CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONS
For christians who wants to undertanding Biblical principles of finances
Credit counseling - accumulation strategy
Credit counseling Step 1: Eliminate all credit card and consumer debt. This provides an immediate "investment return" of 12% to 21%. Not having to pay that interest cost each year is, in effect, the ssame as achieving the same rate of return on any monies invested by you. Therefore, it is the surest and highest form of investment return you can make.
Credit counseling Step 2: Set aside one month's living expenses in the checking account. This is in addition to the current month's living expenses that are in the checking account, so at the beginning of any one month there would be two month's living expenses already deposited in the checking account. This "inveestment" is for flexibility.
Credit counseling Step 3: Invest between two and six months' living expenses in an interest-bearing money market fund account. This becomes the emergency fund and, in effect, your own bank. As you need money to make a major purchase or have an unexpected major expense or see an opportunity to save through purchasing now instead of later, you can borrow from yourself out of this account rather than from a lending institution. Once the money has been borrowed, it should, of course, be replaced. Step 2 and 3 provide you with flexibility so that you will be guarded against emergencies that come up that might totally drain your resources.
Credit counseling Step 4: Save in an interest-bearing account for major purchases. This is the planned purchase of major items such as automobiles, furniture, and even the downpayment on a home.Steps 1 through 4 should be done in sequence rather than all at once. in other words, you do not go to Step 3 until you have accomplished Step 2. By doing so, you eliminate the need to make a decision whenever an investment alternative comes to you. If you have not already accomplish Steps 1 through 4, you let the options go by.
The common mistakes in financial planning are all, in one way or another, related to debt. Debt and lifestyle go hand in hand in American society. When you use debt to fund a consumptive lifestyle, not only do you have the consumptive lifestyle working against you financially, but you also have the additional burden of debt working against you financially. Both should be avoided like the plague!
Avoiding the use of debt is incredibly difficult because the promotion of credit card use has made credit so easy to obtain and the temptation to use credit or debt so overwhelmingly difficult to resist. Credit card companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to entice each of us to spend and to use credit with cards that make spending "easier", and those amounts are a pittance when compared to additional advertising dollars of retailers.
