Credit Unions – My New Best Friend

I’ll (Charles) admit that while I’m a financial planner full-time, I’m not always the most sophisticated, saavy individual when it comes to finances.  I’m more of a meat and potatoes guy, who believes in the basic principles of spend less than you earn, give generously, and avoid debt.  Stewardship doesn’t have to be complicated if [...]

The Death of Equities

This was the Business Week headline on August 13, 1979. Almost 30 years ago we were asking similar questions as we are today. I agree that the events that got us to the situation we are in today are different in some ways than past events. However at the same time as we look back [...]

Don’t Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford

A comical skit (can’t say that SNL is chock full of them lately) that offers a sobering commentary on how we got ourselves in this mess.  Why is this simple truth so hard to grasp for so many?  I think the word that the Bible uses over and over to sum up what should be [...]

Debt Reduction vs. Saving??

We’re often asked if it makes more sense to save cash for an emergency fund or to pay down consumer debts like credit cards or car loans. The theory goes that if you don’t save up any reserves, then paying down the debt might not do that much good if you have an unexpected expense [...]

This isn’t helping my Net Worth…

As of last week, the country’s net worth (debt, really) officially crossed over negative $11 trillion.  To be exact, it is now $11,033,157,578,669.78.  To put it in perspective, if you spent $15 million every day from when Jesus was born until now, you still wouldn’t have spent more than what our nation is in debt!  [...]

The Crisis of Credit – Visualized

What is a “collateralized debt obligation”?  What does it mean to “securitize” debt?  We’ve all heard many of the fancy terms that supposedly got us into this financial mess, but there’s no one who seems to want to bother explaining it all.  It would probably take us about 20 posts to do a mediocre job [...]

SJ Weekly Devotional – Debt

Debt The Great Spiritual Inhibitor Last week we looked at Giving and what the Bible says about how to give.   This week we will look at Debt and what the Bible says about it. I have titled this post Debt – The Great Spiritual Inhibitor. I believe debt is often what often keeps us from [...]