March 21, 2013 By bnjewell
Two drum sets stand before you, both equal in their splendor. They’re both top-of-the-line instruments, made out of the same type of materials, by two reputable manufacturers. Either one is available in a wide range of styles, configurations and colors, and each one — if properly tuned and played — is capable of producing high-quality sound. They are virtually equal in every way, except for one: Set A costs $2,000, while Set B costs $4,500.
Which do you buy?
The answer should seem obvious (“The cheaper set!”), but all too often it’s not. Many people — even intelligent, well disciplined people — lose their brains when it comes to spending money on their hobbies. Having fun is great. but if you let your hobbies run wild, they’re likely to turn into a money trap. [Read more…]
March 12, 2013 By bnjewell
Why do low-ranked teams sometimes topple top-seeded teams in college basketball tournaments? Why are the smartest people in a high school class not always the valedictorians? Why do “C” students often go on to out-achieve their peers in business or politics? Perhaps it’s because in each of these cases, the less-talented player was pressured to work harder, while the “number one seed” was too “good” for his own good.
If you’re a sports fan, you’ve probably witnessed a top-ranked team fall to a team that they should have beat handily. And as you watch the game unfold, you might realize why: The underdog is intensely focused and viciously determined to snatch a win from its rival. Players on the top-ranked team, on the other hand, often have blank looks on their faces and an attitude of complete complacency. They figured that they had the game in the bag before it even started, so they didn’t really show up. They thought that they were so good that they didn’t need to try.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but good can be the enemy of great. We often fail to push ourselves to greatness because we figure that we are “good enough” already. This happens in all kinds of areas of life. And if you’re not careful, it can happen to you in your finances. [Read more…]
February 21, 2013 By bnjewell
How many dollar bills can you stuff down the neck of a beer bottle?
If you’re a frequent drinker, your habit is likely costing you a lot of money. If you’re a habitual drinker or a binge drinker, alcohol takes a toll on your body and your wallet. Though it is socially acceptable (and often encouraged), consuming alcohol is an incredibly expensive way to socialize. And if you get too deep into the culture of booze, it could ruin you financially.
In this series called “Money Traps,” we’re examining some of the habits and patterns in life that can get people in serious financial trouble. We’ve already dealt with gambling and smoking; today’s topic can be just as dangerous and habit-forming as those others. Alcohol is a money trap, and it can put a severe damper on your financial life if you allow it to.
[Read more…]
February 10, 2013 By bnjewell
Your wealth is literally going up in smoke.
Despite all of the scientific knowledge and health concerns that we have in the 21st century, cigarette smoking continues to be a big problem in United States, with nearly 20 percent of American adults smoking on a regular basis. In some places, like my native Kentucky, that percentage is much, much higher. And in addition to all of the damage that smokers are doing to their health, they’re doing an equal amount of damage to their finances.
Smoking is more than just an unhealthy and expensive habit — because of its addictive nature, smoking is a guaranteed money trap for those who get hooked. Just as gambling is financially ruinous for the people who believe that lotteries and casinos can change their lives for the better, smoking and other tobacco addictions can dominate your finances and hold you back from succeeding with money. [Read more…]
January 31, 2013 By bnjewell
We need to tell the lottery to change its slogan: “Somebody’s gonna lose… and it will almost certainly be you.”
Whether it’s Powerball, online poker, your local racetrack or one of the hundreds of casinos around the country, there are more ways to gamble these days than ever before. And every one of them is a rip-off. No matter how “lucky” you think you are, gambling with money will make a loser out of you.
Money is a serious subject, and its power over our lives is pretty incredible. If we’re not careful, money can make slaves of us in all sorts of ways. And having wrong attitudes about money can lead us into all kinds of trouble. In this new series entitled “Money Traps,” we’re going to examine some of the ways that these bad habits and cultural lies can wreak havoc on our financial lives. Gambling is a perfect example. [Read more…]
January 22, 2013 By bnjewell
There aren’t many things that I agree with FDR about. But our Depression-era president did have one powerful piece of wisdom that is just as applicable today as it was in the 1930s: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
FDR understood the principle that fear causes us to think and act in ways that aren’t in our best interest. When it comes to money, too many people live in fear of financial disaster, and it holds them back from doing things like giving and investing. If you let it, fear creeps through your entire psyche. If you live in fear of financial failure, that fear can grip you from the core and color your every thought. It begins to control your actions. Left unchecked, fear can make a slave of you.
Fortunately, there is hope for people who struggle with fear. There are all sorts of ways that money can trap us into slavery, and fear is one of them. But for every form of slavery, there is an antidote. And for fear, the antidote is love. [Read more…]
January 13, 2013 By bnjewell
It doesn’t matter how many tax dollars and government programs we throw at the problem of poverty — it’s never going away. Because the only real solution to poverty comes from the inside out.
Poverty is as old as humanity itself, and it’s a terrible thing. Though we think of poverty as a lack of money and resources, it’s much more than that. Poverty is a form of financial slavery. It’s an attitude and a mindset that can be passed from parents to children, trapping entire families in destructive cycles. When the cycles happen over and over again, they can become widespread and systemic, trapping entire nations in destitute conditions.
Governments have been trying to eradicate poverty for generations, but to no avail. The reason that they fail is that a government cannot solve a problem that originates in the hearts of men. There is a solution to poverty, but like the problem itself, it comes from inside your heart. The antidote to poverty is diligence. [Read more…]
December 27, 2012 By bnjewell
“Thank you,” is more than just a social formality. Thankfulness is a virtue, and a powerful one at that. Learn to use it correctly, and it can set you free from the slavery of envy.
Money can make slaves of us in all sorts of ways, warping our attitudes and inhibiting us from using our resources in the way that God wants us to. Among all of the ways that money slavery can bind us up, envy is one of the most sneaky. You can have a good head on your shoulders, budget well, avoid debt and even be a faithful giver. But if envy has got its hooks in you, it doesn’t matter how much you’ve been blessed — you’ll constantly be tempted to compare yourself to others. And when you do that, your heart becomes blind, and you miss out on the riches of Christ in your own life.
Fortunately, God has not left us captive to money slavery. For every way that money tries to take us captive, God provides us a way to break free. In this series, we’ve been studying some of the antidotes to money sickness in our hearts. Giving is the antidote to greed, and grace is the antidote to stinginess. Today, we’re going to examine how thankfulness is the antidote to envy. [Read more…]
December 16, 2012 By bnjewell
If you think that a generous heart is out of your reach, you’re probably right. Fortunately, that’s what grace is for.
If you’re like me, you may struggle with stinginess. A stingy heart has trouble giving. Stinginess wants to hold tightly on to wealth; it doesn’t like to let go of money, even for a good cause. It’s a deep-rooted attitude that can be impossible to outgrow on your own, one of the many ways that we can become slaves to money.
Of course, God doesn’t intend for us to be money slaves, and he’s made a way to escape the stinginess that can so easily petrify our hearts. Last week, we discussed the idea that giving is the antidote to greed. Today’s idea is similar yet also distinct: Grace is the antidote to stinginess. [Read more…]
December 6, 2012 By bnjewell
Ebeneezer Scrooge learned it the hard way: The only way to escape the slavery of greed is with the antidote of giving.
It took one seriously unpleasant Christmas Eve for Scrooge to see just how much his greed had come to control his life, and how much of an impact it was having on the people around him. Once he finally realized the folly of his ways, he understood that the best way to escape from greed was to give. And so the final scenes of “A Christmas Carol” are all about generosity.
In many ways large and small, money can make slaves of us. Greed is one of the most obvious ways to become a money slave, but there are plenty of others. For each of these heart diseases, though, there is a cure. In this series on The Antidote, we’re going to examine practical ways to escape the grip of money slavery. Today, we start with giving, the antidote to greed. [Read more…]