Money Matters-Ingredients in a Recipe of Financial Success/in , /by

The best cooks use the right ingredients, with the right proportions, to make the best meals! They have mastered the art of getting all the ingredients to work in concert to bring out the most flavor in their dish. Each ingredient adds something extra, that when mixed with the other ingredients, enhances the entire meal. A strong financial plan is no different. Because money affects just about all aspects of our lives we need several different financial ingredients to address different financial needs throughout our lifetime.

Just as a chef knows what they want to make in the kitchen, you should know where you want to go financially. In other words, you should have a vision. The vision you have will give you a target to focus on and provide some directions to your finances. Your financial vision should be too great to just keep it in your head! Write it down! When it is on paper, it is tangible and you can be held accountable for it! And when it is on paper, you can make a budget, or a recipe to detail how you and God are going to accomplish your vision!

All good financial recipes have an element of savings. If you want to win with money, you MUST be a consistent saver. There is no way around it! According to a recent GoBankingRates survey, 69% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings, and 34% have no money whatsoever. Sporadically, putting money away from time to time is too unstructured and it makes hard to set goals and properly track progress; it throws your recipe off! Consequently, the amount of money you can save is directly related to the money you spend. You MUST get your spending under control and work to eliminate debt in your life. The less debt you have, the more you can save, and the more financially successful you will be!

Many times when financial plans are talked about, insurances are left out of the discussion. Insurances have only one job; to protect the insured. That’s it! They are not meant to be investments (meaning they are not meant to make you money). Insurances cost money, but they help protect your financial future. Did you know medical bills are reported to be the number cause for personal bankruptcies?! When you couple this with the fact that an estimated 40% of Americans rack up debt resulting in medical bills, it is easy to see how not enough money and inadequate insurance coverage can ruin your financial plan.

Every good and complete financial recipe has some form of investing. Although investing may not be an ingredient you add right now because of debt, it needs to be added to your recipe at some point if you ever hope to make progress financially. Investing is the best way to put your money to work. You work hard for your money. Investing allows your money to return the favor! There are many different types of investments with some of the more popular ones being stocks, mutual funds, real estate, and when you include retirement investing you have to consider 401ks, TSPs, IRAs, and the like. Investments create wealth and over time, these investments have proven to be worth more than they cost making them valuable assets in your financial plan.

And the final ingredient in our discussion is a transitioning plan. Building wealth can take a long time. It can even take generations. But all the hard work, saving, investing, and wise decision making can be wasted if it is not properly transferred to the intended beneficiary. This where wills and trust add value to your financial recipe. Wills and trusts allow an estate to be managed in your absence; they help transition your hard-earned wealth as you wish. They help eliminate family feud as they layout specific instructions on how to handle an estate.

The ingredients in this article are not an exhaustive list. There is a lot of details not mentioned that need to be vetted to ensure you are making the best choice for you and your family. Savings, eliminating debt, investing, and estate planning are good money management practices and, at some level, are part of a strong financial plan. So, it’s time to do some reflection on your own financial plan. And we can help you with that! Financial Peace University is being offered at the church again! It will be starting on August 8th (which is a Wednesday night) from 6pm-7pm and will run for 9 consecutive weeks. Registration is open now in the bookstore! If you have any questions, you can email us at legacygroup@mfmnv.org. Come on out and join us. Your financial future cannot wait any longer!

Communion Sunday

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The Peoples Prayer

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Marriage Ministry Date Night

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Financial Peace University

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One Night Fresh Wind Revival

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First Time Home Buyers Course

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Back to school drive

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Worship Experience

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Money Matters-Crock Pots vs. Microwaves/in , /by

Anybody that knows anything about cooking knows a crock pot is a must-have in the kitchen. A crockpot is a counter cooking kitchen appliance used to simmer and slow boil foods (the operative word here is, slow) at low temperatures. It is a great way to get the most flavor out of meats! Cooking with a crockpot is usually pretty simple. Just add water, the meat, the seasoning, and the vegetables. Put it all in the pot, turn it on, and wait. You should check on the meal from time to time, and make small adjustments, be there is not a lot to it.

Microwaves are very different from crock pots, but they are also a must-have in any modern kitchen. Microwaves heat up foods by using high-intensity radiation waves to excite the molecules in the food. As the molecules get excited, they move. And this movement creates heat which warms the food. Whole meals can be put together on a plate or in some plastic or ceramic container and the microwave can be used to heat them up; taking them from frozen to editable in just a few minutes.

Crock pots are slow and deliberate while microwaves are seen as the quick and easy option. When it comes to building wealth, we should be crock pots and not microwaves. Building wealth is not meant to be a fast process. God gives us directions as it relates to wealth building but they are not meant to be a formula that takes us from rags-to-riches overnight! Building wealth comes from consistently making smart decisions over a long period of time. I know there are examples in the bible where situations turn from the worst in a blink-of-an-eye, and that speaks to the awesomeness and omnipotence of God. And we take those stories, as we should, and use them for encouragement and as fuel to power through the tough, and often unpredictable, situations that happen in life. But we have to ask ourselves, ‘is that how it is supposed to be on a regular basis? Are we to live in a state of desperation our whole lives waiting for God to rescue us?’ Absolutely not. We are to live victoriously. And we can start to live victoriously by consistently making victorious decisions. Financially speaking, if we steadily save and invest and constantly avoid debt we will prosper. I guarantee it because the bible says so!

So, what does the bible say about “instant wealth”? Proverbs 13:11 says “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever will gain little by little, will prosper.” Proverbs 28:20 says, “A faithful man will abound in blessings, but whosoever rushes to be rich, will not go unpunished.” And Proverbs 20:21 says, “An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed.” These are just a few but, nevertheless, strong warnings against “instant wealth”. But why is God so concerned about quick riches? It’s not the money that concerns Him! Money, in and of itself, is amoral; meaning it is neither good nor bad. Money is just a tool. The same money that is used to do something harmful, like buy drugs, can be used to do something good, like feed the homeless. The money doesn’t care! It is the character of the one who manages the money is what concerns God. Money in the hands of the immoral is spent immorally, and money in the hands of the responsible is spent responsibly. God wants his people to have good financial character, and good character does not come quickly or easily. It is forged over time through consistency.

Just as food that has been carefully prepared and slow cooked for hours is so much more flavorful than food that is cooked in the microwave, our financial future will so much more filling if we take the slow and steady approach vs the get-rich-over-night method. It just takes time to build wealth. I know we want it now, but God has warned us against the “quick buck”. The sooner we accept that obtaining wealth is a process and not an event, the sooner we can get started moving toward rightfully possessing what God has decreed as ours! I don’t know about you but I’m ready to get cooking. In next months article, we will discuss the ingredients we want to include our financial recipe. So, get your mind right and get over the fact that is going to take some time. We have work to do and wealth to build. Be blessed.