MoneyWalk 480 You Need To Invest

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

401k, 457, 403b, and similar plans are the easiest way for most people to begin and continue investing. A portion of your pre-tax earned income can be placed in these plans. Currently, $19,000 can be invested when younger than 50 and $24,000 when older. Taxes are not due on principal or earnings until you withdraw the money from the plan. If you withdraw money before you're 59.5 years old you will also pay a 10% penalty to the IRS, unless for verified hardship or as part of an equal periodic payment over your projected life expectancy. On these employer-based tax deferred plans neither tax nor penalty applies in instances in which you borrow money from your account and pay it back according to your employer’s payment schedule. However, there will be double-taxation on the earned income used to pay off the loan – once prior to payback and later when that amount is taken as a withdrawal. In addition, when the money is not in the plan it cannot provide earnings growth over the years. Therefore, you should refuse to borrow from these plans except in extreme emergencies that would decimate your finances and life if not taken care of with available funds.

A brokerage account IRA also provides great benefit. You put in post-tax earned income. Currently, $6,000 can be invested when younger than 50 and $7,000 when older. When under a certain adjusted gross-income you can take a deduction on your federal tax return. Taxes on the earnings of IRA accounts are deferred until withdrawal and there is no 10% penalty when money is taken out of the plan after 59.5 years of age. A Roth IRA also allows you to invest post-tax earned income and to not be taxed on earnings or charged a penalty as long as you maintain the account for at least five years and do not withdraw earnings before 59.5 years of age. You can withdraw post- tax contributions at any time without additional tax or penalty. On both types of IRA’s there are a few situations where early withdrawal of earnings might not be penalized, but would be taxed.

Because money that you have chosen to invest into the above noted plans is usually automatically payroll deducted from your employer’s payroll or electronic funds transferred EFT from a savings/checking account, you are more apt to continually invest a set amount month after month throughout your working years. Automating the process helps overcome failure to launch investing and procrastination that overtakes many who failed to invest but know they should have started years ago. Once your financial situation is ready for you to invest, 10 percent of gross income is a good starting point that will afford you great long-term earnings over a long-term investing period when the money is put in no-load low-expense stock index mutual funds like S&P 500 or Total Stock Market. You will quickly realize you do not miss the dollars invested. In fact, you will quickly feel good about doing it and seeing your prosperous future unfolding. For example, a person who invests $500 per month or $6,000 per year and earns 10% annual growth would amass $1,130,000 in 30 years.

Research these plans and other types of brokerage accounts to determine which ones better fit your plan for reaching the wealthy place. Also, realize past earnings are no guarantee of future results, yet historical data generally shows the great benefit received by those who over many years buy and hold a broad array of stocks via no-load low-expense stock index mutual funds. This article could not give you a complete picture of these investment plans. However, they are certainly great tools to put your investment plan into action and on auto pilot so you can reap rich rewards. This will enable you to fulfill the plan God has for you and allow you to enjoy many things on earth while you go about your Father’s business.

Please pray for this ministry, email me with any questions, and contact me to speak at your business/ministry’s conference/workshop. May the LORD bless you richly as you follow His plan!

Proverbs 21:20, Ecclesiastes 11:2, Matthew 25:20-23, Luke 19:15-19

Please forward these bondage-breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!

You can find books authored by Randy Parlor and Karen Parlor at www.Amazon.com

You can find many other MoneyWalk articles on Facebook by looking at the NOTES created by Randy Parlor at https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000444069041&sk=notes.

You can connect with Randy Parlor on Twitter and Linkedin

You can also view and/or listen to MoneyWalk articles at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnztOIesOKIrSd_H6c-8mQ

MoneyWalk 479 Good Stewardship Produces Abundant Life

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

In 1992, we had over $135K in debt including a $76K mortgage. We were strapped and searching for a way to avoid financial troubles ahead. The Holy Spirit helped us see that a person will perish (suffer lack and other consequences) when (a) he/she does not have God’s vision for his/her life, (b) gain appropriate spiritual and practical knowledge, and (c) by faith walk in godly wisdom with regard to lifestyle and finances.

We accepted Christ into our lives and learned that God desires His people to be debt-free and abundant givers. We started tithing, offering, and budgeting so within the next few years we could get to a point of living on less than 50% of our pay. We made painful choices to cut spending and used newly found disposable income to eliminate our debts. The LORD helped us get out of debt quicker than we thought possible by supernaturally orchestrating a few promotions and raises that increased our income.

We have not had car notes since 1996, have not paid interest on consumer debts since 1997, and paid off our mortgage in January 2004. We experienced terrible economic periods during 2000-2002 and 2008-2010. We refused to cut tithing and offering and continued to utilize a giving, saving, spending plan (budget) that helped us keep outgoing expenses below take-home pay so our upkeep (lifestyle cost) would not be our downfall. By the grace and wisdom of God we cut unnecessary expenses so we could continue to give over 25% of our gross income and save over 25% of it. Aiming for a debt-free lifestyle and deciding in our heart that we would remain that way throughout our lives is the key to being able to live very comfortably on one-third of our gross income. We agreed with the word that being in love with the world was to be at enmity with the LORD and that the abundance of life does not consist in the material things one could get.

We know people can overcome severe economic problems and avoid giving all their would-be-wealth to creditors when they engage the debt-free lifestyle the bible speaks of as available to everyone. In order to embrace it you must stop believing society’s lie that everyone must have debts and continue to seek more debt as they move through life in order for their lives to be worthwhile. The devil is a lie!

Please pray for this ministry, email me with any questions, and contact me to speak at your business/ministry’s conference/workshop. May the LORD bless you richly as you follow His plan!

Genesis 14:20, Psalm 75:6-7, Proverbs 22:6, Matthew 23:23, Romans 13:8, Hebrews 7:8

Please forward these bondage-breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!

You can find books authored by Randy Parlor and Karen Parlor at www.Amazon.com

You can find many other MoneyWalk articles on Facebook by looking at the NOTES created by Randy Parlor at https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000444069041&sk=notes.

You can connect with Randy Parlor on Twitter and Linkedin

You can also view and/or listen to MoneyWalk articles at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnztOIesOKIrSd_H6c-8mQ

MoneyWalk 478 Principles That Bring Reward, Part 6

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Diversify your savings and investments so all your eggs are not in the same basket. Scripture instructs you to give a portion to seven or eight because you do not know what troubles may come upon the Earth. It also instructs you to seek safety in the multitude of counselors. When all eggs are in one basket all of them can be destroyed by one person’s malfeasance, but when they are in different baskets one person’s malfeasance does not destroy the wealth God intends for you to manage, live on, and distribute to help other people.

Per the biblical diversification principle, it is prudent over time to have accounts at different brokerages and/or 401k type plans that contain a few broadly diversified index funds (such as an S&P 500, Mid-Cap, Russell 2000, Total U.S. Market, etc.) because you do not know the financial / economic troubles that may come upon the earth or the evil that an investment manager may engage in that could cost you all or a significant portion of your wealth if all your holdings were in one account. Historically speaking, it is highly unlikely that more than one in eight brokers or investment managers would engage unsound or illegal activity because most of them appear honest and would not intend to strip clients of their money. You simply do not know which one might act unwisely or illegally. Thus, it is better to follow the LORD’s diversification wisdom by putting savings in seven or eight investments so you are not worried or very sorry later on because you followed earthly wisdom and concentrated all your wealth at one brokerage, one investment, or one investment company.

The Holy Spirit wants you to follow biblical principles, like those in the last six articles so you always chart and know the state of your income, expenses, assets, and liabilities because they are necessary for developing your ongoing monthly budgets (giving, saving, spending plan) and at least once per year charting your financial net worth. They will also help you achieve total debt-freedom and build wealth by setting aside more income each month and putting the money in investments that multiply it so you are good ground that over time returns 30, 60, and 100-fold more than the LORD initially entrusts to you.

Continual intimacy with Him through prayer, praise, worship, mentoring from and accountability to Christian lifestyle & financial good stewards will help you run and win the race set before you while helping you avoid many mistakes that would otherwise derail you and the purpose He made you to accomplish.

Please pray for this ministry, email me with any questions, and contact me to speak at your business/ministry’s conference/workshop. May the LORD bless you richly as you follow His plan!

Proverbs 15:22, Ecclesiastes 4:12, 11:2, Matthew 25:14, Luke 19:12

Please forward these bondage-breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!

You can find books authored by Randy Parlor and Karen Parlor at www.Amazon.com

You can find many other MoneyWalk articles on Facebook by looking at the NOTES created by Randy Parlor at https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000444069041&sk=notes.

You can connect with Randy Parlor on Twitter and LinkedIn

You can also view and/or listen to MoneyWalk articles at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnztOIesOKIrSd_H6c-8mQ

MoneyWalk 477 Principles That Bring Reward, Part 5

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Save for emergencies, so you have resources to help care for needs during rainy days. A wise person stores a portion of his/her resources to meet future material needs, but a foolish person quickly spends everything he/she gets and engages debt obligations above his/her income that ensure all his/her future income gets sucked away and transferred to creditors for many years to come. The foolish are unable to build wealth because this pattern strips them of money in order to build creditors’ wealth and keep them in bondage.

You need an emergency / rainy-day fund to discipline you against unreasonable spending habits, to overcome bad economic cycles that will occur throughout your life, and to help you stop relying on debt to get you through problematic situations that require large infusions of money. Your main savings should be an emergency fund of at least $1,000 until you pay off all non-mortgage debts, unless more money may soon be needed because you are facing a situation like unemployment, impending layoff, or uncovered medical costs where without more available funds your necessary bills would go unpaid.

Put this money in an account that protects principle and interest earned, since it serves like an insurance policy that you need to make sure is available when an emergency occurs. Once all non-mortgage debt is paid off increase the fund to at least $10,000 which for most debt-free families will allow them to cover the emergency and/or three to six months of household expenses.

Invest excess disposable income to accumulate greater return. Investing should be a major initiative undertaken with a reasonable portion of savings (at least 10% of gross income) left over after all your budgetary expenses for each month have been paid. You should be looking for greater compound interest / exponential growth than you can get from accounts in which your emergency reserve funds are parked. God desires that you be like the servants in the Parable of the Talents and the Parable of the Minas who went about trading (investing) the assets He had given them in order to multiplying them for greater use for His glory and to care for themselves and their families and for establishing inheritances for their children’s children and future generations.

A simple place to invest a reasonable amount of income each month is no-load low-expense stock index mutual funds. These provide automatic diversification in each fund because they purchase hundreds or thousands of stocks of a variety of publicly traded companies in a variety of industries. Employer 401k type plans and brokerages like Vanguard, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, TIAA-CREF, etc. often require no more than $25 per paycheck or month to invest in one of their plans or funds. So, getting started is not difficult to do. You simply need to be committed and focused on doing the right thing concerning investing for your future.

Over long periods of time you will find historical data showing that the average annual growth of these no-load low-expense stock index mutual funds has far outpaced the growth / compound interest of other types of non-stock investment options. As you age, you may want to also have a portion of your money in fixed-income funds to provide principal protection during the time period of your life when you know you will need to continually draw money from these funds on which to live during your senior years.

Please pray for this ministry, email me with any questions, and contact me to speak at your business/ministry’s conference/workshop. May the LORD bless you richly as you follow His plan!

Proverbs 13:23, Proverbs 21:20, Matthew 25:14-30, Luke 19:12-27

Please forward these bondage-breaking articles to other people who can use helpful insight!

You can find books authored by Randy Parlor and Karen Parlor at www.Amazon.com

You can find many other MoneyWalk articles on Facebook by looking at the NOTES created by Randy Parlor at https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000444069041&sk=notes.

You can connect with Randy Parlor on Twitter and Linkedin

You can also view and/or listen to MoneyWalk articles at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnztOIesOKIrSd_H6c-8mQ