The Bible is God 's remarkable gift to the world; it was given to guide, govern, and protect us throughout life. People who believe and live by the Scriptures know what peace and joy are all about. The Bible is the greatest way to find God because it holds significant keys to becoming better people and to finding strength beyond ordinary means to handle the challenges of life (Schenck, 2010, p. 2). Like everyone, we all have our battles, especially the financial battle—the ups and downs, the great times and the tough times. However, if we just trust God and apply the biblical principles in all areas of our lives, we will be free and we will definitely make the best decisions while managing not only our finances, but also turning down all the world’s noise and live like a thermostat as Ron Blue and Jeremy White mentioned in the video Surviving Financial Meltdown; “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established” (Prov. …show more content…
16:3, NIV). God bless you in the great times, but also in the tough times.
Five years ago, my spending was out of control. I spent more than I earned with no savings and no job security. I made many unwise financial decisions, and I got caught up in credit card debts. However, since I got married, my husband and I decided to take control of our current financial state and work toward our future financial goal.
Our financial goals include short-term goals like paying off our credit cards debt and stop using them. Our long-term goals are to save money to buy a house and invest more in the retirement saving account. But, in order to reach these goals, my husband and I need to control our finances and start following these six steps. The first step, we tried to know our net worth and took an inventory of our financial assets by creating a balance sheet. We found this year that our tangible assets exceeded our liabilities. The second step, we kept a record of all the expenses in a spending journal in order to track credit cards payments and utilities monthly and even our daily expenses. The third step is preparing a budget. We have our fixed expenses like rent, car loan and utilities, and the variable expenses, which change from month to month. Some of these variable expenses can be reduced; for example, dining out twice a month instead of every week; go to movies once a month and rent DVDs instead; cook home meals instead of buying breakfast and food from outside; change my dish package to lower one; disconnect my home phone and leave the cell phone only. The fourth step is paying off our debt by making a big payment to pay off our major credit cards and stop using them. The fifth step is starting a saving plan; we started to save for the house down payment by transferring money directly from our paychecks to a different saving account. And if we meet an expected event, we can delay the house purchase and use the savings to meet the unexpected financial challenges, as it will be a priority. The final step is borrowing money only for assets that can increase in value or generate income. My husband checks our spending every month to see