Proverbs 22 How to spend your $$$

I had a really fun moment yesterday. Our staff had just finished watching Dave Ramsey, financial seminar guru-guy, and I asked Preston if he understood the difference between Whole Life and Term insurance. The answer was, "I didn't understand what the guy was trying to say". And out of that came about 15 minutes of Preston drilling me on why Laura and I bought only term, how we invested our money the first 7 years of our marriage, how to start a mutual fund, tithing, and how buying a car can cost you so much more than you'd ever imagine.

This is what I call fun. Seeing a young, very talented person asking questions. (On the list of my regrets, is the sad reality that I've had opportunities many times to ask questions of people who are the top in their field and I didn't.) Preston is a newlywed, and his wife is planning to go to college. He was full of questions and I can tell he's been asking several people for advice (he's on a great path). If there's anything almost all of us could use more of, it's a bigger team (to enhance our relationships, use of things/assets, and in our spiritual lives). Build teams in your life! Think team as much as you can. I bought my last three cars using a team - I'll never buy a car on my own again.

My wisdom thought for the day: Proverbs 22:7: "Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender."

Laura and I have made some very poor financial choices in our life (mostly it's me) and we can now look back and see the lasting consequences. But we can see the same of the good choices we made.

Our first year of marriage we were both in school full time, so we ate out ONE time the entire year (our anniversary). We did have our parents take us out two or three times, but we didn't buy any furniture, no music, no trips to the movies. Looking back, almost 600 years now, we wonder how we did it and had so much fun our first year of marriage. The point, the land we invested in and the savings we built in those first seven years paid off 17 years later when we bought our first house in the Seattle area. (Housing was so expensive in Seattle.) We then spent six years remodeling that home and the profit brought us to Portland/Vancouver and allowed us to bless several people's lives because of our wise choices from 1975. Our oldest boy finished four years of college with a very small student loan and a car (no payments).

"Bruce, stop bragging". That's not the point. Believe me, I've done so many stupid things when it comes to money. But putting healthy practices into the way we use money has turned out to bless us, and even more important, others. What great life-habits have you started in this area?

• Invest as much as you can the first 10 years of your working life (property & mutual funds)
• Don't buy a new car until you're near the 6 figure mark in income (very costly to buy new)
• Practice God's tithing plan in your life (even if you don't go to a church). Laura and I have seen this practice so change the way we manage money. (I can share how it works for us if you want)
• Build a team of "financial" experts in your life (you can do this with any $ outlay)
• Start lots of conversations with God about everything you buy (very helpful practice)