Money Rules
To live by, that is. I thought the title would get some attention:o) Excerpts from this
article:
In the latest research by Jumpstart Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes personal finance education, the average high school student correctly answered just 52.4% of the questions covering money basics. That's down from 57.3% in the 1998 survey and up from 50.2% in 2002, but it hardly matters. Anything less than 60% counts as an "F."
1. The difference between needs and wants
Our actual needs are pretty limited: food, shelter, clothing, companionship. Just about everything else is a "want," and our wants are essentially endless.
2. Scarcity makes your choices for you
It's lovely to believe in a world of endless abundance, but the reality is that at any given point in time our resources have limits. Their refusal to make the sometimes-hard choices needed to responsibly manage money means that they will have even fewer choices in the future.
3. The pointlessness of the hedonic treadmill
This means we quickly adjust to improved circumstances. A raise at work or a new possession may make us happy for a little while, but we soon take our situation for granted. Our expectations continue to rise: if only I could get another raise, or a better car, or a bigger house.
4. The miracle of compound interest
This is a concept best illustrated by example. Let's say I give you a penny today, and promise to double the amount every day for a full month. How much money would I be giving you on the 31st day?
The answer: $10.7 million. Check out the chart at the middle of this
page.
Of course, no one's going to double your money every day. But this concept explains how people who save relatively small amounts over the years can build rather substantial nest eggs.
This also illustrates how debts can quickly balloon out of control. If you're paying interest and you're not diligent about paying off the finance charges in full every month, the unpaid amount will incur additional interest charges, increasing the total amount that you owe. This is why so many families who incur credit card debt eventually find themselves in trouble as the amounts they owe explode past their ability to pay.
--------------
Proverbs 22:7 states,
The rich rule over the poor. The borrower is servant to the lender. Wow, an ancient text that has so much revelence!
3 yr old buys pink convertible on eBay
Excerpt from
article:
LONDON - Jack Neal briefly became the proud owner of a pink convertible car after he managed to buy it for 9,000 pounds ($17,000) on the Internet despite being only three years old.
Jack’s mother told the BBC she had left her password for the eBay auction site in her computer and her son used the “buy it now” option to complete the purchase.
"Jack’s a whiz on the PC and just pressed all the right buttons," Rachel Neal said.
------------
And the moral of the story is don't leave your password stored on the PC and teach boys not to like pink:o)
Marriage, Relationships, & Setups
So I'm going to a good friend's wedding this Sat and look forward to it because Mike and Steph are really wonderful people. Mike's one of those people that will make you feel at home cuz he hugs like every single person he sees. One downer is his
9/20 post:o) A side bonus is Steph's many friends will be there but the only thing is most of them are from out of town which doesn't help me out a lot since long distance relationships rarely work out.
Speaking of relationships, one of my best buds who is now a missionary in N Africa will be coming home for a brief stent in Dec. I am looking for a way to set him up so maybe I'll find someone at the wedding who'd be interested in overseas. He's a really great guy, blond hair, and a surfer dude.
Alrighty, fun wknd comin so have a great wknd yourself!
Wimpy Christians?
Ok, so I've been posting on other blogs and so forth giving my two cents and I've been criticized because my blog name "MercyNow" means that I should only show mercy. For example, I posted a comment on another blog that the driver of illegal immigrants should be prosecuted since in trying to evade the border patrol he caused 7 illegals to die after the truck turned over. Then a comment was made that I was not showing mercy. In this case, I argued that showing mercy is to put the driver behind bars so he doesn't cause another 7 lives the next time. Then another post said the same when I was simply speaking the truth so that people can learn now than later when it can cost them more in real life. An example is would you not rather your professor fail you in class than to pass you and let you fail in life? This doesn't really bother me that much because people are allowed to have their opinions.
The thing that bothers me most is that people think that just because we are Christians that we should simply lay down, show unprecedented mercy at all times, and never stand up or fight back. In other words, the pacifists say they are against killing anyone which includes the death penalty and we should follow Jesus' msg of love. The fact that we do respect life is the reason we support the death penalty just the same that we put people behind prison so they don't cause further harm to society. Loving someone is to correct one's mistake so he doesn't make it again for his own good.
Is this showing mercy or being Christ like? You let me know and please do not post anonymously for this post. If you do, then you are only proving my point and that is you may have an opinion but you are afraid to stand up for what you think you believe because if you really believe it then you would not be afraid to stand up for it:o)
Survivor: Cook Islands
So did anyone watch the 1st episode of Survivor Cook Islands? If so, did you find yourself naturally leaning toward the team of your ethnicity? For those that are not familiar w/ this latest Mark Burnett production, the teams are divided into four groups of ethnicity, African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and Whites. If you did naturally cling to your group, does that make you a racist?
Pray for your Enemies
When Jesus said to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, what does that mean? For example, we can pray for our enemies in general but how do we pray for terrorists and those that are bent on killing the innocent (as in non-Biblical terms for all have sinned)? How about going back to 1940s, should Christians pray for Hitler or Stalin when they senselessly massacre millions of people back then? If so, what shall we pray for?
Missions
Ah, today was a good day as our church bulletin had our annual budget on it which is a tiny bit over $X mil and 1/3 of that went to missions, 57% of which went to overseas and the reminder stayed here with local missions. Historically the budget has been around 10%-15% but this changed about a couple years ago when we started a focus that "It's not about us but for His kingdom". We started giving things away like building a house in a poor neighborhood and sending money to Mexico so they can build another NGO to help train the poor job skills. Since then we have done major rennovation to two houses in the same poor neighborhood and will do another one next week. In addition, we have contacted other churches to help w/ job training and assists in contributing health workers to provide free medical services. Our pastor reminded us that we do this not just to provide for the poor but to proclaim the name of Christ to them as well.
Thanks be to God!
Working on yer Weakness
Do you avoid weakness in your life or do you try to improve it?
I used to be the prior but now am the latter (well, at least if I am aware of it). For example, I have always wanted to do a small triathlon but could never do so since I am a terrible swimmer. Anyway, instead of avoiding it, I've decided to take swimming lessons at the Y and have improved on my technique. Now, I just need to practice until I can swim 1/2 mile.
Another example is I used to avoid playing sports w/ people who are better than me but now I do seek them out so I can become better, tho I tend to lose most of the time but at least I'm improving.
Now, if I can just start memorizing Scriptures.
Lying to Others
So I posted this for a day last week as part two of lying to yourself. Anyway, I saw this article on msn.com but lost the link. The story was that a guy had been going to this restaurant for 3 years and tipped very well like $10 on a $15-$20 tab. One day he decided to give the same waitress who has been serving him for all this time a $10,000 tip. He said he was not kidding.
Needless to say it made the news. The story also stated that the waitress' father needed a knee surgery but can't afford it. So when asked what she'd do w/ the big tip and her reply was something along this line..."Well, I really want to help my parents since they have raised me up and taken care of me but I think the guy wanted me to get something nice w/ this so I have my eyes on a Jeep." I'm not doubting that she wants to help her parents, I know she does but the question is does she really want to help them out w/ this money?
2. Do you say things to others that you have no intention of keeping or give up when your schedule becomes difficult? Things like helping out w/ Sunday school or telling someone you'll help them move but when better things come up, you decide to make an excuse and bail.
3. What do you do when you see people you know doing these types of things?
Scriptures say that let your Yeahs be Yeahs and Nays be Nays which means keeping your words and that it is better not to make a vow than to make one and not keep it. Of course, emergencies do come up but when they become a pattern is when you are lying to yourself and consequently to others. When this happens, we give ourselves a bad name but worse a bad rep to our faith. This then means that option 3 is not really an option for us, is it?
