as something one goes on in the same manner that one goes on a diet. And they pity those who have to live on one ("Poor John and Sue; they're on a tight budget").
Budgets seem to be a favorite punching bag of personal finance writers. However, the odd thing is that several writers who are harshly critical of budgets go on to teach people what sure looks like budgeting.
In his book, "The Automatic Millionaire," David Bach tells readers to "take those budgets you've been struggling with and throw them in the garbage. If you really want to budget your expenses, that's your business, but I think it's a waste of time and effort." And yet in his "Finish Rich Workbook" he teaches readers to estimate and then track what they spend. He also acknowledges using Quicken to track his own household's spending.
In the classic money management book "Your Money or Your Life," Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin ease their readers' fears by writing: "Don't worry. This program is not about budgeting!" They then proceed to teach readers how to track their spending "down to the penny.' How is this different from budgeting? They explain that their approach is "based on consciousness, fulfillment and choice, not on budgeting or deprivation." Ah, I'm glad we cleared that up!
Perhaps it's time that the lowly budget was given an extreme makeover. In part, that's about not being afraid to tell it like it is. Yes, using a budget takes some work, just like exercise takes some work. However, in exchange for a few minutes each day, people receive many benefits. Those who use a budget report that it gives them a sense of financial freedom. They know where their money is going and can make proactive decisions about their spending so that they can achieve goals that are important to them.
Another part of the extreme makeover has to do with the words we use in describing budgets. A budget is not about spending less, cutting back, or tightening the belt. No one finds those ideas appealing. A budget is about more – spending more effectively so that we have more money for what matters most.
One sign that budgets may already be going through an extreme makeover is the fact that several companies are now competing in the relatively new online budgeting space. Mint.com, Wesabe.com, and Geezeo.com are online budget programs whereby users can download information from their banks and credit cards, get suggestions for spending more effectively, and share ideas with other users. The fact that budgeting has gone online may just attract a whole new generation to the budgeting game. This is the closest budgets have ever come to becoming cool.
Mark my words; it won't be long before we see budgets getting written in to the story line of popular sit-coms. Celebrity endorsers can't be far behind. The only question is: who will be the Ty Pennington of Extreme Makeover: Budget Edition?
[ top of page ] Plastic Stress
A sizeable percentage of all Americans are feeling some stress about their credit card bills. According to a Bankrate.com survey, 25 percent of cardholders say they worry about how they'll pay their credit card bills each month, and 28 percent say they feel guilty about how much they charge each month. The survey also found that 42 percent of cardholders acknowledge not paying their balance in full each month.
With the prime gift-giving season upon us, now is a great time for our stewardship ministries to be proactive in offering people ideas for maximizing the joy of Christmas while minimizing the financial stress. As mentioned last month, two good resources to recommend and offer at our book tables or book stores are "Hundred Dollar Holiday" and "Debt-Proof the Holidays"
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We wanted to share some creative thinking around how the Budget Course is being taught as related to us by the Good $ense team at Hosanna Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.
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"We are currently experimenting with the Good $ense format. What's perhaps a bit unique to ours is that we add a small group component, by forming small groups from among course registrants. We train facilitators to "shepherd" their sheep, so to speak, and provide them with discussion questions. We conduct G$ on 6 Monday evenings 2x a year, with 15 min. worship before and 30 min. small group discussion after. People get to talk things over and bond and support one another.
This is the format for 6 other "Core Value" courses in our Equipping Ministry, so people from 2-3 courses gather for the worship, then break out. Attendance is higher than it would be without the inflow of people who are coming because they met people they liked in another course, decided to stick together as a small group, and this is just what was next on the church calendar.
We also offer G$ on a weekend once a year, but people have often come without having done their pre-work. So here's what we're trying: On Sat. Nov. 3 from 9 am-Noon, we did lessons 1, part of 2, and part of 6. Then we gave them a month to track their spending. Next we will meet on Saturday, Dec. 1 from 9 am - 4 pm, to finish lessons 2, 3, 4, 5, and what's left of 6. This is our 13th G$ course, since May '04. Our next is Feb 4-Mar 10.”
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Budget Course Participant Guides
Don't forget to take advantage of quantity discounts when you order participant guides for your upcoming courses. Click HERE to check it out.
40 Day Spiritual Journey To a More Generous Life
This best selling 40 day devotional from Rev. Brian Kluth is now available at discounted rates to your ministry. Check it out HERE.
Debt Reduction Workshop
Consider following up your Budget Course with the two hour Debt Reduction Workshop as additional help for those with serious debt problems.
Pursuing Spiritual Transformation: GIVING
For those looking for a small group study to go beyond the Budget Course, consider this seven-week study that deals with money, debt, a biblical lifestyle and developing a heart of compassion.
To register for Good $ense events or order resources, visit the Good $ense website, or contact Customer Service at 800-570-9812.
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