Archive for December, 2009
After Christmas Sales!
by Ryan Loos on Dec.28, 2009, under Budgeting, General, Personal Finance
I am ready for all of the after Christmas sales. How about you? It seems that even just a few days after Christmas most retailers have even better sales then they did before Christmas. Last year my wife and I went to Kohl’s and bought a ton of clothes for at least 70% off. I am looking forward to finding some great deals this time as well! Where have you seen great deals? Anything that you purchased at a great price? Let us know so that we can spread the word when it comes to saving money!
Churches and Debt
by Ryan Loos on Dec.16, 2009, under Debt, General, Q & A
Shaun Somers our Canadian counselor recently received an email from a concerned member of a local church about the debt that they were preparing to enter into. See below to Shaun’s response and as it describes both Shaun and my feelings on debt in the Kingdom of God.
“”….some have argued…. lack faith if God wants to give us the best, we should not be afraid to trust God.” Here’s the thing, I 100% agree with the quote above – we need to trust God. But I think trusting God means just that, looking at His word and His principles about how to handle money. To me, trusting God would mean setting a goal of a property worth $2.5M (or whatever) and resolving to get it WITHOUT DEBT. But “we’ll have to wait too long” some people will say. Well, who’s to say how long God will have you wait? And if that is His will, so be it. Perhaps you should have had a target like this 10 years ago, perhaps not. But taking a debt shortcut now is not the answer, in my opinion. Proverbs 22:7 says “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” (NASB) Does your church wish to be slave to the bank? Debt changes relationships, and not for the better from my experience. So again, my suggestion would be to avoid debt altogether. Failing that, taking a very small mortgage would be best. Taking on a huge debt with a congregation as small as yours seems quite “reckless”, as you say. Any suggestion that individual congregants take on debt to then loan to the church would be in my opinion beyond reckless to the point of foolhardiness. I don’t aim to offend here, because I know that those who brought up that idea are trying to help, but I cannot stress strongly enough that that is not a good plan. This matter of moving up in church size is no small thing, and will require much deliberation and prayer on the part of your church leaders and congregation. I encourage you to continue to express your concerns about any plan that requires debt as a part of the solution. “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his
neighbor has fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8 May God richly bless you and your church.”
Let it Snow!
by Ryan Loos on Dec.10, 2009, under Budgeting, General
For those of you who do not live in WNY or Southern Ontario let me give you an update on on weather. We have had our first snowstorm for this winter season. I have to say that I have been waiting for this to happen. All of the mild weather that we have had was great, but I love the snow probably more than anyone. Why do I love the snow, especially around Christmas time? I love the snow because it helps to keep consumers out of the retail stores and encourages people to be home with their families. I am not an anti-present kind of guy, but I have been figuring out over the last few years that my kids would rather have quality time with their Dad, than some more plastic stuff under the Christmas tree. Have fun with the snow!
The E-Myth
by Ryan Loos on Dec.03, 2009, under General, Small Business
I have been reading the book The E Myth by Michael Gerber. Michael talks about how as a business owner we have three different personalities, technical, manager and entrepreneur. Often a business fails because we do not learn how to let all three of our personalities work together. The best business owners use all three personalities in conjunction with each other. The entrepreneur set the goals, the technical accomplishes the goal (does the dirty work) and the manager oversees the goal, making adjustments along the way. After, reading these chapters describing this relationship, I now have a whole new perspective on how to run my business and how to help other businesses by letting each of these personalities have control. Most of the time a business fails due to the technical personality taking over, lacking in vision and management. We as business owners need to work in our business, but we also need to work on our business.
Debt is Normal – Be Weird!
by Ryan Loos on Dec.01, 2009, under Debt, General, Personal Finance
Debt is all around us. Need a car, get a loan. Need to go to college, get a loan. Need some stuff for Christmas, use a credit card (get a loan). Had an emergency, get a home equity loan. These are the common beliefs that we have about money. We need to be weird and live without borrowing any more money. Get on board and do not be a slave to your lenders. Add up all of you monthly debts payments, how much is it a month? $500, $1,000, $2,000 or more? What could you do with that money? How much could you save, invest or give? Live a different life and be weird, don’t use debt and live a life that is focused on spending less than you make.
