MoneyWalk 242: Insurance Purchases

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

In order to provide your loved ones with the amount of money that's necessary to maintain the standard of living to which they've been accustomed in case an accident were to kill you or render you unable to earn a living, you should purchase life, disability, automobile, homeowners, and other types of insurance as mechanisms to cover the loss of expected future income. However, you should analyze your true need for insurance in discussions with family members and trusted advisors before you purchase non-mandatory insurance and decide the limits of liability and benefits that are best suited for you and your family.

The decision on what’s needed should consider the amount of household income expected before and after an occurrence, amount of savings, emergency funds, and liquid assets available to cover living expenses or a portion thereof, amount of bills, how much you income you have left after bill payments to faithfully pay the premium so coverage does not lapse, time period during which you need particular types of coverage, how long the insurance benefits will need to cover living expenses for surviving dependents, etc. Also, you should consider the benefits different types of insurance will provide if future claims are made against them and what you and your family stand to lose if accidents occur.

Once you've purchased the amount of risk protection that is best for you or available to you, just stand on the fact that God will take care of you and give you peace through Jesus Christ to guard your heart and mind in situations. He will provide for you far beyond what you could prepare for or take care of if a situation occurs. Remember that God is your true source of protection and other tools are resources He allows and equips you to use. This should help you avoid purchasing unnecessary and unaffordable insurances that eat up dollars that can be invested for your future financial growth and stability. In most instances, insurance should be used to manage risk and not as investments that provide high returns.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Psalms 124, 127:1-2, Matthew 6:30-33, Philippians 4:6-7

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MoneyWalk 241: On-line Bill Payments

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Everyone uses a computer system when withdrawing, depositing, or paying utilities at automated teller machines. Also, direct deposit and electronic fund transfers of our incomes and savings to banks, brokerage houses, and creditors are remitted using computerized systems. Many investment companies will allow you to use the internet to make electronic transfers to and from your bank accounts to your brokerage accounts as the need arises. Most electronic fund transfers and automated clearinghouse bill payment systems remit your payment on a specific due date each month that is set by the creditor who accepts payment in this manner, whereas many on-line bill payment programs require you to enter the system from your computer and remit payments from your account to your creditors by their payment due dates.

Today, many systems have been vetted well enough that you can generally feel comfortable that your banks, credit unions, and major on-line payment sources will have adequate security systems so you do not have to be worried about making allowing your payroll checks to be direct deposited into your bank account or making online payments via your computer. You certainly want to make sure that the website is the one for the company you generally deal with and that its payment website link starts with https:// and meets other reasonable safety protocol.

One system is not necessarily better than another, however some companies that offer on-line payment programs charge substantial fees per transaction. Compare costs and security features of on-line, electronic fund transfer, and automated clearinghouse systems to identify the ones that are best for you. An on-line bill payment system or paying bills on-line via the websites of the various companies you make payments to is often a great way to save time and money by reducing postage and check ordering expenses and getting rid of all the paperwork you’ve been maintaining. You can maintain verification of your payments on your computer, in cloud storage, and also find it at the vendors’ websites.

There is generally no need to fear this method of payment. One caution, if you have run into financial problems and are dealing with creditors it is best not to give them access to your bank accounts and credit card accounts because on occasion people have found their accounts raided for more than they expected to be remitted. In this instance, it is best to get your situation organized and under control and pay the creditors with a check or money order once you know the amounts you are able to pay them and still keep enough on hand to take care of your priorities (shelter, food, transportation, etc.).

Technology increasing to allow us such benefits such as on-line payment is a gift from God that we can take advantage of as long as we make reasonable safety checks and verifications of legitimacy of the vendors we use.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Joshua 1:8, Proverbs 2:6-15, 1Corinthians 6:12, Philippians 4:6-7

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MoneyWalk 240: Get Someone Who Can!

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Most of us have needed various types of work done on our homes and cars, but did not have the ability to perform it ourselves. You've probably faced the same type of situation. When faced with this situation, search for a friend or professional with skills you need who is known for doing a good job and who will charge you an affordable rate.

Rest assured, God has already introduced you to a skilled person or will send him / her your way to help take care of your need to get the work done efficiently, effectively, and affordably when you lack ability and/or time to do it. You simply need to know the limitations of your skill and keep your eyes open for someone who can admirably do the work.

Don't be a freeloader who abuses other people by always expecting them to repair your belongings and provide service to you at no cost. While you can accept a no cost or low cost blessing they offer you, always be prepared to pay a fair price for the work and to bless them with more if God equipped you financially and/or impresses on your heart to do so.

Slothfulness in doing the work if you are able or in seeking the person who can do it will cost you more money, comfort, and flexibility in the long run than not recognizing where your skills end and someone else's begin.

It is generally wise to get estimates from a few different practitioners and inspect work they've done for others before you consummate a work contract. Also, it is best to have some type of written contract spelling out the parameters and necessary specifics of the work to be completed as well as down-payment requirement and total price for satisfactory completion of the work. These things ensure the person you choose performs good work in the field you need them for and that there is a guiding document to help settle disagreements or disputes that could arise.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Exodus 18:18-23, Jeremiah 45:1, Matthew 25:14-15, 2Timothy 4:11

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MoneyWalk 239: The Way To Retire

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You've been doing the same type of work for many years and you can hardly wait for retirement. Throughout your career you've only taken one or two week vacations when you wanted to relieve stress, but now you want a lot longer than the vacation time allotted to you because you can feel a restlessness and possibly dissatisfaction toward the work, environment, or atmosphere.

Scripture gives numerous lessons on the responsibility to work and its value throughout one’s life. It seems, you'll find only one scriptural situation that speaks of something akin to retirement. The Levites were to retire from being primary workers in the service of the tabernacle, yet it is suggested that they continue to assist their brothers in the service of the tent of meetings. There is no indication that retirement meant that they sit around for the rest of their lives doing nothing or only looking to please themselves.

As a Christian, you have a godly mission to support and be an active participant in, no matter what your age or bodily condition. Christians never retire from serving in the Great Commission even though they may retire from a career path in which they served in this world or move from a long-time ministry that they’ve been involved with. First of all, you should do your work (career, ministry, etc.) as unto the LORD. He will bless and reward you for your labor, diligence, and faithfulness and the blessing and reward may show up on earth via many different avenues (employers, customers, well-wishers, donations, gifts, ravens, manna from Heaven, etc.).

What you long for is not a time of doing nothing or doing only what pleases you. Rather, the longing in your heart is leading you toward another area of service that God created and equipped you to do. It could be wholly different than the arena you’re leaving or it could piggyback off of the skills, platform, or network you devoted prior years to. Talking and listening to the LORD and following His heart will determine the service (work) you should engage in this refirement period. Could be in another arena traditionally considered secular or something that seems more spiritual. Remember, whatever legitimate service you do pleases Him when you make His will and way the priority of your life and seek to glorify Him through it.

Looking forward to God’s next step for you is something to look forward to and not to fear or despise. It may be wise to take an extended time (months) between the work from which you retire and the area of service you will engage to a greater degree in the future. Just make sure it’s not so long that you fall into slothfulness because this will bring unfruitfulness and ruin. When you retire with God’s will in mind, you’ll be able to have peace, joy, and needed rest in a way that refires you and brings fulfillment to your life.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Genesis 1:28, Numbers 8:24-26, Proverbs 10:4-5, Acts 20:32-35, 2Thessalonians 3:6-12

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MoneyWalk 238: Your Worth

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Your true net-worth is not based in the things that you possess on earth, rather it’s determined by whether or not you’re a believer in Jesus Christ whose heart is in tune to the vision on His heart. Christians seek to glorify Him, lead unbelievers to Him, and educate people on the virtue of living by His principles. When you have His heart you take on the mind of Christ and are motivated to be the best steward (manager) you know how to be with the money, resources, gifting, and abilities the LORD entrusts to you while on earth. You continually seek to become more skillful in doing so.

Like most people, you probably think the current state of your stewardship is probably more broadly based on getting most of the things you want on credit and still having the bills to show for it years later when sometimes you cannot even remember what you used the loans / credit cards to purchase. The depreciating value of your cars, appliances, furniture, clothing, and jewelry should motivate you to exercise godly wisdom when purchasing such items in the future. You may have previously been pressured by smooth-talking sales people, friends, or family into buying such items on credit, but now realize these items depreciate in value. It certainly was not wise to use loans to get these items when you did not have cash available in reserve accounts to purchase them or immediately pay off the total amount of the loan at any time. Even if you could pay it off at anytime, it is not wise to get installment or balloon loans or to let the charge revolve month to month because the interest charged on the loan will be greater than what your reserve account will pay you each month and you will encounter other problems you could have avoided.

God is for you achieving financial freedom and building wealth and has given you instructions / principles to lead you there. It's important to understand that some of the men and women of honor spoken of in scripture, who drew near to Him and displayed His heart in ministry (service to others), had great material riches. Likewise, the LORD will allow you to have many nice things over the course of your life, but more importantly He wants you to draw closer to Him. Biblical instructions and the stories of these saints give a clear picture that we should seek the Creator more than the things He created.

Do not layup treasures for yourself on earth that tend to corrupt, decay, and be stolen! Rather, layup for yourself treasures in Heaven that cannot be corrupted, decayed, or stolen. This only happens via properly managing money and resources in order to give abundantly for the spread of the gospel, to properly take care of your family needs, and to be rich in good works that serve other people. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. An intimate relationship with God makes the things He allows you to have truly valuable to you because you will use them for the right purpose.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Matthew 6:33-34, Luke 12:32-33, and 1Timothy 6:6-10, 17-19, James 5:1-6

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MoneyWalk 237: The Only Way, Truth, and Life

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

I can teach you practical strategies to employ biblical money management principles in your life such as vision casting, planning, organizing, budgeting, and record-keeping and I can teach the principles of tithing, offering, debt-free living, smart lending and cosigning. However, you won’t receive the most important type of wealth if you only accept the teaching as a mechanism to help you accumulate money on earth.

The only wealth you need is eternal life starting now with a heavenly home prepared for you when you finally leave this earth. In addition, wealth is to be desired that is gained by fulfilling the purpose for which the LORD made you, so you can please Him and positively affect other people throughout the remainder of your life. Only one person can provide this great salvation and sanctification and that is Jesus Christ the Savior and LORD who is resurrected from the dead and alive for evermore.

You've sinned and cannot access God’s kingdom without exercising faith in Jesus. The wages of your sin is natural destruction, death, and eternal damnation if you do not believe in Him before you die. Sin has produced negative results in your life and rendered you unable to achieve lasting inner peace and joy in good and bad times. It's good to know the gift of God is eternal life for you. You only have to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and LORD.

Then, you’ll receive eternal life and He will help you utilize biblical principles, so you can successfully navigate life’s temptations and trials. You will mature over time to fulfill the purpose God gave your life. You’ll be enriched on earth, enrich others, and build treasures in Heaven that no one can take away.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Acts 4:10-12, 2Peter 3:9, John 3:16-17

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MoneyWalk 236: Don’t Be Deceived

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Many people want expensive homes, cars, and clothes. Many have dreamed of being super rich. Money and possessions are not evil. However, in the hands of people with unclean intentions they will be used to support and carry out ungodly activities that negatively affect the lives of other people.

A lack of desire to use money and other resources in a manner that glorifies God and supports His gospel puts you to a greater and greater degree on the path toward unclean intentions. Such intentions produce get-rich-quick and wealth-by-any-means attitudes that ensnare you in Satan's destructive plan. If you obtain wealth while having these attitudes, it’s easy to regress into arrogance, pride, criminal, and detrimental activities that are unacceptable to God.

You may outwardly appear successful, but you'll be judged bankrupt by God and ultimately He must bring down everyone whom He has not exalted, either while they are on earth or at the Great White Throne Judgment.

As your mind searches out the methods you can use to obtain wealth, be sure to make God’s will for your life the first priority. This will help you find many opportunities that are uniquely fitted to the abilities, gifting, and calling God created you with. Pursuing these avenues brings eternal rewards.

On the other hand, gaining the world now may seem fun for a short time, but losing your soul while doing so will bring negative eternal consequences that you will not be able to handle.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Ecclesiastes 10:19, 12:13-14, Luke 12:13-21, I Timothy 6:6-10, Revelation 3:17-22

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MoneyWalk 235: Bargain Shopping Can Help You

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

You can save money by bargain shopping for homes, cars, computers, clothes, and other merchandise. This consists of searching various outlets until you find the items you want at a price that's well below what others normally pay.

If you have a respecter of persons mindset that only allows you to purchase items in upscale stores with high prices, you’ll inevitably spend more money than you should for merchandise you want and you’ll probably go into debt. This will keep you from building the level of wealth that God intends for you and thus will affect your ability to give abundantly to support gospel ministry and establish the good stewardship pattern that will open the windows of Heaven and have abundant blessing continually poured out on you.

Your mind must be renewed by Christ to realize that there is quality, lower priced merchandise that can meet your needs and desires. You simply have to look for it. A thorough search (asking friends, searching websites, looking at merchandise at a variety of stores) will often reveal that like goods (sometimes with different brand names and lower prices) are offered at different stores.

You may find that different stores are selling the goods at different prices. Look in dollar stores and department stores for less expensive merchandise and give those products and services an opportunity to show you whether or not they are just as good. While you may find that some things are not as good as higher priced ones at other stores, you will likely find that many things like household utility items are just as good.

Without proof, don't believe that high priced merchandise is necessarily better in quality without testing it against lower price goods of the same kind. Also, don’t waste money over brand name loyalty without the proof of better quality and affordability within your financial situation. Ultimately, your wise, good steward habits will put you in a position where at a certain point in life you are able to purchase a variety of goods without having to fret over the cost or even look for lower cost alternatives. It may still be wise to do so, but you will be in a position where you do not have to and can simply indulge from time to time without searching far and wide to see if the goods are offered at a lower price elsewhere.

Remember, a great result of your good stewardship exhibited by not becoming an unqualified “respecter of brands” and not ruling out that dollar, discount , department stores may have what you can use at lower prices is to put yourself in a position where you have more to give to spread the gospel and more to save and invest throughout the length of your life When the additional disposable income is properly invested, over time you will build immense wealth for your situation that puts you far ahead of most if not all of your peers.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Exodus 12:35-36, Proverbs 13:23, Matthew 7:7-8, Luke 14:28, Romans 12:3, 1Corinthians 10:12-13

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MoneyWalk 234: Cosign And Have Your Assets Taken

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Cosigning is making an agreement with a person or entity to pay debts taken out by someone else. Such agreements require you to pay the monthly loan payments or the full amount when the person becomes delinquent on his payment of the loan (regardless of whether he is unable to or simply decides not to make good on the loan). Allowing someone to use your credit card technically puts you in the same situation because your contract with the credit card company requires that you pay all charges you authorized on that card.

A person’s request for you to cosign to cover his debt may not look like a bad thing when the appeal is being made to you and such request have a lot of emotional appeal behind them because many of the people that would ask you to do appear to need help maneuvering the financial landscape of life. Yet, it will cause you immense emotional pain, heartache, and financial turmoil when they do not make the monthly payments or pay off the debts as contracted and expected.

It is generally an irresponsible action to cosign for someone given that the vast majority of these situations wind up with the other party not paying as agreed and thus forcing collectors to come after cosigners. It is also irresponsible considering that you don’t have enough in liquid assets to fully cover the total debt if you’re ever responsible for paying it. These situations will negatively affect your well being and that of your family and leave you in a tumultuous financial and relational state.

Cosigning arrangements do not work any better among family members and close friends. Often, the fallout from these situations causes separation of friends and many times ill feelings and un-forgiveness toward one another.

You need to respect that the financial institution does not consider the requester’s personal financial situation healthy enough to sign for his own debt and that these institutions are experts at judging the likelihood of repayment by people with particular financial profiles. Then, just say no!

Otherwise, a significant amount of your disposable income will soon be spent paying off debt taken out by other people (that you could be using to build wealth) and your credit will be wrecked, no matter how much income you bring in, because you are persuaded to cosign for irresponsible and untrustworthy people. You must pray and watch those that labor among you knowing that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In so doing, many have learned bad habits in the financial arena of their lives. Then, you must choose not to repeat their mistakes and not to help them continue to make such mistakes. The best way to help the ones you can help is to use available cash, at a level that will not impoverish your family, when you see a true need and believe you are supposed to be a party to resolving it.

Another thing to consider is that your help is not often the whole solution to deep problems of need, poverty, and financial troubles experienced by other people. While there are times that the Good Samaritan response may mean that you offer financial and other resources, yet there are other times when the Apostles Peter and John’s response is needful, “Silver and gold have we none, but such as we have we give unto you – in the name of Jesus Christ be made whole.”

You should want to be a good steward and allow God’s process to build the type of wealth necessary for your Good Samaritan experiences but also desire spiritual discernment so you can truly detect what is needful and be able to give the Word, encouragement, prayer, healing, and/or deliverance that sets the captives free and gives them the impetus to take on the responsibility and discipline needed to be good stewards and prosper in the future.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Proverbs 11:15, 17:18, 20:16, Romans 13:8, Ephesians 5:15-17

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MoneyWalk 233: Do Not Be In Bondage To Lenders

This program will help you undo financial bondage.

Borrowing money is not the way to have a comfortable lifestyle because debt places you in a very uncomfortable position. It causes most people to waste their wealth building ability trying to have things they want right now believing that’s what will make them happy in the long run. It also puts most people in financial bondage leaving them unable to adequately handle emergencies, living expenses during job layoffs, and other situations that require substantial infusions of cash.

Certainly, it’s not wrong to want things or to have things. Yet, when your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall. Likewise, when you do not have substantial assets to produce income to provide for you and family during periods of low or no income, your monthly loan payments will be your downfall. You must learn that all things come in time – the right time; when the Lord has provided for you in such a way that you are able to, without debt, purchase the things you desire while maintaining a healthy emergency fund and growing asset base that will be able to provide income for your retirement / refirement years so you can pursue your passions (ministry, etc.) while enjoying the type of comfort you will need during those years.

If you do not work on being a good steward, creditors will continue to press you for payment in your worst financial position that will last much longer that you thought possible. The bible emphatically instructs you to avoid this trap knowing that it’s easy for "a borrower to become a slave to the lender." If you want to experience financial bondage and misery at crucial points in your life, many times when you least expect it, continue to follow the profligate ways of the world.

However, there is far better option available to you. You can put yourself in the condition of a lender instead of a borrower. This lender has few if any debts, more than adequate monthly income with far less in expenses, and a level of assets that is many times larger than debt that might be owed. In this position you will reap the financial benefits you currently pay your lenders.

Start your freedom from bondage process by cutting up your credit cards, leaving at most one low cost major credit card only for convenience in paying for drastic emergencies. Tithe as instructed by the Word. Set up a $1,000 emergency fund. Then use all disposable income above your current minimum monthly bill payments to pay off your non-mortgage account with the lowest total debt owed. When that is paid off, then use all disposable income to pay off the next lowest debt and so on.

Trust God to provide what you need and do not have cash to buy. Once your non-mortgage debts are paid off, increase your emergency fund to at least $10,000 and then invest the amount in your 401k or 403b that is necessary to get your company’s match. Use vehicles historically proven to bring reliable higher yields over the long term. Now, use disposable income as extra monthly mortgage principle, so your house can be paid off within seven years. Once this is paid off, then put the bulk of the increase monthly disposable income into investments in your 401k, 403b, Roth IRA, and other brokerage accounts and allow the market to do its long-term work of bringing you great investment growth.

By exhibiting patience, contentment, and self-control while committing to this plan your debt will be eliminated in due time and you'll accumulate wealth over the remaining course of your life. You'll then be a lender making money off the interest and growth you get from your savings and investments and, to a far greater degree, you’ll be able to give to kingdom ministry endeavors and those in need.

Please pray for this ministry and email any questions. May God bless you richly as you follow His plan!!!

Deuteronomy 28:12, Psalms 37:21, Proverbs 22:7, 27:23-24, and Romans 13:8

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