April 30, 2013 By bnjewell
The unexpected request reveals your true self: When you go to check out at a store or a restaurant and the clerk asks if you’d like to donate a dollar to some charity that the company is supporting, what do you do?
It’s easy to position ourselves well for a fundraising request when we see it coming. If you’re amenable to giving, you’ll likely attend fundraising events or other functions where people might ask for a donation. If you don’t intend to give, you might avoid those situations where people are likely to be raising money. But when a request intrudes unexpectedly into the patterns of your everyday life, you have little time to prepare for it. And the way that you react can reveal a truth about what’s going on inside your heart.
I must admit that, when it has happened to me, I’ve found my heart in a bad place too many times. [Read more…]
April 28, 2013 By bnjewell
When I wrote a couple of weeks ago that poverty comes from sin, I suspected that some people would object to the idea — and they did. The premise is a controversial one, and it brings up a lot of really valid questions about the relationship between poverty and sin, wealth and morality. Today we’re going to tackle a few of those questions.
But first, let’s quickly revisit the premise of the original article. We started with an idea that comes from Deut. 15:4-6, where God promises that the Israelites will live in prosperity as long as they follow His laws. He says very clear that “there will be no poor people among you… as long as you fully obey the Lord your God.” The principle is that God is a god of abundance and blessing, who always only gives us good things. He never intended for anyone to live in poverty. Instead, poverty comes when we deviate from His plans for us and try to do things our own way. A few people will go their own way and still find a path to become wealthy. But many, many more who go their own way will only find poverty.
Several readers have raised objections to this teaching, either on Facebook or in the comments section of the original article. Let’s take a look at some of those objections and the answers to them. [Read more…]
April 25, 2013 By bnjewell
Almost everything that our culture tells you about debt is a lie.
The western world is awash in debt, both on a governmental and an individual level. Sadly, heavy debt loads are a problem that grew to prominence in the second half of the 20th century, and today they threaten to ruin individuals, families, corporations and whole nations. Debt is never a good idea, and it’s time to deal with the ugly realities of the subject.
Debt is a form of financial slavery, and it always does more harm than good. Unfortunately, it has become so prevalent in modern society that we have begun to make excuses and rationalizations for it. In fact, a whole cloud of myth surrounds debt, deceiving people into thinking that it’s okay to borrow money. But it’s not okay — the myths are deceptive, and they never stand up against solid financial reasoning.
We’ve confronted each of these myths in separate articles before. Today, though, we’re going to round up the entire culture of debt, and identify the seven most dangerous debt myths that get people into trouble. [Read more…]
April 23, 2013 By bnjewell
In the end, personal finance is a simple equation. On one side is everything that you earn. On the other side is everything you spend. If the spending side is greater than the earning side, you’re in trouble.
Of course, there are many factors that influence our financial success in life. But none of them is so powerful as our spending. Nine out of 10 people who struggle financially spend too much money on unimportant things. Spending is the one area of our finances that we have complete autonomy over, and yet it’s the area where we find it most difficult to exercise self-control.
If you want to master your money, you’re going to have to master your spending. A lot of your spending has to do with maintaining your lifestyle. Unfortunately, our culture has made excessive lifestyle spending seem like such a normal thing that it can be difficult to see when your spending is getting out of control. So today, we’re going to examine five warning signs that will tell you that you need to get a grip on your spending. [Read more…]
April 21, 2013 By bnjewell
Sometimes the most compelling reason to be generous is not that somebody else needs to receive, but that you need to give.
You’ve heard it said before that it’s more blessed to give than to receive (a radical idea when Jesus introduced it to the world). Today, we’re going to look at one of the reasons why.
Giving is always important: It’s one of the foundational principles in God’s Master Plan for your finances, and scripture emphasizes the importance of giving in numerous places. We’ve also written a lot about giving on this site. Often, we see giving from the perspective of meeting a need; that is, we feel compelled to give in order to provide for the needs of people or organizations that could put our resources to good use. But there’s another compelling reason to give: It often does more for us than it does for the people who receive our gifts. [Read more…]
April 18, 2013 By bnjewell
Poverty is a result of sin.
I’ve been toying around with this idea in my head for a few months now, and after studying the subject I’m ready to make a public declaration. I believe that poverty — all poverty — can somehow be traced back to sinful attitudes and behavior. Because God didn’t create poverty, and He never intended for people to lack the basic necessities of life. In fact, everything that we know about God tells us that He is a God of abundance.
If poverty isn’t God’s design, then it’s something that only occurs in the world when we go astray from God’s principles. And the thing that separates us from God’s principles is our sinful nature. At its root, all poverty comes from sin. [Read more…]
April 16, 2013 By bnjewell
In today’s socially conscious world, microlending can sound like a perfect paradigm: Give $100, help a poor woman in the Third World start a business, and eventually make a little bit of money in interest. In this kind of scenario everybody wins. Right?
Wrong. Though many people get into microlending with noble intentions, those that work closely in the field have found that the microlending industry has become largely misguided. Microlending is poorly regulated and poorly understood, by both borrowers and lenders, and, like all debt, it tends to trap those who use it in cycles of poverty.
If you’ve ever considered getting involved with micro-lending, whether as an investment or a social contribution, you need to know that the idea is flawed, and its execution is doing more harm in the world than good. There are at least five significant problems with microlending that make it a bad idea. [Read more…]
April 14, 2013 By bnjewell
If you’re having trouble sticking to your financial plan, it might be because your brain chemistry is working against you.
Even people who make a commitment to get their financial act together often “fall off the wagon” from time to time. If you struggle to live within your budget or to make good financial decisions, don’t worry: It means that you’re normal. You’re probably suffering from what I call “budget fatigue.” And today, we’re going to outline some strategies to beat it. [Read more…]
April 11, 2013 By bnjewell
If you think that you go to work every day so that you can make money for yourself and your family, you only understand half of the truth. Because according to God, the higher purpose of work is giving.
Today’s lesson is short and simple, yet also profound. We work for a lot of reasons, and providing for our needs certainly has something to do with it. But working to eat is a simple philosophy, and falls short of what God has in mind for work. He wants us to work so that we can help people in need. [Read more…]
April 9, 2013 By bnjewell
The Jones’ are money slaves. So why are you so concerned about keeping up with them?
One of the most enduring financial habits of our society is the compulsion to live the same way that our neighbors do… or even slightly better. We have a tendency to judge our financial success in terms of how our houses, cars and clothes compare to those of others. The only problem is that, in general, other people make a pretty terrible standard of financial success.
We’ve talked before about the dangers of comparison, and how constantly comparing yourself to others can make you a slave to money. Nobody wins the comparison game. Today’s lesson is related: If you get into the habit of comparing your financial life to that of others, don’t be surprised if their slavery becomes your own. [Read more…]